Three days have passed. As objective protectors of the village and a scientist at work to save humanity no time was wasted.
"Make sure to tend the villagers left in the lobby."
"Yeah" Taiga gathered her materials into her bag. Senku had given her the specific task of treating the injured, either by supplying them with bandages so that they could change their old ones and avoid infection or by directly aiding them. This was no coincidence, this was the perfect job for her. He saw it on her face as she treated them. "You know, at times I think you have a superiority complex Senku Ishigami." She said with a smile on her face.
He chuckled and he walked out the new lab being constructed. "Me?" He innocently asked
"Watch out" Kohaku had yelled as she and other villagers carried logs into the lab. "Senku, where do you want the table?"
"In the middle!" He yelled as a villager carved a trunk. The day was filled of shouting and the laboratory was under construction, the wood walls were mudded in order to prevent fire, the curtains were being knitted, counters and tables and even a small sign 'Dr.Stone Lab" were crafted. They were all busy with hopeful and opportune prospects.
"Yeah. You take a little much pride in yourself when you order around." Taiga yelled as she walked away with her now health kit she had bind to.
"I deserve to be demanding with what we are facing."
"I will go meet up with him once again. After going with Lina."
"Okay" he responded placing his hand on his hip and rising a brow. Makoto had helped them and he had no reason to dislike him even more, but he would rather not have him by his side but he knew that wasn't a wise choice. "Just make sure to not give much info about us." He lowered his voice.
"Okay" she stood still and watched him. They both stood staring. She was awaiting a word and he was awaiting an action. But all they heard were the shouts of busy men between the two.
She nodded and awkwardly left nodding in submission. "I'll start heading then. I'll bring the supplies back for the village by midnight."
He sighed once again. She hadn't kissed his cheek. He couldn't ask for much since they just got back on track on duty and it was unreasonable for her to act otherwise. He had less responsibility for the affair they had and it allowed things to get done. At some point, they would speak properly, he was no idiot, so for him watching her go into the wild with her basket and her green bag around her shoulder was custom.
"Senku! Help us out with the logs!"
"Me?" He poked his ear.
———
"Where's Taiga?"
"She's out" he responded to Kohaku.
"—again?" She furrow her brows "I don't like that guy. If I were you I would be jealous~" she smirked in contempt. "She's going out recently to meet up with that guy to get info but now they seem closer than ever~"
He forcibly smirked because he knew the way she joked. "Yeaah, I'm not very interested in what could happen between those two."
"She's your girlfriend." She articulated with a disdainful look "You should be interested. I thought a person like you would understand that she needs you."
Senku loosened his expression in realization before looking away. He knew damn right that they were not in perfect terms with each other and that he had never approached her to talk. Not after that day. At least not verbally. He knew that they were hanging on.
"I said I wasn't interested what could happen because I know her. She is my girlfriend after all."
"That's the first time I hear you call her your girlfriend"
"Why don't you get yourself your a boyfriend and stop picking your nose into other people's relationships. It's starting to make me feel sad for you" he surmised with a sneering look.
"You're rude"
"I never said I wasn't, why don't you start pumping the furnace gorilla instead of wasting time mellowing on your lonely life?"
"Lioness I like lioness better!"
"Gorilla!"
She blushed in anger but she felt herself like his teasing. Was it what Taiga felt whenever he teased her she wondered. Kohaku could never love a man like him but she certainly admired him. His craftiness and determination was not always seen in the village.
He was handsome besides being clever. "Senku, do truly love her?" She blurted out of her mind.
He stopped and he noticed her blue light eyes. Her eyes formed the sharp eyes of foreign heritage and her blond hair frame her face into a pretty woman. She had blushed.
"Stop talking nonsense." He remarked.
"Hey! Don't take it the wrong way!" She complained with her mouth wide as she argued. She blinked and kept her small mouth closed as she followed Senku's hands.
———
Taiga was exploring the new area as she laid down her items. She had gathered enough food for the crew and a few items Senku needed from the previous settlement.
It wasn't easy and she wondered if he had done it on purpose to avoid interacting with each other, but she didn't put much attention to it. She didn't need a response from Senku as long as she did her part in the science kingdom.
The war to her it seemed like a game. Sure thing, she could have died.
She grunted as she pulled a few herbs she recognized for tea. "Don't be stubborn!" She grunted.
Senku was killed and she was put to coma near death if it weren't for his care and blessing of the mysterious stone enveloping on humanity. They almost died in a war about the better good. (At least it wasn't about religion). Could they really not come to terms?
Now they were building weapons to not die and Tsuaksa was building an army of cold blooded lunatics. Spies, an army, weapons, deaths, and soldiers. She looked around and she didn't see a war zone but she knew it would one day be seen as such. Did wars always seem childish for the reasons being fought?
She walked over and she caught a glimpse of a protruding cold stone.
She stopped. It laid down in a peaceful sleep as if she had never been bothered by the world....
It was the key to the end.
———
"Taiga-Chan!~" a voice had shriveled and Taiga knew exactly whose voice it belonged to.
"Hiyaa~ Gen-Chan!~" she closed her eyes and waved at him exaggeratedly. He acted cheerful and slick with everyone and Taiga always matched his energy. He was a master mind in psychology, disinterested man, a corrupted man some would say, but he had always been nice to her.
Two days ago, Gen had found his way to the previous settlement and he found nobody there. He had escaped the empire with a severe beating for treason and held captive until a girl who proclaimed herself to be Senku's friend freed him. The guards got aware of his escape and followed after him. When he entered the forest at night he had lost them somehow, tripping and crawling his way to his last hope to find shelter on the other kingdom. But they were gone.
He looked around and his lip boggle as he saw ashes blow in the direction of the wind. The emptiness of life within it stood out to him and he felt the cold graze of the wind hit him and he fell to his knees.
"No." He echoed. "No, no" he held close his rib which ached at the pain of running.
He fell to the ground and his vision blacked out to the feet of a person he feared to be his end. They were the same color of boots of the blond bastard that had beat him up.
"Shh, it's okay. You're safe."—Was all he heard. A fragile girl wiped his face and it felt nice like the times he was about to perform and the make up artist smoothed his face with a sponge. The wetness of the face mask hydrating his skin in a natural refreshing motherly way.
He opened his eyes to reality to see his hair brushed away of his face and then she retreated her hands.
He made out the figure of a small women the size of the woman who helped him a few scarce hours ago.
But her hair was long and her eyes were sharp and round at the same time. He recognized her face from the sleeping girl in the hut room and party he had caught glimpse of.
She'd appeared like an Angel blessed awake right in front of his sight.
"You're Taiga?" He groaned.
"That's me"
He gave a breath chuckle and then he broke into a silent sobbed, he was laying belly down and he felt his back that had been lashed being cared and she soothed him without speaking. She was right what he needed was silence.
Now Gen was science Kingdom's magician full-time.
"Taiga Can you please convince Senku of more cola for me. I've been severely injured and that's the only thing that will maintain my unstable mind off that beating. Not to mention the brutes who first killed me are around."
"Nope"
"Taiga-Chan!"
"No no. I have fish ears!"
"Fish don't have ears."
"Wait..." taiga stopped and Gen malevolently smirked. She was genuinely oblivious most of the time. But Wildly intelligent out in abrupt moments
"Exactly. That's why." She said when she understood the phrase. "He there?" She changed the subject.
"Yes, it seems like Senku-Chan has been very sad by your absence just like when you were a sleeping beauty~"
"As if he cares..." She shyly smiled and avoided his gaze for she wasn't alright. She just pretended to be. "I'll check in with boss!"
Taiga walked by and went inside the lab where everybody in the crew was apparently together like a business meeting. "Hellos!" Taiga yelled as she laid down her basket backpack.
"You're Back" Senku said in a monotone voice. He smiled at her without looking at her in the eye and he went after the items she had collected.
"I think not" she joked as she made a ghost sound. She wiggled her fingers and smiled with a wide smile closing her eyes and scrunching her nose."Boo~ bo-"
"-good evening" she jumped at the sound of a low voice. Taiga looked up to find Makoto smiling hovering over her.
"Hi" she responded in a monotone voice. He had come to the village instead of the meeting site.
He had groomed his hair and she could have better guess he was going on an elegant date, his lips were hydrated and he had his same cold icy eyes melting the sun. She could have fallen for him, in fact, she once did. He seemed sweet if people didn't know him.
"I got you some new info and regarding what you told me too". She felt her head being patted. She grimaced and pulled his hand off her head. He wasn't going to control her.
"Regarding Gen?" She asked.
He smirked and eagerly shuffled her hair. It was childish-some now. "Don't be angered." He laughed as Taiga softly tried to knock his hand away, a bothered look on her face. She didn't look scare anymore Senku noted.
The room went silent and Senku began to feel the chills running up his skin as if they were lice running up his skin.
"Hey, Senku." Makoto coldly waved, his expression changing in a 180 degree when he turned to greet the villagers with tender character.
"You're here this time." Senku had remarked.
Taiga smiled with concern. Looking up and watching them interact.
"Yeah, the Alpha Group has been relocated back into the empire. It seemed there's a change of plans."
"What change?" Kohaku asked.
"Has he surrendered?!" Chromes excitedly asked.
Makoto chuckled. "No Chrome, a man like him doesn't surrender unless he sides with you or you're dead"
Senku caught Chrome's name and it began to concern him. Taiga kept looking at Makoto with a soft smile. Her eyes weren't filled with the same devotion and innocence ultimately due to the issue they created.
Her eyes weren't happy, but recently they had not been, but now she was nodding to Makoto's words as if it were long time friends.
Her small voice asked "Why you come here? We tend to meet over there"
"Just wanted to make the way shorter for you this time. But come, we need to talk. It's serious."
"Why don't you talk here. We have been allies for a while now." Senku joined the talk by standing beside her. "It's logical to share the information rather than the exhausting walk you guys take for one talk. We'll get to know it either way right?"
"Don't tell me you're jealous?"
"Huuuh? Jealousy? There's no time for that compared to people like you I got better things than pursuing those bothersome feelings like love. People in love ten billion percent lose their mind. I'm not one of them-"
Taiga clutched her hands and furrowed her brows; and the more Senku spoke the more she felt detached from him. Her breath became heavy, her cheeks redden, and her vision blurred and she bursted butting in.
"Yeah." she loudly stated. She stared at Senku who was caught off guard. She held a disproved looked and her eyes were watery. It wasn't worth fighting in public. "Let's go."
"Hold on." Makoto shuffled his hair. "Look, there's some personal stuff I gotta talk to her first. We can later discuss about your little war. We have time"
"That's not suspicious at all" kohaku butted in. Frowning at Makoto. She had no fear either.
"I'm not to be trusted" he nodded as he said it word for word with certain pride and he smiled at Taiga. "Im sure my lady here has warn you. Or I'll be quite upset to not have met her standards."
"I have" she responded without losing the sight of Senku's eyes who stared back at her with a concern expression.
"I thought so." Makoto affirmed. He observed the lab and he counted the glares of some villagers, but not everyone hated him, he had helped them moved their injured, he was charismatic and a good person making it easy for people to love him. Though some, retained hatred and not for the reason of character, but the simple historic hatred for outsiders, especially those linked to the enemy. so no matter what Makoto did he wouldn't make up to them. Hatred like that was different to change for it came from the roots of how they were raised. "Okay then, I'll talk with you later vegetable head. Now I gotta talk with her"
"Mind telling us your guys secrets?" He placed a poker look mocking him as if he were a rebellious kid. "Or is your reputation on the line?"
Makoto released his calm eyes and taiga got between them.
"No" she stumble. "Makoto let's go. Senku, fill me in when I come back. Makoto let's go." she pleaded and makoto obeyed petting her.
He heavily sighed and smiled towards the villagers and started walking out along with Taiga.
"Taiga" Senku exclaimed grabbing her hand and she turned and smiled.
"It's okay" she said. "I know how you are and I understand what you tried to say." She nodded and she let go of his hand in rapid manner as if she desired to part from him.
"Don't be late" he ordered.
"Mm" She gave him one last look and then she ran after Makoto. "Otto!"
'Otto' her dulcet voice fumbled in his ears and her voice traveled around his cochlea and caught into his mind recalling Makoto's name being slipped off her tongue in her sleep. Was it reason to worry he wondered.
Makoto and Taiga went to the site they first met. She looked around and the tense atmosphere filled whenever he was out of public.
"...Makoto?" She asked. He kept looking behind her and he seemed happier than usual. He had hummed little tune on the walk and he kept looking back without her total perception.
"Come"
Taiga stared at him in concern.
"Come" he ordered sternly.
She walked closer "What"
He looked back and notice it wasn't time. "I'll tell you the plan tomorrow. Hyoga will be sent along with the alpha group to search for your settlement."
"What are they doing with the information they got out of Gen?"
"Like I told you, nothing, the information expired. That trickster tricked them essentially."
"Oh okay thank you. That's one thing less. Is that all?"
He sat down and he nodded. "The serious thing I'll say it tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the day."
She sat next to him. "What day?"
He looked at the lowering sun and he smirked. His cold eyes falling on her skin "the day the plan falls into place."
She sat down and she looked at him. "We won't be able to beat Tsuaksa tomorrow so you're referring to something else."
"You'll understand tomorrow." He looked over and he glanced at the shape of her lips and he started talking like the day they met at the mall. "It is nice to hear you call me Otto." He confesses.
"Hm? Dont think it over. It's your nickname."
He tenderly smiled. He felt gleeful hearing his nickname falling out her vocabulary making part of her once more. He looked forward and they both chilled like they often did on their meetings. "Taiga, you think the ocean misses you?"
She chuckled. "What are you talking about?"
"Water always comes back to check if you're there but you're not. You think it misses you?"
"Don't be silly."
"The river of Angel Park is where we had our third date. You slipped and the water tried to save you from me by washing you away."
"Yeah... I almost drowned." She was a good swimmer but that day she almost lost to the current. The water had become violent all the sudden taking her away into the depths of a river.
She carefully listened and she wondered why he was thinking of their past. Maybe it was the red orange sky above them or the river he touch.
She recalled the shortness of their love before things went down in their relationship into a break up he didn't allow. They had history together, there had been good moments but after it was hell and that's when she realized how he really was. It was all a fantasy proving her the reality of her life and self.
"A month" she whispered. Her lips stretched in impotence of his lie.
He chuckled. "A month" he ironically repeated after her. They both turned to look at each other and they chuckled.
She scrunched her nose and softly growled in frustration, her hands clutched in in the air as if she were going to choke him. "You are a-" she shut her mouth and contained her urge to curse him out.
"A fucking bastard"
"Thank you"
He smiled rising his brow. She chuckled because he was indeed a 'fucking bastard' and he laughed because he knew it was true.
"Five years really?"
"Sorry that's the first thing that came up."
———
"You're back"
"Yes I am" she smiled knowing who it was by the welcoming. "Senku, everybody has gone to bed?"
"Yeah, you're late"
"Am I? Didn't know my oppressor had a rule about time"
"I don't. But I would rather for you to be home before the sun sets. Lions tend to hunt by night due to their night vision, wolves have been sighted, Tsuaksa's army and your ex is on the hunt for us. I would appreciate some consideration if you don't make me worry for another person dying here"
"Makoto isn't on the hunt for us"
"You trust him now?"
"No."
The clawing sensation inside Senku irritated him. "Tell me the information that's going to you. I need to know what is happening, and who you are becoming."
"Becoming what?? I'm the same"
"You're defending him"
"I'm not defending him. I don't trust him either, I was just correcting you because he isn't on the hunt for us; he is helping us. We're Allies"
He sighed. "I don't trust him a millimeter, but I trust you. If you say we can work with him. We will"
She stayed silent. "We cannot not work with him. Right now he has been doing his part, and I was able to return to the settlement because of him. A lot of people could've died in the bombing of the Hunter but he led us out beforehand. You know that working with him is the smartest move right now. It's for his benefit, so he's tied to us if he decides to betray us."
"Yeah, you told me." He stopped working on the mechanism Taiga was unfamiliar with and he faced her. "Don't be late. I worry." He disclosed.
"You worry?" She asked incredulous. But then she shook her head. Her brows furrowed.
"I don't like you being with him too long. Something ticks me off."
If he had said that before they slept together she would have thought it was jealousy but she knew better. "I don't need your help. Worry about what's ahead for the civilization."
"Do you want me to kiss you like when you were stubborn enough to walk Tigress?"
"I'm not being stubborn." Taiga got red and she looked away. "I am just. I'm just. Just. Ugh!" She shrugged in embarrassment remembering that day. "...You're smart enough to play dumb" she uttered. He loved him, so why hadn't he talked to her.
He walked over and she often forgot how tall he was compared to her short figure. It was hard to control herself. She would do anything for him. She looked into his eyes and she knew she would die for him.
"Are you blushing Tigress?~" he started to play with her and she hissed and pouted. He playfully smiled.
"I'm going to bed!" She shouted as she exited the lab.
She smiled.
———
The routine repeated and Makoto arrived. He had pulled her out chuckling when she had panicked and sent her hand flying being caught and pulled into his chest. He laughed and she nervously chuckled.
"Don't be doing that!" She said as she started to laughed and it was then that Senku heard the laughter and realized the way his lover had been wrapped into another man's arms. He glared and realized how stealthy Makoto was.
Makoto hugged her and he stuck his tongue at Senku sliding his hand to her waist. It was a challenge.
"Otto!" She yelled. "Let go." Taiga tried to push him and Makoto grabbed her hand and waved at Senku. "It's not appropriate, so stop doing that would you. This is a deal and only that." Her tone had harden.
"We're more than that and you know it."
Taiga shut her mouth and Senku wondered why she didn't talk back.
"Today is the day as you know. I'll tell you about it over there. My friends are waiting for us too, so we must go now."
Taiga paralyzed and she shook her head. "What do you mean? Why are they there, it's suppose to be only you who comes"
"We can be alone after we discuss what we talked yesterday"
"I don't want them to be with us. We only need to be the two of us to communicate. Why are they coming too?"
"Taiga don't act childish. I want this to work just as much as you do." Makoto glanced over at Senku and makoto nervously bit his lip. "Trust me"
She gulped and glared at Makoto. "Okay, I will. This better not be out of plan."
"It won't siren. Now Let's go."
Taiga wondered if it was a good idea to trust him. Makoto was a person you couldn't trust completely. Taiga debated her options and hesitantly recited. "Okay. Let's. Let's go."
"Bye"
Senku didn't respond but he waved. Was she going to be alright? Taiga was afraid of Makoto, but she had never hesitated to meet him except for the times she encountered Makoto's friends. Something was wrong by the way he controlled her and touched her. He followed them.
———
Makoto glanced back and the tip of his lips curled. It was matter that he settled the mood. It took a straw to unsettle a relationship. No matter how strong it was, if that person loved the other it was easier to drive them mad with jealousy, pain, and doubt. Senku, you were right. A man who loves is a dead men losing.
She started to laugh and Senku heard her enjoy herself with the company of Makoto as he imitated an old British man kissing her hand and bowing saying foolish sentences. She seemed insecure from far away but she kept smiling and it was strange. She was doubting.
Makoto ruffled his hair and winked at her. Senku slowly followed meters behind on the other side of the path. Kohaku wasn't near so now he was stuck walking like a stalker behind Taiga and Makoto. Pathetic but what had to be done he would figure how to get it done. In case of any rapture he had left a note indicating his situation. He needed to know what caused them to talk privately. This wasn't about the Allies. This was a trap.
They arrived and nobody was there waiting and it unsettled Taiga.
She looked around and into the trees searching for Makoto's friends but no one was there.
Senku hid behind a tree and he started sweating. He felt the cold sweat emerge from his skin and the cold breeze overcome the area. He came unarmed and nobody was here to help them. Now what. Think.
He looked around the ground for anything he could use to escape with her as he listened at the same time.
"Where are Your friends?" She shakily asked as she scrutinized the land searching for heads but none were there. The absence of his friends confused her.
"It was a facade for him to think you're with him."
"What?"
"Taiga, do you remember what I told you the day you cheated?"
Taiga felt her mouth go dry and she realized she was not in a good position. She stayed silent. Now before you blame her. Cheating. Cheating was bad. But cheating was broad depending on the person it landed. Taiga took a step back.
"A man in Love is a dead men." He repeated and Taiga frowned.
She recalled the dead man. It was his friend. He hadn't been an Angel but he had been the kindest to her when she was tortured by Makoto and his gang. She had noticed that boy had been in love with her and it was out of pity he knew what he was doing and still did it but compared to the others there was guilt in his face. He was a boy who led the group out her way when he could to give her a day of peace. A man in Love was a dead man. That was true. He was dead. Six feet underground.
"Today is the day we talked about." He began. "We will be on the search for you. Dynamight will hunt you down. Just pretend to be hurt like last time and we will capture them. The village has no chance against us."
He stopped and he watched her stare intently at him. She had no expression at all as he predicted. She held a round expression of harmed innocence imprinted into her face with large confuse eyes. She should have known when she first saw him that he could ruin her with the snap of his fingers even if they were in the Stone Age.
Senku was an outcast, he had grabbed a stick and a rock, but he had forgotten his purpose and he started to listen more carefully.
"The day after tomorrow we will have them under control and you will be back again in the empire. Taiju and Yuzuriha are already under the watch and we will use them thanks to your offering of peace with the empire."
Senku's heart dropped. His grip loosen and his eyes open as if he had seen a shadow creep behind a tree before him. 'Yuzuriha and Taiju'. He turned his head and he silently peeked over. His eyes quivered. The girl he loved stood before this man. Her long brown hair covered her expression, but he noticed how she limply stood before him.
Taiga stayed silent and she was bewildered. Yuzuriha? Taiju? Dead men? Cheating? Since when did he know about them. Why did he know about them? She opened her mouth but Makoto dropped her knife he had snatched away and she frowned. "What are you-?".
"Senku Ishigami." He said. "Handsome eyes and smart. No doubt you liked him."
"Let go now." She threaten. "Let go now. I dont know what's your game but stop"
"There's no game" he spoke in his low tone voice. He was like a business men talking to his corporation. His voice was so elegant that he could yelled nonsense it would make sense despite his young voice. "Taiga, thank you" he emphasized."For you I am able to love" He stared into her eyes and she wondered what went wrong with love.
He sweetly smiled and it didn't look like a lunatic, he seemed in love with her and it caught her off guard because the grip on her arms was so different to the tender expression he gave her. "The plan is falling into place!~" he extolled her contribution cupping her face for a second. He let go and he opened his arms and twirled around, cheering. Laughing in happiness. "We will be together like you wanted. I promise." He softly soothed her, his hand rubbing his thumb to her lips. "Those cherry looking lips. They have always fascinated me."
"I haven't betrayed anyone!" she begged.
"STOP! MAKE UP YOUR MIND! ONE DAY YOU SAY NO AND THEN YOU SAY YOU WILL DESTROY THEM LIKE YOU DID TO NOAH! I LOVE YOU. I HAVE AlWAYS LOVED YOU. SO STOP PLAYING WITH ME. I love you baby girl, enough to want you now too. So stop changing sides!" Makoto shouted and the vocal strings threaten her. "We are the same. You protect who you love, so now you're betraying him for his own good. To save him."
"Shut up! I wouldn't hurt him. Not now or ever. So you better sto-"
"Such a dirty mouth. You have been giving us information to destroy his science thing fascination! You know, if it weren't for you that blond idiot would have not found his way into the village. If you didn't let Shoto to enter many lives would have been saved. Now they are burning in hell you could say"
"YOU WERE THE ONE WHO LET THEM IN! ITS YOUR FAULT THEY ARE DEAD!"
"YOU ARE ALIVE BECAUSE HE DIDNT KILL YOU!"
Taiga furrowed her brows and she stopped. Hunter.
"Dynamite was this close" he harshly grasped her neck in the wrong breath "to kicking your bucket if it was real. I thought I taught you to fight better."
She wanted to scream but it wasn't wise and it was not as if she could. He let go and she coughed. A few seconds in his grip and she was suffocating. She looked up.
She had to leave now.
"Look at you baby. I remember your eyes when I first called you baby. You were so giddy and you laughed. But now we are here arguing in a why-I-do-what-I-do."
Taiga flinched when he lifted his arm and Makoto giggled and ignored it. "Taiga" he had called her seriously as he looked towards the trees. "They are here. Don't look."
Taiga trembled and she grasped her arm that didn't stop shaking. "Makoto-" she tried like the 4-year old girl who attempted to reason with his abusive father; but she was interrupted, she didn't matter.
"Do as I Say." He confided.
Taiga stayed silent and knew that the only way to get out was to obey. Like with dad.
"No problem" she responded. Her jaw was lifted by his hand and before she noticed his lips were on hers and she pushed back but she let her hands confess and allowed herself to melt into the kiss. A kiss that became long despite being a peck.
"Go home" he ordered under his breath and he parted walking away.
Taiga quickly turned around and she looked all places for more men but all she saw was a thin boy holding a stick and rock stare at her with a frown. She turned back and Makoto had entered the forest and she understood only then what he had done.
"Senku."
He didn't say anything back he just glared with a broken look. Kohaku emerged from the forest by his side.
"Why?" She asked in a breath. "Why TAIGA!!?!"
"Stop!" Senku yelled. "It's not safe to stay here."
"Senku-" Kohaku argued in heat and confusion, her hands clutched in anger.
"Not now." He moved aside indicating them to head back.
Taiga held a worried look but she looked down reflecting. She started walk looking behind searching for the prominent figure to appear, for an ambush, or anything that led her out of her position.
"Head to the village. I need to talk to her to know how we should proceed."
"But Senku."
"Don't worry. Inform the others regarding what happened"
"I can't just leave you." She looked back at Taiga with hatred. "With her alone. She can do something"
"I have a name, Kohaku"
"You don't deserve a name" she quickly responded . "How could you? We were your friends! You betrayed us! All of us!"
"I wouldn't harm your village."
"You did."
Senku held Kohaku's shoulder. "Head to the village. Trust me"
Taiga stayed silent and looked away as she left. Senku entered the lab and she followed. They stood before the other and he stared at her.
"She often fought with people, and ended up harming the principle stabbing him in the eye after a sudden outburst she had for no reason." Was it then you sided with him?
Taiga's eyes widened. Her eyes followed to Yuzuriha. "What were you guys talking about?"
"That day. I was there when she got in trouble....It looked as if she was roaring. " No. It was long before
"She'll first be the perfect girl, then she'll seduce you into giving her your heart, she'll rip you apart. At least that's what's she's doing right now. Senku Ishigami. We were sent for that." It was planned. When did you seek them?
"You took long" Senku asked at the time she returned from her foraging.
"Sorry, I like the water" she would always say.
He remembered the moments she brightly smiled and held his hand her innocent eyes begging for a kiss.
Working with tedious work without question. Comforting him when tired, cooking when hungry, working when needed.
"Did she ever hold your hand and look at you with an innocent stare? She does that with everyone. I know because she did it to me, especially after I fucked her well in bed"
She moaned into his ear as he heavily breathed. Her legs wide open flailing in the air. Her mouth partly open, her cheeks tinted rose, vapor out of the two in the sunny summer in that one laboratory.
"You'll like her in bed" he heard as if that man was there to mock him near his ear. He stared at her and the more he looked the more everything made sense.
"Attack the village" she had whispered "it's not time".
"Who are you talking to?"
She turned immediately. "N-nobody"
The man froze and she was a stab away from death. But they stared at each other with a gaze that broke the world for them only. The two in a limbo she had been when she fell for him.
One year together, two years falling in love, three years, when did it start? When?
"When did you decide to turn?" He query.
"I did not betray you" she tried to indulge shaking her head slowly as she approached him. "Senku-"
He backed away at the same rhythm she approached and he grabbed a flask. She halted when she read the label.
"You're really going to throw me acid?"
"Hydrofluoric acid to be exact. It may damage your skin and even bones. You must understand I don't feel safe around you considering your circumstances" he said a short smile forming in his playful voice, but he wasn't playing.
"Put it down please" she begged but he didn't budge. She backed away and stood close to the exit sympathetic to his emotions. "I won't harm you." she looked at the grasp he had into the flask "So put it down please"
Senku hesitated but he placed it on the counter closer to his side deciding it wasn't yet necessary.
"I didn't betray you" she began.
"You gave them information to burn down the village. You placed Yuzuriha and Taiju in danger for your self."
"I never mentioned them. I don't know how he knows about them. It isn't a mystery. They are your friends. Maybe he-. Maybe he just knows"
"Stop lying for once, Matsuki."
"I'm not lying." She stated.
"I should have seen it coming" He sussurated as he broke down her identity' with his glare. "Everybody warned me about you, but I never listened because I... I trusted you."
"I never wanted them to die. I wouldn't harm someone, I wouldn't harm you." She exclaimed placing both her hands on the table. "You think I wanted them to die?"
"You knew they were coming. You even looked back from where they were coming!"
"I did not!"
He gritted his teeth. "I heard you talking with them! That's why he didn't finish you. You already knew they were coming, you knew they wouldn't harm you going into the forest right after the attack!" he grasped his head and sighed. "HOW CAN YOU TALK AFTER THIS?!?! I TRUSTED YOU WITH ALL I HAD. TELL ME WHY DID YOU DO THIS?" he slammed the palms of his hands into the table and he kept yelling. "YOU PUT THEM IN DANGER IN THE HANDS OF A KILLER. THEY ARE EXPOSED NOW UNDER THE EYE OF TSUKASA! DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA WHAT YOU DID?!?!" His eyes teared up and he didn't see her. He didn't see the girl he had loved. She was shaking her head fearing losing his favor. "THEY WERE YOUR FRIENDS TOO!" He shouted.
"He won't harm them." She tried to theorize. "Tsukasa killed us because we were on his way"
"How you know? Just like you know Hunter won't harm you? The other guy you seduced to gain their favor?"
"Seduuced?" She asked with her mouth opened at the way he was speaking to her. Her eyes were tearing up. "I did not seduce anybody Senku."
"You seduced me." He yowled. "You had sex with me to blind me from current events. Don't try to hide it now. It's pathetic"
"I don't have to sleep with anybody to make them trust me."
"The way you moved your hair, revealed your neck, and the way you bended over whenever I asked you for something." Senku's eyes hovered with each word down up her body with revulsion. "I regret ever touching you"
Taiga furrows her brows and she kept silent for a while. Her tears rolled down and she flattened her lips as she looked down.
"I know that." She confessed in a lonely voice. "It was very clear that day. I understand though. It's okay." She said almost to herself.
There was silence and Senku thought of the most wise decision to take. One fruitful and adequate for the safety of others, but he couldn't. He clenched his teeth.
"The most precious thing I have is our relati-"
"What relationship?" He sternly asked "the one where you used me to get your means? The one where escaped with your ex lover to destroy the kingdom of science, the one you sold your friends out for?! TELL ME!!! WHAT PART DO YOU WANT TO TALK FIRST?!?!"
She laughed and her tears flowed. "Yeah. What relationship." Her voice quivered as she hung her head.
"WE NEVER HAD A RELATIONSHIP. IT WAS AN AGREEMENT! ONE I REGRET EVER MAKING WITH SOMEONE MAD AND SLUTTY LIKE YOU!"
"YEAH, I AM MAD FOR YOU!!! AND I AM A SLUT FOR YOU! I WOULDN'T STOP YOU IF WE WERE IN THAT LAB ALL OVER AGAIN BECAUSE IT WAS MORE THAN SEX TO ME"
"IT WAS JUST SEX AND YOU KNOW THAT CLEARLY"
Taiga shook her head. "No. I love you"
"When did you ever love me?! When you got into my bed at nights? Or when I gave you the information for you to tell your boyfriend?!"
"One month. That's all we had! You don't know him! You have no idea how he is!"
"I KNOW. I NOW KNOW!"
"What do you know about LOVING?" She cried. "Tell me. Why are you believing him? Is it really that much to listen? I didn't do anything! I'm innocent! He planned out everything, that's the type of thing he does. All I've done is protect us. I don't want you to die HIS WAY!"
"PROTECT ME HOW? BY SLEEPING WITH HIM TOO? SURE THING YOU DIDNT DO ANYTHING. YOU KISSED HIM IN FRONT OF ME AND YOU SUBMIT TO HIM LIKE A DOG WHENEVER HE IS INVOLVED. WHAT ARE YOU SCARED OF! OF HIM NOT FORGIVING YOU YOUR INFIDIITIES??!?!! SCARED THAT YOURE SLUT?!?!"
"IM SCARES OF LOSING YOU. IM SCARED!" She sobbed. "All I wanted was to protect you" she said under her breath.
She wasn't the girl who chilled his skin with her touch. Makoto's kisses ghostly linger on her lips. Her mouth spilled lies. She was beautiful as she stood in front of him and that was what scarred his mind the most as she murmured. She looked innocent.
"You disgust me to the core. When did I think it was a good idea to sleep a you when you look like a walking demented whore! YOU NEVER SATISFIED ME ENOUGH TO FEEL LIKE THIS!"
She stopped fighting. Her throat closed and she felt the stabs in her heart. Her tears overcame and rained down her cheeks. She wiped her tears with her wrist and she took a step backwards.
"GET OUT OF HERE NOW! LEAVE NOW! LEAVE!"
She ran out. She cried and entered the forest deep wishing where the silence was but her sobs filled her ears.
"I love you, you know that right?" She whispered pecking his lips. Her toes reaching up to kiss him more.
He teared up.
"Tell me" he had begged when she regained her memories.
She looked at him rolling her eyes playfully. "Yeah?" She was hiding something.
He sobbed looking at the flask he had labeled incorrectly. He placed his hand into his face covering his eyes.
"Good one"
——-
"How did to go?" A boy with blond hair style to the left asked as he saw Makoto arrive back to the empire.
"How do you think? It's our Taiga." Makoto said in a careless tone as if he had gone on a stroll.
His friends laughed and patted his back. Makoto had always won his way.
"You had to see her face when we mention that bastard"
"What a bitch" the blond boy, Ryota, blurted.
"Which?" Kiño, a male with piercings on his lip and shaved hair growing asked with a mocking smirk. He must confessed he loved her breast.
"Both of them" the boy leaning shading a tree carelessly answered and it gathered the attention of all and Makoto smirked.
"Yeah. What a bitch." Makoto muttered out as he recalled Noah's bloody hands smear the wood of the counter, twitching as his face banged into it, the knock back sound his skull created still rang in his ears like a beat. "he cried more than he should've."
Takeshi place his gaze on Makoto and Makoto stopped smiling. He was not mad, he simply knew Makoto as his closest friend, that he wasn't done.
"What do you want to do next Otto?"
He smiled. "You'll see"