Chapter 30: Recklessness

Under normal circumstances, Yui would have dealt with this situation by breaking through her foes' encirclement and forcing them to pursue until she found an advantageous position or managed to give them the slip. With Nobu's fate unknown, however, she couldn't simply leave the area, so, even if she knew it was a mistake, she allowed herself to be led around by Yuriko while Rynka provided support from the shadows.

Realizing that Yui had no intention of leaving the area, Yuriko continued to reposition around trees in an effort to bait the former into exhausting her Aura. She knew where all the traps were located. All she needed to do was lure Yui to their location.

"This is the penultimate weakness of a warrior. Concerning yourself with the safety of others makes you weak..."

As those words left her mouth, Yurko rolled forward to evade the glistening golden blade that had cleanly bifurcated the tree she had been hiding behind. At the same time, she tossed a handful of marble-sized paper balls towards the periphery. These immediately erupted into a cloud of bright-red powder, a combination of ground-up chili peppers, skin irritants, and poison.

Noticing the paper balls the moment she darted around the tree, Yui spun on her heels, a golden plate manifesting behind her as she backed through the cloud without a moment's hesitation. This was an incredibly foolish maneuver, but, fearing Nobu's time might be running out, Yui abandoned caution in favor of results.

With the exception of the golden plate and the sword in her hand, Yui had completely deactivated her aura. She needed speed more than defense at the moment, so, even when Yuriko performed a backward flip, slinging a handful of kunai in the process, Yui charged through them with bloodshot eyes, shouting, "You're really starting to piss me off...!"

Though she was more than a little surprised by Yui's 'suicide charge', Yuriko found herself at a loss for words when she heard the former's outburst. Yui was the type of person who kept her emotions bottled up, refusing to let others see her weakness. She wasn't the type of person to lash out at her opponent in the middle of a battle, and, even if she sustained heavy injuries, she wouldn't so much as flinch.

Blocking Yui's heavy blow with a luminous silver sickle known as a kamaitachi, the color in Yuriko's face drained away as she forced a smile and said, "This isn't like you, Yui...you're not this reckless..."

Ignoring Yuriko's remark, Yui's pressed forward, her golden aura igniting like a flame that quickly produced a number of spear-like protrusions. Several of these impacted near Yurko's vital points, but, thanks to her silver aura, she was only sent stumbling backward by the momentum contained within the blows.

Regretting her earlier musings, Yuriko attempted to take advantage of the distance Yui's attack had sent her by darting to the side. Before she could even get three steps, however, Yui appeared right in front of her, aura nowhere to be seen and an expression similar to an enraged Asura.

"If I make it through this, I'm tanning that Rynka's hide until it's purple..."

With Yui performing a cyclone-like sweep with a golden naginata, Yuriko attempted to leap over it only to discover a familiar silver kunai aimed at the center of her forehead. This caused the pupils of her hawk-like eyes to contract, not because she was fearful of receiving the attack, but because the kunai was one of her own.

As that thought crossed her mind, Yuriko was forced to involuntarily blink when the kunai impacted her aura. At that exact moment, a force comparable to a Lightning Boar's charge slammed into the left side of her body, just below her armpit. Her aura managed to hold out, but, due to the weight behind the blow, her left shoulder ended up getting dislocated before her body was sent crashing through a nearby tree.

Seeing Yuriko get sent flying, Rynka, who had spent the last couple of minutes looking for a chance to attack, immediately paled. She felt as though a bucket of icy-cold water had been poured across her body, as, despite being hidden, Yui's obsidian-blue eyes snapped towards her the moment she had sent Yuriko flying.

Though one of the punishments for abandoning a mission was death, Rynka's instincts told her that she would surely die if she tried to fight against Yui. Unfortunately, the moment she turned around, a figure clad in pale-gold descended to block her path.

Forcing a smile, Rynka looked up with the intention of trying to ingratiate herself to the monstrous woman standing in front of her. This effort promptly hindered by Yui's vice-like grip closing around her face, forcing her to remain silent as the demonic woman asked, "Use your fingers. Tell me, how many people did you bring?"

Had Yui merely blocked her path, Rynka wouldn't have put up much of a struggle. Being lifted by her face, however, caused her fight or flight instinct to kick in. Thus, without even processing the words that had just left Yui's mouth, Rynka began punching, kicking, and throwing every tool she had in her possession. This ended up being a surprisingly effective strategy, as, among the many items she had thrown, several explosives had been mixed in.

With a massive explosion forcibly separating them, Yui smashed into a nearby tree while Rynka was sent tumbling head over heel through a series of shrubs. Their respective auras had protected them from any serious injuries, but, due to the unexpected nature of the attack, even Yui was left cradling her head, ears ringing as a wave of disorientation forced her to lean against the tree for support. As for Rynka, she managed to climb to her feet, but, the moment she tried to walk forward, she ended up moving in a diagonal line before crashing into a tree of her own...

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After slipping in and out of consciousness more than a dozen times, Nobu finally reached what he believed to be an exit. He couldn't actually see the end, but, feeling a cold breeze flow from further ahead, he managed to wiggle his way through a tunnel that was only accessible due to his severely malnourished figure.

"If I get out of this...I'm never going underground again..."

Since these words were intended for himself, Nobu's body instantaneously froze when he heard a delicate voice reply, "That's probably for the best. The only time people should stay underground is when they're dead. Now, come on out. If you surrender obediently, I promise I won't harm you..."

Hearing the voice coming from an unseen source beyond the bend a few meters up the tunnel, the expression on Nobu's face darkened as he contemplated wiggling back the way he came. His newly acquired phobia was rapidly nearing debilitating levels, but, far more than being buried alive, Nobu feared being used to harm the people he cared about. Yui wasn't quite at that level, but, as the only person he had really spent time with since his reincarnation, she was the closest approximation to a person he genuinely cared about...

Just as Nobu was forming the resolve to move backward, a piercing pain radiated from his ankle as the same voice from before calmly explained, "I have already spread my familiars through the entire burrow. If you refuse to come out, they will continue biting your legs until you either come forward or pass out from blood loss..."

With his jaw trembling from anxiety and pain, Nobu's eyes became progressively more bloodshot as he forced the chattering to stop by tightly clenching his teeth. He felt like he was being made to experience all of the most deeply ingrained fears humans had developed since their ancestors were still living in caves. Not only was he trapped in an extremely claustrophobic tunnel, but, someplace he couldn't see, unknown creatures were nipping at his feet, heels, and legs as if he were a fucking buffet.

"God fucking damnit! I'm sick and tired of this bullshit! If you want me, come and get me you little shit! You think I'm going to make things easy for you!? Go fuck yourself...!"

Though the confines of the tunnel didn't allow him to move around much, Nobu still managed to kick at whatever was biting him. Even the collapsing of the tunnel didn't deter him, as, much like he had told Yui, he would rather die than become something like a hostage. At least this way he could give that damned Goddess a piece of his mind before being sent off to god knows where...

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Hearing the sounds of a struggle from within the tunnel, the owner of the voice, a young girl with shoulder-length pink hair tied up into a short ponytail, fringe-bangs framing a face with amethyst eyes, muttered, "I'm not sure if I should call him brave or suicidal..."

Shaking her head, the youthful-looking girl slipped her hand into the slit of her kimono before reaching deep into her cleavage and producing a series of paper talismans that vaguely resembled human. Then, after placing these between her index and middle fingers, she whispered, "Try not to hurt him too much..." before throwing the talismans into the tunnel.

After an inordinate number of expletives and enough thrashing to cause the entrance of the tunnel to emit a cloud of dust, several child-sized paper figures resembling macaques emerged from the burrow with an extremely tall yet gaunt man in tow. The average height of females in Nian was only around 148cm when fully grown, and, while their men were markedly taller, most averaged between 160-165cm. Nobu, not that she knew his name, was just over 177cm, so, while he wasn't particularly tall back on Earth, he was practically a giant in Nian.

"I don't think I've ever seen a man this big...is he a foreigner? He has Nianese features though..."

Since Nobu had been strangled unconscious by a paper snake coiled around his neck, the woman, Yoshitsune Shizune, could only speculate who he was and where he came from. Their mission only required them to hinder Yui and prevent the latter from returning before the official deadline of her mission. This would be impossible under normal circumstances, but, thanks to the strange man she was escorting, they weren't helplessly outmatched.

Poking Nobu's cheek with her finger, a smile developed across the pink-haired girl's face as she softly mused, "I've never seen a man from this close before...I wonder if his height is the only thing big about him..."

Though she really shouldn't be taking her time like this, Shizune's eyes crawled over Nobu's body before lingering on the hemp cord holding his trousers in place. She found it a little strange that he wasn't wearing a traditional kimono or hitatare with hakama-style trousers. Instead, he was wearing a type of linen pants common among farmers, a two-layered tunic, and a pair of leather boots that appeared to be imported from overseas. He dressed nothing like a typical Nianese, yet, even with a veritable bird's nest of hair, his facial features could easily pass for a member of the Noble Clans...

"Hmmm...?"

As that thought crossed her mind, Shizune noticed that Nobu actually shared several key features with the current Lord of the Oda Clan. Everything from the shape of his brow, the thickness of his nose, and the angle of his jaw were a perfect match for a younger version of Owari's Lord.

Were it not for the fact that Lord Senken wasn't famous for loving a single woman, Shizune could have been convinced that the man lying before her was the Lord's illegitimate child. The similarities were frightening, so much so that Shizune actually began to feel as though she was committing a grave mistake by not bowing her head.

Fortunately, like every other member of the Yoshitsune Clan, Shizune had committed the names and faces of the Oda Clan to memory. The man before her didn't match any of these people, so, after a brief moment of hesitation, a mischievous smile developed across her face as she lifted the hem of Nobu's trousers and softly exclaimed, "Oh my...you might be a dirty commoner, but you're quite the little Lord where it counts..."

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(A/N: Oh my...)