Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Shuuichi froze, as did the person in front of him. They remained suspended in the water, as if any movement would scare the other away like a fish. Time stood still. The world disappeared around them.

Human limbs. Human body. Human eyes. Human.

Finally, the other person moved, head tilted as they circled Shuuichi. They paddled carefully so as to not disturb the water around them. The movements were curious, tentative, almost like an octopus.

Then a finger reached forward and booped the center of Shuuichi’s mask.

Shuuichi snapped out of his trance at the touch, bringing his hand to hover over where the other had playfully poked him. His gape closed into a smile.

Human contact. God, he hadn’t felt that in so long.

Tears slid down his cheeks, and his heart went wild. Even through the suit, the touch was warm, friendly, inviting. It pushed away the terrors of the ocean for just a moment, enveloping him in a sense of safety.

The person paddled backwards, their chest heaving as if they were laughing. Then they pointed at their oxygen tanks and paddled, ascending.

They didn’t make it to the surface.

His heart stopped.

No. No!

Alarms rang in Shuuichi’s head, and he sprang into action. He wrapped his arm around the figure’s middle and activated the air bladder in his other hand, breaking the surface within seconds. As their oxygen tanks refilled, Shuuichi laid a hand on the other’s chest, his tears of happiness being replaced by tears of panic.

A beat. They were still alive.

Shuuichi looked around, shivering at the sight of the expansive ocean. This was no place for an unconscious person to recover.

So Shuuichi hauled the body as efficiently as he could and swam.

The body was thankfully still breathing by the time Shuuichi managed to lay it down on the floor of his lifepod.

Shuuichi panted and stretched his limbs out. Dragging another body in the water with him was not another exercise he was willing to do again in the foreseeable future.

But back to business.

Shuuichi wrestled the mask off the body, revealing a mass of messy purple hair. The human’s childish face was marked with scars that still bled. His left cheek had a large red print on it that seemed to have been a result of an electric shock (though where he would get shocked by electricity was beyond him). The skin was unusually pale for an Alterran human that was still alive.

Shuuichi bandaged the wounds up as best as he could, though he wasn’t sure if there were still injuries on any other parts of the body. He would need to bring that up as soon as the person woke up.

But now that they were asleep…

Shuuichi pulled out his scanner. He hovered over the body for a few seconds, hoping they wouldn’t wake up in the time it took for the scan to complete. Words appeared on the screen of his PDA.

Subject: Kokichi Ouma.
Status: Alive but injured. Statistically significant levels of foreign bacteria detected.
A member of the Homo Sapien species. Subject originated from planet Earth. A male specimen twenty-nine Earth years in age and 156 centimeters in height.
Assessment: ???

Question marks as the assessment? What was that supposed to mean? And foreign bacteria? What was that?

Before Shuuichi could trouble himself over it, the body stirred and sat up, staggering at the pain.

Shuuichi rushed to his side and placed his hand against the other’s back as support. “Please don’t strain yourself. You’re injured. Can you open your eyes?”

The man took a moment before fluttering his eyes open, revealing violet eyes that shined as brightly as the orbs in the Grand Reef. They were clouded for a moment before they locked onto Shuuichi.

“What… are you?”

Ah, right. He had forgotten to take his mask off.

Shuuichi wrestled his mask off and set it on the ground next to them before locking eyes with him. “I’m… I’m Shuuichi Saihara. I survived the Aurora crash. If you don’t believe me, you can scan me.”

And immediately, the man pulled out his scanner, and Shuuichi felt just a bit betrayed.

The man read through his PDA before shrugging. “I guess you’re not lying. Where are we?”

“Lifepod 5. My lifepod in the Safe Shallows.”

“... Safe Shallows?”

“You mean… you didn’t land in the Safe Shallows? Where did you land?”

“The Aurora.”

Shuuichi stopped. There was no way someone could have survived being near the Aurora, especially with all the radiation surrounding it.

The man laughed, though he winced at the pain resulting from it. “I’m just kidding. I’m an alien from the other parts of the Ariadne arm.”

“But… I scanned you earlier, and—”

“You scanned me?” the man gasped, holding a hand to his heart. Tears sprang to his eyes. “I can’t believe you would scan me like I’m just another animal! You horrible, horrible person!”

Panic alarms rang in Shuuichi’s head, and his throat tightened. “W-Wait, I’m sorry! I-I didn’t mean—”

His expression returned to a relaxed smile. “That was a lie! I would be more worried if you didn’t scan me.” He leaned forward with sparkling eyes. “Sooo? What’s my name?”

Shuuichi staggered from the sudden mood whiplash but answered anyway, ignoring the fact the other man evaded his question with the agility of a fox. “Kokichi Ouma. You… You’re a human.”

“Debatable, but I guess you’re partially correct.” Kokichi stood up, his knees wobbling underneath him. “Well, I’ll be taking my leave. Nice to meetcha!”

Shuuichi’s heart stopped. He had just found another human—he couldn’t let him leave so soon.

“W-Wait!” Shuuichi said, gripping Kokichi’s wrist. The contact burned. He grimaced under the other’s interrogative stare. “You’re injured, and it’s almost nighttime. I can’t let you go out there.”

Kokichi paused before looking up through the top hatch of the lifepod. He sighed. “Fiiine. I guess I’ll have to stay with you.” He plopped down on the floor. “So? What are we gonna do, Mr. Safety?”

Shuuichi stopped. He had been so wrapped up in the fact there was another human alive on this planet that he had forgotten to consider what he would do once he confirmed there was indeed other human life with him. But then again, there were some mysteries he wanted to solve. Maybe Kokichi had some more information?

Before he could think about it too much, the radio buzzed with another message.

Shuuichi scrambled to accept the message, earning an eye roll from Kokichi in doing so.

“Playing pre-recorded distress call,” the radio said.

Another, more human voice spoke with a waver in his voice. “This is Lifepod 7, coordinates attached. Pod is structurally sound, but the fabricator's bust. Requesting immediate assistance. 7, out."

Shuuichi’s heart jumped. The coordinates were near where he had found Kokichi. Since Kokichi was already familiar with the biome, maybe they could—

“Don’t even bother,” Kokichi said. All traces of the previous playfulness on his face had disappeared. The glint in his eyes had turned from bright to dead serious. It was as if he had transformed into a completely different person.

“What? Why not?”

“Lifepod 7 is dead, and so is the unlucky bastard inside. That just happened to be Kazuichi Souda.”

Kazuichi Souda, the chief engineer on the Aurora. While he had some moments of cowardice, the man could create anything with just a fabricator. It was as if he had blueprints stored in his mind. There was no way he didn’t survive the crash if he had access to a lifepod.

“... You’re messing with me. You’ve got to be.”

Kokichi narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. “You really think that?”

A chill ran down Shuuichi’s spine as the deep purple eyes in front of him scanned every part of him. His heart didn’t want to believe he had just listened to a dead man speak, but his mind knew there was a reason Kokichi brought up the name of the chief engineer on the Aurora.

“Can I see some evidence first?” Shuuichi asked, his throat dry.

To his relief, Kokichi only pulled out his PDA and played a message.

Again, Kazuichi’s voice played. “I've tried everything. The analysis circuits on the fabricator are fried. I can barely manufacture the most basic of materials. Want a battery? Here, have a children's toy! Need deep sea diving equipment? Have some lab tech! Hungry? I'll turn that fruit into dust for you.” A sigh. “I'm going forward with trial and error. I hit every button here, it's gotta make something useful eventually.”

Ah, right. The fabricator was busted. As ingenuitive as he was, he couldn’t create anything without a fabricator.

Shuuichi’s eyes were wide. “So you’re telling me…”

“Yup!” Kokichi said, the cheer back on his face. “There’s a reason the radio says it’s pre-recorded.”

“So… there really was no hope for him.”

Kokichi hummed, seemingly ignorant to Shuuichi’s crisis. He smiled again, but there was a certain warmth behind it this time. “Don’t blame yourself for the crash. Someone like you probably couldn’t have changed anything anyway.”

Shuuichi didn’t know if that was an attempt to comfort or bring him down, but at this point, he would take it.

But that meant everyone—Kirumi, Ryouma, Maki—was dead before he could get to them. He was too late even before he knew what his mission was. Was there any point in continuing to receive messages from the radio? Heck, was there even a point in living anymore?

“Saihara.”

Shuuichi snapped out of his thoughts and turned to see Kokichi with one hand on the ladder and another hand wrapped around his scanner.

“I already got what I needed from here,” Kokichi said, pocketing his scanner and climbing up the ladder. His limp seemed to be gone. He opened the top hatch. “Come find me when you’re ready.”

“... Huh?” The words took a moment to process in Shuuichi’s mind. His eyes widened, and his heart sank. “Wait, Ouma, don’t—”

But it was too late. Kokichi had already hopped off the top of the lifepod and was swimming back to who knew where.

He had blown it. His only chance of true human interaction had ran right before his eyes. Or did it even exist at all? Humans went insane after extended periods of no social contact, after all.

Shuuichi bit his lip and looked through his PDA, hoping Kokichi Ouma’s existence wasn’t just a figment of his imagination.

And indeed it wasn’t. The PDA’s file was right there, as was another document titled “???”. It read, “Crag Field, Lifepod 1. -40, 0, -900. Catch me if you can! Once you know what you really are…”

Well, at least Kokichi had given him coordinates. He hadn’t completely abandoned him.

Still, the last sentence haunted him. What did he mean by that? Shuuichi knew for sure he was a human. He needed oxygen to live, he required calories and a particular arrangement of two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule, his shape was humanoid…

Shuuichi dug out his scanner and ran a scan over his torso.

His PDA spoke almost immediately. “Performing self-scan. Foreign bacteria count has reached statistically significant levels. No adverse effects detected. Be vigilant for symptoms.” The screen read “Infected” in large, red letters.

What the fuck…?

Shuuichi scanned himself again, only to receive the same message.

It was the same message on Kokichi’s PDA file. While being in contact with foreign bacteria while on an alien planet was inevitable, there was no reason it should have been growing as quickly as it was on Shuuichi’s body. It was multiplying as if it was some sort of disease.

Disease…

Shuuichi climbed out of his lifepod before realizing he had left his Seamoth far away from his base.

Shit.

-40, 0, -900.

Lifepod 1 sat on the surface at the exact coordinates he had been given. To his relief, there was no sign of damage to the hull and hadn’t sank to the ocean floor like so many he had seen before.

Shuuichi paused at the surface, his finger hovering over the eject button of his Seamoth.

What was the etiquette on this? Should he just park his Seamoth and knock on the bottom hatch? Should he knock on the top hatch? Or could he just enter? Where was the handbook for being polite in survival situations when he needed it?

A pair of purple eyes staring into his Seamoth drew him out of his thoughts.

Shuuichi smiled and exited the Seamoth. Kokichi really hadn’t lied about his coordinates.

Kokichi grinned and grabbed his hand. “Saihara! What a surprise!”

“It sure is,” Shuuichi said, flushing at the sudden warmth in his palm.

“What brings you to my humble abode?”

“I figured it out.”

Silence.

Kokichi’s face twisted into something more sinister. “Ah, I see.” He looked around and squeezed Shuuichi’s hand. “Open water’s not a good place to discuss this. Let’s move somewhere else.”

Shuuichi squeezed back, expecting them to enter his lifepod. What he did not expect was to be led into a huge, white structure directly underneath Lifepod 1 like roots of a fungus.

The inside wasn’t quite as expansive as it seemed on the inside, but it was still large compared to the space inside the lifepods. Wall lockers lined the first hall, labeled according to what was inside them. It led to a large, circular room with a double bed and two empty interior growbeds. A radio and fabricator were placed on the wall, and a child’s toy rested on the floor next to the bed.

“How did you…?” Shuuichi’s voice trailed off.

“Magic.”

A blank stare.

“... Fine, the blueprints were already in my PDA, and all they take to make is titanium and a habitat builder. I guess my PDA just didn’t get as fucked up as yours did during the crash.”

Shuuichi decided he just wasn’t going to question the overlords who thought that prank would be funny and sat on the floor. “So… the disease.”

Kokichi plopped down onto the bed with a grin. “The disease? Never heard of it.”

“I know you’re lying again. I scanned myself. It has to be some sort of bacteria with the way it’s multiplying…”

“Bingo! You’re a smart cookie, aren’t you?”

“W-Well, I wouldn’t really—”

“God, you’re boring,” Kokichi said, inspecting his fingernails. “Other than that, what do you know about it?”

Shuuichi searched through his memories and PDA readings. “Uh… it’s probably not good?”

Kokichi stared at him with a blank face that somehow exuded disappointment, and Shuuichi couldn’t help but feel a tad bit ashamed. “I’m bored. I’ll give you a few hints.” He jumped off the bed and landed right in front of Shuuichi. “Say, where do you think we came into contact with the bacterium?”

Shuuichi took a moment to think. The bacterium couldn’t have come from space; it wouldn’t have survived in the harsh environment. It also couldn’t have come from the Aurora either, as none of the medical staff had ever referenced it or made any allusions to it.

“It… It had to have come from this planet,” Shuuichi said.

“Wow, congratulations on actually using your brain for once. The first time’s always a struggle.”

“Ugh, just tell me more.”

“Pushy, aren’t we?” Kokichi stood up, towering over Shuuichi with a blank face and a sinister shine in his eyes. The playfulness in his voice had disappeared completely. “But you know what that means, don’t you?”

Shuuichi knew what he was implying, but he didn’t want to admit it to himself. Not yet, not right after everything he had just went through.

“We were dead from the moment we entered the waters. This planet is doomed.”

A chill ran down Shuuichi’s spine. “H-Hold on a minute, what makes you so sure the bacterium is going to kill us? I don’t think humanity’s ever come into contact with it, so we don’t have enough information to be sure.”

Another silence.

Just before Shuuichi stuttered out his apologies, Kokichi’s face broke into another cheery grin. “Ah, you’re right. Disregard everything I just said then.”

“W-What?”

Kokichi dragged Shuuichi up to his feet. “Come on, Shuumai! We’ve got work to do if we wanna solve this mystery!”

“Shuumai?”

“Yeah. Chinese dumplings. I shouldn’t have to explain the pun to you.”

Chinese dumplings. Spring rolls. Harumaki. Maki Harukawa. Kaito Momota. Kaede Akamatsu.

Shuuichi’s heart fluttered at the memories of his friends. Yet at the same time, it hurt more than anything he had been attacked by on this planet.

Thankfully, Shuuichi was saved from having to respond to the new nickname when the radio buzzed. Kokichi whistled as he strolled towards the radio, but the shaking in his knees was obvious. He pushed the red button and allowed the message to play.

An unfamiliar voice spoke. “This is Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu, of trading ship Sunbeam. Aurora, do you read? Over.” A pause. “Nothing but vacuum. These damn Alterra ships. They run low on engine grease, they send an SOS; you offer to help, they don't pick up. Fucking Hajime, stubborn shit… And Kazuichi’s too damn stupid to operate a door handle. No wonder they ain’t picking up.”

Kokichi and Shuuichi locked eyes.

“Aurora, I'm out on the far side of the system, it's going to take take more than a week to reach your position, do you still need our assistance? Over.” Another silence. “I'll try them again tomorrow. See what the long-range scans pick up in the meantime. Damn charter's gonna have us wasting our profit margin running errands for Alterra.” The call ended there.

Shuuichi’s heart stopped, and his throat dried. “The radio… It wasn’t pre-recorded.”

Kokichi was silent.

“Help is coming. We don’t have to stay on this planet anymore. The medics can cure us.” Shuuichi grabbed Kokichi’s shoulders. “Ouma, we survived. ”

“But what about…” Kokichi trailed off before breaking into a grin that matched Shuuichi’s excitement. “Yup! We did it! We just gotta wait a week for rescue to come.”

There was a pain behind Kokichi’s smile, but it wasn’t as if Shuuichi could call him out on it. After all, his smile was just as bittersweet.

Even with the implications behind their pain, Shuuichi was the one who took the first step forward. He held his hand against the hatch then turned back to a shocked Kokichi. He cocked his head towards the open waters.

Kokichi stayed frozen before his smile melted into something more genuine, and he barreled into Shuuichi, sending them both flying out into the ocean.

They may not have been friends just yet, but partners would do for now.

Partner. What a wonderful word.