Yashiro the Blind

"I saw her during the day; she's blind—"

"And he's got a little devil with him!"

With just a few words and the tacit understanding between their companions, the masked men split into two groups. Two of them stayed behind to hold off Minjimaru, while the remaining five or six rushed up to the roof.

Without a doubt, the two people on the rooftop, one large and one small, were accomplices of the girl with the long sword. Although they didn't know what kind of sorcery she used to affect their minds and disrupt their aura, it was obvious that a blind man and a thin, small blind man couldn't possibly have much skill. Once they got close, one strike would be enough to kill them.

One "tongue" is enough. Compared to this girl, whose strength is considerable but still within their expectations, they are more wary of potential variables. They will kill the blind man who can use "sorcery" first, capture the girl, and then take the little devil next to her as a hostage. They are not worried that the other party will refuse to talk...

With a few leaps, the person at the front had already flipped onto the roof. Looking over, the little girl was looking this way with surprise on her face, while the blind girl holding the pipa looked dazed, as if she had not yet realized that her death was imminent.

"Wait, your opponent is me, don't even think about running away!"

An angry shout came from below. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the girl brandishing a blood-stained longsword menacingly. However, she was being held back by two companions and could not break through in time, let alone rescue anyone.

Withdrawing his gaze, feeling confident that everything was in order, the masked man ran closer while staring at the blind girl's fair neck, imagining the feeling of the blade slicing through flesh and blood and drinking the blood, as well as the despairing expression on the little devil's face beside him. He couldn't help but reveal a malicious smile.

How do you say that?

Oh, I remember now—you should pick the softest persimmons!

……

Chapter 122 Unclear Gestures

"So didn't I tell you all? Don't desert your posts. It would have been so much better if you had stayed down here and fought with me. I tried to persuade you, but you wouldn't listen... Now look what's happened, you're all lying on the ground like dead dogs, tied up. Are you satisfied now? Really!"

Muttering to herself, Minjimaru held her five-foot-long sword in her hand, looking down at the several black-winged masked men trapped like dumplings on the ground. As she spoke, she wiped the blood off her sword with their clothes.

Those men dared not speak out in anger, and even if they did, they could not—Yashiro, being from Iga, knew the methods of these assassins very well. After taking them down in one move, he took out the poison they had hidden in their mouths and then stuffed their mouths shut to prevent them from biting their tongues and committing suicide.

No one responded. Minji Maru muttered a few more words, but gradually she felt it was pointless. Just then, she finished cleaning the blade, hoisted it onto her shoulder, turned her head, and gave Yashiro a fawning smile: "Master, how did I do?"

“Not bad…” Yashiro nodded.

"Hehe." The girl's eyes crinkled as she laughed happily, but she also knew that if you start a sentence like this, the next sentence should be "but".

"—However, there is still a lot of room for improvement. For example, when retreating just now, the pace was a little too hasty, which makes it easy to lose balance and turn a false drop into a real drop, and..."

"See? Just as I expected." Minji Maru couldn't help but mutter to himself, but he wasn't dissatisfied. Instead, he listened attentively and took notes in his mind.

After all, it is only natural for a master to teach his disciple. These enemies who had just put her in a tough fight couldn't even withstand a single move from Yashiro. This stark contrast did not discourage Minjimaru; on the contrary, it made her even more determined.

You should know that just about a year ago, let alone fighting against a large number of opponents for so long, she would probably have died on the spot in a single move. If she had remained sober and had not hired a "substitute fighter", she would not have been able to dodge the initial sneak attack with the naginata.

Those who are familiar with their own situation know best. Minji Maru believed that his strength had improved by leaps and bounds in the past year. Saying that he had made rapid progress might be an exaggeration, but he had at least made 998 miles in a day. And all of this was undoubtedly thanks to Master Yashiro.

The master leads you through the door, but the practice is up to you. If you don't know where to begin, no matter how hard you work, you will still find it difficult to achieve much. Unless you are exceptionally talented, it will be hard to make any progress.

Therefore, although the two were of similar age, the more accomplished one is considered a teacher, and Minji Maru always held his overly young master in high esteem... except in very rare cases.

For example, she once happened to see it from outside the window. Yashiro was probably drunk and was crying while holding her daughter for some reason. Mio was also very different from usual, looking very mature, gently touching her mother's head and comforting her in a childish voice.

Judging from that scene alone, it's hard to tell who the mother is.

For a long time afterward, Minji Maru was on tenterhooks, fearing that Yashiro would kill him to silence him once she sobered up. But she waited and waited, and the expected "silencing" never came. Instead, Hatsume noticed that she was different from usual, looking absent-minded. She coaxed her out of it and found out the reason. She smiled and told her not to worry: "This is just commonplace. After all, it's not unusual for a drunk person to do anything. My brother and I have seen it more than once. We told Yashiro-neechan about it, and she didn't seem to care."

"That's good……"

Although she didn't know why Hatsume emphasized the word "I" so much, as if she was emphasizing something, Minji Maru was finally relieved after hearing this.

Aside from these everyday little anecdotes, most of the time, in her mind, Master Yashiro was a mature... well, rather mature... calm... reliable... anyway, something like that. Just get the gist of it!

"...Why do I have a feeling you're overthinking things again?"

Yashiro tapped his cane, bringing his disciple, who had suddenly started standing there in a daze, back to reality.

Based on her understanding of Minji Maru, in the short time that's been going on, he's probably already daydreaming and gone to Siberia to steal potatoes. To be fair, this ability to daydream is quite similar to Yashiro's own... but she certainly wouldn't admit it.

She simply tilted her head slightly, sensing that Minjimaru's absent-mindedness might stem from feeling that she had been nagging too much.

This isn't good. She's a beautiful young woman—who says only those under twenty can be called young women?—this rambling on and on could ruin her image. Putting aside others, at least in her apprentice's mind, Yashiro still wanted to maintain a tall and imposing figure…

Of course, the "tall and majestic" here refers to the spiritual aspect, and has nothing to do with actual height.

Yashiro sighed, dismissing the increasingly saddening thoughts, and changed the subject: "Judging by the time, Fujikichiro should have already found Mio... cough cough, found the note I left, it should be about time... oh, he's here."

As they were talking, they heard familiar footsteps approaching from afar. It was Fujikichiro.

He still smelled of alcohol, and his face was flushed from the intoxication. He held a lantern in his hand—a lantern made of thin iron, shaped like a hanging bell, with a handle, which could be carried for illumination even on the battlefield or in the wind and rain, hence it was also called the "everlasting lantern".

The ever-burning lamplight appeared faint, flickering in the darkness like fireflies. As they drew closer and saw the several "zongzi" (rice dumplings) on the ground, Fujikichiro's expression turned serious: "Miss Yashiro, Miss Minji, this is…"

"As you can see, someone jumped out to attack Minji Maru, but he was outmatched and was killed in retaliation." Yashiro shrugged.

"I managed to kill him!" Minji Maru emphasized.

“I can see that…” Fujikichiro twitched the corner of his mouth, glanced at the mangled corpse beside him, and then looked at Minjimaru’s long sword. Even though he had carried a long spear to the battlefield many times since serving the Oda clan and had walked back and forth on the battlefield of carnage, he was still speechless and terrified when he suddenly saw such a bloody and shocking scene.

Although death is inevitable, being stabbed to death with a spear, hacked to death with a sword, or shot to death with an arrow—none of these methods can compare to the shock and horror of being cut in two. The young man swallowed again, looked away, and turned back to Yashiro: "Are they related to that 'rabbit' in the woods today?"

He deliberately emphasized the word "rabbit," clearly indicating that his real intention was not what it seemed.

Yashiro chuckled: "You really did find out."

“Of course, the rabbit’s appearance was so sudden that there’s probably something wrong with it,” Fujikichiro replied. “And when we came back to bandage the rabbit, it was easy to see that the wound on its leg was not from a trap or the claws of other wild beasts, but was clearly caused by some kind of bladed weapon.”

As for why he didn't expose this even though he had discovered it, it was because Fujikichiro himself was not good at martial arts, and at the time he only had Yashiro and two others with him. If he rashly spoke up and angered the person hiding in the shadows, and the young man suddenly attacked and hurt him, he would probably not be able to deal with it. In that case, he would inevitably have to rely on Yashiro to help him. Such a huge favor was enough to owe once.

“If you, Miss Yashiro, intended to make a move, why would I need to remind you? Since you didn’t say it out loud, you must have your reasons, so why should I presume to do it for you?” Fujikichiro said, then sighed with a wry smile, “I never expected to drag you two into this in the end. Alas, I am truly ashamed.”

“Unexpected trouble, how could you and I possibly control it?” Yashiro rubbed his nose. “Since you’re here, how about I leave these people to you? Just consider it as if you caught them, and you can do whatever you want with them afterward.”

"Grateful!"

Fujikichiro was delighted upon hearing this.

Originally, these masked men committed murder in Kiyosu Castle, but in the end they were captured by a guest from out of town. If word got out, it would be a disgrace, and on a larger scale, it could even bring shame to the name of Oda Nobunaga in Owari. If Lord Nobunaga were to be angry and blame them, it would be another troublesome matter.

Yashiro's words were tantamount to handing over the credit for capturing the people, not only without any fault on her part, but also gaining merit out of thin air. How could he not be delighted? However, in his surprise, Fujikichiro also understood the implied meaning and immediately assured her, "Miss Yashiro, you can rest assured, I will definitely extract valuable information from them!"

"Thank you for your trouble. And then, could you please take Minji and Mio back with you on your way? Minji is an absolute terrible navigator, and I don't want to leave her home alone."

As they were talking, Yashiro handed the girl he was holding to Minjimaru. Mio was already a little sleepy, her little head bobbing up and down like a fisherman. She was startled awake by the action and forced a smile at Yashiro.

As if sensing something, Yashiro smiled slightly at her and then turned around.

"Does Miss Yashiro have something else to do?" Fujikichiro asked from the side.

“I just let one of them go and casually slipped a piece of ginger into his pocket. The smell of ginger is particularly strong and won’t disappear anytime soon, so I can follow the scent to see where their hideout is and if they have any other accomplices.”

As she spoke, Yashiro pinched her nose and took a deep breath, as if she felt uncomfortable, her brows furrowing. "...I still can't stand the taste of ginger, it's too spicy... Achoo!"

Couldn't help but sneeze.

As it turns out, having keen senses isn't all good. Fujikichiro paused for a moment, then said with some emotion, "Yashiro-san, you've worked hard..."

……

Run, run, run!

Under the pale light of the waning moon, a man in black hurriedly ran through the grove!

His hands were empty; the naginata he had been holding was long gone from the battlefield, and he showed no intention of turning back to retrieve it—was he out of his mind?

They thought the ponytail girl wielding the long sword was the only one who could fight well among the three, but little blind boy playing the pipa was actually the most unassuming one. It's laughable that they thought they could pick on the weak and make the ponytail girl hesitate to act when they had the hostage. But who would have thought that this "persimmon" was actually made of iron?

The thought of that scene sent a chill down the man's spine: under their watchful eyes, the blind girl initially sat motionless, clutching her pipa, while the imp beside her maintained a surprised expression. But as her companion at the forefront closed in and the blade flashed, the blind girl suddenly moved...

Pong!

She swung her pipa, striking first despite being behind, and with a solid blow, knocked her companion off the roof. Immediately after, she flicked her wrist, sending the plectrum flying. In mid-air, it collided with the guillotine blade and then spun back into the blind girl's hand.

However, the guillotine was hit so hard that it changed its angle intentionally or unintentionally and flew towards another companion. It flew with lightning speed and left a long wound on the other's arm!

Blood splattered, the pipa was swung and then pulled back, but he finally rushed in front of her, the scythe raised and ready to fall. The blind girl sat still, only slightly opening her eyelids, revealing half of her dim and lifeless eyes—those unfocused eyes should not reflect anything, but facing this blind man in black, her heart suddenly skipped a beat.

It's hard to describe exactly what he felt at that moment.

Perhaps it was clouds, perhaps wind, perhaps lightning dancing like golden snakes, perhaps the vast, boundless sky… That moment felt like eternity. When he came to his senses, he had already thrown aside his weapon and, disregarding everything, turned and fled. This was no opponent he could handle; if he didn't escape… he would die!

His biological instincts were screaming a warning. The man in black fled in a disheveled state. He wasn't actually that afraid of death. As a suicide soldier, he had been prepared to sacrifice himself since childhood. However, he wasn't afraid of dying, but he was afraid of dying meaninglessly. He had to notify his other companions who had come to Owari, as well as the leader in Mino. The traitor was not alone; he had powerful reinforcements. He had to change his plans...

Suddenly, a faint smell of blood wafted in the wind.

The smell almost immediately became stronger, and the man in black stopped in his tracks, staring in astonishment at the scene before him.

This place was originally their temporary camp. Although it was done hastily, it was not careless. From the outside in, they set up many traps and mechanisms. Even if their plan was exposed and they were attacked by Oda Nobunaga's army, they should not be without the ability to fight back... That's how it should be.

But now, as the man in black looked around, the tent was tattered, most of the mechanisms had been destroyed, and only a few had been successfully activated. Those lying on the ground weren't enemies, but his own comrades… Blood flowed everywhere, and corpses littered the ground. A tall figure draped in a black cloak, wielding two swords, stood amidst the blood.

Her face and body were covered in blood, her hair was disheveled, and only her eyes, faintly tinged with blood, were visible.

A gust of wind blew, lifting half of the cloak, revealing that the woman's abdomen was wrapped in thick bandages, and underneath the bandages was a bloodstain, with blood still seeping out. It was hard to say how much of the bloody smell in the air came from the corpses on the ground, and how much came from this woman with twin swords.

"you……"

The man in black's eyes narrowed, and his expression, hidden beneath the black cloth, instantly twisted. "You didn't hide to recover from your injuries... No wonder we couldn't find you anywhere in Qingzhou City!"

"..."

The woman remained silent, only slightly raising the blade of the knife she held in her left hand and pointing it in a certain direction.

Following the direction of the blade's tip, the man in black only saw a blood-stained naginata—its owner had long since died beside him, beheaded with a single stroke, his eyes wide open in death.

"Do you want me to take up arms... and fight you?"

"..."

The woman nodded silently.

"Ha, ha... We don't kill the unarmed. I didn't expect that even after we've pushed you to this point, you're still sticking to these boring rules..." The man in black was silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed coldly, whether it was mockery or self-mockery, it was hard to tell.

The woman remained silent.

But the man in black seemed to have made a sudden decision. At first, he walked obediently toward the naginata, but after a few steps, he suddenly turned around and ran!

He moved with incredible speed and with all his might, he vanished into the nearby woods in a flash, his figure disappearing from sight in an instant.

The woman wielding the twin swords paled and was about to give chase, but as soon as she took a step, she aggravated her abdominal injury, gasped for breath, and more blood seeped out.

But in that brief moment of stalemate, a crisp "thump" suddenly came from outside the woods. The sound came from the direction the man in black had fled. The woman looked up blankly and caught sight of a petite figure.

With his eyes closed, holding a cane, and his right hand gripping a leg, he laboriously dragged the masked man out. The man had obviously fainted; a large bump was swollen on his head, and his chest was heaving, suggesting he might still be breathing…

The woman's gaze fell on the cane again. As if sensing something, her expression changed slightly, and her grip on the knife tightened unconsciously.

"I stopped this guy for you... Now you owe me two favors."

With a light tone, Yashiro released her right hand and tapped the masked man's body with her cane. "Speaking of which, although I'm not the kind of person who expects something in return for doing good deeds, since I helped you, you should at least say thank you, right? A thank you doesn't cost money."

"..."

The woman still did not respond.

Yashiro frowned slightly. The other party's attitude was not friendly, but she did not sense any murderous intent or hostility from them. Just as she was about to say something, a strange guess suddenly came to her mind: "Let me make this clear beforehand, I'm not being sarcastic... Could it be that you are mute?"

It's no wonder she explained beforehand; if you only listened to the sentence, it sounded very much like mockery. But the woman wasn't angry at all; instead, she visibly relaxed, a look of relief on her face. She nodded vigorously and managed to utter what was probably the only sound she could make, "Ah..."

"..."

Yashiro fell silent as well.

In this vast world, how could a blind woman like her have to run into a mute man... What kind of situation is this!

……

Chapter 123 New Acquaintances and Old Friends

A blind man seeing a mute—the gestures are incomprehensible.

This proverb, which she had only glimpsed in her past life, had now become a reality, leaving Yashiro feeling utterly helpless. As the saying goes, the eyes are the windows to the soul, but her windows were closed; language is the bridge of communication, but that bridge was broken… What could she do?!

I should have brought Minji Maru with me... But leaving Mio alone with Fujikichiro, not to mention whether the little girl would be happy, I myself am not too at ease. So no matter what, I still can't avoid this awkward situation of being "alone" and speechless.

The atmosphere became incredibly awkward.

But remaining silent like this wasn't a good idea, so Yashiro finally raised a hand to rub her temples, sighed softly, and spoke up first: "Alright, in short, my name is Yashiro, and as you can see, I'm just a kind passerby. As for you... since it's inconvenient for you, how about I ask and you answer, responding with a nod or a shake of the head?"

"...?" The woman was slightly taken aback.

"Don't worry, although I can't see, thanks to God's mercy, my hearing is a little better than normal, and I can barely detect your movements..." Yashiro tapped his ears and smiled. "First of all, the person who was hiding in that forest earlier today, that should be you, right?"

"……"nod.

"So, you were hiding in that forest when we left, and instead of following us to the castle town, you took advantage of the fact that some of them were out searching to launch a surprise attack on this camp and go on a killing spree... The smell of blood in the wind is so strong, there must have been a lot of deaths. I guess they're all dead?"

"..." The woman nodded first, then shook her head.