Su Shuang's world is collapsing [Comprehensive]

They came to Sanjo Omiyacho.

Shannan claimed that the house he rented was in a quiet alley, and the neighbors were all ordinary townspeople.Some good neighbors heard the noise here and came out to wait and see, but in short, after the earthwork's inquiry, they all said that Shannan and the girl named "Axue" had rented a house and moved in here for about ten days; At first, Ah Xue moved in alone, but she also saw Shannan visiting frequently. Later, Shannan appeared more frequently, and some people did see the two of them coming out of the house together this morning-in short, there is no contradiction with what Shannan said place.

Earthwork: "..."

It stands to reason that he should be relieved by now, but for some reason, there is always a subtle thread in his heart that prevents him from easily uttering words of judgment.

He drank tea in the rented room without food, and at Shannan's nonchalant invitation, he even stood up and went to inspect the furniture in the bedroom—it was neatly arranged in the opened wooden box. Clothes that disappeared from the village, books piled up on the small table next to it, and a pot of poorly crafted flower arrangements under the window, Shannan said with a smile, "Ah, it seems that Axue really doesn't have the talent to learn ikebana"— —everything is normal to the point where it feels even more suspicious.

Dominated by such a complex and contradictory mood, Hijikata stepped out of the door with Shannan, preparing to go back to the village together, and later report the whole incident to Kondo who returned to the village.

However, he noticed the "Axue" girl and followed them out.

When he noticed the strange look in Hijikata's eyes, Axue smiled and explained: "I happen to be going to the store to buy something, so we can walk along the way for a while... Thinking about it, we come out together. Is that okay?"

Before Tufang said anything, Shannan smiled softly.

"Hey, of course, do you need me to take you there?" He replied.

Earthwork: "..."

He suddenly felt choked.There seems to be too much stasis in the throat, which has caused a hard lump to form there, which makes people feel uncomfortable.

...Could it be that Shannan escaped—no, since he left the village for no reason until now, because he was busy dealing with the complicated situation, he had no intention of eating and spoiled something?

He slowly followed behind Shannan and Axue, seeing the two walking side by side, talking in a low voice from time to time, he felt a tightening in his stomach, and the lump in his throat became more severe.

The three of them walked slowly, turned east along a street called Liujiaotong, and walked straight forward.

Hijikata is beginning to feel like he's wasting his time here - Yagidi was in the exact opposite direction, southwest of their current position to be exact, and now they've turned east and don't know to keep going How long; he thought about Kondo-kun's meeting with Rong Baogong today, he didn't know whether it would go well or not, and what tasks Rong Baogong had to entrust to the Shinsengumi to complete, and he had accumulated a lot of official affairs in the garrison that he had not dealt with, all because of Shannan The incident of leaving the station without knowing where he was going suddenly caused him to leave other jobs and give priority to dealing with this matter——

He was thinking wildly in his mind, but since he had agreed in advance that he and Shannan would send Axue to a certain shop that he had agreed to first, it was a bit unreasonable for him to say that he would leave first and go back to the village; therefore, he gradually felt a little irritable .

They passed another intersection.Finally, Tufang couldn't help but said: "Hey, where are you going?! Where is this already?!"

Shannan didn't speak, but Axue seemed a little embarrassed, and hurriedly turned her head and replied, "I'll be there soon! Just turn right in front! Let Mr. Hijikata and Mr. Shannan accompany me to the place today. I’m really sorry here, please give me a chance to treat you well next time I’m free to express my apologies—”

Tufang raised his chin impatiently, put his hands in his cuffs, and took a breath.

Just when he raised his head slightly, he suddenly recognized the street they turned on now.

They are walking on the Youxiaolutong now, and they should have turned to the south——according to this calculation, they will arrive soon——

"...The old Honnoji Temple is in front of you." Shannan said leisurely in a tone like an exclamation.

The place is a bit out of the way—mainly because there happens to be a large wasteland nearby.

The earth party felt even more suspicious now.Now he doesn't think Shannan is cunning or disgusting. In his opinion, the suspicious candidate has changed from Shannan to that Axue.

"Hey, what do you want to buy and you have to come here?" He stopped and asked in a harsh tone.

Shannan and Axue, who were walking a few steps in front of him, stopped at the same time because they heard his questioning, and looked back together.

Shannan seemed to frowned slightly, perhaps a little dissatisfied with Hijikata's rude attitude.But before he spoke, Ah Xue had already opened his mouth with a smile——

She didn't answer the earthwork's question, but asked another question first.

"I kind of want to know... From Mr. Hijikata's point of view, has Mr. Shannan been cleared of the crime of being suspected of escape?"

Tu Fang was taken aback.

Now ask what does this mean?Could it be that if he said "no, it hasn't been cleaned up, I still suspect that he just took it off", those two people are going to make a sudden attack here and kill him?In a confrontation, he is confident that he can defeat Shannan—in the final analysis, the injuries Shannan suffered before did affect his swing of the knife; but Shannan and Axue wouldn't want to trick him here to kill him, would they?What if he was killed?Can the charge of escape be wiped out? ...

He was full of doubts, but decided to see the trick.

He thought for a while, and replied very objectively and cautiously: "...As far as the current situation is concerned, without evidence to support it, it cannot be considered that Mr. Shannan's behavior of leaving the garrison last night was...'getting away'."

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Ah Xue's face light up suddenly.

The expression was so vivid that Hijikata suddenly felt that his eyes were dazzled by that unbelievable joy.He had to squint his eyes, and gave her a displeased look before continuing: "...that is to say, Shannan-jun will not be punished for breaking the rules of the game."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard Axue's voice full of joy—and obviously relieved, saying:

"That's... great."

As her final note fell, a gust of wind suddenly blew up in the sky!

Earth Fang subconsciously raised his head in astonishment and looked into the sky.But he only saw billowing dark clouds extending from the sky, sweeping across the entire sky in an instant; there were faint thunder and lightning flashing among the clouds - unexpectedly, in a short while, the weather became extremely bad, as if black clouds were overwhelming the city Usually, a storm seems to be coming at once.

Tufang couldn't help blurting out: "What the hell kind of weather is this—"

Before he could finish his words, he heard a low roar coming from the billowing black clouds.

Earthwork:? !

The roar was like the low roar of a terrifying giant beast, and it became clearer and clearer from far to near; at the moment of that roar, the thunder and lightning rolling among the clouds suddenly volleyed towards the earth !

Tufang was stunned.

He had thought it was just a sudden storm—but now there was only the rumble of thunder and lightning above their heads, and no rain fell.Moreover, it's only February, where can there be any sudden storms? !

The roaring sound from the clouds became more and more clear, and finally, after another bolt of lightning struck, from behind the thick clouds, a huge black shadow with strange shapes appeared.

The bluish-white light of thunder and lightning lingered on their bodies, as if they were wearing ancient armor, but their bodies and images were distorted monster forms, mixing the appearance of "human" and "giant beast", which looked particularly terrifying.

Hijikata blurted out: "What are these...!?"

But then he heard a swish.That was the sound of a famous knife being unsheathed.

He looked along where the sound came from, and found that the person who drew the knife was not Shannan, but Axue.

While he was looking up at the sky in shock, he was momentarily captured by the strange shape in the air, and at the moment when he didn't notice, Ah Xue had already taken off the bloated feathered kimono covering the outside at some point.

Now, although she is still wearing that plain kimono in both color and pattern—but the hem of the kimono is strangely tucked into the belt in reverse; Hijikata suddenly discovered that she was wearing a horse under the kimono. Hakama, because it was blocked by the hem of the kimono—maybe he also used some method to tie the trousers tightly—so he didn’t notice it at all.

He began to regret a little bit why he didn't take a good look at this suspicious woman because of the bloody reason of "this is Shannan Jun's woman, so it's not convenient to look at her too much".Look at her posture and dress now!This is obviously predicting what strange things will happen up to now!

Tu Fang hesitated for a moment, his throat was full of questions, which made him a little bit in a dilemma, not knowing which one to ask first; he quickly made a choice and asked the most life-threatening question.

"Hey! What the hell are these monsters! Are they here to kill you?!"

Then he saw Ah Xue twitched the corner of her lips in a strange way, and smiled at him.

"Maybe it's for those who see it." She replied.

The earth side only felt a surge of anger rushing straight to the top of his head.

"Hey! Tell me clearly! What does it mean to have a share! Do you mean that they are planning to kill all three of us now!" He shouted.

Ashue frowned subtly.

A huge black shadow had descended from the clouds to the ground—or rather, to the wasteland a few steps away from them.They stared at the three of them covetously, with almost no reservation of coldness and killing intent in their eyes.There is a lot of black air lingering around them, and menacing low growls are released from their throats.

Hijikata felt that he no longer needed to confirm the answer to this question—because the malice emanating from these monsters who seemed to be living in the legend of Hyakki Yakaku had already become substantive, and it was about to descend on them up.