Chapter 4: Illusion

Month 12, Day 27. 10:28

"Uzume." Histoire knocked on the door, "Wake up, Uzume!" Histoire kept knocking for three more minutes, until she decided to enter herself, "Uzume, I'm coming in!"

Histoire looked around Uzume's room. Orange furniture, purple walls, a small television with the new Planeptune console Uzume designed connected. Histoire looked for Uzume's bed, which was located in the corner of the room, opposite of the TV. As Histoire approached Uzume, she noticed red mist coming out of her body and swirling around her, covering her bed.

"Uzume!" Histoire yelled, worried about the mist,"Wake up!"

Histoire approached Uzume and started to weakly shake her while telling her to wake up. When Uzume started to wake up, the red mist collected at Histoire's hands. Histoire moved back, trying to avoid the red mist but when she did, she was holding a napkin which held a pastry filled with whipped cream, chocolate and other toppings. Histoire looked at what she was holding, puzzled.

"Morning, Histoire." Uzume replied groggily.

"M-morning Uzume."

Uzume slowly blinked her drowsiness away and started to stare at what Histoire was holding, "Is that crêpe for me, Histoire?" Uzume asked, "You're so kind!"

"Oh, this. Um, Well you see, Uzume… A red mist was forming around you while you slept… and when I tried shaking you, this… crêpe appeared."

"Red mist?" Uzume wondered, "Now that I think about it… There was some red mist in my dream as well. Along with some crêpes."

"I wonder if there is a relationship between the two." Histoire said, before shaking the thought aside, "Anyway, Uzume. I need you to get ready quickly and met me at the Basilicom as soon as you can. We are already late."

"Sure thing, Histoire."

Histoire left the crêpe on a table before leaving Uzume's room, allowing her to have some privacy. She quickly traversed through the tower towards the Basilicom, where some workers, dressed in purple uniforms, were waiting for Histoire.

"Lady Histoire." One of the men greeted, "I see Lady Uzume is not with you."

"Yes. Permit me to apologise on her behalf. I had not informed her of this." Histoire said, "I had planned to keep it a surprise for her."

"It is understandable, Lady Histoire." Said the other worker, "We've spent a month making these and fixing all the issues the previous model had. We're quite proud of these." He patted the crate to his left.

"We can't wait to see Lady Uzume equip these." The worker said, "Oh and Lady Histoire, this is for you."

"Oh?" Histoire received the item from the worker, examining it, "This is a head part I requested, is it not?"

"Exactly. We made it from some leftovers. It was manufactured exactly like you asked."

"Why, thank you." Histoire said, replacing her old head part with the new one - a bigger headdress that contained the Planeptune logo in the middle.

"It looks good on you, Lady Histoire."

A knock on the Basilicom's door stopped the conversation. The doors were then pushed open as Uzume stepped inside.

"Ah! Lady Uzume." The two workers respectfully bowed.

"Oh company!" Uzume said, "Morning!"

"Lady Uzume is as cheerful as ever."

"Uzume, come here for a second." Histoire waved her, "These two men have something for you."

"Something for Uzume?" Uzume approached, smiling.

"Yes." Histoire nodded, "And could you please transform, Uzume? This requires your HDD form."

"Sure thing!" Uzume closed her eyes, as she focused on the share energy before a white light enveloped her, "Transformation complete!" She posed when she was done.

"Now, Uzume. Follow these men's directions for now."

Uzume nodded, walking towards the workers.

"Lady Uzume, we are going to add your processor unit now. We ask of you to stay still while we work."

"Okay!"

The workers opened the crate, taking out some of the parts, attaching them to Uzume. They placed orange wings on Uzume's back and some auxiliary support on her waist.

"Lady Uzume, could you please lift your leg?" One of the workers asked.

Uzume did as instructed, and the workers placed some orange roller skates, making sure each part was linked to Uzume.

Uzume stared at Histoire, who was observing the workers.

"Lady Uzume, now it's your turn." The left worker said, "You need to equip these on your own. We'll make sure they're linked once you're done." He gave Uzume a white circle with a square block on its bottom. A hole was cut inside the square, so Uzume's hand could fit.

Uzume placed the piece on her left wrist, and the worker started to link the processor piece when it suddenly burst open, revealing a larger orange circle.

"Yep. That one's linked, alright."

Uzume kept looking at Histoire, who noticed the staring, "Your processor unit is complete. Production took some time, but in order to mitigate the previous Gen's bottleneck we…" She tried to divert the staring.

"Oh! Histoire, you changed your hat?" Uzume intervened, when she found what was different about Histoire.

"Hm? Oh, yes, I modified my head part with leftover production materials." Histoire replied, "I feel my search function is three seconds faster. "

"Wow! You look like a nurse, and it's super cute!" Uzume smiled.

Histoire averted her eyes to prevent her blush from showing.

"It does suit Lady Histoire."

"Um, um, please allow me to continue my explanation!~" Histoire tried to stop the conversation, showing her embarrassment.

"Here, Lady Uzume. This is your head part." The worker handed Uzume the head part that resembled Histoire's, but without the Planeptune logo.

"In addition to strengthening your leg and wing output, in the back of your waist, we have installed an auxiliary…" Histoire tried to explain the processor unit again.

"There!" Uzume exclaimed when she put the head part on, "The new hat is equipped! How is it? Does it look good?"

"It looks great, Lady Uzume." Said the worker as he linked the part.

"You are not listening at all, are you?" Histoire sighed, "And it's not a hat, it's a head part…"

"Hey, this looks a lot like your new hat, Histoire." Uzume commented.

"Yes, well, they were developed at the same time…" Histoire tried to explain.

"That doesn't seem like the real reason, Lady Histoire."

"Help me here, you two! Well. Um… To tell the truth, since I had the opportunity, I decided to make them with matching designs." Histoire admitted.

"Yay, we're matching!" Uzume smiled at Histoire, "So awesome! Thanks, Histoire!"

"Y-yes. Of course." Histoire tried to smile back, before returning to a stern expression, "But I did not call you here today for a fashion show, so please, thoroughly test the performance of these parts!"

"She's right." One of the workers said, as he moved away from Uzume to looked at the newly equipped processors, "We should test them inside before moving outdoors."

"They look pretty well linked to me." The other worker said, "The previous CPU had no problems when we linked them for her."

"They should still be tested." Histoire said.

Uzume laced her fingers together, "Uzume wishes Umio, Elsy and Atsy could see her now. They would be so surprised at these new parts Histoire ordered for Uzume. I'm sure they would also find Histoire's hat to be totally cute and that it's awesome our hats match."

The workers raised an eyebrow at each other.

"Um... Sorry, you two." Histoire turned towards the workers, "I'll send the money for the processor unit in three hours. I'll ask for you if any repairs need to be done after testing."

"Sure… Lady Histoire." The men bowed before leaving the Basilicom.

"Who were those two?" A girl's voice asked.

"Who cares! Look, Miss CPU is here!" A boy's voice replied.

Histoire turned towards the approaching children while Uzume waved at them, "Elsy! Atsy!"

"Miss Histoire! Miss CPU!" El and At ran at them, tackling Uzume in a hug.

"We've missed you, Miss CPU" El said.

"You've been so busy lately." At added.

"Now, now children. You'll crush Lady Uzume." Umio said.

"Mr Umio."

"Morning, Umio." Histoire greeted respectfully.

"Morning, Lady Histoire."

"El, At. You're early today." Histoire noted, "Eager to start working?"

El nodded, "Ya bet, Miss Histoire!"

At looked at Histoire and then at Uzume, "So awesome. Your hats match~."

"Now that I look closely, Lady Uzume also appears to be wearing her processor unit. I thought it was strange she didn't have one before." Umio said.

"Miss Histoire's hat is so cute! Like a nurse!" El exclaimed.

"Just like Uzume thought... " Histoire muttered under her breath.

"Lady Histoire, I would assume the processor is new, correct?" Umio wondered.

"Oh? Ah, yes. It was just recently linked." Histoire said, "We were about to test it."

"I see." Umio replied, "Then I will not waste your time, Lady Histoire."

"No no, Umio. It is all right." Histoire replied, "Uzume, now please. If you may, follow me so we can test your processor."

0:21

It was late at night. Uzume had already gone to sleep. Histoire, however, was nervously pacing around the top floor of the tower.

"That red mist in the morning… I wonder what it was." Histoire muttered to herself, "And how did Uzume manage to accurately predict what was going to happen? Their reactions were exactly like she said they would be!"

Histoire stopped to look at the lights of nighttime Planeptune. It always managed to calm her down. She thought back at the processor testing and how successful it was… just like Uzume had said before they started.

A nagging feeling was at the back of Histoire's head. The crêpe in the morning… Uzume predicting… No, influencing the future… What could it be? Histoire needed to do some research.

As Histoire walked through the tower towards her bedroom, she noticed red mist coming from below Uzume's door.

"Uzume!" Histoire rushed the door, pushing it open. Histoire looked at Uzume's bed, where the red mist was coming from. Histoire could see that Uzume's face was tight, as if having a nightmare. Just then, the red mist all collected at the centre of the room and from it, a Fenrir enemy appeared out of the mist.

"Uzume! Watch out!" Histoire yelled, as she rushed towards the sleeping Uzume, unleashing small blasts of winds towards the blue monsters.

The monster roared in reply, swiping at Histoire, who dodged by floating higher up.

The commotion woke up Uzume. She stared at the creature in the room before grabbing her megaphone from next to her bed.

"Uzume! Transform!" Histoire yelled over the roaring, unleashing more blasts of wind.

Uzume nodded at Histoire, enveloping herself in light. She emerged from the light with her processor unit equipped.

Uzume held the megaphone in front of her before yelling at the beast, generating sound waves around the Fenrir.

As Histoire dodged another swipe from the monster, three guards entered the room, spears ready to strike.

"Lady Uzume!" They yelled together.

"Focus on the beast!" Histoire chided, "It's not that strong."

The guards advanced with their spears, stabbing at the beast whenever it tried to attack. Uzume kept yelling into her megaphone and Histoire kept her barrage of magic attacks until the beast collapsed from fatigue and disintegrated into red mist that disappeared in an instant.

"How did that beast get in here?" One of the guards questioned.

"Lady Uzume. Lady Histoire. Are you okay?"

"Yes. I'm okay." Histoire nodded. She floated towards Uzume, "Are you okay, Uzume?"

Uzume nodded, before transforming back into her human form.

Histoire turned towards the guards, "It's under control now. Thank you for your help. You may go back to your post now."

"Man, to think a Fenrir would get inside Lady Uzume's room." Histoire hear one of the guards say before the door closed.

"Histoire..." Uzume looked at Histoire, "What… How…?"

"Uzume. That beast… It was created from some red mist." Histoire said, "The same source as the crêpe from this morning."

"Red… mist?" Uzume sat down on her bed, a hand on her face.

"The monster was not strong enough. It seemed like a fake - an Illusion."

"Just like the crêpe this morning." Uzume added, "It didn't taste quite right."

"Uzume. It appears you've developed a new ability. Good or bad, I can not tell."

"New ability?"

Histoire nodded, "It appears unique to you… and linked to your dreams."

"My… dreams?"

Histoire nodded again, "Both these occurrences happened after you were asleep. And earlier today, when you managed to predict the future… You were daydreaming."

"Histoire..." Uzume said, "Could you… keep this from the others?"

"I understand your concern. While this does not get out of control, I shall keep your ability secret."

"Thank you Histoire."

"Don't worry, Uzume. I'm here for you." Histoire smiled, "If you need anything… You can ask me. No matter what it is."

Uzume smiled back and nodded, "I'm grateful, Histoire."

"It's getting late now. Good night, Uzume."

"Good night. Histoire."

Histoire left Uzume's room, before she floated down and let her tome touch the floor, "Her new power… Her Illusion power… I hope… No, it will be fine. Uzume will be able to control it… Won't she?"

Histoire quickly got up, leaving Uzume behind and returning to her bedroom.