Chapter 13: A Rare Shiny Stone

It's now Saturday and I was getting myself ready to go to the museum to see what it is like there. I really plan on making money, but I don't know if I can get my first paycheck in time because of me getting home to Liverpool. It's sad, but it's for the best. So I'm gonna see if I can do a little work around the museum. The good news is that it will be very peaceful inside and I think I'm gonna start to make friends easier only because they share the same trait with me and they likely do the same things that I do during my free time.

I should be glad for for not trying to go all the way to Suzaran City just to help Ringo at her shop because it would feel like I'm on a road trip and I can't afford to take any more time doing most of my job and not having to take a break for once which will lead me to anxiety. That's what my mother once told me and I just locked it into my memory by any means necessary. So that's why it would always be best to stay in Primp just in case something terrible would happen. Which would not occur at any timeline.

Anyway, I looked into my phone to check the weather. It's cloudy but it's not gonna rain today. It was an average temperature. I say that because it was not hot or cold. Maybe a little warm outside. Which is why I had to put on a black t-shirt, (the one that I had since the first day of Magic School) black jeans and these black and white sneakers. I decided to go with black, just to lay off wearing light-purple today.

I now headed outside and went straight to the museum. As usual, it was very quiet around here in Primp, nothing exciting around here. I wish anyone would host an event, so that they could make the environment more enjoyable as it should be. Hey, I'm just only giving out suggestions. Basically, Amitie would've just hung out with anyone in the world so she wouldn't have much problems. Raffina, on the other hand, would've been a big help for me whenever I needed it the most. And finally...

"Kaze! Over here!"

Those two. Plus Carbuncle and Amitie. Although I said it twice. And when I looked at those three...

"Wow… You three look different." I said to them.

When I first looked at Amitie's, She was wearing a pink t-shirt with a Rainbow in the middle and white Chinese or Japanese letters. I don't know what language it is. She also had on white jean shorts and some white flip flops with both flowers on top of them. She also had white swirls on her arms to top it off. She definitely looks cute.

Now looking at Arle's, She was wearing a normal blue sweater along with grey tights and very shiny blue sneakers with black stars on them. What's better was the bottom of the sneakers were glowing blue. I can tell she looks super nice in this outfit.

And looking at Ringo's outfit was like she was working at a business. She was wearing a red blazer over a white t-shirt with a red apple in the middle. She also had on a short grey mini-skirt that partially reached her waist and these long red boots. I could tell that she doesn't look comfortable walking around in her new outfit, but she could definitely control it.

"Well… Raffina had us trying to look more fresh. So this is what she had us wearing. They smell good though." Amitie said.

"I never really had that much thought when I changed but Raffina told me that in terms of me being smart in Mathematics stuff, this outfit could definitely be the perfect fit. I decided against it, but I didn't have a choice." Ringo said.

"Same with mine. I never really thought Raffina would give me a new, fresh set of clothes. But she said to me that I would definitely look and smell good with this outfit. The other one is what I wore for my whole life." Arle said in which I did not expect to hear.

"Seriously?! Your whole life?! You didn't even get a new, fresh set of clothes or anything?!" I shouted while looking surprised.

"Well there was no clothing store back in my world so that's why I had to stick with my old outfit. I was wanting to change though."

"*sigh* I believe you. You could've at least told Amitie or Ringo. They would obviously."

"I… don't have money for that." Ringo said with a sweatdrop.

"I also don't have money either. I mean if I did, I would've bought some delicious ice cream." Amitie said.

"I find that insignificant. Anyway, What can I do for you all?"

"Well, we were all going to ask you if you are going to the museum now. I bet you didn't forget about your promise this time." Arle said.

"Yeah, I am. For real now. But I'm thinking that I'm going to keep it short for now because I also got other plans. Those that I can tell you about later." I said.

"Oh… Well, just know that this museum was really big when we first got here. Trust me, you'll love it." Arle said.

"I'm not into these types of things but this place really had me stopping from leaving there. I just couldn't get my eyes off of it." Ringo said.

"And although it's quiet, there are more people like you so I guess you're in for a treat." Amitie said.

"Umm… Thanks, Amitie." I said with a sweatdrop.

"Think about it, Kaze. You are really quiet, kind, and so laid-back. I bet this is your everyday personality, isn't it? I bet these guys will definitely find you so calm and quiet. Even if you give them a chance." Ringo said.

"Ok. Thank you, Ringo."

"Oh, right. Doesn't Klug always go to the museum? We can't forget about him. I think going to the museum must've been his… umm… what's the word?" Amitie said while trying to say the word that she doesn't remember

"You mean his go-to destination?" Ringo asked.

"Oh! Yeah, that's right! His go-to destination. Maybe that's why he's always smart in school."

His go-to destination? Really?

"I wonder how he's coming along in that museum." Arle said.

"He's going pretty well. He's always just doing himself. Trust me… he's gonna change a lot when you meet him." Amitie said.

She really put me on the spot!

"Change a lot? What do you mean?" Arle asked.

"Don't worry. I bet If you ask him, he'll give you an answer." Amitie said while looking at me.

Wow. Way to go, Amitie. Now you instantly put me on the spot.

"Umm… Ok." Arle said.

"Don't worry. He's not gonna be a..."

*FLASH*

"GAHHHH!" We all screamed as a huge flash of light just blinded our eyes in an instant as we couldn't see. There was so much pain in our eyes, we couldn't tell how long this would last. But we could just try to control it.

"Where did that light come from?! It's burning my eyes!" Arle shouted.

"I don't know! It's like I'm on fire or something! I don't think I deserve this pain!" Amitie shouted.

"Guys, just keep closing your eyes as hard you can! It will go away soon if you can keep it this way!" I shouted as well.

"I don't know if this was Ecolo doing that or am I just dreaming! But we can still survive!" Ringo shouted.

"Right! We can all live! It's not the end of the world! No matter if this light can flesh our souls!" Arle shouted.

…

…

"Ugh… Okay. My eyes are good now." I said as I recovered from the pain.

…

"Ok… same here. Still healing a little." Arle said.

"Same with ours." Amitie and Ringo said.

"What was that light just now?! It almost scathed my eyes! You can see how harmful that light is. I hope

everyone had that same effect as well." Ringo said.

"Yeah. Hopefully everyone should be alright by now." I said.

"Maybe it was Satan's idea! When I find him, he's gonna be sorry for that flash of light he just created! And I mean it too!" Arle said, very mad at who just sent a flash of light.

"Um… I don't think he does that, Arle. He was known for Dark magic." Ringo said.

Wait, Who is Satan? Is he THE Satan?! Because if it is, this has got to be the first time I've met with him face-to-face!

"Well… part of it. But what I'm most worried about is him wreaking havoc across the world. Ecolo might be at fault too."

And Who's Ecolo?

"But… I don't think both are here right now. Maybe it's just a sudden experience." Amitie said.

"Amitie does have a point. No one is here right now so let's just pretend no one did anything and say it was just odd for now." I said when I looked at some red shiny object at the forest.

"Ok. I agree… But! As I was saying, Arle, He's not gonna be as annoying as he used to be. You'll see." Ringo said.

"Ok. I believe you, Ringo. I was hoping he would change nowadays." Arle said.

"Alright! Let's go, everyone! To the museum!" Amitie shouted as she ran towards the museum.

"W-Wait, Amitie! Don't run too fast!" Arle said as she tried to catch up with Amitie.

"Don't forget about us, Amitie!" Ringo said as she also tried to catch up as fast she could as they all left me be.

I had to let them all go because I was making my way towards to look at this red shiny object that is on the grass. What it looked like to me was a red stone. It's kinda odd, but it's beautiful.

Man, where did this thing come from? I'm so wanting to know what this stone is.

…

…

…

Maybe I should keep it in my pocket. I'll show it to someone who knows something like this.

I then put the stone in my pocket just in case no one will have to take it from me. I bet it would be a very useful item anyway.

…

…

…

I wonder if that flash of light was the cause for this stone to appear. I'll try asking the others for more information once we get inside the museum.

I then left the forest and then tried to catch up with the others in which they must be worried about where I was this whole time.

"Sorry I'm late!" I said as I now caught up with my friends.

"Geez, where were you? We were gonna try and come find you." Arle asked.

"Sorry, I just got carried away without thinking. Amitie sure is energetic, you know?" I said.

"*giggle* Sorry! This is just how I am these days. I'm just super pumped to go somewhere very fun. I just couldn't resist."

"It's fine, Amitie. The museum's just up ahead so there shouldn't be any problems heading over there."

"I agree. Let's go." Arle said as we all headed towards the museum.

As we went inside, my friends weren't kidding when they said that this place was huge. It was filled with huge shelters with books. I presume that this was a library. For a second, I wasn't going to believe them, but with these huge shelters and many tables with seats along with bean bag chairs in case people want to get comfortable while reading, I can't take my eyes off of this huge museum.

Now I really wanna try and stay here for a while.

"So, what do you think?" Amitie, Arle and Ringo asked.

"It's really nice… although we should keep it down." I said.

"Oh yeah… we forgot about that. I didn't know others were actually reading." Amitie said.

"Don't worry… There's no one in this library at this moment." I heard a male voice and what I'm looking at is a blue teddy bear-like creature whose head is detached from his body. He had wings on his back and a monocle. He looks like he went through a lot of history all by himself. I'm not trying to judge. I'm guessing this must be the Akuma my friends were talking about last week. For one second I thought he would be human but he is a teddy bear-like creature.

"Really? Oh. That's odd. I thought there were people reading at this time." Amitie said.

"So anyway, I see you three brought in a new friend here."

"Hi. My Name's Kaze Matsuzaki. You can call me Kaze. Nice to meet you." I said.

"It's nice meeting you as well, Ms. Kaze. You may call me Akuma."

"Gotcha."

"So where's Klug and the others?" Amitie asked.

"They are over there trying to organize books. But try not to bug them so much. They are trying to work." Akuma said.

So Klug has a job. Why didn't nobody mention this until now?!

"Alright. We'll be as quiet as we can be." Amitie said as we walked over to where Klug and most of the other people that I don't know are at.

To be honest, it will feel like I'm at school having a conversation with someone or something. But we're in a library so we should have no excuse trying to make things harder as it goes.

We each kept looking at shelves to see where they were. It would be really hard to find them because since this is a huge museum, we would have no way of finding where to go. Maybe this place should be downsized. But in the latest, it's really cool.

"Hey guys, I found them." Ringo said as she found where Klug and the other people were. And by other people, they were mostly… girls. I don't know how, but I guess this is okay. At least, if Klug made friends with them.

There were four girls trying to help organize books. One of them had cyan or turquoise hair and red eyes along with orange glasses. She also wore a blue graduation cap on her head and the outfit looks like she must be a maid, a librarian, or maybe she just graduated. I don't know how to describe her outfit. She may know a lot about history though.

The next girl had tan hair and had red eyes. She also had on a red and beige hat and had on a similar outfit to the cyan-haired girl. But a little shorter. She looked kinda sleepy but she is still working at the same time. I also can't judge her, otherwise, things might go into a downfall.

The next one had pink pigtails that are tied up with green bows and had on a green and beige hat. She had on a similar outfit but it's way smaller than two of the girls's outfits. I can tell all three of them must've applied for a different job or something. Because of what I'm looking at, I can't really tell what they do. All I could say is that those three are really diligent. Nothing more, nothing less.

And the last girl was a light-blue haired girl with a halo on her head and green eyes. She had on red glasses, a brown school uniform and had wings on her back. They were better than the one's Harpy had. I suppose she's also an angel.

I bet they are all co-workers with Klug on this. This might be a totally unfair amount. Normally, if TaruTaru was on this task, then that would make things more balanced. But for now I guess this is how it should be. I'm thinking that all of them are all brainiacs at this point. TaruTaru on the other hand… eh… Would he apply for this job? I may not be sure, but I'm definitely thinking that they are all diligent. Especially Klug.

"Ok, I think this last one should go here. Probably because it's Fiction." I heard Klug say.

"It is Fiction. Although I would recall seeing many things that are real-life. But that's just how the authors put it." The cyan-haired girl said.

"Ok. I think we're done here."

"You sure know how to work, Klug! I'm amazed!" Amitie said.

"Oh, Ami-WOAH!"

*SLAM*

Klug was looking on his right to see four of us but he slipped from the ladder and fell on the back of his head, causing a lot of books to fall.

"Wow, great job, Amitie." I said with a sweatdrop.

"Klug! Try to at least get down from the ladder before you do anything else! *sigh* Now we have to get these books organized again." The cyan-haired girl then said.

"I-It wasn't my fault! Amitie caught me off-guard. That's it." Klug then said, trying to heal himself from banging his head on the wood too hard.

"Sorry about that. Amitie must've been too hyper to see you all." Arle said.

"There's no need. We were literally done taking care of these books. If you don't mind, can you help get these books into these shelters. I only want them organized so I'll tell you each of them goes in." The cyan-haired girl said.

"Will Do, Io! You know, that kinda rhymes if you ask me." Amitie said with a light giggle.

"Hey, I heard that!"

"Sorry! Sorry! *giggle*

Amitie…

"Alright, that's the last of them." Ringo said.

"Finally, I can take a break for once." Klug said.

"Yeah. It took some time to organize all of them anyway." Amitie said.

We were now done organizing all of the books that fell from the shelters. I honestly thought that it was gonna take a long time to do all of them, but with the help that we have, we were trying to do the whole process faster. Just so that everyone could take a break from this.

"Well, let's admit it. You were partially to blame Amitie." The angel said.

"Ehhh?! Why me?!"

"You were shouting in front of them after they were done organizing the first time." Arle said.

…

"O-Oh… I never thought I had it in me. I must have forgotten about being very quiet."

"You don't have to sweat it, Amitie. I forgive you." The pink-haired girl said.

"Aw, thank you, Primm. I never really thought I'd rely on someone."

"Oh… speaking of "someone", We never really introduced you to this girl." Ringo said, trying to get me to introduce them.

"Hi. I'm Kaze Matsuzaki. You can just call me Kaze."

"It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Io. And I'm a librarian of this museum. Also the eldest of these two sisters."

…

…

…

"I-I see…" I said with a sweatdrop.

Are they really sisters? They don't even look similar. By a long shot.

"We may not look like sisters, but I believe that's just how we were born. The name's Toule by the way." The tan-haired girl said.

"And my name's Primm. It's nice to meet you as well." The pink-haired girl said.

"My name is Ciel. It's also a pleasure to meet you too." The angel said.

"Do you guys come here often?" I asked them.

"Well mostly after school. But I only work an hour and 45 minutes." Klug said.

"Well for us…"

"We work for 8 hours on the weekends, but two or maybe four people show up here. So it's obvious that it will usually be boring when we work here." Primm said, cutting off Io.

"Ouch. That's kinda unsurprising." I said.

"Yeah it kinda does. But that's just normal life. I get used to it. There are other times where we just don't do our normal jobs and switch up our routine." Io said.

"Oh? And that may be?" Ringo asked.

"Reading. Relaxing. All those types of things. Ciel on the other hand…"

"I just continue to work on my daily basis and not just slack off. It is what helps me maintain a higher level of literacy and smartness. If I were to take a break from doing my job, I would sit on the bean bag chair and just read a book. Klug would do the same thing by any means necessary." Ciel said after Toule handed it over to her.

"Yeah, Ciel's right. I do it sometimes. But I'm more like her when doing my shift but sometimes I may make a lot of mistakes when doing so. I'm still getting there." Klug said.

"Well there's always room for improvement, Klug. Even when you're attempting some obstacles that just seem hard for you." Amitie said.

"Yeah. Thanks, Amitie."

"But in the end… Akuma always checks up on us. And he doesn't care much as long as we are doing ok and doing our jobs correctly." Io said.

"Wow… Now that I think about it, Schezo was always a big hand when I'm in trouble. He may sound like an adventurer. But still a pervert." Arle said.

"Well… partially yes. But he's just him. You can't just try to push his buttons all the time. He's looking for someone with such enormous strength and stealing it from them. But it only depends on if he wins in Puyo Puyo." Io said while trying to think about it.

"I see where you're coming from, but he only focuses on me. He thinks I'm the better person to take power from."

…

…

"Well now that I think about it, yes. It does kinda sound understandable. Probably because of that old outfit that you wore back in your world that has gotten you this way."

"Yeah."

"Kaze, on the other hand, used to be very strong while playing Puyo. She even faced Schezo once and surprisingly won."

"Wow, really?! I never really thought you'd beat one strong opponent." Primm said.

"I was honestly surprised, myself." I said.

"There's no reason to be so surprised about that. You should be happy about it, you know. You won against a tough opponent. I used to challenge that dark mage when I first got here… and somehow I lost. By a long shot." Io said, suddenly worried about the fact that Schezo demolished her while playing Puyo.

"Well, there's nothing to be bad about. I mean, win or lose, you could still always test your strength doing this. That way if Schezo ever faces you again, you could still have another opportunity to correct your mistakes. It may be a common thing, but that's what I do on my weekly routines, but I don't do it every week." I said.

"Yeah. You're right."

"So anyway, what brings you all here? We forgot to ask you that." Klug asked.

"Oh. We just wanted to drop by and see you guys, that's all." Amitie said.

"Did you guys see a flash of light that came from outside?" Arle asked.

"Actually, yes we did. It was such a very rare experience because there was never a flash of light before. Ever." Toule said.

"She has a point. There has gotta be some mysterious object that causes this light to appear. Never once did I think that, but I believe that is the truth to this incident. Something that holds huge power I believe." Ciel said.

"Well… now that you think about it, Ciel, I found something earlier that may not relate to such power, but I think may be the cause of the flash." I said while I pulled out and showed everyone the red stone.

"Huh… Fascinating. And you believe this may be the cause of this whole incident?"

"Yes. When I first looked at it, I wondered if it had something to do with the flash of light that was happening recently. I think it may be important though, now that I mention it."

"It looks so shiny though! It's like when you go treasure hunting, you look for gold and rubies." Amitie said.

"It kinda does look shiny. Where did you get this from?" Ringo asked.

"While you guys were gone, It was on the grass in the forest. I never thought it would appear randomly, but that's just how it ended up. At first, Arle said that it was Satan's doing for the flash of light incident, but all of us were against the idea and said that it was just so random. And so here we are. I really hope that this didn't happen in my world as well. Because the next thing I would notice, something really queer is going on around the entire universe." I said.

"Hm… maybe this crystal or stone came from another dimension. I'm curious because this doesn't happen here in Primp, the way I see it. But I want to know why it would end up here." Io said.

"Is there something wrong everyone?" Akuma said, heading towards us.

"Sorry, Akuma. We got some odd news. Apparently, Kaze found this red shiny stone that was the reason this flash of light appeared around the whole entire area here in Primp. She found it in Nahe Forest. We were currently thinking that another world or so must've sent it somewhere. Do you think that you could take a quick look at it?" Io asked.

"Hm… this is quite interesting. I may have quite heard of these things, but I might not have had some intel on them. So I have one question for you all. You were saying that this stone might've been from another dimension, correct?" Akuma asked.

"Yes. We all also said it may be quite important to keep it safe just in case something surprising might happen or just in case it glows. We might not know. Arle earlier told us that it was Satan that caused the red stone to appear as well as creating a flash of light to appear. But we all decided against it and said that it was something random." Ringo said.

"I see. In my case, I believe that it might be from another dimension, but I may not know what the intel might be from it. From the looks of it, it may hold a certain power if my knowledge is correct. Even if this stone had already appeared, it seems to me that everyone else might be conversing about this as well. Raffina used to know about shiny objects such as rubies and emeralds and all those types of stuff, but I will look into researching myself and find any more pieces of information about this thing." Akuma said as he left us all be.

"Ok. Thanks, Akuma." Amitie said.

"Raffina knows a lot of shiny objects, huh? It would've made this whole conversation even more interesting to say the least." I said.

"Do you think we should ask Satan about this?" Ringo asked Arle.

"Beats me. He would never do such a thing just like you said. It would be way worse than him making the sun closer back in my world." Arle said with a shrug.

"Well, the stone is what's got everyone talking about it, right? Maybe it might be that there may be energy inside that was filling up the stone, causing the flash of light to appear out of nowhere." Klug said, which made me think of an idea.

"Wait, Klug! I think you're getting somewhere." I said.

"R-Really?!" He asked with a shocked look.

"I may have watched a lot of shows back in my world where most objects take up energy in order to be completed. Like you know how a light bulb is filled with heat energy inside, and you can light up a building or something? I watch shows that experience the exact same thing. And that's what I'm guessing too. The stone being filled up with energy." I said.

"Well… Kaze I don't think it actually does that in real-life since it's a solid material. And besides, we don't even know what power it holds, although it may be from another dimension."

"But, Ringo, that thing almost injured our eyes. Don't you see what's going on now? There's gotta be something that caused this whole incident to be discussed, not just us, but for the whole world. And besides, We all want to figure out what's going on. Even when there's not enough hope of finding out what that thing is, we still need to protect it, no matter what happens to it or no matter if it's just a plain red stone. And besides, I don't even want my whole country to experience the same result that happened here just moments ago. Otherwise, news will spread across the world, finding out what that flash of light was. And that means I gotta tell everyone that I found the same thing as well. Even though everyone in the news back in my world says that this is all just a myth, I still have to tell them because those stones may be not a joke. And my family are my only support that I have in my life. My mom on the other hand helped me make my dream come this far and I'm not going to let anything stand in her way even if she can manage to handle things herself. So that's why I have to stand by this at any cost."

"She does have a point, Ringo. I even don't want my world or Carby to go through that same experience. From time to time, everything always goes fine until trouble happens. We always need to try looking out for each other and stop what evil lies ahead. No matter if we can't figure out what power is used on anyone. I even Battle Satan all the time and win the most matches. Not often, but I win mostly. All just to stop his evil ways. And it's gonna stay that way for the rest of my life." Arle said.

"Well… You may be right. Even I gotta do the same thing with Ecolo for whatever he's plotting. I dealt with him so much in my life that now I don't wanna deal with so much trouble that lies ahead. Not that it will happen now. But at any time, I'm gonna have to try and stop this." Ringo said, attempting to admit.

"Or, there could be another option. Why not explain the current situation to the other people around? Maybe they will gather info about that incident too. I think they might come up with more ideas of what is really going on around. They should recover from those eye injuries by now." Primm said.

"Primm does have a point. Even when you believe Satan is the mastermind behind all of this, there's always people around who do not stand by this. Just try and ask them." Klug said.

"Well, what do you guys think?" I asked.

"Hm... Schezo can be a huge help when it comes to adventures. Ragnus too." Arle said.

"Risukuma… He may not know a lot about this stuff since he does experiments, but he can also be a big help with where we are at now." Ringo said.

"I bet other people from my world can be a huge help too. No matter how difficult this could be." Amitie said.

"So what about you guys? Are you gonna keep working?" I asked the party who works at the museum.

"Yeah. This is the only job that we have so we can't lose out on this if we go with you guys. But don't worry though. We look through more research on that stone so you guys don't have to worry about it." Klug said.

"Ok. I guess we'll be heading out now." I said.

"Yeah. We're gonna go try and talk to the others." Amitie said.

"Alright. Feel free to come back any time." Io said.

"Yes. Please do." Primm said.

"Yes. We will." I said as we all walked out of the museum.

It sounds like a perfect time to figure out what's going on at this rate.