Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of the Abyss.

Chapter 27

Lunaday, Gnome-Decan 46, ND2019 – 1:15pm local time (Daath)

Jade knocked on the door to the Tatlins' room in the upper southwest corner of the cathedral. No one answered. He knocked again.

"Anise," he called through the woodwork. "It's time to leave. The others are waiting downstairs."

No answer.

He knocked one more time. "I know you're there, Anise. Are you going to come out, or shall I break down the door and drag you along by force?"

He was bluffing, of course. If Anise wanted to stay in Daath, he had no intention of arguing with her. Nevertheless, he needed to convince her to talk to someone about her problems, and she was more likely to talk to him than Tear or Natalia. Guy, meanwhile, was busy teaching Florian some new sword attacks and strike artes. Jade was relieved that Florian hadn't asked to come upstairs with him; having Florian try to talk Anise out of her room could only result in further strife between them.

"No, don't do that!" Anise's muffled voice replied in a panicked tone. "Just a minute!"

Rapid footsteps approached the door. The lock clicked, and the door opened a few centimeters. One brown eye peeked out at him.

Jade waited a moment before asking, "Are you coming, or staying?"

Anise hesitated, then said, "I want to come with you. But I haven't finished fixing Tokunaga."

"May I see?" Jade asked. Any excuse to get into the room would do at this point.

Anise sighed. "Yeah." She opened the door and stepped aside so Jade could enter.

One of the two beds was slightly rumpled, as though someone had slept on top of the blankets instead of under them. Its pillow was askew, with damp marks spaced approximately the same distance apart as a person's eyes. Jade decided not to comment on this evidence that Anise had cried herself to sleep last night.

Tokunaga was laid out on the other bed. Most of the damage to the puppet's thick, rough fabric had been repaired, but the internal structure was still in pieces. Jade examined the damaged wires carefully, keeping his hands in his pockets to avoid touching anything.

Anise sat down on one of the three-legged stools around the square table at the side of the room. She watched Jade inspect Tokunaga, but she didn't say anything.

"Hmmm," said Jade, searching for a conversation opener. "Anise, what material are these wires made from? Some type of alloy?"

Anise nodded. "They're naevimetal mixed with fonimin."

"Ah, I see," Jade murmured. "Yes, that makes sense. Naevimetal naturally grows if left alone, but by creating an alloy with fonimin, its growth can be regulated and even reversed, in accordance with a person's fonon frequency. The softer fonimin also makes the naevimetal more flexible. I'm impressed that an idiot like Dist could come up with something as well-designed as this. What did he use to connect the joints?"

"Libavius metal. It's pretty rare."

"Indeed. Not only is Libavius ore uncommon, it's also difficult to process. Fortunately, it would appear that none of the joints are broken. Is that correct?" Jade asked.

"Yeah," Anise sighed. "The joints are okay, but his spine is cut in three pieces. The only way to fix it is to replace it with a new one, and I don't have any spare parts. I'm trying to think of how to improvise, but I'm out of ideas."

"I see," said Jade. "Well, if our journey takes us to Belkend at any point, perhaps we can ask the fontech engineers there about repairs. I seem to recall that Fon Machine Lab One works with fonimin." He smiled slightly, remembering the incident with the fonimin powder and atomic ether acid.

Anise smiled ruefully. "I remember. We almost got poisoned that one time. But you made an antidote and saved everyone."

"So I did," Jade replied. "Let's find something to store Tokunaga in temporarily, until we can repair him. Some type of box would do, I expect. You can keep him under your bunk aboard the Albiore for now."

"...Okay," Anise said dejectedly. She went over to the wardrobe and opened the bottom drawer. She pulled out a wooden box, dumped the contents into the drawer without glancing at them, and kicked the drawer shut with so much force that it bounced off the back of the wardrobe and came partway open again.

Jade raised his eyebrows. "Is something wrong, Anise?"

Anise shook her head, making her pigtails swing alternately forward and backward. She brought the box over to Tokunaga and tucked the puppet into it, carefully keeping all the pieces aligned with each other.

"I heard that you had an argument with Florian," Jade said gently. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No!" Anise snapped, stomping one foot and turning her back on him. "It's none of your business! Florian shouldn't have told you!"

Still too upset, then, Jade thought. Well, if she doesn't want to talk about it, I won't waste time trying. "In fact, Tear and Natalia were the ones who informed me," he said aloud. "Florian didn't mention it, but it seems to have had quite an effect on him." At Anise's lack of response, he added slyly, "A very interesting effect, I daresay."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Anise demanded, turning around to glare at Jade.

Jade smirked. "Oh, I wouldn't dream of spilling Florian's secrets. Come down to the entrance hall and see for yourself. Is there anything else you need to pack? I noticed earlier that you had no spare clothing or other luggage."

"Yeah, I should probably bring the rest of my stuff," Anise replied. "When the volcano erupted, we had to evacuate in a hurry." She opened the bottom drawer of the wardrobe again and took out a tattered, slightly grubby-looking white bag made of coarsely-woven cloth. It had a frayed drawstring and patched corners. She stuffed an assortment of clothing into it, including her swimsuit and the schoolgirl's outfit that Peony had given her, and closed the drawer much less violently than before.

"After you, young lady," Jade said with a mock-bow, gesturing grandly toward the door.

Anise giggled, slinging the bag over her shoulder by its drawstring and picking up Tokunaga's box. "No, age before beauty," she countered. "But if you want to be a real gentleman, you can carry my bag."

"Oh, I think not," Jade replied airily. "I'm a very frail old man, after all." He strode out of the room, with Anise a few steps behind him.

Jade and Anise arrived in the entrance hall to find Guy and Florian sparring while Tear and Natalia watched with rapt attention.

"Huh?!" Anise exclaimed, almost dropping her bag and Tokunaga's box. "Florian, what are you wearing?!"

Jade, with a certain amount of effort, kept a straight face. It was very amusing, he reflected, to watch children interact with each other. They're both so expressive, he thought. This will be entertaining.

Florian spun around, and his face lit. "Anise!" He sheathed his sword and ran to her. "Look, Anise! I have my own uniform now! And Tear helped me cut my hair so I won't look like Ion anymore!" He twirled around twice. "Do you like it?" he asked eagerly.

"Uh..." said Anise, staring at him with her mouth open.

Florian's smile faded. "Anise?" he said uncertainly.

"Oh, uh... yeah, it looks great!" Anise said enthusiastically. Jade could tell that the enthusiasm was only feigned, but Florian's face lit again.

"It does? Yay! I'm so happy!" Florian cheered, twirling around once more.

Jade felt a brief flash of disapproval. He could tolerate Anise lying to him since he could usually see right through her, but it irked him to watch her lie to someone as vulnerable as Florian. In a sense, Florian was at least partly Jade's responsibility since the boy was a replica. If Jade hadn't invented fomicry, Florian would never have been born, so Jade had an obligation to look after Florian's well-being. And, he admitted to himself, he found Florian's naïveté rather endearing.

"Tear, did you bring Anise's dagger back from the Fon Master's room?" Florian asked.

Tear nodded. "Yes. Here it is." She handed the dagger to Florian.

"Here, Anise. You can have this back," Florian said, holding out the dagger to Anise.

Anise, still looking shell-shocked, took the dagger and fastened it to its usual place at her waist. "Thanks," she managed, in a slightly choked voice.

"All right, I guess we can get going," said Guy. "Next stop, Yulia City!"

The six companions walked out of the cathedral. Jade took his customary position at the back of the group. Anise paused to wait for him.

"You set me up, Colonel," she muttered, glaring at him accusingly. "I'll get you for that."

Jade smirked. "Now, now, Anise. It could be worse," he murmured. "Imagine if Florian had chosen Sync's clothes."

The horrified expression on Anise's face was priceless. "That is so not funny, Colonel," she snarled. She marched ahead of him and didn't look back.

Jade suppressed a sigh of resignation and thought, Sometimes I don't know why I bother trying to guide these rowdy youngsters.