The Black Ships Arrive: I'm an Edo Undercover Agent, and My Cover Is Blown

[No System] [Political Intrigue] [Alternate History]

Kaneko Jūsuke transmigrates to the Bakumatsu era. Thanks to his fluent English, he not only avoids imprisonment but also becomes an American interpreter.

The American Black Ships have sailed into Edo Bay and crossed the line beyond which they could be sunk. The shogunate is in a panic.

After he persuades the American ships to turn back and becomes a national hero, he discovers that something about this Edo doesn't seem quite right...

Ii Naosuke eats beef.

Tokugawa Iesada isn't a fool.

Emperor Komei isn't patriotic.

Kaneko Jūsuke decides to support the shogunate and establish himself in government, guiding Japan toward modernity by another path rather than allowing the Meiji Restoration to turn it into an aggressive imperialist power.

He tries to dismantle rigid class divisions, foreign aggression, and the secret infighting among feudal lords...

Yet even so, the expel-the-barbarians faction still wants to expel them, the open-country faction is still making trouble, the emperor loyalists are still on their knees, the court-and-shogunate unionists are still waiting, and the overthrow-the-shogunate faction... Jūsuke glances back at Yoshida Shoin, who just slipped and fell to his death in the sea.

The first bona fide pioneer of the anti-shogunate movement is the only one who bites the dust early.

Doesn't that mean the people who will bring about the Meiji Restoration in the future will all be without a patron?

“Mr. Kaneko, I can't help thinking that even though you're an advocate of opening the country, you keep doing things that seem to favor the other side.”

“Shh! I'm hunting Japanese traitors!”

“Mr. Kaneko, you really did it! The Western powers have all withdrawn!”

“Don't worry. With me here, the shogunate won't fall!”

(Alternate titles: This Edo Samurai Isn't Quite Right; The Black Ships Arrive: I'm Really Not a Japanese Traitor; I, an Edo Samurai, Guardian of the Shogunate)