17th Shot: Money
In just a few hours after the excavation team departed, things escalated quickly–extremely if Shinko had to put it into a more fitting word. To start if off, Ryusui decided to ripping them off with a deal by demanding for the rights for the oil discovery as a payment for his role as a captain. He really took everything to an account knowing that no one has a skill of sailing on par with his–the man made sure to put his chances into a good use.
By the looks of it, Senku predicted that this would happen after understanding that Ryusui was a man full of greed. If Ryusui took all of the oil, then what should they do with the ship's fuel? That's where the currency was made–the ex-conglomerate of Nanami Industry said they should buy the oil straight from him using the money he made.
Now suddenly they had this new currency went by the name Drago–which they need to have in order to get ramen or cotton candy. Apparently, everything that was made with science were to be sold.
"This is getting disturbing every second past I saw it…" Shinko muttered in disbelief. Suddenly, Ryusui became a new millionaire in just a day after he was revived.
Ukyo-san, why do you have to go in times like this? she cried internally, her brain was having a hard time to completely comprehend the sudden turn out event that's happening before her eyes. I need mental support…!
It's not used in mulling over what's happening, might as well as let go with the flow–seeing how Senku didn't even bat an eye by it should be a great example to not have any further worries. Knowing how brilliant the man is, he could even use this situation on his accord and having advantages to it.
When she lifted her head up, her sight was blocked with soft beige color and sweet sugary scent. Taken aback by the sudden interruption out of blue, she blinked in confusion and took a step back away from the object. After having a clearer view, she noticed it as the sweet treat being sold by Suika–a cotton candy being presented in front of her eyes.
"For you, my dear!" the booming voice was something she still needed to get used to. Turning her head to the side, she was met with Ryusui's smiling figure. Ah, now she knew the hand belongs to whom.
"Thank you, Ryusui-san," she raised her hand in apology, rejecting the sweet offered to her. "But I don't have any money with me-"
"No worries, my dear!" he cut her off immediately. "My treat for a beauty like you!"
Minami did mention he was quite a Casanova–for the least, she would've expected this approach coming sooner or later. Even if he did, Ryusui has the utmost respect for the female population–meaning he wouldn't try to force himself or being pushy.
"I-"
"SHINKO-CHAN! THERE YOU ARE!" she was ready to reject the offer for the second time before a loud voice interrupted her. The two of them snapped their head towards the source, seeing Minami marched towards them in long strides. The reporter just went straight to Shinko without even giving Ryusui a glance–holding her wrist in her grasp. "Senku is looking for you, come on!"
It was hard bidding the taller man goodbye while Minami dragged her away, but she was thankful for her sudden interruption because she didn't know another way on declining Ryusui's gift. She knew he meant well, but it feels not right somehow.
"You're a life-saver, Minami-chan," Shinko sighed in relief, thanking her as they're on their way to the top of the cliff where Senku stood.
"No problem, Shinko-chan!" she puffed her chest proudly. "Besides, you already have Ukyo-kun! No one can take you away from him as long as I'm around!"
The said young woman laughed nervously. "That's not the point, though…"
"Aside from that," Minami turned to Senku, who's on his fullest concentration in drawing another blueprint. "Didn't I tell you his personality was like that? So, is this really okay? Why are you letting him do whatever he wants!?"
The scientist chuckled in respond. "It doesn't matter for now. Even currency is a fantastic invention of science. It will bring people's power together."
Then he turned to face them, face dark with menacing ideas hovering above. "I'm thankful he went through soooo much trouble to make it for us. Wouldn't it be rude not to put it to use? While those guys are completely wrapped in stocking up on it!"
"Leave it Senku-san to turn the tides over," Shinko commented. It was almost impossible for the young man to not thinking about this over–he would already plan some kind of countermeasures for the condition.
Then the phone rang, completely stealing their attention away. Senku placed his charcoal pencil back on the desk and approach the device–picking it up and ready to hear whatever report the excavation team managed to gather.
"Senku," Shinko couldn't help but perked up from the familiar voice–it was Ukyo who's currently talking on the other line. If he did it, he must've something extremely important to tell them. "The geography changed wholly in Shizuoka we're currently in. There are massive waterfalls similar to Niagara Falls there, it didn't exist 3,700 years ago. Up until now, we've probably been taking this too lightly. The passing 3,700 years that is."
The scientist hummed knowingly–instantly understanding what Ukyo meant. "Ah, I see. The coastline is also pretty torn up."
"Inland of it as well."
"Why is that?" Gen questioned, looking at him in confusion.
Thankfully, Senku didn't mind explaining it further. "It's simple if you think about it. But being a scientist as always, I was astonished to hear it as it only happens once every few hundred years. A major eruption of Mount Fuji. It's a level of disaster that can completely change the topography of an area in a moment. While we're all petrified for 3,700 years, it must have happened at least four of five times, or as many as ten times! The maps of modern are now absolutely worthless!"
"That's super scary…!" Mirai squeaked in fright from just imagining the volcanic disaster.
"Senku-san is right," Shinko remarked, agreeing with the most logical explanation Senku managed to came up with. "The lava would cover the lands and doubled each time Mount Fuji erupted, other than that the earthquake could rose the ground or even sank it down. The topography would change because of that."
Senku snapped his finger, pleased with her additional explanation. "Precisely!"
"We need a new map." Ukyo remarked. "Little by little. We'll have to make a new one."
"Yo, we'll just make do without it!" Chrome argued over the phone.
"No, blindly searching for oil without knowing left and right and relying on chance is too dangerous." Ukyo reasoned.
"But how do we make a new map?" Shinko questioned, placing her thumb under her chin. "Even if we climb trees, as far as I know, there's no tree high enough to see everything clearly even from above."
Her judgement was based purely by experience–being an archer and a lookout member meant that she's also up above the ground, jumping and swinging from one branch to another as a form of quick movement rather than running on the uneven ground. Sure there's a few trees that stood tall and towering others surrounding it, but none of them tall enough to watch over the whole area. Unconsciously, her eyes glanced over at Senku who's also deep in his mind trying to figure out a way.
"It's be nice if we could ride the birds and look down," Suika commented. If it's from all the way up there, we would definitely understand just what's going on with the land's surface."
Her thoughts were simple and innocent, yet already gave answers for their current predicament.
"Suika-chan," Shinko breathed, which made the little girl turned to look at her in confusion. "That's-"
"THAT'S IT!" However, Senku already beat her to it–that's when she knew they were thinking the same thing. "We need flax! We must gather ridiculous amount of it with all our power!"
Then, the scientist proceeded to chuckle lowly similar to a villain in modern movies, even his aura radiated the same–a skeevy plan has been formed in his mind and he certainly would use the opportunity given by currency nicely. "Now we can use all of that currency. All of the Dragos those guys have got saved up. Ladies and gentlemen, if you don't work as hard as possible to gather flax, we can't even start getting oil~"
"Oooh… OOOOH~!" It looked like Gen also understood what he meant–his face already spoke a thousand words. "A currency exchange, huh? Senku-chan this is already…"
"What's going on?" Suika and Nikki asked, not knowing a single point of the conversation shared between the two young men while Minami was terrified out of her mind from whatever the two was planning.
Shinko also didn't have a clue of what two were up to–economy and cash-flow wasn't the best subject she knew, in fact she barely understood anything about it. However, she understood crystal clear that they're up to something less good just by the looks they sported. No need in wondering longer because she could see the results soon after. Gen fled from their spot to approach a group which held onto a stack of money–just by the twists of his tongue and little spices he added in his words, they suddenly had a mountain of flax stacking up.
Whatever Gen did, it made people went frantic and started gathering flaxes.
"They're completely manipulated by all that money stuff." Nikki deadpanned at the scene, and Shinko couldn't help but nod at her statement.
"Currency can crash with just a simple rumor~" Gen cackled, indulging in his own achievement. "It's been that way for thousands of years!"
"And up until now it looks like nothing's change…" Shinko muttered, a sweat running down her temple.
"When currency is hoarded too extremely, it can be used if the market value is tempered with…" Ryusui remarked in disbelief, face paling at the sudden change of situation. "That Senku bastard sure is a crooked guy…"
"We've got a huge quantity, Senku!" Taiju exclaimed, looking excitedly at the mountain of flaxes they managed to gather in just a short time. "Are we gonna make a really big map with this grass!?"
"What are we going to do with a map that big, blockhead?" Senku scoffed harmlessly, arms folding upon his chest. "We're making some insanely big cloth! Just as Suika said, it's better if we search for the oil from above. We'll use balloons! The exploration party for science's treasure will strike from the sky!"
.
.
Senku already had a new task ready for her as soon as he declared their in-between project in order to increase their capacity in resources–drawing their newest road map, it's easy enough because he asked her to made it. According to the scientist, there were only three steps and it should be done in a matter of minutes.
True to his words, she managed to finish it in just ten minutes top on a piece of paper he gave her. While she's focused on making process, she could hear exclaims of disbelief and bewilderment from the villagers–this would be the first time ever they heard a chance of flying did exist for humankind. However, Shinko didn't doubt that at least an imagination of flying through the sky like birds passed their mind somehow even if it's trivial.
"Senku-san," she rolled the paper and approached him after finishing her share of work. "The road map is ready."
"Good," he chuckled, accepting it in his hand. It took him a few seconds to inspected it, and when he deemed it decent (Shinko could finally breathe in relief because she knew Senku has high standards to begin with), he immediately passed it to Kaseki. "This shall be our long road map to the distant goal of flying!"
"This ought to be the hardest, the most difficult to complete, by a long shot!" Seeing how completely fired up the elder was, labor of intricate and meticulous work is his expertise– Shinko wouldn't doubt it, already getting a taste of Kaseki's ultimate craftsman ability. Whatever came from his hand was the best they could get in this era of stone. "I'm suddenly all fired up!"
But once he took a look of their road map for this project, Shinko almost thought his eyes would catapult from its sockets. He probably didn't expect it to be so short considering they wanted an almost impossible ability, which was to fly.
"IT'S SO SHORT!" he exclaimed in disbelief.
Senku, being Senku of course, just cackled upon his respond. "Assembling Mister Balloon is a staggeringly easy ordeal. After all, when you fold up the whole flying kit, you can just toss into a vehicle!"
"So flying was really that simple…" Gen muttered.
"Linen cloth?" Nikki questioned, hesitated with the choice of material they're going to use. "Won't the air leak out of that?"
"Not really a problem," the scientist answered confidently. "Humanity's first flying hot air balloon was also made with linen cloth. Stuff like the geoglyphs of Nazca are also said to have possibly been created with the help of hot air balloons. It's a means of transportation that is stupidly easy to make."
The mentalist gasped in awe from the information, whereas Shinko muttered under her breath, "I don't know about that…"
"The only big hurdle is," Senku continued.
"Yes, we need a whoooole loooot of cloth, right?" Yuzuriha finished, smiling nervously as she felt shivers down the spine from the grueling work ahead from her.
"I absolutely hadn't thought of that at all! And look, the handicrafts club just happens to be here!" Senku was certainly lying if he it didn't come to his mind, for an insanely smart being as he is, he would've calculated this from the start because he had complete understanding of the whole process even before they put in on the road.
Still making a practically mountain of cloths from scratch wasn't an easy feat–far from it exactly. The work would be coming straight from hell itself and could only be finish by diligence and dedication. Nerves of steel was a crucial thing in this torturing work.
"If you need any tools, just say the word and we'll make 'em." Kaseki offered, bowing low until his chest met the ground–Senku copying his move exactly the same.
"The science team's plans to set out are riding on this." he continued. "Will there be an issue with leaving the making cloth up to you? To you, Yuzuriha and the handicraft team!"
And even if the work would need quite some time and being extremely hard, Yuzuriha wouldn't possibly refuse the idea knowing it was one of their essential steps in their project. Senku and her hand met with a clap–signaling that they made a deal and some of the work will be passed to the brunette.
"Of course not!" Yuzuriha exclaimed confidently–she should be, in Shinko's terms, because her ability was extremely important and her existence alone in this stone world already helped a ton for in their primary-needs department.
"All right!" Taiju exclaimed with firing spirit. "Let's roll out! Yuzuriha's handicraft team!"
"Eh? Me too?' Yo stuttered, pointing to himself shakily. "When the heck did I get lumped in with Yuzuriha's crew, anyways!?"
"Ever since you decided to accept assembling the statues as a punishment to atone your sins," Shinko answered without missing a beat, directing a smile towards the ex-policeman. "So now, you're an official member of Kingdom of Science's Handicraft Team!"
She decided to turn her ears deaf from Yo's wailing of despair–probably both from knowing and experiencing how torturing works could be in the handicraft team.
"You're going to help me, too, right, Shinko-chan?" Yuzuriha asked, tapping on her shoulder lightly–gaining her attention fully. Nodding in determination, she gave the brunette a thumbs up and a wide smile–there's no way she would just watch from the sidelines doing nothing. She would try her best to assist as much as she could.
"Of course! Let's work hard!"
The brunette raised her hand up, her palm facing her–a very familiar gesture of invitation. It made her smile changed completely into a grin as she raised her hand mimicking her so their palm could meet with a resounding clap. A simple thing to do but it successfully made her all fired up for the hellish project.
"Leave the crushing and tearing of the flax to me!" Taiju was definitely the only person who loves doing grueling manual labor–maybe for him it's similar to exercise or sports he usually did back in their time.
Even so, it always left Shinko amazed on how he did it without breaking a sweat of having any hints of exhaustion. Senku did mention he had a crazy cheat-code for endurance–she started to believe it even though it sounded rather absurd.
The young man pushed a huge stone shaped into cylindrical upon the flaxes Shinko arranged on the ground–instantly crushing it under the massive weight. Once they're done, now the flax had separated into different parts and the part they needed the most would the fluffy one.
For Shinko, this wasn't the first time she ever made threads–months ago back in Tsukasa Empire, she tried her best to assist Yuzuriha in her clothes making endeavors. Sure, they would need a lot of animal skins, however, they couldn't sew clothes just with that alone. That's where threads made from flax came in–with Yuzuriha's experience back in her handicraft club days, the two of them created threads for stitching.
Maybe she could deem herself as a self-proclaimed expert in thread making now–remembering countless time she spent with the brunette to lend a hand every time they needed more clothes. Reaching out for an empty spindle, Shinko started wrap the flax around it and just spin it.
Meanwhile, Yuzuriha was in the middle of explaining to everyone on how to make a thread along with demonstrating it herself for them so they could understand quickly. "After tearing the flax apart, take this fluffy part here and wrap it around the spindle. And just with a spin, it's finished!"
"This is more fun than I thought!" Yo exclaimed, his hands busy twirling the wooden spindle. As he finished making some, he tried to look at the others to see how's their progress so far and nearly had his eyes popped out of its sockets when it rested on a thick bundle of thread Shinko made just in a matter of minutes. "YOU'RE TOO FAST!"
Not even glancing at his direction, she shrugged and replied. "I'm used to this."
Yuzuriha giggled merrily. "Well, Shinko-chan helps me making threads all the time back in Tsukasa Empire!"
"We'll be making several tens of thousands of kilometers of this!" Senku cackled cheekily.
"AND THERE'S THE USUAL INSANITY!"
Now, seeing the whole team pretty much getting a hold of the process, they had a spindle each soon after to spin the thread–since they needed extremely lots of it, it's better to start right after rather than procrastinating. Once Shinko had a decent amount of thread, she immediately gave it to Yuzuriha so the brunette could start another demonstration in making cloth–which she accepted with a smile.
"To make thread into cloth, we need to string up several threads like this, almost like a harp," she explained while arranging several threads on a wooden board, after that she brought a needle which also had a thread attached on it. "And then, we thread another strand through from one side to the other! Up, down, up, down, up, down… alternating each time!"
Leave the expertise of cloth making to Yuzuriha, because Shinko wasn't anywhere near as capable as she is. Sure she had patience, but seeing how the work required a whole other level of it along with diligence she knew she wouldn't be able to withstand.
"Don't tell me, you do this, and little by little, we pull each strand of thread through until they come together…?" Nikki stuttered in disbelief, finally noticing the hellish work they out themselves into.
"T-That's way too slow and steady…" Yo commented, looking at the half-done cloth Yuzuriha made.
"Handicraft work is patience!" the brunette stated.
"This will take us nowhere," Shinko remarked, brows frowning in concern. "It's not a about how long it will take, rather it's about the short time we have. We need something to help."
"Of course!" Yuzuriha agreed, placing a fist upon her palm in understanding. "Doing it like this will take forever! I'll call on the science team and ask them to make a handicraft's an item!"
With that, the brunette left them for a while on their own accord to have a talk with their scientist. Nikki hummed in acknowledgement, however she still didn't know what kind of item that could possibly help them in making cloth. The blonde turned her head to face Shinko, who's sitting beside her and keeping herself busy in spinning another set of thread.
"Do you know what kind of item we need?" she asked, which made the shorter young woman hummed.
"Probably a loom," Shinko answered, returning Nikki's gaze with a smile.
The girl tilted her head slightly in confusion. "A loom?"
Shinko nodded in affirmation. "To put it simple, the board will make the thread have different heights so we can alternate another strand in just one go rather than doing it one by one. Well, that's what Yuzuriha told me. I don't think I've ever seen a loom before."
"Ooh, it sounds handy," Nikki commented. "It will definitely help us!"
Both her and Nikki didn't have the awkward atmosphere surrounding them anymore even with how their eyes just met. The girl's night from before helped a ton– Shinko getting to know the blonde a lot better than before, while the same goes for Nikki. She loved how aside from her strong posture, Nikki has truly soft maiden heart–actually, in asking for advises about womanly things she would be her best choice for now.
Meanwhile, Nikki could understand how Shinko is more talkative than she thought–back in the days before, she only heard her spoke maybe a sentence or two at the most as she usually was a more hearing type of person. Now, the young woman without a doubt was a nice person to have idle chats here and there constantly.
Once Yuzuriha returned, they also returned to their respective work–even though they continued their conversation still in between to ease any boredom. As the brunette sat beside her and continue making the cloth, she decided to ask the progress of the item they needed. "So, what did Senku-san say?"
"Kaseki-san said Senku-kun can draw up a blueprint for it, and maybe they will finish not long after." Yuzuriha giggled. "Making loom will be really easy for them after all! It won't be a problem for Senku-kun."
However, Shinko had other thoughts–a whole other type of expectations since Senku always surpassed them either way. "Knowing how Senku-san is… I doubt it could be called simple."
"Oi, huntress!" well, speak of the devil itself, the said scientist being mentioned in their small conversation just called out to her–even so, how long did he intend to stick to that nickname? She chose to ignored it in the end, and looked over her shoulder to meet his gaze.
"Is there something you need, Senku-san?" she questioned.
Approaching her, Senku stopped to kneel and peered into the basket she had by her side–which was filled with newly made thread she just spined. "Threads. Lots of them."
"You can take them all," she said, referring to the basket's content. She never minded because Senku would make a good use of it without a doubt. "Is that enough?"
Chuckling in amusement, the scientist replied, "Perfect."
And with that, he stood up to walked away with the basket in hand–knowing if Senku needed a lot of those threads means he and Kaseki must've finished Yuzuriha's requested item. The time they spent in building it were absolutely short, something that she learned to get used to considering Kaseki is the best craftsman they have.
But the results were out of this world–looming over Yuzuriha was a massive cloth making machine made mostly from wood similar that textile factories have back in modern days, completed with a comfortable fur seat and lamps to help her look onto the details.
Concept of simple was nowhere to be found, the exact of opposite in fact–it was completely grand.
Now, I don't even know how to set expectations anymore! Shinko cried internally.
While both Senku and Kaseki were looking extremely pleased with their work, Yuzuriha on the other side was struck in bewilderment–pretty much like how it happened to Shinko. Instead of mentioning or commenting something about the helping device, the brunette decided to test it herself as a respond–finding that it was indeed extravagant and made her work million times easier.
However, the lack of comment was mistaken as something unsatisfactory for the two.
"Hm?" Kaseki hummed in confusion. "I'm sorry, is it somehow different from what Yuzuriha-chan was thinking?"
"Ahh… sorry, we didn't have a lot of time," Senku apologized. "I guess an electric one would have been better, huh?"
"It's possible for you to build something like that, Senku-san!?" Shinko exclaimed in disbelief–not missing the words that rolled out from his tongue.
"N-not at all!" Yuzuriha instantly denied their words, flustered. "I'm really grateful! This is extravagant!"
Thus, that dawned the adventure of handicraft team in working on the biggest cloth ever-been made from scratch in this stone era.