2 Days Later

After taking 3 days to prepare, the Yamaguchi-gumi were ready to take me and Shohei to the ruins they had mentioned. They wanted to take us out in the late afternoon so that our visibility wasn't hindered as we examined the place and we had the cover of night to escape if anything went wrong.

After telling Azu that I was stepping out for a bit, I left through east gate of town and soon arrived at the meeting place in a copse of trees to the northeast.

Ryota was waiting for me when I arrived.

"Here, I got what you asked for." He said as he handed me an unadorned katana, a wooden mask.

"Why is it a hyottoko mask?" I asked as I took the mask.

The mask looked like an comical old man scrunching his face up and his mouth puckered to the side with one eye squinted and the other wide open.

"It was the only one I could find." Ryota shrugged.

I sighed as I put the mask on. I didn't want to reveal myself in front of so many Yamaguchi-gumi members and especially not in front of possibly hostile Matsumoto-gumi members.

"Alright, let's go." Ryota said as we left the trees and continued northeast.

We passed by the valley near where the hemp fields were and continued on. About an hour later we arrived in an untrodden mountain forest. This mountain was the beginning of a mountain range that led northwards into the Land of Rice Fields.

In a small clearing in the forest, we found a group of around 30 men—a couple of them swordsmen, readying and arming themselves. Kurata and Shohei were already there, and I also spotted Goro. He was strapped up but he held a walking stick as he limped around, so I didn't think he could be too useful if a fight actually did break out.

"Is this enough people?" I asked.

"This is the most we could gather without drawing too much attention." Ryota said. "They are here just in case you guys actually do find a way in. Once you do, we'll call for more reinforcements. Don't worry, we've learned our lesson, there are more capable enforcers in this group and we've got more heavy duty weapons."

"Your here." Kurata said once he spotted us. "Grab what you need from the back of the wagon."

"Aww, you wore a mask. I didn't think of that." Shohei said as he kicked the dirt.

There was a wagon on the side stacked full of armaments of all kind. I noticed a crate of explosives at the back of the wagon.

'Are they planning to use those to blow their way in once we point out a weak spot?'

I decided to grab a dagger and a few flash bombs just in case, while all Ryota grabbed was a dagger.

"What? I'm a businessman, I don't know how to fight. This is for self-defense." He said when he caught me looking.

I noticed that most of the group armed themselves with crossbows. Once everyone was finished arming themselves, Kurata waved me over and then stepped forward to address the group. "This is Shohei, and this is..."

I said the first name that popped up into my head. "Nathan."

"Nei-san. The two of them will be our guides for this job. You all know the plan, so stick to it. Let's go. Rihei lead the way."

One of the men stepped forward and led the group deeper into the forest. Once we reached a hill, he stopped there and spoke it in a low voice. "We're close, I'll take our guides to check out the entrance from here."

Shohei and I followed Rihei as he led us to some shrubbery a kilometer away. He peeked out through them and pointed at the mountainside in the distance.

"See over there?" He whispered.

I peeked out through where he was pointing and saw a set of metal doors hidden behind some trees. Embellishing the doors were pillars and motifs that you would see in European architecture.

'They were right about ruins but...'

But the thing was that these pillars and motifs were something you would see in ancient Roman and Greek architecture. They were completely different from the 1900s style ruins we had found on our way to Shimamaki.

'What's going on? Why is this place even here? And how am I even going to find a way in?"

"How is it? Look familiar?" Rihei asked.

"I'm not sure." Shohei answered.

"What about you, Mister Nei?"

"What? Oh, uh, are there any other entrances?" I asked.

"We couldn't find any."

"Have you tried opening the door?" Shohei asked.

"No."

"Can we try? We can get a closer look too."

'I'm not sure that sounds like a good idea.' I thought. 'But maybe we have no other choice. It doesn't look like we'll be able to get in by finding any weak points, even if the architecture was familiar. It's not like I'm some architect or structural engineer.'

Rihei gestured back to the hill and we made our way back.

"How is it?" Kurata asked when we arrived.

"I'm not sure, it doesn't look familiar." Shohei said, both of us shaking our heads.

"They want to try and approach the door, see if they can figure something out." Rihei said.

Kurata crossed his arms and thought about it for a moment. He narrowed his eyes. "Do it." He said before turning to the rest of the group. "Prepare yourselves."

We headed back towards the hideout, the rest of the group keeping a bit of distance away to stay hidden. Rihei nodded to us and we walked out from the shrubbery towards the doors.

As I got a closer look, I confirmed that they were ancient roman or greek motifs, like the kind you would see in a temple. There were strands that were interwoven together into an intricate looking design that ended with a snake's head on one end and tail on the other.

As I was examining the motifs, Shohei was trying to pry the metal doors open.

*Clank*

The sound of metal clattered as Shohei rattled the door. The both of us froze in our spots for moment to see if anything would happen. Something did happen, as a few seconds later I heard the sounds metal sliding to reveal a slot in the door. A pair of eyes peeped through the slot.

"You guys are early." A man said from the other side of the door.

'They've been expecting someone?'

"Yeah, well you know, things happened. Open the door for us will ya." Shohei said as he scratched the back of his head.

"You know the rules. You gotta give me the password before I can open the door."

'Damn, we need a password?'

"Password? I don't have time for something like that." Shohei said in annoyance.

"You forgot the password? Then you need to show us proof of your identities."

A second, younger voice of a man suddenly squeezed himself next to the first and excitedly said, "Then show us your ninja techniques!"

'The people they've been expecting were ninjas? And they want us to show them a ninja technique? Am I suppose to cast a chidori or something? I do know the Dance of the Phantom, but using it would reveal that I'm connected to the Sakamoto Clan, and I don't have my bokken with me to show my water training.'

Without notice, Shohei began weaving hand seals. "Ninpo: Distracting Noise!"

*Poooott*

A sound of wind being broken came from behind Shohei.

There was a moment of silence as the three pair of eyes stared at Shohei dumbfoundedly. Then the younger of the two began laughing hysterically while the pair of eyes belonging to the older man didn't look impressed at all.

"That's not a technique." The older one said. "If you can't-"

"I got one." I interjected.

Shohei's antics, while silly, gave me an idea.

"I know a few puppet techniques."

"I don't see any puppets?" The man said.

"I use...people as my puppets." I could hear an audible gulp from the younger man. "But it would be rude to use the two of you, and if I used my colleague here, you wouldn't believe me. So I was turn myself into a puppet. Watch closely.

I did a high jump backwards to make some space and show off a little physical prowess to start with. Like Shohei I weaved some random hand seals.

"Puppet Enslavement Technique."

I raised my shoulders and arms as their muscles contracted and relaxed quickly, causing a jerking motion that made my movement look like a robot or rather, a puppet. I held one hand out as it moved along my body. Like the hand was controlling my body movement, when the hand moved left, my body move left. Hand right, body right. Hand outwards, chest puffed out. Hand back in, chest deflating.

After that, I moved into a tutting routine before spinning around and sliding backwards as I moonwalked across the ground. My performance ended as I held my upper arms to the side while my forearms swung back and forth, and my body slumped over, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

"Cancel technique." I said as I stood up.

Looking up, I saw three pairs of wide eyes staring at me.

"How's that?" I said.

"I'm not sure..." The older man said hesitantly.

"What are you talking about? That was amazing!" The younger man exclaimed.

"While that was impressive, I'm not sure if that was a technique."

"I guess you'll only believe me if I take control of you guys." I sighed.

"I don't think that's necessary..." The younger man murmured.

'If this doesn't work, I might have to show them the Dance of the Phantom.'

I weaved some random hand seals again.

"Puppet Mirroring Technique."

I lifted my mask slightly to reveal my mouth and then let out a long and loud yawn.

They looked at me in confusion for a moment but then Shohei began to yawn before it spread to the younger man.

"W-what's happening?!" He cried out in terror in the middle of his yawn as the two of the backed away from the door and closed the little slot in the door.

I glanced over at Shohei to see he had an unbelieving look on his face.

'I guess he also doesn't know that yawns are contagious.'

There was a moment of silence before we heard a noise from the door.

*Clank*

All of a sudden, there was the clank and groaning of metal as the door began to open.