“Young Master, what’s wrong?”
Aoto’s sudden action of slapping his own face startled Kyubei.
“…Nothing…” After vigorously rubbing his cheeks, Aoto turned and walked back into the hall.
“Kyubei, do you have any water?
I’d like a glass of water.”
“Huh?”
“Do you have water?!
I’d like a glass of water!”
“Oh, oh…” Kyubei, who was a little hard of hearing, finally understood Aoto’s words and nodded, “Yes, yes, I’ll bring it to you right away.”
Aoto walked back into the living room and casually sat cross-legged in a corner of the hall.
At this time, Japan still had no habit of sitting on chairs or sleeping in beds.
When sitting, they sat on the floor.
When sleeping, they would spread their bedding on the floor and sleep there.
As soon as Aoto’s backside touched the floor, Kyubei nimbly brought the water over.
Taking the cup of water from Kyubei and drinking it all in one gulp, Aoto let out a long sigh.
Then, quite abruptly, he began to take off his clothes.
“Young—Young Master?” The dumbfounded Kyubei stammered, “What are you doing?”
Aoto ignored Kyubei.
After stripping off his upper body clothing, Aoto placed his hands on the ground face down and began to do a very classic fitness exercise from his previous life.
“Young Master, what exactly are you doing?”
“I’m doing push-ups.
This is…
a method my friend recommended to me today that can effectively exercise the body.
Alright, stop talking, I need to concentrate now.”
The exercise Aoto was doing was push-ups, This was a habit of Aoto’s in his previous life.
In his previous life, Aoto, who was obsessed with fitness, had a very peculiar habit: when thinking about problems or trying to calm his mind, he liked to do push-ups.
When his thoughts were muddled, as long as he did push-ups, his mind would gradually clear, and his thoughts would become clearer.
When negative emotions such as tension or panic appeared, as long as he did push-ups, his emotions would gradually return to calmness.
So in his previous life, when Aoto was bragging to his friends, his favorite phrase to say was: if the college entrance examination allowed him to answer questions while doing push-ups, scoring 750 points would be difficult, but scoring above 700 points would not be a problem.
Although Kyubei didn’t understand why his young master was inexplicably doing these “push-ups,” because Aoto had just ordered him to stop talking, Kyubei could only swallow his questions and silently carried the empty water cup back to the kitchen.
After doing 5 push-ups in one go, Aoto gradually felt his emotions calm down and his thoughts slowly become agile.
—Think of a way!
I must quickly think of a way!
Otherwise, I might die by the roadside tomorrow!
Being targeted by both the Radical anti-foreigners faction and the Yakuzas—such a hellish start made Aoto’s heart skip countless beats just imagining the scene.
In Kitsutachibana Aoto’s memories, there was a lot of information related to the Shimizu Clan.
Due to the imperfect legal system and inadequate judicial and public security forces, the Yakuzas of this era were much more dangerous and lawless than modern gangs in his previous life.
A powerful Yakuzas group like the Shimizu Clan had a very professional and complete strategy for dealing with people who couldn’t repay their debts.
First, they would use every method to squeeze every last penny out of the debtor’s family.
The first things they targeted were naturally all salable items in the debtor’s home.
During the process of forcing the debtor to hand over all their money, they would send many underlings to harass the debtor, causing them endless trouble, to ensure they successfully squeezed every last penny out of the debtor’s home.
For example: every day, they would gather a large group of people to block the debtor’s door, shouting “Pay back the money!” and “Hurry up and pay back the money!”
Even if you cried and shouted that you “really had no money left,” they would not relent.
After truly confirming that you genuinely had no money, but you still couldn’t repay the debt…
the Yakuzas’s methods would start to become cruel.
If there were women in the household, they would directly abduct them and sell them into prostitution.
The men in the household would be forced to do all sorts of strange jobs.
Such audacious behavior would be incomprehensible in modern times, but in the Edo Period where Aoto now found himself, it was extremely commonplace.
The imperfect legal system allowed the Yakuzas to brazenly offset debts by selling the debtor’s dignity, and the government was powerless against such chaos.
However, Aoto wasn’t actually that afraid of the Shimizu Clan.
After all, this group of Yakuzas only sought money and didn’t want Aoto’s life; they probably wished Aoto would live well, because only if Aoto lived well could they continue to collect money.
So, as long as Aoto could continue to repay the money properly, the Shimizu Clan people probably wouldn’t do anything to Aoto.
As for the money, that was easy to say.
Aoto’s family had some relatively valuable items stored away; in a truly urgent situation, those items could be pawned to repay the debt.
Failing that, he could also borrow money from friends; Kitsutachibana Aoto had a fairly wide social circle, and owing money to friends was better than owing money to the Yakuzas.
Compared to the Yakuzas, the Radical anti-foreigners faction was Aoto’s true major concern at this moment.
The Shimizu Clan only wanted Aoto’s money, while the Radical anti-foreigners faction wanted Aoto’s life!
This was the most urgent crisis, a crisis directly related to Aoto’s life.
The scenes of being attacked by 3 assassins just now flashed rapidly and uncontrollably through Aoto’s mind.
Drops of cold sweat seeped from Aoto’s forehead and back.
Aoto in his previous life lived in a peaceful era; before transmigrating, he was just a young man who had just graduated from the Police Academy and hadn’t even joined the police force, having never faced a life-or-death crisis…
Tonight was the first time he had been hunted, the first time he felt what it was like for death to approach.
This feeling…
was not pleasant.
Every time he recalled the scenes of being hunted just now, cold sweat uncontrollably seeped from his forehead.
He didn’t want to die for such a ridiculous reason as “having worked for a few days at the United States Embassy.”
He was lucky tonight; the “bystanders” arrived in time, forcing the assassins to retreat.
What about next time?
Will he have such good luck next time?
The Radical anti-foreigners faction are a bunch of lunatics; there’s no reasoning with them.
Their next attack could be in 7 days, or it could be…
tomorrow.
Anxious, Aoto subconsciously sped up his push-ups.
—At least I need self-preservation abilities so I won’t be killed by the Radical anti-foreigners faction…
Aoto’s thoughts scattered along the line of “acquiring self-preservation abilities.”
How to gain self-preservation abilities that prevent one from being easily killed, and do so as quickly as possible?
A word surfaced in Aoto’s mind:
Cheat!
If one wants to gain powerful strength for self-preservation as quickly as possible, there is no more reliable method than “relying on a cheat.”
If he could successfully replicate some incredibly powerful talents as quickly as possible, his self-preservation ability would skyrocket.
Aoto’s thoughts further expanded, delving deeper.
His “Talent Replication System” only activated when competing with others.
So what kind of place would allow him to openly compete with many people?
A type of building common throughout Japan during the Edo Period, its name seemed to come alive, automatically popping into Aoto’s mind.
A Dojo!
Since the Minamoto Clan warrior clan successfully usurped the Emperor and established the first Buke government, the Kamakura Shogunate, in 1192, the samurai class has been the ruling class in Japan for over 600 years.
For these 600-plus years, Japan’s social classes, like China’s, were divided into four tiers: shi, nō, kō, and shō (samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants).
China’s “shi” were scholar-officials.
Japan’s “shi” were samurai.
Although the “shi” of the two were not quite the same, their status was identical—both were ruling and privileged classes, superior to farmers, artisans, and merchants.
In China, it was “all trades are lowly, only studying is noble.”
In Japan, it was “all trades are lowly, only samurai are noble.”
After Tokugawa Ieyasu established the third Buke government in Japanese history, the Edo Bakufu, in 1603, to highlight the nobility of the samurai status, the Edo Bakufu specifically legislated many privileges that only the samurai class, as the ruling class, possessed.
One important privilege held by samurai was the “right to wear swords.”
“Martial prowess” was one of the most important attributes of the samurai class.
Therefore, to highlight the nobility of samurai and their “martial” attribute, the Edo Bakufu stipulated that only samurai could wear swords, and samurai must wear swords when going out.
Samurai generally wore two swords, one long and one short, at their waist.
The long one was called a katana, the primary weapon for fighting.
The short one was called a wakizashi, the secondary weapon for sword fighting.
The Edo Period was an era of flourishing Japanese swordsmanship.
Hokushin Ittō-ryū, Shindo Munen-ryu, Kyoshin Meichi-ryu…
all these famous schools were born in the Edo Period.
The vigorous development of swordsmanship naturally led to sword dojos opening up everywhere.
In Edo city alone, there were dozens of dojos.
If he wanted to openly fight with others—there was no more suitable way than to join a popular dojo.
Learning swordsmanship at a dojo would yield two major benefits, killing two birds with one stone:
1: It could maximize the effectiveness of his cheat.
2: He could also learn swordsmanship and enhance his self-preservation abilities.
One major reason why Aoto almost found himself in the predicament of being hacked to death tonight was that his current swordsmanship level…
was simply too poor…
Kitsutachibana Aoto was someone who had little interest in swordsmanship.
In his 18 years, he had never been to any dojo to learn swordsmanship, only learning “Tachibana-ryu” from his father.
The so-called “Tachibana-ryu” consisted of a few purely practical sword techniques developed by Aoto’s father during his lifetime.
Although the sword techniques were few, they were indeed extremely practical in combat.
However, “Tachibana-ryu” was not a formal school after all; it was more than enough to deal with ordinary people who didn’t understand any martial arts, but it would be useless against experienced practitioners with real skill.
Therefore, Aoto, who currently only understood this obscure “Tachibana-ryu” school…
his strength was basically “can’t beat anyone except ordinary people”…
Although Aoto, having inherited memories from his previous life, now possessed powerful unarmed combat skills, even the most formidable unarmed combat skills would find it extremely difficult to gain an advantage against an enemy wielding sharp weapons.
The best way to deal with armed enemies is to also be armed.
If he could possess formidable swordsmanship, he would no longer fall into the predicament of almost being hacked to death tonight.
After thinking of going to a dojo to learn swordsmanship, Aoto immediately thought of a second method that might allow him to utilize his cheat’s effectiveness—challenging dojos!
Challenging one dojo after another, and competing with the people from one dojo after another.
However, the idea of challenging dojos had barely surfaced in Aoto’s mind before he dismissed it himself.
He would have to be out of his mind to go around challenging dojos.
Challenging a dojo, regardless of the era, was a very thankless task.
Out of ten dojos, perhaps not even one would agree to accept a challenge.
This is because accepting challengers carries far more disadvantages than advantages for a dojo.
If they won against the challenger, the boost to the dojo’s reputation would be extremely limited, But if they lost, they would lose a lot of face, which would have an extremely detrimental impact on recruiting new apprentices in the future.
No clear-headed dojo master would do something that sabotaged their own livelihood.
Even if he did find a few dojos willing to accept challenges, Aoto might not be able to fight with many people.
Because challenging dojos in this era had many rules.
One of these rules was that if you lost, your challenge would be considered a failure, and you would be immediately expelled from the dojo.
With Aoto’s current swordsmanship level, if he were to challenge a dojo…
it would probably look something like this—he wouldn’t even be able to defeat the first apprentice they sent out, then he’d be kicked out of the dojo, only successfully fighting one person from beginning to end.
Therefore, challenging dojos would be inefficient, prone to offending people, and a thankless task.
With his thoughts organized, Aoto formulated a clear goal in his mind: go to a dojo to learn swordsmanship!
With his goal set, Aoto jumped up from the ground and, with a voice breathless from doing over 50 push-ups, called out to Kyubei, who was still in the kitchen:
“Kyubei!
Come here for a moment!”
“Eh, coming.”
Kyubei quickly shuffled out of the kitchen and walked up to Aoto.
“After deducting necessary expenses like food, clothing, housing, and transportation, how much savings do we have left?
I want to go to a dojo to learn swordsmanship!
Which dojo can our current remaining savings afford for me to study at?” Aoto concisely said to Kyubei.
********
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