Edited: Dec 14 2023
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Kohaku stood up, fixing her hair, "My name is Kohaku."
Kohaku had her hair tie between her lips, gathering her hair into a high ponytail and looking at Ana.
"And I think I may have tooootally fallen for you." Kohaku announced coyly.
Senku was very disturbed and bothered at what she just stated. Ana only blinked a couple more times.
"Uuughh. Those words are so bothersome enough to make me wanna die." Senku groaned as he gave her a deadpanned look, "And seriously, suddenly falling in love with someone in an emergency like this?!" He turned to his companion, "Isn't that right, Ana?"
Kohaku gasped like Senku was being scandalous.
"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT AT ALL!!! What I was trying to say was that I like people like her and want to work together!" She took one look at Ana's blushing face, "But she got personality so far, I'll give her that."
Ana snapped out of her void, "Oh? So you didn't mean it like... That?" In which she received a nod from Kohaku, "Ah, I see. I'll go out for a while then. I'll be back before night time."
Senku was about to stop her, but Ana was already a few meters away.
"When did she-? There's only a few minutes left before the sun is completely set."
He sighed, not following her to give her some time alone.
"Are you not going to follow her?" Kohaku questioned.
"No." Senku replied, "We're going to set up camp and you're gonna help me. She'll be able to come back to me later."
"You mean, to us?" Kohaku smiled very brightly at Senku.
"No, me!" Senku only returned it with a bright smile of his own, "Besides, she can defend herself. I wouldn't even be surprised if she comes back carrying a venomous snake and claiming it as her own." Senku chuckled silently at that, "As if she'll be able to find one in this place."
He was a bit weirded out by what he said at the end, but when he thought about it the chances of finding a venomous snake in this place was approximately one in 500,000.
Unless Ana had Lady Luck on her side, she would never have a chance of finding an ordinary or venomous snake.
"So long as she come back before it's too dark." Kohaku huffed, turning away from her new acquaintance.
Senku was not done with Kohaku though.
"That too, I'm glad that is what you meant by that. Love on the mind is the root of the most illogical problems."
"What even is your relationship with her?" Kohaku asked without missing a beat.
Upon not receiving a reply longer than she expected, a smirk grew on her face.
"Ah... So it's like that." Kohaku crossed her arms, "It seems there is a chance for me then."
"Hah?! What chance?" Senku rolled his eyes at her, "And what do you mean by 'it's like that', huh?"
"Poor you, you're not even aware yourself, huh? I might as well just steal her soon." Kohaku's words had a teasing note on them.
"As if! Ana won't be going anywhere until our plans are finished."
"Well, you better act quicker then!"
"That is what we're doing! We'll let you know about our plan soon!"
"That's not what I meant!"
Ana walked calmly, softly humming a tune under her breathe. She had been walking for a few minutes now, still not returning back. She faced the darkening sky, closing her eyes and just listening to the ambience of nature.
Before she could continue to enjoy the calm breeze and silence, she heard a soft hiss just below to her left.
Ana's eyes snapped open.
'This kind of hiss...! I can't be mistaken! it's a...'
She calmly face ahead, slowly turning to the source.
'A snake.'
There on the ground was a snake with the body pattern consisting of a pale gray, reddish-brown background, overlaid with a series of irregularly-shaped lateral blotches. The blotches were bordered with black and have lighter centers. The head was dark brown or black, with beige or pale-gray sides. It seemed to have a length of approximately ninety-one centimeters.
The lone snake was currently curled around itself, looking at her in a somewhat akin to curiosity look. Ana tilted her head, the snake copied her movement.
She knelt down slowly, taking long and slow even breathes. The snake didn't attack her, that was good.
She slowly settled her kneeling form in front of the snake, lowering her face a bit. The snake rose up, leveling its head to her eyes and tasting the air around her. After inhaling softly, Ana stretched her right arm outwards to the snake. The snake stared at her arm for what felt like an hour before slithering around it. She stood back up.
Ana was absolutely delighted, but she couldn't outright cheer right now or she would startle the snake, which turned out to be a male.
He continue to slither around her arm until he reached her neck, he did not choke nor bite her. He just wrapped himself comfortably there and was now staring at Ana from her right side, a few inches away.
Ana looked at him, speaking in a soft voice.
"You know what? I need a name for you." She put a finger on her chin, starting to walk back to where Lalaine and the others are, thinking of something, "My favorite subjects are Science and English. Science is currently at the top right now so English."
She threw her fist up in the air, "From this fateful day onward, thou shall be named as the good Sir William Snakespeare, also known as William or Will!"
All throughout the journey back to camp, Ana chattered softly to the deadly venomous snake dozing off around her neck.
It was night time when Ana returned to Senku.
Senku just finished their bonfire and Kohaku was a few distances away, checking her large container of water for any scratch or broken pieces. Thankfully, there was none.
Senku turned around when he heard the familiar footsteps of his companion.
"Oh, Ana? You're back? It's already dark, any longer and I'll be out looking for you-"
Senku slapped a hand on his own mouth just in time when he was about to scream.
The blonde, who heard his sudden abruptness looked at him with a questioning look before it also turned into a horrified expression.
Before she could scream, Senku covered her mouth with his other hand.
"Don't scream..." He whispered, Ana tilted her head at his actions.
Senku narrowed his eyes at the thing around her neck.
"If you do, the snake will be startled and will definitely bite Ana."
Kohaku nodded, Kohaku gripped the handle of her blades in preparation.
Senku actually couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"I.. I can't believe it... She actually managed to find one. What else did I expect with her luck!"
"What's wrong with you two?" Ana furrowed her eyebrows, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You have a snake with you." Kohaku spoke up, "Around your neck, nonetheless!"
Ana's eyes twinkled like a thousand stars.
"Good observation!" She put her right hand up, waking up William and wrapping him around her right arm. Ana made William face them, "Senku, Kohaku, meet our new companion, William Snakespeare!"
Senku inhaled through his nose as he closed his eyes.
"Do you even know what kind of snake he is?" He said, still whispering, he motioned for Kohaku to settle down.
Said girl look at him in disbelief but complied, he knew Ana better than her.
"Hmmm... Not his actual species, but I do know he's venomous."
Senku took it upon himself to explain.
"William Snakespeare here is a Gloydius blomhoffii or a Japanese Mamushi to make it easier for you to pronounce. His bite can cause tissues to liquify." Senku explained, "You literally end up with an injury that leaves a chunk of your body missing. They hunt for food by day as well as night. His kind have heat sensitive glands that allow them to locate birds and mammals and have fangs that inject poison like hypodermin needle!"
He spoke too fast for Kohaku to follow, but Ana easily did.
Instead of getting scared like Kohaku expected, she got starry-eyed and look at William.
"Oh my, William, you're a rare beauty!"
Senku took another look at Ana's elated face and he was gone.
He knew he was willing to do anything to keep that expression on her face.
And so, with a resigned look in his face, he said something he might potentially regret later on.
"Fine, you can keep him." Senku said, "Make sure he doesn't bite you, be responsible with him. And don't let him bite anyone else, unless you absolutely have to."
It was worth agreeing to when Ana's joyful face was directed at him.
"Thank you so much, Senku!!" Ana said as she walked closer to him, "Would you like to hold him? I promise he won't bite!"
"Well, there are only few people who can say they touched a Mamushi and lived to tell the tale."
"... Is that a yes?"
"Come here."
It was late at night now, Kohaku was sleeping with her blades in both of her hands, leaning on a tree.
Senku turned around to face her from his lying position beside Ana.
"Are you some new kind of human species that sleeps while clutching knives?"
After establishing with Senku that William Snakespeare would not bite either of them, Senku was now laying beside Ana's form as they always did since they started living back at the tree house.
Ana opened her eyes and sure enough, Kohaku was clutching her knives with her eyes closed.
"It's because you brought up having love on the mind or whatever!" She opened her eyes, a serious look on her face, "Just because I'm interested in who Ana is, doesn't mean I trust you! Even though she has a snake with her, I'd pick her any time over you! I've survive this long by always looking out for myself. It's how I do things, so don't take offense."
"Back in our modern time on Twitter, if you say 'no offense' or 'don't take offense', it's more often than not actually offensive." Ana said under her breath, Kohaku did not hear her.
Senku did though and he coughed loudly to cover up the sound of his laugh before turning back to his previous lying position.
"I'm not a hero strong enough to take down a lioness even if I got the jump on her, so hurry up and go to sleep, even 0.1 more second of this is a waste of strength."
"LIONESS?!! That hurts, just so you know, even to someone like me." Kohaku was the one who was offended, "Even though you live and act as a gentleman would, your tongue is more twisted than the most crude of me. I may wind up killing you some day if you're not careful."
'But I guess there really is only one person you're a gentleman to.' Kohaku's eye twitched as she was reminded of what it felt like to be around these two earlier.
'Seriously, I don't know why but being alone with these two makes me so frustrated while watching them interact. It makes me want to just push them towards each other so they would just kiss already.' Kohaku laughed internally at her thoughts, 'Although, it is amusing to tease that leaf-haired jerk.'
There was a pout on Ana's face.
"Kohakuuu, please don't threaten Senku." Ana whined playfully, "Besides, isn't he one of the people who saved you?"
Kohaku felt an invisible arrow hit her heart as she clutched her chest, looking away from Ana's pout and glistening eyes in, surely, fake sadness.
"Forgive me! I was just a bit insulted!" Kohaku hurriedly say, "Just stop looking at me like that!"
Senku snorted, 'Hah! Absolutely weak to Ana's pouting face!'
He thought, as if he would not be the same should he be the recipient of that look.
Ana laughed silently at that, "Oh, he's just really blunt and likes to say what he thinks out loud, so don't take offense."
The blonde's eyes widened, a glint in her eyes once she processed what she said. Ana used her own words against her.
Kohaku smirked, "You know what? I take back what I said, I'm reaaaaaaally starting to like you."
Senku pulled his blanket a little over his face, part of the reason was to tune out Kohaku, but also since he felt the chilly air of the night nipping at his skin.
"Ana, please go sing something or whatever. The three of us can't sleep like this."
"Of course, since you asked nicely." Ana said with a smile as she started to hum the melody of the intro of a song she had in mind for a while now.
Ana carefully weaved her hands softly through Senku's hair.
"Moon, a hole of light through the big top tent up high..."
Kohaku was astounded at the different language she was singing and her voice. This was the first time she heard a different person singing and in an unfamiliar language.
Despite not understanding the words being sung, Kohaku knew just from the way Ana's voice sang it oh so gently with her softest voice, as if she meant every word in that song, whatever they mean.
"Here before and after me shinin' down on me."
She was singing it like she was weaving a song using the threads of her words— A poetic message.
"Moon, tell me if I could send up my heart to you?"
To whom?
Senku shuffled a bit closer to her as he felt his body relax upon feeling her warm body, leaning in closer to her touch as he felt the exhaustion from the events earlier finally caught up with him.
"So, when I die, which I must do, could it shine down here with you?"
Slowly, he felt himself being lulled to sleep.
Half-way through this part, Kohaku felt her body relaxed. Her grip on her knives loosened but they were still close to her, she knew she shouldn't have done that, but something was just so wonderful in this moment that she felt herself relaxing and comfortable, to just let herself be at peace and take a break for once.
"'Cause my love is mine, all mine. I love mine, mine, mine."
Kohaku closed her eyes and let sleep take over her body.
"Nothing in the world belongs to me but my love mine, all mine, all mine."
Ana's voice got softer and softer until their camp was just filled by the nature's sound.
She fell asleep soon after.
Ana stretched and rolled her shoulders, flexing her muscles to make sure she wouldn't get any muscle pain later.
"That was some good night sleep!" Senku turned to Ana, giving her a pat on the shoulder, "Thanks for letting me sleep beside you, Ana!"
Ana gave him a smile in return easily, "Anytime!"
From behind Ana, Kohaku's eyes twitched at Senku.
'Lucky bastard!'
Senku caught her glare, only smirking smugly at her.
Kohaku got tick marks but refrained herself from slaughtering him. An outstanding show of her self control.
Kohaku placed a hand on the container she brought with her.
"That long-haired guy from yesterday, you're fighting with him, right? Let's work together then! I can't shamelessly back down from him either."
"Right. That's why we're going to create a country of science."
Ana said from her spot where she was crouch down, looking merrily at her snake, who was swallowing a frog.
"Science? You mean that sorcery?" Kohaku questioned, deciding it was better to ignore the scene of nature and its food chain at its work.
Senku was pondering her words.
"Anyway, first things first, we need manpower."
Ana stood up, carrying William in her arms after he was finished.
Kohaku looked at him.
"Then you guys should come with me. I was going to head back after getting some hot water."
"Hot water?" Senku asked.
Ana was helping Kohaku fill up the container with hot water. She gave William to Senku for the meantime, fortunately, he didn't mind.
So far, William was comfortable around Senku and Ana. When Ana tried giving him to Kohaku, he was a bit fussy.
"I make a hot springs bath out of this by bringing it back home. For recovery purpose, that is." Kohaku explained the reason why she was getting hot water.
"No matter how I look at you, you're 10 billion percent the very picture of health. Why would a perky, vivacious lioness possibly need to get any healthier?" Senku bluntly said.
"Senku...!!" Ana scolded him lightly, which caused Senku to turn his head away.
"I'm not a lioness!!" Kohaku defended, "And it's not for me, it's for my older sister!!
Ana glanced at her, "You have an older sister?"
"Yes, geez..." Kohaku nodded, "To be honest, my sister is a huge hindrance, and just an endless annoying bother..."
Her eyes were telling Ana an entire different story and emotion though.
"Especially her condition. Recently, she hasn't been felling well at all. I only wish I could trade with her and give her this strong, healthy body of mine."
Ana took a note of that piece of information.
'She's ill? Then that means we could cure her and in exchange, we get the people to help us with our plan.' The thought came easily to her.
After all, why would she not take every advantageous opportunity that springs up to them? She did not ended up being the heiress to her family's entire fortune and properties by just being pretty and through her spending habits.
"The water must be less than 50 liters. That's nowhere close enough for a bath." Ana spoke up after analyzing the container, "Carrying something that damned heavy while making countless trips back and forth day after day..."
Kohaku started to walk down the mountain, turning to look at Ana.
"Ha! This is just my daily training. The water happens to be the perfect weight. Thanks to that, I've been able to work out a lot. I suppose I should be thankful a bit to my problem of a sister."
Ana lowered her gaze to her shaking legs.
'You're about to fall now.'
And just like she predicted, Kohaku's knees suddenly gave out and she almost dropped the water container.
Senku appeared on her side to put a hand on the container, preventing it from dropping down.
"You still haven't fully healed from your own injuries yet. If you keep pushing yourself like this and end up dropping dead, we'd be the one with the problem. Give it here."
Ana and Kohaku stared at him.
"Senku..."
Senku dropped dead on the ground as soon as the weight of the large pot was his to carry alone.
Ana was able to catch the container before it dropped on the ground too.
Kohaku was not amused as she crossed her arms.
"You're the one that shouldn't be pushing themselves!"
Senku had enough, this Stone World was being unfair to him.
"Is everyone apart from me and Ana in this Stone world a gorilla?! First Taiju, then Tsukasa, now Kohaku..."
Kohaku was offended, yet again.
"GORILLA?! Going back to Lioness is way better than that!"
"That wasn't the point." Senku sighed.
Ana just chuckled at their antics as she held up the container. She felt the cold body of her snake slither up to wrap around her shoulders again.
Her hold was starting to shake, she still did not get to have a proper rest to regain her full strength since yesterday.
Senku must have noticed her slip up since he quickly thought of another idea. One that would work very well with their predicament.
Soon enough, they were now rolling down the mountain hill, leaving dust behind.
Kohaku was at the front to secure her burden as Senku was at the back with Ana behind him, body pressed on his back and her arms wrapped around him securely .
Kohaku was a bit overwhelmed at the speed they were going.
"I can't believe you guys made something convenient like this on the spot like that!!!"
"I happen to be the best when it comes to doing anything on the spot." Ana managed to state from the back.
Senku couldn't contain the thrill he was experiencing right now as he had a wide smile on his face at their speed.
"It wasn't on the spot. We already had all the perfect materials gathered from yesterday's pulley. Civilization gives rise to more civilization. Applying innovation is the foundation of science!"
Senku put one of his hand on Ana's hands that were gripping too tight on his chest.
"Hey, princess, you're gonna leave bruises if you continue to grip on me that tight!"
"Senku, we're gonna crash!" Ana screamed out as she looked at the direction ahead of them.
True to her words, they really did crash. Ana moved in time to tackle Senku and herself out of the wreck.
Kohaku caught the water container. She looked back at her companions as she grinned at the two. Ana was helping Senku to get back on his feet.
"We're here, Senku, Ana!! Welcome to my village!"
The modern young-adults gaped at the sight of her village.
"How many people live here...?" Senku asked.
Ana started making William wrap around her midriff instead to not alarm any villager.
"Does your village have an unnatural fixation with emeralds?"
"I forgot the number of elders and children, but apart from that..." Kohaku was a bit confused at Ana's question, "I think there's just about forty! And no, we don't have any weird fixation on emeralds, as far as I know."
They followed Kohaku's lead towards the village.
Ana was a few steps behind Senku, who seemed to be deep in his thoughts by his body language.
'It's likely that neither Kohaku nor any of these people know about what was modern civilization. In other words, this village is made up of the descendants of revived people. There was probably a first generation, the founder of this village. It could have happened if, let's say a hundred years ago, a few men and women all happened to be depetrified at once.'
Senku narrowed his eyes, Ana was staring at him from behind in curiosity.
'But how would that have happened...? Was there a man of science like myself among the first generation that created a revival formula? If that were the case, then he didn't pass anything onto them. Not the revival formula nor even the first thing about science.'
He stopped in his tracks.
'Then where did all these people come from...? How did they get here...?!'
Senku was about to continue walking, when two figures appeared in front of him and charged at him.
He wasn't able to think as he remained on the spot, the sudden movement was too fast for his body to react. He felt someone (Ana, his mind automatically supplied. Always familiar with her entirety.) grab him by the back of his neck and pulled him out of the way.
Kohaku and Ana acted faster and blocked the incoming attacks. Kohaku deflecting it with her her own weapons, and Ana sending a kick to the other.
The two people were surprised by their actions.
Kohaku looked at them menacingly as Ana calmly stood beside her as she observed the two new individuals.
"Cease your violence, Kinrou, Ginrou! These are the people who saved me!" Kohaku exclaimed.
The blond one, who seemed to be Ginrou, smiled at Kohaku tauntingly, crossing his arms with his spear in hand.
"Come on, you know you can't do that, Kohaku. You just can't. Outsiders are forbidden. That's what was decided, wasn't it? You'll anger the chief."
His internal thoughts, however...
'This is the first time I've ever seen one! Humans outside actually exist! And there's a pretty girl too!'
Kinrou, the back haired one, gave her a sharp look.
"I'll put it as simply as possible. Rules are rules." He slammed his spear down, "'There are no humans outside the village'. Therefore, any outsiders must be criminal who were exiled in the past. So we can't let them in. Whether they saved you or not, we can't consider individual circumstances."
Senku glanced at Ana after hearing the guard's words, waiting for her next move.
Kohaku tightened her grip on one of her knives, "Oh? Then I guess there's no avoiding it."
"You're going to fight us here and now?" Kohaku asked with a daring tone, "Oooh, we're in trouble!! Males against Females? You two totally have the advantage!"
Ginrou gulped nervously and took a step back. Kinrou stared at them, bracing himself to be prepared.
Before any showdown could occur, they all paused as Ana walked towards Ginrou, stopping a short distance away from him.
"Sorry for the disturbance, I assure you we mean no harm to the village. We did save Kohaku from a predicament she couldn't get out on her own. We just wanted to meet with the village chief to talk about something. Will you be able to help us?" Ana casually asked, head held high and posture as proper as ever.
"Well... We're only guards, and Kinrou did say outsiders are more likely to descendants of the exiled criminals in the past-" Ginrou could feel his face heating up at the (fair) distance between them. A pretty girl was talking to him kindly!
Ana's eyes never once stray from Ginrou's own. While he was speaking, she had a smile on her face, tilting her head to the side a bit, mildly fluttering her eyes and focusing only at him.
The effect was instantaneous.
Ginrou's face bloomed in a deep shade of red to the point that steam seemed to be coming off his face, he started stuttering and sputtering with his words and all that came out of his mouth were something incomprehensible.
'Ginrou!! Hold yourself together! They might be criminals!' Kinrou thought as he gripped his spear, although he couldn't say even he was not affected.
'I think it's a good thing I'm behind Ana to not witness what kind of expression she directed to him just now.' Kohaku thought proudly to herself.
Only to hear the sound of tongue clicking from behind her. Kohaku turned around to see the male behind her.
Senku stood beside the container of hot springs water, soap in hand and smirking. Although the quirk of his lip seemed to have a sharp edge to it this time.
"This whole situation looks ready to blow earlier and that's one scaaaaary face you're making to top it off, Lioness."
"Sorcery?!" Kohaku exclaimed as she saw what seemed to be round objects floating after Senku blew some air into his hand.
Senku sent the bubbles floating towards Kinrou and Ginrou, the two were shocked and confused at the new discovery. Kinrou stabbed a bubble only for it to pop.
Ginrou seemed starry-eyed at the cute-looking objects.
"What are these strange flying jewels?!"
Senku was not amused.
"So that's the level they're at." He was surprised when he and Ana said those words at the exact same time, although in different tones.
They put on their mad faces, their hands over their face with William coiling around Ana's hand. Even the snake's eyes seemed to be glinting.
"Fine then. We'll take the whooooole lot." The sudden change with Ana's expression and demeanor when she turned to them startled even Kohaku.
"Now this is getting us excited...!!" Senku mimicked her expression as they intertwined their arms.
"With science, we'll get 40 people's worth of manpower..." Ana did not even bat an eye as William wrapped himself around their arms.
"And make all of them our allies!!" They finished together as they cackled madly.
Kohaku looked at the two nerds warily, feeling like she should be concerned.
"Speaking of scary faces, I think the faces of you two tops them all. But if that's your plan, then to start off, you should get Chrome!"
Kohaku's entire body twitched as the two, including the snake, turned towards her at the same time. Seriously, them doing and saying everything at the same time was such a shuddering experience! The snake was over the top!
"Who's that?"
And they were still in sync.
Kohaku gave them a closed-eye smile.
"He's quite the useful man and more importantly, he's the most lax."
Capturing the entire village seemed to be getting a good start for them.
___
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Edited: Dec 14 2023