"Do you have my share, Aru?"
Kagura, who had a scarred face and was dirty, changed her attitude after hearing such a conversation and followed them happily.
"I'm not prepared." Jiang Cheng waved his hand without looking back, "Who knew Qiu You would come to such a place, really."
"One chestnut parfait, please."
Gintoki raised his hand and stared with dead eyes before speaking, then he raised his feet and followed slowly.
Hearing the sound, a vein suddenly popped up on Jiang Cheng's forehead: "Do you think this is some kind of restaurant?! Weren't you guys fighting just now?! Your attitude changed too quickly!"
"One portion of rice with mayonnaise, please." Fourteen raised his hand.
Jiang Cheng waved his hand without looking back: "Go clean the battlefield, idiot police, please."
"Soba noodles, please," Katsura called over his shoulder with his hands in his sleeves, and then looked at Shimomo again, "General, do you remember? You once said that when we meet again, I'm afraid one of the corpses will be separated. hour."
After retracting his gaze at the Heavenly Daoist's slowly departing spaceship, Maomao nodded slightly: "Ah, I still remember, and you also said that the survivors are the ones who created the world. But... now I just Understand that things in this world are not that simple or that rigid.”
"No, samurai are so simple, so simple and cute." Gui shook his head gently, then turned around and left slowly. At the same time, he slightly raised his hand and continued: "Although you and I have different positions, we have the same heart. The ambition, the desire to build a better country is the same. I will keep my word as your enemy and send you on your way the next time we meet. So... until then, don't die, my kindred spirit enemy."
"Ah, I'm ready to wake up."
Hearing the sound, Gui retracted his hand, and at the same time gently curled up the corner of his mouth and snorted. But the next moment...
Looking at the Shinsengumi team members in front of him who were grinning and pointing their swords at him, Gui's face darkened. After being silent for a long time, he raised his head, with cold sweat covering his face, and said with a smile: "Then what...everyone? Didn’t you hear what I just said? I’m talking about the next time we meet, and the time limit hasn’t come yet. Anyway, why don’t you all put away your knives first?”
"What are you talking about? Katsura?" Sougo blinked his big innocent eyes, spread his hands and said, "The enemies over there (the Ten Daozhong and Takasugi's faction) have retreated, so aren't you the remaining enemy? Don't You got your identity wrong. Hey, everyone, don’t forget the identities of the real members, come on!"
Listening to Gui's unstoppable screams, Shinpachi, who was lowering his head at the side, pushed up his glasses on the bridge of his nose and complained silently: "Gui-sang, it's a shame that you can be alone in this kind of place full of enemies. To say something like that under the circumstances of (the Shinsengumi), I can’t hide my natural stupidity.”
On a mountaintop in the distance, Hao, who had been watching from beginning to end, glanced at the huge spaceship of the Tiandaozhong that was gradually going away, and then looked at Songyang's disciples who were gradually retreating from different battlefields below. them.
"Is this the true "will of God"? "Long whispered to himself, and then looked at Jiang Cheng who was gradually disappearing into the woods in a certain direction, "The will of God has been subverted..."
At a certain moment, Hazy's thoughts were pulled to a certain time in the past, when Songyang was still in prison...
In the dark, damp underground prison filled with the smell of decay, Hazy walked down the stairs step by step. What he saw was a person in front of a certain prison, lighting a dim oil lamp, kneeling on the ground with his body bent down, his head lowered and using a brush. A skeletal woman writing something on a piece of paper.
"What are you doing?" Hazy said calmly.
Hearing the sound, the young man quickly picked up the pen and paper and held it tightly to his chest.
"Kui..." Hao stepped forward, glanced at the silent guard who was guarding the pen and paper, then turned to look at the prisoners in the prison, "Is it you who did something good again? Songyang …”
Songyang, who was kneeling on the ground with his back to Long, holding a brush and facing the wall covered with various words, slowly put away the brush after hearing the sound.
"Is this what you want to do now..." He murmured softly, glancing at Songyang again, "You disobeyed God's will and were demoted to the ground. You can only wait for death behind this dirty dungeon, but you still Do you want to teach the guards how to study?”
"What I am fighting against is not God's will, but myself. I hope that my hands that only know how to plunder can give some help to others. But in the end, it cannot be what I want."
As he spoke, Songyang held a copy of Bushido for Beginners on his lap, and the faces of the children with different personalities in the Matsushita Village School gradually appeared in Songyang's mind.
Songyang's voice was unhurried, gentle and gentle.
"It was me who was helped. Human beings are born timid, and everyone is burdened with another self that they cannot agree with, and they live in pain. Unfortunately, there is no good way to escape this pain in this world. But... people You can’t just be played with by your own cowardice and suffer all your life. You can also face your cowardice and rise up to resist. You can also try to change, even if you suffer for it. Those little warriors taught me this.”
Saying that, Songyang turned around and showed his usual warm smile.
"People... are much freer than they think."
After finishing this memory, Hao glanced in the direction of Jiang Cheng for the last time. When he turned around, he glanced at the coffin aside: "I'm going back..."
Cong didn't answer. He glanced in Jiang Cheng's direction with his always paralyzed face, then turned around and left slowly.
"The choice...has been made, right?" Hao asked.
Coffin still didn't answer, staring closely in front of him.
"That's good…"
…
"People...are far more free than they think..."
In the forest under the moon, Jiang Cheng sat cross-legged under a big tree by the campfire. He looked at the moon reflected in the wine glass in his hand and murmured softly.
Then he raised his head and looked at the bright moon in the sky through the branches that were no longer lush in autumn.
"Long time no see, Jiang Chengsang."
At the same time as the sound of rustling footsteps on the fallen leaves came, Maomao's voice also came.
"General..." Jiang Cheng lowered his head and poured all the wine in the cup down his throat, and then looked at the drunken people sleeping on the ground scattered around, "It's incredible, isn't it? You have just lost so many precious things. The next moment, you can start a drinking party right where you are. Human beings...are really annoying creatures."
"Probably because those lost things have invaded the internal organs and cannot be forgotten even if they want to." Maomao glanced at the people sleeping on the ground with gentle eyes, and then sat on the ground.
"I hate samurai. I have always hated samurai. I always think that the lost things have meaning. I always think that even if they are lost, there will be something left behind. Boring beliefs and so on..." Jiang Cheng said to himself While pouring the wine, he talked to himself, speaking at an unhurried pace, with a calm and calm tone, "I always believe that people... only have meaning when they are alive. Other than that... there is no meaning at all." . There are only two states of human beings, living and... dead. The weight of life is the heaviest thing in the world. Can you... really be able to carry it? "
"If I couldn't bear it, I wouldn't survive today."
With that said, Maomao reached out and took the wine glass casually handed over by Jiang Cheng.
"Don't forget those heavy lives, and... don't forget your own sins."
After that, Jiang Cheng poured himself a glass of wine again, raised his face and poured it all into his throat.
"Sure enough...Jiang Chengsang's wine is still very spicy." Maomao sighed softly after swallowing the wine.
"It's like a knife," Jiang Cheng said casually while pouring wine for Maomao. "The invisible knife that is always pointed at your heart, the knife that always reminds you not to forget those sins."
"Ah, I know."
With that said, Maomao drank the wine in the cup again.
Maomao couldn't remember how many drinks he drank. He only remembered that the moment he passed out drunk and slowly closed his eyes, Jiang Cheng whispered a reminder while drinking...
"Next time...don't be so naive."
…
More than half a month has passed since I got drunk that day.
In these more than half a month, the situation in Edo has also undergone earth-shaking changes. First, General Tokugawa Shigemo left Edo and went to Kyoto, where the emperor was, to seek asylum and wait for the opportunity to make a comeback.
Princess Chengye also left with her, as did Duke Songping and some of Maomao's loyal ministers.
The Shinsengumi did not leave together, but stayed in Edo. According to Shigemo, it was because they did not want the Shinsengumi to completely oppose the Shinsengumi now, and they also needed the Shinsengumi to continue to protect Edo.
Hi... Although Mao Mao could not directly take over as general because he had not announced his abdication, but with the emperor's edict, he openly became the acting general. Mao Mao, who had "retired due to illness", temporarily acted in political affairs.
Tokugawa Shigemo survived, but the price was that the Iga ninjas were almost slaughtered, as well as... most of the loyal guards of his imperial family, as well as those loyal retainers who divided their forces in order to escape.
The so-called Iga has ceased to exist in name only, and so has the so-called Imperial Court Fans, with only a handful of people surviving.
Oh, by the way, Katsura, who was taken advantage of by the Shinsengumi and imprisoned in the Shinsengumi's prison, successfully escaped from prison the next day, living up to the title of Runaway Kotaro.
Jiang Cheng's life has not changed significantly, but there is a little tail around him.
…
"Hey, how many days has it been?"
Jiang Cheng, who had just gotten up and put on his pajamas and hadn't had time to change, just opened the sliding door of his room and saw Kagura, chewing vinegar kombu and sitting in front of his computer, playing games.
(End of chapter)