Steps to survival

Chapter 17 : A flimsy Alliance

"This is bad!" My eyes shot open at the ruckus. What the hell? Senku strolled over to me casually before saying, "Gen's gone." I sighed and pulled myself up with the hand he offered.

"You still think he's on our side?" I asked him as we walked to the others, who were slightly panicking.

"Yeah, well. It's obvious where he went back to Tsukasa," I tilt my head at his calm demeanour. He's always been like this, honestly, I don't get how he does it.

"But why? Why sneak out like that?" Chrome looked down on us from the shed.

"I bet that rat's gonna snitch. He's gonna go and tell Tsukasa that Senku is still alive," Kohaku hissed.

"Not good, Senku. We have to try and stop him!" Chrome screeched.

"We have to catch that bastard, right now!" Kohaku began to run but I sharply stepped in front of her but she ended up knocking us both over. I landed flat on my back while she fell between my legs. Which was embarrassing, but I honestly didn't care much.

"What are you doing Koiru? If we don't catch him, it's game over for Senku!" I sighed and grabbed her arm firmly.

"I think we can let him be for now," they all gasped in confusion. Senku grinned madly at me, I gave him a tight-lipped smile back.

"Let me illiterate, If Gen really didn't give a damn about science, he never would've cooperated in the first place. I'm pretty sure I know he's made up his mind about what side he's on the moment we made electricity," I gently lifted myself up along with Kohaku.

"That's what got him," Senku continued, all of the other boys had pink faces which creeped me out, judging by Kohaku's face, she felt the same.

"But he's still a completely superficial man to his core. So he ran away to give us a show," I nodded along with Senku's explanation.

"You men. Such a pain in the ass. No matter what era." Kohaku groaned, I laughed light-heartedly at her annoyance. The men smirked as if that was an accomplishment.

"Whoa! So Gen's gonna join the Kingdom of Science?" Chrome sounded slightly excited, I figured he had actually grown fond of him during his stay here.

"Yeah. He'll come back before too long and act like nothin' happened," Senku smirked knowingly.

"Heh. Well, I guess that was our first battle against the Tsukasa empire. In the fight over Asagiri Gen, the Kingdom of Science claims victory!" Kohaku crossed her arms and held her chin highly and confidently.

"Gen turned out to be a good guy after all!" Suika squealed.

"Yeah!"

"Tch. So my next step is to use my knowledge of science to make him an ice-cold cola." Wait. Wait. He wants a cola? Oh god. I sigh half expecting something ridiculous like that.

"And I would love to have it ready by the time he makes it back," he glanced over to me, I gave a curt nod and smirked. Ah, this was going to entertaining.

*A few days later*

Kohaku was on a short break so I decided to take it upon myself helping Ginro and Kinro.

"You're only focusing on me, focus on the staff as well," I advised firmly. I blocked all of their weak strikes with ease.

"Look if we're going to make this medicine for Ruri, she'll never get it unless one of us wins the Grand Bout. Work smarter not harder!" I yelled slightly. I felt eyes from a distance. I knew everyone else was watching, though I didn't advert my eyes from my opponents.

"Okay, Koiru I think you should help the science team now since you decided to switch around!" Kohaku shouted, I sent the boys a bit of good luck and made my way over to Chrome, Suika and Senku.

"Uh, hi what are we doing?" I jog over.

"Arent you meant to be training?" Chrome asked.

"I've decided to help both teams so it will balance out," I say flatly.

"We're making this, glass stuff. What's that?" Chrome asked. Glass, huh?

"I mean, now that we have electricity, isn't the plan to start making medicine?"

"Yeah, it is. But in order to do that, we need glass first. Those clay pots aren't gonna cut it for the kind of experiments we'll be doing," Senku held up a small clay cup suggestively.

"Glass can stand up to just about any chemical. In fact, we wouldn't even have chemistry without it. And it's ten billion per cent easy to process! It can be fragile or durable as hell! You can even see through it!" He was starting to sound like a kid on Christmas morning again. His glossy eyes made my stomach churn, in a good way.

I clutched my left hip with my right hand to try and ease the new sensation. "Which means you can even observe the reaction inside!"

"Seriously? That's bad!"

"Dorks," I chuckle and shake my head, they gave me a sour look, crunching up their noses in disapproval.

"To top it off, once glass is acquired, we might finally get the chance to yank off that melon, take a look at Great Detective Suika and finally see that mysterious mug," I gawked at him in shock. He can't seem to actually be nice even for one second.

"Senku sto-" but it was too late. "Yoink!" I stared at him in shock.

"Stop, Senku! Suika doesn't want anyone to see her face!" Kohaku snatched the melon from his hands. I bared my teeth in disgust.

"I don't understand why not," Senku complimented, I gazed over to Suika. She had a blonde, choppy Bob haircut with charming hazel eyes, which were filled with tears that were threatening to fall. While everyone gawked in shock I only looked at her apologetically.

"My gosh, Suika! You are just the most adorable little thing!" Kohaku squeaked girlishly. It only took Suika's face to become wrinkly, she looked completely different than before.

"What in the hell?!" Chrome and Kohaku yelled perfectly in sync. I sighed, very much irritated and stood in front of Suika, letting her shrink away into my skirt.

"You lot are shameless," I mumble.