My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 85: Chapter 67: Treasure House Gun Technique, Mogami Shofu

Saito clenched his sword tightly, furrowing his brow as he scanned the samurai surrounding him and Aoto.

Aoto’s brow also furrowed at this moment.

He raised his sword and, supporting the third girl in his arms, stood up: ”...Who are you people?”

The white, chubby samurai initially looked fierce, but upon seeing the Edo Magistrate’s seal cage at Aoto’s right waist and the red-tasselled jitte, his expression immediately froze: ”Hmm? Are you a Dōshin of the Edo Magistrate’s Office’s ’Three Times’?”

”Mr. Oomura!”

At this time, Mukiwa stepped forward.

She spread her arms wide, blocking in front of Aoto.

”You’ve misunderstood! These two gentlemen are not bad people!”

The European girl followed closely behind Mukiwa, ”Yes! You’ve misunderstood! It was these two gentlemen who saved us earlier! They are not bad people!”

Although the girl had a highly standard European face, she could speak such fluent and standard Japanese...

Her accent was so perfect that if one did not look at her face, it would be hard to imagine that a foreigner was speaking Japanese.

The white, chubby samurai called ”Oomura” looked at Mukiwa in surprise, then glanced at the Western girl, and finally turned his scrutinizing gaze back to Aoto...

”...Sorry, it seems I misunderstood, mistaking you for rogues here to harm Miss Angoulême and the others. My apologies.” Oomura apologized in a deep voice to Aoto while gesturing to his subordinates around them.

Acknowledging Oomura’s signal, the samurai surrounding them immediately sheathed their swords or moved their hands away from their sword hilts.

The tension that had filled the air instantly dissipated.

Although Oomura and his men had withdrawn their hostility, Saito still held his sword, closely guarding Aoto.

”...Tachibana, is your leg all right?” Saito glanced at Aoto’s leg, which he was protecting.

”It’s nothing, just a small wound. When I was learning to cook before, I had cuts on my hand deeper than this.” Aoto lowered his eyes to look at his right leg, which had just been struck.

The wound was not deep, but neither was it shallow; blood was already flowing from it down his leg and pooling on the top of his right foot and the ground.

The matter of the leg could be dealt with slowly later.

Negotiating with these people speaking the Osaka dialect in front of him and understanding what exactly was going on was the most pressing matter now.

Aoto transferred the sword in his right hand to his left, using his right hand to press on the wound on his leg: ”I am Tachibana Aoto, a Dōshin of the Edo North Guard Station Designated Town Patrol. May I ask who you are?”

”I am Oomura Choyichiro, under the command of the Osaka Castle Governor.” Oomura lifted the lower right hem of his feathered robe, revealing an Osaka Prefecture seal cage hanging from his right waist.

People from the Osaka Castle Governor’s office?

Aoto’s brows furrowed slightly.

He opened his mouth, just about to proceed with further negotiations with Oomura—

”Young Master, Miss Angoulême, Miss Leroy, we finally found you all.”

An elderly voice drifted over from behind Oomura.

An old man, appearing to be 80 or 90 years old and wearing glasses, walked toward Aoto and the others in a steady, unhurried pace.

”Boss Kiryu...?” Aoto instinctively murmured the old man’s name.

The old man was indeed Kiryu Kazuma, the boss of the Thousand Affairs House who had introduced Aoto to Shiwei Hall, that employment agency.

”Ho...” Kiryu noticed Aoto and Saito within the circle, ”I remember... you are Mr. Tachibana, who visited my shop just the other day, aren’t you? How come you are here?”

”Mr. Kiryu!” Mukiwa immediately showed an excited expression after seeing Kiryu.

However, after her initial excitement, Mukiwa seemed to remember something; her excited expression stiffened, and she drew her neck back slightly.

”...Young Master.” Kiryu’s eyes behind the glasses looked at Mukiwa with a meaningful gaze, ”Afterwards, you’ll have to explain to me properly—how you ran out with Miss Angoulême and Miss Leroy.”

...

...

On an inconspicuous hillside not far from Fujisawa Inn—

”Haa...”

Mogami, whose status and power in the Anti-foreigner Group were second only to Shinno, and who was entrusted by Shinno with the significant task of fully managing this assassination attempt on Anthony and Elodie, stood beneath a large tree on the hillside, yet to wither.

With his legs astride, he opened his mouth slightly and exhaled a breath of turbid air.

He held a two-section spear with a dark green shaft in both hands, his small eyes half-opened, spear tip and gaze pointed diagonally forward.

”Ken” is an ancient Japanese unit of length, approximately equal to 1.818 meters. The so-called ”two-section spear” is a long spear measuring two ken, a common long weapon in ancient Japan.

Mogami had the typical height of this era—neither more nor less, exactly 1.5 meters tall.

A 1.5-meter tall Mogami holding a spear nearly 3.7 meters long... an indescribable oddity and discordance.

Just like seeing a child dressed in adult’s clothes.

However—this mismatched large spear was securely held by Mogami without a hint of difficulty.

Mogami gripped this large spear tightly and steadily, as if he and the spear were a single entity.

Man and spear maintained a motionless stance.

A long time passed, and a gentle breeze blew through.

The wind passed, leaves fell.

This breeze shook loose a few leaves from the tree above Mogami’s head that had yet to wither.

A falling leaf, carried by the wind, wavered its way down to rest on the spear tip held by Mogami...

Mogami’s half-opened eyes suddenly widened!

”Ha!”

He shouted, thrusting his waist and unleashing power, fiercely swinging the two-section spear in his hand upwards, slicing the leaf resting on the spear tip in half with its sharp blade.

The neatly halved leaf fell in two different directions.

Mogami’s aggressive momentum did not stop.

With another loud shout, he spun the spear, the tip tracing a beautiful arc to further cut the already halved leaf into four pieces...

Mogami’s spear technique perfectly exemplified the meaning of ”precision” and ”stability”.

The spear tip repeatedly sliced across this leaf, cutting it into increasingly smaller pieces.

Finally—by the time all leaf fragments fell to the ground, the leaf had been sliced into 8 pieces...

Gazing at the leaf fragments on the ground, Mogami leaned the spear against his side, exhaling in full regret:

”Sigh... to cut a leaf into over 10 pieces before it lands, as expected, is really difficult...”

”Mr. Mogami! Your Treasure House Stream spear technique has become much more exquisite than before!”

”Oh oh... it’s Yamada.” Mogami smiled towards the youth who was striding toward him from behind, ”Well... if we’re talking about improvements, I have improved somewhat.”

”Before, I could only cut a leaf into 6 pieces before it hit the ground; now, I can manage 8 pieces.”

Yamada smiled at Mogami, ”Mr. Mogami, you really are amazing. At this rate of improvement, it’s not impossible that you’ll become a master of spear art in the future.”

”And what use is becoming a master of spear art? It’s long ceased to be an era where one can rise to fame through military exploits.”

Mogami looked with a bitter smile at the spear beside him that was over twice his height.

”Sigh... I only regret not being born 300 years earlier during that Warring States chaos.”

”If it were 300 years ago, during that Warring States chaos, with my ’Wind Cut’ and I, it wouldn’t be impossible to fight for fame and become the lord of a castle or land, like the ’Seven Spears of Kiyosu’ under Toyotomi Hideyoshi!”

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