Chapter Text
Senku
The young ex-scientist lets out several puffed, panting breaths as he jogs his way across the cracked pavement, limping and wounded. His gloved hand reaches up to cup at his abdomen, which feels wet and hot with growing blood. There's an arrow pierced through his side. Every step pokes his insides with that jagged, sharp tip. He can't stop moving, and he can't wrench the damn thing out either. Not if he wants to be caught by Tsukasa's band of goons, or bleed out like a stuck pig. Glancing back over his shoulder or pondering on what to do next would be a waste of energy.
“Damn it! Which way did that little twig run off to?” A voice echoes from somewhere behind. Senku recognizes it to be Yo, a rather useless pawn.
“Shh! Keep it down,” Nikki tells him, most likely with a finger pressed to her own bee-stung lips. “These empty passageways carry sound much farther out without a crowd. Do you seriously want to summon them here?”
“Shit, sorry. I forget,” Yo says apologetically in a much softer tone.
With some effort, Senku rolls his unusually red eyes.
Even with the combination of all his sufferings- Being stuck with one of Ukyo's arrows, starvation, and just general unwellness, he's at least smart enough to know to keep his damn mouth shut. Especially out here in the cityscape where the undead are much more frequently abound. If it wasn't for Ukyo and his freakishly good hearing, he doubts he'd be in this predicament now. These members of Might have no clue what it's like to survive out here this deep in the city.
If he were the more dramatic type, he's sure he'd be whimpering like a labored dog, as he drags his frail body into the crevice of an imploded building. Senku is beyond skinny enough now to fit through the gap, but the length of the arrow makes things awkward. With rough fingers he breaks off the tip, then proceeds to bury himself in the enclosed space with brick and ash.
He feels no shame in hiding, if it means getting to live to see another day. He has no energy left to run, or to fight, and his mind is too hazy to think up a strategic plan.
He takes the chance to lay back and catch his breath, and process the pain. It's amazing how comfortable a pile of rocks can feel when you're that desperate for a break.
Senku needs to act quickly before an infection has a chance to engulf his system. He's not sure how clean Ukyo's arrows are, or if they're laced with some type of poison or drug. As quietly as he can, he slowly- VERY slowly pulls out his half-empty canteen, along with his beloved bar of soap from his backpack. Sucking in air through his teeth, he dribbles a tiny bit of water onto the soap bar. He massages it with his fingers, then starts gently rubbing the suds around the glistening wound.
He's still thinking logically; he'd rather risk getting caught than risk getting an infection, because that would guarantee a game over.
He tries to wash the suds off with a bit more water, but his hands are beginning to tremble fiercely. The metallic accessories to the strap are rattling along the side of the canister, and with blood still gooey on his fingers, the damn thing slips free and drops onto the rocks, creating a clatter.
Shit!
Senku remains deadly still after that. He can hear a collection of muffled footsteps approaching up ahead. “Wait. I definitely heard something.” Senku recognizes the soft-spoken words of Ukyo, one of Tsukasa's right hand generals. He likely has his hand stretched out, signaling the group to stop running.
“Well, what is it?” Nikki asks.
“A metallic thud of some kind. It's not organic, so he's definitely close,” Ukyo relays, turning to the group. “Let's split up in pairs. Each pair can take turns searching and acting as a look out. I'm going to scour the perimeter." The group nods in understanding, and they all split up, with Ukyo closing in on that thud he heard prior.
Senku can feel his consciousness fading then, as he hears Ukyo walking right past his hiding hole with those ugly-ass elf shoes he always wears.
Horribly drained and exhausted, he lets his eyes close, and everything fades away to black, before quickly being replaced with a reoccurring nightmare. A memory that's haunted him for multiple years, resurfacing into a flashback:
He was only seventeen years old then, but despite still being classified as a highschooler, he was already taking classes at Stone University, a rather prestigious college with an emphasis in the sciences. He had taken a job there as a lab assistant during the summer, to earn some extra cash and, more importantly, to gain lab experience.
His tasks were no different from any other manual labor job. Mostly he was just a washer boy. He'd clean and sterilize all of the equipment; dry them and put them back on their racks in the cupboards. He'd wipe down the lab stations and refill gas into the bunsen burners. He'd clean smudges off the white boards and disinfect the PPE equipment like the eyewear and machine wash everyone's lab coats. Otherwise, apart from a multitude of tedious tasks, every day brought about some new idea or scientific endeavor.
The adults were more than happy to include a bright mind like Senku into their experiments and research. God only knows that he wouldn't stop pestering them or correcting their mistakes otherwise.
“Senku, come over here. I want to show you something,” one of his professors at the time said to him from across the laboratory. Dr. Xeno was an incredible man, and one Senku greatly respected. Though, despite having a background in NASA and the JSC in the States, Senku still regarded him with that same blunt way of speaking he talked with everyone else.
“Cool it, you old fart. I'm still cleaning off this bit of substrate,” he says from the wash basin in the back. The pressure washer is ridiculously hot, and a bit strong for Senku's delicate fingers.
“You'll want to see this. I think you will find this sample most elegant. Or… I suppose, to put it in your own words, most exhilarating."
“I'm almost done,” Senku says, and puts the dripping beaker onto the drying rack, before stepping back out into the main lab.
Senku is dressed up like a total nerd. He's wearing a lab coat that's much too long for him, with the sleeves tucked into elbow length gloves and a blue eye mask over his eyes. His hair is tied back into a bun, since anyone with long hair must have it tied back due to lab safety protocol. Seeing Xeno near the microscope, he takes off the goggles and gloves. His face was a little flushed from the steam in the wash room.
Xeno turns and offers him a half smile. He's dressed much the same. With a tie and a white collared shirt and sweater vest. “Dr. XENO” is plastered to his enamel pin name tag across his chest.
“Is the eyeshield really necessary for washing the beakers and flasks?”
“Depends. Do you care if boiling water hits you in the face?”
“Touché,” Xeno says, and guides Senku over to the microscope across one of the lab stations by the small of his back.
Senku peers down at the scope with curiosity. There's a case laying open next to it with various slots for a multitude of different slides inside. All categorized and labeled, except for one empty slot, presumably occupied by the microscope. He recognizes it immediately, and grins up at Xeno with that look of pure excitement, “No way. Is this-?”
“That's right. Shipped straight from the Amazon's this morning,” he said, referring to their field team in Brazil. A summer expedition, led by field researchers Max and Carlos, Brody the Mechanic, and Senku's “totally-offical-super-real” girlfriend Luna Wright, among others.
“There's a note for you in the box,” Xeno claims, referring to the small box of slides. Senku picks it up with vague interest, and reads in swoopy calligraphy, “Love and miss you soooooo much! -Luna ♡” written inside the lid in pink sharpie.
Senku rolls his eyes and puts the box aside, before peering down into the eyepiece. Xeno chuckles, a hand on his hip, “You seem so thrilled.”
“Shut up. You know I don't have time for that sappy shit,” he says with disinterest.
“You know, when she asked you to be her boyfriend before she left, no one expected you to say yes,” Xeno pointed out, peering over the top of the younger’s spiky hair.
“I only said yes to get her off my back, and now you're making me think I'm regretting my decision. Hush! I need to see this,” Senku says, holding his hand up to get Xeno to pause in speaking again.
Senku is grinning madly at what he sees, one eye pinched shut, as he twists the lens adjuster knob to bring the slide into focus. The sample is of a variety of eukaryotic cells from a fungus. “Cordyceps,” Senku says, recognizing its thick cell wall and budding head. The specimen has been stained and frozen inside its mount in isopropyl alcohol. Luna loves the pink stain element in particular. “I'll be damned. She actually managed to capture the fungal cell while ingesting a bacterium. Look at that capsule unraveling! Unbelievable!” He laughs.
Xeno chuckles and shakes his head. “You're not even a biologist, and yet you get so excited over a couple of cells.”
Senku stares a little while longer, before lifting his head up to grin at Xeno happily. “I may be an astrophysicist at heart, but I take our lab very seriously.” Their research in particular was about the biochemical signaling of a variety of fungal species in hopes of developing organic based medicines.
However, after hearing from the field team that they had stumbled upon a rather interesting mutation within the Cordyceps fungus, they easily became sidetracked.
“Clearly,” Xeno agrees, amused.
Senku sighs forlornly and peers into the eyepiece again, switching between macro-viewing and micro, “If only I could be there to view this in person.”
“In half a year you'll be old enough to go on your own expeditions.”
“I'd already be there if you hadn't stuck your guard dog on me,” he retorts, referring to the campus chief of police Stanley Snyder. A rather cunning individual with a background in military operations, a lust for cigarettes and Dr. Xeno's lifelong “friend.” Senku's quite confident he's smelled cigarettes on Xeno's breath more than once, and the professor doesn't smoke.
“After that stunt you pulled in Africa? Please,” Xeno huffs, crossing his arms. He's referring to the time a young teen Senku had swiped his NASA credit card to book a flight to Africa to join a research team on studying ebola. Never again…
“What's that phrase Luna says sometimes? Hashtag material girl goals?” Senku grins.
“Do you honestly fancy yourself funny?”
“I'm hilarious.”
Xeno scoffs, before letting out a mischievous smirk. He sighs like he's disappointed and spins around on the heel of his shiny leather loafer, “And here I thought you were actually a professional scientist,” he says, which distracts Senku enough to raise a curious dark eyebrow. “I was going to show you the other sample the field team sent over. With real living mutated Cordyceps, but clearly I was wrong. My mistake~”
“Wha-” Senku lifts his head like a cat seeing a treat dangled above his nose.
“Oh well. Have fun with your slides,” Xeno says with a half-hearted wave of his hand.
“Wait, wait-!” The young scientist scrambles away from the microscope to charge after the retreating senior. “I wanna see!”
“Too bad. I don't entertain smug brats.”
Senku turns Xeno around by his shoulders, grabs the man by the lapels of his white lab coat, before thrusting him up against the wall. Lined with scientific diagrams and promotional financial aid papers. He's scowling up at him with that spicy kitten look. “Old man, if you don't show me the stupid mushrooms I swear I'm going to report you for- for..” he was about to say ‘sexual harassment’ but even that notion left a bad taste in his mouth. The whole thing seemed ridiculous to his adolescent mind.
Xeno just stares at him, unaffected, before he dislocates Senku's grip from his coat and pushes his hands away. “Crass, as usual,” he says, like he's amazed Senku actually bit his tongue for a change.
Senku swallows, and releases his grip. Ah- he gets it now. This wasn't just a joke, this was conditional.
“...What do I have to do?”
“I need a small favor,” Xeno says vaguely, as he smooths down his lab coat and brushes at his chest like he's dirty. “I'm a bit busy today, so I need someone to deliver the samples for me. They're being sent to another laboratory for a clinical trial.”
Senku blinks at him. That makes sense. Their original research was intended for medicinal and pharmaceutical purposes. It was important to make sure the new strain of Cordyceps was non-toxic upon exposure. “I can do that.”
Xeno nods, then moves past Senku to go to the lab's storage closet. An unusual place to store such a sample, though Senku supposed that the room was dark and humid enough, and watches in amazement as Xeno retrieves a semi-large storage container with an impressive looking hatch on the top. "Seems a bit overkill for mushrooms, don't you think?” Senku asks as he moves in to take a better look, while Xeno moves the case onto another lab station.
“Weren't you just scolding me earlier about getting boiling water on my face?”
“Touché, grandpa.”
“I'm thirty seven. I hardly think myself old.”
“That forehead begs to differ.”
“Look who's talking.”
“Shut up and open it already!” Senku says, bouncing on his heels with excited energy, hardly able to contain himself.
Xeno smiles at him fondly, before taking out a set of keys and unlocking the hatch. Using a heavy hand, he grunts as he turns the thick handle counter clockwise. There's an audible click, the mechanisms unlocking, as the lid pops off. He sets the thing aside, before pulling on a mask and thick looking gloves. He hands Senku an identical set, giving him a look that says “put these on,” and Senku does so without question. It makes him feel so cool and legit. Xeno then reaches inside the container with the gloves, and pulls out another smaller container made of glass. It's packed with rich Amazonian soil, and inside is the most unusual mushroom's Senku has ever seen. They're tube shaped and small like children's fingers, and practically glowing with a vibrant yellow-orange color.
Senku's eyes are wide around the face mask. Xeno sets the sample onto the lab station. “Unbelievable. They're bigger than regular cordyceps,” Senku mutters.
“You haven't seen anything yet.” Xeno's eyes crinkle, making the crows feet more prominent. “Want to do a little observational test?”
“Absolutely.”
Xeno retreats to go and find the lab's cryogenic storage containers. These are meant for long term organic storage, keeping the temperature low enough to preserve materials safely. He comes back with a bag of frozen mice, meant for the herpetology lab in the neighboring hall. Senku watches with slight horror as Xeno drops a mouse into the container, and is very careful to keep everything properly quarantined. For a long time, nothing happened.
Senku frowned. “Wow. Impressive. A dead rodent.”
Xeno says nothing, and his furrowing brow expresses his seriousness. Senku notices the mood shift, and decides to keep watching. Eventually, his eyes blow wide open in horror and awe as he watches a lumpy texture beginning to speckle the mouse's backside. It's slow at first, then the growth accelerates, and the Cordyceps push their way up into the air. Then, the mouse begins to writhe as it defrosts. It twitches and curls its little paws, before it pushes itself up and actually starts walking towards Senku. It lazily bumps its nose against the glass, hissing and foam leaching from its mouth.
“No way…”
Xeno moves his eyes onto Senku, calculated and observant, watching his reactions.
Senku peers in close, staring at the mouse with those brilliant red eyes, truly fascinated. He moves his finger across the glass, and the mouse actually scrambles after it in desperation. The thing was clearly dead, and somehow, the Cordyceps had actually taken over its neurological pathways to make it move. “Unbelievable,” he removes his hand to look up at Xeno. “I had heard about flesh eating cordyceps taking over the brains of insects, but I never thought it could corrupt a mammal. Much less a dead one.”
Xeno picks up the glass container and places it back into the mechanical storage tub. “Now you see why it can't stay here,” he says, and replaces the lid, locking the hatch.
“Yeah, no kidding.”
If that thing had the ability to take over and transform rodents, he could only imagine what it could do to people. He shudders to think about it. The odds didn't seem very likely, but then again, it only takes one outbreak for a disease to transform into a lock down situation. He swallows, and looks up at Xeno's serious expression with growing uneasiness. “Xeno…”
Xeno's expression visibly softens, and he removes the gloves and mask to let out a soft smile. Senku removes his as well, and tries to put on a brave facade by crossing his arms. “Are Luna… and Carlos…”
“They're perfectly safe, rest assured. How else would she be able to write you that sweet note if she wasn't?” Xeno teased, and Senku glanced back over across the lab at the box of slides.
“That's true… but…”
Xeno presses his lips together for a moment. “I can see why you feel uneasy. Do not worry. The Cordyceps are incapable of affecting humans, but just in case, it needs to go through clinical trials. We cannot be reckless and continue experimentation here at the university.”
Senku lets out a breath, then sucks in air through his teeth, before he chuckles and shakes his head. “I see. That's why you need good ol’ Dr. Ishigami Senku here to be your young delivery boy, am I wrong?”
“Right, as per usual,” Xeno chirps.
Xeno's phone begins to ring suddenly. He puts his hand into the pocket of his slacks. “Pardon me, Senku, but I need to take this call. I've been waiting on it all day, you see. Would you please do me the courtesy of stepping out into the hallway?”
Senku just shrugs, acting nonchalant, and waves a dismissive hand behind him before jamming his hands into the pockets of his pants. “Whatever. Have fun with your booty call, pervert.”
“Thank you. I will,” Xeno calls after him. Senku kicks the door to the lab open, before strolling out into the hallway.
—
Senku waits out in the hallway for an ungodly amount of time. He's almost tempted to listen in on the conversation with his ear to the door several times, but decides against it every time. Because knowing him, this would be the one time Xeno actually was making a booty call, and that was the last thing he wanted to listen in on.
Eventually, he kicks off the wall and meanders down into a little alcove lounge area with cushioned chairs, a few couches and a couple of vending machines with snacks and sodas. He scrounges his pockets for loose change and various crumpled dollar bills. He steps up to the machine, and eyes a green energy drink. ‘It's too late in the day for all that caffeine,’ he thinks, and decides on a candy bar with peanuts and a caffeine-free soda instead. He blames his uneasiness on low blood sugar, and not the mildly disconcerting zombie-mouse he had just paid witness to.
The snack and drink hit the bottom of the machine at an awkward angle. Senku has to finger the damn things out of the flap, getting some various stares from students buried in their notes and textbooks. He really couldn't give less of a crap about people staring. He chugs the lemony soda and takes a small bite out of his sugary treat.
His chewing slows as he mildly dissociates, half of his mind counting away the seconds, the other half imagining those raised bumps all over his skin. Before pushing their way out, and burying their chemical network into his nerves, transforming his body into a disembodied puppet.
Senku sits down in the last available chair, practically falling back into it, before fishing his phone out of his lab coat pocket to check any new notifications to distract himself from his own visceral thoughts. He smiles at the only notification from his step father. It's a picture of the astronaut team together, playing with water in zero gravity. His step mom Lillian has managed to shape the water into a heart. Byakuya is chucking a water ball at his totally-not-side-piece-boyfriend Shamil in the side of the head. Senku laughs out loud at the ridiculous face he's making. “You're an idiot,” he texts back, like he wasn't still giggling and picking at his ear for dust with a pinky. Shamil looks SO offended and betrayed.
It would be a while before Byakuya has time to text him back.
He opens discord next, finding the server belonging to himself and his two best friends, Taiju and Yuzuriha. He sends them a quick text on a whim: ‘Want to go to Pho Noodles and Co. For dinner? I'll buy,’ he offers. He promised them at the start of the summer that he'd make an effort to hang out with them and not just busy himself senselessly with science work, which he has yet to fulfill.
“YESSSS-!!!” Taiju replies almost immediately. Senku can practically hear that big oaf screaming through his phone screen. He blows a piece of dust off his finger.
“Yes! ♡” Yuzuriha replies a minute later. “8 o'clock okay?”
Senku loves her ability to make plans and keep to a timed schedule. He grins and reacts with a simple thumbs up emoji to her text.
He's almost forgotten the incident with the zombie-mouse, scrolling through social media, when his attention gets redirected to Xeno emerging in the entrance way and quietly gesturing with a hand for him to follow him back into the laboratory. Senku nods and gets up, then dumps his half eaten snacks into the nearby trash bin, that uneasy feeling returning to the pit of his stomach.
He could always buy another one another day.
Senku follows Xeno back into the lab, and the older scientist closes the door softly with his back. He sighs, “Sorry about that, but it couldn't be helped. Now-” he says, and moves back over to the lab station with the mechanical tub still on top of it. He picks it up and brings it back over to Senku to take. Senku grabs it, and is startled by how heavy the thing actually is. He almost crumpled beneath it, not expecting the overwhelming weight, but Xeno makes sure he has a good grip on the thing before letting go. “Listen to me carefully, because this is important.”
Senku grimaces, straining to keep the thing upright. He's always been the biggest wimp on campus, and perhaps the entire world. He looks up at Xeno expectantly.
Xeno watches him struggle, making sure he's paying attention, and folds his arms behind his back in a dignified manner, “There's going to be a white van located outside the campus police station. Take this crate there immediately without distraction. If anyone asks, you tell them that this is for the local blood drive,” he says.
Senku gives him a confused look at the lie, and Xeno chuckles, “What, do you really think I want people to know I hired a teenager to carry my work around? I could lose my credibility as a professional.”
“I guess…” Senku says in a strained voice. Xeno patting him on the shoulder doesn't help matters.
“Good boy. Now, I really must be going,” he says, and moves to grab his briefcase and scarf off the nearby lab station. He pushes past Senku with quick haste and without so much as a goodbye on his lips before he's gone like a swift breeze. Senku, panting, trails after him down the hallway with buckling knees and achy fingers.
“Wait, isn't campus police all the way across campus?!” He whines, startling some nearby students passing by on their way to class. He's seriously reconsidering owing anyone any favors ever again, as he staggers out into the open through the life sciences entryway.
—
The dream is interrupted by the sensation of something cold and leathery poking Senku in the cheek, and he peels his eyes open to focus on Yo standing over him, pressing a worn nightstick into his face. He taps him with it several times, like the way Byakuya would prod at him as a child to get up for school. Senku grimaces, and tilts his head up to focus his eyes on Yo's face grinning down at him. "Wakey, wakey, little grasshopper,” he cooes down at him mockingly, before he steps on his chest with a heavy foot, and violently smacks the side of the nightstick into the bone of his cheek.
Senku gasps, his head whipping to the side, and grits his teeth hard enough to make his jaw ache. Even now, he refuses to utter a sound in excess.
Reality comes flying back to him at full force, and Senku doesn't bother trying to get up. The group must have found him while he was lying unconscious. Ukyo isn't around, so it wasn't because he made a sound. Senku can see the blurred faces of Nikki, and Hyoga and Homura approaching from a distance. He's always had the most shitty luck imaginable. Being caught by this butch lesbian and psychopathic narcissist was proof enough of that.
Yo straightens up and twists his upper torso around to wave back at Hyoga and Homura, while Nikki brushes away the remaining dust and stone, before picking at his pockets and shoes for weapons of any kind. “Yo! We fuckin’ caught ‘em!” He says proudly, always such a show off.
Nikki elbows him in the shin while crouched down over Senku's delicate frame, "Shh!”
“Well done. You've actually managed to do a proper job for a change,” Hyoga says as he approaches the group, with Homura trailing quietly from behind with her usual silent footfall. It's really hard to hear anything he says correctly behind that black mask he always wears.
“Ahh, it was nothing! Nothing the great Yo can't handle!” He laughs, pounding his chest with a fist.
Nikki's brow twitches with growing irritation, “Yo, may I remind you that I am within perfect striking distance with your nuts, and I was the top of my class on the wrestling team in high school,” she growls at him, and Yo squeaks and retreats in response.
Senku breaths in relief at the pressure being taken off his chest. He's sure that stupid ex-cop has left more than a few bruises on his upper ribs. He reaches up to instinctively wipe the blood off his cheek, but is stopped by Hyoga pointing the tip of his kudayari at his throat. He pauses, and meets Hyoga's half-lidded eyes with disdain.
“Don't make any sudden movements, or I'll take that as an invitation to skewer you alive,” he threatens in that cool tone of voice.
Senku chuckles weakly, his breath coming in and out hard, “So what now?” he smirks up at him mischievously, his eyelids dark with bags and fluttering long lashes, “You gonna force me to walk back to your fortress? Good luck getting me to stand up.” Senku rolls his head back dramatically, "Oh! I feel so faint! You're going to have to carry me! Pity,” he says, and pouts up at Hyoga, who's brow twitches and tips his chin down in annoyance, “Baby so hungry~ Momma Tsukasa is just going to have to breastfeed me~” he snorts a laugh. God, he's really reaching his mental breaking point now, huh? At least Hyoga looks pissed, as best he can anyways with that mask and the fact that his eyes are always squinted shut.
“You're truly disgusting,” he says, and presses the tip of the kudayari into the base of his throat. Senku resists the urge to swallow from the pressure, which would send his adams apple right into the thing. “Look at you now. It's pitiful. To think I actually once regarded you with respect.”
“Whatever.”
Nikki removes the majority of the items Senku had on hand with him. His backpack, strapped to a sleeping bag, his pouches of assorted miscellaneous minerals and tools, a saddle bag he keeps over the hip full of tinder and firewood, and the only weapon he had, an iron hatchet.
“That's everything,” Nikki says, looking up at the others.
“Not quite. Check his clothes again,” Homura interjects. She would know, and Hyoga trusts her with his life.
“Strip him,” Hyoga commands. Nikki sputters a bit and blushes at the order, and Senku whistles.
“Kinky.”
“Just stop it. Strip him, now,” he repeats, and reluctantly, Nikki leans down to remove his clothes.
“A-alright. I guess I should start from the top down,” she agrees, and reaches with slightly trembling hands for his popped collar. Despite her rugged appearance, she's actually quite bashful at heart, and it takes her a while to work up the nerve to take his top off bit by bit. She works at a strap here, and pad of armor there, until finally she reaches the softer shirt underneath. She works the buttons off their loops one at a time, and by now her face is absolutely burning red with embarrassment. Senku just watches her, his stoney expression not giving away anything to suggest the inner turmoil swirling in his thoughts like a vicious maelstrom.
The shirt comes loose, and instead of a bare chest like everyone expects, the cloth gives way to a thick padded strap wound tightly around his bony ribs and stomach, lined with row after row of circular looking batteries. Alarmed, Hyoga moves to drive the kudayari into his throat, only to pause when Senku grapples a detonator with a red button along its tip, with his thumb along the top of it, ready to press at any given moment.
“Ah-ah-ah! Not so fast, Hyoga,” Senku grins, and Hyoga shudders to look at it. Senku has always been told growing up that he has an extremely expressive face, and could look pretty creepy and evil at times. He's sure the one he's making right now is downright sinister, to make a proper warrior like Hyoga react like that.
“No way. Is that-!” Yo exclaims, and Nikki has to rush to cover his mouth before he has a chance to scream anything he'd regret.
Somewhere in the distance, standing on top of the ruins of a crumbled shop, Ukyo stands on the edge of the slatted roof, and is quick to point one of his arrows directly at Senku's head. He's panting like he had been rushing back onto the scene, but couldn't quite make it back fast enough.
“Well,” Senku says, glancing around between his opponents with a slightly crazed look in his eyes. “Things are definitely getting exciting.”