I Never Let Her Die! (Aerith x Male Gamer Reader)

Disk 01: Chapter 25: Materia Girl

We gathered on the beach where Yuffie had ditched the Bronco. It didn't take long for Cid to determine that our ninja had sabotaged the engines somehow before running away, and so we were gathered in a circle, discussing how we should proceed. "How long to repair the engines again?" Cloud asked.

"Not as long as last time..." Cid answered. "Couple of days probably.... Damn, as much as I wanna go with you to get that little brat I guess I'd better stay here and get to work."

"Good thinking." Vincent said. "And now let me offer a suggestion as well... If we're actually going to chase Yuffie back to Wutai we should break up into smaller groups. That'll help keep us 'off the radar' of Wutai's guardians."

"Hold on though." Barrett said. "We've got no materia. No magic. A bigger group'd be safer, don'tcha think?"

"Agreed lad." Cait added. "If we break into groups we'll be weaker. Then what happens when we run into some kind of monsters?"

Vincent was unmoved. "I still insist that small groups are better. Wutai's samurai are far more dangerous than any of the local wildlife. Avoiding them is what's most important. With Cid remaining here, there are eight of us. We should go in pairs and regather once we're in the city."

"If we get there!" Barrett insisted. "We'll have no real firepower!"

From behind us came the sound of Red clearing his throat. "Perhaps these will be of assistance in this." He said. Turning, we saw Red sitting on his haunches behind a large spread of weapons: Grenades, Swift Bolts, Fire Veils, Bomb Arms, you name it, it was there.

"Where...?" Cid started to say.

I was done. I started to step towards Red, saying "Alright, that does it..."

Tifa tried to stop me. "Actually Y/N, this might not be the best time..."

"No!" I insisted. "No, damn it, I'm tired of this." I stared straight at Red and said "Dude. Seriously. Where... In the hell... Are you carrying all this stuff?"

Rising to his feet, Red started to walk off in the direction of Wutai. As he went, he said "Apologies. I understand your frustration. To be quite blunt, though, I've come to like all of you too much to risk making your primitive hominid brains explode from the revelation."

For several moments we silently watched Red depart. It was Vincent who finally spoke. He took a bandolier of grenades and another of fire veils from Red's stash and said "The rest of you can pair off as you like... I'm going with the four-legged arsenal..." He ran to catch up with Red.

"I'm with Cloud!" Tifa announced.

"I'm with Y/N!" Aerith echoed.

"Guess that leaves me with... Aw hell!" Barrett said, staring at Cait.

"It's not so bad laddie." Cait said. "We'll have fun, get ta' know each other better!"

"I hate cats..." Barrett grumbled. "Cid, you wanna change spots? I'm sure I could fix the plane..."

"Hell no!" Cid answered. "Nobody touches my baby but me!"

We divided up Red's supplies and headed north towards Wutai...

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Three days later we arrived in Wutai. Everyone gathered together in front of the main gate. "Wow. Damn big city." Barrett said.

"Thirty years ago it was second only to Midgar." Vincent answered. "I suspect it's still so."

Aerith looked across the cityscape and settled her gaze on the Da Chao statues. "Look at that! I've never seen such large carvings before."