This sentence seemed to shock him, and after pondering for a moment, he still said in a somewhat troubled tone: "...... It's true that my eyes can't take your eyes off you. ”

This response was not at all what she expected, and she let out a stunned "Huh?!" exclaim.

"If you look away, you don't know what you're going to do in the unexpected......" he continued with a sigh.

"Either I suddenly became a woman and was angrily pulled in front of me by the head secretary, or I provoked the leader of the oni clan, or I was still laughing nonchalantly and talking about strange topics like summer festivals before I was in danger...... Not to mention that he suddenly became Shimahara's popular husband or something, not only that

Listening to him count the daring and reckless good things he had done, Liu Quan was simply surprised and embarrassed.

Originally...... Have you caused him so much trouble......?

Originally...... Those things, all the things, he remembers......?

Willow opened her mouth to say something, or to justify the things she had done that had given him a headache, but in the end, she laughed.

"Having such a willful and reckless team member under your command is really a trouble for you, the deputy commander. She said solemnly, pretending that she wasn't the troublemaker, who sounded like Okita in his words.

Hijikata hissed in annoyance, as if he couldn't appreciate her humor.

“...... It still bothers me so much!" he said grumblingly, hugging her arm but not letting go.

"Every time I pop up, I wonder, ah, what is this guy going to do for me this time, what has she done, where does all that endless, almost bothersome courage and strength come from......" A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips, as if recalling what they had been through together.

“...... No matter how bad things are, they will not take half a step back, and always see the direction of the light and keep going that way...... There was so much darkness and pain behind him—" He lowered his head, his gaze falling on her face with tenderness and seriousness.

"Is there anything you're afraid of, is there anything that can knock you down? I'd love to know—"

The sly smile on Liu Quan's face slowly faded.

She looked back at his face, still as handsome as ever, with the same earnestness. Even though that face has experienced countless lives and deaths, countless wars, and countless frustrations, it still walks a path to despair and death until today...... But he was still as handsome and calm as she remembered.

...... You can still become the dream person that countless girls fall for and become the object of those passionate love letters they send.

Liu Quan pursed her lips and looked at him deeply.

"I'm afraid that one day Mr. Hijikata will not be in this world...... I'll leave when I don't know it. She said, with a very serious look.

"One thing as simple as this can knock me out. So, please don't do anything like that, okay?"

She took a deep breath.

"For me, if Mr. Hijikata dies, then the whole world will lose its meaning...... In my eyes, the world will fall apart, it will be—"

However, he wouldn't know that this was the truth of the world. He would not have known how important he was to the world, and to many people in it......

If he leaves, the world will collapse, her mission will fail, and everyone in this world, as well as her, will be in eternal pain—

"That's something that hurts me more than death. Moreover, this pain does not go away with the passage of time. When hell freezes over. ”

This frank confession seemed to hit him in the heart in an instant. He looked stunned, as if he would never get used to hearing her sharp confession a hundred times.

After a moment, he laughed slowly.

"Are you really a more terrible being than an Edo woman?" he said jokingly.

"At first, I thought you, like Saito, were a reliable and taciturn warrior with good swordsmanship. He recalled with a smile, "Who knew that later, as your identity as a woman was revealed, you gradually became the same as the chief secretary, although he was good at swordsmanship, but he talked as much?"

I don't know if it was his description of her, or the departed companions he mentioned in his memories, which made her stunned for a moment.

After a few seconds of silence, she suddenly curled the corners of her lips into a sly smile, as if intending to change the subject, and joked lightly:

“...... So, Deputy Chief, do you actually appreciate the general secretary? Because in those days when I was more like a gentleman, I didn't see how much you valued me?"

Earthwork: "......"

As soon as he wanted to scold this guy who was casually talking and laughing, he felt a sudden panic because his eyes swept over something unusual, and his body stiffened.

Only then did he realize that the remaining droplets of water from her long hair had soaked her shoulders and the clothes on her back. The shirt suddenly looked lighter when it was wet, like a layer of tulle, and the damp fabric clung to her skin, faintly outlining the soft lines of those parts.

His gaze raced over those places, and he suddenly felt a parchment in his mouth. In order to hide his sudden wolf bèi, he quickly took off his coat, shook it away with a hint of roughness, and then draped it on her shoulders, and said in a ** tone: "...... Put it on!"

Her expression instantly became a little stunned, as if she didn't understand why the topic suddenly jumped to such a thing after the heated debate about whether she was going to stay or not. She subconsciously lowered her head and glanced at his hand, which was still resting on her shoulder for a short time, her eyes flashed, as if she suddenly understood something, and her eyebrows slowly curved up, revealing a smile that grew brighter and brighter.

Her smile, as if she understood something, suddenly made him feel even more uncomfortable. His men's movements involuntarily intensified, and angrily pulled his coat, which had not had time to change after a long day's travel, onto her shoulders a little harder, and said angrily: "...... Do you want to get sick when your hair is so wet and running around?......!"

Before he could finish his words, he suddenly felt her body shrink slightly under his palm, and her right shoulder seemed to avoid his palm touch as if there was no trace.

His hand stiffened suddenly, as if remembering something, and the look of annoyance on his face deepened.

"Your shoulders are ...... again!" he growled, recalling for a moment what she had seen on the battlefield—she stood tall beside her, facing the onrushing enemy soldiers, picked up her heavy rifle in one hand, raised her hand to hold the wooden butt firmly near her right shoulder, squinted her eyes and took a slight aim, and fired with a thud.

For a moment he felt a nameless fire burst into flames, almost burning through his head. He grabbed her right arm violently, and mercilessly swept off his coat over her right shoulder, pulling open the collar of her unfastened shirt.

Even in the midst of his rage, he certainly retains the proportions he deserves. The neckline was ripped diagonally to the right, just revealing her bruised shoulders.

This time he saw it was several times worse than the last time she had trained. Because she fired her gun several times in a hurry, she didn't have time to put herself in a more correct position, and she often fired without putting the butt on her shoulder and pressing it hard, so the violent impact of the recoil was even more severe than when she fired normally—in short, there was a large bruise on her right shoulder, and in some places it was even slightly blackened—indicating that those places were the places that suffered the most and the most intense impacts.

Liu Quan was stunned for a moment, and suddenly reacted to what was going on, and before he had time to blush, he immediately hurriedly tried to hide his neckline in a hurry.

"No...... This one...... A few days of recuperation will be fine...... It's not like I haven't suffered more serious injuries than this before, aren't they all fine......"

The words she uttered in a hurry made him suddenly stunned, and the hand froze in mid-air, with a stunned expression on his face.

This kind of expression was too rare on his face, and she couldn't help but suddenly feel a sense of confusion and weakness, lowered her gaze, but secretly glanced at his face from the corner of her eye, stammered and lowered her voice and said, "So...... So...... I didn't sue you...... Because I don't think it's ......."

The two sentences she added seemed to bring back his mind, and he smiled, shook his head slightly, and said, "Yes...... Why is that......?"

Liu Quan couldn't figure out what he was going to say, stared at him blankly, and stopped unconsciously pulling back the collar of his shirt.

Hijikata looked at her dumbfounded, but suddenly smiled.

"I'm talking about myself. He explained to her, "Obviously, as a member of the Shinsengumi in the past, you have completed many dangerous missions, and you have had to risk your life to fight the enemy many times, and you are not injured and bleeding once or twice......

Speaking of this, he paused for a moment before continuing with a slight sigh: "...... At that time, it was not that I did not give you an order to die. Even when I later learned that you were a woman, I once gave you a very difficult and dangerous mission, or left you alone in a pile of treacherous enemies......"

Liu Quan sighed, his eyes flashing slightly. Hijikata knew, and she finally understood what he was referring to.

He could not say that he would regret the orders and decisions he had made. He also knew that she would not be unwilling or resentful that she had obeyed and resolutely carried out these orders of his. But at this moment, for some reason, those scenes of bravery and tenacity that he had seen and she far surpassed ordinary women flashed in his mind one by one, like a slowly unfolding picture scroll, the content was shocking, and people couldn't help but feel a burst of distress and unbearable.

...... This must be because of his own state of mind that has changed the relationship.

He could no longer look at her with the same mentality that an ordinary lieutenant would treat a team member. It is impossible to even look at her with the mentality of friends and companions who have been fighting side by side for many years. She had become so deeply embedded in his past, his memories, his life, that she had survived as an inseparable part of him, so that he could no longer ignore the slightest.

He caressed her right shoulder, which was red and swollen from the wooden butt of the rifle and the heavy recoil impact every time she fired.

Her naked/exposed skin was a little hot because of the redness and swelling, but when his cool fingertips brushed the surface of the skin, she suddenly shuddered, and her face quickly turned red.

"I feel your determination...... he said softly, as if with a sigh, "you support me even if you hurt yourself...... For some reason, you make me feel a little ......."

What was it? He stopped, not immediately saying the rest of the sentence.

She looked up at his face with wide eyes, unable to see what the description was in his mind at this moment.

She waited for a while, but she couldn't hear what he was saying, probably it was difficult to express her feelings in words, right?

So she also thought about it seriously before replying, "...... No. It's not in a way that hurts yourself. ”

His expression was slightly stunned, and he looked down at her, as if trying to find the answer from her face that really supported her efforts so far.

"I'm supporting Mr. Hijikata by trying to make myself stronger. She curled her eyebrows and smiled slightly, her tone gentle and firm.

He was stunned for a moment, unable to say anything, only to let out a blank "ah" sigh similar to surprise.

Then, his eyebrows slowly softened from surprise, and finally he smiled a little melancholy, and his fingertips gently caressed the reddened skin on her right shoulder, and whispered, "...... If only I had found out sooner - no, if only I had faced it sooner......"

Liu Quan: ?

However, the deputy chief's next sentence made her seem to understand something.

"In that case...... We'll be able to spend several summer festivals together—"

As if he wanted to cut off the deputy chief's casual feeling of setting up a flag, Liu Quan immediately spoke.

"You can do it later. ”

Earthwork:?!

"There will be a lot of summer festivals in the future, and I think I can go with Mr. Hijikata from the very beginning. She said with a conviction and an unquestioning tone.

Earthwork:!!!

His face once again showed a mixture of surprise and emotion, and after a long silence, he suddenly leaned down slowly towards her, and dropped a kiss between her black hair, which was still scented with water and a faint scent of soap.

"Yes......" he said softly, sighing.

"When the time comes, there will be a stall for catching goldfish. I'll get you another one. This time, you can keep it in your own room. ”

Liu Quan's nose was sore, and he closed his eyes suddenly, and pressed his forehead against the position of Hijikata's chest, listening to his heartbeat, and feeling that his eyes seemed to be about to moisten.

"It must be a great festival. ”

"I'll look forward to it. ”