"Anyway, I'm gonna leave the village for now." Gen said, turning his back. "If a non-participant outsider is here, well that'd make the guard, Kinro, look bad. As for my business, we can have a nice chat once the village is yours, Senku-chan."
"Aah, you got it." Senku replied.
"Bye-bye, Gen-nii! I'll see you soon!" Hoshi waved her hand.
Gen waved back, but he didn't say anything.
"We now move to the semifinals' second round, Senku versus Ginro! Both of you, step forward!" Jasper announced.
Once Jasper finished, Ginro immediately smacked Senku with his stick, luckily Senku dodged it.
"What the heck's gotten into you, Ginro?!" Senku yelled.
"I mean... Ruri-chan said she's okay with anyone! That means me too! I could be the chief! The reign of Ginro has come!" Ginro held the stick while chasing Senku, making Senku to avoid him.
Kinro nearly fainted from his brother's attitude, "Ginro, you swine!"
"He's such a scumbag!" Kohaku said.
"If I'm the chief, we can have all the ramen we want! And harems! Anyway, the village is gonna turn super cool!"
"Ew..." Hoshi cringe at his words.
'One thing is clear... Ginro is the one guy who must never become chief.' The villagers thought at the same time.
"We have to beat the scumbag here and now!" Kohaku exclaimed. "But there's no way Senku can win!"
Hoshi noticed Chrome was reaching for the melon, she squad down and grabbed it.
"Senku, science is our weapon!" Chrome used his last strength to yell as Hoshi threw the melon under Senku's dress.
Senku smirked as an idea came into his mind. "Oh fine." He put his stick on the melon.
"Woah! You're planning to use some crazy sorcery, aren't you?!" Ginro asked. "I won't let you do it!"
Using a little strength of Senku's, he steps the end of the stick and hits Ginro's balls.
"That must be hurt, but oh well." Hoshi shrugged.
"Winner: Senku!" Jasper announced. "Ginro's down!"
Everyone cheered.
"Now we can turn the village into a kingdom of Science... And we can save... Ruri..." Chrome said and fall unconscious.
"Alright, now's left you and me." Senku said. "Now I just need to lose on purpose, and Chrome you'll marry Ruri and become the village chief." He chuckled. "Happily ever afters all around! Get up and-"
"Senku, wait. Something's not right." Hoshi checked his pulse, "he's chonck out."
"He must be mighty relieved to know that Ruri-nee's going to be all right." Kohaku said.
"Wait..."
"The new village chief, husband of the priestess... Is the winner of the Grand Bout, Senku!" Jasper announced.
Everyone gasped at the news.
Senku picked his ear, "well, this is a pain in the ass. So I just have to marry Ruri, and the whole village is mine, right? I'll do it, then." He walked towards Ruri.
"Senku's married!"
"Hold it, Senku! Where do you even come from? I won't allow an outsider to become the chief!" Kokuyo exclaimed.
"Oya, oya, if it isn't the former village chief. I don't have millimeter of interested in your lack of approval." Senku smirked.
The audience was confused who to side with.
"Whatever. A win is a win. Wine! Bring me wine!" Senku smirked.
"That's too blunt!" Kohaku said.
"You sound like one of those people!" Kaseki said.
Two villagers grabbed 3 jars of wine. The villagers saw the wine turned into vinegar. "This barrel's no good. It's turned into vinegar."
"Don't chuck it! We need that, too!"
A sound of coughing came from Ruri as she cough out blood.
"Ruri-nee!" Kohaku worried.
"Looks like we need to hurry." Hoshi glanced at Ruri.
"Yeah." Senku said, and turned to others. "Let's head back at finish the sulfa drug-"
"Hold it!" Two villagers stopped him. "Where do you think you're going? You're the guest of honour."
"Come on, have a drink!"
"We're drinking through the night to celebrate. It's tradition."
"Ugh... This is why I hate wine." Hoshi grumbled.
"Oh, really? I'm divorcing then." Senku bluntly said.
"Senku got divorced!"
"Hahaha! I got a ton of alcohol and vinegar!" Senku laughed as a hand grabbed Kaseki's hood, another hand grabbed Hoshi's hand. Kohaku at the back carrying the 3 pots of alcohol and vinegar. "Let's haul ass, citizens of the kingdom of Science!"
"Let's go finish the sulfa drug!" Hoshi yelled in excitement.
"Since when am I a citizen of the kingdom of Science?!" Kaseki asked.
"Sorry Ruri-nee! I'll explain later!" Kohaku exclaimed.
"That man is utterly insane!"
"This is bullshit! Capture them!" Kokuyo yelled.
Kinro and Ginro step up. "Senku and Hoshi are not evil. Please let them explain for themselves what the sorcerers- I mean, science users have been risking their lives to do for the past half year what I've seen them do." Kinro said while Ginro nodded at the back agreeing his brother's words.
~~~
Later that day, Kohaku, Suika and Senku brought the unconscious Chrome in the lab. Senku gets two sticks that reeks of ammonia and put into Chrome's nose, causing him to awaken from the smell.
"How'd you like that ammonia alarm clock?" Senku smirked. "C'mon! Wake up and help us! The science team's got work to do!"
'Poor Chrome...' Hoshi thought.
"We'll be done as soon as we mix the ingredients together. The cure-all sulfa drug will be ready by tomorrow!" Senku said.
"Tomorrow?!" Chrome exclaimed.
"That quick?!" Hoshi added.
"First we'll make burning rocks, called coal-"
"Burning rocks?!" Chrome ran back to his shed as he cut off Senku. "Leave it to me! I've got some in storage!" He widened his eyes as he saw it was empty.
"We already used all of that to make iron." Senku bluntly said.
"Yabeee!"
Hoshi followed and watched them do science.
"Don't worry about it, we can get more of the tiny coals you found basically all over that mountain." Using the bamboo spikes part to get the side of the coal. "Either way, what I want isn't the coal itself. It's the byproduct, coal tar." Senku put the coal tar in an apparatus. "Put it in hydrochloric acid, then put in ethyl acetate from alcohol and vinegar, and we got aniline!"
"Wait, wait, wait! I've already got tons of questions!" Chrome asked. "Is this step one? How many of these complicated steps are there? You said tomorrow."
"Let's see... There are about 25 steps." Senku casually said.
"Yabe..."
"So many..."
They made it until night with no rest at all.
Hoshi yawned, "I think I'm going to hit the hay. Don't stay up too late, get some rest."
"Goodnight, Hoshi!" Chrome waved his hand while still looking at the chemicals.
~~~
The next morning, Hoshi got up and went to the waterfall to check on Gen and Kaseki. Kaseki had fallen asleep in the middle of waiting, looks like they take turns watching the bamboo.
"So what's this even for, anyway?" Gen stood in front of the bamboo. "Can't I just look inside already?" He noticed Hoshi came and waved. "Morning my little star! How was sleep?"
Hoshi yawned and greeted back. "Morning Gen-nii! I slept fine last night. You probably can take it out now and pour it here." She pointed the flask on top of the stone.
"Okay~" Gen poured carefully, he saw the bubbles in the water and realized. "Wait, is this..."
[Obtained carbonated water!]
"Huh, so this is carbonated water." Hoshi looked at the water and grabbed one of them while Gen grabbed another one. "Let's go back to the lab."
Gen looked at the water and looked back at Hoshi. "Is it possible we're making...?"
Hoshi looked at Gen with a smile, "huh? We're making sulfa drugs, of course. But I know you want cola." She chuckled.
"You know me so well, Hoshi-chan." Gen smiled.
They make it back to the lab.
"Senku-chan/Senku!" Gen and Hoshi called at the same time.
"We brought back the..." Hoshi widened her eyes as she saw the mess. "Oh my god what happened here?!"
Gen picked up a piece of material on the floor. "Was there an explosion? That's pretty wild, man!"
"How'd things get like this?" Hoshi sighed as she passed the flask to Gen and went to Senku to pull him up.
"Oh, it was nothing big. We took vinegar-baked shells, added our glacial acetic acid, made it into ketene with a pipe, then turned it back to acetic anhydride." Senku explained.
"O-Oh, really?" Gen sweatdropped.
"Then we put the acetic anhydride over our aniline, but added too much at once, and kaboom."
"That explains the debris." Gen said.
"If we mixed our hard-earned acetanilide with chlorosulfuric acid, making para-acetamide-benzene-chlorosufonic acid, the cram in some ammonia, making para-acetamide-benzene-sulfonic acid amide, which is cooked up in hydrochloric acid, making that." Senku explained.
"I'm amazed you could even say those words." Gen looked at him sweatdropped.
"I don't even know what is that." Hoshi deadpanned.
"Finally, that seltzer!" Senku said, pointed at the flasks on Gen's hands.
"That's right! Senku-chan, could it be for...?" Gen passed to Senku.
"Yeah, when you think carbonation..."
"When you think carbonation...? Gen asked.
"You think of mixing it with sodium hydroxide to make baking soda!" Senku quickly cut off the moment by pouring it into the beaker.
"Of course you do." Gen smiled. "Yeah, baking soda. That's what I was thinking."
"Pfft-" Hoshi laughed. "Poor Gen-nii."
"Cut it off, Hoshi-chan!" Gen whined.
~~~
"Step 25, you clean this stew with baking soda, and then wait." Senku said.
"It was a long road." Chrome said.
Thinking back the memories of hard work had paid off.
"It was a crazy six months." Hoshi smiled.
"Sulfanilamide, also known as... The cure-all sulfa drug! We've made it!
"Hell yeah!"
They cheered in excitement.
Kohaku looked up at the sky, "finally... We can finally save Ruri-nee..."
"Save your tears, Kohaku. Wait until after she's cured." Senku smirked.
"I wasn't crying!" Kohaku objected.
"Too bad. I can't come in, so I can't see the all-important medication scene." Gen said.
"Kukuku, you can wait all by your lonesome at the lab." Senku chuckled as he walked in the village with Hoshi and Suika.
"Gen also worked really hard for this. I feel bad for him." Suika frowned.
"No need to be sad, Suika." Hoshi smiled as she patted her helmet. "We did get him something in the lab, after all"
A bottle of cola waiting for him.
The five of them reached the Priestess's place where Ruri, Kokuyo, Jasper and Torquoise were waiting for them. Senku reached out the bottle of sulfa drug and poured onto a leaf.
"Ruri, you can rest easy! That medicine is a powder of life, born from stone!" Chrome said. "Science cure-all drug! It'll knock your illness right out!"
Kohaku nodded her head agreeing Chrome's words.
The three primitives watched Ruri sat down on a round chair.
"Senku, lemme do it." Hoshi tapped his shoulder. "I don't think you know how to feed someone."
"Alright, you do the honours." Senku shrugged and passed it to her.
Hoshi sat beside Ruri and lifted the leaf up to her mouth to let the medicine fall into her throat.
'It's a showdown between an unknown bacterium and 2 million years of science.' Senku thought.
After Ruri finishing her medication, she smiled.
"Well, now I can finally take a look." Senku said as he walked behind Ruri and took out a beaker. "It's time for your diagnosis. Say eee!" He placed the beaker behind Ruri's back, causing her shock at the sudden touch.
"It's okay Ruri, squeeze my hand if you feel uncomfortable." Hoshi grabbed her hand.
Ruri nodded and held back Hoshi's hand as she say 'eee'.
'It sound like a bleating goat. That means there's water in her lungs.' Senku thought as he diagnosed her. He turned back at saw a dead rat on the floor.
"So, what's the diagnosis?" Hoshi asked as he watched Senku grabbed the dead rat. "Oh, Ew rat."
"We'll discuss this back at the lab."
Hoshi sighed and turned back to Ruri. "If you cough more violently than other time, please tell Suika." She turned to Suika, "Suika, help us look out for Ruri for a short time, alright? Anything happens tell us."
"Suika understood!" Suika smiled.
"Alright you mother hen, we're going back now!" Senku yelled as he picked his ear with his pinky finger.
"I'm not a mother hen!" Hoshi yelled as she stood up and catch up to him.
~~~
"What are you doing, Senku-chan?" Gen asked. "Why the rat?"
They went back to the lab as Senku put the dead rat on the table. He had finished tying up his hair and a cloth covering up his mouth.
"Are we eating it?" Kohaku asked.
"That's the first thing you come up with?" Gen sweatdropped.
"Hey, even I don't eat rats."
"Oh, good."
"Normally."
"Oh. Normally, huh..."
"I don't think we're eating rats." Hoshi chuckled awkwardly.
"Kukuku, they're a great source of protein. But I'm sorry to say we're not eating this one." Senku said. "It's an autopsy." He grabbed the knife and cut the rat body open.
"Inflammation throughout the lungs. This is definitely bacteria. It's infecting the rats, too." Senku observed. "The question is what variety it is. We called it a cure-all, but it has limits. It's not like it can ten billion percent kill any bacteria. If she has pulmonary tuberculosis... if it's a tuberculosis bacteria... We have no chance of winning."
"T-There's trouble!" Suika ran back with tears in her eyes. "Ruri-nee...! She's..."
The six of them quickly ran back to the village to check on Ruri.
"Ruri/Ruri-nee!"
Senku realized the situation is and kneeled down. Kohaku and Hoshi looked back at him with confusion.
"Senku, you bastard!" Kokuyo grabbed Senku's neck, causing them shock by his actions. "It's the medicine fault! Otherwise Ruri's condition wouldn't be this bad!" Kokuyo exclaimed.
"Calm down you old man!" Hoshi yelled at Kokuyo. "I did mentioned if she cough more violently than other days, tell us immediately! Did you not hear me when I fed the meds to her?! This is totally a normal healing for a patient!"
"Hoshi's right." Senku said. "The bacteria's gotten serious, putting toxic genes into the harmless bacteria around them, trying to spawn more friends." He kneeled down in front of Ruri to confirm the situation. "That's streptococcus pneumoniae-sama special skill. Which means her illness is..."
"Pneumonia." Hoshi finished his words as she turned to Senku.
"Just pneumonia. That's all. An illness that's killed hundreds of millions. But our sulfa drugs can murder streptococcus pneumoniae! Humanity's science has won this fight!" Senku held out his fist in victory. "Now that we know what it is, it's no threat! We just have to keep cramming in the drugs!"
"You're giving her more?!" Kokuyo was going to punch Senku, luckily Kohaku stopped him. Hoshi quickly pulled Senku to the other side.
"Father! This is no deceptive sorcery! It's science! The culmination of human knowledge! I believe in science! In Senku and Hoshi!"
"Yeah, and so do we!" Chrome added.
Kinro, Ginro and Suika nodded at the same time.
"I suppose I do, too." Kaseki pointed to himself.
"Well, that escalated quickly." Hoshi muttered.