Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 292 "Please help me clear Ogata's suspicion!" (Part 1)
Kyoto, the magistrate's office.
Kyoto Magistrate's Office - the office of the Kyoto Town Magistrate.
At this time, Kamiyama Koshinosuke was kneeling behind the desk where he usually worked, with his hand on his forehead and his eyes closed, as if he was resting.
A middle-aged man with a solemn expression knelt beside the sacred mountain, as if thinking about something cool - this middle-aged man was Hasegawa Heizo.
Neither Kamiyama nor Hasegawa spoke.
No one made any unnecessary movements.
The atmosphere in the whole room became weird and heavy because of the two people's silence.
At this moment, a male voice suddenly came from outside the room:
"Master Shenshan, it's me."
"...Akiyama." After hearing this male voice, Shenshan slowly opened his eyes, "Do you have something to report to me?"
"Well... there is indeed something I feel very necessary to report to you, Lord Shenshan..."
"Come in."
"yes!"
Akiyama slowly opened the paper sliding door, walked into the room respectfully, and then knelt in front of Kamiyama in a very standard posture.
"Tell me." Shenshan said softly with a slightly teasing tone, "What is it that you need me to know?"
"... Lord Kamiyama." Qiushan said seriously, "Today... I met Lord Makimura on the street."
As soon as Akiyama finished speaking, Kamiyama and Hasegawa immediately showed completely opposite expressions.
Hasegawa did not recognize any "Mr. Makimura" and therefore looked confused.
When Shenshan heard Qiushan's words, an extremely complex expression immediately appeared on his face.
You can find all kinds of emotions on Shenshan’s face at this moment.
Surprise, shock, confusion, sadness...
"...Akiyama, tell me the whole story of how you met Makimura today."
…
…
In an underground prison in Kyoto.
"ha……"
Mucun leaned against the stone wall behind him with his arms folded in front of his chest. He twisted his body into a more comfortable position and then dozed off.
The prison was built underground, so there was always a damp smell in the air.
But because it hasn't rained in the past few days, the humid atmosphere in the prison is not very strong at the moment, and it has not yet reached the point where people feel uncomfortable.
Akiyama did not break his promise - after putting Makimura in jail, he provided Makimura with all the generous care he could.
Under Akiyama's arrangement, Makimura did not share a cell with other prisoners. He had his own private cell, and he was the only one in the cell.
At the same time, the cell where Mucun lives is located in a relatively remote location in the prison, with no "neighbors" around, allowing Mucun to spend these days in peace.
Not only that - the food in the pastoral village is also obviously much better than that of other prisoners.
The other prisoners could only eat some bland millet porridge, while Mucun was able to eat rice and a variety of side dishes.
After personally bringing Makimura into the prison, Akiyama personally assured Makimura that he would release Makimura, who had only committed the crime of "fighting", in 5 days at the latest.
Apart from the lack of freedom and insufficient entertainment, Mucun has no other complaints about his current prison life.
Naturally, there are no entertainment facilities in the prison for Mucun to pass the time. While in prison, the best way to pass the time is to sleep.
Ever since he gave Akiyama a favor and let Akiyama put him in this prison, Makimura has been sleeping.
Wake up and sleep, sleep and wake up...
Now that I have changed to a more comfortable sleeping position, a slight sleepiness is rising from my body.
Just as Mucun was about to fall asleep again, footsteps suddenly sounded at the end of the corridor outside the cell door.
Judging from the volume of the footsteps, there aren’t many people.
Mucun just listened carefully and realized that there were only two people who heard the footsteps.
After the footsteps appeared, noisy shouts began to emanate from the cells on both sides of the corridor:
"Hey! I'm innocent! I'm innocent!"
"You filthy official! Watch out for your family! If I get out, I will kill all of you officials' family members right away!"
"Isn't the food a little too bad recently? There was a thumb-sized stone in my porridge today. How do you cook it?!"
…
These noisy shouts did not slow down the footsteps at all.
Mucun didn't care about the shouting in the other cells, nor did he care which officer had come. He just felt that these people were making noise and disturbing his sleep.
The footsteps came slowly from far away and approached the cell where Mucun was.
Finally - stopped in front of the pastoral village house.
Just when Maki Sucun was about to open his eyes to confirm why the footsteps stopped in front of his cell -
"…Long time no see, Makimura."
A deep male voice, which was extremely familiar to Mucun, sounded in front of the prison door.
As soon as the male voice fell , Mucun suddenly opened his eyes and looked out of the prison door.
Outside the prison door stood two middle-aged men.
A middle-aged man wearing a special black uniform.
The other middle-aged man was wearing ordinary clothes.
Looking at the middle-aged man in ordinary clothes, Mucun narrowed his eyes slightly.
A strange look began to flicker in Mucun's eyes.
"Master Shenshan ..."
A gentle whisper came from Mucun's throat.
Looking at the face of Kamiyama Kosuke, whom he hadn't seen for two years, memories slowly rose in Makimura's mind like a rising tide...
…
…
…
…
7 years ago——
The third year of Tianming (1783 AD).
Kyoto, Sanji Street.
Sanji Street - despite having a very imposing name, it is actually a place that Kyoto people are afraid of and try to avoid.
Sanji Street is where the Yakuza in Kyoto gather.
On Sanzizi Street, you can see Yakuza belonging to a certain family, and you can also see Yakuza who do not belong to any family, have no roots, and work on their own.
"Makura!"
Hearing someone calling him, Mucun slowly turned his head towards the voice.
Mucun recognized the voice, so he knew who was calling him.
Because he knew who called him, Mucun frowned after hearing the voice.
"...Sun Qilang, what do you want me to do? If you are here to invite Shunliu and I to join your family again, then I advise you not to waste your energy. Shunliu and I will not join any family ."
"No, no, no."
Sun Qillang, who was leading his three younger brothers, shook his head and walked slowly towards Mu Village.
"I called you because I simply wanted to show off this ring I just got yesterday."
Sun Qillang raised his hand and showed Mucun the ring on his left thumb.
"This thing is very valuable." Sun Qilang said proudly, "It is said that this ring is a native product of the Tang Dynasty."
"Oh. What a beautiful ring. I've finished looking at it and I'm leaving." After giving some insincere compliments in an extremely perfunctory tone, Mucun pretended to turn around.
However - before Mucun could completely move his eyes away from Sun Qilang, Sun Qilang spoke again:
"Makimura! Are you and Junroku really not considering joining our 'Nagai Family'?"
"With your and Junroku's abilities, becoming a cadre of our 'Nagai Family' is a piece of cake!"
"When you become a cadre of our family, you will be able to enjoy precious treasures like me that ordinary people cannot buy even with their life savings."
"In addition to money, you can also enjoy countless women."
"Are you guys..."
Before Sun Qilang finished speaking, Mucun seemed to have completely lost his patience. He showed an extremely obvious look of impatience and said in a deep voice:
"Didn't I tell you that Shunliu and I will never join any family?"
After saying that, Mucun was too lazy to pay any more attention to Sun Qilang and strode away from Sun Qilang.
He strode away from Sun Qilang, and only slowed down his pace after Sun Qilang's figure completely disappeared from his sight.
Mucun now had some things to buy, so he kept walking on the road leaving Three Princes Street.
As the Third Prince Street is the stronghold of the Yakuza, naturally no businessman would have the courage to open a shop and sell things on this street.
When the intersection of Third Prince Street finally appeared within his field of vision, Mucun suddenly felt a strong hand patting his shoulder.
Just now, Mucun had heard a set of footsteps slowly approaching him from behind.
However, Mucun did not turn back to see who the owner of the footsteps was.
Because the owner of these footsteps was so familiar to Mucun, so familiar that he could recognize him just by hearing the footsteps.
Knowing that it was that man who had arrived, Mucun had been waiting for him to come over and talk to him.
After finally waiting for this person to pat his shoulder, Mucun turned his head and smiled at a handsome young man who was about his age behind him:
"Shunliu, why are you here?"
"I was just bored and was just wandering around Third Prince Street. I was walking around and saw you. Are you going out?"
"Hmm? The knife oil is running out, so go buy some."
This handsome young man, who is 17 years old like Makimura this year, is named Junroku Kunieda. He is currently Makimura's only friend and partner.
At the same time - Makimura is also Shunroku's only friend and partner at present.
When he was 12 years old, all of Mucun's family members died of an epidemic.
Makimura, who became an orphan, met Junroku by chance, who had been wandering alone in the streets and alleys of Kyoto for many years. Then he and Junroku formed a partnership and worked hard in Kyoto. So far, it has been the fifth year since they formed a partnership.
Shunliu slightly quickened his pace and walked quickly to Mucun's side, then maintained the same walking speed as Mucun and walked side by side with him.
"...was Sun Qilang showing off the ring on his thumb to you just now?"
"Did you see that?"
"Well. Ah Ba, do you know where Sun Qilang got this ring?"
"...I don't know. But I can probably guess how it came from. It was robbed, am I right?"
"You guessed right." Shunliu shrugged and sneered, "This ring was stolen from a poor family who owed money to the Nagai family."
"This family runs a small business, and at the beginning of this year they had some operational problems, so they borrowed money from the 'money shop' opened by the Nagai family."
The Nagai family is the family that Sun Shichiro belongs to, and it is considered one of the most powerful Yakuza families in the entire Kyoto.
"That family fell into the trap set by the Nagai family on the document. They were saddled with a debt that was impossible to repay."
"After the family failed to pay back the money, Sun Qilang personally led his men to the family's home yesterday to steal valuables."
“That’s how this ring came about.”
"It is said that this ring is a very precious thing of this family, and it was hidden in a very secluded place. It's a pity that it was finally found by Sun Qilang and his gang who have no other special skills except looting."
"After Sun Qilang and his companions found the ring, the man of the family put up a fierce resistance and begged Sun Qilang not to take the ring away..."
Shunliu did not continue telling the story. He stopped talking after this.
Although Shunliu did not continue the story, Mucun could guess what would happen next: the male host would definitely be severely punished, and then Sun Qilang and others would leave.
After quietly listening to Shunliu's explanation of the origin of Sun Qillang's ring, Mucun was silent for a while.
Then——
"...I really want to quickly collect enough evidence to help the government completely wipe out the Nagai family."
He uttered a sigh that sounded almost like a long sigh.
After Mucun sighed, Shunliu nodded:
"Me too."
Before they knew it, the two had crossed the intersection of Three Princes Street and arrived outside of Three Princes Street.
Although Three Princes Street and this street connected to Three Princes Street are only separated by one mouth, the air and atmosphere of the two streets are completely different.
On Sanwangzi Street, Mucun and Shunliu even held their breath.
After walking out of the Third Prince Street, the two took a deep breath of the outside air with satisfaction on their faces, as if they were quite enjoying the air outside, which was very ordinary in the eyes of others.
"...When can we leave this damn place, Third Prince Street..." Shunliu murmured.
Makimura did not respond to Shunliu's question.
At this moment, the two of them noticed that at the end of the left side, two warriors with swords on their waists were striding proudly in the middle of the street.
Looking at these two warriors with swords on their waists, both Makimura and Junroku had admiration in their eyes.
"...I don't know if we will have the chance to become samurai in this lifetime..." Shunliu murmured again.
This time, Makimura responded to him.
"Impossible." Makimura responded without any hesitation, and there was a hint of disappointment in his response, "How can a commoner become a samurai?"
