Chapter Text
Kohaku opened her eyes to near darkness. The only source of perceivable light was from that of the dim glow that emanated from some phosphorescent panels along the floors and walls of the bridge, intended specifically for blackouts.
As she came to her senses, she gradually became aware of the soreness in her neck and shoulders, as well as the dull ache behind her temples, clear signs that she had suffered some physical trauma; most likely whiplash.
That's when the memory of what had happened came rushing back.
She and her scouting party were in the middle of a routine asteroid mining mission, gathering resources to bring back to their colony, when the ship's emergency signal suddenly went off.
Their radar had indicated that they were on a collision course with a meteoroid stream and were forced to abort the mission and evacuate for their own safety. But in the end, they were unable to avoid impact and sustained damage to their ship.
Upon realizing this, Kohaku had the knee-jerk reaction to get up and check on the rest of the crew but was held in place by her safety belts.
"Senku! Ryusui!" She called as she unbuckled her restraints, only to be caught off guard when she levitated into the air the moment she was free.
Is the artificial gravity malfunctioning, she wondered.
But she didn't have time to worry about that. As the team medic, the well-being of her crew came first.
"Can either of you hear me?" she called again when neither responded.
The lack of gravity posed a challenge, but luckily she was still in her spacesuit, which was fashioned with a built-in propulsion system designed specifically for zero-gravity environments. So, with adept control, she maneuvered herself toward the captain's chair.
"Ryusui, wake up!" Kohaku grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him violently, trying to elicit a response. And when that didn't work, she resorted to giving him a few firm slaps across the face. In such dim lighting, however, she missed the moment his eyes finally fluttered open and ended up smacking him several times, a bit harder than necessary.
"OW! Okay, okay, I'm awake already! Stop hitting me, dammit!"
"Hah! Glad to see you're still with us," she remarked with mild amusement. "Now I'll go wake Senku."
"Fine, just try not to kill him when you do. We're gonna need him alive," he warned half-jokingly as he rubbed his face to alleviate the stinging sensation in his cheeks.
Kohaku chose to ignore the back-handed comment and propelled herself toward Senku, treating him with far more delicacy.
"Senku, wake up," she said almost pleadingly while shaking him gently.
"Heh, no question who the favorite is around here," Ryusui murmured to himself as he undid his own safety restraints and went to assess the state of the ship.
Senku let out a groan as he regained consciousness, likely having experienced whiplash as well.
"Senku!" Kohaku called out with pure relief when she heard him stir. "How's your neck? Are you feeling any muscle strain?"
"Yeah, but I'll live. What's the situation?" he asked, getting straight to the matter at hand.
"Well, we have no lights, no gravity, no power of any kind, really… not to mention the comms are out and I can't get the engine going. To put it frankly, those meteoroids really screwed us over," Ryusui answered with brutal honesty.
"Tch, that's putting it mildly. Seems I've got my work cut out for me. Good thing I like a challenge," he remarked more to himself. "Well, first things first, I've gotta restore the ship's power. Kohaku! Can you get me to electrical?"
"Hah, no problem. With my spacesuit on, it'll be a…"
"No," he interrupted her mid-sentence while removing his own spacesuit. "The propulsion system built into our suits uses xenon gas, which while non-toxic, is 4.5 times denser than air and displaces oxygen, rapidly increasing the likelihood of asphyxiation," he explained, leaving Kohaku with a sinking feeling for acting without having all the facts first.
"And to make matters worse, there's no telling what state the ship is in from the outside. For all we know, one of those meteoroids could've ripped right through the hull and created an air leak somewhere," Senku added. "So until we get the ship's AI back online and run a full diagnostic on the ship, it's better to err on the side of caution and treat this as a worst case scenario."
"Well, you're not wrong," Ryusui conceded. "In that case, as pilot and default captain of this mission, I hereby mandate that everyone wear an oxygen mask until further notice," he proclaimed as if this were some ingenious idea.
"Tch, good call, 'captain,' though that goes without saying," Senku countered drily. "Since it's your 'brilliant idea,' why don't you head to the airlock and grab each of us an oxygen mask?"
"Ha-ha!" Ryusui snapped his fingers with a boisterous laugh. "Putting your lives in my capable hands, I see. A wise decision. Just leave everything to me."
"Hey! Put your hero complex aside for five minutes, wouldya? We could be losing precious oxygen here!"
"Right. I'm off!" Ryusui finally got serious and immediately pushed off the nearest wall.
"AND REMEMBER NOT TO USE YOUR SPACESUIT TO GET AROUND," Senku reminded, calling after him.
"HA, WAY AHEAD OF YOU! I ALREADY DITCHED MY SUIT," he called back.
"Guess I should do the same," interjected Kohaku, as she quickly slipped out of her suit as well.
"Okay, I'm ready. Give me your hand."
Senku followed the sound of her voice, reaching out until their hands finally met. Then, taking him by the wrist, Kohaku pulled him toward herself effortlessly only to wrap his arms around her waist without a second thought.
"Alright, now hold on tight," she instructed.
He did as he was told and clung to her like his life depended on it. Then, after some awkward maneuvering in mid-air, Kohaku planted her feet firmly against the backrest of Senku's seat and launched herself forward with Senku in tow.
With nothing but the phosphorescent panels as her guide, she repelled herself off wall after wall, showcasing her incredibly quick reflexes as she ricocheted about the ship at top speed until making it to the electrical room.
"Heh, we made it here in record time. Ten billion points to you, Lioness. I knew you were the right person for the job."
"Hah! Was there ever any doubt?" she bragged, crossing her arms over her chest with pride. "AND I'M NOT A LIONESS!" she berated, giving him a menacing scowl regardless if he could see it or not.
"You're not? Well that's too bad, 'cause I was gonna rely on your strength to pry the door open. But if you can't do it… then I guess I have no choice but to waste time overriding the automatic doors manually," Senku taunted, knowing exactly how she'd react.
And just as he expected, by the time he finished his sentence, Kohaku had already forced the doors open with nothing but her brute strength.
"There, satisfied? Don't underestimate me again, scumbag."
"Tch, heh, heh… wouldn't dream of it. Now do me a favor and grab a couple of headlamps out of that drawer on your right, for me, wouldya?" he requested while heading directly to the core generator in the middle of the room.
"Sure," she agreed, grabbing two headlamps from the indicated drawer and putting one on while handing him the other.
"Is there anything else I can do to help?" she asked, wanting to be of some use.
"Yeah, you can stay close to me and hand me whatever additional tools I might need," he instructed as he switched on his lamp and proceeded to pull something out of his toolbelt. "Things will go a lot quicker that way."
"Okay, I can do that."
While Senku got to work, Kohaku waited for an opportunity to help, but after a long moment of silence, her mind began to wander and she couldn't ignore the direness of their situation any longer.
"Hey, Senku…" Kohaku broke the silence. "I have a question, and I want you to be absolutely honest with me. When it comes to survival… what are our chances of getting out of here alive?"
Senku immediately stopped what he was doing and turned to face her. His gaze was intense as he looked into her eyes, to the point where it nearly spooked her. Then he spoke.
"Listen to me, Kohaku… That's not something you need to think about. Odds are nothing but projections based on measurable factors, but nothing is set in stone. And even if our chances of survival are slim to none, I swear I'll do everything in my power to get us out of here. You can bet on that!"
The resolve behind Senku's words left her breathless. She could feel her heart begin to race, and now more than ever, was reminded of the feelings she harbored deep down and dared not voice aloud.
It was then that she decided that once they made it back to the colony, she would tell Senku the truth.
Senku then turned his attention back to his work and Kohaku couldn't help but notice that for any bit of force he exerted on the generator as he repaired it, he would gradually drift further and further away from it, a fact that was starting to frustrate him.
Kohaku noticed this and offered a solution by coming up behind him to essentially hug him from behind with one arm while grabbing onto the generator itself with the other in order to anchor him in place.
Senku tensed at the sudden contact but quickly saw the practicality of her method.
"Is that better?"
"Actually, yeah. I'll give you another ten billion points for that idea. Although it would be even more effective if you used both hands, otherwise, we'll just pivot in an arcing motion instead."
"Okay, then how's this?"
Kohaku then proceeded to unabashedly wrap her legs around Senku's waist in order to take hold of the generator with both hands, without even considering how they might look in that moment.
"That'll work," he commented before focusing on his objective.
The two of them remained like this for several minutes until Senku suddenly cracked his neck, turning it from side to side.
"Senku, you have whiplash, don't you? I'll go to the med bay to get you something for the pain."
"No, that would just waste time. I'll be fine."
"Tch, typical male attitude; always trying to act tough," she groaned with a roll of her eyes. "Alright, how's this for a compromise? Let me at least give you a neck massage to alleviate some of the discomfort. As the team medic, I'm responsible for everyone's physical health, so let me do my job."
"Fine, suit yourself," he relented, knowing this was an argument he couldn't win.
Kohaku then let go of the generator and positioned her hands on Senku's neck instead. With the pads of her thumbs, she gently plied at the skin in small circles, working them into the muscles. This elicited an unexpected and sharp hiss from Senku.
"Sorry! Did I hurt you?"
"No… the opposite, in fact. Just keep doing what you're doing."
"Okay," she nodded.
Kohaku got back to work and couldn't help but fixate on the sounds that emanated from Senku's mouth, which could only be described as sighs and grunts of pleasure. In all her years of knowing him, she had never once heard him make such sounds before… except maybe while eating his favorite food: ramen.
Furthermore, it was making her feel a certain way that she was too embarrassed to say out loud. Still, one look at the redness of her face would make it clear as day what she was thinking. Luckily, there was no one else around to see her in that state.
Or so she thought.
By that point, enough time had passed for Ryusui to make it to the airlock on the lower deck, strap on an oxygen mask, and grab two extras before bringing them over to electrical.
Before even reaching the threshold, however, Ryusui could already hear the sounds coming from within, which were more than a little suggestive when heard out of context. And of course, being as lewd minded as he was, Ryusui donned an impish grin before making his presence known.
"You know… if you wanted to be alone, all you had to do was ask," he teased as he rounded the corner.
"Ryusui!" Kohaku squeaked in surprise. "I was just…"
"Eh, no need to explain. I'll just leave your oxygen masks here and get out of your way."
"It's not…" she tried to deny his insinuation, but he wouldn't let up.
"Hey, I get it. This is a life-and-death situation after all. Gotta make the most of whatever time we have left, right?"
Kohaku's face only turned a deeper shade of red… both from embarrassment and anger.
"Get your mind out of the gutter, pervert! I was just treating Senku's whiplash. Grow up!"
"Oh, yeah? And is riding piggy-back also part of the treatment?" he inquired with a sly smirk when he saw Kohaku's legs still tightly wrapped around Senku's waist. "'Cause if so, I wouldn't mind getting some of your 'special treatment' as well."
"Hah! Sure. Come over here and I'll be sure to give you extra special treatment," she replied with a sinister tone, just daring him to take her up on her offer while cracking her knuckles to get her point across.
Then, just as she began to untangle her legs from around him, Kohaku was taken by surprise when Senku grabbed her legs and held them in place.
"Don't move, Lioness. I still need you to stabilize me. And as for you, captain moron, shut up and give us our oxygen masks already," he berated, putting an end to their meaningless squabble so he could concentrate.
.
Just a few hours later, Senku was able to finalize the repairs.
"Alright, that oughta do it. Everyone get near the floor so you're ready for when the artificial gravity kicks back on," he advised before pushing himself toward the main breaker and flipped the switch.
When he did, the room was instantly illuminated and the artificial gravity reactivated, pulling everyone and everything on the ship back down to floor-level. Then a hum resonated through the air as the ship's AI also reactivated.
"Greetings, Reconnaissance & Exploration Instrument, or REI, has been reinstated. Call out REI before issuing a command," said a synthetic, female sounding voice. "Now please state your names and roles to register your voices."
"Nanami Ryusui, pilot."
"Ishigami Senku, engineer."
"Hizashi Kohaku, medic."
"Identities confirmed. How may I be of service?"
"I'll tell ya how," replied Ryusui, taking the initiative as acting captain. "REI, run a thorough diagnostics on the ship. I wanna know every little thing that's wrong with her."
"Order received. Please allow ten to fifteen minutes for final results."
Then, approximately twelve minutes later, REI began listing off the status of all systems throughout the ship.
For starters, the assessment revealed that the hull was intact, making it safe for everyone to remove their masks. But at the same time, it revealed that engine 2 had sustained significant damage and was deemed inoperable. Furthermore, the reactor was classified as compromised and thus remained offline, which led Senku to believe was the core reason behind the blackout, a precautionary measure taken by REI in order to prevent an explosion.
Unfortunately, this also meant that they were stranded and would need to wait to be rescued. However, as REI continued to announce her findings, she said something that shook Senku to his core.
"Life support: compromised."
Senku balled his fists, as he waited with bated breath for the full breakdown.
"TCS: online."
"WRS: online."
"CDR: offline."
When he heard this, he froze in place. As the team engineer, only he knew what these codes meant, and it was quite fair to say that after a breach, THIS was the worst-case scenario.
To be continued…