In order to become a Heroic Spirit, I had no choice but to cause trouble in history.

Okita Souji stood up. Although he was not tall, he exuded a powerful aura.

pat.

The cup in front of Rintaro broke in two, but not a drop of water spilled out.

"I don't know how you convinced or forced your sister to call me back, but—before you lay a hand on me, think about whether my sword is faster or yours."

Okita Souji sheathed his katana and turned to leave.

As they reached the door, Okita Souji turned around and said, "I hope you still have the pride of a warrior, brother."

Rintaro was already sitting on the ground, using his arms to support himself so he wouldn't fall.

Okita Souji, eleven years old, has been practicing swordsmanship for two years, yet he has already mastered most of Kondo Shusuke's martial arts skills, and his wrist strength is in no way inferior to that of an adult.

A truly talented swordsman.

“I will leave tomorrow morning; the guest room will suffice for me tonight.” Okita Souji turned his head. “I still hoped to consider you all family, but alas—”

"Don't worry that I covet everything from the Okita family. Such petty squabbles are beneath my notice, even for a child like me who has only practiced swordsmanship for two years. Yet you..."

"Take care of yourself, 'elder brother'."

He left without hesitation, leaving behind a terrified Rintaro and a silent light.

“Hikaru, I…” Rintaro was still in a daze.

Just now, he could feel that the commander's sword was only a few centimeters away from him.

Both being swordsmen, Rintaro is the epitome of laziness and gluttony, completely inferior to Okita Souji, who only studied the Tennen Rishin-ryu style under Kondo Shusuke for two years.

"Danna, stop." Guang sighed deeply. "We've already wronged her, why push her even further away?"

Rintaro remained silent, feeling a cold sweat pouring down his back.

In reality, Souji was mistaken. Rintaro and Hikaru did not want to get rid of Souji, but their idea was still unacceptable to him.

They wanted the commander to change his surname.

But let's just consider this a beautiful misunderstanding.

The commander felt somewhat distressed and reluctant.

We were originally a family, but why did everything change after the father passed away?

My second sister was quickly married off, and I was sent to the Imperial Guard.

As I was walking down the corridor, I happened to see Anno Samura eating his food in small bites.

“Mr. Samura.” Okita Souji greeted him, walked over to Samura, and sat down next to him.

“Okita-san.” Samura was a little flustered.

"What is Mr. Samura's definition of family?" Souji asked, holding his sword and looking at the moon, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Family…” Zuocun swallowed a piece of vegetable. “Although I don’t have that kind of thing, we should still get along more harmoniously.”

"I'm sorry... I shouldn't have asked that question." Realizing he might have asked a question that could hurt the other person, Souji quickly apologized.

“It’s alright. Although I don’t know how I got through the first ten years or so, I’m doing just fine now.” For the first time since meeting Okita, Zuocun smiled. “From the perspective of a wanderer like me, family is more like an embellishment to life, something that adds to the beauty. The most important thing is to live.”

"Perhaps for me, survival is the most important thing."

"To be alive... My master told me before I left that the situation within the country would soon become turbulent, that many big things were about to happen. I wonder if, under those circumstances, simply surviving would become a luxury..."

Okita Souji sighed.

As the child of a samurai, she was very precocious and could already think independently about many things at this age.

The methods for training samurai are brutal, but effective.

"I see..." Zuo Cun sighed. It seemed that things were going to get even harder.

“I will be leaving here tomorrow morning.” Okita Souji stood up, hung his sword at his waist, and said to Samura Anno.

"..." Zuo Cun opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

"What are Mr. Samura's plans?"

“I…I’ll be leaving tomorrow too, heading towards Mt. Iwate.” Anno Samura didn’t say anything about following Souji, as that would be unrealistic and impolite.

“It seems we’ll be traveling together for a while,” Okita Souji smiled.

“Hmm…” Anno nodded.

"Well then, goodnight, Mr. Samura." Okita Souji walked past Samura and headed towards the familiar yet unfamiliar room.

"Good night......"

Zuocun stacked the bowls together, went into the house, and for the first time, dressed and covered himself with a blanket, went to sleep in the room.

On a mountain not far away...

"Boss, the people who are following this are driving us to our deaths. What should we do?"

A burly man was sweating profusely, gritting his teeth.

He gripped the knife tightly in his hand.

"Let's pull one more heist. Isn't there a big village to the southeast? After this one, we'll move on. Those people can't kill us!"

------------

Chapter 276 Bandits Attack Zuodaoli Village

Before dawn, Okita Souji and Samura Anno set off on their journey.

Okita Souji looked somewhat disheartened and didn't say a word the whole way.

Zuo Cun was sensible enough not to respond. Although he was away from the front courtyard last night, he had vaguely heard some arguing and could roughly make out what was going on.

Both of them were children, so they walked very slowly and not very fast. Although they set off before dawn, it was already noon after walking for half a day and hadn't even reached the fork in the road they had encountered in Zuo Village.

"Is it already noon...?" Okita Souji exhaled.

I've been thinking about things as I walk, and I don't realize how long I've been walking.

"Mr. Samura, I plan to rest here for a while. Will you continue on your way or...?"

“Hmm…” Zuocun Anuo thought for a moment, “I’ll go fetch some water from the river over there.”

"Please go ahead." Okita nodded.

Zuocun took the water cup and walked towards the river.

Holding the rope, he lowered the water cup down, and Sha An hummed a song as he filled it with water. When he looked up, he saw a cloud of dust.

"Is that... a fire?" Zuo Cun squinted.

Somewhere upstream, smoke and dust rose like fire.

“No, that direction seems to be…” Zuocun quickly picked up his water glass and muttered to himself in a panic, “I have to go tell Ms. Okita right away…”

Previously, while traveling along the road, there were towering trees on both sides of the road, making it impossible to see what Zuodaoli Village looked like—damn it!

That level of smoke was definitely not from a small fire.

"Okita... Miss!" Because he was running too fast, Samura tripped over a tree branch and stumbled.

"Mr. Samura?" Okita Souji noticed the flustered Samura and stood up. "What happened?"

"There's thick smoke coming from the direction of the village!" Zuo Cun pointed in the direction they were coming from, sounding somewhat anxious. "The smoke is huge, it looks like a fire!"

"What?" Okita suddenly stood up and looked up at Samura.

"I went to the river to fetch water just now and saw a thick plume of smoke rising upstream." Zuo Cun calmed down a bit. "We were on the road earlier, and there were trees all around us, so we couldn't see anything."

"Something's happened in the village!" Okita muttered to himself.

After saying that, she grabbed the knife next to her and ran towards the village.

"Miss Okita!" Samura quickly picked up Okita's other luggage and followed.

......

Rintaro Okita is wrestling with a burly man.

However, Rintaro had neglected exercise for many years and lacked wrist strength, while his opponent, a burly man, appeared to be very strong.

"I thought the old man's son, a samurai of the Shirakawa Domain, would be very powerful. I was quite nervous before I came. Turns out he's just a third-rate guy, like me."

At this moment, a group of bandits were burning, killing, and looting in Zuodaoli Village.

Rintaro Okita stood guard at the entrance of the Okita residence, holding a katana, and forcefully pushed the bandit leader away.

"Aren't you afraid of the Shirakawa Magistrate's men if you do this?" Rintaro asked in a slightly trembling voice.

Unlike the katana used by Rintaro, the bandit leader used a large dachi.

The bandit leader grinned menacingly: "It's because they've been pressuring me that I had no choice but to come here. Once I'm done looting, I'll hurry off to other places."

"Don't blame me if I kill you today. Blame the incompetent shogunate!" The bandit leader said, raising his greatsword and slashing down.

"Damn it..." Rintaro parried the knife and stabbed back, but his opponent dodged it.

He glanced inside the house.

Hikaru, Kyutaro, you'd better hide well...

......

Okita and Samura did not choose to enter the village directly through the main gate.

The situation is unclear, and Okita Souji is all alone; she doesn't want to die.

Souji and Samura took a detour to the hillside on the side of the village and looked down.

“…Damn it, these are…bandits!” Okita Souji observed for a moment, his brows furrowing.

“Mr. Samura, please wait here. I’m going into the village.” Okita gripped the hilt of his sword.

Don't tremble, Okita Souji and Fujiwara Fusayori. Think carefully about why you've learned to use the sword.

Before Samura Anno could reply, Okita Souji rushed down.

"Oh, Okita!" Samura said anxiously.