In a freak incident while exploring the caves, Senku goes missing and returns two days later bloodied, injured, and missing his memories.
TW: Suicide Mention, Miscarriage, Angst/Comfort.
“Did he really lose his memories…”
“He certainly did… testing positive.. retro… amnesia…”
Apparently, Ishigami Senku, renowned and revolutionary scientist who “brought back the modern world” had a little cave accident and landed straight on his head.
He was labeled missing by co-worker Asagiri Gen who, when interviewed and questioned, answered profusely. ‘I knew it was right to put in the missing person’s eport-ray! There was never a time when he wasn't at his lab for more than two hours!’
Turns out Ishigami is a complete dumbass, instead of relying on professionals to go and dig out whatever needed material he wanted. He decided to grab the ores by himself. The day he was found, a few workers in the same cave were questioned and pointed out that he arrived at the west side of the cave at 6:24 A.M and reported that none of them had seen him exit.
When they never saw him resurface through their end— and also because the west cave and the east side are connected, they assumed that he exited through the east way simply because it was designed to be a proper and safer way to navigate incase of emergency.
At 8:04 A.M Gen filed the report, and before the time reached 10 everybody close to Senku or working with him was aware of his sudden disappearance.
When the worker’s found out about him vanishing, they knew he was trapped inside the cave when they questioned the east side and they never recalled seeing him exit. Experienced miners were requested to search the mine and traveled 100 meters deep that day, but they came back with no results.
The second day they increased their efforts and went 300 meters deep, this time aided with a man named Shishio Tsukasa incase of any emergencies. This search was unsuccessful as well.
At 7:12 P.M the same day however, Ishigami Senku somehow reaches the east mine entrance alone, limping on his left foot with a fractured ankle and heavy bleeding and trauma to his head. He was escorted by medics that were told to be onsite in an ambulance and was taken immediately into surgery. When told to resurface, Tsukasa and the others decided to follow the blood splotches on the ground and traced it from nearly 400 meters deep. They soon found that it ended at the bottom of a high drop that was usually surrounded by light.
How he fell, made it out, or even survived was a question that lingered even two weeks after the whole freak accident. Even now as he works in his lab, performing his only regulated 30 minutes of work. The words of his colleagues were more focused on him rather than the work.
I felt required to use the word He.
He, Ishigami Senku, is me.
And yet I have nothing resembling him other than his attitude and brains.
At least that’s what– my mind draws at another blank, the guy told me his name already, so why can’t I remember it?
“I saw these from the coast and I came running! Because that’s what I do!”
Loud is what comes to mind, I wince at the foggy memory and my head throbs.
… That’s what Chrome told me.
A loud ringing sound came from the small alarm on my desk, I shut it off and attempted to ignore the increase of whispers and stares undoubtedly talking about me.
This means my thirty minutes are up. So I pack my things and swing my bag over my shoulder.
Eyes linger on me until I exit the building. It took nearly two hours and a half to memorize the whole institution without someone immediately recognizing who I was and offered to help.
If that wasn’t long enough, spending a whole week in a hospital recovering felt like torture. And I spent the whole next one persuading Dr. Xeno I could actually function properly without a guide.
“We can’t risk you injuring yourself again.” The man folded his arms, he of course, naturally had a stern look on his face. It fit him perfectly. “You’re lucky I won’t put you on suicide watch.”
I wasn’t sure if Ishigami Senku was planning to kill himself, he should know of all people on this planet not to explore as deep as he did alone. Of all things.
The smartest man in the world made a mistake so inexperienced and reckless the man closest to him in his workplace wanted to put him in suicide watch– despite me having lost all motives or memories on why he would commit such an act.
“I want to do this because you need surveillance. If I do, you’ll be monitored by Kohaku. She’s especially worried about you.”
Kohaku. No birth surname. She’s that blond woman with piercing cerulean-blue eyes and a fierce smile. She was introduced to me as chief of the police force, nothing more.
When she first laid eyes on me hours after I woke up, she couldn’t stop fiddling with the silver ring on her fourth finger resting on her left hand no matter how hard-nosed and rigid she tried making her face seem. It was awkward, but it was seemingly easy to ignore.
Entering the police station was much less overstimulating than the laboratory. They were still staring at me, but they at least tried to make it less obvious.
My eyes are drawn to the woman leaning on the front desk talking to the other woman behind it.
“I mean… basically yeah! I haven’t told him yet, however, I…”
Blonde tied-up hair, lean stature, boisterous voice.
I find my feet stuck to the ground, a lump grows in my throat and my head throbs unlike the ones before.
“Agh, fuck…” I groan lowly and grip my forehead, a ringing fills my head and I felt as if I was going to pass out if it didn’t stop soon.
I could see the receptionist point towards me in shock and Kohaku whips her head and rushes to my side.
Damn… the ringing pitches and at this point the only thing keeping me upwards was her grip around my waist. She takes hold of my shoulder with her other hand and now I could feel the eyes of everyone looking at me.
It was another tinnitus attack and what feels like the worst cluster headache in my life.
After a while it feels as if I'm walking on air, I have no idea where she was directing me as I’d closed my eyes a while ago due to the light spiking my headache.
“My meds.” I wheeze out once I feel that I'm sitting down on something.
When she removes the bag from my shoulder and I hear the rustling sounds of her looking through it I groan and clutch at the side of my head. Hoping she’ll be a little bit faster.
She dropped a pill and water bottle in my hand and instantaneously I swallowed both. A shudder leaves me along with another wince and Kohaku grips my knee and shoulder comfortably.
“It should fade soon…” She murmurs softly, I let out a shaky exhale, praying that it does.
She’s silent throughout it all, slowly rubbing my shoulder. The stinging in my eyes, pressure in my ears, the piercing high-pitched ringing— all of it eventually faded away. So does my headache, but it takes a while longer and slowly disperses with one last pulse against my forehead.
I slowly open my eyes and… back to normal. I blink a couple of times just in case and soon I huff in disbelief. “Well… fuck.”
“Yeah, fuck.” Kohaku chuckles lightly. “Welcome to the modern world.”
I look at the surroundings around me and figure out pretty fast that she took me to the park close to the police station. No eyes to stare at me worryingly, no hurried whispers between colleagues when I enter a room— none of that.
Just birds tweeting and the sounds of cicadas chirping.
“Is this what it feels to be at peace?” I utter purely out of incredulity, a stupid statement to make, I doubt Senku would ever say something that silly. Maybe I just want to hear her laugh again.
She stares at me with widened eyes before she bursts into small giggles. I swallowed and felt my chest clench.
“I guess you could say that… pffft!” She giggles again, her face is softly flushed a pinkish-red and she’s doing a terrible job at staying professional.
When she settles down, she lets out a breathy sigh and the woody park is silent again. There are no kids here as school’s currently active, however as it’s friday undoubtedly the park would fill up when classes are over.
I find myself gazing at her in the corner of my eye. She'd removed her touch on my knee and shoulder but it still lingers like a phantom.
“I used to go to this park a lot a year back.” She finally speaks, way lower than her previous tone. “I stopped going when It got easier to cope.”
Even an idiot could tell she was talking about death, something I narrowly avoided myself. I silently debate if I should poke further before opening my mouth to speak. “Mind if I ask what happened?”
Kohaku's breath hitches at the question, her eyes flickering from the playset and towards me. She reacts to that harder than I expected and I can’t even mutter a word before she speaks.
“Senku… last year I had a miscarriage.”
Her teary eyes desperately search in my eyes and I can tell that she's just praying that her husband would come back and just tell her it’s okay.
But I'm not him, and I'm not sure when I'll even be him again.
“K-Kohaku, I’m sorry…” Is all I could say.
She whimpers as she finds that her efforts are for naught, so she sharply turns her head away and fiddles with the silver ring in her lap again.
The initials on it read: I.K
Ishigami Kohaku. No birth surname, of course she has no maiden name because she’s married to me.
This resolution makes me nauseous. I swallow harshly and look away, quickly squeezing my eyes shut.
Why would he try killing himself and he was married to someone as beautiful as her?
Kohaku takes in a huge gasp of air and claps her hands together. The sound makes me snap to look at her just to find out that she’s now standing up with a bright grin on her face.
Her eyes are red… I made her cry… I note unconsciously and I regret it as I can't seem to hide the guilt on my face when she stares at me again and her smile falters slightly.
“Okay!” She shouts into the air, her sudden boisterous energy makes me stiff. “Today, I will make it my goal that Ishigami Senku WILL smile!”
I stagger as she takes my hand and yanks me up. “What are you…!”
“Cmon!” She grins, leading me out the park with a pep in her step. “We’re gonna have fun today!”
Fun? “We aren’t children!” I shout after and nearly trip over my own feet as she picks up the pace. “S-Slow down!”
“Being an adult has never stopped me from having fun! That’s one thing you should keep in mind!”
Kohaku snorts and giggles when I trip on my feet again, she playfully rolls her eyes and scoffs. Before I knew it, she’s carrying me up in her arms and starts racing down the sidewalk as if it were nothing.
What the fuck? The air is knocked out of my lungs as she barrels around the corner.
“Pfffwahaha!” Finally she bursts into full-blown laughter at what I can only assume was my face as we both bundle down the street. The feeling of the wind hitting my face makes my chest pound— was it heart palpitations? No.
This was exciting. I couldn’t stop the smile from growing on my face whatsoever. Kohaku notices it when she hears me laughing alongside her and starts giggling twice as loud.
She takes me to a movie theater, then a music hall, and lastly a crowded skating rink.
At this point it’s already 10 P.M and they both are way past their curfew, so she offers to walk me to my temporary dorm room.
“Oh my god!” She snorts, I could feel my face tinge red with embarrassment. “You absolutely suck at ice skating!”
This is the fourth time tonight she’s bringing this up!
“Oh, lay off!” I huff jokingly and Kohaku genuinely looks hurt, my breath hitches.
Soon however, she snickers and my shoulders untense. “Oh you softie, you totally fell for it.”
I went to quip back, but the moment we turned the corner we reached my apartment. It’s silent as we walk towards the building, if only the day was longer. That way they could both talk and laugh for longer. She follows up the steps yet stops half-way when I make it to the top and smiles.
“Well, that was fun.” I turn to look back at her and smile back warmly. “You got me to smile, too.”
I see her shoulders tense and I immediately worry if I said something. “Shit. Did I do something wrong? I know I'm not him– I mean, I am him, but I don’t think like him. I lost my memories because I decided to do something fucking stupid and leave you alone and–!”
My rambles are cut short by her voice. Instantly my throat closes up and I’m left to wonder what she means.
Her eyes are watery but no tears spill. “That we’re married.”
It’s silent for a while and her cerulean eyes are piercing as she stares into my eyes. I nod softly, not quite trusting my voice underneath her gaze.
“When did you learn that?”
I pause for a second, thinking carefully of which words to use then finally speaking. “When I first saw you, you couldn’t stop messing around with your ring and at first, I couldn't clearly read the initials. When you did it again at the park today, that's when I was able to read it clearly.”
Kohaku hissed in some air, and I winced at the reaction, obviously that wasn't a good thing for me to remember.
“Dr. Xeno’s is going to merk me.”
“Huh? Why?” The panic in my tone was abundant, but she smiled and shook her head. Kohaku sighed a little, waving off my worry.
“He already told me to take the ring of the day we met again. He was concerned it would create a not-so positive reaction.”
“Buuuut.” She grows a grin again. “It’s alright. You didn’t have a panic attack or fade off into space. So he’ll be chill for the most part. Maybe. Hopefully.”
This time, the silence that drifts between us is comforting, but obviously it can’t stay like this and eventually she claps and breaks the pause.
“Welp! It was fun!” She giggles and my mouth goes dry, the idea of her going home alone twists my heart. “Goodnight!”
“Goodnight…” I leave her off with a smile and waves her off– because the thought of her leaving with the impression that she failed trying to make me happy made me restless.
Ishigami Senku is coming back– it doesn’t matter if he wants to, or not.
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