Disclaimer: Just going to say this all week: I don't own Dr. STONE

Authoress' Note: And another one for TKS' DCST Ship Week! As I'm writing this, the manga is on break until Sunday the 9th. And I can not wait for the return! The last chapter was so bittersweet, and after weeks of "I need therapy" feels, it's what the fandom needed. And writing is what I needed too. So please enjoy today's fic!

Day 2: Fairy Tales

Bamboo Princesses

"Hey, Suika, did you ever hear the story of Kaguya-hime?"

"Kaguya-hime? Who's that?"

The melon-hatted girl turned her head towards her newest friend, the recently revived Mirai, the two of them sitting upon a grassy hill not too far outside of the base camp of the expanded Kingdom of Science, taking in the light, late spring night breeze as the full Moon danced with the feathery clouds above their heads. The two girls, close in age, became good friends in the weeks following Mirai's revival, the modern world girl taking in a lot of new things in the world with stride, living in ways that she never had before due to her comatose state back in her time. The petrification and use of the magical revival fluid had helped to restore her damaged brain, and now she could finally live a life she may have never lived... although she did wish it could be spent with her brother Tsukasa as well, but she kept hope for a time when he, too, would be saved and revived again.

"I don't remember a lot of it, but Tsukasa-nii told me the story when I was really little," Mirai replied, looking up at the full Moon with a bit of a wistful gaze, "It's an old fairy tale that's been around for thousands of years. I know it has another name, but everyone I knew called it the story of Kaguya-hime, so I don't remember the real name."

"What's it about?" Suika asked, a bit more insistent on her desire for an answer; she always did love hearing stories, and stories from the world that existed over 3700 years before her time.

The older girl hummed as they both turned towards one another, Suika's legs crossed in front of her while Mirai had hers tucked in. "Once upon a time, there was this old bamboo cutter that lived in the countryside with his wife. One night, while he was working, he came across a stalk of bamboo that was shining brightly, and out of curiosity, he cut it like he did all the others," she started the story, getting a bit too excited over sharing one of her favorite tales, "But inside of this stalk was a tiny baby that was no bigger than his thumb!"

"Eh!? That small!?" Suika exclaimed really loudly, shocked to hear about a human even tinier than what she's known, having heard of stories of how tiny she and others were as babies.

Mirai nodded her head, "Well, yeah, she was in bamboo. If she were the size of an actual infant, she wouldn't fit!"

It made sense, of course, but Suika still sat in disbelief, now starting to bounce in place as she wanted to hear more about this magical tiny baby. Mirai giggled as she saw how excited her melon-hatted friend had become, remembering a bit on how she acted when Tsukasa told her the story. "The old bamboo cutter and his wife never had children of their own, so they chose to adopt the mysterious baby, naming her Kaguya-hime. From the day she was found, every time the bamboo cutter went out to cut the crops, he would find nuggets of gold inside the bamboo, and in no time at all, the little family became very rich," she continued the story, stopping when Suika appeared confused at the newer term.

"Rich?"

"Oh... Well, think of how Gen and Senku got with all of the dragos they got from Ryusui. It means to have a lot of money."

"Oh, I got it now!"

The pair giggled as the confusion quickly faded away, allowing Mirai to move onto the next part of the tale. "But the nuggets were just the start. Kaguya-hime had grown from a small baby to a beautiful, grown woman in only a few months. And her adopted parents, afraid of how the world outside of their little home would react, tried to keep this a secret, but word of her beauty spread throughout all of Japan, and soon she began to attract suitors."

She could sense Suika's confusion over another new word and quickly explained, "Oh, uh... that means people that wanted to marry her!"

The light bulb went off and Suika nodded, and Mirai hummed happily again before continuing the story, "Kaguya-hime was soon visited by five men, all of them being of noble birth and all of whom wanted to marry her. But Kaguya-hime didn't want to marry any of them. So she came up with a plan to task each one of the suitors with gathering her an impossible item, and whomever can bring the thing she asked for first, she'll marry that suitor. So all of them left on their quests, determined to fulfill her demands."

Mirai's gaze turned darker as she explained the dour part of the story. "However..."

Suika swallowed, uncertainty filling her small frame.

"The suitors were never able to get the items in question. Two of them tried to cheat their way, only for Kaguya-hime to call them out on their lies. One tried to complete the task honestly, only to be swindled by a con man. The fourth abandoned the quest after being caught in a storm on the sea, while the fifth fell to his death during his effort," the older girl's voice was low and sad as she explained the fates, remembering how she felt during her first hearing of the story.

"How sad," Suika replied, also feeling the weight from hearing of the last three suitors.

Mirai nodded, and a heavy fog settled upon them just as the full Moon began to hide behind thick clouds. For a few moments, she wondered if she should continue the story. She knew there was still more to be said, but from here, she knew it'd be really sad. She didn't want to make Suika upset, but she already was. So maybe it would be best to leave the rest of it alone.

"So what happens next!?" Mirai was almost thrown onto her back by how loudly Suika yelled, fists pumped in front of her watermelon helmet, the frown now turned into a bright and eager grin.

She blinked for a moment, brushing off the surprise, before grinning herself. "Okay! So, after a time, the Emperor of Japan came to visit Kaguya-hime, also wanting to ask her for her hand in marriage. Kaguya-hime didn't give him an impossible quest to do, but she still rejected him, saying that she couldn't marry him because she wasn't from his country and couldn't go with him to the palace," she continued the story with a renewed vigor, "But he didn't give up, and for three years, the two would continue to talk through letters. She would always reject his proposals, but she wouldn't stop talking to him either. At least... not until the summer of the third year."

The Moon started to come out from the clouds again, illuminating the girls with perfect timing. "One night, Kaguya-hime looked up at the full Moon, and tears began to well up in her eyes. Her parents tried to find out what was wrong, but she wouldn't answer them. Not even when they kept asking as she began to grow more restless and erratic, until finally one day, Kaguya-hime couldn't hold it back any further."

Mirai turned her head and pointed towards the Moon, "Kaguya-hime came from the Moon, and the reason why she was crying was because she was being called back home."

"EH!? The Moon!?"

Mirai couldn't stop herself from laughing at how Suika acted, seeing her shake and bounce, looking up at the Moon and back, as if to try and figure out all of the logistics. Sure, they both knew that people could go into space and be able to come down from space, but Suika knew none of the astronauts that came from space after the great petrification actually came from the Moon, so how could one live there!?

After a few blustered moments, Suika relaxed, reminding herself that it was just a story, blushing as she realized how silly she was acting, settling back down in order for Mirai to continue.

"Tsukasa-nii told me the reason for this was because there was a war on the Moon, so Kaguya-hime was sent to Earth in order to protect her, and all of the gold nuggets the bamboo cutter found were from her family in order for them to comfortably support her. Although there's other versions that said that Kaguya-hime was sent to Earth to be punished for something she did. No one really knows what really happened, but I like Tsukasa-nii's version more."

Mirai relaxed her legs, folding them to one side as she rested her hands in her lap. "The Emperor of Japan learned that Kaguya-hime needed to return to the Moon, and sent his guards to keep her from leaving, but the celestial beings sent to retrieve her blinded them, and came with a magical robe and a vial filled with a drink she had to take to become immortal – oh, that means to live forever! – in order to live on the Moon. But Kaguya-hime didn't want to go. She loved her life on Earth, with her adoptive parents and she maybe even loved the Emperor too, and she didn't want to go. But she had no choice but to go."

The heavy fog settled in again as Mirai reached the climax of the tale, and Suika frowned as her friend tried to keep the sadness from her smile.

"So Kaguya-hime wrote letters to her adopted parents and the Emperor, apologizing for having to leave, and expressing how much she cared for them. She leaves her parents with the letter and her old robe that she always wore. She takes a drink from the vial and becomes immortal, but then gives the rest of the vial and the letter to the Emperor with one of his guards. Finally, the celestial beings draped Kaguya-hime with the magical robe, causing her to lose all of her memories of her time on Earth and escorted her back to her real home. The blinding light disappeared, and her adopted parents were distraught to see their child had left them for good."

"And the Emperor...?"

"He became really sad, knowing that the woman he loved was gone, and asked for the letter and the vial to be burned on the highest mountain in all of Japan, hoping that she would see the smoke and know of his love and sadness for her."

The story came to its end, but neither girl could speak for a few moments afterward. Mirai second-guessed herself again, think that she shouldn't have brought up the story, but Suika wouldn't allow her to dwell on it for long, now more curious about something else. "So why did you ask me if I knew the story, Mirai?" she asked, "I'm glad you told me it! It was really neat! But why did you bring it up?"

Mirai hummed and tilted her head to one side, "Well... I was thinking about it while we were sitting here looking up at the sky. And I remembered something that I thought about after Tsukasa-nii told me the story the first time."

She turned around so she was more side-by-side with Suika, falling back on the grass with arms stretched out to either side of her. "You can't tell him that I said this, but... one time, I wished that I could be like Kaguya-hime, and that a bunch of celestial beings would come and take me away to the Moon," she shared her secret, not bothering to look at Suika as she finished speaking.

Behind the glass of her helmet, Suika blinked, following suit with laying down beside her friend, hands at her sides and playing with the grass with her fingertips. "Why did you want that?"

"I think... it's because I wanted to leave my family. I love Tsukasa-nii and he tried to protect me from a lot of it, but my parents were always fighting. And I didn't like hearing them fight," the elder child spoke, her voice laced with a small crack, although she tried to hold back any tears that threatened her eyes, "So I thought, if I stared at the full Moon long enough, maybe I could be taken away."

She sniffled for a moment, before turning her head and meeting Suika's worried gaze. "But then I realized how selfish that was. Because then Tsukasa-nii would be all alone, and I didn't want him to be lonely. He didn't let it on much, but I could tell. So that's when I wished for friends for him," she replied, laughing at the last part of her statement, "It took thousands of years, but now he has a lot of friends."

"You do too, Mirai!"

The modern child raised a brow at the statement, lips falling slightly agape as Suika grinned, reaching out a hand to Mirai and holding it within her own, turning on her side towards her friend. "Even though Kaguya-hime was sad to leave Earth, I think she had a lot of people waiting for her on the Moon. So if you could go to the Moon, then you'd have a lot of people waiting for you. I think maybe you were lonely too," she explained, squeezing Mirai's hand all the same, "But now you have a lot of friends that love and care about you. And Tsukasa too."

Tears formed in Mirai's eyes, but she quickly blinked them away, turning herself so she was facing Suika, returning the affectionate squeeze with equal fervor. "Yeah, you're right!"

The full Moon danced around with the last of wispy clouds as the two girls laughed, changing subjects to another fairy tale that was a favorite of Mirai's, with Suika listening intently to the story, their hands staying clasped together.

The night went on and things grew late, but Kohaku and Minami were still awake, among a few others in the Kingdom, both of them wondering where the youngest members went. They knew that they had wandered off after eating dinner, but hadn't returned to the camp. Neither were necessarily worried about them being in some sort of trouble – Suika would make sure of that, Kohaku reassured the fretting news reporter – but with how late it was getting, both of them should be within the confines of camp where they would be safe.

Francois pointed them in direction of the hill where they had seen the two girls wander off to, at least that they had last known, and sure enough, they were still there. Laying down upon the grass, hands still connected, both of them sleeping sweetly and peacefully. The two woman glanced at one another with warm smiles, happy to see the children safe but also with how close they had become. For the two of them, they really didn't have many friends their own age, and since Mirai's revival, they seemed almost attached at the hip at times. It was refreshing to witness, they both privately remarked, and to see how close they were now filled their hearts with such happiness.

With a little bit of help from Minami, Kohaku picked up both girls into her arms, neither of them really stirring from their slumber, and carried them both back to camp. The older ladies would chat a bit softly about the two of them, but stayed overall quiet as to not disturb them any more than necessary. Although, unseen by both of them, looking over Kohaku's shoulders, they each opened one sleepy eye to look at the other, lips curling into matching smiles before they closed their eyes again, the gentle rocking motion of the holds lulling them back to their dreams. Dreams in which they were playing together on the Moon, holding hands, laughing, and smiling as they jumped and bounced around, with matching elegant robes flowing behind them as they played.

- end -