Sauichiro: rebuilding Ashina from the obliteration of the pillar

Chapter 123 Tengu and Kappa

"Kappa and Tengu?"

In the interrogation room, Kamei Hidezaburo stared coldly at the innkeeper and his wife opposite, his voice was full of threats and impatience, and he made a low voice like sharpening a knife.

"Are you two kidding me?"

"How dare we!"

The boss is a short man over fifty years old. Although he is afraid of the man in front of him who is said to be the highest officer of the police system, he is even more afraid of the monsters he saw last night.

"Sir, we saw it with our own eyes. It was a black tengu with a flaming sickle. The whole body was covered with feathers, and the nose was as majestic as it was painted in Ukiyo-e! It also made a terrifying 'hey--' The screams... and those few kappa, each of them did not reach the chests of those hooligans, and I don't know how they appeared. At the back of the person's neck, the back of the person was broken with a 'click'!"

Hearing this, the two police officers in charge of recording at the door of the interrogation room exchanged glances, and they both saw goose bumps on each other's skin.

No wonder there were several bodies at the crime scene in that strange shape.

Except for those corpses that have been eaten, the ones with broken spines are the most terrifying.

"...Since it's killing people on sight," Kamei Hidezaburo narrowed his eyes, and his tone contained obvious doubts, "Why did you let your family go?"

"We haven't done anything wrong!"

It was the proprietress who spoke, she was younger, and she spoke with confidence.

"The reason why we let those people live in the store is because they are not easy to mess with with knives, they are completely forced to help! Besides, we didn't know that these people were doing this kind of business at the time. Still I think those monsters must have been sent by heaven to punish them."

After finishing speaking, she glanced at her husband with some pride, and the latter immediately gave a formulaic smile.

"Sir, I also think this is the reason. Although those monsters destroyed the house, they didn't hurt us, and they didn't talk to us. However, we only saw a little bit of what happened, and we have been hiding upstairs In his room, he didn’t dare to go down to check until there was no sound from downstairs.”

Kamei Hidezaburo laughed angrily.

This group of killers of unknown origin—the guys who don’t know whether they are people or ghosts, how can they punish those who tried the knife?
They are here to punish me!

"Then let me ask you again, what happened to those foreign reporters?"

Kamei Hidezaburo put his hand on the holster next to his belt and rubbed it. The incident was reported in the foreigner's newspaper. This was the reason why he had such a headache, "Why didn't you call the police first?!"

The tone of the last question was so intense that it was almost a reprimand.

"We don't know about that either." The boss was taken aback by Kamei Hidezaburo's face, and replied in a low voice, "Just after the incident ended, a few yellow-haired reporters had already arrived, and they dragged us to ask questions. Don't let us leave. They are foreigners, and we don't dare to offend them, so we can only accompany them."

"You can talk nonsense if you don't dare to offend you?"

Oni Hidesaburo unfolded the newspaper on the table almost in rage.

It was a newspaper run by a British in Japan, and the headline was impressively: "Man-eating monsters run rampant in Tokyo, and the result is to eliminate violence and bring peace?" "

There are two stacks of newspapers at the back, most of which cover the same content with minor differences.

However, this is written by foreigners for the Japanese to see, after all, they have scruples.

But when their telegrams are sent to their own country, what will those foreign local newspapers write?

Especially those countries that do not deal with them (such as Russia) will definitely make a big deal about the "knife tester", emphasizing their Japanese barbarism, and then using "cannibal monsters" to mock Japanese superstition.

But these are not the main points, the big deal is that he will resign and go home to start a business.

However, the key point of the current difficulty that Kamei Hidezaburo encountered was the list of "customers" of those knife testers announced in the newspaper!

"Who told them these names? How did foreigners know?"

He asked sharply, as if the couple in front of him were guilty of treason.

"They found it all by themselves in the room." The boss drooped his eyebrows and said in a slightly resentful tone, "At that time, my wife and I had already vomited unconsciously when we saw such a scene. do what."

But after saying this, his eyes obviously dodged a little, and his wife's sitting posture was no longer as upright as before.

"How much?" Kamei Hidezaburo smiled disdainfully, an ugly smile.

"What are you talking about..."

"If you don't understand, you don't have to go out today."

Kamei Hidezaburo no longer had a smile on his face, only fierce and fierce, "I'll ask again, how much did they give you?"

"..." The boss and the proprietress looked at each other, and then replied hesitantly, "They gave me 20 yen, saying it was for us to decorate the store..."

"You can sell the country for 20 yuan?!"

Kamei Hidezaburo stood up abruptly, spread his hands on the table, and the faces of the old couple immediately turned pale.

"We have everything..."

Is it too serious to betray the country?

At most, they sold some news materials.

"Shut up." Kamei Hidezaburo waved his hand, and stood there for a while, his whole face was buried in the shadow, and his expression could not be seen clearly, but his posture looked very tired.

The silence in the interrogation room lasted for five or six minutes before Kamei Hidezaburo spoke again.

"I'll let you go back."

The old couple were immediately relieved and happy. They were about to kneel down to thank them, but they heard Kamei Hidezaburo say: "When you go back, there will be reporters coming to your door, including Japanese newspapers and foreigners."

The smiles of the innkeeper and his wife froze immediately.

"You have to tell those reporters that the people who entered the hotel last night to cause the tragedy were not monsters, but human beings. You only admitted your mistake because they didn't look like Japanese."

"Next, you have to take the initiative to admit that you have received a bribe, but it is not 20 yen, but 200 yen."

"Sir, sir..." Hearing that things were going wrong, the boss's voice trembled a little.

However, Kamei Hidezaburo didn't intend to stop at all.

"Those dead are not knife testers, but illegal gangs that smuggle famous knives; those names are not a list of 'customers' of knife testers, but their targets for stealing famous knives."

"And you were first threatened by the murderer and then bribed by the reporter, so you can talk nonsense according to the wishes of those foreign reporters."

When the old couple heard this, their faces had completely lost their color.

"In the end, your consciences realized that you had fallen for the tricks of foreigners, which discredited both the country and the emperor, so you decided..."

Kamei Hidezaburo slid the Wakizawa that had been prepared long ago from the table, "Killed himself in front of reporters from all over the world to show his sincerity and determination to apologize."

After saying all this, Kamei Hidezaburo finally smiled again, but it was very superficial.

"You can be proud of being loyal to His Majesty and atoning for your sins in the way of a warrior."

"After you die, we will not recover the stolen money of 200 yen. They will be secretly transferred to your children."

"How about it, do you understand?"

Kamei Hidezaburo had a negotiating tone, but both the old couple knew that this was not a discussion at all, but a naked coercion.

The proprietress began to cry hysterically, while the boss put his arms around his wife's shoulders and nodded with a dead face: "I, I understand... I will do it, but can you arrange for us... a mediator?" ..."

There is no wrong person involved in seppuku, it is very painful.

"No."

Kamei Hidezaburo shook his head mercilessly, "In order to express your sincerity of repentance and hatred for hostile countries, and to arouse the patriotism of the people, your suicide was spontaneous on the spot and must be emotional, so it must be Shout out the names of those foreign papers in excruciating pain."

Diverting the attention of the people and His Majesty to the outside world is also a common method of modern countries.But only words like tragic death can mobilize people's emotions the most.

"..." The proprietress couldn't believe her ears, and suddenly jumped behind the table and grabbed Kamei Hidezaburo, but was easily dodged by the latter, "You can't do this! How can you do this?"

The two police officers who were in charge of recording quickly came over to subdue her, but their eyes were a bit unbearable.

"You should be happy to be able to share the country's worries."

Kamei Hidezaburo straightened his collar, and slowly walked towards the exit of the interrogation room, "If it weren't for you, the matter wouldn't have come to this point."

"In order for everyone to have a good year, I have to ask you to do what you can."

In order to protect their children, the couple could only do as he said, Kamei Hidesaburo was extremely confident.

This matter must be clarified, at least to the common people within the country.

Whether it is a man-eating monster, a knife tester, or those "customers" on the list, the government cannot admit a single thing.

Admitting the existence of the knife tester is slapping His Majesty in the face, and the long-awaited "becoming a civilized country" and "leaving Asia and entering Europe" will become a joke.

To admit that a monster or a man-eating monster committed the crime is to fight against the cabinet and the Ministry of War, which insists that there are no ghosts in the world.

Admitting the "customers" of the list is tantamount to offending the dignitaries in various fields and fields in Tokyo.

Although there is no particularly important person on this list for the time being, who can guarantee that there is only one copy of this list?
We must deny all connections between the dignitaries and the knife tester, and even deny the existence of the knife tester altogether—otherwise, Kamei Hidesaburo will surely die without a burial.

Others don't know, he doesn't know?

Since his son entered the military academy and mixed with those war lunatics, he has been obsessed with bushido and katana for not a day or two. It is impossible for him not to be involved in this matter.

Kamei Hidezaburo opened the door of the interrogation room, and when he was about to step out of the room, the proprietress suddenly yelled at him hoarsely.

"Master Monster will not let you go!"

"We'll be waiting for you too!"

Kamei Hidezaburo quickly closed the door as if fleeing suddenly.

Standing by the door for a while, he said to the new assistant waiting outside with no expression on his face: "Go and release that prisoner named Yue Yue, everything is going according to plan."

The assistant said "Hi" and was about to turn around and carry out the order.

"One more thing." Kamei Hidezaburo stopped him, opened the huge advertisement on the back cover of the newspaper, and pointed to the name on it.

"Send someone to this pastry shop in Yoshihara to prepare a few boxes of luminous pastries according to the highest specification. I'm going to visit the Minister of War tonight."

"Yes!"

　There is another chapter in the afternoon

　　
　
(End of this chapter)