I Formed the Strongest Swordsman Group-Chapter 11: Kondo Isami

Edo, Koishikawa Kohinata Yanagi Town——
——So this is the Shieikan?
Aoto scrutinized the somewhat modest-looking house in the distance with a doubtful gaze.
Outside this medium-sized residence hung a signboard inscribed with the characters “Tennen Rishin-ryu Shieikan.”
——Why can’t I hear any sounds of sword practice?
Inside the Shieikan, it was utterly silent...
No sounds of bamboo swords clashing, it felt as if no one was inside at all...
Holding this doubt, Aoto slowly approached the Shieikan.
But just a few steps forward, Aoto suddenly saw a tall and muscular young man coming out of the building carrying a bucket and a rag.
The young man walked over to the signboard that read “Tennen Rishin-ryu Shieikan”—he was probably about to clean it.
At that moment, the youth noticed Aoto walking toward the sword school.
Their eyes met, colliding in midair.
Then—
Thud.
The sound of the bucket and rag dropping to the ground rang out.
The young man firmly threw down the bucket and rag, then appeared in front of Aoto with lightning-fast speed.
“Good morning! May I ask if you’ve come to learn swordsmanship at my Shieikan?”
This sudden appearance startled Aoto, who instinctively took two steps back.
Seeing Aoto retreat quickly, the young man first froze, then showed an apologetic expression.
“Sorry, sorry, I was impatient. I truly didn’t mean to scare you.”
After saying that, the young man cleared his throat and offered Aoto a somewhat goofy smile:
“My name is Kondo Isami! I am the acting instructor here at the Shieikan! May I ask your name?”
[Note: “Acting instructor” means a substitute master responsible for assisting the sword school’s master in teaching.]
After Kondo Isami finished introducing himself, Aoto quickly and politely gave his family name and briefly explained his purpose:
“I am Tachibana Aoto. I heard your school is one with excellent martial virtues, so I wish to join your school to study swordsmanship.”
While stating his family name, Aoto sized up Kondo’s appearance.
The first impression Kondo Isami gave was one of vigor.
Thick eyebrows and big eyes, clear and spirited gaze, tall and muscular build, about 1.8 meters tall—he looked very energetic.
Among his features, the one that left the deepest impression on Aoto was his mouth.
His mouth was very large.
It looked like it could easily swallow a fist whole without any issue.
However, despite the large mouth, it did not negatively impact his overall looks; his face still seemed quite handsome in a rugged, masculine way.
The only flaw was... he had a “mage” hairstyle.
This extremely ugly haircut cut Kondo’s attractiveness in half.
The “mage” was the most popular hairstyle in Edo period Japan, bar none. About 9 out of 10 men had this style.
Its rough appearance could be understood as a variant of the “balding crown” look.
The hair on the top of the head was completely shaved off, leaving only the hair at the back of the head and the temples, which were braided into a knot resting atop the shaved scalp—this was the mage style.
This hairstyle was popular among samurai because it was cool, convenient for wearing helmets, and didn’t obstruct vision during fights. Soon, the commoners imitated it as well.
Seeing Kondo’s mage hairstyle, Aoto twitched the corner of his mouth and couldn’t help but reach up to touch his own hair—he was very grateful that his own style was the full topknot, not the mage.
The full topknot meant retaining the hair on top of the head, only braiding it into a knot.
Though Aoto also thought this style was ugly, it was still a thousand times better than the mage.
“Oh! So you really want to learn swordsmanship!”
Kondo’s smile immediately brightened with enthusiasm.
But the next moment, Kondo’s smile froze, turning awkward.
“Ah... I almost forgot... our master isn’t at the school today... If you want to become a disciple, you’d have to wait until tomorrow at the earliest...”
“Tomorrow?” Aoto’s eyes widened.
Japan was a country that deeply valued the concept of “respecting teachers and the Way.”
To learn swordsmanship at a sword school, one typically had to perform a formal disciple-taking ceremony before the master, then go through a series of formalities before officially beginning lessons.
Therefore—if the master was not present, no new disciples would be accepted during that time.
“I’m sorry...” Kondo’s face filled with regret, “But the master really isn’t here today... If you want to join, please come another day.”
The “radical Expel the Barbarians faction” hung over Aoto like a Damocles sword at all times. Given the current situation, he didn’t want to waste a single day. He only wanted to learn swordsmanship as soon as possible and replicate talents. Asking him to come another day was naturally unacceptable.
“I won’t have time tomorrow! Do I really have to wait until your master returns to join and learn swordsmanship?”
After today’s holiday, Aoto would have to return to work at the magistrate’s office starting tomorrow, and wouldn’t have another day off for at least two days.
“This...” Kondo looked troubled.
Seeing Kondo’s dilemma, Aoto suddenly remembered the “new customer benefit” that Kiryu, the shop owner, had just given him.
Aoto pulled out the note with the four large characters “Kiryu Kazuma” written on it that Kiryu had just handed him.
Before Aoto could say anything, Kondo’s eyes widened when he saw the note.
“This is... were you introduced by Mr. Kiryu?”
“Yes,” Aoto nodded quickly, “Mr. Kiryu recommended your school to me.”
“Introduced by Mr. Kiryu...”
Kondo’s brows furrowed with a hint of conflict.
After a long pause, he sighed deeply and nodded firmly:
“...Alright, since you were introduced by Mr. Kiryu, I’ll make an exception this once.”
“Here’s what we’ll do—you pay the tuition today, write your information in the apprentice register, and when the master returns, you’ll complete the disciple-taking ceremony. How does that sound?”
For Aoto, the admission procedures didn’t matter much as long as he could join the school and start learning swordsmanship quickly to fight.
“Of course.” Aoto nodded firmly without hesitation.
“Then come with me!”
Kondo turned around, picked up the bucket and rag he had dropped earlier, and led Aoto briskly into the Shieikan.
The Shieikan was a very typical architectural style of the era—a residence surrounded by a mud wall, with a small courtyard between the house and the wall.
While tucking the note from Kiryu back into his pocket, Aoto curiously asked Kondo:
“Kondo-kun, is your school on close terms with Kiryu-san from the Senjiya?”
“Hmm... to be precise, it’s my father... ah, I mean the master who has a deep friendship with Mr. Kiryu,” Kondo said with a sigh.
“Back when the master was planning to build the Shieikan here, Mr. Kiryu helped us a lot.”
“Father?” Hearing Kondo accidentally say “father,” Aoto raised an eyebrow.
He suddenly recalled that Kiryu had told him earlier: the current headmaster and master of the Shieikan was Kondo Shusuke, the third-generation head of the Tennen Rishin-ryu family.
He and this Kondo Isami just happened to share the same family name.
“So you’re the young master of this sword school,” Aoto smiled. “Being the young master must be tough, managing the school and probably getting extra ‘attention’ during practice.”
“Yes.” Kondo sighed bitterly. “Since childhood, I’ve been scolded more than the other senior disciples... Ah, this is just a responsibility people like us have to bear.”
After a brief chat, their atmosphere became much more relaxed.
“Tachibana-kun, have you studied swordsmanship before?”
“I only learned a little rough stuff from my late father, almost no formal swordsmanship.”
“So you have a bit of a foundation then.”
Kondo’s gaze dropped to the inrō hanging on Aoto’s right waist.
“You have an inrō from the magistrate’s office on your waist. Are you currently serving in the North or South Bureau?”
This official badge proving his employment at the city government was something Aoto always carried, tied to his right waist.
“North Town Magistrate’s Office. I’m a dōshin in the Teimachi squad.”
“Teimachi squad?”
Kondo’s expression suddenly stiffened as if he’d heard some incredible secret.
Looking at Aoto with admiration emerging in his eyes, the tall man said,
“I didn’t expect you to be a dōshin of the Teimachi squad...”
“Not afraid you know—I’ve always admired the ‘Three Squads’ samurai who tirelessly maintain peace in Edo.”
“You all have truly worked hard maintaining Edo’s security.”
With that, Kondo stopped walking and respectfully bowed to Aoto.
“You flatter me,” Aoto said helplessly, stepping aside to avoid the bow. “We ‘Three Squads’ are just doing what we should.”
The city of Edo, later renamed Tokyo, was the largest city in Japan at the time.
To prevent the magistrates from holding too much power, Edo had two magistrate offices—the North Town Magistrate’s Office and the South Town Magistrate’s Office, known as the North and South Bureaus, each governed separately.
Simply put—Edo had two city governments and two mayors.
Aoto currently worked for the North Town Magistrate’s Office.
The samurai class had the biggest privilege: hereditary official positions.
Edo period Japan had no imperial examination system, instead using a hereditary official system similar to pre-Qin China.
Only samurai could hold official posts in government; commoners had absolutely no chance of becoming officials. Some positions were limited to specific samurai families.
Commoners were forever stuck in the “farmers, artisans, merchants” social classes and could never become officials.
In modern terms: samurai didn’t need civil service exams—they were born to be officials generation after generation.
The political ecology of Edo could be summarized as “father passes post to son” and “higher officials take turns holding top posts, lower officials take turns holding lower posts.”
Aoto had replaced his father’s position to become a dōshin in the Teimachi squad at the North Bureau.
Edo’s two magistrate offices governed a city with over a million people. Many would think there must be countless staff working there.
But in reality... it was pitifully few.
Taking the North Bureau as an example—not counting janitors, it had only: 1 Town Magistrate, 25 Yoriki, and 120 dōshin.
The Town Magistrate was like the mayor, Yoriki were middle-level officers, and dōshin were grassroots personnel.
That was all the officials in the North Bureau—146 people total...
The South Bureau had the exact same staffing, so combined they had only 292 people.
As a vital government organization managing the city, the magistrates had many departments with different tasks.
For example—the “Yōjōsho Michikai” had 1 Yoriki and 2 dōshin, responsible for overseeing poor patients receiving treatment.
The “Teibashi Kake” had 1 Yoriki and 2 dōshin, responsible for patrolling and inspecting all the bridges in Edo.
The departments responsible for catching thieves, solving cases, maintaining security, basically modern police functions, were collectively called the “Three Squads”: Teimachi squad, Rinjikai, and Onmitsu squad.
Aoto belonged to the Teimachi squad.
The Rinjikai was made up of elite members selected from those who had long served in the Teimachi squad, responsible for guiding and assisting them.
The Onmitsu squad was in charge of intelligence, disguising themselves and patrolling Edo’s districts, collecting information for their comrades in the other squads.
Whenever large-scale crackdowns on criminal organizations occurred, such as last night’s raid on the Righteous Crowd, the “Three Squads” took charge.
The magistrate offices were already severely understaffed, so the “Three Squads” had even fewer personnel.
Whether North or South Bureau, the Teimachi squad had only 2 Yoriki and 6 dōshin.
The Rinjikai had the same setup: 2 Yoriki and 6 dōshin.
The Onmitsu squad was the smallest department—only 2 dōshin, no Yoriki, all under the direct command of the Town Magistrate.
In other words—combined, the two bureaus had only 8 Yoriki and 28 dōshin, totaling 36 police officers citywide responsible for catching thieves and maintaining security.
If a novel’s author wrote a story with a city of a million people having this few police, some self-righteous readers who think they’re experts in city management but actually just lack knowledge would complain about the author being stupid and not understanding realistic numbers.
But this was ironclad truth—Edo truly only had this few official police.
Because the “Three Squads” samurai bore the duty of protecting city security, they were naturally respected by some.
From Kondo’s current attitude, he clearly belonged to this respected group.
After Aoto revealed his identity, Kondo’s attitude toward him became noticeably warmer.
He enthusiastically introduced the Shieikan to Aoto, his new disciple.
“Our Shieikan usually opens at 5th hour (8 a.m.) and closes near the 6th hour (6 p.m.).”
“Usually, more apprentices come to practice in the afternoon.”
“In the morning, many people like to sleep in, so there aren’t many practicing.”
“For example, right now—there’s only one apprentice practicing inside the dojo. You’ll meet him soon.”
At this, Kondo paused, then gave a meaningful smile and whispered to Aoto:
“You’ll be very surprised when you see that sole apprentice practicing in the dojo.”
“Let me give you a heads-up—he’s a boy.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Aoto asked puzzled. “Does he have a very feminine face?”
“Well... you’ll see soon enough.” Kondo smiled mysteriously.
While Aoto and Kondo were talking, they had unknowingly approached very close to the dojo of the Shieikan.
Huff...
Huff...
At this moment, Aoto faintly heard the sound of bamboo swords slicing through the air coming from inside the dojo.
The dojo door was now wide open.
Kondo, walking ahead to lead, quickened his pace slightly, then stopped at the door and glanced inside.
“See, that’s the only apprentice I mentioned earlier who’s currently practicing in the dojo. He’s training now; we’ll go in shortly.”
Aoto, walking closely behind Kondo, looked into the dojo after hearing this.
“Hmm...!”
The moment his eyes landed on the figure in the center of the dojo, an overwhelmingly strong impact caused Aoto to instinctively let out a low exclamation.
In the center of the dojo stood a beautiful boy—beyond cute, Aoto could think of no other word to describe him.
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