The forge door opened opposite of Yuji.
Aiz stepped out first, sword wrapped in cloth and tucked under her arm for transport. Her golden eyes found him against the opposite wall. She held the look for a moment, a thought working behind her eyes quietly.
Tiona bounded out after her, weaponless and visibly aggrieved about it. "What's the big idea with them making a whole fuss and everything? It's not my fault, Urga just melted slightly~" Tiona said, following behind Aiz.
The girl had a reputation amongst the Goibniu Familia, nicknamed as the fearsome Store Crusher with how recklessly she handled her weapons. The boss's first reaction inside the store upon hearing how his beloved Urga, a weapon made from Adamantite, had been melted was to break down and cry right on the spot, with the other smiths consoling him.
"Now I have to wait for even longer to get something new! Five days, he said, can you believe it? Five days with no weapon, do you know what that's like?"
"Peaceful." Aiz said quietly, moving towards Yuji on the other side as she waited for their Captain to finish up inside.
Tiona's head whipped towards her as she stood in front of them, "Did you just-"
"For us." Aiz clarified, with such a perfect straight face and composure that it was impossible to tell whether she meant it or not.
Tiona stared at her, then turned back to Yuji. "Was that a joke? Did Aiz just make a joke? Did anyone else hear that?"
Finn emerged from the forge doorway behind them, tucking a commission receipt into his jacket with a serene expression, though slightly pained from the costs.
"The pickup is in three days, we'll arrange for transport then." He looked at Tiona, who was still trying to come to terms with what Aiz had said, then towards the silent Aiz and to Yuji. "Ready to continue?"
Yuji pushed off the wall.
"One question." He said as the four of them began moving back towards the main street.
"Of course."
"The Freya Familia." He kept his tone mild, already coming to the conclusion of who it was that had been observing him, especially given yesterday's brief encounter. Thankfully, Riveria gave him a brief rundown of who to look out for, mainly them. Seeing what had transpired from yesterday, he could guess who was so interested in him.
"Are they always that obvious, or was that one personal?"
Finn's stride didn't change. Aiz's gaze flicked sideways toward Yuji and then forward again. Tiona looked between them all with widened eyes.
"The second one, I suspect," Finn said, confirming to Yuji that the Pallum was also aware of the pair's presence.
"Good." Yuji merely shrugged. "That's easier to deal with."
They returned back to Northwest Main Street, continuing on to their next destination.
Finn's thumb pressed against the side of his index finger, just once.
Then he smiled and kept walking.
-----------------------
The afternoon moved slower than the morning, as most Adventurers opting to head into the Dungeon chose to do so in the early morning, so all that was left were people going about to restock or enjoy their downtime.
Tiona had found something to eat from somewhere in the thirty seconds she had been out of their sight, working through her food with not a care in the world. Finn walked ahead of the group with a relaxed pace, stopping occasionally at various stores to tick off the last few items left on his list.
The route he chose to take Yuji was deliberate, making sure they could cover as much ground as possible of the most notable locations in the city.
Aiz was content with merely walking silently, keeping her eyes ahead of her and her thoughts her own.
"Oh, they're setting those up already?" Tiona stopped, pointing across the street where two members of an unfamiliar Familia were manoeuvring a large iron cage down from a cart, arguing with each other about what the best angle was.
Yuji looked toward the cage, seeing just how heavily reinforced it was, meant to keep whatever was inside from breaking out.
"Monster Feria's coming up," Tiona said with a casual tone to her voice, "Ganesha Familia hosts it every year. They tame monsters and show them off to the public, to the ones that don't go down into the Dungeons. It's pretty fun actually, there's lots of food stalls, a big colosseum event too. You should give it a try when you have the chance! You came at the perfect time."
"We'll see."
"You'll like it! Maybe. If you like that sort of thing." She tilted her head, eyeing Yuji out of the corner of her eyes, "Do you? Enjoy festivals like those?"
"I've been to a few, a very long time ago."
"And?"
"They were better when I was younger."
Tiona stared at Yuji for a moment before bursting out in laughter, slapping his back a few times. As few passersby glanced over and moved their gazes away just as quickly.
"You really do talk like a grandpa sometimes, you know that?"
"Yes, as you've kept reminding me."
"Does it bother you?"
Yuji kept looking at the Ganesha Familia members still wrestling against the reinforced cage on the opposite side of the street, shaking his head, "No, I don't mind."
Finn stayed silent throughout their interaction, but a smile on his face as he watched them from the corner of his eye. Tiona was the best person he could've brought with how lively and outgoing she was.
Yuji kept his eyes on his surroundings, noticing that preparations for the Monster Feria event began to escalate the closer they were to the Eastern District. He started spotting various signs of the festival being set up throughout the city. Banners were being hung up on the sides of buildings and along the streets that head straight towards the Colosseum in the Eastern District.
On their way back up to the upper district, that was when he came across a particular boy.
It wasn't anything deliberate on his part, he just happened to draw his gaze over to the side of the street, memorising the city's layout.
Finn had briefly separated from the group, ducking into a secondary office belonging to the Guild's supply branch to finalize the last of the expedition's paperwork. He told them to carry on and that he would catch up.
What stood out to him immediately was the white hair and red eyes on him. The boy was heading towards Babel tower, equipped with just some simple equipment, but with an excited look on his face.
There was something else within the boy's gaze that Yuji noted, something he's seen numerous times over in young people, a drive to become stronger and reach a goal set in their mind.
The boy adjusted the pouch hanging off of his side, before seeming to have noticed a gaze on him. This caused Yuji to raise an eyebrow, surprised that the boy even noticed.
Red eyes looked up to meet his own, and the boy froze for a moment, confused why the man opposite of him was staring. That was when his gaze went down to Yuji's left, then the boy's eyes and mouth slowly widened.
He could even see his face reddening visibly before he turned and ran away as fast as he could, letting out a screech as he did so.
Beside him, Aiz had stepped forward without realizing it, but from the look on her face, she realized she was too late to go forward to talk with the boy.
Yuji looked to his side and couldn't help but ask, "Did you do something to the kid?"
Aiz stayed still for a moment, complex thoughts going through her head as she softly answered. "I don't know. I saved him from the stray minotaurs we let get away, but the moment he looked at me, he screamed and ran. I think he's scared of me?"
The last sentence of her words was filled with confusion to her own self, unsure why he would be afraid of her.
Yuji could only sigh whilst Tiona acted like she was invisible, but was taking in the juicy gossip.
It was a brief interruption, so the group continued moving on, but Yuji could tell Aiz kept thinking back over the encounter, wondering if she had done anything wrong.
Tiona had then spotted a merchant on the far side of the street selling what appeared to be small clay figures of various monsters and immediately ran forward with her eyes sparkling.
This left Yuji and Aiz alone, standing on the side of the street.
The silence lasted for a brief moment before Aiz finally spoke.
"You promised. Back in the Dungeon." Her voice was level, but there was a sense of impatience finally building up in her usual steady tone. "To talk with me."
"I remember."
Aiz was quiet for a moment. When she finally spoke again, it was as if she had rehearsed a line over and over again in her head, choosing and picking what to say.
"I saved someone."
"Yeah?"
"In the Dungeon, on the upper floors." She paused, deliberating on her next words. "While we were coming back up."
Yuji chose to stay silent, waiting for her to finish her thoughts.
"He was cornered by one of the minotaurs that ran. I killed it. I asked if he was alright." She said with her usual dead tone, eyes staring straight ahead at Tiona, gushing over the monster figures. "He cried... and then he ran."
"Bete thought it was funny."
Aiz glanced at him sideways, her eyes glinting gold, recalling what Yuji referred to. "Yes."
"But you didn't."
"No." Aiz quickly said, looking down at her feet. "I didn't know what to do."
Yuji looked at her from the side, taking in her words and how she was currently acting. He could tell it bothered her deep down, but she didn't know how to bring it up to others without sounding cold or detached.
He could imagine the sort of expression the kid had to have been saved from a life or death situation, struggling as much as you could, only to have someone swoop in and finish what you couldn't even start. He noticed Aiz's left hand fidgeting with the side of her skirt slightly.
"It bothered you, didn't it?" Yuji finally said, stretching his neck left to right, "Not the crying part, but the running away he did."
Aiz didn't answer immediately, merely nodding and letting out a hum as to confirm Yuji's words. "I helped him. I did what you said, when we made camp on the safety point of Floor 50." She thought back to the brief words Yuji had told her back on the deeper floors, as short as their conversation was. "'Helping people.'"
Yuji nodded slightly, recognizing what he had said to her and the Loki Familia.
"And it was right." Aiz said, not wanting Yuji to think she doubted his words, but her tone contained doubt aimed more towards herself, "I know it was right, but… he looked at me like…" Her eyebrows furrowed, probably remembering how the boy looked at her, Yuji surmised. "He looked at me like I was something to be afraid of. Even after I helped him."
Yuji took in her words, seeing how Aiz was just staring down at the ground instead of towards him, perhaps waiting for him to say something, anything. She was genuinely confused and frustrated, the way she acted conveyed as much.
'Brought this on myself, I suppose. Promising her all the way back down. And she's been carrying this since the 16th Floor.' Yuji thought to himself, rubbing the back of his neck and sighing, which caused Aiz's ears to twitch slightly at the noise.
"He's going back in." Yuji finally said, catching Aiz's attention as she turned her head to look at him, confused.
"He's heading towards Babel, which means he's going back down into the Dungeon. He's not running away, but choosing to go back down."
Aiz considered his words, before tilting her head.
Yuji shook his head. "Look, strength does two things to people." He held up two fingers in front of her. "It scares them, or it gives them direction. Sometimes both at once."
He could see Aiz's eyes light up for a brief moment.
"That boy picked a direction. The fact that he was scared of you first is part of it, not separate." Yuji lowered his hand, seeing his point slowly getting across to Aiz as she thought about his words.
"The crying itself wasn't about you. What I think, is that he probably realized just how far he had to go. Probably the first time he had seen the gap so clearly in front of him. He was crying at himself, at the reality laid out before him, not you."
Yuji noticed Tiona listening in from the side, but acting like she was busy studying the figurine of a War Shadow she had bought.
Aiz looked back down at her own hands, memories of her as a child walking through the Dungeon with nothing but a sword and white dress covered in blood and mud surfaced in her mind. Hunting monsters day and night. The faint memory of two people she held dearly to her, leaving her alone.
"Back on the expedition. You said strength is what's left after everything else is gone."
"Yeah."
"I've been wondering what mine is left from." She carefully said her words, having slowly gone over what Yuji had said to her over the past few weeks. "I always knew what I wanted. The reason never moved. But lately, when I go to reach for it… something shifts or changes."
"That's not a problem." Yuji shrugged at her words, his tone light.
Aiz looked back up at him, even more confused now, as he was basically contradicting his own words, so Yuji explained to her.
"When the reason you started stops being enough, it doesn't mean you were wrong. It just means you're further along than it can take you." Yuji looked up at the sky above them. "The next reason takes longer to find because it has to actually be yours. Not something someone handed to you."
Aiz stayed quiet for a moment, also looking up at the sky, copying his actions. The questions and doubts she had in her heart were slightly lifted, "You found yours?"
"More than once." Yuji said, before letting out a small laugh, "Still working on the latest one, honestly."
Aiz let out a faint smile at his words.
"Sorry that took so long, you two~ Ready to go? Huh, why are you both looking up?" Tiona bounced back towards the pair, confused why the both of them were looking at the sky.
Yuji shook his head, and Aiz merely asked her, "You have what you want?"
"Sure do!" Tiona held up her figurine, moving to Aiz's side to show it off as the three continued on.
Yuji watched from the side, his mind going back to a time long past, to a different lifetime.
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Authors Note:
I am the Yap master, master of the Yap. This conversation had to happen at some point, but don't worry I'll be spicing up the next few chapters as Monster Feria draws closer.
Also that chapter was extra long to make up for it
P.S. here's my discord server if you guys want to join, it's pretty old and I can't be bothered to make a new one. You can come chat, give suggestions or whatever. https://discord.gg/uexk3tYvxy Or just type in uexk3tYvxy into the server finder thingy