The frost continued to cover the trees and ground. Suika looked out the telescope from the observatory, her melon rind lifted up. She moved the telescope around and could see a pair of deer drinking from the river. She gasped in excitement at them. "Whoa! You can see super far away!" The little girl exclaimed in awe. Some villagers were around the telescope as they wanted to look too. She then gasped as she noticed something. "The sun's coming up really soon, you guys!" She informed towards outside.
Kohaku, Chrome, Ruri, Ginro, Kinro, Kaseki, Sumi, and Senku were all outside. "Careful not to look at it through the telescope," Senku called out from down below.
"Seriously, it'll hurt your eyes, so maybe move away from it now, Suika!" Sumi warned her as well.
"Okay, Sumi!" Suika shouted back to her.
Kohaku then turned around to a basket filled with tungsten ores. "If those are the right type of stones, they should start to glow," She stated as they waited in anticipation. The sun rose soon after, causing all of the tungsten to glow a bright blue. Everyone all admired them in awe.
"Oh, wow. It looks like a mountain of jewels!" Ruri admired them with a smile.
"Yeah, of course it does," Senku said with a smirk. "Because it is a mountain of jewels." He chuckled while standing up and Sumi smiled. "And this treasure hoard here has our ultra-rare metal inside it!"
"Now we can finally make more progress for the cell phone!" Sumi replied happily at the rocks.
"Ha. Call 'em whatever you want," Magma retorted while sitting nearby. Gen and Kokuyo were also nearby. "They're just kinda heavy rocks to me. I hope they're worth the fuss."
"They'll definitely be worth it when they help us beat Tsukasa," Gen pointed out while looking away.
Kokuyo was just confused looking between him and Gen. "These'll help us win the battle? I get it. They're weapons!" He held one up with a menacing look on his face. Senku, Sumi, and Gen were all a bit horrified at his assumption. "They've got enough weight to 'em to really hurt somebody!"
"Sorry, Father," Ruri smiled sheepishly at him. "I don't think that's what they-"
"Cut him some slack," Kohaku interrupted her sister. "The older generation doesn't understand some things."
He shouted in alarm while looking back at his daughter in shock.
"They're definitely not gonna be thrown at people..." Sumi gave a big sweat drop at him. "They're for filaments to in order to make the phone in the first place..."
"Look, we're up against Tsukasa's army," Gen then spoke up. "Which is gonna be crazy ong-stray. But if we stick to the plan and make cell phone with these rocks, we'll have a massive advantage in the information war."
"Yeah, I know," Kohaku had her arms crossed. Senku and Sumi turned to her. "But how much longer is it going to take to make these cell phones?" She pointed out to everyone.
"That's a good question," Ginro piped up a bit nervously as he agreed with her. "Cause once spring comes, their army's gonna storm the village!"
"Don't worry. We're almost there," Sumi revealed with a small smile.
"Yeah, we're not far from our goal," Senku agreed with her. "To explain things simply, the vacuum tube's the heart of the cell phone, plastic's the skeleton, the microphone's the vocal cord, and the gold wire's the veins."
"And it just so happens that we already have everything to make these four components," Sumi grinned while holding up four fingers. "We just have to put them all together!"
"Yeah," The green-haired scientist patted her on the head and she chuckled. Gen just looked at them in amusement. "All we gotta do is put those four parts together, and we'll have ourselves a cell phone," Senku finished off, and they gasped in shock at it being so soon. "It's been a marathon of a science project, but we're getting close to the finish line. Heh heh heh...now it's time for us to make our final sprint to the end!"
"Yup!" Sumi clapped her hands together. "Now we just gotta charge through making the four components!"
Senku then picked up a chunk of tungsten. "The first thing we gotta do is make filaments, which are essential for vacuum tubes."
"Otherwise, the phone won't be able to function," Sumi placed a hand on her hip. "And then we'd be back to square one."
Senku smirked as he held up the tungsten. "And they'll be made outta tungsten. The most heat-resistant metal in the known universe, waiting inside this blue light."
"It's got nothing on iron or lead," Sumi gave a small hum, closing her eyes happily.
"Here's another question," Kohaku spoke up behind them, hands on her hips. "How exactly are we gonna get it out of the stone?"
"Yeah, well," Senku glanced at her. "That is gonna be pretty tough to pull off."
Suddenly, the tungsten was getting smashed by a hammer. Chrome, Suika, and Kohaku all shouted in alarm, the latter two having tears in their corner of their eyes. Chrome's eyes were bulging out. Magma and Mantle were smashing the tungsten in a pile in front of them. "What the hell are you doing?! Are you crazy?!" He shouted at the two of them.
"Huh?" Magma replied casually at them. "We're getting the stuff outta these rocks, man. If we smash 'em up first, it'll be easy."
"That totally works for us," Senku replied while picking at his left ear with his pinky. Though he and Sumi were a little shocked as well. Ginro was shaking in shock while Kokuyo was surprised. "We'll be turning it into powder, anyway."
"I mean...thanks, you two. Although next time give us a warning if you're gonna start smashing stuff without our approval..." Sumi sweated a little, her eyebrow twitching. If he had smashed something without them there, they would've been pissed.
"You guys hear that?" Magma stated smugly to the others. "What'd I tell ya?"
"Ah! But you didn't know that!" Ginro exclaimed in protest.
"If you were, you'd have to go through all that trouble again!" Kohaku scolded the blond. Kokuyo looked on as Magma continued smashing. Mantle was already exhausted nearby, passed out. Magma even had a small smile on his face, surprising him even more.
"Well, this is strange," He commented, taking a few steps forward to stand next to Senku and Sumi. "This isn't like him at all. I've never actually seen him offer to help before. Did something happen down in that cave?"
They both stared at him from the corner of their eyes as they could take a guess.
Water flowed down from the stream and into the pit. "With me and Sumi here, you get to see all the ridiculously awesome stuff that humanity worked together for 2 million years to build," Senku was looking up confidently while Magma was shocked. He then gave a big smirk. "And we'll show you enough to make your head spin."
Magma let out a breath while carrying Senku out of the water. "Senku!" The green-haired scientist stared down at him in shock. "I don't care if you or Sumi are in charge anymore! At least, not until we deal with that Tsukasa guy."
Senku and Sumi glanced to each other, smiling. Senku had told her all about it once she had finished singing to him privately on his birthday. "Huh. Wonder what it was."
"Could've been anything, really," She gave a soft chuckle, hands in front of her skirt.
The sun was up by the time all the tungsten was made into a powder. "All done!" Magma announced as the powder surrounded them. "So what's next?" He asked in a bit of curiosity.
Senku bent down to it, taking a scoopful of it into his hand. Sumi also examined it in approval as the powder fell from Senku's hand. "Sumi and I will use our chemistry skills on this powdered rock. And when we're finished with it, it should have a similar consistency to toothpaste."
"It'll take a full day, though. We have some cooking to do before we even make it into toothpaste," Sumi smiled a little over his shoulder.
"Oh, right, more fun chemistry stuff," Gen remarked a bit wearily, since that meant more work. "Never does me any good to ask questions about it..."
"Gen," Sumi glanced over her shoulder, smiling at him. "If it'll help, I can give you a lecture later in a more simplified way."
"No, I'm good, thank you," He waved it off nervously. "But I'm sure you and Senku would love to talk about all the chemistry you want. Even with...each other?" He gave a sly smile as they both froze. Sumi sighed while looking away, a hand over her face as she blushed.
"Walked right into that one, didn't I?" She mumbled to herself. Senku then cleared his throat.
"You know, you really gotta stop that one of these days, mentalist," He called out and then snapped out of it. "Then, 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." He then scooped up some powder to put into a leather sack. "It has to reach a thousand degrees, but the hotter we make it, the stronger the tungsten'll turn out."
"The tungsten can take any heat. The stronger the filaments, the better," Sumi closed her eyes with a smile, taking a breath to calm herself down.
Kaseki chuckled while he and Chrome smiled towards their furnace. "We can just throw it in our trusty furnace here!" Senku stood up, turning to them.
"It's nice to get an easy step once in a while," Chrome said in agreement.
"Yeah, not gonna happen unfortunately," Sumi spoke up, getting their attention.
"Have you two lost your minds?" Senku turned to them in disbelief. "Think what would happen to a glass container if you threw it into a thousand-degree fire." The two stared and then yelped in alarm, as they realized that it would melt the glass.
"Just because glass is a solid, doesn't mean it's not invulnerable to heat," Sumi held up a finger. "It'll get softer over time, and then get fluid as the temperature increases. And you definitely don't want that with tungsten, otherwise it'd ruin it and then we would get rust."
"We have to make sure that only the tungsten mixture inside of the glass container is getting hot," Senku informed Kaseki and Chrome.
"So then we'll need to pinpoint the heat on one spot," Kaseki rubbed his chin in thought. "But how exactly?"
"Let's split up the work—time is short," Senku suggested while holding the bag of powdered tungsten. "I can handle all of the toothpaste-making chemistry stuff while Sumi draws up something for me. And yes, I'll let you help," He gave a small smile towards Sumi, who brightened at him, since he knew she loved chemistry.
"And I know exactly what you need too," She said confidently with a hand on her hip. He chuckled while rubbing the top of her head affectionately.
"Always nice to have a science partner on the same page."
"Wait," Chrome spoke up to them, getting their attention. "Then who's gonna figure out the pinpoint heating mechanism? We don't have another scientist!" He stared at the two and gasped as they meant him. His eyes shook a little that he was being trusted with something so big.
"Come on," Senku started off while turning away. "You know everything you need to make that happen. You've gotta throw all the science tricks you've learned at it," He then chuckled as Chrome had his mouth slightly open. "Or do you need Professors Senku and Sumi to come and hold your hand?"
Chrome chuckled with a small smirk. "Are you kidding with that? Don't make me laugh!" He pointed to himself confidently, just like he did when he met the two. "I'm Chrome, you know! And I'm smarter than hell! I'm a scientist!"
"Heck yeah you are!" Sumi smiled widely at him as he then shared a three-way high five with the two. It was the same one Sumi and Senku shared when they promised to hold each other's lives. "You've got this, Chrome! We believe in you!"
"If you guys need some help in your lab, you'd better not come crying about it to me, okay?" He bragged to the duo as they walked in opposite directions.
"We got all the lab stuff, no problem. You're gonna have your hands full leading the heating team," Senku assured him with a smirk. Kaseki looked at them while climbing the furnace, whining a little at the three.
"You guys make me a little jealous," He confessed sadly and they looked to him, stopping in place. He then cleared his throat while sitting up on the furnace. "...Since I was a boy, I've always loved making things. It was such a fun way to spend my time. I made all kinds of stuff, like shields and bridges, while other people just stood back and stared. Even in my old age, I still get looked at as a laborer. Ho ho ho...seeing you three working together like this...has got me thinking about how much I'd like to have a crafting buddy of my own."
Chrome then looked up at him in confusion. "But you're not building things on your own anymore, are you? You've got crafting buddies," He tilted his head a little.
"Hold on," Kaseki looked up, now just as confused as Chrome. "I do? Who's that?"
Chrome then pointed to himself, Senku, and Sumi. "Us three."
Kaseki flinched and then was silent for a bit. "...Really?" He asked Chrome hopefully. "Even though I'm almost 50 years older than you?"
Sumi smiled softly up at him. "Age has nothing to do with it. Senku's a year older than me and that doesn't bother me at all. Ever since you've joined the Kingdom of Science, we've put a lot of trust and faith in you. If Chrome hadn't dragged you here, we wouldn't have gotten this far. So don't sell yourself short, Kaseki. You've always been a crafting buddy from day one!"
"Of course. She's right," Chrome said while Sumi and Senku started to walk away. "Why should age matter at all? Who cares?"
Kaseki gasped as he started to remember all he had done. Chrome dragging him tied up to meet them, making glass for the first time, making the swords, the waterwheel, and making the lightbulbs. All of that time...they had trusted him not because they needed his skills. But because they appreciated them, and to finally have people he could do all of that with...made him overwhelmed with joy. Tears streamed down his cheeks and Sumi glanced back.
"Ah!" She ran up to him, waving her hands rapidly. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make you cry, Kaseki!"
He didn't acknowledge her as he then ripped off his clothes, Sumi yelping and fainting on the spot. Senku and Chrome screamed at him in alarm. "What the hell?" Senku was utterly shocked, and then glanced down at the black-haired scientist. He let out a sigh down at her and then picked her up in his arms after tying up the bag full of powder. Her soul looked like it was about to escape as he led her to the lab. "Every single time..." He muttered to her in disbelief, giving a small smile. It was actually getting kind of cute the way she reacted to nudity—although he still sometimes found it annoying.
Kaseki then started glass molding, with Chrome pumping the furnace as hard as he could.
"I've gotta said, he certainly is gung ho," Gen commented at them, impressed. Suddenly he was grabbed from behind by the collar. Senku dragged him towards the lab.
"Alright, modern man, you're coming with me. I'll bet you know a little more chemistry than the villagers," He stated to Gen's dismay.
"I'm not so sure..." He replied nervously as once he entered, a wheel nearby along with some glassware ready. Sumi was leaning against the table on the ground, still affected by the nudity earlier. She was shaking while her eyes were white. Gen watched as Senku bent down to her, poking her forehead.
"Wake up, you dummy. I need you to get started on that blueprint," He stated, but she didn't react. Senku closed his eyes knowingly with a sigh. "I've got cotton candy."
"I'm up, I'm up," She stood up immediately, her head a bit woozy still. Senku chuckled while Gen blinked in amazement.
"...You know, after 3,707 years, I shouldn't even be surprised..." He murmured in a bit of surprise.
Senku then stood up, holding up a jar of a clear substance as Sumi hummed next to him. "There are a stupid number of steps, so this could get pretty complicated, but I'll try to keep it simple," He then poured in the clear substance to turn the other beaker's contents brownish. He looked up in determination. "Cook the powder in sodium hydroxide, add seashells, hydrochloric acid, and ammonia to crystallize it, then bake it and mix with honey."
Gen's eyes widened as he let out a grunt. Senku thought he understood, but the mentalist just shrugged casually. "Yeah, okay, and I am reading you loud and clear, Professor Senku! I'm using honey! Bake it and add some honey! That's about the gist of it, that right?"
"No...not at all," Sumi murmured while searching for paper. Once she found it, she smiled at the two. "I'll be in the shed if you need me. Let me know when you want me to come back, Sen. Good luck, you two~" She sung a little while leaving. Gen then gripped the end of her outfit in dismay, tears in his eyes.
"I need you, I need you!" He cried out to her and she glanced back in surprise. "Only you'd be able to simplify it for me, Mire-chan!"
"Um..." She sweated a little with a sheepish smile. "I mean, I would, but I have my own task to tackle."
"Get off," Senku rolled his eyes, pulling him off gently from her outfit.
"I'm sorry," Sumi mouthed to Gen as she left and he held out a hand.
"Mire-chaaaaaaaaaaan! Don't leave me all alone to do this! You're so cruel to me, I thought we were friends!" Gen shouted sadly and she groaned at this, a large sweat drop over her head. Was this why he wanted favor with her when they met? So that she could do his science work for him?
"Stop whining...Chrome would be ten billion times more helpful right now..." Senku mumbled while rubbing a temple. Now he was gonna have to listen to Gen's whining...
"No, I doubt anyone besides Sumi could've kept up with all that. You two are the only people who understand this kind of stuff, you know. But she had to go and be a savage!" He pouted and she turned to the lab while climbing up the ladder.
"Oh my god, Gen, I will help you later!" She retorted back to him, Gen smiling happily while Senku looked annoyed.
Chrome happily held up a large lens while surrounded by the others.
"Look!" Chrome tested it out in excitement. "This has gotta be the perfect tool for precision heating!"
"Ha!" Kohaku smiled in encouragement. "Chrome is pulling out his special move again!"
"Quit showing off," Magma grumbled at him. "That thing brings back bad memories." He was referring to when Chrome had used Suika's lens against him in the Grand Bout. He thought he was gonna burn to death that day if Chrome hadn't shoved him into the water.
Kaseki looked at four metals in front of him. "I'm not exactly sure how much heat that lens is going to produce. To test out the temperature, I've set up these metals by heat resistance."
Chrome stood in front of the sun, holding the lens so that it'd get the sunlight. He, Kaseki, and Suika stared at the four metals inside of a large glass beaker. The brunet pointed it specifically at the smallest and weakest one. Hours passed by, but nothing was happening. Kohaku looked up ahead while holding some logs. Magma let out a yawn, stretching his arms. Chrome was sweating nervously as no progress had been made at all...
"It doesn't seem to be doing anything to the lead," Suika piped up after a while. "And that's the weakest one, right?"
"Maybe because it's winter," Kaseki suggested to the two. He then looked up towards both Chrome and the sun. "It might work if we had a little more sunlight."
Chrome recoiled back while sweating a little. He didn't think that was it, though. To be able to get more sunlight, they'd probably had to wait until springtime, and they had a deadline to be mindful of. "You've gotta throw all the science tricks you've learned at it," Senku's voice told him and then Sumi popped up.
"You've got this, Chrome! We believe in you!"
He gasped in realization, holding up some logs. "Our pinpoint heater needs fire. And the cotton candy machine!" He declared to everyone. "Let's throw that in, too!" After attaching the beaker on top of a furnace, Suika and Chrome pumped more air. Kaseki looked at the lens melting the lead. "Aw, man! We're gonna need more than just me and Suika."
"But at least the lead's startin' to melt down!" Kaseki informed the both of them.
Then Kinro and Ginro were pumping air as well, Suika watching over the lens this time. The gold and silver started to melt down. "Awesome! There goes the gold and silver, too!"
"Yeah!" Chrome smiled at the team happily for their progress. "Way to go, battle team!"
Kohaku and Magma were next as Ginro looked over the iron starting to melt. "Iron is down!"
"YEAH!" Chrome screamed with a big smile at figuring it out. "Gorilla team!" He was met with various hits by Kohaku. Chrome crossed his arms looking at the melted iron, unfazed by Kohaku glaring at him from behind. He had a few head bumps at the back of his head as Kaseki laughed.
"We made it past a thousand degrees!" The craftsman cheered at this. Chrome then thought about something else Senku told them.
"It has to reach a thousand degrees, but the hotter we make it, the stronger the tungsten'll turn out."
"The tungsten can take any heat. The stronger the filaments, the better," Sumi closed her eyes with a smile.
Chrome then looked up, as he wanted this tungsten to be as strong as possible. Doing it at the requirement wasn't good enough for him. "We need more heat," He stated and then held up the batteries. "Let's throw in electricity!"
Later that night, he, Suika, and Kaseki were surrounding their work. An orange glow came from what they were doing.
"Alright," Senku said the next morning, as he finally had a small dish of tungsten toothpaste. "It's finally done," He had an excited smile on his face while Gen was dying behind him. "Tungsten toothpaste acquired!" Once he stepped out of the lab, he saw Sumi climbing down from the shed. She jumped down while holding a roll of paper, stepping up to him.
"How's Gen?" She asked with a small chuckle.
"He'll be fine. Kept whining for me to get you after you left from helping, though," He replied and she shook her head slowly. She did keep her promise to come back to help him, but it was only for a short time since Senku urged her to finish the blueprint.
"I would've if I didn't have to do this by today like you wanted," She gestured to the paper in her hand and he chuckled.
"You finished? Ten billion points to you, Sumi," He said as they approached the others together. "So, heating team, how's it goin'?"
"Great," Chrome had his wrist in front of his forehead. He glanced back with a smile. "We're just about done here."
"Huh?" The two opened their mouths a little in surprise.
"Wow, you did it! Great job, heating team," Sumi grinned at the brunet.
"Not too shabby, ya science user," Senku looked past him and screamed, his eyes bulging out with his mouth open. Sumi blinked and looked in his direction. She yelled in shock as they were looking at wires connected to the filament inside the glass container on the furnace. There were also three packs of batteries, three bamboo pumps, and a large glass lens angled at the glass container. "What's with the jumbo deluxe combo set?!"
"Oh...oh wow," Sumi blinked, giving a nervous laugh. Senku had his eyes blank while sweating. "I was not expecting this at all..."
"Come on, guys," Chrome smirked triumphantly at them. "I'm doing exactly what you two told me. Using every trick I've learned."
"We didn't mean to go this far," Senku mumbled out wearily. "The thing's ugly as hell..."
"Come on, give them some credit, Sen," Sumi slapped his arm a little while whispering to him. "They made this on their own without any help and without knowing what it was like usual. Do looks really matter in the stone world?"
Senku glanced at her and blinked. "No," He answered simply and she recoiled back in a bit of shock. The woman then blushed and looked away.
"Ya know, I didn't mean me whatsoever when I asked you that question..." She mumbled with a small pout. Senku chuckled from her expression, giving his usual smirk at Chrome. Sumi then looked up with a grin. "You ended up doing really well, Chrome!"
"Yeah, to be honest, this might actually be the best solution." Chrome blinked in shock at them. "So now, everybody's gonna need to work together to get this temperature crazy high. We're gonna squeeze out a long, thin blob of tungsten toothpaste." Magma squeezed it out onto the platform. "Zapping water with electricity produces hydrogen. The hydrogen, with tons of heat, will peel the rust right off that stuff." The tungsten filament was then placed inside of the glass container.
"Here we go," Chrome spoke up in determination to the others. "Few thousand degrees."
"Let's heat this thing up!" They all shouted in unison. Senku and Sumi watched as Kaseki held the lens. Kinro, Kohaku, and Mamga were using the bamboo pump. Suika and Ginro were fanning the trio in front of them. The villagers looked towards the Kingdom of Science in shock, as it was like a dinosaur coming to life. Smoke came off of the tungsten filament and Senku looked up with a smirk.
"We've tamed the world's most heat-resistant metal," He was wearing a glove as he held it up, the others looking up in excitement. "Which means now we have our hands on tungsten filament!"
"Yay!" Sumi cheered while clapping her hands. "Thank you to everyone for heating it up! Now we can continue working on the four other components for the cell phone!"
Senku proudly held the tungsten filament. "With this, we have everything that we need."
"Aw, yeah!" Chrome went over to the duo, pumped up. "We're so close to the finish I can taste it!"
"We might as well go in order!" Kaseki was just as excited as he rolled his shoulder. "I think we should start with the cell phone's heart and finish makin' the darn vacuum tube."
"But to get that part done, it's gonna take some pretty complicated glasswork. Alright, Sumi. Time to finally unveil that blueprint I asked you to draw," Senku smirked at her, hands on his hips. "Which I'm not entirely sure that you're up to it, old man."
"Sen! Don't be rude," Sumi frowned while plucking the blueprint out of her belt.
"Oh, please," Kaseki held up the water condenser. "Give me some credit. I did make this ridiculously challenging twisty doohickey for ya earlier, didn't I? So nothin' scares me now!"
Sumi gave a small sweat drop as she unrolled it. "Ahh, I know we've asked a lot of you, Kaseki, but I'm not so sure about this one…"
"Nonsense, don't think anything of it!" He held out his hand to her. "Well, let me see what you've got."
"Okay…" Sumi handed it over carefully. Once she did, his eyes bulged out as it was a large pump and she gave a nervous laugh.
"Heh heh. Always pulling through and more," Senku grinned at the black-haired woman, ruffling the top of her hood. "Looks exactly like it!" She whined while pushing his hand away gently.
"Please don't mess up my hood!" She scrunched her nose at him, pouting. "I spent months making all those winter clothes!"
"Heh heh heh. Anyway, this device is known as a Hickman pump," Senku started to explain, holding up a finger. "It sucks air like you wouldn't believe. This baby is a level ten billion vacuum." Sumi then popped up next to him.
"It's very advanced, too. Its power is insane. It's really important in order to have vacuum tubes!" She waved a finger. "The walls of the pump keeps a continuous flow and keeps it from saturating the atmosphere inside of the tubes."
Gen had a deadpan look on his face between the two. "You two kinda sound like you're doing a vacuum cleaner commercial..."
"Vacuum tubes are created by removing as much air inside as possible," Senku stated while looking at the lightbulb in his hand. "The pump we built before was more like a level one prototype, which worked for light bulbs. But it won't give us enough power for this job."
"It's a lot of intricate work we'll need with the Hickman pump, otherwise we won't be able to move on from this step. These vacuum tubes were already kind of a pain to begin with," Sumi gave a small nervous smile.
"I don't know where to begin," Kaseki spoke nervously while looking at the blueprint. "Is this even humanly possible?" He gave a small whine while Gen looked at him for a few seconds.
He stood in front of the craftsman with a teasing look. "In Senku, Mire-chan's, and my age, people could build them, but it was only the insanely talented super craftsmen guys," Gen put a finger underneath his chin. "I know you're good, Kaseki, but this is a different era altogether, so you shouldn't feel too bad about it. It'll never ork-way," He waved a hand casually.
"Is that true?" Chrome whispered to both Sumi and Senku.
"Well, yeah," Senku had a small smirk on his face. "But why the hell would a mentalist know the first thing about it? He's probably just talking out of his ass to get the old geezer fired up."
"Well, I can't say that it's not working," Sumi shrugged a bit as Kaseki had a look of thought. He hummed to himself and then chuckled, getting their attention.
"It's fine. I don't need you to inspire me. It's the complicated stuff that gets me fired up, anyway. But in exchange...a favor," He looked up towards Senku and Sumi. "That thing you did with Chrome. I really want you to do it with me, too." The two blinked while glancing at each other. "You know. Seeing as the three of us are buddies."
They stared at him for a couple of seconds and then smirked at each other. The two stepped forward to share a three-way high five with him.
"Oh, yeah!" Kaseki cheered in excitement.
"You'll bang out this vacuum tube, buddy, there's no doubt about it," Senku said with a small smile.
"There's nothing you can't do, Kaseki!" Sumi winked at the old man.
"Damn right! Watch me!" He responded confidently, running off. Ginro stared at him in awe and then realized something. He slid over to stop between Senku and Sumi.
"Hey, check it out, Senku, Sumi," They blinked at him in confusion. "I'm sure I'm the only one who noticed...but even though Old Man Kaseki's acting like a little kid begging for that high five, he's really more concerned with you two out with the big workload you've got ahead of you." Suika stared up ahead at the three with wide eyes.
"Yeah, any idiot could see that," Senku remarked back to him.
"It's not really that hard to figure out when you're around a bunch of people working on science projects..." Sumi mumbled while closing her eyes. Suika then looked at the gold thread in her hands, as she wanted to help them out too, just like Kaseki.
She then approached Ginro, Kohaku, Sumi, and Senku nervously. "Hey, Senku, Sumi?" The four then turned around to her. Shovel and another child were smiling up at them. Suika herself looked bashful looking at them. "So is there...something we kids could do?"
"That's really sweet of you guys," Sumi's eyes softened at their offer. The two smiled at her.
"Yeah, there is, actually. You guys can handle the wire." He and Sumi then shared a high-five with Suika.
"Yay!" Suika cheered and Sumi approached her.
"Okay, Suika," She smiled down at the kids, hands on her knees. "We're counting on you guys to work hard. Come to us if you need anything, okay?"
"Thank you, but it's not necessary!" Suika yelled in excitement, running off to Sumi's surprise. The kids all sat in front of the science shed. "This means we're in! We're all members of the Kingdom of Science too! Us kids are going to make the wire ourselves. And we'll do it without any help from Senku or Sumi!"
"YEAH!" All the kids cheered from outside.
Sumi chuckled from her spot next to Senku in the lab. He turned to her as she had a fond smile on her face, chuckling at her expression. "They seem to love you. Especially Suika," He commented without turning away from the shelves.
"Hm?" She then tilted her head with a small grin. "Are you actually being sentimental now?"
"It was just a simple compliment. You act like I'm not capable of it," He deadpanned while turning to her.
"You are. You just don't usually say stuff like that out of the blue to me. I do appreciate it, though. They love to help, so I try to keep them involved," She explained and then leaned against the workbench with a small smile. He stared at her for a few seconds, as...he had these...feelings, yet she never seemed to talk about her crush anymore. And while they were at war, so he couldn't tell her still, but...he wanted to know something if he was going to continue having these conflicting interactions with her.
"Mm…hey, Sumi. That guy you said you had a crush on…so you still feel that way about him?"
"Huh?" She stared at him in shock. "Why?"
"I'm curious, I guess you could say," He responded simply, staring into her eyes.
She looked away, gulping. This was it, she could finally tell him her feelings. It had been so hard and long keeping it from him, and she now had her chance. Now she knew how Taiju felt when he saw Yuzuriha again. Do it, tell him! Even if it doesn't work out, you'll still be friends!
"…Well…" She flinched as Chrome and Gen came forward, blushing deeply in embarrassment. Senku and Sumi turned away from each other immediately. She groaned with white eyes, covering them. Once they were inside, they immediately noticed the awkward tension in the room, glancing to each other.
"You okay, Sumi?" Chrome tilted his head at her.
"I'm fine…" She mumbled with a small sigh.
"Did we interrupt something?" Gen gave them a sly smile.
"…No," Senku's eyes saddened a bit from getting interrupted. He quickly tore his focus off that, though. "Alright. Are you ready, chemistry team? Because it's time for us to make some plastic," He held up a few beakers, Sumi taking her own and placing them on the table in silence.
"Yep!" Chrome pumped a fist with a smile. "I have no clue what this is exactly, but I'm ready to learn!"
"Honestly, this is the step on the road map I was the most worried about," Gen admitted to them sheepishly. "Is it even possible to make plastic in the stone world? I'm just saying, isn't it made outta petroleum?" He then yelped a bit as he got his collar grabbed from behind. Kaseki started to drag him away.
"Get over here, Gen. You're with me," He explained while Gen had a slightly horrified look. "You got me so fired up earlier I've got no choice but to work you to death!"
"Not air-fay! Mire-chan, help me..." Gen let out a small whine.
"Why does he keep asking for you?" Chrome sweated while looking on with wide eyes.
"Probably to help him get done faster so he won't have to do any hard work for too long..." Sumi sighed a bit, arms crossed. She had beats of sweat as well. "Or maybe because he still thinks that I'm gonna call him my best friend or something."
"He's still on that?" Senku sweated a bit while looking at her.
"Who woulda thunk it? The old guy's got a soft spot for Gen...for some reason," Chrome commented while looking on and Sumi giggled.
"It's actually kind of cute," She couldn't help but reply. "But sorry, Gen! You gotta help out too instead of doing nothing. You were the one who said all that stuff to him," She gave a sweet innocent smile and Gen cried with tears flying out of his eyes.
"Why are you betraying me...?"
"Damn, sometimes you can be really savage!" Chrome exclaimed to the woman.
"Ha ha, this is great!" Senku laughed towards her as she walked back inside of the lab. "It gets exhilarating when she acts like me."
"Ah..." Sumi glanced back at them with her mouth open a bit and then she chuckled. "Not everything I take in positivity, you know. Though I'm still not gonna be nowhere near being you," She winked at Senku, who smirked. "Enough messing around, we've got work to do!"
The three then started using the furnace, having set up a cauldron near it. There was a long metal pipe connected to the furnace to transfer liquid into the cauldron. There were also two planks of wood in front of the furnace. "I figured out how to make our plastic," Senku started to tell Chrome. "First, we wanna simmer some wood and boil the liquid that comes out." Then they started to transfer the liquid into a flask that was placed onto a stone stove. The flask was connected to a condensing column, the other end having a flask of boiling water. Chrome was dumbfounded as he poured water onto the center. "Pour that over some hot copper, and then-"
"HOLD ON A SECOND, YOU GUYS!" Chrome suddenly shouted, interrupting. "I'm already completely lost! You heat it to extract some liquid, heat that again, and then heat that again? What are we even doing?"
He pouted towards them as they were in the lab working together. "We're modding the hell out of it by adding and removing crucial ingredients," Senku told him as they looked towards the table. "Chemistry's all about adding and subtracting."
"That's why I love it so much," Sumi looked up towards Chrome with a smile. "It's all about what you can get with just about anything. There's limitless possibilities!" She then looked away as her lips went up in a pout. "Although there are definitely reactions in the past I'd rather forget, but apparently not with Senku around..."
"If they're exciting, why should I have you forget?" Senku remarked and she blushed a bit, dragging a hand down her face. He then held up a flask with white liquid, but there was a skull logo on it. "And after that process, we're left with this stuff called formalin," He had a dark look on his face towards chrome. "You can preserve corpses with it."
Chrome and Sumi had their noses pinched, looking away from it. "That stinks! And what's the deal with you guys pulling out these creepy dead people chemicals all the time?" Chrome asked the two of them in disbelief.
"Hey, he's more into that stuff than I ever will be," Sumi defended while waving a hand in front of her face. "I'm just thankful it's not at a high level, or else we'd have skin rashes, wheezing, or coughing right about now. We don't make this stuff for nothing..."
"Heh. Remember when we tried pouring revival fluid on that petrified arm? Turned into a pile of dead flesh..." Senku grinned evilly at Sumi, who shrieked in alarm. Chrome shook with white eyes towards them.
"Seriously?!" He asked while Sumi shook in annoyance with a small grunt.
"Why do you keep doing this? Ugh," She huffed and he laughed, placing his hand on top of her head.
"Alright, I'll stop," He relented and the three stepped out of the lab. "Okay," He spoke up while stretching his arms. "So now the only thing we need to acquire is a ton of coal ash. Because sodium hydroxide plus formalin plus coal ash makes bakelite, which is the very first man-made plastic. It's perfect for this."
"Oh, okay," Chrome stammered a little as he had no idea what he was saying. "So I guess we're gonna need to burn a crazy amount of coal, aren't we?"
"Oh, not really," Sumi started off with a smile. "We just-" She faltered as Senku tapped her shoulder while looking up ahead. She looked in her direction to see the kids and elders spinning the golden thread. Suika was shaking as the coats weren't enough to keep them warm.
"My hands are numb. We're not gonna get much work done like this!" She cried out as she could barely move her hands.
"This winter does seem like an especially harsh one," Natri stated with a small frown.
"I'm worried some poor soul is going to die from the cold this year," Alumi said in concern, the both of them spinning the thread.
Sumi's eyes softened as she turned to Senku. "They can't keep working like this…it's too cold for them to finish…" The two then glanced to Chrome, who smiled optimistically that they could find a way to solve this.
Senku and Sumi stood in front of the two brothers. They were both guarding the bridge as usual. Chrome, Magma, and Kohaku were behind the two scientists while wearing basks for an expedition. "We need coal?" The older brother asked the duo.
"Yeah, like a ridiculous amount of it," Senku explained to them. "It seems like just the job for you guys. Oh, and we need granite. As much as you can get."
"Mmhm!" Sumi nodded at them encouragingly. "We'd really like it if you guys could come back within a day or two."
Ginro then inched away from the bridge to get out of it, since he didn't want to do any work. However, Kinro noticed him anyway. "Hold on, Ginro." The blond flinched and stood up straight. "Where you going?"
"Oh, you know me," He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, looking away. "Off to train. And I have to guard the village, so I don't really have the time to take this on, too. I'll have to pass. Shucks."
"Eh?" Sumi blinked at him in confusion. "Homura's left us alone, and there's no reason for Tsukasa's army to attack us in the winter. If there's an animal out there, they wouldn't come here for water. What else is there to guard the village from?" She frowned at him in disapproval.
"Ehh..." Ginro whistled while looking away since he didn't want to disappoint her, but he also didn't want to do it. "...Bears?"
"Bears?" She raised a brow skeptically.
"The rules at the rules. And the village chief as well as the village chieftess' orders are absolute," Kinro stated in determination and Ginro blinked at him in shock. "And Sumire does make a good point. The village will be fine for a day or two without us."
"Aw, thanks, Kinro," Sumi smiled knowingly at Ginro trying to get out of this. "And I know that's my full name and all, but please, just call me Sumi..." She gave a sweat drop; only a few people around still called her that, and he was only 2 years older than her, so it was kind of weird...
He gave her a small nod. "Alright then...Sumi." She gave a small smile towards him.
Ginro was then dragged away by his brother as the five all set off together. "Let me go, please!" Ginro protested while Sumi waved to them. Senku dug his pinky into his ear with a small smirk. "This is gonna be so hard!"
"I said, rules are rules!" Kinro repeated in a bit of annoyance.
And so, they set off to the caves, with Chrome leading the way. Ginro was in the back with a look of dismay. His eyes were white while following them. But he also couldn't just sneak off either because they'd know immediately...
Senku, Sumi, and Ruri watched as Kokuyo was pouring melted copper into a large wooden mold. He was wearing the protective suit as they watched. Once it cooled down, it got removed as Senku and Sumi both used a mallet onto it repeatedly. They repeated this process a few more times until eventually, a hut had a stove with cooking food on top of it. The kids all surrounded themselves around the stove, enjoying how warm it was.
"This thing makes the house super warm and toasty!" Suika cried out cheerfully as they were warming their hands. Two other kids were eating some stew that was just made for them.
"We should make a nice hot meal for everybody to eat," Alumi smiled while also warming her hands. Natri hummed and nodded in agreement.
"We have the time, since the work's going faster," Thanks to the stove, they could all move their warm hands faster for the wire.
Senku and Sumi were standing on the roof of a hut, surrounded by the five who went and got the coal. "Now then, the only thing that we really need are the ashes from the coal," The two watched the steam coming from the top of the pipe. "But you're more than welcome to sit by the fire," He gave a small smirk.
"Nothing like a toasty stove to get people motivated!" Sumi smiled next to Senku. And it wasn't just that hut either, every single one had the stoves now. Kokuyo then approached them from down below.
"I'm impressed, Senku and Sumire," He spoke up to the duo, and they glanced back in confusion. "I realize that the things you're making as a team are for a completely separate goal, but our little village is slowly becoming a much better place to live."
"It's true," Senku remarked while looking towards him. "That's how science works," He had a small smile on his face. "It's just as simple as that."
"We started off with wanting allies for the battle against Tsukasa..." Sumi murmured while looking back to the village. "But now...as we're reaching farther to the cell phone...we've grown this place into a real civilization," She smiled as they both stared up ahead. "Wouldn't you agree, Senku?"
"Yeah..." He murmured while the kids were having some meat thanks to Alumi and Natri. Suika smiled while weaving her fingers into golden coil. Kokuyo then gave a small hum and walked away from them.
"I must say, you ended up being just the people we needed to lead our village into the future..." He told them and Sumi smiled from the compliment. Senku then gave a small hum.
Sumi suddenly then slipped and Senku immediately grabbed her waist, pulling her up. He had one arm around her while the other was holding her shoulder. They were so close that their noses almost touched, but she was sure that they did at least once. Her eyes widened as a breath escaped her, the both of them staring at each other without moving. He was half shocked and half mesmerized looking at her as he had no idea what to say. Both of their minds were blank. She looked down at their position, lifting her eyes towards him without moving her head.
"Um…thanks," She said meekly as she let go of him. He moved his hand away, turning around with his hand in front of his mouth.
"Mm, ah, no problem," He said quietly as they once again felt the same awkward tension as before.
"So, we gonna uh...continue working on the phone, right?"
"Yeah, that's what we need to do," Senku replied quickly to her, glancing over his shoulder.
"So let's-"
"Sure, yup, let's get going," Senku sighed a bit as they both got onto the ground. Once they did, they still weren't looking at each other. Sumi pinched her nose, a bit annoyed. Both of them were beyond relieved that Gen did not see that at all, because then he would go on about it for hours. Senku glanced at her, as he knew that she had enough going on with both Tsukasa and her crush, and yet still...still he acted upon these thoughts and feelings for some reason. Maybe impulse or because he couldn't really do anything about it. Even when the world was brought back and he told her...he still needed to wait until her...tension with Tsukasa was resolved. Otherwise to him it wouldn't feel right for her to respond to what he felt.
He couldn't help but blame Gen just a little, though, since he and others kept insinuating that they were together. They were basically flocking the two almost all of the time waiting to see if something had happened between the two...
Speaking of the others, their eyes were shining at them while Magma just looked on with a blank expression. Even Kinro had the expression since they supported the two as a couple. "Oooh, things are getting steamy, aren't they?" Ginro nudged the both of them to their horror.
"What the hell, dude?" Senku groaned at him as Sumi had white eyes while looking at him.
"Ginro, why?"
Kinro came up from behind him and then gave him a few head bumps. "You should know better, Ginro!"
"I'm going back to the shed," Sumi sagged her arms tiredly while walking off, Chrome, Kinro, and Kohaku glaring down at the blond.
"Aw man, why'd you have to go and do that?" Chrome looked especially annoyed. "Don't you remember that we're supposed to let things happen? We can't force them into a relationship when we're at war with Tsukasa!" He hissed so Senku wouldn't hear them. Senku stared after Sumi, his heart beating as he tried to brush it off, but he couldn't...
"Damn it," He cursed himself, a hand on his face. He just hoped it wouldn't take too much longer to find out how she still felt about her crush...
Kaseki was busy with the furnace while Gen looked at a blueprint for something. "Hold on. Zinc-carbon batteries?" He murmured in confusion, blinking. "Are we gonna use batteries to finish the vacuum tubes?"
Senku walked past him with his pinky in his ear. "The instructions and materials are all listed there. We'll use the manganese from the caves."
"Everything should be easy to find around here. And please don't ask me to do it for you, because it makes the most sense for you to do it," Sumi looked over her shoulder while walking behind Senku knowingly.
"Uh..." Gen gave a nervous smile, looking over to the duo. "So you want me to make them, do you?"
"If not, you're not contributing as much as the others have in labor and that's not fair to them! And I have a lot of work to do already, so please don't call for me unless it's absolutely necessary," Sumi called out as nice as possible.
"What she said!" Senku agreed with her. Gen sighed in defeat at this.
He carried a container of manganese in a basket to an empty hut. He sat on the floor and began making the battery. He dusted himself off and placed a small chunk of manganese on a piece of zinc.
Zinc for seaweed
Manganese rice balls
He then wrapped it like an onigiri.
Coal in the middle
He used chopsticks to stick a piece of coal in the middle.
Boom! We got a battery
Gen smiled proudly at the little battery in his hand.
Boom! We got a battery
Hold on
He blinked in realization while looking at the battery. He then stood up with a happy smile on his face from how easy it was.
I'm already done?
It wasn't utal-bray at all!
That was so easy!
He then bopped his head while continuing to work.
Making rice balls (Making rice balls)
From manganese (From manganese)
Lots of rice balls (Lots of rice balls)
He then painted a liquid to have them stick together so it wouldn't fall apart, which was something that was also in the instructions.
From manganese (From manganese)
Here's more rice balls (Here's more rice balls)
From manganese (From manganese)
He had a battery on his head and in his hands as he danced around happily. And he thought this would be no problem at all, until-
"We'll need 800, at the least," Senku popped his head in from the doorway.
"HUH?!" Gen shouted with white eyes, taken aback. "ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Sumi then popped in next with an apologetic smile.
"Yeah…sorry, Gen. it's just that we need as much as possible if we're going to get the phone running…also, were you rapping?" She raised a brow before shrugging it off. "If you want—"
"Yeah, no, I need you on deck for something else. He'll be okay," Senku dragged her off to her shock. Gen slammed his hands on the floor, tears flowing from his cheeks.
"Utal-bray. Mire-chan, can you-"
"Stop asking her to do your work!" Senku retorted back from outside. "You're a grown-ass adult, mentalist!"
"Does 19 really count as an adult?" Sumi raised a brow at him.
"Even so, he needs to learn to stop relying on you so much," He replied while digging his pinky into his ear. Sumi then noticed Ruri approaching and ran up to her. She whispered into the blonde's ear and then earned a nod with a smile.
Ruri popped up behind Gen. "I can lend a hand! No problem!"
"Heh. Good idea," Senku cackled to himself as they walked across the bridge.
"Well, if he's gonna keep asking for my help, we might as well have other people fill in for me..." Sumi gave a nervous chuckle while sweat dropping. She felt bad for not being able to do it, so it was a nice compromise. "Plus I hope it means he'll stop asking me...not that I don't wanna help him, but asking for me constantly isn't healthy..."
Senku glanced away in relief, since...he was always annoyed with how close Gen wanted to be with her. He already had similar feelings about Tsukasa, he didn't need it again.
Kohaku placed down a barrel of wine in the lab. The curtain was in front of the doorway as Chrome examined it. Sumi and Senku were looking through the shelves. "Here's the wine that you asked for. You throwin' a party, or what?" Kohaku wondered with her arms crossed.
"Maybe when this whole thing with Tsukasa is over," Sumi hummed in thought.
"Nuh-uh," Senku turned to her while holding some glassware. "Makin' some microphones. They're the vocal cord."
"Huh?" Chrome blinked at them in confusion. "Out of wine?"
"Yeah," Senku turned to the barrel fully, Chrome looking at it. "More precisely..." He lifted up the lid to reveal pink-reddish crystals sticking from the lid. "We'll be using these pink crystals that are stuck all over the lid here." Sumi reached out to start plucking them. "Then we'll cook some of this seaweed," He and Sumi stirred a pot of it outside. "Mix it into hot water, and done!"
What was left were some crystals in a glass cup. "Huh?!" Kohaku looked back in alarm. "Which part of this stuff is gonna be the microphone thingy?!"
Sumi giggled in amusement at her question. "Dunno," Chrome rubbed his chin while looking at the cup. "And what are all those shiny rocks in there?"
"They're Rochelle salts, and they turn sound into electricity," Senku explained for them. "You can take one of these onto something lightweight, like a plastic megaphone for example," Kohaku held one up to examine it. "And you've got yourself a microphone."
"Because of the crystal having an electric charge effect where it's induced on its surfaces by mechanical deformation due to pressure, twisting, or bending, it's very useful in sensitive acoustical and vibrational devices," Sumi explained further to the duo as night had fallen.
Good morning, world
The sun shone over the Earth for a new morning, as work had truly started to begin for the next few weeks. The Kingdom of Science flag was still blowing in the wind. Once Sumi and Senku were up, they immediately headed for the lab to get started.
How far have I walked?
As they were doing some chemistry together, Kohaku walked in with coal.
Only the pain in my feet
She put the basket down to speak with them and they looked up, telling her something back. Chrome came in with a bunch of golden wire as she left.
Gives me a sense of the distance
Suika was sweating a little while looking at the wire she was making.
The hope for a beautiful view
Meanwhile, outside Kaseki had gotten Magma, Mantle, and Carbo to help him make the Hickman pump. All of them looked dead on the ground while the old man looked in front of him happily.
At the end of a long night
He held his arms up in the air in triumph, happy tears coming from his eyes as he had successfully made the Hickman pump.
Is what keeps me going today
He then got to work connecting the wires and connectors inside the tube.
The mountains of the gods
Gen and Ruri were hard at work making the manganese batteries, though Gen was less than thrilled. They at least had a few bundles of them now.
The palaces of green
Kinro spoke up to them from outside, holding a basket. Ruri looked up with a smile while Ginro snuck away with a mischievous smile on his face.
The depths of the caves
Kinro reached out to grab his brother from behind.
The ends of the deep blue sky
The two brothers then helped out with making the batteries.
I'll go the full distance
Suika held up a dark wire in her hands.
There are no limits
Kaseki was working hard while sweating. Kohaku was putting together the microphone carefully.
To the ends of the world
Chrome looked down in concentration while Senku and Sumi were looking at their chemistry work. They were both focused on the reaction inside the glass, smirking.
Good morning, world
They soon reached the end of the road map as Chrome held up phenolic resin plastic in his hand. "The plastic hurdle's cleared!" He shouted proudly at it.
Rid away the impossibility of the dark
Suika held up the wire happily while the kids and elders behind her looked on proudly. "The wire hurdle's cleared!"
An odyssey turning mythology into the everyday
Kaseki then held up the completed vacuum tube. "Vacuum tube hurdle's cleared!"
In this painstaking journey
Kohaku smiled while holding the megaphone in her hands. "Microphone's cleared!"
Turning over every stone
"The most weapon in modern warfare is one that shoots voices over infinite distances," Senku started off as everything was finally assembled.
We'll expand our world
Senku and Sumi had smirks on their faces as everyone surrounded them and the completed cell phone. "It's the birth of the cell phone."
"And it's all thanks to you guys!" Sumi smiled up at them.
"Aw yeah!" Chrome cheered while everyone else was in awe.
Cell phone acquired!
The others let out gasps of amazement, or just smiled. "So bad!" Chrome pumped his fists happily while Kohaku giggled.
"And we were able to pull this thing off before spring came," Senku pointed out, flipping the switch. Electricity came from the wire and radio wave, going out towards the world. "The final battle is coming soon. We're up against Tsukasa...so get ready, everyone." Tsukasa was surrounded by his army as they looked towards the horizon.
"And of course, get excited!" He and Sumi said in unison as the phone was labeled 'Senku and Sumi Phone.'