"You are very familiar with the general topography and location of major temples in Koyasan? Really?" The hot-tempered Asai was the first to exclaim.
“My mother and I are both devout Buddhists.”
Isiseka answered softly.
"My mother and I often go to Kongobuji Temple in Koyasan to worship Buddha. So I know a lot about Koyasan."
"If you need it, I can draw you a map of Mount Koya as best I can."
"but……"
Having said this, Isshikika paused.
After a pause, she said word by word:
"I want you to agree to one condition first."
"My family... was also captured by the Toyotomi clan. Their whereabouts are also unknown."
"If you plan to , can you take me with you?"
Isshikika's voice became higher in pitch due to excitement.
"My family might have also been captured and taken to Mount Koya."
"I want to go to Koyasan to find my family!"
As soon as she finished speaking, everyone in Hulu House looked at each other in surprise.
Finally – they all focused their attention on Ogata.
After Isshikika took the initiative to say that she knew about Koyasan, Ogata had been looking at Isshikika with surprise.
Looking at Isshikika who said with determination that she wanted to go to Koyasan to find her family, Ogata looked thoughtful.
Just when Ogata was about to say something to Isshikika—
"…I don't think we should rush to find out the detailed information about Koyasan now."
Mamiya's voice suddenly sounded.
He pushed his glasses up on his nose and sighed softly.
"For now... let's plan out our next action plan first."
"We need to continue to interrogate Soemon and the Iga kunoichi to extract more information."
"Let's go to Koyasan immediately to find our lord."
Mamiya's simple words made the atmosphere around everyone become much more solemn.
"...I think it would be better for us to continue to interrogate that Soemon and that Iga kunoichi." Makimura, who was always rough but meticulous, was the first to speak in a deep voice, "We currently have too little information."
"I'm not even 100% sure whether the lord is really in Koyasan."
"Souemon was a close confidant of Toyotomi Nobuhide, so he must have a lot of useful information."
"Although this guy is very stubborn, as long as the torture continues, he will eventually speak."
"When I was working in Kyoto, I used water torture countless times, and I have never seen anyone survive it."
"I've seen people who were even tougher than Soemon before, but after being waterboarded for two days, that guy finally cried like a woman and said, 'I'll tell you everything.'"
"It would be safer to get enough information from Soemon first before taking action."
As soon as Makimura finished speaking, Asai immediately put forward an opinion that was completely opposite to Makimura's:
"no."
"I don't think we can spend too much time interrogating Soemon."
"The reason why the lord was captured is still unclear."
"That bastard Toyotomi Nobuhide was a cold-blooded thug who took away all the money and valuables in the house when he ran away from home, leaving nothing for his family, leaving his grandmother, mother, and sister to starve and freeze. He never returned home once."
"God knows what this heartless fellow is planning to do by suddenly capturing the lord."
"We must rescue the lord as quickly as possible."
"Then let me ask you -" Makimura frowned and glared at Asai, "If we go to Koyasan now, but find that the lord is not in Koyasan at all, and we come back empty-handed, what should we do?"
"Then I have something to ask you, too." Asai glared back at Makimura, "What should we do if something unexpected happens to our lord while we are interrogating that Soemon as planned?"
"Um..." Shimada, who had the lowest status in the gourd house, interrupted silently, "Can I speak?"
Everyone looked at Shimada.
"I think... what Makimura-senpai said makes more sense..." Shimada, not daring to look at Asai's expression, said slowly in a timid tone, "It's better to try to get more information first."
"At the very least, we have to devise an action plan that can both save the lord and protect ourselves..."
"Master Kanmi is right..." Shimada turned his gaze to Fuma who was not far away, "Mount Koya is not the Mount Hiei of 200 years ago. The current Mount Koya is undoubtedly a holy place."
"Two hundred years ago, Oda Nobunaga burned down Mount Hiei, a place that did all sorts of evil things except worshipping Buddha, and some people still cheered."
"And now, if you enter Koyasan without permission, no one will say anything good about you... People don't know that the Toyotomi clan, who are trying to overthrow the Edo shogunate, are lurking in Koyasan."
"If you rashly enter the holy land, you will be cursed for eternity... and you may even be punished by the gods..."
"Hey, Shimada." Asai looked displeased, his eyebrows raised, "Heavenly punishment? When did you become a Buddhist?"
"I don't believe in Buddhism..." Shimada, who was a little scared by Asai's stare, shrank his neck, "I just think that it's better to believe in gods and Buddhas than not to believe in them. We have to have a certain respect for them..."
"Tsk...boring." Asai curled his lips. "Shimada, let me ask you this - more than a hundred years ago, when the Edo Shogunate expelled all the Christians in the country, why didn't the Christians' gods come to save them and bring down divine punishment on the Edo Shogunate?"
"If gods and Buddhas really existed and had such great powers, there wouldn't be so many tragedies in the world."
[Note: Christians were called Christians during the Japanese Warring States Period and the Edo Period. After the Edo Shogunate was established, in order to maintain its rule, the Edo Shogunate expelled all Christians in the country and strictly prohibited anyone from becoming Christians again.]
Shimada was left speechless by Asai's words, and silently lowered his head without saying anything more.
"...Mamiya." Asai turned his gaze to Mamiya, "What do you think?"
"..." Mamiya did not answer immediately. He pursed his lips and looked thoughtful.
Just then—
"Um...can I express my opinion?"
A sound that no one expected suddenly rang out.
Everyone turned their surprised eyes to the owner of the voice just now - Ogata.
…
…
Koyasan, somewhere——
“Snoring…Snoring…Snoring…”
Hasegawa was sleeping against the stone wall behind him, snoring very loudly.
The cell conditions provided by Toyotomi Nobuhide for Hasegawa were quite good. He had no worries about food and drink, the meals were quite delicious, and he could even sleep on tatami.
Everything is good except the lack of freedom.
Because there was nothing to do and no entertainment activities to pass the time, Hasegawa had been eating and sleeping these days, and could only rely on "eating" and "sleeping" to pass the time.
The place where Toyotomi Nobuhide imprisoned Hasegawa was a cell without windows and sunlight.
At the beginning, Hasegawa could calculate the number of days he was captured and imprisoned here by Toyotomi Nobuhide based on the time he felt sleepy.
However, because he has been sleeping too much in recent days, Hasegawa's biological clock has been slightly disrupted, making it so that Hasegawa can no longer judge the current time based on when he feels sleepy.
At this moment, when Hasegawa is sleeping soundly——
Crash, crash, crash...
Suddenly, a lot of footsteps were heard outside the cell.
Too many and too dense footsteps formed a strange "rustling" sound.
Hasegawa was awakened by the footsteps. He quickly opened his eyes, then threw himself on the fence in front of him and looked out.
While looking out, he thought to himself:
——What time is it now?
——Is that Toyotomi Nobuhide here?
When mentioning the name "Toyotomi Nobuhide", Hasegawa couldn't help but grit his teeth with resentment.
Since his first meeting with Toyotomi Nobuhide, he has never seen this strange-looking young man again.
Toyotomi Nobuhide had previously told him with certainty that he had captured him because he was impressed by his talent and planned to recruit him into his service.
As a result, after meeting Hasegawa, Toyotomi Nobuhide never came to the cell again, nor did he send anyone else to contact Hasegawa.
Hasegawa was kept in this way and kept in the cell like a pet.
This made Hasegawa feel puzzled.
Because in his understanding, when trying to recruit someone, shouldn't you send a large number of lobbyists to lobby?
Toyotomi Nobuhide kept him here and did not send anyone to lobby him. What exactly did he want to do?
Hasegawa would rather see Toyotomi Nobuhide send a large number of people to lobby him than sleep in the cell doing nothing every day like he is now.
At least the former will not be bored, and can also get some potentially useful information from the lobbyists.
There were footsteps outside the cell, approaching Hasegawa's direction at an extremely fast speed.
After a while, he saw clearly who the visitors were.
A large group of jailers who were in charge of guarding the prison pushed the three slightly dirty men roughly into an unused cell in front of Hasegawa.
"Behave yourself! If you behave yourself, we will be gentle with you!" After yelling at the three men, the jailers strode away arrogantly.
After watching the jailers leave and making sure that they were all gone, Hasegawa turned his attention back to the three new "companions".
Among these three people, there are two men and one woman. One of the men is quite old, he looks at least 60 years old, his hair is already gray, the mental state of the three people is not very good, especially the old man, who looks extremely haggard.
These days, Hasegawa has been living alone in the cell, without anyone to talk to.
The long-lost desire to chat with people, as well as the eagerness to learn about the outside world through the mouths of the three people, made Hasegawa impatiently lower his voice and said to the three people:
"Hey. What are your names? How did you get locked up?"
The oldest of the three men raised his eyes and cast a puzzled look at Hasegawa.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"My name is Hasegawa Heizo," Hasegawa responded, "I've been captured here for quite some time."
"Hasegawa... Heizo...?" The old man and the man and woman beside him all opened their eyes wide in shock. "Are you the 'Kihei'?"
"Yes. I am the 'Onihei'." Hasegawa said with a wry smile, "It's really embarrassing to say that... I, the dignified 'Onihei', have also become a prisoner one day... What are your three names? Why were you arrested?"
"My name is Isshiki Naoshu." The old man pointed at the man and woman beside him, "This is my son: Isshiki Rushui, and this is my daughter-in-law: Isshiki Minoru."
"We run a sword gym in Osaka."
"As for why he was caught..."
Zhi Zhou fell silent.
"I'm sorry...can you not tell me this?"
"...Of course." Hasegawa hesitated for a moment and nodded, "Then before you were caught here, did anything happen outside?"
"This... we don't know..." Zhi Zhou shook his head, "The three of us have been locked in a small, dark room."
"Probably... yesterday? Because we haven't seen the sun for a long time, I don't know the exact time. Anyway, it was not long ago that the three of us were put in hoods and put on a carriage."
"When I opened my eyes again, I was already here."
"Was he locked up in a dim little room before? Was he locked up in a small room in Osaka?" Hasegawa asked.
"It should be."
"Do you remember how long you were in the carriage?"
"I don't remember that... but it should have been an hour or two..."
——One or two hours... In other words, I am now locked up in a place one or two hours away from Osaka by car...
Hasegawa silently digested the important information he had just obtained from Isshiki Naoaki.
"Then do you remember how many horses were there in the carriage you were riding in?"
Hasegawa asked Isshiki Naoshige a new question.
However, before Isshiki Naoshu could respond to his question——
Snap, snap…
At the end of the corridor outside the cell, footsteps were heard again.
This time, the footsteps were no longer a loud clatter.
Judging from the voices, there were only two people coming.
Hearing the two footsteps, Hasegawa quickly closed his mouth and raised his hand to signal Isshiki Naoshu not to speak.
Hasegawa pressed his face against the cell bars again and looked outside the cell following the sound.
The footsteps were urgent.
After a while, Hasegawa saw who was coming.
After seeing the appearance of the person coming, Hasegawa's pupils shrank uncontrollably:
"Toyotomi Nobuhide?!"
"Oh, it's been a while, Mr. Hasegawa. I'm relieved to see you're still so energetic."
Toyotomi Nobuhide, whom I haven't seen for some time , is still the same as before - he wears a purple-handled katana on his waist, a faint smile on his face, and has the dress and temperament of a gentleman.
Behind him followed a bald monk whom Hasegawa had never seen before.
The bald monk was quite old, probably over 60 years old, with many crow's feet and wrinkles. Wearing a cassock, he followed Toyotomi Nobuhide closely.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Hasegawa." Toyotomi Nobuhide walked quickly to Hasegawa's cell and bowed to Hasegawa apologetically. "I've been too busy these days, and I have too many things to worry about, so I haven't greeted you for a long time."
"Stop talking about these things that are or are not true." Hasegawa lowered his voice and said in a deep voice, "How are my subordinates now?"
At the beginning, Hasegawa was drugged along with his subordinates, and Hasegawa still doesn't know where his subordinates are being held now.
"Don't worry." Toyotomi Nobuhide smiled and showed Hasegawa his beautiful white teeth. "Your subordinates are eating well, drinking well, and living well now."
"I told you, didn't I? My goal is to bring you under my command. I won't do anything too rude to you and your subordinates."
After hearing what Toyotomi Nobuhide said just now, Hasegawa's originally gloomy expression looked a little better.
"…What are you doing here?" Hasegawa asked tentatively while glancing at Toyotomi Nobuhide in front of him, "Are you here to persuade me to betray Tokugawa and join Toyotomi like you did before?"
"No, no, no." Toyotomi Nobuhide shook his head gracefully, "If possible, I really want to talk to you more now."
"But time doesn't allow me to do that."
"I am now anxious to see my lovely sister whom I have not seen for a long time."
"I came here this time simply to visit my sister and see you after a long time, to see how you are doing now."
"Sister?" Hasegawa frowned slightly, then sneered, "There are more people with direct Toyotomi bloodline than I thought."
"My sister, my uncle, and I are the only ones who have direct bloodline of the Toyotomi family." Toyotomi Nobuhide smiled and bowed to Hasegawa again. "I am relieved to confirm that you are in good spirits."
"Then - please allow me to leave first. I will come back when I am free later."
After saying this, Toyotomi Nobuhide turned around and was about to leave.
But just as he turned around, he noticed Isshiki Naoshu and others who were now living in the cell in front of Hasegawa.
Toyotomi Nobuhide was stunned for a moment, then lowered his voice and asked the old monk in a voice that only he and the old monk behind him could hear clearly:
"Master, who are those three people?"
"Isshiki Naoshu, Isshiki Josui, and Isshiki Minoru from Isshiki Sword Hall in Osaka." The old monk responded in a voice that only he and Toyotomi Nobuhide could hear clearly, "Lord Toyotomi, have you forgotten that you ordered the three of them to be brought to Koyasan a few days ago?"
"Oh oh." Toyotomi Nobuhide raised his hand and patted his forehead, revealing a guilty smile, "I remember now. Are these three people from the Isshiki family..."
"Master, please tell the jailers to keep those three people under good care."
"The three of them are the backup pillars for the upcoming Battle of Edo."
"We have to make sure they don't die before the Edo Battle begins."
"Yes." The old monk responded respectfully.
[Note: In ancient Japan, there was also the bad custom of using living people to worship gods. This bad custom is collectively called "human body tribute" in Japan. Human pillars are a type of human body tribute.
When building a house or repairing a bridge, the ancient Japanese buried people alive under the foundation or bridge piers. They believed that as long as they did so, the house and bridge would not collapse. These poor people who were used as "pillars" were called "human pillars".
The evil custom of "human pillars" did not end until the Edo period. There was a human pillar under the Fukushima Bridge built during the Kan'ei period in the 17th century. If you travel to Fukushima Bridge, you can see a sign reminding you that there is a human pillar under the bridge. Therefore, when doing archaeological excavations in Japan, a large number of human bones are often dug up under ancient buildings.