The effect was instant.
The moment Tsunade put on the necklace, she clearly felt something change.
Most obviously, the painful memories that used to crush her whenever they surfaced—while still painful now—no longer brought the same unbearable, paralyzing despair.
It felt like—
Grabbing the last straw at the edge of a cliff. There was still a bottomless drop beneath her, but she refused to let go.
"So this is courage..."
She murmured, eyes misting over without realizing.
Now, she could vaguely understand.
Why Nawaki charged forward.
Why Dan gave everything without hesitation.
To protect what must be protected, even in the face of pain, danger, and despair—that was courage.
"Lady Tsunade?" Shizune looked at her with worry and heartbreak.
She had never seen Tsunade cry. Not even when drinking alone.
Tsunade seemed to snap back to awareness.
She looked at her pale forearm—then suddenly, her polished red fingernails slashed across it.
Skin split. Dark blood spilled out.
"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune cried and rushed forward to stop the bleeding.
"Shizune!" Tsunade barked sharply.
Shizune froze, staring at her with concern.
She knew it all too well.
Tsunade's hemophobia made her tremble uncontrollably at the sight of blood.
But—
Shizune suddenly realized something.
No trembling.
Tsunade was staring hard at the blood on her own arm. Her eyes still held fear—fear of the pain from losing the people she loved.
But! She wasn't shaking!
Takuya took a quiet sip of his drink, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
Just as expected.
The Cross of Courage, like some kind of Cleric's Courage Aura from DNF, was a positive buff.
Tsunade's phobia was purely psychological. With the buff, her resistance to fear increased.
It wasn't a full cure yet.
But give her some time to train, adjust, and mentally prepare, and she'd be completely cured before long.
He couldn't help wondering—
When Orochimaru shows up and sees her bite her finger without fear, packing a dozen powerful potions, what kind of face will he make?
Not Takuya's problem.
While Tsunade worked through her trauma, Takuya was tallying his haul from today.
From Tsunade alone, he'd pulled goods worth 10.4 million ryo—about 600,000 Trade Points.
His cost, including all jars and materials: around 150,000.
A clean 450,000 profit.
Triple return.
No doubt about it—selling jars was the true path of the trader. A business designed to drain every coin from a buyer's pockets.
Too bad Tsunade was even poorer than he thought.
Takuya glanced at the items he'd been eyeing.
Dark-Dark Fruit — 21 million
Wolverine's Regeneration — 11 million
Professor X's Telepathy — 17 million
Damn.
All the badass powers cost tens of millions. And if he wanted to custom-order them rather than pull from a specific universe, the price doubled—totally not worth it.
Still poor.
Sure, he could go for a weaker item—but he knew himself.
He had zero combat instinct, didn't even like fighting. To him, power meant survival. Unlike someone like Tsunade, if he ran into Orochimaru today, the only outcome would be spending everything to escape.
Maybe he should get a servant?
If he didn't want to fight, buying a powerful, loyal subordinate wasn't a bad idea.
A certain figure popped into Takuya's mind—a character he loved.
The Ultimate Strategic Angel—Ikaros.
From Heaven's Lost Property. Queen of the Sky. Insanely powerful.
Most importantly—
She was hot.
Obedient, loyal once bonded, and totally trainable. Takuya's ideal type.
He quickly checked the system—
Yup. She was there.
Price… 82 million!
Takuya nearly choked trying to keep a straight face.
Why the hell was she so expensive? Professor X's telepathy was only 17 million!
After digging deeper, he finally understood.
Devil fruits, mutant powers—they were potential. Growth paths. You had to train and develop to reach full strength. That's why something like Wolverine's healing still hit eight digits—no need to train that.
Looking over the system's catalog...
Takuya suddenly felt fired up.
Gotta make money. Gotta buy Ikaros!
"Miss Tsunade," he said as he watched her turn her head, letting Shizune patch her arm. He held something out. "Please take this."
"What is it?" Tsunade reached for it.
Her face was still pale, but she now truly understood how incredible this man's goods were.
Just a necklace—
Yet it gave her courage.
The item in her hand was a finely made badge, engraved with the same symbol that had appeared on Takuya's forehead.
The All-Knowing, All-Powerful Eye...
"This is a badge reserved for tier-two customers. It's used for communication," Takuya explained. "Just inject a little chakra, and it'll alert me. If you ever want more jars, you can contact me through it."
It cost him 3,000 Trade Points due to the custom design.
But totally worth it.
Tsunade might be broke now, but with her status and ability, making money wasn't hard.
She was top-tier clientele.
"Oh? Leaving already?"
Tsunade toyed with the badge in her hand, unsure what it was made of.
"I'm a merchant, after all." Takuya smiled. The message was clear—
You're out of money.
No reason for me to stick around.
"This mark," Tsunade said, bracing her hand on her leg and leaning forward. Her golden eyes reflected Takuya's image. "You call it the All-Knowing, All-Powerful Eye. So... does that mean the jars you sell can do anything?"
At that moment—
Tsunade gave off a pressure that was impossible to ignore.
Not a trace of drunkenness left.
Had the Cross of Courage really pulled her out of that slump?
Takuya quietly slipped a 3,000-point Vajra Talisman into his pocket.
He glanced at the teleportation item in his cart.
Paused for a beat.
Time to go all in.
He smiled. "I wouldn't say anything. But—among the jars I've sold, many have opened what you'd call impossible miracles."
"Like what?" Tsunade pressed.
Takuya met her gaze and slowly said a single word—
"Resurrection."