Osaka, somewhere——
A-Machi and A-Tsuku followed closely behind Genichi and the others, carrying their luggage.
Genichi, who was running in the front, led the group through the streets and alleys of Osaka, and finally stopped in front of the gate of a small Buddhist temple. He then rushed into the temple without any hesitation.
After rushing into the temple, Atachi saw two familiar faces - Asai and Shimada.
Asai and Shimada, holding their respective swords, walked out of the temple's Buddhist hall and greeted Genichi and others.
Asai: "Master Genichi, you are finally back. Hmm? Miss A-machi, what's wrong with you? Were you attacked as well?"
Shimada: "Ah! Where's Mr. Ogata? Why can't I see Mr. Ogata?"
"I'll explain it to you slowly later." Genichi interrupted Asai and Shimada, "You two come and help first, move the man and woman on Mamiya and Makimura's backs to the inner room of the temple, and then get some water to wake them up."
Mamiya and Makimura were each carrying a woman and a man on their backs.
The woman and man were none other than the commander Jie Zheng and the Iga ninja Aqing whom they had just captured.
Asai and Shimada had no idea where Genichi and his men got Jie Zheng and Aqing, but they didn't ask any questions. They just followed Genichi's instructions and worked with Mamiya and Makimura to carry the two men into the inner room of the temple.
"Mr. Genichi." Azuki looked around in confusion, "Is this a temple you know?"
"No," Genichi said, "We don't know anyone at this temple."
"We just saw that this temple has a good location, and the people in the temple happened to have fled because of the fire in Osaka, so we are just borrowing it temporarily."
A-Machi and A-Tsuku both looked at Genichi with astonishment as he made such a brutal statement.
"Mr. Yuan, Mr. Yuanyi." Azhu shrank his neck, "We broke into the Buddhist temple without permission and forcibly requisitioned the temple... Isn't this a bad idea?"
"Forced requisition or something, that's too harsh to hear." Genichi smiled and shrugged at Azhu, "We are not evil spirits. Don't worry, we won't mistreat the people of this Buddhist temple."
After saying that, Yuan Yi turned his head and looked at the merit box placed not far away.
"This money will be considered as the rental fee for this Buddhist temple."
As Yuanyi spoke, he slowly walked towards the merit box and took out a handful of gold from his arms.
Looking at the large sword in Genichi's hand, Azuki's eyes widened.
According to her visual estimation, the money in Yuan Yi's hand was at least more than twenty taels.
More than twenty taels...not to mention renting a temple, it's more than enough to renovate the entire temple.
Such a huge sum of money, Yuan Yi didn't even look at it, and threw it directly into the merit box...
"A-Ting." After stuffing the huge sum of money into the donation box, Genichi turned his gaze to A-Ting, "Do you want to go and have a rest now? I see that you seem to have gone through a lot tonight..."
After saying this, Genichi glanced at the bloodstains and mud on Atachi's kimono.
"Ha, there's no need to rest. Don't look at me like this, I'm very strong and I'm not that tired." Ating lowered his head to look at the stains on his clothes and his feet that were dirty because he had been barefoot all the time. "I just need to change my clothes."
Having said this, Ating changed his tone to a serious one.
"Master Genichi."
"Before that, can you tell me what happened to you tonight? What did Mamiya mean by 'did something happen to you too'?"
"Ha..." Yuan Yi smiled with a hint of bitterness and regret, "Tonight, not only you were attacked, we were attacked too..."
…
…
Ating is now standing in a side room of the Buddhist temple.
She grabbed the two lapels of her kimono, which had already been untied, and pulled them hard to the left and right. Then she struggled downward, and the thin kimono fell off her smooth skin, revealing a body that could make countless men willing to indulge in it.
Outside the closed door of the side room, Genichi, Fuma, and Azuku were sitting.
While A-machi was changing her clothes, she, Fuma and A-tsuki who were outside the door, listened to Genichi's account of what happened tonight.
"A-Machi, do you remember that Yukimura?"
"Of course I remember." Ating said immediately, "It's the person I just met again today."
Yukimura - A wealthy businessman from Osaka who has received a lot of favors from Karuiya.
Previously, when Ogata and Atachi were pretending to be the bodyguards of Hatsumitsu, the "number one geisha in Osaka", they met Yukimura for the first time in Shinmachi. The meeting with Yukimura also indirectly helped Ogata to reunite with Makimura, Mamiya and others.
Lin entrusted him to help investigate the "Kansai Disappearance Case". During the day today, he rushed to the residence of Lin and others and delivered important information to the group of people from Huluwu and Ogata and Atachi who happened to be present at the time: "The 'Kansai Disappearance Case' may be related to Kono Sei who is in charge of preaching everywhere."
It was this information that made Lin and Ogata decide to set off for Koyasan to investigate tomorrow.
However, tomorrow has not yet arrived, and one unexpected thing after another has occurred tonight, which basically declares the plan of "setting off for Koyasan tomorrow" bankrupt.
"This afternoon, Yukimura invited Xiaolin to his home for dinner."
"Yukimura is both an old acquaintance of Lin and a half-subordinate of Lin. Without Lin's various support and help, Yukimura would not have been able to build such a large family business in Osaka in such a short time."
"My acquaintance and half of my subordinate invited me to dinner, and I didn't have anything important to do tonight, so I naturally agreed without any reason to refuse."
"Xiao Lin will go to Yukimura's residence alone tonight for the banquet."
"As a result, Xiaolin...something happened to her."
"Not long after Lin left for the banquet, I, Mamiya, Makimura, Asai, and Shimada, who were staying at the hotel, heard the sound of gunfire coming from all over Osaka."
"There were gunshots in Osaka city - this is not normal no matter how you think about it."
"We were worried about Xiaolin who was now alone outside, so we immediately rushed to Yukimura's residence."
"But when we arrived at Yukimura's residence, we saw only a mess."
"I only saw the servants of the Yukimura family in a mess, but not Korin and Yukimura."
"We only found out what happened after we inquired in detail with the servants of the Yukimura family."
"Not long after Xiaolin arrived at Yukimura's mansion, dozens of gunmen with flintlock rifles suddenly appeared. They rushed into Yukimura's mansion aggressively and rushed straight towards Xiaolin."
"The frightened servants fled and hid everywhere. Only two or three people saw the whole process of Xiaolin's fight with the gunmen."
"Xiao Lin fought bravely with these enemies, beheading eight of them in one go, but was eventually subdued because she was outnumbered and could not withstand the muskets."
"Yukimura was also subdued."
"The knocked-out Xiaolin and Yukimura were taken away by the gunmen. As for where they were taken, the servants had no idea."
"Ms. Lin... was taken away by those people?" Ating, who had just changed half of her clothes, stopped changing her clothes out of shock.
"Hmm..." Genichi nodded gently, "The enemy knew that Xiaolin would go to Yukimura's house for a banquet tonight, so it was obvious that this was a premeditated attack. The kidnappers knew Xiaolin's movements very well."
"Xiao Lin was kidnapped by unknown persons. We certainly cannot take this matter lightly."
"The inn we were staying in was too small and inconvenient for anything. So we borrowed this temple and asked Asai and Shimada to stay in the temple, while Mamiya, Makimura and I, the three of us, came to find you."
"If we want to find Xiaolin, the more helpers we have, the better. So the reason we came to you is just to ask for your help. Please help us find Xiaolin."
"While on our way to your hotel, we ran into Ganshi."
"I was having dinner at my old subordinate's house when I heard the sound of gunfire." Fengma took over the conversation. "So many gunfire in Osaka City is unusual no matter how you think about it."
"So I asked my old subordinate to take his family to the outskirts of Osaka for shelter, and I came to see how you, Komachi, are doing and see if you have also gone to the outskirts of Osaka for shelter."
"When I was heading to the inn where you were staying, I met Genichi who was also on his way to look for you, so I joined them."
After Fuma finished speaking, Genichi took the lead again:
"I don't need to elaborate on what happened afterwards."
"When we arrived at the inn where you were staying, we found that your inn was surrounded by a group of archers with flintlock rifles."
"...So that's how it is..." Ating murmured, "Not only is Ayi in trouble, but Miss Lin is in trouble too?"
"Who are these people holding muskets?" Azhu blinked and interrupted, "Why are they targeting both Lord Ittosai and Miss Kinoshita? Do they have a common enemy?"
Ogata and Lin's common enemy, Atachi, only thought of her former employer: Shiranui.
But as far as A-Machi knows, even in its heyday, Shiranui did not have the ability to deploy flintlock rifles on a large scale...
"I don't know who is the mastermind behind those musketeers." Genichi said slowly, "But - if we are lucky enough, we will soon be able to find out the answers to these questions."
"Are you going to torture the man and woman we captured?" Atachi immediately understood the implication of Genichi's words.
"We originally planned to capture a few high-ranking people from the enemy to extract information after we joined you." Yuan Yi smiled, "Unexpectedly, we were so lucky to be able to do both 'joining you' and 'capturing people to torture for information' at the same time."
"I hope we can get enough valuable information from that young man and woman."
Pah pah pah…
At this time, the sound of footsteps came from far away.
It was Shimada running towards them quickly.
"Master Genichi, we have used water to wake up the man and woman."
"Oh, thank you for your hard work." Yuan Yi slowly got up from the ground, leaning on his knife.
At this time, the door of the side room where Ah-Ming changed clothes was slowly opened.
"Ah, Komachi." Fuma was stunned, "Why did you change into this outfit?"
"Tonight is bound to be a busy night." A-Ming smiled slightly, "So it's better to change into clothes that are easier to move around in."
"And of all the clothes I brought, this is the most convenient for moving around."
"And this dress is also the one I wore most often in the past. Wearing this dress that is very familiar to me can also make my movements a little bit more agile."
The clothes that Atachi was wearing now were the kunoichi uniform from her Shiranui.
In terms of ease of movement, there is no cloth on the back and arms of the upper body, and the style of the lower body is similar to the tight-fitting long johns of the female ninja uniform in Shiranui, which is indeed many times better than ordinary kimonos.
This was the first time that Azuki saw A-machi wearing the female ninja uniform from Shiranui.
"Ms. A-Ting..." A-Zhu blushed slightly, looking at A-Ting's bare arms and back, and asked softly, "Don't you feel cold and uncomfortable on your back when you wear this dress?"
"Although it does feel chilly when the weather is cold, it will be very comfortable to wear this dress when the weather is hot." A-Machi smiled at A-Tsukushi.
…
…
Aqing, with a confused look on her face, shook her head vigorously to get rid of the water droplets on her hair and face.
"Ah Qing! Ah Qing! How are you?"
The voice of his close friend Jie Zheng came from beside him.
"Jie Zheng?" Ah Qing turned her head and saw Jie Zheng, who was tied up and soaking wet.
After looking at Jie Zheng, A Qing looked down at herself - she was also tied up and soaked like a drowned chicken.
Aqing looked around and found herself in a strange room with three strange men surrounding her.
These three men, who were quite unfamiliar to Aqing, were naturally Mamiya, Makimura, and Asai, who stayed behind to continue guarding Keishō and Aqing after asking Shimada to report to Genichirō that the "prisoners have awakened."
"There's really no more convenient way to wake someone up than pouring water on them." Asai sighed softly as he threw the empty bucket aside.
——Why am I here...
Ah Qing frowned slightly and tried hard to "repair" her memory.
Fragments of memories before the coma emerged in Aqing's mind one by one like bubbles spit out by a fish.
Following Jie Zheng to capture the woman who was suspected to be Shura's wife, he was attacked by an unknown person and was knocked unconscious...
After "repairing" her memory, Aqing's expression immediately changed, and she looked at the three strangers in front of her with a vigilant look.
Crash...
At this moment, the sliding door of the room was suddenly opened.
The people who came in were Genichi and Atachi who had changed their clothes.
"You're awake already." Genichi glanced at Jie Zheng and Aqing, then looked away, "Then let's get started without further delay."
"Yes."*4
After Mamiya, Makimura, Asai, and Shimada said "yes" in unison, they immediately split into two teams.
Mamiya and Asai worked together to carry Aharu out, while Makimura and Shimada stayed in the room.
"What are you doing!" Seeing Aqing being carried out of the house, Jie Zheng immediately roared and struggled to get up.
"Don't move." Makimura rushed forward and held Jie Zheng roughly, then worked together with Shimada to tie Jie Zheng to a piece of tatami they had just removed.
His limbs were tied to the four corners of the tatami, and then a clean cloth was placed on his face.
After completing this series of arrangements, Makimura gave an order to Shimada:
"Pour the water."
"Okay, okay." Shimada swallowed hard, then took a bucket full of water next to him with a slightly stiff movement, scooped some water with a ladle, and poured it on Jie Zheng's face.
While pouring water on Jie Zheng's face covered with a piece of cloth, Mucun kept holding down Jie Zheng's head to prevent him from moving.
When the water first poured onto Jie Zheng's face, he was still able to hold back the discomfort.
But after only a moment, Jie Zheng began to struggle and groan in pain.
This is the torture method that Makimura, who used to be Yoroki in Kyoto, discovered through interrogating suspects that would cause the victim to suffer extremely painfully: waterboarding .
Last summer, Makimura used this method to torture the enemy and successfully obtained a lot of intelligence.
This method of torture can cause more pain than simply beating and kicking.
After letting Jie Zheng experience the feeling of suffocation at any time for a long time, Makimura signaled Shimada to stop watering.
"It's painful, right?" Mucun lifted the cloth covering Jie Zheng's face. "If you don't want to suffer like this anymore, answer our questions - who are you? Who is instructing you?"
Jie was coughing violently, with snot and saliva all over his face.
However, despite his embarrassed appearance, Jie Zheng's eyes were still sharp, and he glared at Makimura and Shimada fiercely.
"Do you think... ahem! I would just... ahem! tell you guys... ahem!"
"Yeah, I think so." Makimura put the cloth back on Jiezheng's face, "Shimada, continue watering."
…
…
A similar scene was happening outside the room.
Ah Qing was taken to the other side of the temple where she could not hear the sound of Jie Zheng being tortured, and was tortured far away from Jie Zheng.
After Mamiya and Asai worked together to make her "drink enough" water, Asai lifted the cloth covering Aqing's face.
"Why are you Iga ninjas here? Who is your mastermind? Just answer our questions and we will stop you from suffering!"
Aqing is even tougher than Jie Zheng.
She glanced at Mamiya and Asai with disdain, and then stopped talking. She closed her eyes silently and ignored Mamiya and Asai.
"As expected of a ninja," said Mamiya at the side, "You are extremely tight-lipped."
"Then I'll see how long she can hold on. We're in a hurry." Asai put the towel back on Aqing's face, and then continued to pour water on Aqing's face.
…
…
While Atachi, Genichi and his group were interrogating Jiezheng and Aqing——
Osaka, Ryusuji Temple——
"Yoshihisa! Yoshihisa!" A woman in a gorgeous dress walked quickly towards Yoshihisa, holding the hem of her kimono.
"It's Madam Lao." Ji Jiu, who was standing by the window with his hands behind his back, slowly turned around and asked, "What's the matter?"
The woman, whom Jijiu called "the branded woman", was about 30 years old.
Her pretty facial features were covered in heavy and glamorous makeup, and she was wearing an exaggerated and luxurious dress like an oiran. Her long black hair was tied up in a hairstyle that only noble ladies would have, and her hair was filled with all kinds of ornaments.
Although she was a woman with such seductive looks and dress, the tone of her speech was extremely rude.
"Jijiu! I'm so bored! When will you give me some tasks?"
"Branded woman." Ji Jiu said calmly, "Please be patient. When I need you to come out, I will let you come out naturally."
"Even for a moment, I want to be loyal to Lord Toyotomi as soon as possible! I want to help Lord Toyotomi as soon as possible!" The branded woman seemed to be itchy all over. She raised her hands and scratched her skin hard, with a look of pain on her face.
"If you obey my orders, you are being loyal to Lord Toyotomi and helping him."
"Hey! Yoshihisa!" The branded woman's expression suddenly turned ferocious, and veins popped out of her neck. "The tone you used when you mentioned Toyotomi-sama just now was not respectful enough! Not respectful enough! How can you address Toyotomi-sama in such a weak tone!"
Jijiu ignored the hysterical scream of the branded woman, turned around with his hands behind his back, faced the window next to him, and looked out the window at the night view of Osaka filled with flames.
"In short - just wait patiently. I promise you that I will give you the task as soon as possible."
"No!" The woman shouted without thinking, "I'm almost bored!"
"Aren't Zoemon and the others searching everywhere for Ogata Ittosai, but they haven't found him yet? Why don't you let me join the search?"
“No.” Yoshihisa said calmly, “Don’t make me repeat myself so many times, just wait. Search for Ogata Ittosai, and Soemon and the others are enough.”
The woman opened her mouth and was about to say something else.
However, as soon as she opened her mouth, Jijiu shut her up with one sentence:
"Lord Toyotomi has given me full command of the front lines of this campaign."
"You don't want me to report to Lord Toyotomi in the future that the branded woman didn't obey my orders at all, right?"
Ji Jiu's words made Mrs. Lao's expression freeze, and she swallowed back all the words she wanted to say.
"... Humph!" The woman gnashed her teeth, "You are just more favored by Lord Toyotomi than I am! What a bullshit!"
After leaving behind a bunch of obscenities, the woman left cursing.
After Mrs. Lao left, the room finally became quiet.
However, the silence did not last long.
"Master Jiku."
Not long after the brandished woman left, a female voice was heard again from behind Jijiu.
However, the female voice that sounded this time was much softer and more pleasant than the woman's voice.
"It's the first light."
It was different from the coldness he showed towards the lady just now.
At this time, Yoshihisa had a faint smile on his face. He slowly turned around and looked at the "former No. 1 Geisha in Osaka" who had appeared behind Yoshihisa at some point and was kneeling on one knee.
"Lord Soemon and the others have searched all along the river," said Hatsumitsu softly, "but they still haven't found Ogata Ittosai."
"Haven't you found it yet?" Yoshihisa's expression was calm, as if he had expected this result. "That Ogata Ittosai has brought us one surprise after another... Is there anything else you want to report?"
“No more.” Chu Guang said.
"...Chu Guang, I'll give you a new task."
"A new mission?"
"Stop being a 'messenger' and go look for Ogata Ittosai."
…
…
"Damn it...Damn Jiku..."
The woman, still cursing, returned to her temporary residence.
Her temporary residence was a small room in Ryushui Temple. The room was simply furnished with almost no furniture, only a few cushions and a sword rack in the corner of the room, on which sat a katana and a wakizashi.
The branding woman returned to the room and looked at the two knives on the knife rack, and her eyes immediately softened.
She walked slowly to the side of the knife rack and raised her hand to gently stroke the two knives on it.
"I really want to use these two new swords of mine to help Toyotomi-sama..."
The two knives that the branded woman was stroking had handles and scabbards made of blue and gold, and were very beautiful in appearance.