Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 303: Western Rifle with a Red Moon

The one who would snipe Inaba - Ogata thought about it and could only come up with one suspect: the group that kidnapped Inaba's wife and daughter!

The only request made by the person who kidnapped Inaba 's wife and daughter to Inaba was to call on all the masters and apprentices of the six major sword halls to assist the officials and bounty hunters in capturing Ogata.

After hearing from Inaba just now the only request made to him by this unknown group of people, Obaka couldn't help but recall what Makimura had said to him:

(Actually, I feel the same as Lord Kamiyama. I also feel that the murder case that is currently causing unrest in Kyoto is not as simple as it seems on the surface. The mastermind behind this murder case is very likely other intentions.)

Thinking of what Makimura had said to him, and the fact that Inaba's wife and daughter were kidnapped and threatened, Ogata had to come up with a hypothesis:

The people who kidnapped Inaba's wife and daughter, and the people who caused him to be wanted by the whole city, are most likely the same group of people!

For a certain purpose, all the city's officials and bounty hunters were sent to hunt down Ogata, and this further increased Ogata's enemies...

So no matter what, Ogata had sufficient reasons to chase after him and catch the person who sniped Inaba.

The small house on the third floor from which smoke was just coming out was about 130 meters away from the Metaphysics Museum.

If we rush over to catch him now, we still have a chance to catch the murderer.

At this time, A-Ming didn't know what had happened.

Only a single gunshot was heard coming from the three-story small house not far from the Metaphysics Museum.

Feeling puzzled, he ran over with Fuma to take a look, and saw Ogata jumping out of the window and heard Ogata's shout.

Although she had no idea what was going on, after hearing Ogata's shout, Atachi didn't say anything and just nodded silently.

After separating from Ogata at the ramen restaurant, Atachi changed her shoes for convenience.

I put on the white tabi I bought temporarily and changed my wooden clogs into straw sandals.

Ogata and Atachi ran towards the small building as fast as they could, and saw many civilians with terrified faces along the way.

The loud gunshot just now scared many civilians nearby.

During this long period of peace and prosperity, ordinary people had not heard the sound of firearms for a long time.

Many people didn't even recognize that it was gunfire, thinking it was thunder.

At first, Fuma wanted to follow Ogata and Atachi to chase the murderer.

It’s a pity that he is too old to keep up with Ogata and Atachi who are running at full speed.

By the time Ogata and Atachi rushed to the downstairs of the small building, Fuma had been completely shaken off by them.

At this moment, Ogata could no longer care about Fuma and could only leave Fuma behind temporarily and let Fuma follow slowly behind him.

Rushing to the bottom of the small building, Ating, who had the best eyesight, raised his hand and pointed in a certain direction.

"Ayi, look!"

Ogata looked up in the direction of Atachi's finger. A man dressed in black from head to toe jumped from the highest floor of the three-story house to the roof of a nearby house. He then moved on the roofs of the houses, jumping from one house to another...

Although his eyesight was not as good as Atachi's, Ogata could still vaguely see that the man was carrying a musket on his back.

After discovering this person's whereabouts, neither Ogata nor Atachi said a word to each other.

But at this moment, the two of them performed the same action in a very tacit understanding - turning over and jumping onto the roof of a nearby house.

Although Ogata's Shiranui-style stealth technique was only at the "elementary level", he was still able to jump onto low-rise houses and move between them - Ogata could still do such things.

After meeting up on the roof of a private house with Atachi, Ogata kept his eyes on the murderer while jumping from one adjacent house to another, moving closer to the murderer little by little.

It was night time now, and the light was dim. If one was not careful, one would lose sight of the murderer. So both Ogata and Atachi's eyes were fixed on the murderer, not daring to take their eyes off the murderer for even a moment.

This was the first time Ogata moved on the roof of the house.

I have to say - I felt a little uneasy.

Houses of this era were basically made of wood, and the roofs of some houses had obviously not been repaired for a long time. When you stepped on them, they would make a creaking sound, which was really quite scary...

The sight of Ogata and his group running on the roofs of houses attracted the attention of many passers-by on the street.

Many civilians stopped to watch Ogata and others moving around on the rooftops, and exclaimed in varying degrees of surprise.

The murderer seemed to have noticed that someone was chasing him, so he began to change his escape route.

Start taking routes that are...not easy for Ogata and Atachi to catch up with.

As a result, Ogata and A-Machi found it increasingly difficult to pursue...

After the murderer turned into a new neighborhood, Ogata couldn't help but curse "Damn it" inwardly.

In order to follow the murderer into this new neighborhood, Ogata would have to jump over the street below and onto the roof of the house across the street from here.

But Ogata didn't think he had the ability to jump across such a wide street from one side to the other...

Just as Ogata was thinking about what to do, he noticed from the corner of his eye that there was a Yamaboko standing not far from him...

The height of this Yamaboko was just slightly higher than the nearby houses. Many civilians gathered around this Yamaboko, seemingly admiring it as it was about to be paraded.

Without any hesitation, Obe gritted his teeth and rushed towards the Yamaboko.

After a run-up and accelerating to a sufficient speed, Ogata leaped suddenly and jumped towards the top of the Yamaboko.

The moment his feet touched the top of the Yamaboko, Ogata used the Yamaboko as a stepping stone and jumped to the roof of a house on the opposite street in one breath.

After landing safely, Ogata couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Behind him, he heard many scoldings from the people who were admiring the Yamaboko - but Ogata had no time to apologize to them. After using the Yamaboko to successfully jump onto a house across the street, Ogata continued to chase after the murderer.

It was much smoother for A-machi than for Ogata. She didn't need to jump the Yamaboko like Ogata and keep moving on the roofs of houses.

The murderer's speed and skill in moving on the roof of a house were obviously not as good as Ating's.

Ating was closing the distance between him and the murderer little by little at a steady pace.

After closing the distance to a certain extent, Atachi reached her hand into her collar and took out her Suying.

He pointed the gun at the murderer, pulled the hammer, and pulled the trigger - Ating's movements were as smooth as flowing water and completed in one go.

Ating didn't just shoot once.

After firing a shot, he cocked the hammer again and shot again... directly emptying all four bullets in the Suying gun's chamber.

Ogata didn't know how many of the four bullets fired by Atachi hit the target.

The murderer's body was seen staggering, and then he fell softly from the house.

Although Ogata felt excited, he soon became troubled.

Because - before they knew it, they had run to a place where there were few people.

Because there were few people and few houses nearby, it was impossible to get close to the place where the murderer fell by moving on the roof.

In desperation, Ogata could only temporarily jump down from the house and jump back onto the street, moving on the ground instead. However, Atachi, who was chasing the murderer in a different direction, had densely populated houses nearby, so he still had enough energy to move on the roofs of the houses, so Atachi still chose to "walk on the roofs" to get closer to the murderer.

Although the murderer had been injured by Atachi, just in case, Ogata, who had landed on the ground, continued to run as fast as he could, hoping to reach the murderer even a moment faster.

Because it is a full-speed run without any reservation, the direction is inevitably difficult to control.

While turning a corner, Ogata accidentally bumped into the shoulder of a man who was also turning the corner from the other side.

"Hey! Why don't you look at the road when you walk?!"

The man whose shoulder was hit by Ogata shouted in displeasure.

For some reason, Ogata felt that the voice sounded familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere.

When he turned around, a look of surprise immediately appeared on Ogata's face.

— Kondo?

The person who accidentally bumped into each other was the man who had boldly questioned Mizuno Nobuyuki's swordsmanship at Sengakukan today: Kondo Uchisuke.

Ogata recognized Kondo, but Kondo did not recognize Ogata at this time - because when the two met for the first time, Ogata was wearing a Tengu mask.

Ogata didn't have any extra time to waste on Kondo, so after saying "sorry", he hurriedly ran towards the direction where the murderer fell.

"Hey! Your apology is so perfunctory!"

Ogata ignored Kondo's shouting behind him and just kept on walking.

Ogata and A-machi arrived at the place where the murderer fell almost at the same time.

The murderer fell in an alley between houses, and there was no one nearby.

At this moment, the murderer was covering his stomach with one hand and holding the wall with the other, struggling to get up.

After seeing Ogata and Atachi attacking him from both sides, the murderer paused.

Then he slowly fell to the ground.

Looking at the murderer who suddenly fell to the ground, Ogata had some ominous premonitions in his heart.

He ran to the murderer, helped him up, and looked at the murderer's face. Ogata's pupils immediately shrank slightly with surprise.

The murderer had an ordinary, unremarkable face.

But this ordinary face now turned a strange purple color.

Large streams of blood flowed from the corners of the murderer's tightly closed lips.

It only takes a glance to figure out what happened to the murderer - he bit his tongue and committed suicide!

After cursing "Damn it" inwardly, Ogata forced the man's mouth open to see if he could save the murderer.

The murderer's mouth was full of blood at this time. Although his vision was blocked by the thick blood, Ogata could still see that there was no severed tongue in the murderer's mouth.

——This guy...! Did he swallow his bitten-off tongue? !

Ogata stuck his fingers into the man's mouth, trying to pull the guy's severed tongue out of his throat.

However, the murderer's severed tongue had been swallowed very deep and could not be pulled out with just fingers.

The fat tongue seemed to block the guy's throat, causing him to choke.

When Ogata helped this guy up, he was already in a state close to death.

When Ogata put his finger into the man's mouth, the man was no longer breathing...

I just don't know if this person choked to death on his own tongue, or on the huge amount of blood...

Just now, when Ogata was rescuing this guy, Atachi took the rifle from his back and looked it up and down carefully.

After Ogata laid the murderer's body flat on the ground with a gloomy face, Atachi, who was standing next to Ogata, said in a deep voice:

"Ayi...this group of people is incredible..."

Atachi handed the rifle in his hand toward Ogata.

"This is the latest iron cannon of the Nanman. It is also called a flintlock rifle."

"And it's not just any flintlock."

"See this thing inside the barrel of a gun? It's called rifling."

"With a rifled flintlock rifle, both the range and accuracy will be greatly improved."

"According to my father, even in the country of the southern barbarians, this kind of iron cannon with rifling is a rare thing..."

"A flintlock rifle with rifling?" Ogata muttered, "No wonder this guy was able to accurately hit Inaba at that distance just now..."

Although Ogata said this, he knew in his heart that even with this rifled flintlock rifle, it was still extremely difficult to accurately hit the target at a distance of nearly 130 meters.

Only a rare and gifted shooter like Ating could perform accurate shooting at this distance.

After returning the flintlock rifle to A-Machi, Ogata sighed softly:

"This group of people really has an unusual background..."

Owning this rifle, which is quite rare even in Western countries today.

We also have snipers who can carry out accurate shooting at a distance of hundreds of meters.

At the same time, this sniper is also a soldier who can bite his tongue to commit suicide without hesitation when he sees the enemy approaching...

But not everyone has the courage to bite their tongue to commit suicide.

Combining these three points, it is not difficult to infer that the power behind the scenes is not ordinary, not an ordinary force...

Ordinary organizations couldn't even get hold of the rifled guns, let alone the matchlock guns that the Edo Shogunate still used.

After taking the rifle back from Ogata's hand, A-Machi looked at the rifle again.

"Um?"

Just then, A-Ming let out a confused cry.