Late at night, in a remote old apartment district of Tokyo, within a dark alley littered with garbage, two groups of homeless people were engaged in a struggle.
"You bastard! Which street did you come from! Daring to come here begging for food? Don't you know this nearby area is all under our boss Fat Tiger's territory?!"
"Beat him! Beat this old thing to death!"
"Eek~ Save me! I'm just a blind old man! Don't hit me!"
In the alley, a group of raggedly dressed homeless people were punching and kicking the old beggar huddled in the corner, who kept wailing and screaming, cursing nonstop.
"Old thing, you still dare to shout? Damn it! Little Four! Kill him! Throw the corpse directly into Tokyo Bay for him!"
"Yes! Boss! You all heard that, hurry up and finish him off!"
Under that fat beggar's command, several fierce-looking homeless people nearby immediately picked up sticks from the ground, grinning maliciously as they walked step by step toward the old beggar in the corner.
"Save me! Save me! Don't kill me! I'm just, just an old man! I..."
"This old thing can really scream, watch me give him a good beating with this stick..."
"I told you not to kill me! Can't you hear me?!"
Boom!
"Waaah! Wha-what is this?! What is this thing?!"
"Monster! It's a monster!"
"Why! Why do you have to bully an old man like me?! Don't you even know such simple principles as respecting the elderly and caring for the young?!"
"Save me! Sa—urk!"
"Urk!"
Accompanied by the crisp sounds of flesh tearing and bones breaking, the commotion in the alley quickly subsided.
Everything once again returned to silence.
Only the sound of an old man weeping remained, along with the strange noise of something seemingly being chewed.
"Oh my~ How bloody indeed~ Old friend, I truly admire that you can still eat in this kind of place..."
In the next instant, accompanied by this teasing voice, two completely different footsteps simultaneously sounded in the alley.
"Speaking of which, I clearly remember I previously gave you all strict requirements that you absolutely cannot randomly harm people in city districts like this, right?
Old friend, could it be you've forgotten my words?"
"Eek!!"
Hearing that familiar smiling voice, Hantengu's hair instantly stood on end. Without even a second of hesitation, without raising his head, he immediately turned to flee!
However, if even Upper Rank Three couldn't escape this demonic grasp, how could he, Upper Rank Four, possibly break free?
In an instant, Mitsuba's hand instantly landed on the shoulder of the madly running Hantengu, pulling the entire person back with one tug.
Falling heavily to the ground, looking up at the smiling faces of Mitsuba and Doma above him, Hantengu was nearly scared to death.
"Eek! Don't kill me! Miss Mitsuba, please don't kill me! They all attacked first! I was forced to defend myself! You can't blame me!"
"Don't be nervous, old friend. I never said I would kill you."
"Yes yes, the Holy Maiden has been standing outside for quite a while now. If she were truly dissatisfied with Lord Hantengu's behavior, she would have definitely come in to stop you long ago."
The two surrounded Hantengu in the middle of the alley, one in front and one behind, exactly like two bullies picking on a vulnerable old man.
Carefully avoiding the shattered flesh and blood on the ground, Mitsuba stepped forward and squatted down to Hantengu, asking with a smile:
"Old friend, let me ask you—are you interested in acting?"
"A-acting?"
"Like playing the demon who gets killed by demon slayers or something..."
"Eek! Save me! Miss Mitsuba definitely still wants to kill this old man! My lord, please come quickly and save me~"
Letting out another piercing scream, Hantengu scrambled and crawled through the gap beside Doma, disappearing in a flash at the end of the alley.
"As expected of Lord Hantengu who specializes in escaping—he really runs fast!"
Blinking his eyes, Doma turned back to look at Mitsuba and asked with a smile:
"Holy Maiden, shall we catch him again?"
"There's no need. Even if we catch him back, he probably won't be of much use..."
Standing up, Mitsuba lightly sighed.
"My old friend is as timid as a mouse. Every time he sees me, it's like he's seen a plague god. His emotions are also so unstable—no matter how you think about it, he's not suitable to cooperate with us in acting..."
"Indeed..."
The two walked together to the street outside. Doma asked curiously:
"Speaking of which, I've always been very curious—why does Lord Hantengu fear Holy Maiden so much?"
"Actually, it's nothing much. Just that when he was still human, I taught him a few lessons. Probably etched that fear into his bones..."
"Oh! To have known Holy Maiden during his human period, and to have been personally disciplined by Holy Maiden—Lord Hantengu is truly blessed!"
"Sir Doma, if you say such perverted words again, I'll beat you to death right now."
Walking side by side on the street, their gazes suddenly caught sight of that extremely conspicuous movie preview poster for Ume's new film on a distant building rooftop. Doma subconsciously asked:
"Holy Maiden, shall we go ask Ume's opinion?"
Among the current Upper Rank demons, only this younger sister of Gyutaro remained that the two of them hadn't asked yet.
But the moment this question left his mouth, Doma himself fell silent.
Immediately after, Mitsuba beside him also fell silent.
"Child labor is probably not a good idea..."
"Indeed..."
Recalling Ume's innocent,呆萌(ditzy), somewhat not-too-bright appearance, the two tacitly excluded her at the same time.
"In that case, we can only consider the Lower Rank demons?"
Sitting on a bench by the roadside together with Mitsuba, Doma's gaze once again landed on that movie promotional poster for Ume on the building rooftop.
To be precise, it fell on the woman with the kind smile standing behind Ume in the poster.
The woman had long, lustrous black hair, a gentle and lovely smile, and a small sharp fang at the corner of her mouth—very beautiful.
The woman's name was Yae. Judging from her position on the poster, she was undoubtedly the second female lead of this film.
From the perspective of human society, Yae was a suddenly risen popular actress in recent years, having participated in many film productions, most of which were collaborations with Ume.
But among the Twelve Kizuki, she had another name—
Lower Rank One: Ubume.
Yae was Ubume's name when she was human.
She originally came from a wealthy family and inherited a large fortune after her parents' death. However, due to marrying a husband with an abusive personality, she long suffered domestic violence.
This point was quite similar to Nakime's life trajectory.
But unlike Nakime, Ubume did not develop a rejection psychology toward her husband's domestic violence.
On the contrary, she actually quite... enjoyed her husband's this kind of behavior?
Yes, Ubume was a natural masochist.
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This story has ended in chapter 315, you can read on patreon.com/dzeref887 for faster access or wait until August to read on WebNovel until the story ends.