Fujita Goro bowed his waist slightly, and his left hand tightened the handle of the sword hanging from his right waist.

During the years of exile, his original shining saber "Ikeda Kijinmaru Kunishige", which was shining in the Shinsengumi era, had long since been lost, or rather, confiscated.

The current one was received from the Metropolitan Police Department when he returned to Edo to become a policeman under the new government, showing his talent in swordsmanship. As a common citizen, the ban on carrying swords was decreed as early as the third year of the Meiji era, and the order forbidding samurai to carry swords was issued and enforced almost a year ago.

In this environment, Goro Fujita, as a police officer, is very glad that he still belongs to the class that can carry a sword. Although it was no longer the time when the sword could dominate, he still stubbornly trusted the saber at his waist.

He was alone, and he didn't know what happened to his fellow Shinsengumi back then, or where the survivors were. Most of them, like him, changed their names and made a living under the new government.

He lived hard in this world that had been turned upside down, he was badly wounded on the battlefield, he was tortured even more under the battlefield, and even the most difficult years were stubbornly passed, like a famous knife that was difficult to break.

This is because there is still a burning faith in his breast.

It's like when the Shinsengumi was in a good old age.

In the streets of the capital in the middle of the night, murderers come and go without a trace, murderous and bloodthirsty

It's the same as when I was in Kyoto.

At that time, he and his companions were chasing down monsters created by the shogunate called Rakshasa in the streets of Kyoto.

Then, together with the deputy chief and the director-general, he picked up a girl in men's clothes on the street late at night.

Chizuru Yukimura.

Her father was the one who created these monsters, but she stood firmly with them.

Later, everyone left. Chizuru left, the Director-General left, and the Director left

And then again

He himself left.

In the middle of the night in Aizu, I was separated from my companions. I agreed to fight seriously to survive, and then I went back to find everyone.

Go back to her

He kept his promise. He survived. In the final battle of Aizu, a battle so brutal that almost no one could be spared, he was mortally wounded and collapsed on the side of the road, but he eventually survived the care of his other surviving comrades.

But since then, he has not heard from her.

He heard about the results of the Battle of Hakodate, and heard the news that the Shinsengumi had to surrender all of them after the death battle at Bentendaiba. He even heard the news of the heroic death of the deputy commander in the final battle.

Only, I didn't hear anything from her.

Even after returning to Edo, which is now Tokyo, he searched the list of all the members of the Shinsengumi who had submitted in Bentendaiba through various connections and channels, and saw many names he was familiar with, such as Soma and Shimada Kei

The only thing is that there is no "Kiyohara Yukiya", the acting leader of the former Shinsengumi Ichiban Group.

From the beginning, the Shinsengumi didn't have that name in the submission sequence of Bentendaiba. It's not because she died in battle, but because she didn't go to Bentendaiba to participate in the battle at all.

So, where did she go in that extremely tragic battle, did she actually die halfway before she could get to Ezo?

He had no answer to that question at all.

Now that the new government had just begun to grant amnesty to former Shinsengumi members for "crimes committed during the Boshin War", it was impossible for him to find many of his former Shinsengumi companions to inquire about her and when she had disappeared from the Shinsengumi sequence

Everyone, even if they survived, is now incognito.

It doesn't matter, he has patience.

It's as if a long, long time ago, when the Shinsengumi went out to battle Kujo Kawara in the Forbidden Gate Change, there was no order for the next step, and there was no clear direction, so he silently held his sword and sat in the night, waiting for the moment when the dawn came, the morning sun broke through the clouds, bringing them a new day and a new direction to fight.

It was as if a long, long time ago, after the fierce battle on the oil road, Satsuma's almost endless reinforcements and the unfathomable strength of the oni clan finally retreated, he and she sat at the door of the house on the side of the road, looking up at the unexpectedly bright moon in the night sky, she listened to his forced past, smiled and touched his head, and then said to him that the moonlight tonight is so beautiful.

Fujita Goro's gaze drifted slightly for a moment.

He glanced at the bright full moon hanging in the sky, and then turned his gaze back to the strange boy standing on the eaves in front of him.

The teenager's intentions are unknown.

That guy was obviously able to shake off his pursuit, but he wanted to stop and provoke him. Moreover, he also broke down what kind of special move he was going to use in one bite, although it was indeed possible to use a more special stance if he used the Iai slash, but he didn't believe that the boy could still see his attack posture clearly when he was facing away from him.

Moreover, this clear juvenile voice seems to be familiar where I have heard a similar voice?

Fujita Gorou thought hard as he lowered his body vigilantly, staring at the young man on the eaves without a trace of relaxation.

Seeing that he didn't answer his words, but exuded a deeper chill and murderous aura from his body, the young man couldn't help but smile softly.

In the next second, the boy unexpectedly jumped off the eaves

Fujita Goro's eyes widened for a moment, and then he lowered his eyebrows, his body not moving. After the boy jumped off the eaves and landed lightly, he didn't attack with a Iai slash first.

Maybe it's because the boy chose the landing position quite well, just a little outside of his attack range.

The young man landed lightly, flipped his wrist suddenly, and set up the unsheathed knife in his hand.

He still stood with his backlit, most of his face hidden in the shadows of the night, revealing only half of his rounded chin and the corners of one of his lips. He seemed to look at Goro Fujita, who was silent, but as if his whole person had been turned into a sharp blade, and then, the corners of his lips hooked slightly, and he smiled.

"Hey. Unexpectedly, he suddenly called out to the dangerous opponent in front of him in a tone that was almost rude.

Fujita Goro stared at him cautiously and did not respond.

The boy didn't seem to care too much about whether he answered or not, and the smile deepened a little.

"Don't you think?"

He slowly drowned out his voice.

"The moonlight tonight is so beautiful"

Goro Fujita

The shock that crossed his mind for a moment dominated his whole being. His body was completely subconsciously stiffened

However, the boy seemed to be waiting for this moment.

He activated in an instant, and in the blink of an eye he rushed to Goro Fujita's eyes at an incredible speed, and his right hand, which was holding the sword, swung diagonally to the upper left

Fujita Goro reacted in time, quickly drew his knife, and slammed the opponent's knife.

The boy jumped aside a little with his strength, and once again launched the next wave of attacks before Goro Fujita.

Dangdang had a series of sounds of gold and iron clashing, bursting in the dark night.

Although he didn't use his best Iai slash because the other party struck first, Fujita Goro realized that after about a dozen moves with the other party, the young man said arrogantly at the beginning, "You're not my opponent yet", just to scare him off.

Even if he seized the opportunity, the boy could only be worthy of a draw with Fujita Goro, and even this was enough to surprise Fujita Goro.

You must know that his swordsmanship is the best even in the Shinsengumi, and he can be called a swordsman, and when facing the enemy, there is almost no opponent who can beat him with swordsmanship alone. However, now this vague-faced young man can actually fight with him for so many moves in a row without being defeated.

Indeed, there is a certain amount of proud capital.

Such thoughts swept through Fujita's mind for a moment.

Immediately, he spotted a gap that the other party had inadvertently revealed, and stabbed forward with his left hand

The boy was also quick to react. Fujita Gorou was about to attack his right shoulder on the side of the knife, but he dodged to the left in time, and his shoulder grazed the blade that Fujita Gorou swung

Then, with the movement of his body falling to the left, his right hand holding the knife subconsciously rose up, and happened to enter the range of Fujita Goro's knife

Hearing a snort, the blade cut through the clothes, and a sound sounded on the long street, and the knife in the young man's right hand fell to the ground

The boy let out a low cry of pain, covered his right arm with his left hand, and took several steps back. Blood oozed from between his fingers, dripping to the ground

Fujita Gorou hit him with a blow, and immediately broke off in a deep voice, "You've lost your sword, so let's grab it now."

When the boy heard this, he smiled strangely.

"Why should I listen to you"

Surprisingly, he replied with such a sentence. Then, before Fujita Goro could react, the boy leaped onto the eaves of a low house.

Standing on the roof again, the boy looked condescendingly at the young policeman on the long street.

He didn't even look at the sword that he had discarded on the ground. This uncherished and careless attitude towards swords almost angered the moody Fujita Goro for a moment.

"Don't you want your knife," Fujita Goro asked, almost gritting his teeth, squeezing out a question between his teeth.

The boy didn't seem to expect that he was in such a grand posture that he was going to escape, and Fujita Goro was actually the first thing he cared about the knife he discarded rather than himself. He was silent for a rare moment before speaking in a strange sneer

"Ah, that's. ”

He said nonchalantly.

"It's not a masterpiece of a masterpiece. ”

The night breeze blew through the eaves and made the boy's clothes hunt.

However, this sentence seemed to ignite the nerves of Fujita Goro who had been silent for a long time. He took a sharp step forward and shouted, "Even if it is not made by a famous craftsman, every knife is worthy of respect"

The boy seemed a little surprised, laughed briefly, and then said, "Aren't you afraid that saying such a thing will go against the current climate, Your Excellency the Policeman?" ”

Goro Fujita

Of course, he knew what kind of times it was. Even as a samurai, he was bound by the order to give up the sword in his hand

However, the knife in your heart can you give up if you give up?

Even if it is no longer the time when the sword can dominate, can you despise the blade that once allowed the samurai to trust their lives?

What has become of the world?

The boy suddenly laughed again.

"It's funny. So, cherish what you believe in your heart. ”

He said, his voice inexplicably hoarse.

"See you next time, Brainless Policeman. ”

The boy finally said. Then, he really didn't take another look at the Taidao that he had discarded on the long street, he turned around and ran away, and after a few ups and downs, the figure disappeared into the distance.

Fujita Goro stared at the young man's distant back, and only after the figure had completely disappeared from his field of vision did he slowly step forward, bend down and pick up the sword from the ground that had been mercilessly abandoned by his master.

Now that the ban on knives has been promulgated for a long time, who will swagger through the market with a sword? Even as a former samurai, judging by the boy's age, it seems unlikely that he would have to be restrained by the issuance of a sword removal order. So where did he get this good-looking sword?

The dark sword was held in the hand of Fujita Goro. He suddenly crossed the blade, and a clear moonlight flashed on the blood-stained sword, reflecting a moment of light.