When the World Turned to Stone

The Experiment of Us

He sat down, resting his elbows on his knees, eyes fixated on the pot as the liquid inside began to heat up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Hanako and Taiju worked together to prepare their dinner. Hanako was chopping up some foraged greens while Taiju gathered roasted nuts and dried meat they had set aside earlier. The soft crackling of the fire mixed with the bubbling sounds of the wine as it slowly reached the boiling point.

For a moment, everything seemed to be going smoothly. The scent of the simmering wine filled the air, and the firelight cast flickering shadows on their small shelter.

Then, without warning—

BOOM!

The clay pot shattered violently, unable to withstand the pressure. Hot liquid and shards of pottery exploded outward.

"AAAHHH—!!" Senku barely had time to react before a scalding splash of the wine hit him, his reflexes only allowing him to shield part of his face.

"Senku!!" Taiju screamed as he bolted toward him, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him back from the wreckage. Hanako dropped what she was doing and rushed over as well, eyes wide with panic.

"Are you okay?!" she asked frantically, scanning him for burns or injuries. The fire still crackled angrily, the shattered remnants of the pot hissing as the liquid evaporated on the hot stones.

Senku, blinking through the sting of the alcohol, coughed and wiped his face. He let out a slow, tired sigh, his hair slightly damp from the splash. 

Then, despite the chaos, he smirked.

"Well... that was definitely not how it was supposed to go." Senku let out a small, exasperated sigh, wiping the remnants of the spilled wine from his face. 

"Good thing that wasn't the only batch we made," he muttered, shaking his head.
As he sat there, his mind flickered back to something Hanako had said three weeks ago.

Flashback

Hanako had stood beside him, arms crossed, watching as they prepared the wine for fermentation. 

"It's better if we separate them into different pots," she had advised. "That way, we can ensure maturity and have a backup in case something goes wrong."

Senku had raised an eyebrow at her suggestion, but after a moment of thought, he had nodded in agreement. "Not a bad idea. Science is all about redundancy, after all."

The problem was, Hanako had only managed to craft one clay pot with a proper spout for distillation. That meant they could only process one batch at a time.

End of flashback

Hanako, snapping back to the present, quickly climbed up to their shelter, rummaging through their stored supplies with urgency. Her fingers sifted through bundles of dried herbs and materials she had gathered over the past weeks. 

'Come on... I know we have something for burns...'

After a few frantic moments, she found what she was looking for—a handful of medicinal herbs that could help soothe the skin. She wasted no time, gripping them tightly before hopping down from the shelter and sprinting back toward Senku.

She barely stopped to catch her breath before grabbing his wrist and pulling him away from the scattered mess of broken pottery and spilled wine. 

"Sit down," she ordered, guiding him toward a nearby log.