When the last string of flames turned into thin smoke, the firefighters of the town fire department were finally able to search for the dead in the ruins.
In the meantime, the officials at the execution office and the prison cell counted the prisoners who had successfully escaped from the prison.
It is reported that because the fire started so quickly and fiercely, the jailers had no time to open all the cells above and below the cell house.
Therefore, only a small number of prisoners can successfully escape.
Although at the unanimous request of the General Secretary and others, the officials carefully checked the "survivor list" several times, no matter how many times they checked, Qingdeng's name was not found...
Faced with this fact, Souji instantly felt that his body and heart were falling straight to the ground, to the deepest part of the earth.
But even so, the director still said to himself: We can't draw conclusions so quickly! Mr. Orange's life is very tough! How could he die so easily! He must still be alive! Yes! He must still be alive!
The Souji pinned all his hopes on the search for the town fire fighter.
As long as Qingdeng's body is not found, it means he is still alive!
Removing ruins and searching for the dead - this kind of work cannot be done by amateurs, it must be handled by professionals.
Therefore, the General Secretary could only wait anxiously on the periphery of the disaster area.
No matter what Kondo and his team said or tried to persuade him, the general manager refused to leave and stubbornly "stick to his post."
The DG is not alone.
Because both Sanako and Kinoshita Mai made the same choice as her.
The three girls never left Kodenma Town and never left.
It is said that Elodie also planned to come to help, but Westerners were really not suitable to appear in such crowded situations, so under Anthony's strong opposition, she had no choice but to give up.
Time passes bit by bit.
Just when the sky turns dark again——
"Ah! Mr. Arima!"
Souji hurriedly greeted Arima, who was walking quickly towards them.
"Mr. Arima, how is the situation?"
Arima Nokita was assigned to the town as a police officer, so it would be much more convenient for him to deal with the firefighters from the town fire department who were also police officers.
"...Just now, the town fire disappeared in the ruins of the prison house and found the last body."
At this point, Arima paused.
He bit his lower lip, his expression dominated by intense sadness.
Looking at Arima's expression, the light in Souji's eyes quickly disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye.
no, do not want……!
Souji made a sad plea in his heart.
Don't say it!
Souji subconsciously raised his hands.
She wanted to cover her ears.
She didn't want to hear what Arima said next.
But... it's too late.
"It is judged... that the body that was finally found... had a body shape that exactly matched that of Mr. Tachibana..."
After finishing speaking, Arima closed his eyes in pain.
Arima's enunciation is very clear, his voice is very clear, and he speaks Japanese with a standard Edo accent.
But Souji still couldn't understand what he was talking about.
Can't understand the meaning of Arima's words...or rather: refuses to understand and acknowledge the meaning of Arima's words.
A strange trembling feeling shot up from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, pouring into the depths of his mind.
There was a barrier around him that blocked out the sound.
The sounds around me and the world gradually fade away and disappear.
There was a ringing in the ears, and only a buzzing noise could be heard.
The trembling in my head gradually turned into a feeling of dizziness.
Souji felt dizzy and his body seemed to have lost its balance.
He couldn't even distinguish the position of the sky and the earth, couldn't perceive himself, and forgot that he was a person named "Okita Souji".
It seemed like a second later, and it seemed like a year later, Harada's roar brought Souji back to his consciousness.
"Hey! Mr. Arima! Are everything you said true? Did you really hear it right?"
Harada rushed forward and grabbed Arima by the collar.
"Hey, Harada, don't do this!"
Nagakura grabbed Harada's wrist and tried to pry Harada's hand away.
In terms of seniority, status and title, a junior like Harada should not be so rude to Arima.
But no matter how hard Nagakura tried, Harada's hands remained motionless.
"General Secretary, you..."
At some point, Hijikata stood behind the Souji. He opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but he hesitated.
Souji turned his eyes as if he were looking at something, or looked at the surroundings with his empty eyes that were not looking at anything.
Harada, who was emotional, still grabbed Arima's lapel as usual.
Nagakura restrained Harada.
Kondo looked sad.
Hijikata gave her a worried look.
Inoue's body shook slightly.
A rare look of disappointment appeared on Saito's cheeks.
Kubei, the loyal old servant of the Seito family, collapsed on the ground and cried loudly.
Kiryu's expression remained normal, but there was a faint emotion of shock dancing between his brows.
Chiba Jutaro looked in disbelief.
As for her two love rivals...
Kinoshita Mai blinked once, and then blinked several times, as if to confirm the clarity of her vision.
Then, like a baby that just learned to walk, she cautiously stepped forward...
The next moment, the girl staggered and her delicate body fell forward, like a puppet whose threads had been pulled out.
Fortunately... at the critical moment before she fell to the ground, Kiryu quickly stopped this fragile puppet that was about to fall apart at the touch of a touch and was constantly trembling.
At this moment, the already petite girl in red instantly became a bit smaller.
"woo woo woo woo……"
I saw Kinoshita Mai's eyes filled with tears in an instant.
Tears as big as peas slid down the bloodless face one by one and fell to the ground.
The red lips opened and closed repeatedly, but she couldn't translate what she wanted to say into concrete words.
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"
The crying quickly became louder.
The accumulated emotions burst like a flood.
Kinoshita Mai, who could no longer hold back her tears, cried out in pain.
It’s so sad to cry, and it’s so sad to suffer.
Kiryu said nothing...he just hugged her silently and watched her quietly...
Souji's other love rival... Sanako's reaction was almost the opposite extreme of Kinoshita Mai's.
No matter what happened to her, even if she was kidnapped by the madmen of the anti-barbarian group, Yamato Nadeshiko remained calm and calm. She did not change her calm nature and did not show any expressions filled with negative emotions. No crying.
When the Souji's eyes turned to her, he saw her with her pink neck raised high and her head looking up to the sky.
Because of the angle of view, Souji couldn't see the expression on Sanako's face.
Strangely enough, Souji feels very peaceful now.
No shock, no confusion.
Even though he was suddenly faced with the situation of "Aoden is dead", Souji did not make any abnormal behavior in front of everyone.
It's just that the body's sensations are getting weirder and weirder... Everything that comes into view seems to lack reality.
Vaguely, she felt a huge... "monster" appear inside her body.
This "monster" expands rapidly as time goes by.
It fills the heart, then pours into the throat, and then pours into the mouth, nose and eyes.
Affected by this "monster", Souji felt the corners of his eyes begin to heat up, and the depths of his nasal cavity became sore repeatedly.
"Hiss...! Hiss...!"
Souji tried his best to suppress it, endured it with all his strength, and sniffed hard.
She didn't want to cry.
It would be really embarrassing to cry in front of so many people.
Painfully waiting for the emotional waves to pass, and building a higher dam to block the emotions.
However... I caught up.
The "monster" caught up.
Souji knows what this "monster" is.
It is an emotion called "sadness".
This "monster" slowly stood up and gradually grasped her entire body.
Don't...don't come near me...
The DG begged.
As long as he doesn't face this emotion directly, as long as he doesn't admit the existence of this emotion, Qingdeng will still be alive.
She thought so naturally, innocently.
But in the end this is just self-deception in vain.
The "monster" ignored Souji's will, continued to expand, continued to grow, and continued to extend its big claws towards Souji.
An alarm bell sounded somewhere in Souji's heart, loudly reminding her to run away and get out of this place! The further away from this "monster" the better!
However, the legs seemed to be filled with lead, the soles of the feet seemed to be stuck to the ground, and the body could not move. Souji lost control of his body.
Finally, the "monster" grew to its limit, and it clung to Souji.
"Ah ah ah ah ah……"
Souji grabbed his chest and stomach and slowly squatted down.
"Souji!"
Hijikata, who had been standing behind Souji since just now, always ready to step forward to help him if anything went wrong with him, quickly leaned forward to support Souji.
Souji looked back at Hijikata, who was like a brother and sister to her.
Hijikata was clearly right in front of him, but for some reason it seemed so far away.
Souji slowly looked away from Hijikata and lowered his head.
What he saw was the charred ground that had been burned by the fire and his tiny toes.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh...!"
A broken moan came out of his mouth without any specific meaning.
A neutral, indistinguishable voice... There is no doubt that it is my own voice.
Even though she was speaking, she felt as if someone else was speaking.
My vision was blurry, but it wasn't because my eyes were wet and obscured by tears.
There were no tears in Souji's eyes.
He just kept his eyes wide open, squatted on the ground without getting up, and let out a scream that was not a cry, but was better than a cry.
"General Secretary..."
Hijikata supported Souji's shoulders.
This handsome man who was eloquent and could make countless girls obsessed with her and crazy about her with just one mouth could not say a word at this time.
All he can do now is to watch the director to prevent this girl from doing something stupid...
A heavy atmosphere fell on this space, and the air around Souji and others was filled with sadness.
At this moment...a young man dressed as a firefighter ran quickly from a distance to Arima with a "hum hum hum" sound.
"Arima-sama!"
The young firefighter put his mouth close to Arima's ear and whispered something.
"What did you say?!"
After the young firefighter's whisper ended, Arima said in a shocked voice:
"Is everything you said true?"
The young firefighter nodded:
"It's absolutely true. Lord Arima, I have important matters to attend to, so I'll take my leave for now."
Arima watched blankly as the young firefighter left.
After the figure of the young firefighter completely disappeared at the far corner of the street, Arima turned his head with mechanical movements and stared at everyone blankly.
"Just now...an old official from the Nanfang Institute with decades of autopsy experience rushed to the scene to provide support. According to this old official's judgment... there is something strange about 'Ji Jun's corpse'. The bones are too old and are not the same as Jun Ju's body." My age doesn't match..."
"After inspection by Jiaoyashiki, it is not the body of Tachibana-kun, but the body of another imperial family member named Sakano Yosuke who is about the same height and build as Aoto..."
At this moment, the atmosphere around him changed.
Everyone who had been either in great grief or secretly sad until just now suddenly froze.
They stared blankly at Arima.
A bunch of eyes with intense emotional fluctuations fell on Arima.
"That body...isn't that of Mr. Tachibana?"
Kiryu was the first to break the silence.
Arima nodded lightly.
"What are you doing!"
Under Nagakura's strong dissuasion, Harada, who had just calmed down, suddenly became violent again.
"Can something like this actually go wrong?"
Although Harada was roaring, he had a smile on his face.
The atmosphere at the scene changed suddenly.
Sadness, sorrow... these emotions gradually transformed into ecstasy, joy...
Kinoshita Mai raised her little face from Kiryu's arms with a blank expression.
There were a lot of tears and runny nose on her delicate face.
As if her brain had shut down, she remained silent for a long time with no expression on her face.
After a while, an excited smile gradually appeared on his pretty face.
She was crying and laughing at the same time, which looked both funny and heart-wrenching.
Sanako looked away at the sky. She is indeed an ice beauty who is famous for her cold and arrogant personality.
Even after experiencing this roller coaster of great joy and sorrow, she remained calm.
She opened her red lips slightly and let out a long sigh that only she could hear clearly.
Suddenly, his tall, plump body swayed.
At this moment, Sanako looked like a small boat being rocked by the waves of the ocean, her body swaying.
For Sanako, who has the gift of "a sense of body balance that is better than that of ordinary people": "Cat Turn", controlling body balance should not be difficult.
But at this time, Sanako spent a lot of energy, but still couldn't restore his body to stability.
As for Souji... the reaction she showed now was sandwiched between Sanako and Kinoshita Mai.
"Tachibana-kun...isn't dead...?"
The "monster" quickly became smaller and weaker.
Another emotion that was completely different from sadness slowly seeped out from somewhere in her heart as she murmured.
A wave of heat surged into his eyes, swirled around his eyes, then burst out of his eyes and rolled down.
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"
When he heard that "Aoden was dead", the Souji did not cry.
As a result, I couldn't help but burst into tears at this moment...
She cried, sobbed, and burst into tears, turning all her inner emotions into tears and venting them out.
Amidst the mixture of cries and cheers, a calm voice sounded:
"Mr. Arima, you just said: This body that is currently confirmed to be not Mr. Tachibana's is the last body found by the Machiki in the ruins of the prison... Since this last body is not Mr. Tachibana's, but There is no name of Mr. Tachibana in the list of survivors... So where is Mr. Tachibana now?"
The speaker is Saito Kazuya.
As expected of a man who could express his emotions and anger, no matter when he first heard the news of Qingdeng's death or now when he learned that "Qingdeng was alive again", there was no excessive expression on his face.
However, he now said a lot of words for the first time in a long time.
This long list of rhetoric may exceed the total content of his words yesterday and the previous two days.
Saito's question made everyone, including Souji, gradually calm down.
Yes, Aoshito's body could not be found in the ruins of the prison, and Aoshito was not among those who successfully escaped from the fire... So where is he now?
"I'll go ask the people at the town fire department and the execution office! Let's see if they miscalculated and missed any survivors!"
A horse picked up its hakama and walked away quickly without stopping.
…
…
After "Tachibana Aoden is dead" and "Nioh was buried in a sea of fire", a new rumor spread throughout Edo - "Tachibana Aoden is missing".
It is impossible to determine who the person who reported this incident was.
In short - good things don't go out, but bad things spread thousands of miles.
The news of "Tachibana Aoden's disappearance" spread throughout Edo at an alarming speed.
What followed was a big discussion about "whether Nioh is dead or alive."
Recently, whenever you go to any of the streets, alleys, teahouses, izakayas, or bathhouses in Edo, you can always hear people in the market passionately debating "Aoto's life and death."
This kind of question is essentially the same as "Which one is better at fighting, Han Xin or Bai Qi" or "Which one is more powerful, the lion or the tiger"? The problem.
Two days later, the execution office personally stepped down and ended this great debate with a final word.
An official document was posted on the bulletin board at the Kohakuba (bulletin board) where the execution office was located, informing all Edo people: After full investigation by the execution office, the jail house, and the town fire department, it has been confirmed that the leader of the third division of the Huofu thieves, Tachibana Aoto, is missing. !
One stone stirs up a thousand waves.
Although the announcement of the fate of the execution office ended the debate on "Is Qingden alive or dead?", it also led to new topics: "Since the Nioh is not dead, where did he go?", "Is the government trying to stabilize people's hearts? Deliberately spreading false news? Tachibana Aoden is actually dead.", "How could such a living person suddenly disappear for no reason?"...
At this time when the public was furious, a piece of exciting new news suddenly dropped: Aoto's sword... The sword that Naoki Ii gave to Aoto has a red and black handle and scabbard: it can hold down ghosts and gods without wings. And flew away!
When Qingdeng was sent to prison, his whole body was inspected very strictly, and everything he had on him, including his sword and the tissue he used to clean his knife and blow his nose, were confiscated.
All Qingdeng's personal belongings were kept in Beifansuo.
On January 15, when the officers of the Beifan Office checked the warehouse, they suddenly discovered that Dingguishen was missing.
Qingdeng disappeared, and his sword disappeared with him...
People with keen intuition are all keenly aware that things are becoming more and more confusing...
…
…
In the second year of Wanyan (1861), January 16, night——
Edo, Hatamoto settlement, somewhere outside the Akabane family's mansion——
"Are you all ready?"
"Well, everyone is ready and waiting for your order."
"Okay, let's go."
A group of men in black, all dressed in black, filed out of the shadows of the alley.
The leader was holding a sword with a very curved blade. The handle and scabbard were both red and black...
*******
*******
It’s finally sunny in Guangzhou! The author has finally entered the state of "intermittent efforts to improve" once a month!
Taking advantage of the weather finally getting better in Guangzhou, the author decided: Starting from tomorrow, I will work hard to update!
Asking for a monthly ticket! Please vote for recommendation! (Leopard head crying.jpg)
(End of chapter)
