Steps to survival

Chapter 39 : The Truth Spreads Fast

"That's rough buddy," I titter at Kokuyo's horrified face after Kohaku bluntly stated, "No, it's not a bit deal to me." My hair still damp, my laugh caught everyone's attention. "Oh! Koiru when did you get back?" Chrome asked as Kohaku began to follow Senku's instruction, the boy filled me in on what I had missed and then eyes my hair. "It might just be me, but your hair looks curlier," he rubbed his chin, we both shrugged after a second, I glanced to where Senku was and how much progress he had made with the shield, Ginro was helping him stick it in position so that it could turn easily.

"Something's different about you."

"Huh? What do you mean?" I tore my eyes away from him and looked at the smirk playing on his lips, my cheeks flushed. "It has something to do with Senku, doesn't it?" Kohaku now walked up to us as I swallowed my nervousness away.

"What about Senku?" She questioned.

"Here we go," I murmured, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"Oh, so that is it? What happened?" Chrome pushed, inching closer as I did my best to cover my face, Kohaku's eyebrows knitted together as she watched the interaction. "You're the last person is expect to interrogate me like this," I shuffled back, remembering the time Kohaku had to inform Senku about Chrome obviously having a child's crush on Ruri. "Did he ask you out?" Kohaku joined in, my face was getting uncomfortably pink and I cleared my throat. "Why don't you go bother someone else instead?" I try to move past him until Kohaku snagged my collar, making me choke.

"Come on, we're not letting you leave until you give us answers," she pushed me forwards. "Yeah, and why is your hair so curly?" The last question made me laugh, I didn't think there were many reasons not to tell them and I couldn't find any. They had become my friends naturally over time, they were as trustworthy as a friend could get, I met eyes with them both before nodding, Chrome's eyes got wide, his grin inescapable as I started at the floor. The others who had overheard the conversation choked on their spit, them being Suika, Gen and Kinro. "You two are so cute!" Suika squealed, hopping up and down.

"I can't say I'm not surprised, the way he looks at you explains a lot," Gen shrugged with a mischievous closed mouth smile.

"I've got the feeling everyone's gonna know in around five minutes," my eyes somehow met with the man in question, he had heard the whole conversation play out, he was okay with people knowing, not too bothered really. He smirked a little and that made you look away, he would bring it up with you later on. The three of you walked back over towards where Ginro was effortlessly twisting the wheel, gushing about how easy it was, the three of you watched in quiet until Chrome blurted out. "Badass! I've got an idea!" He made you jump as he slammed his foot down onto the platform the generator sat on. "You're gonna love it!" He shook Kaseki's shoulders.

"What's gotten into you?" Kaseki yelled as he was dragged away and the boy whispered into his ear. Kohaku and you yelled out in surprise as Kaseki's muscles ripped through his clothes with animosity. "You need to stop doing that!" You yelled out. The sheer power of the old man's excitement had quite literally blown you all away, everyone groaning, Senku ended giving you a hand in getting up, massaging his own neck. "That's weird. I wonder what Chrome could be up to now."

"He's just got some kind of scheme he's cooking up. Let him be," Senku replied, his voice nasally.

"When a guy's getting into mischief like that, you're not really supposed to look until he's done," Gen stood up.

"We don't really have the time to be worrying about him. Because you're all about to begin some hellishly gruelling manual labour," Senku's expression was that of pure evil as he held out a weft of thread. "We're gonna twist these gold threads together into a super-thin wire that we'll make into a coil," he made an example of twisting a few pieces together.

"And how long do you think this coil is gonna need to be?" Kohaku took it out of his hand and examines it. "Good question," he looks to you, Kohaku hands the thread to you and you sucked on your teeth, fiddling it. "From here to..." You pointed to your right. "The top of that mountain." Senku nodded in agreement. You cringed at the collective gasps that escaped from the mouths of those listening.

"Once again we're going to need tremendous manpower," a bead of sweat ran down Gen's face. "But lucky for you, you're village chief, huh? You're calling the shots." As Senku had said, Koiru found herself doing 'hellishly gruelling manual labour' without the 'hellishly gruelling part'. It wasn't really that big of a problem twisting threads together, all though it did get boring about four hours in. The whole process took a few days of many hours of work to get the coil to it's desired length, Koiru sometimes assisted Senku with groundwork and had to use her brain.

Kohaku and Suika over the few days had become visibly irked as the two only acted like normal. Like a normal couple usually show affection toward one another, they had only kept staring at each other like lovesick puppies when the other wasn't looking. This had led to Suika and Kohaku planning to approach him when they seized the opportunity.

"Uh?" Koiru turned around as she heard some shuffling down on the floor only to see Chrome, his eyes seemed to sink into his skull, stubble lining his jaw, he had crawled by the looks of it. "Well, it's finally completed, Koiru, Senku. We both worked...for three days. No sleep." Both of their eyes widened and they looked to each other, Senku grabbed his girl's hand, causing the whole group to rush into the forest with them. As they slowed to a stop their mouths dropped in sync, looking off at the creation.

"What is that?"

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