I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

On his way to the meeting place agreed upon with Aoto and Souji: the east entrance of Ryogoku Bridge, he unexpectedly encountered Hijikata, who had just finished chatting up a girl and was looking for the "main group".

And so, through a series of efforts and coincidences, everyone finally managed to gather together.

"How much longer until the fireworks display ends?" Harada asked.

"About 1 or 2 minutes left," Inoue replied.

"Oh! What? There's still plenty of time. We have plenty of time to enjoy the fireworks."

“That’s true,” Kondo chimed in, “but let’s pick up the pace a bit. Tachibana-kun and Souji must be getting impatient waiting for us.”

Led by Kondo, the group quickened their pace, hurrying to the fireworks display site.

However, at that moment, they suddenly heard a great uproar ahead.

A large number of tourists rushed toward Kondo and his group in a panic, then fled in the opposite direction.

Accompanying the noisy footsteps were bursts of screams and wails.

"Aaaaaaah!"

“快！快逃啊！”

"Don't push! Don't push! Everyone, please follow my instructions! Please escape in this direction!"

……

"Hey, hey, hey... what's going on?" Toudou stared dumbfounded at the crowd scattering and running around him.

Saito sniffed hard, then his face darkened, and his left hand instinctively went to the sword at his right waist: "There's the smell of blood...!"

"Blood?" Harada was taken aback. "Are these anti-foreign patriots killing people indiscriminately again? Are you kidding me? Killing people at a fireworks festival?"

"Who knows...! Hey! Uncle!" Nagakura grabbed a middle-aged man who was passing by him. "What happened up ahead?"

The middle-aged man, who was suddenly pulled back and prevented from escaping, looked displeased.

But upon seeing Nagakura's muscular physique, fierce expression, sword at his waist, and the large group of samurai beside him, the middle-aged man's facial features softened instantly.

"Sir, stop! There's a lunatic ahead, wearing armor and wielding a large spear, killing people indiscriminately! Many have already died! Run! In this situation... we can only wait for the fire-wielding bandits to arrive and put up a fight!"

"A madman wearing armor and wielding a large spear?" Nagakura's eyes widened.

"Aa ...

A girl's scream, like a sharp arrow, came from the front and pierced everyone's eardrums.

"Looks like we won't be able to see the fireworks display tonight..." Before Kondo could even finish his muttering, he had already started moving—he gripped the sword at his waist, lowered his center of gravity, and charged straight forward.

After a moment of stunned silence, the others quickly followed.

They passed by countless tourists and houses on both sides of the street until they turned a corner and saw a hellish scene.

Corpses... a large number of corpses.

A rough count revealed that there were more than twenty corpses scattered throughout the street.

The corpses included men and women, the old and the young, some dressed as local officials, others as ordinary civilians...

Although the victims varied in gender and identity, they had one thing in common: almost none of their bodies were intact.

Perhaps the body has been pierced with a hole the size of a cup, or a limb has been lost, or it has become fragmented, with the upper or lower body nowhere to be found...

Blood flowed so fast it could float pestles, and the corpses were measured in water.

A ronin, clad in armor splattered with blood and bodily fluids and carrying a large spear dripping blood, swaggered toward a frail little girl huddled in a corner of an abandoned open-air tea stall, her face streaked with tears and trembling.

The screams that Kondo and the others had just heard came from this little girl.

"Traitor!" Having moved to a point where his spear could strike the little girl, the ronin raised his large spear high above his head. "Prepare to die!"

"Aaaaaaah!" The girl closed her eyes tightly and raised her hands to cover her face.

"Damn it! Stop!" Kondo roared, drawing his sword and charging at the ronin.

Although Kondo reacted the fastest and made the first move, someone else arrived first, moving so fast that only a blur remained of a shadow as he swept past Kondo and reached the ronin first.

Heisuke Todo was the one who led from the front!

The talent of being "first to charge" makes Todo's running speed far beyond that of ordinary people.

There is absolutely no need to show mercy to such a madman who disregards human life.

With a shout of "Haaaaaah!", Toudou mustered all his strength and slashed down with the sword he had been holding in a mid-stance stance!

The place he was aiming at was the ronin's head.

However, the ronin was simply too tall... The ronin possessed an astonishing 1.9 meters tall stature for this era.

Asking Toudou, who is only a little over 1.5 meters tall, to chop off the head of a tall guy who is 1.9 meters tall... is a bit too much to ask.

Therefore, Todo had to lower his attack height and instead cut off the ronin's right arm.

A sudden, bright white blade appeared, causing the ronin's pupils to contract sharply in surprise.

The next moment, the ronin displayed a set of movements that showed the style of a martial arts master and a veteran of many battles.

He swiftly released his right hand and used his armored right arm to meet the blade that had not yet reached its maximum speed.

clang!

The blade clashed with the arm armor.

The blade, unable to penetrate the defense, left only a white mark on the armor plate.

At that moment, Kondo and his men arrived.

Kondo, Hijikata, Saito, and Nagakura surrounded the ronin from four different directions.

Four gleaming blades illuminated the ronin's face.

The ronin glanced around at the positions of Kondo and the others. Instead of fighting head-on, he used his right arm to deflect Todo's sword and then retreated several steps using his superb footwork.

Despite his enormous size and heavy armor, this person was surprisingly agile and nimble in his movements.

"Girl, run!" Inoue stood in front of the girl who had just been killed, holding her behind him, and shouted at her without turning his head.

At the same time, Harada urged and protected the people who were still lingering nearby to evacuate quickly.

Although the girl survived the ordeal, she was so frightened that she lost two of her three souls and only one of her seven spirits remained.

With a dazed expression, she didn't even have time to say "thank you" or retrieve the wooden clogs she had accidentally dropped. She scrambled and rolled away in a panic, fleeing into the distance.

"So many traitors have arrived again..."

The ronin glanced at Kondo and the others who surrounded him in a fan-shaped formation, and grinned.

"Alright! Then I'll have a good slaughter today!"

Having said that, the ronin lowered his center of gravity, spread his legs with his left foot forward and his right foot back, and held his large spear in front of him with the tip pointing diagonally to the sky.

"I am Tada Kōemon, a descendant of Tada Mitsunori, one of the 'Twenty-Four Generals of Takeda'! Traitors! I see you do have some skill! State your names!"

"What traitor!!" Hijikata sneered. "Looks like you really are a deranged madman! A madman like you doesn't deserve to know our names..."

“No outflow, Saito Hajime.”

"Hey! Saito! Don't be so obedient!" Hijikata yelled in frustration.

Apart from Saito Masaru honestly introducing himself, the others ignored Tada Kōemon.

"Hmph! You don't want to say your name... Fine!"

Tada Kōemon narrowed his bloodshot eyes and exhaled a breath of stale air.

"You samurai, instead of serving your country, follow traitors like Ōshio Heihachirō and instigate a rebellion! You have incited peasants to attack the shogunate, causing Osaka to fall into its current miserable state. Your crimes are truly unforgivable!"

Upon hearing Tada Kōemon's words... or more precisely, upon hearing the name "Ōshio Heihachirō," Kondo and his group's expressions changed.

Ōshio Heihachirō... This name is known to everyone.

It is both a belief for some and a taboo for others!

Just as everyone was shocked that Tada Kōemon had suddenly uttered the name of this extraordinary person, Tada Kōemon suddenly shouted.

"Drink up! Traitors! Prepare to die!"

The grown-up spearhead, like a venomous snake emerging from its hole, bit at Kondo, who was standing directly in front of it.

……

……

"Cough cough... No, it's nothing."

The commander cleared his throat forcefully and patted his chest.

"I just accidentally choked on some saliva."

Upon hearing what the commander said, Qing Deng immediately showed a relieved expression.

"So you just choked on your own saliva... Honestly, seeing you coughing so badly, I thought something was wrong with you."

"Haha, sorry, sorry." Souji reached up and smoothed the ponytail at the back of her head. "I made you worry."

The commander's cough had a surprising, unexpected effect.

Her sudden, violent cough caused Kinoshita Mai and Sanako to cast worried glances at her, forgetting their murderous glares at Aoto, and the tense atmosphere eased once again.

Since the commander-in-chief was alright, Qing Deng was relieved—he was able to refocus his attention on how to resolve the current crisis.

Souji's intervention, while providing him with significant help and visibly improving the mood of the two women, especially Kinoshita Mai, and salvaging Ban Aoto's image in their eyes, was ultimately only a temporary solution.

He has to rely on himself to get through the current crisis.

His mind started racing again, trying to figure out how to explain to Mai and Zuo his behavior of "making ambiguous advances towards two girls at the same time".

However… the gears in Qing Deng's head finally started to move—

"Hey! Everyone listen up! Evacuate in this direction immediately!"

A loud, anxious shout drowned out the sound of fireworks and interrupted his thoughts.

Qingdeng and the others who heard the shouts all looked in the direction of the sound—and saw several local officials carrying long sticks, shouting in panic.

"A dangerous madman has appeared in Itamachi 2-chome! Everyone get out of here immediately! Don't linger here any longer!"

The officials' shouting drew displeasure from many people.