The break

Li Xiang quietly watched Tsukasa Shishio beside her.

Over the time they had spent together, she had rarely taken a proper look at him.

Only now, looking at him up close, did she realize how long his hair had grown. His thick black hair hung loose over his shoulders, completely untended, lending his already sharp, stern features a lonely, desolate fragility.

What held her gaze most were his pitch-black eyes.

All that remained in them was a stubbornness rooted deep in his heart, impossible to pry loose.

It was an utter loathing of the old world, and an almost fanatical obsession with his ideal new one.

Li Xiang sighed softly. Her voice was gentle, but utterly sincere.

"I understand you, Tsukasa."

She turned toward the boundless darkness in the distance, looking out over the pristine wilderness where everything had been reset to zero, and spoke slowly, almost to herself.

"This world was never fair."

"So often, the people who do evil know how to hide their flaws, put on an act, and exploit loopholes in the rules. Those truly selfish, greedy, rotten people can always disappear into the crowd and live out their lives in peace."

"But the heroes who mean well and give quietly are always forgotten by the public, misunderstood by public opinion, and worn down by reality."

A trace of coldness flickered in Li Xiang's eyes. "Honestly, I hate that kind of world too."

"I've imagined the new world you talk about countless times too. No scheming, no class oppression, no corrupt control by seasoned manipulators, no silent suffering for the weak."

"Everyone young, untainted, and hopeful. Everyone able to make a decent life through their own abilities."

Tsukasa stiffened slightly and looked up at her, a rare glimmer of light appearing in his eyes.

At last, someone understood him.

She did not think he was extreme or insane. She genuinely shared his disgust and understood what he longed for.

But in the next moment, Li Xiang changed tack.

"But Tsukasa, the world you're imagining is a utopia."

"It's too beautiful. So beautiful it isn't real, like an entirely imaginary dream. The moment you try to make it reality, it's doomed to collapse."

Tsukasa pressed his thin lips together and watched her silently, waiting for her to continue.

"You want to eliminate all the rotten elderly people, all the adults with evil intentions, and leave only the young and able-bodied."

Li Xiang looked at him helplessly. "Then let me ask you: what happens in a few decades?"

"The young, able-bodied people of today will grow old too. The untainted young people of today will develop selfish desires and become corrupt too."

"What do we do then?"

"Suicide? Murder? Or do we make a law that says everyone must be executed at a certain age to maintain your so-called 'eternally young world'?"

Her questions came one after another, gentle yet sharp, piercing straight through the greatest flaw in his ideal.

Tsukasa's pupils contracted slightly. For a moment, he was speechless, unable to argue.

Perhaps he was only thinking of ending the darkness before him. Had he seriously considered how the future would come full circle? Perhaps he had, perhaps he had not. Either way, it was all his own thinking.

Li Xiang continued softly, "Nature has its own laws of survival. Cycles, succession, birth and aging. No one can break them."

"While we're alive, we can certainly use our strength and our will to keep society stable and preserve its purity for a time."

"But what happens after we die? The world will keep turning, and humanity will keep reproducing."

"New villains will be born, new oppression will emerge, and new corruption will spread across the earth again."

She slowly rose to her feet. The evening breeze stirred the hem of her clothes. Her voice was light, yet carried the weariness of someone who had seen through the world.

"Do you know the only way to eliminate ugliness forever?"

"Kill all of humanity."

"End human reproduction completely. No more new life, no more cycles, no more conflict between good and evil."

"In the end, we humans are ourselves pests that constantly breed desire, selfishness, and greed."

A shudder ran through Tsukasa, and he froze completely.

Seeing the bewilderment in the boy's eyes as his convictions crumbled, Li Xiang softened. She lifted her hand with a small wave, rested her palm on his head, and kept ruffling his hair, as though soothing a child trapped in his own stubborn thinking.

"You're still young. You've experienced too little. Don't put every burden, every right and wrong in the world, on your own shoulders."

"Don't overthink it. Go on, it's late. Get some sleep."

She did not keep arguing, nor did she try to force him to change his worldview.

Some obsessions could not be talked away with a few words. He could only work through them himself, little by little.

Tsukasa remained where he was, motionless.

The evening wind blew bleakly through the deep night. He sat there quietly, going over every word Li Xiang had said, again and again.

The illusion of utopia...

He understood all her reasoning and knew that everything Li Xiang had said was right.

But the obsession in his heart still refused to yield. Reason was reason; obsession was obsession.

He had seen his sister's desperate helplessness and the ugliness and corruption of adults. He could not get past that barrier in his heart.

He still could not accept Senku reviving all of humanity and letting the filth and darkness of the old world begin all over again.

He sat there for the entire night.

The darkness faded, the sky gradually paled, and a pearly glow spread across the horizon as the first light of dawn reached the mountains.

At last, Tsukasa slowly stood. The confusion in his eyes faded, replaced once more by resolve.

He had understood every word of advice, but he still chose his own path.

He would not abandon his desire to reshape the world. At daybreak, Tsukasa Shishio went alone to find Senku.

The forest was quiet and cool in the early morning, with only the two of them standing face-to-face.

Tsukasa's expression was impassive. "Senku."

"I will kill you."

"To stop you from restoring that rotten old world full of oppression, and to protect the untainted world I want."

"The next time we meet, I'll kill you with my own hands."

Senku had long anticipated this day. His expression was calm, as though this were nothing unusual, without a trace of surprise.

From the moment Tsukasa's vision of the world had diverged so completely from his own, their opposition had been inevitable.

After saying his piece, Tsukasa did not linger. He turned and left without hesitation, heading deep into the forest entirely alone.

When everyone woke and learned what had happened, silence fell over the entire camp.

Taiju looked stunned, disbelief written all over his face.

Only Li Xiang held her forehead and let out a long sigh, with nothing left in her heart but endless exhaustion.

It really was too exhausting.

Reasoning got nowhere, and persuasion changed nothing. Their worldviews were fundamentally incompatible; sooner or later, they were bound to become enemies.

Once an adult's obsession or a boy's stubborn fixation took root, no one could pull them back.

The mountain forest remained lively during the day. Everyone worked as usual, gathering supplies.

The bustle continued all day long.

Before long, night fell again. As the hours grew late, everyone settled down, and all was silent.

After washing up, Li Xiang lay back down on her bed in the girls' cabin.

The bedding was soft and comfortable, and her surroundings were frighteningly quiet.

She lay there silently, staring up at the wooden cabin's ceiling, her mind a tangled mess.