Kiri still smelled a bit unpleasant from the sweat of battle, but that didn't matter. Her soft and bouncy body still brought a wave of pleasure to Li Ke...
Along with a wave of intense agony.
This was because Tsunade's sleeping posture was a little too awkward.
Since she was sprawling right in Li Ke's embrace, her stomach happened to be pressed directly against his lower abdomen, forcing Li Ke's "mighty sword" to point straight up toward her belly button.
Meanwhile, her head rested against his chest. In such a high-stakes, dangerous situation, if she so much as budged a millimeter, Li Ke's "dagger" would be struck by the full, massive force of her justice, inflicting critical structural damage upon him.
This meant that the absolute second Tsunade woke up, she would instantaneously notice the drastic change in Li Ke's body.
In fact, Li Ke could already feel his "Hero's Blade" poking firmly against Tsunade's navel.
Kiri, however, couldn't care less about any of this. Since Li Ke had volunteered to keep watch, she happily drifted off to sleep. As for whether Li Ke would try anything sketchy...
She fully intended to cross that line with him eventually to return to her world anyway, so it didn't matter to her. If anything, this was a great chance to add some romantic spice to their story, ensuring her future memories wouldn't be completely devoid of romance.
Rangers were people who pursued romance to the end. How could a Ranger live without romance!
It was an absolute necessity!
But for Li Ke, the physical stimulation was overwhelming!
Before long, Kiri—who was genuinely exhausted—started snoring, which quickly escalated into a loud, rhythmic rumble. The racket rattled Li Ke's ears, but it also made him suddenly realize something.
Tsunade was a known snorer too. Why was she completely silent this time?
The moment that realization hit him, Li Ke felt his "dagger" suddenly grabbed and pinned by a firm grip. Simultaneously, Tsunade's other hand shot out like lightning, striking Kiri's body. Kiri's loud snoring cut off instantly, and her restless slumber was forcibly converted into a baby-like, comatose sleep.
Next, Li Ke felt a chilling sensation as something cold and sharp was pressed right against the hilt of his "Hero's Blade."
Then, out of nowhere, Tsunade's voice rang out.
"Is everything you said... actually true?"
Li Ke didn't even dare to breathe, because he could clearly tell exactly what that object was through his touch!
It was Tsunade's kunai!
Holy crap, she was faking her sleep the whole time!
But why the hell is she suddenly turning on me like this?!
Li Ke couldn't wrap his head around it. But one thing was for sure: until Tsunade achieved whatever her goal was, Kiri wasn't waking up.
Even so, he tried his best to raise his voice to break the tension.
"W-what do you mean by that?!"
"It's useless. Even though Kiri's body composition is highly unusual, she is still human. Chakra has a slightly weaker effect on her, but it still works. I've placed her into a deep sleep; she won't be waking up for at least six hours."
Tsunade's voice sounded hollow, carrying a strange undertone of guilt.
But Li Ke was in no state to analyze her tone, because he realized Tsunade's hand was incredibly soft—not at all like the calloused hand of a seasoned shinobi!
"Ha... it grew even harder, didn't it? Your body is truly bizarre. When I first met you, your vitality down here was at a completely average level for a civilian, and you were even showing signs of physical decline due to aging. Yet now, it's acting incredibly energetic... I don't care if you are the shadowy mastermind behind all of this or not. I only want to know one thing..."
A faint green light suddenly flickered to life inside the dark room. Li Ke could see it clear as day—medical chakra was pooling brightly in the palm of Tsunade's hand.
"Are you truly capable of sending back the women who cross that line with you?"
Bathed in the eerie green glow of her medical chakra, Li Ke looked into Tsunade's completely hollow eyes. He hesitated for a brief fraction of a second.
"I can't say for certain. Sending someone back requires Energy—a whopping one thousand Energy Points. I genuinely loved Erina, so our intimacy granted me Energy. But if I do it with you or Kiri, I don't know if it will..."
Before he could even finish his sentence, Tsunade's kunai instantly snapped up, pressing firmly against his throat.
"So you were lying to us?"
"Because I honestly don't know either!"
Tsunade fell completely silent for a moment. Looking into her vacant, unseeing eyes, a wave of genuine fear washed over Li Ke. He could see clear as day that her lips were trembling violently. Her mental state was obviously completely shattered.
Ultimately, she used her strength to grab Li Ke by the collar. Her hollow eyes locked onto his, completely devoid of any normal human emotion.
"I don't care anymore. If you can't send me back, I will kill you."
"Wait... I really can't guarantee this..."
Li Ke didn't even get to finish his thought before a wave of irresistible force pinned him onto the bed. In the next instant, his mouth was sealed as she sought a desperate connection. Along with this, heavy tears dripped down directly onto his face.
It was evident that enduring the constant sensory reminders of battle and her own crippling hemophobia in absolute darkness had pushed Tsunade's mind past its breaking point.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
Even as she whispered those words of apology, her actions were frantic. She pulled at Li Ke's clothes, grasping his "dagger" in a desperate bid to initiate the process she believed would save her.
She simply couldn't stand being trapped in this environment for another second. She couldn't bear the darkness, the scent of blood in the air, or the sounds of the struggle happening outside the walls.
Unlike Li Ke and Kiri, Tsunade possessed hyper-acute shinobi senses. While the others heard only muffled noise, Tsunade's ears could clearly perceive the brutal chaos of the creatures outside as they fought amongst themselves.
The sounds of the conflict and the constant reminders of mortality were happening non-stop in the heavy dark. Her hemophobia already made her naturally terrified of such a setting. When Li Ke and Kiri were fighting earlier, the atmosphere had dragged her mind back to the battlefields of the past.
In her fractured mind's eye, she was seeing the horrific losses of her loved ones, Dan Kato and her brother, Nawaki. The struggle outside transformed into a sea of memories. To her traumatized brain, the sounds of the monsters became the voices of those she had lost, demanding to know why she had failed to save them.
The suffocating atmosphere made it impossible for her to feel safe. Without immediate support or an anchor to reality, Tsunade—caught in the peak of her distress—had reached a mental breaking point.
However, her frantic attempt to guide Li Ke's "dagger" and reach her "weak point" was unsuccessful. In her current state of mental chaos, she lacked the coordination to succeed, causing Li Ke physical discomfort instead.
Ultimately, pushed past his limit, Li Ke caught Tsunade off guard during her clumsy movements. He seized both of her wrists, shifted his weight, and flipped her over, pinning Tsunade to the bed to regain control of the situation.