Chapter 12: Flags, Fears, and the Fuckery Associated with Fate

Though his mother had taught him that women should be treated with delicacy and respect, he imagined she would be the first to pick up a weapon if she saw his state over the last couple of days. He also had no intention of getting wrapped up in any cliches, so, using his knowledge of dozens, if not hundreds, of novels, he was intending to dodge as many 'flags' as possible.

While the phrase had been coopted by Otaku and Weeb culture, flags were a programming term that indicated a variable, either local or global, that was triggered by specific inputs of the user. In pop culture, triggering a person's flag basically implied you had been locked into a specific route that would either end in you becoming a couple or facing a 'bad end'.

Nobu didn't consider himself an Otaku but that didn't mean he wasn't intimately familiar with the concepts and terminology associated with it. A child of two Graphics Designers or Architects would probably have a decent understanding of what their parents' jobs entailed, so, with his father being involved with merchandising and his mother belonging to a localization firm, Nobu knew a lot more about the subject than he would like to admit.

With this world attempting to shoe-horn him into a blatantly obvious plot, Nobu had reached the conclusion that various other cliches and stereotypes must exist. This included character archetypes, so, with the unnamed woman having all the tell-tale signs of a violent Tsundere, he wasn't going to let something as abstract as 'fate' force him into a relationship. He might have cared if he had spent the last nineteen years in this world, but, as someone who had only recently arrived, the politics and traditions of Nian were more of an inconvenience than anything else.

Fortunately for the unnamed woman, Nobu wasn't a complete asshole. After dropping her into the pool, he immediately plopped in alongside her. His efforts over the last five hours would be wasted if she drowned, so, after supporting her surprisingly heavy body with his own, he used his left hand to guide her mouth beneath the surface. Even an unconscious person would voluntarily swallow if a liquid reached the back of their throat. Without it, even something as simple as a runny nose might be fatal to an unconscious patient, so, by regulating the amount of water entering at any one time, Nobu was able to make sure the woman was swallowing the water instead of inhaling it.

"If you get diarrhea or a tapeworm, don't blame me..."

Though the pool seemed to be fed from an underground source, the stillness of its surface and the lack of a discernible current indicated it might be stagnant. It might be some of the clearest water he had ever seen but that didn't mean it wasn't filled to the brim with bacteria, microbes, and other nasty parasites. As for how he knew things existed...well, his arm wouldn't be rotting if there weren't bacteria eating away at his flesh. At this rate, he might even need to have it amputated just to keep the dead cells from feeding back into his bloodstream and attacking the rest of his immune system.

Nobu could still recall an episode of House, a hit medical drama, where one of the patients nearly died due to gangrene setting in her frostbitten toe. She had basically just stubbed it, but, as a result of a small fracture, bone marrow and dead cells entered into her bloodstream and began shutting down all of her organs. The body had a way of overreacting at times, so, the moment the trillions of bacteria within your system identified dead cells, they essentially went to war against your immune system since they assumed you were already dead.

Fearful that he might lose the entire limb, Nobu waited until the woman had consumed several large mouthfuls of water before leaning her on the bank of the pool. Then, using a piece of cloth he had fashioned from strips of his tunic, he tied a makeshift tourniquet around his arm before gritting his teeth and literally scraping away the dead tissue.

With his teeth and jaw clattering loudly, Nobu began hyperventilating as a sensation similar to his gut dropping down to his colon overwhelmed him. Contrary to expectations, there actually wasn't any pain associated with the procedure. This brought him no relief, however, as his body and mind vehemently rejected everything he was doing. It was like an instinctual objection to the act of self-mutilation, and, the moment he saw bone, his knees immediately gave out, his view spinning due to a sudden onset of vertigo.

Fortunately, even after sinking beneath the surface of the water, Nobu didn't lose consciousness. He knew he would most likely die if he allowed the darkness to overtake him, so, channeling willpower he didn't know he possessed, he kept the majority of his body submerged as he continued gouging away at his flesh. It was only when he had removed every visible speck of gangrenous flesh that he began grasping various herbs and sticking them to the wound. He wasn't sure they would actually do anything, but, considering the alternative was abandoning the limb, he decided to place his trust in the mystical medical properties of this world's plants.

When everything was said and done, Nobu had managed to fashion a sling from waterproof linens to wrap both his wound and the herbs covering it. Then, for what felt like the umpteenth time since he arrived in this world, he blacked out after dragging the unconscious woman from the pool and covering her with the thatch mat that had previously served as his bed...

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Feeling a fiery heat spreading through her body, Yui awoke with a start. Her last vivid memory was using one of her Clan's forbidden techniques to seriously wound the Platinum Ranked bodyguard that had pursued them into the forest near the base of the mountain. Said technique had not only cost her a cultivation rank, but, from the moment she resolved herself for death, she began burning her life force to empower each of her strikes.

Though she could only guess at how many years she had burned, Yui doubted she would live more than a hundred years even if she managed to reach the Rank of Mithril Lord. Despite this, she didn't regret her decision. She also held no resentment towards her pursuers, as, with the exception of the Rank 3 Platinum King, the rest were dead. Her Clan would be able to take care of the rest, as, even without Nobu's testimony, they now had ample reason to investigate the factions governing Owari-Asai.

"Hnnngh..."

With a pained groan, Yui forced herself to a seated position, right hand massaging her temples as she looked around to get a better grasp of the situation. When she saw Nobu collapsed less than a meter from her position, any questions or concerns she had regarding her wet clothing and armor faded from her mind as she instantly appeared at his side.

Sensing that his pulse was much faster than it should be, Yui rolled Nobu over to discover that his face, neck, and ears had turned an unnatural shade of red. There was also sweat covering his body, but, more noticeable than anything else was the large bulge in his trousers. This normally wouldn't have bothered her, but, with her own body gradually heating, a foreboding tremble ran through her body as she flashed over to the side of the pool with a serious expression on her face.

Though it took her a moment to find what she was searching for, seeing dozens of herbs floating in the pool had already confirmed her suspicions. Nobu had clearly attempted to save her, but, due to his inexperience, he had mixed in, not one, but three lengths of a dark-red perennial herb known as Dragon's Vigor.

Dragon's Vigor was a remarkably powerful aphrodisiac used by Lords with a substantial number of wives and concubines. The effects were negligible when consumed by women, but, when ingested by men, a mere gram of the inordinately expensive rootstock was enough to allow them to indulge in carnal pleasures for upwards of eight hours. This wasn't an overstatement either, as, due to the herb containing a tremendous amount of Yang Energy, they needed to willfully 'release' it in order to avoid potentially serious side effects...

Gritting her teeth, Yui looked towards the unconscious body of Nobu with a vexed expression on her face. She didn't know how bad her condition was, but it was apparent he had gone to extreme lengths to try and save her. While some might claim this made them even, her decision to protect him was merely the fulfillment of her duty. As for her act of pulling him from the streets, that was a complete and utter coincidence. It could even be argued that she owed him an apology, as, due to her ignorance regarding his identity, she had inconvenienced, aggravated, and even assaulted him...

Seeing Nobu's face turn a progressively deeper shade of crimson, Yui took a deep breath in a vain attempt to steel her resolve and calm her mind. Had the former been awake to see this, he would have immediately called into question her intellect before promptly telling her to 'fuck off', but, as he was currently in the middle of a fever dream, nothing stood in the way of Yui slowly removing the individual pieces of her clothing and armor.

With little more than a silk fundoshi to cover the last remaining vestiges of her dignity as a woman, Yui made her way over to Nobu before kneeling down at his side. Nervousness, unlike anything she had experienced before, caused her body to tremble, but, due to the education she had received in her youth, her understanding of the relations between men and women was actually more on the 'advanced' side of things.

Were it not for the death of her fiance, Yui would have been expected to both serve and pleasure him to the best of her ability. She had been instructed in a total of 1250 different techniques, and, though it was somewhat shameful to admit, her family had compiled more than thirty texts related to the subject. This, combined with their assassination techniques, made the Yoshitsune Clan one of the most feared in ancient times. As for why they needed to resort to such methods, it was because their family had been cursed by the Goddess Inari to produce predominately female descendants.

Yui had strayed away from the teachings of her family but that didn't mean she was unfamiliar with them. Her Grandmother had only agreed to support her on the premise that she would master the basics of their hereditary arts alongside polishing her skills as a warrior. If she couldn't do both, she would have lost her only backer in the family, so, for the sake of achieving her dream, Yui had done her best to master skills in both categories.

Focusing on her training rather than what was actually happening before her very eyes, Yui quickly stripped away the tattered remains of Nobu's clothes. The size of his member had given her reason to pause, but, by repeating the mantras and steps within her mind, she was able to guide her body through the motions as if she were controlling a puppet. This was actually a technique developed to protect their minds in the event they were captured by an enemy, but, having convinced herself this was a medical procedure, Yui did her best to distance herself as much as possible from the reality of what she was about to do...

(A/N: Escaping the machinations of fate is easier said than done...(O _ O)...)