"Uncle Gen! You’re awake? How do you feel? Still feeling unwell?"
"I feel much better... besides being a bit sleepy, everything is fine."
"Oh, oh! As expected of Uncle Gen! You are so robust! You recovered so quickly!"
Kondo and Inoue were having a lively exchange... Only the old doctor who suddenly witnessed the "comatose patient suddenly waking up," and Chiba Shigetarou, who really thought Inoue was delirious, looked bewildered.
The patient waking up on his own is ultimately a good thing, and the old doctor seemed not to have any intention to delve deeply into this "medical miracle."
After all, there have been previous cases where the patient’s robust body healed itself just after arriving at the clinic.
After checking Inoue’s pulse again and confirming that Inoue was indeed fine, the old doctor said, "There are no major issues with the body, just rest for a while at home, come back to the clinic if anything feels unusual."
Kondo and his colleagues completed the whole charade — upon returning to Shiwei Hall, they escorted the freshly "awakened" Inoue back to his room to let him rest well.
Listening to the complete account of this "medical escort" from Kondo and Chiba Shigetarou, Aoto was utterly speechless.
Thinking to himself: Uncle Gen, your sacrifice tonight has truly been big...
The time Kondo and the others returned was much earlier than Aoto had anticipated... Aoto felt it was for the better.
With this, Aoto finally had the chance to properly listen to — what exactly brought Chiba Shigetarou to meet him tonight in such a rush.
Shiwei Hall, the hall —
"Mr. Shigetarou, truly sorry to trouble you tonight."
Aoto formally sat upright and bowed towards Chiba Shigetarou, who was seated opposite him.
The "sorry to trouble you" Aoto referred to was naturally the matter of Chiba Shigetarou and Kondo collaborating to take Inoue to the clinic.
"Hahaha, there’s no need for that."
Chiba Shigetarou replied heartily, waving his hand.
"Mr. Inoue is an elder I greatly respect. When a respected elder needs help, as the younger generation, I must help without hesitation."
To provide a good conversation environment for Aoto and Chiba Shigetarou, Zhouzhu, Kondo, and the others were all elsewhere attending to their own tasks.
The moderately sized hall at the moment, only echoed with Aoto and Chiba Shigetarou’s breathing and conversational sounds intertwining.
After experiencing so much in a single night, Aoto truly lacked the extra energy for extended small talk, hence after a few brief exchanges with Chiba Shigetarou, he went straight to the point:
"Shigetarou, suddenly visiting tonight, what advice do you have?"
Seeing Aoto get straight to the point, Chiba Shigetarou wasn’t ambiguous either.
He immediately sat even straighter, clearing his throat vigorously:
"Mr. Tachibana, here’s the thing — this year’s fireworks festival... which takes place on the evenings of August 23rd to August 25th, do you have any plans?"
"Fireworks festival?" Aoto raised his brows.
Though uncertain why Chiba Shigetarou suddenly asked this, he still readily answered:
"I have something to attend on August 23rd, but I’m free on the other two days."
He had agreed with Mukiwa to watch fireworks together on August 23rd.
"Aha!"
Chiba Shigetarou suddenly slapped his thigh with noticeable force, making Aoto worry whether his thigh was intact.
"Well, that’s perfect!"
"I plan to host a small ’swordsmanship demonstration’ on Ryogoku Bridge during the fireworks festival on the night of August 24th... Are you interested in participating, Mr. Tachibana?"
"Swordsmanship demonstration?" Aoto was startled.
Chiba Shigetarou nodded vigorously:
"Yes, yes!"
"The world has been quite turbulent recently."
"Foreign invaders, radicals adhering to aggressive isolationism causing chaos everywhere, thieves rising everywhere..."
"Annoying events have been occurring one after another, in my memory, ever since the Black Ship knocked on the gates 7 years ago, Edo hasn’t seen anything to genuinely rejoice about."
"Despite my limited abilities, I wish to do my utmost to soothe the unrest of the world."
"Yet I’m merely a swordsman, without the grand skills to change the country, all I can do is promote swordsmanship, encourage as many people as possible to learn swordsmanship, strengthen their bodies and master the skills to protect themselves!"
"The fireworks festival is Edo’s annual grand event, in terms of popularity and liveliness, almost no activity can compare to it."
"Therefore, I plan to hold a high-level swordsmanship demonstration at this year’s ’fireworks festival’ site, to showcase the marvel of swordsmanship to the populace and attract them to enthusiastically practice martial arts!"
"The demonstration content is simple — showcasing sword techniques, and slicing bamboo mats standing on the ground with a real sword in as many sections as possible, common folks just love watching this and only understand this kind of performance."
"I’ve already arranged the venue through a friend, now I just need performers."
"As the intention is to attract people to martial arts, it wouldn’t suit to invite those whose swordsmanship skills still need improvement."
"Only need to invite 2 or 3 highly skilled swordsmen!"
"So far, the only ones who’ve stated they’ll participate in my demonstration are my sister Sazanoko and my cousin Chiba Domon Shiro."
"Though we’re barely able to sustain a demonstration with us siblings of 3, after pondering deeply, I decided to invite another expert for additional support."
"Thus, I wish to invite Mr. Tachibana to help!"
"Among all the friends I can invite, Mr. Tachibana, you are the most suitable candidate."
"With your current sword skills, demonstrating a few sword techniques and slicing a bamboo mat is just a breeze."
"To have a swordsman not of Beichen One-Sword Style demonstrate swordsmanship would enhance the performance’s attractiveness."
"And most importantly — you are now a renowned figure in Edo, the name ’Niō’ has already spread throughout the streets of Edo."
"If you are able to join and support our demonstration, it would surely draw a sizeable crowd!"
"I’ve scheduled the demonstration for August 24th at 8 p.m. Mr. Tachibana, what do you think? Are you interested in participating?"
Chiba Shigetarou blinked forcefully several times, looking eagerly at Aoto.
The prolix dialogue of the "Toshisuke line" is finally coming to an end! Up next is the action time to bring this story arc to a temporary close! Finally, there’s going to be some hacking and slashing, compared to enriching character depth with dialogue-heavy scenes, the author is indeed fonder of writing the action-packed scenes.
Although today’s Chapter is transitional and not too exciting, the author shamelessly requests for some monthly votes! (Leopard head crying in pain.jpg)
Requesting monthly votes! Requesting recommendation tickets!

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