The Cursed Gamer, Book 2

264: Playing with Death? (1)

Chapter 264: Playing with Death? (1)

—

Hanabi was curious about just what Neji was up to. They were training in the Pocket Planet, when all of a sudden everything turned into gold clouds. Minutes later, after the girls looked around and called for Neji to help (to no avail), the terrain changed once more and they found themselves inside a palace. A goddamn well one at that.

Hanabi doubted if even the Daimyos ever stepped in a place like this.

Though suspicious and wary of their new surroundings, the girls began to explore the palace, and it took them hours to do so— it was just that enormous of a place. Yet, even when they were out of the palace, they only found themselves out in a garden, an endlessly stretching garden, given Hanabi's Byakugan couldn't see the end of it. They explored the garden for another few hours yet never found an exit.

At last, Toga volunteered to go and take a look around— since she could fly. Hanabi didn't like that girl very much, she always kept sucking up to Neji (in all the ways possible) but Hanabi was still worried if the girl would be fine alone or not. In the end, everyone decided there was no choice but for Toga to go around and take a stroll since Neji wasn't in the mood to reply to their calls (or maybe he couldn't, which was the worst-case scenario).

It had been ten minutes since then.

"Haah," Temari sighed as she sat on a circular concrete platform in the middle of where a shiny tree was coming out. "That girl isn't coming back. I think we got teleported somewhere, and Toga may have found the exit accidentally and left this place unwillingly, unable to warn us." she grabbed one of the golden apples hanging from the tree. "Anybody got any idea on what we can do?"

"Oh, oh, I know!" Tenten cheered as she turned to Kiana and Nemuri. "Why don't you two transform and give us a ride out of here? With your larger bodies, moving will be faster."

"That's not very smart since we aren't sure if we'd be able to control that form," Nemuri said. "Just wait here, Neji will probably come here anytime now."

"You got a lot of trust in him for a person who planned to kill him." Temari scoffed as she took a bite out of her fruit, blinking pleasantly at the taste.

"...I saw what he is capable of, that's why I trust him. And no, I wasn't planning to kill him. Just..." Nemuri sighed, crossing her arms and looking away.

"Can you guys stop being passive-aggressive for a moment?" Hanabi grumbled. She didn't like Nemuri and Kiana either, but since Neji trusted them enough to leave them with her and the other girls, she knew they couldn't be that bad. She did have this conversation with him already, after all. "Also, Temari, is it really smart to eat fruit from an unknown, clearly suspicious tree? Look, it's even glowing!"

Sakura seemed to agree with her words, while Tenten just shrugged. Temari, who had finished an apple and gone for another by then— stopped as she plucked an apple but it was from the same spot in the tree as before.

She looked surprised. "The fruit regrew in seconds. Also, the taste... Ufff. Guys, guys, this is heaven! I am sure of it now!"

Hanabi smirked and decided to tease her since the older girl did so wherever she got a chance. "That's worse. If this really is heaven, then that apple may as well be the Forbidden Fruit. Hey, everyone, stay away from Temari! She's gonna get exiled!"

"What?!" Temari gasped aloud, looking at her. "T-then, if I am going down then I guess I will bring you with me!" Then Temari leapt at her, Hanabi's eyes shook as she tried to escape her attack but the older girl grabbed her and tried to force her to take a bite out of the golden apple. When she managed to resist for a minute, Temari grumbled and took a bite out of the apple and then forcefully kissed Hanabi, pushing the piece of apple inside her mouth. "Mhmm~"