Chapter 54: The whole tent was covered with swords, but no swords were shaken. The reason was——
"Well, is it really okay?" The leader came up to him and said stealthily.
But even in this situation, his expression did not look anxious. He was even eager to open the paper door and take a look.
"Since they can't get in, it should be safe."
Qian Jianmu glanced at him and ignored his eager hands. But even though he didn't stop him, Dazai Osamu didn't open the paper door after all. He just made a light "huh" sound, which seemed quite boring.
There was a constant knock on the door outside, but since I couldn't get in, it didn't matter. The scariest thing in a supernatural story is never someone knocking on the door outside but someone knocking on the door inside. The former can make people frightened for a short time, while the latter can make people frightened until they die.
Qian Jianmu took out his cell phone, which still had signal. His cell phone was the latest model with a flashlight function. By turning on the flashlight, he could barely see what was going on inside the small room.
This is a very small room, probably just used to store some sundries on weekdays. The contents of the box had hardly been touched and the box was covered in dust.
The room was only a few square meters and had a very small window. Looking out of the window, one could see the entire lifeless shrine. Looking down, there was a circle of figures of all sizes surrounding the castle tower. But these shadows just stood there quietly, occasionally walking aimlessly in a certain direction, and occasionally stopping, with no logic in their behavior.
The bedroom is not here, but next to it. However, the castle tower was not built with windowsills or other protrusions facing outwards, so it was impossible to jump to the bedroom. The little fox that was calling before also became silent. It seemed that it would not be able to leave the room at least in the short term.
The time is eleven o'clock at night, and there are still seven hours.
After investigating the environment, I turned around and saw the leader Zai squatting next to a box, looking for something.
"They are toiletries, but all of them have not been used." He took out a pack of towels and looked at them again and again.
"It looks like no one has been here for a long time."
The leader didn't comment, just snorted softly.
Some data came to his mind intermittently. Qian Jianmu rubbed his temples, but he was not in a hurry to chat with the literary world.
Although this world is a fusion of the world of literary masters and the world of foxes, it seems that the world of foxes occupies most of the authority within the shrine. In other words, the so-called shrine no longer belongs to the world of literary masters, but to another world.
"The time ratio is 1:30. It will be safer in seven hours. Can I take you back during the day?"
No wonder the transmission time is so urgent. 48 minutes in the literary world is one day here, and the safe time is only 14 hours, which means a turn is almost every half an hour.
Originally, they should have arrived here during the day, but the leader dragged him for a few minutes and spent some time passing through the cracks, so it was delayed until night.
"Thirty times?" The leader thought for a moment. "It's not urgent. I'm curious about the matter concerning the shogun, and the so-called deal to save Odasaku..."
"So you can go back by yourself?" Ignoring the leader's vague inquiries, Qian Jianmu took off his blood-stained coat. Fortunately, Zero has a certain synthesis function, and after wasting some energy points, new clothes appeared on his body.
"Well, I've been discovered." Although there was a hint of smile in his tone, the young man's expression was terrifyingly calm, and there was an indescribable sense of disconnection in his whole body. Although he was somewhat curious about the fact that he changed his clothes, he did not seem to have the desire to explore it.
"Very capable, Mu-kun." He smiled.
Hearing this, Sengenmaku slightly blocked the flashlight with his hand and only used the remaining light to shine at Dazai Osamu. The young man in black had found a clean place to lean against, with his elbows resting on the box, his eyelids drooping lazily, looking listless.
Dazai Osamu, the leader of the port mafia, wore an extremely high-end and expensive hand-made suit. Most of these suits only maintained static elegance and nobility, and would be uncomfortable if there was a slight movement. However, perhaps because the young man had a superior physique and good manners, he was not too constrained by his indecent posture. Compared to this tailor-made suit, the red scarf around his neck is not made of expensive material. It is draped lazily on his body, but it inexplicably feels heavy.
There was still his blood on the black clothes, and when the light shone on them, it reflected a bright black and red light.
Chijianmu walked up to the leader, squatted slightly, wanted to say something but felt that this posture was not good, so he simply sat next to Dazai Osamu. The leader raised his eyelids and glanced at him, but didn't care much.
"Well, even though I always ask you if you want to be the leader, it seems that Chuuya is more suitable now."
"......? Him?" The leader finally revealed a more distinct expression, an expression that was a mixture of questioning and disgust. "That guy is totally helpless."
"Eh... Actually it's pretty good. You also said that Chuuya has become smarter. He made GSS suffer a big loss a few years ago."
"Wow, I never expected that." The leader made a bitter face, as if he didn't want to mention this person at all. "Just the 'filth' is enough to give me a headache. No matter how much I warn him, he won't listen. A dog is smarter than him. He starts to show his teeth after a few words. Sooner or later, he will die in a corner. It would be reassuring if he died casually, but I don't want the port mafia that I worked so hard to run to be blown to pieces."
"...dirty?" Qian Jianmu was stunned.
The leader Zaiye paused slightly, he slowly raised his eyes and looked at Qian Jianmu.
"Your Nakahara Chuuya has not opened the filth until today?"
“…”
“…”
Originally, they were just trying to spy on each other's understanding of the world line, but Nakahara Chuuya has never mentioned the matter of dirtiness until now, which is obviously much more important.
World line progression is just different development paths for the same people in different environments. However, Chuuya Nakahara's own special ability is more like an unsolvable fate. It is impossible for any world to bypass the gate of hell called "filth".
Nakahara Chuuya should have known the method of opening the filth very early, but he only started to use it officially when he met Dazai Osamu during the Arahatsu incident. But so far, Nakahara Chuuya has joined the Port Mafia for several months, but he has never used filth once, nor has he mentioned the matter of filth to anyone.
His mind turned slightly, and the whole room fell silent.
...So, the results of book writing optimization have actually appeared, right...?
They explained to the leader what they had done. The leader was stunned. After a long while, he slowly buried his face in his palms and laughed.
"Hahaha, he writes poetry? Hahahaha Nakahara Chuuya writes poetry? What does he write? The song of the dwarf? Hahaha actually, is it actually like this? Hahahaha..."
But after laughing, Dazai Osamu calmed down completely. He leaned quietly against the wall, tapping the ground with his fingertips, and lowered his eyes to the ground. There was no extra color, just pure rational coldness.
"...But it will still appear. Nakahara Chuuya will definitely use 'Filth', it's just a matter of whether he can control himself." He analyzed in a low voice: "Poetry... tsk... cough cough poetry is just an insurance for him, making it easier for him to control himself. It is impossible for the higher stage of supernatural power to disappear."
"I will deal with this matter later, but..." Qian Jianmu frowned, and the next moment, his eyes paused and he turned his head away.
"…Are you feeling unwell?"
"…Hmm? Is there?"
Hearing this, the young man looked at him in confusion, with the word "innocent" written on his face. Apart from his pale skin that had turned pale over the years, his body was relaxed, his expression normal, and even his heartbeat was very steady. If Sengenmaku had not really been friends with Dazai Osamu for many years, he would probably have been unaware of anything.
"...Dazai Osamu had the same expression when he did something bad. He was completely exposed." Chigenmaku sighed deeply.
“Ah…eh?”
Without giving the leader any chance to quibble, Qian Jianmu reached out and grabbed the leader's wrist. The leader struggled slightly, and suddenly remembered how he had just been carried on his back. His face twisted slightly, and he thought that he probably couldn't beat the man in front of him, so he simply stopped moving, and even his heartbeat was gone. He was like a cat that had given up struggling, and let Qian Jianmu reach out and touch his forehead and neck.
"Low fever, cold sweat, rapid heart rate..." With his brows tightly frowned, Chijianmu touched Dazai Osamu lightly and just enough. Finally, he held Dazai Osamu's wrist artery and counted his pulse. After a few minutes, he let out a breath with a heavy face.
The leader just let him do what he wanted, observing him calmly with a pair of red eyes, wanting to see what this man could say with great interest.
Then he saw Qian Jianmu shaking his head sadly, turned around, unwrapped two clean white towels, and covered his head with them.
Leader Zai (his eyes go dark) (tilts his head): “Hmm?”
Chiganemaku: "...You prefer covering the national flag? Are you more patriotic after becoming the leader?"
Leader Zai: "I'm not dead yet."
Qian Jianmu: "Then you die now."
Leader Zai: "...It's not that serious actually."
However, despite saying this, the leader Zai showed one eye, buried most of his body in the white towel, and even complained.
“This towel is not moldy.”
“…Is this all you want to say?”
"It's a pity that there's no poison. I've been trying very hard to smell it..."
“…”
There was no time to pay attention to him. Qian Jianmu was trying to make a coat with Zero, and the leader's figure was really hard to estimate. Although he has the aura of a 2.8-meter-tall man, he is very thin upon closer inspection. But even such a thin person is 182cm tall, and Qian Jianmu himself is only 176cm tall...
In the end, he could only expand his data again and again to make a large feather jacket, planning to let the leader change his blood-stained clothes.
When I turned around again, the leader was leaning against the wall and sleeping with his head tilted.
It’s not that strange. The dark circles under Dazai Osamu’s eyes are hard to ignore, and his obviously fast pulse is also a symptom of staying up late for a long time. But it was surprisingly heartless that he could sleep peacefully while a group of big men were banging on the door outside.
“Is this true…?”
Qian Jianmu pushed him, and the man fell over the wall, pressing on him and unable to move.
“…”
...This is not the way people who are asleep look...
This doesn't look like sleeping, it looks like death.
As long as the person in front of him is Dazai Osamu, it is enough to give him a headache no matter what age he is. Chigenmaku is too lazy to complain anymore, so he simply puts his coat on the two of them and quietly serves as a pillow.
The person outside the door knocked on the door for a while, and the knocking gradually became lighter. However, that inexplicable feeling of visual oppression still exists. Even a person with the dullest sense cannot say that there is no one outside the door. Qian Jianmu judged that there might be a group of people standing outside the door, so he did nothing but stood there quietly, his empty eyes penetrating the thin wall and paper door and falling on him.
He moved his fingers slightly and slowly closed his eyes.
...It looks really bad...
**
Years of weakness and pain, coupled with the emotional stimulation of the great escape, allowed the leader to continue the investigation, but for some reason, he did not have the spirit to do so.
Pretending to be asleep is real, and not knowing when you will actually fall asleep is also real.
He hasn't slept much in four years since he became the leader of the port mafia. He suffers from severe insomnia. Most of the time, he closes his eyes not to sleep, but to quietly construct a bar without friends in the cracks of time and space through books, or slowly read stories from other worlds, trying to squeeze out more details of his interactions with friends from a few words, and carefully taste a relaxing sweetness from daily conversations.
Knowing that his world is a parallel world is not enough to make Dazai Osamu angry, and Dazai Osamu has no intention of exploring the origin. His spirit had long been cut down, leaving only a single goal. His lifeline would end when the goal was achieved, and he didn't want to think about anything else.
So when he woke up, the leader looked at the pale sky outside the small window in a daze. The cold wind of the early morning blew in from the window. He was tightly wrapped in a very loose coat. The coat was very thick, and except for the numbness in the extremities of his limbs, he did not feel a trace of coldness.
The white-haired young man was leaning against the paper door. His medium-length white hair, which was originally tied up neatly, was a little messy and looked particularly furry.
The young man was resting with his eyes slightly closed, but when he noticed his gaze, he raised his eyes and looked at him.
He has a pair of beautiful golden eyes.
The light golden color, when viewed against the light, can't help but warm one's heart. But there was no warmth in his eyes when he raised his head, but rather a calmness stripped of all emotions, with a rather unmechanical and creepy feeling. Fortunately, he blinked the next moment, and the overly cold calmness suddenly disappeared, and a trace of relaxation that often appeared in daily life reappeared.
"Awake? Just in time," he said.
The leader was still a little sleepy, and he uttered a low, nasal sound of pure doubt:
"……Um?"
"It will be safe at six in the morning, so...what the hell is going to happen?"
The white-haired young man smiled slightly. He faced the door, tilted his head slightly, his pupils slid to the corners of his eyes, still looking at him.
There it is again, that feeling.
Leader Zai is not Dazai Osamu. The means he uses to deal with the darkness are far beyond the reach of the fifteen-year-old Dazai Osamu. And his terrifying growth rate after achieving his goal is enough to allow him to reorganize and mark many things that Dazai Osamu would ignore.
Obviously they are human beings, with flesh and blood and warmth. But this person always reveals a strong sense of inhumanity when he is not paying attention. That feeling exists subtly, but disappears once communication occurs, as if it is an over-intentioned illusion.
Thinking this in his mind, Leader Zai propped himself up and walked to Qian Jianmu. There was a mobile phone with a lit screen on the ground. Leader Zai rarely saw such an old model of mobile phone, but when he thought about it carefully, he hadn't used a mobile phone for a long time. The time was displayed on the phone, and there were still a few minutes left until six o'clock.
"Will it become a real person?" He responded with a nonchalant smile on his face. He knew that even if Qian Jianmu could sense his perfunctory attitude, he would not care.
As expected, Qian Jianmu didn't care at all and was calm and tolerant to an abnormal degree.
"It might be better to become a real person..."
…
This indifferent attitude is no longer clear whether it is overly selfish or overly gentle. It's even a little 'anthropomorphic', which gives it a different kind of horror.
After taking off the uncomfortable suit jacket, the leader put on the loose coat and thought absentmindedly.
Don’t you find anything wrong? Is that Dazai Osamu an idiot?
**
Five seconds left until six o'clock.
It had been quiet outside the door for a long time, without any sound, but I could be sure that there was someone there. This vague ghost-like feeling is enough to make the scalp of anyone with poor psychological endurance tingle.
Although he had determined that nothing would happen, Qian Jianmu was still prepared to take the leader away. He held his breath slightly and suddenly opened the paper door.
The lighting on the second floor of the castle tower was very good. The moment he opened the door, sunlight shone in from the window in the corridor. It was not until this moment that Chigenmu knew exactly how many people were outside the door last night.
There were nearly twenty people standing in the corridor, so densely packed that there was almost no place to stand. Even with light I couldn't see his face clearly, I could only barely make out the color of his clothes.
The sound of him opening the door obviously startled them, and the standing shadows turned their heads slightly, as if "looking" at him. But before they could move, as six o'clock arrived, all the shadows' bodies gradually became illusory.
From bottom to top, the men in black began to melt. The shadows gradually turned into black spots of light and dissipated into the air. After just thirty seconds, there were no shadows in the corridor, as if everything that happened last night was an illusion.
"...Oh no, it's not a real person." Qianjianmu turned his head and smiled.
The leader was wearing a loose black coat, which made him look very young. When it was daybreak, I noticed some blood on the bandage on his face, but it had dried, leaving only a black scar. The leader looked at him for a while and sighed with an ambiguous meaning.
……?
Before he could utter a word, he heard a crackling sound coming from the bedroom next door. The paper door was opened, and a small orange-yellow creature that looked very much like a Tibetan fox flew out. It was noticed by the leader Zai and kicked away with its leg. It hit the wall, slid down whimpering, and fell to the ground.
“Wow!! I’m so glad you’re okay, Shinsengumi…”
The little fox obviously didn't hold a grudge. It rolled over and ignored the leader who was about to jump into Qian Jianmu's arms. Qian Jianmu took a step back to show his resistance.
Seeing that he was being rejected, the little fox was petrified on the spot. The face that looked like a fox but had a big mouth that was totally unsatisfactory, and that looked like a Tibetan fox but had big eyes, showed a bit of sadness in a very human way. But he quickly recovered and sat up straight.
"Hello, Shinsengumi! I am Kitsunesuke from Honmaru! I am responsible for helping you convey instructions, provide information, and communicate with the Government of Time! It was so thrilling that we actually arrived at Honmaru at night. Next time, Shinsengumi must remember not to leave the bedroom after eight o'clock. Although the other rooms on the second floor can provide shelter, they are not suitable for rest!"
Kitsunesuke blabbed a lot and then scratched his head with his claws in a very human way.
"Well, I'm sorry, Shinsengumi, there is no Ichiban sword in Honmaru at the moment. If you want food, please go to the kitchen, or go to the Temaki room to repair it now, that is..."
In the year 2205 AD, a group of time criminals called "Historical Revisionists" attempted to achieve a certain goal by changing history. These revisionists formed an extremely large time-travel army of 480 million troops, launching attacks on various historical nodes.
In order to deal with historical revisionists, this world has established the Time Government, which recruits spiritually-powered "Shinsen" to catalyze the growth of "Sword Fusangjin" to fight against the Time March in history and protect history.
The above is the superficial background of this world.
Yes, there was specific information about the general situation of historical revisionism, the attack methods, the composition of the government of time, the origin of the Shinsengumi, the identity of the swordsman Tsukumogami, etc., which Kitsunesuke skimmed over very easily.
The leader leaned against the wall and sneered softly.
Kitsunesuke is a little fox distributed by the Time Government. He is responsible for the liaison between the new Shinsengumi and the Time Government and provides some basic guidance. It seemed to hate the leader, glared at him, and carefully moved to Qianjianmu's feet.
"Well, Shinsengumi, don't lose heart. Although the situation is urgent now, we have all the swords in our Honmaru, but their condition... is not very good. As long as the Ichiran sword can be repaired, Shinsengumi will be much more relaxed!"
“…”
There is no sword and the sword is complete and can be used side by side.
Qian Jianmu already had a subtle feeling that something was wrong.
You can ask for specific information later. Just from the few words of this little thing, you can clearly see that this fox doesn't know a lot of things. It was trying hard to describe the situation, but a lot of the information seemed to be cut off. Rather than being an animal, it was more like a robot loaded with a fixed information program.
"…Take me to see it first."
...Tsukumogami is also a god, right?
The little fox jumped twice and began to grunt as he led the way for them. The shrine during the day is not as creepy as the shrine at night. Although it still lacks the necessary vitality, the sunlight can still bring some warmth. The little fox tilted his head to look at him.
"The Shinsengumi seems to have not registered its spiritual power yet... Strange, didn't the Government of Time register it in advance? I'll register the Shinsengumi's spiritual power later. After the spiritual power is registered, the Honmaru will return to normal. The current Honmaru is just in a static state because it has no spiritual power..."
There are many houses near the castle tower, some of which are residential and classified according to areas. Some are functional rooms, such as the large hall and the hand-entrance room. The room standing alone was the size of two houses, and seemed to be two rooms put together.
Kitsunesuke jumped to the door of the temple room and squatted down to explain.
"Well, when a sword is damaged, it will be put here for hand-in. There should be a forging room here, but because it is now a full sword tent, the forging room has been cancelled? Well...so..." Kitsunesuke's expression revealed a little embarrassment and hesitation, and he seemed a little uneasy.
“…”
It’s not good. It’s very not good.
Qian Jianmu sighed softly and pushed open the door to the room.
Although these houses appear to be of medium size from the outside, once you walk in, you'll find that the interior space is exceptionally large.
There are several separate white tables in the Tether's room. Kitsunenosuke introduced that this is the workplace when the Shinsengumi personally gives the sword Tether. Passing through several white platforms, you can see a huge pool at a glance.
"Well... when the Shinsengumi has no time to repair their swords, the sword men can enter the repair pool and repair themselves, but it will take a long time... um..." Kitsunesuke introduced stubbornly.
Qian Jianmu stood at the edge of the hand-in-hand pool and fell into deathly silence.
"...Hmm..." Kitsunesuke didn't know what to say.
“Puchi...Hahahaha…” Leader Zai came over to take a look and couldn’t help laughing out loud. His smile was no longer as unbridled as when he was a teenager, but the corners of his mouth, which were covered by his hands, were raised wildly, and the mockery in it was obvious at a glance.
"That's it... The hand-in-pond probably can't be used anymore. The Shinsengumi need to repair them one by one..." Kitsunesuke buried his head between his claws.
“…”
Qian Jianmu remained silent.
In the huge pool made of gray-white stones, there was a clear unknown liquid with a faint and extremely weak light. At the bottom of this large amount of clear liquid, at the bottom of this huge pool...
It was so huge that it was difficult to distinguish, almost broken into thousands of pieces.
These beautiful, sharp swords were broken and mixed up to a degree that was impossible to repair. The entire bottom of the pool was covered with silver or gray blades. Even though they were submerged in the clear liquid, the cold light in them was hard to ignore.
"...How many knives are there in total?" Qian Jianmu asked softly after a long time.
"...More than one hundred and eighty vibrations." Kitsunesuke answered obediently.
"How do I fix it?" he asked again.
"...Well, put the swords together, and then use spiritual power to mend them, and that's it..." Kitsunesuke became weaker and weaker as he spoke.
The leader was laughing so hard that his whole body was shaking and he couldn't stop.
...repaired more than 180 vibration knives from thousands of fragments...and the fragments were very sharp and could not be easily handled, so they had to be carefully selected.
The world is one giant jigsaw puzzle.
Chiganmaku took a deep breath, turned his head and looked at Dazai Osamu.
"You're in no hurry to go back, are you?"
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