Chapter Text
The sound of stone cracking filled his ears, as his eyes were greeted with blinding light. He tried blinking it away, feeling bits of stone crumble off his face.
Senku had finally woken up from his stone sleep of over 3,700 years. He knew he had a lot to figure out in this new world, but at least it was spring. Freezing to death at this time of year was fairly unlikely, and he wanted those stronger odds if he wanted to bring back all seven billion people.
He was glad he was able to awaken at this time. He hoped someone else would join him shortly, though he secretly hoped someone was already awake.
Over the next few months, he built a couple of huts; one off the ground so animals couldn’t get to him as easily while he slept and a place to store food. He learned to hunt, something he had never in a billion years thought he would do, but it was just another branch of science in the end considering the amount of weapons he tried (and failed) to make. He also began his experiments with the nitric acid, which he figured must have been what woke him, on some stone birds. Results were not good so far. He just hoped it was a bird problem and that Taiju would wake in the same way he did, and soon.
Soon was relative in this new world. Taiju joined him after six months, much to Senku’s relief. A bit longer than he wanted to wait, but it wasn’t like he could control him. Senku was ecstatic to finally have muscle, but more importantly, a friend. That, however, wasn’t as easily admitted. Taiju was also just as glad to be with his friend, and just as thrilled to find out Yuzuriha was safe.
There was quite a learning curve when it came to Taiju helping out. He knew they needed food, but wasn’t always sure of the edibility of his gatherings. He much preferred being told exactly what to get, like wood or water. Those things were harder to mess up, and were less likely to poison anyone. The day Senku told him of the uses of seashells, they headed down to the beach to begin collecting. Seashells sure should be simple.
Taiju was busy running around like a madman, grabbing as many shells as possible while Senku sat on a rock closer to the edge of the water. He was just enjoying the evening, not to mention all the hard work being done for him. The sea was calm and clear. The breeze was cool and tangled through his hair, the sun warm enough to balance out the few chills the air and sea spray gave him. Senku took his booties and coat off to take a short dip. Even he was allowed to relax every now and then. He glanced at Taiju once quickly; he was still collecting. He’d be busy for a while.
He moved to a rock that was barely under the water. The water was cold, but he adjusted quickly with the sun still beaming down. Senku knew he wasn’t the best swimmer, and didn’t want to tempt the ocean too much, but sitting in water barely waist deep shouldn’t be too big of a threat. Besides, the rock was large enough to accommodate at least two people so he didn’t feel like he was going to slip into the drink that easily. And having lived near the ocean his whole life, he’d had plenty of ocean safety drilled into him. He wasn’t going to try anything reckless.
As he gazed out to sea, his feeling of peacefulness began to dissipate. His ears began to ring, as if little alarm bells. He couldn’t see anything around him that would be considered a threat, the ocean notwithstanding, and Taiju was still running around completely fine, but he was filled with such a sense of foreboding, so what—
Senku was ripped from his thoughts as something pulled him below the surface.
Thankfully, he was able to hold his breath quickly before taking in too much water. He reached out above him, trying to grab the rock that had been his seat, but he was already too far down. He kicked with both legs as hard as he could, but his lungs were already beginning to give up. He was too weak for his own good despite all the progress he had made since waking up.
He tried to look at what had grabbed him. Surely it wasn’t a shark; whatever had ahold of him wasn’t sharp and he was pretty sure he would know if he had been bitten. It wasn’t an octopus or squid either, he knew what suckers felt like and this wasn’t it. It almost felt like… like a hand? It was smooth and soft. But that wasn’t possible. He and Taiju were the only two humans awake—weren’t they?
He continued thrashing, trying to break free. He swore if he lived, he would learn to swim better. They hadn’t seen anyone around when they got to the beach, not that he would have since they were the only two around, and no normal human he knew of would be able to snatch someone like this and drag them so low so quickly. So what…?
He caught a brief glimpse of a blue eye shining in what was left of the sun and what looked like blonde locks before passing out.
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Senku woke up coughing, spluttering, a massive pain in his chest. He gasped for air a few times before his body remembered how to breathe again. He looked at his hands and down his body. He was glad he was able to move, that was a good start. He didn’t seem to be injured in any way aside from a few scrapes on his arm where he hit the rock as he went down. His skin was a normal color. He flexed his fingers and toes. Circulation was a bit slow due to the coldness of the water clinging to his skin, but nothing a little heat wouldn’t fix. He would have to have Taiju help him in the next few days to make sure he didn’t have any other issues. He began doing some calculations to make sure his brain was still running right.
It was then that he realized he wasn’t at their usual part of the beach. He was still on a beach, but it must have been a bit further away. He couldn’t hear Taiju screaming about seashells. He couldn’t hear Taiju at all, and that worried him. He looked around and stopped.
Behind a rock, there seemed to be… a person? No, it couldn’t be, not a depretrified person anyway. Maybe his near-death experience had him seeing things. But it would make sense if it had been a hand around his ankle.
“Hey, you! What are you doing?” He got up and slowly made his way to the rock. He wasn’t armed in any way and didn’t really have a plan, but he was a perhaps still a bit too out of it to notice or care. He decided to put his hands up to show the person he didn’t mean any harm.
The person made a loud screeching sound that sent Senku’s ears ringing. He covered his ears in pain. Ears still covered, he continued on. The person poked their head out from behind the rock a bit more to better greet him once he got there.
Well, if he got there.
Senku collapsed. He was so cold. He’d only been this cold a few times before, but this was different. There wasn’t much he could do if he got super sick in the stone world. He rolled onto his back, trying to steady his breathing, the sun getting lower in the sky with every moment. He wished it would stay so he wouldn’t be alone in the dark, and some heat from the sun would do him so good right about now.
Except he wasn’t alone.
Suddenly there was a girl looming over him, an arm on either side of his torso. Her eyes were a deep blue-green like the sea, and her waterlogged locks were golden and pulled into a quick ponytail. She was incredibly familiar. Senku wracked his water-logged brain for where he’d seen her before.
“So who are you?” Senku started to ask, but didn’t quite get to finish before the girl grabbed his face and pushed her lips onto his.
To say he was startled was an understatement.
Man, first I nearly drown and now this random chick is kissing me? Or maybe she’s trying mouth to mouth? No, this is obviously a kiss. I guess things could be worse. Though I suppose they might get worse if I don’t get warm soon, Senku thought.
But warmth would come soon enough. He could feel his face flush from being kissed, and it slowly spread down to his neck. It was a start.
Just as quickly as she had connected, she slowly parted from him, smiling at him. Senku had to pause for a moment. The sun, as it was setting, soaked this girl in blinding light making her glow like a thousand candles.
He shook himself out of the stupor.
“Well, thanks for that I guess, but what was that for?” He said, trying to sit up. She firmly placed a hand on his chest and kept him lying down. He supposed that it was probably for the best. Her hand felt weird though, warm but also almost rubbery? Well, any warmth was welcome at this point.
“I needed to learn your language so I could speak with you. Sorry I almost killed you.” She leaned on one arm and looked at him, keeping her other hand lightly on his chest. Grounding and warm.
“Learn my language? Aren’t you also someone fresh from the stone?” He asked, attempting once again to sit up. This time she didn’t stop him and he carefully propped himself up without too much issue. Once he was up however, he finally got a good look at his companion.
From the waist up, she was just a girl with pale, nearly translucent in some places, skin and blonde hair that looked more like the mane of a lion. From the waist down however…
He had to do a triple take. From the waist down she had a tail of a fish. Blues and greens mixing throughout with tiny streaks and flecks of gold until the tip of the tail which was nearly solid blue. He noticed after she moved it a bit that he could see right through the tips of it. It seemed to get thinner as it went down, and it shimmered with every movement in the light.
Senku knew that he nearly drowned. He knew that surviving that sort of thing could lead to brain damage. Surely that was what happened to him. Why else would he be hallucinating a mermaid? But he could remember everything else fairly clearly, so maybe it was the sea water? Maybe he swallowed more than anyone ever should. But that kiss felt incredibly real for a figment of his imagination.
“Stone? Wait, are you a rock?” She reached out and poked his nose. Then she poked her nose. It felt like her own so he couldn’t possibly be a rock. When she did this, he got a good look at her hand. There was light, translucent blue webbing between her fingers, and scales covering her knuckles.
“Umm… no. I’m not a rock. But I was petrified for the past 3,700 years, so I guess I was for a while.” He began trying to clean out an ear. Explaining being petrified to a mermaid, yeah, sure, why not. He must have been having an adverse reaction to nearly drowning. Most people did, he thought. But seeing mermaids? That was a new type of symptom.
“Oh. Weird. Anyway, sorry again I almost killed you. I thought you were an animal. I better get going now since, you know, you’re not dinner.” She turned quickly on the sand to point herself towards the water. She moved faster than Senku expected moving very snake-like through the sand. She must come onto land often then, he thought.
“Wait, do I even get your name? I mean that’s the least you could tell me after nearly killing me,” he said, raising an eyebrow at her.
She turned and grinned at him before moving herself back towards the ocean. He watched her slick movements as she went.
Taiju took this opportunity to come running around the corner.
“SENKUUUUUU!”
“I’m over here, you big oaf!” Senku shouted back, trying not to turn his body. He shot a quick glance to the side, and when he looked back, she was gone.
“Oh, thank goodness, you’re safe!” Taiju nearly broke Senku in half as he scooped him up in a hug.
“Careful! I wanna keep my near-death experiences to a minimum today,” Senku said, separating himself from his friend. He normally didn’t like hugs, but Taiju was warm, and he needed warmth. But then he noticed Taiju was holding his clothes and he quickly dressed. The edge was instantly taken off and Senku finally started to calm down.
“What happened? You were sitting there and then poof! Gone!” He made a motion of an explosion and then shrugged, worry still filling his face.
“Not quite sure, but I might have learned about something that gets me quite excited.”