Perfectly Balanced [ON-GOING]

Chapter Eight: The Road to The Cure-All

8. The Road to The Cure-All

09-29-2022

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"Thank you, Kohaku."

"It's alright, no need to thank me. Besides, you look super cute!"

"I do?"

You had to borrow a pair of white, matching swimwear from Kohaku, as you had nothing but a short dress. Luckily, there were many different sizes to choose from since there were some from the villagers, and you could pick the one that was your size. With that, you could head to the river with the giant magnet rocks that Chrome had to pick up the essential material needed for the first step of the road map.

"Took you long enough, slowpoke."

You heard Senku say as you and Kohaku made it to the river, where he and Chrome were waiting. All they had was cloth wrapped with a rope to cover their privates, though Chrome was holding four magnetic rocks in his arms.

The scientist looked up and down to inspect you with a blank look on his face. Then, he spoke, "You could've just gone naked instead of wasting time looking for your size."

Chrome and Kohaku looked shocked. You were not going to have this conversation with him again, so you replied plainly, "Absolutely not. Why haven't you gotten naked?"

"What are you?! Perverts?!" Chrome snapped at the both of you.

"No, but this boy over here thinks that nobody cares about crap hanging off of you!" you explained to him as you crossed your arms in annoyance and rolled your eyes.

Kohaku yelled at Senku, who had to cover his ears with his pinkies, "And here I thought you were a gentleman! What kind of man asks a woman to go naked like that?!"

Senku rolled his eyes. "Look, that doesn't matter. What matters right now is that we use the magnets that Chrome has to collect the black sand in the river. This sand will be used to make the cure for Ruri."

He took one of the stones that Chrome held and held it underwater. As he pulled the magnet up from the water, the three of you saw that there was black sand stuck to it.

"This is iron sand, the material needed to get the first item on the road map. Use the magnet to collect and scrape it into the pouches I told you to tie around your waists. We need to collect as much as we can," said Senku.

Everyone split off to gather the sand in the water. You were with Kohaku, while Senku was with Chrome. This experience would give all of you back pain due to bending over so much, but it would be worthwhile in the end.

"Wow, look how much got stuck to it!" Kohaku happily cheered as she held up her rock. It had a load of iron sand stuck to it.

"With this, humanity can finally enter the iron age," you said with a smile.

You were collecting sand steadily, your bags slowly filling up. You would follow Kohaku wherever she went, as it seemed like she knew exactly where all of it was. As you collected it with the blonde, you noticed that Chrome and Senku were slacking off.

"The lioness is amazing. Are all the people in the village like that?" Senku questioned. He was drinking water from a cup at the same time.

Chrome replied, "There are a few gorillas with superhuman strength, but Kohaku is the only nimble gorilla. Were the humans back then the same as (Y/N)?"

"Yeah, but there was never a slowpoke like her."

This conversation enraged Kohaku. She went up to them, screaming, "I ALREADY SAID I AM NOT A GORILLA, AND (Y/N) IS NOT A SLOWPOKE! Speaking of which, WHY are WE the ones getting most of the iron sand?! Maybe YOU lot should work more nimbly! We don't even have enough manpower!"