I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

While wrestling with the dark figure, Qingdeng suddenly realized—this person…smells delicious…

As Qingdeng embraced this person, he noticed a faint fragrance emanating from them... The fragrance was so subtle that it was almost undetectable unless one was extremely close.

While smelling the pleasant fragrance... Qing Deng felt his right arm touch something... a strange thing.

Qingdeng's right arm was wrapped around the waist of the dark figure.

While fighting the shadowy figure, his right arm unconsciously rose slightly.

As I lifted my arm... I bumped into two things that had a very strange feel to them.

Heavy and soft...

"Ugh...!" The dark figure let out a low scream after Qing Deng's right arm touched the two lumps.

Immediately afterwards, the shadowy figure freed one hand and pulled down the mask covering his face.

"Tachibana-kun, it's me! It's me!"

"...Huh?"

A familiar voice.

Qingdeng paused as he tried to control the dark figure's hands, staring blankly at the person in his arms.

"Ms. Kinoshita...?"

"Why are you... wearing Cat Monk's clothes?"

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Chapter 131 Kinoshita Mai's Request: Fight the Man-Slaying Group Together [6200]

Qingdeng was now embracing the shadowy figure from behind, his chest pressed against the shadowy figure's back.

As the shadowy figure freed his hand to pull off his mask and looked up at Qingdeng, Qingdeng was the first to notice a pair of large, watery eyes.

Long, velvety eyelashes, and bright, clear black and white eyes.

Below those beautiful, large eyes is a delicate, arched nose, and full, rosy lips. I feel like you would feel wonderful touching them if you reached out and poked them. Her skin is so supple and fair...

This is a cute face that is quite familiar to Qingdeng.

Upon seeing that face, Aoto, momentarily stunned, involuntarily called out, "Kinoshita... Miss...?"

It's Kinoshita Mai.

The dark figure that suddenly fell from the ceiling and appeared behind Qing Deng was none other than Kinoshita Mai, whom he had just happened to meet on his way home yesterday.

Aoto was utterly astonished that "Ms. Kinoshita would be here at this time."

But then, less than two breaths later, Qingdeng's emotions were overwhelmed by a new shock.

Because the incident happened suddenly, and because he was startled by Kinoshita Mai's sudden appearance, Aoto was focused on "quickly subduing this uninvited guest" and didn't pay any attention to Kinoshita Mai's clothes.

Only now did Qing Deng finally realize that Kinoshita Mai in his arms was wearing a... rather extraordinary outfit.

She was dressed in slightly loose black clothes, with a black headscarf wrapped around her head. The veil that had been covering her face was now pulled up to her neck, and she wore black gloves and black tabi socks on her hands and feet.

Qingdeng... He had seen this outfit before, which only revealed a pair of eyes.

On the night the "milk" talent was copied.

On the night that the Foreign Affairs Bureau was attacked by the Expeditionary Force.

No matter how you look at it... it's the outfit of that phantom thief, Nekosō, who has been causing a huge uproar in Edo these past few months!

The only difference in her attire compared to before is that Kinoshita Mai is now carrying a small package on her back, the contents of which are unknown.

A massive amount of questions and information crashed into Qingdeng's brain like meteorites.

The brain was unable to process the overwhelming amount of information and fell into a state of near shutdown.

Looking at Kinoshita Mai in his arms, Aoto, whose brain had gone blank, couldn't bring himself to utter a single meaningful word.

After a long while, Qingdeng, whose soul was finally returning to his body, stammered out, "Why are you... wearing Cat Monk's clothes?"

At this moment, Kinoshita Mai, who was still looking up at Aoto, had an expression of grievance as if she had been wronged.

Her large, bright eyes were moist and shimmering with a soft, gentle gaze. She gently bit her lower lip with her pearly teeth, and a faint blush rose on her cheeks.

She opened her red lips, as if about to say something—

Thump, thump, thump, thump!

The corridor connecting the dojo and the Kondo family residence was now filled with extremely rapid footsteps.

Just from the sound, Qing Deng knew that it was probably his shout of "Who's there?" that had alerted Kondo and the others.

Kinoshita Mai, who was looking towards the corridor entrance along with Aoto, lowered her voice and said quickly with a worried expression:

"Tachibana-kun, come to the alley behind the ramen shop on the east side of Shieikan later. I'll be waiting for you there."

"Huh? Oh, oh." Qing Deng gradually suppressed his shock and calmed himself down.

Before figuring out exactly what happened, it was indeed inappropriate for Kondo and the others to see him hugging Kinoshita Mai, who was dressed as a cat-monk.

After nodding to Kinoshita Mai, Aoto quickly released Kinoshita Mai from his arms.

Kinoshita Mai, now free, crouched down and then leaped upwards—like a cat, she jumped back to the ceiling.

Back on the ceiling, she moved the shelf she had just moved back to its original position. Then, a rattling sound, like a mouse scurrying about, came from the ceiling, growing louder as it moved further away. Judging from the sound, Kinoshita Mai must have successfully escaped by climbing up the ceiling.

Not long after the crackling sound faded away, Kondo and his group's footsteps finally approached the entrance to the corridor.

"Tachibana-kun, what happened?" Kondo's loud shout immediately invigorated everyone present.

Qingdeng turned his head to look at the entrance of the corridor and saw that everyone had arrived.

The group, dressed in their pajamas and not having had time to change, were holding all sorts of weapons.

Kondo, Saito, and Shusuke stood solemnly, each carrying their swords.

Abi, on the other hand, carries a woman's naginata with an imposing air.

The naginata was the mainstream weapon on the battlefield from the Kamakura to the Muromachi period, but because its performance and cost were far inferior to the spear, its position on the battlefield was completely replaced by the spear after the Sengoku period.

By the Edo period, the naginata technique, which had become almost useless on the battlefield, had completely transformed into a self-defense technique for women of samurai families, and evolved into a variant of the naginata with a shorter hilt and a thinner blade: the woman's naginata.

All well-off samurai families that are strict about educating their offspring require their women to learn naginata techniques.

For example, Sanako—Kondo and the others once told Aoto that Sanako's naginata technique was just as exquisite as her kodachi technique. She was not only a kodachi master at the Chiba Kenkan, but also a naginata master.

Qing Deng had heard that Abi, who came from a very good family, had been practicing the naginata technique of the Katori Shinto school since childhood and was quite skilled.

Okita also carried a sword like Kondo and the others—but with his hair all messy from sleeping, he seemed a little sleepy.

With traces of drool still on the corners of his mouth, he walked with a zigzag gait, his gait unsteady and unsteady, as if he had no control over his body.

With a loud thud, his head slammed solidly into the door frame on one side of the corridor.

Although he was still in a dazed and confused state, he and Kondo rushed into the dojo without slowing down at all.

He raised his hand, rubbing his forehead where a red mark had appeared from the bump, and continued to hurry alongside Kondo and the others.

Kyubei also came, clutching his pillow tightly and following closely behind the others.

"Tachibana-kun, what's wrong?" Shusuke, who was the first to rush into the dojo, looked around solemnly. "We just heard you shouting 'Who's there?' Did some thief break into the Shieikan?"

"Uh..." Qing Deng twitched his lips almost imperceptibly a few times, then pondered for a moment how to fool Kondo and the others before a sudden idea struck him—

"Master, I'm sorry to have disturbed you."

Qingdeng chuckled a few times.

"No thief broke in; I was mistaken."

"I was stretching my muscles when I suddenly saw a dark shadow flash past the window."

Qing Deng gestured with his chin toward the window next to him.

"I thought it was some kind of thief, so I shouted 'Who's there?'"

"After running over and looking out the window, I realized I was wrong—it wasn't a thief, it was just... a very big black cat."

—I wasn't actually lying completely.

After speaking, Qingdeng silently added this sentence in his mind.

He was not lying.

From another perspective... he wasn't entirely lying just now.

He had indeed just encountered a "black cat".

"A cat?" Shusuke raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Yes." Qingdeng nodded firmly. "Yes, it's just a cat."

They stormed into the dojo with murderous intent, only to find that it was all a misunderstanding—Kondo and the others looked at each other blankly.

Kondo and the others asked Aoto some more questions, but Aoto refuted them all, insisting that "nothing happened, it was just a misunderstanding."

Seeing that nothing serious seemed to have happened, Kondo and the others had no choice but to disperse.

After watching Kondo and the others, who had finally managed to fool him, file out of the corridor, Aoto quietly revealed a relieved expression and let out a long breath.

Immediately afterwards, Qing Deng turned his head with a complicated expression and looked in the direction of the ramen shop to the east of the Shieikan...

……

……

Not far from the east side of the Shieikan is a ramen shop called "Niraku Ramen". Because it is very close to the Shieikan, Aoto would occasionally visit this ramen shop. So Aoto naturally remembered where Kinoshita Mai had told him about "the alley behind the ramen shop east of the Shieikan".