Jiaguo’s controversial demonic rehabilitation center was, in essence, a prison. Starting life as an innocuous medical pavilion for academy students to treat any injuries or illnesses they incurred in the course of their cultivation, it had undergone extensive modifications since being reclaimed from the demonic invaders.

When the Demon Sovereign Longyan’s enclave fell, some of the demons had enough presence of mind to surrender instead of fighting to the last. In the wake of the war, those demons had to go somewhere, and while it wasn’t safe to unleash them on the general public, Yoshika didn’t feel right simply executing them, either. Instead, she’d taken up a task that most of the continent considered impossible—rehabilitation.

There were a lot of hurdles involved. For one, the classification of what was or was not a demon was itself the subject of scholarly debate. Throwing out most of the fringe opinions, Jiaguo officially split demons into two categories—nascent and fallen. A nascent demon was someone who had suffered a deviation and solidified the rampant essence into a solid core.

Nascent demons had a lot of variety and were prone to violent mood swings that heavily exaggerated whatever negative emotions—or ‘heart demons’ as Qin called them—had triggered the deviation in the first place. Eui had once been a nascent demon, and on several occasions she’d been tempted by the inherent hunger that accompanied a demonic core—to consume souls and trigger the demonic transformation.

Those who succumbed to that hunger were ‘fallen’ demons. Fallen demons underwent physical and psychological transformations that were, as far as anyone could tell, irreversible. The demonic core took over to turn them into living embodiments of the emotions that had formed them.

This was why Qin called them ‘heart demons.’ The demonic transformation, as they saw it, was the inner demon clawing its way to the surface and possessing the body, replacing the person they had once been with a monstrous facsimile.

As a general rule, fallen demons were cruel and self-serving, with self-preservation being the only thing that trumped their nearly uncontrollable desire to continue feeding their cores. From there, one of two things typically happened—either a demon’s mind degenerated entirely as they slowly turned into mindless monsters, or they accepted their fate and leaned into their desires to become monsters of another, more dangerous sort.

Yoshika’s goal was to forge a third path—one where even after succumbing to their negativity, a demon could tap into the memories of who they once were, control their impulses, and gradually develop the skill and discipline necessary to reintegrate with society. That was what the rehabilitation center sought to achieve.

Qin Xiang regarded the facility with a critical eye, noting the barred windows and fortified walls separating the prison from the rest of the city.

“Have you actually had any successes?”

Lee Jia’s ears drooped and her tail curled inwards.

“That depends on how you define success. If it’s just demons who’ve been able to freely rejoin society, then...four.”

“That’s not very many given how long you’ve been trying.”

“It’s a slow process, but we’ve had promising results.”

Qin Ling smiled and nodded.

“It’s certainly more than I expected! I’ve never heard of any demons successfully recovering.”

Her sister wasn’t so convinced.

“Who exactly are the four?”

Jia winced—that was exactly the question she’d been hoping to avoid. She was already fudging the numbers a little just to get that far.

“Beishang, our immigration officer. Yang Qiu, who is currently leading our most promising group of potential graduates in an experimental halfway program. And uh...ahem, An Eui, who was only a nascent demon.”

“My understanding is that your...partner was prevented from falling by the unique bond you share with her. That has nothing to do with your little program, and isn’t replicable. The others?”

“Beishang, if I’m being entirely honest, was never a threat to anybody. The negative emotion that feeds her core is only harmful to herself, and if we left her to her own devices she’d probably just wither away. Yang Qiu, however, is an abject success. She had her core bound to us for about a year while she developed the skills to manage on her own.”

Princess Ling cocked her head.

“Demonic binding is considered a demonic technique itself. Is your plan to individually bind each demon until they’re domesticated?”

Jia grimaced.

“I don’t really like the way you put that, but no. That’s not practical or sustainable. They need to develop the skills on their own.”

Qin Xiang shook her head.

“Then Yang Qiu is no success at all. The fourth?”

A musical, lilting voice interjected from nearby.

“Why, that would be me, darling!”

Jianmo emerged from the building, wearing a masculine form and little else save for a pair of cotton pants to protect his modesty—not that he had any. In his masculine persona, he was tall and muscular, without any excess bulk. His demonic core shone red, nestled into his chest just below the collarbone and matching the glow of his eyes. His lavender hair was cut short and slicked back away from the glossy black horn in the center of his forehead.

“Though I never needed any rehabilitation in the first place. I’ve always been perfect, isn’t that right, girls?”

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Qin Xiang scowled at the demon, and for the first time since meeting them, Jia felt a wave of genuine resentment from the twins.

“You?! You’re supposed to be dead!”

Ling pursed her lips.

“I see you’ve escaped our father’s seal once again, Jianmo. I’m not sure rampaging through the continent on an unstoppable killing spree is what I would call ‘perfect.’”

Jianmo waved her off.

“Oh, just a minor tantrum, dear. The little timeout your daddy gave me was just the thing to cool my head. But look at you two! All grown up, eh? How the time flies when you’re trapped in a featureless cave with nothing to do.”

Jia looked between Jianmo and the twins, surprised.

“Wait, you already know each other?”

Qin Xiang pointed an accusing finger at the demon.

“This monster tore through half the empire and nearly killed us before father intervened.”

Jianmo chuckled.

“Don’t forget the dragons! That upstart is way too weak to handle me on his own—and so were you two!”

“He needed no assistance last time, did he? And weakened as you are, I think we’d suffice.”

“Well, you’ve got me there. I might have underestimated just how long ten thousand years actually is—you’ve all gotten so much stronger so fast! I don’t hate how rushed you mortals are.”

Jia cleared her throat awkwardly.

“Please don’t start a fight. Jianmo is the warden here while Yang Qiu is away in New Kasuga, and he’s been very helpful in the rehabilitation efforts, since he’s got more experience with demonic cores than anyone else.”

He laughed.

“I don’t hate that confidence, but I think Longyan probably has me beat there.”

“I meant in our world, and the fact that the literal Divine Demon Lord is the only one you think you’re second to only proves my point.”

Qin Xiang shook her head.

“You’ve been deceived. Jianmo may seem docile now, but he is an ancient evil with boundless patience. It’s only a matter of time before he destroys everything you’ve tried to build.”

Jianmo put a hand to his chest and feigned indignity.

“Docile?! My dear, I am nobody’s bottom—unless you ask nicely, of course.”

He winked playfully, which only stoked Qin Xiang’s anger further, forcing Jia to intervene before things could escalate further.

“I appreciate the warning, but Jianmo has not given me any reason to distrust him. You met him a long time ago, and while he’d never admit it, the years have changed him too.”

The twins backed off, but Qin Xiang huffed in frustration.

“That’s your mistake to make, I suppose. You’ve been warned.”

Qin Ling gave Jia a strained smile.

“Why don’t you show us the rest of the facility?”

Jia nodded.

“Sure. Jianmo, what are the residents up to right now?”

“They’ll be in the courtyard socializing. Want to go check up on them?”

“Yes, please.”

He led the three of them through the building, where the various treatment rooms of the medical pavilion had been repurposed into prison cells. Qin Ling glanced around curiously, taking note of the rooms that were still occupied.

“I thought you said they’d be outside.”

Jianmo chuckled.

“Leisure time is a privilege that must be earned. You have to be careful with demons, they’ll take even the slightest kindness for granted if you allow it. These naughty ones were caught misbehaving, so they stay in their cells.”

Qin Xiang gave Jia a pointed look.

“Indeed.”

She ignored it as they made their way to the open-air courtyard, where a few dozen demons were enjoying their free time. Some took advantage of a small fighting ring to spar with each other, while others just sat in quiet meditation or played games of chance and strategy with each other.

Qin Xiang furrowed her brows as she took in the sight. A few demons glanced over at them nervously, no doubt sensing the raw power of Yoshika and the twins, but they quickly returned to their own business.

“It’s surprisingly quiet. I thought there would be more of them.”

Jia shrugged.

“New residents are mercifully rare, and most of the original group has graduated out to the next stage of the rehabilitation process. These are just the tougher cases. Some choose to stay, while others haven’t been able to meet Yang Qiu’s standards for graduation.”

“Yang Qiu’s standards? You let another demon choose which demons to release?”

“She knows better than anyone else what it takes. And as you can see, she’s very strict—these are, by definition, the least well-behaved of our demonic prisoners.”

Qin Ling gave the demons an appraising look.

“I think that I’d very much like to meet this Yang Qiu person. I’ve never seen any demons act so orderly. I can sense that your domain is supporting them, but even so I must admit that this is quite remarkable.”

“We can head to New Kasuga next, if you like—though I’d like to take a small detour to Urayama, first.”

“What’s in Urayama?”

Jia shook her head.

“Not what, who. I can’t take all the credit for our rehabilitation efforts when all I did was come up with the idea. Yang Qiu is the one who does most of the work, and I’d like to introduce you to the architect of the whole thing.”

Jianmo laughed.

“Oh, that sounds like fun! Can I come too? I really want to see how these two react to Lady Tennin.”

“You need to stay here and do your job.”

He snapped his fingers and a second, more feminine Jianmo formed next to him, her long purple hair cascading down her shoulders and all the way down past her hips. Mercifully, she wore an actual dress, though it still showed a scandalous amount of skin.

Jia frowned at Jianmo’s avatar.

“You’re way too frivolous with your avatars.”

She laughed and ruffled Jia’s hair.

“I learned it from you, darling! He can stay here with the sword, while I join you for your little outing.”

“Eui’s going to make you pay for that later. Your Highnesses, it’s up to you—I know you don’t like her, so if you prefer to, we can leave Jianmo behind.”

Princess Ling shrugged.

“Better to have it where we can see it. If it annoys us we can just destroy the avatar without offending anybody.”

Jianmo’s avatar pouted.

“Aw, don’t be like that, honey. These take a lot of effort to make, you know. And Yoshika says avatars are still people, so if you kill me that’s murder.”

Jia pinched the bridge of her nose. She knew introducing Jianmo to the princesses was a bad idea.

“Stop antagonizing them, Jianmo!”

“Oh, if you insist. Spoilsport!”

She sighed and began to usher the princesses out. It was going to take a miracle to avoid offending the twins at the rate the tour was going, and with Jianmo and Yang Qiu involved, she was going to need Lady Tennin’s magic touch more than ever.