Chapter 11: Hanging Out Pt. 2

"Come on! Please?" Lite exclaimed, pulling my leg looking at me with pleading eyes.

"No way!" I said to her, trying to get away from her. Ever since we mentioned HDD to her, she wanted me to show it to her. However, I don't like using it just to show someone. "Just go ask your sister!" I told her.

We were all holed up in Shift's office, of course. Filyn and Venus were killing time playing video games on the couch. Shift was working, picking up phone calls and such.

"Okay!" Lite exclaimed as she let go of me and walked to where her sister was working. "Big Sis! Show me this HDD thing!" She said, sounding like she's commanding her to do it.

Shift then looked up from her work with a frown. "No. It's not something you can handle seeing me in." She told Lite, who immediately looked back at her with frustration.

"Aw~! But I wanna see~!" Lite exclaimed, stomping her foot in the ground. "Come on! Please? Let me see!" She pleaded as she looked between the two of us with puppy dog eyes.

"I… Uhhhh…" My voice then slowly trailed off before shaking my head 'No Sapphire… Don't let the puppy dog eyes fool you…' I thought, trying to get a bunch of random thoughts out of my head. "Ummm… Ahhh… You see… Ummm…"

"Lite…" Shift spoke up again, catching the young girl's attention again. "Don't trick Sappy with that, please?"

"Aw~! No fair~!"

"Sapphire… I almost feel bad for her…" Filyn said with a smirk as she looked over at me from the couch. "Well… almost…" Then some sort of pillow was immediately thrown at her face. "What the—!? Hey!" She exclaimed, seeing a very enraged Lite with another pillow ready in hand. "Woah! Woah! Woah! Hang on! I didn't mean it—!" She then immediately stood up and ran away with Lite chasing after her.

"Go get her, Lite!" Venus exclaimed as she started giggling at this. She seemed to stop playing to watch Lite chasing Filyn.

I sighed to myself. 'Filyn… you shouldn't have said that…' I thought before shrugging it off. 'But at least Lite's attention is off of me…' I sighed before walking to Shift's desk, wanting to ask her something. "By the way, where did you put my clothes? Including that purple ribbon I was wearing."

"Oh. We had them washed yesterday and should be dry by now. As for the purple ribbon…" Shift then pulled the said ribbon out from her desk. "Here." She then handed it to me before demurely took it. "It's surprising how long that ribbon has been through."

"Ehe… Well… it's just a regular old ribbon, y'know?" I said as I took it from her and tied my hair in a ponytail. 'But… it's sort of like a keepsake of some sorts…' I sighed before shaking that thought off. "So, what happened to Mina? I heard from Venus that she still doesn't have her glasses yet. Did you guys already order her glasses?"

Shift narrowed her eyes towards me before her eyes widened. "Oh! Oh no… I knew I was forgetting something…" She said as she facepalmed and groaned under her breath. "I might just order them later and pick them up after I finish with this…"

"Hmm…" I then thought to myself. 'It would probably be a while before Shift finishes with her work… I kind of don't want Mina to sit around the whole day without glasses… I also don't want them to take longer to get here because of…' My face then lit up with an idea. "How about you order it now and I'll go and pick it up for you!"

"You sure?" Shift asked, slightly tilting her head.

"Of course! I'll get over there and…!" I then felt an immediate slap on my head. "H-Hey!" I then whipped my head around to see Filyn, as well as seeing a pillow hit her head. "What did you do that for!?" I exclaimed, ignoring the fact that she got hit by a pillow.

"Well, since…" Filyn got by another pillow again before then turning around, seeming to be rather angry at Lite. "Would you stop that!?" She yelled at her before turning back to me. "You might need to rest, I think you should let me go instead."

"What!? No way! I'll be the one to do it!" I exclaimed, leaning forward and stared into Filyn's only eye. "I said it first, so it should be me!"

Filyn then shook her head. "Nope! I'll do it! I want you to rest." She said defiantly, crossing her arms as she stood her ground.

"I don't need to rest! I want to help!" I exclaimed, stomping my foot.

"You don't have to help every time!" Filyn argued back immediately, frowning at this. "You can just let others help!" She added, refusing to give up.

"But I want to!" I said, pouting a little.

"Um… You two can both go at the same time…" Shift spoke up, catching both of our attentions as she looked at us with a smile. "More help, the better, right?" She added, to which we both stared at her for a while.

"Eh?" We then looked at each other, staring each other in the eyes. "EH!? WITH HER!?" We both exclaimed as we both turned to Shift, sounding like we're both in sync for a second. "B-But…! B-B-But…!" We then stared at each other again, before then looking away from each other.

"Or I can send Lite with one of you." Shift said, looking at Lite before looking back at us with a smile.

"Urp!" Filyn then looked at me while I looked at her before we both sighed. "Fine… get changed Sapphire so that we can go…" She muttered under her breath, to which I quickly nodded.

"But I don't mind wearing this when we go there…" I said in a very blunt way as I tilted my head. "It feels comfy… and warm… I guess…"

"Come on Sappy. Get changed." Shift said with a frown, probably not wanting to hear any of that. "Or I will send Lite out with you both." She immediately added.

"Uh. Yeah… I'm going to get changed right now!" I said, not wanting her to chuck stuff at random people, probably snow. "Uh. Where do you guys put your clothes by the way?"

"Um… I think I asked them to put your clothes in the room you're staying in as soon as possible." Shift said, trying to recall some things she had probably said. "Might need to check just to make sure though because I'm not sure."

"Okay! I'm checking right now!" I exclaimed as I immediately ran out of the office without saying anything else and went straight into my guest room, not looking at anything else. I looked to my bed and saw my clothes folded up neatly.

'Guess she did ask them that…' I thought before I took off the dress I was given and slowly put on my clothes one at a time. 'Wow…! They even cleaned my shoes!' I thought when I noticed the shoes. 'Got to thank the people who cleaned them…' I thought while putting on the rest of my clothes. After I was finished, I immediately walked out the room in which I was greeted with Filyn again.

I stared at her for a little bit before tilting my head. "Ah. FIlyn. You're here." I coolly said, looking at her with a dull look. I didn't even attempt to fake a personality with her, seeing how she does know about the real me.

"Jeez. I thought I was the only one who could flip the script on someone…" Filyn muttered under her breath before shaking her head. "But I see you're finished already, so should we just get this over with already?" She added, sounded a bit annoyed as she crossed her arms.

"Should we check up with Shift first?" I asked, tilting my head to the other side. "It would be rude if we didn't say anything before leaving… Probably just poke our heads in?" I added, giving her an emotionless stare.

She shrugged as putting her hands down in front of her as she clasped them together. "Why not?" She said before we both beeline our way back to Shift's office to poke our heads out.

"Hey Shift!" I exclaimed, trying to catch her attention, seeing her looking up from her work. "We're going out now! Please and I mean PLEASE look after Venus for me! I don't want her to get hurt. Okay?" I said, looking at Venus worryingly, who was still on the couch.

"I will." Shift said back to me while giving me a smile. "I promise to keep an eye on her."

"Okay and Venus! Lite…!" I exclaimed, still looking at the two girls. "Stay out of trouble! Don't do anything ridiculous like… um…" I think of something that I doubt she would ever do. "…burning down the Basilicom or something?" I said in a not so confident way.

"Um… Okay?" Venus said, looking at me a bit confused.

"Huh!? Why would we—!?" Lite was about to say before we closed the office door.

"Come on Filyn. Let's go before Lite gets even angrier." I said before I immediately took Filyn by the wrist and led her away from the office. We were speed walking since neither of us wanted Lite to follow us.

Before we went outside the front door, I then heard a little giggle to which I turned my head to look at her. "What?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"Since when did you become so bold?" Filyn asked with a smirk, sounding like she was teasing me. I realized that I was holding her wrist, in which I immediately pulled away from her. "Hehe. You're blushing~!"

"T-That's because of you, dummy~!" I exclaimed very loudly, staring at her while blushing a little. "Jeez… Stop teasing me… okay…?" I muttered under my breath, crossing my arms.

"Okay okay." Filyn said, putting her hands up as she laughed a little before clearing her throat. "By the way, do you know which place we should go and pick up these glasses?" She asked.

"Hm… I think it was… um…" I looked up a little, trying to recall the place that Mina mentioned before when asking her about her glasses. Of course, I was interested in her glasses since they looked pretty. "…a research facility…?" I guessed, not sure what I said was true.

"That's where you go most of the time, not Mina." Filyn said, frowning a little, crossing her arms. She sounded a bit disappointed for some reason. "Just say you don't know and we'll ask Shift or someone who knows about the place." She added.

"No… I think it was Blue Shell's Eye Prescription and More…?" I guess again, sounding much more confident than before. "I think it's the most popular here in Lowee… and I do remember Mina telling me that back then…"

"Ah… I see… Haha… I wonder why it's called that…" Filyn said, scratching the back of her head. She sounds a bit awkward for the Blue Shell part for some obvious reason. "It's not because someone got traumatized by that kart game that Shift made, right?" She added jokingly.

"Don't know. Just ask them yourself." I told her before I pushed the door open, letting the cold air in. "Either way, we should go now. My guess is that Shift already called them and they already got the glasses ready." I said, to which she nodded before she went outside. "Um… but… can we… um… I want to talk to you about… um…"

"Huh?" Filyn asked, stopping immediately before looking back at me curiously. "What do you want to talk about?" She said, crossing her arms, waiting for me to talk.

I thought about it for a little while before shaking my head. "N-No… I-I-It's nothing." I said as I walked to the point I was in front of her. 'But of course it wasn't nothing… I just wanted to ask her if I was acting a bit too weird earlier for her…' I thought before shaking that thought off before walking away without saying anything.

"Sapphire… Wait…!" I heard Filyn say before I started speed walking away from her not caring about my surroundings, though I could still hear her catching up. "Sapphire! Wait! Don't just say that all of the sudden and just leave it like that! Wait up!" She exclaimed as she grabbed by my shoulder, able to catch up. "I said to wait up! Jeez! If you want to say it, just say it, okay!? I'm probably not gonna judge."

"Um… Y-You sure…?" I asked her, to which she nodded and to that I sighed. "O-O-Okay… fine… I tell you… but let's walk and talk a little so we can get there quicker." I told her.

Filyn nodded before both started walking side by side. "So what is it that you want to talk about?" She asked, looking at my face.

"Well… um… was I acting weird to you earlier?" I asked Filyn, who gave me a very weird look. "Like when you woke me up." I added.

"Uhh… no?" Filyn said in an unsure way as she looked away. "Why would you ask that?" She asked, letting out an awkward chuckle.

I then narrowed my eyes, immediately using my ability to see if she was lying to me. And with no surprise whatsoever, she lied to me. "You say that, but I checked…" I said, hearing her groan. "You lied to me… right…?" I asked even though I already knew she was keeping something from me.

"Seriously… again…?" Filyn muttered under her breath. "Look… Sapphire… It's not that I think you're weird… It's just that… I was surprised by how different you are from the other times we've interacted." She told me, to which looked at her with confusion. "Like you looked even more happy than before when it was just the two of us…"

"Huh… I see…" I looked off in thought for a little bit. "I guess… I was… happy…?" I said thoughtfully, searchin my feelings from earlier. "Happy that you two were there… I think… and I enjoyed you two being there and Venus being in the same place I was…" I thought for a little bit more. "…and that um…" I then blushed a little, remembering that FIlyn hugged me in a very particular way. "Um… um… and you… um… um…"

"Hehe. You don't have to say. I know." Filyn said with a cheeky smile. "I'm glad that you're happy now…" Then I heard her mutter something under her breath, but I could barely hear what she was saying.

"Huh? Did you say something, Filyn? I asked her, tilting my head in curiosity as I stared at her for a little bit. "Is there something that you want to say?" I asked her.

"Nah. Just thinking out loud. That's all." Filyn said, grinning at me before patting my head. "But let's just say that I was happy about something you said." She told me in a very cheeky way. "But you shouldn't think about it too much, okay?" She added on to that, before giggling as seeing me blush as she was still patting my head.

"I-I see…" I then thought for a while before remembering something that Filyn once told me back then and past she had with this place. "Actually, I have a question for you. How does it feel to be back here, Ms. Reaper? And talking with Shift for a bit." I asked her.

"First of all Sapphire… I told you not to say that old nickname ever…!" Filyn said in annoyance, seeing her groan immediately. "And second, it feels a bit weird coming back here again after so long… y'know…" She said in a bit of a quiet tone. "And Shift was fine to talk to now. Though back then it was a bit different…"

"Yeah… saying that the old you were a bit hard to control is a bit of an understatement." I said, reminiscing about back then. "You would usually go off on your own without telling me and I would immediately find out later about what you were doing."

"Haha… you're one to talk… You also went on your own sometimes without telling me." Filyn retorted, also remembering about back then. "The only difference is that you always come back all battered up and I had to patch you up." She said, chuckling a little before she then sighed a little. "And you still get them even today!"

I looked at her quietly while frowning a little. "Do I really look like the type that gets hurt all the time without a care in the world?" I asked, thinking about all the times I've gotten injured before.

"Yes. Like all the time. Cuts and bruises galore!" She responded in a very dramatic way holding her hands up. "Sometimes I wonder if you just like letting them hit you for the fun of it or something like that."

"No comment." I simply said before looking away. 'I guess letting them hit me part is not exactly wrong… but not exactly right either… I thought to myself sadly. 'I don't like the pain… but I have to fight or else…' I shook that thought away. "About Shift… she's a lot more different now… is she…"

"Yeah… She was very shy back then… Heck! I would even say back then she was very quiet as a Candidate…" Filyn said, crossing her arms before she then frowned a little. "But I guess the reason for the latter has a bit of… backstory…"

"Yeah… everyone has their own internal battles… I guess…" I muttered, reminded about Nin and the things she did before. Then I notice a building that's designed like a blue shell across the street with the sign that's plastered on the top that reads Blue Shell's Eye Prescription and More. "Oh. That's the place, isn't it?" I said, pointing at the building.

"Yeah." Filyn said, looking to where I'm pointing at. "Wonder why it calls itself 'Eye Prescription and More?' Does it really have something more in there?" She asked, probably thinking out loud.

"How about we find out for ourselves?" I told Filyn. "No use wondering about something we don't know, right?" I said, before I then walked across the street with Filyn following closely behind. When we reached the building, I then opened the door before we both went inside.

Inside was something we didn't exactly expect to see. What I thought I would see were a single counter in the middle with eyeglasses shelved along the walls. However, what I saw were two halves of the store. The right half was what you expect from an eye prescription store, a clean counter with eye glasses along the walls and a small mirror and door to what I assume to be where patients can enter into the office. But the other side looked like some mad scientist owned that area. Flasks filled with liquid and medicine shelved along the wall with a similar counter as the left side, but it was rather messy.

'Huh… wonder who works over there…' I thought as I looked at the messy counter before shaking my head. 'Not that I care though… We're just here to pick up Mina's glasses…' I thought before looking at the other counter as I then walked up to it to see that no one was there. "U-Um… Hello…? Is anyone here?" I called out.

"Ah. Coming!" I heard someone in the back exclaim before a man in a white coat. "Hm? Who are you?" He asked me.

"Sapphire, sir." I told him before turning to Filyn, who was all the way in the back and was looking at some glasses. "That over there is Filyn. We're here to pick up someone's glasses." I told the man. "You know of someone by the name of Mina Nishizawa?"

"Ah. Yes. Ms. Nishizawa, correct?" He said, looking at what I assume to be his computer. "She comes here sometimes to get her check-up or pick up some new glasses." He recalled. "Though I just got a call from her workplace that she can't come over and that they would send someone here. Is that you?" He asked, to which I nodded. "I see… Since I already have her records pulled up, I'll get them ready for you."

"Thank you. Um… how long should we wait for?" I asked before seeing him standing up and already walking to the door. "Ah. I see."

The man walked out and proceeded to scan around the wall before he picked one of the glasses that was shelved there, a red-rimmed glasses that was similar to Mina had, before going back into his office. "I'll go clean this up and get the case ready for you, okay? So please wait for a few seconds for a while." He told me with a smile, before he went somewhere in the back.

"Huh." I then looked to Filyn, who was still looking around. 'Why is she looking around here?' I asked myself. 'Does she want to wear glasses? Or is she just interested in them?' I thought before deciding to just ask her. "Um… Filyn?" I spoke up, catching her attention. "Is there anything that interests you?" I asked her, making it less obvious I was rather curious about what she was doing.

"Um… I don't know." Filyn muttered under her breath as she looked at me. "Actually, could you come over here? I want to try out something." She told me, in which I looked at her, a bit confused about why she's telling me this.

"Uh… sure?" I said as I then walked to FIlyn, still confused. "What do you want me to come over…?" I asked before she immediately put something on my face. "Huh…?" I then touched whatever she put on my face. "Glasses…?" I said, touching the glasses, which I can strangely still see with them on.

"Wow! You look so good in glasses!" Filyn exclaimed, giving me a smile. "Come on! Look at yourself!" She said as she grabbed my arm and took me to a small mirror. "Looks good on you, don't you think?" She asked me, still giving me a smile.

"Hm…" I looked at the glasses she put on me. It was a round, blue-rimmed pair of glasses that strangely looked good on me. "It looks good on me… Kind of makes me look smarter… I guess?" I said, looking at it from the sides before taking it off and giving it to Filyn. "But it's not for me…"

"Yeah… I know… But, I like how good it looks on you." Filyn told me, giving me a small smile. "I think it suits your calm, yet shy demeanor while also making you look smarter." She said, before she pats my head for the second time today.

"Um… You think so…?" I asked, blushing a little before immediately shaking that thought off. "Thanks… I guess…" I said moving away from Filyn. "And can you please stop patting my head everytime?"

"Nah." Filyn said, giving me a smile. "It's fun that way." She told me in an upbeat way. "And besides, you're the one of the people who's the easiest to pat their head." She said, giggling a little.

"Oi." I pouted at her while giving her an annoyed look, crossing my arms. "You know I'm not going down that easy." I said, pointing at her, before she then went up to me and patted my head again. "Ah… Um…" I sputtered, trying to form words from my mouth.

"See? Too easy." Filyn said simply while patting my head, grinning very widely. Way too easy for me." She repeated in a teasing way.

"H-Hey… Stop already…" I muttered, embarrassed by the fact she keeps patting my head. "What if someone sees us?" I asked, blushing a little.

"Oh. About that…" Filyn said with a teasing smile, seemingly looking at something behind me. "Someone is actually watching us right now." She told me, a bit amused.

"E-Eh…?" I immediately got away from Filyn's hand and whipped around to see the man watching us silently, probably waiting for us by now. "A-Ah! I-I'm sorry! I didn't notice you!" I exclaimed, a bit embarrassed.

"It's alright." He said before he put the case on top of the counter. "Here you go." He told me before giving me a smile. "And don't worry about paying me. The person told me that she already sent in the payment."

"O-Okay…" I stuttered a little as I went up to the counter and grabbed the case. "T-Thank you…" I said in a quiet tone, before noticing that he was staring into my eyes. "Um… I-Is there something wrong…?" I asked him, pretty apprehensive about the stare the man was giving me.

"Hm… Can you come a little closer? He asked me, to which I nervously complied and moved in closer. "Hm… Without any single equipment, I can't say for sure but has your eyes been hurting recently by any chance?" He asked me.

"Y-Yeah…? It's been like that for a while. Um…" I tried to talk more about something that was happening to me but he was staring hard at me for a while. "Why do you want to know about that?" I asked, starting to theorize why he's doing this. 'Is it because it's his job to examine eyes? Why not Filyn's eyes?' I thought, trying to figure out what sort of motive this man has.

"Hm… Because your eyes might just be strained… Hold on… Please wait for a minute…" He told me before went somewhere in the back. I stayed there for a little bit before he came back with a small bottle. "This might help with your strained eyes. The one from the counter over gave me this… I'll let you have this for now." He said before trying to give it to me.

"Huh…? But I don't need this." I told him, pushing his hand away. "I-I'm fine…! Really! It's probably only sore eyes. That's all." I said, trying to get him to not give me this bottle. I didn't want to trouble this man. I didn't want to add someone else to the list of people that needed to worry about me more than they needed to.

"No no no no. Take it." He said, shoving it into my hand. "You might need this if your eyes might get strained." He told me. "And you don't need to pay me anything, it's free of charge. Plus, she wanted a customer with similar conditions willing to test its effects for her and…"

"Wait… Test it?" Filyn spoke up, turning around to see her going on the defensive. "You're not trying blind Sapphire with that, are you?" She asked, sounding very aggressive for a moment. It's understandable why since we don't know what's in this bottle.

"No. It shouldn't blind a person since I tried the formula for my own eyes." He told us, crossing his arms. "But it doesn't really work for me since my eyes don't strain at all because I take breaks in-between long days of staring at a computer for too long." He explained to us in a very aloof way. "Nor does it work for her since she is in-between as well. On top of not using the computer all too much." He continued before narrowed his eyes towards me. "However, yours looked rather strained… or more like they're tired."

"Ah. I see…" I muttered before giggling to myself. 'Hehe… "I see…" Funny pun…' I thought before putting that thought away, even though it was a bit funny. "So um… who made this anyway? Did a mad scientist make this?" I asked, looking at the small bottle.

"Hm… I wouldn't say mad scientist, but there are some cases where I feel like she is a bit weird." He told me before he then recalled the name of this person. "I think her name was… Gust? She's a medicine maker that sometimes travels around a lot here in Gamindustri to collect ingredients for the medicine." Then he tried to look over to the other counter. "Which is the reason why she's not here right now."

"Huh." I said, still looking at the small white bottle. There was a label that read 'Magic Eye Pain Remover' and on the other side was the ingredients. I stared at it for a little while, looking at the ingredients. 'These are just ingredients you can find just about anywhere…!' I then narrowed my eyes to a few ingredients. Wait… these ingredients… some of them are unfamiliar to me…' I thought, trying to figure out what these ingredients are. "Fine. I'll take this." I told him. "But this better work or else I'll be returning this."

"Okay." He said, before going to his computer, typing out something before returning to look at me. "Also, I wonder about your… um… friend over there…" He said, pointing at Filyn who looked back at the man with confusion. "Why does she wear that eyepatch?"

"Oh. Uh… It's just that…" I looked at Filyn who was covering her eyepatch with one hand. "Um… She's… um… Actually…!" I ran over to Filyn to grab her other hand. "We're going now! Thanks for everything! I'll make sure to use this and give the glasses to the rightful owner!" I exclaimed before going outside with Filyn in a hurry, not wanting to say anything about her eyepatch. After we went outside, we immediately ran off towards the Basilicom.

As we were running, I heard people talking about what happened yesterday like the fact that the CPU Dual Heart was there. They're discussing whether she was actually there in her human form or not. Of course no one, other than the Basilicom workers, still knows that CPU Dual Heart is really a young girl who's actually older than me by a few months. Not that I would admit to anyone that she was older than me. It was something that I don't want to waste time to just sit there and explain that I'm younger than her, not that it actually matters really.

Either way, we felt like we were getting tired, so we stopped in an alleyway, letting go of Filyn's hand, and breathing heavily for running for so long. We then looked at each other before we started laughing over the many times this situation has happened to us. We kept laughing and laughing before slowly it became small giggles. "Why did you do that for?" Filyn exclaimed in-between giggles. "You could've just answered it for me." She said, covering her mouth with her arm.

"Because… you looked very uncomfortable when he asked that…" I told her, giggling to myself. "And beside… I don't know if I can explain how you're blind on one side. You know I can't make stuff up on the spot!" I told her before laughing it off. "But it was pretty funny how many times someone tried to ask me or you about the eyepatch."

"Eh. This happens all the time…" Filyn said before she frowned a little. "But I would have still stopped you, even if you didn't tell them the truth about my other eye." She told me, looking down uncomfortably.

"Well… It's something that always happens no matter what we do…" I said as I crossed my arms, before looking down as well. "But… I too… don't want to tell people the truth about your eye…" I told her before walking over and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Talking about your eye is just too… uncomfortable to talk about in detail… or just talking about it in general…" I sighed before giving her a warm smile. "So don't worry… I won't say the really difficult stuff for you that would make you upset or make you uncomfortable."

"Hm… Okay." Filyn then thought for a while before looking at me. "Thanks for um… saying that…" She said, looking at me with a small, sheepish smile. "I think that will help… sort of…" She muttered under her breath, crossing her arms.

"I knew that would help… even if it's a little." I said to her before tapping her shoulder twice before walking away from her before giving her a smile. "Well then! We should go back now. We have Mina waiting for long enough." I told her before putting away the case in my inventory and walking deeper into the alleyway.

This made Filyn look at me with confusion. "Hey! Where are you going? That's the wrong way! Unless…" Then her single eye widened before she then smirked, seemingly knowing what I was doing. "You're not thinking what I think you're thinking?"

"Yep. I'm gonna climb up." I told her, stretching my legs a little, getting ready to parkour up the building. "And it's easier here than Planeptune since the buildings there are way too tall. And that I'm too tired of bumping into people…" I said before giving her a small, embarrassed smile. "So… um… D-Do you want to come along?" I asked her, blushing a little over this.

"Sure. Let's go." Filyn said simply, giving me a smile before following after me.

Back in Lowee's Basilicom…

"Hey Shift! We're back~!" I exclaimed as we walked into Shift's office, only to see Shift still working while Venus and Lite playing ball with Ame, the pet white fox that she owns. "Uh… What happened here?" I asked, looking around in pure bewilderment.

"Cute fox." Venus said as she pet Ame before taking the ball from her. But this just confused me more since saying that wouldn't tell me what was going on, so I looked over to Shift.

"They were getting bored…" Shift said as she looked up from her work. "And well… leaving them alone wasn't exactly a good idea… Especially Mina, who wasn't able to see right now, couldn't watch them." She told me, explaining the story. "So I introduced them to Ame and they've been playing with her for a while now…" She explained to me to which Ame perks up upon hearing her name. And upon scanning the room and seeing me, she immediately ran over to me before she started sniffing legs before looking up at me.

"A-Ah… Ame…" I said before kneeling down, patting her head. "Um… Long time no see…" I then stared at the fox nervously, trying my hardest to not freak out in front of my little sister. However, I knew that my eyes were shining from the cuteness of this fox. But Ame didn't notice this and let out a few chirps, happy to see me. "Oh. Uh… Shift…? Where do I leave this?" I asked, holding up the case I just got out of my inventory.

Shift, who had narrowed her eyes to me, looked at the case. "You got the glasses? That's good." She said before she thought for a while. "Actually, could you leave it here on my desk so I can give it to one of the guards so they can give it to Mina."

I was still patting Ame's head when I heard that, still looking at the fox before gazing up. "Okay." I said before standing up, letting Ame go, and walking over to Shift before putting the case on the desk. "Here you go… um…" I then saw Shift staring at the small bottle I was still holding. "Is there something wrong?" I asked her.

"What's with that odd bottle?" Shift asked, pointing at it. "It looks rather… suspicious…" She said, narrowing her eyes with suspicion towards it.

"Oh. It's just some eye drops that the eye doctor gave me." I told her, holding it up as I said this. "He said it was supposed to help with my eyes but…" I then remembered what led up to it. "He was kind of weird… asking me about my eyes outright without having me give weird looks…" I told her before I crossed my arms and frowned. "Is he always like that?"

"Mmh… Most of the time… But he really means well…" Shift told me, leaning back into her chair and crossing her arms. "He always wanted to help others… And he knows his stuff too." She told me. "He was probably just worried about your eyes, Sappy."

'But I don't want people to worry about me…' I thought to myself before shaking that thought off. "He also said that he got it from someone named… Gust?" I said to her, still wondering about this person. "Do you know who that is?"

"Hmm… I've seen her a few times when I'm with Mina, but don't really know what she's like since she's out most of the time…" Shift told me, rubbing her chin before she then frowned a little. "So I can't really say much… Sorry…" She said to me, apologizing.

"It's fine. Since I'm not that interested in finding out…" I told her, even though I was a bit interested in asking this person where she got these ingredients that were on the label. "Not that I'm interested in what she's doing at this moment or whatever…" I said, looking away from Shift.

Shift just raised her eyebrows at me. "Can be found out easily." She told me before she then gave me a smirk. "All I need to do is…"

"Um… please don't… really…" I told her, waving both of my hands to try and get her to stop. "I don't actually want you to find her for me." I said, chuckling awkwardly before walking away from her. "I'm… just going to play with Ame for now…" I said before turning around, not letting Shift answer, and now see that Filyn, Venus, and Lite are all petting Ame who seemed to be laughing or something. "Uh… what are you guys doing?" I asked, catching their attention.

"We're petting the fox." Filyn said, still petting the fox. "It's very fluffy and very cute too." She then turned to Venus. "You think so too, right?" She asked the young, blue-haired girl.

Venus then nodded as she grinned a childish grin. "Mmhmm!" She hummed soundly before going back to looking at Ame as she pet her.

'Wow… They seemed fond of Ame…' I thought before walking over, kneeling down before petting her along with others. 'Cute…' I stared at the cute fox that was lying there, laughing and making sounds that a fox would make. "Um… I think we should stop now… We should Ame time to breathe."

"Sure." Filyn said before moving away from Ame, as well as Venus and Lite reluctantly. Then Ame stood up, looked at us before she started running around and all of us seemed to still be excited and hyper. "Someone seemed excited." She remarked.

"Yeah… Uh…" I thought about what we should do next. My mind wasn't coming up with much of anything. "I don't know where to go from here…" I spoke up. "Do any of you have any ideas?" I asked, crossing my arms. 'Because I want to play with Ame…'

"I don't know." Venus spoke up while thinking for a bit about what to do. "We could just play ball with Ame for now." She suggested, holding up the small ball.

"Don't know either! But I want to play ball too!" Lite agreed in a childish tone. She seemed to be beaming with excitement of just wanting to play with the fox.

"Huh. I don't think we can play ball with four people." I told both of them before then looked towards Filyn for an answer. "What do you want to do?" I asked, tilting my head to the right side.

"Hm… It's hard to say since I never really took care of a fox before…" Filyn said, thinking about it for a while. "I honestly have to agree a bit with Venus and Lite, but I also agree that we can't play ball with four people." She then pondered for a bit. "Hm… There is a game we could play with the fox and four people. And it has to do with the ball."

"Hm? What is it?" Venus asked, looking at the redhead with curiosity. "Sis said that we can't ball with four people." She reminded her.

"I know. But there is a way we can play ball." Filyn said, thinking about the game we're about to play. "The game we can play is a variation of Monkey in the Middle or should I say Fox in the Middle. Where the fox has to intercept us as we're passing the ball to each other." She explained a bit. "But if the fox catches the ball from the last person who threw it or dropped it, they're out. Oh and we have to sit down on the ground to level the playing field." She then stopped to look at us. "Thoughts? Anyone?"

"Sounds fun." Venus piped up, looking up at Filyn with awe while Lite nodded in agreement and childish excitement. "How about you, Sis?" She asked me.

"Hmm… It's interesting to say the least…" I said, thinking about it for a while before looking at Ame, who seemed to understand the game and started to wag her tail. "Yeah. Let's do it. But first…" I pulled out my phone and saw some messages from the Guild Manager, saying I should come back if possible. 'Huh… That's very nice of her…' I thought before looking for Shift's number and started typing up a message.

Shift:

Sapphire: Hey! Could you ask some of the guards to look for anyone that looks suspicious just to make sure? I don't want to say it out loud because I don't want them getting curious…

"…and send." I then hit the send button before I looked over to Shift. I saw her check her phone before she looked up at me before she then nodded and went back to her work. "Okay! Let's get started!" I said before we all sat on the floor where Venus and Lite were sitting across from each other while me and Filyn were also sitting across each other. "So who has the ball?" I asked.

"I have it!" I then looked towards Venus, who was waving a red ball at all of us. Ame perked up before she started pacing back and forth, trying to watch where Venus was going to throw it. "Sis! Catch!" She exclaimed before she threw the ball at me without warning.

"W-What…!?" I immediately stumbled before I catched it, but was close to dropping. Slowly, I regained my composure before turning my eyes towards Venus. "I-I wasn't ready yet! Don't just immediately throw it at me that quickly!"

"Sorry, Sis." Venus apologized immediately as she looked down.

"It's alright… Just throw it slowly. Like this." I said before I turned to Lite, who hadn't noticed yet. "Hey! Lite!" I spoke up, grabbing the young girl's attention to which I waved the ball at her. "Here. Catch." I then threw the ball as slowly as possible, in which she was able to catch the ball with ease. "See? Like that. You got most of it right, but you threw it too fast."

"Mmh… Okay!" Venus exclaimed, nodding in understanding. "So don't throw the ball too fast… I'll make sure I'll do that, Sis." She said, giving me a fast smile.

"At least you understand tha…" I then noticed at the corner of my eye, a red ball was approaching fast. So I immediately caught the ball again as it was about to hit my face. "Okay… Who did that!?" I exclaimed angrily, looking for whoever threw that ball before my eyes landed on Lite, who was grinning very mischievously. "Seriously…"

"You were taking too long!" Lite exclaimed, pointing at me. "So I threw it at you because I was so bored already!" She told me, huffing a little. Seeing that she was about to talk some more, without warning, I threw it back at her. She stumbled a little, but she barely caught it. "HEY! WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?" She yelled at me angrily.

"Same question goes to you…" I said to her with a frown. "I just said to Venus that you're not supposed to throw the ball that fast…" I told her, crossing my arms. "I don't think anyone would catch a ball that fast consistently…"

"That's not true either…" Filyn said, making me turn to her. "Hey, Lite. Could you toss the ball to me? I want to show both of you something." She asked which Lite tilted her head in confusion before she tossed the ball to Filyn. "Sapphire. Catch!" She threw the ball way too fast in my direction, but I immediately caught with ease. "See? She could still catch it."

"Wow! That's amazing!" Shift exclaimed with amazement and excitement. "Those are some great reflexes, Sis!"

"Haha… Really?" I said before tossing the ball back to Filyn. "I-I don't think I have the greatest reflexes, but it's good enough…" I told her before wanting to avoid talking about my reflexes. "But I still would suggest not to try to throw that fast while we're playing." I reaffirmed. "Especially when we're also playing with Ame." I said before looking at Ame, who seemed to be confused by all of this. "That includes you, Lite and Filyn…"

"Okay…" All three of them said in unison before we all started to play for real this time, throwing the ball to each other as slow as possible. After a few throws, Ame finally caught the ball that Lite threw, getting her out.

"Aw~! No fair!" Lite exclaimed, grumbling a little as she crossed her arms with a pout.

"Rules are rules, kid." Filyn told her, shrugging it off as she shook her head before she noticed something. "Huh. Someone seemed excited…" She remarked, seeing Ame seemingly celebrating with the ball in her mouth.

"It's because she's happy that she finally got the ball…" I muttered under my breath taking my hand. "Come on, Ame… Give me the ball." I said, seeing her perked up before walking over to me and giving me the ball. "Good girl. Now then since Lite is now out…" I then was ready to throw the ball again. "Let's start the game again…"

After a few minutes of starting the game again, I was able to fake Filyn out with a fake throw before throwing it right after, which immediately surprised her and actually got her to stumble before dropping the ball onto the floor. Ame then picked the ball up, looking down at her as she wagged her tail.

"Looks like you're out…" I remarked as I smirked and crossed my arms. "Huh? What's wrong?" I asked Filyn, feigning ignorance since she was glaring at me.

"What's wrong was that you did… whatever you did to get me out!" Filyn accused angrily, grumbling a little as she pouted before sitting back up. "There was no way I was able to catch that when I was caught off guard."

"At least I didn't throw the ball at the speed of light!" I argued back at her while reminding her about what happened earlier. "And before you even say that I can catch that, I can but not when my back is turned!"

"Correction. That's only when your back is turned." Filyn argued back as she frowned a little. "Oh and by the way…" She then noticed Venus was looking at both of us with interest. "What?"

"Oh. I was just listening in…" Venus said before she then turned to me. "So it's just you and me, Sis…" She remarked thoughtfully, seeming to be surprised she got this far. Because I also was kind of surprised that she even got this far.

"Yeah…" I said soundly before looking at Ame before holding my hand out again. "Okay, Ame… Give me the ball…" I told her, before she walked towards me before dropping the ball in my hand. "Good girl…" I said as I patted her head with the other hand. "Okay then, final round… Let's begin."

Then we started throwing the ball again, like nothing ever happened.

Somewhere in Lastation's Basilicom…

Like what happened before, a brilliant glow illuminated in Lastation's Share Room. When it faded, white-haired girl with blue eyes appeared standing in front of the Sharicite. She looked around, unable to figure out what was going on. Then she looked down, realizing she was wearing nothing to which she screamed before she covered herself.

"W-Where… Where am I?" The girl said, looking around while trying to figure out what was going on. "Mmh… I think I should… look around…" She muttered before she peered out the door before she walked out cautiously, wondering where she was.


That's all for now! I honestly don't have much to say about this chapter. Thanks to decode9 with the dialogue again. There are a few things I want to say before moving to the next chapter.

I won't immediately move on to Lastation in the next chapter because realistically I don't think Kei will immediately go and ask Sapphire for help, even if Listoria would annoy her to no end. And second, I want IF to be a part of this fic since I feel like I've been holding off on her as well as the other Makers and a few characters.

Also, I think I'm sort of getting a hang on writing dialogue for characters I do not own so hopefully I'll be able to to just write the dialogue without help.

Either way, Please Review and Stay Safe!