"I see," Yuuri acknowledged, observing from the side, as Chito retrieved her camera and snapped a picture of the arrow nearby. "It'd be so much simpler if I had arrows like this more often."
"Oh, that's no fun," Yuuri complained, leaning into the camera's view.
"I'm still bored. We had so many thrilling moments earlier, but now I feel drained," Chito mumbled as she lay there.
Yuuri clapped her hands together. "Walking like this is dull. Let's try different routes and explore, like entering through that hole."
Senju and Ishii, positioned beside them, also glanced toward the direction Yuuri had indicated.
A dark opening was visible there. Chito felt a twinge of a headache. "Rejected. The destination is right in front of us. How can one ignore the signposts?"
"I am," Yuuri countered Chito's words with a gesture.
"Truly, please don't do that," Chito grumbled, prompting Yuuri to swiftly retract her raised hand. "I'm sorry."
"We're nearly at the taro production area ahead," Ishii remarked calmly. "Other pipelines don't reach that far."
"That's right, then just follow the road signs." After hearing about the food, Yuuri had to give up the idea of adventure.
After the four people rested for a while, they continued to move forward.
After switching a few more pipes, the four people came out of a thinner pipe.
In front of it was a platform with a gap and a ladder leading down.
Ishii led everyone to a room below. There were many shelves here, with rows of plant vines and lighting lamps on them.
"This is where food is produced. There are probably some left."
"Really?" Yuuri appeared somewhat perplexed as she surveyed the surrounding vegetation, which seemed mostly devoid of produce.
She then began spinning around excitedly. "Yes! Taro!"
After her brief exploration, Yuuri eventually located the solitary taro, dangling beneath the plant's vines. "Amazing, it can be like this. This is plants."
"Well, but after making it here, there's only one left," Chito sighed, prompting Ishii to explain beside her, "That's why I mentioned there was only a little remaining."
"That's too little," Yuuri complained, before swiftly severing the taro with a dagger. "Ishii is truly clueless, no wonder the plane has issues."
"Why, Yuu! You're not in a position to speak ill of her," Chito admonished Yuuri, before turning to apologize to Ishii. "I'm sorry, Yuu can be a bit clueless sometimes."
"It's okay, there really aren't many left here," Ishii waved her hand to show that she didn't care.
Senju observed the plants in a daze, realizing that all these vines belonged to a single plant.
Uncertain whether the bone meal would be effective, he proceeded to sprinkle it over the plants.
In response, a vibrant green light radiated, causing white squares to materialize beneath the surrounding vines.
Gradually, these squares expanded, transforming into the same taro as before.
"Oh! There's so many!" Yuuri was very happy when she saw the taros growing.
She wanted to cut off all the taros and take them away.
However, after picking a few, Yuuri realized that she couldn't take away too much,
"Chii-chan, you also come and help me get it."
"This is incredible! These are enough for us to eat for a year." Ishii was a little numb looking at this magical sight, but she was just a little emotional.
"Haha, I didn't expect the effect to be so good, but this way there will be no shortage of food for the time being." Senju was also a little surprised, not expecting that bone meal was also effective on these plants.
"Senju, pack these up," Yuuri ran to Senju's side with a bunch of taros in her arms, "There are a lot more here, I need to take them all away."
"Well, that makes sense. It's been a struggle to get here, and Ishii will eventually join our team," Senju concurred with Yuuri's suggestion, but Ishii, seated beside him, didn't share the sentiment.
"No, I won't be leaving with you. I'll continue my aircraft research at the base."
"But your research has hit a dead end. Do you still intend to remain outside the city?"
"It's unrelated. After experiencing flight once, my fascination with airplanes has only grown. I want to delve deeper into my understanding of them. I'm not ready to depart just yet."
"I see. Let's leave half of the taro for Ishii," Yuuri expressed a tinge of disappointment, while Ishii interjected, "Yuuri, you're quite shameless, but I agree..."
"Sorry for the trouble," Chito came over from the side, "This is a grain production base, right? Is there anything else?"
"Yes, there are cleaning devices, crushing devices and baking devices here. These facilities can be used to make taro into military rations, but I have never used them."
"I see, there are still these, do they go down from here?" Chito pointed to a square pipe next to it.
"Not here, this is the channel that sends the taro down. Below is the conveyor belt, which transports the taro to the machine for processing. Although the machine has been stopped now, it can still be used."
"I see. Are we going to process these taros into military rations?"
"No! Taro is delicious as it is!" Yuuri objected.
"There should be some taro flour in the warehouse below. We can try to make some military rations. These taros can be harvested at any time."
"That's right, but there are so many taros here. There will be no shortage of food for a long time."
"Why don't you guys stay too?" Ishii looked at the three of them. "We have electricity, water, food and shelter here again. It's enough for four people to live on."
"Well, it's true that this place is very good, with hot water and beds, but I still want to go to the top floor to see it." Chito was a little confused after hearing this, "Although I think so, I don't know if Yuuri and Senju think?"
"I will always be by Chii-chan's side," Yuuri hugged Chito with a smile, and continued "And also Senju's!".
After Chito complained softly for a while, she let her hug her, and then the three of them looked at Senju.
"Same as Yuuri, I'm still going with Chito and Yuuri. I'm a little worried about the two of them being so idle and running outside."
"Is that so? But after you go to the top, I hope you will come back."
"Of course, no matter whether we find another human settlement or not, we will come back to see you in the end," Senju assured Ishii, ignoring the two idiots beside him who were arguing that he was not an idiot.
"That's good. During this time, I will study the newly acquired aircraft first." Ishii also breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at the two people next to her, "Would you like to harvest these taros first, or go take a look below and and try to make some military rations?"
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Ugh, I got a headache and a stomachache, the time to translate will be delayed for a while, but this will be posted at the end of the week! (Maybe with the last 5 chapters as well to finally translate Volume 2 of this fanfic...)
Ohh and changed somewhat about the title, the original was something like "Cracked Bones Foster Growth" which from what I understood from re-reading this chapter.
Is about bone-meal ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.