While adjusting his somewhat disordered breathing, Ogata wiped off the blood on the blade of Da Zi Zai's blade, and then put the sword back into its sheath.

Makimura and Hasegawa, who successfully used the hammer to blow off the enemy's head, walked side by side towards Ogata.

Looking at Ogata whose breathing was somewhat disordered, Makimura asked Ogata:

"Brother Ogata, are you injured?"

"I'm not injured." Ogata smiled slightly, "It just consumed some physical strength. It is really troublesome to deal with such an enemy wearing thick armor..."

Throwing someone to the ground, and throwing someone wearing heavy armor to the ground - these are two types of difficulty.

Armor - especially the Nanman armor, to put it bluntly, is just a big piece of iron.

Needless to say, it takes a lot of strength to throw a person wrapped in such a large piece of iron to the ground.

Using jujitsu to deal with 10 enemies wearing heavy armor in a row, even Ogata's breathing became somewhat disordered.

"Brother Ogata, why are you here?" Makimura asked, "Didn't I ask Inshin layman to arrange for you to hide?"

"That's a long story..." Ogata raised his head and looked at the ceiling above his head, "I also want to ask how you two found this place. I'll finish searching this small building first and then I'll follow you slowly.

Please explain why I am here."

These 12 enemies dressed in Nanman gargoyles seemed to be the last defense force of this small building.

After wiping out all 12 enemies wearing Nanman robes, Ogata and his party never saw any enemies coming towards them again.

But neither Ogata nor Makimura, Hasegawa relaxed their vigilance because of this.

Ogata slowly pulled out his Daishiten.

Makimura picked up his Odachi.

As for Hasegawa, he held the hammer in his left hand and pulled out his sword with his right hand.

The three of them climbed to the third floor cautiously - still no enemies were seen on the third floor.

As soon as he stepped onto the third floor, a female voice suddenly sounded from a room on the third floor:

"Ayi! I'm here!"

Hearing this female voice, Ogata's tense nerves and muscles slowly relaxed.

After walking slowly to the room and opening the door, Ogata, Makimura and the others saw Omachi sitting on a bald man who had been tied up and had a rag stuffed in his mouth.

"A-Machi, you did a good job." Ogata said with a smile.

When Makimura saw the bald man with Amachi sitting on his butt, he raised his eyebrows, twitched the corners of his mouth, and revealed a sneer:

"Hey, Baldhead, you didn't expect us to meet again so soon, did you?"

Looking at Makimura's tall and familiar figure, cold sweat broke out from his bald forehead.

"Ogata Ittousai, is this woman your companion?" Hasegawa, who did not know Amachi, asked Ogata.

Before Ogata could respond, Amachi took the lead and said to Hasegawa:

"Good evening~~My name is A-Machi."

"Good evening." Hasegawa bowed respectfully to Atachi, "My surname is Hasegawa. Hasegawa Heizo."

"Oh..." Amachi looked surprised and raised his hand to cover his mouth, "I met a famous person..."

"I am responsible for the frontal attack on this small building, and Amachi is responsible for climbing up to the third floor for a surprise attack." Ogata on the side told Makimura and Hasegawa about the battle plan he and Amachi had drawn up, "It seems that Amachi

You have achieved great results, it seems you have caught a big fish."

"Mr. Hasegawa, you and Miss Atachi should keep an eye on this bald man." Makimura said at this time, "Brother Ogata and I will check whether there are any fish that have slipped through the net in this small building."

Makimura's suggestion was acquiesced by everyone present, so the four of them were divided into two teams. Hasegawa and Amachi stayed in this room to guard the bald head, while Ogata and Makimura went to search the other rooms in this small building.

Ogata and Makimura each held a candle for lighting and walked side by side in a corridor on the third floor.

Ogata turned his gaze sideways and looked at Makimura's expression at this time.

Looking at the unhidden fatigue on Makimura's face, Ogata said softly:

"...Makimura, from the look of you, you seem to have put in a lot of effort to find this place."

"Brother Ogata, you are about the same." Makimura smiled bitterly, "You also show fatigue on your face."

"Is there...?" Ogata raised his hand and touched his face.

"Since this evening, I have traveled to many places in Kyoto..." Makimura said softly, "It would be strange if I could still be a hundred times more energetic..."

"What a coincidence... Starting from this evening, I also traveled to many places in Kyoto..."

Ogata and Makimura were chatting like this while opening each room on the third floor one by one.

There was nothing special about each room. Each time they opened a room, they took a quick look inside. After finding nothing special, Ogata and Makimura headed to the next room.

Wow!

After opening the door of a room on the third floor, a strange smell suddenly came out of the room.

Although there were no lights in the room, so the specific scene inside the room could not be clearly seen, but one could vaguely sense that it was a fairly spacious room.

A steady stream of peculiar smell wafts out of this room.

Smelling this peculiar smell, Ogata and Makimura both frowned.

"This is..." Ogata said in a deep voice, "The smell of gunpowder...!"

As if they had agreed in advance, the two quickly extinguished the candles in their hands, then clenched the knives in their hands and stepped into the room.

Makimura walked towards the closed window, while Ogata stood guard at Makimura's side with a knife.

After successfully reaching the window and opening the closed window, the moonlight streamed into the room through the open window. Makimura and Ogata were finally able to see everything in the room clearly.

Looking at the things piled up in the room, Makimura's pupils shrank suddenly...

…

…

Kyoto, Sengakukan, the room of the owner Shinyo Mizuno.

"Master, the Yamaboko parade is about to begin. Are you really not going to watch it?"

A male voice that was quite familiar to Mizuno came from outside the room.

The speaker was Hirayama Jiro, an old disciple who had been following Mizuno for some years.

As soon as Hirayama finished speaking, Mizuno, who was sitting at the low table and reading a book, replied without thinking:

"I'm not in the mood to..."

"That's it..." Pingshan's tone was a little more disappointed, "The disciple will leave first."

After Hirayama left the door, Mizuno closed the book in his hand and sighed.

What he said just now, "I'm not in the mood to go," was not a perfunctory statement.

Although Mizuno wasn't enthusiastic about the Yamaboko patrol, he didn't hate it either.

In previous years, if he had time, Mizuno would happily take his family or disciples to watch the grand Yamaboko procession.

But tonight he really wasn't in the mood to go see Yamaboko.

Too many things happened today, which made Mizuno feel depressed.

The wound on the face where the "Tengu" hit him is still hurting.

The owner of Inaba Hall was shot by unknown persons.

Although their six major sword halls have mobilized all the disciples they can mobilize to assist the officials in searching for Ogata Ittousai, there has been no result until now.

The combination of all these things put Mizuno in no mood to go out for fun.

Because he felt too depressed, Mizuno closed the book in his hand, pushed the book aside, and then raised his hand to open the window on the side wider to let more refreshing wind blow into the room.

Just when Mizuno was sitting by the window enjoying the wind and feeling comfortable——

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah--!"

A scream suddenly sounded from outside the room.

Listening to this scream, Mizuno's pupils shrank suddenly.

Mizuno recognized whose scream it was from the timbre - it was the scream of Jiro Hirayama who had just left his room not long ago!

Mizuno quickly stood up and took down the knife from the knife rest.

As soon as I took the knife off the knife holder, the paper sliding door of the room was opened with a "swish" sound.

Mizuno followed the sound and saw that the man holding the door open was none other than Jiro Hirayama.

At this time, Hirayama Jiro's appearance could be described as extremely miserable.

There were too many wounds on his body to count, and blood kept pouring out from each wound, dyeing his clothes red.

"master……"

Hirayama Jiro covered his wounds with one hand and held the door frame with the other.
To be continued...