12th Shot: Forever, This One Moment
After everyone had their injuries treated and clothes changed from the dirty one into a cleaner one, they immediately went their way across the land by the sea led by Tsukasa himself. Most of them carried a woven basket filled with dynamites over their shoulder, Gen still driving the steam gorilla–the vehicle finally resembled a normal car in a size of a mini-van.
An elder named Kaseki and Senku reassembled it since the tank was no longer needed because they reached for a truce. So, they stripped off its armor made of carbon (once again, something Shinko still couldn't believe existed in this stone world) and exhaust pipes. Senku still keeping them to, knowing they would become handy in the future.
Shinko felt the need to apologize towards Yuzuriha for ruining the blouse she made for her–knowing Yuzuriha probably spend much time in sewing it to perfection and she just ripped it without a second thought. It couldn't be helped prior to the emergency situation but she still felt guilty.
"I'm sorry about the dress, Yuzuriha-san." she confessed solemnly, eyes founding the ground more interesting as she didn't have enough courage to face her. However, the brunette reached for her hands–holding it in hers warmly. It made Shinko lifted her head slowly in confusion.
"It's alright Shinko-chan! You did it to save Ukyo-kun. I would've done the same thing if something happens with Taiju-kun!" she smiled. "I'll just make you a new, more fashionable one!"
She let Yuzuriha did as she please with her new blouse in return, the design, color, and all–Shinko could only hope she didn't make it too revealing like Minami's. Amazingly, it didn't even take Yuzuriha an hour or two to completely finished her new clothes. It was similar to her first one, but there were additional purple-colored cloths on the side that act as bindings much like Yuzuriha's dress. It did let her movement a little bit freely because she was free from her sleeves.
"I never knew you had a sister." Nikki voiced out as they keep walking. Tsukasa definitely heard the statement, but he made no move to glance nor look back.
"You'd been protecting her all that time." Kohaku added.
"Why would such a kind man decide to destroy statues?" Taiju asked bluntly. "That's really bad."
"'Really bad'…" Gen laughed nervously, hands never leaving the wheel. "I mean, you're not wrong. I like how blunt you are, Taiju-chan."
Shinko couldn't help but smiled at their interaction–the tension was quite heavy, however it was no where near hostile nor menacing. Most of the heaviness coming from Tsukasa alone, who never looked back even if they're asking or talking about his sister. Now, she could see how much burden he carried for years–his shoulders are weary, without a doubt it exhausted him at some point. But he couldn't give up–he can't.
"Why did you decide to do something so horrible as purifying humanity?" Ukyo asked suddenly, which made Shinko couldn't help but looked at him. He was walking by her side, eyes covered by shadow from his hat.
"Horrible… That it may be." Tsukasa answered, looking up to the clear blue sky. "What would you all have done? If you were reborn in a stone world where there almost no one else and you learned that there was a revival fluid?
A primitive world can't sustain a large number of people. There's no guarantee that we can make unlimited revival fluid. Ukyo, who would you have chosen if you haven't met Shinko?"
The said man gazed at the ground solemnly instead of answering. It was clear that he didn't have an answer for that. Reacting quickly, Shinko slowly reached out for his free hand, carefully holding it in hers. It was enough to diverted his attention to her, which she returned with a simple smile. He fixed his grip, holding onto her hand firmly–feeling the heaviness in his chest became a little lighter from the gesture.
"It's necessary to pick and choose lives. That's a terrifying thing to do. It's a sinful task to play God. I decided to carry that sin to make it an opportunity to build a new world. That's why." Tsukasa continued. "My goals haven't change nor they will in the future. That's why, Senku, this is no more than a truce."
Shinko heard the scientist scoffed in amusement. "That's fine."
They finally stopped at a cliff facing the sea glimmering against the sun.
"The hospital was around here," Tsukasa pointed.
"Everyone's been swept quite a distance away." Gen commented, studying a statue among the bushes.
"What's your opinion, huntress?" Senku asked, referring to Shinko who was in the middle of scanning the area briefly.
"Please don't call me huntress…" she sighed at the nickname she had to get used to starting from today. "I don't think Tsukasa-san's sister would've been above the ground after I patrol for such a long time. The statues I've seen for the past year consists of adults and young man or woman, not teenagers. So, there's a possibility that she's buried underground."
"Then, we just need to dig them all up." Senku decided, pulling out a very familiar cylindrical object with a fuse on it. "We'll mine them out with dynamite!"
"No, that's a bad idea!" Chrome immediately argued.
"You're going to destroy the statues!" Gen added.
"No problem. It's only for the tough-ass bedrock." the scientist said before his smile turned into a scummy smirk. "If we do blow up some statues, oh well! We'll just have to glue them all back together!"
"Um, who's going to be the one doing that hellish work, Senku-kun? Come on!" Yuzuriha gulped, giving him a light smack on his arm.
They indeed make a good use of the explosive material–since the cliff consists of mostly hard rocks, dynamite clearly was a huge help. After they broke the tough surface, they started digging into the softer ground beneath it. Splitting into different teams were the solution they came up right after to divide the workload and to cover wider areas. Shinko teamed up with Ukyo not far from where Yuzuriha and Taiju's team was.
Ukyo decided to remove his hat so his work could be a lot smoother without his vision being limited. It's been a while since they dug the ground, having no signs of statues. The deeper they dig; the once hole became more like crater.
He gave his partner a glance, noticing how she was huffing as she threw away the dirt she gathered in the shovel. Wiping beads of sweat running down her temple, she repeated the same thing over and over.
Ukyo halted his movements, placing his equipment on the ground, to reach out for a container of water made from bamboo in their basket. Approaching her, he offered the drink. Shinko accepted it, muttering her thank you before downing the liquid to rehydrated herself.
"I think you should take a break," he suggested. "It's not a good thing forcing yourself while you have fresh injuries."
"I could've said the same thing to you, Ukyo-san." she replied, which made him laughed slightly. She returned the container to his hands so he could have his share of drink.
"I guess that's a yes?"
They continued until the sun beginning to dipped into the horizon, until the sky shifted into shades of orange and purple. Aside from the digging team, the others began preparing tents for sleeping and a bonfire incase they have to continue until the next day and have to retire for the night. But, it looked like they didn't need to–because Tsukasa finally found his sister in the place he dig into.
When they're ready to revive her, the moon already rose high up in the night sky. Their movements were accompanied by crashing sound of waves not far away. Mirai's statue was laid on the ground and Senku opened up the flask containing revival fluid he brought along. He already tipped the container to pour the liquid before Taiju stopped him–roughly.
"WAIT, SENKU! MIRAI-CHAN'S NAKED!"
By roughly means the young man literally poked the scientist's eyes with such force it made him yelped in pain and stumbling backwards. Thankfully, Shinko was quick to react and placed her hands on his back to prevent him from falling back first to the ground.
"No! You can't revive her now!"
"S-Senku-san, are you okay…?"
Senku kneeled on the ground, hands over his painful eyes. Shinko crouched beside him to offer a cloth to soothe his pain while laughing nervously.
"Here we go with your absurd nonsense," the scientist groaned in pain. "We're in an emergency, in the stone world! Who cares if you're buck naked or if your peepee's showing? You really like this plot twist, don't you? We'll figure out once we wake her up-"
"Is this about the right size?" Yuzuriha interrupted, holding onto a newly sewn orange colored dress.
"THAT WAS FAST!"
At least the clothing matters were solved.
Yuzuriha was getting help by the other girls in putting new clothes for the little girl by the bonfire to get more lighting while the boys stood on the sidelines waiting patiently. Once the brunette deemed that they're finished, she informed the scientist. All of them step back and watched as Senku finally poured the revival fluid.
It didn't take long for the lying statue began to crack.
"Incredible!" Chrome gasped.
"The stone statue is cracking apart and slowly becoming a real human!" Ginro exclaimed in awe. Not just him, practically everyone from the village couldn't tear their eyes from the view.
"Oh, that's right. This is the first time anyone from the village is seeing this." Gen commented.
The cracks were getting bigger, getting longer and crawling until it reached Mirai's whole body–Shinko couldn't help but clenched her eyes shut, intertwining her hands and prayed with all her might.
If the revival fluid could heal Senku-san's broken neck according to Yuzuriha-san, it could bring Mirai-san back to consciousness by de-petrifying despite her brain dead. It fixed the once damaged organs! Please let it work! Please let her heal to the core!
"Where… am… I…?"
Once she heard the soft, unfamiliar voice, Shinko finally opened her eyes. Ukyo stood close to her, patting her shoulder in assurance. Mirai was up and began walking on her own already, she stumbled slightly but Tsukasa was quick to held her hands to prevent her from falling.
"Mirai!"
"Nii-san…?" the unsure tone became series of melodic, child giggles as soon as her chocolate eyes saw Tsukasa's towering figure. A beautiful music that reached Shinko's ears. "You've gotten old. You look good, though. How many years have I been asleep…?"
The moment she witnessed was heartwarming and beautiful. No, the word beautiful alone couldn't possibly describe what she saw in whole–Tsukasa embracing his younger sister close, bathing in the warm glow of dawn.
After waiting for a long time, he finally came to this moment–the moment he wished all of his life for. It was so breathtakingly beautiful, Shinko's eyes started watering without her consent and blurring the sight before her. When she blinked, she could feel a tear ran down her cheek.
She desperately trying to wipe it away in case someone caught her sniffling, noticing how she tried to clean it from her face more started streaming down. A gentle hand beat her to it soon, it was warm against her cheek–giving her enough comfort to reduce the salty liquid. Ukyo's thumb caught another tear before it reached her chin. He scoffed harmlessly. "Why are you crying?"
She chuckled, still sniffling. "I'm just extremely happy for Tsukasa-san..."
"Oi, don't start with the sappy things now, you two," Chrome reprimanded from behind them, surprising them. "This is Tsukasa's moment, don't steal it away."
Both of the was quick to deny with flustered faces. "W-we're not!"
From the corner of her eyes, Shinko noticed Kohaku walked away, facing the sunrise with arms over her chest.
"He kept fighting, knowing there was no cure." Kohaku muttered. "For years and years… You've been waiting a long time, huh, Tsukasa… You've waited forever for this moment…"
Her words were tinted with melancholy–remembering something she happened to experience before. It was based on the truth–Kohaku must've been in similar condition Tsukasa's in, waiting and trying until forever only so that they could finally grasp the moment.
She approached her, placing a hand on her shoulder as a gesture of comfort. "You seemed to truly understood Tsukasa-san, Kohaku-san."
The blonde young woman scoffed, blue eyes radiating nostalgia. "Of course, because I once stood on his feet."