Following their conversation, a heavy, suffocating silence descended upon the small cabin.
Saiki remained quiet. Tsume desperately wanted to say something to lighten the mood, but she couldn't find the right words.
She had laid everything out in the open. Even though they were sleeping on the same earthen bed, the fact that they were in separate sleeping bags meant Tsume no longer felt any awkwardness.
Tsume assumed Saiki was heartbroken. In reality, Saiki was busy plotting exactly how to push her down and make their relationship permanent.
They crawled into their sleeping bags. The heat radiating from the earthen stove chased away every trace of the winter chill, and the thick mud walls perfectly muted the howling blizzard outside.
It was warm, quiet, and they had just spent an entire day trudging through waist-deep snow. They should have been exhausted. Yet, neither of them could sleep. They lay there, eyes wide open, staring into the pitch-black darkness.
Crack.
The sound of snapping wood came from the adjacent chamber as the stove automatically fed itself another log to maintain the heat.
It was the dead of night. Tsume's mind was racing. Saiki was just a boy who had tasted the forbidden fruit for the first time. Having rejected him so bluntly, she worried he might be spiraling into a dark place.
Even without the sound of the firewood, Tsume could tell from the rhythm of Saiki's breathing that he was wide awake. She finally broke the silence.
"Saiki... are you still awake?"
With his elite sensory perception, Saiki obviously knew she was awake. But hearing her husky, slightly magnetic voice in the dark startled him; he had been deep in thought, devising a plan to ravage her.
"Yeah. You aren't asleep either, Sensei?" Saiki replied, a hint of nervous tension leaking into his voice—like a child caught with a secret.
"Mm," Tsume hummed, then fell silent. Just as Saiki was about to speak, she asked the question weighing on her heart. "Are you angry with me?"
Saiki didn't quite know how to answer. When Tsume had drawn a hard line, reducing their intense, soul-binding dual cultivation to a mere "medical treatment," he had certainly felt a pang of disappointment. But anger? No.
After all, he had quickly pivoted to plotting how to turn her into his willing mistress.
Expecting the teacher who had just saved your life to become your secret lover was undeniably arrogant and bastardly, but such is the dark nature of male possessiveness.
After a moment, Saiki replied, "No."
Tsume didn't buy it. His short, delayed answer only made her feel like he was sulking.
Tsume cared deeply about Saiki's emotional well-being. Whether it was the natural affection of a teacher for her student, or the undeniable intimacy they had shared, his brief silence and hesitant response made her incredibly anxious.
Determined to make him understand and guide him away from destructive thoughts, Tsume pressed on. "You're still young. You don't understand the implications of dual cultivation. To you, it might just feel like a thrilling new experience. But getting tangled up in a messy affair with your teacher will only destroy your future."
It was the same lecture again. Saiki felt a sudden urge to use the same "aggressive" tactics on her that he had used on Tsunade.
Furthermore, being constantly belittled as a "child"—especially when certain parts of him, and his mind, were already exceptionally well-developed—was seriously starting to piss him off.
Faced with another lecture, Saiki decided he was done playing along.
Seeing Saiki fall silent again, Tsume asked nervously, "Saiki? Are you listening to me?"
"Yeah, I'm listening," Saiki replied curtly. Tsume mistook his tone for dismissive brushing off.
"Saiki, you really are too young. I would only ruin your life," Tsume sighed. The usually wild, boisterous woman let out a rare, sorrowful sigh of feminine melancholy.
Being called "small" for the final time, Saiki decided he needed to prove a point. Silence was no longer an option.
He threw off his sleeping bag and lunged directly onto Tsume. Even in pitch darkness, his perception allowed him to pin her perfectly, his arms wrapping tightly around her waist.
The sudden ambush gave Tsume a genuine fright. Had she not known it was Saiki sleeping beside her, she would have reacted with lethal force.
"Saiki! What are you doing?!" In the darkness, she couldn't see anything, but she could feel Saiki staring directly into her eyes. His heavy, scalding breath ghosted across her face, causing a spike of nervous panic in her chest.
A second later, with a soft snap, the candle flared to life.
The weak candlelight wasn't blinding, but they both squinted for a moment to adjust. As their vision cleared, they found themselves face-to-face.
Pinned beneath him, subjected to a gaze burning with raw, predatory aggression, Tsume felt a surge of apprehension. She averted her eyes and demanded, her voice trembling slightly, "Saiki, stop fooling around. Get off me."
To Tsume, Saiki had always been the obedient, sensible, incredibly mature genius. But now, he rejected her order with the stubbornness of a rogue. "No."
Hearing his childish defiance, Tsume forced herself to look back at him, glaring. "What do you want?"
"Sensei, I am not 'small'. I know exactly what I'm doing. I love the feeling of making love to you, and I will never forget it," Saiki declared, his gaze unwavering, his tone absolute.
His words were relatively restrained, but Tsume had never expected Saiki to be this explicitly blunt. Her face flushed a violent crimson.
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting?! I told you, I was only healing your injuries!" Tsume shouted, her face burning, desperately trying to re-establish the clinical nature of their union.
Saiki didn't argue the point. Instead, he struck directly at the core of Tsume's defenses. "I know. But I'm asking you, Sensei: when we did it... did it feel good? Were you happy? Did you love the way it felt?"
It was a ruthless tactic, stripping away the "medical" excuse and forcing her to confront the raw, physical reality of what they had shared. Tsume's heart gave a violent shudder.
Saiki was young, yes, but his physical "capital" and endless stamina had perfectly satisfied her deepest needs. More importantly, the soul-shaking euphoria of the dual cultivation—that feeling of her spirit taking flight at the absolute peak of climax—was something she could never forget.
The union had brought her a level of ecstasy she had never known existed. Just thinking about it now made her body feel weak and pliant.
Subjected to his aggressive stare, feeling his scalding breath against her face and neck, her heart began to hammer erratically against her ribs.
Despite his intense pressure, Tsume wasn't going to surrender easily. She wasn't a loose woman; her mind still clung to a shred of rational morality.
However, under Saiki's relentless assault, she feared that final shred of clarity wouldn't last much longer.
Before succumbing, Tsume made one last attempt to break free, only to discover that Saiki's strength was terrifying. Pinned in his embrace, she couldn't move him a single inch.
Saiki obviously felt her struggle, but he had no intention of letting her go. He continued to scorch her with his gaze, waiting for her to break.
Realizing force was useless, Tsume tried a softer approach.
"Saiki, please let me go. That time was a desperate exception. We can't keep making the same mistake. Let me go, please?" she pleaded, her voice softening into a gentle coaxing.
But Saiki shook his head, his voice filled with absolute conviction. "That first time might have been a necessity, but I refuse to believe you felt nothing for me, Sensei. Sensei... can we please do it one more time? I don't believe you don't want me."