The Birthday Gift And First Meeting

Here is a short summary of the story beginning:

The story is going to start in the city where Raynor is at the moment, the seaside city of Bodrum.

As mentioned before, fal'Cie instigated a war between people who live on Cacoon and who live in Gran Pulse (planet bellow).

Because of this, people who live in Cacoon have extreme Xenophobia anything related to Gran Pulse...

And this is where the city of Bodrum comes in, as just outside of this city there is sealed fal'Cie from Pulse, it was left here at the end of last war. ( At this point People believe that Fal'Cie took sides in this war... but they didn't, it was a plot to destroy Cacoon and kill the people to open the gateway, it obviously failed, thus this new plot.)

As the seal from this fal'Cie was released, and it got opened. (As mentioned before they come all sort of shaped, in this case it looks like a massive cross like a building) people can start exploring it, and it was done by Serah, who got 'branded'

(Branding is something where fal'Cie choose someone to be like their champion, they give power of magic to them, and a mission to fulfil...People of Cacoon believe that people branded by Pulse fal'Cie are not Human anymore, because last time they saw one, it almost destroyed the Cacoon, they call their champions... l'Cie.

Because Serah was branded (this Brand looks like a tattoo, in her case, it was on the left shoulder), Very quickly this information spread(courtesy of fal'Cie inhabiting the Cacoon) And the whole city went on Lockdown, and every single person was captured and send to a place called 'Hanging Edge' at the edge of Cacoon shell(a portion of the shell was destroyed in last war), where they got 'exiled' to Gran Pulse, By exile I mean killed and their corpses threw out of Cacoon...

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Most of the preparations were done, while fal'Cie were scheming, Raynor did his own little preparations...

He is not going to allow people of Bodrum to die like some cattle, instead he made a shadow clone of himself and send him to 'Hanging Edge' where he will manage the 'dead' people once the storyline starts...

Meaning the one's who died shall be replaced by dummies, and once this whole fiasco is over he will bring them back from 'limbo'.

To the bad guys, it will look like they killed them, In truth at very last second before they died they will be replaced...

While he did these small preparations, he continued spending time with Serah more exactly she wanted his attention, as her big sister is always busy with her work, So Raynor sometimes ended up listening to her rants about her elder sister which is amusing for Raynor to listen...

"So you want me to help you to get a gift for your sister?" Raynor asked Serah as they were walking through the shopping district in Bodrum.

Raynor gaze went to Serah left shoulder as he saw a bandaged shoulder.

Unlike with Snow, she remains extreme tight-lipped about her shoulder 'Injury'...

She got branded several days ago...

"I am thinking about a survival knife? what do you think?" Serah asked Raynor as she was looking at shops displays and what they have on them.

"Hmm, I suppose its nice gift for a soldier, I can get a holster then..." Raynor said to her as he was looking at stuff himself, in fact, he looking what to get for his girls...

"You would? But you haven't even met her before!" The younger pink head said with small shock.

"Don't sweat about it, it's your sister after all..." He said that with a smirk which earned a blush from Serah, funny enough he got more blushed from surrounding women as well...

Raynor became quite famous in this city, in less than a month, people call him the 'Heart-throb' of Bodrum, in fact, he has feeling Lightning already knows that he is spending time with her little sister.

Unlike Snow who is as she says 'Big talk' since Lightning is quite cynical because of her upbringing, Snow for her is an adult man with the brain of a kid, who talk much but can't prove it... until of course the late game stuff...

While Raynor for her is a mystery as she never heard of him before, same time she hasn't met him yet as well...

So she is somewhat keeping distance and observing him from distance it's kind of amusing, actually as Raynor looks are of 'model' or 'movie star'... they have those in Cacoon as well but the fashion sense in this place is ridiculous...

Orange office suits... I mean really? or women with insane hairstyles...

Raynor spend one evening watching Tv, or holo TV in this case, as he saw news from all over Cacoon, and the woman on screen, looked like she was ripped from Yu-gi-oh or Dragon Ball her hairstyle was quite 'electrifying'...

Right back to Lightning, Raynor sensed that she was discreetly looking into him, so Raynor had to create an 'identity' It was quite easy with his Rinne-Sharingan, so here it is...

Raynor Valeron, 18 years old, Student from medical University in Eden, birthplace Eden (Cacoon Capital), right now on Holidays from University...

He did with whatever came to mind, making sure that Lightning doesn't get the idea that Raynor is something like Snow... ('Delinquent' with big mouth...)

And so far she didn't attack him with her gun-blade so that means he is fine...

Eventually, both of them arrived at the store meant for outdoor exploration.

Raynor was impressed at all that futuristic stuff they have for outdoor survival, It reminds him somewhat of Pokemon and their absurd power to put anything into a single backpack...

'I should go there and get one of those backpacks and troll some people with it when I pull out a table or a chair from a simple backpack...' Raynor internally chuckled.

After spending around 20 minutes going over several different knives, Serah in end just allowed for Raynor to pick it, so he did, he picked the same one shown in the game.

Serah liked Raynor choice and picket it.

While Raynor went over and started to look for a knife holster...

He only sighed at the choices, nothing fits what he wants for Lightning.

'It's her birthday, and what for a God Otaku like me to give her? decision, decision...'

'I have a gun blade already done, but giving something like that out of blue is too much, something smaller at first...'

Serah looked at Raynor funnily, as his facial expression was changing almost every second.

"Wow, and I thought I had a hard time picking my choice..." Serah said with giggle.

"Indeed, Why don't we go get some ice cream, while I decide" She nodded hearing that and they walked out of the shop.

After getting some ice cream, Raynor discreetly created a holster on its own, and gave it to a clone.

Eventually when Serah was not watching Raynor clone slipped into her bag...

After eating Ice cream, both of them went to check out more stores, it was more like Serah wish, Raynor only followed her lead.

Eventually she even forgot that Raynor suppose to look for a gift for her elder sister.

~~~~~~Later, evening~~~~~~

The evening finally came and Serah arrived home and checked her bags... what she saw inside her bag blew her mind, she saw a knife holster hand-tailored for her sister, the colour of her sister eyes (Light blue) and there were even engraving made with her code-name in golden colours, the materials were even the leather was unique something she never saw before.

Serah felt peng of jealousy after seeing it, until she saw a small box with pendant in there...

With her name on it...

'When did he put in these!?!' She opened the box, what she saw blown her away, it was a beautiful heart-shaped pendant done in her colours (pink and light blue) with unknown luxurious metals...

That moment Serah didn't know, but what she held in her hands, can cause wars in any Cultivation based world where laws can be sensed...

The pendant was at the level of Heavenly Treasures, once she puts it on she never again can't be hurt by any physical, mental, or elements attack of any kind...

Of course, the effect is delayed, it will kick in at a specific time once the story starts...

~~~~~~Days Later (Around Three days before Main story Starts)~~~~~~

It was firework night, Raynor at the site where there was a massive holographic display of event happening nearly one thousand years ago where Pulse attacked Cacoon.

It was severely exaggerated as Cacoon was done in extremely light colours and Pulse invaders where done in dark colours like some demons.

It only shows how Xenophobic residents are of this Utopia like setting, but Raynor really liked everything else in the world...

Especially the night sky... seeing lights of cities instead of stars is something else...

It really hard to believe that creators of this 'Paradise' are evil and intending wipe humanity off the map...

But for now, Raynor decided to enjoy this little event, as his gaze went to a certain Pink haired woman dressed in military garbs.

She was in deep thought, Raynor decided that it's time for them to finally meet.

He walked over to her side a few steps away from her.

"You look in deep thought, maybe extra head can help you there..." Hearing Raynor voice Lightning snapped out of her thought and looked at Raynor.

For a second there was recognition, she obviously knows who he is, in fact, she did a proper investigation on him.

"It's you... what do you want?" Raynor only smiled internally, the answer was expected.

"Nothing much, I am only here to see fireworks, and then I saw Serah big sister, she does talk much about you, so I thought it was a good time to introduce myself.

She snorted hearing that, but her eyes did wander around him for a second.

If not for Raynor Godly perception it would seem that she looked at his eyes only, but in fact she did looked him all over.

" I would rather like to know what are your intentions for my sister!" She said that with narrowed eyes.

"We are friends you know? she mostly employs me to carry her bags..." Lightning didn't really believe that, as Serah does talk about her new 'friend' quite a lot, Serah never once mentioned his name to her, but Lightning is part of Guardian Corp and she has her ways to learn about people.

She only raised her eyebrow, dropping this...for now...

"Since you such a great friend with my little sister, I can tell you what I was thinking before you interrupted me..." She gave him one more inspecting glance.

She can tell that Raynor is insanely fit, those muscles are like steel, but what put her on some edge is that, he look so 'harmless' with that easy smile, she can tell he is not to be underestimated...

'Medical student...right... more like someone from special forces...' Lightning sarcastically though.

"I am thinking of taking her on a holiday, since I barely spend time with her..." She said that with crossed hands, Lightning internally was surprised at herself that she actually decided to share that with him...

'Since Serah trust him this much, and I can put...some of my trust in him...' She once again quickly looked at him.

For a second she had some weird thoughts about Raynor, she took a step away from him, it was some sort of defence mechanism.

'This is getting weird...' She thought for a second.

"Well my advice is that you should take leave from this city, and go somewhere opposite to Bodrum... maybe mountaineering? it helps build-up those bonds..." Raynor said with shrug.

She looked at him for a second.

"Hmm, maybe... it's something I didn't think before..." She said that to him, as proper fireworks display started after the showing how Cacoon l'Cie beaten back and evil Pulse l'Cie...

The funny thing about this to Raynor, is that there was no Cacoon l'Cie as the whole thing failed because two Pulse l'Cie didn't wanted to kill several million people...

So fal'Cie didn't like that and turned them into crystal-like statues which can be considered cryo like sleep, for close to a thousand years in the same fal'Cie where Serah got branded...

'Well, I can't wait for this show to get started...' Raynor grinned only a few days left before sh1t hits the fans...