I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

During the Edo period, people commonly referred to brothels as "yūjo-ya" and prostitutes as "yūjo".

Yoshiwara was filled with brothels, and at its peak, Edo was said to have "three thousand brothels," but in reality, the number of brothels in Yoshiwara always exceeded three thousand.

Hijikata walked into Yoshiwara as if he were returning to his hometown, and went straight into a brothel owned by a courtesan...

A moment later, Hijikata sat cross-legged in one of the rooms of the pleasure house.

Whoosh—a young woman, no more than 20 years old, heavily made up and dressed in finery, opened the door.

"Mr. Hijikata!"

The first thing this woman did after pushing open the door was to shout Hijikata's name and rush into his arms.

"I miss you so much..."

"Oborozuki, I miss you so much too." Hijikata smiled and raised his hand, gently tidying up a stray strand of hair that had slipped from Oborozuki's temple.

……

"This is a cherry blossom that fell on my shoulder by chance when I went for a spring outing in Kanagawa yesterday."

……

"Although I'm currently too busy with work to take you to see the cherry blossoms, I promise you: before all the cherry blossoms fall this year, I will definitely take you to see that magnificent sea of ​​cherry blossoms!"

……

"I'll consider this cherry blossom, which I feel a special connection with, as a warm-up."

……

"After that, I'll take you to see a thousand, ten thousand, and many more beautiful cherry blossoms!"

……

“Oborozuki, I have something I’d like to ask you for help with. Our Shieikan recently hired two new diners, namely Nagakura Shinpachi and Harada Sanosuke, who shone brightly in the previous ‘Banshu Dispatch Incident’.”

……

After spending about an hour in Yoshiwara, Hijikata quickly left Yoshiwara while tidying his clothes, and rushed to the next place without taking any rest.

The new place that Hijikata rushed to was a settlement of Hatamoto samurai.

After arriving at the residence of a certain hatamoto samurai, Hijikata scanned the surroundings to make sure there were no outsiders nearby, and then nimbly and skillfully scaled the wall of the samurai's residence...

A moment later, strange noises came from the bedroom of the samurai's youngest daughter...

……

As dawn approached, Hijikata successfully delivered the nine cherry blossoms he had casually plucked from the cherry tree.

……

……

Nagakura and Harada didn't have much luggage, so after agreeing to join Shieikan as diners with Kondo, they moved into Shieikan overnight with their meager belongings, which could be obtained with just a furoshiki (a type of furoshiki).

After Nagakura and Harada moved into Shieikan, the Shieikan, which had become more populated, suddenly became much livelier.

Apart from Abi, who was still struggling with the issue of "not wanting to spend money to support two people who might not be able to help their sword-making school develop," the rest of the Shieikan members welcomed the addition of Nagakura and Harada.

Aoto was naturally pleased to see Nagakura and Harada move into the Shieikan.

After all, once Qingdeng started living and eating with the two of them, he no longer had to worry about them being late for work.

Following Saito, two more people accompanied Aoto on his commute between the Hokubansho and Shieikan.

The next morning, Qingdeng led his much larger "attendance team" to the Beifan Office in a majestic manner.

Today was another very peaceful and calm day.

Nothing major happened, and there were no troublesome official matters.

In this tranquil scene, the quietly flowing time slowly transformed the morning glow in the sky into the sunset.

As the golden glow of the sunset painted the ground with the colors of the setting sun, Aoto said "See you tomorrow" to Toudou, who had not chosen to stay at the Shieikan, and then led Saito, Nagakura, and Harada on their way back to the Shieikan.

As soon as he stepped out of the gate of the Northern Garrison, the slightly sultry twilight that hit him made Qing Deng lower his eyelids and use his long eyelashes to filter the slightly glaring light.

After a few breaths, once his eyes had adjusted to the light, Qingdeng lifted his eyelids.

"Hmm?" As soon as his vision returned to normal with the opening of his eyelids, Qingdeng saw a familiar figure outside the gate of the Northern Barbarians' Office.

Upon seeing this familiar figure, Qingdeng couldn't help but pause slightly and let out a surprised "hmm".

The figure that Qing Deng was quite familiar with was none other than Kinoshita Mai.

As always, Kinoshita Mai, dressed in a bright red kimono and red-buttoned flat wooden clogs, sat on a stone step outside the gate of the Hokubansho (Northern Frontier Office).

Judging from Kinoshita Mai's current behavior, it's not hard to see that she must be very bored right now.

Because of the warmer weather, she wasn't wearing socks on her fair feet.

She used her right big toe and second toe to grip the red button on her wooden clog, lifted it up, and wobbled it...

She just hung her head, listlessly watching the wooden clogs swaying in mid-air as she toyed with them.

At that moment, she caught a glimpse of Qing Deng coming out of the Northern Barbarians' quarters out of the corner of her eye.

Then, she jumped up from the stone steps with a joyful expression, slipped on her wooden clogs, and quickly walked towards Qing Deng: "Ju-kun!"

Kinoshita Mai greeted Aoto with a smile and a cheerful tone.

But when her gaze fell upon Saito, Nagakura, and Todo, who were standing behind Aoto, she reverted to her shy and timid nature. Her face flushed red, and she greeted the three of them in a voice barely audible.

"Hello, Ms. Kinoshita." Aoto greeted Kinoshita Mai with a warm smile.

Qingdeng and his group are still standing outside the gate of the Northern Barbarians' Office.

Chatting here would easily obstruct others' entry and exit from the North Frontier Office, so Qing Deng cut to the chase and directly asked Kinoshita Mai with a question:

"Ms. Kinoshita, what are you doing here?"

"I've been waiting for you here."

Upon hearing Aoto's voice, Kinoshita Mai quickly snapped out of her shy demeanor, smiling as she placed her interlaced hands in front of her.

"Tachibana-kun, Kiryu-san needs to see you. He wants you to go to the Senjiya by yourself right now."

"Kiryu-sensei?" Aoto raised an eyebrow sharply.

"Mmm." Kinoshita Mai nodded her little head vigorously.

—Should I go to the Senjiya by myself right now?

Qing Deng frowned in confusion.

"Ms. Kinoshita, did Mr. Kiryu tell you what it was about?"

"He didn't say."

“…I understand.” Qingdeng nodded solemnly. “I’ll go now.”

Since he was being asked to go to the Senjiya right now... it must be something serious, right? With that thought in mind, Aoto turned his gaze and let Saito, Nagakura, and Harada go ahead first.

Nagakura, this straightforward and simple-minded man, and Harada, this brainless and silly man, nodded without hesitation, indicating "understanding."

Saito, a reliable man of few words but ruthless actions, countered with a question: "Don't you need my escort and protection?"

Because Mr. Kiryu had clearly stated that Aoto should go to the Senjiya alone, Aoto declined Saito's suggestion to be his bodyguard and told Saito to go back to the kendo hall directly with Nagakura and Harada without worrying about him.

Since the employer had made this request, Saito had no choice but to comply.

After watching Saito and the other two leave, Aoto said to Kinoshita Mai seriously, "Ms. Kinoshita, let's go."

It's currently rush hour, and the number of people on the streets has increased significantly.

As they walked side by side, Aoto and Kinoshita Mai carefully dodged the dense crowds and streams of people, heading towards the Senjiya.

Wearing red-buttoned wooden clogs, Kinoshita Mai followed closely to Aoto's left and right, constantly raising her eyes to secretly observe Aoto beside her.

After stealing glances at Qing Deng more than a dozen times, Kinoshita Mai finally seemed to have mustered up her courage, took a deep breath, and spoke:

"Orange-kun".

Qingdeng: "Hmm?"

"I've already heard about it." Kinoshita Mai tilted her head up and smiled at Aoto. "You won the swordsmanship competition the day before yesterday! Congratulations!"

"Ah, thank you." Qingdeng quickly smiled modestly.

"Tachibana-kun, you're amazing! I heard there were many top players participating in this tournament, and you still managed to win." As she said this, a hint of regret crossed Kinoshita Mai's beautiful brows. "What a pity... I wish I could have seen this tournament too..."

Aoto raised an eyebrow: "Hmm? Doesn't Boss Kiryu allow you to come watch the game?"

“Yes.” Kinoshita Mai pouted slightly, a visible look of displeasure appearing on her face. “Mr. Kiryu happened to be out on business the day before yesterday and the day before that, so he needed me to stay and watch the shop and the house, and therefore wouldn’t allow me to take leave…”

"I see..." Qing Deng smiled helplessly, "That is indeed a pity..."

Kinoshita Mai parted her red lips slightly, letting out a helpless sigh before a smile returned to her face:

"Forget it, it's all in the past anyway, let's not talk about it anymore."

"Did you encounter any particularly difficult opponents in this tournament?" Kinoshita Mai pressed Aoto on the topic of the "swordsmanship tournament."

"Hmm... my opponent in the finals did give me some trouble."

To all the questions asked by Kinoshita Mai, Aoto adopted an attitude of "answering everything he knows without reservation".

After chatting idly about the "swordsmanship tournament" for a while, Qing Deng and Kinoshita Mai unknowingly turned into a quiet street with few people and a rather deserted atmosphere.

Kinoshita Mai turned her gaze, scanned the sparse crowd around her, and suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Caught off guard by Kinoshita Mai's sudden stop, Aoto took two steps forward out of habit before quickly stopping as well. "Ms. Kinoshita, what's wrong? Why did you stop so suddenly?"

"...Tachibana-kun, I'm sorry." Kinoshita Mai smiled apologetically at Aoto. "I was actually lying to you...Kiryu-san didn't want to see you."

"Huh?" Qing Deng couldn't help but be taken aback.

Kinoshita Mai promptly offered an explanation, delivered in a helpless tone:

"I lied to you to get Saito and the others away."

"If we don't find a way to get them away, we can't talk about serious business at all."

Having said that, Kinoshita Mai took two steps forward, standing in front of Aoto. Then, she tiptoed, bringing her red lips as close as possible to Aoto's ear, and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"Tachibana-kun, are you free tonight?"