SIX

Phos stared into the pond.

I stared into the pond.3

It's been a few days since we talked to Cinnabar that morning, and things have changed since then. I've been formally introduced to all the other gems by Sensei, officially became Phos' helper for the encyclopedia and given a room of my own, just next to Phos' since Phos was the youngest before I showed up. Anyway, I've slowly adjusted to my new life, mostly tagging along with Phos since I feel the most comfortable around with them. I've also learnt to keep my mouth shut, so that I'll not spill my beans everywhere unnecessarily and cause a major commotion.

Oh, speaking of which, God visited me another time, this time in a dream the night of the day Phos and I made the promise to help Cinnabar find a better job. He suggested that I write a diary starting from the next day, so now I have a large and thick 800-page book serving as my diary in my room, complete with a lock for me to keep any prying eyes away if any gems happen to stumble upon it. Furthermore I was also gifted a fountain pen that utilizes ink cartridges to work, along with twenty of those said cartridges, all in black. A "starter pack", he says, and that if I were to need anything more, all I had to do was to ask him. I love using fountain pens, having bought one back in my past life and using it long-term.

Also, he schooled me on the type of gem I now am, which I find potentially useful as prior knowledge.

"Danburite, first discovered in Danbury, Connecticut, USA by Charles Upham Shephard. Comes in colors such as white, gray, brownish white and straw yellow, you in particular happened to be white. Orthorhombic structure, vitreous-greasy lustre, white streak, Mohs hardness of between 7 to 7.5, poor cleavage of 001, brittle."

"Damn, that doesn't make me a great fighter, does it?"

"Well, although you're hard, you can shatter like glass. Just like you before I whisked you all the way here, right?"

"Tsk, guess that's somewhat true. Wait, if I'm brittle, how did I hold Phos up on that cliff?"

"You barely held on, child. Had you had a strong grip on the ground instead of slipping on the mercury your arms would have fallen right off. Rutile didn't tell you this, but there were decent cracks in both your arms."

"Oh."

Anyway, back to the present. Phos and I are still staring into the pond. What are we doing anyway?

"Observing the jellyfish, are you? All for the encyclopedia I take it," I heard Jade say as she stopped to the right of Phos. Turning right, I noticed Euclase was with her.

"No, I just thought my reflection here looked so adorable."

"What?" I stared at Phos incredulously as the other two gems resumed walking behind us.

I saw Phos smirk in reply, and they almost immediately turned around.

"I'm kidding!" They shouted as the green-haired gem lunged forward, grabbing Jade's legs to the surprise of both them and Euclase.

"Isn't it obvious? We're at a loss here!"

"Be careful, you idiot!" Jade shouted.

"Seriously, I can't think of anything, Speaker Jade!" Phos whined as Jade fell down. "Even Dan hasn't had anything in mind either! We need some ideas..."

Sitting up, Jade looked at me for confirmation, and I nodded my head in agreement. "Mind blank," I said, putting my clenched hand beside my head and opening it out as a random gesture. "Poof."

"Huh?"

"Oh," I said as I put down my hand, "it's nothing, it's nothing!"

"Hmm." Jade stared at me for a moment. "Anyway, what kind of idea?"

"I can't tell you," was the reply from Phos.

"Then how am I supposed to know?"

"I'm gonna go crazy from all this overthinking..."

"About what?!"

Phos stopped shaking around and just simply held onto the Speaker's legs.

"I should never have said anything..." she muttered.

I understood who and what Phos was worried about. Cinnabar. The red gem's future better job Phos and I had promised for them.

I still could vividly remember that day, whatever happened, whatever I've said.

"What do you think the 29 of us would feel if you're gone? Sure some of them are uncomfortable with your poison, but deep down everyone loves you, treats you like family! You don't just disappear and nobody bats an eye, I for one will be the first to rush out and look for you! Who gives two damns about your poison?"

"So please, for God's sake, don't tell yourself that you're worthless! You never are, and never will be!"

"You know that I'll help you with this too, right?"

"Well, I was only born yesterday."

"Would it be possible to forget about the other day and start with a clean slate?" I heard Phos mumble.

"Hey, don't say that, that'll be pretty irresponsible. I'm in this together with you too, don't forget I'm backing you up."

"Hey," Jade interrupted, "I have no idea what you two ar-"

"Jeez!" Phos suddenly shouted. "I'm going to start to hate this if I have to think about it anymore..." the blueish-green gem slowly faltered as they released their grasp on Jade and laid down on their side.

"Eheheh..." I looked at Phos in slight worry as I gave a little exasperated smile, feeling myself sweatdrop.

"Perseverance is the key to discovery," a familiar, mentor-like voice spoke as the figure of a large, bald man appeared from behind.

"Sensei..." we all greeted as Jade and Euclase turned to face him.

"I will be in the main hall. Report to me if anything arises."

Jade quickly got up and stood in attention. "Understood!"

"Hehe, off for a nap, sensei?" Phos jokingly asked, earning a stare of disbelief from the green gem.

"It is called meditation," Kongo-sensei replied. "Now take care not to do anything rash," he added, while walking closer and putting his hand on Phos' head.

"O-"

"Understood?"

"Yeah," was the reply while Phos turned away.

Shifting his attention to me, he lifted his hand from Phos and did the same to me.

"You too."

"Got it."

As Kongo-sensei walked away, all of us watched.

"Now then," Jade started while looking at Phos, "back to work."

"Nnnnnn..." was the reply from Phos.

Jade let off a small huff. "What's your problem?"

Phos just kept on, uh, humming? Whining? Ah, hum-whining! Eh, I don't know, so let's just stick to that.

"I'm asking you a question!"

I watched Phos, moving her shoulders around on the spot. Like a nervous kid unable to tell an adult something?

"Fine," Jade sighed and collapsed her shoulders a bit, "so you're having trouble coming up with some sort of idea, is it?"

"Yup," Phos replied as a hammer approached from behind Jade.

Wait, a hammer?

"Jade, look ou-"

I tried to warn her, but it seems like it was a bit too late.

Ding!1

Jade let out a squeak in pain as Rutile hit the green gem on her arm, the "ding" from the vibrations reverberating around the area.

Rutile listened to the sound with her eyes closed, then opened her eyes as Jade whimpered.

"What's the big idea?!" she snapped at the doctor as the white-coated gem put her hammer back behind her.

"Just an impact test."

Jade, clearly angry, lunged forward, hands up in the air. Rutile grabbed them and the two gems began to push each other.

"I am carrying out our regular 100 year durability inspection," the doctor explained as she overpowered Jade. "While I can examine your hardness with just a touch, durability depends on a complicated system of factors such as your gem structure and cleavage," they added as Jade pressed forward, the two gems switching postures before centering with an even match. "I want to use you as a higher reference value-"

"At least ask me first!"

"Yes, quite sorry," Rutile sarcastically replied as they continued pushing.

Phos popped out from in between them from Jade's right, opposite me.

"I don't really get it..." she said, tilting her head in a cutesy manner.

"Now if you would..." Rutile said, suddenly releasing Jade and making the green gem fall to the ground. Brandishing her hammer, Jade was hit again by Rutile, this time on her right knee.

Ding!1

"Hiih-! A-a-a-ahhh-"

"My, my... You sure are sturdy, Jade! The very sound is different! You are undoubtedly top-class."

"Why you good-for- Wu-AH-AH-AH!"

Rutile had sat on Jade's legs while bending the wrong way, certainly would have broken some bones if Jade were a human.

"I... I give...!"

"Top-class indeed," Rutile declared, releasing Jade from her uncomfortable posture.

Phos stretched her arm out and closed her eyes.

"Oh, you're fine," Rutile said. "I already know you're the bottom rung."

Phos stared at Rutile in mild anger.

"You, on the other hand..." Rutile mused, turning towards me.

"Uh... Uhhh..."

"Come closer, Danburite. You're in for a ride," they said with a smirk.

I started backing towards Phos.

"Just kidding," they quickly added, seeing how terrified I probably looked. "You're a new one, so I'd be gentle. Come to think of it, we don't even know your hardness yet. Come here, it'll just be small touches," they assured me as they brandished their hammer.

I stood still for a moment, not sure whether to trust the doctor.

"Trust me, come closer."

Reluctantly, I offered Rutile my left arm, and the doctor proceeded to tap the hammer on me while the others watched.

Tap.

She listened closely.

"Hey, that's unfair!" Jade complained

"Oh, give the new gem a chance," Rutile retorted.

Tap.

This went on for a while, with increasingly-harder taps. Phos stared intently at me. I noticed that when I turned my head around, so I gave them a reassuring smile.

"Alright, done with the hardness. Seven and a half."

"What?!" Phos shouted in disbelief.

"That's harder than me..." Jade commented in awe.

"That's right, Danburite here is as hard as Euc. Now, for durability. Do you trust me, Danburite?"

"Well, yeah."

"Good, you've seen Jade in pain, so brace yourself."

Clenching my mouth shut, I nodded as Rutile brought the hammer down on my arm, remembering God's words about me.

Cue the sound of a hard whack, the sound of shattering, the thump of an arm hitting the ground and more shattering.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"3

------------------------------------

"Very brittle, Danburite. That's got to have hurt a lot, didn't it? You screamed so loud everyone heard you and Sensei actually woke up. Impressive."

"Eheheh..." I muttered while blushing.

"I understand though," Rutile sighed as she put the fragments of my disconnected arm back together, "this must be your first time breaking, correct?"

I nodded.

"Well, you'll probably get used to it, the quicker you break the less painful it is. That being said, you're hard but really brittle, so you'll probably not going to be fighting anytime soon, just like the three-half sitting beside you."

Phos pouted. "That's mean, you quack." They was holding my right hand, earlier on to ease my pain and now just because Phos refused to let off. "You're all right now, right?"

I nodded my head. "Pain stopped. Thanks for coming along with me, Phos."

"Here, let me reconnect your arm," Rutile said as she placed my arm back, connecting with the rest of my body with a crack.

I winced as a sharp pain suddenly shot up from where my arm broke off, which suddenly disappeared a moment later. Moving my now-reconnected arm, I was assured that it was fine now.

"Hold on, let me apply powder to the cracks."

"Ah, right," Jade said, "that reminds me. If you two are looking for something new, Diamond has been using some fighting techniques lately. I'm impressed they could come out with something like that."

"A new way to fight?" Phos asked.

"Makes sense," I said, "battle tactics do change over time. New ones come up, old ones are replaced and vice versa."

"Wow, a good smack is all that it took to get that out of you!" Phos exclaimed to Jade as they stood up, still holding my hand.

"Woah!" I stood up quickly before any of our arms could snap off. "Watch it!" I heard Rutile shout.

"This and that are completely irrelevant!" Jade shouted.

"Right! Forget ol' Jade, I should be talking to Dia instead! You're right, I was asking the wrong person. Thank you!"

"I'm the second hardest one around here, I'll have you know!" Jade retorted.

"Third now," I said with a smirk under a sudden wave of mischief, "I beat you by 0.5."

"At least I'm not as brittle," Jade replied with an equally mischievous air and a sense of superiority.

"But come on," Phos chimed in, "forget durability, it's combat ability that's way cooler!"

Jade slumped back, seemingly agreeing.

"Anyway! The Diamond group is out on patrol now. Don't you go bothering them."

"Alright, you're good to go," Rutile told me.

----------------------

And of course Phos insisted that we bother them, so here we are, in the plains.

"Hey Phos, tell me again, why are we prowling around in the bushes like tigers?"

"Tigers?"

"Eh, I'll tell you about them next time. But why are we prowling around?"

"So that we can do this," Phos replied with a mischievous grin as they suddenly pounced forward. "Dia!"

A small yelp coming from neither Phos nor I, and I felt a thump as someone fell onto the ground.

"Huuh?!"

Getting up, I saw Phos grabbing onto Dia's right leg, both of them lying on the ground.

"What are you doing, Phos?" Dia asked. "You could have gotten hurt," she added as she sat up.

I squatted down and was about to ask both Phos and Dia whether they were fine, but I was mesmerized by the beautiful colors reflected off Dia's hair.

So beautiful, I thought to myself as I hypnotically stared at the literal diamond in front of me.

"Phos?" I heard Dia ask. Snapping out of my trance, I turned my head right and noticed that Phos had covered her face with both of her hands.

"Your mere existence is blinding," Phos said. "I'm so strapped for ideas that I feel like I might crumble to pieces."

"Phos," I softly chided, "don't be rude to Dia. You just inadvertently implying that you'd rather have Dia disappear, and we don't want that, do we?"

"It's fine, Dan," Dia reassured, "Phos didn't mean it."

"Ah, alright," I replied as they got up.

Something about that sweet girl tugs on my literally-snapped heartstri- wait, what am I thinking?

"Please bestow upon us some guidance," Phos said.

"What sort of ideas?"

"I can't tell you that. Just give me an idea on how to get ideas!" Phos pleaded, lunging herself forward and hugging Dia's legs.

"Now that's a difficult request!" Dia commented. "You too, Dan?"

I smiled and shrugged in reply.

"Hmm, let's see..." Dia wondered.

"Why not start by changing from within?"

"Huh?" was the reply from Phos.

"You could try doing things you don't normally do, yes?" Dia suggested as she gently shooed Phos away from her legs. Those slender legs... Ugh, snap out of it!4

Phos continued staring at Dia's legs.

-----------------

"Phos, stop playing with Dia's stockings."

"It's fine, it's fine," Dia replied as Phos stopped and sat back.

"Constantly, I think to myself that I would like to be reborn," Phos said.

"UWAAA! The whole reason I'm asking for some help is because that's impossible!" she exclaimed, while turning around and curled into a squatting ball. "Do you know how long I've spent lazing about? I guess a hardness level of 10 could never get level with me."

Be careful what you wish for, Phos, I thought. Change is nice, but too much change isn't. I love the way you are now, you're like a dancing flame on a candle in the middle of the night.

No, this isn't romantic.

"Phos..." Dia said softly.

"I'm disappointed, Dia. This got me nowhere! It was completely pointless!"

"Hey, watch it, don't be rude," I chided softly again. Turning around, I gave Dia an apologetic smile, which she returned with an "It's alright" look.

"It was? Sorry then... Look, now I've gone and made you mad," she said as she approached and touched Phos. "See, I have many shortcomings myself. Do forgive me."

Phos didn't move. I was about to really get Phos to apologize for being so rude.

"Phos." Dia said while grabbing Phos up, still in that balled position, "Pretty please?" she asked as they hugged Phos from behind.

I lost any little anger I had with Phos and could only stare at the both of them, less in awe with Dia's strength and more with her personality. Who is this angel? Did God send her down as my second guardian after Phos?

"I sent no angels down here, child. Diamond's just a really sweet gem."4

Drat, he heard me.

"Very well then," Phos muttered, "but only this one time."

While putting Phos down, I stood up. Dia rolled up her stocking that Phos had rolled down and asked Phos something, but I didn't listen as I had yet fallen into another trance while looking at Dia.

Those long, slender legs with those thigh stockings, those long gloves covering her hands and arms, cute butt, sweet face, beautiful rainbow-glittering hair, docile and sweet personality. Yes, I'm white too, but I don't have that rainbow-colored reflecting glitter and I'm nowhere as bright as she is. Yeah, I think I'm starting to fall in love with her. If she exists in my school then she'd probably be the only friend I had. Hell, had I been a boy I'd have- wait, what?2

"You better get out of that soon, you're missing quite some stuff. Also, of course she's beautiful, all of you gems are as a matter of fact. Just snap out of it now, alright?"

I gave myself a few mental slaps and got out of my daydream, feeling myself blush.

"-expect me to believe that when you're both diamond-class? Want me to tell Bort off real tough-like for you?!" I managed to catch onto what Phos was saying.

"Oh, well..." Dia said, preparing to unsheath their sword.

"Oh. Th-that may be a tad overboard," Phos corrected themself.

But Dia probably wasn't mad at them. How do I know? I was looking at the same thing Dia was staring at.

"Dia's not mad at you, Phos, just look back!"

Phos turned around just as Dia ran past them.

They caught onto the black sunspot, as the gems called it, that Dia and I had saw, growing in size.

Dia went into position.

"Oh boy," I muttered, "here we go again."