Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 296: Spending 10 Skill Points in a Row (Part 1)
Time goes back to not long ago——
"Is this the meeting place that you and the sacred mountain agreed to meet at?" Asai said as he looked up and down at the teahouse in front of him.
"This is the teahouse that Lord Shenshan often comes to." Mucun said, "Lord Shenshan sometimes works in this teahouse to change his mood. Let's go."
Makimura led Shimada and Asai and strode towards the teahouse.
Among their group, only Lin was not convenient to show up in public.
If Hasegawa discovered that Lin had the "Yan Mo" on her waist, Lin's identity as the "enemy of Buddha" would be exposed.
Therefore, Lin hid somewhere some distance away from here, and only three people from Mucun came to negotiate with Shenshan.
When he opened the paper sliding door of the teahouse, Makimura saw Kamiyama and Hasegawa sitting at the low table facing the door.
A younger youth stood respectfully beside Shenshan, seemingly his assistant.
"Makimura, you're back." Kamiyama looked at Shimada and Asai, "Are these two your companions?"
"Master Kamiyama, I can assist you," Makimura said bluntly, "but I have a condition - once the matter is accomplished, please release a prisoner currently in Kyoto Prison and hand him over to us for disposal."
"Prisoner?" Shenshan frowned slightly, "Which prisoner do you want me to release?"
"A doctor named Xuanren. I heard that he is a doctor who knows Nanman medicine, and I need his medical skills to treat a friend of mine."
"I came back to Kyoto this time just to invite him, but who would have thought that he would be imprisoned."
What Makimura said was undoubtedly a lie.
Shenshan hesitated for a while, then turned his head and whispered to the assistant beside him:
"Go check if there is such a person in the prison."
"yes."
The assistant walked away quickly.
Not long after, he quickly returned to the sacred mountain.
"Master Shenshan, there is indeed such a person. He is currently in prison for allegedly prescribing the wrong medicine and killing someone."
"…He should be just an ordinary doctor, right?"
"He is indeed just an ordinary doctor." The assistant said, "Except for his superb medical skills, he is well-known among the people, but there is nothing special about him."
"...I understand." Shenshan nodded to Mucun, "After the matter is accomplished, I will release Doctor Xuanren and hand him over to you."
"Thank you very much."
"Besides this, Makura, do you have any other requests?"
"Tell me the location of the latest victim."
"It seems that there are no other requests... I have had the places of death of all the victims marked on this map, and also noted the time of death."
Shenshan pushed forward a folded map placed on the low table beside him.
"In order to facilitate communication between the two of us, I will stay in this teahouse until I go to Nijo Palace to attend the banquet hosted by Lord Tokugawa Munemichi tonight."
"If you need any help from me, please come to this teahouse and ask me."
"Thank you. I don't need your help at the moment, Master Shenshan."
…
…
After leading Asai and Shimada back to Lin's hiding place, Makimura reported to Lin:
"My Lord, the deal has been made."
"Very good." Lin nodded gently, "This way, we can get Doctor Xuanren in the gentlest way possible."
"Well then - Yahachi, I'll have to trouble you from now on. Now that you have accepted the task of assisting Kamiyama in investigating this murder case, what are your plans now?"
"Let's go to the latest murder scene to see if there are any clues. But before that - I want to find Mr. Ogata first."
"What do you want to do with him?" Lin frowned slightly.
"I just heard from Lord Kamiyama that some officials had found someone who looked like Ogata Ittosai in a ramen restaurant. I suspect that the person they found was not someone who looked like Ogata Ittosai, but Ogata Ittosai himself..."
"Brother Ogata is not from Kyoto and is unfamiliar with the city. If we let him run away blindly, it will only be a matter of time before he is surrounded by the police."
"Brother Ogata is my friend. He is in trouble now. I can't just sit there and watch."
"…If you want to help Ogata Ittosai first, I have no objection, but where are you going to find him?"
As soon as Lin finished speaking, an unusually noisy noise suddenly rang out from a street not far away :
"Hey! Someone just saw Ogata Ittosai! He ran in that direction!"
"Okay! You guys go search that alley!"
"yes!"
"You guys, just go there!"
"yes!"
After listening to the noisy noise for a while, Mucun smiled at Lin:
"It seems that we have found the clue of Mr. Ogata."
…
…
“…That’s how it is.”
Makimura, who was walking in front and leading the way, continued speaking to Ogata behind him.
"As for my familiarity with Kyoto, there are probably few people in the world who can surpass me."
“I know exactly where the suitable places for Tibetans are in each neighborhood.”
"After learning that you had fled to a nearby neighborhood, I immediately followed the alleys in this neighborhood that were suitable for Tibetans and found you."
"Brother Ogata, you should be thankful that I am no longer Kyoto's Yoriki and am no longer the one responsible for hunting you down."
A faint smile appeared on Mucun's face at this time.
"If I were responsible for hunting you down, you would be surrounded by enemies by now."
After quietly listening to Makimura's explanation of the whole story, Ogata sighed softly:
"Mucun, you actually helped the government..."
"It's just mutual use." Makimura shrugged, "I help them, and they give us what we want. It's just a deal. Ah, we're out of the alley."
Tiny candlelight shone from the alley ahead.
After rushing out of the alley, Ogata and his group came to a rather deserted path.
After listening carefully and confirming that there was no sound of any officers around, Ogata slowly lowered his hand that was originally on the hilt of the Daishikuten sword.
"My lord, Asai, Shimada." At this moment, Makimura suddenly said to Lin and the other two, "You three should go back and rest first."
"Do you want to act alone?" Lin frowned slightly.
"To be honest, it would be more convenient for me to act alone." Mucun smiled bitterly, "And... let me put it bluntly: when investigating a case, if there are too many outsiders around, it will be more of a hindrance."
"...I understand." Lin did not refute what Makimura had just said, "But - you should still leave someone by your side to assist you. Shimada, you follow Makimura."
"Ah, yes!" Shimada said loudly.
Mucun opened his mouth, as if he wanted to reject Diao Lin's proposal.
But after hesitating for a while, he slowly closed his mouth, nodded, and said softly:
"I understand. If Shimada is the only one following, then it won't matter."
"Asai and I will be waiting for you at the inn. You two should be careful and stay safe."
"My lord..." Mucun suddenly stammered, "I have an unwelcome request."
"Go ahead."
"Before returning to the hotel, could you please take a detour to a place? I want you to bring a message to an acquaintance of mine in Kyoto."
"An acquaintance?" Lin asked doubtfully.
"Yeah." Makimura nodded vigorously, "He is the only acquaintance I have in Kyoto at the moment."
"...I understand. I can easily do you a small favor."
"Thank you very much."
After Mucun quickly told Lin a place name, the newly formed team immediately parted ways.
Lin took Asai to pass the message to this acquaintance of Makimura.
Makimura took Shimada and Ogata to Shimabara, the best hiding place in Kyoto that he had just mentioned.
"Cheer up." Makimura gave Shimada and Ogata a meaningful smile, "The place we are going to next is the dream place of almost all Kyoto men."
"Makimura-senpai," Shimada said hesitantly, "I've been wanting to ask you this for a while - where is Shimabara?"
"Shimada, you are indeed a young master of a wealthy family who is ignorant of worldly affairs." Makimura smiled helplessly and said, "Shimada, you were born in Edo, so you should know Yoshiwara, right?"
"Of course I know!" Shimada said without hesitation.
As he said this, Shimada's cheeks flushed slightly.
"Shimabara is the Yoshiwara of Kyoto. You should understand what I mean, right?"
When Shimada heard what Makimura said, he was stunned at first.
Then, his cheeks turned red quickly at a speed visible to the naked eye...
…
…
Makimura led Ogata and Shimada carefully along the street.
Once they found people dressed as officials approaching, Makimura, who was familiar with the terrain, would lead Ogata and Shimada into a nearby alley and wait for the officials to leave before coming out, or they would just walk through the alley and bypass the officials.
I turned to a new street and looked forward - there was no sign of any officer.
Makimura, feeling a little relieved, said to Ogata and Shimada behind him:
"We're almost at Shimabara."
There was no sign of any officer on the street ahead, but there were seven samurai with swords on their waists walking in .
Samurai are everywhere in Kyoto. No matter where you go, you can see groups of samurai with swords on their waists.
Especially tonight - the "Yamaboko Parade" will begin soon, and groups of people preparing to go see the Yamaboko together can be seen everywhere in Kyoto.
So neither Makimura nor Ogata took the samurai who happened to be walking towards them seriously, and they just walked forward in the middle of the street.
It was not until he got a little closer to the seven samurai that Ogata noticed something unusual.
The seven warriors were constantly looking around, as if they were looking for something.
Not only Ogata discovered it, but even Makimura found that there was something wrong with the seven warriors in front of him.
"Ah! Found it!"
At this moment, one of the seven warriors suddenly screamed and raised his hand towards Ogata and the other three... to be precise, he pointed at Ogata.
Ogata realized something and narrowed his eyes slightly.
At this distance, it is already difficult to escape.
Ogata turned his head and winked at Makimura and Shimada.
Makimura immediately understood the meaning of Ogata's look: step back and don't interfere.
Knowing that Ogata was doing this for their own good, Makimura raised his hand, grabbed Shimada's arm, and pulled Shimada aside, pretending that he didn't know Ogata and that Ogata just happened to be walking behind them.
Ssss, sss, ssss…
The seven warriors all drew their swords from their waists with swift movements and ran towards Ogata.
Ogata glanced around - the few passers-by around had been scared away by the seven samurai who suddenly drew their swords, and there were no innocent passers-by around.
After confirming that there were no innocent passers-by around, Ogata neither dodged nor evaded, but stood still, waiting for the seven samurai to come over.
The seven samurai rushed to Ogata and surrounded him in a semicircle.
"Let me ask you, you are Ogata Ittosai, right?"
"If you're looking for the executioner Ittosai Ogata Issei, who is wanted by the whole city - yes, it's me. Are you guys bounty hunters?"
"About half an hour ago we were just ordinary ronin."
The leader of the seven warriors was a bald man. The bald man spoke in a deep voice .
“But we are now.”
"Ogata Ittosai, you may not know this, right? Kyoto Prefecture is offering a huge reward for your head."
"As long as I take your head, I can get an additional 100 taels on top of your original 300 taels reward."
"As expected, a big reward will always bring out a brave man... 400 taels in total..." Ogata raised his hand and touched his neck, "I always feel like I'm being underestimated... 400 taels is not enough to take my head."
After putting down the hand that was touching his neck, Ogata slowly placed his left hand on the mouth of the scabbard of Daishikatsu.
"You must have heard of my name, the executioner Ittosai. Are you sure you want to fight against ten thousand enemies with only seven of you?"
"We have certainly heard of the story of the executioner Ittosai who single-handedly killed more than a hundred samurai." The bald man replied in a deep voice, "Even if the seven of us attack together, we may not be your match."
"But... Ogata Ittosai, we have had enough of this life of having no food to eat."
"Compared to losing our lives, we are more afraid of losing money now!"
When he said this, a hint of...ferociousness flashed in the bald man's eyes.
"Except for the swords in our hands, we have nothing else to lose. Apart from fighting with our lives, we have no other way out!"
After listening quietly to the bald man's words, Ogata narrowed his eyes slightly.
He raised his eyes and glanced at the knives of the seven men.
The blades of these seven men's katana were all covered in rust - it was obvious at a glance that they had not been oiled for maintenance for a long time.
These seven men looked ragged and dirty, and they certainly didn't look like people who had extra money to buy knife oil.
