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Seven years.
Seven years with zero human contact.
When Suika first awoke from her petrification, it was to the cicadas humming, water dripping down from leaves, birds chirping, ants crawling over her feet and ticking her ankles, but no celebration.
She heard other animals communicating, felt the sun warming her skin, and smelled the forest surrounding her, but she saw only a blurred view of what was in front of her, for she heard no celebration.
She felt her nails dig into her fists and her salty tears coat her cheeks, but she felt nobody embracing her and spinning her around in joyous celebration.
She was twelve years old when she was petrified, and now she has been alone for nearly as long as she has been alive.
After the initial shock of a plan coming to fruition that as though they thought up in a fever dream of her’s, she worked hard every single day, secretly hoping to wake up from a dream, truly hoping that one of those piles of poop would give her the nitric acid she had really been dreaming of.
For seven years.
And finally, finally , she had just enough to revive one person.
She held the bottle of fluid close to her chest, her nerves wracked with anxiety. She couldn’t have worked this hard to just spill the revival fluid.
Deciding who she would break out of their stone prison first was definitely not a hard decision to make. The person to revive first was, without a doubt, Senku.
The most logical choice . Suika smiled to herself.
Nearly every day of those seven years, she had been just slightly resentful toward their plan to shoulder her with the responsibility to revive everyone, but she was Detective Suika, and it was her job to be useful. Suika grinned at the container filled with revival fluid—how useful she had been. She just wished, somewhere deep and buried in the back of her mind, that someone else had been revived. Someone like Senku or Chrome, who probably would have revived them in less than half of the time that she had taken to—no use dwelling. What’s done is done, and it was finally over because Suika had obtained revival fluid.
Her nightly dreams of hugging Kohaku again, listening to Kaseki’s stories, or adventuring with Chrome didn’t feel so distant anymore as she made her way over to the statue of Senku.
The look frozen on his face was one of certainty. It was as if he knew that this job for Detective Suika was not one that she couldn’t take on. It brought warmth to her chest. Here he was, Senku, who had been the first person not to judge her at first glance. Senku, who was the first person to let her be useful. Senku, who trusted the responsibility of the entirety of humanity with her and who taught her something new every day; Senku, who was going to save the world; and Senku, who, after seven years, Suika was going to revive.
With a shaky hand, she took the janky cap off of her even jankier container and began to pour the fluid that she had grueled over for seven years onto Senku. She watched in awe as science worked its magic. As cracks started to form throughout Senku’s petrified body, chunks of rock began to fall away. Her lip trembled violently when she saw the first glimpse of him, his eyes holding a look softer than she had ever seen.
“Sorry,” her voice trembled despite herself, not wanting to seem weak in front of Senku but feeling an overwhelming amount of emotion drowning her, “to make you wait so long. You might not even recognize me anymore.”
For the first time in seven years, she heard someone else’s voice, and it was a small laugh that rang out like bells through her ears.
“Heh heh heh, you sure made yourself useful, Suika,” Senku smiled as the last of the stone surrounding him broke away.
She stared in shock for a long moment, and before she could think better of it, Suika was throwing herself into Senku’s chest, tears leaking uncontrollably from her eyes. The warmth that surrounded her for the first time in seven years was comforting enough to make her cry even harder. She was sated only slightly as Senku wrapped one tentative arm around her and put one atop her head.
“It’s only been seven years, huh?” Senku pulled Suika back slightly, smiling at her with that proud look in his eyes that she saw only rarely. “You worked quick.”
She attempted to smile back, but it came out watery, and she fell back into the boy’s arms. He was clearly vaguely uncomfortable with the close contact but indulged her for as long as she needed.
She felt as though she could have stayed there forever, maybe even completely melted into Senku’s body never to return. She was so tired.
But Suika was stronger than that, so, despite it taking another couple of minutes for her to finally calm down, she did, and Senku treated her with understanding. Seven years is a long time. It would’ve been more jarring for him if it wasn’t for the 3,700 years passed that he had woken up to the first time, but seeing Suika all grown up was peculiar.
At last, unlatched from Suika’s embrace, Senku took the chance to take in his surroundings. In front of him was a huge field of a bunch of lumps in the ground.
He nodded in understanding, turning his head toward Suika. “A field for making nitric acid from poop?”
She nodded.
“This method takes a long time. But, as long as you go slow and steady, step by step, you’re ten billion percent guaranteed to get revival fluid,” he turned to Suika in pride, “you did good, Suika.”
The girl in question teared up slightly at the praise, the stressful weight of the last seven years finally leaving her shoulders with another, truthfully more capable, person to carry some of the load. “I only made enough for one person, and I used that dose on you, Senku.”
He grinned mischievously. “Well, ten billion points for getting your priorities straight.”
Suika smiled feebly, still looking absolutely exhausted.
She was probably terrified that this bottle of revival fluid that she had been working so hard on was going to be a dud. Now that he thought of it, he couldn’t imagine how many times she had poured a bottle on him praying for it to work just for nothing to happen. It must have been tortuous.
The poor girl looked about ready to pass out by the time the two were eating dinner around the fire that Suika had constructed, and Senku really couldn’t blame her. He knew what it was like to be all alone out in the primitive world, and for Suika, she had been alone for seven years. There was absolutely no chance that it hadn’t taken a large toll on her.
Senku gave Suika a quick pat on the head and reassured the girl, "There’s no need to worry anymore. You did it, Suika. Pretty impressive work all on your own, but now we’ve got each other, so let’s take a good, long nap and get to work in the morning.”
The girl nodded tiredly and smiled at Senku. “Thank you.”
“I think I should be the one thanking you,” he laughed, but she was already deep in a finally dreamless sleep, curled up in a tight ball against his side.