CHAPTER 6

Chapter 6: Sky

Ever since he was a kid, Senku has loved to admire the sky. Be it on one of his latest models of telescopes or just lying down on the roof of their house, he was fascinated by them. That's why he was striving to bring back the world he once knew 3700 years ago to the present.

He just wants to build a rocket ship and launch himself into space, spacesuitless in the process. Nonetheless, he knew better than to sate his growing urge to achieve his dream.

But one could dream high, right?

With the pure intention of scavenging for oil reservoirs, Senku decided to hunt the vast lands of Japan with the use of a tool, or more like transportation made to fly high into the sky.

A hot-air balloon.

"You dimwit, Senku!" Magma cackled as he strode confidently towards the scientist, whose currently working with one of the villagers to create an illustration of an air balloon. "There's no way that humans can fly in the sky!"

As expected, those people who weren't born into the technological civilization find it hard to believe that such a thing can be used to fly in the sky. 

"Then you must be okay with being excluded from this project, Magma?" Rika butted in. "Besides your hands are already full from just building the ship alone." A smirk automatically formed on her face as she signaled Magma to lend his ears to her. "Just to let you know, it's the best view when you're up there."

"Haarrrghh?" Magma glared at her as he pushed the girl away. "I couldn't care less about flying! It's basically impossible to do it anyway!"

Rika giggled in response as she saw Suika looked in the sky with awe. "Suika is not the only one that thinks so...but everyone must think so too... that if we could fly in the sky like birds...that would be...JUST TOO AMAZING!"

"Yes Suika, it is amazing! Wait till I tell you about my precious babies, your jaw will absolutely drop at that point!"

"You dumb sea monkey!" Yo fired back, patting the non-existent dust on his clothes as he pointed toward Magma's face. "At this point, do you really think that flying is the least impossible for science?" He flails his arms. "Don't worry though, caveman. I ain't judging your dumb ass for brawling out of the wrong people." 

"What did you say, useless piece of—"

"That's enough." Senku intervened between the two. "We have no time for this. Bring your fight somewhere else, and this..." Grabbing the rolled sheet of paper, he began to create a road map diagram. "...is the distant roadmap that will take us to the skies!"

Seeing Senku so motivated with the roadmap, the others were also hyped up. Knowing that some species of living creatures can only travel the sky, most knew that the sky is something that they could never reach and will remain a mystery for all eternity. They couldn't help but be excited. This is actually happening! They were about to take the first step into the skies!

Kaseki was ecstatic, putting both of his hands into a fist. "This is definitely going to e the longest, roughest roadmap we've had to weather yet, but that just all the more fired me up!"

"Done!" Senku informed as he picked the paper up to his chest. Gasps and shocked faces were given by him the people. "It's so short!" They all shouted as Senku shrugged in return.

The roadmap consisted only of a drawing of a hemp yarn turned into a cloth and a balloon and done. Many were confused by the sudden drop of labor work for one of the most jaw-dropping inventions that could ever make in the stone world. It's supposed to be laborious, right?

"The simplicity of a balloon is nothing to scoff at! You could even fold the whole flying kit and fit it onto the car." How convenient, right?

"I had no idea, flying in the sky was such a simple matter." Gen sweatdropped.

"But a hemp cloth? Won't it easily tear in the sky?" Niki queried as Senku began to reassure her. "The first ballons humans flew were all made from a hemp cloth."

"And It's not really difficult to make one." Rika commented, "For the whole transportation to work, we just needed to trap hot air inside the big balloon and it naturally rises. Kind of like when boiling water, the water evaporates causing the hot steam to go up."

"10 billion percent correct, Miss engineer." Seku agreed. "But the only steep hurdle in creating this is..."

Yuzuriha flinched and slowly pointed her hands at herself, knowing what the impending silence was all about. She looked pleadingly at Rika who she became friends with, but the young lass coincidentally looked away at her. 

'Sorry, my friend.'

"W-w-we need looooots of cloths, right?"

With a snake-like grin, Senku began to coincidentally fixate his eyes on the almost crying girl, rambling almost like a sadist. "Oh yeah! Wow, I didn't even realize that at all! Not one millimeter well, would you look at that! What a coincidence that we have a craftwork club member here!"

Senku had to stop teasing Yuzuriha when he notice a burning stare that could almost pierce through his back like a hot laser. He glanced back and saw a glaring Rika about to burst through at him. 

Sure, Yuzuriha is good at crafts, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have anything she's working on. What made this lanky man able to just dump whatever unwanted work he has with her friend? She needs to negotiate with the man if Yuzuriha was too kind-hearted to be able to do the talking for herself.

He gulped and then went to his knees and proceeded to convince his short-haired friend to do the task for him. "The science team will be working on planning how we're going to actually fly with it." He looked back again to see if the engineer girl was satisfied with his reasoning. Rika gave him an is-that-your-best-reasoning look. The woman did not look satisfied. 

"If we gather you all the tools you need, please tell us you'll make it for us!" Old man Kaseki added, understanding the looked between Senku and Rika earlier. He's also trying to win this argument for them. "Can we leave all the process to you?" Senku pleaded. 

For the last time, Rika was furious! She stood up and make her presence known again to the two-man still kneeling on the cold ground. "You are leaving all the work to her? All ALONE!?" 

Senku panicked. "W-wait! I mean, to her own craftwork team, r-right Kaseki?" He corrected as the old man nodded viciously. In the end, as Yuzuriha begins to understand what might happen, she just giggles and gave a high-five to the lanky man. "Of course!"

Damn, that's terrifying. It kind of feels like having a Kohaku in a different body. 

Senku shuddered. 

And the long hard process of turning weeds into a finely woven cloth is now a go. From crushing the weed to picking each string into a handcrafted line of thread, all comes from hard work, thanks to Taiju and Yuzuriha, and Yo as well.

Of course, Rika also helped, by annoying the shit out of Magma.

"I don't really get it all. Can we really fly in the sky with these weeds?" A puzzled Magma asked as he was holding a piece of weed.

 "We don't know if we don't try, right? Do a trust fall on that cliff," She pointed at the cliff not so far from where they are. "and then let me know if it works out for you."

A few days later...

"I still don't get it at all." Magma uttered, holding out at the new thread created by the Craft team. "How are we supposed to fly with this thread?"

"I know, we'll tie you with this thread and then dangle you around with the hot air balloon," Rika suggested. "Try not to fall yourself to death though, okurrr!" Winking at the man whose now fuming in annoyance. 

While the two were occupied with dealing with each other, on the other side, Yuzuriha was busily handcrafting the cloth together with Yo. With an up and down motion, she handles the thread and the fabric carefully so as to not leave any room for air to pass through. For Yo, who's not really good with his hands, kept on poking himself with the sharp needle.

"Ouch! Not again!"

"How is it even possible to poke your finger every single time?"

"It's because you're holding it wrong, Yo-san." Yuzuriha brings down her work to her thighs and then grabs Yo's hand. She positioned his hands and finger to support the frame and to hold the needle to a placement where his finger won't have to deal with poking it. "This is how you hold it."

With a girl casually holding his hand, instead of focusing herself on what she's been instructing him, he was dazed by what happened. Face flushed in red and stuttering mess, Rika, who watched the whole scene right before her eyes, concluded that a man with the likes of him will remain single for the rest of his life.

"OUCH!" Someone yelled. They eyed the man who owned the voice. It was Taiju, sitting on a rock near them while holding his middle finger in the air. "Yuzuriha! I poked myself with the needle too! Can you teach me the proper hand positioning too?"

The process of making the cloth goes. Too long go on, in fact. Even the process of making the thread is still ongoing at this point. To at least finished the first batch of cloth, they seek help from elders and women of the kingdom but it's still not enough. The long delay in work put the girl in crisis.

"Hey Senku," She reached out to the man, one time on a break. "Is there a problem with the project?"

The girl shook her head, fiddling with her hands. "Kind of? I guess making cloth by hand will take a very long time to finish and I hadn't realized it since now." 

Realizing the broadness of the situation, Senku worriedly put his hands on her shoulder and started apologizing. "I am so sorry for putting so much pressure on you, Yuzuriha."

"You should be sorry, Leader-san." A voice lazed with anger was heard coming from the shipping dock's direction. A figure then emerged up from the tree's shadow, walking slowly at the two. "I thought a genius like you would've figured out a way to speed up the process of making cloth much earlier. 

"Guess I shouldn't put too much trust on your pedestal." She sneered at the man who in return looked at her with a weary face.

"And you," She pointed at Yuzuriha. "You shouldn't shoulder all the pressure of this project. Try to appreciate yourself even more." 

"Rika," The two muttered. A big figure was seen being dragged behind her, when being hit by the sunlight, the look of the figure was finally shown. Eyed widened at the sight of the figure. "It's a..."

"A mechanical loom machine." Senku awed. He then gazed back again at the woman, "How did you—"

"Thank you very much!" A very grateful Yuzuriha found her way into her arms and squeezes the life out of the woman. "I can't thank you enough for this! I was just about to ask Senku for one and then one was already made for it."

"A-air!" Rika patted the girl's arms for some space for her to catch a breath and the brunette crafter complied dramatically. "O-oh, sorry!"

"If you're sorry then next time you should've just asked me."

"Well, I don't want to put more things on your plate. You are already working on the ship so I can't do that."

"Nuh-uh! Nonsense!" Rika scoffed playfully. "And you!"

"I know this would happen." She looked at him, bringing both of her hands to her waist. "You really should consider taking a rest, Senku-san. Subjecting one's mind and body to constant stress can lower the ability to think rationally and logically, remember that."

"What about the construction of the ship?"

"It's going on greatly." She answered, professionally. "You are not the only one who has a 'Kaseki' like person in your crew."

"And besides," She close off the distance between her and Senku and then patted his shoulders while whispering directly in his ears. 

"I am a woman of science after all. A simple shipbuilding and loom machine is one of the things I can make out of scratch."

The woman then walked toward Yuzuriha with a beaming smile on her face. "Come, Yuzuriha. I'll show you how to work this baby up!"

Senku was left alone on the side.

*dug* *dug*

What is that?

_________

Unedited.