When suddenly an image flashed up blindingly white before his eyes, Senku didn't know what to make of it. The rational part of his mind told him that it was probably the last of his braincells dying a dog's death, causing whatever information was stored in them to flare up before burning out like a candle.

The usually surpressed, timid part which was his hope suggested he was dead and maybe went to heaven.

Then came the scientist, declaring how it wasn't possible that heaven existed in the first place. A sick old man's fantasy, nothing more. How was heaven even supposed to work? Energy had no form, how would people see each other? Even if it did exist beyond the ability of the human mind's grasp, how many people would be there by now? What about animals? Microbes?

It was somewhere between irritating and interesting to watch his personality crumple like this. Senku just leaned back - or thought he did - and enjoyed the show, the two parts not being himself (or maybe they were?) fighting over what was possibly real. The light hadn't moved though, for all he knew, they were standing in a tunnel. How cliche'd. What was he to decide now, wether to step into he proverbial light or not? Was there even any difference? His body had long since died off and even if he could go back, he'd be stuck in a petrified corpse. Even if they released him from the state, all they'd have would be a corpse - with his soul stuck inside. The human body didn't just return to life just because a soul or whatever went into it.. Once the cells ceased to function, they'd be dead meat.

So he had no intention of going back. Not a reasonable solution after all. Not logical either. So he went to go into the light - not surprised about the fact his other two aspects had vanished the moment he'd made his decision. Maybe his subconscious had figured it out long before he had. That's how the human mind worked at times - there was no such thing as a free will. It was about the only psychological thing he could comprehend; cause it made sense. The brain was nothing but a complex computer. Pull a few plugs and it will stop working. There were no random decisions, no real emotions rather than wildly clicking switches and triggers. Thus he was convinced the second he touched the light, he'd either run straight into a wall or be gone for good. His computer was shutting down, so all that was left at this point was for the LEDs to go out. But what was the point of him seeing this? He'd rather have stayed unconscious and died that way..

A shuffling sound made him flinch and look around. It came from the opposite direction. A sniffling noise and someone speaking followed suit. He couldn't quite make out any words, as they came in a blurred mush, so he was half about to ignore the irritating thing, when one of the words came clear.

"Senku..", said the voice and with a twinge around his heart he realised it was Taiju. Was that a memory too?

"Come back, man.. You can't just die on us.." He sounded distressed. The youth in question snorted. Little too late for that kind of wishful thinking.. A shaking sensation on his left shoulder which he tried to get rid off, to no success. Made sense; his body, being all dead and stuff, wouldn't move no matter what he did.

A nauseating beeping sound shrilled through his head, one long, hard beep. He'd heard it somewhere. The zero line. Someone's heart had stopped beating. Now this didn't make any sense. They hadn't researched displays yet, much less heart monitors. Part of him wanted to go back just to confront whoever had invented this in the time he was out, the part that wasn't rational, the part that was a hopeless (or too hopeful) case. Or maybe it was just his sense of hearing giving up the last efforts, probably more reasonable.

"Go back, both of you!" Now this voice didn't seem famil-...

A sharp jolt of pain went through him and had him actually cry out in both shock and discomfort, stumble back and hold his chest area. Was this part of brain death? The zero-line sound kept going and he felt incredibly lightheaded.

"No good. Gotta try again!", came that unknown voice anew, with it the excrutiating pain of thousand daggers being run through his torso simultaneously. Then there was a pause in the beeping before going into a frantic rhytm, calming down after a moment. As if it had been her who'd gone through nightmare-inducing pain, Yuzuriha's voice cried out before her light footsteps ran away, were followed by clumsy, heavy ones and became silent.

Everything became very silent, almost peaceful. Final.

As Senku looked around, his surroundings already had started to dim into an unforgiving black.

"Heh, called it", he smiled bitterly and waited for the inevitable.


Pain was the first thing coming back to him.

That wasn't the weirdest part though; the fact anything could come back was unsettling. He knew he'd just crossed the point of no return - or thought so at least - so where was the sensual input coming from?

He did the one thing that should clear everything up. At least, tried to. Half succeeded. What little he could see through barely cooperative eyes wasn't what he'd expected.

The ceiling did look nothing like the huts he had gotten used to. The light wasn't anything like he'd known for months either. Then that harsh, white, cold light, shining directly into his half open eyes. Someone forced one of them open to face the blinding brightness, then shone into the other, leaving a black spot in the periphery of the first. A blurry sight was all he had when the other eye wasn't burned any longer. He almost regretted moving in the first place.

"Ishigami-kun, wakey-wakey!", said someone he didn't recognise. Wait, maybe not quite right. That voice.. last time he'd heard it, pain had followed. Growling unwillingly he tried looking at the person. A white blob was all he could see right now, some large figure standing so far above him he might as well float. An imposing aura about him, a very broad blob too. Heh, so god existed all along. Senku felt the corners of his lips twist themselves into a cruel, ironic smile - little did he know that all it was, was the feeling of it, no outer reaction whatsoever. He continued to muse; Was he being sent to hell for being a man of science, an atheist of all things? Would explain the torture. Wouldn't explain what god would be doing in such a place, much less inflicting the punishment.

Slowly his sight became more clear and he could see features. A white beard, glasses, long white coat. A name tag which he couldn't quite read. Some kind of doctor..? Not god then? Of course not, heaven and hell were just constructs anyway..

"Can you hear me, Ishigami-kun?", inquired the man in white, snapping something loudly next to his left ear, which felt terrible. His spiky-haired head turned away and a laugh ensued, much to the horror of the two students staring at him.

"No need to worry. This is some serious progress. Give it a few hours and he may be responsive"

"Really?!" Taiju, always loud. Damnit. Wait.. if he was dead, what was the big oaf doing here?

"That's great! I'm so relieved.." Yuzuriha, less loud but *hell*.. her high pitched voice was almost worse than Taiju's roaring. So, not dead. It wouldn't make sense to have both of them here, with him, if he was actually a goner. The doctor, or so Senku assumed, went on.

"But I can't tell if there's any permanent damage. We will have to do some more tests. His pupil reaction seems fine so far, a little delayed but that's to be expected, given the circumstances", the doctor further rambled along. Some kind of joyful sounds came from the other two. Circumstances?, Senku thought. Well.. he assumed almost dying had that effect on a person.. hah, how was that for optimism? Already accepting the slim chance of this being real..

The doctor then left and it became blissfully quiet once again.

Without even noticing, he'd drifted off back into sleep.


In the midst of dreaming, it suddenly hit him.

This wasn't the stone world he'd grown accostumed to, was it?!

The sheer weirdness of that made him sit up straight and suddenly, in fact suddenly enough for someone - from the pitch, it was Yuzuriha - to squeak and a chair to fall over with much noise, but Senku didn't care. He stared ahead, pale as a ghost, as reality made itself quite known to him, in the form of a persistent nausea that had him back on his back in no time. So now the ceiling was subject to his pointed stare as he tried figuring out .. well, where to start?

"Senku-kun!", called someone next to him, but he paid no attention. Not until a gentle hand touched his forehead and he looked at the person the hand belonged to. Said person flinched back at his gaze, but smiled right afterwards.

"We were worried. You were asleep for so long..", Yuzuriha said, going only to fetch the chair and sit down next to his bed. Taiju was nowhere in sight, which was weird considering his character. Senku was about to ask, when the girl next to him spoke up.

"Taiju-kun got a notice.. his grandma is also sick.. he will be back soon", she said with a sad smile. He nodded, then was about to ask what happened, when Yuzuriha went on.

"You want to know why you're here, right?", she inquired, stupifying him once again by reading his thoughts. Then again, she'd always been empathic.. at least in the stone world. Back before that incident, had she been this way too?

".. the whole physics room is destroyed. They closed the school for a while for fear of it breaking down in places. It seems something caught on fire and exploded. Three or four of our friends have been hurt, but you were the only one unconscious..", she began but had to stop to wipe off a stray tear. It was affecting her deeply, recalling these events. "With all the blood we thought.." Senku lowered his eyes, was about to mutter an apology, but she shook her head, smiling once again, her eyes still wet.

"I'm just glad you're okay!"


Though 'okay' was probably an overstatement.

The following days Senku tried leaving the bed several times on his own, only to find walking so incredibly difficult he finally gave up. Two times he fell, only to have a nurse take him back to bed. Even peeing required assistance, as embarrassing as it was. Why was he so weak? This couldn't be the results of two weeks resting, could it? He'd read up on muscle atrophy and this was nowhere the critical time. He should be able to at least move around, even if not for long!

So he did the one thing coming to mind when faced with a problem he didn't understand; look for rules. For facts to base a thesis on. What could be wrong? Starting from the brain, some hemathome maybe. That would be the worst scenario, as these took ages to heal and a long rehabilitation. Concussion was possible too, though after two weeks, it should be nearly gone. Plus, there weren't any headaches or sickness either, except for the general weakness. The neck could be an issue, especially since he didn't know how he'd fallen and much more importantly, what he'd landed on. A slightly deranged vertebra could easily push on one or multiple nerves and weaken the signal from brain to muscles. Actually, any part of the spine could be to blame there. His theory didn't explain why he could easily feel anything down to the toes though. If nerves were damaged, there'd be tingling in the lower extremities.

It just didn't add up. Maybe it was just the bloodsugar. Judging from the IV drop still clinging to his arm, he'd been forcefed. These solutions contained minerals, vitamins and to a certain degree calories rich substances as fat and proteins, a little sugar, but not much. Most of it was fluid and natrium in order to sustain a lifesupporting bloodpressure in a non-moving patient. He wasn't that hungry though.

Then again, lieing in bed for over two weeks did one or two things to your blood circulation. Maybe he'd gone too fast, tried moving right after jumping out of bed, what a fool he was.. The easiest solution. He could slap himself.

Then the door to his room opened and in came three people; a nurse, followed by two people he couldn't have forgotten if he tried.

First, his mother, smiling gently.

Last his father, Mr "I'd collect grains of platinum to help a random scientist out". Despite himself, Senku felt some tears well up; he hadn't seen his parents for over 3700 years. Though he'd never admit, he'd missed the both of them dearly.

"What's wrong, sweetie?", said mother in a voice like milk cream, sitting on a chair next to the bed her son laid on, taking his one hand into both of hers, careful of the needle. "You're shaking, are you cold? Honey, please close the window!"

"N-no mom, it's alright..", Senku mutterted, putting his other hand on top of hers. "It's alright"

"Are you sure?", his father piped in. "It's pretty cold outside today"

"Be my guest", Senku replied with a smile, changing his opinion rather quickly. Nothing should disturb this moment, not even one millimeter of a fight about trivial things.

But there still was this nagging feeling - something didn't seem right there. Not at all! Though figuring out what it was seemed like an impossible feat. His head felt like a block of clay inside-out, thinking about certain aspects just didn't work. Still he had the feeling it was important he found out what was bothering him, somehow it felt like a neccessity to do so. Neccessity - for what? If this was a dream, all that'd happen would be him waking up. And he wasn't exactly certain he even wanted to. Being here with both his parents felt so - natural. Good. They belonged here with him and he belonged to them. Soon he'd return to school, to his well-accostumed everyday-routine, blow everyone's minds with his superior knowledge and nag Taiju to finally confess his feelings to Yuzuriha - in a fully uninterested way, that is.

Still the feeling didn't go away.

Something was off, terribly so. And it just happened to enter his room.