Steps to survival

Chapter 6 : In The Stars

"All right, Senku! What do we need to do to make that medicine?! We gotta help Ruri kick her sickness!" Chrome shrieked in anticipation.

"If we can help my sister feel better, I'm ready to do whatever it takes!" Senku grins at them like a mad scientist, I puffed out a chuckle. I waved a hand in front of his eyes while Kohaku and Chrome were busy calling Senku sleazy. He snapped out of it and grabbed a nearby stick.

"The first project of the Kingdom of Science is making an antibiotic. A wonder drug that'll kill the hostile bacteria infecting our patient. Since its discovery in the early 20th century, it saved hundreds of millions of lives. We can't do any blood tests, and we have no idea what she's actually suffering from, but I'm sure it's still worth trying anyway," he concluded.

"It's our best shot, basically," I nod.

"Yeah! Now let's get to work, Senku!" Chrome quivered.

"What do we need?" Kohaku squatted with her fists balled. I sighed knowing that we were nowhere near our goal. After a lengthy speech of explanation, we decided to go down the 'stone route' and Senku drew a road map out of needed ingredients.

Kohaku was gasping which Senku and I snickered at.

"Whoa, man. That's bad! Well, guess this 'iron' stuff is first! I don't even know what that is! There's so much for me to learn!" Chrome said getting riled up.

"Iron's not particularly easy to find," I said.

Soon the day fell dark as Senku and I answered more questions than we could count, he was lying beside me, completely wiped out. I on the other hand was keeping myself busy with my bow, fiddling and carving out sharper arrows.

"Seriously? Bad! You're telling me that it's actually the planet that's moving?" The stars in Chrome's eyes pulsated.

"Yeah, it's not a lie," Senku grumbled.

"That doesn't make any sense. I mean, if that's really the case, then why am I not flying off of this branch?" Kohaku asked quizzically.

"That's because of a little thing we call 'gravity'," I respond while standing up and in a stance that was rigid with my legs shoulder-width apart. Senku caught onto this and glues his eyes on my every movement.

"You know, I always thought it was weird how only just one star stays in the same place," Senku sat up ready to explain once again.

"That's the north star. It's ridiculously useful for navigating 'cause it's ten billion per cent true north. So try to remember that," his voice gravelly dragged on. I swiftly grabbed onto an arrow and drew back the string on my bow.

"Oh. I didn't know," Chrome murmured.

"If you want my opinion, that looks slightly off from true north," wait what?! I looked up completely shocked.

"No. Impossible. The margin of error is-" Senku twisted a finger in his ear.

"Senku, look," I said eyes wide open in dubiety. His eyes shot open as wide as an owls.

"The Earths axis has shifted! The whole planet has been tilting little by little over the past 3,700 years. And now in the year 5,379, the freaking North Star isn't north!" He huffed.

"That's why your sextant wasn't working," I deduced.

"A more experienced scientist would've laughed at me. Kind of a major oversight on my part," I decide to stop him from blaming just himself.

"You and me both," he raises a brow.

"But-"

"No buts. We have around the same level of knowledge, I could have easily have spotted as you would. Chill out it's no big deal," Senku looked at a loss for words. I drew back the strings on my bow and aimed precisely for the centre of a nearby tree. The arrow whizzes past Chrome's head and burrowed into the trunk.

Kohaku watched in awe meanwhile Chrome was suffering a silent freak out. Senku crossed his arms and smiled meaningfully, he was glad that she had remained as sharp as the day they met.

"Wait," Senku broke the silence, I glanced over at his puzzled face and quirked an eyebrow.

"How did she know the former North Star, wasn't exactly north anymore?" I jogged to grab my arrow, it was lodged at first but managed to yank it out of place.

"Oh, no way! You mean to tell me that even the great Senku doesn't know about this rock? I just so happened to find this bad boy on top of that bald mountain one day," Chrome retrieved a bowl with what looked like a simple magnet experiment.

"If you dangle it or make it float in water this thing always points true north! Pretty nuts, isn't it?" He said proudly.

"A magnet," Senku mumbled.

"Man! Of course you know!" He threw himself onto his back, sulking.

"You've done an excellent job, Chrome. Now we've got magnets," he smirked excitedly.

The next day we gathered a few magnets and headed down to the nearest river. Kohaku gave me a swimsuit to borrow, which was a basic set of undergarments. Senku wore fairly short loincloth where as Chrome wore something even skimpier than what I had on!

I watched the boys launch themselves in the deeper part of the river excitedly. I was kneeled over by Kohaku collecting all that stuck to the magnet. I looked up to see Senku with hair dragged down, you had to admit he looked naturally attractive, heat rose to your face. But you did your best to focus on the task at hand.

"Check it out! Mine picked up a bunch of that stuff! Look at this crazy black sand!" Kohaku shouted excitedly.

"Taking baby steps, but we're on the road to the Kingdom of Science. The curtain's rising on the iron age. Now that gets me excited." We heard Senku say to himself. He was closer than I realised.

Senku and Chrome perched on a rock lazily taking a break is it just me or did he seem to have more muscle, I mean abdominally. I shook my head and carried on, my face getting hotter by the second.

*Meanwhile with Chrome and Senku*

"Is everyone in your village like the lioness, or is she in a class all her own?" Senku spoke up.

"We seem to have more than our fair share of big, brawny apes, but I'd say she's more like a nimble gorilla," he responded. Senku heard Koiru titter to herself, but luckily Kohaku wasn't in earshot of that. Senku kept his eyes fixed on Koiru's body and how she seemed to be moving, you know, just to make sure her injury want hurting.

He realise the had stared for too long when Chrome popped in a question.

"Heh heh, what're you starin' at? " Chrome asked with a smug face.