This is a story I wrote about Yuffie after looking up her personality several times and seeing that she was part of a tragedy during her childhood, so I wrote this about it. Hop You Like It!
I Don't Own Final Fantasy Or Any Of The Characters!
Strong But Broken
YUFFIE'S POV *Flashback*
I was five years old. I was talking to my mom when I must have said something funny, cuz' she started to laugh. Her laugh quickly turned into a cough. It was the most devastating cough I've ever seen. Her whole body was racked with convulsions. I rushed her to her bed and asked if she was ok. She said she was and asked me to get her some water and to find dad. I ran to the well and drew up some water. I would've called a servant to do it, but there wasn't enough time. The large, majestic gate opened with a small creak and I called to my dad to come quickly. We sprinted up the spiral stairs to mom's room and I helped her drink the water. I heard her whisper to my Dad "It's time." Time for what? I wondered. He held her hand and tears started to drip from his eyes. I had never seen my Daddy cry before. I had to go to bed, so I crawled into my small feather cot with a silk blanket in the corner of the room from when I was 2. I watched Mom and Dad until I fell asleep and when I woke up, Dad was giving Mom some eggs and bread. I walked over and started nibbling on a piece of bread. Mom started coughing again and I willed her to stop. She stopped in the middle of a particularly rough set of coughs. She whispered "I love you. Goodbye." to me and my dad and then her body slacked. The bread dropped from her hand and she went still. A few minutes later, my Dad and I were still in shock. I reached over to touch her face. I cupped her check in my hand. "DADDY! She's cold. Why is she cold?" I cried out. "Sweetie, mom is… gone." He squeezed her hand tighter and began to sob. "Mom? Mom, are you ok? Are you better? Are the coughs gone?" I asked in a gentle voice. She didn't reply. At the time, I didn't know she couldn't. "Mom?" I asked again, my voice starting to shake. "Dad, she won't answer!" I called. "Yuffie, honey, she can't answer." Then it dawned on me. My mom was lost to what everyone called 'The Land Beyond'. I gave my mom a big hug and lay there, tears falling down my face, sobs escaping my lips every second. I don't know how long I lay there, cradling my dead mom. Wanting her so badly to come back. My dad left to do chores. I started to get mad. I started yelling at 'The Land Beyond' I figured it must be some horrible sorcerer who took people's life's. I yelled at it; "GIVE HER BACK! GIVE ME MY MOM! SHE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO YOU, DID SHE? NO! SHE DOESN'T DESERVE THIS! GIVE MY MOM BACK!" I screamed. Then I remembered what my mom had told me the day before. I got mad again, but this time at my mom for not being ok. "YOU SAID YOU WERE OK! YOU LIED! WHY! WHY WOULD YOU LIE TO ME?" I shouted. "COME BAAAACK!" I wailed. "YOU SAID YOU WERE OK, SO BE OK! PLEASE!" I cried. I missed my mom so badly it ached. I wanted to get away. I wanted to run from my mom's death, to make it go away, or to just get away, so I did. I packed my stuff in the only bag I owned and left. I don't know how far I walked, but I walked until my legs hurt. I felt a sharp pain in my stomach and a piercing in my side. I realized that I was hungry. I had never been really hungry before. We always had so much food because my dad was in charge of Wutai. I started to retrace my steps, but I didn't know how. I hadn't been paying attention to anything except walking until I had gotten there. I heard a faint call of "YUFFIE!" Someone was shouting for me! I looked in the direction of the voice and saw my dad coming towards me. He seemed to be following something, since he was staring at the ground, occasionally looking up. My feet left a dirt trail! For once I was happy I accidentally left a trail. I still vowed to learn how to be more secretive in case I actually needed to get away from something instead of just run away from a tragedy.
Four years later, I was a skilled Ninja, but I didn't just wake up one morning that way. Two years after my mom passed, one of my Caregivers, Sylvia, told me a bedtime story of how Wutai was before I was born; before the Wutai War. I had heard some stories of this from my mom, Kasumi. I often hear Dad crying in his room, wailing her name, lamenting her loss. My Caretaker told me how the town was wealthy and prosperous, tied with Midgar for the best city. She told me of how everyone in town was happy and friendly and my dad, Godo, walked among the people as one of them. He was a brother and a friend to our people. Back then, she said that Wutai was a place of glory and mystique, for there was a mysterious pool with our family's crest at the bottom. The pool sat on a pedestal and was only an inch deep. It sat in our front yard, just within the gates. People came from miles around to see it and dip their finger in, believing this ancient ritual to bless them with healing from the pool. Any current wounds would steadily heal and new wounds that were made healed faster than normal. There was a fee, of course. Only 2 pieces of silver was the cost of a finger-dip in the Mystic Pool of Wutai. The secret was a piece of Materia, hidden in a small cache just inside the pedestal. The water ran straight across it when going up to the pool. The water drained at a certain point all around the pool from the constant flow into the pool. Wutai had so many other functions that kept the city wealthy, so it wasn't a tourist trap.
Then, after the war, Midgar took over with their mechanical Soldiers. They banned Materia so Wutai couldn't return to its former glory easily. They struck us down so much. Sylvia told me how my dad just gave in. She said he didn't fight the takeover, just went with it. He always told me he reserved his strength to fight back in reasoned measures, to gradually return Wutai to its original state. I started to change. My will to be wily and restless turned up and I decided to rebel against my father and Midgar in any way I could. I vowed to Never be victim to the greedy Midgarians or their Soldiers. I vowed to someday, somehow, return Wutai to its glory days. Whatever it took, However long it took… It didn't matter. All I knew was that from that day forward, I would fight in the name of what Wutai was, and what I would make it again! I had no discipline, so it was easy to be wily and rebellious against my father. I trained hard at the ninja school in the castle to become as skilled as I could and after two years, I left to develop my Ninja Skills. I left to travel the world and start to put things right in Wutai.
YUFFIE'S POV
I figured out I would collect as much Materia as I could and store it in the cache in the pedestal until I could use its magical properties to restore Wutai and bring it out of its sorry state of being a tourist trap, now one of the only things that brought in money. Beyond that, I had absolutely no idea of what I needed to do, or where I needed to go. I didn't care, either. I just knew that there was an adventure in store for me. Where I come from adventure is nothing but a fantasy, but for me it's what will make my home and my world right again. If Mom is watching me now, I know she's proud of the strong woman I've become. I've gotten myself this far, but there's much more in store for the Great Ninja Yuffie! I'm already 20 years old with a name for myself and a reputation for trouble. I will never stop until Wutai is restored and the Midgarians and Shinai are gone! I may still have hardship, heartbreak, and sorrowful tragedy, but with my training, skill, and intelligence, I can overcome anything and defeat any obstacle. The World had better get ready for The Great Ninja Yuffie, because here I come!