It took a week before Ryota showed up at in the backdoor of my restaurant early in the morning with a three other men. They were dressed as labour workers and had brought a wagon to transport the crates.

"This is Asahi." Ryota introduced me to one of them, an older man. "He'll be appraising the goods."

We exchanged nods and I led them to the basement.

"Who knew the Matsumoto-gumi had a place like this hidden underneath." Asahi remarked. "What a sly bunch."

'I wonder what he would think if he knew there was a tunnel hidden behind those crates at the back.'

I showed them the crates I had stacked in the center of the room.

"Other than the katana, these all seem in brand new condition." He Asahi said after checking through everything. "We can pay 2 ryo for the katana and 9 and a half for everything else."

"What's wrong with the katana?"

"Although it's been cared for, It is clearly second-hand. The quality is a little lacking as the skill of the bladesmith who made this seems to be average, and it is quite old, the blade has been grinded down a decent amount already. Was probably passed down in some poor swordsman's family as an heirloom. 2 ryo is the best we can offer, we're a business, we have to make a profit somehow."

'I was hoping for more...I'm about big enough to start using a full length weapon, might as well keep it for self-defense. I can use the Woodcutter's Spirit to reinforce the metal. Plus, I can always sell it in the future.'

"I'll keep the katana then."

The man signaled for the other two to take the crates upstairs as Ryota took out some gold from his poach and counted them before handing 8 ryo over to me.

'Not enough to make up for sealing the onibi but a nice bit of extra money.' I thought as I tucked the gold away.

He then passed me a bag he had placed down earlier. Looking inside, I found it was full of flash bombs.

"Be careful with those. If anyone asks..."

"I found them down here of course." I said with a grin.

"Those Matsumoto-gumi guys sure are careless for leaving something so dangerous lying around." Ryota nodded as he matched my grin.

Asahi shook his head at our exchange.

After Ryota and co left, I stopped by Hashimoto's to buy a sheath for the katana. I then went to the temple to pick up Azu.

"I'm ready to finally go home." Azu said when I entered the room.

Azu's close friend, Chiemi was also there with her baby, Hinako, to visit her.

I grabbed her bag with her change of clothes and we all left to go back to the restaurant. There was a lot of greetings and well wishes from Kin, Nobu, our employees, and some regulars as we went about the day.

After Azu spent some time catching up with everyone, she dove back into work as if she was never gone but she was banned from the smoking section.

After the noon rush, I snuck into the basement with Kin and went over to the pond. Kin ran around as I practiced my awareness with the swinging ropes I had set up on a tree.

When it was about time to go back, I stood in front of the pond before running forward and leaping on top of the water. Using my momentum and well-timed releases of ki bursts from my feet, I hopped from one foot to the next across the surface of the pond, finally making it to the other side.

"Yes!" I did a fist pump in joy.

'I finally did it.'

"Meow." I cheered as Kin stood on the other side of the pond calling out to me.

When we returned to the restaurant and snuck back upstairs, I found Rin talking to a messenger from the merchant house at the entrance. The messenger noticed and turned to me.

"I have a message from Manager Fujiwara."

"They're here?"

"Yes."

"I'm stepping out for a bit." I told Rin before turning back to the messenger. "Lead the way."

We arrived at the merchant house shortly after, where the messenger took me to the second floor and into a room where the occupants were already having tea.

"Ah, there you are." Manager Fujiwara said as I joined them.

"I must admit was a little surprised when I received your letter, I wasn't expecting you to contact us so soon." One of the men in the room said.

"Thank you for getting over here on such short notice, Mister Choubei." I said to the man.

"You know this young lad, Choubei?" Jiroemon asked as he squinted at me. "Now that you mentioned it, you do seem a little familiar."

'Uh-oh, does he remember me from the Goda-ikka office?'

"We met their party a little over two weeks ago at the inn."

"Ahh, that party!" Jiroemon nodded as he crossed his arms. "I don't recall anything from that night."

Choubei sighed helplessly before getting on with business.

"Where is the client we will be providing protection for?"

"He is currently in a nearby village, we'll have to meet him there."

"We've already showed great sincerity by coming up here, since we are acquaintances, but we will require a deposit first before we go on from here." Choubei said.

"Were we not coming up here anyways to watch Sosuke-sensei's new masterpiece?"

"Hush! I'm negotiating." Choubei turned and glared at Jiroemon, who shrugged his shoulders.

"It's just a deposit, why are you haggling over something like that?" Jiroemon asked. "As long as we get paid for our work, all is well."

"Ahem, I'll excuse myself for now." Manager Fujiwara said as he stood up and left the room.

"How much will the deposit be?" I asked after he left.

"20 ryo."

With all our savings combined, we probably had about 15 ryo. I took out my golden pocket watch and held it out.

"Can I use this as a deposit?"

"You have one of those new timepieces already? And a golden one at that." Jiroemon spoke up as he leaned in to examine the watch. "I've been saving up for one."

"Maybe if you stopped spending on your money drinking in the company of geishas you would have some to spare." Choubei said as he received the watch. "This is acceptable. We can leave immediately. Can you ride?"

"Who wants to drink in the company of only men." Jiroemon muttered. "I wish pretty ladies would hire us for once..."

"Not very well." I answered Choubei's question.

Choubei turned to a young swordsman sitting behind him, who was wearing a forehead protector. "Norio go find us four horses."

I left the merchant house soon after and returned to the restaurant to pack up. I also had to explain things to Azu.

"Kuro is going home and the men accompanying him just arrived in town, so I have to take them to where Kuro is staying." I said. "Don't worry, Teru has met them before, they're all professionals, I'll be back as soon as possible."

I thought about it for a bit before deciding to take the katana and a few flash bombs with me. After saying goodbye to Azu, I went over to the orphanage to update Taro.

"Take care of yourselves." Taro said after I explained everything.

"I'll be back before you know it."

I returned to the merchant house and found four horses waiting out front, ready to travel. I got onto a horse behind the young swordsman named Norio.

"Something the matter?" He asked as he caught me staring at his forehead protector.

It was a red headband with a unmarked strip of metal attached to it. The metal covered his entire forehead.

"It's just my first time seeing one of those."

'At least in real life.' I mentally added.

Norio lifted up the forehead protector to show a scar underneath, as he was doing so his sleeves dropped down to reveal that he was wearing bracers as well.

"Protection is important." Norio said before he nodded at the others. "Especially if I want to keep up with those three."

Together with Choubei, Jiroemon, and a fourth swordsman, the five of us rode southwest.

Although I didn't have my watch anymore, I estimated that we reached the village at around 10 PM, and I directed them to the inn the others were staying at. I was glad to see that they had stayed put and were still safe when we arrived. With how stubborn they were, I was half expecting them to have already left.

When Kuro met with Choubei, he explained to them the situation. Choubei asked for proof, to which Kuro showed him a token of some kind, which caused Choubei to agree to the request immediately.

A lot of numbers were thrown around after that and the final price for their protection ended up being in the hundreds.

Everyone went to sleep afterwards to prepare themselves for the journey ahead.