Petrified | Dr. Stone

02.

This story will follow the manga and will contain spoilers.

I do not own anything except for my oc. Enjoy! :)

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Inoko felt like crying. She has no idea on what is happening, and not knowing scares her. She is trapped, petrified and feeling alone in the dark. It's weird. She doesn't like any of this. Not even a little bit.

"Someone... Help me..."

She can't hear, she can't see and she can't even move. As if all of her senses were disabled. Yet, she stays conscious. It's scary. How long has it been? She feels like she's going insane.

Her eyelids opened abruptly. She lost consciousness again. Where is she again? She was...

"No... Don't forget..."

The flashbacks returned. The bright light that swallows the horizon. The stillness of everything. The loss of senses. The darkness. The fear.

"Don't... Ever... Forget!"

For the... How many has it been? She doesn't know anymore. She woke up, feeling empty. She knew she's going insane, she's probably insane right now. She don't know anymore. She doesn't know anymore.

"My name...?"

Who is she? All she remembered is that... She was... Petrified? She was stoned... Right?

On that day, she was... Right, she saw a bright light. How could she forget that? The light that turned her this way. She lost everything right then and there.

But wait... What is she doing, looking at the bright light? Oh yeah, right. There was a group of friends. She's really envious. But why would she? She was...

"My name is... Inoko. Right? Right? I am Inoko?"

She's definitely going insane.

Her parents... Does she have one? Of course she does. She won't be alive if she got none. Where are they? Are they fine? Are they doing well? Are they still... alive?

Then a vision came to her. She's inside her room. A really bare and boring room, only consisting of a bed and a storage box where she puts all her clothes on. She is facing the window, books on her hands.

She is studying. No, she is supposed to be studying, but Inoko was distracted by the children playing outside.

"That was the first time..."

That scene opened her mind to her situation: Why is she holding her books while other kids her age are playing outside? Why is she inside her room and not outside? Why are they happy while she's not?

Barking was heard, turning Inoko's attention to it. It was their neighbors' dog, tied in a leash so short that it looks painful. The dog barked at the kids, but the kids ignored it. They continued playing, as if the dog was never there.

"That's right. I was the same as the dog from that time."

The leash. The restrictions. The limitations. The strictness. The books. The tests. The loneliness. The envy. The...

Freedom? No, she never felt like she had one. Not even a single time. She felt trapped, caged with no other way out.

Inoko felt really uncomfortable. She squirmed. She tried to move her hands, her feet, everything. She can't take it anymore. No more cage. No more darkness. She tried to move a muscle...

... she can't.

Inoko shot her eyes open again, or at least, her consciousness. She fell asleep again! Then she noticed something. It's been so long since she heard anything and read something. She didn't force an information into her head for a while, and it is really taking a toll on her brain that is already used to information overload.

She's starting to forget.

Scolding herself, she tried to recite everything she can remember again from the start. She won't allow herself to forget. Not ever.

She started it with information about herself. She tried to recite everything that she could remember.

"Inoko... Seiji Inoko. Female. 16. November 20..."

Then with the letters and grammars.

"A, I, U, E, O... Ka, Ki, Ku, Ke, Ko..."

"Hiragana... katakana... kanji..."

"The difference between a verb and an adverb is..."

Then with the primary and the basics of arithmetic.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0"

"1,223 added to 1,827 is equals to..."

"192,838 multiplied to 982,936 is equals to..."

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After a long time of reciting her memories, Inoko finally stopped. She already finished everything a few weeks ago but still decided to continue in case she forgot something. She even pretended to be teaching children and gave meaning to every terminology as simple as she could.

But still, nothing happened.

"Am I really going to be stuck here forever?"

She's feeling the sorrow, yet she can't shed a single tear. She's unable to. This only add to Inoko's frustration. Is this really it? This is so frustrating.

A part of the reason why she started to recite her memories is to prevent herself from succumbing to insanity. She read a long time ago that having mind games can help the brain. But now that she already finished reciting everything from her kindergarten lessons to the advance books that she read from the library, nothing still happened.

"You're being stupid, Inoko," she said to herself. "You should not have hoped that everything's going to be fine if you pretended that everything's going to be fine."

She's unable to cry physically, but she's crying on her heart and mind. The word 'stupid' is repeating over and over again on her head.

"Stupid self. Stupid people. Stupid world. Everything is just... stupid."

For years, she's always been playing pretend, she just now realized. Her life sucks. Everything sucks. The time she spent reviewing herself about her life worth lessons? It's a waste of time. It sucks.

Is there even a meaning to everything she's done? Did she even made her parents proud? How about herself? Did she made her own self proud? Is there any accomplishments that can make her stand tall and hold her head up high?

This is really frustrating, it's stupid.

She really wishes that she shouldn't have been bo-

She heard it. A sound. She can hear it clearly because of the silence that accompanied her for a long time.

All of her previous thoughts were set aside as she waited for the sound to be heard again. It's not a fluke, isn't it? Or was it just a product of her deprivation from any sense?

She waited, and waited, until it hit a full minute. Then she felt it. It felt so magical she can hardly believe it. She wanted to laugh, this happened right after she had a breakdown, it's funny.

The thing that surrounded her for thousands of years, finally corroded. It started on her face, splitting into four uneven parts. Then to her neck up to her whole body.

The stones fell to the ground, creating a sound that echoed throughout the whole place. Inoko inhaled, missing the feeling of air entering her lungs, then exhaling and finally letting out the tears she's been holding from the day she was petrified.

She's been laying down, and the first thing she saw when she got out was the most beautiful view of the sky she's ever seen on her whole life.