Work Text:
“Gen!” Chrome declared pointing at the mentalist who just looked at him confused, “I challenge you to a battle of numbers! Senku is the best out of all of us! But I'm definitely a close second!”
“Are you eally-ray sure about that Chrome-chan?” Gen looked at him with an honest and true deadpan expression.
“Hell yeah!” Chrome energetically said as he pulled out his pretend cape and threw it backwards “I'll show you some bad math skills! Just you wait!”
“Yeah… I dont think this will be a battle at all…” Kohaku already lamented the inevitable failure that will arrive soon.
“It’ll be a funeral…” Senku said flatly “And why am I here again?”
“Because your son is trying to challenge your wife in a math battle and as the husband you should go and try to stop them.” Kohaku also said flatly to Senku as if stating the obvious.
“Ah….” Senku realized, “That slipped my mind. And no thanks, Chrome learns better this way.”
“That’s true…” Kohaku nodded in response.
No one really knows how this all began, Senku remembers faintly of Gen saying how he calculated Senku’s birthday easily and how he is incredibly good at math because of his mentalist training that it was almost equal to the scientist of their little family. Their self proclaimed son, Chrome didn’t seem to take that lightly.
And thus this unusual and second math battle has been initiated.
“All right…” Chrome was on his battle pose, “What is… 7 times 7---” (7 x 7)
“49” Gen immediately answered him without wasting a breath.
“Gaaahhh!!! Again?!” Chrome was shocked off his feet, but quickly stood up, “That was just a warm up!”
“Sure…” Gen tried his best not to chuckle, “Whatever you say Chrome-chan”
“Let's do this again!” Chrome was on his battle stance again ready to strike, “I won't make the same mistake like with Senku this time!”
“So what is…. 45 times 49!” (45 x 49)
“2205…” Gen easily answered with an obvious bored tone, this time he wasn’t even pretending to even sound bored, “Honestly Chrome-chan this is way too easy…”
Chrome took a step back as if he felt that quick answer as a powerful gut punch. “You--- You got me! But I won’t give up! Not this time!”
“Psst… hey Gen…” Senku quickly pulled his boyfriend aside to ask him something, “Don’t you think you’re being a bit too harsh on the boy?”
“Awww…” Gen cooed, “So you do care for our cute little son… But it will do him no good if we keep lying to him. He’s a grown man now.”
“Hey Gen!” Chrome regained his footing and was ready to strike once more, “I won't lose again like last time! This time... This time... I have a secret new technique that I've learned over my paintainking months of practice!!”
“Oh?” Gen wondered in a sweet tone, “What could that ever be?”
“Get ready to be blown away, for an even more badass version of multiplication! It's the exact opposite! DIVISION!!!”
Gen could only stare at Chrome blankly.
Senku was struggling to hold back his laughter in the background.
Kohaku, Ruri, Kinro, Ginro, Kaseki, and Suika all tilted their heads in collective confusion as they don’t know what Chrome is trying to say.
“So… How is it the opposite of multiplication anyway?” Kohaku dared to ask but she immediately knew she wouldn’t understand.
“It’s a secret badass math trick!” Chrome spoke proudly, “Instead of numbers increasing faster! They get removed faster! It’s basically the answer in multiplication and “divided” by the second number in the equation!”
“I still don’t get it…” Kohaku commented.
“7 multiplied by 7 equals 49 right? So if you flip it upside down and you divide instead of multiply, it’s 49 divided by 7 which equals 7!”
“Nope… I still don’t get it…”
The rest of the villagers who were with them nodded in agreement
Gen was still quite speechless, but not from shock, rather he was completely unamused.
“Then I’ll demonstrate!” Chrome then quickly assumed his fighting position and began, “Gen! What is 72 divided by 9---” (72 ÷ 9)
“8” Gen was quick to answer as before.
“Wha---what??!!” Chrome felt as if he was immediately blown away by the immediate answer, “H-how?!”
‘How can he know the super bad technique of division?!’ Chrome just couldn’t comprehend it, ‘Wait! Did Senku teach him?! That must be it!’
Gen then proceeded to pick his ear as if he was Senku, “Any more “badass” division for me Chrome-chan?”
“I do! This time it will be harder!” Chrome jumped back onto his feet, “What is 7220 divided by 10!! Take that!” (7220 ÷ 10)
“That is 722.” Gen then flicked away some stray ear wax that was stuck in his finger, “That’s a stupidly simple one Chrome-chan. If you divide with tens, you basically just remove the zero from the dividend and there you have the answer, no complicated thinking required.”
“No… that… can't… be…” Chrome fell on his hands and knees as he felt the powerful critical hit from the unknowingly other math genius in the Kingdom of Science. The Mentalist Gen!”
“Ready to give up yet son?” Gen asked Chrome sweetly and even leaned over and extended his hand to help him get up from his plight.
“No… not yet!” Chrome slammed his fists on the ground and hopped back to his feet with sheer determination, “I'm not gonna give up yet! I have one last thing! What I have is the culmination of my baddest math skills ever! Are you ready for this?!”
“As ready as I'll ever be. Hit it Chrome-chan!” Gen could only shrug.
“Try not to make your head explode over this will you?” Chrome snickered, “What is 1250 divided by 50 and subtract it by 5 multiplied by 5!” ( (1250 ÷ 50) - (5 x 5) )
And then there was a long pause around the area.
“Hehehe…” Chrome cheered for his victory, “How is that for crazy bad math?!”
The spectators (minus Senku) could only watch in horror of the multitude of numbers presented to them.
“What kind of complicated problem is that?!” Kohaku managed to spit out as she tried to solve it in her head.
“That is a lot of numbers… Where do you even start?” Kaseki spoke after, pondering on what the answer could be.
“I didn’t even know you could put so many numbers into one equation….” Suika wondered as well.
Senku on the other hand was already on his knees as he tried to catch his breath over trying to suppress his laughter.
And as for Gen…
Gen remained where he stood. If his previous unamused look was bad before, this was even worse. He didn't know how to or what to say to Chrome. But he was challenged, and now must answer his challenger, even if it is his son.
“Are you sure about this Chrome?” Gen finally spoke to Chrome, “Are you fully prepared for my one and inal-fay answer?”
“You bet I am!” Chrome replied enthusiastically, “I bet it was some crazy hard calculating to do huh?”
“Are you really sure my son?”
“Of course I am! Let’s see what you can do!”
“It’s zero.”
And with that powerful blast of an answer, Chrome was rocked from where he stood, fell flat on his back, and yelled in defeat.
Senku on the other hand couldn’t contain it anymore and bursted out laughing.
“Wha…. What?! How? How did you know?” Chrome tried to stand up but was greatly weakened, “How could you even know where to start?”
“It’s simple my dear child…” Gen said in a pseudo humble tone, “Us past timers were already taught these simple equations even before Suika’s age.”
Chrome felt another intense weight toppled on him and nearly crushed his poor body, “No please… I… concede!”
“Aww…” Gen cooed as he approached Chrome and laid a soothing touch on his forehead, and this time it was genuine, “I apologize for crushing you like this my dear son. And for your father for being an ass for not stopping this beforehand.”
“It wouldn’t matter…” Senku spoke between laughing and heaving, “Because I knew Chrome would still want to know how good you really are… So it was inevitable!”
Then Senku proceeded to laugh some more.
“Either way…” Gen shot a glare at his husband then turned to face Chrome with a gentler look, “If you’d like, your father and I can teach you more “bad” math techniques and you definitely show them off to everyone and especially to your lovely Ruri!”
Ruri, who overheard their little conversation blushed heavily.
“Really?! There's more math to learn?” Chrome quickly stood back up with sparkles in his eyes, “That is exciting! I can’t wait!”
“But remember Chrome…” Senku managed to stop laughing and gave Chrome a devilish expression, “The more math you learn the harder it's going to be, you think you can handle it?”
“Bring it on!” Chrome was fired up, “I can definitely take it!”
“And if you need help, I’ll be a better tutor than your dear ol’ father here…”
“And I never asked for your opinion dear husband.”
“So uhh…” Ginro leaned closer to Kohaku, “Since when did they become this weird family of sorts?”
“They’ve been at it for a while.” Kohaku replied with a shrug, “But I couldn’t tell you when exactly did it all happen.”
“Oho! They called me their grandpa!” Kaseki happily declared.
“Suika is the youngest and cutest daughter!” Suika jumped.
“And Ruri and I are their older sisters.” Kohaku finished, and then pointed at Kinro and Ginro, “And you two are the cousins that always come to visit…”
“And…” Kinro tried to comprehend it, “You all just let them do that?”
“Eh. Why not?”
“Good point.”