5th Shot: A False Report
"How's your visit today?" Shinko asked, approaching Taiju and Yuzuriha who returned from their daily grave visit. Glancing to the side, she noticed Nikki studied them for a bit with menacing stare before walking away after making sure they didn't do anything suspicious. She still managed to intimidate her even after weeks of adjusting.
"It went well." Yuzuriha answered with a smile, but slowly her smile dimmed as she looked at her taller friend. Having Taiju standing silently wasn't a good thing to experienced–he's always brimming with bottomless energy and high-spirited with voices that could even shook the ground, seeing him staring at his feet solemnly made Shinko furrowed her eyebrows in concern.
She gave him a bitter smile. "You truly missed Senku-san, don't you Taiju-san?"
"Yeah," he answered lowly. "It's been a long time…"
She could only give him an encouraging pat on his shoulder, which he returned with a smile.
"Shinko, it's time for our report for today." she looked over her shoulder to see Ukyo already waiting for her for their daily report. Shinko nodded and bid the other two goodbye–promising a nice long chat at the end of the day to bring the mood up.
Ukyo and Shinko began to walk away to their destination–Tsukasa's throne, or so she dubbed it as. Along the way, comfortable silence settled between them.
"For weeks, these reports are the same. Nothing unusual, nothing dangerous, there's no sign of intruders or threats." Shinko grunted, stretching her arms to loosened her stiff muscles while minding her bow. "Will Tsukasa-san accept that?"
Ukyo shrugged. "If that's the fact, then I think he won't ever be angry. Besides, we only did as we're told."
The two finally reached the cave. From rustling sound of grass, the ground underneath changed into rocks paths–their steps were accompanied by crunching of gravels accidently being kicked off every time they took a step forward. Upon the entrance, a few guards already stood by–men that Tsukasa chose himself. They were all looming tall, packed with muscles, and holding sharp, intimidating gaze directed to anyone who come forth.
Ukyo gestured Shinko to match her pace with him, sticking as close as possible. She obeyed instantly, letting him shielded her figure and her hand found a grip on his shirt. Before he took a step, he froze–figure tensed.
"Ukyo-san? Is something wrong?" he heard her whispered.
"Step back, Shinko," he ordered, pushing her to hide behind his back. Hand reaching for his arrow and immediately aimed at the entrance. "Someone's coming. They're running here."
Ukyo released his arrow–it whizzed and landed just beside the foot of someone who ran straight towards the cave in frantic. Shinko's eyes widened at the familiar sight of light purple robe and dual-haired figure.
"Wait, Tsukasa-chan! It's me!" Gen exclaimed, panicked for a second because he was deemed as threat. The young man was drenched in sweat, without he a doubt he ran non-stop from wherever place he was from. Panting, he placed his hands on his knees–trying to regain his breathing.
"Tsukasa-chan, I found the primitive village! I got in a fight with them and ended up slightly injured." he continued, swallowing thickly. Now that she could see him clearly, his face indeed marred with laceration and bruises. It was tended hastily. "And Senku-chan…"
Senku? Ishigami Senku? Unconsciously, Shinko reaching out to grip Ukyo's shirt tighter–her heart hammering on her chest. Could it be that her thoughts were right? Ishigami Senku is alive?
"…was gone without a trace." Gen finished, snapping his fingers–showing them a smile full of confidence. "He's dead without a doubt!"
Was she mistaken?
.
.
"OUCH! Be gentle Shinko-chan!" Gen whined in pain as the said young woman dabbing his wounds with a damp cloth. "And you use warm water too, it stings!"
After the mentalist showed up with grand news about Tsukasa's 'enemy', he immediately ushered him to get treated–trusting her to get it done as soon as possible because Gen needed to be back for more spying. That led them to this situation currently–sitting under the tree with a mini fire lit not far away and on it was two clay pots with water.
Shinko sighed. "To prevent infections. In this stone world, being sick is the same as game over. We don't have advanced medications so we have to keep ourselves healthy."
"As logical as always, Shinko-chan~ OUCH!"
Not only his face, his whole body was marred with bruises and cuts–nasty decoration of reddish and blue hues. Having him stripped his shirt of was a right step to prevent more infections–besides he needed to get rid of his sweat-soaked clothes. Dipping the cloth back into the warm water, Shinko washed the grime away and wrung it dry.
"Shinko, I got the flowers you need." Ukyo's appearance was accompanied by rustling of grass as he approached the two, a little woven basket in hand filled with white flowers. Instantly, Shinko's head perked up just by his presence–Gen could see her lips formed a smile. Stunned, he found himself lost for words.
"Thank you, Ukyo-san." the said young man took a seat beside her while she rummaged through the woven basket. Grinning widely, she began plucking each petal from the flowers. "This will be more than enough."
"I already washed it in the stream so you can use them immediately. Here, let me help." Ukyo grabbed some of the flowers–separating the petals from the stems.
Gen felt like he's third-wheeling.
"U-um, Shinko-chan, what's that?" he decided to ask, not wanting to suffocate by the awkward atmosphere crawling on him. Feeling like an intruder wasn't something he expected to experienced.
"This is Yarrow," thankfully she didn't mind answering his question whereas Ukyo didn't even spare him a glance–too preoccupied by his work. "I just need to dump the petals in boiling water, letting it steep for five to ten minutes, and use it to treat your bruises."
Shinko put the flower petals into the boiling water in the new clay pot. Gen scooted closer, watching the once clear water turned yellowish. When the color changed, the young woman quickly lifted the pot away from the fire–placing it on the ground and the covering it with a cloth.
"Then, we will wipe your wounds with it." She dipped a new clean cloth into the decoction, proceeded to wipe Gen's wounds for the second time. "We can use the leaves too, but you're not bleeding so it's not needed."
"I think we should start gathering medicinal herbs," Ukyo suggested. "especially the ones that needs to be dried first."
"It's a great idea! We can look around when we're patrolling tomorrow. The plants we can gather are…"
Yes, Gen was indeed third-wheeling the whole time.
.
.
At least three days later, Gen decided to take his leave–saying something about keeping a watch a little longer to see if the villager have done anything suspicious prior to Tsukasa Empire's existence. Also, because Tsukasa thought of a plan to prevent Kingdom of Science for ever being build amongst the village.
"Gen, you haven't actually seen Senku's body." Tsukasa said, resting a hand under his chin. "If he's alive out there, he'll surely discover the village and build a Kingdom of Science. That would be the worst conceivable scenario."
His cold eyes darted straight at the mentalist. "As soon as we have an army, we'll take the village by force."
An absurd decision Ukyo had come to hear–for an insanely strong man as Tsukasa to be extremely cautious about this man named Senku, he surely was a threat he couldn't even brought him down unless having a perfect strategy. It didn't even need a genius to explain how serious Tsukasa in preventing this Kingdom of Science–it's the polar opposite of his ideal of the new world after all.
And now, roaming around them were several men the strongest primate decided to revive in order to form a capable army. Before Gen departed, he followed Tsukasa to de-petrified someone who Minami dubbed as the man who could guarantee their victory. Ukyo had seen him once–a man with white hair, half of his face hidden under black mask, body covered in black ankle-length cloak.
Tsukasa took the opportunity to show him around the place they considered home for now and Ukyo inspected the man as he rested his back against the tree bark, upon a sturdy branch.
"That man…" he could hear Shinko who stood close to the edge muttered. "He's strong and dangerous."
"Apparently his name is Hyoga, a spearman back in our time and just like you mentioned," Ukyo pulled his hat to cover his eyes, brows furrowed. "He's crazy strong. That's why Tsukasa revived him, to assure victory."
Not even a day later, Hyoga chose his own right-hand man–maybe the exact term should be right-hand woman. A girl small girl, way smaller than Shinko, however she packed a punch–all the abilities Hyoga deemed would be excellent for their grand plan in taking over a village. A girl with pink hair, magenta eyes, and an expert in gymnastics went with the name Homura.
After Tsukasa dismissed them and Gen went off, it's an okay for them to be back with their activities–a chance for Ukyo to rely this important news to his partner. As he heard those decision, he sent Shinko away with Yuzuriha for some time. Now it was the time for them to regroup behind the act of patrolling as a team.
Stepping on to a sturdy branch, Ukyo stood in silence–concentrating on his hearing. He couldn't let someone spying him or both of them will be screwed. He didn't want to drag Shinko into his mess. Thankfully, the only thing he heard was trees rustling, a few birds chirping, and wild animals roaming.
"Shinko, you here?"
His call was met with heavy sound of weight against the wind and then replaced by thudding on the branch above his head. Ukyo smiled and cranked his neck up, meeting a pair of warm purple eyes. "You called?"
He took a seat on the branch he stood on and with a light landing, Shinko joined him. He patted an empty spot beside him, she understood the gesture and sat close to him–almost to the point where their thighs would meet. Ukyo didn't mind though; her presence is always welcomed and gave him some calmness.
"Tsukasa's planning on conquering the primitive settlement you mentioned before." he didn't beat around the bush. "He wants to prevent them from forming alliance with Senku, if he's still alive."
Shinko hummed knowingly. "He'll do whatever he can to stop scientific inventions showing up in this new world he wants."
Ukyo nodded and continued, "Hyoga and his men, along with Homura's on their way there now. They're planning an ambush and probably won't be back in a few days. That's the only thing I got today."
"Ukyo-san, did you remember that time when I went out to the forest alone?" the question was unexpected to him. It took him a moment to gather his thoughts before answering.
"Yes, the one where you thought you see something. It took a few minutes before you're back."
"I did see something. Something unbelievable." She admitted. He didn't need to ask Shinko to continue, understanding she would've told him. "There's light, Ukyo-san. I thought it was water's reflection because of the moon or something but then I noticed it's different. Water reflection doesn't glow orange. It was man-made light. Completely absurd in this stone world."
She then scoffed in amusement, crossing her legs. "I remembered Taiju-san talking about how smart Senku-san is, then I put two and two together. The only person who could think of making man-made light in this stone world is him. There's a possibility Senku-san is still alive and currently living in that settlement, without us knowing he already build a Kingdom of Science."
Shinko huffed. "It's still only a possibility, we can't check anything unless Hyoga-san and the others are back with reports."
He couldn't agree more with that. That's where being Tsukasa's so-called 'left-hand man' has some privilege–every form of important meeting or reports regarding the enemy, he would be the first one to know.
Ukyo gave his partner's figure a glance–he never had time to take a closer look, not noticing much details, just habits of hers which he now knew by heart. Now, he could see how some of her side-bangs framing her face, her purple orbs seemed to never lose its warmth, the beige colored clothes hung on her figure well. She once complained about having long hair was such a hindrance, she intended to cut it short, however he advised to tie it up. Soon, she asked for a hair tie to Yuzuriha and has kept her hair into a bun ever since. She was so close to him, always by his side and every time he turned his head away to look for an anchor she was always there. Now, he could see her clearly.
"Thank you, Shinko."
As he predicted, she turned to face him and tilted her head in confusion. "No need to thank me. It's our promise, right? Giving each other information-"
"No. For everything." Ukyo cut off. "For trusting me, for helping me all this time, for supporting me."
The only thing he received as a respond was a pair of widened eyes and silence that enveloped them. Maybe he shouldn't have said that. Before Ukyo began regretting what he did by pulling his hat down to cover a flush that appeared, he felt a pressure on his shoulder–tuffs of pink made in contact with his cheek.
"Then, I have to thank you in return," Shinko said, resting her head on his shoulder. "For accompany me since the first day I was de-petrified, protecting me, always there when I need something. Aside from that, you're a kind person, Ukyo-san, you just wanted to avoid bloodshed. That's why I decided to support you."
Words weren't needed anymore.
Instead, he removed his hat. His arm reaching out over her shoulder to bring her head closer until he could rest his head on hers. He indulged himself in the comfort of her warmth figure sitting close and for a moment, he could forget everything.