Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 280 The murderer is Ogata
"Look, Ayi, I see the pharmacy."
Ogata and Atachi were each holding a red and white steamed bun in their hands and chewing on it.
Red and white steamed buns - one of Kyoto's famous confectionery.
Although it is called manju, it is filled with red bean paste, a bit like the red bean paste buns in Ogata's previous life.
Red and white steamed buns come in two colors: red and white. Although they are two different colors, they taste the same.
Obunaga was eating a red steamed bun, while Atachi was eating a white steamed bun.
Finally finding the second pharmacy, Ogata quickly stuffed the few remaining buns into his mouth and said to Atachi:
"A-Ting, wait for me outside. I'll be back soon."
"Yeah." Ating nodded obediently.
Ogata took out the two prescriptions from his arms and strode towards the pharmacy in front of him.
And Atachi obediently followed Ogata's instructions, standing there, holding the half-remaining steamed bun in both hands, eating it slowly while silently waiting for Ogata to come back.
Not long after, Xu Fang came back.
"How is it?" asked Ating.
Ogata shook his head.
Although he failed again, there was still no trace of regret on Ogata's face.
"Let's go." Ogata said with a smile, "Let's go to the next place to have a look."
"Um!"
…
…
"Ah, Ayi! Look! It's the water seller. Let's go there and buy something to drink."
Not far in front of Ogata and Atachi, an old man was carrying two large wooden barrels on a shoulder pole.
While walking slowly forward, he shouted loudly, "Selling cold water, selling cold water."
"Water seller..." Ogata muttered, "I'm a little thirsty too."
Water sellers carried buckets of clean water or sugar water through the streets and alleys of the city - this was a common scene in cities of this era.
The so-called water seller, as the name suggests, is a vendor who specializes in selling drinking water on the street.
In the hot summer, drinking cool water is a special enjoyment.
Therefore, in such a hot summer, water sellers can be said to be one of the most popular vendors.
Ogata and Atachi came over, and the water seller immediately introduced them enthusiastically:
"Good morning, gentlemen! I have some clean water here!"
The water seller patted the bucket hanging in front of the shoulder pole.
"And sugar water!"
Then he patted the bucket hanging behind the carrying pole.
"Excuse me, what kind of water do you need?"
"You still have sugar water here? Then I want sugar water!"
"Then just give me a bowl of water." Ogata said.
"Okay!"
The water seller put down the two large buckets hanging on the shoulder pole, then took out two clean bowls, one filled with water and the other with sugar water.
After Ogata and Omachi finished drinking the water in their respective bowls, Omachi wiped her mouth and praised, "It tastes good."
…
…
"Ayi! Look! It's the ear picker!"
"Can these two little things really help customers remove earwax? Let's go. There's nothing pretty about cleaning someone's ears."
"This is the first time I've seen an ear cleaner. Let me watch for a while longer."
…
…
"It's 'Old Wan Sells Candy'..." Looking at the scene in front of him, Ah Ting couldn't help but smile, "It's a pretty good dance."
In a big city like Kyoto, the thing that is most in demand is sugar vendors.
Because there are so many of them in the same business, in order to attract as many customers as possible, these sugar vendors choose to wear strange costumes and do all kinds of weird movements, showing off their special talents.
There are "Tang people selling candy" dressed as foreigners; there are "foxes selling candy" wearing fox puppet costumes; there are "grandpas selling candy" dressed as grandpas...
The so-called "Lao Wan selling candy" means a man dressed as a woman, dancing and selling candy.
Ogata and Atachi now encountered a candy seller called "Lao Wan Selling Candy".
The young sugar vendor has pretty facial features, so even if he wears women's clothing, he doesn't look "eye-catching".
At the same time, she dances well.
With her good looks and decent dancing skills, she successfully attracted quite a few customers.
Many passers-by, including Ogata and A-machi, were attracted by the candy vendor.
After watching the candy vendor's dance for a while, Ogata and the other man each bought a piece of candy from the vendor.
…
…
Ogata and Atachi had fun along the way while searching for the pharmacy.
If you come across something interesting, stop and take a look.
When you see something delicious, buy it and eat it.
The "searching trip" slowly turned into a "tour of Kyoto"...
Although he was having a lot of fun, Ogata still didn't forget the important task of finding a pharmacy.
Ogata and his partner have already visited four pharmacies.
It's a pity that nothing was gained.
However, Ogata was not in a hurry. After all, Kyoto was very big and there were still many pharmacies he had not visited yet.
So I continued to walk at a leisurely pace with Ating, eating, drinking and playing while looking for a pharmacy...
…
…
Kyoto, the official office of the Kyoto Town Magistrate.
Hasegawa Heizo and his subordinates were currently in a room in the government office, recovering their strength while waiting for the arrival of Kyoto Town Magistrate, Kamiyama Koshinosuke.
After waiting for an unknown period of time, footsteps were finally heard outside the room approaching.
With a "whoosh" sound, the paper sliding door was opened.
Kamiyama's face, looking somewhat tired, finally appeared in front of Hasegawa and others.
"It's been a long time since we last met in Kii at the beginning of the year. It's been several months now." Hasegawa smiled at Kamiyama.
“Yeah.” A faint smile appeared “Hasegawa, I wish I could be like you, always so energetic. Really, we are about the same age, why do you always act like a young man with endless energy…”
"I guess you miss the days of being in charge of baggage in Kii," Hasegawa said half-jokingly.
"You're right." Kamiyama shrugged. "Managing the army's baggage is much easier than managing the entire Kyoto."
After the cannibal rebellion broke out on Choujima in Kii, the shogunate was unable to deploy manpower in time, so it urgently transferred Kamiyama, who was the magistrate of Kyoto, to Kii to manage the baggage deployment of the army in charge of monitoring Choujima.
Now, under the leadership of the elder councilor Matsudaira Sadanobu, the shogunate has changed its strategy toward Chou Island - or rather, it has changed its strategy toward the cannibals on Chou Island.
No more prisoners are being driven to Butterfly Island—there aren’t that many prisoners available.
Instead, they turned their resources to the research of cannibalistic ghosts and the tracking of the master and apprentice pair, Kazuyo and Kazunao.
About two months ago, Shenshan's job of managing military supplies was suspended and replaced by another person.
After all, Kamiyama's main job is the Kyoto Town Magistrate, and keeping Kamiyama in Kii seems a bit like a waste of resources.
Not only the army's logistics officer was replaced, but also the army's chief general was replaced.
After the senior councilor Matsudaira Sadanobu returned to Edo, the "former general-in-chief" Inamori also followed Matsudaira Sadanobu back to Edo.
After another person took over the job of managing the army's supplies, Kamiyama returned to his old territory - Kyoto.
Kamiyama's first mission after returning to Kyoto was to find the master and apprentice pair, Kazuyo and Kazunao.
This task was assigned to Kamiyama by Matsudaira Sadanobu.
The only piece of information the shogunate had about this master and disciple pair was that they had Kyoto accents and were most likely native to Kyoto.
Since he is most likely a local of Kyoto, it would be most appropriate to let Kamiyama, the magistrate of Kyoto Town, handle the matter.
And Kamiyama was also very diligent. After returning to Kyoto, he diligently carried out a comprehensive search in Kyoto, looking for the master and apprentice named Kazuyo and Kazunao.
After half a month of searching, the result was - nothing.
There was no doctor named Kazuyo or Kazunao in Kyoto.
Since there are no these two doctors, the only two possibilities are:
This master and disciple pair did not live in Kyoto at all, or they used pseudonyms, and Kazuyo and Kazunao were not their real names.
These two people might not even be master and disciple.
Apart from the names Kazuyo and Kazunao and their Kyoto accent, the shogunate had no other clues about this master and disciple pair.
The name - the only clue was lost, and Kamiyama could only helplessly report the result to Matsudaira Sadanobu who was far away in Edo.
Matsudaira Sadanobu seemed to have expected something like this to happen. He did not blame Kamiyama at all. He only replied in a letter, "Thank you for your hard work," and told Kamiyama that there was no need to search for the two men in Kyoto anymore. He would find another way to deal with them later.
After the search for the master and disciple was over, Kamiyama's life finally returned to normal, and he managed all kinds of things in Kyoto, big and small.
After a brief conversation with Hasegawa, the two of them slowly ended their pleasantries and got down to business, as if they had agreed in advance.
"Hasegawa."
Kamiyama casually sat cross-legged in front of Hasegawa, while Hasegawa's subordinates, led by Imai, knelt respectfully beside the two of them.
"You should have visited the crime scene, right? What was the result?"
"The results are quite good." Hasegawa said solemnly, "Although it has been a while since the incident, we still found a lot of interesting things at the scene."
After saying that, Hasegawa took out a neatly folded handkerchief from his arms and handed it to Kamiyama.
"This is?"
"This is what I found at the crime scene." Hasegawa said in a deep voice, "Open it and take a look for yourself."
Following Hasegawa's instructions, Kamiyama slowly opened the handkerchief.
After fully unfolding the handkerchief, some black powder came into view of Shenshan.
After moving the black powder under his nose and sniffing it gently, an unpleasant smell immediately penetrated into Shenshan's nostrils.
"This is... gunpowder...!" Shenshan said in a deep voice.
"That's right." Hasegawa nodded. "We found a lot of gunpowder powder at the crime scene. The fire outside Luo should have been caused by a gunpowder explosion."
The reason why Hasegawa led his subordinates all the way from Edo to Kyoto was because a strange thing happened in Kyoto in mid-May.
A loud noise suddenly came from an empty room outside Luowai.
As the loud bang sounded, flames rose from the empty room and instantly spread to the surroundings.
Fortunately, it was a windless day, and it had just rained, so the weather was humid. Thanks to the concerted efforts of Kyoto's town firefighters, they successfully controlled the fire before the disaster escalated.
Since the buildings of this era were basically made of wood and paper, once a fire got out of control, it would basically be a disaster on the level of a natural disaster.
The great fire two years ago that destroyed more than 80% of Kyoto's buildings is the best example.
The circumstances surrounding this not-so-small fire in Kyoto were truly bizarre.
The loud noise before the fire made Shenshan very concerned, and he suspected that the fire might be man-made.
So, Kamiyama asked the Edo shogunate for help and requested the shogunate to dispatch officials from the Edo shogunate, who were experts in handling arson cases, to come to Kyoto to investigate the case.
Hasegawa, who happened to have nothing to do at the time, gladly accepted the order and led his subordinates, led by Imai, to Kyoto to investigate the case.
This is why Hasegawa and his subordinates appeared in Kyoto.
Early this morning, after leaving Granny Gao's hotel and parting with Ogata, Hasegawa went directly to the crime scene in Luowai to collect clues.
With a sullen face, he handed the gunpowder powder Hasegawa had found at the crime scene back to Hasegawa. Suddenly, anxious footsteps and anxious shouts were heard outside the room:
"Master Kamiyama! Another murder has occurred! Just now, another person was killed in the Gion area! The victim was a disciple of the Xuanxuekan - Inano Saburo! He was stabbed in the neck and killed with one strike!"
"Another victim?" Shenshan's face darkened. "...I understand. You can leave first."
After the messenger left, Hasegawa frowned and asked Kamiyama:
"Kamiyama, what did you mean by 'another victim'?"
"...Since last night, a murderer has appeared in Kyoto." Kamiyama sighed, "From last night till now, he has killed 34 people in a row."
After hearing the number "34", Hasegawa felt his heart skip a beat.
34 people were killed - this is no small case.
Shenshan then continued:
"Fortunately, when this killer was killing people, his face was seen by many people present."
"Kyoto Shoshidai-sama is very nervous right now." Kamiyama changed his tone to a lightly sarcastic one. "When the Gion Festival is being held, such a vicious criminal appears who may disrupt the Gion Festival. He is very likely to be scolded by the Shogun."
"Lord Kyoto Soshidai is now having people compare each wanted warrant with the appearance reported by these witnesses, looking for any wanted criminals who match the appearance reported by the witnesses."
"I don't know when the results will come out..."
Before Shenshan finished speaking, an anxious voice was heard outside the room again:
"Master Shenshan! The comparison result of the wanted order...is out!"
The messenger was out of breath due to running so fast, and his speech was intermittent.
"Oh?" Shenshan narrowed his eyes. "Have you found any wanted criminal whose face matches the face of the murderer seen by the witnesses?"
"Yes!" the messenger said hurriedly, "It's the executioner Ittosai - Ogata Issei!"
"After showing the wanted poster of Ogata Ittosai to the witnesses, they all said, 'That's the man!'"
As soon as the messenger finished speaking, Kamiyama and Hasegawa - especially Hasegawa's pupils suddenly shrank.
