Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 311: Chase (Part 2)

"Shimada! Go on!"

As Makimura shouted, he threw the resealed cloth bag filled with Wakasa incense towards Shimada.

He was stabbed by seven spears and there were dozens of people pressing on him. Although he couldn't stand up from the ground, he was still able to throw something to Shimada.

At this time, Shimada had just pulled out half of the knife from his waist.

After seeing the sudden arrival of the officers, who used all kinds of capture tools without any explanation and took advantage of their numbers to pin Makimura to the ground, Shimada was stunned by this rapid and sudden change.

After a brief moment of daze, Shimada came to his senses and immediately pulled out the knife from his waist with a serious face.

However, before he could completely draw the knife from his waist, Makimura's voice, "Shimada! Go ahead!" reached his ears.

Although he didn't know what Makimura meant by calling him suddenly, Shimada still obediently put the knife back, then raised his hands and steadily caught the cloth bag thrown by Makimura.

"Don't worry about me! Go after that bald guy!" Makimura shouted to Shimada, "If you can't catch him, just throw the contents of the bag onto him! Go!"

“Yes, yes!”

After hearing Makimura's order, Shimada showed some hesitation.

But this hint of hesitation only flashed by for a moment.

After the hesitation on his face disappeared and he solemnly shouted "yes", Shimada tightly grasped the cloth bag that Makimura had just thrown to him and chased after the bald man along the route he had escaped.

…

After Shimada went after the bald man, Makimura struggled hard.

But Mucun's struggle was destined to be in vain.

After all, no matter how strong Mucun was, it was impossible for him to throw down the dozen or so officers who were pressing on him to the ground when his neck, limbs, and torso were all stabbed and trapped. No human being could do that.

At this moment, Mucun suddenly heard a series of horse hoof sounds coming from far away.

Mucun turned his head and looked towards the source of the sound - a middle-aged man who looked very familiar was riding a horse slowly towards him.

Looking at the middle-aged man sitting on the horse and looking at him with a strange smile on his face, Mucun's face suddenly darkened and he said in a deep voice:

“Abe Riri…!”

"Hey, hey, hey." The middle-aged man on horseback, Abe, said in a sarcastic tone, "Although you are no longer from our Kyoto Prefecture, you should still respectfully call me 'Dabantou-sama' when you see me, right?"

"Forget it, I won't waste any more time talking to you. Hey, take Makimura Yahachi away and put him in jail."

When Abe turned his horse's head and prepared to leave in front of Makimura, he suddenly tightened the reins, stopped the horse under his crotch, and said to Makimura in a mocking tone:

"Makimura Yahachi, this is the first time I find your tall figure so pleasing to the eye."

"There aren't many people as tall and majestic as you in the whole of Kyoto."

"So it wasn't difficult . I asked around a bit and immediately received a lot of clues about your location."

"Thanks to your conspicuous size, we were able to find you so quickly."

"Being too tall and too conspicuous is not a good thing."

After leaving these sarcastic remarks, Abe, with a smug look on his face, rode away leisurely on his horse...

An officer dressed in Japanese clothes came over and whispered to Abe:

"Master, it seems that Makimura has a companion. His companion just ran away. Do we need to chase him?"

“No need.” Abe waved his hand. “My target is only Mucun. Don’t worry about Mucun’s companions. Besides, Mucun’s companions must have escaped far away by now. It’s impossible to catch up with them now.”

…

The flow of people in the nearby blocks is not as large as that in the Gion area, and Guangtou can no longer rely on the flow of people to slow down Makimura's speed.

When it comes to running speed on flat ground without obstacles, Baldy is obviously not as fast as Shimada.

The distance between the two is getting closer and closer - judging from the current situation, it is only a matter of time before the bald man is caught up by Shimada.

At this time, Shimada was already extremely anxious.

He now had only one thought: to quickly capture the bald guy, and then rush back to support the pastoral village that was inexplicably attacked by the officials.

While chasing the bald man, Shimada tore open the small cloth bag that Makimura had just thrown to him, and then took a peek inside the bag.

The cloth bag was filled with purple powder, and a rich fragrance wafted out of the bag.

——Is this... perfume powder...?

Shimada didn't know why Makimura gave him the powder and told him to sprinkle the powder on the bald man if he couldn't catch him.

After thinking for a while and unable to figure out the reason, Shimada simply stopped thinking about it, withdrew his attention, and focused all his energy on catching up with the bald man.

The distance between Shimada and the bald man is getting closer and closer.

Just when Shimada was only about 4 steps away from the bald man, the bald man suddenly turned around.

As he turned around, the bald man smashed the object in his right hand towards Shimada's face.

What the bald man held in his right hand was a handful of dust.

This was when the bald man just got out from under Mucun and grabbed a handful of dust from the ground.

The bald man had been waiting for this moment - waiting for Shimada to get within range of the dust to hit him.

Shimada clearly lacked experience in dealing with this kind of dirty trick, and the distance between the two was extremely close, leaving Shimada with too little time to react. It was not until the dust thrown by the bald man hit his face that he belatedly raised his hands for defense.

A little dust got into his eyes, causing Shimada to groan in pain.

Seeing that he had successfully blocked Shimada's vision with dust, a smug smile appeared on the bald man's face.

But the bald man's smug smile did not stay on his face for too long.

Because he saw Shimada throwing a small gadget at him.

And this little thing was actually a cloth bag with the mouth of the bag torn open and filled with Wakasa incense.

The small cloth bag, which had been torn open, hit the bald man's shiny head accurately, and all the perfume powder in the cloth bag poured onto the bald man's body.

The bald man who originally smelled of sweat suddenly became filled with fragrance, and the fragrance was strong enough to make people feel choked.

His body was covered with fragrant powder that was so fragrant that it was pungent, and the bald man couldn't help but let out a scream.

Hearing the bald man's scream, Shimada said in joy in his heart:

—Did you hit him?

While thinking this in his heart, Shimada tried to open his eyes a little to check the bald man's current condition.

After seeing the bald man covered from head to toe with Wakasa incense, Shimada finally felt relieved.

There was dust in his eyes, and now even if he opened his eyes a little, Shimada would feel a sharp pain.

Therefore, after checking the bald man's current condition, Shimada had to close his eyes again immediately.

When Shimada threw out the Wakasa incense just now, he was actually trying his luck.

Because dust got into his eyes and he couldn't see anything temporarily, Shimada could only throw the cloth bag filled with Wakasa incense based on his feeling.

Fortunately, Shimada had good luck. The cloth bag filled with Wakasa incense successfully hit the bald man, and the Wakasa incense in the cloth bag successfully sprinkled all over the bald man's body.

After successfully throwing the cloth bag filled with Wakasa incense onto the bald man, Shimada still rushed forward stubbornly, intending to catch the bald man.

However, because his vision had not yet fully recovered, Shimada could not even see the road ahead.

After taking a few steps forward, Shimada felt that he had bumped into someone.

Shimada and the passerby he hit hard fell heavily to the ground.

"hateful……!"

After cursing under his breath, Shimada quickly took off the bamboo tube hanging around his waist, ignoring the curses from the passerby he knocked down.

This bamboo tube is the water bottle that Shimada carries with him.

Kneeling on one knee on the ground, Shimada poured the water in the bamboo tube into his eyes. After simply washing his eyes, he was able to open his eyes and see things.

After his vision returned to normal, Shimada quickly looked forward in the direction where the bald man had just escaped.

The bald man was no longer in the direction he had just escaped.

He might have already escaped far away, or he might have turned into an alley nearby when Shimada wasn't looking.

"Bastard!" Shimada gritted his teeth in frustration and punched the ground hard.

The person who was knocked down by Shimada just now was a young man who was at the same age as Shimada and full of vigor and vitality.

After being knocked heavily to the ground by Shimada, the young man wanted to say something to Shimada, but after seeing Shimada's facial expression that became quite scary due to anger, he couldn't help but swallow the words of rebuke he wanted to spit out, and then silently left Shimada.

After losing the bald man, Shimada could only return to the place where he had just parted with Makimura and where Makimura had just been attacked by the officers.

After returning, as expected - the officials were no longer visible.

At the same time, there was no sign of Mucun.

Looking at the ground where there were still traces of a fight but now there was no one there, Shimada tightened and loosened his hands which hung naturally.

Finally, he gritted his teeth, turned his head resolutely, and ran to the end of the street...

…

"My lord, we are here." Asai said to Lin beside him, "This should be the place that Makimura asked us to come to."

Lin and Asai are now in a sparsely populated area of Kyoto.

Looking around, there were few passers-by.

Among the not-so-many houses around, only a few had candles burning outside.

When parting with Makimura and the others, Makimura told Lin his request: he hoped that Lin and Asai could go to a place in Kyoto and bring a message to the only person he knew in Kyoto.

This was not a very troublesome task, so Lin agreed readily.

Because Lin and Asai were not familiar with Kyoto, they asked for directions several times before finally arriving at the place that Makimura mentioned.

Lin looked at the house in front of her.

It is just an ordinary house that can be found everywhere in Kyoto. From the outside, there is nothing special about it.

After looking at the house in front of her several times, Lin said softly:

"He actually dares to live in such a sparsely populated place... It seems that this acquaintance of Yahachi must not be an ordinary person..."

There were almost no passers-by around, and because not many people lived or came here, there were not many lanterns hanging around for lighting, making the surroundings pitch black.

In a nutshell - this is the best place to commit crimes.

In a place like this, no one can see murder or robbery.

If it were an ordinary person, he would definitely not dare to live in such a place.

Lin walked forward and spoke loudly to the paper sliding door in front of her:

"Good evening! Is anyone there?"

As soon as Lin finished speaking, a middle-aged male voice with a hint of vicissitudes of life sounded from outside the paper sliding door:

"Pull the door open yourself."

After the male voice fell, Lin and Asai beside her both raised their eyebrows.

"...My Lord." Asai lowered his voice and whispered to Lin beside him, "It seems that this acquaintance of Maki Village is really a weirdo..."

When a stranger came to visit, he didn't even come out to see who the visitor was, but just let them in through the door - the word "weird" is not enough to describe this behavior.

Lin slowly opened the paper sliding door and led Asai through the paper sliding door, stepped onto the earthen room of the house, and entered the house.

Behind the paper sliding door - no one came to greet them.

"My Lord, should we take off our shoes?"

"Of course." Lin said without hesitation, "We are not here to fight, so of course we have to take off our shoes."

Just now, when they were outside the door of the house, Lin and Asai heard that the middle-aged male voice with a hint of vicissitudes of life came from the second floor of the house.

So after taking off their shoes, the two of them drew out their katana with sheath from their waists, held them in their right hands, and walked straight towards the stairs not far away.

After walking up the stairs to the second floor of the house, Lin and Asai both noticed that there was a special sweet fragrance in the air on the second floor of the house.

Asai frowned slightly:

“What’s that smell…?”

"...It's aromatherapy." Lin replied, "The smell is really strong... How much aromatherapy did you have to light to make the fragrance so strong..."

At this moment, the middle-aged male voice sounded again:

"I'm here, come on."

The source of the sound was the room at the end of the corridor in front of Lin and Asai.

The two walked slowly along the corridor towards the room.

The closer you get to the room, the stronger the scent of the aroma becomes.

When they stood in front of the door of this room, the smell of the incense was so strong that Lin and Asai couldn't help but hold their breath.

Crash...

Lin slowly opened the paper sliding door of the room.

After pulling the door all the way open, the first thing that caught Lin and Asai's eyes was a series of Ukiyo-e paintings.