Chapter 32 – The Girl On The Chocobo

Translated by Mecorx, Proofread by Crashouch

When I woke up, it was already night, and the car was parked. After quickly checking that Kyrie was still there, I let my head drop back down onto the passenger side seat and fell back asleep. My neck was starting to get sore. I moved my body slowly so as not to shake the car.

“Ngh” Kyrie groaned as she woke up. She stopped after the words “my neck”.

I reached from behind to support Kyrie’s head, and gently helped her sit up. “You okay?”

“Ugh.” Part way through she began moving of her own accord and started loosening her neck.

“Sorry, I got sleepy…”

“Shhh!” I stopped Kyrie and pointed forward.

“Oh.”

There was something about 20 metres ahead of us in the moonlit wasteland. This was the first time I had seen a real chocobo. It was looking at us with sleepy eyes. Moreover, a petite girl was riding on the chocobo’s back. I picked up the machine gun, which had fallen at my feet. As far as I knew, chocobos weren’t dangerous creatures. I didn’t feel any hostility from the girl either. But it was better to be safe than sorry. I couldn’t rely on my knowledge. I even had trouble understanding the feelings of the girl sitting next to me, after all.

“What should we do?” Kyrie asked.

“Leave it to me.” I would be alright so long as I had a gun. I opened the door quietly, fixed my eyes on the girl, and got out.

“That’s broken, you know.” Kyrie whispered as I got out.

I had completely forgotten. But it was too late. I got out and stood beside the car. I slowly pointed the muzzle at the chocobo.

“Stop!” I shouted. But the chocobo kept approaching with the girl on its back.

I faltered as I saw the size of the yellow, flightless bird that bounded towards to me. It seemed it could easily fracture my skull with it’s beak.

“Stop!” I repeated again as I retreated. Kyrie got out of the car too, and came around behind me.

“You guys are stupid!” The girl skillfully maneuvered the chocobo toward us as she cursed at us.

I wanted to retreat even further, but I bravely stood my ground in front of Kyrie. “Who are you calling stupid?” How’s that for a counter, Kyrie?

“Hey, nevermind that, is it true that there’s medicine for Geostigma?”

“What?” I inadvertently lowered the muzzle.

“Good, good. You can’t just go pointing guns at people outta nowhere. Let’s follow the rules of the wilderness, alright? So, they made a medicine for Geostigma? I’ve been hearing rumours about it.”

“Actually, the medicine just reduces the pain of Geostigma. It’s not a cure.” I answered, hiding my awkwardness.

“Where can I buy it?”

“It’s not on the market yet. I think the WRO hands it out.”

“Hands it out? You mean it’s free?”

“Probably.”

“Awesome! Thanks for letting me know!” The girl happily thanked me, and just as I thought she was moving away from the car… she came back again. “Hey, dude! You can’t fire a machine gun without releasing the safety catch! Ugh, how embarrassing.” This time she really went away, laughing.

“Who was that girl?” Kyrie muttered.

But there was no way we would find out now. There were plenty of people in the world who lived in ways we don’t know about. Midgar, the Slums and Edge made up only a small part of the world.

“Try it.”

I examined the machine gun. There was a small metal plate attached to the body of the gun, near the trigger. The only other button was the magazine release, so I slid the mechanism I thought was the safety catch with my finger. It clicked. Then, I aimed the gun and pulled the trigger. There was a satisfying ratatatat, and sparks flew. Both of us screamed. I found out for the first time that the recoil made your shoulder really sore, and that a shell casing pops out for each bullet you shoot.

“I wonder what the rules of the wilderness are.” Kyrie said, sitting in the passenger seat.

“The first rule is probably that you don’t randomly point guns at people.”

“It’s pretty annoying, when someone’s like “you didn’t know?” and starts laughing at you.”

“Yeah.” I remembered that had been said to me on a daily basis when I moved to the Slums.

“… sorry.” It seemed Kyrie remembered too.

“It’s alright. The more you have to be frustrated about, the stronger you grow.”…That’s what I think, anyway. Though I had no real experience. Frustration just made me a liar.

* *

It was almost dawn. I turned off the headlights as I drove.

“Kyrie, you should get some sleep. You’ll be taking over at around noon.”

“… I’ll try.” she said in a feeble voice, and began moving toward the back seat. It seemed she was going to squeeze through the narrow space between the driver’s seat and front passenger seat. Her upper body went through without difficulty, but her butt got caught between the seats. Kyrie’s legs flailed around right next to me. Before long, she slanted her body, accomplishing her goal.

“’night, then.”

“Yup.”

–

For someone who said she probably wouldn’t sleep, Kyrie seemed to fall asleep straight away. I occasionally looked at her figure in the rearview mirror as I drove. I was glad, from the bottom of my heart, that she came with me. If I were a stronger man who could tolerate the loneliness, I might have thought she would get in my way. But I was someone who had an unbelievably low tolerance for loneliness. I recalled the few days I spent waiting for my mother in Midgar. Actually, I had a similar experience before that as well.

Suddenly, the memories started to come back. It was just after I had heart surgery, when I was still just a kid. Mom collapsed due to overworking, and I was alone for a few days. There were nurses and doctors around because I was in a hospital. But, to me, they were just people who brought me pain. I only had Mom for protection. I grieved over her absence and cried the whole time. Nevertheless, it was frustrating to be seen in such a state by the nurses, so whenever it felt like someone had come by I would pull the blanket over my head and hold my breath.

–

“They say there’s something wrong with this kid’s head. I heard that his mother collapsed after hearing that.”

“Shh! Don’t talk like that in front of the patient.”

–

What was this memory? I think it was a conversation I overheard the nurses having while I was pretending to be asleep. But what did they mean? Mom collapsed? It wasn’t because she was overworked? I slammed on the brakes.

“What’s wrong?” Kyrie said in a sleepy voice.

“Nothing…”

“Wow, this is awesome! Did you want to show me this?”

I didn’t know why she was excited. Looking back, I saw she was glued to the window, gazing out. Vast grasslands spread out ahead of Kyrie. And a few dozen metres away was a large pond. A spring? A lake? I didn’t know the difference. It was as large as Edge’s central square and reflecting the morning light. It was the first time I had seen such a large body of water. The overwhelming landscape pushed away the real reason I had stopped the car.

“Wanna go?” Kyrie got out of the car without waiting for a reply, and started running through the meadow. A gentle slope continued down, so it seemed it would be easy to reach the water’s edge. Kyrie suddenly stopped and looked back. “Hey, are you bringing the machine gun? Better safe than sorry, right?”

“Oh yeah.” I got out of the car, opened the rear door, and lifted out the machine gun. I noticed that the pistol had fallen behind the passenger seat. What an unsafe car. I thrust my body into the the car, trying to pick it up, and figured I’d take out my shoulder bag and Kyrie’s backpack. These were our valuables, after all. I decided to put the pistol in my bag, and made my way down to the water’s edge.

“Evan!” Kyrie’s excited voice called out. She crouched at the water’s edge, and put her hands in the water. “Wow! It’s so incredibly clear!” She got up and ran toward me. “I’ll go change. Don’t look towards the car until I say.”

“Huh?”

“Go on. You can even see fish.”

“Oh, okay.” I walked toward the water’s edge, still not knowing what Kyrie was up to. Before long I reached the shore where the meadow gently sloped down, until the grass was swaying in the clear water. I could see tiny fish swimming, poking through the grass. It was a scene I had only ever seen in videos. The reality was that I could now touch it if I just reached out my hands. I put down the machine gun, and put my hand into the water, just like Kyrie had. It was cool and serene.

“Let’s go!”

Suddenly, I heard a voice behind me, and Kyrie, wearing a flashy, orange bathing suit, ran, splashing into the pond. It seemed to get deeper as she got further from the edge, as Kyrie’s body gradually became submerged in the water.

Before long, she got to where it reached up to her chest, and turned around. “Hurry up!”

“I’m good.”

“Let’s catch fish to eat!” Saying that, she put her face close to the surface of the water, and peeked through. “I see some… there’s some pretty big ones…”

I didn’t know the habits of the fish at all, but I didn’t think there were any we could catch.

“I didn’t pack any swimwear.”

“Aren’t you good as you are? Just take off your shirt. You know, you can take a bath, too.” Kyrie stretched out her left arm, and started rubbing and scrubbing it with her right hand. “Don’t be such a spoilsport!” Kyrie said, laughing.

I took off my shirt, muttering that it seemed I had no choice. Kyrie was chasing after a fish. Don’t be such a spoilsport… those were the words Kyrie, Leslie and Fabio often used, words that would always provoke and humiliate me. But, now, I was determined to enjoy myself.

“Let’s go, Kyrie!”

“Yeah!”