All was well and fine on that lazy late-summer day. The villagers of Ishigami village were working peacefully, Kinro and Ginro were faithfully guarding the bridge, and as usual, Senku and Chrome were fidgeting around with strange scientific concoctions.
To use up the last bottle of fizzy water, Senku was demonstrating the effects of consuming carbonated water with bananas. He was just getting to his main point when Kohaku burst into the hut.
"Geez!" Chrome spat, "Don't just barge in like-"
"He's here!" Kohaku gasped, "H-he's...they're...they're HERE!"
"Who now?" Chrome asked.
"THE TSUKASA EMPIRE!" she screamed. Her wide eyes expressed a fear more horrifying than ever seen before. The amount her rigid body was trembling also said a lot.
Chrome and Senku gasped in unison. The glass bottle Senku was holding fell to the floor and cracked.
"The Tsukasa Empire?!" Chrome shouted, "Oh, crap!" He turned to Senku with fear-filled eyes. "Didn't you say they'd prolly attack or whatever near spring?!"
Senku clutched at his face with a shaking hand. It was difficult to decipher if his bared teeth were set into a strained grin or an angry frown. A drop of sweat ran down his pale face.
"Taking them for granted was a grave error, I'll admit..," he muttered. He let out his trademark chuckle and glared at the entrance to the hut. "But they better expect that we're ten-billion percent going to put up a fight."
Chrome and Kohaku looked at him expectantly.
"What's the plan?" she inquired. The blades held tightly in her hands quivered.
"Scaring them off with scientific wonders wouldn't be very effective," Senku replied, "Their brawn would easily outdo that. So our only choice is to fight back with a blast of our retro-weapons."
Chrome's face lit up, but remained tense. "Like the sulfuric acid?! We could make bombs out of it or something!"
"Good thinking," Senku said, "Prepare the weapon table!" He turned to Kohaku, who eagerly awaited instructions. "Get all of the young and elderly villagers into the forest and get a defense line up with everyone else. We'll need them to buy time while me and Chrome get the good stuff ready."
"Roger that!" Kahaku said with a nod. She flew out of the hut and hurried to the village to carry out his orders.
After most of the frightened villagers had been lead into the shelter of the woods, Kohaku heard the first audible shouts of the approaching Tsukasa Empire. She darted back to the evacuated village and almost immediately spotted the army cresting the nearest hill. At the head of them marched the tall, brick-wall of a man named Tsukasa.
Horrified, she ran to the group of now-armed villagers lined up at the head of the village.
"We need to fight them off for as long as we can until Senku is able to create something to help us win for now!" she shouted, "Try to elongate your combat with them- and don't kill anyone! Senku said he doesn't want anyone to die!"
While she had never killed anyone in her life, nor did she find the idea tasteful, the concept of a bloodless war was ridiculous. War and conflict meant death and injury. Bloodshed was inevitable in battle.
"That's a bunch of bull!" Magma growled, "I'll kill anyone who threatens this village!"
"Shut up," Kohaku snapped, "The Kingdom of Science has only been faithful to you- trust him for once!"
"They're almost here!" someone cried. A chorus of fear rose from the group of sword and spear wielding villagers. Indeed, the Tsukasa Empire was terrifyingly close now. The facial features of many of them were clear- and all of them looked strong and very scary.
"Kinro! Ginro!" Kohaku yelled to the two brothers guarding the other side of the bridge, "Get over here!"
Ginro instantly began rushing across the bridge, but Kinro snagged him by the back of his shirt.
"Rules are rules!" he thundered, "We are to guard this bridge to -"
"But I don't wanna get impaled by thirty spears at once!" Ginro wailed, "I'm gonna become a wine barrel of blood for them! We won't be able to stop them anyway! Lemme go!"
"Rules are rules-" Kinro boomed, only to be whacked on the side of them head by a rolling green melon. The melon fell to the ground and out popped the rest of Suika's body.
"I don't want you to die!" she squeaked, "Y-you know you'll die if you stand here!"
"Suika's right!" Ginro cried, "W-w-we should get outta here before they get here- which is right now!"
The Tsukasa Empire had arrived. With an unnerving shout, they charged for the bridge. Kinro braced himself and readied his spear, sunlight glinting epicly off his glasses. Ginro let out a screech and snatched up Suika, darting away. He was too fast for Kinro to stop him and made it safely across the bridge to the rest of the villagers.
"Kinro!" Ginro called, "Please!"
But Kinro did not. The Tsukasa Empire came at him all at once, and after he had managed to get five people knocked into the water below, he was slashed across the chest and knocked to the water.
"KINRO!" Ginro screamed.
The Tsukasa Empire advanced. The rickety bridge threatened to snap as it shook from side to side due to the weight of those who traversed it.
"Cut of the bridge before they make it across!" someone screeched. The villagers hurried to chop down the bridge, but Homura was already across. She knocked out the villagers slicing at the bridge and ran into the village.
"What does she want with the village?!" another person asked.
"Maybe it's the villagers!" someone else yelled. "Get her!"
Before anyone could comprehend what was happening, the rest of the Empire had invaded the town and was brutally beating up the villagers. Homura had lit beams from the fires set up in the village and began burning it down. Few of the invaders were stopped, and many of the villagers were hurt.
"Ruri!" Kohaku gasped, remembering her sister. She ran from the battle and into her sister's elevated hut. She had insisted on staying there for a reason Kohaku didn't know. She was horrified to find her sister stuck in a choke-hold by Homura.
"Ko...haku!" Ruri coughed.
"Do you want your sister to live?" Homura asked in her eerily soft voice.
"You can't persuade me into anything!" Kohaku said angrily, "If you don't unhand her, I'll decapitate your ugly pink head!"
Homura just stared at her and tightened her hold on Ruri's neck. The priestess began to choke and cough all the more. Furious, Kohaku held up her blades threateningly.
"Go ahead, then," Homura whispered.
Kohaku bared her teeth and charged at her, blades held high. Homura sidestepped the attack, and the blades grazed the side of Ruri's arm instead. A gentle stream of blood started to flow from the cut.
"Ruri!" Kohaku cried, "I'm sorry! It was an accident!"
"I-I know..!" Ruri choked, "G-get away...before...you get...killed!" She grasped at her attacker's arms around her neck and gasped desperately for air.
Meanwhile, the villagers had split off into two groups: one to combat the fire destroying their town and the other to combat the Empire destroying their people. They soon ran out of water, and several of them were badly burned.
"Where are Senku and Chrome with their weapons?!" some of the villagers worried as they fought with all their might.
"Senku is nothing but a fool," Tsukasa roared above the din of the chaos, "Primitive science alone is no match for the strength of manpower and brawn accompanied by weapons and skill!"
Just then, a massive explosion erupted behind everyone. It rocked the ground and sent a spine-shivering boom through everything. Huge billows of black smoke rose from the impact and flames danced around its base.
"There they are!" someone sighed, relieved.
A few more explosions followed, and soon the entire village was shrouded in thick, black smoke. Blinded and coughing, the Empire staggered around. The rest of the villagers had been ready for something like this and had retreated to a safer location.
While things seemed to be looking up, it was less than an hour later when the end of mankind seemed to be approaching.
Bodies bathing in pools of blood littered the ground, from across the bridge to the border of the woods. Empire members and Ishigami villagers alike lay dead or dying without aid. The entire village was in flames. Screams could be heard from the woods as more slaughter came.
No one could remember how this turn of events had come. Senku found himself in the midst of the flames, shouting orders to relieve the chaos and death while he dryly coughed up the vapors of his chemical weapons and the smoke.
Chrome found an injured Ruri weeping over Kohaku's fallen, bloody body. Gen was nowhere to be found and everyone Senku had come to know so well was either missing or dead on the ground.
All of the weapons he and Chrome had desperately forged were used up on the Empire, and now their materials were scattered and half-demolished. Disarray was all that surrounded them.
The nightmare seemed like it was going to last forever.
The night seemed eternal, and there was no tungsten to light anything up.
Senku woke up with a gasp.
He was laying flat on his back on the ground with his arms and legs spread out. He tried to sit up, but his body burned and flared up in pain, forcing him back down.
The smell of smoke and burnt materials wafted through the air and tickled his nose. Another smell lingered- a metallic, thick scent. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to sit up. When he had managed to, he looked around him. His eyes widened when he took in his surroundings.
Bodies and blood were everywhere. Where huts and baskets had been, there were just black lumps and crumbles. Thin wisps of smoke were coming from the ruins that were still hot. The bridge was dyed red with blood and littered with corpses.
Weapons were jutting out of the ground, sticking out of trees, seered by fire, scattered over the ground, and inside of the corpses. Anger and sorrow burned within him as he struggled onto his feet and began identifying the bodies.
Not one was alive and breathing. He slowly walked around the village ruins and took in everything. He quickly spotted Chrome laying up against a tree. A spear was impaling the very top of his shoulder and sticking him to the trunk of the tree. Strangely, there was no blood where the spear met his shoulder.
"Chrome," Senku urged him awake, "Chrome!" He shook him and grinned when the guy's eyes slammed open.
"YABE!" he shouted. He flew to his feet and slapped into a karate-ninja pose. His shirt tore from the spear and Senku saw that merely the shirt had been impaled by the weapon- not Chrome's flesh.
"Wha- where did everyone go?! What happened?!" Chrome demanded. His head snapped from side to side. When he took in his surroundings, his eyes widened and his shoulder's sagged.
"Oh, crap..," he murmured.
"It's a mess, isn't it?" Senku sighed. He tilted his head back, his nose pointing at the new morning sun. "A dang big mess."
"Wait- Ruri!" Chrome suddenly gasped, "Kohaku! I need to make sure they're okay!" He made a mad dash for the burnt remains of where the priestess hut had been. Senku followed after him and they came to what they were looking for.
"Ruri!" Chrome said, kneeling beside the unconscious Ruri. He quickly checked for her heartbeat and let out a weak sigh of relief. "She's alive." He looked over her body, carefully testing for any kind of internal damage. "It looks like she might've fractured a bone in her leg. Maybe she fell?"
"Maybe," Senku muttered.
"Earlier...before I got knocked out..," Chrome mused, "I saw Ruri crying over Kohaku. Kohaku was bloody and still...I think she might've been d-dead." He shivered at the awful last word he'd spat out.
Senku's expression didn't change. "Maybe."
"Kinro and Ginro!" Chrome gasped, "I think I saw Ginro run for the bridge once it was clear of enemies- he might've tried to save his brother!" He patted Ruri's dry-bloodied arm and ran off towards the bridge. "Watch after her while I'm gone!"
Senku watched Chrome disappear into the distance. He looked down at Ruri for a little while, and then he continued to search among the ruins. Many times, he almost didn't check to see if someone was dead or living, because of how none had been alive thus far but Chrome and Ruri.
Sometime later, he came across someone alive on the edge of the woods with a few cuts, but nothing much else. Her outfit was marked by the Tsukasa Empire's trademark wool fluff across her waist.
She looked rather eastern to him, probably from America or Europe. Whatever the case, he tried to wake her up. She let out a slow groan, but remained asleep. He lifted her across his shoulder and carried her over by Ruri. Then he set her beside her and continued looking.
By the time he had carefully searched the entire village, his Kingdom of Science base, and the forest surrounding everything, he had found four more living people.
He found Ukyo, a member of the Tsukasa Empire with incredible hearing abilities, with a fatal wound alongside a severe arm injury; Taiju and Yuzuriha, who were conscious and together, and lastly, Tsukasa. He didn't dare to wake the monster up, especially since he didn't look too injured. Only his legs seemed hurt.
Once he had gathered all but Tsukasa up, Chrome returned. His face was covered in shadows and his head was hung. No words were exchanged between he and Senku, only a glance answered by a grave shake of the head.
The war had taken its toll on humanity, and now, only eight humans were left from the Kingdom of Science and the Tsukasa Empire.
Welcome to my first Dr. Stone fic: Let Natural Science Prevail! I saw this anime in sub, so if you don't understand the times they say "Hai!" or say "Guresu" instead of "Grace", you'll have to excuse that as Japanese shenanigans. Footnotes are provided to translate.
*YABE (Yah-bay) is a phrase constantly used by Chrome, meaning "Oh crap" and such.
Disclaimer, I will probably write Senku's character terribly. Bare with me please!
Thanks for reading and tune in for more chapters!