Chapter 390 Why should I set fire to Ertiao City? [4900 words]
"Ogata."
When he learned that Majima was Ogata just now, Hasegawa was so surprised that he changed from a "kneeling" posture to a slumped posture on the ground.
Hasegawa asked Ogata softly while readjusting his posture to a standard kneeling position.
"What happened to your face? Are you wearing a human skin mask?"
"That's right." Ogata raised his hand and touched the human skin mask covering his face that was so fake that it looked real. "Hasegawa-sama, you actually know about human skin masks."
"After all, I am also a commander of Huofu Thief Kai. I have seen too many novel people and novel objects." Hasegawa said lightly, "I still have this bit of knowledge. You are really wearing a very rare one.
Something."
Hasegawa glanced back and forth at Ogata and Makimura with complex eyes.
After a while, he opened his lips and spoke softly.
The complexity of the emotions contained in his tone was comparable to the complexity of the emotions contained in his eyes.
"Although I can roughly guess that the reason why you are looking for Shiranui Ri's location and to explore Shiranui Ri's movements is definitely not so that you can visit in person and give gifts to the ninjas in Shiranui Ri."
"But I still hope you will try not to make too much noise."
"Especially don't steal things and set fires."
"No matter what I say, I am a commander who has been transformed into a thief."
"If you steal things or set fires, it will be very difficult for me."
"There are already many criminals out there waiting for us to catch them one by one."
"I don't want the number of criminals we desperately need to catch to increase."
"The increasing number of prisoners who need us to arrest urgently are my acquaintances, and I don't want it to happen in front of me."
"Well... we will do our best..." Ogata said with a bitter smile.
Hasegawa turned his gaze and looked at Ogata who spoke out.
Looking at Ogata, the emotions in Hasegawa's eyes became more complicated.
"A person who looks nothing like Ogata Ittosai's voice is Ogata Ittosai's voice... It really feels awkward no matter how you look at it."
After making a small joke, Hasegawa changed to a serious tone.
"...Ogata Ittosai. Although it is somewhat inappropriate to ask you this question at this time, as the commander of the Huoshu Thief Kai, there is no way I can avoid this question."
"Ogata Ittosai, why did you attack Nijo Castle and burn down the castle tower of Nijo Castle three months ago?"
Upon hearing Hasegawa's question, Ogata was stunned for a moment.
Then a helpless smile slowly appeared on Ogata's face.
In fact, even before meeting Hasegawa, Ogata had guessed that Hasegawa would definitely ask him this question.
After all, Hasegawa specializes in catching thieves and arsonists. After meeting him, Ogata, there was no reason to remain silent about the "burning of the Nijo Castle Castle Tower."
"Ogata Ittosai, you are not a minister, so you may not know."
Hasegawa also had a look of helplessness on his face just like Ogata at this time.
"The shogun was furious when he found out that the castle tower of Nijo Castle was burned down."
"Directly ask us to immediately start investigating whether Ogata Ittosai is still alive."
"If Ogata Ittosai is still alive, arrest him immediately and bring him to justice."
"When I learned that you attacked Nijo Castle and burned down the castle tower of Nijo Castle, I was actually quite shocked."
"I have always thought that if I could meet you again one day in the future, I must ask you clearly in person: Why did the man who raised his sword aloft to avenge his sect have to face Nijo Castle?"
Having said that, Hasegawa turned his burning eyes to Ogata.
Bathed in Hasegawa's sharp gaze, Ogata smiled bitterly for a few times and said softly:
"Mr. Hasegawa, first of all, I did not set the castle tower on fire at Nijo Castle with my own hands."
"During the chaos, someone knocked off the lighting candle, causing the fire to get out of control."
"But I will not shirk responsibility for the burning of the Nijo Castle castle tower."
"After all, the castle tower of Nijo Castle was burned down, so I am indirectly responsible."
"As for why I want to attack Nijo Castle..."
After Ogata was silent for a while, he smiled bitterly and shrugged:
"The reason is more complicated."
"Mr. Hasegawa, you can understand that I have some grudges with the ninjas in Shiranui."
"So we took advantage of this good opportunity when they are all gathered in Nijo Castle to catch them all in one fell swoop."
"By the way, I also lured those gangsters who were mixed up in the Six Great Sword Halls with the intention of setting fire to Kyoto, but who had their eyes on me for some reason, to Nijo Castle, and dealt with them as well."
"You can rest assured that the reason why I attacked Nijo Castle is not because I have lost my mind and gone crazy."
The complicated look in Hasegawa's eyes became more intense.
"...You are not afraid of death and the crazy revenge after the shogunate."
"If I were afraid of these things, I would not have launched a charge against Matsudaira Gennai who was protected by hundreds of samurai." As soon as Hasegawa finished speaking, Oconi responded to him in a joking tone.
"...Hahaha." Hasegawa chuckled a few times after being silent for a while, "I really hope... I can have such courage as you..."
Hasegawa's tone was very strange.
It's like it means something.
"...Forget it." Hasegawa let out a long sigh, "Although the castle tower of Nijo Castle was burned down, as a result, the fire was only limited to a corner of the castle tower and did not spread."
"At the same time, we also wiped out all the gangsters who planned to burn down Kyoto."
"From this point on, I would also like to thank you..."
Having said that, Hasegawa bowed to Ogata and saluted.
"No need." After Ogata chuckled a few times, he turned slightly to avoid Hasegawa's courtesy, "It's just a trivial matter. I didn't risk my life to do this just to get others' thanks.
of."
"Ogata Ittosai, let me remind you. Although I am asking for your help, I will not send anyone to arrest you."
Hasegawa continued.
"But only for now."
"You must remember to carefully conceal your whereabouts in the future. Don't let outsiders discover that Ogata Ittosai is still alive."
"If the news comes out that Ogata Ittousai is still alive, then the general will definitely order me to lead a large force of Hufu Rogue Kai to capture you."
"If the General orders me to lead a large force to arrest you, there is no way I will not obey."
"so……"
Hasegawa deliberately did not finish his sentence.
Even if he didn't finish his words, he successfully conveyed what he wanted to express to Ogata.
"I understand." Ogata nodded with a hint of helplessness on his face, "I will... try my best."
…
…
Now that the cooperation has been negotiated, there is no reason to stay at the Huofu Thieves Headquarters anymore.
After chatting with Hasegawa for a while, Ogata and Makimura walked out of the headquarters of the Huofu Thieves Kai.
Before leaving, Hasegawa informed Ogata and Makimura that they should come to the headquarters of the Huofu Thieves again tomorrow.
By tomorrow, he will prepare a map of Edo and its surrounding areas, and then draw the approximate location of Shiranui's base on the map.
As soon as he left the headquarters of Huofu Thief Kai, Makimura let out a sigh of relief and then said:
"It went much smoother than expected. It's great that Mr. Hasegawa agreed to cooperate with us so readily."
After sighing softly, Hasegawa asked Ogata:
"Brother Ogata, what are we going to do now?"
"Does this need to be said?" Ogata held the sword on his waist, "Since we have agreed to cooperate with Hasegawa, we naturally have to start working."
“Now, let’s find the nearest registration place for the ‘Yuqian Trial Combination’, and then sign up for the ‘Yuqian Trial Combination’.”
…
…
"Gui'an."
Makimura grabbed a random passerby.
“Do you know where the registration place for the ‘Imperial Trial Match’ closest to here is?”
Edo Castle, with a population of one million, is so huge that there must be more than one place to sign up for the "Gozen Trial Match".
Ogata and Makimura's goal is naturally the registration place closest to here.
As soon as Makimura finished asking, the passerby did not answer immediately.
Instead, he first looked up and down at Makimura and Ogata, who was standing next to Makimura, with strange eyes.
"You just go straight along this road, then turn right, then go straight for a while and then turn left."
Passers-by quickly announced a series of words like the name of a dish.
Fortunately, the words he read were not too many, so Ogata and Makimura could barely remember the location of the registration place nearest to them.
Ogata and Makimura didn't even have time to thank the passerby, who quickly ran away from their sight.
Looking at the passerby who was rapidly shrinking in their field of vision, Ogata and Makimura showed a wry smile in unison.
"Brother Ogata, did you see the look in his eyes just now?" Makimura was the first to speak up.
"Ah, I saw it." Ogata raised his hand and scratched his hair, "That person just now was not very good at hiding his emotions..."
Although this passerby tried his best to hide it when he was looking at Ogata and Makimura just now, Ogata and Makimura could still detect a hint of disgust in this passerby's gaze.
"Doesn't he hate foreigners?" Makimura asked.
When Makimura speaks with an accent, you can tell that he is not a native of Edo. Although he no longer lives in Kyoto, the local accent is difficult to change, and Makimura still speaks with a strong Kyoto accent to this day.
"...He may think of us as the kind of ronin who come from afar to participate in the 'imperial trial'." Ogata said.
As soon as Ogata finished speaking, Makimura nodded slightly and said with a wry smile: "That should be it..."
The people of Edo had great objections to the ronin who came all the way to participate in the "Imperial Trial". Makimura also knew about this matter.
To put it bluntly, they are just a bunch of homeless people.
Moreover, they are a group of unemployed vagrants who carry weapons and may have some skills.
Although these rondos who poured into Edo were certainly not all bad people.
But as long as there are a few foreign ronin who did bad things in Edo, the impression of Edo locals on these foreign ronin will inevitably change sharply.
What's more, the number of foreign ronin who caused trouble in Edo during this period was not one, but two...
The Shirobei Club even had to post recruitment notices for "temporary workers" due to the increase in foreign ronin and the deterioration of security in Yoshiwara. You can imagine how destructive these foreign ronin were and how much trouble they caused to the local people in Edo.
Ogata and Makimura, who quite understood the way the passerby looked at them with strange eyes just now, followed the route the passerby just mentioned and headed to the registration place for the "Gozen Trial Match".
Although the look from the passerby showed that he did not welcome outsiders like Ogata and others, he did not fool Ogata and Makimura, and accurately informed them of the location of the registration place.
The registration place is located next to Ichitsujiban.
The so-called Tsujiban is the sentry of this era.
The original intention of Tsujiban's design was to prevent samurai with brain problems from running into the street and killing people to try their swords.
There is a small wooden house located at the entrance of the street. Many figures can be seen vaguely moving inside the house. Six guansashi holding swords are standing on both sides of the door of this small wooden house. This is the Tsujiban at this street entrance.
These six officers were holding thorns and guarding outside the Tsujiban gate, scanning their surroundings with vigilant eyes.
Next to this Tsujiban, there was a wooden table barely big enough for two people to sit side by side.
Two young men from Haori, wearing the crest of the Tokugawa family that ruled the Edo shogunate, the three-leaf Aoi pattern, sat behind this wooden table.
There is a stack of small "paper mountains" stacked on this wooden table.
It seems that in order to let everyone coming and going know that this place is the registration place for the "Gozen Trial Match", a large flag is planted next to this wooden table, with the four words "Gozen Trial Match" printed on it.
A big character.
At this time, a ronin happened to be standing in front of the table, saying something to the shogunate official sitting behind the table.
You will be standing in front of this desk, and you should also be here to sign up for the "Imperial Trial Match".
The young man who was standing in front of the registration desk looked like a perfect ronin.
The hair is greasy and knotted, the clothes are so dirty that the original color cannot be seen, the face is covered with dirt and dust, and the sweat dripping from the forehead from time to time washes away the faint white marks on the face.
He didn't know how long it had been since he took a shower. Ogata could even vaguely see flies flying around his body.
The two shogunate officials sitting behind the desk seemed to be unable to bear the person's body odor. They frowned, held their breath, and looked very ugly.
When Ogata and Makimura arrived at the registration place, the ronin had just completed his registration procedures and strode away from the desk with a high-spirited look.
It was not until the ronin left that the two shogunate officials sitting behind the desk finally seemed to be relieved. They took a deep breath and fanned the wind in front of their noses.
After the ronin left, Omoto stepped forward to fill the empty space in front of the desk that he had just left.
"Gui'an." After Ogata said a simple greeting, he went straight to the topic, "I want to participate in the 'Gozen Trial Match'."
Seeing another person coming who wanted to participate in the "imperial trial", the two officials quickly stopped fanning their noses.
One of them quickly pulled out a new piece of white paper from the mountain of paper placed on the corner of the desk.
Another person took out a stack of old papers.
This stack of somewhat old paper, Ogata was very familiar with it, was a wanted order.
No wonder the major registration points are set up next to Tsujiban... Once a wanted criminal is found on the run, he will be arrested and brought to justice on the spot... But apart from me, there should be no other wanted criminals who would be so arrogant.
Come and participate in the "Imperial Trial"...
"What's your name? Where are you from? How old are you?"
"Mashima Goro, Izumo Ronin. 21 years old." The official's voice brought Ogata's attention back to reality.
While the officer was asking Ogata questions and writing them down on the paper in front of him, another officer sitting next to him who was holding a large stack of wanted warrants was quickly looking through the wanted warrants in his hand.
.
In this era, there is no ID card, and it is impossible to find out the person's household registration in a very short period of time, so the registration process is very simple.
You only need to state your name, where you are from, your age, the type of martial arts you use, etc.
After quickly registering for the "Ozen Trial Match", Ogata suddenly heard a somewhat unfamiliar voice, but it felt like he had just heard it recently:
"Huh? Is it you?"
As soon as this unfamiliar yet somewhat familiar voice fell, Oufono quickly looked back.
After seeing who the owner of the voice was, Ogata quickly frowned.
After seeing who this person was, Ogata instantly understood why the voice was both strange and familiar at the same time.
The owner of this voice is none other than Takigawa Heiichiro, who I met in Yoshiwara's residence the day before yesterday, who can recite "The Analects" in Chinese and claims to show off his skills in the "Gozen Trial" to gain the appreciation of Matsudaira Sadanobu.
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I have been busy with my internship report recently, so there will be less updates these days...
Trivia: In ancient Japan, Kyoto people were the most geographically discriminatory people.
Because many people in Kyoto think that they live in the same city as the emperor and live on imperial soil, many people in Kyoto look down on outsiders.
Today’s small Japanese history class will introduce you to some things that LSPs may be very interested in.
The content is quite exciting and the car will drive very fast, so please be mentally prepared before reading the "Writer's Words" below.
By the way: Today is also A-Machi’s birthday. The birthday I designed for A-Machi is March 27th. As you can see on the character card on the homepage of this starting point, A-Machi’s like button has turned into a birthday cake.