Tonight marks the second time he has fought side by side with Mukiwa. The battle tonight gave Aoto a new understanding of Mukiwa’s combat prowess.

Aoto felt that if it were purely a contest of hand-to-hand combat, he might not be Mukiwa’s match...

Based on his own proficiency in Hand-to-Hand Combat Skills, Aoto vaguely sensed that Mukiwa seemed to be using a peculiar force, somewhat reminiscent of the "Inch Force" famous in a previous life.

This method of exerting force allows Mukiwa, with her petite frame, to unleash extremely formidable power.

Aoto couldn’t help but become even more curious about the Martial Arts Mukiwa practiced.

Unfortunately, Mukiwa had previously made it clear to Aoto: she wasn’t comfortable discussing her Martial Arts in detail, so Aoto could only temporarily suppress the curiosity rising in his heart.

"No." Mukiwa wiped the fine sweat from her forehead, then turned her head to smile at Aoto, "How about you? Are you hurt?"

Aoto sheathed his wakizashi and extended both hands—indicating to Mukiwa with gestures that he was unharmed.

"As long as you’re okay..." With relief, Mukiwa let out a breath, then lowered her gaze, frowned at the group of unidentified individuals lying disheveled on the corridor floor, either lifeless or unconscious, "Who are these people anyway..."

Aoto also lowered his gaze, scanning the people on the floor before speaking gravely:

"...Storage of such a large amount of fire oil in this secluded, abandoned Tea House, and attacking us without warning upon discovering us, trying to capture us... I suspect they stored this fire oil for some... unspeakable activities."

"And these people... might just be members of the Anti-foreigner Group."

"After all, members of the Anti-foreigner Group recently committed the maddening ’Fire of Edo’ incident."

Fire oil isn’t like precious stones, gold, or silver that hold value, nor can it be sold at high prices or monopolized for profit.

Storing such a large amount of fire oil in Edo... it’s hard not to have some bad thoughts...

Hearing Aoto’s words, Mukiwa’s expression slightly changed.

"Simply put."

Aoto continued, speaking gravely.

"This matter is already beyond the scope of what the two of us can resolve."

"We must promptly notify the Magistrate’s Office, so that the officials can come to capture all these people and conduct an inquiry."

Increasingly aware that what they encountered tonight wasn’t a simple matter, Mukiwa nodded vigorously without hesitation.

...

...

Before notifying the Magistrate’s Office, Aoto and Mukiwa conducted a simple search of the Tea House, looking for any escapees or other suspicious items.

Though the Tea House has three floors, it’s not particularly large.

The two cooperated to thoroughly search the entire Tea House and, finding no other results, began preparing to notify the Magistrate’s Office.

Regarding how to notify the Magistrate’s Office to come arrest people, Aoto and Mukiwa quickly completed their task allocation—Aoto stayed at the Tea House to watch the face-marked group, while the speedy Mukiwa rushed to the Magistrate’s Office to bring them over.

The nearest Magistrate’s Office to this Tea House is the North Guard Station.

And tonight, it’s the night shift at the North Guard Station with those two seniors closely tied to Aoto: Inagawa and Ushiyama.

Mukiwa brought Inagawa over in a very direct way—she rushed into the North Guard Station and shouted: a Tea House in the East Suburb of Edo stores a large amount of fire oil! The guards of this Tea House have been knocked down by us, go arrest them!

After shouting this, Mukiwa swiftly left the North Guard Station.

Storing a large amount of fire oil—in an Edo Era terrified by fire, this statement holds destructive and intimidating power nearly equal to "found a bomb somewhere."

Regardless, Inagawa and Ushiyama couldn’t possibly ignore the information provided by Mukiwa, and quickly gathered their subordinate undercover informants, with Ushiyama staying at the North Guard Station and Inagawa leading men to rush to the Tea House.

There’s no need to elaborate on what happened next—after arriving at the Tea House, Inagawa and his group found the face-marked individuals subdued by Aoto and Mukiwa, still unconscious, and the hundreds of boxes of fire oil stored on the second floor.

Before Inagawa and Ushiyama arrived, Aoto had already left the Tea House, staying with the returning Mukiwa hidden in a nearby dark alley from which they could observe everything happening inside the Tea House.

Watching Inagawa seriously and orderly directing his subordinates to escort the face-marked group out of the Tea House, a "relieved" expression appeared on Aoto’s face.

The face-marked group, and the large amount of fire oil stored in this Tea House, are very likely related to his nemesis the Anti-foreigner Group... just based on this point alone, Aoto attaches the highest importance.

Both he and Mukiwa have done what they could tonight.

They can defeat the face-marked group, but with just the two of them, they obviously cannot conduct inquiries and extract information from them.

Professional work requires professional people.

Next, they rely on the Prison Compound with its extremely professional "Interrogation Team" to swiftly interrogate the face-marked group and extract useful intelligence.

Since what needs to be done has been done, they naturally have no reason to stay any longer.