Knowledge is love

Part 22: Message from past

You guys finished the cell phone. The thing that will give you guys the ultimate advantage against the Tsukasa empire. It was an underestimate to say you guys were excited.

"Our voices'll dance across the sky," Ruri said. "And they'll travel far into the distance."

"Kinda weird to think about," Suika admitted.

"Sure is," Kohaku agreed. "It's amazing that we can send our voices out so far. But I wonder how anyone will be able to hear them."

Kohaku's words made everyone gasp as they had a feeling they weren't gonna like the answer.

"Oh,. whoopsie! Guess we're gonna need another one," Senku said with an innocent, precious face.

You playfully shook your head as the villager fell backwards, upset by the news.

"You kept quiet about that on purpose, didn't you," Gen asked.

"Of course he did," you sighed. "How else was he gonna get them to do it?"

"That is very true," Gen agreed.

"I swear you really are a devil," you said softly.

Senku still had the innocent precious face. "He-he."

You guys placed one of the microphone tubes in Ruri's hut and ran a long cable to the observatory. This was gonna make the cell phone work as a sorta landline. Chrome, Kohaku and a few others were at the observatory while you, Senku and Gen were at Ruri's hut to see if it actually works with a few others. After a bit of time, you guys heard Chrome's voice. You guys were honestly expecting him to tell her how he felt or something along those lines. But instead he simply said that the phone was cool and that science was awesome.

The villagers were shocked that they were able to hear Chrome's voice even though he wasn't anywhere near them. This showed that the cell phone did in fact work which was good. But you, Sneku and Gen were shocked by the fact that Ruri compared the phone to a speaker. She wasn't wrong since it is a speaker but what shocked you guys was that they knew the word speaker but thought it was a type of bee. Reason being is because it was in the Hundred Tales, Tale 14 which followed a bee named speaker.

"So there's a speaker needle on a gravestone, and dead voices," Senku said as he summarized the tale. "The tale isn't transferring any actual knowledge, so I don't quite understand its purpose."

"What could it be," Gen wondered. "It's bizarre-bay."

"The tale uses the word 'speaker' to communicate something only those from our time would understand," you said as you began to think. "And Byakuya made the tales."

"Plus, the tale's number is 14, or rather 1-4," Gen pointed out. "The date of... Stone Day."

Senku gasped as he figured something out.

"Which is also Senku's birthday," Gen added.

"Wait a minute," you gasped. "Could that mean..."

"My old man's gravestone," Senku stated. "Let's go!"

You guys rush to the village graveyard. It was covered in snow but thankfully where you guys had to look wasn't. The graveyard marker that was there on behalf of the founders. Senku picked it up, much to Kinro's dismay since that was sacrilege.

"Wait a second. Is there something going on with that gravestone," Chrome asked.

Senku chuckled. "I should've realized this a whole lot earlier."

"Byakuya did like to play games," you said. "I bet he's looking down at us and laughing at you for taking this long."

"That old man sure loved being a pain in the ass," Senku said. "Like these would just be the founder's gravestones. That's way too simple for him, so it's obviously ten billion percent bull.