Steps to survival

Chapter 8 : Great Detective Suika on the go!

"You're saying the black sand that we got outta the river turns into this 'iron stuff?" Suika questioned pointing to the pot.

"It will," I assure her.

"You mix four parts of sand to one part coal and bake it," said Senku.

"Got it. That sounds pretty easy to me," Chrome said confidently looking over to us.

"Bad news is it's way harder than it sounds. Nothing at all like baking little clay pots. That'll be our next problem to solve. Wood can burn up to 700 degrees but iron-making requires much higher temperatures. We're talking 1,500 degrees or higher," Senku bludgeoned us with more words.

"So how are we gonna get it that hot? Is it even possible?" Kohaku spoke up, Senku seemed amused by the question.

"We gotta blow like hell!" I rolled my eyes playfully knowing what's coming next.

"We provide it as much oxygen as we can, so we're gonna need to send in a crash amount of air," he indicated to a large furnace with holes scattered around the walls.

"And hope that it increases the fire's damage points from 700 to 1,500," he tossed us each bags to blow the air from.

"This thing blows air? With a handy little item like this, I can probably do it all by myself," Kohaku claimed.

"Okay, yeah. Tell us how it went when you finish," I chuckled. Chrome and Senku held theirs back and just smirked.

"The truth is, we'll never have enough manpower," I informed everyone who stood by my side.

We had already started blowing in the air for about an hour. Everyone was groaning and screeching in exhaustion, meanwhile, I remained quiet but truthfully, I was sweating like hell.

I panted quietly not daring to complain. I don't want to seem weak.

"Holy hell, it feels like my arms are gonna fall off!" Chrome grumbled loudly.

"Don't you dare give up and let it get cold!" Senku hollered.

"How many more minutes do you think it'll take?!" Kohaku screeched between clenched teeth.

"Are you joking? 30 to 40 hours at best," I managed to seem calm despite being drenched it bodily fluid.

"Iron-making is bad!" Suika, Chrome and Kohaku yelled. Just then Suika crumbled to the floor in agony.

"Don't push it, Suika. Take a break if you need!"

By approximately 4 am everyone was curled up in a deep sleep but I just couldn't even bat an eyelid, I had tried to further tire myself with my bow and arrow. Taking countless shots at the trees. I sighed and slouched and sighed irritated that I was still wide awake.

"What the heck are you doing?" I flinched at the drained voice from behind me, and of course, it was Senku.

"Can't sleep," I pouted quietly and raised my bow for another shot. Before I pulled the string back fully it was plucked from my hand and I was grabbed by the arm. He hauled me over to where he was recently knocked out flat on the floor and pushed me down into a sitting position.

"What?" I furrowed my brow line.

"Sleep," he said sternly, he lay down beside me so that I was on a higher level than him.

"I can't," he lazily rolled over to face me.

"I wasn't asking," he sent me a glare and pulled on my one elbow that was supporting my body weight. My arm buckled and I fell on my back.

"Ugh," I managed to get out. Senku had a look of satisfaction as he lay peacefully on his back. With him laying by my side, the frustration I didn't even know I was feeling faded. I eventually and thankfully blacked out.

After we all eventually wake up we discussed crafting a silver spear to gain more manpower. This was of course directed at Ginro's obsession with silver, he was probably still asleep. Chrome was instructed to leave the spear in an area visible to out victim Ginro. And of course, he took the bait.

"Spear of... silver," he muttered in his sleep. Senku and Chrome chuckled evilly.

"He took the bait, and we'll be feeding him in before you know it," Senku grew a terrifying grin.

"Oh, yeah.  It's all startin' to come together. We'll get more manpower ."

"We'll tempt them with manpower," they creepily said in sync.

"You guys are starting to sound really creepy," Kohaku commented. I looked to see her doubtful face.

"Majorly," I looked at my feet agreeing with her for once. They carried an ominous feeling that was almost funny.

"The fact is, we can't entice everyone in the village with shiny new spears," Senku snapped out of his daze.

"We need to know what they want. It's time for us to plan an intel mission," Suika's face seemed to glow at his words, taking each of them in carefully.

"I'm really good at that type of thing!" She cheered holding up her hand to volunteer.

"Because I can turn into a watermelon! I'm an expert snoop!" She shrunk weirdly far into the shell so that her legs were completely concealed. I smiled small at her enthusiasm. A chuckle erupted from the group.

"Now that's impressive! Okay, Great Detective Suika's on the case. We're counting on you to find out what the people want," he was hyping her up and it was intensely adorable, he was strangely good with kids.

"Yeah! You've got this Great Detective Suika!" I tried my best to smile but it probably came as forced. Probably because it was. She began bouncing across the bridge rapidly shouting something as she went, though I was too far away to hear.

Since we had nothing to do the rest of the day I busied myself with my bow. I had set up a piece of wood around twelve meters away from me. I hit it almost every time. I often caught the others staring at me curiously, when I turned to meet their eyes they just turned away.

"What?" I threw the question a second after I aimed a dead shot at the wood at struck it, splinters flying.

"How are you so good with that bow?" I heard but couldn't tell who it came from, probably Kinro.

"Practice," I said plainly, Senku knew that if he didn't tell them, you would never open up about it.

"She started archery at about 8 years old. Apparently, it helped with her anxiety disorder," I heard Senku inform them. I shot him a deathly glare and they all shuddered, but he didn't. He always kept a calm demeanour somehow. It almost made me jealous.

"What's an anxiety disorder?" I shot in a breath as I turned around to them subtly.

"I feel extremely anxious and uncomfortable most of the time," I manage to grumble out. Reluctantly I kept to myself for the rest of that time. And you knew for a fact that they were asking Senku questions about you, though he only responded with an 'ask her yourself'.