Chapter Text
One hundred seventeen billion, three hundred fifty-four million, eight hundred ninety-three thousand, eight hundred sixty-eight.
One hundred seventeen billion, three hundred fifty-four million, eight hundred ninety-three thousand, eight hundred sixty-nine.
One hundred seventeen billion, three hundred fifty-four million, eight hundred ninety-three thousand, eight hundred seventy-
He feels something.
He hasn’t felt anything in thousands of years.
All at once, the sensation spreads from just over his eyes to the rest of his body. It’s odd; even if it hadn’t been so long that he almost forgot how feeling physical sensations worked, it was so different from anything he had felt before being petrified that he almost doesn’t know how to describe it.
For the first time in 3,719 years, 8 months, and 1 week, Ishigami Senku opens his eyes.
Sitting up is familiar, yet not. His brain is so used to utilizing all of its energy to think that moving his body requires digging back in his memories to recall how to do so. He does it, and sees what looks like a stone shell crumble from his unclothed body. Around him are the natural sounds of a forest; not unexpected, with the amount of time since he - and presumably, the rest of the world - was petrified.
It takes Senku an embarrassingly long amount of time to realize something is not quite right with his body.
When he finally rests for the first time since waking up, there is a new sensation. While that isn’t uncommon as he reexperiences sensory input after thousands of years of nothing but his thoughts, this one, he’s sure, is definitely new. He’s got an incredible memory. Even if it takes him a moment to recall certain things, he does remember almost every second (one hundred seventeen billion, three hundred fifty-four million, nine hundred twenty-nine thousand, seven hundred seventy-six, one hundred seventeen billion, three hundred fifty-four million, nine hundred twenty-nine thousand, seven hundred seventy-seven-) of his entire life. And he remembers nothing like this.
Senku pushes himself up off the ground from where he had been laying. The firelight flickers, casting odd shadows behind him, and he furrows his brow as he looks at the anomaly in his. He reaches a hand up and over his shoulder, and his fingers brush something new. At the same moment, in a spot he knows wasn’t there before he was petrified, he feels his own fingers brush his own flesh. To his fingers, it feels like incredibly soft fuzz, with firm, warm skin underneath. To whatever this new body part is, his fingers pressing against it is almost akin to a new haircut, if his hair was short, fluffy, and incredibly soft and sensitive.
The muscles twitch involuntarily beneath his hand. Senku brings his other hand over his shoulder, and then realizes that his actual back doesn’t feel right. He lifts his left arm and twists to look under and behind him.
From just below his shoulder blades protrudes two identical masses of flesh, coated by what looks like down from a chick. It’s white, with bits of skin visible where it thins slightly, and as he stares, silent, the soft breeze rustles the soft down. There’s new muscle under his skin, and when he reaches his right hand around to touch where the limbs connect to his back, he feels what can only be a second pair of shoulder blades, shaped differently, but similar enough that he knows that it can only be something like that.
For a moment, Senku forgets how to breathe. It’s like he’s been petrified again, only he still can access all of his senses.
Instinctually, a third count starts up in his head. The first is the same one that’s been going for thousands of years. The second is the one that started as soon as he opened his eyes, and has reached the equivalent of nearly ten hours.
This third count reaches two hundred before he suddenly remembers to suck in new air.
Yet another new development to make a mental note of. He definitely couldn’t hold his breath for that long before.
Senku retracts his right hand, and lowers his left hand. It takes some concentration, but once he focuses on the feelings coming from the limbs, he realizes he can move them a bit. Not much, but enough to know that yeah, they’re actually part of his body.
Another quick glance gives him a rough estimate. They’re only about a foot long, but he doesn’t remember feeling them under his body when he woke up only hours ago. Nor does he remember brushing against them when tying his makeshift skirt around his waist.
Exhaustion finally catches up with Senku. He reluctantly curls up under the nearest tree, dragging the piles of leaves he had stripped from the fallen branches and vines earlier to land on top of him. The small stone knife and axe he crafted earlier are laid right next to his hand.
Senku tosses and turns, before finally realizing that with his new limbs, he’s not going to be sleeping on his back any time soon. He huffs and rolls onto his stomach, before burrowing his face into his arms and attempting to go straight to sleep before he falls back into the habit of counting.
Sunlight falls on his face and wakes him the following morning.
Senku pushes himself upright, reaching for his knife, when he feels yet another new sensation.
Looking behind him, he blinks once, twice, then squeezes his eyes shut tight. When he reopens them precisely eight seconds later, the limbs are still there, still connected to his back, and still far, far larger than the foot he’d estimated them to be the night before. Now, they look nearly a meter long, and the fluff has thickened considerably.
Great.
It takes a full week for Senku to be able to determine that his new limbs have finally stopped growing. By that point, they’re each as long as he is tall, maybe a few centimeters more, and when he holds his vine ruler up to them, the two of them together reach to three and a half meters.
He also sees them grow thicker, and his newly developed back and side muscles do the same over time. The white down begins falling off by day six, and as weird as it feels, he collects every single bit of it. What grows in its place is all too familiar, and is what finally means he has to admit what he’s looking at.
Senku, a human, has managed to sprout a pair of feathered wings.
As soon as the first feathers appear, the rest come in very quickly. He barely sleeps during that sixth night, as his wings itch like crazy, but the morning comes with pure relief as he wakes up from his fitful rest to find that they’ve filled in completely. The hunger finally slows, since he had been ravenous for the entirety of the last week. It was a struggle for Senku to keep up with his appetite, as just the act of gathering materials to create simple traps to catch whatever animals would end up in them meant he got even hungrier. He resorts to roasting mushrooms, legumes, and edible flowers he finds growing close by. When he finally manages to launch his makeshift spear and wound a doe enough for him to catch up and kill her with his knife, he has to literally sit on his hands to wait for the meat to cook enough for him to safely consume it. The hunger was so strong that he doesn’t even bother to salt any of it; he just stuffs it in his mouth. When he stretches and begins scraping the skin, he even periodically snaps the bones and sucks the marrow out, eager to fill his stomach. Every single scrap disappears down his throat, save for two small bones that he remembers to save and carve into makeshift needles.
Sewing proper clothing takes a bit. Rabbit skins become his shoes and underwear, and the deerskin becomes a sort of long coat, like a Stone Age lab coat. He dries the skins and allows the sun to bleach them enough for them to become a tan sort of color.
It did take him nearly an hour to figure out how to modify the back of his new outfit enough for his wings to comfortably stick out with a good range of motion.
Senku continues to collect the fallen feathers that he occasionally drops. He molts after a month, at which point his pure white feathers regrew as white, with pale green tips, just like his hair. That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever, but until he has a proper lab and equipment, he can’t exactly do much investigating.
With his proper flight feathers grown in, Senku can’t help but consider.
Was flight possible?
Back before the petrification, plenty of people dreamed of having wings. Humans had always admired the creatures soaring through the skies, it’s why they invented things like hot air balloons, airplanes, helicopters, and paragliders. It’s where concepts like winged beasts and winged humans came from.
Senku desperately wants to try.
He starts by just seeing how much control he has. After that first month, he can fold, extend, and wiggle them at will. They will still move without his input, but he can move them just like his other limbs, even if he’s still kind of awkward with it.
Another month, and he can flap them consistently. When he stands in a clearing and just flaps as hard as he can, his heels lift off the ground enough for him to get distracted and forget to keep moving his wings. The following day, Senku moves to climbing rocks and fallen trees and jumping off while flapping in an attempt to at least glide, if not get some lift. He manages a glide, which gets him so excited that he forgets to eat, and ends up nearly faceplanting when he gets woozy late in the evening.
Three days later, Senku climbs onto the platform he’s managed to construct so far, about ten feet in the air. He looks down at the ground, calculates the risk of him breaking any bones, shrugs, and jumps.
The very first wingbeat manages to lift him, and the second gets him just a bit higher. Senku forces his wings up and down, and the smile that grows across his face as he manages to sort of fly to the next tree before he gets too tired and has to scrabble at a branch to catch himself is just as wide as when he figures out some scientific experiment.
By the fourth month, Senku has grown strong enough that he can not only lift far more weight than he ever could before, but he can take off by running and flapping his wings, as if he were an albatross. He’s got a nice home built in his tree, and he’s got basic tools and pottery. Senku’s even gotten to the point where he can sort of carry things while flying, even if it’s pretty awkward. When he located Taiju’s statue, he flew and half-carried, half-dragged him all the way to the cave next to where he woke up, and left his friend there, hopefully so the nitric acid could start working away on his stone shell.
Chapter Text
Just over six months after Senku wakes up in this Stone World, he finally, finally gains another person to talk to.
When Taiju comes stumbling along the riverbank, Senku watches from a branch high in a tree. He calls down to his friend, who gawks at him, and Senku grins, knowing what he looks like. Six months has meant his chest has broadened and thickened to support his longer and longer flights, and his arms and legs have developed muscle as he runs and swings through the trees to get from clearing to clearing to take off. He hauls materials and food constantly, and digs through the riverbed to get to the soft clay he needs for his pottery.
“Senku-!” Taiju gasps, when Senku lands in front of him. “You have wings?!”
Chuckling, he nods, and hefts his bundle of bamboo higher onto his shoulder. “Yep. And if my hypothesis is correct, you will too. Turn around- HEY!” Senku leaps into the air, nearly dropping the bamboo in his attempt to dodge Taiju’s hug. “Chill out!”
Taiju does in fact grow wings. He starts off with tiny nubs in the same spot Senku’s own wings protrude from his back, and thanks to his own experience, Senku can be a bit more prepared. While Taiju wolfs down the berries and nuts that grow close to Senku’s campsite, Senku flies to locate boars that graze a few kilometers away. With his aerial perspective, he can simply launch a spear down at the boars and hit one, at which point he dives down and lifts it into the air. It takes the same amount of time, nearly a week, before Taiju’s appetite settles and his wings finish growing.
While Senku is several centimeters shorter and many kilograms lighter than Taiju, Taiju’s wings are only about fifteen centimeters longer than Senku’s. The scientist’s wings are long and sleek, great for distance, diving, and sharp turns; while Taiju’s are thicker and not as long, proportionally speaking. While Senku’s wings are white and green, Taiju’s wings match his hair, a nice brown color, and his feathers are slightly better waterproofed than Senku’s.
When the snows come, the cold is more severe than either of them remember. There are more blizzards, too; not many, but definitely more than there used to be.
As soon as the temperatures start dropping, Senku can’t help but be relieved that he saved so many of his feathers, and had made sure Taiju did the same. They sew furs together and stuff them with their molted and broken feathers, making Stone Age comforters. When the storms come, both of them hide in the treehouse, pulling all of their clothes, bedding, and extra furs together into a single pile, snuggled together at the center. Between their body heat, their fur pile, and their wings, the two of them stay warm and toasty as winds howl beyond the wood hammered in place over the door and window. Senku stockpiles things like nuts and roots for these days, keeping them close to the fur pile so they don’t have to go far and waste heat.
When the storms aren’t battering their treehouse, each of them have their tasks. Taiju sticks with the more brawny things, hauling wood and collecting rocks that they then will turn into things like knives, tools, and spears. Senku makes things, experiments in his lab, and goes exploring.
As soon as the snow begins to melt, Senku lays out the fishing nets he worked on over the winter. He ties feathers throughout the net to entice fish to swim towards them, and flies over the sea, dragging the net below him before hauling it onto the sand. Taiju gathers more clay and continues to collect wood.
Then the lions come.
When they wake Shishio Tsukasa, Senku’s mind is racing.
As always, there’s several counts continuing simultaneously in the very back of his mind. He’s running calculations and estimations, while also taking in the situation and analyzing it, running risk assessments and probability outcomes. Another part of his brain is focused on Taiju, keeping an eye on his friend as he desperately tries to keep both Yuzuriha’s statue and Senku safe. The forefront of his mind is locked onto Tsukasa, however, as the stone surrounding him finally cracks, and his eyes blink open.
After Senku relays the situation, he watches Tsukasa take the lions down. The man is naked, as the two of them were when they woke, but that allows Senku to make an observation: Tsukasa has no tiny wing nubs. None at all.
Fascinating.
When the last lion flees, and Tsukasa finally turns to look at them, Senku sees flashes of confusion, surprise, and awe in his eyes. To the man’s credit, he doesn’t falter, and simply asks for something sharp to skin the beast.
It isn’t until much later, after Tsukasa runs down the boar herd on foot and brings back three for Senku to cook, that the questions finally come.
“So,” Tsukasa finally says, breaking the silence as the three of them chow down. “You both have wings?”
Senku finishes salting the meat from his boar and tosses the small clay pot to Taiju, who happily begins doing the same. “Yeah. Both of us woke up and within a week, our wings were fully grown.” He rips flesh from bone, and swallows it nearly whole, hungry as he is. “My original hypothesis was that anyone who is unpetrified will do the same, but you don’t have the same growths or new muscle and bone development to support any wings.” Shrugging, he gestures at Tsukasa across the fire. “You might just be so muscle-y enough that you don’t need more, but I doubt it. We’ll see. By tomorrow, we’ll know if you’ll sprout wings too.”
Humming, Tsukasa nods, and begins eating his own boar meat.
Once all three of them are done eating, and Taiju is stretching, Senku collects the bones from the boars. Tsukasa watches in some amount of interest as he works his way through the pile, setting aside the ones best for things like needles and fishhooks, and snapping the rest to consume the marrow. When he offers Taiju some, the guy waves him off and goes to take a leak. Tsukasa also denies the offer, but he seems somewhat torn between disgust and relief.
“The only difference between us,” Senku says as he works on breaking a thigh bone open, “is that Taiju and I both were awake while we were petrified. From what you said when you woke up, I doubt you were.”
Tsukasa shakes his head. “No, I wasn’t. I lost consciousness pretty quickly. It felt like I was asleep for a very long time.” He eyes Senku’s wings, folded behind him. “Perhaps that is what determines who grows wings.”
There’s something odd about the way Tsukasa speaks. Senku shrugs, and keeps his eyes on his hands. “Sure, but we still don’t know what’s causing humans to somehow develop non-human traits. If I had access to a proper lab, I would be running tests on everything from our DNA to the properties of the stone we broke out of.” He pauses to finish off the marrow from the thigh bone before continuing. “But with current technology, there’s not much we can do.”
“An unfortunate situation,” Tsukasa muses to himself.
Blinking, Senku opens his nictitating membrane. He’s pleased to not have his eyes stinging from the smoke. “Absolutely. We just have to work up to that equipment.” He grins sharply, and something instinctual stirs inside him as Tsukasa shifts, seemingly uncomfortable.
Notes:
all the love on chapter 1 made me so happy ahfnianfhsuignfsgnl
I wanted to upload the next chapter sooner however the curse of the fanfiction author struck me down literally like 3 hours after I uploaded the first chapter. I went from fine to shaking in my bed like a Victorian child suffering from a plague so severe it had me down until yesterday. I'm going on day 3 of no voice ;-;
anyways I'm kind of skipping through bits and pieces of the timeline - canon kind of did too so that's my excuse. I wanted to post a longer chapter but one of those chunks I previously mentioned as not being done is from here to Senku's "death". I have zero ideas on how to write that chunk but luckily my coaching job just ended so now I have nights free to write! So I plan to work on that this week.
REVEAL! In this world, wing development isn't guaranteed. While I love AUs where everyone has wings, I also didn't want to deal with writing the idea of air warfare or the Army of Might being able to just,,, fly over to the Kingdom of Science. There's gonna be more exploration of this concept and weirdness in the future. Senku being able to fly has genuine impacts on not only his physical body but his mental state, the way others perceive him, and how the story goes. it's not just "oh he has wings" and that's it.
to answer some of the questions people have asked in the comments:
-I imagine Senku's wings as mostly the whole wing having a similar gradient to his hair? As in the base by his back is like white (instead of cream or whatever shade his hair is supposed to be) and the tips are the darkest shade of green and there's a gradient. I'm absolutely trash at drawing (even though I'm an art major lmfao) or I'd sketch it out, since idk if I'm getting across what I picture in my head.
-when I think of inspiration for which bird he is, I don't have a specific one, but I hope some of what I've hinted at in this chapter kind of gives you an idea for what I'm going for. again, I have no idea how to get across what is in my head but as we go on there will be more discussion and details about Senku's wings and other body modifications. There's a handful of times where there's a POV swap purely because I wanted you all to see how others in this world see this version of Senku (one of them is Xeno and I'm particularly proud of that bit heheheh)
-There is no reason why his feathers are colored like his head beyond I wanted them to. literally that's the only reason. There's also no scientific reason why I talk about him dropping feathers all the time. Just pretend he has lots and because he's literally living in the wilderness, there's always some falling out or getting damaged. I just want excuses for him to utilize his own feathers for inventions or making stuff.
-for sizing: I imagine Senku's wingspan as a little bit more than twice his height, around 3.5m or 11'6". Taiju's wingspan is shorter (I don't have the exact measurements down) and his wings are like,,, thicker? sturdier? I imagine them almost like a duck or a goose, not pattern wise but in the sense that they're more water resistant like mentioned in the chapter. I'll elaborate more in the future
-yes this is glazing over the body horror but like... yes. the growth of wings is not gonna be magically painless and fine. it hurts and itches and aches.
ANYWAYS your comments fuel me. my Dr. Stone hyperfixation was actually calming down and I was heading back to One Piece until I decided to upload a One Piece fic, looked my folder stuffed full of Dr. Stone WIPs, and said, "eh why not" and then I got a bunch of support and I am back to obsessing over it.
Disclaimer: I may edit or rework chapters in the future depending on how my writing of the next chunk leading up to Senku's "death" goes. I have a bunch for AFTER that event written, it's literally just leading up to it that's like... not done. we'll see
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Last Edited Wed 29 Oct 2025 01:23AM UTC
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