Chapter 17: The Miracle She's Been Waiting For

Sapphire's Past:

"Hey. Histy? What is a mother?"

The young, blue-haired girl asked all of a sudden. Histoire, confused by the sudden question, didn't know how to explain this to her.

"Well, a mother is a female parent of a child. Why do you ask?" She asked a different question to the young girl.

"Because. Mmh…"

The girl frowned a little, looking rather uncomfortable about something. She was looking down, not sure what she should say. Something was definitely troubling her, but Histoire was not sure what.

"Sapphire? What's wrong?"

"Mmh…"

"Sapphire. I can't fix your problem if you don't tell me anything."

Sapphire, who was originally looking down, slowly looked up and asked another weird question.

"Do CPUs really don't have moms?"

"Huh?" Histoire was rather perplexed by this question, but she decided to give her a straightforward answer. "No. CPUs are born from Shares. So they really have parents to begin with."

This answer, however, made Sapphire look down with sadness. "So I really am di-fu-want…"

"Different? Who told you that?" Histoire asked, at least knowing what the girl was saying. But the young girl shook her head.

"No one… It's just that… seeing the other kids going home with their pa-went… They're a family… It makes me feel di-fu-want."

"But you have Murasaki, correct? She may not be considered to be a good role model for you, but at least she watches over you, right?"

"I-I know! But still. I don't want to feel that way." Sapphire said quietly.

Histoire frowned to herself, she knew that Sapphire was very different from her predecessors and she didn't know what she's supposed to say to her. However, she'll tell her one thing.

"You do have one."

"Huh?"

"You have me, Murasaki, and that Kuro girl that hangs out with you. Isn't that enough?" Histoire asked. "Family doesn't mean that you need to have "real" parents. And they don't have to be related. They're people you want to surround yourself with, care about you, support you, guide you, and stick by you to the very end. Do you understand that?"

Sapphire stared at Historie, not completely understanding at the moment. But after a while of letting the gears in her mind turn, the girl slowly nodded. "R-Right… But could you promise me something?"

"What is it?"

"Could we say the phrases, 'I'm home!' and 'Welcome back!' when one of us comes back?"

Histoire stared at her for a while before smiling at her, liking the sound of that.

"Sure, Sapphire. I'd love that."

–

Back to the present:

Listoria stared at Sapphire sitting on the floor of Listoria's private quarters while staring at these Key Fragments in her hands for who knows how long since she heard this "Histoire's" voice. Even when she's going into a guest room to clean herself up, those pieces never left her side.

"Jeez… How long has she been staring at those Key whatnots?" Listoria muttered to herself before looking at Shift. "And like who even is this Histoire anyways?"

Shift frowned, not sure how to even answer the white-haired girl. "I don't know too much about Histoire, but basically she's a tome in the form of a fairy on a book." She explained, trying to remember what she knew about Histoire. "From what I remember, she basically knew everything about Gamindustri. Right from the very beginning."

"Ooh~! Really~! My history senses are tingling~!" Listoria said with a smile, before looking at Shift with confusion again. "But wait, how does Sapphire know about her?"

Shift shrugged to herself. "Well, I'm not entirely sure what their relationship is… I can take a few guesses from how they interacted before, but she never really described what their relationship was like other than the fact she was her Oracle." She said in a quiet tone.

"You're not sure? Well, let me go ask her then." Listoria exclaimed before stomping over to Sapphire, not hearing the fact that Shift is trying to warn her.

She then gave her a small tap on shoulder. "Yoohoo! Sapphire~! Is anyone in there?" Listoria saying this while yelling into her ear.

"Huh!? Wh-!?" Sapphire blink twice before looking at Listoria. "Oh. It's you." She said with a straight face.

"What's with that reaction?" Listoria asked before shaking her head. "Either way, what is your relationship with this Histoire?"

"My relationship? Why do you want to ask that?" Sapphire asked with narrowed eyes.

"Out of curiosity."

"I see." She then smirked in a very scary way. "If you did some work in your life, then maybe I will tell you."

"Huh!? No fair!" Listoria exclaimed angrily. "I don't wanna–" She then noticed the really scary aura exuding from the blue-haired girl's body.

"You don't wanna what?" Sapphire asked, sounding almost angry.

"I'm just gonna go back to what I'm doing." Listoria said, before backing away from the obviously angry girl and walking back to Shift. "What's wrong with her?"

"W-Well, when she gets like this, she doesn't want anyone to bother her." Shift said with a rather nervous expression. "I-I think she will go back to her usual self in the next few hours."

"Why do you know about that?" Listoria asked.

"It wasn't from first hand experience. But I saw one of my employees try to bug her in that state." She said, looking off to the side nervously. "Let's just say that they somehow got away unscathed."

"A-Ah. So she's as violent as a Fenrir." The white-haired girl laughed nervously. "Strange. She never does this when she comes here."

"Oh. She's not like that here?" Shift asked with a frown.

Listoria shakes her head. "Nope! She rarely gets mad at others. Though I wonder if Sapphire was really acting all of that or is she really that clumsy?"

"Hm? You said something, Listoria?" Sapphire asked all of the sudden as she stood up.

"Nothing~!"

"Huh. I see." She then puts away the Key Fragments in pocket. "Either way, I'm keeping these. They're the key in finding Histoire."

"Uh huh. And how are these Key whatever-they're-called gonna find this Histoire?"

"Don't know." She frowned. "But I have to find them. No matter what." She looks in thought for a while.

"Um. Sapphire. I might be able to help." Shift spoke up. "I could ask the Guild in my nation to look for something like that. Can't guarantee it will work."

"No. You don't have to. You have done more than enough for me. You don't need to get involved with that."

"Um. I don't know if you could hear. But Histoire said that she can help stop ASIC completely." Shift said as she crossed her arms. "So I'm helping. Whether you like it or not."

Sapphire stared at her for a little before sighing to herself. "Fine. Just do whatever you want." She shrugged. "Just don't go overboard." She told the young-looking girl, who then nodded.

"What about me? I can help." Listoria asked, pointing to herself.

"You? I guess you can start by doing your paperwork every now and then." Sapphire said, giving her a mischievous smirk.

"Boo~! You're not fun~!" Listoria pouted angrily. "What happened to the other Sapphire? Give her back."

Sapphire just rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah. Whatever you say kiddo." She then stretched out her arms. "Never thought this would happen in my lifetime, but at least nothing bad is gonna happen in the next five minutes."

And in the next five minutes, they heard an explosion coming from outside.

"We're looking for the CPU of Planeptune!"

Sapphire just stared at where that obnoxious voice was coming from and just sighed. "Just my luck." She muttered under her breath.

"Um. We should probably check it out. Right?" Shift asked, before looking at Sapphire. "Who are they? And why are they looking for you specifically?"

"Just some people I would win by default." Sapphire replied, looking rather uninterested. She then stretched out her arms and yawned. "I don't want to face those people today. Could you two go ahead of me? I'll join you in a bit. Oh and just go HDD on them. No need to hold back."

"Huh? Why do you want us to go and fight them? Aren't they asking for you?" Listoria asked quizzically.

"Like I said, whenever I fight them, I would just win by default. So I have no doubt you two can beat them if you two worked together." She said looking rather bored. "They're essentially the grunts of ASIC. The weakest of the weak."

"Come out you damn CPU and fight me!" The rather annoying voice yelled out.

Shift just sweat-dropped from hearing that. "And how many are there?"

"Probably those two weirdos today. I think their names were… Underling and Warechu? And there is usually a third one, but that Egghead is probably busy creating another invention of theirs." Sapphire sighed. "You'll know when you go and meet those two and see how lame they are."

"Uh… Okay?" Listoria frowned a little before shrugging. "Well if you said they're weak, I guess I don't have to go all out. Come on, Shift! Let's beat those guys into submission."

"A-Ah. Right." Shift nodded before the two of them immediately rushed outside, leaving Sapphire behind.

Seeing them leave, Sapphire just watched them from behind with a rather neutral expression.

"Alright, let's see how they do…"

This is a pretty short chapter. Sorry for not posting too much! I've been pretty busy with school, but I will try to post a chapter in at least two-three months.

Young Sapphire has been a strange character to write since she has a lot of qualities that Present-day Sapphire still has like her being pretty shy, being kind of perceptive with people, and tends to worry about things. I want to make her pretty different from her innocence and not knowing about the things she rarely ever understands.

Either way, Please Review and Stay Safe!