Chapter 2
It was a bright and sunny day in Hoku Village as the recruit truck came to a complete stop in front of a crowd of eagerly waiting teenagers. Amongst them was 13-year-old Zen, the only girl in a group of half a dozen boys. The infantryman that came out of the truck gave her a curious glance before going around to lower the truck gate and let the teenagers on. In contrast, the boys around Zen didn't mind her presence as they do regard her as one of them due to her strong demeanor and carefree personality. Plus, she has a pretty good right hook and knows how to use it.
Clad in a simple red tank top, blue jean pants, and dark brown hiking boots and carrying her travel sack over her shoulder, Zen is one of the last to climb into the truck's topless bed alongside her fellow village boys. She makes sure her long black hair was still tied back neatly and wiggles a little farther into the bed in order to let the infantryman raise the gate back up and lock it in place. As the truck turns over, Zen brushes her bangs away from her eyes and looks back to bid a silent goodbye to the home she had always known.
Just then, she sees a figure running furiously towards the truck just as the vehicle begins to leave.
"Wait… Wait for me!" cried out the running teenage boy.
The Shin-Ra infantrymen couldn't hear him over the roar of the engine and hence made no attempt to stop for him. However, Zen did and so attempts to help the poor lad aboard the truck.
"Hold my hand," Zen commands a nearby boy as she holds out her left hand. Once he takes it, she reaches out to the running boy with her right hand, the upper half of her body leaning far out over the truck gate.
Seeing his chance, the teenage boy uses every ounce of his strength to jump towards the truck. Then he realizes that he wasn't going to make it. As he falls back, Zen thrusts out more of her body and grabs the boy's hand at the last second, pulling him quickly into the truck bed.
The boy lands roughly onto the ridged flooring of the truck bed, the travel sack he'd been carrying landing right on top of him. Wearing a navy blue t-shirt, khaki pants, and hiking boots, the newcomer seems quite odd to the village boys and they began murmuring amongst themselves as the truck reaches cruising speed.
"Heh, thanks for the lift," the boy says to Zen, scratching his spikey black hair nervously. "I'm Zack."
"I'm Zen," responds his savior, who had settled back to where she was sitting before.
"Y-you're a girl?" stutters Zack, looking quite dumbfounded.
"Aww, am I not flat-chested enough?" jokes Zen with a smile.
"Actually, you are pretty flat-chested for a girl," notes Zack.
"And I'm perfectly happy with that," responds Zen as she puts her arms behind her head. "It's much easier to move around when you don't have 2 pounds of extra baggage weighing you down."
"I guess…" utters Zack. He looks around and finds that there was an empty space across from Zen so he takes the seat and pulls his sack closer to him.
Zen notes the behavior and gives a little smirk. "I suppose you've never been outside your hometown before?"
Zack blushes a bit and scratches his head. "Uh, what makes you say that?"
"Well, for one thing, you're definitely not from Hoku Village, a place renowned for explorers," explains Zen. "And secondly, someone who has been out in the world before would never hold his bag close to him like a security blanket."
Zack eases his death-grip hold on his sack and meekly pushes it to the side.
"So… where are you from?" asks Zen, smiling from ear to ear.
"Um, Gongaga," answers Zack.
"Gongaga? Really?" questions Zen, tilting her head to the side curiously. "But a recruit truck passed by there a few days ago, didn't it? Why didn't you get on that one?"
"It's kinda… hard to explain…" stutters Zack.
"Well, we won't get to the next town that soon," says Zen, noting the speed of the truck and the vast countryside. "And I love stories."
Zack chuckles uneasily and decides that there was no harm to telling the girl. As he spoke, Zen listens intently, letting out a "hmm" every once in a while. By the time they got to the Corel area, she had heard everything.
"Your dad's pretty opinionated about the military," notes Zen thoughtfully. "Ever wonder why?"
"Not really," answers Zack, brushing off the question. "I just want to join SOLDIER and become a hero."
"You and everyone else on this truck," chuckles Zen. "I guess I'm immune to Sephiroth's charms."
Zack scratches his head uncomfortably, impressed by Zen's perceptive abilities. Or maybe it's her typical women's intuition. Who knows?
"So… what about you?" he asks, wanting to switch the subject over to her instead. "Why are you joining Shin-Ra?"
"Me?" exclaims Zen. "Well, with my dad dead, my mom's working really hard to support my sisters and me. She's very old-fashioned; doesn't believe that girls should be doing 'man things' like fighting and hunting." She rubs her nose with a finger and grins. "But I was born to be a fighter. Girl or boy, fighting is a part of me. No amount of convincing will make me change otherwise. So when the opportunity to join Shin-Ra and get paid for what I love to do came, I just had to go for it."
"You're a fighter?" responds Zack, raising an eyebrow incredulously. The girls and women in Gongaga were never known to take up such a masculine profession.
"I think the technical term for a person like me would be 'street fighter'," clarifies Zen. "Ever meet a guy by the name of Zangan?"
"Nope," answers Zack.
"Me neither," adds Zen. "Supposedly he's this great martial artist who goes around the world to find students and train them. But I've been trained by a Wutai fighter and I think that's pretty decent enough for me. Pretty handy with a sword, too."
She stops to look around the truck and notices all the other recruits were fast asleep. Grinning, she takes out a piece of paper from her back pocket and crawls over to where Zack was to sit right next to him.
"Wanna see something neat?" she asks him.
"Uh, sure," replies Zack, unsure of what to make of this.
Upon hearing that, Zen happily unfolds the piece of paper and shows the penciled contents to the teenage boy. He sees a technical drawing of a strange weapon that was half blade, half handle. To one side of the strange weapon was a couple of what looked like weird scratches: 約定
"What's that?" he asks, pointing to the scratches.
"That is a word written in an old language known as Chinese," explains Zen. "I first saw some in a book I found a long time ago. I've been secretly learning how to write it 'cause it just looks so darn cool."
"Whoa," asserts Zack, fascinated by the archaeology of it all. "What do those two scratches mean?"
"It means 'promise', a perfect name for my future sword," Zen declares proudly, pointing to the drawing.
"That's a sword?" exclaims Zack, rotating the paper this way and that.
"Yep, it's called a 'horse cutter'," says Zen. "No idea what horses are, but they must be pretty big monsters to require such a big sword. Supposedly there's a weaponsmith in Midgar that could make anything so that's another plus for me to join Shin-Ra."
"Why are you telling me all this?" wonders Zack curiously as he hands the paper back to the teenage girl.
"You seem like a very trustworthy guy," answered Zen as she folds up the drawing and puts it back into her pocket. "Plus, I've never seen anyone attempt to get on a moving vehicle like you did. That takes guts!"
Zack chuckles and scratches the back of his head in embarrassment. Truth be told, he hadn't counted on oversleeping and having to run to catch the recruit truck. And he certainly didn't count on a girl helping him get onto said truck. Different people sure are different.
The two of them sat in relative silence for a few minutes until Zen suddenly speaks up again.
"Hey!" she says excitedly. "How about you and me make a promise?"
"A promise?" repeated Zack, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course," Zen grins at him and holds out her forearm. "We're friends now, aren't we?"
Zack contemplates her words for a moment and smiles as he bumps her forearm with his. "Yeah, I guess we are. So, what's the promise?"
"Now, I never intended to get into SOLDIER or anything when I signed up for this, but for some reason you've gotten me into liking the idea." began Zen. "So, as newfound friends and brothers in arms, let's promise to get into SOLDIER together."
Zack's eyes widen in surprise at the sound of such a bold statement. Getting into SOLDIER was definitely not easy and the chances of both of them getting into SOLDIER at the same time was slimmer than him sprouting wings and flying.
But, after seeing the hopeful and optimistic grin on the girl's face, he began thinking otherwise. He could just feel it in his guts that, if there were anyone else who had a chance of getting into SOLDIER beside him, it would definitely be Zen.
"Okay," he agrees. "It's a promise."
"AAANNNDDD!" adds Zen, crossing her arms over her chest. "Once we get into SOLDIER, you have to promise to write back to your parents at least once. No matter how noble your intentions, running away and letting your parents worry to no end is the worst thing you could do to them." She raises a finger to her chin. "Well, that and dying, I guess."
Zack nods his head to the side as the guilt made itself known.
"I promise," he exclaims.
A/N: By the way, Hoku Village is NOT a canon town in the world of Final Fantasy VII. I just made it up for the sake of this fanfiction.