"The greatest swordsman in Edo and the demon sword, Chana?" Makimura's eyes sparkled with interest. "What is this? It looks very interesting. Ms. A-Chi, can you tell us in detail?"
A Qian shrugged, "I don't know much. I just happened to hear the words 'The First Swordsman of Edo' and 'Demon Sword·Zana' when I was serving them wine just now."
“And I’m busy now…”
Ah Qian sighed.
"If the boss lady sees me chatting with customers instead of doing my job, I will be scolded."
"Is that so? That's fine." Makimura smiled. "Then Ms. Qian, go back to your own business. Ah, don't forget to bring up the two plates of fennel beans."
"Okay."
As soon as A-Qian left with the tray in his arms, Asai turned his attention to Shimada, a native of Edo: "What is the No. 1 swordsman in Edo and the demon sword, Chana?"
"Uh... this..." Shimada looked embarrassed, "I'm not sure either. Edo has a population of one million, and there are rumors of unknown origin every day. I have never been interested in these rural rumors, so I have never paid attention to them..."
"Then go ask the people at that table." Makimura grinned, "I happen to be very interested in the No. 1 swordsman in Edo and this demon sword."
"Wait for me for a moment. Ah, I'll ask you to keep my sword for the time being."
After saying that, Makimura, who was unarmed, picked up two unopened bottles of sake and strode towards the table of guests that had been making a lot of noise since the beginning.
"Everyone! Can you add me?"
As Makimura spoke, he squeezed in among the guests at the table in a very familiar manner, under their puzzled gazes.
For Mucun, who has been struggling in all kinds of mixed circles since he was a child, "naturally blending into other people's circles" is a trivial matter for him.
Sure enough - the people at this table who were originally looking at Mucun with confusion and vigilance, started drinking and chatting with Mucun after a while.
Makimura asked about their identities. They were all ordinary construction workers that could be seen everywhere in Edo. Almost every night they would go to various izakayas to have a few drinks together and talk about what they called "world affairs".
Their behavior of spending a lot of money on drinking every night is very consistent with the character of Edo people.
The Edo people are notorious for not saving money. They spend money today, spend it all, make money tomorrow, and spend it again, and so on. So there is a saying: "Edo people don't carry overnight money in their pockets."
The reasons why Edo people generally like to "drink today and drink today " are quite complicated. One very important reason is that the food and entertainment industries in Edo were too developed.
Snack bars, restaurants, and pubs were everywhere. Storytellers and jugglers were innumerable. There was also Yoshiwara, a den of money that most Edo men dreamed of.
The overdeveloped food and entertainment industries overwhelmed the Edo people, and they could not suppress their desire for enjoyment, so they gradually developed the character of spending as much money as they had every day.
After quickly getting acquainted with the guests at this table, Mucun didn't waste much time and got straight to the point:
"Brother, I just heard you guys talking about 'The Greatest Swordsman in Edo' and some kind of demon sword. What is that? I'm from out of town. This is my first time in Edo, and this is the first time I've heard of 'The Greatest Swordsman in Edo'."
"Oh! This!" A broad-nosed young man sitting next to Mucun burped loudly, and then continued, "Are you interested in this?"
Makimura nodded vigorously.
"Hey, since you are interested, I will tell you. Brother, do you know Yamada Asaemon Fumiaki?"
"Yamada Asaemon Fumiaki?" Makimura raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I've heard of it."
Some time ago, when he accompanied Shimada to his Shimada family residence, he happened to see Shimada's father inviting people from Yamada Asaemon's family to test their swords. It was at that time that Makimura heard the name "Yamada Asaemon Fumiaki".
"He is the seventh generation head of the Yamada Asaemon family." Makimura added.
The wide-nosed man nodded vigorously: "Yes, it's him. He is the number one swordsman in Edo."
"That Yamada Asaemon Fumiaki is the current number one swordsman in Edo?" Makimura looked surprised.
Wide Nose nodded, but after nodding, he smiled bitterly and said, "In fact, there have always been different opinions on who should be the title of 'The First Swordsman of Edo'."
"But at this stage, most people think that Wen Xian is the best swordsman in Edo. At least we all agree that Wen Xian is the undisputed best swordsman in Edo."
"Because Wenxian has the most rumors about his swordsmanship."
"Brother, do you know how the Yamada Asaemon family trained in swordsmanship?"
"I don't know." Mucun shook his head honestly .
"The Yamada Asauemon family has been responsible for serving as executioners and sword testers for the shogunate for generations, so in order to practice swordsmanship, the Yamada Asauemon family has a very unique swordsmanship training method."
At this point, Broad Nose patted the back of his neck.
"Brother, you may not know this - when you chop off someone's head, the best place to cut is between the third and fourth bones on the back of the neck from the top. Cutting from this position will cut off the head most beautifully."
Back when he was still a Yoroki in Kyoto, Makimura had heard this little-known fact from a colleague who was a prison guard.
But in order not to spoil the fun of Wide Nose and to allow him to continue, Mucun pretended to be stupid and nodded as if he didn't understand anything: "So beheading is so particular..."
"That's right. So the Yamada Asaemon family created this training method to improve the accuracy of sword swinging: put two pieces of tatami together, and then swing the sword to split the gap between the two pieces of tatami."
"The gap between two tatami mats?" Makimura frowned. "The gap between two tatami mats put together... that gap is only a few hairs wide, right?"
"Yeah." Wide Nose nodded, "So this training method is simply incredible."
"It is said that success is achieved when the knife can be inserted accurately into the gap between the tatami mats each time it is struck, without damaging the two tatami mats that are placed together."
"The Yamada Asaemon family has been trained like this for generations, so every member of the Yamada Asaemon family is a fierce man who is both accurate and powerful with a knife. If they want to cut the gap between the third and fourth bones of your neck, they will definitely cut the gap between the second and third bones."
"The current head of the Yamada Asaemon family, also known as Wen Xian, is a swordsman who has mastered the accuracy of his sword strikes to the extreme."
"I heard that Wen Xian can cut off the wings of a flying fly without damaging the fly's body."
"Cutting off the wings of a fly without hurting its body...this is too exaggerated." Mucun couldn't help but sneer.
"This rumor may be an exaggeration, but there happened to be a real incident related to Wen Xian's powerful swordsmanship recently. We were just talking about this."
Wide Nose picked up the wine glass, took a few gulps of wine, and then continued vividly:
"Beheading criminals sentenced to beheading at the execution ground has always been one of the main tasks of the Yamada Asaemon family."
"Just a few days ago, Wen Xian was invited to the execution ground as usual to chop off the head of a murderer."
"But after the murderer's hair was lifted from his neck, everyone at the execution ground was surprised to find that there were five characters tattooed on the back of his neck: 'Tosho Daigongen'."
"This scared everyone at the execution ground. Tosho Daigongen is the divine title of Lord Ieyasu." [Lord Ieyasu: Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo shogunate. As for the divine title, you can understand it as something like a temple name or posthumous title.]
"After careful questioning, I found out that this guy knew he would be arrested and executed before committing the crime, so he tattooed these five words on the back of his neck to disgust the government officials."
"It would be disrespectful to cut the back of the neck of a man with the name of Ieyasu tattooed on it."
"If you want to change the sentence, you have to report it to all the higher authorities, which is very troublesome."
"Just when everyone at the execution ground was at a loss as to what to do, Wen Xian, who had remained calm from beginning to end, drew his knife."
"Fumien is a well-known sword-drawing expert in Edo. It is said that his sword-drawing skills are so fast that the enemy is cut down before they realize that his opponent, Fumiien, has already drawn his sword."
"Wen Xian first used his sword-drawing technique to peel off the skin with the five characters 'Tosho Daigongen' tattooed on the back of the prisoner's neck."
"The prisoner didn't even have time to scream before Wen Xian chopped off his head with his knife again."
"It was not until Wen Xian shook off the blood on the blade and sheathed it that the human skin with the tattoo of 'Tosho Daigongen' fell to the ground."
It must be said that this broad-nosed man had a talent for storytelling. He told this short story so vividly that even Mucun was fascinated by it.
"Using the sword-drawing technique to peel off the skin on the back of a person's neck..." There was an undisguised look of astonishment in Makura's eyes.
Although he didn't know much about the art of sword-drawing, he knew how difficult it was to use the art of sword-drawing to cut the skin off the back of a person's neck while standing.
"By the way, there is not a single fabrication in what I just said." The wide nose added, "I know a person who works at the execution ground. My friend happened to be there before Wen Xian executed the guy with Tosho Daigongen tattooed on the back of his neck. These are all true stories that happened a few days ago."
"What's the matter with the demon sword Zana?" Makimura asked.
"Oh, this is the sword that has been passed down from generation to generation in the Yamada Asaemon family that we talked about when we were talking about Wen Xian just now."
"The demon sword, Chana, is a family heirloom passed down from generation to generation in the Yamada Asaemon family."
Having said that, Wide Nose took a few more sips of wine to moisten his throat.
"The full name of Chana is 'Vairocana'."
"Vairocana was the sword of the previous head of the Yamada Asauemon family: the sixth head, Yamada Asauemon Yoshitsugu."
"Legend has it that this sword is made of special steel and a special sword-making technique. It is indestructible."
"Ji Heng always uses this precious sword when executing people."
"I heard that until Jiheng's death, he used Vairocana to send at least a thousand people to the underworld."
"After Yoshihisa passed away, he left a family motto: to always pass on Vairocana to the best children in the Yamada Asaemon family."
"Vairocana has now been passed to the hands of the current seventh-generation head: Wen Xian."
"However, Wenxian is not like his father Jiheng, who used Vairocana to execute anyone. He only took out this precious sword when executing warriors, and used an ordinary sword when executing civilians."
"Legend has it that this sword, which has only been passed down for two generations, has killed thousands of people."
"Because this sword has been bathed in so much blood, people gradually began to call it an evil sword or a demon sword."
"Some even say that only people who have committed serious sins of killing can wield Vairocana. Otherwise, ordinary people cannot use this sword at all and will only be corroded by the evil spirit of this sword."
Mucun had always been indifferent to gods and ghosts, so he automatically ignored the ridiculous statement behind the wide nose that it was "corroded by the evil spirit of the knife."
"I see..." Makimura nodded, "But there is one thing I don't understand - why is this sword named 'Vairocana'? Isn't Vairocana the name of Mahavairocana in Tantric Buddhism? It feels very strange to name a sword that is specifically used for executions 'Mahavairocana'."
"I don't know about that." Wide Nose shrugged, "You'll have to ask the sixth head of the family, Yamada Asaemon, who forged this sword. But now, even if you want to ask, you can't. The sixth head of the family, Yamada Asaemon, died a long time ago."
"Speaking of Yamada Asaemon--" At this time, the tall man sitting opposite the wide-nosed man suddenly said, "The quality of the human gallbladder pills produced by Yamada Asaemon seems to have improved a lot recently."
"I have a friend who is quite wealthy. His wife has lung disease and has to take human gall pills regularly to stay alive."
"He told me yesterday that the quality of the human gallbladder pills produced by the Yamada Asaemon family recently is very good, and his wife's complexion has improved a lot recently."
"Hmm." The broad nose sneered, "The gall bladder pills of the Yamada Asaemon family are not that effective."
"I don't deny the role of their human gall bladder pills in treating lung diseases."
"But the human gall pills are only effective for a small number of people. For the vast majority of people, they have no effect at all. Some people even developed new diseases instead of being cured of their lung disease after taking the human gall pills."
"You can't say that." The tall man looked indignant, "If there were no gallbladder pills, my friend's wife would have died long ago."
…
…
The broad-nosed man and the tall man had a heated argument over whether human gallbladder pills are useful.
While they were arguing, Makimura, who had already obtained the information he wanted, had quietly returned to Asai and Shimada.
After returning, Mucun briefly told the two what he had just heard.
"Degenerated into a demon sword due to too much bloodshed..." Asai showed disdain, "Nonsense."
Shimada nodded in agreement.
"Am I right?" Makimura grinned, "In the izakaya, you can often hear some interesting things that you have never heard before."
Makimura cast a smug look at Asai, who had just said that he "didn't understand what fun there was in drinking in a pub."
Asai pretended not to notice Makimura's gaze and drank in small sips.
Makimura and the others treated what they had just heard about "the greatest swordsman in Edo" and "the demon sword Chana" as ordinary topics of conversation after dinner.
After the three of them chatted about this topic for a while, they naturally turned to the next topic that had nothing to do with swordsmanship or demon swords.
…
…
At this moment——
"Ah! Mamiya! Look! What's that behind you?"
"Master Genichi... this method of tricking me into looking back and then secretly replacing the chess piece is really too clumsy." Mamiya sighed and said helplessly.
In the mansion where Huluya and others were hiding, Mamiya was playing chess with the idle Genichi.
After Ogata and A-machi left Edo and headed for Ezo, Genichirō continued to live his regular life as usual...or rather, he drank very regularly.
I sit in a corner drinking every day, and when I feel like it, I paint for a while.
Unlike Makimura who likes to drink in izakayas, Genichi prefers to drink at home and does not like to drink in a too noisy environment.
Genichi would occasionally play small games like chess and karuta with Mamiya and others, like he was doing now.
At this moment, Genichi, who was playing shogi with Mamiya, was defeated by Mamiya not long after the game started.
Although Genichi struggled hard, his pieces were eaten one after another.
finally--
"General."
Following Mamiya's words, there was the loud sound of a chess piece falling.
Genichi scratched his hair, glanced at the chessboard a few times, and after realizing that he was powerless to turn the tide, he let out a long sigh, "I lost again... Mamiya, you are really good at chess."
"After all, I once learned to play shogi in Edo." Mamiya said calmly, "But rather than saying that I am a master of shogi, it is better to say that your level is too poor, Master Genichi."
"How ruthless." Genichi grinned. Although he was told that by Mamiya, there was no sign of annoyance on his face.
"Do you want to continue?" asked Mamiya.
"No more playing ." Yuan Yi stretched his body vigorously. "Playing with you is too boring. I can't win no matter what I do. I'm going back to my room to drink."
After saying that, Yuanyi stood up and walked towards his room with a swagger.
Seeing that Genichi didn't want to play anymore, Mamiya said nothing and quietly packed up the chessboard and chess pieces.
At this moment, Lin's voice suddenly sounded behind Mamiya:
"Jiulang."
"My lord, what's wrong?" Mamiya turned his head and looked at Kinoshita Rin who was walking quickly towards them behind him.
"Nothing. I just saw you were alone here and didn't know what you were doing, so I came to check on you."
Mamiya told Lin about the chess game he had just played with Genichi.
"I'm bored right now." After summarizing what just happened, Mamiya asked with a smile. "My lord, do you want to play chess with me?"
"No." Lin twitched her lips. "I am a terrible chess player. I only like to watch others play chess, not play chess with others."
"I see..." Mamiya sighed lightly, then scratched his hair with a wry smile, "Then what should I do to pass the time... Lord, is there anything you need me to do now?"
"I really hope that Mucun and others can take the initiative to ask me for things to do like you do." After making a joke, Lin shook her head, "I don't have anything on hand that you can do."
Having said this, Lin paused.
Then he looked at Mamiya with a meaningful look.
"...Jiulang, since you are bored now, why don't you try to go for a walk outside?"
Mamiya's brows raised slightly.
Lin then continued:
"We will be returning to Owari in a few days."
"Edo is also your hometown."
"I thought you could walk around and see your hometown before we go back to Owari."
"Of course—I won't force you."
After saying this, Lin said no more, turned around and left quickly.
Only Jianmiya was left kneeling there with a thoughtful look on his face.
…
…
The next morning,
Oshu, Toyonan Town——
"Mashima-san, where are we going now?"
As early as last night, Ogata had taught Azuki that in public or in the presence of outsiders, he should call him by his pseudonym "Mashima Goro".
Ogata, A-machi, and A-tsuku were walking side by side on their way out of the inn where they stayed last night.
The sky had barely begun to brighten when Ogata and his companions picked up their luggage, led their horses, and set off.
"Let's go to Owari." Ogata said to the female kunoichi who was walking on his right and would be traveling with them from today on, "Look for a friend of mine who has a lot of connections."
"Looking for your friend?" Azhu raised her little head and looked up at Ogata with difficulty, "What do you want to look for your friend for?"
"I'll tell you about this later."
After saying this, Ogata seemed to turn his head involuntarily and glanced at the inn where they stayed last night, which was about to disappear from their sight.
"What's wrong?" asked Atachi, who was walking on Ogata's left hand side. "Did something get left at the hotel?"
"...No." Ogata shook his head, "It's nothing, let's keep going."
After saying that, Ogata withdrew his gaze, lowered the hat on his head, and continued to move forward.
…
…
Isshiki and his grandson set out earlier than Ogata and his group.
When Ogata and his friends just left the hotel, Isshiki and his friends were about to leave Toyonan Town.
“What a pity…” Naoshu, who was walking side by side with Isshiki, let out a long sigh.
"What a pity? What a pity?" Isse, who had changed back into men's clothes, asked back.
"What else can I regret? Of course, I regret missing out on Ogata Ittosai." Nao Shu shook his head with a slightly depressed look on his face. "I thought hard the whole night, but I couldn't think of a way to keep Ogata Ittosai..."
Zhi Zhou let out a long sigh.
"Perhaps we are destined to have no destiny with Ogata Ittosai... We can only let Ogata Ittosai, whom we met with great difficulty, part ways with us..."
"originally……"
Zhi Zhou turned his head and cast a strange look at Isshiki beside him.
"I've even thought about using the beauty trap to win over Ogata Ittosai."
"Ogata Ittosai is a hero who stands tall and proud, and we have a beautiful woman who is unmarried and worthy of this hero."
"But it's a pity - Ogata Ittosai already has a wife."
Zhi Zhou sighed again.
"My Isshiki family is a famous family in Osaka. No girl in our family can debase herself and become a concubine of someone else, no matter what. Even if the other party is the famous Ogata Ittosai."
"It seems that we are not meant to be with Ogata Ittosai... Hmm? What's wrong? Isshiki, why do you look so weird?"
"Ah?" Isshiki didn't know what exactly the "weird expression" that Naoshige mentioned was, but he immediately raised his hands and rubbed his cheeks subconsciously, "No, nothing..."
Naoshige mistakenly thought that Isshiki was unhappy because of his previous statement that "I once considered marrying Isshiki to Ogata in order to win Ogata over", which caused Isshiki to show that strange expression just now.
"Isshiki, why are you getting more and more irritable now?" Naoshige said helplessly, "I just considered betrothing you to Ogata Ittosai, but I didn't really put it into practice. And as soon as this idea came up, I dismissed it myself."
"As I just said - girls from our Isshiki family, no matter what, can never debase themselves to become someone else's concubine..."
Naoshige, who was talking nonstop, didn't notice that Isshiki wasn't listening to him at all.
While Naoshige was talking nonstop, Isshiki silently turned his head to look behind him at Tonan Town, which they had left behind.
There were complicated emotions in her gaze towards Tonan-cho.