40. Negotiations
10-29-2023
A/N: Ahhh, sorry I posted a little late! But here it is! And thank you so much for your votes and comments! I love reading them!
Though... reading your comments makes me think about what would happen if I ever made NSFW stuff...y'all are just so down bad...
By the way, UNDERLINES are the ENGLISH text. I have edited previous chapters to make it seem that way as well.
Q: Since Halloween is coming up, do you guys celebrate it? If you do, what are you doing this year?
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You were lying down in between the cracks of the ridge after Senku had killed you with his way of affection. After the lovely morning events, he had given you a job to stay and keep a lookout for any suspicious activity coming from the Tsukasa Empire. Using a telescope he'd personally handed to you by himself, you would loiter around and watch the Tsukasa Empire making rounds on the ground floor. But you were closely gazing upon them when you saw them acting frantic around their home base.
Then you realized why.
"Is...is that Chrome?"
Spotting a flicker of movement, your vision hastily focused on it to see that it was Chrome. You used the telescope to keep your eye on the boy, who had somehow successfully escaped on his own, trudging through the forest with determination. You immediately pushed yourself off the ground and started moving your legs to tell your friends.
"Senku! Senku!" You called out to him as you saw him fixing the tank with the others.
He spotted you in the corner of his field of vision, turning his head to see your wide-eyed look. "What's wrong?"
"It's Chrome! He's escaped on his own!" You answered him, then ran past him to go in the direction he was coming from.
You passed by trees and bushes to meet up with him. As you closed in on him, you held your hand up high for him to see it. "Chrome!"
Upon hearing your voice, he grinned widely. "(Y/N)! You guys are here?! That's pretty badass!"
"We came to save you!" You explained to him and then you noticed him falling weak to fatigue. Taking the brunette's arm, you put it over your shoulders to stabilize him. "I'll help you to the camp. Everybody's waiting for you."
As you brought him over, many people saw him and welcomed him with open arms. They were glad he was okay.
"Incredible! Chrome broke out all by himself!" They cheered.
"Oho, that means my cute and adorable Steam Gorilla won't have to be thrown away in a suicide attack!" Kaseki cried out with tears in his eyes.
Kohaku questioned him, "But how'd you even know to go in this direction?"
"It's not like I knew. I just cane in the direction Suika went when she was scouting, along a path that seems like it could be seen with a telescope..." he explained to her.
"Yet another achievement made by Ace Detective Suika~" Gen chuckled, causing the little girl to blush.
You then brought him over to Senku, who had a grave look on his face. The scientist asked him, "What's with that blood?"
With no hesitation, you whipped your head to get another look at the brunette. You realized that he had dried, dark-red splotches over his mouth. Not even a second later, the boy went on his knees to cough out thick, maroon liquid. It trickled down his chin and onto the floor. Panic ensued from everyone.
Quickly, Ruri went over to his side full of concern. "It's the same as when I was sick!"
"Chrome caught pneumonia?!" You cried out, knowing that he was in danger.
Senku went over to touch the liquid to inspect it. Then, with a smirk curling up on his visage, he let out a cackle, "Kukuku, that's just great! So this is how you threw off your pursuers?!"
Chrome looked up with everybody else, returning the grin. "Yep! I remembered you telling me that mixing dried perilla with creeping woodsorrel makes it look like blood!"
Both of them men bumped arms, causing you to let out a sigh of relief. All he was using was pickled plums to escape from whoever was chasing after him. Chrome later explained that he escaped using a battery that Taiju or Yuzuriha had left in his bamboo cell. With that, he was able to create the chemicals needed to break down the ropes tying the cell together. But that brought up a few concerns between you and Senku.
"Even though he's extremely helpful...I don't think he'd be smart enough to come up with something like that," you told him.
Kohaku added, "Ah, what about Yuzuriha?"
"Yuzuriha...should have her hands beyond full, especially since she's nearly working herself to death on her top-secret mission. She's not the kind of woman that would abandon her duties and act on her own," Senku mentioned.
"Well, in the end, does it really matter? It saved me!" Chrome exclaimed with a goofy grin. But you still had questions about who did it.
Suddenly, Kaseki rolled up in the tank, surprising the brunette with their latest creation. The old man said, "Ohohoho! Thanks to that, my lovely little tank, the Steam Gorilla, wasn't left for dead!"
Crossing his arms with a confident smirk, Senku added, "Yeah. For storming the final battlefield, having a tank on our side is gonna be huge!"
"What's the final battlefield?" You wondered as others were wondering as well.
"The final decisive battle with be a war for the Cave of Miracles!" He announced. "With the nitric acid, we'll be able to make the revival formula and gunpowder. The condition of this war is whoever controls the cave is the winner!"
"But if that's true, then Tsukasa will be using all his manpower to defend it," Kohaku argued.
Magma blurted out, "And they've got almost a hundred people on their side!"
With your mouth curling up, you told them, "Well that's why Gen has been working so hard."
~~~
"Hi, y'all! People of Japan, are you listening?"
All of the training Nikki had placed on Gen seemed to have worked out for the better, as the mentalist was able to get Lillian's accent and speech mannerisms down. Using the record and Nikki's training, he was able to talk to many people that your friends had brought over from Tsukasa's side as Senku, or "Sebastian" had translated for them.
"America is already rebuilding civilization! We're going to save you!" Gen happily explained as Lillian.
You could hear the people cheering through the phone as you listened in. Nikki was doing her best to keep them quiet, but they didn't seem to give a damn now that "Lillian" was going to save them with America's technology. Hearing how joyous they were, you ultimately felt bad that you were manipulating them for the sake of science. But this was the best course of action.
"The one thing I want," the scientist translated everything from the mentalist, "is to put a stop to Tsukasa's destruction of statues as quickly as possible. So to that end, I would like you all to cooperate with Senku's plan~"
There was more cheering through the phone as Gen had finished.
"Thank you, Lillian!"
"We're going to be saved!"
Suddenly, you heard a faint voice on the other side, "You all look like you're having fun. How about letting me listen in on that telephone too...?"
Conversations ceased as that person spoke. Nikki spoke with a frightened tone, "U-Ukyo..."
You turned to both men, who already knew what was going to come next. "Gen, you've gotta put you're all into this or else it's game over."
"I suppose you're right, (Y/N)-chan. Having received a perfect score from my teacher, the die-hard stan Nikki, it'll be my impersonation versus Ukyo's hearing ability. We've gotta risk it all on this duel!" the mentalist declared. He switched to his Lillian impersonation and introduced himself, "Hello, this is Lillian Weinberg! Who, may I ask, is speaking?"
With a chuckle, the man replied, "Incredible... It really is Lillian. Under any normal circumstances, this might have been my loss."
You pumped your fist as you glanced over to the men, who were grinning wildly. But soon, that happiness faded with the next few sentences that were spoken through the speaker.
"However, there is no vibration in your voice after singing so enthusiastically. That would have been quite hard for you to imitate, Gen."
Sweat dripping and trickling down your heads. The three of you had no idea what to do.
"God damn, that's what we got caught on?!" Senku nervously claimed.
"Does he have ears like Superman?! How good are his ears if he was able to hear that?!" You scoffed in disbelief.
"GAHHH, I knew it was impossible!" cried Gen, who had his hands over his face. He then stopped moving and had the look of realization on his face. "Haaaaang on a sec, Senku-chan, (Y/N)-chan... Why do you suppose Ukyo went out of his way to intentionally say that in English...?"
You and your boyfriend started thinking about it, then simultaneously came up with an answer together. "He didn't want anyone else to hear it..."
"Bingo! Come to think of it, Ukyo-chan's been showing signs of acting very strangely...when he spotted us at the grave site, he didn't inform Tsukasa or his allies. He just chased after us on his own," the mentalist explained.
The scientist let out a chuckle, "Kukuku, you do keep a reaaaal sharp eye on people, don'tcha, mentalist?"
"Hehe, how do you think I knew about your feelings for each other~?" the man replied playfully as he stared at the two of you.
"Your eyes are too sharp for my liking," you mumbled. "Either way, the battle between you and Ukyo is even, one-to-one."
The green-haired boy then picked up the microphone to speak through it. As you listened, you realized that Senku was continuing the conversation entirely in English so that none of Tsukasa's men would understand it. "So then the one who gave the battery to Chrome...was you, Ukyo?"
"Very amusing of you to let Gen, Magma, and Chrome go during our special phone delivery," you commented.
There was a moment of silence before he replied, "Ahaha...as expected, you're incredibly quick to comprehend things. Left as it is, you'd have probably died had you come to rescue him, Senku, (Y/N). Though, don't misunderstand me. I'm not exactly on your side."
"Yeah, we figured. If you were our ally, you wouldn't have captured Chrome in the first place," said Senku.
The man replied, "I've also been doing my own digging, deeper and deeper, just to figure out what kind of people you are. Then I saw it. Your unthinkable, near-impossible, top secret mission."
Now that you thought about it, you never bothered to ask what the secret mission was about. Looking over to Senku, he noticed your reaction and just gave you a smirk.
"You're insane!" Ukyo continued. "Even with the situation you're currently in, you're trying to save the entire human race with the power of science! Even if Tsukasa destroys the statues, you'd be able to save them just by treating them like a 3D puzzle piece..."
Widening your eyes, you then figured it out. Yuzuriha's secret mission was putting the statues back together. It made sense, considering she was a master crafts-woman herself.
"If that were the case, what would you do?" You then asked Ukyo.
The boy next to me added, "Kukuku, would you go tell Professor Tsukasa on us?"
"No, but rather, I'd work with you if you accept my conditions," suggested the man.
You were about to let Gen have a go at the microphone for conditions until your boyfriend barreled his words through, "Feeling each other out is a waste of time, so just get to the point already."
"Ahhh, that's the worst thing you could possible do for a negotiation!" Gen held in a scream as you pat his shoulders, feeling bad.
"Okay, I got it. One condition: nobody dies," Ukyo declared. "And I'm no idealist. I'm a massive coward. I know it's hard to find repentance for such cowardice, but I just don't want anyone to die in a world like this. That's the final grasp of our very humanity."
Once Senku heard those words, he let out a laugh. "Kukuku, how amusing! You're on! I've got no qualms or issues with that! From the very start, I've said that I wanted a bloodless resolution!"
"This is gonna be one hell of a battle to fight!" The mentalist said off to the side.
"This doesn't change our ideals one bit, Ukyo. Our goals are the same," you told him.
You could hear a small chuckle through the line, and it was almost as if you could imagine his expression. He was grateful. "Thank you."
With negotiations in place, Ukyo had shared information regarding Hyoga and his crew. The underlings that were assigned with him had died, and the Spearman had reported that they had died due to Senku's chemical defenses. But he knew that Hyoga had killed them himself. Despite being all-powerful in this world, Hyoga and Tsukasa were completely different beings.
"Wait, Haru is alright, right? Hyoga wouldn't just kill a child, would he?" You then questioned with concern.
"Haru is fine, but they're hanging around Hyoga like a lost puppy. They're only sticking around him because Hyoga keeps telling them that he's still looking for their mother. Poor kid doesn't even realize that despite her strength, she wouldn't be able to be revived due to being older, wiser, and more experienced," said Ukyo.
"You got that right..." You said, then let out the biggest sigh of relief as Senku had placed a hand on your back to help you relax. "Thank goodness. At least they're okay..."
"One thing I highly doubt though is that Hyoga would hesitate to kill them. Unlike Tsukasa, he wouldn't let this battle go without shedding blood," the man added, which you didn't make you happy at all.
"Ah~ but that's why we're going to fight hard as hell~! To make sure no blood is spilled whatsoever~" Gen stated as he placed a hand on your shoulder, similar to what you did earlier. He was trying to comfort you as your friend.
"Damn right. Anyways, we can't stick around for long, so it's time we get going. We'll see all of you soon," the scientist said his farewells to those on the other side. "Ukyo, tell Taiju and Yuzuriha that they need catch us on the other side."
"You got it."
With that, the phone call was over. You turned your head to the green-haired boy. "You've got a way with words, Senku. Though, isn't it already a given that Taiju and Yuzuriha will see us tomorrow?"
"Yeah, but they just need some motivation, that's all," he replied with a small smirk. "Now, we got some more work to do! We gotta finish that tank and come up with a plan."
"Alright!"
-To be Continued-
A/N: I was gonna add more to this chapter but it would've been too much, so the rest is going to the next!
I hope you like this chapter, despite it being too close to the original story. Not much I could've added here! ( ´Ð')