My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 318 - 130: Mukiwa’s Request: Teaming Up Against the Man-Slayer Group

Aoto now embraced the shadow from behind, chest tightly pressed against its back.

When the shadow freed one hand to pull down the scarf and looked up at Aoto, the first thing Aoto saw was a pair of watery, bright eyes.

Long eyelashes like velvet, and eyes with a clear contrast of black and white.

Below these beautiful large eyes was an exquisite nose, rosy and full lips, with fair skin that seemed so touchable, with a sense of elasticity...

This was a face that was quite familiar and adorable to Aoto.

In the next instant after seeing this face, a shocked Aoto involuntarily called out, "Mukiwa... Miss...?"

It was Mukiwa.

The shadow that suddenly dropped from the ceiling behind Aoto was none other than Mukiwa, whom he had coincidentally encountered on his way home yesterday.

Aoto was utterly astonished, wondering, "How could Miss Mukiwa show up here at this time?"

Yet immediately, within barely two breaths, Aoto’s emotions were replaced by a new wave of shock.

Because of the suddenness of the event, coupled with being startled by the sudden appearance of Mukiwa, Aoto was solely focused on "quickly subduing this uninvited guest," so he hadn’t paid attention to Mukiwa’s attire at all.

Now, Aoto finally realized that Mukiwa was wearing a rather astonishing outfit.

She wore slightly loose black clothes, a black headscarf, and the scarf that had just covered her face had slipped down to her neck, with her hands and feet clad in black gloves and black tabi.

Aoto... he had seen this outfit, which only revealed a pair of eyes.

On the night when he borrowed the "Milk" talent.

On that night when the Foreign Language Research Institute was attacked by the Anti-foreigner Group.

This, by any measure... was the attire of the great thief Cat Monk who had stirred up a storm in Edo over the past few months!

The only difference in the attire from before was that Mukiwa had a small bundle on her back, contents unknown.

A deluge of questions and information crashed into Aoto’s brain like a meteorite.

His brain, unable to process such vast amounts of information, fell into a state akin to a standstill.

Looking at Mukiwa in his arms, Aoto, whose brain had stalled, found himself unable to utter a single meaningful word.

After a long while, as his soul finally began to return to his body, Aoto stammered out, "Why are you... wearing Cat Monk’s clothes?"

At this moment, Mukiwa, still looking up at Aoto, displayed a look of grievance, as though unjustly accused.

Her bright, watery eyes were softly rippling, her teeth gently biting her lower lip, and a faint red blush spread across her cheeks.

She opened her red lips, about to say something—

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

The corridor connecting the dojo to the Kondo family residence echoed with dense footsteps.

Just from the sound, Aoto knew—it was likely his earlier "Who’s there?" that had startled Kondo and the others.

As Mukiwa, along with Aoto, turned their heads to the corridor entrance to look, she lowered her voice, speaking quickly with an anxious expression:

"Mr. Tachibana, come to the alley behind the ramen shop east of Shiwei Hall later. I will wait for you there."

"Huh? Oh, oh," Aoto, now gradually suppressing his shock, steadied his mind.

Before figuring out what was going on, it was indeed not suitable for Kondo and them to see him embracing a Cat Monk-dressed Mukiwa.

Nodding towards Mukiwa, Aoto quickly released her from his embrace.

Freed, Mukiwa squatted down, then leapt upward forcefully—like a cat, she jumped back onto the ceiling.

Once on the ceiling, she moved the panel she had shifted earlier back to its original position. Soon after, sounds reminiscent of a rat scurrying, "crack, crack," echoed from the ceiling—as the sound receded, it seemed Mukiwa had successfully escaped through the ceiling.

Shortly after the "crack, crack" sound faded, Kondo and the others’ footsteps finally reached the corridor entrance.

"Mr. Tachibana, what happened?" Kondo’s loud shout was invigorating.

Aoto turned his head towards the corridor entrance, seeing that everyone had arrived.

Without time to change clothes, they all appeared in their sleepwear, holding various types of weapons.

Kondo, Saito, and Zhouzhu, with stern expressions, held their swords by their sides.

Abi, impressively, carried a women’s glaive.

The glaive was a mainstream battlefield weapon from the Kamakura to Muromachi period, but due to its performance and cost being inferior to the spear, by the Warring States period, its status on the battlefield had been entirely overtaken by the spear.

By the Edo era, the glaive had almost no place on the battlefield and had completely transformed into a women’s self-defense technique among daughters of the samurai families, evolving into a variant with a shorter handle and thinner blade, known as the women’s glaive.

All well-off military families, who imposed strict education on their descendants, required the women of the clan to practice glaive techniques.

For instance, Sazanoko—Kondo and the others had told Aoto about Sazanoko, whose glaive technique was as exquisite as her small tachi technique. She was not only a master of the small tachi technique at Little Chiba Sword Dojo but also a teacher of glaive techniques.

Aoto had heard that Abi, from a very good background, had studied Katori Shinto-ryu glaive techniques since childhood and was quite skilled.