"I'm here to give my mother something she forgot. Is my mother here?"

"Oh! Here, there! Your mother is chatting with my wife upstairs!"

A very familiar female voice came into Ogata's ears.

This sudden female voice brought Ogata's mind back to reality from the plot in the book.

Ogata, who had a startled expression, slowly turned his neck and followed the female voice that hit his ears just now. A beautiful goose-yellow color appeared in Ogata's eyes...

Isshikika, who was chatting with the old man sitting behind the counter, noticed that someone seemed to be looking at her.

So she turned her face following the gaze she felt on her body.

Her eyes and Ogata's eyes collided in mid-air.

Isshikihua was stunned on the spot.

She looked at Ogata blankly.

Then... she slowly moved her gaze to look at the yellow form paper in Ogata's hand...

…

…

at this moment

Koyacho

"Is this Koya Town..." Yamauchi, the newcomer whom Hasegawa has been training recently, is opening his eyes wide and scanning the surroundings with curiosity, "There are indeed many monks..."

"If Osaka is an 'economic city' that serves the economy..." Walking in front of the mountain, Hasegawa, who and his subordinates were all dressed in casual clothes, smiled and said, "Then Koya Town should be dedicated to the monks of Koyasan.

A 'religious city' where people serve."

Although Mount Koya is called a "mountain", it is not an isolated mountain.

Mount Koya is a vast group of mountains.

More than 120 temples, including Kongo Temple, are scattered among the stacked mountains.

Koya Town is a town located in these mountains.

After leaving Kyoto, Hasegawa led his troops and rushed non-stop to Mount Koya, and finally successfully arrived in Koya Town today.

Koya Town is considered a transit point for outsiders to enter Koyasan.

Hasegawa planned to rest in Koya Town for half a day, and then set off into the mountains in the morning to go to Sengenji Temple where a large number of Buddhist supplies had been reported stolen.

Hasegawa was quite unfamiliar with Koya Town. It was also his first time to come to Koya Town. Before, he had only heard that Koya Town was a castle town with a strong Buddhist atmosphere.

Now I can see it with my own eyes.

After leading his men into Koya Town, Hasegawa discovered that monks from Mount Koya with shaved heads could be seen everywhere.

Mount Koya is the headquarters of the Shingon sect of Buddhism, which has very strict precepts.

The strictness of the precepts makes the monks of the Shingon sect very similar to the Chinese monks. They both shave their heads and do not touch meat.

Koya Town is not only a transit point for outsiders to enter Koyasan, but also the first channel for Koyasan monks to contact the outside world.

Monks also need to eat, drink and have sex. The monks in Koyasan basically come to Koya Town to buy their food, clothing, housing and transportation.

Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to call Koya Town "the town specifically responsible for providing services to the monks of Mount Koya."

Most of the residents living in Koya Town also make a living by earning money from the monks of Mount Koya.

Because it is close to Mount Koya, the air in Koya Town is also filled with a very strong Buddhist atmosphere.

As soon as he entered Koya Town, Hasegawa smelled the faint smell of burning incense in the air.

Hasegawa had heard before that almost everyone in Koya Town believed in Buddhism, but Hasegawa didn't know whether it was true or not.

"Hasegawa-sama." Yamauchi, who was also visiting Koya Town for the first time, continued to look at everything around him and asked Hasegawa, "Should we go and say hello to the mayor of Koya Town first?"

Hasegawa came to Koya Town this time. Because the incident happened unexpectedly, he did not take the lead to say hello to the chief minister of Koya Town. The chief minister of Koya Town probably didn't know that the famous "Onhira" had come to their town.

"...There's no rush." ​​Hasegawa said, "Let's say hello to the town official and then go after lunch."

Hasegawa smiled bitterly and touched his belly.

"I haven't had anything hot since I left Kyoto and rushed here, but I'm so hungry."

Hasegawa's subordinates all had empty stomachs now. When Hasegawa said that they should go to eat first, everyone immediately voted unanimously in favor of filling their stomachs first.

Koya Town is a small town.

However, although the sparrow is small, it has all the internal organs. After a while, Hasegawa found a restaurant where a strong fragrance was constantly wafting out.

Hasegawa was about to lead people in when he saw a young monk coming out of the restaurant and bumped into Hasegawa.

"Ah, sorry, sorry." Hasegawa took the lead in apologizing to the young monk.

"I am the one who should apologize." The young monk also apologized to Hasegawa very politely.

The two apologized to each other, and the atmosphere was not harmonious.

But at this moment, the young monk who had just been politely apologizing to Hasegawa suddenly opened his eyes:

"You...are Master Hasegawa?"

Before Hasegawa could say anything, the young monk frowned and continued:

"Hasegawa-sama, I never expected to meet you here, and how lucky I am to meet you again here."

"May I dare to ask you, young monk, how the case of Nara Honjoji Temple has been solved? Have you found the whereabouts of the Buddhist enemy who stole the treasure of our Honjoji Temple?"

Upon hearing this young monk's words, Hasegawa's expression suddenly changed: "Are you... a monk from Honjoji Temple?"

"Exactly. The young monk's Buddhist name is Fa Ru."

"When you rushed to the Honxiang Temple that was burned to ashes to collect clues, the young monk was also there. It's just that you were focused on collecting clues at the time, so you didn't pay attention to the young monk."

"After the destruction of Honjoji Temple, he moved to Mount Koya to continue his practice."

Facing this young monk who called himself Faru, Hasegawa forced out a stiff smile.

"This... Honxiang Temple case... we have been actively pursuing it."

"But there are too few clues, so our tracing work is also very difficult."

Hasegawa chattered.

Although he talked a lot, a brief summary of the central idea of ​​what he said is that we have been solving the case very seriously, but due to various reasons, until now we have not been able to bring to justice the enemies of the Buddha who burned the temple and stole the treasure.

catch.

"Lord Hasegawa, I can understand that as the commander of the Huo Fu Thief Kai, you have to deal with many things and are extremely busy every day."

"But I still hope that you can arrest and bring to justice the enemies of the Buddha who burned down my Benxiang Temple and stole the treasures of my Benxiang Temple as soon as possible."

"I really won't be willing to not see this kind of villain brought to justice with my own eyes."

"If you can't catch him, please be sure to find our temple's most precious treasure, Tou Enma, which was stolen."

"This sword was once one of Taikaku Hideyoshi's swords. This sword has a history of more than 200 years. Even though it is a sword that can cut iron like clay, it is also a precious cultural relic. It must not fall into the hands of thieves under any circumstances."

Fanru chattered.

He talked a lot, but the message conveyed was only one thing: hurry up and bring the thief who burned the temple and stole the treasure to justice.

In a sonorous and forceful tone, Hasegawa assured Faru that one day he would capture the enemy of the Buddha and give an explanation to the monks at Honjoji Temple.

After arguing with this Faru for a while, Hasegawa finally sent this Faru away.

"There are actually monks from Honjoji Temple here..." Hasegawa scratched his hair and sighed helplessly, then turned to the subordinates behind him and said, "Okay, let's go in and eat."

This is a hotel with private rooms.

Hasegawa opened a private room large enough to accommodate him and his subordinates, a total of 24 people, for dining in it.

After ordering the food and sitting in the private room waiting for the food to be served, Yamauchi quietly asked Hasegawa:

"Hasegawa-sama, Honjoji Temple...is the temple in Nara that was burned down and had treasures stolen three years ago, right?"

Hasegawa nodded: "Yes, that's the one. You were not a member of the Huo Fu Thieves Reform at that time, so you probably have no impression of this case."

"On the day Benxiang Temple was attacked by the enemies of the Buddha, not only was the entire temple burned to the ground, but the precious sword Yan Mo stored in the temple was stolen, and 13 monks headed by the abbot Liann were also killed by the enemies of the Buddha."

"After Honjoji Temple was destroyed, the surviving monks built a temple in the eastern suburbs of Nara."

“I really didn’t expect to meet the monks from Honjoji Temple in Koyasan… I really didn’t want to meet the monks from Honjoji Temple…”

"If we let them know that we actually have no clue about this case of 'The Destruction of Honxiang Temple', then their saliva will drown us..."

"That Faru just said that the En Demon Sword was the sword of Taikaku Hideyoshi with a history of more than 200 years. Is this true?"

"Who knows." Hasegawa shrugged, "A big man like Hideyoshi Hideyoshi owns countless precious swords. Who knows whether that sword is really Hideyoshi's sword."

"All in all, we don't have the spare capacity to take care of the Honxiang Temple case at the moment. We will put this case on hold for now and postpone it until we have more clues about the Buddha's enemy before we deal with this case."

"Now let's focus on the current case of theft of Buddhist supplies from Xianyuan Temple."

While they were talking, the pile of dishes Hasegawa ordered were brought out one after another.
To be continued...