Mukago and James had just barely made it back to the safehouse after their run-in with the Confederates who had been patrolling Yoshiwara. As the two of them packed their weapons away upstairs, Tengen joined them. "So," James asked him. "Did ya sell all four of 'em?"
"Somehow I pulled it off," Tengen replied as he stretched his arms. "Maybe it was my flamboyance and good looks that did it. Maybe it was my good negotiation skills. Either way, all four of them are in the system now."
"That's good," James replied. As he turned to Mukago to see how she felt, he noticed that she seemed a bit uncomfortable. "Hey, what's wrong? You seem off."
"I've been thinking about all of this ever since I got here," Mukago replied. "Selling those boys into the system is a risky move. I, um, well… I have experience."
"We know that," Tengen replied. "I'm surprised you didn't go along and ask to be sold, but then again, with your looks, you'd stand out too much."
Mukago asked him out of annoyance, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"No offense," James clarified. "But ya do stand out a bit. You ain't ugly or anythin', it's just that the horns and whatnot do stand out."
"Right," Mukago nodded, understanding what he and Tengen both meant. "Well, um… I think you two should know why I became a demon originally."
Tengen asked, "Oh? What was the reason?"
"When I was only fifteen," Mukago began. "I, well… I was working with a man who wanted a lot from me. I was tired out, and I didn't want to continue, but…"
Tengen asked, "But what?" James knew immediately what she was going towards.
"He raped me," she bluntly clarified. "I won't hide my words or make it sound better. I was raped by him. I said it, and I know what I said."
Both Tengen and James felt bad about making her reveal her backstory, with the former saying to her out of sympathy, "Mukago, I'm so sorry."
"No, it's fine," she assured him. "Don't be sorry. You didn't force yourself on me or do anything else wrong. That man did, and I killed him a few days later after Muzan found me. He offered me the chance to overpower people who wronged me, whether it was being stolen from or, well, other things. I was so shaken by my rape that I took his words at face value without thinking. One of the first things I did as a demon after I came to from the transformation was find him when he came back to the tea house."
James asked, "And then you killed him?"
"I sure as Hell fucking killed him. I ripped him up, castrated him, and then sawed his head off." Mukago smiled remembering what she had done to her rapist. "And I enjoyed every damn minute of it."
Tengen remarked, "Holy shit. I mean, I can't say I feel bad for the guy, but damn."
"I don't know if this was ever passed along to the corps," Mukago then explained. "But Daki-senpai's demonization was similar."
"She was raped too?"
"No, but she almost was." Mukago then looked out of a window at the night sky. "Daki, or as she was known back then as Ume… A few weeks into her career, a local samurai tried to rape her. She fought back, though. She stabbed that fucker in the eye and then kicked him a bunch. The locals weren't happy she did that to a samurai, so they kidnapped her, beat her, and then set her on fire."
"Set her on fire, huh?"
James remarked, "Jesus fuckin' Christ." Both him and Tengen were disturbed by the story.
"Upper Moon Two turned her and her brother Gyutaro-niisan into demons," Mukago revealed. "I had no idea that the Upper Moons could turn people into demons until Daki-senpai told me."
Tengen asked, "Upper Moon Two… What's his name?"
"Doma," Mukago answered. "He's a cult leader, and an evil one at that. Very few people inside the Dimensional Infinity Fortress like him, and Muzan just barely tolerates him. He pretends to be charming, but he'll suck you in and torment you, especially if you're a girl. He likes to eat girls he thinks are pretty."
"He sounds like a real piece of shit," James said in response. "Maybe he could be our next target."
Mukago chuckled, "Good fucking luck with that. He's elusive as Hell. You'll need a few Pillars to even come close to killing him, and that's not counting his little army of human cultists you'll have to deal with. Those idiots will follow him to the depths of Hell. If I were you, I'd stick with the other Upper Moons first before you even come close to him or Kokushibo, Upper Moon One."
"You got a point," James admitted, remembering what had happened to Kyojuro when he had fought Akaza. "Kyojuro's death shoulda reminded me of that. We gotta go in with multiple people, not alone. If we go in alone, we'll get our asses kicked. I don't feel like gettin' myself killed anytime soon."
…
"What the fuck is this thing?!"
The madam at the Tokito House was horrified to see a scar on the forehead of 'Sumiko' when she wiped off the many layers of makeup caked onto her face. The older man accompanying her told her, "Calm down. Let's just see if it's more mak-"
"This isn't God damn makeup!" She then jerked Tanjiro's head towards him to show off the scar on his forehead. "Look at it! It's definitely a scar, and a fucking massive one at that!"
"My apologies," Tanjiro said to the madam. "I should have told you about it sooner!"
"Please, just give her a chance," the man told the madam. "It doesn't look so bad, right?"
"I just… Well…"
"I'm a very hard worker, ma'am," Tanjiro explained. "Please, give me a chance."
"Oh, screw it," she then said as she let go of Tanjiro. "Fine, we'll give her a chance. Just make sure to not emphasize the scar with her hair style, okay?"
"Of course," the older man replied.
"Thank you very much," Tanjiro said with a bow. "I'll do my best to fulfill your needs, ma'am."
…
January 23, 1914
At the Kyogoku House in the evening, an angry Omitsu was carrying a knife as she silently walked up a set of stairs. In her head, she was planning out what would happen as she came up behind one of Jubal Early's soldiers. "I just have to kill this foreigner, take his gun, and confront that bastard who's running the show," she thought to herself. "Ever since that Jubal Early guy came here, I've been losing more and more control over the Kyogoku House. Coupled with Warabihime still being an asshole to the others here and the damages from the Yoshiwara fire last year, I'm at my wits end! This bullshit ends tonight!"
As she reached the top of the stairs, she found a soldier standing at the top with his back facing the stairs. She quickly stabbed him in the neck, causing him to yelp in pain. However, Omitsu soon realized he had not been killed as a struggle broke out, and she began stabbing him more and more, not realizing he was a demon and was thus able to heal from his wounds. "God damn it! Get the fuck off of me, bitch!"
Omitsu did manage to take his pistol, and shot him in the head during the struggle before sawing through his neck. However, as the demon soldier finally stopped resisting and died, several other girls and another soldier ran out into the hallway to see what had happened. Omitsu muttered, "Fuck, I was too loud!" She then shot the second demon soldier three times, causing him to fall to the ground but not killing him. As the other girls ran for cover, she tackled the second soldier to the ground and stabbed him several times as another fight broke out.
"What the fuck is going on out here?!"
Omitsu looked up and saw Daki racing towards her, with Jubal trailing behind. "Get back! I'm taking this brothel back from you two! You pieces of shit have run this place into the ground and caused several of the girls here to commit suicide!"
Jubal yelled as she ripped Omitsu off of the second soldier, "Get off of him!"
Daki then grabbed Omitsu and dragged her into another room, yelling at her, "I'm gonna teach you a lesson for fucking with this place, you old bitch!"
Jubal then helped up the second soldier as his injuries began to heal and Daki began to presumably torture Omitsu inside the room she had dragged her into. "Hey, hey, you okay?"
"Agh, shit… I should be good, but Eddy got killed back there."
"For Christ's sake…" Jubal looked over and saw the blood stains and the clothes from the first soldier, his body having already disappeared. "Daki better kill that bitch. This is the last straw with her."
Inside the room, as a frightened Omitsu was dragged to a corner of the room, Daki revealed her true form to her and warned her, "You shouldn't have pissed me off, Omitsu. This is the last time we'll put up with you and your bullshit."
"What… What the fuck are you?! Are you some kind of demon?!"
"Indeed," Daki proudly admitted as she caressed her face as her obi sashes wrapped themselves around her legs. "I am a demon, Omitsu. It's about fucking time you realized it, you weak-minded fool! don't like eating old bitches like you, but I can't have you stay alive any longer, I'm afraid."
"No… No… No, please! Let me go! No!"
Daki then let out a horrid peal of laughter as she picked her up with her obi sashes and told her, "Be prepared to say goodbye and meet your ancestors, you old bitch!"
Sure enough, outside, two other soldiers who were walking back to the Kyogoku House from patrolling around Yoshiwara watched a second floor window as Omitsu was pushed out and fell to the ground with a sickeningly loud thud. "Holy shit, did y'all see that?!"
"What the fuck was that?! Who pushed her?!"
Omitsu was definitely dead, not only having been injured from the fall, but also having been stabbed and slashed several times by Daki. She was silent as she fell, the only sound she ever made being the one her body made as it crumpled onto the ground and many of the bones inside shattered. "Jesus Christ… What the fuck…"
George Beauregard Hall then ran out and found both of the soldiers looking at the body, yelling at them as he presented a large white sheet, "What the fuck are y'all standin' 'round for?! Take care of the body and come in here! We gotta have ourselves a meetin'!"
"Yes, sir," both soldiers said as they quickly picked up Omitsu's body and carried it in by wrapping it up in the white sheet, which quickly got stained a deep crimson with her blood.
George informed them as they carried her body into the building, "Come on, come on, y'all ain't in trouble now. This is about what we have planned now that Omitsu's dead!"
…
As night fully descended in the Tokito House, a disguised Tanjiro was helping several of the younger girls move around a shipment of supplies and restock the various private rooms inside the brothel. As she came back down the stairs, one of the women who worked there thanked him. "Thank you so much, Sumiko-san. It's nice to have a hard worker here. We've been running short-staffed for a while now."
"It's my pleasure," Tanjiro replied.
"Also, I want to apologize for how our madam reacted when she took your makeup off." The woman chuckled, admitting, "She wasn't too happy about that scar on your forehead, but I'm glad things worked out and you got to stay here."
"I'm just grateful to be here. Thank you."
As Tanjiro carried several heavy boxes up a flight of stairs, which would have been unusual for a girl of his age, one of the other women commented, "Wow, she's really burly."
"Some men are into that sort of thing," another woman commented. "I'm sure when she's ready, she'll attract plenty of customers."
The first woman giggled. "You know, I wouldn't mind some alone time with her." It had been somewhat of an open secret that quite a few of the courtesans and lower-ranked prostitutes in Yoshiwara were also sexually attracted to other women in addition to servicing men, though many did not reveal such information to the public and only talked about it among other courtesans and prostitutes.
"I'm not that kind of girl," the second woman replied. "But I can see why you'd want a little piece of her."
"Exactly. Of course, it's all up to her. She might not be like that. If she is… I'll show her a good time if she wants it." The first woman then sighed. "Either way, it would suck if she committed ashinuke like Suma-chan did."
"You aren't kidding. I still can't believe Suma-chan just ran off like that with no damn warning. Normally, there's at least some signs of an impending ashinuke, but this time, there wasn't any at all. It's fucking weird. This past week's been all sorts of weird, now that I think about it. First Suma-chan ran away with no warning, and then the madam of the Kyogoku House got killed in a fall today."
"Any word on the cause?"
"They say it was an accident, but nothing further."
"Damn… That sucks. I wonder how Warabihime and the other girls at Kyogoku House are taking this…"
