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Kohaku took longer than usual to come home which worried Kohaku's father Kokuyo and her sister Ruri in the Village Chief's residence that's also the residence of the current Priestess.

'What took you so long?!' Kokuyo scolded Kohaku. She breaks rules a lot he disowned her but she brings Ruri water daily from a hot spring to alleviate her illness which was why she lasted so long.

'I met up with people who looked like it's their first time seeing someone like me.' said Kohaku.

She then talked about her time with the modern teenagers who showed her how they lived with just five of themselves. They were a group who lives close to the ocean, and had really tasty food because of the 'farming' they had done and unlike them, enjoyed full stomachs year round. Kohaku even got to taste the tasty water called 'soup' they make using edible plants combined with bird meat, and its what they eat every day. And Kohaku experienced what a full stomach was like.

Full stomachs!

Such a thing, was of a foreign concept to her family, and village elders Jasper and Turquoise.

It greatly shook them. Such a foreign notion!

Not only that, one of them knows about how to treat Ruri's illness and how Kohaku had done well to keep Ruri alive in a 30-day killer illness that made her last years as hot spring water is clean enough for an ill person. He has the material, he needed tools to process it but nobody in his group are tool-makers so he can't do a thing. '...so I want to talk to Kaseki if he can make the equipment for these Sulfa medicine. The name of neesan's sickness is Pneumonia! Moreover they look nothing like banished villagers at all so it should be safe.'

'That's up to me to decide.' said Kokuyo gruffly. 'So who are these guys?'

'19 years old Kagome is the farmer and craftswoman who could make clothes, a house and their strange cooking place. She also farms alongside Yuzuriha, their youngest girl around my age.' said Kohaku. 'Next is Tsukasa, a year younger than her. He's their strongest fighter and hunter. Then Taiju, same age as me along with Senku who are the younger boys. Taiju does the physical labor and sea-diving for the plant called seaweed that makes their soup tasty. And Senku is their inventor who knows how to cure neesan but needs equipment only Kaseki can make.'

'Then, bring those guys here. We'll look at them from afar.' said Kokuyo and ended the discussion. 'We'll decide if they are indeed, not banished criminals from the past. You're too young to even know their faces back then.'

xxx

'...so that's how it is.' said Kohaku, coming back by nightfall as it takes time to get to their camp.

'That's reasonable.' said Tsukasa. 'We've expected that, so we'll come tomorrow.'

'Yeah, it's bad to travel at night, we'll get injured from accidents.' Senku agreed. 'So stay the night over Kohaku. It ain't safe.'

'O-OK...'

Next day...

They packed up some stuff and ready to go. About a week's worth of offering to Kohaku's sister Ruri to get her to consume Hemp Oil through soup that will help things out until Senku makes Sulfa Drugs. But to craft material, they need a skilled craftsman...and manpower as there's no factory machines about.

Kagome's family is in their hut in the meantime.

The journey took three hours, thanks to...Gorilla Team manpower in Taiju and Kohaku.

'So this is the village...' Taiju gasped out as they saw two islets with a few huts. 'It's so near all this time.'

'But fear of the unknown will stop humanity any time. Especially if some of them aren't capable fighters.' Senku snorted. He was one of the weak ones after all, even if his stamina improved through all that running! 'Our only fighting force is Tsukasa and Kagome. One doing archery and the other bare-handed.'

'Yosh, let's get close to the wooden bridge.' said Kohaku. 'I'm gonna call everyone over.'

And so...

'Wow, so those are the people Kohaku-chan found!'

'They sure look different!'

'Yeah, they look nothing like us, down to clothes!'

'What's that stuff they got over though?'

'Ooh, gifts maybe?!'

'Dream on, those aren't yours!'

On the other hand?

'They look like foreigners who learned Japanese!' Kagome exclaimed. 'I don't see a single asian among them at all!'

'Yeah, lucky us or we'd have a hard time communicating.' said Yuzuriha sheepishly. 'Kohaku-san is living proof.'

'Probably descendants of tourists who broke out first.' said Tsukasa. 'Then they had kids and these guys are the result.'

'Yeah, but given the food shortage Kohaku spoke of, the gene pool got even smaller and that's a bad thing for the future.' Senku told them. 'Inbreeding, is bad.'

'Inbreeding?'

'Yeah. And inbreeding, is a 10 billion percent bad bad thing. The most you can get away with while staying healthy is low fertility and sterility. The worst case is mental illness and a weak body making you very susceptible to hereditary disease, or born with physical defects.' Senku explained and he let those facts sink in on his clueless companions' heads.

Yeah, it dawned on them that it would seriously...be bad.

'What saved this village from the worser stuff, is because they're possibly an international mix of european and american that they have a wide variety of genes that may have luckily, come from people with no hereditary illness in their lineage. But give it ten or twenty more generations, the nastier stuff will happen for sure, not just low fertility.' he said. 'Thus we need to revive more people eventually to prevent inbreeding that will spell the end of humanity by having more access to different genes in regards to marriage.'

'Young people with skills is a must.' said Tsukasa, again, not wanting reckless revival of the wrong sort. 'In a world like this, we can't revive deadweights and criminals. I found a statue of a reporter who will be of great help in that regard: Hokutozai Minami. She will be of help in finding us useful people who have no criminal record, as well as children.'

'Let's get village approval first before I give you a bottle of Nital.' Senku grinned. 'And once we're welcome, let's get us some needed folk.'

The man with a bearded scowly face approached them.

'So you're the strangers Kohaku encountered.' he said gruffly.

'That's us.' said Senku. 'We didn't bother deciding on a leader, that would create conflict we don't want or need amongst ourselves since that title alone, will create discord.'

'Then who's Senku?'

'Me.'

'Can you really cure our Priestess?'

'With tools and a lot of cooperation, yeah.' said Senku. 'Its not something a few people can accomplish, that Sulfa Drug. At most it'll take half a year to create the tools with just us. After the tools and equipment, the medicine will be easy. Now then...we're thankfully near a mountain, so metals will be nearby as well as clay for earthenware. That's a good start. Kohaku knows how we make our food, so we'll leave it to her to give her sister a little helping hand as a hungry person doesn't recover well. She knows how we do it.'

'Oh, so those fruits and food are for neesan?' Kohaku's eyes shone.

'Yeah, one week's worth for one person.' said Kagome. 'She must eat four times a day. It'll be tough but she must keep going.'

'Yeah! I'll need help carrying all these back!' so some women helped carry the food and a cloth over her shoulder to the Village Chief's hut.

It was a Haori Kagome made as pneumonia sufferers must stay clean and warm. Kohaku learned how to cook the nabe pot dish. The rest stayed outside with old man Kaseki about the equipment Senku needed, but they need vast amounts of material.

The one to know would be Chrome who has a large Rock Collection and he could make 'strange things happen' with his rocks which was why people call him 'sorcerer'.

And at Chrome's Storehouse?

A lot of rocks and some herbs?

'These? When I was a kid I'd collect all interesting stuff around me!' he said. 'Smashing them, burning them, mix stuff up and when weird things happen, it's sorcery! What else can it possibly be?!' he gushed out. 'I just have to collect more and more and try everything out! Sorcery might cure Ruri!'

'He even has medicinal herbs...there's an orange daylily here, canker root, stuff I don't have in my farm!' Kagome croaked out, admiring the herb collection. 'The hell did he find these? By the way, these purple flowers are toxic, throw them out.' she said, holding up aconite that made Senku pale.

'Why the hell do you have aconite?! You wanna die or kill someone with it?!' Senku yelped in alarm and Chrome turned pale at the revelation. 'There's no cure for aconite!' technically there is in modern times...by counteracting it with poison that they cancel each other out. Tetrodoxin is often used but THEY NEED PROFESSIONALS for that. Senku may know HOW, but he himself knows he's NOT a medical pro and he didn't wanna be liable for that mess. Tannic acid? Like hell they have that here...activated charcoal, that they can make, but it slows down aconite poisoning, not really cure it...

'I didn't know OK?!' Chrome's eyes popped out as he grabbed the flower from Kagome and his pot of aconite.

'Burn that elsewhere for safety and don't inhale it!'

xxx

Outside...

'So this is our roadmap to the medicine we need.' said Senku, drawing the map on the ground with a stick. 'We must obtain all of these and for that, we need tools to process them into the end goal. We can't take the scenic route. Let's see, the stuff Chrome has is a jewelry collection, Galena which is our source of Lead, Sulfur, Cinnabar...we gotta know where Chrome got all these. He even has a magnet which is real sweet! We can find Iron this way!'

'...what's iron?'

The stone-agers were naturally, clueless about it...thus Senku held a science class on what iron is while asking Kagome and Yuzuriha to build an iron kiln he described, as well as a lot of bellows...while they all gather iron and make tools made out of iron. And other metals after that!

During that time, when Ruri ate that antibacterial-spiked soup dish? She kept puking out her 'cough slime' to clear her chest up and kept drinking hot spring water and shivered a lot, but its a sign that her body is fighting back, she just needed more support. That, and sun exposure while wrapped up in haori to encourage her to sweat some more, twenty minutes a day two hours after sunrise.

Hemp oil helps as do Hemp Seeds, but its not strong enough.

In the meantime...

Tsukasa, containing a liter's worth of Nital from Senku and an armful of haori from Kagome...

Got five people revived.

Hokutozai Minami was the first. Tsukasa explained to her the situation while his back was turned against her so she could worry about her modesty and get dressed. Then with her help got the rest.

Ukyo Saionji came next for his skills in the Navy, then Asagiri Gen as a Mentalist for future negotiations. Lastly for now, a girl known for her gymnastics ability in Momiji Homura. Given Tsukasa's limited supply, reviving more young and skilled people can wait.

Upon returning to the village for actual clothing?

Tsukasa was WTF.

'...what're you guys doing?' he and his new companions' minds went blank. His group and some others were pumping the bellows like crazy.

'Oh this? We're making Iron! Lots of it!' Taiju cried as they all pumped up the bellows. 'We found a motherlode of iron thanks to Kagome! With this, we can make iron tools and equipment for that science lab!'

'...iron in the stone age?' Minami croaked out.

'And where is she?' Tsukasa asked them.

'Making clothes in our old home.' said Yuzuriha, carrying supplies around. 'There's no material for clothes here other than leather so its nasty on summer...and it was a little crazy while you're gone.'

'Crazy.' Tsukasa deadpanned with a twitch.

'Yeah! People smelled the soup for Ruri-san and they want some...but that's gonna be tough as there's only enough mushrooms for us, not a whole tribe...' Yuzuriha croaked out. 'So we're in a bind and she's coming up with something...'

xxx

In the meantime...

Kagome was stumped and stunned.

In her camp where she worked, she had an unusual visitor in a very old Sesshoumaru. He physically looked like in his fifties now! He came to see her as he spotted her in his scrying device using miko ki as he watches over what was left of humanity. The other group disgusted him while the Ishigami Village gained his teensy-weensy respect. He also knows that a small group in America is alive.

He seems to have loosened up. Must've gotten married at some point, she thought. His level of 'loosen up' was similar to Tsukasa in a way.

'Sesshoumaru...' Kagome croaked out. 'You survived what turned humanity to stone for 3700 years, its just like you.' he was the strongest being she's known, that not even Naraku with the jewel could hope to even harm him without resorting to dirty tricks, like, hold Rin hostage!

'This Sesshoumaru wasn't in the human world when that occurred.' said Sesshoumaru. 'For about 488 years since you were gone from our time, I now reside in my mother's palace in the sky, so this one never turned to stone as did you.'

'Oh...'

'And you're very used to our way of life, so losing modern technology doesn't hinder you at all.' he commented wryly. 'I have seen your return to your time years later and continued your education that was badly damaged by your responsibility with that jewel and you more than made up for it.'

'Of course.' Kagome smiled. 'I can't say the same for my fellow modern-agers, but they're clearly coping as best as they can. They're strong-willed kids. I guess Tsukasa is right...we can't revive people who cannot withstand this new reality and be just a burden to us all.' she said, shaking her head. 'What about everyone else?'

Sesshoumaru looked thoughtful.

'...few escaped that disaster.' said Sesshoumaru. 'Mostly hanyou children led by the bat-hanyou Shiori before she perished from old age and sacrificing her life to maximize her barrier and then called me for help. The Housenki Successor and Totosai's new successor. Shippo works for me as did a group of kitsune youkai as canine-types decided to before Edo Era came, not liking how humanity turned out from then on. He doesn't know yet that you're still alive.'

'For now its better that way...there's no way I can explain him to my group.' said Kagome weakly. 'Pointy ears and a fluffy tail. Seriously?' the older man snorted. 'Unless he got good at disguising, he absolutely cannot come here wearing good kimonos. He'll have to visit me wearing animal hide handmade clothes and crudely-made footwear if people are to buy that he,' and she made quote marks, '-woke up by himself, started making clothes and live on his own and knows me as a classmate in school backstory.'

'I'll have him infiltrate Treasure Island. There will come a time you two will meet.' said Sesshoumaru. 'It will be inevitable. For now, as you are working, he cannot meet you yet, but I'll fill him in. Through him I will gift you tools.'

'Thank you very much!' Kagome bowed from her waist. 'I'm just glad some friends remain after all these years...' she choked out, relieved. 'I'm satisfied.' Sesshoumaru then left her.

He frankly did NOT tell her what happened after she left Sengoku. It was trouble he had to deal with by himself as did with Inuyasha and his group. He dare not mention Inuyasha to her. He wasn't going to break her heart as what's a short time to her, was years to him.

Kagome spent days giving life to mushrooms and vegetables with her miko-ki, claiming to amass a lot by foraging to supplement what's in her farm, just to help feed a bunch of curious people. And seaweed, too as well as her salt.

She was soon back with cloth sacks tied to a long stick. It was a long trip which she compared to hanging out in a mall, and fended off wild animals by flaring her ki at them and sent them running by exploiting 'fear of the unknown'.

'You're back!' Senku grinned. 'Took ya a while.'

'Oi, finding enough for over a hundred people isn't easy!' Kagome glared at Senku. 'This request is huge! Any newcomers?'

'Aa, Tsukasa brought in that reporter, a former member of the Navy and a high schooler good in Gymnastics.' said Senku. 'We'll bring in more people soon. Making lab materials aside, we have to fend off inbreeding.'

'Riiight...' Kagome snorted before looking serious. 'But still, I can't imagine myself settling down and starting a family. There's no way I want to until conditions are met.'

'Yeah, it'll be doggone 10 billion percent stupid to, the way we are now.' Senku agreed. Food. Hygiene. Medicine. Proper Settlements. Tools and Equipment. Production of Goods. Leisure. Unless all these things are MET, they cannot revive the picky humans yet. They must rely on the Reporter. 'There's more men than women in the village, we'll have to wake up some ladies soon.'

'We need good personalities for that...we avoid girls who can't live without social media and soap operas, and capable of adapting to our new reality.' said Kagome flatly. 'Deadweights and whiners have no place among us, at least until we rebuild the world again.'

xxx

By sundown...

There was a huge cookout.

The hunters supplied wild boar meat and Yuzuriha led the women in preparing it while asking the boys to boil water for clean drinking water the next day, to avoid any more Pneumonia Sufferers. The flavoring herbs were sauteed in hemp oil, lots of it as Kagome poured a whole bottle of it, before sauteeing the meat in over low heat with help before pouring water in to boil it with konbu. When the meat was halfway boiled, the konbu was removed and disposed of, before root crops and mushrooms were added in with some salt. Boiled till the meat was almost cooked, followed by leafy greens for five minutes...and it's all done!

It was stirred thoroughly to mix in all the flavors.

'To think food with vegetables is this great!'

'Yum!'

'We never had such delicious food before!'

'Thank god! I was getting sick of nothing but grilled meat and fish!'

Yup, the villagers tasted the food they made Ruri eat for a week while getting dosed with antibacterial medicine too to kill Pneumonia Bacteria early on. The ones prone to it are Kokuyo, Jasper and Turquoise who were by Ruri's side every day and Pneumonia is contagious. Kohaku is safe as she was constantly warm due to all her running around, keeping her blood flowing and most importantly, away from a sick person. The whole village ate in gusto till they can no longer swallow.

'And this is why farming is a necessity.' said Senku to Kokuyo. 'We need to clear a lotta land for farming. We need everyone to pitch in if we want to eat this tasty food every day. Kagome has been saving up seeds. The farm at our old home is enough for our group to be happy but that's way too low for almost fifty people.'

'Those are vegetables, just to remind you.' Kagome told him. 'We still need grain like rice, wheat or millet, and we haven't found that yet!'

'Leave that to us after we make the sulfa drug, so for now vegetables and mushrooms are sufficient to feed all these people before winter strikes! And while it's still summer, let's preserve as much food as we can!'

'Leave that to me and the power people!' Kagome grinned.

Out of the necessities, Clothing and Food acquired. Everything else, still in progress.