Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 334 Fireworks and Silver Flowers

Although Shunliu's final straight stab did not hit Mucun's vitals and did not take his life, the large wound on his abdomen would not have made him feel good no matter what.

Mucun covered the huge wound on his abdomen, blocked the bloody hole with his palm, and walked towards the bustling street outside the "white land".

As soon as he stepped onto the street, Mucun saw someone he knew.

"Makino-senpai! I finally found you... How did you become like this?"

Shimada ran towards Makimura with a look of surprise on his face.

"It's Shimada... This is a long story. I'll tell you how I became what I am now. First, tell me, have all the bombs on Yamaboko been dismantled?"

"It's safe now!" Shimada nodded vigorously.

Shimada briefly recounted how he and Hasegawa led the officers they mobilized to dismantle the bombs on Yamaboko.

Among the officials they mobilized, there were many old men who had been working in Kyoto for decades.

Under the guidance of the old men, they took one shortcut after another.

At the same time, he exercised the privileges unique to officials over and over again, ordering all civilians who were blocking the road ahead to move aside.

Seeing such a large group of officials, no one would dare to go against them.

After running so desperately, they finally arrived at the scene of Yamaboko's parade when Yamaboko had only walked less than half of the distance.

After arriving at the site of the Yamaboko parade, they did not say anything and directly requested to temporarily suspend the parade. Then they surrounded the twenty or so Yamaboko and prevented anyone from approaching them. At the same time, the officers searched for all square unidentified objects in the Yamaboko according to the descriptions of Shimada and Hasegawa.

The officers' behavior of forcibly storming into the scene of the Yamaboko parade and rudely demanding that the parade be temporarily stopped naturally aroused opposition and disgust from many citizens present.

Some citizens even shouted at the officers excitedly, asking them to get out quickly.

Because there is no extra time to explain what happened to these ignorant citizens.

So the police officers were simple and rough - after they showed their various types of catching gear, each more amazing than the other, the citizens who had just been indignant immediately became quiet and well-behaved.

Yamaboko come in big and small sizes, but no matter what size it is, there is not much space inside to store explosive bombs.

After a short while, the officers found strange square objects in each mountain boko.

As soon as they saw the officials rushing into the venue of the Yamaboko parade, the expressions of some of the pullers responsible for pulling the Yamaboko changed.

The expressions on the faces of these porters became strange, some of them turned pale, dropped the long ropes in their hands that were pulling the Yamaboko, and turned around to run away.

Some of them had fierce looks on their faces and threw down the long ropes in their hands, but they did not run away. Instead, they ran towards the Yamaboko that they were responsible for pulling, intending to detonate the bomb in the Yamaboko right now.

When it comes to arresting people, the police officers are all professionals.

The officials may not be able to deal with people with great skills like Ogata and Makimura.

But the officers were more than capable of dealing with such ordinary people.

Except for a few "gravediggers" who hid in the crowd and escaped successfully under the cover of the crowd, the rest of those who planned to escape, or those who planned to immediately detonate the bomb in the Yamaboko, were basically captured by the officers.

After confirming that there were no more explosive bombs in each yamaboko, the officers took away the porters who had revealed their identities and informed the surrounding citizens that the yamaboko parade could continue.

The citizens around were basically confused until the end and had no idea what was going on.

Although many porters were captured, their number was not so low that they would suffer any serious consequences, and the Yamaboko patrol was still able to continue.

The sudden intrusion of the police officers was a not-so-small episode in the Yamaboko patrol tonight.

Now that the officials had left, everyone at the parade site regained their spirits and continued the parade.

Under Hasegawa's command, the officers did not actually go far.

They stayed outside the parade site and monitored the scene.

It was Hasegawa's idea to continue staying outside the parade site.

Although many problematic tractors who had revealed their identities had been captured, there might still be some members of the "Gravediggers" mixed in with the tractors. It's just that they neither ran away nor tried to detonate the bomb immediately, so they successfully continued to hide among the tractors.

After the Yamaboko parade was over, all the haulers at the parade site would be taken away, and then they would be investigated one by one to see if there were any who had escaped the net - this was Hasegawa's plan.

Hasegawa's plan was approved by almost all officials.

After successfully removing the bomb from Yamaboko and resolving the crisis, Shimada ran out and followed the direction that Makimura had just left, looking for Makimura bit by bit.

Then he ran into Mucun, who had just walked out of the "white land" where he had fought a decisive battle with Shunliu, and was covered in blood and could hardly walk steadily.

After learning that Yamaboko's crisis was resolved, Makimura's expression relaxed, as if a huge stone had been lifted from his heart.

But within a breath, the expression on Mucun's face became tense again.

"We can't relax yet..." Mucun said softly, "There are still many members of the 'Gravedigger' mixed in the six major sword halls... We have to find them as soon as possible..."

"About this..." Shimada smiled bitterly, "Makimura-senpai, you don't have to worry about it."

"The members of the Gravedigger group that sneaked into the six major sword halls should have been killed."

"What?" Makimura looked at Shimada in astonishment. "Killed? Who killed him?"

"I just heard it from a passerby when I was looking for you."

Shimada concisely repeated to Makimura what he had just heard from the passerby.

The masters of the six major sword halls and many disciples were killed by unknown persons. The surviving disciples suspected Ogata of being the murderer, so they gathered in Nimukai Town and demanded that Ogata come for a confrontation.

Then Nijo Castle was suddenly attacked by others.

For some unknown reason, the disciples of the six major sword halls that had originally gathered in Nimukai Town began to flock to Nijo Castle.

Then... most of the disciples from the six major sword halls were killed or injured and fled from Nijo Castle...

Based on the known information, it is not difficult for Makimura to infer that the so-called "disciples" who gathered in Nimukai Town and demanded that Ogata come out for confrontation should just be the thief crying "stop thief" and are members of the "gravediggers".

After all, apart from the members of the "gravediggers" who were mixed in the various sword gyms, no one had the ability to kill so many people in the sword gyms scattered in different places in such a short time.

After listening to Shimada's retelling, Makimura was stunned and said:

"The people who attacked Nijo Castle...could they be..."

Shimada smiled bitterly:

"It should be him..."

"...Ha." After a moment of silence, Makimura chuckled with mixed emotions, "It's really something... So... this is what the flames of Nijo Castle are like..."

Whoosh…

At this moment, Makimura and Shimada both heard the sound of something rising into the sky not far away.

As soon as the two looked in the direction of the sound, they saw a red "flower" blooming in the sky.

It's fireworks.

"The fireworks are starting..." Makura said softly.

Makimura was also clear about the schedule of tonight's activities - first there would be the Yamaboko parade, and after the Yamaboko parade ended, the fireworks display that Kamiyama had specially added this year would begin.

Now that fireworks have been launched, it means that the Yamaboko Parade has ended or is about to end.

It was like a chain reaction. After the first firework went up into the sky, one firework after another rose up, emitting colorful lights in the sky, illuminating most of the sky.

Those who were responsible for setting off the fireworks were all "temporary workers" hired temporarily by the government from the public.

Their task is to light the fireworks when the time is almost up.

Some of them also saw flames coming out of Nijo Castle and realized that something big might have happened, but because no one came to tell them to stop the fireworks, when they saw that the time was almost up, they lit the fireworks diligently, causing the sky to emit clusters of lights of different colors one after another.

…

Oike Street, Kyoto.

When the Yamaboko parade began, Granny Gao followed the Yamaboko along with the crowd, moving slowly along the street together.

When they reached Oike-dori Street, Granny Gao, who was already old, felt a little exhausted and could not walk anymore, so she went to the side to rest.

Although she couldn't follow Yamaboko to the end, Granny Gao was very satisfied.

When the fireworks took off, Granny Gao and everyone around her immediately looked up at the sky.

…

Kyoto, Ehara.

"Insin-sama."

Yin Xin's personal attendant, A Gong, knelt on one knee beside Yin Xin and said respectfully to him:

"Many people want to go out and watch the fireworks..."

Before Agong finished speaking, Yinxin, who was reading a book, said without hesitation:

"Let them go. This place is not a good place to watch fireworks. There are not many times in a year when you can watch fireworks. Let those who want to watch fireworks enjoy it."

"yes!"

"Shenshan is a guy who dares to think and act..."

Yin Xin suddenly let out a chuckle.

"In order to make the people of Kyoto who have been living a hard life in recent years happy during this year's Gion Festival, they decided to add a fireworks display to the Gion Festival... Only a brave guy like Kamiyama could come up with such an unconventional idea..."

After saying that, Yinxin closed the book in his hand and stood up.

"Agong, let's go."

"Master Yinxin," Agong asked doubtfully, "where are we going?"

"Of course I'm going to watch the fireworks." Yin thought, "The government spent so much money to buy so many fireworks, it would be a shame if I didn't go and see them."

…

Shimabara, Kyoto.

"Sister...I heard the sound of fireworks..."

Hatsukaze, whose body was covered with the red spots characteristic of syphilis, said this weakly to Dieyin who was feeding her medicine.

"Yes." Dieyin put the empty medicine bowl in her hand aside, "Come, Chufeng, I'll help you up."

Dieyin helped Chufeng up, who had long been unable to get up on his own, and then helped Chufeng to the window beside him so that Chufeng could see the fireworks blooming in the distant sky.

The prostitutes who were still behind the wooden fences now moved closer to the wooden fences in front of them so that they could better see the sky outside.

…

Kyoto, in a burned area.

Dousuke and others, who had just been watching the flames rising from Nijo Castle, now turned their eyes to the side to look at the fireworks blooming everywhere in the sky.

…

Nishi Honganji Temple, Kyoto.

Those dignitaries who were originally going to hold a banquet tonight escaped from Nijo Castle through the secret passage of Nijo Castle and fled all the way to Nishi Honganji Temple in Nijo Castle before they dared to stop.

After the fireworks were lit, these dignitaries also looked up to watch.

Of course - there are also some people who don’t have the energy or mood to watch the fireworks.

For example: Toda Tadahiro, the chief minister of Kyoto.

Another example: Owari domain daimyo Tokugawa Munemitsu.

Toda's face was now pale, and cold sweat kept coming out of his forehead.

Tokugawa Munemitsu remained calm and walked slowly to Toda.

"Lord Toda, is there anything you want to tell me?"

Hearing Tokugawa Munemune's words, Toda's face turned even paler...

…

Ogata was also looking at the fireworks in the sky at this time.

Still lying on Fuma's back and not yet reaching Fuma's home, Ogata turned his head and looked at the sky above, which was dyed colorfully by various rays of light.

Fuma was moving on the roof with Ogata on his back.

So while watching the fireworks, Ogata also kept paying attention to the pedestrians watching the fireworks on the street below.

These people include men and women, young and old.

Some are dressed gorgeously, some are dressed simply.

Looking at these people, Ogata whispered in a voice that only he could hear:

"…No matter who you are, the fireworks you see are the same."

"Hmm?" Fuma, who didn't hear what Ogata said, asked back, "Brother Ogata, did you say anything just now?"

"No." Ogata shrugged, "I was just talking to myself."

After saying that, Ogata put his chin on Fuma's shoulder.

"Master Feng Mo... I'm sleepy... I'm going to sleep first..."

The effect of the "state of no self" has just disappeared.

Pain and fatigue immediately flooded over Ogata like a tide.

After saying "I'm going to sleep first", Xu Fang could no longer hold on and slowly closed his eyes...

…

In a daze, Ogata felt as if... something slippery was sliding across his chest, abdomen, shoulders, etc.

Although it felt itchy, it was surprisingly comfortable.

Ogata felt the slippery thing slowly moving away from his upper body.

After this slippery thing slid away from his upper body, Ogata still felt a little reluctant and hoped that it could continue to slide on his upper body.

--Um?

Ogata suddenly felt something was wrong.

He suddenly felt...his lower body suddenly...became cold...

——What’s going on? !

Ogata yelled this in his mind and suddenly opened his eyes.

When I suddenly opened my eyes, the first thing that came into view was the unfamiliar ceiling.

If you can see the ceiling, it means you are lying down.

When he lowered his head, Oofang saw that his upper body was naked.

Sitting beside Ogata's bed was Fuma, who was grabbing Ogata's hakama and pulling it down.

Ogata's hakama had been pulled down to his knees by Fuma, revealing his white loincloth.

Ogata looked at Fuma.

Fuma, who was pulling Ogata's hakama, was also looking at Ogata.