Chapter 10: Lightning Race

There was no time to waste! We went straight to work: Chrome broke open the furnace, and Senku took out the other metal pot, this one containing copper.

"Melt the copper!" Senku yelled. "Kohaku's shield is coated with lacquer; it's somewhere in the village!"

Quick as a lighting flash, Suika ran (or should I say, rolled) into the village and returned with a jar of lacquer. She handed it to Senku, who quickly popped the top off of it, and began pouring some of it onto the iron bar.

"Lacquer is a crazy good insulator." said Senku. "Coat the iron rod with it. David, head to the village bridge and get me one of the planks."

"Aye aye, sir!" I replied quickly, before racing off through the rain.

I saw the bridge, and that Ginro was standing guard. Ignoring his questioning and protests, I grabbed ahold of a plank on the bridge and pulled with all my strength, taking off a plank and not breaking it. I then ran back to where the others were, and put the plank down on the ground. Kohaku, under orders from Senku, quickly carved a channel in the plank, so that Senku could pour the melted copper into the wood.

"Pour the melted copper in the channel, and let the rain cool it." Senku continued. "Then, wrap the solidified copper all around the iron."

As I was watching, I heard Kohaku gasp, and looked in the direction of where she was looking. There were three people starting to cross the bridge: one was tall and muscular, and he looked like 'Gaston' from Beauty and the Beast, except he had blonde hair and was wearing a dark blue tunic over black clothing. The second person was shorter, had black hair and a goofy looking face, and he wore a green tunic. The final person also had blonde hair, which he kept tied up with a rope around his head, and he wore a green tunic as well.

"Uh, who, or what, is that coming towards us?" I asked.

"Shoot, it's Magma!" Chrome replied, his tone worried.

"He's not one to listen to reason." Kohaku added, her tone equally worried. "We're going to have to fight them!"

Senku took notice of this as well and said, "We can't fight; we're screwed if we go to war against the village right now."

"But what other choice do we have?" I asked. "To be honest, I'm a lover, not a fighter; I prefer to talk my way out of problems."

"Exactly…" Gen spoke up. "I guess I don't have a choice; I'd rather not get killed in the fray. Can I have a bouquet of flowers, Suika-chan?"

I smiled a little when he called Suika that, but then I asked in a confused tone, "What do you need flowers for?"

"Flowers over war." Gen replied, a sinister smile on his face.

Suika quickly left and returned with some flowers, to which Gen thanked her as she handed them to him. He then went out onto the bridge to confront the three bullies, and after some words were traded between them, he flicked his hands, and the flowers disappeared! Magma and his two goons became frightened and confused, while Kohaku, Senku, and I could see what really happened; it was the tried and true 'back of the hand' trick, great for all mentalists and magicians everywhere.

"That's enough to keep it out of Magma's sight?" Kohaku asked, her tone confused.

"Apparently so." I replied. "I've seen that trick before; magicians used it all the time for cards."

"Yeah, it's called the 'back palm'." Senku added, before letting out a chuckle. "Not bad, you fraud magician."

After a few seconds, the lighting flashed again, and Magma and his goons made a retreat back to the village. But from the look on Magma's face, he looked as if he was planning on coming back to deal some more damage; this guy now had a grudge against us, and boy, do I hate a grudge.

Once the copper wire was tied around the iron bar, Senku, Chrome, Kohaku, Suika, Gen, and myself began climbing up the bald mountain.

"It's not impossible at all." said Senku, as we climbed the mountain. "An old guy named 'Wasilewski' has already succeeded in an experiment to make magnets using lightning."

We then made it to the top of the bald mountain, where Chrome found the magnetic rocks. It was a wide and large rock platform, with no form of plant life growing on it, only around it. And no wonder; lightning struck this area of the mountain over and over, so much so that nature got the point and decided not to try anymore.

"Chrome, this is the fruit of your ten years of exploration." said Senku, his tone pleased.

"That's right!" Chrome added, his tone excited. "Are you amazed or what?"

"I like the view, but I think it would be better without the clouds." I replied.

"We're here at the bald mountain." Senku continued. "And we need those clouds, David; this place is the perfect spot for lightning. There's no better place…"

We went straight to work once again, setting up the lightning rod for when the lightning was to strike. Suddenly, the lighting struck again, causing us all to flinch.

"The lightning's closing in." said Senku, his tone somewhat annoyed.

"Crap, and we don't have time to build a proper tower." Chrome added.

"Why don't we just use something sharp and stick it in the ground?" I asked. "That way, we won't have to nail it down or anything."

"But we need to make it as tall as we can." Chrome replied.

Kohaku let out a small growl, looked around, and said, "If only there were something long that we could shove into the ground…"

Suddenly, Kohaku's expression turned to that of a cat that had just found a field of catnip, and had to do all that I could not to laugh. But when I saw what she was looking at, I understood her excitement; Kinro and Ginro, no doubt curious as to what we were doing, followed us up the mountain, and they had their spears with them!

The spear! The gold spear!

"No, anything but my spear!" Kinro protested.

Kohaku, holding onto the iron bar, ignored his protests and rushed over, doing a backflip kick that sent the spear spinning into the air! With swift movements, Kohaku recovered, leapt into the air, and caught the spear! She then pulled on the rope that she was using to tie her hair up, spun the spear downward, tied the iron bar to the spear with her hair rope, and drove it hard into the ground!

"Kohaku, watch out!" I yelled, as I saw the lightning beginning to flash.

I leapt towards Kohaku, grabbed her, and got the two us out of the lightning's path, mere milliseconds before we both would've been fried! We both landed side-by-side, sat up, and surveyed the scene; the spear was fried crispy (much to Kinro's aggravation), and there was a blue aura surrounding the iron bar. I looked to Senku, and saw the grin on his face and victory in his eye.

The rain stopped, the clouds began to clear, and light started seeping in from the sky. As Kohaku and I got up, we watched as Senku walked over, pulled the now magnetized iron bar from the spear, and held it out.

"Electricity, born with a bang." said Senku, his tone 'electrified' (see what I did there?). "Now this gets me excited."

"Yeah!" Chrome cheered. "We got a magnet for the generator!"

I let out a chuckle, looked over at Kohaku, and… man, did she look pretty! I mean, she was pretty enough with her hair up, but with her hair down, she was gorgeous! Seeing her like that, I felt my heart start to beat quickly. There was also a small smile on her face; she pleased that we all had succeeded in winning the 'lightning race'.

I cleared my throat and then said, "Uh… your hair's down…"

"So?" Kohaku asked, her tone confused.

"Nothing, it's just that ever since I've known you, you've worn it up." I replied, my tone friendly. "So, it's different seeing you like this, you know."

"I'll take that as a compliment…" said Kohaku, her tone kind.

I let out a secretly bashful laugh at her reply, and we walked over to where the fried spear was. I untied the rope that kept the iron bar held, and handed it to Kohaku, who thanked me. She then began tying her hair back up in the usual spiky ponytail. As for Kinro, he looked like a part of himself had just died, as he held the now charcoaled tip of his spear.

"Jeez, the golden spear's in pieces." said Ginro, who was taking delight in this.

"Sorry, but you'll have to forgive me, Kinro." Kohaku spoke, her tone somewhat guilty. "It was an emergency."

"I'm sure Senku will make you another one." Suika added.

"Hey, where'd your spear go?" Ginro asked, his tone patronizing. "It's gone, eh? That golden spear that you had made for you and never let me borrow. Huh?"

Next thing we knew, Ginro was lying on the ground, his head covered in giant welts from when Kinro had beaten the crap out of him a few seconds ago! Kinro began stalking off, and I couldn't blame him for what he did; Ginro was just making things worse.

"Senku, we may have failed to make magnets!" said Kohaku, her tone worried, as she tried to push the magnetized bar with the other iron bar. "They won't go near each other, let alone stick! They're being repelled by a mysterious force!"

I facepalmed, while Senku said in a bored and annoyed tone, "You have the poles backwards."

I then looked up from my facepalming, and watched as Senku took one of the magnets from Kohaku, flipped it, and presto; The magnets were stuck together, much to our surprise, amusement, and excitement!

"Now we can make that crazy 'electricity' thing, right?" Chrome asked.

"Right." I replied.

"But Senku-chan, are you making a thermal generator?" Gin asked. "Wind turbines? Don't tell me you're making a nuclear reactor."

Senku turned to Gin and began scratching his ear, saying, "A muscle-powered generator."

"I should've known…" Gin groaned, probably having post-traumatic thoughts about when he had to pump air into the furnace.

Once we got back from the bald mountain, we began making the generator. But as we went to work, I noticed something really weird about Senku: his cheeks were puffed up like he had stuffed two baseballs in his mouth, his lips were puckered and stuck in a rectangular shape, and his eyes were squinting. Looking at him like that, I felt really sorry for him, but was also curious as to what happened.

First thing to do was to make a large sheet of copper. So, using some of the melted liquid copper, we poured It out and made it into a sheet. Next, Chrome and I took hammers and began hammering it down until it was flat. Once that was done, Senku cut out a wheel from it, then Suika and Kohaku began filing the edges down. They were using a rock called 'Corundum', which Senku said was the second-strongest mineral after diamond.

It was that point that Gen, along with myself, could no longer keep our curiosity at bay. We came over to Senku, who was coating a copper wire with some more of that lacquer, to find out what was wrong with him.

"I've been trying to think of something clever to say up till now." said Gen, his tone somewhat frightened. "But I'm just come out and ask it; why do you look like a human marshmallow?"

"Personally, I thought you looked like you had two baseballs stuffed in your mouth." I replied, my tone somewhat worried. "But my question's the same as his; what happened to you, Senku?"

"Lacquer poisoning." Senku rasped out.

"Sheesh…" I said, my tone worried, and wincing a little. "Please tell me there's a cure for that; I feel so terrible for you right now."

"The swelling should go down in a couple of hours." Senku replied. "But I'm fine, aside from some slight pain and embarrassment."

Chronicler Log #4

Kingdom of Science - Members

Senku - Leader, Professor

Chrome - Scientist, Resource Gatherer,

Kohaku - Muscle, Protector

David (Me) - Muscle, Chronicler

Suika - Information Gatherer

Taiju - Muscle, Resource Gatherer

Yuzuriha - Tailor, Craftswoman

Kingdom of Science - Allies

Village - Hopeful Allies

Gen Asagiri - Hopeful Ally

Kingdom of Science - Enemies

Tsukasa - Main Enemy

Magma - Possible Enemy

Magma's cronies - Possible Enemies

Kingdom of Science - Progress

First Project - Make an Antibiotic to help Ruri recover from sickness. - Still in progress.

Second Project - Get more manpower for the iron furnace. - Completed.

Third Project - Create a magnet. - Completed.

Fourth Project - Create a generator. - In progress.

Notes

We've got the required manpower for the iron furnace, and we were able to create magnets with the help of a lightning storm. Aside from slight difficulties, namely Senku suffering from lacquer poisoning, we are well on our way to building a generator.

We've also met some new people, one we can call a 'friend', and one we can call an 'enemy'. The friend's name is Gen Asagiri, a mentalist who comes from the world before, like Senku and myself. Although he's a rather vain and shallow person, he did have a moment of doing the right thing.

The enemy is called 'Magma', and he looks like trouble. We'll have to keep an eye out for this person, and make sure that he doesn't try anything that will halt the progress of the Kingdom of Science.