Back in the present, Taiju and Yuzuriha watched Senku, just as Senku had once watched Taiju with hope in his eyes.
At that moment, they spoke the same words.
"I believe in you. I'll keep waiting for you. I can't do this without you. Wake up, Senku/Taiju."
With a clap of thunder, the downpour finally stopped.
Taiju gazed at the clearing sky and murmured, "The rain... stopped?"
"The thunderstorm that covered our tracks and scent has stopped. Keep your voices down. If Tsukasa hears us, he'll come straight over and kill me again, won't he? I don't have any petrified patches left on me now. There's no way to revive me."
Senku's voice suddenly rang out.
Hearing it, the two nervously scanned their surroundings. Their terror of Tsukasa still lingered in their minds.
But once they realized whose voice it was, they froze for a moment, then looked down at Senku lying on the ground, overjoyed.
"Looks like Chen Yu was right. Still, even without his advice, you would've done this, right, Taiju? After all, I gave you those hints more than once or twice," Senku said.
"Ah, well... neither of us remembered. We just did what Chen Yu told us to do. Haha... (〃▽〃)" Yuzuriha admitted sheepishly.
Taiju couldn't bring himself to look at Senku either.
Senku: (・・)
"What? So without Chen Yu, you two really would've thought I was dead?" Senku exclaimed in shock.
"Uh... well, I don't know. Maybe? Haha..." Taiju said sheepishly.
"Seriously... Still, I believe in you. After all, you know me better than anyone, Taiju." Senku covered his forehead and tossed out the remark casually.
That only made Taiju feel more embarrassed. He really hadn't known, after all. He wasn't the one who did the thinking.
In the end, however, Yuzuriha made Senku a makeshift brace anyway, disregarding his comfort, and fastened it around his neck. If it caught on something and got pulled, it might well strangle him.
"I really miss Chen Yu. He'd definitely make me a brace that actually worked," Senku said.
Yuzuriha gave it a hard tug, and Senku didn't dare try any more little schemes or tricks. She was the only one he could rely on now, after all. With Taiju, he'd be lucky not to get strangled.
But after carefully assessing how he felt, the brace didn't seem to be doing much. The healing effect of depetrification must have been pretty good. Still, he didn't dare say so, having just annoyed Yuzuriha.
"Then, next, we'll..." Senku said, looking at the two of them.
Meanwhile, Chen Yu was working with the medicinal herbs in his hands. Seeing Tsukasa soaked to the skin, he stood and handed him a clean set of crude clothes.
"Dry yourself off. Don't catch a cold. You'll recover, sure, but it'll be a pain to deal with." With that, Chen Yu went back to his work.
"He didn't suffer, did he?" Chen Yu asked once Tsukasa had finished.
"No. He didn't suffer at all." After answering, Tsukasa couldn't bring himself to look at Chen Yu.
After all, having one friend kill another would be painful for most people.
"In that case, what do you plan to do, Tsukasa?"
"Purge the parasites of humanity," Tsukasa said firmly.
"It's a fine ideal, but it'll be a lot of trouble. Haven't you thought about that?" Chen Yu gave Tsukasa a reproachful look.
"Why?" Tsukasa looked puzzled.
"For us right now, purging them is as simple as not reviving them. But giving people the lives they used to have won't be easy. And you killed the one person who could've put us ten years ahead. In other words, we'll have to start from scratch and work our way through five thousand years of human civilization," Chen Yu said, looking at Tsukasa.
After all, of the four great ancient civilizations, only the great nation in the East had survived. As people who came later, they could skip unnecessary stages of history and progress quickly. But that would still require plenty of people with highly specialized talents. If they relied only on those uncivilized brutes, who knew how long development would take?
After hearing that, Tsukasa immediately felt a little regret. I should've squeezed everything I could out of Senku before getting rid of him.
"All right, stop thinking about it. You know the formula, right? We should start reviving our people. Go ahead, revive them, and bring them here so I can examine them. Ideally, revive your fans, or some female celebrity you can control. Then get her under your control and revive her fans." Chen Yu said nothing more after that, while Tsukasa rose to head to the Miracle Cave, prepare the mixture, and begin his plan...
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