Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 315: The Unspoken Rules of the Warriors (Part 1)
The two guards naturally knew the names of the Fire Thief Kai and Hasegawa Heizo.
After learning that the visitor was actually the chief of the Fire Thief Kai, the two guards immediately showed panic on their faces. After a brief discussion, one of the two guards stayed where he was to continue guarding the gate, while the other quickly slipped in.
Not long after, the guard who had just slipped into the prison came back.
The guard who returned to the sight of Hasegawa and others did not come back alone.
He also brought back an official who was a bit thin and about 30 years old.
The official arrived at the door, looked at Hasegawa Heizo in front of him, and then bowed quickly:
"Master Hasegawa, long time no see."
As soon as the official finished asking the question, Hasegawa smiled and said to Onoue:
"It's been a while since we last met. Onoue-kun, how have you been lately?"
Seeing that Hasegawa still remembered him, Onoue immediately felt elated.
This was not the first time Onoue had met Hasegawa.
In order to pursue the wanted criminal, Hasegawa came to Kyoto several times.
As for Onoue, who was a prisoner of the southern prison with a sword from Ishiide, he had met Hasegawa several times in order to cooperate with Hasegawa's work.
He was just a small Ishiide Taito in a prison in Kyoto. Except for the supreme power in the prison in the south of the city, he was nothing in other places.
In terms of rank, he is not even in the same league as Hasegawa, the superior of the Fire Thief Kai.
The high-ranking Hasegawa not only remembered his name, but also greeted him warmly - this made Onoue feel like his body was about to float up.
After Hasegawa and Onoue exchanged a few simple greetings, Hasegawa cleared his throat and said seriously:
"Onoue-kun, I came to your place this time to investigate a case."
Hasegawa will come to Kyoto to investigate the mysterious fire that occurred in Rakugai two months ago - Onoue had received similar news a while ago.
So Onoue immediately realized that the case mentioned by Hasegawa should be the "Rakugai Fire Case".
After nodding solemnly, Onoue turned sideways and made a "please" gesture towards the door behind him.
" Lord , this is not the place to talk. Let's go inside and talk later. Um... Lord Hasegawa, who are these two?"
The "two people" that Onoue mentioned were Asai and Shimada who were following Hasegawa.
"These two are my subordinates." Hasegawa said, "It's just that I have some special tasks for them later, so I didn't let them wear the uniforms we modified for the fire thieves."
"So that's how it is." Onoue nodded, walked in front, and led Hasegawa and his group through the gate, through the long corridor, and into a room for receiving guests.
As soon as Onoue closed the door, Hasegawa said to Onoue directly:
"I suspect that a certain prisoner currently detained in your prison is related to the case I am investigating, so I want to temporarily bring this prisoner out for interrogation and return him to you after the interrogation."
Hearing Hasegawa's words, Onoue nodded solemnly:
"Master Hasegawa, who are you going to mention?"
The Fire Thieves Kai is a special armed security organization.
When the officials of the Fire and Robbery Reform were investigating cases, the daimyo and officials from all over the country had to fully cooperate with them.
Things like coming to the prison to bring people for interrogation was one of the most common things done by officials in the Fire and Thieves Reform.
When Hasegawa came to Kyoto to investigate cases several times before, he also went to the two major prisons in Kyoto to pick up people several times.
When he saw Hasegawa coming to visit them just now, Onoue vaguely guessed that Hasegawa was probably coming to their prison to ask for someone again.
Hasegawa did not directly say the name of the criminal he was going to mention.
Instead, he handed a piece of paper to Onoue.
Onoue unfolded the piece of paper, and when he saw the name written on it, his face turned pale instantly.
"Makino Yahachi? This..."
"Why?" Hasegawa asked back in a calm tone, "Don't tell me that Makimura Yahachi is not being held here with you."
"I have checked in advance. Makimura Yahachi is being held here with you now."
"This... Makimura Yahachi is indeed being held in my prison now... But... the big boss has warned me: no matter who comes, Makimura Yahachi must not be released..."
Hearing Onoue's words, Hasegawa frowned and thought to himself:
——As expected…
Hasegawa had long guessed that Abe Riri, who was trying to disgust Makimura himself and use Makimura to disgust Kamiyama, would definitely inform the prison staff in advance and ask them to take good care of Makimura.
Because Hasegawa had already guessed Abe's move, he was neither panicked nor confused after hearing Onoue's words.
"I don't care who he is." Hasegawa's tone suddenly became stern, "Hurry and bring Makimura Yahachi here!"
Hasegawa is the chief of the Hōtsuke Thieves Kai, whose base is in Edo. It is a special security organization directly under the shogunate.
Therefore, Hasegawa didn't need to give any face to Abe Riri, who was the big boss of Kyoto Prefecture.
In terms of official rank, Hasegawa was far above Abe Riri.
The two also belonged to different bureaucratic systems. Even if they offended Abe Riri, it would not cause any losses or negative impact to Hasegawa.
But Onoue is different.
Onoue is Ishiide Taito from the Jonan Prison in Kyoto.
Hasegawa dared not to give Abe Riri any face, but Onoue could not.
Whether it is Hasegawa or Abe, Onoue cannot afford to offend either of them.
For a moment, Onoue was sweating profusely and felt extremely stressed, not knowing what to do.
Seeing that Onoue's face was pale and his lips were moving wildly but he couldn't utter a word, Hasegawa's expression slowly softened.
"...How about this, Onoue."
Hasegawa slowly approached Onoue, then stretched out his arm and hooked it around Onoue's shoulders.
"You should also know that we, the Fire Thieves, have our own prison."
"I know." Although he didn't know why Hasegawa suddenly brought this up, Onoue still nodded obediently.
"Actually, we, the Fire Thief Kai, are a little short of manpower in all aspects."
"After the shogunate allocated new funds to us, we are now recruiting troops in full swing."
"Our prison is in need of someone with prison management experience ."
"Do you want to join us, the Fire Thieves?"
Hasegawa's words were very cryptic.
But Onoue was a veteran who had been in the officialdom for many years, and he immediately understood what Hasegawa meant by what he had just said.
Onoue raised his head and cast an excited, excited and puzzled look at Hasegawa.
Seeing the prison in Kyoto and seeing the prison in the fire thief Kai - the two may seem the same, but they are actually completely different.
Going to the fire thief's prison to look after him is definitely much more promising than staying in Kyoto to look after the prison.
Onoue already had a clear understanding of himself - if he stayed in Kyoto, there might not be any new development until he retired.
After all, Kyoto is only this big.
But if you go to the Fire Thief Reform place, it will be different.
The base of the fire thief Kai was in Edo.
In terms of size, prosperity, and opportunities, Edo is far superior to Kyoto.
Working for the Fire Thief Kai, the room for advancement is much greater than staying in Kyoto.
After a brief moment of excitement, the excitement and agitation in Onoue's eyes gradually faded, and he slowly regained his composure.
"…Lord Hasegawa, what is your relationship with Makimura Yahachi? In order to bring Makimura Yahachi out, you even offered me such a benefit…"
In order to bring Yahachi Makimura out, he did not hesitate to offer Onoue such benefits - no matter how you think about it, Hasegawa wanted to bring Yahachi Makimura out not just to investigate the strange fire in Luowai.
"First of all, we, the Fire Thief Kai, are recruiting soldiers right now, and we are indeed short of people with experience in prison management. Then, as to why I went to such great lengths to get Makimura Yahachi out of prison, don't ask me any more questions about this question." Hasegawa said expressionlessly, "Tell me. Are you willing to work for us, the Fire Thief Kai?"
"…Lord Hasegawa, if I help you, what if you break your promise and don't take me to the Fire Bandits' Camp?"
"My name 'Ima Ooka' should be enough for you to trust me, right?"
"..." Onoue remained silent.
…
…
In order to facilitate the management of Mucun, Abe specifically requested that Mucun be sent to a "single cell".
Mucun folded his arms across his chest, leaning against a corner of the cell.
He just wanted to close his eyes and rest, but he fell asleep without realizing it.
Mucun had a dream.
He saw events from the past in his dream.
Various scenes appeared before Mucun's eyes, and then slowly disappeared.
In the end, only one frame of the picture remained frozen in front of Mucun's eyes, and gradually a specific and clear outline was formed.
At a glance, Makimura recognized the scene before him: this was the first day that he and Junroku Kunieda, his brother who had been struggling to survive together on Sanji Street in Kyoto, accepted Kamiyama's recruitment and became governors of Kyoto Prefecture.
He and Shunliu crowded together in front of a mirror as tall as a person in the magistrate's office, looking at themselves through the mirror, wearing brand new clothes and with two swords hanging around their waists.
With the help of Kamiyama, his and Junroku's household registration was changed to "samurai".
Since he is a samurai, he naturally has to have the symbol of a samurai: a sword.
The swords he and Shunliu wore on their waists were given to them by Shenshan, who called it "gift for taking office."
Both he and Shunliu were excited when they looked at themselves in the mirror.
Their long-cherished wish - to become warriors - was finally fulfilled.
"Ahaha." Shunliu suddenly said to Makimura beside him, "We have finally become famous warriors. Our long-cherished wish has come true. What are your next goals or things you want to do?"
Mucun pondered for a moment.
"I am no longer a Yakuza, but a samurai, a yoriki of Kyoto, and an official."
"My next goal... should be to be a good official who lives up to the name of 'samurai'."
There was a fighting spirit in Mucun's eyes.
"Master Kamiyama told us that his next goal is to 'clean up' the Yakuza entrenched in Kyoto, especially in Sanzi Street."
"So my short-term goal now is to help Lord Kamiyama 'clean up' Kyoto and wipe out all the Yakuza in Kyoto."
"What a coincidence." Shunliu grinned, "We both thought of the same thing."
As if they had agreed in advance, Makimura and Shunliu both raised their heads and looked at the blue sky outside the window beside them.
They are both only 17 years old this year.
They are all at an age where they are full of energy and most suitable for achieving great things.
Whether it was Makimura or Shunliu, at that moment they were full of hope for the future and full of confidence in themselves.
They believed that having finally fulfilled their wish and become samurai, they would live up to the name of "samurai" and become famous samurai in the future.
At this point in the dream, the picture gradually became blurred.
Looking at the , Mucun couldn't help but call Shunliu's name.
However, no matter how hard Mucun shouted, he could not utter a single word.
The picture blurred, distorted, and reorganized into a new picture.
The next scene is the same as before, it is inside the magistrate's office.
There is not much change in the appearance of Makimura and Shunliu. After all, this is just the picture of the two of them half a year after they became Yuriki.
Although they had only been in office for a short period of half a year, the two of them had gradually established a firm foothold in the magistrate's office due to their many achievements such as "wiping out the Third Prince Street" and began to gain the support of some of their subordinates.
Makimura and Junroku are currently in the office of the boss Abe Riri, arguing loudly with Abe Riri.
"Lord Abe! Why don't you arrest that fellow Sakai Jinshiro!" Shunroku roared at Abe, "This bastard used a human to test his knife, and there is evidence! Why don't you let us arrest Sakai Jinshiro!"
Abe looked unfazed by Shunroku's rant.
First he stretched out his little finger to pick his ear, then said in a light tone:
"Kunieda-kun, I want to correct your wording just now - the person Sakai tested his sword on was not a human, but Eta."
"People are people, and Eta is Eta - there is a huge difference between the two."
"And, you two 'former Yakuza' have only been samurai for a short time, so you probably don't understand many of the conventions between samurai."
When saying the word "former Yakuza", Abe emphasized the tone and used a sarcastic tone.
"Although Lord Ieyasu issued an order two hundred years ago to forbid us samurai to test our swords on living people."
"But in the past two hundred years, many samurai have ignored Lord Ieyasu's ban."
A hideous smile appeared on Abe's face.
"Many warriors would secretly kill people in the middle of the night to test their swords."
"As long as the one being killed is Eta and they don't go too far, we will always turn a blind eye."
"Besides - do you know where Sakai Jinshiro came from? It would be more trouble than good to upset the Sakai family over such a trivial matter."
"So I told you not to arrest Sakai Renshiro. This is a disguised way of protecting you."
"Once you understand what I'm saying, get out of here."
