TWENTY-FIVE

"Dan! Stay close to me!"

"A-alright!" I replied, hiding behind the peppermint gem's back as she slashed the Lunarians by the dozen, moving forward as they did so.

Damn, I'm really not doing anything here...

Some time had passed considerably as we approached the end of the "bridge", covered by the mist from the destroyed Lunarians.

Ahead of us was a rectangular building spanning at least 50 meters. On the steps leading up to the entrance, a few Lunarians noticed us.

"You've got to be kidding!" I heard one shout as all of them rushed towards us.

With a swift slam from her alloy, Phos took down most of them at once. The others were dealt with by her sword once they got close.

Only one Lunarian remained at the entrance.

Except this one looks different.

That looks... like a man?

"Let me take him with you," I said, stepping out from behind the peppermint gem and holding out my sword.

"Okay," was the short, quiet reply I received.

We stared at him.

He stared back.

"Wow," he began. "Impressive. Welcome to-"

"Do me a favor and shut up!" Phos interrupted, leaping forward and slashing the Lunarian in half.

As Phos went through the entrance of the building, that Lunarian quickly regenerated himself, as if nothing had happened.

"... to the moon," he finished.

It was my turn to rush up, and I did the same as Phos.

Turning back, to my horror, he regenerated.

I sliced him again.

He went back.

Again.

Same thing happened.

I raised my sword one more time...

... but was kicked back by another Lunarian who appeared, sending me the way Phos went.

I hit the ground and skidded for a bit.

I bet there's more deeper cracks from that.

"Dan!" Phos shouted, grabbing me and helping me up.

"Hey..." I asked, looking around, "what is this place?"

Around me, colorful dust covered the surface of the moon (I know it was the surface of the moon because there were no more buildings around).

"I see that you two are quite the energetic pair," the male Lunarian commented as he stood at the "doorway", behind a massive plank.

A Lunarian, probably the one that kicked me, whispered into the male Lunarian's ear.

"Ah, they're angry because they heard us speak?"

"Not really," Phos replied rudely, "we're mad for all our fellow gem siblings that you've torn away from us."

"Ah, well. Anyway, we don't like the thick air on your planet, reminds us of bad memories from the past. So we try not to breathe there."

"I don't care, I want all those that you've taken away from us back! Where's everyone?"

"All around," was the nonchalant reply.

"We'll take them with us."

"Please, help yourselves."

A Lunarian walked up to him, holding something.

"Here, take a look," the male Lunarian said, pulling off the cloth covering the object.

I gasped.

"I... is that... one of..."

"A fellow gem of yours, indeed. Heliodor. Artificial, of course."

"Artificial?"

"We created this one here after analyzing the real one and carefully tried to recreate the form we saw while gathering. As for the real one, take a look."

Phos and I watched as he put the fragment of Heliodor into something that looks a bit like a vase on a cylinder. Just picture two cones, their tops being fixed on a sphere.

A terrible grinding noise started as visible cracking could be heard.

The both of us stared in horror as the male Lunarian pulled out the resulting yellow powder on a small "tray".

"Oh, that's just four levels, that's why it's still rough," he commented, grabbing a pinch of powder and playing with it. "It'll need ten levels to become a fine powder. And this powder, we spread it around like this..."

He threw the yellow powder over the surface of the moon.

Wait...

I slowly stared down on the colorful surface I was standing on.

"With you..."

I heard a loud thump as I put my hand on my mouth, slowly coming to the same terrible realization Phos did.

"... our world is beautiful."

This can't be...

I bent down, touching the dust.

All of my seniors...

... seniors I have never met...

"Say," I heard him ask as I lifted my head up, "what would you two like to know?"

A gold alloy flew above me, slicing him in half.

"Of course," I heard him say as I quickly spun around, Phos already up, as he regenerated behind us, "we can recover much faster here."

Using her alloy again, the peppermint gem sliced the male Lunarian another time.

I saw him regenerate much closer on Phos' other side, ready to strike.

I rushed in, parrying the blow from his sword.

"Monster," I muttered, now seething with rage.

He murdered them.

He murdered them all.

I swung both our swords away, proceeding to punch him relentlessly.

Blow after blow, he still was unfazed.

"I've never met them, you know..." I said as I kicked him in between his legs.

"Cute," he said, still unfazed.

"I've always held on to the belief that they'll never die, that they'll return one day."

I punched him in the face one last time before deciding to strangle him with all my strength.

"Look at the 'good' you've done," I hissed under my breath, staring deep into his eyes.

"Good effort."

I felt him punch my stomach hard.

I reeled back in a daze, feeling parts of my torso leave my body and fall onto the ground.

"Don't you dare touch my junior!"

Phos leapt over me and sliced him again.

"I've had enough," that annoying apathetic voice came from behind.

I felt something stab through my neck from behind.

Darkness.

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

I felt myself return to consciousness.

Sitting up and opening my eyes, I felt my body creak from the cracks.

Touching my torso, I noticed that it had been filled up.

Looking around for Phos, I noticed the peppermint gem just beside me, sitting up too.

"You alright, Dan?"

I nodded.

Just noticing this, I looked at the Lunarians surrounding up, all looking in awe.

"So this is phosphophyllite! Amazing!"

"There's even gold for their arms! We've really hit it this time!"

"Hey, what's the other one? Eh, danburite you say? What even is that?"

I frowned at the last comment, inciting a small giggle from Phos.

"We've pieced you two back together, but left the cracks as they were," the male Lunarian said, walking towards us. "If you two try to pull a fast one, you will be immediately ground up. Your weapons will be returned soon, though."

He checked his watch. Watch?!

"The only way to stop you two were to sever your heads. But now it took nine hours for both of you to come back to consciousness."

Hmm...

"Such unique bodies. We're the same, actually."

"Put them back," I muttered.

"What?"

"Put my seniors back as well. You can create synthetic gems; surely you can put their dust back into shards and reassemble them."

"It's impossible."

"Liar."

"Hey, don't be rude!" one of the other Lunarians shouted. "Can we throw this one into the grinder?"

"Try me," I hissed, glaring at the Lunarian who said that.

"Eek!"

"Absolutely not," the male Lunarian replied, "our guests just don't understand yet. Now, would you two like a tour?"

Phos and I looked at each other before looking back at him.

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

"This hill," he explained as we walked down the street of the rather bustling Lunarian city, "was constructed with special metals and mineral oils that rise from the depths of the moon. The mineral oils melt by night and by morning they harden again, and it is due to that which makes the streets look different every day."

Both Phos and I looked around. The Lunarians were talking to each other, walking around, eating, playing...

"The same metals and oils serve as material for the synthetic gems you've seen, their weapons and the like," he went on. "The chemical composition of the moon is the same as the ones of the planet, since they used to be a single whole. This allows us to create gems like you down there, up here."

"Prince!" a Lunarian called out from behind as she and her friend grabbed onto Phos. "Can we break Phosphophyllite?"

"Ah?!" the peppermint shouted in alarm.

"They're all cracked up already!" the other one added on.

"Impossible," "Prince" replied, "we left the both of them like this only as a failsafe. Now, leave us."

"Boo!" the more bubbly one pulled a face as her friend dragged her off.

"'Prince'," Phos asked, "is that your name?"

"It's not my name, but the call me that," Prince replied. "Originally, among our animal ancestors, the word was used to designate individual representatives of society; those who led it. But 'prince' was also used for prominent individuals. It's not important," he shrugged off. "You also use a lot of words like 'school' and 'Sensei', whose original meanings you do not know."

Phos looked at me for a brief moment.

"Are your animal ancestors... humans?"

"Hm."

Prince turned around to look at the peppermint gem.

"I believe Ventricosus told you that?"

"H-how did you..."

"It's quite simple, really. We've sent her to your 'school' some time ago, she probably have told you, if not someone else."

"She said you want..." Phos began.

A squeaking sound from below interrupted her.

Her legs were surrounded by numerous small Admirabilis, holding onto the peppermint gem's agate legs.

Ah, that's right, that agate.

"Stop!" and "Come back!" were among the things the other Lunarians shouted as they tried to pry the little creatures from Phos.

"Prince!" one of them shouted. "Something's attracting the kids to this gem!"

"Hm."

Phos looked at one of the Admirabilis that was held up in front of them.

"... that you want to become humans again," she managed to finish as the sea creatures were taken away.

"The Admirabilis jump to conclusions," the male Lunarian replied. "The truth will take some time to explain. The time comes for the oils to melt, as you can see beneath your feet."

Looking down, both Phos and I noticed the supposed mineral oils melting and evaporating into white mist.

"Let's get going, it will be late."

Following Prince, who was climbing a flight of stairs, Phos slipped on a puddle of oil.

"Woah!"

"I got ya," I assured after managing to grab her left hand.

On her other side though, Prince had also grabbed her other hand.

"This way," he said, leading us up the flight of stairs, still holding onto Phos.

To our surprise, the mist of wax wrapped around our tattered uniforms, forming something like new dresses for us.

Reaching up, in front of us stood a large empty "ballroom" of sorts, only occupied by a single table in the center along with three chairs. At the other side of the room, two Lunarians stood, like waiters.

"Take a seat," Prince requested, sitting down.

Two Lunarians, each holding a chair, moved them for us as both Phos and I sat down too.

Three other Lunarians appeared, each putting a large plate in front of the three of us.

I looked at my plate.

That's a small portion.

"Humans, one of the once-living beings," Prince began. "They are indeed our ancestors. When humans, like all animals, reach the stage of cessation of life, which was known as 'death', only two of the three components that constitute them, namely the flesh and bone, returned to the earth. Only before the end of human civilization did it become known, that the 'spirit', having separated from the other two, became a separate element, so that it can reach a certain point in the universe, from it is transferred to another place called the 'other world'. Everything up to this point, reliably-established facts."

He picked up a weird-looking fork and knife.

Phos glanced at me for a bit, then turned back.

"What... are you doing?" she asked the leader of the Lunarians.

"Oh, eating," was the nonchalant reply as he began to dig in.

"It is assumed that the other world is devoid of anything; just simple, serene nothingness. But only clean souls, cleared of all past sins, can enter. For the purification of the souls, prayers from living humans are needed. A conglomeration of mutated human souls that had not received prayers and are therefore stuck on the moon..."

He took a bite.

"... that's who we are," he finished.

Phos was silent.

"Is it clear so far?"

"I think I've got the main idea," was the reply from the peppermint gem.

"Excellent."

The Lunarian waiters cleared away our dishes and presented us each with a new one.

"So," Prince continued, "that machine was created for us."

Machine?

"'Machine'?" Phos asked, puzzled.

"Oh, right, you don't know. A machine is a tool created by humans to effectively replace human labor. That 'Sensei' you call, was created by humans. A prayer machine."

"What?" I blurted out.

"Created... by humans?" The peppermint gem also muttered, equally surprised.

"Yes. It seems that it was originally created for a rather poetic reason, so that the last living human will not be lonely. But nevertheless, it is an incredibly powerful machine of destruction capable of splitting the human body into a pure spirit. But after some time, it broke down. He stopped doing his work. And we remain here - unpurified. That's why day by day, we persistently and repeatedly encourage him to work. And for some reason, he cherishes you."

Looking at Prince, I noticed the bouquet of flowers in front of me melting away. Looking around with some alarm, I noticed the whole room was melting away.

"H-hey, will this room hold?"

"Relax," was the reply from the lead Lunarian, "this place will not cave in. The mineral oils do not collapse in chunks."

"Ah..."

"So..." Phos muttered, still absorbing the new information, "that's the reason you're abducting us?"

Prince took another bite. "Yes. Now, I don't want to defend the machine, but I believe he is not deceiving you. Most likely, it is designed so that it can't give secret information without the permission of a human. Well, one way or another, after tens of thousands of years, we have exhausted all possible ways to make him earn us paradise."

He continued eating.

Phos and I looked at each other, Phos being confused and shocked at the new information.

For some reason, though, I was calm.

"Well," Prince suddenly continued, catching the attention of both of us again, "if he prays for us, nothing else will happen once we're gone. Perhaps the situation will change if you shake him and make whatever that was loose inside fall back in place. If any of you two have any suggestions, I'd like to listen."

He picked up a small piece of food on his spoon. "Here, try this please?"

He extended it out to Phos.

The peppermint gem looked at me, confused.

Slowly, she inched forward and bit onto the spoon.

Prince let go.

"How is it?"

Phos stared blankly at him, the oils dripping out of her mouth. "It's decent."

"Oh? I'd like that spoon back, by the way."

The peppermint gem removed it from her mouth, passing it back to Prince.

The Lunarian leader then picked up the remaining piece of morsel, extending it to me.

"Your turn."

Holding onto the spoon, I put the food into my mouth and chewed.

Glad I didn't forget how to eat...

I swear I saw Prince being taken aback for a moment, his facial expression briefly showing surprise.

W-what did I do?

I tried to swallow, but I realized that I couldn't.

"It's... okay," I commented, mouth still full.

"I see."

"Um... do you have anything like... a napkin or something?"

"Hm? How do you know what a napkin is?"

Oh, crap! "Uh- Sensei did teach us things like this. Trivia, basically. Not necessarily important, but good to learn nonetheless."

"Understood," was the reply as I internally sighed in relief.

"Here you go."

Prince threw me a napkin, which I caught and spit out the food in my mouth.

"Well," he continued, checking his watch and standing up, "it may be getting late, but we're not done yet."

Following suit, both Phos and I noticed that the oil "dresses" had also disappeared. At this point of time, the mineral oils had mostly melted away already, leaving us inside a metal rectangular frame with a counter on one side.

The male Lunarian headed over to the side and looked out at the large collection of oil, resting on the metal counter.

"See," he continued, "the name 'Kongo' is Japanese for 'the hardest material in the world'."

The peppermint gem blinked. "Ja...panese?" they puzzled.

"Ah, it's an ancient language, what you're using now was called 'English' by the humans," the Lunarian leader explained.

He paused as two Lunarians served us drinks. Prince got his drink in a shot glass with a single large block of ice, while Phos and I got ours in cocktail glasses.

"Moving on, you can probably see why that name was not given for nothing. After all, you've most likely know that he is resistant to physical damage. That is because his exterior is made out of unalloyed artificial hexagonal diamonds. Who would have thought it would be damaged internally?"

I looked at him in suspicion. Call it a gut feeling, but this guy feels pretty dodgy.

"It seems that humans were not too concerned about the future which they had created," he went on. "In your world, there are no machines. And that's probably a consequence of trauma of Kongo, who doesn't want civilization to develop. Maybe with that status quo it'll be easier to hide who he really is. We can't synthesize pure hexagonal diamonds in here."

Prince took a sip and looked at the both of us.

"Ah, now let me take the time to tell you two about our attempts to convince Kongo to help us. We repeated the same futile actions for a long time; pleading, arguing, persuading, demanding, even showing obedience. But Kongo, being adamant, refused to budge. When we captured your partners, we tried to persuade them to give us their cooperation, but they either refused to talk or acted weirdly. We actually didn't just try persuasion; we even tried to interrogate them, torture them as well."

I felt like I was shot in the heart. "Tortured?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, you gems don't seem to register pain at all. In the end, we just dropped the idea, along with every attempt to persuade them."

I stared at him. "You're not human. We're living things too, you know."

The Lunarian leader looked away. "Well, I'm not human anymore, so you're right."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"Hm.

He stared back at me.

I refused to show any surprise.

"Odd. Anyway, morality is solely up to the interpretation of the individual."

I held myself back as he looked back down at his drink.

"We initially returned them back, believe it or not, but after not observing any actions we recaptured them for good. We then tried our hands at creating synthetic gems, but we observed no movement. It's the same even after we combined them with the genuine ones; basically, Kongo is stubbornly adamant and refused to help, even after all of that. Notice how we didn't retrieve those pieces used in our weapons? They're all artificial."

A certain few yellow pieces of a gem's hand I remembered Rutile holding surfaced in my mind. "Like those pieces of Helio some time back?"

"Yes. Heliodor is its full name; I mentioned the name before both your heads came off."

Ah, right.

"Well," the male Lunarian went on, apparently not tired of the speech he was giving, "perhaps Kongo can't tell the difference between genuine and artificial pieces of gems. It's the same as our usual form of clothing; we wear these because they resemble the clothing of the ones that the machine was made to obey. That's a medium-term plan though; our long-term plan is to use your dust to cover this moon."

We stayed awkwardly silent for a few moments.

"Shiro," Phos suddenly mentioned. "Is that a pet of Sensei?"

"Ah, yes. That 'dog', as humans call that particular species, is indeed once Kongo's pet and the machine was attached to it. As it was not prayed for after its death, it took on that form for its spirit."

We stayed silent again.

Phos looked at me.

I returned with a questioning look.

"Ah, all spectacular failures," Prince said, getting our attention back. "Really, though; what else can you expect from trash like us? We are simply garbage for ghosts; nothing good ever comes from us."

He sat his glass aside and buried his face into his arms.

For the first time, I felt pity for this man. Even after all he's done, all he wants is to just move on.

That being said, I remember something that may explain everything...

"Oh!" one of the three newly-arrived Lunarians said, seeing the depressed Prince. "Our Prince is sad again?"

All three of them surrounded the male Lunarian.

"It's, like, the twenty-fifth time already this week! Who was the one who said the next time will definitely work?"

"Yeah," the second one said, "pull yourself together! Oh, you're drinking again, but you get drunk easily!"

"Exactly," the last one commented, "and that is the strong type too!"

All three of them turned their attention to both Phos and I.

"Hey, gems!" one of them called out as even the waiters joined in. Ah, the waiters kinda look male, too. "Your kind absolutely tortured the poor Prince! Can't you see how vulnerable he is?!"

"What?" Phos managed to utter, confused.

The closest Lunarian girl slammed a cup on the table. "Once the Prince comes to his senses, he will ground both of you to dust! So don't get too full of yourselves!"

"Hey," I retorted, feeling annoyed, "what the hell is your problem?"

All the surrounding Lunarians stared at me in surprise.

"Huh?" the one who slammed the cup asked, confused. "What... did you say?"1

Oh.

"Never mind," I quickly replied, turning my body to face her and crossing my arms. "Have some limits, will ya? We two in particular came all the way up here to ask you people questions, the others wouldn't bother talking to you. You should be glad you have listening ears here, ungrateful brats."

The Lunarian seemed taken back for a moment.

"Why, you little..." she sneered, putting her face closer to me.

"Enough," Prince ordered, and she stepped back. "Don't start a fight with our guests. Now, leave us."

"Hmph!"

The three Lunarians walked off, escorted by the two waiters.

They stopped, turned around and pulled face at us.

I was about to leap up and walk over to them, but Phos stopped me.

"Not now, Dan."

"Fine."

I relaxed.

"Oh, right," Prince suddenly said, looking up. "Where is he, anyway?"

"Who?" the peppermint gem asked.

"Your 'guide' that I requested. Hold on, stay here."

He rushed off.

Phos and I were silent in a bit.

"I don't believe this..." I heard her say from behind.

Turning around, I looked at the peppermint, grabbing the tabletop strongly.

"I... I didn't expect things to turn out this way. I thought Sensei only made a deal with the Lunarians, I honestly didn't expect him to be a machine humans made."

They looked up at me, visibly distraught and shaking.

"Dan, why are you so calm? Sensei is just a machine; don't you find this terrible? Do you have answers?"

I sighed and smiled lightly, turning and resting my back on the tabletop. "As a matter of fact, I have. I believe Sensei still cares for us."

"H-how?"

"Well, you see, back then we had these very advanced machines called 'computers'. They can basically do anything; calculate things with a blink of an eye, solve very complex equations, serving even as a means to connect the whole world together. Well, it got to a point where they started to think about themselves, this is called 'artificial intelligence', or 'AI' for short. The robots, basically computers with mechanics and can move around, had them, and boy, do they feel pretty realistic for something man-made. Kongo is perhaps much more advanced, being completely like a human in behavior."

"What does that solve? That only strengthens whatever Prince just said."

"Calm down, here me out. This issue was also present back then; should this self-thinking type of machine be treated like all of us humans, or are they mere tools? The dilemma with Sensei is the exact same too, is Sensei just a broken machine, or did he choose to not help the Lunarians with his abilities for a possibly very good reason?"

Phos got up and stood in front of me, surprised but visibly much more relieved. "What's your stand on these machines?"

I smiled. "These machines can think on their own; they're sentient. I believe we should respect that and treat them the same we treat ourselves."

Phos looked at me in admiration, then moved in for an embrace.

"You're amazing, Dan. I guess I'd think the same way as you, too. It's only right."

I returned the hug. "That's good. I'm glad you feel much better now."

"Yeah."

----------

A short while later, Prince returned, this time a chubby male Lunarian following him from behind.

"Hi, I'm Semi!" he said as he came forward to greet us. "I'll be your guide from now onwards!"

"First thing, though," Prince chimed in, "we will now properly put you two back together and give you new clothes. Hey," he called back behind him, "get to work."

A group of Lunarians, bringing multiple tools and some clothes, quickly rushed over.

----------

After some time, all the damage on Phos and I were fully-repaired. Prince had ordered that our original clothes be repaired and later returned to us; for now, the both of us are going to be wearing reproductions of the uniform, originally intended for use with the synthetic gems. Also, our weapons are returned to us. Prince seemed interested in my balisong knives, but other than visually studying them he didn't do anything else.

"Now," the male Lunarian leader said, checking his watch, "it's getting late. We have prepared a room for you two to rest in, since I guess you two wouldn't like sleeping in mineral oils like us. Semi, would you bring our guests to their room?"

"With pleasure," was the reply. "Alright, follow me, please."

"Wait!" I suddenly called out, remembering something.

Prince looked at me.

"Which moon are we on? Is this Luna?"

The Lunarian leader was surprised. "Yes, this is Luna, how do you know its name?"

"Well, trivia. Sensei does teach us these things too."

"Hm. Well, get going now, it's getting late."

"Now, time for you two to follow me!" Semi said, walking towards the steps.

We followed our guide down the steps and into the now-bare streets.

"So, what are your names, you two?" he suddenly asked.

"Phosphophyllite, but call me Phos."

"Danburite, Dan will suffice."

"Nice!" was the cheerful reply. "I look forward to spending more time with you two tomorrow!"

This Semi...

I like him.

We took a left turn down another street.

"Ah, hey, you two will be sharing a room with one other gem."

"Huh? Another gem?" Phos asked.

"Yes. The only one not ground up to dust; I don't know why, but somehow they have convinced Prince to keep them intact, on the condition that they be confined to her room at night."

We took a right turn.

"Oh," Semi corrected, "I mean 'their'. You gems are so confusing; you all resemble human females, ya know?"

Phos giggled, amused. "Do we?"

"Yes," was the reply as we took yet another turn. "Actually, I care for you gems too, and if I have a reason to do something only Prince could ever do, it would be to restore and send back all of your buddies."

I was intrigued. "Why?"

He stopped and looked at me. "That's easy; you have sentience too. You guys honestly deserve better treatment from us."

I was surprised. "Now that's odd for a Lunarian," I replied, smiling.

"Well, not all of us are bent on grounding you all to dust, you know," he replied, resuming the walk. "Prince is aware of this, but he doesn't mind."

"Hmm..." Phos wondered beside me.

"Ah, right, I didn't mention. This gem you're going to meet is also the oldest of all the gems. Red Diamond, you guys met them before?"

"Nope," the peppermint gem replied, "I was probably born way after they came here."

I wanted to reply the same, but something tells me I've somehow met them before.1

"The same," I said, preferring not to lie.

"Ah," Semi acknowledged as we hurried along the empty streets.

---------

At last, we entered a building, probably the location of our room and Red Dia, whoever they are.

We climbed up a flight of stairs, arriving at a single door.

Opening it, we walked in, only to find another door after a small distance in.

"A design insisted by Red Diamond, and Prince decided to follow their preferences. Well, I'll be running off soon, after I knock on the door to get their attention I'll be off, alright?"

Both of us nodded.

"Nice! Don't worry, they know you'd be coming, we told them earlier on."

He knocked on the door. "Red! The new gems are here!"

"Yes, just a second!" a very familiar voice called out from inside. "Get them to enter, Semi!"1

"Yes!" he replied. "Now, I'm off, see you guys tomorrow!"

Semi walked away, waving back at us.

We waved back till he was out of sight, then looked at the door.

"What's the matter?" Phos asked softly, looking at my shocked expression

"I-it's probably nothing," I replied.

That is clearly something, though.

That voice...

Opening the door, Phos entered first, followed by me.

This room was decently-sized, with a diagonally-placed large bed placed in the center, its top touching the left wall. On the right were a whole row of closets, nothing wrong with that.

On the other side of the bed, a small bedside table stood, also touching the left wall, its mirror facing towards our side. On its right were three cupboards, they're the wider, short type with only drawers.

Rummaging through the center drawer, however, was an oddly familiar figure, dressed in the standard gem uniform, their hair reflecting red brilliantly around the whole room.

"Dammit, I can't believe this!" she muttered loudly, surprising me even more. "Really should have arranged this damn cupboard when I had the chance to; where the hell are my spare clothes? If those two need those, what am I supposed to do, get them to sleep naked beside me?"

She sighed and stopped rummaging.

"Well, I didn't expect myself to end up here after that idiot hit me with his damn Toyota. I mean, I was expecting to wake up meeting whatever almighty being that's real and having my judgment given or something. Somehow I ended up in this post-apocalyptic parallel world."1

She continued rummaging.

"Well, this life is great, though. Or 'was', for that matter. Initially Kongo found me, I understood that he was a sentient machine, we carved that school out of quartz, brought in everyone over the next few thousand years and lived happily. Then I ended up having such a petty argument with Kongo, who knew I'd end up being taken to the moon not even half a day later? Luckily I managed to convince Prince to keep me intact, with this body I can escape eventually."

She stopped again and covered her face.

"I never got the chance to apologize to him. And that newborn Yellow Dia, I wonder how she's holding up after all those few thousand years? Even before that, I wonder how my dear best friend is holding up in the other world. Oh well, time to stop moping and live life from now on, I will find a way out of here for sure, and bring these two along with me."

She stood up and began to turn around. "Alright you two, sorry I kept you waiting, my name's Red Dia-"

That familiar face I haven't seen in a long time stared at me in surprise as I stared back in equal surprise.

We looked at each other for a few moments.

The red diamond then smiled.

"It really has been a while, hasn't it, Nicole?"