20. To Have and Hold
Mar. 18, 2023
A/N: Thank you for the nice and funny comments in all my previous chapters. It makes me happy to know some people still enjoy my work.
They give me a reason to keep writing.
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"Your name's are Ishigami Senku and (Y/N) (L/N)."
You and Senku looked at Ruri with immense unease. How did she know your full names, and why is the village named after Senku's last name?
"Let's talk away from the villager's eyes and ears. I will provide more answers and tell you everything," said Ruri, and she turned away to walk up the steps of the Chief's hut.
The two of you followed her and walked inside the hut. You froze in your tracks when you saw a familiar symbol above the Chief's throne. How did you not notice it before?
"Senku..." you tugged on his sleeves and pointed at it.
The moment he looked up, his crimson eyes widened at the sight of it. A triangle pointed downwards and an arrow pointed up on top of it. A smile curved upwards on his face, and he approached Ruri. "Ah, now it all makes sense. If everyone on Earth turned into stone, then who the heck started this village? And why do Ruri and Kohaku only look half-Japanese? The mystery's been solved!"
Chrome, Kohaku, Kinro, Ginro, and Suika were surprised, but then they had confused expressions on their faces.
"Nope, sorry. I still don't understand a thing," Kohaku apologized.
"Ah! Do you mean that it's no coincidence that you and the village share the same name? But Ruri knew about Senku and (Y/N)?!" Chrome told all of you.
You nodded. "Yes. She probably knows because of two characters in your folklore, which is us."
"Yes," Ruri asserted.
Now Kohaku and Chrome's eyes were as wide as plates. The brunette blurted out, "Folklore?! That folklore?! Like the stories with Momotaro and his gorilla?!"
"You mean the one the priestess' pass down to every generation? The One Hundred tales..." The blonde lioness mentioned.
The priestess closed her eyes and began explaining, "The story that mother told me tells of great strength and great heart. The 100th tale of the One Hundred Tales. It's called 'Ishigami Senku.' The man who started this village... Our founder was--"
"Ishigami Byakuya. My...father," Senku interrupted. His eyes had a solemn look to them, as they appeared slightly glassy. You knew exactly what he was feeling at the moment. The feeling of missing a parent so dear to you. If you could, you would do whatever you could to give him comfort, but you needed information first.
Ruri then began to explain the story of how this village started. As she was explaining it to all of you, you could recall some of the details as though it was yesterday.
-Flashback-
"Run!"
A smaller, younger version of you, Senku, and Taiju were running through the halls of your elementary school when the school day was over. The three of you were carrying a large anatomy model, after stealing it from your science classroom. Your teacher had unfortunately spotted your thievery, and you were doing your best to escape the school before getting caught.
"This was a bad idea, Senku!" You cried out. "Couldn't you have bought one yourself?!"
"Kukuku, no can do! The old man's got teacher's pay, so we gotta make do with this one!" The little scientist replied with a smile.
You then questioned him once more, "What are we going to use this for?"
"This is to help my old man learn to swim so he can become an astronaut!" He answered.
"Let's run faster then!" Taiju confidently grinned.
The three of you ended up running out of the school without getting caught and ended up all the way in Senku's room. All of you set the model down and the little scientist grabbed his little laptop and a large device with little wired pads connected to it.
"Before putting this on the dummy, we gotta test it on a real person!" Senku informed you two.
"I will do it!" Taiju exclaimed.
The green-haired boy then started putting the pads connected to the device onto the brunette's wrist. He went straight to the computer after doing so and clicked away. Just a few seconds later, Taiju started sticking his middle finger up. He was so shocked that he tried to grab his arm with his free hand to make it stop.
"Taiju, that's so rude!" You began to laugh.
"It's not me, my finger is moving on its own!" He fretted. "What's going on?!"
Senku chuckled, "Kukuku, of course! I applied electricity to specific muscles using this e-stim device here! It's usually used for therapy, but we're gonna use it to make a suit!"
The three of you started getting to work, putting pads on the dummy. Each pad would go on the muscles that were important for swimming, and Senku would test it on his computer. Once he got it down, the three of you created a latex suit with pads all over the inside, with the e-stim device sticking outside of it covered in a plastic bag.
-at the pool-
"So...what is this weird body suit?" Byakuya questioned the three of you after he put it on. The four of you were standing at the edge of a community pool.
You replied to him, "Why are you asking questions before putting it on, Byakuya-san?"
Senku smirked, then kicked his father into the water. The moment he did that, you could hear the devices in the suit beginning to work. The scientist made it so that the moment it hit the water, it would start.
Byakuya screamed, "GAHHHH! My limbs are flailing around on their own! Is this supposed to be a breast-stroke?!"
Sneering, his son replied, "The swimming test is your Achilles' heel, right? Hence this electrode suit of cruelty. It's gonna help you with muscle memory!"
"You call this 'swimming'?!"
You turned to both boys. "How long do you think this'll take?"
"About two weeks or so, give or take," Senku replied. "As long as he uses it every day after school, his muscles should remember each swimming technique."
-two years later-
"The Soyuz Rocket is finally about to launch! We even have a representative from Japan, an astronaut destined for a long-term stay abroad the International Space Station--"
"Is this a terrestrial signal or the net?! Either way, it's live right?!"
You chuckled as you watched the live news broadcast with Senku, who had a pinky in his ear, in your classroom. The students, confused, watched from behind the two of you. Your teacher was starting to get annoyed with all the disruptions.
You then saw Byakuya standing in front of the camera with a huge grin on his face. He screamed into the reporter's microphone, "Senku, (Y/N)! I'm not sure if you two are watching this broadcast, but I'm gonna bring home a mountain of science souvenirs!"
The green-haired boy chuckled. "Calm down, old man."
"This is a little embarrassing..." you giggled.
"Wow, Ishigami-kun, is that your dad? He knows you too, (Y/N)-san!" One of the girls in the class looked over your shoulders. Everybody was staring at the two of you and wanted to see the phone screen.
"Hey, let us see too!"
"Your dad's going to space?!"
"So lucky!"
"Everyone, quiet down! Class is still in session!" Your teacher yelled at the class.
Everyone immediately sat down, and Senku dejectedly put his phone away. But the two of you had small smiles on your face, awaiting the day Byakuya would return to Earth and tell you everything that happened to him.
-End of Flashback-
Ruri explained to the two of you that after heading to space, Byakuya and the rest of the crew had watched everybody they knew turn into stone statues. Apparently, they made plans to save humanity once they had shot themselves back to Earth using their leftover Soyuz crafts. That unfortunately didn't happen. Each of them had children before two of them, Shamil Volkov and Connie Lee, died of the same illness Ruri had, pneumonia. Yakov and Darya Nikitin went missing in action when going out to sea to find a cure, so it was assumed they had also passed as well. The superstar, Lillian Weinberg, died later on after taking care of the children with Byakuya.
"What a mysterious story...Suika doesn't get what it's all about..." Suika mentioned, breaking the still quietness around you.
Chrome spoke up, trying to recall the story Ruri had explained, "Right...so a few thousand years ago, all of humanity turned to stone. All those statues that we see outside are all people. But then Senku's dad and those five others were up in the sky, so they didn't get whammied...and all of us here in Ishigami Village are their descendants thousands of years later!"
"You got that right," you told him.
"Which means that the entire village is essentially related to Senku?!" Kohaku covered her red face with her hands.
Senku replied, "Kukuku...not really since Byakuya and I aren't blood-related. Besides, it's been a few hundred generations. No one's really 'related' after that long."
"HEY, WHAT'RE YOU BIG SHOTS DOING UP THERE?!"
All of you looked outside the hut to see the village drinking the night away. The village elders were looking up at all of you with drunken smiles and flushed faces. They beckoned all of you to come down and join them.
"...Let's join the celebration, all of us," said Ruri with a soft smile. It looked as though she had more to say, but had waved it off.
The eight of you headed down the steps to join the party. You were all given cups of alcohol to drink as you made it to the center of the circle of people.
"I'm not of age to drink yet..." you shyly mentioned.
"Technically speaking, we're over 3,700 years older. You're perfectly legal!" Senku snickered as he downed his alcohol.
You stared as he finished his drink, then looked down. It would hurt to try, would it? You took the alcohol and took a few gulps. It didn't really taste good, but that's probably because you don't drink much alcohol, right? What could go wrong?
~~~
"She's a lightweight?!"
"I'm sorry!" You wailed with slight tears in your eyes. Your face was flushed red. "M-My father was a lightweight compared to my mother...ah, I miss them... I miss Byakuya-san... I miss training with shishou..."
Your friends were trying to get you to stop rambling on. "Please don't cry!"
"Wha-- I-I can't help it!"
"Kukuku, if I knew you were a lightweight, I wouldn't have let you drink," Senku said with sweat running down his temples. He turned to some of the villagers. "We need some water over here to flush the alcohol outta her system!"
"Got it, chief!"
As everyone was going around, Senku had you leaning on him as you sat on the floor, crying. Your emotions were heightened just from drinking one cup of alcohol.
"Senku, (Y/N), come with me."
You and Senku both looked over to see Ruri trying to draw your attention to her. She was over by the bridge, and she used her hands to call you over. As everyone was distracted, the boy helped pull you up and dragged you over to her.
"There's one more thing I need to tell you two," she told you.
"More stories?" You queried.
"Kukuku, aren't these stories supposed to be for everyone?" Senku questioned her as he pulled you gently.
"I thought it'd be best that only you'd two would hear it, Senku," she replied. "There was a reason why Byakuya created the Hundred Tales. These tales were to be passed down to future generations to help them survive. The very first tale being about the Japan you might strive for, and the last, being a message from Byakuya himself."
The three of you crossed the bridge and passed the warehouse, where there was a clearing in the woods nearby with a cliffside surrounding it. In the middle of the huge space was a hilltop covered with gravestones. Each one of them had different symbols to represent one person. You were mesmerized by the eerie quietness of the place.
"This is the village graveyard," said Ruri, as she continued walking to the top with a flower. "This small grave marker was brought here on behalf of our founders."
Senku chuckled, "Heh, they died 3,700-odd years ago. Even if it's true, there's not so much as a pinky bone left down here."
"Ruri, what was the message that Byakuya-san left for us?" You asked her as she placed the flower beside the gravestone.
She stood up and looked directly at the both of you. She began to relay the message, "'If you're hearing this story, it'll probably be thousands of years from now, but that means you probably broke out of the stone! I'm doing well, but I'll probably be dead by then. Here are your souvenirs, just as promised: some people that you can call friends, all tied together by one hundred tales!' With your science and friend's help, I'm sure the two of you will build a world that's more fun."
The two of you were silent as you took in the message. He knew that it would take a long time for you to free yourselves from stone, yet he left a message for you to hear, thousands of years later. This information sobered you up pretty quickly.
"I'm gonna...do some research here," Senku blurted out.
The priestess nodded and bowed. "Alright. I will leave you two here. I'm going to head back to the village."
You heard her walking down the hilltop. With every step she took away from you, your heart tightened, your eyes watering slightly.
"Right. It's been...thousands of years," you heard your friend speak with a slightly shaky voice. "Back then, alone in the darkness, I'd only counted up a few hundred million seconds. Sure takes me back..."
You turned your head to see his red eyes glossed over and his neck strained. He was trying too hard not to cry. Without a second thought, you took his hand and intertwined your fingers with his. He looked over at you with a surprised look on his face to see tears running down from your (E/C) eyes.
With a quivering voice, you told him, "Don't hold it in... I know you don't like to cry in front of others, but just this once, cry. I promise that I will look away, but I will not leave you alone. You have me as a shoulder to lean on...and a hand to hold in times like this."
Senku's grip tightened around your fingers. You heard his breath hitch, and he, too, started shaking. The both of you, standing side-by-side, cried silently as though time had stopped for the both of you. Tears were dripping onto the headstone, and the moonlight had illuminated the area around you. The boy was the first to stop crying.
Wiping his tears away with his free hand, he spoke, "Kukuku, without those science souvenirs, I might actually be struggling...thousands of years have passed, but I gladly accept them."
"And I also accept them. Thank you, Byakuya-san," you said with a sniffle, bowing slightly before the gravestone.
The boy then looked at you with sincerity. He took his free hand and started using his fingers to wipe your tears as he did before. "Thank you. As my shoulder to lean on and my hand to hold, I'm grateful to have you."
You widened your eyes, then gave him a small smile. "That's what... friends are for, right?"
"Yeah..."
"We should probably head back now though... They will be looking for us."
The two of you strolled all the way back to the village, hand-in-hand in peaceful silence.
"No thank you, I'm strictly a cola man... Besides, I need my wits to make my serious report. Now that the village is in one place, I have a message to deliver," you heard Gen speaking as you approached Ishigami Village.
"Yeah, let's hear it, mentalist," Senku called out as you crossed the bridge together. He let go of your hand to get closer to the man. "What happened in the Tsukasa Empire?"
A mischievous grin appeared on his face as he turned to the both of you. "They're coming. Tsukasa-chan and his army!"
All of your friends were shocked as they heard those words slip through his mouth. Senku had a smirk on his face.
"Kukuku...so it's finally time to show what our Kingdom of Science can do. This is exhilarating!"
-To be Continued-
A/N: I hope you enjoyed! This chapter was little shorter than the rest but the next one will be longer.
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