"We've come so far, building a scientific civilization from scratch in this stone-riddled world. The strongest weapon in modern warfare, delivering voices over infinite distances..." Senku began, the corners of his lips curling into a wide smirk before facing everyone, "The cell phone is born!"

"Yeah!" Everyone cheered and threw their arms up in the air as broad grins spread across their faces, threatening to split their cheeks into halves.

"Our voices are going to travel across the skies and far into the distance," Ruri commented wistfully, sapphire-blue eyes glancing upwards to the sky as two birds soared overhead.

"It's so strange," Suika added next to her.

"Yeah," Kohaku agreed, her cheeks flushed with happiness before turning to the scientist and asked, "So it's great that we're sending our voices over long distances...But how are we going to hear them?"

Silence hung in the air, except for the occasional breeze that blew by as both parties stared at each other; neither saying a word. Then, Senku blinked and smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head as he answered, "Whoops! We're going to need another one."

Hearing that, everyone collapsed onto their backs in disbelief and shock apart from both you and Gen who just looked unimpressed by the whole situation as though both of you expected it.

"You kept quiet about that on purpose, didn't you?" You sighed and rubbed your forehead where you could feel an oncoming headache. "Because people might give up if you told them we need to make two."

Instead of apologizing, the green-haired teen just grinned cheekily, "Tee-hee."

You let out another exasperated sigh and just shook your head in disapproval at your boyfriend's antics, knowing that anything you said would just go through one ear and out the other. So, why bother?

Thankfully, the scientist saw this coming and had already prepared a backup plan. Dividing the group into two, he instructed one of the groups to head over to the priestess' hut in the village with a megaphone while the other group stayed behind at the observatory with the phone.

In the meantime, you stayed with Senku and helped him to lay out the cables that would connect both ends. As he rolled out the wires across the main bridge, you asked, "So, we don't need another phone?"

"We do need another one to make it work as a cell phone," he answered, his gaze not leaving the cords which he continued to lay carefully so that it wouldn't get caught on any loose boards. "But if we run a long cable, it should work as a phone."

"Ah, I see," you hummed thoughtfully before asking again, "So, the voice will come from Chrome's end at the observatory, but Ruri won't be able to answer him?"

"You're right," your boyfriend replied as the two of you reached the priestess' hut where Ruri and the majority of the villagers were located at. Soon, the wires were hooked up to the megaphone and both groups were connected through the cell phone.

Standing up, Senku moved to stand next to you and slipped his hand into yours, his fingers curling over yours as he mumbled, "Now, let's test this thing out and hope that it works."

You squeezed his hand in comfort and glanced over at the scientist, smiling gently, "I know it'll work."

Hearing the confidence in your voice, Senku couldn't help but be reassured as he hummed in agreement, "Yes, you're right."

Meanwhile, back at the observatory tower with Chrome and the remaining villagers, said brunette was staring at the megaphone in his hands with excitement as he mumbled to himself, "Ruri can hear me if I talk through here, right?"

Standing at the back of the group was Ginro, staring thoughtfully at the megaphone in the other's hold when suddenly, he had an epiphany. Olive-green eyes lit up with mischief as he fake-coughed into his hand, "Ahem. Chrome, have you chosen your historic first words for the phones we've finally built?"

Said brunette turned to look at the blonde, looking slightly confused.

Flowers and sparkles bloomed around Ginro as he took on the expression of a lovesick maiden, "Ruri-chan's listening on the other end. Come on, it's your chance to tell her how you really feel. This is your moment."

Gasps filled the room as everyone turned to look at Chrome with anticipation, eager to see what he would do.

Chocolate-brown eyes widened slightly before they softened as he lowered his gaze, not saying anything as he thought to himself, 'My true feelings...'

The brown-haired teen seemed to come to a decision as his gaze hardened with determination and he raised the megaphone to his mouth level, ready to say whatever was on his heart.

Taking that as a cue, Ginro turned to Suika, "Hit the switch!"

"It's on!" The watermelon girl declared as she turned the switch.

Ignoring all eyes on him, Chrome took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before shouting into the megaphone, "Ruri...Did you see that, Ruri? Pretty awesome, right?! Science is insane!"

Behind him, the group let out screams of exasperation while facepalming at the brunette's choice of words since it wasn't the love confession that they had expected.

"What's up with you all, anyway?" Chrome cried, totally misunderstanding the situation.

On the other side of the village, the priestess' hut was filled with gasps of awe as they heard Chrome's voice reverberating throughout the room. It wasn't anything that they had seen or heard before and their minds were blown by it.

"I'm shocked," Jasper commented as he stared at the megaphone in part-awe and part-disbelief. "That was definitely Chrome's voice."

Beside him, Magma was the exact opposite as he glared at the loudspeaker in confusion. "I don't get it. How can something so tiny speak?"

"It's almost like a speaker," Ruri giggled, her eyes twinkling with joy.

"Almost like? It's literally a speaker," Senku said with a small smile and began to explain, "Microphones and speakers just convert between sound and electricity. They're the same..."

Suddenly, he trailed off as ruby-red eyes widened in realization. Slowly, he turned his head to the blonde and stared at her, "Ruri. What did you just say? 'It's almost like a speaker'?"

You, on the other hand, was puzzled by what was going on as you glanced back and forth between the two and wondered what had gotten your boyfriend so worked up.

A child, who overheard the conversation, piped up, "Huh, a speaker?"

"So is this a bee?" Another kid asked, then followed by another one who exclaimed in delight "It's a bee! A bee!"

"Huh? Speakers are bees?" You mumbled, brows furrowing in confusion as you, too, gazed at Ruri questioningly. Next to you, Gen looked just as puzzled as well.

"Um, I mean...aren't speakers a kind of bee?" Ruri answered although she didn't look too sure of herself either.

"How did that happen?" Senku asked, looking curious.

"It was in the Hundred Tales," the blonde replied.

Hearing that, Gen's eyes widened in surprise as he said, "That's how it was passed down?"

"Yes," the priestess nodded her head, smiling gently as she started on the tale of the so-called speaker bee. "In tale 14 of the Hundred Tales...There's a talkative bee named Speaker. When it poked gravestones with its needle, it could speak in the voices of the dead."

"What..." you trailed off, feeling even more confused by the second. "This doesn't sound like the other tales where there's some sort of lesson behind it. So, what is Byakuya-san trying to convey?"

"(Name)'s right," Senku began, frowning slightly as he tried to make sense of the tale, but came up with nothing in the end. "Speaker...Needles on gravestones...Voices of the dead...That story isn't transferring any kind of knowledge. I don't get what it's for."

However, Gen seemed to kind of understand as he started to break it down, "That's super suspicious. It's using the word 'speaker' to try to communicate something only to modern humans."

Then, realization dawned upon him, and he got the hint, turning to the scientist with a small grin, "And it's tale number 14. One and four, or 'i' and 'shi', as in 'ishi (stone)'. It's your birthday."

Immediately, both yours and Senku's eyes widened as the two of you recalled what Ruri said when the three of you visited the village's cemetery: 'It's said that these are the graves of Byakuya-sama and the other founders.'

"My old man's gravestone..." Senku breathed out slowly before exchanging looks of understanding with you, both of you exclaiming in unison, "The cemetery!"

Without a second thought, the whole lot of you headed for said village's cemetery where all the answers could be found.

Time skipped

Everyone rushed over to the cemetery, running all the way to the top of the hill filled with gravestones until they arrived in front of Senku's father's gravestone. The scientist didn't even stop to catch his breath as he bent down to remove said headstone from the ground.

Behind him, Kinro was frowning in disapproval at the teen's disrespectful behaviour. "What do you think you're doing, Senku? That's sacrilege!"

Once the gravestone was removed, Chrome didn't hesitate to ask, "What? Is there something about that gravestone?"

Chuckling, Senku stared at said gravestone with a smirk as he replied, "I should have noticed a lot sooner. That man is such a pain in the ass. Just the gravestones of the founders? Now that I think about it, that's ten billion percent bull."

"Senku," you whined impatiently as you tugged at his shirt, unable to wait anymore as the curiosity was killing you. "Hurry up and tell us what's going on!"

Turning to everyone, he held out the headstone so that everyone could see as he started to clarify, "This isn't a gravestone. It's a time capsule that's been kept solid in concrete."

"A time capsule?" Kohaku questioned, looking just as confused as the rest of her fellow villagers.

Meanwhile, (e/c) eyes lit up with excitement as you explained to them, "It's when people take things, usually with special meanings, from their time and keep it sealed for however long until either someone or themselves open it again in the future. Byakuya-san must have left something important behind for us to discover!"

Hearing that, Chrome couldn't help but ask as he peered curiously at the time capsule, "Is there something in it?"

"Yeah," Senku agreed, still grinning as his gaze hadn't left the object in his hands. "We need to break it to get inside."

As soon as the green-haired teen finished his sentence, Magma grabbed a hammer out of thin air and held it over his head, ready to whack the shit out of the time capsule like what he did with the tungsten before. "We're breaking it, then?!"

Immediately, everyone let out shouts of protest and Senku jumped in quickly to stop the blonde before he did any serious damage.

"Hold it, meathead!" He exclaimed, earning a confused look as Magma turned to him with wide eyes. Sighing, the scientist began to explain to him, "If I'm right, there's a glass in this. We're going to need someone with both power and speed to crack it swiftly."

"Well, if that's the case, Kohaku's the best person to do this since she has both power and speed," you suggested, pointing to said blonde who didn't hesitate in accepting.

With that, the rest of you watched in awe as the teen started to hack away at the time capsule with both accuracy and speed. "So fast!"

Within seconds, the outer layer broke away to reveal something beneath it.

"There's something inside!" Suika exclaimed as everyone gathered around the time capsule, eyes wide with curiosity and surprise as they stared at the object. "It's some kind of silver chunk."

"Let's head back to the science lab to remove the wrapping," Senku instructed and with that, all of you turned on your heels and headed back to the village.

***

Everyone crowded around the scientist as he dipped the silver object in a beaker of hydrochloric acid with a pair of tongs. While waiting for the wrapping to disintegrate, Senku explained what it was, "It's silver because it's wrapped in aluminium foil. If we wash it with hydrochloric acid..."

He trailed off and removed the object to reveal that it was a circular glass.

"It's actually glass!" You exclaimed, (e/c) eyes widening in surprise.

"A saucer?" Gen guessed, his head tilted to the side as he stared at said object in confusion. "It looks like they cut out the bottom of a bottle or something."

However, instead of saying what it was, Senku responded in riddles, "A saucer. Speaker. Speaking with needles. Does that remind you of anything?"

Your eyes widened in realization when you recognized what your boyfriend was implying and didn't hesitate to snatch the object out of his hold while exclaiming in awe, "It's a record!"

The scientist grinned as he nodded his head, "My dad and the crew's voices are on there."

Upon hearing that, the villagers let out gasps of disbelief as they tried to wrap their heads around the concept of it.

"They bothered to leave us a voice recording. Let's hear what they had to say," Senku continued, his eyes softening slightly as he mumbled to himself, "I'll kill you if it isn't something exhilarating, you deadbeat dad."

"Chrome was right," Ruri spoke up, sapphire-blue eyes gleaming with tears; touched by the whole thing. "Science truly is beautiful. It lets Senku-san's father speak to him from heaven. Now, thousands of years later, travelling through time with science."

Time skipped

After you handed the record back to Senku, everyone exited the science where he gathered the rest of the villagers to catch them up on what was happening.

At the front of the group, Chrome raised his hand to get the scientist's attention before asking, "Hey, Senku...Does that mean that 'record' thing can trap sound?"

"B-B-But you can't even catch sound," Suika piped up, looking as confused as a lost puppy.

"I'm so confused," Kohaku mumbled with furrowed brows. "How?"

Grinning, Senku glanced at the record in his hand and began to explain, "The way a record works is ridiculously simple. You make a needle vibrate with sound, which digs grooves into the record. And then, if you run a needle over the grooves to vibrate it, it'll make the same sounds that dug them."

"Digging grooves in glass makes it store sound? That's a surprise," Kaseki asked, his cheeks flushed with excitement as the idea of it endeared to his craftsman side and next to him, Chrome was just as eager as the old man was.

"Senku's dad is awesome!" The brunette exclaimed in awe.

"Nah, that's not true," you were quick to dispel that image of Senku's father, smiling wryly at the thought of it. "Byakuya-san couldn't have done it. It must have been the people with him that made it."

Next to you, Senku let out an amused chuckle as he nodded his head in agreement, "Astronauts are all science elites. All of them except Byakuya, who got in by luck. Although he might have been the one who came up with the idea. He's the only one who'd think of something so lame."

"Don't call your father lame, Senku," you reproached your boyfriend, frowning in disapproval. "How many times have I told you that? It's disrespectful."

The green-haired teen just rolled his eyes which earned a deeper frown from you, but he chose to ignore it as he turned to address the crowd in front of him, "We can make a record player pretty easily using the things we've made so far. We'll use the gear from the cotton candy machine."

"I went and got it," Suika announced as she held up said gear over her head with both arms before handing it over to Senku.

Next to her, Kohaku let out a scoff as she grinned, "Destroying Father's shield was well worth it. It's doing so much good."

Kokuyo picked up what used to be his shield from the table with a fond smile, tears of joy gathering in the corners of his eyes as he said, "Your father's happy as long as it's useful for you."

Seeing the older blonde's action, Gen sighed sympathetically, "This is how people become cogs in society as they get older. Literally."

"No one asked for your words of wisdom," Senku deadpanned as he side-eyed the mentalist with narrowed eyes.

Meanwhile, you let out an amused giggle.

"I'm back," Ruri announced and the three of you turned towards the blonde as she entered the lab with a cloth and presented it to the green-haired teen. "I use this when I'm knitting."

"This is perfect," Senku nodded in satisfaction as he held up the needle between his finger to inspect it. "A bone needle. The playback side of making a record is dead easy. Recording is another matter. You're cutting glass, so you need a hard rock."

"Like corundum or diamond, right?" Chrome piped up, earning a nod of confirmation from the scientist.

"Now that we've everything, let's put the record player together!" You cheered, beaming widely and with that, the whole lot of you gathered around the table and assembled the different parts together.

"Yeah!" Chrome exclaimed once everything was slotted into place. "That took no time at all!"

The entire village, who overheard what was going on, gathered outside the science lab; murmuring curiously to one another as they waited for Senku to start the ball rolling.

"All right," said scientist smiled in satisfaction after making sure that everything was good to go before glancing up at Ginro. "Let's spin it, Ginro."

"Okay," said blonde nodded his head and started to spin the gear with steady hands. "I've gotten good at spinning this, from the cotton candy machine."

With a gentle hand, Senku placed the tone arm of the record player over the record, and everyone leaned forward in anticipation, straining their ears as they waited for their founder's voice to appear.

"I don't know who's listening to this..." a male voice flowed out of the megaphone and all of your eyes widened at the sound of it. "...hundreds, maybe thousands of years from now...But I'm the astronaut Ishigami Byakuya."

Cheers rang throughout the science lab as the villagers glanced at one another in excitement, eager to hear more but they were being so loud that Senku had to hush them, or they wouldn't be able to hear the record.

"Shut up. I can't hear," the scientist scolded, but there was no heat behind his words.

"This is the voice of the founder of Ishigami Village..." Kokuyo murmured in wonder, staring wide-eyed at the record player.

Next to him, his daughter – Kohaku – was just as in awe as she commented, "Senku's father's actual voice!"

Meanwhile, you could feel tears welling up in your eyes at the familiar voice of Byakuya's voice, nostalgia squeezing your heart as you realized how much you had missed this man who was like a father to you as well.

Senku must have sensed what was going on because one moment, you were standing next to him with your shoulder brushing against his and next, he had an arm wrapped around your waist as he pulled you flushed against his side; his fingers tracing your hips in silent comfort.

You glanced at your boyfriend with glossy (e/c), your lips curled into a watery smile as you whispered a quiet "thank you". Ruby-red eyes softened with fondness and a hint of sadness as he leaned his head against yours, saying nothing as