TWENTY-FOUR

I watched Phos stare silently at the blue sky from behind.

It has been a few days since that day, and during this time I had made my preparations in anticipation of a sudden trip to the moon. For one, I've entrusted the key of my diary to Katsumi for her to look after. Whether she'd eventually give it to Sensei and the other gems or hide it somewhere is up to her from now on; personally, I really don't feel like keeping the secret anymore, even though I have to.

Also, I've set aside my spring uniform and decided to wear the "regular" summer uniform, since it looks more formal and fitting on the moon, at least to me. I've made it a point to bring along both my sword and my two balisong knives, the latter just in case the situation calls for it.+

Back to the present. A yellow butterfly landed on the peppermint gem's nose.

More gradually landed on Phos over hear head and body, and even some decided to rest on my shoulders too.

Funny, I used to be afraid of insects. Now they don't bother me anymore.

Still, no cockroaches. Creepy.1

"How long has it been now?" I heard the peppermint gem mutter.

"Ten days," an unexpected but familiar voice replied behind.

Turning around and prompting the butterflies to fly off, both Phos and I looked at the doctor, who was holding a bowl.

"Hey doc," I greeted softly.

"You've got sharp ears," Phos commented with a small smile.

"You're pushing yourself too hard," was the reply as Rutile came up.

"It's funny; the more you wait for the Lunarians, the less they show up."

"The last one was spectacular," the doctor explained as she stood beside the peppermint gem on the left, "so we might assume something is happening on their end."

"How is Dia?" Phos asked, changing the subject.

"We found the last fragments this morning, and now Dia is quite back to normal. They were upset that they never saw the small fluffy versions, though. Fortunately, Red Beryl put together these little replicas of the thing for DIa, and everyone has been playing with them. Even Alex, too."

"Yeah? That's good."

"Dan," Rutile turned back to look at me, "you're not in your spring uniform. Is it torn?"

"N-no, I just felt like switching around my clothes," I replied nervously. "Don't want to keep wearing the spring uniform till summer comes, plus this uniform's getting dusty."

"I see," was the reply from the doctor, seemingly buying the explanation. "Well, make sure you two drop in for a checkup."

Rutile began to walk away.

"Are you headed somewhere?" Phos asked.

"Chord Shore."

"Oh," the peppermint gem muttered to themselves, "looking for parts for Padparadscha, I take it... I guess I haven't forgotten about them. That's a relief."

"Who's Pad... Padrapa...?" I asked, puzzled and struggling to catch the name.

The peppermint gem turned to me, giggling at my stumbling. "Padparadscha. Was so cool, practically knew everything. They once fought alongside Rutile."

"Really?"

"Yeah. A hardness of nine. A toughness just under first class. The second strongest after Bort. Just about as old as Yellow."

"Wow," I replied, amazed. "What happened to her-them?"

"Well, they were born with a number of holes. Rutile modified their body and kept Padparadscha going; it's how Rutile got to be such a skilled doctor. But as of late, there's been no movement."

Phos turned back to face the sky again, smiling.

"You should meet Padparadscha someday, Dan. They're amazing."

--------

"Okay, so it was probably around here somewhere," Phos muttered, digging into the sand as I watched.

It has been a day, and the peppermint gem thought that the red small piece of gem we encountered during winter could be of some use to Rutile for Padparadscha. So, here we are at the Chord Shore with the doctor, trying to find that piece.

"Ah, here it is," she said, brushing off the sand to reveal the red piece.

Rutile bent down, inspecting it.

"I found it during the winter and just sort of buried it there," Phos explained as a smile lit up on the doctor's face.

"It's all ruby," Rutile replied. "This will help. It has a hardness of nine and is a similar type to Padparadscha."

She looked down at the piece of ruby. "This should allow a better chance of awakening and retaining consciousness longer."

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

Later on, Phos and I watched as Rutile carefully fitted in the cut pieces of ruby into Padparadscha, each piece meticulously made to be an exact fit into their respective holes.

"Dan, did you manage to play that instrument?" the doctor asked out of the blue.

"H-huh? No, I didn't, returned it to Sensei a few days ago."

"It's no good, Sensei," I said as I handed the trumpet over to him. "No matter what I did, nothing came out of it."

Sensei looked down at me.

I felt myself sweat.

"Very well," was the reply.

"Sensei," I asked curiously, "how did Red Dia manage to play this?"

He simply put a hand on my head. "It's a secret I promised to keep."

"A-ah, okay..."

"So, who was playing that thing at night some time back?" Rutile asked as I returned to the present.

I shrugged. "Beats me, I was asleep. Jade and Euc came to look for me in my room, too."

Rutile pondered for a bit. "Hmm."

She went back to putting the pieces of ruby into Pad.

"It's you, wasn't it?" Phos whispered, smirking.

I was surprised, but I gave a small smile and quietly nodded.

"Promise I won't tell anyone," was the reply before the peppermint gem went back to looking at Rutile work.

"The more I work on this, the harder it becomes the next time around," the doctor muttered suddenly.

She went on, and soon the last hole in Pad was filled up with ruby.

We watched together.

No movement.

Then the gem in the box opened her eyes.

We moved in closer.

She suddenly set up, scaring Phos a bit, and yawned.

"Hm?"

Pad giggled.

"Well, well. Would you look at how speckled I am now."

"Padparadscha," Rutile asked, "how do you feel?"

"Fantastic!" was the reply. "How long has it been?"

"231 years, 11 months and one day."

"Well, that's a stunning record."

"I operated on you 300,300 times..."

"Well I'll be!" Pad replied in awe.

Rutile put her head down. "It was all because I'm such a failure."

"Or because I've just got no luck," Pad replied, smirking.

"No! If I can't even fix the misfortune that has befallen you, what good does my practice serve?!"

The pink gem just giggled.

She suddenly looked up.

"A new gem?" she asked, looking at Phos, surprising the peppermint gem.

"Oh!" she corrected herself while climbing out of the box and sitting on the side seats. "You're the little pebble always hiding out behind Sensei, aren't you?"

Phos just smiled and looked away sheepishly.

"You seem...different," Pad commented.

"A lot has happened," was the reply from the peppermint gem.

"Are those arms some kind of alloy?" the pink gem asked as they held up Phos' left hand. "You're just like me, then. You poor thing."

Pad put a hand on Phos' head. "You've been through quite a bit, haven't you?"

The peppermint gem seemed stunned at first, before blushing and looking away again, smiling.

The pink gem giggled. "So someone's a little shy here, isn't it?"

"Ehehe..." Phos uttered, twirling a strand of the golden bottom portion of her hair.

"Now you," Pad said, turning their attention over to me, "you're a new face for sure. What's your name?"

"I-it's Danburite," I replied, nervous. "Y-you can call me Dan, if you w-want."

She chuckled. "Now this one's more timid. I don't bite, do I?"

"N-no, you don't..."

"Heheh, this one's going to be fun to be with. How old are you?"

"Less than a year..."

"Oh, and this big already?"

"It's a weird story," Phos quickly came in for the save. "They found themselves near the cave, not like the other of us from the Chord Shore. Also came in pretty ready except for the powder finish and clothes."

"Unusual indeed," Pad replied, pondering. "But it really doesn't matter, does it? I see that Phos has taken on the senior role for the newbie, right?"

Both Phos and I nodded simultaneously.

"Heheh, you two make a good pair."

Phos looked at me, smiling. "Yeah, we do. Oh, Padparadscha..."

"Yes?"

"There's something we want to ask you."

The pink gem looked at us, interested, before turning around. "Rutile, am I good to head out?"

The doctor had already passed out, lying unconscious on the floor.

"Oh."

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

After setting Rutile on a table, the three of us headed off to the plains.

Pad stretched while holding her sword, making a sound of contention. "Best time of the year!"

"Yep," Phos replied, a huge smile on her face as she almost skipped along.

"You've been sleeping all right?" Pad asked.

"Never better," the peppermint gem replied, beaming.

"You two been listening to Sensei?" the pink gem went on.

"Eheh, maybe not..." Phos replied sheepishly.

"Same," I confirmed.

"Two little troublemakers, huh..." Pad commented.

Phos and I looked at each other, smirking. "Perhaps."2

Pad chucked out loud.

"Ah, Padparadscha," Phos abruptly said, "We want to go to the moon. To talk to a Lunarian."

The pink gem stopped and turned around curiously.

"We want to try and figure out the truth ourselves," Phos explained. "Do you think that makes us troublemakers, too?"

Pad sighed and set her sword on the ground.

"Interesting plan," she began. "Now, see. I want Rutile to give up on this puzzle of mine."

She smiled. "I want to take that burden off the table. But what sort of reaction would that provoke?"

A dark cloud just happened to pass over us.

"A pure, unbridled truth might leave its own wounds," Pad went on. "And it might change things in ways you've never imagined."

There was a short pause.

"So make sure you keep your composure," she concluded. "And be mindful of your actions."

"Yeah," Phos replied, in her serious mood.

"Got it," I answered.

Pad just fell to the ground, unconscious, as the cloud moved away.

The both of us went over to her side, surprised and unsure of what to do.

"Well," I commented, "that was short."

"Indeed," Phos agreed.

"But rather meaningful."

"Indeed."

"Did you ask what you needed to ask?" Rutile queried from not far behind.

The peppermint gem turned to look at me before looking back at Pad.

"We only got to talk about the weather," she lied.

I heard the doctor open up some kind of cloth.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

-------

I walked along the empty corridors slowly, alone.

After leaving Phos alone while she went back to ponder, I decided to take the time to look around the school properly for once. In case I never make it back.

I've never noticed how big the school really is until now...

I sighed.

"Oh, Dan!"

Turning around, I noticed Red Beryl running up towards me.

"Hey there," I replied, putting on a smile. "What is it?"

"Here, stay still," the tailor cheerfully replied, reaching for my twintails and taking off my hairbands.

"E-ehh?!"

"Relax, relax," she soothed as she took out two black pieces of cloth, retying my twintails using a ribbon for each.

"There!" the red gem declared proudly, standing back to look at me and showing me a ribbon. "See, you look cuter with these ribbons! Don't worry, you can tie them up easily!"

"T-thanks..." I replied shyly as I looked at my new ribbons.

"Yep, that's it from me! See ya!"

Waving back at me, Red Beryl ran off, probably back to work on her new designs.

I touched the ribbons.

Not bad.

Seeing how everyone's so good to me though...

... will they take it well if I go to the moon?

I sighed.

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

"I really don't know what to do..." I muttered, lying on my bed and facing the wall.

"Well," Katsumi suggested from the ceiling, "you can back out, nobody's really going to blame you."

"That's the problem," I sighed, turning over. "I don't want to back out of this."

The orange butterfly reverted to her human form and bent down beside me.

"You're worried about not being able to come back."

"Yep."

"You're afraid of letting Phos go alone and bearing the guilt if she never returns."

"You can say that."

The dimensional traveller giggled. "Then go, no worries! I know you'll find a way back; you probably always do."

I looked at her. "How so?"

"Remember that time you told me you were depressed in your past life?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't you see that you're probably way better now?"

I thought about it for a moment, surprised. "I didn't pay anything attention to myself, but you're... right. I am leagues better than I was back then."

Katsumi smiled. "See? Just believe in yourself, you'll be fine!"

I smiled. "Yeah, thanks."

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

The next day was pretty uneventful. I guess there's really not much to talk about on usual days like these, it's more or less the same peaceful day all over again.

I like it.

Though, that changed a bit when Phos came to look for me in the evening and invited me to go learn more about the Lunarians from Alex. Of course, I agreed.

"Alex!" the peppermint gem called out.

The Lunarian expert turned around, revealing that they had been carrying a large stack of books and paper, along with Yellow Dia, who was walking beside her and also carrying her own stack.

"Are you busy?" Phos continued as we approached the two of them.

"A bit, yeah," was the reply from Alex. "We're airing out the documents from the library. Are you in a rush?"

"We want to re-study all about the Lunarians. Down to every last possible detail. Learn for the first time in Dan's case. Think you can teach us?"

"Hmm..."

The cyan gem suddenly threw her entire stack up in the air.

"Hey! Where do you want to start? Come on, where?!"

"You idiot!" Yellow Dia chided. "That's the source copy of our texts!"

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

Phos grabbed one of the pieces that was floating down, her arms branched out to hold multiple pieces of paper.

Alex and Yellow Dia had requested us to retrieve the stack the former had threw up in the air, some of which were unfortunately already caught by the wind and blown away by the time the both of us got going. This piece of paper that we've finally found was still in the air all the way at the plains, for one, but we've retrieved most of the pages nonetheless.

"Geological Structures, Part One," she read out aloud as I looked from the side, carrying the newly-reassembled stack.

The peppermint stared at it for a few moments.

"Eheh, I don't remember any of this!" she brushed off cheerfully. "I'm sure taught me all of this before, but..."

"Erosion rates along the shore..." I read as Phos branched her left arm out again to grab another flying page. "Changes in clouds and air pressure... This looks pretty boring, typical of geography.

"Yeah, it is," she muttered with an annoyed look as another page landed on her head, covering half her vision. "Hey, Dan, can you spare a hand to get this off my face?"

"Sorry, hands are seriously full right now. Can't you extend your alloy again?"

"I can't see where it is going now, though. Eh, might as well reassemble them again."

Phos retracted all her branch-like extensions and recombined them into her arms, bringing the multiple pieces of paper together.

Now with her left hand free, the peppermint gem took away the page on her face and placed all the pieces she was holding onto my stack, before taking away the top half of it.

"Ah, Dan, Sensei didn't call you for lessons with him? I mean, everyone here has gone through with that, are you the odd one out?"

"Nope, he never spoke to me specifically for that. I wonder why?"

Phos grinned. "Maybe he thinks you're smart enough to figure everything out yourself, aren't you?"

"E-eh? No, I'm just average when it comes to intelligence, I only have prior knowledge from my past to aid me!"

The peppermint gem giggled. "Sometimes you really underestimate yourself too much. Now, let's go back to the scho- oh, another page there!"

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

"Alex, we found all the pages," Phos muttered tiredly as the both of us trudged into Alex's room.

Looking up, we noticed Alex in Sensei-like robes, staring at us sternly while sitting on the floor. Around her are many tall stacks of books and papers, most likely about the Lunarians.

"Alex?" Phos asked, puzzled at the cyan gem's choice of clothing.

'First question!" was the reply. "What type of Lunarian appeared 109 years ago on the second day of the fifth month? Official names only."

"Are you kidding me? So this is all going to be done like a trivia game?"

"I thought it might be more fun this way," the Lunarian expert explained, standing up.

"May work," the peppermint gem thought. "Yeah, let's go with it! But we'll have to read something first, Dan doesn't know and I forgot everything."

Alex just plopped a full stack of books onto the table. "Then here."

Damn.

"You will be tested on all of this," she went on as Phos and I sat down.

"A test..." the peppermint gem sighed. "How terrible."

"I don't think I can absorb any of these now..." I muttered.

"The test will be carried out trivia style," the cyan gem finished.

"So basically," Phos replied, "you just want to do some trivia."

She thought about it for a bit.

"Well, that can be fun," she said, a smile forming on her face. "But the studying though..." she sighed as she looked at the stack of books.

"Hey," I noticed for the first time, "is that Yellow DIa sleeping behind?"

"Yeah," Alex answered.

"Yep," was Phos' reply.

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

"Dan, stay with me," Phos shook me out of my verge of dozing off.

"H-huh? Yeah, sorry," I groggily replied, forcing myself to wake up.

"That's the spirit! Anyway, next question," Phos prodded on enthusiastically. "Out of all the old type Lunarians of level 5 sheen, which had the 12th fewest vessels?"

"The su..." Alex replied tiredly, lying on the table, "no... the elliptical streamlined elevated high-rise form."

"Bingo! Impressive."

"Look who's talking. Picking through random statistics from last month to determine their rank like that..."

"It all comes naturally when I put my effort into it, Alex-sensei."

"Yeah? Glad to hear."

There was a bit of silence for a while.

The peppermint gem looked at me, her eyebrows raised.

"Huh?" I muttered.

She just shrugged, smirking.

"Alex-sensei..."

"Hmm?"

"Do... you think it's possible to talk to the Lunarians?"

"We don't have insight to their language," was the reply from a tired Alex. "We only have such brief moments of contact that we just don't have enough information."

Phos' eyebrows furrowed in slight frustration for a second.

"Alex," I decided to ask, "do you like the Lunarians?"

"Not at all, Dan."

I looked at them in surprise. "Why do you seem obsessed over them, then?"

"My research is an attempt to overcome my condition. And because..."

The cyan gem paused for a moment.

"Not long before Phos was born, they stole Chrysoberyl from me. That's why I spent every day thinking about the Lunarians. So that I never forget the fresh feeling of hatred I have for them."

"To the point of obsession?"

"To the point of obsession."

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

"Alex should really stop fussing over the Lunarians so much," I said to Phos as we walked on the grasslands, sunlight visible but the sun not yet risen. "It's bad for her, I'm sure. I mean, them."

"Yeah," was the reply. "'Fresh', huh..."

A sudden dark patch in the sky ahead of us caught our attention quickly.

I looked at Phos. "Is it time we go?"

Phos hesitated for a bit. "Guess so."

We looked back at the school.

"Let's hope we come back in one piece," I muttered.

"Yeah."

We faced the appearing Lunarians and unsheathed our swords, the sun finally rising.

"So," I asked, "what do we do now?"

"Follow me behind," was the reply from the peppermint gem as she unleashed the alloy, blocking the both of us from the volleys of arrows while we rushed forward.

"When I say jump, you jump!" Phos shouted out so that I can hear her over the instruments the Lunarians were playing.

"Okay!" was my reply.

"It's time now! Jump!"

Leaping together, we ended up somewhere at the center of the cloud.

The Lunarians around us aimed their arrows.

"Um..." the peppermint gem began, "can we talk for a bit?"

The bows were lowered.

The Lunarians began looking at each other and making odd noises, as if they were talking.

I watched in puzzlement.

Suddenly, all of them stopped "talking" and simultaneously fired their arrows at us. Phos quickly leapt up and grabbed me along, barely missing the volley.

"Well, you could have just said no!" the peppermint gem shouted, annoyed. "Dan, do you have any ideas?"

"I have one right now!" I replied, an idea suddenly forming in my head.

Grabbing a surprised Phos, I threw her into the Lunarians' bowl and raised my sword.

"You traitor! How could you?!"

"What?!"

I swung my sword down hard, but not hard enough to break Phos. Just enough to cause a bit of damage, I was aiming for.

It went through halfway into Phos, while the rest of their body cracked.

"You idiot!" I shouted, feigning shock. "Why didn't you dodge?!"

Grabbing the peppermint gem, still surprised, I pretended to try carrying her out of danger.

"Play along," I whispered into her left ear, "I'm trying to make a convincing act down here."

Phos got the idea. "Dan, put me down! Save yourself!"

"No! I don't want to lose you! You're coming with me!"

Hearing an arrow heading directly straight at me, I dodged out of the way...

... and got my own sword straight to my torso.

Phos quickly pulled it out and pulled me down into the bowl as she pretend to fall inside too, motionless.

I slumped back into the bowl, my head facing in the direction of the school.

"We're even," the peppermint gem whispered. "Now, don't move."

"How was my acting?" I whispered back as I felt the cloud begin to move away..

"You could have warned me, but that's really convincing," was the reply.

"Eheh, sorry. Spur of the moment."

As the island got further and the black spot began covering the cloud, the both of us noticed a few moving figures running towards us.

Bort. Dia. Cinnabar.

Then the darkness fully covered us.

The Lunarians began to come over to us as the large Lunarian lowered the bowl.

"Don't. Move," Phos whispered.

"Gotcha."

The Lunarians touched our bodies. I mean, really touched.

They checked my legs.

They felt up my torso.

One of them put a finger in my mouth.1

But I held still.

I dared not make any noise.

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

How long has it been?

The Lunarians had long stopped checking us, and are now back to standing at attention.

"How long is this gonna take?" the peppermint gem asked in a whisper.

"Hopefully not for long," I replied softly. "Hey, Phos, what do we do after we reach the moon?"

She thought for a moment. "We just get up and attack. Which would be harder, considering the both of us had already cracked pretty badly and lost some of our shards."

We looked down at the bottom of the bowl, little fragments from both of us having collected there.

Out of the blue, the dark sphere began to open up.

Ahead was a straight wide path heading straight to the horizon, something like a freeway minus the road. A very wide bridge, perhaps. I could make out a few structures below the bridge, each having different shapes but strangely enough no circular ones.

Further to the side was a rocky terrain under a completely dark sky.

Yep, this is the moon.

As the cloud "landed" on the edge of the platform, all the Lunarians around reached for their heads, pulling out their hair bands.

"Phew!" I heard most of them sigh and speak for the first time.

Just a few moments later, all of them broke formation and began to get the attention of the other Lunarians on the moon, some of them holding brooms.

"Hey, hey!" the lead Lunarian shouted out to the others on the moon as the cloud dissipated and everyone now stood on the platform, the others also calling for attention. "Look here! We've struck it today! Here!"

She threw something at another Lunarian, who seemed to grab it and looked at her palm.

"Wow! This is phosphophyllite?"

"Yes!" another one replied cheerfully.

"Aren't they rare?"

"Right on!" another one replied as our bowl was lowered down by the large Lunarian. "What's more, we've got a full piece!"

"Amazing!"

The rest of the Lunarians had different behaviors. Some were cheering and talking to each other excitedly about their latest catch, some of them tiredly walked away, others just sat down and rested.

"Looks pretty lively, don't you think?" I whispered to Phos.

"Seems like it."

Turning my eyes to look at her, Phos smirked.

"Say, why not crash their party?"

I smirked back. "I've got this."

I grabbed my sword and began to get up, the Lunarians not noticing my actions.

"The hands - are they gold? What do we do with them?" I heard one say.

"Should we leave them with the rest?" another asked in reply. "We better ask -"

"Hey! That's one's moving!" someone shouted from the side.

Everyone turned to face me, shocked.

"Heheh," I called out as I began to climb out of the bowl. "Surprise, motherfu-"

I tripped and fell facedown onto the ground.2

"Augh!" I heard the Lunarians grimace.

I swear I could feel more cracks forming.

"Ow..." I muttered as I covered my face.

"Good one, Dan!" I heard Phos comment and felt her stifle her laughter. "There goes your first impression!"

Getting up, the peppermint gem leapt off the bowl and landed in front of me.

"Alright," she said as I held up my sword. "Let's dance."