#gen again

“They fit the description exactly,” Gen said, holding out the kimono for modesty with the undershirt and a couple ambiguous strips of cloth that could be used as whatever undergarments they required pinched under his pinky fingers on the other side. Francois was in too an awkward position to dress before reviving without staining the new clothing. Senku didn’t care about that, but Gen knew Francois would.

This is our top-tier chef, with a number of other domestic skills besides to rocket our quality of living up several levels from pan fried fish and foxtail millet noodles.”

“I know the face, but I can’t quite place it,” Minami said. “I can confirm this where the Nanimi Academy used to be. I recognize some of these people as staff and students. It is an elite institution with many high-class residents, so it would be a good place to find a skilled chef.”

“The most important thing is talent. Whatever else they need we can handle it, so long as they are skilled,” Senku declared, then poured the revival fluid onto the petite person. Francois cracked out of the stone and instantly grabbed the shirt and wraps, followed shortly by taking the kimono. Everyone politely looked elsewhere as they dressed, pretending they saw nothing prior to Francois revival.

“Thank you for the clothing,” Francois said politely.

“The date is March 29, 5740. All of humanity was petrified by an unknown force using something that looked like green light,” Senku said, confident and authoritative as he turned back to face them. “I’m Senku, and I discovered how to reverse the petrification process and restore people, even for broken statues provided the damage caused by weathering to the interior of the body isn’t too severe. We’re rebuilding society one step at a time with a goal of reviving everyone, but right now our resources are limited and we have to be a little picky. I need highly skilled, talented people to get that done. I’m told you are the best at what you do, and you love doing it, so get excited.”

“Thank you, both for releasing me from that darkness and for considering me up to the task,” Francois said. “I assume it was Master Ryusui that told you of my skills.”

“Ry- Ryusui?” Minami stuttered.

“Never met him,” Senku played dumb with a shrug, “you have Gen to thank for pointing me your way.”

“Asagiri Gen,” Gen said, giving Francois a respectful nod in greeting. “We’ve not met personally, but I knew of you, and Ryusui Nanami of course, by reputation.

“You can’t revive him!” Minami shouted. “It would be a disaster!”

“Why?” Nikki asked.

“Master Ryusui is highly talented,” Francois said, their voice even and polite despite a slight hardness to their expression.

“He’s a spoiled rich brat, selfish and impossibly greedy,” Minami said. Gen ignored her continuing rant, which Senku was pretending to give real consideration to, and spoke to Francois.

“He is very skilled, I know, unfortunately we just can’t support someone like him right now. For a start the food quality and, I’m sad to say, quantity has been low. We have plans to dramatically raise the general quality of life from the stone age scraping by most of the revived people have endured to something at least approaching an acceptable minimum standard. Rehydrated or pickled veggies and fish stew eight or nine meals in a row is not something someone like him would tolerate, and of course we’re just getting farming going, and while we have bees and wheat none of us know how to bake or raise farm animals,” Gen said. “We will be looking for some experienced farmers as well, but that might require a long journey or boat to Hokkaido to fetch a known expert given the average agricultural experience of a Tokyo native. I was thinking you could help us get things up to standard.”

“So he’s a highly skilled ship captain with experience building sailing ships, but also pampered and egotistical?” Senku asked Minami, practically vibrating with excitement. He knew all that already, but hearing Gen’s claims confirmed by someone who clearly hated Ryusui and was reluctant to admit how talented he was really hammered home how exceptional and undeniable Ryusui’s skills were. How Minami could miss that Senku was practically salivating over the idea of reviving him Gen just didn’t know. Honestly, if Gen didn’t know Senku was so unlikely to cheat he might feel jealous about the sparkly look in Senku’s eye.

“You are holding Master Ryusui hostage to gain my compliance,” Francois said, and Senku’s head whipped around.

“What?” several people, including Gen, gasped in shock.

“Sieges are the worst, don’t do that ever because even if you take the town it won’t be worth the cost. Make opportunities to frustrate enemy plans, take their territory without fighting by breaking their spirits as much as possible. Treat prisoners well so that they will eventually join you gladly. If you dispute the loyalty the state inspires or the authority of the leader of the enemy empire then, without losing a man, you can be triumphant through strategy. Prepare well, and calculate your enemy’s strength carefully. Never fight when outmatched, flee if necessary, and press every advantage” Gen said, his tone light.

“Those are wise words,” Kokuyo said as he sat down.

“It’s advice as generic and free of detail as you can expect when someone didn’t study for the test,” Senkuu teased. Gen’s whole body shifted from his well-practiced affectations to an uncharacteristic steady seriousness. When he spoke it was obviously his natural voice, which was noticeably deeper and richer than what anyone was used to hearing from him.

“If you know the enemy and yourself, you need not fear the outcome of battle. Right now we have an overwhelming information advantage, but that won’t last long. I won’t be able to maintain my cover much longer. That’s why I brought that big basket with me this time. I left nothing of any great value behind, only the blanket on my bed and enough odds and ends that it won’t be suspicious, but I really doubt that I will have my cover intact by the end of the first battle. The real trouble will be in giving orders. It will take time to get any messages across any distance, and we will have to use indirect tactics to beat their superior martial skill, so coordination between strike teams will be key. I may not be strong, but I can cover distance well. Ginro has similar endurance for swift and stealthy long distance travel. One well-aimed arrow would be the end of either of us, though, and I don’t know how Ukyo will take my defection. We’ve had some interesting conversations and I think he is unsettled by Tsukasa breaking living statues, but like most people he was dissatisfied with the old world and had troubles in his old life that Tsukasa has promised will no longer bother him under his rule. He’s a skilled archer, have I said that before? Even just me reporting what I know of Tsukasa’s Empire is so tedious and clunky, and I’ve already lost track of what I have and haven’t already said. You don’t know how many days ended with me wishing I could lounge in bed texting you instead of saving it all up for when I could safely visit.”

“A phone with a message app isn’t something we could easily make.” Senkuu couldn’t help the smile that crept over his face. He’d already been planning to fix the communication issue, but Gen came at it from a completely different angle than how he’d arrived at the idea. “I didn’t read the original book, but my old mentor was very military minded and I read a modernized version of The Art of War. I’d already planned to fix our communication issues, the road map is all drawn up back at the lab ready to go first thing tomorrow. We’re going to make a cell phone.” Senkuu took another bite of his meat. For a meal made without any spices, it was pretty good.

“What is a cell phone?” Chrome asked.

“What about guns, or maybe explosive artillery?” Gen asked, voice flat and Senkuu choked on his food. Did the silly clown man just request fucking howitzer? “I know, I know, I hate having to ask. I hate blood and violence, and I really don’t want anyone to die, but a show of force would make a lot of them stand down. If we pair that threat with enticing glimpses into the luxuries and comforts science can offer, we can have a classic carrot and stick approach. We wouldn’t need many, the katana should freak them out plenty, but if you had a sidearm I’d sleep better.”

“I can’t make a gun,” Senkuu said flatly.

“As… as a knowledge issue or a moral one?” Gen asked, his tone gentle. “I will respect it if you refuse to create something so easily misused. They were illegal for normal people to own for good reason.”

“Neither, it’s a resource issue. Firearms require black powder, which requires nitric acid, which is also the main ingredient of the revival fluid,” Senkuu said.

Then he started playing with the forge, seeing what he could do on his days 'off' his work when Gen wasn't around. He used a dummy block of stone the same size as the set gems to ensure he didn't accidentally hurt them with his experimenting and tried out different designs around that rock. Drawing out wires from the bronze first made it easy to make organic shapes. There was history and meaning in both wires and this gunmetal bronze for the two of them as well as a connection to complex designs made from braided rope thanks to the village and the hundred tails. Senku wasn't usually sentimental, but... he wished he could tell Byakuya he'd found someone who loved him. He wondered what the step-mother he'd never met would have thought of them and their messy whatever it was.

Braided wires, when warmed and twisted or hammered together, easily became one textured strand. Shapes he couldn't get the flat sheets to make accurately without wrinkling up or uneven heating causing discoloration and warping were much more easily made with the wires. Swirls and vines grew organically around the center stone. Senku tried out the rhombus of the nightshade flower petals before melting them down to weave them again much smaller and with a better texture, and then they were hammered into stars. The following week he looked at what he'd made, decided he didn't like how that came out, and put it into the furnace to melt down and try again.

What did the magic of mentalism look like, if it could be made solid? How does a man forge the shape of wonder and appreciation? What was the twisting, eldritch thing that lived in Senku's chest that didn't want kisses but instead bit and fucked and didn't know how to be gentle until it curled up warm and sated like the bed of coals under a fire? It wasn't that soft fluttery thing he'd read about in fiction books and manga, but something possessive and proprietary that had to be kept private because it was too gross to let anyone else see. It felt ugly and dazzling, scary and fulfilling, the intersection of a correct answer and an unknowable question. Gen seemed to like it, even if they still struggled sometimes with all the sharp edges.

Something had gone a little wrong there, with Gen so worried he'd hurt what they had just by expressing that he wanted more of it. Senku thought he understood. Gen wanted more, but not volume or intensity. A bigger fuel tank providing the same thrust with a longer burn time, but the engine and structure of the rocket would need adjustments to counter the extra weight of a larger tank so some adjustments needed to be made to accommodate those expectations. Gen didn't want obligation, that would be more in the wrong way, a way Gen seemed so certain would break them and Senku wasn't in a position to argue. Gen had assured Senku that he wouldn't leave without good reason, that he'd keep following Senku's lead. He just wanted to know where Senku was going. Not even a promise Senku wouldn't leave him behind or would bring him along, just assurance that Senku would warn him if the path he was on changed direction so Gen could continue to choose to be with him. Or not. Gen wanted to keep choosing Senku, and for Senku to keep choosing Gen, but free of any compulsion or duty.

How the hell do you make a commitment as ephemeral as that out of metal?

The design became more cloudlike and nebulous, but that was too soft for the jagged way their edges fit together. Senku couldn't do random stars, just could not physically force himself to do that. Any scattering would look enough like a part of the sky that he'd be compelled to change it, and then it was the same as having to pick a constellation. Deciding which one was an impossible choice.

He fiddled and fretted until one day he was so frustrated he smacked the thing that was trying to thread through the space between floral softness and sharp masculine geometry with his hammer a couple times and stomped away to eat something. When he came back the pinched in the middle shape was... interesting. Like finding shapes in clouds, he saw the sharp ears and a surreal deformed smirking mouth that reminded him of Gen's scar, and behind that a thin body and flowing shape...

Senku started again, this time knowing what he was going to make. He had learned how to make all the elements, but needed to bring them together to make something that wasn't like it's component parts. Like chemistry, the elements had different properties when bound together. He took the star-like flowers, metal weave, and cables he'd learned to make and used those sharp and soft shapes to make something both cute and sly. Not a bat, that was just one of the many masks Gen wore.

A bronze fox, sharp tips and soft fur. He obscured it by weaving a lattice of foliage, the many tails made to look like leaves and the head peaking out from under a flower. If it was a little reminiscent of a leafeon that wasn't anyone's business. The body might be mistaken for a log or thick stem at a glance, the textured vines that twisted around it different enough to the smooth legs but only if you pay attention. Senku wasn't sure what kind of animal best represented him, but he chose a snake. Partly so he could easily hide it in the other half of the structured design the fox was leaping through, partly because it made sense to him in the moment and he tried not to over think it for fear of having to start over again when he was so happy with how the fox came out. Senku was kind of cold, and didn't apologize for being off putting at times, and his face was very angular. His Chinese zodiac was the year of the water goat, but he absolutely was not using that. He didn't believe in it for one, and he'd have to make Gen into a dragon. Everyone that saw it would think of Ryusui or dragos if Senku did that, so it was right out.

When he was finished he had a round piece of metal lace, roughly six centimeters in diameter. The flowering vines obscured a fox and snake that chased each other through the foliage, a design that let him hide any mistakes from his hand slipping behind strategically placed leaves or flowers. He pried out the dummy stone and set the gems carefully in place, crimping the setting to the rest of the piece from the back where he could prioritize function over form. The diamond sat under the leaping fox and the obsidian under the snake. It wasn't anything close to a yin-yang anymore despite the shining diamond and dark obsidian in the center because it was a bit too oval and all the same warm gunmetal bronze. He added a twisted and crimped bit to the back, a bit like a bobby pin. He didn't think Gen would try and wear it in his hair, most of Gen's hair was too short to support something like this, but it could clip to his coat without poking a bunch of holes in it. Senku would have liked to make it smaller, but after a lot of trial and error he was sure he didn't have the skill to make it look good at a smaller size.