Chapter Text
He’s average height but he’s certainly not tall. He knows he’s taller than him. Gen Asagiri knows he’s taller than Senku Ishigami.
Gen is full well determined to find out how much he’s taller than Senku.
If Senku was an average kid, Gen could ask his height under the play of curiosity, but Senku is smart and will find it suspicious. Gin can’t risk showing his hand so soon.
“’The History of Gasses’?”
Senku is clearly very invested in the chemistry books he’s reading as he takes a couple seconds to look up and meet eyes with Gen. Gen is sitting in the bus seat next to him, the only thing separating him and Senku being the narrow walking aisle.
Senku lets his eyes drift to the book in Gen’s hands then back to his face, framed by duel dyed hair of black and white.
“The Story of David Copperfield’? I’ve heard about you around school. You’re a magician.”
Gen closes his book and places it on his lap. “That’s where you’re wrong. I’m a mentalist.” A smirk teases at his lips. “And I’ve heard about you too. Blew up the science lab in fourth grade, huh?”
“HEY THAT WAS FOR SENKU’S EXPERIMENT! IT WORKED OUT IN THE END!” The boy sitting next to Senku, on the window side, suddenly perks his head out and points at Gen.
Gen tilts his head to the side. The boy has dark hair and big innocent eyes. Gen is reminded of a fluffy bear when he looks at him.
“Calm down Taiju, you big oaf!” Senku covers his friend’s face with his hand, shoving him back down to sit down.
And while Senku is bickering with his fanboy, Gen shifts in his seat to face directly towards Senku. He did this when he wanted to manipulate someone – it shows interest and a human to human connection. Tsukasa, who’s sitting next to Gen, lets out a snort with an eye roll. Gen hears but ignores him.
“Woah, are you even allowed that?” Taiju, of course, has not calmed down, but is now staring wide eyed at Gen’s tongue piercing.
“Of course not.” Gen replies with a smile. His confidence soon vanishes when the school bus comes to a sudden halt and his face flies forward. But before he can meet the back of the chair in front of him, Tsukasa holds him back firmly.
This gets a low, almost hidden laugh from Senku.
Tsukasa seems to be the only one noticing the slight flush of Gen’s face at the sound of Senku’s laugh.
Senku has now closed his book and is facing Gen slightly. The plan is working. “Now tell me Mentalist, what made you interested in magic?”
“It’s simple really.” Says Gen, pulling his deck of cards from his pocket. He opens the pack without even looking, just keeps holding Senku’s gaze. “Magic is not about the supernatural or anything fantastical.” He starts doing a simple overhand card shuffle.
Senku is watching the card shuffling as carefully as possible.
“It’s about tricks that happen right before the eyes. It’s about manipulation, but never about lying.” Gen stops shuffling the cards and straightens out the pack. He flicks off the bottom card of the deck and grins at Senku as the card lands in his lap gracefully. “It’s about being whoever I want, whenever I want and with whoever I want.”
Senku picks up the card in his lap. It’s a joker. And as he’s about to give it to Gen but he sees that the black and white haired boy is already turned away and talking to the boy net to him. His deck of cards is already packed away.
Nevertheless, Senku slides the joker card into his book, acting as a bookmark to keep his place.
-
When they arrive at the camp grounds – where their yearly school activities camp is held – Taiju and Senku meet up with Yuzuriha, who was on the girls bus, and walk towards the camp entrance, carrying their bags
“What’s your play here, Gen-chan?” Tsukasa asked as he carries both Gen and his own duffle bags towards the entrance.
Gen slides on his backpack. “Whatever do you mean?”
They walk under a stone arch to an outside common area with stone benches and a fire pit, surrounded by small bungalows.
“I know you’re not talking to Senku-kun out of politeness.” Tsukasa states as all the students beginning to gather around the empty fire pit, awaiting instructions. Tsukasa would have said more had it not been for the students crowding them.
Gen glances up at his long haired friend, who towers over him. “I’m conducting an experiment, Tsukasa-chan.”
The girls and boys are separated once again and sent off to their assigned dorms. Gen is thankful he’s with Tsukasa but not thankful for the other two boys he’s with: Kinro and Ginro. They get half an hour to unpack before they’re called back to the fire pit. Their camp counselor, Kei, gives them their first activity for the day.
“Alright students!” She says in a voice that’s too cheerful. “Because it’s your first day here, you’re getting a simple activity. Split into teams of three first.”
Chatter fills the area as groups are decided amongst students.
“Why isn’t she telling us what activity we’re doing first?” Tsukasa whispers quietly to Gen.
“Because if she did, people would pick other people that are good at the activity. Like if it’s athletic, you’d be the first choice.” Gen explains. He watches as Senku, Taiju and Yuzuriha meet up and bumps fists. A good team.
Tsukasa scans over everyone. “In that case, you and I can pick a random third member, just to fill the gap. You and I are a fine team together no matter the kind of activity.”
They ended up with the only student that hadn’t been picked by anyone. Gen looked up at the muscled blonde boy. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Magma.” He replied.
Tsukasa shook the guy’s hand. “I’m Tsukasa and this is Gen.”
Magma raised an eyebrow at Tsukasa. “You’re the strongest kid in school apparently. I’d like to see if that’s true.”
“Calm down ladies, we can sort that out later.” Gen mutters.
Finally, after everyone had been gathered into their teams, Kei finally explains their activity.
“You kids will be building a fire.”
Easy enough, Gen thinks.
“However you cannot use matches or lighters.”
Never mind.
After much protest from the students, Kei finally adds more.
“However, you may use anything you have brought with you. You have half an hour.”
“A fire? That’s simple.” Magma exclaims.
Gen turns to him as everyone runs around them freaking out. “Okay then do you have any ideas?”
Magma has no ideas whatsoever.
Tsukasa glances at his watch then at the cloudless sky above them. “We can use the sun.”
“Like going to the sun?”
“No, Magma-chan, we’re not going to the sun.” Gen replies. He turns to the long, dark haired boy and puts a finger on his chin. “I know neither of us has a magnifying glass on us so concentrating the light with that isn’t an option.”
Just as Tsukasa is about to say something, he points to something behind Gen. Gen turns around and tries to hide his shock.
It’s Senku, Taiju and Yuzuriha approaching them.
“Mentalist,” Senku starts, with his two friends on either side of them.
Gen smirks and slips his hands out of his purple hoodie pocket. “Hello Senku-chan.”
Senku glances at Tsukasa then Gen. He scratches his ear casually as he talks. “I’m willing to make a trade deal.”
Tsukasa is now interested. Magma is focused on a nearby butterfly.
“A deal? Please go on.”
“You don’t happen to have a pack of gum on you, do you?” Senku asks.
Gum? How can you make a fire with gum? “I do actually.”
Tsukasa speaks up. “What do we get in return?”
“Anything we’re willing to offer.” Yuzuriha says.
Finally the light bulb flicks to life in Gen’s head. “Do you have a soda can?”
Senku and Tsukasa both figure out instantly what his plan is.
“Yes, I do in fact.”
The groups split up to get the agreed upon goods. As Tsukasa and Gen are hurrying back to their dorm, Gen tells Tsukasa to instruct Magma to find sticks and dry leaves while Tsukasa goes trading to other groups for a bar of chocolate.
Gen rummages through his backpack and finds the stick of gum. He meets back up with Senku only as the other students are preparing their other goods.
“Good trading with you, Senku-chan.” Gen smiles at the boy across from him. He opens his mouth slightly so his tongue piercing can be seen.
Senku hands him the can of soda. Their fingers brush slightly as they exchange the gum and soda.
“Good luck, Mentalist.” Senku says as he walks away.
-
“Magma, sweetheart, please keep people away from me.” Gin says as he crouches on his knees on a dusty patch of ground just outside the fire pit, away from other students.
“Why?”
“They’re going to cast shadows which is a problem for us.” Tsukasa says. He’s very protective over the perfect patch he found under the sun.
Gen takes a piece of chocolate and rubs it on the bottom of the soda can. He then polishes the circular surface with a wash cloth he brought and repeats this process while Tsukasa is collecting sticks.
“Finally~” he sings to himself once the bottom of the can is shiny and polished.
He crouches over the pile of dry leaves and sticks Tsukasa made while Tsukasa blocks the breeze with his massive figure.
“C’mon, c’mon.” he says to himself, now finally finding the right angle to the sunlight and he sees smokes coming off one of the leaves.
“Have we done it?” Suddenly, Magma came rushing towards them, creating a gust of wind that put out the smoking leave.
Gen’s head snapped up to look at the blonde student. He forced a smile. “Can you go find me a blue flower?”
And with that, Magma is out of the hair and Gen and Tsukasa finally ignite a fire.
Gen scurries off and summons Kei so they can prove that they’ve completed their task.
They thought they had impressed the woman until they saw her reaction to Senku’s fire creation.
The tinfoil bubble-gum wrapper is torn in half then held at either ends of an AA battery. It takes a couple tries but eventually there’s a spark, which Taiju feeds with dry leaves, creating a fire.
“Rather impressive,” Tsukasa says as him and Gen watch Kei run over to them with utter awe.
-
Evening has fallen upon the camp grounds. It’s just after dinner and the students have been given some time to socialise before they have to shower then hit he sack.
Senku leaves his conversation with Taiju and Yuzuriha so those two can blush and stutter with each other. He makes his way to Gen, who he spots is sitting on a stone bench at the corner of the fire pit away from everyone.
Gen hears him and looks away from his game of solitaire, using the rest of the stone bench as a table. He picks up a card and flings it towards Senku.
He doesn’t see the card until it’s too late and has popped the bubble of gum he made with his lips. The card bounces off of his face.
“No need to burst my bubble, Mentalist.” He says as he sits down on the stone bench with Gen. He hands back the card that was flicked at him.
Gen smirks at him as he stacks his cards back into a stacks. “I apologize.”
Senku rolls the sleeves of his simple white shirt up, puts his legs on either side of the bench, now facing Gen and holds out his hand. “I figured out your trick.”
“Oh have you know?” Gen hands him the deck.
“Pick a card.”
“Ace of Hearts.”
Senku finds the card and then starts doing an overhand shuffle – it’s sloppy but a shuffle nonetheless. “Like you said, it’s not even about lying.” When he’s done shuffling, he peels the bottom card off and gives it to Gen. Ace of Hearts.
Gen couldn’t help but watch Senku’s hands as he shuffled the deck. “It’s a beginner’s trick but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.”
Senku looks playfully offended. He makes another bubble-gum bubble with his lips.
Gen takes a sip of the soda then slides his hands back into his purple hoodie pockets. “Put the cards in deck order for me, would you?”
Normally, he would do it himself but he doesn’t want Senku to think he’s tampered with the cards.
“Alright.” Senku starts carefully ordering the cards on the stone bench.
“What got you so interested in science, Senku-chan?” Gen asks.
Even though he’s concentrating on the cards, Senku replies. “The moon got me interested.” Just as he finfishes his sentence, he’s done reordering.
Gen takes the cards. “The moon you say? Mind telling me more?” he places the stacks back on the stone bench, about to shuffle.
“Talking is going to distract me. I know about misdirection as a tool in magic.” Senku says proudly, scratching his ear.
Gen tugs at his piercing with his teeth. “Fine. No talking.”
Senku looks down and watches Gen’s hands carefully. Gen splits the stack in half and cuts them into each other. Then he flips the deck face up and fans it out on the stone bench.
Senku stares at the fanned out cards for a few confused seconds. Then looks back at Gen, who is sipping from his can of soda. “They’re back in order . . .”
Gen is delighted to see the great Senku with a shocked face. He scoops up the cards and holds them all in one hand. “I thought you’d be able to figure it out, Mr Scientist.” He does a quick card spring with his hands, which only heightens the look of defeat on Senku’s face.
Gen takes this moment to look at Senku’s hair. It must add at least 1o centimetres to his height.
“Gen-chan, it’s time to go.” Tsukasa suddenly says, appearing from out of nowhere behind him. Gen practically springs to his feet. “You can continue your playdate with Senku-kun tomorrow.”
“Don’t say it like that, Tsukasa-chan~”
Tsukasa and Senku give each other a nod of greeting before they all go their separate ways.
-
“Wake up you big oaf!” Senku hissed as he poked at his friend on the top bunk. A few shakes and the brunette sat bolt upright, ready for action.
“What are we doing Senku?” Taiju asks, jumping down from the top bunk.
The two friends weren’t worried about waking up the other students in the small dorm who were snoring deeply.
Senku dug out a note book he had brought with him and plopped it down on the floor where they sat next to each other. “We’re making a pack of cards.”
“But Senku, this isn’t science.”
“It actually has a bit to do with psychics I suspect.” Senku answered. He began tearing paper from the notebook.
“’I suspect’?” Taiju’s eyes widened. “Senku, doesn’t that mean you don’t actually kno-”
Senku chucked the note book at him. “Just start tearing.”
While Taiju was tearing out pages with too much enthusiasm, Senku found the card Gen had given it him and used it to trace the sizes for cards.
-
“Gen-chan, go to sleep.”
“You should go to sleep too then.” Gen replies from the top bunk.
It had been a quick decision of who would take the top bunk and who would take the bottom bunk. Due to his size, Tsukasa would likely break the bed from the top bunk. So Gen and Tsukasa whispered to each in the dark, separated by the mattress above of Tsukasa’s face.
“What’s keeping you up?” Tsukasa asks. “The Gen I know loves sleep.”
Gen frowns even though his friend can’t see him. “I’m just thinking.”
“About Senku-kun.”
Gen flinched and felt sweat gathering at his forehead. He could lie to Tsukasa but they’d been friends for years now, so he would know. “I just think he’s interesting, that’s all.”
“Gen-chan, you find almost no one in the world interesting. Hence that Senku guy must seem special to you.”
Gen can’t deny that. “I’m just glad to have found someone who’s at the same level as me, even if it’s in a different field. Like you and I.”
“I figure you’d say something like that.” Tsukasa replies. “I’ve noticed that you don’t talk down to him. You showed him all those tricks because you knew you weren’t wasting your time and he’d understand them. You see Senku-kun as your equal, don’t you?”
This was why Gen valued Tsukasa so much – he was good understanding and could read people.
“I guess you’re right, Tsukasa-chan.”
“Now that that’s out of the way.” Gen could hear the smile in his voice when Tsukasa spoke net. “Are you going to tell him?”
“WHAT!? Are you insane ?”
Tsukasa chuckles. “So that’s a no? I honestly thought the great Asagiri Gen would be smarter when it came to something like this.”
Gen pulled his blanket over his head. “Just go to sleep.”
-
“THIS IS CHILD ABUSE!”
“Gen-chan, it’s been one day.” Tsukasa grunts as he attempts to tug his friend away from the door frame he’s latched onto.
Tsukasa was right; it had only been one day, this was the first morning here. Still, Gen missed his phone and water that tasted decent. The moment they had been woken up Kei shouting, Gen started complaining about his grief for a high pressure shower.
Gen still clung to the door frame and he continues complaints. “I haven’t had breakfast! And I’m still in my pyjamas!”
Tsukasa finally pries Gen’s fingers off the door. “It’s not that bad.”
He dragged his purple pyjamaed friend to the fire pit where most half asleep students were already gathered.
Kei, of course, is much too happy when she tells them that they’re all going on a morning run.
“Nice.” Tsukasa says.
Gen pulls his hood over his head. “I’m going to unsubscribe from our friendship.”
-
Tsukasa knew that Gen would either collapse or run off the closest cliff if he didn’t help him run. And by that he meant, picking up Gen and throwing him over his shoulder.
It was bumpy ride but Gen supposed it was better than running.
Because of Tsukasa’s athletic ability, they were in the front. And so was Taiju, who was yelling nonsense as he ran. Normally, Senku and Taiju were joined at the hip, but the young scientist was nowhere to be seen.
“Taiju~” Gen said, turning his already upside down head to Taiju.
“Yes, Card Man?”
Terrible nickname but whatever. “Where’s Senku?”
Taiju answered him casually. “He’s in the river. He made a boat.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
He pointed to the river a couple of metres to their right that followed their same path. “He didn’t want to run so he made a boat and went down the river.”
Gen pressed his lips to a flat line. He then patted Tsukasa on the shoulder. “We need to finish before him.”
-
When they arrived at their final destination, Gen wanted to crumple up in defeat.
Senku was already there.
The boy with tall hair was sitting on a stone bench back at the fire pit. The toes of his sneakers were the only evidence of the boat usage.
Gen walked up to him, stunned.
“Hey there Mentalist,” Senku greeted.
He looked at what was in his hands. He had made a pack of cards and hand drawn on all the houses and numbers. Gen was too shocked to reply.
“Many people may not think this,” Senku starts. He fans the cards out. They’re in order. “But science is the root to magic.” He scooped up the cards and split the deck. He cut the deck, weaving the cards together. But he weaved the two halves completely through each other, keeping the same order as his original cut deck. He stacked them back on top of one another. Senku fanned the cards out once more. They were in order.
Gen just stared, not in shock, but admiration.
Senku stood up and sliced his hand made deck back into his pocket. He brushed his shoulder with Gen’s as he walked past, calling out Taiju and Yuzuriha’s name.
Gen held his shoulder where they touched.
“Looks like you’ve been bested.” Tsukasa says, stepping up next to him.
-
“Oh lucky you.” Gen grumbles at his tall friend.
The grade had been divided into two groups – group A and B and the two groups were assigned different activities. Gen was group A and Tsukasa was Group B.
“Slingshot paintball isn’t that bad, Gen-chan.” Tsukasa replied as they walked down a dusty path with the rest of the grade, heading towards a large forest.
Gen rolled his eyes. “You’re not complaining because Capture the Flag is your cup of tea; you could just run into the enemy territory, bulldoze a couple of guys and boom! You’ve won.”
Tsukasa gave him a small smile. “Then make Slingshot Paintball your cup of tea Gen.”
He supposed t was a good idea. He looked around him and looked at the people around him. An idea began to bloom in his head.
“Looks like this is where we see each other off.” Tsukasa said as the wide path split in two and went to opposite directions into the cedar forest.
Gen sighed. “If you get to the dining hall before, save me a plate.”
“You’ll be fine, Gen-chan.” Tsukasa waved at his friend as he followed his group down the path to the right while Gen trailed at the back of his group.
Every now and then, Gen reached down and picked up a small pebble and plopped it into his pants pocket. No one noticed this. At first.
“Mentalist.”
Gen looked up from where he was picking up a small rock and then stood up so he was eye level with Senku.
Senku looked at the pebble. He blinked then his red eyes slit up. “Does you plan require a partner?”
Gen smirked back at him. At that moment, Gen truly knew that Senku was his equal.
-
The instructor, Kei, stood on a rock as she addresses them. She explained briefly how to use the slingshots and went over the rules.
“Everyone has 35 paint bullets each – if you run out, you’re out. If you get hit even once, you’re also out. The last student standing is declared the winner.”
Before he slid is protective goggles on, Gen glanced to the side. Senku already had his protective goggles on. Gen noted that they looked a lot like those used a science lab. Senku probably felt comfortable in them.
“With that being said,” Kei held up three fingers. Everyone held their breaths and braced themselves to run off into the cedar forest. “3 . . . 2 . . . 1!”
Gen ran right. Senku ran left. Their plan required them to be in opposite directions but still in eye distance. They made sure they ran parallel to each other while the other students ran in scattered directions.
Gen found himself a in the corner of the fenced off area, hidden behind a tree. He scooped out a paintball from his pouch that was provided and crushed it with much difficulty.
Yellow paint oozed over his palm. He wasted no time and started coating a couple of the pebbles he’d picked up in the bright colour. After poking his head out from behind the tree, he met eyes with Senku, who was crouching low, a couple metres away.
Standing in both heir line of fire was a blonde girl.
Senku slid a paintball into the hold of his slingshot and readied for fire. Gen did the same but with a painted pebble instead of a bullet.
Gen fired first. The pebble landed just at her feet. She spotted it then looked in Gen’s direction. But just as she was readying for fire, she was hit with a green paint ball from Senku’s direction.
The plan had worked.
Gen was in charge of distraction and misdirection while Senku was in charge of hitting the target.
Little by little, the number of people in the battlefield began to shrink and there were less than 10 players left.
“Unfortunately, things are going to get harder from here on out,” Senku says and wipes some splattered paint off his goggles with his fingers.
Hiding behind the bush with Senku, Gen replies. “The people who have made it this far are good too. And there’s more hiding-”
Something whizzes past their ears and hits the tree across from them. Had either of them been crouched a couple centimetres to the side, they would have been hit.
Both boys stare in quiet shook.
The both look around, trying to figure out where it came from.
“I think-” But again Gen can’t finish his sentence, because Senku’s hand clamps over his mouth to silence him.
“Footsteps.” Senku whispers and then removes his hand.
They peer through a small gap in the bush. Three other students were heading in their direction unknowingly.
“If you fire from a South-East angle, our plan won’t be completely fucked.” Senku says in a hushed voice.
Gen gets a painted pebble from his pocket. “Senku-chan~, I worry about your level of faith in me.”
And even though he’s filled with doubt, Gen pulled back the elastic of the sling shot, peeks out from the bush and fires so the bullet lands to the left of the group of three.
Senku takes the window and hits two targets. Gen picks out a paint bullet and hits the last target in the chest.
The three students gasp in shook then sigh in defeat when they see Gena and Senku stand up proudly.
“Bye-bye now!” Gen says to the walking away students with a wave.
When they’re gone Senku and Gen stroll into the small clearing, heading back to the base, Senku laughs.
“Good work, Mentalist.” He turns around but his smile quickly fades.
“I had fun, Senku-chan~” Gen pulls back the elastic of his slingshot and aims a bullet right at Senku’s forehead. They’re only two metres apart. He isn’t going to miss.
Senku smirks. “I would have expected as much.” In a split second, his slingshot is readied and aimed at Gen’s head. None of them even flinch. “After all, this is a game of every man for himself.”
Gen gives him a small nod in acknowledgement. “Whether you label it as a brag or purely self-deprecating, I like to say I’m the most superficial man I know.”
“I appreciate your honestly, Mentalist.”
There’s a moment of thick silence as they stare each other done, anxious to release the elastic of the slingshot.
Gen is hit in the lip. Senku gets hit right in the thigh. They both fall over, and hold their injuries.
“Sorry about that boys,” a boy in a yellow shirt jumps down from the branches of the trees. He pushes away his blonde fringe and saunters up to the targets he just hit.
So he was the one who nearly it us just now, Gen hisses in his head. He would of course talk, but his bottom lip has been split open and is already throbbing.
-
“That looks suits you, Gen-chan.” Tsukasa chuckles as Gen nears the table Tsukasa saved in the open cast dining hall.
The moment he sees the other kids ta the table, Gen wishes he was hurt worse so he would have stayed in the infirmary the whole night. But still, he sits down next to his friend, holding an ice cube in a cloth to his lip.
“I told you it would be hell,” he mumbles to Tsukasa.
Tsukasa pats Gen on the back too hard. “It’ll heal, stop being a drama queen.”
“I’m with Gen on this one actually.” Senku says from the other side of the table, with Taiju and Yuzuriha next to him. “We were hit pretty hard.”
Taiju slams his hands down on the table. “I’m going to find whoever did this!”
There’s an awkward laugh as the boy who shot them approaches the table. “That would be me.” He blushed in embarrassed. “I really am sorry.”
Yuzuriha holds Taiju back as Senku shakes the boy’s hand. “No worries, it was fair game. I’m Senku.”
“Ukyo.” He shakes Senku’s hand then reaches over and shakes Gen’s hand. “You must be Gen.”
“That’s me~”
-
After dinner is served and eaten, the table decided to play a game of cards. There’s much bickering – Tsukasa warns that no one can actually win against Gen. It’s eventually decided that they should play Snap, a game that requires no specific skills, but just luck.
Snap!” Yuzuriha slams her hand down on the pile after she spotted 3 landing on a 3.
“Well done, Yuzuriha!” Taiju yells, his eyes practically heart shaped.
Senku points to the small stack of cards in Taiju hands. “Big oaf, focus on your own losses.”
Gen figures out that Senku only said that to distract the others from his own near failure. He can easily hold his number of cards in one hand. The objective of this particular game was to accumulate as many cards as possible.
Tsukasa, Taiju and Tsukasa continued to play the game while Gen studied Senku, who was studying the sky around them.
Because they were so much further away from the city, one could actually see the stars here. But Gen knew that Senku wasn’t looking at the stars.
He was looking for the moon.
-
“Shit.” Senku’s knees buckled when he heard a sudden scraping of a door.
He wasn’t supposed to be awake let alone outside of his dorm.
But after peeking out from behind the stone bench, he saw that it wasn’t Kei but rather-
“Yo Mentalist.” He shone his headlamp right in the other boy’s face.
Gen practically sprung in the air when the beam hit his face. He nearly fell back against his now closed dorm door. He blinked and focused his vision. “Why are you out here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“I’m going to go steal salt from the kitchen.”
“Salt?” Senku stood up. “I have salt.”
Of course he does. “Really, Senku-chan, it’s fine.”
“Oh stop playing the good guy act.” Senku scooped up the notebook he had with him and waved Gen over.
Gen scurried after him, following him to the other side of the fire pit where Senku’s dorm was.
And the moment he walked into the dark dorm, Gen was overwhelmed with the scent of Senku – which could be described as chlorine and a fresh shower. It was a combination Gen never thought he would appreciate until this very moment.
“Don’t worry about waking the others, they sleep like rocks.” Senku informed Gen as he closed the door behind him and switched on a small side lamp.
“Alright~”
Before he knows it, Senku is already crawling under his own bed and drags out a box. He opens it and pulls a small jar out. Gen reads the side of the metal box.
“Senku’s Science Box?”
“Yep!” Senku beams and twist open the small jar of white powder. “This is my portable case for traveling, it carries all my essentials.”
Gen knew he couldn’t judge. He carried cards with him and psychology books. He supposed every genius needed to have their toys handy.
“Why can’t I just go to the kitchen?” Gen asks.
“Well, you’d get caught and this is pure salt. No chemicals added in factories. My old man took me to go salt panning, so this is straight from the ocean.” There’s a subtle smile tugging at Senku’s lips when he talks about the collection of salt. He pours a small pile of salt into Gen’s palm. “Put it directly on the wound.”
Gen of course, already knew what to do. But he looked so happy when he spoke about the salt, so he let him.
Gen was about to place some salt on the wound on his lip but Senku shoved him to a sitting position on the bed. He was glad it was dark because he knew he was blushing at the brief moment of Senku’s hands on his shoulders.
“Take the piercing out.” Senku casually said.
“Yes sir,” Gen rolled his eyes playfully then twisted the metal babel and pull out the rod in the middle of his tongue. He held it awkwardly in his palm until Senku found a beaker from his box and asked him to place it in the beaker.
Senku explained as he went to the bathroom and filled the beaker with a bit of water. “When Ukyo hit you, it’s likely paint and blood tainted the piercing. So I’m just going to clean it.” He sprinkled salt into the beaker and swirled it around.
Gen placed the salted pad of his finger on the wound on his bottom lip as a distraction from the fact that his heart might just explode. He winced from the instant stinging.
Senku let out a soft chuckle. “It hurts like hell, I know. But salt is more useful than for just food. It’s a brilliant disinfectant and it will numb it.”
Gen tried to smile through the pain as Senku placed the beaker with his piercing on his bedside table and sat on the bed, next to Gen. He glanced at Senku’s leg.
“You took a pretty bad hit too, Senku-chan.” He was looking at the purple bruise on Senku’s thigh.
He sighed when he looked at it. “Yeah well, there’s nothing I can really do about that.”
After a few moments of silence, Gen removes his finger from is lip. Senku sees this and grabs a tissue so Gen can wipe away the leftover salt.
As Senku gets up, Gen glances at the open notebook on the bed. It’s all equations he doesn’t understand, a completely different language to him. But he sees a sketch he recognizes. He then realises why he caught Senku outside – once again he was looking for the moon.
Gen gets up too to get his piercing but Senku cuts him off. “That will need to soak overnight, I’ll give it to you tomorrow, Mentalist.”
“Alright~” But Gen is focused on that any more. He picks up four of the scattered coins on Senku’s beside table.
“Are you going to rib me?”
But Gen just holds the four coins between his thumb and index finger and there’s suddenly a coin between each of his fingers, a slight flicker bouncing off the metal from the light.
Senku scratches his ear. “Well played, Mentalist.”
He drops the coins into Senku’s palm and slides his hands into his hoodie pockets. “I’d like to see you figure that one out.”
And with that, Gen is walking towards the door. But just before he leaves, Senku says one last thing.
“Challenge accepted, Asagiri Gen.” and he tries the coin trick but he drops them and they clatter to the floor.
Gen smirks at him. “Good luck, Scientist.”
-
“What are you up to so early in the morning?” Tsukasa asks.
Gen sits down at the table for breakfast and rest his forehead on the table. “Casual morning manipulation.”
Tsukasa had seen Gen talking to a few of the other students while in the dining hall and he had his usual smirk on his face. That morning Gen had also asked him the specifics of the Capture the Flag game he’d played the afternoon before.
“Ah I see,” Tsukasa nodded and continued eating his breakfast.
A few moment later, Taiju, Yuzuriha and Senku appeared at their table. Senku tapped the back of Gen’s head then placed a small plastic box in front of his face.
Gen lifted his head then opened the box. It was his piercing.
The cog in Tsukasa brain went haywire then. Why did Senku have Gen’s piercing? What had happened last night while he was asleep?
Gen causally noticed that there was muscle tape on Senku’s hand. He picked out the coin roll down trick last night because he knew that anyone inexperienced would strain their hand doing it. And well, Senku seemed to have strained some muscles trying it out.
“Senku-chan,” he started. “You’ll be happy to know I’ve recruited Ukyo and a guy named Chrome to help us out today.”
Senku was already stuffing his face, but he instantly knew what Gen was talking about. “Good work, Mentalist. However we need someone like Taiju with us.”
“You said Taiju! What do you need Taiju to do?” Taiju said.
Yuzuriha stroked Taiju’s arm to calm the loud boy down. “We’re not on the same team us them, remember?”
“What about him?” Senku points to someone at the table behind Gen.
Gen turns to look. “Magma? Uh . . . ha . . . I guess he could work.”
-
Tsukasa finally has a chance to ask Gen after the black and white haired boy has put his piercing back in after breakfast, while they’re getting ready back at the dorms. “What did you do with Senku last night?”
“We just talked.”
Whilst he doesn’t think he’s lying, he has a feeling there’s more. “So much talking you had to talk your piercing out?”
Gen is silent then realises. “No! No! It’s not like that at all!” he sighed. “We were just talking and he insisted on cleaning my piercing for me. That’s all.”
“Yeah sure.”
“I’M NOT LYING.”
-
“Split up to two teams-” but before Kei could finish her sentence, Senku grabbed Gen, Gen grabbed Ukyo, Ukyo grabbed Chrome and Chrome tried to grab Magma, but he was actually just weakly tugged.
They didn’t need anyone else on their team, so they were fine with the other strangers that drifted towards their side.
“Your flag must be visible,” Kei goes on. As she talks, Gen takes the square stretch of blue fabric he was given as the flag and ties it around Senku’s neck, making sure the other team sees this action. “Victory is only achieved when the enemy’s flag has been brought back to your base. Capturing the other team’s members is allowed so long as they are not harmed.”
When they were given a few minutes to find their assigned base, they huddled under the wooden platform built around the trunk of a thick cedar tree.
“Senku-kun, why do we have the flag on your neck?” Chrome asked.
“We’re going to make them think they have the upper hand, that they have control.” Senku said as he climbed onto the platform.
Gen explained. “By tying our flag around a moving target, they’ll think we’re doing it as an act of safety, but really, we’re doing it to spite them. Because we will be successful.”
-
Ukyo jumped down onto the platform after being up in the tree branches. “Chrome has been captured.”
No one gasped when they heard this. They all knew it was part of the plan.
“Good. Now we wait.” Senku ducked down so he was no longer seen by the other team across the bushy clearing and was hidden by the wooden railing.
“But shouldn’t we go save him?” Magma asked.
Senku frowned at him. “They’re not going to kill him!”
“Magma, darling, think back to what I said earlier.” Gen said. “Now that they have one of our team members, they think they have the upper hand. We’re going to proceed to do absolutely nothing, irritate them, make them think we’re scared to attack. When we’ve waited long enough, Magma and the others will attack and Ukyo and Chrome will retrieve the flag while they’re distracted.”
Magma crossed is arms. “And what are you gonna do?
“Nothing.” Senku asked.
“You’re not even going to sugar-coat it?” Gen whispered to Senku.
Magma’s eyes twitched with frustration But Senku went on before the yelling began. “I’ve already done my job.”
And with that, Senku lies down and gets comfortable.
-
The sun was starting to set. Senku had been quietly sleeping for a while when Gen shook him awake. They’d waited long enough.
Ukyo nodded at Gen and the others and began climbing his way through the branches while Magma and the others went on foot.
Gen and Senku watched from the platform around the tree.
They watched as the other team across the clearing spotted their on foot attack. They were surprised of course and left Chrome alone by their tree trunk. Chrome took the opportunity and snatched the flag from its low hanging tree branch. He was halfway across the clearing, red flag in hand when someone tripped him.
A tall blonde girl held him down by the shoulders.
“Oh.” Gen said calmly.
Chrome flayed and struggled under the girls hold. But out of nowhere, Ukyo swooped down and grabbed the flag and sprinted towards the base.
Gen saw Senku grit his teeth in anticipation.
Ukyo swung down from a tree and jumped onto the platform. He held up the red flag.
“We did it!” Senku called out to everyone else with a wide smile.
Gen could see how happy this victory had made Senku. That made Gen smile even more.
-
“So Mentalist,” Senku asks as they’re walking from the cedar forest. “How did you convince Ukyo and Chrome to work with us?”
Gen, with his hands in his pockets, explained casually. “Ukyo was really upset over what he did to us, so I said we’d forgiven him if he helped us out. And Chrome, he seems to be a fanboy of yours, so I promised him that you’d be his friend.”
Senku chuckled lowly. “Making promises without me there, I see? Slimy bastard.”
He shrugged playfully.” You don’t seem to mind.”
He scratched his ear. “No, I don’t. If Chrome wants to learn more about science, I’m happy to help him.”
Gen smiles then looks at Senku’s taped up fingers. “The coin trick not treating you well?”
Senku looks at his fingers like he complete forgot. “I’m not going to try it anymore. That’s just takes practice, I want to try something that requires talent.”
“Talent, you say? Like card shuffling?”
The two still linger at the back of the group as they approach the dining hall for supper.
“No more fancy card tricks. I know you’ll kick my ass.”
Gen is a little shocked to hear that someone is actually okay with admitting they’re unable to do something, sure, he’s seen many people do it but it’s always sarcasm, anger or self-deprecating. But Senku states it as exactly what it is – a fact.
Gen pretends to think, as if the idea hadn’t shot into his instantly. “A card game?”
Senku mulls over it. At first he thinks that Gen would slaughter him in card games but he remembers that a lot of card games require logic and maths – his speciality.
“Alright, Mentalist. You’re 10 billion percent on.”
-
Gens shuffles the cards without even looking, keeping his eyes on Senku, who sits across from him at the now cleared dinner table. “Do you know how play Cheat?”
“Of course it’s called that.” Senku shakes his head. “I don’t.”
Gen cuts the card stack in half. “We each get half. Only you should see them. For example, I’ll put down one face down and I’ll call out the rank. If you think I’m lying, tell me to flip it over. If you were right and I was lying – I take the cards. If you were wrong and I wasn’t lying, you take the stacks. The objective is to lose all your cards.”
And Senku isn’t too worried – he can just count the cards called out. It’s completely mathematical. “Sounds fun.” He takes the half of the pack Gen slides over to him.
As much as Gen enjoys hanging out with the rest of the people in their group, he’s glad they’re not here. If Tsukasa watched from behind, he would give away his hand with body language. Everyone else is talking amongst themselves.
Senku puts down the first card. “Three.”
Gen puts down a card face down in Senku’s. “Two.”
Senku pulls another card from his hand. “Three.”
“Two.”
Senku smirks. “Flip it Mentalist.”
Gen sighs and flips the card he just put down. He had lied. Gen adds the few cards to his hand.
-
He’s winning. Senku’s wining. He can easily hold his small number of cards in his one hand.
But his luck runs out.
“King.” Senku says.
Gen casually makes a flicking motion with his fingers. “Flip it over, Senku-chan~”
Damnit.
Gen looks at the flipped over card that now sits face up on a fat stack in the middle of the table. “A six? Not even close.”
“You just got lucky.” Senku takes the pile and now has to hold his cards with two hands.
-
But the game gets progressively worse for Senku.
He has 43 cards in his hand. Gen has 9.
It’s not like Senku has a problem with memorising cards. Because what he doesn’t have, Gen has. But he’d have to figure out if Gen was lying-
Fuck. Gen was reading his tells.
And Senku knew he was a shit liar.
“Nine.” Gen says, placing a card down.
Okay liar. “Flip it.”
And he was telling the truth.
Soon Gen is down to two cards. He knows it’s an ace and a four. But he doesn’t know which of the two he puts down.
And then there are no cards in Gen’s hands.
He stares, hoping it’s a trick of the eyes. But no, Gen has beat him.
Senku can’t help but smile widely and laugh quietly.
When Gen sees him laughing, he gets anxious for a second. Senku could technically be considered a mad scientist and could murder Gen and easily get aw-
“Well done, Mentalist.” He says, meeting his eyes.
Something about those three words hits Gen hard. People always tell him he’s a terrible, person- something you’d scrape off the bottom of your shoe, or ‘too young to be this manipulative’. Or they tell him how wonderful he is. But there’s something different about this. He realises it’s because Senku is his equal and that this boy truly means it.
Senku puts down his cards and stands up and holds his hand out across the table. Gen shakes it firmly.
Still shocked, Gen starts packing away the cards.
“How’d you do it?” Senku asks, not out of spite or anger, but just curiosity.
But as he explains it, Gen feels bad. And he can’t understand why. “I lied from the beginning. Never told the truth. And I started telling the truth at the end. I played on your paranoia.”
And after few seconds of taking it in, Senku is grinning again. “Shit, nicely played.”
His words, they’re so genuine.
-
It’s they last night at this place. It’s Gen last night of being so close to Senku. He goes over his ridiculous plan once more in his head as he quietly pulls on boots and a black sweater. He leaves his dorm and crosses the fire pit.
And when he opened the door to Senku’s dorm, he can smell him again.
Senku is sleeping on his back. His hair is still standing up, Gen notes. For a brief second he wants to touch Senku’s face, maybe even lay down-
No.
So he just taps his shoulder. Senku stirs and blinks at Gen in the dark before he croaks out. “Mentalist?”
“Put some shoes on, Senku-chan~”
“As much as I enjoyed it, I don’t want to play another game of Cheat.”
He enjoyed it? “Just do it.”
So Senku puts on some sneakers and a jacket and they sneak out the dorm and leave the firepit.
When they’re far from the students quarters, Gen grabs Senku‘s wrist and tugs him towards the cedar forest.
“Mentalist, what are we-”
“Shh!”
They enter the dark forest and scamper over rocks and twigs, giggling and hushing each other like young boys sneaking out of their room to get sweets from the kitchen.
Gen is so glad he remembers where it is. They make it through the forest and start up a hill with trees thinning out.
“We’re here.” Gen whispers even though they’re far from the actual camp.
Senku looks around then he looks up. He looks up and gasps.
He’s seen the moon hundreds of times but this is – this is raw, no light from the city or pollution. Just a naked full moon looking down at them.
Gen speaks to break the silence. “I’ve seen you looking for it, so here.”
He takes a few steps away so that Senku can be with himself and the moon.
But then Senku starts taking steps to the side. In no particular direction as the hem of his HunterXHunter pyjama pants drag on the grass
Senku glances at Gen. “When I was younger, I used to think the moon was following me, like I was special in some way.” He snorts at the memory. “But I know that that isn’t true. It was nice though.”
“What was nice Senku?” Gen asks because he adores the look on Senku’s face and the soft, nostalgic tone of his voice.
Senku still stares at the moon. “It was nice to know that there was something constant, something always there.” He then looks down and bites his lip. “That sounds stupid and lame.”
Gen just smiles at him. And the smile is real. No more lying.