As soon as the sky brightened, Ogata had already put on his clothes, put Daishakuten and Daijizai on his waist, put Kasumagami, which was loaded with bullets, in his arms, and then officially set off for Yoshiwara.
Because it was just daybreak, there were not many pedestrians on the street. Without the obstruction of the crowd, Ogata's journey was very smooth and he soon arrived at Nihon Tsutsumi.
Yoshiwara was built on a river embankment called "Nihon Tsuchiya".
Climb up the riverbank, walk further in, and through a long road called "Gojukenmichi" you will reach the gate of Yoshiwara.
After climbing up the Nihon Dam and entering Gokuken-michi, Obe saw the large signboard next to the entrance of Gokuken-michi.
Last night, when Ogata and Atachi were heading to Yoshiwara, they found this signboard next to the entrance of Gogokenmichi and roughly read what was written on the signboard.
There wasn't anything big written on the sign. It just listed some precautions for entering Yoshiwara.
For example: Be careful with fire; except for doctors, no one is allowed to ride a horse or sedan chair when entering Yoshiwara...
The total length of the fifty paths is about one hundred meters.
After walking along this 100-meter long path, you will reach the only gate of Yoshiwara.
Compared to last night, the Yoshiwara Gate seemed much quieter at this moment.
Last night, the Yoshiwara Gate was bustling with people, whether they were sightseeing or doing business.
And now, there are only a few people walking around the Yoshiwara Gate.
The officers of the Shirobei Club guarding the Yoshiwara gate all looked like they had just woken up, were listless, and yawned continuously.
It is only natural that Yoshiwara has become so deserted now. After all, no one would come to Yoshiwara to seek pleasure early in the morning.
After quickly passing through the Yoshiwara gate, Osamu turned right and walked straight towards the Shirobei Club next to the Yoshiwara gate.
"Hello." Ogata said to a young official guarding the door of the club, who was holding a long wooden stick in his hand, "I want to work in your club."
After saying that, Ogata nodded towards the "recruitment notice" still posted at the entrance of the club.
The young officer looked Ogata up and down several times:
"We have already recruited enough people to handle clerical work. Now we are only looking for people who have good skills and can maintain law and order."
After hearing the young officer's reminder, Ogata nodded:
"I know, that's what I'm here for."
"That's good." After nodding gently, the young official bowed slightly to Ogata, "Please wait a moment."
After saying this, the young officer turned and went into the club.
Not long after, the young man returned to Ogata's sight holding a small stack of papers.
The young officer did not return alone.
Behind him were several companions who were also holding long wooden sticks.
Ogata glanced at the small stack of papers in the young official's hand and thought to himself:
——Wanted order...
At just one glance, Ogata recognized what the young official was holding.
After all, Ogata is quite familiar with this thing.
Not long after he left the Hirose Domain, he saw a wanted poster with his face on it.
"Sir, please forgive me." The young official said to Ogata in a very polite tone with a slightly apologetic smile, "We cannot employ a wanted criminal on the run."
"I understand." Ogata smiled, "I can understand."
"Please wait patiently." After saying that, the young officer began to quickly flip through the wanted posters in his hand, comparing them with Ogata's face one by one.
Ogata was not worried about the comparison made by the young official.
After all, the human skin mask fits perfectly on his face.
Now from an outsider's perspective, he, Ogata, is just an ordinary person with ordinary features and a plain appearance.
With this simple appearance, he looks more like a farmer than a samurai.
With the help of the human skin mask, Ogata successfully passed the stage of "comparing the appearance of wanted criminals".
"Okay, no problem." The young officer nodded gently, put away the wanted warrant in his hand, then turned sideways and opened the door of the club behind him, "Sir, please follow me in."
The interior of the Shirobei Club was much more spacious than Ogata had imagined.
After handing the Daishakuten from his waist to his right hand, Ogata followed the young official around the club, and the two finally stopped outside a plain-looking paper sliding door.
"Please wait inside for a moment." The young official said as he opened the paper sliding door. "I will go and ask the person in charge of our club to come over."
"Yes." Ogata smiled and nodded at the young official, "Thank you for your help."
This room should be a room specially used for entertaining guests. It is neither too big nor too small and is kept spotlessly clean.
Ogata knelt beside the only table in the room, placed Daishakuten on the tatami on the right, and silently waited for the person in charge to arrive.
I don't know if it was because it was early in the morning and there were fewer people in Yoshiwara, so the officials in the club were relatively idle, but not long after, the paper sliding door of the room was opened again.
The person who opened the sliding paper door and walked into the room was an old man who was probably in his 50s or 60s, wearing a dark blue haori, which was specially used by the Shirobei Club.
Although he is old, the old man's steps are still firm and powerful, and it can be seen that he is still strong.
"Hello, my name is Kawajiro. I'm the Bankata of the Shirobei Club."
After the old man sat down opposite Ogata, he started a brief conversation with Ogata.
Ogata immediately bowed and returned the greeting to the old man named Kawajiro.
"I am the Izumo Ronin, Majima Goro."
After a brief self-introduction to each other, Kawajiro looked Ogata up and down several times with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Hmm... he has a good physique." Kawajiro nodded with a smile, "Maintaining the law and order of the club is not an easy job."
"After all, there are all kinds of people causing trouble in Yoshiwara."
"So if you want to work in our club, you need some skills to be qualified."
Ogata immediately understood the implication of Kawajiro's words.
"Do you want me to show off my skills?" Ogata smiled and asked knowingly.
"The test is very simple." Kawajiro said, "You just need to spar with the people in our club."
"I understand," Ogata nodded, "I can start anytime."
"It is Keimon's job to spar with the recruits." Kawajiro scratched his white hair, "It's just that he was bored just now, so he went out on patrol to kill time."
"How long will it take for him to come back?" Ogata raised his eyebrows.
If possible, Ogata didn't want to wait in the club.
"I don't know... Daytime is the quietest time for our club. After Keimon goes out on patrol in the morning, he occasionally goes to the teahouse to drink a few cups of tea before coming back..."
After hesitating for a moment, Kawajiro stood up.
"I'll take you straight to him. This way we can all save a lot of time. If we wait slowly for him to come back from patrol, who knows how long we'll have to wait."
"Hmm? Will this bother you?" A little worry appeared on Ogata's face.
Although Ogata strongly agreed with Kawajiro's decision to take the initiative to find Keiemon instead of waiting in the club, he did not want to disturb the work of this old man who should have a high status in the Shirobei Club because of his own affairs.
"It's okay, it's okay." Kawajiro waved his hand as if he had seen through Ogata's thoughts. "I just said it before, right? Now is the quietest time for our Shirobei Club."
"I just don't have anything to do right now."
"I just happened to take this opportunity to go out for a walk."
Seeing that Kawajiro had said this, Ogata couldn't say anything to refute him.
When Daishikuten followed Kawajiro out of the club, the air with a faint scent of powder blew towards Ogata again.
Daytime is the time when the prostitutes get off work. They no longer sit in rows behind the fence on the first floor of each prostitute house, but the air is still filled with the smell of cosmetics and pleasant fragrances.
Kawajiro seemed to be a bit chatty. As he and Ogata walked along Nakano-machi towards the depths of Yoshiwara, one after the other, he kept introducing various basic knowledge about Yoshiwara to Ogata.
However, Ogata already knew all the basic knowledge that Kawajiro had popularized to him.
For example, there are three levels of yujoya: large, medium and small, and women have to show their "ono-kiri hand" when entering and leaving Yoshiwara - Ogata has learned all this knowledge from different people.
When they walked all the way to the Shirobei Club behind them with only a thumb's length left, Ogata and Kawajiro suddenly heard some unusual noise in front of them. A large number of people, which was quite a lot considering the deserted street at the moment, gathered on the avenue ahead.
Among the people gathered in the front were several officers wearing Shirobei kaisho.
"What happened..." Kawajiro muttered and ran quickly forward.
And Ogata followed closely behind.
After running a little closer to the crowd in front, Kawajiro exclaimed:
"It's Keiemon."
After clearing his throat, Kawajiro shouted loudly to the crowd in front of him:
"Keiemon!"
Ogata followed Kawajiro to a middle-aged man in the crowd who was holding a long wooden stick.
Ogata recognized this uncle.
After watching Guasheng show beating up the four scumbags who didn't pay after having fun in front of the sushi restaurant yesterday, it was this uncle who arrived late with the officials from other clubs, causing Guasheng to make a series of unhappy complaints.
She complained about why Kei'emon and the others always arrived at the scene after she had finished fighting with others.
"Keimon! What's going on with this guy?" After coming to Keiemon's side, Kawajiro hurriedly asked Keiemon.
"This guy didn't pay after eating and drinking in the teahouse." Keimon quickly replied, "Kawajiro, you step back first. If you stand here, you might be implicated when a fight breaks out later."
"Do you need me to call for more reinforcements?" Kawajiro asked.
"...Yes. Please."
Kawajiro nodded vigorously, opened his mouth, and was about to say something when -
"Um..." Ogata suddenly interrupted, "Kawajiro, you just said that to become an employee of the Shirobei Club who is responsible for maintaining public order, you must first test your strength, right?"
"Hmm?" Kawajiro was slightly stunned by Ogata's sudden question, and then quickly answered, "That's right, so you wait for a while. After Keiemon captures the thief, he will test you... Hey! What are you doing?!"
Before Kawajiro could finish his words, Obe walked through the thin circle of encirclement set up by Kei'emon and his men to target the ronin who ate and freed themselves, and slowly walked towards the ronin who was surrounded by them. He was dirty and it was obvious at first glance that he was the kind of ronin who had no food to eat.
"Hey!" Keiemon's voice sounded behind Ogata, "What are you doing?"
Ogata turned a deaf ear to Keimon's anxious words.
After walking slowly to a distance away from the ronin, he stopped.
"Who are you?! What do you want to do by suddenly approaching me?!" The ronin turned the tip of his knife and pointed it at Ogata, his face full of vigilance.
"I'm not planning on doing anything." Ogata said to the ronin in a calm tone, "I'm in a hurry to let this man named Kei'emon test my strength, so could you please put down your sword and surrender? This way, we can all save a lot of time."
"Who would surrender like this?" the ronin roared, "Are you an official from the Shirobei Club?"
"My name is Majima Goro." Ogata said seriously, "I am just a ronin passing by here."
"If you are not an official, get out of the way! Otherwise I will kill you too!"
Ogata looked at the ronin with a meaningful look, and then said softly:
"...Didn't you notice?"
"Huh?" Ogata's inexplicable question stunned the ronin and others such as Keiichiro next to him.
"What did you find?" the Ronin asked.
"Don't you realize that you have been standing within my optimal attack range since just now?"
After saying that, Ogata suddenly raised his right hand and reached for the Daishikuten on his left waist.
After gripping the hilt tightly, he drew the sword from its sheath.
Ogata did not use the sword-drawing technique of "Muga Nito-ryu" - Raikiri.
Just a normal sword drawing.
After all, it is not necessary to use Raikiri to deal with a ronin of this level.
A cold light leaked out from the scabbard of Daishikatsu. Ogata aimed at the guard of the katana in the ronin's hand and used the Dragon Tail of Sakakibara Ittoryu.
The cold light swept horizontally, accurately hitting the Ronin's sword guard, and then directly knocked the Ronin's sword away.
The ronin didn't even see Ogata's sword clearly, so it was inevitable that the sword in his hand was chopped off by Ogata's sword.
After chopping the ronin's sword away with one blow, Ogata turned the Daishakuten and placed the blade against the ronin's neck.
[Ding! Use Sakakibara Ittoryu·Ryubi to defeat the enemy]
[Gain 25 personal experience points, and 30 swordsmanship "Sakakibara Ittoryu" experience points]
[Current personal level: Lv32 (2875/4800)]
[Sakakibara Ittoryu Level: 11th Stage (3485/7000)]
"If you don't even know you're standing in the enemy's optimal attack range, you can't kill me."
After Ogata said this calmly, the ronin finally realized something.
He didn't know whether he was frightened by Ogata's invisible knife or by the sharp touch that continued to flow through his neck to his brain. In any case, his face turned pale and his legs went weak and he collapsed to the ground.
Keiemon, who was standing behind Ogata, was stunned for a moment, then he waved his hand and gave the order:
"Quick! Tie this guy up!"
After hearing Kei'emon's order, the other officers who were also stunned and stunned finally reacted. They rushed forward and pounced on the ronin whose sword was knocked out by Ogata.
After the officers of the Shirobei Club had already started to act, the ronin finally came to his senses from his shock and fear and reached for the wakizashi at his left waist.
But he was too late.
The surrounding officers had successfully subdued the ronin before he could pull out his wakizashi, and tied him up like a dumpling with thick hemp ropes.
After the officers captured the ronin, Ogata took back the Daishakuten in his hand and put it back into the sheath.
The reason why he personally took action to subdue the troublemaker ronin was, on the one hand, because Ogata didn't want to waste too much time on this man.
If Keiemon, Kawajiro and others were allowed to slowly tighten the encirclement of the ronin at their own pace, who knows how long it would take.
Another reason is that Ogata hates people who don't pay after eating, drinking and having fun.
One of Ogata's previous jobs in the Hirose domain was to deal with those people who ate and rushed meals at the izakaya run by Asaki and Afuku.
Because of this job, Ogata unknowingly developed a temper that disliked such scoundrels.
As he slowly walked towards the ronin, Ogata could see that this man might not be able to withstand even one of his attacks.
Ogata's height and arm length were above the average for adult males of that era.
The length of his Daishakuten is also longer than most katanas.
Therefore, Ogata's attack range is much wider than that of ordinary people.
But the ronin didn't realize this at all. He just stood there stupidly, not even realizing that he had entered the enemy's attack range.
Just because the ronin had no such sensitivity to the attack range, Ogata could see that the ronin was just a person of average strength.
In terms of strength, this ronin is not as good as some of Ogata's former fellow disciples in Sakakibara Dojo.
After putting Daishakuten back into the scabbard, Kawajiro and Keiemon quickly walked up to Ogata.
"Mashima-kun." Kawajiro exclaimed, "Your swordsmanship is amazing! Which school did you learn from?"
"The swordsmanship I use is Komaki Ittoryu." Ogata said the pseudonym of the swordsmanship school he had thought of in advance, "The style I practice is mainly circulated in Omi, and it is considered a very unpopular swordsmanship school."
"Kawajiro." Keiemon asked at the side, "Who is this?"
"Oh! This is the Izumo ronin who came to our club this morning and planned to work in our club - Majima Goro."
"I was just bringing him outside to find you. I was planning on letting you spar with him to see how strong he is."
"I didn't expect to see you catching a thief."
"Alas... the public security in Yoshiwara has really been getting worse recently. I encountered a person who ate and drank without paying early in the morning."
As soon as Kawajiro finished speaking, Keimon's eyes suddenly widened and he raised his finger and pointed at himself.
"Shall I spar with him?"
"Why do we need to spar with him or test his swordsmanship now?"
"Kawajiro, didn't you see how he drew his sword just now?"
"A person with this level of swordsmanship will of course pass directly! What else is there to test?!"
…
…
The move Ogata had just made saved him much more time than he had imagined.
Even the sparring with Keiemon was omitted, which was exactly what Ogata wanted.
With Keiemon's decision, Ogata officially became one of the "temporary workers" of the Shirobei Club.
"Mashima-kun, you came just in time!" Keiemon patted Ogata's shoulder and said, "If you had come a little later, we might have recruited enough people."
"My name is Keiemon, and I'm the Banfang of the Shirobei Club! I'm mainly responsible for maintaining the law and order in Yoshiwara and catching those who cause trouble in Yoshiwara."
Keiemon briefly introduced Ogata's future work to him, who had become their "temporary worker".
"During the day, Yoshiwara is relatively peaceful because not many people come to it. We, the official officers of the Shirobei Club, can handle the thieves who cause trouble during the day."
"The trouble is at night."
"At night, there are people everywhere. The dilemma we are facing now is that our official officers are not enough to protect Yoshiwara at night, so we posted that paper to recruit those with good skills."
"So all of you who were temporarily recruited by us only need to come to Yoshiwara at night."
"Then you can leave Yoshiwara at 4 o'clock in the evening when the Yoshiwara gate is closed."
Twilight - converted into Earth's time unit, it is 22:00 at night.
After listening to Keiemon's introduction, Ogata raised his eyebrows in surprise.
This job was much easier than Ogata had imagined.
You just need to come to work in the evening and get off work until 10pm.
The total working time is only about 4 hours from dusk to 22:00.
"Let me confirm this - the day's wages are six silver coins, right?"
Ogata remembered that when he looked at the "recruitment advertisement" of the Shirobei Club last night, it said that the daily wage was 6 silver coins.
"That's right." Kawajiro, who was standing next to Keiemon, answered for Keiemon, "The wages will be settled on the same day."
"This is such a great job." Ogata couldn't help but sigh.
You only need to work about 4 hours and you can get a daily wage above the average - this is indeed a pretty good job.
"It looks easy , but it's actually very tiring." After reminding Ogata, Keimon said seriously, "Although you only need to come here to work at night, I'd like to take you to get familiar with Yoshiwara first."
"As someone responsible for maintaining public order in Yoshiwara, it would be a laughing stock if I couldn't even recognize the roads in Yoshiwara."
"Yes." Ogata nodded, "Then I'll trouble you."
Ogata came to Yoshiwara just to try to get some valuable information from Gokutaro who came to Yoshiwara to have fun every night.
For this purpose, it is quite necessary to understand the layout of Yoshiwara in advance.
As soon as Ogata said, "Then I'll trouble you," Keimon smiled:
"Come with me, Mashima-kun."
"I'll take you to see someone."
"That person loves to bring in new people."
"I won't compete with her for this kind of job of guiding newcomers to get familiar with Yoshiwara. If I take this job, she will definitely complain to me later."
"She should be free now."
"Let her show you around Yoshiwara."
…
…
A simple house in a residential area in Yoshiwara, Edo.
"Um……"
Guasheng leaned against a wooden pillar beside the wall of the hall, barefoot and with his back straight. He pressed his back tightly against the pillar, raised the sword in his right hand, put the blade against his scalp, and then made a horizontal cut on the pillar behind his head.
After making the cut, Guasheng jumped forward impatiently, put some distance between himself and the wooden pillar, and then checked the cut he had made on the pillar.
The cut made by Guasheng perfectly coincided with a long and narrow groove on the wooden pillar.
This long and narrow groove was formed by the overlapping of countless sword marks cut at the same position.
When he saw that the sword mark he had just made overlapped with this long and narrow groove, Guasheng's face showed obvious extreme frustration.
"I still haven't grown taller... Why is it like this..."
With a look of frustration on his face, he put away the sword in his hand and put it back into his arms, then raised his hands horizontally to both sides of his body and jumped lightly upwards.
The field of vision in front of him rose rapidly, and the long groove carved on the wooden pillar quickly passed downwards within Guasheng's field of vision.
Of course - the scene where the long groove on the wooden pillar was within Guasheng's field of vision only appeared for a moment.
After Guasheng's white feet fell back to the ground, the long groove on the wooden pillar returned to a position parallel to Guasheng's scalp.
"Why don't I have any growth anywhere now..."
While muttering this, Guasheng raised his left and right hands, pressed the left and right sides of his chest respectively, and squeezed towards the middle.
Even though he was trying very hard, he couldn't make his chest bulge any bigger.
"Ms. Guasheng! Miss Guasheng!"
Just when Uesugi was worried about his development problems, Keimon's voice suddenly sounded outside the room.
"What's wrong?" Guasheng quickly put down his hands that were pressing the flesh on his chest, and shouted towards the gate not far away.
"There's a new guy in our club!" Keimon continued, "I'm going to ask you to take him around Yoshiwara! Get familiar with Yoshiwara!"
When he heard the word "newcomer", Guasheng's eyes immediately lit up.
He skipped to the dirt floor of the room, casually put on a pair of straw sandals, and opened the door.
Standing behind the gate were two familiar-looking men.
"Huh? Are you the newcomer?" Uesugi looked at Ogata who was standing behind Kei'emon with surprise.
And Ogata was also looking at Uone in front of him with surprise.
Uesugi was wearing a beige kimono, a very ordinary home outfit.
Ogata didn't expect that the person in Keiemon's house who liked to bring new people in was actually Uekusa.
"Hmm? Ms. Ueki, do you know Majima-kun?"
"Yeah." Guasheng nodded, "We just met yesterday."
"It's good that you two know each other!" Keiemon said, "Ms. Ueki, I'll leave Majima-kun to you! You can show Majima-kun around today!"
…
…
After throwing Ogata to Ueoka, Keiichiro simply patted his butt and walked away.
After Keiemon left, Uesugi said to Ogata, who was still standing in front of her door:
"Mashima-kun, you actually came to work at our Shirobei Club..."
"I may not be able to do this for long." Ogata shrugged and said half-jokingly, "I may find it too tiring after a few days, and then quit."
"If you are sure you want to work in our club, then work harder and for a while longer. If you leave after a few days, we will have to recruit new people." After complaining to Ogata in a bad mood, Uesugi moved his body to the side, making room for him to enter and exit the door freely, "Anyway - come in first."
"Well... excuse me for bothering you."
After taking off the Daishikuten from his waist and handing it to his right hand, Ogata slowly stepped into the dirt floor of the room.
After taking off his sandals and following Ueyu to her house's living room, Ueyu said to Ogata:
"Please sit down and I'll make some tea."
After leaving these words, Guasheng quickly left the room.
After Uesugi left, Ogata sat obediently at the table in the living room, and looked around with curiosity.
Guasheng's living room is filled with the atmosphere of "seriousness" and "cleanliness".
The appearance of this living room is very consistent with Guasheng's temperament.
But in some ways, this living room is too clean.
There was almost no furniture or extraneous items.
Just as Ogata was looking at everything around him with curiosity, his eyes suddenly saw something...strange on a wall in the living room.
It was a piece of paper taped to the wall.
To be more precise, it is a portrait pasted on the wall.
Looking at the portrait pasted on a wall in the living room, Ogata's eyes widened, then he quickly stood up and moved closer to look at the portrait.
The reason why Ogata had such a big reaction... was mainly because this portrait was so familiar to him...
"Sorry, I forgot I'm out of tea at home. Would you mind having some water?"
Guasheng returned to the living room with two glasses of water.
After Uesugi came back, Ogata immediately pointed at the painting on the wall in front of him and asked Uesugi urgently:
"Ms. Guasheng, this is...?"
"Huh? You don't even know this guy?"
Uesugi placed the two cups of water on the table in the living room, then stood up, puffed out his chest, and spoke to Ogata word by word:
"This is Ogata Issei, who has the famous name 'Shura'!"
"Shura?" Ogata repeated the words that Uesugi had just said in a lost voice, "Isn't Ogata Issei also known as the Executioner Ittosai and the Killer Issei?"
"That was a title from a long time ago." Uesugi waved his hand. "According to those who survived the encirclement of Ogata Issei in Nijo Castle, Ogata Issei's fighting posture on the Nijo Castle tower was like an Ashura with three heads and six arms."
"So after Ogata Issei conquered Nijo Castle in Kyoto, everyone gave him this new title."
"However, this title is not as popular as the two names 'Executioner Ittosai' and 'Slayer Issei', so it's normal that you don't know Ogata Issei's new title."
After listening to Uesugi's explanation, Ogata twisted his stiff neck and turned his gaze back to the portrait of himself on the wall.
The emotions hidden in the eyes are very complicated...
——How come I got a new title without realizing it...