Yuzuriha!
Sorry to keep you waiting.
So, what's up, Taiju-kun?
What did you want to tell me?
I was afraid that by telling her how I feel, she wouldn't even be my friend anymore.
Hear me out, Yuzuriha.
But today's the day.
For the past five years, I've...
What's that light?
That day, everyone in the world turned to stone.
So you're finally awake, you big oaf.
Today is October 5th, 5738.
It's been a good 3,700 years.
How can you tell exactly what day it is?
I just counted.
How else would I know?
Humanity spent two million years getting from the stone age to the modern age.
We're going to sprint all the way back to the top.
I'm going to take the world back.
And I'll figure out the science behind the petrification and our revival.
I'm going to save Yuzuriha.
I'm going to beat fantasy with science.
This is exhilarating.
So, Senku, who are we reviving first?
We're going to wake up everyone eventually.
What does it matter who we start with?
Although it would suck if we woke up a murderer right off the bat.
I see.
I don't feel like choosing who we wake up.
Taiju, it's your choice.
Thanks, Senku.
My answer is obvious.
Ohayou Sekai
Good Morning World
Good Morning World!
dore hodo aruitarou
How long did we walk
ashi no itami dake ga
The pain in my feet
sono kyori wo monogataru
is the only thing that tells me
nagai yoru wo koeta
Beyond the long night
zekkei no kitai ga
The superb view of my expectations
kyou mo boku wo ikashiteru
Is giving me a power to live today
kamigami no reihou
The god's spirits
shinryoku no kyuuden
The heart's palace
gankutsu no saiou
The deepest cave
soukyuu no hate
The end of the blue sky
touha shite miseru
There is no limit
genkai wa nai
we cannot cross
hoshi no sumizumi made
To every corner of the stars
Ohayou Sekai
Good Morning World
Good Morning World!
fukanou no yami wo hanate
Overcome the darkness of the impossible
shinwa wo nichijou ni kaete iku houryuusei
Reach out to mythology
ippo zutsu ishi wo ugatsu you na
Step by step like breaking stones
kono ayumi de
And with this step
sekai wo hirogeyou
Let's expand this world
The time has finally come.
That water's going to undo the petrification and revive her, right?
Yeah, it should.
I tried it on a piece of a shattered statue, and it turned back into a corpse.
You're so disrespectful!
I did try putting all the pieces back together first,
but it looks like you can't save someone once they're dead.
They made a noble sacrifice.
Send up a prayer or something.
Right!
Rest in peace, rest in peace... Rest in peace, rest in peace...
Sorry I kept you waiting for 3,700 years, Yuzuriha.
I'm going to bring you back to life now.
Wait, Senku! Yuzuriha's naked!
We can't!
We can't revive her like this!
Here we go again with your illogical nonsense...
We're in a stone world. It's kind of an emergency.
No one's going to care if your butt's showing
or if your dick's hanging out.
Yuzuriha doesn't have a dick!
That's not my point!
We have to take her back to camp and put clothes on her first.
How heavy is that statue, anyway?
Yuzuriha isn't fat!
That's not my point.
I mean, wouldn't it be ten billion times quicker to wake her up and have her walk?
How illogical can you—
Wait, big oaf!
Why is there a lion in Japan?!
Why do you think?
It's from a zoo, obviously!
The staff must've been petrified while the door was open or something!
If they get out when no humans are around, every herbivore in the zoo is on the menu.
And if they go out into the city, it's a pet buffet!
So now they're literally the king of beasts!
In this stone world, the humans aren't at the top of the food chain anymore!
Why aren't they attacking us, though?
They've never seen bipedals before. We must look creepy as hell to them.
We're the only humans in the world.
They're alarmed, too.
But it's only a matter of time now.
Even if we get super lucky and make it all the way back to camp,
the best we can do is fight them with spears.
This game was practically over before it even started!
I can't let you die, Senku!
You're humanity's last bastion, the only one with scientific knowledge.
If it comes down to it, I'll be your shield!
No!
Think it over logically!
I'm the brains, and you're the brawn.
We can't lose either one!
If we're going to run, we need to run together!
All right, got it!
You've never even hit anyone, ever since you were little.
Your strong suit is fitness, not fighting.
Senku, if we can't outrun them, we have one last option...
I found him earlier...
The strongest primate high-schooler, Shishio Tsukasa.
Sorry, Yuzuriha.
We need someone who can fight right now.
If we do defeat the lions, I promise we'll—
Shut up already. Let's just pour it on him.
No! We're surrounded!
They're coming!
Sorry!
I'm sure you have no idea what's going on after being stuck for thousands of years...
What's the situation?
Your whole body is covered in stone.
Lions from your nine o'clock to two o'clock.
Okay.
You can fill me in on the details of the situation later.
But I'll promise you one thing: you two will never be in danger again.
From now on, I'll do the fighting.
This is great, Senku!
Humanity now has brains, brawn, and brute force!
The Three Musketeers are all here!
I get that, but this Shishio guy is way too strong.
Is that a bad thing?
Isn't it good to have someone like him around?
What if he turns out to be an evil bureaucrat with insatiable greed?
He's overpowered enough to beat down a lion with his bare hands.
In a world without guns, he's ten billion percent unstoppable.
Eek!
Come hither, Yuzuriha.
No way!
We can't let that happen!
Sorry, but would you mind lending me some butchering tools?
A knife, or even just stone tools, if that's all we have.
You're gonna eat the lion?
You can eat lion?
It's not poisonous.
Although it is tough and reeks of ammonia, not to mention it tastes horrible.
You've had it before, Senku?!
When I went to Africa to research Ebola.
What kind of high schooler are you?!
Though it was in self-defense, I did kill it with my own hands.
Yes...
I want to give thanks to the circle of life by putting all of it to use.
That's all.
He's great!
Aren't you glad, Senku?
He's no evil bureaucrat!
He's a super good guy!
I hope so.
Well, I don't have even a millimeter of interest in stuff like gratitude,
but I absolutely agree with not wasting meat.
The two of you built this?
Yeah.
Hang on for a little longer, Yuzuriha.
We'll save you as soon as we have enough of that miracle water...
the something-or-other acid.
Laboratory
Laboratory?
I'm Shishio Tsukasa.
You can call me Tsukasa.
Last names don't really mean much in this world, do they?
I'm Senku, the sane one who's in charge of science.
That's Taiju, the simple one who's in charge of heavy lifting.
I'm Taiju, the simple one.
Nice to meet you.
If you need any thinking done, ask Senku.
What do you usually have to eat?
Mainly wild greens and mushrooms,
and the occasional rabbit for meat, when we can catch one.
All I ever dream about lately is eating meat until my belly's about to explode!
Well, you won't be living like that...
any longer.
I'll be in charge of fighting and hunting.
This is awesome!
Now that I'm on your side, you'll never have any shortage of prey again.
I see.
So if you cook it immediately, you don't need a fridge to keep it from going bad.
I'm not cooking it.
I'm using the aldehydes in the smoke to kill the microbes.
To put it simply enough for you to understand, I'm smoking it.
If Senku and I work together, we'll have plenty of preserved food.
Now we can finally take the first step toward civilization.
We were still at step zero?!
Hey, Tsukasa, what's wrong?
Sorry for startling you.
This person was buried under the rock.
He really is a good guy!
He's a superhero at this point, huh?
Man, I'm full.
Time for a fun quiz.
What's the most important thing we need for a technological civilization?
Ten billion points for the correct answer.
Technological civilization?
The most important thing we need?
Smartphones!
Sure, smartphones!
Smartphones would be nice to have, huh?
How many tens of billions of years ahead are you?!
Steel?
Steel, too, but that's later.
There's something more useful.
Calcium carbonate.
Of course!
As always, I'm totally clueless!
Ah, you mean lime.
Yeah.
That's putting it in terms that a simple mind can understand.
The stuff they use to chalk athletic fields.
So we're going to be looking for a gym storage room
to get something-or-other carbonate?!
Yeah, that's it. A gym storage room.
If only there were any still around 3,700 years later!
You know the shells that have been so useful for trimming your beard, big oaf?
Pulverize them into powder, and you have that something-or-other carbonate stuff.
All right!
Brawn duty, here I come!
Nothing's as exhilarating as calcium carbonate.
There are four insanely useful ways to use it.
First, agriculture.
We use it to blow away all the hydrogen ions.
In other words, it upgrades the soil.
Second, construction.
Cook it together with sand, and you have mortar.
Mortar is basic cement.
We can build huge furnaces and houses.
Third, soap.
Gather sodium carbonate from seaweed,
mix it with oil, and the reaction creates soap.
Getting sick means game over in this world.
This little chunk that keeps germs off of us
is our stone of life in a world with no doctors.
It's our doctor stone.
Senku, you're an amazing man.
In the moment after I revived, too,
you communicated the situation quickly and calmly.
I've never seen anyone as clever as you.
I admire you, truly.
A man who praises a man to his face is full of ulterior motives.
It's been that way for ten billion years.
What's your point?
Oh, dear.
I really didn't mean anything by it.
I have a feeling you might be able to build modern civilization from scratch.
Yes.
That's all I wanted to say.
Whew!
So this is how you build civilization, huh?
Yeah, one step at a time.
We're slowly but surely approaching modern civilization.
So, what's the fourth thing?
You said there were four handy uses for seashells.
No, three.
Didn't I say three?
Huh? Did you?
Man, even my memory is screwy!
Shells! Shells! Shells! Shells! Shells! Shells! Shells! Shells! Shells! Shells!
We're free in this stone world.
Shells never belonged to anyone.
The same goes for the sea, and the land.
There was once a poor boy who tried to make
a necklace out of seashells for his younger sister, who was undergoing surgery.
His sister loved The Little Mermaid.
But then, a middle-aged man who owned the fishing rights to that spot arrived...
and with him, the stench of liquor.
The boy who was collecting shells... or rather,
according to the man, the boy who was stealing shells,
was beaten so badly that his face was unrecognizable.
He was never able to help his sister be like the Little Mermaid.
You do know what you're doing, don't you, Tsukasa?
You just killed a man.
I know that, of course.
Senku, do you intend to bring back everyone, including the grown-ups
whose hearts are tainted?
Sure, they'll be grateful to you at first.
But as soon as civilization returns, the rich and powerful seniors will say,
"That used to be my land." "Pay your rent." "Pay your taxes."
They'll rob the poor youth of our future again.
We must not bring that world back.
This is a stone world.
An untainted paradise.
We'll revive only the pure-hearted youth
and live in a natural world owned by no one.
It's a chance to purify humanity.
Don't you agree, Senku?
Not at all.
Not even a millimeter.
I'm a technology-loving boy who gets excited over
mechs and space and Doraemon and stuff like that.
I'm going to use the power of science to rescue every single person.
Next Episode
Weapons of Science
This is a work of fiction, but the plants, animals, and production methods described are based on reality. Foraging and making things on your own accord is extremely dangerous and, in some cases, illegal. Please do not imitate without expertise.