Another evening was spent looking through the telescope. It wasn't just Senku who benefited from such amazing piece of work, but for everyone in the village.
"The suns coming up really soon, you guys!" Suika called from the top of her lungs so everyone could hear her.
"Careful not to look at it through the telescope." Senku reminded her.
"It's bad for your eyes." Yae added. She looked over at Senku, the things they had did the night before made her blush a tiny bit.
"If those are the right type of stones, they should start to glow." Kohaku brought her attention to the stone the three others had collected.
And with another minute, the stones inside the basket started glow a soft, pretty blue.
"Oh, wow. It looks like a mountain of jewels." Ruri could hardly believe her eyes.
"Yeah," said Senku. "Of course it does because it is a mountain of jewels." He chuckled. "And this treasure hoard here as our ultra rare metal inside it."
Magma laughed at this. "Call them whatever you want. They're just heavy rocks to me."
Yae shot him a look. "Yeah, to you maybe."
Magma ignored her stare. "I hope they're worth the fuss."
"They're definitely worth it when they help us beat Tsukasa." Asagiri said. He shivered a bit from the cold, or perhaps it was the mere thought of fighting Tsukasa that made him quiver.
The former chief was beside himself with disbelief. "This will help us win the battle?" He walked up to the basket to examine the stones. "I get it; they're weapons. They have enough weight to them to really hurt somebody."
Asagiri, Senku and Yae's mouth dropped. They couldn't believe what they had just heard.
"Sorry, father, but I don't think that's what they're going to be used for." Ruri said.
Kohaku crossed her arms and looked at her sister doubtfully. "Cut them some slack. The older generation doesn't understand."
"Look," said Asagiri, grabbing everyone's attention. "We're going up against Tsukasa's army, which going to be crazy. But if we stick to the plane and make cell-phones with these rocks, we'll have a massive advantage."
Kohaku huffed. "Yeah, I know, but how much longer is it going to take to make these cell-phones?"
"That's a good question." Ginro said, finally making his thoughts known. "Because once spring comes, their army is going to storm the village."
Senku shrugged. "Eh, we're not far from our goal."
"You wanna explain that more simply to them?" Yae suggested.
Senku cleared his throat. "The vacuum tube is the heart of the cell-phone, plastics the skeleton, the microphone is the vocal cord, and the cold wire is the veins. All we have to do is put those four parts together and we'll have ourselves a cell-phone."
"This is so exciting!" Yae bobbed up and down on her toes.
Senku smirked at her. "It's been a marathon of a science project, but we're getting close to the finish line. And now it's times to make our final sprint to the end!"
"Buuuuut..." Said Yae; she gestured her hands to have Senku explain more.
Senku nodded to her. "First things first, we have to make filaments, which are essential to vacuum tubes." He held the stone up to better examine it. "Tungsten is the most heat resistant in the known universe waiting inside this blue light."
"Here's another question," Kohaku said, "how are we going to get it our of the stone?"
Senku looked over at Yae. "Do you want to tell them, if you can remember?"
Yae shrugged sadly. "Not really. At least not step by step."
"That's okay." He said to her.

All of a sudden, Magma and mantel started beating the tungsten, bashing it to a powdery material.
Chrome practically screamed. "What the hell are you doing? Are you fucking crazy?"
"What?" Magma said without little care. "We're gettin' this stuff out of these rocks, man. If we smash them up first, it'll be easy."
Yae looked at them horrified. "Uh, slow down you two."
Senku picked at his ear. Although he looked less than satisfied, his following words brought some calm to the situation. "That totally works for me. We have to turn it to powder anyway."
Magma looked proud of himself. "You guys hear that? What did I tell ya?"
"Wait, you didn't know that!" Ginro yelled at the brute.
Kohaku joined in. "If you were wrong, you'd have to go through all that trouble again." Magma didn't seem to hear her though, and went back to pounding.
"Well this is strange." Said Kokuyo taking a spot near Senku. "This isn't like Magma at all. I've never seen him offer to help before. Did something happen down in that cave?"
Yae looked over at Senku, curious now. He had told her little about their little adventure down under. In fact, he had barely spoken a whisper about it. However, if it was something truly serious, surely Senku would have said something about it by now.
"Yeah, I wonder what it was." It was all Senku had to say about the matter.

The following day everybody set out to work. The powder from the tungsten was neatly kept in a single bag and covered when not in use.
"I use my chemistry skills on this powdered rock, and when I'm finished with it, it should have a similar consistency to toothpaste."
Yae put her hands in it. It felt nice and she was excited to finally make something out of it. She smiled up at Senku as she let the powder slip through her fingers.
"Oh, right," said Asagiri, "more fun chemistry stuff. It never does me any good to ask questions about it."
Yae raised a brow and smirked. "Does this bore you, Asagiri Gen? Perhaps we can blow something up. Would that be more fun?"
Asagiri waved a dismissive hand. "Nah, making cell-phones is fun enough for me."
"And then," Senku said, bringing the topic back up to speed. "We're gonna treat the toothpaste with hydrogen by warming it up in a glass container to get rid of any rust, and we're done."
"But remember, the temperature has to reach a thousand degrees." Yae said.
"Exactly. And the hotter we make it the stronger it will turn out." Senku and Yae both smiled at each, happy to be working on their science project.
Asagiri sighed but refrained from rolling his eyes. Seeing the two love-birds get excited over a hunk of stone was something the young mentalist had failed to ever learn or understand. Still, he was glad to be making progress. The sooner they finished, the better.
Hearing all this got the blood in old man Kaseki's veins boiling. "We can throw all of that in the furnace."
"It's nice to get an easy step once in awhile." Chrome patted the furnace, pumped to start their new project.
Senku raised a brow. "Have you two lost your minds? Think what would happen if you threw a glass container in a thousand degree fire." It finally dawned on the two and Senku further explained himself. "We have to make sure that only the tungsten inside the container is getting hot."
Kaseki nodded to this. "So then we'll have to pin-point the heat to one spot. But how?"
"That's a good question." Said Yae. "Senku, any thoughts?"
"First off, we'll have to split up the work. Time is short. Yae and I can handle all the toothpaste chemistry stuff."
"Wait," said Chrome, suddenly nervous. "Then whose going to figure out the pin-point heating mechanism? We don't have another scientist."
Yae hid a grin behind her hand and Senku rested his hands on his hips, smirking. "C'mon," he said. "You know everything you need to make that happen. You've gotta throw all the science tricks you learned at it." Chrome was beside himself with shock. He was a scientist! "Or do you need professor Senku to come and hold your hands?" He teased.
Chrome smirked. "Are you kidding me with that? Don't make me laugh. I'm Chrome, you know? And I'm smarter than hell! I'm a scientist!"
"That's the spirit!" Yae cheered for him.
"If you two need help in that laboratory, don't come crying to me."
Senku laughed. "You let us handle that and don't worry about it. You're gonna have your hands full, not us."

Suddenly, Old man Kaseki chuckled sadly.
"What's the matter, Kaseki?" Yae asked.
"See you three work together like this has got me thinking how much I'd like to have a crafting buddy of my own."
Chrome cocked his head to the side and said, "But you're not crafting things on your own anymore, are you? You have crafting buddies."
Kaseki's bushy brows raised a few milometers. "Oh, I do? And whose that?"
Chrome gestured toward all of them. "All three of us."
"Really?" Kaseki almost seemed unsure. "Even though I'm almost fifty years older than you?"
"Of course. Why should age matter at all?"
Yae second this idea. "Yeah, who cares, Kaseki?" She smiled and turned to walk with Senku.
The moment was touching indeed. In fact, it brought Kaseki to tears, but only for a short while before he ripped off his shirt and rushed right into work with the furnace.
"What the hell?" Senku was oddly surprised by the old man's sudden burst of energy.
"I gotta say," Asagiri said after many minutes of standing by and watching the touchy scene unfold. "He is really into it."
Senku interrupted him thought when he grabbed him by the back of the coat. "Alright, Modern Man, you're coming with us. I bet you know a little more chemistry than the villagers."
Asagiri laughed nervously. "I'm not so sure."
Yae walked beside, grinning. Sure, the mentalist may have been little help, but three brains was better than two. Plus, Asagiri usually seemed to have strangely good ideas, and was smarter than he led on. He did figure out Senku's birthday, after all.

Poor Asagiri Gen stood patiently while Senku went through the steps, but he tried to make as simple as possible.
"Cook the blue gem powder in the sodium hydroxide; use sea shells, hydrochloric acid, and ammonia to crystallize it. Next, you bake it and mix it with honey."
A sweat drop slipped from Asagiri's temple. "Okay! I understand, Senku. Honey! And then bake it, and then more honey!"
"You sure you got all that?" Yae asked.
Asagiri chuckled nervously. "Sure!"
Senku picked at his ear and sighed. "Chrome is more useful than you."
"Nah," came Asagiri's remark. "I don't think anyone could have kept up with those steps...unless they're someone like you or Yae. You two are the only ones who get it."
Yae chuckled at this. "I suppose so. By the way, Senku, should we check on the others and see how their doing?"
Senku shrugged. "They'll be fine. Besides, if I'm there hovering all the time, they'll always expect it. I'm trying to break that habit." He looked about the laboratory. "You've got this, right Asagiri?"
"Sure think, Senku."
"Great. Now let's work. Time to get excited!"

Yae had ended up leaving Senku and Asagiri to their own devices after the sun went down. She had her pets to check on and she need to clean and sharped her katana. That following morning, Yae had woken early enough many of the villagers were still asleep. However, Chrome and the others were still hard at work. They took turns working on the strange contraption they had built. Strange was a nice way of putting it. Yae could only imagine what Senku would think of it, and as she hurried over to the laboratory, half expecting to find the two guys passed out a drained from all energy. Although they had worked all night, no doubt, Senku however, was still surprisingly full of energy, while Asagiri on the other hand, well, not so much.
"Senku! What did you do to poor Asagiri Gen?"
"Look, Yae! Tungsten toothpaste!" There were dark circles under eyes. Perhaps he was more tired than he led on. Plus, he totally dodged her question about Asagiri.
"Help me, Yae..." Asagiri's voice squeaked.
Yae was unsure what to do, so she pulled out a small skin flask full of cool water and handed it to him. The young mentalist took the flask with greedy hands and chugged away.
Senku soon grabbed Yae's hand and pulled her along. "C'mon, let's go check on the others!" He didn't give her time to respond, though, and left behind poor Asagiri.

"Hey, heating team. How are things on your side?" Senku still had the bowl of tungsten toothpaste in his hands.
"We're just about done." Chrome wiped his forehead.
Senku was surprised to hear this. "Not bad, science user." He then gasped as he took a look at what they had been working with.
Yae chuckled nervously as she had already seen it whilst on her way over. She didn't think it was that bad, but the look on Senku's face suggested otherwise.
"What the hell is this? All-of-the-above mega set?" Senku shouted.
Yae nudged Senku with her elbow. "Oh, come on, Senku. It's not that bad."
In Chrome's defense, he said, "Senku, you were the one who said to throw everything at it."
"This is what I meant."
Yae laughed again. "Maybe you should have let me help them."
Senku groaned hearing this. "This things ugly as hell." He paused. "Honestly, though, this might be the best solution." This surprised Chrome. He wasn't expecting that response. "If the goal is for all of us to join together to raise the temperature, we're going to have to make a long, thin blob of tungsten toothpaste. Zap water with electricity, and it'll produce hydrogen. That hydrogen with a lot of heat, peels the rust off the toothpaste."
"Here we go!" Said Chrome excitedly. "Pin-point heating!"
"To several thousand degrees!" Everyone chimed in.

The Kingdom of Science slaved away again to produce enough heat. Eventually, the villagers came to watch, and they too, were excited to see the experiment come to life. And finally, with the help of everyone, a tungsten filament was acquired!
"Alright! We're on our final sprint to making our cell-phones!" Chrome was so excited he could barely stay still in one place.
"Let's get it done one step at a time, shall we?" Kaseki rolled up his sleeves, ready to take more challenges. "Let's build that vacuum tube!"
Senku pulled out a piece of parchment and unrolled it to take a look at what they would need to do next. "We'll need to complete some complicated glass-work before we can finish." He raised a brow and looked at Kaseki. "Think you can handle that?"
"Oh, please. Who do you think you're talking to? I've made plenty of challenging glass-work for you already. It'll take more than that to scare me." He pulled down on the parchment. "C'mon, show me." His face was blank for a moment, but as soon as he realized just how much effort and heating it would take, his eyes grew wide, bushy brows fully up. Old man Kaseki was at a lost for words.
"It's called a Hickman pump." Senku told him. "It's vacuum action is off the charts!" Yae snorted a laugh, but Senku went on. "A level ten billion vacuum pump."
"You sound like a vacuum cleaner commercial." Asagiri popped in. This made Yae laugh more and she high-fived the mentalist.
"Vacuum tubes are made to remove as much air as possible." Senku never lost a beat and he completely ignored Yae and Asagiri goofing off. "The prototype we built before was for simple things, like light-bulbs for example. If we used that it wouldn't give us enough power."
"Where do I even begin?" Kaseki was stilling ogling over the drawing. "Is this even humanly possible?"
A grin spread across Asagiri's face and he walked up to Kaseki right away. "In our age, only the super talented craftsmen built Hickman pumps. Then again it was a different age, so don't feel too bad, Old man Kaseki. It'll probably never work."
Chrome leaned in and whispered to Senku. "Is that true?"
Senku nodded. "Yeah. It's true, but why would a mentalist know that?"
Yae leaned in further and whispered to Chrome. "He's just saying all that stuff to get Kaseki fired up."
"Exactly." Said Senku in agreement.
Kaseki grumble. "I'm fine. I don't need your mental care. It's the complicated stuff that really gets me going, anyway. In exchange, though, I want to do that thing you did with Chrome the other day." He paused. "You know...as crafting buddies."
Senku smirked. He seemed delighted to hear Kaseki say that, and they gave each other a high-five.
"Alright!" Kaseki was super excited now.
"You can handle the vacuu, tube, Kaseki."
"Gotcha!" And he ran off to get started.

By this time Ginro had showed up. "Hey, Senku...I just noticed something." Yae eyed him suspiciously. "Old man Kaseki is acting like a kid and all, but he's actually trying to lighten your burden a little.
Yae was relieved to hear that it wasn't about girls. She sighed. "Doesn't he know he can take a break once in a while? I swear, he works way too hard."
Before Ginro could say more, Suika nervously walked up to Senku with a few other children behind her. "S-Senku. Is there anything we kids can do?"
"Yeah." Senku smiled warmly at her. "Suika, you guys can handle the wire."
"Yay! Come on you guys!" She and her friends ran off to get started on just that. "We're members of the Kingdom of Science too!"
Yae chuckled. "Wow, Senku. You have some devoted fans."
Just as Senku and Yae were ready to head back to the laboratory, Furo, Yae's goat was seen getting loose from her pin and running in to the woods.
"Ah! No, Furo, get back here!" She looked frantically back at Senku.
He sighed, but he also smiled. "Go ahead. Myself and the others can get started on making the plastic. Just come back as soon as you can."
"I will!" Yae ran off, bound and determined to retrieve her pet goat.

"Furo, come back!" Yae yelled. "Since when did you become such a sneaky little shit?" She was almost caught up with the goat. "Stop! You're going to hurt yourself." Just then, Yae tripped over a tree trunk that had been hidden beneath the snow. She mumbled and cursed. "Oh, just great." She stood up as fast as she could and brushed the snow off.
"Looking for this?" It was Homura, and she had a hold of Furo. "You should learn to watch your belongings a bit more carefully."
Yae narrowed her eyes and snapped her fingers. Furo came to her side immediately.
"Don't think about doing anything stupid." She eyed Yae's hand on the hilt of her katana.
"How long are you going to watch us? Don't you ever get bored?"
"As long as it takes." Homura said, her voice remaining monotone and her face expressionless. "You better get back to your village." She looked up at the sky. "It's going to get colder very soon."
Yae scoffed. "You stay away from us—you stay away from Senku, or I'll kill you."
"Now you sound like Tsukasa."
Yae urked with anger and she clenched her fists. "I am nothing like that madman."
Homura said nothing and turned her back, ignoring Yae.

When Yae returned, a cool wind suddenly picked up and just as Homura said, it had definitely gotten colder. The children and even some of the elderly, were sitting in a corner stringing up wire. There was talk about people dying last year from the cold and a chill ran down Yae's spine.
Yae looked to her side and noticed Senku and Chrome standing there. They too had overheard.
Once Yae put Furo back in her pin, she and Senku gathered the others for a short meeting.
"I have another job for you guys. We're gonna need a shit tone of coal. You up for the job?" Said Senku. He was mainly eyeing Ginro and Kinro.
Ginro knew what was probably about to come next and he tried to sneak away.
"Hey, Ginro." Kinro stopped him dead in his tracks. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Oh, you know, I have to train, too. Plus, I already work as a guard to protect the village."
"What are you talking about?" said Kinro. "Senku's word is law."
"Noooo! This isn't fair!
"Rules are rules." Kinro simply said, and he dragged his brother behind him with, Magma, Chrome and Kohaku right there with him.

With the next following days, small stoves were set up in each hut. They acted as heaters as well, giving off more heat and much safer than starting a fire.
"All we need now are the ashes from the coal." Said Senku. Their little project was nearly done. "But your more than welcome to sit by the fire." He told them whilst on top of the roof and inspecting the pipe for good measure. And while everyone else walked off, Yae climbed on top and joined him. The view was nice.
"You don't have to stand out here with me. Go inside and get warmed up."
Yae shook her head. "Nah. I want to be here with you."
Senku scratched the back of his head. "Ah, you know I can't stand that wishy-washy crap."
Yae chuckled. "I'm not trying to get all sweet with you. I'm just being honest." She paused, and then said, "Senku, Sir."
Senku sat down next to her. "Fine, have it your way." He grinned at her.

Not long after, Kokuyo found them. "I'm impressed, Senku. "I realize that the things you're making are for a completely separate goal." Yae and Senku turned to give the former chief their full attention. "Our little village is slowly becoming a better place to live."
"That true. That's how science works." Said Senku.
Yae smiled. "It's just that simple, Kokuyo." When Kokuyo walked away, Yae looked up at Senku. "It's getting late. Maybe we should check on the others."
Senku nodded. "Good idea." The two helped each other down; some ice had formed at the edge of the hut. "Careful," said Senku. "It's slippery there."
"Okay." But Yae slipped anyway and toppled over Senku. The poor scientist landed on his back with Yae sitting on top of him. "Oh, no! I'm sorry!"
Senku groaned. "No, it's fine, just...get off me, please." He then added under his breath. "You can sit on me later."
"What was that?" Yae hopped to her feet.
"Nothing. Let's go."

The two walked over to where Kaseki and Asagiri were standing.
"Hold on," said Asagiri. "We're using batteries to finish the vacuum tubes?" He hadn't yet noticed and Yae and Senku walking up.
"All the instructions are there." Senku picked his ear. Asagiri turned around to look at him. "We'll use the manganese we got in the caves.
Asagiri looked none too happy about this. "Let me guess: you want me to make them, right?"
"It wont be too difficult." Yae assured him. "Everything is set up in the hut and waiting for you."
"I'm flattered..."
"Oh, and by the way," said Senku. "We'll need about eight-hundred of them."
Yae's eyes went wide. "That many? Oh shit. I'll come help you, Asagiri."
"Hey, yeah, that's perfect." Said Senku. "It'll go by faster that way. Good idea."
"I'll help too!" Ruri was passing by when she heard the commotion and of course Senku wasn't going to tell her no.

While working on the batteries, Ruri asked. "Hey, Yae, I've been meaning to ask..."
"Hmm?"
"Senku obviously likes you, I mean, you two share the same place together." Her cheeks became a little red. "Do you and Senku plan to start a family?"
Asagiri, who was stuck in the middle, choked on air. "I think I'm not meant to hear this..."
Yae's face went as red as a tomato. "N-no. Not right now. Senku and I could never bring a child into this world with things as they are—I mean, with Tsukasa and all."
Ruri nodded. "Of course. How silly of me. Well, I hope that some day you do."
Yae chuckled nervously and then asked. "And what about you, Ruri? Do you plan on having children?"
Ruri was pleasantly surprised to hear this. "I'm not sure. Whatever happens, will happen."
The three of them then remained working in silence for the rest of the evening.
Kids? Thought Yae. That's something that would take Senku a billion years to think about.

The next morning, once everything was set up, it was time to test out their new experiment project.
"Oh yeah!" Shouted Chrome. The set up might not have been perfect, but they had everything they needed. Now they just need to turn it on and test it out.
"It's a good thing we were able to pull this off before spring came." Senku put his hand on the lever and twisted it. A spark of electricity flew up within mere seconds. "Our final battle is coming soon. We're up against Tsukasa, so get ready everyone."
"And of course," added Yae. "Get excited!" They said in unison.

Author's note: Sorry for the wait. I haven't felt very motivated lately.