20th Shot: New World Map
Seeing Ukyo after five days at most could be the peak of her happiness besides being able to move around freely like she used to. The trees are practically her companions for almost a year being in a lookout team with the young man–instead of accustomed to walking around by your own foot, she's fonder of jumping from one branch to the other.
Because the height gives her clearer sight, something she loves knowing how sharp her eyes are. She could see everything and anything from above, enjoying the view presented before her. However, before she took a taste of joy she need to get her body used to the heavy moving routine once again.
For the first time, she huffed as she landed on a few trees far ahead–usually it took her a long trip before she could run out of breath. She was getting rusty from the lack of movement. Thankfully, it didn't last long.
Senku should've arrived at the village just the time she's on the quarter of her trip–they used the hot air balloon so it wouldn't be a surprise. The ground was filled with a lot of obstacles, dips, and hills while the sky was clear without anything–they bound to get there early, maybe in a matter of three hours at best. Most definitely not half a day.
Anyway, Shinko managed to arrive at the village's outer territory by the time the sun beginning to set. This could be an accomplishment because to be honest, she thought she would reach the place by morning or at least at crack of dawn. Thank goodness she didn't have to lay low for the night somewhere high.
Once she jumped off the tree, she was greeted with a sweet surprise instead of actually giving one–Ukyo was already standing on the ground, looking up.
Their gaze met each other and it instantly brought a wide smile to her face. "Ukyo-san!"
He returned her smile with a grin–his teal eyes glinting with glee. Arms outstretched to welcomed her as she jumped right into his arms. It only needs a few seconds until his hands found her waist in a firm grip–reassuring her that he would never let her fall. But what happened next was unexpected even for her.
Instead of letting her feet touch the ground, he twirled her around in the air with a laugh. It was contagious because in the end she laughed along with him. Not only his laugh, his euphoria was also contagious–she way her heart fluttered when his laugh reached her ears, when she finally had him just an arm away.
In the end she didn't even need to worry about his condition because his enthusiasm already answered everything–Ukyo is healthy and great condition without so much as a scratch on his body. And no words needed to be exchanged further from their position because they have all the time they could possibly get right now.
"Come on let's head back to the village, you must be exhausted." He remarked, guiding her towards the village–his hand never leaving hers.
Shinko almost thought this was a fever dream–half of her mind still trying to comprehend that Ukyo was indeed with her, holding her hand as he led her to the main building where Kohaku and Chrome were. But when she slightly tightened her grip on his hand and having him returned it, she knew it was real–which made her chest flutter in glee.
Looking over, she couldn't help but having her stare resting on Ukyo's figure a little longer than usual. He was taller than her for sure, with a more built physique. He's not muscularly packed as Tsukasa or Hyoga, however he has fair share of muscles knowing his past carrier as a part of a military.
That's right, she never bothered to study the details–they are always together, maybe that's why she's not so concern about it. Either way, how Ukyo changed his appearance it won't even matter because she will always look up to him and stay with him regardless. Similar to Tsukasa who wants to make this world a better place without greed, Ukyo lives for peace knowing how painful conflicts are–a selfless act for the sake of greater good where he didn't even put his name on it.
Smiling to herself, she decided to appreciate the view more instead of thinking further–Ukyo bathing in the golden glow of evening light was certainly a sight to see.
.
.
"Shinko!" she hadn't even taken a step into the settlement, when she was greeted with another set of arms eagerly wrapped around her. Just from the familiar flurry of yellow and dark blue, she immediately knew who it was.
"Good to see you're doing well, Kohaku-chan!" automatically detaching her hand from Ukyo's, she returned the hug the same amount. Seeing the blonde again after five days reminds her of how much she also missed Kohaku's presence–some things weren't the same without her around.
"Just walking around and observing is nothing!" pulling away, she gave her a wide smile. Then her hands moved to hold hers and begin tugging her excitedly towards the village. "Come on, supper is almost ready, we're having a feast tonight!"
"We're kind of want to help, but the elders insist we sit tight because we're honorable guests," Ukyo chuckled, which made her giggled.
"What an honor indeed!"
She didn't expect to be having a warm welcome from the villagers, which consists mostly of elders and children since the healthy grown-ups and teenagers were at the construction site to help out building the ship. Some elders told her to sit immediately after the long journey and even gave her glass of water to rehydrate herself.
It was indeed giving her an extreme nostalgia–it reminded her of her caring grandparents.
After Kohaku, Chrome was the one who welcomed her with so much energy–telling her about his journey on the hot air balloon in almost an unending pace, asking if she's ever ridden it before in the past, and something about them defeating a storm and using the last bit of revival fluid to boost the fire in order to escape.
"It's BAD!" he exclaimed, waving his hand frantically as if trying to emphasize his story.
"I think I almost have a heart attack," Shinko laughed nervously–she couldn't imagine that in their first flight they had to face a thunderstorm cloud of all things and having the balloon ruptured by birds. "But that means we can't revive another person."
"Nah, we're out of option about that," Senku replied, scoffing in amusement. "We can make another batch, but it will take months."
The Cave of Miracles was destroyed, meaning they couldn't retrieve any nitric acid–the main component for the revival fluid. Knowing Senku, without a doubt he could re-create the chemical, however like mentioned before it will take forever because they were short on materials. Every human-made material was quite hard to earn in this primitive stone world where everything is limited.
"Ohooohh! I'm truly grateful for the hospitality of these beautiful women!" Ryusui snapped his finger, not even trying to be subtle about announcing his gratitude towards the villagers who prepared the meal for them.
"Oh, my! Did you hear that? He called us beautiful!"
Aside from that, he was polite enough to thanked them.
"This is insane!" Chrome yelled, eyes widening in excitement as his gaze landed on the sets of meals being served. Shinko could almost see drool pooling in his mouth and threatening to spill. "What the heck is this!? This is way too fancy! It looks delicious!"
"Well, this is a banquet after all," one of the elders remarked. "For the triumphant return of Senku to Ishigami Village!"
Dinner was held in the main building where it was big enough for the whole village with addition of the six of them to fit in. Sure, it was definitely larger than any of the house present and have the biggest bonfire centered in the middle–it was more than enough to keep everyone warm and cozy throughout the night.
As soon as they gathered and the food were all set, they could dive right in–Chrome would be the only one who couldn't wait for it because he's already clutching wooden and spoon and fork in his grip.
"OOOH!?" when the word 'fancy' rang, of course Ryusui would expect a full course meal straight out of five-star dining made from the best ingredients and with the company of luxurious wine on the side–however, it was far from his expectation because the whole feast was made from grilled fish only in different forms.
His excitement left him in an instant, only leaving the pale and faltering figure of the man.
Although his expression said otherwise, he didn't refuse the elders when they shoved a plate full of fish to him. Knowing even though Ryusui was an extravagant and greedy conglomerate who adores lavish lifestyle consist of the highest quality of everything, he still had decent level of respect towards people's hard work.
Even so, it was amusing to see him struggling to enjoy the humble food.
Shinko sighed in content as she leaned against the brick wall of the building–peering outside the entrance, she witnessed how the moon glow beautifully today. The sky was bright and free of clouds, so she could see countless stars glimmered similar like diamonds. The weather was friendly for the night–no howling wind, no cold that sent chill to your bones. Instead, forest's symphony accompanied their dinner–she could hear the sound of crickets and other nocturnal beings getting lively as if to welcomed the great day.
"What are you doing daydreaming like that?" Ukyo teased–gaining her attention instantly. Averting her gaze from the view lovely view of nature outside, he was met with the young man holding two clay bowls on each of his hand.
"Can't someone enjoy the pleasant weather?" she retorted playfully, which made him chuckled. Handing the bowl, she accepted it with a thank you. Ukyo moved to settle beside her–muttering gratitude for the meal, he scooped up some of the piping hot soup and blow it until it reached the acceptable temperature to be eaten.
Following his movement, Shinko did the same. She wouldn't lie about the rumbling that began to resound in her stomach–jumping and walking all day spent tremendous amount of energy, so it wasn't a surprise if she's salivating for food at the moment.
"Whoa, this is the first I've seen you eat that quick," the comment almost made her choke on her food and she slapped Ukyo's arm in retaliate–feeling offended by the words.
"After days, the thing you want to do the most is to tease me?" but still, she couldn't help but feeling fire creeping rapidly from her neck to her face. Unlike the others, she was the one who finished her spare of food first–heck, even Ukyo was only halfway there. More importantly, even with a bowl full of soup she already stomached, it wasn't completely enough.
Uh, oh, she's getting gluttonous.
"Do you want more, dear?" an elder, who she recognized by the name Alumi stretched her hand–offering to fill up her empty bowl. "Don't be shy! We made all of this for you!"
"You can have as much as you want until you're fill!" Natri added, gesturing some freshly grilled fish against the bonfire. "Try this fish! It's extremely delightful!"
"If it's not a bother…" Shinko smiled sheepishly, handing over the bowl so Alumi could fill it up.
"Nonsense!" Sagan remarked, laughing. "It's been a while since I saw a young woman enjoyed her food very much aside from Kohaku-chan! Most of them are so keen of having a slim built."
"I guess diet still exists no matter what age…" she muttered, laughing nervously from the fact that's being spilled. Beauty is a treasure–that's a fact, however if you sacrificed all the enjoyment of cuisine to retain it it's kind of unsettling for her. But she's not one to judge because people have their own way to live their life.
And no matter what age, elders will always be the same–doting on the younger ones and teenagers, shoving food to their hands, welcoming them warmly as if they're their own family. At this point, any era doesn't even matter anymore because as if nothing's changed.
"Hey, are you okay?" Ukyo's soft voice snapped her from her thoughts–now that she realized, she must be staring emptily at the steaming bowl of soup in her hands.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Shinko sighed lightly, stirring the food with the wooden spoon slowly–the feeling of longing halted her appetite for a few seconds. "It's just, all of this reminds me of my grandparents. I wonder if they're okay. Along with my parents, of course."
"That's right, you're quite close with your grandpa and grandma," the young man hummed. It wasn't a surprise to her because she once explained her close-knit relationship with her grandparents to him–especially with her grandpa. He was the one inspired her to become an archer after all.
"I… kind of miss them," she admitted. The first time she saw when she was awake in this stone era of wilderness and primitive way of life was Ukyo, she was revived because Tsukasa wanted her ability which he deemed important to reach his goal. To put it simple, if she's just some sort of normal citizen without any significant talent she wouldn't be revived.
She was grateful, of course–but on the other side, she's quite lonely in the midst of uncertainty for her family's condition. Even seconds before the humanity's petrification, she's alone at the dojo while her family was content staying at home.
Her grandpa most likely polished his favorite bow he usually used at championships when he was young–it was like a treasure for him, something he wouldn't replace with anything. Her grandma maybe sitting on a fluffy chair in the reading room–skimming over one of the many old books they have. Her father maybe played with their golden-retriever dog, Kin. He practically adores the furry family member. Meanwhile, her mother probably cooking her lunch so after she got home, she could recharge her energy through food.
"I know," Ukyo replied–his tone was soft, the previous teasing was gone completely. Shifting closer to her, she found their arms brushed against each other from the close proximity. Then, she felt his arm went around her shoulders to push her head leaning against him–the gesture was the same when he thanked her a few months ago.
The first time they were that physically close with each other.
Shinko wouldn't be lying if she misses her family greatly, however she found herself not minding continuing life as it is as long as Ukyo is around.
Everything is fine with him accompanying and stay by her side. Adapting in this new lifestyle without any modernity in it was something she could bear if she has him. The heaviness in her heart subsided a little bit from the physical assurance she earned from the young man.
"Jasper, Turquoise, the two of you alone were able to protect all the old folks?" Senku questioned cheekily.
"We didn't even get in a single battle!" the older woman protested, maybe feeling bored from the lack of action happened. "In fact, we wish a bear had attacked then we could have gotten the meat! Instead, we spent the last few months eating nothing but fish all day, every day."
Well, that's quite a problem–even Shinko couldn't imagine how is it to stay survive in months just eating the same thing three times a day. She didn't want to sound ungrateful. It's surely better than food shortage, but still. Maybe they could add some food supply while they're at it or teaching the villagers another method of cooking to increase the variety of meals.
"Senku…" Ryusui called out, solemn look present on his face. "How long are we going to stay in this village?"
"Huh?" the scientist shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? Until we find oil. One year? Two years?"
A maniacal grin appeared on his lips as he cackled loudly. "HAHAAAH! Then, we'll find food ingredients too! From the sky! We can do it! we will do it! We've got to! We've just got too!"
Rather than excitement, Shinko saw it more as a desperation–well, the image of eating fish as your breakfast, lunch, and dinner for years without anything else as variety is kind of a terror on its own.
Which was why she held great admiration for their villager comrades.
"That's some serious conviction there," Ukyo commented, arms folded across his chest. "You know, I just came to realization recently, but being greedy and desire-driven isn't necessarily a bad thing in this world."
"Well, being greedy do give us more motivation to do the rather impossible," Shinko added, quite agree with the young man's words.
"Ooohh, is that sooo!?" Senku drawled, a scummy smirk present. "Well, you'd better get to it then, Mr. Pilot!"
.
.
Just like they planned the day before, exactly at crack of dawn the survey team was already on the move. Splitting into two different groups, they formed a ground survey team and a sky survey team in order to cover more grounds and made a decent map.
The sky team consists of Senku, Ryusui, and Kohaku, who was needed for her sharp eyesight, while the ground team consists of Chrome, Ukyo, and Shinko. Having two persons with acute eyesight definitely helps in this type of situation because the two could see something the telescope impossible to reach.
At first, Kohaku rejected the idea to ride the balloon instead of Shinko. She wanted Shinko to be the one riding it since she's still on recovering terms, however the said young woman dismissed her persistence and told her to just enjoy ride as well as trying to locate their main goal–Sagara Oil Field.
The ground survey team inspected the wilderness below–all the terrains, hills, cliffs, and anything they've stumbled upon. Chrome was in charge of handling the phone so all of them could keep in contact, while Ukyo had duties to map out the landscape knowing his experience in doing so from the military, and finally, Shinko sometimes did some lookouts for the surrounding area from the trees for a better view.
"As if we're treasure hunting," she commented, smiling widely as she landed safely on the ground after scanning the environment from above a tree. Upon her shoulders was a bag filled with their food and water supplies–Ukyo and Chrome offered to handle the heavier ones. "But so far I don't see anything important to report."
"We just have to keep looking!" Chrome replied, pumping his fist to the air.
"So far there's nothing abnormal or peculiar through the scope either," Ukyo added, lowering the said device from his eye after directing it to a certain cliff.
It's been quite a while since they walked from the village–the vegetation underneath her feet changed frequently. It was lush green grass at first, and then the rocky ground with pebble, now it was thick moss upon a hill where they could see Mount Fuji clearly–stood majestically tall even after 3,700 years.
The sky changed from dark-blue to a brighter one, accompanied by how the sun keep rising from the horizon to woke the world up. It didn't need long until the cold being replaced by the warm glow of morning light.
"I-I'm not day-dreaming!" she could hear Kohaku's yelling in embarrassment on the other line through the phone. "And I've told you a million times by now, I'm NOT A LIONESS!"
"Yeah, that's right! We needed you on board for your acute eyesight, Kohaku!" Chrome protested–Shinko could see slight jealousy radiated from the brunette knowing the blonde young woman was enjoying the flying experience and getting distracted easily from her main duty. "Otherwise, I would have wanted to ride, for sure! Or Shinko should be the one riding since she knows many stuffs!"
"But I'm content exploring the ground, though," the said young woman remarked, walking by Ukyo's side.
"The ground survey team also has a really important job!" Ukyo added.
"Even if we take a long time to find the oil field, it's better than gambling and relying on luck," Shinko remarked, pulling out a thick notebook and some stationary from the bag. "With this, we can increase the possibility of finding out king of resources as well as understanding our surroundings better."
"Damn right," Senku replied over the phone. "With our very own eyes, we're going to create a map of the new world! At the same time, we'll plot our surrounding using the landscape to pin down our objective, Sagara Oil Field."
"Ah, there's Japanese cedar forest over there!" the young woman informed as she pointed to the direction she meant–which instantly caught Ukyo and Chrome's attention.
"Yeah! It is the Japanese cedar forest!" the brunette repeated, looking through the telescope. "Just leave this to the King of Materials! I know a route to get there!"
"Great work, Shinko!" Ukyo praised, quickly on the process of drawing the spot and wrote some information on the paper. "It's like a treasure trove of construction materials."
"Somehow this is like a video game, right?" she chuckled. "We're discovering and marking new places everywhere we go."
Ukyo was about to reply, but he froze on his spot–brows furrowing as he fully concentrated on his ears. Sensing his immediate change and knowing the reason behind it, both Shinko and Chrome didn't say a peep. It took only a few seconds for him to announce.
"It's a wild goat herd!"
She quickly averted her gaze towards the direction he meant–indeed, he was right. There's a wild goat herd not far away from their place, however, that's not what she's focused on. A goat strayed quite far from its herd.
"There's an old goat lost its way," the young woman informed, eyes watching the animal's movement intently to not miss.
"My apologies," looking over, Shinko couldn't believe how fast Ukyo could move. In an instant, he shed all of his luggage and already placed it on the ground. An arrow and his trusty bow already in his hand–ready to aim and hunt. "We shall eat you and let none of you go to waste. We will be truly grateful for this, you have my thanks. Shinko, coordinates."
As if Chrome was watching gears moved automatically similar to the steam engine they built before–in an instant, he could hear Shinko fixed the clean line of shot for Ukyo. "A little to the right, then lower a little bit should do it. The wind is fine, the right shot to the neck could be an instant death."
The young man didn't question further and the arrow zipped through the air, hitting the target where they wanted it to. Stumbling from shock, the animal fell into the river immediately and stopped moving.
"We got it!" Chrome cheered enthusiastically.
"Come on, we should pick it up before other wild animal steal it." Ukyo urged, which was responded by Shinko took a lead for them–giving them the best and fastest route she could find through her eyes.
Both young men went to retrieve and clean the carcass in the clean water, so once they returned to the village it was ready to be consumed. Shinko assisted them every now and then by giving the right tool to cut through the flesh along with cleaning their equipment. Coincidentally, when they were finished, the sky team called them to regroup.
Soon, the ground survey team was back at the village. Senku threw three ropes from the hot air ballon and the three pulled at it, helping bringing the vehicle down to the ground. Even though it seemed only lasts a few hours, because they were dedicated to their work time flew by and the time they arrived and settled down the sun was already gone from the horizon.
Move efficiently and effectively could be their motto for the day–as soon as they gathered once again, they proceeded to continue making the map. Right beside the bonfire, five of them discussed, added, and pointed out the areas while Senku poured all of that information in a form of drawing on the paper.
The process went extremely well–smoothly without any sorts of severe obstacles on the way. Maybe the team was meant to be or maybe they just a quick understanding of each other to cooperate–either way, Shinko was glad they managed to solve one of the problems they have in hand.
Now, they acquired a new world map!
"Oooohh! This is…!"
"I've never seen such detailed map like this before!"
The villagers wouldn't miss a chance to catch a glimpse of the newly-made map. Proud to say, they were impressed by the detail.
"Hahaaah! What do you think of the amount of information we can get from the skies!?" Ryusui exclaimed, pointing out to the paper using a slab of grilled goat meat they got previously. "And with a map to all the food sources around here, from now on you won't have to have pathetic meals of nothing but fish anymore!"
"Aside from that, make sure you chew and swallow, Ryusui-san. Or you'll choke." Shinko reminded, fanning to keep the fire burning big while Kohaku often moved the meat so it could cook evenly.
Ukyo crouched beside her and opened his palm. "Want to take turns?"
"How about we do it together?" she suggested, which he agreed immediately–reaching for another fan, the two tried to kept the fire burning brightly whilst everyone enjoyed their dinner. As the young ones, they didn't mind doing all the work because elders were supposed to rest after all.
"Science… it's truly wonderful, isn't it?" Alumi spoke gently, her croaked voice and the tears that started to trickle down her wrinkles chin from old age stole Shinko's attention–halting her movement. "With something like this, perhaps no one else will ever have to die of starvation again."
Die of starvation?
It was the truth which sounded like a curse in her ears. To think a village this lively ever went through such a devastating time–she couldn't imagine how much grief they have to went through seeing their family passed away from the lack of food, human's most primary needs.
"There you go, dredging up the past," Sagan scolded, however there were tears pooling on his eyes as well and he still tried to console Alumi. "It's not like we've had a famine recently, right?"
"Way to bring down the meal!" Turquoise spat, chomping aggressively on her share. Her tone did sound harsh, but there's an underlying bitter in it. She must've experienced the same thing or at least the famine went stretched long when she's there to see it.
The villagers immediately changed the topic to a more cheerful one and they were quick to moving on–getting rid of the gloominess that started to appear in the atmosphere. Sure, they could forget about it and continue as if it was nothing, however it never went past four people of modern times.
Once their dinner finished, everyone retreated back to their own house for rest–everyone except Ukyo and Shinko who decided to stay behind a little longer to tidy up the place. After putting off the fire using dirt, Ukyo patted his hands clean.
"It never went pass through my mind that Ishigami Village had to go through a famine once," with his sharp ears, he could hear Shinko admitted. Looking over his shoulder, he watched as she cranked her neck up to stare at the ink-black night sky above–expression solemn.
"Me too," he agreed. His mind conjured up a view of a peaceful village with healthy residents, it was almost impossible to envisioned a village struggling to survive in famine. "Everyone looks well."
"I guess there's no such thing as living peacefully forever," she hummed. "There must be something that disrupts."
"It's called balance," he remarked, giving her a gentle smile. "You mentioned it once, right?"
"Yeah," Shinko returned the gesture. "Good and bad, everything exists for a reason. Without each other there's no color in life, nothing to look up to, nothing to make you feel like you're alive."
"There goes the philosophical Shinko after retiring quite some time," Ukyo piped.
"Grandpa's influence, without a doubt," Shinko replied, scoffing in amusement.
"Come on, let's rest, it's late and tomorrow we still have a trip to do," standing straight, he offered her a hand. And she took it without hesitation–something that sent flutters blooming in his chest. Hand in hand, the two finally went back to the science shed.
.
.
While everyone drifted into their own dreamland, Senku was the only one who's still wide awake. Sure, they managed to draw a decent map, but the scientist thought there could be some room for improvement–which was why instead of getting some shut eye, Senku decided to did some minor changes on their map.
Sometimes, in the middle of the night, inspiration and full capacity of brain just struck you out of nowhere and rendered you high on adrenaline–soon, you found yourself unable to sleep. That's what currently happened to Senku. But he supposed it wouldn't be long or he will be a dead beat by the next day.
By the orange glow of fire lamp beside him, Senku added more details to the map. Even through Chrome's snore, the scientist managed to concentrate. All six of them practically stayed close to the wall of the science shed. There's an apparent distant they made from each other, however it didn't apply for Ukyo and Shinko.
Instead of lying down on the wooden floor, the two leaned against the wall–head resting against each other and bundled up in a thick blanket, softly snoring. So far, the mildest ones rather than the other three who looked like they could cook up a storm in their sleep from the constant shuffling and blanket kicking.
Senku's work was accompanied by sounds of nocturnal insects communicating to one another–performing a natural symphony that broke the silence besides the sound of the feather pen scribbling against the paper. Before another sound became an addition.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw Shinko shrugged the blanket around her shoulders softly–yawning silently before gently removing Ukyo's head from hers. For a man with sharp hearing, it was amazing on how he could sleep through it all. Maybe the fatigue caught up and his sleep became deeper.
Knowing it was something unimportant, he averted his gaze to focused back to his work. From the slight creaking of the wooden floor, he knew she's up and about–probably doing something like reaching for a glass or water or anything else. But he didn't expect to sense her presence standing behind him and draping a thick material upon his shoulders.
Senku didn't even notice how the night was biting cold and now he could feel warmth seeping through his skin, provided by the blanket.
"Why aren't you sleeping, Senku-san?" Shinko questioned, trying to keep it as quiet as possible and tone heavily lingered with sleep.
"The map needs a little addition," he replied simply, giving her a glance before continuing his work.
"Don't forget to rest," she reminded. "Because humanity can only be restored if you're on your feet."
He couldn't help but scoffed in amusement–he didn't know if it could be categorized as a compliment or teasing. Which one he didn't know, and he didn't even want to dig deeper because it's trivial.
"Yeah," Senku said back. "Just go back to sleep, huntress."
She didn't even argue nor piped up another reply and Senku understood–all of them were exhausted, especially the ground survey team. When the sky survey team could just sit and looked around from the hot air balloon, the ground survey team had to follow them around by foot the whole day. It wouldn't be a surprise if they were out like a light. The scientist watched as she was back to Ukyo's side.
The lack of presence beside him also woke the ex-sonarman up, but he didn't question anything. Instead, he raised an arm to wrapped around Shinko's shoulders–pulling her closer sluggishly into the blanket with him before the two drifted off again with the same position as before.
Senku let his gaze stayed a little bit longer before looking away.
.
.
Just like a day before, they moved out at the crack of dawn and with the exact same group. The sky survey team took off when the sun began rising from the horizon, and the ground survey team followed where they go soon after. Thankfully, mother nature decided to be kind for the past few days because all she gave them was great weather condition with suitable wind for flying.
So far, they took it for a good cause and finished some part of the map–now is the second day of exploration and they hoped they could finally find the oil field or other useful things that could improve their lifestyle. Nature kept so much materials that they could use in the future.
"Man, other than oil, what should we look for? More caves for fuel? Can we use the rocks from the cave for fuel?" Chrome questioned.
"For now on, we're just going to look for food source," Ukyo answered as they walked downhill. "And no, the most suitable fuel we have in mind is only oil at the moment."
"We're looking for food that can be stored for a long time," Shinko added, jumping from one rock to another. "Voyage on the sea could take months, even years, so we need to have storable food stock."
"Can't we use the bottling method? Or freeze-dried food like ramen?" Chrome asked, he tried to climb down carefully. "They can stay for a few days in winter."
"We can, but with humid temperature could grow some mold or even fungus on the food because it's still natural. Thus, made it inedible." Shinko explained. "When in our time, there are chemicals that used to preserve food so long even until a year or two. But we don't have them now."
"Really!? Food can be eaten even though it's already been years!? That's BAD!" Chrome exclaimed.
"Yeah, because we will have a long time sailing, we'll need a huge amount of food but it could last long until we reach the land on the other side of the globe." Ukyo added.
In between their conversation about storable food, they were interrupted by the loud shrilling of their phone. Chrome looked over his shoulder as well as feeling the intense vibration from the device. He gestured them to wait for a bit as he listened to what Senku had to say.
"They said near the coastline," the brunette informed the other two. "They can see something growing…?"
Both Ukyo and Shinko looked confused with the statement. "What?"
"Well, why don't we just check it out?" the young woman suggested, which immediately being agreed upon. "The coastline isn't far from here, just walking a bit further and we could already see it."
Following Shinko's lead, the two trailed after her who made the easiest route of walking for them. It didn't need long for them to reach the coastline the sky survey team mentioned–the landscape instantly changed from the row of tall trees to more shrubs and crunches of sand underneath their sole. Their journey was now accompanied by the beach's music–crashing waves and squawking of seagulls.
"There's the balloon!" Chrome exclaimed, pointing out to the hovering vehicle above them. "But what are the things they said growing near the coastline?"
"I know!" Shinko's elevated tone caught their attention–enthusiastically, she pointed her finger to the lines of golden colored grass ahead of them. Something which Chrome never witnessed before in his life. "There! Just a little bit more!"
Her excitement was contagious and made them jogged to reach the place. Before Chrome's eyes were a stretching field with golden colored grass. At first, he thought all of them were withered or dying, however as he looked closely all of them were perfectly healthy.
And their appearance somehow was familiar.
"It looks like foxtail grass!" the brunette said. "Golden colored foxtail grass! I've never seen anything like this!"
"This is wheat, Chrome-san!" Shinko informed, plucking one of the ripe stems. "A whole source of food is ahead of us!"
"With this, starting now our food supply will be grown and created by humanity's own hands!" Ukyo added.
Now, they finally took a step towards a new era–the agricultural revolution!