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“Right?! And then he said,” Suika inhaled, “We need 800 of th- Namari!!”
“I’m fine, it’s just a scratch!” Namari shook her head as she picked herself back up from the fall.
“Are you sure? It could get infected… do you want Suika to call someone?”
“Don’t worry, Suika, it’s not even bleeding.” Namari showed Suika her knee, bits of dirt clinging to skin, the latter making sure to check for blood.
“Let Suika help you with your stuff.”
Suika reached for a roll of leather when Namari lunged for it, holding it protectively in her arms. “It’s really fine! You do so much for us kids already. I can pick these up myself.”
“What’s special about that roll of leather?”
“It’s nothing interesting!”
“Suika thinks you’re lying.”
Namari opened her mouth to argue but closed it again after a few beats. There wasn’t really any point. Suika might have been cured of the fuzzy sickness but even before then, she could see through people just as easily. “Promise you’ll keep it to yourself?”
“Suika promises!”
“Right… there isn’t really a point in hiding it from you anyway. Just don’t tell anyone else,” Namari said bashfully, the other girl nodding earnestly.
“So… back when we just started working on the cell phones, I thought I could make Senku and his team a gift for when they’re done with the first one. And…”
“And that’s the gift you’re going to give them?” Suika pointed at the leather roll.
“Er… was going to give them.”
“What happened?”
“...Hold on, let me show you.”
⠀
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Shovel’s message was a shock to everyone. The group of village kids raced across the bridge, hoping to catch their favorite sorcerer before he disappeared into the forest.
“Chrome’s leaving the village?!”
“I don’t want you to leave!”
“Slow down! Don’t break the bridge,” Kinro hollered.
“Is he getting exiled?”
“He can’t be! He didn’t do anything wrong!!”
Chrome smiled as he tried to regain the balance lost by an army of children clinging to him. “First of all, I’m not leaving the village, and I’m definitely not getting exiled, so don’t worry your little heads over it.”
“Then why’s the Chief talking about kicking you out?”
Chrome stilled, before he burst into laughter. “Is that what he said? He sure has a way with words. No, I’m—hey, that’s dangerous!!—I’m just moving my stuff to a hut that Kaseki helped me build so that I can do sorcery without hurting anyone.”
“Really?”
“Really,” he nodded in Kinro’s direction. The guard himself nodded back, while Ginro gave Chrome a shit-eating grin. Chrome grinned back at him in response.
“You could help me set up the hut if you want,” Chrome said slowly. His quiet “Please don’t break anything” was lost in the ear-shattering joy.
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Shovel watched Suika blow hard into the conch shell as everyone started gathering around the ramen cart. It was so fun looking at everyone’s shocked faces. Ganen, Ruby… even Kujaku was surprised. Pieces of leather with symbols she didn’t understand billowed in the wind. Large pots of broth and meat stood proudly on the cart as the stonewalker with weird hair assembled bowls of a delicious-smelling dish.
Where were those bowls from? Then again, Shovel did remember En complaining about losing the bowls Sagan gifted her. It must’ve been Kohaku who took them! Not that Shovel was complaining.
Suika suddenly appeared on top of the cart, handing Shovel one of those amazing-looking bowls. “It’s called ramen and it’s delicious, you have to try it! Suika and Kohaku and Chrome helped Senku make them,” Suika told her.
Everyone knew about the foreigner that claimed to have been one of those stone statues. Well, if Kohaku trusted him, there wasn’t a reason not to try.
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“Namari!! Something amazing is going on by the river!! Everyone’s there, you should come!”
Suzu was running up to Namari. The usually shy little girl’s expression was full of joy, and Namari had to check this out for herself.
As they ran to the river bank, the sound of creaking wood accompanied their idle chatter.
“You know the work we had to do in exchange for ramen?”
A group of people came into view as the huge waterwheel spinned in its labor-relieving glory. Chrome and Kaseki were slumped back-to-back, swooping in and out of microsleep, completely worn out.
It seemed that they had built a second iron furnace near the waterwheel, and with power from the generator… was that—
No way. The air-blowing machine was moving on its own? Did that mean they didn’t have to blow air into the furnace anymore?!
“Suzu, does this mean what I think it means?!!”
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Although Magma was the village’s favorite to win to Grand Bout, the village cheered harder for Chrome’s victory than they ever had for him. After Senku’s arrival to the village, it was obvious that Chrome would make the better leader. Not to mention that everybody wanted him to marry Ruri.
Once the cheers died down, everyone listened with bated breath as Jasper announced the match between Senku and Ginro. One of them would just surrender, and Chrome would end up becoming the leader. Everyone knew the plan.
That… was how it was supposed to go. Until the sound Ginro’s weapon hitting the ground threw everyone off.
“Ruri-chan said she’ll marry anyone! So maybe I have a shot at being village chief, too!” They heard another hit that Senku narrowly evaded.
The whole village, even Tetsuken and Shirogane—Ginro’s own parents—put aside their differences and conflicts to collectively agree on how terrible it would be to have Ginro as chief.
Oh God, they were all doomed.
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“Follow me,” Kohaku told the villagers as she and Suika led them deeper into the forest. Azura squeezed Sango’s hand in excitement.
Senku, Kaseki, Gen, and Chrome were gathered near a large tree, a long wire hanging from it. A small snowflake landed on Azura’s nose.
“Damn, it’s snowing. Are we calling off the test?” Chrome asked. Test for what?
“No, I’d like to do it today,” Senku said, walking over to the wire. “We’re all set.”
When Senku flicked a switch hanging from the wire, it was like magic flowed from his fingertips. Thousands of stars shone off of the blank canvas of the tree’s leaves, painting the whole forest in a warm glow like it was fighting off the gloomy night. Kohaku leapt in amazement, and Azura could see tears forming in Sapphire’s eyes.
She was probably imagining it, but she could hear the faint sound of bells in the air.
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Before she even knew it, Senku and Chrome were leading Suika to the sunflower field. Suika held onto Senku’s tunic, excited to try on the new helmet in his arm. She knew they were going to help her with her sickne—no, not sickness, Senku said it wasn’t even a defect—and she couldn’t wait to see what everyone else was seeing, but she was a little nervous.
“Suika, can you see what’s in front of you?”
“They’re just sunflowers.” Suika liked their color, but they were a little boring. “It’s not like Suika can’t see at all, you kn—” She closed her eyes on reflex. Her helmet was placed on her head.
She was so scared. But Chalk brushed against her leg, and that somehow gave her the strength to open her eyes.
It was still a sunflower.
Soft velvety petals, millions of tiny seeds in a pretty pattern, even drops of dew.
No, it was a sunflower, and it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
“Suika wants to meet you guys without the fuzziness. Meet the real you, just once.”
They looked so content. They looked so kind.
They did all of this for her. To give her a chance to see the world how it truly is.
Suddenly, her vision became blurry again. But this time, it wasn’t the fuzzy sickness.
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“I don’t know who’s listening to this, hundreds, maybe thousands of years from now. But I’m the astronaut Ishigami Byakuya.”
Ishigami Byakuya. The Founder of the village. All the stories that reverberated in Ruri’s head—they were by him.
Ruri had never seen the village this united. Everyone hung onto the Founder’s every word. When Senku—a man with encyclopedic knowledge claiming to be one of the statues they see everywhere—entered the village, no one expected him to be the Founder’s son, let alone appear like a miracle 3700 years later.
Ruri thinks there hasn’t been a single death to cold, sickness, or starvation in the village since his arrival. He cured her mysterious illness, the fuzzy sickness, made something edible out of what they thought was a weed, and let the village listen to the voices of those who had passed millenia ago.
As Ginro spun Kohaku’s shield, Ruri could see an expression she’d never seen before in Senku’s eyes.
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"But Suika, I don't want to go back to the village," Namari said. "How about you give me a tour of the Kingdom of Science?"
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“It’s the Kingdom of Science when we built the first lab! Suika thinks it looks amazing!! You really should gift it to them, they’ll love it.”
“They won’t… it’s not good enough,” Namari said. But Suika heard her whisper, “It never will be.”
The words made Suika pause. They’re both so alike that it almost hurts.
Suika set the map between them and took Namari’s hands in her own. “What makes you say that?”
“It’s just… Everyone makes me draw things for them. Jasper, Ryusui, even Magma. And I really do like helping them out, I like being reminded that being able to draw is a useful skill. Something I’ve worked on for years.” Suika nodded compassionately.
“Everyone tells me I’m so fast at drawing and really good at art, and I think that’s the reason I draw so fast. It’s more stressful when people are watching me but that’s when I can draw the fastest. But… I can’t even get a gift done in time, something I actually want to do for someone.”
“Done in time?”
“Yeah, it’s just… everything’s going so fast. All of the villagers have been adjusting to the work so well. It’s only been a few weeks and the number of people here has tripled. And have you seen Senku’s drawings? His plan for the boat? The science team has made so many cool things, and the map I made is so outdated! You know, the cotton candy machine, the water wheel, more furnaces, the observatory, the h-hi—the glass pump thing, the Steam Gorilla, and—”
“Namari, look at this.”
Namari followed Suika’s gaze and noticed her pointing to something on the map. Chrome’s hut? No… the flag.
“Do you know who gifted this to Senku?”
“Gifted? He got it from someone? I always thought he made it.”
“Nope! It was Yuzuriha! An artist, just like you, Namari!!”
“...Yuzuriha?”
“She gifted it to him long ago, even before Senku came to the village. We have better materials now—paint, paper, hemp cloth—but he still keeps it, made it our flag.”
Namari sucked in a small breath, something blooming in her chest that felt a little like sunflowers and cotton candy and hope. But she still can’t stop herself from asking, “And your point is?”
“He acts like he isn’t sentimental, but he’ll love it. They all will! It’s a reminder of how far we’ve come. Believe in Suika and gift it to them before they finish the boat and leave for the journey.”
“And you’re sure it’s okay?”
“Suika is certain!”
When Namari came back empty handed and with happy tears in her eyes threatening to spill, Suika didn’t mention it.
Suika frantically searched for the Mobile Lab. She needed to help Ginro. Help Kohaku and Senku and Gen and Soyuz. Help Ryusui and Francois. Help all of her friends that got turned to stone.
It wasn’t fair! Why were they petrified? Why did Ryusui save her? No, there was no time for this. She was there when the ship was being built. She knew where to go.
Even through her desperation, she caught a small glimpse of leather hung proudly on a wall in the bridge, and smiled.