A/N: This is a buddy cop murder mystery/detective story, featuring two reluctant allies: Nanaki and Reno. Expect a bit of action, a bit of angst, occasional philosophical musings and a bunch of awkward conversations as Nanaki struggles to make sense of the human world.

This story isn't a direct sequel to Unwelcome Guest and The Stranger in Their Midst, but it's set in the same timeline (Tess FitzEvan makes a few appearances, wohoo) and builds on events in those two stories. It's not necessary to read them before this one, but this fic does contain spoilers for them.

Rated T for some descriptions of dead bodies, swearing and occasional innuendo.

1. The Best-Laid Plans

The morning dew clung to Nanaki's fur as he bounded through billowing grass. Every green blade was outlined in gold, set alight by the rays of the rising sun. This lushness was a far cry from his native Cosmo Canyon; his senses buzzed with fresh scents and the feel of soft, rich soil beneath his paws, but he would not be distracted. Nanaki was on the hunt.

His quarry was not of flesh and blood, though. He sought a small magical orb: the materia known as Enemy Skill. He had searched for those of its kind for months, and had sniffed out a promising trail at last. Nanaki was on his way to meet the materia collector at the end of that trail. He knew where to find this human – a blue house in the countryside, to the east of a town called Kalm – but it was unwise for one of his kind to show up on the doorstep of a stranger unannounced. And… it was doubly unwise to do so when he had lost his balance.

Nanaki had spent many weeks alone, following a trail tangled with rumor from one continent to another, and the paths he had trodden were dangerous. His feral side had thrived upon the hunt, his animal instincts had sharpened to a keen edge – but at the cost of his reason.

As Nanaki loped on toward the town of Kalm, he recited the after-battle verses his mother had taught him; repetition after repetition, until the words regained their meaning once more. With each rational thought, he recovered another sliver of his balance. By the time he crested a towering ridge and spotted Kalm's stately stone walls on the horizon, his mind was ready at last for an intellectual encounter.

But how ready would the collector be to meet someone like Nanaki? He would have preferred a human liaison when introducing himself to their kind so far from Cosmo Canyon, but he knew no one in Kalm of whom he could ask such a favor. Cloud and Tifa lived in Edge, a fledgling city less than half a day's travel to the south, but he was always away on deliveries and she had her hands full with the bar. The rest of AVALANCHE had scattered far and wide. Each in search of something that might bring meaning into their lives, now that the Meteor crisis was over – or so Nanaki surmised, from where his own wanderlust had led him.

Nanaki could at least try to ease the collector into their eventual face-to-face meeting. He may have lost his balance, but not his way. Enough of his wits remained, he hoped, to make a favorable impression through a phone call.

He padded to a halt and sat back on his haunches. With claws unsheathed, he hooked the string around his neck and maneuvered it over his head; a very human gesture, which had taken him months to master. Attached to the string was a pouch, no larger than his paw. A human thing, made for human contraptions and human hands. Every time he opened it, he had to take care not to tear through the stiff leather with his claws.

Inside was a PHS and a slip of paper with a series of names and numbers. His people had little use for written language, but his grandfather had taught him to read the scribblings of humans. Nanaki was grateful for that, now. The skill had proven its use.

Nanaki nudged the phone with a paw until it lay the right way around in front of him. He was not fond of the device. It had its uses, but relying on a single sense left too much room for error in communication. During his decades in the village he had learned to tease meaning from the pitches and intonations of human speech, but such interpretation did not come naturally to him. He was still too prone to mistakes.

He tapped the numbers into the PHS. Despite his attempts to treat the device with care, several numbers had long since scratched off the buttons. Another human thing, not designed for claws.

His tail swished back and forth as the phone emitted its customary sequence of beeps. His feral side still clamored, urged him to take off, to run until his target was within range of his senses. Nanaki let his eye fall shut and calmed his instincts with a recitation of one of the shorter verses.

The phone's beeping ended with a soft click.

"Dedrick Excursions."

Nanaki opened his eye and double-checked the name on his note.

"Is this… Maudie Dedrick?"

"Yes?"

"My name is Nanaki. I wish to speak to you about materia. I understand you have… an impressive collection." The words formed slowly on his tongue. It had been a while since he used them.

The line was silent a while.

"Who told you that?"

"Reeve Tuesti. I believe you have met."

Another pause. Oh, how Nanaki wished he could see her face and body. These silences told him nothing.

"What is this about?" the woman finally asked.

"I seek an Enemy Skill materia. One that allows the casting of White Wind, if possible. Do you possess… such a thing?"

It was a long shot, as the humans were fond of saying. White Wind may have been one of Gaia's most powerful healing spells, but that meant little when the collected wisdom of the Planet understood nothing of the plague that ravaged it. By now, it was clear that the Geostigma was like no disease the world had ever seen.

Nonetheless, the old knowledge might give the afflicted strength to fight this disease a little longer, while the humans raced to develop new medicines. Used together with those medicines, it might even turn out to be the cure the world had been praying for.

A long shot, indeed. Nanaki was no longer sure it was possible at all, but after two years of desperation, long shots were all that remained.

The woman on the phone spoke again.

"Nanaki, was it?"

"Yes."

"You're with the WRO?"

"Not quite," he admitted. "I am… cooperating with Reeve Tuesti on this matter."

Silence again, followed by a sigh.

"I might be able to help you. When can you drop by?"

"I am on my way to Kalm as we speak. I should arrive tomorrow afternoon."

"Very well. Goodbye, Mr. Nanaki."

"One more thing," Nanaki said before she could hang up. "I am told my appearance... is unusual. When I arrive, do not be alarmed. Please, trust the first impression given by this conversation."

"…I see."

The woman did not sound convinced. Nanaki expected as much, but he had found that a polite warning in advance was better than none. Surprised humans were so unpredictable.

"Thank you. I will see you tomorrow."

Nanaki pawed a button on the phone, ending the call.

Nanaki was not born on this continent. He had only visited it a few times, and never with the time or inclination to explore it thoroughly. He trotted over one gentle green hill after another, inhaling a landscape's worth of scents that hovered right at the border of recognition, and became less and less certain of his location with each step. The sun's position could only tell him so much. In the canyon of his home, high ground was always within sight; here, the uniformity of the rolling plains was relentless.

As he reached the top of yet another knoll, the monotony was broken by a dark line. It was a paved road, snaking its way along the shallow valleys of the landscape. Nanaki shifted course toward it. Roads had destinations, and destinations had people.

He halted by the side of the road, and pricked his ears and his nose for any hint that might lead him in the right direction. Once again luck was on his side; to his right, where the road curved away behind a hill, a distant warking sound was coming from beyond.

As soon as Nanaki crested the hill, he spotted the source: a bright yellow chocobo, strapped to a wagon. A man was standing by the side of the road, some ten paces in front of the bird. His bottom half was obscured by a thicket of bushes, but it was clear that he was relieving himself.

A murmur drew Nanaki's eye back to the chocobo. A second man, partly hidden by the bird, was soothing it with softly-spoken words. He patted the bird's feathery flank, before tearing off a chunk from the jerky he held in his other hand. As the scent of it drifted up to Nanaki on a lazy breeze, the sting of potent spices made him think of the ninja girl who had sent him on this quest. Yuffie Kisaragi was the one who had introduced such scents to him, steeped into smoky strips of adamantaimai drying on bamboo skewers in a Wutai market. He had balked at first, but in time he learned to appreciate the way the spice modulated the earthen, coppery tang of the giant tortoise's meat.

The man who was stuffing his face with the jerky did not look like one of the Wutai humans, though. His mane was the color of dried straw and cropped short. His companion had the same coloration, but was shorter and wider in build. Brothers, perhaps, though Nanaki couldn't be sure until he was close enough to catch their scents.

The man with the jerky scanned the horizon, moving his head in a lazy arc. When he spotted Nanaki, he jumped.

"Oh, shit! Up there!"

The other one looked over his shoulder. Both men stared wide-eyed at Nanaki, their bodies ready to spring like wary rabbits as he trotted down the slope toward them. The chocobo made a snuffling noise, shifting its weight from one foot to the other.

"Don't… don't make any sudden moves," warned the one in the bushes in a hushed voice. "Just throw it that stinking jerky of yours and back away slowly."

The man by the bird let the dried meat slip out of his hand. As they began to creep back toward the wagon with fumbling steps, Nanaki came to a halt.

"Excuse me," he called, making sure to keep his tail low and his ears pointed up. "I am in need of assistance."

Both humans froze to the spot as soon as he spoke.

"It... talks?" said the taller one in a breathless whisper.

"Get in the cart, Ollie." The other resumed his slow retreat. "Nice and slow."

"Didn't you hear? It–"

"I heard, all right. Keep moving."

A gust of wind tickled the tall grass along the sides of the road. It smelled of fear.

"I mean no harm," Nanaki said, lowering his tail until it brushed the ground. "I simply wish to–"

"Don't listen to it!" the shorter one hissed. "It's gotta be one of Shinra's monsters–"

"I am not of Shinra!" Nanaki's feral side was still too strong. Irritation leapt through his veins like wildfire and turned his denial into a roar.

The man whirled around and grabbed the other by the arm, pulling him along in a sprint to their wagon. Nanaki's legs twitched as the instincts of a hunter kicked in, and he had to tear his gaze from the fleeing humans. He kept his eyes fixed on the horizon as the cart wheels squeaked into motion amid the startled cries of the chocobo, and held his breath until urge receded.

By the time Nanaki dared to look at them again, their cart was a rapidly shrinking speck, trundling away down the road. Shame rolled over him in waves. He had travelled alone for far too long.

As Nanaki watched the wagon race toward the blackened strip on the horizon, he realized that what he saw had to be the barren wastes that ringed the fallen city of Midgar. With his bearings thus restored, Nanaki set off again, following the road in the opposite direction.

As soon as he saw the walls of Kalm peeking above the hilltops once more, he left the road and veered east. Kalm was surrounded by more of the same grassy meadows he'd seen for days, their slopes rising and falling in gentle curves. Nanaki headed for the tallest hillock he could see. All around him the land was dotted by red and white farm houses, girded by their own little patchworks of fields and crops. The scent of warm grass mingled with the fainter smells of manure and turned soil, carried across the plains by a gentle breeze.

Maybe this was a fool's errand, Nanaki mused as he surveyed the scenery from the top of the knoll. His plan was the product of wild guesswork and relied on the goodwill of humans he had never met. After the unfortunate encounter just then, his modest hopes had dwindled to practically nothing.

But then his thoughts hearkened back to the ninja girl, to her face as she had made her plea. Her tone had been imperious, her words crude… but her eyes had screamed her desperation at him. The past two times she had called, he could hear it in her voice alone.

Nanaki spied a blue house with no fields or enclosures, and set off at a determined lope.

Nanaki slowed his gait as he stepped onto the dusty dirt road that ran past the collector's property. The two-storey house was painted the same blue as the cornflowers that grew by the side of the road, and ringed by a white picket fence. Its gates swung inward and were permanently propped open, judging by the flowering vines which wound their way across and between the wooden slats. Nanaki took a moment to breathe in their delicate scent as he eyed the sign planted in the ground by the gate. The text Dedrick Excursions arched over a stylized silhouette of some fanged, furry beast. It looked much like one of the Nibel wolves that roamed the upper reaches of his home continent, though the wolves here were called something else.

Nanaki tensed, tasting the air. Buried under the floral scent was a suggestion of something acrid. He turned his head, surveying the yard as he tried to pinpoint the source. It didn't come from the hulking, fat-wheeled vehicle parked on the other side of the gate; nor from the weathered shed across the road. With his head and tail held low, Nanaki skulked in through the gates, studying the house as he approached. The porch was as wide as the house, with a white railing in the same style as the picket fence. Save for a couple of deck chairs, it was empty. Nanaki saw no movement in the windows, nor did he hear any sounds from within, but the smell grew stronger as he crept up the wooden stairs.

Not only was the door unlocked, it was ajar. Knowing humans, that wasn't a good sign. The odor that hit his nostrils as soon as he stepped inside was even worse. Nanaki wrinkled his nose and paused, pricking his ears, but heard nothing beyond the wind in the grass. Everything was still.

His hackles rising, Nanaki inhaled deeper and let the stench of death guide him.

The first room he crossed held nothing that caught his interest, save for a thick rug that felt pleasant under his paws. The trail led on, and grew as he followed it, into a pungent, coppery tang.

The second room froze him to the spot. A great bear towered on its hind legs, its mighty jaws wide open and its front paws raised to strike. Next to it crouched a massive shaggy wolf, its head held low with all its teeth bared. The entire room was filled with all manner of beast, all of them with claws and fangs at the ready. None of them moved. None of them blinked, or breathed.

Nanaki had known the woman only as a collector of rare materia. Had he known she also collected the corpses of furred, four-legged creatures like himself, he might have looked elsewhere for what he sought.

But such thoughts were irrelevant now. He was already standing in her house with his nose stinging from blood, and fear, and smoke.

Tail twitching, Nanaki slunk past posed corpses and rows of disembodied heads, taking care not to meet their dead and glassy stares. He respected the human hunters of his home village as his peers. He understood the human need to collect and use the pelts of their prey, since their own bodies were so exposed. This, however, was a practice he did not comprehend.

On the opposite side of the room was a closed door. Nanaki nudged it with his nose; it gave way with a quiet creak, and sent a puff of foul air into his face. He blew it back out of his nostrils with a snort, wrinkling his nose in distaste. He gave the door a solid swat with his paw. It swung open in slow motion, revealing the front of a sturdy oak desk – and the upper half of the burnt human corpse that sat behind it.