As indicated several episodes ago after looking for pink rocks near an abandoned rail road, while Ruri managed to find the sapphires, she finally revisits them as she struggles to decide on her electives
After school, Aoi wonders if Ruri is heading home yet. Ruri doesn’t know what to do. Surprisingly, Shoko picked electives that reflect what she actually wants to do in the future, meaning she aims to become a mineral researcher, and her list of electives supports that.
Eventually, Imari is alone with Ruri and Shoko again as Nagi is attending a conference overseas. Essentially, Shoko and Ruri grind down the Opals, as they resemble the gems more closely. However, Imari gets upset as she messed up her microscope slide, as she wants to make a rock thin enough to look under the microscope. After all, she said, by splitting the rock and making it thin enough so you can see more of how the rock is formed.
Eventually, Ruri did the same to the sapphire rock by taking a small piece of it. Ruri made a discovery when Imari got excited over her discovery under the microscope, which was related to fluorite, with Shoko’s help. After using the polarizer, she discovers a sapphire with a light blue tint, which she finds embedded in the host rock. Eventually, she identifies it as calcite. However, they haven’t seen the actual source of how it’s formed.
Essentially, they returned to the same site and attempted to gather more sapphires. Ruri was unsuccessful in finding them, and she never knew she wanted to find a rock that is not sapphire. Eventually, she saw the answer lying next to her. Imari used certain chemicals to confirm. Eventually, it created a reaction when hydrochloric acid was combined with calcium carbonate. Since it’s dissolved away, she thinks it’s crystallized limestone. Sadly, they devolved their only specimen, but at least she found another one.
However, Ruri has a hunch since the sizes are different. Despite being in the same area, the sapphire sizes differ. Ruri wants to find a larger host rock to find out why. Eventually, she finds it on a cliff filled with vines.
After taking the vines away, they found a wall of sapphires along with the answer she was looking for. There are multiple sapphires with host rocks. The smaller ones came from calcite, while the larger ones, which have columnar sapphires, are from aluminum. Imari thinks it originated from seafloor mud heated by magma.
Ruri seems surprised by their origin. Ruri is glad to have found the spot, since if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have discovered its origins. She eventually tells Nagi about it and hopes to take her day someday. Additionally, it seems that Ruri has finally figured out what she wants to do. It’s thanks to Nagi teaching her the skills to get her there and helping her discover the world beyond the rocks. It’s nice to see her gaining a newfound appreciation for them rather than just being shiny objects. Yep, Shoko saw a glimpse of Ruri’s elective application and seems happy for her.
(Also known as Ruri Rocks)
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