"I'm very moved, ...... Mirizuki," she said, her face twitched for a moment, "but this is my own business, let me solve it in my own way...... If I draw my sword, these stupid people are no match for me, and I will be fine......"

Listening to the main hall lower his voice and say the vulgar word "Baga" in his real elegant female voice, Mirizuki seemed to feel amused, and a smile rippled on his face.

"What courage, Yukiba-kun. ”

Ever since that night of fierce fighting with the oni beast Nissan and his men who had brought her to intercept her on the streets of Edo, it seemed natural for Grandpa Belly to dispense with the honorific title of "main hall" and call her by her first name.

Although, that name is fake.

What he probably wants to express is not just the motivation of deliberate intimacy, but a kind of unspoken support of "whoever you want to be, I think you are".

…… Sure enough, I counted it in one fell swoop without moving, and I was really good at flirting with my sister, ah, Grandpa Sanriyue!

Liu Quan grinned at him, turned his head again, and made an offensive gesture.

In that moment, the joy of meeting her companion at first, the shock of learning that she had been falsely accused, and the anger and weakness of being accused and attacked by her companion who had been deceived without knowing the truth, all disappeared.

In an instant, she re-transformed into the person everyone knew well, enough to temporarily take his place after the first swordsman Okita Soji left the team to recuperate, and the acting leader of the Shinsengumi Ichiban Group, Kiyohara Yukiya.

His beautiful and delicate eyebrows like a woman were slightly pressed down, his beautiful eyes narrowed, and there was a sharp sharpness and seriousness between his facial features. That means he's going to make a serious move--this young swordsman with superb swordsmanship who returned safely after completing several death missions during the Hei Squad Rank, one of the important cadres of the Shinsengumi who left the team for unknown reasons and returned with the notoriety of betrayal, and the henchmen and companions who were once the deputy chief's henchmen and their companions are now stabbing at these former companions whose swordsmanship is far inferior to his.

Although they forced him to make a move at this point, the soldiers opposite him still immediately subconsciously flashed a chill and fear in their hearts.

At this moment, a calm voice suddenly interjected, interrupting the sharp confrontation between the members of the Shinsengumi.

"Stop. What are you doing here?"

The seven or eight team members were stunned for a moment, and then their faces instantly bloomed with ecstasy, "We are saved! Strong foreign aid is coming!", and immediately parted a path on both sides, allowing the person who had been blocked by their figures to pass through them and slowly walk in front of Liu Quan.

“…… Captain Saito!" they shouted in a frenzy.

Dressed in a black Western-style suit, with his hair cut short, his right hand pressed against the hilt of the sword at his waist, and his whole body looked as sharp and sharp as an unsheathed sword, Saitoichi, the leader of the Shinsengumi Sanban Group, walked over and stood in front of the soldiers, narrowing his eyes slightly, and calmly staring at Yanagizumi, who was still holding a knife in front of him.

"Snow ...... Kiyohara?!" He seemed to hesitate for a moment, then briefly spat out the name from his mouth. Although it was only a few syllables, Liu Quan seemed to be able to fully appreciate his shock from it.

He seemed to have just arrived, but even after a long journey, he seemed to be well-dressed and meticulous, standing as calmly as a mountain at the front of the hostile and incomprehensible men of her troops, the tip of her sword only a few meters from his chest, a distance that would have been leveled in the event of an attack.

For some reason, after seeing Xiao Yi, a certain kind of angry, annoyed, sad and aggrieved, which was well suppressed by her angry aura and ridiculous expression just now, suddenly surged up. Willow Springs' mouth grinned, revealing a self-deprecating funny smile.

"Ah, they're besieging me, the 'traitor of the Shinsengumi.'" ”

She browled her eyebrows, seemingly smiling, but there was not even a hint of a smile in her eyes. That strange look fluttered through the air and finally landed on his face.

"Yijun, let me ask you...... Do you also believe the nonsense of those Chiefs' souls?!"

After a pause, she threw the heavyweight question straight at Saito without warning.

Saito's gaze flickered slightly, and although the expression on his face did not change, if someone who knew him very well observed it carefully, he could see a little wavering emotion in his eyes.

She stood right in front of him, her words and expression calm, and her gaze even so straightforward and clear, just like the expression she had on her face when she stood in front of the Kaneko Mansion that morning when he left Naruyama first to prepare for the Shinsengumi to go to Aizu.

At this moment, her expression was clearly asking, Yijun, do you believe me.

Trust her......

Believe in a man who once pretended to be his lover on the streets of Kyoto for a secret mission, walked beside him with a smile, cared for him, touched his head - what a strange act - and firmly encouraged him to pursue his beliefs without wavering?

Do you believe that on the eve of the Imperial Tomb Guard's imminent assassination of the director, when he was unable to go out by Ito Koshitaro's henchmen and missed the appointment to meet her, he stubbornly stood outside the door of Tsukijinin Temple in such a deep cold night, crying and saying, "Have you forgotten that you used to like me so much", and won him a chance to get out of the house?

Do you believe that a person who once rushed up to Momoyama alone in the flames of war that broke out in Fushimi, stood in front of him and bravely faced that powerful ghost, and rightfully said, "Kachi-kun is my companion, no matter how many times I will rush to support him"?

I believe that one of them was digging a tomb for Yuansang with him on the outskirts of Diancheng, and said to the deputy chief with tears in his eyes, "Just follow Yuansan's words and stop those people." So it makes sense"?

Do you believe that a Kannonzaka near Katsunuma, when his soldiers were surrounded by the enemy, could not support it, and were about to be annihilated, he came out of the bushes alone, showed a bright smile, and said that he was coming to support him?

……

In the end, all the chaotic pictures poured up, and they all scattered in all directions, only the scene in the middle became clearer and clearer.

He thought that the scene might be in Shimahara's corner house, and when he saw her as an Oiran, he was so shocked that he couldn't speak for a while-after all, at that time, when he saw her, the first thought that came to his mind was "I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful person."

However, when that scene was clearly frozen, he suddenly found that the last thing that came to his heart at this moment was the white moonlight and dark night on the oil road.

That night, when he was alone in the face of dozens of Satsuma soldiers and two oni clans on the oil path, she dragged her body that had not yet fully recovered and panted all the way from the enemy soldiers to him and fought side by side with him, and then, after winning the victory, sat side by side with him on the steps of the roadside house, looked up at the night sky and showed a refreshing smile, and said to him, "The moonlight tonight is so beautiful."

Oh, yes.

The bright moonlight he saw at that time was unforgettable.

On the long streets of blood, fell their former companions and their eternal enemies. The smell of blood wafted through the air.

The two of them didn't look very good, their clothes splattered with blood and tattered with swords. The blood even solidified and knotted in their hair, and by the moonlight he noticed that the bright red droplets were splattered under her smooth and fair cheeks, the contrast was sharp and beautiful, and he hesitated for a long time, and did not tell her that her face was splattered with blood and needed to be wiped away—was it unspeakable, or did he inexplicably feel that it didn't matter even if it was covered in blood, for this man was his trusted companion, his sincere friend?

He stared blankly at the girl in front of him, who was still holding the knife in her right hand and with an angry and aggrieved expression, staring at him, as if she wanted to find a glimmer of hope from him, and had something to look forward to him.

[In order to achieve the belief that you want to pursue most in your heart, and to maintain peace and justice in this world...... Even if you sacrifice a qiē, even if you are burdened with pain, even if you are burdened with notoriety, you must go on with indomitable progress. 】

The words she had said at the time came back to his mind.

The words are still in my ears. But now she's the one with the notoriety. Even so, do you have to follow the footsteps of the Shinsengumi all the way, isn't she afraid that when she returns here, she will be reprimanded by her angry, former companions and even draw a sword......?!

Then, the last words she said before leaving the oil path rang in his head again.

[I believe in you, Yijun. I believe in everyone in Shinsengumi. 】

This sentence prompted him to make a final decision.

"Take back your knives. He calmly ordered the soldiers behind him.

"Snow can't be a traitor either. It remains to be seen how much of the news that came out of the Chief Sacho was intended to divide the Shinsengumi, and how much of it was really credible. ”

He turned his head slightly, his gaze swept sternly over the dumbfounded soldiers behind him, and saw that some of them still had puzzled and unconvinced expressions on their faces, his gaze flickered slightly, and then turned back to face the unusually handsome young man in front of him, who still held a knife in his right hand, dressed in a men's dress, and had an unusually handsome face.

"You take the knife back, too, Yukiya. "There is no reason to draw a sword against your fellow - both of you are." ”

After a pause, he looked her straight in the eye and, in an unusually solemn manner, added:

"You've come to my aid on your own in times of great crisis several times before...... If you were such a person who easily succumbs to danger and hardship, you would not have come in the first place. That's what I think. ”

"So, I believe in you. ”