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[3rd POV]
After everyone has eventually returned back to the school building, Y/N, Rutile and of course Phosphophyllite found themselves in the infirmary where Rutile laid out the mint-haired lustrous girl on one of the wooden tables. The doctor herself was examing the two horn-shaped objects Y/N dragged in while the man himself a small distance from them. The crack on his face was the first thing Rutile attended to when they arrived at her office, now Y/N's face was spotless and devoid of any and all damage.
-KRAK- -THUD- -KRAK- -THUD-
Unfortunately for Phosphophyllite, it appeared she was not going to be allowed to rest peacefully just yet as the sound of extremely heavy footsteps started to ring through the school's stone walls. Y/N sighed, already knowing well who was coming and the events that are bound to unfold. There was but one being in the entire world Y/N knew to be capable of breaking stone by merely walking on it, and that being was Kongo-sensei.
Rutile who had just finished applying a new layer of glue was not happy but took a few... actually, she took a lot of steps back and hid behind one of the quartz pillars. While she and anyone in the vicinity hid somewhere to not be caught in the crossfire, Y/N merely squeezed his back against the wall.
'Nothing personal Phos, but I am not happy with you either,' Y/N essentially left Phos at the mercy of their unbreakable sensei who imposingly stood in front of her heavily damaged body.
"You... MORON!" Kongo-sensei's shout alone was enough to shatter Phosphophyllite's body and send her falling off the wooden table.
But before her body could hit the ground she found herself in Kongo-sensei's arms, the stray shards of her body having already been collected by the bald man in a single moment.
"The sea... was really scary..." Phosphophyllite's tone of voice was tired, as one might expect.
Kongo-sensei's tone was indifferent, "You'll report to me tomorrow."
"I'll start working even harder..." but unfortunately for Phos, it seems that Kongo-sensei had a different idea.
"Your job as a natural historian will be over," and with a single sentence, Phosphophyllite's world crumbled like a house of cards.
This were also news for Y/N who feared this would happen, his thoughts drifted back to Cinnabar and the possible future. The little group of three, Y/N, Phos and Cinnabar, primarily existed because they all agreed to gather information for the encyclopedia together. And being a group like that without one of its core members would be... depressing at the very least. He took a seat near Rutile who began working on fixing Phosphophyllite's broken body for the second time today and started to think of possible solutions to his BFF's current predicament. Time became a blur as Y/N continued to juggle different ideas around in his head, and before he noticed the sun has already risen and Phosphophyllite was mostly fixed. But there was still one glaring problem about her condition that had to be addressed.
"Now, what do we do with those legs?" rhetorically asked Rutile as she diverted her gaze towards the two horn-shaped objects, "Well, the short answer is that I'm going to have to use these."
The doctor brought both of the objects closer to Phosphophyllite so working on them would be less of a chore, "The outer shell of these is weaker than you are, but the inside is filled with agate which has a hardness of seven. All in all, I should be able to make you new legs using a mixture of the two."
Phosphophyllite stared at the two horn-shaped objects, "Will they work?"
"That depends on whether or not your inclusions accept them as their new home," replied Rutile as the preparations for the procedure were already underway.
Y/N zoned out again as he watched Rutile tirelessly work on the two objects with great skill and precision. He silently watched as Phosphophyllite's missing legs were replaced by a new pair of black and white ones. Her new legs had streaks of black spiralling down to the tips of her fingers. The design was rather strange but Y/N knew better than to question Rutile about a project she poured a lot of effort into.
"That should be done. Y/N, come give me a hand," Rutile was tired so her voice was a little too rigid than she would've liked.
Nevertheless, Y/N moved in to help her, while Rutile was holding Phosphophyllite by her shoulders and waist Y/N held her hands in case she falls. Just as her feet touched the ground Phos nearly slammed butt-first against the floor, but luckily Y/N was holding her by her hands so she only ended up in an awkward squatting position before she seated herself on the ground.
Phosphophyllite examined her legs with a baffled expression, "They're like stumps! My legs are just fancy stumps!"
"Well they are made out of stone," Rutile sighed as she let go of Phos and stood up, "No good, eh?"
"Just take it easy for now. Some things take time," Phos meekly nodded in response while Rutile rolled her eyes at the last part of Y/N's sentence and picked up a wooden chair.
"Come on, you have to be in the sun to accelerate the process as much as possible," commented Rutile as she placed the wooden chair into the sun, just outside the infirmary.
Y/N carried his mint-haired friend over to the wooden chair and sat her down. Rutile walked back into the infirmary and with a tired sigh lied down, trying to get at least a couple of hours of sleep while she was left in peace.
The silence between Y/N who was standing by Phosphophyllite's side and the girl herself was rather awkward, "...You must have lost a considerable amount of memories along with your legs."
"Yeah... I have no idea what I forgot though," Phosphophyllite tried to make a joke towards the end of her sentence, but it came off as dry.
"I suppose that's fair, it wouldn't really count as forgetting something if you could remember what it was," Phos hummed in response as she visibly tried to move her legs, but to no avail, "Give it time."
"Ugh, if only they COOPERATED!" but unfortunately the mint-haired girl tried a little too hard to get her legs to move and instead of standing up she fell backwards, onto the soft green grass, "Ugh, this sucks..."
Y/N sighed, of course, it sucks, she lost her goodman legs for crying out loud, "Here, come on, some bugs are going to crawl into your clothes."
But Phos huffed in response and didn't accept Y/N's outstretched hand, instead, she opted to try to get up without any help. Y/N almost pitied her, she looked like a snail that somehow ended up on its back and couldn't move.
It felt wrong, degrading, to look at Phos in her current state so Y/N sighed and started to walk back to where Rutile was resting, "If you change your mind just tell me."
"'Kay..." unenthusiastically replied the mint-haired girl.
The crimson-haired male took a seat by Rutile's sleeping body and zoned out, again. His body relaxed as much as it physically could, looking at the blades of grass blow in the wind and feeling the light breeze in his hair was really therapeutic for Y/N. He allowed his mind to almost completely shut down, still as a statue and unmoving, Y/N was literally sleeping with his eyes open. Only finally coming back down to earth when it started to rain. Blinking, Y/N collected his thoughts and tried to get his brain functioning properly, even if he technically speaking didn't have one.
"You looked like a statue there," Y/N nearly jumped when an unknown voice startled him from behind.
Throwing his legs around, making sure not to accidentally kick Rutile in the process, Y/N saw Yellow Diamond on a ladder picking up some glue from a high shelf, "Oh, hello Yellow."
"Hello~" responded Yellow Diamond in her usual tone of voice.
Y/N noticed the decapitated body of Zircon lying on the table and rose an eyebrow directed towards Yellow Diamond, "Took a hit for lil' old me."
"Hmm, and only came out without a head and a cracked knee, she's brave alright," commented Y/N as he took the bucket with glue from Yellow Diamond and placed it by Zircon's side.
"Brave and stupid. Why would she shield me?" asked Yellow Diamond, her usually chipperness fading from her voice making Y/N sigh.
This wasn't the first time the crimson-haired male had talked or dealt with one of Yellow Diamond's self-reflective moments. The yellow-haired female was one of the oldest Gems around and with it came experience and many moments of both happiness and pain. The sorrowful moments were still fresh in the girl's mind though.
"Everyone I've paired up with so far has been taken to the moon. All I'm good at is running away, I don't even remember what we are fighting for..." Y/N opted to stay silent for a moment, pondering on the last question as well.
He also wasn't quite sure what they were fighting for. Was their drive fuelled by the loss of their comrades? Or was it the instinct of self-preservation against Lunarians? Perhaps everyone in the world was destined to fight forever. He didn't know, and it irritated him beyond belief.
Letting go of those thoughts for the moment he focused on the matter at hand, "So what you are trying to say is that you are selfish, what's wrong with that?"
Yellow Diamond nearly doubled over when she heard Y/N's nonchalant remark, "H-Huh? Weren't you listening?"
"I was listening, and I said it's okay to be selfish," casually replied Y/N.
Yellow Diamond remained silent for some time as she worked on fixing Zircon, meanwhile, Rutile was still asleep, "It's almost scary how casual you younglings can be."
"I'm not exactly young you know. I believe you said it's rude to call you old but you still keep calling yourself the eldest," Yellow Diamond scoffed at Y/N's spot-on comment as she gently applied a layer of glue on Zircon's decapitated head.
"I don't remember you being so casual about everything," sarcastically commented Yellow Diamond.
Y/N rose an eyebrow, he didn't think he was any less serious than he used to be, "Sigh, if you are going to lament your existence then you are going to do so for a very long time. We are immortals, remember?"
"We can still break and lose consciousness," quickly replied Yellow Diamond as she began reattaching Zircon's head.
"Touché. What I'm trying to say is that instead of grieving over your past mistakes try to fix them. If you are careless then learn to be more aware, if you are bad at something learn to do it better, you have time," Yellow Diamond just hummed in response while Y/N rolled his eyes, she never really took him seriously.
A light groan brought their attention to Rutile who only now began waking up, "Well, good morning sunshine~"
But Rutile ignored Yellow Diamond's teasing comment, much to the yellow-haired girl's confusion. The doctor just stared at something that was in front of her, just as Y/N was about to speak Rutile turned to him with wide eyes.
"...Where's Phosphophyllite?" silence took over the trio before Y/N rushed to Rutile's side and saw the empty wooden chair being drenched in the rain, with no mint-haired Gem in sight.
"...Shit, Yellow, you're faster!" Yellow Diamond gave a quick nod before bolting past Y/N and Rutile in hopes of finding Y/N's troublemaking best friend.
Y/N groaned in frustration as he massaged his temple, already feeling another headache coming to him from the amount of trouble Phosphophyllite could get into in such a short amount of time. A day didn't even pass and she was missing, again! He was most certainly going to give her an earful after they find her.
[[TO BE CONTINUED...]]
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Braggski: Here you go, another chapter done! This one took some time as I was a bit unenthusiastic to actually write something but hey, managed to kick myself into gear before the week was over. See ya next time!
Yellow Diamond
Zircon