TWENTY-SEVEN

"Tell the others quietly," Phos began, crouching down and speaking to the small Admirabilis.

The little sea-faring child looked up.

"Get all of you guys to slowly eat up that colorful dust on the surface of the moon. You guys need to eat as much as possible, but do not consume too quickly so the Lunarians wouldn't notice. We will try coming back for you guys if we get off this moon and hopefully you guys would have eaten all the dust. Pass down the message to the others, is that clear?"+

"As you wish," the small snail-like creature uttered quietly as it slid off, probably back to the others.

"Yeah," Phos sighed as she stood up, "that's one thing settled. Dan, Red Dia, did I do well?"

The both of us nodded.

"It's good," the red diamond replied, "now we have a chance to bring them all back in the future."

"That's a pretty smart plan," Semi chimed in, impressed. "Being able to understand the Admirabilis and having Aculeatus' agate shell as part of your legs sure has their quirks."

It's been just a day after the day Semi agreed to help us, and so far we've explained everything to him once we met him again. Unfortunately, there were some bad news.

"So, Semi," I asked again while we stood on the street outside Jane's residence, "Aechmea had a meeting earlier today with the head Lunarians and basically reaffirmed that he intends us to never leave?"

"Yep," he answered, "Prince also had forseen a possible escape attempted orchestrated by you three, so he has decided to introduce night patrolling until further notice."

"Ah, damn."

"However," he quickly added on, "there is some good news. For one, he won't focus security around you guys. He thinks that it'll be alarming for you gems; he intended this to be a hush-hush whenever you guys are concerned."

"And our weapons?" Phos thought up.

"Well, he mentioned nothing about confiscating them. They're going to be pretty useless too, we regenerate on the moon in a matter of seconds after being cut down."

"That's true..."

"So that is why I've chosen to get you guys to delay your plans for 4 more days," he concluded, looking at a small notebook. "Until then, you guys have pretty much nothing to do. It's really boring up here; right, Miss Red?"

"He's spot-on," Red Dia replied rather cheerfully, "the only thing I've been doing for the past nearly-three thousand years being holed up in my room, doing absolutely nothing. Well, other than going down to that massive library down the street to read up."

"Library?" Phos asked, interested.

"Yep, library. There's still a single section I haven't fully-combed yet, though. The one about humans. Hey, wanna go?"

"Sure," I replied.

"Why not?" Phos answered.

"Great!" Red Dia beamed.

"I'll leave the three of you alone then, alright?" Semi chimed in. "Think I have some more work to do, see ya guys later!"

"Goodbye!"

As we waved back at him as the male Lunarian sprinted away, I noticed a Lunarian cloud taking off in the distance.

"They're off again, huh," the peppermint gem commented, also taking notice. "I hope nobody gets captured today."

"Yeah."

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

"Alright, we're here!" Jane-nah, Red Dia announced in her usual cheerful manner as we stepped through the front doors of the massive library.

"Shh, not so loud!" a female Lunarian hushed, walking towards us. She was about the same size of us, with relatively long untied hair let down her back. She wore a completely professional white female office uniform, and had high heels matching the color of her clothes.

She was also holding a pretty thick stack of papers and books.

"Aw, come on Laxie, nobody ever comes here!" Red Dia pouted.

"Library rules are still library rules!" Laxie sternly stated. "But you're right," she immediately softened, "just don't be too noisy, alright?"

"Gotcha! Eheh!"

"Thanks, Red. Hey, you two," the Lunarian librarian turned her attention over to us, "you must be the new arrivals. Name's Laxienialle, but you can call me Laxie. Nice to meet you."

"And I'm Marieanna," another female Lunarian librarian called out from the other side, walking towards us. She was dressed the same way as Laxie, but she was taller, had her hair tied up in a professional ponytail and wore glasses. "Call me Marie!"

She was also holding a stack of books and papers, only slightly shorter.

"Phosphophyllite, call me Phos," the peppermint gem cheerfully replied.

"Danburite, Dan will do," I continued. "Nice to meet you two."

"Nice to meet you two, too!" Laxie replied, equally cheerfully. "Uh, um, guess we can't shake your hands, ours are a bit full. We're basically clearing up the library's newer sections today. So, what brings the three of you here today?"

"Well," the red diamond explained, "we had some time to burn, and well, I thought it'll be a great idea to find books about humans to show Phos here."

The word "human" sparked an unusual glint of interest in Laxie's eyes.

She suddenly threw her entire stack into the air.

"Hey! Where'd you like to start?! Come on, tell me, tell me!"

"You idiot!" Marie shouted. "Those are the source copies for multiple research books!"

Phos and I looked at each other, remembering a certain cyan gem back at the school.

We smiled.

Yep, deja vu.1

---------

"Hey, thanks for helping me sort this out," Laxie sheepishly muttered as Phos put the last pieces of paper on the reassembled stack. "Sorry, got way too excited."

"It's all good," the peppermint gem consoled. "You remind us of one of us back home."

"Hm?" the librarian looked up from a piece of paper, curious.

"Heheh, that'd be Alexandrite, we call them Alex. Is a Lunarian nut, goes berserk and they turn red whenever they see one of you."

"Ah, I think one of the parties that went down mentioned a gem like that! Didn't know she's so interested in us!"

"Well, about that," Phos muttered, scratching her head, "Alex hates you guys for taking Chrysobel away, and uses the research they did to also try to fix their peculiar condition."

"Oh. Well, guess that isn't far-fetched either. Anyway," Laxie quickly changed the subject, tossing over the paper to a startled Marie who quickly grabbed it, "the human archives are all the way behind. Follow me!"

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

"This is the only building on the whole moon that uses none of the mineral oils that came underground," the Lunarian librarian explained as we walked past row after row of bookshelves. "Of course, this is nothing unusual, considering that all the books here are written on paper, and paper itself will be ruined whenever it absorbs any liquid."

"That's a given," Phos replied.

"Yeah, that's just basic knowledge. Anyway, we had to go back to Earth to collect as much wood as possible back in those days. At that time you gems were practically nonexistent, so we had a field day doing stuff like axing down full-size trees. Nothing different from what humans would do though."

"Hey, don't you guys hate the planet? Bad memories?"

Laxie turned to look at the peppermint gem. "Them? Perhaps, but for me, I have no issue at all. Well, isn't really a surprise, is it? Me being a nut when it comes to humans and all."

"Yeah, guess it isn't."

"Alright, we're here!"

We stopped in front of a door.

"Now, I have work to do, so I guess I'll leave you three on your own?"

"Sure thing, Laxie," Red Dia replied cheerfully. "See ya around!"

"Yeah, I'll see if I can join you guys later!"

And with that, the Lunarian librarian rushed off.

"Well," the red diamond beckoned, opening the door, "come on in."

The rather-small room was pretty typical, with three long shelves running from one side to the other. Each shelf has three levels.

Yeah, doesn't look special actually.

That's rather anti-climatic.

"What," Jane frowned, seeing the deadpan faces on both Phos and me, "were you expecting it to be an ancient dungeon filled with yellowed books? Heh, just kidding, let's see what we can do here."

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

"So," Phos asked, looking at a picture of the human body, "these books are Lunarian-written?"

"Yeah," was the reply from the red diamond. "Unfortunately, all existing books were apparently destroyed after the 6th asteroid hit, so some of the Lunarians basically took up the job of trying to preserve humanity's existence in books."

"You guys were pretty fragile, you know?" the peppermint gem mused. "If you guys lose any of your limbs, that's pretty much it, right?"

"Well, not exactly, from my time at least there are some prosthetic limbs being researched on. Nowhere as close as another proper arm, though."

"And any strike to your chest or head would kill you, huh."

"Well, yeah, that's something we dealt with."

Phos smiled softly as she flipped the pages to various illustrations of cities. "Must be an interesting life you guys had. Nowhere as close to what the Lunarians and us have."

"Well," Jane mused, "it does get rather boring over time. I love how fresh the school is compared to, say, Singapore. Right, Dan?"

"Y-yeah!" I quickly replied, slightly startled.

"Hehe, some things just won't change. You've really gotten better, though."

I looked up at her. "You think so?"

She grinned. "That's so obvious! You're nowhere as moody as you were back then at all!"

I smiled, remembering the time I had in this world so far. "Yeah, you're right. Also, about that..."

I looked down. "I'm sick of hiding my past from everyone else."

"Ah, that's right," the peppermint gem looked up, "you've never told anyone else. What do you want to do about it?"

"End it, of course. But... you've seen Sensei's reaction, I'll probably be given the boot."

"Now come on," Jane comforted, "I strongly doubt it'll be that bad..."

"But Sensei broke that table! Actually I don't know anymore..."

I put my face in my arms, sulking.

I felt an arm around my shoulder.

"Now come on Dan," Phos cheerfully replied, "we'll never know unless you try. Even if you're rejected by Sensei, you'll still have our absolute backing."

I felt another arm around my shoulder.

"Phos is right! No matter what happens, you can count on us!"

I looked up, smiling softly. "Thanks, guys. But would Sensei kick me out though?"

"Heheh," Red Dia replied, smiling, "It's not time for that yet. We'll see, Nicole. We'll see."

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

"And what is the name of the global conflict that started on 1st September 1939 AD?" Laxie quizzed the peppermint gem, sitting on the floor. "On top of that, give me the incident that sparked it off."

"The Second World War, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland," was the tired reply from the peppermint gem.

"Not bad, Phos," I commented, lying beside her. "You're getting the hang of it."

"When did it end, Phos?" the red diamond popped in beside me, also lying on the ground.

"2 September 1945 AD," was the quick reply from Phos before she slumped down. "Dang, I'm tired! How long have we been going?"

"4 days of human-related boot camp," the Lunarian librarian answered. "You guys caught on really quickly, actually."

"Heh, thanks."

"Well, that summarizes the quiz. Not bad, all of you. Oh, you guys are going to sneak back tonight, right?"

"Yep!" was the reply from Jane. "Thank you for offering us help if we run into trouble."

"No problem, Red. I'll really miss you guys, though. If I were still alive I'd say 'Do remember to write to me often!', but there isn't any mail link from the moon to Earth, is there?"

"Aw, cheer up, Miss Laxie! You can still see us if you sneak down if you want!"

"Yeah, good idea."

She smirked. "I'll keep that in mind as an option, thanks. Ah, also..."

Laxie checked her watch. "It's 9 pm at this moment, you guys really should go get some sleep first."

"Yeah, you're right," the peppermint gem agreed as we all got up.

Phos looked at the Lunarian librarian. "I wonder when we can meet again..."

Laxie beamed. "Well, wait till I sneak down someday!"

Red Diamond suddenly went forward and gave her a hug. "I'll seriously miss you. Until next time, I guess."

The librarian smiled and returned the hug. "Yes, Red. Until next time."

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

"Remember, meet me at the platform at 4 am sharp!"

Semi's words from the trip back to Red Dia's room last night echoed in my head as I picked up my daggers, the three of us all up at 3:45 am.

"Now that is an interesting pair," the red diamond commented, changing into a uniform that had a shorter collar than ours for its white undershirt. "What are they?"

"Special daggers bound to me, gifted from a friend," I replied, attaching them to the back of my belt. "You'll meet Katsumi back in the school, too."

"Ah, so Katsumi's her name. Wait, what is she?"

I smiled. "A dimension-travelling human who decided to stay in this world. Nobody aside from Phos and myself knows her existence the last time I checked."

"Heheh, pretty interesting. How does she hide, though?"

"Well, she can turn into an orange butterfly, so that ain't a problem."

"Woah, that sounds awesome! Also pretty handy, too."

"Hey," I asked, looking at Jane's uniform, "what's this?"

"Oh, this is my original uniform. Granted it's mostly no longer the same uniform since I patched it up quite some time, but it's still the same to me!"

"That collar," Phos commented, taking a closer look. "I wonder why we got the longer collar design."

"Yeah," Red Dia agreed, "the new design feels a bit too 'uptight', in a way. But that's more professional-looking nonetheless!"

She looked down at her uniform, tears of joy forming in her eyes. "I've been waiting for this day to finally wear this again, even if it was just to remain hopeful. Never did I know that this will become reality at last."

Jane looked up. "This day would never come without the two of you. Thanks."

"Ah, no need to thank me," Phos giggled. "We're all family, of course we'll always help you."

"I should thank you instead, Jane," I replied. "I can't believe I've reunited with you, even after death."

"Aww, Nicole," the red diamond replied, giving me a hug. "This goes both ways too. Guess we aren't complete without the other."

I smiled. "Yeah, we aren't."

"Alright," Red Dia said, releasing me and grabbing her sword, "let's get this show on the road."