Group【6200】

Qingdeng was now hugging the shadow from behind, hugging the shadow closely, with his chest pressed against the shadow's back.

When the black shadow took off his handkerchief and raised his head to look up at Qingdeng, Qingdeng was the first to see a pair of big, moist eyes.

Velvet-like long eyelashes, black and white eyes.

Below these beautiful big eyes, there is a delicate Yao nose and rosy and full lips. If you poke it with your fingers, you will feel very good and elastic white skin...

This is a cute face that is quite familiar to Qingdeng.

The moment he saw this face, Qingto, who was stunned, immediately called out involuntarily: "Miss Kinoshita...?"

It's Kinoshita Mai.

The dark shadow that suddenly fell from the ceiling and appeared behind Qingden was none other than Mai Kinoshita who happened to meet her on the way home yesterday.

Qingnobo was extremely surprised: "Why did Miss Kinoshita appear here at this time?"

But immediately after, less than two breaths later, Qingdeng's emotions were overtaken by a new feeling of shock.

Due to the suddenness of the incident and the fact that he was startled by Kinoshita Mai's sudden appearance, Qingto was solely focused on "quickly subduing this uninvited guest", so he did not pay attention to Kinoshita Mai's costume at all.

It was only now that Qingto finally discovered that Kinoshita Mai in his arms was wearing... a rather extraordinary outfit.

She was wearing slightly loose black clothes on her upper and lower body, with a black headscarf on her head. The scarf that had been covering her face just now was now pulled up to her neck, and her hands and feet were covered with black gloves and black footbags.

Qingdeng...he had seen this costume that only exposed a pair of eyes.

On the night when I copied the talent "Milk".

On the night when the Fanshu Diao Institute was attacked by the anti-barbarian group.

No matter how you look at it...it's the costume of the great phantom thief Neko-monk who has been causing turmoil in Edo in recent months!

Compared with before, the only difference in her clothing is probably that Kinoshita Mai is now carrying a small package containing something unknown on her back.

A huge amount of questions and information hit Qingdeng's brain like a meteorite.

For a while, the brain was unable to process this huge amount of information, and fell into a state of near shutdown.

Looking at Kinoshita Mai in his arms, Qingto, whose brain was shut down, could not open his mouth to say a word with specific meaning.

After a long while, Qingdeng's soul finally began to return to his body, and he mumbled out: "Why are you... wearing the clothes of the Cat Monk?"

At this moment, Kinoshita Mai, who was still raising her head and looking up at Aoto, showed an aggrieved look as if she had been unfairly wronged.

Her big, moist, bright eyes were softly gleaming, her teeth were biting her lower lip lightly, and light red clouds were rising from her cheeks.

She opened her red lips and was about to say something——

Thump, thump, thump, thump!

In the corridor connecting the dojo and the Kondo family's residence, extremely dense footsteps could be heard at this moment.

Just by hearing this sound, Qingto knew that it was probably the "someone" he said just now that alerted Kondo and the others.

Kinoshita Mai, who turned to look at the corridor entrance with Aomori, lowered her voice and said quickly with a worried look on her face:

"Tachibana-kun, come to the alley behind the ramen shop east of the trial hall later. I'll wait for you there."

"Ah? Oh, oh." Qingdeng now gradually suppressed the shock in his heart and stabilized his mind.

Before they figured out what was going on, it was really inappropriate for Kondo and the others to see him hugging Kinoshita Mai, who was dressed as a cat monk.

After nodding towards Kinoshita Mai, Qingto quickly let go of Kinoshita Mai in his arms.

Kinoshita Mai, who had regained her freedom, squatted down, and then jumped upwards with all her strength - like a cat, she jumped back to the top of the ceiling.

Returning to the ceiling, she moved the grid she had just moved back to its original position, and then there was a "click, click, click" sound from the ceiling from near to far, like a mouse hopping around - from

From the sound of this sound, Kinoshita Mai must have successfully escaped along the ceiling.

Not long after the "clack-clack" sound dissipated, the footsteps of Kondo and others finally approached the entrance of the corridor.

"Tachibana-kun, what happened?" Kondo shouted loudly, making people feel refreshed.

Qingdeng turned his head and looked towards the entrance of the corridor, and saw that everyone was here.

There was no time to change clothes, and everyone was dressed in pajamas, holding various weapons.

Kondo, Saito, and Shusuke held up their sabers with serious faces.

Abi, on the other hand, was carrying a woman's naginata majestically.

The naginata was originally the mainstream weapon on the battlefield from the Kamakura to Muromachi eras, but due to its performance and cost being completely inferior to the spear, after the Warring States Period, the naginata's status on the battlefield was completely replaced by the spear.

By the Edo period, the art of the naginata, which had almost no use on the battlefield, had completely become a women's self-defense technique for the daughters of the samurai family, and evolved into a variant of the naginata with a shorter handle and a slimmer blade: the women's naginata.

All samurai families with a good family background and strict education for their offspring will require the girls in the clan to practice the art of the naginata.

For example, Sanako - Kondo and the others once told Ayoto that Sanako's naginata technique is as exquisite as her kodachi technique. She is not only the kodachi master of the Kochiba Sword Hall, but also the naginata master.

Ayoto had heard that Abi, who was born in a pretty good family, had been practicing the Katori Shinto-style naginata technique since he was a child, and his level was quite high.

Okita also carried a sword like Kondo and the others - but with his hair disheveled from sleep, he seemed to be a little awake.

With a trace of drool remaining on the corner of his mouth, he walked with a zigzag step and walked crookedly, looking like he had difficulty controlling his body.

There was a "bang" sound - his head hit the door frame on the side of the corridor.

Although he was still in a dazed state without waking up, his pace of rushing into the dojo with Kondo and others did not slow down at all.

He raised his hand and rubbed the red mark on his forehead while continuing to follow Kondo and others in a hurry.

Kyuubei also came. He clutched his pillow tightly and followed everyone step by step.

"Tachibana-kun, what's wrong?" Shusuke, who rushed into the dojo first, looked around with a solemn expression, "We just heard you shouting 'Who is it?' Did some thief break into the training hall?

?”

"Uh..." Qingto slightly twitched the corner of his mouth a few times with an imperceptible amount. After thinking carefully about how to fool Kondo and the others, he had an idea -

"Master, I'm sorry for alarming you."

Qingdeng laughed a few times.

"No thieves broke in. I made a mistake."

"When I was stretching my muscles just now, I suddenly saw a black shadow flashing outside the window."

Qingdeng pressed his chin toward a window next to him.

"I thought it was some kind of thief, so I yelled 'Who is it?'"

"After I ran over and looked out the window, I realized I had made a mistake - it was not a thief, it was just a... big black cat."

——I actually wasn’t completely telling a lie.

After finishing speaking, Qingdeng added this sentence silently in his heart.

He really wasn't lying.

From another perspective...did he really lie just now?

He did indeed encounter a "black cat" just now.

"Cat?" Zhou Zhu raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Yeah." Qingdeng nodded firmly, "Yes, it's just a cat."

He rushed to the dojo with murderous intent, only to find out that it was an accident. Kondo and others all looked at each other in confusion.

Kondo and the others asked Aonto some more questions, but they were dismissed by Aoto who insisted that "nothing happened, it was just a misunderstanding."

Seeing that nothing serious seemed to have happened, Kondo and the others had no choice but to disperse.

After watching Kondo and others, who had finally been fooled, file out along the corridor, Aoto quietly showed an expression of relief and let out a long breath.

Immediately afterwards, Qingdeng turned his head with a complicated expression and looked in the direction of the ramen restaurant to the east outside the Trial Guard Hall...

…

…

The ramen restaurant not far to the east of the Shoei Hall is called "Eraku Ramen". Since it is very close to the Shoei Hall, Qingto occasionally goes to this noodle shop to patronize, so for what Kinoshita Mai just said to him, "

"The alley behind the ramen restaurant to the east of the Shoeikan", Aoto naturally remembered where it was.

After sending Kondo and the others back to sleep, Qingto quietly changed his shoes, slipped out of the trial hall, and went straight to the alley behind Erraku Ramen.

As soon as he ran into the alley, Qingdeng left and found the person he was looking for.

Pulling up the black scarf again and covering her face from the eyes down, Kinoshita Mai squatted in the deepest part of this dank alley with her hands and knees.

She hung her chin on her round knees, lowered her head, and seemed to be looking at something.

Aoto, who has strong night vision due to his "cat's eye" talent, took a closer look - Kinoshita Mai was looking at a row of ants on the ground carrying food.

After catching sight of Aoto striding from the alley out of the corner of her eye, Kinoshita Mai quickly stood up, then quickly walked towards Aoto with three steps at a time.

"Jijun," she said, "you came much faster than I expected."

"..." Qingden subconsciously wanted to say hello to Kinoshita Mai.
To be continued...