Senhaku

Senhaku is the het ship between Senku Ishigami and Kohaku from the Dr. Stone fandom.

Canon
Senku and Kohaku are very close friends and allies in the Kingdom of Science. Kohaku was the first person Senku met not from his era, instead having been born into the world in its current Stone Age. The pair get on very well, with Kohaku putting a lot of faith in Senku and his genius, whilst Senku puts complete faith in Kohaku’s combat prowess and leadership qualities. The pair rarely argue, in fact making a strong duo as they compliment each other's strengths very well.

They happened upon each other when Kohaku got herself stuck under a tree, that had fallen on top of her, after her first encounter with Tsukasa, ironically to avenge Senku's apparent death. Trapped, Senku decided to help free her and left her initially awe struck by his assertivness. Due to her primitive nature, she was stunned to see Senku build a complex structure to raise the tree and free her. Throughout the hours it took him to build the ‘pulley’, she became impressed by his step-by-step problem solving skills and complete focus to save her. Once free, she introduces herself and firmly states she has completely fallen for him, but quickly clarifies that she has only taken an interest in him.

Once freed the two went to sleep together, although Kohaku was wary of him because of his misunderstanding that she is in love with him. The next day, Senku travelled with her to collect some water from a spa before she took him back to her village. Once there he was denied entry because he is a stranger, despite Kohaku's support. She then introduced him to her fellow villager, and oddball, Chrome, and the pair would regularly meet with Senku to help with his scientific endeavors, learning many things from him. Both Senku and Kohaku grew close, and she quickly accepted Senku’s superiority in regards to science, following his instructions to help create his many devices and ingredients. She proved herself important in helping him succeed with his ideas, often collecting the many ingredients he requires, and even playing important roles in his plans. Along the way, she grew an unwavering love for science, despite not fully understanding it, and thanks Senku for showing her its wonders.

Having discovered that Kohaku has been travelling to the hot springs to collect water for her terminally ill sister, Ruri, Senku became determined to help Ruri become well again and went through convoluted steps, that involved him becoming the chief of their village and be temporarily married to Ruri, in order to find out what was making her sick. Senku soon realized she had pneumonia and was able to create a one off pill to allow her to make a full recovery, saving her life. Kohaku was overjoyed and happily accepted Senku as the de facto leader of her village and the ever-growing Kingdom of Science. From then on, she becomes one of Senku's closest confidants.

Kohaku has a fiercely loyalty to Senku and is one of his most consistent supporters and closest friends. She unwaveringly joined him in his fight against Tsukasa and his army in the name of science. Many times, when people become doubtful or questioned their chances, she passionately speaks favorably of Senku specifically. With Senku at the front of her mind, she will take on any challenge, no matter how dire, so long as it can aid him in his plans, such as when she faced both Tsukasa and Hyoga to bide time for him. At one point, she refers to Senku as the strongest man alive. Her loyalty persisted when she was petrified as her last words reaffirmed her faith in Senku. This loyalty was well rewarded when he successfully helped de-petrify herself and Ginro, and in response gave him a tight, passionate, hug, prompting jealousy from Ginro.

On a personal level, the two are very close. Unlike everybody else, Senku never gets physically attacked by her for calling her a “lioness” or “gorilla”. The pair also teamed up in a game of poker where they proved victorious over Gen and Ryusui. Senku has also developed a comforting spot for her, as she joined him on an early morning stroll where he discussed his father. When he states there is nothing left of what his father left behind, beside some rocks, she reminds him that he has inherited his father’s hopes and dreams. Telling him that he told her that is what science is about. To carry the torch for future generations and to progress further. This helps Senku smile and the two acknowledge that they have inherited the world, but that they will got further and go all the way to the moon. Kohaku has also become aware how close Senku was to his father and picked up on how he might have felt when Suika made a comment in regards to Soyuz’s father.

In regards to romance, there has been a few signs of anything in the future happening between them. They have kissed when Kohaku tried to cover for them both when they pretended to be lovers. Kohaku appeared unfazed by it, whereas Senku was caught off-guard and left unnerved. She has also admitted to finding him attractive and thinks of him as a sort of ladykiller. Kohaku also elaborated to Moz that the kind of person she would fall in love with is someone who follows their ideals, step by step, and hammers away at their goals, no matter how long it takes. She had earlier described Senku in that exact same way to Hyoga and on a few other occasions as well.

Later on as they reach closer to completing their goal of reviving the entire world, Senku has seemingly allowed himself to grow closer to Kohaku in a romantic sense. In a bonus chapter after the "ending" of the manga, Kohaku and Senku are both stuck at sea alone together sharing body heat from the water. In the chapter, she teases him for not blushing from her hug and Senku dismisses her words, saying that "there's no time for nonsense, this is an emergency" all with a smirk on his face. Kohaku leans closer into the hug and goes on to elaborate that Senku could have kept her petrified and moved her around as a statue which would have been the easiest way to keep her alive. But he didn't, and instead chose to revive her. Meanwhile, Senku is stlll smirking as he answers with a quick "yup" and makes no move to stop Kohaku from speaking. She goes on to say that he revived her because he saw her as someone who he could share the risks with and help move forward "as your partner." Senku still allowed her to speak, and she would have continued if she weren't distracted by a palm tree floating away.

This is not the only romantic insinuation these two have, because in the spin-off Dr. Stone: 4D Science, a celebration for Chrome and Ruri's wedding is held and during it, Chelsea questions Senku if he had any romantic prospects of his own and brings up the two glaringly obvious options for him which are Luna and Kohaku.

Senku, nonchalantly, responds by saying he can't pick one or the other like an object, and the others are shocked by his morally correct answer about romance. Kohaku, who was sitting beside him throughout all this and was listening says-- "You're saying that if i choose you, we could be betrothed?" All the while giving him a teasing smile. She then continues to say that she was open to the idea if he was-- and as if they were already in a relationship, he replies with a chuckle and mentions how he doesn't quite have time for marriage. When you read between the lines further, it would seem as if Kohaku fully knows that Senku wants to marry her. This is ambiguously confirmed by her saying that if she gave full consent to marrying him by choosing to marry him herself instead of him worrying about choosing her like an object, then he would feel better about engaging her.

It would appear that, at the very least, Kohaku would welcome Senku as a partner, whilst Senku neither fully turns down the proposal, and instead mentions how he is just too busy for it. However, because he never completely denied it, then once he is less uncrowded with saving the world then he'll have no other problems stopping him from being in a relationship with her.

Fanon
The ship is one the more popular pairings in the Dr. Stone fandom. It gained quick traction because of Senku and Kohaku’s first meeting where she initially appeared to say she had fallen in love with him. However, nothing note worthy occurred between the two until much later in the Treasure Island arc where they kissed, hugged and confided in each other. This arc developed the pairing’s popularity greatly.

However, the ship is also questioned by many fans as well, as some see Senku as too uninterested in romance, instead pointing to his love of science, and Senku himself stated that such things are a waste of time. In response, many fans expect that Kohaku will be the one to change Senku’s thinking on this, as he gradually grows closer to her and will see her as a partner further down the line.

Whilst the pairing is very popular, there are also rival pairings too. For one, there is Senku and Ruri, Kohaku’s sister, who Senku had briefly been married to and saved her life. Many fans also ship Senku with Gen, due to their strong chemistry and bond. Kohaku has also been shipped with Chrome, as the two are close friends and she jokingly suggested she would marry him early on in the story, but Chrome rejected the idea as he is in-love with Ruri.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * Senku and Kohaku have appeared together alone on numerous chapter covers for the manga.
 * Chapter 17 - the two appear together for the first time.
 * Chapter 29 - they are in a space station together. Notably, the space station is the same as Senku’s adoptive father, Ishigami Byakuya, and Lillian Weinburg.  Both Senku and Kohaku pose with eerie similarities to them both. It is heavily implied that Byakuya and Lillian later married and had children.
 * Chapter 30 - Senku and Kohaku appear together once more.
 * Chapter 48 - The pair appear in feudal Japan attire.
 * Chapter 58 - show a chibi version of them both.
 * Chapter 88 - The chapter is called “Wings of humanity” and shows Senku and Kohaku with wings together.
 * Chapter 118 - Senku carries Kohaku, who is drawn as a mermaid, over his shoulder.
 * Chapter 132 - Senku carries Kohaku in his arm whilst he holds a space gun and she a 100 ton hammer.
 * Chapter 161 - Kohaku and Chrome appear together in this cover whilst Kohaku holds onto a doll of Senku.


 * Because of the first chapter of Dr. Stone: 4D Science releasing and it being revealed that the message from the future is coming from Byakuya who is "alive", many Senhaku fans have come up with the theory that the message from the future was coming from Senku and Kohaku's son in the future who they named Byakuya. This theory was created because of the many mentions of the bond that a father and son share in said chapter.