After Phos fled, Adamant made everyone gather again, as there was still something to be discussed.
—Shirou, go ahead —he said.
I stepped ahead and told them the details of Lancer that Phos hadn't had a chance to mention, as well as the very likely possibility there will be more like her.
—If any unknown Lustrous appears, use the whistle to inform the rest of us, and don't engage them in combat. They have strange abilities that I can only describe as magic, so never assume you know what they are capable of doing. They are working with the Lunarians. Take that in consideration and don't let your guards down. I want to make this very clear, only I or Adamant are allowed to fight them.
Bort didn't seem to like that too much, but the rest accepted my recommendation without any objection. They seemed worried and a bit anxious.
—Right now, I'm not at my full capacity, so I will go look for the spear that Lancer brought, which is currently at the bottom of the sea. That should better our odds against them.
—Eh? Sensei, is he really allowed to go, after what happened? —Jade asked, giving a quick glance at Dia.
—We need any resource we can get to protect ourselves, and he is very determined to go.
It has been rather hard to convince Adamant to let me go. He insisted that I was still too weak, so we had agreed to wait a couple of days more. He also tried to make me take a companion alongside, and I said I will think about it, but I couldn't drag someone away from patrolling duties.
Later that evening, when the gems were coming home, I saw a very angry Phos coming running right to me.
—What do you mean you are leaving?! —she yelled, her face too close to mine.
I threw a glance at Bort, who clearly hadn't shared the whole story to her. Bort just looked away. I explained the situation to Phos, and she immediately tried to volunteer herself to join the expedition.
—No, you have to stay here and help Bort protect everyone. You are now almost as strong as I was with my two arms, so with you here there shouldn't be a problem.
Phos didn't look satisfied with this, and was trying really hard to think of any reply that would convince me otherwise.
—Then... —a figure appeared from behind Phos, surrounding her slowly with her arms —shall I go with him instead?
Phos let out a surprised scream that was barely audible. Bort didn't move an inch, but I thought I saw her trembling a bit. The gem behind Phos peaked from behind her with a subtle smile and lethargic eyes.
—You must be... —I started to say, she was the only one who I hadn't interacted before, but I have heard about her— Ghost Quartz, right?
—That is correct —She smiled a bit more, finally letting go of Phos—, I'm in charge of the common library and the long recovery facilities, but as I haven't had a permanent partner in a long time I'm not usually on patrolling duty, so it will not affect us if I go away for a couple of days.
—I appreciate your offer, but I can't accept it.
—So it is impossible after all? —Ghost said with a slightly defeated tone—, then I'll stay here and pair with Phos and Bort.
Both gems shivered and froze in place at the same time.
—That was a joke —Ghost said with a small mischievous smile before going away, almost fading in the shadows of the hallway.
—That kid is a dangerous one —Bort said with a hint of nervously on her voice.
—I agree... —Phos said, leaving a deep sigh escape from her mouth, and sitting next to me— I can't understand him, I'm deeply indebted to him and yet he treats me like he admires me... in his own particular way.
—Indebted to her? —I asked.
Phos pointed to her blue eyes.
—This belonged to his former partner, Lapiz Lazuli. When I lost my own, he offered these saying that if we ever got enough to repair him, they could easily make another set of eyes out of his long hair. Since then I have been trying to act more like Lapiz, and that inspired me to become Sensei's assistant, but I sometimes feel like Ghost sees me like if I was actually Lapiz.
—Such foolishness —was Bort only comment as she turned away and went to her room.
Phos and I keep talking a bit more about her and Ghost, and how she had the habit to appear seemingly out of nowhere. In the followings days, I started to notice crossing paths with Ghost more often than before, but I attributed it to me being more aware now that I had talked to her.
I used all that free time to build a new diving helmet, as well as many other trinkets that I made just out of boredom. Finally, the day of my expedition arrived, and Phos and Bort came along with me until we got to the beach were we had been breaking ice floes just a few weeks before.
—I can't tell you how far it fell, but I jumped from this cliff, so it must be in a straight line from here.
—Got it. I might take me a couple of days, so be careful and take care of everyone, I want to come back and see all of you —I said.
—You too, come back home safely.
—Don't worry —a different voice said —I'll take care of him.
We all turned to find Ghost standing just behind us, it was almost unbelievable that we hadn't notice her in all our way from the school.
—Ghost? What are you doing here? —Phos nervously asked.
—Hmmm? Whatever would you mean with that? I said before I was going to go with Shirou.
—You said that was a joke!
—That was about patrolling with you two. I already asked Sensei's permission, and put on the water proof solution already, so it is fine.
—It isn't fine at all, how come I haven't heard of this until now?
—I told Bort, I thought he would tell you.
We both looked at Bort, but she just looked away. Phos started shaking her by the shoulders, but at the end, the result was the same.
—You cannot follow me —I said—, even if Sensei is here, he might need everyone's help if another being like Lancer shows off when I'm not around.
—Then, could you assure me that you could defeat another being like Lancer in the state that you are if you were to encounter them under the sea? Aside from that, you are going to use that "thing" to breathe underwater, aren't you? What is going to happen if you lose it? You are going to "drown" like before, don't you? What do you think it's going to happen if you fall unconscious underwater alone? Even if you somehow end up being pushed by the currents to the shore, we might all be crushed by then.
—Y-you really thought about it —I didn't wanted to admit it, but she had a few good points —... Fine, you can come with me.
Phos wasn't too thrilled about it, but accepted that it was more dangerous if I were to go alone. We climbed the risk down with the help of her fluid arms and started entering the ocean.
—You two have to come back in one piece! —Phos yelled while waving us goodbye.
I put up my new diving helmet on and went underwater. This one only covered my nose, which had the unintended advantage of allowing me to talk with Ghost on our travel.
—You are quite the creative one, where do you get the ideas from all of this?
—I'm not sure, they are like memories, but I only recall the properties of objects, not where I saw them.
—Hmmm, that's fascinating.
—What about you? Are you going to tell me the real reason for you to want to come along?
She smiled.
—I do care about all of my brothers, that includes you. I don't want to lose anyone else —she paused and looked away —, I'm tired of losing people I care for...
There was something different about her voice in her last sentence, but when she looked back at me, she was back to normal.
—That is not to say I didn't had an ulterior motive, I'm not that pure. I want to be closer with Phosphophyllite, but our personalities doesn't match at all. You are good friends with him, so I wanted to watch you and understand what I should change about myself.
—Don't think about it that way, you should strive to be better, but not to change who you are. If you want to be friends with Phos, you just need to get to know each other and accept each other good and bad points.
—Oh, that's strangely insightful.
—What is so strange about that? —I said.
She ignored my question, instead pointing to a fish that was swimming near us.
—Hmmm, last time I came to the ocean there was only crabs and sea plants, I didn't thought there were fishes anymore.
—I once saw a really big one just before winter, it launched a stream of water from a hole in his back.
—That might have been a whale. They were the biggest aquatic animals in the world, but originally they came from the land.
—Oh, that's sounds a bit like us. Our ancestors fled to the water but died, and from their remains we were born, and then we returned to the land. I wonder if the whales will come to the land and be our friends.
I was about to explain to her that it would be very unlikely, given that the world seemed to be covered in water with only a tiny bit of earth over its surface, but that didn't sound appropriated somehow, so now I was who changed the subject of the conversation, telling them about other creatures that came to my mind.
We keep walking in a straight line until we got to a deep trench surrounded by kelp, far too deep for the hose of my diving helmet. There was a current pushing towards the trench, so there was a chance that the spear could have fallen into it, but before I could think of what we could do, Ghost surprised me by jumping into the trench, saying that she will go and look for it while she was sinking slowly.
—I couldn't find anything —she said when she returned after about half an hour of me worrying—, but the current at the bottom keeps pushing things that way.
I thanked her and we went to the direction she had pointed, but I told her to stop doing things so impulsively.
—Sorry, sometimes the other me gets impatient and takes over.
—The other you?
She explained to me that she was two individual gems living in one body, as the one inside didn't form properly and Ghost Quartz could only grow over other minerals. As she was telling me this we had followed the trench as it became less and less deeper, until it ended up in an almost flat area, with some rocks surrounding it. The red spear of Lancer was conveniently on the middle of it. I immediately pulled Ghost behind one of the rocks and told her to hide.
—This is obviously a trap —she said, trying to look discretely over the surface of the water.
She found two sun spots, and I found another, all of them hiding as much as they could. They were too many to fight and we had the disadvantage of being underwater, and if we waited until the night, it was probably that they would take the spear away. But we still had an opportunity.
Trying to mimic one of Phos' new abilities, I thought of expanding my hand under the sand to grab the spear, pull it quickly and then we will hide on the trench until the Lunarians had to go away. Even if I ran out of air and fainted, Ghost could drag me to the surface once it was safe. However, I wasn't as flexible as Phos, I was only good at recreating weapons, so I had to improvise a bit. Making a blade sprout from my finger, and then another from that one, I started to make a chain to reach the spear. When I was just about to reach it, Ghost noticed something and pulled me away, and I retreated the blades into my arm instinctively. A second later, something hit the rock that we were using to hide, blowing it into pieces. Ghost and I were went "flying" away by the shock wave and I fainted for a moment.
—Shirou? Shirou? —Ghost spoke, making me recover my senses.
We weren't under the sea anymore. She was cracked, but not missing any piece. We were chained, which was a bit weird but not entirely unexpected after our previous escape. What was unexpected was that I couldn't transform any part of my body, and also that we weren't on one of the Lunarian's vessels, but on a wooden ship.
—Welcome aboard —said a women with large purple hair, pirate clothes, and a mask covering her eyes. She was holding a gun and had another on a holster— I'm Rider, do you remember me, sempai?
—Of course he wouldn't remember someone with so little presence as you —said another women, with golden hair tied on twin drills, she was carrying some kind of ceremonial dress that made her look like an ancient priest, more with the golden scepter she was carrying with her—, but I'm sure you remember your fiancé, don't you, Shero?
She got closer to me and waited for an answer that I didn't had.
—Hump! I suppose Franny was telling the truth. Never mind, that just means it is another opportunity for us to fall in love all over again, don't you think?
—C-Caster, could you stop that? —Rider spoke, a bit agitated—, we have a mission, don't we?
—Right, right, Franny told us to use the spear as a lure, and punish Shero if he was so naive to try to go for it without a good plan. I'm not entirely sure that blowing him with a cannonball counts as a fair move, though.
—I-I couldn't hold on, I had wanted to shoot at sempai for so long! —she seemed embarrassed for some reason.
—How vulgar... In any case —Caster looked back at us—, I suppose we can take your friend here back to the moon as the penalty and call it a day, doesn't that sound good?