"Don't say it's Mamiya's past." As soon as Asai finished speaking, Makimura shrugged, "We don't even know where Mamiya was born, what swordsmanship he used, or how strong he is."

"Mamiya doesn't have any accent when he speaks. You can't even tell where he comes from based on his accent, and he never says where he comes from."

"Not only does Mamiya not talk about his past, he also never reveals the swordsmanship style he uses."

"We only know that Mamiya is very good at using the sword technique."

"From the time I joined Calabash House to now, I have never seen Mamiya go all out... Ah, no, or rather, I have never seen any enemy successfully force Mamiya out of his full strength."

"We have never seen Mamiya use all his strength to fight against the enemy."

Ogata had been listening quietly to the two of them.

After hearing Makimura's words, Ogata suddenly realized that he himself had never seen Mamiya go all out to fight against the enemy.

In every battle Ogata has witnessed so far, Mamiya has always looked calm and composed.

Even when he fought on Butterfly Island with the elite of the shogunate army in a narrow corridor, after the battle, Mamiya was still in a state of ease, with almost no injuries left on his body.

"...I guess the job Mamiya did before he followed the master and joined Calabash House was definitely not a very honorable job... The job Mamiya did before may have been related to murder." Asai suddenly said this coldly.

.

"Is it related to murder?" Ogata cast a confused look at Asai, "Why do you say that?"

"Asai, are you going to tell Ogata the old story about the old monk who was paralyzed by fear?" Makimura's rhetorical question contained a hint of helplessness.

"This story is not a secret. Everyone in our Gourd House knows it." Asai said, "It doesn't hurt to tell Ittousai."

"Did anything happen to Mamiya in the past that made you suspect that the work he did before was related to murder?" Ogata asked Asai.

"This happened a long time ago." Asai whispered, "Once, Mamiya and I went out of town for some matters and passed by a temple."

"There is a very old monk living in that temple."

"It was night, and Mamiya and I planned to stay in this temple for one night."

"I was the one who went to negotiate with the old monk whether he could borrow a corner of the temple for us to rest for one night."

"The old monk was very easy to talk to. After I made my request to stay overnight, he readily agreed."

"However... after I led Mamiya, who was waiting outside the temple, into the temple, and the old monk saw Mamiya... the old monk's expression at that time is really difficult to describe in words."

"There was no blood on his face. He was so scared that he collapsed on the ground... In short, he looked like he had seen a ghost."

"The old monk was slumped on the ground, backing up on his hands and knees, away from Mamiya, and yelling something like, 'I have never seen anyone kill such a heinous person.'"

"No matter what, I won't leave a palace in the temple."

"We have no choice but to leave that temple."

"When leaving the temple, the old monk also advised Mamiya to study Buddhism for the rest of his life and do more good deeds in order to wash away the accumulated sins of murder and the resentment of the deceased."

"It was also from that time on that I began to doubt that what Mamiya had done before might not be a very honorable job..."

"If Mamiya's previous job was really related to murder...then the number of people he killed before must have been quite a lot..."

"The murderous crime on the body is so heavy that it can make a monk paralyzed to the ground...how many people have to be killed..."

As soon as Asai finished speaking, Makimura on the side chuckled a few times:

"The monk might be talking nonsense."

"These monks like to talk nonsense."

"When I was in Kyoto, I met a monk who said that I had a noble minister and would definitely become a big shot like Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the future."

As soon as Makimura finished speaking, Asai shook his head:

"You were not present at that time, and you did not see the monk's appearance and expression at that time."

"If you had been there at that time and seen with your own eyes how frightening the look of fear on the monk's face was, you wouldn't have thought that the monk was talking nonsense." Asai said seriously.

"Don't you, Mr. Gendai, know what Mamiya did before?" Ogata asked.

"Hmm, I don't know."

As soon as Ogata finished speaking, Genichi's voice came from the stern of the ship.

Ogata, Makimura, and Asai all turned their heads and looked at Genichi who had been sitting at the stern of the boat drinking "oolong tea".

"Mr. Gendai," Makimura said, "It turns out that you have been listening to our conversation just now."

"Although I am not young, my ears are still functioning well. And this boat is not so big that the sound from the bow cannot be transmitted to the stern."

After raising the wine glass in his hand and taking another sip of "oolong tea", Genichi said slowly:

"I've never been very interested in other people's pasts, so I never asked Mamiya what he did before joining Calabash House."

"Only Xiaolin knows Mamiya's past."

"but"

Speaking of this, several meaningful rays of light flashed in Yuan Yi's eyes.

"Although I don't know Mamiya's past. But from the swordsmanship used by Mamiya, I can roughly guess what Mamiya's previous occupation may have been."

"Is there anything wrong with the swordsmanship used by Mamiya?" Asai, who had always been expressionless, now had a hint of curiosity flashing in his eyes.

"You young people don't have enough experience, so you can't see any difference between the swordsmanship used by Mamiya and ordinary swordsmanship."

"The swordsmanship used by Mamiya takes the three words 'fast', 'accurate' and 'ruthless' to the extreme."

"And when Mamiya kills people with his sword, he always subconsciously cuts to certain special parts of the human body."

"In the whole world... there is a kind of person who is best at using this type of swordsmanship..."

"What kind of person?" Makimura asked urgently.

"Well... I won't tell you." Yuan Yi shrugged, "Whether Mamiya was that kind of person before, I'm just guessing. I'm not sure either."

"And since Mamiya never told you what he used to do, and Xiaolin is also very secretive about Mamiya's past, it means that Mamiya doesn't want his companions to know about his past."

"So we respect Mamiya's choice and stop asking about Mamiya's past."

After saying that, Yuan Yi took another sip of the "oolong tea" in the cup.

"... Mr. Gendai is right." Asai sighed softly, "Since Mamiya doesn't want to talk more about his past, we won't ask any more questions. Let's stop this topic... Let's talk.

Let’s do something more interesting.”

Ogata and Makimura both nodded in agreement.

The three of them once again turned their attention to the sea ahead.

Looking at the sea, after a long moment of silence

"Would you like to go swimming?" Makimura asked.

"No, there is no bathing place here. I don't want to get dirty sea water all over my body." Asai shook his head.

"And the waves here are very high, so it's not a good place for swimming." Ogata added.

"That's right." Makimura nodded.
Chapter completed!