My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 134 - 85: Aoto’s True Name: [Minamoto Tachibana Aoto Moriharu]

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Edo, within an inconspicuous house—

"Fujimura, so what you’re saying is—only Miyabe was captured by that Tachibana Aoto?" Sitting straight behind a desk, intently examining a piece of paper crowded with characters as small as tadpoles, Shinno asked a young man with only a right arm behind him.

"Yes." The one-armed youth...who was called "Fujimura" by Shinno, gently nodded, "Except for Miyabe, everyone else escaped successfully."

"...How useless." Shinno suddenly clenched the brush in his hand, the wooden handle making a creaking sound under the pressure, "They can’t even set a fire properly..."

"Oh well, after all, Miyabe is just an insignificant pawn and doesn’t know any important information about our Anti-foreigner Group. If he’s caught, he’s caught."

"Was Tachibana Aoto’s house successfully burned down?"

"Tachibana Aoto’s house has now perfectly turned into a heap of charred ruins," Fujimura grinned, "It’s just a pity—that Aoto couldn’t be burned to death."

"No matter." Shinno said, "From the beginning, I didn’t expect to be able to burn Tachibana Aoto to death."

"Just destroying his home and delivering a warning is enough."

"Mr. Kamino, what should we do next?" Fujimura asked, "Should we continue to retaliate against Tachibana Aoto? It feels like just burning his house isn’t fulfilling enough."

"It’s already enough." Shinno placed the paper he was holding onto the low table in front of him, "The reason I decided to burn down Tachibana Aoto’s house was just to send a warning."

"Warn Tachibana Aoto: the humiliation and defeat you caused us will not be forgotten, this vengeance will be avenged."

"Now that the warning has been successfully given, I intend to do nothing for a while, letting Tachibana Aoto enjoy a bit of peace for now."

"Next, I plan to focus on thoroughly reforming our Anti-foreigner Group."

Shinno’s brows furrowed slightly at this point.

"Mogami and his team’s defeat this time made me fully realize: we have been focused only on expanding our numbers, causing our group to be a mixed bag now. Although our size has increased, our combat strength has not improved."

"If that night, Mogami had led a group of people with strong fighting will, how could they have been defeated by an enemy that was only a fraction of their size?"

"If the combat power of our Anti-foreigner Group remains so weak...our ’Anti-foreigner Cause’ is nothing more than a pipe dream."

"Hmm." Fujimura nodded, "I agree. I also think it’s time for us to thoroughly refine our Anti-foreigner Group."

Seeing Fujimura agree with his proposition, Shinno smiled slightly:

"I plan to take 1-2 months to conduct a thorough reform of our Anti-foreigner Group and enhance our combat strength."

"Once our reform shows significant results..."

Shinno’s smile slowly faded, his eyes emitting an icy gleam.

"We will then properly settle things with Tachibana Aoto and carefully plan our ’Anti-foreigner Cause’."

Fujimura showed an expression of anticipation.

"Reform, huh...hahaha, it really gets my blood boiling."

"Mr. Kamino, wherever you need me, just feel free to deploy me!"

He pounded his chest forcefully with his one arm.

Shinno nodded, "You’re an important officer in our Anti-foreigner Group, so there certainly won’t be a lack of tasks to give you."

"Heh, hearing you say that puts my mind at ease." Fujimura laughed happily as he leaned back, resting against the wall behind him.

At this moment, Fujimura caught a glimpse of the paper Shinno had been staring at on the table in front of him.

"By the way—Mr. Kamino. What were you looking at just now?"

Shinno glanced at the paper on the table.

"...I was just looking at Tachibana Aoto’s dossier."

"Tachibana Aoto’s dossier?"

Shinno nodded, "Though I hate to admit it—we underestimated Tachibana Aoto before."

"We thought he was just an ordinary ’Three Times’ Dōshin. But unexpectedly, this guy we considered ordinary caused us so much trouble."

"To better deal with this national traitor in the future, I entrusted a reliable and efficient intelligence agent three days ago to bring me detailed information about Tachibana Aoto."

"Heh...Tachibana Aoto’s detailed dossier, huh..." Fujimura looked at the paper with curiosity, "Mr. Kamino, may I take a look?"

"It’s nothing special." Shinno raised his hand and passed the paper with Tachibana Aoto’s detailed information to Fujimura, "Nothing of high-value intelligence."

Fujimura took the paper from Shinno and began to skim through it.

"Given name, Kurō."

"Full name, Minamoto Tachibana Aoto Moriharu...tsk tsk, turns out he’s a descendant of the Genji Clan, quite a distinguished bloodline..."

"Being a descendant of the Genji Clan is nothing remarkable," Shinno said flatly, "The streets are full of Genji descendants."

"That’s true." Fujimura nodded, "This Tachibana Aoto’s full name is rather elegant though."

"Genji Moriharu...such a name full of Heian Era style."

With that, Fujimura continued to read on.

After finishing the entire paper, Fujimura found—as Shinno had mentioned earlier—that there was no high-value intelligence, just some trivial information like Aoto’s full name, where he lived, and his salary.

Though Aoto’s life was documented in detail, there was nothing noteworthy in his past experiences either.