It was not until then that Ogata realized that many places in the corridor under his feet were soaked with a colorless and odorless liquid that looked no different from ordinary water.
Because they were on a pirate ship, finding "stagnant water" in the cabin corridors of a pirate ship was just a very common thing, so Ogata did not notice the "stagnant water" at all.
Then——Miyabe felt a blur in front of his eyes.
In just a blink of an eye, Ogata, who had just been standing a few steps away, appeared in front of Miyabe.
While using a step to dodge to get in front of Miyabe, Ogata sheathed the Daishakuten.
Bang!
Ogata pushed Miyabe to the ground.
He controlled Gongbu's body with his left hand and searched for possible weapons on his body, while he stretched out his index, middle and ring fingers with his right hand and put them into Gongbu's mouth.
"Who are you? And what is your relationship with the madman who planned to destroy Kyoto last summer?"
While shouting loudly, Ogata felt around Miyabe's mouth, checking if there was any poison hidden in his teeth, while trying to stop him from biting his tongue or licking his collar to commit suicide.
This method of checking whether there is poison hidden in other people's teeth was taught to him by Ating.
As a female ninja, A-Machi was systematically taught efficient suicide methods and how to prevent others from committing suicide.
Hiding poison in teeth is one of the favorite methods used by assassins.
First, hide the poison in a worn-out denture. When you need to take the poison, use your tongue to open the denture and bite the pill.
Another favorite method of suicide among the assassins was to apply poison on their collars and then lick their collars when committing suicide.
At this moment, Ogata used the method taught to him by Atachi to "prevent others from committing suicide", searching for Miyabe's teeth inch by inch, and preventing him from licking his collar or biting his tongue, in order to prevent this guy from committing suicide.
Ogata knew nothing about Miyabe. Who knew if he was the kind of ruthless person who would commit suicide without hesitation when faced with a desperate situation?
He now has a mountain of questions he wants to ask this guy, so he can't let Miyabe die like this.
After a search, they found nothing in Miyabe's mouth.
And Miyabe's body was the same as his teeth - there was nothing, not even a single weapon was found.
"Heh... you're quite alert..." Because Ogata's three fingers were still probing Miyabe's mouth, Miyabe's words were still a little unclear, "You even knew... to stop me from committing suicide."
Not only was Miyabe unable to speak fluently, he was also unable to swallow, so most of his face was covered with saliva.
But even though he looked extremely miserable, he still had a faint smile on his face.
"But alas - it's too late."
As soon as Miyabe finished speaking, his pupils began to contract violently.
“Cough! Cough—!”
Miyabe suddenly started coughing violently, coughing up several mouthfuls of hot blood, which dyed Ogata's right hand red when he put it into his mouth.
"When... you defeated Morimaru... I had already... taken the poison... in advance..."
Miyabe cast a teasing look at Ogata.
"There's no way to escape anyway... it's better to die... in my own hands..."
"Fortunately... in order to... check your true face... I have already spread... medicine that can destroy the human skin mask... all over this place..."
"Before I die... I can see the pirates who can easily defeat an entire ship... and what my subordinates look like... It will make up for my regrets..."
At this time, the human skin mask on Ogata's face had already "withered" for the most part.
The "withered" part of the human skin mask also fell from Ogata's face at this moment. It looked like the skin had fallen off and was hanging on Ogata's face, which looked extremely terrifying.
It was because the "withered" part of the human skin mask fell off that Ogata's true face hidden under the mask finally appeared in front of the public after a long absence.
Looking at the face under the mask of Osamu, astonishment quickly spread over Miyabe's entire face, and the smile on his face faded a little.
But soon - Miyabe calmed down his emotions and expressions.
“Hahaha…” Gongbu’s face once again showed a calm smile, “No wonder… No wonder Lord Yitong’s subordinates… and my subordinates… were all easily defeated by you…”
"Since I was defeated by the executioner Ittosai... then it can be considered an honorable defeat..."
"My Lord...sent so many people to look for you...but I never expected to run into you in a place like this...it's really...what a trick of fate..."
——You sent so many people to look for me...?
As his doubts grew, Ogata's brows had unconsciously furrowed.
"Hey! Who are you? What's the meaning of sending so many people to find me?!"
Ogata could clearly feel Miyabe's vitality slipping away.
There was nothing he could do except yelling at Gongbu loudly and shaking him hard, trying to keep him awake.
After all, he was not a doctor and had no ability to make a person who had taken poison recover.
“Haha…” Miyabe, whose face had turned terrifyingly pale, smiled.
There was no fear or panic on his face, and he didn't look like a dying man at all.
"Now that I think about it carefully... I feel a little bit at a disadvantage..."
“Dying at the hands of Ittosai... seems to be more pleasant than dying from poison... Haha... cough cough cough! Cough cough cough!!”
Miyabe coughed hard a few more times, with such force that it seemed as if he was going to cough out all the internal organs in his stomach.
"What a pity... I haven't yet repaid... the kindness that you have shown me... 'Harami Seban'..."
After the last syllable was uttered, Miyabe's eyes widened, his head tilted - and he was completely silent.
As a staff member of the Hara Shirobei Club who had worked in Yoshiwara, Ogata was naturally familiar with the "Kiseban" that Miyabe had just mentioned.
The so-called "Jienseban", also known as "prostitutes", are specifically responsible for low-end jobs such as soliciting customers in the red-light district.
At this time, the human skin mask on Gongbu's face had "withered" for most of the time and fell off his face - under the mask was an extremely ugly face.
Overly small triangular eyes, bulbous nose, thick lips...none of the facial features are attractive.
When these ugly facial features are combined, they form an extremely ugly face.
The only advantage of this face is probably that the skin is relatively fair.
Looking at the dead Miyabe, Ogata remained silent for a long time.
After a while, he raised his hand and tore off his human skin mask that was about to fall off, then put Miyabe's mask back on his face, turning Miyabe back to his original handsome appearance...
However, just as he put down Miyabe's body, which had been shaking violently just now.
Rolling...
Something fell from Miyabe's body.
It's a few small red pills.
A few red pills with a mint smell
Ogata was stunned when he saw the red pill falling from Miyabe's body.
This pill...Ogata has an impression of it.
Before, when he found Gennao, Gennao showed him the same pill. Gennao also planned to give this treasured medicine to Ogata, but was rejected by Ogata.
According to Xuanzhi, this is his master's unique poison.
Only Xuanzhi and his master Xuanzheng can make extremely toxic medicine...
…
…
"Hahaha……"
Yi Tong was gasping for breath, regulating his breathing, while stuffing handfuls of gold into his arms.
Yi Tong is in his room now.
He has a habit of putting money where he can see it.
So the gift that Gongbu had brought him before - the 3,000 taels of gold - were all placed in Yi Tong's room.
——Run away! Run away quickly!
There was only one thought left in Yi Tong's mind - escape!
Just now, when he followed Miyabe and Morimaru into the cabin, he thought the two were trying to escape.
But I didn't expect that these two people were planning to fight to the death with Ogata.
Yi Tong no longer had any desire to resist Ogata.
After learning that Miyabe and Morimaru were planning to continue fighting with Ogata, Yitong immediately shook his head like a rattle, indicating "I quit".
Afterwards, he parted ways with Gong Bu and the other two.
Miyabe and Morimaru make a final stand, while Antsu returns to his room, ready to run away with the money.
There are several small boats on his pirate ship for use in emergencies.
He was quite familiar with the nearby sea areas, so he knew that his current location was actually very close to the land.
Although it is very difficult, there is still hope to row back to land by using these small boats on the ship.
As long as you can save your life, there is still a chance to make a comeback.
——Okay! This amount of money should be enough!
After hurriedly stuffing hundreds of large gold coins into his arms, Yi Tong ran towards the door of the room panting, ready to rush to the cabin where the lifeboat was located.
But at this moment...the door of his room was kicked open roughly.
Bang!
"Alas--!"
Yi Tong looked in horror at the person who kicked open his door - Ogata.
Looking at Ogata, whose appearance had suddenly changed, Yi Tong was stunned.
“Eh…your face…Aaaaaaaa——!”
Yitong thought that Ogata's "new face" looked very familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before, but he couldn't remember where. But before he could finish a complete sentence, the rest of his words were replaced by screams.
Ogata quickly approached with a step-by-step approach, pressed Yitong against the wall behind him, and snatched the katana from Yitong's waist. Then he overlapped Yitong's palms and pressed them against the wall above his head, and used Yitong's knife to nail his palms to the wall.
“Ah ...! My hand! My hand!”
The palms of his hands were nailed to the wall, and the severe pain made Yi Tong scream at the top of his lungs.
But before he could shout for long, Ogata slapped him in the face, stunning Yi Tong.
"Be quiet." After slapping Yi Tong hard, Xu Fang said expressionlessly, "I have some questions for you now."
"Answer whatever I ask you."
"I'll warn you in advance - I'm in a very bad mood right now."
"If you say anything irrelevant to the question I asked, or if you don't answer immediately, I will cut you with my knife."
After saying that, Ogata drew out the Daishakuten.
"Who are that handsome man and that blind man? What is their relationship to you?"
"Huh?" Yi Tong cast a puzzled look at Ogata, wondering why Ogata was asking these questions.
But just as he cast a puzzled look at Ogata, he saw a flash of a knife.
A flash of knife light scratched the little toe of his left foot.
The little toe of his left foot was cut off and blood was all over the ground.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaa——!”
"I told you, if you say anything nonsense or don't answer my question right away, I'll cut you with a knife." Ogata said calmly, "Don't doubt what I just said. I'm going to say it first - I've cut someone into pieces and chopped him into meat paste before."
"When it comes to slashing people, I'm very experienced. I don't feel the slightest bit of guilt for slashing a human trafficker like you."
"I'll count to two. If you don't say something that satisfies me soon, I'll cut you again."
Before Ogata started counting, Yitong hurriedly said:
"He, they are subordinates of an old friend of mine!"
"I like to soak in hot springs, so every winter, I would bring my subordinates to Ezo to soak in hot springs. While soaking in the hot springs, I would also kidnap some Ezo women to sell for money."
"Just... I remember it was four years ago, I was taking a hot spring bath in Ezo during the winter as usual, and I ran into a group of people."
"The leader of that group was a very young samurai who called himself 'Kinoshita'. I didn't know his full name, he just told me his last name was Kinoshita."
— Kinoshita?
Ogata's brows instantly frowned.
He was surprised to find that he often heard this surname during this period.
The last time I heard this surname was from Chanup in Red Moon Fortress.
According to Chanup, the muskets of their Red Moon Fortress were sold to them at a low price by a young merchant named Kinoshita. Not only did he sell them the precious muskets at a low price, he also taught them how to use the muskets.
After selling the musket and the instructions for using it to Chanup and his men at a low price, Chanup never saw Kinoshita again.
Ogata did not interrupt Yitong and let Yitong continue.
"After that Kinoshita learned that I was a pirate who made a living by trafficking in human beings and that I also had experience in kidnapping Ainu people, he proposed cooperation with me."
"He gave me money, and I helped him catch Ezo."
"His requirements were very low, regardless of gender or age, and he paid generously, so I started to cooperate with him."
"We've been working together... for about a year."
"A year later, Kinoshita suddenly told me that he no longer needed my help in catching Ezo."
"Then, Kinoshita led his men away from Ezo. I never saw him again."
"But in the past three years, Kinoshita would occasionally send someone to say hello to me and keep in touch with me."
"Miyabe... the handsome man you just mentioned is the one Kinoshita sent to greet me this year."
"Do you know who this Kinoshita is?" Ogata asked the second question, "Tell me all the information about this Kinoshita."
"I know very little about Kinoshita."
"He is very secretive. He rarely tells me anything about him, and his subordinates are more tight-lipped than others."
"He is very young, probably about your age. I guess... he is a businessman who specializes in smuggling."
"Why do you say that?" Ogata asked back.
"Because before he terminated his cooperation with me and left Ezo, he told me that he would return to Ryukyu later."
"He told me that he had set up a base in Ryukyu specifically for making money, and he would return to Ryukyu to focus on development for a while."
"Although he didn't tell me how his base in Ryukyu makes money, I guess he most likely makes money through smuggling ."
"Ryukyu is very close to Japan, Tang, and the Southeast Asian countries, making it an excellent transit point for smuggling trade."
"If he makes his money through smuggling, then it makes sense why he is so rich."
"Although smuggling is dangerous, it is a very profitable business. As far as I know, there is no one who is not rich enough to rival a country in the smuggling trade."
"Merchant...rich..." Ogata muttered.
For some reason, Ogata recalled his friend who was also a businessman and also extremely wealthy...
Ogata fell into deep thought.
Yi Tong didn't dare to say a word now, so when he saw Ogata was silent, he also closed his mouth and waited silently for Ogata to speak again.
After a while, Ogata finally spoke again:
"…Why did Kinoshita spend a lot of money to ask you to help him capture Ezo? What happened to those captured Ezo?"
"I don't know." Ant said, "That Kinoshita is really mysterious! After we kidnapped Ezo, he sent people to my base to pick him up."
"As for where he took those kidnapped Ezo people and what he did with them, I have no idea!"
"I asked out of curiosity, but nothing came out of it."
"I see..." Ogata murmured softly.
Then he swung the knife fiercely and cut off the little toe of Yi Tong's other foot.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh——!” Because of the severe pain, Yitong’s tears and snot flowed everywhere. “I, I have already told you everything I know in time!”
"I just find it hard to believe." Ogata said calmly, "What did that Kinoshita do with the kidnapped Ezo? You don't even know about it?"
"I, I really don't know!"
"Tell me the truth quickly." Ogata ignored Yitong's words and swung the knife to cut off one of Yitong's toes again. "If you don't tell me the truth quickly, I will cut off all your toes one by one."
“I really don’t know what Kinoshita took all those abducted Ezo to do! Aaaaaaaaa——!”
…
…
10 minutes later——
——It seems like this guy really doesn’t know anything…
Looking at Yitong's bare feet due to cut off toes, Ogata said this in his heart.
Ogata had cut off all ten of his toes, but Antung still claimed he knew nothing.
"Do you know where exactly Kinoshita's base in Ryukyu is located?"
"have no idea……"
"Then... do you know Qina Village? This is the name of an Ezo settlement. Many young men in their village have disappeared and have not been seen since. Were they kidnapped by you?"
After learning that Yi Tong had been hired to abduct a large number of Ainu people, Oofang immediately thought of the Qina Village where a "disappearance incident" had occurred and many young and strong men were missing from the village.
"Qina Village..." Yitong's eyes widened slightly, "Wait... I have some impression of this name... I remember it! When we first started working together, Kinoshita told me about this settlement."
"He told me that before he sought my cooperation, he had tried to capture Ezo on their own."
"They used the method of besieging a certain settlement and attacking its reinforcements to capture people - first they captured the people from the village who were out hunting, and then when the village sent people to look for the missing people, they would capture the villagers who were sent to look for the missing people."
"Kinoshita said that they had a very difficult time catching them because they had no experience."
"Because they realized that it was too difficult to capture people on their own, they cooperated with me who had experience..."
"The name of that settlement... seems to be Qina Village... eh!"
Yi Tong screamed because he found that Ogata's face turned uglier, which made Yi Tong's heart rise to his throat.
"…Did Kinoshita ever mention 'The Executioner Ittosai'? Did he ever say 'Ittosai must be found'? Or did his subordinates ever ask you questions like 'Do you know the whereabouts of Ittosai'?"
"No..." Yi Tong shook his head in confusion.
"I think so. Three years ago, when you parted ways with that Kinoshita, I was probably still not well-known."
Ogata paused.
"One last question."
"Since you come to Ezo every winter to soak in the hot springs, why not capture some Ainu women and sell them for money?"
"So are there any women you kidnapped on your ship now? Where are they being held?"
"Those... kidnapped women were loaded onto my other ship... and transported back to Iki Island in advance..."
“…I see…”
Seeing that Ogata had finally finished asking the question, a look of hope appeared on Yitong's face.
"I have already told you... everything I know."
"Can you please... spare my life..."
Ogata glanced at Yitong.
"A human trafficker like you who has lost all conscience, is there any reason for me to spare your life?"
After saying that, he swung the knife at Yi Tong's neck without hesitation.
Yitong's head flew off his neck and fell to the ground, his face still showing the fear that emerged after hearing the last words Ogata said to him.
Ogata shook off the blood on the blade, sheathed the sword, flicked his sleeves, and strode out of Yitong's room with a sullen face.
…
…
"Why hasn't that Majima Goro come back yet..." Isshiki's eyes were now filled with obvious anxiety, "I don't think he...had any accident..."
Azuki, who was standing next to Isshiki, also had obvious anxiety in his eyes.
However, Azhu's expression at this moment was a little more complicated than Isshiki's - she pursed her lips slightly, as if she was thinking about something.
"As expected... I still have to go up and take a look... Ah! He's back!"
While shouting, Azhu pointed at the pirate ship - Ogata was standing on the side of the ship, then jumped off the side and landed steadily on the deck of the smuggling ship.
"You're finally back!" Isshiki rushed over to greet him, "How are things? How are those pirates now...eh?"
Isseki paused.
She looked at Ogata in astonishment... or to be more precise, at Ogata's face.
It's not just Isseki.
At this moment, everyone on the deck, whether it was Azuki, Naoshige, and the crew members, were basically like Isshiki, staring blankly at Ogata's face without the human skin mask, with an expression as if they had seen a monster.