After Natori withdrew from the room dejectedly to prepare for going to Yoshihara with Hasegawa later, Hasegawa turned to look at Makimura.

"Makimura, can't you really let me meet that friend of yours? I really want to see what kind of young talent a person with such superb skills is."

"Hasegawa-sama." Makimura waved his hand, "As I said just now, my friend is quite afraid of strangers."

"So many things happened tonight. According to my estimation, he may be eating, drinking and relaxing somewhere in Edo."

"You can't find him even if you go to Yoshiwara now."

"Master Hasegawa, if you really want to see him, I will help you fight for it later and persuade him to meet you."

"He is neither with you nor in Yoshiwara now... It is such a pity."

After Hasegawa let out a long sigh, he said seriously:

"...If possible, I would like to incorporate that friend of yours into my Huofu Thief Reform."

"Are you going to incorporate him into your fire bandits?" Even though he tried his best to control it, Makimura's expression became strange after hearing Hasegawa's words.

"We, Huofu Thief Kai, always welcome young talents with high strength." As soon as Hasegawa finished speaking, he paused as if he suddenly remembered something.

Then he added:

"Allow me to ask one more question. We, the Huo Fu Thief Kai, cannot recruit people with bad deeds, so your friend should not have any bad deeds, right?"

"Well..." Makimura smiled bitterly and scratched his hair, "How should I put it..."

"I actually don't know much about his past, so I don't know if he has done any bad things before."

"But regardless of whether he has done bad things before, I can guarantee that he will never work under you."

"He doesn't like to be restrained very much, so he definitely has no interest in joining an organization like the Fire Bandits Kai, which is no different from the army."

"That's it..." Hasegawa's face showed a more intense look of regret, "Then forget it...Then can you tell me his name?"

"Mashima Goro."

Makimura dipped his fingers into the remaining tea in the teacup and wrote the four large Chinese characters for "Mashima Goro" on the tatami in front of him.

"Mashima Goro...that's a very impressive name."

"In short, if you really want to meet my friend, I will help you actively try to persuade my friend to meet you after I go back."

As Makimura spoke, he picked up his Odachi placed next to him.

"Then, I'll take my leave first."

"Hmm? Makimura, won't you go to Yoshiwara with me?"

"Why should I go to Yoshiwara?" Makimura smiled and shrugged, "I'm not familiar with the people in Yoshiwara."

"I came to negotiate with you only as entrusted by my friend. Therefore, there is no need for me to go to Yoshiwara with you."

"Now that my mission has been completed, it's time for me to find my friend and return to life."

"Hasegawa-sama, just take your subordinates who committed the crime and go to make amends with the Yoshiwara people. I will take my leave first."

After saying that, Makimura carried his Odachi and walked straight out the door.

"Wait a minute, Makimura." However, Makimura had just taken two steps when Hasegawa immediately called out to Makimura, "Makimura, can you stay here for a while?"

"What's wrong?" Makimura asked confused.

"I... have something very important to tell you." Hasegawa said with an expression that was too serious to be attached, "Can you wait here until I come back after I and the people from the Shirobei Club have made amends?"

Because Hasegawa's expression was very serious and not joking at all, Makimura was also affected by Hasegawa's serious expression and frowned slightly.

"Is it something important? What is it? Can't we say it now?"

Hasegawa shook his head: "What I want to say is too complicated and I won't be able to finish it in a while, so I plan to make amends to the people at the Shirobei Club first and then explain it to you in detail."

"...I don't mind listening to you talk about that important thing of yours."

With a hint of distress on his face, Makimura raised his hand and scratched his hair.

"But it would be too difficult for me to wait here all the time for you to come back..."

"My friend is still waiting for me to come back to him and report the results of my negotiation with you..."

"Then you go and return to life with your friend first." Hasegawa said, "After returning to life with your friend, you can come back to me, okay?"

"...That's no problem."

After Hasegawa was silent for a while, he nodded slightly.

"Then I'll trouble you." Hasegawa said, bowing deeply to Makimura.

…

…

Edo, Yoshiwara

If the current time is converted into modern earth time units, it is already past 22 o'clock in the middle of the night.

Once it passes 22:00 in the evening, the Yoshiwara gate will be closed, and both officials of the Shirobei Club and tourists can only enter and exit through the sleeve gates on both sides of the Yoshiwara gate.

The sleeve gates located on both sides of the gate can barely accommodate two people, but because the flow of people at this time is not much, even if there are only two narrow sleeve gates left, they can barely cope with the current flow of people.

More than enough.

After receiving the officials who had entered Yoshiwara to capture the thief who had captured the young monk, an urgent matter that was waiting for Shirobei to handle immediately outside Yoshiwara came to Shirobei's head, and Shirobei had to

Leave Yoshiwara.

Going out to do some errands in Yoshiwara was just an ordinary thing that Shirobei did almost every day.

However, Shirobei never expected that he would just go out to do errands tonight as usual, but in the short period of more than an hour when he was not in Yoshiwara, so many things would happen.

As soon as Shirobei returned to Yoshiwara, he learned from Guasheng and others what had happened in Yoshiwara during his absence.

In the club, Shirobei and most of the club's cadres gathered together.

After hearing the whole story, the first thing Shirobei said was:

"What happened to those who were injured while arresting Ju Xiaoseng?"

"Those with more serious injuries were sent to the hospital early." Guasheng replied, "Those with more serious injuries were treated just now and their wounds were bandaged."

"That's good." Shirobei nodded gently, "Where is Kiku-chan now?"

"He is being held in our prison now." Keiemon replied this time. "He just woke up and made a lot of noise. In order to make him quiet, we tied him with a cloth belt."

Q."

"...I finally understand the specific story." Shirobei raised his right hand and rubbed his temples, "Mashima-kun, is he really going to negotiate with Hasegawa Heizo, the fire thief?"

"

"That's indeed what he told us..." Gua Sheng smiled bitterly.

In Majima...that is, after Ogata defeated all the members of the 6th Division of the Fire Thief Kai, he left Yoshiwara with his two friends (Makimura and Asai) who suddenly appeared.

Before leaving Yoshiwara, Ogata told Gua Sheng and others:

"My friends and I are going to talk to Hasegawa Heizo, a fire thief reformer, about tonight's affairs. We will go back as soon as we go. You stay in Yoshiwara to drink tea and slowly wait for me to come back. I will handle tonight's dispute.

So don’t worry about me, and you won’t worry about tonight’s incident.”

After leaving these words, Oban quickly left Yoshiwara with his two friends.

A while after Ogata and his friends left, a group of official officers who had been converted into thieves came.

This new batch of fire thieves who arrived in Yoshihara changed their official duties and came to take away the members of the sixth division.

After the members of Division 6 headed by Natori were taken away by the newly arrived fire bandits who had arrived in Yoshiwara, Shirobei returned after a while.

"Mashima-kun hasn't come back yet?" Shirobei asked.

"Yeah." Guasheng nodded with a somewhat sad look on his face, "I'm not back yet."

As soon as Gua Sheng finished speaking, Kawajiro beside him muttered:

"Mashima-kun, does he really have a way to meet with Hasegawa and then negotiate with Hasegawa..."

"Since Majima vowed so much before he left that he was going to negotiate with Hasegawa, then he should really have a way to meet and negotiate with Hasegawa..." Although he said this, Keiemon said that he was going to negotiate with Hasegawa.

There was still an air of uncertainty and unconfidence in his tone.

"Mashima-kun, didn't he say that he is a ronin from Izumo?" Kawajiro continued, "A young ronin from distant Izumo who recently worked at our Shirobei Club... It's really hard for me to imagine.

He has a way to meet and negotiate with the top leader of the Huofu Thieves Kai..."

"...I think Majima-kun might actually be able to do it." Gua Sheng, who had been silent since just now, suddenly said, "I think... Majima-kun is quite mysterious."

"Obviously he looks ordinary and unremarkable, but he has such powerful skills."

"I feel like he might actually have a way to meet with Hasegawa and negotiate with Hasegawa..."

As soon as Gua Sheng finished speaking, everyone present nodded in agreement.

Gua Sheng and others still vividly remember the image of Ogata defeating more than twenty officials who had been turned into thieves by himself just now.

"... Maybe Mashima-kun and Hasegawa are old acquaintances." Shirobei raised a possibility at this time, "Maybe Mashima-kun met by chance on the way from Izumo to Edo.
To be continued...