The residents of Butterfly Mansion gathered to bid both Reiji and Lulu farewell.

It was a familiar scene to Reiji. The only difference this time around was the addition of Kanao, who stood beside her mentor with a serene smile. Her pale violet eyes stared into the distance at seemingly nothing in particular.

They were kind of like Kanae's, now that he thought about it.

Shinobu took Reiji's hand in hers, and he allowed her to lift it up to her face.

"Remember your promise, Reiji." She pressed his palm against her soft white cheek. "I'll be waiting to see those spider lilies again."

'Gods, I want to kiss her,' Reiji thought before pushing the notion to the back of his mind.

He didn't want to put her on the spot in front of the entire Butterfly Mansion-not to mention the ghost of her sister currently glaring at him.

"I'll look forward to seeing those butterfly wings again as well." Reiji gently caressed the corner of her eye with his thumb. "Take care, Shinobu."

"I will, if you do too." Shinobu reluctantly let go of Reiji's hand, which he allowed to fall to his side. "Good bye, Reiji."

"Only for now." Reiji slid his basket hat back onto his head before Shinobu could see the sadness show in his eyes. "I'll come back to visit. I promise."

Lulu awkwardly shifted in place. She wore a blue western suit jacket over her own demon slayer uniform, which had her sabre and buckler hanging from its belt.

"Uh, g-goodbye, Signora!" Lulu bowed far deeper than she needed to. Her golden ponytail fell onto her face as she did, forcing her to blow it away. "I will try to no let you down as well!"

"I know you won't." Shinobu gave her a small smile as well, her soul half-pitying and half-amused. "You're welcome to stop by Butterfly Mansion any time as well. I know it must be hard finding practice sabres to train with."

Lulu's eyes lit up. She nodded so vigorously that her ponytail nearly became undone.

"Many thanks, Signora!" she said. "Maybe we can train too?"

"Maybe one day," said Shinobu. "Just make sure to survive until that day comes, alright Lulu-chan?"

"I will!"

Their final goodbyes said, Reiji and Lulu both made their way southeast. Kanae's ghost followed right beside them, her presence known only to Reiji.

"So, about you and Shinobu," said Kanae. "Did something happen between you two?"

Reiji didn't respond. He simply followed the black and white kasugai crows leading him and Lulu to their destination.

"Oh, right. Lulu-chan's here." Kanae rubbed her chin. "Reiji, can I possess you so we can talk?"

Reiji flexed his right hand. As far as anyone else knew, he was just flexing his fingers or indulging in a harmless habitual tic. But for him and Kanae, it was a signal for her to come and possess him.

Kanae walked into Reiji's body. A familiar cold filled him for a fraction of a second before he felt her benign presence settle inside his skull.

'So, what did you and Shinobu do while I was away?' Kanae asked. 'Did you…you know?'

'What kind of answer do I have to give for you to not punch me with my own hand?' Reiji thought dryly.

'The truth,' Kanae thought back. 'My sister is dear to me. I want to know if she's finally found someone.'

'I'd like to know as well.' Even Reiji's own thoughts sounded unsure. 'But we didn't do the deed in case you were wondering.'

'Oh.' Kanae sounded relieved, but Reiji could almost sense a hint of disappointment mixed into her thoughts. 'Well, she seems to like you at least. That haori was a gift from her, right?'

'It was. She took me out for a picnic afterwards.'

'A date then?" Kanae's interest immediately piqued. 'How'd it go?'

'Pretty well, all things considered.' Reiji cast a disapproving look at Oyuki, who still flew high in the air with her fellow kasugai crow to guide him and Lulu. 'Would've been great if only someone didn't interrupt.'

'So are you together with Shinobu now?' Kanae asked. 'Am I in the head of my future brother-in-law?'

'I honestly haven't a clue,' thought Reiji honestly. 'Oyuki called me for this mission before we could talk much about it. I…think she likes me though. Or maybe she just likes teasing me.'

A sound like a chuckle filled Reiji's head.

'I've seen my sister tease,' thought Kanae. 'She does it all the time with the water hashira. Whatever she has going on with you goes a little beyond just teasing.'

'So…are you saying that she might actually like me?'

Reiji didn't know how, but he could almost feel Kanae rolling her eyes inside his skull.

'If you can't figure that out on your own then I'm not about to tell you,' thought Kanae.

'...Fair enough.'

After three days of travel, Reiji and Lulu reached their destination.

The place was something between a small city and an especially large town, set right at the very precipice of a rapidly growing industrialised area.

It was big enough for demons to have an abundance of prey to choose from without attracting too much suspicion, but not so big that they cannot thoroughly hide themselves with a little effort.

In time, this place will no doubt be converted into a full blown city.

One that rarely slept with people bustling through the streets late into the night. Any demons here would be forced to move further into the countryside, where there are fewer eyes to spot them.

But until then it still needed demon slayers like Reiji and Lulu to protect it.

"You there!" shouted a stern voice strengthened by authority from the crowd behind Reiji. "The komuso monk! Stop for a moment!"

Reiji stopped walking, and Lulu nervously followed suit.

He turned around to see a hard-faced police officer marching towards him.

Reiji tilted his basket-clad head at the officer.

"Is there a problem, officer?"

"Of course there is." The officer's eyes narrowed onto the sword on Reiji's belt. "What's a monk doing walking around with a katana? Don't you know that's illegal?"

'This may be a bit troublesome,' thought Kanae inside Reiji's head. 'The corps isn't recognised by the official government, so local authorities are often a problem for us in urban areas. Still, if you do get arrested, the corps will pull some strings to get you released.'

'Let's hope it doesn't come to that,' Reiji thought back just as he finished thinking up a lie.

Kanae and Shinobu taught him many things since he took the path of the demon slayer, but talking out of his arse was one thing he'd learned all by himself.

"It's a ceremonial sword, sir." Reiji gently slid the still sheathed katana from his belt and handed it to the officer. "Take a look at its blade."

The officer raised an eyebrow, then pushed the sword up by the hilt with his thumb. His eyes widened in surprise upon seeing the blade.

"The blade's transparent?"

"It's glass," Reiji lied. "To symbolise the fragility of life and its relationship with death during holy rituals. It's a work of art, though such a fragile blade would make for a poor actual weapon."

"I suppose so…" The officer seemed satisfied with the explanation judging by the emotions in his soul, but it flared up with suspicion again when he noticed Lulu and the sabre strapped to her belt. "What about her?"

Lulu immediately froze up. Her mouth opened, but no words escaped her trembling lips. She was struggling to translate them from Italian or none would come to her in either language.

Reiji spoke up in her place.

"It's part of her uniform," Reiji half-lied. "She's a military diplomat from Italy, and I've been tasked to teach her the religious culture of our great nation. Do forgive her, our customs remain alien to her and she cannot speak Japanese."

The officer immediately stiffened up. His soul lit up with fear and unease, as if realising he'd just messed up.

"I see." He handed Reiji back his sword while shifting nervously in place. "Are you two here for the shrine festival? Will you be performing in any of the sword dances, sensei?"

"We are here for the festival, but only as spectators," Reiji continued to lie. "Though I certainly wouldn't mind performing a rite or two for good luck if asked. Is there someone you want blessed, officer?"

"Oh, no, nothing like that." The officer glanced nervously at Lulu. "I'm, um, sorry to have bothered the two of you. Can you please tell her that?"

"Of course." Reiji turned to Lulu, who more or less understood everything that they were saying in Japanese, and uttered a string of total gibberish that only vaguely sounded Italian.

Most of it featured words he'd heard her mutter before in passing to herself-usually while crying in the middle of the meal. Words like "parmigiano", "mozarella", and "gorgonzola", whatever any of that means.

Lulu, for her part, nodded along with the pretend second-hand apology that must've sounded as much like complete nonsense to her as it did to Reiji.

"Non preoccuparti," said Lulu after he finished. "Non mi offendo."

"She says it's fine," said Reiji to the officer, pretending to have translated the words he couldn't understand himself. "On another note, may I please have my ceremonial sword back?"

"Oh, right, of course." The police officer handed Reiji back his sword, which he slid back into his belt. "You two should avoid being out this late though. It'd be trouble for all of us if a foreign diplomat went missing around here."

"Have there been a lot of people going missing around here?" Reiji asked, already knowing the answer.

The officer nodded.

"Whatever business you have around here, best to get it done and go somewhere else. At least four people who stayed out late have already disappeared."

"Well that's concerning," said Reiji. "But we can't just leave right now. Can you tell us the places we should avoid?"

"The abandoned art district," said the officer. "It's the one with the big castle looking theatre. Some folks here say it's haunted by the ghost of a vengeful biwa player. I don't really believe it myself, but a lot of the missing people were last spotted there."

"I see." Reiji nodded. "We'll be sure to avoid it. Thank you for the warning, officer."

"Anytime," said the officer. "You two take care now."

"We will."

Reiji waited for the officer to disappear into the crowd before turning to Lulu.

"Up for some theatre?" he asked.

"I always was fond of opera," said Lulu in fairly fluent Japanese.

The two of them made their way to the art district, where the bustling crowds gave way to dead silence punctuated only by the sound of chirping insects and blowing wind.

Evidently, the townsfolk took the police warnings pretty seriously. Or perhaps they were just too busy preparing to enjoy the festival to be wandering around here right now.

The festival must've been starting elsewhere in town, because Reiji heard the sound of a singular biwa note echoing through the still night air. He managed to spot their quarry not one second later.

A soul stained nearly pitch black by sin shone past several alleyway walls for him to see. Even if it didn't belong to a demon, anyone with a soul this corrupted must deserve a sword to the neck.

"There!" Reiji leapt up onto the nearest rooftops and ran towards the direction of the soul.

He didn't look behind to check on Lulu, but he could hear the heavy thuds of her western style boots behind him.

When he reached the prowling demon, he jumped down from the rooftops with his sword already drawn.

The transparent blade sliced through the demon's neck before Reiji felt his feet touch the ground. He didn't even get to have a good look at the demon's face before his severed head disintegrated into ash.

"Did you get it?" Lulu asked from the rooftops.

"Yeah." Reiji swiped the blood off his transparent blade. "I don't think there's any more around here but let's-"

A single note played from an unseen biwa cut through the nocturnal ambiance of bugs and wind again.

"Did…did you hear that?" Lulu asked. "Sounds like-"

Lulu didn't get to finish her sentence. Whether it be instinct, training, or just sheer luck, something had told her to duck at that very moment. It wasn't a moment too soon either.

The claws of a demon whizzed past the top of her head. She then donkey-kicked the demon responsible without turning around, forcing a loud grunt out of his gut.

Before he could regain his bearings, Lulu drew her sabre and decapitated him in one swift flick of the wrist.

"Lulu!" Reiji leapt back up to the rooftop to examine her. "Are you alright?"

"I am," said Lulu, though she sounded a tad shaken as she watched the demon she just killed disintegrate. "But where he come from? And what was sound just now?"

"It sounded like a biwa," said Reiji.

Lulu's face turned pale.

"D-do you think it is ghost?!" she asked, already shaking. "Like the policeman said?!"

Reiji stared at her, his blank expression hidden by his basket hat.

"Lulu, you're a demon slayer," he said plainly. "Why are you scared of ghosts?"

"Because I can kill demons!" said Lulu. "You no can kill ghost! What I supposed to do with if something already dead wants me dead, huh?!"

"Why would you need to kill a-nevermind." Reiji shook her head, which was filled with the sound of Kanae trying not to laugh in his thoughts. "Let's patrol the area for a bit. There may be more around here."

"M-maybe we should stick together?" Lulu asked with blatant fear in her voice.

"...Sure." Reiji sighed. "Why not? Come on, you big scaredy cat."

Reiji searched the entire nearly abandoned district with Lulu by his side. Aside from a couple drunks who would've been easy pickings for the demons they just killed, they found nothing out of place.

'Something's bothering you, isn't it?' Kanae asked within his head as he hopped across rooftops with Lulu.

'I can see souls through solid objects,' Reiji thought. 'Yet that demon somehow came up from right behind Lulu. There's no way I wouldn't have noticed him beforehand.'

'I thought so too,' Kanae agreed. 'You were paying attention to the surroundings on your way to that first demon. It's like that second demon just appeared out of nowhere.'

'Not to mention that biwa sound,' thought Reiji before jokingly adding. 'Think it could be the work of a fellow ghost?'

'That, or some sort of demon blood art,' Kanae replied, dead serious. 'We should keep our eyes peeled.'

'Got it.'

Reiji and Lulu patrolled the art district for almost half an hour.

They found no more demons and didn't even hear that strange biwa sound again. For all intents and purposes, it seemed as though their job was done.

"Does this mean we job is finished?" Lulu asked Reiji after they hopped down from the rooftops back onto the streets. "Can we go back to visit Signora Shinobu now?"

"Maybe," said Reiji, unable to shake the uneasy feeling inside him. "This feels a bit too easy."

"And that a bad thing?"

Reiji sighed and shrugged.

"I suppose not but-"

The sound of a low growl cut him off.

Reiji's hand instinctively reached for his sword. It stopped just shy of touching it when he realised the source of the sound.

"Lulu…" Reiji spoke softly, his hand hovering over his sword's handle. "Was that you?"

The blonde girl's beet red face gave him his answer.

"I may be little peckish," she said sheepishly.

Reiji relaxed his shoulders. His sword hand fell to his side.

"Well, I think we've earned a break," he said. "How about we go get something to eat? We can discuss what to do next after we've filled up."

"Sounds good to me!" said Lulu cheerfully. "What you want to eat?"

"How about udon?"

"Me don't know what that is but okay!"

Reiji returned with Lulu to one of the more populated areas in town, where they found a little udon stall run by a very passionate man happy to serve a foreigner and a supposedly holy man.

The shrine festival had entered full swing while they were both hunting demons in the abandoned district, providing a loud but pleasant ambiance of taiko drums and synchronised chanting to eat to.

"Così delizioso!" Lulu exclaimed after slurping down her first mouthful of udon. "Mi manca ancora il formaggio però…"

Reiji had no idea what any of that meant, but he could only assume from the smile on her teary-eyed face that she was enjoying the meal. He set aside his basket hat and started eating his own bowl as well.

Halfway through the meal he felt an ethereal presence slip from the confines of his skull.

"I'm going to go explore the city while you two eat," said Kanae, her transparent form now hovering beside him. "I'll come back to you if I notice anything strange, alright?"

Reiji nodded at her under the guise of throwing his head back while slurping udon.

The sound of the bustling streets and banging taiko drums of the shrine festival faded into the back of his mind as he ate. It allowed his thoughts to inevitably drift back to Shinobu.

Lulu was a nice girl and fine company, but he couldn't help but wonder what it'd be like if Shinobu were here too.

'My, my, Reiji-kun,' he imagined her saying. 'Taking a break already after only slaying one demon? You better not slack off if you want to become a hashira, you know?'

A burning sensation seeped throughout Reiji's hand, right around where he touched Shinobu during their last goodbye. He could almost feel her soft cheek pressing against his palm even now.

Was she thinking about him now as well? Or did she just enjoy teasing him for some casual fun while he was there mooching off her?

Reiji didn't have much time to ponder the matter.

The faint sound of a biwa reverberated in the background. It was barely audible amidst the ambient noises of the lively town, but Reiji had been keeping an ear out for it.

Immediately afterwards, a figure dashed across the rooftops in the corner of his eye and landed on a nearby building. He might not have noticed it at all if he couldn't see the pitch black soul shining through its mortal coil.

Reiji abruptly stood up from his seat and slammed the payment for their meal onto the stall counter.

"I have to go to work now," he told Lulu, hoping that she'd catch his drift. "Follow me once you're done."

"Hmm?! Oh! I-" Lulu was cut off by the treachery of her own throat, which began choking on a bit of udon. "-Ack!"

She tried to gulp the murderous noodle down with some green tea brought by the panicking vendor who was afraid he might become responsible for an international incident, incidentally causing her to burn her tongue on the steaming hot tea in the process.

Meanwhile Reiji wall hopped up an alleyway to cut off the figure that was just standing on the rooftop.

"You." Reiji drew his sword, pointing the transparent blade at the demon dressed in dark trousers and no shirt to cover his sickly pale grey body. "I'd like to have a word."

The demon's cold grey eyes widened for a moment before it laughed in Reiji's face.

"Looks like my food comes to me!" He licked his lips. "I'm not like the other demons you've faced. Let me show you how a real demon-"

Reiji vanished into thin air right in front of the demon, whose right arm started bleeding in a straight line below the shoulder before promptly falling off.

"Ghost Breathing, Seventh Rite." Reiji's voice echoed in the demon's skull from right behind him. "Message From Beyond."

Panic filled the demon's eyes. He spun around to clumsily swing at Reiji with his remaining left hand.

His clenched fist made contact with only thin air. A split second later, the arm it was attached to fell off as well.

Reiji, now back behind the demon, swung his katana across the demon's legs.

"Second Rite: Ghastly Wail."

The blade moved so fast that it created a shrill shriek-like noise as it cut through the air, interrupted only by the sound of the demon's splitting flesh and breaking bones. Blood had no time to cake the transparent blade before it had already passed clean through the demon, who immediately fell onto his face without any limbs.

He would've slid down the roof's sloping tiles had Reiji not graciously impaled him to them with a sword to the spine.

"I'll be doing the monologuing now if you don't mind," said Reiji dryly to the limbless demon beneath him. "It seems like you know that I killed another demon in this town earlier tonight. Plus you were just loitering in this spot before I arrived. You were using this as a vantage point to stalk me from, weren't you?"

The demon squirmed underneath Reiji's sword. He turned his broken face to one side to speak unmuffled by the roof tiles.

"The hell is with that invisible sword?!" the demon cried in indignation like the obvious sore loser he was. "It feels cold! How is that even possi-argh!"

Reiji twisted his blade in the demon's spine. He felt several of the individual vertebrae separate from one another and crunch against each other as he did.

"The longer you ignore my questions, the more pieces I cut away from you." Reiji carved a rough circle into the demons' back. He let out a shrill cry of pain as bits of his spinal column were flicked into the air from the tip of Reiji's sword. "Now answer the question. Were you trying to stalk me in particular? And what's with the biwa noises?"

The demon continued to scream in pain, his voice muffled by the sound of the festival below.

Reiji was beginning to wonder whether he'd overdone it a bit when giant finger bones with sharpened tips erupted from the demon's back.

"Go to hell!"

The sharp tips of the boney spears shot at Reiji, who hopped back far away on instinct.

He was ready to cut the bony spears the moment they got too close, but the moment never came.

"Prima Ala: Fiat Lux."

A lightning fast sliver of rainbow-tinted white flashed through the dark night, slashing straight through all the bone spears at its joints.

"Sorry I late!" said Lulu, who now stood by Reiji's side with her iridescent white sabre in one hand and buckler in the other. She still had udon broth on her face and tea on her shirt. "Are you alright, Signore Rei?"

"I had it handled, but your help is appreciated anyways, Lulu." Reiji looked at the demon, who was backing away with the stumpy ends of his sliced up bone spears. "Now do you feel like talking?"

The demon's wide eyes darted between Reiji and Lulu. Then, he launched himself off the rooftop with his half-severed bone spears and into an alleyway below.

"After him!" Reiji leapt after the demon, prompting Lulu to follow suit.

The demon tried to slink through the shadows of alleyways on the outskirts of the festivities. His limbs eventually regenerated, but he must've known better than to try fighting back because he just kept running as quickly as his newly grown legs could take him.

Reiji tracked him by his soul all the way as he kept to the rooftops. No amount of darkness or physical obstacles could ever hide the putrid black karma radiating from his very being.

Eventually, the demon made his way to the old art district, where neither Reiji or Lulu would have to worry about attracting civilian attention if they chose to fight.

'This is going way too smoothly,' Reiji thought to himself. 'Is this guy running in a panic or just plain stupid? Or maybe…'

"Stay sharp," Reiji told Lulu. "Something tells me this isn't going to be as easy as it seems."

"Understood!"

The demon ran into an enormous theatre shaped like the castle. It must've been the one that the police officer from before said might be haunted.

He could sense no ghosts in there, though. Just the demon's soul, now trapped inside an empty, decaying theatre.

Reiji and Lulu ran after the demon into the theatre, blocking him off from the main entrance and closest exit. The place itself wasn't too big. Even if there was a back entrance, Reiji was confident that he could close the gap and decapitate the demon within a few seconds if needed.

"Last chance to talk before I force feed you your own ballsack." Reiji pointed his transparent sword at the demon. "Tell me why you were targeting us. Also, why the hell is there always a biwa noise whenever one of you arseholes pop up?"

Smug, sadistic glee flooded the demon's soul. Though obviously cornered, his lips curled into a wicked grin that gave Reiji the distinct impression that he'd just fucked up.

"Why don't you find out yourself, brat?!" The demon looked up and shouted at the top of his lungs. "Lady Nakime, now!"

The sound of a single biwa note bounced right off the old theatre walls which had been designed just for that purpose. It was accompanied by a sudden bright light that filled Reiji's vision with black spots.

There was the sound of heavy wooden doors sliding open, and Reiji suddenly felt his feet falling into thin air. Judging by her screaming, Lulu must've been going through it too.

"Hang on!" Reiji grabbed the sleeve of Lulu's suit jacket and tried to slow their descent by splaying out his body.

He blinked the black spots from his eyes and found himself falling through an infinite castle.

Taisho Era Secret!

Reiji loves telling ghost stories to scare people, but enjoys listening to them a little less. Mainly because he's already heard them all and even experienced some of them firsthand.