Historian(Dr. Stone)

07. The 'Why'

The six leisurely floated in the vast sea while Ukyo was routing the antenna around for the signal waves.

On the phone, Ruri's welcoming tone sounded. As she spoke about something to Chrome, the signal suddenly turned static. The static started out a few different length of higher statics sounding like signals.

"It's Morse code. It's leaving a message for us." Senku said amused.

Gen thoughtfully analyzed the static. Hand on his chin, he hummed. "We have a W... And H..." He gasped and froze on the spot. His eyes widened upon hearing the last letter. "W. H. Y. Why? 'Why?'" He translated the English word for Chrome to understand.

They all exhibited surprises in various ways. But they were all astonished by the fact that somewhere out there, unknown to which direction it came from, there is someone who initiated a conversation to them with a questionable motive.

Is it to ask why they're in the ocean? Or is it why there are still people alive?

Well, one thing's for sure: it's the fact that they were not alone. Someone is out there and it has a possibility to become an enemy or an ally.

"It speaks the tale language. Is it possible to be someone from another country?" Cosmos asked.

"Tale? So you call English as Tale language after years, huh." Senku muttered with interest.

"So it is called English in the past?"

"Correct. I think it's about time we return and analyze what's happening here." Senku said.

The speedboat was turned back towards the shore of Japan. It didn't take long before others in the kingdom of Science found out about the sudden radio interference while Ruri was on call. Although the others in the boat didn't hear Ruri's side, Ruri and the others can hear their conversation on the open radio.

There were divided speculations about this so-called 'why'-man, doubting whether this person will bring them any good than bad.

A war room was built immediately. A map on the location of the boat earlier was placed on the table as six people who were direct witnesses discussed. Cosmos wrote the compiled informations in his notes to ensure that they can have a basis for ideas later.

"It's really hard. To find someone that the eyes can't see."

"That's it!" Senku's exclamation almost made Cosmos jumped. 

The group were gathered outside once more. There was a piece of apparatus atop the table standing motionless. Everyone watched with wonder while Kohaku grabbed the glass in askance.

"Are we going to find the enemy through this?" Kohaku placed one eye on the end of the apparatus making her eye enlarged on the bottom of the glass. Cosmos giggled when he saw the enlarged eyes. Hearing this, Kohaku pointed the eye at him as if making the boy amused even more.

"Come on, that couldn't possibly be the case--"

"Yes, we're going to use that." Senku cut off making Kohaku elated, saying: "I was right!"

And soon began Senku's unending Jargon. Although some were familiar words to them, mixed with Senku's scientific explanation, everything felt like a spell.

Cosmos listed them enthusiastically with Chrome being fully interested on the process of things. Chrome was a good teacher too if you ask Cosmos. He and old man Kaseki has been Senku's apprentice in all the science stuff that were made and he remembered them very well. Thanks to that, Cosmos was taught about the process of the items that were made briefly. Although not entirely due to the short time they had to go through after acquiring oil, they're still in a rush.

And now the creation of the Radar finally acquired in the in the stone world.

.

For the second time, the group once again got into the speedboat with a newly built radar. The warm and cool breeze in the sea was once again in their face as the boat sped past the sight of any islands.

Ukyo tested the radar by lightly hitting the tuning fork in his hand. The radar made a few zigzags on the glass screen. "The ship is slowly coming together." the older sonar operator praised. 

Senku and Ukyo had a few conversations about what should be added in the ship while Chrome was busy looking at the radar. Upon seeing the uneven vibration on the item, he called out their attention and pointed over to the misaligned sign.

Ukyo simply smiled and praised his keen observation.

"I built it intending to observe Why-man, but not only that. It's also made for these guys..."

Cosmos turned to Ryusui who turned and threw the net widely into the sea. For a while, the net slowly compressed and pulled a bit down making even the boat tilt slightly. The blonde man pulled the net back with all his strength managing to yank a haul of fish out of the sea.

Everyone rejoiced by the massive catch, deciding that it was time to return back to the beach and celebrate the continuous good events that happened the passed months after the battle between the kingdom of science against Tsukasa empire. Things were smooth sailing indeed and meeting the Volkov village made the place even luckier. If it weren't for them discovering oil in the earlier generation, then everyone would be crawling to find that oil field before winter.(note: Sagara the pig might not exist in this story.)

Returning back to shore, they saw that the others were waiting for them, waving with smile on their safe return and were even more elated to see the caught fishes.

Indeed, it has been a while since Cosmos was able to eat another type of fish. As a village living in the inner mountains, the river are indeed abundant with fresh fishes, but it's the same species. It was the first time he saw other colors in the mix and watched Francois do their magic in making sashimi and other fish dishes.

It's like a slow process, but everyone believed that rebuilding the previous civilization is still a reachable process and soon, modernity will be on its peak.

Everyone enjoyed the feast of fishes that day, resting and having acquainted with one another peacefully as if there was not a time that a war between the kingdom of Science and the Tsukasa empire ever happening at all.

After all, this is a good sign. 

At first, Cosmos was thinking about the consequences of bonding two tribes that do not get along, added with their tribe that varied differently from Ishigami village and Tsukasa empire. But it seemed that he worried for nothing. Due to the fewer number of people existing in this country, it would be a waste to have people kill each other.

The feast lasted an entire afternoon and night. Some have drunk wine and were down on the ground snoring while the others slept on their tents and others stayed on the fire. Cosmos was one of the latter.

He took a quick sip on his warm tea while he stared on the big campfire. The fire warmly danced in the evening and sizzled with some debris  of chard woods crashing down on the ground making a crackle.

The excitement of today's event still had him wide awake. He couldn't even feel tired and his heart was at ease. It was his first adventure, he couldn't miss it. It was also his first time staying up late without the obstruction of coughing and suffering pain. He felt refreshed, like a new fledgling eagle who learned how to fly.

It felt like a dream... A dream he never thought would actually come true.

A lot of memorable things happened eversince then and more could be so in the future.

Indeed, this was only the beginning.