I'll Go Down First

"If only I had silver acupuncture needles. With those, saving people would be much easier," Chen Yu said, looking at Senku.

Senku did not turn around, but he took note.

This was something Chen Yu was asking him to make. After all, Chen Yu's greatest strength was his medical skill, specifically traditional Chinese medicine, passed down for thousands of years in that great Eastern nation.

Western medicine was impressive too, but it still fell short of traditional Chinese medicine.

In this primitive society, traditional Chinese medicine was practically unbeatable.

"I'll make them for you when I get the chance," Senku said, finishing the revival fluid.

"All right, let's hurry. We need to revive Yuzuriha before Tsukasa gets back," Senku said solemnly.

The other two followed him.

Senku and Taiju led the way, with Chen Yu following behind. Whenever they passed useful medicinal herbs, he would stop to see whether he could take them along. If not, he memorized their locations. With his extraordinary brain, he had nothing to fear.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Tsukasa was on the move.

Tsukasa placed a shell necklace around the neck of a girl about his younger sister's age.

Then he looked at the other stone statues.

He crushed the statues of the elderly outright.

After throwing them all into one spot, he turned and left.

This world needed a fresh start.

"Yuzuriha, sorry for the wait. I... I..." Taiju stammered as he looked at Yuzuriha before him.

"What a hassle." Unable to watch any longer, Chen Yu took the fluid and poured it over her.

"Shouldn't we make this a little more ceremonial?" Taiju asked in shock.

"When someone comes to kill you, are you going to tell him, 'Let me prepare a little ceremony first. Once I'm done, I'll run away, and then you can come after me'? Does that make any sense?" Chen Yu gave Taiju an exasperated look.

Afterward, he noticed the long-handled weapon nearby.

He walked over, picked it up, and hefted it.

Too light. Too brittle.

Senku noticed what he was doing and chuckled inwardly. Interesting.

Chen Yu paid no attention to Senku's lengthy scientific explanations, but the repeated cracking of the stone statue meant their future mainstay-Yuzuriha-had revived.

"Yuzuriha, can you hear me? Yuzuriha?" Taiju called her name.

Newly revived, Yuzuriha heard Taiju's voice and opened her eyes. "Taiju?"

Hearing her voice, Taiju burst into tears.

He had waited five years before finding the courage to tell Yuzuriha how he felt.

Then petrification had struck, and he had waited another thirty-seven hundred years. It had been far too hard.

Chen Yu noticed the cracks on Yuzuriha's body. It seemed everyone who was petrified had cracks after being revived, though those petrified for only a few hundred years apparently did not. Being petrified and revived over a short period would also erase previous cracks.

He had always looked forward to the petrified world, and the cracks they bore after revival had always featured in his memories, so he had not paid much attention to them.

He did not even know where his own cracks were.

Finally, after Yuzuriha and Taiju finished discussing the petrification, they were about to say something more when Senku interrupted.

"Sorry to interrupt your reunion, but we have only two options right now. We need to pick one."

Looking at the three of them, Senku continued, "Plan A: Taiju, Yuzuriha, and Chen Yu, you leave immediately and live somewhere else. With Chen Yu around, barring any major danger, you should be able to live out your lives in peace.

"Plan B: we all fight together and use the power of civilization's weapons to stop Tsukasa's plan to kill people for the sake of his ideal world."

"There's nothing to think about. Of course we'll fight together! Don't underestimate me, Yuzuriha, or Chen Yu, Senku," Taiju said immediately.

As Taiju's sense of justice blazed, Yuzuriha nodded beside him. "I don't know what's happened, but I'll help too."

"What about you, Chen Yu?" Senku asked, looking at the silent Chen Yu.

"Me? I'm sitting this fight out. I can't bring myself to hurt either side. One side is my friend, and the other is my friend too. I can't hurt either of you, and I don't want to see you fight."

Chen Yu said, "If I get involved, whichever side I help, I'll be hurting the other person's feelings."

Chen Yu stepped up to Senku, glanced at Yuzuriha, then at Taiju. "Let me borrow a little of your time first. Hold out your hands."

Senku: "⊙ω⊙"

Taiju: "⊙ω⊙"

Yuzuriha: "⊙ω⊙"

All three looked confused.

Still, out of trust in Chen Yu, they held out their hands, and he checked their pulses one by one.

"Just as I thought," Chen Yu said, looking at the stone on Yuzuriha's toes and the way Senku kept twisting his neck.

Chen Yu examined the patch of stone on Senku's neck.

He told the three of them, "Senku probably already knows a little about this. When petrification is undone, illnesses inside the body are eliminated too, leaving it healthy. That means you're in the most danger, Taiju." As he spoke, Chen Yu swallowed a medicinal herb.

Taiju: "(　ﾟ皿ﾟ)"

"Me?" Taiju asked, pointing at himself.

"Yes. Both Senku's neck and Yuzuriha's foot still have pieces of stone that haven't come off. From your pulses just now, I could also tell that the three of you used to have some minor ailments, but they're gone now. In other words, as long as some petrified areas remain, another dose of revival fluid may repair damage to the body. But the body has to remain intact."

"For you two, the most important thing isn't beating Tsukasa. It's... fooling him."

"Fooling Tsukasa?" All three were stunned.

"Even if you can't beat Tsukasa, you have to fool him into thinking Senku is dead. As for why Senku, well, he's Tsukasa's greatest enemy. So do your best not to let him catch on," Chen Yu said with a casual laugh.

"Got it. Leave the rest to us," Taiju said, pounding his fist into his palm.

Senku looked at Chen Yu, who had worked all this out. That's just like you, you medical genius.

"Looks like someone's here. I'll go down first." With that, Chen Yu collapsed.

The three stared at Chen Yu on the ground without saying a word.

"Chen Yu!!!" Suddenly, a voice rang out behind them.

They turned and saw Tsukasa.

As Tsukasa looked at Chen Yu lying on the ground, his face filled with fury.

"Run!!" Senku shouted.

The other two snapped out of it and instinctively ran.

Tsukasa ignored the fleeing Senku.

Instead, he examined Chen Yu on the ground.

He was breathing, his complexion was normal, and his mouth smelled of medicinal herbs. He was probably unconscious.

Tsukasa looked at the herbs on the ground nearby and tasted a little. They were bitter and made him feel dizzy.

Chen Yu had probably fainted after eating them.

Presumably, he had swallowed them because he did not want to take part in the war between Tsukasa and Senku.

After all, Tsukasa knew Chen Yu very well.

He did not want to see his friends kill each other. In that case, Tsukasa would have to use gentler methods.

His only target was Senku. Once he eliminated him, everything would be over.

(I don't know what's going on, but I can't see the comments. The data says there are comments, but they don't show up in the backend, so I can only log into Fanqie to look through them. Xinghe Aha is my account. My writing isn't very good, so please bear with me.)