"Maybe because I came to know you first," Mame-chan said. "I knew you before I learned that you were a demon, so it was only something else to know about you," she added slowly, thoughtfully. "And, in this world now, a geisha is as strange as a samurai. We are both from a time remembered, are we not?"

"Indeed," Yukimura said, amusement rippling gently through his voice. I know you do, but sometimes the pain is too loud to remember, he added gently. Do not be ashamed, he added, brushing a mental kiss along Kuronue's lips.