Johnny thanked the old man by handing him a piece of dry jerky and a bottle of sealed mineral water. The man accepted it with trembling hands, weeping with gratitude. With a thin, bony finger, he pointed toward the back of an abandoned apartment building.
"Over there..." the man whispered hoarsely. "There's a manhole cover hidden under some trash. Be careful... those 'people' moved down there."
He swallowed hard. "But watch out... the water down there... it reeks. Worse than a rotting corpse."
Johnny nodded, then walked to the spot indicated. He shoved aside a pile of wet cardboard, revealing a rusted round iron cover.
Johnny gripped the iron handle, sliding it open with just one hand.
SCRAAAAPE...
The sound of heavy metal grinding against concrete broke the silence.
Instantly, a pungent, foul vapor spewed out of the black hole. The smell was a horrific mix of toilet waste, rotting organic garbage, and sharp, acidic chemicals.
"Ugh!" Aerith instinctively recoiled, covering her nose and mouth with her jacket sleeve. Her eyes watered. "The smell...!!!"
Johnny didn't overreact, though his nose wrinkled. He reached into his waist bag, pulling out two pieces of thick cotton cloth he had prepared. He dampened them with a little clean water from his bottle.
"Tie this over your nose and mouth," Johnny ordered, handing one to Aerith. "It'll filter out some of the particles. And remember: don't breathe through your mouth, unless you want to taste sewage."
Aerith nodded obediently, tying the wet cloth like a ninja mask. "Ready, Commander."
"Stay behind me. Don't step in the puddles. They're toxic."
They descended the rusted vertical iron ladder into the darkness.
Down there, the atmosphere was bleak and oppressive. The only light came from bioluminescent moss growing thickly on the damp walls and the stream of murky green wastewater, glowing faintly due to its Mako content.
Johnny went down first, ensuring the footing was safe. The ladder was quite long, reaching deep into the underbelly. Aerith followed above him. However, one of the iron rungs was slick with slime.
"Ah!"
Aerith's foot slipped. She lost her grip and plummeted.
Johnny reacted. He let go of the ladder, spun his body in mid-air, and landed with a heavy thud on the concrete floor below. A split second later, he caught Aerith just before she hit the filthy ground.
The catch was perfect Groom Carrying Bride.
Aerith blinked, staring at Johnny's masked face. Her heart pounded, but not from fear.
"My hero," Aerith teased, wrapping her arms around Johnny's neck.
"You can say that," Johnny chuckled behind his mask. "Unfortunately, our romantic setting this time is a sewer full of crap."
Johnny lowered Aerith slowly so her boots found stable footing. Aerith immediately checked her dress and jacket.
"Looks like my clothes got a little dirty, Johnny."
"We'll find a place to rest in Sector 3 later," Johnny comforted her. "This tunnel leads there."
Aerith pointed to the stream of waste beside the narrow concrete path where they stood. "The water... it's so green. Residual Mako waste, right?"
"Mixed with household and industrial waste," Johnny answered, his eyes scanning the floor. "Don't get splashed. It can cause chemical burns."
Johnny's eyes caught a trail on the concrete floor. There were drops of the same purple slime he had seen above.
"Look at this, Aerith," Johnny pointed. "We're on the right track. G-Copy traces."
They walked carefully along the giant pipe tunnel. It was silent. There was only the sound of water dripping from the ceiling (PLIP... PLIP...) and the echo of Johnny's heavy boot steps.
Scritch... Scritch...
Suddenly, Johnny's ears caught the sound of claws scratching concrete from the darkness ahead.
Johnny's eyes, adapted to the dark (and enhanced by Cetra instincts), saw a pair of small, glowing red eyes. Then two pairs. Then ten.
Wererats (Giant Mutated Rats). The size of bulldogs, with incisors protruding from their lips and mangy fur falling out from radiation.
But the real danger was behind the swarm of rats.
Two humanoid monsters. The creatures stood two meters tall, but their posture was strangely hunched, as if their spines could no longer support the unnaturally swollen muscle mass on their right shoulders. Their skin was bruised purple, no longer looking human. On either side of their heads, small bone horns protruded through the skin.
Degraded G-Copies. Failed products that had lost their human form.
"Rats," Johnny hissed. "Lots of them. And two failed products behind them."
"Aerith, behind me! Puck, Ivalera, use Protect on Aerith!"
"You got it, Boss!"
The swarm of rats smelled fresh human—meat far tastier than garbage. They screeched shrilly and charged. The two humanoid monsters behind them roared hoarsely, running with a heavy, dragging gait that was surprisingly fast.
"It's too narrow!" Aerith cried in panic, looking at the curved tunnel walls. "Your sword... you can't swing it!"
The tunnel was only six meters wide. Swinging the Dragon Slayer, which was two meters long, horizontally would definitely hit the concrete walls.
"Relax, Aerith. I know how to use my sword," Johnny answered calmly.
Instead of a side slash, Johnny changed his stance. He held the sword hilt at his hip, the tip pointing straight forward. Spear Stance.
As the first rat leaped for his neck...
"BRUTAL THRUST!"
CRASH!
The tip of his massive sword skewered the rat in mid-air like a kabob. Johnny didn't stop; he used the momentum, using the carcass on his blade as a "bowling ball," flicking his sword vertically forward.
The rat carcass flew off, slamming into the other rats behind it, knocking them into the sewage water.
The two Degraded G-Copies were right in front of him. They swung their deformed, massive claws.
CLANG!
Johnny blocked the attack with the flat of his sword in a Guard position. His arm muscles strained against the weight of two monsters at once.
"Aerith! Use Thunder on the rats! Aim for the water!"
Aerith understood immediately.
The rats that had been knocked back were paddling panic-stricken in the shallow sewage.
Aerith raised her Guard Stick.
"THUNDER!"
ZZZZTTT!
Lightning struck the surface of the green water. High-voltage current surged instantly through the conductive liquid waste, electrocuting all five rats at once.
Squeeee! Squeeee!
The rats convulsed violently, smoke rising from their wet fur, before floating stiffly belly-up.
"Good work," Johnny praised.
Now only the two big monsters remained. They were too stupid to care about the dead rats. They kept pressing against Johnny's sword.
"Damn, they're heavy," Johnny grunted.
He performed a Bash, shoving both monsters back with the broad surface of his sword.
THUD!
The monsters staggered. Johnny seized the opening. Since he couldn't slash sideways, he swung his sword vertically—from top to bottom, then an uppercut from bottom to top.
SHING!
"Aerith, finish it!"
"THUNDARA!"
A larger bolt of lightning struck the second monster, causing it to convulse until its muscles charred. Johnny ended their suffering with a precise thrust to the heart.
The fight was over.
After walking for two hours through the pipe maze, they found a dry control room at a junction of large pipes. There was an air vent in the ceiling channeling (somewhat) fresh air from the surface of Sector 3.
"Let's rest for a bit," Johnny said, lowering his heavy rucksack onto the dry iron floor.
Aerith sat on a large pipe, removing her cloth mask with relief, and inhaling deeply. Her face was tired, with smudges of dirt on her cheeks, but she smiled contentedly.
"Quite an... aromatic adventure," Aerith joked, wiping sweat from her forehead.
Johnny opened his pack. He took out two bottles of clean water and a packet of hard military ration biscuits.
"Eat," Johnny said, handing a portion to Aerith. "We need energy."
Aerith bit into the biscuit. CRACK. Hard as a brick.
"Ouch... I could break a tooth," she complained playfully, holding her jaw.
Johnny took his own biscuit, breaking it easily with his strong fingers, then dipped it slightly into the water bottle to soften it before eating.
"Dip it first. These are old rations, designed to last, not to taste good," Johnny suggested.
They ate in silence for a moment, accompanied by the hum of pipes and distant dripping water.
Suddenly, Aerith looked at Johnny, her eyes serious.
"Johnny, those creatures... G-Copies. Do you feel sorry for them?"
Johnny stopped chewing. He stared into the darkness of the tunnel ahead of them.
"I do," Johnny answered honestly. "Because they have no will or choice. Living without your own will... is worse than death. It's hell."
Johnny remembered his past as Guts. Being a mercenary who only followed Gambino's orders for money and recognition.
"That's why we have to destroy whoever made them," Johnny continued, crushing the biscuit in his hand. "Freeing them from the strings that bind them is the only mercy we can give."
Aerith hugged her knees. "Do the Shinra higher-ups enjoy doing stupid experiments like this? I was thinking... what's the function? They already have killing machines. Sweeper robots, advanced aircraft, the Sister Ray Cannon in Junon... why do they have to do this to humans? Why ruin people's souls?"
"Fundamentally, humans are never satisfied, Aerith," Johnny answered bitterly. "The higher their authority, the greater their fear of losing power. So they want to strengthen themselves by any means necessary, even senseless ones."
Johnny looked at the cave ceiling. "Shinra going to war with Wutai doesn't actually make sense either. They say it's for resources, but the cost of the war is far greater than the profit gained. It seems... life without war is a concept they don't understand."
Aerith nodded slowly, absorbing the words. This world was much more complicated and darker than her flower garden.
She scooted closer to Johnny, then rested her head on his broad shoulder.
"Thank you for bringing me, Johnny," she whispered. "Even though this place smells and is full of monsters... I feel safe."
Johnny didn't pull away. His left hand moved, wrapping gently around Aerith's shoulder, letting the girl lean in for warmth. Meanwhile, his right hand remained ready near his sword hilt, his eyes watching the darkness.
Puck and Ivalera peeked out from behind the rucksack, smiling slightly at the quiet moment.