I Was a Swordsman in Ancient Japan

Ogata and A-Machi were walking slowly along the street side by side, looking for the next pharmacy, when they suddenly noticed a lot of people gathered on the street not far ahead.

Curious, the two walked slowly towards the crowd in front of them.

After reaching the outermost edge of the crowd, Ogata and A-Machi saw clearly that these people were gathered outside the gate of a magnificent mansion.

The gate of this imposing mansion was closed tightly, and two men dressed as samurai were guarding the gate outside the gate.

There is a plaque next to the gate with 3 big Chinese characters written on it.

"Thousand school hall...?"

Ogata read out the three Chinese characters written on the plaque one by one.

"It seems to be a sword hall." A-cho at the side echoed.

A young man who was also dressed as a samurai standing in front of Ogata and A-Machi heard what Ogata and A-Machi said, turned his head, and looked at Ogata and A-Machi with surprised eyes.

"You two, don't you know the Sengakukan in Kyoto?"

"We are foreigners." A-Ting said, "I don't know much about Kyoto."

Seeing that Ogata and Atachi were not natives of Kyoto, the doubt on the young man's face gradually dissipated.

"So it's a foreigner... No wonder I have to know Sengakukan. Both of you, do you need me to introduce the famous Sengakukan in Kyoto?"

A-Machi turned his head and asked Ogata with his gaze: "Are you interested in listening?"

Ogata nodded after thinking for a while.

"There are countless sword gyms in the huge capital city." The young man said eloquently, "But the most powerful sword gym has a total of six."

"We in Kyoto call these six sword halls the 'Six Great Sword Halls'."

"The six major sword gyms are-"Qiangakukan" for teaching Mito Issou style, "Nianbakan" for teaching Katori Shinto style, "Xuanxuekan" for teaching Nakajo style, and "White Tiger" for teaching Ono Isdou style. "Kan', 'Qing Gak Kwan' which teaches Wudiao Liu, and 'Sen Gak Kwan' which teaches Zhong Juan Liu."

The young man spat out a large number of unfamiliar names in one breath.

Although he was already listening carefully, Ogata still didn't remember any of the museum and that museum that the young man said...

Although he didn't remember the names of these six sword halls, Ogata understood one thing - these six sword halls are very famous and powerful in Kyoto.

"Then what are these people here gathering in front of the Qianxue Pavilion?"

"Today is the opening day of Qianxue Hall!"

The young man replied.

"The current owner of Sengakukan, Nobuyoshi Mizuno, will show outsiders the Bell Scroll of Sengakukan today."

"Everyone came to watch it because of the fame, so they gathered here."

Speaking of this, the young man looked up at the sky.

"It should be time for the museum to open in a while."

As soon as the young man's voice fell, the two young warriors who were guarding the gate of Qianxueguan, who should be the disciples of Qianxueguan, shouted in unison:

"It's time! Line up! Don't be crowded!"

As soon as these two people said this, everyone gathered in front of the museum—including the young man who had been explaining to Ogata and Atachi just now—immediately showed excitement.

"...Ayi." A-Ming asked, "Are you interested in going to see what the bell scroll looks like?"

"A bell scroll...I've never seen a bell scroll...Ah, maybe I saw it somewhere but I killed it."

Ogata, who was quite interested in the bell scroll stream, and the six famous sword halls in Kyoto according to the young man just now, nodded at A-machi, and walked slowly towards Sengakukan following the flow of people...

...

...

When Ogata and Atachi followed the flow of people into Sengakukan——

Somewhere in an inconspicuous corner of the Qianxue Hall.

"Do you understand the steps?"

A samurai with a clean-shaven Tsukiyo head and a somewhat obese figure said this to a samurai in front of him with long hair, a dirty body, and a ronin appearance.

And after the fat warrior's voice fell, the ronin immediately nodded hurriedly:

"Understood, understood!" Ronin's face was filled with flattering smiles,

"Isn't it just pretending to lose on purpose, who wouldn't?"

"Then tell me the process." The fat warrior ordered.

"After Mizuno Shinyong-sama defeated the first person, I deliberately pretended to be disdainful and laughed."

"After I sneered, Master Mizuno Shinyong will call me to play."

"After I played, I deliberately pretended to be defeated by Mizuno Shinyong-sama, and was defeated by Mizuno Shinyong-sama in one go."

Seeing that the random ronin in front of him had indeed memorized the procedure clearly, the fat samurai showed a satisfied smile.

"Very good, remember this process! After the matter is completed, you will be indispensable for the bonus! Alright, follow me into the museum!"

...

...

Ogata and A-Machi sat down on the edge of the dojo, along with the spectators who came to see Mizuno Shinyong's heroic figure.

——Dojo...

The air was filled with the not-so-pleasant smell unique to the dojo.

If you were an ordinary person, you would definitely not like this smell in the dojo.

But Ogata didn't hate it.

Because after smelling this scent, there will be a faint feeling of nostalgia floating in Ogata's heart.

While looking around at the layout of Sengakukan Dojo, Ogata muttered in a low voice:

"I really miss..."

Although Ogata's murmur was soft, it was still clearly heard by A-Machi.

"Ayi, are you missing the dojo where you used to practice swords?"

"Well... I haven't set foot on any dojo for... nearly a year." Ogata nodded lightly, "Time is so fast... About a year ago, the Sakakibara Sword Gym was still there. , everyone... is still there..."

Speaking of this, Ogata felt as if his throat was being slowly blocked by something.

And A-Machi also saw that Ogata's mood was falling rapidly at this time, so he also closed his mouth and stopped talking about this topic.

At this moment - there was a lot of movement in the dojo in front of him.

Ogata and A-Machi raised their eyes and looked forward.

I saw a young man in his prime, about 30 to 35 years old, walking through a small door surrounded by a group of young people in uniform white uniforms, and walked slowly onto the dojo central.

As soon as the young man came to the center of the dojo, he introduced himself to Ogata and the audience.

It turns out that this young man is the current owner of Sengakukan: Shinyong Mizuno.

Mizuno's self-introduction was very long.

A simple summary of his self-introduction is-to praise himself for being a bell-jumper, and how powerful he is.

And how many years of history and how powerful his Qianxueguan has been.

There are also how many disciples he has under his command, how many capable people his disciples have produced, and how powerful they are.

In the final analysis, it is to praise how powerful he is...

This lengthy self-introduction made Ogata almost fall asleep after hearing it.

Just after Ogata started to yawn for the third time, Mizuno finally finished his overly rich self-introduction, and began to conduct a practical demonstration to show the audience the bell scroll.

Seeing that the only link he wanted to see finally came, Ogata cheered up, his hands subconsciously wanted to cross into his sleeves.

But because of the hot weather now, Ogata has been using cuffs to tie up the sleeves on both sides, so his hands are empty, so he can only hug his chest with his hands in resentment.

Mizuno and one of his disciples stood facing each other holding a wooden knife.

Both of them have decent mid-section postures, and they are both very standard in appearance.

After a long confrontation like this, Mizuno was the first to move.

While Mizuno let out a mighty Qihe, he stepped forward and quickly narrowed the distance between himself and his disciples.

The next moment after the disciple entered his attack range, Mizuno immediately swung his sword at the disciple's left shoulder and made a strike.

The blade of the wooden knife precisely hit the disciple's left shoulder.

The disciple cried out in pain while falling to the ground.

Mizuno's set of actions just now was very fast.

Immediately after the disciple was brought down, exclamations resounded from the audience.

Hearing the exclamations of the audience, a faint smile appeared on Mizuno's face.

"...Huh?" When the rest of the audience exclaimed, Ogata's face hidden under the tengu mask raised his eyebrows.

"Puchi..."

At this moment, a sneer sounded out of tune with the surrounding atmosphere.

The sound of this chuckle was very small, it was the kind of soft laughter that could not be held back even though it had been suffocated desperately.

And the person who uttered this sneer was a samurai dressed as a ronin.

Although the sound of this sneer was very small and the start and end time was very short, it was still heard clearly by almost everyone in the dojo...

The disciples of Qianxueguan all kneeled and sat on the left and right sides of the dojo.

After the sound of sneering, a chubby Qianxueguan disciple immediately showed a satisfied smile.

After the sneer sounded, Mizuno, who was still smiling calmly, asked the laughing ronin:

"Dare to ask your step, what's so funny?"

"I'm sorry..." the ronin replied, "I just laughed because I felt so disappointed. I didn't expect Shinyong Mizuno, the well-known owner of Sengakukan, to be at this level."

Someone was so staunch, bluntly saying that Nobuyuki Mizuno was mediocre-the audience's interest was raised one after another.

Even Ogata cast a curious look at this staunch ronin.

"Oh?" The smile on Mizuno's face still maintained that light and breezy color, "Since you can see that my strength is mediocre, then my own strength must be extremely good, right?"

"Of course!" The ronin raised his head high, his nostrils almost upturned, "At your level, I can knock you down with just one move!"

"...In that case." Mizuno raised his hand and made a gesture of "please" to the knife rest placed on the edge of the dojo, "I wonder if you are interested in competing with me?"

"Hmph! Are you sure you want to compete? If I knock you down with one move later, you will lose face."

Mizuno let out a low laugh:

"Then I look forward to you bringing me down with one move."

"Hmph! Then I will compete with you!"

After saying that, Ronin got up and strode towards the knife holder, and casually took down a wooden knife placed on the knife holder.

Seeing this, the audience showed excitement and excitement.

I am excited to see the interesting drama of "the duel between the master of the sword gym and the provocateur".

This ronin did not hold the safest middle stance, but the most aggressive upper stance.

Judging from the posture of holding the sword, it is not difficult to see that this ronin has also practiced swords.

Mizuno, who was standing opposite the ronin, was in the same standard mid-section posture as before.

After the two confronted each other with swords for a while——

Snapped!

There was a dull beating sound.

Mizuno stepped forward, quickly shortened the distance between himself and the ronin, and then stabbed precisely into the chest of the ronin whose door was wide open because of his upper stance.

"Hmm..." The ronin who was in pain immediately let out a low cry of pain.

After falling to the ground in embarrassment, he clutched his chest and groaned in pain.

"Since you just said that my strength is not as good as your junior brother when you practiced swords before. Now it seems that your strength is also far inferior to your junior brother."

"Tsk..." Ronin's cheeks instantly flushed red with embarrassment.

His lips moved as if he wanted to say something.

But in the end, he just gave a cold drink.

Then he got up from the ground, as if fleeing, and hurriedly ran towards the outside of the museum.

When he was about to leave the dojo, the ronin secretly looked at the overweight disciple of Qianxueguan who was kneeling on the side of the dojo.

Noticing the gaze of the ronin, the fat disciple nodded at him with a smile, and said to the ronin with his movements, "Good job."

At this time, the Ronin's face also showed a faint complacency.

Because both the ronin and the fat disciple made very small movements, none of the audience present noticed their small movements.

Immediately after the ronin with a "face full of grief and anger" left the dojo, laughter and cursing spread from the audience.

Everyone was laughing at the ronin who was overconfident and was slapped in the face in the end.

Ogata, who hid his face under the mask, was also laughing at this time.

But he wasn't laughing at the ronin just now.

But in Xiao Mizuno and Xiao Qian Academy.

"Machi."

Ogata turned his head and said to A-Machi beside him.

"Let's go, this Qianxue Hall is just like this, there is nothing to see."

When Mizuno sparred with his disciple just now, the speed at which he shortened the distance with his disciple and the speed at which he swung his sword were indeed very visually impactful in the eyes of laymen.

But in Ogata's eyes, that's just——"That's it?"

Mizuno's sword swing speed and stepping speed just now were good enough to fool laymen, but they couldn't fool Ogata.

It's not that Mizuno's strength is poor, it's just that in Ogata's eyes, it's not up to the standard of a "strong man".

Not only that - the person who was in charge of sparring with Mizuno just now was also very problematic.

A layman may not be able to see it, but Ogata can tell it at a glance-this person's feet are not firmly on the ground at all.

The gaze in both eyes was also very loose, and he didn't keep a close eye on the opponent in front of him with the awareness of "never let the opponent leave his field of vision".

In short - it is clear at a glance that he deliberately did not try his best, and deliberately lost to Mizuno.

The ronin who found fault just now was also very problematic.

The ronin was the same way - his feet were not firmly on the ground, his eyes were loose, and he was not concentrating at all.

Ogata guessed—the ronin just now should be the "entrustment" invited by Mizuno and the others.

In Ogata's eyes, the two "competitions" between Mizuno, who is just as strong, and the disciple of "Tuo" and the ronin, are a very funny comedy in Ogata's eyes.

Ogata, who lost interest in the Sengakukan, has no interest in staying here to watch Mizuno's performance.

A-Machi is not good at swordsmanship, so he didn't see at a glance that there was a problem with Mizuno's two matches just like Ogata did.

But seeing that Ogata said he was going to leave, A-Machi also nodded obediently, and prepared to leave Sengakukan with Ogata.

However—before the two of them had time to stand up from the floor, a burst of laughter suddenly sounded from the audience.