My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 514: Chapter 176: Rescue Sazanoko! (Part 2)

She was tormented by these unsettling thoughts.

She feared the unknown future.

Yet, despite her fear... what she dreaded even more was simply giving up and waiting for death!

Even if she must die, she should fight with all her might for survival before succumbing... thinking this, a fierce light flashed in Miss Sazanoko’s beautiful eyes.

With the thumb and middle finger of her right hand, she gripped the iron nail and rubbed its sharp tip against the ropes binding her hands.

...

...

The words of Nakamura Chouhachirou... no matter how she thought about them, seemed strange.

How the hell could there be so many coincidences!

Today, Miss Sazanoko happened to go out with Nakamura Tsuki.

Just today, Miss Sazanoko happened to disappear.

Nakamura Tsuki’s grandmother’s letter about her illness happened to arrive in Edo today.

Nakamura Tsuki happened to set off for Osaka to visit her grandmother this afternoon.

Even someone like Aoto, who’s supposed to be a ”police officer,” along with Chiba Shigetarou, found this odd.

So many coincidences piled together, it’s as if they were writing a novel!

However, no matter how much Aoto and others interrogated him, Nakamura Chouhachirou insisted, ”Nakamura Tsuki is not in Edo; she went back to Osaka.”

Even though Nakamura Chouhachirou spoke emphatically and convincingly... Aoto still listed Nakamura Chouhachirou as a ”subject requiring focused investigation.”

The connections of the ”number one martial arts family,” the Chiba family, were indeed formidable.

Chiba Dingji directly reached out to Ando Masanobu, the current Senior Councillor.

How high-ranking is a Senior Councillor?

Without counting the rarely appointed position of Tairō, the Senior Councillor is the highest office of the Shogunate... second only to the General, akin to China’s ”Chancellor.”

Chiba Dingji went directly to the ”Chancellor,” asking him to uphold justice for them...

After this, it wasn’t hard to guess what would happen.

Senior Councillor Ando Masanobu issued an order, causing chaos at Edo’s South and North Guard Stations.

To find Miss Sazanoko, the two stations deployed a massive search team—3 Yoriki, 6 Dōshin, and mobilized all the officials of Edo’s Jishinban.

Aoto was also part of this ”search team.”

In Edo, where the Magistrate’s Office suffered from a prolonged manpower shortage, there wasn’t any regulation against relatives or acquaintances of the case being involved in the investigation.

Despite the mobilization of all available manpower to find the missing Miss Sazanoko, the search progress remained extremely slow...

In an ancient society devoid of surveillance networks and big data, with investigation methods mainly reliant on inquiry and inspection, searching for someone untraceable in a metropolis of a million people... just the thought of it was daunting.

Moreover, Edo’s South and North Magistrate’s Offices lacked strong grassroots control.

The management of the Magistrate’s Office was heavily reliant on the assistance from the ”Town Autonomous Organization.”

In a nutshell—Magistrate’s Office’s management of Edo’s grassroots level was almost a mess; they could hardly ascertain the population or workforce of Edo.

This low-level grassroots control ability... directly escalated the already very challenging task of finding someone by several degrees.

Upon being assigned to search for Miss Sazanoko, Aoto immediately applied to investigate the highly suspicious Nakamura Chouhachirou.

Nakamura Chouhachirou’s cryptic words and behavior, along with his own intuition, were screaming to Aoto: Nakamura Chouhachirou definitely had issues, likely being the key to finding Miss Sazanoko.

The process by which Aoto sought his superior’s approval to investigate Nakamura Chouhachirou... was rather eventful.

Because most superiors didn’t think Nakamura Chouhachirou was a target worth much attention.

They believed that instead of investigating Nakamura Chouhachirou, focusing manpower on every area Miss Sazanoko might have passed through on the day of her disappearance was the right course of action.

Understanding this mindset wasn’t difficult.

Because for them, ”achieving merit” was secondary! ”Not making mistakes” was the most important!

Whether ”concentrating manpower to visit and investigate different areas” would be effective, nobody knew. Aoto’s superiors didn’t care if it would be effective!

They only cared if their interests would suffer.

Feigning thorough investigative actions was enough; this wouldn’t yield great achievements, nor would it result in major failures; at least it provided an explanation to higher-ups—this was the common thought among Aoto’s superiors.

This bureaucratic mindset... made Aoto disgusted to the point of wanting to vomit.

His friend was kidnapped, yet these officials were still concerned only about ”avoiding major errors” and ”being able to answer to their superiors”... Aoto couldn’t find any words to describe his intense disgust and nausea.

Relying on his currently gathered prestige and achievements, Aoto expended tremendous effort before finally persuading Hosoi and other senior officials.

”Since you so want to investigate that Nakamura Chouhachirou, you can go alone”—thus spoke Hosoi and other superiors, dispatching Aoto to investigate Nakamura Chouhachirou with no helpers, relying solely on himself and his subordinate Saito to conduct the inquiry.

Towards such arrangements from his superiors, Aoto let out a cold laugh, internally noting: So be it! Without anyone superior to me or on equal footing involved in the investigation of Nakamura Chouhachirou, I’ll have fewer restrictions!

”Mr. Shigetarou, don’t worry. I will definitely give everything I have to bring Miss Sazanoko back.” — Before officially commencing the investigation, Aoto assured Chiba Shigetarou, who seemed to have become thinner from worrying about Miss Sazanoko’s safety, with a determined tone.