Symbiosis

Fake Magician Acquired

Notes:

Saw that it was three years since the premiere of the anime and it made me want to upload this fic inspired by that scene in which Senku goes around pouring nitric acid on different statues when he was just beginning to develop the revival fluid BUT since I had to do a cover I'm just uploading it now.

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I can't die like this.

Gen didn't understand what was going on. Who could? The only thing he knew was that he had just finished his escape act, standing triumphal over the box that once 'trapped' him inside, when a blinding green light appeared out of nowhere and then everything went dark.

Fortunately for him, and in a way, like a twisted joke of the universe considering the 'magic act' he just performed, he wasn't claustrophobic nor afraid of the dark.

However, he could feel the beginnings of a panic attack and there... there wasn't much he could really do about it.

He couldn't move, which meant he couldn't close his eyes, much less engage in light exercise or muscle relaxation techniques.

Deep breathing exercises? Not an option, and the idea that he wasn't breathing was certainly not helping at all...

He couldn't practice mindfulness as he didn't feel anything, not after whatever that had happened, well, happened.

He couldn't feel the warmth of the lights from the stage, nor the fabric of his clothes against his skin... Not even whatever encased him. Nothing.

Find an object to focus? Also discarded. It was pitch black.

Picture a happy place? Of course that had to be the only option left. Well, that and repeating a mantra internally. However, after a while, repeating to himself that he was too young to die became rather boring.

Maybe he should just sleep. Every now and then, he would feel himself drifting out of consciousness, only to stop himself by sheer force of will. But it would be so easy to just let himself go and then... Then what? Was he going to sleep forever? What if he never woke up? Or worse, what if he did and was totally defenseless? No. He promised himself he would never be in that situation again and, as the mentalist he claimed to be, he had to be ready for whatever it may come.

Worst case scenario, he would simply die waiting, right?

With no food nor water, how long could that take?

***

The answer turns out to be 3,715 years... and counting, considering he is still very much alive.

There is a sound of something cracking and then he finds himself blinded by the light, his senses returning to him all at once. He can feel the earth on his feet, he can hear the sound of the waves nearby and then, when his vision clears, he can see a man standing in front of him.

"What is this, a prank? Did my manager not stop them? I told them I'm a mentalist so I only work as the prankster," he begins to say, even though it's more than obvious that it wasn't just some stupid prank.

However, until he gathered enough information, he would act his part as the confused celebrity.

Not that it was very far from the truth.

***

It had become kind of a routine. Senku would walk to the cave, check if Taiju had awakened (no signs of that happening so far) and then take with him the rudimentary mud vessel he made to collect nitric acid and leave an empty one behind. On his way back to his shelter and lab, he would pour some of its contents over some random statues, just to check if by any chance someone else could be revived the same way he was.