February 20, 1914

Zenitsu, Nezuko, and Kaigaku were all hunting together in a thick and snow-covered forest early in the morning as part of the trip they had all taken with Kyosuke and Junpei. As they all walked through the woods, Zenitsu told the other two as he adjusted a crossbow he carried, "I should have picked the rifle."

"Too late," Kaigaku replied with a grin as he held a hunting rifle in his hands. "You should have taken the last rifle when you had the chance."

"Crossbows aren't all bad," Nezuko said to encourage her boyfriend. "It's a bit more of a challenge, and that's more fun."

As all three of them crossed a frozen creek, Zenitsu asked Kaigaku, "Have you been hunting before?"

"You do it quite a bit when you live in a rural area," Kaigaku explained. "Especially when you're on your own for most of your life. You're kinda fucked out here if you don't know how to hunt animals for food and you don't have anyone to support you who can hunt. How about you?"

"Not really… At least, not hunting animals, that's for sure."

Nezuko added, "Me and my brother both hunted, but we never went after bigger animals."

They then heard the sound of galloping hooves in the distance as they all turned in one direction down a small path through the forest. As they watched, they saw Kyosuke and Emi on horseback, riding separate but staying close as they got closer to the trio. Kyosuke waved over to them and greeted them with, "Good morning once again to all of you!"

As they both came to a stop, Kaigaku replied with a bow, telling them, "Good morning once again to you as well, Count Mochizuki."

As Kyosuke hopped off of his horse and grabbed his hunting shotgun, he told Kaigaku, "I've come here to deliver you this horse. I actually prefer hunting on foot over hunting by horse myself."

Zenitsu and Nezuko were both shocked that the count had personally delivered a horse to Kaigaku. "Woah!"

Kaigaku bowed once again in thanks. "Why thank you, Your Excellency. I would be honored." In his head, he felt incredibly lucky to have a horse in his possession for the hunt. He thought to himself, "Today's my lucky day. First I get to hunt with a noble, and I get a horse? Fuck yeah, this day can't get any better."

Kyosuke then turned to Zenitsu and Nezuko, asking both of them, "What about you two? How are you guys doing?"

"We're doing fine," Nezuko replied. "We won't really need horses. I prefer hunting on foot, too."

"Ah, so you're like me."

"Yeah. My family would hunt on foot in the forest we grew up in. We lived a good thirty or so minutes walking distance from the nearest village, so we often had to fend for ourselves. We all pretty much had to be good at hunting at least small animals."

"That's certainly very different from my own living situation, but I can see why you prefer hunting on foot. It's what you're used to, after all."

"Exactly. We'd be glad to join you on foot, Count Mochizuki."

Kyosuke then began walking down the path, telling the couple, "Then follow me. I can show you a good spot with plenty of deer."

Zenitsu shrugged and replied, "Sure, why not?" He then turned to Kaigaku and told him, "We'll see you later."

"Stay safe out there," Kaigaku told both of them. "Don't accidentally shoot yourselves with those arrows." It was clear he was joking around with them with the latter sentence based on his tone of voice and his chuckle. "Those things can kill!"

"Come on," Zenitsu replied humorously. "We won't be that bad! Have some faith in us!"

"Sure, sure!"

Emi inferred to Kaigaku, "You two must be close."

"We were trained by the same person when we were becoming demon slayers," Kaigaku explained. "For many years, we learned how to fight and how to survive thanks to a man known as Kuwajima Jigoro."

"Who was he?"

"He's actually still around despite his age," Kaigaku corrected her. "He used to be a demon slayer like us. He even rose to the highest rank in the corps, known as a Pillar. He was the Thunder Pillar for many years before he retired. After that, he began working as a cultivator for the corps, training potential slayers how to fight. He specifically taught people the Breath of Thunder, the Breathing Style that me and Zenitsu use."

"That explains the things you guys called out when you were fighting the demons, right? You guys all moved so fast."

"That's the idea. The Breath of Thunder is great at moving fast and killing demons quickly."

"Wow… All of that sounds so fascinating, and yet so dangerous…"

"It is. One of these days, I'll explain more to you. For now, though, let's get moving." As Kaigaku hopped on his horse, all of them heard a gunshot in the distance from someone else in the hunting party. The sound of the shot caused Emi to flinch briefly. Kaigaku noticed this and asked her, "Do you dislike hunting?"

Emi turned to him seemingly in a trance, not replying for several seconds as she seemed mesmerized by him. Then, she realized what she was doing and snapped out of it. "Oh, uh… Well… This is my first time going hunting, actually. My father insisted I be in attendance. Many would say it's not particularly ladylike for someone like me to go hunting, especially someone of my class."

"Ah, I see." Kaigaku then asked her, "But what about Nezuko?"

"Nezuko-chan is different," Emi replied. "She was raised in a small town, and I know she wasn't raised in a particularly well-off family like me. I guess… I guess the expectations of what women should and should not do are different when you're of the upper classes like me."

Kaigaku nodded. "I guess you're right. Well, right now, that doesn't matter so much."

Emi smiled. "Maybe it doesn't matter right now."

"Exactly." Both of them then saw a mostly leafless bush nearby rustle a bit before a wild boar jumped out and ran. The event startled both of their horses, though both of them were able to quickly regain control of them as Kaigaku aimed at the boar and fired, striking it in the back and fatally wounding it. "Woah! Woah!"

The gunshot caused Emi to flinch once more, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Kaigaku jump off of her horse and run to the boar. "Kaigaku-san!"

He shouted to Emi, "I got it! Come over here!"

Emi quickly jumped off of her horse and joined him. Blood from the bullet wound pooled around the boar as it shivered and took its last breaths. Emi asked Kaigaku, "It's dead, right?"

"In a few seconds, it will be."

As they inspected the dying boar, what they did not know was that a man was secretly lurking in the brush nearby, hidden from sight. This man was in fact Hikaru, and he was waiting for the perfect time to strike as he adjusted his crossbow. "You'll be dead soon enough too," he quietly said to himself as he aimed the crossbow and waited for Emi to get out of the way.

Kaigaku meanwhile told Emi, "You can look away if you want. I understand if you're not into this shit."

"It's fine," Emi assured him. "I'll have to get used to it if I want to continue hunting."

Just as Kaigaku stood up, Hikaru took his shot and pulled back on the trigger of his crossbow to fire the poisoned bolt. As he looked, the bolt seemed to hit him, and he smiled. On the ground, Kaigaku fell down and yelled, "Agh, fuck!"

Emi panicked and yelled as she ran over to him, "Kaigaku-san! KAIGAKU-SAN!"

In the distance, Nezuko, Zenitsu, and Kyosuke all heard Emi's shrieks of horror echo across the land and looked at each other. "Shit," Zenitsu said to the others. "That can't be good!"

"They must be in trouble," Kyosuke said as all three of them raced towards where they had last seen Kaigaku and Emi. "Come on! Hurry!"

At Hikaru's position, he continued to watch to see what had happened to his target. "Heh… Perfect shot…" To his amazement, however, Kaigaku then stood up. "What?!"

Kaigaku stood up from the ground, revealing that the bolt had bounced off of him after it struck a button on his corps uniform. He picked up the bolt from the ground and inspected the arrow tip, saying to himself, "Fuck me, that was too close."

Emi asked him, "It bounced off?!"

"It bounced off one of the buttons on my uniform shirt," Kaigaku explained. He then noticed something coated onto the tip. "This bolt is no ordinary bolt, either."

"It…" Emi then realized what was on the tip. "It's poisoned! I can see the poison on the tip, Kaigaku-san."

"And there's a shit ton of it," Kaigaku realized. "Whoever did this did it intentionally."

Emi then began to cry, feeling as though Kaigaku's near-death experience was her fault. "I… I'm sorry, it's just…"

"What's wrong?"

"I feel like I led you into all of this…" Emi wiped her eyes as she was hit by a wave of conflicting emotions. "If you hadn't been with me, maybe this wouldn't have happened…"

Kaigaku sighed. "It's fine, Emi."

Emi looked over at Kaigaku, surprised he held no ill will towards her. "It is?"

"It's not your fault," he assured her. "The only person at fault is the bastard who did this shit. We need to fi-"

Kaigaku was suddenly interrupted by Emi hugging him, her grip tight around his body. "Kaigaku-san… I… Kaigaku-san…"

Both of them then heard Zenitsu call out to them as he ran down the path in their direction. "Kaigaku! Emi! What's wrong?!"

Kyosuke similarly shouted beside him, "Emi! Inadama-san!"

Kaigaku told both of them as well as Nezuko, "Someone tried to kill me with a poisoned arrow." He then picked up the crossbow bolt that had almost hit him and showed it to the trio. "Take a look. Whoever used this must have had a lot of money. The poison used here's expensive as Hell, and there's a lot of it."

Kyosuke looked at the bolt and exclaimed, "This is an outrage! They could have killed my daughter too!"

Zenitsu told Kaigaku, "Thank God you're okay. You're lucky it didn't hit your body."

"I know I am," he replied to him. "Now we need to find the son of a bitch who did this."

…

"Damn it," Junpei yelled at Hikaru as the two met together a few hours after the hunt had concluded. "I can't believe that shit happened! How the fuck did the bolt bounce off of him?!"

"They say it was because of the buttons on his uniform," Hikaru explained. "I'm truly sorry I missed. I have no excuse for it."

"Now everyone is sympathizing with him, and worse still, they think whoever did it might have also tried to kill my niece! They think that bastard saved Emi's life, and now people are even praising him!" Junpei slammed his fist on a table in frustration. "Fuck, this is bad! All we succeeded in doing was making him look better!"

"If anyone finds out we did this, we're fucked. We are so fucked."

"I'm gonna make damn sure they won't," Junpei assured him. "And we're gonna find a way to make sure we kill that Kaigaku bastard next time!"

"My only question is this," Hikaru then asked. "Why do people think Emi-sama was in danger when I aimed squarely at Inadama? Surely, that seems improbable, doesn't it?"

Annoyed, Junpei yelled, "What do you propose I should do then, huh? Go and explain to my brother that I was only trying to murder his daughter's friend and not her?! I'm sure that'll go over real fucking well!" After a brief bout of silence between the two of them after the outburst, he sighed and told Hikaru, "My apologies… I'm just frustrated with this shit."

"I understand," Hikaru assured him.

"Now go," Junpei then told him. "I don't want to raise too much suspicion by you being here."

"Very well." Hikaru then left the private study room the two of them had met in, and upon shutting the door behind him, he walked down the hall.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Kaigaku was in fact listening from around a corner, and could hear Junpei yelling. Once Hikaru was out of earshot, Kaigaku said to himself, "So that piece of shit is the one who wanted me dead… Well, he'll soon get a rude awakening…" As he turned and walked the other way from Hikaru, he thought to himself, "I won't let this assassination attempt go unpunished. Mochizuki Junpei and Amemiya Hikaru must die. However… I cannot kill them at the same time by myself. I'll need help to ensure they both die on the same night."

…

February 21, 1914

Zenitsu and Nezuko walked into a small bedroom they shared with Kaigaku, having been told to meet him in private after they had finished having dinner with Kyosuke and Emi. As they walked in, Kaigaku greeted them with, "Thanks for coming. I know it's on short notice, but bear with me."

Zenitsu told him as he sat down on the bed, "It's fine."

Kaigaku then said to them before closing a book he was reading on his bed, "What I'm gonna say next does not leave this room under any circumstances. If any of us are found out, we'll all be screwed." The book he read was a Japanese translation of the Art of War by Sun Tzu.

"This sounds serious," Nezuko replied. "Is this related to what happened yesterday?"

"Yep," he nodded before showing the Art of War to the two of them. "By the way, Mochizuki-san gave me this book. I'd recommend reading it."

"The Art of War by Sun Tzu," Zenitsu said as he read the cover of the book. "That must be from China."

"It is. It's a very old book, too. It goes into detail about how to conduct warfare, but you can use it to your advantage outside of war, too. Daimyo Takeda Shingen apparently was a fan of this book, or at least, that's what Mochizuki-san told me."

As Zenitsu took the book, he opened to the first page and asked him, "Do you mind if I read this?"

"Go ahead. Just don't destroy it or something, okay? I'm about a third of the way through the book."

"Anyway," Nezuko then asked Kaigaku to get back on topic. "What did you call us for?"

"I need you two to kill a man," Kaigaku rather bluntly told them. "Or, more specifically, we're going to kill two men." Zenitsu and Nezuko both fell totally silent as the former put the book down and closed it, both of them unable to formulate a response to his request. "I know it sounds bad," Kaigaku told them in response to their silence. "But bear with me."

Zenitsu asked him with a hint of concern in his voice, "What the Hell do you mean by that?"

"I know who tried to kill me," Kaigaku explained. "It was the count's brother and his friend. I managed to overhear them talking about the failed assassination attempt on my life."

Nezuko asked him, "You mean Mochizuki Junpei, the general?"

"Correct. His friend and former wartime comrade, Amemiya Hikaru, conspired together to kill me for getting close to Emi."

"So they see you as competition," Zenitsu inferred. "What for?"

"If I had to guess… Well, General Mochizuki has a son who's only about two years younger than Emi, and I've heard rumors that he wants to arrange a marriage between them."

"A marriage between cousins," Nezuko replied with a hint of confusion. "What for?"

"Probably to preserve the bloodline," Zenitsu explained. "A lot of nobles and even the imperial family will do that. It helps keep poorer people out of the family and thus risking the possibility of a title passing to a commoner."

"And since Emi is an only child and a woman," Kaigaku added. "If her father dies, his title will pass onto his brother if Emi doesn't marry someone and have a son, since Emi herself can't inherit the title."

Nezuko then realized what Kaigaku wanted. "You want us to kill him."

"Correct," Kaigaku nodded. "I will take care of his friend Amemiya Hikaru personally, as he's the bastard who tried to directly kill me. I need you two to kill the general."

"What you're asking for is dangerous," Zenitsu pointed out. "If we get caught, we're all fucked beyond belief."

"I know, but I think we can pull it off without being caught. We're demon slayers, after all. We move throughout the night. Going undetected shouldn't be difficult for us at all."

Nezuko was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of killing Junpei based on her facial expression and how she reacted verbally to what Kaigaku proposed. "I mean… I don't know… I promised myself to try not to kill humans as a demon, and… I don't know if I could follow up on your request, Kaigaku-san…"

"I'll do it," Zenitsu then said, stopping the discussion. "I'll kill General Mochizuki so Nezuko-chan doesn't have to do it."

Nezuko turned to him and asked him, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," he assured her. "You won't have to do anything. I'll take care of it."

"Sounds good to me," Kaigaku replied.

…

February 22, 1914

Kaigaku had managed to break into the home of Hikaru Amemiya undetected in the middle of the night, and was now sneaking his way through the house. To better disguise himself, he was not wearing his corps uniform, and was instead dressed in a black cloak. As he tip-toed his way past a kitchen, he looked around and thought to himself, "Is he here by himself? It doesn't look like he has a wife or children here with him. Perhaps they're away for some reason."

As he rounded a corner, he found the stairs leading to the second floor of the home and slowly began to walk up them, doing his best to make as little noise as possible. Once he reached the foot of the stairs, he looked down the hallway and noticed one of the doors was open. Thinking it was his bedroom, he crept over to the open door, only to find upon peering it open that it was merely an empty room with nothing of note inside. As he looked out of the window of the room, he could see the night sky, which was rather star-filled on this particular night, and sighed, annoyed that he had been led down a false path.

Kaigaku then turned around and began to walk out of the room when he suddenly heard the cocking of a gun and looked to his right. He immediately came face-to-face with the barrel of a revolver as Hikaru demanded from him, "What the fuck are you doing here?!"

"Shit," Kaigaku muttered as he drew his own corps-issued revolver and aimed it at Hikaru. "I know you tried to kill me," he told him.

"So it's you who broke in," Hikaru replied. "I'd advise you to put that gun down in the next few seconds, Inadama."

"I'm not gonna do that, you piece of shit."

Hikaru then yelled at him, "Put the fucking gun down before I put a bullet in your head, asshole! You've caused me a lot of trouble these past two days, and I've fucking had it!"

"You won't be able to kill me," Kaigaku replied to him. He then swung at Hikaru with his other hand and ducked. Hikaru fired his gun at him, but the bullet missed his head by a few inches. Kaigaku responded by yelling in shock, "Fuck!" He then punched Hikaru in the nose, breaking it and spilling blood onto the floor.

Hikaru tried to fire again at him, but the gun jammed at possibly the worst time for him. He yelled as he continued to fight with his opponent, "Shit, it jammed!" Kaigaku immediately took the opportunity and shot Hikaru in the stomach, instantly sending him down to the floor.

Kaigaku then put his gun away as Hikaru attempted to reach for his own gun, which he had dropped on the floor when he was shot. Just as he grabbed it, Kaigaku pulled out his sword and stabbed him in the upper chest, almost instantly killing him. As he pulled the sword out, he took a deep breath and looked around at the scene of the killing he had caused. He then looked down at his blood-stained clothes and said to himself, "Shit… I got blood all over me…" He looked at another open door down the hall and inferred that Hikaru had come out of that particular room.

To his delight, the room he walked to was indeed his bedroom, and as he walked in, he began to look for a change of clothes so he could dispose of the clothes he had used to kill Hikaru. Once he swapped his clothes, he left the room carrying his bloodied clothes in his hands before stepping around Hikaru's body and silently walking down the stairs to leave the house.

Once outside, Kaigaku spotted a nearby creek and dumped the clothes into them before running away as fast as he could. "Perfect," he thought to himself. "No one saw me. Hopefully, Zenitsu doesn't do something stupid and get his ass caught."

…

At the same time that Kaigaku was assassinating Hikaru, Zenitsu was slowly walking to Junpei's home. Like Kaigaku, he ditched his corps uniform for clothes that were more generic, as well as a black cloak to further hide himself. As he hid himself around the corner of another house nearby, he took a deep breath and told himself, "Just focus on the mission. This bastard tried to kill Kaigaku. I have to remember that." Truth be told, he was rather nervous, but he knew that this was something that had to be done.

While Zenitsu was busy sneaking his way around the area, Junpei and his son Yuta were talking in his private study. "I told you that you need to improve on your academics," Junpei told his son rather harshly. "The marks you're getting now are completely unacceptable!"

"I'm sorry, father," Yuta replied, despondent. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Maybe it's the teachers I ha-"

Angered by his excuse, Junpei struck the boy with a light slap. "No excuses! Remember, when you're old enough, you'll have to join the ranks of the Imperial Army, and I expect you to be an officer like I am! That includes being intelligent enough to lead soldiers into battle and hopefully survive! You can't give excuses like that whenever you mess up!"

"Yes, father," Yuta replied with a bow. "I'm sorry, father."

"I want you to study for the next half-hour. Understood?"

"Yes, father." Yuta then bowed and left the room, saddened over what had happened between them.

Junpei looked to the lit fireplace in the study, thinking about what had transpired over the past few days. "Damn it," he said to himself. "First, I have to deal with Inadama, and now Yuta's low marks." As he continued to stare into the blazing fire, he began to see Kaigaku's face within the flames, almost as if he was mocking him despite not even being present. Enraged, Junpei threw a small and empty glass cup into the fire. "Damn it all! That Inadama bastard won't get away with this!"

Suddenly, Junpei felt a cold breeze as he heard a window nearby open up. He turned to look and found Zenitsu crawling into the room. He looked at Junpei and told him, "You tried to kill Kaigaku, didn't you?"

"Who the Hell are yo-?!" Junpei then remembered who he was as Zenitsu stepped into the light of a nearby gas lamp. "Wait a minute! I know who you are!" As Zenitsu pulled out his sword, Junpei realized what was about to happen and reached for his own. "What the fuck?!"

Zenitsu took a deep breath and whispered, "Breath of Thunder, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash." He then charged forward and slashed right through Junpei, cutting him in half and also overturning a table. As he turned around, he saw the upper half of his body fall to the floor first, followed by the lower half second. Blood poured from both halves and stained the chair and the fireplace, as did some small pieces of Junpei's internal organs from the upper half of his body. He then turned away from the horrid sight and sighed, knowing his job was done but still feeling somewhat uneasy about it. "So this is what it would do to a human…"

Junpei tried to motion for him, but was unable to speak due to his injuries as the life inside of him slipped away. Within a few more seconds, he was dead, and Zenitsu began to look to the window he had entered into for his escape. However, he would be interrupted by a young-sounding voice from the doorway into the room. "Hello?"

Zenitsu turned and saw a shadow standing in the doorway as the door opened. "Huh?"

The same voice then called out in shock, "What the-?! Oh no! An intruder!"

"Shit," Zenitsu thought to himself. "He saw me!" Almost without thinking, he raced towards the doorway and stabbed the shadow with the tip of his sword. When he looked up at what he had struck against, Zenitsu's eyes widened with horror. "What… Oh no…"

He had impaled Yuta on his sword. The young boy bled from his mouth as coughed as he tried to say to him, "Wha-… No…"

Zenitsu knew the boy would not survive the wound he had given him. His nichirin sword had pierced his chest. A wave of remorse hit him as Yuta reached his right hand out, to which he gently cupped it and told him, "I… I'm sorry…"

"No… Father…" Yuta's eyes began to grow dim as his life left his body. Zenitsu tightened his grip on his right hand as he slowly died leaning on the wall of the hallway. Then, he pulled out his sword, allowing him to rest on the ground as he finally passed on, a trail of blood pooling at his feet.

"Oh my God…" Zenitsu stepped back from the scene as he began to panic. "I… I didn't mean to… I'm sorry…" Realizing he had to run, Zenitsu jumped back up to the window he had entered the room in and quickly made his escape, a million thoughts racing through his head about what he had done. "I killed his son," he thought to himself. "Why the fuck did I kill his son?! I should have known it was him! I didn't want to kill him, but I did!"

…

Zenitsu stumbled back into the room he had shared with Nezuko while the two of them were staying for the hunt. He was clearly distressed and upset, and as he walked in, Nezuko immediately got up and ran over. "Zenitsu-san! Zenitsu-san, what happened?!"

"I… I killed him," Zenitsu replied to her as he sat down on the bed. "I did as Kaigaku said, but…"

Clearly worried for her boyfriend, Nezuko asked him, "But what?! What the Hell happened?!"

"His son… The general's son… He walked in and spotted me… He probably was going to get someone else, but… Without even thinking, I…"

Nezuko immediately realized what he was getting at. "You… Oh no…"

"By the time I realized it was him," Zenitsu said to her as she began to take off his bloodied clothes. "My sword was already through his chest. It was too late to save him…"

"Zenitsu-san," Nezuko then asked him as she sat down next to him on the bed. "Does anyone else know about this?"

"No," he shook his head as he took off the last of his clothes. "Not even Kaigaku…"

Then, they both heard a knock at the door, followed by Kaigaku's voice on the other side. "Zenitsu, Nezuko, are you guys in here?"

"Hang on," Nezuko replied before getting up and opening the door. When she did, she asked him, "Did you take care of the other one?"

"I did," Kaigaku nodded. He then looked over and saw that Zenitsu was practically naked. "Uh… Did I interrupt something? If you two are gonna fuck, I'll come back la-"

"No," Nezuko shook her head. "We need to talk about something."

Kaigaku sighed and walked in. "Zenitsu, what happened?"

"I… I killed his son, too…" Zenitsu was on the verge of tears, despondent over having had to kill a young boy. "He saw me and I… By the time I knew it was him, it was too late…"

"So the general and his son are both dead?"

"Yeah," Zenitsu replied with a solemn nod.

"Fuck… I didn't intend for that at all…" He then looked at Zenitsu and, annoyed by how he was acting, told him, "Hey, stop moping about it. We got other shit we have to deal with. We need to be vigilant in case they start looking around and they find evidence it could be us. We can't afford to have you freak out about this."

"I know, I know, but… But it feels so fucked u-"

"But nothing," Kaigaku replied to him. "Look, I didn't want it to come to this, but it was either them or me, or even all three of us. One side had to die. This whole thing is fucked up, from the start up to now."

Nezuko sighed and told Kaigaku, "Let him have some time to himself to think. He's clearly not taking this well."

"Alright," Kaigaku replied as he turned to walk out of the room. "I'll let you guys deal with it, but remember, no one is to know about this shit. Got it?"

"Yeah," Zenitsu replied.

"Understood," Nezuko added. When Kaigaku left the room and left the two of them alone, she asked Zenitsu, "Hey, do you want me to do anything for you?"

"You just being here helps already," Zenitsu replied with a faint smile. "God… I… I'm never going to unsee the face that boy had when he died, or his last words…"

"What did he say?"

"He called out to his father," Zenitsu explained. "I could see in his eyes that he loved his father. That was the last thing he ever thought about before he died." He then wiped away some tears from his eyes. "Fuck… This whole thing fucking sucks…"

"That sounds so heartbreaking," Nezuko replied, saddened by Yuta's final words. She then rested a hand on his shoulder and told him, "Look, Zenitsu-san, I'm not gonna think any less of you for this, okay? We're gonna get through this together, and that's because I love you."

"I love you, too…" The two then shared a warm embrace. "God, I'm lucky to have a woman like you in my life, Nezuko."

After the two split, Nezuko asked him, "So… Do you plan to get dressed at some point, or…?"

"Oh, right…" Zenitsu looked down at himself and realized he was almost completely naked. "Sorry… I have a lot on my mind right now." He then looked up at the only window in the room and asked Nezuko, "Did you ever wonder what it would feel like to kill a human?"

Nezuko stayed silent for several seconds, not wanting to answer him at first. Then, after some thought, she admitted, "Yes… I've thought about it. I'm ashamed to think about killing humans, especially with what Urokodaki-san taught me, but… The thought is pervasive."

"I also wondered what it was like," Zenitsu admitted as well. "Now… Now that I've done it… It feels just like killing a demon, or at least… Killing the general felt just like killing a demon, and that's what scares the fuck out of me."

"What about killing his son?"

"That felt different," Zenitsu explained. "When I realized I had killed him, I… I felt a wave of regret. It felt nothing like killing his father. Truth be told, I don't really feel any regret or remorse for killing the general, but his son… That's my biggest regret in my life already, and I pray that it remains my biggest regret."

Nezuko then looked away, replying to him, "I understand."

"It feels scary knowing that even though as demon slayers we're supposed to value human life, taking one feels more similar to killing a demon than different. I wonder if I'm the only one like this."

"I doubt it," Nezuko pointed out. "Just look at Colby-san. He's killed hundreds of demons, but he's also killed humans, too. Granted, they were evil or just generally bad people, but still."

"The next time I see him, I'll have to ask him without doing it in a way that implicates me here."

"Be careful," she cautioned him. "One wrong word, and he could suspect something."

"Right…" Zenitsu then looked at Nezuko and told her, "I need something to get this shit off my mind."

"What were you thinking?"

"Instead of me getting some clothes on…" Zenitsu then put a hand on her shoulder and drew her in for a kiss, which she gladly returned. The two made out on the bed for almost a minute straight as they wrapped their arms around each other. When the two finished, Zenitsu asked her, "Do you get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah," Nezuko replied as she sat up in bed and pulled her night shirt over her head to expose her upper half to him. She then asked him, "Are you sure about this?"

"We can stop if you want."

"I don't want to stop, but… I really don't want to have sex with you if you're not in a good state of mind, either." Nezuko was still deeply worried about him. "Look, I love when we get intimate with each other, Zenitsu, but I like it better when we're both in a good mood. Trust me, I almost never say no if you want to have sex, and you know I want it, too. I just don't want to do it when you're in a bad state of mind."

"I'm… I'm getting better, I guess. Talking about it helped." Zenitsu also sat up from the bed, placing a hand on Nezuko's bare shoulder. "Nezuko-chan, I think doing this will help me, actually."

"I guess…" Nezuko then got up from the bed and looked around the room, opening up a small dresser where they had kept their clothes and looking inside before then looking under said dresser and then under the bed. "Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me," she muttered to herself. She then looked under a neatly-folded pile of her corps uniform clothes. "Don't tell me I forgot to bring condoms from Shinobu-oneechan…"

"I thought we brought a few from her," Zenitsu said.

"I did, too…" She sighed and told him, "Look, I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna have full sex with you unless we have those. We did that once, and that was the first time. I don't want to risk anything, okay?"

"I understand. You know I don't mind that."

"Besides," Nezuko then said to him as she laid back down on the bed. "We can just do other things to make each other feel good." She then gave Zenitsu a kiss. "Will that be good enough?"

"Of course."

The two then made out once again, remaining in the room together for the rest of the night while Kaigaku went off on his own. While the two of them made love in a safe way, Zenitsu could still not fully get the image of Yuta dying before him out of his mind. He knew that for Junpei, he did what he had to do, but for Yuta, he could have lived. Regardless, he also knew that this night would have to be a night he, Kaigaku, and Nezuko would take to their graves. No one was to find out about what had truly happened and who was responsible for it under any circumstances.

…

Around the same time Zenitsu and Nezuko talked, several men who had accompanied Kyosuke on the hunting trip discovered the bodies of Junpei and Yuta. The first of them was walking down the same hallway that Zenitsu had killed Yuta in when he noticed his body slumped on the floor. "Hm?" Feeling something was wrong, he walked over to the boy, only to notice the blood on the wall and on the ground. "Oh… Oh my God!" He then turned his head and looked into the room, where he found the dismembered body of Junpei inside. "This… This is horrible!" Feeling sick, he rushed out of the room and down the hallway, barely avoiding throwing up the contents of his stomach from how disgusting the scene looked.

Several other men rushed up the stairs just a few minutes later, wanting to see what was going on. As they all arrived, one of the men demanded, "What the Hell happened?! Who did this?!"

Another man cried out in grief, "That bastard killed the count's brother and his nephew! We need to find and kill him!"

"We can't let him get away," said the third man in the group as he knelt down beside Yuta's body. "Whoever it is, we will find them…"

Then, Kyosuke himself rushed up the hallway, having been told the news. "Junpei! Yuta!"

One of the men tried to hold Kyosuke back, telling him, "Count Mochizuki, don't! You don't want to see thi-!"

"Get out of the fucking way! I want to see my brother and his son!" He was clearly grief-stricken, and as he looked at Yuta's body, he cried out, "Who could have done such a horrible thing?! The boy did nothing wrong!" He then ran into the room to see what had become of his brother, and when he saw that his body had been cut in two and mutilated as a result, he gasped in shock. "Who… What kind of monster did this?!" Little did he know that the people responsible were so close to him.