I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

"It was a very large teahouse, with at least three floors."

"Entering and leaving this abandoned teahouse in the middle of the night... I found it quite suspicious, so I tried to sneak into the teahouse."

"As a result, my infiltration failed—the teahouse was guarded by an unbelievable number of people."

"The windows of the three-story teahouse were tightly closed, except for a long-neglected hole in the roof. After entering the teahouse through this hole, I found a large number of samurai guarding the staircase connecting the second and third floors."

"Because there were so many guards, I couldn't even get close, so I had to retreat temporarily yesterday."

"A deserted teahouse, yet so many samurai are guarding it... I strongly suspect that this teahouse is a stronghold of some anti-foreign faction."

“…Hmm.” Aoto, who had been listening attentively to Kinoshita Mai’s story, nodded slightly. “This teahouse…is indeed very suspicious…”

"So, Tachibana-kun, I would like to ask you to come with me to investigate that teahouse." Kinoshita Mai said seriously, "The reason I was trapped on the third floor last night and couldn't even get close to the stairs leading to the second floor was because there were too many guards in the teahouse. Even if I wanted to knock them all out, I was too weak to fight against so many samurai by myself."

"But with your help, the situation will be different."

"With your help, the two of us can try to defeat all those guards!"

"Once those troublesome guards are gone, it will be easy to sneak into the second and first floors of the teahouse and find out what's going on here!"

As soon as Kinoshita Mai finished speaking, Aoto couldn't help but twitch his lips, then muttered with a strange expression:

"Kill all the guards... that's no longer considered infiltration, is it?"

“One of my elders once taught me—” Kinoshita Mai’s face, hidden beneath a black mask, revealed a smiling expression, “as long as you don’t let anyone discover you, that’s the perfect infiltration. And there are many ways to do that.”

"Your elder's thinking is quite advanced..." Qing Deng chuckled.

Kinoshita Mai's words about the elder reminded Qing Deng of a famous internet saying from his past life: "As long as you kill all the enemies, it's a perfect infiltration."

Qing Deng composed himself and began to carefully consider the new request that Kinoshita Mai had just made.

After thinking for less than three seconds, Qing Deng nodded slightly to Kinoshita Mai:

“I understand. Let’s go and see what’s going on with that teahouse.”

Kinoshita Mai seemed surprised by Aoto's quick response. She paused for a moment, then her expression quickly turned to one of elation.

Qing Deng pulled down the black fox mask that was pinned to his head to cover his face, and then he and Kinoshita Mai took advantage of the darkness to leave the alley one after the other.

Tonight is a moonless, overcast night, so leaving the dark alley is just moving from one darkness to another.

Just as they emerged from the dark alley, Kinoshita Mai, who was walking ahead, suddenly turned around and smiled at Aoto:

"...Tachibana-kun, thank you."

"Huh? What are you thanking me for?"

"Thank you for helping me." Kinoshita Mai's eyes crinkled into beautiful crescent moons with her smile.

Qingdeng smiled calmly: "So that's what you're thanking me for... No need for all these thanks."

"I promised you—if you ever encounter any situation where you need my help, I will do my best to provide assistance."

"I was just keeping my promise to you."

"and……"

Qing Deng changed the subject, his eyes slowly hardening.

“The teahouse you stumbled upon is very likely a stronghold of the ‘radical anti-foreign faction’… Since this is an event related to the ‘radical anti-foreign faction’, I can’t stand idly by.”

For some reason, Aoto felt a sense of unease about Kinoshita Mai.

Therefore, when Aoto solemnly nodded to Kinoshita Mai on the night he learned that she was Nekosō, and she asked him, "If I encounter an incident in the future that requires your assistance, would you be willing to help me again?", it was not a spur-of-the-moment gesture.

He was genuinely willing to offer all the help he could to this 15-year-old girl with a strong sense of justice.

Moreover, as Qing Deng just said... even without mentioning his agreement with Kinoshita Mai, the mere fact that "that teahouse might be related to the radical anti-foreign faction" is enough to make it difficult for Qing Deng to ignore Kinoshita Mai's request for assistance.

To eradicate the anti-foreign group completely—this is Qing Deng's strongest and most urgent desire right now.

It is no exaggeration to say that as long as the Extermination Group is not completely eradicated, Qingdeng will never be able to achieve complete stability.

Before Qing Deng offended the Anti-Foreign Group, he was already being targeted by them because of the absurd reason that he had "worked at the American Embassy for some time".

Subsequently, the various clashes with the Extermination Group led to an irreconcilable feud between Qingdeng and the Extermination Group.

These lunatics dared to burn down even the castles of Edo in order to achieve their goals. What else wouldn't they dare to do?

Based on Kinoshita Mai's various descriptions, that teahouse was most likely used as a base for activities by those "radical anti-foreigners" who always liked to cause trouble.

The samurai who occupied this teahouse might be members of the Exile Group—even if it's just for this possibility, Aoto, who just wants to get rid of the Exile Group as soon as possible, has to accompany Kinoshita Mai no matter what.

Kinoshita Mai heard it, but she ignored Aoto's words, "Since it's an incident related to the 'radical anti-foreign faction,' then I can't stand idly by..." Her mind and attention were entirely focused on Aoto's words, "I was just fulfilling my promise to you."

Kinoshita Mai's gaze froze for a moment, then she quickly turned her gaze back to the front, while raising the black face mask higher, all the way up to her eyelids, tightly covering her slightly flushed cheeks with the mask.

The cloudy, overcast skies with little moonlight tonight actually made things much easier for Aoto and Kinoshita Mai.

The two moved swiftly through the shadows of houses and streets, like hopscotch.

At that moment, the two suddenly saw two figures standing close together and swaying at the street corner they had to cross ahead.

Having already donned "phantom thief outfits," Aoto and Kinoshita Mai are now known as the famous "phantom thief duo" of Edo: Neko-sō and Kō-sō, so it's best to avoid letting anyone discover their presence or whereabouts.

The two of them, quite in sync, headed in the same direction: to the left, to a narrow path between two rows of houses, where there were no eaves to shield them from view.

Their black attire blended perfectly into the open street.

Just as Aoto and Kinoshita Mai hid, two swaying figures appeared at the intersection—two young people who should not even be 20 years old.

The two young men, arm in arm, had a flushed face that even the darkness couldn't hide. Even from a distance, the smell of alcohol emanating from them reached the noses of Aoto and Kinoshita Mai.

The weather is gradually warming up, so the two young people, who were so drunk they could barely walk, were only wearing loose-fitting kimonos.

Because their clothes weren't even properly pulled up, it was quite clear that both of them had large tattoos covering their entire upper bodies.

Aoto and Kinoshita Mai both frowned – with such large tattoos on their bodies… their identities were already self-evident.

After waiting quietly for the two drunken Yakuza to walk away, Qing Deng glanced in the direction they had left, and suddenly recalled the incident that had happened that evening: "the Shimizu clan forgave the Tachibana family's debts."

"...Ms. Kinoshita, have you ever tried to take action against the Shimizu clan or steal their money before?"

"Hmm." Kinoshita Mai blinked at Aoto in confusion. "Why are you suddenly asking this?"

Qingdeng was silent for a moment, then answered softly, "It's nothing... I just asked on a whim."

Since this wasn't something that needed to be hidden from anyone, after thinking for a while, Qing Deng decided to simply tell Kinoshita Mai everything that had happened that evening.

Upon hearing that Qing Deng had encountered such a thing today, Kinoshita Mai's beautiful eyes widened in surprise, then her face hardened, and she said seriously:

"Tachibana-kun, you should pay more attention to that 'Shimizu Clan' from now on... They're trying to curry favor with you, most likely they're trying to win you over."

“Hmm.” Qingdeng nodded. “I know. They probably have no other reason to forgive our family’s debts except to win me over.”

Seeing that Aoto was aware of this, Kinoshita Mai nodded slightly, then lowered her head slightly, gently chewing on the name "Shimizu Clan".

"...I had planned to take down this infamous Yakuza group a long time ago."

"However……"

A bitter smile appeared on Kinoshita Mai's face.

"The 'Shimizu Clan's' reputation as the 'Number One Yakuza Group in Edo'... is certainly well-deserved."

"Not to mention their main branch, even each of their branches has a large number of guards, and each guard is a samurai with a sword at his waist."

"It's no exaggeration to say that the main branch and every branch of the 'Qingshui Clan' are all impregnable fortresses. You can't even get close to them, let alone sneak in to steal their money."

"I've tried to steal from the 'Shimizu Clan' several times now, but each time I've failed to find an opportunity to infiltrate their territory and have had to return empty-handed..."

As soon as Kinoshita Mai finished speaking, Aoto silently thought to himself:

—So we returned empty-handed... I think so too.

Aoto wasn't surprised by Kinoshita Mai's answer.

As a member of the "Three Returns," he knew better than the average person the extent of the "Qingshui Clan's" power.

The Yakuza of this era are completely incomparable to the extremists of today.

To put it simply—the Yakuza of this era could rightfully question modern-day gangsters: You bunch of vermin dare to call yourselves "violent groups"? It's laughable!

For criminal gangs like the Yakuza, the lack of social order is the breeding ground for their survival.

In the early Edo period, when the Edo shogunate was still powerful and able to effectively maintain social order, the Yakuza could only struggle to survive.

However, as the rule of the Edo Shogunate became increasingly corrupt, and the small-scale peasant economy, which was the foundation of the country, gradually collapsed under the general trend of history, the Yakuza immediately sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

One of the major factors that led to the rapid growth of the Yakuza was the increasing number of desperate warriors joining them.

Due to the flaws and rigidity of the system, as early as a hundred years ago, a large number of lower and middle-ranking samurai were already impoverished and had great difficulty even making ends meet.

As a result, many warriors who had "mastered both literary and martial arts but could not offer their skills to the imperial family" had no choice but to turn to the Yakuza in order to survive.

Whether or not a group contains cultured individuals with higher education makes a world of difference.

With the addition of more warriors, the Yakuza began to grow and expand in an orderly and organized manner.

Therefore, the Yakuza of the Edo period cannot be simply regarded as a bunch of annoying scoundrels—many of them were samurai with the right to carry swords and who had learned swordsmanship, a killing skill, from a young age!

The sheer abundance of martial virtue is incomparable to that of modern so-called yakuza figures who were generally ordinary people before joining the yakuza and couldn't even openly carry a knife around.

Because those Yakuza groups with considerable power generally possessed considerable military strength, there was a common saying in Edo that if the Shimizu clan wanted to massacre the two major magistrate offices in Edo, the South and North, they could wipe out every single person in both offices within an hour.

As a member of the "Three Rounds" and an insider, Qing Deng can say with certainty that this statement is not entirely empty boasting...

The claim that the Shimizu clan could wipe out two major magistrate offices in an hour might be an exaggeration, but there is no doubt that the Shimizu clan possessed extremely powerful military force that prevented the magistrate offices from taking any action against them.

Any Yakuza group that grows to a certain size and wants to expand further needs to find someone in the political arena who can protect them and provide mutual benefit.

The Shimizu clan, known as the "first Yakuza group in Edo," was no exception.

Everyone knows that the "Shimizu Clan" engages in all sorts of evil deeds, including loan sharking, smuggling, extortion, kidnapping and human trafficking. But because they have connections, the magistrate's office has been powerless against them.

Every time they encountered a case related to the "Shimizu Clan," they would face numerous obstacles from both their superiors and subordinates, making it impossible to investigate the case, which would ultimately come to nothing.

The magistrate's office was not only unable to punish the "Shimizu clan," but it also struggled to gather intelligence on them.

To date, the magistrate has had a severe lack of information regarding the "Shimizu clan".

We know absolutely nothing about how many people they have now, how many warriors they have, who their officers are, how far their influence has expanded, or whether they have stockpiled heavy weapons like muskets and cannons!

The only two things that are confirmed are the locations of their headquarters and several important branches, and their unfathomable and formidable military strength...

It's no surprise that Kinoshita Mai felt helpless against the Shimizu clan, given their power and strength.