10. Power of the Gods
Oct. 13, 2022
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"So, even with the creation of iron, you'd still consider joining Tsukasa?"
You had crossed your arms in annoyance as you were still discussing with Senku and the mentalist, Asagiri Gen. Chrome and the others were still making more iron, and ended up making at least two more.
"Of course! There are pros and cons to both groups! Tsukasa-chan versus Senku-chan, which would benefit me more?" He offered both sides, "Science's crazy items and ramen are great, but the work you have to put into making those things are something to consider! But with Tsukasa-chan, the work is easy and I can have my dream harem with revived idols! Truly, which would you prefer?"
You then saw Suika listening in on your conversation. She asked, "What's a harem?"
"Uh...I think it's better off with kids not knowing yet~" Gen replied carefully.
She happily stated, "Suika thinks she prefers ramen!"
The man smirked, "Ramen is great too...man, this is tough. I'm still leaning towards Tsukasa-chan though~"
Kohaku then held two knives up against his face, scaring him. "Your name was Asagiri Gen, right? Well, a selfish, flimsy, thin-willed, worthless man like you... I think I'm better off killing you, and at the least, locking you up."
"If Gen doesn't return to Tsukasa, he will think something is wrong and will come check on him himself," you told the blonde girl. She understood what you had meant by that.
"Heh, don't worry. Once you see what we make with our new material, iron, you'll ten billion percent want to join the kingdom of science," Senku told him with a smirk.
"Oh? And what will that be? A katana or something? Seems like dear (Y/N)-chan here would be fully equipped if she had one, putting you at the advantage," said Gen.
"Ah, it would be so nice to have one," you mentioned.
The scientist chuckled. "Oh, she definitely would. But we're making a generator."
The mentalist froze in place. He couldn't believe what he had heard.
"H-Here?! In the stone world?! That's impossible!" Gen sputtered out, sweat running down his temples.
Senku had ignored him and climbed up the warehouse to get more supplies, in which he had found copper within Chrome's stash. It would be needed to be melted down to create a wire.
"Hmm, after making the wire, we just need some lightning to come..." said Senku, his hand against his chin as he was thinking.
You, and everybody around you, then jumped as you heard the sound of lightning crashing down nearby. The villagers that were pumping air had run away, fearing that the sky was angry. You looked at Senku, who was the most shocked out of everybody.
"What a coincidence," you mentioned.
"We're seriously lucky!" Chrome exclaimed happily.
Kohaku grinned. "Well, it is lightning season, after all."
"We're not lucky! This is the complete opposite of lucky!" cried Senku in a panic. "We're not even a millimeter ready!"
Gen spoke up, "Don't tell me you're making a lightning generator."
"That doesn't exist, Gen," you informed him, and he shrugged.
Senku spoke as he was grabbing all the copper from Chrome's stash of items, "If we had a magnet, we can make a dynamo...a power generator. The magnets we have now aren't powerful enough. So, with science, we'll have lightning strike an iron bar and create our own high powered magnet! We have to work at lightning speed!"
Chrome then destroyed the side of the furnace to put the copper in it, while Suika had left to grab lacquer, which was a material that was coated over Kohaku's spear. The scientist then coated the iron bars with the lacquer and grabbed a plank from the bridge, much to Kinro and Ginro's dismay. You and Kohaku carved a groove into the board together to hasten the process of creating a copper wire to wrap around the bars. As all of you worked together, the rain started to pour.
While Senku was wrapping the copper around the iron bars, you and Kohaku noticed a group of three villagers coming through the bridge. However, you saw that their expression and body language had the intent to kill. The biggest one out of the three looked the most dangerous.
"Crap, it's Magma!" cried Chrome. You assumed he was the tall, blonde man.
"Words won't get through a man like him. It'll turn into a fight!" said Kohaku.
You informed them, "If we get into a fight with the village, then all of our efforts will come to naught!"
Gen sighed, then spoke up, "I guess I don't have a choice. I don't want to be killed if I get caught up in it. Suika-chan, can you hand me some flowers? After all, flowers over war."
Once the mentalist got his flowers, he went over to Magma and his group. He showed them the flowers, but it had no effect other than making them angry and provoking them.
"What the hell are you doin', bringing flowers to us, you fruity prick?!" The smaller blonde angrily questioned him.
Magma hollered with laughter, "Were you the one who called the sky's anger?! HAHA, you've got some guts coming here by yourself just to be killed!"
Gen replied sweetly, his hands still holding the flowers up before them, "Oh no, you got it all wrong~! We came here because of the lightning...but we're going to use sorcery to make it disappear!"
"That's impossible! It's gotta be a bluff!"
"We're gonna do it just like this--"
The mentalist flipped his palms back and the flowers disappeared in front of Magma and his crew. Their faces had shown shock, seeing that the flowers were gone in a blink of an eye. From your point of view, you could still see the flowers between his fingers in his sleeves. You remembered that this trick was called a "backpalm", and that Senku explained to you all the tricks behind magic back in the day. It ruined the magic for you, but at least you understood how they did it.
With the magic trick, it allowed you enough time to get the materials ready and for Magma and his crew to retreat back to the village. All of you followed Kohaku, who was holding Senku by the collar of his shirt, up Bald-Top Mountain to get a better chance of lighting striking down upon you all. It was "super lightning-prone", according to Chrome. The middle was the perfect spot to get the energy.
"Hurry! We need to make a tower so lightning can strike the iron!" Senku informed everybody. You, Senku, and Chrome were trying to build a tower out of wood to hold the iron steady as the rest of the gang watched.
"The lightning is getting close! We don't have enough time to make the log tower!" you interrupted them as you looked up at the sky.
"Ngh...if only we had something long that we could plant into the ground..." Kohaku looked around the mountain. Both of you spotted a person--no--two people hiding in the bush, one of them holding a shiny, bright, gold-tipped spear. The two of you looked at each other with mutual understanding and nodded.
"N-No way! Anything but this spear!" Kinro cried with despair. Ginro, who was right next to him, had a scorned look on his face as if he knew Kinro loved the spear.
The blonde girl ran down to them and kicked the spear up with a back flip. She managed to catch it and immediately threw it at you, which you luckily caught. You took the rope around your waist and snatched the iron from Senku's hand to tie it around the end of the spear. Once it was tied, you immediately went to the middle and held the spear with both hands, bringing it down to the earth, and piercing the stone. You looked up to see lighting directly coming down onto you and immediately jumped out of the way to avoid getting struck.
"Hehehe, the God of lightning has come to descend before us!" chuckled the scientist.
As it hit the spear, the ground shook beneath all of you, and the intense heat of the lightning had come and gone before your group. But it was a sight to behold; the image of the lightning up-front burned into your mind, ignoring everything else around you. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for you.
"NOOOO!" Kinro loudly grieved for his beloved gold spear, completely knocking you out from your senses.
The mentalist also cried out, "You can't be serious! I can't believe it...in this empty stone world!"
"Believe it, mentalist!" You told him. "It's right there in front of your eyes!"
"Kukuku, the birth of electricity! Now this is exhilarating!" Senku stated confidently.
With the rain slowly dying down as it cooled the iron bar, the sun had peeked through the clouds to shine above you. The sullen brunette had walked up to what used go be his spear; a now dusted pile of wood and stone that had splintered from the lightning.
"I'm so sorry, Kinro, but we had to do this," you apologized to the boy, who was still upset about his destroyed spear. "It's possible to make another one though!"
Ginro smugly got in his face and laughed as he spoke, "Huuuuh? Oh, where did your spear go~? The only one that you got, and not me? That golden spear you wouldn't even let me borrow~?"
Kinro beat Ginro into the dirt, leaving him multiple bumps piled into one. On the other hand, Kohaku was panicked as she held up the magnetized iron bar with a regular one.
"Senku, (Y/N), we may have failed to make the magnets! I can't seem to get them close to each other! An invisible force keeps pushing them away!" The lioness cried out.
"You've got the polarities backwards," said Senku. He tried to flip one over, but the strength of the magnet ended up picking him up as it stuck together.
"Whoa, they're so strong! And you almost got your fingers caught in between them, oh dear God..." you shuddered, causing the scientist to snicker.
"Relax, I was being careful, slowpoke. Anyways, let's head down the mountain since we were able to get our super, powerful magnets."
The entire group headed down the mountain and back to the warehouse. Kinro and Ginro went back to their posts to guard the bridge once more.
"So now we'll be able to make that insane 'electricity' stuff now, right?" Chrome questioned.
"Yeah. We need to melt some more copper down before then," said Senku.
Gen interjected, "Surely, we're not making a nuclear generator...so will we use fossil fuels or wind for power?"
You spoke up, "This place isn't that windy if we're being honest here...and fossil fuels will be hard to find. I think we're going to make a physical powered generator because it's the easiest thing to make right now..."
"Bingo. Ten billion pointsh to the shlowpoke onshe again," the scientist drawled out.
You then looked at him since the sound of his voice sounded strange, and you noticed that his face and hands were starting to get swollen and red. You almost let out a laugh. "Pfft--Senku, your face is starting to swell up. Your lacquer allergies are in effect."
"I was wondering why the hell Senku-chan turned into Anpanman..." the mentalist said. You snickered when you heard that nickname.
"I'll do the work for you, Anpanman~," you spoke up.
"I can shtill wowk, deshpite the shwelling," the scientist said with an annoyed expression, holding the jar of lacquer.
You then snatched the jar away from him. "Continuing to expose yourself to the lacquer isn't good, so you sit down right now. Just tell me what to do, and I'll help. I feel all better now anyways. Besides, what's an assistant for if I don't do anything?"
Gen had a teasing grin on his face during your exchange, but he had covered it with his sleeve when he raised his arm up. "Ah, so is (Y/N)-chan like your mother, Senku-chan~? Is that how it is between the both of you? Or maybe a doting lover for you~? Maybe I can have (Y/N)-chan dote on me if you don't like it! Who wouldn't want such a beautiful girl like her~!"
"Wow~ how charming! If you were a little younger, I'd consider dating you, Gen-kun~" you joined in on the teasing.
"How flattering, (Y/N)-chan~!"
"Haha, veeewy funny." The sarcasm was heavy in Senku's words.
"Eh~ is the one and only Senku-chan jealous that I'll steal his dear (Y/N)-chan?" The mentalist jested.
"No, but you awe all shtalling. Anywaysh, pound the coppa sheet sho that it ish flat," he said and handed you and Chrome two hammers.
The two of you pounded the copper until it was flat. Then Senku instructed you to poke a hole through the middle to stick a tiny pole to tie a string on it. This way, you can make two massive circles disks of the same size. Once they were cut out, you created a lever system to put the disks on and began to shave the edges with a stone from Chrome's collection, corundum. Using the lacquer that you took away from the green-haired boy, you coated more copper wire with the material.
By the time you finished creating everything for the generator, it was already getting dark. Senku had also recovered from his intense lacquer allergy as well.
"Woohoo, we got the generator!" Chrome happily cheered.
"Kukuku, the kingdom of science's double hand-cranked generator is completed!" Senku grinned.
"Now that that's done, we just need two people to spin the disks. It might break if it isn't spun at the same time," you mentioned. "If Taiju was here, I could probably do it with him. He and I would help Senku with some of the stronger and precise projects back in the day, and Yuzuriha would handle the more delicate stuff."
"Alas, they are not here. But there's already two perfect candidates for this job," said Gen. The six of you then turned your heads towards the bridge and spotted the brothers standing there. "Wow~ electricity is amazing, isn't it Senku-chan, (Y/N)-chan~! In our world of sorcery, so many devices were powered by electricity, and with it, things like silver or gold spears wouldn't be a problem to make, huh~?"
You then spoke up, "But couldn't we just use the materials we used before--"
"Hold it, slowpoke. We can't rely on that method all the time," Senku broke in. He looked at the mentalist, "Doing electric plating is really tough. Do you even know the recipe for it?"
He had a goofy smile on his face. "Not the first thing~."
"Asagiri Gen... you're words are as light as a feather. But now that we look at them, it's enough to convince them."
And it was. The two boys had a look of interest on their face, and so all of you led them to power up the generator. Kinro and Ginro put all of their effort into it, and they ended up spinning it in sync, even though they looked so tired.
"Kukuku, we've acquired Kinro and Ginro. We've got a pretty good lineup for the Kingdom of Science!" said Senku.
"Can that thing really make electricity?" Gen questioned.
The scientist held up a leaf with a little piece of wood on it before the two of you. "This is a bamboo fiber that I had roasted. Now, let's go to the warehouse."
All of you, except the brothers, went back to the warehouse to see Senku demonstrate electricity. You and Kohaku brought the copper wire that was connected to the generator and gave it to Senku and Chrome, who climbed up onto the roof of the small hut itself.
"Do we really need a high place?" asked Kohaku.
The boy replied, "Not really, but since we already went through the trouble of making it... (Y/N) come up here with me."
He held his hand out to you as you climbed the ladder to the warehouse, and he helped pull you up. The scientist motioned you to sit right next to him, and Chrome on the other side. Kohaku, Suika, the brothers, and Gen watched from the ground as he began to touch the fiber with the copper wire.
"Chrome, are you afraid of the night?" Senku asked him.
He replied in confusion, "Yeah...it's just so pitch black. Why are you asking now?"
"Because in our time, there was no darkness. The invention of the incandescent light bulbs by Thomas Edison erased the night from the world, claiming it twenty-four hours a day. With light, it brought everyone a sense of calm and safety."
As he brought the wire closer together to make it touch the fiber, it had caused a spark to create the most dazzling white light you've ever seen since the day you woke up. It was so bright, nearly everybody had to cover their eyes from the sudden light. All the primitives were impressed with how bright it was.
Senku then slowly looked over to you, his crimson eyes had softened so dearly. Your mouth had slowly curved upwards into a tender smile that you couldn't hide, reaching to your (E/C) eyes. The green-haired boy couldn't help but stare at that contagious smile of yours that he had worked hard to get. He couldn't help but smile as well, though it was as small and as soft as any person who had cared enough.
"I told you that I would create light for you again, slowpoke," you heard Senku say.
You let out a soft laugh, "I didn't say that I doubted you. I knew that you would. Thank you for doing this."
As you thanked him, the light began to die down. You all looked over to see that Kinro and Ginro had stopped working due to exhaustion. Soon enough, it was dark enough for all of you to only be illuminated by the moon and stars.
You heard Gen speaking from under the warehouse, "Man, electricity in this world seems so unreal... imagine if you could see this now, Tsukasa-chan..."
"That was so cool!" Chrome cried and he climbed down from the warehouse. "Was civilization before really as bright as that?!"
"Yup! It was everywhere. With electricity, we could also carry something called 'flashlights' or 'smartphones' in the palm of our hands just to have light with us. Unfortunately, Kinro and Ginro can't spin the generator forever, so we can only have electricity temporarily, " you mentioned.
"One day, it'll be permanent, just like before," he said. "You know, before meeting you, the first thing I ever read was a biography on Edison when looking for books on science."
"Really? Then you've made it so far, reaching the the roots of your scientific mind," you slightly laughed.
"'We'," he corrected you, which had surprised you. "We've made it all the way to the root of science, after one year and four months...! I know you haven't been awake that long, but we did it together!"
You look at Senku, who had a smile his face as he gripped the wires tightly in his hand. You felt joy rising within you, and you couldn't help but smile with a small tinge of pink on your face.
"Yeah....we did it together."
-To be Continued-
A/N: Getting close to the chapters that I'm currently writing. Soon, this fic will update bi-weekly instead of weekly just to make sure I have enough time to write the chapters. I hope you're okay with that!