The narration from last week continues in this week’s chapter. Why-Men value life. Like any living organism. Within the earth’s atmosphere, there are no natural vacuums like on the moon’s surface. There are several gases here, one of them being oxygen (What we live and breathe daily). To the Why-Men, however, the oxygen tends to be a poison to them. One that corrodes them and kills them gradually over several lifespans. For example, the lone Medusa that was on Treasure Island lasted just over 700 years before finally dying out. The ones that on Manaus were much older, so they died out a long time ago. No one showed up there to save them in time, so that was expected of course.
It does fit in with what we learned in Aluminium City before. Senku had also theorized at the time that the Medusas at Ground Zero were too old to be functioning anymore. Those devices had rusted and were well beyond their life expectancy.
An interesting detail to take note of; humans themselves can also die due to oxygen. The air that we breathe in daily is not entirely composed of oxygen. It’s several gases mixed in together, but our lungs separate oxygen from the whole and carries it into the rest of our body. If we were to breathe pure oxygen, we’d die from a phenomenon called oxygen poisoning.
Why-Men find death to be revolting, terrifying. Which fits in with Senku’s previous hypothesis in chapter 228. It does fit in with our real-world science. From a long time ago, we’ve come up with theories such as survival of the fittest. Theories about evolution, and how human beings braved the adversities of nature to make their lives more comfortable. To extend their lifespans, and to escape mortality if possible.
The chapter also gives us an explanation of why Senku’s voice was the one copied by Why-Man. After the events of Senku vs Ibara, where Senku defeated him by activating the petrification device with radio waves, the Why-Men learned that the device could be activated through other methods. Considering they had been activated by natural voices before, this was a new discovery. It prompted them to mimic Senku’s voice and the frequency he had used, a frequency that we saw brought up in Chapter 198 (At the time though, there was radio silence). There was nothing special or different about Senku’s voice. It was just the first time that the device had been activated through a different means, so it ended up being retained to memory.
With Senku’s voice now added to its capabilities, it triggered the second petrification device as we know it (Through Joel’s watch, a device that could also receive radio waves). Humanity made a comeback, this time not taking several thousand years. But again, they fail to take note of the devices. Or even work maintenance on them. Instead, they choose to keep the immortality a secret from the rest of the general population- For good reason though.
This leads us to the vacuum incident in Chapter 213. The T.I Medusa was put in a vacuum to prevent it from decaying and becoming unusable. Little did Senku’s group know that the vacuum is the most ideal environment for the device to exist in. Much like the moon’s surface which is a natural vacuum. It helps to explain why the hive mind of the Medusa has taken residence on the moon. Up there, there’s no risk of becoming unusable over time. Natural elements have no power up there, so they can outlive literal generations of humanity.
Once the device had activated in the vacuum chamber, the Kingdom of Science decides to take out the battery (At Ukyo’s suggestion). They also decide to keep the device under watch, since they were worried that someone had given a pre-emptive command. Not realizing that the command had come from the device itself, which no one at the time could have expected/predicted.
Senku asks the devices why they would purposefully cripple the planet by putting humans to sleep for over 3,700 years, a question that a good number of fans had been wondering about since last chapter. The devices reply that they overestimated humanity’s mental fortitudes, an assumption they came across after finding the flag on the moon. From this exchange, we get an answer as to why they had resided at their spot on the moon’s surface.
One thing I really like about Senku here, he doesn’t talk down the Why-Men’s plan. Or belittle it. Heck, he’s even willing to learn how they work the way they do. Him and Xeno had previously dissected, plus analysed the device, but they did not make much progress on that front. This time, learning from the machine lifeforms themselves, we should see more progress being made on that front. He even reasons on why they themselves did not make it work.
Pretty in line with his characterization over the course of the story. Even with previous enemies like Tsukasa and Xeno, he never talked down their plans at all. All he did was argue for his side of the story and let them see reason a bit.
His argument about seven billion people picking off where the previous generations stopped resembles what he told Hyoga at the end of Stone Wars. About seven billion people finding a way to support the earth. A little detail, but it is a bit of consistency I find generally great.
What will happen in these one-on-one negotiations? We could see it in the next chapter, or we could be kept in the dark about it, only to see it in detail later. The story has used this approach before when it comes to info dumps.
Regardless, it is very much a reason to get excited.
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