In Edo, Shiranui——
The shock that Enma's sudden death brought to Shiranui has not subsided until now.
The Balrog died of poisoning, and it is very likely that he consumed food or water mixed with poison.
For a moment, everyone in Shiranui felt in danger.
No one is sure whether only the food and water of the Balrog are poisoned.
Everyone is afraid that what they eat or drink today may be mixed with poison.
Fortunately, so far, there has been no news of a second person dying from poisoning tonight.
However, an atmosphere of panic still enveloped the entire Shiranui.
In a fairly grand mansion, an old man and a young man sat opposite each other.
The older man is named "Taketaro", and he is considered a very senior veteran in Shiranui. He is 58 years old this year.
When Enma was still alive, he was the second oldest person in Shiranui.
With the 65-year-old Enma dying suddenly tonight, he has now become the oldest person in Shiranui.
When he was still a young man, he was already one of the backbones of Shiranui.
Now that he is older and has more experience, he has gained a good status and voice in Shiranui.
His status in Shiranui is probably second only to the "Four Heavenly Kings".
The younger man sitting in front of Taketaro is named "Buntaro" and is Taketaro's disciple.
Although he is still just a Genin, in terms of talent, he is considered to be a leader among the younger generation in Shiranui.
The body of the Flame Demon has just been moved to the memorial hall in their Shiranui. This memorial hall is specially used to commemorate those who have made outstanding contributions to Shiranui.
Master and disciple Taketaro and Buntaro had just visited the mourning hall to pay their last respects to the deceased Flame Demon, and had just returned home - the magnificent mansion where they were currently.
Both of them were in a very heavy mood at the moment, and they didn't speak a word all the way from the mourning hall to their home.
After the lights in the living room were turned on and the two of them sat down on the tatami, Buntaro whispered to Taketaro in front of him:
"Master... who was it that killed Enma-sama?"
The leader who had been leading them suddenly died - this change happened so quickly that many people have not been able to adapt to this fact in time until now.
“…I don’t know.” Taketaro sighed, “There are too many people who have the motive to kill Enma-sama.”
As a senior member of Shiranui, Taketaro is only 7 years younger than Enma, and they are almost of the same generation.
Although he and Enma are of the same generation and have served Shiranui together for decades, the two of them cannot be considered friends and their relationship can only be described as average.
For Taketaro, if someone else with whom he had a mediocre relationship died, his emotions would not change much.
But it’s different for the Flame Demon.
Like him, Enma has witnessed decades of history in Shiranui, and even though their relationship is ordinary, Taketaro has a special feeling for Enma.
Tonight, when he suddenly received the news of Enma's death, an indescribable feeling of sadness still surged into Taketaro's heart...
Therefore, Taketaro's current mood is far more complicated than that of his disciple Buntaro.
"I haven't even seen Lord Enma's face, and Lord Enma is dead..." A bitter smile appeared on Buntaro's face.
Buntaro is only 15 years old this year and officially became a ninja half a year ago.
"My only impression of Enma-sama..." Buntaro continued, "is that he is a white-haired old man, and he is not a friendly or kind person..."
Buntaro's words made Taketaro smile a little more: "Your impression of Enma is actually not wrong."
"He really wasn't a very nice, affable guy."
“But he wasn’t always like this.”
After saying that, Taketaro turned his head and looked at the wick beside him that was emitting a faint light. Under this faint light, the light of memories was reflected in Taketaro's pupils.
"The name Enma used before he took over as the 12th Enma was 'Ichitaro'."
"At such a young age, he has shown amazing talent in ninjutsu and swordsmanship."
"His extraordinary strength, coupled with his qualified leadership skills, quickly earned him the appreciation of the 11th-generation Enma."
"The 11th Enma also began to train Ichitaro as the next generation Enma early on."
"I remember it was about 30 years ago, when Ichitaro was 35 years old, the 11th Enma died of an acute illness and passed the position of Enma to Ichitaro. Ichitaro took the name of Enma and became the current 12th Enma."
"In my impression, before he succeeded to become the Enma, Ichitaro was a cheerful and approachable person."
"But after succeeding to the position of Enma, Ichitaro wanted to make Shiranui bigger and stronger in order to live up to the expectations and training of the 11th Enma and others."
"Then he slowly became less cheerful and friendly."
"What a pity..."
Taketaro gave a helpless smile.
"Ichitaro seems to still lack some relevant talents."
"In the 30 years since he took over as the Fire Demon, he has only done two major things."
"The first major event was 10 years ago, when we launched an all-out war with Fuma Village in order to reduce our competitors."
"The second major thing is to surrender to the shogunate, cooperate with the shogunate, and become the shogunate's official ninja."
"Let's not even mention the first major event. In the battle with Fuma Village, we suffered heavy losses. In the end, Fuma Village was not destroyed by us using force, but was disbanded by Fuma himself."
"Although we succeeded in making Fuma no Sato disappear in the end, our situation in Shiranui has not improved. The number of high-quality missions we can receive is still decreasing year by year."
"Only the second thing done by Lord Yan Mo has achieved some results."
"After becoming the shogunate's official ninja, the shogunate will now allocate a certain amount of funds to us on a regular basis, making us richer now than before."
"It's just that we have lost our freedom now, and we have to follow the instructions of the shogunate when making decisions on some major issues."
At this point, Taketaro sighed heavily.
A hint of dissatisfaction began to appear in his tone.
"Ichitaro has worked hard for 30 years to revive Shiranui, but not only has he failed to do so, Shiranui's strength has become worse and worse..."
"30 years ago, when Ichitaro first took over Shiranui, there were 7 or 8 people in Shiranui who were as strong as Gokutaro and Shintaro."
Buntaro, who had just been quietly listening to Taketaro's story, smiled bitterly and interrupted:
"Master, you seem to have a lot of problems with Lord Yan Mo. "
"Hehe..." Taketaro chuckled, "I still have some dissatisfaction with Ichitaro."
"After all, under his rule, Shiranui's strength has been getting worse and worse. It is a fact that he failed to revitalize Shiranui."
“But I still respect him.”
“He might be a little lacking in ability.”
"But his determination to revitalize Shiranui is real."
"I have witnessed several times that Ichitaro, who is already quite old, has not slept for several nights to deal with various emergencies."
"But his determination is quite terrifying."
The corners of Taketaro's mouth twitched downward, revealing an expression as if he was recalling some horrible memory.
"I've always felt that 'Revitalizing Shiranui' has become a deep obsession for Ichitaro."
"Sometimes... the obsession is too deep, but it is very painful."
"So from another perspective, it's better for him to be dead now..."
"He no longer has to worry about how to revitalize Shiranui."
"He is now..."
Taketaro took a deep breath and slowly exhaled the air in his lungs:
"I'm relieved..."
…
…
Edo, Shiranui, Shuntaro's residence——
Shuntaro had originally planned to go to bed.
A lot happened tonight.
First, in order to catch the rebel ninja, he spent a long time in Edo.
Then he suddenly heard about the execution of Enma, and hurried back to Shiranui, and then continued to struggle for a long time.
Not only does the body feel tired, but the mind also feels very tired.
Besides, there was nothing else he could do now except sleeping and resting his mind and physical strength.
At present, it has not been determined when and why the Flame Demon was poisoned. There is no clue to trace, and it is simply a fantasy to find the person who poisoned the Flame Demon.
Shuntaro himself knew nothing about poison. He couldn't even tell what kind of poison caused the death based on the victim's appearance.
Even if we wanted to assist in the investigation, we would not be able to help.
There was nothing much to do now, and sleepiness and fatigue were slowly rising up, so Shuntaro planned to have a good rest tonight.
He had been planning to go to bed.
But just as he was about to take off the two swords on his back, he suddenly heard a "bang" sound outside the room, which caught Shuntaro's attention.
After hearing this sound, Shuntaro's pupils suddenly shrank.
The reason why this sound forced Shintaro to pay attention was because this sound was too familiar to the battle-hardened Shintaro.
This is the sound made when an arrow penetrates deeply into wood.
Almost like an instinctive reflex, Shuntaro pulled out a knife from his back, and then quickly hid in a blind spot where the archers outside the room could never reach him.
Moving within the blind spot of shooting.
After arriving at the door, Shuntaro did not rush out rashly, but first opened the door a crack and observed the situation outside.
Shuntaro's home is like a lonely cactus in the desert.
Because he likes to live in a quiet place, Shuntaro's home is located in a remote area of ​​Shiranui Village, with few neighbors around.
At this moment, there was nothing outside Shuntaro's house except wind, moonlight, and darkness. Not to mention archers, there wasn't even a human figure.
——Have you left already?
There was no trace of human presence outside.
According to Shuntaro's guess, the archer shot an arrow at his house and then quickly left.
Shuntaro opened the door a crack large enough for him to enter and exit, and walked out.
As soon as he stepped out of the room, Shuntaro saw an arrow about half an inch embedded in the wood on the wooden pillar next to his door.
A small cloth bag as big as an adult's fist was tied to the shaft of the arrow.
Since it can be shot directly at me with an arrow, it means that the things in this small cloth bag are definitely not heavy.
After pulling out the arrow and untying the small cloth bag tied to it, Shuntaro saw that there were only two things inside.
A neatly folded letter and a piece of kimono sleeve.
When seeing this sleeve, Shuntaro's first reaction was that it looked very familiar.
After unfolding it and taking a closer look, Shuntaro finally understood why it looked so familiar.
As he figured out why he felt familiar with the face, Shuntaro felt as if his heart skipped a beat out of fear.
Shuntaro quickly rolled up his sleeves, then spread out the neatly folded letter and read the words on it at a glance.
…
…
Snap, snap, snap…
Without any reason to dodge, Shuntaro, with a gloomy face, stepped on the dead branches and rotten leaves on the ground, holding the kimono sleeve in his left hand and the letter in his right hand, walked straight into the darkness in front of him.
Shuntaro is currently in a forest northwest of Shiranui that has no name and where few people usually come.
There was only the wind, the trees, the moonlight, and darkness with no light to illuminate it.
After walking deep into the woods, we finally saw something that was out of tune with the surrounding wind, grass, trees and other objects - a human figure hiding in the shade of the trees.
As soon as Shuntaro saw the figure in front of him, the figure walked straight towards him and whispered before Shuntaro:
"Master Shuntaro, you are finally here."
As the figure finished speaking, he walked out from the dark shade of the trees and came under a beam of moonlight.
The bright moonlight shone on the figure, illuminating a face that Shuntaro was quite familiar with.
Looking at this face, Shuntaro's face, which seemed to be tense every inch, was filled with many deep shadows.
There was also a bit of surprise in the shadow.
"Keitaro... When did you come back? Where's Gokutaro? Are you the one who sent me this letter?"
The figure standing in front of Shuntaro was Keitaro.
He was standing in front of Shuntaro, carrying a pistol and a large cloth bag containing something unknown.
Shuntaro knew that Gokutaro and Keitaro were leading a group of ninjas to carry out a mission tonight - although he didn't know what mission they were going to carry out.
Until now, there has been no news of Gokutaro and the others returning.
Shuntaro originally thought that they were still carrying out their mission, but now Keitaro was standing in front of him alive.
Shuntaro's biggest impression of Keitaro is that he is a follower - Gokutaro's follower.
He and Gokutaro are inseparable. No matter what Gokutaro does, he will follow him.
Gokutaro went to Yoshiwara to have fun every night, and Keitaro also accompanied Gokutaro to have fun every night.
After seeing Keitaro, Shuntaro subconsciously thought that Gokutaro was also nearby, so he looked around while clenching the letter in his hand.
"Shuntaro-sama." Keitaro said calmly with an expressionless face, "I am not the one who wrote this letter. However, I was the one who delivered this letter to your doorstep with a bow and arrow just now."
Just when Shuntaro was about to shout out "Who wrote this letter?", he suddenly heard two slow footsteps coming from behind Keitaro.
At the same time, a voice that was also quite familiar to Shuntaro sounded along with the two footsteps.
"Good evening, Shuntaro. This seems to be the first time we meet so late at night."
As the words fell, two figures walked out from the dim shadows, and their shapes and features were gradually outlined by the light.
Looking at the two people who appeared from behind Keitaro, Shuntaro could no longer control the expression on his face.
The muscles on his face seemed to be out of control, and he began to show confusion and surprise uncontrollably. In a hoarse voice, he called out the names of the two people: "Shintaro... Hannosuke..."
Shintaro is usually taciturn and doesn't show much expression on his face.
In Shuntaro's impression, he has only seen "Smiling Shintaro" a few times.
At this moment, this extremely rare scene appeared in front of Shuntaro.
Shintaro walked towards Shuntaro little by little with a gentle smile on his face.
Walking beside him was Hannosuke, the leader of the Iga ninjas.
At this time, Hannosuke was also carrying a cloth bag like Keitaro, but the bag he was carrying was smaller than the one Keitaro was carrying.
After Shintaro and Hannosuke came to Keitaro's side, Keitaro bowed respectfully to them and then stood behind Shintaro.
After a brief moment of confusion and surprise, the expression on Shuntaro's face returned to solemnity.
Before Shuntaro could say anything, Shintaro spoke first:
"The letter in your hand is from me."
"I know you must be worried about Taifu's safety right now."
"But don't worry, Taifu is safe now. There's not even a scratch on her body."
Shintaro's words made Shuntaro hold the sleeve and the letter in his hands even tighter.
Just now, after taking a closer look at this piece of kimono sleeve, Shuntaro immediately recognized it - it was the sleeve of the kimono that Furin-tayu only wore when receiving guests.
This kimono is very expensive. In Edo... no, it should be that she is the only one in the world who has this kimono.
Because Shuntaro had joked with the haru more than once, saying that the haru looked like he was wearing a quilt in this outfit, he was deeply impressed by this outfit.
After recognizing the sleeve as a fragment of the tayu's kimono, Shuntaro immediately unfolded the letter.
The content of the letter was very simple.
To sum it up simply, let Shuntaro go to the woods northwest of Shiranui.
At the end of the letter, they also "kindly" reminded Shintaro that Furin-Taiko was in their hands. They told Shintaro to go to the forest specified in the letter right away, but also told him to go alone and not to tell anyone.
Although there was nothing violent in the letter, the words were filled with threats.
"In order to make you believe that Fuujiya is really in our hands now, we specially brought this thing here."
Shintaro said this in a half-joking tone and glanced at Hannosuke beside him.
Hannosuke understood the look in Shintaro's eyes and nodded, then he put the bag on his back on the ground and opened it.
Inside the cloth bag was an exquisite kimono with the right sleeve missing.
It was the same outfit that Furin Taifu would only wear when receiving guests.
Perhaps it was because since just now, news that was enough to shock Shintaro's brain appeared one after another, making Shintaro numb, and now he has calmed down.
“…I see.”
Shuntaro said softly.
"Shintaro, Enma...was poisoned to death by you, right?"
This sentence is clearly in the form of a question, but its tone is that of an affirmative sentence.
"That's right." Shintaro admitted without hesitation, "We were the ones who killed the Flame Demon."
"We poisoned the wine that the Balrog drank tonight."
"It took us a lot of effort to find the right time to poison."
"Because we couldn't find an opportunity to poison the demon, our attempt to poison the demon tonight almost failed."
"…When did you two become accomplices?" Shuntaro's gaze swept across the faces of Shintaro, Keitaro, and Hannosuke one by one.
"It has been like this since the beginning," said Shintaro.
"Before the ninjas from Iga arrived... Shintaro..."
"No." The smile on Shintaro's face became even more intense, "Before that... "
"Ever since I don't know how long ago, Keitaro and Hannosuke have been my companions!"
"You killed the Enma and kidnapped Chang... What exactly are you going to do?" Shuntaro gritted his teeth, "Are you trying to seize power and become the next generation of Enma?!"
"To seize power?" Shintaro's expression was full of satisfaction. "It's to seize power, I guess."
"But I have no interest in becoming the next generation of Fire Demon."
Shintaro looked at Keitaro beside him.
"Keitaro, bring that thing over here."
"yes."
Keitaro took off the large cloth bag on his back and handed it to Shintaro.
After taking it, Shintaro threw it to Shuntaro.
"Shuntaro, open it and take a look."
The thing that Shintaro threw was not heavy.
After Shuntaro unwrapped it, he found that the cloth bag contained a Sensei gourd.
Shuntaro is a rough guy who can barely write Chinese characters.
But even a rough man like him knew what the Qiancheng gourd represented.
"Shintaro, what are you going to do with Toyotomi Hideyoshi's horse seal for me?" Shuntaro tightly grasped the Sensei gourd in his hand.
Even a rough man like Shuntaro has heard of the legendary stories created by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who held high the Thousand Gourd Horse Seal during the Warring States Period 200 years ago.
"Don't worry, Shuntaro."
Shintaro turned and walked towards a large rock nearby.
After sitting down on this big rock, Shintaro continued to put on a comfortable expression:
"Would you like to sit down somewhere too?"
"I'm going to tell you a story that you might think is a lie."
…
…
Edo, Nihonbashi, Shinagawa-juku.
Naito Shinjuku is one of the most famous post stations in Edo.
Starting from Edo, there are five important transportation routes.
These five major traffic arteries are Donghai Street, Zhongshan Street, Nikko Street, Oshu Street, and Koshu Street.
These five important transportation routes are collectively called the "Five Traffic Roads". Because they connect various important places in Japan, the "Five Traffic Roads" are extremely important both politically and militarily.
When the Edo Shogunate was building the "Five Streets", it built many post stations along the "Five Streets".
Take Nikko Street as an example.
If Edo is taken as the starting point, there are 21 post stations in Nikko Kaido from the starting point to the end point.
This is also one of the reasons why there were so many ronin in Edo - there were a large number of post stations along the "Five Streets" to facilitate the ronin to stay.
Shinagawa-juku - the first post station on the Tokaido Road.
Because Tokaido connects the two major cities of Kyoto and Edo, it can be said to be the busiest and most popular street among the "Five Streets".
Shinagawajuku, the starting point of the Tokaido Road, has been fully booked for a long time.
While the guests in other rooms had fallen asleep, the guests in one room were still awake.
In this unlit room, a young man leaned against the window, and with the moonlight outside, he carefully examined a katana in his hand.
This is a very beautiful katana with a purple handle.
The shallow arc and the cold light make it look majestic and magnificent.
Under the moonlight, the light reflected from the blade has a warmer feel.
Wow...
The door next to the young man was slowly opened.
An extremely strong man walked slowly to the side of the young man and then knelt on one knee.
"Gao Qing." The young man asked softly, "What's the matter?"
"Lord Toyotomi, Enma is dead. Shuntaro's relatives and friends have been controlled ." The sturdy man called "Takaharu" by the young man summarized the latest information he had just received into a short sentence.
As soon as the sturdy man finished speaking, a smile appeared on the young man's expressionless face.
"After 200 years, Shiranui is finally back under the control of our Toyotomi family..."
The young man's words were somewhat self-deprecating.
"Lord Toyotomi, do you need to convey the next instructions to Shintaro?" asked the burly man.
"... Gao Qing, help me pass the message to Shintaro later." The young man seemed to have had enough of the beautiful katana in his hand and slowly put it back into the sheath, "Tell him to completely master the Shiranui as soon as possible."
"yes."
…
…
Edo, Yoshiwara, Braided Hat Teahouse——
There is a teahouse outside Yoshiwara, quite close to the main gate of Yoshiwara.
This teahouse used to be a shop specializing in selling bamboo hats.
In the past, samurai were more concerned about their reputation. When they came to places like Yoshiwara for fun, they would cover their faces with bamboo hats to avoid being seen by acquaintances.
This shop specializes in dealing with these warriors.
But as time passed, the samurai gradually let themselves go and no longer thought it was shameful to go in and out of Yoshiwara. Fewer and fewer samurai would wear conical hats when going in and out of Yoshiwara, and the business of this shop became increasingly difficult.
In order to survive, the shop had to transform into a tea house.
While running the ordinary tea house business, he also continued to sell bamboo hats.
For this reason, people now call this shop not far from the Yoshiwara gate "Braido Teahouse".
Braikasa Teahouse is a shop that is open 24 hours a day, which is quite rare in this era.
Because it is very close to Yoshiwara, from time to time, officials from the Shirobei Club who are on night shift tonight will come to his place to have a few drinks and eat something, and there are quite a few of them.
Thanks to its unique geographical advantage, the Braided Hata Tea House still has pretty good business even late at night.
In order to earn more money, the owner of the Braid Tea House has been operating 24 hours a day for several years.
Business is particularly good tonight.
Because a big fire broke out in Yoshiwara.
In order to extinguish the fire, a large number of town firefighters rushed to Yoshiwara and successfully brought the fire under control, preventing it from spreading.
After the fire was under control and they could breathe a sigh of relief, some exhausted, thirsty town firefighters and officials from the Shirobei Club went to the braided teahouse, which was still open late at night, to drink some tea and eat something to restore their strength.
With so many officials visiting, it's a great opportunity to make money - but the owner of the Braided Hata Teahouse doesn't want to make that money.
The boss has always respected those heroes who dared to face the horrific flames.
Therefore, we have specially lowered the prices of all food and tea tonight to the lowest level, basically making just the cost price.
Because there are many guests tonight, it is naturally quite busy.
Even the boss, who was usually only responsible for the behind-the-scenes work of settling down in the house, had to personally carry the tea tray and deliver snacks and tea to each table.
call……
When the boss was placing the two cups of tea on the tray in his hand on a table close to the store entrance, he suddenly heard the sound of the door curtain being lifted at the store door behind him.
"Welcome!"
After placing the tea on the trays on the table of the guests, the owner immediately gave a well-trained polite smile and looked towards the door of the store.
There was only one new customer entering the store.
He had a straight sword on his waist that was slightly shorter than a katana, and he was wearing a conical hat on his head.
Because the brim of the hat was very wide and the guest had his head slightly lowered, the host could not see his face clearly.
"Are there any empty tables?" the man asked the host in a concise manner.
The voice was very old, a voice that only an elderly person would make.
"Yes!" the host asked immediately, "Excuse me, is there only one?"
"Yeah." The old man nodded.
"plz follow me!"
The host made a "please" gesture to the old man, and the old man slowly walked towards the host, and under the guidance of the host, walked towards the empty table.
Because the boss is much shorter than the old man, he can just barely see the old man's face by just looking up.
So when the old man approached, the owner could vaguely see that the old man's hair was almost completely gray.
There are many wrinkles on the face.
The most noteworthy thing is that he has only one eye.
There is a vertical scar covering the old man's left eye.