Crisis Core: The Female SOLDIER

36

"Tifa! You're our guide?" Zack exclaimed in surprise once he saw the cowgirl the next morning.

As Sephiroth had ordered the day before, he and everyone else awoke at dawn and they made their way to the reactor. They were informed that a guide would be waiting for them at Shinra Manor, an abandoned mansion that was rumored to be haunted, located on the outskirts of the village. When they got there, Sera and Zack found that their guide was Tifa, the girl they had met before, together with a man holding a camera.

"At your service," Tifa tipped her hat.

"Okay... Say cheese!" The man shouted out as he held up the camera.

Tifa waved and Zack draped an arm around Sera's shoulders as he grinned and Sera just gave a small smirk, crossing her arms. Whereas Sephiroth just stood there, looking apathetic as always.

"Nobody is a better guide than me in this town," Tifa said proudly.

"But it's too dangerous!" Zack protested. "We can't let you get involved in something like this!"

"She'll be fine, if you and Sera protect her," Sephiroth told him.

"You might even be able to show off your skills if a monster were to attack," Sera added with a small grin.

Tifa and the group of Shinra's soldiers began to make their way into the mountains where the reactor was. So far, the trail was safe and they had yet to come across any monsters until a large bird with a long sharp needle for a beak, suddenly came in halfway along the trail. Zack knocked it out with a hit that was meant to be fatal and one of the infantrymen, not Cloud, went to try and poke it.

"Stay back, it's just knocked out," Sera called out in warning. "It could wake up and attack you if you try to do that."

The infantryman jumped back in fright when she said it and she saw Cloud moved in to deliver the final blow. She saw Tifa looked at Cloud with appraisal and she hid a smile.

About an hour later on the trail, Sephiroth found a bridge and began to lead the way over it.

"Just across this bridge is the trail to the reactor. Be careful, this is where it gets more dangerous," Tifa told them when they suddenly heard ropes snapping. "The bridge!"

Just as Tifa said this, the ropes holding the bridge snapped and several people grabbed each other immediately. Sephiroth grabbed Sera while Cloud and Tifa grabbed onto Zack leaving the other two infantrymen to cling onto each other on impulse. The sight would have been rather funny to behold if they weren't falling to their possible deaths. Of the entire group, Sephiroth was silent while Sera willed herself not to scream on the way down.

Fortunately, the ground was not so far down when they landed, so they were alright. Sephiroth had already released Sera once they landed and she went to check on the rest of the group, seeing that they were still able to continue on, sporting only some mild scrapes and bruises. When she moved to Zack though, she saw he was unconscious on the ground, but otherwise unharmed. She tilted her head for a moment before a rare, playful smirk was on her lips and she leaned close to his face.

"Zack, wake up," she told him quietly, "Or I'll tell Aerith that I saw you kiss Kunsel on the lips back at headquarters."

She pulled away just in time as Zack shot up from the ground, conscious and screaming. "No! Don't! It was a dare!"

When he realized he was actually not at headquarters, but at Nibelheim, Zack whipped around to look at Sera who was rather stupefied. "You actually did?" Sera openly gaped at him, "I was only saying that to wake you up. You actually ki-"