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sunshine-likes-drstone · 2 years

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Little Lioness, Little Scientist

AO3 link • FF.net link

This story is set right as the crew is setting out for California. It takes some liberties with the boat design, but that’s hardly the most unbelievable thing about this situation.

Senku was having a bad day, no doubt about it, which was a bit unexpected.

It had, after all, been going well recently.

They’d woken up Ryusui. (Senku was still deciding how he felt about that.)

They’d built a boat. Awesome, the world was theirs!

They’d been to Treasure Island. Awesome, new allies and some platinum.

They’d gotten a Medusa. Awesome, new tech to learn from.

They’d healed Tsukasa. Awesome, strong friend restored.

And now they were sailing to California, currently in the middle of the ocean, and it was a bit boring, yeah, but they were traveling the world!

And then he’d brought out the Medusa to study it. It was weird and cool and he wanted to understand it, but he couldn’t risk taking it apart, so it was observational only.

With that in mind, he’d asked Kohaku to look at it with him—her vision was excellent, far away or up close, and she might see something he missed.

Kohaku had been holding it, angling it in the sunlight, as he started sketching a rough enlarged “map” of the device’s surface.

He heard a click and looked up. Kohaku had just been holding the device on her palm, and he knew she was smart enough not to randomly poke or prod at anything. What had made the noise?

She looked at the device with a frown, then her eyebrows rose. “Uh, Senku, it’s—”

And then there was a flash of light—not the green light he’d come to know from the device, but red light—and Kohaku vanished, the afterimage of her distressed face burned onto his retinas

He froze in shock.

Had she just…died? Been disintegrated?

The devices just got ten billion times scarier. What had triggered it? What would keep it from going off again and zapping every human on the ship or even the world to death?

And his friend had just died in front of him, because he asked for her help, and his hand was shaking as it hung in the air, outstretched to maybe snatch the device away or grab Kohaku, but now there was just her blue hide dress left in a pile on the ground.

How was he supposed to tell her father and sister…?

And then a little blonde head popped out of the fabric, nearly scaring the life out of him.

It was…Kohaku? A very young Kohaku? Big eyes, head proportionally large to a tiny body, tiny little button nose, and little hands clawing their way free of the dress, but those were Kohaku’s eyes.

She looked at him, blinking before she tilted her head. “I don’t know you,” she said, sounding a bit confused. Senku supposed, to a child raised in such a small village, a new adult was very strange, if not downright impossible. So he had a tiny Kohaku with a tiny Kohaku’s memory, presumably. (He was impressed at his reasoning in this bizarre situation.)

She narrowed her eyes. “Are you a criminal?” She looked ready to fight him if he said yes (and, knowing her natural strength, she would probably win, even as a little kid).

“No,” he said.

“Oh.” Her tiny hackles lowered, naive enough to believe a guy when he said he wasn’t a criminal. “Are you…from a different village?”

“No.”

“Oh.” She considered him, lips pursed. “Were you hiding in the forest or something?”

He chuckled to cover his anxiety with the whole situation. “I was a statue.”

Her eyes widened to an almost comical size. “You mean in the forest? Those statues are people? Real people?”

He nodded. And then immediately wished he hadn’t when big tears started to form in her big eyes.

“They’re all people? But there are so many! How do we fix them?”

Most of him was panicking about how he now had a young and crying Kohaku on his hands. A very small part thought it was adorable that, even when little, Kohaku wanted to help.

“With science,” he said (instead of screaming for help).

She sniffled and rubbed one eye with a tiny fist. “Who’s science?”

“Well, I’m a scien-tist, but that probably doesn’t help you at all. Uh, it’s a logical application of observed laws and practices—”

Kohaku had apparently perfected her most deadpan expression at a young age. “Are you a crazy person?” She sighed. “You are, aren’t you? Ah, man, you’re not cool at all.”

Tiny Kohaku had thought he was cool? And now didn’t? He was getting emotional whiplash from this conversation.

“Did you kidnap me?” she continued on, pushing herself to her feet and looking around. “Wow, that’s a lot of ocean. When are you gonna take me home?”

Senku heard pounding feet and then Chrome was bursting around a corner. “Weird light,” he gasped out, bracing his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. “All good? Need revival fluid?”

“No.”

Chrome looked up and then paused when he saw the situation. “What the hell? Kohaku, why are you so small?”

She squinted at him. “You look like Chrome.”

“I better. I am Chrome.”

She squinted harder. “Why are you so old? Why are you here with science?”

“With…science?”

She pointed at Senku. “That’s Science. He’s crazy.”

Chrome spluttered and then busted up laughing.

Senku crossed his arms and scowled. “Hardy har har. Hilarious. We kind of have a situation here, Chrome.”

Chrome, meanwhile, did not seem to care, cackling away gleefully.

Senku muttered to himself about stupid people not focusing on the problem at hand, walking over to snatch the Medusa away from Kohaku, who had still been clinging to it.

“Hey, that’s mine!” she protested, grabbing at his arm.

“Nope, not even one millimeter of it.”

“Give it back!”

“Do you even know what it is?” he asked, holding it in the air away from her.

“No, but it’s mine.” She leapt up and grabbed his arm.

Of course, Senku had yet to develop any ability to build muscle mass and was thus about as weak as it got, and the force of her leap knocked him to the ground.

He glared at her, not that she cared. “Ow. Seriously? Why—?”

He heard a click.

He threw Kohaku away from him—

—a flash of red light—

—and a very small Senku was struggling to get out of whatever it was he was stuck in.

—

Chrome had had a very exciting past few years. There had been no change for so long—him on his own, trying to find a way to cure Ruri, his only contact with the village being when Kohaku stopped by or Kinro came to check on him—and then this guy with crazy hair and so much knowledge that it hurt to think about had showed up, cured Ruri, then catapulted the entire village into technological civilization.

Never a dull moment—and he was never really worried, because Senku always had a plan, always had an idea or a gadget or an obscure bit of know-how.

And now his friend, his anchor, the man with the plans, was a tiny little kid, staring back at him with huge eyes.

Little Senku looked around. “D-Dad?” he called.

“Science?” little Kohaku said, having pushed herself up from where Senku had tossed her. “What happened to you?”

Oh no. Oh no. Chrome was not equipped to handle two little kids. Especially not the little terrors that he knew Senku and Kohaku probably would be together.

“Um, h-hang on a second!” he cried, starting to run for the others. “I’ll be right back!”

Never a dull moment, even when he might have appreciated one.

—

Kohaku stared at the skinny boy sitting in a pile of clothes.

He had the same hair and eyes and skin color as the man that had kidnapped her, but now he was a kid? Could that happen?

Well, Science had been crazy anyways. Maybe he was a sorcerer, too.

This kid, though, just looked sad and scared.

“My name is Kohaku,” she said, distracting him from looking around wherever they were.

“Um, hi? I��m Senku.” He looked around again. “Where are we?”

“I have no idea,” she said. “Are you sure your name isn’t Science?”

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “No, it’s definitely Senku.”

Hm. He must have gotten body swapped with Science the Sorcerer. Kohaku decided she liked Senku and was going to be friends with him. She told him so, then went to pull him to his feet.

“Wow, you’re strong!” he said.

She smiled. She liked him even better now.

He looked around again, pulling the fabric of Science’s clothes up around him. “It looks like we’re on a ship at sea. But why?”

“We were kidnapped,” Kohaku told him.

He whipped his head to look at her, his red eyes wide. “K-kidnapped?!”

She nodded solemnly. “I’m not allowed on boats without my dad, and I don’t see him here, so I didn’t come here by myself. And I don’t remember how I got here.”

Senku bit his lip. “There’s always a reason for things. What’s the reason we’re here?” He rubbed his head. “I don’t think I’d run away from home, but maybe my dad lost me?” She saw him freeze and his eyes fill with tears suddenly. “D-did he not want me anymore? Did he send me away?”

Kohaku, knowing that Ruri and Chrome felt better when she hugged them, tried to give Senku a hug.

“H-hey, cut it out!” he said, pushing away her hands. “What’re you doing?”

“I’m giving you a hug,” she informed him. “You’re sad. Hugs help.”

He eyed her suspiciously. “You’re not trying to beat me up?”

“What? No, of course not.” He was scrawny. She could probably knock him over in one hit. She didn’t want to, though.

“Oh.” He stood there for a second, looking at the floor. “Um, you can hug—”

She wrapped him up in a hug as fast as she could, and he squeaked in a funny way when she did. She laughed and hugged him tighter. “There, see? It’ll be okay. Your dad will come find you, or mine will come and we’ll help you find him.”

“But what if he doesn’t want me anymore?” he said in a quiet voice. “I’m not a very good kid. I’m a lot of trouble. I heard my teacher say so.”

Kohaku frowned. This was a very serious problem. She didn’t want her new friend to be without a family. “Then you can come live with me. We have room. I have a big sister, Ruri, and she’s really nice, and my dad is big and scary, but he’s nice, too.”

“Scary and nice?”

“He looks scary and has a big voice, but he gives good hugs and makes sure we’re happy. He’s nice.”

Senku was quiet, then he nodded. “Okay.”

“Great! I’ve always wanted a brother!” She patted his back, then pulled away and thought about what he had said. “You have a teacher already? You must be real smart.” People in her village didn’t get to be apprentices until they were twelve unless they were really good at something.

He shrugged. “I’m good at remembering things. I like reading, too. Do you not have a teacher?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m not smart.” What was reading?

He frowned. “That’s not true. Whoever said that was lying or a jerk.”

Their conversation stopped as several adults ran over to them from somewhere. Kohaku didn’t recognize any of them besides Chrome—they must be the kidnappers!

“Stay behind me!” she told Senku, getting into her fighting stance. “I’ll protect us!”

“No way, they’re bigger than us!” he said, tugging her backwards. “You’ll get hurt!”

One man with a weird line on his face and black and white hair stepped a little closer, holding his hands out to the side. “Now, now, little ones, it’s alright.”

“Why did you kidnap us?” she demanded, determined not to be distracted. “Take us home, now!”

“Of course, of course! It might take a little while—”

Kohaku cried her best battle cry and launched herself at the man.

“Kohaku, stop!” said someone as they picked her up.

She swung her fists and feet, trying to hit whoever was holding her. “No, no, no! I want my dad! Take me home!” Her eyes were burning as she squirmed and she couldn’t stop the sob that escaped her.

Then she was being hugged, and that was weird.

“It’s going to be alright, Kohaku, I promise. We’ll get you home safe to Kokuyo.”

This guy knew her dad? She pushed away to look up at his face and realized that she recognized it. “Wait, Kinro?”

He nodded.

“W-why are you so big? Why are you and Chrome so old?”

Chrome came up and put a hand on her back. “I know it seems weird, but you being little is what’s weird here. You were big, too, just like us, I promise.”

She sniffed. “Was I tall?”

Chrome rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, you weren’t short.”

“Was I strong?”

Kinro nodded. “Yes. Stronger than me. A good fighter, too.”

She looked at him. He did look pretty strong, and she did want to be an awesome fighter, so that was good.

Satisfied, she turned to try to find her new friend, only to see him hiding behind some crates and peaking out. “Senku, come say hi! These two are nice, I promise.”

Warily, eyeing the man with white and black hair, he scooted his way over to them. Kohaku told Kinro to put her down, and when he did, she grabbed one of Senku’s hands. “This is my cousin Kinro and my friend Chrome,” she said, pointing to each as she said their names.

Senku waved with his free hand. “I’m Senku,” he said quietly.

“Senku’s going to be my brother,” she informed them, “so he’s your cousin now, too, Kinro.”

Kinro was as serious as she remembered, even if he was really tall now. He looked at her, then at Senku, then nodded. “Alright. Welcome to the family, Senku.” Chrome started freaking out and Kinro dragged him away, waving a hand towards the scary man. “That’s Gen. He couldn't hurt you if he tried.”

“Rude,” muttered the scary man.

“He’ll take care of you until I can come back, okay?”

Kohaku trusted Kinro. He always knew what the right thing to do was, and all the village adults said he was responsible. So, even though she still didn’t trust the scary man all the way, she’d accept his help if Kinro said it was safe. “Okay. Come back soon!”

But she would not be letting go of Senku.

“Keep holding my hand, okay?” she told him. “I don’t want to lose you.” He was very small and would probably get stuck behind a box or something.

He frowned and wiggled his hand a bit in hers, but he didn’t pull away. Kohaku nodded and turned to the scary man—Gen, Kinro had said.

—

Gen was having a very odd day. This was just weird, even more weird than waking up after being stone for 3000 years into a world devoid of people, and he was having a bit of a hard time processing the situation.

And the fact that Kinro had saddled him with daycare duty wasn’t helping at all. (At least he hadn’t been told to grab the Medusa—then they might have had three kids running around.)

Well, what did kids need? Food, clothes, a nice place to sleep? Yuzuriha could handle the clothes and Francois could make some food while he found a place for them to be out of the way. “Come on, you two,” he said in his best song-song voice. “Let’s get you some clothes that fit.”

—

Senku watched as a nice lady sewed some clothes for him. Sewed. Not bought or anything like that. She was making the clothes.

Very fast, too! “How are you so fast at that?” he asked.

“Practice,” she said with a smile. “Now, arms out, please!” He held them out and she slid what was essentially a sleeveless yukata on him, tying it with a belt made of the same material. “I’m sorry I don’t have enough fabric to make anything nicer for you, but at least this works for now!”

He ran his hands down the material—it felt…weird, but not bad. “It’s good. Thank you.”

Kohaku, who had not left his side for a single second, looked him up and down. “Looks good!” she declared. She patted her own outfit, exactly the same as his except for her yukata was tied with a rope. “Good for playing in!”

He supposed it was, so he nodded.

The nice lady started cleaning up her sewing station. “Ok, let’s get you to Francois! They probably have a snack for you by now.”

Kohaku pumped her little fists. “Alright! I love snacks!” She turned to Senku, her eyes glittering and one hand outstretched. “Let’s go!”

He took her hand, but stayed put when she tried to run out the door. When Kohaku turned to him with a pout, he stated the obvious: “You don’t know where to go. What was your plan? Just run around until you found food?”

She giggled. “Yeah! It always works at home! I guess we can ask for directions, though.”

Senku had never had a friend before. Was this normal? Kohaku was ready to rush into anything at any time, little fists ready to punch anything in her way, and she just decided she was going to be his friend and possibly sibling without any input from him. He didn’t mind, not really, but it was still weird.

They followed the nice lady down the hall.

“How old are you?” Kohaku asked him as they walked. “I’m seven.”

“I’m six and a half .”

“Awesome! You can be my little brother! Or we could just say you’re seven, too, and then we can be twins!”

Senku wrinkled his nose. “I don’t think that’s how that works.”

“Why not?”

Senku didn’t actually know, so he shrugged.

“Then we’re twins,” Kohaku said with a firm nod. “It’ll be fun to share a birthday with someone! We can have a party twice as big!”

That did sound fun.

They reached an area with some tables—all adult-sized. There was a very fancy-looking person setting out plates at a table, and they waved the group over. “Nice to meet you,” said the fancy person with a bow. “My name is Francois.”

“That’s a French name!” Senku said, excited. One of his dad’s professor friends was named Francois. “Are you from France?”

“Where’s France? Is that another village?” Kohaku asked.

“No, it’s a country. It’s really far away. They speak French there—like s'il vous plait and pardonne moi.”

“Your accent is quite good,” they said with a smile. “Here’s a bit more French for you: votre goûter est prêt—your snacks are ready for you.”

They pulled themselves up on the chairs to eat, and Kohaku seemed concerned that she couldn’t eat and hold his hand at the same time. “Don’t worry,” he told her. “I won’t leave without you.”

She nodded and dug in. Senku ate much more slowly—he wasn’t hungry. He was worried, though. Had his dad really given him away? He should have tried harder to pay attention in class rather than read. Or maybe he should have done more chores, or not bothered the man at all. He remembered what his teacher said—such a brat, I can’t stand him. Had his dad felt that way, too? Eventually, he felt so sick to his stomach that he couldn’t take another bite.

Kohaku grabbed his hand. He looked up and saw her big blue eyes watching him, a worried frown on her face.

The man with black and white hair from before came back, smiling and saying something to Francois, who had been cleaning some of the tables. They nodded and walked back over to the table. “Gen has found a room for you to rest in for now,” they said.

Kohaku yawned and said, “I’m not even a bit sleepy.”

Francois just smiled, then looked at their plates. “Senku,” they said, “was the food not to your liking? I could make something else for you.”

The thought of that made him feel even worse—why would they go to the extra effort for a brat like him? “No, thank you. It tasted good.” It had tasted like cardboard to him, but that wasn’t Francois’ fault. “I just wasn’t hungry.”

He hoped his dad would come find him. He hoped his dad still wanted him.

“Do you have a phone?” he asked as he followed Gen to another part of the ship. “I know my dad’s phone number. Can I call him?”

Gen hesitated, then said, “I’m afraid all we have is a two-way radio. We won’t be able to reach your dad.”

“What’s a phone?” Kohaku asked.

Senku looked at her in surprise. He’d heard of some kids not having TV at home, but no phone? Where was she from? “It lets you talk to someone far away.”

“Oh, neat. Can I talk to my dad?”

Gen chuckled, but it sounded strained to Senku. “Maybe later, little Kohaku.”

Senku swallowed. So Kohaku could talk to her dad, but he couldn’t talk to his? Was the two-way radio an excuse so he wouldn’t ask about it again—because Ishigami Byakuya had decided he didn’t want to take care of No-Name Senku after all?

He held Kohaku’s hand a little tighter. He was not going to cry in front of this man. Would Kohaku care if he cried? She seemed really tough and strong. Maybe she thought kids who cried were babies.

Gen opened a door and waved them into a small room. There were two beds and a small set of shelves—bare-bones as far as rooms went.

“I’m sure you’d like to rest for a bit, so here’s a nice, quiet place,” the man said. “Kinro will come check on you when he can, okay?” And then he was gone, closing the door behind him.

Kohaku went up to one of the beds. “I’ve never seen a bed like this,” she said. “We sleep on futons at home, or out under the stars.”

Oh, maybe she lived in the country? He’d never lived in the country before. “It’s just different. Still a place to sleep. You can’t store it away, though. It has to stay out all the time.”

She nodded, then climbed onto one of the beds and reached for him. “Come on,” she said when he hesitated. “It’s big enough for two of us.”

He’d never slept by anyone before. “Do siblings sleep in the same bed?” he asked.

“Mm, sometimes. I sleep with my sister when I’m scared or cold. She’s sick, though, so I try to let her have her own bed.”

He clambered up onto the mattress. “Sick? With what?”

She sniffed and grabbed his hand. “I don’t know, but I think it’s the same thing that killed my mom.”

Senku saw tears start to fall down her face and frowned. What had she said earlier? Hugs helped? He’d never hugged another kid before, but it shouldn’t be all that hard, right? So he reached out the arm that she wasn’t holding onto and wrapped it around her.

She hugged him back. “I want my dad,” she said quietly.

Senku sniffed. “Me too.” Hot tears started to escape his eyes and he rubbed his face against Kohaku’s yukata. Could he call Byakuya his dad anymore? He was the only dad Senku remembered, even if he wasn’t his bio-dad.

He remembered when he first told someone in his class that he was adopted. It hadn’t been weird before that, but after that, kids would whisper about him. Sometimes they told him stories of kids that got abandoned after they were adopted. They said he was nobody, that he didn’t have a real family or a real name.

Senku hadn’t told Byakuya, instead quietly crying himself to sleep. What if they were right? What if kids who complained too much were kicked out?

And then he’d overheard his teacher in the hall, talking about him to another teacher:

“That Ishigami kid? Yeah, he’s smart, but he’s such a brat. Just does whatever he wants, a real attitude on him. I can’t stand it. He’s nothing but trouble.”

That had been yesterday. Today was Saturday—Byakuya had said they were going on a trip for the weekend. Senku had been excited. He’d thought they were going to the planetarium. Was this the trip? Had his dad put him on a random boat and ditched him, telling the crew not to let Senku call him?

He felt his shoulders shake as he tried to keep his tears quiet. Kohaku just hugged him harder.

“Why didn’t he want me?” he whispered. “What did I do wrong?”

“I don’t know,” she said, rubbing his back. “I hope he didn’t leave you, even if you’d make an awesome brother.”

“You’d make a good sister,” he said. “It’d be fun to share a birthday with you.”

She giggled. “Maybe. Ruri says I can be a pain, though.”

He smiled. “Then we’ll talk about how annoying you are, and then I can come play with you.” It’d be fun to live in the country with two sisters. It didn’t sound like they went to school, either, so he wouldn’t have to deal with mean teachers and classmates.

She giggled again, then flopped over onto the pillow. “I’m gonna rest my eyes, okay?” she said with a yawn.

Senku looked at the other bed and decided this one was fine. “Me, too. Wake me up if you’re up before me.”

“Mm, ‘kay. Same for you.”

“Okay.”

—

Kinro was kind of freaking out. He’d said to Senku once that what he didn’t understand startled him, and it was just as true now as it was then—he’d just gotten used to being constantly in a state of mild panic.

Normally, he’d try to avoid the thing that was weird as much as he could if it wasn’t a direct threat.

But the “thing” in question was two young versions of two of his closest friends, and he wasn’t going to avoid them. (Heavens knew almost no one else on this boat was capable of taking care of children. If he avoided them, they’d end up in some weird experiment or permanently traumatized by something.)

So avoidance was out of the question.

If he couldn’t avoid a thing, he would then try to fight it.

But how did one fight spontaneous childhood? You couldn’t, that was just the facts.

He didn’t know a thing about science, and even less about whatever the Medusa was, so he had designated himself the kids’ caretaker for the time being, telling the rest of the crew so before heading over to the room Gen said he’d put their two smallest friends in.

He knocked quietly, then opened the door a bit when he didn’t get a response. The two kids were snuggled up together on one of the beds. Good—he’d move to the other bed and this could be their room.

He went to collect his things, mentally running through a list of ways he could entertain them while on the high seas.

—

Kohaku had been on the ship for three days now. She spent every day with Senku and Kinro, exploring and playing. Sometimes Gen would do some magic tricks for them, or Nikki and Yuzuriha would braid her hair and tell stories (Senku didn’t want his hair braided, but he liked the stories).

And Senku was teaching her reading. And math.

He was a good teacher, she thought. He showed her the kana and had her practice writing them. He gave her math problems to solve, like adding up planks of wood, or subtracting the number of “bread” from storage.

“See? You’re plenty smart,” Senku told her. “Don’t let people tell you you’re not. You can learn anything if you try hard enough.”

“You know a lot.”

“No, not really. There’s still so much to learn!”

Kohaku giggled. “You look so excited when you say that!”

He smiled at her. “I am! The world is awesome, and it’s full of awesome things! I want to learn about them all!” He looked away for a moment and his smile dimmed. “I…wanted to be a scientist, like my dad. And then an astronaut, maybe even go to the moon. Or Mars. No one’s been there yet, so that’s pretty exciting, right?”

Kohaku considered the fact that he was talking about going to the moon and decided she must’ve misheard something. Maybe there was a country called Moon. “Why can’t you?”

He shrugged. “Whatever. I don’t care anymore.”

Which was a big fat lie, but talking about anything to do with his dad made Senku upset. If his dad really had abandoned him, she was going to hunt the man down and kick him all the way to the country of Moon and back.

—

Tsukasa did not feel especially comfortable around children. They were small and breakable. He was big and strong. Those conditions of being did not mix well.

But little Kohaku and Senku had attached themselves to him for the day, tailing his every step and asking about everything he did.

They were objectively adorable, trotting around the ship all day, following whoever they wanted. He just wasn’t sure why they’d picked him.

He didn’t know how to act, either. Tsukasa had always imagined that Senku was as smug and rude as a kid as he was as an adult, so Tsukasa had prepared for that, but little Senku held Kohaku’s hand quietly and was very polite. Tsukasa didn’t have the slightest idea of how to connect with him.

Kohaku was exactly like he’d thought she’d be—loud and ready to fight anybody who tried to get in her way. Maybe he could give her some fighting tips?

Which is how he ended up on the deck, modeling a stance for the little warrior. She took it very seriously, barely getting distracted except to check on Senku (he was sitting in the shade and watching them).

Tsukasa was actually having a good time with little Kohaku, and so he didn’t realize Senku had moved until he heard a crash and the sound of an adult swearing. The little boy was picking himself up and rubbing his head with a wince, so Tsukasa hurried over.

“Watch where you’re going, brat!” snapped Yo, scowling as he got back to his feet.

Senku flinched back a little and Tsukasa was sure to place himself between the former police officer and the young scientist as he checked on Senku, leveling a glare at the older man over his shoulder. Yo paled and scrambled back a little before grabbing whatever it was he was carrying.

“W-well, it’s not my fault that pipsqueak—”

Kohaku ran up to Yo and kicked him in the shin. It was a pretty good kick—Yo yelped in pain and grabbed his leg, hopping around a bit.

“Nice form, Kohaku,” Tsukasa said. She turned, surprised, then beamed at him before scurrying over to Senku’s side.

Senku giggled a bit as he rubbed his eye and Tsukasa hummed. “I’m worried about your head,” he said. Were kids prone to concussions, especially if adults ran them over at full force? “Let’s go to first aid.” He hesitated, then asked, “Can I carry you?” Those little legs didn’t move very quickly.

“Me too, me too!” said Kohaku, grabbing his arm and bouncing up and down. “Carry both of us!”

Senku, who had looked skeptical at first, saw Kohaku’s excitement and then nodded.

Interesting.

He scooped up the both of them, one on each arm, and made his way to where they treated injuries. Kohaku squealed about how high up they were, scrambling all over his head and shoulders like he was a tree. Senku just sat very still and watched her antics with a smile on his face.

—

It had been five days. Senku had been stuck on this boat for five days. It felt like forever.

Every day, he played with Kohaku. He taught her how to read (she was learning very quickly) and how to do math (just easy stuff, though). She was light years ahead of the other kids in his class, so she really was smart and he was a bit upset with whoever had told her she wasn’t.

He hadn’t realized friends could be like Kohaku. She listened to him and he listened to her and he taught her and she taught him (about fishing and how little kids helped in her village, about how to punch something without hurting your hand and how to climb tall things). She was fun and nice and she insisted on hugging him throughout the day and snuggling with him at night (it did make him feel better, but he wasn’t going to say that). She had also kicked the guy with spiky hair who ran over him yesterday and that had been pretty funny.

Kinro was there, too. He was nice, if a bit quiet, but Senku was fine with quiet. In fact, right now, when Kohaku was off with Yuzuriha and Nikki, Senku was just sitting next to the man. He was whittling something and Senku watched with wide eyes as the little shavings fell away.

“What are you making?” he asked after a while. He couldn’t tell just from looking at it, and Kinro had always answered his questions nicely, so it wasn’t scary to ask.

“A whale,” Kinro said, holding it out for Senku to see better. “Remember the ones we saw the other day? I thought they were pretty cool, so I’m carving one.”

“Cool,” Senku said. “That’s cool that you can do that.”

Kinro started working again. After a while, he said, “I can teach you, if you want to learn.”

Senku bit his lip. “Are you sure? You don’t have to. I’m good to just watch.”

Kinro put down his project and pulled up the bag that had been sitting next to him. He dug around in it for a bit before pulling out a small piece of wood and a little knife. He handed those to Senku.

“Alright, first is knife safety,” Kinro said seriously.

And Senku slowly, slowly started working on his new project. He worked on it all day, fascinated by how it was sort of coming together.

When he finished, he had a piece of wood that looked a bit like a rocket ship.

“It’s a rocket,” he told Kohaku at the end of the day while they were sitting in bed. Kinro had already tucked them in and was spending the rest of his evening with the other adults. “People sit in this part up here, and the engines to push it up into space are down here.”

Kohaku turned the rocket in her hands. “Space…that’s above the sky, right?”

“Yup.”

“And…you can really get to the moon with one of these?”

“Yup.”

She smiled. “That’s awesome. I want to go to the moon! What’s it like? Do you know?”

“It’s like a big desert. It’s full of rocks and dirt and sand. There’s no air, so plants don’t grow there and you have to wear a spacesuit the whole time. The gravity is really low, so you kinda float a bit and you can jump really high and fall without hurting yourself.”

“Wow! I super want to go to the moon! I’ll jump the highest anyone has jumped in the history of ever!” Her eyes sparkled and her grin was so big that Senku couldn’t help but grin back. Then she grabbed his hand. “Let’s do it, okay? Let’s go to the moon! We’ll go together!”

He nodded. If he ever got to go to the moon, it would only be more awesome if he got to go with his friend. “Ten billion percent.”

She laughed and handed him back his rocket, which he carefully put on the dresser. Then they fell asleep, Kohaku wrapping him in a hug before she drifted off.

—

Senku knew something was up. He’d been paying close attention to everything the past week. This ship was almost as low-tech as it got, and everything looked kind of…weird. Different from how he expected it to look.

No one had cell phones. No one had any personal electronics at all. There were light bulbs, but, again, weird ones.

He remembered what Chrome had said that very first afternoon: “I know it seems weird, but you being little is what’s weird here. You were big, too, just like us, I promise.” He hadn’t understood—it seemed impossible—but he was starting to think it was, indeed, possible.

Both he and Kohaku had been wearing—or been stuck in—clothes that were too big for them. Neither of them knew where they were or how they got there.

He’d also been listening closely. “Petrification” was a word thrown around a lot. “Stone world” was common as well. “Why-man” was spoken of in worried whispers.

“Kohaku,” Senku said, sitting down with her that night, “I think these guys are all our friends. Almost everyone has been really nice, right? I think we were on a mission to do something important, something to do with the whole world. But…it sounds like something impossible happened. They keep talking about people turning to stone.”

“Oh, like the statues in the forest?”

Senku stared at her. “What?”

“The forest is full of statues of people. Actually…” She bit her lip. “There was a guy—Science—that was talking to me when you showed up. I thought maybe he’d switched places with you somehow. He said he’d been a statue. I thought he was crazy, but…” She looked at him. “You keep talking about things I don’t have any idea what they are. Cars, phones, TV, school—I don’t know those words. No one knows what reading is in my village. And if Chrome said I turned little, then maybe you turned little, too, which means you were Science, which means you were a statue.”

Senku was trying to process this. “So you’re, like, from the future? A future where almost everybody turned into statues and technology was lost?”

They sat in silence for a while, just thinking. Senku came to the conclusion that he had no way to find out if his dad had actually abandoned him or not, now that he didn’t even know where his dad was, but now that he was a bit calmer, now that he wasn’t around mean teachers and mean classmates, he decided that they were wrong. His dad loved him. A lot. (It was kind of embarrassing.) It didn’t matter if he was adopted. It didn’t matter if he was a brat. His dad wouldn’t have thrown him away, no matter what—he was ten billion percent sure of that.

“So what do we do?” Kohaku asked.

Senku sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t even know where to start.”

Kohaku hummed, then grinned. “Well, if we know the people here are our friends, that means we can prank them and not get in trouble, right?”

Senku laughed. “Can we?”

“Totally! And—and you’re, like, super smart, so you can probably think of super-fun ways to prank them, right?”

—

It was the last peaceful night on the ship.

—

(Ending 1: they don’t turn back)

Chrome was at the end of his rope. He didn’t know what to do. He had no idea how to fix this. He hadn’t slept in days, wracking his brain and hypothesizing, but it was science that he just didn’t understand, not even a little bit. At this point, he was tempted to just smash the Medusa to pieces, he was so frustrated.

And he couldn’t ask Senku for ideas, because Senku was tiny and cute and just starting his journey of science—as weird as it was to imagine Senku not knowing all the things, he’d had to learn them first, and he just hadn’t yet.

Exhausted, he made his way to the cabins. Maybe sleep would help. Except he only remembered that Gen had told him that they were using his cabin for the kids when he opened the door.

He sighed and leaned against the door frame, watching the two kids sleep. Maybe this was just…life, now. Their friends had been made young by means they didn’t understand. The only way Chrome could think to get them back to normal was time, as in, doing it the long way.

He was starting to wish he’d taken up Senku on learning the entirety of human scientific discoveries. Was that information just…gone, now?

Chrome felt hot tears run down his cheeks. He missed his friends. He wanted them back. This would be so much harder without their lead scientist and top warrior. This would be so much harder without Senku and Kohaku, their determination and drive and compassion.

He gently closed the door and wandered back to the deck, staring up at the stars. He remembered the mourning traditions of his village—the words they spoke to the stars when their friends and family were beyond their reach.

“I won’t forget you,” he said in a tremulous voice. “What you valued, I will value. What you loved, I will love. I will tell your stories.” He sobbed and fell to his knees. “I won’t forget, I promise,” he told the stars.

—

The voyage to the Americas was cancelled. It had been a long few days of debate, but the decision was made—for the time being, they were heading back to Ishigami Village. They’d been depending on Senku’s knowledge for building a rocket, and if they didn’t have that, there wasn’t much point in going on their big planet-wide trip. So they turned the ship around with heavy hearts.

And Senku and Kohaku grew up again.

Suffice to say, a lot of things that one might have expected to happen didn’t happen, or happened very out of order with what one might already know. People were never met, some mysteries never solved, and some problems escalated while others disappeared. Their world was much smaller, for a while.

But, in the manner of stories, I can tell you that they all lived happily, surrounded by their friends and moving ever forwards towards a brighter future, learning and exploring and growing.

—

(Ending 2: they turn back)

In the end, they had no idea what turned Senku and Kohaku back to normal. Two weeks after they were deaged, it just…happened.

They were running around the deck playing tag, weaving in and out of the boxes and people. Kohaku changed back first, tumbling to the ground with a startled shout, her child-sized clothes in no way decent for her young adult self. Taiju (protector of dignity) made all the non-child guys go under the deck while Yuzuriha helped Kohaku.

Senku, meanwhile, was a bit upset.

“K-Kohaku?”

She turned to look at him, a blanket now around her shoulders.

Those were his friend’s eyes… “Is that you? Do you…remember me?”

She blinked rapidly, then giggled. “Yeah, I guess so. Wow, Senku, you’re a real cutie, aren’t you?”

Senku blushed. “Why would you say that?!”

And then she was picking him up and hugging him, which was familiar but a bit weird now that she was so much bigger. “Well, you’re going to turn back to your older self soon, right? So I gotta cuddle little you while I can.”

Senku, at this point in their friendship, accepted that he didn’t understand Kohaku’s logic no matter what age she was and patted her back.

Yuzuriha had him take off his yukata and put another blanket around his shoulders—just in time, too, because he was suddenly back to the age he was supposed to be, disoriented as hell.

“Hey,” Kohaku said.

He looked at her. She grinned.

“We’re tall enough to rig that bucket over Yo’s door now.”

Senku grinned back.

And they just…continued. What could be done? Other than locking away the Medusa really well, with lots of space around it—it was currently suspended high in the air behind the boat with a complicated system of wires.

The only real differences were that Senku had taken up whittling in his limited free time and Kohaku could read and write some simple kana now. And, of course, their awesome collaborative pranks, now featuring complicated chemistry or feats of strength.

And Kohaku hugged Senku more often, which he didn’t mind, and Senku would hold Kohaku’s hand sometimes, which she didn’t mind.

And while they were on the moon, after negotiating with “Why-man,” after the Earth was finally safe, Kohaku jumped as high as she could, and Senku laughed and laughed and wrote the distance in the moon-dust so future generations would know what record they had to beat.

@senhaku-week

#dr stone manga spoilers #senhaku #senkoha #senhaku week #senkhaku week 2022 #with *two* alternate endings!

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fairykery · 1 year

Text

If not canon, then why flashy?

Eyesex and a smile?

The guy that hates physical contact is smiling as kohaku hugged him? Not only that but he also looked into her eyes tenderly? LIKE? The other girl going "it wasn't that type of hug" was just referring to the fact that they aren't gf and bf because technically THEY AREN'T and the one girl still assumed that they were. So when they got touch- feely and the girl covered her eyes thinking they were a couple(thanks to the kiss situation) the other girl calmed her down saying they weren't really a couple sharing a hug; but two people that care about each other hugging. While Senku did not return the hug because he is never/and has never been forward about that type of situation, Kohaku is the first he's smiles at, lets hug, and has had people wonder the state of their relationship when being hugged by. She is also the only girl he is close with, that has been hinted at having feelings for him.

The KISS

Sorry, No I get it. It was too soon for this to be a romantic moment. I get it. It was for the sake of comic relief. But if you pay attention. The context of the scene didn't necessarily have to be written romantically, NOT EVEN for the sake of the plot. Cause them kissing had nothing to do with the situation; BUT the mangaka STILL specifically chose to go THAT route with the scene. He, HIMSELF, chose to use a romantic excuse(even if a comical one) as a plot device to move the story forward. And on top of that made them kiss(even if they were both uncomfortable by it still at this point in the manga). With that, making Kohaku the girl he's closest to who he has had the most physical contact with and even shared a kiss with(even if it was just a chin kiss and they both were practically uncomfortable for being forced to do.). No but seriously, the mangaka using SenHaku as a plot device to move the story forward WHEN it is NOT needed should provide some insight of what he thinks of the pairing. Which is that: "it is fun to write about" and "he likes to write about it".

NO TIME?

I like how he reponds with something that implies. "Maybe i'll blush later....not rn we gotta find a way out of here". Can we also take a moment to realize the mangaka/writter interrupted this moment before Senku could respond to the: "and the way i see it that is so very-" from kohaku? Subtle behavior on his part. Is there something on Senku's mind he doesn't want fans to know for the sake of avoiding ship wars? I wouldn't be surprised if this was what was stopping him from making the ship more explicit. Cause shippers get kind of crazy with the wars and MOST mangakas KNOW this and dont want that to affect the sales.

BRIDE STYLE?

He specifically chose one of the most romantic tropes to draw them In? Sorry no. This has nothing to do with their dynamic; but he still drew them like this? In THIS pose? Mangaka definitely shipped them.

Nah; but like never have i ever seen him so touchy feeling with anyone?

idk idk they remain sus. Especially with all of his guy friends hoping him to experince romantic love.

SenHaku also kinda parallel His adoptive dad and his lover(maybe not in the sense of dynamic; but in color aesthetic and how they are portrayed in the covers)

[also look at them being bride style like the senhaku cover lol]

I don't know why people say this ship is impossible because Senku says he isn't interested in romance. Like he also hinted at the fact that he has sex drive, just not a crazy active one where he would attack a female for, especially one stronger than him.

And if you ACTUALLY pay attention every time that topic of romance comes up is not that he COMPLETELY dismisses it. It is more because he does not prioritize it or care to look for it, especially considering that he is so goal-driven. At the same time, it is already revealed that not everything he says(especially when it comes to relationships/bonds)does he mean. He only, like i said, likes to remain goal-oriented and doesn't want anything to distract him.

He also acted pretty detached towards his own father and rejected his overly affections of love. So much so, that Byakuya tried to adapt to his own love language of science. But at the end of the day,it is not that Senku is 100% against those concepts(of romanticized bonds) it is just that he finds them to be waste of time. But despite that, he is still human. He still feels despite how much he doesn't allow himself to do so:

And Riri herself pointed how Senku only acts tough and detached when it comes to relationships/bonds(when talking about his care for the village) but a part of him does care. This is because she is the only one whose seen him cry at his father grave, despite how detached he acted about his father dying at the beginning. But again, he remembered that he had a goal, and wiped his tears; because for him "there's no time for that". It's all about prioritizing his goals, especially when about science.

And there's ALOT of emphasis on THAT.

Even so, so many characters in shounen have ended up marrying/having feelings despite saying/or there being no indicator that they are interested in romance. It is a common trope of it. So even if it were because Senku is not into romance it wouldn't sink the ship. I mean look at Sasuke(another goal-oritented character) said that romance had no place in his revolution; but at the end of the day married sakura and even gave her a ring to ward off insects

[note: is important to note that sasuke was not rejecting sakura here. More like trying to convince kakashi that romance had no place in his revolution. Because he was goal oriented, like Senku(that and the fact that he was still struggling with his darkness). In fact Sakura said that she wanted things to go back to the way they used to be and he assumed that was romance, without anyone saying anything of that sort. And Sakura had already left it clear that she wanted team 7 back; but then sasuke mentioned romance lol]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Something else worth mentioning is the fact that Senku hates clingy overly-romantic girls or the girls that fall in love too fast with him, as we've seen him cringe or act annoyed with those type of acts. But still, he was able to manage to say something about a type, despite his dismissive behavior. Even tho it was just to brush the conversation off, the fact that he answered his type of girl with "someone that could bring him materials" and then calls Kohaku a lioness, and him as a scientist knows that usually a lioness is one to provide their mates with food from hunting. I don't know. It seemed like a sweet nickname to give her. Especially when in his time period, that type of nickname is considered flirtatious. What is more, is that he initially brought Taiju back because of his usefulness in strength(and the fact he knew he could trust him) & Senku himself noticed the exact same quality in Kohaku.

So someone that could fit his description of his type would definitely be kohaku and seeing that she is the girl who he is the closest, and HAS brought him materials before so i dont see why not. I mean he was already pretty impressed with her first meeting her. Even after having worked with her, he was still impressed by her strength, and doesn't stop talking about it:

There's also people who always dismiss Kohaku's feelings. I mean i think it's already pretty clear

His physical aspect she seems pleased with

And well he already fits the EXACT description of her EXACT type. So it is 100% safe to say that she has feelings for him. It may not be explicitly stated but it was just the right amount of sublte. Similar to Mikasa Ackerman/Touka Kirishima, whose feelings were never explicitly stated; but were always quite obvious. That was the type of subtlety the mangaka was aiming at. And i think there's a reason for that.

Because Senku hates fast paced relationships/love at first sight/mushy girls. Building Kohaku's feelings in a slowburn manner makes Kohaku stand out from all the other girls that have feelings for him/have flirted with him/felt attracted to him. Because, as i said, he doesn't like that kind of stuff. And since he is still sciency I don't think he would ever fall for a romantic type of girl; but rather a useful one that can serve as his partner. The way I see them happening would be by Kohaku being accepting of his anti-romantic nature, and Senku seeing her as worthy Mate that he could reproduce with so that the sciene can live on and keep developing. While he did teach Chrome alot, Chrome also says he wants Senku to live. I think he also meant it in a metaphorical way. Chrome, next to his other male friends kept pushing for or looking for an indicator of him feeling attraction for a girl/or at least want him to understand romantic love so that he doesn't keep downplaying the feelings that they have towards their crushes. Even Gen seemed pretty excited at the thought of him kissing a girl lol. So it's safe to say that the mangaka writing this was him rooting for the same thing for Senku; but not in the way that we exepect.

Again, if he ever did develop a relationsip with kohaku to another level. I dont think he would confess/or admit his physical attraction to her, if he did feel any. I think he would find himself content that he has found a useful girl, that can bring him materials, and doesn't ask much of him(in a romantic light). This would push Senku to allow Kohaku as his partner. I don't think Kohaku would mind it either as long as she knows Senku is willing to reciprocate in terms of just the right amount of romantic gestures/or sexual entanglement(when senku finds the time for her)

Because as he has stated he does not NOT have a sex drive(just not active) nor is he COMPLETELY against chivalry (which is rooted in romance).

So i think if he did develop feelings for Kohaku he will not do much to figure out the why and would instead only try to rationalize it by saying Kohaku is the perfect partner. He would agree to a wedding for the sake of his friends and act like he was peer pressured to doing it, and would probably ONLY compliment Kohaku's looks by saying something like "You know, according to the symmetrical proportions of your face, you'd be considered to be living up to the beauty standards of my time" and Kohaku would be fine with that thanks to the reassurance of her sister about how "he is not the type of guy to be completely against the tradition of bonds/feelings. He just doesn't prioritize them". So kohaku would be fine with that. Especially because she herself has been swayed by his way of living.

As long as she knows that Senku considers her his mate, partner, and important person, I think she'd be okay with that. Especially since Senku is logical enough to understand that he needs to put effort into the relationship with his mate. So he'd do soft gestures for her that will keep her happy in order to maintain their relationship, even if she doesn't ask for it. And that will be enough because by the end of the day that's what most relationships are, Senku just doesn't feel the need to romanticize them, unless it's for the sake of following through with a logical situation. And well him maintaining his relationship with Kohaku would be logical as it would avoid conflict and prevent him from seeking a mate elsewhere. We all know Senku doesn't like to bother with those things. He just goes with the flow of whatever is convenient.

I also think that even though he doesn't like physical contact he'd probably do soft things like touch her hand in reassurance,(he's held her hand), smile at her(as he has done so before), look tenderly at her with pride(has looked and felt proud of her) and lean on her when he is tired(they have leaned on each other metaphorically). Those would be indicators.of him caring for her, but he won't ever stop to think about them, even if his heart rate actually does start to raise he will only rationalize it with talks about "dopamine/serotonin" and Kohaku being his chosen partner; but overall, he'd be most ecstatic about having a partner by his side, and the fact that he cares for such partner. Kohaku won't ask for more and will come to understand that she has what any other girl has(when it comes to romantic relationships), and she SIMPLY has a partner that tends to rationalize everything and dislikes romance; but is willing to do it for the sake of logic.

#senhaku #my post #personal #senku x kohaku #kohaku x senku #senkoha #sasusaku #tagging ssasusaku for the filtering #dr. stone #dr stone

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