[4-14] The Town

[Gin Yatreg]

The duo took shelter in a nearby bus stop and sat down on one of the benches under the small roof. The rain still had yet to let up even after all this time, in fact Gin had started to think it never would. The omnillium ingot sat in between the two, as they figured leaving it in the open street would be worse than taking it with them. Remilia stared at him intensely, she was a bit on edge after the little episode he just had. "Alright, I'll start from just after you went upstairs," Gin began, "Let's see...It started when I tried some scotch I found in the room."  

"Oh, you're just drunk," Remilia said with a sigh of relief.

"IT WAS ONE SHOT!" Gin yelled in embarrassment. "Granted my legs did feel like rubber after..." He trailed off.

"I guess someone can't hold their liquor," Remilia teased.

"Oh this is going to take a while," Gin mumbled.

~~~

"...Then that's when I started hearing the voice, and here we are." He finished. Gin took a moment to see what Remilia's reaction was to all of this information, he face seemed to have no emotion on it at all as she took it all in. Finally, she opened her mouth to speak.

"You sure you aren't drunk?" She bluntly asked.

Gin nearly fell over at that remark, however he managed to maintain his balance and responded. "You don't believe me? After everything so far?" He asked her.

"Oh no, I do. I just felt like teasing you a bit more." She giggled. Remilia stood up and opened her umbrella, "Come on, let's get going."

"Ah, wait. We still need to figure out how to send a message to everyone in the town!" Gin exclaimed. 

Remilia sighed, she obviously wasn't going to be able to convince Gin to drop it. "Alright, what do you have in mind?" she asked. 

Gin pondered what to do. Obviously with the fog, it'd be hard to even see a warning sign. Plus with how big the town is, searching for the others would take too long as well. They needed something that wouldn't be hindered by the fog, something that could alert the others about their situation. Soon the idea hit him like a ton of bricks; they could use sound! "Hey, do you see a music store anywhere?" Gin asked.

"I saw one while dragging you over here, but why a music store?" Remilia said confused. 

"If none of us can use our eyes to find each other, then we'll use sound!" Gin said.

The idea clicked in Remilia's head, and she nodded in agreement. 

~~~

"This...This is a music store?" Gin said in astonishment. Before them was an extremely tall building, one that stretched high out of the fog. The words 'PAULS MUSIC EMPORIUM' dimly glowed above the entrance, which meant it still had a working power grid. "This is more like a musical mall!" 

"Whoever Paul is, he certainly knows how to run a business. Now let's hurry it up, I'd prefer to get out of this place within the next day," Remilia said as she walked to the doors. She stopped and looked at Gin, coughing unexpectedly. 

Gin stared blankly for a second before he realized that she wanted him to open the door for her. "Really, we're doing this now?" he said.

"A man must be a gentlemen no matter the situation," Remilia said.

Gin rolled his eyes and opened the door for Remilia, and followed her inside. The owner had really gone all out on his store, display cases filled the walls leaving no space unfilled. Glass stairs led up to the second floor, where racks of vintage records could be found. From what a nearby store map told them, each floor was dedicated to a different era of music; going from newest to oldest as you went up. There was also clothing sections, which pleased Remilia greatly after the failed attempt to get new clothes went sour in the hotel.  As she got changed, Gin went off to gather the supplies he needed for his plan of action. First order of business though, was to find a sealed container he could put the omnillium ingot in. No way was he gonna leave that unchecked and out in the open. 

"God, I'm starting to get a headache again." He said.