onepassingnight | 001; Wutai

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001; Wutai

On the mountain of Da Chao sits a lone girl, her legs swinging off the ledge as she contemplates the town below.

It's her home - Wutai, a once proud nation that has been reduced to nothing more than a cheesy tourist attraction. By none other than her father, a man she doesn't exactly get along with in the best of times.

Something's off though.

Yuffie squints as she studies the town, telling herself her eyes must be deceiving her.

Usually there are people strolling through the town, children playing tag in the streets. The ones who had recently been infected with Geostigma are recovering, and there is a jovial air about the town. Now, though, there is no sign of life. Not even a stray dog roaming through, begging for scraps.

This just isn't right, and Yuffie has to investigate.

Standing up, she brushes the dirt off her legs, then plants her fists at her hips.

"Only one person can get to this bottom of this mess!"

She pauses without looking back, shifting her weight as if she wants to fidget.

"You can come too. Having an extra pair of eyes wouldn't hurt," she says this with a little hesitation. The truth is, she's a little bit worried at the absence of people, and could use a little support as she tries to find them.

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[Yuffie wastes no time in the trip to her house.

It doesn't take them to get there, and she keeps her eyes glued to their surroundings, just in case she could catch even a small glimpse of someone. She doesn't, and by the time she's at her front door she kicks it in, frustrated.]

I better find something here, or Godo is going to be super sorry.

[She doesn't object, she doesn't say that perhaps this Godo can't help what's here, either. Instead, Mercury lingers by the doorway and lets Yuffie search; she doesn't even know precisely what they're looking for, after all, and there's no sense getting in the way.]

[After rummaging around drawers, slinging clothes all over her father's room and kicking a table in frustration, she holds out a tiny ball of light. It fits in the palm of her hand, and she's glaring at it. ]

This is all I could find. A piece of useless Sense materia. Where the hell is my Leviathan?

[She looks at it blankly.]

I don't know materia. What is it?

[Leviathon, of course, she can guess from myth: some form of sea creature's power harnessed in another of these glowing auras.

More importantly:]

How is it used?

[Holds it up so Mercury can see it better. It looks delicate, like one good hard stomp could crush it, but it's very durable.]

Little balls made from the Lifestream. Gives all kinds of cool abilities, like magic or summons. I won Leviathan from my father when he did that stupid fight on me in the pagoda.

Anyone can use them? [She's interested. They could endow the people they choose with these extra powers, create a whole new type of ruling class.

But this isn't the time for that.]

What does this one you don't like, do?

Yeah anyone. Can't think of someone who couldn't use them.

[Tosses the little ball in the air, catching it before debating on just living it in the empty house.]

It senses enemy stats. How much health they have, stuff like that. Which I guess is useful, but I like ones that pack a punch.

[She wants it. Instantly. To her, it's very useful indeed.]

If you have no interest in it, give it to me.

[Yuffie considers the materia, then shrugs and hands it over. Usually she was pretty hoggy when it came to the stuff, but she felt she had to have something stronger. It was a priority, and something inside her told her it would solve all of her problems. It was a little bit of a manic feeling, like if she didn't find it soon she would explode.]

Sure thing, take it. [She gives the room they are in a sweeping glare, bouncing on her toes a bit with repressed energy.]

We should go to the pagoda. That's where your little handy computer scanned something.

[She has power of her own; but this type of materia suits her. She takes it, and examines it a moment before she nods and is ready to join Yuffie.]

You know the quickest route there. Go ahead.

[With that, Yuffie is heading out the door, not even bothering to scope the area anymore. So when she runs straight into a random gold chocobo, she falls flat on her butt.

The chocobo gives an indignant WARK in her direction, and flounces off. Yuffie stares at the bird, completely stunned. ]

What the hell? You saw that right?

[She popped up, not even bothering to brush the dirt off herself.]

You saw that stupid bird, right?!

[For a moment, she plays dumb, for the sake of teasing Yuffie.]

I saw you trip and fall and embarrass yourself.

[Yuffie is willing to believe this, because she can't half believe it herself. Where did it even come from? She had half a mind to chase after it, but she needed to stay focused.]

A ninja never embarrasses herself! I meant to do that. Obviously.

[Yuffie could still smell the chocobo feathers and points a finger at Mercury in accusation.]

You did see it! You had to.

More importantly, we had somewhere we were going.

[She totally saw it. But she'll keep them on-track for their goal. Anything less would be embarrassing to herself.]

Shall we go? [Her voice is light, as though getting knocked over by a phantom chocobo isn't much. They can track it down later, or figure out what happened.]

[Keeping on track is a good idea. Yuffie puts the chocobo out of her mind, and starts in the direction of the pagoda. It is a little bit outside of the town itself, but it doesn't take long to get there.

Last time she'd really been in here was when she fought her father...which was a strange experience. Not that she should have been surprised, Godo could be a little insane.]

I don't know what we'll find in here. Last time, I had to fight a bunch of guys, so we might get ambushed.

[Even with everything that's made her colder and more ready to attack, Ami would have difficulty facing her mother. Fortunately, she's never had to.]

If you're afraid of an ambush, just go ahead back to where you started, and I'll take them on at once. [Arrogant, this one.]

[Parents can be the most difficult of enemies, even a father like Godo who is two parts insane and one part leader of his people. Yuffie would never admit she is just like him in most aspects.

Mercury's statements makes Yuffie raise an eyebrow, and then grin. If anything, she can appreciate some arrogance.]

Naw, I've taken them down once, I can do it again.

[With that little boost of confidence under her belt, she flings the door open, ducking into the incredibly empty and dark room.

She'd taken out her shuriken in the process of entering, but after seeing no enemies she drops her arm, a little disappointed.]

Crap, I wanted a fight too. Guess there's nowhere to go but up.

[Hey, what's wrong with a little boasting? Besides, she's sure of her powers. Perhaps it's being thwarted of the fight that makes Mercury frown.]

Are we being led?

[Boasting is A-Ok with Yuffie here. She's a little put out too - she'd feel better about this whole mess if she could at least get her hands on someone in order to wrangle something out of them.

Being led is entirely possible though, and she glares around the room.]

Probably. My dad is really into this kind of stupid crap.

[Yuffie starts to bellow into the dark, her hands on her hips.]

Listen up you old geeze! What the hell is going on?

[Too late to grab Yuffie back.]

Don't be a fool. If something is planned here, it's better not to alert him to put it in place. We'll be the ones to catch him.

[Sorry Mercury, sometimes Yuffie doesn't think of those things, even though she should. With all her boasting of being a ninja, she usually has the habit of announcing her presence in a big way.

But she knows Mercury has a point, and grudgingly stops with the yelling.]

I guess you're right. If anyone's here, they're probably at the top of this place. We should sneak up on them.

Let's go, then. We can let them know we're here by our attack.

[If need be. She's not rash enough to attack them without assessing the situation first. She just feels they don't need a head start.]

[As they make their way through the empty rooms, Yuffie can't mask her astonishment. The place looks like people had just vanished - papers out like they were just being read, a mug of tea sitting on a table that smelled like it'd only recently been made.

They reach the final room without trouble, and the sense of foreboding growing in the pit of her stomach felt like a lead weight. She pressed her ear against the door, and could hear some noise inside. It was faint, but it was there.]

Okay there's definitely someone in there. How should we go in?

[Though Yuffie is usually one to try to take a leadership role, she's still a teenager. And just as she deferred to Cloud as a leader, she saw Ami as a leadership type at the moment. With confusion and worry in her mind, it was easier to have someone tell her what she should do. She had to admit, the other girl had been calm and collected the entire time.]

[First of all, if they were searching for this person, it wasn't impossible to think that whoever it was knew they were here, too. They might not really have the element of surprise.

Well. Whoever could be there, she'd take them on.]

We go in. They're nothing next to us.

[This sounds like a plan to Yuffie and she bursts through the door. At first her eyes have to adjust - after crawling through dark rooms the lights that were on hurt her eyes.

When she is able to focus, she sees...a tonberry. She gives it an absolutely stunned look, and it chattered at her, starting a slow trek in her direction.]

Oh. What the hell? [She skims by the creature. If they got a hold of someone, their attack was devastating. But the things moved like they were trudging through mud sometimes.]

Okay, tonberries definitely don't hang out around these parts.

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