I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

At this moment, his entire focus was on the battle ahead, and on Kiryu's slash that instantly killed Kamaitachi.

Kiryu seems to have gone easy on him.

His strike just now could have easily cleaved the Kamaitachi's entire body in two at an angle.

But he did not do that at all.

The cut, which went from the right thigh to the left shoulder, was horrifying, but it wasn't deep. It only cut through the skin and flesh, without damaging the bones or internal organs.

After crippling the Kamaitachi with a single strike, Kiryu abruptly released his left hand, which was holding the scabbard, and then used his free left hand to grab at the Kamaitachi's mouth with lightning speed.

Its right arm was severed, and most of its body was split open... The pain was beyond description, so intense that the Kamaitachi could no longer even scream, and its consciousness became fragmented.

However, upon seeing Kiryu's left hand reaching for his mouth, Kamaitachi's previously fragmented consciousness rapidly coalesced at this critical moment.

A fierce glint flashed in his eyes, followed by a movement of his mouth and throat.

*Pfft...!* Kiryu's left hand shoved most of its own into the Kamaitachi's mouth with a brutal motion. With a muffled thud as the mouth and teeth were struck, the hand that had been forcibly inserted into the Kamaitachi's mouth tore open both corners of its mouth, making the Kamaitachi's mouth physically larger.

Kiryu seemed to be looking for something in the Kamaitachi's mouth.

After inserting most of his left palm into the Kamaitachi's mouth, his fingers moved around, touching every corner of the Kamaitachi's mouth.

Judging from Kiryu's displeased expression afterwards... he probably didn't get what he wanted from Kamaitachi.

"Kamaitachi, you bunch of law-extermination party cadres, you're all quick to commit suicide..."

"..." Kamaitachi remained silent, only slightly raising the torn corners of his mouth, a hint of mockery appearing in his eyes as he met Kiryu's gaze.

then……

"Cough! Cough cough! Puff!! Puff cough cough cough cough—!"

Kamaitachi's eyes bulged forward as if they were about to pop out of their sockets, the whites of his eyes filled with dense red blood vessels. He coughed rapidly, as if he were about to cough up his lungs, and a large amount of blood gushed from his throat, staining half of Kiryu's left arm bright red.

When the Kamaitachi finally stopped coughing... he also stopped breathing.

In less than 10 seconds, the life force dissipated from the Kamaitachi's body.

His eyes rolled upwards with force, losing focus and luster, and his body, deprived of strength, slumped limply to the ground.

Kiryu did not help the Kamaitachi, who was falling to the ground.

He withdrew his left hand from the Kamaitachi's mouth and looked at the Kamaitachi lying in a pool of blood with a thoughtful expression.

A moment later, he forcefully shook the blood off the swords in his left and right hands, then gracefully twirled the sword with his right hand, changing his grip from upright to inverted, and slowly sheathed the purple-glowing sword.

Then, with his freed right hand, he pulled out the Soul-Stabilizing Spirit still embedded in the Kamaitachi's body, turned around, and gracefully walked towards Aoto and Kinoshita Mai, carrying the Soul-Stabilizing Spirit.

"Tachibana-kun, catch this knife."

Aoto mechanically accepted the spirit-controlling object handed to him by Kiryu.

Looking at Kiryu's old face, which was close at hand and had a faint smile on it, Aoto gradually felt that he had regained his correct perception of the outside world, and everything around him no longer felt distant or blurry.

However, although he has regained his awareness of the outside world, Qing Deng's mind is still in terrible chaos.

From the moment Kiryu suddenly appeared, a flood of questions overwhelmed Aoto's mind.

At this moment, Qingdeng's mind was still a mess. All sorts of things were spinning around like they were being churned in a washing machine, spinning so fast that he couldn't yet have a precise grasp of the current situation.

There were so many things he wanted to say to Kiryu, so many questions he wanted to ask Kiryu, that Aoto felt he didn't even know where to begin.

Kinoshita Mai, standing next to Aoto, also looked bewildered, with so many questions that she didn't know where to begin.

No one spoke... The atmosphere was so quiet that time seemed to stand still.

It wasn't until Kiryu had reached them that Kinoshita Mai finally made the frozen time start flowing again.

"Mr. Kiryu... what are you doing here?"

Kiryu did not immediately respond to Kinoshita Mai's comment.

Instead, he smiled faintly, then turned his gaze to look at Kinoshita Mai, and then at Aoto… His gaze lingered on Aoto for a little longer.

"Young Master, Tachibana-kun, I will explain to you slowly later."

"This is not a good time or place to talk."

Kiryu turned his head and glanced at the intersection to the west.

"The corrupt officials who were turned into thieves are here. If I stay here any longer and they find out, it will be difficult to explain myself."

Splash splash splash splash...

As soon as Kiryu finished speaking, a dense sound of footsteps and the clanging of muskets came from the western intersection.

Upon hearing these sounds, Kinoshita Mai's expression changed.

"Are you kidding me! They weren't there when we needed their help. Now that we don't need them anymore, they've suddenly appeared so promptly!"

Kinoshita Mai, who is usually very well-mannered, used a slightly vulgar tone at this moment, which was quite unusual.

It's no wonder that Kinoshita Mai was so emotional... If she weren't so exhausted that she didn't even have the strength to speak loudly, Aoto would probably have said something even more extreme.

Originally, when only he and Kinoshita Mai had successfully caught up with the most important person, Jinno, and everyone else had disappeared, Aoto had already harbored some resentment towards the seemingly inefficient thief, Hifumi.

Now, after they had fought tooth and nail, nearly killing themselves and Kinoshita Mai, these corrupt officials disguised as thieves hadn't even shown up. Now that the battle was over and the enemy had all been beheaded, these people finally arrived, belatedly...

Qing Deng had to take several deep breaths to calm his agitated emotions.

"Young Master, Tachibana-kun. I'll be taking my leave now."

Kiryu's voice came again.

He walked back to the weasel's corpse, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and also tucked the weasel's severed arm and his sword into his pocket.

"I must take the weasel's corpse with me."

"Young Master, Tachibana-kun, could you please keep the existence of Kamaitachi... this guy a secret?"

Kiryu shook the corpse of the Kamaitachi that he was carrying on his shoulder.

"Simply put, you are to keep it a secret from everyone that you fought this guy."

"I will find a time to explain to you slowly later."

Kiryu's tone was calm... but there was an undeniable seriousness in his voice.

Tonight I encountered far too many things that exceeded the limits of my brain's thinking and imagination... There are just too many things I can't understand.

It's best not to act or make decisions on your own when you don't know anything about the current situation.

Therefore, Qing Deng nodded after only a moment's thought. Kinoshita Mai nodded at almost the same time.

Seeing that the two nodded, Kiryu smiled slightly.

"See you later, Tachibana-kun."

After saying that, Kiryu carried the corpse of the Kamaitachi and quickly ran towards a dark alley not far away.

In just a few breaths, Kiryu's figure, along with his aura, vanished from Aoto's perception.

Before Kiryu completely disappeared from his sight, Aoto vaguely heard Kiryu mutter to himself in a low voice, sighing:

"What a pity... that Tatsugoro Kanno is already dead... otherwise I really wanted to take him back too and interrogate him to see what the relationship was between the Extermination Group and the Law Extermination Party..."

Aoto blinked a few times, looking blankly at the spot where Kiryu and Kamaitachi had just stood.

The Kamaitachi, who had just cornered him and Kinoshita Mai, was instantly killed by Kiryu, whom he knew well, and his body was taken away.

Kiryu suddenly appeared, and then quickly left without saying a word.

All of these events occurred within a span of less than five minutes...

The phrase "changing in an instant"... that's what it refers to, right?

Things were changing far too fast. The desperate situation turned into a life-or-death situation in a flash. If it weren't for the pain coming from all over his body being so real and intense, Qingdeng would have had to wonder, "Am I dreaming?"

"Did we survive...?"

Kinoshita Mai suddenly murmured something.

Her petite body seemed to suddenly lose its support, swaying slightly a few times, and she almost collapsed to the ground.

Fortunately, he managed to regain his balance just before his body hit the ground.

"We survived...!"

She repeated her earlier murmur, then raised her head and looked up at Qingdeng, who was much taller than her.

Sensing the gaze directed at him by Kinoshita Mai, Aoto lowered his chin and met her eyes.

The moment their eyes met, a cute dimple flashed on Kinoshita Mai's cheek.

Her radiant smile, tinged with a touch of shyness, revealed genuine and unpretentious emotions.

A thousand words were condensed into this smile.

This long night of continuous battles across Edo has finally come to an end... Thinking of this, and seeing the smile on Kinoshita Mai's face as she had accompanied him through thick and thin tonight without complaint, Aoto couldn't help but smile as well.

"Ah... I almost forgot..."

Just then, Qingdeng suddenly remembered—there was still one guy who hadn't been completely dealt with yet…

Aoto wiped the smile off his face, turned his head to look to his left and behind him, at the spot where Shinno had just fallen.

As soon as his gaze turned to them, Qingdeng's expression froze.

The ground where Jinno, a living person, should have been lying... is now just a pool of blood and a dense trail of blood stretching towards the distant alleyway.

"They still have the strength to escape..."

Seeing the trail of blood that was clearly left behind by Shinno when he fled, Aoto couldn't help but show a surprised expression.

After starting their deadly battle with Kamaitachi, neither Aoto nor Kinoshita Mai had the energy to spare to deal with Kanna.

Qing Deng was surprised that Jin Ye still had the strength to sneak away when no one was around to pay attention to him.

Jinno escaped... but Aoto felt no regret or anxiety whatsoever.

His chest was completely ripped open, he was bleeding profusely, and his lungs were ripped open... With injuries like that, he couldn't possibly escape far.

They wouldn't have survived.

……

……