~ normal
~ sign language
~ M/N speaking
~ thoughts
On Chapter 26
'Looks like I wasn't the only one awake when the petrification happened. That's my twin alright.' M/N thought, proud of his younger twin.
-WAVE OF SCIENCE-
After the little pep talk between Gen and Senku, Suika got curious about the telescope and decided to try to use it after M/N had taught her.
"Wahhh! I can see the faraway places. Oh? The sun is about to rise." Suika exclaimed. "Don't look at the sun through the telescope. It's dangerous." M/N warned.
"If the stone that Senku get is real..."
They then laid out the ore that the four had collected. "Awesome! Like a mountain of gems!" Ruri exclaimed out loud, after seeing the ore glow in a bright blue color.
"It's not like. It is a mountain of gems. They are all treasures containing super rare materials." Senku briefly explains.
Magma simply scoff at this in a corner. "What gem? Isn't it just a slightly heavy stone? We dug for so long. What's the point to it?" Magma questions, not getting it.
"We will use these stones to defeat Tsukasa-chan." Gen added.
"Gain victory with stones. I see.... By throwing stones at them? Such a heavy stone should have great impact." Kokuyo smirked as he held out an ore.
"Father, it shouldn't be that." Ruri calmly said.
"We don't have any choice. Dad comes from an older generation." Kohaku said, shocking Kokuyo. "After all, our enemy is Tsukasa-chan, who has the strongest might. We have to find a way to make cellphones out of stones, to suppress them in an intelligence warfare." Gen said.
"But Senku.... How long will it take to make the cellphones? M/N-chan is injured as well. How long do you think he can heal?" Kohaku questions.
"That's right. That's right. M/N-chan is injured. I'll go check on him." Ginro commented before leaving to check on M/N.
"It's easy. Simply put, the core of a cellphone is a vacuum tube. The skeleton is plastic. The vocal cords are microphone. The blood vessels are gold wires. Just put these four parts together, and the cellphone is completed. This mega Science project, is finally at its final stage. It's time to finish it in one go!"
"Guys!! This is bad!! M/N started coughing blood out of the sudden!!" Ginro yelled out running towards the others. The others heard this and immediately ran towards to the hut that M/N was resting and saw that blood covered the ground under M/N.
"Ani-chan!!" Senku exclaimed before rushing to his twin's side."Ani-chan! How did this happen? Are you feeling alright? Do you need medicine?" Senku quickly questions while the others just stare in shock.
"Suddenly....pain......hurts......" was all M/N mumbled out before slowly passing out.
"Ani-chan!" Senku then turns his head to the others. "Go grab a bucket of warm water with a cloth. I'll take care of him first." Kohaku immediately nods at Senku's instructions and runs away to grab the things Senku had instructed.
"Gosh...this is bad. What happen to him?" Chrome worriedly looks at his crush. "It's maybe because something startled him or something. If not, he wouldn't cough out this much blood." Senku replied, frowning since the beginning he came in the room.
Kohaku then returns with a bucket filled with warm water and bought a cloth along with it. She then places it next to Senku, and Senku immediately starts to work his hands and soaked the cloth with warm water and puts it on top of his twin's heads.
'I wish it was me that suffered instead of you, Ani-chan...' Senk thought, feeling bad for what had happened in the past.
-FLASHBACK-
"Ani-chan!! Let's go play ball for a while!!" young Senku demands which his older twin simply applied. "Alright alright. If you say so, ototo. Jeez, I don't get why you're so eager to play."
Even though young M/N had complained it, he still went play with his younger twin. The two twins then went to the park and started playing ball for a while before the ball had flew out to the middle of the road.
"I'll get it!!" young Senku replied before running out towards the road. "Ototo!! Be careful!!" young M/N warned while young Senku simply nods his heads. "Yeah yeah!!"
A car that came in a fast speed suddenly appeared in front of Senku, startling the older twin. "Senku, watch out!!" was what the last thing young M/N had said before pulling his twin back to the beside of the road and fell right at the road.
*BANG*
"ANI-CHAN!!!!" and before young Senku knew, that was the last time he heard his older twin's voice.
-FLASHBACK ENDS-
'I'm sorry, Ani-chan....it's all my fault....' Senku thought while blaming himself and quietly starts sobbing.
"Ani-chan, I'm sorry. I'm the one that caused all of this." Senku silently apologized. The others were shocked to see Senku crying like this, to which Gen had to kick them out for a while.
"It's okay, my love. It's not your fault. Stop crying for me, hm?" Gen cooed, which helped Senku to calm down for a bit. "I-If I haven't...." Senku can't hold himself back and started to tear up more, rewinding the painful memories of the past of his older twin getting hit by a car.
"Ototo....." was what came out from M/N's mouth. Senku turns his head to look at his twin, with his twin weakly smiling at him while placing his hand at Senku's cheek.
"You idiot. Still thinking about the past?"
Senku nods his head in reply to which M/N lightly pinched his leg. "I was the one who chose this. As long as it was not you, I'm fine with anything." M/N smiles. "Go continue what you were doing. I'll be alright." M/N lightly strokes Senku's hair and wiping his tears.
Senku complies with his older twin and did not argue back and left the room. "Asagiri."
"Yes, M/N-chan?"
"You're the perfect one for Senku. I'll pass him to you now."
Gen smiles at this. "You have to help me too, y'know. But still, I'll take care of him for my whole life." Gen grins, not noticing M/N had slightly smile before leaving the room to let him rest more.
"Let's first make the filament that's necessary for a vacuum tube. Let's use tungsten, the strongest heat-resistant metal in the universe, 'Heat resistance combat ranking' which lies in this blue light." Senku said while dry tears at the corner of his eyes. He still held out the tungsten up high, the tungsten still shining a bright blue color.
"But Senku... How do we retrieve it from the stone?" Kohaku questions.
"Right. This is a really tough project." Senku said, while thinking some ways. Just after that.... Magma began crushing the tungsten, making it to turn to smaller bits and pieces.
"Jeez, Magma, what are you doing?!!!" both Chrome and Kohaku shriek out in fear.
"What? You want to retrieve it from the stones, right? Just crush it and it's settled." Magma said in an obvious tone.
"No problem. We need to crush it anyway." Senku sweat dropped.
"Look. I did the right thing." Magma cackled out.
"That's too much!" Ginro argued back.
"If it was the wrong move, how are you going to make up for it?!" Kohaku complained at Magma.
"That's strange. Although he's a little rude and impetuous, he took the initiative to help out. Did something happened in the cave?" Kokuyo questioned beside Senku.
Senku replayed the memory back, back when in the cave where Senku had 'lectured' Magma for awhile. "Who knows?" Senku grins out.
Next day....
"It's done. What's next?" Magma's voiced boomed. "Use my Chemistry to turn this shattered gem pieces, though this and that into something as fine as tungsten powders." Senku remarked.
"T-This and that? You said something that we don't understand, huh, my dear?" Gen questioned out.
"Lastly, reduce the tungsten powders with hydrogen, and put it in a glass container to heat it up. At minimum, it must exceed 1000 degrees Celsius. The higher the heat, the more pure tungsten can be extracted." Senku commented.
"Bake it for a while and it'll be done." Kaseki said out loud.
"What? That's quite simple." Chrome grins.
"Are you a baka? What will happen, if we throw in the glass container in a 1000 degree Celsius stove?" Senku stated out, making the both of them to make a funny expression decorating their face.
"The tungsten powders in the glass, must be heated separately at high temperature." Senku stated.
"There is actually such a precise heating device. How do we do it?" Kaseki questions.
"We're running out of time. Let's divide the work. Leave the process of making tungsten powder to me and Ani-chan." Senku announced, leaving some people to be shocked at the news.
"M/N-chan is not in a good condition right? How is he suppose to work?" Kohaku questions Senku, with an absurd look on her face.
Senku chuckles, "Don't underestimate him. His recovery speed is fast a heck."
"Well, who will be in charge of the precise heating device? There are no other scientists." Chrome butted into the conversation.
"Chrome. You should be able to create it from scratch. se all the Science and technology that you have learned from me and Ani-chan." Senku chuckles. "Or do you need M/N-sensei's assistance?" Senku teases.
"Don't be silly. I'm Chrome. A highly intelligent Scientist. You on the other hand, don't cry for help in the scientific laboratory." Chrome said before high-five-ing Senku.
"Leave the lab to me. I'll leave the heating team in your hands." Senku said. Kaseki simply looks at them in a corner felling envious.
"I feel so envious of you. In the past, I've been studying how to make things since I was little. In order not to let others to look down on me, I built bridges and shields. That's why even at this age, I can still be an active duty soldier. To be honest, at times, I wished...."
(let's just skip those emotional things :) )
After the emotional speaking, Kaseki was more pumped up than usual. "He's more motivated than usual." Gen comments, referring to Kaseki. Senku suddenly grabs Gen by the collar, catching the other off guard. "You, modern people, come here and help me out. You know a little bit more Chemistry than the villagers combine." Senku comments.
"Is it, my love?" Gen questions with not a hint of surprise on his face.
"The process is very long. I know you don't understand a single thing. But to simply put it..... The blue gemstones cooked in sodium hydroxide are crystallized, with hydrochloric acid, ammonia water from the shell, and heated up and mixed with honey." Senku rapped through.
"Okay. I totally got it, my love. The honey. Add honey after it's heated. This is the only thing I could understand." Gen said with an unbothered tone.
"I think it's ten billion times better to have Chrome here than you." Senku remarked, hurting the other. "My love, you can't be serious aren't you?" Gen pouted.
With the others....
"Speaking of precision heating, this is it." Chrome exclaimed.
"Here comes Chrome's ultimate weapon!" Kohaku yelled out.
"Don't show off with it." Magma says in his usual bored tone.
"I wonder how much heat does it have. Use metal to test the temperature one by one from weak to strong." Kaseki said.
Chrome held up a mirror to a glass for who knows how long against the glass container.
After a while...
"Even the weakest lead has not melted or burned." Suika informed.
"After all, it's winter now. It would be great if the solar energy was stronger." Kaseki added.
Chrome then replayed what Senku had said to him before letting him handle the complicated situation.
"Precision heating! Cotton candy machine!!" Chrome suddenly exclaimed out. They started to pump air into it, making the weakest material in the glass which was the lead.
"Damn it, me and Suika's strength are not enough....!" Chrome blurted out while pumping air. "But at least, we managed to melt the lead." Kaseki commented while holding the piece of glass against to the lead.
Next were the brothers, Kinro and Ginro. They started to pump air into it with the gold and silver inside of it to slowly melt. "Awesome! It melted gold and silver!" Suika exclaimed. "Nice one, members of the combat team!" Chrome added.
Netx were the 'gorilla' team. They started to pump air into the glass container and the iron started to melt in an average speed. "The iron has melted." Ginro informed.
"Go, gorilla team!!" Chrome yelled out which end up a few punches on his head by Kohaku. "This should be over 1000 degrees Celsius." Kaseki said out in a happy tone.
"No, it's not done yet. We need the power of electricity." Chrome comments while holding out a box full of batteries. They started to get to work from now until the next morning.
Time Skip
"It's done. Tungsten paste." Senku, who has dark circles under his eyes, hold out a paste in a tiny box on his hands.
"All right..." Gen exclaimed silently, all drained out from last night working at the paste.
"It's basically done." Chrome informed Senku.
"Not bad, Scientist...- On what the heck is all this?!! All-in-one heating set?" Senku yelled out.
"Senku, didn't you said it? I have to use everything." Chrome replied.
"That's not what I meant. That's too ugly." Senku said, bewildered by the 'machine' Chrome had made.
"But perhaps, this might be the best. All members in. Anyway, bring up the temperature first. We need to squeeze tungsten paste into thin strips. Hydrogen is generated by discharging electricity in the water. Hydrogen can reduce the paste at high temperature." Senku explained.
"Let's get on it. Precision heating." Chrome exclaimed.
"The target is thousands of degrees Celsius!" Everybody yelled out.
The power team started to take turns on pumping air into the glass container container the tungsten paste. Suika and Ginro fanned the power team to ease their sweating.
"The strongest heat-resistant metal in the universe. The tungsten filament in completed!" Senku comments.
"I missed out on the fun, huh?" an unknown voice spoke out, making them turn their heads towards the hut, only to see M/N looking at them, leaning against the wall for support, pouting. Sure, M/N doesn't like hellish-like work, but it was for the upcoming war.
"Ani-chan!" Senku exclaimed while putting the tungsten filament down on the floor and rush towards his older twin. "Are you seriously on top shape to be standing right now?" Senku asks in a worry.
"I'm fine. Jeez, I sometimes think if I'm the older one."
"M/N-chan, are you sure you're fine enough to walk around?" Chrome asks voice full of worry for the (H/C) man. "I'm fine...- uwah!"
M/N was suddenly lifted up from the ground, startling him since it caught him off-guard. The calm Lavender scent fill M/N's nose and he immediately knew who lifted him.
"Kinro, I'm serious. I'm alright now." M/N reassured him, to which he doesn't trust the (H/C) man. Chrome lightly pecked at M/N's forehead which he was seriously caught off-guard. "Chrome, you-"
"You're not fit enough, M/N-chan. Don't worry. We got everything under control, you just need to rest more." Chrome cuts his sentence and just like that, M/N was sent off back into the hut (Kinro carrying him), which M/N silently sulks.
"Alright. We have gathered all the materials." Senku said after witnessing his older twin getting hit on by a 'few' people. He then picks up the tungsten filament that was putted on the floor earlier.
"Finally, we're entering the final sprint of making cellphones." Chrome commented.
"Well, let's do it in order. Let's make the vacuum tube, the core of the cellphone." Kaseki says while warming himself up for the challenge of making the vacuum tube.
"To do that, we need to do some troublesome glass artwork. Even Mr Kaseki might not be able to do it." Senku sweated out.
"How arrogant. I've made this devilish thing that needs to be twisted here and there. Nothing scares me now." Kaseki said while holding up a glass container which has a tube in the middle if you look closely.
"All right. Let me take a look at the map." Kaseki comments and snatches the map in Senku's hands. He takes a look at it, and without a second to waste, Kaseki's eyes immediately widen, almost about to pop out from the socket.
" 'Hickman vacuum pump'. This is called Hickman vacuum pump. It has extraordinary suction. Extremely high level suction pump. " Senku comments in a robot-like voice.
"It's like you're making a vacuum cleaner advertisement, my love. But..."
"Huh?"
"There's another thing that has an amazing suction."
"Wha-"
"Asagiri, you're slowly getting cocky, aren't ya." M/N deadpanned at Gen for commenting those somewhat dirty thoughts.... (ahem-) and had just escaped from Kinro's grasp from the hut.
"M/N-chan....-!"
"I'm so gonna beat the crap out of you!"
"Senku-chan!! My love!! Help!!"
"Ani-chan...." Senku called out with a bright red decorating his face.
After Senku had decided to help his lover...
"To make a vacuum tube, evacuate the air to the limit. The simple vacuum pump that we made to produce the bulb is only of level one. That suction is far enough." Senku briefly explains.
"Where do we even start from? Can it really be done artificially?" Kaseki blurted out with sweat slowly forming on his forehead.
Gen had an idea to lie to Kaseki saying that in the modern times, saying they had amazing artists that had create the Hickman Pump before.
"Really?" Chrome whispered between the twins.
"Yes, it's true. But that baka couldn't possibly know about it." M/N replied. "He just made it up to inspire Kaseki's fighting spirit." Senku added.
Kaseki looked solemn for a bit, but ended up commented, "No problem. I don't need psychological construction. It gets me excited to do these troublesome things. Relatively... I need that thing... The one I made with Chrome. That would be... a partner to do it together."
"Kaseki jii-chan, since when did you knew how to say emotional things." M/N remarked but still high-fived Kaseki, continued by Senku, Chrome and Gen.
"I'll leave the vacuum tube to you. Kaseki jii-chan."
"Roger that!"
"Hey hey Senku. Although Kaseki jii-chan made that request like a child, he actually just wants to share and help to ease your burden." Ginro teases.
"Nonsense! Of course I know that. Are you a fool?" Senku immediately said.
Suika overheard their conversation and shyly went up to them. "Sen...Senku." Suika shyly called out, making Senku and the others to turn their heads to Suika and the other kids.
"The other children and I would like to help out to." Suika said with a tint of blush slowly becoming visible.
Senku soften his eyes and looks at the kids, "I will leave the wires to you, Suika." He high-fived to the watermelon-rind girl making the said blond to exclaimed out happily.
"All right. The Chemistry team can concentrate on making plastic." Senku said while Gen, Chrome and M/N followed behind him to the lab.
"Am I included?" M/N asked. "Your body is alright, right? I don't want you fainting on me again, M/N-chan." Chrome talked out.
"I'm alright." M/N smiled warmly, making the brunette boy to blush slightly at this.
"You're included then." Senku sighed out.
"I don't really know what plastic is actually." Chrome suddenly marked out.
"Speaking of which, that's the one thing I care about the most in the road map. Can plastic be made in this kind of world? Don't you need to extract it from oil?" Gen slightly worriedly asks before getting dragged out by Kaseki.
"Come here, Gen. As a gift for motivating me, I'll let you play as my assistant." Kaseki said while dragging Gen by the collar.
"That's way too much!"
"It turns out that Kaseki jii-chan like Gen quite a lot."
"Finally..." M/N mumbled out.
"Did he seriously have to snatch my boyfriend away like that?"
"You could work without any distractions."
"Wha-? Hey...!" Senku exclaimed out by M/N dragging him by the ear. "Let's go and not waste time. I wanna sleep."
"Quickly produce the plastic. First, collect the juice of the steamed wood. After it's boiled and condensed, pour it into the hot copper." Senku explained.
"Hold on, hold on, hold on! I don't understand a single thing!"
"It's easy, Google. Collect the juice of steamed wood. After the juice is boiled and condensed, we will have to pour it into the hot copper." M/N slowly explained to Chrome for more understanding.
"Ohhhhh......!"
'Are they flirting or am I wrong?' Senku silently questioned himself.
"Anyways, we need to extract and add various ingredients for major transformation. In Chemistry, we have to do addition and subtraction. Formalin is completed through addition and subtraction. It's used to preserve bodies." Senku said with a slight evil look decorating his face, already forgotten about Gen.
"It stinks! Here it comes. Another dangerous drug related to the bodies." Chrome exclaimed out loud and covered his nose and M/N's nose.
"No need to cover mine. I'm used to the scent by now." M/N commented, while Chrome being the slight ignorant person he is, still covering M/N's nose for him.
"All right. The next step is to collect a large amount of burning ashes of charcoals." Senku commented while getting out from the lab and doing some stretches.
"Charcoal ashes with sodium hydroxide and formalin, could be the first artificial plastic in human history. Phenolic plastic." M/N added and yawning after.
"In short, we're going to burn a lot of charcoal, right?" Chrome confirms.
In a distance...
"My hands are f-freezing cold. I can't work properly." Suika commented while slightly trembing.
"It's another year of winter again." An old villager man commented.
"I hope no one freeze to death this year." The elder lady beside which suppose to be his wife, remarked.
Both the twins had an idea.
Time skip...
"Charcoal?" Kinro questions.
"Yes, we need tons of it. This job is perfect for the both of you." Senku said while looking both the brothers.
"Hey, Ginro." Kinro calls out to his brother that was trying to escape. Keyword: was. "Where are you going?" Kinro asks.
"No, look, I still have training to do. And I need to guard the village. We should just forget about it." Ginro quickly finds an excuse.
'I didn't want to do this but I have no choice.' M/N thought and sighs. "Whoever collects the most charcoal will get a kiss on the cheek from me." M/N added.
"......" That was enough for both of them to start searching for charcoal immediately. Chrome and Magma also sped up their speed that is even with the brothers, to which Kohaku sighed and followed them.
"Bye-bye~!" M/N chirped.
Some Time later...
After M/N and some villagers helped Senku to build the heater, they waited for the team that had set out to find charcoal.
"We're back!" M/N looks at them and saw a ton. No. A freaky ton that the basket looked like it was about to rip. M/N then looked at the basket full of charcoals, and look at Senku, and announced the person that had collected the most charcoal.
"Magma and Kinro." When Magma and Kinro had heard this, their faces immediately started to become a blush red. M/N then pecked both of their cheeks, making them to blush more. WHile on the other hand, Ginro and Chrome were extremely jealous by both of the people that had been pecked by M/N.
Only the villagers are excited that their house or rather hut will have a heater and they were eager to try it out.
"It's so warm in the house!"
"Let's make hot food for everyone."
"That way, all of us can work properly, then."
"All we need is the ashes of the charcoal. Bake all you want if you want to." Senku commented after installing the last heater on top of the hut.
"It's amazing. The things made are obviously irrelevant. But it makes the village more prosperous." Kokuyo commented to both the twins.
"That's right. That's how Science is." Senku said, while M/N nodded.
'Senku, M/N, I made the right decision to hand over the chief position to the both of you, I suppose.' Kokuyo thought.
With Gen and Kaseki...
Kaseki is seen working with the glassware that customer Senku had 'ordered', while Gen was holding a few sheets of people.
"Manganese battery. Do we need batteries after the vacuum tube is done?" Gen questions himself.
"I have prepared the instructions and materials. Use the magnesium that was found in the cave." M/N walked in and said like it was nothing.
"Are you asking me to do it?"
"Of course not, it's the tree behind you that is suppose to do it. Bullshit."
Gen sat down at one of the hut that has a heater and abandoned, and patted his lap because the hut was quite dusty.
Zinc for seaweed.
Magnesium for rice balls.
Charcoal for filling.
It's made into a magnesium battery in an instant.
It's made into a magnesium battery in an instant.
Oh?
Just like that, it's done already.
Turns out...
It's not that difficult.
Manganese battery.
It's all manganese.
Manganese battery.
Manganese.
Manganese battery.
It's all manganese.
"You need to make 800 pieces." M/N cuts into Gen's world.
"What?! 800 pieces?!"
Gen immediately knees down on the floor, sobbing in defeat. "That's too much..."
"Let me help you with it." Ruri kindly helped.
"This is the wine that you wanted. Are we having a party or something?" Kohaku puts a big jar of wine on the laboratory table.
"Nope. I want to make a vocal cord for the cellphone. A microphone." Senku replied.
"With wine?" Chrome questions.
"But only the pink granules attached to the wine lid will be used. Then, melt it in the hot water roasted with seaweed. It's complete."
"E-eh?! Where is the microphone you said?" startled Kohaku questions.
"Anyways, what is this glittering stone?"
"This is called Rochelle salt. It can turn the sound energy into electrical signals. Just put this on a lightweight thing like a plastic speaker, and the microphone is done." M/N explained while Kohaku was looking at the crystal out of curious.
Few days later...
"The plastic is done!"
"The wires are done!"
"The vacuum tube is done!"
"The microphone is done!"
"The strongest weapon of modern warfare, that can transmit the sound infinitely to a far distance. The cellphone is born!"
"Awesome!"
CELLPHONE ACQUIRED!
Everyone started to cheer happily after weeks and months of torture work. "It's finally completed before spring arrives. Finally, the battle with Tsukasa...that everyone looks forward to." Senku smirked out.
"The final battle. This is so exciting."
(4278 words)