Lu Qu's Monologue

The gazes of four captain-level individuals turned toward him simultaneously, and for a fleeting moment, Lin Nan felt a jolt of alarm.

Have I been discovered!?

He steadied himself, realizing they made no further moves; their eyes were not fixed on him, but on the body lying on the hospital bed behind him.

"Reiatsu is fluctuating. Is he waking up so soon?" Yan Yuan Jinle asked, sounding somewhat surprised.

"Well, with soul strength this high, it's understandable that he'd recover quickly," Zhi Xing Nai Wu Gang replied. "Let's take our leave now! If we keep chatting and this kid happens to hear things he shouldn't, that would be troublesome."

Katori nodded. "Agreed. If any issues arise, have a squad member send a letter, and we can arrange another time to discuss the details."

The group stood up, exchanged nods with Katori, and walked out of the room.

Was it the emotional agitation that caused the Reiatsu to fluctuate? Lin Nan pondered Yan Yuan Jinle's words, thinking to himself, No time to waste. I must find a way back to the real world.

But how?

His body was lying on the hospital bed, but was his consciousness merely observing the scene from the playback space, or did it truly exist within this room?

Watching the door close, Katori Batsunsai waited a moment before slowly standing up and walking gracefully toward the bedside.

Seeing Katori approach, Lin Nan panicked and reached out to grab his own body, hoping to wake himself up before his cover was blown.

The moment his hand "touched" his physical form, a vague, dense mist seemed to swirl at the corners of his vision. The next second, his world went black, the direction of gravity shifted violently, and he felt the solid sensation of the bed beneath his back.

A regretful thought flashed through Lin Nan's mind: Why was I in such a rush? Even if I didn't wake up, she wouldn't have done anything to me!

Katori reached the bedside and activated her spiritual vision to sense the patient. According to her experience, a patient's Reiatsu usually fluctuated briefly before waking. However, after probing, she found that the Reiatsu which had been wavering moments ago was now perfectly calm.

Seeing no signs of the patient waking, Katori pulled up a chair, sat down, and began to carefully examine the boy her division had spent ten days searching for.

Looking at Lin Nan's tightly closed eyes and his long, white hair now spread across the pillow, she spoke to herself in a soft, casual tone: "Not bad looking at all. Judging by your appearance, you can't be more than a hundred and thirty or forty years old. So young..."

"From now on, you're mine. I hope we can cooperate happily in the days to come!"

Lin Nan kept his eyes shut, hearing every word clearly, yet he dared not open them.

What is up with this captain? Why is she talking to herself by my bedside?

"I am Katori Batsunsai, Captain of the 8th Division, and your future captain... You know, I never wanted to be a captain. I preferred the martial arts... But after my father and older brother died in battle, I was the only one left to restore the glory of the Cloud Style. So, I had no choice but to take the remaining disciples of the Cloud Style and join the Court Guard Squad..."

"...After the Quincy invasion was defeated, the Court Guard Squad suffered heavy losses. Nearly half of the 8th Division died, and most of them were my Cloud Style disciples..."

"Ever since then, I've lacked confidence. I'm so afraid I won't be a good captain, that I'll fail the fallen members and the dying wishes of my father and brother. That's why I've always hoped to make life better for those who are still alive, to live well on behalf of those who are gone."

"...Though, we were actually lucky! Many divisions were wiped out entirely back then; their very structures vanished..."

"But, you know, making life better for the members is so hard... There are always people breaking our hopes, sabotaging us. The rebels fight us to the death, the Central 46 pulls strings behind our backs, and the situation for the Court Guard Squad just keeps getting worse..."

Katori's voice was like willow catkins, drifting softly as she rambled to herself by Lin Nan's bed.

Lin Nan kept his eyes closed, unable to see her expression. But just listening to her voice, he felt as though she were a tired schoolgirl pouring her heart out to a doll.

"Of course, everything will be fine. I can't always dwell on unhappy things, right? Besides, there are still happy things happening..."

"For instance, I found you! Not only is your constitution special, but your potential for Reiatsu is also excellent. And you're so handsome..."

"...Ah, being a captain is great... In the future, I can take the opportunity to keep lots of handsome boys by my side. Tall, handsome, cold ones, cheerful ones—all kinds..."

Katori grabbed her braid, twisting the ends as she spoke, flicking them back and forth over Lin Nan's face like she was teasing a kitten. As she imagined the scene of having many boys around her, she suddenly blushed, though she didn't know why.

"Ah, I'm suddenly so embarrassed! Good thing you can't hear me..." She covered her flushed cheeks tightly with both hands and lowered her head deeply. Even the rims of her ears were stained a faint crimson.

Lin Nan, lying on the bed, struggled bitterly, forcing himself not to let his expression twitch or change in the slightest.

Moreover, it felt like something fuzzy—perhaps a strand of hair—had fallen onto his face and slid off. It was itchy, but he didn't dare scratch. He could only pinch his own thigh under the covers, gritting his teeth to ensure not a single ripple of emotion appeared on his face.

For the first time, he felt that pretending to be asleep was an agonizing ordeal! The things this woman was saying were getting more and more ridiculous! It was so hard to keep a straight face! Just kill me now!

Katori, still covering her face, didn't notice the momentary stiffness on Lin Nan's face. She took a moment to steady her emotions and continued her rambling:

"Don't you dare laugh at me! Even though I've been a captain for over two hundred years, I'm still a normal girl. What girl doesn't like handsome men? There's nothing wrong with that. If it were Saito here, she probably would have pounced on you already; by comparison, I'm quite reserved..."

In Katori's heart, she hadn't had the chance to speak her mind like this in over a hundred years. In her daily life, she had to maintain the high-handed demeanor of a captain, and when leading the squad, she had to face all sorts of missions and slaughter.

Besides, venting requires a listener. There were things one simply couldn't say to inanimate objects. At the very least, it had to be a living creature like a cat or a dog to stir the desire to confide.

She had finally encountered this moment—a person in a coma. While he couldn't respond, he also couldn't leak her secrets. Only then did she have the chance to cast aside her identity as a captain, return to the girl who loved martial arts, and whisper the secrets she had hoarded for a century to herself.

She rambled aimlessly while toying with the ends of her braid. Suddenly, her peripheral vision caught a subtle tremor. At the same time, a woman's intuition sounded a warning.

Her gaze shifted from her hair to Lin Nan's face.

Lin Nan felt as though he had been holding on for thousands of years; his leg was likely bruised from all the pinching. But patience has its limits, and a few minutes was already an impressive feat. Thus, in an unguarded moment, the corner of his eye twitched slightly.

Katori's voice shifted instantly from delicate and gentle back to the cold, sharp tone of the 8th Division Captain: "You're awake, aren't you?"

The sudden change in her voice snapped the last thread of Lin Nan's composure, and his consciousness flickered in a moment of disorientation.

What just happened? Wasn't she a gentle young lady a second ago? How did she suddenly switch to an 'onee-san' voice?!

He opened his eyes instinctively, meeting Katori's scrutinizing gaze head-on.

Katori's eyes seemed to pierce through Lin Nan's heart as she asked in a low voice, "How long have you been awake?"

"I... just woke up..."

"How much did you hear?"

"Not... not much, really..." Lin Nan replied with an awkward, sheepish grin.

Staring into those beautiful peach-blossom eyes, he suddenly felt he couldn't bear to lie to her. But telling the truth now—wouldn't that be suicide?

Sure enough, Katori Batsunsai's eyes went wide, and her beautiful brows knit into a sharp crease. Her face flushed a deep red as she declared with absolute finality:

"I'm going to kill you!"