Chapter 5.
"Well, I'm guessing that was Squall?"
"BZZZT, wrong answer, who do you think it was Irvine?" Zell replied sarcastically.
"Yeah, I thought as much"
"Where is he?" Quizzed Quistis
"He's…going shopping" Zell replied, somewhat wondering about what he just said.
"Squall…SHOPPING?" Selphie practically screamed.
"Yeah, it struck me as a bit weird"
Quistis just grinned and thought of Squall walking into a clothes shop and coming out wearing some kind of catsuit.
"Typical I suppose" she said quietly.
"What was that?" asked Zell
"Huh? Oh, I said strange of him to go shopping" she replied
"Oh…ok" replied Zell with a doubting tone. "Well, we should be at Deling in around 10 minutes, Selphie, we taking those hampers with us or we leaving them here? Presumably you wanna go and 'splore the city a bit?"
"Well, it'd be a pity if I didn't, I think we should probably leave them in here, if we need them we can easily come back for them"
"I second that" said Quistis
"Yeah, me three" replied Irvine
"It's decided then, Squall said he would meet us in the car park and we can decide what to do or where to go from there"
"Whoa!" said a shocked Irvine "Mister Leader not being Mister Leader for a change…I am amazed, truly"
"Quiet you" said Selphie, slapping him on a cheek playfully.
Squall was standing in front of a stand with exotic knives hung up on metal hangars, there was a pair of knives that were particularly drawing his attention, their labels read 'Holo-blades', the handles were freshly polished titanium and protruding from their tops were blue/purple coloured blades, purely holographic, not solid in any form.
"Can I help you sir?" a man of similar height asked from his right side.
"You got two pairs of these in stock?" Squall replied pointing to the Blades that had caught his attention.
"Of course Sir, you like them huh?"
"Yeah, listen, I'm interested in purchasing, how much are we talking?"
"A respectable amount sir, are you quite sure?"
"How much?" Squall re-iterated.
"Fifteen thousand Gil for one pair, obviously thirty thousand for two pairs"
"I'm a SeeD from Balamb Garden, ID 41269, Squall Leonhart, how much can I get knocked off" The assistant took 3 steps back, and simply gawped at him.
"You're…Squall Leonhart?"
"I am..,"
"Ex boyfriend of Rinoa Heartilly?"
"Yes…what is this, twenty questions, can I get my price now?"
"Well, because you are a SeeD and…well, you, I can get you two pairs for fifteen thousand Gil"
"Sounds like a fair price to me" said Squall, reaching his hand around to his back pocket to get out his 'roll' of money.
"Please come to the counter Sir"
"Sure, and for gods sake call me Squall, titles make my skin crawl"
"Yes si….Squall"
Squall and the Assistant walked over to the counter and the Assistant reached under the counter and brought up two boxes around, Squall stared intently as the Assistant opened the boxes to reveal the blade hilts that resided inside them.
"Wanna try them out?"
With that Squall grabbed both the knives from one box flicked open two slots in the sides and pressed the buttons inside. The blades hummed as they appeared from the hilts then stopped when they were at their peak length, he took a sample swing and was quite surprised at their very light weight.
"I'm definitely taking these" Squall said as he opened the slots, pressed the buttons and the blades instantly disappeared. He placed them back in the box and again reached around to his back pocket to get out his roll of money.
"What did you say your SeeD ID was?"
"41269." Squall re-iterated as the assistant typed the five numbers into the keypad.
"Well, I've just confirmed you are a SeeD, how will you be paying"
Squall started counting out fifteen thousand Gil from his roll of notes,
"Ah..i see" replied the assistant, eyes wide. Once Squall had finished counting out the money he placed the roll back into his back pocket and handed the money to the assistant.
"If you would just sign here as proof of purchase"
Squall quickly signed the receipt and handed it back.
"And we're done here, would you like a bag?"
"Ill just take the boxes, say, you got any of those new concussive-force shells for Gunblades?"
"As it would happen, we had a fresh shipment in this morning" the assistant said, reaching under the counter and placing a box of one hundred shells on the counter.
"I'll take five boxes" said Squall,
The assistant recalculated the total, Squall got out some more cash and paid for the new items, the assistant then handed Squall the boxes, smiled thanked Squall for the purchases and walked away, Squall walked out of the shop and checked his watch, he cursed as he realised that his party should be arriving soon and started running back to the car park where he left his GT500.
As he reached the car park the Garden car was just entering and Squall waved to signal where he was.
"There he is, over there" signalled Quistis
"Ah, I see" said Zell, turning the car towards him "There best be a parking space over there"
Zell drove the car over to where Squall had waved from and sure enough there was a parking space right next to his GT500, Zell swung the Garden car into it and no sooner had it stopped were the rear doors open and Selphie and Irvine dived out. Zell and Quistis got out a little more slowly than their two companions.
"So Squall, what you been shopping for?" Selphie asked while Squall was sitting in the drivers side of the GT500,
"New knives and some of those new Gunblade shells I've been after" he replied
"Ooooh, no new clothes then?"
"What do you think I am, female?" Squall said with a snigger.
"That was just uncalled for, can I see them?"
Squall threw a box of the shells to Selphie stepped out of the car and walked over with his new knives attached to his belt, as well as his conventional ones, he took a pair of the new blades off his belt and handed them to Selphie who flicked open the slots and pressed the buttons to make the blades hum as they appeared.
"WOOOOOW, HOW COOL!" she screamed, jumping up and down on the spot. "How much did these set you back?"
"Not a whole lot, SeeD weapon privileges" Squall said, hand on his hip.
"So uh, where do we go from here?" asked Zell,
"Well, I ran into Rinoa earlier, I told her that we'd all meet up with her at her fathers place later, head to a bar or something and go catch a few drinks" he answered.
"Wow, so you've already seen her?" queried Quistis
"Yeah" Squall replied
"Well, lets gooooooo" said Selphie, still waving the knives around.
"I err…want my knives back" Squall asked, and Selphie handed them back and the party all walked towards the arch at the centre of the city.
And I'm done, at least for now, R&R very much appreciated people…don't be shy…