I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Quite a few people signed up; more than ten people stood up in one go, expressing their desire to participate in the competition and broaden their horizons.

Each fencing hall can only have a maximum of 3 participants. Kondo had no choice but to start the selection process, choosing the 3 strongest newcomers to participate—and Aoto was fortunate enough to be among them.

"Tachibana-kun, with your current strength... even some of the old-timers in our Shieikan who have been practicing swordsmanship for a very long time might not be able to beat you." — These were Kondo's exact words when he selected Aoto to participate in the competition.

After the long holiday, Qingdeng returned to his post.

Thanks to his new achievements such as "making another great contribution" and "creating a one-time increase of 400 shi in salary", Qingdeng's status and treatment in the Beifan Bureau have been significantly improved!

As Qingdeng walks through the Beifan compound, almost everyone who passes by him greets him warmly and proactively. Even the most senior and experienced people speak softly to him.

The nickname "Dumbhead" is now completely a thing of the past.

Qingdeng's main focus these past few days has been to familiarize Yongcang and the others with the daily work of Gangbiki.

Gangyin's daily work was quite simple. In short, their main job was to help their employers with manual labor, such as patrolling the area for Qingdeng or running errands when someone needed to be summoned.

They were all jobs that didn't require much skill, so Nagakura and his team quickly got the hang of them.

Since the Qingdeng vacation, two noteworthy events have occurred at the Fengxing Office.

The first major event: Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi personally ordered the mobilization of arsonists to suppress the anti-Japanese guerrillas!

The fire-fighting thieves have actually been mobilized... This shows that the nature of the case of the "Anti-Establishment and Extermination Group" has completely changed.

The arsonists, who were specifically responsible for handling major heinous incidents and dealing with vicious criminals, and whose function was similar to that of the police, were reassigned... This shows that the shogunate had completely regarded the Exile Corps as a terrorist organization that "would shake the national order and had to be eliminated as soon as possible."

The infamous fire-wielding thief was reassigned to assist them—this greatly boosted the morale of the officers and soldiers of the magistrate's office.

Unfortunately... the members of the Extermination Group are really good at hiding.

After the incident of "the town being set on fire and the foreign affairs office being attacked," Edo became much calmer, and the anti-foreign group no longer showed its face.

The magistrate and the bandit gang had almost turned Edo upside down, but they still couldn't find the stronghold of the Extermination Group, nor could they capture the important leaders, including Kanna.

As for the second major event... although it's not a very serious or important event, it's still worth mentioning a bit more.

For some reason, the frequency with which townspeople have spotted the phantom thief Nekozono has suddenly increased recently!

Recently, the magistrate's office has received frequent reports of "seeing Nekozono at night".

Cat Monk's appearances are extremely unpredictable. Today we received a report that he was in the city center, and tomorrow we heard rumors that he appeared in the eastern suburbs.

Then, on April 6th, something happened that left all the officers and constables of the magistrate's office completely baffled.

On the morning of April 6, when the officials of the Northern Garrison went to their residence to open the gates and begin their work for the day, they were suddenly surprised to find two middle-aged men, bound hand and foot and unconscious, thrown in front of their gate.

Both men had a note stuck to their heads, with a line of large characters written on it: "These two are the two wanted criminals who are still at large and have raped many women!"

The bewildered officials took a closer look at the two middle-aged men's faces—and they really were the two rapists who had been wanted for a long time and had not yet been caught!

The officers quickly arrested the two men and began interrogating them.

After a thorough interrogation, they finally learned what had happened.

Just last night, as the two of them were lurking in an alley of a certain town, preparing to "ambush" a passing nightingale, a dark shadow suddenly descended in front of them.

As soon as the dark figure appeared, it spread its hands out into palms, palms facing upwards, and then raised its arms high.

While raising both arms, stand up and bend your right leg upwards, standing in a one-legged stance.

After completing this bizarre pose, he shouted:

"That's right, Cat Monk!"

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Chapter 130 Cat Monk...So Soft! Cat Monk's True Identity Exposed! [6600]

The two men gave the same testimony... After performing the above extremely bizarre actions, Cat Monk stepped forward and used his superb martial arts skills to knock them to the ground.

After learning the details of how the two were captured by Nekosō, Aoto felt that the story sounded familiar. After a brief recollection, he remembered that three months ago, he and Saitō went on a business trip to Fujisawa-juku to hunt down a gang of notorious thieves. However, upon arriving at Fujisawa-juku, they discovered that the gang of thieves they were looking for had already been caught and captured by Nekosō.

The experience of that gang of thieves was exactly the same as that of these two wanted criminals.

Cat Monk would suddenly appear, strike a strange pose, shout "It is Cat Monk!", and then use his superb unarmed fighting skills to knock them all to the ground.

The cat monk helped them catch the criminal... The officers and constables of the magistrate's office, led by Usui, were filled with mixed feelings about this.

It's certainly a good thing that a wanted criminal who had been on the run for so long has been caught.

But the person who helped them catch the wanted criminal was none other than the great thief, Nekosō… It’s impossible for Usui and the others not to feel awkward.

While feeling awkward, the officers and constables of the Magistrate's Office, led by Usui, were also quite puzzled—what exactly did this cat-boy want to do?

Why should we help them catch thieves?

Was it simply a spontaneous act? Or was there some ulterior motive?

Considering that Cat Monk had previously tipped off Qingdeng and helped him successfully rescue the Foreign Affairs Bureau, the image of Cat Monk became shrouded in even greater mystery in the minds of the officials.

They had been trying to catch a wanted criminal for so long, but it turned out that the thief, Cat Monk, had captured him...

If this gets out, it won't sound good and will damage the reputation of the magistrate's office.

Therefore, in order to salvage its reputation, the magistrate's office tried its best to prevent the news that "Neko-sō caught a thief for the magistrate's office" from spreading.

Not long ago, the Magistrate's Office did something similar—if people knew that Qing Deng was able to rescue the Banshu Investigation Office in time thanks to Nekosō's tip-off, it would damage the Magistrate's reputation and cast doubt on its capabilities. Therefore, when publicizing this matter to the outside world, the Magistrate's Office has always tried to reduce Nekosō's presence and only emphasized the contributions of Qing Deng and the others.

But this kind of thing simply cannot be hidden.

When the cat monk informed Qingdeng, there were many witnesses present, including the officials from the town's fire station.

When Cat Monk caught the two long-time fugitive rapists, Nightingale and several others witnessed the entire process, including the one who was almost attacked by the two wanted criminals.

Given the extremely weak municipal management and control capabilities of ancient society, especially in a place like Edo, where the magistrate's office could only barely maintain control of Edo with the assistance of "townspeople's self-governing organizations," it was simply impossible to control public opinion.

No matter how hard the authorities tried to control the spread of the news, the various deeds that Nekosō had done during this period still spread rapidly throughout the city.

Cat Monk's reputation, unsurprisingly, rose once again.

More and more people are praising this great thief: Cat Monk is truly a chivalrous and righteous thief, a great person! He is even better than the infamous Mouse Monk of yesteryear!

Mouse Monk – A notorious thief active in Edo 40 years ago.

Legend has it that the little rat monk's real name was "Jirokichi," and he was originally a construction worker who was responsible for high-altitude operations.

In his youth, he was kicked out of his home by his father for his gambling and dissolute lifestyle.

While venturing out into the world, he witnessed the suffering of humanity and was suddenly awakened to his true nature.

Having seen through the depravity of the powerful, Jirokichi, determined to do something practical for the oppressed poor, gave up his gambling addiction and began his "phantom thief career".

By day he's an ordinary construction worker, by night he's a master thief who manipulates the Edo Magistrate.

Using his skills in scaling walls and leaping across rooftops honed during his previous work, Jirokichi sneaks into the mansions of notorious samurai and merchants to steal money, which he then distributes to the poor.

Jirokichi, who robbed the rich to help the poor and upheld the code of honor among thieves, quickly became a chivalrous hero in the eyes of the common people and was very popular.

Because Jirokichi was elusive and moved without a trace, as stealthy as a mouse, he gradually earned the nickname "Little Mouse Monk".

It is said that the little monk Rat committed over a hundred thefts before his death, with a total amount involved reaching 12000 taels.

Unfortunately, even the most careful plans can go awry. During one of his thefts, the little monk made a mistake and was caught by the constables of the magistrate's office.

The rat-boy monk, who had stolen from hundreds of people and thoroughly offended some of the bloated, meat-loving men of Edo, was undoubtedly sentenced to death.

After the monk was beheaded and his head displayed to the public, many poor people who had received his kindness wept bitterly.

Even though more than 40 years have passed, many people still remember the little monk.

After the death of the Mouse Monk, many people in the arts and literature circles adapted the story of the Mouse Monk into storytelling or kabuki performances to commemorate this righteous man.

Thanks to the efforts of these people in the arts, the name of "Little Mouse Monk" has not faded with time, but has instead become increasingly radiant.

The Edo Magistrate's Office gave Neko-sō the code name "Neko-sō" because Neko-sō's ability to scale walls and his style of only targeting notorious villains were quite similar to that of the Rat-sō from back then. That's why they chose such a similar code name.

As Cat Monk's fame grew, more and more ridiculous rumors about him sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

According to incomplete statistics, the following are some of the new rumors that have recently emerged related to Maoxiaoseng:

Cat Monk is not actually a person; Cat Monk is actually an organization.

Cat Monk is actually a member of a ninja family.

Cat Monk is actually a member of a very prestigious samurai family.

Cat Monk is in charge of all the informants, and one of the officers in the bureau is Cat Monk's companion.

……

In short, these rumors are all fabricated and far-fetched fantasies of ordinary people, and have virtually no credibility or value.

Out of his past life's affection for the profession of "phantom thief," and also because Cat Monk had once helped him, Qing Deng has always been quite interested in the great phantom thief and has been paying attention to various news about Cat Monk recently.

However, recently, Qingdeng has gradually shifted its attention away from the news about Maoxiaoseng.

With the Aizu-no-Gi swordsmanship competition approaching, Aoto is now focusing all his energy on preparing for the competition.

……

……

On April 13th, 1860 (the first year of the Wanyan era), in the evening—

Edo, Gofuku Bridge, Hokuban-sho (Northern Frontier Office)

"Mr. Tachibana, we'll be going now!" Harada raised his hand and rubbed his stomach. "I've been busy all day, and I'm starving, hahaha."

"You didn't do any hard work today, did you? You just patrolled the area the whole time," Yongcang muttered to himself.

“I mediated a couple’s argument on the street today. This kind of work is quite tiring for someone like me who doesn’t like to use my brain…” Harada stretched out his right thumb and rubbed his temples vigorously, looking exhausted. “I could never do the kind of paperwork that Todo did today.”

Todo smiled helplessly: "Those paperwork tasks don't really require much brainpower..."

"If you're hungry, go and have some dinner," Qing Deng said with a smile. "Go back and get some rest. See you tomorrow."