Since the Edo period, Osaka had been Japan's greatest commercial hub, a city known as the Kitchen of the Nation. By the Taisho era, with the tide of industrialization in full swing, Osaka had transformed from a traditional center for rice and cotton textiles into a modern metropolis where heavy and light industry flourished side by side.
Along the banks of the Yodo River, factory chimneys spewed black smoke day and night. At the harbor, the horns of ferries scattered flocks of gulls into the sky.
The last Hanshin train of the night tore through the darkness as crowds surged through the station—men in suits, women in Victorian hats, and… a beautiful woman in a dark blue skirt.
Among all those sharply modern urban elites, her bearing seemed almost antique, like a classical beauty who had stepped out of a court painting. Her crimson haori hinted at elegance and rank; her pinned-up hair suggested she might already have a household of her own. Yet the red-sheathed sword at her side made all those otherwise harmonious details feel strangely out of place.
Though the woman's eyes were closed, she did not move like a blind person. She slipped precisely through the tide of people and came to a stop at one corner of the platform.
A tall man in a light gray kimono had already been waiting there. The moment he saw Sui arrive, he bowed.
"Lady Sui. My name is Fujiwara Gentetsu, of the House of the Wisteria Crest. I have been sent to receive you."
The instant Fujiwara laid eyes on Sui, a flicker of amazement flashed through his gaze. He knew the Demon Slayer Corps had many young members, but girls with a presence like hers were rare. Even in Osaka—the famed Kitchen of the Nation—it would be hard to find a second one like her. He had picked her out from the crowd at first glance.
The swordsman specially dispatched to Osaka by the Master was said to be young, yet already possessed strength not inferior to that of the Hashira—a perfect fit for the tangled and dangerous situation the city currently faced.
Fujiwara led Sui out of the station, using his tall frame to clear a path through the crowd for her as best he could.
Even at this late hour, Osaka remained as busy as ever, a city that never truly slept. There were still many people in the station, and more than a few noticed the girl walking with closed eyes and a sword in hand.
"Coming through, please. Excuse us. Coming through."
The crowd spilled from the station into the street like schools of fish pouring into the sea.
A black automobile glided out from the mouth of the street and came to a stop before Sui. The brass lamp mounted above its roof gleamed brightly. It was like some enormous black beast bowing its head to her as it split the human current apart.
To be honest, even though automobiles had already become fairly common in this era, this was still rather ostentatious.
A neatly dressed driver got out and opened the rear door for Sui.
Only after she had entered the car did the people on the street reluctantly pull their eyes away from the black vehicle.
"Oh my, is she the daughter of some important family?"
"She must be from out of town—Kyoto or Tokyo, maybe. So beautiful. The young ladies of Osaka all dress in Western style now. Where would you ever see such a classical beauty here?"
"I heard the governor of Osaka's son is getting married soon, and the bride is some noble young lady from Tokyo!"
"Really? Could that have been her?"
"This is Kurozaki Yusuke, the son of the governor of Osaka Prefecture."
Inside the car, Fujiwara handed Sui a black-and-white photograph.
"By the way… can you actually see?" he asked cautiously.
"No problem," Sui replied with a nod.
Maintaining Total Concentration Breathing even in its ordinary state, her perception was far more convenient than relying on sight alone. She ran her fingers lightly over the texture of the photograph.
"What happened to him?"
"It's like this." Fujiwara took out another photograph. In it, a young woman in splendid kimono attire was smiling at the camera, one arm looped through Kurozaki Yusuke's. "This is his fiancée, Moriyama Yuko. I hear she's a noble young lady from Tokyo."
"Then her parents must be beside themselves with worry. A girl going missing in another city…" Sui said.
"She came to Osaka without telling them," Fujiwara explained. "She was here for a private rendezvous with Kurozaki Yusuke. That's exactly why the governor is so desperate—he doesn't even dare write to his friends in Tokyo to ask for help. Whatever happens, he wants to find them first."
"Are you certain this was the work of a demon, and not simply a lovers' elopement?"
"There have already been seven or eight cases like this in Osaka—couples disappearing together!" Fujiwara lowered his voice. "On the day they vanished, Kurozaki Yusuke's Ford was discovered at Suminoe Wharf. A laborer heading to work saw it the next morning. He thought someone might still be inside, but soon realized the door was standing open. He recognized it as a car belonging to the governor's household and immediately reported it."
"The investigators searched for three days and three nights without finding a single clue. Kurozaki Yusuke and Miss Moriyama vanished as though the earth had swallowed them whole. But inside the car, everything was perfectly intact. Even the valuables were untouched. The governor was at his wits' end and came to me for help—just today."
That made Sui pause.
"What is it you do exactly?"
"We're detectives," Fujiwara said with a faint smile. "The Houses of the Wisteria Crest in Osaka all operate as detective agencies. To conceal the movements of demons and swordsmen alike, we disguise demon incidents as ordinary murders. The process of tracking down the demon and killing it becomes the process of solving the case."
He spread his hands slightly.
"This is a large city. We need something to serve as a cover. In the mountains, you can simply kill the demon and be done with it. You don't even have to worry about a body."
"Where is that Ford now? There may still be traces of the demon on it," Sui said.
What she also wanted to say was that the car's interior should have been preserved as untouched as possible. After three days, even if a demon really had left behind any trace, it would be faint by now.
"Of course it was kept," Fujiwara said, patting the leather seat beneath them. "This very car is the one."
The corner of Sui's mouth twitched.
"How is it? A governor's car, no less. Not many people can get their hands on this model—it's a rare thing." Fujiwara smiled. "Before you arrived, we already examined it and found something rather interesting."
The black automobile rolled quietly through the suburbs before stopping in front of a grove of wisteria trees.
"We'll have to walk from here," Fujiwara said as he stepped out first and opened the door for Sui. "There's no road through the grove for the car."
The House of the Wisteria Crest stood deep within the wisteria forest. A plainly dressed woman came out to greet them and bowed deeply to Sui.
"Welcome to the House of the Wisteria Crest, Lady Sui."
"This is my wife, Fujiwara Anka," Fujiwara said in introduction.
He nodded to Anka, and she led Sui inside. Once they were seated in a tatami room, Anka produced a glass jar.
Inside it lay a single white scale.
"A snake scale?" Sui asked.
"We found it lodged beneath the car," Fujiwara said as he opened the jar and took the scale out. At once, a stench like rotting fish spilled into the air. "It belongs to a demon."
He held it out carefully.
"Lady Sui… can you tell what sort of demon this came from?"
Join here to read ahead.
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