"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH?! everyone shouted.
"Let natural science prevail! There's no fancy science to sidestep natural reproduction," Senku said, "We can't artificially produce human beings, and if we don't reproduce, mankind will fade. It's that simple- even Kohaku would be able to comprehend-"
He paused for a moment, breaking up his sentence. He managed to keep talking a moment after stopping, but his reason for accidentally stopping was clear. Silently, the group ignored the moment.
"Any one of you simple-minded primitives can fathom that," he finished. "Since means of reproduction shouldn't be a mystery to any of you, I can spare the tediousness of explaining every bit of it to you."
He looked at everyone and noticed just how red their faces were. Yuzuriha and Ruri were the reddest, while the American was the most normal looking. Being the one to remind Senku of the solution, she wasn't too embarrassed or fazed.
"B-b-b-but!" Chrome stammered, "Y-you don't serious mean that a-all of us have to have-have-have real, living, human babies, do you?!"
"Dang straight I mean it," Senku replied.
"Then that would mean..," Yuzuriha murmured shakily, "...that we would have to do...you know...the thing."
Taiju, who still had his arm around her, became extra red and steamy. He inched slightly away from her, stiff as a block of wood. Ruri crept away from him as he had moved closer to her in the process.
"B-but who would we...do it...w-" Yuzuriha continued. Senku cut her off quickly.
"I'm going to let everyone decide how they're going to carry that part out," he said. "The manner in which it's done is irrelevant, so long as it happens. Choosing your own partner will avoid a whole lot of awkwardness and the boatload of emotional stuff that comes with it."
The causality of his voice was appalling. Then again, this was Senku speaking. After quite a while of everyone standing there and staring at him with blank stares, he spoke up again.
"May I suggest something?" he said. He didn't wait for a reply before he turned around and bluntly said, "How about you get married and then start reproduction. Then it'll be even less awkward for you guys."
"'You guys'?" Chrome mocked, "Whatyda mean by that?! Are you not participating?!" He seemed confused at even his own question. Everything was too weird at the moment.
"This is your golden chance," Senku whispered into Taiju's ear.
Taiju suddenly snapped out of his red-shocked state and rushed in front of Yuzuriha. Startled, she let out a squeak and flinched, stepping backwards. Taiju stood before her, tense and sweating.
"Y-Yuzirha!" he faltered, just like he had on that one fateful afternoon some three-thousand years ago. "The truth is...for the last five- no, three-thousand-fiveish years..."
She blushed and touched her chin with her hand. Taiju's face was bright red again as he mustered up the courage to finally confess his long-pent up feelings. Senku felt something exhilarating pumping in his chest, so much like it had been before the petrification.
"Yuzuriha!" Taiju shouted ridiculously loud, "I-I love you!"
The fervor and zeal of his tone was enough to swoon a stone. Yuzuriha's blush deepened and a soft smile appeared on her face. Taiju's cheeks transcended the color red as she stepped forwards and embraced him.
"I've also loved you!" she replied, "Always. I wondered when you were going to tell me."
Senku unconsciously made a fist and drew it down triumphantly. Everyone else gasped excitedly and let out a cheer as if the previous awkwardness and shock was nonexistent.
"T-then in that case," Taiju stammered. He let go of her and planted a firm knee into the ground. He bowed his head and held out one of his hands as he boldly inquired, "Will you marry me?!"
Yuzuriha gasped. Then she seemed to remember the situation of the world and let out a loose, nervous laugh.
"Well, o-of course," she giggled, "What other choice do I have?" She took his hand and he stood up. With glowing cheeks, they embraced again. The people surrounding them cheered their congratulations.
Chrome's smile was wider than ever.
"This is it!" he said to himself eagerly, "This is my chance to tell her!" He turned to Ruri, puffed out his chest, and, taking a big step forwards, slammed himself down onto the ground.
"I love you, Ruri!" he screamed into her face, "I've been waiting to tell you, but alas, so much as prevented me from doing so! Will you marry me?!"
Ruri looked surprised. Blushing, she nervously smiled, but said nothing. Chrome knelt there, awkwardly waiting for her to say something. Dead silence hovered grossly in the air and made him sick to his stomach with nervousness.
He was just about to grab her hand and do something, whatever that something was, when an uproar erupted from the group. He turned to the direction everyone was looking and gasped along with them.
Approaching them with a limp was no one other than the person that they had somewhat hoped was still alive.
"Gen!" they cried. He let out a laugh, shrugging with his completely unscathed clothing and neat composure.
"How did you escape?!" Chrome demanded, trying very hard to eliminate the awkwardness from before.
"I'm a mentalist- what can I say?" Gen replied simply, "I obviously can't fight, and protecting others from those meaty morons is something I'm far from capable of doing."
"So...so you just ran?" Taiju said.
"I do things to save my own skin, really," Gen chuckled.
"Or just to please it," Chrome shot back, "You betrayed the Tsukasa Empire just for a bottle of...erm...what was it called?"
"Coca Cola," Senku laughed, "It's good to have you back, Gen. I expected nothing less from you."
"So...what's going on right now?" Gen asked, "I seem to have walked in on a very strange moment."
Senku humorously explained the situation to Gen. The look on his face partly resembled a cat, an amphibian, and something between a Picasso painting and a meme troll face. Then he passed out.
By nightfall, Yuzuriha and Taiju confirmed their wedding and planned it to happen within the next day or two, depending on what happened next. Ruri hadn't answered Chrome's question and no one else had confessed feelings or proposed. That bit made sense, considering that the only other girl was the American, and no one knew her at all enough to have any kind of romantic feelings for her.
The girls were outnumbered by boys, which meant that some guys were just going to have to stay single. Unless, of course, the American was treated as some kind of concubine, but none of them in their right minds would ever do that.
They went to sleep wondering if the day's events had actually happened, of if they had all dreamed it.
The next morning, they awoke to a horrifying sight.
Tsukasa was not where he had been laying for the last two days. Concerned, Taiju went out to find him, and found him not far away. At first, he thought the man was sleeping, but after turning him over, he found a huge bloody wound.
A blood trail traced from Tsukasa to where Ukyo lay about twenty yards away. Senku quickly checked both of their vitals, only to find that they were dead. A small knife clutched in Ukyo's stiff hand confirmed the cause of Tsukasa's death.
"Ukyo's wounds were reopened during whatever fight they had," Senku said in a low voice, "He must've bled out during the night after murdering him." He felt very bitter inside. If only he had done something about what Ukyo had told him earlier...
They sadly buried the two men in the graveyard and said a prayer. Now there were two less people on the almost-empty earth.
"Her name is Grace-chan," Gen announced to the group around noon. Standing behind him was the American. She seemed quite happy to be able to easily communicate with someone- and that someone was the fluent-in-English Gen.
"Guresu*..?" they repeated curiously.
"That's a queer name," Chrome said. "Isn't that an English word?"
"Indeed it is," Gen said, "But it's a common name in America; I've met a thousand girls named Grace in my past travels for shows and such."
"It's a good thing you're so good at speaking English," Ruri said. "Now you can translate everything she's saying and she can communicate with us better than she could with Senku."
"You could also teach her Japanese," Yuzuriha chimed in. "Then communication could be doubled!"
Gen seemed to partially deflate.
"They're right," Senku agreed, "You know English better than I do, so you're the best person for the job." He made some kind of ugly cat-faced expression and patted him on the back. "Good luck!"
"Well...then...I suppose we'll have to get right on that then," Gen mumbled. He didn't seem very pleased to be ordained for the task. "Teaching someone an entire language..."
He sighed heavily and turned to Grace. The two had some kind of conversation in English, and before long, she was leaping up and down excitedly, clapping her hands together and cheering.
"Yatta*!" she cried. Gen stopped her and tried to get her to correct her pronunciation. She quickly caught on and repeated the cheer, this time in a much better accent.
"Since we've got that pairing figured out," Senku said matter-of-factly, "We now must focus on the next pairing so we can get to the marriage and reproduction part of this."
Chrome swallowed nervously and stared at Ruri. Both of them recalled yesterday's insanely awkward moment and flushed deep red. Then he cleared his throat and took a small step in front of Ruri.
"Erm...about yesterday, Ruri..," he began slowly, "Well...I...I meant to ask you if...if well..." He slammed his eyes shut and blurted out with all his heart, "Well, I've liked you for quite some time and am hoping you will marry me!"
Ruri fidgeted, but looked a little more ready to answer. Cheeks a soft pink hue and eyes blinking occasionally, she opened her mouth to say something. Just as the first word began to slip from her lips, Senku interrupted.
"Unfortunately, I cannot allow you two to be the next pair."
"What?!" everyone gasped. Chrome looked angry; Ruri looked perplexed.
"Whatday mean, 'we can't be the next pair'?!" Chrome growled.
"I can't let you two breed," Senku repeated. "Now don't get me wrong- it's not for the reasons you romantically obsessed fanatics would rashly conclude."
"Then why not?!" Chrome demanded.
"Is Senku...in love with Ruri?!" Yuzuriha gasped.
"It...it can't be!" Taiju gasped.
"And it isn't," Senku replied, annoyed. "Again, this is not relationship based whatsoever. It's a matter of properly breeding for the sake of the future of mankind."
"How so?" everyone else inquired. Gen subtly translated everything that was happening to Grace so that she could listen in on it.
"If Chrome and Ruri were to have children," Senku explained dramatically, "Their children would be cursed with a disease incurable in this stone world!"
A collective gasp burst out from everyone. "What?! How?!"
With a knowledgeable grin, Senku explained the physics of genetics and chromosomes and such. He explained how traits were passed down, what recessive and dominant traits were, and all that good stuff. After he had finished, only Chrome had been able to follow through. He and Ruri were the only ones who had never heard of such things.
"So now knowing that, it's about time I told you," Senku finished. "You, my dear Chrome, have the cystic fibrosis recessive trait."
"I-I do?!" Chrome exclaimed.
"You ten-billion percent do," Senku answered. "It's a deadly disease in the lungs that causes frequent lung infections. In many cases, it ends up being severe, and lung transplants are required to save them. Unfortunately, in this stone world, we have no lungs to transplant, nor is it possible to safely transplant a lung." He sighed and shook his head. "Having a child would doom that child and ultimately defeat the purpose of having it."
"B-but you said that a recessive trait isn't enough to make them actually have it," Chrome argued, "You said there has to be two recessive traits. Ruri doesn't have the same kind of rece-"
"Yes she does," Senku cut him off, "She shows the same signs that you do- which means doom for your offspring. Breeding you two would be very ineffective for the cause we're attempting to fulfill."
"But how can you tell?" Taiju asked, "Since when was there a way to externally see someone's genetics?"
"Yeah, I've never heard of that being possible," Gen agreed, "My father was even some kind of genetic researcher and I've never heard of such things."
Senku just chuckled. "It's so much more than what you can understand. Even you guys from the modern world would have a hard time following along- I may as well not even bother explaining all those nitty-gritty details to your faces."
"...Sure..," Gen mumbled.
"Yabe*!" Chrome shouted, "This is terrible! What...wait, then who will Ruri be with?!"
All eyes shifted to Senku, who was standing there with that grin on his face.
"Me, of course," he said. Everyone shouted in surprise again.
"Senku...is gonna...marry Ruri again?!" Chrome screeched.
"Again?!" Yuzuriha and Taiju gasped together, "What do you mean, again?! They were married before?!"
"I suppose we were," Senku said, "But now I guess I'm doing it again."
"No way!" Taiju cried, "You're getting married?! I never knew you could feel romantic for anyone! You were always so ignorant and cold to the concept of girls and marriage and stuff!"
"I was never specifically cold to those concepts," Senku muttered, "I just never voice my thoughts on it, nor do I act on it. And I already told you guys, it's purely for genetic purposes only."
"Then why doesn't Gen marry her instead?" Chrome jeered. "If he doesn't have that lung trait thingy, why doesn't he?"
"Because Ruri at least likes me," Senku scorned. Chrome and Senku looked hard at Ruri, who shrunk back in fear.
"I-it is true..," she whispered, "B-but I don't like him like that. H-he's my savior...and for that I am eternally grateful and hold a high respect for him. But Chrome...I've known him for so long, and he's...he's..." She swallowed and said no more.
"Having children with Chrome will only cause grief and waste resources," Senku said, "So you must unfortunately comply with my proposition and abandon him as an option for a husband."
Ruri seemed rather sad. Slowly, she walked away towards the makeshift tents they had prepared and went inside. Gen finished translating everything to Grace, and after she received the full story, she frowned. Then a wicked smile came across her face.
"He just wants Ruri for himself," she whispered to Gen. "I studied the exact thing he was talking about- and he was lying. There's absolutely no way anyone is able to tell genetics from external examination!"
"So Senku-chan does have a love life of his own," Gen snickered.
Gen and Grace laughed to themselves as the others went around, discussing the "newfound information". Who knew Senku really was trying to hog Ruri to himself!
*Guresu (goo-ray-sue) is the Japanese version of Grace and how they would've pronounced it. Teehee!
*Yatta (yah-tah) is Japanese for "yay" or whatever.
*Yabe (yah-bay) is a phrase meaning "oh crap" or something, commonly used for Chrome's character. Y'all should be familiar with this now, so I'll stop footnoting it.
Thanks for reading and tune in for more chapters!