Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 293 "Please help me clear Ogata's suspicion!" (Part 2)
"...That's true." After a bitter smile, Shunliu turned his head and said to Makimura seriously, "Ahaha, I almost forgot to tell you. I found a new job to do, repairing the earth house, and I will start tomorrow morning ."
"Yeah, good. Finally, there's something new to do." Mucun laughed at himself, "If we don't get something new, we won't have enough to eat."
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The next morning—
Under a certain land on the west side of Kyoto.
The people who were hired by the government to help repair the ruins began their respective tasks under the damaged ruins at daybreak.
"Hey, look..."
"Those two are too strong..."
“You are so strong…”
…
It would take two adults to lift a huge basket full of stones, but Mucun and Shunliu could easily carry two large baskets by themselves.
Mucun and Shunliu, each carrying two large baskets of stones, walked briskly, instantly attracting the attention of everyone present.
Mucun and Shunliu seemed to have long been accustomed to the surprised looks of the crowd. They ignored the discussions and concentrated on completing their respective tasks.
Da da da da da da…
At this moment, a series of dense footsteps suddenly came.
A group of people dressed as officials quickly walked into the construction site where no outsiders were allowed to enter.
Because this group of people were dressed like officials, the people in charge of guarding the construction site did not dare to stop them and allowed these officials to enter and exit the construction site.
The leader of this group of officers seemed to be a powerful man.
As soon as this powerful person stepped into the venue, he immediately shouted loudly:
"Who are Makimura Yahachi and Kunieda Junroku!"
When they heard that this person actually called out their names, surprise flashed across Makimura and Yahachi's faces.
Shunliu picked up the towel hanging on his shoulder and wiped the sweat off his face, then strode towards the group of officials without any fear:
"I am Junroku Kunieda. What can I do for you?"
After Shunliu went to meet him, Mucun also hurriedly followed.
"I am Makimura Yahachi."
"You two are Makimura Yahachi and Kunieda Junroku? Come with us!"
"What?" Shunliu frowned, "We two brothers have never done anything illegal."
"I know. So we are not here to arrest you two. We are here to invite you to visit the magistrate's office!"
"The magistrate's office?" Mucun exclaimed.
"Hurry up and follow us obediently." A meaningful smile appeared on Ming Yuli's face. "If my guess is correct, you two may be very successful."
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…
Although they were full of doubts, Makimura and Shunroku still chose to follow the group of officials to the magistrate's office.
After arriving at the magistrate's office, the two were taken directly to a room that seemed to be specially used to receive guests.
Just as Makimura and Shunroku were wondering why they were brought to the magistrate's office, where people like them were not qualified to be, the paper sliding door of the room was slowly opened.
A middle-aged man with some gray hair on his temples walked slowly into the room through the open paper sliding door, and then sat down in front of Mucun and Shunliu.
"... Nice to meet you two."
The middle-aged man seemed to notice that Makimura and Shunliu were a little nervous, so he comforted them softly.
"Relax yourself."
The middle-aged man's voice was neither hurried nor slow.
"My name is Kamiyama Koshinosuke. You should know who I am, so I won't introduce myself any more."
After listening to this middle-aged man's brief and unusual self-introduction, both Mucun and Shunliu were shocked.
Of course, they had heard of the name of Kyoto Town Magistrate - Kamiyama Koshinosuke.
While Makimura and Shunliu were still immersed in shock, Shenshan continued softly:
"You two must be Makimura Yahachi and Kunieda Junroku, right?"
"...Are you the one who invited us to the magistrate's office?" Makimura asked in a deep voice, "Why did you bring the two of us to the magistrate's office?"
Shenshan seemed not to hear Mucun's voice and continued to speak to himself:
"Makimura Yahachi and Kunieda Junroku - a pair of yakuza from Sanji Street who do not rely on any family."
"Because he succeeded in establishing himself in the chaotic land of Sanzi Street with his own strength and intelligence without relying on any family, he became a well-known figure in the Yakuza world of Kyoto."
"There is another very important reason why you are well-known among other 'peers' - the two of you have been behaving very strangely."
"As a Yakuza, I never do anything that is against the law."
"The way to make a living is to find work everywhere."
"Whether it's repairing a dojo or transporting wood, I never refuse any job that requires hard work."
"A very strange pair of people - this is what the other Yakuza living on Third Prince Street think of you two."
When Makimura and Shunliu heard this, their faces turned dark.
"Why do you know so much about the two of us?" Shunliu asked in a deep voice.
"I know much more than you do." A meaningful smile appeared on Kamiyama's face. "I also know that half a year ago, a mysterious person secretly provided me with a large amount of evidence about the crimes of the Takagi Family."
"In addition to the evidence of the crime, this mysterious man also told me the locations of the various bases of the Takagi family, how many weapons they have, and how many subordinates they have."
"These two are very smart. They know that in the entire Kyoto Prefecture, I am the only one who is unlikely to have any connection with the Yakuza. So they found a channel and directly handed me all kinds of intelligence and evidence of the Takagi Family."
The expressions on Makimura and Shunliu's faces both changed.
"Thanks to the help provided by this mysterious person, I was able to successfully wipe out the Takagi Family when I just wanted to clean up the various Yakuza forces in Kyoto."
At this point, Shenshan's eyes narrowed.
"This mysterious person... is you two, am I right?"
"...It seems that you really put a lot of effort into investigating the two of us." The vigilance contained in Mucun's gaze towards Shenshan was extremely high.
"Master Kamiyama, you called us here, didn't you, just to thank us for helping your government overthrow the 'Takagi Family'?" Shunliu asked in a joking tone, "If that's the case, then there's no need."
"That's not the case." Kamiyama chuckled a few times, "If it's convenient, can you tell me - do you have any plans to bring down another Yakuza family in Kyoto recently?"
"Why should we tell you this?" Shunliu asked without thinking.
"If you're worried that I'll go along with the Yakuza and betray you two, then there 's no need to worry."
Shenshan chuckled.
"I know so much about you. If I wanted to betray you, I would have sold you all out long ago."
"And isn't my title of 'Famous Envoy' enough to earn your trust in me?"
After hearing what Shenshan said, Mucun and Shunliu both fell silent.
After a moment of silence, Shunliu was the first to break the silence:
"...That's true." Shunliu's tone was a little sarcastic, "If you wanted to sell us out and kill us, you could have sold us all out long ago. And Lord Kamiyama, who is deeply respected by the people, is unlikely to go along with the Yakuza."
"The Nagai family." Makimura said softly, "The Nagai family is our current target."
"Have you collected enough evidence of the Nagai family's crimes?"
"Not yet." This time it was Shunliu who responded, "But it will be soon."
"Why do you want to deal with these big families?" Shenshan asked, "You don't belong to any Yakuza forces. Even if you overthrow these big families, it won't benefit you two, right?"
"We two are not risking our lives and working so hard to deal with these behemoths for the so-called 'benefits'." Mucun's tone gradually became firm. "We hate these guys who prey on the people, so we have to defeat them - it's that simple."
“…Hahaha.” After staring at Makimura and Shunliu for a while with a meaningful look, Shenshan suddenly laughed, “You two are really funny!”
"Let me ask you one more question - you are all just civilians, you shouldn't have surnames, how did you get your surnames?"
"...We picked it ourselves." said Mucun.
"Why give yourself a last name?"
"…Because we want to be samurai." After hesitating for a while, Shunliu gritted his teeth and squeezed out the words, "Both of us brothers dream of becoming samurai!"
"So Ah Ba and I each thought of a surname for ourselves."
"Having an additional surname will make us feel that we are closer to our goal of becoming a 'samurai'..."
"Although Ah Ba and I know that this is just deceiving ourselves..."
"Commoners are commoners... Even if we risk our lives and fight until death, Hachi and I will never become samurai..."
Shenshan once again cast a meaningful look at the two people in front of him.
Shenshan straightened up his body which had been sitting crookedly.
Shenshan returned to his seated posture and continued in a serious tone:
"I noticed you two after you secretly handed me the evidence and intelligence of the Takagi Family's crimes half a year ago."
"After half a year of intermittent investigation, I have finally managed to find out what you two are doing."
"I admire you two."
"You are both brave and resourceful."
"He has a hatred of evil that many of his peers do not have."
"And with just the two of them, they were able to collect enough evidence to bring down the Takagi family. Their efficiency in investigating cases is much better than those officials in Kyoto Prefecture."
"So I'll be frank: I'm going to use all my connections to help you two tamper with your household registration."
"Change both of your registrations from commoners to samurai."
Shenshan's words were like a huge stone thrown into a calm lake. Both Mucun and Shunliu could hardly remain calm. They stared at Shenshan in astonishment.
"Master Shenshan..." Shunliu's lips trembled slightly due to excitement, "What do you mean...?"
"I can help you become warriors." Shenshan smiled slightly, "But - I have conditions."
"My condition is this - you two will serve under me from now on."
"Two people died in the line of duty a while ago. There is a vacancy."
"I will grant you the official positions of power. From now on, you two will no longer be the Yakuza who can only stay in the decadent place of Third Prince Street!"
"He is a samurai who takes it as his duty to protect the safety of Kyoto!"
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…
The fragments of memories flashed in Mucun's eyes.
Although I haven't seen him for 2 years, Shenshan's face hasn't changed much compared to 2 years ago except for a few more wrinkles.
"…A few months ago, when I saw your name on the list of the fourth batch of prisoners landing on the island, I thought about whether I should come to see you."
The corners of Shenshan's mouth curled up slightly, and a self-deprecating look mixed with a hint of bitterness emerged.
"But I finally thought about it - you definitely don't want to see my face, so I gave up the idea of coming to see you."
"You're right." Mucun slowly closed his eyes and stopped looking at Shenshan. "I didn't want to see your face at all. You made the right decision not to come to see me."
"I didn't expect you to be able to escape from that Butterfly Island...Haha, no matter how incredible something sounds, once you find out that it was you who did it, you won't be that surprised."
"Master Shenshan, if you are here to reminisce about the past, you can leave now. I am sleepy now and want to sleep."
"I'm certainly not here to reminisce with you."
Shenshan took out a bunch of keys from his arms, opened the door of Mucun's cell, walked slowly into the cell, and then knelt in front of Mucun.
"Makimura, I'm here to ask for your help."
Shenshan spoke word by word .
"I need you to help me clear Ogata Yisei's suspicion and find out who is behind this."
"I suspect that the explosion in Luowai two months ago and the murders that have continued from last night to now were all done by the same group of people."
"The mastermind behind this may have big plans. We must find him out as soon as possible!"
As Shenshan finished speaking, Mucun suddenly opened his eyes.
"Help Ogata Issei clear his suspicion?"
"You may not know..." Shenshan said with a wry smile, "Right now, a city-wide search for Ogata Issei is underway outside of Kyoto."
"...Lord Shenshan."
Mucun sat up straight from leaning casually against the stone wall behind him.
"Tell me what happened."
"Ah, there's no need to introduce me to who Ogata Issei is."
"I know who Ogata Issei is. He's the executioner Ittosai who committed regicide."
Makimura pretended to have only heard of Ogata Noriyoshi's name.
