Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 299: The Siege of the Six Great Sword Halls
"Ogata Ittosai." Yin Xin said softly, "Have some tea here. I will soon help you find a place to hide."
" Brother ," Makimura said, "just go with him. Let's hide first and avoid the limelight now."
"...Hmm. So what are you two going to do next?"
"Of course I'm going to fulfill my promise to Lord Kamiyama and help him investigate this murder case." Makimura smiled slightly, "I actually feel the same way as Lord Kamiyama - I also think that this murder case that is currently causing unrest in Kyoto is not as simple as it seems on the surface."
"The mastermind behind this murder is very likely to have other plans... Alas, I can only hope that my and Lord Shenshan's intuition is wrong."
"Shimada, let's go!"
"yes!"
…
…
After Makimura and Shimada left, Ogata knelt on the other side of the low table, sitting opposite Inshin.
Although Inshin made a cup of tea for Ogata, Ogata did not drink it.
"Are you wondering who I am?" Inshin suddenly asked Ogata.
Ogata said nothing, just nodded.
"Stegosaurus is really not nice." Yin Xin chuckled a few times, "He didn't even introduce me to you."
“My name is Yin Xin.”
Yinxin gave a name that was obviously not his real name, and it was obvious that it was a pseudonym or a nickname.
“For the sake of convenience, people call me Yinxin.”
"Let's just consider him as the manager of this evil land."
"If you need any help in the future, you can come to me at Enohara. As long as you pay me, I can help you do anything I can."
As he said this, a strange light flickered in Yinxin's eyes.
"I will." Oofang responded expressionlessly.
"Master Yinxin." Just then, the dwarf came back, "It's ready."
"Okay." Yin Xin nodded gently, "Agong, take Ogata Ittosai with you."
"Yes! Lord Ittosai, please follow me."
…
…
Ogata followed the dwarf silently.
He was surprised to find that the dwarf seemed to be taking him out of the dirty plain.
Leaving Enohara and passing through the alleys filled with sewage and garbage, Ogata returned to Shimabara, which was filled with a lewd atmosphere.
After arriving at Shimabara, the dwarf did not stop walking and walked straight towards a prostitute house located at the entrance of Ujinahara.
There was a sign outside the door of this brothel with two big Chinese characters written on it: Jiwu.
After following the dwarf into the lucky house, Ogata suddenly saw a middle-aged woman who seemed to be the madam of the lucky house standing behind the door, as if waiting for the dwarf and Ogata.
After seeing the dwarf and Ogata, the old procuress immediately smiled happily.
"I'll leave him to you." After saying this calmly, the dwarf turned around and left.
"No problem! Sir Samurai, please follow me!"
Ogata followed the madam to the second floor of the lucky house without knowing what was going on.
The madam led Ogata to a room on the second floor with ease.
After the madam opened the paper sliding door of the room and followed her into the room, Ogata was stunned where he was.
Because inside the room, a woman dressed as a prostitute was kneeling respectfully in the middle of the room.
After seeing Ogata come in, the kneeling prostitute immediately leaned over and performed a very standard salute towards Ogata.
…
…
Kyoto, Fuma's residence.
"Master Fengma!"
Atachi didn't have time to knock on the door slowly, and directly opened the door of Fuma's mansion.
"It's Komachi..."
Fengmo slowly emerged from the living room.
Fuma didn't seem surprised that Atachi would come to his mansion again.
"Master Fuma! Something happened!"
Atachi briefly told Fuma that Ogata was wanted by the whole city.
After listening to A-Ming's story quietly, Fuma nodded:
"As soon as you and Brother Ogata left my house, an official came to my house and told me to be careful of Ogata Ittosai."
"That is to say - Komachi, you and brother Ogata are now lost, right?"
"Hmm..." A-Ming nodded, "I don't know where to find him... so I wanted to come here to see if A-Yi has hidden with you, Master Fuma."
After saying that, Atachi looked up at Fuma's empty mansion.
"But now it seems that it is not here..." A look of extreme loss appeared on Ating's face.
"...Komachi, you're looking for Brother Ogata, right? Why don't you go to Shimabara and take a look?"
"Shimahara?" Ating's face instantly turned red. "Ayi is not the kind of person who would still go to the red-light district at this time..."
"You misunderstood, Komachi."
Fengmo smiled bitterly.
"The lewd area of Shimabara actually hides a place that many Kyoto locals don't know about - Enohara."
"Any disturbance in the area centered on Shimabara will not escape the eyes of Inshin, the manager of Enohara."
"Just now a group of police officers passed by our door."
"I got a piece of news from them: seven bounty hunters were killed."
"And the place where these seven bounty hunters died happened to be very close to Shimabara."
"It is very likely that these seven bounty hunters were killed by Brother Ogata. After all, all the samurai in Kyoto who are short of money are eyeing Brother Ogata's head."
“So – go ask Master Yinxin.”
"If Master Yinxin doesn't have any clues... then we can talk about it later."
"Eihara, huh... Then, Master Fuma! How do we get to Eihara?"
Hearing Atachi's question, Fuma smiled bitterly.
"Komachi, not everyone can enter a place like Eihara."
After saying that, Feng Mo slowly walked down to the ground and put on his straw sandals.
"Come on, Komachi. I'll take you to Eihara."
"I have some friendship with that monk Yinxin, so I asked him if he has any clues about Brother Ogata. He should be happy to answer such a small question."
…
…
Mizuno Nobuyuki is in a very bad mood right now.
Despite receiving medical treatment, his left cheek is still swollen.
Because of several broken teeth, he now has difficulty eating.
But compared to the physical pain, Mizuno's heart hurts more now.
The reason why he opened the sword hall today and showed outsiders the Zhongjuan style of their Qianxue Hall was to attract a new wave of students.
But unexpectedly, there were so many unexpected events.
First, a man with a strong foreign accent suddenly appeared and kept questioning his swordsmanship.
Then a strange man wearing a Tengu mask appeared and asked to compete with him.
Whenever he thought of this strange man wearing a Tengu mask, Mizuno Nobuyuki felt regret and annoyance in his heart.
This "Tengu" knocked him down with one sword, not only breaking several of his teeth, but also making him lose face in front of everyone.
Mizuno's home is integrated with his Sengakukan. His home is located in the backyard of Sengakukan.
Just as Mizuno was staying in his room, applying the ice he had just bought to his swollen left face, thinking hard about how to restore the reputation he had lost today, a report from one of his disciples suddenly came from outside the room:
"Master! Inaba Shigemune of the Metaphysics Hall invites you to come to their Metaphysics Hall. He said that he has something important to discuss with you, Master!"
"Inaba? Okay, I'll be right there."
The Xuanxue Hall is recognized as the leader among the six major sword halls.
The master of the Metaphysics Hall is also recognized as the strongest among the six masters.
Mizuno doesn't like Inaba very much.
However, Inaba's Metaphysics Hall is the leader among the six major sword halls, and Inaba's strength and reputation are also above his, so Mizuno dared not refuse Inaba's invitation.
As he walked along the corridor toward the outside of the sword hall, Mizuno saw quite a few disciples who were just walking in the corridor of the sword hall.
Mizuno's Sengakukan is open to disciples even at night and remains open until Mizuno goes to sleep.
Although it is already night and the grand "Yamaboko Parade" will officially begin in a while, there are still many disciples who love swordsmanship practicing in the sword hall.
Mizuno smiled and nodded to the disciples who were bowing to him one by one.
Looking at these disciples, Mizuno felt much better.
Since the last two months, many more people have come to me and asked to learn sword skills.
In just two months, the number of disciples under Mizuno nearly doubled.
Mizuno's income also continued to increase as a result.
As far as Mizuno knew, it wasn't just his Sengaku Gakuen that was like this, the other five major sword gyms were like this as well. Starting two months ago, the number of people who came to learn from them suddenly increased a lot.
The reason why Mizuno opened the sword gym today and showed his Zhongjuan style to passers-by was because he felt that he should be lucky in the past two months.
So I want to take advantage of this momentum to further expand the number of disciples.
But who knew - I would be in big trouble today.
Sitting in a sedan chair, we arrived at the Metaphysics Museum slowly.
Two disciples of the Metaphysics School were guarding the door of the school. When they saw Mizuno, they immediately led him into the school.
After being led by the two disciples of the Xuanxuekan and entering the dojo of the Xuanxuekan, Mizuno immediately froze in place.
"Why are you all here?" Mizuno asked.
"Same as you." The head of Qingxueguan, Tsuchiya Kiyonari, shrugged, "I received an invitation from Lord Inaba, so I came here."
Except for Mizuno and Inaba, the masters of the other four major sword gyms were all present at this time.
Just when Mizuno was wondering why Inaba had called all the masters of the six major sword gyms, Inaba, who was sitting in the first seat, pointed to the side:
"Mizuno, please sit down. Everyone is finally here."
After Mizuno sat down on Inaba's right, Inaba cleared his throat and said seriously:
"Everyone, I will get straight to the point."
"Some of you may or may not be aware of this."
"The authorities have already found out who the murderer is who has been on the run and committing crimes since last night."
"It is Ogata Ittosai."
"Ogata Ittosai?!" As soon as Inaba finished speaking, Mizuno screamed.
"That's right." Inaba nodded. "I heard from some of my friends who are officials that almost all the witnesses said after seeing the wanted poster of Ogata Ittosai that this was the man."
A lot of cold sweat began to break out from Mizuno's forehead.
Looking at Mizuno's miserable appearance, the other gym owners all looked gloating.
They all knew that about a few months ago, after Mizuno learned from the big boss Abe Riri that Ogata Ittosai was captured by Hasegawa Heizo in Tatsuno Domain, he paid a large sum of money to buy a letter of thanks from Abe Riri for "heroically stepping forward and defeating Ogata Ittosai."
This behavior of "buying a letter of thanks from acquaintances in the government to enhance one's own reputation" is not new.
But after buying the certificate of appreciation, the person whom I had belittled and slandered suddenly appeared before my eyes - this scene was very fresh.
“Didn’t Ogata Ittosai have been arrested a long time ago…?” Mizuno’s face was full of disbelief.
"It is possible that the person who was captured before was not Ogata Ittosai, but someone who looked very much like Ogata Ittosai." The head of Seigakukan, Tsuchiya Chikinari, said in a mocking tone.
"That's enough." Inaba said solemnly, "It doesn't matter whether the murderer is really Ogata Ittosai or not."
"I have called you all here because I have a proposal to make."
"As of now, as far as I know, 45 people have been killed by Ogata Ittosai."
"Among these 45 people, 37 are disciples from our six major sword halls."
After hearing what Inaba said, everyone's faces turned slightly more serious.
Even the panic on Mizuno's face slowly disappeared.
His Qianxueguan had the fewest victims among the six major sword academies, with only four people killed.
As far as Mizuno knew, the worst was at Seigakukan, where 12 students were killed.
Mizuno was also very anxious about his disciple's murder, but he had no other choice but to hope that the government would catch the murderer as soon as possible.
After learning that the murderer was actually Ogata Ittosai, Mizuno wished that the government would arrest the murderer immediately.
"I believe you should have heard similar rumors to some extent." Inaba continued in a deep voice , "Some citizens have criticized the swords of our six major sword halls for being useless. A total of 37 disciples were killed, and no one was able to fight against the thieves."
"...Yes. There is indeed such a rumor." The head of Qingxueguan, Tsuchiya Kisei, nodded solemnly, "Many citizens have secretly laughed at our swordsmanship and said it is useless."
As soon as Tsuchiya finished speaking, the atmosphere around him instantly became heavier...
They all knew what it would mean if the reputation of their sword hall was damaged.
This means that no one will want to work for them anymore and their income will drop drastically.
At the thought of a possible decrease in income, both Mizuno and the other gym owners shuddered to varying degrees.
"So—we can't just sit there and wait for death!"
Inaba's voice gradually became louder.
"In order to restore the reputation of our six great sword halls, I propose: mobilize all of our disciples to work with the officials of Kyoto Prefecture to capture Ogata Ittosai."
"Even if we fail to capture Ogata Ittosai in the end, we can show the citizens our determination to never tolerate the harm to our disciples! It will also be of great benefit to our reputation and word of mouth."
"There is also the Yamaboko Parade tonight, and the Kyoto Prefecture must allocate some manpower to manage the streets of the Yamaboko Parade, so the manpower is definitely stretched. They will definitely welcome our assistance in their search for Ogata Ittosai."
After hearing what Inaba said, Mizuno and others were all stunned.
"...This is a good suggestion." The head of the Qiangxue Hall, Okudaira Katsushige, was the first to nod his head, "But - that Ogata Ittosai is a great swordsman who can defeat a hundred people alone. Our disciples may not be able to match Ogata Ittosai..."
"We are only assisting the government in searching for Ogata Ittosai." Inaba said, "When the disciples encounter someone who looks like Ogata Ittosai, they should immediately inform the nearby police officers and have them go."
Inaba turned his head and glanced at the masters of the various halls in front of him.
"Does anyone else have any questions?"
Everyone looked at each other and no one spoke.
"Then let's vote. Those who are in favor of mobilizing their disciples to assist the officers in searching the city for Ogata Ittosai, raise your hands."
After that, Inaba was the first to raise his hand.
Mizuno, who hoped that the thief, who might be Ogata Ittosai, would be caught quickly, followed closely behind.
After hesitating for a while, the other four hands also raised up...
