Volume 6: Edo Castle Imperial Court Test Chapter 351 [Mashima Goro] and [Kiryu Kazuma]
"4, 6, 8, 10..."
In the large room where Ogata and his group of men rested, Ogata was the only one there.
Today is the 6th day at sea.
Ogata, who was left alone in the room, leaned against the corner of the room, spread out all the money left in his purse on the floor, and counted how much money he had left.
After counting the total amount of money he had left, Ogata quietly put the money back into his purse, and then whispered in a voice that only he could hear:
"I have to find a way to make some money later..."
Since leaving the Hirose domain at the end of last year and becoming a ronin, Ogata has been using the money given to him by Kuranaga, the then patriarch of the Hirose domain.
The thick bag of money that Kuranaga gave to Ogata was parted from Ogata twice.
The first time was when he was in the Tatsuno domain, when it was stolen by a Yakuza.
The second time was when he was escorted to Choujima and it was confiscated by Hasegawa.
Fortunately, after two separations, the purse finally returned to Ogata.
When he was taken to Choujima, Hasegawa returned Ogata's purse to him through the soldier who was responsible for sending Ogata to the island.
Kuranaga was very generous in compensating Ogata, who had to leave the domain because of the killing of Matsudaira Gennai, and the amount of money in the money bag he gave to Ogata was frighteningly large.
After counting the money he had left, Ogata estimated that even though he had already spent a lot of money, the money he had left was enough for him to squander for nearly 10 years.
Although he still had a lot of money left, Ogata still felt a sense of crisis about money.
The reason is simple—he now has an A-Ting by his side.
Although Atachi had some money on her when she defected from Shiranui, she didn't have much.
With the need to take care of A-Ming, the originally considerable amount of money immediately seemed not that much.
The reason why Ogata stayed in the cabin of the ship at this time was that he just wanted to find a quiet place to count and organize his wallet.
After putting the purse away again, Ogata, who no longer wanted to stay in the empty room, stood up and walked out.
After leaving the room and going up to the deck, Xu Fang saw everyone who were doing various things on the deck.
Lin and Ating, who were seasick, stayed in their room to rest.
As usual, Yuan Yiyi sat at the stern of the boat, drinking wine and enjoying the sea breeze.
Mamiya was fiddling with and adjusting the position of the sail.
Makimura, Asai and Shimada were sitting at the bow of the boat, talking about something.
Ogata walked towards the bow where Makimura and the others were, and Makimura and the other two, who had noticed Ogata coming out of the cabin, turned around and followed the sound.
"How was it?" Makimura asked Ogata, "Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah. Not bad." Ogata lied casually.
Just now, before entering the room, Ogata pretended to everyone that he was going to take a nap. But in fact, Ogata was not sleeping at all, but was just counting his purse.
"Shimada, how do you feel today?" After sitting cross-legged next to Shimada, Ogata raised his hand and tapped his head, "Are you still feeling dizzy?"
"I feel much better today." Shimada smiled, "Thank you for your care these days."
Shimada also showed symptoms of seasickness after going out to sea, but it was not as serious as Lin and Atachi. He just felt a little dizzy.
Shimada is in good spirits today and can sit leisurely at the head of the bed and chat with Makimura and Asai.
Maybe it’s because the waves in this sea area are not so turbulent.
"I just asked Mamiya how long it would take us to reach Edo." Makimura said, "Mamiya said that in about seven days, we will be able to reach Edo."
"Seven days?" Ogata murmured, "It's faster than I thought..."
"Of course." Mucun shrugged. "We are traveling by sea. We don't need to climb mountains or cross ridges. Besides, we are lucky. We have a favorable wind most of the time, so of course we are moving fast."
Having said this, Makimura paused, then changed his tone to a joking one and continued to speak to Ogata:
"Brother Ogata, we are almost in Edo now. It is about time for you to come up with an alias for yourself and the swordsmanship style you use."
When Ogata heard what Makimura said, he was stunned at first.
Then he whispered softly:
"A pseudonym?... That's true... It's time to come up with a pseudonym in advance."
When leaving Kyoto and heading to Owari, Obana heard his own legend halfway.
Since he captured Nijo Castle, the names "The Executioner Ittosai" and "The Killer Itosei" became famous throughout Japan again.
First he killed the lord of Hirose Domain, and then he attacked Nijo Castle in Kyoto. Ogata may now be the most famous ronin in Japan and the most notorious ronin in the shogunate.
Now, in the eyes of the shoguns and officials of the shogunate, he may have become a mentally ill person who first killed the feudal lord and then attacked Nijo Castle.
As far as Ogata knows, there are different opinions as to whether he is still alive.
Some people believe that "Hinzan Yoshisei" had already died in Nijo Castle when he attacked it.
Some people also believe that "Ren Zhan Yi Shi" is still alive.
Because the main battlefield at that time, the castle tower of Nijo Castle, caught fire and burned all the bodies on the castle tower. Therefore, the government could not rely on the bodies present at the time to identify whether Ogata was still alive.
In short - now that he has become more famous, if he announces to the citizens of Edo without any disguise that his name is Ogata Issey and that the sword style he uses is Sakakibara Ittoryu, he will definitely get into big trouble.
Anyone who has a little knowledge of "Human-slayer Issei" knows that the swordsmanship style used by Ogata Issei is a niche style that is only circulated in the Izumo Hirose Domain: Sakakibara Ittoryu.
Therefore, it is also necessary to give the sword-fighting style you use a pseudonym.
Shimada on the side also added at this time:
"In addition to coming up with an alias, Lord Ogata, remember to disguise your face as well."
"Facial disguise is easy." Ogata said as he reached into his arms and took out two flesh-colored objects. "Just put these on."
These are 2 human skin masks.
To be more precise, they were two human skin masks that Makimura gave to Ogata before he left Kyoto.
According to Makimura, he got these two human skin masks from Ryunosuke, the leader of the "gravediggers" who attempted to destroy Kyoto.
One of these two human skin masks is Ogata's face, and the other is an ordinary, honest face.
At that time, Ryunosuke was wearing Ogata's face and killing people everywhere in Kyoto, causing Ogata to be inexplicably blamed.
Only people whose face shape matches these two human skin masks can wear this mask.
Since Ryunosuke can wear Ogata's face, Ogata can naturally wear these two masks.
Because there was no use for Makimura to keep the two human skin masks, he gave them both to Ogata.
The quality of these two masks is extremely high, and they look so real when worn.
When he was preparing to leave Kyoto for Owari, Ogata put on that ordinary human skin mask with facial features, and was able to leave Kyoto smoothly.
Ogata planned to put on the human skin mask again and disguise himself as an ordinary-looking ronin when entering Edo, where there were many people and eyes.
Ogata already had a plan on how to disguise his face, but he had not yet figured out what alias to give his name and the swordsmanship style he used.
After entering Edo, it is inevitable that people will ask you about your name and alias.
After stuffing the two human skin masks back into his arms, Ogata raised his head and looked at the blue sky above his head. While looking at the blue sky above his head, he was lost in thought.
Ogata planned to think of the alias he would use after entering Edo.
After thinking for a moment, Ogata's mouth curled up slightly, revealing a faint smile, and then -
“…I’ve made up my mind.”
Ogata lowered his head and spoke to Makimura, Asai, and Shimada beside him word by word:
"My alias... will be 'Mashima Goro'."
"As for the sword style... let's call it 'Komoku Itto-ryu'."
After that, Ogata dipped a few drops of sea water splashed on the deck and quickly wrote the nine Chinese characters "Mashima Goro" and "Komoku Ittoryu" on the deck.
While writing these nine Chinese characters, Ogata also marked the pronunciation of these two words with kana.
Makimura and others took a look at the nine Chinese characters written by Ogata on the deck.
"Majima Gouro" Makimura said the pronunciation of Majima Goro softly and asked Ogata, "It's a very common name... But it's appropriate to use such a common name as a pseudonym."
When Ogata was still on modern Earth, he had almost no time for entertainment due to his strict family education, and spent most of his time studying hard.
This strict family education made Ogata rarely play video games.
The number of video games that Ogata has played is so few that he can count them on one hand.
All the electric machines he had come into contact with were at his friends' homes.
After all, only my friends have game consoles and game discs.
The "Yakuza" series is one of the very few electronic games that Ogata has come into contact with before.
Ogata likes this game series very much, especially one of the protagonists of this game series - "Mashima Goro".
So when thinking of a pseudonym, the first name that came to Ogata's mind was "Mashima Goro".
Ogata was too lazy to think of a completely new name, so he simply borrowed the name "Mashima Goro" and only replaced the character "朗" with "郎". The pronunciation was exactly the same.
As for "Komoku Ittoryu", it is a name borrowed from "Yakuza".
There is a powerful martial arts series in "Yakuza", which is called "Konomaki-ryu", and Ogata directly borrowed this name.
Just as Ogata announced his chosen pseudonym to Makimura and the other two, Mamiya's voice suddenly came from behind them:
"What are you talking about?"
"Nothing." Makimura said, "It's just a matter of what alias to use after Ryo Ogata arrives in Edo."
"Oh? Then Ogata-kun, have you thought of your alias?"
"Yes." Ogata nodded, and then said in a half-joking tone, "My name is Majima Goro, and I am the successor of Komaki Ittoryu."
"Mashima Goro..." Mamiya chewed on the name, "Not a bad name... Come to think of it, I haven't come up with a pseudonym for myself yet."
"That's right." Makimura nodded, "Mamiya, you are also a wanted criminal. It's time to give yourself an alias."
Mamiya and Lin are the only two wanted criminals of the shogunate in Huluwu.
However, because Lin had never let the government officials see her face, she did not need to disguise herself. She only needed to hide her highly recognizable sword.
"Didn't you use the pseudonym 'Ichiro Hirata' before?" Asai, who had been silent, interrupted, "Why don't you just continue to use this pseudonym?"
"I've used that alias for a long time." Mamiya shrugged. "It's a rare trip to Edo, so I want to use a new alias."
"…'Kiryu Kazuma' - how about this name?" Ogata, with an inexplicable smile on his face, continued Mamiya's words in a half-joking tone.
"Kiryu Kazuma?" Mamiya repeated the pronunciation of the name Ogata had just said in a puzzled tone, "How do you write it in kanji?"
Ogata dipped his finger again in the sea water splashing on the deck and wrote the four Chinese characters "Kiryu Kazuma" on the deck.
This name also comes from "Yakuza".
Ogata replaced the character "马" in the name of Kazuma Kiryu, one of the protagonists of this series of games, with "真". Although it was a different character, the pronunciation is exactly the same.
Seeing that Mamiya was planning to give himself a new alias, Osamu gave the name to Mamiya.
Mamiya carefully looked at the four Chinese characters "Kiryu Kazuma" written on the deck by Ogata, and after chewing the pronunciation of the name several times, a faint look of joy slowly emerged on his face:
"Kiryu Kazuma... this name is not bad..."
Mamiya also seemed to like this name.
"Do you want to use this name?" Seeing that Mamiya seemed to like this name, Ogata couldn't help but show a bit of surprise on his face.
"Yeah. It's just a pseudonym anyway, so there's no need to be too particular about it. I'll just use this name."
"Well, as long as you like it."
"Then please give me your guidance, Mashima-kun." Mamiya said to Ogata in a half-joking tone.
"Same here, Kiryu Chan~ " Ogata also responded to Mamiya in a half-joking tone.
"Why are you suddenly calling me in such a disgusting tone..." Mamiya showed a helpless expression.
…
…
In this way, another 6 days passed peacefully.
The sun is high in the sky and it is already noon.
Because they were on the boat and there was no place to cook, Ogata and the others had to mix dry food and water for every meal these days.
Just now, after a simple lunch, Asai, Shimada, and Makimura went into the room to take a nap.
Because there was nothing to do on the boat, Mucun and his friends' bedtime and nap time became a little longer.
Lin and Ating stayed in the room as usual, fighting against the strong feeling of dizziness.
Mamiya was adjusting the sails according to the wind direction.
Genichi, Ogata, and Makimura sat at the stern of the boat, drinking Genichi's homemade "oolong tea" and chatting about everything.
Ogata and Makimura each held a wine glass filled with "oolong tea" in their hands and poured the tea into their mouths sip by sip.
After they drank the wine in the cup that was strong enough to ignite fire, they both groaned in pain.
"Master Genichi..." Ogata wiped the corner of his mouth and said to Genichi with admiration, "It's amazing that you can drink such strong liquor..."
Ogata has been secretly observing Genichir these days.
Since setting out to sea, Genichi has spent most of his time sitting at the stern drinking his homemade "oolong tea".
"Oolong tea" is so strong that it can start a fire. After drinking a cup, you will feel that your entire mouth, esophagus and stomach are burning.
Ogata could only drink three cups of such strong liquor at most.
And Genichi can drink calmly all day long...
Although Yuan Yi always took small sips of the wine and never gulped it down.
After seeing Ogata and Makimura finish their cups happily, Genichi let out a series of hearty laughs.
"Drinking is one of my few hobbies!"
Genichi raised the bottle in his hand and refilled Oolong tea into the glasses of Ogata and Makimura.
This time, Genichi did not fill both of their glasses, but only filled about half of them.
While pouring wine for Ogata, Minamoto said to Ogata:
"Ogata-kun, you know I admire you very much."
"Oh? Why?" Ogata smiled, "Is it because I can drink a lot?"
"Hahahaha! This is just one of the reasons. The main reason why I admire you is because you are so brave!"
"How dare you attack Nijo Castle in Kyoto alone!"
"Even when I was young, I wouldn't dare to do this kind of thing!"
"I admire people like you who are very courageous."
After saying that, Genichi raised his glass and took a sip of wine.
"But this kind of boldness also comes at a price." Ogata changed his tone to self-deprecating, "If I hadn't entered the 'selfless state' again in time that night, I might have died there."
Since deciding to cooperate with Huluya to eradicate Shiranui, Ogata and Atachi have exchanged information about Shiranui with Lin and others countless times.
Atachi, who was once a ninja in Shiranui, revealed everything she knew about Shiranui.
Ogata also shared with everyone in Gourd House what he knew - that Shiranui had developed a medicine called "Yashammaru", and that only Enma and the Four Heavenly Kings possessed this "Yashammaru".
Huluwu is now an ally of him and Ating, and they are grasshoppers on the same rope.
It would only benefit Ogata and Atachi and not cause any harm to tell the people in Huluya all the information they know about Shiranui.
In order to draw the attention of everyone in Gourd House to the "Yaksha Realm" in Shiranui, Ogata specifically emphasized that he was able to defeat Kotaro who had entered the "Yaksha Realm" after entering the "selfless state".
Lin is the second-generation head of the Muga Nito-ryu school, and Mamiya and the others are Lin's subordinates, so naturally they all know what the "muga realm" is.
Therefore, they all knew what it meant to have an enemy that required the "state of no self" to fight against.
Ogata still remembers the solemn and serious expressions on Rin's and the others' faces when they learned that he was able to defeat Kotaro, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, with the blessing of the "state of no self".
"I've told you this before. Before you can practice the Source Breathing to its peak, one of the tricks to reaching the 'selfless state' is to let your mind only think about one thing."
"Just thinking about winning."
"I just wanted to survive."
"I just want to protect someone."
"With this state of mind and using the Breath of Source, the chance of entering the 'selfless state' will greatly increase."
"If I'm guessing correctly, when you were fighting that Kotaro, you were thinking about the same idea crazily in your mind. Am I right?"
As soon as Genichi finished speaking, Ogata nodded slightly, indicating that what Genichi had just said was correct.
That night, after fighting against Kotaro and being suppressed by Kotaro who had entered the "Yaksha Realm", Ogata was only thinking about one thing in his mind.
What he was thinking that night was the same as what he was thinking when he was assassinating Matsudaira Gennai in Hirose Domain and fighting against Matsudaira Gennai's hundreds of guards: I want to win.
"Speaking of which--" Makimura at the side suddenly asked, "What exactly is the 'Yaksha Realm' like? Is it just a huge increase in strength and speed?"
"It's a dramatic increase in strength and speed." Ogata corrected, "I don't know much about the 'Yaksha Realm'. I only know that they have to take a drug called 'Yaksha Pill' to enter this state."
"After entering the 'Yaksha Realm', their skin will turn dark red, and a thin gas like steam will float out of their bodies."
"Like you just stepped out of the bath."
"Although that Kotaro said that only their leader, Enma, and the Four Heavenly Kings of their Shiranui possess this 'Yaksha Realm'."
"But whether this statement is true or not is still unknown."
"Perhaps on our way to Edo, the people in Shiranui developed a new method to increase the production of Yashamaru, so that more ninjas under their command can have more Yashamaru."
"If their Yashamaru can be mass-produced, it will be troublesome..." Makimura said in a joking but serious tone.
As soon as Makimura finished speaking, a weak female voice suddenly sounded behind him and Ogata:
"Even if that old immortal Enma has a way to mass-produce Yashamaru, there is no need to be afraid."
"We in Calabash House still have ways to suppress their 'Yaksha Realm'."
As soon as this weak female voice sounded, Ogata and Makimura immediately turned their heads in the direction of the sound.
Lin, with a pale face, was seen walking slowly out of the cabin and towards Ogata and the others.
"They have Yashamaru in the Shiranui."
"And we in Calabash House... have this."
After saying that, Lin raised her hand with a strange smile on her face and made a "money" gesture.
