"Sorry...you guys go have dinner...I won't go...just buy me some food when you come back..." Atachi, lying on the bed, said to Ogata in a weak voice.
At this moment, Ogata and others were in a fairly grand hotel.
According to Ogata's estimation, it should be around 7 p.m. now.
They had not yet had dinner, and their original plan was to find a hotel to stay in and then have something to eat.
But judging from the current situation, they have to make some slight changes to their plan.
Even though it had been a while since they left the sea and landed on land, Ating still felt seasick.
Still feeling a little uncomfortable, she didn't have the energy or mood to go out for dinner. She just wanted to lie down and rest.
It wasn't just Ating who felt this way, Lin was also like this. Still feeling a little dizzy and nauseous, Lin just wanted to lie down and rest in the hotel.
Seeing that the two were too tired to go out again, Ogata and the others could only let them stay in the hotel to rest, while they, the men, went out to eat something and then brought some food back for Ating and Lin.
"I'll be back soon." Ogata said to Atachi, who was lying on the futon, "You should get some sleep first."
"Hmm... Um... Why do I still feel so sick even though I've been on land for so long..."
"You should have a good sleep first. After a night's sleep, you should feel better tomorrow."
" I know...you can go now..."
"Is there anything you want to eat?"
"… something sweet."
"Yeah. I'll be back soon."
After saying that, Ogata picked up the Daishakuten placed on the tatami beside him and walked out of the room.
A similar scene was happening in the next room.
The next room is Lin's room.
At this moment, there are only two people in Lin's room - Lin herself and Mamiya.
Mamiya was kneeling beside Lin's quilt at this time, and said to Lin who was lying in the quilt with her eyes closed:
"My Lord, we will be back soon. Is there anything you want to eat?"
"…something cool."
"I see. We'll be back soon."
After saying this, Mamiya picked up his sword, stood up, and walked out of the room.
However - just when Mamiya was only about 2 steps away from the door, he was suddenly stopped by Lin.
“…Jiulang.”
"What's wrong?" Seeing Lin calling him, Mamiya stopped and turned to look at Lin behind him.
Lin, whose expression was still not very good, raised her hand and touched her face.
"...Is this disguise on your face...reliable? Can it prevent those people in your family from recognizing you?"
Hearing Lin's question, Mamiya pursed his lips.
After raising his hand and touching his face, Mamiya said softly:
"…It has been four years since I left my family and joined Calabash House."
"After such a long time, my appearance has changed a lot compared to before."
"Plus, I have painted my face so black now that those people in my family probably won't be able to recognize me."
Having said this, Mamiya paused, as if he was organizing his words.
After a long pause, Mamiya continued with a somewhat joking tone:
"Besides - Lord, you know that our family has never been welcomed by the people of Edo."
"Because they are unpopular, those people in my family have always stayed at home, so the probability of me running into them on the road is quite low."
"Compared to running into people from my family, the chances of officials recognizing me as 'Ryuko Hachiman' Mamiya Kuro are higher."
Lin slightly opened her half-opened eyes.
After staring at Jiulang for a while——
"…Jiulang. Have you ever thought about returning to your family?"
"I haven't thought about it." Mamiya said without hesitation in a firm tone, "I already... don't want to work for the Tokugawa shogunate anymore."
Hearing Mamiya's answer, a faint smile appeared on Lin's face.
After closing her half-open eyes again, Lin continued:
"Remember to come back early and don't buy hot food."
"Yes." Mamiya smiled, "We'll be back soon."
…
…
The only people eating out were the men like Ogata.
After standing at the door of the hotel for a long time, I finally waited for Mamiya to arrive late.
"Sorry, everyone." Mamiya smiled, "I've kept you waiting."
"It didn't take long." Ogata said with a smile, "Let's go, let's go find some restaurant with good aromas."
The group walked together towards the downtown area not far from here.
As they walked towards the downtown area at a moderate pace, Ogata raised his finger and pointed at his eyes, then asked Mamiya beside him:
"Mamiya, can you really function normally without your glasses?"
Unlike Ogata, Mamiya does not have a human skin mask that can be used for facial disguise.
So the disguise he made was quite simple and crude - he took off his glasses and smeared his face, hair and clothes with mud.
From the outside, he is just a dirty and down-and-out wanderer who no one would even take a second look at.
"My eyesight is not as good as that of ordinary people, but it is not so bad that I can't do anything without glasses. So whether I wear glasses or not will not affect my movements."
"Is it okay to just smear your face?" Shimada continued. "Is it necessary to take off your glasses as well?"
"Shimada, you don't understand this, right?"
A strange smile appeared on Mamiya's face.
"The most distinctive feature of the portrait on the wanted poster drawn by the shogunate is that I am wearing a pair of glasses."
"In fact, many officials of the shogunate recognized me as Kuro Mamiya by my glasses."
"So if he takes off his glasses, it will be equivalent to removing this most distinctive feature. It will not be so easy for the officials of the shogunate to recognize him as 'Ryuko Hachiman' Mamiya Kuro."
"Hey! Asshole! What's that look in your eyes?!"
Just as Mamiya finished his words, a loud shout from not far away suddenly drew everyone's attention.
Ogata was taller than most people of that era, so he could see what was happening just by turning his head.
"Lord Ogata! What happened over there?" Shimada, who was only 1.57 meters tall, could not see what was happening at the source of the sound due to his vision, so he could only ask Ogata.
"Nothing." Ogata said softly, "It's just a 'scabbard'."
The samurai sword is known as the soul of the samurai. In the eyes of most samurai, the sword on their waist is more important than life.
So there are always knife-related murders.
The warriors all wore their swords on their left waists. When they walked on the slightly narrow streets and passed by others, they would inevitably touch other people's swords, or others would touch their swords.
Some people with hot tempers and some brain problems may start a fight on the grounds that "you touched my knife, you defiled my knife."
Over time, the word "Kadō" was born in the Edo period.
As time goes by, the meaning of "scabbard" has expanded.
Now, "bian" can be used to describe: quarreling over trivial matters and jealousy among men.
The one who had just shouted that was a middle-aged warrior with a rather rough and sloppy appearance.
This "rugged warrior" was glaring at a young warrior with a neatly shaved topknot in front of him.
The loud shout of the "rugged samurai" not only attracted the attention of Ogata and others, but also attracted the attention of the people around them.
The passers-by who happened to be standing around this "rough samurai" and the "tsuki-haired samurai" quickly moved to the sides, leaving a space for only the two samurai to stand, and then looked at the two samurai with either fear or excitement.
After the "rough warrior" roared, the "moon-haired warrior" frowned slightly:
"I've already told you - you're just being suspicious. I didn't even look at you just now."
"Stop quibbling!" The sturdy warrior's voice was so loud that even Ogata, who was not far away, felt his eardrums hurt. "You were clearly looking at me with disdain just now!"
As Ogata was concentrating on watching the conflict between the two samurai, Asai suddenly said:
"That rough-looking guy speaks with an accent from Kyushu. He must be a ronin who wandered here from Kyushu."
Asai was originally from Satsuma Domain in Kyushu, so he could tell at once that the rough-looking guy was from Kyushu like him.
"snort."
The "Samurai with Hairpins" sneered.
"I've already told you - you're just being overly suspicious!"
Anyone present could definitely see that the tension between the two warriors was extremely high, to the point where no one would find it strange even if they drew their swords and started slashing at each other in the next second.
"Hello!"
At this moment, another loud shout was heard suddenly.
"You two over there! What are you doing?!"
This loud shout came from a group of officers with ten weapons on their waists, who were running quickly towards the two warriors.
Looking at this group of observers, the faces of the "rough samurai" and the "hairstyle samurai" changed, and then they quickly ran away to a place far away from the officials.
The officers did not chase the two warriors. After driving away the two warriors who were about to cause trouble, the officers withdrew their troops and returned.
Watching the group of officers leaving, Shimada, who was born in Edo, said softly:
"Where are Tsujiban's officers..."
In ancient Japan, there has always been a bad habit of using people to test their swords.
Some warriors with psychological or brain problems always like to ambush at crossroads in the middle of the night to kill people and test their swords.
People call this evil act of ambushing at a crossroads in the middle of the night and beheading people to test their swords "Tsujizaishi".
After Tokugawa Ieyasu ended the Warring States Period and established the Edo Shogunate, he issued an order banning "Tsujizaishi".
Later, a public security agency called "Tsujiban" was established by samurai to prevent Tsuji-slashing crimes.
Simply put, it is a sentry post specially set up at each intersection.
In addition to being responsible for supervising samurai with brain problems and testing their swords on living people, the officials of Tsujiban are also responsible for maintaining public order in the areas they are responsible for.
In situations like the one just now where two samurai were about to draw their swords and fight in the street, Tsujiban's officers had to step in to mediate.
After Tsujiban's officers drove away the two samurai, the atmosphere around them returned to normal.
The flow of people on the street began to flow naturally again, and everything returned to the situation before the incense stick was lit.
"I never thought that here in Edo, there would be a situation where 'samurai would fight in the streets for no apparent reason'." Makimura smiled and summarized the scene he had just witnessed.
"Of course." Ogata said calmly, "In Edo, there are so many samurai with regular jobs and ronin with nothing to do that the chances of conflicts breaking out are definitely much higher than in other places."
The more ronin there are in a place, the more likely it is that all kinds of chaos will break out - this should be considered one of the laws of this era.
To put it bluntly, ronin are a group of people who have nothing to do, have no proper job, but attach great importance to honor and, by chance, have weapons on hand.
After all, there are only a few ronin as wealthy as Ogata, and most of the ronin don’t even know what to eat the next day.
"Attaching importance to honor" was the core value of the samurai class in the Edo period.
Under extremely poor material conditions, those ronin often have extremely obsessive pursuits for their spiritual lives.
Because only in this way can we bring them some spiritual comfort.
Therefore , there is often a situation where some ronin attach more importance to honor than samurai with regular jobs. To a pathological degree.
The conflict that broke out between the two warriors just now is a good example.
"Let's go." Yuan Yi said, "Let's finish dinner quickly. Xiaolin and Miss A-Ming are still waiting for us to send dinner back."
Ogata nodded and was about to continue looking for a hotel with the others , but a conversation between two women nearby drew Ogata's attention.
"I hate it... Why do I feel like the public security in Edo has been getting worse recently? This is the third time today that I've seen samurai causing trouble on the street."
"It's really scary... It must be because there are too many country samurai who have flocked to Edo recently! With too many country bumpkins, public security will definitely deteriorate!"
"Why are there so many country bumpkins pouring into Edo Castle recently..."
"Ah... it's all because of that... Forget it, let's not talk about this on the street, let's talk about it slowly after we get home."
Ogata quietly eavesdropped on the conversation between the two women.
"Brother Ogata, what are you doing?" After noticing that Ogata was still standing there and had not caught up, Makimura stopped, turned around and cast a puzzled look at Ogata.
"Nothing..." After seeing that the two women also stopped their conversation, Ou Fang also withdrew his attention and quickly caught up with the group that had already left a short distance behind him.
…
…
Ogata and the others didn't have much concern for food , and since Lin and Atachi were still waiting for them at the hotel to bring back dinner, they went straight to a soba restaurant closest to the hotel where they were staying.
Judging from the decoration of the store, the soba shop is a very friendly shop that even ordinary people can afford to eat at.
After entering the store, this was indeed the case. Among the customers there were samurai like Ogata, but the vast majority were civilians wearing various clothes.
Ogata and his friends were very lucky as there was just one empty table in the restaurant, which was just big enough for the six of them.
Everyone entered the store holding their swords in their right hands. After sitting down at the table, everyone turned their attention to the menu hanging on the wall.
"Buckwheat noodles, 16 cents. Imperial large steamer, 48 cents. Tempura buckwheat, 32 cents. Omelette buckwheat, 32 cents..." Makimura quickly read out the names of the dishes on the menu one by one.
The menu is written very carefully, with a line of small print behind each bowl of noodles to indicate the characteristics of the noodles.
For example, the phrase "big bowl of soba noodles" is followed by the phrase "imperial large steamer".
This shop not only sells noodles but also wine. At the end of the menu it is written “40 coins for 1 bowl of premium wine”.
1 go in the Edo period is approximately equal to 180 ml on Earth today.
I just don't know how good the "good wine" that the shop owner is talking about is.
Seeing that this store sells alcohol, Yuanyi grinned and said, "Let's buy some wine."
No one objected to Yuanyi's proposal.
After quickly ordering the noodles they wanted, Makura sighed in a low voice:
"It's really cheap... Soba noodles in Edo are so cheap..."
"Soba is one of the specialties of Edo," Shimada said with a smile. "Because soba is very much to our Edo people's taste, and it is easy to make, ordinary people can afford it, so there are soba shops all over Edo. By the way, do you know the origin of the nickname 'Nihachi Soba' for soba?"
Anyway, the process of waiting for the noodles to be served was quite boring, and when Shimada brought up a topic, Ogata and others were happy to join in the conversation.
"I've heard of the nickname '28 Soba'," Ogata said. "I remember it was because soba noodles were usually sold for 16 sen, right? Because ordinary soba noodles were usually sold for 16 sen, so people called soba noodles '28 Soba'."
"That's just one of the theories," Mamiya said with a smile. "That's not quite accurate. As far as I know, soba noodles in Edo weren't always priced at 16 sen a bowl."
"Mamiya-senpai is right." Shimada nodded, "That's just one of the theories."
“I don’t quite agree with that either.”
“Because the price of soba noodles is actually always changing.”
"The most expensive bowl of soba I had in Edo cost 20 mon."
"The most popular theory is that buckwheat noodles are made from 20% wheat flour and 80% buckwheat flour, so they are called '28 buckwheat'..."
Shimada Ben was introducing soba noodles carefully.
And Ogata and others were also listening attentively.
But at this moment——
"Asshole! How long do you want me to wait?!"
An inopportune roar echoed throughout the soba shop.
The angry shout made the originally noisy shop suddenly so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
Everyone - including Ogata and the others - turned their gazes in the direction of the sound.
He is a warrior with a full beard, a face full of flesh, and a very tall and strong figure.
The samurai was probably around 25 years old and very tall. Although he was sitting cross-legged, Ogata estimated that he was about 1.75 meters tall.
He was the only one at his table, and he must have come here to have dinner alone.
Her cheeks were a little red, probably because she drank some wine.
Both his body and clothes were dirty, his sockless feet were covered in mud, and his topknot was a mess. I wonder how long it had been since he had taken care of his hair.
These samurai with dirty appearance are basically ronin.
The shout just now had a very strong accent in it, and it can be basically confirmed that this guy is also a ronin who wandered to Edo from somewhere unknown.
After shouting angrily, the warrior waved his hand and swept the chopstick holder containing the chopsticks on the table to the ground, and the chopsticks rolled all over the floor.
The warrior's sudden action frightened many people present.
While many people were looking at the majestic samurai with horror, the waitress of the soba shop walked towards the samurai with a trembling look on her face.
There is only one waiter in this soba noodle shop. The owner should be cooking noodles in the kitchen at the back, so he didn't hear the noise here. Therefore, at this moment, this woman had to step forward to deal with the "strong warrior".
After the girl approached, the "strong warrior" shouted at her in an even louder voice:
"Why hasn't my noodles been served yet! It's just a bowl of soba noodles, why does it take so long to make?!"
"I'm so sorry..." The middle school girl seemed to lack experience in dealing with such situations. She explained to the "strong warrior" in a trembling voice, "There are many customers now. Please be patient and wait a little longer. We will speed up."
Although the girl had tried her best to appease the "strong warrior", the "strong warrior" still did not seem to let the girl go so easily. He still looked aggressive and said all kinds of nasty words to the girl.
Until this moment, the owner, a middle-aged man around 40 years old, who was concentrating on cooking noodles in the kitchen, finally noticed something was wrong in the store and rushed out of the kitchen.
After realizing what was happening, the shop owner rushed over to support the girls in their shop.
However, the support from the store owner did not help.
It just changed the situation from a "strong warrior" saying nasty things to the girls, to a "strong warrior" saying nasty things to the store owner and the girls.
Looking at the "strong warrior", Ogata, who was drinking tea, narrowed his eyes slightly.
Images from the past hidden deep in his mind flashed quickly before Ogata's eyes.
It was a period of time... although it wasn't very long ago, to Ogata it felt like an image from the past a long time ago.
In the video, after finishing his daytime job as an abacus operator, he would go to an izakaya to work as a security guard...
…
…
“That person really went too far…” Shimada whispered in a voice that only he could hear, “It’s just a bowl of noodles… Can’t you just be patient and wait…”
"It's really ugly. Can't you just wait obediently?"
“That’s right.” Shimada nodded vigorously a few times. “That’s how we should scold people like this… eh?”
Shimada looked at Ogata beside him in surprise.
Not only Shimada, but almost everyone present focused their attention on Ogata - including the "strong samurai".
The "mighty warrior" seemed to have not expected that someone would lecture him, so he looked at Ogata with a look of surprise and a bit of anger.
"You talking to me?" he asked.
"Who else but you?" Ogata raised the teacup in his hand, took a sip of tea, and answered in a calm tone.
call!
The "mighty warrior" stood up suddenly, holding his sword, and walked quickly to Ogata's side.
Seeing this, Shimada was about to say something, but was stopped by Makimura beside him.
Makimura signaled Shimada with his eyes - don't pay any attention to the "strong warrior".
It wasn't just Makimura who was like this. Mamiya, Asai, and Genichirō also looked calm.
After quickly walking to Ogata's side, the "strong warrior" opened his mouth and wanted to say something.
However, before he could say what he wanted to say, Xu Fang spoke first:
"Sit back down and wait patiently for the noodles to be served."
Hearing Ogata's words, the "mighty samurai"'s face instantly turned blue and white.
Finally, the "mighty warrior"'s face turned as black as charcoal.
The "strong warrior" lowers the center of gravity of his body, presses the scabbard close to the scabbard with his left hand, pops the blade out of the scabbard with his left thumb, and presses the handle with his right hand.
"Apologize to me!"
Ogata glanced at the posture of this "mighty warrior" and said, "Swordsmanship?"
"Humph!" The "Mighty Warrior" sneered, "You are really stupid, just letting me get ready to draw my sword!"
"Apologize to me now! Otherwise I will kill you with one blow!"
Seeing that the "mighty warrior" seemed to be about to fight with Ogata, the guests around immediately stepped aside, fearing that they would be affected by the possible fight.
Only Mamiya and others who were sitting at the same table with Ogata remained motionless.
"Brother." Mamiya, who was sitting farthest from the "mighty warrior", said to him with a smile, "Put your sword away and wait for the noodles obediently, otherwise..."
Before Mamiya could finish his words, the "mighty warrior" who had his eyes fixed on Ogata without even looking at Mamiya shouted:
"Shut up! I'm warning you! You are also within my slashing range! Don't be so arrogant within my slashing range! Otherwise I will chop off your head too!"
As soon as the "mighty warrior" finished speaking...
Ogata, who had been holding the teacup and drinking tea silently, loosened his hand, and the teacup fell from his palm and fell onto the table under the influence of gravity.
He grabbed the hilt of the Daishikatsu placed on the right side of his body with his left hand, then raised Daishikatsu upright and pointed the tip of the knife at the throat of the "strong warrior" who was standing just on the right side of his body.
While grasping and holding up Daishakuten with his left hand, Ogata grasped Daishakuten's scabbard with his right hand and pulled the scabbard upward.
When Ogata turned the tip of Daishikyu's sword under the throat of the "mighty warrior", Ogata just pulled out Daishikyu's scabbard completely, revealing Daishikyu's extremely sharp blade.
Because he held the sword upright and then pulled the scabbard upward, Ogata only needed to make a very small movement to completely pull out the blade.
After pulling the scabbard upwards, Ogata maintained the posture of holding the upper part of the scabbard with his right hand and the middle part of the sword with his left hand, with the tip of the sword against the throat of the "strong warrior".
The "mighty warrior" lowered his eyes and looked blankly at the tip of the knife against his throat.
Bang.
The teacup that Ogata had just put down fell steadily back onto the table with a small "bang" sound, without a drop of tea spilling.
It was not until the sound of the teacup falling to the ground that the "strong warrior" finally seemed to be awakened, and looked at Ogata with horror, who was holding the tip of the knife against his throat.
"You are also within my slashing range."
"Don't be so arrogant while I am within your range of attack."
Ogata said this in his usual calm tone.