"Please give her a quiet environment; I'll watch over her here."
Ayame looked at Naruto's resolute eyes and nodded, "Alright, then I'll leave her to Mr. Naruto. If you need anything, just call me."
She gently closed the compartment door, leaving Naruto to guard the unconscious Ayame.
A short while later.
With a roar, the fully equipped Kōtetsujō officially set off, heading towards the distant Kongo Fortress.
However, including Ayame and others, no one knew that there were no more dangerous Kabane at Aragane Station.
This place and its surroundings would become incredibly safe.
"Rumble rumble… rumble…"
Time passed with the monotonous clatter of wheels on tracks.
In the compartment, there was only Ayame's faint breathing.
Naruto sat by her side, eyes closed in meditation. Even without seeing, with his powerful perception, he could clearly sense a hot and restless power within Ayame's body becoming extremely unstable due to its severe depletion.
Kabane—
In essence, they were another type of zombie.
Naruto deduced that the zombie virus in the Kōtetsujō world, after infecting humans, could unlock the body's biological limiters. Therefore, higher-ranked Kabane or Kabaneri could actively release life force to form attack waves.
If one could "lock the throat" in time, preventing the zombie virus from entering the brain, they could avoid brain death and become a Kabaneri with human nature and reason.
"Ayame is such an existence. In fact, she can't be called half-human, half-zombie; she is merely a human infected with the zombie virus and whose biological limiters have been removed."
"The drawbacks are obvious: during full-power combat, it not only consumes energy but also her own life force, which is why she craves blood to replenish it."
Naruto, meditating with his eyes closed, was analyzing information about the Kōtetsujō world in his mind.
"In this case, as long as a serum targeting the Kabane virus is developed, all Kabaneri can revert to being human."
As for the person to create the Kabane virus serum, Naruto already had an answer in his heart.
In the middle of the night.
Ayame, lying on the futon, suddenly began to tremble violently!
She was no longer quietly unconscious but seemed to be trapped in some terrifying nightmare, emitting suppressed whimpers from her throat, like the cries of a young beast.
Ayame's hands unconsciously clutched tightly at the front of her clothes over her chest, her knuckles turning white from the effort.
Fine beads of cold sweat seeped from her pale forehead, and her teeth bit down hard on her lower lip, even drawing a faint trace of blood.
"Naruto—… So thirsty—I'm so thirsty…" Disjointed words, filled with an extreme, painful craving, spilled from her lips, muffled yet full of a primal, uncontrollable hunger.
Naruto slowly opened his eyes, his azure gaze sharp as an eagle's in the dim light.
He immediately got up and squatted beside Ayame.
The girl's current state confirmed his guess—she needed "blood"!
The life energy that sustained her Kabaneri power!
Ayame's eyes snapped open in pain!
But those amber eyes held no focus, no reason, only the pure, ravenous greed for blood like a starving beast!
Ayame let out a low, menacing hiss from deep in her throat.
At this moment, she seemed to have transformed into a true Kabane, almost instinctively springing up from the futon like a predator locking onto its prey, pouncing towards the source of rich life energy closest to her—Naruto!
Her speed was still astonishingly fast!
After all, with her biological limiters removed, while not as exaggerated as Saitama from One-Punch Man, for ordinary people,
she was already equivalent to a superhuman.
"Naruto—!"
Ayame let out an inhuman growl, her small body erupting with its last burst of strength, instantly tackling the unevading Naruto to the ground.
She straddled Naruto, her amber pupils glowing with a bloodthirsty crimson light, her sharp little fangs glinting coldly. With a fragrant breeze, she fiercely bit down on Naruto's shoulder.
Her movements were fierce and direct, driven by the Kabaneri's most primal craving for blood.
However, the anticipated scene of warm blood spurting and a sweet taste filling her mouth did not occur.
"Clang!"
A crisp sound, like metal colliding, extremely faint yet exceptionally clear, echoed in the silent compartment!
Ayame's sharp little fangs, harder than a normal person's, felt as if they had bitten into a high-density alloy steel plate forged a thousand times the moment they touched Naruto's neck skin.
The defense effect of the Dragon Slayer equipment set was automatically triggered.
Even Rock Lee, who had opened all six gates, couldn't break through Naruto's equipment defense, let alone a mere Kabaneri.
The immense recoil from her teeth numbed Ayame's entire jaw, making her tooth roots ache, and she almost broke her own teeth.
As for Naruto, let alone breaking his skin, not even a faint white mark was left!
"Huh?!"
The madness and greed in Ayame's eyes were instantly replaced by immense shock and bewilderment.
She froze, straddling Naruto, her upper body prostrate, close to Naruto's chest, maintaining her biting posture, like a bewildered kitten, completely unable to understand what had happened.
She tried again, disbelievingly, biting down harder, even using all her strength, her small face turning red.
"Clang!"
It was still that disheartening sound of a hard object striking.
"Naruto—… So—… So hard—…"
Ayame released her bite, clutching her aching jaw, tears almost welling up from the pain.
She looked up, her amber eyes filled with incredulous grievance, confusion, and a hint of irritation at being "rejected" by her "food" so hard it hurt her teeth. She stared blankly at Naruto, who was pinned beneath her, wearing a helpless yet amused expression.
"Hey, weirdo! What's going on? Why are you so hard, like metal? I can't bite you at all, and you almost broke my teeth."
Naruto looked at Ayame, who had instantly transformed from a fierce beast into a bewildered, wronged little animal, and couldn't help but sigh, though a slight curve played on his lips.
He reached out and gently flicked Ayame's smooth forehead, his voice tinged with a wry amusement:
"Hey, if you can't bite it, don't force it."
"If you want to suck blood—you'll at least need a weapon that can break through my defense."
He pointed to the skin on his neck, which didn't even have a tooth mark.
"However, my blood—… might not be what you're thinking, and the taste probably isn't great either."
Just kidding, Naruto's blood was the blood of the Perfect Demon King.
Although he had overcome the weaknesses of sunlight and decapitation and possessed two Blood Demon Arts, he had also lost the curse that turned living beings into demons.
Even so, Naruto would still not recklessly give his blood to Ayame to drink.
Ayame remained straddling Naruto, clutching her jaw, staring blankly at Naruto's face, which was within an inch of her, then looked at his perfectly intact neck, and then at her own faintly aching teeth…