The Foundations Have Been Set

[Gear 3rd POV]

'I'll give Yuna a hug later. I can already tell that Seymour pissed her off.' After Yole finished that thought, the party started heading towards the path that the crusader ran towards. The moment they reached the rocky path, Tidus looked down and noticed a big drop on their path, along with something else.

"Hey, isn't there a chest down there?" For the first time since their adventure started. The blonde chocobo discovered something useful. A few of the party members, namely Wakka and Kimarhi, looked at him like he was crazy. The rest however, actually looked over the edge as well. There was a gleam in Yole's eyes that was so bright, the rest of the party noticed.

"I understand the want for adventure and treasure, but I don't think we need friendly fire in the way of a flashbang." It was at that moment that Yole felt embarrassed for the first time since his reincarnation due to what Lulu brought up. Of course he didn't think that something that would normally happen in anime, would happen in a game world too.

"Eh, ehm." Yole coughed in embarrassment and pretended that nothing happened by summoning a few earth ninjas that were able to safely traverse down there. The ninjas quickly grabbed the chest and brought it up. When Yole opened it up, there was only one item inside. It was a sphere that had four different colored lights that were red, purple, teal, and blue. They were floating around in a circle and the sphere itself was gold.

"This is…A Tetra Elemental Sphere. Of all things, I wasn't expecting something like this." This caused Yole to contemplate what he could even use this for right now. It wasn't a sphere in the original game. Perhaps he could utilize it inside a weapon in the future. After tossing it away into his inventory, everyone continued on the path so they could gather where the crusaders and guado were. One thing that did surprise the party was someone they haven't seen in a while.

Mr. O'aka himself has made an appearance to sell some items here. When everyone approached, O'aka made his opening speech after he opened up the large coat he was wearing on top of the giant backpack he had on his back. "What ya buyin' stranger?"

It was at that moment that Yole's eyebrows started twitching at the unapologetic reference to a different media, even though he knew that O'aka had no idea what resident evil was. The blonde chocobo himself pitched in. "Long Time no see O'aka! How have you been?"

"I have been doing great! Thank you for asking. That investment that yall have made for me has kickstarted my business and now it has been smooth sailing so far. I didn't even have to try and sneak in here, the crusaders let me in after they saw some of my wares!" That in itself was a surprise to most. Perhaps due to him getting way more than he initially would have in the original game, he gained more notoriety earlier.

"Do you happen to have any magic cores?" When Yole asked that, he didn't expect a positive answer. Although they seemed like they would be common since that was what he used at the center of Lulu's dolls, they aren't as common as he would like them to be. It is also the reason why they are more powerful than they would have been.

"I do have quite a few actually. Was there a particular element you were looking for? Or were you looking to get a more general one?" At that moment, a blinding light came from Yole's eyes when he heard that. It was almost to the extent that he could have thrown a flashbang down and it would have been darker than the light emitting from his eyes. Thankfully it was only for a brief moment, so it only stunned a few of the party members, and O'aka himself.

Once the party cleared most of O'aka's stock of potions, and all of his magic cores, they continued on. There were not many fights on their path. Because of that, they caught up to Gatta and Luzzu as they were arguing.

[Yole's POV]

"Sir, please let me fight on the front lines! I want to prove myself to the people of Spira by putting my life on the line to defend them from Sin in this joint operation!" Gatta sounded way too similar to Chappu when he was still kicking it and apart of the Crusaders.

"No! Your mission is to stay back and guard the command center! You aren't ready to fight on the front lines yet!" Even if there is a lot of personal opinion in that statement. I can respect him for not wanting to send the kid off to the front line of a war against Sin. The kid has moxie, but he isn't nearly experienced enough to fight this battle. He also lacks self-preservation, and doesn't think about his actions before doing them.

The two of them got into a yelling match back and forth for a while before we got close enough to where they stopped when they noticed us.

"M'lady Summoner Yuna and her Guardians. Sorry that you had to see such a display. I believe you all are to be expected within the command center itself. There is a lift a bit further down this path that you can take to get there." Luzzu took a deep bow after that, and started walking away after that. Gatta took a deep breath and started staring into space. The blonde chocobo walked over to him and started talking to him. Everyone else stood back and relaxed for a bit.

I took out a bench and a chair from my inventory and sat on the bench with Lulu beside me, and Yuna on the chair. Everyone else either sat on the ground, a rock, or another chair, as we all watched on and let the chocobo talk his shit. I just started tinkering while only half listening. I only really zoned back in when it was the tail end of the conversation.

"While I do think that protecting the command center is an important mission, I would feel much better at the center of battle. Knowing that I have that much more of an impact than just sitting back and watching it happen."

"If that's how you feel about it, then I think you should fight on the front lines!" Hold up…What did that stupid son of the fart of a chocobo say?

"Exactly! I think I will go to the front lines! I can feel a fire lit in my soul just thinking about it! Thank you Tidus! I needed to hear that." You can't be serious right now. Right? RIGHT?

"I look forward to seeing what you accomplish on the field of battle." Since when did Tidus start making fighting game quotes? Don't you dare give me a thumbs up after you basically sent a child to die! I know I'm gonna make some drastic changes at this point and time too but still! YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!

I feel like I might get the biggest migraine of my life if this failure of a chocobo racer doesn't get himself into high gear and think about things before he says it. I swear, one of these days I'm gonna fry him so much that he would wish he was a fried chocobo when I'm done with him.

[3rd POV]

When the two people who only think 'do first, think about consequences later' finish talking. Gatta ran off towards the meeting place and Tidus had the biggest grin on his face. Most of the group was encouraging him except Yole, Lulu, and Auron. The group packed up their things and moved on regardless.

Yole decided to finish up the Life section of his sphere grid before moving on. The enemies in the area which included things like the Bombs, Dual Horns, Floating eyes, Voivre's, and more, didn't really drop anything new or eye-catching.

Because of that, it was just a grind for experience for the group at large. It also allowed them to spend more time working together as a team. Even when Yole finished up the Life section of his sphere grid, he assisted everyone else in the party with their own growth as much as possible too. The party called it a night in their hotel rooms since it was getting late, and to prepare for what was coming tomorrow.

When the group woke up, some of them donned on new outfits for the new day. Yole was wearing his signature gray color scheme, but with purple highlights going across his jacket, pants, and shirt. He also wore pitch black shoes to go with the outfit. Lulu was also spotting gray herself, instead of her normal black, but without the purple highlights.

The biggest difference of this outfit between her normal ones, was that it showed much less in the way of her biggest assets. She decided on this due to not wanting to give anyone else ideas, and wanting to be more open about her current relationship.

Yuna kept an outfit extremely similar to the original, but with more blue highlights thrown in, and a hood on the back of the outfit. Everyone else kept to the same color scheme, but either changed it up by wearing pants or shorts. Kimarhi was just Kimarhi. With their new looks down, and freshly cleaned feels, the party moved forward, prepared as they could be for what was to come.