33. Stone Wars
09-09-2023
A/N: First update of the weekly updates, yay!
Q: Dr. Stone S3 comes back next month! Are you ready?!
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"Pop Quiz! The topic is Tsukasa-chan's Empire! This is the one central unifying force responsible for the support and loyalty of all his empire's people! Is it A. Food? B. Hot girls? or C. Tsukasa-chan himself?"
You and Senku looked at the man as you sat on the floor, answering the question together, "It's C."
"Ding, ding, ding! You two win 10 billion points!" Gen cheerfully exclaimed. He continued, "Tsukasa-chan was originally the 'world's strongest primate high schooler', and was famous for his charisma to begin with...in other words, we need someone more famous than Tsukasa-chan himself, with a super amount of charisma and charm~!"
The mentalist placed two fingers on his Adam's apple and ran his other hand through his hair. A voice that wasn't his came out of his mouth, "Hi, I'm Lillian Weinberg!"
You and Senku opened your mouths wide with shock, eyes doing the same. You could visualize him being Lillian through your imagination.
"That's a sick impression you got there..." You said as you let out a nervous laugh.
"I can more or less do a woman's voice, but it's pretty obvious that it's being faked," Gen told you, sweat slightly dripping down his temples.
Senku replied, "It's spot on! Sounds just like a man's voice faking a woman's, ten billion percent!"
"Right~?" The mentalist chuckled. "But if the sound quality was all rough and distorted, like, for instance, if it was coming from our telephone receiver..."
"You want to lie to them?!" You questioned him as you realized what was going to be done.
The scientist grinned. "And the song will be for identification!"
"Ding, ding, ding, 100 billion points~!" Gen smirked. "Hearing Lillian-chan's singing is so incredible, it couldn't possibly be anyone but the real thing! They'll have no choice but to believe that on the other side of the phone, the songstress, Lillian Weinberg, is still alive!"
"In other words, in order to fill them with false hope, we'll create a Lillian zombie and stitch together this huge lie!" Senku let out his evil laugh.
"Yeah, there's no way we're not going straight to hell for this," you sighed.
Your boyfriend looked at both you and Gen with a pinky in his ear, and replied nonchalantly, "Okie-dokie, let's do it. We'll worry about the details later and let's get this show on the road."
"Okie-dokie," you said.
"That casually and that fast?!" Gen was shocked, then turned to you, "You're agreeing to this too?!"
You shrugged. "Whatever Senku does, I follow. We're doing this."
"'OKIE-DOKIE', MY ASSY-WASSY! I DON'T UNDERSTAND A DAMN THING HERE!"
The wood floors erupted from below you and launched Senku up in the air. From the hole, Chrome's head popped out with rage as you caught Senku in the air.
"What the hell, man?!" Senku cried out when he turned his head toward the brunette.
You let go of your boyfriend as he looked at the broken floorboards in disbelief, then stood up with your hands on your hips. In an angry tone, you yelled at Chrome, "If you wanted to listen, just use the door!"
The boy flinched and got on his knees. "Ack, I'm sorry! You guys were kinda noisy, so I wanted to know what you were talking about!"
"That doesn't give you an excuse to break the damn floors! Now go get some wood, hammers, and nails so that you can fix that hole!" You scolded him as you crossed your arms. You were pissed at the fact that Chrome destroyed the flooring of the building you worked hard on for Senku.
"Very feisty woman, huh, Senku-chan~?" Gen moved his eyebrows up and down as he spoke to Senku on the side.
The scientist had sweat dripping on the sides of his head and an awkward smile stuck on his face. "She's nagging again...but not just as a girlfriend this time."
The young boy immediately ran out of the observatory, then came back with tools and supplies in hand. A nervous expression was plastered on his face as you watched him start patching the floor like a hawk.
"You'd better walk him through the whole process starting from the very top, mentalist," Senku instructed the mentalist as he was hammering the wood back with Chrome.
"To put it simply, the first thing we need to do is deliver the phone to Taiju-chan and Yuzuriha-chan. They can both have Tsukasa-chan's army hear me speak in a woman's voice through the device. Then we play the song, and fool them!" Gen happily explained to the brunette.
You added, "Because they think the former world is destroyed, they follow Tsukasa because he's strong."
"Correct. If we tell them that it's been restored and another army is coming to save them, then the whole situation will change completely." Senku then had a confident grin on his face. "If we can get a majority of Tsukasa's army to switch sides, we can all join together to take control, and not a single drop of blood will have to be shed!"
"OHHHH!" Chrome got excited by the explanation given to him, and then started sweating bullets. "Wait, hang on... after that, they'll all know it was a totally bad lie!"
"Don't sweat it. If we can take care of Tsukasa-chan and Hyoga-chan first, then everything else will work out!" Gen silly, devilish expressions on his face as he spoke.
Senku cackled with him, "This plan is so you! It's ten billion percent scumbag! Now that's exhilarating!"
You sighed. "My only issue with this plan is that we may be hated by Tsukasa's empire...they might want to kill us afterward."
The green-haired boy wrapped his arm around your neck and let it hang. "Look, if we die, we die together, slowpoke. Now, Chrome, don't tell the other villagers about what we'll be doing. We only need the three of us from the former world being bad guys."
The boy looked at all three of you with hooded eyelids. He then pointed at you as he shouted, "You're saying this now after you just told me everything?! That makes me an accomplice, doesn't it?! Why are you still trying to protect me like I'm your kid?!"
"You're not..." you told him.
The mentalist mumbled, "He technically is by how you two talk to him~"
"Please shut up, Gen."
"You guys treat me like one! Besides, the operations team is me! You're gonna need a badass technician to set up that massive cellphone at your destination, aren't you?!" Chrome declared.
You, Senku, and Gen all looked at him in astonishment. He was extremely sincere, and you couldn't just leave him in the dust after all you did together.
With a small smile, you sighed and held your hand up. "The four of us will happily fall into Hell...and save seven billion people in exchange. Are we all in agreement?"
"Ten billion percent," Senku replied with a smirk and held his fist out for everyone to bump it.
"Yes, yes~" Gen replied smoothly.
Chrome grinned. "Yes ma'am!"
The four of you bumped fists as a promise to save all seven billion people in the world.
~~~
After another few weeks, the second phone was completed due to the boosted morale of the villagers. It was time to send it off past enemy lines. The three-man operation team consisted of Chrome, who was the engineer, Magma, who was the transportation, and Gen, who was the guide. The goal was to make it to make it to Tsukasa Empire located in Tokyo, and secretly deliver the phone to two spies: Taiju and Yuzuriha.
"Our biggest problem right now is Tsukasa's watchdog, Homura," you stated.
Kohaku had her eyes wide open as she looked a good distance away. "Judging from the snow that's fallen from branches, I would estimate that she's somewhere in that vicinity keeping surveillance on us."
"You can see that...?" Ginro wondered.
"There's no way..." Kinro added.
Senku replied, "Not a bad choice. She's in a direct line between here and Tsukasa's Empire. Now, there's no way that we can deliver this at night or go as fast as we can, so we're gonna use a science-shocking item to focus Homura's attention on the opposite side. When that happens, that's when you set off! Now, we're gonna need to kill some deer for that..."
"The hunting team is on the way!" You cried out as you held up your katana, many other villagers following through.
As you left to hunt some deer, Senku began to prepare for his next experiment: detonating gas. Using wires, he ran electrical currents through some water to get hydrogen and oxygen to bubble up, achieving the gas he wanted. You returned with the hunting group a few hours later with a several dead deer at hand and delivered it to him.
"Perfect! The only thing I'll need from it is the bladder, so you guys can use the rest of it to your heart's content!" Senku informed the villagers.
As the boy cut open the deer to obtain what he needed, you leaned down to question him, "What are you going to do with a deer bladder...?"
"We're gonna fill it with detonating gas. The resulting explosion that'll come from it will be worth piss as far as force goes, but the sound should be stupidly loud," he explained to you. He saw your face change into a confused one, then simplified it for you, "We're gonna use it as a sound bomb!"
"Oh! We can distract Homura that way then!" Your mouth made an "o" shape as you realized.
"Yup. Now, we just need to connect it to some tubes to pop them. We're also gonna need to use some camouflage to hide us and the sound bombs so she won't spot us" he told you.
You nodded. "Alright, I'll get the others to help us hide them--"
"Nah, we don't need their help. This can be done with only two people," said Senku with a smirk before leaving to get the covers he needed.
"Oh, okay!" you smiled happily. You decided to let the others know before heading off with Senku to prepare the sound bombs. You told the operation team, "Senku and I are gonna set up the bombs, and you'll know when to go when you hear it, so get ready, Chrome, Gen, Magma!"
"Okay!" Chrome showed you a thumbs-up.
"They're heading off to the forest by themselves~?" Gen snickered to himself.
Chrome raised an eyebrow as he asked, turning his head toward the man, "What's wrong with them going by themselves? They're just gonna set up the bombs for us!"
The mentalist smiled, as well as his eyes did. "Nothing in particular~"
"I can't believe that you're that stupid, even though you know all this science shit, Chrome," Magma huffed with his arms crossed.
"Shaddup! You're no better, muscle brain!" The brunette argued with him. They began butting heads, much to Gen's dismay.
~~~
"Senku, I'm done setting up the bombs on this side!"
"Same here! Let's get on top of that mound and we can set off the bombs there!"
You trudged through the snow with the camouflage blanket over your body. It covered you and Senku from head to toe, blending in with the snow around the two of you. Heading on top of the mound, the scientist joined you as the both of you lay down, back facing up. In your hands was the air pump to blow up the bombs.
"Once those bombs go off, we gotta run like hell back to the village to make sure Homura comes to us. That way, we will know for sure that our operation team left safely," the boy informed you.
"Got it." You gave him a thumbs up before placing your hands on the pump handles with furrowed eyebrows.
He let out a stifled laugh. "Kukuku, you look so ready to blow them up."
"Because I am!" You exclaimed. Then with a chuckle, you told him, "I know this is real life, but it's fun to be sneaking around like this as if we're on a spy mission."
"That's basically what this is at this point," Senku said, his face curled upward. But slowly, he frowned as he began again, "The stakes are gonna be higher the moment we set off those bombs. I hope you know that."
You widened your eyes just a bit, then replied as you stared at him, "I do. And that makes me a little worried. I want this mission to be successful without any issues."
"Nothing is guaranteed. But I will do my best to make sure your worries disappear during this Stone War, you got that?" He asked.
"'Stone War?' That's what you're calling this war now?" You slightly giggled.
With a confident smirk, he told you, "I'm a pretty creative guy, aren't I?"
"Yes, you are. That's what I love about you," you said, then leaned over toward him and planted a kiss on his cheek. The kiss managed to leave a dumbfounded look on his face, which had you holding in your laughter. Before he could say anything, you continued, "Hehe, gotcha~ But going back to what you said, you're dealing with a girl who has anxiety! When do my worries ever go away permanently?"
"You're right, though they do go away when you're fighting. But I'm gonna make you forget all of them one day. And I'm gonna get you back with that unexpected kiss sometime soon," he began to snicker, causing your heart to start racing.
With a pout, you firmly held the handles before speaking, "Why do you always say things that make me feel things?"
"Because it's funny and it keeps your mind on me and me alone," Senku answered smugly, beginning to cover his ears with ear plugs.
Before your heart could take any more, you pressed down on the pump to blow up the sound bombs. Your boyfriend made sure to cover your ears with his hands as you pushed down on it, and the two of you watched as all the bombs went off simultaneously. The vibrations of sound reverberated around you. The moment they stopped, Senku quickly stood up to grab your hand and pull you up.
"Let's hurry and get back! Go, go, go!" Senku cried out as he pulled the plugs from his ears. The two of you sprinted off toward the village.
As the both of you ran, you noticed the lioness jumping through the trees, heading deeper to the forest. You stopped running with the scientist and turned the other way.
"Senku, I'm gonna support Kohaku on foot to catch Homura!" You cried out.
He nodded as he headed to the village. "Make sure to divert her direction to here! I have something that'll stop her!"
Speeding down the forest floors, you kept your eyes on Kohaku. You knew she spotted the pink-haired girl, so you needed to make sure that she had ground support. Luckily, the forest floor wasn't completely buried with snow, so it was thin enough for you to run through with no issues.
"Be careful with her, Kohaku! We have no idea what we're dealing with!" You called out to the blonde girl as she jumped through the trees. Taking a quick glance back, she spotted you and gave a nod of approval.
The two of you kept going until you spotted the enemy hopping between branches. You squinted your eyes as Kohaku took a chance to try and knock her out with the back of the katana. Before the blade could come in contact with the woman's neck, you noticed her back bending farther than a normal person's body. She grabbed the branches and did movements you could only see in the modern world.
Gymnastics! No wonder she could travel through this forest with no problems! You thought.
"What in the world?!" Kohaku cried out with surprise. "How did you pull off those movements?!"
Homura spoke up, "There's no way a girl like you in this era would know."
"Homura, we don't want to kill you!" You informed her, which caused her to finally notice you as you saw her eyes squint with disdain.
She replied nonchalantly, "I know that. That's why she used the back of her sword."
"Just come quietly!" The blonde shouted at her.
"I don't think so. How long will you two chase me?"
"Until we catch you!"
She's too fast. With those movements, Kohaku and I can't close the gap. You thought as you clicked your tongue.
Soon enough, you saw Senku running in your direction with something in his hand, as well as a metal band over his head. Before you could say anything, he threw the item in the air directly within Homura's line of sight. You looked back and noticed it was a little, wired tube with a lightbulb at the end of it. The boy quickly pulled the metal eye mask over his eyes, then took his free hand to cover your own.
"Kukuku, makes you curious doesn't it? Feel free to stare at it until your eyes pop out!" Senku confidently announced. "Here's a shocking and surprising scientific item, level 2: the flash bang!"
Not even a second later, you heard a small click sound. A flash of light emitted from the device, and you could only see just a fraction of it through your boyfriend's cold fingers. You felt his hand slip off, and you opened your eyes to see the boy jumping over Homura's fallen body.
You then noticed Kohaku falling down from the trees and you quickly came to her aid by catching her. You held her head up to make sure she was in a semi-Fowler's position in yoir arms. Looking at her face, her eyes were wide open and swirling around. You assumed she couldn't see due to being blinded by the flash of light without warning.
"You guys did it!"
-To be Continued-
A/N: Hope you guys liked this weekly update!