Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from the words that I write and the characters that I create. Credit goes to the original creator of the Gargantia universe.

A/N: Okay you guys. I've rewritten the first chapter of this story since I found it rather unsatisfying in my eyes. I do slightly spoil a few details, but I have hidden them well enough. Also, it has been a long couple of months, but since I've entered the second arc of Neptunia, I'm putting it on hold so I can develop LotS more, though it will be rather slow since real life keeps me busy nowadays. I only really get a couple of hours a day on weekdays to write, and effort is rather minimal. Therefore, my chapters will be shorter but trust me when I say that I'm still giving my all with what time I have available to write this stuff.

After a couple of days passed, there have been minor reassignments of duty when a small fleet of eight ships joined the Gargantia fleet after hearing prowess of the Machine Calibers against Yukkage's pirate fleet. Yayoi is keeping her usual job as a security guard, Ledo no longer works as security and has joined Bellows' salvage team, Chamber is helping with odd jobs that involve heavy transport, and Sylph and Kotori have been assigned as frontier security for the Gargantia fleet which is a glorified version of a scout as the job involves using Sylph's radar systems to find out if there are ships on an intercept course with the fleet. In addition, despite her claims, Kotori has adapted to operating Machine Calibers remarkably well and while she can't rival Yayoi's skill and the fact she can only do this for so long limiting long-term application, Yayoi has claimed she has become an adequate pilot by Alliance standards. During the patrol, Kotori decided to ask a question that has been in her mind since she last talked with Chamber and she's been wondering if it's commonplace or not.

"Hey Sylph, I've been meaning to ask: Is there a reason why you seem more, well, human than Chamber? It's been bothering me for a while now. If it's not private, I'd like to ask about it, if only to clear some doubt in my mind."

"So you finally ask. I'll be honest, I don't exactly remember everything because of how blocks were created in my memory, but if I tell you this; you have to swear that you won't tell anyone."

"I swear. So what's the story?"

"You see. The Galactic Alliance widely uses AI in their war against the Hideauze that they install in Machine Calibers, but there is a reason why I am considered advanced. It is because I was not created, I was born as a normal human. Just like you, Yayoi, Ledo, Bellows, Amy, and everyone else."

"Woah, I did not see that coming. But what happened to make you a machine Sylph?"

"I lived a relatively normal life as a civilian and I even had a husband and daughter. But shortly after my daughter was born, it was decided by high ranking admirals that she would serve in the military and I couldn't stop them. I couldn't stand seeing her ripped away from me so I pleaded for a way, any way, for me to stay with my child. I was hardly compatible with their military but they had one option for me: I would have to have my mind uploaded to an empty AI blackbox and serve as an which had several risks. Not only was the success rate at a risky level, I would die no matter what happened, success or failure. But I didn't care. I didn't want to lose my daughter. Our god must have seen my determination to stay with her and allowed the procedure to succeed. The result ended up in my becoming an Artificial Intelligence. I was first housed in a combat model Machine Caliber named L4278 Belenus and I took that name. But I was later transferred to a prototype model better suited for my advanced status called A4794 Sylpheon, and I had my name changed for the second time."

"Goodness, I never expected this of all things." Kotori mutters in shock, but that only served to terrify her as she is picturing the Alliance proudly sacrificing many of their people to create these 'advanced' AIs "How commonplace was this exactly?"

"Thankfully not very, as far as I know. But since I'm talking about this story, I might as well reveal the name I held when I was a human. Before I was labeled as Belenus and Sylpheon, my name was Emi Nishihara."

"That's a pretty name and-wait Nishihara? Are you-?" Kotori lightly chuckled in mild joy at the mention of Sylph's human name before recognizing the surname mentioned by the AI.

"Yes. I am Yayoi Nishihara's mother. I was told to never tell her that I am her mother or we would both be separated and I wanted to protect my daughter, so I kept quiet. I didn't want my daughter watched over by some emotionless AI who didn't truly care for her the way a real parent would. While I was never able to tell her of this, I was still allowed to act as a parent to her and that was enough for me. I supported her as best I possibly could and hide weaknesses she possesses. I did try asking her on several occasions to leave the frontlines to go to the Alliance's headquarters: Avalon and try working in the background, where she'd be safe and my fears would be allayed. But she is very determined, just like her dear mother."

"Yikes. But, what about your husband? I trust he didn't support this?"

"He was a kind soul and didn't want me dying when he was losing his daughter to the military. To be candid, he tried doing this exact thing before me and kept it from me since he wanted me to live according to what the scientists said, but the experiment failed and it was for naught. It actually took me a while to acclimatize to all this but I was able to adjust and prevent awkward situations from occurring by the time she developed awareness of her surroundings. You know, I've never told this story to anyone because of military confidentiality, but since I'm far away from the Alliance, they can't stop me, though it's strange talking of it. Sometimes I even forget that I used to be human. It's just that strange since my voice is synthesized and my emotions are just as synthetic. And what synthetic means is that those things are practically fake since I'm a machine now. It doesn't matter if I was born human or not, I can't express true emotion as I am, but my memory gives me a mild ability over it. Erm, I'm probably really botching this explanation, but I've never talked about this before so it's tough to explain."

"That sounds so terrifying, going through all that. But are you sure you don't want me telling Yayoi this?"

"Absolutely. Look, it's just um...for so long now, Yayoi has only seen me as a surrogate parent, not her actual mother. I need to wait for the right moment. Dropping the usual act I play is strange enough for me since I'm talking about things I've never talked about before."

"I get it. I think. Anyway, the northeast is all clear, let's head west." Kotori says rather calmly before pulling out a walkie-talkie "This is Kotori, Sylph and I have patrolled the northeast perimeter. No sign of ships within range. We're advancing west."

"Excellent. Keep up the good work Chief Scout Hamasaki."

"Yes sir." Kotori proudly responds before turning off the walkie talkie and deeply sighs "Chief Scout. I don't know if I'll ever get used to people calling me that."

"While you were placed into this situation through rather unorthodox circumstances, you've earned this Kotori. You possess many fine qualities: your ability to quickly adapt to new situations is high on that list. I can confidently say that you'd make a fine soldier if you were among the Alliance."

"Erm, thank you I guess. Do I still call you Sylph or should I use Emi?"

"I'd prefer Sylph. I want to keep this on the down low for the time being."

"Alright then Sylph. Let's continue on to survey the surroundings."

When the time came for the reassignment of a fraction of Gargantia's crew as they took in new crew, Yayoi was lucky enough to retain the same job and she has one single assignment for this day: She was told to assist Richard with medical deliveries to several different sections as an outbreak of disease has spread among the populace when the new fleet integrated with Gargantia since this new fleet kept their own presence and lived independently, though they wished to join for safety reasons, though the integration brought in diseases that were uncommon at best among the fleet which brought about the outbreak.

"Well this reminds me of the escapade that happened before. Except you're not trying to kill me this time." Richard's tone is rather crude and a little irritable when he talks about what happened between the duo before when Yayoi was on her extended patrol.

"You're rather irritating Skylar-san. You don't let things drop."

"Yeah well, it's hard to not be 'irritating' toward an individual trying to inflict harm."

Hearing this simply makes Yayoi groan since Richard clearly is still peeved about the situation

"I'm a guard; my job is to protect the people of Gargantia. You brought this upon yourself when you ran away from me, making me think you were an infiltrator."

"I understand that, but I'm still pissed about you trying to kill me."

"You're making me repeat myself: you do not let things drop. You're becoming as irksome as my last commander and he diverted me to a death assignment. It would've been the end of me if my men hadn't sacrificed themselves."

"That's...unfortunate. How well did you know your men?"

"Not very well. Half of them were younger than me though there were some veterans in my squad. They were the only ones I knew well."

"Enough talk. We need to get these vaccinations distributed to the fleet. Speaking of which." Richard says with a mild scowl as he pulls out a needle and injects it into Yayoi's arm.

"What was that for?"

"Considering you were living in space; your immune system likely is incapable of resisting diseases here. Dr. Oldham wanted me to ensure you're vaccinated considering events you've gone through."

After this, Yayoi lightly rubs her arm since the sudden vaccination stung rather badly. If anything, she wishes that Richard had given her some semblance of warning before he suddenly injected her with the vaccination. When they reach the area of the fleet that is suffering the most with the new viruses, Richard sets the box of medicine in a remote area that no one would walk into.

"I can handle the rest on my own. So go do something elsewhere."

"Fine." Yayoi simply huffs and leaves Richard to his work, not wanting to deal with his attitude any longer than she must "If this is what Kiyoko was talking about before, this is something I want to utterly extinguish. He's been insufferable since I met him and yet somehow I-" Yayoi rapidly felt her cheeks rise in temperature a great deal and she shakes her head since she's thinking about an embarrassing subject again "Ugh. I can't stand feeling like this. I can't ask her since she's asleep so I'm on my own...wait. Maybe I can try asking Amy if I can find her."

Yayoi walks among the fleet to find people she considers close to her and try getting advice from those individuals, but instead of finding Amy, she comes across one of Amy's friends: Melty walking on a bridge above her loudly hymning with a proud smile on her face before noticing Yayoi and jumps down to where she is.

"Hiya Yayoi. What are you doing this far from your usual patrol routes?"

"I was helping Skylar with his medical job. But he told me to leave."

"Ooh. You were helping Doctor Richard? Did he say anything about me?" Melty rapidly asks with a bigger grin than usual at the mention of Richard.

"Er...no, he didn't. Why would you care?"

"You ask 'Why I would care' Yayoi? He's easily one of the nicest, coolest people in the fleet."

"I disagree. Ever since I met him, he's been insufferable. I fail to see what you see in him."

"Well, everyone has their own tastes in terms of love. Mind if I ask if you have anyone in mind?"

After this was bluntly asked by Melty, Yayoi had to look away as her cheeks are glowing red since the subject is embarrassing for her.

"Damn it. When am I going to get over this feeling? It's beginning to interfere with my duties. Why did you have to even bring this up Sylpheon?" Yayoi snarls in her mind as she is truly getting sick of these new emotions getting in the way of her dedication to her job.* "Why do you want to know?" Yayoi demands rather defensively, with her unease making her forget that she was seeking answers on this very subject.

"I'm just asking is all Yayoi. Oh wait, I know. You like Kiyoko's older brother. You always do buy food from him after all." Melty chirps happily, wondering how close or not this guess is even though she has a good idea based on what she knows.

"I-I do not! I do not like anyone!" Yayoi shouts angrily as she is getting irritated by the situation, since it's been tormenting her for days.

"You don't like anyone? Like Amy or Bellows?"

"Er...I didn't mean it like that. Look um...could you please not bring this up?" Yayoi frowns rather sincerely when saying this, with her sitting down on a nearby crate afterwards "I've been having a hard time dealing with this."

"Why are you having trouble Yayoi? You're part of our fleet and family."

"It's not that simple Melty. Consider my background back when I was a soldier for the Alliance. Until I got here, I was never able to express much in the way of emotion. I...I can't handle this well. These emotions are clashing with my life-long training in the military and I don't know what to do."

"Oh. I see. Sorry Yayoi. I didn't mean to make you feel strange."

"It's...fine. Look, erm. I need advice about this. I'm losing the capability to remain rational when my job requires it."

"Well. I'm not sure what to tell you in this situation Yayoi. People do say that time heals all wounds. Maybe you just need to wait?"

"That seems to be the go-to solution about this. I sincerely hope this actually works. I'm getting sick of it." Yayoi simply groans as she gets up from where she was sitting and leaves, hoping that a casual walk will do what she has been trying to do for days, though she is rather doubtful.

After walking away from Melty, Yayoi walks around the fleet taking in sights and eventually finds herself on top of one of the large towers in the fleet, though it took her nearly an hour just getting to the top from the base, but the reward is more than worth it.

"Wow. This view is so...opulent. I can feel all of my unease melting for the first time since Sylph brought up the whole...marriage subject. Okay, from now on, I will need to find my way here if I'm suffering from stress." Yayoi calmly smiles and glances at the surrounding skies tinted gold from the evening time of day, with the high altitude presenting a different perspective from the usual ground level "I truly wish I had brought my art stuff, I want to draw this, but I suppose it's for the best considering my mental state."

Because of how Yayoi was so engrossed in the surroundings, she hardly took notice of how much time has passed as the golden sky has turned a shiny black color with the shine coming from the stars in the sky and the shiny silver color of the moon high above the sky with no clouds blocking it which truly give it a crystal clear perplexion.

"Woah. It's this late? I need to hurry home and sleep." Yayoi mutters as she stares at the shiny black sky and knows that she has little desire to spend another hour descending the tower.

Thankfully, she notices a nearby backpack that holds the Gargantia messenger gliders and decides to use that to make her way home after waiting for a strong enough wind to pick up and allow her to soar in the direction of where her home is. The one fear she has is that she has never flown with this device before, but she knows she has kept herself in excellent shape and hopes she'll be just fine. With the glider fully stretched out, Yayoi takes a running start and jumps into the air to glide to her house. When she finally makes it back home, she sees Sylph touch down on the ground next to her house and Kotori climbs out, landing in front of the Machine Caliber.

"That was a really long day of work Sylph. I'm going to head home; that day off the commander gave me is rather well-earned. I normally don't work this much, but something about all this makes me want to." Kotori smiles with a small wink toward Sylph regarding the subject mentioned earlier that day and walks away so she can sleep for the night.

"Yayoi, there's actually something I want to say." Sylph quickly says, wanting to spill the beans right now.

"What is it Sylph?"

"I...I was wondering if you were having any trouble with your earpiece. I have noticed momentary discrepancies ever since I was hit by the pirate EMP cannon and I was fearful that your translation tech was short-circuiting." It's obvious that Sylph was going to try to reveal the story to Yayoi but weaseled out at the last minute and improvised something at the absolute last second.

"No. I haven't noticed any irregularities in the translation software. Perhaps you should power down and run diagnostics in your systems." Yayoi replies rather simply since she's rather exhausted and not wanting to talk much at the moment, best signified by her quick entrance into her house, leaving Sylph outside.

"Yeah...I probably should. Good night Yayoi." Sylph says with her holding back the disappointment in her voice at Yayoi bluntly leaving "Urk...I chickened out when I had the perfect opportunity to tell her the truth. The longer this takes, the more difficult it'll be." Sylph continues in her mind, knowing that her desire to explain the situation will be tougher the longer it takes her, especially considering that Sylph had already been hiding the fact for seventeen years now, so it'll be quite a challenge for her.

A/N: You have to admit that this can be fairly realistic. For nearly seventeen years, Yayoi lived with the mindset where showing emotion beyond a point is weakness. But ever since she got to Gargantia, she has slowly opened up to emotions but it is confusing her a great deal. Particularly when it comes to love, especially since Emi really put her on the spot and she is unable to deal with it. Oh, and let's not forget Emi's role in the situation. While it looked like she adapted to the more relaxed lifestyle on the Gargantia, that was actually an act she was using to try getting Yayoi used to the new life. Emi herself is still struggling though she hides it far better than Yayoi can because of how she's an AI. Also, in the next chapter or two, I will be slightly pushing some of the OCs in the background and bring some characters from the anime into the fold more.