Umeka woke with a loud snort, her body jolting against the hay, "huh? Where…?" She sat up slowly, her eyes wandering around in confusion until they fell on Senku who was smirking back at her.

He was still snickering over her snorting awake, making her turn red when she realized, "Welcome back, you've been having a nice nap while I've been working."

"When did I fall asleep?" She asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"Oh, you coaxed yourself to sleep somewhere around...uh the middle of the story of the big guy himself," Senku said, pointing lazily at Orion.

Umeka yawned, leaning her head on Senku and ignoring how stiff he went under her touch, "Do you want me to finish the story?"

He was quiet for a moment, she could feel the nerves radiating off of him. Frozen from just her temple resting on the point of his shoulder, but if he wasn't going to ask her to move she thought she'd stay. It was comforting, even if he was clearly a little unsettled. She could hear him turn toward her, "What with you still half asleep. Please save me from that torture."

She laughed weakly, looking down at his chart, "You got a lot done."

He yawned loudly, stretching and knocking her off, leaving her blinking, "Sure did! I should get a nap in I guess, before the day starts."

She sniffed, squinting at him for brushing her away.

"C'mon," he nodded his head to the side, foot fumbling for a ladder rung.

Umeka grinned, sliding off the edge and landing feet first, dropping to a squat to lessen the pressure on her legs, she stood and turned toward him, grinning at the deadpanned look on his face, "Want me to hold the ladder for you?"

"No I think I got it but that you for the condescension, Princess Mononoke," he said, rolling his eyes and climbing down. He rolled up the paper and bopped her on the head.

"Fine, I deserve that," she said, still ghosting her fingers over where he popped her as though it hurt.

"I appreciate the help though," he sighed, picking at his ear again, "so climb up any time you think you can keep your eyes open."

She rolled her eyes and followed him up the other ladder into the science hut where Chrome and Gen slept peacefully. They crawled into their beds quietly, Senku making a show of yawning and flopping down. She pulled her covers around her shoulders snuggly, easily dozing back off again.

Tsukasa couldn't bring himself to take anything from her house but a small necklace he'd found, broken off on a branch at the treeline, probably ripped off when she ran. It was simple, just a chord tied around what appeared to be one of the dogs' fangs. He'd tied it around his wrist, his fingers rubbing over it as he thought. He knew the decision he'd come to with Hyoga was the right one. They couldn't attack an island fortress in winter, not when the water would freeze. Without Umeka they'd have to work even harder to survive the winter, especially if they were going to expand the army for the coming fight in spring. All of that was important, more important, in fact than the part of their conversation that rung in his head.

'Homura confirmed your suspicions...the girl Umeka is with the Kingdom of Science,' Hyoga had informed him, his eyes opening briefly, sharply focused on him.

It was one of the few times where Hyoga showed himself. His true self. The deepest part of him that was always assessing the strength of those around him. Hyoga was loyal, but only because he was stronger, and if he ever showed too much weakness Hyoga would take his chance to overthrow him.

He'd managed to control himself, to moderate his reaction to the news. In truth, he wasn't as upset as he thought. At least if she were there she wouldn't be in danger all winter, she'd have food and shelter but she'd also have time with Senku and his friends and ideas. If she took to them then when he came back in spring, even if he ensured her safety as he intended to, she may run. If Senku's group fought too hard and it resulted in deaths, Umeka may never forgive him.

For now, he couldn't do anything but hope the take over went as peaceably as possible and Umeka could see reason as she hadn't before. He visited her home, occasionally, ensuring it wasn't overgrown or infested with anything from the forest. Ready for her when she had to come back.

"Umeka!" Chrome cheered when she climbed down in the morning, "I need your help!"

She yawned, blinking at him sadly, "I just woke up."

"I haven't slept!" he grabbed her hand, dragging her along, "Me and Kaseki are working on a project and we need your help. And the dogs, can the dogs come? Cause if the dogs could come and help that would be bad."

"Why would you want them then?" she tilted her head, pulling out her whistle anyway.

"What? Oh! I mean it would be good," He laughed, "you know like bad not like bad."

He turned back when she was quiet, she blinked, then blew the whistle, all seven dogs charging up to join her, Suika still clinging to one laughing as she bobbed along.

"Suika!" Chrome shouted, "leave the dog alone, we've got important science work to do they can't just keep playing all the time."

"The dog has a name," Umeka frowned, picked Suika up, "it's Sentai and playing is fine cause Suika is small. You should get to play."

"Oh, I wasn't playing!" Suika smiled, "I was just trying to tie him to the spinny thing! Senku thought trained dogs might be better at making the wheely thing spin better than Kinro and Ginro but it didn't work."

"Oh okay well, they can help with my spinny thing," Chrome said proudly, "but it's top-secret so I'm not saying anything else."

"Then do I still have to go?" Umeka frowned.

Chrome turned to her, drawing his face sarcastically, "Yes! We need you real quick it'll be great."

"But I wanna know about the spinny thing," she pouted more, but Chrome grabbed her hand anyway dragging her behind him into the woods the dogs following along behind her.

"The spinny thing is a 'gear' Senku made to help us made the gold thread, which we need to make the phone-"

Umeka stopped so hard his arm jerked, "Phone?!" He blinked, turning around to look at her. Her eyes were huge, mouth open slightly, "You said a phone?"

"Yeah," Chrome said, his voice concerned until he remembered, "oh duh yeah you're from the future too so you know what it is. That's good! You can probably help us make it better then."

He pulled her along again, as she mumbled, "No...I definitely can't."

"Can you tell me about phones?" Chrome asked, glancing back at her as they walked, "just cause, Senku explained all the stuff about air pressure and things but...why? Did people in your time have to talk to others so much? Why not just go and talk to them?"

"Uhhh…." she drawled, sounding like she was thinking hard, "phones in our time did way more than that though. You could send written messages to people...and you could take pictures...uh you could look stuff up and play games. That's what I mostly did, my mom had a whole folder of apps for me to play with."

"That...is so….bad!" Chrome screamed, making birds fly out of a nearby tree. Umeka smiled at him, looking amused, the way Gen did when he experienced something from the past for the first time. A look like the one you give a kid that's just trying to learn how to walk. Her eyes shifted suddenly to the tree line, seeming amazed by all the work he and Kaseki had gotten done in the past day.

"What...are you doing?" She asked, eyes glancing around at all the wood.

"Umeka!" Kaseki called happily from on top of a big wooden circle, "your planes have been a big help I'm glad I was around yesterday."

She smiled up at him, "that's good but what is this?"

"A forever spinny cotton candy machine!" Kaseki called down, Chrome turned to her nodding happily.

Her mouth watered, "A cotton...candy machine?"

"Huh?" Chrome raised an eyebrow at her, "Yeah! Senku was making cotton candy that day you arrived. Come to think of it….maybe that's why that Homura girl didn't snag you. She was probably eating it! The next day when I went down to where he'd left it it was gone!"

"Is there more cotton candy?" she asked quickly, glancing back at the village.

"Eh...Senku can make more, I guess," Chrome said over his shoulder, busying himself with some large hunk of wood and she walked back towards the trees, intent on getting cotton candy, "Hey hey hey!" he shouted chasing her and just catching her hand before she reached the forest, "where are you going?!"

"But the cotton candy…" she pouted. It had been years since she had anything sweet that wasn't a fruit.

"I didn't mean now!" Chrome frowned at her, "later! We don't need help for long!"

She groaned, "fine fine...what do you need?"

"Can we use the dogs to pull these big trees up?" Chrome asked, gesturing to a fork-shaped wooden trunk, "It'll be pretty hard for just me and Kaseki and I was hoping to keep it a secret until it's done. I'm proud of my invention you know so I wanna show it to Senku fully working!"

"Chrome's really on to something with this, Umeka," Kaseki called, "I just know Senku is going to be floored."

Something told her that wasn't the case but she smiled anyway, gazing at the shaped wood that looked familiar to her in a way she couldn't place, "hmmm….they've pulled things before but...I don't know...I think…," she pushed her foot to one end, "if you blocked it so it couldn't slide, then tied the rope to the far end the tree should have no choice but to flip up. I guess...the problem would be pulling it too far…"

"But it's possible?"

"Oh sure," Umeka blinked, "I mean probably. I don't know. I know we can try it though."

"I like how she thinks!" Kaseki yelled, barely audible over his saw.

"Do you have a rope? I'll see if I can make a harness," she said, plopping down to the ground and gesturing for Saiyan to stand by her.

"Oh sure, sure," Chrome said chipperly, gathering her some, he passed it to her and crouched on the other side of Saiyan watching her work. She used the same techniques she'd learned as a kid, tying notes to secure things in the garden or make holders for pots and the funny historical techniques her grandfather taught her. Chrome looked amazed, trying to track her hands as she wove a harness around Saiyan, "wait wait….how are you doing that."

She laughed a little, knowing Senku would tease her for what she was going to say, "it's a combination of macrame and a Japanese martial art form called Hojojutsu which was all about binding captives. Though," she paused staring off into space. "Grandpa said it developed into something else I wasn't allowed to know about so maybe it's not a good thing to do."

"Well! I'm glad you know it," Chrome grinned, "I wanna try. Here," he patted the ground and Sazae came over, waiting patiently for the rope to be tied. Chrome was a surprisingly quick study, and with his help, they had all of the dogs rigged up in no time.

"Okay," Umeka took a deep breath, "let's give it a shot," she whistled sharply with her fingers in her mouth and all the dogs pulled. The tree rocked up quickly and went to continue falling over. Chrome, Kaseki, and her yelled reaching out and grabbing the large wooden pole in a tight hug. For a moment they all rocked and she thought they would tumble over under it but instead, the tree rocked back once more and settled into its new spot.

Umeka sighed, falling back on the ground, "That was scary."

"Uh...yeah...we have to do it again...like...three more times," Chrome admitted sheepishly.

She sat up and frowned at him, feeling tricked and betrayed, but she got up anyway. No use pouting when she'd done so much for her by taking her in, she might as well do all she could to help them out.

Umeka, Chrome, and Kaseki had been missing all day and so had the pack which was beginning to eat at Senku's nerves. He tried to hide it but ever seen the attack on the village he worried whenever one of the group was out of his view, especially if he didn't know where they were supposedly at.

When Umeka came out of the forest with the dogs inexplicably in rope harnesses he headed over, "Is everything okay over there?"

"Yeah and…" Gen said, walking up behind him, his expression twitching slightly as a bead of sweat rolled down his face, "why…are the dogs...tied like that?"

"Like?" Umeka blinked at them, "Oh! Do you know?'

Senku raised his eyebrow expectantly at Gen who sputtered, "No. I think I will wait until you explain what it actually is and then I'll decide if it's something I'm going to share out loud or not."

"...it's...Hojojutsu, or sort of, tying techniques my grandpa taught me," Umeka narrowed her eyes, "What do you think it is."

"Nope."

"Oh come on! You must know the thing Grandpa said I couldn't know. I'm older now. So tell me!"

Gen laughed in a high pitch, "Absolutely not!"

Senku smirked at him, "What why not, Umeka wants to know, you know, clearly. Sharing knowledge is important to the advancement of society, after all."

Suddenly Gen's expression turned wicked in a way that made Senku wish he hadn't spoken, "Well why don't you tell her, you seem to know, and you are our main things-explaineryay around here."

Umeka wheeled on him, expectantly staring at him with her wide amber eyes, brows furrowed as she leaned in at him making him sweat and swallow hard, "No."

Her face drew into a comically large frown, then she crossed her arms over her chest, "that's not fair. I'm sure my grandpa was gonna tell me when I got as old as I am now."

Gen snickered slightly, scratching his cheek, "Somehow I doubt that."

She looked at him, then her eyes slowly drifted back to Senku. Then suddenly her expression softened in realization, "Oh...it's something dirty isn't it."

Senku sputtered, folding over slightly with shock before busting out laughing as Gen did the same. Umeka tried to smile slightly, but she suddenly looked embarrassed, turning a little pink and looking off out of the corner of her eye, "that's fine just don't tell me then, okay?"

Senku was still laughing slightly as he talked, "I'd be happy not to. Now, tell me how the other two are, you don't have to tell me what they're working on I just wanna make sure everything is okay."

She smiled, "I think they're fine. Other than not sleeping. And I think they aren't going to until they're done and it seems like it'll take a long time."

He shrugged, "Eh that's fine."

"Hey, Senku?"

"Yeah? What?"

"Chrome…" she seemed to get bashful suddenly, puffing out her cheeks like she wasn't sure how to bridge the topic which was funny given she'd just been pressing him to explain how her dogs' harnesses had a striking resemblance to a BDSM art, "Well….he mentioned..cotton candy? So I was just wondering-"

"Oh….nope. Sorry," he sighed.

"Senku!" Gen looked at him shocked like he'd just insulted her or something.

"Look it's not that I don't want to it's just we can't right now. We're working on the gold thread and if sugar gets on the thread it'll ruin the connection," he explained quickly, trying to ignore how crushed Umeka looked. She wasn't like the villagers who wouldn't have known what they were missing. Moreover, she had been a kid in the past anyway so more likely than not her attachment to sweets was even stronger than his or Gen's. He sighed, rubbing his forehead, "We don't have the time right now to build a new machine and I resued the parts so it's not like we have the lumpy one just around but...if you can wait until we're done with the wire, we can make it then. Okay?" he almost didn't want to look at her but when he did she smiled and nodded.

"Sure, later sounds good," then she turned and looked toward a pile of tools, "I'm gonna go cut the dogs free from their harnesses now cause I feel gross about it." Then she was off, calling her dogs along without another thought.

"Make her," Gen said suddenly smacking Senku with his sleeve, "some cotton candy, you monster!"

"Would you," Senku said as he swatted back at Gen, "stop that! I wasn't lying. Or being mean. Or lazy! We just can't. And it sucks but we don't have the time to stop and she missed it by a day. Okay?"

Gen frowned at him and looked like he'd say something else, then he scoffed, "Fine. I guess I'll go find something to do since we don't have any time."

The sarcasm that dripped in Gen's voice made Senku take a long blink, looking off to watch Umeka patiently cutting her dogs free. He'd have to think of something they could do for her, make her feel more welcome, and thank her for what she'd helped with so far. He'd just have to think a little harder to figure out what would make sense along the way.

Once the dogs were freed from their apparently gross ropes, Umeka took them hunting. The village definitely did have hunters in it but, they seemed more focused on opportunity. Maybe she'd learned it from the dogs but Umeka knew to look for printed in the dirt and grass, poop, broken twigs, and half-eaten berries. If you think like the pray, you can find the pray. She felt like she should bring a lot in, she hadn't been able to bring everything she and Tsukasa got from the bear, it was way too much meat and she hadn't smoked it all yet. So she took what was prepared and left the rest. As much as the thought made her stomach feel wiggly, she hoped Tsukasa had returned and taken it so it wouldn't go to waste.

The hunt wasn't long. The game in the area was way more abundant than at her own home. Now she was stuck trying to get four deer back to camp with tired dogs. A spark went off in her head, "Oh the big guy! Protect the deer, everyone!"

She ran through the trees, luckily they'd gotten them closer to the camp but there wasn't a clear path big enough for the dogs to drag the deer without tearing them up and it wasn't exactly a very efficient or clean way to transport them. Moreover, it made them really easy to track and that felt dangerous.

She busted through the trees searching the villagers' faces until they fell on the gigantic blonde man, they hadn't spoken and she didn't get a very friendly vibe from him but she did get the sense he liked to eat so, "Hi, could you help me?"

He scowled at her, "What, little woman? Think I wanna help you weave something?"

His smaller friend chuckled at his statement which, she guessed was supposed to be a joke but it wasn't funny. She blinked at him, it seemed tiring to be so aggressive from the start, "No. I went hunting but it's too much to carry back."

"Oh, I'm sure. A few rabbits too heavy?"

Umeka looked around at some of the other villagers who were watching with tired expressions, "So...you're just...like this? All the time?"

A group of young men started laughing and he yelled at them, smacking one upside the head, "That's not nice!" she shouted, frowning up at him.

"What are you gonna do about it?"

"...I mean," she blinked, "Nothing. It's just not nice. I'll just get it myself then, I thought you'd want to eat."

"Magma!" his small friend yelled, "Go get the food so you can...you know…"

She looked between them, not knowing what he knew, apparently, but Magma suddenly changed his mind, "Yeah...okay. Sure. I'll help."

She stared at him, eyes squinting, then turned and lead him into the woods.

"You know if you were going to hunt you could have brought a bag to carry the game back in, it's not hard," he said, scowling down at her.

She huffed, fixing her bow on her shoulder. It was better not to engage with bullies so she decided to stay quiet until they got to the deer. Then she waited for his shock to wear off, mimicking the condescending face he'd been making at her as he explained such basic things as having a bag.

"...Fine," he admitted, not looking in her eye, "it's impressive."

"Thank you."

He was able to carry two of the deer on his own, which was terrifying. And between Umeka and the dogs, they were able to carry them all, shifting things around when they got to places that were too awkward for the dog team to easily carry the deer. "Hold on," Magma said, "I'll carry these to the village and come get the other two, we're close enough now."

"Oh…" she smiled, "sure. Sounds good."

She heard a commotion in the distance after a while, he must have arrived with the deer. She couldn't keep a small proud smile from breaking across her face. She was glad they were excited about the deer and that it helped, she hoped three gave them enough food for now, and the fourth could go to the dogs who'd worked so hard for the day, much harder than they usually worked. She pet Sailor, "You've all been really great…! Good girl! So smart! Strong!" Sailor's tail wagged and the other dogs wandered closer, waiting for their praise.

Magma came back through the trees, rolling his eyes at her praising and lifting the other two, "Okay if that's it let's go."

She and the dogs followed after him and into the village but when they arrived the villagers cheered and circled Magma, chanting about how great he was for bringing in so much and how good they were going to eat. And he let them, laughing and holding his chin high. She couldn't believe it. For a moment she was struck still, staring in shock. She looked at her blood and mud-soaked clothes then glanced at Suit to see if he was seeing this crazy scene.

"Since when," Kinro suddenly spoke from beside her, "did Magma hunt with a bow and arrow?"

The villagers went quiet seeing the wounds on the animals and looking at Magma who was sweating slightly. The villagers groaning at him when they realized.

Kinro just shook his head and looked at her, "Sorry," his eyes shot coldly at Magma, "he actually does things like this more than you'd think," he looked back at her, a pleasant smile on his face, "I'm sure you did all the work though and we appreciate it."

She met Magma's eyes, tilted her head back staring at him for a moment, a small grin broke onto her face, "Don't worry I can give you some pointers. For hunting. Or for that weaving that you were talking about."

He rolled his eyes heavily and then got distracted with villagers chiding him as they all took over the work of cleaning the deer.

"Oh wait," Umeka said, walking into the bustle to grab a deer's legs, "this one goes to the dogs, sorry. But they can't eat plants so." They all seemed a little disappointed understandably, but no one would fight seven wolves for food so they let her drag it away with Kinro's help, "you're much nicer than I thought you were."

He seemed hurt, blustering in shock slightly, "I...seemed mean?"

"Well...you pointed a spear at me."

"The rules…" he swallowed awkwardly, "the rules are the rules so...any intruder."

She considered teasing him for a moment but decided to let it go. He was genuinely nice after all, to step in on Magma's glory hogging and to drag the deer with her. More importantly, he didn't seem like the type that would handle being teased well, not like Senku who seemed completely unbothered when she joked with him. She yawned, looking at the sky and the dim stars that were beginning to show. She thought it might be a little difficult for her but she wanted to climb onto the roof and tell Senku more stories, but this time she'd remember to bring a blanket.

Dinner in the village was in a big circle that night, everyone eating the results of Umeka's hunting trip. The meat was good, especially after a day of hard work and it had gotten everyone so excited they forgot about all the grueling effort that was going into getting ready for winter and starting the work on the cell phone. Smaller kids had started playing war with larger bones and others were working on their meals, laughing and talking about the day but Senku didn't see Umeka anywhere among the main group.

He glanced around again until he noticed, off behind the science hut, a dim orange glow. Another fire. His eyes narrowed suspiciously and he sighed, pushing up from where he sat and walking over, with his hunt of meat still in hand ignoring Ginro calling after him. When he reached the fire, sure enough, Umeka was alone with the dogs sitting by her own little fire eating her dinner.

"Hey this is," he said, sitting down across from her, "way to kid-that-eats-lunch-alone-in-homeroom, sad."

"I ate lunch in homeroom."

"Okay. I was talking about high school, thank you."

"Oh," she avoided looking him in the eye.

"Is this Magma related?"

"Oh," she shrugged, "No. I don't care about that. I just...wanted to sit alone."

"Explain?"

She smiled lightly at the callback, the rubbed a hand on her cheek comically hard, pulling at her skin or pushing her cheek up so high her eye seemed closed, "It's just a lot of people and I don't know most of them and it's loud…I'm not used to stuff like that. I spent all day almost with people so I guess...it just made me tired."

He nodded, rubbing his neck. He wished he still had that stupid cotton candy machine, it felt like a treat would improve the moment. Then it hit him and he jumped to his feet, "Come on."

"Huh?" He groaned and grabbed her arm, trying to drag her up but floundering slightly, "This isn't making me feel good about myself, Senku," she frowned standing up and going with him.

"Oh trust me you'll feel better in a minute," he grinned, "we just need a few things from upstairs, come on."

He climbed up quickly, glancing back to make sure she was following.

"Here," he said, lifting a basket of leftover berries onto the science table, "pick your favorite."

She raised her eyebrow at him but when he waved his hand she set about sifting through them. He pulled out the sugar, a little water, and the potassium bitartrate, then he flicked on the little bunsen burner and waited for her to pick her berries.

She held out a small mikan, "what are you doing?"

He snatched it from her hand making her twitch back, pealing it furiously and squeezing the juice into the glass, then tossed the flesh back to her. She barely caught it before it hit her face, her eyebrows furrowing deeper.

"Just eat that and stop trying to ruin the surprise," he smirked.

She pouted at him but set about pulling apart the small pieces and eating them, still studying what he was doing. When the juice cooked down enough, filling the room with the smell, he started tossing things in, "A little water, some sugar which we got from messed up wine and," he grinned, shaking the small flash of white power, "potassium bitartrate, also a byproduct of winemaking known in the culinary world as tartaric acid or cream of tartar."

"Oh," she said, her mouth obstructed by the orange, "I've heard of that."

"Most homes have it," he smirked, stirring eagerly, "it's a thickening agent, you're probably more used to corn syrup in these but we don't have corn so. No corn syrup."

She almost looked agitated, not with him really, more like he'd told her a riddle she couldn't figure out and it was bothering her, "...and you think I've had this?"

"Oh I'm," he paused, turning to find a small bamboo stick and trying to search his cabinets for something to make a suitable mold, "certain you have." He found a small strip of metal, that would have to do. He curled it with his fingers, leaving a gap so he could uncurl it once it cooled. He was making a small one so the mixture was already bubbling pleasantly, thick enough to pour, so he set it on the glass and took the beaker off carefully, glancing up at Umeka who still looked confused, that is until he poured.

As soon as the small sugary circle formed on the glass she smiled, only growing wider when he carefully placed the bamboo stick, "A lollipop."

"Ten billion points to Umeka," he grinned, looking at the messy creation. Without dyes, it had turned a muddy brownish color and he doubted it was going to be as sweet and addictive as the lollipops they were used to. But sugar was sugar and after so many years without it, it stood to reason it might strike her the same as the cotton candy had the villagers.

She glanced at the beaker, "It looks like there's enough for two, make one for yourself."

"Are you just trying to sucker me?"

She frowned at the joke, "No I just think if I get poisoned you should too."

"That's dark but fine," he set his own up, "don't have to twist my arm."

It was quiet for a while, just the two of them standing across the table waiting for the lollipops to cool. It felt a little awkward in the silence, but it was also nice after such a busy day to be quiet but not alone. Umeka reached a finger out going to touch her lollipop and Senku grabbed her hand just at the last second, "One millimeter closer and you're going to get an insanely painful burn, sugar looks cool way before it is."

She frowned, "Then why didn't you make them and then show me this waiting is awful."

He laughed, "Geeze you really were a kid weren't you. Quit whining! You'll get the lollipop soon. You've waited thousands of years you can wait a few more minutes."

She rolled her eyes, pouting, and he realized he was still holding her hand, "If I let go are you going to try to keep touching the lollipop?"

"You never know," She grinned.

"...Is this just a ploy to hold my hand then?"

She paused for a moment, her smile slowly growing wider in a way that made Senku almost unbearably, unplaceably nervous, "You never know."