"Mr. Hijikata is indeed a strong man..." Otae said again. "However, a strong man and a swordsman are two different concepts. A swordsman would never casually discard his blade. Even if that blade had become useless and could only be put away on a shelf, as a swordsman, he would still treasure it. Mr. Hijikata, can you hear your weapon crying?" Toshiro Hijikata: "..." Sorry, he really couldn't. Besides, that wasn't even his weapon. It was clearly the short dagger Sogo had used to set him up. He had indeed used it to block one of Sogo's strikes just now, and it had even chipped during their clash. But precisely because of that, Sogo had said, "Ah, that knife? Why keep it when it's chipped? Find some time to sell it for scrap."
"What? Mr. Hijikata, you actually beguiled a student like me into taking a knife home? This is a real blade! Are you really so assured about me carrying it around?" At the time, Toshiro Hijikata, Shizuka Hiratsuka, and even Utaha Kasumigaoka's eyelids had twitched—if they had not watched Sogo take out that short dagger with their own eyes, they might really have thought he was innocent.
Wasn't it just left lying around? A knife casually left lying around could get chipped from cutting another blade? This—Shizuka Hiratsuka and Utaha Kasumigaoka had both wanted to make that very retort.
Only Hijikata knew that Sogo had not lied. If Sogo got serious, let alone a short dagger forged from steel, even a short dagger made of diamond would be no tougher than tofu under his blade...
"Ah..." As Toshiro Hijikata remained silent, Otae looked at the short dagger and sighed. "Such a peerless weapon, casually discarded... Only a wealthy organization like the Kondo Group could afford to do that,