Chapter 2 - Deja Vu
Six months went by in a flash, for Senku. Before he knew it, Byakuya was already on his way back from his expedition to the International Space Station. Senku was always sure to be on the lookout for any news of the Soyuz's return trip to Earth. For some strange reason, he couldn't shake the feeling that he might never see his father again.
It was extremely out of character for him. But when he heard word that the Soyuz had landed safely in Kazakhstan, he could rest assured that he would see his father again soon. And with that, he was certain that everything would go back to normal.
Casting aside any anxiety, Senku began to imagine how obnoxious his father would be the moment he got home. He knew all too well, that Byakuya was the type to make a huge spectacle after such a long time apart. Just thinking about it filled him with dread. Gushy displays of affection were never his cup of tea.
More than a week had passed since the Soyuz's landing, but there was still no sign of Byakuya. It was getting to the point that Senku's anxiety had come back ten fold. Was it possible that after surviving a plummet of re-entry into Earth's atmosphere at twenty-eight thousand kilometers per hour, his father had met his end in something as mundane as a car accident? The waiting and uncertainty were eating away at him. And it's not like he could just give his father a call. Byakuya had no use for a cell phone up in space, so had opted to leave it behind.
All this worrying was such an abnormality for him. Why was he so on edge? Why did he feel so helpless? And since when was he the type of person to get preoccupied by such sentimental garbage? What the hell was wrong with him? He decided to watch some television to distract himself and came across an anime series with an interesting premise involving a time machine. About a dozen episodes in, Senku had fallen asleep.
It wasn't until late into the evening that Byakuya finally arrived home. When he shut the door behind him, Senku awoke with a start.
"Senku? What are you doing sleeping on the couch? Were you waiting up for me?" He asked with a hint of mockery in his voice, giving a cheeky grin. With his eyes shut from chuckling, he didn't notice Senku moving toward him. Next thing he knew, Byakuya felt the weight of his son as he wrapped his arms around his neck.
Byakuya's snickering was cut short and replaced by genuine surprise. This wasn't the sort of greeting he was expecting. In fact, he thought for sure Senku would complain that he was being too emotional.
"Senku?" Byakuya was about to ask if he was feeling alright, before Senku stopped him from speaking another word.
"Don't say anything. Just shut up, okay? I can't explain it either. So, just take it for what it is."
"Okay, son... It's good to see you too." he replied, giving him a simple pat on the back.
Senku felt like such an idiot, but despite everything, he felt such an inexplicable sense of relief that he chose to ignore everything else. Even still, he tried to maintain a small semblance of his image.
A brief moment later, he ended the hug and said, "Look, just consider this a temporary stroke of insanity. I'm still the same Senku as before. So, don't go suggesting we do some father/son bonding, or crap like that. Got it?"
"Ha, ha, please. Did I meet you yesterday?" Byakuya retorted. "Anyway, sorry I'm back so late. I had to do a week's worth of physical therapy for my rehabilitation after spending six months in zero gravity. Meanwhile, my buddy Shamil got to go home after only a couple days of the same. Lemme' tell ya, it pays to be so bright and gifted from a young age. You're lucky, Senku."
"Tch, heh, heh. Yeah, well I know I wouldn't expect an old fart to contribute much."
"Ha! Is that right? Well, then allow me the honor of bursting your bubble. Turns out this 'old fart' does have something to contribute to the space community," he boasted smugly. "You remember the Rei bot I designed? Well, get this. Turns out that the propulsion system used to function in zero gravity was such a huge hit that it sparked an idea for a space cleanup project! What do you think of that? Betcha wish you hadn't underestimated your old man, huh?"
"That's actually pretty impressive." Senku was genuinely fascinated with the idea. One of the greatest downfalls of space travel is all the debris that gets caught in low Earth orbit. There are currently several millions of pieces of space junk all traveling at up to thirty thousand kilometers per hour in varying crisscross orbits around the Earth. This could spell disaster for any satellites and spacecrafts caught in the middle. If nothing is done to eliminate this problem, space travel will inevitably come to an end. And there's no chance in hell, Senku was gonna sit by and lose his chance to travel into space.
"So, what's the idea? It's gotta' be something ridiculously inane, if it was inspired by one of your designs."
"Oh, you'll love this. They proposed giving my Rei bot a major upgrade, making it capable of emitting electromagnetic pulses that can destabilize the flight path of debris, forcing it to fall safely back down to earth."
"That's genius! Using EMP waves, the probes never have to make contact with the debris itself and eliminates the risk of creating even more debris. You must've had one hell of a team to work with," Senku's eyes gleamed with excitement at the prospect of working with intellectuals of that caliber.
"Yeah, there's just one catch..." Byakuya added, pausing to scratch the back of his head. "...Jaxa wants to send me to their Aerospace Engineering Department at Tohoku University to partner with the development team. That would mean uprooting our life here in Tokyo and moving out to Sendai. I hope that's not a problem."
"Tch, if the choice is between staying in Tokyo for nostalgia's sake and moving in order to get one step closer to achieving my goal of going to space... then the choice is ten billion percent obvious. I say, Sendai, here we come!"
"Ah, glad to hear you're on board. I'll let you finish out your first year of high school, of course, but come spring, it's moving time."
"Sounds exhilarating. I'm definitely excited."
...
And so, three months later, Senku and Byakuya were in the process of moving. Thanks to the substantial difference in cost of living in Sendai, they were actually able to buy a house, as opposed to an apartment. This was great news for Byakuya, who no longer had to sacrifice his bedroom to let Senku have his home lab. Which also meant, no more nights of sleeping on the couch. Now, they had enough rooms to accommodate for both their bedrooms and a lab.
Everything about the move seemed to be going quite smoothly, until a mix up with one of the moving trucks left Senku without a significant amount of his lab equipment.
"Are you shitting me, right now? They lost my lab equipment? This is ten billion percent my shitty luck at it's worst. What the hell do we do now?" Senku was seething.
"Relax, son. I already got in touch with the moving company. They said they'll have your stuff back within a couple of days. They just need to resend the order of transfer. But they promised that your things would be stored safely and treated with care in the meantime."
When Byakuya saw that this did very little to lighten Senku's mood, he proposed an idea. "Say, you've got time. Why don't you go check out the commercial areas nearby. See if you can find a ramen shop you like that we can make our regular hangout."
While still pissed about the loss of his equipment, the thought of ramen was enough motivation to get him out of the house to keep from wallowing. He went to grab his shoes, when the television caught his eye. Byakuya had just finished setting it up and was in the middle of testing it out. The program that was currently airing was some cheesy magic show hosted by Asagiri Gen, the same trashy magician who writes psychology books and fancies himself a mentalist.
"Do yourself a favor, and turn off that garbage. That quack mentalist is nothing but a con-man. Although, just give him a cola and he'd be a good ally to have in your corner."
"Huh? How do you know that? It's not like to you take an interest other people's likes unless you're trying to extort something out of them."
Senku, gave it some thought. How did he know that? It must've been in that crappy book they were passing around his school last year. So that's the answer he gave Byakuya. Trying to brush it off as best as possible, Senku just went to put on his shoes and left for his little mini-adventure.
He pulled out his cell phone and checked his GPS app for restaurant options. On the map, he was quickly able to identify his new high school, which was just a short walking distance from their new house. From there, it was a straight shot to the University. Along that path, he found a few options for ramen, all within walking distance. So, he started making his way to the first one.
The first restaurant was okay, but it focused heavily on cuisine unique to the area, and Senku was looking for something similar to what he could get in Tokyo. He proceeded down his path for another fifteen minutes or so, when a few teenagers suddenly came out of the café he was walking in front of. He could vaguely make out the sounds of keyboards being tapped repeatedly. Upon closer inspection, he realized this was a cyber café which must be popular with gamers.
This reminded him of something. Didn't he know someone in Sendai? Someone he met on an online gaming server. It's probably been close to year since he's been in contact with them. It was definitely before Byakuya left for space. He thought he should get in touch and maybe ask what Sendai had to offer. Then, while taking a peak inside, the sight of a messy blonde ponytail caught his eye. Something about it felt really familiar.
Senku was about to open the door to the café and investigate further, when all of a sudden his phone started ringing. It actually startled him, at first. He checked the caller ID and saw that it was Taiju who was calling.
"Hey, Big Oaf," he answered casually.
"SENKU! How are you? Did you get to Sendai okay?"
"Tch, heh, heh... of course I did. Would I be talking to you right now, if something happened to me?"
"Oh, you're right. I guess that was a dumb question, huh? Ah, ha, ha!" Taiju laughed at himself. "So, what are you doing right now? Unpacking?"
"Nah, I'm..." Senku took another look inside the cyber café but found no trace of the messy ponytail from before. "... I'm just scoping out the area, since pretty much all of my most important things got sent to the wrong place. Now I'm stuck with nothing better to do."
"No, way! They lost your stuff? That's not cool. What are you gonna do now? I know! I'll buy a train ticket to Sendai, and when I get there, I'll help you track down your stuff. "
"Relax, ya big oaf! That's not necessary. It's already been handled. I just have to wait a few days."
"Oh, that's good! So how do you like it there? Made any friends yet."
"Huh? Of course not. I've only been here a few hours." Senku stated as he continued on his way to the next ramen shop.
Just then, he crossed paths with a figure with long, blonde hair, which gave him that sense of familiarity again. He turned around to take another look and saw that it was a girl around his age. He could only see her from behind, so he couldn't say with certainty that he'd met her before. That being the case, he chose to ignore the urge to get a better look, opting to turn back around and continue toward his destination.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he heard the screeching of tires as a car swerved, crashing into a telephone pole. The telephone pole came toppling down onto a public mailbox.
"I'LL CALL YOU BACK, TAIJU! THERE'S BEEN AN EMERGENCY." Senku hung up the phone before Taiju could say anything in response.
Senku backtracked to the scene of the accident as fast as he could and found that the same blonde girl who stood out to him earlier was now unconscious and pinned under the telephone pole. The only thing that was keeping her body from being crushed was the fact that the mailbox was sustaining a good amount of the weight from the pole, but there was no telling how long the mailbox would be able to withstand the weight before collapsing.
Senku needed to act quickly. He yelled at the first person he saw to call 119, Japan's number of emergency. Then, he looked around desperately for anything he could use to create a lever. Luckily for him, the swerving car also took out a street sign.
He called some passersby to give him a hand and help him wedge the sign underneath the pole. Then he grabbed the first thing he could get his hands on to use as fulcrum, which just so happened to be a stone tanuki statute which he grabbed from outside of a random street side business.
After wedging the statue up against the base of the street sign, he instructed those around him to help him apply their weight at the top end of the makeshift lever.
Everyone simply did as he asked. His heroism and ability to both think and act quickly in an emergency situation was very impressive. Many onlookers were paying him compliments for his bravery.
Yet, all the while, Senku was getting a strange sense of Deja vu. Why did this scenario feel so familiar to him—like he'd rescued someone trapped under a heavy beam before—and also through the use of a simple machine.
"Alright, that's good. Now hold that position while I pull her free," he commanded once the pole had risen a good five centimeters.
Senku grabbed the girl from under the arms and pulled her with all his might. He mustered all his strength and managed to pull her a safe distance away, then turned her over in his arms to see if she was still breathing. When he saw that she was, he continued calling out instructions.
"Alright, everyone stand back!" he shouted. "When they release the lever, the beam could turn over and take out someone else."
Everyone followed his directions to the letter and backed a safe distance away from the telephone pole.
"Okay, now let it down gently."
Luckily, when they did as told, the pole remained stabilized by the mailbox.
"Alright. We're in the clear. Impressive work everyone."
"You were most impressive of all," said a voice from below."
Senku looked down to gaze upon a pair of vibrant blue eyes. They, too, looked oddly familiar.
"Can I please know my hero's name?" she asked with a tender smile. The girl was obviously smitten.
—Shit! What the hell have I just gotten myself into?— he cursed internally.
"Ishigami Senku." he replied monotonously, while averting his gaze and picking his ear in annoyance.
"Ishi-gami Senku," she said his name slowly and softly, as if it was some delicate thing that could break at any moment.
"My name is Hizashi Yuri, but please call me Yuri."
"Yuri, huh? Well, the ambulance should be here soon. Can you stand?"
"Umm... no, I feel a little faint. I don't think I should try to stand yet."
"Fair enough. Then, just sit here and wait for the ambulance to arrive," he told her as he started to rise to his feet.
"Wait! You're not staying? I shouldn't be left alone! Couldn't you please accompany me to the hospital and wait for someone to claim me?"
Much to his chagrin, Senku obliged to her request and joined her in the ambulance ride to the hospital.
...
Their entire time between meeting and waiting for someone to relieve him from babysitting was an incredibly awkward experience.
This 'Yuri chick' kept making subtle hints that she was into him. Of course, Senku didn't have a single millimeter of interest in her. And no matter how familiar she might seem, he still wasn't going to fall prey to her flirtatious tactics.
Then, after about thirty minutes of waiting, the door to Yuri's hospital room flung open, and the first thing that caught Senku's eye was a messy blonde ponytail. Could it be the same messy ponytail from the cyber café?
"YURI! Oh, my God! Are you okay? I rushed over as soon as I heard what happened." The new girl fawned all over, who Senku could only guess was her sister, considering how similar they looked to one another.
"I'm fine. You don't need to worry. I'm in very capable hands." she reassured, directing her gaze at Senku.
The new girl also looked at Senku, then immediately approached him. She bowed deeply, obscuring her face from view.
"Thank you so much for saving my sister! You have no idea how much this means to me. Please, if there's anything I can do for you, don't hesitate to ask!"
When she raised her head again, they locked eyes. Her eyes were the same vibrant blue as her sister's, except hers were hidden behind a pair of glasses. But even so, these eyes stirred something within him. The only thing that came to his mind for some reason was the word 'Lioness'.
"Huh? 'Lioness'?" she asked in confusion. Apparently, he had thought the word aloud.
"Sorry, is that a reference to something? I'm... not familiar with it. But if that's what you want, tell me what it means and I'll see what I can do to help you get it."
"No... it's nothing. Forget I said anything. Can I just ask what your name is?"
"Of course," she smiled warmly at him, making him feel a way he never knew he could feel.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Hizashi Koharu."
To be continued...
A/N: Hey there, here's chapter 2. I hope you didn't think that Senku was get off scot-free after everything that happened.
This chapter is my contribution for the SenHaku Week theme: Past Lives/Reincarnation.
I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. I got teary eyed while writing the reunion scene with Senku and Byakuya. n_n' I guess I didn't realize how emotional this fanfic was gonna be.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll catch you in the next chapter!