Chapter 247: Chapter 110: That Incident When Aoto Encountered a Strange Black-clothed Person at Night

"That’s why I got up early today and went to the market to buy two of the freshest pieces of tofu."

Hearing Mukiwa say this, Aoto recalled: right across this street, where he rarely comes, there is a popular vegetable market.

This explained why he happened to meet Mukiwa on his way to work today.

At this moment, Mukiwa glanced at the blankets in Aoto and Saito’s hands, blinking in confusion.

"Mr. Tachibana, why are you both holding blankets?"

"Oh, this..." Aoto raised the blanket in his hand and explained to Mukiwa that he had a night shift at the Magistrate’s Office today.

"Night shift..." A hint of worry flashed in Mukiwa’s eyes, "Won’t that be tiring?"

"It’s okay, not too tiring. After all, I’m still young." Aoto replied in a half-joking tone, "Even if I stay up one or two nights, my body won’t suffer much."

Aoto was quite happy to chat with this friend he hadn’t seen for some time.

But he was rushing to work and did not have time to chat slowly with Mukiwa.

So after chatting with Mukiwa for a few more sentences, Aoto waved to her, indicating that he had to hurry to the Magistrate’s Office.

"Okay." Mukiwa freed her right hand and waved to Aoto energetically, "Mr. Tachibana, you’d better hurry to the Magistrate’s Office. I won’t disturb you anymore. See you later!"

Aoto also waved to Mukiwa, said goodbye to her, and sped up his pace with Saito to head to the Magistrate’s Office.

...

...

Today was a relatively peaceful day.

There were no sudden incidents on the street patrols, nor did any emergency cases suddenly appear.

Aoto calmly welcomed the nightfall today.

Since Edo entered a "state of emergency" due to the "Anti-foreigner Warriors’" rebellion, the South and North Governor’s Office would always leave two "Three Times" dōshin on duty at night.

After nightfall today, all the officers in the Magistrate’s Office left, leaving only Aoto and another dōshin who was on night duty with him tonight.

It was quite a coincidence.

Following yesterday, Aoto once again teamed up with Nishino.

It was Nishino who was on the night shift with Aoto today.

Just as Aoto brought Saito, Nishino also brought some of his undercover informants to accompany him on duty.

In the North Guard Station’s first-floor hall, Nishino, holding a lantern, lightly said to Aoto:

"Tachibana, you can go take a nap first."

"I’ll take the first half of the night shift, and you take the second half."

The reason for having two people on night duty each day at the Magistrate’s Office is for them to take turns resting.

Who takes the first half and who takes the second—this kind of thing is trivial, so Aoto readily nodded.

Hugging his blanket, Aoto was about to separate from Nishino to find a comfortable place to take a nap with Saito when he suddenly heard Nishino yawning loudly.

"Haaah...!"

The yawn was so loud that Aoto couldn’t help but turn his head to glance at Nishino behind him.

It was then he noticed that the fatigue was very apparent on Nishino’s face.

Conspicuous dark circles hung under his eyes.

Despite Nishino trying to perk himself up with strong blinks and other ways, his eyes still exuded beams of tiredness.

After observing Nishino’s evidently tired appearance, Aoto couldn’t help but ask:

"Are you alright? You look quite exhausted."

"I’m fine," Nishino quickly replied without thinking, "I’ve just been tracking the Cat Monk and helping to deal with the ’Anti-foreigner Faction’s’ mobs recently, so I haven’t had much sleep, but I’m fine."

Suppressing the disturbances caused by the "Anti-foreigner Faction" is important... But catching the Cat Monk, who targets vicious figures and has angered quite a few big figures, bringing much embarrassment to the Magistrate’s Office, is also crucial.

Therefore, under Hosoi’s instructions, Nishino continues to focus on the "Cat Monk" case he’s currently responsible for.

However... Nishino is the North Guard Station’s "top detective"; how could this versatile asset be let off so easily...

With the current insufficient manpower, Nishino occasionally gets called to help with the "Anti-foreigner Faction..." Like yesterday, when he was paired with Aoto to capture Kin’emon.

Handling the major "Cat Monk" case while also dealing with the "Anti-foreigner Faction" repression... Aoto couldn’t help but feel a little sympathy for Nishino.

"... How about I take the first half of the night shift? You go rest a bit first."

"No need!" Nishino frowned slightly, "Didn’t I just say? I’m fine."

With that, Nishino didn’t give Aoto any chance to argue and walked away with his lantern.

Since Nishino insisted... Aoto said nothing more.

He approached Saito, found a place shielded from the night wind, wrapped himself with the blanket, and lay down to sleep.

With the blessing of the "Sleep God," Aoto fell into a slumber as soon as he closed his eyes.

...

... 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

After sleeping for about half an hour, Aoto woke up with a pressing urge to urinate.

Opening his eyes and looking around—Saito, who was sleeping beside him, was still fast asleep.

Aoto, ready to relieve himself, carefully lifted the blanket off himself so as not to disturb Saito.

This gentle action was actually pointless.

With the highly alert instincts of a bodyguard, Saito opened his eyes as soon as Aoto lifted the blanket and stood up.

"Why are you awake?" Saito asked.

"I want to go to the toilet."

"Do you need me to come along?"

"No need. The toilet is very close; you just keep sleeping."

Since Saito was already awakened, Aoto didn’t bother to tiptoe anymore.

He grabbed his two swords, strapped them to his waist, and, yawning, walked toward the nearby toilet.

Woken sharply by the urge to urinate—still half-asleep, Aoto felt his head was a bit foggy.

It felt more like he was walking on fluffy clouds than wooden corridors.

Just eager to quickly solve this physiological issue and return for another nap, Aoto quickened his pace slightly.

Following his memory, he turned a corner, and the toilet appeared in his field of vision.

But suddenly—

Screeech...

Aoto suddenly heard a very faint sound of footsteps behind him.

Aoto’s eyes opened slightly wider. In the next instant, he quickly turned his head to look back.

The surrounding light was very dim... but Aoto had the "Cat’s Eye" that allowed him to see clearly even at night.

As soon as his eyes turned to his back, he spotted a figure dressed entirely in black swiftly dart around the corridor corner behind him.

Covered in black and fleeing as soon as Aoto noticed—they were up to no good... Aoto’s sleepiness vanished abruptly.

"Thief—!"

Aoto mustered all his strength and shouted loudly, then, clutching the hilt of his sword, he chased after the fleeing black-clothed person.

*******

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Everyone, guess who this black-clothed person is~

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