We finally have it!
Diamond!
We actually made it from scratch!
Now we're filthy rich!
We're finally done! For now.
They're as tiny as grains of sand, though.
As tiny as they are, they're ten billion percent diamonds.
You can finally see it happening now.
The resurrection of the happy Medusas.
Now that we have diamonds, do we just need to shove them inside these things?
Not quite yet.
We don't have nearly enough to get to the size of a Medusa battery.
How do we make them bigger?
No, there's no way we're making big ones synthetically.
Which is why...
Which is why...?
We're going to dig for natural diamonds!
So what was the point of making all those synthetic diamonds?!
What was all that work for?
I'll kill you!
No, no, you idiots.
We need both.
Diamonds are just carbon.
Coal.
They're just like any other rock you'll find lying around.
It's when humans get involved that these ordinary rocks turn into treasures.
Here! Diamonds!
Send an expedition team out from Xeno's fortress, and they'll get there in a week!
It's called Lassen Peak.
It's a lava dome, and it's got shield volcanoes and cinder cones and stratovolcanoes,
and like, what is this, a pizza with the works? LMAO!
Who wouldn't explore there?
The last time it erupted was in the early 1900s, and it spewed kimberlite.
I saw it! Kimberlite ore!
It might not be much, but it's been, what, a few thousand years? We're good!
S-Sorry, what?
She's saying she knows where we can find some natural diamonds.
We just made some diamonds, and now we're digging for diamonds?
Actual diamonds!
Time for a fun quiz:
between synthetic and natural diamond, which do you think is stronger?
I know! It's the natural diamonds!
My money's on the proper crap made with science!
Ah, here we go.
The peculiar belief that natural is always better than artificial.
Ironic indeed.
To think that those who haven't been inundated by 21st century information
would be more aware...
Yup. The correct answer is synthetic diamonds.
Chrome gets ten billion points.
Diamond is the hardest stuff in the world.
You can only cut them with other diamonds.
The synthetic stuff is even harder than the natural stuff.
We're going to use a ton of the synthetic diamond grains to make sandpaper.
Of course!
We're using small synthetic diamonds to grind down big natural diamonds
and turn them into batteries that'll fit snugly in the Medusas.
So you just want me to make them the exact shape and size of this sample.
Leave it to a pro.
I'll give them the most perfect polish in the universe.
We're counting on you!
All we can do here is cheer.
He's never going to get used to us, is he?
Now...
This will be the last communication you'll hear
from the expedition team.
But why?!
If Stanley has gone around South America to chase us down...
He's a clever, persistent man.
That's almost certainly the case.
As its captain, I know exactly where the Perseus is.
They're almost here.
Sending out radio signals nearby would give our position away.
We'd have built a stealth ship for nothing.
The next time we connect again...
is when everything is over and done with.
Oh, Joel, we'll still hear your comms.
Be sure to broadcast like mad when you devise a way to make that diamond battery.
He's just barely concealing our actual plan.
That we've come up with a way to make use of
all these Medusas in our fight against Stanley.
Let's say Joel manages to make the diamond batteries
and teaches us how to do it.
How are we supposed to make them ourselves?
We don't even have the diamonds.
By the way, where is this stealth ship even headed right now?
I know! It's Araxá!
Araxá?
Bingo.
Have a gazillion bajillion points.
Araxá. A city in Brazil born of the big-ass Amazon and ridiculously long rivers.
The site of miraculous mineral veins.
Rare metals of all sorts drifted to gather at this stone sanctuary.
There are metals you need for rocket building
that you can get here and nowhere else.
There's tons of diamonds and other gems, too.
That's where we're building our super-alloy city!
Of course.
We've been meaning to build a city there anyway,
and it also happens to have diamonds,
which we need to make the Medusa batteries.
We're killing two birds with one stone.
You knew this, didn't you?
That this would be our final destination in South America.
It's inconceivable that Senku would miss any ingredients.
We're both rocket specialists.
Do you hear some weird noise coming from their transmissions?
It's definitely artificial.
The peaks are intentional and periodic.
It's riding on the youth science team's radio signals.
Xeno's sending us a message.
He's sending out some kind of alert.
But an alert for what?
As long as we have our radar, we'll have no trouble capturing them.
Our victory is at hand.
Radio jamming, stealth ship, anti-radar missiles...
No way!
Never say never.
I wouldn't put it past them.
Xeno's sending out an alert.
He wouldn't do it for no reason.
The message he blinked out at me...
We're going to Araxá!
Turn us around!
Stop the chase! We're going ahead of them.
To their final destination!
Huh? We're already here?
Nope.
We're taking an overland mega shortcut to the stone sanctuary!
Cool!
Not cool!
What kind of land route is this?!
This is a mountain! A cliff!
We just need to get past this terrain.
We can whip out our bikes once we're through.
You call it an elevator...
but it's just a vertical ropeway!
Once I come up with a way to make diamond batteries,
the petrification beam is forever in humanity's grasp.
We're getting some diamonds and making some batteries.
And then we're equipping ourselves with the anti-Stanley Medusa machine gun!
The final battle is deep in the Amazon...
The stone sanctuary!
Right in front of us are
the rare ores that we're going to need for rocket building, too.
How is there an insane pile of gems just sitting there
like it's Earth's treasure chest?
Lemme show you.
The sand separated itself out!
It's called gravity concentration.
Whack, right?
Like, the heavy rocks gather at the bottom.
So it's like how you collect gold!
Do that on a planetary scale for tens of thousands of years,
and you get this place: the miraculous ore vein that is Araxá.
The whole planet, tens of thousands of years...
It's too big to wrap my head around.
Yeah, the scale... I know.
You know what they say.
From Earth's perspective, humans are just parasites.
I don't know the first thing about science, but if you ask me,
humanity's been building up its wisdom for millions of years,
making use of all that Earth offers.
That seems far more grand to me.
Well said, Kohaku!
You're right! Let's make use of all of Earth's rocks!
Let's get to building our super-alloy city!
Why does it need such a sturdy-as-heck tower?
For our final battle against Stanley.
What?!
He's going to chase us here?!
Th-Th-Th-They know we're here?
I mean, not that I'm scared or anything.
Xeno-sensei seems to have been doing some naughty things on the radio.
His nails were a tiny bit magnetized.
You were intent on luring Stanley here anyway.
Either way, the result is the same.
The same, my ass.
We lost a shit ton of time.
Right! It's a ship that we want.
No, I have no idea why.
What are you talking about?
In order for us to voyage across the great Atlantic,
we're going to need a proper ship.
The Perseus is our only option.
We're taking Stanley down and reclaiming the Perseus.
Stanley's taking us down and reclaiming their leader, Xeno.
We're gonna have to settle it here.
Our goal in this race is the same.
How do you see our battle against Stanley-kun playing out, Tsukasa-kun?
Hyoga, your wound from when you were shot by Stanley hasn't fully healed.
And neither has mine.
Our only other attackers are Kohaku and Ukyo.
And maybe Max.
We would stand absolutely no chance against a fully equipped US commando.
It seems this is our only shot at victory.
Our Medusa machine gun.
It isn't getting far at all.
Are we really going to beat Stanley-chan's army with this?
We'll certainly be sniped from far beyond our range, and that'll be the end.
In that case...
Fifty meters, one second!
What do you think of this trap?
We can set them up everywhere!
Fifty meters, one second!
Looks like it'll hit the wrong targets.
We'll have to prepare quite a few.
Our outcome will hinge drastically on the size of our arsenal.
How many petrification devices,
rebooted with new diamonds, will we be able to prepare?
We'll polish the diamonds using a water wheel.
Try to keep the heat down.
We don't want to stand out.
That calls for Kaseki beast mode.
SWOLE
About that... There's a bigger problem.
Our precious Medusas are a little...
They're way too intricate on the inside!
Is it even possible to open these things without breaking them?
That's not all!
We're going to be replacing the insanely tiny diamonds with new ones!
Even our super watchmaker Joel is having a rough time.
There's no way we're making a mass-produced machine gun.
I don't know if we can get one or two done before the enemy gets to us.
In that case...
Fifty meters, three seconds!
One, two, three...
And then it'll go bzzzt.
Only if it has brand-new batteries.
I get it!
With Ukyo's bow and arrow, we can take out a whole bunch all at once.
If we have some idea of where Stanley is.
Though, by the time they get close enough for us to know, I'll have been shot.
I think that gives me an idea.
If we only have one petrification device...
I just need to run at them with the device and petrify everyone!
One hundred meters! One second!
So you're going to charge at them and self-destruct?!
You just need to use some revival fluid on me later!
You'll ten billion percent get shot before you get close, dumbass.
I'll just tough it out!
You'll just get shot in the head.
Self-destruct...
I think you gave me an idea.
For a surefire plan.
We all self-destruct together.
The moment Stanley gets here...
Three thousand meters, one second!
One of us stays super far away.
Then they just need to revive everyone on our side.
You're right, that's insane!
But it's certain victory!
There's just one problem.
If our key person, who has the petrification device, is shot first,
not only does the whole plan fall apart,
but in the worst case, Stanley will take the device.
Yeah, that won't be a problem.
We'll cover that with science.
In the watchtower goes the Medusa and the speaker.
We have mics all over the place inside our fortress.
The moment we're attacked, one of us just needs to shout into one of the mics.
Three thousand meters, one second!
Even the wretched calamity that wiped out humanity
is now about to be turned into our guardian angel.
FORT MEDUSA ACQUIRED!!
Yeah.
Now we just need to reboot the petrification device, and we win.
How did you open the Medusa so cleanly?!
With my extreme patient grit.
I botched a whole bunch, though.
So then, will it work a bit if we take the diamond out and replace it like Joel did?
I tried it, but nope.
Go figure. These things have been around for millennia.
Of course... The one that Joel has is new.
Which means we're just going to have to bust our asses
to try and get these perfectly identical, brand-new diamond batteries in.
One meter, one second!
It's not doing anything. You sure about this?
Don't interrupt!
Right?
They should be perfect in shape and size.
If my craftsmanship won't cut it, no one's will.
Maybe it can't be a normal diamond?
How is it different?
Joel hasn't said anything so far.
All this polishing is feeling pretty pointless.
I'm gonna keep going, though, because I'm made of grit.
It isn't pointless at all.
Neither our specialist, Joel, nor you with all your samples can make it.
Which means we got something wrong.
That information is worth its weight in gold.
You're giving a proper pep talk for once, Senku.
A pep talk?
No such thing would come out of Senku's mouth after ten billion years.
Who exactly do people see him as?
Although I guess it's true.
He's merely stating the truth.
It's the essence of trial and error.
The accumulation of errors isn't regression, it's progress.
I know, right?
Well, you can't have even the slightest error in the diamond, right?
No, I think it's good.
The diamond batteries you're making are tough as shit.
If anything, they're tougher than the ones that were in the Medusa.
Right?
I'm hella awesome!
I cut it so it won't crack at all.
Of course.
As a craftsman, I can tell you it's easy to cut it in a way that'll keep it from cracking.
So why?
It's cracked.
You're right.
When you hammer the diamonds from the Medusas just right...
Every one of the diamond batteries...
...split cleanly in half.
There's a cleavage point with a weak atomic bond running right along the line at the point!
And something must be getting channeled through it.
I'm getting fired up!
This work's going to be hard as hell!
We're on the right track, aren't we?
In figuring out how the diamond batteries work?
I can't wait to tell Joel!
We can get it done quicker if we share our discoveries.
I told you, we can't use our radio.
We can't reveal our location to Stanley until we're fully ready to fight.
It'll be a race against time.
The instant they arrive, we'll all be shot dead.
We just need to finish the Medusa first.
And we win.
NEXT EPISODE WHAT I ONCE SOUGHT TO DESTROY
THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION. PLEASE DO NOT IMITATE WITHOUT EXPERTISE.