It was common for Hijikata to spend the night at Shiwei Hall.
If he stayed too long or too late at Shiwei Hall, he would often say, "I’m too lazy to return to that little rented shack," and spend the night there instead.
With the frequency of him staying overnight, Hijikata was practically half a boarder at Shiwei Hall.
When Aoto turned around to look, Harada shouted to him:
"The weather is still so hot today! Let’s go take a bath and refresh ourselves!"
Aoto didn’t immediately respond to Harada’s invitation to bathe.
Because at that moment, his mind drifted elsewhere.
——The bathhouse... taking a bath...?!
In that instant, Aoto felt as if a bolt of lightning flashed through his mind.
"A bath... that’s right..."
Aoto murmured to himself in a volume only he could hear.
"How could I not have thought of that..."
After mumbling, Aoto tilted his head back, squinting his eyes, gazing northeast.
In the northeast, somewhere close to Shiwei Hall, wisps of thin steam were wafting up.
This was the bathhouse near Shiwei Hall, where people from Shiwei Hall usually went: the steam from Qianxun House where they boiled bathwater.
"...You go ahead and bathe first."
Aoto said slowly, savoring each word, as he deeply watched the wisps of steam from Qianxun House merge into the moonlight.
"I think I’ll go take a bath later..."
About an hour later –
The time now was around ten o’clock in the evening.
At this time... Qianxun House was about to close.
Logically, at such a time, no one should be going to Qianxun House to bathe.
But as it happened, there was someone at Shiwei Hall who liked going to bathe at Qianxun House just before it closed.
Toshisuke, holding his washbasin, tiptoed out of his room.
By now, Toshisuke was already dressed for a bath.
The purple ribbon usually tying his hair was gone, leaving his long hair cascading casually behind him, and he wore a purple and white striped yukata for ease of movement.
After donning his special pair of purple strap wooden sandals at the earth room of Shiwei Hall, Toshisuke opened the main door of Shiwei Hall, heading straight for Qianxun House, where faint steam was still rising.
In an era before electric fans and air conditioners, "humanity’s greatest inventions", summer nights were always difficult to endure.
The temperature was high, and the humidity was particularly heavy, making the whole of Edo feel as if it had sunk to the bottom of a swamp, with the damp and sticky air causing sweat to continuously seep out even when standing still.
Fortunately, the moonlight was beautiful tonight.
The beautiful moonlight diluted the discomfort brought by the heat.
As Toshisuke walked along the road, taking just a few turns to Qianxun House, he was suddenly greeted by a faint floral scent from above.
Looking up—he saw a branch extending from a roadside garden, covered with blooming hydrangeas.
"Oh..." Toshisuke blinked in surprise, then broke into a delighted smile, "They’ve bloomed..."
The hydrangea... the most representative flower of Japan in summer.
This season was precisely when hydrangeas bloomed.
As Toshisuke admired the hydrangeas above, he could see the round moon that was rising high in the sky through the gaps in the branches.
The glamorous hydrangeas, the star-speckled night sky, the bluish-white round moon nestled between the branches... A breeze wafted by, causing flowers and leaves, bright colors and moon shadows to sway together under the starry sky... This was the beautiful scene reflected in Toshisuke’s eyes.
What a splendid sight.
Moved by the beauty of this scene, Chokata couldn’t help but stop, squinting his eyes in a daze as he admired this rare, colorful painting unfurling before him.
However, suddenly... he hadn’t had much time to appreciate the beauty when a sudden shout from behind him made his enchanted expression stiffen like stone.
"Hmm? Isn’t that Mr. Chokata? What a coincidence!"
Aoto, carrying only a washbasin, walked briskly toward Toshisuke from behind.
Toshisuke turned around at the sound, gaping blankly at the sudden appearance of Aoto.
Under the full moon, in front of the hydrangeas, the two stood facing each other.
"Mr. Ta-Ta-Ta-Tachibana...!" Toshisuke stuttered like a broken clockwork toy, "How-how-how-how are you here?"
"I practiced swordsmanship at the dojo so intently today," Aoto smiled, "That I practiced until now before realizing I hadn’t gone to bathe yet."
"Fortunately, Qianxun House is still open."
"Mr. Chokata, are you going for a bath now too? Perfect, let’s go together!"
"Eh? I... ah!"
Before Toshisuke could say anything, his right wrist was suddenly grabbed by Aoto.
"Come on!"
Although Aoto wore a smile... his tone was filled with an unyielding force completely at odds with the smile.
He left no room for Toshisuke to argue, pulling and dragging him toward Qianxun House.
The road section they were on was already only a few steps away from Qianxun House.
Turning the street corner not far ahead, they could see the large curtains with "Men’s Bath" and "Women’s Bath" written on them.
"Mr. Ta-Ta-Ta-Tachibana! Wait, wait, wait, wait!"
Toshisuke’s face was filled with a myriad of emotions.
Surprise, embarrassment, fear... these emotions perfectly blended on Toshisuke’s cheeks.

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