35. Pincer Attack
09-23-2023
A/N: Really happy you guys enjoyed the last chapter, though you showed me how much of a simp yall are for Mr. Sciencer here. I have more treats for you that I'll sprinkle throughout the chapters, teehee.
Q: You guys got any other characters that you simp for?
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"Did you guys leave last night? I heard you guys walking around and shuffling in your sleep after."
Kinro had questioned both you and Senku the moment you had woken up to get ready. Upon hearing that question, you did you best to keep your composure. Your pulse had quickened, and your face was beginning to heat up ever so slightly. Looking over to Senku, you saw that he just shrugged and kept a straight face.
"The slowpoke couldn't sleep and wanted to keep a lookout. We ended up watching a meteor shower and got tired after that happened," your boyfriend explained nonchalantly as he slowly turned his gaze toward you.
"Oh, I woke up just to see it! It was so beautiful, I ended up falling back asleep again," Kohaku exclaimed with a grin.
You hesitantly replied, "Yeah, it was quite...eventful."
Your boyfriend had a subtle smirk as he looked at you, causing heat to rise up your face once more. He then began his work for the morning, continuing to use his sextant and draw his map. You all followed the lioness, who led you down the light path. The telephone that Kinro carrying on his back had also begun beeping as you traveled along. Soon, the girl stopped.
"This is no good!" Kohaku cried out as she she jumped into a tree with the black light. "Once we cross the river, the lights disappear!"
"Tsk. My tracking powder has been perfectly washed off, huh? Did she notice it from the UV light of the sunrise...?" Senku wondered.
Kinro then spoke up as he looked at the phone on his back, "By the way, this thing's been making noise the entire time we've been moving. Should we really just ignore it?"
"Right...I was gonna explain it to you. That's just a call from our local, friendly telemarketer, Gen-sensei. He's communicating via Morse code by using the ringer," the scientist informed all three of you.
You added with a nervous smile, "The most simple way we can say it is that they're texting us...but you guys don't understand that."
Kinro and Kohaku were confused, since they didn't understand examples from scientific civilization. You also knew that they didn't understand the concept of writing, so there was no other way to explain it in an easier way.
Senku then placed his map down once the ringing had stopped. All of you gathered around as he begun to point and speak, "Just a few kilometers ahead of us, Gen's reported position and Homura's route will collide."
"But that means Homura has discovered Chrome's tean and started tailing them, right?!" The lioness frantically questioned.
Chuckling, the green-haired boy continued, "Kukuku, now isn't that priceless information to have? Since we're receiving information about everyone's location, we can see the arrangement of all the pieces on the board! We can come up with a pincer attack!"
He begun rapidly pressing the ringer on the cellphone, while the three of you watched him.
"So, what's the strategy gonna be?" You wondered.
"We're gonna reveal that we have the phone to them," he replied as he pressed the button to continue sending messages.
Surprised, the golden wolf asked, "Why in the world would we do that?"
"To get Homura close enough to capture. Gen's gonna have Chrome place the antenna in a tree for her to confirm it for herself. However, with the sleight of hand, it'll be fake, which she shouldn't know. Once she gets high enough, we need to cut the tree and catch her afterward," he explained to you as you listened to the rings of the phone.
"That's a perfect plan!" Kohaku exclaimed with shiny eyes.
You then added, "But we need to be there with them for it to work. We should start going now so we can catch up!"
"Right. Let's get going now so we can get that timing right!" Senku exclaimed as the four of you started sprinting closer to the operations team.
After running for a while, you started seeing multiple sets of footprints on the snow-covered ground. You could only assume that it was the operations team's, as there were a set of three around each other. Your group ended up needing to slow down with caution because of Homura. If you were to keep going, she would be able to hear the crunch of the snow with each step you took. You couldn't see her, but it was plain obvious she was nearby since a few of the trees had no snow on their branches.
"I've sent Gen our location and vice versa. We're going through with the plan starting now since they are just up ahead," the scientist whispered as the four of you hid out of sight behind a few trees and bushes. All of you nodded in understanding.
Soon, you heard Gen speaking out loud for everybody to hear, "This is no good at all~ I can't get a signal. Can you try putting the whole thing up a tree, Chrome-chan?"
You watched as the mentalist handed something to the young scientist. He climbed up a tall tree with its wires dragging behind it, and made sure it was sitting securely at the very top of it. As he was climbing down, you noticed Homura peeking from another tree, waiting for the brunette to leave.
"I've spotted her. Let's hurry and cut the tree when she climbs up there!" You told them.
They nodded and Kinro joined up with the operations team as you saw the enemy frantically going up the tree. Both Kinro and Magma readied their axes and Kohaku climbed up another tree to catch her. You stayed at the bottom to make sure that Kohaku and Homura would have a safe landing.
"Get ready!"
Soon enough, you watched as the pink-haired girl freeze at the top, and the two warriors cut the tree in a clean sweep. As she fell, the lioness jumped out from her tree to catch her mid-air.
"HA! However fast the opponent, it's all about the timing of when they'll appear of you have all the information!" You heard the blonde as she was falling with the girl.
"I got you, Kohaku!" You held your arms out to catch them both on the ground, which caused you to fall over. Thankfully, the thick, fluffy snow cushioned you, so there was not a lot of pain on your end.
You heard your friend snicker from on top of you, "Hehe, seems that I've fallen for you again for the third time, (Y/N)."
"When was the second time? And please get off of me," you groaned, their weight pushing down on you.
"You caught me when I was blinded. If it weren't for Senku, I would've had you all to myself," the girl proudly joked. Kinro took it upon himself to restrain Homura with ropes as Kohaku got off of you.
Senku then grabbed your hand and aided in pulling you up, using enough force for you to collide with his body. With a smug smirk tugging the corners of his mouth, he stuck a tongue out with hooded eyelids as he spoke to your friend, "First come, first serve, lioness."
The blonde just looked at him with disdain. "I'm not a lioness!"
The enemy let out an annoyed sigh as she watched their exchange, "You still have better options, (Y/N)..."
"There is no room for better options!" You lightly chided. Shaking your head in disapproval, you then turned toward your other friends. With a hopeful smile, you told them, "Great job, operations team. Deliver the phone safely and come home, okay?"
Chrome gave you a thumbs up. "Don't worry, (Y/N)! We'll deliver this safe and sound!"
"We'll also greet Taiju-chan and Yuzuriha-chan for you both," Gen added.
With a firm and final tone, you said to all of them, "Don't do anything stupid."
"We know!" The young scientist let out a huff, causing his two other team members to snicker behind his back.
"Let's get going, Gorilla team! The operations team has a job to do!" Senku cried out as the others were beginning to leave. You waved goodbye as you caught up with your friends.
~~~
The five of you were traveled back to the village with your hostage. You were all lucky enough to find that she was compliant as she was captured, and put up no fight. Probably because Kohaku was keeping a tight grip on her the entire day and night.
"I never got to ask, but where would the operation team gonna put the phone and hide it?" You asked Senku as your group stepped into the village late at night.
He replied, "At my grave, of course."
"Your grave...?" You wondered, then you realized. "Oh, right! You told them both to visit your grave before we separated a long time ago...they probably made one when they met up with Tsukasa. A little morbid, but amusing!"
Kohaku exclaimed, "I see! And you chose it as a drop-off point since they are gonna visit it!"
The scientist chuckled, "Yeah, it's a perfect little sanctuary since the Tsukasa Empire has no interest in my grave."
"Moreover, it wouldn't be suspicious to come and go, visiting a grave. That's well played," Kinro added with a nodded. He then looked at the pink-haired girl, who had been silent the whole time you made it back. "By the way, what should we do with the prisoner...?"
"Do what you want with her now that we are here. The slowpoke and I will be unpacking in the laboratory, and you guys can keep her in a box for all I care. She just can't escape," said Senku as he glanced over to you subtly.
"Alright. I'll make sure to torture information out of her!" Kohaku declared as a joke, which caused Homura to flinch in place out of fear.
Sweat dripping down your temples, you replied, "You don't have to..."
The five of you split up to do your final tasks before heading to sleep. You and Senku were alone in the laboratory, setting your stuff down and preparing to bring the phone up to the observatory.
Senku stopped doing what he was doing and placed a hand on the table. "Let's talk about that kiss, slowpoke."
Putting your stuff down, you begun sweating bullets. You were not ready to talk about that night, considering you had let yourself go in the moment. Your face begun to flush with heat, and your eyes started spinning as you had intriguing thoughts in your head.
"What about it did you want to talk about?" You nervously asked.
"I wanted to talk about how you surprised me. I didn't think you'd be so bold and demanding," he said with a smirk.
"Oh God," you mumbled as you placed a palm on your blushing face. "Look, I didn't know I'd be that direct either."
The boy chuckled. "Kukuku...I've only seen you be that bold when it came to wanting to fight. Maybe you subconsciously thought that kissing was a competition! Pretty amusing, I might say!"
"And I'll say, that's not amusing..." You muttered with your arms crossed, leaning against the table with your backside. "It's probably the adrenaline..."
"That too. But I wonder..." He started walking up to you slowly, causing your pulse to hasten with each step. Stopping at your side, the scientist leaned down and murmured into your ear, "...If I were to kiss you again, would you be able to hold back?"
Your heart begun beating faster than before. Swallowing nothing, sweat was slowly running down your head and onto the floor. You declared, "O-Of course, I will! I promised that I'd be good!"
The action caused him to smirk; he found it so cute that you were this embarrassed despite being so bold getting what you want. "Then, let's test that theory. After all, I promised that I'd kiss you again when the time is right."
Your boyfriend stepped in front of you and placed both of hands on the black surface behind you; you were in between both of his upper extremities. You averted your gaze as you began to feel a bit shy; your arms frozen at your sides, gripping tightly at the edge of the table.
"Go ahead...I'm not going to stop you," you quietly told him as he got closer to you.
"Then look at me, (Y/N)," Senku coaxed.
At that moment, you were not able to think straight. You could tell he was altering his voice a bit to sound as smooth as caramel, and you could just drown in it. It was as if he had you in a trance. Following his orders, you gradually looked directly into his crimson-colored eyes and saw what looked to be love.
"Make sure you stop yourself this time, slowpoke," he lulled.
Watching as he leaned closer, you instinctively pursed your lips as you could feel his breath on you. Your eyelids drooped down and were now hooded, as you knew you wouldn't be able to keep them open.
Then, you felt Senku's soft lips pressing against your own. It wasn't cold as it was the last time, and it was sweet and pleasant. Slowly, you'd push yourself forward to continue and match his pace, fully closing your eyes in the process. You started taking your hands and placing it on the sides of his face to kiss him properly. Naturally, the boy would then wrap his arms around your body to hold you close. He closed his eyes and was still being gentle and slow with you.
This is nice... you thought to yourself, then remembered that you needed to stop before your adrenaline spiked again. You immediately pulled yourself back; hot and heavy breaths from both of you following afterward.
"Kukuku, you held back. Good job. But that was nice and slow, wasn't it?" Senku gently asked, his tone sounding a bit proud.
'Yeah..kinda glad I didn't go any further
or else..." you trailed off as your brain
wandered to the depths of the unholy
gutter.
The boy asked with a raised eyebrow, "Or else' what?"
"Nothing!" You heavily blushed and lightly pushed him off of you, causing him to grunt with slight pain due to his physical weakness. Immediately, you apologized, "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to push you so hard. Anyways, we gotta go back up before Taiju and Yuzuriha decides to call us! We might miss it if we don't."
"It's fine, I'm used to it. Besides, it's not like they're gonna call in the dead of night. We can just wait and sleep 'til then," he told you.
The two of you climbed the ladders up the the observatory after leaving your stuff in the lab. You were carrying the phone up eith the backpack that Kinro left to you earlier.
"What if someone that isn't Taiju or Yuzuriha manages to find the phone?" You began to wonder out loud.
Your boyfriend replied, "They've got the mentalist with them...so it's unlikely for them to hide it in a crappy way. Besides, if it's them, then there won't be any problems. You know that they're a tag team of tenacity and diligence. They'll find it, no matter what happens."
The two of you went inside the building and set the phone up. You both sat in front of it as the moonlight shined through the observatory front.
"I believe in them. I just want them to be safe," you said softly, leaning against the boy.
Senku answered as he wrapped an arm around your neck, letting it hang, "I know."
"I also hope that the operations team is safe too because they can be stupid!" You added with concern.
"They'll be fine. I'm ten billion percent sure that if something were to happen, it'll go well!" Senku told you. "Now go the hell to sleep. If it rings, we'll be here to answer is anyways."
"Yes sir!"
-To be Continued-
A/N: The ending was a little sudden, but I did it for pacing issues. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!