June 6th, 5737, trying their best to stay in the shade…
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"Okay, I take back what I said. The days aren't slow, their deliberately slowing down to kill us."
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As Ayane looked up in pain as she began to sweat. All the while, Senku was walking around fanning himself with his shirt. The sweat and steam that permeate off of them was in a sense 'visible' to the naked eye.
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"The days I dreaded the most have finally shown up. The season known as summer has finally made its appearance. Normally, in the modern age days we could just lay back and stay inside our air conditioned house, but in this Stone World, we have no choice but to adapt to the sudden change in heat and weather."
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"Senku!" Ayane pleaded. "Your assistant is dying here."
"I…know." Senku spoke as he swallowed, trying his best to keep his saliva from creeping out of his mouth. "This heat makes it difficult to move around. I'm glad I didn't wake up Taiju or Yuzuriha. The both of them wouldn't have been able to handle this type of weather, especially the big oaf."
"I…thought I was the big oaf." Ayane replied as she looked his way before looking back at her hands to see them covered in a black smudge. "Eww."
"You were, but after I met Taiju, you just became Saki." Senku answered Ayane. "Let's go to the lake." Without answering, Ayane rose to her feet and followed Senku.
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Slowly making their way towards the lake…
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A journey that should have taken no less than half an hour, ended up taking an hour due to the teens fatigue from the heat. Without wasting any time, both Ayane and Senku stripped into readymade underwear and jumped into the lake.
Emerging from the cold, fresh pond the two teens were rejuvenated. Floating atop the water, with the Sun's rays barely breaking through the trees' shade, and the water's cool liquid at her back felt like paradise to Ayane.
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"This is bliss." Ayane praised as she began to swim around.
"Yeah." Senku answered as he began to rustle his hair, before looking at the swimming teen. "Say." As Senku spoke, Ayane stopped her swimming and stood up, making sure she stayed afloat as she began to listen to the boy before her. "What made you want to become my assistant?" Thinking for a while, Ayane began to swim her way back to Senku.
"Because I thought: My life probably wouldn't be so boring if I spent it with him." Ayane answered as she began to close the distance. "Does that answer suit your question?"
"Yes it does. 10 billion percent." But as Senku spoke, the bushes behind them rustled, startling the two.
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Without warning, Ayane grabbed Senku and pushed him underwater, causing the water surface to break. Struggling to get Ayane off his shoulder's, Senku struggled to free himself only to see Ayane's eyes plead for him to stop.
As he stopped his struggling, Senku noticed Ayane's grip on him loosen as she slowly surfaced. Following her lead, Senku kept his head low under the surface but high enough that he was slightly able to breathe through his nose. And what he saw startled him.
There stood a proud lion. As it stood in their line of sight, Senku noticed a scar over its right eye. Then, as it began to look around, the two teens slowly went back under, ensuring that they didn't break the water surface. Then slowly but surely, they began to swim as far deep as they could before Ayane pointed in a direction for Senku to follow. But due to Senku's weak stamina, he was unable to keep his breath for long.
Out of desperation, Ayane placed her lips on Senku and began to breath into his mouth, and Senku did the same. Ensuring that he could go on, Ayane grabbed Senku's shoulder and began to swim away, with Senku assisting as best as he could.
Thinking they were safe, the two surfaced once more. As they did, they instantly gasped for air, and held onto the small ledge that was to the side of them. Breathing heavily, Senku looked towards Ayane to see her trying her best to keep her breathing in check. Then lifting herself up, she looked around to see nothing in sight. But to be perfectly safe, Ayane grabbed the closest thing to her, and tossed it to see if something reacted to it. Nothing did.
Motioning with her head to show that it was clear, both Ayane and Senku rose up from the lake and slowly made their way back to camp.
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Rustling through a wooden box…
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Ayane pulled out several other clothes and tossed Senku a similar looking clothing that he had previously worn. Placing them on, Ayane and Senku looked at each other, and chuckled embarrassingly. Waiting for a few minutes longer, both teens waited within the shadows of their location before setting off once more. During their wait, Senku spoke.
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"How did you know it was a lion?" Senku asked, clearly curious on how quickly Ayane reacted.
"When you spend a ton of time in the wild, you tend to see a ton of wild things." Ayane answered. "Also, I sort of pissed that lion off." Ayane began to rub her head in embarrassment.
"How did you piss off a lion? The king of the jungle?" Senku asked now curious as to how a girl like Ayane managed to anger an animal like that.
"How do you think I got us clothes?" Hearing those words come out of Ayane's mouth was enough to scare Senku. Seeing the boy's shocked face, Ayane began to speak once again. "It was roughly around half a year after I woke up." Ayane began to try and remember the events of that day.
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"Still scared and worried about where I was, and since Hansuke was still a pup I couldn't rely on him that much until he became an adult. So, for the most part of my time, I just went out and grabbed anything nearby, only when there wasn't anything nearby, did I go out further. That day was one of those days."
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Placing a large basket on her back, and ensuring that Hansuke was tied to the rope, Ayane set off. Hearing the pup whimpering as Ayane left his sight, she smiled embarrassingly and left the comfort of her home.
Upon seeing that there was nothing nearby, Ayane set out further. After several minutes of walking and looking around, the young girl heard a snap behind her. Slowly turning around out of fear, Ayane noticed a lioness, just there staring at her. Completely struck with fear, Ayane just stood there, not once moving an inch.
As she began to hear the low growling of the lioness, with her body still shaking, Ayane tried her best to look around to see if she could use anything as weapon to defend herself. Then almost as if it was timed, a roar was heard. Hearing that, the lioness looked back. Seeing this as an opportunity, Ayane booked it, catching the lioness off guard and forced it to pursue her.
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"At the time, I didn't really think about it, I just ran. I ran as fast as my legs could take me. I didn't bother with the scratches or the pain I felt when I ran into many obstacles during my escape. I just ran."
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Feeling herself get exhausted, Ayane continued to run as fast as she could. But as she heard the sound of large paws slapping the ground beneath them, Ayane turned her head back to see the lioness right behind her.
Out of desperation, Ayane slightly turned to her left, which caused the lioness to just miss Ayane and slide in front of her. But in her short spin, Ayane noticed a pack of lion's following the same path she just took. Thinking as quickly as she could, in the corner of her eye, she noticed a cliff. She didn't care how deep down it was, or for the fact that it could've been just a few feet deep, Ayane ran towards the cliff, and the lioness.
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"Out of desperation, and pretty much running on adrenaline, I lunged myself at the lioness. Since it was still moving, it made it easier to push it off the cliff, along with me."
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As both the lioness and Ayane looked down what looked to be a 15 foot drop, by the laws of physics, both of them began to fall at an incredible speed, gripping onto the lioness fur as hard as she could, Ayane crouched her body in the small area she had, as the lioness tried to fight against Ayane's grip.
Then in a matter of seconds, a splat was heard and Ayane was thrown into the air and rolled off the lioness body.
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"I don't really remember how long I was unconscious for, but when I woke up, the sun was already on my right. The only things I could think about was the large amount of pain I felt on side, and where the other lions were. As I began to look around, I noticed my broken basket, as well as the lioness, just lying there. I tried to move, but ultimately I couldn't."
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Coughing from her sudden intake of air, Ayane tried to roll over to her side, but couldn't due to the sharp pain that followed. As her breathing began to break every time she moved, Ayane pushed herself up, and began to cry out in pain.
Finally being able to get up, Ayane ripped her shirt and began to tightly wrap it around her waist. Since she didn't know the severity of the damage, she didn't want to take any more risks of damaging it. As she cried every time she wrapped her shirt around, Ayane's breathing became harder, and as her whole world began to turn due to her exhaling a lot more than inhaling, the young girl felt her vision and body weaken.
But she knew that if she gave up there it would be the end of her life as she knew it. In this world, and for the past six months since she had been awake, she knew she had to do things on her own. With nothing but conviction and survival on her mind, Ayane, slowly but surely dragged herself towards the lioness to see if it was still alive. Not really surprised, she realized that the lioness was not breathing.
Staying by its side for a full half minute, Ayane began to shuffle around her to see if she could use anything as a makeshift knife. Then as she slid her arm past her waist, she felt something sharp. Pulling it out, Ayane realized she had brought a sharp edged stone. Chuckling, Ayane closed her eyes and held onto the stone tightly. Then looking forward, she gulped and began to sink the stone inwards.
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Several minutes later…
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Puking after finally being able to tear open the lioness stomach, Ayane looked away in disgust as she realized there still more work to do. As she continued to cut away as best as she could, the stench of dry blood continued to infiltrate her nose, causing her to gag uncontrollably. But after a few hours, she finished removing the entirety of the fur off the lioness.
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"As I finished removing the lioness' fur, I felt completely exhausted and was in an immense amount of pain. I tried to calm myself down but wasn't able to due to the head of the pack approaching me."
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Hearing a low growl, Ayane looked over towards her right to see the lion approaching her. Ayane once again froze, she froze due to exhaustion, and froze due to the pain she felt at her side. And since she didn't have a weapon to protect her, Ayane began to panic. Trying her best to move back to keep some distance between her and the male lion, Ayane continued to scoot herself away from the predator.
But her actions seem futile as the lion continued its approach. As it stopped just before its female, it rubbed its head against the deceased lioness' before returning its attention towards Ayane.
Picking up the pace, the lion opened its mouth and roared before rushing forward. In a panic, Ayane grabbed whatever was near and threw it with all the strength she could muster. Then like fate had rained down upon the young girl, blood began to emerge from the lion's right eye, as a large sharp edged rock was tossed towards it. Roaring in pain, the lion turned around and began to scratch at the wound.
Seeing how it was distracted, Ayane got up and waddled past the lion. Grabbing the fur she had finished removing from the lioness body, she placed it upon her shoulder and rushed off.
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Present time…
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"So, in the end the lion never continued its pursuit due to it being injured. And I occasionally ran into it in the past. Didn't see it for a while, until today." Ayane finished as she rolled up her legs towards her chest and wrapped her arms around. "Ever since then, I've been able to kill without remorse. But that's just human nature."
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Through the whole conversation, Senku had remained silent. Usually he'd be able to make some snarky comeback, but this time, there was no way he'd be able too. Not without harming her feelings.
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The Next Day…
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Waking up in a pool of sweat, Senku looked up towards the ceiling of the little hut called home and began to breath heavily. Even though the air flow was good, the heat was still unbearable. As he looked over to the bed, Senku noticed Ayane still very much asleep. Despite sweating as much as him, she seemed comfortable with the situation.
Getting up and out of the hut, Senku walked out towards the opened air and feeling a gust of warm wind was, in and of itself, better than sitting in an enclosed space. Even though the sun hadn't risen, Senku began to start his day.