!
"You're too kind..." Toshiro Hijikata's eye twitched. It wasn't that he thought he didn't deserve the title Demon Vice-Chief; he was simply annoyed that someone had dumped all the blame on his head. "We were just messing around. We're nowhere near upper-class figures like Commander Shinomiya, who can make society tremble with a mere stomp of his foot..."
"..." Gan'an Shinomiya's eye twitched as well. Just messing around? Those were the Yama X Group and the X Dragon Society—organizations even the Shinomiya Family was unwilling to provoke. If that counted as messing around, then what qualified as a major disturbance? War? Still, Hijikata's calm, unassuming manner made Gan'an regard him more highly.
If an ordinary person had been praised by someone of his status, their nose would have been in the sky already. But this Vice-Chief Hijikata... no wonder he had accomplished so many ruthless feats at such a young age.
"Lord Hijikata is too modest. Everything I said came from the bottom of my heart. If only I had lived in the same era as you... Fortunately, my daughter has caught your group's interest..."
"So Commander Shinomiya came for Lady Kaguya, then?" Hijikata narrowed his eyes before the other man could finish.
"Haha..." Gan'an Shinomiya laughed. "Does it matter who I came for? Still, Kaguya is my daughter. Lord Hijikata isn't wrong to say so."
"So?" Hijikata said noncommittally.
"..." Gan'an Shinomiya fell silent for a while, then looked straight at Hijikata. "I'll be frank. The Kondo Group and the Doma Family..."
"That is the Kondo Group's business!" Hijikata interrupted coldly.
"Bastard..." Before Gan'an Shinomiya could speak, Tojo flew into a rage. "Is the Kondo Group trying to play both sides, or what? Are you serving two masters?"
"The Doma Family has never been the Kondo Group's master!"