I Was a Swordsman in Ancient Japan

Ogata now only feels... that he has fallen into a predicament that he doesn't know what words to use to describe it.

Ogata's rationality told him: At this moment, something must be done quickly.

But now he just feels that his head is empty... Can't think of any good way to get out of this predicament.

He doesn't move now, nor does he stay still—especially the palms of his hands that are being held up.

Not only that, but I don't even know what to say.

And Isshiki is also motionless now, which also makes it more difficult for Ogata to make a decision.

But fortunately—the savior who rescued Ogata and Isshiki from this awkward atmosphere appeared in time.

"Excuse me—is anyone in there?"

A middle-aged male voice sounded outside the entrance and exit of the bath.

The male voice that suddenly pierced into the ears of the demand side and Yishi immediately woke them up from their chaotic state.

"Yes, someone wants to come in." Yishi hurriedly said, "But, can you block it for me?"

If an outsider sees a woman taking a bath in a men's bath, he may not know how long it will take to explain.

Ogata instantly understood what Isshiki was worried about.

So after hearing Isshi's stammering words, Xu Fang immediately answered "Yes" almost without hesitation, then quickly put down the pair of heavy objects he was holding with both hands, turned around, and faced the The entrance and exit of the bath, sit back in the pool.

"You hide behind me."

Hearing Ogata's words, Isshiki immediately followed what Ogata said without hesitation, and hid behind him. Because Isshiki's body is smaller than Ogata's, he hid his body behind Ogata's more than enough .

After the two finished this series of actions, the middle-aged male voice sounded again outside the gate at the entrance and exit of the bath:

"Excuse me, is there anyone in the bath?"

"Someone!" Ogata replied, "Is there something wrong?"

"Is it convenient for me to come in?"

"Please come in!"

As soon as Ogata's voice fell,

The door at the entrance was slowly opened, and a middle-aged man about 40 years old and dressed as a male waiter appeared within Ogata's field of vision.

The middle-aged male waiter first took a quick look at the situation in the bath, and then fixed his sight on Ogata:

"Guest officer, are you the only one in the bath?"

——Looks like he didn't notice Isshiki...

While Ogata thought inwardly, he replied calmly:

"Well, that's right, I'm the only one. What's the matter? Is it time for the bathhouse to close?"

Ogata didn't forget that he didn't have a human skin mask to cover his face now, so in order not to let the middle-aged male waiter see his face clearly, Ogata lowered his head specially, making it difficult for the other party to see his face clearly due to the angle of view.

"Uh, it's like this." The middle-aged male waiter showed a look of shame on his face, "I don't know who replaced the curtain at the entrance of the bathhouse."

"It was supposed to have a male shower curtain, but now it has a female shower curtain, and it should have a female shower curtain, but now it has a male shower curtain."

Hearing the words of the middle-aged male waiter, both Ogata and Isshiki who was hiding behind Ogata now stared wide-eyed in astonishment.

"You mean..." Ogata's expression became weird unknowingly, "Is this supposed to be a women's bath?"

The middle-aged male waiter nodded: "That's right. But fortunately——now it's late at night, and not many people will come to take a bath again, so it didn't cause any major disaster."

"So it's... like this..." Ogata twitched the corner of his mouth involuntarily.

"Guest officer, do you want to continue taking a bath? If you want to continue taking a bath, please move to the real men's bath next door."

"...can I continue soaking here?" Ogata said softly after a moment of silence, "Your bathhouse should be closing soon, and I don't bother to change places anymore. I'll leave after soaking here for a while .”

Hearing what Ogata said, the middle-aged male waiter looked embarrassed.

But fortunately—after a moment of silence, the middle-aged male waiter nodded:

"...Alright then. Let's replace the curtain after the bathhouse is closed."

Seeing that the middle-aged male waiter agreed to let him stay here for a while, Ogata secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

Afterwards, the middle-aged male waiter said some clichés such as "Please forgive me for the inconvenience", and reminded Ogata that this bathhouse will be closed soon, so pay attention to the time, and then closed the entrance and exit of the bath The gate disappeared from Ogata's field of vision.

In the bath, only Ogata and Isshiki remained.

After confirming that the middle-aged male waiter had left and there was no one else outside the bath gate, Ogata tried his best to adjust his face, trying to make his expression look calm, and then slowly turned around.

In order not to see something that shouldn't be seen, Ogata specially raised his gaze and looked at the ceiling above his head.

"Well... can you walk now?"

"Barely...can..."

"Then I'll carry my body on my back, you can leave here first..."

After saying that, Ogata turned his whole body, facing the east side of the bath.

After Ogata turned his body to the direction where Isshiki's body could not be seen, Isshiki raised his eyes and cast his gaze towards Ogata... with complex emotions mainly annoyance and shyness.

She put her hands on the heavy object that Ogata was holding up just now.

The touch of Ogata's palm still remained on the skin.

Feeling the lingering touch, the complex emotions in her eyes became more intense.

Her lips moved, as if she was planning to say something to Ogata.

But in the end—she didn't say a word.

He silently covered his chest with his hands crossed, and walked silently towards the bath without saying a word.

Probably because his head was still dizzy, and also in order not to repeat the mistake of accidentally falling just now, Isshiki walked very slowly.

Ogata didn't rush her, just waited quietly.

The atmosphere between the two did not just fall into a slightly awkward silence.

Because after a while, Ogata said to Isshiki with shame on his face:

"I'm sorry... I accidentally entered the women's bath..."

"It's not your fault..." Isshiki responded softly, "The curtain was changed, and you were also one of the victims..."

Although this matter was forgiven by Isshiki, Ogata did not relax at all because of this.

Because there is one more terrible thing waiting for him to apologize...

"I just... accidentally touched some places that shouldn't be touched..." The shame on Ogata's face turned into embarrassment at a speed visible to the naked eye, "I'm really... very sorry..."

Because of the angle, Isshiki couldn't see the embarrassment on Ogata's face.

And Ogata couldn't see Isshiki's cheeks that were slightly flushed now.

"...You are also here to support me who was about to fall... What happened just now, just pretend it never happened."

After quickly saying this in a tone that made it difficult to grasp the emotions, Isshiki stopped talking.

Isshiki actually wanted to reprimand Ogata loudly.

Although Ogata's intentions were good, the final result still made Isshiki feel unacceptable.

Just now, it was the first time since she grew up that she was treated so lightly by a man—and a man she hadn't known for a long time.

To tell the truth, she was full of resentment now.

And the weird thing is—she can't bring up the slightest motivation to reprimand Ogata now...

"Thank you for your understanding..." Ogata showed a relieved expression.

"...In order not to cause your misunderstanding, let me explain..." Isshiki suddenly said slowly, "I pretended to be a man so that it would be easier for me to act when I was traveling with my grandfather, not for any special reason ..."

Ogata nodded lightly: "So it's like this..."

Although in the Edo period, women were able to show their faces on the streets generously and work as waiters in restaurants, the overall atmosphere in society was still that men were superior to women.

This can be regarded as the normal state of this feudal society.

In feudal society, due to various reasons such as productivity, men were basically superior to women. In a society where men are superior to women, it is much easier to do many things after pretending to be a man.

clatter...

Finally, after an unknown amount of time passed, Ogata heard the sound of splashing water coming from behind him—Isshiki's feet finally stepped out of the bath.

After Isshiki left the bath, the rosy glow that was already hanging on his cheeks expanded rapidly.

When she just soaked in the bath, because her whole body was wrapped in hot water, she could still give Isshiki a feeling that "something is covering her body".

But now after leaving the bath, there is nothing but air around.

This kind of man who just met not long ago is not far away, but he is exposed to the air naked - this kind of weird feeling makes Isshiki's face turn red uncontrollably.

Isshiki made a simple assessment of her current physical condition - the distance from the bathhouse to the room where she lives with her grandfather is not very long. Although her head is still dizzy, it should be a problem to walk back not big.

"...I'll go first..." Isshiki turned his head, and slowly said to Ogata, who still had his back to her, "Remember—what happened tonight, just pretend it never happened. I won't mention it to outsiders Don't tell anyone about what happened tonight."

Ogata nodded vigorously: "Yes, I will."

After leaving these words, Isshiki moved his slightly heavy feet again and walked towards the entrance and exit of the bath.

But before and after the entrance and exit, Isshiki stopped.

She turned her head and looked at Ogata.

The pupils of the eyes were still full of complicated emotions.

After staring deeply at Ogata for a while, she finally retracted her gaze and opened the door to the entrance of the bath...

...

...

Isshiki quickly put on his light yellow kimono, supported the wall, and walked slowly on the way back to the room.

Probably because it was late at night, not only were there not half of the guests in the corridor, but also not half of the hotel waiters.

——So hard...

Isshiki originally thought that with his current physical condition, walking back to the room should not be a problem.

But after putting it into practice, Isshiki discovered that her evaluation of her current physical state seemed to be a bit overestimated.

It was okay at first, and I could keep my spirits up, but the more I walked forward, the more dizzy I felt, and I felt nauseous.

When walking more than half of the way to the room, Isshiki finally leaned on the wall and squatted slowly on the ground because he couldn't bear the dizziness in his head and the strong nausea gushing from his stomach.

——Let's take a little... rest for a while... Ugh... It's disgusting...

Isshiki, who was squatting on the ground, panted and took deep breaths, rubbing her temples on both sides vigorously, trying to keep herself awake, but unfortunately, her methods had little effect.

However, at this moment, a male voice with obvious helplessness sounded behind her:

"Letting you go back to your room alone is really too much of a stretch... Shall I carry you back?"

Isshiki's eyes widened, and she looked behind her in surprise—the one standing behind her was Ogata who was now fully dressed.

"You...why are you here...?"

"I always feel that in your current state, it's a bit too forced to go back to the room alone." Ogata squatted down, making his eyes level with Isshiki, "So in order not to have any accidents, I decided to quietly follow behind you."

"Your face is so ugly now, is your body uncomfortable?"

Isshiki wanted to say, "I'm in good health now, as long as I take a break to get better, you don't have to worry about me", but as soon as she opened her mouth, a strong sense of nausea made her frown.

Now she felt that if she said a few more words, she would vomit up tonight's dinner.

As the daughter of a samurai, no matter what, she didn't want to do such indecent things in front of outsiders or in the corridors of hotels.

Seeing that Isshiki couldn't even speak now, Ogata remained silent.

After a moment of silence, he raised Isshiki without saying a word, and pushed Isshiki to his back.

"I'll carry you back." Although Ogata's voice was soft, his tone was full of determination, "Where do you and your grandfather live? If it's difficult to speak, just use your fingers to show me the way."

Seeing that Ogata was so tough that he didn't even say hello to her, he helped her behind him. Isshiki's first reaction was to protest loudly, saying that he didn't need his help.

But... After meeting Kami Ogata's eyes, for some reason, I had already planned to reject Ogata's kind words, but I couldn't say anything.

After lying on the back of Ogata who was squatting on the ground for a while, Isshiki slowly stretched out his right index finger and pointed to the right-turn intersection ahead.

"Is it over there... Hurry up, I will walk slower, if you still feel uncomfortable, pinch the back of my neck, and I will walk slower."

After all, Ogata picked up Isshiki, and walked slowly towards the place Isshiki just pointed at at a speed as slow as a turtle crawling.

Isshiki lying on Ogata's back had a place to rest, and at the same time, Ogata's speed was just right, which gradually eased the dizziness and nausea in Isshiki's head.

The dizziness and nausea dissipated, and a strange sense of relief came out.

Isshiki's head sank slowly, resting on Ogata's left shoulder.

"...Thank you..." She resisted the dizziness and nausea, and said with all her might.

"You're welcome." Ogata responded softly, "I just did what I should do."

After the two sang a harmony, they returned to silence.

But the strange thing is that this silence did not exude embarrassment, but revealed a little tranquility.

...

...

"Front...the second room on the right is where I live...you can just send me here...if grandpa sees you coming back with me on your back...it's hard to explain... "

Ogata looked towards the second room on the right-hand side ahead—it was about 7 steps away, not far away.

Hearing Isshiki say this, Ogata did not insist that he must send her to the door of the room. After Isshiki's voice fell, he obediently put down Isshiki behind him.

"Do you feel more comfortable in your body? Can you walk the remaining few steps?"

Isshiki nodded lightly: "Well... at least... I can finally talk... There is no problem at all after walking the last few steps..."

Although the time spent lying on Ogata's back just now was not long, it was at least a little rest.

"That's good..." Ogata nodded lightly, "If that's the case, then don't stay here. It's almost time for me to go back. If it is delayed a little longer, my family may worry about me."

"...Isshiki Flower."

"Ok?"

"Isshiki - my real name." Isshiki looked Ogata's eyes directly, and said every word.

"Isshiki..." Ogata smiled, "It's really a good name, it sounds good and has meaning."

There was nothing flattering about Ogata's words.

The name "Hua" may be unremarkable to a woman.

But when paired with the surname "Yise", it instantly makes the name a little more poetic.

"At dawn tomorrow, my grandfather and I will leave this place and continue to return to Osaka." Isshiki continued, "After tonight, we may not have any chance to meet again...so...you take care..."

Isshiki now has no idea what he is talking about.

The lips and tongue moved on their own, as if they had a will of their own.

I reported his real name without authorization, and then said to Ogata to take care of him without authorization.

When I came back to my senses, the sentence "Take care of yourself" had already been said.

After hearing her words, Ogata was taken aback for a moment, and then slowly showed a smile:

"You too. Take care."

...

...

"Xiaohua, you're finally back...huh? What's wrong with you? Why is your face so ugly?"

As soon as Naosuke's eyes turned to Isshiki who had finally returned, he was immediately startled—because Isshiki's face was frighteningly pale now, as if he was sick.

"I'm fine." Isshiki said, "It's just a little dizzy."

"Dizzy?" Zhi Zhou said angrily, "Really, you are not young anymore, why are you still acting like a child... um? What's the matter? Why are you smiling? Did something good happen to you? "

— Laughing?

Isshi was taken aback for a moment, and then hurriedly raised his hand to touch his own lips—the corners of his mouth were indeed slightly raised.

She didn't even realize she was laughing.

She recalled, recalling when she smiled subconsciously.

Memories flash back.

In the end, it was fixed at the moment when Ogata smiled and said to her, "You too. Take care".

...

...

"Why did you take a shower so late tonight?" A-cho asked Ogata who had just returned.

"Because I haven't bathed for a long time." Oo said without changing his expression, "So I couldn't help but soak in the bathtub for a while."

Ogata promised Isshiki that he would treat what happened tonight as if it never happened.

For the first time, he was grateful for his ability to lie without changing his face...

"Okay, let's get under the covers." In order to prevent A-Machi from questioning him because he doubted what he just said, Ogata took the initiative to change the subject, "We have to hurry tomorrow morning."

After all, without waiting for A-Machi's reaction, Ogata took out a set of futons and spread them on the tatami.

A-machi has always trusted Ogata unconditionally.

So after hearing what Ogata said, although I always felt that "soaking in the bathtub for a long time because I haven't bathed for too long" was not something Ogata would do, I didn't ask too many questions, and started paving with Ogata wholeheartedly. bedding.

When the two worked together to lay the futon, Ogata's gaze accidentally caught sight of A-Machi's chest, which was now only covered by a thin layer of clothing.

Then, a certain memory that was not even half an hour past emerged in Ogata's mind...

Ogata, whose expression became weird, quickly moved his eyes away, so as not to let any strange memory fragments appear again...

...

...

At this very moment—

Edo, in a certain izakaya——

"Huha—!" Mucun put down a large bottle of sake that was empty, "How about it? Do you still want to compare with me?"

"I, I can't do it anymore..." Shimada, whose face was as red as blood, put down more than half of the wine bottle left, belching heavily, "I can't drink any more."

"Hmph." Mucun showed a smug expression, "If you want to compete with me in drinking capacity, you are still far behind."

"Shimada, don't drink anymore." Asai reminded at this time, "I don't want to carry you back like I did a few days ago."

Makimura, Shimada, and Asai are now sitting in the three corners of the wine table in the shape of a character.

In recent days, in order to pass the boring time, Mucun and the others often drink wine and chat in the middle of the night in the izakaya like they do now.

"Speaking of which—" Asai continued at this moment, "We should be going back soon."

Asai did not participate in the "drinking competition" between Mucun and Shimada, and only drank silently all the time, so unlike Mucun and Shimada, his entire face turned red, and his cheeks were only slightly red.

"It's still early." Mucun said as he opened a bottle of sake again, "Let's drink for a while."

"You guys really like drinking..." Asai said helplessly.

"Wrong." Mucun grinned, "I don't like to drink, I like to drink in places like izakaya. Because drinking in izakaya, I often hear some interesting stories."

Mucun used chopsticks to pick up fennel beans for drinking and stuffed them into his mouth.

"When I was still in Yuli, I would often instruct my subordinates to hang out in izakaya and other places. A lot of useful information can often be collected in places like izakaya."

"A place like an izakaya, I just think it's very noisy, and I don't have any other feelings..." Asai sighed.

Just as Asai's words fell, a loud noise suddenly erupted from a large table some distance away from them:

"Wow! It's true!"

"What I said is true!"

"Is that person so powerful?"

...

"What are the people at that table doing..." Asai frowned, and looked at the table surrounded by people number 8, "Suddenly it was so noisy... It scared me..."

"Okay, don't worry about such trivial things." Mucun said in relief, "Continue to drink."

"Appetizers seem to be a bit insufficient." Shimada suddenly said at this moment.

"Then let someone serve some more plates of fennel beans. Miss Aqian!" Mu Cun waved to a young girl who was cleaning the table not far away.

During this period of time, Mucun and the others often visited this izakaya, so they became acquainted with the people in this izakaya.

The young girl called "Miss Aqian" by Mucun came quickly with a plate: "You guys can really drink...you have already drank so much..."

"Because your wine is well brewed." Mucun chuckled, "It's because your wine is well brewed that we come to visit you so frequently during this time."

"Mr. Mucun's mouth is still as sweet as ever. What do you want? Do you want appetizers, or do you want a few more bottles of wine..."

Ah Qian hadn't finished speaking when a sudden noise interrupted her—the source of the noise was the table that caught the attention of Asai and the others because of the noise just now. guest.

"What are the people at that table doing..." Asai frowned again, "Even in an izakaya, it can't be so noisy, right?"

"This is also the normal state of our izakaya." Aqian showed helplessness, "I've been used to it for a long time. The guests at that table are also our regular customers here, so we are embarrassed to say anything more."

"What are they talking about... talking so loudly..." Mucun also became curious about the guests at the table at this time.

"I don't know the details." Ah Qian shrugged, "But I just heard a little bit of their chat."

"They seemed to be talking about the number one swordsman in Edo - Fumaki Yamada Asemon, and the demon sword Zena passed down from generation to generation in the Yamada Asemon family."

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