Su Shuang's world is collapsing [Comprehensive]

In fact, this idea only appeared in his mind for a short moment.

In many later days, except when Mibu Roshigumi was first formed, he had to deal with the rough Serizawa, and he had to deal with him frequently; and the name of his charming and enchanting lover, Amei, would occasionally make people He thought of the girl who was so witty in the town and so bold as to throw water and stones at a group of unprofessional rogues, but he had gradually forgotten about Xiaomei.

Just like he forgot the daughter Aqin of the shamisen house in the Tama countryside.

...until a long, long time later, when he and finally followed him to the land of the end, and replaced him in the Battle of Hakodate to go to Bentendaiba, because he was ambushed and hanged by a thread, he had to drink water that changed into When the woman in Raksha lived in seclusion in the deep mountains of Ezo, one day, he remembered Xiaomei again.

When they were chatting that day, they mentioned his years as a medicine merchant traveling between villages and towns.

Kiyohara Yukiha said with a smile that at that time, she was probably forced to practice hard in her uncle's house with the goal of death.

... Even this painful past can be ridiculed so carelessly, is this guy really an ordinary woman?

Occasionally the thought would come to him spontaneously.

But on that day, perhaps because of the mention of the years of trading, he also had some other strange feelings.

"Speaking of... I seem to have seen a woman with a similar attitude to yours before." He managed to find Xiaomei's name at the bottom of his memory, as well as the tear mole that impressed him the most.

The words had already been said, and he regretted it a little.

Not because it's something shameful—no, it's better to say that she would never laugh at him even if it was humiliating or humiliating, and he still has this confidence anyway—but because, when this When the long-lost name reappeared in front of his eyes, that sense of incongruity reappeared in his heart.

The sense of incongruity that always accompanies Xiaomei.

... Exactly, why?

She's obviously a girl with such an ordinary appearance... Even if her temperament and conversation are a little strange...

Ah, right.

This is it.

Temperament and conversation.

From the first time he saw her, there was something about her that made him feel subtle.

Although her appearance is very ordinary, when chatting with her, the quality of her occasionally makes him forget her ordinary appearance.

When she squatted beside him who was covered in bruises, and said in a calm and warm tone, "Even if you can't defeat Hijikata-san, they should be ashamed", her ordinary face seemed to blend with the clear sky that day. One, a soft and warm light flashed in his vision.

Now recalling the scene at that time, recalling when she came, the feeling of resentment and powerlessness that was full of injustice and violence at that time, the feeling of wanting to resist and become stronger has disappeared, leaving only a gentle feeling. Nostalgia.

"...Do you remember anyone, Mr. Hijikata?" Kiyohara Yukiha's smiling voice suddenly sounded very close to him, and he was taken aback unexpectedly.

"...Ah, I remembered a person I met a long time ago and only met two or three times in total."

The earth party stared at Xue Ye reproachfully, and answered frankly.

Xue Ye raised her eyebrows, as if surprised.

"Huh...?! Who is it? Mr. Hijikata knows a lot of people, right? You can talk to me almost like a woman..." She dragged her voice out as if interested, with a sly look on her face smile.

"What kind of person is it? I really look forward to it."

Sure enough, it was still the style that could choke him with a few words.

"I said..." He couldn't help raising his voice a little.

She blinked innocently and looked at him.

"Actually, don't you think it's a very pleasant thing to talk back to me like this and make me speechless!"

He shouted loudly with a kind of great courage when facing thousands of troops.

She seemed to be stunned for a moment, and then burst into a very happy crisp laughter.

"Hahahaha...how could it be, Mr. Hijikata." She finally suppressed the wave of violent laughter, looked at him with twinkling eyes, and replied solemnly.

Speaking of which, since they quietly left Goryokaku, which was occupied by the new government army, and headed towards the inaccessible mountains of Ezo, in order to avoid the pursuit of the new government army that may come one after another—the premise is that Yukiha abandoned it in a woodland. In the forest between Guanmen and Bentendaiba, the blood-stained jacket of Hijikata with a bullet hole in the lower left abdomen failed to fool the new government army - after that, the way they got along seemed to be unknown. Unknowingly, subtle changes gradually took place.

It might be a bit difficult to say exactly what the change is—however, from Dojikata’s point of view, he does not object to the villagers in that remote mountain village calling Yukiha his wife .Although he seldom had the opportunity to really get in touch with those villagers, occasionally when Xue Ye went down the mountain to purchase, the uncle who helped deliver the goods would stand at the door and rush at the door when Xue Ye left the entrance and put the food in the kitchen. Hijikata winked his eyes, smiled and said a few teasing words, such as "You have a good wife, young man" or "You two look really good for each other!" and so on.

He would still be surprised when this kind of thing happened once or twice, but after the third time, he would be able to deal with it calmly and calmly, and even answer a few words "ah, I think so" or "thank you" generously of.

...He is not at all like the vice-chief of Oni, who roamed the capital and was hated by the extremists, but rather a calm and reliable young man.Perhaps it is precisely because of this that although he has met some villagers in the village, no one has ever connected this young man who claimed to be "Hayato Naito" with the deputy head of the Shinsengumi Oni, Toshizo Hijikata.

Of course, Yukiha, who will never make mistakes in front of outsiders, will always call him "Hayato-kun" as long as he is on these occasions——

Speaking of it, it seems that no one has ever called him that.only her.

Although it was a matter of urgency, she seemed to enjoy it a little bit. Every time she called him "Hayato-kun", there was a naughty light in those bright eyes, and she had a funny expression on her face.

Once he finally couldn't bear it and asked her why she always called him "Hayato-kun" with a smile every time, and the answer he got was——

"This name always reminds me of the 'Master Banner of Eighty Thousand Stones' that Souji-kun said....Speaking of which, Tama still has many good girls vying to marry this master Banner, right?"

Earthwork: "..."

Answering like this is really like her style.

The ingenuity and unreasonable response to such strange little things is always annoying and annoying.

But in the face of any important event, you can trust her and rely on her, knowing that she will stand by you and do your best. Loyalty and affection behind.

...a strange woman.

"...Speaking of strange women... I have indeed met one before." He gave up the idea of ​​continuing to scold her - she couldn't really reflect on it anyway - and slowly confided a passage from Anzheng Wu. From that unexpectedly hot summer day in 12 to now, the story has been deeply hidden in his memory for [-] years.

"...Since then, I haven't seen this woman again. I haven't heard any news about her. Presumably, she has already married a good man and raised a child who is as smart as her..." He ended his narrative with these few thoughts, thinking that his tone was calm and objective enough to express his occasional nostalgia for the past without causing Xue Ye’s misunderstanding—although her more likely reaction was not misunderstanding, but joke.

But to his surprise, Xue Ye listened carefully to this actually very short story from beginning to end.

After the end of his words fell, she was silent for a long while, which was so long that he was already staring at her with puzzled and somewhat annoyed frowns, unable to figure out what she was going to do.

…Obviously, when I talked to her about Aqin, the lady of the shamisen house in the Tama countryside—that’s the woman he almost married—she had a very normal attitude, and she even joked to him: "Fortunately, the deputy chief chose to pursue his own ambition back then."

As a result, he is now silent like a silent statue.It's really ridiculous, obviously this Xiaomei is just a passer-by who happened to meet in his life, but she seems to care a lot - it's really hard to guess what a woman's mind is, even a woman who can pretend to be a man for many years without wearing gangsters. !

Before Hijikata completely lost his patience, Xue Ye suddenly raised the corners of her lips and smiled inexplicably.

"Hayato-kun...do you still want to know what happened to Miss Xiaomei after that?"

……here we go again.If she still called him by this pseudonym when they were alone, it must mean she was having some weird idea again.

And her smile was so peculiar that Hijikata immediately denied it almost subconsciously.

"No, I don't have that kind of idea....The girl from the town in the country must have a stable and smooth life, just like...uh, those people in my hometown..."

He almost casually said Aqin's name as an example, but luckily he swallowed it back in time, almost biting his tongue.The clumsy way of talking made him feel a little embarrassed and uncomfortable, and he glared at her angrily.

"...What's the point of bringing up such a thing now!" He rebuked her sternly.

Xue Ye stared at his face with her eyes wide open, and suddenly let out a burst of laughter, biting her lower lip lightly, and intentionally put on a timid look that was both pitiful and afraid of being reprimanded by him, her clever eyes There was an almost mischievous light in the depths of his eyes.

"Hey, I thought Mr. Hijikata wanted to hear such news." She blinked innocently, and said, "Even if you know that Miss Xiaomei's current life is very different from Mr. Hijikata's vision, doesn't that matter? ?”

This question was so intense that Tufang felt that his brain was overwhelmed and stopped functioning for a while.

"……Hey?!"

He saw that the woman in front of him had gone through wars and homelessness, and had gone through life and death. On her young and beautiful face, there was a sly smile that he was very familiar with.

"Let me tell you, Miss Xiaomei...probably hasn't married a country man like you imagined, Mr. Tukata, and hasn't given birth to any children."

"You... what did you say?!" Tu Fang was extremely shocked and blurted out.

"Hey, let me tell you, since we parted that day, Miss Xiaomei probably left that small town and worked hard to cultivate like Mr. Dojikata.... Later, her practice was completed, so she came to the bustling Beijing -"

Xue Ye still said the following words in a gentle tone, with a faint smile in the corner of her eyes that flew upwards.

Tufang suddenly realized that this expression was very similar to a person in his memory.

"...Then, Miss Xiaomei, who doesn't intend to follow the script that Mr. Tukata envisioned for her, has no plan at all to find a man to marry in such a small town, but pretends to be a man and intends to participate At that time, there was no famous Langshi group in the capital..."

...Under the corner of the eye that flew up slightly when she laughed, there was only a tear mole missing.

"Mr. Hijikata must have known the story after that."

The woman in front of her, who was much more beautiful than Xiaomei in her memory, moved her eyelashes slightly, and blinked at him, her rosy lips were slightly curved, forming a beautiful arc.

"...Mr. Hijikata, you really became a remarkable person."

"The light you emit must last for a long, long time, just like your life."

When her clear and beautiful voice fell, the room was filled with a suffocating silence for an instant.

Hijikata stared at her face with wide eyes in shock.

What kind of story is this woman who has been following him steadfastly since the Langshi Group had not established a firm foothold in Kyoto—even though he didn't know she was a woman for a long time—what kind of story is he telling him? !

She was telling him, did she exist in his young years when he was carrying a medicine box and running around the villages and towns? !

"...Xiao...Xiaomei...?!"

He opened his mouth with difficulty, and squeezed out a suffocating sound from his throat.

He saw the eyes of the woman in front of him flicker, revealing a familiar smile.

That smile traveled through time, space, and even a different face. It drifted towards him from the last summer day of Anzheng's five years, and brought a wave of unreal feelings that were half illusory, half dreamlike. The ethereal feeling.

【...Even if they can't defeat Mr. Hijikata, they are the ones who should be ashamed. 】

He was in a daze for a moment before realizing that it was not the Xiaomei in his memory, but the voice from Xueye in front of him.

The tone is exactly the same, only the voice is slightly different.He should have guessed it earlier if she hadn't never said it again so that he couldn't compare it.

"I've always wanted to say that to Mr. Hijikata again." Her tone was very gentle, as if there was a slight sigh.

"Mr. Hijikata, you are really an amazing person."

"From that time until now, no matter how difficult the environment is, no matter how much pressure and pain you have to bear...but you have never been defeated by those people. When I follow you, I often think of This sentence."

She didn't seem to wait for him to speak his full of questions before starting to explain. She naturally began to narrate the part of the story from her own perspective.

"When we first met, I never thought that there would be a day when I would meet you again."

"At that time, I, who had just graduated from the teacher, was ordered by my uncle and elder brother to lurk in that town in disguise, intending to monitor a big man we were about to ambush... I heard that he once joined forces with the Changzhou clan that my uncle's family served, and later But betrayed the original agreement; and Changzhou certainly cannot allow such a thing to happen..."

"When I met you, I didn't know who you were at first, but I simply noticed that you were sitting under a tree, staring at the rice ball that was too broken to eat, with a confused and troubled look on your face expression……"

Because she recalled the scene at that time, a gentle and hazy smile appeared on her face.

"...Maybe it's that expression that makes my heart move..." She said with a sigh, "So I just want to help you solve your troubles..."

Tufang listened to her narration in amazement and astonishment, and there seemed to be a kind of anger that had been concealed for a long time in his heart, but in the end, it slowly settled into a faint nostalgia.

"... Nonsense!" He couldn't help but scolded her, "You were hiding in disguise at that time? Do you know what kind of dangerous consequences you may bring to you if you talk to strangers on the street without authorization? !"

Xue Ye blinked as if surprised for a moment, then raised the corners of her lips and smiled, as if she was very happy to see that he cared about herself at that time—even though it was many years late.

"...Of course I know." She replied softly, "But... I think Mr. Hijikata probably has such a magic power that can make people willing to take risks for you."

Hijikata choked for a moment, an uncomfortable expression quickly appeared on his face, he stared speechlessly at her who made such bold remarks, opened his mouth, and finally shouted angrily: "...what, what magic power! Do you think I'm a monster!"

Xue Ye froze for a moment, and then burst into a burst of joyful and crisp laughter.

"...Before that, I had already stayed in that town for two or three days... I knew that Mr. Hijikata was not the target of my mission, but just a well-known drug dealer, and would not have a bad influence on me. I actually I also know that troubles should not be caused when carrying out the task... But, I probably don't want to give up this only chance to have a little karma with you..."

The author has something to say:

February 7:

Regarding the issue of space-time travel in this extra episode, the author Jun wants to explain it a little bit long-windedly.

Originally, the setting of this episode was written for the return chapter, because I felt that the return chapter of each volume was equivalent to the sequel, which was a bit lacking in innovation, so when I wrote the outline, I conceived many different settings, such as parallel world, and then For example, in this extra episode, the timeline of the main text is relatively later, but it happened first for the girl; the extra episode happened when the return chapter happened, and it happened later for the girl, but it actually crossed the node For the natives, it was earlier.

Then the time travel of the return chapter triggered the self-correction of the world and the timeline, causing Hijikata, the original resident who really lived in this world, to think that this happened in his past, that is to say, the time travel that happened later The events and the life timeline of the Deputy Chief really merged.

That's why, if you count carefully, the age of the girl will be slightly different from two to three years old.Because according to the deputy chief’s impression, the girl was 12 years old 16 years ago → now she should be about 27 or 34 years old (according to history, the deputy chief is 1835 years old at this time, born in 25), but in fact the girl is about 1844 or [-] years old at this time (That is to say, it is still one or two years younger than Zongsihe born in [-]).

Well, by the way, I also mentioned the age setting in this volume, Ka Ka Ka.It seems a little late to list the exact ages of the main characters after this volume is over, but it has been mentioned several times in the article, saying that both the chief executive and Xiaoyi are under the same age [.