Chapter 35: Sneaking into the Campus and Encountering the Enemy
"This is simply outrageous!"
"Wow—Humura, calm down, calm down."
I grabbed my hair hard, ignoring the fact that my long hair had become a mess, and paced back and forth at home.
"How dare he...?! At least talk to someone about this kind of thing?!"
"Master, don't be angry. It's not cute for a girl to have that Niou-like expression!"
"I am now the statue of Nio!"
"Maybe Sanlang-kun just didn't think that much?"
What Ishikirimaru said made sense, but it was still annoying! "Is his brain just a decoration? Is it empty??"
"Uh... this... he seems a little..."
Hotaru came over and hugged my waist: "Don't be angry, Xiaoyan, you can pat my head."
"Ah..." I patted my big sword's head and gritted my teeth when I thought of my stupid brother: "If only Saburo could be as obedient as Hotaru."
"Maybe he just doesn't want to worry the Lord."
The usually taciturn Kotobuki suddenly said something, then fell silent again and sat quietly on the chair.
His calm demeanor calmed my furious mind a little.
The reason wasn't that I really thought Saburo wouldn't want me to worry, but I remembered Kotobuki's own situation.
As one of the swords that was modified in the Honmaru, it was once a naginata. Due to a fire and being sharpened, it has now become a wakizashi and has even lost all its previous memories.
Well, to be honest, I feel a little guilty.
After all, I once said to Kotobuki, "Even if I have no memories of the past, it's okay to create memories now." The person who said this cool line was none other than me!
But I ended up recovering my memory first... Ugh! Even though Ayuo told me it's okay and Kotobuki won't mind, I just can't let it go!
"How about you go talk to Saburo tomorrow?" Ishikirimaru saw me standing still and came over to help me straighten my clothes. "Hotsumaru, Kotobuki, Ran, I can even accompany you. If anything unexpected happens, the master can respond promptly."
"Humph, he said everything is fine, why should I bother to meddle in his business?"
If you have that much time, you might as well call Toushirou or go shopping with Jinghua. The tennis club is about to have the county competition, so everyone's training intensity has doubled.
"That idiot loves whatever he wants..."
"Okay, okay, don't be angry."
"Master, Master, let me give you some red bean ice."
"Your hair is messy and not cute anymore. Let me comb it for you."
As he said that, he pulled me to sit on the chair and began to carefully comb my already messy hair with a comb.
He carefully removed the hair tie that was bunched up with my hair and put it in my hand.
The hairband is decorated with a plastic disc with a funny smiley face on it. It was a birthday gift that Sanlang gave me when I was a child.
It was the first birthday present I received from someone else, and it was also the happiest birthday I had before becoming a Shinsengumi.
……elder brother.
Kotobuki stood beside me and asked softly, "Are you really not going?"
“…”
Of course that's impossible.
"...Sigh..." In the end, I skipped class the next day and came to Tokyo with Kotobuki Toushirou and Hotaru.
"Master, master, please stop sighing."
"Thank you, Hotaru, but, well..." He had rushed to Tokyo in a frenzy, but he actually had no idea what Saburo was doing and didn't even know where to start investigating. "Am I being too arbitrary?"
"I don't think so."
"Yeah, the master is not stupid."
The two knives were one tall and one short, one had an expressionless face and the other had an innocent look, and both pairs of eyes were staring at me.
"...Anyway, let's go to Saburo's school first!"
Since we have no clue, we might as well start investigating directly from the person involved. I remember that Zhiwan Anwu transferred to their class.
The weather is nice today. Except for a few classes having physical education classes on the playground, most middle school students are still attending classes in the teaching building.
"Master, I've reached the rooftop of Teaching Building C."
"Thank you for your hard work, Kotobuki." I took Hotaru and hid behind a tree outside the school. "How was it? Can you see Saburo's class?"
I once heard from that idiot kid who skipped classes all day that their classroom overlooked the roof of another old, half-abandoned school building, where there were many ghost stories. He even told me a lot of scary stories about it. But I wasn't afraid of them at all, after all, I had been going out on the battlefield more often by then.
"Yes, but I didn't see your brother. However..." Through the phone, Kotobuki Toushirou's voice sounded a little hesitant. "I sensed a strange spiritual power."
Miraculous spiritual power?
"Huh? But Hotamaru, I didn't feel anything."
I stuck my head out and looked closely at the school where Saburo was studying.
It's strange, from outside the school, there really isn't much change from before.
"I really can't feel it outside the school, but as I get closer to Building B... the more... I feel... Master..."
The sound on the phone suddenly became intermittent, and even Gu Ku's voice became blurred.
Bad signal? But this phone was specially modified by that unscrupulous businessman Urahara Kisuke!
“Who…?!”
"Hello? Bones? Bones?!"
With a low shout from the young man, the communication was completely cut off.
“…Hotsugumaru!”
"oh!"
Without saying anything extra, Hotaru and I quickly entered the school through the sparsely populated wall on the side.
As Kokugami had said, if you were outside the school, you wouldn't notice anything unusual. However, once you stepped onto the campus, before your feet even touched the ground, you could feel the strange spiritual energy flowing through the ground.
It was like a light breeze, or a gurgling stream, but mixed in it was the faint black air that could not be ignored.
This is outrageous! What's going on in this school?! It wasn't like this when I came to see Saburo before!
Building C, being the old teaching building, was actually closer to the wall we'd breached. Distributing my spiritual energy through my legs, Hotaru and I quickly rushed into the teaching building, one in front and one behind.
"Hmm...! Master, there's a barrier here."
Hotaru didn't need to tell me; I could feel it too. A reiatsu, even more intense than the one inside the school, enveloped the entire building from within.
“Who is it!”
Hotaru let out a soft cry, and instantly unsheathed the large sword he carried with him, slashing in a certain direction—
The cabinet placed in the corridor was instantly cut in half, and at the same time, a small black shadow rushed out.
"Huh? They're a little girl and a child?"
Standing in front of Hotaru and me was a black cat with mandarin duck eyes and a butterfly ribbon tied around its neck.
"Mayako and Hime both said there might be accomplices out there, but you're too young, and besides, you're human, right?"
"...Black, Black Cat?"
"Wow! The black cat can actually talk, just like the little fox."
"Huh?!" In the blink of an eye, the talking black cat disappeared. A sturdy, handsome man with pink spiky hair suddenly appeared in front of us. "What fox? I'm a cat! Don't compare me to those canines!"
“………………”
"Master, why is he wearing a bow?"
I don't know either!
No, are you the black cat from before? You call yourself a cat-yamata, have two-dimensional eyes, and wear the same bell. Sure enough, you are the cat-yamata from before! But why... why...
"Why is your hair pink?! Aren't you black?!"
"……ha?"
And why is he still wearing that bow tie even though he's become a human? Ah... How strange, the combination of a muscular man and a bow tie. Especially since he's wearing a vest with "Sir" written in calligraphy on it, it just looks so manly.
No, no, I'm getting goosebumps. I've never seen such a weird combination in my life! Even Jiro's oiran dress is so weird!
"Stop! My master asked me to wear this, and I like it, isn't that okay?"
The muscular man seemed a little shy.
"Uh, no, it's not impossible." I took a step back and raised my right hand. "It just caused a little visual shock for us. Sorry, I didn't expect the black cat's humanoid form to have pink hair."
It's too weird, is this a monster?
At this moment, the sound of fierce sword collision came from somewhere.
Bone Eater!
"Oh! You two can't go through there." The pink-haired cat took the lead again, blocking the path up the stairs and stretching his shoulders. "Black Rose doesn't like her battles to be interrupted, especially when her opponent is quite interesting. This brat next to you isn't human either, is he?"
He stuck out his lips towards Hotaru and said, "I smell it. The smell of flesh and blood is very faint, but the smell of metal mixed with blood is very strong... This is the first time I've seen something like this. It's called a Tsukumogami, right?"
"What do you want to do by approaching witches and ghosts?"
...What witches and ghosts? What is this guy talking about?
"Master, this guy is very strong." Hotaru held the large sword horizontally in front of him. Facing the tall pink-haired cat demon, he looked even smaller. "It's the same upstairs. There's a bad smell. I hate that feeling."
"Oh, you're quite perceptive." Perhaps because Hotaru and I didn't seem threatening, the cat demon, despite radiating immense power, didn't attack. "That brat's true form is a sword, right? Against Black Rose's flames, there's basically no hope of returning. The same goes for you two. I don't hit girls or children, so just confess and I'll get some leniency."
...What did he just say?
What is Black Rose? Flame? But the swords fighting above are Bones.
Kotobuki was once burned by fire.
"Sixty-three Thunder Roar Cannons of the Broken Path!!" The body acted before the mind.
"Owner?!"
“Wow—?!”
I heard a loud sound of lightning hitting something. I pulled up Yingwan, exerted force with my feet, and rushed directly to the second floor through the gap created by the Leihou Cannon.
Where is the place where Kotobuki fights the enemy? ! !
-----------------------
Author's Note: Homura is furious because her brother is hiding something very serious. Did I mention before that she has a pretty bad temper?
For Yan, whose father is a worthless person and whose mother died young, her aunt and cousin are arguably her most important family members in the real world, aside from her sword. Of course, as can be seen in the previous chapters, the care and love Jiu Jing and her son have for her is genuine. It's precisely because of this genuine affection that she's so concerned and concerned.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
