onepassingnight | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He's not sure why Godo's words are pouring from the monster's wounds but the second Yuffie's blade cuts through more of the creatures hide Godo's disembodied voice is shouting:

"You keep acting like that! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!"

He slides in the way as another Tidal Wave crashes out, bringing his sword charged with energy thanks to a wall earlier, forward to release a surge of power that slices outward from his weapon and breaks the water harmlessly in two.

He's probably the last person in the world equipped to deal with father related issues. So instead he grunts to show he's still listening as his sword swings out again, catching Levithan's open jaw, teeth and metal scraping horrendously against each other. "Didn't you two ever not fight?"

Yuffie dodges another attack, scrambling to a safe corner to catch her breath. His question makes her pause longer than she really should, and she has to jump up in the air to grab one of the lower hanging beams in the room.

"We always fought. I wasn't what he wanted me to be, and it pissed him off pretty bad," is her explanation as she pulls herself onto the beam, climbing higher than Leviathan so she can attack from above.

Hearing her father's voice is a little unsettling but she is determined to kill this thing and be done with it. So, with that thought in mind, she flies off the beam, aiming her shuriken at Leviathan's neck. Her intent is to slice it's head off, and she manages to cut through most of it.

Leviathan is wiggling, it's mouth gaping open like a goldfish, the head bobbing to the side. It is a little funny, in that extremely grotesque way, and Yuffie stared at it with a mix of disgust and confusion on her face. This seems to be her default setting at this point.

Godo's voice still poured from the wounds, but amplified as all the words mixed together to create a cacophony of her years growing up. It was hard to remember any good times with all the bad shoved in her face at once.

Yuffie gets in the killing blow and so Cloud steps back and straightens, sword still at the ready in case there's a last minute lunge. I wasn't what he wanted... Yet another thing he feels close to Yuffie with. He doesn't think he's ever managed to be what anyone wanted from him either. No matter what she says, he thinks that's a hard thing to live with. To him it sounds like it's not just Godo's voice but dozens of others pouring accusations from the dying creature's skin as well. For a second, he even thinks he hears his own in there, not caring why she stole the materia, more interested in his small team than her country's problems. Unnoticed behind him, the fog of earlier shrinks down and drifts back toward town. On the wooden floor, Leviathan finally dies, a thick black oily cloud rising from the body.

When it clears the room is empty except for a man in traditional Wutai robes lying in the middle of the empty floor.

Cloud hasn't seen him often but he recognizes Yuffie father.

The voices are somewhat chaotic, but they don't really bother her too badly.

Well, maybe a little. She didn't know if people doubted her because she was a scrap of a girl, or if her obnoxiousness hid the deep pools within her. (Maybe not so deep, but she isn't a total moron. She knows how people can see her). At sixteen, she'd been brash, rude, and as big as life. At nineteen she's seen too much and encountered a lot of weird in her life. It mellowed her, naturally, but some things still stuck with her.

Seeing Godo's body was a surprise and she crept over quietly, nudging him with her toe. He seemed to either be knocked out, dead, or fast asleep. She knelt beside him, a hand under his nose to see if he was breathing.

It was shallow, but he was definitely alive.

Standing up, she rolls her shoulders, giving Cloud a 'what now?' look.

"As weird as this whole thing has been, I'm sure we've seen weirder," she nudges her father's body with a toe again, and shakes her head. "Maybe. I don't know." She grabs some rope from her bag, and proceeds to tie her father's hands and feet together.

Cloud's eyebrows go up a little when Yuffie ties up her own father and it's only belatedly that it kicks in for him that something like that really is the sensible thing to do.

It still wouldn't have occurred to him.

He waits until she's done though before resheathing his sword at his waist, glad the older man is at least alive. He doesn't want Yuffie to lose her only surviving parent. Not now, and if Cloud had his way, not ever. It's an impossible wish but with the short time Cloud figures he's got left on his own life, it's not a wish he can't live to see last at least his lifetime. Once Yuffie's done, he kneels down and scoops up the old man. It's no problem for him even if it does sent the jolt of fire down his bad arm. He's still makofied though, still ex-SOLDIER or close enough and Godo doesn't weigh enough to slow him down. He turns to Yuffie once he's straightened up and uses words that are magic in his world.

"Let's go home."

001; Wutai

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

sorry, lost my tag to this one