I formed the strongest swordsman group

"We seem to have come too early..."

Kinoshita Mai stretched her neck and looked around.

"Qingdeng and the others seem to have not come yet... Mister Kiryu, what time is it now?"

Kiryu who was sitting beside Mai Kinoshita took out a pocket watch from his pocket.

"It's exactly 9 o'clock. We are indeed a little too early. There is still a full hour before the game officially starts. Jun Ju and the others should not come here after a while."

Kiryu and Kinoshita Mai, the old and the young, who have a lot of ties to the test hall and have a close relationship with Qingdeng, naturally it is impossible to miss today's rare and grand competition.

Today's competition was scheduled to start at 10 o'clock in the morning, and the location was set on a river bank in the outskirts of Edo, where the scenery was quite nice and the terrain was quite flat.

The scale of this competition is not small - 20 disciples from each side, it is a 20vs20 melee.

In order to have enough space for the 40 contestants to play to their heart's content, the competition field is specially designated to be quite large-about half the size of a football field.

The west end of the competition venue is the "Xuanwukan Players' Rest Area", and it is also the "Basic Team" of the Xuanwukan players after the game starts.

Since the west end is the "main formation" of the Xuanwu Hall, then the east end of the venue is naturally the "rest area for the players in the Weiwei Hall" and the "main formation" of the entire army after the start of their competition.

The relatives and friends of the two sword halls sat in the "audience seats" at the north and south ends of the venue to watch the match.

In order to facilitate the distinction, and to make this "red and white battle" feel more like a "battlefield", the two "main formations" each erected a flag high, and the two flags were printed with the Chiba family and the Kondo family respectively. family crest.

The "handsome flag" facing east and west is waving in the wind... There is really such a breath of confrontation between the armies.

Because Kiryu and Kinoshita Mai came too early, Qingdeng and others have not yet arrived.

Considering that the residences of some disciples are relatively remote, Zhou Zhu did not do the trick of "gather together first and then set off together" in order to save trouble. Instead, we adopted the method of "starting separately, the first person to warm up first, in short, just don't be late".

At the moment when the core disciples such as Qingdeng, Kondo, and Zongsi have not yet arrived, there are only less than 10 people in the test guard hall.

The gatekeepers who arrived in advance put up the "handsome flag" of their test hall together, and started warming up in advance.

At this time, Kinoshita Mai suddenly and keenly noticed: These people... are all staring at each other with straight eyes.

To be more precise... it is looking at the faces in the main formation of the Xuanwu Hall.

There is obvious fear in the pupils of the eyes and on the cheeks.

Seeing this, Kinoshita Mai couldn't help but wondered to Kiryu beside him:

"Mr. Kiryu, why do the people in the Weiwei Hall have such expressions? Are all the contestants in the Xuanwu Hall strong?"

"Well...how should I put it..." Kiryu showed a strange smile, "...Tachibana-kun and the others will play very hard in today's game."

Kinoshita Mai opened her eyes in surprise.

"Even if Qingdeng is there, he will play very hard? Are the contestants in Xuanwu Hall so strong?"

Kinoshita Mai doesn't know much about the swordsmanship world in Edo. She only knows that Xuanwukan, one of the "Three Great Fields of Edo", is very strong, but she doesn't know how strong it is.

"The others are fine, mainly because that man is difficult to deal with..."

Tongsheng raised his eyebrows, his eyes hidden behind the lens cast a meaningful look at the tall young man who was standing in the center of the Xuanwu Hall main formation, holding two bamboo swords, one long and one short, in both hands.

Crash la la la la...

Suddenly, footsteps came from the southeast of the arena.

Kinoshita Wu followed the prestige, and then exclaimed in a low voice: "Ah...it's Little Chiba Sword Hall..."

In the direction of the sound of footsteps, a group of Xiaoqianye Jianguan led by Chiba Dingkichi marched towards the arena in a mighty manner.

Among this group of people, there are quite a few faces that Qing Deng is quite familiar with: Sanako, Chiba Shigetaro, Shannan Keisuke...

Whether it's Hejianweiguan, or Hexuanwuguan, Xiaoqianyejianjian has a deep friendship that is constantly being cut and messed up.

Therefore, in the "spectator seat" of today's competition, everyone may not be present, except for the people from Xiaoqianye Sword Hall.

What's more, Chiba Dingkichi is still the referee of this competition.

No one would be dissatisfied with the fact that Chiba Sakakichi, who is strong, highly respected, and known as a "living legend", is the referee of the game.

After discovering the arrival of the person from the Little Chiba Sword Gym, Kinoshita Wu immediately lowered her head like a kitten who has encountered a big vicious dog, shrinking her shoulders and neck tightly.

His eyes were fixed on the ground in front of his knees because he lowered his head...

But after a while, as if she was unwilling to "hide" herself like this, she stubbornly and cautiously raised her eyes slowly, looking at Sanako who was walking beside Chiba Singkichi and standing at the front of the team... …

——Chiba Sanako... she's really beautiful... I can't match her at all...

Kinoshita Mai stared straight at Sanako's pretty face uncontrollably... Complicated emotions that could not be described in detail with specific words appeared in her eyes...

At this time, Sanako keenly noticed that there seemed to be a kind of "heavy" eyes locked on her.

With a look of confusion on her face, she raised her elegant swan neck and looked around, and she found Kinoshita Mai in a blink of an eye.

The gazes of the two women collided and entangled in mid-air...

At the moment when Sanako's eyes met, Kinoshita Mai subconsciously wanted to look away.

But suddenly, as if she had thought of something, she forcibly stopped the timidity in her heart, took a deep breath with a "ha", then tensed the muscles of her whole body, opened her eyes wide, and spoke with Zuo without giving in. The boy looked at each other.

——This child is...?

Sanako frowned with a shadow of doubt, and after a circle of consciousness in the "sea of ​​memory", she finally remembered who this cute girl who looked so familiar was.

——This child...is the girl in red who assisted Mr. Ju to deal with the barbarian group...

The scene of meeting Mai Kinoshita for the first time in the settlement engulfed by the fire flashed before Yu Sanako's eyes.

——Look carefully... This child is really cute.

Sanako blinked her eyes a few times, and after leaving this plain comment in her heart, she slowly withdrew her gaze, and voluntarily withdrew from the eye contact with Kinoshita Mai.

Seeing Sanako take the lead to look away, pure joy flooded Kinoshita Mai's lovely face.

- I won! Great! \\(≥▽≤)/

Obviously there is no "stare match" with Sanako, and Sanako's active avoidance of staring doesn't mean anything, but Kinoshita Mai is inexplicably happy, feeling like she has won a big victory.

...

...

The test hall, the second floor, in front of the general manager's room——

"Miss Okita, haven't you changed your clothes yet?"

Standing in front of the chief executive's room, Qing Deng shouted loudly into the room.

"Move fast! Master and the others are already urging! If we wait too long, we may not be able to catch up with the game!"

"Come, come, come!"

Dong dong dong... There was the sound of tatami being trampled on behind the door.

A moment later, with a "wow" sound when the sliding door was pushed open, a slender ponytail swaying with the owner's figure appeared in front of Qingdeng's eyes.

The slender high ponytail hanging down to the shoulders, the purple ribbon used to tie the hair, the white kimono, the lavender hakama, and the bright smiling face like the sun... The attire that cannot be more familiar, the more familiar smile.

"I've changed my clothes! Let's go!"

While talking, the general manager walked past Qingdeng's side, walked straight to the first floor, towards the test guard, with a cute step of swaying left and right like a penguin walking, causing the ponytail on the back of his head to flick. Go to the entrance of the hall.

The current time is 9:10... If you go out now, you can just arrive at the stadium without being late and leaving enough warm-up time.

"...Miss Okita."

Qingdeng is now able to skillfully switch between the two titles of "Mr. Okita" and "Ms. Okita".

In public, he calls the chief executive "Mr. Okita", and in private without any outsiders present, he changes his name to "Miss Okita".

"Huh? What's the matter?" The chief executive turned his face away, and gave Qingdeng who suddenly called her a bold look of "Speak quickly if you have anything to say".

"I see that you have been in a good mood in recent days."

While watching the bouncing and energetic footsteps of the chief executive, Qingdeng continued to speak.

"Has anything good happened to you recently?"

Recently, for some reason, the general manager suddenly changed from his previous dejected appearance of being in a trance and bumping into the wall when walking. His face is filled with a bright smile full of warmth every day, and he walks up and down. It is obvious that she is in a good mood now.

Perhaps affected by this good mood, the general manager is in excellent condition recently.

The daily swordsmanship practice is both serious and desperate, and the whole body seems to have endless energy. It will not be tiring to practice swords all day in the dojo.

Zhou Zhu, who has always been strict in swordsmanship, couldn't help but be dumbfounded by his excellent condition.

Qingdeng turned his head and thought about it carefully—it seems that since the night when he discovered the body of the chief executive's daughter five days ago, the chief executive's mood has inexplicably become extremely strange.

Why this is so, the only explanation that Qingdeng can think of is that the general manager has encountered some good things recently.

"Ho Ho~~"

For Qingdeng who suddenly asked her this question, the chief executive let out a strange laugh.

Immediately afterwards, with a leisurely attitude, she responded in a tone mixed with a bit of a joke:

"I did encounter a good thing recently...but I won't tell you what it is~~"

After finishing speaking, she closed one eye with a mischievous expression, raised her right index finger to her rosy lips, and a childish sly look flickered in her pupils.

Looking at the chief executive's malicious expression with a cheerful look, Qing Deng couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"Miss Okita, you are really good at teasing people... Could it be that your sister finally agreed to let you continue to explore the way of swords?"

The first half of the sentence is a feeling of helplessness, and the second half is a tentative cliché.

A happy event that can make the chief executive happy every day... The only possibility that Qingdeng can think of is that the conflict between her and her sister has finally been resolved.

However, as soon as his words fell, the chief executive said:

"Not at all. I know the character of my sister best, and it's not so easy for her to change her mind."

Speaking of this, the chief executive seemed to recall something, his voice paused for a moment, and then he continued:

"Speaking of this... Mr. Ju, do you think my sister is acting weird recently?"

"Huh? Weird? How to say?"

"It's just... She often comes to the dojo to watch me practice swords in the past few days, and from time to time she will suddenly come over and ask me if I have worked hard during the practice, and have I drank water and rested well..."

"Isn't this pretty good?" Qingdeng smiled.

"It's pretty good...but she is so abnormal, which makes me feel so strange...Because she opposes my continued practice of swordsmanship, my sister has never liked to watch me practice swordsmanship."

While talking, the chief executive rubbed his arms alternately as if his arms were feeling cold.

"To be honest-my sister suddenly acted uncharacteristically, which made me feel a little creepy...she must be thinking of some strange idea..."

"Well... who knows." Qing Deng smiled and shrugged slightly.

The talent "Fraudster" is quietly activated at this moment.

The general manager probably couldn't think of it at all--Qingdeng, who was walking side by side with her at this time, is the only person in the whole examination hall who knows why Okita Hikaru suddenly became so abnormal.

——It seems... Mrs. Aguang really listened to my suggestion, and put more focus on "watching" Ms. Okita...

Thinking of this, Qing Deng unconsciously wore a faint smile on his face.

While chatting and laughing, Qingdeng and the chief finally came to the gate on the first floor of the testing hall.

At the entrance, Shusuke, Abi, Kondo, Hijikata, Inoue, Saito, Nagakura, Harada, Kubei, Okita Hikaru, Okita Rintaro...all are ready to go.

Okita Hikaru and Okita Rintaro, as relatives of the chief executive and honored guests of the test guard, the Kondo family could not forget to invite them to watch today's game.

Facing the grand invitation from the Kondo family, the Okita Hikaru and his wife agreed without hesitation, saying repeatedly, "At that time, they will definitely come to watch the game."

After seeing Qingdeng and the chief executive coming from a distance, Okita Hikaru first nodded to the chief executive, then squinted his eyes, and took a deep look at Qingdeng with an intriguing look... The gaze was fleeting, and she took her gaze away from Qingdeng's body in just a moment.

"You two are too slow." Tu Fang, who has always had a bad temper, curled his lips forcefully, "My butt is almost fused with the floor."

"The floor is so pitiful, it's even connected to Mr. Hijikata's butt." The corner of the chief executive's mouth pulled, showing a "sorrowful" expression.

"Hey, it's an honor on this floor to be connected to my ass." Hijikata grinned, "Do you know how many people who are obsessed with Taoism covet my ass?"

"Don't say such obscene words logically!" The chief executive switched to the "tyrannosaurus roaring mode" of "ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow".

"Hohohoho, that's enough, if you have anything to say, we will chat on the road." Zhou Zhu clapped his hands, "Since everyone is here, let's go!"

"Brothers, let's go!" Kondo raised his fists upright, "Let's defeat Xuanwukan!"

...

...

It takes nearly 30 minutes from the test hall to the stadium in the outskirts of Edo.

After successfully arriving at the arena, where the surrounding air was relatively cool due to its proximity to a spacious river, Qingdeng and his party were instantly surrounded by sightlines from all directions.

"Ah, Mr. Kiryu, look! Qingdeng and the others are here."

Kinoshita Mai's whole face turned pink with joy.

With her legs still kneeling on the ground, she straightened her body above her knees. Her plump "juicy peach" left her overlapping feet and faced Qingdeng. Her right arm was raised high like a car's windshield wiper. The same rapid and large swing from side to side.

Kiryu looked at Mai Kinoshita with a complicated expression, in his memory, who had never been with him with such a warm attitude since he was 10 years old, and let out a long, emotional sigh...

Qingdeng immediately noticed Kiryu who was sitting in the "audience seat" on the south side, and Kinoshita Mai who was waving at him vigorously.

Perhaps in the eyes of others, Kinoshita Mai's gesture of swinging her arms like car windshield wipers is quite funny.

But in Qingdeng's eyes, he only thinks that Mai Kinoshita doing this action is so cute.

Qingdeng, amused by Kinoshita Mai's cuteness, only felt warm in his heart, and the corners of his mouth could not help but curl up.

He raised his arms high and waved at Mushi Kinoshita from a distance, expressing "I see you!" with his movements.

At the same time, Qingdeng found Xiaoqianba Jianguan's group who happened to be sitting directly opposite Kiryu and Kinoshita Mai, sitting in the "audience seat" on the north side of the arena.

Chiba Shigetaro, Yamanan Keisuke and others who noticed Aoto looking towards them quickly smiled and waved to Aoto.

Sitting beside Chiba Shigetaro, Sanako maintained her usual elegant style of "Yamato Nadeko".

She didn't wave her hands as excitedly as Kinoshita Wu, she only lightly put her eyes on Qingdeng's face with a faint smile, and nodded to Qingdeng.

If we say—at this moment, who is receiving the most and most intensive attention... then it is undoubtedly Qingdeng.

...

"Hey, look, it's 'King Ni', 'King Ni' is here!"

"Which one is 'King Ni'?"

"He's tall, and he doesn't have the one who shaved his head."

"You are as young as the rumors..."

"The physique is quite good. It seems that there are people who exercise regularly."

"Is it because he selected 18 disciples from Xiaoqianye Sword Academy a while ago..."

...

In the Xuanwu Hall's "principal formation", sharp lines of sight pierced towards Qingdeng like arrows.

With very few exceptions, these gazes all have one thing in common—they are all mixed with an intense warlike light like a flame!

"...Third brother, everyone in the guard test hall is here... Mr. Ju is here."

Chiba Domonshiro walked slowly under their "handsome flag", and said slowly to a tall young man who was sitting cross-legged under the flagpole with his eyes closed.

"..." The tall young man sitting like a bell slowly opened his eyes, raised his eyebrows, and looked at Qingdeng opposite him...

...

...

"Young master, don't rush over to say hello to Mr. Ju, the competition is about to start, if you rush to other people's 'main formation' as an outsider, you will cause trouble."

"I know this kind of thing." Kinoshita Mai lowered her body and resumed her kneeling posture, "Jui Mi Tao" pressed on her overlapping little feet again, "Mr. Kiryu, what time is it now?"

"9:50." Kiryu glanced at his pocket watch.

"Then the competition will start soon." Mai Kinoshita clasped her two little hands on her legs excitedly.

Even without talking about her admiration for Qingdeng, Mai Kinoshita likes to watch this kind of martial arts competition where warriors fight fiercely.

"Mr. Kiryu, you just said that Qingdeng and the others will play very hard in today's game... Does this mean that Qingdeng and the others have a low winning percentage in this game?"

There was a slight worry in Kinoshita Mai's tone.

With her feelings for Qingdeng, she certainly likes the object of her love to win.

"...I can't say that well." Kiryu smiled mysteriously, "There are so many masters in the Xuanwu Hall, and there are also geniuses like Chiba Dosaburo who are rare in ten years. Normally speaking, the Weiwei Hall The odds of winning are low."

"but--"

Kiryu suddenly changed the subject.

"There are two 'abnormal' people on the side of the test hall...."

Tongyu squinted his eyes, looked at the "Honjin" in the test hall, and looked at Qingdeng and Zongsi who were standing side by side.

"What will happen in this match...I can't say."

...

...

"Tsk tsk tsk, darling, so many masters have come here." The corners of Tufang's mouth almost reached his ears.

"It's the same as what we've heard before." The chief turned his face away, and said with a smile to Qing Deng beside him, "In order to fight against 'King Ni', a large number of masters from the Xuanwu Hall participated enthusiastically."

Qingdeng couldn't help laughing: "Are there many masters on the opposite side? I don't know Xuanwukan very well... In the whole Xuanwuguan, I only recognize the faces of Chiba Dosaburo and Chiba Tomonshirō."

"Hahaha. Mr. Ju, the lineup of the Xuanwu Hall opposite is really a gathering of heroes." Standing on the well behind Qingdeng, he laughed a few times, "Did you see that thin man? That person is the head of Xuanwukan: Takejiro Kikuchi; then the guy with a very fierce face is Kawashima Hachi, known as "Ghost Hachio"; the baby-faced person next to him is young At the age of 20, I begged the help of Qiantian Xianzhi, who led Beichen's one-handed sword style to save everyone..."

"It doesn't matter how many masters he has come!" Kondo folded his arms around his chest, showing a smug expression, "Anyway, no matter who competes in the Xuanwu Hall or what tactics they use, what we should do remains the same—just Act according to the tactics we decided the day before yesterday!"

It's strange to say—the contestants in the test hall standing at the east end of the arena have two completely different mental outlooks at this moment.

Most people, after seeing the "All-Star" lineup on the opposite side, all of them showed nervousness, panic, fear and other colors on their faces.

However, Qingdeng, Kondo, Hijikata, Zouji, and Inoue, the core members and top fighters of the five test guards, are calm and chatting, and everyone has a strong or light smile on their faces.

It seems that he is not worried about losing the next battle at all.

Some are timid and some are excited, some are sad and some are excited... Generally speaking, the mental outlook of the contestants in the test hall presents such a polarized situation.

There are less than 5 minutes left before the start of the game... It is time for Zhou Zhu and the idlers to leave the "field" and take their seats in the "audience seat".

"Hohohoho, everyone, please don't be too nervous." Before leaving, Zhou Zhu encouraged everyone while touching his bare chin, "It's not a real sword duel that will kill people, you don't need to worry about it too much." If you are too nervous or afraid, just treat it as an ordinary swordsmanship practice."

"Everyone! Don't lose!" Harada vigorously waved a flag with Kondo's family crest on it.

"Oh, if only I could participate in the competition... I really want to compete with Chiba Dosaburo." Yong Cang sighed.

Saito: "...everyone work hard."

"Young Master..." Jiu Bingwei held Qingdeng's hand firmly, "You must not get hurt."

...

Basically, everyone left a word of encouragement before leaving.

"Boss! You have to pay attention to safety." The boss's brother-in-law: Okita Rintaro stood in front of the boss, and said earnestly, "It doesn't matter if you lose, it's just a game anyway, so don't get hurt. "

"Brother-in-law, don't worry!" The chief patted her chest vigorously, "I... no, we will win the game unscathed!"

Everyone has gone to the "audience seat"... The only ones who have not left are Okita Hikaru and his wife.

"I sincerely wish you all the best of luck."

Okita Hikaru folded his hands in front of his body, bowed slightly without being humble, and sent a simple blessing to everyone. Afterwards, she led Rintaro Okita and walked slowly in the direction of leaving the "Honjin".

At this moment, no one noticed——Okita Hikaru suddenly changed his walking track slightly, and the route was slanted, and he approached behind the chief executive.

"...Xiao Si, Mianzai."

With a volume that only she and the chief executive could hear clearly, after exhorting the chief, Okita Hikaru left quickly without any hesitation.

"Huh?" The chief executive turned around in surprise, staring blankly at the back of my sister striding away.

After a while, the chief executive let out a sigh of relief as if he had recovered. Then, a bright smile slowly bloomed on the face of the chief executive like a flower.

...

...

The rule of victory in the red and white battle is to "kill" the opponent's general.

In order to make it easier for contestants and spectators to identify their identities, the generals of both sides will wear conspicuous gorgeous haori.

In a word - if you want to win in the battle of red and white, you don't have to defeat anyone, except the porcelain bowl on the forehead of the chief general must be smashed.

When Qingdeng and others were tying porcelain bowls to their foreheads, the "audience seats" on the north and south sides of the arena suddenly burst into exclamation.

Everyone in the test hall raised their heads in doubt, looked around, and in a blink of an eye, they knew why these exclamations in the "audience seat" came from.

I saw in the "Honen" of the Xuanwu Pavilion, a certain extremely tall young man was wearing a white and red haori that symbolized the identity of the "Chief General".

And this young man... is Chiba Michizaburo!

All of a sudden, low exclamations sounded from around Qingdeng and the others.

"What's there to be afraid of?" Hijikata glanced displeased at the people around him who exclaimed, "'Chiba Michizaburo is very likely to be the general in person'—isn't this something we expected a long time ago? "

"Chiba Michizaburo personally wore the General's Jinbaori... The worst scenario we had imagined before has happened." The chief executive smiled lightly, and handed a piece of cloth in his hand to Qingdeng.

Qing Deng smiled and said nothing.

He silently reached out his hand to take the chief commander's cloth ball, and then shook it vigorously—this cloth ball was exactly the neatly stacked "Chief General Jin Haori"!

The "audience seats" on both sides of the north and south burst into exclamations of astonishment again at this moment.

Most of the spectators in the "audience seat", as well as all the contestants in the Xuanwu Pavilion opposite, all focused their eyes with different emotions on Qingdeng who was wearing a haori.

"Oh?" Chiba Shigetaro's eyes lit up, "Is Tachibana-kun the chief general again?"

"..." Zuo Nazi didn't speak, she just watched everything on the field seriously.

Time flies.

In the anticipation of everyone, Chiba Dingkichi, who served as the referee in this competition, finally came to the center of the arena slowly.

After Chiba Singkichi said some ordinary opening remarks and congratulatory speeches in a loud voice, he waved vigorously to a young man standing in front of a small taiko drum not far away——

Boom...boom, boom! Boom——! Boom——! !

From slow to rapid drumming, the atmosphere of the arena was pushed to a tense state in an instant!

The game officially begins!

The first to set off the battle of the competition...is the test hall!

"All follow me!"

A loud shout replaced the sound of the taiko drum to shake the air in the arena.

Under the astonished gaze of the crowd, Qingdeng led everyone, swarming straight to the main formation of the "Xuanwu Hall"!

*****

*****

The author asked for leave yesterday at home and slept all afternoon, from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm... Now he is full of blood and resurrected! You can roam freely again!

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

Some book friends may think that the author Jun has asked for leave too frequently recently... Well, it is true, but it is because of force majeure that the author has to ask for leave, not the author Jun is lazy (Leopard Death.jpg)

--The world famous painting "Sanako and Mai Kinoshita Looking at each other on the field".

——Why is it that only Qingdeng and the chief executive are flirting in the picture? What about Sanako and Kinoshita Mai?

——They were looking at each other on the field.