When he first faced off against Ogata, Ichijun could clearly recognize that Ogata didn't have much experience fighting enemies with long weapons.
Whether it's parrying an attack with a long weapon or dodging an attack with a long weapon, it's all very awkward.
However, as the battle continued, Ishun felt more and more clearly that Ogata was improving at an extremely fast speed.
Whether it was the way to parry his slashes or the timing to dodge his attacks, Ogata became more and more adept at it.
As a result, Ogata was able to get close to Ichijun more frequently.
From being unable to even get close to him at the beginning, to now being able to frequently rush in front of Ichijun and unleashing several attacks on him that were enough to injure him, this speed of progress made even Ichijun feel scared.
Ichijun had a terrible thought for no reason: If the fight continues like this, if Ogata gets used to fighting with people holding long weapons, and if Ogata is unable to advance like this, the situation of the battle may slowly change.
Narugata has the upper hand...
Isumi, whose brain had been occupied by this thought, no longer dared to have any contempt for Ogata, and used all his strength to exchange offense and defense with Ogata.
After a series of fights, the two gradually fought from a spacious room on the third floor to a narrow corridor outside the room.
In such a narrow corridor, using the big opening and closing moves is courting death.
Therefore, after entering this narrow corridor, Issun quickly changed his tactics.
Ichijun put away his big naginata, used the naginata as a spear, and launched a series of non-stop thrusts at Ogata.
Taking a deep breath, Ogata stared closely at Ichijun's movements in front of him, using stepping steps to dodge Ichijun's thrusts one by one.
Not only the slashes, Issun's thrusts are also equally powerful.
Ogata didn't dare to have any carelessness, he didn't even dare to blink his eyes and couldn't help but slow down his breathing.
While dodging every thrust from Ishun, Ogata narrowed his eyes slightly, looking for an opportunity to launch a counterattack.
The position of each thrust of Ichijun is different, some positions are higher and some positions are lower.
Ogata's eyes suddenly emitted a fascinating cold light at a certain moment.
Because the thrust Isshin launched was at a very low position.
In terms of height, it's probably only at the same level as Ogata's waist.
Finally, when the time came to counterattack, Ogata raised his right foot without any hesitation and stepped on the naginata blade that Ishun had just stabbed out before he could retract it.
Ogata did not directly step on the opponent's weapon like he did when he faced off with Zorai just now.
Instead, after stepping on Ichijun's naginata blade with his right foot, he exerted force with his right foot, used Ichijun's naginata blade as a pedal, and jumped towards Ichijun in one breath.
Isjun, who had not expected that Ogata would use his naginata as a springboard to jump over, looked horrified and hurriedly retreated, trying to avoid Ogata's sudden attack.
laugh!
Although Ichijun's reaction was fast enough, his retreat speed was also fast enough.
However, because the distance between the two was not far, Ogata, who jumped directly towards him, was too fast. Even though he had retreated, Ogata's blade still hit him.
The sound of a sharp blade cutting through flesh was heard.
The blade of Ogata's knife made a gash in Ichijun's chest.
Unfortunately, because Ichijun took a step back in time, only the tip of the knife hit Ichijun.
The wound left on Yichun's chest was still too shallow. Although the skin on Yichun's chest was successfully cut open and a large amount of blood spurted out from the wound on Yichun's chest, it did not cause much damage to Yichun.
of killing.
After taking a few steps back and putting a distance away from Ogata that allowed him to feel safe, Isjun dared to glance down and glanced at his wound, which was constantly bleeding out.
Looking at the wound on his chest, Issun's face darkened instantly.
Although the wound on the chest was not fatal, the impact it had on Issun was extremely huge.
Because this means that Ogata can already hurt him...
Thinking of Ogata's terrifying progress speed, cold hairs began to stand up uncontrollably from everywhere on Ishun's body.
"If you have the guts, come with me!"
Knowing that it would be difficult to maximize the power of his large naginata in such a narrow corridor, Ichijun roared like this, pushed open the paper sliding door of the next room, and rushed into the next room.
Ogata was not even afraid of Ichijun's behavior of forcibly changing the fighting venue to one that was favorable to him. He followed Ichijun without any hesitation and rushed into the room in a flash.
The space in this room is not small, just enough for Ichijun to unleash the full power of the large naginata in his palm.
The relatively spacious space is also very conducive for Ogata to dodge.
After forcefully catching Ichijun's "gyro", Ogata deliberately avoided any collision with Ichijun's large naginata.
Under Ogata's deliberate protection, the two knives in Ogata's palms that had long been covered with gaps have managed to maintain their shape until now.
As soon as the two people rushed into the room, almost everything that could be broken in the room was broken into pieces within a few breaths.
Either Ogata accidentally broke a screen placed in the corner of the room when he was dodging Issun's attack.
Or they were directly chopped into pieces by swinging the large naginata in the palm of the hand, such as the small table placed by the window and the vase on this small table.
The battlefield between the two of them unknowingly shifted to the next room.
The room the two were originally in was connected to the room next door, and there was only a thin paper sliding door separating the two rooms.
Be it Ogata or Isjun, every nerve in the body was tense at this moment.
Even the frequency of each other's breathing and blinking has unconsciously slowed down.
The two of them, who had gone all out, were staring at each other closely.
At this time, both of them had the same idea in their minds: kill the guy in front of them!
However, after breaking through the paper sliding door that separated the two rooms and ducking into the next room, a strange sound that did not match the chilling atmosphere surrounding them suddenly reached their ears.
This strange sound attracted the attention of both Ogata and Ishun, causing the tense aura on both of them to break at the same time.
After the two of them followed the sound and turned their gaze, they finally figured out what was making the strange sound.
"Child?" Ogata couldn't help but exclaimed.
The sound that attracted the attention of Ogata and Isjun just now was a low sob.
The person who made this sobbing sound was a child who was wrapping himself tightly in a quilt that he found from nowhere, with only half of his face exposed, hiding in the corner of the room.
From the half of the child's face exposed from the quilt, it is not difficult to tell that she is a little girl, about 7 or 8 years old.
When Ogata and Isumi entered the room, the little girl stared at them with horrified eyes.
Although she had held it back, she still couldn't help but let out a low sob filled with fear.
Looking at the little girl hiding in the corner of the room, Ogata immediately deduced what probably happened.
Probably because Ishun suddenly attacked the third floor and caused panic among the villagers hiding on the third floor, the little girl was confused by the suddenly panicked villagers and did not escape from the third floor with the villagers in time.
By the time he came to his senses and was about to leave, Atachi had already made contact with Issun.
The clanging sound of fighting outside the room scared the little girl away from going out, so she simply hid in the room.
Ogata didn't know whether his reasoning was correct, but Ogata felt that even if it wasn't completely correct, it shouldn't be too far off.
After seeing this little girl, Ishun, like Ogata, both looked surprised at first.
But the look of astonishment only stayed on Yijun for a moment.
After a moment, a ferocious smile appeared on Ishun's face.
"It's a child... I like children the most."
"The feeling of a knife cutting against a child is the best."
"I happen to be upset right now, please vent your anger on me!"
After saying that, Ishun swung the big naginata in his hand and slashed at the little girl!
There was a little distance between Yichun and the little girl.
But this distance was nothing to Ishun, who had unusually long arms and held a large naginata.
With just a wave of his arm, he could easily kill the little girl.
Issumi was not worried that Ogata on the opposite side would attack him while he was attacking the little girl.
He had already estimated the distance between him and Ogata, as well as the distance between him and the little girl, and Ogata had no time to do so.
Even if Ogata attacked him while he was attacking the little girl, he would definitely be able to kill the little girl before Ogata's knife could hit him, and then calmly use the knife to kill him.
Take it back to resist Ogata's attack.
The scene of a sharp blade cutting through the air and heading straight for one's head would make adults weak in fear, let alone a little girl who is only 7 or 8 years old.
The little girl was so frightened that she screamed and tightened the thin quilt around her body.
It is as if this thin quilt is the safest fortress, and you will not encounter any danger as long as you hide in it.
Judging from Issun's ability, he only needed half a breath to cut the little girl in half.
However, before he could even take a breath, a loud noise suddenly exploded.
When Ishun slashed at the little girl with his sword, Ogata started to move almost at the same time.
Ogata, like Ichijun, also saw that it was useless to attack Ichijun now. Due to the distance, Ichijun could definitely kill the little girl before his knife could hit him.
Then continue to fight with him.
So Ogata's goal was never on Ichijun from beginning to end.
Ogata's target was in front of the little girl.
After stopping between Ishun and the little girl as fast as he could, Ogata raised the two swords in his hands and faced Ishun's big naginata.
The loud noise just now was the sound of Ogata using his double swords to spread their blades and forcibly intercept Ichijun's large naginata.
Because of Ogata's block, Ishun's large naginata was successfully deflected.
But at the same time, Ogata also paid the price of forcibly blocking Ishun's slash.
His wakizashi, which was the most severely damaged, finally broke into two pieces due to the overwhelming load.
However, Ogata showed no expression at all towards the unfortunately scrapped wakizashi in his hand.
Without even frowning, he casually threw aside the wakizashi with only the handle and a small half of the blade remaining.
With this calm look, it seemed as if the knife that was broken was not his own but someone else's.
It was as if the rupture of the wakizashi did not hinder his subsequent battle.
After holding the only remaining sword with both hands, Ogata said to the little girl behind him who was looking at him with complex eyes mixed with surprise, curiosity and other emotions without looking back:
"Kid, when you go out from here, turn left and keep walking until you see a staircase. Quickly follow the stairs to the floor below."
Because the little girl had not yet recovered from the series of shocks just now, even after Ogata finished speaking, she still looked dumb and did not take any action.
"Move quickly!" Ogata yelled at the little girl behind him in an impatient tone, "If you don't do what I say quickly, I will chop you off!"
After being so nakedly threatened by Ogata, the little girl finally came to her senses due to fright.
Probably frightened by what Ogata said just now, the little girl tightened the quilt around her and ran out of the room quickly while crying.
Issun didn't chase the girl.
Instead, he looked at Ogata with doubtful eyes.
"You are really a strange person."
"Is that girl a relative of yours? In order to save her, he did not hesitate to let his knife become scrapped."
"No." Ogata responded casually, "That girl is not a relative of mine, and I don't know her at all."
Hearing Ogata's words, the doubt on Ishun's face became more intense.
"I feel more and more weird about you..."
"You, a guy with blood on your hands, still go out to save people?"
"You have killed countless people like me. Have you never experienced the pleasure of killing?"
Speaking of this, every muscle on Ichun's face tensed up, and he smiled ferociously.
"When you kill human beings...especially the old, weak, women and children who are defenseless and powerless, the feeling of being able to bully the weak is as intoxicating to me as fine wine."
"As an executioner who has killed countless people, haven't you ever experienced this kind of pleasure?"
"Shut up." Ogata's tone was neither salty nor light, "Don't confuse me with you."
"I have never felt that killing people is such a happy thing."
"As you said, my hands are stained with blood."
"I can't even remember how many people died at my hands. How many families were broken because of me."
"When I cut that thief Matsudaira Gennai into pieces, I was endlessly hunted and killed by others, which became my fate for the rest of my life."
"I am destined to keep killing people in this life, and the blood on my hands will be stained more and more."
"but"
Speaking of this, Ogata's eyes gradually shot out with determination, and there seemed to be flames burning in his pupils.
"Even though killing is a fate I cannot escape, I will never give up my compassion at any time."