Chapter 41: Yumegakure

"Lord Nobunaga-sama. Allow me to introduce you to my Grandmother's partner, Hisui-sama. With his help, we'll be able to make it back to the Clan Compound in no time."

Though he remained behind Yuriko until the very last moment, Nobu managed to approach Hisui without too much fear and trepidation visible in his countenance. The fact the creature's eyes were larger than his head was a little unnerving, but, following Yui's example, he ultimately managed to rest his palm on its crystalline, surprisingly warm, beak.

"Coooo~."

Despite being relatively young, Hisui was remarkably intelligent for her age. Thus, upon hearing Yui address Nobu with honorifics, she did her best to appear humble and cute. She didn't want to make any trouble for her Master and her Granddaughter, so, even if she didn't like the way Nobu smelled, she tolerated having her beak caressed by his palm.

"You're not so bad, are ya? Just keep those scary-ass talons away from me...hahahahaha..."

Cocking her head to the side, so much so that she was nearly staring at Nobu upside down, Hisui raised her left foot before promptly extending her three crystalline talons to their full length. She had never heard anyone refer to them as 'scary-ass talons' before so she was genuinely confused by his words. As for Nobu, well, he immediately turned statuesque the moment her talons made a *shinking* sound similar to what you might hear when a blade is unsheathed in a movie.

"Mou...Hisui-sama, please retract your claws. Lord Nobunaga-sama is fatigued after a long journey. Please deliver us to the Clan so we can meet with Grandmother."

"Coo~!"

Responding with an affirmative coo, Hisui tucked her legs beneath her body before squatting down and spreading her wings to their maximum length. This was quite a sight to behold as her wingspan was easily more than twenty meters in length. There were also three crystalline protrusions mixed in among the flight feathers of each wing, which, when fully extended, radiated a luminous jade-green light.

Extending her hand to Nobu, Yui adopted a slightly apologetic smile as she noticed how drastically his complexion had paled. Despite this, she still extended her left hand towards him, gently asking, "Shall we go, Nobunaga-sama...?"

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After the most terrifying and exhilarating twenty minutes of his entire life, Nobu was grateful to be on solid ground once again. The view from atop Hisui had been unbelievably breathtaking but that did little to alleviate the fear that he might slip off and plummet to his death. There wasn't anything like a harness on the inordinately large owl's back, so, throughout the flight, Nobu clung to Yui as if his life, quite literally, depended on it.

Fortunately, though it did little to distract him from his potential peril, Nobu also had Yuriko sitting right behind him. She not only wrapped her arms around his waist, gently massaging his abdomen with the tips of her fingers, but, throughout the flight, her breasts had been pressed up against his back as she rested her head against his shoulders. This helped him relax quite a bit, but, more than anything else, it was the crisp and fresh air, completely overriding any smells, that allowed Nobu to remain calm.

Since he was genuinely curious, Nobu waited until Hisui disappeared into the sky before asking, "Is it possible to reach a level where you can fall from any height without being killed...?"

Surprised by Nobu's question, neither Yui nor Yuriko immediately answered. Instead, it was Shizune who chimed in, nervousness audible in her tone as she said, "Ano...N-Nobunaga-sama...I can answer that..."

With Shizune having provided the vast majority of the information he had obtained since his arrival in this world, Nobu simply nodded in response to her statement before saying, "Go ahead." in a flat yet casual tone.

Offering her usual smile, Shizune seemed to regain a bit of her confidence as she explained, "While it is uncommon in Nian, predominately due to the popularity of the Metal Infusion Technique, there are a number of cultivation methods that allow skilled practitioners to fall from extreme heights. As for practitioners of the Metal Infusion Technique, you would need to achieve the pinnacle of Mithril Lord to manage such a feat. After that, thanks to the shock absorption properties of Adamantine, it is a simple matter to survive from otherwise fatal falls."

Though a part of him still hated Shizune to the core, Nobu wasn't an unforgiving asshole. He could appreciate when someone was trying to be useful, so, in response to the ingratiating smile Shizune had adopted towards the end of her explanation, he offered a curt nod before saying, "Thanks. You have a good head on your shoulders. If you weren't hiding a sadistic and opportunistic bitch under that little mask of yours, you'd actually be pretty cute."

Forcing herself to laugh despite the very clear insult, Shizune made a mental note to try and avoid upsetting Nobu in the future. She knew she had mistreated him, quite egregiously, but it was still a little hurtful to hear him mix insults into every compliment he gave her. Even the Elders didn't scold her with any real venom in their tone. Thus, every time Nobu insulted her, Shizune felt an agonizing sensation near the center of her chest, almost like her heart was being squeezed...

Furrowing his brows in response to Shizune's reaction, Nobu decided to ignore her as he turned to Yui and asked, "What now? I'm guessing there's a reason we stopped at the base of the mountain?"

Nodding her head, Yui pulled out a jade talisman roughly shaped like half a yin-yang symbol. Then, while holding it up to the transparent dome that seemed to surround the entire mountain, she said, "Even Contracted Beasts will gradually begin to lose their life force if they enter a domain protected by a Human God. Though Inari Okami-sama possesses the characteristics of a fox, she is still one of the patron Goddesses of the Nianese people. She presides over Industriousness, Agriculture, Grains, and Fertility so she is quite an important figure. The Divine Power exuded by her tail is what allowed Owari to become one of the key grain producers in all the land. It isn't an overstatement to say that Inari Okami-sama is the Guardian Goddess of Owari..."

Though she couldn't help adopting a melancholic smile as she praised the Goddess that had cursed her Clan, it couldn't be denied that the rest of Owari had benefited greatly from their suffering. This was also one of the foundational pillars maintaining their alliance with the Oda Clan, so, while their situation was more than a little tragic, the curse had allowed them to survive the last six-thousand-years without any significant threats to their survival.

By the time Yui had finished her explanation, a torii gate, one of those red gates found lining the paths to shrines in Japan, manifested out of thin air. The weirdest thing about this, at least from Nobu's perspective, was that the gate almost resembled a door to another world. The mountain appeared untamed from the outside, but, peering through the luminescent gate, there was a set of stone steps leading up the mountain, several additional torii, and a number of residential structures hidden amongst the trees.

Gesturing with her right hand, Yui adopted her increasingly radiant smile as she said, "Welcome to Yumegakure, the Village Hidden Within Dreams. Don't worry. Despite its name, you're not going to be spirited away the moment you step through the gate~."

Unaccustomed to Yui's teasing, not just Nobu, but everyone stared at the raven-haired warrior-in-training with varying degrees of stupefaction written across their faces. This caused a subtle shade of red to color her cheeks, but, having already resolved herself to change, Yui managed to maintain her smile as she cupped her hands together, one hand over her fist, and said, "Please allow me to guide you, Nobunaga-sama..."

Resisting the urge to scratch the back of his head, Nobu adopted an uncomfortable expression on his face before ultimately saying, "Sure..." in an awkward tone. He really didn't like these formalities, but, assuming it was for the best he play along, at least until he got a better grasp of the situation, he allowed Yui to lead the way while Yuriko led Shizune and Rynka towards a seven-tiered pagoda located relatively close to the edge of the barrier.

Seeing several other unique structures built into the side and seemingly within the mountain itself, Nobu actually had quite a number of questions he wanted to ask. Despite this, he stayed absolutely silent as Yui led him further up the steps. He wasn't a particularly timid human being, but, as could be expected, Yumegakure was filled to the brim with beautiful, attractive, and scantily clad women. Not a single one of them appeared to be over the age of thirty, and, to make matters exponentially worse, there were naked little girls running around, seemingly without a care in the world...

Noticing Nobu's discomfort, a conflicted look marred Yui's expression as she explained, "Kunoichi are taught to embrace their nakedness from a young age. Even a mild aversion to nudity can lead to death on the battlefield so even warriors conduct exposure training in order to curb their natural impulses. For the majority of warriors, this occurs between the ages of 8-14. Due to our line of work, we start a little earlier..."

Seeing two little girls, neither older than the age of ten, wrestling naked while an additional half-dozen cheered them on from the sides, Nobu's expression remained remarkably sullen as he said, "Yeah...no shit..."

Though they didn't seem to care, Nobu did his best to avoid looking at anyone in particular. This didn't prevent nearly everyone they passed along the way from looking at him, but, considering he was one of only seventeen males in a village housing hundreds of Kunoichi, this wasn't particularly surprising. His height wasn't doing him any favors in this regard, as, even from afar, it was painfully easy to deduce he was a man from how he towered over literally everyone else...

As if guided by fate to make his life as miserable as it could possibly be, a group of girls resembling naked primary schoolers invariably began to follow along, the boldest among them asking, "Ne, ne, Yui-sama. Where did you find this giant person? Is he going to help our older sisters make babies?" with excitement and curiosity exuding from her leaf-green eyes.

Were it not for the fact they were strictly educated to never touch a man who wasn't their target, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that Nobu would be swarmed by curious little girls. He didn't know this at the time, but it quickly became one of the only policies he approved of until he learned the reason behind it. The girls were intended to imprint upon their first target to make their act more convincing, so, prior to becoming kunoichi, they were prohibited from having any physical contact with men.

As a result of this policy, the twenty-odd girls surrounding Nobu and Yui followed along with their hands behinds their backs. This would have been an adorable sight if they were clothed, but, from his perspective, all Nobu saw was blue skies overhead. As for Yui, she did her best to get the girls to scatter. Unfortunately, despite many of the girls referring to her with the suffix -sama, none of them actually listened to her. She was disdained by a vast majority of the clan, so, even though the oldest among the group was a mere eight years old, she had more prestige among the other children than the granddaughter of the current Matriarch. This caused Yui's expression to gradually default to the one she had worn during her first meeting with Nobu, a cold and detached look that radiated just enough bloodlust to compel the inexperienced girls to scatter...

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(A/N: Village Hidden Within Dreams? More like Nobu's nightmare...)