Chapter Text
Senku had had his first seizure 12 days after he got out of the stone. He can only chalk up the fact that he didn’t get eaten while he was laid out on the floor to the fact that none of the predators around had any idea what he was and probably weren’t keen on trying this weird new meat they hadn’t seen any other animal eat.
Senku had never had a seizure before. He knew the mechanics behind it, but he had never expected to experience it first hand. He couldn’t say it had been a good time, even if it had been something interesting to think about. He figured that it might be a side effect of being petrified for so long: his body had been in stasis for so long it would be strange if he didn’t experience some glitches as things came back online.
So he didn’t think too much about it once the post-seizure exhaustion wore off. He had a lot of other things to get on with back then and it wasn’t like he could compare notes with anyone on how their body acted since breaking free of the rock else since no one else seemed to be waking up.
His second seizure was a few days after Taiju finally got his act together and found him.
His best friend, true to fashion, freaked the fuck out through the whole thing and then spent the next few days glued to Senku’s side. Senku couldn’t even be truly mad about it because he knew Taiju was only acting like that because he thought of Senku like family, but fucking hell did it grind Senku’s nerves down quickly. He had to keep finding little jobs for the big oaf to do so he didn’t feel like he had to hover over Senku every single second of the day.
It wasn’t until the fourth day that Senku pointed out that watching him like a hawk wasn’t going to make him less likely to have another fit and that he needed his damn space back. When Taiju accepted that there wasn’t anything they could really do about it he stopped hovering, but Senku was sure it was still on his friend’s mind.
How could it not be when it played on Senku’s mind too? He had had two seizures since waking up, but Taiju said he hadn’t experienced anything like that. When Taiju said one day he actually felt better when he woke up than he ever had before Senku was somewhat surprised.
Senku definitely wanted to explore if anyone else had side effects when they finally worked out how to get people out of the stone.
Life continued without any more seizures, so Senku pushed it to the back of his mind. Dealing with the Kingdom of Might and establishing the Kingdom of Science was his utmost priority for a long time.
He didn’t think about the fact that he was the only modern timer in the village until he felt the strange detached feeling in the middle of an experiment with Chrome and realised he was probably about to scare the shit out of his sort of student. Senku’s pretty sure he tried to say something to reassure Chrome before he unsteadily lay himself down and then he didn’t remember anything until he woke up almost an hour later.
Senku had read once that two seizures without a known cause was enough to be diagnosed with epilepsy, and he was at three now. He was going to have to consider the possibility that it might be a permanent part of his life, some sort of damage from forcibly maintaining his consciousness for longer than anything should, and it annoyed the hell out of him.
So he had had to explain to Chrome what the hell had just happened and that it may or may not happen again and what he would need Chrome to do if it did happen. It took some convincing but Chrome did eventually promise to keep it to himself. Senku really didn’t need to give the villagers any other reason to doubt him. Being a scrawny teenager who knew more than they did already put a big black mark against his name to a village of proud warriors, he wasn’t about to let them know that he also had a sickness they might not even have heard of that left him vulnerable for random periods of time.
He kept a journal of everything he could remember before and after his seizures, but he couldn’t gauge any pattern or similarities between what he had been doing each time. Three instances wasn’t a lot when you were looking for evidence, but Senku would gladly accept it remaining a mystery if it meant he didn’t have any more fits to take data from.
They were a pain in the fucking neck, literally and metaphorically.
His head felt full and disorientated before they would come. He didn’t remember much of the actual seizures, but there were brief seconds where he was aware of his body moving far outside of his control and how his jaw hurt from clenching. His second seizure he had vomited during, and if Taiju hadn’t been there to roll him over Senku probably would have choked to death.
That one kind of scared him to think about. He lay himself on his side before his third seizure just in case, but he knew there was no controlling what his body would do while it seized. He could just as likely end up face down on the floor like that but there wasn’t much he could do about it.
And then there was how he felt after.
Senku had never been hit by a car but he imagined it felt much the same. Dazed, aching right to the marrow of his bones, and incredibly confused about where he was. It took hours to pass fully and he hated the feeling of wasting his time, but he was truly fit for nothing during that period.
All the more reason to keep it between him, Chrome, and Taiju. Everyone was pulling more than their weight to keep the Kingdom of Science going; Senku couldn’t afford for anyone to think he was dishing out instructions to everyone else and then not doing anything himself.
He should have known it couldn’t stay secret forever as more and more people woke up and joined them.