"Cros… You are going to have to do much better than that if you are going to be able to stand up for yourself on quests. Are you even being serious about this training?"

After being knocked down onto the floor for about the fifth time, I began to pick up tones of agitation, annoyance, and what worried me the most, pleasure. The ceremony where the 3 of us greeted the people for the first time since my birth seemed like a far off memory now, as the four days that have passed since then have only dragged on. At least they would be if I was conscious for the whole time.

According to Vert, after my little experience with using my HDD for the first time I passed out as soon as I returned to my human form. For the first 2 days I was stuck in bed and tended to by everyone in Basilicom. True, my sis probably was just overreacting, but I guess when she wasn't sure if she was going to lose her sister right after getting her she was not taking any chances. The day after that was Vert reversing roles with me and becoming the clingy sister that is usually reserved for the younger. I was a bit unsteady after the whole sleeping 2 days straight thing, so I didn't mind using her as a crutch in a sense. What pissed me off the most was that even when I was perfectly fine she was right up my ass!

About midday the dizziness I was feeling was gone, so I tried to take a stroll to clear my head. I left the Bascilicom and started to wander the streets, paying close attention to everything so I did not get lost getting back. All the citizens were ecstatic to see me up and about after hearing about my collapse, and seeing all their smiling faces made me excited to finally get to work to help them. I asked one of the guards out on patrol to give me a tour of the city so I could get more familiar with everything, which was about to happen when a certain someone came barreling down the street in full HDD, spear out and everything panicking that I wasn't in my room when she was done with a quick daily. With a slight but polite bow I apologized to the men, who only laughed it off with a wave of their hands. Scooping me up like a princess, which this kind of affection was still too much for me to bare without a flash of red appearing on my face, Vert flew me back to her room, where for the remainder of the night she showed me the ins-and-outs of her favorite MMORPG, 4 Goddesses Online, and even guided me with creating a character to play alongside her with. Kinda wish she would've let me choose the name though. Calling myself "† Green-Sister †" seemed a bit tacky, but after seeing a storm cloud start to form around her head I decided to throw that thought out the window.

The next day was the first official day of my training as CPU Candidate. As Vert pulled an all-nighter on 4GO last night, she was nowhere to be seen, allegedly still logged in as I was actually working. With the CPU indisposed of, Chika took ample pleasure at introducing me to the paperwork that we were required to do. Building plans, hardware orders, component inventory checklists, civil disputes, basically anything you could think of, there was a damn form for it. My favorite Oracle would lay stack after stack of these papers, apparently that have been building up since I was born, and set me off signing each and every one of them, as she went off to pamper "her darling sister". Normally that wouldn't annoy me, but the icy sting she put into the words as she skipped off felt like a challenge instead of just a statement.

It wasn't until well after lunch that the flood of paper finally finished, only to be replaced with a meeting between CPUs and their Oracles. Vert had me sit in as well to see what they would be like, and she led me to a large open room in the basement of the Basilicom. While no light fixtures could be found, not even a blind man could have said this was a dark room. A large floating crystal shaped like the mark on my hand was positioned in the center of the room high above us, and from here rainbows of soft, warm light blanketed the room in illumination. Just from my spot by one of the pillars I could see that the architecture was carefully planned for noise reduction and ease of access, as below the crystal was a large system that I could only assume was some sort of phone or computer. With a snap of their fingers, Vert and Chika pulled up a video feed that erupted from the top of the machine. From where I stood, I could see the video split into 3 sections, and the pairs standing in each were not what I expected. I couldn't hear much of what they were saying, but when Vert addressed them I was able to catch their names at least.

The first one to speak was a little kid who called herself "Neptune." Short, messy purple hair lightly spiked up with had two pieces fall to shoulder length on either side of her face and two hairclips shaped like the directional pads of our game console's controllers, she had enthusiasm to put any street performer to shame. Next to her was a tiny blond fairy who was floating on a book. Sporting a pair of twintails and wearing something that looked almost akin to a maid's headdress, this "Histoire" seemed to be the smarter of the pair, with a temper to match her size. Located next to them on the feed was the one Vert called "Noire." Stifling a laugh, I noted how this one oozed tsundere, as she wore her raven black hair in tight twintails and red eyes that could captivate any man. Luckily I was immune to the charms, but what surprised me was the girl standing next to her. Looking almost exactly how I did, the Oracle they named "Kei" had silver hair cut slightly shorter than mine. The look on her face showed that she was only meaning business, and the top of a suit could be seen in the feed. Are we sure I'm Vert's sister and not hers? It would make a lot more sense if that were the case… The final one was an even smaller girl than Neptune, with a bob-cut head of brunette hair and white hat. "Blanc" seemed like the most level headed of the group, speaking in a hushed tone that I could barely even pick up. Her Oracle, "Mina", was obviously some sort of teacher or mage, as her outfit was a red hat and dress that was reserved for those professions. Her sky blue hair seemed to feel off when you looked at her dress.

After the meeting, Vert filled me in on who was who, and where they were from. She informed me that after I complete my training, I will be officially introduced to them, along with the other 4 CPU Candidates at a summit in Planeptune. All I had to do was not mess up and pass my combat exercises without getting myself killed, what possible could go wrong there?

And that brings us back to now. While explaining everything in my head to the audience, I slowly pulled myself back up into a standing position, using my wooden training spear as a cane to steady myself. Chika stabbed her own spear into the ground and glared over me with arms crossed. We have gone through the same process for 3 hours now. I ready myself for an attack, I set off sprinting towards the stalwart Oracle training me, I set my spear to strike her center mass as instructed, and then I see the world spin as she takes me down with her own weapon. The past couple clashes lasted longer as I could parry a couple of her own blows and attempt more attacks before the same inevitable outcome occurred.

"Please tell me if you've had enough, I'm more than willing to just call this off and let you be stuck here doing all the paperwork while I go into the field in your place. Then my darling Vert will fall in love with and fawn over me as I send our shares to new heights!"

"Fat chance. Like I would lose to some obsessed freak like you"

Glaring at my instructor I ready one final charge. The same process happens, but the only thing that changed was end result. During our exchange of blows, I noticed that my swings were growing stronger as I got used to the weight of the piece of wood in my hand. Spinning the spear around I was able to withstand Chika's counter assault for a good 5 seconds before I heard a sharp crack. Instead of being just swept off my feet like every other time, this time a wooden spear was driven into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me and sending me sprawling around on the floor as I bounced and rolled from the impact.

"Oh, my bad. Maybe I should've held back a smidge. You really should just give up now and avoid even more embarrassment. I mean, what would Vert think if she saw you laying on the ground like that?"

Those words spoken in a flat tone from her expressionless face sent me over the edge. I didn't care what happened to me anymore, I just wanted to shut her up and put her in her place for insulting me and my pride for so long. Digging my nails into the ground, I try to pull myself up, but the lack of oxygen getting into my body was making it hard to move. All I could do was glare up at her as she waved her spear towards the rack at the entrance of our little training grounds. "Training grounds" was being used loosely as it was just a large clearing in the middle of the Basilicom garden. Next to the rack of spears was a table of other various training weapons, but only one caught my eye. Among the swords, axes, maces and tonfa there was an elaborate collection of gear that was all connected. As I stumbled over to the table clutching my stomach at the site of my injury, I examined the strange looking thing. It was 3 different pieces all connected in a way not even I could see, but could just feel it wouldn't work without all of um together.

-PAUSE-

Unexpected two parter! Couldn't fit everything into one chapter so please forgive this abrupt ending and continue onto Chapter 5.