Sunlight kisses the dredges of slumber away as Taiju squints his eyes in the dimness of the hut, clearing his throat as a hand palms his face to wake himself up. Instead of a flat white ceiling he's looking at wooden boards with flickers of light filtering through. He stares in confusion as he scratches his chest, pausing when he snags on his clothes. They feel different than the usual pajamas he wears.
Another thing that confuses him is the fact that he woke up on his own. Normally, Senkū or Byakuya would enter the room to dump a bucket of ice cold water on him to get him out of bed, but neither have done that yet, which he finds to be strange considering they are a pair of evil goblins in the morning. Looking to the side and catching sight of the nest and Senkū, the past day's events return quickly and he closes his eyes as he slumps over, a wave of sorrow engulfing his being.
"I see… It wasn't a dream after all. You really are…"
The strange creep of wrongness from last night's revelations still lingers in the air, his mind latching onto it without prompting. His best friend was robbed of his wings, trapped on land where death waits at every turn.
"It was nearing dusk when I tried to fly to a branch to sleep for the night, but I… my wings…"
"I'm grounded."
He shivers and shakes his head to make those chilling words go away, taking stock of his position in the nest in a bid to distract himself. He's sprawled halfway out of the bedding, one wing dragging across the dusty floorboards while the other one drapes itself over Senkū like a fluffy blanket. The air is pleasantly warm with only a hint of the chill that crept in the previous night and Taiju sits up, yawning. Most of the furs keeping him warm pool at his waist in fuzzy waves, tickling the skin of his belly. He smacks his lips, face twisting in distaste from the dryness it leaves.
Palming his face to rid the bit of sleep trying to drag him back, he glances at the sliver of forest peeking through the tarp in surprise, taking in the soft gold glaze shining off the dew blanketing the reds and yellows.
"Morning already? It feels like the night went by too fast."
A shuffle makes him look back to Senkū, who's still sleeping quietly, curled in a ball under his wing with his face tense but peaceful with his cheek pressing into brown plumage. Several layers of furs bunch around him and Taiju hopes he won't wake when he inevitably has to leave the hut to start the day.
A day that is radically different to what he's used to. No more buildings, no people roaming around discussing the latest media scoop, no safe haven to return to every day after a long day of school—so much he's taken for granted now gone. Nothing but a haze of memories to remember them by.
He vowed to help Senkū in any way he can, after all, but he wonders how the younger boy managed to face the sobering truth of humanity's fate every day without another human face to confide his worries to.
Sighing he looks back to Senkū, raking his eyes over him as he props an arm over a raised knee. Other than the ghastly scar on his leg, the lichtenberg scars covering a good portion of Senkū's right side, and the disabled wings, he has no idea what else lies beneath the leather, what marks might be tracing the fragile skin that is too light for it to be normal, what internal damage may be inhibiting the boy's day to day life. It hurts to see so little of what's happened to his best friend in his absence, even if Senkū wishes to conceal it from him for his sake.
Taiju shivers a bit as a draft blows in from outside.
"It's getting cold…" he notes, spotting the slight shine of frost coating the outer wooden boards.
Moving the mountain of fur pelts off his feet and carefully removing his wing from Senkū he piles the furs on the smaller boy, cocooning him like one would do to a cat with a blanket. Now only his hair and a closed eyelid peek out from the folds and Taiju restrains the urge to hug him when he nuzzles into the furs, some of the tension easing out of his shoulders.
He cards a few fingers through Senkū's hair and lets a fond smile stretch his lips as the younger boy's face relaxes, the stress lines between his brows softening.
Fluttering his wings, Taiju leaves the safety of the hut to bask in the early morning sun, stretching his arms and legs to prepare for the day ahead. He cracks his back and glides to the ground with a whisper of feathers, landing near the corpse of the wolf Senkū killed the night before with a minuscule amount of apprehension.
Its face is frozen in a vicious snarl, cloudy gold eyes with pupils as small as pinpricks as its jaws remain wide open, displaying the sharp teeth barely concealed by its lips. Taiju takes a moment to register its size, bigger than any regular wolf should look like, paws with dagger-like claws and rippling muscle beneath its fur. It looks like a more frightening version of a wolf mixed with a few traits from a bear and Taiju wonders if the species somehow developed new traits along the years.
Blood weeps from the jagged laceration carved into its brain, staining its rich brown fur crimson and exposing bits of gray matter.
The sight almost makes Taiju nauseous.
When Senkū killed it the night before, his face was unrecognizable to him. Never has he ever witnessed his best friend look as feral as he did in that one, harrowing moment in time and he prays to never see it again. Senkū isn't meant to have such an expression. He's supposed to be snarky and blunt, often abrasive when diturbed, but never wild or impulsive.
Taiju still has to have a long talk with him to figure out the missing blanks in the six months he's missed. He's only aware of the bare bones and that alone aggravates Taiju enough he wants to frown.
Shaking his head he flaps up to the hut and quietly fumbles around in search of a stone axe and a spear before heading out, finding them lying on a dried pelt in a neat line near the back where more baskets litter the floor. He grabs one of each and ties a few leather sacks to his belt in case he finds anything he can collect besides mushrooms and fruit, taking one large empty basket with straps for the arms. He stares at it and adjusts the straps to fit around his shoulders, maneuvering his wings to slip through. Carefully creeping outside with a final glance to his friend, he flutters to the ground and crouches near the dead wolf.
He pauses and brings hand to his chin. "I should let him know what I'm doing before I go. A message to tell him I'm foraging!"
He looks down and grins. The ground should be perfect and if he makes big enough letters Senkū is sure to notice without worrying about where he went should the scientist awaken in his absence.
He crouches and dips his fingers in the loose earth, writing a brief message alongside a loopy drawing of his own face, just to reassure that yes, it's Taiju, and he isn't far. Done with that, he takes the carcass and moves it near the firepit so they can skin it after Taiju returns.
He quickly sprints to the edge of the forest where he can take off without disturbing Senkū, double checking his things to make sure he doesn't need to come back too soon before taking to the skies with a powerful snap of his wings.
The air feels slightly warm with the occasional bite of cold whipping his face, his feathers feeling out as he glides lower, curving his wings to drift along the currents with a bit of a wobble in his form. With only a few clouds shadowing the land Taiju thinks it's the perfect time to get what he needs done.
Taiju's first stop of the day is the camphor tree protecting Yuzuriha, wanting to see her for a moment before he starts foraging. He carefully touches down in front of her, gazing at her lovingly as he regales her with his latest findings, spotting some berries growing in the vicinity that he thinks Senkū might eat with relative ease once he finishes. He turns back to the statue and smiles, eyes alight with adoration.
"Hello again, Yuzuriha! I managed to find Senkū after I read his message. Can you believe he built this really big hut out of logs and vines? It's really cool, and he did it all by himself! I would've helped if I was there, but…" he trails, his enthusiasm dimming.
Thin shoulders shake in his hold, eerily silent sobs quake through Senkū's body, wings tucked tightly against his back.
"I'm grounded."
The shaking is the only thing stopping Taiju from screaming to the world how unfair it is for taking away something so precious from Senkū.
Her statue is silent, but he gets the feeling she's watching even though the idea is silly.
"At first, I was overjoyed. He's alive! But, then he told me a bit about the six months he's been alone. Alone with no one there to talk to or help. He's been hurt before—he said something about animals before wolves tried to attack us. Then he… he attacked them back. He killed one of them just like that! I've never seen him act like that before. It scares me that there's something even more wrong going on he won't tell me about. Then he—he broke down in my arms, and it hurt to see him like that, Yuzu. I feel like I failed him, and he's been hurt because I wasn't there for him."
A few birds squawk and fly off in the distance as wind rustles the trees and Taiju closes his eyes as the urge to cry nearly overwhelms him, like a tidal wave of emotions beating against the dam that is his control. He fights it, though not without a sniffle.
"He's hurt bad. He has scars on his leg—he hasn't told me where that one came from, and—" he cards a hand through his hair. "I have a feeling there's so much more I'm missing. More than what Senkū is telling me, and I'm worried."
Looking into her unseeing eyes, he feels the thrum of love and affection well in his heart, yet also the longing accompanying those wonderful feelings that never died in the thousands of years trapped in darkness. Yuzuriha''s still trapped in her stone prison and Taiju was just lucky to have broken free not too long after Senkū did. He wonders if she's sleeping or still fighting to stay awake. A small grin lights his face and he lightly hugs her, careful to not disturb her or else she might shift from her position. He wouldn't want her to get damaged, now does he?
"It's okay," he nods. "I'll wait for you. We'll wait for you. It wouldn't be the same without you here keeping us in check, ha ha!"
He doesn't stay very long after saying those precious words, afraid something will happen to Senkū while he's sleeping alone in his hut. He gives Yuzuriha one last loving glance and turns to take off to the skies, face set in determination.
His second stop is the cliffside where he spent some time looking at the statues, but he finds nothing of use there, only rocks and the occasional squirrel. A few beats of his wings finds him in a grove with apples and berries and his face lights up. Though apples aren't very filling he fills a fourth of his basket with them. Maybe Senkū can make juice out of them?
The berries are surprisingly still sweet even after 3,719 years, though when he spots what looks like a mutated lemon he bails when the intensely grotesque flavor nearly Sears his tongue and cheeks.
Moving deeper into unknown territory, he wanders off to the denser part of the forest to check for food. His eyes squint and glare at the trees, pouting when he can't spot anything edible through the canopy of warm colors blending together like a painting. He glides lower, feathers brushing leaves as he ducks under leaf-cover. When he finds a cluster of mushrooms, Taiju lands and stares at the bulbous red and white caps.
He tilts his head, questioning whether to pick them or not. "These are edible, right?" He honestly doesn't know; there are so many different varieties of mushrooms he's lost as to which are safe to eat. Though the one he holds looks edible, it could be bad. He shrugs, deftly harvesting them, a wondrous grin spreading on his face as he recalls something from the Modern Era.
"Ooh! It looks like the mushrooms from Mario!"
These are definitely safe!
Senkū would definitely love the reference and his findings. Mushrooms are excellent for soups, and if he can find some more then he can help feed both of them a lot more than what Senkū has stored away. He gathers what he can grab, tossing his prizes in the basket much like a child does with their toys. His wings twitch and curl in delight when he finds some plants he vaguely remembers are edible, picking those to put in a separate pouch. Berries, eggs, and the occasional mushroom is picked and packed away in his ever-growing basket as he hums a tune to match his pace.
Then a thought comes up that has him pause in his foraging frenzy.
Senkū will be sleeping a lot, and without a doctor he can't get medicine! I'll have to make sure he doesn't get sick!
Three-quarters of a basket full and Taiju heads to the river, dismissing the idea of visiting the beach even though it's not very far from their campsite. He swoops down to catch fish, going through trial and error to catch two decent-sized Iwame trout. He gently deposits them in the basket and scours the riverside for anything else he can find.
Hearing a squeal, his head snaps over to a group of boars, sniffling along the ground at a slow pace. He slowly crouches and sits the basket down before springing with a snap of feathers and snatching a piglet, grabbing the basket to take off before he's gored by the adult boars' tusks.
"I'm sorry, but my friend needs this!"
By the time he fills the basket and two of his three pouches he calls it a day to return to camp,
pride swelling in his chest as he carefully balances his bounty while keeping steady course through the winds, the sun at its highest point painting his shadow on the earth. He dives once the camp is in sight.
"There's the camp!" He grins, flapping harder as gravity helps him build speed. That grin promptly drops when he sees a head of white and green peeking through the trees, arms full of logs. "Senkū? Why is he awake?!"
A few wing thrusts propels him forward, spooking Senkū so much he drops his load with a yell. Taiju lands with a rumble and he skids to a stop, kicking up dust and turning around with a whiplash to stare at Senkū who looks back with feathers in such disarray they look more like a fuzzy ball put through a drier.
"I'm sorry I scared you, Senkū! I was trying to get back as fast as I could before you woke up!"
Senkū stares at him with an intense gaze, shadows lurking in ruby eyes, shoulders tense and hunched forward, a hand grasping the handle of his sheathed stone axe. He seems to snap out of it when he blinks and the dark glaze lightens from his eyes when something akin to relief overcomes them. Senkū sighs as he lets go of the axe's handle, his feathers gradually smoothing out.
"Don't—" Senkū begins, palming his face. "Don't do that, Taiju."
"Right," Taiju nods, looking away as guilt floods his veins. He looks back up when he hears shuffling and finds Senkū attempting to pile the wood back in his arms. He shoots up and lowers his basket, grabbing the wood from Senkū's grasp to haul on a muscled shoulder. He looks down at Senkū, the sun accenting the fact that he's breathing a little harder than normal, the trembling from his shoulders and arms all too visible even to Taiju. It makes Taiju's chest tighten. Senkū is trying too hard, so hard that he's hurting himself in the process. If he doesn't stop the bullheaded teen he'll destroy himself soon enough.
"Senkū, why are you pushing yourself? I can do it for you!"
Senkū looks away with a pinched brow, eyes directing themselves away from the taller teen.
Taiju frowns. "I told you yesterday, Senkū—no matter what happens, I'm here to help. You know you can trust me."
An irritated growl leaves Senkū's throat, which Taiju easily translates into "I have no idea how to say something without sounding like an asshole, but please leave me the hell alone" growl. Of course, he has no intention of letting the boy get away with overexerting himself beyond what he's gone through for six months already. If he has the choice, Taiju would rather tie him in rope and force him to sleep in the safety of the hut.
If bubblewrap still existed he would use it on Senkū and then he'd tie him down to rest for a few days.
"I still have things to get done, you big oaf. I can't lie around, else no progress can be made."
"Senkū, you've done enough already. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it! I'm the brawns after all!" He grins excitedly at Senkū who looks like he wants nothing more than to kick him.
"You know, I'll happily kick your ass once I actually have the capacity to form a coherent thought process," he growls. He stares at Taiju with a grimace. The taller teen winces in turn. Then Senkū sighs. He rests his hands on his hips and leans forward slightly, causing Taiju to blink at the unfamiliar posture.
Senkū points at Taiju with a frown. "Just a nap. Otherwise nothing gets done. I doubt you'll even give me a choice."
Taiju grins. "I have no idea what the first part means in general but you're right, I'm not letting you get away with overworking yourself."
Rudely, Senkū scoffs. "I'll live."
Taiju ignores the barb and protests, eyes wide in concern. "Senkū, that might be the case but you're shaking! Six months? Making all this? It's too much!"
"Shut up," Senkū drawls, rubbing an ear, but his eyebags look darker and his eyes take an unfocused glaze as he sluggishly walks away, heading toward a basket filled with herbs. Taiju tags along, arms reaching out for him in case the teen collapses.
"Senkū, please, take a break."
"I said no."
"At least rest for a bit?"
"I've already rested enough last night, Taiju. Don't talk me out of it."
Taiju frowns, dropping his hands as Senkū waddles over to his lab. Clenching his hands, he approaches Senkū with swift strides and scoops the startled scientist in one move, cradling him in his arms. Ignoring the teen's squirming, he marches away from the lab to fly up to the hut.
"Sorry, but I'm not watching you hurt yourself when you need to rest. A few hours of sleep isn't enough."
"You dunderheaded amoeba! Let me down!"
Taiju pauses and looks at Senkū incredulously.
A dunderheaded amoeba?! Of all the blunt name-calling and insults that swirl in Senkū's head, that has to be the tamest one by far! A pit of worry digs in his stomach as Senkū tries to ignore Taiju.
"You really need to sleep if you're using that old insult, Senkū."
"Taiju…" Senkū growls out, scowling at him as Taiju enters the hut to deposit him into the nest.
"No, I'm serious," Taiju replies as he sits with his legs crossed, facing Senkū who sits similarly on a mound of furs. "If you're using an insult from 5th grade then you're feeling worse than you actually are."
"And what does that have to entail? I am more than capable in surviving," Senkū hisses, sounding as if Taiju offended him.
"And I know that," Taiju nods, unruffled even as Senkū's agitation rises. Grinning, Taiju lifts a hand to card through gravity-defying locks as fondness makes itself known.
Senkū stills as Taiju stares back, a wall of stubborn determination and concern keeping him there. He then looks at his arms, finding them shaking and trembling at the slightest twitch of a muscle. He sighs and rubs his forehead, looking even more tired as his shoulders drop. Taiju takes it as his win when the teen doesn't protest any further.
Sunset soon approaches, the glazing orange light hiking higher up trees as time crawls on. Taiju busies himself with gathering firewood while Senkū slumbers on, with firm orders to wake him once he sets up the fire in the pit. Despite more protests from the taller boy, Senkū adamantly demanded to be awoken by dinnertime so he can spare themselves from Taiju's cooking. Hilariously enough, they both know Senkū can be just as bad. The funniest memory in relation to Senkū's inability to cook beyond simple recipes is of the cake he tried to bake for Byakuya one time when he was 13, and the thing that emerged from the oven looked more like a melted mummy dripping in chocolate than a two-layered cake.
Taiju shivers as the feeling of nausea he experienced returns with full force. Dark times, those were.
He finds enough wood to set up the pit once the sun bridges the horizon, its light almost entirely gone as the skies bleed blood-orange, propping the logs together and tying it all with rope to keep them upright. He pauses and drags over a few of the food baskets to sit near the log Senkū uses to sit on.
"There," Taiju smiles as he takes in his handiwork, nodding to himself. Then he remembers he needs to wake Senkū or he'd get cranky. "Oh, I better wake up Senkū…"
Flying up to the hut, he parts the tarp and quietly pads inside, finding Senkū hiding beneath the mound of furs where Taiju last left him. The atmosphere is—for a lack of a better word—tense, somewhat oppressive yet feeling like a coiled spring is about to set off. His feathers fluff a little in apprehension yet he doesn't quite know as to why.
Now for the hard part. With how strange Senkū's behavior is compared to before, he has no indication as to whether or not he will react negatively. Usually, he simply jumps on the teen without a lick of remorse, indulging himself to produce a seething Senkū who'll start swearing like a sailor when caught off guard. However, he doesn't know how that will affect him now and he's hesitant on what approach would be the least startling.
He settles for poking.
Slowly, Taiju creeps close to the nest and reaches over the fur mound, peeling away a few of them to see the teen's face, eyes firmly closed, lips settled in a scowl.
Okay, that's normal.
Feeling bold, he waits a few seconds, debating whether or not this is a good idea before he decides to just do it and get Senkū out of the nest. He carefully pokes Senkū's cheek and waits, frowning when he only gets a low growl. A warning to back off. Taiju frowns before poking him much more firmly and the next second he finds himself slamming into the floor, something hard and sharp crushing his throat. He looks down to find unfocused red eyes glaring into the depths of his soul.
"Senkū! Calm down, it's me! Taiju!"
Senkū stutters to a halt, his eyes widening as the fog of sleep slips away. He looks at Taiju like he suddenly appeared out of thin air before noticing the chert dagger crushing the taller teen's throat. He retracts the dagger and stumbles back, legs giving away from shock. Taiju sits up in alarm as Senkū cries out, his feathers puffing out as he roughly lands on his side at the last second. Taiju notices he's avoided falling directly on his left wing.
"Hey," Taiju whispers, hands reaching out to comfort Senkū as the boy sits up, rubbing his side. His ruby eyes stare at him with a well of remorse and self-loathing that Taiju's chest tightens.
"It's okay. It's just me."
Senkū narrows his eyes and glares down at the floor, shoulders hiking up to his ears.
This, unfortunately, is not normal.
They sit on the floor in silence for a few minutes, Senkū recovering from the rapid spell of emotions while Taiju summons up the confidence to apologize, to make up for scaring the scientist more than he realizes before the awkwardness turns into something worse. When Senkū's eyes drag themselves back to match his gaze, Taiju offers a small smile, one that, for all its sincerity, is chipping slightly at the edges. Senkū frowns, gaze all-knowing even if he doesn't utter a word.
Just as Senkū can't hide anything from Taiju, the same applies to him hiding anything from Senkū—the dilemma to this dynamic, however, are the changes in Senkū that developed during his isolated half-year that proves to make even interactions hard to overcome. Six months apart, and only half of Senkū is the same as the old one.
Taiju so desperately wants to dismiss the awkward air between them.
"What is it, Taiju?"
Taiju snaps to attention, wincing at the drowsiness that drags Senkū's words down. He sighs and rubs his head.
"You wanted me to wake you up before the sun goes all the way down—I just didn't think you'd react the way you did. I thought poking you would've been alright."
Senkū sighs and cracks his neck, ignoring how Taiju raises an eyebrow at the action. "Well, better I wake up and get started on dinner. Whatever questions you have will be answered later."
Taiju furrows his brows at the dejected, tired tone. "You don't need to tell me everything if it makes you uncomfortable, Senkū. I won't force you on that."
Senkū sighs and picks himself off the ground, wings fluffing up in irritation before smoothing over. He glances at Taiju looking more tired than the previous night, if that's possible.
Taiju immediately notices the crease in between his brows, there one second and gone the next. Even from just his feathers fluffing up it seems to hurt him enough to subtly react and Taiju doesn't know how to soothe his best friend's pain, not when he is just as clueless as to why they became that way. He knows exactly when Senkū found out, but neither know how they became this way or what caused it. For the time being, Senkū will need protection even if the younger boy loathes being coddled.
"Right, I shouldn't have yelled at you. I'm just not in the best condition as of right now."
Taiju feels the sting of sorrow in his heart hearing those words. They sound too much like accepting one's fate with defeat; something Senkū isn't known for in all the years they've known each other, and it's this moment that he truly takes in Senkū's appearance—without the rose-tinted glasses comprising of the hope his friend hasn't been through death-defying danger and the looming fact that Senkū may have suffered damage that may be irreparable. He looks much skinnier despite his musculature, and he's seen how his limbs tremble with the simple effort of holding an axe or walking a short distance without wobbling. The worrying part in all this is the usual lack of stamina, only now it seems to be worse than before.
It scares him to think that Senkū may as well have been wasting away even though he's done his best to provide for himself.
"Stop giving me those pitying looks, oaf. It's 10 billion percent pissing me off."
Taiju flushes.
Another sigh leaves Senkū. "Don't worry about it. I'll be fine."
"You don't look like you're well enough. I can cook tonight if it helps."
Senkū lets out a snort as he glances away, shoulders hiking. Taiju blinks, wondering why the teen is acting that way before it dawns on him and he whines loudly.
"Oh c'mon, Senkū—don't be so mean!" He tries to snag Senkū by the collar but the smaller teen ducks, bright locks of hair slipping through his fingers.
The shorter teen snorts even more. "Yeah, no. Ain't havin' it." He evades Taiju's reach to slither through the opening, dodging Taiju's swiping as the taller boy tries to stop him, cheeks flushing bright pink as Senkū snorts louder.
"I'm not that bad! I've never burned mushrooms!"
"Yes, you have! You nearly burned down our kitchen just boiling water! How is it possible that a human being is even capable of pulling off such a feat when it's only heating up water?"
"C'mon, don't be like that. It was one time!"
"One time too many! I got in trouble because of you," Senkū groans as he ducks beneath a tree root leaving Taiju to pause and blink from sheer astonishment.
"What the—?"
"Too slow, Taiju." Seeing the other pop out from the other side with a vulpine grin, his eyes free of the dark shadows that clung to them mere moments ago, Taiju doesn't stay frozen for long, grinning and flaring his wings. He laughs when Senkū loses the grin to shake his head.
"No—no, no. Taiju, don't you even dare—!"
Taiju swoops up and then sharply dives to pluck Senkū from the ground, laughing when the scientist threatens to throat-punch him for the sheer audacity of manhandling him again. Taiju yelps when he almost drops Senkū, who growls and increases his wiggling.
"Relax, Senkū—it's a nice night. Please don't get mad?"
"It would be nice if you didn't hold me like some wretched damsel!"
Taiju pouts. "But then who'd be your knight in shining armor?"
Senkū rolls his eyes and mock-gags. "The Michelin Man," he throws back, sarcasm imbued in every word.
Taiju laughs aloud, feeling satisfaction that the boy isn't dwelling in the recesses of his mind. In fact, he feels pride for distracting him long enough for some of his snark to temporarily reemerge. He holds Senkū tighter and settles for a slow glide around the fire a few meters from the ground, under the faint glow of the moon and the blinking of stars.
"Then I'll just have to be there so you don't get run over!"
Senkū perseveres for a few minutes more until he stops hitting Taiju soon after the stupid comment made itself known, not wanting to admit his hits are more or less toddler taps against the powerful ridges that are his muscles. He scowls and crosses his arms making no mention to Taiju that the position he's in is rather undignified, if a bit mortifying.
"Whatever," Senkū breathes out, his eyes unwittingly flicking upwards at the emerging stars and constellations dotting the vast darkness that is space, blinking at him with their soft, flickering lights. He can vaguely make out the distant orange dot that is Mars and he wonders, if under different circumstances, humanity would have colonized Mars and several other planets by the time the 5,700th year had come by. What technologies could have been discovered or created that would have furthered humanity's development. It leaves a feeling similar to mourning a loss, and even though he wouldn't've been alive to see it, it still leaves a bitterness centered around the Green Light and the possibility of its activation being caused by some catalyst or person.
Yet, he has no answers for his queries—only hypotheses and nothing to cross-reference them.
When they land by the firepit, Senkū blinks to get out of his head, wiggling himself out of Taiju's hold with a growl. He ignores Taiju's boastful laugh when his wings fluff up indignantly.
With Taiju watching over him, he focuses on sticking mushrooms on sticks when he catches something red and white peeking out from the rest of the mushrooms.
Well, isn't that suspicious.
He yanks the basket closer and sits down, idly dragging two more baskets on either side of him. Taiju watches with confusion until he squawks as Senkū tosses some mushrooms in the "bad" pile, and the good ones on the other pile.
"Wait—why are you throwing most of them away?!"
"Idiot! You, simply put, tossed wolfsbane, fly agaric, and amanita virosa in this basket! Are you trying to off me?! These are poisonous to a human—and, no, the fly agaric, despite its coloring, is not a mushroom similar to the one you find in Mario! The amanita virosa is especially toxic and will target our kidneys and nervous system, and eating the wolfsbane can lead to hypotension, sinus bradycardia, and ventricular arrhythmias!"
Taiju silently lowers the hand that was steadily rising, feeling embarrassment for not recognizing the right kind of mushrooms that are safe to ingest. In all fairness, he had no idea it was poisonous only because they played Mario games between experiments.
Senkū sighs and smoothes out his irritation, cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders looking even more exhausted than he has been all day.
"It's fine; soon enough you'll grasp which ones are edible and which ones are poisonous. I doubt you'll go and blindly eat a mushroom without questioning if it's edible after I smack some sense into you," Senkū mutters as he quirks a brow at Taiju.
"R-Right, I won't," the teen stutters, cheeks flushing brightly enough that Senkū considers labeling him a .
"Good."
When everything is cooked and peppered with salt, he bears witness to Taiju happily tearing apart the piglet he hunted, roasted to perfection. He grins at the little bag of salt he prizes so much sitting beside his feet. Getting it from the ocean was difficult but it was well worth the trouble to collect.
The comfortable silence between them is only interrupted by the gentle sway of leaves from the winds coming from the east, stars blinking merrily above them. It gives him the feeling that they aren't completely alone even if the sentiment is illogically cheesy.
He sees Taiju eyeing him and sighs, knowing he can't put off informing the oaf of anything else that happened in the last six months. Taiju would never leave him alone if he gives half-assed answers anyway and the doof knows him better than most people aside from Byakuya.
"What do you want to know," Senkū asks as he polishes off the bit of meat clinging to his portion of pork ribs.
Taiju purses his lips before leveling the scarred leg with a serious stare, hands clenching on his stick.
Of course that's the first thing he'd ask.
"Where did that scar come from? You've never had it before and you refused to tell me last night."
Shutting his eyes for a moment, he brushes away to the images of clouded gold eyes and the blossoming of red on tawny fur, wishing for the phantom pain to never resurface. It takes a moment to collect himself even as his leg twinges against his wishes, a slow burn blossoming even if nothing is pressed against it.
"Lion attack."
Taiju's breath hitches, eyes as big as dinner plates.
"It happened at the end of the first week. I was careless, too focused on finishing the camp when it ambushed me during a thunderstorm. Its size was proportionally too large for it to be a regular lion from the Modern Era, so the species must have evolved to become even larger. As to why it was alone, it's because it was young, at least 2 years of age and well above 1.5 meters at the shoulder."
Taiju gulps, appetite steadily vanishing as his attention latches onto the emotions flitting across Senkū's face.
"I tried to run from it but I slipped on mud. It caught up to me before I could grab a spear and it bit into my leg, tearing through the calf. Just when it was about to kill me it lunged and…" he trails off, furrowing his brows as he looks into the fire. "I honestly thought I was going to die. I must've been holding on to my knife when it pierced its chest. It stopped it from killing me, but it was too close. If circumstances were different I wouldn't be here at all, not one millimeter."
Taiju, horrified and close to tears, looks at the scar in a new, possibly negative light. Senkū tries to push away the cynical words swimming in his head.
"What about your wings," he asks, voice small and tentative. His wings tuck against his sides in a rather hesitant manner, the brown plumage nearly blending perfectly with his leather clothes.
Senkū closes his eyes, face contorting with pain as the memory from the river comes back full force, its striking clarity only enhancing the anguished howls that never stopped haunting his waking thoughts since the ugly truth was revealed. He looks at the ridges of his wings peeking over his shoulders. The feathers are a pale imitation of their once-brilliant colors, the grime masking them to look like he dragged himself through a sewer system and then soot-ridden alleyways in a city slum. The thought alone sends shivers of disgust to roil in his chest.
"I still have no conclusive evidence as to why they're the way they are. As of right now, I can't do anything with them. It hurts too much to move them, let alone clean them. Even just you touching them is too much for me to handle."
He turns away, not wanting to touch on more of the subject, sore and humiliating as it is. Taiju says nothing in return, opting to stare at the fire as he reaches out to take a stick with a roasted mushroom.
Senkū's eyes soften, his feathers fluffing up as he breathes deep and settle back in place when he lets it all air out with a hefty sigh. He scoots closer and twists his waist to reach for Taiju's right wing and gently unfurling it open. He feels the telltale twitch telling him Taiju is frozen, waiting to see what he'll do. With a small smile, he glides his fingers through the earthy plumage dotted with dark brown on the secondaries.
"Senkū?"
"You know, I knew you were still alive," the younger says, easily slipping his skilled fingers through each nook of plumed muscle to pull out twigs, leaves, and the occasional crust of dried dirt settled between the downy barbs and the vanes, careful to gently pry the dirt away from the sensitive calamus so that Taiju isn't feeling discomfort. "Every day I visited you in the cave, hoping to see you stupidly smiling and waving at me like a maniac soon after digging you up—but every day I'd return to the hut and try again the next day. For nearly six months I was hoping to see you out and about, and now you are. I guess you can say that I missed you."
Senkū gradually feels himself relaxing as his fingers mindlessly clean every feather, preening them to look shinier and cleaner than they've ever been and allowing that wonderful shade of hickory to break off from the general brown Taiju usually sports, muscles finally losing the edge of conscious alertness that built up from six months to the mercy of predators. He doesn't realize he's soon humming a soft tune as Senkū's fingers finish preening the right wing and then focus their attention on his left, Taiju melting into him with a pleased croon, a droopy smile on his face as his feathers curl pleasantly.
"I knew that you wouldn't let some stupid petrification beam stop you from confessing to Yuzuriha at the height of your resolve, when you stopped pussy-footing around and actually got your ass in gear. You're too much of a man to let that slide even after thousands of years trapped in stone."
He grins, done with preening Taiju's wings and taking pride in the way they glisten just from the light alone. Taiju sits up straight, determination oozing from his being.
"So," Senkū begins, eyes alight in the glow of the roaring fire. "You've already found her, now all we need to do is to free her. You wouldn't leave her like that, would you?"
Taiju purses his lips and stands, muscles flexing as his eyes shine like his own. He grins, bright with an obscene amount of enthusiasm.
"You're absolutely right, Senkū."
Senkū stares mutely even as his eyes light up, bringing further brightness to Taiju's smile that he finds almost unnerving how bright it is. Like small miniature balls of intense light one would expect to find in a cradle of newborn stars. Senkū glances away first, a snicker escaping him. Taiju deflates and whines about it.
"Why are you laughing at me?"
Senkū chuckles a bit more at his cluelessness.
It's not that he's being mean, he just can't help it.
"Your enthusiasm is like the sun, Taiju. You're big and bright, and it hurts just looking at you. Dim yourself down, will ya?"
Taiju's face turns blank. For a moment Senkū watches with an awkward shuffle before the teen snaps out of it with the loudest, most obnoxious whine he's ever had the displeasure of experiencing.
"Senkū, that's so mean!"
"I already told you, I ain't bein' mean!"
Taiju trudges through the brush, hands carefully pulling away weeds and grass to check for eggs or mushrooms. The sun is high in the sky with few clouds dotting the sky, winds low and gentle. The temperature is warmer than the day before and the tall teen is just glad it isn't chilly. He left Senkū sleeping away in their hut, taking the opportunity to forage as there isn't much else to occupy himself without a project to work on.
Rifling through a bush, his hands brush against something bulbous. Blinking, he parts twining vines and leaves to gaze upon some wild grapes growing in abundance and joy erupts at the sight of something familiar.
"Oh! These are wild grapes!" He gingerly plucks a few from the vine and pops them in his mouth, just waiting for the sweet flavor to grace his tongue. As he bites into one, a sharp, acrid flavor assaults his taste buds and his face scrunches up, causing him to spit out the grapes as tears well in his eyes.
Oh good lord, what were those made out of? The taste is so rancid he feels like puking!
"I never expected them to taste so bad," Taiju exclaims, tearing off a large leaf to scrub the taste from his tongue. It bears little success.
Looking at the grapes still hanging from the vines, he sighs and resigns himself to harvesting them, knowing that at some point Senkū might have a need for them. He takes enough to fill a quarter of his basket, leaving the bush for later hunts even if their taste is similar to overly bitter lemons and something else he can't really put a finger on. Walking up a trodden path and pausing at a familiar scene, he stutters to a stop, feeling goosebumps rise along the bare skin of his arms as he recalls walking among the multitude of stone statues expressing haunting looks staring him down just yesterday.
"This cave…" Taiju whispers, gently palming the entrance as he ventures inside, the same pungent scent that greeted him upon awakening assaults his nose again, and his eyes water at the smell.
Then he spots a clay pot sitting on the straw bed, its contents being the liquid that drips from the ceiling. Taiju takes a moment to stare before excitement courses through him so intensely his wings snap open and his feathers wiggle.
"Whoa! Is there someone else that broke free? I wonder if they left this here."
"No one else woke up and that would be me that left the pot, you friggin' moron."
Taiju yelps. His wings snap shut with a muted slap and he turns around to find Senkū rubbing the back of his neck. His face shows how unimpressed he is at Taiju's antics.
"So then—that would mean we really are the only ones alive?"
"'Fraid so; and repopulating humanity back to where it was is our biggest priority."
Taiju contemplates the answer and looks at Senkū, his back to him, long white wings lying tucked at his back and he feels his own wings twinge in sympathy when he eyes the longer primaries scraping along the cave floor.
"So, how is that going to work? It's only the two of us!"
"You really think it takes two dudes to revive a whole species, Taiju? That's lazy and simply illogical even for you," Senkū groans.
Taiju flushes and redirects his gaze.
"I guess you're right. Sorry."
"That aside, it's been over 3,700 years since the world was petrified," Senkū says as he waves dismissively, tired eyes squinting as he picks up a stone fragment. "What is the catalyst that allowed us to break free, other than the consumption of energy through brain activity?
"Maybe it went bad?" Taiju proposes, a finger to his chin, wings perking over his shoulders.
Senkū shakes his head and replies, "I've checked for wear and tear, and that isn't the case; every statue, no matter how much time's passed or how much damage they acquire bears no flesh. The statues are entirely made of stone." Senkū breathes out tiredly, staring at the fragment in concentration. "Whatever this mineral is isn't something I'm familiar with despite looking like regular stone. What I find even more strange is the fact that after 3,718 years we've broken out with only a half-year span between each other."
"I'm glad I was able to break out yesterday but I wish I could've broken out sooner. You wouldn't have been hurt."
"Glad to know, Taiju. But I'm alive and you're here now. Stop worrying."
Taiju doesn't think he'll be able to stop worrying about the possibility of injury when it concerns Senkū, whose thin frame can barely keep up with a decent breeze lately.
"Right," he frowns. "So, what does this mean for the stone pieces?
Senkū grins, a wicked edge to it as he bears his teeth, an idea no doubt forming in his head. Taiju would consider himself a bit strange for feeling comforted at such a face if he were any other person.
"It means there's a logical, rational explanation that explains why we broke out at nearly the same time." He then points to a spot with a noticeable dip in the earth, a bit of grass growing from the soil. "While you were almost completely buried in dirt, I was laying on the ground not far from you. We may have been washed away from the school before ending up here."
Taiju frowns and shivers at the thought of being buried in the ground. "You dug me out? Was that why I was in the cave?"
"Yeah, but getting you out of the ditch and in the cave was an excruciating endeavor. I had to partially carry you on my back and out of the ditch to get you in the cave. I didn't want you getting damaged before you could revive."
Guilt swells in Taiju's chest at the thought that he caused Senkū pain but the smaller teen waves him off when he tries to hug him.
"I'm fine, you wingnut."
"Still! I'm very sorry!" He snaps a 90° angled bow, arms stiff to his sides. He ignores how Senkū chokes awkwardly at the gesture. "You didn't have to drag me all that way just to keep me safe!"
"Taiju, I don't care if you'd have preferred it, not one millimeter was I going to leave you out in the open and potentially get damaged!" Senkū exclaims, red eyes wide with disbelief.
Taiju gasps as Senkū growls, hitting the side of the cave in frustration. Small pieces of dirt fall from the ceiling from the impact.
"Any damage that befalls a statue could potentially result in permanent death! I wasn't going to risk it with you!"
Taiju straightens and recoils at the emotions packing Senkū's words, feeling the guilt increase when he sees ruby eyes glittering with unshed tears. He closes his eyes and looks away, opening them a moment later when Senkū composes himself before he responds with as much rational thought he can muster.
"I'm sorry, I didn't take your feelings into consideration. I just don't want you to get hurt, Senkū."
The smaller teen snorts out a chuckle and Taiju feels the suffocating knot in his chest loosen a bit. "I know you mean well but it really isn't needed. It's done and you can't change that. Now, let's focus on what's important. See the liquid dripping from the ceiling?"
"Yes?"
"That's nitric acid—fluid created from the droppings of the bats living inside," Senkū mutters as he swaps the full pot with an empty one.
Taiju stares at the ceiling with wide eyes. "So, what does that do? Wait—was I under that before waking up?!"
"Yep," Senkū says as he cleans an ear out, ignoring the way Taiju shivers in disgust. He walks back out with the pot in hand. "I'll show you back at camp. Just fly us there."
Taiju nods and carefully lifts him into his arms, grinning at the embarrassed grimace contorting Senkū's face. He opens his wings and shakes them, the feathers fluttering before he brings them down with a loud snap, dust kicking up from their takeoff. Taiju whoops as he soars, holding Senkū close as he speeds his way to camp with a steady glide. He hears Senkū give a sigh and looks down to briefly catch a flash of longing in those ruby eyes, but the teen turns his face to look at the scenery beneath them before Taiju can't fully comprehend what he just saw.
He feels a well of sadness at what he guesses is Senkū feeling immense longing for flying, the desire palpable enough he can feel those white wings straining to move.
Senkū gives him no indication that the movements are hurting him and he wonders if it's a deliberate effort to keep him in the dark.
When they reach camp Senkū takes the time to show Taiju the swallow statues he's experimented on besides securing shelter and food, but during testing they come across a roadblock on de-petrifying the swallows, the pair find themselves at block.
"I've tried every method I could think of to break them free, but nothing works. If I had anything close to industrial-strength etching solutions, like nital, I'd be set. The only problem with that is we lack alcohol and there aren't any stores around anymore."
Taiju blinks and brightens, his wings fluttering open with excitement. He knows exactly what they need!
The coming days that follow them are a much more pleasant experience for Senkū now that Taiju takes up the responsibility of the manual labor, foraging even deeper into the wild to look for more than simple mushrooms and herbs while he focuses on experimenting for a cure and de-petrifying the swallows he and Taiju collect throughout the area.
They also added protective measures in the form of fences with spearheads attached for barbs around the perimeter of their camp, an improvement towards keeping themselves alive when nightfall blankets the earth. Taiju claims it's more for Senkū's wellbeing than his own.
The third week after Taiju's awakening, Senkū feels like he's crashing. The sensation of weightlessness spreading throughout his body is disorienting enough he feels like he's losing his balance, feeling the need to curl in a ball in his nest even though his brain screams the urge to continue, further their slow progress towards modern human science even at the cost of his health, but his body can't take much more. It's gone beyond what it can take even with breaks and power naps in between building projects and planning their course to restore humanity with as little incidents as humanly possible.
Then a week into November, he collapses.
After Taiju finds him and deposits him in the hut he decides to put his foot down and force the teen to rest while he takes care of the camp, hovering over him like some hyper-vigilant mother-hen hyped up on norepinephrine after he's been restricted to resting in his hut, bored to tears. When he's not occupying his racing thoughts with inner complaints of Taiju's mothering, he's often counting, or even waking up from a daze just to find Taiju kneeling in front of him with fear in his eyes.
He finds out Taiju finds it horrifying. He counts in a daze, locked away in his mind and oblivious to the world around him. He finds he can understand why Taiju feels the need to slap him just to snap him out of it.
He slowly finds he's become restless from hours spent inside. Once winter begins its quest to blanket the land in snow in early November, slumber evades Senkū almost entirely. Be it nightmares or the steadily dropping temperatures, his body is definitely not appreciating the lack of rest. Taiju, seeing his tumultuous struggle with this problem, goes hunting one day and returns with three dead wolves, to which Senkū happily skins and cuts up to use for later, using their furs to make another makeshift fur blanket. Even with the blanket, Taiju takes to curling his wings around Senkū when the chill gnaws at his skin, robbing his toes and fingers of any shred of warmth.
As December comes, Senkū finds he feels much safer living in this Stone World with Taiju vigilantly patrolling their clearing and checking on the fences every now and then, often deterring predators before they even reach the edge of the forest. His efforts in keeping them both fed often ends with Taiju flying farther from camp, spending an average of four hours just hunting for deer. With fruit and nuts unavailable, Taiju has no choice but to double up on hunting even though wildlife is scarce; it's a freezing Senkū whispering to himself one night that he doesn't want to starve again, curled as he is beneath the growing mound of furs and leathers, oblivious to Taiju standing in the doorway.
Taiju, distraught, triples his efforts, flying faster than he usually would just to find food and is rewarded with a herd of deer more than 20km away from camp. He manages to get three before he returns with his hoard, surprising Senkū with his desire to help keep each other well fed throughout the winter.
On one particular day, the duo find themselves desperate enough to set traps to help ease the burden of hunting from Taiju's shoulders. The taller boy, now sporting a thick beard, is the only one able to take flight and reach heights Senkū currently can't reach.
Taiju grasps the bark of a thin tree to bend it downwards so the younger boy can tie rope around the top, straining himself to focus on his task rather than comb the landscape for lingering dangers. As his cold fingers loop the rope and tighten it on the tree he winces when he pulls harder to make it bend. Taiju stops him with a frown, concern in his eyes.
Senkū rolls his eyes and trudges forward, searching for another tree to set up their second trap. "Wing twitched."
Taiju's eyes widen a bit before he nods with a hum.
Senkū sighs at the dim reaction.
He remembers an argument they both had earlier in the morning as Taiju returned from the skies, seeing him about to leave the hut after deeming himself fit enough. Taiju wanted to keep him inside for multiple reasons but Senkū couldn't stomach another monotonous day cooped up in his hut. Not after counter every groove and chip in the wooden panels and flooring. Senkū argues that, although he's been restricted to bed rest and technically sitting on his rump doing nothing almost every day, it does not mean he cannot assist Taiju in their constant struggle of survival by making and setting traps around their camp. Taiju at first protested but Senkū threatened him with bodily harm if he didn't cooperate. Taiju reluctantly accepted.
They take a break near the frozen river when Senkū starts lagging. Taiju, agreeing to a break, opts to fish while Senkū rests, carefully shuffling along the ice so as to not fall in with temperatures as cold as they currently are. Hypothermia is certainly a deadly mistress given the right conditions.
Senkū watches from afar as Taiju takes a stone blade and thrust it downward, piercing through the hard exterior of the ice. Snow gets in his eyes forcing him to squint, hand reaching back to snap the hood with fur trim over his head to block the pesky things. He sighs and paces as Taiju makes a hole in the ice, readying his spear with an expectant smile.
Senkū's hand never leaves his stone dagger's sheath as he shuffles through snow-covered trees to stand beside the river. His wings twitch and shiver, however their reaction isn't tied to danger. He's probably too cold now to remain outside for much longer and his pale fingers tell him enough, yet he waits patiently for Taiju to at least catch something edible before they return to camp.
"Ah ha!"
Senkū looks up to see Taiju hoisting a fish large enough to feed them both, smiling happily at his catch.
"Senkū! Look what I caught!"
"I can see it, Taiju. Good work."
Beaming, Taiju crosses over the remaining length of the river to inspect his friend, frowning when he sees exhaustion creeping back in the other's face and the shivers traveling up and down thin shoulders.
"This will feed us for the whole day, and we don't have any more mushrooms so make it count. Wasting meat of any kind is illogically foolish."
"Right," Taiju nods, depositing the fish to scratch at his face and pausing when he feels coarse hair rather than dry skin. He fingers his chin and pulls, looking down with a blink.
"I have a beard?"
Senkū wants to chuckle at the absurdity that is Taiju's obliviousness but he won't, seeing the oaf look bewildered is enough to stave off witty words.
"Yup. It grew on your face since last month. I'm surprised you never noticed."
"I guess I never did," Taiju agrees, dropping his hands. Then his eyes widen and he looks frantic.
Senkū steps away slowly in fear of Taiju shaking him silly.
"But Yuzuriha—I don't want her to see me like this! What if she doesn't like me if I have a beard?"
The tall-haired scientist stares blankly at him before a snicker gets past his frozen lips.
"Senkū, this isn't funny! I'm serious!"
"Well, I gotta admit that having a beard is a serious hygienic risk right now, so you'll have fun trying to get that shaved. Other than that, I'm sure you look "wholesome," by normal societal standards."
"But we don't have anything to use, Senkū. If anything I'm surprised you don't have one."
"I'm 10 billion percent sure I won't grow a beard but that's not important," Senkū grins as Taiju flushes. "Since we're at the river, I can find something to help you with your silly problem."
Taiju brightens at that. Senkū shuffles away, feeling uncomfortable at such brightness. "Thank you, Senkū! But what are you going to use?"
Digging through the snow, Senkū grins when he finds what he's looking for: a brown-colored clam. Grinning evilly, he approaches Taiju who apparently lacks the basic instinct of self-preservation and he has no time to ask what he's about to do when Senkū puts the clam to use.
"Sorry, Taiju—this will hurt. A lot. Sorry, not sorry."
With a loud snap, Taiju screeches as a wad of hair gets pulled out, trapped between the two halves of the clam in Senkū's hand.
Taiju levels Senkū with a look of pain and betrayal that he would do that with a clam, palming the new bald spot near the corner of his lips.
Senkū merely finds it amusing, thrusting the clam into Taiju's face to snag another patch of hair, the clam ripping it away and making Taiju screech again, brown wings jolting from the pain. He snags more and more hair, going as fast as he can to pluck every bit of it and Taiju stands in place with eyes blown out. He looks like a pufferfish.
When the last patch of hair is gone, Senkū stares for a solid 15 seconds until he bursts into hysterical laughter, falling over himself when Taiju's face starts to swell. He then stops and stares some more, Taiju looking back pathetically as his lips balloon along with his chin and cheeks. Senkū cackles louder and smacks his hands on the ground.
"Oh dear Einstein, you look like Homer Simpson!"
Taiju pouts. "Ipth nut phunny…"
Senkū laughs harder.
It was an amusing morning. He had nothing better to do.
What's not amusing, he finds out later, is realizing that he's been walking for a few minutes straight before he notices he's begun to see snow at eye level. Grumbling, he digs himself out, shivering as the snow melts on his face. When he's over the snow, he resumes walking around the tree as Taiju glides over with a grin before pausing, feeling himself slowly sink into the snow.
Taiju watches as Senkū sinks in the snow up to his waist, his face barely above the white surface with an unimpressed stare on his face. Taiju, on the other hand, continues to fly as he sets up the trap they need to catch a deer.
"I hate you," Senkū mutters, voice muffled by the snow around him.
"Maybe that's payback for the clam," Taiju grins and chuckles.
Senkū sends him a glare with a vengeful glint in his ruby eyes.
"Just you wait—I can perm your hair with a clam while you're asleep and maybe you'll wake up bald by the end of the week."
Taiju laughs at the threat as he continues to set up the trap, knotting the rope so it doesn't unravel. It's only when he flutters lower to Senkū's level that he realizes the other teen isn't laughing, staring at him dead in the eye with a blank expression. His smile falls.
Ah, so he's being entirely serious. Maybe he shouldn't have laughed at Senkū's helplessness in the snow earlier.
"Right. Sorry, Senkū."
"Whatever—get me out of here. It's cold as hell."
Their week progresses at a snail's pace, and when Taiju laughs at Senkū again for sinking in the snow until only his hair pops out like bok choy, he is oblivious to Senkū silently scheming his misfortune as he pulls him up, body shivering from the cold.
Night time descends. Senkū stirs from his fur pile beside Taiju, who snores softly in the silence of the hut. He lies in position quietly assessing Taiju's alertness by poking him in the side over his ribs, a ticklish spot that never fails to make Taiju jump, yet the teen simply jolts and snores a bit louder before reaching up to scratch. Senkū observes a moment longer, squinting his eyes when the torch outside flickers a bit. He reaches into his pocket and fishes out the clam, scooting closer to Taiju's head and eyeing those strands of hair spiking up from his scalp.
An evil grin spreads on his face as he gets to work. He first plucks a few hairs, testing the waters to see if Taiju will wake up. The teen just snores away.
Perfect.
When Taiju awakens the next day, it's to a freezing scalp and the alarming lack of hair. The whole region shakes from the intensity of Taiju's hysterical screeching.
"Oh, my god! Senkū, why?!"
"Oh, grow up, you won't be bald forever. Hair grows back! Now let me sleep!"