After some good yet awkward night you could get your melted bucket out of that devil's invention. Well, technically it's Senku's invention, so you actually said the truth.
"In all honesty... There was no doubt in my mind that Tsukasa's Empire would win," Gen came to change the mood once again.
"Clearly," Senku said, unbothered by this act.
The mentalist smirked. "My job was to confirm your death once and for all, Senku. So if I went back and said, "Tsukasa! Senku's still alive!" Well, you'd meet your end soon enough. That was the plan. But now that Iron weapons are in play... Who can say how the tides of war may shift?!"
I hate that smile.
13 ours ago
"I-I've already declined his stupid offer before," you responded. Just stop looking at me, all of you.
"Really? Tsukasa-kun pointed out how your interests might have changed over time while being alone... Or so he thought," Gen restlessly continued.
You bit your cheek, trying to find the right words.
"Now now, (Y/n)-chan, I'm curious. What made almighty Tsukasa interested in you? He only takes strong and masculine people-"
"And yet... Here you are," you muttered under your breathe.
"(Y-Y/n)-chan-" he tried once again.
"Cut it, mEnTaLiSt. I've dealt with people like you and I've always won every battle. Am for sure not going to change it," you fired back while he was stunned.
"Then what did he meant?" Chrome asked the thing everyone wanted to asked. Except for Kohaku.
"Calm down everyone. I was there and clearly is not intending on joining him. She refused his offer with such big and hard words, not even letting him to catch his breath!" she explained with unbothered yet proud expression in the end.
"We will see then," Gen shrugged, proceeding to eat. "Even though I still do think that sooner or later your path will change, but in much different story, Writer-chan."
Writer-chan
Writer-chan
Writer-chan
Every time he smiled, snickered or talked, those words, from the day before, came to your mind. Stupid. "So it's Senku versus Tsukasa. Whose victory would I enjoy more? That's all I'm interested in knowing," Gen went right into middle of your group to startle your wondering about Iron rods y'all did. Senku turned back to him with his hands on hips. "It's either... Back-breaking work in Kingdom of Science," mentalist thought out loud.
"But you can get treasures only science can provide you with. One of our most valued pearls: Ramen!" you showed him the other perspective. Mentalist looked at you and smiled. Finally an opponent worth of my effort, sure, not good as myself thou.
"Nice point, but in The Empire of Might I can have easy living. And if we revive some idols... I get my dream harem!!" he once again went through his priorities. "One of your most valued pearls? How much more of them you've got?" Gen tilted his head.
"Heh. Iron for example. You've got no idea what exhilarating thing you helped to make, Mentalist-kun," you grinned and crossed arms over chest. "Iron? Really? The rest of you, be honest... Which would you prefer?" he taunted your own words. "What's a 'hair-m'?" Suika suddenly asked, reminding you that the child's here. "Ah, sorry, it's nothing a child like you needs to know about," Gen quickly answered before anyone of you could. He then sighed. "Ramen is nice, yes, but a little hot. I'm leaving toward team Tsukasa at this point-"
"Gen Asagiri, right? A shallow self-serving man like you... Needs to be killed or locked up," Kohaku prepared her knifes. "Yikes! Scary!" Gen backed away from her. "Calm down... Lioness. Tsukasa wants him back home-... And that actually makes me wondering. What have you done, when your leader revived you? After all. You're not quite the person he had in mind while imagining pure new style of living," you questioned. "Haha... ahaha. Even thou you catch on pretty quickly, (Y/n)-chan, I'm becoming more interested in your Iron plan," Gen said nervously. You looked up and smiled when seeing Senku's head popping out from the shelters door. "Go on, Sensei," you said, letting him to do what's his thing.
You went to look at the people resting beside the furnace, but then a lightning appeared, followed by a loud thunder. Village people ran to hide from 'Heaven's rage' or whatever they call it. You looked back at your friends (except for mentalist) and knew it was time. And so then you rushed to prepare, because like Senku said, you're not prepared at all and the storm season is already here. "So this lightning will power your plant?" Gen asked, referring to Senku's illogical idea of a Power Plant. "Of course not. But with a good magnet... I can create a Dynamo. If lightning strikes our Iron rod, we can make a high-strength magnet... With the power of science!!" And so it began. The Kingdom of Science in action took even Gen by surprise because y'all could be synchronized and work with the lightning speed at the same time. Your job's to steal one of the planks from bridge and luck was on Agent (Y/n)'s side 'cause only Ginro was keeping an eye on it so it was easy mission. But before you could return back from the bridge a kid shouted: "Oh no Oh no Oh no! The outsider and her friends're destroying the bridge!" And when you looked back there's a big guy standing not even a meter away from you. Everyone else is standing away from the bridge while you're still on it, but just a step away from the ground. You looked up not really daring to make that step back to get the hell out of this not good-looking situation.
Tall, masculine, with weapon and backup, blond-haired guy smirked at your shocked expression. He pushed you hard enough to make you fall backwards and especially making a clear way for himself only, but his backup followed right after. "Idiot," you muttered. The guy stopped in his track and slowly yet terrifyingly enough turned back to you. You flinched while still getting up, so, you haven't noticed the fact that Senku himself, too, looked at you when you said 'idiot'... Guess he is used to you referring to him that way, even though he originally tried strategy for you to call him 'gentleman'. That unfortunately strong guy grabbed you by collar and lifted you up, so you could face him. "Say it into my face," he said calmly, but his eyes spoke 'danger'. You gulped cursing your own mouth for not staying shut like they should have. "Oi~ Dear villagers!" sounded from behind.
And there he was. Once the guy looked behind you he started laughing with other two behind him. You dared to look over your shoulder. Your least favorite mentalist stood there with... Flowers?! "Huh? This smug jerk came to bring us flowers?" one of the backup guy laughed. "You the one who called down heaven's rage? Mwa ha ha! Mighty brave of you, stepping forward to die," their leader grinned. "Haha ha... ha," you laughed, sweat on your forehead. "Nooo, just the opposite. You see, we're actually... Using sorcery to make that mean old lightning vanish," the worst mentalist ever, innocently made up a story. "Yeah? Sounds like a bunch of crap to me..." as expected they didn't believe. "Just like so."
He opened his palms and suddenly the flowers disappeared. The bad guy dropped you on ground and with a thud you met dirt, which is slowly becoming mud because the rain just started. "They really vanished! Right before our eyes!" they shouted while running away. "You good, Writer-chan?" your most favorite mentalist asked, giving you a hand to get up. "Yes,
thank you," you said and grabbed his hand to help you pull you up the rock. You're climbing up The Barren hill, your perfect spot for lightning. And even thou you let him help you and even thanked that still doesn't mean you trust him, of course, you're just polite and as much as Senku tries not to, he still can sense the difference in your behaviour.
"If it's gonna strike, it'll be here!" your scientist exclaimed, when all of you were up there. Immediately you started to unpack stuff you'll be needing, but the time is short. "The lightning's close!" Senku shouted. "Crap! By the time we set up this scaffolding for the lightning rod... It'll be too late!" Chrome started to loose hope. "Tch... If we only had something long to stick into ground..." Kohaku thought out loud looking back at you. And then you both spotted Ginro and... Kinro! You both looked back at each other and nodded. You ran to grab Kinro's spear. He shouted and held his spear as tight as he could. You grabbed the spear, too and you both did a little wrestling until a loud thunder was heard, which took Kinro by surprise and that was your chance. You vertically twisted the spear making his hands to let go of it and then threw it in the air for Kohaku to catch it with her perfect acrobatic skills. Everything else happened really fast so the only thing you remember after was a loud bang and a bright light. "HA ha ha ha! This is insane, Senku. (Y/n), you weren't lying. In this barren Stone world, starting with nothing... You've really done it..." Gen shouted looking up at the sky. Senku laughed, grabbing the rods and looking back at you all. "Electricity is in play! Get excited!!"
---
Clouds disappeared and you could finally rest in relaxing sound of slowly waking up nature after traumatizing 'Heaven's rage'. Kohaku grabbed two rods and looked at you. "So, now what are we going to do with these?" she asked. "If I understand it correctly you're supposed to be able to connect them together. She nodded and tried it, but suddenly she shouted: "Senku, I fear... Our attempt to make magnets has failed!" You and Senku hurried to her to see what's the problem, but you both understood when her hands wobbled on their own because: "The poles are switched," Senku informed grabbing one of the rods and you grabbed the other, leaving Kohaku with one in her right hand. You both turned the rod around and with such impulse, you nor Senku expected, you both were pushed forward so those newly acquired strong magnets could stick together.
"We can make it now, right? That baaad thing you called electricity!!" Chrome asked, jumping in front of you all when you all were almost in your HQ. You laughed feeling the need to feel that excitement in your own way, too, but your science friend promised to find a way. It'd be nice to find it as fast as possible, even thou right now you've got other more important things to be worried about, but the thought of missing it always comes back. "But, Senku, will the electricity come from... Thermal power? Wind power? Don't tell me... Nuclear power?" Gen asked, clearly still shocked from what happened up there. So once all of you stepped on the Science Kingdom territory Senku didn't really bother and with pinky in his ear, he answered: "Manpower!"
"Right. Should've known." Were the last words that came from mentalist's mouth before being forced by hunger into another manpower work. Good thing is that all of your loyal customers came to help, while you and the other members knew that it would be better to wait until dinner and your portion of ramen will come even without exhausting yourselves to death.
And so, while Chrome is pouring the molten copper into the shaped mold, you're working on compass (the thing that has two "arms" one with needle and the other with pencil so you make nice and clean circle, yeah, compass can mean two things) to cut away the excess and by that to form a disk. Once it was ready you went to give it to Senku and luckily just in time when the copper's already cooled. "Hey, Senku, I've finisheeeee- Wow. What the heck has happened to your face?" you asked after he jump-scared you with his face's sudden normlessness. "Lacquer poisoning," he cried out. "You know... You look as if your Grandma stretched your cheeks too hard... Pff," you laughed in the end. "Yeah. I'm adopted. I don't have a Grandma," he said making holes into copper to make a perfect disk. You stopped laughing and realized how that must have hurt him. "I-I'm sorry. I didn-" and then you've realized something and in that same moment Senku wanted to laugh on your foolishness, but you started first. "I even carelessly made fun about the fact that your parents will scold you for shouting on the streets," you facepalmed yourself (Reference to Chapter 7: SPOV). "Heh heh heh... Don't know if this is some kind of relationship development, but glad you care, even thou you don't have to 'cause I'm not giving even a millimeter of care into being or not adopted," he laughed with crossed arms over chest. You groaned. "Forget you'll get my empathy ever again, Ishigami Senku!" you said, walking away, visibly offended. Passing Gen he looked at you and without using any psychological effort he understood your rage... Even thou in little different way than it actually is.
"O-oh, problems in paradise, Senku? I see," Gen smiled with hands in his improvised kimono sleeves. "Is that another one of your riddles?" Senku asked frowning... Even thou Gen couldn't see it 'cause his face's all puffed up like marshmallow. "You're funny, Senku-chan," Gen awkwardly chuckled. Does he really not understand what I just meant?
Senku tilted his head and that's when Gen understood... Still wrongly thou. "W-well... Ehm ehm... I couldn't help overhearing your conversation with (Y/n)-chan. It looked pretty intense," Gen smiled at scientist, now he's sure Senku understands. "What do you mean? That's how we normally talk to each other," Senku answered while getting up to look through Chrome's stone collection to find Corundium that Chrome mentioned before. Gen stood there, frozen, clearly lost. "Eh... W-what the-the..."
Is that really the way he talks to his girlfriend?! Wondering when will he find out the truth.
In the evening it's all done. It was long process, especially because you had to make another disk.
"Nice!" Chrome exclaimed, now looking at your invention.
"Heh heh heh... The Science Kingdom's special made dual hand-cranked Dynamo... Is complete!" Senku officially declared.
"How is this supposed to work?" Kohaku asked, obviously confused. "As far as I know and hopefully understand," you walked next to her and looked at the Dynamo, "Both disks have to be turned at once." "Seems hard," Kohaku commented.
"It just needs two people to do it!" Suika's the only one finding the positive fact in it.
"Yeah. But we better find something better than just ramen to feed our workers. Y'know, new and good stuff become old and boring pretty quickly," you suggested. "Yep, but we'll worry about it later. Now the issue is, where're we gonna find a physically capable pair who can move in perfect unison?" Senku asked and to your own surprise, it's Gen who came up with and idea.
"Electricity sure is wonderful, Senku! In a scientific civilization-" he started, but you're not going to leave it all to him. You know Kinro and Ginro much longer and better than him after all. "You mean, in the world of sorcery," you walked passed him more closer to those two guards of the bridge. "Uh-Oh, Right 'cause every wonderful device and contraption was powered by electricity," Gen caught on quickly and the game could start. "But say, (Y/n), what can we do with a bit of electricity?" he asked you. You knew what he meant by it. He doesn't know them and luckily he's aware of it, so he'll just leave it to you to play with your most powerful card. "We can make an unlimited numbers of Gold and Silver spears!" you shouted, to which Senku's jaw dropped.
How the hell am I supposed to make stuff without any material limits?! Better find your own limits of words, Simpleton! He thought to himself.
"Oh and. We could even repair them... Right, Senku?!" Gen added and you both looked at your scientist.
"Unlimited? Repair? Are you two out of your minds?" Senku started to scold you, but the fact, that he had to whisper so your bait could work, made it even more impossible to feel guilty about it. Then he suddenly became much calmer and put his hand over his mouth. Looking on the ground he started to think out loud: "Gilding things VIA electricity is tough. Do you even know how to do that?" he looked back at you.
"Not a clue," you both shrugged.
"I swear, Gen Asagiri. Every word out of your mouth is as fleeting as a bird on the wind... And am not liking that (Y/n) is learning and doing it, too," Kohaku said, clearly fed up with you two, but she better be glad now Science Kingdom's got new manpower reinforcement.
---
Seeing Kinro and Ginro work like that made you pat yourself on a shoulder. "Of course those brothers would be in sync," Kohaku exclaimed. "Heh heh heh... Kinro and Ginro are mine now. We're building up a decent lineup of citizens for the Kingdom of Science!!" Senku did his infamous evil grin that you're pretty much familiar with since you talked in the modern world.
"Senku?" you asked once you knew no one's around to listen. "No?" he answered with question, slicing a bamboo fiber while you sat down next to him. "Is there any way for me to have a bag, but to be worn as a purse... Y'know what I mean," you asked, feeling little embarrassed about asking him a favor. Yeah, you're still not used to it. "Sure. What for?" he asked obviously happy, too sitting, so he can face you.
But happy because he's something to show us soon? Because he is excited to make a bag... For his friend? Or because you're asking for a favor?!
"Ah, ehm..." you tried to find a good argument and even thou you really didn't want, the third option won. "Just in case you forgot. You too've got bags all over yourself to have your important stuff at hand, when needed," you arrogantly answered. He looked away from you, not understanding such change in your behavior and ran a hand through his hair out of frustration. You sighed. "For this," you showed him a piece of wood on which you made some kind of list with names. He took it from your hands and started reading. You wanted to shout at him for being so disrespectful to a lady's work, but oh my, his eyes just sparkled without any electricity needed. "You're making a list of people in the Kingdom of Science, right?" he asked still observing your idea. "Yes. Right now I only made list of names, but once I get a chance I'll make an actual census with peoples functions," you exclaimed. "That's... Something. I-I intended to tell you at some point..." he suddenly went silent. "Yes?" you asked to show that you for sure want to hear the rest. "Once I'm able I'll make you a book to write into... Either stuff about Kingdom of Science or your stories. Whatever you decide to write about, I promise, I'll make it possible, so when you'll feel under the weather again just wait a little longer," he said and gave you the piece of wood back. You automatically took it, but your eyes're on him. "W-where did that come from?" you asked. Senku smirked because he thought you're referring to the fact he used British 'under the weather', but when he looked back at you his smirk disappeared. What is this? He asked himself. Your face was little red, but with every second that passed your r-redness became more and more invisible. "Remember our promise to communicate out the things we don't u-...undrs-stand, heck," Senku cursed. You already did this emotion in the past and back then he didn't want to ask about it, but now, when he's seeing it again... He wants to understand because he, of course, knows in what situations people are like this (he especially saw it on Taiju and Yuzuriha), but you have no reason to feel that way, so, that leaves him thinking: Are there actually more situations where person can show this feeling? "Just explain why is your face bl--"
"Senku!! SEnkUU!!! Ginro paused for a second and- and the Dynamo is broken a little!" Kohaku shouted while running to you. "You must be kidding me," Senku stood up to have a look at the problem. Not knowing what he wanted to say you memorized your face structure and later that day went to look at yourself into a river, but there's nothing wrong with it. Eventually, you both forgot about it because Senku has something to show you all. And you'll see it very brightly.