Volume 3 Buddha's Enemy Chapter 158: Immortal
"Master Hasegawa."
Imai noticed that Hasegawa 's expression was different, and asked Hasegawa urgently.
"What's wrong? What did the shogunate's reply say?"
"…The shogunate's instructions are—" Hasegawa sighed softly, "to take Ogata Yoshisei and Mamiya Kuro to Kii. Before sending them to Kii, they must not be subjected to any physical harm, including torture."
After saying that, Hasegawa handed the scroll in his hand to Imai.
After receiving the scroll from Hasegawa and hearing what Hasegawa said, Imai's face immediately showed anxiety.
After unfolding the scroll and quickly reading every word on it, Imai screamed:
“Why?! Why?! Why send him to Kii?! ‘Executioner Ittosai’ is fine, but why send Mamiya Kuro to Kii too?!”
"We finally caught a colleague of the 'Buddha Enemy', but they didn't even allow him to torture them. Are they just going to send Mamiya Kuro away like this?!"
Because it is a special period like now, without the instructions of the shogunate, the fire thieves did not dare to touch Mamiya, so for more than a month, Mamiya and Ogata were only locked up in prison and detained temporarily.
Imai has been waiting for a reply from the shogunate for more than a month.
Waiting to receive instructions from the shogunate to "deal with it on your own."
As long as they had this instruction from the shogunate, they could use all the torture methods that they, the fire thieves, knew on Kuro Mamiya one by one.
The torture continued until Mamiya revealed all the information related to the "Buddha enemy".
But now, a simple order from the shogunate has shattered Imai's plan.
Not only was there no way to torture Mamiya, he had to be taken to Kii together with Ogata Noriyoshi.
"...This is an order from the shogunate." Hasegawa said in a deep voice, "Since this is an order from the shogunate, we have no choice but to obey it."
“Let’s start preparing to hit the road now.”
"The 'Buddha Enemy'... should have left the Tatsuno Domain."
"We have already stayed in the Tatsuno Domain for too long. Regardless of whether the 'Buddha Enemy' is still in the Tatsuno Domain or not, we don't have the money to waste any more time in this place."
"Let's stop here for this mission."
"Although we didn't catch the 'Buddha Enemy', we did catch his companions, so it can't be considered a complete loss."
"Let's start preparing for the journey now. We'll set off tomorrow."
"Take Ogata Nosuke and Mamiya Kuro to Kii along the way."
"Then we'll go back to Edo!"
As soon as Hasegawa finished speaking, Imai said loudly:
"Master Hasegawa! What are you talking about? 'Not a complete failure'? If we can't get any useful information out of Mamiya Kuro, our trip to Kansai will be in vain!"
"Lord Hasegawa, I really don't understand!"
"What happened in Kii? Why are all the serious criminals in the country concentrated in Kii?"
As a high-ranking member of the Hōtsuke Thieves Kai, Imai naturally knew that the shogunate had begun issuing orders to its direct territories and domains since the autumn of last year: all serious criminals should be taken to Kii.
It was precisely because of this order from the shogunate that all the prisoners who had committed serious crimes and were detained in their prison, the Hōtsuke Thieves Prison, were taken away and sent to Kii.
Imai has been confused and annoyed by this inexplicable order from the shogunate.
Because many of the serious criminals who were taken to Kii were important criminals who still had great value.
As officers of the Fire Thieves, they still have a lot of information to extract from these prisoners.
As a result, due to this , all these prisoners, who still had a lot of valuables, were sent to Kii and have not returned to date.
Imai really wanted to know what had happened in Kii and why so many serious criminals were sent to this place.
However, the shogunate was very secretive about this issue.
According to Imai, not only him, but also some high-ranking officials in the shogunate did not know what exactly happened in .
"…Imai." Hasegawa said in a deep voice, "Don't be so curious."
"Master Hasegawa...!" Imai gritted his teeth, "You should know what happened in Kii, right? Every time you heard that a prisoner was going to be taken to Kii, your expression was quite strange!"
"Lord Hasegawa, please tell me - what exactly happened in Kii?"
"Why are all the serious criminals in the country being concentrated in Kii without any distinction?"
"As one of the commanders of the Fire Thieves Kai, I am qualified to know the answer to this question!"
"…I do know what happened with Kii."
Hasegawa said softly.
"But I didn't expect... that the situation in Kii has become so critical..."
"Even a criminal as important as Mamiya Kuro is being sent to Kii..."
"More than a month ago, when I sent a letter to the shogunate asking for instructions on how to deal with him, I clearly wrote how important Mamiya Kuro was to us, the fire thieves."
"I originally thought... that an important criminal like Mamiya Kuro, who had a lot of information to be extracted, would be left to us fire thieves to deal with on our own, and would not be sent to the Kii front... I didn't expect it..."
"Kii front?!" Imai exclaimed, "Lord Hasegawa, is there a war in Kii?"
"…It wasn't a war. But…the incident in Kii was as serious as a war."
At this point, Hasegawa let out a long sigh.
"Okay, Imai, I'll tell you what happened over there in Kii."
"Although I don't know much about the current situation in Kii."
"Imai, do you believe in ghosts and gods?"
"Ah?" Imai looked at Hasegawa in confusion.
Although he didn't understand why Hasegawa brought up this topic that had nothing to do with Kii, Imai immediately replied:
"Master Hasegawa, ever since I joined the Fire Thieves, I no longer believe in gods, Buddhas, ghosts, or monsters."
"I didn't believe in ghosts and gods before." At this point, Hasegawa smiled bitterly, "But...what happened on a certain island in Kii shook my lifelong belief."
"Master Hasegawa," Imai asked Hasegawa in a half-joking tone, "Could it be that a monster similar to the nine-tailed fox or the Yamata no Orochi has appeared on an island in Kii?"
Hasegawa shook his head slightly.
"No."
"What are monsters like the Nine-Tailed Fox and the Yamata-no-Orochi? We can mobilize a thousand cannons to fire several volleys, and kill as many monsters as we can."
"The monster that appeared on the island of Kii... is much scarier than the nine-tailed fox or the Yamata no Orochi..."
Hasegawa raised his head and looked straight at Imai.
Then he said word by word:
"Ki... the 'immortal' who can't be killed no matter what has appeared!"
