Where Is She?

Both of them even got invitations from some prostitutes who sent the pimps to ask for them to come inside the establishment. It was a tough time for both of them, and now…

"I'll be back after three hours in front of the Kyoroku Tea house on the main street," Yuu was about to go off on his own to do something, they had discussed it beforehand and Kanae had no qualms about it since it was a necessary part of the plan.

"Then I'll wait in the tea house in the meantime," Kanae was still trying to stick close to Yuu's speech pattern, but it was still a bit off.

Yuu nodded and then went off in the now little sparsely crowded streets.

He passed by the flashy streets and the further he went the less lighting was around, the clean streets started to get dirtier, trash was strewn all over the as brothels lined up on both sides of the street and a slightly pungent smell could be found in the air.

This was also part of Yoshiwara, But unlike the ones up the street, these were cheap brothels where the lowest-rank prostitutes, along with the sick ones were thrown to die.

Though it was mostly hidden by the flashy front of the Yoshiwara pleasure district, but people still knew of its existence. But little to no one cared about them.

"Oi, Mister why don't you come in here?" And just like the surroundings the pimps here were also on the rough side since unlike before there weren't any officers looking over them.

One of them tried to wrap his hand around Yuu to get him inside a building but.

"I'm good," Yuu said stopping the guy's hand, But this guy wasn't taking the message, he reeked of alcohol and looked like he hadn't taken a bath in a week or so.

"Hey, Hey, come on Mister don't be so sti-" But Yuu didn't seem keen on wasting any more time on a drunkard that can't catch a hint.

"I said I'm good, didn't I?" Yuu looked at the guy's face making him freeze on the spot.

The cold voice alone would've been bad on its own, but the glare made it worse as this guy wasn't even able to make a sentence right now.

"Then if you'd excuse me," Yuu walked away leaving the guy frozen in the middle of the road.

The other pimps who saw this were thinking twice about whether to approach Yuu or not, and the one who did.

'Well that sobered me up,' The pimp gulped as he remembered the look Yuu gave him…

'If you don't stop this, you're dead,' It was a blatant threat to kill him. All he could do was watch Yuu walk away since he didn't want to find out if that was true or not.

'A right on the 7th street after ramen stall, then a left after 9 shops, that after walking a 100 steps, it should be on the right side of the street, when you face north' Yuu was now in front of a worn down shop that used to be a brothel.

It was currently abandoned by its owners as they ran away after piling up an enormous debt and the fate of the prostitutes here was unknown.

Yuu crumpled the note in his hand that had the directions for this place and walked into the brothel after taking the lit-up lamp that was placed inside the door.

CREAK* CREAK*

The stairs made sounds as he climbed to the second floor and walked down the corridor to enter the last room on the left side.

'They have entered inside successfully,' Yuu thought looking at his basket that he had to leave outside before entering Yoshiwara.

The checking here was extremely thorough as even though he and Kanae had documents stating that they were nobles it wasn't enough to get them a free pass, Because currently, Noble families didn't hold as much weight as they did before since Japan had started to modernize.

'Also doesn't lose a lot of its value in the next 10 years?' Yuu remembered reading about it in the history class at school.

"Anyway, time to prepare for real," Yuu wore the bag on his back and zoomed out of the place leaving his previous thoughts behind, This bag contained items that will help him increase the probability of completing his mission.

Three hours later Yuu came in front of the Kyoroku tea house on the main street. It was already past midnight and the number of people on the street was still in quite a sizeable number, but it was nothing compared to when they first arrived.

'Where is Kocho-san?' Yuu looked around the tea house and still couldn't find her so he decided to go inside the tea house to ask.

"Ah, the cute boy with the flower print haori? He was invited to meet an Oiran as I remember," The shop owner said and then she looked at Yuu.

"Hmm? You must be the person he was referring to when he said to pass on a message that he'll be back soon," She looked up and down at Yuu mainly at his face and clothes.

'Where did Kocho-san go?' Yuu was in his thoughts and didn't notice the Shop owner as she continued. He wondered if Daki got to Kanae first.

'If she did then it should be alright, I did aim for this,' Yuu knew that Daki shouldn't be a problem for Kanae, she might not be the strongest pillar among others, but she had enough prowess to rank in the middle with ease.

'The problem is if Gyutaro already came out,' Yuu didn't want a commotion to happen since it would be bad for their plan if that happened, so currently his top priority was to look for Kanae.

"That guy must be enjoying himself right now, how about you young man? We are affiliated with the Kyogoku house, if you don't mind I can suggest you some young beautiful girls to spend your night with," The shop owner said with a smile.

"No thank you," Yuu said as he was about to leave.

"If you have any special request I don't mind listening to them," The lady winked grabbing Yuu's arm and blushing a little, she herself was in her early twenties and single. So a guy like Yuu who was handsome and…

'His forearms are nearly three times the size of mine, he is really strong,' The lady thought as Yuu quickly shook off her hand that was feeling up his arm.

"I am in a hurry, Please excuse me," Yuu dashed out of the tea house and the lady could only sigh.

"What bad luck to let such a man slip away, He seemed shy …maybe if I pushed harder it would've worked?" She felt sorrowful but it was not like she could stop him anyway. She got back to closing the store for today.

Yuu who was running outside on the main street stopped and looked at the roof of the shop on his left quickly.

But there was nothing.

'I felt someone's gaze,' Yuu thought as he changed his direction and ran into the alley near that shop.

All of the brothels were closed down now since they were full, Yuu was now standing in a completely empty alley and he jumped climbing up to the shop's roof quickly.

He unwrapped the katana in his hand and took it out of its sheath. He was swift as he looked around the roofs of the other shops around the alleys.

But he couldn't find anything at least not in front of him.

Feeling something sharp cutting the wind behind him Yuu turned and saw an obi coming straight for his neck.

SWOOSH* TING*

Yuu quickly took out his katana and swung at the obi deflecting it to the side.

"I knew there was a rat snooping around here," A haughty voice came from the woman who dressed a little too scarcely, well, it seemed like she was just in her underwear, no well she 'was' in her underwear with 12 more obi straps like the one he hit away around her torso.

'She is here, that means...' Yuu's mind raced to analyze the situation and redo some things he would need to do now that this has happened.

"I was going to catch you anyway, but you just had to make things a little difficult by being a Demon slayer," Seeing that Yuu wasn't answering Daki kept on talking, it wasn't that she wanted a response from him, what she wanted to do with him was already set up in her mind.

"You are better looking than I had heard, maybe I'll pickle your head in a jar as a decoration," Daki grinned and sent three of her obis towards Yuu wanting to capture him.

....

Nice to see you here again,

How are you doing?