Chapter 16: The Girl with The Gun
The girl started the fight by firing her gun, as we immediately took cover behind the pillars that happened to be there, me taking the left pillar and Shift and Listoria taking the right pillar. Unfortunately, the girl also took cover behind the pillar across from me.
I tried to look over to try and take a shot, only for her to fire her gun at me again. 'Damn… We'll be sitting ducks here if we don't do something…' I thought with a frown as a strange thought crossed my mind. 'No… I don't need to use my abilities… I want to finish my fights my own way… Not using cheats…' I then looked towards Listoria, thinking of a plan to get us out of this mess.
"Uh… Sapphire…? Why are you looking at me?" Listoria asked before giving me a devious smirk. "Oh. I know! You're trying to check me out while we fight! I know I know… I have a cute bod and–!" She said, rubbing her chin.
"Nope! Just thinking about a plan to subdue this girl!" I said, smirking back at her. "And after thinking for a bit, I got nothing right now. Do you have a plan on how we can take her down?" I asked.
"I got nothing." Listoria immediately said with a shrug. "Unless you're still thinking about one right now."
"Hmm… This will be difficult." I muttered, looking at Shift. "Do you have some sort of plan we can use?" I asked.
"Nope. I have nothing too." She answered before thinking about it for a bit. "But I think we should try and distract her with something. Something makes her lose her guard." She immediately suggested, trying her best to keep it between us three.
'Something that will make her lose her guard.' I thought before groaning to myself. 'Ah! Screw it!' I then move to rush the girl, trying to catch her off guard. It didn't faze her as she kept shooting. So I have tried to dodge her bullets to the best of my ability in this form; and some did graze me and it stunged. Knowing that I couldn't faze her and I could get hit even more, I immediately rushed back to cover.
"Sappy! What were you thinking!?" Shift scolded me as I went back. "You could have gotten hurt!" She added with concern.
"Sorry. I thought I could catch her off guard. But apparently, she was probably trained not to fall under pressure." I told her with a frown. "We really are sitting ducks here." I muttered under my breath. "Hmm… Actually, Listoria? Could you get her talking?" I asked, trying not to catch the girl's attention.
"Uhh. Why?" Listoria asked, with a tilt of her head. "Ooh~! I know. You got a plan!" She exclaimed, pointing at me.
"Yep. Well… Sort of. Just keep her talking or try to distract her from me. I'll think of something." I said before looking around my surroundings before closing my eyes and started to think.
Meanwhile, I can hear Listoria talking to her, but it was stuff that I could barely understand. "Hey, Eyepatch! Yeah you! Why don't you put that down and roast some marshmallows around a bonfire outside?" She asked.
After she said that, the girl immediately shot at her. "Woah woah woah! Not the talkative kind, huh." Listoria spoke to her cheerfully, peeking out of the pillar again. "Well well well! I guess we can call you, SilentShooterX–" She then immediately got shot at again.
"Stop. Talking." The girl said, seeing that she was literally pointing her gun at the white-haired CPU.
"Woah buddy! I just wanna talk to you!" Listoria said, waving her arms.
I just rolled my eyes at this. 'Yeah. Just do what you do best… Talking for no reason…' I thought before noticing something I hadn't noticed when I first rushed her. 'Got it!' I thought, standing up before looking at Shift. "Shift? Could you use your ability and try to rush her? We'll be your support." I told her as quietly as possible.
"Huh? But Sappy… Why do you want to rush her again?" She asked with a bit of confusion.
"Just trust me on this. It's something I noticed when Listoria was talking to her." I told her with a reassuring smile.
Shift nods, trusting me, and rushes at the opponent. I then looked at Listoria, who was a bit confused for a bit before we followed behind Shift, giving as much support as we could, me moving in front to try and block some bullets. And at the very last second as the girl was quickly reloading, Shift split into two. Red attacked head on while Blue tried to hold her back from behind.
Red then moved into attack, putting her blade close to her neck. "Sappy! We got her!" Blue exclaimed, wrapping her arms around the girl's stomach and pulling her back.
However, the girl was struggling to pull Blue off of her; but with the blade being close to her throat, she could barely struggle. "Thanks, Blue. And thanks, Listoria." I said, turning to the white-haired girl.
"Uhh… Thanks? Wait… What did you figure out?" Listoria asked, looking very confused for a bit.
"Well…" I walked over to the girl, forcefully took the gun that was in her hand before examining it. "This gun seemingly needs to reload as the slide would probably get stuck after each shot." I said, looking from front and back.
"Ooh~! But it didn't look like that to me." Listoria said, tilting her head to the side before tilting it to the other side before shaking her head. "Argh! This is so confusing!" She exclaimed.
"Well, it's probably because she reloaded it pretty fast. Or I couldn't notice it when I rushed her." I told her with crossed arms. "But when you were talking to her, I noticed it. So uh… Yeah! Thanks for that!" I said with a wry smile.
"Oh! No problem, Sapphire!" Listoria exclaimed with a smile, putting her arms on her hip. And before she tried to boast about her accomplishments, I just tuned her out and turned to our assailant.
"And that was how you lost this fight." I said, staring at her with a neutral look in my eyes. "So please, give up, You don't have to fight anymore." I continued, seeing a resistance glare from the girl. "Jeez… I could tell that you don't want to give up…" I muttered with rolled eyes.
"Um… Sappy… Could you do something about her?" Blue asked, still trying to hold onto the girl, but barely. "It's kind of hard to hold on to her in this form…"
"Oh. Uhh… Does anyone have any rope?" I asked, turning between the three of us.
"Me! Me!" Listoria exclaimed, raising her hand before summoning out a rope in that said hand.
"Good." I then roughly grabbed the rope from Listoria before going to the girl's side. "Let's see here…" I murmured, grabbing both of the girl's hands from Blue and immediately tied her up. I made sure to double knot it so she can't escape.
"Well that was easy. I guess that's just another adventure of the CPU–" Listoria was then interrupted by the rock that was thrown at her head by me. "Okay. Where did you get that rock from?" She exclaimed, rubbing her head.
I rolled my eyes. "Don't jinx it just yet. We still have to disarm her and figure out what to do with her." I told her, patting the girl down shamelessly. "Hmm…" I hummed to myself. "Should we just strip her or something…?" I asked myself, looking for any sort of equipment.
"Ooh~! That's a very shameless idea! I like it!" Listoria exclaimed, giving me a smug look.
"Oh wait. Never mind. Found something." I said, pulling out a small knife from her sleeve. 'That was a sneaky one.' I thought before patting her sleeves, finding a lockpick, a weird looking card, and other weird stuff. "And I think that's it. Unless…" I patted her down again. "Nope. Nothing." I sighed.
"Sappy. Maybe you should check it again. Shift said, seeing that she was already fused back to her normal self. "We don't know if she has anything else on her body." She added.
"R-Right." I then patted her down again, making sure there isn't anything weird. "Yeah… I don't feel anything weird. Unless, we decide to actually strip her and look inside her clothes." I said, before shaking my head. "You know what? Never mind. I might as well do this." I then stared at the girl directly in her eyes before taking a deep breath.
"So… Do you want to be freed from that organization you're working for?" I asked all of a sudden. The girl just stared, like she was analyzing if I was lying to her or not. "And don't go mute on me. I want to hear you talk." I added.
The girl bit her lip before beginning to speak. "What is your game plan? You're not going to stab me in the back, aren't you?." She asked simply with a narrowed, not trusting eye.
"Nope! I do have a way I can free you and it sort of has to do with your um… chip in your head." I told her, pointing at the side of my own head. "Could you tell me about that chip? If your organization is not listening to us." I then tilt her head to the side.
"If they were, then they would have already killed me by now…" She told me with a frown. "But, they have this entire perimeter surrounded by flying shuttles. If one even spots me, I'll be good as gone." She then looked down, noticing that she looked rather hopeless.
"Chin up. Don't lose hope just yet." I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. "I'm going to get you out of this mess. You just have to trust me with this." I assure her, not sure if these are the right words I should say. "Just tell me about that chip in your head."
The girl then stared at me before nodding very slowly. "Okay. It basically shocks my brain enough to kill me. They just need to press a button and I'm done for" She said as she pointed at the left side of her brain.
"I see… And what if you're already dead? What happens to the chip?" I asked.
The girl stared at me weirdly before shrugging. "From what I know, the chip will be permanently turned off. Even if I'm somehow revived, it will still be turned off and kept in a 'dead' state." She explained thoroughly.
"That's interesting. If that's the case, then this is going to be pretty easy and very risky." I told her with a reassuring look. 'I don't like using this, but…' I thought before closing my eyes.
"And that is…?" The girl asked, looking at me very quizzically while narrowing her eyebrows.
"I could use my ability to… well… trick your physical body into thinking it's dead." I told her with a frown. "My ability is…"
"Wait. What the what?" Listoria looked at me with a really confused look. "You have an ability!?" She exclaimed in shock, while Shift narrowed her eyes..
"Listoria. Shush. I'm explaining something to her right now." I said, turning to her with a glare before looking back at the girl. "Either way, my ability can practically trick you mind, body, and soul to make you do whatever that comes to mind." I told her before frowning. "But the reason why it's so risky is something to do with 'reviving' you. If I leave you like that for too long, you would, well, actually die. But how long depends how determined your 'soul' is on not dying."
"Hmm…" The girl hummed, looking down like she was thinking.
"I'll give you time to think about it for a while. I don't want you to be forced into something you don't want." I told her. "So don't make your decision immediately, okay?" I then gave her a smile before walking away for a bit and towards the others, who stayed away for a bit.
"Are you sure she would be okay?" Shift asked suddenly. "Because what it sounds like, it would be very risky." She added.
"Because it is. I… actually haven't done something like this in a long time." I whispered to her while crossing my arms. "And that was years ago, so I'm not sure I can replicate it again or if it will trick the chip in her brain." I added.
"But you can do it, right?" Shift asked, seeing a slow nod from me.
"Yeah. Also I do have an idea of a place of how we can remove that chip from her brain because I don't want her to be stuck with that thing in her head." I said, looking at the girl. "I just hope we can trick them long enough so we can get her to that place." I then looked towards Listoria, who was very confused in this situation. "What? You just heard me explain my abilities to her." I asked.
"I know. I know." Listoria said rather sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. "But this is coming at me like an Isekai truck hitting multiple times! It's way too much to understand!" She then put hands on her sides.
"Okay…? I'll guess I have to walk you through it." I then heard the girl calling for me. "After I hear her decision." I then walked back to the girl. "So what's your decision?" I asked.
"I'll do it. Not that I had a choice either way." She told me with a frown. "Just promise me that you won't backstab."
"Don't worry. I promise." I said before letting out a sigh. "Okay. Let's get started, okay?" I then close my eyes, concentrating on a specific feeling, before opening my now glowing eyes. And after a second later, she immediately collapsed; making catch her in arms.
'Did it work?' I asked myself before checking to see if her soul had left her body. 'Oh thank goodness! It's still there…' I thought with a sigh of relief before checking her pulse.
"It worked. We have a few hours from now until I can reverse it." I then carry her over my shoulder. "Come on! Let's hurry and grab what we came here for." I looked over to Listoria and Shift.
"Huh…? Oh. Okay! Let's go!" Listoria exclaimed, seemingly snapping out of a weird trance while Shift nodded before we rushed down the hall.
We kept running and running, mostly because we didn't have time, not caring about the random traps we happened to activate and barely dodge it as a result. This kept on happening as all our clothes were being ripped until we reached a rather large door. It had a rather weird design, depicting five unknown people reaching out to a rather huge light.
While me and Shift were catching our breaths, "Big door? Check. Unknown lore written on it? Check. Yep! We finally found something." Listoria then turned to us with a smile.
"Aw… My clothes…" I muttered as I looked at myself, embarrassed at my state of dress. My sleeveless vest was slightly torn and my sleeveless jacket.
Shift was not much different, practically having her top ripped as well with her jacket in a similar state around her sleeves. "Mmm… My jacket…" She mumbled.
"Ooh… Yeah… That can happen when you rush in carelessly…" Listoria said, putting her hands on her hips even when her state of dress is similar to ours; ripped jacket, slightly ripped vest, and ripped high knee socks.
"Listoria… After we get back… I'm going to borrow your bath…" I told her as I resecure the girl on shoulder. "Well? Open the door." I asked.
Listoria was a bit surprised by my attitude before groaning slightly. "Jeez… Can't you be anymore demanding…" She muttered before she went up and started to pull the handles. "Eh? It won't open." She said before trying to make the doors budge.
"What?" I then walk up to it and pull on the door. It didn't budge, so I decided to push the door and it still didn't budge. "Huh. I guess we can't get it to open." I muttered.
"Um… Think we should just turn back now?" Shift asked, to which Listoria shook her head.
"What? No way! We're at the end!" Listoria exclaimed, turning to point at Shift. "And when we're at the end, we can get something out of it." She said with a smile. "So we should try and force it open!"
As I rolled my eyes, I heard something buzz somewhere within my inventory. 'Huh? What was that?' I thought before opening it up and searching through it. 'Oh. I forgot I pocketed this.' I then summoned out the diamond-shaped object before realizing it was glowing. "Eh? What the–!?" I exclaimed.
"Uhh… Sapphire? Where did you find that?" Listoria asked, pointing at the object in my hand. "Are you holding out on me while I wasn't looking?" She then put her hands on her hips with a fake pout.
"What? No! I just happened to find this yesterday and forgot about it!" I exclaimed, before feeling a strong pull on the object. "Woah!" I then immediately try to pull it back.
"Sappy! Why is it doing that?" Shift exclaimed, looking rather surprised. "Either way, you need to let go of it!" She instructed.
"U-Uh… Okay!" I then let go of it immediately as it flew out of my hand and into the air. It then floated in front of the door and started to spin around. And then it stopped with the gem facing towards the door.
Then a small beam immediately shot out from it. At first, nothing happened until the large door slowly opened for us and a bright light blind us. After the light faded, we were able to see what was behind the door.
It was a rather huge room with rather blackish-blue designs all over the wall that seemed to describe some sort of event. In the middle of the room was a bunch of stairs leading to a pedestal which had an object just floating on it. It was similar to what I had, but it looked like some sort of wing.
Speaking of the one I had, it then dropped on the floor, in which I walked over and picked it up. 'Huh… Didn't know it could do that… I think I hit the jackpot with this find…' I thought before shoving it back into my inventory.
"Woah… What was that?" Listoria exclaimed before looking at me. "Sapphire. I didn't know you found a key to this place!" She exclaimed with a slightly frustrated look on her face.
"I didn't. I mean… I kind of did… But still…" I tried to wrap my brain around why it was there in the first place. Out of all the things I've experienced in my many years of being alive, this was something that was very strange.
"This has to be a coincidence…"
Shaking my head, I walked over to climb up the steps, walking towards the pedestal and staring at the item closely. Like I noted earlier, it looked more like a wing from an insect or something. Similar to the item I carried, this one has a gem in the middle, which has a more blackish-blue color to it.
"Hmm…" I reached out to the item. I heard Listoria telling me to stop, but I already took it off the pedestal.
I turned around to see Listoria closing her eyes and being very careful about something. "Uhh… Is something supposed to happen?" She asked, opening her eyes and looking around.
"Listoria… I don't think real life would work like in those movies… I think…" I muttered before walking down the steps and towards my friends. "So, we're done here, right?" I asked, holding up the object in front of Listoria.
"Uhh… Yeah?" Listoria then looked at me really confused. "Okay! This is getting very jarring. What's with this quiet-acting Sapphire? What happened to the very chipper version?" She then pointed at Shift. "And why aren't you surprised about it?" She asked the young girl, who laughed awkwardly.
"Oh. Right. I'll probably explain that." I said with a shrug. "Anywho~! Since nothing is happening, let's head back~! Alright~?" I said in the most fake cheerful tone anyone has ever heard.
"And there's the Sapphire I know…!" Listoria exclaimed, pointing at me before being confused. She then shook her head because of the confusion. "Alright! Thinking about this more is getting more confusing! Let's head back to the Basilicom." She then marched away.
We then followed after her as Shift looked at me with worry. "Do you really want to tell her?" Shift asked.
"Yep. She kind of deserves to know… Well… kind of…" I muttered, looking at the white-haired girl before shrugging as we rushed our way back.
—
"Hmm… I see… So that's what happened…" Kei muttered, rubbing her chin as I explained what happened in that dungeon. "No wonder why you want me to keep that girl a secret." She then turned to me with narrowed eyes. "But I want to ask, why did you keep certain things about yourself a secret?" She asked.
"I have my reasons." I told her with a neutral stare and a slight frown.
Reasons? Pray tell. I want to hear it from your own mouth." Kei said, crossing her arms.
I sighed to myself, knowing I can't exactly escape this. "Well, I didn't feel like the usual me didn't feel very approachable or something like that." I said, closing my eyes. "That and I hate flexing my ability around people. And that's all."
"I see. And speaking about your ability, I can see why this Arfoire would probably be after you, if my theory is correct." She said, frowning. "That means she wants to topple the largest thing that is standing in her way."
"The largest thing standing in her way…" I repeated, thinking about it for a while. "I'm not sure about that because neither of us tried to 'end' the other…" I told her.
"Hmm… Then this Arfoire really is a very peculiar one." Kei muttered, crossing her arms like she's thinking about something.
"But we shouldn't worry about her, right?" Listoria exclaimed all of the sudden, having Kei's thoughts seemingly interrupted. "I mean… She's not gonna attack Lastation now, right?"
"I hope not." I said, turning to Listoria. "I rather not fight her right now after working up a sweat and…" I then looked at my clothes, seeing it torn up. "By the way, what's going on with the girl?" I asked Kei.
"Oh. Her? We transferred her to the hospital and they removed the chip in her head like you asked." She explained to me. "And recently, we've gotten a report that her heart started beating." She then frowned. "Which is strange given the mysterious nature of your ability."
"Oh. Right. I forgot to explain. There are two ways I can deactivate it." I said, holding two fingers up. "One is where I personally need to deactivate it and two is where they need to be far away from me and it will deactivate by itself." I further explained my abilities. "I think I can set distance myself, but I'm not really sure." I said.
"Not sure? Do you not know about your abilities?" Kei asked with a frown.
"Y-Yeah… I've never really tested the full extent of my abilities." I said, giving her a wry smile. "I just know what I can do with them." I told her simply. "Either way, enough about me. Let's talk about this." I said, holding the two objects I have in my hand.
"Oh. Right." Kei sighed to herself, crossing her arms as she looked at it closely. "Where did you find this again?" She asked.
"A junkyard. Guess I just got lucky." I said simply, holding up the diamond object in my hand.
"Yeah! That's just not even fair!" Listoria exclaimed with a pout, putting her hands on her hips.
"Quiet, Listoria." Kei shushed her, giving her a disapproving frown. "But are you sure you found that in a junkyard?"
"Yeah. Shift can vouch for me." I said, pointing at the said girl, who nodded in confirmation.
"I remember her showing it to us yesterday." Shift said, rubbing her chin. "And that was the least weirdest stuff I've seen back there. Most of it there is stuff you won't see nowadays."
"Hmm… Whatever it is. You should give them to me." Kei instructed me. "We need to analyze what we found and find out their true origin." She said, crossing her arms. "But assure you that we will give this information to you, with a price." She then smirked.
"Oh. Sure." I said indifferently before looking to the side. 'Not like I had any choice in the matter…' I thought before giving the pieces to Kei, having them overlapping each other. Then, as I was giving it to her, the pieces started to glow faintly in my hand which made both of us step back.
"Geez… What did you do this time?" Listoria exclaimed sarcastically, pointing at me with a frown.
"Eh? What? I didn't do anything! I–!" I exclaimed before hearing a rather weak voice. A voice I haven't heard in a very long time.
"Some… one… Any… one… Answer me…"
The rest of them were immediately taken aback by the voice coming out of nowhere. "Whoa… what the–!? What is this heavenly voice? Is it coming from those pieces?" Listoria asked herself.
"M-Must be…" Kei said, sort of losing her composure for a bit. "It's the only place it's coming from."
Meanwhile, Shift, who at first seemed to not recognize it at first, widened with shock after the voice seeped in. "No way… This can't be…"
'No way… no way… no way! I don't believe it…' I muttered, staring at the pieces. "Is that you… Histoire…?" I asked the voice.
"Yes. I'm… Hist… oire… Wh… y… do you… kno… w… my… na… me…"
After hearing her confirming that, I immediately lost all composure. "Histoire! It's me! Sapphire! Where have you been!? Where did you go after that day!? Please! Answer me!" I exclaimed, firing all my questions I wanted to ask her.
"Sapp… hire… So… it is you… So… rry… I couldn't rec… No… There's no time… Find them… Find the Key Fragments… In find… ing them… You… ca… n… fi… nd… me… and st… op… AS… IC… This is… all… I… can… sa…y…"
There was a small pause, before Histoire's voice spoke again.
"Sapp… hire… I'm… *static*… for wh*static*…ing that *static*en… ed… to *static*… Every*static*…"
Then the voice was immediately cut off. "Histoire? Hey! Histoire!" I exclaimed, shaking both the pieces in my hand. "Answer me! I still haven't said anything! Histoire! What did you want to say to me?" I stared at the pieces, waiting for some answer back. "Histoire…! Please…! Answer me!"
'I still haven't told you everything yet…'
And that's all for now! When I wrote the fight scene, it was a bit hard since I wanted to do so much, but couldn't come up with any.
So the rest was mostly just talking. Though one thing that is even harder is trying to remember what happened in the previous chapter or what I wrote. Maybe I should read my own stuff, but I'm not sure.
Either way, Please Review and Stay Safe!