"Hey!" And there the meathead was, breaking that tense silence. He had a jar of something in hand as he ran towards them with a bright smile on his face. "Awesome news, you guys! Check this out! You see? I got a whole pot full of miracle fluid from the cave! And that means we can use this stuff to finally bring back Yuzuriha!"
The face Senku had on was not one (Y/n) would be able to describe. Oh how she wished she had a camera to capture this priceless moment. Guess this is one moment she wished she had her phone. She'll have to have Senku make camera's the priority at some point so she could capture moments where his face were indescribable. That, and she'll need it for when she starts to remake biology textbooks. Those are going to be essential for when she is gone.
"Huh?" Taiju looked at his friend, unsure of what that face and sound was for.
"So what's the 'miracle fluid' you're talking about?" Tsukasa asked.
Senku forgot the taller man was there for a moment, before he looked at him. He chuckled, cracking his neck. "I won't waste my breath trying to explain the science behind it. Showing you will be ten billion times faster. I hope you realize what an honor this is. You're getting to witness humanity's revival firsthand."
Back at camp, (Y/n) had just put the last finishing touches on Yuzuriha's outfit, making sure there wasn't going to be anything unnecessary showing.
"Quite impressive (Y/n)," Tsukasa complimented. "You're not only talented in the science of biology and botany, but you also know how to make clothes."
"I only know how to do stitching," She brushed off the compliment. "Making clothes is not easy for me, so you'd have to thank Senku for the clothes."
"Still, your stitching is quite impressive," Tsukasa walked over to Yuzuriha's statue with (Y/n), taking a close look at (Y/n)'s stitching work. He was behind her, leaning down with his face next to hers. "It's just as good as your mothers."
"My mother was the head doctor." The closeness of Tsukasa's body made (Y/n) uneasy. She stayed quiet, unsure of what was running through Tsukasa's mind. For all she knew, she might be held captive any second, or he was going to kill her. No, if he was going to purge the world of adults, he would need her. There are medical students around, she knows that, but without being able to find any without an informant, she's vital to him to make sure he and whoever else he brings back, stays alive. Besides, she knows the miracle formula, Senku would almost be unnecessary. Almost.
"Hey, (Y/n)," Senku called over to his friend. (Y/n)'s body posture and the slowness of her work told him she was uncomfortable. "Come over here, you forgot to put the scarf around her neck."
"I did?" She looked at Yuzuriha's neck, seeing she had indeed forgotten the scarf. "I did. Sorry Senku."
"Can't be losing your head now doc," Senku walked over and gently took (Y/n)'s wrist into his hand, dragging her away from the muscly man. "Come on, the string I gave you for the stitching started to break down, so I'm going to need you to redo it."
"Oh, sorry," She mumbled, and climbed up the tree house to grab the scarf and check the stitching work. "I'll be right back."
"You two are close," Tsukasa said, noticing how Senku and (Y/n) clicked, almost like two puzzle pieces that were meant to be in a 2 piece puzzle. "Have you known each other for a while?"
"We've known each other since elementary school," Senku cracked his neck. "Same with the big oaf, but (Y/n) came first. I found her reading a biology book during recess, and we just started talking."
"You sound as if you are in love," Tsukasa teased. "Don't tell me you've become so impressed by her, you've fallen for her."
"Love is illogical," Senku rolled his eyes. "My only love in life is science. (Y/n)'s only love in this world is biology. Don't even think about interpreting our relationship as anything but."
Tsukasa simply chuckled.
Hopping out of the tree, (Y/n) punched her friend in the arm. "The strings were fine. I think you're the one who's starting to lose their head."
"Ouch..." Senku groaned.
(Y/n) wrapped the scar around Yuzurihas neck, a small smile creeped up on her face. "There we go. Now she looks presentable."
"Okay, Yuzuriha," Taiju was the happiest to see his crush could finally be resurrected. "I promised we'd save you, and it's happening for real this time."
Senku was filtering the liquid through some rocks and sand to make sure they got the pure contents they needed, with (Y/n) looking over his shoulder. "The hell? For some reason, we don't have enough revival fluid for even one person."
"Crap!" Taiju felt stupid. "Did I really get it too soon?"
"Just grab some more." Senku stood up and looked over to his brown haired friend. "We'll hang back and play 20 questions or something while you're gone. But do try and make it quick, would ya, big oaf?"
"Of course!" Taiju held that positive smile on his face once again. "Be back before you know it! Full steam ahead!"
Tsukasa stopped Taiju by grabbing him from the back. "I'm the fastest, so it makes more sense for me to go. But I'll need to know exactly where to find this 'miracle fluid'."
Senku chuckled.
"Do you want me to tell him where it is?" (Y/n) asked her green haired friend.
"Yeah, if you don't mind." Senku said.
(Y/n) gave him directions to the cave, waving goodbye to him.
With Tsukasa gone, Senku stayed near the filtration device with (Y/n) making sure all the filtered fluid came through with Taiju still near Yuzuriha.
Senku stretched his arms over his head with a loud yawn. "Tsukasa's gone, isn't he?"
"Yeah," Taiju turned to his friend. "Like a bolt of lightning. Never seen a guy move so-- uh!"
Quickly, Senku and (Y/n) got to work on making the revival fluid. (Y/n) poured in the alcohol while Sennku poured in the cave water.
"Let's make some revival juice!" The pressure of time was starting to get to Senku. With how fast Tsukasa ran, there was no doubt he may have already found the cave and is starting to make his way back. "We'll bring her back A.S.A.P. Before he has a chance to return."
"What's going on?" Taiju asked, not understanding the thought process between the two geniuses. It was almost as if they had a psychic link sometimes, that's at least how Taiju saw it. "You literally just said there wasn't enough revival fluid!"
"Do you really believe I would set out a collection pot that was the wrong size?" Senku asked while mixing something in their laboratory.
"No, you wouldn't!" Taiju was surprised it took him this long to realize that Senku in fact, wouldn't do such a thing. "Then why did you send Tsukasa out to get some more?"
"It's a calculated risk," Senku looked over his right shoulder to the meathead. "I wanted him gone before we revived her. Even if it meant revealing the location of the cave."
"Why would you want to get rid of Tsukasa?" Taiju asked, a little worried now. "He's like, totally awesome."
"That's why," (Y/n) came into the laboratory to gather some of her herbs. "Tsukasa wants to make this world in his own image, where only the strong survive. That kind of thinking is not the good kind of thinking. Building civilization sounds more like something that would get Senku excited though."
"Yeah, ok," Taiju understood the severity of the situation now. "No need to explain. It's cool. I trust you and Senku to make the right decision. Something happened while I was gone, huh?"
Neither the scientist nor the physician could look Taiju in the eye right now. They had witnessed a murder on that beach, and because people could not be brought back from the dead, that person was gone, for good.
"Your right," Senku decided to speak first. "Shishio Tsukasa is an awesome guy, who happens to be a murderer."
"You got everything you need doc?" Senku asked, looking over at (Y/n), who was just packing up the last of her herbs.
"Yeah," She nodded, counting how many gauzes and wraps she had. "I have some room left in my backpack if there's anything you think I should carry."
"I'm good for now, but once we start gathering more materials, your backpack is going to come in handy," Senku chuckled. "How are you feeling?"
"Honestly, kinda scared," She fastened the bag closed. "But if we're going to bring back humanity, our fight or flight instinct needs to be on flight right now. If we fight, we're as good as dead."
"Maybe me and the big oaf," Senku cracked his neck. "But you aren't. You're our first aid, and Tsukasa would need you to keep him and the other meatheads alive. You're the closest thing we have to a doctor right now, and they can't afford to get sick if they plan on keeping the strong alive to reproduce."
"That may be so," She flung the bag over her shoulder. "But I'd rather die than keep that murderer alive."
"Don't go talking about dying so soon," Senku patted (Y/n) on the back of her head gently. "If you die now, how are we supposed to work together when I go into space?"
"Please, I'd be on the ground while you go up," She laughed a little, knowing her friend was trying to lighten the mood. "Besides, you'd be up in space with some of the best people in the whole world, there would be no need for me to monitor you."
"I only trust you doc," Senku shook his head. "You're the only one I'd go to or trust to monitor me in dangerous situations."
"You put too much faith in me," The physician remembered a small promise she and Senku made when they were much younger. "Now then, let's wake up our crafts woman."
"Yuzuriha," Taiju once again stood in front of his crushes petrified statue. "Sorry to keep you waiting, but I'm here. Just like I said. I'll help you." Taiju was slowly getting to the part where he was supposed to pour that revival fluid on her. Something he should've done a good while ago.
Senku ran over to the meathead with (Y/n) not far behind. Though, Senku looked like he was ready to pass out. He really is bad with stamina. "Did you forget we're in a hurry, ya big oaf?" And he forced the pot of fluid on Yuzuriha, with Taiju feeling like his thunder was stolen.
"You just dumped it?" Taiju looked at his friend with big eyes. "We should be more like, you know!"
"You can have your romantic moment of being the first one he sees!" (Y/n) caught up to Senku. "But we really are in a rush right now Taiju, and I do not feel like having you or Senku as my very first patients, so can we please hurry this up?!"
It didn't seem like the stone was cracking.
Taiju began to panic. "Wait, why is nothing happening? Don't worry, Yuzuriha, it's fine! Is this fine, Senku?"
"Well, the reaction isn't instantaneous," Senku looked over to his other petrified friend. " The petrification is much like cryostasis. The stone shell acts as a protective coating made from trace metals in the body. An unknown process caused them to phase shift, and they took on a petrified state."
Oh how (Y/n) wished she had a camera to take a picture of Taiju's face. Admittedly, he looked like a frog. A squashed frog to be exact.
"You lost me, Senku!" Yeah, a squashed frog would be the right words (Y/n) could find to describe Taiju. "It's so complicated!"
"That's just a theory for now," (Y/n) stepped in. "Sadly this theory is only based on about a year's worth of experiments and data, and with something as complicated as this, a year is only one data point for us. We're gonna need a lot more data points."
"Anyway," Senku said. "My point being. If just one part is exposed to the natal and begins to break down, it initiates a chain reaction that ripples across the organism's body. And the petrification is undone."
Slowly but surely, Yururiha's body started to break free from the stone. Cracks upon cracks went from her head down to her toes, and she broke free, falling into Taiju's awaiting arms.
To (Y/n), it all looked like a scene from a cheesy romance movie or TV show. To Senku, was all of this really necessary? No, not really, but let the lovebirds have their moment.
"I feel like throwing up." (Y/n) mumbled, her back to her friends to give them a little private moment while Senku just looked away.
"And you told me to be nice when it comes to romance," Senku chuckled. "What happened to that feeling doc?"
"It went away after witnessing it." She mumbled.
Senku simply chuckled before he broke up the little love fest. "Pardon the intrusion in your big moment, but you need to make a decision before he gets back. There are only two options, so choose carefully. Plan A: the two of you run away this instant with (Y/n) and find a new place to live. The farther the better. Plan B: we join together and fight to stop Tsukasa's murder spree, using the weapons of civilization."
"Come on, man!" Taiju yelled at his friend like he was some sort of idiot. "Obviously, we'll stay and fight by your side! I mean really, what kinda people do you think we are?"
Yuzuriha stood up and nodded in agreement, even though she had no clue what the heck was going on. "I have no clue what's going on, but I'll help however I can!"
"And here I thought Taiju was the meat head," (Y/n) gently chopped Senku on the top of the head. "You're so dumb if you think I'm gonna leave you alone. If that happens, who's gonna treat you when you get injured? I know it's not gonna be Taiju and I know Yuzuriha does not have any knowledge on medicine and barely enough on the human body. So for once, you're the meathead, Senku."
"That is so like you to be insulting me in a moment where we are short on time," Senku chuckled before turning back to his two other friends. "I'm not making any assumptions or trying to be nice. It just seems logical to give you the chance to flee. "
"Listen, Senku!" Taiju yelled to make sure his words got through to his green haired friend. "If Tsukasa is killing people, we've got no--"
"So I'm 'killing people'?" Tsukasa's voice broke through.
Crap. They've run out of time.
"Huh," Tsukasa stood behind Senku with the lion coat in one arm, and a pot of the cave fluid in the other hand. "I'd say that's a matter of perspective. I'd call it culling them. For the benefit of the new world." He tossed his lion coat on the ground with the pot of fluid, and slowly started walking towards the other 4.
Taiju stood in front of them with one arm out, protecting his friend. As for (Y/n), she grabbed a stone knife she kept on her waist, and stood next to Taiju. Out of the four main characters, Taiju and (Y/n) would have the best chance of fighting. Taiju because he's got a lot of muscles and a high pain tolerance, and (Y/n) because she has more stamina than Senku and more strength than Yuzuriha.
As Tsukasa walked towards them, he opened his right hand, and shards of a person's eye fell, staring right at them. Taiju gasped while (Y/n)'s body stiffened.
"Senku, if things go bad, please take care of Yuzuriha," Taiju spoke, still facing the 18 year old man that was still walking towards them. "I'm gonna stop him! Right here and now!" And he charged in.
"Don't just charge in you idiot!" (Y/n) yelled and tossed her bag to Yuzuriha. "Take care of that for me!" And she ran in too, making sure Taiju would not be fighting alone.
Senku was not happy with this outcome. He grabbed the bow from one of the pots, and fired the arrow. It whizzed past the two, with Tsukasa grabbing it out of mid air and throwing it to the ground, before doing a couple of spins and kneed Taiju in the back of the hand while punching (Y/n) in the stomach. Those hits sent both of them in two separate directions, with Taiju standing and (Y/n) clutching her stomach as she rolled a couple feet away.
"Crap..." She coughed, feeling like the wind was knocked out of her.
"(Y/n)!" Yuzuriha yelled, worried because her friend wasn't moving.
Tsukasa was surprised when he saw Taiju still on his feet. "Nobody has ever taken one of my kicks full force and remained standing before. It's true, but what's even more interesting is the feeling I get that you actually refused to attack me just now. I can say the same for (Y/n) considering she had a knife. Why is that?"
"I don't hit anyone!" Taiju yelled. "And for (Y/n), she's not violent! She heals, not hurts! You can hit me or kick me or whatever the hell you wanna do! But I'm tellin' ya! You gotta stop breaking those statues!" For some reason, Taiju opened up the chest area and showed off his pectoralis major. "Because killing is wrong! End of story!"
Yuzuriha did not know how to feel seeing Taiju open up his shirt like that, she had kinda forgotten (Y/n) was still on the ground. As for (Y/n), she did not want to look, feeling like if she did, she'd be very uncomfortable. Senku had the same weirded out face as (Y/n), only he was witnessing this.
Tsukasa crossed his arms. "Taiju, let me make sure I understand you. You'll let me pummel you as much as I like so I stop breaking those statues. That's what you're saying, right?"
"Yeah! Exactly!"
Tsukasa covered his mouth before sighing. He removed his hand, confused. "I don't understand. You aren't making any kind of deal."
"That's the wonder of Taiju," (Y/n) coughed, slowly sitting herself up onto her feet, clutching her stomach. He didn't punch her hard enough to break anything, but she definitely is going to remain bruised. Guess he would have to keep her alive if (Y/n) were to join his side. Since she has the most medical knowledge, breaking one of her bones isn't going to benefit him. "He's got a good head on his shoulders and a kind heart. But also, no brain in that cranium."
"Hey!"
(Y/n) ignored her friend and slowly walked over to Yuzuriha, giving her a reassuring smile. "I'm alright, thanks for looking after my bag."
"Don't do something like that again you idiot!" Yuzuriha whacked (Y/n) on the head, but not hard enough that it would hurt. "What do you think we'd do without you! Especially Senku! You know he doesn't work well if you're not around to correct him!"
"Ok ok," (Y/n) laughed. "I'm not going anywhere any time soon."
"But if you insist on getting in my way--" Tsukasa ignored the little yelling escapade between the girls.
"I don't care how many times you wanna come at me!" Taiju yelled. "I'm not gonna stop trying to stop you!"
"That girl you just revived," Tsukasa's attention was now on Yuzuriha, who luckily, was not whacking (Y/n) anymore. "What if I told you I'd kill her instead?"
(Y/n) quickly put her arm out to shield Yuzuriha while Taiju just looked at him with a sharp glare, standing in front of his crush and the physician to keep both of them safe.
Taiju groaned for maybe a second, before he suddenly passed out and fell on the ground, unconscious, his eyes completely white. He looked dead if (Y/n) was going to be honest.
"Huh?" Yuzuriha looked down at the boy she likes. "No! Taiju!"
"Looks like that hit really did hurt him," (Y/n) crouched down with Yururiha to get a closer examination of her friend. "He's bleeding from his head. He'll need maybe 2 days of rest and he'll be right back to his usual yelling self."
"Yeah," Tsukasa said. "So let's not fight each other. You just protected your girlfriend and quit worrying about some random statues. Meanwhile, I will do what I need to do. Stay out of my way" And off he went.
(Y/n) grabbed some gauze from her backpack, and placed it on Taiju's head to help stop the bleeding and make the blood clot faster. That, and touching someone else's blood without any sort of protection isn't the safest idea, so the next best thing is to clean it up. Gloves will have to be the next thing (Y/n) asks for so she could wash and disinfect them if she has to handle blood in the future. She had some makeshift wraps, and wrapped it around his head to hold the gauze in place.
Senku looked at the arrow that was stuck in the ground, a impressed by Tsukasa's power. "That arrow I shot was moving at over 200 kilometers per hour."
"That's crazy," Yuzuriha looked at the arrow as well. "He just grabbed it."
Senku stood on Taiju's side, and started kicking the poor guy. "Nap times over!"
"What are you doing?" Yuzuriha asked as she watched him kick her crush. "(Y/n) said he needs a few days of sleep!"
Senku had a smile on his face, not the nice kind, but still a smile. "Give me a freakin' break! Is this it? You're just gonna lose that easily, ya big oaf?"
He suddenly snapped out of it, and he was back to normal. "No way! Not me!"
"I swear you are not a human," (Y/n) said. "With a kick like that, you should've stayed unconscious for a couple of days. A hit like that to the cranium isn't good."
"Cranium?"
"She means your head."
"Ah." Taiju stood up, looking like he was better.
"Are you really ok?" Yuzuriha asked him.
"I'm made of stronger stuff than that!" Taiju yelled.
"You're definitely made of something," (Y/n) stood up too. A sadistic smile started to creep up on her face, one that resembled Senku's sadistic smile. "What that is, I'm not sure. Maybe I'll dissect you and figure out why you recovered so fast."
"No please dont!" Yuzuriha yelled. Whenever (Y/n) or Senku got that face, it meant something unpleasant was running through their head. When both of them have the same face, you might wanna run. "We don't have the right technology to keep him alive if you were to do something like that!"
"Dang."
"I'm somehow crazy full of energy!" Taiju lifted his arms in some sort of victory pose.
"Thank goodness." Yuzurih sighed in relief, turning her attention away from the physician who was slowly bringing one of the stone hammers out to try and knock Taiju out to dissect him, but was swiftly stopped by Senku, who only chuckled at her antics..
Taiju gasped, his mind now focused on the issue at hand. "We gotta stop him! Before he can murder anybody else!"
As Taiju made a break for it, Senku grabbed him by the belt and leaned his bodyweight backwards to counteract Taiju's strong muscles. Though, it was surprising to (Yn) he wasn't being dragged with Taiju.
"Wait, ya big oaf!" Senku yelled.
"I won't give up that easily!" Taiju kept trying to run after Tsukasa but he was still being held back.
"Don't you understand what just happened?" Senku had to get his body weight even further back since Taiju was even more determined to go after Tsukasa. He looked over to (Y/n) for help. She lifted up the stone hammer, but Senku shook his head. Without being able to knock him out, she just shrugged her shoulders. She didn't have any plants to knock someone out, so she was useless right now. "He showed us we can't stop him with brute force!"
When Senku let go, there was a sudden snapping sound, which was probably Taiju's belt snapping back after being stretched. Taiju suddenly stopped running, understanding where Senku was coming from.
"Still, we gotta do somethin'." Taiju had his eyes closed while his arms were crossed, thinking.
Senku walked over to where the arrow was and pulled it out from the ground, examining the tip. "In this stone world, there's only one sure-fire path to defeating a monster. Advancing civilization, and crafting weapons of science."
Inside the tree house, Senku and (Y/n) started smashing some of their clay pots that luckily didn't have anything in them. Both were stomping on the pieces to make smaller ones.
"Uh, that seems wasteful." Yuzurih said, watching as the two geniuses continued to break things.
"The heck are you two doin'?" Taiju asked.
"We're staging a scene, isn't it obvious?" (Y/n) asked. "It will make it look like we were panicking cause he freaked us out so badly, so we had decided to just grab some food and run."
"Whaddaya mean by that?" Taiju's tiny brain was not understanding. "Are we really gonna give up?"
"No, but it'll look like it," Senku said, chuckling. "If we can make some weapon of science before he realizes what we're really up to, then victory is ours. But if he gets wise to us? Game over. The race is on, you guys."
So what did they do? Everyone was carrying the supplies, whatever they could. Taiju was carrying the weapons with the other two carrying whatever supplies they needed. As for (Y/n), she was carrying her medical supplies, along with one of the spears with a stone knife she used earlier.
"We're gonna hunt for materials to make weapons!" Senku was imagining them all going across Japan to find the materials they would need. "Starting at Hakone! Just think of it as a big, 80-kilometer adventure!"
"That's like two full marathons," Of course Taiju compared the distance that was given to something he would understand, sports. "We can knock it out in five hours."
"That's if Senku has the stamina for even 5 kilometers." (Y/n) whispered to her longer haired friend. Both walked behind Senku and Taiju, letting them talk about whatever they felt like while they enjoyed each other's company after 3,700 years.
Yuzuriha giggled softly.
"Maybe a freak of nature like you can." Senku mumbled.
Pink petals started falling in front of them, catching Yuzuriha's eye. She held out her hand as they passed by, what it seemed to be, a cherry blossom tree. "The cherry blossoms seem different somehow."
"The ones we're used to, called Prunus yedoensis aren't self-pollinating trees," (Y/n) explained. "That means they had died a very long time ago."
As they walked through the woods, they came up upon a cliff where they could have a birds eye view of how the world changed around them, it almost looked like something from a fantasy movie or novel. Unsurprisingly, Senku was tired while the other three had a lot of energy left to walk. At this point, the physician might have to drag Senku the rest of the way.
"Man, what an amazing view!" Taiju held one hand above his eyes to keep out other distractions as he looked at the natural view of the world.
"It's perfect." Senku took out a tool from one of his pouches.
"Uh," Taiju smiled stupidly while pointing to the tool in Senku's hand. "What's that thing? A scope?"
"A sextant," Senku said, left eye closed with the right eye focusing. "It's been 35,970 seconds since sunrise."
"You just spit that number out like it was no big deal." Yuzuriha was surprised to hear how easily that number rolled off Senku's tongue.
"How is that surprising?" (Y/n) asked. "When he was still petrified, he had counted the seconds of when he petrified, along with calculating how many years had passed along with what the season was."
"A sextant is supposed to tell you your exact location based on the time," Senku kept calculating their current position, but he deflated a little when he realized things were not going his way. "Unfortunately, this one seems to be total garbage. But without GPS, this is all we've got."
"If I were to take a guess, we should be around Kamakura," (Y/n) walked over to her friend and took the sextan from him, and started her own calculations. Dominant eye open, she tried to measure their current location. "Wow, you're right, this one is garbage, and you usually don't make things that don't work, so this is new. Anyways, without knowing our exact coordinates, it's gonna be hard with navigation."
"Think there're still any buildings we can use as landmarks?" Taiju asked while looking around for any signs of buildings that they once knew or were landmarks from their time.
"They've all crumbled after this long," Senku said, looking down below them. "There's nothing left."
Yuzuriha seemed to have realized something, and she started running in a different direction. The others followed her, Senku behind her, (Y/n) and Taiju in the back.
"It looks like there's some kind of clearing in the trees up ahead!" Yuzuriha ran into the open field, surprised to see something from their time still there. "Kamakura's landmark's still standing."
Taiju laughed in happiness upon seeing something so familiar to the four of them from their old world. There, in the middle of the clearing, stood a Buddha statue.
Senku was ecstatic to see something that can pinpoint their exact location. "Our current location is 25 degrees, 19 minutes north by 139 degrees, 32 minutes east."
"It's quite amazing to see something still standing after so long," (Y/n) mumbled, staring up at the landmark that was a popular tourist attraction before the petrification. "How interesting."
Yuzuriha's eyes filled with tears, remembering everything from their past. With how much had happened within a single day, things started to dawn on her and reality started to set in.
"What's wrong Yuzuriha!" Taiju noticed his crush crying, and started to feel like he had done something wrong. "Did someone make you cry?! Was it me?!"
"I'm not crying!" Yuzuriha stopped Taiju from possibly blaming himself. "I mean, I am, but it's not that kind of crying, 'cause it's not anybody's fault, okay? It's just... this is a lot for me to handle. I haven't been up for a full day, and none of this feels real to me yet. But seeing the great Buddha of Kamakura like this makes me realize that we really are in Japan, and thousands of years have passed by without us. I thought about my mom, and my dad, and everyone else, and I just..."
(Y/n) smiled a little and gave her friend a side hug. "Hey, it's alright. We're awake, and we're living. What matters now is that we all stay together and get through this. We're bringing everyone back, so eventually, everyone and everything is going to go back to the way it was."
Yuzuriha gave (Y/n) a hug, thankful to have a friend like her who can comfort her.
Senku chuckled before facing to the right from the Great Buddha. "C'mon, there's nothin' to worry about. We're gonna beat Tsukasa before too long, then saving humanity is right around the corner."
"Senku's right, ya know!" Taiju cheered, trying to cheer up his crush. "Thank the Great Buddha here for showing us the way! He's still standing strong after thousands of years just like a god! Hm? Or like a Buddha. Well, anyways, it's a true inspiration!"
"Oh." It dawned on (Y/n) why that statue wasn't gone.
"What's up?" Yuzuriha asked, pulling away from the hug and drying her tears.
"Now I get why the statue is still here," (Y/n) laughed softly. "Took me a hot minute."
"Did you really forget that the statue is made outta bronze?" Senku asked, facing the physician with a gloating smirk on his face.
That earned him a kick to the back.
"Hm?" Taiju asked his red eyed friend, not understanding what Senku and (Y/n) were getting at.
"The chemical compound's resistant to corrosion." Senku said, rubbing his lower back where there was an obvious shoe print of where (Y/n) kicked him.
"Look though!" Taiju stood in front of the statue with his arms out. "There's no trees or plants or anything growing around the Buddha! Kinda like he wanted us to find him so he made it super easy!"
"That's cause it's leaking copper ions," (Y/n) said while crossing her arms and gave that 'duh, obviously' look at her brown haired friend. "Those are toxic to many kinds of vegetation."
Senku hit his palm with the inside of his fist, an idea coming to him. "That gives me an idea, though! We'll use bronze to make mirrors!" Senku ran over with his stone axe, a crazy look on his face, one that (Y/n) has seen far too many times in her life. She learned to just accept it. "Time to give my crappy sextant an upgrade! I just need some of this, so..."
"No, stop!" Taiju yelled as Senku hacked away, running over to try and stop his friend from causing anymore damage to the statue. "Ah! That is like, so wrong! Don't hurt the great Buddha!"
"You're too superstitious!" Senku continued hacking away. "He'd want us to survive anyway! I believe in science! We need the resources, you dumb ox! Don't you wanna live?"
Yuzuriha laughed softly, making a small smile creep up on (Y/n)'s face. The mood changed greatly just by Senku being Senku. It's something he may not realize he does, but with how he is, he can light up a room without knowing it. Though, in (Y/n)'s opinion, when he does light up a room, she compares him to a tiny candle. A really, tiny, candle.
The sun was going down, Taiju walked in front with Yuzuriha not too far behind him. As for Senku though, he looked like he was dying, so (Y/n) was holding onto his hand and practically dragged him with the rest of the group. They did take a break to eat something, with Senku dead, Yuzuriha and Taiju were in charge of food while (Y/n) did a little exploring to see if she could find any more plants she could use for medicine. They ended up eating some kind of stew with fish, Yuzuriha being the last one to eat since she was serving.
"Hey Taiju," (Y/n) sat closely to the meathead. "If you don't tell Yuzuriha how you feel soon, I might take her away from you."
"What do you mean!?" Taiju yelled, now fearing Yuzuriha will start dating (Y/n), and there was no way he was gonna let (Y/n) steal his crush away. "Don't you dare!"
"Hey, if you didn't like her, she would've been mine a very, very, long time ago," (Y/n) sipped on her soup. She wasn't lying though, she did like Yuzuriha around when she had first met her. But, after seeing that Taiju liked her, and she liked him (along with her showing no interest in girls), (Y/n) backed away. Besides, she did feel a little something towards a certain red eyed boy, but there was no way she was telling anyone about that. Does she still like him? Maybe, maybe not. Both of them have a love for something else, they didn't think about loving another person. Oh well, she'll just have to see in the future if she feels those butterflies in her stomach come back. "Better make your move, meathead."
It was late at night, with Yuzuriha already asleep. Taiju, Senku, and (Y/n) were the only ones awake. Senku was in his sleeping bag while (Y/n) wasn't, since she wasn't feeling particularly cold just yet.
"What are you doing?" Senku asked the muscle-brained boy.
"Guarding us against predators," Taiju held one of their spears in his hands as he was standing guard. "And Tsukasa might come after us, too."
Senku simply smiled as he realized Taiju was being the amazing friend he is. "Sorry, man, but if the lion killer finds us, we're screwed. So stressing about him is illogical."
"Hm?" Taiju looked over his shoulder to the scientist. "Seriously?"
"Just go to sleep," Senku was back to having his annoyed face on, laying down with his back to Taiju and facing Yuzuriha, who had her back to him. "You need rest to do your job, ya big oaf."
"He's right," (Y/n) nodded. "Lack of sleep can cause drowsiness and impact your brain in negative ways. Besides, this is the time your body needs to recharge and continue growing. We may be over 3,700 years old, but our body's were in a cryostasis, meaning we didn't age or grow, and we're not finished until we're about 21-25, so you really should rest Taiju."
Taiju just nodded, and started getting himself ready for rest.
The next morning, Taiju was just full of energy, even yelling. Why was he yelling? Well, they had to travel down stream, and to make it faster for all of them, Taiju was pulling the little makeshift raft while the other three kept them away from shallow rocks and helped push forward.
Senku chuckled, watching his determined friend pull all three of them with their supplies. "Looks like our big water buffalo is actually struggling a little bit."
"Don't worry about me!" Taiju yelled, determined to keep them moving away from Tsukasa. "I got this! There's still plenty of juice left in the ol' tank! We'll be just fine. Uh. Hey, Yuzuriha, your toe is still kinda rocky-lookin'."
"Yeah, I know," She laughed nervously. "Not gonna lie, it's not great. But I don't want you to worry about me."
"But I am worried, tho--" He was cut off when he suddenly went under.
When they parked along the shore, they decided to take care of Yuzuriha's petrified toes. Taiju poured some of the revival fluid on her toes, the familiar cracking sound indicated it worked.
"It's cold!" Yuzuriha squealed. "Feels like the pain is finally starting to go away."
"Whoa!" Taiju was fascinated to see that even though part of her foot was still petrified, they could de-petrify it. "Does the revival fluid have some kinda healing power, too?"
"Though that would be amazing," Senku cracked his neck, something (Y/n) has been noticing happening for quite a while. "It's just cracks filling in. Another part of the de-petrification process. I mean, we're still alive, even with these cracks on our faces."
Everyone started looking at the cracks on their bodies, with Senku and Taiju's being on their face, Yuzuriha was on her arm. As for (Y/n), she wasn't sure where her's was. It wasn't anywhere noticeable with her current attire on, and he didn't see it on the front of her body when she first woke up. Her guess, it's somewhere on her back.
"So let's keep going, shall we?" Senku started the walk to where they needed to go. "Soon we can soak in some real rejuvenation fluid."
"I just remembered something that's in Hakone!" Yuzuriha looked over to the physician, a bright smile on her face.
"Oh yeah." (Y/n) remembered too, a smile growing on her face as well.
The sun was starting to go down, with Yuzuriha and Taiju in the front leading them up to higher ground. Once again, (Y/n) was practically dragging her scientist friend up, since he looked like he was about to pass out, and that was something none of them wanted.
"Ah!" Taiju was ecstatic to see something all four of them would be really happy to see. "We made it to the goal, guys! Hot springs here we come!"
"Wow," Yuzuriha looked at the landscape around them, before her eyes fell onto something Japan is quite known for. "And the view of Mount Fuji is incredible!"
"It's great, yeah," Senku huffed. Ok, maybe (Y/n) is going to have to issue a doctor's orders with how low Senku's stamina is. Seriously, she's seen babies have more stamina than him, newborns to be exact. "But you two better not forget the real reason that we traveled all this way."
"So what's this 'weapon of science'?" Taiju asked, looking back at the green haired boy.
Senku smiled, feeling excited to explain. "Oh, just one of the greatest inventions in human history."
"Smartphones?"
Whack.
"Ow!"
"You do love your smartphones," Senku remembered. That was the first thing Taiju suggested to be the most important thing they needed when they had first woken Tsukasa up. "Wrong. The gun. We're gonna make some gunpowder. The stone age was two million years ago. Gunpowder was invented fairly recently, in comparison. About 700 A.D. Basically, we're gonna warp ahead 1,998,700 years. A giant leap in civilization. Time to get excited, you guys." Senku started using his stone hammer to hack away, gathering as much sulfur as one of their bags could carry. "Lucky for us, Japan is full of volcanoes. Go to any hot spring and there's a plethora of sulfur just waiting to be taken. And that's the main component of gunpowder. We're about to create our ultimate weapon against Tsukasa. Some black powder should do the trick just fine."