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Senku grabbing Magma’s hand just before he fell out of reach wasn’t out of instinct. He’d done it with purpose. It was ten billion percent obvious that Magma had just saved him from falling into the mica pit himself, a fall that likely would have killed him. And Senku wasn’t about to just let him fall in without at least trying to return the favour.
But it didn’t take a genius to realize that Senku wasn’t nearly strong enough to pull Magma back up on his own. His arms wouldn’t even last long enough for Chrome to help, if he even could get close enough to do so. Magma was at least twice Senku’s weight; it had been a losing battle from the start. The strain on Senku’s back from holding him up for just that short 57 seconds was immense.
He was milliseconds away from falling into the pit himself.
His hands were still firmly grasped around Magma’s when the ground finally gave way under his feet, sending them both plummeting into the dark. He heard Chrome call out their names as they fell, the echo sounding ghostly and far away as the wind whipped passed his ears.
Letting go of Magma in the free fall and shoving his arms in front of him had been instinct. And he remembered meeting the ground with a sickening crunch and then the already dark world around him went even darker, and as quiet as death.
__
When he finally woke up, he was met with almost compete darkness. Two beams of light moved around, one in the distance, far above him and the other much closer. His own light must have broken when he hit the bottom of the chasm. It was no longer around his forehead. When his ears stopped ringing, he could hear the dull sound of footsteps echoing around the stone walls. Right, the cave. It was slowly coming back to him. They’d gone down into the cave for minerals, and he and Magma had fallen into a mica pit. He must have been knocked unconscious when he hit the ground. That made total sense. His head was pounding with a fierce headache, one so bad he felt nauseous.
“I already told ya, there’s no foot holds! Everything’s too damn slippery! Just toss a rope down already!” came a booming voice that was ten billion percent Magma.
“And I told you that we don’t have any rope long enough to reach down there. Besides, the edge is just going to start crumbling when you start to pull yourself up and you’ll just fall back down!”
Ah, Chrome. He was right about that. They hadn’t brought enough rope to pull anyone out of this situation. Most of their supply of it was used on the trek down here and was still tied back where they used it so they would be able to climb back out once they had finished their mission.
Senku smirked a little. It was time he’d get up and help find a way out of this. As he started to sit up, he let out a short yelp, falling back down against the cold stone and hissing in pain.
Magma and Chroma both went quiet before Senku was blinded by Magma’s light as he rushed over and knelt beside him.
“He’s alive!” Magma blurted out.
“I thought you knew that! You told me you checked his pulse!” Chrome squeaked, “Argh—whatever— Senku! I’m so glad you’re awake…how do you…uh, how are you feeling…?”
Senku groaned, lifting his hand to shield his eyes from Magma’s light, “…Like I was hit by a truck…”
“The hell’s a truck?” Magma grumbled, sitting back on his heels.
Senku sighed, “Never mind that…” He was more careful this time when he sat up onto his hands, looking down at his legs and cringing. Both of his legs were definitely broken, but his right leg was the worst. Magma had likely tried some brief first aid under Chrome’s guidance, judging by the tourniquet just above his knee. But there wasn’t a lot they could do in a cave with limited supplies.
“Shine your light on my legs for a minute…” he mumbled to Magma, who turned his head in that direction. When the light hit his leg, Senku’s fears were realized. The sight of his tibia sticking out his skin made his stomach turn, and he had to bring a hand up to his mouth to avoid puking at the torn mess of flesh, sinew and muscle. Despite how gruesome it looked, and it definitely was gruesome, the pain he felt was low, almost like it wasn’t there. Senku knew the numb feeling wouldn’t last long. His body was just chock full of adrenaline and endorphins, but when they finally faded, he’d be in for a world of severe pain.
He glanced over at Magma, unable to see in condition without a light facing him.
“Anything broken on you?” he asked calmly.
Magma scoffed at him, turning his way and blinding him again, “Of course not. Unlike a twig like you, I can handle a little fall!”
Senku chuckled. He was right about that. Magma was very resilient. If Senku was a bit beefier, the extra tissue would have cushioned his fall more and maybe saved his bones from snapping in two. He looked to the side in thought for a moment. In reality, a fall from this height for someone like Senku, at the angle he fell—really he should have broken his neck, back, ribs and/or pelvis, and either died or been paralyzed at minimum. He was surprised the worst he’d gotten is broken legs. He didn’t fall feet first…
He kept his theories to himself for now, looking back to his legs.
“Chrome. Can you toss down the rest of the rope and remove the bottom two rungs of the ladder and toss those down too?” he mumbled into his hand, eyes locked on his battered leg.
“Oh, uh—yeah, of course I can do that. But why do you need those? A way to climb out…?”
“No. The first thing we need to do is set my leg into a splint and bandage it. The tourniquet is keeping most my blood from leaking out of me, but if we don’t do something soon, I’ll lose enough blood that my body temperature will drop, and I’ll die of hypothermia before we get out of the pit, let alone the cave.” His voice was even and clinical, without a hint of trepidation. But in truth, he was feeling a bit anxious at the thought of dying in a cold, dark cave. A chill was already setting into his bones from being in the cave this long.
“R-right,” Chrome’s voice wavered. Senku’s words likely had frightened him, and he quickly moved away from the edge and went to retrieve the requested items.
Senku laid back down as he waited. He was aware he’d already lost a good amount of blood, and he wanted to keep his mind as clear as he could for the next step. It was going to take a toll on him for sure. The worst injury he’d had back in modern times was breaking his wrist when he was four. And Byakuya had doted on him like he’d broken his whole arm. But he didn’t have his father to guide him through the pain now. All he had was the cold stone floor under him and Magma, who had only just recently decided Senku wasn’t fit for killing.
Chrome returned to the edge, getting Magma’s attention before dropping the two pieces of wood wrapped tightly with the remaining length of rope. Magma caught them easily and unwound the rope from the ladder rungs, looking to Senku.
“Alright, so why the hell do we need these again?”
Senku took a deep breath, “We’re going to use them like external bones to support my broken ones so the wounds and fractures don’t get worse when I move. We’re mainly going to worry about my right leg since the break is complete. My left leg seems like it’s only fractured and I don’t want to waste too many materials on myself.”
Magma glanced between the rope, the ladder rungs and Senku’s leg, and then raised an eyebrow at him, “What do I need ta do?” he grumbled.
Senku smirked weakly, trying to steel his nerves for what came next, “Now comes the fun part…” He nodded to his visible bone, feeling his stomach start to do flips again, “I need you to push my broken leg back into place. Then wrap my leg in bandages as tightly as you can and used the rope to tie a ladder rung on either side for support.”
“Aint that gonna hurt like hell?”
Senku chuckled darkly, words coming out in one tired sigh as he closed his eyes briefly, “Oh yeah…” He glanced back at Magma, “Try not to enjoy yourself too much.”
Magma shifted for a moment before me moved down to Senku’s feet and knelt next to his right leg.
“You should be able to see how they fit together. The break looks pretty clean. Just get it as close as you can for now and then wrap it all up like I said. We can do more thorough treatment when we get back to the village.”
“I thought you said there wasn’t a way out of these damn pits?” Magma spat out, his hands hovering over Senku’s lower leg, “Now yer acting like we’re just gonna climb out easy!”
Senku groaned, wishing he’d just get this over with and stop yelling, “We’ll find a way out, Magma. Just focus on this for now. And when we finally do, I can’t be moved with my bone sticking out.”
Magma responded with a grumble, gripping Senku’s leg and then looking up at him, “Ready?”
“Hold on…” Senku whispered, unwinding the leather strips from around one of his wrists, folding it up and then biting down on it. He laid back down, shut his eyes and then gave Magma a thumbs up, trying to ignore the fact his hand was shaking ever so slightly.
The dull ache that resonated up his leg transformed into a scorching, sheer pain when Magma started pushing his leg bones back into place. He arched his back and screamed into the leather he was chomping down, the shrill noise echoing off the cave walls despite his efforts to muffle it. His fingernails dug into the stone under him, splintering and breaking against it. Each breath he heaved in through his nose was spent with another muffled scream as he focused on trying to keep himself from jerking away from Magma’s touch. The pain was so intense he felt tears prickle at the corners of his eyes before they spilled down the sides of his face.
His world spun when he tried to looked down at Magma. His intense reaction must have alarmed him because he had let go of his leg now and was looking in Senku’s direction with wide eyes. Senku spit out the leather gag.
“…nghhhh—Don’t—Don’t stop—!” he rasped out between his breaths. He didn’t want this prolonged any more than it already had been, “I’m fine. Just fix it.”
After a moment the terrible pain returned and without the gag to bite down on, Senku ground his teeth together, howling in pain when the bone was finally forced back into his skin and back into place. He had to stop himself from screaming, not wanting the loud noise to cause a cave in. He brought his hand up and bit into his palm to stifle his shouting. His hands, so scared and mistreated from years of failed experimenting, were numb to pain as his teeth sank into them until his mouth filled with the coppery taste of his blood.
Magma was hastily wrapping the bandages around his leg now, as tight as he could make them. Senku felt him press the two pieces of wood in place and tie them into there with the rope. Magma’s hand moved up to remove the tourniquet, but Senku stopped him just in time.
“…leave it,” he rasped out, his voice was raw from screaming, “If you take it off, there’s a chance I’ll bleed out. Better to lose my leg from lack of circulation, than my life.” He panted harshly as he spoke, feeling exhausted from the pain but trying his best to shove it down so he could direct his attention to the next problem. Now was not the time to pass out. He had to craft a way out of here, quickly.
“…Senku? You alright…?” came Chrome’s quiet voice as he peeked over the edge of the pit. He was clearly still shaken up by the sound of Senku’s pained wailing.
Senku gave him a thumbs up, “Can’t do me in that easily.”
“I have an idea…Hold on a minute,” his head disappeared from the edge for a few minutes before he returned.
Water suddenly splashed down from above, all landing directly on top of Magma’s head. Senku could almost see the steam rise from his head, and he suddenly shot to his feet, waving a fist at Chrome, “What the hell?! I’ll kill you!” he boomed.
Senku grabbed his head, the loudness making him dizzy, “Quiet down, or you’ll kill us too.” He grumbled, “And I’ve got a splitting headache, so I’d appreciate you using your inside voice.”
“There’s a pool of water over here. Maybe if I pour enough water down, you can both just float up instead of climbing,” Chrome said, holding the empty jar in front of him.
Senku’s eyes widened. That was actually a great idea.
Magma shot him a look like he was stupid, “Are ya kidding? It’ll take forever to fill this stupid pit with water!”
“Shhh!” Senku and Chrome shushed him simultaneously when his voice started to raise too high.
Magma’s point was another that hadn’t gotten passed Senku. But there were faster ways to move the water than the jar Chrome held.
“That’s ten billion percent obvious, so we’re going to fill it faster using a hose. Chrome, listen carefully, here’s what you’ll have to do…” Senku smirked up at him, noticing an excited smile tug at Chrome’s lips in the dim light.
It only took Chrome 10 minutes to set the simple hose up. Water began pouring into the pit a few seconds later as Senku explained the science behind the siphon to them both. Magma seemed completely disinterested in the explanation, while Chrome was basically vibrating in excitement.
Senku had used Magma’s height for his reference point to determine his estimate for how long the water would take to lift them close enough to the top to pull themselves out. It was a very rough estimation though, and Senku had concerns about the temperature of the water as it pooled around his body.
“Magma. Think you can keep me from drowning until we get to the top? I’ll be able to float, mostly, but with both my legs injured, I’ll likely have trouble keeping my head above water enough.”
Magma responded with a grunt, “’Course I can do that. Yer scrawny as hell…”
Senku chuckled. When he was right, he was right.
__
After a few hours, they were maybe 50% to the top. Magma made sure Senku’s head stayed above the water, letting him hold onto his extended arm and having no issue holding them both up. But it was clear from Senku’s violent shivering that the cold air and water, combined with the shock of losing so much blood, was taking its toll on his body. Hypothermia was setting it quicker than the water could rise.
They all knew that he wasn’t going to last much longer in these conditions. Chrome shifted, wracking his brain trying to think of a way to help before it was too late. He gasped when a light went off in his head.
“Magma—Why don’t you just try tossing him up the rest of the way? You’re strong enough for something like that right?!”
Magma scoffed, offended he even had to ask, “Of course I am!”
“Well then hurry up and do it!”
“Don’t boss me around, weakling!” He looked away, “I can’t—”
Chrome made a confused noise, “What the hell does that mean?” He narrowed his eyes, “Don’t tell me you want him to freeze to death just so you can be chief!”
Magma shot him a glare and growled, “Shuddup! I can’t do it because my friggin’ arm’s broke!”
Chrome’s words caught in his throat and he cursed. There was no more rope up here and if Magma couldn’t toss Senku up then—
He pressed his forehead into the rock, “This is baaad.”
Senku’s weak chuckle broke the silence after a moment, “S-stop…fr-frea-king-g o-ou-t-t…I-I s-still…c-can l-last-t…l-long-er…”
It wasn’t a total lie, but he knew it wasn’t for much longer. But he was taking a page from Gen’s book here. If Chrome started acting defeated before Senku had actually keeled over, then there was one less person to help think this through. Unfortunately, the only option Senku could think of made his face heat up.
Heh, guess if just considering it made his temperature rise, that actually doing it would ten billion percent be effective.
“M-Mag-gma-a…” he started, waiting for him to turn his head Senku’s way before speaking further, “I-if y-you ac-tcually-y d-don’t-t wa-want m-me d-dead, the-n, y-youre g-g-onna h-have t-to h-hug m-me…” He blushed, “…c-closely...”
Magma’s face went beet red, and he suddenly shook Senku from his arm. Senku let out a noise before his head dipped under water. He immediately tried to start kicking his way to the surface, the pain in his leg making him lose his breath. Magma yanked him back up to the surface shortly after he’d gone under. Senku sputtered the cold water from his mouth. His hair was now drenched, framing his thin, pale face. He was that much closer to freezing with his head damp.
After growling in frustration, Magma suddenly pulled the smaller man into his chest and started rubbing his hands into his back, trying to warm him up as best he could. Senku gasped in surprise, leaning into him as his body shivered uncontrollably. Magma was a fucking furnace compared to the freezing water. His shivering lessened after a few minutes, regaining some heat to his core, and he let out a sigh. He considered thanking Magma for sharing his body heat but scrapped the idea. Magma likely wasn’t interested in his gratitude, especially not for something like cuddling. And Senku didn’t really wanna talk about it either. None of them mentioned it, all choosing to keep completely silent as the water rose slowly.
__
The pit was at about 75% now, but Magma still couldn’t reach the edge, nor the ladder when Chrome extended it down towards him. Senku had started violently shivering again half an hour ago before it started to die down again, relieving Magma.
If he understood how hypothermia worked, then he would be panicking as Senku slowly stopped shivering over the next half hour. Senku wasn’t going to let him know what that meant though. It would just make him panic. He could last if he focused on staying awake. He didn’t want to waste his energy, and his mind was starting to slip through his fingers anyway, vision blurring as confusion started setting it quickly.
Senku was dying.
His body just wasn’t strong enough to overcome this, even though his mind was screaming at him to keep it together for just a little longer.
He was dying.
Every breath was a chore that felt completely manual. After a few more minutes, he lost the battle with his fatigue, and his eyes fell shut as his body stilled.
__
Magma grabbed the ladder roughly, nearly pulling Chrome into the water as he heaved himself and Senku out of the water, flopping to the ground, his arm still draped over Senku’s limp body sprawled out next to him.
Magma lifted his head and looked over at him when Chrome let out a distraught noise. He scrambled to his knees, looking over Senku as Chrome knelt across from him.
He was pale and his lips were blue, eyes just barely open, completely unfocused and unresponsive to Chrome shaking his shoulders and yelling his name.
And it did not look like he was breathing.
Magma’s eyes widened as he stared down at his motionless body, frozen in place. He looked frailer and weaker than usual. Even if he was frail and weak, he never acted like it. His sheer confidence and aura made him seem stronger, in a different way than Magma. But seeing him so still, he just looked wrong. Broken.
Dead.
Chrome was pulling apart Senku’s tunic, tugging the soaked leather off him before he tore off his own shirt and wrapped it around Senku’s chest, rubbing his hands across his skin, trying to warm him back in any way he could think of. The air in the cave was cold, even if you weren’t soaked in bone-chilling water.
“…Go make a fire, idiot,” Magma mumbled, starting to peel off his own wet shirt, tossing it to the ground beside him.
Chrome looked up at him, eyes wet with frantic tears. He didn’t waste any more time before he scrambled to grab the ladder, breaking it apart so he could start crafting a fire. Senku has mentioned before they arrived here, that making a fire deep in a cave could be dangerous since it eats away the oxygen quickly. But the chamber they were in was huge, and Chrome didn’t care one millimeter about suffocating.
He just wanted to save his friend.
When the fire finally started to catch, he turned back to them. Magma had taken off his shirt and scooped Senku up, holding his naked body against his chest and rubbing his palms up and down Senku’s torso. When the flicker of the fire caught his eye, he stood and walked over to sit in front of it without a word.
Chrome knelt beside him, “Well? How is he? Is it working?” The fear was evident in his voice as he searched Magma’s face for an answer, eye darting between his and Senku’s.
Magma’s expression was grim as he stared at the fire, refusing to make eye contact with Chrome.
“Think ’e’s dead,” came his reply, barely a whisper.
Chrome’s blood ran cold. He shook his head in disbelief.
Magma set Senku’s body down next to the fire and stood up, walking a short distance away before sitting back down, his back to the fire.
Chrome, still not believing Magma, shook Senku’s shoulders, tapped his face, called his name, even slapped his cheek roughly, but nothing he did made Senku open his eyes fully to look up at him. He pulled his hands back, curling them into fists as tears spilled over his eyes. He punched his fist into the stone floor, not caring about the pain that blossomed up his forearm. He called Senku’s name repeatedly until Magma’s booming voice made him jump and snap his mouth shut.
“I SAID HE’S DEAD. STOP YER BLUBBERIN’!”
Hearing it said aloud for the second time made it feel real for Chrome. Even he could pick up the hint of distress in Magma’s voice, hidden deep under a thick layer of rage. He probably blamed himself, in a way.
“…keep…yelling…and we’ll all…be dead…”
“Shaddup—!” Magma started, arguing out of habit but choked on his words and whipped around, eyes widening when he could see Senku’s red eyes now open further, glistening in the fire light.
“Senku!” Chrome shrieked in disbelief, tempted to pull him into a hug for a moment, but instead he just sat forward on his palms and wiped his tears away. He shot a glare at Magma, “What the hell, man?! Why’d you tell me he was dead?! You had me bawling like a baby!”
Magma’s mouth was still agape, and he jabbed a finger at Senku, “He was! He didn’t have a heartbeat! I checked!”
Senku chuckled weakly, “…It’s still not…very strong…but freezing temperatures will slow the heart and breathing enough…that is hard to tell if someone alive…or dead…think we…just barely…made …it…” his head lulled to the side as he fell unconscious.
Magma scrambled over as Chrome checked his pulse again, both worried he had actually kicked the bucket this time. They both let out a relieved sigh when they saw the slow, but steady rise and fall off his chest. He shut his eyes in annoyance and sighed, taking a seat by the fire and avoiding Chrome’s gaze when he glanced over at him.
“You should probably start drying your clothes off,” he said as he stood, retrieving Senku’s winter tunic and laying it out near the fire so it could dry, “We’ll have to start heading back once his clothes are dry. I doubt he’s out of the woods until we’re back at the village with better equipment…” He sat back down and pulled Senku against his chest so Chrome’s own body heat would help him warm up faster.
Magma grumbled at him, but eventually he retrieved his shirt, removed his pants and laid both out without a word. There wasn’t much chatting as they waited.
__
It took about an hour for their clothing to finish drying and they carefully put Senku back in his tunic, making sure not to disturb his legs more than they needed to. His skin had regained a healthy shade, and his lips returned to their normal light pink tone, but he still looked a tad sickly. He stirred as Chrome finished packing away their tools.
“…did you find the tungsten…?” came his soft whisper, blinking a few times until the blurred vision dissipated.
“…What?” Chrome gave him a look of disbelief, “Of course not. We couldn’t just leave you here alone. We have to go back to the village anyway! The tungsten can wait.”
Senku made a noise, lugging his stiff body to a sitting position, panting with the effort, “No, it can’t. We have a hard spring deadline, remember? Tsukasa is not going to wait for us and if we don’t hurry, we won’t have the phones ready.”
“But you can’t even stand. Even if you’re awake now, we can’t leave you if you’re the one that knows how to identify the ore deposit. How are you going to—”
“Stop yer bitchin’. I’ll carry his skinny ass,” Magma grumbled as he walked over and grabbed Senku around the waist and tossed him over his right shoulder like he weighed nothing.
Senku made a noise of pain at the sudden movement but didn’t complain otherwise.
“What happened to your broken arm?” Chrome grumbled back at him.
Magma lifted his left arm, holding it out between them. There were deep purple bruises all over his bicep running down into his shirt and likely continuing down that side of his body, “’m fine.”
Senku squinted his eyes. Magma had likely suffered those injuries when they fell because he’d used his own body to break Senku’s fall.
Chrome made a frustrated noise, “Well whatever, but I still think this is bad idea. And not in the bad way. I mean like bad, bad! I mean Senku, you almost died for real this time!” He threw up his arms, not understanding why they weren’t agreeing with him.
“Tsukasa is going to kill me if we lose this war, along with anyone who gets in his way. Finding the tungsten is more important. It’ll take too much time to get me back to the village and make a new team to come back for the ore.”
Chrome opened his mouth to protest again, but instead just sighed, finally relenting.
One hour later, they finally found the skarn deposit. Magma set Senku down and started switching the axe head for the pickaxe, securing it tightly before standing back up.
“I didn’t want to attack you head on and get countered by whatever crazy science weapons you’ve got...but now you’ve handed me a pickaxe. You two won’t so much as flinch when I raise this thing up.”
Chrome whipped around from where he stood in front of the deposit, “You wouldn’t dare, Magma!”
“Oh you bet I would!” he grinned psychotically, lifting the axe, “and you two idiots left yourselves wide open for me to deal a death blow!” he shouted before chucking it past them and into the skarn deposit as Chrome ducked.
“And I was gonna kill ya too.”
Senku chuckled, he hadn’t even turned his head when Magma started his theatrics.
“Yeah, sure. That’s why you couldn’t stop yourself from trying to save me from falling into that mica pit,” he glanced back at Magma, a sly, knowing smirk across his face, “And why you didn’t just kill Chrome and leave me to freeze to death back there. Sorry, Magma, but if you’re a killer, you’ve gotten sloppy,” he chuckled, shutting his eyes.
Magma made a face at him, “I just had a change of plans,” he grunted before he retrieved the pickaxe and slammed it back into the deposit, sending chunks of ore clattering to the ground.
Senku chuckled again, not pushing the subject any further.
__
Getting into the cave had been easy compared to getting back out. With Magma’s left arm factured and his right arm preoccupied with holding Senku on his shoulder, their pace had slowed to a crawl. And it came to a screeching halt when they reached the biggest obstacle. The steep drop where they had left 90% of their rope supplied tied to.
Magma would need both this arms to climb back up, and they couldn’t just tie the rope around Senku to haul him up without it risking his health. Plus if the rope came undone and sent him tumbling back down the drop, that would be the end for him.
“Oh! I’ve got it!” Chrome smirked, untieing the rope from his waist, “Magma, untie yours too. And take the basket of minerals off your back.”
Magma raised an eyebrow but quickly did as he was asked. Time was running short for him to meet Gen’s deadline of sunset.
When Chrome’s plan was finally brought to reality, Senku was strapped to his back, similar to a onbuhimo but with their backs together to avoid Senku’s legs getting in the way as he climbed.
Chrome stepped back, hands on his hips, clearly proud of his genius. But both Senku and Magma were blushing from head to toe, steam emerging from their heads.
“…This doesn’t leave the cave…” Senku muttered.
“…agreed…” Magma mumbled. He made a mental note to be sure to repay Chrome for the humiliation later.