After putting away the bamboo sword and removing all the protective gear from his body, Chokata hung his head and walked straight out of the dojo with a blank expression.
"Hey, Tachibana."
Hijikata suddenly sneaked over to Aoto’s side.
"Do you know what’s up with Toshisuke?"
Aoto and Toshisuke were very good friends—this was well-known at Shiwei Hall.
Hijikata had asked the right person.
Among everyone present, only Aoto knew why Toshisuke had been acting so strangely these past few days.
—It seems the negotiation with his sister didn’t go very well...
Watching Toshisuke’s departing figure, Aoto furrowed his brows slightly.
He had promised Toshisuke that he wouldn’t tell anyone about his sister’s pressure to make him give up swordsmanship.
Thus, when faced with Hijikata’s question, Aoto calmly said:
"I don’t know either... Maybe Mr. Chokata really hasn’t been sleeping well lately, which is why he looks so distracted and absent-minded. The nights have indeed been quite hot these past two days."
When it comes to lying... this is one of Aoto’s specialties.
Thanks to the talent effect of the "Deceiver," which allows one to lie without a trace, making it difficult for others to detect any anomaly, Aoto was now very adept at lying.
No matter how false or far from reality the lies were, Aoto could deliver them with ease, leaving no flaws for others to find.
Even a master of deception like Hijikata, who didn’t know how many lies he told his girlfriends each day, couldn’t discern if Aoto was lying.
Seeing Aoto, who was so close to Toshisuke, unaware of what was going on, Hijikata had no choice but to keep silent.
At this moment, a dull "thud" was suddenly heard from outside the dojo, as if something had been struck hard.
"Mr. Chokata! Are you okay? Is your forehead all right?"
"I’m fine, I’m fine, just accidentally ran into a wall."
Based on the conversation... it seemed that Toshisuke wasn’t watching where he was going and accidentally bumped into the hallway wall.
—Mr. Chokata... is he okay...?
Aoto’s brow furrowed even tighter involuntarily...
Toshisuke went to rest, and everyone else continued doing what they should, whether practicing or resting on the side of the dojo.
This time, it was Aoto who was feeling restless.
Because of his concern for Toshisuke’s situation, Aoto’s emotions were unsettled.
The disarray of his thoughts caused Aoto, standing in a corner of the dojo doing basic exercises, to be unable to swing the bamboo sword steadily or accurately.
Suddenly, at that moment, a series of hurried footsteps sounded outside the dojo.
Everyone, including Aoto, attracted by the footsteps, stopped what they were doing and turned to look.
With a serious expression as if about to march into battle, Abi, with a white headscarf for dust protection on his head and a large broom in hand, strode into the dojo.
Abi wasn’t alone.
Saito and Harada accompanied Abi on either side.
Both of them had white dust-protection headscarves like Abi, but each held a different "weapon."
Saito held a dustpan, while Harada carried a large wooden ladder.
Abi bringing Saito and Harada to the dojo... was quite a rare sight, so Zhouzhu hurriedly met them with a puzzled expression.
"Madam, Mr. Saito, Mr. Harada, why are you here? And with a broom, dustpan, and ladder... what are you going to do?"
"Zhouzhu," Abi said solemnly, "There’s a nest of rats that have moved in with us."
"Rats?" Zhouzhu was taken aback.
Abi nodded vigorously.
"I’ve been hearing strange noises from the ceiling since half a month ago."
"I just took down the kitchen ceiling and took a look up there... My goodness, a pile of rat droppings."
"We can’t have rats in the house, so I’m taking Saito and Harada, who happen to be available, to look for the rats."
"Mrs. Kondo, leave it to me!" Harada chimed in confidently while brandishing the long ladder in his hand, "Watch me take down all the rats in Shiwei Hall in no time!"
"That’s not how you use ’take down’," Saito silently corrected Harada’s choice of words, whose knowledge could only be described as disastrous.
"Mm, with your words, I’m relieved." Abi nodded lightly to Harada, then continued to say to Zhouzhu seriously, "Zhouzhu, have there been any strange noises from the dojo ceiling recently?"
"Strange noises... I don’t think so."
"No strange noises? Never mind, I’ll check for peace of mind anyway."
Abi glanced at the apprentices still practicing swordsmanship in the dojo.
"Everyone is still practicing... I’ll wait until the hall closes to come back."
With that, Abi cleared her throat and then raised her head, loudly announcing to everyone in the dojo:
"Everyone, please listen to me!"
"A nest of rats has moved into our Shiwei Hall!"
"If any of you find rats in Shiwei Hall, please kill them immediately! Thank you!"
Where there are many rats, people are more susceptible to illness—this is common knowledge even for 8-year-olds.
Therefore, eliminating rats is a duty that everyone should fulfill.
As soon as Abi finished speaking, the apprentices responded in agreement, pledging to "kill any rat they encounter."
That evening—
Thud, thud, thud, thud...
As Aoto briskly walked, the corridor echoed with the sound of "thud, thud" underfoot.
If possible, Aoto didn’t really want to interfere too much in Toshisuke’s domestic affairs, as it’s best for the people involved to handle their own family matters.

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