Chapter 612 I am really old! (Flip the chain) (1) [7200]
Edo, the place where the Huluya group hides
"Where did Mamiya go..." Makimura muttered, lying on his side on the tatami.
"Who knows." Asai, who was sitting next to him and oiling his sword, responded.
Yesterday morning, when they woke up, they found that Mamiya had gone out at some unknown time.
When asked where Lin Mamiya had gone, Lin only said, "He went to do something." Other than that, she did not reveal anything about Mamiya's movements.
As of now, Mamiya has been missing for almost a day.
They were not too worried about Mamiya's personal safety. After all, it was difficult for them to imagine that anyone else in this Edo city could threaten Mamiya's life.
The biggest impression Mamiya gave them was that he was reliable. No matter what he was asked to do, he could basically complete it with ease. When asked how he completed the task so easily, he said lightly, "I used to work in
I have studied ××”.
Makimura and others are now more curious about what Mamiya was doing when he "disappeared" so quietly.
"...Mamiya, he must be looking for his sweetheart who was secretly hidden in Edo, right?" Makimura said in a joking tone.
"This is even more impossible." Asai responded without hesitation, "Do you think Mamiya is the kind of person who can approach women?"
"That's true." Makimura nodded, "But there are no absolutes in the world, and people always change. Maybe after coming to the colorful world of Edo, Mamiya's originally dull heart began to move, and then he secretly went behind our backs.
I found a sweetheart in Edo."
"Then one day, he came back with a girl and said to us: Everyone, let me introduce to you, this is my wife."
"Makimura. It's a pity that you don't want to be a kabuki playwright." Asai complained to Makimura very skillfully, "Mamiya suddenly brought a woman back? How is this possible?"
After saying that, Asai shrugged and let out a sneer.
"You are very confident in Mamiya's character." Makimura raised his eyes and looked at Asai.
"Of course." Asai nodded, "Usually, Mamiya and I collaborate the most. I don't know how unfeminine Mamiya is?"
Makimura: "It seems that you are really confident in Mamiya's character."
"That's it." Asai, who was usually expressionless, had a rare confident smile on his face, "I'll tell you this."
Having said this, Asai seriously picked up the knife oil next to him.
"I am so confident in Mamiya's character that I can pat my chest and tell you: If Mamiya comes back with a woman one day, I will drink the oil on the spot."
Boom, boom, boom!
As soon as Asai finished speaking, the sound of "dong dong dong" footsteps suddenly sounded in the corridor outside the room.
"Makimura-senpai! Asai-senpai!"
The sliding paper door was suddenly opened by Shimada.
"Shimada, why are you in such a hurry?" Asai cast a puzzled look at Shimada.
"Mamiya-senpai is back!" Shimada shouted with astonishment, "You may not believe it, Mamiya-senpai, that he brought a young girl back!"
Shimada originally thought that after he told such explosive news, both Makimura and Asai would be so shocked that they stood up immediately.
However... when the scene actually appeared in front of Shimada, the two of them looked at him in shock.
Then they all silently turned their attention to the bottle of knife oil in Asai's hand...
…
…
Mamiya came back with A'zhu and Vairochana who were successfully rescued.
Including Genichi, who was still drinking quietly until Mamiya came back, everyone in Calabash House gathered together to listen to Mamiya's explanation of what he had done yesterday and what happened to the girl Atake.
Since we have to explain what happened to the girl A-Zhu, naturally we cannot avoid explaining her own life experience.
At this moment, Mamiya confessed his life experience to the rest of the friends of the Calabash House except Lin for the first time: Yamada Asaemon Yoshitsune, the eldest son of the seventh generation of the Yamada Asaemon family.
The person who was supposed to inherit the position of head of the family and become the eighth generation head of the Yamada Asaemon family.
"Mamiya-senpai, you turn out to be... a member of the Yamada Asaemon family..."
Among the people present, except for Genichi who was relatively calm and seemed to have already known where Mamiya was from, the rest of the people had uncontrollable shock on their faces.
"I'm sorry for keeping it secret from you for so long." Mamiya smiled at Shimada, "After all, for me, the past things, although there are good parts, there are also many places that are not worth remembering."
Shimada and others were only shocked for a moment by Mamiya's true identity.
After all, there is an even more concerning A-Zhu beside Time Palace.
"...Your name is Atake, right?" Lin, who was sitting directly in front of Mamiya, turned her gaze to look at the 15-year-old girl sitting behind Mamiya.
After noticing Lin's gaze, A-Zhu subconsciously hid behind the person next to him who desperately saved her last night, his eyes full of fear.
She was now wearing the new clothes that Yoshitomo had prepared for him, which made her look a little better, but the panic in her eyes, which she had just escaped from hell, was still not easy to remove.
Looking at the horrified A-Zhu, Lin pursed her lips. After thinking for a moment, she shouted to the people around her:
"You all should go out first. It will scare her if so many people gather here. Ah, Mamiya can stay."
Lin deliberately kept Mamiya, whom Atake trusted the most, so that she could have a sufficient sense of security.
Everyone, knowing Lin's intentions, filed out, leaving only Lin, Mamiya, and Atake in the room.
"Senior Asai, what's wrong with you?" As soon as he left the room, Shimada asked Asai beside him with a puzzled look on his face, "Why does your face always look so solemn? Is there something wrong with your body?"
Shimada noticed from the beginning that Asai's face looked very bad, as if he felt uncomfortable somewhere in his body.
"...Shimada."
Asai asked in a deep voice.
"If you drink a bottle of knife oil, will you die?"
Shimada:???
…
…
After Genichi, Makimura and others left, Lin turned her attention back to Atake.
"Okay, there's no one else here now. It's just the three of us."
Lin was not an expressive person, and 90% of her expressions throughout the day were expressionless. But at this moment, she tried her best to raise the corners of her mouth, trying her best to show what she thought was a friendly smile.
"You don't need to be afraid. We are not bad people and we will never do anything to you."
"I promise you: we will definitely escort you all the way home."
"But before that, could you please tell me what you have experienced before, and how did your body become so resilient?"
Perhaps it was because Lin and she were both women and relatively petite, so Lin gave A-Zhu a sense of intimacy and security, and the uneasiness and fear in her eyes dissipated a little.
She raised her gaze and glanced at Mamiya, who rescued her from hell last night, and the panic in her eyes dissipated slightly again.
"I, my name is Atake...from Osaka..."
When Atake speaks, he speaks standard Kansai dialect.
With a slightly trembling voice, she slowly explained her past.
Her past was not complicated, but it made Lin frown slowly.
According to Atake, she is the daughter of an ordinary craftsman in Osaka.
When returning home one evening, she suddenly heard rapid footsteps behind her. Before she could turn her head to see what was going on, she felt a heavy blow on the back of her neck, and then fainted.
.
When he opened his eyes again, he found that he was locked alone in a dark, prison-like place.
Not long after she woke up, two people entered the prison and force-fed her a piece of meat that was only as big as a fingernail. Because A-Zhu never eats meat, she couldn't tell what kind of animal it was.
of meat.
After force-feeding her this piece of meat, he also forced a pill with a strong medicinal smell into her mouth, forcing her to swallow it.
After being fed this piece of meat and that pill, Ah Zhu felt that his body was very hot, so hot that it felt like his whole body was being burned on a ball of fire.
After the heat in his body subsided, A-Zhu was surprised to find that his body had an astonishing ability to recover.
No matter what kind of injury occurs on the body, the injury will recover very quickly. When the injury recovers, the wound will not feel anything, it is painless and itchy, and the injury will recover silently.
Since taking the weird meat slices and pills, she has not been fed anything strange or done anything.
She was kept in prison like this. Occasionally, a few people would come and cut wounds on her body with knives, as if to observe the recovery condition and speed of her wounds.
It was dark in the prison, and she couldn't tell whether it was day or night, or what time it was. Even though she cried and howled, begging to be let go home, no one paid any attention to her. If she made too much noise, she would even be beaten.
Fan, was warned not to make any more noise.
I don’t know how long I have been detained, I don’t know how my body became like this, and I don’t know how long I will be detained for.
The only thing she knew was that those in prison called her "Ding Ling Er San".
Until one day, A Zhu smelled the smell and smell of thick smoke.
This is the unique thick smoke and stench after the fire rages everywhere...
Immediately afterwards, A Zhu saw a woman suddenly coming outside his prison door.
The woman covered herself tightly, with only her two eyes exposed, so A-Zhu couldn't see her face clearly. He could only tell from her voice that she was very young.
This mysterious woman only said coldly to A Zhu, "Go away quickly", and then opened the prison door.
This young woman secretly released her... no, it should be said that she released many people including her who were imprisoned in other prisons.
Only then did Ah Zhu realize that there were so many people like her, imprisoned in such a dark place.
If A Zhu remembers correctly, there were about a dozen people, including her, who were rescued by the mysterious woman.
When they were first rescued, the mysterious woman gave them a small cloth bag one by one. Each bag contained two hundred yuan.
Then, after escaping with the help of the mysterious woman, A Zhu and the others discovered that there were flames and thick smoke everywhere. Under the cover of the fire and the leadership of the mysterious woman, they escaped from this dark place.
A Zhu remembered clearly that they came out of a cave. As soon as they came out of the cave, they saw layers of mountains.
Before they had time to rejoice, soldiers were chasing them.
"You guys run separately, keep walking in that direction and you will reach a place with people. This will save you some money. I will try my best to help you distract the pursuers." This was the last sentence A Zhu heard from the mysterious woman.
When saying this, the mysterious woman pointed in a certain direction.
A-Zhu and the others obeyed the mysterious woman's order and ran away separately. Since then, A-Zhu has never seen the mysterious woman again.
Ah Zhu ran desperately until he couldn't even move his toes.
She was lucky that there was no sound of any pursuers behind her when she was too tired to move.
Unfortunately for her, when she first ran away, there was a man and a woman about the same age as her running away in the same direction as her. But when A Zhu was too tired to move, the man and woman had disappeared.
It is not clear whether they were weak and fell behind, or whether they ran off to another route.
In short, Ah Zhu has been walking aimlessly forward alone in this mountainous mountain.
Although the mysterious woman had given them directions before, A-Zhu, who had already fled to a place where he could not even tell which direction was from east to west, had unfortunately forgotten which direction the mysterious woman was pointing...
…
So, she could only walk forward aimlessly.
Then, a lucky thing and an unfortunate thing happened to A-Zhu.
Fortunately, she walked aimlessly and managed to get out of the mountain. As soon as she got down the mountain, she found a village. After asking around in the village, she found out that she was in Kii and there was a port there.
Not far from here.
A-Zhu was just an ordinary 15-year-old girl. At that time, she didn't know what to do or where to go other than going home.
In order to get on the ship to Osaka, Atake resolutely went to that port.
The current public security situation is generally not very good, but A Zhu, who was alone, actually managed to walk to the port smoothly.
Unfortunately, after arriving at the port, she encountered an unscrupulous ship dealer.
The ship dealer said that their ship was bound for Osaka, and he would let Atake board the ship as long as he paid enough money.
A-Zhu was new to the world and could not tell the good and evil of people's hearts, so she foolishly gave most of the money that the mysterious woman gave her to this unscrupulous ship merchant.
This man claimed that his ship was a ship dealer going to Osaka, but the destination of his ship was actually Edo...
Atake arrived in Edo in such a daze.
She was uneducated and didn't know how long it would take to get from Kii to Osaka. She didn't realize she had been deceived until she arrived at Edo Port...
She didn't have the guts to argue with the vicious ship dealer, so she could only swallow the bitter pill silently.
She wanted nothing more than to go home.
She was unfamiliar with the place in Edo and had no choice but to place her hope on the government. She hoped that the government people could help her return home or help her recover her debt from the unscrupulous ship merchant.
As a result...she was entangled by two gangsters before she even reached the door of the Edo Administrative Office.
And then... I met Wen Xian and Yoshitomo who happened to be passing by.
There is no need to go into details about what happened after that.
The above is what happened to Atake after she was kidnapped in Osaka.
The expressions of Lin and Mamiya are now very complicated. The tragedy of Atake's experience makes them both not sure what kind of expressions they should show...
As for A-Zhu, who was remembering and telling her story, her eyes had been red since just now.
The tragedy of her experience made even listeners like Lin deeply moved.
Looking at A-Zhu, whose eyes were red, as if she might cry at any time, Lin sighed softly, then walked to A-Zhu on her knees, and then opened her arms like a mother bird to protect her chicks, and held A-Zhu away.
Hold him in his arms.
"It's okay." Lin gently patted the back of A-Zhu's head with one hand and stroked A-Zhu's back with the other hand, "You have now eaten all the hardships you deserve, and everything is fine from now on.
"
Lin's comfort made A-Zhu's already fragile psychological defense plummet in an instant.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa!"
A-Zhu hugged Lin tightly, put his face on Lin's shoulder, and cried loudly.
Lin did not shy away from A-Zhu's tears and snot that were wiped on her clothes. She just continued to hug A-Zhu silently, patting the back of A-Zhu's head and back.
It wasn't until A-Zhu's mood gradually stabilized and she stopped crying that Lin let go of A-Zhu in her arms.
"Azhu, do you still remember the approximate location of the cave where you were imprisoned?" Lin suddenly asked at this time, "Or maybe you have a way to lead us back along the route you took to escape and find that place?"
A cave?”
"I... don't remember..." A-Zhu shook his head, "After escaping, I ran away aimlessly without knowing the direction... so I can't take you back the way you came... and I don't remember the cave.
Probably somewhere..."
"That's it... forget it." Lin smiled at A Zhu.
The smile Lin showed now was much softer than the friendly smile she forced out just now.
"Thank you for your hard work. Do you want to go down and rest first? Is there anything you want to eat?"
…
…
Lin actually still has many questions to ask the child.
For example, what is the taste and color of the meat and pills she was forced to eat?
But she didn't want to tire the child out by asking questions all at once, so she decided to take her time and eat the food one bite at a time.
Lin asked Mamiya to take Atake down to rest first, and asked Mamiya to go to the kitchen later to count how many ingredients were left. She would make something delicious at noon today to replenish the poor girl's long-suffering body.
After Mamiya left with Atake, Lin stood up and left the room.
As soon as he left the room, he saw Genichi, Makimura and others waiting for news outside the room.
"My Lord," Makimura asked first, "What was the result? Did you ask anything? I just heard the girl crying very loudly."
Lin did not answer Makimura's question, but first said in a tone that left no room for doubt:
"Our next itinerary has to be changed. We won't go back to Owari for now. After that, we have to go to Osaka in Kansai first."
After finishing speaking, Lin turned her head and looked to the west.
Her sharp gaze seemed to penetrate thousands of miles and see Osaka in Kansai.
"I really didn't expect it..." Lin whispered in a voice that only she could hear clearly, "I actually got information about the 'immortal' in such a hazy way..."
…
…
about a month later
Owari, somewhere
"Then, in order to practice breath-holding, we had to put our faces into a basin filled with water every day, using this silly method to train."
"Are you using a washbasin for training?" Azhu complained in a very timely manner.
"After all, it's convenient." A-Machi said, "Training also requires cost. Going all the way to the river to practice breath-holding is such a waste of time."
"Hey, you two, please stop chatting for now." Ogata, who was sitting on the radish, said to Azuki and Azuki, who were sitting on the grapes one behind the other, "The ground in front of you is full of bumps, be careful not to bite them.
Tongue."
Don't talk when the horse is walking on the rough ground, as long as you still want to prevent your tongue from being bitten by your teeth. This is a piece of trivia that every horseman knows.
More than a month has passed since it landed in northern Oshu.
For more than a month, Ogata and others have been heading south, heading straight towards Owari.
It has been calm for more than a month,
Although there was no human skin mask, Ogata had always used a bamboo hat and other objects to cover his face, so he did not encounter any trouble caused by the exposure of his true identity.
And along the way, I didn’t meet any of Iga’s remnants…
With Ogata's permission, Azuki followed Ogata and Amachi on this road and, as always, sold straw sandals and "Yunjin" training manuals wherever he went.
However, so far, Ogata has not met even half of the remnants of Iga who were attracted by Ashuku...
Azuki is a cheerful child. While cheerful, she is also a good child. She does whatever Ogata asks her to do. She never disobeys Ogata or causes any trouble for Ogata.
To put it simply, she is a very worry-free child.
This long journey of more than a month also made Ogata, Atachi and Aszuki gradually become familiar with each other.
Since everyone is currently in a companion relationship, it is naturally impossible for Omachi to keep her identity as the "former Shiranui Kunoichi" secret.
When Tsukuru first joined the team, Atachi told him that she was also a kunoichi.
After learning that A-Machi was actually a kunoichi like her, A-Zhu expressed her excitement: Regarding Shiranui Ri, she said that she had only heard a few words from her grandfather, so she didn't know much about this ninja.
Azuki, who was very curious about A-Machi, who was also a kunoichi, and Shiranui. Along the way, he would often chat with A-Machi about various issues related to Shiranui just like he did just now.
Although A-Machi didn't have a good impression of Shiranui, she did not keep secret about her previous experience in Shiranui.
After Azuki asked various questions related to Shiranui, Azuki would patiently answer them one by one, occasionally telling stories about his previous life in Shiranui.
And Atachi is indeed very talented in telling stories...or water stories.
We have been traveling together for more than a month, and A-Machi's "Past in Shiranui" has not been finished yet... She seems to have only just told the story when she was 12 years old...
Although Azuki recounted her past at a very long time, while she was recounting the past, she actually told the story in a tortuous and exciting way, which made Azuki still want to stop talking about her past.
Now, A-Zhu pesters A-Ting almost every day, asking him to hurry up and tell her past events.
After Ogata asked both Amachi and Tsukuba not to speak, they both obeyed and kept their mouths shut.
It wasn't until he passed through the pitted ground that Azuki seemed to have just held his breath in the water, opened his mouth, took a long breath, and then asked Ogata:
"Master Ittousai, how long do we have to go before we reach the village where your friends are?"
"Almost." Ogata replied, "We'll be there in a while."
When Tsukuru first joined their team, Ogata told him what they were going to do next and go to Owari to find his friends who were well-connected and ask if they knew where there was a powerful swordsman.
Ogata and the others are now heading towards the village that has been favored by Calabash House and has a close connection with Calabash House.
The headquarters of Calabash House is located on the mountain behind the village. The village is somewhat similar to Calabash House's outpost.
Ogata had visited that village twice before. The first time was after leaving Butterfly Island, at the invitation of Mamiya and Makimura, to visit their Calabash House headquarters.
The second time was when I was invited to rest with them before leaving Kyoto and going to Edo.
The two visits to the Calabash House headquarters were of great significance to Ogata.
Being a guest for the first time made Ogata get to know Genichi, Lin and others.
Not to mention the second visit as a guest. The second visit has extraordinary significance to both Ogata and Atachi.
After passing through a very familiar dirt road in the mountains, a village like a paradise finally appeared in front of Ogata.
"We're here!" Ogata shouted to Azuki next to him, and then lightly knocked on the horse's belly to speed up Carrot's horse slightly.
…
…
"Lord Ogata, why are you here?" The head of the village who went out to greet him looked at Ogata who had just dismounted from his horse in surprise.
"Village Chief." Ogata took off the bamboo hat on his head and said with a smile, "Long time no see."
Ogata has been here twice, so almost everyone in the village knows Ogata and knows that Ogata is a distinguished guest of Calabash House.
After a brief exchange of greetings with the village chief, Xu got straight to the point:
"Village Chief, are Miss Lin and the others here?"
"Kinoshita-sama and the others are not here." The village chief shook his head, "They have not come back since you went to Edo together."
"You haven't come back yet?" Ogata asked in surprise.
All kinds of doubts came to Ogata's mind
How long has it been since they went to Edo together to prepare to deal with Shiranui Ri?
Have they been staying in Edo during this time? Or did they go somewhere else?
"Ogata-sama, do you want to see Kinoshita-sama and the others for something?" the village chief asked.
"Well..." Ogata scratched his hair, "I do have something to do with them..."
After hesitating for a while, Ogata tentatively asked the village chief if he knew where there was a good swordsmith.
As expected, the village chief shook his head.
The main responsibility of this village is to help the Calabash House look after the homes and the courtyard, so Ogata also expected that they would probably not know any important information, so Ogata was mentally prepared for the village chief's shake of his head.
Trouble...
Ogata secretly thought in his heart.
Lin and the others are not here... Where can I find a good swordsman...
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Before you know it, it's almost December, and 2021 is almost over...