Rin hid on her side of the izakaya’s table as Keiko played the flirt on the other. Their mission for the night to extract information. Keiko had targeted the young men from across the establishment, though they likely fancied themselves the predators. Slurring his words, one of them whispered tender promises into her ear.

Rin’s job was to protect her sister. She had one eye on the okonomiyaki pancake frying on the griddle in the middle of the table and the other on the hand reaching up Keiko’s thigh. If it roamed any further… She stopped herself from smacking him with the hot spatula. Unfortunately, since their target was a prostitute, these lechers could be valuable. Rin looked out of the window into the red-light district. Degenerates roamed the streets in droves, sniffing around for pussy like dogs looking for table scraps.

Rin pinned the scum at their table as university students with rich parents. Thick cologne on their tailored yukata stung her nostrils. All of it shiny packaging which contained turds.

Poor Keiko had to take the lead role. She proved time and time again to be the more sought-after of the two sisters, a trend formed well before Rin’s scarring. Keiko’s love for fashion probably played a small part. Tonight’s cat-paw print yukata seemed to be hit with the guys. Rin couldn’t care less about dolling up to please men. She should’ve thanked that bastard Drake for her scarred face. Now, she could pass the social engineering off to Keiko without argument.

Rin powdered her scarred cheek. Her real intent was making sure the short, tanto blade in her purse wasn't buried under anything, available to grab at a moment’s notice in case the lechers tried anything funny.

Keiko laughed at jokes too stupid for Rin’s brain to even process. Her sister’s white teeth beamed despite the perverts’ treatment: putting their arms around her, and nudging up close to her breasts. Though she was acting, Keiko seemed in her element. Did she actually like this type of thing? She’d have to lecture her sister later.

“Hey, I think this one’s done,” one of the young men said to Rin, finally taking notice of her. He reached with his chopsticks and pulled the browned okonomiyaki onto a plate.

Her hawkish gaze had been on the lechers for so long, she had forgotten about the food.

The man slid over to sit beside Rin and draped his sweaty arm around her. She wanted to puke. “You’ve been quiet. What’s wrong?”

“H-h-huh? I’m okay.”

“My sister is just shy,” Keiko butted in. “Why don’t we ask the server for another round of...what was it called again?”

Perhaps it was the overcooked seafood, but watching Keiko act the fool turned Rin’s stomach. There was no denying the persona’s effectiveness, though. She was like a fresh, warm carcass to this kettle of circling vultures.

After everyone apart from Rin became well lubricated from whiskey, cognac, and other expensive, foreign alcohols, they spilled out into the streets of Kyoto. At night, the Gion district bustled with action. Every street corner, noodle stand, and tactile store in the area had a story to tell: ‘The Emperor ate a bowl of zaru soba at this very stand,’ ‘Here’s the lamp post Nobunaga stubbed his toe on.’ The district stayed open long into the evening, with a plethora of lanterns illuminating every cobblestone. Kami-machi was likely pitch-black at the moment. It was no wonder that bastard Drake preferred the countryside.

The white and orange Gion temple had an ongoing kabuki festival. City folk dressed in their best designs were lined up around the corner to get skewers of takoyaki octopus with sweet sauce and bonito flakes.

The Twin Dragons and their admirers took a detour through a quiet park. Rin went on high alert, hand on her purse. If these lechers were going to try something funny, now was their chance. The twins had armed themselves lightly for reconnaissance, only taking Rin’s short blade and Keiko’s revolvers. Keiko said they should avoid conflict for the time being, even if they did spot the vampiress. Rin valued her opinion, but didn’t know how much more ‘reconnaissance’ she could handle.

“So where is this place we’re going?” Keiko asked.

One of the men put a finger to her lips. “It’s a surprise.”

“Somewhere fun,” the holding Rin’s arm added, giggling. His cock already stood half erect. Hopefully, the horndog meant a brothel. Someone in this part of town had to know Sakura.

A group of ten or so men approached. They had knotted, frizzy hair and wore their jinbei half off, exposing their shoulders and hairy nipples.

Rin’s admirer whispered in her ear. "Check these guys out. Someone's had a fun night."

At first, Rin took them as ordinary drunkards as well, but the men salivated copiously while glaring directly at the sisters as if hypnotized. This was more than the effects of a few cups of sake. As the drooling men shuffled closer, Rin and Keiko exchanged worried glances. Keiko nodded, and both dragons reached into their purses for weapons. Most of the young men with them jumped back.

However, Rin’s guy and his penis prodded forwards, towards the lunatics. "Hey, what are you-- "

“KILL! KILL!” the madmen chanted, and one of them tackled the brave horndog. The drooling man bit into Rin’s suitor like an animal, torquing his head to tear the flesh off of his screaming victim’s cheek.

A few of the sisters’ admirers scurried away from the erupting fray and ran towards the main streets hollering for help. But the maniacs piled on them, before they could escape, trapping them in a chaotic dogpile. The other attackers circled around the dragons. Rin stood back to back with Keiko.

"What are they?" her sister whispered. “Are they kyuuketsuki?”

"They've turned, alright."

"They seem human, though."

It was true. Their canines weren’t elongated, and their eyes didn't have enlarged pupils, the telltale signs of a bloodsucker.

Rin looked at her blade’s reflection. The madmen had them completely surrounded. “No time for guessing games. Open fire!"

“How about some Kiryuu-style fireworks?”

Behind Rin, the steady bang, bang, bang of Keiko's specially made, anti-vampire flash rounds deafened both her and, likely, the targets.

Rin pushed off her sister’s backside and flew at one of the attackers, a wrinkled, old man. With so many enemies, stabs to the body weren’t good. If her blade got stuck, she was dead.

Rin stepped to the side and swung horizontally, slicing the geezer's eyes open. Blood and squishy innards that looked like boiled oats oozed out. Despite the horrific injury, the old man stayed on his feet and lunged at her.

"Kill the dragons!" the deranged geezer wheezed as he grasped the folds of her yukata, ripping it open and exposing one of her breasts to the warm air.

The lunatic opened his maw, aiming his rotting, yellow-brown teeth at her jugular. He had serious strength for an old fellow, but Rin was running on pure adrenaline and in a monstrous state herself. She clenched his wispy, grey hair in her fist and yanked his head back, so he couldn't bite. Mindless, he continued chomping at the air. With a fierce warcry, Rin drove the tanto through the underside of his chin up into his brain. Finally, his grip released and his bony legs buckled.

Two tattooed, muscular lunatics, probably yakuza, gave chase to Keiko. The flash rounds had little effect on the gangsters, besides making them shield their eyes. Damn, maybe they weren’t vampires? Keiko ran for her life.

Rin darted in front of her sister and cut off the yakuza's pursuit. "Switch to lead! I'll cover you!"

She knew Keiko needed about ten seconds to reload each weapon. In a spinning motion, she slashed one man's abdomen open, grabbed the other by his ponytail, and swung him around. The short-haired yakuza grabbed his exposed intestines and looked at them quizzically before Rin decapitated him with her next strike.

The ponytailed madman crouched, smiling with his tongue dangling out of his mouth, like a dog on a hot day. “Kirr da dwagons! Kirr da dwagons!”

His happy expression didn't change, even when a bullet from Keiko's Smith & Wesson hit him between the eyes. Blood and brain tissue sprayed from the back of his head as his limp body fell into the grass.

The dogpile of drooling madmen who had enveloped the sisters' ill-fated admirers had ripped the young men apart and strewn detached limbs and organs around the park. Unidentifiable strands of muscles and chunks of organs hung off tree branches and stuck themselves in the brambles of bushes. The lunatics salivated even more than before, covered in their victims’ blood and smiling ear to ear.

Keiko fixed her guns on the crazed mob. "What the hell is wrong with them?"

"I don’t know but they’re disgusting," Rin muttered, and fixed her yukata to cover herself. "Finish them off, nee-san."

With a rapid burst, Keiko emptied her chambers into the crowd, fanning revolvers at each bloody monstrosity in front of her. When Rising Dragon's six-shooters fell silent, only one madman remained standing, a handsome, wavy-haired young man with a hole through his chest. He clutched at his gaping wound, choking on blood. Keiko stood over him, slid another bullet into the chamber, and pointed her pistol at his forehead, aiming through teary eyes.

He swallowed his saliva and looked at the twins with pleading eyes. "Muh-- miss...miss..." He seemed to be coming out of his hypnosis and grabbed Keiko’s wrist. “Help.”

"What’s wrong with you?" Keiko asked him softly. “Who put you up to this?”

"Shoot him already," Rin barked. “The police are on their way.”

"Wait, he's trying to say something!"

Rin pulled her sister away. The man only had enough fight left to draw one breath and speak his last.

"Car...mi...lla.."