New Beginnings and A New Stone World(Dr. Stone Fanfic)

Third And Last Party Member

How long has it been... Since I saw anything... I... want to hear something, anything. I don't care what happens afterward, I just want to wake up.

~~

*Crack*

Something on my skin loosened, almost like a rock shell. I sat up, feeling the stuff fall off, then I opened my eyes and saw that the shards were rocks.

Wow, my body feels so much lighter and relaxed than before.

I got up and looked around. The trees were a variety of colors and there were a lot of leaves scattered on the ground. Crap, I woke up just before winter... This definitely isn't good. Unless...

"Looks like she's up, so you better stay put," I heard from beyond the treeline. A smile spread across my face as my best friend came into view. "Morning, Snow White," she said with a little wave and a grin, a cracking pattern stretching out from the corners of her mouth making it look bigger than usual.

"Chi!" I happily cheered before going in for a hug.

"Nope. You're butt-ass naked," she denied as she held her hand to my forehead, stopping me from getting closer. "Here," she tossed some clothes at me. "Good thing I brought them, or little Rekki would've been scarred for life."

"Rekki's up?!" I asked in surprise.

"Yep. Get dressed. Catching a cold would be a death sentence."

I got dressed in the clothes she gave me. A black shirt, a cream-colored lab coat with buttons that I left undone, a pair of brown pants, and some boots that were fuzzy on the inside. "So much warmer," I sighed in relief when I was done.

"Well, time to get back home," she said as she started walking in the direction she came from with me following close behind.

"Rekki!" I happily exclaimed when I saw him. I quickly ran up to him and gave him one of my bear hugs. He still looked like the same old shy guy, but he's got some cracking patterns filling in the space between his top eyelids and his eyebrows with a crack connecting the two, almost making it look like glasses.

"Glad to see you, Kyoko," he squeezed out as he weakly patted my back.

I let go of him and we started following Chi to wherever she started building stuff. The way everything looked reminded me of the abandoned island that we had taken a trip to. What was it again? I... No, not Ikebukuro, that was weeb-central. Ike... Ikeshima! That's what it was! There were so many cute kitties!

"Earth to Kyoko," Chi said with an accompanying snap, effectively bringing me out of my dreamland of cute cats.

"Huh?"

"Gotta climb to get inside, airhead." Next to her was a rope ladder hanging from a tree.

/

Kyoko clumb up the ladder after I finally pulled her out of her fantasy world filled with cats. I have no idea of how it happened, but we were fast friends not too long after Rekki started hanging around me. Opposed to Rekki's shyness, she's a complete optimist and pretty outgoing. She loves anything and everything to do with fantastical creatures and also all sorts of sports. She was head over heels when she heard that I had dated someone popular in the high school sporting world, who also happened to be her idol. But, who am I to complain? She's a great person to have around.

We worked on finishing our new home during the entire winter and even into spring. By the time we were done, it was worth all the effort. In the center of our treehouse system was the hut that we slept in and kept some things in, like some of the weapons, to the left a couple of trees was Rekki's workshop where he worked on all sorts of gadgets and gizmos made of stone since we didn't know where to find any metal ores yet, not too far behind the hut was a storage shed for food and stuff like that, and last but not least, there was another hut that Kyoko would be using to make medicines and balms in. She was studying to be a Pharmacologist, which are the scientists that make medicine, and she went the extra mile to study herbology.

Now, with the weather being warm again, I've been exploring with Judas while Kyoko collects plants and Rekki does whatever. He just can't come along with because of his eyesight and the fact that we don't have anything to make glasses. I think the glass for the lenses is made out of silica if I remember correctly, but that doesn't matter since we'd need corundum to grind it to fit Rekki's sight.

*BOOM*

I quickly looked to the southwest of where we were and saw black smoke. That sounded like gunpowder. But how could anyone- Wait. The three of us broke out on our own, so of course, other people would. "Stay here, Judas, I'm gonna check it out," I said as I patted his head. He sat down as I started walking toward the explosion.

As I got closer, I realized I was around Hakone. The trees were getting thinner, the dirt courser, and I could faintly smell sulfur. Maybe I was farther away from Hirasuka than I thought since I know I haven't been walking long enough to get from Ninomiya to Hakone.

I clumb a tree to get a better vantage point and to stay hidden. From there, I saw a guy that looked a little bit younger than me with gravity-defying cabbage-like hair, a girl with long brown hair, and another buff guy with spiky brown hair looking in the distance at a white smoke signal. They started scrambling around, probably trying to send another signal to the person, which now had three fires going. After a few minutes, the girl was back with who I recognized as Shishio Tsukaasa holding a spear to her neck. What happened after surprised me. Tsukasa killed cabbage-head, who I found out was called Senku because of the buff guy, Taiju, yelling his name at the top of his lungs. The two had retaliated by throwing a pot full of gunpowder and lighting it with a boulder at Tsukasa. Then, they ran away with their friend's body right before it started storming.

"Hm, seems like there are some potential threats... Well, might as well start for home soon." Just as I muttered that to myself, the rain stopped and I saw the trio from before and Senku was walking around like he didn't get his cervical plexus snapped less than ten minutes ago. A smirk grew on my face as I decided I should keep tabs on him in particular. I followed the three for a while until they split ways, Taiju and the girl probably going to act as spies and Senku going in the direction of the three smoke signals from earlier.

He ended up discovering a girl that looked like she was born and raised in this stone world, not broken out of the stone. The next day that was confirmed when I followed them to a primitive village. After finding out that Senku would be staying there, I went back home. After all, I couldn't be out for too long without everyone starting to worry. 

"Chi! Where were you?!" Kyoko instantly exclaimed when I wasn't even halfway up the ladder. Rekki was standing next to her with his own worried look. "Judas came home and looked worried. Why were you gone all night?"

"Well, I found out that we're not the only people here," I truthfully answered.

"Really?!" they both exclaimed in shock.

I nodded."The only thing is, they were fighting. I wanna watch one group for a while before we do anything. At the very least, I might learn a few useful things."

"Like what?" Rekki spoke up.

A small smirk made its way to my face as I leaned forward a bit in anticipation. "The guy I'm spying on is a scientist. There are just so many things we could get out of that, don't ya think! New tools, recipes for materials, and even where some metal ores are someday! Oh, all the wonderful things that could come out of this relationship!"

"A relationship where you spy on them..." Kyoko muttered.

"And only you get the benefits..." Rekki added.

"Don't sweat the details. I'm gonna get some sleep. Couldn't get any last night because the tree was uncomfortable."

~Hey guys! Finally finished this chapter! Don't know when the next one will be up though. I haven't had to work nearly as much, but I'm entering in an art walk that my town's having, so I want to focus on some original artworks. I've been working on some Sumi-e(ink) paintings and I'm thinking about doing some watercolor, even though I don't much care for the media. I've also gotten into JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and I'm on part 3 which is 48 episodes long... I had a mini heart attack when I saw that, not gonna lie. Well, anyway, I hope you all enjoyed! Bye-bye:)~