Chapter Text
This was a stone world.
The first scientific thing Senku had made upon awakening was soap. This was not because he happened to have the materials, or because it was easy, no - it was because, as he had said, illness was the absolute worst thing that could happen to them. With ten million percent certainty, they could not cope with mass disease in a world with no medicine. Senku could make antibiotics, given time and a metric shittonne of materials, sure, but they'd been lucky that it had worked for Ruri. It was a measured risk, since the sulfa drugs work for so many illnesses, but a risk nonetheless.
For something like, say, an outbreak of some new viral infection? There wasn't shit they could do.
But, of course, being people raised with immunity to the infections of a world 3700 years old, they had practically no resistance to the horde of new diseases all around them.
An outbreak was completely expected, unless they were very good at keeping clean. Unfortunately, Senku realised belatedly, he had been too busy with other projects to really hammer that point home.
Ryuusui was down. His lungs were shot. It sounded similar to pneumonia, with fever and other nasty symptoms along with it. If Senku had to guess, he'd say it was a flu - but a kind which was used to feeding off the gorilla-humans of this age rather than their weak 3700 year old asses. This was absolutely, ten million percent, not what they needed.
"Alright, everyone needs to self-isolate!" Senku announced, facing the crowd of villagers. They had all gathered when it became clear that something was wrong. They looked to their leader now, eyes wide with concern.
It was the night before the Perseus up-scale was due to begin. What a downer, Ryuusui's model was looking absolutely exhilarating. It would be a time sink, too. Winter wasn't far off, though, and losing manpower to a shitty flu season would not be acceptable.
"Self-what now?" Ginro whined.
"Self isolate…" Gen repeated quietly, from his position just behind Senku. "But Senku-chan, surely if this is infectious, we would've all caught it from Ryuusui-chan already?"
Senku shook his head, speaking over his shoulder to Gen, "Ryuusui has been cooped up making his model, remember? I estimate only a handful of us have been in contact with him." Senku paused, turning slowly toward the crowd again, a look of horror on his face.
"A handful of people… who are now spreading the disease in this crowd." Gen concluded.
"I'LL EXPLAIN LATER!" Senku barked to the people of the Kingdom, "EVERYONE, GET TO YOUR HOMES, NOW!"
Senku putting on his Serious Voice was clearly enough to convince the Kingdom of Science that the situation was urgent. They all rushed back to their homes, clamouring inside.
Senku sighed.
Gen cleared his throat quietly from behind him. "Have you seen Ryuusui recently…?" Senku could hear the carefully crafted calm in Gen's tone; even a mentalist could be read if you spent enough time together. Gen was scared.
Senku shook his head, "Not really, but we have no idea what the incubation period for this thing is. Or how it's spread. Is it airborne? I bet Ryuusui came out to look at the ship a few times, or went to the restaurant. Could it have hung around? We don't know."
He turned around to face Gen properly, taking a step back and covering his mouth and nose with his hand.
"Until I can figure out more, we're gonna have to be seriously fucking careful."
Gen nodded, covering his face with the sleeve of his haori. "If either of us have caught it though, Senku-chan…"
Senku grimaced behind his hand. "Yeah… then we both have it. And so do the rest of the generals, probably."
"What's our game plan?"
Senku ran his free hand through his hair, "We isolate until Ryuusui's recovered. By that time, either someone else should have developed symptoms, or we're all safe and it wasn't infectious after all. Unless it has a seriously fucking long incubation… if that's the case though, we'd have all caught it off Ryuusui and Francois anyway, so we'd be best off putting all our hands to work on making painkillers, or something. Prevention would be off the cards. We need to try and pinpoint how he got the damn thing in the first place, too."
"And you intend to do these things simultaneously, how…?"
Senku's mouth slid up into a smirk, "Like you don't know the answer to that. Science , Asagiri Gen."
Gen couldn't contain his chuckle, shaking his head. "You're insane."
"We're going to get through this."
Gen’s smile was sharp, the fear in his voice replaced with steadfast determination, "I know."
--- * --- * ---
After giving Gen a more detailed explanation of his plans ("You can't just say science senku what does that even mean ?"), Senku drew up the blueprints for a face mask, sliding it under Yuzuriha's door.
"I need you to make these, but without touching the blueprints I just gave you."
"Pattern." Yuzuriha corrected, sounding amused. "Blueprints for sewing are called patterns ."
"Yeah, okay, pattern!" Senku conceded, "Listen, don’t touch it. We need to minimise physical contact between people. Make your own mask first and wear it while you work. And wash your hands! With soap! Before you start, whenever you touch anything. Got it?"
"Got it!" Yuzuriha called through the door, "One per villager?"
"How much linen do we have?"
"Enough for more than that. I haven't started on next season's clothing line yet. Maybe three per person, at least?"
“Alright, great, because I also need you to make these."
He slipped another blueprint under the door.
"One set for every young adult member of Ishigami village, two sets if possible. That's about 80 sets. If that means people only get one mask each, then so be it. I’m leaving wire out here for you, wash it before you use it in the masks."
“Alright, leave it to me!”
--- * --- * ---
Senku’s next stop was the restaurant. Francois was almost definitely infected, and seemed to have realised that fact.
“I am isolating with Ryuusui-sama.” They said, through the door to the restaurant, “Anything he has caught, I have also most likely caught. I will therefore continue to serve him, as there is no further risk to the two of us."
Senku nodded, "Yeah… and if you've caught it, most the food supply in there will have it too. Can you-"
"Sterilise the food, of course. Leave the matter to me. I will ensure everyone has the provisions they require, as well as the knowledge to prepare their food safely."
"No,” Senku sighed, “You can't be the one distributing the food if you've almost definitely caught the damn thing."
"What alternative do you suggest?"
"This is what I need you to do, listen up…"
--- * --- * ---
Senku was an incredible scientist, but managing a potential pandemic was as much about managing people as it was about science. Although his services had not been expressly requested, Gen knew when he was needed.
“Kingdom of Science!” He called from a makeshift stand, megaphone in hand. It had been child's play to make after they completed the cell phone, and they figured it would prove very useful when they were working on something as big as the Perseus.
People began peeping out from their doorways, clearly listening.
“Please refrain from leaving your homes, but listen to me closely!” Gen began, pleased when he saw people hesitantly shuffle further back inside. “What we face today is an enemy even deadlier than Hyouga, or the sulphur gas. Unlike Hyouga, this enemy is invisible. Unlike the gas, it is one even those of us from modern times have never seen before.”
The air was completely still, the atmosphere almost stifling. They all knew first-hand how dangerous Hyouga was. On top of that, everyone had heard about Ishigami village’s exploits, so they knew how risky the gas situation had been too. They were hanging on his every word. Perfect. Gen searched for Magma amongst the faces; he was a good gauge of how the more... brute-force-inclined of the group were reacting.
“Ryuusui is very ill. Many of you may remember our success when helping Ruri. This is very different. Ruri’s illness was one we had seen before, and therefore one for which the modern world had discovered medicines. Genius though he is, Senku’s ability to replicate that medicine was contingent on the fact he had that prior knowledge. I have no doubt that, given the time, Senku would be able to find a cure for this, too. Unfortunately, time is one thing we absolutely do not have.”
Finding his target, he caught Magma’s eyes before he spoke again, “Ryuusui is currently struggling to breathe, and is bed-bound.” Magma’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, his eyes wide. Success. “We are caring for him as best we can. The absolute worst-case scenario right now, is the possibility that whatever he has is infectious. ”
The group seemed to collectively hold its breath, eyes wide and mouths just slightly agape. Gen felt a small swell of pride in his chest at how good he was at this.
“Senku, being the brilliant man he is, realised this instantly. He realised what type of disease this probably was, what the worst-case was, and so ordered you all to return home immediately. The only way to stop us catching the disease from each other, after all, is to limit social contact.” Gen explained. That seemed to elicit a reaction of some relief from the group. Really, the faith these people had in Senku was such a life-saver (quite literally, right now). He’d almost go as far as to say it made his own job easy . Almost.
“Thankfully, Ryuusui has been largely alone recently, due to his work on the model. It is still possible, however,” Gen paused, looking around the Kingdom, making eye contact with as many people as possible, “that a handful of us have already caught the disease.”
People began glancing back and forth, catching each other's eyes. They were nervous. Time to wrap things up.
"This type of disease can sometimes live inside you for a week or two before you feel it. That means you can give it to your friends before you even know you have it !” Gen threw his arms out for emphasis, then. The sudden movement had the desired effect, with half his audience flinching and looking mildly horrified. “It is therefore absolutely imperative, " Gen continued, "We all keep away from each other! This kind of thing can be caught even just by breathing the same air!"
"But what about the boat?!" One of the modern men called. The rest of the people seemed to jump at the sound of another voice, looking for the source with mild irritation written over their facial expressions and body language.
"The boat can wait, idiot!" Magma snapped. "There won't be anyone around to ride the damn thing if we all get sick!"
Gen blinked. Perhaps he'd sold Magma short in his fast judgement. In fact… glancing around the crowd, the people of Ishigami village seemed to be wearing the hardest expressions. Ah, of course they were. They’d lived through bad winters, even nearly lost their Priestess to pneumonia. The modern people were the ones who weren’t going to understand, with their airy indignance and complete lack of understanding as to the danger of disease. Their privileged pasts would be the death of them.
Gen looked to the man who’d spoken. “Sir, we would all love to get the boat finished. It is as Magma says, though. The health of this nation has become our number one priority.”
The guy looked like he was about to speak, so Gen spoke up first.
“Your body has been in stone for 3700 years.” He said sharply, making eye contact. “Every disease we were vaccinated against, every disease our bodies have ever seen, has evolved . We have not . We could be looking at the smallpox of this age. Do you understand? Think cancer if it was infectious.” Gen wished he knew more about the history of medicine, but honestly that was the best he could come up with right now to try and illustrate the reality of their situation.
The guy, thankfully, shut his mouth. He nodded in what seemed to be reluctant agreement.
“Good. Senku is working on some disease prevention initiatives. Until he’s done, or we have more news, please stay in your homes. Food and provisions will be distributed in the safest manner possible.” Gen paused before speaking his next words, putting on a smile as sincere as he could manage when in such a full-blown mentalist mindset. “As doom-and-gloom as all of this might sound, try to be hopeful. We beat Hyouga. We beat the gas. We’ll beat this too.”
--- * --- * ---
Leaving Francois to their task, Senku’s next stop was Kohaku’s place. Upon returning to the living area of the Kingdom, he was pleasantly surprised to find it entirely empty and silent. He thought for sure some curious idiot would’ve gotten bored and snuck out by now… he really should make some kind of announcement soon to explain what was going on…
With these thoughts floating around his head, Senku completely forgot to knock when reaching Kohaku’s home. He slipped in, mask in place over his face (Yuzuriha worked fast ), only to be met with a spear at his throat.
“Senku!” Kohaku roared, “What are you doing you can’t be mixing with people!”
Senku blinked at her, entirely unphased. He picked at his ear with his pinky finger. “Yo, Gorilla. I know that, duh. You’re safe though.”
“I’m… safe?”
“Yeah.” Senku glanced at his pinky, blew on it briefly, then looked at Kohaku again. “Put this thing down, would you?”
Kohaku moved the spear, looking very confused. “But Gen said…”
Senku’s mouth stretched into a broad grin, so wide that Kohaku could probably see it in his eyes. “Oh, the mentalist already did his job? How efficient. What did he say?”
Kohaku summarised Gen’s words, ending on a question. “So how do you know I’m safe? I could have it!”
Senku nodded, “Yeah, you could. But you’re a gorilla. You and all the other young people from the village? You’re going to be fine. It’s like Gen said, it’s us old-worlders that are in real trouble, since our bodies haven’t changed for 3700 years. You’ve probably developed the immunity you need for whatever this is.”
“You’re sure?” Kohaku’s shoulders fell slightly, relief painted across her face.
“No.” Senku’s voice was flat. The way Kohaku’s face dropped was seriously hilarious . She then looked like she was going to start a fight though, so Senku thought it best to elaborate. “Look, it is possible that this is a virus or something which you haven’t seen before either. Viruses can randomly mutate, and become something which can replicate inside the human body. That’s seriously fuckin’ rare though. It’s way more likely that this is something your lot have had before, since those are the diseases that are already hanging around in this stone world. There’s got to be ten billion viruses that made that random mutation while we were asleep, infected humans, and carried on replicating. If that’s the type of disease we're dealing with, then even if you catch it, you’ll hardly feel it. You'll have some immunity.”
Kohaku nodded slowly. “Right… I’m not sure I really understand all of that, but the people who were in stone are probably most at risk?”
“Yes.”
“So people like you ?”
“Yes…?”
“So even if I am safe, if I have it and give it to you, that’s still bad?”
Senku grinned, “Yes. But since I was the first on scene to examine Ryuusui, if it is infectious, I probably already have it anyway.”
Kohaku gasped, covering her mouth. “Senku, that’s--”
“Don’t worry.” He said sharply, “We’re going to beat this, like we’ve beaten everything else. I’m playing with measured risks now though. I’m estimating it’s unlikely to be seriously threatening to you and the other young villagers, so I need you to co-ordinate a team to supply provisions to the rest of us while we all stay indoors.”
“Of course!” Kohaku said earnestly. The concern was still shining in her eyes, but Kohaku was very good at prioritising. She made excellent judgements, and she made them very quickly.
“I’ll say it again - this is just a measured risk. It’s entirely possible that this is actually the other scenario I mentioned, and you lot can catch it just as badly as us. If that happens, being responsible for delivery of provisions, you’d have the greatest exposure to the disease and so the greatest risk.”
“You’ve already decided I’m doing this though, haven’t you? You wouldn’t have risked coming in here if you hadn’t.” She raised an eyebrow at him.
Senku smirked, “I knew you wouldn’t say no. Balancing probabilities, this is the Kingdom's best shot at getting through this.”
“I know. I know you wouldn’t ask us to do something dangerous unless it was necessary.”
Senku nodded slightly.
“Yuzuriha has made two sets of protective clothing for all of you. Organise it so only about ten of you work at a time. Any more than that and you'll be bumping into each other too often. We're minimising social contact. You wear one set of the clothing when you’re on shift, you take it off and wash it, then wear the other set for your next shift. Repeat. Don’t touch anything you don’t have to touch. Change into something clean as soon as you can after your shift. Wash your hands all the fucking time. Using soap. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“Priorities are delivery of food and water, and delivery of the face masks” Senku gestured to the one he was currently wearing, “that Yuzuriha has made. You don’t give anyone their food unless they’re wearing their mask. You don’t speak to anyone unless they’re wearing their mask.”
Kohaku nodded.
“Alright. Pass that on to the other young, adult villagers. I’m leaving you in charge.”
“I’ll set out now!” Kohaku said, moving towards the door.
“One more thing.” Senku said quietly, just as she was about to go. She looked at him, waiting. “Don’t tell anyone I have it. I haven’t even told Gen. Hope is important, to keep people listening to us and following instructions.”
Kohaku sighed quietly, “Yeah… yeah, understood.”
Senku nodded his head to her, before slipping out and away from the small home.
Okay. Now, for the science work.