Chapter 15: Awaiting the Dungeon!

After a talk with the guard about the location of the dungeon, we decided to get this dungeon over and done with. It can't be as bad as Listoria had described it, right? Like seriously, who would actually believe what she actually said.

This was when I started to imagine it would be a walk-in dungeon where we get that treasure, go back to the Basilicom so that Kei can congratulate us and…

'OH WHO AM I KIDDING!? SHE NEVER MAKES THINGS EASY FOR ME!' I exclaimed inside of my mind while I screamed inside my mind. 'THERE'S NO WAY SHE PUT ALL OF THAT RESTRICTIONS AND ACTUAL EXPECT US TO COME WITH ZERO SCRATCHES! WHY DID I ACCEPT THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE!? WHY!? WHY!? WHY–!?'

"Uhh… Sapphire…? Why are you smacking your head against the wall?" Listoria asked, giving me a smirk. "Oh~! I know~! You're trying to turn yourself into a tomato~! So by all means!" She said before giggling herself off.

Shift just sweat-dropped before looking over to me with worry. "Um… Sappy…? Are you alright?" She asked with a frown.

Rubbing my forehead, I turned to my short, multi-colored haired friend with a rather huge smile. "I'm alright…! Just something popped into my mind! Nothing more than that!" I exclaimed as I put my hands on my hips.

"Oooh~! Is it something lewd~?" Listoria asked where I then immediately removed her hat and bonked her on the head. "Ow~! What was that for~?" She exclaimed as she rubbed her head.

"No horny!" I exclaimed before bonking her head twice in a row before pulling her hat over her eyes, making her confused for a very quick second.

"Uhh… Okay…?" Shift looked at both of us confused before shrugging it off. "E-Either way, I think we should probably go right about now…" She said, trying to keep us on track.

"Okay!" I exclaimed before turning to Listoria with a rather cheeky grin, seeing her fixing her hat. "Come on! Stop fixing your hat and let's go!" I told her, making her laugh sarcastically.

"Haha… Very funny, Sapphire…" Listoria said as she rolled eyes as she crossed her arms. "Gonna make sure you fall in a ditch or something…" She muttered under her breath.

I just ignored that and we continued on to where we had to go next, but decided to also tour around since Shift hasn't seen Lastation in its fullest extent. Lastation felt similar to Planeptune in its white and black buildings and utopian nature, however, it seemed to have some history behind it. I don't know if it's just my personal feelings or something else, but that was the feeling I got because of the museums that were placed around the corner.

"Wow… This is something…" Shift muttered under her breath as she looked around Listoria's nation, seeing a few of this stuff for the first time with a rather wide-eyed expression.

Is that jealousy I hear…?" Listoria asked, wiggling her eyebrows as she nudged the multi-colored haired girl with a smirk. "I see… I see…" She nodded with a small hum, which Shift narrowed her eyes.

"Not really…" Shift then thought for a while, letting out a deep sigh, before giving her a small confident smile. "I prefer my nation over yours no matter what… I just think it's pretty big." She told the white haired girl, who tilted her head in confusion.

"What the what…!? Nothing at all…!?" Listoria exclaimed while she looked at her with the utmost confusion. "That's big oofs right there… Nothing can get me to recover from this…" She exclaimed, faking a heartache.

'Seriously…? That's what made you react like that…?' I thought as another devious thought popped into my head. "Hmm… I see…! So you don't want pies after this!" I exclaimed, nodding to myself with a teasing smile, making Listoria perked up and looked at me. "Aw well~! Guess it's just me and Shift that gets to go get some pie…" I said in an almost teasing way.

"Pies~! Ooh~! Now you're speaking my language~! There's no way I'm missing out on that~!" Listoria exclaimed before rushing off to where the dungeon was supposed to be. "Come on girls! Let's finish this up so we can get some pies!"

Shift just looked at me with confusion, but I just shrugged it off. "Just let it go for now. That's just how she acts." I told her, to where she slowly nodded acceptingly as we willingly followed after her.

Taking us outside Lastation and into the forest, Listoria rushed to wherever we needed to before with a rather goofy grin. I tried to keep up my act when she's looking at me when she's talking to me or just joking around. But when she's looking away, I let out a small sigh of relief before frowning at the said girl.

Shift seemed to have noticed my expression since she tapped me on my shoulder. "Um… Sappy…? Is everything alright?" She asked, to where I looked at her with obvious confusion.

"Ahaha… Um… Shift? What are you talking about?" I asked, putting up my mask again while giving her a huge grin. "I'm fine! Don't worry about it! I'm just thinking! That's all!" I told her, hating that I'm giving that same excuse I would usually give to everyone.

'I wish I could just be honest with others like Listoria… and be just like I used to be…' I thought while looking away and staring into the endless forest. 'But to be honest… Listoria doesn't seem to be honest as well… just lying because she can…' I silently sighed to myself. 'And just like before she's just…'

'…an idiot…'

'H-Huh…?' I looked around in bewilderment, blinking twice. 'W-Who said that just now…?' I asked myself, looking around.

"Uhh… Sapphire, is there something wrong…? You're not looking for your own sap-lings, right…? Hehe…" Listoria asked, which I looked at her with absolute confusion as I didn't get the joke or even what she's trying to say.

After trying to figure out what she's trying to joke about, I sort of got the joke. "Are you… trying to make a pun with my name…?" I asked with a small frown. "If you are, then I don't really get it at all…" I said, acting very airheaded.

"Jeez… Did Airheaded Sapphire have to strike again…?" Listoria asked herself, shaking her head before she turned to Shift. "But you got my joke… right…? R-Right…?" She asked the young-looking girl, who thought about it for a bit.

Shift just shrugged, not completely understanding the joke. And I just snickered under my breath. "Looks like your jokes are getting old… huh…" I told her in a very teasing way.

"Oh come on! Just because the author can't write jokes, doesn't mean I'm getting bad at it!" Listoria said with a frown. "I just haven't thought of one right now!" She exclaimed, pouting childishly.

To that last part, I just rolled my eyes. "Yeah… Sure… Why not…" I sarcastically said before noticing something in the clearing ahead of us. "Hey… What is that…?" I asked, rushing towards the clearing, pasting both of them.

Looking beyond the clearing was a cliff right in front of me and below was a rather mystical temple looking building. It had seemingly people scattering around it with vehicles parked nearby and tents already having been put up.

"This… is the dungeon that Kei told us to explore!" Listoria exclaimed as she put her hands on her hips. "Pretty interesting, right?" She asked the both of us, turning to us with a smile.

"It's… pretty cool… Never seen anything like this…" I told her before kneeling down and narrowing my eyes towards the huge temple.

Shift nodded in agreement as she also looked at the temple with awe before she then looked at me. "Well guess we better get to doing what we said we'd do." She said as I nodded to that.

"Okie dokie!" I exclaimed before I stood up and started to walk off the cliff, but Listoria immediately grabbed me by my hair. "OW! What the…!? E-Eh…?" I looked at her with confusion.

"Come on! I know you're excited, but don't jump off from seemingly thirty feet off the ground…!" Listoria exclaimed as she gave me a smile. "No need to become a splat friend or whatever…" She added in a very joking way.

"Come on… if there's water below, there's no way it will damage me…" I said, giving her a pout. "Everyone knows that water can't hurt you if you jump in." I added.

"But um… Sappy…?" Shift spoke up, making me turn to her. "I thought you said you couldn't swim because of a Planeptune's Curse where you sink to the bottom…" She said, making my heart stop when she said that.

"Oh…?" Listoria then raised her eyebrows, turning to me with a teasing smile. "You can't swim… huh…? No wonder you refused to come with me to the pool during the summer." She said as that teasing smile turned into a smug grin.

Ignoring that, I just looked at Shift with a rather childish pout. "Shift! I told you not to tell anyone!" I exclaimed, crossing my arms.

"Oh. Um… Oops? Sorry Sappy…" Shift said as she laughed rather awkwardly while scratching her head. "I kind of forgot about that…" She added.

"Um… W-Well… I forgive you… Just don't say that suddenly… Gave me a heart attack…" I told her before turning to Listoria. "L-Let's just go… okay?" I said as the white-haired girl nodded with a grin.

"Okie dokie, Ms Can't Swim…! I know a shortcut to that area. Follow me!" Listoria exclaimed and ran off to the right even before I was about to comment on that nickname she just gave me.

I then sighed before shaking my head. 'This is going to be a long day… isn't it…" I asked myself, knowing that no one can hear my thoughts. I shook that off as me and Shift rushed after her, who guided us to a rather steep cliff before going down it very, very slowly.

When we finally reached the place, we were greeted with a bunch of archeologists, adventurers, and a few other people. I said 'greeted us,' but it was more like they greeted Listoria and ignored me and Shift.

"Good morning, Lady Listoria." One of the archeologists said, bowing to Listoria, who waved it off.

"Come on! I already told you before, enough of the formalities." Listoria told them as she gave them a grin. "Just say, 'Yo! Lady Listoria! Wazzup?' or something like that." She said with crossed arms.

"You know I can't do that, Lady Listoria. You're the CPU after all." The archeologist said before they turned to us. "Oh. You're that person Listoria has been talking about… Sapphire, correct?" They said as they gave me a smile. "I'm the lead archeologist, it's nice to finally meet you."

I stared at them for a while, trying to process how I'm supposed to act before giving them a grin. "Ah! Yes! Nice to meet you!" I said, sounding very chirper as I put my hands on my hip. "And don't you worry about me! As long as the three of us are here, going through this dungeon will be a cakewalk!" I added with a lot of enthusiasm.

"I-I see…" The lead archeologist, before being confused, looked around. "Wait… Did you say three?" They asked as they narrowed their eyes towards me. "Where's this third one you speak of?"

"Oh. She's right…" I looked around, trying to find Shift before feeling a small tug on my back. Looking over my shoulder, I saw my silver-eyed friend hiding behind my back. "Ah… Right… Sorry about her… She's pretty shy around new people." I said. "This is Shift everyone. She's a good friend of mine and would be helping us with exploring this temple." I said, giving them a huge grin. "She's a very capable adventurer, if you want to ask." I added.

"Yeah and she's also a C…" Listoria was about to say before I quickly grabbed the nearest rock and chuck it at her face. "Ow~! What was that for~?" She exclaimed, rubbing her head.

"Um… Could I pull Listoria away for a second? And Shift? Could you also come with us?" I asked the people, not waiting for an answer before I grabbed the white-haired girl and dragged her away from earshot with Shift in tow. "Were you about to…?"

"Say she's a CPU? I mean… yeah? Wait… She isn't like…" Listoria pointed at me and then pointed at Shift, then back at me, to where I nodded slowly. "Ah… Whoops! Never really pay attention to stuff about the other nations." She said as she scratched her head. "So wait… Both of you are literally keeping the same secret from your own nations?" She asked, frowning at me.

"Yup. Both mostly for different reasons… I think…?" I tilted my head to the side, trying to remember Shift's reason for keeping her human form a secret from people outside her Basilicom.

Shift nodded in agreement. "No one really knows thi me unless I'm Dual Heart, and I rather keep it that way." She whispered before looking around, seeing if anyone was eavesdropping, then sighing.

"Oh… I see… I see…" Listoria muttered, nodding up and down as she rubbed her chin. "Okie dokie! I think I understand now! Probably! Something to do with the past or something…" She exclaimed. "Anywho! Let's go back and finish this up so we can eat some pies!" She then rushed even before we said anything.

We both look at each other with a face that sys, 'She… doesn't understand a single thing… huh…' before shrugging it off and running after Listoria I heard something moving behind me. I turned my back to see that nobody was there.

'Must have been the wind…' I thought to myself, though keeping the suspicions in the back of my mind. 'But just to make sure I might tell someone here to look out for anyone suspicious…' I then stretched out my arms before walking back to the huge group of people that suddenly surrounded Listoria when we got back, still talking about things that I genuinely didn't really care about.

"Sappy… Do you want to join them?" Shift asked, seeing that Listoria is now hyping the crowd. "It looks like they're having fun…" She added, observing the crowd from a distance.

"No… Not really… I'll let Listoria have her fun before we go in…" I answered with crossed arms and a frown. "I'm not really the type to hype up a crowd or talk to a group of people…"

"I understand that… Seeing that you would always be in the background no matter what we do…" Shift said, scratching her chin. "It's more like you're watching over someone than anything…"

"Yeah… Something that I've been doing almost all the time… By choice…" I told her as I closed my eyes with a frown. "Never really like taking the spotlight from someone. Just like seeing what that person can do before I jump in." I said, opening my eyes and turning to her. "That and I… wanted to see how you and the others change overtime… without me meddling…" I added.

"I see…" Shift muttered before giving me a kind smile. "So all those times you watched me, you just wanted to see me grow…" She said before tilting her head. "Wait… Is that why you're so confused about Listoria?" She asked.

"Y-Yeah…? Maybe…?" I answered, seemed very confused by that question. "It's something I always wonder about her… how she rarely changes… Not sure why… Never really asked…" I said, staring at the said girl in thought, who then waved us down. "Oh. She's ready now. Let's go." I said before we then walked over to Listoria.

"Now then ladies!" Listoria exclaimed, putting her hands on the sides theatrically and put on a very huge smile. "Since we head into dangerous territory, we should stay on high alert to not get caught in traps. And solve any sort of puzzle that the temple asks of us." She told us.

"I see… Okay!" I said simply before turning to the people here. "Oh and make sure you guys keep yourself safe. There might be monsters nearby." I told them, who then quickly waved it off.

"We know. Fought a few before you guys came in." One of the adventurers said, scratching the back of his head and smiled at me. "So don't need to worry about us, okay? Little lady." They added, sounding like he was trying to hit on me.

"Hehe… You're funny… But sorry… I'm already taken!" I exclaimed, seeing that person's mouth just drop. "Either way, shall we get going?" I asked Shift and Listoria, who seemed to stare at me in shock.

Listoria just blinked her eyes twice before giving me a rather huge laugh. "Okie dokie! Then let's head in ladies! I'll lead!" She exclaimed, leading the way in with both of us following.

As we went into the temple, Listoria lightly elbowed me with a smile. "So~! You finally got yourself a lover, huh~?" She then gave me a very smug look. "So… Who is it?" She asked, seeing that Shift looking at me with interest.

"Well…I lied! I don't really have a special someone…" I told them, giving them a rather sheepish smile and a light blush.

"Oh~? But that blush tells me something else…!" Listoria said, wiggling her eyebrows. She then narrowed her eyebrows, seemingly trying to read. "Oh~! You have a crush on some… Ow!" She exclaimed from that quick bonk to the head that I gave her.

"Can we please drop it?" I asked, seeing the white-headed girl rubbing her head. "I kind of don't want to talk about it here…" I said, looking away as a bigger blush formed on my face.

"Yeah… Not when we're going into what is seemingly a dungeon filled with traps…" Shift said with a frown before it softened to a small smile. "But it will be interesting to hear who's this crush of yours…" She added, though I'm not exactly sure if she knows who this someone is.

"Um… y-yeah… I guess…" I answered, looking at the white-haired girl. "Either way…! Listoria? You know more traps than the both of us. So you lead the way!" I said, crossing my arms and a smile.

"Jeez… why does it feel like you're using me as a meat shield…?" Listoria muttered before shrugging it off as we walked further in. "Oh and by the way, there's a trap in a few…" She was about to say as I stepped on a pressure plate. "…steps…" She continued.

"E-Eh…?" I looked down before I felt like I was being yanked by the back of my skirt. "Eep!" I squeaked as I tried to wiggled my way out. "Get this thing off me!" I exclaimed.

"And this is why I don't wear skirts…" Listoria muttered under her breath. "Stop wiggling around so I can get that hook off of you…" Listoria said before she walked around me. "White panties… I see…" She said out loud, seemingly nodding to herself.

I immediately blushed as I covered myself. "If you have time for that, then get this thing off me!" I yelled at her.

"Okay okay… Just don't move." Listoria said as she slowly removed the hook for me. "There we go…! You okay, Sapphire?" She asked.

"Mmh… Is there a hole in my skirt?" I asked, patting the back of my skirt as I tried to feel for the hole. "Y-Yep… I can feel it now…" I muttered, touching the hole on my skirt.

"Sappy… It's not that bad…" Shift said, looking at the hole. "At least it's not higher up, right?" She added, frowning a bit.

"Yeah… I guess… But… Listoria?" I then turned to the white-haired girl, trying not to glare at her. "Could you warn us when the next trap is coming before we step on it?" I asked, seeing that she was thinking for a while.

"Yeah yeah… I'll keep an eye out for any traps… Don't want to come back with a Sappy-kebab…" Listoria said, shrugging it off. "Either way, let's head in further… Ooh… Wonder what kind of treasure we have here…?" She muttered as she headed in, with both of us following after her.

I sighed under my breath. "I can never understand her personality…" I muttered quietly to the point that no one could even hear me. We were looking around, being cautious of our surroundings.

There were a few confusing things about this temple, like it almost felt every step was something different. Like swing blades and pitfalls is one thing, but dragon-shaped flamethrowers were something a bit weird for me. This was also a bit surprising to Shift, seeing that some of this stuff was things she never really seen in her own nation.

But this temple felt like we were walking around aimlessly, almost like a maze of sorts. Though in actuality, it seemed like an actual maze. It sort of makes me wonder what sort of treasure would have someone make a temple like a maze.

"Wait…!" Listoria exclaimed, stopping us both in front of a long hallway with a bunch of tiles that were faded in color. She kneeled down, checking the floor for any traps and then stood up to walk to the wall on the left side before smirking. "Hmm… Okay! Follow what I do and you'll be fine!" She then looked back, analyzing the floor for a little bit before stepping one tile on the far left. After that, she took careful steps on each tile, careful not to step on the wrong tile until she reached the end of the hallway. "There we go! Got that memorized, you two?" She asked.

"Um… Yeah! I think so?" I said before looking towards Shift. "Shift? Could you go before me? Since um…" I looked down, not wanting to admit that I completely forgot the path Listoria took.

"Sure. I got her path memorized… Watch…" Shift said before I watched her taking a certain path, jumping to each tile until she also reached the other side. Of course, seeing it for the second time made me realize that it was a big gap to jump. "Okay! Now it's your turn!" She called out to me on the other side.

"Yeah! It's gonna be pretty disappointing for you to mess up." Listoria exclaimed with a teasing smile.

I silently groaned under my breath as I quenched the want of chucking something at Listoria as I jumped over to each tile, remembering the specific path that Shift took. But seeing how large the gap was in between jumps, I knew that I would somehow mess up at some point. My heart was practically beating, like it was screaming at me to not mess up.

However, fate seemed to want to laugh at my suffering as I tripped and fell on the wrong tile, pressing my face against it. I stared at the tile and then looked at Listoria and Shift. "Whoops~!" I said with a rather nervous smile.

And after looking around, wondering what is going to happen next. "Uh… Is something supposed to…?" I was about to ask before a door opened above me and a wave of blue liquid spilled out, giving me no time to think as it flooded the hallway, carrying all of us to the next room.

As it went away, Shift was the first to speak up. "Sappy…? Listoria…? Are you alright?" She asked in a worried tone.

"Y-Yeah… I'm alright…" I spoke up, trying to open my eyes, but the blue liquid got in the way, stinging my eyes a bit. As I slowly opened them, I saw both Shift and Listoria covered in this blue liquid, with hair and clothes being drenched with it.

"Wow… Sapphire… You really messed up this one…" Listoria muttered before taking off her hat and shaking the blue liquid off. "At least this is too bad… or else we would have been turned into kebabs…" She said rather jokingly.

'Just shut up already…' I thought to myself before I decided to smell myself, feeling like this smell was something very familiar. "This is Dogoo slime… Ew…" I muttered, closing my nose. 'I'm… gonna have to take a bath after… But still…' I thought with a groan.

"I feel you, Sappy… Getting the smell off is really hard…" Shift muttered, seemed like she was reading my thoughts as she sniffed herself, recoiling right after that.

However, Listoria seemed unfazed by this as she stood up and immediately did some quick stretches. "Jeez… This really sucks… At least it's not the dissolving one…" She muttered.

"The… what now?" Shift asked, looking at Listoria a bit confused. "What do you mean by dissolved…?" She then narrowed her eyes, looking at her almost quizzically.

"I mean the ones that could dissolve your clothes, obviously!" Listoria answered, making Shift blushed a little as she looked at her clothes panically. "Don't worry! The green ones are the only ones that do that! Your clothes are fine!" She reassured Shift before noticing that she was sighing with relief. "Oh? Is this the first time you have heard of this?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.

Shift then thought for a while before nodding slowly. "Well… I've never seen a green Dogoo before… It's usually the blue or the red ones that I see…" Shift said, frowning. "Green Dogoos that can dissolve your clothes sounds really scary." She said, seeing that she shivered a little.

"Yeah… but they're pretty rare, even back when we were young." I spoke up, giving a rather thoughtful look as I tried to remember if I ever encountered one. "You'll be lucky to find just one of them… Not in the cold though, from what I heard…" I said before shaking my head. "Either way, maybe it's a good time to at least rest for a little bit before going ahead any further… Because…" I stretched my arms out. "Trekking this place feels like an hour!" I exclaimed before sitting down on the floor, tucking my legs under me.

"Yeah… I think my legs are getting tired…" Shift muttered before squatting as she then frowned, looking a bit uncomfortable. She then looked at the ground before sitting down, putting her legs close to her chest.

However, instead of sitting down, Listoria then looked along the wall before leaning against it. "So… what do you guys want to talk about…?" She asked, making us look at her confused. "Oh come on! I need at least someone to talk to!" She exclaimed, giving us a really fake pout.

"Oh… Um… I guess I'll start first…" I spoke up, catching everyone's attention. "What's your first impression of me?" I asked, giving me weird looks. "Ah… Sorry… That thought sort of just popped in my head." I added, seeing them to somewhat understand as I looked expectantly.

"Hmm… I guess you were a pretty weird one back then. A bit sadistic too…" Listoria said before chuckling off awkwardly, like she is trying to pivot back to saying something nice. "But I think you're nice overall and pretty fun to be around… I guess…" She added before she then smiled nervously.

"Are you talking when we first met or…" Shift asked, seeing I nodded immediately. "Umm… When we first met, you were actually very quiet… Always hiding behind someone or covering your face with that bunny plush you had… Not that I could blame you…" She said, muttering that last part. "You were a lot younger back then too… And around my height as well…" Her voice then trailed off, seeing Listoria stared at her, mouth agape. "W-What…?" She asked, tilting her head.

"Sapphire… Quiet…? No way…! That's impossible…! She's very loud from my experience." Listoria said with a small frown. "I mean… there were a few times, but there is no way that she's that quiet and that short…" She added.

"Haha… Yeah… I was surprised when I met her again and how chirpy she is and that she actually grew up…" Shift then frowned before she turned to me. "Actually… wait… you never really told me how you grew up since I don't think a CPU could do that." She said, looking at me strangely.

I stared at Shift for a while. "It's probably because… I disconnected myself from my Shares…" I said, saying the last part rather quietly. Shift and Listoria looked at me with both surprise and shock. "However~! I have no clue how it happened~!" I said with a rather cheerful, yet air-headed look. "One day, I was able to feel my Shares. And the day after, I couldn't feel them anymore!" I continued.

"Woah… so… how long did you stay like that…?" Listoria asked, as she seemed very interested in what I was saying since she stopped leaning on the wall and stared at me expectantly.

"Well…" I thought for a little while, internally counting how many years I've been disconnected from my Shares. "About seven years or so…" I said, frowning a little, seeing how shocked both Shift and Listoria were.

"SEVEN YEARS!?" Listoria exclaimed, mouth agape as she stared at me with widened eyes. "I can't live without my Shares for that long. Nuh uh! No way! No can do! That's impossible, bucko!" She said, shaking her head very violently.

"Ahaha… You'll be surprised how much that didn't affect me…" I told her before thinking about something else. "Though I was able to regain it through two people… And one of them was someone Shift met just recently…" I said, looking towards Shift, who at first stared at me in confusion before thinking about it for a while before nodding. "And the other one was a friend named Kurogami! Or Kuro for short." I smiled before noticing Listoria was giving me a funny look.

"Seriously? Kurogami? What kind of name is that?" Listoria asked before narrowing her eyes.

"Well… It was a nickname I gave her… Since her hair was black, I called her that." I said before looking off to the side. "Even though it was pretty obvious that she didn't like it…" I muttered under my breath before looking back up and giving them a smile. "I never really got her real name though… The reason why she couldn't say her name is… complicated for some reason… I think…" I said as my smile turned into a frown, before noticing Shift giving me a really weird look. "What?" I asked, giving a weird look back.

"Um… Sorry if this sounds weird, but I never really see this Kurogami whenever we visit you…" Shift said, frowning a bit as she crossed her arms in thought.

I looked at her like she was saying something weird before realizing what she meant. "Oh! It's probably because she usually goes home before then." I told her, giving a huge smile back. "She mostly hangs out with us. Though she used to play pranks on people who would harass me for some reason… But she was nice and was funny to be around… and ." I said before that bright smile turned into a sadder one. "But the last time I ever interacted with her was when I regained my CPU powers… And after that, she just disappeared…" I then immediately waved it off with a cheerful smile. "Ah! Sorry! I'm sure she's fine!" I quickly added.

"I… see… That's…" Shift muttered in thought before shaking her head. "Was there anything else about her?" She asked, almost sounding interested.

"Um… well…? Like I mentioned before, she was very much a prankster, kind of like you Listoria, but her pranks or traps are a bit on the crueler side… But even though she's a mischievous person on the outside, she was quite a tsun back then… You would know how much she did care about others… even if those people she cared about are people I'm close with…" I giggled to myself before smiling nostalgically, remembering every single victim Kuro came across. "Even though we would hang out, she stood by my side and supported me in her own unique way…" I continued on before giggling again. "But if she heard me say these kinds of things, she would blush and get mad at me…" I added.

"Ooh~! A prankster? And a tsun too~? Sounds like a great combination, if you ask me! Listoria said in a rather sarcastic way. "Though it sounds like she died a long time ago… so… damn… Wish I could have met her… Sounds like a fun person." She added, frowning to herself.

"I know… I'd like to meet them." My multi-colored haired friend said, sounding a bit disappointed. "Because I only saw you, Histoire, and Murasaki…." She slowly got that last part out as she saw my smile turned to a frown. "Oh… Sorry… That was a very touchy subject for you…" She quickly apologized.

"I-It's alright… Just don't mention her around me…" I said with a sigh before seeing Listoria looking at me with great curiosity. "Yeah?" I asked.

"So… Who is this Murasaki?" She asked, which made me flinch a little. "What is she like? Is her hair purple? And…?" The more she continued on, the more my glare became ferocious. She only stopped when she noticed I was glaring daggers at her. "Woah woah woah! You look like you're about to murder someone right now!" She exclaimed as she looked at me with shock.

"Um… I think we should stop for right now…" Shift said with a rather worried tone before looking towards me. "I'm sorry that I accidentally brought her up." She apologized again.

This made me blink twice before waving it off with a smile. "Like I said, it's alright." I said, giving her my cheerful look. "Just… no…" I shook my head, my cheerful look turned to a sadden one.

But this got Listoria even more curious. "So… Uh… Why do you want to avoid mentioning this Murasaki?" She asked, giving me a weird look. "Is there any reason or…?"

"Um… No reason… Just don't like to mention her…" I quickly lied before immediately waving it off with my hand before quickly standing up. "Actually! I think we had enough time for resting…! We should go a bit further." I said, feigning another smile, which Listoria stared at me for a bit before frowning a bit.

"But Sapphire~! I want to know more about you~!" Listoria exclaimed as she grinned very sarcastically. I wanted to roll my eyes because I know she's not being serious, but I stopped myself.

"I'm… going to agree with Sapphire… We're on a quest to retrieve whatever this thing is…" Shift spoke up, acting very mature. "We should hurry before the sun sets, okay?"

To that, Listoria just groaned at us. "Jeez… You both sound like two Keis trying to hammer my own head…" She muttered, shaking her head. "Yeah yeah… Whatevs… Just need to do my job as a CPU…" She then groaned and trudged ahead, looking away from me as I rolled my eyes.

We went back trekking through the temple, avoiding traps and solving these weird puzzles like there is one where we had to light up a grid of crystals by just turning on three. It was a little annoying since we tried turning on three different ones and not all of them turned on. We tried different combinations, until we got the correct combination of top right, middle, and bottom middle. But solving that made me really want to smack my head against a nearby wall.

But when we were doing that, I felt someone or something was watching us. Actually, I felt it was the same one from way earlier when we were outside of the temple. That sort of presence felt like they were just watching us, not doing anything at all, just waiting for whatever it is they're waiting for.

Listoria tapped me on the shoulder."Yo~! Sapphire~! What's up?" Listoria exclaimed and I thought she was going to make a joke but it seemed that she just wanted to check up on me. "You keep looking behind us. Is there something wrong?" She asked.

"Shhh…" I said before summoning out my gun before turning around and pointing it in multiple directions in the hallway, not sure where this person could be. "I know you're out there… Show yourself…" I called out to this person.

"Um… Sappy… There's no one there…" Shift spoke up, sounding reasonably confused at the moment. She seems to be looking where I'm looking at, but not sure what I'm seeing.

"Yeah… Are you sure you're not imagining it?" Listoria asked, sounding really clueless right now.

I, however, shook my head. "No… There has to be… There's no way I imagined that…" I said, narrowing my eyes, looking for any sort of disturbance. "I'm not sure if this mystery person exists… but…" I sighed to myself. 'I guess I have to use my abilities again…' I thought before refocusing my eyes to 'see' whoever was there. And then I saw a flame and an outline of a person down the corridor. "I found you!" I exclaimed before pointing my gun and pulling the trigger.

That person flipped backwards to dodge that bullet before I immediately rushed them and kicked them in the stomach when they landed on their feet, hearing a small grunt. "Don't move." I said, immediately pointing the gun directly at this person, seeing that their outline had their hands up. "Turn off whatever's cloaking you and show your face. Don't do any funny business." I ordered, shoving the gun in their face, reminding them of their current situation.

I watched as the outline of this person slowly moved their hand down to their hips and seemingly turned this cloaking device off, showing us their face. With sharp and cold turquoise eyes covered by an eyepatch over her right one belongs to a girl with black hair wearing what seemed to be a black military uniform with a matching skirt and combat boots.

Shift immediately gasped at the reveal of this girl. "So there was someone following us…!" She said, looking at her very cautiously.

"Woa woah woah…! Now that's an unexpected turn of events." Listoria exclaimed in shock. "It's like watching one of those spy movies…"

I, however, was shocked for a different reason. 'A girl…? She looks so young… why…?' I shook that thought off before scanning at her, noticing that she had two guns at her side. "Toss those weapons as far as you can As well as anything else you have…" I said, pushing my gun into her face again.

She stared at me for a while before moving the gun on her left side and tossing it as far as she could. "Now the other one… Toss it." I said, motioning the order with my gun. But as she slowly moved her hand to her other gun, she quickly moved her other hand to her back and tossed whatever it was at my face, forcing me to step back to avoid it.

"Sappy! Watch out!" I heard Shift exclaim, noticing that the girl had a gun at the ready before pulling the trigger.

'Damn…!' I thought before quickly moving out the way of the bullet, just nearly avoiding it. 'That was close… Way too close…' I shook it off before pointing my gun at the girl. "Who are you? Which nation do you belong to? Planeptune? Lowee? Lastation? Leanbox? The PC Nation?" I asked.

The girl was silent for a while before opening her mouth to speak. "Unlike you, I have no name. Nor do I have anywhere I could return to." She said simply. "We are drifters. Nothing more than that."

"Huh…? What the what…? You don't have a name nor a place to return to? What kind of insane plot have I gotten myself into this time?" Listoria said out loud. "Either way, are you like a stalker or something?" She asked, joking around for a bit.

"I think spy or assassin is a better guess, Listoria." Shift said before turning rather serious, her eyes narrowing.

Assassin… You could… say that…" The girl mused, as I noticed a tone in her voice sounds very tired or even dulled out. "But it no longer matters who I am… What matters now is my direct orders." She said, staring me down with cold dead eyes.

"Orders? From who? What were their orders?" I asked, staring back at her with a serious look as to not give away the fact I was nervous or being very cautious.

"Where I come from is the Order and my orders are to see the rumors of a blue-haired girl following Lastation's CPU was in fact a CPU herself and…" She then paused, noticing that bit her lip. "… to kill at least one of you."

"The Order? I heard about your group from rumors… They're that mercenary group that wage wars on others… Ones that would start a war just to profit off of them… correct…?" I said with a frown. 'But what does killing us have to do with anything with what they strived to do…' I thought.

"Woah… An assassin from this Order thing being ordered to kill us? Who would have expected that?" Listoria said very sarcastically. 'Either way, good luck with that, bud. There's no way you can kill us CPUs… right…?" She said, sounding very confident.

'If she's being smart about it, then maybe…" I thought before frowning a little at the girl. I looked closely at her eyes, reading her expression. 'Everyone is an open book… huh…' I closed my eyes, thinking about what I'm about to say next. "Okay… but can you really kill one of us with those eyes?" I asked, catching everyone off guard.

The girl then narrowed her eyes. "Meaning?" She asked, sounding like she was genuinely confused by my question.

"Like do you have the killing intent to back up those words? Or are they just orders given to you by your superiors?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. "From the events leading up to where we are now, I don't think so. You already failed your direct orders. You didn't even kill one of us when you had the chance." I said, sounding like I'm essentially chastising her. "As a certain redhead once said, what good is a weapon when there's no intent behind its user?" I asked, frowning.

I see the girl bite her lip again, looking down to the ground before giving me a sympathetic look. "I may receive them, but I can't disobey them. Should I disobey them, the chip in my brain will kill me." She said before she readied her gun. "I'm truly sorry."

'So she can't choose for herself… That's kind of sad… But…' I shook my head before looking back. "Guys… Ready your weapons, we have to fight." I said before pointing my gun at her. "If we don't, we might…"

"Sappy… No need… I understand…" Shift answered before summoning out her Dual Blade. "But we shouldn't hurt her… We need to knock her out…" She whispered to me, not letting the girl hear her.

"Yeah yeah… Let's do it…" Listoria said in a rather tired voice before summoning out her whip. "Just tell to not cry when we beat her." She then did a few stretches before turning to me. "By the way Sapphire, what's that personality swa…"

"Alright… Let's do this!" I immediately interrupted Listoria, readying myself to fight.


And that's all for now! Hope you really enjoy this chapter because writing this one is something I just put my time into. Sorry to cut it short because I kind of want to really write a good fight scene.

And if you can already guess, yes. I put K-Sha in this fanfic and being the first Gold Third to appear in Sapphire's dimension. And I sort of the reason I put her here is because I sort of got into Metal Gear… ehe… So expect some reference somewhere.

Either way, That's what I have for now! Please Review and Stay Safe!