Symbiosis

Stray Cat

Notes:

"Flowers over war" or something like that.

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Winning over Kohaku, Chrome and Suika had been fairly easy, and Senku was pretty sure he was slowly but surely gaining Kinro and Ginro's trust as well.

However, he knew that was far from enough. They would need more manpower if they wanted to have Ruri's medicine on time. Not to mention defeat Tsukasa, who had the miracle cave at his disposal and was probably already reviving people he deemed worthy left and right as they spoke.

So far, ramen seemed to be doing the trick with most of the villagers. Or at least, that seemed to be the case until Kohaku announced that there was an outsider watching them.

Senku felt his blood run cold for a second. He should have known that Tsukasa would send someone to confirm he was dead. The man wasn't the kind to leave things halfway.

"A friend of yours?" Kohaku asked when the stranger, apparently noticing they had been discovered, decided to reveal himself, walking out from the woods and raising his hands in surrender while an awkward smile decorated his face.

"No, I haven't seen this man in my life," Senku replied, eyeing him warily.

He left his ramen stand to go and meet him, while Kohaku went to alert Kinro and Ginro.

"You sound quite disappointed. Seems you were expecting someone else," the man said. He tilted his head, making some of his silver-white hair fall away from his eyes, and offered him a smile: "Gen, perhaps?"

Senku pressed his lips together. If this was a threat, then he couldn't let himself get carried away by his emotions. It wouldn't do any good for him nor Gen.

"What do you know about Gen?"

Whatever the expression on his face was, it seemed to amuse the man even further, which only made Senku feel more uneasy in return.

"He's doing okay," he said, ignoring the real question. "He even asked me to tell you that Taiju and Yuzuriha were good as well–," his words were cut off by the sudden appearance of sharp weapons around him.

"Explain yourself unless you want your throat sliced open! Do you serve the long-haired man?!" Kohaku ordered.

"Ah, I apologize. I didn't really mean to disturb the festive atmosphere, but I assure you, I come in peace," he said, remaining fairly calm despite his circumstances.

However, far from reassuring him, that only made Senku wonder if what helped that man remain so calm was that he was trained for such situations or if it was the fact that he was confident that he would win if it came down to a fight. Whatever the answer was, everything seemed to indicate that they were going up against someone potentially dangerous.

"Oh really? And why should we believe you?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Let's just say you were very lucky Tsukasa sent me to check on this village and not someone else like Hyoga," the man replied, giving him a strange smile. Almost as if he already knew who he was.

Scratch that. He definitely does.

"Nah, I don't believe in luck," Senku chuckled, feeling his body relax at the realization. "Gen had something to do with that, didn't he?" he guessed, earning a soft chuckle from his interlocutor.

"Hm, now that you mention it, Gen might have said something along the lines of 'how it should be someone able to spy from a safe distance while also being able to defend themselves should they get attacked' when he overheard Tsukasa talking about sending someone to scout this village... Funny enough, I've very good hearing and I'm a user of a long-range weapon," he explained, raising his bow to emphasize his words.