Final Fantasy XIII: Episode Zero -Promise-

"Stranger", Chapter Four

"Haha, sorry about that." Fang smiled, and held out a can of some sort of drink. "You're so jumpy."

"I can't help it..." Vanille said, pouting, but she took the can. "Where did you get this?"

"Bought it."

Vanille looked at the can, then looked up at Fang. Where did she get the money? They didn't even know if cash was used on Cocoon.

"I used this." Fang said, pulling out the card they had taken yesterday. "Cocoon's such a weird place. I can't believe you can get anything with something like this." She opened up her can and took a drink, motioning for Vanille to do the same. The can was a little strange, but it wasn't difficult to figure out how to open it.

"Oh! It's good."

"I told them to give me the sweetest drink they had."

After the watery, tasteless stuff they had been eating recently, it was amazing drinking something where you could actually taste the sweetness. It was wonderful.

"So how do you buy stuff with this?"

"I don't know how it works. I just copied what everyone else was doing. Like them." Fang said, pointing to the people in the shop nearby. Vanille could see that the woman there had a card like the one they carried.

"I watched the people in a store I passed by, and I thought hey, maybe that's how it works."

"So then those two men from yesterday really didn't have any money."

"But they actually do have some cash on Cocoon." Fang looked over to a different store. It was pink and white with cute decorations hung on the story front. A candy store. There were children running in and out of it, holding candy. Apparently taking your allowance to the candy store to buy some sweets was something children on both Cocoon and Gran Pulse enjoyed. "Kids use cash." Fang said.

They could see that all of the adults used cards. Sometimes the owner of the card would press something on the card, or put something on the card. Then sometimes the store clerk would run the card through a strangely shaped machine. It seemed there were many ways to use the card.

"I saw a shop where they were selling weapons. So long as we have this we can buy some." Fang grinned. "We can fight."

"But..." Those two men had been shockingly weak. Fang could defeat them bare-handed. Even the fish and the birds had been pathetic. Probably all the creatures on Cocoon, including humans, did not know how to fight.

"Weren't we chosen as l'Cie to fight Cocoon?"

"Yes but... right now there would be no reason..."

"Yeah... it's so peaceful here. We probably don't even have to fight."

"Yes. Let's not fight." Vanille nodded. Her voice sounded strange to her ears, she wondered if Fang noticed.

"Even if we won't be fighting, what is our Focus? If we don't find out..."

That again. It always comes back around to that, Vanille thought, sighing. A loud voice intruded on her thoughts.

"Before we do that, why don't we go on the fal'Cie tour?"

Vanille and Fang glanced at each other.

"We could just go to Euride on our last day."

"But the closer it gets to the fireworks festival, the more crowded it will be."

"That's true."

A group of older women passed by, talking in high spirits. What had they meant by "fal'Cie tour"? And Euride? Perhaps that was a place where the Cocoon fal'Cie was enshrined. Fang and Vanille snuck in behind the women, trying to remain unobtrusive, to listen for more important information.