Lustrous Harmony

by Conglomerate

Chapter 1

Last thing I remember before dying?

I made a wish of some sort.

I think I was angry at the world, for being what it was. I wanted to go somewhere else, to be something else, and in the end, I think that’s what I wished for.

Did I deserve to be buried alive for that?

Maybe. I knew that questioning the status quo in some places could definitely land you in some hot water, but who in their right mind would go out of their way to bury someone like me alive just because of some inner thoughts? Unless this wasn’t some over the top punishment of course, and I had been buried as a part of my funeral, I did die.

Right?

I definitely wasn’t dead now, don’t they usually check for that sort of thing before burying someone? And aren’t you supposed to be buried in a coffin? I’m pretty sure my family still cared enough to at least give me that, and I’m pretty certain I wasn’t cremated either.

Still, the fact remained that I was buried, I don’t know where, I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but I was. Logically speaking, the first step would be to make it so that I wasn’t buried anymore. I had seen a few of those ‘what to do if you’re buried alive’ videos, and the most important thing to do was to remain calm, and to try and conserve oxygen. Yeah right, I wasn’t even in a coffin, I was completely encased on all sides, there was no air to breathe.

It occurred to me that I had been in this state for quite a while now, going on five to ten minutes, and I was still fully conscious. That certainly wasn’t strange at all, but despite that, I was glad. That leaned more towards the idea that I actually was dead. I wasn’t breathing, yet I was sapient and completely aware of it. When comparing that to before, where I was drifting in and out of comas for months all the while slowly wasting away in a hospital bed, I was barely able to stay awake for more than five minutes towards the end, so this was a welcome change. Something must’ve happened, and all the data is leading towards the conclusion that I had died, and am now experiencing some post-mortem existence.

Did my wish come true?

I wasn’t in a hospital bed, so I was somewhere else, and I was awake without having to breathe, so I very well may be something else as well. My current predicament left a lot to be desired, but it was a definite improvement over my last. At least for now, I didn’t know how long I could last being stuck in place while fully conscious, despite having had some practice.

The term ‘be careful what you wish for’ came to mind, and I realized that every change might not be an improvement, the most obvious one being all around me. That led me back to trying to get out of being buried. The ‘alive’ part being put on hold for now.

How did I know I was buried and not in some other restrictive substance or stasis? Simple, every time I tried to move I met resistance, and when I pushed hard enough for it to give, a small cascade of rubble would fall where my limbs just were. Based on the direction it fell in, I was in a really awkward position, my arms and legs were splayed out, and I was tilted downwards along my back.

A familiar shape, but an unfamiliar body. I really was something else, but how much ‘else’ exactly?

Typically when unearthing oneself, upwards was the general direction to head in, but in my current position, I couldn’t really achieve that. I wasn’t strong enough to claw my way up, which meant I could really only push in the direction opposite to my feet. I would have to head down and level out first before I could go back up.

Seeing as I had nothing else to do, I began working on getting myself out of the ground, and it was rough. I had managed to get some leeway with a bit of wriggling before, but once I was out of my starting area the ground only got progressively harder. Wasn’t it just supposed to be a bunch of loose soil when you were buried? I suppose I was going in the wrong direction, but even before that it was way too tough.

There was no guarantee that I had actually been buried though, there could be any number of reasons why I was in the ground. I didn’t exactly have much to work with, so I’ll have to figure it out once I actually get out.

It was slow going, but I eventually levelled out to the point where I was more or less lying flat on my back. It was tiring work, though my body didn’t exactly feel fatigued, no sore muscles from overwork, and no scraped fingers despite pushing through what felt like solid stone. Or my head for that matter, as there wasn’t much I could do to shield myself when moving.

I guess I’m pretty tough now.

Taking a moment to recuperate, I angled myself up as much as I could and pushed again, gaining a couple inches of height. It was working, and every push allowed me to increase the angle again, not by much, but it was quickly adding up.

Before I could even get halfway to vertical, I broke through.

On the side.

The one hand I was using to guide myself touched open air, and I felt around a bit to make sure it wasn’t just a small pocket I had hit. As far as I could tell, it was a relatively flat, rocky surface, and I had just punched my hand through it.

With newfound vigor, I kept going, forcing the rest of my arm through until it eventually reached the top of my head. The increased range of motion confirmed that it wasn’t a medium pocket either, and even if it wasn’t outside I could at least maneuver my entire body around in that space.

One last push, and my head popped out of the hole.

“Freedom!” I gasped out,

Light filled my eyes for the first time since I got in this predicament, and I got a view of my new surroundings. Rock on all sides followed by sky to the left, right, above and in front of me. I wasn’t even close to being upright, and since I was emerging from the side of a rock, I was quite literally coming out of a cliff face. I couldn’t turn my head enough to see how high up I was, but I could see a distant horizon in my peripherals. To one side was a bunch of smoky mountains, and to the other was what looked like the tops of trees.

Shimmying out a little more, I pulled my other arm free and pushed against the cliff until I was out to my waist. With this new range of motion I twisted around and looked down.

For starting underground, I did not expect to be so high up at the same time. An intense wave of vertigo hit me as I stared down the sheer drop, easily three or four stories tall. The ground below was relatively flat, with the cliff simply being perpendicular to it. It looked sandy… -ish, and there were a few larger rocks and boulders dotted around the area, most likely having fallen from the same cliff I was now sticking out of precariously.

I quickly tried to slip back into my little hole, but before I could the rock supporting me cracked. There weren’t exactly any handholds for me to grab onto, but that didn’t stop me from frantically looking for one. That was when I finally caught a glimpse of my own body, a bunch of bluish green, and at the same time the rock gave way beneath me.

“Ah!” And then I was falling.

Would my newfound toughness be enough to survive a fall? It wasn’t like I was just going to rely solely on it though, and I began flailing around to try and land in a better position, or to at least not land on my head.

Crack

I landed on my side, a poof of dust kicking up around me.

No pain. None whatsoever, but I couldn’t feel my right arm anymore. I didn’t immediately get up, I was still confused about the lack of feeling, and as the dust settled around me, nothing else was immediately obvious as objectively wrong.

Another moment of waiting and another moment of nothing, I slowly got to my feet, wobbling slightly as I found my balance.

My first observation? I could stand! And with a shaky step forward, I could walk!

“Ya-hoo!” I shouted out loud.

This was already so much better than before. Walking immediately beat out being pushed around in a wheelchair, and that went doubly so for being bedridden entirely. Whatever else may come from my wish, it was already worth it in my book.

Giddy, I held up an arm to get a closer look, and I didn’t stop smiling even as things got really weird. Just like I had seen before, my skin was a shiny bluish green, or teal color. It sparkled brilliantly in the sunlight, but upon closer inspection, it was slightly transparent. I could see through my own arm, I held it up to my face to check.

“Pretty…”

The same features continued along the rest of my body, going from my shoulder to my chest, down to my abdomen, hips, legs and feet, and I could only assume my head and face were the same. I was the same solid color and material all the way through.

I was also completely naked.

Though there wasn’t actually anything to cover up, my chest was bare and flat, and my groin was completely smooth. I was - at least physically - genderless.

“Oh…” That means I’ve lost something,

I traced my body with my fingers for a bit, eliciting a slight scraping sound wherever I touched. I was incredibly smooth, but not soft in any way, there was nothing I could poke or prod to get a feel for, I was just… solid.

Bringing my hand up, I tapped my index finger and thumb together.

Click Click Click Click

I snapped a few times.

Klink Klink Klink Klink

“Am I… glass?” I asked nobody in particular,

Trying to clap my hands, nothing happened, my right arm didn’t move, I still couldn’t feel it. Looking over, it was gone. Just gone. With only a jagged stump remaining just below my shoulder.

The brief spike in panic I felt was quickly overwhelmed with an increasing sense of familiarity. I had seen this before, but where? How? Why was it so familiar?

I looked over to the spot where I landed, and my arm was right there where it first broke off.

To Be Continued…

Author's Note:

"Houseki no Kuni" by Haruko Ichikawa, aka "Land of the Lustrous" in English, is a hidden gem of a story. There is an anime, done almost entirely in 3D, and looking quite good at that, but it only has twelve episodes. The manga has twelve volumes, and is fully complete: the last chapter was released in April earlier this year.

I highly recommend both watching and reading the series. I won't give much details on the plot, as part of the experience is not knowing anything about the world. It is an interesting mystery that takes place in an interesting setting with interesting 'people'.

If my depictions of this glass character have caught your interest, then you can find much more in the anime and manga, without waiting for me to publish more chapters. You can find the anime on Amazon Prime, as for the manga... there are... less than ethical methods of reading it, same as the anime, but you didn't hear that from me.

---

Moving on to this story.

As said before in a blog post, this is one of the three displaced stories I plan to write. My HiE trifecta, if you will.

This is the bone, and I have plans to make it
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong.
Because of this plan, it will be separated into three different arcs, with each arc gretting a few parts of their own.

This is Chapter 1, Part 1, Arc 1, but I'm not going to name the chapters like that. I will most likely create a chapter guide in the description, but that is for when the time comes.

In reference to my work schedule, I will continued publishing new chapters weekly, and in order to make sure that parts are completed in one fell swoop, I will be writing them beforehand, and publishing them while I work on the next. As such, Part 1 is almost completed, but there will be breaks between each section. This is to avoid both burnout, and what happened with my other story, Mystic Machinery.

Mystic Machinery will be continued, don't worry. In the meantime, tell me what you think of this story. Since the Houseki no Kuni(Land of the Lustrous) fandom is relatively small, I am excited to see how many others will take interest in this. I've only found one other crossover on this site, so if you enjoy the series, let me know.

And please, avoid telling spoilers in the comments. I will do my best to give warnings for spoilers in the story if/when they come up, but nothing major is expected to come in this first arc.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

♦The Bone♦

Why is this in the synopsis?

[Conglomerate]

11906756
I elaborated further about this in a blog post, but to put it simply: It is the name of the first part in a three part series I plan to do. The Flesh, The Bone, and The Spirit.

It makes more sense if you have seen the Land of the Lustrous, but it is not required.

[Papapapa]

I honestly love the idea and the execution of the first chapter, I really hope to see more of this story soon I love it

[Khampostel]

ponis and gems manga ...

[Fictional Fanatic]

It has been a while since any Displaced fics caught my eye. I am a big fan of Houseki no Kuni, and I read it before the anime aired. That is to say, the chapters that were published back then. The anime did not disappoint either. I am curious to see where you end up going with this. I almost expected our new protag to emerge from the Tree of Harmony.

[Conglomerate]

11907414
Not all sentient gems know each other...