October 26, 1913

James and Susamaru discussed their future plans with each other in the Rengoku Estate before the two went to bed together. Susamaru in particular wanted to know about something before she went ahead and committed herself to doing it. "So," she said to him. "I, well… I want to find something out."

"What is it?"

Susamaru then took a deep breath, preparing herself mentally. "Do I have to convert to marry you?"

James was initially confused. "Convert?"

"Convert to Christianity," Susamaru clarified. "You know, that stuff you believe in."

"Oh, that…" James then held her hand and told her, "No, you don't. If you don't want to, I… I'll abandon my faith and become… Become… What faith are ya?"

"Buddhist, I think?" Susamaru herself was unsure. "Things aren't as set in stone here as they are in America."

"Okay, okay," James replied. "I'll become a Buddhist if I have to. I just want to marry you, dear." He affirmed his stance with a serious tone, willing to do anything for her.

"No, you're fine," Susamaru assured him. "I want to be the one to convert. I can tell you hold your beliefs close to you, and well… I wasn't the most devout to Buddhism or Shinto or whatever I followed. Can a demon even convert?"

"I don't see why not," James replied. "The demons here aren't the demons of the Bible. That's why some call us ghouls instead over there. And by the way…" He then laughed for a bit before clarifying with her, "I ain't the best Christian. I didn't wait to marry someone at all before…"

"Before what?"

"Before I began to have sex with them."

"Wait, that's a thing?"

"Yeah," James nodded. "You're technically not supposed to have sex until after marriage, but… Not everyone follows that. Look, when we go to the nearest church, they don't gotta know about our private life, okay?"

"Got it," Susamaru replied. "When should we go?"

"Hmmm," James then pondered. "How about tomorrow or Tuesday?"

"We can try tomorrow," Susamaru confirmed. "How long will it take?"

"Well," James replied. "It'll probably take a bit. It ain't as simple as walkin' in and gettin' water poured over your head."

"Water?"

"It symbolizes the cleansing of sins," James explained before he got out of bed and opened a drawer, revealing a Japanese Bible. "Read this. Study it as much as ya can. I want you to know what you're gettin' yourself into before you do it. The last thing I want is you makin' an uninformed choice."

Susamaru took the Bible and opened it up, reading the beginning of the Book of Genesis. "I may stay up a little late and keep reading this.

"That's fine," James replied as he got back into bed. "I'm goin' to sleep, dear."

"Goodnight," Susamaru then told him as she gave him a kiss on his cheek. "I love you."

Meanwhile, Tanjiro and Kanao were heading out on a mission together to investigate a demon that had been reported near a hot spring. This was to be Tanjiro's first true mission in which he would not be taking Nezuko, and he missed her as the two walked up to an inn attached to the hot springs that also displayed a Wisteria crest on the front, indicating that it recognized the corps and was friendly to slayers. Before they walked in, Tanjiro remarked, "It feels so weird to not have the box on my back, Kanao."

Kanao looked at his back and told him, "Well… It's… It's weird to see you without it."

"Yeah," Tanjiro replied. "With Nezuko now being a slayer in her own right, it feels weird to not carry her around all the time."

The two then walked in, where they were greeted by a middle-aged man who instantly recognized their uniforms. "Welcome, welcome! I see you two are demon slayers. Are you two the ones sent here to investigate?"

"Correct," Tanjiro replied with a nod. "We got word that a demon was harassing the area."

"Harassment is saying the least of it," the owner of the hot spring inn replied. "This particular demon killed a young couple about you guys' age a few days ago."

Tanjiro, somewhat concerned, sighed, "Of course the demon did."

"Speaking of," the man replied. "You two seem like a nice couple yourselves."

Tanjiro blushed immediately. "Well, yes, you see, um…"

Kanao took a deep breath and began to reach for her coin before stopping herself when she remembered Tanjiro's words. "Wait a minute," she thought to herself. "I don't need this coin!" She then calmly approached the man and told him, "Indeed. This is my boyfriend, Kamado Tanjiro. As you can probably guess, we'll be sharing a bed, so there's no need for separate rooms or beds for us."

Tanjiro thought to himself, "Wow… She handled that so well!"

"Of course," the man replied. "You two can get comfortable and then go out to hunt this demon. If you need anything, just send your crows back here and I'll make a telephone call for assistance. I'm hooked into the corps' phone network."

"Good," Kanao then replied. "Now, which way is our room?"

An hour later, the two of them were patrolling around the area of the inn, as well as several other inns and stores contained within a small business district surrounding the hot springs. Almost everyone else had gone to bed by this point, as it was now 10:30 at night. As they walked down the narrow street of the district, Tanjiro asked Kanao, "So, um, when we find this demon, what…"

"What is it?"

"What do you want to do when we get back?"

Kanao replied with a smile, "I was thinking of going into the hot spring. The owner says we can use it tonight even though it normally is closed this late."

Thoughts immediately entered his mind of seeing Kanao in the hot spring. "Would you mind if I joined you?"

"Not at all," Kanao replied, unsure of why he was so worried. "It's just a bath. I don't see a problem."

"Well, I'm a boy, so…"

Kanao then realized what he was going for. "And we're in a relationship."

"Right." He then took a deep breath. "Let's just focus on the mission, Kanao."

As the two made their way to the outskirts of the district, they saw a shape suddenly pass by them in the darkness. Kanao drew her sword and told Tanjiro, "Wait."

He whispered to her as he pulled out his sword, "Did you see that?"

"Yeah," she whispered back. She thought to herself as she looked around, "Whatever that was, it moved too fast to be a human."

They saw the same shape cross in front of them again before quickly crossing behind them, causing Tanjiro to turn around. As he did, they heard a disembodied voice whisper to them, "Hello… Hello…"

Tanjiro thought to himself, "That wasn't Kanao. Who the Hell was it?"

They then got their answer when a demon suddenly jumped onto Tanjiro from behind him, pinning him to the ground. Kanao turned around and yelled, "Tanjiro!"

Tanjiro struggled against his captor, screaming, "Get the fuck off of me!" The demon replied by pinning him down harder.

"Not a chance," the demon replied. This demon had four arms in total, allowing him to keep Tanjiro pinned tightly onto the ground. "So, what will you do now?"

"Breath of Flower," Kanao then quietly said to herself. "Fourth Form: Crimson Hanagoromo." She then attacked the demon, cutting off two of his arms and allowing Tanjiro to squirm out of his grasp. The attack also caused the demon a great deal of pain. "Tanjiro, now!"

"Breath of Water," Tanjiro then declared as he jumped up from being pinned on the ground. "Second Form: Water Wheel!" Tanjiro unleashed a vertical circular attack, which managed to cut off the rest of his arms but just barely missed his neck. "Damn it!"

Kanao then charged at the demon again with a third and hopefully final attack as the demon regrew two of his arms and tried to grab Kanao as he also charged at her. "Breath of Flower, Sixth Form: Whirling Peach!" After evading his arms, Kanao delivered a decisive blow to his neck, decapitating him and ending the battle. She then quickly helped Tanjiro up, but as she did, she stumbled, and he instead landed directly on top of her as the two landed on the hard ground below. "Uh…"

"Shit!" He quickly apologized as he got off of her. "I'm so sorry, Kanao!"

Kanao assured him, "You're fine."

"Do you think that was our guy?"

"It had to be," she theorized. "The initial report said he moved unusually fast and could pin someone down with ease." She then grabbed a hold of Tanjiro's hand. "You don't have to act so…"

Tanjiro asked, "What?"

Kanao found herself unable to finish her sentence as her face reddened from holding hands with him. "Let's just go back."

Half an hour later, Kanao was relaxing in the hot spring, waiting for Tanjiro to enter the water. The only piece of clothing she had left on was her hairpin. It was around 11:10 PM, just 50 minutes to midnight, and as she waited, she wondered what was taking him so long. "I wonder," Kanao thought to herself. "What's going on in there? We've had sex several times already. He's already seen everything."

Then, the man of the hour stepped out to meet her. "Kanao, I'm here."

Kanao smiled and told him, "Come over here!" There was nobody else in the hot springs whatsoever. Once he sat down next to her, she asked him, "Tanjiro, are you worried? Why?"

"Worried?"

"I can tell," Kanao confirmed. "You're concerned about something."

Tanjiro sighed and decided to come clean with what was bugging him. "Okay, okay, fine."

"What is it?"

"I… I forgot to bring those things that Giyu-san gave me with us," Tanjiro admitted. "The reason I was acting like that is because I didn't want to lose myself if I didn't have any."

"Lose yourself?"

"You know," Tanjiro tried to explain. "Go crazy with… With lust, that kind of thing?"

"Oh… Right." Kanao then stood up right in front of Tanjiro and asked him, "So you're worried about not using the condoms?"

"Yeah," Tanjiro replied. "I mean… If you want to have sex with me anyway, I'll do it. Look, it's no problem with me, Kanao, I swear! I've never even heard of those condom things until Giyu-san and Shinobu-san showed them to m-"

Kanao then interrupted him with a kiss as she wrapped her arms around him, with Tanjiro quickly embracing her as well. As the two locked lips, the warm water of the hot spring slid down their bodies while Tanjiro's hands rubbed her lower back. As the two split, Kanao let out a soft moan before telling Tanjiro, "Make love to me anyway, Tanjiro. I don't care."

Tanjiro replied to her demand, "As you wish."

The two proceeded to go at it outside, knowing that nobody else was around. After this, the two headed inside and had sex again in their room, doing their best to hide their moans from any other patrons of the inn. After the two were finished, they slept peacefully in each others' arms to keep themselves warm. Kanao whispered to Tanjiro before the two dozed off, "I love you."

Tanjiro smiled and gave her a kiss on her forehead. "I love you, too."

October 27, 1913

Early in the morning, Vernon and Tom walked through the town where the Rengoku Estate was located. The two were an unusual sight to see, but because the sun was just barely out, nobody suspected them of being demons due to the lack of familiarity with American ones. Vernon, who knew Japanese better than Tom did, was speaking to a merchant selling food as Tom looked around and thought to himself, "This whole place gets up pretty early. I wonder if our targets are asleep or not."

Vernon then came back to him with several tamagoyaki. "I got some Japanese omelettes. They're pretty good."

"Why not?" Tom then ate one, nodding his head as he did. "You're right. This is pretty good, Vernon. Ya know, I don't understand why most demons here don't eat nothin'. They're missin' out. I know they gotta eat flesh and blood, but we do, too, and yet we also eat normal things."

"So," Vernon then said after he finished his tamagoyaki. "Are those two slaves of your's almost there?"

"They should be there right now," he replied after finishing his. "Our plan should go off without a hitch. The Rengoku Estate will be destroyed today." Since the two spoke in English and very few, if any, of the people around them could understand it, they felt confident discussing their plans out in the open, knowing that nobody would ever know what they were saying.

Or, at least, that's what they thought.

They would soon find out the truth, and their plans would soon be derailed.