Xiang Nan used a craniotomy on the captive and forced out the exact location of the Tendoushuus base.
He immediately contacted Beishi and the others, pulled out of the Shogunate compound, and rushed there together—all before the Tendō members even realized they were under attack.
Inside the Shogunate, he struck the Tendō's secret facilities with lightning efficiency; the Amanto had no chance to fight back.
Although the Shogunate side could already tell something was wrong, they were unlikely to sound an alarm until they knew who the enemy was and how far the situation had spread.
Beishi's group was also grabbing a few Amanto or politicians inside the Shogunate for information, but they worked far more covertly and never alerted the authorities.
The pity was that none of them possessed Xiang Nan's "open‑skull" interrogation method,
so they still had to rely on him to crack the case first.
By the time Shogunate soldiers sensed trouble, Xiang Nan and his team had vanished without a trace.
"Looks like… a man‑eating rat has slipped in."
About half a stick of incense later, in Third City—an Amanto‑direct city—Matsudaira Katakuriko, a major character, stood with a cigarette clenched between his teeth. Gazing over the carpet of corpses, he led a squad of soldiers around the sterilized scene, blew out smoke, and muttered indifferently.
The elderly officer wore his hair slicked back and sported a uniform much like the Shinsengumi's.
He was a top Shogunate executive—and the Shinsengumi's direct superior.
Even the Shogun treated him with special respect.
His subordinates stared, dazed, at the dense heap of Tendō bodies.
They might not know who the assailant was, but it was obvious this had been a one‑sided massacre:
there was no sign of a struggle. With the Tendō's security strength, any incursion should have triggered heavy firepower, yet they had been erased so quietly that even the castle patrols felt nothing.
"Sir… we've found more concealed bodies in other Cabinet wings."
A subordinate hurried up with the report.
Matsudaira's face didn't change.
They didn't know who the attackers were, but it was clear the target was the Tendō, not the Shogunate itself.
"What do you make of it?"
He turned to the man beside him.
It was Hattori Zenzō—head of the Oniwabanshū, the Shogunate's ninja corps, and current patriarch of the Iga Hattori family (the other two great Iga clans being the Fujibayashi and the Momochi).
"Formidable. Every one of these Tendō members was killed in a single blow. Judging by the scene, they never even reacted… which means the enemy outclasses them. More striking, they all died in identical poses, not like victims of a large‑scale onslaught. It sounds crazy, but it feels as if a single person did this. Other sites were hit too, but only corpses—nothing this dramatic."
"That suggests the attackers are few, yet from infiltration to exit we detected nothing… They're not opponents we can afford."
Zenzō's voice was low.
"Frankly, I don't think a human could have done this."
Matsudaira let another smoke ring curl away. "Seems Edo… has some new visitors."
He prepared to phone Kondō Isao—chief of the Shinsengumi.
No one knew Edo's streets better than Kondō's men; if any strange force or "special character" had shown up, the Shinsengumi's constant patrols should have noticed.
"Sir, the enemy appears to have left the castle. So far we've found no trace."
A black‑clad ninja flashed down, kneeling at Zenzō's side with the report.
Once the intruders left the citadel, catching them would be much harder; Edo was enormous, and it was already the dead of night…
…
Elsewhere, the Shinsengumi's headquarters phone rang.
The gorilla‑like Kondō Isao was yanked naked from bed by Vice‑Commander Hijikata Tōshirō. Hearing that chaos had broken out in the Shogunate, he called an emergency meeting of every officer—ordering a city‑wide search for suspicious targets.
He even sat cross‑legged during the briefing stark naked.
"I think… I know who the culprit is."
After Kondō described how dangerous the intruder was, Okita Sōgo quietly raised his hand.
In his mind he couldn't help recalling the mysterious man he'd met at a tiny inn in Kabukichō.
That power—something he'd never felt from any Earthling or even from Amanto.
He recounted how a routine mission to grab Katsura had turned into a surprise encounter with Xiang Nan's team.
"Kabukichō?"
Kondō instantly ordered every Shinsengumi unit to sweep Kabukichō.
Hijikata grumbled that Sōgo should have reported this bizarre encounter earlier—and Sōgo shot back sarcastically, saying it was Hijikata's negligence and that the vice‑commander ought to commit seppuku in front of everyone.
They nearly came to blows until Kondō pried them apart.
"If it's Kabukichō… I think we'd better check with the Boss first. Maybe those three have a lead."
Before deployment, Sōgo slipped away alone, not following the others.
His intuition was sharp:
"Unless you see it yourself, you can't grasp how overwhelming the killer's power is."
He figured that even if the entire Shinsengumi mobilized, they still wouldn't match the suspect; the Tendō had been wiped out—what chance did they have?
So capturing the target would require another plan.
By "the Boss," he meant Sakata Gintoki of Yorozuya.
It didn't take long for Sōgo to pinpoint Gintoki in a nightclub, arms around two women and spending wildly.
He knew Gintoki's "virtues" all too well.
Gintoki, dead drunk, was spouting dirty jokes and laughing uproariously.
Nearby Kagura was wolfing down food, while Shinpachi sulked over a cushion.
Seeing Sōgo, Gintoki grandly waved him over, told him to pick any drink—his treat—
and even reminded him that "kids shouldn't drink."
"Boss, did you hit the lottery or something?" Sōgo asked, amazed.
After all, the Yorozuya trio had always been penniless, and Gintoki still owed Otose a mountain of back rent.
"You came at the perfect time… I needed to talk." Gintoki's grin turned sly; he pulled out a small bill and slipped it into Sōgo's hand. "Here, uh… just a token of appreciation."
"Are you bribing me?"
Sōgo noticed immediately.
It was only enough for a soda, but to Gintoki it was clearly a "fortune."
"Bribery? Come on—we're friends," Gintoki chuckled.
Sōgo glanced at Shinpachi and Kagura and seemed to sense something.
"See, I've got a few distant cousins who just arrived in Edo. They had a misunderstanding with the Shinsengumi at a little inn and were mistaken for rebels… They've got nothing to do with Katsura—" Gintoki began.
Just then Sōgo, who had just sat down, slowly stood—and drew his katana.
"Huh?"
Gintoki's expression shifted.
"What a coincidence. Those 'cousins' just committed a monstrous crime in the Shogunate… and since the three of you at Yorozuya admitted to covering for them, you're their spies and must be executed on the spot." Sōgo flashed a bright smile as he spoke.
With that, he swung without mercy at Gintoki.
Steel flashed—
A single stroke sliced off a lock of Gintoki's silver hair, instantly shocking him sober.
What on earth is going on?