⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧

❝We have the three components we need to make gunpowder.❞

Ｓenku laughed, a greedy expression appeared his face. While you four were grateful that Senku had the ingredients, only you knew of the trouble that was about to come. You couldn't help but frown a bit. You realized that Senku had to 'die', it still left you with an uneasy feeling swirling around in your chest. You felt a feeling of pregret, still you tried to distract yourself from it.

"For real? We've got all of them already?"

"The only thing left is to mix it up. It's time for a gunpowder cooking class, that'll be a total blast!"

Senku explained the instructions and ingredients, Senku added that he made a batch of potassium nitrate to save them precious time.. it's even like he predicted Tsukasa's tyranny would happen rather soon.

"Finally, pound it down till it's rock solid!" Senku grabbed a log of wood and prepared to pound the concoction, until Taiju appeared as he grabbed a huge rock and seemed ready to slam it.

It caught you three by surprise. It seems like the storylines events are still playing out in the correct order so your intrusion isn't affecting it in any way, so you're grateful for that. You saw how yuzuriha quickly scurried to his side, she was worried on how it could spark and go boom .. 'oh, just like with flint!' You thought.

Senku reassured you three that hitting stone with stone doesn't create any sparks & he also explained on how the metal inside the stone is what makes the spark, so there's so risk of hammering it. Honestly, before you even watched Dr stone you didn't know about that, so that was fortunate and assuring to know about in the least.

"Hot springs ... volcanoes ... iron pyrite.. wait, iron pyrite?" Senku's calm demeanor suddenly turned into a worried one once he realized his mistake. 'Yeah, we're so cooked.' You wore a nervous smile in response to Senku's anxious expression, you four all ran away as soon as you saw the sparks forming, screaming as it exploded.

You saw how Taiju protected yuzuriha, while you hurriedly pushed senku out of the way. You may have accidentally used way too much force, which made him fall even more farther away than the explosion would've have.

Upon noticing, you yelped and rushed to his side to help him up. The male groaned in pain. You tried to apologize, but you kept stumbling over your words. You felt like you were making the situation worse. Despite his initial annoyance, Senku felt a pleasant feeling knowing that you genuinely cared for him.

Senku sighed, " it's fine, don't sweat it. " As you helped him up, you noticed that his calm demeanor was slowly returning. This lifted a weight of your shoulders, you didn't wanna get on Senku's bad side or anything.

Senku chuckled, "No problem you guys, this just proves our gunpowder cooking was successful!"

"That's scary stuff. We need to be careful!"

" Yeah. It's been involved in a lot of experiments gone wrong. Not uncommon for some curious kid to loose a limb or worse. "

" woah, that's intense. "

Senku warned us of the substance dangers, Yuzuriha seemed worried that'll senku would use it against Tsukasa. The male just reassured her, saying that instead of resorting to killing we'll just make a deal.

The three of you looked at him confused, well you just acted the part. You weren't actually confused. You knew where senku was getting at, you just had to pretend you didn't. Senku explained on how Tsukasa will comply with us if we make a deal, that he isn't some ruthless murderer and whatnot. He added that the gunpowder will act as an advantage.

Currently, this is a showdown between Tsukasa and senku. You four gathered the hot springs water, hoping that the smoke from the explosion would go away. Right now, you were with Yuzuriha grabbing more water while Taiju was already dunking his at the smoke.

Yuzuriha's attention was diverted from the hot springs to the smoke forming infront of us, " Hey .. you guys " Yuzuriha gasped, as she spoke with concern. The three of your faces turned over, confused on what's going on, until you all noticed a smoke signal in the distance. You suddenly became aware that kohaku would soon appear.

Yuzuriha worriedly asked senku if it was Tsukasa, the male said no, he included that he's in the opposite direction. Senku put his hand on his chin, telling us that there's survivors in the stone world. Yuzuriha walked towards to our smoke, so did Taiju, asking if we need to keep finishing putting out the fire.

Senku intervened, stopping them in their tracks, "No hang on. As far as they know, our smoke could've been caused naturally by a small volcanic explosion. We need to send a signal back before they decide to give up and leave" Senku wore a smile, as he looked over to the other smoke signal in the distance.

"I think I get it now."

"Are you sure? Won't Tsukasa be able to see it too?" Yuzuriha said in a worried tone.

"I think that's the whole point." You replied

"We'll be broadcasting our location to everyone, including him." Taiju growled in response as senku chuckled. The male was deep in thought, wondering if either he should prioritize our safety or our future.

"What do we do, Senku? Put it out? Or light it?" The male screamed, Senku growled in response. "Let's light it up! Fire the smoke signal!"

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

"We're running out of gunpowder!"

Senku turned his head towards us, telling us to grab whatever that'll burn & to throw it in. Taiju yelled out he was gonna get some fire wood so you just followed him, Yuzuriha went to a different part of the woods but it wasn't too far. So, you just kept following Taiju because you were way too afraid that Tsukasa would accidentally find you and use you as leverage instead of Yuzuriha. You hoped that the male wouldn't find you weird or whatever for following him, or hopefully he wouldn't even notice.

Admittedly, you still wanted to interact with Taiju. You barely even interacted with him in these past few weeks, maybe if you can strike up a conversation it'll make you guys feel somewhat closer.

But, even that was a bit of a hassle. You weren't exactly the extroverted one, I mean you barely had any interaction with other people other than your parents or teachers. Even so, you were still some-what grateful that you weren't a target of bullying. In other words, you were practically just invisible.

You started thinking of a way to approach the male as you grabbed wood, until he spoke first.

"hey, uh. m/n was it? why'd you start to follow me outta nowhere?" Taiju asked, he seemed a bit nervous to ask. Obviously, you weren't gonna tell him the truth about not wanting to be accidentally found by Tsukasa instead of Yuzuriha. If you did, he'd probably dislike you for the rest of his life. It may sound cowardly, but it isn't if you just gaslight yourself into thinking you're not.

You tried to think of an excuse to use.. you weren't big on lying, but it really wasn't a choice in this situation.

"I followed you because I wanted to ask you something, Taiju."

His head tilted towards you, his curiosity was piqued. A smile appeared across his face as he asked what was it about. You simply just asked about his relationship with Yuzuriha, you noticed his face became a bit flustered when you mentioned it.

" well, I.. " the male suddenly stopped talking, his attention turned towards something else. He pointed up at the sky, this made you a bit curious so you looked.

"Look m/n, there's three smoke signals, they must be responding with the three shots we fired with the gunpowder. There's no doubt about it, m/n, we're not the only ones here!" The male exclaimed, he screamed out Senku's and Yuzuriha's names.

" Kohaku .. " you unconsciously mumbled her name.

You heard Yuzuriha's voice in the distance call out for taiju, it was filled with a tone of worry. Your sense of pregret fully turned into a feeling of regret and ... shame.

Honestly, the reason why you couldn't intervene sooner with Senku's death was just because of your cowardice. A side of you, which was too afraid to intervene. You were afraid. Afraid of being hurt, and meeting the same fate of senku. Only this time, you won't have a second chance like he did.

Back in your old life, when your classmates used to be bullied and tormented, you just stood there. You never even looked in their direction, never even mentioned it to the teachers or any of the staff. And, when you accidentally did take a glance at them, it was always with a look of pity.

Only because, if you ever did so .. you too, would become a victim. I mean you quite literally had all of the qualities to be one, but for some reason you never were one. Probably because you weren't noticeable, but that's how you'd like to keep it.

Even with all your stats boosted, especially the ones which gave you an advantage in fighting.. you werent sure if you'd even have the courage to fight. In simpler words, your mental fortitude would be too weak to fight.

But even then, there was another side of you that did wanna help.

Your inner thoughts were interrupted by Taiju dropping whatever he was doing, and going towards the mountain.

" something's wrong. m/n we've gotta get back, now! "

You stood there for a couple of seconds, not knowing whether to follow the male or stay out of fear. Until you finally mustered enough courage to follow the male to reach the top of the mountain.

You ran, you ran as fast as you could. You were panting, almost out of breath. But, you couldn't stop. You were afraid, afraid of getting hurt but also .. you were afraid to see Senku's lifeless corpse. You closed your eyes and kept running, taiju was right beside you.

As you two almost reached the peak of the mountain, you both were panting. You were finally there, you heave a sigh of relief. Thinking that you weren't too late, until you were met with an unforgettable horrifying scene.

THUD - SQUELCHING - "SENKU!" ———

Senku's corpse stood in front of you, Taiju was mourning as he was cradling his body.

Yuzuriha's and Taiju's cries pierced the thin mountain air.

You on the other hand, you were disgusted. Your stomach felt weak, and the sight of seeing a dead body almost made you wanna barf.

- SYSTEM COMPOSURE REGAINED -

A few moments ago, you were just feeling like you needed to puke. Whatever, that isn't the case right now.

Deciding to maintain your act, you bit the inside of your lip. You fell to the ground, crying crocodile tears for Senku's 'death'.

It really did look believe-able, your beautiful eyes that were bright and full of life, were now clouded with sorrow as the 'phony' tears steamed down to your pale cheeks.. The gentle thin breeze from the mountain played with your hair, lifting you softly as if trying to comfort you.

But even those crocodile tears you shed today, some of them held truth. Despite your act, seeing the lifeless body of someone you've long admired and care for did affect you in some way.

CHAPTER END

Authors note: Ok dude I literally couldn't upload this chapter for two days bc wattpad suspended me for smt brah.