As soon as the genius showed up, Ogata had tidied up his clothes, put Daishiten and Daizhao on his waist, and Kasumi Nagi, who was full of bullets, packed them in his arms, and then officially set off for Yoshiwara.
Because the genius had just risen not long ago, there were not many pedestrians on the street. Without the obstruction of the crowd, Ogata's journey was very smooth, and he soon arrived at Nippon Tsutsumi.
Yoshihara was built on a river embankment called "Japan Embankment".
Climb up the river embankment, then walk further in, passing through a long road called "Fifty Room Road", and you will reach the gate of Yoshiwara.
Climbing up the Nippon Embankment and entering Ijōgen-dori, Oubon saw the big sign posted next to the entrance to Ijōgen-dō.
When they went to Yoshiwara with A-machi last night, Ogata and A-machi discovered this notice board inserted next to the entrance of Isogen Road, and roughly read what was written on the notice board.
There is actually nothing major written on this sign, it just contains some precautions for entering Yoshiwara.
For example: be careful with fire, except for doctors, no one is allowed to ride horses or sedans in Yoshiwara...
The total length of the fifty-seven paths is about 100 meters.
After walking this 100-meter long road, you can reach the only gate of Yoshihara.
Compared with last night, the Yoshiwara Gate at this moment seemed much deserted.
The Yoshiwara Gate last night was really full of people, like horses and dragons, with people coming to play or do business incessantly.
But now at the Yoshiwara Gate, only a few people are left walking through it.
The officers of the Shirobei Club who were guarding the Yoshiwara Gate all looked listless and had just woken up, yawning non-stop.
It is only natural that Yoshiwara has become so deserted now. After all, no one would come to Yoshiwara to have fun in the early morning.
After quickly passing through the Yoshiwara gate, Ogata turned right and walked straight towards the Shirobei Club established next to the Yoshiwara gate.
"Gui'an." Ogata said to a young official who was guarding the door of the club and holding a long wooden stick in his hand, "I want to work in your club."
After saying that, Ogata nodded towards the "recruitment notice" still posted at the door of the club.
The young official looked Ogata up and down several times:
"We are already full of people responsible for paperwork, and now we are only recruiting people who have good skills and can maintain law and order."
After hearing this reminder from the young official, Ogata nodded:
"I know, that's what I came for."
"That's good." After gently nodding, the young official bowed towards Ogata and said, "Please wait a moment."
After saying that, the young official turned around and entered the club.
It didn't take long for the young man to return to Ogata's field of vision, holding a small stack of paper.
This young official did not return alone.
Behind him were several companions holding long wooden sticks like him.
Ogata glanced at the small pile of paper held in the young official's hand and thought to himself:
——Wanted order...
With just one glance, Ogata recognized what the young officer was holding in his hand.
After all, Ogata is quite familiar with this thing.
Not long after he left the Hirose Domain, he saw a wanted poster with his face on it.
"Your Majesty, please forgive me." The young officer said to Ogata in a very polite tone with a slightly apologetic smile, "We cannot hire fugitive wanted criminals."
"I understand." Ogata smiled, "I can understand."
"Please wait patiently." After saying that, the young official began to quickly flip through the pile of wanted posters in his hand, comparing them to Ogata's face one by one.
Ogata was not worried about this comparison between young officials.
After all, the human skin mask fits perfectly on the face now.
Now from an outsider's perspective, Ogata is just an ordinary person with ordinary features and a simple appearance.
This simple appearance looks more like a farmer than a warrior.
With the help of the human skin mask, Ogata successfully passed the "compare the appearance of wanted criminals" level.
"Okay, no problem." The young officer nodded gently, put away the wanted notice in his hand, then turned sideways and opened the door of the club behind him, "Sir, please come in with me."
The interior of the Shirobei Club is much more spacious than Ogata imagined.
After handing the Daishiten around his waist to his right hand, Ogata followed the young official around the club, and the two finally stopped outside a simple-looking paper sliding door.
"Please wait inside for a moment." The young officer said as he opened the paper sliding door, "I'll go ask the person in charge of our club to come."
"Yes." Ogata smiled and nodded at the young official, "I'm sorry to bother you."
This room should be specially used for entertaining guests. The room is not big or small and must be cleaned cleanly.
Ogata knelt and sat on one side of the only table in the room, placed the Great Buddha on the tatami on the right side, and silently waited for the person in charge to arrive.
I don't know if it was because it was early in the morning and the flow of people in Yoshiwara was relatively small, so the club officials were relatively free. It didn't take long for the paper sliding door of the room to be reopened.
The person who opened the sliding paper door and walked into the room was an old man who was about 50 to 60 years old and wearing the dark blue haori exclusive to the Shirobei Club.
Although he is old, the old man's steps are still solid and powerful, and it can be seen that his body is still strong.
"Gui'an, my name is Kawajiro. I am Bankata of the Shirobei Club."
After the old man sat opposite Ogata, he started a brief greeting with Ogata.
Ogata also immediately bowed and returned the gift to the old man named Kawajiro.
"I am Izumo Ronin, Majima Goro."
After briefly introducing themselves to each other, Kawajiro looked Ogata up and down several times with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Well... you have a good physique." Kawajiro nodded with a smile, "Maintaining law and order in the club is not a simple job."
"After all, there are all kinds of people making trouble in Yoshiwara."
"So if you want to work in our club, you won't be able to do it in a short while."
Ogata immediately understood the implication of Kawajiro's words.
"Do you want me to show my hands?" Ogata asked with a smile, knowingly.
"The assessment is very simple." Kawajiro said, "Just compete with the people in our club."
"I understand." Ogata nodded, "I can start at any time."
"It is Keimon's job to compete with those who come to apply." Kawajiro scratched the white hair on his head, "It's just that he was too busy just now, so he went out on patrol to kill time."
"How long will it take for him to come back?" Ogata raised his eyebrows.
If possible, Ogata would not want to wait in the club.
"I don't know... Daytime is the most leisurely time in our club. After that guy Keemon goes out on patrol in the morning, he will occasionally go to the tea house to drink a few cups of tea before coming back..."
After pondering for a moment, Kawajiro stood up.
"I'll take you to find him directly, so that everyone can save a lot of time. If you wait for him to come back from his leisurely patrol, I don't know how long it will take."
"Huh? Will this bother you?" A small worry appeared on Ogata's face.
Although Ogata very much agreed with Kawajiro's approach of taking the initiative to find Keiemon instead of waiting in the club, he did not want to disturb this man who should be in Shirobei's club because of his own affairs.
The job of an elderly person with a high status.
"It's okay, it's okay." Kawajiro waved his hand as if he had seen through Ogata's thoughts, "As I said just now, this is the most leisurely time in our Shirobei Club."
"I just don't have anything to do on my hands right now."
"I just happened to take this opportunity to take a walk outside."
Seeing that Kawajiro had already said this, Ogata couldn't say anything more to refute him.
After mentioning Daishiten and following Kawajiro out of the club, the air with a faint smell of powder came towards Ogata again.
It's time for the yogis to get off work during the day. The yogis no longer sit in rows behind the fence on the first floor of each yogi house, but the air is still filled with the smell of cosmetics and the delicious fragrance.
Kawajiro seemed to be a little bit tongue-tied. As he and Ogata walked along Nakano-machi towards the depths of Yoshiwara, he kept introducing various basic knowledge of Yoshiwara to Ogata.
However, Ogata already knew the basic knowledge popularized by Kawajiro and Ogata.
For example, there are three levels of Yumeyoya: large, medium, and small. Girls must show their "onagari hand" when entering and exiting Yoshiwara. Ogata has already learned this knowledge from different people.
When they walked all the way to the Shirobei Club behind them and only had a thumb-sized distance left, Ogata and Kawajiro suddenly heard something unusual happening in front of them. They gathered on the avenue in front of them in the currently deserted street.
There are quite a lot of people among them.
Among the people gathered in the front, there were also several officers wearing Shirobei Club uniforms.
"What happened..." Kawajiro muttered and ran forward quickly.
And Ogata followed closely behind.
After running slightly closer to the crowd in front, Kawajiro exclaimed:
"It's Keemon."
After clearing his throat, Kawajiro shouted loudly to the crowd in front:
"Keemon!"
Ogata followed Kawajiro to an uncle in the crowd holding a long wooden stick.
Ogata recognized this uncle.
Yesterday, during the daytime, after the crowd watched Gua Shengxiu beat up the four scumbags who refused to pay after having fun at the entrance of the sushi restaurant, it was this uncle who led the officials from other clubs to arrive late, causing Gua Sheng to make a series of unhappy complaints.
Complaining about Keiemon and the others, why they always arrive at the scene after she has finished fighting with others.
"Keiemon! What's going on with this guy?" After arriving at Keemon's side, Kawajiro hurriedly asked Keemon.
"This guy didn't give me any money after eating and drinking at the teahouse." Keemon quickly replied, "Kawajiro, please step aside first. If you stand here, when a fight breaks out later, you may be implicated."
"Do you need me to call for more reinforcements?" Kawajiro asked next.
"...Yeah. Please."
Kawajiro nodded vigorously, opened his mouth, and was about to say something—
"Um..." Ogata interrupted suddenly at this time, "Kawajiro, you just said that if you want to become an employee of the Shirobei Club who is responsible for maintaining law and order, you must first test your strength, right?"
"Huh?" Kawajiro was stunned for a moment by Ogata's sudden question, and then quickly replied, "That's right, so you wait first, and then let Keiwei wait until he captures the thief.
Come to test you... Hey! You, what are you doing?!"
Before Kawajiro finished speaking, Oburon walked through the thin circle of ronin constructed by Keemon and others to target the ronin eating the Overlord meal, and slowly walked towards the dirty man surrounded by them.
At first glance, you can tell that he is the kind of ronin who eats his last meal but never finishes his next meal.
"Hey!" Keemon's voice sounded from behind Ogata, "What are you doing?"
Ogata turned a deaf ear to Keiemon's somewhat anxious words.
After walking slowly to a position a little distance away from the ronin, he stopped.
"Who are you?! What do you want to do when you come over suddenly?!" Ronin turned the tip of the knife and pointed it at Ogata, his face full of vigilance.
"I didn't want to do anything." Ogata said to the ronin in a calm tone, "I am now anxious to let this man named Keemon test my strength, so can you please put down the sword quickly and capture me without a fight?
? This way everyone can save a lot of time."
"Who would be captured just like that!" Ronin roared, "Aren't you an official of the Shirobei Club?"
"My name is Majima Goro." Ogata said seriously, "I am just a ronin passing through here."
"Since you're not an official, step aside! Otherwise, I'll kill you too!"
Ogata looked at the ronin with a meaningful look and said softly:
"...Didn't you notice?"
"Huh?" Ogata's inexplicable rhetorical question made Ronin, Keiemon and others next to him stunned for a moment.
"What did you find?" Ronin asked.
"Haven't you noticed that you have been standing within my best attack range since just now?"
After saying that, Ogata suddenly raised his right hand and reached towards the Daeshukten on his left waist.
After gripping the hilt, draw the sword out of its sheath.
Ogata did not use Raikiri, the sword-drawing technique of the "Musuga Rado-ryu".
Just an ordinary sword draw.
After all, it is not necessary to use Raikiri to deal with a Ronin of this level.
Cold light leaked from the scabbard of Daishiten, and Ogata aimed at the tang of the sword in Ronin's hand, and used the dragon's tail of Sakakihara's Itto style.
The cold light swept horizontally and accurately hit Ronin's sword, and then directly knocked Ronin's sword away.
This ronin didn't even see Ogata draw his sword clearly, so it was inevitable that the sword in his hand would be chopped off by Ogata's sword.
After slashing the ronin's sword away with his sword, Ogata turned his sword around and put the blade against the ronin's neck.
[Ding! Use Sakakibara Itto-ryu·Dragon Tail to defeat the enemy]
[Acquire 25 personal experience points and 30 experience points for the swordsmanship "Sakakibara Itto-ryu"]
[Currently, my personal level is Sakakibara's Itto-ryu level: 1. Someone who doesn't even know that he is within the enemy's best attack range can't kill me."
After Ogata said these words calmly, the ronoi finally realized something belatedly.
He didn't know whether he was frightened by Ogata's sword that was so fast that he couldn't see it, or by the sharp touch that was continuously transmitted from his neck to his brain. In short, his face was "swish"
After turning pale, his legs went limp and he collapsed on the ground.
Keemon, who was standing behind Ogata, was stunned for a moment, then quickly waved his hand and ordered:
"Quick! Tie this guy up!"
Hearing Keimon's order, the other officials around him who were also stunned finally reacted, swarmed up and pounced on the ronin who had been knocked down by Ogata.
After the surrounding officers of the Shirobei Club began to take action, the ronoi finally recovered from the shock and fear and reached for the wakizashi on his left waist.
But he was already too late.
The surrounding officers had successfully restrained the ronin before he could pull out his wakizaki, and tied him into a rice dumpling with thick hemp ropes.
After the officers captured the ronin, Ogata took back the Daishutian in his hand and sheathed the sword.
The reason why he personally took action to subdue this troublesome ronin was because Ogata did not want to waste too much time on this person.
If Keemon, Kawajiro and the others were allowed to slowly tighten the net around the ronin at their own pace, God knows how long it would take.
On the other hand, the reason is because Ogata hates people who don't give money after eating, drinking and having fun.
One of Ogata's previous jobs in the Hirose Domain was to deal with people who ate overlord meals in the izakaya opened by Asaki, Afu and the others.
Because of this job, Ogata unknowingly developed a temperament that can't stand such scoundrels.
As he walked slowly towards the ronin, Ogata could tell that this man might not be able to take even one of his attacks.
Ogata's height and arm length were already above the average for adult men of this era.
The length of his Da Shi Tian is also longer than most katana.
Therefore, Ogata's attack range is much wider than that of ordinary people.
But the ronin didn't notice this at all, and stood there stupidly, not even knowing that he had entered the enemy's attack range.
Ogata could see that the ronin was just a mediocre person based on the fact that he didn't have the sensitivity to attack range.
In terms of strength, this ronin is not as good as some of Ogata's former brothers at Sakakibara Dojo.
After putting the sword back into its scabbard, Kawajiro and Keemon walked quickly to Ogata.
"Mashima-kun." Kawajiro exclaimed, "Your swordsmanship is so amazing! Which sect do you study under?"
"The swordsmanship I use is Komaki Itto-ryu." Ogata said the pseudonym for the swordsmanship school he had thought of in advance. "The school I practice is mainly circulated in Omi. It can be regarded as a very unpopular swordsmanship school."
"Kawajiro." Keemon on the side asked at this time, "Who is this?"
"Oh! This is the Izumo Ronin who came to my club this morning and plans to work in my club - Majima Goro."
"I was taking him outside to find you just now. I planned to let you compete with him to see how strong he is."
"Unexpectedly, I ran into you catching a thief."
"Sigh... the security situation in Yoshiwara has really become worse and worse during this period. I met a man in the early morning who refused to pay for food or drink."
As soon as Kawajiro finished speaking, Keemon's eyes suddenly widened and he raised his finger to point at himself.
"Shall I come to spar with him?"
"Why do we need to spar and test his sword skills now?"
"Kawajiro, didn't you see what he did just now?"
"Of course a person with this level of swordsmanship will pass directly! What else are you trying to do?!"
…
…
Ogata's action just now saved him much more time than he imagined.
Even the discussion with Keiemon was omitted, which was exactly what Ogata wanted.
With Keiemon's decision, Ogata officially became one of the "temporary workers" of the Shirobei Club.
"Mashima-kun, you arrived just in time!" Keemon patted Ogata on the shoulder and said, "If you had stayed later in the evening, we might have recruited enough people."
"My name is Keimon, and I'm Bankata of the Shirobei Club! I'm mainly responsible for maintaining the security of Yoshiwara and catching those who make trouble in Yoshiwara."
Keiemon briefly introduced Ogata's future work to Ogata, who had become their "temporary worker".
"During the day, because there are not many people coming to Yoshiwara, Yoshiwara is relatively peaceful during the day. We can only rely on the official official duties of our Shirobei Club to deal with the thieves who cause trouble during the day."
"The trouble is at night."
"At night, there are people everywhere. The dilemma our Shirobei Club is facing now is that our official officers are no longer enough to protect Yoshihara at night, so we posted that piece of paper to recruit those with good skills."
"So those of you who have been temporarily recruited by us only need to come to Yoshiwara at night."
"Then at 4 o'clock in the evening, when the Yoshihara gate closes, you can leave Yoshihara."
Four o'clock in the evening - converted into earth time units, it is 22 o'clock in the evening.
After listening to Keiemon's introduction, Ogata raised his eyebrows in surprise.
This job was much easier than Ogata imagined.
You only need to come to work in the evening, and then get off work until 22:00 to get off work.
The total working time is only about 4 hours from dark to 22:00.
"Let me confirm - a day's wages are six cents of silver, right?"
Ogata remembered that when he saw the "recruitment advertisement" at the Shirobei Club last night, it said that the daily wage was 6 cents in silver.
"That's right." Kawajiro, standing next to Keiemon, answered for Keiemon, "The wages will be settled on the same day."
"What a wonderful job you guys do." Ogata couldn't help but sigh.
After only working about 4 hours, you can get a daily salary above the average - which is indeed a pretty good deal.
"It looks very relaxed, but in fact it is also very tiring." After reminding Ogata in this way, Keemon said seriously, "Although you only need to come here to work in the evening, I will take you for a while now.
Let’s get familiar with Yoshiwara’s appearance.”
"As a person responsible for maintaining law and order in Yoshihara, it would be ridiculous if you can't even recognize the road to Yoshihara."
"Yeah." Ogata nodded, "Then I'll bother you."
Ogata came to Yoshiwara just to see if he could get some valuable information from Kitaro, who came to Yoshiwara every night to have fun.
For this purpose, it is quite necessary to understand Yoshiwara's layout in advance.
As soon as Ogata said "I'll trouble you," Keiemon smiled:
"Follow me, Majima-kun."
"I'll take you to meet someone."
"That person likes to bring in new people the most."
"I won't take this job of bringing newcomers to familiarize themselves with Yoshiwara. If I take this job, she will definitely start talking about it in front of me again."
"She should be very free now."
"Let her take you around Yoshiwara."
…
…
Edo, Yoshiwara, residential area, a simple private house.
"Um……"
Guasheng leaned his back against a wooden pillar beside the wall of the hall, with his bare feet and straight waist, pressing his back tightly against the wooden pillar behind him. He raised the sword in his right hand and pressed the blade against it.
He scratched his own scalp, and then made a horizontal cut on the wooden post behind his head.
After finishing the slash, Guasheng immediately jumped forward impatiently, distanced himself from the wooden pillar, and looked at the slash he had just made on the wooden pillar.
The mark made by Gua Sheng perfectly coincides with a slender groove on the wooden pillar.
This slender ditch is a long ditch formed by the overlapping of countless sword marks cut at the same position.
After seeing that the sword mark he just made overlapped with this slender groove, Gua Sheng's face showed a look of obvious frustration.
"Still not growing taller...why is it like this..."
With a frustrated look on his face, he put away the sword in his hand and put it back into his arms, then raised his hands to both sides of his body, and then jumped upward slightly.
The field of vision in front of him rose rapidly, and the long groove carved on the wooden pillar quickly passed down within Gua Sheng's field of vision.
Of course - this scene where the long groove on the wooden pillar was under Gua Sheng's field of vision only appeared for a moment.
After Guasheng's white feet fell back to the ground, the long groove on the wooden pillar returned to a position parallel to Guasheng's scalp.
"Why don't I grow anywhere now..."
While Guasheng was muttering like this, he raised his left and right hands, pressed the left and right sides of his chest respectively, and squeezed toward the middle.
Even though I was exerting a lot of force, I didn't squeeze the flesh on my chest any further.
"Miss Guasheng! Miss Guasheng!"
Just when Gua Sheng was worrying about his developmental problems, Keiemon's voice suddenly came to mind outside the room.
"What's wrong?" Gua Sheng quickly put down his hands that were squeezing his chest and shouted towards the door not far away.
"We have a new member in our club!" Keemon then shouted, "I'm going to let you take him around Yoshiwara! Let's get familiar with Yoshiwara!"
When he heard the word "newcomer", Gua Sheng's eyes immediately lit up.
He quickly jumped to the dirt floor of the room, casually put on a pair of straw sandals, and opened the door.
Standing behind the gate were two very familiar men.
"Huh? Are you the newcomer?" Gua Sheng looked at Ogata standing behind Keemon with a surprised look on his face.
Ogata also looked at the melon in front of him with surprise.
Guasheng is wearing a beige kimono, a very ordinary home dress.
Ogata didn't expect that the person at Qingwei's door who liked to introduce new people was actually Gua Sheng.
"Hmm? Miss Guasheng, do you know Mashima-kun?"
"Yeah." Guasheng nodded, "We just met yesterday."
"It's good that you two get to know each other!" Keiemon said, "Miss Guaou, I leave it to you, Majima-kun! You can show Majima-kun around today first!"
…
…
After throwing Ogata to Guaou, Keemon just patted his butt and walked away.
After Keemon left, Gua Sheng said to Ogata, who was still standing in front of her room door:
"Mashima-kun, you actually come to work at our Shirobei club..."
"I may not be able to work for long." Ogata shrugged and said in a half-joking tone, "I may have worked for a few days and found it too tiring, and then I stopped."
"If you are sure that you want to work in our club, work harder for a while. If you work for a few days and then leave, we will have to recruit new people." After complaining angrily to Ogata, Gua Sheng
Turn your body to one side, leaving a space where you can freely enter and exit the door, "Anyway - come in first."
"Then... I'm sorry to bother you."
After removing the Daishitenji from his waist and handing it to his right hand, Ogata slowly stepped into the earthen area of the room.
After taking off her straw sandals and following Gua Sheng to the living room of her house, Gua Sheng said to Ogata:
"You can sit down wherever you want, and I'll make tea."
After leaving these words, Guasheng quickly left the hall.
After Gua Sheng left, Ogata sat obediently at the table in the living room, and then looked at everything around him with curious eyes.
Guasheng's living room is full of "serious" and "clean" atmosphere everywhere.
The appearance of this living room is in line with Guasheng's temperament.
However, this living room is too clean to a certain extent.
There is almost no furniture or unnecessary things.
Just as Ogata was scanning everything around him with curious eyes, his eyes suddenly spotted something... strange on a certain wall in the living room.
That's a piece of paper taped to the wall.
To be more precise, it's a portrait posted on the wall.
Looking at the portrait posted on one wall of the living room, Ogata's eyes widened, and then he quickly stood up and looked closer at the portrait.
The reason why Ogata had such a big reaction... was mainly because this portrait was so familiar to Ogata...
"Sorry, I forgot that I have no tea at home. Would you mind drinking some water?"
Guasheng returned to the living room with two glasses of water.
After Gua Sheng came back, Ogata immediately pointed at the painting on the wall in front of him and asked Gua Sheng anxiously:
"Miss Guasheng, is this...?"
"Huh? Don't you even know this person?"
Gua Sheng placed the two glasses of water on the table in the living room, then straightened up, straightened his chest, and said to Gua Sheng word by word:
"This is Ogata Issei with the famous name of 'Shura'!"
"Shura?" Ogata lost his voice and repeated the words Gua Sheng just said, "Isn't Ogata Issei's name the Executioner Ittousai, and the person-killing Issei?"
"Those were names from a long time ago." Gua Sheng waved his hand, "According to those who were lucky enough to survive the siege of Ogata Issei in Nijo Castle, Ogata Issei's fighting posture on the Nijo Castle castle tower
, like an Asura with three heads and six arms.”
"So after Ogata Issei captured Nijo Castle in Kyoto, everyone gave Ogata Issei this new title."
"It's just that the popularity of this title is not as widespread as the two titles of 'Executioner Ittosai' and 'Human Slayer Issei', so it's normal that you don't know Ogata Issei's new title."
After listening to Guasheng's explanation, Ogata twisted his stiff neck and returned his gaze to the portrait of himself on the wall.
The emotions contained in the eyes are very complex...
——Why did I get a new title without knowing it...
*******
*******
Let me share with you the inspiration for Gua Shengxiu’s character.
[This is the source of inspiration for Guashengxiu’s character, the girl in a certain video]→→
One day when I first started writing Volume 6, I was wandering around on site B and accidentally came across a video of a small girl wielding a knife to chop off piles. She was the girl in the picture above. It was a pity to watch it.
Not quite right.
This girl has a neat ponytail and is wearing a wide kimono and hakama. She is so small that it feels like she is not as long as her sword - I think she is so cute.
After watching this video, I decided on the character image of Gua Shengxiu - a cute girl with a height of 1.43 meters.
When you don’t know how to imagine Gua Shengxiu’s appearance, just take a look at the picture I posted above.