It's still morning, in the west courtyard, in a certain guest room.
Kumagai's state was the same as when he visited Musashi and Tokumaru. He faced the three people in front of him in a very standard Japanese sitting posture.
But the three people in front of him were not as serious as him.
Keijiro was fine, sitting cross-legged for the time being, but Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai were both half-lying and half-sitting, as if they were eating snacks and reading comics on the floor of their home.
"Can you three introduce yourself to your family first?" Xiong Gu saw that these three people were not very polite to him, so his tone of voice became less polite.
"Oh, easy to talk about." Keijiro didn't mind this attitude. He just smiled boldly and said bluntly, "I am Keijiro from Owari. Please give me some advice."
After he finished speaking, Sun and Huang, who were staggering around, began to introduce each other in a slightly unhappy tone...
"This guy's name is Kameda Kazumi."
"This guy's name is Edo Xudong."
Because the virtues of these two guys were really a bit unsatisfactory, after they finished these two sentences, an ashigaru standing behind Kumagai couldn't bear it anymore and shouted at them on the spot: "Damn you two!
, to be so rude to Mr. Kumagai!"
"Hey~" But Xiong Gu was still calm. He immediately turned around to stop his subordinates and said, "Forget it, since we are all martial arts practitioners, we don't need to be so particular about etiquette..."
His words, on the one hand, prevented his subordinates from having unnecessary disputes with the other party, and on the other hand, they were also a test.
As a military commander who has experienced many battles, Kumagai could basically determine by observing Keijiro's hands that the "Vermillion Spear" placed in the corner of the room at the moment was the weapon used by this young man, and he could also see
It can be concluded that Keijiro is very skilled.
But, the other two... are not very easy to judge.
You could say they were ordinary people. Their bodies looked much stronger than those of the low-level soldiers behind Kumagai. In that era, it was impossible for ordinary civilians and workers to have such a body shape.
But if you say they are warriors, the tone of these two people is so casual and rude, as if they are suffering from illness.
Therefore, Xiong Gu wanted to use these words to probe and see how the other party would respond.
Originally, with how old Sun and Huang were, they would never take on him, but now they have Keijiro by their side...
This guy is real. He laughed and said at that time: "Hahaha! As expected of an adult, you can actually tell at a glance that the three of us are also martial arts practitioners. I admire you."
As soon as Keijiro said these words, he heard two "pengpeng" sounds. Sun and Huang next to them seemed to have been knocked down, and they both immediately fell to the ground.
Some people may want to complain when they see this: What are you doing here? Are the two brothers here to perform Yoshimoto's new comedy?
Of course not...
In fact, Xiong Gu's guess just now was correct. Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai were indeed ill at this time. They were forced to put on the half-lying and half-sitting posture to deal with Xiong Gu; they thought that they would be done with it.
When they lay down again, Keijiro would break their strength with just one sentence, so they simply stopped holding on and lay flat.
"You two, is there anything wrong?" Xiong Gu thought they were putting on airs with him, and immediately asked in a somewhat annoyed tone.
"Have loose bowels."
"gout."
The answers of the two people on the ground were also concise and to the point, directly pointing out their "improperties".
"Well..." Seeing that the other party answered so readily and so reasonably, Xiong Gu felt a little enlightened, "It turns out that you two are ill..."
That's what he said, but Kumagai didn't completely believe the other party. After all, his words were unfounded. What if the two of them were pretending to be sick to clear themselves of the suspicion of committing the crime?
"But even so..." Xiong Gu paused, then continued, "I still have to ask, what have the three of you done from when you checked in yesterday to this morning?"
Here, because he had heard Miyamoto Musashi's testimony before, Kumagai did not just ask the three of them "what they did between midnight last night and this morning" like he asked the others, but extended the time range again.
"Huh? When you come here, of course you just eat, soak in hot springs, and sleep. What else can you do?" Keijiro answered immediately in a matter-of-fact tone, but his answer had the same feeling as if he had said it but not said it.
Sun Yixie, who was paralyzed on the ground, responded feebly: "I originally did these three things, but because I had a gout attack after dinner, I could only lie down and didn't even sleep well."
Huang Donglai continued: "I was even worse than him. After we arrived yesterday afternoon, the three of us had a late lunch. Not long after the meal, I kept running back and forth between the room and the toilet. It took me until midnight to recover. The hot springs were all
Didn’t take a dip.”
"Oh?" After hearing what they said, Kumagai thought for a while, and then said, "This is a bit strange. Normally, the three of you should eat the same food, but Kameda-kun and Edo-kun, both of you are so different because of the food.
He fell ill, but Keijiro was the only one who was fine. This..."
"What's so strange about this?" Sun Yixie lay there and continued, "We can't generalize about people's physiques. The disease 'gout' is inherently a human problem, just like some people are prone to stones in their bodies, and some people are prone to it.
Athlete's foot is the same. Even if you eat the same food, some people may get it and others may not."
"That's right." Huang Donglai also looked at the ceiling and said, "I have also had a bad stomach since I was a child. I have to go to the toilet more than ordinary people on weekdays. It is normal for me to have a bigger reaction after eating too much sashimi yesterday."
Xiong Gu listened to the explanations of these two people, raised his eyes, and asked a very crucial question: "According to what you said, you two knew from the beginning that you would probably get sick after eating and drinking, so why did you
How about knowingly committing the crime?"
"Because Keijiro said that he will pay for the expenses here." The next second, Sun and Huang said this answer in unison.
This kind of answer was like "Don't you eat enough at the buffet?", plus the two people dared to say this in front of Keijiro, and their confident and shameless attitude made Kumagai a little unable to react.
Already.
"Hahahaha..." Keijiro was amused by the two people's answers, and even slapped his thigh with joy.
From Keijiro's point of view, being taken advantage of in terms of paying for meals is nothing. After all, he himself said that he wanted to treat yesterday. If someone wants to eat more of you, you will regret it and even feel dissatisfied.
, then how can he be called a "hero"?
On the contrary, it was the "honesty" of Sun and Huang who could easily tell things that ordinary people would be embarrassed to say, which made Keijiro feel very valuable.
Of course, what Keijiro didn't know was that these two guys, Shuang Hua, were also just "picking up the pieces". It was precisely because they met such a straight-tempered person like Keijiro that they didn't care to speak out clearly. If it had been changed today
If you make friends with Kumagai, their sense of proportion will change; to put it simply... if you are honest, then they can be honest with you, but if you are hypocritical, then they are far more hypocritical than you.
"Sir, you see, this is what happened." Keijiro finished laughing and then continued, "I wonder if you are satisfied with our answer?"
Kumagai took a look at these three lunatics and it seemed like birds of a feather flocked together. It seemed like he didn't need to ask about alibi anymore - neither Musashi nor Tokumaru had a definite alibi just now, but these three could at least testify to each other.
"Okay..." Xiong Gu curled his lips, "Then I'll leave too."
…………
After a while, another room.
In this room, lived two monks, or to be more precise, two "monk soldiers".
During the Warring States Period, it was not uncommon for monks to travel with weapons. They were usually backed by certain sects, and daimyo from various places would not take the initiative to provoke these people.
But today, if this happened, these two monk soldiers must also be included in the suspect list.
"First meeting, young monk Ajafang Yigen. This is my junior brother Xinggen. Both of us are disciples of the Yixiang Sect." When asked about his identity, Yigen, who looked to be in his forties and had a skinny body,
Wan answered.
But Xing Gen, who was about ten years younger than Yi Gen, much bigger, and much more ferocious in appearance, just sat silently, staring at Xiong Gu.
When he heard the word "Yixiang Sect", Xiong Gu couldn't help but frown slightly, and secretly cursed "Damn it" in his heart, because he knew that these monks... were very troublesome.
The Ichigo sect can be said to be the most trouble-making group of martial monks during the Warring States Period in Japan; their policy is to advocate the so-called "transcendence of evildoers" in order to attract a large number of soldiers, samurai, and thieves.
They took refuge, and then let this group of people gather together to "practice". As they continued to practice, this group of people became an armed gang, and their business gradually developed from chanting sutras and chanting Buddhas, to self-defense with force, and then to attacking cities and territories...
That is the famous "Yi Xiang Yi Kui".
To describe it, there are quite a lot of people like Lu Zhishen in this sect... Although not all of them have the fighting ability of Lu Zhishen, they are definitely not the kind of monks who only know Amitabha when encountering problems.
"I heard that you checked in at midnight yesterday?" Xiong Gu adjusted the expression on his face and continued to ask.
His question, from an investigative perspective, is actually a very common one; it is normal for him to know when these two monks checked in, because Xiong Gu first inquired with the hotel before visiting these groups of suspects one by one.
After collecting information from the residents, we launched a focused investigation.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he asked this question, the tall and sinister-looking Xing Gen who had been staring at him suddenly stood up and shouted: "This is unreasonable! Are you doubting us?"
Looking at the monk's formation, although he did not grab the weapon, he looked like he would pounce on Xionggu at any time.
Upon seeing this, the few ashigaru behind Kumagai immediately picked up their swords and spears and made a noise...
"Hey! Bastard! What do you want to do?"
"What do you want to do to my lord?"
"Don't move, you stinky monk!"
The tense posture between the two sides made Kumagai nervous... He was not wearing armor at the moment, and his subordinates were holding the sword for him. If the two sides really fought, it would be difficult for him to be caught in the middle.
To be continued...