Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the anime, manga and games they are from. They all belong to their rightful creators. The OCs that appears in this story belongs to me.
Seven Heroines
Chapter Thirty Five: In Hot Water
It was the next day of the group's journey to the Reverse Woods. Right now the time would be around noon which meant they've been walking since this morning as Fang said. The group found out that Sora wasn't exactly an early bird. Vanille had a funny idea of splashing cold water on to the youngest heroine. She got a kick out it. Right now all of them are enjoying the walk. There was even some talking along the way. "Wait so you're telling me that people thought you and your sister were in a relationship?" Sora asked. In the short time, she had become good friends with both Vanille and Serah.
The pinkette nodded as she smiled. "Yeah. It was mostly because Lightning couldn't leave my side most of the time. Some say she has a sister complex."
"Well if Fang did the same thing to me, people would talk about that as well." Vanille added.
Up ahead, IF kept glancing back to the three's conversations. "I find it weird that both Vanille and Serah are older than Sora and yet they look like they're having a good time."
"Friendship knows no age IF. I find it comforting that Sora can make friends with just about anyone." Erza praised.
Meanwhile Fang and Aisha were looking at each other's weapons. Fang held the heroine's weapon closely. "Quite a nice piece you have there. I can tell its seen its fair share of action. You've taken a lot care for this."
Aisha smiled at the other woman's compliment. "Thank you. I try my best to take good care of it. Your weapon is impressive as well." She held it up close to her. "I never would've imagined someone in this world would use a three part pole."
"Seems you have knowledge on that part. And here I thought it was an original piece in this land." The two exchanged back their weapons. "Guess when you meet people that come from a different world, some things are bound to be similar."
Aisha nodded in agreement. "Very true. To me, traveling to new lands means new experiences to mean."
"Sounds like you did a lot traveling back in your own world." Fang assumed.
"I did. For a long time I traveled by myself. Along the way, I would help people whose homes have been raided by bandits. It wasn't soon after I was being called the 'beautiful black haired bandit hunter.'"
The tanned woman chuckled. "Well I can see why people would say that. You got looks that could make any girl would make them want you."
"Well at least I didn't hear the usual like most people." Aisha was glad about that. Every time she met someone that has heard of her title, they would've thought the hunter was more beautiful then she actually is.
"So then…" Fang spoke. "What kind of people did you meet along your travels?"
Aisha looked up at the sky. "During my travels, I met a young girl called Rin Rin." Fang paid closely attention to what she was about to hear. "She was always causing trouble in the village near her home. However it was because she was lonely at the time. When I came along, we didn't have a good start but after some time we made a pact of sisterhood."
"Hold on. You're saying you adopted the girl as your younger sister?" Fang laughed while Aisha blushed. "That's a laugh. So basically you and me are like two peas in a pod."
The other woman smiled. "I suppose. How did Vanille become your younger sister?"
It was right there Fang's smile was replaced by frown along with a somber look on her face. "It's not exactly a happy tale. Vanille's parents were killed in a hunt. She took it hard and cried on days end. However her parents were good friends with mine so they took her in even though she was from different clan. Ever since then, me and Vanille have been inseparable."
"A different clan? She isn't from the same one as yours?" It was an interesting bit of information.
"Her full name is Oerba Dia Vanille like my name is Oerba Yun Fang. There are more clans in Gran Pulse then you think. It's not common that one clan would take in someone else from a different clan although it is frowned upon some." She smiled once again. "You know it's funny. I'm not usually this open to people I've met. It took a while for sunshine to get me say this much. I wonder why?"
"Maybe because we both share similar experiences?" Aisha guessed.
"It could be. You don't meet much people with the kind of experience we have. Of course Lighting and I have something else in common as well."
"What would that be?"
Fang gave her signature smirk. "Sorry but I can't say. That's only between her and me."
"Fair enough."
Going back to Sora, Serah, and Vanille behind them was BRS and Jo keeping a small distance between them. For the entire time Rock was in the world, she had not said a single word other than her own name. Ever since this morning, Sora has been talking nonstop with the two older girls. She's been staring at them since then. "Missing your friend?" Rock looked at Jo while she was looking ahead. "Just go up to them." BRS shot a blank look at the gunslinger and continued to stare at the three. "You must have a lot of friends back wherever you came from." By friends she means others who tried to kill, impale, mutilate, or any other kind of harm to her for every minute in BRS' life then yes she had friends. Jo had a different reason for looking at the group ahead of them. She couldn't stop looking at Vanille's rear or rather something attached to it. "Hey red!"
Said red looked back at Jo as well as Serah and Sora. "Yes?"
Jo was never the kind of person to beat around the bush. "Mind telling what's attached to your ass?" She was also the kind of person to be blunt.
Vanille turned around while walking backwards. She took her weapon out and it unfolded. What was usual about it was the head piece resembled a pair of antlers. "This is my weapon of choice. It's called a binding rod."
Jo didn't look impressed with the weapon. "It looks like fishing rod."
The redhead heard Serah giggle at Jo's comment and Sora tried to restrain a laugh. She let out a small growl and her eyes narrowed at the gunslinger. "It's not a fishing rod!"
"Sorry Vanille but it does kinda look like a fishing rod." Sora commented
"That's what I said when I first saw it. She was so angry." Serah spoke.
Mad at the comments she was hearing, Vanille huffed as she folded her weapon to back where it was positioned and turned around to face the front. "Just you all wait. I'll show you how awesome my rod can be." And that line was taken out of context in Jo's mind.
Sora continued to look at the gunslinger. "Hey Jo I was wondering about something."
"And what would that be?"
The youngest heroine looked at Jo's left arm. "What was with the glowy purple tattoo that appeared on your arm during your fight with Fang?" That question grabbed the attention from Serah, Vanille, and BRS. They're pretty sure that same question was on the minds of the other heroines as well.
"Nothing for you to wonder about." The gunslinger simply replied. Sora thought that was the best answer she could get out of Jo. However the rest of the group was also wondering what else Jo had up her sleeve.
B
After some more hours walking, some members of the group began to notice a slight change in the air. Raidy wiped her forehead. "Is it just me or is it getting a bit hotter around here?"
Fang laughed at what she said. "Careful with that question or you'll find out the answer." Raidy just tilted her head in confusion as she was confused at what Fang said.
IF tugged the collar of her shirt. "Now that you say that, the air does feel a bit hotter." She looked over to Erza who wasn't fazed by the heat at all and she was wearing armor out of all things.
"That means we're close." Fang stated.
"Close to what exactly?" Agnes asked.
"Look up ahead." The huntress pointed out. Sure enough something was rising from ground. From the looks of it, what was rising out of the ground was steam. As the group walked closer to the steam the temperature of the air began to steadily increase. So much that both Rock and IF had to take off their coats and wrap them around their waists and IF had to wrap her cell phone strap diagonally on her front. Even if her cellphones didn't work in this world, IF couldn't toss them away. That and they were expensive to buy in the first place. It became clear what was up ahead for the group. "You said why we couldn't go by carriage. This particular path is why we couldn't." What lay in front of the group was a large river of boiling water running to the side. Several columns of hot water erupted from the river. The only objects that stood above were large flat stones and the trees that were above the boiling river. "Ladies, say hello to the Boiling River." Another column of water erupted.
"Boiling River?" Aisha meekly asked.
"That's the name. Fall into it and you'll be a nice cooked lunch to where ever your red body goes. This is the reason why couldn't take a carriage." Fang explained. "The only way across are those stones. Good thing we're not barefoot. Those stones are tall enough avoid the current but are still heated by the water. I hope you all have good shoes." Several of the girls in the group looked uneasy. One wrong misstep and that's it. Sora gulped. "So who's going first?"
Instantly BRS stepped up. A large river of boiling water wasn't enough to unnerve her in the slightest. She faced more perils deadlier then what she saw before her. A column of water erupted close to BRS. She could feel the heat from it. As soon as it died down, Rock jumped to the nearest stepping stone. As soon as she landed, BRS jumped to the next stone and onto the next. More columns erupted but they seem not to face the silent girl at all. With one last jump, she made it to the other side.
Fang smiled as she was impressed by Rocks performance. "Not too bad chatty." Who's next?" Jo was the next to go. Like BRS, she didn't hesitate to jump to one stone to the other until she reached to the other side. Impressed by the heroine's efforts, Fang was up next. The heroines and Agnes were impressed how crossed the river effortlessly. IF was up and she was more careful to see where she would jump to next while avoiding the hot geysers. Aisha was a bit nervous when came up to the river. She was a bit more hesitant when crossing the river but made it through. Agnes made it through with some difficulty due to her armor. Both Vanille and Serah crossed the river without any effort at all. Finally it was Sora's turn. For the youngest heroine, she was a scared. Never in her life had she thought it would be in the hands of a few stones with hot boiling water running around them.
She stared at the hot with unease in her eyes. "Hope everything I learned in P.E pays off." In the background, Sora could hear her friends cheering her. The youngest heroine closed her hands tightly and gulped. "Well it's now or never." Sora jumped to the first stone. Another column of water came out near to where she was standing. Not wasting any time Sora jumped to the next stone. She couldn't tell if it was the pressure or the heat from the river but she was sweating. The youngest Heroine made a few more jumps until she was close to the other end. Just a couple of more stones and Sora would be home free. Sora made the jump for the next stone. However she may have over calculated her jump as she landed near the edge of the next stone. Her body leaned forward but she tried to control it but was now leaning back. However that tampered with her balance even more. Sora started to fall back now with the hot water awaiting her. Her arm was in the air as she if she was trying to grab something but all there was nothing. Suddenly she felt several wires wrap around her arm.
"And pull!" Vanille pulled her binding rod with all her strength to lift Sora up from her fall. The group could hear Sora scream. Her landing isn't what they would call graceful as Sora's entire body landed on the ground. Vanille ran up to the fallen heroine. "Are you ok Sora?"
Her response was a pained groan. Sora sat up to look at the older redhead. "Thanks for saving my butt Vanille. I won't look down at the rod of yours again." Vanille giggled at Sora's words as she helped Sora up. Once the wires were off of her arm, the group looked over to other side. Only Erza was the only one left.
The rest of the group waited for her turn to cross. However they didn't expect what Erza would do next. The armor wizard crouched down and jumped up high into the air. She leapt over the river and landed in front of the other group. The rest of the girls didn't know what to say to her. All Erza did was walk past them. "Shall we continue?"
B
Night came quickly to the group as they were still walking along the trail. The heat in the air began to cool down much to some of the girls. They were doing fine until Fang stopped. The rest followed. They wondered why she stopped so suddenly. The tanned huntress turned the group. "All right this is we'll camp for the night." The group searched around.
"What just like that? Out of nowhere?" IF questioned.
Fang rolled her eyes. "Just follow me. I know a great spot around here to set up. It's just a little off the path." The tanned woman started to walk from the intended path and into the forest. All the other girls looked at each other and a few of them shrugged as neither of them had an idea what Fang meant. With no other choice they followed the huntress into the forest. They didn't travel far as they saw Fang just up ahead. "Ladies this is where we're spending the night." They all looked past the tanned woman and were shocked beyond surprise. In front of Fang was large hot spring. "I'm sure we can relax here."
IF was the first to walk up to the hot spring. "A hot spring out here?"
"Quite convenient if I do say so myself. Found this little gem on accident. With this, we can relax the night away and have a good nights rest." What Fang said did have some truth in it. Right now all of them could have a relaxing night before they arrive at the Reverse Woods. With some privacy (even though they're all girls.) they removed their clothing and one by one entered the hot spring. A unanimous sigh of relief, all of them were enjoying the warm temperature.
Sora stretched her arms out with a face of bliss. "I definitely prefer this over that river."
Vanille giggled at the youngest heroine's words. "It's a good thing I was there huh?" Sora laughed nervously while scratching the back of her head.
"All that's missing from this scene is some good drinks." Fang commented.
"I don't think that'll mix well while in a hot spring." IF stated.
Fang waved at the brunette's words. "Maybe if you're weak sure."
Erza leaned back on the wall. "Ah this does feel like heaven. This is quite lovely Fang."
The tanned huntress laughed. "Glad you like it and now that I see something, I say the winners in size is you, that other red and Aisha." Aisha sunk deeper in the hot spring to cover her chest while Raidy blushed although it was difficult to tell as her face was red with the heat from the hot spring. Since Fang had mentioned the different sizes, both Vanille and Serah took a closer look at the other women's breasts and they suddenly felt a bit jealous. Sora kinda felt the same way. IF, Jo, and BRS didn't give a crap. The rest of the night went on for the group as it would be their last sense of peace before they arrived at the Reverse Woods. Little did they know the hard trials several of them would have to face.