My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 635: Chapter 4: Female Chokata Toshisuke

After simply complimenting Inoue a few times, Zhouzhu turned his attention to Aoto.

”Mr. Tachibana, why do I feel like you’ve had a leisurely 2-month recovery... and your strength has increased rather than decreased?”

The change in Aoto’s physical strength was naturally noticed by Zhouzhu, such an old hand.

Because my waist strength improved—such blunt honesty, Aoto certainly couldn’t speak out.

Aoto could only use the excuse ”Maybe it’s because I’ve been eating well recently, which built up a lot of strength” to brush off Zhouzhu.

Fortunately, Zhouzhu didn’t linger on this issue with Aoto.

Facing Aoto’s brushing off, Zhouzhu simply said ”Oh, I see,” and didn’t continue probing into why Aoto’s strength had suddenly increased.

The sparring session with Inoue ended on a rather satisfactory note.

Inoue demonstrated his new step techniques to Zhouzhu and learned of Aoto’s prowess.

Aoto gained the most, not only learning the strength of Inoue, one of Shiwei Hall’s top warriors, but also obtaining a new powerful talent.

With no reason to stay in the dojo, everyone returned to the hall.

Once again, lively conversation echoed in the hall.

...

...

The next day—

Man’en 1 (1860), August 4—

”Oh? Uncle Gen, you’re back?”

”Yes, long time no see! I went home to help an old friend with land reclamation, spent a full 8 months, and finally returned.”

”Uncle Gen, it’s been so long since I saw you, you seem to have gotten a bit tanned.”

”Hahaha, if you spent months reclaiming land like me, you’d be as tanned as I am.”

”Uncle Gen! You’re finally back! Without you, Shiwei Hall felt incomplete.”

”Hahaha, then I’ll have to go on fewer long trips in the future!”

...

Inoue, amiable and without a hint of pretentiousness, enjoyed great popularity at Shiwei Hall.

Seeing Inoue’s return, all the old hands familiar with Shiwei Hall couldn’t hide their joy, surrounding Inoue in layers and engaging in enthusiastic discussions with him.

Today’s atmosphere at Shiwei Hall turned particularly harmonious due to the return of this ”popular star,” Inoue.

Unfortunately, Aoto didn’t get the chance to savor this harmony.

Because today was the day Aoto gave Elodie a lesson.

Edo, the residence area, Elodie’s home—

”Elodie, your center of gravity is off. Keep your left foot lower.”

Aoto issued strict and unreserved instructions to Elodie.

”Okay!”

Following Aoto’s guidance, Elodie slightly lowered the height of her bare, white left foot.

At this moment, Elodie was not wearing her usual white dress, but a new women’s kendo uniform, white on top and blue below.

Her beautiful light golden hair, usually braided into three strands and hanging over her right shoulder, was neatly coiled atop her head.

With such an outfit and hairstyle, complemented by the bamboo sword grasped in her hand and held before her, Elodie exuded more bravery than usual.

Aoto, with a stern expression, seriously looked Elodie up and down and gently nodded.

”Alright, do that set of moves I just taught you again.”

”Yes!”

”... Not bad. Your movements are much better than before. Have some water, take a break.”

”Okay!”

Elodie set down the bamboo sword in her hand, trotted to the long table nearby, picked up the cup of water placed on the table, and chugged it down.

After emptying the cup in one go, Elodie grabbed the white towel next to the cup and gently wiped the sweat from her face.

Watching Elodie wipe her sweat, Aoto standing beside her thought to himself:

—This kid’s talent... really is noteworthy.

Three days after smoothly getting discharged from Ren Medical Hall, Aoto formally started fulfilling his promise to Elodie, teaching her Natural Reasoning Heart Stream as her ”private tutor.”

Even before taking Elodie as his disciple, Aoto often assisted and guided juniors at Shiwei Hall, accumulating considerable teaching experience.

By watching Zhouzhu and Kondo educate others, he slyly learned numerous methods and techniques from them.

But whether he could teach Elodie well... Aoto still felt somewhat uncertain.

This was Aoto’s first time obtaining the identity of a ”master.”

This role, while making Aoto feel ambitious, also placed immense pressure on him.

The thought of being someone’s master, burdened with nurturing the disciple into talent, bearing the responsibility for the disciple’s future... made Aoto feel as if his heart and body were sinking beneath the ground.

To alleviate this pressure, and to live up to Elodie’s trust and expectations, Aoto could only put all his effort into diligently fostering Elodie.

Throughout these 2 months, owing to the substantial time due to needing recuperation, Aoto would visit Elodie’s home every other day, providing her from-the-ground-up guidance in Japanese Swordsmanship, despite her having never encountered it before.

Long before making Elodie his disciple... when he copied the ”Plump Breasts” talent from Elodie, Aoto noticed she had a notable talent for swordsmanship.

After these days of associating with and teaching Elodie, Aoto discovered: Elodie’s swordsmanship talent was much higher than he initially anticipated!

No matter how difficult the swordsmanship techniques were, Aoto feasibly needed to explain or demonstrate them 1 to 3 times, and Elodie could comprehend and roughly mimic these moves by drawing inferences from the given instructions.