Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

    Senku Ishigami holds all knowledge of humanity in his grasp. Keep him from crumbling and keep him clothed as he sleeps in stone. The boy will one day bring humanity to the stars.

 _____

Even from a young age, Chrome has always been a curious soul. Finding strange rocks, mixing plants together, and discovering new forms of sorcery became a part of him.

This naturally led to the God of knowledge being his favorite among the Gods. He knows that favoritism in worship is frowned upon but he couldn't help it! He prays to all the Gods just like everyone else in the village, but this is different. The God of all knowledge humanity could ever know, Chrome's inspiration for his sorcery, rests in stone in the center of his village. 

The other Gods helped out of sight, but Senku was practically on Chrome's doorstep. How could that not make his curious mind buzz with inspiration?

Besides his normal praying and worship, Chrome always took special care to perform his sorcery around Senku at every opportunity. When he grew older and began to explore farther from the village, he would bring his most interesting finds to the God in hopes of absorbing some new knowledge in return. He would even scratch out his arithmetic in the dirt by Senku's feet.

Chrome talking with Seknu became such a common sight that some of the other villagers even started to take after Chrome. While they didn't have magic to please the God, they brought Senku flowers and small gifts while they sat with him to ponder about their problems.

Some of Chrome's best ideas came from the time he spent sitting in the dirt next to the statue. 

 _____

Ruri is getting worse. Everyday her illness gets worse and nothing is helping her anymore. Chrome searches for some form of sorcery to help but none of the plants he mixes together help. Kohaku's hot spring water has even stopped working to hold the sickness back.

Any day. She could leave him any day to this sickness if he does nothing.

Chrome tries just sitting with Senku and trying to draw something from the God from proximity like the other villagers. He sits in silence instead of the usual one-sided chatter, waiting for some ideas to wash over him. When he can't wait for inspiration to strike any longer, he tries a different approach.

Chrome grabs anything and everything from his storage he can carry in a basket. Clay jars full of strange liquids, plants, rocks, powders, anything . With his basket full he runs back over the bridge to the village.

If he can just bring the right thing, maybe Senku will give him the right idea.

He just needs to present the right ingredient.

He takes his usual spot next to Senku and starts to lay everything down on the ground at the statue's feet.

"Senku, I need inspiration again." Chrome pulls a rock out of the basket and places it on the ground, "Ruri is getting sicker. I need something to help her heal. Any guidance at all would help me greatly." He places a bundle of branches next to the rock. "I brought everything I thought might help." He picks out one of the clay jars, "Can any of this help Ruri get better? Even if it won't heal her completely, anything would be – "

"Chalk, get back here!" Suika yells, running after her dog, "That's not your fish!" Chrome turns to see Chalk speeding through the village, said fish secure in his mouth. The dog changes course towards the bridge, barreling right towards Chrome. Chrome hops up on his feet to help Suika, only to get rammed into by the loose dog. 

Now sprawled on the ground, Chrome picks himself up with a grumble while Chalk scampers away and continues his dash out of the village with Suika on his tail like nothing happened.

Rude dog.

Chrome dusts himself off and turns to face Senku to show him the clay jar he's holding.

Was holding. He was holding a clay jar full of liquid. 

He sees the broken pieces of the former jar at Senku's feet, and slowly looks up in horror to see Senku now soaked down the front of his shirt with the contents of the former jar.

Shit.

He threw a jar at the God he was trying to ask for help.

Chrome rushes back to his basket and desperately searches for a rag to dry the God and his clothes. After emptying everything in the basket of the floor with no rag in sight, Chrome tears off a sleeve of his shirt and scurries back to Senku.

He moves the scrap of fabric towards the God's face.

CRACK.

The fabric falls out of his fingers. Two large cracks start running down Senku's forehead and through the statue's eyes.

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Chapter Text

1 . . . 2 . . . 4 . . .

The cracks spread from the God's face to the rest of his body. Chrome falls back onto the dirt and can only look on in slack-jawed horror.

He really did it this time.

5 . . . 6 . . . 7 . . .

The cracks suddenly stop growing when they completely cover Senku. Chrome stumbles back up and looks back at his materials, now scattered on the ground due to his panic.

8 . . . 9 . . .

Maybe he can fix this. He had made a tacky substance that dried hard a couple of weeks ago. If he was diligent and held his breath while adding it, maybe then--

. . . 10

The piece of stone covering one of the God's eyes crumbled to the ground.

Chrome blinked. 

Senku blinked back.

Chrome's scream might as well have crumbled the rest of the stone on Senku as well.

—

It’s bright. 

Ignoring the boy who was screaming in front of him, Senku flicked his eyes down to his hands and watched as the stone crumbled off his body. He was finally out.

117,354,893,870 seconds.

Carefully stepping out of the ring of stone he left on the dirt and kneeled on the ground facing it, facing away from the still screeching boy. He needed to stay calm and take stock of his situation. He could deal with them in a second.

He looked around. There were small huts scattered around him, and he could see slivers of blue between the bushes past the ring of homes. Green foliage, he woke up in spring as he planned, but that might not have been entirely due to his efforts to wake. He could smell–

Huh.

Well aware of the now choked noises escaping the boy behind him, Senku glanced back at him. He was sitting a couple of feet away from him. Brown hair, not too uncommon for Japanese natives, but that doesn’t exactly mean he’s still in Japan. The boy’s eyes were wider than Senku’s, more characteristic of a foreigner’s; although that might just be because he is staring at Senku hard enough his eyes could be mistaken for golf balls. His clothes were obviously handmade with some sort of animal skins, likely deer if we are in Japan, and woven fiber ropes.

Looking back down at himself, it seems someone made Senku similar clothing while he was encased in stone. He was draped in animal hides that someone must have sewn around him, although his clothes were a pale tan, almost white, while the brown-haired boy’s were a dark blue. Although the front of his shirt was currently soaked through with some sort of liquid. Senku carefully pulled his shirt further away from his skin and tore the section of the clothing out without touching the stain. That was definitely what he was smelling. Considering this is what likely broke him out of the stone, he didn’t want to risk getting a chemical burn. He completely turned around to face the boy behind him, who was now catching flies, and stood up.

Strewn around in the dirt in between the two were several different rocks and minerals as well as a few random herbs Senku recognized. At Senku’s feet, there were shards of hardened clay, likely from a broken pot, with drops of yellow liquid still clinging to some of them. That explains how his front got soaked.

Senku smirked at the thought of his saving grace being literally thrown at him, and held out his hand to the boy on the ground.

“So, nitric acid huh? Must have been hard to come by considering your materials don’t look too advanced.” he nodded his head towards the shattered clay and his feet. The brown-haired boy shut his mouth with a click, and carefully grabbed Senku’s hand to help himself up. Pulling the boy up, Senku waited a couple more seconds for the boy to respond. 

“Uh, the— the what?”

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Holy Shit.