Chapter Text
Kim pulled out her phone and read the text message from her neighbor and childhood friend.
‘The big oaf is going to ask her out soon.’ He had added a barfing emoji to the end of his message. She chuckled knowing Taiju and Yuzuriha had been eyeing each other for a long time. They would make a cute couple if they could last though the rest of their schooling.
Flipping through her phone, another text from another friend, and band member, blinked across the screen.
‘Where are you?!’ As Kim was typing her response a heavy, frantic knock rang though her living room. Brutus, her dog, growled. His hackles raised as he crept towards the door.
“It’s ok, boy.” She shushed him, patting his big head. She opened her door and was greeted by a quick shove to her chest and a loud crack of a baseball bat. Brutus yelped and she watched her beloved dog slide across the floor, unconscious. Kim scrambled to her knees to go to him, but she was knocked backwards into her coffee table by her intruder.
“See what happens when you fuck with the wrong people, you fucking whore?” Her ex-boyfriend stood over her, baseball bat resting against his shoulder. His eyes blazed with rage. He leaned over her, snatching a fistful of her hair and pulled her to her knees.
“Your stupid actions and your stupid, fucking friends put me in jail.” Kim grabbed his wrists, trying to get her feet under herself, but he threw her back again into the table, shattering the glass. “Do you realize how much you fucked me over with your little stunt?” He screamed at her.
“Seth, please!” Kim gasped. Her fingers wrapped around a shard of glass in her arm. “Let me explain.” She tugged it out, crying out in pain.
“Let you explain?” Seth laughed, kicking her in the ribs, hard. “And let you lie again about all that shit? Let you try and poison my mind like you did to everyone else?”
Kim curled around herself making her body as small as possible before anymore kicks were aimed her way. Her eyes landed on an old photo of her and her grandfather, Baba, a medal hung around her neck from a boxing match she had just won. She had worked so hard for that medal.
Seth rolled her onto her back, straddling her hips and shoving the bat against her throat. Panic surged through her and she swung the shard of glass at his face, catching him across the cheek and nose. He clutched his bleeding face with one hand. Screaming curses at her, he swung the bat at her head. Kim’s vision whet white; rough, wet hands replaced the bat at her neck and squeezed hard.
“I’ll make sure no one hears your vicious lies again.” He seethed. Kim tried to kick him off, scratching his face, neck and arms. Her lips began to go numb, and her vision edged to black. No amount of training in the boxing ring could overpower her panic.
She began to weaken and as her sight went completely black; a flash of green light raced through her windows, and she saw nothing more.
“I’m dead.” She thought. “He killed me, and I felt nothing.” No light, no sound, no hellfire, just…nothing. “I wasn’t even good enough for purgatory. All I get is the Void.” If she could sigh, she would have. She would have screamed, would have thrashed or anything. But there was nothing. Just the Void for eternity.
~ Crackling woke Kim from her seemingly endless sleep. She squinted as light hit her eyes and she inhaled a greedy lungful of air.
“You are safe now.” A calm and gentle voice said. Almost violently, Kim shook off the stone that encased her. She looked around her. First; noting the stone hands and forearms in her lap and shoving them away. Then, the brilliant green leaves that seemed to shimmer in the cool spring air. Sunlight twinkled though the foliage as a breeze sighed through the branches. A cloak was placed over her shoulders, she realized her nudity and wrapped it tight against her.
“I…”
“It has been 3,700 years since the petrifaction. The year is 5739. Civilization has fallen and the Earth has returned to her former glory.” The calm voice cut her off. Kim turned around finally.
“Mr. Shishio?” She whispered. He wore a lion’s pelt over crude leather clothes. He offered her his hand and lifted her to her feet.
“Nurse Kim.” He greeted her. “I need your help, your knowledge, in this new world. I need you to uphold your oath to heal so that we can bring a new and worthy generation forward. So we can repopulate the Earth with strong and worthy men and women that won’t ruin what we’ve been given with greed and hate.” He gave her a gentle smile. “Will you help me?”
Kim studied him then looked around again. The stone hands she had tossed off herself rested near her feet still in the same position from around her neck. She pointed at them.
“What happened to Seth?” His grip tightened slightly, and his mouth thinned.
“I broke his statue to revive you.” He began leading her away from the stone fragments. She continued to look around, catching what she thought was his head and torso a few feet away.
“I’ll help you as much as I can.” She finally agreed, pulling her cloak tighter still against a sudden breeze. Tsukasa smiled at her.
“I’m glad to hear that.”
They walked in silence until they came across a young man in lavender robes and black and white hair.
“Gen.” Tsukasa called out. Gen turned gracefully; his hands hidden in his sleeves. He smiled as he saw Kim following closely behind Tsukasa.
“Ah! So, this is who you had been ooking-lay for!” Gen opened his arms to Kim who couldn’t help but smile.
“I take it you know each other?” Tsukasa said softly as Gen enveloped her in a warm hug, keeping her cloak tight to her body.
“We’ve met a few times after our little television special we all shared.” Gen replied, “Just as friends though, right?” He gave Kim a saucy wink and she let out a soft chuckle.
“Yes, only as friends.” She reiterated. “It’s surprising to see both of you again.”
“Well, as I said before, I need you to take care of the others I plan to revive. Kim was in her clinical rotation at the nearby hospital.” Tsukasa laid a hand on the back of her neck, which she quickly shrugged off and followed the two men along a newly worn path. Gen hummed in acknowledgement. “She has accomplished a lot in her limited time working and that knowledge can help us with our up coming…” He paused looking for the right word. “Venture.”
Kim cocked an eyebrow at his choice of words. A venture? It sounded as though he was going to say something else.
“What venture would that be, Tsukasa.” She asked, softly cursing as she stepped on a sharp rock. Gen glanced back at her then to Tsukasa who thought about his answer for a moment.
“Tell me, Kim. Do you know a Taiju or an Yuzuriha?” He finally asked, slowing down to walk next to her. She took her own time answering.
“I know some people with those names. Why?”
“What about a Senku?” He watched her out of the corner of his eye. He was prodding her with these questions, but why? There was no reason he would know any of them and no way of knowing she knew them either. She rarely spoke of her personal life with patients and their families and if she did, she never said their names.
“We went to the same high school, but they were a grade or two below me, if I remember correctly. We never actually crossed paths beyond that.” There. A half truth was good. Until she knew what was going on she’d keep her answers vague.
Tsukasa nodded and explained his own revival and what lead up to Senku’s death.
“I made sure I gave him a quick and painless death. He deserved that much for reviving me and setting all this in motion.” Tsukasa said as they came up to a large triangular rocky hill.
“You killed him?” Kim choked out. “Even after he gave you the information you asked for?” Her chest hurt. Her friend. Her neighbor. His father had asked her to look after him while he was up in the Space Station, and now he was dead. She fought to keep her composure, the lump in her throat painful. Gen gave her a questioningly look but keep his mouth shut.
“I had to.” Tsukasa stated simply. No matter how Kim asked for him to explain further, he refused. He told Gen to show her to her own little stone room and went on his own way. Leaving her with the sly, mentalist.
“I leave in three days to go look for him. How do you really know them.” Gen asked quietly. “I already know Taiju and Yuzuriha are his friends. How do you fit in with those three?”
Kim shook her head. This information would stay with her. For all she knew Gen was Tsukasa’s spy to double check her story. The other two could be in danger if she revealed any more of a connection with Senku. Especially if Tsukasa thought he might some how still be alive.
“Just like I said. Same high school, nothing more.” Her voice came out higher than normal as she was fighting off so many emotions. Gen just hummed.
“I’ll let you know what I find, if anything.” He turned to leave but stopped. “Don’t believe anyone at face value here, Kim. We were all revived for one eason-ray or another. Choose your friends wisely.”
“Would you be a wise friend to keep, Gen?” She asked, studying his back.
“I wouldn’t know yet.” He smiled over his shoulder at her. “I’m still trying to figure that out.”