[Sword Three] How to break the lady who is a technical emperor

Ogawa Aoba will not let Ah Ding leave easily, and neither will Kubo Heiyuki.

Just when Qing Luo turned around and wanted to leave, before she could take a few steps, Kubo Heizhi made a move.

But Qingluo is faster and stronger than him——

Before he fled, he detonated the fuse he had arranged to die together.

Before being engulfed in flames, he roared triumphantly, "Let's die together!"

"Really?" Qingluo glanced at the raging flames on her body lightly, and said something bored.

What exactly this sentence meant, Kubo Heiyuki would never know again.

Not only did he not know, but that day - half of the people in the imperial city would not know.

In the explosion known as the [Red Lotus Flame], half of the imperial city was destroyed. This incident was later considered by others to be a punishment from the heavens for the traitors who defiled the imperial family. Due to the meritorious service of the Shinsengumi in guarding the gate, Yoho Matsudaira made the Shinsengumi more than 200 taels of gold rewarded by the imperial court, the shogunate and the Aizu Domain.and formal preparation.

It was at this time that the Shinsengumi officially took shape.

The foreigner also completely stood on the side of the shogunate, and actively hoped to communicate with the person who made the [magic machine] before, but was told that the person had been buried in the explosion and gave up.

September is here.

For most civilians, the life of the previous month was well-organized, and the healthy life of nine to five was like a dream. After the disappearance of the mechs, the social atmosphere deteriorated rapidly due to the loss of order managers, and there were fights and fights. Stealing and robbery... This kind of thing is happening constantly in the Shimogyo district of Kyoto. People are injured every day, and people die every day due to disease and hunger.

But these have nothing to do with the young man. At this moment, he and Keisuke Shannan are standing in silence in front of three brand new tombstones.

From left to right are Ading, Ruan Qingluo and Satosuke.

"Mr. Shannan." The young man was silent for a long time before sighing softly.His voice was very soft, as if he was afraid of disturbing his sleeping soul.Although he knew that what was inside was just a bunch of empty shells.

It's all over.

It was over when buried in this tomb.

The madness of rushing into the ruins desperately looking for it a few days ago is also as unreal as a dream.

Dream......?

Okita Souji didn't know how to describe this feeling, he had never experienced it before.

It was as if the dream in my heart had turned into an endless desert, empty and lonely, but filled my heart full.

Before that, in his heart, the girl sitting on the cherry blossom tree under the moonlit night and smiling at him——

Now lies in this tomb before him.

nothing left.

All the joys, sorrows, sorrows, and joys seemed to have entered the grave together with the coffin containing her stump.

Compared to the previous few days and nights when he hadn't closed his eyes and was still full of energy, now he seems to have lost all his strength, and it is very difficult to just stand——

But he still stood firm, with his back straight, and even though his heart was filled with extremely heavy sorrow, his self-esteem still did not allow him to show any weakness.

"You said, promised, she will be fine..." Okita Souji said slowly, as if slowly expressing the feelings in his heart, "But now—"

"..." Keisuke Shannan was speechless. With Qingluo's skill, she should not have died. The reason why she fell to this point was due to Kondo and Hijikata following the shogunate's policy. Decisions have a lot to do with it.

What is it that I have been pursuing all along, what is it that I am attached to?Shannan Keisuke thought, watching his friend suffering from the sidelines and not helping him, is this what he said he was pursuing?Is this what you are attached to?

No, it shouldn't be like this.

"Sojiro." Keisuke Yamanan said slowly, "I'm only here to say these words, only once."

"Everyone is born with his own way," Shannan said. "As warriors, we have the way of the warriors. Every walk of life has its own way. Mediocre people never pursue their own way, because they are just like ants. Generally, they just want to live, but those who are different from them, those who pursue their own way, will become stronger and stronger on the road. Such a person, even if it is a humble ant, but One day, the whole world will prostrate before him, even if he is an ant."

"Sojiro," Shannan said, "if you feel sad, feel pain, it's normal because you're not strong enough to protect what you love, now you have two choices, one is to indulge yourself in grief , to become an ant in the true sense, one is to become strong enough to protect the one you love, so that the same tragedy will never happen again. If you choose the latter, then you have to hurry up, because Time waits for no one, there is no time to be sentimental."

"That's right..." Mr. Okita said slowly, and he smiled lowly, "Mr. Shannan, I can't fall in love with anyone other than her."

"Perhaps, she is my Tao." Okita Souji finished speaking, turned and left.

A fallen leaf slowly fell on Qingluo's tombstone.

It was the first maple leaf of autumn.

It means that the harvest season is coming.

After the two walked away, the maple leaf was picked up by someone.

A few days after this explosion, Kyoto has entered the process of restoration. No matter how you say it, life must continue.

Because it was in the imperial city, the explosion did not hurt too many civilians.And because it happened in a relatively remote corner, only an unfavored princess and a few other maids died.

The news of the death of such a small character will naturally not attract too much attention.

Except for one person.

Songping Rongbao listened to the attendant's report quietly, let him go down with a calm expression, then stayed alone for a while, and sighed.

Forget it, just do whatever you want.

After she died... I don't have to marry the royal family so urgently, so I can save a lot of trouble, can't I?

But in this way, more troubles will be caused, and the new situation needs further planning. Tsk, all in all, this is the best opportunity to establish your own power, isn't it?

After thinking about it, Kubo Heizhi went to the map and started planning.

Suddenly there were a few crisp birdsong outside the window, and Kubo Heiyuki stopped. He looked out of the window, and saw a colorful bird stopped on a branch and called to him a few times, and he straightened his body. feather.

Sensing Kubo Heiyuki's gaze, it tilted its head, and looked at him unblinkingly with its bright black eyes.

Ah, this bird... Kubo Heiyuki let himself go to the window and held out his hand to the bird.

The bird seemed to understand his intention, fluttered its wings a few times, and landed on his hand.

He froze for a moment, stretched out his index finger and gently stroked the bird's head. The bird didn't reject such a move, but rubbed his finger very affectionately.

A pair of clear, always smiling eyes flashed past him.

Because of this hallucination, Kubo Heiyuki was stunned, his fingertips stroking the bird trembled suddenly, and stopped.

...is it out of sight?Yes, those eyes are gone forever.

Kubo Heizhi sighed silently, and raised his hand to let the bird go, but although the bird flew up, it barely stopped on the window sill, tilting its head and looking at him puzzled.

"Let's go." Kubo Heiyuki said, stepped forward and grabbed the bird's legs, and threw it forward, trying to release it again.

But this time the bird held onto Kubo Heiyuki's hand tightly, unwilling to let go no matter what.

Just when one person and one bird were confronting each other, there was a light 'click' sound inside the bird.

As if hearing some order, the bird flew back to the window sill and spread its wings.

Then its whole body began to change, gradually revealing a larger and larger opening, revealing a corner of an envelope.

Kubo Heizhi looked at everything in front of him in disbelief.

This is the only machine bird left after the big bang.

Kubo Heiyuki pulled out the letter tremblingly.

The organ bird uttered a crisp cry, and returned to its original appearance, stopping on the window sill and tilting its head to look at him.

Kubo Heiyuki opened the letter tremblingly.

Sincerely, Mr. Aihara:

Haha, guess who I am?That's right, I'm Aoba, how are you, have you been scared?This mechanism bird is made by myself, hehe.All right, all right, this is Master's idea.She called me and... guess what?Anyway, one person is making a mechanical bird, and this bird has a set time~ it will only be activated after a certain period of time.The time I set is after I die, yes, it is connected to my heartbeat.

Why should it be set to after my death?Well, this is really a difficult question to answer.

Hmm...maybe let's say something we want to say to each other?Really, master, always making such embarrassing and shy requests, ah~~~~ Why can't I refuse?

Nah...

Aihara-kun, I like you.

...Haha, I feel so relieved when I say this, no matter what, no matter what, I finally conveyed my heart to Mr. Aihara, right?That's it.

No, I still don't think it's enough.

How can I express my love for Mr. Aihara with just a few words?

Seeing this, you may be surprised and say, [When is it...], right?

In fact, I fell in love with Mr. Aihara at first sight. I fell in love with him when we first met. Isn't it amazing?But the relationship is like this, I can neither change nor want to change.

So, does Aihara-san like me?

Ahhh, I really want to know, but I am so afraid of knowing.

Because sometimes Aihara gives me the same feeling as Master gave me.

It's as if you don't exist in this world, no matter what happens, good or bad.All just watching from the sidelines, never setting foot in.

In a way, it's almost like a god.

The same is lofty and unattainable... Master's words have one more omnipotence.

And compared with you, I, this kind of me...

If you like Mr. Aihara, will it be like a mortal falling in love with a god?

Maybe, because I feel that Aihara-kun has never taken a serious look at me, and I play chess in the pavilion all day long.

What's so interesting about those black and white pieces, besides playing chess all day, you eat and sleep, don't you feel bored?

Well, if it were me, it would definitely be boring.

You are the only one who can endure these black and white stones for so long like Master, you are amazing.

Well, although I can't say I don't care, I still want to know one thing.

What kind of ending will I usher in?

Actually... thinking about it now is still scary.

I... I am really a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death.

The master said that she has researched a doll that can be exactly like me.I connected the heartbeat to her.

If something unfortunate happens to me, she should be able to replace me, right?

Hmm... I really don't want Aihara-kun to see this letter.If it is a doll, it should live for a long time by itself, right?

I accidentally discovered Matsuyama's secret...and I thought he was going to attack me, so I decided to take a gamble.I transferred the heartbeat of the bird to the doll, and I transferred the start-up program of the doll to my heartbeat, so that once I die, my doll will automatically live instead of me, how about it?Isn't it great!

At that time... looking forward to your reply.

...... But it should be impossible.

——Fujiwara leaf/Ogawa Aoba.

Songping Rongbao silently read the letter, and snapped his fingers to summon the attendant.

"My lord," said the servant, "do you have any orders?"

"Ah..." Songping Rongbao pondered for a while, then said, "Give me a list of casualties in the imperial city."

"Okay." The attendant said and stepped back.

Taro Aihara looked at the letter paper in his hand again, folded it carefully, looked up and found that the mechanism bird hadn't left, but was quietly staring at him from the side.

"..." Matsudaira Kubo sighed, and said to it, "Let's go, go, don't come back."

As if understanding what he said, the organ bird flapped its wings and flew away.

"She was in the cage before." Seeing the direction in which the bird left, Aihara Taro said slowly, "So you can leave, fly as far as you want, fly as high as you want—just remember, Just don’t fly back again.”

As he spoke, he suddenly burst into tears.

He allowed this moment of weakness because he shouldn't have been.

Because he bears the weight of the entire Kyoto on his shoulders.

He had no time, no energy to waste on sentimentality.

Time dilutes everything.

The current Kyoto has completely lost sight of the impact of the [Red Lotus Flame] back then, and people have returned to a life that is almost completely close to the past.

in the past?

In a tavern where no one would pay attention, a man in black poured himself a glass of sake and drank it slowly.

His eyebrows are still handsome, and time has made his facial features perfect. He is holding a knife, leaning on the small bar where no one is paying attention, lazily in a daze.

It seems that he doesn't know since when, he has such a lazy look.

He poured out another glass of wine, and after drinking it with his chin in hand, he settled the bill and planned to go outside for a walk.

This decision does not seem to be wise-now the Shinsengumi on the street is clearing out all suspicious people, especially those who wear knives.

But they couldn't see the figure of the man. The man walked on the street with a very strange pace, and then he came to an inconspicuous house.After jumping over the eaves, as soon as he settled down, he saw a little girl in black standing in front of him and looking at him quietly.

"You are Master's...?" He said in shock.

Just like back then.

"Cough, cough..." A few years later, Matsudaira Rongho, who was still serving as the guardian of the capital, was getting worse and worse, and gradually reached the point of being bedridden.

This world, the current situation... He was lying on the hospital bed, thinking about all this with blank eyes.

It seems that it has almost nothing to do with myself.He laughed slowly because he was dying.

He could finally end his waiting and go to another world to find the girl who didn't even have the courage to confess to himself.

For this moment, he has been waiting for a long, long time.

Matsudaira Rongbao finally couldn't hold on anymore and passed away.

On the same day of his death, a colorful mechanical bird suddenly flew in front of a deserted grave. The bird stopped in front of the grave, flapped its wings, opened its body, and pulled a thin piece of paper come out.It starts to burn slowly in the air.

On that paper it was written:

Aoba:

Today, Master is very happy to make a mechanism bird that can send letters at regular intervals, and he wants me to try it first. There is really no way. After much deliberation, since you want to write letters, only you are the most suitable, so let it be.Also, after reading this letter, please do not tell anyone the contents of the letter.

Although I feel that there is nothing to say about seeing you every day, but the master said that this is an excellent opportunity to tell the other party some secrets, so I reluctantly wrote it.

You are different to me, although I haven't figured out what that feeling is until now, but after seeing what you said, let's take it as liking.

If everything is true, not a lie, nor a manufactured phantom, you are in front of my eyes and never leave.

But I am soberly aware that this is impossible.

Because people's dreams are different from the five senses, they can be separated from each other, making it difficult for people to see clearly and understand the relationship between the two.

Seeing this, do you understand what I want to express?

I always feel that you don't quite understand—tsk, what a troublesome guy.

I like you.Ogawa Aoba.