Outside, Kagaya talked to Sanemi about what he had done to Rantaro. "Sanemi, why did you shoot him? We could have had him arrested like the others."
"That wasn't good enough," he replied as he took a knee to bow down to him. "I'm sorry, Oyakata-sama, but I could not let him go another day without dying. He betrayed the corps, murdered Kocho's sister, and tried to murder several of us. He posed a threat to us all by staying alive any longer. This was my only opportunity to take action against him."
Kagaya paused, taking in what Sanemi had said. "I see, I see… You are clearly very angry." He then pondered to himself as to what to do with him. Then, after a brief moment, he had an idea. "How about this, Sanemi? I'll suspend you until November 1, and then you can come back like nothing happened, okay? You can still train your Tsuguko, but you can't go on missions and the like unless I give clearance first."
"I can accept that," Sanemi replied, bowing his head down. "Thank you for your forgiveness, Oyakata-sama."
"Just be warned, though. Do try to control your temper in the future. I let you off this time because of the severity of the allegations against Rantaro."
"I wouldn't do that to just anyone," Sanemi replied. "You know that."
"As for the other two," Kagaya added. "I am preparing to have them tried soon. It'll be a little slow, but expect results by December."
"As long as those two are kept locked up, I'm okay with that."
…
Mitsuri took several photographs of the scene of Rantaro's death before the others prepared to move his body out of the room. After taking the last few photos of the scene, she said to her husband, "This night really shook me up."
"Yeah," Obanai replied, still in some disbelief over the events that happened. "I can't believe it escalated this far."
Then, one of Kagaya's children, Nichika, ran back in and told the two of them, "Kanroji-sama, when you're done here, see my father. He has a photography mission for you."
"Okay," she replied. "I'm actually all set in here."
James also walked in, telling Mitsuri and Obanai, "They want both of y'all goin', if only to make sure… Ya know, the baby's okay."
Mitsuri nodded. "I see."
"Funny enough," James added. "The mission's in the same town where the Infinity Train normally begins its route. I still remember goin' there with Rengoku-san before everythin' began."
"How's Toki-san taking Rengoku-san's death?"
"He was pretty upset," James said to her. "So was the noodle shop owner and those bento sellers. It was pretty fuckin' difficult to tell 'em about what happened. Tore my heart up real good, I'll tell ya what."
…
Earlier, September 14, 1913
James and Kyojuro were running down several alleyways after having been informed of screaming and calls for help nearby. Both suspected it could possibly be a demon attack, but even if it was not, they'd be ready to help fend off a human attacker.
After several minutes of searching, James and Kyojuro rounded a corner and found a woman lying on the ground with a small pool of blood surrounding her. "Oh shit," James said to himself as the two of them ran to her aid. "Hey, ma'am, who did this to ya?!"
"Ahh…" The woman could barely speak due to the extent of her injuries. "A blue… A blue man…"
"A blue man?" Kyojuro then sniffed the air around him. "I think it was a demon, but… Why did he leave her alive?"
Several Kakushi were hot on their tail, and one of them said to the two of them, "Rengoku-sama, Colby-san, we got it from here! Is she still breathing?!"
"Yeah," James replied as he waved them over. "Come on over!"
…
September 15, 1913
As Susamaru and Kyojuro ate at a restaurant alone, with James having gone back to swap spots with the former, they both were interrupted by another slayer running into the restaurant. Susamaru turned to him and said, "Hmm? What is it?"
"Apologies for the intrusion," he replied to them both. "There's something I need to tell you, Flame Pillar."
"That's perfectly fine," Kyojuro replied. "Sir, please get this man what I'm having. It's on me."
"I'll take another drink as well," Susamaru replied.
"Are you sure it's okay?"
"Absolutely," Susamaru replied joyfully. "We got him covered!"
Kyojuro also added, "I'll take another bowl as well, please."
When the owner of the restaurant came over with two more bowls, he told Kyojuro, "You sure love to eat with a lot of energy, don't you?"
The slayer then told Kyojuro, "Good job last night with that attack."
"I suppose," he replied. "The demon got away, though. How's that woman we rescued?"
"According to your other Tsuguko," the slayer replied. "She's actually doing pretty well. It's a miracle she lived despite her injuries. It's all thanks to you finding her when you did."
Then, the owner of the restaurant came out with an extra bit of food for the three of them. "This is on the house. Thank God for your business. Ever since that God damn Slasher's come around here, business has been really rough. I had to let go of much of my staff a week ago."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Susamaru replied. "That's unfortunate. Your food's really good."
The slayer with them agreed after having some of the udon. "She's right! This is really good! You'd be really well-off if you set up shop in Ueno!"
"Perhaps," the owner replied. "But until business turns around here, I can't even think of doing that. Making things worse is that they suspended the damn Infinity Train service, basically eliminating most of my nighttime customers and screwing me over."
"The Infinity Train?" Susamaru was curious. "Why did they suspend it?"
"40 passengers disappeared on the train," the owner explained to her. "They're suspending it until they figure out what's going on."
Susamaru, Kyojuro, and the slayer all looked at each other and nodded. The slayer asked them, "So that's our next destination?"
"Indeed," Kyojuro affirmed. "We're gonna figure out what's going on with this Infinity Train." He then turned to Goro and asked him, "Goro, fetch James for me. We'll need some help."
"On it," he replied before quickly flying out of the restaurant.
"I'm Toki Mitsuhiro, by the way." He then looked at Susamaru's eyes and said to her, "Wait a minute, you're a demon, aren't you?"
Susamaru froze in place, worried about his reaction. Kyojuro placed a hand on her shoulder and told Mitsuhiro, "She's with me. You can clearly see she has a uniform and two swords, so demon or not, she's your ally."
"I was just wondering why she's not burning in the sun," Mitsuhiro tried to explain while awkwardly backpedaling. "It's fine, really!"
"I may not burn in the sun," Susamaru confirmed. "But I'm still in great danger. I can't heal or use my Blood Demon Art during the day."
Mitsuhiro nodded. "I see… I see…"
…
At the train station, a young girl and her grandmother had set up shop to a crowd that did not come. The girl, holding a crate of bento boxes, looked around for any customers, hoping to make a sale, but to no avail. "I can't believe nobody came again," she said to her grandmother. "Everyone's really scared of that Slasher guy."
"If I had to hazard a guess," the grandmother replied to her granddaughter. "The Slasher is a demon, Fuku."
"A demon? Those things don't exist, grandma." She was a bit annoyed about her grandmas bringing up such superstitions, or at least, what she thought were superstitions. "Stop trying to scare me."
The grandmother chuckled. "Hopefully you never have to find out for yourself. Anyway, stop staring at your bean paste pun and eat it, Fuku."
Then, both Kyojuro and Susamaru walked up to them. Kyojuro asked Fuku, "Good evening. I must say, the moon is great tonight. Tell me, have you seen any demons? Me and my associate here are looking for them."
Amazed, Mitsuhiro replied, "Wait, just like that?!"
"Yeah," Susamaru replied to him. "Why not? Why the reaction?"
"Probably because you brought it the Hell out of nowhere," Mitsuhiro replied in disbelief.
Goro told Kyojuro, "Kyojuro-sama, you're being way too blunt!"
"Go away!" Fuku was defensive of her grandmother. "What kind of crazy talk is that?! Demons don't exist!"
Kyojuro noticed she was shaking. "Be careful, or you'll drop your bean paste bun."
"Get the Hell outta here!" Fuku then threw the bun at Kyojuro's face without thinking.
Susamaru quickly grabbed it before it hit him. "You want it back?"
The grandmother told Fuku, "Fuku, stop it. These guys are the real deal. They're demon slayers. Besides, it seems these two are good people.
Fuku sighed as she took back the bun from Susamaru. "I'm sorry for that. I'm just on edge because of these slasher attacks. My mom's pregnant, and my dad's shop isn't doing well because this damn Slasher's scaring away all the customers."
"You know," Kyojuro told her. "It's not bad to live a life completely ignorant of demons. It means that you will never be wrapped up in the war we've fought for over a thousand years."
"Though if you want proof," Susamaru then told her as she pulled up one of her sleeves before drawing a knife. "Watch this."
Fuku asked, "What's the knife for?"
Susamaru then made a small cut to her arm, startling everyone, including Kyojuro. Within seconds of her making the cut, however, it healed itself. "I'm actually a demon, but I'm not on their side."
The grandmother was surprised. "A demon fighting demons? That's certainly new."
"It is," Kyojuro replied. "Truth be told, I was once skeptical myself, but now, I'd trust Susamaru-san and my other Tsuguko, James Colby-san, with my life."
"That sounds like a foreign name," the grandmother replied. "You know, we've had a few foreigners from America come and go through this station recently. It's strange, since we've never had foreigners come to this town before."
"Interesting," Kyojuro replied. "Anyway, you can count on us to take care of this Slasher, whether he's a demon or a human. I will not tolerate such behavior from anyone against anyone who is innocent such as yourselves!"
"Before you go," Fuku then asked both of them. "Would you like a bento box? It would help us out a lot."
"Ah, right! How about this: I'll buy all you have!"
Susamaru, shocked, turned and said to him, "Wait, all of them?!"
"Indeed, all of them!"
…
After having split up the bento between themselves and Mitsuhiro, Susamaru and Kyojuro boarded the train together, with James quickly joining them just barely in the nick of time. As the three of them all sat down, Kyojuro told them both, "Okay, the story is that we're bento vendors going to the train shed to sell them to the workers there. Does that sound good?"
"Yeah," James replied.
"Sounds good to me," Susamaru added. "You know, I've been drinking normal human liquids just fine, but I haven't made the jump back to human food yet. Maybe tonight will change things."
"You certainly can take a box for yourself," Kyojuro told her. "I won't complain. We got about 30 here."
"Fuck it," Susamaru told herself as she opened a box and immediately grabbed the chopsticks inside to eat some meat. As she swallowed it, she nodded and said, "It actually went down… Holy shit… Why did the blood of American demons develop like this?"
"If I had to guess," James replied. "It's because of the lower population density of the Americas compared to Japan. If you're not in an urban area, you may not run into humans for a while. A traditional Japanese demon would not make it very far where I'm from unless they lived in a city. I also theorize that demons who were more adept at blendin' in with humans survived more than those who didn't, and bein' able to eat and drink human foods and drinks in addition to human and animal blood helps on that end. This is also why Limited Sunlight Resistance developed, albeit at the cost of our strength and relative immortality durin' the sunlight hours."
"Evolution has odd ways of working out," Kyojuro replied to him. "Not even demons are immune to natural selection, I suppose."
Then, a train attendant walked in, confused as to why they were still riding on the train. "Wait, who are you guys, and why the Hell are you still on the train?!"
"We're bento sellers," Kyojuro explained. "We heard this train's going back to the shed, and we want to sell bento to the workers there, specifically the ones assigned to the Infinity Train."
"The Infinity Train… Oh, wait! The locomotive and cars assigned for that service were sent to our maintenance facility nearby."
"Where would that be, sir?"
"Over there," the attendant pointed out as the train passed by a lake. On the other side of the lake was indeed a sprawling and expansive maintenance facility for the railroad. "You'd have to go there to see the Infinity Train rolling stock and any personnel assigned to it."
"I see," Kyojuro said back as he got up. "Looks like we'll get off here then."
"Wait, get off?!"
James asked him as he walked to the back of the train, "How are we gonna get off?!" He and Susamaru then ran to catch up to him as the attendant trailed behind.
Once all three made it to the back of the train, Kyojuro told his two Tsuguko, "I know what I said. We'll get off here."
James asked in comical disbelief, "You're gonna fuckin' jump?!"
"Indeed!" Kyojuro then jumped from the train and landed perfectly on his two feet nearby.
Susamaru yelled, "Holy shit!" She then jumped after him and tumbled on the ground. "Ow! Ow, fuck! Ow!"
James sighed. "If ya can't beat 'em, join 'em." He then also jumped, landing perfectly like Kyojuro had done.
The train attendant said to himself from the back of the train as it sped off without them, "Fucking Hell, those guys were nuts…"
On the ground, Susamaru asked Kyojuro and James, "How the Hell did you two land so gracefully while I busted my ass on the ground?!"
"Maybe next time you'll be luckier," Kyojuro told her as he helped her up. "Anyway, we got bento to deliver and a mystery to solve, gang! Let's go!"
