"I've always been curious about it."

Ogata, who had just put Amachi's kunoichi uniform back on, asked aloud.

"Why is the upper part of your kunoichi's costume exposed...ah, no, there is so little fabric?"

"Don't underestimate our kunoichi uniform." Atachi picked up her kunoichi uniform and unfolded it. "The reason why there is so little fabric on the upper body is intentional."

"During the Warring States Period, the female ninja uniforms in Shiranui were no different from the male ninja uniforms."

"Whether it's the upper body or the lower body, it's all tight."

"It wasn't until later that something happened."

"When a certain female ninja was fighting the enemy, she gradually fell into a disadvantage because she was not as strong as the enemy."

"When she was about to be defeated by the enemy, the kunoichi's upper body clothes were torn by the enemy's weapon, and the skin around her navel was exposed."

"After seeing the white skin of the kunoichi, the enemy seemed to have not touched a woman for a long time, so he was stunned for a moment and exposed his flaws."

"And the kunoichi caught the enemy's flaw and successfully killed the enemy."

"The person in power in Shiranui at that time was the 10th Enma."

"Inspired by this incident, the 10th generation Enma realized that the kunoichi uniform could also be used as a weapon."

"Then start reducing the fabric of the kunoichi uniform."

"In the end, our kunoichi uniform became what it is now."

"After changing the kunoichi uniform to what it looks like now, it really worked wonders."

"Many kunoichi have reported that after wearing this kunoichi uniform with reduced fabric, not only can they move more easily, but they can also cause more or less disturbance to the enemy's mind when fighting against men."

"Of course there are still some men who are completely undisturbed."

"So there is such a serious reason for reducing the amount of fabric..." Ogata couldn't help but sighed.

"We women's physical fitness is not as good as men's." A-Machi said in a helpless tone, "So in order to enhance our strength as much as possible, we can only use more small methods like this."

"I have a question." Ogata said in a joking tone, "Since the purpose of changing the fabric so little is to interfere with enemies who are not strong in concentration, why not simply wear no clothes?"

"Wouldn't it be more disruptive to the enemy if you were naked?"

"Why are you such a pervert!" A-Machi waved his fist angrily and hit Ogata on the head, "When the 10th generation Enma decided to change the girl's ninja clothes, there was a guy who proposed to have sex with you just now

The exact same proposal."

"Then I encountered strong opposition from all the kunoichi in Shiranui."

"Although the number of kunoichi is small, there are still some kunoichi who hold considerable status."

"In order to avoid triggering a riot among the kunoichi, the 10th generation Enma had no choice but to veto this proposal."

"So someone actually made such a proposal..." After Ogata rubbed the forehead where Amachi had just hit him, he suddenly remembered something.

"By the way, I forgot to tell you."

Ogata took out his today's wages from his arms - a small bag filled with 40 pieces of silver.

"I made a lot today. Today's salary is 40 taels of silver. I helped the Shirobei club capture Ju Xiaoseng today, and I got the bonus from the Huofu thief who was trying to steal the honor."

When Asai returned to the hotel first, he told everyone, including Omachi, that Ogata had assisted Shirobei in capturing Kikuko-monk, repelled the fire-stealing thieves, and changed his official position.

So A-Ting naturally knows what happened to Ju Xiaoseng and the merit-stealing Huofu thief who changed his official position.

"40 pieces of silver?" Amachi let out a small exclamation, then took the small cloth bag handed over by Ogata, then opened it and looked inside.

"It's been more than a year since I made money by working with my own hands." Ogata said in a half-joking tone, "I plan to buy winter clothes when the weather gets cooler..."

Before Ogata finished speaking, Shimada's voice suddenly sounded outside the door:

"Ogata-sama, Makimura-senpai is back. Makimura-senpai said that he has something very important to tell everyone...especially you, Ogata-sama. He asked you to hurry over."

"Is it something important?" Ogata frowned slightly, "I understand. I'll be there right away."

After saying that, Ogata winked at Omachi in front of him.

Amachi, who understood the meaning of Ogata's eyes, nodded gently, and then stood up together with Ogata.

When Ogata and Machi arrived at the large room where their group of men lived, they saw Makimura, who had just returned, and Lin, who probably had just left her room.

After seeing everyone gathered, Makimura smiled bitterly and said:

"Everyone, I just heard a lot of information related to the shogunate from Hasegawa-sama. Come on, Ogata brother, sit down quickly, you are the one who should listen carefully."

"What did Hasegawa tell you?" Lin said seriously.

"I talked about a lot of things..." Makimura smiled bitterly and then said, "After I was taken to a certain room in the Huofu Thief Kai headquarters..."

…

…

Turning back time to a while ago——

…

…

The quiet room where Makimura and Hasegawa are currently located is located in a relatively remote area of ​​the Huoshu Thief Kai headquarters, where few people come and go.

Because there are not many people coming and going, it is extremely quiet no matter day or night, so Hasegawa is particularly fond of this quiet room. When he feels tired on weekdays, Hasegawa will go to this quiet room to take a nap.

It was precisely because there were so few people coming and going outside this quiet room that Hasegawa chose to have a secret conversation with Makimura in this quiet room.

Because the content of what he was going to discuss with Makimura must not be known to outsiders, Hasegawa informed his confidant Yamazaki in advance before entering this room, and asked Yamazaki to send an order to everyone currently staying at the headquarters not to come near this room.

Quiet room.

After making all kinds of preparations, Hasegawa entered this quiet room.

After throwing a series of questions at Makimura like a barrage of questions, the quiet room fell into a quagmire called "dead silence."

Hasegawa said nothing, quietly waiting for Makimura's answer.

Makimura also remained silent, only fixating his stunned eyes on Hasegawa in front of him.

There is only one candle for lighting in this quiet room, which is placed in the center of the room, right between Makimura and Hasegawa.

Although the doors and windows of the quiet room were closed tightly, there was still a slight breeze blowing into the room through the gaps in the doors and windows.

The flame of the candle placed between the two swayed with the breeze blowing into the room, and the shadows of Makimura and Hasegawa also swayed on the wall of the room.

After a while, Makimura folded his hands on his chest.

"...Hasegawa-sama, it's very difficult for me to ask you such a question without thinking."

"It's impossible for me to answer the series of questions you just asked when I don't know everything clearly."

"Is it possible that you want to capture Ogata Ittosai, who committed the serious crime of attacking Nijo Castle and burning the Nijo Castle castle?"

Makimura cast a probing look at Hasegawa.

"I didn't want to capture Ogata Ittosai."

Hasegawa shook his head.

"Rather—quite the opposite."

"I would like to ask Ogata Ittosai to help me."

"No... to be precise, I want to ask you and Ogata Ittosai to help me."

"Help you?" Makimura's frown deepened.

"Makimura..." Hasegawa said this and paused.

It looked like he was hesitating.

But the hesitant look on his face slowly dissipated not long after.

"Do you know about Shiranui or Shiranui Ninja Village?"

After hearing the word "Shiranui" from Hasegawa's mouth, Makimura's pupils shrank slightly.

Not only did I know it, I heard this name almost every day during this period - Makimura really wanted to tell Hasegawa this way.

But he finally resisted saying this and pretended to be confused:

"I've heard a little bit about it. I heard it was a ninja village like Iga no Sato and Koga no Sato during the Warring States Period."

Hasegawa nodded slightly, and then continued:

"That's right."

"Sari Shiranui is the last remaining ninja in our country."

"And this last ninja started cooperating with the shogunate some time ago."

"Of course, cooperating with the shogunate - that's just a nice way of saying it."

"To put it bluntly, the ninjas in Shiranui were recruited by the shogunate and became the royal ninjas of the shogunate."

Makimura pretended not to know much about Shiranui, listening carefully and nodding from time to time.
To be continued...