Chapter 619 - 1: "Niō" Tachibana Aoto and "Asura" Ogata Isseki

Chapter 619: Chapter 1: "Niō" Tachibana Aoto and "Asura" Ogata Isseki

The rewards won’t disappear anyway, just wait patiently.

Speaking of whether anything major happened around Aoto during these two months... there actually was something.

This major event is happening right before Aoto’s eyes, happening on the storytelling stage.

It was probably around the time Aoto was discharged from the hospital that a certain novel suddenly appeared on Edo’s literary market.

The author of this novel is named Yuuzaki Shusiro, a handsome and somewhat famous novelist in Edo’s literary world.

He makes a living by writing "sharaku-bon," which depict life in brothels, "yomihon," which depict historical stories and myths, and writing "kusazoshi" for storytellers.

A new novel has been released... Ordinarily, this should have nothing to do with Aoto.

After all, Aoto isn’t very interested in storytelling either.

But the issue is - this new novel depicts the story of him, Tachibana Aoto...

The story begins from his "Blockhead Don" days and goes all the way to when he led Saito and others in rescuing the Foreign Language Research Institute.

No matter which country or era, people particularly love those underdog stories filled with a lot of explicitness and violence.

And Aoto’s rise to prominence is precisely such a story.

Though this novel adapting Aoto’s true story has no explicit content, it’s very much an underdog story with much violence!

The storytelling world of Edo hasn’t seen high-quality novels for a long time.

Even though tales of the Genpei War, the Southern and Northern Dynasties’ turmoil, Warring States heroes, and stories from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms have a timeless audience, regardless of how often they are told.

But both storytellers and their audiences desire the emergence of fresh and high-quality novels to liven up the presently somewhat uninspired storytelling world.

In such an environment, for such a novel with a popular theme and a well-executed story to burst forth, featuring a currently prominent figure as the protagonist... one can imagine what kind of scene might appear.

As soon as this novel was released, it was quickly snapped up by sharp-eyed storytellers who could see it would definitely catch fire.

Soon, in places like the storytelling venues on Ryogoku-dori and other entertainment streets, tales of "Niō" began to be sung.

Niō—was the brand-new nickname given to Aoto in the novel by Shusiro.

In Japanese Buddhist culture, the guardians of the human realm known as Niō are seen as very famous and great beings.

So the Japanese often revere formidable people as "Niō."

Assigning people all sorts of cool nicknames is a traditional quirk deeply ingrained in the Japanese ethos across the ages.

This dragon that tiger, this ghost that god. Just in the Warring States Era alone, who knows how many dragons, how many tigers, how many ghosts...

Common folks also prefer stories of famous people with cool nicknames.

One must admit, the writer Shusiro, who penned this novel, truly understands the temperament of the common people.

The reason this novel depicting Aoto’s story can spread so widely owes a great deal to the catchy, cool, and very appealing nickname Shusiro bestowed on Aoto.

Incidentally—Aoto only found out that there was a new novel featuring him as the main character and based on his story when one day, a senior in Shiwei Hall jokingly called him "Niō!"

Listening to storytelling, costing nothing, is one of the most common entertainment choices for the common people of this era.

Thus, storytelling stages count as one of the biggest media channels in every Castle Town.

Therefore—in such a media channel, Aoto’s reputation has once again soared due to the popularity of this novel, while the name "Niō" also spread like wildfire.

In just two short months, the renown of the name "Niō" completely overtook the previous jumble of nicknames like "Little Tengu of the North Guard Station" and "New Hero of the Sword."

This new title has effectively become like Aoto’s personal trademark.

Now walking on the street, Aoto often encounters everyday folks who recognize him and cheerfully call out "Niō."

As for this new title of his, Aoto doesn’t really dislike it and isn’t averse to others calling him "Niō."

Though it may sound a bit childish and immature to say... Aoto genuinely finds the title "Niō" quite cool.

As long as it’s not slandering or maliciously distorting, Aoto doesn’t mind others adapting his story into various literary works.

Even before Shusiro’s novel came out, Aoto was already quite well-known in Edo.

Aoto, long accustomed to being recognized on the streets, didn’t feel that this novel bringing him new heights of popularity made current life any significantly different from before.

His only comment about Shusiro’s novel... is that it makes him seem a bit too strong.

In the novel, he is portrayed as a reborn Xiang Yu or Lü Fengxian.

Taking the "Battle of the Foreign Language Research Institute" as an example: it was indeed a tough and grueling fight, and Saito and others contributed significantly, but this novel somewhat overemphasizes Aoto’s achievements.

Just hearing the various descriptions of how godly Aoto is in the novel makes audiences inadvertently think—"With Niō being so amazing, why didn’t he just wipe out all the Anti-foreigner Group members who attacked the Foreign Language Research Institute?"

However, most listeners don’t care about such things.

The majority just want a good laugh, something enjoyable, without caring about what makes sense or not.