I Formed the Strongest Swordsman Group-Chapter 26: Okita-kun Is an Idiot and a Major Case Arrives!

With a handsome face and smooth black hair tied into a neat, slender high ponytail at the back of his head with a purple satin ribbon, his cheeks always carried a faint, gentle smile. Except for the clothes he wore, which were different from yesterday, everything else was almost exactly the same—the very same handsome youth Aoto had encountered yesterday at Shieikan: Okita Souji.
When Aoto cast a surprised glance at Okita, who was currently holding a steamed bun in one hand, Okita also looked at Aoto with equal surprise.
"Tachibana-kun, what are you doing here?"
"I was just patrolling nearby and saw a teahouse here. So I thought I’d stop by to rest and have some afternoon food."
"Oh! What a coincidence!" Okita smiled and waved at Aoto. "I have an empty seat here. If you don’t mind, you can share the table with me!"
The table Okita was sitting at was the kind that only fit two people.
Okita was sitting alone at this small table, with an empty seat directly opposite him.
It was lunchtime, one of the busiest times for teahouses and eateries.
The teahouse Aoto was currently in had very few empty seats left.
Seeing Okita invite him to share the table, Aoto respectfully accepted and quickly took the seat opposite Okita.
"Okita-kun, how come you’re here again?" After ordering a cheap cup of tea from the shop assistant, Aoto asked Okita.
The handsome youth was now stuffing a Japanese-style steamed bun filled with red bean paste into his mouth with both hands, his cheeks puffed out like a hamster storing winter food.
[Note: Japanese steamed buns are filled buns.]
"There wasn’t much to do at Shieikan today, so I took the rare chance to come out and get some fresh air."
"This teahouse has become my recent favorite spot." Okita swallowed the bun in one gulp and smiled brightly. "The buns sold here are sweet and soft, just perfect for my taste."
"Just a few of these buns, and all my gloomy mood disappears!"
With that, Okita pushed the plate in front of him, which still had three buns left, toward Aoto.
"Tachibana-kun, want to give it a try?"
Aoto also liked sweets quite a bit.
Facing the buns pushed over by Okita, Aoto didn’t hesitate and boldly took one from Okita’s plate.
As soon as he put the bun in his mouth, Aoto’s eyebrows raised slightly in surprise.
The taste was indeed quite good.
The softness and sweetness were just right.
Okita, who had been watching Aoto’s expression closely, eagerly asked,
"Tachibana-kun, do you also like sweets?"
"Hmm? Yeah, I’m the kind of person who feels uncomfortable if I don’t eat something sweet for a few days."
"I love sweets the most too!" Okita’s smile bloomed brilliantly, his eyes forming crescent moons. "I’m even worse than you. If I don’t eat sweets every day, I feel uneasy all over."
"That’s why I always carry some of these with me."
Okita reached into his pocket and pulled out a half-eaten konpeitō.
Konpeitō is a tiny star-shaped candy that’s sweet and one of the most beloved snacks for kids in this era.
"By the way—Tachibana-kun, if you were just patrolling nearby, why didn’t I see any of your okabiki?" Okita looked around with a puzzled expression.
"I don’t have any okabiki." Aoto said casually. "My family owes the Yakuza an outrageously huge gambling debt, so we don’t have the money to hire okabiki."
"Gambling debt?" Okita’s eyes widened like saucers.
The okabiki system—the second major special system that allows the South and North Bansho to maintain Edo’s public order with only a handful of police officers.
Okabiki, also called mekake, have many names. Their function is similar to modern auxiliary police.
The shogunate knew that relying solely on such a small police force to maintain order in such a large city was a pipe dream.
Therefore, with the shogunate’s tacit approval, the dōshin under the “Three Squads” of the South and North Bansho could use their own private funds to hire others to work for them.
Those hired with the dōshin’s private funds to assist in maintaining public order were called okabiki.
In modern terms, they were unofficial external staff.
No... not even external staff exactly—they were more like part-time workers paid by dōshin.
Because they were not official government staff, okabiki could be samurai or commoners.
Once you became a dōshin’s okabiki, you could receive a jutte from the government as proof of your okabiki status.
There were no recruitment restrictions—it all depended on the dōshin’s personal preference.
If you wanted, you could even hire a beggar from the roadside as an okabiki.
Although there were occasionally a few extremely skilled okabiki who helped yoriki and dōshin investigate and solve cases, such okabiki were very rare.
The vast majority of okabiki only did menial and tiring tasks; the main investigative work still fell to the dōshin themselves.
The okabiki system, which helped distribute workload, and the chōmin self-governance system—Edo’s “Three Squads” relied on these two systems to maintain public order with only such a small police force.
The night before, during the raid to eliminate the Righteous Crowd, the large group that stormed the building with Arima, Aoto, Butagaya, and Ushiyama were the okabiki of Butagaya and Ushiyama.
If Aoto remembered correctly—Ushiyama had five okabiki, while Butagaya had slightly more, hiring nine okabiki in total.
When Aoto succeeded his father and entered the Teimachi Squad, the Tachibana family was already in debt, so naturally, Aoto didn’t have the extra money to hire okabiki to help with odd jobs. He had to handle all the work himself.
When dōshin patrolled their jurisdiction, they often brought a few okabiki along, which is why Okita just now asked Aoto why he wasn’t accompanied by any okabiki.
After briefly explaining his current family situation weighed down by his late father’s gambling debts, Okita’s expression became awkward and he apologized to Aoto,
"Sorry... I seem to have accidentally mentioned something I shouldn’t have..."
"It’s fine, no need to apologize." Aoto gave Okita a carefree smile. "I don’t mind."
The tea Aoto ordered earlier was now served.
With the slightly inferior tea, Aoto began to nibble on the three rice balls Kyūbei had given him this morning.
"Okita-kun, how do you have time to come here and eat buns?" Aoto asked casually while munching his rice balls. "Don’t you need to watch over Shieikan?"
"No need." Okita smiled faintly. "Because Kondō-nii is back. With him stationed there, I don’t need to help guard Shieikan anymore."
"Kondō-kun is back?" Aoto was surprised.
"Tama is naturally close to Edo. Kondō-nii returned to Tama safely yesterday afternoon."
"After visiting Hijikata-san and confirming he was alright, he rushed back overnight and got back to Shieikan safely this morning."
"Kondō-kun rushed back overnight..." Aoto was puzzled. "Why the hurry? Couldn’t he just stay overnight in Tama and come back after dawn?"
Night travel was dangerous in this era.
First, there were no electric lights or other lighting.
Second, the public order situation was such that traveling at night was ill-advised.
Not just in remote areas, even around Edo, bandits and thieves frequently appeared.
"There’s no other choice... It’s a critical time for Kondō-nii now. If he stays away from Shieikan too long, people will talk."
"Critical time?" Aoto asked in return. "What do you mean?"
"Our master is getting old..." Okita’s brows showed a trace of sadness as he toyed with the slender ponytail at the back of his head. "Whether it’s teaching Tennen Rishin-ryu or managing the daily operations of Shieikan, our master is becoming somewhat powerless."
"So master has prepared to pass this Shieikan to Kondō-nii in the coming years, making Kondō-nii the fourth head of the Tennen Rishin-ryu family."
"Therefore, as Kondō-nii is about to become the new lord of Shieikan, staying away from the school for too long without reason would invite gossip and slander."
"Being the young master of a sword school isn’t easy..." Aoto sighed.
"Yeah." Okita nodded in deep agreement. "So to make things easier for Kondō-nii, I need to work harder on my arithmetic studies."
"Arithmetic?" Aoto was taken aback. "Okita-kun, why are you studying arithmetic?"
"If you want to run a sword school, you have to be able to keep accounts." Okita placed his hands on his hips, puffed out his flat chest, and looked confident. "Kondō-nii’s arithmetic has never been good."
"So to help Kondō-nii with managing Shieikan in the future, I’m working hard on arithmetic now!"
"Oh!" Aoto’s eyes shone with admiration. "You and Kondō-nii really have a good relationship."
"After all, Kondō-nii is like an older brother to me." Okita smiled shyly, but his smile slowly turned into melancholy. "But... even though I say it like that, I’m not really doing well..."
"My arithmetic studies have been going badly..."
Okita looked aggrieved as he hunched his neck and shoulders inward, making his body look much smaller.
"Last time I asked Hijikata-san to teach me arithmetic. After a little while, he just shouted at me: ‘Idiot! Why can’t you even calculate this? Have you eaten so much konpeitō that your brain turned into konpeitō...’"
Hijikata?
After a moment’s thought, Aoto recalled who Hijikata was—Hijikata Toshizo, one of Shieikan’s Five Pillars, very close to Kondō and Okita. Kondō had rushed back to Tama yesterday specifically to visit the injured Hijikata.
"That’s so harsh." Aoto frowned. "It’s normal for beginners to make mistakes during learning. How could he scold you so harshly?"
"Exactly!" Okita puffed out his chest and pouted, agreeing repeatedly. "I just calculated 9 plus 23 as 107. Why did he have to scold me like that?"
...
Silence...
The atmosphere between Aoto and Okita suddenly grew especially quiet...
His mind went blank.
It was as if someone had hit the back of his head hard with an iron rod.
After an unknown amount of time, Aoto finally felt his consciousness return to his body.
"…You calculated 9 plus 23 as 107...?"
"Um... I’m not very good at sums where the total is more than ten fingers..." Okita raised a hand to toy with his ponytail and smiled awkwardly. "If it’s a sum that I can’t count on my fingers, I easily get it wrong..."
"But if it’s something I can count on my fingers, I can get it right every time!"
Okita seemed eager to prove that his arithmetic wasn’t that bad and hurriedly added,
"For example, sums like 4 plus 2."
Okita held up four fingers on his right hand and two on his left.
"For sums like this, I can get them right every single time!"
"Four plus two equals six!"
After saying this, Okita seemed to want to show off to Aoto and pushed the six fingers he held up toward Aoto’s face.
Aoto, expressionless—or rather unsure what expression to make—raised his eyes and glanced at Okita, who was smiling as if to say his arithmetic skills weren’t so bad after all...
This kid has exceptional talent in swordsmanship... but in other areas, he doesn’t seem very smart!
Aoto didn’t know what face to make or what to say to this self-satisfied Okita...
Just as Aoto was caught in this dilemma—
"Hey! Shichirō! Been waiting for you a long time! Why are you just getting here now?"
From the next table, a loud shout suddenly rang out—three middle-aged men dressed like carpenters sitting around the table were waving vigorously at a middle-aged man with a full beard who just entered the teahouse.
"Ah, sorry, sorry, sorry to keep you waiting! I was just watching the commotion!" The bearded middle-aged man spoke in a loud voice and plopped down beside his three friends.
"Commotion? What commotion?" one of the bearded man’s friends asked.
The bearded man said, "Someone was killed in the neighboring Kiyayanagi Town! They say the death was really gruesome! I wanted to go see the body, but when I got there, the jishinban had already sealed off the scene. Nothing to see!"
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