Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a rather sunny day in the lab, rays of light smothered Senku's skin and every surface it could get a hold on.

He reached for a beaker, swirling the liquid inside.

It was pretty quiet today, a little too quiet if you asked him. Since the sun was out, most of the Science Club members were outside enjoying themselves, maybe having a battle or two. But by now, either Taiju had come into the lab to talk his ear off about whatever or Yuzuriha had come around to drag Senku off to eat something before he passed out.

He welcomed the quiet and nice weather. Just him, his Pokémon and a few others members all working on separate projects.

Before he could reach out for what he needed next, a beige and green head came up beside him to nudge the glass to him.

“Lee?” Leafeon tilted her head at Senku, sat on the counter and asking if that's what he needed.

Senku took the glass out of her hands. “Exactly what I needed, thanks.” He smiled down at her, patting her head fondly.

Leafeon hummed happily before both her and Senku's attention turned to the door, Leafeon's expression changing instantly.

The door swung right open, a familiar strong figure showing itself on the other side.

Ofcourse, Senku thought. I knew it was getting too quiet. He suppressed a sigh.

He glanced down to Leafeon, whose mood seemed to have spontaneously soured at the sight of the person.

“Listen up, Senku!” Taiju started. “I've made up my mind. I'm going to confess my feelings for Yuzuriha. Right here, right now!”

Senku glanced back down to Leafeon, who easily met his eyes with the same neutral expression.

“Yeah?” He said, putting the beaker down onto the counter. “Well, I can't really leave the lab right now. But, I'll be cheering for you so loud you won't even be able to hear your own voice” He started to remove his gloves. “From here in the science lab though, of course.”

Taiju's face lit up. “Really? You will? You rock, Senku!”

Senku turned to face Taiju fully. “Shut up, you big oaf. I won't give an ounce of effort to your cause if it’s going to up the risk of an explosion.”

Taiju's face fell into an expression of absolute confusion. “Wait- what? Come on man, make up your mind!”

Senku sighed. “Call me indecisive all you want, but you're the one who's only now going to confess your love. I don't get how you're only now coming to this conclusion, you've kept your feelings a secret for what, five years now, was it?”

Taiju had no answer, instead opting for scratching his neck awkwardly.

Senku smirked. “However, I do have something for you that's decisive as hell.” Leafeon looked up at him, curious but wary. At one point or another, Reuniclus had come and joined them, floating curiously around Senku's hands. Gently swatting him away, Senku grabbed the beaker he had previously been tinkering with.

He held it up to Taiju. “A drug that'll stimulate your pheromone output to the max,” He swirled the liquid around and grinned. “a love potion, if you will.”

Senku set the beaker down on the counter beside Taiju. “Take this, and you're set, ten billion percent.”

A beat passed before Taiju slowly extended his arm to pick up the beaker.

Senkus' eyes twitched ever so slightly. He wouldn't, he knew he wouldn't, but he didn't exactly trust Taiju with chemicals he wasn't familiar with, which was all of them.

Not surprisingly, Taiju stretched his arm out to pour the liquid down the sink drain as Senku held back a knowing smirk.

“Thanks but no thanks, Senku.” Taiju turned to look up at him. “If I'm gonna do this, I'm doing this my way. It has to be legit.”

Without another word, Taiju turned around to exit the lab, and Senku did nothing to stop him.

Beside his feet, another one of his partners had joined, sensing the tense conversation.

Lycanroc rubbed his sharp-stonned neck against Senkus leg, making him jerk back with an unimpressed look.

“Calm down, love potions don't exist. It was just gasoline.” He proved his point by throwing a lit match into the sink, causing a burst of flames to appear where Taiju threw the liquid. Lycanroc gave him an even more unimpressed look, but Senku rolled his eyes. “Don't look at me like that, we both know he wouldn't have drank it. This is Taiju we're talking about, he may be a dumb but too straight-laced.” He mumbled that last bit under his breath.

Leafeon gave him a side-eye before jumping down from the counter to nip at Senku's leg, obviously siding with Lycanroc.

With Reuniclus perched on his back and Leafeon to his left, Senkuu walked towards the windows where he knew Taiju and Yuzuriha would be.

Lycanroc followed close behind, lifting himself up to peer out the window with Leafeon perched up on his back to get a better look outside.

Senku leaned against the frame, energy drink in hand, watching intently.

Lycanroc nudged his belt with the last Pokéball on his waist. Senku reached for it and held it out, but no flash of light came. He sighed, but wasn't surprised. “You know how she is, still rather wary about everything. She'll come around eventually.”

Reuniclus hopped onto Senkus outstretched arm and nudged the Pokéball a few times before jumping off in frustration onto the windowsill.

Senku chuckled before returning the Pokéball to its miniature size. “Let's just hope he doesn't offer one of those corny love confessions by doing something stupid, like a battle. I don't even think Yuzu likes battling, does she?” He turned to glance at Reuniclus, then to Lycanroc and Leafeon, who all either gave him blank looks or shrugged.

Senku sighed, turned to face the tree outside where Yuzuriha waited. “I guess we'll wait and see.”

Outside, Yuzuriha undid her ribbon to… tie up a tree branch? Senku raised his eyebrow. He knew she was the sentimental type, so he wasn't all that shocked, but that was definitely a new one for her. She waited outside with her own partner, Leavanny, standing beside her in her usual refined stance.

Before he could think more into it, a loud booming voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Yuzuriha!” Taiju called out. “Sorry for keeping you waiting.”

Yuzuriha turned around, smiling.

“It's all fine.” She waved her hand dismissively. “So, what's up, Taiju? You wanted to talk to me?” She smiled softly at him, an expression that was all too familiar.

A science club member came up to Senku's side, watching beside him. “A hundred yen says he gets rejected.”

Another voice called out, this time from across the classroom. “Three hundred yen says he gets rejected hard.” The person said mockingly.

Senku sipped on his drink. “Ten thousand she actually feels the same way.”

The two voices let out confused grunts. “What, you seriously haven't noticed?” Senku raised his eyebrow.

Maybe it was just because Senku had spent a sickeningly sad amount of time with those two, but for him it was basically staring him in the eye. Taiju and Yuzuriha definitely like each other, and for who knows how long those feelings have been mutual.

The only question left was why Taiju hadn't confessed yet, and that too was pretty obvious. This is Taiju confessing his love. Knowing him, he was probably afraid of her answer. Although there was a ten billion percent chance of a rejection not happening, Taiju was most likely afraid of Yuzu not wanting to be friends if she didn't accept his feelings.

Senku knew that wasn't the case. Even if she didn't like him, there's no way Yuzuriha would drop Taiju after that, they were way too close. But it seemed like Taiju was tired of waiting, pinning and just standing around doing nothing.

Senku just barely smiled to himself. He wouldn't admit it, but he was proud of him.

“It's like this, Yuzuriha.” He paused before continuing. “For the past few years, I've..”

Taiju didn't finish his sentence, distracted by the growing glow illuminating the land. Deep into the horizon, a green flash spread its glow onto every surface it could grasp.

Senkus' eyes widened. What the hell was that? Was it the green flash? No, that only happens at dusk or dawn. So, what is..

Lycanroc took a defensive stance in front of his trainer, growling and barking but not too sure of what he's defending him from. Leafeon hid away behind Senku, looking confused and very much afraid while Reuniclus leaped onto Senku's shoulder, analysing the light just as hard as his trainer.

It was clear all three had already sensed something was happening, but what was more intimidating was that they had all deemed it as something dangerous.

Taiju and Yuzuriha looked just as afraid. But instead of cowering away, Taiju reached for a Pokéball in his pocket and ran up to stand in front of Yuzuriha, shielding her from the light.

“Yuzuriha! Hang onto that tree, it'll keep you safe!”

“What the hell..?” Senku barely got out before dropping his energy drink, the light became brighter, almost as if it was itching closer and closer to him.

It was as if Senku blinked, and everything went dark. He couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't even breathe. All of his senses went numb. He could no longer feel Leafeon's tail wrapped around his legs or hear Lycanroc's aggressive growling.

Where were his partners? Were they still here? What happened to him? Were Taiju and Yuzuriha alive? Was this death?

So many questions swarmed through his mind, his heart would leap out of his chest if he could actually feel it.

No. He had to stay calm. Right now, he was still thinking and awake just like before. Senku was alive. Was he immobilised? Or was he petrified? Either way didn't matter right now.

Right now, he needs to keep track of everything- Or anything even, there isn't much to do when you've lost all your senses.

His top priority is to stay conscious. If he can do that, he can keep track of the time, seasons, and date by counting. Right, he can do that.

Senku could only pray to whatever God there was that everyone was okay. That his partners were okay.

I've got the willpower to survive. He thought. Count. All I need to do is count. Measure time, run parallel processes and possible scenarios in my head while simultaneously counting.

Keep track. Keep count.

Stay calm.

Be reasonable.

——————————

Yuzuriha.

Yuzuriha.

Stay awake, Taiju.

I need.. I need to let her know how I feel.

I need to confess.

I need-

Crack!

For the first time in.. years? Centuries? Decades? Taiju stopped thinking. He looked at the ground with his one free eye.

He would have gasped in disbelief if he could.

Slowly, he felt more cracks spread against his body. He actually felt them, he could feel his body!

Taiju pushes himself up, forcing the old stone to crack further until he eventually could move freely.

“I'm free, I'm finally free!” He exclaimed, voice booming through the echoey cave. “I can move my body again!”

Taiju's face faded almost immediately. Looking down at his hand, he held small stone fragments. “Pieces of stone?”

Taiju looked up to see out in front of him, only to be met with lush vegetation: A forest.

He could hear Pokémon tweeting and the rustling of trees and bushes, but most importantly he could see grey splotches all around the ground, and way too much of it.

Stone statues were scattered all over the place, some deep into the ground with only their heads sticking out and others were discarded or broken off hands and legs that lay uselessly on the floor.

Taiju's heart sank as he realised the intensity of the situation. “It.. was everyone?” From what he could see, not a trace of human footprints or civilization were left. Not even the smallest remnant of human life was within sight. “Everyone went through all of that too?”

Taiju scanned the area, looking further into the distance. “This is horrible. How long have we been like this?” He questioned himself.

Taiju approached a broken statue and took on a praying stance. “I'm sorry,” he began. “I really wish I could do more to help you.”

He stood up, reaching for his now non-existent belt. His eyes widened in realisation. “Hold on.. my Pokéballs!”

Frantically, he began searching around in an attempt to find anything, any Pokéball he could find.

Out of the corner of his eye, a flash of red and white revealed itself to him. Taiju reached out for it, but hesitated to release the Pokémon inside.

Maybe, just maybe, a Pokémon that was inside of a Pokéball may not have been turned to stone. That was the whole point of Pokéballs, they were built to keep your partners safe.

With one last deep breath, Taiju released the Pokémon inside. The familiar white flash appeared, but Taiju was only met with a stone statue of a Spearrow.

His heart sank. If the Pokémon had been petrified alongside the humans, then how come there were still wild Pokémon roaming around?

None of this made any sense! Why is it only me who's woken up? What's going on!?

Taiju looked around once again, his eyes finding a river.

Right. As much as he wanted to, he didn't have the time to look around digging up every Pokéball he could find.

Taiju left a prayer for the Spearrow before setting off to go follow the river downstream.

As long as the landscape hasn't changed too much, I should be able to follow the river. He thought as he bundled up some vines to help cover himself. That'll lead me to the tree.. and hopefully to her.

Just as he began walking down the river, he thought back to the first time he had seen stone statues of Pokémon.

None of them were wild, in fact, all of the reports stated that the Pokémon had trainers. The first time he had encountered one, he was with his own partner - Wobbuffet.

He was just going to school that day, as one does. Just before he could cross the street, something had caught Wobbuffet's eye.

Wobbuffet stopped in his tracks, tugging onto Taiju's sleeve. “Wobba! Wobba Wobbuffet!” His tone was shocked and a little stressed as he dragged him down to what he wanted to show him.

“Hey, what's up buddy?” Taiju asked, confused.

Wobbuffet pointed to a small patch in the ground before picking up what was there.

In his hands, he presented a stone statue of a Pidgey to Taiju. The details on the wings were precise, Taiju was actually starting to question if it was even a statue at all.

He gently took the presumed sculpture out of Wobbuffet's arms. “I think… I think this is a real Pidgey..”

“Wobbuffet?” Wobbuffet questioned.

“Senku just found one of these. I saw the picture he posted of it.” Taiju frowned. “You poor little thing, what happened?”

Wobbuffet whined sadly.

“Maybe it's like some kind of disease that makes their skin harden up.”

Wobbuffet's tone quickly went from upset to afraid in two seconds flat.

“Now hold on, don't worry! You know I wouldn't let that happen to you.” He patted Wobbuffet's head fondly and he visibly calmed down at the action.

Taiju's Pokémon and him had so many interactions like that it was second nature to comfort him by patting his head, a habit he would never want to shake.

Right after they found the statue, he and Wobbuffet had decided to quickly run down to the vet before school to see if anything could be done about the Pidgey.

While the two were huffing and puffing from sprinting down here, they were only met with a closed sign. Just a few seconds later, a sweet voice came up from his side.

“Well, of course the vet's office wouldn't be open before school hours.” She called out. Taiju looked up to be met with Yuzuriha, her hands put neatly behind her back and accompanied by her own partner, Leavanny. “Didn't really think this one through, huh?”

Taiju and Wobbuffet each made a face at each other. Crap, of course it's her!

“Not to mention that's obviously a statue or something and not a real bird, but you still brought it to the vet.” Yuzuriha half turned her face away from Taiju and closed her eyes. “Youre so silly, it's almost embarrassing.”

Taiju could only let out an embarrassed groan. Of course the moment I do something stupid like this my crush shows up out of nowhere! Just my luck.

Taiju made a face of realisation. “Hey wait, why are you here?”

Yuzuriha opened one eye and pulled her hands out from behind her back to show off a different stone Pidgey in her hands. “Well, because I'm a big old dummy too it seems.” She smiled warmly at Taiju. “I found this little guy and wanted to see if I could help him. Great minds think alike, huh?”

Taiju's embarrassed expression quickly turned to one of silliness as he and Wobbuffet started laughing. Yuzuriha had an embarrassed look on her face as Leavanny simply shook her head, smiling fondly. “Hey, don't laugh at me! You did the exact same thing, now we're both going to be late for school.” Her voice was coated in playful irritation.

Taiju continued laughing, scratching the back of his head. “Yeah, whoops!”

It was a memory that was right at the back of his mind, something so forgettable. But now, Taiju can only remember it as one of the last times he shared a laugh with Yuzuriha.

Taiju pushed through a dense bush as his eyes locked onto a sweet and familiar face. “Yuzuriha..”

“I could never forget that face,” Taiju spoke to himself. “not even after thousands of years. I knew you were still alive, I never lost hope. And now…” His voice trailed off.

Up ahead in the middle of a clearing in the forest was a giant oak tree, the same one that Yuzuriha had clung onto for protection all those years back. And right in the middle of, protected by leaves and vines, was Yuzuriha in all her beauty.

Taiju approached the tree, almost hesitant but just as equally desperate.

“I'm so proud of you, Yuzuriha!” Taiju boomed, his voice forcefully light and joyful. “And you're incredible too, tree! You kept her safe this entire time, as if you held onto her. Thank you!”

Taiju paused, his excited expression wavering between joyful and having glistening eyes. “Sorry, but I just couldn't protect you.” He offered a sad smile. Taiju kneeled on the floor, hands flat on his knees as if asking for forgiveness. “In fact, when you really think about it, you were actually the one protecting me.” His tone was confident but regretful. “I was able to stay alive because of you, it's the truth.” His voice wavered.

“You were my light shining in the darkness for hundreds, even thousands of years.” Taiju lifted his head, full of confidence but something else deep inside. “And now, I can finally say it. I started back then, but I never got to finish!”

“So, what I was going to tell you that day,” Taiju clenched his hands, smile dropping. “Is that… that I…”

Taiju's wet eyes began to leak down his face, dropping onto his white knuckles.

Yuzuriha, the woman Taiju had loved since the day he met her, wasn't even able to hear what was coming next.

Taiju wasn't the smartest, he knew that much. He was a sportsman, through and through, but even he was smart enough to recognise it.

There was nothing he could have done to save Yuzuriha. That light, that sickeningly green light, was meant to take everyone.

It took Yuzuriha, took his dearest friend Senku, and most importantly took his best friend, his partner, away from him.

And the worst part? He knew he wouldn't be able to find Wobbuffet.

Pokéballs were designed to withstand even the worst conditions, so even though many were in rough shape, most hadn't disintegrated along with the rest of humanities creations.

But that also meant his partner was still out there, alone in his Pokéball, and by what he had seen by the Spearrow, was stuck in stone just like the rest of them.

If only Taiju had known, that that day would be the last time he could see one of his closest friends, someone he shared a deep bond with, he would've done more.

He would've spent time with Wobbuffet. Would've played some more before school, or hell, maybe even have a battle or two.

But now? The chances of seeing him ever again were the lowest of low.

And if I won't even be able to see Wobbuffet again.. what are the chances that Yuzuriha..

Her bright smile flashed a thought in his mind. Her kind, beautiful expression that could bring joy to even the saddest places.

“..I've loved you,” he began. “for hundreds,... and thousands of years.”

The silence after was deafening. All Taiju wanted to do was fully sink to the floor and drown in his suppressed misery.

Would he see her again? Wobbuffet, or Senku?

Taiju took a deep breath and stood up, his eyes narrowed in determination.

He walked forward to place his hand just on the side of her head, pinning Yuzuriha to the tree.

“I swear on my life, I'll save you.” He exclaimed. “Don't know how or when, but I'll find a way. I'll bring you, Leavanny and Wobbuffet back. And Senku, too. I swear by it!”

A bead of sweat dripped from his face. “You got that? So, just wait, okay?”

Just then, Taiju felt the writing carved beneath his hand.

There's no way this could be old, right? It looked relatively new..

His eyes widened in realisation.

Follow the river downstream, Big Oaf. The writing read.

Big Oaf.

Big. Oaf.

There was no way.

Only one person had ever really given him that nickname, it was a spineless insult that stuck from childhood banter.

Without hesitation, Taiju took off towards the river, but stopped in his tracks just as he was about to leave the clearing.

He turned around one last time, smiling at Yuzuriha's stone body. “I'll be back soon, Okay?” He said before turning around, rushing to follow the river downstream.

Taiju sprinted down the mossy stone floor as fast as he possibly could, his feet prickling under fallen sticks and sharp rocks.

He knew what that message meant, and more importantly he was ten billion percent sure of who left it.

When Taiju stopped to catch his breath, a flash of beige and green caught his eye up in a tree.

“Well, look who's finally awake.”

In one hand was a bunch of wood, and by his side on the tree branch, as proud and confident as always, was Pokémon that Taiju was all than more familiar with. Senku's most trusted partner: Lycanroc, holding what was presumed to be his axe.

“Good morning, you big oaf.” Senku cocked his head at him.

——————————

Taiju screamed, a mix of disbelief and utter relief.

Obviously Senku was relieved to see Taiju. Honestly, he was definitely more relieved than he let on.

It had been a rather gruelling past few months, and Senku didn't even want to think about everything before Lycanroc had shown up.

He was prepared for a scream or maybe a pat on the shoulder when Taiju would inevitably break out of the stone and find him, but there was absolutely no chance in hell he was about to let Taiju crush his soul in a hug while he was naked.

“Senku! You're alive too!” Taiju exclaimed, already jumping into the air in an attempt to crush him in a hug.

Like it was second nature (because it practically was), Senku shoved him down with his foot. “Don't you dare hug me while you're buck naked! Hands off, I'm not joking!”

Once Taiju had settled down, Senku and Lycanroc jumped down from the tree they were perched from collecting wood.

Taiju's eyes widened in disbelief, only just now processing the companion beside Senku. “..Lycanroc!” Taiju knelt to the ground and Lycanroc happily jumped to his arms, rubbing his spikes main against him. “It's good to see you too buddy.” Taiju laughed. After Lycanroc calmed down, Taiju raised his head to Senku.

“Its not that I'm unhappy to see him, but how… ” His voice trailed off.

“How did Lycanroc break out of the stone?” Senku finished.

Still petting Lycanroc, Taiju nodded. “And how did he find his way to you? I'm guessing we broke out of the stone in a relatively similar area, but I couldn't find anyone's Pokémon there that I remembered.”

Senku wished he had an answer to that question. He really, full-heartedly did. But the truth is..

“I don't have a clue.” He sighed.

Taiju's eyes widened in surprise. “You really don't? How come?”

“Why do you think? A rock type Pokémon can speak Japanese to tell me how the hell they broke out of the stone and found me?” Senku asked sarcastically. “I'll explain more a bit further later, but for now we have bigger things to talk about.” Senku picked the dropped axe off the floor and began walking, gesturing Taiju to follow and Lycanroc pounced back to his side.

Right. Time for an explanation.

Senku knew that one way or another, Taiju would break out of the stone. And after he would see all of those statues, he knew that Taiju could definitely understand to some extent what had happened all those years ago.

Senku sighed, scratching the back of his neck. “It's October 5th in the year 5738.” He turned to meet eyes with Taiju. “You really slept in for a hell of a long time.”

Senku looked down to Lycanroc, who was already looking up at him. “Me and Lycanroc have been up and diligently working our tails off for the last six months.” Lycanroc proudly barked in agreement.

Taiju's eyes widened. “Hold on.. so it's been like..” He raised his hands in a poor attempt to estimate the time.

“It has been 3700 years.” He bluntly finished for him.

Taiju's eyes somehow widened further. “Huh? How do you know what day it is?” Taiju dropped his hands to his sides. “You got some kind of calendar or what?”

Senku raised his eyebrow, as if it were the most obvious question in the world. “I figured it out by counting, obviously. It was the logical thing to do.”

Senku really didn't want to think about his time in the stone. After all those endless years of counting, he'd probably be better off being a mathematician rather than a scientist.

It was a grueling 3700 years. Trying not to lose consciousness while simultaneously counting and running parallel processes.

Every 800,000 seconds, Senku would be close to losing consciousness. Maybe a few people in the world managed to stay awake for a few days, but Senku was certain that he, alongside Taiju and possibly a few other souls, were the only people to stay awake for this long.

116,427,065,530 seconds. That was the final milestone he reached before breaking out of the stone.

“So that whole time you were frozen, you just counted?” Taiju questioned.

Senku shrugged. “Even if I had willed myself awake before then, being out here stark naked with no supplies in winter would have meant game over pretty damn quickly.”

Taiju nodded, signalling for Senku to continue. “I realised I would have to start things up in the springtime, so keeping an extremely precise account of the time was an absolute must.”

Senku, Taiju and Lycanroc approached a clearing in the forest. “Alright, we're here.”

Senku dropped the axe and wood on the floor. “We need to put a pin in the small talk and get to work.”

Against a massive but stubby looking tree was Senkus hut, resembling a treehouse of some sort. It was relatively well built, stable with tree logs and even a ladder.

Beneath it, there were sacks of mushrooms and spears lined up, stuff that took ages to gather over the past 6 months.

Taiju's eyes widened in disbelief. “Senku, you're telling me you did this… on your own?”

Senku paused and turned around. “Of course not. I had Lycanroc help out too, obviously.”

“‘Roc!” Lycanroc barked, his head held high.

With the slightest of smiles, Senku knelt down to pet Lycanroc on the head.

“Lycanroc's amazing, don't get me wrong. Even before now, he's always been willing to help me out with whatever I need, no matter the cost. But, even a Pokémon has its limits.”

Senku stood again, taking in all his work from the past six months. “Up until now, I've been lacking the human manpower I need. Coming up with the bare minimum to survive takes up all my time, when I could be using it to get on with the Science behind everything.”

Senku began to climb up the ladder to his treehouse, Lycanroc jumping up behind him. “If I'm gonna rebuild civilization, I'll need a muscling meathead to do the grunt work.” He turned to face him from the ladder.

“In other words, I've been waiting for you, Taiju.” Senku took on a serious expression. “I was ten billion percent sure you were still alive. You were so hell-bent on confessing your love, and for a guy as stubborn as you, even a few thousand years wouldn't stop that from making that happen.”

Taiju closed his eyes and clenched his fists. “You aren't that weak.” Senku continued.

After a pause, Taiju spoke up. “Yeah… Of course I'm not!” His voice overflowing with determination.

“Alright Senku.” Taiju raised his fist. “If you can handle all the brainy stuff, you can leave the heavy lifting to me, got that?”

Senku grinned, turning to stare into the trees. All sorts of wild Pokémon were out there, if they were just within his eye sight or on the other side of the world, they were looking back at him.

“It took humanity over two million years to crawl out of the stone age to the modern age. We need to do that in a sprint.” Senku’s eyes narrowed. “I swear, I'm going to take back the world. Through science, I'll figure out what happened to us and how we broke free. How the Pokémon broke free.”

Taiju's eyes lit up with a spark only the pure hearted have. “I swear, I'm gonna save Yuzuriha!”

Senku turned back to face Taiju once more. “We may be a couple of high school kids, but we're going to rebuild civilization from the ground up. It'll start with us, and our Pokémon.”

Senku jumped down, but this time Lycanroc stayed up. “You and I will be like Adam and Eve. Together, we'll bring life back to this stone world. This is exhilarating, get excited.”

——————————

Later that night, Taiju and Senku sat by the fire, Lycanroc's head comfortably nestled into Senku's lap.

Senku was more than understanding how Taiju must be feeling right now. The first night that he woke up, Senkus never felt more alone in his life.

Usually, Lycanroc would be on his bed already half asleep while Senku was at his desk, or Leafeon would provide a nice mixed scent of fresh grass and fallen leaves in his room, or Reuniclus would be… doing something. Probably causing trouble, or trying to piss off his old man's Pokémon. Hell, even she was out of her Pokéball pretty often, acting like Senku's assistant when she was most comfortable.

Senku was a relatively good liar, but there were two things he could never lie about: Science, and his Pokémon.

He missed Leafeon's constant offer to help, cutting up anything needed with a swift slice of her tail, Reuniclus jumping on and off him, swinging across his neck and onto his back. He remembers all the times that he scolded him for it, for always making him stumble or get off balance, and now Senku couldn't miss it more. He missed her gifts, her attempt to calm Senku down when he was most stressed.

And Lycanroc. Man, he wouldn't even dare admit to another living human being what his reaction was to seeing Lycanroc again for the first time, no one would let him live it down.

The point is, he had never been alone. He, admittedly, wasn't the most sociable with humans, sure, but you'd never see Senku without his Pokémon.

So, even if it was a warm spring night on that first day, Senku felt cold and alone.

Human company and Pokémon company were two completely separate things to bask in. Spending time with your partners was nothing like spending time with your friends or family, so although Senku wasn't the best with feelings (far from it, actually), he had a good grasp on what was troubling Taiju, especially after seeing Lycanroc stood happily by Senku’s side today.

“Do you miss him?” Senku started, tending to the fire.

It took Taiju a second to snap out of his daze. “Huh? Oh- sorry Senku, what was that?”

Senku glanced at him. “Do you miss him?” He repeated, this time more confident.

Taiju stared at Senku for a few moments, before turning around back to the fire. “Yeah.” For Taiju, he was unusually quiet, and Senku wasn't fond of it.

Before Senku could speak again, Taiju beat him to it. “How did you find Lycanroc?” He asked.

“I didn't.” Senku looked up. “Lycanroc found me.”

Taiju's eyebrows furrowed, and Senku took that as a sign to continue.

“I broke out of the stone six months ago. Lycanroc broke out around three months ago, and found me. Or at least, I'm assuming Lycanroc broke out three months ago.”

“You don't know for sure?”

Senku shook his head. “I only saw him for the first time about three months in, he could've broken out before then and I wouldn't know. He was pretty worn out and dirty when we met though, so I'm not sure how far he strayed from me while in stone. And, I'm pretty sure it was pure coincidence he found me in the first place. I haven't gotten the chance for him to show me where he broke out, assuming he still remembers where that was.” Senku gently scratched Lycanroc's stoney mane as he stirred in his sleep.

“Do you think your other Pokémon are back where Lycanroc was?”

Senku slightly stiffened before sighing. “I hope so. Assuming they all drifted the same way, that means Wobbuffet might be nearby too.”

Taiju sat up straighter. “Do you really think so?”

Senku grinned and nodded. “We'll find our Pokémon and their Pokéballs, and find out how we can save them.”

Taiju gleamed, his face full of confidence. “Right! We'll get started first thing tomorrow morning!”

“Well… we can't start searching tomorrow right off the bat.”

Taiju's face fell. “Why not?”

“We still have a load of other stuff to do. Before we find our Pokémon, we need to first analyse and guess what happened to them in the first place, as well as stock up on materials. I know this may look impressive, but it's a pretty pathetic shed that took me half a year to make.”

“So.. we start off with the basics and then go searching?"

Senku nodded.

Taiju nodded, pumping his fist into the air. “That's fine with me!”

—————————

The next morning, Senku and Taiju got to work.

While Taiju and Lycanroc were out in the forest collecting anything and everything they found, mushrooms, plants, berries, while Senku was back at their hut organising and getting stuff done.

Senku had high expectations for him, but he really didn't expect him to gather the same amount of materials that it took him months to collect.

“That's… definitely a plus-sized haul Taiju.” Senku said, dumbfounded.

Taiju only smiled proudly, hands on his hips.

“You have a real life cheat code for stamina, don't you?” Senku started to go through all the materials.

Taiju had collected a variety of things, and Senku was almost wide-eyed at the variety.

It was a shame over half of them were either not edible or completely poisonous to humans.

Lycanroc began sniffing each species of plant, before either nudging them into the safe pile or the toxic pile as Senku did the same.

“Amanita Virosa, toxic. Donishi Meiji, safe. Amanita Muscaria, toxic.” He turned to look up at Taiju just for a second. “If something looks like it's out of a Mario game, pass it up.”

Taiju hesitantly nodded. “Next up, Mugwort. That's edible.”

Lycanroc sniffed at a purple plant before turning away and barking at Senku for his attention. “Wolfsbane? Are you trying to poison us?”

Taiju's eyes somehow widened further. “Hold up, how does Lycanroc know which are safe and which are poisonous?”

“Did you forget? Lycanroc goes where I go. He probably picked up on a few things along the way, plus he's a Wolf Pokémon, they have a naturally good sense of smell.”

“Huh…” Taiju mumbled to himself. Senku passed him a basket. “Here, go stick these by the fire. We'll cook and eat them.”

“Alright!”

As Taiju set up the mushrooms by the fire, he half turned around to Senku.

“Hey, so what's Lycanroc going to eat?” He asked.

Senku, still sorting through the plants, pointed out to the forest. “He's out catching his own food. A Pidgey, maybe a Spearrow.”

“So why aren't we eating any meat?”

“Lycanroc needs to preserve his energy. Lycanroc are carnivorous, so he really does need to hunt for himself. But if he spends all his time hunting for meat when we have perfectly fine plants, he'll be exhausted when we really need him.”

Taiju slightly frowned. “For ‘when we really need him’ you mean…”

“Attacks on us from wild Pokémon.” Senku finished. “It's been thousands of years. Migration patterns have changed and we don't know where certain Pokémon might live anymore. Anything could happen, especially since only wild Pokémon, who were already wary of humans, were left unpetrified. Who knows when the last time these guys saw a human being was? Right now, we're at the bottom of the food chain, with only Lycanroc to protect us.”

Taiju paused before answering. “Yeah, you're right.” He frowned. “But we have to stay positive! As long as we're careful, we won't have any encounters like that!”

Senku wasn't shocked at Taiju's overwhelming positive spirit. “Yeah alright, believe what you wanna believe.” He answered, only half paying attention.

Later on once Lycanroc had returned and the mushrooms finished cooking, Taiju took a bite. He wasn't expecting much from a bunch of mushrooms he found in the ground, but they surprisingly weren't half bad.

“Oh, man! What the heck did you season this with?”

“Just some salt I pulled out of the sea water.” Senku said as he started to season his own food. “A little pinch of it will make almost anything palatable. We can utilise it for pickling food as well, one of primitive man's greatest discoveries, I'd say.”

Taiju, only half paying attention to Senku's explanation, had his mouth stuffed. “Thank you, Senku! This is perfect, I may not know all the stuff that you do but I'm gonna bust my back working for us!”

Taking one last bite, Taiju picked up the basket running head first back into the forest. Lycanroc followed close behind, barking a goodbye to Senku.

——————————

After walking around searching for berries for a while, Lycanroc dipped his head to sniff the ground.

His head perked up, catching a whiff of something familiar. Lycanroc took off without warning. “Hey, Lycanroc!” Taiju called out. “Where are you going, buddy?” He sprinted after him.

After chasing Lycanroc for a few minutes, he stopped at a rather low tree that Lycanroc was barking at.

“What's up, pal? Did you…” He said, looking up into the tree. “Woah, these look like grapes.” Taiju picked off a stem.

“So this is what you ran after!” Taiju knelt down, patting Lycanroc. “Great job! I wonder if we can eat them… Well, there's one way to find-”

Without hesitation, Lycanroc took a huge crunch out of the berries, not even considering Taiju getting a bite. “Hey, come on! There's more than enough for both of us, don't be greedy.”

Before Taiju's second attempt to taste test them, Lycanroc's face plummeted as he spat out the grapes and shook his head, trying to shake off the sour taste of the grapes. Taiju grinned. “Sour, huh? Unlucky us..”

Lycanroc whined as Taiju took in their surroundings, searching for other fruit trees.

It was a dense forest, as per usual, but a certain stone statue caught his eye.

Covered head to toe in vines, sitting hunched back with his elbows in his knees, was a muscular man. Taiju thought he recognised him, maybe from TV or something. He was Shishiou Tsukasa - the strongest Primate High-schooler.

He was known for his inhuman strength and dominating boxing rings, while still being a teenager. He was also a Pokémon Wrestler, him and his Pokémon being undefeated in the ring.

So even he couldn't escape it..

Lycanroc, catching onto Taiju's souring mood pretty quickly, rubbed his spikey mane against Taiju's legs. “Hey, stop that!” He winced, but was smiling at the same time. “Thanks buddy.”

Lycanroc barked a happy cry. “Right, let's get back to Senku!” He exclaimed, Lycanroc following close behind.

Not long after, Taiju and Lycanroc found their way back to the cave where Taiju was depetrified.

Lycanroc sniffed the ground, approaching the cave. “Come on, dude. You need to stop wandering off without-”

Lycanroc turned his head back, signalling to the now rather cleaned up cave.

“Hey, what's that?” Taiju followed Lycanroc inside. His eyes widened in disbelief.

It was a clay pot. Which, on the outside, really wasn't something to make a fuss about, but Taiju and Senku hadn't been back here yet. This meant that someone must have-

“I know what you're thinking, and it's ten billion percent incorrect.”

It was Senku, walking up close behind them, and he had already answered Taiju's question.

Taiju sighed. “Are we really the only ones left, for real? Like, the last humans still alive? And Lycanroc, is he the last trained Pokémon still alive?”

“We'll get more, that's our top priority.” Senku turned to face Taiju, his face telling. “I mean, the two of us alone, just a couple of dudes and a wolf? Can't restart humanity if you catch my drift.”

Taiju gave him an understanding, lopsided smile.

“Besides,” he started. “Why after 3700 years, did we break free from our petrified condition? And how did Lycanroc break free?”

Taiju thought before answering. “The stone rotted away?”

“Well, something like that. Say the strange mineral had been corroded.” Senku lifted a piece of stone that had once fallen from Taiju's body. “Can you chalk up the timing to a mere random coincidence? Six months apart is a relative blue on the radar. There's a reason why we both reanimated so close together.”

“Huh? What's that?”

Senku grinned. “We drifted up near here, it would make sense that this cave factored in somehow.” Senku pointed upwards. “See that? The stuff trickling from overhead? That's our starter fluid, made from bat guano. Maybe it has something to do with the fact we both stayed conscious throughout that entire time, but that liquid definitely helped us break free. Good old nitric acid.”

“But, hold on then, what about Lycanroc? If he didn't break out near this cave, how did he break free?”

Both men turned to look down at Lycanroc, who was already sitting staring back up at them with a confused look on his face, cocking his head at them.

Senku started to walk away from the cave, presumably back to their camp, and Lycanroc and Taiju followed behind.

“We've already established that we both depetrified mainly because of the nitric acid, alongside some other factors we still don't know yet. But, if we assume this cave is the only source of nitric acid around this general area, and I didn't see Lycanroc or the rest of my Pokémon around here, they must have drifted off elsewhere.”

Taiju started putting two and two together. “So, that means..”

“One, there's another source of depetrification somewhere around where Lycanroc broke free. Or two…”

Taiju finished it off for him. “Lycanroc broke free all by himself, no bat guano or whatever it is, was needed.”

Senku nodded. “We've narrowed it down to those two options. But, there's also many outside factors that we can't ignore that affect how many possible answers our question actually has.”

Taiju hummed in confusion.

“First off, Lycanroc is a Pokémon, they've got completely different biology to us humans, anything is possible. Just because we needed something to depetrify us, doesn't mean that Lycanroc needed the same.” Senku raised a second finger. “Lycanroc could have stayed conscious for that entire time. It's unlikely, but not completely crossed out. This affects which Pokémon can depetrify themselves, if us two being conscious affects this then Lycanroc being conscious affects this too.”

Senku raised a third finger. “If the circumstances for depetrification are different for humans and Pokémon, we might need to develop two different formulas of revival fluid. This one's highly unlikely, but still possible.”

Senku raised a fourth and final finger. “This might have been one huge coincidence. Maybe Lycanroc had the willpower to keep going and broke out of the stone by himself. We didn't wake up to anyone depetrifying us, which means we're starting at square one.”

As he finished his sentence, Taiju hadn't even realised that they'd arrived back at their hut.

“So we can't just pour the nitric acid onto a human or Pokémon and they'll revive like we did?”

Senku nodded. “If we could do that, it would rule. I've already tried it a whole bunch of times, on both humans and Pokémon. We're definitely going to need a lot more than just nitric acid.” Senku demonstrated this by pouring some of the nitric acid from earlier onto a petrified Pokémon he had found in the forest. Still hoping for something, anything to happen, they wait in anticipation just for nothing to come.

“While you've been gone foraging, I've been working like a madman on this project.” Senku entered one of the huts, which revealed itself to be a makeshift laboratory. “I've used every last method I can think of to whip up some actual revival fluid.” Taiju gasped at the sight of the lab. Senku had obviously spent a lot of time here because there were just rows and rows of petrified Pokémon, all lined up for experimentation. “Over and over, again and again. What's happened is something straight out of a fantasy world, is it all mineral? Are there living cells underneath? I don't have a laboratory for in-depth analysis.”

Taiju stopped at the door, taking everything in. “So basically what you're telling me is.. there are things even science can't explain. “

Senku cackled at his response. “There we go, that tired old cliché. Truth is, it never quite stands up to the scientific method.” Senku moved his hands to his hips. “Science is often a slow process, if we keep at it we'll definitely whip something useful up. But.. some liquor could speed things up.”

Taiju's eyes widened. Hold on, did he say liquor? “Combined with nitric acid, we could make something nice and potent, what's commonly known as Nidal, which is an industrial strength etching agent.”

“What…what did you say we needed?”

Senku wasn't shocked that Taiju hadn't really followed along, but the explanation wasn't too complicated, was it?

“Huh? I said we could make Nidal. It gets into the ferrite grain boundary and-”

“No! Don't confuse me with some kind of science talk. I mean the part about liquor.” Taiju reached into his basket, pulling out the grapes that he and Lycanroc had found earlier. “Wine comes from grapes, yeah? And that is a type of alcohol, isn't it?”

Although Taiju looked somewhat confused, Senku was downright shocked that luck had actually gone into his favour for once. “Not bad, you big oaf.”

Taiju grinned. “Nah, it wasn't me. It was all Lycanroc, he's the one who led me to the tree after all!” Taiju turned down to Lycanroc, who smiled and wagged his tail in response. “Lycanroc!” He barked out.

“So, here's the plan Taiju.” Both Lycanroc and Taiju turned their attention back to Senku.

“First, we're making some wine so we can make that Nidal. After that, the true experimentation begins.” Taiju and Lycanroc nodded. “After we get that wine to actually develop, we need to get on with some investigating.”

Taiju paused before it clicked for him. “You mean..”

Senku nodded. “We need Lycanroc to show us where he depetrified. If a Pokémon can depetrify by themselves is one question, but the circumstances for it to happen must be pretty specific. If we figure out what happened to Lycanroc, we can figure out how the rest of the Pokémon can depetrify.”

“But what if Lycanroc depetrified the same way we did?”

“Then that simplifies a crapton of things for us, and we've also got us a second nitric acid cave.”

“And if he didn't…”

Senku sighed. “Then we've got ourselves a lot more experimenting to do.”

Chapter Text

The next few days were… actually not that bad, for once.

“Making wine is an extremely simple process,” Senku started. “All we gotta do is crush up some grapes and use that juice to make wine, which is literally just putting it in a pot and letting it sit for a few weeks and stir it once a day.”

Taiju looked up from where he was picking grapes off their vines. “It's that easy?”

Senku nodded, dropping the last few grapes into a basket. “Alright, go ahead Lycanroc.”

Taiju looked confused. “Why is Lycanroc-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Lycanroc pounced into the tub and began messily crushing the grapes with his sharp claws. Senku grinned. “Perks of having sharpened claws, nothing better than seeing the fruits of your labour in action.”

“So, all we gotta do now is stir it and let it sit, right?” Taiju asked.

“Yep. Although come to think of it, if we tried this during our time, we'd totally get arrested for not having a license.”

Taiju laughed. “Ha! I guess you're right.”

Later that night, sitting by the campfire in their usual comfortable silence, Taiju spoke up.

“Hey, Senku?”

Senku looked up from where Lycanroc's head was on his lap, picking away at the uncomfortable chipped of stones in his mane.

“You said that we need to stir the pots every day, right? So won't that mean one of us needs to stay here to make sure the wine doesn't go bad, while the other goes with Lycanroc to check where he broke out of the stone?” Lycanroc glanced up, once half asleep eyes were now wide awake at the mention of his name.

Senku nodded. “Yeah, but Taiju-”

“Then I'll be the one to stay here at the hut.”

Senku raised his eyebrow, but let him continue.

“All I gotta do is mix the wine, right? I'll be useless when it comes to all that science stuff you'll need to analyse when you get to where you're going. It shouldn't even be that big of an expedition, right? So I'll be fine all by myself!” Taiju smiled at him. “And no offence man, but you aren't exactly the strongest guy around. I think it’s a must that you have Lycanroc besides you.”

Many would have taken that as an insult, but Senku only smiled.

“I appreciate the gesture, don't get me wrong, but I'm afraid we're both going to have to stay to get the alcohol and then both go find where Lycanroc woke up.”

Before Taiju could question him, Senku spoke again. “Against a wild Pokémon, you'd be completely useless. Like, get mauled in five seconds useless. Can't really risk you getting eaten by a Pyroar or something, even if that's unlikely.”

Taiju was taken aback. “But won't that slow down the process a whole bunch? Safety aside, what's the point?”

“It will. But that's something we're going to have to sacrifice if we want to create revival fluid and stay alive.”

Taiju cocked his head, telling Senku to continue.

“Making wine is one thing, but making alcohol is another. We don't want some alcoholic juice, I really doubt that'll work when we get onto experimentation, so instead we'll distill the wine to get some brandy.”

“Distilling, huh? I don't have a clue what that means, but if you say it'll work then let's do it!”

Senku sighed. “I knew you'd say that, which is exactly why I need to stay here to do it. It's heating, cooling and dripping, it'll concentrate the alcohol.”

Taiju still looked infinitely dumbfounded. Seriously, did you never pay attention in our basic science classes? Senku thought to himself.

“But that's not the point right now. The point is that if I stay here, then either Lycanroc will have to stay too for my protection when he should be showing us the way, or you and Lycanroc go and I stay to mix the wine but you'll be useless when it actually comes to analysing everything.”

“So what you're saying is that you'll need to be there for both creating the alcohol and inspecting the scene, right?”

Senku nodded. “Bingo. It's best if we stick together anyways, it'll be dangerous if we split ways, even if it'll save us time.”

Taiju barely sighed, not showing it but clearly let down.

Senku wasn't the type for heart to hearts, but he knew why Taiju wanted to get to where Lycanroc broke out as soon as possible, even if it meant risking his own safety.

After a few moments, Senku spoke up. “You want to find Wobbuffet as soon as you can, don't you? And you think he'll be around where Lycanroc broke out.” Senku didn't ask as if it was a question, because he was ten billion percent sure that it was the truth.

Taiju only nodded solemnly.

“Alright, I'll tell you what,” Senku started. “I'm certain that the revival fluid we're going to make will work on both humans and Pokémon as we were all petrified by the same thing.” Taiju looked up to meet Senku's eyes. “When we complete it, we'll bring a dose of it with us so that if we do find Wobbuffet, we can revive him right away.”

Taiju's eyes lit up. “Seriously? You rock, Senku! Thanks a whole bunch!” He flashed an overwhelming grateful smile to him, and even Senku couldn't help but give him a small smile back. “But… What if we find one of your partners too?”

It was a question that Senku didn't really want to answer, but had to anyway. He owed him that much. “We'll still revive Wobbuffet first.”

Taiju had done an overwhelming amount of stuff for Senku and it had only been two months. Finding food, building a hut and finding all sorts of materials that Senku was in desperate need of. It just wouldn't be fair to bring back another one of his partners while Taiju was still left alone.

“We'll probably only have one dose of revival fluid once we make it, so I say we put it to use quickly and use it on Wobbuffet. Although I know that you must have a certain human you want to revive, the Pokémon and their assets they can offer have to come first.”

Taiju nodded, a slight red tint to his ears.

He took a moment before speaking again, his voice soft. “Hey, Senku?”

Senku looked towards him, not turning his head but simply glancing to the side to let him know he has his attention.

“Thank you, seriously.”

Senku took a moment before answering. “Don't get all sappy with me, you big oaf.”

Taiju only laughed as he stood up. “Well, I'm heading to bed. Don't take too long, alright Senku?”

Senku nodded. “Yeah, night Taiju.” He continued to pet Lycanroc's back, softly patting him.

When the cloth to their shared hut dropped down and the sound of rustling calmed, Senku sighed.

It was going to be a long process. Getting alcohol, producing more alcohol, getting nitric acid, testing and mixing different quantities to find out how to create revival fluid, acquiring the revival fluid, finding Lycanroc's awakening source and determine what happened to him seemed like a never-ending list. Not to mention that after that, if Lycanroc did end up depetrifying by himself, that could either end up as really good news or bad news.

If Lycanroc just by coincidence ended up by another nitric acid source, it would mean that he must have stayed conscious the entire time and depetrifying Pokémon was the same as depetrifying humans.

But if Lycanroc depetrified by himself, it wouldn't actually be all that surprising. Pokémon are naturally stronger than humans, it's why even a level 3 Pidgey won't die from a Fire Blast from a level 58 Charizard but a human definitely would. Pokémon being strong enough to break out of their stone prison alone solely because of their natural strength and abilities makes sense when you think about it, but if that's the truth then why hadn't all Pokèmon broken free by now?

There's more factoring into this than just raw strength. Maybe not outside factors, like the nitric acid, but the capabilities that individual Pokémon have that others do not which give them the final push they need to break free.

Senku looked down at Lycanroc, head resting happily on his lap against his stomach and tunic. He gently scratched Lycanroc's head, making him happily stir in his sleep.

Senku was more than happy that Lycanroc was here. If anyone else had woken up besides Senku and Taiju, he wasn't sure where Lycanroc would be. Maybe he would have found someone who woke up, and maybe Senku would be okay with that, knowing his partner would be in good hands.

It might've actually been better if Lycanroc never depetrified at all. At the very least, he would be safe in the stone, away from the harshness of the stone world.

But then again…

He wouldn't admit it, but Senku was a bit more than just happy about it. He was glad that it was Lycanroc and not someone else first. It was selfish, to ask to bring your partner back into the stone world for your own sake. He still couldn't shake it, the absolute relief he felt seeing Lycanroc again, knowing his most loyal partner was back with him.

He hadn't even told Taiju his reaction to seeing his and Yuzu's stone bodies, let alone his reaction to seeing his living partner again.

Lycanroc and him found each other based on pure coincidence. Or that's what Senku thought, at least.

Their first goal was to create revival fluid and test it on both humans and Pokémon.If it works on both, great. We go to Lycanroc's awakening area and find out how he broke free, find Wobbuffet and conduct more research based on our results.

It was a simple plan, one that he had stated many many times.

And yet, he was terrified of what the results would reveal.

If for some miraculous and weird reason the revival fluid actually doesn't work on Pokémon and instead they can only break out by themselves…

Senku really doesn't know what he'll do next.

Lycanroc whined, sensing Senkus' growing anxiety.

He stroked Lycanroc's back in an attempt to calm him.

“I just hope we can bring everyone back.” He mumbled under his breath.

——————————

Creating the wine was the easy part. Stir it, let it rest, and go with the day as per usual. Even if it tasted like absolute ass, it was wine nonetheless and that's what really mattered right now.

But, as it turns out, distilling wine using clay pots made by an inexperienced craftsman was actually going to cause them more trouble than previously thought.

Something just had to go wrong, one way or another, it always did.

The pot breaking, the grapes going bad, running out of wine, and the experimenting, God, the experimenting. Senku loved science and everything in it, and if you asked him he had the patience of a monk, but it was dead end after dead end, each formula failing after the last.

But Senku wouldn't give up. Those stupid clay pots can break all they like and spill as much wine on him as they want, or those disgustingly sour grapes can stain his hands pink for however long they want, but he will get his hands on that booze.

While Taiju and Lycanroc scavenged, Senku slaved away in his make-shift lab. Labeled clay cups scattered the floor, desks and shelves, all holding some sort of mixture of nitric acid and alcohol.

Before Senku could blink, winter came. And they were nowhere near getting that revival fluid.

Senku dropped his head and sighed.

This was going to take forever.

Something he hadn't expected was the amount of snow that piled up in Japan. Of course he expected global warming to calm down a bunch after 3700 years of no humans harming the planet, but there's been mountains of snow piling down onto him and overall slowing down the process.

He's never been a fan of winter, or even summer for that matter. He's a spring man through and through, but this winter was hitting especially hard.

Lycanroc, now with his own little cloak due to the harsh weather, heaved his front two paws onto Senku's lap and buried his head into his stomach in an attempt to warm him up.

Although it didn't do much to warm him up, it certainly lifted his mood a little. “As ineffective as it is, thanks.” He ruffled Lycanroc's mane.

“Aw Senku, don't you want a hug from me too?” Taiju said playfully, clearly trying to irritate him, attempting to crush him before Senku swiftly dodged him by sliding to the side.

“No way.” He said bluntly. “You can give Yuzu all the soul crushing hugs she wants when she's revived, but I'm off limits.”

Taiju laughed. “Thought so. But, Lycanroc's the exception, right? Can't have you being completely touch-starved.”

Senku only rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to the distilling wine, huffing out a cloud of steam with a smile on his face.

——————————

Winter came… and left almost immediately. Probably because he spent more time staring at grapes rather than being outside.

It had almost been a year since Senku first broke out of his stone prison, and now he had one thing that he could say for certain.

Experimenting in the modern world is way more exciting than experimenting in the stone world.

Sure, they weren't doing this for fun so he couldn't actually count that as something to complain about since humans and Pokémon were on the line here. He couldn't really be picky about the circumstances.

But Senku always had fun with science. That's kinda the reason why he did it, why most people did anything to be honest.

But it had been months. Months with no results, months with naught. Sure, there were fun moments, like when he used sea clams to pluck all of Taiju's facial hair out. Seriously, that was probably the most he's laughed since he was thirteen.

But other than that, it's been nothing but painful and disheartening. He could see it on Taiju's face too, the homesickness and stress finally beginning to dissect the two boys.

Hell, you could even see it on Lycanroc's face. Every night, when Taiju, Senku and Lycanroc would sit beside the campfire in their usual comfortable silence, Lycanroc would curl up with his head on Senku's lap as if he had given up for the day. Not like his usual tired expression, but he seemed genuinely fed up, which was really unlike the Lycanroc Senku knew.

Senku wasn't a people's person, but he's known Taiju even before he hit double digits, and Senku doesn't have a single childhood memory with Lycanroc, way back when he was a young and foolish Rockruff.

He doesn't read people, he literally can't, but he can tell how low the morale is between the three of them. Maybe he can't tell for himself, but even Senku had probably been feeling pretty down. After months of failure, any normal human would feel disheartened.

It had to be now. He didn't want to see them get any more down in the dumps about this.

Senku lifted a statue of a Metapod and placed it on a tree stump they brought indoors.

Taiju sat to his side, a Pidove infront of him and a pot of the nitric acid-alcohol solution in hand.

Both took a deep breath before pouring the liquid onto their statues.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

…

Nothing.

Senku dropped the pot, letting it shatter on the floor, and walked to the entrance, kicking a pot out of his way. Lycanroc, curled up in a corner, opened one eye just to close it again.

But Taiju stayed perfectly still. Not a hint of anger or tiredness showed in his posture. Senku was actually pretty sure the other man was actually holding his breath.

When he turned back to look at what the absence of fuss was about, it wasn't stone that caught his eye.

It was the absence of it.

A lone feather. Delicate, soft and clean, was surrounded by broken stone fragments.

Senku's eyes widened.

Jackpot.

——————————

Senku, Taiju and a now wide awake Lycanroc walked out of the hut. Not in a rush, but not a slow walking pace either. Not out of hesitance, but the overflow of anticipation seemed to cause drawbacks.

Senku gently placed the Pidove onto the floor.

“Listen up, big oaf. Lesson one,” Senku poured the fluid onto the statue. “Its not that there are things that science can't explain, not in the least.”

A crack. A breaking sound, something that rang bells in Taiju's and Senku's mind. Something that happened almost half a year ago for Taiju, and almost a full year for Senku.

“There are rules behind everything that happens,” another crack, and a stone fragment dropped onto the soft, green grass. “Science is just the name for the steady, pain-in-the-ass effort that goes into finding out what they are.”

Instead of the grey they were so sick of seeing, a beautiful pair of orange eyes stared at them before taking flight.

The Pidove soared in circles above them, before taking off into an unknown direction.

Senku didn't stop Taiju's shouts and cries for joy, and didn't stop Lycanrocs howling. Hell, he didn't even stop Taiju from pulling him into a bone-crushing hug. He didn't hug him back, and the touch might have felt like it burned, but Senku didn't even try and bite back his wide smile.

Finally. The sweet taste of progress.

——————————

“Lycanroc.” Senku called out, and within seconds Lycanroc was sitting in front of him, eyes sharp and listening closely.

Taiju stood beside him nervously. This was what they've been waiting for. The make or break. The revival fluid they made is confirmed to work on Pokémon, and hopefully by extent, on humans too.

The next course of action was to find out how Lycanroc depetrified, and go on from there.

If Lycanroc can't remember where he depetrified, we're done. It's either we find it ourselves, or we stop here for our investigation and move forward onto what comes after.

Senku held out a stone fragment from the miracle cave where Taiju reanimated and crouched down, extending his palm to Lycanroc.

“Can you show us where you broke out of the stone, Lycanroc?”

Senku knew Lycanroc couldn't actually understand him. But overtime, Lycanroc came to understand Senku's tone of voice and way of speaking, more sensing what he's saying rather than understanding. By extent, Lycanroc also picked up on a few things, being able to predict what Senku needs before he can ask.

Lycanroc sniffed his hand, staring so hard at the stone fragment that it might as well have shattered right there and then.

Lycanroc turned his head in roughly the same direction of where Yuzuriha was.

So he came from the same direction to Yuzu..

Senku turned back to Lycanroc. “When you woke up, was Yuzuriha in your line of sight?”

Lycanroc took a second before shaking his head.

Senku sighed. “Do you think you can show us there?”

Lycanroc turned back to Senku, and hesitantly stood up to start walking until he paused and whined.

Senku knelt down and stroked Lycanroc's back. “It's okay. Just show us the way you roughly remember and we'll take it from there.”

Taiju and Senku glanced at each other, both clearly looking stressed.

Attached to Senku's belt was one single dose of revival fluid. It was the most they were able to make after using the final litres of their nitric acid and alcohol to create the formula that worked.

They knew Lycanroc could sense the pressure, if they didn't find out how he reanimated then they could miss out on crucial research needed.

Lycanroc dipped his head to the ground, uselessly sniffing the ground. All traces of any scent would have been washed away long ago by the rain, and if not then the winter snow would have completely covered it up.

He took a few cautious steps towards the forest in Yuzuriha's direction.

They didn’t spring, didn't even run. Every step was cautious and planned.

The air was so thick you could cut it with a knife, not one of them made an attempt for small talk.

Senku glanced to his side where Taiju was. The man was sweating hard, fist clenched and shaking.

Every once in a while, he took a deep breath in and slowly breathed out in an attempt to calm his nerves. Seeing Taiju so worked up wasn't doing anything for them, only making them more stressed.

“Calm down,” Senku started. “you look like a bubble that's about to burst.”

Taiju huffed a nervous sigh. “Sorry. I'm just worried, is all.”

“Don't be. We'll figure it out.”

After a relatively short walk, the three of them entered a familiar lush clearing with a huge camphor tree.

In her usual spot, Yuzuriha stood in her stone prison.

She looked well taken care of, no moss or vines covered her body except for her private parts, curtesy of Taiju.

Even during the harsh winter days, Senku knew that if Taiju wasn't out fishing then he was here, taking good care of Yuzuriha.

They approached the tree, stopping for a few seconds to greet her.

But Lycanroc didn't stop. He spared Yuzuriha a look of grief and a nod before walking right past her, his steps clearly becoming more and more confident as they went on.

Taiju looked taken aback. He glanced between Yuzuriha and Senku's belt, his thoughts now clear to Senku.

Senku let his hand rest on Taiju's shoulder. “I know you want to bring her back now, but we have other priorities.” He glanced at Lycanroc who had stopped to look back to see what was holding them up. “I promise you Taiju, we will bring her back. The second we get more revival fluid we'll run back here to revive her, and you know how much I hate running. We will revive Yuzu.”

Taiju could only stiffly nod at him before they continued walking.

The forest became denser and thicker the further they trekked, bushes and particularly tall trees shielded them from the sun rays.

The further they went, the more certain Lycanroc became. His once hesitant steps vanished as he now carried himself with familiar pride and confidence.

“What do you miss most from the old world, Senku?” The question came out of nowhere, Senku almost flinched as he was interrupted from his racing thoughts.

“Where's this coming from?” He raised his eyebrow.

Taiju shrugged. “I don't know, I was just thinking back to the day we were petrified. I thought What would I do if I knew later that day I was going to be petrified? Besides Yuzuriha, what would I attempt to save first?”

Senku hummed. “What I have to miss most is… probably the Pokédex, I guess. Maybe Pokémon treats too, they worked great as bribes…”

“Really? Out of everything, you miss the Pokédex the most?” Taiju seemed dumbfounded. “I mean, I'm not judging or anything, but I would have thought you would have said something like… some science equipment or something.”

“The Pokédex is science equipment. It held all the knowledge of all the discovered Pokémon in the world. I'm over it now, but it's a shame something like that is now only a lost memory for most.”

“I honestly would have thought you'd have the Pokédex memorised or something, Senku.” Taiju lightly chuckled.

“I did. Well, most of it, at least. I don’t remember every dex entry word for word, but I know enough of every Pokémon to the point it's basic knowledge for me.”

“Why am I not surprised…” Taiju lightly chuckled. “Is that how you knew Lycanroc wouldn't eat the mushrooms we gathered?”

Senku closed his eyes. “No. That's just basic knowledge, Taiju.”

“Oh.” Taiju scratched at his neck.

“Plus, that's just something I needed to know. Taking care of your Pokémon is important. Making sure their fur doesn't get too matted, picking off broken off bits of stone, sharpening claws and more. I can't be as efficient anymore due to the circumstances, but I try my best to keep Lycanroc in top form. Not just for Lycanroc, but for my other Pokémon too.”

“I get what you mean. I know he doesn't seem like it, but Wobbuffet can be pretty high maintenance. Leafeon was like that too, wasn't she?” Taiju smiled at the memory.

Senku sighed an exaggerated breath. “You have no idea. She wasn't that bad when it came to me alone, but she was extremely sassy with everyone and everything else. Even her taste in food was pretty particular.”

“And then there's Reuniclus…” Taiju begged him on.

Senku might as well have been face palming. “He was the troublemaker. You don't even know the amount of detentions I landed myself from his behaviour alone.”

Taiju laughed. “Yeah, but he made for pretty good entertainment on a boring day. Always cooking up something to do with trouble back in the school laboratory.”

“Not just in the school laboratory, back at home, too.” Senku grinned, picking at his ear. “Used to cause my old man's partner all the trouble in the world.” Senku moved his hand from his ear to the base of his neck. “My number one mischief maker.”

For a split second, the gleam in Senku's eyes seemed distant. Instead of being in the present, it was like they were in the far away past.

“I know that you really miss your partners too, Senku.” Taiju started. It was then when Senku realised what had actually prompted the topic of conversation. Not curious thinking, or grief of the past, but Senku himself.

He wasn't surprised he got played and fell right into his trap - Taiju knew Senku like the back of his hand. But what he was confused about was why now?

“And you're allowed to miss them, you know that? We both know you were closer with your Pokémon more than anyone else. Even if you have Lycanroc back now, that doesn't ease the pain of how much you miss everyone else.”

Senku looked away, not meeting Taiju's eyes.

“So I won't get sappy with you or anything. But you don't have to act so big, tough and nonchalant with me, you know? It's me! We both know you're not like that.” Taiju's voice was light as he spoke, a tone that reminded Senku of the modern days when everyone's biggest troubles were test scores and social lives.

Senku chuckled. “Please, when have I ever tried acting big and tough?”

Taiju laughed. “So you'll deny the big and tough part, but not the nonchalant part?”

Senku huffed, playfully punching Taiju's shoulder. “Just shut up, will you?”

In front of them, Lycanroc hopped over logs and weaved through bushes before eventually coming to a stop.

“Are we here, Lycanroc?” Taiju asked, slightly hesitant.

Lycanroc turned his head to the side to nod at them before jumping through the last bunch of bushes.

When Senku and Taiju climbed through, they were met with blooming flowers scattered all across the ground and trees in a forest clearing.

It was a time of day when the sun just gently glazed its rays across the land, making the land feel warm but with shaded patches scattered the ground. Fuschias danced in the wind along with the tree branches they were attached to, with petals falling and fluttering in the wind.

Senku wasn't really all that impressed. Sure, they were pretty, but his eyes were more focused on what was up ahead.

There were Pokémon statues. A whole lot of them, at least a few dozen all in perfect condition and lined up in a way that seemed a little too particular.

What Senku had originally thought was that the reason for not seeing many Pokémon statues was because they were all in their Pokéballs when the petrification happened, and that all the Pokéballs must be somewhere deep underground after the landscape had changed so much.

But now, the true answer was obvious.

Something had gathered all of these statues on purpose to keep them safe.

And by default, had purposely left the human statues to corrode.

While Taiju was goggling at the beautiful sight, Senku looked mortified.

Lycanroc whined, sensing Senku's distress and what he realised.

Senku snapped out of his daze. “No, it's fine. But we should probably hurry up and come back here another time. We need to do what we came here to do first and foremost.” Senku opened the pouch attached to his belt.

He held out the dose of revival fluid to Taiju, effectively bringing his attention back to the present. “You go find Wobbuffet. By the amount of Pokémon here, there's no way he or his Pokéball aren't somewhere around here too.” He pulled out a few tools from his belt. “Me and Lycanroc are going to find where he depetrified. Come and find us after you've revived Wobbuffet, and be fast.”

Taiju hesitated for a split second before taking the revival fluid, overwhelmed with determination. “Right!”

Taiju sped off, leaving to find his partner.

With Senku's hands on his hips, he clenched his hands until his knuckles turned white.

“I don't know if whoever did this is friend or foe. We haven't seen any sign of human life which means this must have been done by a Pokémon, but that means it must be an intelligent Pokémon too. It gathered all of these Pokémon in a safe, enclosed location to keep them from falling apart, but the fact it didn't gather the humans too complicates things.” Senku sighed, running his hands through his hair.

He turned down to Lycanroc who seemed to be paying attention to his little rant to himself with flattened ears. Senku crouched down to scratch Lycanroc under his chin. “This isn't your fault, don't worry. I asked you for this, if anything you've proved a lot for me. Thank you.”

Right at first glance, it was obvious that in an area like this, no nitric acid can form. That's definite. Which means it's confirmed: Pokémon can revive by themselves.

However, it also opens up more questions than answers. Who gathered all of these Pokémon here? And why?

Senku took a deep breath and stood up. “Show me where you reanimated.”

——————————

Lycanroc guided him to a much more secluded area of the garden. More shade and provided shelter was around, good for the winter months.

Technically, Senku had already gotten what he came here to do. Pokémon can break out of the stone by themselves, and Taiju will find Wobbuffet and they'll be on their way back to camp where they'll create more revival fluid and come back for Yuzuriha.

Or atleast, that was the plan.

Now that they know there's a Pokémon that's possibly violent towards humans, this could mean something really bad.

Senku and Taiju might be the first humans that that Pokémon has ever seen. Now that he's ruled out the possibility of it being a human who collected these Pokémon, it's possible that the Pokémon doesn't have any interest in them because it simply hasn't seen any alive.

If a Pokémon has seen other roaming Pokémon alongside the statues, it would be second nature for it to protect the statues while they are immobilised.

But that Pokémon probably thinks that all the humans are simply statues, nothing more nothing less. When it sees a living one, Senku's certain it'll become hostile.

No matter what, they need to do what they came here to do and get out. Come back another time when they're more prepared, with both Wobbuffet and Lycanroc with them.

Lycanroc guided Senku to an enclosed area where it seems no snow got to. Inside were shattered pieces of stone, much more crumbly than the pieces left behind by Senku and Taiju.

But, other than that, the stone fragments were completely the same. Just a bit more fragile, if anything.

The worst part? They spent months waiting for this expedition, only to find out their answer the second they stepped foot near this place.

Senku had been looking forward to the satisfaction, but now? It was like an endless pile of stress was just continuously falling on top of him in chunks, the next chunk heavier than the last.

Senku gathered the pieces of stone and stored them away on a pouch on his waist. “Come on, we need to hurry back- Hey, wait- What are you doing?!”

Lycanroc wasn't hearing Senku out. Instead of following his asks as usual, Lycanroc took hold of his tunic in a much more demanding and desperate way, pulling him further into the garden.

“Come on, if you-”

Lycanroc let go and started to bark at Senku. “Lycan! Lycan lycanroc! Lycanroc!!”

Senku froze and his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Lycanroc looked much more than just desperate. He was distressed.

After a long pause of them staring at each other, not upset but instead understanding, Senku nodded. “Alright. Show me.”

Lycanroc took off and Senku jogged behind, not understanding why but understanding anyways.

When they arrived to the sight, Lycanroc only seemed more distressed and shocked than he was before, much more than Senku.

It was more shattered stone. Not of a human, but after separating the aspects, it clearly came from a Pokémon.

Senku crouched down. “I don't understand. This is just more stone.” He said, analysing the fragments and running his fingers across the markings. “Unless…” He turned to look at Lycanroc.

“Its about who broke out of the stone, isn't it? You weren't expecting this.”

Whoever broke out of the stone had to have broken out recently. The pieces would have gotten washed away by the autumn rain or drifted off by the winter snow, they had to have broken out at least within the last few weeks.

The feeling that came next might have been the weirdest feeling all day. Senku's intuition screamed.

He knew Lycanroc. He wouldn't care that much if it was a random Pokémon, but the distress in his eyes just shot something through Senku. Deep down, he knew who it had to be. The size of the pieces and the design on the sharper ones, the little and obvious tuffs of her fur coat.

He knew who it was, but his fingers trembled in anticipation as if he didn't know. He needed to confirm it. He wouldn't face the disappointment and fear if it wasn't. He couldn't.

Lycanroc started frantically barking in agreement before shoving forward a specific stone fragment.

It was shaped like a leaf, no bigger than his palm but the details on it was something he could never forget, something that's second nature to him.

Senku held the piece to his chest, basically trembling with relief and excitement.

She broke free.

Leafeon was depetrified.

But what filled the air next wasn't a shout of joy from Lycanroc or Senku, it was a shout of distress coming from Taiju.

…And a familiar sounding Wobbuffet.

——————————

Taiju searched and scavenged as if his life depended on it, because right at this moment, it really felt like it did.

His eyes scanned the statues like they were QR codes and gently picked a few up to see the ones underneath, searching for his partner.

He groaned. This isn't working. Wobbuffet was in his Pokéball when the petrification happened, but could he have been accidentally released?

Taiju ran his fingers through his hair. “What do I do now? Senku told me to hurry up, but I still don't see why…”

Taiju stood up, something catching his eye. In the opposite corner of where Senku and Lycanroc went, the garden had a little natural sheltered hut. Inside, what drifted out was a single metallic sphere.

When Taiju approached and picked it up for inspection, the realisation hit hard like a van.

Although it was in extremely rough condition, with paint that was almost completely chipped off and covered in dents and scratches, the way it fit in his hand and the weight of it was something he could never forget.

It was a Pokéball. In fact, it wasn't just one Pokéball. When Taiju looked up, in front of him was a whole pile of scratched up, metallic spheres each with a single button in the middle.

His eyes widened in disbelief. There's no way this is a coincidence… It can't be.

This was why Taiju couldn't find as many Pokémon statues or Pokéballs before. It was because they were all here, protected in this garden.

Something had gathered all of these Pokéballs, and by extent, those Pokémon statues too.

Taiju mentally berated himself. That's why Senku wanted us to hurry up! While I was off goggling at the flowers, he was already processing the situation! We don't know who gathered all these Pokémon here, so they could be dangerous.

Taiju took a deep breath and took another look at the Pokéball in hand, then to the massive pile of them in front of him. Some of them had different colors of chipped paint, which meant that there were a variety of different Pokéballs here. If Taiju could find a Great ball, the type of Pokéball that Wobbuffet was captured in, that could massively narrow down the search for him.

But as it turns out, his search wasn't really a search at all. When Taiju released the first Great ball, he was met with the grey silhouette of a Pokémon in place of his usual sky blue.

Lady Luck never really seemed to get along with Senku, but she seemingly favoured Taiju more than anything today.

Taiju didn't stop to wail. Didn't cry, didn’t scream. He held his breath until he finally spoke in a quiet, sad tone.

“I-... Sorry to keep you waiting but…” He started, but never quite finished his sentence.

Unlike with Yuzuriha or Senku, Taiju didn't need to finish his words, because Wobbuffet would know anyway. It would have been pointless to even try while knowing he couldn't get the words out anyways.

Taiju didn't wait, didn't stall. Didn't go through a monologue in his head. With shaky hands and one last deep breath, Taiju poured the revival fluid onto Wobbuffet.

It took a frightening amount of seconds for cracks to begin to appear around his body. Maybe it was the fear and his rapid pulse, but Taiju no longer felt sheltered by the sun. It was like his blood had ran cold, the anticipation had gotten to him, and time felt like it slowed down as the first chunk of stone dropped to the floor.

Wobbuffet shook his arms and once they were free, the rest of his body followed suit.

When he shook off all the leftover pieces of stone, he slowly looked up, taking in his surroundings.

When his body was free he looked around looking more than confused, before making eye contact with Taiju.

They stared at each other as if they were two siblings finding each other at a party that neither was meant to be at.

Wobbuffet stared at Taiju before jumping right into his arms, holding on so tightly that Taiju didn't even feel his body trembling harshly.

It was only when Wobbuffet started to frankly point toward something behind Taiju was when he was finally brought down from the clouds. When he turned around, he was met with the tall, aggressive stomping of a huge, moving tree with branches that stuck out and wove around aggressively, reaching towards them slowly but with aggressive intent.

It was a Trevenant.

The sudden coldness from earlier hadn't been the fear or anticipation, it was physical. It was a Pokémon approaching behind him, and Taiju's head was so far up his own ass that he was too out of it to notice.

The Trevenant started to charge up a hyper beam as Taiju held Wobbuffet closely to him. There wasn't any time to move out of the way, the most he could do was take the attack and pray for the best.

Before the attack could land, it was pushed back by a powerful leaf blade coming from above the natural roof that was sheltering then.

Taiju and Wobbuffet, still with their eyes clenched shut, heard another voice come out from the opposite direction. “Use Accelerock, and follow it up with Stone Edge!”

It wasn't a big entrance for Senku. If anything, it was pretty pathetic. He was huffing as if he'd just ran a marathon.

Lycanroc, however, in all his glory, charged straight for the Trevenant without hesitation and crashed into him, sending him tumbling. When he stabilised himself, he crushed his paws into the ground to summon great blue spikes that struck the Trevenant straight in the chest.

His trainer on the other hand, was left giving him commands while hunched over trying to catch his breath. “Use…use..” He huffed. “Just do whatever, we've done it a million times.” Senku dropped to the floor.

Despite his current look, Senku was a pretty experienced Pokémon Trainer. Back in the modern world, training his Pokémon to the best of their physical abilities was one of his top priorities to help with lab work as well as studying Pokémon biology as part of his chemistry research to see how a Pokémon's body reacts to the moves they use.

Because of this, Senku trained him and his Pokémon to the fullest of their capabilities. Even with an unbalanced team, he dominated battles whether they were for simple bets or gym challenges.

Although it may be obvious, one of his most experienced battlers was Lycanroc. For petty bets he wanted to get over with quickly, he was his go-to partner.

Lycanroc followed his attacks up one behind the other, but when he was knocked down with a shadow ball and was left defenceless, a Leaf Storm had come to his defence, protecting him with a barrier of green.

For a second time now, something had protected Taiju and Senku.

When Lycanroc stood again to attack, powering up another Stone Edge, a flash of green and beige came to his side, crashing into him and making him skid across the floor.

When he scrambled to stand and shook his mane, it was clear Lycanroc was upset. “Lycan! Lycanroc lycan!” His tone was just as sharp as his mane, angry and fierce even when being met with a familiar face again.

Leafeon stood across from him, blocking him from the Trevenant behind her. She said nothing, but her expression was just as equally fierce.

When Lycanroc lunged to attack again in a fit of unusual rage, Senku, now back in commission, jumped to his side to pull him back, earning him an unintended bite to his forearm.

He winced, but didn't let go. Lycanroc instantly back tracked as if he had committed a crime and pulled back from Senku's arms. Red blood seeped through his bandaged arm as he pressed it down against his lap to stop the bleeding.

Although injured, Senku turned up to face Leafeon, whose expression had now softened and ears flattened to her head.

“Leafeon.” He breathed. Lycanroc, now calmly by his side with Senku's arm thrown around him, finally started to process the sight in front of him.

Leafeon took a step back and half turned her head to Trevenant, who was now back in commission and seemingly calm, staring back at them contently.

Taiju and Wobbuffet watched from a distance, surprised and confused.

Leafeon took a step forward towards Senku and Lycanroc. Although hesitant, she approached Senku with practiced ease, almost asking for forgiveness.

Senku opened his injured arm, allowing Leafeon to step onto his lap and pull her in to pat her head with more love than he'd shown in a while.

Lycanroc nudged her with his head before playfully scratching his mane against her in a familiar and friendly way. However, he still turned his head to Senku's injured arm which bled through its bandages, his ears flattened.

Leafeon turned her head back to the Trevenant once more, who stared back at them knowingly.

The Trevenant stood again and began to walk towards the two Pokémon and their trainer, not desperately but clearly with meaning.

Taiju desperately wanted to jump in and stop whatever was happening next, but Wobbuffet's tug on his tunic stopped him. Not desperate and afraid, but in the same knowing manner as Leafeon.

Trevenant stopped when he reached Senku. The two held eye contact for what felt like minutes, hours even.

It was only broken when Senku snorted, before having a full on laughing attack.

The Trevenant copied him just a few seconds after, laughing with his deep voice and patting Senku's head fondly.

Taiju looked bewildered, and Wobbuffet simply let out a huff like his theory was proven right.

Leafeon was still held tightly in Senku's injured and bleeding arm, with his other arm resting on a Lycanroc who just bit him, and yet he was laughing as if he's never laughed before. His smile wasn't one of snarkiness or a grin that spelled out some crazy plan, but a genuine laugh that made Senku's eyes water.

That sight singlehandedly brought Taiju to tears.

It was stupid and random, he was more than aware. But it had been months since he saw a genuine smile out of Senku, months.

The stress with revival fluid, finding resources to survive, finding food, making sure Lycanroc was taken care of and so much more had been crushing him for months.

It shouldn't have been an emotional sight, it basically wasn't, and yet it still brought Taiju to happy tears.

With tears in his eyes, Taiju laughed.

“Welcome back, Leafeon!” He said warmly.

——————————

The fire feels warmer tonight. Is is the coming summer months? Senku wondered.

That was the answer he would give you, but the real reason was actually pretty obvious. The added weight peacefully resting on Senku's chest had warm fur, spreading her natural warmth to the one she layed on.

Instead of Lycanroc hogging the entirety of Senku's lap, he was now forced to share his personal mattress with Leafeon.

Lycanroc rested his head in the crook of Senku's neck while Senku rested his head on Lycanroc's back. Leafeon's upper torso and front paws were on his stomach, sprawled out nicely and clearly comfortable.

Not that far away was Taiju and Wobbuffet, sprawled out across the floor and tangled up with each other, one asleep but the other wide awake staring at the same sky, and looking rather eager to speak up.

“Just spit it out, Taiju. We both know how this is gonna go.” Senku deadpanned, gently stroking Leafeon and pushing his face into Lycanroc's warm fur coat.

Taiju was too used to Senku's antics to be taken aback, so he simply listened to what the younger one had said.

“How did you know?”

His voice was stable. Not confused or shocked, but genuinely interested.

“I know a lot of things.” Senku replied.

Taiju rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean,” He playfully scoffed. “with Trevenant and Leafeon. I felt like it was reading the last chapter of a story without reading the rest of the book first.”

Senku hummed. “Well, we both know that I'm not very good at reading people. But, that Trevenant was definitely protecting those Pokémon, and I think at one point he was protecting Lycanroc too.”

Taiju raised his eyebrow. “Then why did Lycanroc attack him?”

Senku shrugged. “That's something only Lycanroc knows. For now, at least.” He glanced down to where Lycanroc laid in the crook of his neck.

“But anyways. To sum it up, the Trevenant was protecting all those Pokémon until they were able to free themselves from the stone. He would gather all of the petrified Pokémon in that garden and take care of them until then. Like a forest guardian. When we came along, two beings he had never seen before, he just assumed that we were attacking them.”

“So Leafeon didn't want to attack him because he had been taking care of her, right?”

Senku nodded. “Trevenant won't be a problem from now on. If anything, he's an ally. I've got a feeling that we're on the same page about bringing Pokémon and humanity back to our world.”

Taiju nodded silently, not needing to give him a verbal answer.

There was a long but not awkward pause before Senku spoke again. “What about you?”

Taiju hummed in confusion.

“How does it feel having Wobbuffet back?”

Taiju grinned and then huffed a short laugh. “It's weird, at the very least. I get it now, you know.”

“Get what?”

“I get why you don't tell Lycanroc to get off whenever we're by the campfire. It's comfortable, like, it's one of the only things that reminds me of the old world. Laying beside your partner without a care in the world, I missed this.”

Senku nodded before Taiju spoke again. “It must be nice having Leafeon back.”

Senku gently smiled before forcing his face back to a neutral expression and shrugged. “Yeah. I had no idea that fresh grass and fallen leaves could actually be a smell that gives you flashbacks.”

Taiju gave him a look with an unreadable expression. Senku glanced to the side, raising his eyebrows. “What?” He questioned.

Taiju laughed. “It's nothing.” He turned back to look at the sky. “Just thinking about how much we both probably missed this.”

Senku sighed. “I can't deny it with you, can I?”

“I think we both know the answer to that.” Taiju beamed.

Chapter Text

“Ooh-ooh, you can dance, you can ji-ive!

Having the time of your life..

Ooh, see that girl, watch that scene - Digging the dancing queen.”

——————————

Senku groggily opened his eyes and pressed his palms against his eyes only to be met with jagged stones digging into his shoulder and something that smelt of fresh grass and leaves weighing down on his stomach.

He groaned as he shoved Lycanroc off his now limp shoulder and massaged his freshly bandaged arm and stared blankly at the ceiling, attempting to recall his dream from last night.

Dancing Queen.

Almost on que, his mood soured.

Not because he hated the song or didn't like the band, no. In fact, he was actually quite fond of ABBA - besides Lillian Weinburg, they were a pretty popular music group that always seemed to follow him everywhere.

What made him upset were the bittersweet memories that Senku instinctively linked to the song.

In psychology, it's a common and even natural occurrence. Missing things from such long ago to the point they appear in your dreams, yearning for the stuff you took for granted. But to remember a song from thousands of years ago, and still remember the links to it? Now that wasn't like Senku at all.

There were so many fond memories that link to that beloved, but growlingly irritating, melody. But the one that sticks out the most? The one that sends a pang through his chest at the mere mention of it?

Yuzuriha.

Senku had known Taiju since childhood. He was pretty sure he didn't have a single childhood memory that Taiju wasn't in or at least related to, those two became the weirdest but inseparable pair you'd meet.

But, unlike Taiju, Senku had met Yuzuriha when they were just about starting middle school. The time period when everyone was in their awkward phase and becoming increasingly self conscious, Senku cringed at the memories. Although, the things he was self conscious about was his abilities unlike everyone else who were focused on their appearance and personality. He was more focused on learning more and becoming better while many boys his age suddenly decided going to the gym was their top priority.

But the one person that Senku was almost certain was unaffected? Yuzuriha. Perfect, pretty Yuzuriha.

Senku had seen her around the school pretty often, as if one day he subconsciously realised she existed and suddenly started showing up everywhere he did. Like a character in a video game that you don't particularly like or play with, but respect and value their skills even without using them in game.

She was one of those girls who became well-known and popular right off the bat, but never let it get to her head. She was always kind and sweet to everyone, so gentle and willing to help. Who wouldn't love someone like that?

But, just like everyone else, she was still a young, human teenage girl who was just as insecure as the next person.

In all honesty, Senku never really understood why. She was kind, friendly, and undeniably pretty for someone their age. They had spoken once or twice in passing, admittedly mostly on Yuzuriha's end, but overall she seemed pretty polite. There wasn't really anything to dislike about her.

Senku didn't really feel the need to expand their relationship past that, but Taiju? He saw an opportunity and ran with it.

Originally, it was Taiju who first properly introduced himself to Yuzuriha when being sent on an errand by Senku to get some dolls to place in his rocket. In his usual loud and friendly manner, he barged into the crafts club asking for three dolls to be made, not needing to be perfect but hopefully able to stay in-tact when sent to space.

When silence engulfed the classroom and everyone stared at Taiju like he was a soul-eating ghost, it was Yuzuriha who spoke up in her usual kind manner, offering to help.

“Do you need anything in particular?” She asked, standing up to pick up some fabric and sewing needles.

Taiju sighed in relief. “Not really. Just three dolls, you can make one of me and Senku!” He suggested, pulling out his phone to show her a picture of him.

She paused, thinking for a second. “Ishigami Senku, right? I think I'm pretty familiar with him.”

Taiju nodded, showing a photo of the two of them on his phone. “Yeah! And for the last doll…” He paused, thinking. “You can make it of yourself! I'm sure he won't mind.”

Taiju, already happy with his decision, bid farewell to Yuzuriha well before she could retaliate and request a change or stop the creeping blush on her face.

Later that day, Yuzuriha finished the two dolls of Taiju, Senku and embarrassingly herself, and timidly showed up at the lab alongside Taiju while Senku was working on some unrelated project at his station.

Just a couple of minutes before they showed up, Senku was subconsciously listening to gossip. Not because he was interested or wanted intel, but because he was in desperate need of some background noise until he got those dolls. A few of the members of the newly assembled science club were naturally loud people, always gossiping about something, impossible to ignore and irritating to be around. But… Senku needed the help. So he made due with them.

It was one sentence spoken that brought him out of his zombie-working trance, one sentence which became the first thing in this school year to genuinely confuse him.

“But don't you think she's so stuck up? Yuzuriha, I mean. She just soaks up all of that attention, like she’s bragging about how everyone loves her.”

It actually made Senku pause for a second. He put the glass down and raised his head with his back still turned so they wouldn't be able to see his unreadable expression.

“I guess so. Sometimes she just feels a little fake, I just don't get how some people don't see it. She's nice, but half the time it feels like pity.” One person scoffed.

Senku didn't plan on interfering. Sure, they were ten billion percent wrong, but it wasn't really his problem. He wasn't all that close with Yuzuriha anyways, they just caught him off guard, is all. If they wanted to talk crap, they-

“Hey Senku, what do you think of Yuzuriha?”

He paused, and then let out a silent but long sigh.

All in all, Senku just really didn't care for her that much. His first instinct was to just grunt and ignore them, and that was an honestly tempting choice.

But…

She was making the dolls for him. Without anything in return, too…

He didn't care. He really didn't. But he did have basic human respect, even if it showed itself in the weirdest situations.

“She's alright. All in all, she's a nice person to talk with.” He answered, knowing exactly where this conversation was going to go.

The girl's eyebrow shot up. “Seriously? But she's just so… so…” She waved her hands expressively.

Senku set down the beaker he was holding. “She's what?” He turned around to fully face them, leaning on the counter behind him.

His tone clearly caught her off guard, and the girl crossed her arms over her chest. “How can't you think she's stuck up? She’s always trying to sweet talk everyone, I get sick of her in a matter of seconds.”

Now it was Senku's turn to be caught off guard. “Hold on. Yuzuriha? Stuck up?” He moved his hands to his sides, pushing against the counter he was against. “Are we seriously talking about the same person right now?” He deadpanned.

The girl defensively threw her hands. “You wouldn't get it. You're a guy, of course you don't see it.”

“I have a feeling that you're just looking for an excuse to pick on someone. Someone you might be jealous of.” He jabbed at her. He didn't want to take it any further than this, just tell her what he thought, jab at her for a bit and then piss off and go about his day.

…But she just would not shut up!

The more the girl spoke the harder he rolled his eyes. At one point he was truly opting to just stop replying and face the consequences of giving someone the silent treatment but Senku's never been someone to roll over and show his belly when it comes to the facts.

They kept going back and forth for a while, and when Senku finally reached his limit and was borderline shouting at her, Taiju barged through the door and shoved Senku to the side.

“Both of you stop that now! Arguing is no way to solve any problem!”

Senku's face was electrified with shock. “Seriously? You don't even know what we were arguing about!” He said, pushing Taiju out of his personal space.

Yuzuriha waited at the door, her expression darkening when she realised who Senku was arguing with. Meekly, she called out. “Hey. I… Uh- I brought the dolls you asked for.” She pulled three plushes out of her bag and hesitantly walked inside of the lab. “I hope they're good enough quality.”

Taiju, completely forgetting the previous shouting match, turned his attention back to Yuzuriha and called Senku over. “Oh yeah! Come on Senku, take a look. They're great!”

The girl Senku was arguing with side-eyed Yuzuriha before turning back to Senku. Senku, having quickly regained his composure, simply replied with a scoff and a roll of his own eyes before walking over to Yuzuriha to inspect the crafts.

Without a word, Senku took them out of her hands and brought them up to his face, feeling the fabric and density. After a moment of silence, Senku stuffed them into his own bag and turned back to Yuzuriha. “These are good quality, they'll work well with the rocket. Thanks.”

Yuzuriha, clearly happy with his approval, blushed at the approving tone of his voice. “It was no trouble at all! I'm glad I could help.” Yuzuriha glanced to the side to see the girl from before practically burning holes into her with her eyes and visibly tensed at the face she seemed to recognise. Although Taiju didn't notice, the air in the room thickened. Senku mentally noted and put the interaction away for later.

Taiju, even happier with Senku's approval, turned to him and got close to his face. “She can come with us to watch the rocket take off, right Senku? It's only fair since she helped out!”

Senku groaned as he shoved Taiju away for the second time and patted himself down, brushing imaginary dirt off his lab coat. “First, stop getting so close. Second, if she wants to come she can. I don't really care.” He turned to a cupboard where he stored his rocket, heaving the box with much trouble and setting it down on the counter.

Senku turned back to Yuzuriha. “You wanna come?” He asked.

Yuzuriha looked surprised and slightly worried. “It's a rocket you built yourself, right? Is that safe?”

Senku shrugged. “I guess we'll see.”

Without a second glance, Senku walked out the door while Taiju picked the box up with ease and followed closely behind, signalling for Yuzuriha to follow who hesitantly agreed.

Just before Yuzuriha could catch up, Taiju leaned in to whisper something to Senku. “Try to make small talk with her, you two would make great friends, you know?”

Senku raised his eyebrows. “Why would I? I don't really have the need-”

“Please, Senku?” Taiju asked with a rare hint of desperation that Senku only heard when Taiju really wanted something, which was pretty rare.

Senku paused before sighing in defeat. “Fine, whatever. I'll try, but no promises that it'll turn out great.”

His answer seemed to please Taiju. “Thanks a lot, man.” He grinned.

Later on, when all three were silently walking up the hill to where Senku had planned to launch the rocket, Senku thought back to Yuzuriha and that girl back in the lab.

Middle school is when all the drama starts, that's just common knowledge to all. But out of everyone, why Yuzuriha?

Senku was dense but he wasn't blind. From Yuzuriha's hesitance to enter the lab to her tensing at the sight of the girl, it was clear she was well aware of what the girl was saying about her.

Senku wasn't even sure himself why he cared so much, but why did Yuzuriha care? Why wasn't she defending herself?

Try to make small talk with her. Taiju's words rang through his mind.

Maybe it wasn't the best topic, but it was better than nothing.

“Why does that girl hate you so much?” He started, right out of the blue

Yuzuriha, obviously taken aback by the boldness of the conversation starter, stumbled on her words before simply sighing.

“Well, it's just- We don't actually, like, we…” She trailed off.

Senku glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, keeping his head straight. “If you don't want to answer, just say so.”

Yuzuriha shook her head. “No, it's just that…” She paused before deciding what to say. “Her name is Hina, you probably know. We aren't very close, but lately we've been arguing a lot. I heard you defending me, though – Me and Taiju were outside of the lab listening before he stepped in. I didn't really expect anyone to care so much since it's only her saying those things so no rumors have been spread.”

Senku raised his eyebrow. “It was no problem I guess, but that doesn't explain why she's saying those things.”

Yuzuriha silently took a Pokéball out of her pocket. “It's because of a Pokémon battle we had. Or, keep having."

Senku scoffed. “Seriously? What, did you beat her too many times or something?”

“It's actually because I keep losing.”

Senku raised his eyebrow, but hummed to let her know to continue explaining.

“She thinks that I'm purposely losing all of our battles because I pity her, but in all honesty it's because I'm just no good. She doesn't think she's a great battler, so the fact she keeps winning against me is making her think I lose on purpose and that I'm pitying her to make her feel better, which isn't helping my case at all.”

“So just win. Problem solved.”

Yuzuriha sighed. “You make it sound easy.” She complained.

Senku shook his head and pulled out a Pokéball of his own. “That's because it is. With a proper strategy and moveset, victory can be well within your reach.”

“Senku would know!” Taiju chimed in. “He's really good at battling, I wouldn't be surprised if he beat a ground type Pokémon while using an electric type Pokémon who only knows electric type moves.”

Yuzuriha smiled sadly. “So, what? You'll give me a battle plan to follow that'll guarantee me a certain win? Train me to my fullest capacity? I'm a lost cause, trust me.” She laughed sadly.

“Sure, okay.” Senku said, shrugging and returning the Pokéball to his belt. “If the rocket launch is a success, I won't have anything else better to do, so why not?”

Yuzuriha's words tumbled out half-formed, like her brain was still catching up. “Seriously? You'd really do that?”

Would he do that? “I just said I would.” He mumbled, picking at his ear with his pinky.

Yuzuriha clasped her hands around Senku's. “Thanks so much, Senku! You're the best!”

Senku awkwardly pulled away, not embarrassed but just slightly uncomfortable.

Although he saw where her gratitude was coming from, he was doing it because it would mainly benefit him too. That girl - Hina - was seriously starting to piss him off, and if the launch was successful then he literally would have nothing else to do after. An opportunity opened itself, so obviously he would take it.

Senku messily scribbled down a table into his pocket notebook: Senku, Taiju and Yuzu. It was definitely too early for nicknames, but it would just end up as a waste of space to write down her full name.

Once they arrived at the top of the hill, Taiju set down the box without even breaking a sweat and Senku set up the rocket from a distance. Three flashes of lights came from his belt, all with eager faces. Yuzuriha looked slightly taken aback while Taiju simply smiled as Senku barely flinched.

“I was wondering when you three would come around,” He said uncaringly, finishing the final details of his rocket. “I was starting to think I was boring you to death.” He spoke with clear sarcasm as Reuniclus floated onto his shoulder and swung around him until he was gently swatted away by Senku, while Lycanroc and Leafeon sniffed and inspected the rocket.

The three Pokémon took a few steps back to join Yuzuriha and Taiju as Senku followed soon after with a button in his hand.

Lycanroc sat proudly at his side with Leafeon standing behind him, slightly intimidated. Reuniclus looked just as excited as Senku while Yuzuriha and Taiju stood silently, brimming with anticipation.

“Alright.” Senku said, pushing the button. “Let's do this.”

——————————

The rocket launching surprisingly wasn't the most exciting part, it wasn't even seeing the dolls in space in real time.

But instead, it was seeing Taiju's reaction to the successful launch. He seemed even happier than Senku was, and Yuzuriha?

She was beyond impressed.

Apparently, it took very little to impress a craftswoman. She even jumped for joy when she saw the three dolls on camera in space.

And after all the praise and excitement, how could Senku say no to training her?

“You keep backing out at the last second. Loosen up, the first attack isn't as important as you think it is. Battles are unpredictable, you need to adapt.” He sighed.

Yuzuriha nodded, timid but still determined. “R-right.”

Yuzuriha wasn't battling Senku, instead, he was coaching her through a battle with Taiju. He wanted to convince himself that they were getting somewhere, he really did, but the truth was that this wasn't working out well at all. Maybe it was because Wobbuffet doesn't learn any moves beside defensive ones, but that didn't make up for the lack of confidence on Yuzuriha's end.

Senku glanced back down to his notebook where he had been taking notes on Leavanny and Yuzu- Yuzuriha. Leavanny herself was doing alright, but they really needed to work on Yuzuriha herself.

Senku sighed as he snapped the book shut. “Get off the field, Taiju.” Senku pulled out a Pokéball as he came to take Taiju's place.

Taiju raised his eyebrow but didn't retaliate, just called back Wobbuffet and walked to the referee's spot on the battlefield.

“Wait, what are you…” Yuzuriha's words died on her tongue as Senku called out Reuniclus.

“Use Focus Blast.”

“Senku, what- L-leavanny dodge it!”

At the very last second, Leavanny jumped out of the way to avoid the attack. Before Yuzuriha could uselessly attempt to tell Senku to back off, he called out another attack.

“Follow it up with Hammer-arm. Don't let her stop moving.” Reuniclus obeyed his command and swung recklessly at Leavanny, who was starting to become sloppy and just barely doing his attacks.

A cloud of dust had risen, causing Senku to not be able to see where his partner and his opponent were on the battlefield. However, his endless strings of approaches were cut short when Yuzuriha called out her own attack with newfound confidence in her voice.

“Do it now! Use Razor Leaf!” Leavanny jumped high into the air and came crashing down on Reuniclus, not causing him to faint but clearly causing him damage, even if he was able to shake it off a few seconds after.

Yuzuriha was tense as she waited for Senku to call out his own attack once the dust had settled, but to her surprise he stayed silent. Instead, Senku walked across the battlefield where Reuniclus was waiting for him knowingly.

Senku crouched down to Reuniclus “Good work, thanks for the help.” He patted his head. “Reunii!” Reuniclus cried happily before Senku recalled him to his Pokéball.

Senku stood up to face Yuzuriha again. “See how easy that was? I don't usually advise this, but when it comes to a Pokémon battle, you really just need to go along with it. You can plan ahead for strategies, but you need to be prepared for the unthinkable.”

Yuzuriha stayed silent for a few long seconds, processing Senku's words.

After snapping out of her daze, she turned to Leavanny and high fived her before turning back to Senku with a contagious smile. “Right! Let's go again tomorrow.”

After that, it was smooth sailing. Before Senku knew it, it went from ‘Senku and Taiju' to “Senku, Taiju and Yuzuriha’.

Although their friendship was first only bound to training, Yuzu eventually started to occasionally tag along with Taiju to meet Senku at the lab. She was pretty timid at first, with Hina glaring daggers at her and not actually knowing anyone there besides Senku, but with Taiju by her side his confidence quickly became contagious.

Even when Taiju wasn't available and was at some sort of club, Yuzuriha would still come to hang out at the lab. Senku couldn't deny that her company was slowly growing on him, only realising this when someone pointed out that he was telling off other science club members for bringing their friends into the lab while Senku did the exact same but with no repercussions.

Maybe it was because he was the science club leader, or maybe it was because Taiju and Yuzuriha were simply that likeable. Wherever Senku was, there was a ninety percent chance that he was followed by Taiju and a ninety-five percent chance he was followed by Yuzu. Those two came in a pair wherever and whenever, and if it wasn't Taiju then it was certain that Yuzuriha followed close behind.

One day when they had taken a break from training for the week and the lab was almost empty, only Senku, Yuzuriha and one other person there, Yuzuriha began to hum a melody Senku recognised.

Dancing Queen by ABBA.

Senku glanced to the side for a second before turning back to his project. “Is that ABBA?” He asked, monotone and barely over a whisper. Not meaning to start a conversation but just out of simple curiosity.

Yuzuriha, however, stopped almost instantly and put a beaker that Senku had handed her down to turn to face Senku excitedly. “You know them?” She asked, almost sounding like a little kid.

Senku didn't flinch, but held back a grin. “Yeah, kinda. My dad always has their music on in the background, so I'm pretty familiar with their songs.”

“What's your favourite?”

Senku was starting to regret asking his question.

“If I had to say… maybe… Our Last Summer?”

Yuzuriha's eyes lit up. “I love that one!”

Senku cackled. “Pass me that beaker, would you?” In an attempt to change the topic.

Wordlessly, Yuzuriha handed him the beaker while still humming the song but with a bounce in her step.

“You can dance…” She sang barely over a whisper. “You can jive…”

“Having the time of your life…” Senku finished for her, not singing with much enthusiasm and basically just saying it normally, but finishing it anyway. “See that girl, watch that scene-”

“-digging the dancing queen! You do know it!” She smiled brightly at him, pointing a playful finger at him.

“I just told you I did.” Senku replied. However, his coldness wasn't taken to heart when Yuzuriha laughed and playfully punched his shoulder.

From that day onwards, you'd always see Yuzuriha play something in the background if no one was in the lab that day. Any ABBA song on the lowest volume, just loud enough for Senku and Yuzuriha to hear. Senku often joked that now he really couldn't escape that band, but in reality, he didn't mind one bit.

Although he was pretty cold and short-lipped towards Yuzuriha at first, Senku warmed up to her. Through training and hanging out at the lab, her presence became almost as frequent as Taiju.

One day, when Yuzuriha was sitting on a desk stool besides Taiju simply chatting as Senku worked and occasionally chimed in, a hand slapped down on the table in front of them.

“Battle me.” Hina ordered.

It was expected, it was only a matter of time before Hina came back to challenge her Yuzuriha again, and yet she still seemed taken aback and even a little intimidated. But, with one glance to Senku who nodded to her, her expression soon changed to one of confidence.

“Okay.” Her voice was shaky, but calm.

After the two walked out of the lab and shut the door, Taiju only needed to glance at Senku for them to jump out of their stations and press against the window to watch the battle from afar.

On the battlefield, Yuzuriha called out Leavanny as Hina called out her own Pokémon: a Scrafty.

Senku narrowed his eyes. Scrafty are known to be pretty aggressive to those who aren't its family and friends, the outcome of this battle can vary. Don't get your hopes up, get your confidence up, Yuzu. Senku mentally advised her.

The referee raised his hand. “Battle… begin!” He called out.

——————————

Senku ran down the stairs to the battlefield in a frenzy, even having teachers scold him on his way down didn't stop him. Taiju followed closely behind and at least had the courtesy to apologise to anyone he shoved, but still attempted to get through the crowd in a hurry.

When they finally got to the doors, Yuzuriha jumped into Taiju's arms who accepted her hug and held her close tightly.

Yuzuriha erupted into laughter. “I did it, I won!” She repeated, over and over again until the giggling overtook her.

Taiju hugged her with a wide grin on his face. “You did! Me and Senku watched from afar, it was amazing, Yuzuriha.”

Senku smirked, having caught his breath and his hands tucked neatly into his lab pockets. “I see you paid attention to what I taught you. You see, Scrafty are actually-”

Before he could finish his inevitable rant, Yuzuriha leaped into him and wrapped her arms around his torso, bringing him into a tight hug. “Thank you. Thank you so much, Senku.”

Senku froze, his mind wiped blank of any previous thoughts. His first instinct was to shove Yuzuriha far away from him, take a cold, freezing shower and wait until he could no longer feel the burning sensation of touch on his body.

He had never been a physical person, in more ways than one. He didn't like sports, didn't really care about how he looked and most importantly, hated physical touch. Skin to skin contact burned, for reasons he probably knew but refused to acknowledge, and he avoided it at all costs. There were exceptions for his Pokémon - his most trusted friends - but most human contact was off the charts.

But it was the way she smiled at him that made him pause, that made the shaking of his body stop for just a second.

She looked up and smiled at him. A smile filled with just everything that makes Yuzu herself, a contagious smile that even the devil couldn't shake. Her eyes were watery with joy, like this win meant more to her than anyone could ever know.

Senku was used to winning. It was, like, kind of his entire thing. But after loss after loss, that win must've felt like a blessing to her.

How could he shove her away after seeing that? After knowing that?

Awkwardly and uncomfortably, Senku allowed her to hug him. He didn't hug her back, didn't even lean into the hug, but instead opted for half-heartedly rubbing and patting her back with one hand while the other stayed clenched in his pocket.

Taiju stared in a daze from where he stood. Not out of jealousy, but out of pure disbelief. That might have been the first and last time Senku had let someone other than Byakuya actually hold physical contact with him for more than four seconds.

When Yuzuriha let go, she wiped at her eyes and pulled back. “I owe you big time. Both of you.” She smiled.

Senku glanced to the side, his ears turning red not out of middle school ‘love’ but out of a tinge of embarrassment. Senku didn't likeSometimes.

He waved his hand. “It’s whatever. I need to go back to the lab, pretty sure I left something on in there.” He turned to walk away, but her voice stopped him.

“The next battle I have, it'll be you, okay?”

It wasn't a question, but instead a statement. Yuzuriha didn't tell him that she was going to win, not that she'll crush him or something, but that they'll have a battle. Not one with bets, not one with stakes. Just a battle.

Man, Senku didn't even remember the last time he had a battle that wasn't a bet or didn't have any stakes on the line, a battle that was just for fun.

He didn't turn around to face her, not wanting his expression to betray him, but his voice did otherwise. “I'll be looking forward to it.”

That was one of his prime memories with Yuzuriha. It was fuzzy and almost blurry, the most he remembered was him leaving and brushing off imaginary dust until the touch didn't sting anymore, but Senku didn't actually remember if they ended up having that battle.

Maybe overtime it just slipped his mind, or maybe he pushed it back until he knew it would mean something. But, something he did know that was for sure was how fulfilling everything felt after.

Senku turned to lay on his side, deep in thought. Even with his rather… rough years in high-school, it filled a small part of the hole in his heart knowing that Yuzu and Taiju were just an arms length away.

Yuzuriha was the Dancing Queen - pun intended - and Senku was her loyal Alchemist. Taiju was somewhere between the Loyal Knight and the Kind King, probably both. Did fantasy even work like that? Senku wouldn't know.

The point was, Yuzu and Senku were close. Not as close as Senku and Taju - no, those two were practically brothers - but soon enough, Byakuya stopped asking “Is Taiju coming over today?” and instead replaced it with “Are Taiju and Yuzuriha coming over today?”, and that was more than enough to finish the puzzle.

Byakuya would-

…

Byakuya.

Senku's heart fell to his feet and he shoved his head roughly into Lycanroc's fur which caught his and Leafeon's attention.

Senku was pretty hard to read, but if anyone could read him like an open book it was his Pokémon.

Lycanroc curled up closer to Senku as Leafeon hopped to lay beside Senku, who pulled her in close so that all three were basically pressed into each other.

He didn't even want to think about Yuzuriha right now, let alone his old man. Not when it still hurt like an open wound, even if Yuzuriha's revival was just upon the horizon, and they would for sure revive Byakuya soon after.

They would. They had to. They needed to get to work as soon as possible, there was no time to spare in an era like this one.

So, what did Senku do?

He huffed, closed his eyes and prayed to whatever God was up there to return him to his sweet dreams.

——————————

“So, Senku, who are we going to revive first?”

Senku had to physically stop himself from hitting Taiju at the genuine stupidity of his question.

Suppressing a groan, Senku hummed as if he needed to think about it. “I can only wonder… I'm seriously lost. I don't have a clue.”

Taiju's eyebrows shot up. “You don't? I would've thought you'd at least had one person in mind…” He crossed his arms in thought for a few seconds.

Senku huffed. “Of course I do! Do you seriously think I haven't thought about it even once?”

“But you just said you didn't! Seriously man, you need to stop with the mixed signals.”

Senku suppressed a sigh and rolled his eyes before picking up a bottle of revival fluid - the dose they had only just managed to whip up.

“We're gonna revive everyone sooner or later, so at this very moment it doesn't really matter who's next.” Senku wouldn't say it, but he was well aware of how big of a lie that was. In theory, the next person to be revived should be someone who can do manual labour, who can fight and can hunt. But after so many lonely months, months where Senku had genuinely become sick of masculine voices, both Taiju and Senku knew who they needed next, not humanity. “Although, it would suck if we happened to wake up a murderer on our first try.” His tone was dry with humor.

“Yeah, I get you.” Taiju said, clearly not catching on to what Senku was implying.

Senky didn’t huff, but he stared. “I don't particularly feel like choosing,” he pointed to Taiju. “it's your call, my friend.”

Taiju glanced up and his face morphed from confusion, to understanding to excitement.

“Thanks, I appreciate it, Senku.” He turned to the direction where Yuzuriha was. “I know who I'll pick, I mean, it's obvious.”

Senkh smirked. “We should introduce her to Trevenant. It's important he knows what's going on and who's someone he can trust or not.”

Taiju's eyes slightly narrowed. “Or not?” He repeated.

“Or not.” Senku confirmed. “In the worst case scenario, someone we revive will turn against us. It's important that Trevenant knows not to trust them. I trust Yuzuriha - it's obvious she won't turn against us or anything, but we should come up with some sort of way to reiterate information to Trevenant. If he ends up trusting the wrong people with that heap of trained and strong Pokémon, who knows what type of advantage that'll give someone.”

Taiju's face became tense with worry.

Senku threw his hands up. “But don't get all worried or anything, the chances of that actually happening is pretty low. No, scratch that, extremely low.”

Taiju stared at him for a long few seconds before Senku sighed and stood up with a slump in his step. “Let’s just go revive her.”

Taiju and Senku didn't sprint to Yuzuriha, but they definitely didn't take their time. When they arrived, the two stood in silence until the trembling in both of their hands had subsided.

“I'm ready. Let's do this.”

However, Senku didn't reply. In fact, his expression didn't even waver at Taiju's statement.

“Let's pour that miracle water on her!” Taiju tried again.

It took a swift but effective swipe from Leafeon to gain Senku's attention.

Senku, now snapped out of his daze, handed the revival fluid to Taiju. “Yeah- right. Let's do it.”

Taiju climbed the tree vines to reach Yuzuriha, pausing at the last second when his hand just barely hovered over her head.

Senku, becoming growingly impatient, huffed and asked “What's taking so long? Don't tell me you're just only now-”

Taiju spun around and jabbed his fingers directly into Senku's eyes. “Don't look Senku, she's naked!” Taiju jumped down from the tree and started dragging Senku away by his collar. “We have to at least make some clothes first, you know, have some self respect!”

Still rubbing his eyes, Senku was about to drop to the floor until Lycanroc thankfully pushed Taiju off Senku to give him some time to recover.

“Are you kidding me Taiju? This is the stone world for Arceus’ sake! No one could give less of a damn if you're naked, not even if your dick's hanging out-”

“Yuzuriha does not have a dick! Have some self-”

A loud, ear-piercing howl came from Lycanroc, successfully catching the attention of the two bickering boys.

Both Senku and Taiju stopped in their tracks to process what Lycanroc's intentions were. Taiju scratched the back of his head as Senku simply sighed, heaving himself up from the floor.

“Fine, if you really really want to do this, we'll do it your way.”

Leafeon glared at Taiju before whacking him with her tail, scolding him with an angry “Leafeon!”

Senku cackled. “Ha! Even she thinks you're being overdramatic.”

Wobbuffet patted Taiju’s arm. “She just hates my entire existence.” Leafeon stuck her tongue out and hopped away, clearly intending for Senku, Taiju, Lycanroc and Wobbuffet to follow.

Senku picked at his ear with his pinky finger. “Nah, she hates everyone. Not the friendliest Pokémon, but her attitude actually has more benefits than disadvantages. For me, at least."

“How the heck is that a good thing for you?”

“Driving people away when I don't want them near me, obviously.”

Taiju huffed. “Of course.”

“We're off topic. I'll do it your way if you really want to, but it'll be more practical to wake her up and have her walk with us back to camp so she can dress herself there.”

“That's not a problem! I'll just carry her!”

Senku raised his eyebrow. “You really think you can carry her all the way there? How heavy is that statue, anyway?”

“You better not be calling her fat!”

This time, Leafeon turned to Senku and whacked him with her tail instead of Taiju.

“Seriously, what's with everyone missing my point today? I can't deal with all of this illogical thinking-”

At that second, Senku heard something. Something so small, so missable, but so unnatural that it made Senku's blood run cold.

A low growl.

Not one from Leafeon, not from Wobbuffet, and certainly not from Lycanroc, who wouldn't even think of growling so aggressively at his trainer like that.

His entire body stiffened. Lycanroc's ear twitched as he spun around to face the direction of where the sound came from and jumped to position himself between it and Senku.

That wasn't a friendly call, it wasn't petty or fed up.

It was angry, violent and most definitely territorial.

Taiju noticed Senku's stiffness and Lycanroc's protective stance, as well as Leafeon's bitterness being replaced by extreme attentiveness.

“Hey, what's-”

“Don't.”

Senku's voice was strained, yet coated with a sense of stress that Taiju hadn't heard up until now.

Lycanroc stayed ungodly still and Leafeon was now by Senku’s legs in a similar stance as Wobbuffet started to wobble and shake uncontrollably.

Out of the shadow, a red and fiery mane revealed itself.

A Pyroar.

And it looked absolutely pissed.

That was all it took for all five of them to break out into a sprint.

Lycanroc followed Senku without hesitation, positioning himself behind the rest of the group that ran in front. Out of all Lycanroc, Midday Lycanroc were the most agile and the fastest, they could outrun any Pyroar even on their worst days.

But this was Senku at risk.

It wasn't new news that Senku wasn't athletic. Sure, he's an amazing trainer, but athlete? Not a chance. It was Lycanroc's self-proclaimed duty to keep Senku safe, and if he couldn't protect him from a single Pyroar, what sort of partner would that make him?

“Pyroar don't live in Kanto, or Japan as a whole! What's it doing here, Senku!?”

Senku glanced back nervously. “Are you stupid? It's a descendant of a Pokèmon in the Safari Zone - all sorts of Pokémon were brought to live there, including Pokémon from Kalos!”

The group weaved through trees as Lycanroc and Leafeon swiped at any vines or plants that dared get in their way. Senku was pretty sure he stepped on a Furret's tail at one point, but being kind to nature wasn't exactly their first priority right now.

But then again, their first priority wasn't going to be a problem for much longer as a whole. Why? Because it was game over from the very beginning.

Even if they somehow did get back to camp in time, all Senku and Taiju had to fight them with were spears. Senku didn't doubt his Pokémon's abilities, not one bit, but you couldn't outsmart a pride of Pokémon that worked together. Wobbuffet was out of the question - maybe Reuniclus could, if Senku could actually find him, but right now, Lycanroc's raw strength and Leafeon's agile moves were nothing against the power of a pride of lions.

Once Senku had explained that to Taiju, he stopped in his tracks entirely.

Taiju tossed Yuzuriha's stone body to Senku and placed himself beside Lycanroc at the front of the group.

“You dying now is not an option, Senku!” He shouted. “Your big science-filled brain is humanity's last hope! Even if i gotta be lion food, I'll save you-”

“No way!”

Maybe what Senku was about to say next wasn't out of logic. Maybe he wasn't thinking straight in the moment and maybe he was acting upon his own selfish wants.

But he couldn't lose Taiju. He wouldn't lose Lycanroc. Not now, not ever.

Not when they had both given everything they had to support him. Not when Lycanroc stayed by Senku's side as if he was a jewel in need of a guard. If he couldn't save them now, what sort of trainer would that make him? A pathetic one.

He can conquer gym battles and tournaments, that was his true strength and asset in this stone world. But his one weakness?

He was sentimental.

He was weak when it came to relationships. Weak when it came to his Pokémon.

Weak when it came to his friends.

“Use some logic for once, Taiju. I'm the brains, and obviously you're the brawn. If humanity is gonna live on, we both need to as well.” Lycanroc half turned his head to Senku, who met his eyes with organised desperation. “If we're gonna make a run for it, it's imperative we do it together!”

Taiju looked back with shaky eyes and hands, but nodded with strength. “Yeah, I got it.”

Taiju was strong. He was loyal and bulky - a top tier athlete and always willing to help. But he wasn't a fighter. His respect for the living knew no bounds - Taiju could never hit another human being.

“Hey, if we can't outrun them, I thought of something we can do instead.” Taiju started to lead them in another direction, back to the general area of where Taiju used to collect mushrooms with Lycanroc. “I found this guy a few months ago. He was called the Strongest Primate High-schooler - Shishio Tsukasa.”

Senku was only half paying attention to Taiju's words as rummaged around his belt, scrambling and looking through pouches. In front of them, all three Pokémon were on the front lines, guarding the two humans and statues while restlessly glancing around their surroundings.

Taiju gently set Yuzuriha down. “Sorry about this. We'll revive you and find Leavanny soon, but for now, we need to get someone who-”

“Don't waste your breath. Just pour it on him.”

Senku wasn't one for anything relatively emotional, let alone grand entrances. Taiju could be sentimental all he wanted when they weren't about to get mauled alive.

One second, Senku was splashing the revival fluid onto the man's head. And the second, the tenseness of everything seemed to have multiplied as if the Earth was split into two and Senku fell into the growing gap of it.

He didn't want to turn around, because he was certain of what he would see.

Leafeon cried out fiercely and Lycanroc bared his teeth, even Wobbuffet was prepared to fight a losing battle.

And then there was a crack.

A single stone fragment dropped to the floor, but it was somehow, out of all the growling and barking, the loudest sound of them all.

“Sorry, I know this isn't what you want to wake up to after sleeping a few thousand years.”

One sentence. It took one sentence for Senku to realise they had hit the jackpot.

“What's the situation?”

——————————

Tsukasa was… alright.

Or at least, that's what Senku thought. It was ironic, going from “hitting the jackpot” to “he's alright”. Even though his skills were definitely valuable, there was just one thing he couldn't pin point that stopped Senku from giving him the big fat one-hundred. Taiju, on the other hand, seemed to think Tsukasa was a blessing sent from Dialga, Palkia and Arceus themselves.

Maybe Senku was feeling a bit petty after having to leave Yuzuriha in stone for another few weeks, but something about Tsukasa rubbed him the wrong way. And his Pokémon really seemed to agree with him.

The second Tsukasa fully broke out of the stone, Senku was in debt to him. He saved their lives, even if it was by killing a Pyroar in one shot.

That's what started to put Senku on edge to begin with. A human. Killing a Pokémon. In one shot. And now, he was in debt to him.

They knew that going for the kill was the only option. It was necessary, all three of them were aware. They wouldn't have survived otherwise.

But Lycanroc and Leafeon disagreed.

Leafeon's behaviour was understandable, familiar even. She had never been the friendliest with others, and knowing her past, Senku understood why. But Lycanroc?

He loved everyone. And that wasn't an understatement.

In the past, Lycanroc was like the school's community pet. Well-known and well-liked, and he charmed any teenage girl who wanted to pet him. Midday form Lycanroc were already praised enough as it is for their loyalty and compassion towards their trainers, but Senku's Lycanroc took it to a whole other level. He helped in the lab, was a fierce battler, never abandoned Senku's side and he came in clutch when you really needed him. That's what made him admirable, he was a role model for younger Pokémon and other trainers envied Senku for having such a charismatic Pokémon. Senku would be lying if he said it didn't get to his head a couple of times, he was probably the most grateful of all for his beloved partner.

Lycanroc was like your average anime shounen main character, so for him to dislike someone right off the bat said a lot.

Maybe Senku could have gotten a better read of him if she was here, or maybe if Reuniclus was around to help he could analyse Tsukasa better, but he hadn't even found their statues yet and the cave with the nitric acid hadn't even produced a millilitre of the solution yet. They couldn't revive anyone yet, but even so, Senku didn't need Reuniclus to know he should be suspicious of Tsukasa.

When Lycanroc had actually snarled at him, Senku knew something was off. He played it off well, telling Tsukasa that all of his Pokémon weren't the nicest to others, but Tsukasa didn't miss the knowing glance between the crimson-red and sky-blue eyes.

Maybe it was the act of killing another Pokémon (even if it was out of self-defence, right in front of them) or maybe they simply didn't like him, but Leafeon and Lycanroc refused to even be in a 3 meter radius of the man.

So, it wasn't exactly heart-stopping when Tsukasa had betrayed them.

Senku wouldn't say he saw it coming from miles away, but that didn't mean he wasn't accounting for the possibility of it happening. He had introduced Taiju to all his plans and knowledge on the first day because he trusted and knew Taiju, he wouldn't have any alternative motives besides helping Senku achieve his goal.

But he didn't know Tsukasa. Sure, he knew of the TV star - Shishio Tsukasa, but the guy himself? A total mystery. TV hosts or people on TV in general usually have completely different personalities compared to the ones they allow the public to see, you never really know your celebrities until you meet them in real life.

That was why instead of showing Tsukasa Trevenant's sanctuary and the garden, he snuck off to warn Trevenant.

Senku told him to be wary of Tsukasa until further notice, to not let anyone besides Taiju, Senku or anyone that was accompanied by them inside of the garden. And most importantly: Do not let any Pokémon be revived. If they revive on their own, which is inevitable, then they are not to leave the premises under any circumstances.

With that out of the way, Senku began his search for Leavanny.

It took multiple days and a large number of excuses to where he had been in those couple of hours, but eventually, he found it. Leavanny was safe in her Pokéball in the pile that Trevenant had collected over time, and she was now safely stored in Senku's belt.

Yuzuriha and Leavanny were safe. That was step one completed.

Step two had to be pushed back to make way for a new problem that had arisen: Tsukasa was searching for his own partner - Pangoro.

Senku wasn't fond of the idea of giving Tsukasa the extra man power that could possibly bite them in the ass in the future, but with the way he had been acting recently, he didn't really have a choice but to oblige.

He said he'd help with the search, but not that he'd actually find him.

Senku was about 70% sure that Pangoro was probably in the gardens, but as long as he kept Tsukasa away from it, everything would be okay for the time being.

But then they ended up alongside the beach, where the outcome turned out worse compared to what could have happened at the gardens, and Senku knew that he messed up big time.

Tsukasa didn't want a new world. He was a hard-core communist.

It's not like Senku was against communism as a whole, but a world without capitalism and communism in a perfect balance was no true world at all.

It was a few weeks after Tsukasa's revival, and they had just about managed to scrape up enough materials for one dose for Yuzu, and another pre-made secret dose that Senku was saving for Leavanny.

The ideal next few years would have been to revive Yuzuriha and then Leavanny, find Reuniclus and revive him, prove Tsukasa to be a good person and then revive his Pangoro and get on with reviving the rest of humanity.

But Lady Luck had never really liked him that much to begin with, had she?

“What the hell? It looks like we don't have enough revival fluid for even one person.”

Senku, Taiju, Tsukasa and their Pokémon were all at camp, like any other day.

Taiju dropped Yuzuriha. “Crap! Did I get it too soon?”

“Don't worry about it, just go grab some more. We'll hang back and play twenty questions or something while you're gone.” Senku stared at Tsukasa out of the corner of his eyes. “But do try and make it quick, would you, Big Oaf?”

“Of course! Be back before you know it - full steam ahead!”

Taiju didn't even make it 5 meters before he was grabbed and put to a stop by Tsukasa. “I'm the fastest, so it makes more sense for me to go. But, I'll need to know exactly where to find this miracle fluid.”

Senku suppressed a smirk. Of course he couldn't resist taking the bait.

After their talk at the beach, it was clear that Tsukasa was waiting to get the recipe for the revival fluid so that he wouldn't have any need to keep Senku alive.

Tsukasa wanted a world where only the young and strong live in a primitive state, and if Senku gets in his way, who knows if he'll live to see another day.

But Senku planned for this.

Once Trevenant realises that he hasn't seen Senku or Taiju around for a while he'll understand what's going on, and since Leavanny is safe in his belt, they only really had two reasons to stay.

Number one, the miracle cave.

If they run, then they lose access to it until they can find a way to fight back against Tsukasa. But if they stay, Taiju, Yuzu, Senku and their Pokémon will ten billion percent be killed. So between those two options, it's obvious which one takes priority.

And for the second point…

Senku really needed to find his remaining Pokémon.

Tsukasa doesn't know of her and Reuniclus, which means if they're revived, Tsukasa won't have anything to hold against him.

But still.

It still pained him, knowing that there was a chance that his Pokémon could still be around in this area and he'd have no choice but to abandon them.

But he knew he couldn't take that as priority right now. As much as it bothered him, Tsukasa came first.

One Tsukasa finds the source of the miracle fluid and decides to keep it for himself, there's a ten billion percent chance he'll stop Senku's plan of bringing everyone back.

Senku cracked his neck and gave his best impression of a laid-back yawn he could give. “Tsukasa's gone, isn't he?”

“Yeah, like a bolt of lightning. He's amazing, I've never seen a guy so-”

Senku acted so fast that he felt dizzy after standing up. “Then let's make some revival juice. We'll bring her back now and revive Leavanny later ASAP before he has a chance to return.”

Taiju took on a mortified expression. “Wait- what? Do we already have revival fluid? And you found Leavanny? We have revival fluid for Leavanny and Yuzuriha?”

“Do you really believe I would set out a collection pot that was the wrong size?”

Taiju was growing more and more stressed by the minute, Wobbuffet following suit. “No, you wouldn't… But then why did you send Tsukasa out to get some more?”

“It was a calculated risk. I wanted him gone before we revived her, even if it meant revealing the location of the cave.”

“Why would you want to get rid of Tsukasa? He's like, totally awesome!”

“That's why he's too much to handle.”

That sentence alone was able to open the dam in Taiju's mind. Tsukasa's motives, and his real flaws behind his charismatic personality were finally pouring in.

“His intentions are the opposite of ours. But rebuilding civilization? That gets me real excited.”

Taiju paused for a long second, before nodding at Senku. “Yeah, okay. No need to explain, it's cool.”

Senku bit back a smile. Many would call Taiju naive for trusting Senku so blindly, but naive isn't the word for it.

It's faith.

“I trust you to make the right decision.” Taiju crossed his arms. “Something happened while I was gone, huh?”

Senku paused, freezing in his tracks. “You're right.”

Senku looked outside to the direction Tsukasa left. “Shishio Tsukasa is an awesome guy.” He handed the newly created bottle of revival fluid to Taiju. “Who happens to be a murderer.”

Taiju didn't respond, only glanced down to the bottle in his hand before leaving the hut to turn to Yuzuriha.

Taiju took a deep breath, and poured the mixture onto her.

But when they poured the liquid onto her, for the first few seconds, nothing happened.

“Hey, uh- Senku? Why is nothing happening?”

“You don't need to worry, the reaction isn't instantaneous.” Senku brushed a stray leaf off her shoulder. “The depetrification is much like cryostasis. The stone shell acts as a protective coating made from trace metals in the body, an unknown process caused them to phase shift, and they look on a petrified state.”

Taiju, even with Senku's relatively simple explanation, looked dumbfounded. “You lost me Senku… It's so complicated!"

Senku huffed, cracking his neck. “That's my theory at least, based on an entire year of painstaking experimentation.”

Senku turned back to Yuzuriha. “Anyway, my point being, if just one part of the body is exposed to the nidal, it begins to break down and it initiates a chain reaction that ripples across the organism’s body.”

Right on que, cracks began to form all around Yuzuriha and bit by bit, stone fragments dropped to the floor.

“And the petrification is undone.”

Finally, Senku thought. about damn time, Yuzu.

Leafeon watched with wide eyes and took a small and hesitant step towards Yuzuriha as Lycanroc stared in shock from Senku's side. Although it wasn't the first revival they've seen this reaction, the sight never gets any less astonishing.

When Yuzuriha spoke her first words, Senku was pretty sure he could have been brought to tears if he wasn't careful. He felt Lycanroc lean into him, not by a noticeable amount but comforting nonetheless.

The first time he'd heard a feminine voice in years. A voice that the mere sound of could bring him comfort.

“Is that you… Taiju?”

Yuzuriha was held in Taiju's arms after almost falling to the floor, the tears that streamed down his face dropped onto her dress. “I'm sorry… I didn't mean to make you wait 3700 years. Please, forgive me.”

“What's going on? It’s like I've been asleep forever…” She mumbled, drowsily taking in her surroundings. “But… you saved me from something, didn't you? That look on your face… its…” She trailed off.

Taiju shook away the tears. “It wasn't me,” he turned to Senku, who was standing only a couple of meters away with a somber expression. “Senku did all the work.”

Senku wanted to say something, but his throat just wouldn't open up.

“He spent a whole year trying to wake you up, you know?”

Senku stepped forward, Lycanroc and Leafeon stood by his side with their heads held high. “Morning, Yuzu.” He glanced to the side, not knowing if he could take the eye contact any longer. “It’s been a while-”

Before Senku could finish, Yuzuriha pulled him down to the floor into a soul crushing hug, wrapping her arms tightly around his torso and mumbled into his shoulder, “Thank you. Thanks so much, Senku.”

Senku froze, not out of uncomfortableness but out of shock. Slowly, he brought his arms around Yuzuriha's shoulders, and for the first time in years, the touch didn't burn.

His eyes burned with tears he rapidly blinked back, and he pulled back from the hug not knowing if he could handle it any longer. Every instinct in his body told him to grasp back onto Yuzuriha and let out his pathetically held back tears, but time was short. He didn't have the privilege of being emotional.

“I'd indulge in the big moment with you two, but you need to make a decision before he gets back.” Senku pulled Leavanny's beat-up Pokéball out of his pocket and handed it to Yuzuriha. “Is this…” She trailed off.

“Questions later. Right now, there are only two options for you to choose, so choose carefully.” Yuzuriha and Taiju shakily nodded their heads.

Senku held up a finger. “Plan A. The two of you run away this instant and find a new place to live. The farther the better.” He held up a second finger. “Plan B. We join together and fight to stop Tsukasa's murder spree using the weapons of civilization.”

It didn't take Taiju more than a second to choose his side. “Come on, man! Obviously we'll stay and fight by your side! I mean, really, what kind of people do you think we are?”

Yuzuriha nodded eagerly beside him. “I have no clue what's going on, but I'll help with whatever I can.”

Senku waved his hands in an attempt to calm the two fired up teens down. “I'm not making any assumptions or trying to be nice, it just seems logical to give you the chance to flee.”

Lycanroc barked at Yuzuriha's hand that still held her Pokéball. “Oh right. That's Leavanny's Pokéball, although she's still petrified inside, she's safe and sound.”

Yuzuriha didn't even get the chance to thank him before the topic of conversation changed. “So, what happens next? Do we tell Trevenant what's happening?” Taiju questioned.

Senku shook his head. “No time. We need to act now, and act fast.”

“Well, if Tsukasa is killing people, we've got no choice-”

“So I'm killing people?”

All three of them froze at the new voice.

Behind them, Tsukasa stood with his cloak in one hand and a Pokéball in the other.

“I'd say that's a matter of perspective.” Although his voice wasn't enraged or even angry, there was something deeper that you had to dig in between the lines for. “I call it culling them for the benefit of the new world.”

Taiju and Lycanroc took a stance in front of everyone else as Yuzuriha clutched her Pokéball tightly as Leafeon defensively wrapped her tail around Senku's legs.

He wasn't even trying to hide his murderous intentions in front of them. Tsukasa thinks he's playing a match that's a definite win for him.

“Senku, if things go bad, please take care of Yuzuriha. I need to stop him - right here and now!” Without another second, Taiju took off and barged straight forward towards Tsukasa and Lycanroc following suit.

The “attack” barely lasted a second. Actually, everything barely lasted a second. Taiju ran up, Senku shot his crossbow that he basically pulled out of his ass, Tsukasa caught the arrow and delivered a strong blow to Taiju's arms in a matter of milliseconds.

But Taiju didn't fall. His arm and cheek twitched as Yuzuriha gasped in shock and his legs shook, but in the end, he stood tall.

All four of them stood in silence, even Lycanroc's growling had come to a halt.

“Nobody's ever taken one of my kicks full force and remained standing before. But what's more interesting? It's that I get the feeling you actually refused to attack me just now. Why is that?”

Without an ounce of hesitation, Taiju exclaimed, “I don't hit anyone! You can hit me or kick me or whatever the hell you wanna do!” He ripped his upper tunic open. “But I'm telling you, you gotta stop breaking those statues!”

With mixed expressions of absolute horror, dumbfounded shock and just genuine confusion, Taiju proceeded to go on about how wrong killing is.

And although Senku agreed…

This is not the time for pep talks, Taiju! He mentally berated him.

Tsukasa had to physically stop himself from laughing in Taiju's face. “I don’t understand… you aren't making some kind of deal.” He moved his hands to his hips and examined the Pokéball in hand. “But if you insist on getting in my w-”

“I don't care how many times you wanna come at me, I'm not going to stop trying to stop you!” Taiju screeched.

Yuzuriha stared at the scene in front of her, only snapping out of her daze when Tsukasa asked something related to her.

“That girl you just revived.” He turned to her. “What if I told you I'd kill her instead?”

Now the tables had really turned. Senku had to hold his arm out to stop Lycanroc from lunging at Tsukasa.

Taiju quickly moved to shield Yuzuriha. However, it didn't last long as the next second he was passed out on the floor.

Yuzuriha crouched down to take Taiju's head into her lap. “Uh, Senku?” She turned to look up at him.

“Seems like it did hurt him, he's bleeding like a stuck pig. He'll need a couple of days to sleep it off..”

“Yeah, so let's not fight each other." Tsukasa interrupted his line of thought, turning to glance down at Taiju. “You just protect your girlfriend and quit worrying about some random statues.”

Tsukasa lifted his cloak of Pyroar skin and brought his rusted Pokéball up to his face. “Meanwhile, I will do what I need to do.” And without another word, he was gone.

The few seconds of silence were deafening, because Senku broke it with an annoyed huff and an upset whine from Lycanroc. “Wake up, rise and shine, Taiju! Get up, you Big Oaf!” Senku started to kick Taiju awake as Yuzu poorly attempted to stop him while Wobbuffet had scrambled out of hiding to check on his trainer.

“Is this it? Are you really going to lose that easily, Big Oaf?”

Senku knew Taiju better than he knew himself. And one thing he was ten billion percent certain of, was that Taiju was definitely weak to taunting.

Without another second, Taiju sprung awake and shot up to stand up. “Nope, not me!”

Yuzuriha cocked her head to the side. “Are you sure you're really okay? You aren't feeling bad, are you?”

“I'm made of stronger stuff than that, don't you worry, Yuzuriha! And I'm still full of energy, so let's go and stop-”

Before Taiju could march off in his usual confidence, Lycanroc pushed him backwards.

“Now, just hold on a second, Taiju. Don't you understand what just happened?” To stop him from running off again, Lycanroc had to physically drag him back by the end of his tunic. “He showed us we can't stop him with brute force!”

When Taiju finally let up, he sighed. “Still. We gotta do something…” He crossed his arms in thought.

Senku approached Yuzuriha and gently took the Pokéball out of her hands. “Our first step is this.” Senku released Leavanny from her Pokéball and poured his dose of revival fluid onto her.

Leavanny's depetrification happened a lot faster than Yuzuriha's, a human, did, that was a note Senku tucked away for later. “In the stone world, there's only one surefire path to defeating a beast.”

Stone fragments dropped to the floor, revealing a beautiful variety of yellows and greens, you could almost hear Yuzuriha's breathing pick up.

“It's advancing civilization, and crafting weapons of science.”

——————————

Leafeon swiped a clay pot off the shelves, causing it to shatter into tiny pieces and Lycanroc trampled all over them with his sharp claws.

“What are you two doing?” Taiju asked the two Pokémon

“Isn't that a bit wasteful?” Yuzu timidly asked.

Senku stepped in to answer. “Nah, they're staging a scene. This way, it'll look like he freaked us out so badly that we just took some food and ran off.”

“What? We're really just gonna give up?” Taiju questioned.

“Did you miss the part of staging a scene? It just needs to look like we've run off.” He cracked his neck.

Senku started gathering things into his pouches on his waist. “If we can make some weapons of science before he realises what we're really up to, then victory is ours. But if he gets wise to us, it's game over.”

Lycanroc jumped down from the hut with Leavanny following suit and soon enough, Leafeon and Wobbuffet.

“We're gonna hunt for materials down in Johto! Once we get our stuff, we defeat Tsukasa and all will be right with the world - easy!”

Yuzuriha nervously laughed. “You say that as if it's easier done than said…”

“Isn't that like… two whole marathons? We could knock it out in five hours!”

“Maybe a freak of nature like you can, but me and Yuzu? Not so much. If worst comes to worst, we'll just send you and Lycanroc ahead of us.” Senku huffed.

Lycanroc barked with pride as Leavanny patted his head. “Lycanroc seems to have been a big help, right?” Yuzuriha asked.

“You have no idea. Out of everyone here, Lycanroc was the first break out of the stone, besides me. So he's been helping me out since the very beginning.”

“With what?”

“With anything and everything. In the stone world, Pokémon are the best possible tools you can ask for. Not that they are tools, but they're just as useful as them.”

“What about Leafeon and Wobbuffet? Actually, I still don't know what's going on as a whole…” She smiled timidly.

Senku grinned. “Well, it started when we were still trapped in stone. For about thirty-seven hundred years, I was counting…”

——————————

After a few days of travelling through Kanto and into Johto, the group reached their final destination: hot springs.

In the morning, they would get started on… whatever Senku had planned. Yuzuriha honestly didn't know.

But even after a long and painful day of walking, she still laid awake in her sleeping bag, tossing and turning.

“Go to sleep.” Senku suddenly spoke up.

Yuzuriha hummed. “Sorry, am I keeping you awake?”

Senku silently turned to lay on his back instead of fully facing away from Yuzuriha. “No. I can't sleep either.”

Yuzuriha smiled fondly. “Your sleeping habits caught up to you even in the stone world, huh?”

“I guess so. Or maybe it's-” He cut himself off.

“Maybe it's…?” Yuzuriha edged him on.

Senku closed his eyes. “Its just weird, having you back after so long.” He mumbled.

Yuzuriha stayed silent. “Yeah, it's weird being back, too. I don't think I've fully processed everything that's happening yet. From Tsukasa to Trevenant… it's a lot.”

“It's hard to adapt, isn't it? One second you go from having everything within your reach, to struggling to keep yourself warm at night. Sucks, doesn't it?”

Yuzuriha nodded. “And it's been so long, too. Almost nothing survived after all those years besides the statue of Buddha, and I just…” Her voice began to shake. “I never knew you could feel homesick for a place you're still technically in.”

Senku stayed silent before speaking up once more. “We aren't in the same place as before. The world changed so much that you can't even compare this world and our old world. Also, there are studies behind “feeling homesick”. You're grieving something that you lost, and grief doesn't end even if the five stages say otherwise. You can actually feel homesick for a lot of things, like people.”

“Wouldn't that just be missing them?”

Senku shook his head. “Although it doesn't sound like it, they can be two completely different things if you look at it from a unique perspective. You see, although I dont have one millimeter of interest in psychology, studies have actually shown that-”

Senku was cut off by a poorly suppressed laugh from Yuzuriha. “What's so funny?” He asked.

Yuzuriha shook her head with her hand on her mouth. “No- no it's nothing. It's just that you have such a unique way of comforting people, it’s something I could never miss.”

“You don't miss the way I help people?”

Yuzuriha laughed again. “No, no! As in, it's something that could never go unnoticed, silly. It's like your trademark.”

“Oh. Well, you aren't going to start crying or anything, are you?”

Yuzuriha shook her head. “No. It's like I can already feel my homesickness going away.”

“How come?”

Yuzuriha turned to lay on her back to stare at the stars just like Senku was. “Just… I think I got something back that I've been missing.”

“And what's that?”

Yuzuriha sighed fondly. “My Alchemist, you dummy.”

Senku paused before muttering, “I can never escape the Dancing Queen, can I?”

“Nope. You never will.”

Chapter Text

In all honesty, Senku never really thought time travelling was a real thing.

Well, maybe not physically time travelling. But time travelling as a metaphor in the sense of resources was another subject.

Gunpowder, although being a completely natural resource, can be used in a revolutionary way. It's the way you take advantage of it which makes it such an advanced product.

Using the gunpowder against Tsukasa will guarantee them victory, but the way they execute their plan matters the most.

By now, Tsukasa had most definitely realised they had run off, but whether he knew their true intentions was still a mystery to Senku.

With hesitance, Senku pried his eyes open and stretched his body, but the first thing he registered before processing anything else was Yuzuriha's hands grabbing onto his arms in a panic.

Yuzu knelt down beside Senku and inspected the arm in her hands. “Your arm! What happened?”

Senku blinked for a few moments, and when he didn't answer, Yuzuriha asked again.

“Hold on- why are you awake?” He finally managed to spit out.

“I woke up before you, obviously.” She breezed past his question. “But you didn't answer my question, what happened?” She examined Senku's arm with a scarred but healed bite mark on it.

Right… he skipped over that detail a few days ago, didn't he?

Back at the Pokémon gardens, in an angry frenzy, Lycanroc had bitten Senku. Although it wasn't very deep and had actually healed relatively well with proper cleaning, the lack of modern medication and disinfectant caused for a pretty nasty and jagged bite mark on his forearm. Even though his makeshift bandages covered most of his forearms and the scar to begin with, he didn't really want to have this conversation with every single person who was concerned for his safety.

It didn't look so good on Lycanroc, either. Senku didn't want people thinking he was some wretched beast who clawed everything up - at the end of the day, it was an accident. You simply had to be there to understand how it happened in the first place.

“It was an accident back at the gardens. I don't feel like getting into the details, but to sum it up, Lycanroc was pent up and battle-ready and I made the mistake of restraining him. So, we're both at fault for the accident. Nothing to worry about.” He awkwardly patted her arm away as nicely as he could.

Yuzu gave him a hesitant look before letting Senku go. “And, please - don't just grab onto me when I've only just woken up.”

Yuzu nervously rubbed her arm. “Sorry about that. It's just that I woke up a little early today, and when I turned around to see you stretching, I saw a massive scar on your arm that I was sure you didn't have before.”

Before Senku could answer, Taiju peeked in from around a corner and chimed in. “Trust me, it took me forever to get used to seeing that ugly thing on Senku's arm. Even the stitches didn't help much. No offence, Senku.”

Senku hummed. “None taken. Why didn't you two wake me up earlier if you were already awake?”

Taiju was genuinely surprised at his question. “Dude, did you see yourself yesterday? You were totally exhausted! If you walked one more step, I'm pretty sure you would have passed out.”

Yuzuriha nodded. “I don't blame you, either. It was a long walk. But, we're all awake now! So let's get to work.” Yuzuriha turned to Senku. “But I'm serious, Senku. Tell me about these things, okay?” Her sudden change of tone sent shivers down his spine.

After giving Yuzuriha a nod purely out of fear, Senku dusted himself off as Lycanroc stretched himself awake, but Leafeon stayed curled up on top of his sleeping back. “Yeah. We gotta work fast and efficiently if we want to get this done.”

He glanced back down to Leafeon, who seemed to be awake but very disinterested in the topic of conversation.

For the time being, Senku let her be. While he and the others started to plan for the day, Leafeon, much unlike herself, kept her head down.

When Lycanroc attempted to console her, she swiped him away with her tail. It wasn't until Leavanny showed herself that she actually faced someone for the day.

Leavanny fondly patted her head, and although Leafeon didn't show any visible emotion on her face, she leaned into the touch.

Senku could only watch the scene unfold from afar, but tucked the interaction away for later. He wouldn't be any good at comforting her, anyways. His conversation with Yuzuriha from last night proved him right.

He sighed, turning back to the task at hand. They had officially gotten all the materials needed for gunpowder, all that was left was to mix it up and use it against Tsukasa.

…Which Senku had admittedly not figured out yet. It’s a work in progress.

Lycanroc met Senku's eyes as if he knew what he was thinking and scratched at his leg with his sharp mane.

“Hey- stop that!” Senku whacked Lycanroc away.

Yuzuriha giggled at the scene in front of her. “Hey, that reminds me!” She pulled something out from under her pillow.

She put something in Senku's hand and closed it for him. “Here. It's a gift.”

Senku opened his palm to be met with a charm of some sort that was just about the length from his finger tips to his wrist and was made out of stone fragments. “The hell is this?” He questioned.

“Its a good luck charm! In Alola, they make charms out of a Lycanroc's fallen stones all the time. They pick out fallen and chipped stones and wove them into charms.”

“You made this yourself?”

Yuzuriha nodded. “I collected them off Lycanroc this morning. I made one for Taiju and myself too, see?” She held up her own. It seemed to be connected by threads torn off Yuzuriha's dress, but even so, it was still pretty good quality.

Just how long did they let me sleep in?

Senku simply nodded to her before picking up an axe and leaving to crouch down in front of the springs, but when he returned, the charm was safely secured and attached to his belt.

Although Senku didn't believe in good and bad luck, mostly because he was scared of jinxing himself, it was still a gift. And throwing it away was the option that he threw into hell, so of course he would wear it even if it wasn't of much value to him.

Or at least, that's what he told himself. Somehow, Senku found himself toying with the charm on his belt instead of biting his nails as he usually does.

...Well, it has a comfortable hold. He told himself.

——————————

After a long while of work, Senku set down a large sack with a Cheshire-like grin on his face.

“We've got all three components we need to make gunpowder.” His sentence became more and more expressive with each word.

Taiju was just as equally hyped up. “For real? We got all of them already?”

“The only thing left is to mix it up! It's time for a gunpowder cooking class that'll be a total blast!” He said, as if he was a little kid.

Senku began demonstrating to the group as they all watched him together with keen looks on their faces.

“All you really needed to make gunpowder was sulphur, charcoal and potassium nitrate. These materials themselves weren't actually too hard to find besides potassium nitrate, but putting them together could easily cause an explosion if a fire is near.”

“But actually getting potassium nitrate is a pretty lengthy process, so…” Senku opened up the large sack from earlier. “Ta-da! I took the liberty of making a bunch of it beforehand to save us some precious time!”

Yuzuriha smiled. “That's Senku for you, always prepared for anything science related…”

Lycanroc nodded with an expectant shake of his head.

“So now, all we gotta do is blend our potassium nitrate in with the sulphur and charcoal. Let's sweeten the mixture by throwing in a pinch of sugar to give it a little more oomph, and finally, a bit of this glucose I extracted from grapes should do the trick.”

Senku worked like a professional. Although he was technically still a student, his technique was well above anyone his age. It wasn't that Senku knew everything, but that he took his existing knowledge to fill in the gaps to things he didn't know.

Of course he had help, whether it be from past lab partners or his Pokémon, even his two closest friends from time to time, but his independence is truly something admirable.

And although he really did appreciate the help, the way Taiju liked to go about it was the complete opposite of the way Senku liked to get things done.

The second Taiju heard anything about needing to crush and pound the mixture together, he was up and arms with a massive rock in his hands, ready to crush anything in his surroundings.

As per usual, it took Lycanroc's scolding bark and a rough drag at his tunic to get him to calm down.

“That- that probably isn't the best idea, Taiju! If you use all your strength, you could make it spark and go boom - like with flint!” Yuzuriha tried to reason.

However, Senku's cocky voice made her think otherwise. “Yeah, no. Adding stone with stone doesn't actually create any sparks.”

Both Yuzuriha and Taiju, who still held the boulder over his head, turned to Senku with confused looks. “I had no clue. I kinda just assumed, I guess.” Yuzuriha smiled and turned to look down at Leavanny who nodded in return.

When Taiju started to crush the mixture with the rock, no reaction happened. “Hey, you're right. Nothing's happening.”

Senku smiled. “That's because flint is not your ordinary type of stone. The metal in it is what makes the spark. If I used Lycanroc's stones, nothing would happen either. Hot springs, volcanoes, iron pyrite, all of those things-” Senku cut himself off at the realisation.

They were in a volcanic area. A hot spring. Which contained iron pyrite.

Iron.

Iron…which is a metal! A very very reactant metal!

Before Senku could give him a final warning, Taiju smashed down the boulder one last time with all of his strength.

Lycanroc, who registered the scene light years before the others, quickly jumped to tackle Senku away from the incoming explosion and onto the floor where he could shield him with his body.

At the first glimmer of a spark, Leavanny whisked Yuzuriha away and Wobbuffet used Safeguard to shield Taiju.

When the ringing in his ears had finally subsided, a sense of dread invaded Senku's veins and arteries. Lycanroc, covered in soot, laid on top of Senku with his chest shielding Senku's chest and his head shielding Senku's.

For a long few seconds, Senku stared into nothing. He heaved his arms up to run his hands up and down Lycanroc's body, checking for wounds but mostly for his own comfort. As far as his sense of touch could tell, Lycanroc didn't have any deep wounds on his body. He was mostly just covered in soot and had a few cat-like scratches.

Senku smiled a humourless smile. “...Good job, Lycanroc. Very good job.” He wheezed out.

Although Lycanroc didn't reply with his usual proud bark, Senku felt his head nod.

Next to him, Yuzuriha laid in a similar position but in admittedly better shape. If anything, she just looked a little dirty. Leavanny must have carried her away before any serious damage could be done.

Taiju, however, seemed almost entirely unscathed. Wobbuffet's Safeguard did not go far enough to protect Senku and the others, but as a whole protected Taiju quite well.

Before anyone else, Taiju was up and had Yuzuriha already in his arms. When she had finally pried her eyes open and given him the green light, Taiju had practically jumped towards Senku and Lycanroc.

Senku recognised Taiju's voice, but all he could truly register was the licking on his face. It wasn't Lycanroc - Senku was half sure he was passed out on his chest.

Which meant it had to be Leafeon.

Leafeon had jumped up the second she heard an explosion and sprinted to where she knew Senku and the others were working, and nudged his cheek in an attempt to shake him awake.

Ahead of them, a large cloud of smoke drifted up high into the air - it was the striking point that electrocuted Senku awake.

Senku pushed himself off the ground to sit up and held Lycanroc in his lap. He turned to Leafeon, whose past mood had seemed to have completely evaporated and had been replaced with intense worry. Senku stroked her head and scratched her under her chin. “Don't worry about me,” Lycanroc pushed himself up and shook the soot of his fur. “this just means our gunpowder cooking was a success!” He grinned.

Yuzuriha and Leavanny looked in shock at his high mood. “We should be careful with that, just look at what it caused us!” She trembled, helping Senku stand up.

Senku nodded, stumbling to stand up straight. “It's been involved in a lot of experiments gone wrong - Not uncommon for some curious kid to lose a limb, or worse.”

Yuzuriha's scare-factor went up to ten. Senku half turned his head to her. “Don't forget, this is a lethal substance we're dealing with.”

Both Yuzuriha and Taiju looked surprised, if not fearful. “...And we're planning to use this against Tsukasa.”

For a fraction of a second, Senku's scarlet eyes softened before turning back to their usual blood-red sharp look. “No. We'll make a deal.” Senku turned to Taiju. “Tsukasa isn't some sort of random, mindless murderer. Think back, when you two had your scuffle, do you remember what he said?”

When Taiju had stood up to Tsukasa in a poor attempt to get him to stop destroying the stone statues, Tsukasa made a certain comment that had piqued his interest.

I don't understand. You aren't making any sort of deal, you're just offering yourself up for a pummeling.

Out of all his lessons in school, Japanese was his least favourite - but the indications of that sentence has its weight in gold.

It meant that Tsukasa would be willing to hear Senku out on a compromise or some sort of deal, and if they're able to threaten Tsukasa with somewhat modern day weapons, they can turn that deal in their favour.

Of course, Senku had no plan to actually use the gunpowder against Tsukasa. It was strictly meant to be used as a bluff - no more, no less.

When Senku had explained this to the two of them, their morale had instantly gone up. However, it didn't last long once Senku had to break the news to them.

“However, if the negotiations don't work out in the end…” Senku trailed off, knowing that everyone here already knew the rest of his sentence.

If it doesn't work out in the end, they'll be forced into killing Tsukasa, and by extension, Pangoro too.

It was painfully obvious who was in that Pokéball that he held in his hand earlier, and considering that Tsukasa was not only a five-star boxer but also a Pokémon Wrestler, Senku didn't want to wait to find out how much power he truly holds as a trainer.

Tsukasa is on his way. Without a doubt, he's coming for Senku at this very second and is well aware of what he's trying to achieve.

And because of the explosion they caused, he probably knows their exact location too.

The time until he arrives is unknown, but at the very least, they'll be prepared for his arrival.

Hopefully.

Just as they were almost finishing putting out the smoke, Yuzu's shaky voice spoke up.

“Hey, Senku, Taiju?”

And when Senku turned around, he saw something that he hadn't expected to see in the slightest.

This wasn't Tsukasa's work. If anything, by all the time Senku had spent around him, he would be trying to hide himself instead of revealing his location. Not to mention the smoke signal was in the opposite direction compared to where he was supposedly coming from.

And it wasn't the time of year for forest fires to occur - if they even could, taking it had been a few thousand years.

Which meant that the smoke signal Yuzuriha pointed out was ten billion percent made by another living human being.

Senku completely froze in his tracks. Leafeon stared with a cautious look while Lycanroc stared with wide eyes, almost as shocked as Senku.

“Is it Tsukasa? Do you think-”

“No. Tsukasa is coming from the opposite direction. And besides, he's got absolutely no reason to reveal his location like that.” Senku's voice lost his usual snarkiness, instead sounding like he was still processing the sight like Yuzu and Taiju.

“So what is it then? A forest fire?” Taiju asked, impatiently.

“I don't believe it's a mere coincidence.” Although Senku seemed calm and composed, his mind was screaming inside. “The timing suggests it's a response to the smoke we created.”

“You mean…” Yuzu trailed off.

“Indeed I do.” Senku walked towards the ledge. “You two better get excited, because it looks like we've found someone else in this stone world.”

“There's more people? We're not alone?” Taiju mumbled to himself, half in a daze.

Yuzu snapped out of it, her attention coming back. “Don't you think we should finish putting out the fire?” Her and Taiju moved towards the springs to finish putting out the fire, but Senku's unusually panicked voice stopped them in their tracks.

“No, hang on.” Senku's eyes were wide and his fists were clenched at his sides. “As far as they know, our smoke could have been caused naturally by a small volcanic explosion. We need to send a signal back before they decide to give up and leave.”

“Are you sure?” Yuzuriha's voice was reasonably coated in worry. “Won't Tsukasa be able to see it too? That means he'll also understand that the explosion wasn't natural.”

Senku took a moment before responding, his voice now steady and smooth. “We'll be broadcasting our location to everyone, including him.”

If anything was out of character for Senku, then this was it. He chose logic, first and foremost. But right now, the calling in his gut was simply too strong to ignore.

Lighting the fire would be a risky choice. On one hand, Senku could find more people to help rebuild the world and even defeat Tsukasa. On the other hand, he would prioritise his current group's safety and play it safe and go by logic, but lose a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“What do we do, Senku?” Taiju was desperate for an answer. It was now or never. “Do we put it out, or light it?”

With a heavy heart, trembling hands and uncertain brain, Senku was forced to turn in his vote. “Let's light it up. Hurry up and fire the smoke signal!” His voice trembled, but it was confirming.

Three more explosions. That was all they needed to get their point across to whoever would listen.

“Anything- Get anything that'll burn! We need to keep the fire up!”

Not even a second after, Taiju, Leafeon and Wobbuffet all took off all lightning speed down the hotsprings. “We're going to go collect some firewood!”

Yuzuriha and Leavanny took off in the opposite direction, clearly leaving to find some materials too.

This entire situation is a double-edged sword. We're telling anybody within sight exactly where we are. And if Tsukasa really had figured out that we're making gunpowder…

Senku squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to think about the horrible outcome he might have put his group into.

Lycanroc, predictably being the only being to stay behind to keep Senku safe, nudged his nose into Senku's trembling hand.

But when he didn't pull away, Senku knew his action had ulterior motives. All of Lycanroc's actions were precise, they were calculated and thought out days beforehand.

He rested his arm around Lycanroc's scruff.

Senku didn't need to turn around to know Tsukasa was behind him.

But what he didn't expect was Yuzu held firmly under his blade, shaking like it was the middle of winter.

His grip on Lycanroc tightened, but he pried himself off him and forced himself to stand up to face him.

“When one uses science to create a weapon, that's when the strongest man is no longer the most powerful.” Senku moved his hands to his hips as Lycanroc turned to face Tsukasa with a look beyond comprehension. For once, Lycanroc didn't have his teeth bared and wasn't snarling at Tsukasa.

His eyes were narrow and calculating. He wasn't in a fighting stance, but a position that was one of defence. One that was meant to intimidate.

Senku didn't know if it was working or not.

“I'd say you're looking especially grumpy today, Tsukasa.”

Tsukasa laughed a humourless laugh. “Yeah, I suppose that is an accurate way of putting it.” He edged the blade half an inch closer to Yuzu's neck.

Tsukasa scanned Senku with his eyes. “I see you've taken a liking to accessories?” His eyes locked onto the charm made by Yuzu that hung off his belt. “I never took you for the stylish type.”

Senku picked at his ear. “I'm really not. But it was a gift made by a friend, made of materials from someone important. It would be rude to decline.”

It was an honest shame that it had to come to this point, because in all seriousness, Senku did see Tsukasa's point of view.

He wanted a world with communism, while also thinking that Senku wanted a world with capitalism. But that couldn't be further from the truth.

A world with equal parts capitalist and communist - that was what Senku wanted. The world cannot thrive on one alone - like Ying and Yang.

Tsukasa's smile dropped. “If you go down this road of developing weapons and start reviving older generations, then they'll begin fighting over established interests. And then we'll be right back in a tainted world.” His eyes narrowed. “I don't mind getting my hands dirty, if that's what it takes to stop that from happening.”

“And by that, you mean killing Senku the Science Man, right? And by extent, his ever loyal partners too.” Senku glanced down to Lycanroc who didn't meet his eyes. “I'm sure the whole world would be moved to tears by your merciful death sentence.”

Tsukasa smiled. “But before that, would you mind giving me the recipe for the revival fluid?”

And there it was.

The one-hundred points question.

He could still turn the tables in his favour. He just needed to play his cards right.

Playing poker is skill, don't think of this as any different. He advised himself.

“Nope, sorry.” He tried to sound as carefree as humanly possible. “I guess I'm not as kind as you are. I can only look at things as being logical or illogical.”

Senku waved his hands around dismissively. “So, I don't care one millimeter what you do with that girl. There are plenty of other females to revive-”

With one swift movement, Tsukasa swung his blade straight for Yuzuriha's neck.

Both Senku and Lycanroc couldn't stop the gasps and jerks that escaped their bodies.

Senku couldn't hide the way his blood ran cold in a matter of seconds, or the low and heart-crushing gasp that escaped his mouth, or the jerk forwards that was completely ready to catch Yuzuriha's corpse.

But when Tsukasa blade only cut off most of Yuzuriha's hair, Senku knew he was playing a losing battle.

“Don't try to negotiate, Senku. You never buried Yuzuriha, like you should've. Your best move would have been to take her while she was still covered in stone and put her deep in the ground somewhere. In a place I couldn't find her. And if I thought of that, there's no chance in hell it never crossed your mind.”

His gaze softened for a fraction of a second. “But for some reason, you didn't do it. Was it for Taiju's sake? Or maybe Yuzuriha's? No, no. That's not right, is it?”

Senku locked eyes with him. “It was for your own sake, wasn't it?” Tsukasa glanced back down to the charm on Senku's belt. “You two are close. By your reaction to my fake-out and that charm on your belt - you've known each other for quite some time. Yuzuriha only just woke up and she's already given you a gift that you clearly hold dearly. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out.”

Before Senku could interrupt, Tsukasa spoke again. “And not just for your own sake, it was for your dearest buddy Taiju, too. If I think you and Yuzuriha are close, then you and Taiju must be inseparable. Just by my first day of knowing you I could tell you've been friends for quite a while.”

He kept going. “You call yourself logical but you have your precious friends to care for. I always had tons of admirers, but there's no one I'd truly say is precious to me.” He took on a sinister expression. “And because of that, this is my win.”

The worst part about all of this was that Tsukasa was right. Senku can call himself whatever he wants, but heartless is not one of those things.

He's weak. He's weak when it comes to his friends. Weak when it came to Yuzuriha and Taiju.

Yuzuriha's sweet voice broke him out of his trance. “I really appreciate the haircut,” Her voice was light, but trembling. “It'll be a lot easier to care for in this world.”

And when Yuzuriha brang Tsukasa's blade to her neck, Senku's heart might as well as had stopped beating right then and there.

“Please. Don't give him the recipe, Senku.” She begged. “As long as he doesn't know how to make it himself, he'll have no choice but to let you live. He can't kill you.”

She edged the blade closer to her neck, and Senku's stomach swirled as he felt the blood in his body sink to his finger tips and feet. “But I'm not important at all. But you… you have to survive. For everybody's sake.” Yuzuriha met Senku's eyes with an emotion he couldn't quite place. “To make sure they have a future.”

Anyone.

He would have taken this opportunity from anyone.

Just not Yuzuriha.

Anyone but perfect, pretty Yuzuriha.

He knew what this would mean. Tsukasa would have no reason to keep him alive.

But at the same time, he would also have no reason to kill Yuzuriha and Taiju.

And as much as Senku says he wants to, says he wants to make selfish choices, he couldn't.

He couldn't value his life over theirs.

With one last reassuring look to Lycanroc, who met his eyes with the same look and a nod, he answered.

“The revival fluid is a combination of nitric acid and alcohol. First, you gotta filter the miracle fluid from the cave. Then mix it up with alcohol that's been distilled to as close as ninety-six percent as you can get it.” Yuzu's eyes filled with tears. “The ratio is thirty percent miracle fluid to seventy percent alcohol. And if you're off by just a few points, the reaction won't happen. So you should fine-tune it by testing it on a petrified Pokémon feather or some fur.”

Yuzuriha couldn't meet Senku's eyes.

Silence filled the air until he finally spoke.

“Thank you so much, Senku. And now,” Tsukasa looked up. “I no longer have any reason to let you live.”

Tsukasa shoved Yuzuriha onto the floor. “Let's say I did let you and your Pokémon live. You would develop civilization just like before. Can you promise that you won't do that?”

Senku let out a humourless laugh. “The hell are you talking about? I could promise anything to stay alive-”

“No.” He interrupted. “You would never lie. Not when it comes to science.” His grip on his blade tightened. “So will you promise me, here and now and for all of eternity, that you'll abandon science?”

Lycanroc narrowed his eyes.

“Because if you can make that pledge, then I won't be forced into killing you, Lycanroc and Leafeon.”

And in that very moment, his life flashed before his eyes.

Senku remembered his time with Yuzuriha. Meeting her back in middle school, and all the way back to when he first met Taiju. He thought back to the countless battles he had, thought back to his field days observing Pokémon, and thought back to when he first invented his biggest achievement yet. He remembered when he had first declared that he would be going to space, and his earliest memories with Byakuya as an infant.

But one memory stuck out. A memory that took place long before he even asked his first few questions about the moon, stuck out to him the most.

The day he met his trusted partner, Lycanroc.

Although back then, Senku had met his fierce wolf back when he was nothing more than a frail pup.

Senku didn't remember how he ended up in that situation. He didn't even know why a Rockruff was in Kanto to begin with. All he remembered was that one day, he was running up the stairs of his apartment complex with a bloodied shirt and bleeding Pokémon in his arms.

“Byakuya- dad!” He swung open the door to the apartment and ran up to his father in the kitchen. “You have to help it, he's bleeding!”

With a stunned and shocked look, Byakuya asked, “What happened?”

“I don't know!” Senku was borderline wailing. “I was in the forest out back and I found it. I think it might have a broken bone or-”

“Calm down, Senku.” Byakuya placed one hand on Senku's shoulder and the other on the back of his head. “Pass him to me.” With shaking hands, Senku handed over the whining Pokémon into his dad's hands.

Thankfully, the Rockruff didn't have any broken bones. It was just a rather deep gash, caused by a splintered tree or something. While Byakuya was treating him, Senku was at his side peering over the counter and asked a million questions.

“What Pokémon is it?”

“What's it's type?”

“How old do you think it is?”

“It's a first stage evolution, right?”

“I haven't seen any Pokémon like it. Why's it here?”

Byakuya didn't seem to mind, in fact, he used to tell everyone how he admired his son's natural curiosity. And although he trained in Paldea, Byakuya was well educated on Alola and their Pokémon so he could effectively answer Senku's questions.

“This Pokémon is called Rockruff. He's a rock type, if you couldn't tell, and is a first stage evolution. I'd say he's pretty young, so I don't know why he’s out alone in a forest. Especially in a Kantonian forest, no less.”

“So they're not around here?” Senku questioned.

Byakuya shook his head. “They're native to Alola, and can be found in parts of Galar and Paldea too.”

“...He's gonna be fine though, right?”

Byakuya ruffled his hair. “Of course he is. See? He's already all bandaged up. At the very most, it'll probably leave a very faint scar under his fur coat.” He smiled.

Senku visibly relaxed at the confirmation.

After resting up for a little while, Rockruff was free to go.

With poorly hidden hesitance, Senku set Rockruff onto the floor and watched him leave into the forest.

After a few moments of silence, Byakuya rested his hand on Senku's shoulder. “Let's go home.”

Byakuya told him that this was meant to be. A simple life lesson on caring for nature, and letting things go. And Senku tried to accept that, to not let the gnawing worry eat him alive.

But Rockruff came back.

And then left.

And came back again.

And left again!

Rockruff came and went as he pleased, starting to stay for longer and leave for less. Although he was still technically a wild Pokémon, he was acting like he and Senku had been partners since before Pokéballs were even a concept.

Seeing random Pokémon around the house was not out of the ordinary. Senku used to bring in wild Pokémon to examine all the time - he had always been better with Pokémon compared to humans.

But Rockruff was always there. Where Senku went, Rockruff went. Byakuya was half sure he was starting to see the puppy more than he saw his own son.

But that was why it was weird.

Senku isn't one for attachments, so why is my son suddenly developing a bond with a Pokémon he found in the middle of a forest? Byakuya pondered.

Well, the reason soon came to be clear.

Senku was hiding a detail about Rockruff that he didn't know yet.

And that detail was something Byakuya was genuinely surprised that he missed.

Rockruff had a genuine interest in science.

Okay, well, maybe not in understanding science, but he took such a strong liking in anything Senku did. At this point in time, Senku's little to no friends didn't really take a liking to anything he did.

…No, scratch that. The kid was friendless.

Senku was always so hyperfocused on anything in front of him that he forgot time moving around him. He was blunt and not afraid to speak his mind, he paced around when he was stressed or thinking too hard and missed social cues as if they were pebbles being shot at him at one hundred miles per hour.

Just by those facts alone, you could tell he wasn't the easiest kid to get along with. As well as having absolutely no one, besides your old man, take an interest in your work didn't help much either.

But Rockruff had. Rockruff followed Senku around like he had a leash and took an interest in every little thing he glanced at. Sure, he had other Pokémon around, but none like Rockruff.

Because Rockruff stayed. He stayed when everyone else left and kept Senku company.

Rockruff licked Senku's salty tears off his face when he cried about stupid things. Rockruff helped carry lab equipment and fended off bullies who only wanted to mess with his hard work.

Senku took a liking to Rockruff because he was consistent. He was loyal and always by his side.

Senku didn't need to look back because he knew Rockruff would be there. When he failed time and time again, when the Stoic Senku, who stayed in the school's science lab all day, broke down crying into his rocky mane, he stayed and comforted him.

Senku needed to look back to see if people still followed him, except for Rockruff.

Even when Senku befriended other Pokémon and Rockruff's attention was divided, he stayed. Even when Senku had met Taiju and gained another assistant, he stayed.

Through countless test drives and explosions, he stayed.

Even when Senku became snappy and careless with sharp tools, he stayed.

Lycanroc stayed not out of necessity, but out of absolute loyalty.

Senku didn't need to look down to the floor to know what Lycanroc was thinking at this moment.

Because he knew that if he died, Lycanroc would follow suit without a doubt.

And he wouldn't let that happen. He couldn't.

Not permanently.

“I believe you can accomplish anything through the diligent application of science. Asking me to give up science is like asking me to give up living.”

“Senku… you know that I'd rather not kill you.” Tsukasa said, his voice unusually soft. “I'll ask again. Will you promise me, right here and now, that you'll give up on science?”

His sentence was a question, but he said it as if it was a statement.

And with a sad smile, Senku gave his answer. “No, I can't. I can't do that.”

Tsukasa took a deep breath. “Of course not. I knew that would be your answer.”

The silence in the atmosphere was deafening, as if they were in space.

“Don't go giving me that crap.” He huffed. “We both know that no matter what I said, you were gonna kill me at some point. You'd find a reason, a reason to take out both me and my Pokémon.”

Tsukasa's eyes looked distant. “Maybe.”

Senku cracked his neck. “Just kill me in one blow, because leaving me to suffer till I die is both illogical and inefficient. But I want to make a request, and taking that you're killing me, I at the very least ask that you honor it.”

Tsukasa nodded, indicating for him to continue.

“Allow Lycanroc and Leafeon to live.”

Senku looked down to his partner who stared back up at him with wide eyes.

“He's loyal to me, that much you can tell. But at the end of the day, I dragged him into this. Once I'm gone, he'll honor either Yuzuriha or Taiju.”

Before Lycanroc could detest, Senku crouched down to him and fondly stroked his head.

No words were exchanged, only a knowingful look.

Since Tsukasa first showed up with Yuzuriha in his grasp to up until now, Lycanroc hadn't been hostile to Tsukasa one bit. He had always been rather intelligent for a Pokémon, Lycanroc knew that attacking him would only end up badly.

Not for him, but for Senku.

So against every instinct in his body, Lycanroc stood down.

He met Senku's eyes with an unreadable and mixed expression: One of grief and pain, but anger and sorrow too. And in the midst of it all, was that oh so familiar loyalty.

When Senku stood again, Tsukasa nodded his head. “Don't worry, Senku. I'm going to sever your cervical nerve. I'll be instantaneous, you'll be knocked unconscious and die without suffering. I won't miss.”

In the distance, Leafeon stopped what she was doing and stared into the distance before sprinting forwards back to the camp and leaving everyone else behind.

Tsukasa met Senku's eyes one last time. “You know, I have a feeling if we met each other all those years ago back in the modern era, before all this, before the planet was turned into a stone world,”

Tsukasa smiled. A genuine smile. Not a humourless laugh or a sinister grin, it was a real smile. “I think you could have been my first real friend.”

And Senku, against every instinct that screamed at him not to, smiled back.

Because he knew exactly how he felt.

“Maybe.”

And with one last glance down to his beloved partner, Senku heard two things and felt one in that very moment.

One scream from Taiju, one cry from Leafeon, and stone shards digging into legs.

But that was okay.

Because even in death, Senku was proud to have saved his partner twice in one lifetime.

——————————

It had been years since Yuzuriha saw Senku's eyes as dead as they were now. After that year, she thought she would never have to see him with such a look ever again.

Yuzuriha remembered that year - that certain day - all too well, when Senku had genuine tears in his eyes and reached out to her. Out of all their years of friendship, that was the single time where Senku had initiated a hug. So, Yuzuriha held him. She held him in her arms for minutes, maybe hours, until she felt Senku go limp and they both passed out on the floor from exhaustion.

It broke her to see him like that. Tears stained her school uniform as Senku dug his head deeper into her shoulder on the cold wooden floor of his bedroom. Even the apartment had felt so grey that day, and Senku's health perfectly matched it.

Neither of them had expected it - Senku more than Yuzuriha. On a normal day, Yuzuriha could barely link arms with Senku for more than ten seconds before getting swatted away, and Senku hardly liked shaking hands with people let alone holding them.

And as far as Yuzuriha knew, Senku didn't even think about that day anymore. He avoided his early high-school memories like how two north-pole magnets refused each other.

But Taiju remembered. Their Pokémon remembered. Yuzuriha remembered.

She remembered his distant look in his eyes and his thinning frame. She remembered his bitten fingernails which scratched at his arms relentlessly. She remembered the locked science lab - oh God, did she remember that locked laboratory.

She never forgot the bloodied table with pliers that had a sticky red liquid splattered all over them, the knife that caused bandaged arms and distant yet crazed expressions.

And most importantly, she never forgot the home that used to be filled with warmth, starting to feel like a cube made of stone slabs that with each day caved in closer and closer into Senku, crushing his drive and his mentality.

And when Senku hit his limit, when he finally broke down sobbing into Yuzuriha's arms, she never forgot how his once vibrant, scarlet red eyes turned into a deep shade of blood-stained red.

She swore that she would never let that happen again. Any of it.

But now, Senku laid in her arms just as he did on that fateful day in his bedroom - limp and with dead eyes.

Yuzuriha took Senku's hand and held it close to her chest as Taiju shook Senku, a poor attempt in trying to awaken him.

Next to him, Lycanroc laid with his neck at an odd angle just as equally still but with an unearthly neutral expression on his face, as if what happened to him was something completely intended.

But that's what suicide was, wasn't it? Because that's what Lycanroc had done.

He committed suicide the mere second Senku had died.

Against his wishes, against what Tsukasa had implied he would honour, Lycanroc died right besides Senku.

Yuzuriha didn't see the scene unfold, the second Senku hit the floor she was up and running towards him with his head cradled in her arms. She only looked up when she heard a thud hit the ground and Lycanroc's limp body was beside Tsukasa.

But Tsukasa didn't look grim or upset that he took Lycanroc's life, he was shocked. No, that's not the right word, he was mortified.

Tsukasa didn't kill Lycanroc, because one of Lycanroc's own stone shards was impaled straight through his neck.

And with only Leafeon left, Yuzuriha cried.

Yuzuriha cried like she had never before, she cried and sobbed and wailed. Leavanny, who was previously knocked out cold before her trainer was kidnapped, stroked her arm in an attempt to console her.

They had only gotten away because of the explosion they caused by using the leftover gunpowder. But that was a one time use escape, and now they were completely lost on what to do without Senku.

Rain poured down and drenched them, causing Senku's normally bouncy locks of hair to stick to his face.

“We- we just need to keep his neck still. That's where Tsukasa hit him.” Yuzuriha looked down, not knowing if the wetness of her face was caused by the tears or the rain. “I'd been caught, and Senku gave himself up for me.” Her voice trembled.

Taiju stopped in his tracks. “Wait- you're saying he sacrificed himself?”

That… that wasn't like Senku at all.

People asked Senku these things all the time: ‘If you, your friend and your lover are about to die, who would you choose to save?’

And Senku's answer never changed, not once. ‘I'd look for a fundamental rule, and save everyone.’

Taiju's eyes narrowed. “Senku wouldn't go the suicide route. As long as he could help it, he wouldn't sacrifice anyone! He would stake the whole game on the chance to save us all. I don't know what happened with Lycanroc, but that was clearly out of his control.”

“Did Senku predict that Lycanroc would commit suicide after he died?” Yuzuriha questioned.

“I- I don't know. We have to figure out what he was thinking.” Taiju buried his face in his hands. “If anyone can do it, then it should be his friends! He must have left us a hint, anything!”

Throughout this entire ordeal, Leafeon was eerily silent. She had been upset since this morning, but Yuzuriha had no idea why.

Was this why? Was she grieving something that had yet to happen?

But instead of breaking out into anger or into tears, Leafeon took a step forward and nudged her face into Lycanroc's mane close to the impaled gash. Her eyes weren't dead or sad, Yuzuriha didn't even recognise an ounce of grief in them.

They were calculating.

Yuzuriha replayed everything in her mind. She remembered everything except Lycanroc's suicide, which she wasn't able to bear witness too as the second she turned her back, Lycanroc was already gone.

She thought back to every detail, from the explosions to the way Senku cracked his neck.

Then it dawned on her.

“His neck.” She said, barely over a whisper.

“Back at the hotspring, when I was caught, Senku was drawing attention to his neck. I think that's where he wanted Tsukasa to strike him.”

Taiju's eyes widened. “...You're right. That thing he was doing, that's not a habit he always had.” Taiju turned Senku over. “Why'd he keep cracking his neck? Was he trying to tell us something?”

Yuzuriha approached Lycanroc. “And not only that, he's constantly been messing around with Lycanroc's mane. I mean, he always has taken good care of him, but it's been so excessive recently.”

And there it was.

On the back of Senku's neck and deep inside of Lycanroc's mane was the slightest bit of stone still left on their bodies.

Taiju's brain started reeling. “Hold on. Back when we removed the stone that was left on your foot when we were traveling to the hot springs, you said it caused you less pain. Senku told us something then, that when we depetrified, cracks were filled in as part of the process.”

Yuzuriha acted on it before Taiju could stand up, and pulled out two bottles of revival fluid.

“There's still a chance. We can still revive both of them.”

Unlike Taiju and Yuzuriha, Leafeon was calm. Her expression was as cold as ice, but it was melting.

They poured the liquid onto Senku's neck and Lycanroc's mane and waited for what seemed to be years for the reaction to take place.

“Wake up, Senku! I knew you'd live! I knew you weren't gonna let yourself be killed - not in a place like this!” Taiju screamed.

Please. Yuzuriha prayed. Please come back to us, Senku.

——————————

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

…Alright, I can make it past eight-hundred thousand seconds without all but losing consciousness now. I guess my brain's finally adjusting.

Unless Senku's calculations were wrong, he had been frozen for one hundred seventeen billion three hundred fifty-four million eight hundred eighty-nine thousand five hundred and fifty seconds.

Which makes this spring the three thousand seven hundred and eighteenth spring since he froze.

Starting in spring is an absolute must if I want to survive.

All resources are at their absolute peak at this time of year, and starting things up then gives him time to prepare for the coming winter.

…Even though he admittedly hadn't thought out how he'd survive until winter.

Nonetheless, there's no time like the present.

Wake up, me.

Wake. Up.

Wake up, damn it.

Get. up.

For three thousand years, that was his mantra. If he didn't get up now, it meant another year of long, gruelling counting with nothing but his own mind to entertain him.

For thousands of years he'd lived like this - if you could even call it living.

Senku hadn't realised how much you can miss sharp stones digging into your skin, the smell of fallen leaves and fresh grass, and a floating green blob constantly blocking your point of view when you're trying to work.

When this was over, Senku didn't even want to think of arithmetic.

But, nonetheless, he counted.

He counted until one day, he felt warm rays of the sun hit his chest.

Crack!

.
.
.

About damn time

The least he expected was some flashy entrance of him leaping up into the air and shouting at the top of his lungs - that was something he expected of Taiju. But, he couldn't deny how… underwhelming waking up after thirty-seven hundred years felt.

Senku laid still on the ground and stared up at the blue sky that he missed so much, before forcing his aching body to sit up right on the floor.

Around him, stone fragments crumbled off his body and fell onto the floor. The first thing he needed to do was to evaluate his surroundings, starting with himself. It can give him clues that are worth its weight in gold.

Senku stood up and watched the remaining stone pieces drop onto the floor.

He was turned to stone?

How supernatural.freaked.

The Infernape shot Embers at him that Senku just barely dodged before scurrying off into the vines.

“...Have they never seen a human before?” Senku asked himself. “Hey, Lycanroc-”

But when Senku turned to look down and expected to see Lycanroc's sky-blue eyes staring back at him, all he saw was green grass and vines.

Right.

Lycanroc wasn't here right now.

It was just Senku.

Senku's breath hitched, but he forced himself to look away.

Senku reached to grab some vines and tied them around his waist. “It doesn't look like civilization survived, and from the looks of things, I might be the first shiny monkey to be born in it.” He spoke to himself.

The next thing to do is to calculate the exact year and day it is.

In theory, if Senku's been frozen for 3717 springs, the all you have to do is add in that number of years to what year it was when the petrification happened.

“...Incorrect.” He sighed.

It's some pretty nasty mental math. Counting in the leap years and taking into account that the Earth's rotation slows by 17 millionths of a second every year - even if the difference made is an extremely small one.

But for Senku? This is light work.

He picked up a stone shard off the floor and engraved the following onto a nearby tree.

April 1st

5738 AD

——————————

Senku knew that reviving humanity was no easy feat, and not once had he decided that he was going to do this all by himself. He had to be patient and understand everything along the way.

…But man. He was really starting to realise how much he took his Pokémon for granted.

Even though it was his first day, Senku had considered dropping everything to go searching for Lycanroc numerous times, even if that's the most illogical thing he could do at the moment. He resisted the urge like a chain smoker trying to quit smoking.

He had made decent progress already, he collected food and created fire.

But, then night came.

Senku sat beside the fireplace in a clearing he had found not too far away from where he had broken free, and sat crossed legged staring into the fire.

Since it was spring, it was actually pretty warm out tonight. There was a gentle breeze that soothed his bare skin and in the distance you could hear a Noctowl's cooing, signalling nightfall.

There was life blooming from all around him, and yet, Senku had never felt more alone in his life up until now.

Even though lush vegetation grew from all angles all around him and wild Pokémon were popping up and staring at him with wide eyes every five minutes, it felt as if someone had reached into his ribcage and ripped out his heart with the intent of taking away his humanity.

Right now, he was the only human left in the world. And he hated the fact that he missed his own kind.

Thousands of years ago, Senku would be wishing for times like these. He would pray for one day where he was the only person in the world for just a moment of peace, a few hours where he could work when the rest of the world was silent.

But now that he's got the silence he wished for, he desperately wanted to fill it in with noise.

He wanted to hear Yuzu's peppy voice and Taiju's booming laughter, he wanted to feel Lycanroc's fur and watch Leafeon drive any loud and annoying person away, he wanted to see Reuniclus play pranks on people and then go on a rampage when it came back to bite him in the ass, and he wanted to see her metallic body offer a helping hand in the lab once more.

He wanted to go into the forest with nothing but his lab coat, a camera, his notebook and his Pokémon and observe the wildlife around him. He wanted to build a second rocket that was better than his previous one.

He wanted to go to space.

He wanted to see Byakuya.

Senku sighed and buried his face into his arms.

——————————

Progress was slow. It was steady, but so irritatingly slow.

He made a tunic out of deer skin and had shelter and food, all made by himself, which was impressive considering that his physical strength was extremely limited.

Which was exactly how he ended up in his current situation: bleeding out through his arms.

Stone tools were, well, stone tools, but that didn't mean they were any less dangerous than metal. When they shatter, they can cause pretty bad damage. The last time Senku saw this much blood on him was during his most sleep deprived days where he was careless with dangerous tools and a bunsen burner. The cuts won't scar, and if they do, they'll be very faint ones.

Senku found himself by the side of a river, his arms submerged and turning the crystal clear water into a deep blood red.

But when he looked up, he convinced himself he was hallucinating from blood loss.

Across the riverbank, Lycanroc stood with wide eyes, a scruffy looking coat and bloodied claws.

Senku froze.

But when he pulled his arms out of the river and submerged his legs in to meet Lycanroc on the other side, he bolted.

“Hang on- Wait! Where are you going?” Senku called out to him, but Lycanroc was already gone.

For the first time in three thousand years, Senku's mind drew a blank.

Was that a hallucination?

If it wasn't, was that his Lycanroc? No- of course that was his Lycanroc, right?

Why did he run away?

When Senku's mind finally caught up to him, Senku bolted into a sprint after him. But it was too late, he had already lost track of where Lycanroc had went, and Senku was left to stand alone in the middle of the forest.

…Which is what he had thought had happened, until a voice called out.

“Roc! Lycan lycanroc!”

Lycanroc, who stood a few meters away, caught Senku's attention once more before pouncing away through the trees.

Senku followed after him. “Just- just wait a second, Lycanroc! Where are you going?”

Lycanroc weaved through trees and jumped over bushes, Senku had thought he lost him multiple times.

Finally, Lycanroc had ended up in a clearing in the forest, where in the middle lay a huge tree that must have been growing for quite some time.

But it wasn't the tree that caught his attention, it was who was against it.

Senku might as well have crumbled to the floor right then and there, because against the tree, protected by vines, laid Yuzuriha.

Perfect, pretty Yuzuriha.

And right then, right there, Senku decided that he couldn't take it anymore.

Senku dropped to the floor and buried his head in his hands.

He didn't make a big show of it, he never did, he let silent tears flow down his face and drop onto his tunic.

Senku felt something lick at his face, something that licked the tears away and left a disgusting amount of saliva on his face.

When Senku pulled his hands back, Lycanroc nudged his forehead against his cheek and Senku pulled him in close.

His fur felt matted and stiff, and stray rocks in his mane poked at his hands. It was unusual because Senku had always taken good care of his Pokémon - frequent baths, teeth brushing, fur brushing, polishing - whatever they needed, he provided.

But in this stone world, he couldn't do any of that.

He couldn't take care of them when they fell sick or spoil them with treats they probably don't deserve, he couldn't create new toys or little gimmicks that only his Pokémon could have access to.

If anything, he couldn't do anything without his Pokémon. He wouldn't want to do anything.

So, if only for a few selfish minutes that Senku claimed for himself, he cried. He cried into Lycanroc's mane in front of Yuzuriha in her stone prison, and didn't let go until his joints begged for it.

When he pulled away, his shoulders eased. The ringing in his ears subsided and the tenseness in his arms finally relaxed.

Senku's red eyes met blue ones, and for the first time in weeks, Senku felt confident. He was confident that everything would work out.

He never actually believed crap about destiny. But right now… he was considering it. Maybe.

Senku and Lycanroc worked together - they always had, and they always worked well. Maybe Lycanroc had boosted his morale, but everything felt smoother now. More organised and more efficient.

And when Senku and Lycanroc found themselves in the miracle cave, praying, begging Taiju to wake up, to get up and help, to tell them anything, Senku's determination sky rocketed.

He missed Taiju. He missed his stupid looking face so so badly.

He missed his best friend.

“Come on, Taiju! I'll wait for you however long it takes, because you know that I can't do this without you!”

——————————

“Come on, Senku! I'll wait for you however long it takes, because you know that I can't do this without you!”

And after a few moments of silence, Senku gasped.

He gasped and then he shot up and coughed his lungs out. His hands were clenched around his chest and his head was bowed down to the floor.

Taiju took him by the shoulders in an attempt to stabilise him, but the tremors that shot through his body wouldn't stop.

There was no snarky remark or ‘Get excited!’. Senku only wheezed as his breathing became heavier and was unable to lock his eyes onto a single thing at once. His eyes shimmered with tears as his hair stuck to his face.

Yuzuriha, who had positioned Lycanroc's head at a normal angle, held the wolf in her arms until he regained consciousness.

The second Lycanroc opened his eyes and locked onto Senku, he shakily stood up and limped over to sit by his side.

Lycanroc laid his head on Senku's lap and curled up beside him as Senku impulsively raised his hand to stroke his head.

And for what felt like the first time in hours, Yuzuriha's tears weren't sad ones.

So when she jumped into Senku's arms, practically crushing his shoulders and chest, she received a hug back that was just as strong and meaningful.

Because after everything, Yuzuriha would be damned if she didn't deserve it.