DISCLAIMER: I do not own Dr. Stone! :)


To my awesome reviewers (10/02/21): Hello, Shiraneko-chan, DracoSoull, taking it easy, PuppyCake, Apfane Chan, GeneralLurker, BananaFromTheWest, and pika1pika2 (are you also pikapika?)! ^_^ Thank you so much for reviewing the thirtieth chapter of No Stone Unturned! I'm looking forward to that arc, too :) That arc was amazing for Senku/Kohaku shippers! :D Senku has seen that ramen bribes are very effective on their target audience XD Kohaku tried her best XD Suika's watermelon mask really helped Kinro, Chrome, AND Senku in the Grand Bout! I think Senku and Kohaku are perfect for each other, too! :) I really like how everything happened on the day they met (as well as the next day), and the respect they had for each other! :) But later on, Senku and Chrome talk about science a LOT :D He wanted to make sure Suika had good food to eat :) I love Byakuya and Senku's father-son relationship! :) Ginro used his special technique in Season One, Episode Seven to great success - that's how Chrome entered the picture :D And Chrome used his own... uh... technique... in the Grand Bout on Magma. I think that out of the two, Ginro's technique is much easier to use! Thanks a lot! :) Kinro will take them to victory in the Grand Bout! :D ...Well, actually, he won't, but they don't know that yet XD I hope all you enjoy this new chapter, and thank you again! ^_^


Chapter Thirty-One: (S01 E11a) Ramen Experiment (Days 04-07)


With the ramen ingredient preparation now complete, it was time to bribe the villagers once again, and Senku was already at his station as Suika played her seashell flute.

Just as they had already twice before, the now-regulars of Senku's Ramen Shop began crossing the main bridge. They had mobilized quite quickly compared to the ramen shop's two previous iterations, which bode well for today's melting project.

"Here you go, Ganen! I hope you enjoy your meal!" said Suika cheerfully as she handed the man a bowl of steaming ramen.

"I'm sure I will, Suika – ramen is always so delicious!" Ganen said happily as he took the ramen and held it up to his face to inhale its delicious scent. "I actually tried making my own, but it didn't turn out right…"

The offhand comment piqued Senku's interest.

"You tried making your own ramen?"

Despite what it may have looked to them, the culinary arts were far from being Senku's specialty. But from his limited interactions with the villagers, Chrome was the only one Senku knew of who had tried making something new, so another person exhibiting the same penchant for creation was welcome news to Senku.

Innovation was innovation, after all.

Ganen, who was slightly startled by Senku's voice, turned to him, and the quick motion made the ramen broth slosh violently in his bowl – but none spilled, to the man's obvious relief.

"Wow, Ganen, that's great!" exclaimed Suika, and Senku could tell that she was grinning. For somebody wearing a watermelon mask, she was a pretty expressive person. "Was your ramen really yummy, too?"

"Not… really," he replied awkwardly, giving a small laugh as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "What I did was…"

From his explanation, Senku gathered that he had tried to search every single second for a way to make the noodles, and ended up with a different main ingredient, but since he couldn't figure out how to use the foxtail grains, Ganen had ended up with a normal bowl of soup.

"So for now, I think I'll just get my ramen from you guys," he finished, picking up his chopsticks from the bowl. "I'll try again someday, though!"

After happily wishing Ganen good luck, Suika sped off to serve ramen to their other patrons, leaving Ganen to his meal and Senku to his thoughts.

Objectively, Ganen making his own ramen would negatively impact its effectiveness for Senku as a bribe, but he wasn't bothered by the man's attempts.

I'm the last person who would get mad because somebody performed an experiment, he thought with a smirk.


After giving him a wave, Ganen walked off to enjoy his ramen with the others, and Senku was by himself for a few minutes until Kohaku approached the ramen cart.

"A lot of people again?" she asked.

Before he replied, he held up an empty bowl and raised his eyebrows, and at his silent offer, Kohaku shook her head with a small smile.

"Yeah," Senku replied, setting the bowl back down, "more than we need, actually, since we won't be melting much today. Taking a break from training?"

"I just want to be around people who don't yelp loudly when they see me coming," grumbled Kohaku.

"Ginro?"

"Ginro."

For once, though, Senku could see Ginro's side of things. He, Chrome, Ginro, and Kinro had fought Kohaku as a group to determine the importance of arithmetic, and as somebody unused to combat, Senku was able to relate to Ginro's not being entirely at ease when being attacked by a swirling vortex of doom – not that he was going to tell Kohaku that, because Senku didn't survive for over 3,700 years by being stupid.

Movement behind Kohaku caught Senku's eye, and Kohaku, seeing the look on his face, turned as well. Suika was balancing two very tall piles of empty ramen bowls as she tried to get closer to the ramen cart, but the movement was making the ramen bowls swing dangerously.

Kohaku immediately left the front of the ramen cart to stand by Suika, letting her try on her own, but staying close in case she needed help. As it turned out, Suika was able to place the piles of used ramen bowls on the ground near the ramen cart just fine, although she did halve each pile to lower the risk of breakage, resulting in a total of four small piles of bowls on the ground.

Immediately after the bowls were settled, Ganen approached the ramen cart to ask for a second serving.

As Senku was placing the correct amount of foxtail ramen noodles in the bowl, Kohaku asked, "Hey, Senku, did you say that we wouldn't be melting a lot today?"

"Yeah," he replied, "we're just going to melt around three bowls of silica sand, to make glass."

"Glass?!" exclaimed Ganen in shock, putting both of his hands on the edge of the ramen cart and leaning towards Senku. "Did you say glass?!"

Senku blinked.

"That's right, glass," he said, perplexed.

Does Ganen know about glass? How does he know about glass? Was it in the Hundred Tales? But then, Chrome and the others should know about it too, and they didn't say anything to me when I mentioned it…

He gave Ganen his completed bowl of ramen, and after scarfing it down, Ganen set it down on the surface of the cart with a loud thunk and smiled eagerly at the others.

"I'm ready! When do we start?"

He was surprised, but pleased, by Ganen's initiative, and that afternoon, they all split into teams and the first group started melting the silica sand, with Senku and Chrome taking the final evening shift.

After a couple of days of polishing and fine-tuning, Senku and Chrome took Suika and her modified watermelon mask to a very familiar sunflower field.

The true beauty of the sunflowers took Suika's breath away.


(End of Chapter Thirty-One.) (10/02/21.)


I. My personal comments: If I write about all canon events in order, there might be big chunks of the story where you have nothing new to read, which is one of the reasons why instead of writing a lot about Suika, I chose to focus on original scenes and interactions in this chapter :) As you know from Chapter One, flashforwards are a thing in this fanfic, and flashbacks will be, too, so even when I skip the details of certain canon events, there's a chance that I might come back to those events someday :D

II. Question of the day: How do you feel about Ganen's attempt to make ramen, and his eagerness to get to work? :)

III. A tiny request: Thank you for reading my fanfic! :D If you've read this far, I hope you'll consider taking an extra minute to leave a review for Chapter Thirty-One ("Ramen Experiment")? :D Reviews really mean a lot to me as a fanfiction writer, and all kinds of positive, negative, and/or constructive reviews are very welcome! ^_^ Even if it's the year 5738 or something, I would love to hear your thoughts on this chapter! :D (By the way, I'm "fireflyhwufanficwrit" on Reddit and "firefly-hwufanficwriterrrrr" on Tumblr :D)