Alex, Dean, and Aerith stared with undisguised amazement at the mountains of treasures inside Corneo's safe. Until that moment Alex couldn't even imagine that the Don possessed such colossal wealth — from the outside his vault looked like the safe of a prestigious central bank. Looking at these neatly stacked packs of Gil, Alex didn't even try to calculate the final sum, and he wasn't planning to take absolutely all of Corneo's treasures.
Dean, standing nearby, whistled at the sight, equally struck by the scale of Corneo's capital. Only when the sound of an opening metal drawer rang out loudly in the silence did the trio shift their gazes to Leslie. Paying attention to no one, Leslie swung open a steel archive where the Don stored the most important documents: dirt on influential people for blackmail and secret data that could be sold for huge money.
However, Leslie wasn't interested in any of that. With trembling hands he feverishly sorted through the folders, hoping to obtain at least some information about his beloved Marlene, who had become one of Corneo's many brides.
Until the very last moment Leslie refused to believe that she was no longer alive and prayed to fate for a small miracle. While Leslie was completely absorbed in searching among the mountains of papers, Alex, Dean, and Aerith stepped into the depths of the spacious safe, deciding where to start. Looking around, Alex spotted a couple of roomy bags into which Gil could be stuffed and tossed one of them to Dean.
"We'll take as much Gil as we can carry, and to hell with the rest," Alex said, dumping the bag on the table and beginning to tightly pack it with packs of Gil.
"You sure we shouldn't take this whole mountain? I'm not greedy, of course, but it somehow feels stuffy leaving this much good stuff," Dean responded, dropping his bag on the floor and scooping money toward himself as he went.
"We don't need that much. A couple million Gil will be more than enough… And Aerith, if you like something — take it, don't be shy. Just don't touch the gold: it's too heavy, and fencing it in the slums will be a real problem," Alex replied, not stopping packing the cash for a second, and briefly glanced at Aerith.
"Ugh, it really is heavy… And why does he even need this much? How many of these gold bars are there here?" Aerith sighed heavily, experiencing the weight of one massive bar firsthand and with difficulty returning it to the shelf.
"That doesn't matter anymore. The dead can't spend their Gil anyway," Alex summarized with a smile, already packing the first bag almost to the top.
Hearing these words, Aerith nodded understandingly and began curiously looking around while Alex and Dean continued stuffing the bags with packs of Gil. Wanting to find something truly interesting, Aerith approached one of the shelves where expensive-looking caskets stood. Opening the first of them, Aerith saw a luxurious necklace with deep blue stones.
Admiring its beauty for a brief moment, Aerith still set the jewelry aside, reasoning that wearing such a thing in the Slums would be too flashy. Briefly examining the necklace, she thought that the jewel could be sold profitably and approached Alex to consult.
Looking at the treasure in Aerith's hands, Alex calmly shook his head, beginning to explain that such trinkets were practically impossible to fence in the lower city, and if one tried to sell them in Upper Midgar, one could instantly draw the attention of Shinra patrols. Receiving a comprehensive answer, Aerith returned the necklace to its place and continued the inspection.
However, in the remaining caskets there turned out to be only standard jewelry — from rings to earrings — which absolutely did not impress her. Finding nothing useful, Aerith turned her attention to a massive metal cabinet with a combination lock. Approaching closer, she tried to twist the rotary mechanism, but after a couple of unsuccessful attempts the heavy steel doors still wouldn't yield.
Sighing resentfully, Aerith looked around and spotted a metal pipe lying nearby. Aerith narrowed her eyes slyly, and a brilliant plan for breaking in immediately matured in her head. Grabbing the pipe with both hands, Aerith swung with all her might and struck right at the combination lock.
At the first hollow sounds of the blows Alex and Dean synchronously stared at Aerith, who had begun enthusiastically pounding on the safe. Even Leslie for a moment tore himself away from sorting documents and stared at the girl in astonishment.
"Aerith, what are you doing? How did this cabinet offend you so much? Did you stub your little toe on it and now you're cruelly taking revenge?" Alex inquired the moment Aerith took a short break to catch her breath before a new round and continue beating the metal cabinet.
"No… Just… I think that if the cabinet is locked so tightly, then something very useful is inside! So I'm trying to open it… That's it, I'm ready to continue!" Aerith replied, breathing heavily, and turned to Alex, sacredly confident that her guess would be correct.
"Maybe I should help you after all? Because you're turning out to be not the most careful lockpicker," Alex offered with a strained smile, trying to stop her before she started methodically pounding on the steel body of the cabinet again.
"I'll manage myself… Probably! I'm almost sure that just a little more — and it'll give in. Just a couple more hits!" Aerith replied with a cheerful smile, raising the pipe over the lock again.
Seeing that Aerith had gotten into the spirit and again begun methodically pounding the metal with the pipe, Alex and Dean set aside their bags of Gil and stared at the process with wide eyes. Both of them became insanely curious: would she ultimately manage to pry open the steel cabinet in such a barbaric way or would she get tired faster? Alex even jumped up onto the edge of the table and casually leaned his elbow on the gold bars, watching Aerith with sincere curiosity.
He couldn't even imagine that inside the cute Aerith there hid a gremlin of this kind, capable of smashing sturdy furniture with such enthusiasm. Dean, leaning against the tabletop nearby, quietly chuckled, thoroughly enjoying the spectacle. Making several more crushing swings, Aerith was forced to take another pause. A sharp pain from the recoil responded in her palms, and her fingers slightly trembled from the strain.
Catching her breath, Aerith examined the cabinet — on the smooth steel surface after all her labors there was only a small dent. Quickly realizing that she wouldn't open the doors this way, Aerith resentfully stared at Alex and silently poked her little finger at the unyielding cabinet.
She didn't even need to say anything: that single gaze full of frustration was enough to understand how upset she was. After all, she had really tried so hard! Barely restraining laughter at the sight of the pouting Aerith, Alex jumped down from the table and approached closer.
"Alright-alright, I'll open it myself now, just don't pout. If you want, Dean and I will teach you later how to properly pick locks, doors, and even such cabinets," Alex said with a warm smile and affectionately rubbed the tip of her nose with his finger.
"Really?" Aerith instantly cheered up, shifting her gaze from Alex to Dean with a sly squint.
"Yeah, we'll teach you no problem. It's much simpler than it seems. You just need to get the hang of it — and any door is open before you. In the most literal sense," Dean confirmed with a smirk, loungingly crossing his arms across his chest.
Aerith immediately clapped her hands joyfully, already anticipating how fun it would be for her to pick locks in the future. Aerith couldn't wait to see with her own eyes exactly how Alex would handle the cunning mechanism, because it seemed to her an excellent opportunity to learn something new. However, Alex was not at all eager to waste time on delicate work.
Lazily looking at the steel doors, Alex without unnecessary ceremonies simply drove his fingers right into the metal. Seeing how his hands punched through the sturdy steel, Aerith dejectedly pursed her lips, because she was definitely not prepared for a "master class" of this kind. Alex clenched his fingers into a fist and with one yank tore the cabinet doors off their hinges, carelessly tossing them behind his back.
Looking inside the opened cabinet, he saw whole rows of neatly arranged multicolored spheres the size of baseballs. Wanting to find out what exactly Alex had spotted there, Aerith approached closely and nimbly squeezed under his arm. The moment she looked into the cabinet, Aerith's eyes lit up when she saw that all the shelves were packed to the top with all kinds of Materia.
"And what was this fatso hiding in there?" Dean inquired, too lazy to approach closer.
"There's Materia… And there's really a lot of it here," Alex replied, stepping slightly aside so Dean could see everything himself.
"Are those by any chance those magic balls that they kept spinning in Shinra's news ads?" Dean clarified, stroking his chin and trying to recall what Materia was.
"Those very ones. And at the moment this is, perhaps, the most expensive thing in the entire vault," Alex summarized, picking up a bright green Materia sphere from the shelf to study it better.
Seeing the green sphere in Alex's hands, Dean couldn't help but show sincere interest. In his eventful life he had managed to see quite a few magical and cursed items, and in their family Men of Letters Bunker there was an excess of such goods. However, something born by the Planet itself he was holding in front of himself for the first time. Approaching the open cabinet, Dean grabbed a blue Materia and began turning it in his hands, fruitlessly trying to figure out exactly how to use this thing.
The moment he was about to demand a detailed instruction manual, he saw that the green ball in Alex's palm unexpectedly compressed to the size of a small bead. Rolling the reduced Materia on his palm, Alex quickly understood how this mechanic worked here. Unlike an ordinary video game, everything here worked on a deeper level: the moment he took the Materia in his hands, he distinctly felt as if something invisible was carefully trying to penetrate his mind.
Allowing this mental touch to occur, Alex immediately established direct contact with the sphere. For himself he could describe this process as a temporary merger with the concentrated memory of the Planet, carrying a colossal volume of knowledge about how to create and direct magic.
"Hmm… So that's how it is. Got it. This is really interesting," Alex said, disconnecting the mental link and returning the sphere to its original state.
"What's so interesting about it?! You better tell me how this crap works! Because maybe right now I want to launch a couple of fireballs at someone!" Dean grumbled irritably, actively gesturing with the hand in which he was squeezing the blue Materia.
"You just need to tune in and establish a connection with it. Don't you hear its call? After all, you also hear the Lifestream… It's really simple! Look, it's done like this…" Aerith began explaining, briskly showing Dean exactly how to feel the energy inside the Materia.
Taking the green Materia in her hands, Aerith instantly established a connection with it — the sphere immediately compressed to the size of an elegant bead. A moment later miniature tongues of flame danced on the tips of Aerith's fingers, which she easily rolled from palm to palm, clearly demonstrating how simple everything was. Seeing such a wordless demonstration, Dean only hummed irritably and carelessly tossed the blue Materia at Alex, making it clear with his whole appearance that he no longer felt like throwing fireballs.
Noticing Dean's reaction, Aerith looked at Alex with a silent question, worrying whether she had done something wrong. Alex only shook his head with a smile, explaining that if Dean didn't understand something the first time, he simply dropped it and moved on. Thoughtfully nodding, Aerith shifted her gaze to Dean, who was already fully continuing to load Gil into his bag.
Holding two spheres in his hands, Alex looked around in search of a separate bag and immediately spotted a suitable bag on the floor. He intended to take absolutely all the Materia with him so as not to leave such dangerous things unsupervised. Alex perfectly understood what such power was capable of in the hands of local idiots — for him it was the same as handing a fool a primed grenade and releasing him onto a busy street in the hope that the grenade wouldn't go off.
Dragging the bag to the wrecked cabinet, Alex began carefully stacking the spheres. Noticing what he was doing, Aerith readily began helping him. Stretching out her hand to take the next Materia ball, Aerith spotted a carved casket in the farthest corner of the shelf. Taking it out and lifting the lid, Aerith gasped from shock. Inside the casket a deep scarlet light shimmered — Red Materia. Aerith's eyes immediately widened, because she definitely hadn't expected to see such a rarity in Corneo's vault.
"How did it even end up here?.." Aerith muttered with undisguised shock, carefully taking the Scarlet sphere in her hands.
"Who ended up here?" Alex asked again, not raising his head and continuing to pack green, blue, and gold spheres into the bag.
"Shiva… Why did she end up with Corneo?" Aerith forced out with difficulty, still in deep shock and squeezing the Red Materia in her hands.
"Shiva? The ancient spirit of ice? Why are you even talking about Shiva?… What the hell is Red Materia doing with him?!" Alex cried out in amazement, raising his gaze to Aerith and finally discerning the Summon sphere in her hands.
Alex was no less stunned than Aerith upon seeing the Red Materia in which Shiva herself rested. He knew perfectly well: Red Materia was not a technological stamp that Shinra laboratories churned out on assembly lines. What was hidden inside this Scarlet sphere had been born by the Planet Gaia itself for the protection of this world. These great entities had appeared back in those distant times when the ancient race of Cetra filled the world with life, bringing prosperity to every corner of the Planet.
In such sacred places the spirits of nature were born, guarding their lands. Shiva was one of those beings whom the Cetra revered as guardian spirits. Only after the prolonged war with Jenova did these entities sink into deep hibernation for long millennia — awaiting the hour of awakening or a meeting with the one who could awaken their power.
Rising from his haunches, Alex carefully took the Red Materia from Aerith's hands. In that same second a light, melodic voice of Shiva echoed in his head. And although the sphere itself was not icy to the touch, it seemed to Alex as if he had clenched a real piece of ancient ice in his fist.
Dean and Leslie turned around in surprise, not entirely understanding what had caused such a vigorous reaction from Alex and Aerith and what they were even talking about. Standing nearby, Aerith carefully ran her finger over the surface of the sphere, distinctly feeling a warm response from Shiva — as if the spirit inside had sincerely rejoiced at the meeting with a true descendant of the Cetra.
"Choom, where did Corneo get this thing?! Speak quickly!" Alex practically shouted, staring at Leslie with a sharp gaze and pointing at the Red Materia in his hand.
"He's had it for about a month… Back then Palmer came to the Don to pull off some deal and gave this sphere as payment. Corneo never figured out what it was, but just in case decided to hide it more securely," Leslie replied, noting the clear irritation in Alex's eyes.
"What kind of deal? And did Palmer say where Shinra even dug up this thing?" Alex continued the interrogation, intending to get to the very essence.
"Hmm… Seems it was somehow connected with some wanderers in black robes. Palmer didn't spread much, but let slip that if he helped Professor Hojo find these people in robes, he would get solid funding from the company. And about the Materia itself… Seems they found it in some ancient ruins. Honestly, I don't know anything more," Leslie said thoughtfully, trying to fish details of that conversation from his memory.
"Got it… We were lucky that this fat pervert never realized WHAT kind of thing he was holding in his hands," Alex sighed with relief, carefully putting the Red Materia into the inner pocket of his coat.
"That's for sure… Lucky he's such an idiot," Aerith agreed with a relaxed smile, playfully wiping imaginary sweat from her forehead.
In such a situation Alex and Aerith could only exhale with relief, because guardian spirits are highly intelligent beings sealed in crystal who themselves decide whose call to answer. If that same Shiva had been a mindless elemental embodiment, all of Midgar would have turned into a lifeless icy wasteland a month ago. Patting himself on the chest where the summon ball rested in the breast pocket, Alex wearily shook his head.
Dean, on the other hand, showed purely practical interest in the Red Materia, not understanding why Alex and Aerith had reacted so vigorously to it. Meeting Alex's gaze, Dean expressively tapped his finger against his temple, demanding immediate explanations. Nodding, Alex began packing the remaining spheres into the bag and along the way launched into a long, thorough lecture about the history of the ancient race of Cetra, the spirits of nature, and the will of the Planet itself. Having listened to this monumental historical digression, Dean made the most understandable conclusion for himself.
"So, did I get it right? Inside this red crap sits an ancient and extremely rare Pokémon," Dean said mentally after listening to another boring explanation from Alex.
Hearing this comical verdict, Alex immediately wanted to throw something heavy at Dean. On the other hand, the very idea of "catching them all" seemed damn attractive to him. Mentally smirking at this analogy, Alex zipped up the bag packed to the top with multicolored Materia and slung it over his shoulder.
"Dean, we're done. What's with you?" Alex asked, adjusting the strap and approaching closer to Dean.
"I'm done too. Not that I counted carefully, but in these two sports bags there's about ten million Gil in each. Maybe even more," Dean smirked, putting a couple of stacks of Gil into his bag for temporary expenses.
"Solid stake. It'll definitely last for some time. Leslie, what about you? We're wrapping up," Alex said loudly, throwing the second bag over his shoulder.
"You can go without me. I'm not finished here yet. First I'll clean everything up here, and then I'll have a heart-to-heart with my former boss," Leslie replied without turning his head, concentratedly sorting through another pack of documents.
"As you wish… I don't know what you're looking for there. And still, here," Alex reached into his pocket, pulled out a small metal ring, and carelessly tossed it toward Leslie.
"What's this?… Just warning you, I'm into the other type," Leslie asked in surprise, suspiciously glancing at Alex and deftly catching the ring in mid-air.
"This is a thing that will help you find what you're so strongly longing for. Sometimes what we're looking for is much closer than it seems — you just need to change the point on the map. Drop by the Sector 7 Slums sometime, and you'll understand everything yourself," Alex smiled mysteriously, leaving Leslie with a direct hint that Marlene was actually alive.
Leslie stared at the seemingly ordinary metal ring on his palm, still not fully unraveling the hidden meaning of the prophetic words. However, a timid spark of hope flared up inside him — exactly these words he had so desperately dreamed of hearing all these long years in search of a small miracle, believing that Marlene was still alive.
Firmly clenching the ring in his fist, Leslie shifted his gaze to Alex, who was already unhurriedly leaving the vault, humming some carefree melody under his breath, as if this night had been an ordinary successful stroll for him. At that moment Leslie suddenly realized that he had never learned the names of those who had helped him carry out his revenge. Even though their alliance had been temporary and their goals tied to mutual benefit, Leslie still remained infinitely grateful to this barely familiar trio that had turned up in the right place at the right time.
"Hey! What's your name at least?! I should know who to look for if you suddenly need help on the Black Market!" Leslie shouted loudly after them before the trio could go too far.
"Call me Alex, Choom! And see you soon, my new friend Leslie!" Alex responded with a smile, not turning his head and only casually waving his hand in farewell.
"Choom… Yeah, first time hearing a word like that… Heh," Leslie quietly smirked, savoring the strange address to himself and returning to the remaining business.
Climbing the stairs from the basement, Aerith lightly tugged at Alex's sleeve, curiously inquiring what kind of ring he had just given Leslie. Hearing her question, Alex smiled and replied roughly the same as he had to Leslie himself: that this trinket only helps find what a person desperately longs to find. Hearing such an answer, Aerith simply couldn't help but ask what exactly Leslie was searching for with such despair.
Alex turned to her and in a calm, warm tone said that it didn't particularly matter, because the main thing was that very soon Leslie would obtain what he desired, and that would already be his own story. Thoughtfully looking into Alex's eyes, Aerith funny wrinkled her little nose and nodded understandingly. She realized his thought that the details of the past weren't important, but the fact that Leslie would be able to regain his hope.
Continuing to smile, Alex lightly poked Aerith's little nose with his finger and headed further up the steps so as not to make Dean wait. Returning to the main hall of Corneo's mansion, Alex and Dean immediately headed for the exit. Looking after them, Aerith suddenly latched onto a box that, as she perfectly remembered, was packed to the top with chocolate bars. Narrowing her eyes cheerfully, Aerith jumped up to it and instantly scooped up the sweets.
"Anyway this fat pervert was going to sell it all! And I will definitely find a much better use for this chocolate," Aerith whispered with a real gremlin smirk and skipped after Alex and Dean, firmly pressing the box to her side.
Coming outside, Alex and Dean hesitated, quickly realizing that Aerith wasn't nearby. Looking back at the mansion, they saw Aerith fully rushing toward them, victoriously pressing the box to her chest. Jumping closer, Aerith with a widest smile opened the box, bragging that she had also grabbed the most necessary for herself. Noticing that her main trophy from the Don's treasury had become a whole box of chocolates, Alex and Dean quietly laughed at her life priorities.
They decided it was better not to remind Aerith that over the last couple of hours they had gotten richer by more than twenty million Gil. Leaving the territory of Corneo's mansion, Alex took pocket watches from his coat pocket and briefly glanced at the dial. The hands were inexorably approaching three in the morning.
Alex thoughtfully frowned, because now they needed to decide how to proceed further. Head to the Sector 7 of the Slums right now or more reasonably take rooms in one of the local hotels at the Wall Market? And everything came down to Aerith's well-being — because he and Dean didn't require full sleep unless they themselves wanted to crash.
"Stay here until morning or head out to Sector 7 right away?" Alex inquired, shifting his gaze from Aerith to Dean.
"Better bail to Sector 7 right away. I have not the slightest desire to wake up from some local idiot poking a gun in my face," Dean grumbled, adjusting the bag growing heavier from Gil on his shoulder and being the first to run down the steps.
"I'm not tired at all either! It's just that the gates between sectors are tightly closed right now, so we'll have to go against the official route. And the morning passage is strictly guarded by Shinra Grunts," Aerith thoughtfully explained, outlining the difficulty of unnoticed movement.
"Let me guess: you've got a secret path in mind?" Alex asked with a smile, slightly slowing down to walk next to Aerith.
"Heh-heh, of course! I know practically every secret passage in these Slums," Aerith responded with a sly smirk, proudly raising her chin.
"Well then, lead the way, Flower Girl. You've already received your payment as a guide, and with a generous bonus at that," Dean summarized with a smirk, expressively nodding at the box filled with chocolates in her hands.
Smiling, Aerith confidently stepped forward, leading Alex and Dean to the secret passage known to her. Aerith remembered perfectly well that local residents rarely used that secret passage. Following Aerith, Alex and Dean quickly passed the noisy streets of the Wall Market. Walking along the streets of the Wall Market, they tried not to attract extra attention to themselves, which became much easier right after they removed their plush animal masks.
Passing through the noisy crowd, they came out to the outskirts. Having distanced themselves enough from the Wall Market, massive steel gates that Aerith had warned about rose before the eyes of Alex and Dean. Staring at this massive barrier, Alex brought a cigarette to his lips and unhurriedly lit it. Exhaling a dense stream of gray smoke, Alex briefly glanced at Dean, on whose face at the sight of these iron barriers a whole spectrum of not the friendliest emotions was readable.
"And why the hell did they even erect these gates? To lock people in a cage like cattle?" Dean couldn't help but ask, already mentally assessing how many times he would have to hit to smash these huge gates to hell.
"You hit the bullseye… In the past the residents of the Slums more than once raised bloody riots against the Shinra regime. Since those very times absolutely all passages between sectors have been strictly controlled by the corporation to prevent new uprisings," Aerith explained sadly, remembering how many innocent lives that long-ago crackdown had taken.
"Greedy bastards. Not enough for them that they're sucking all the juices out of the Planet, they also force people to survive in cattle conditions. Whoever thought this up, I'll with great pleasure rearrange his face," Dean hissed through his teeth, with every moment more clearly realizing what a rotten cloaca Midgar actually was.
"Well… That won't be easy. Everyone who needs a face-rearranging is sitting in Shinra's central headquarters. And there, to put it mildly, the security is very serious," Aerith noted with a strained smile, poking her little finger upward, right at the colossal center of the Plate towering over them.
Shifting his gaze to where Aerith was pointing, Dean stared at the colossal steel pillar in the very center of Midgar, rising high into the heavens. The first thing Dean thought at the sight of this gigantic structure was how much time exactly he would need to smash everything there into rubble and knock all the nonsense out of the local top brass. By Dean's rather modest calculations, a total demolition would take him only a couple of minutes.
Trying to suppress the growing irritation from this injustice, Dean felt Alex's heavy hand on his shoulder. Meeting his gaze, Alex silently shook his head, making it clear: such a head-on approach would lead to catastrophic consequences and, what was far worse, to gigantic casualties among peaceful people. Dean perfectly understood the entire danger of reckless actions, so he quickly muttered that he was simply considering options and wasn't going to implement this right now.
Alex measured him with an expressive gaze, showing with his whole appearance: "Yeah, right, I believe you." He knew Dean's character too well and that the latter was used to acting first and only then cleaning up the consequences. Patting Dean on the shoulder, Alex turned to Aerith and nodded, showing that they were ready to move on. Aerith immediately ran toward the abandoned children's playground located not far from the empty checkpoint.
Following her, Alex and Dean saw how Aerith jumped up to a playground slide with a tunnel under it. Setting the box of sweets on the ground, she bent down and nimbly climbed into the depths of the structure. Alex and Dean stood nearby, trying to look inside and figure out where Aerith had even climbed and where that secret passage was.
"Well, why are you standing there? Come on after me! The passage is here, at the bottom, look!" Aerith peeked out from the tunnel, beckoning them with her hand and pointing at the slightly open steel hatch.
"You seriously want us to crawl through the sewer?" Alex asked again, slightly pursing his lips, squatting down and looking into the narrow space under the slide.
"There's no other way! So hurry up, I won't wait for you long… Well, except maybe just a little bit," Aerith responded with a cheerful smile, dragging the box of chocolates after herself.
Looking first at the dark manhole leading into the sewer and then at each other, Alex and Dean realized that they sincerely didn't want to go down. With all their rich life experience they had too often wandered through stinking underground drains, and such adventures had already thoroughly bored them. Sighing heavily and trying to suppress the wild reluctance to get dirty, Alex bent down and was the first to crawl on all fours through the narrow children's slide.
Finding himself inside the playground structure, Alex reached the hatch and looked down, noticing Aerith below who was hurriedly waving her hand at him. Adjusting the bags of Gil and Materia behind his back, Alex began descending, sincerely hoping that the rotten metal ladder under him wouldn't break once again. Stepping onto the bottom of the collector, he shouted to Dean to hurry up.
Already a second later an irritated voice of Dean sounded from above, loudly cursing the fact that he once again had to crawl on all fours for the sake of penetrating another cloaca. Descending after them, Dean made it clear with his whole appearance how strongly he despised this place.
"Where next? You're our main expert on local dungeons," Alex asked with a smile, shifting his gaze to Aerith who was slightly rocking on her heels, humming a quiet melody and pressing the box of chocolates to herself.
"That way! If we go along this main collector, we'll neatly come out into the abandoned technical tunnels, and from there already climb up," Aerith explained with a joyful smile, pointing her little finger into the depths of the corridor and stepping first.
"And where exactly do these technical tunnels of yours lead?" Dean clarified, sacredly hoping that the route didn't pass through some main settling tank where waste from the entire Slums sector flowed.
"To an abandoned Express branch. Only old rusty trains stand there and nothing more. I'd say it's a real Train Graveyard… And also a multitude of the most different rumors circulate about this place!" Aerith said thoughtfully, looking back at Alex and Dean over her shoulder.
"And what kind of rumors? Don't tell me evil ghosts or other evil spirits live there that steal belated travelers?" Alex asked with a slight chuckle and picked up the pace to walk next to Aerith.
"Heh-heh, and you guessed it! In the Slums they really say that real ghosts inhabit there… But you yourselves bragged that you've been hunting them your whole life! So we definitely have nothing to fear," Aerith replied with a shining smile, cheerfully sticking her thumb up.
"Well, holy crap now! Ghosts here too… That's just what we needed for complete happiness today. Although no, consider the second day already started… Anyway, I have not the slightest desire to waste time on local otherworldly scum. Especially since we don't even have ordinary salt with us," Dean irritably clicked his tongue, flatly refusing to get involved in more devilry.
"Salt? And how does ordinary salt help against ghosts?" Aerith asked in surprise, sincerely not understanding Dean's logic.
"Salt is an ancient folk symbol meaning purity and protection from evil spirits. And according to beliefs it helps ward off evil," Alex explained in a calm tone, noting Aerith's genuine interest.
"So that's how it is! Now it's clear… I hadn't even heard of such a thing. If we meet even one ghost here, we'll definitely need to check!" Aerith cheered up with a wide smile, walking forward and cheerfully rocking her head to the rhythm of her thoughts.
Alex and Dean only shook their heads, being sure that Aerith wouldn't be able to harm a ghost if she considered it kind. But in what they agreed in their thoughts was that Aerith would definitely thoroughly thrash an evil ghost if it crawled out and decided to scare her. Laughing at this, Alex and Dean quickly caught up with Aerith, who had decided to walk faster, hoping to see ghosts.
To be continued...
(Here we are, entering Sector 7. Which means we'll soon be meeting the rest of the characters. I think we should celebrate with a beer and something salty as a snack. I'm already anticipating the arrival of Claudia and Tifa, and Barret, and a trio of less-than-scrupulous terrorists. Hehe. And I think it's worth reminding you again that all the main events took place over the course of just over a week, before the group escaped Midgar. And there really was a lot going on. So I'll have to squeeze in all of this week's events myself. Ugh, I have a feeling this is going to be tough. Now it's time to eat. Peace, love, and the first Pokémon caught, 10 to go.)
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