Actually, for the current Aerith, no matter how others speak about Aiden, she doesn't care. After all, in her view now, the safety of her man is more important than anything else.
However, that sentence from Aiden still made Aerith realize one thing, men are creatures who care a lot about pride.
"But… but…" Aerith "but"-ed for a long time, yet still couldn't say what was truly in her heart. Right now, she was more worried that once Aiden left, he wouldn't return, just like five years ago.
"Don't 'but' anymore. It's just picking someone up, nothing will happen." Aiden comforted her.
Thankfully, Aerith still remembered that there were outsiders watching nearby. After thinking for a while, she said, "Then go, but you're not allowed to fight with anyone."
"Don't worry, this mission should be a very relaxing trip." Aiden looked at Billy. Tifa had said they were people from Avalanche's main group, so he had already guessed who he was going to pick up.
"Looks like you agreed, that's really great." Billy hadn't held much hope at first. After all, for him, if Aiden didn't agree, he had planned to go look for that all-purpose helper instead. Now that Aiden nodded in agreement, he naturally felt lucky that he didn't have to take extra trips.
"When do we depart?" After silently thinking for a while, Aiden asked.
"Today. Just tonight. I'll give you the address in a bit." Billy didn't want to delay and let things change. After speaking, he wrote the village's address on a slip of paper and handed it to Aiden.
"It's at this place." He continued.
Aiden looked at the village address. It seemed a little unfamiliar, but he also understood that this world was very large, it definitely had more than just those maps from the main storyline.
"Just wait for my good news of bringing them in." After reading the address, Aiden held the slip in his palm and said confidently.
Billy nodded, then paid for the drinks, returned to his companions, chatted with them for a while, and then left the bar.
"The people the main group asked you to pick up should also be Avalanche members. But why aren't they coming themselves?" Tifa and Jessie hadn't spoken the whole time, only watching from the side. After those people left, Tifa couldn't help but feel puzzled.
"Probably because they couldn't get away." Thinking of the Shinra soldiers he encountered earlier on the road with Aerith, and also the talk from townsfolk when he was collecting debts with Tifa, mentioning someone asking about Avalanche's information, Aiden guessed.
"Seems like it's because of our actions. But that's good, it lessens the pressure on us." Jessie patted her chest, a bit relieved. This was good news for the branch group.
"Speaking of which, the place you're going is quite far. How do you plan to get there?" Aerith didn't care about any of that. After Jessie finished speaking, she asked Aiden.
Although the planet was under Shinra's control and the railway covered the whole world, there were only stations between cities. For villages like this, one had to either take a vehicle or go on foot.
Of course, Aiden couldn't possibly walk. But taking a car wasn't realistic either, Midgar didn't have any cars going to other places at night. Not to mention it being unsafe to drive at night, the more important thing was that, on this planet, the wilderness had monsters. After thinking for a bit, he said, "I'll go rent a car, or rent a few chocobos, either works."
"Renting a car is too troublesome. Chocobos are no good either, it's too far, their stamina isn't enough." Jessie shook her head, then said, "Our branch has a motorcycle. You can ride the motorcycle there later."
———
Aiden's destination was a village nearly 100 kilometers away from Midgar. Unlike Midgar's desolate land, this place hadn't yet been affected by the mako reactors. The vegetation was very lush, with green mountains and clear waters, completely different from Midgar. So the people living here could still be said to live peaceful and happy lives.
"Senior, do we still need to keep waiting? Maybe they won't come today."
At the village entrance, a tall and upright young man, carrying a metal staff on his back, asked the girl sitting on a big stone beside him.
The girl wore a hood shaped like a teddy bear head, and over her body was a half-cape. Under the cape, she carried an enormous shuriken. Upon hearing him, she looked up and said to the young man who was at least a head taller than her, "The people from the main family said they would come to pick us up, that's what you told me. Also, don't be impatient. You must have patience."
"Of course I have patience, or I wouldn't have been standing here like a fool with you this whole time, senior." Sonon rolled his eyes, feeling speechless about his senior's behavior… although she had joined earlier than him.
The girl sensed her junior's discontent. She stood up, wanting to pat his shoulder, but found she wasn't tall enough and looked awkward doing it. So she simply stood on the rock, pressed his shoulder, and said, "Patience is also an important part of training. Sonon, you must broaden your heart. Otherwise, no matter how much time passes, you won't reach the realm your senior is currently at."
"Not reaching it would actually be better." Sonon muttered, but worried his senior would hear him, so he deliberately walked a few steps away from the village entrance. Then, his expression immediately became serious.
Since it was still dusk now, the sky hadn't darkened yet. The setting sun provided enough light, so he saw not far from the village, a column of smoke was rolling toward it. That was dust stirred up by something charging forward at high speed.
"Senior, look! Something seems to be approaching the village!" Sonon pointed in that direction and shouted.
The girl immediately looked toward where he pointed, but even standing on the rock for a better view, she could only see the surging column of smoke.
"Something's wrong." The girl's expression turned serious too. Her small hand reached behind her and took down that enormous shuriken, then she said to Sonon, "Sonon, go into the village quickly and tell the villagers to hide."
"Then what about you, senior?" Sonon nodded, then asked worriedly.
"I'll stay and check the situation." The girl raised her shuriken. "Don't forget what I'm capable of."
"…Alright. Senior, be careful." Sonon knew clearly what the girl's strength was. After saying that, he turned and ran toward the village.
Watching Sonon's departing figure, the girl lowered her head and thought for a moment, then jumped down from the rock and ran toward the direction of the rolling smoke and dust.
The girl's speed was extremely fast. In just a few breaths, she had dashed over a hundred meters. It's just that her running posture was very strange, not swinging her arms like a normal person, but rather leaning her body forward with both hands extended backward.
If Aiden arrived at this moment, he might have recognized it as the very famous "ninja run," but at this time, he was still on the road.
And after the girl ran several hundred meters in one breath, she stopped because she had already seen smoke and dust rising.
It was a group of people riding motorcycles. They were wearing bizarre and colorful clothes, holding all sorts of strange weapons in their hands, and there was even a flag tied to the back of one of the motorcycles. On the flag, a terrifying skull was drawn. After seeing the girl, they immediately surrounded her, slowed down their bikes, and circled around her while letting out strange cries.
"Oh oh oh, look what we have here, a cute little girl. Looks like she's not even of age yet."
"So before we plunder that village, let's grab this girl first. Treat it as a warm-up."
"But she doesn't look like a rich person."
"She might not have money, but she's cute, hehe…"
They were, surprisingly, a group of wild bandits who made a living through looting.
Hearing the strange cries entering her ears, the girl wasn't frightened. She just thought Shinra had become even more hateful, at least in the past, these wild bandits weren't this arrogant.
"Unforgivable! You actually want to plunder a village, that village is already poor to begin with. I absolutely won't allow you to do such a thing!" The girl raised the cross-shaped shuriken in her hand and shouted loudly.
But the bandits didn't pay attention. Or rather, because of the strange cries and the motorcycle engines, they didn't hear the girl's slightly cute and childish voice. Instead, they thought her actions were very cute and even started talking about what to do with her after the robbery.
"Bastards! You dare ignore me?!" The girl's temper didn't seem very good and instantly turned irritable. Now that she knew who these people were, she no longer hesitated and decided to strike first.
"Take this!" The girl shouted and threw the cross-shaped shuriken in her hand toward one of them.
The shuriken tore through the air with a sharp whistle. As it rotated at high speed, it even formed a wind pressure around it. Its power could easily slice a person in half.
However, those who became wild bandits were not simple people. The one being targeted happened to be the leader of this gang. He immediately reacted, raising a strangely shaped weapon and narrowly blocking the cross-shaped shuriken.
With a crisp clang, the shuriken was deflected and spun back in mid-air, returning to the girl's hand.
Although the bandit leader blocked the deadly strike, the force still knocked him off his motorcycle, leaving several wounds on his body, those were caused by the sharp wind pressure.
"Bastard!" The bandit leader wiped the blood off his face and roared, "Catch her! I want to be the first to enjoy her!"
As soon as he spoke, the surrounding bandits who were circling the girl changed formation, swinging their weapons as they charged toward her while continuing to make bizarre cries.
"Want to catch me? Not that easy!" The girl sneered and once again swung the cross-shaped shuriken in her hand.
As wild bikers of the wasteland, these bandits not only had decent strength, but their teamwork was even more formidable. They used complex but organized formations to launch continuous attacks on the girl. Even if their own attacks missed, they wouldn't get entangled, instead, they sped off, letting their teammates continue the assault.
With this repeated strategy, even though the girl had excellent skills and agility, under the coordinated attacks of the bandits, she found herself in increasingly dangerous situations.
She finally managed to knock one bandit off his bike and was about to finish him off when another bandit rushed at her. She had no choice but to go on the defensive. But unexpectedly, that bandit was feinting. His real goal was to rescue his companion. With one grab, he pulled the fallen bandit back onto the bike.
"So annoying, so annoying." The girl kept swinging her shuriken while grumbling, also complaining why her junior Sonon hadn't shown up yet.
At that moment, as she was distracted by her complaints, a chain wrapped around her calf at a strange angle. As the chain was pulled taut, her body was yanked to the ground.
"Hahaha, I caught her!" The bandit leader laughed loudly as he held the chain, he could hardly wait.
Just then, a strong engine sound came from the distance. Then came a gunshot, and the chain in his hand snapped.
"Who?!" the bandit leader roared in fury, turning his head toward the sound.
What entered his eyes was a blinding high-beam light. The dazzling light instantly blinded him, and his men instinctively closed their eyes too.
Then came a flurry of gunshots, followed by his subordinates' screams and the sounds of motorcycles crashing to the ground.
By the time the bandit leader opened his eyes, nearly half of his men were down, and the girl had broken free from the chain. A man in a windcoat had pulled her onto his motorcycle.
"Who are you?" Two voices spoke at the same time.
Aiden ignored the bandit leader and simply responded to the girl, who wasn't sitting behind him but rather standing on the seat of the motorcycle, "The one picking you up… Hold on tight. I won't catch you if you fall."
"This lady is agile. I definitely won't fall off!" the girl said confidently.
"Is that so? I wonder who just got caught by such a simple sneak attack." Aiden said mockingly.
"That was carelessness! I wasn't paying attention!" The girl fumed and immediately snapped back.
At that moment, Aiden suddenly accelerated, and the motorcycle roared louder, its speed instantly doubling.
Startled by the sudden acceleration, the girl behind him instinctively hugged Aiden's waist to steady herself, no longer caring about pride or whatever.
"As expected, not of age yet." Aiden muttered as he felt no sensation on his back. He pouted, not even close to Aerith, let alone Jessie.
Of course, he already recognized who the girl behind him was, the "ninja" from Wutai, Yuffie Kisaragi, a still underage little girl.
"Slow down, slow down, I get motion sickness." The sudden acceleration made Yuffie dizzy, but that wasn't the main issue. The important part was that she got motion sick on any vehicle. She already felt nauseous.
"Damn… bear with it for now." Hearing the retching behind him, Aiden was speechless. But he couldn't slow down yet because the remaining bandits were trying to escape. So he twisted the throttle again, pushing the motorcycle to its limit. At the same time, he freed one hand and fired his handgun at the fleeing bandits.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
After a flurry of gunshots, Aiden had caught up and gunned them all down. Only then did he slow down and stop the bike.
In fact, Aiden hadn't even turned off the engine yet when Yuffie jumped off the bike holding her mouth, staggered forward a few steps, and dropped to her knees, dry heaving.
Luckily, since she hadn't eaten anything all day while waiting for Avalanche's main forces to take them into Midgar, and to save money, which they were short on, she didn't actually vomit anything out.
"Ugh… it feels terrible. Motion sickness is the worst." After dry heaving for a while, Yuffie finally felt a bit better. But when she tried to stand up, she felt dizzy again and almost fell.
"Hey, little girl, you okay?" Aiden was still sitting on the motorcycle, elbows crossed and leaning on the head of the bike, watching her with a playful expression.
Although it was getting dark, the distance between them was close enough to see clearly.
"I… I'm fine." Yuffie didn't want to show weakness in front of others, so she puffed out her chest, but quickly wilted again. Motion sickness wasn't something that went away so easily.
Just then, a male voice called from afar, "Senior, senior, are you okay? Where are you? So unlucky, I forgot to bring a flashlight… Senior, if you're still alive, say something!"
"I'm not dead yet, Sonon." Hearing her junior's worried voice, Yuffie felt embarrassed and snapped, "A practitioner must have patience and an unshaken heart. Sonon, you still need to train your mindset."
"I'll remember your teachings, Senior, but I still can't see you." Sonon raised his voice after hearing Yuffie's reply.
At that moment, Aiden restarted the bike and switched on the low beam. The white light instantly lit up the surroundings.
Seeing the light, Sonon was startled at first, then sped up and ran over.
He was surprised to see not only his Senior but also an unfamiliar man. Earlier, he had checked the bodies, all riding motorcycles too, but this man didn't seem hostile. Cautiously glancing at Aiden, Sonon asked Yuffie, "Senior, who is he?"
"I don't know him either, but just now…" Yuffie originally wanted to say Aiden had saved her, but changed her mind, wanting to save face in front of her junior. So she said, "He helped me deal with those wild bandits."
"I see." Sonon immediately looked solemn and respectfully bowed to Aiden with both hands clasped. "Thank you for aiding my Senior. My name is Sonon, from Wutai. She is…"
Before he could finish, Yuffie cut him off. The innocent girl adjusted her Moogle hat and struck an extremely cute pose, loudly declaring, "I am the beautiful ninja girl from Wutai, Yuffie Kisaragi! Nice to meet you, my rescuer!"
Seeing Aiden's confused face, Sonon helplessly covered his own.
When they returned to the village, it was even darker. But since the village was far from Midgar and had no mako reactors nearby, electricity was scarce. Naturally, there were no streetlights, and most shops and restaurants had already closed. Only a shabby inn still had its doors open.
"Why aren't we heading straight to Midgar?" Sonon asked Aiden before checking into the inn.
Aiden glanced at Yuffie, who was standing nearby drinking from a bottle of water, and said, "It's still over 100 kilometers to Midgar. Your Senior gets motion sick. We can't exactly walk there, right? Unless you want to hike overnight, I'm fine with that. But in the wasteland, who knows what could happen."
Even in the daytime, the planet didn't fully belong to humans, let alone the night. The wilderness at night was extremely dangerous.
"Uh…" Sonon thought about it and agreed, so he didn't press further.
Then Aiden pulled out money and handed it to the innkeeper, "Three rooms, the best ones you've got."
In fact, the commission Billy gave wasn't high, just to escort two people into the city. If nothing happened, it'd be an easy job.
But Aiden wasn't short on money, so of course he wouldn't treat himself poorly. Besides, these were important story characters, he didn't mind spending a bit more.
"I'm very sorry, we currently only have one guest room available," the innkeeper said apologetically. "Would the three guests mind squeezing in?"
"Not much choice. Unless we plan to sleep outside?" Aiden felt the innkeeper was stating the obvious. He slapped the money down and held out his hand. "Room key."
"Just a moment." The innkeeper turned, took the key off the wall, and handed it to Aiden. "The room is at the end of the second floor. There are extra quilts in the wardrobe. I hope you have a pleasant stay."
Aiden took the key, waved his hand, and led the still-dazed Yuffie and Sonon upstairs.
Click!
As soon as Aiden opened the door at the end of the hall, Yuffie dashed inside eagerly. The moment she saw the bed in the middle of the room, she suddenly seemed fully recovered and dove onto it with a cheer.
"So soft! So comfy!" Yuffie rolled around on the bed hugging the pillow.
"Senior, show some dignity!" Sonon covered his face again at the sight. He really didn't know what to do with this young senior of his.
"I'm so sorry you had to see that." Since Yuffie ignored him, Sonon awkwardly apologized to Aiden.
"She's just being a young girl, it's understandable." Aiden waved it off and found the wardrobe the innkeeper mentioned, pulling out the bedding.
"Let me do that." Sonon stepped forward, took the bedding, and neatly laid it on the floor. Aiden was curious and a bit surprised.
"Seeming to have sensed Aiden's curious gaze, Sonon said, 'The provisional government over there doesn't have enough houses. The conditions we've been living in have always been bad. This time, coming to Midgar with the senior, the funding given was also insufficient. Along the way, we mostly camped outdoors... Ah, right, how is it going over at Avalanche headquarters? Is it still as financially strained as before? Speaking of which, I've already been away for a long time.'"
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