I formed the strongest swordsman group

Now Qingdeng hugs the black shadow in a posture of embracing the black shadow from behind, with his chest pressed against the black shadow's back.

When Hei Ying freed his hands to pull off the kerchief, and raised his head to look up at Qing Deng, Qing Deng was the first to see a pair of big moist eyes.

Long lashes like velvet, black and white eyes.

Below this pair of beautiful big eyes is a delicate nose, rosy and full lips, I feel like stretching out my fingers to poke it, it will definitely feel very good to the touch, and the elastic white skin...

This is a cute face that is quite familiar to Qingdeng.

The moment he saw this face, Qingdeng, who was stunned, immediately called out involuntarily: "Ms. Kinoshita...?"

It's Mai Kinoshita.

This black shadow that suddenly fell from the ceiling and appeared behind Qingdeng was none other than Kinoshita Mai who happened to meet yesterday on the way home.

Qingdeng was extremely astonished, "How could Ms. Kinoshita appear here at this time?"

But then, after only two breaths, Qingdeng's emotions were overwhelmed by a new feeling of shock.

Due to the sudden incident and being startled by Kinoshita Mai who popped out suddenly, Qingdeng was so focused on "subduing this uninvited guest quickly", so he didn't pay attention to Kinoshita Mai's costume at all.

It wasn't until now that Qingdeng finally realized that Kinoshita Mai in his arms was wearing a set of...pretty amazing costumes.

She wore slightly loose black clothes on her upper and lower body, and a black turban on her head. The kerchief that had been covering her face just now had now been pulled to her neck, and her hands and feet were covered with black gloves and black foot bags.

Qingdeng...he had seen this set of costumes that only showed a pair of eyes.

On the night when it was copied to the "milk" talent.

The night when Fan Shutiao was attacked by the barbarian group.

No matter how you look at it... it's the costume of the great monster cat monk who has made Edo so turbulent in the past few months!

Compared with the past, the only difference in costumes is that Mai Kinoshita is now carrying a small package that does not know what it contains on her back.

A huge amount of questions and information slammed into Qingdeng's brain like a meteorite.

For a while, the brain couldn't handle the huge amount of information, and fell into a state of near shutdown.

Looking at Kinoshita Mai in his arms, Qingdeng, whose brain was shut down, couldn't open his mouth to say a word with specific meaning for a long time.

After a while, Qingdeng's soul finally began to return to his body, and he faltered: "You are...why are you wearing Mao Xiaoseng's clothes?"

I saw Kinoshita Mai who was still looking up at Qingdeng with his head up at this moment, showing an expression of grievance as if he had suffered an injustice.

Moist, bright big eyes, eyes rippling softly, white teeth biting the lower lip lightly, reddish clouds flew up from both cheeks.

She opened her red lips, and was about to say something——

Thump, tom, tom, tom!

In the corridor connecting the dojo and the Kondo family's mansion, there were extremely dense footsteps at this moment.

Just by hearing the sound, Qingdeng knew—it was probably his "someone" just now that alarmed Kondo and the others.

Kinoshita Mai, who turned her head to look at the corridor with Qingdeng, lowered her voice at this time, and said quickly with a scorched face:

"Mr. Ju, you will come to the alley behind the ramen shop east of the test hall later, and I will wait for you there."

"Ah? Oh, oh." Now Qingdeng also gradually suppressed the shock in his heart and stabilized his mind.

Before they figured out what was going on, it was really not suitable for Kondo and the others to see him hugging Kinoshita Mai who was dressed as a cat monk.

After nodding to Kinoshita Wu, Qingdeng quickly let go of Kinoshita Wu in his arms.

Kinoshita Mai, who had regained her freedom, squatted down, and then jumped up vigorously—she jumped back to the top of the ceiling like a cat.

Back on the ceiling, she moved the grid she had just moved back to its original position, and then there was a sound of "cracker-cracker" from near to far, like a rat jumping from the ceiling-from the ceiling. From the sound, Kinoshita Mai should have successfully escaped along the ceiling.

Not long after the "cracking" sound dissipated, Kondo's footsteps finally approached the corridor.

"Tachibana-kun, what happened?" Kondo shouted loudly, which made people feel refreshed.

Qingdeng turned his head and looked towards the entrance of the corridor, only to see that everyone had come together.

Before they had time to change their clothes, they were all dressed in pajamas, holding various weapons.

Kondo, Saito, and Zhousuke held their sabers with serious faces.

Abi is dignified and majestic, carrying a female naginata.

Naginata was originally the mainstream weapon on the battlefield from the Kamakura to Muromachi period, but because of its performance and cost, it was completely inferior to the spear. After the Warring States Period, the position of the naginata on the battlefield was completely replaced by the spear.

In the Edo period, naginata, which was almost useless on the battlefield, had completely become the female self-defense technique of the daughters of samurai families, and evolved a variant naginata with a shorter handle and thinner blade: women's naginata.

All samurai families with good families and strict education for their offspring will require their women to practice naginata.

For example, Sanako—Kondo and the others once told Qingdeng that Sanako's naginata skills are as superb as her katana skills. She is not only a katana master at Little Chiba Sword Gym, but also a naginata master.

Qingdeng had heard of Abi, who was born quite well, and had practiced the naginata technique of the Katori Shinto style since he was a child, and his level was quite high.

Okita also carried a saber like Kondo and the others—but with his hair messed up in sleep, he seemed to be a little sleepy.

With a little bit of saliva remaining on the corner of his mouth, he walked in a zigzag, walking crookedly, looking like he was having trouble controlling his body.

There was a "bang" - his head hit the door frame on the side of the corridor firmly.

Although he is still in a sleepy and dazed state, his pace of rushing into the dojo with Kondo and others is not slow at all.

He raised his hand, and while rubbing his forehead with a red mark, he continued to hurriedly follow Kondo and the others.

Jiubingwei also came, he held on to his pillow tightly and followed everyone step by step.

"Jiang Jun, what's the matter?" Zhou Zhu, who rushed into the dojo first, looked around with a solemn expression, "We heard you yelling 'someone' just now, did some thieves break into the test hall? ?”

"Uh..." Qingdeng twitched the corners of his mouth a few times in an imperceptible way, and after thinking about how to fool Kondo and the others, he had an idea——

"Master, I'm sorry to alarm you."

Qingdeng laughed a few times.

"There were no thieves breaking in, it was my mistake."

"When I was stretching my muscles just now, I suddenly saw a black shadow flash past the window."

Qing Deng pouted his chin towards a window next to him.

"I thought it was a thief, so I yelled 'someone'."

"It wasn't until I ran over and looked out the window that I realized I had made a mistake - it wasn't some thief, it was just a... very big black cat."

——I wasn’t completely lying either.

After finishing speaking, Qingdeng silently added this sentence in his heart.

He really wasn't lying.

From another point of view... Was he really lying just now?

He had indeed met a "black cat" just now.

"Cat?" Zhou Zhu raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Yeah." Qing Deng firmly nodded his head, "Yes, it's just a cat."

He rushed to the dojo in a murderous spirit, only to find out that there was an oolong in the end—Kondo and the others all looked at each other blankly.

Kondo and the others asked Qingdeng some more questions, but they were all refuted by Qingdeng who insisted that "nothing happened, it was just a misunderstanding".

Seeing that nothing major happened, Kondo and the others had no choice but to leave.

After watching Kondo and the others, who had finally fooled them, file out along the corridor, Qingdeng quietly showed a relieved expression and heaved a sigh of relief.

Immediately afterwards, Qingdeng turned his head with a complicated expression, and looked in the direction of the ramen restaurant outside the testing hall and to the east...

...

...

The ramen restaurant not far to the east of the Weiwei Museum is called "Erle Ramen". Because it is very close to the Weiwei Museum, Qingdeng would visit this noodle restaurant occasionally, so for what Kinoshita Mai said to him just now, " The alley behind the ramen restaurant on the east side of the test hall", Qingdeng naturally remembered where it was.

After sending Kondo and the others back to sleep, Qingdeng quietly changed his shoes, slipped out of the testing hall, and went straight to the alley behind Erle Ramen.

As soon as he ran into the alley, Qingdeng left to find the person he was looking for.

Kinoshita Mai Kinoshita, who pulled up the black veil again and covered her face below her eyes, crouched in the deepest part of this dank alley with her hands folded around her knees.

She hung her chin on her round knees and lowered her head, as if she was looking at something.

Qingdeng, who has a strong night vision ability due to his "cat's eye" talent, took a look - Kinoshita Mai was looking at a row of ants carrying food on the ground.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Qingdeng striding towards from outside the alley, Kinoshita Wu hurriedly stood up, and walked toward Qingdeng in three steps at a time.

"Mr. Ju," she said, "You came much sooner than I expected."

"..." Qing Deng subconsciously wanted to say hello to Kinoshita Mai.

But after opening his mouth, Qingdeng found that he couldn't utter a single word.

To be honest...he still has a sense of nothingness, of unreality, that he is still floating in the air, stepping on soft clouds.

The famous cat and monk...it turned out to be his friend Kinoshita Mai...

Qingdeng didn't even know what words or sentences to use to describe his current mood.

This kind of thing... If he hadn't seen with his own eyes just now the face of Kinoshita Mai under the black veil, otherwise he would not have believed it to be true.

At this moment, Kinoshita Wu noticed the strange expression on Qingdeng's face.

As if she had expected Qingdeng to have such a reaction, she put her hands on her hips and laughed "haha" a few times.

"Mr. Ju, you look surprised."

"But it's normal for you to be shocked."

After saying this in a proud tone, Mai Kinoshita straightened her waist suddenly, and then acted out a strange little theater as if a detective was about to start explaining his superb reasoning to everyone.

"That's right!"

"Just as you saw just now!"

"On the surface, it's Teshiro Kinoshita Mai, an inconspicuous employment agency."

"But the real identity is actually the big monster thief who has made countless villains frightened, so is the little monk Mao!"

While shouting the last sentence, Mai Kinoshita bent his right leg upwards, stood in a golden rooster independent posture, and then flattened his hands into the shape of palms, with both palms facing upwards, and his arms raised high.

quiet……

After Kinoshita Wu's voice fell, this remote alley suddenly became extremely quiet.

"..." Qingdeng opened his mouth slightly, looking straight at Kinoshita Mai who had been maintaining this weird posture with an appearance of not knowing what expression to put on or what to say.

After a while, Kinoshita Mai, who had not received Qingdeng's response for a long time, smiled awkwardly and silently put down her arms and right leg.

"Mr. Ju, your reaction is so flat... I thought I could see some interesting reactions from you..."

"Ah, I'm sorry... Actually, the emotion in my heart is very shocking, but I just don't know what to say for a while..."

What Kinoshita Mai did just now made the question marks in Qingdeng's mind increase a lot...

Qing Deng took several deep breaths to stabilize his mind.

"Miss Kinoshita, don't you feel uncomfortable when you wear such a thick face scarf? Anyway, there are only you and me here, why don't you take off the face scarf."

After finishing speaking, Qingdeng wanted to remove Kinoshita Mai's face mask.

Seeing Qing Deng's outstretched hand and Kinoshita Mai's face under the mask, his expression suddenly changed drastically.

"Don't take off my facecloth!" Kinoshita Wu hastily raised her hands to cover the facecloth on her face, then took two quick steps back, "Without the facecloth, I won't dare to speak as loudly as I did just now."

——It turns out that you are the type who will let go of yourself as long as you cover your face!

Qingdeng carefully recalled the scene after the reunion with Kinoshita Wu in this alley just now—indeed, the Kinoshita Wu standing in front of him at this time was more cheerful than the Kinoshita Wu in his impression. many.

Whether it is the tone of speech, demeanor, or movements, they have all become more lively. Compared with his usual introverted and shy image, he is a completely different person.

Since Kinoshita Wu didn't want to take off the face scarf, Qingdeng couldn't force it either.

I saw Qingdeng let out a long breath soundlessly, then lowered his head, raised his right hand, and rubbed the center of his eyebrows vigorously with the second joint of his right index finger.

Qingdeng originally wanted to rectify his still chaotic thoughts and sort out the current information.

However... because Qing Deng lowered his head, his sight also lowered.

And his lowered gaze... happened to be on the chest of Kinoshita Mai, who was a head and a half shorter than him...

Because of wearing looser clothes, Kinoshita Mai's breasts, which are outstanding among her peers, did not show the presence it should have.

After seeing Kinoshita Wu's plain chest lined by loose clothing, the skin of Qingdeng's right arm instantly "recalls" the bump on her forearm when she was trying to subdue Kinoshita Wu in the test room. The one I got... a wonderful touch.

At that time, Qingdeng didn't know what the heavy, soft, elastic water bag-like object touched by his right arm was.

But now, this memory surged into Qingdeng's heart, and Qingdeng finally realized where he had met Kinoshita Mai back then...

Qingdeng's expression became weird at a speed visible to the naked eye.

No matter in his previous life when he never had a girlfriend, or in this life, Qingdeng has never touched these private parts of girls.

Shame, embarrassment... All kinds of emotions began to surge in Qingdeng's heart.

And at this moment, Qing Deng suddenly recalled one thing...

——Miss Kinoshita is the cat monk...

——That is to say... At that time... I copied the "milk" talent from Ms. Kinoshita...

Thinking of this, Qingdeng couldn't help but look at that part of Kinoshita Mai a few more times.

The talent introduction of "milk" played back and forth in Qingdeng's mind uncontrollably, and he couldn't stop it even if he wanted to.

The constantly playing talent introduction made Qing Deng's expression more and more weird.

At this time, Kinoshita Wu noticed Qingdeng's eyes staring directly at her chest, and the strange look on Qingdeng's face.

Like Qingdeng, she recalled the scene that happened in the testing hall just now.

Because there was a face towel covering him, Qingdeng didn't see it—Kinoshita Mai's face was reddening and hot at a very fast speed.

Unconsciously, she drew her shoulders inward slightly, hunched over with her chest in her chest, and turned slightly sideways, with her right shoulder facing Qingdeng.

Qingdeng noticed how impolite he was staring at Kinoshita Mai's chest, quickly looked away, and then coughed a few times to cover up his embarrassment.

"Miss Kinoshita, um... I was in the test room just now... I'm really sorry."

"It's okay..." Mai Kinoshita murmured, "I can understand..."

The atmosphere that spread between the two of them at this moment... was indescribably embarrassing.

For the suffocating and awkward atmosphere around him, and for getting answers to the piles of questions in his mind as soon as possible, Qingdeng coughed a few times after being silent for a long time, and then looked at Mai Kinoshita squarely again, with a straight face.

"Miss Kinoshita, I have a mountain of questions and I want to ask you one by one."

"First of all—can you tell me first, why did you become a phantom thief and stir up trouble in Edo?"

Hearing Qingdeng's question, Kinoshita Mai was taken aback for a moment, then laughed a few times:

"Haha... you asked me such a serious question right from the start..."

"Why do you want to be a phantom thief..."

After Kinoshita Wu softly repeated the question Qingdeng just asked, she pursed her lips and remained silent for a moment.

"Actually, the reason is not complicated."

"I just want to punish evil and promote good, and lend a helping hand to those poor people who have no power."

"I, since I was a child, have always heard all kinds of heroic stories from grandma, Uncle Machiga, and Aunt Macho."

Between Kinoshita Mai's brows, there was a flash of memory at this moment.

"For example, the 'First Soldier of the Warring States Period' Sanada Yukimura, in order to save the Toyotomi family whose building was about to collapse, personally led a cavalry team in the Osaka Xia Zhizheng, and went straight to the main formation of the Tokugawa Army, almost taking down the leader of Tokugawa Ieyasu. class."

"Another example is 'Sura' Ogata Yishi in the 'Red Moon Battle', breaking seven formations, beheading nine generals, and defeating the 10,000-strong army of the shogunate with just a few dozen horsemen, creating an 'unparalleled eternal swordsman' 'The prestige."

"I grew up listening to these heroic stories, so under the influence of my ears and eyes, I gradually admired these heroes."

"Tachibana-kun, do you still remember what Mr. Kiryu told you about me before? I was asked by my grandma to leave Osaka at the request of my grandma a year ago on the grounds of 'starting training from the bottom up'. Edo is here to act as Kiryu-san's substitute."

Qingdeng nodded, he still remembered the past events about Mai Kinoshita that Mr. Kiryu had mentioned to him before.

"I'm from Osaka."

Kinoshita Mai continued.

"Before I came to Edo, I lived in Osaka and learned various things from my grandmother and some friends and subordinates of my grandmother."

"Sinology, history, arithmetic, martial arts..."

"At that time... under the wing of my grandma, the 'world' I could see was always very small."

"I am well protected by Mr. Mucun and Mr. Asai every day, and I can only move around at home and in very few areas."

"It wasn't until I left my grandma and came to Edo that the 'world' in my eyes finally expanded."

"Then... as the 'world' I saw became wider, I also saw many scenes that I had never seen in Osaka before."

Having said that, Kinoshita Mai paused, and then let out a low self-deprecating laugh.

"Before I came to Edo, I didn't know that there are so many people in this world who are so poor that they can't even guarantee one meal a day..."

"Mr. Ju, you probably don't know that in an employment agency like our Qianshiwu, you can see a lot of... people feel sad customers almost every day."

"Her husband was persecuted to death by Yakuza. She can only support her 3 children by herself. She is a young woman who has to work 4 jobs every day."

"I am seriously ill, but for the sake of my family's livelihood, I still have to grit my teeth, drag my sick body, and come to Qianshiwu to find a job."

"The height is less than my waist, but because my family is too poor, in order to share the burden of my parents, I cried and begged Mr. Kiryu and me to help her find a job that a person of her age can do."

"So many poor people are living in dire straits... It makes me sad to watch."

"Probably because I have admired those heroes since I was a child, so I have always dreamed of becoming a hero who can do something for the common people!"

"So, at the end of last year, I finally made up my mind - I will use my ability to help these poor poor people as much as I can!"

"This is the origin of the Great Phantom Thief, 'Cat Monk'."

After quietly listening to Kinoshita Mai's narration, Qingdeng was silent for a moment, and then let out a long breath.

"...Then why did you suddenly run over to me tonight regardless of your identity being exposed?"

Another serious question.

This time, Kinoshita Mai didn't think much, and replied without thinking:

"Mr. Ju, the reason why I came to you suddenly tonight is to ask you for help!"

"I would like to ask you to go with me to deal with a group of people who have frequently tried their knives with Fideo recently!"

*****

*****

Ask for a monthly pass! Ask for a recommendation ticket! (Leopard Head Crying.jpg)

I would like to share with you a useless case: Mai Kinoshita's Phantom Thief costume was originally designed in the style of [no sleeves, two arms completely exposed, and only black wristbands on the wrists].

But considering Kinoshita Mai's character, she probably wouldn't be able to wear such revealing clothes, so she had to let it go.

Ask for a monthly pass! Ask for a recommendation ticket!

The author has opened a book friend group in Penguin! Those who are interested can come in and chat together.

Group number: 1162513690. You only need to answer a question that you will definitely know the answer as long as you read the book seriously, and you can join the book friend group.

The author Jun Suiyuan haunts the group~