A/N: When Vincent's secret is revealed, it becomes clear that Yuffie is involved now. How so? Only time will tell…

Chaos sat on the treetops, watching his new special operations team flying through the forest to the meeting place. Omega had given him permission to assemble his own team to do with as he wishes. He had personally handpicked these ten greenhorns of the main demon race; all of whom were the best of the best among the rookies, and so Chaos saw fit to train them himself for leadership in the special operations unit—after all, he cannot be in every place at once, and so training lieutenants under his command would help. This first mission of theirs together will weed out those who are not worthy of further training, from those who are; and what better way of weeding out weaklings than to perform a raid?

"All right you maggots," he shouted, looking at the ten trainees as they all fought amongst each other, causing the fighting to die down as he lowered his voice, "you will all remain maggots in my eyes until the day I deem you above that title. Now listen up, or you will all be dead maggots! For your first lesson, I'm going to have you all do a mission! Not one where you just sit around and fight each other, but one where I'm going to put you all in groups of five. I have here in my hand ten strands of rope dipped in red or blue dye—there are five red strands and five blue strands. You are all to pull out one strand and group together with everyone of the same color."

Chaos pulled out ten strands of thin rope, and watched as everyone took their rope and grouped together according to the color of their strands. "Good. Now here's the assignment: we are starting a raid for supplies on a Cetra base two kilometers northeast of here. You are to hijack as many supply wagons as possible and escape with them to the base—bonuses to those who destroy warehouses before escaping. As part of this mission, I will be your cover. I intend to see which of you is worth training—those who are going to waste my time will not survive this mission, and it is much better that you died before you are tortured for information. Now get going! This mission is on half an hour ago, and I want it done yesterday! This is supposed to be an easy mission, so if I catch any of you failing to come back to the base without at least one supply wagon before sunrise tomorrow by the time I return, I will be killing you on sight. If any of you are captured, ANY of you, I will come back to that base and kill you myself!"

The rookies all dashed away in their respective groups and flew off in two directions. Chaos however, flew head on towards the enemy camp. Galian Beast's tribesmen were all cut off from logistics in this forest, and they are starving. Spearheading this siege is Hibikuro Mayumi, and she is getting much stronger and more daring so as to lure him out specifically. She knows that the only reason that a special operations team would be summoned into a battle is if it deals with either logistics or a siege that has carried on for a long time, hence why they are also called 'ninja'.

Once he made it outside the base camp of General Hibikuro, he had everything ready—and now he will do battle! He picked out four small Molotov cocktails filled with 85% oil and 15% liquefied mako, and threw them overhead towards the enemy camp, setting the base on fire. The entire camp came to life with activity trying to put out the fires; all the while, the plan was taking into effect. Hibikuro came out from the tent herself and saw that the whole base was in a state of chaos before seeing her rival flapping his wings and flying away alone after throwing a few knives and killing her retinue. She simply summoned for a dragon and gave chase, but not before giving orders to watch the warehouses and calling for backup.

It's working! She's chasing him down; and now all he has to do is to get her alone and they can duel again. Once he got far enough into the forest, he drew his katana "Death Penalty", stopped short, causing everyone else to fly ahead of him, and then began chasing them down and cutting down her ten bodyguards and dismounting Hibikuro herself using his "Chaos Saber" attack to enhance the reach of his solid sword with energy. As soon as she was down, they stood in the forest, staring each other down. Upon landing on the ground, Hibikuro prepared her chakram, and Chaos his katana in the base stance.

After staring each other down for a few minutes, Hibikuro began the attack by charging in for a swing at Chaos, only to be dodged and countered with a left palm strike to her chin through the middle of her chakram. Before Chaos could swing his sword, he ducked under a mid-air knee strike aimed at the temporal bone in his skull and jumping back from the chakram before it could disembowel him with three swipes—barely escaping with three scratches on his torso. The battle continued on as both warriors clashed their weapons, being locked in a grapple, each one fighting to gain the upper hand over the other. When the amount of mana rippling from both Chaos and Hibikuro grew to heightened levels, the grapple was broken, and both were knocked back. Once Hibikuro regained her footing, she focused raw mana into her body, thus increasing her speed while Chaos simply did the same and dodged every swing she made with her chakram, while attempting to land a cut with his katana. If one didn't know any better, it would appear as if the two of them were dancing as every one of their moves were both graceful and practical—not one motion was wasted by simply dodging the enemy.

As Chaos watched the sky, he noted that it was turning red, not to mention he heard more explosions in the direction of the camp. That was good! Now it's time to wrap this up! He immediately pulled out a smoke bomb from his pouch, and made his escape by throwing the bomb in front of Hibikuro, and making his escape. Galian Beast and his people will be getting their food now, but what really intrigued him was the fact that he had the chance to fight Hibikuro Mayumi this time. She really has grown up, and is now on his tier! Perhaps the next time, they will duel to the death, and no mission will be there to stop them…he was that proud of her progress…

Vincent and Yuffie had their things ready for their trip. Today's itinerary would be to start for Vincent's old temple—it was a three day's walk east of Midgar and visit Master Tsuan, the head priest of that temple. "Vincent," said Elmyra, "would you mind playing something for me before you leave? It's been months since I've last heard a note from your lute, and I have a feeling that something will come to trouble me later. I'm looking to hear a song that will keep my cool in the future should that trouble come."

"I don't see why not," answered Vincent, shrugging his shoulders, "I'm not exactly in a hurry to see Master Tsuan, and besides, I could use the practice."

Once Vincent sat cross-legged against the wall, he began tuning his biwa and plucking each string with the pick to ensure that it was the right amount of tension. Before he could begin playing, the door opened, and Aeris walked into the room with a stranger holding her hips to him gently. His hair was as black as Vincent's, but it was short and spikier, and his eyes were like sapphires. "Oh, hi Mom," she said, "I didn't think anyone was home and…"

"It's alright dear," said Elmyra, "Vincent was just going to play something for me before he leaves. Would you like to join?"

Aeris looked up at her boyfriend with a smile, "Zack, would you be interested in hearing some music?"

Zack smiled back at Aeris, and said, "Sure thing! I'd like to hear Da Chao music for myself, see what it's like. Oh yeah, the name's Zack Fair, pleased to meet you Vincent."

"The pleasure is mine."

As soon as Vincent was done with the introductions, he set the pick to the biwa and started to play with a romantic origins story on his mind:

Leviathan was flying around the skies of the newly-created world to bring rainclouds with him when one day, he encounters a phoenix sitting on the ground, with tears in her eyes. When he approached her, he asked, "My lady, why do you cry such tears?" the phoenix answered, "Because everyone else in my family has died, and I'm the only one left alive! I waited for everyone else to come back to life, but nothing—not even an egg!"

Taking pity upon the phoenix, Leviathan invited her to his home in the sky, and sought to comfort her. Since then, she did everything she could to repay the water god for his kindness, and he simply returned it. Eventually, as time went by, the two beings fell in love without the other knowing it until they both confessed their love for each other. The problem was that Leviathan was a water dragon, and the phoenix was a bird of fire…and so the two of them went to see the great Da Chao for assistance.

Upon hearing their case, Da Chao realized that though they are of different species, their love for each other was the truest of all. And so, sympathizing with their plight, he changed the two of them into the form of what we would call humans today. That is how humans were created and why the dragon and the phoenix are the symbols of the royalty, even to this day.

Once he had finished playing, everyone else had opened their eyes after witnessing the love story being told through music. "Magnificent," said Zack, "this is such beautiful playing. I never thought that the lute would be such a fine instrument, even to this day when violins and pianos are starting to take the spotlight."

"I can feel the love in this song," said Aeris, "although I don't know the story behind it, I can still feel the love radiating from it."

"I think I've heard this song before," said Yuffie, "when I was six, my mom told me a story while playing this song on a samisen. I never thought that you would know this song."

"It's an old song," said Vincent, referring to Yuffie, "along with 'Chaos and the Cetra General', this is one of the songs taught to monks to help them train for the meditation up ahead, although this is the very first song they universally teach biwa and samisen players alike. After all, what better way to start one off on a journey of meditation than with a song about how humans were born to this world? After that, you're on your own to find your own answers."

"Why don't you write a sheet music for it though?" asked Elmyra.

"Because the point of this music is not to be remembered but to meditate; the biggest teaching of Da Chao is 'all is nothing and nothing is all'. Everything is transient, and so our music and artwork is such, even when it is our best, is meant to be here on this world for but a moment—however, it will forever be remembered in the flow of time."

Zack looked at Vincent with some thought, and said, "It makes sense in a way, but it is still sad. You live and you die, and you gain fame only to be forgotten in the end. But then again, that's life…it's not fair, but you deal with it in the end."

Vincent got up with Yuffie, and bowed low as he said, "I bid you farewell then. I believe we have overstayed our welcome, and would like to go see Master Tsuan. I thank you for your hospitality Elmyra." After that, both Yuffie and Vincent went out the door.

Three days had passed since Yuffie and Vincent had left the Gainsborough flower shop, but since then, Yuffie began to see Vincent as something else. As what, she cannot tell, but one thing for sure, no matter how much she tries to deny it, his sword is not interesting her as much…hmmm…she never did take the time to notice him fully, maybe she could peep on him next time he takes a bath and look at his…wait a minute, what is she thinking?! Of course his sword interests her, it's just that…no, bad thoughts! Bad! How dare she think dirty thoughts at a time like this! She just needs to steal that katana, and she'll be able to rid herself of them; although she wouldn't mind if he were the one to take her innocence—a shame that he had to be a monk though…a shame and a waste of such good looks.

"We're close," said Vincent, "I can smell lavenders from here, and I can hear some chanting from the distance. It should be no further than one kilometer east of here."

"Hey Vince?" asked Yuffie, "I overheard from Elmyra that you were looking for something. I want to know…"

"It's something I don't want to talk about," interrupted Vincent, anger tainting his voice ever so slightly, "it's painful for me to recollect it—both on my mind and my soul."

Yuffie looked to Vincent, not about to be brought down by such a thing as a man who refuses to open up, with anger flaring in her eyes. "Vincent, despite what you think, I actually care. You may think that I don't notice, but I do. Every day, I see you with that lost look in your face—as if you're looking for something, but you can't find it. You even had to go see Elmyra to put you on the right path. I really want to help!"

"I appreciate the gesture Yuffie, but it's too painful. I really don't want to retell it—I'm afraid the pain will come back if I do…and I'm also afraid that if I burden you with it, you will be destroyed by it. The last thing I want is for someone to die all because of something from my past."

Yuffie simply sighed, and kept on guiding Vincent over to the destination. She really did want to help, but he thinks he's protecting her by keeping her in the black. If that's the case, then she won't press the matter any further. He'll tell her when he feels it's right to tell her. As she kept on walking forward, she noted that he was right about the scent—there were a lot of lavenders out on this field, and way across it, roughly three quarters of a kilometer away was a temple. Sure enough, there was chanting from the monks inside, as well as the ringing of a large brass bell.

Once they both made it to the temple gate, Vincent knocked on the large double doors. A few minutes had passed until the doors had opened. "Who is there?" asked a middle-aged monk from the crack of the door, "I wish to see Master Tsuan," said Vincent, "tell him that Brother Valentine is here." With that, the monk closed the door. Vincent and Yuffie sat there for another ten minutes before the door was opened again. "Brother Valentine?" asked the monk, "Master Tsuan will be seeing you now. If you'll follow me…" The monk offered his hand, and guided Vincent through halls of monks watching him and Yuffie pass on by until they got to a large doorway. The middle-aged monk knocked three times on the door.

"Master Tsuan, he is here!"

"Very well then, let him in Brother Tuesti."

Brother Tuesti pushed the door open, and both Vincent and Yuffie walked in to see a bald monk in his late sixties with a red dot on his forehead sitting on a cushion in front of an open fire. "Brother Valentine," said the monk, "it has been a year since you last visited. You look well."

"As do you master."

Master Tsuan got up, and walked towards Vincent. "I take it you are here for purification as usual?"

"And to think a bit."

"The chamber will be ready tomorrow. When it is time, I'll send Brother Tuesti for you. In the meantime, now you have a head start on your thinking. I shall see you tomorrow, Brother Valentine."

Purification is the only way to relieve him of the heart trouble roughly five days prior. It was all caused by that thing in his chest—he found it a very painful experience to have it placed in there, but it was necessary for him to contain his other half. Every day, as his mind continues to wallow in darkness, that thing will continue to plague him as it reflects the current state of his soul, and so the purification is there to help him cleanse his soul and thus make it less painful to carry it.

"How does purification work?" asked Yuffie, "It's simple really," began Vincent, "I go in a chamber with a hole on top, and sit in a shallow pool under the hole to meditate. Meanwhile, several monks surround me with a materia in front of them and start chanting sutras to amplify the power of the purification. Once it's done, I'll have a smaller chance of falling unconscious like last time."

"Why do some people go through this?"

"They do this because sometimes, you miss a step in the road to penance, and so this will help you to cleanse your spirit to start all over…it's a baptism if you will. I do this as a kind of maintenance run for my spirit. Now sleep. If you still want to follow me for my sword tomorrow, you'll need all the rest you can get."

Vincent watched her sleep. She was an innocent soul indeed—Yuffie was not exactly what one would call a traditionalist, and that spunk she had shown up to this point only made him like her even more. Hopefully, she'll wise up and leave him. It's for her own good, for if the assassins and bounty hunters after him won't kill her, then it's likely that he may one day lose control of his dark side, and kill her himself. He would rather live the rest of his life in misery than to kill the daughter of his best friends. Perhaps one day, when this has all blown over, he can travel all over the world with her—after he tells Master Tsuan that he intends to leave the monastery to become mundane of course.

After knowing that she was safe, his eyes slowly closed, and he fell to sleep with "Quicksilver" in his arms.

It's been five days since the attack on Galian Beast's lands—the special operations team that Chaos had with him only had eight survivors, all of whom had only managed to hijack two supply wagons and escape with them. However, as it turned out, it didn't really matter—Galian Beast and his people retreated to the south. They were simply outnumbered and overrun, and there were not enough supplies stolen for them to counterattack, and now Hibikuro finally has that cowardly bastard on the run!

After making a breakthrough by crossing into the demon territory, she found a village of demon civilians carrying out their business, but upon further inspection, and with the use of scouts it is revealed that Chaos lives in this village as he was appointed head retainer of this place. The Cetra Council, with express permission from Chairwoman Ifalna herself, had approved for this expedition, and so Mayumi may as well bring some cartographers with her forces so as to ensure that she does not go back to the council empty-handed after her campaign against Chaos has ended. She then noticed everything about the village—the place was centered on a gigantic arena, and since yesterday, everyone took a break from what they were doing to train in the martial arts…even children were trained from day one to learn how to punch and focus mana into themselves.

While everybody was drilling, Chaos stepped out from the crowd, and made sure to correct the form of everyone during their drills should they misstep or their stance was improper. Walking among the crowds aside from Chaos were the four members of the special operations team that robbed and sabotaged her were assisting in the drilling members of the village. One more female demon was not in the group, and she was overseeing a sparring match between one hundred demons paired off against each other for a total of fifty matches.

This would make sense as the number of the original demon race are fewer in number than any other member of the alliance—which is why among the bodies that have been taken count, there are rarely any true demons among them, and so they are trained to be elite warriors from the start. Even though she hated Chaos for the murder of her father, Mayumi had to give him credit—he was actually a good leader and teacher. It was actually a shame that she had to sneak through the village to assassinate him—and a waste, as the council could have used such talent from him.

Just as she was about to strike, Mayumi saw a blue light appear in the sky as it fell down to the ground from far away. A gust of wind followed the impact, roughly with enough force to be considered a gale wind. "Ayame, send word to the shogun, tell him what you saw, while I go take a look for myself what it is we are dealing with," said Chaos, turning to the demon overseeing the sparring matches before she flew away with her orders received, and then to his four protégés, "Hiruko, Mai, Shinji, and Mao, you are to defend the village at all costs while I am gone. This is the only place that we can call home—I don't intend to leave it unguarded. Until I get back, you are all in charge…remember what happened to the other two troops I picked out, and why they both die died. I don't want to lose any more people than necessary, especially in these times of war—I can't afford to have these people wiped out because of a lack in teamwork and organization. Hiruko, I'm counting on you to lead your colleagues well…you must trust them, and they must trust you…as I do. Do not fail me. The rest of you will follow me...someone has to report back to Omega if I cannot."

"Yes sir!" said the demon called Hiruko. With that, Chaos took "Death Penalty" in his hand, and flew away. Mayumi simply grabbed her chakram, and started following him from the shadows…

Yuffie woke up from another strange dream involving Hibikuro Mayumi and the demon Chaos…why is she getting such a dream? And is Vincent having them as well? As she looked on the floor for the monk, she saw a note on the floor where his futon was supposed to be.

Have gone to the purification.

Head to the kitchen across from here to get your breakfast.

I would recommend leaving me now…I'm much too dangerous for you.

If you care about me, you'll forget about me—I'm not worth it.

-Vincent

Yuffie was not happy about it. She didn't want to leave him! She's not leaving without that sword of his and that's that! Oh shut the hell up! Who the hell was she fucking kidding? She wasn't interested in that fucking sword anymore! She didn't care that she wouldn't be making a profit for a while! She didn't even care about seeing the world anymore! Seeing the world would now be meaningless if he weren't there! If Vincent thought that leaving her out of his business would drive her away, he's dead wrong…it's too late for that.

She simply sat up and walked out towards the lavender fields. She needed to get out and sort out her thoughts and feelings. Obviously, she has something for him, and so she will stay outside until she has her mind straightened out. No matter where she goes, the scent of lavender or jasmine had always helped to clear her head, and in this place, it was no different. Now she had plenty of time to think over her thoughts and feelings for this monk. "Tough time?" asked a man behind her. Yuffie turned and saw who it was that spoke—it was a blond man in his mid-twenties, not bad-looking, but he wearing nothing but white, and sitting on the lavender fields overlooking the temple. "Yeah," she answered, a bit suspicious of this stranger, "I was trying to get my thoughts together. You know, clear my head?"

The stranger sighed, and said, "Ah, I felt that before. In fact, I think you and I have something in common. We're both in love, but we are not sure if it is true or not."

"W-wait a minute, I never said anything about love!"

The stranger chuckled. "You didn't have to. It was written all over your face. But the biggest question for you, Miss Kisaragi, is if you know anything about the man you traveled with?"

Before Yuffie could reach for her scroll, she heard a clicking sound, and felt something at the side of her head. She glanced to the right, and saw that this stranger was holding a flintlock to her temporal bone. "I must admit, bounty hunting for my old man is really fun! It's challenging work, out-of-doors; I guarantee I won't go hungry! Well, not that I ever will, considering that my dad is King Shinra himself, but if I ever get kicked out of the castle, I'd want to do this."

Yuffie looked at the blond in surprise. This brat was King Shinra's son Rufus?

Vincent sat in a pool of water in the middle of the chamber directly under the air hole, surrounded on eight sides by a monk with a sphere of materia and a scroll and "Quicksilver" set on the side right next to him. Once done, he began to meditate, as the monks surrounding him began chanting the sutras. As the monks chanted, the materia orbs began to glow a soft blue light while the ground underneath Vincent began to turn into a pillar of the same-colored light. He could feel the purifying effects of the mako crystals he was sitting above.

He heard the door to the chamber breaking in and in walked four intruders: a young redhead with a short steel staff roughly four feet in length, a bald dark-skinned man with sunglasses, a blond woman with a musket in her hands, and a Wutainese man with a red dot in the center of his forehead carrying cross-spear. He's had several encounters with these four before—in fact, no matter how much he tried to be different, the truth remained that he was one of them: a monster in the literal sense. "We're here for the man you are all purifying," said the Wutainese man, "let us have him, and we'll leave the temple quietly."

"Tseng," said Master Tsuan, walking towards the spearman, "you know full well what we are doing and why. If we don't purify him, lives will be lost—even yours. What you are doing now is no different from disturbing a doctor in the middle of an operation. Take your Turks and your business outside when we are done…that is all I ask of you as your father."

Tseng simply looked at his father with a dirty look upon his face. "I'm taking him, and that's that. If you refuse to let me have him now, then we have no choice…"

"That man you're following around; this Vincent Valentine," said Rufus, "just how much do you know about him?" "Nothing much," she said, and that was true, "except that he was a friend of my dad's."

Rufus simply nodded his head, and said, "A friend of your dad's eh? Well did you know that in his life, Vincent Valentine was responsible for a great number of assassinations since the day he was actually sixteen? Oh yeah, he and your dad were friends from what I heard—in fact, I've heard rumors that he actually worked for your dad in helping him to unite the Island Kingdoms. Your dad's like fifty-four, correct? Well Vincent's been alive for as long as your old man yeah? Doesn't it strike you odd that he looks younger than your dad?"

As Yuffie contemplated this, she countered, "How do you know? For all you know, Vincent could have been the youngest in his circle of friends. What are you getting at Prince Shinra?" She spat the name 'Shinra' from her mouth like poison.

"Vincent Valentine is not human, princess, not anymore. And you'll be seeing why shortly after I…" Rufus couldn't finish his sentence, as something happened—an explosion had resulted in the temple and knocked him away. Yuffie simply looked in horror as a column of soft blue light shot out from the top of the temple in the middle of the temple during the explosion. As she gazed into the light, she could make out something in the middle of the light—something or someone was in midair, and then it disappeared…Yuffie immediately ran to the temple and towards the purification chamber.

Vincent watched as all the monks in the chamber were being slaughtered—first Master Tsuan was killed by his own son, and then the other Turks began the attack. The anger and sadness had filled his heart until Vincent started to cry out in pain. He grabbed his chest, and bent forward as he felt something starting to pulse in his back. The next thing that happened, he heard the sound of flesh and bone ripping their way from under both of his scapula. His cries of pain continued as the purification turned from filling his heart with peace to overcharging it with more pain, while he saw that a pair of bat wings had sprouted from his back, and covered his crouched body. His skin began to turn indigo, and a pair of horns had sprouted from his forehead and started growing and curving backwards for a more streamlined look somewhat resembling a crown.

Once the transformation was complete, what was left of Vincent opened its wings and fanned out his body, creating a gust of wind within the chamber that caused an explosion—destroying the purification chamber. The demon found itself levitating roughly fifty meters over the remains of a stone room, with a few people looking up as he descended slowly upon the middle of the room. It then looked to four people starting to transform—and then it picked up "Quicksilver", transforming it instantly from a shikomizue-style sword to a koshirae-style and placed it in his monk's sash the way a samurai wears his sword.

The unarmed demon attacked, and performed a roundhouse kick only to have his leg grabbed, and be thrown aside like a rag doll by it.

The demon with the steel stick simply charged in and swung his weapon around wildly with a berserker's enthusiasm only to be stopped on the first swing by a draw of the sword, and then dodged at every subsequent swing of his stick before he was eviscerated in one cut with an under-handed swing, and then stabbed in the spine, followed by a decapitation.

The female demon simply aimed her musket at the indigo demon, and saw her opportunity when the unarmed demon got back up and grabbed the new player in a sleeper hold only to take a stomp to the instep, and flipped over by the forearm just as she was about to make a headshot. She missed her target due to him vanishing into thin air, and tried to look for him in the open space—she then saw Tseng running towards her with his spear ready to be thrown, only to realize that he was too late for whatever he was going to do: she felt something stab her in the back, shred past her right kidney, and then she watched as a clawed arm tore open a hole through her abdominis rectus before it was pulled back out, and she was used as a shield from Tseng's spear.

Tseng watched in absolute horror as his thrown spear impaled his colleague through her chest, and then his target lowered her body to the floor carefully, and closed her eyes in reverie before he stood up and turned to Tseng. As he started walking towards him, the indigo demon spoke in a tongue long forgotten to the world. This was not a simple transformation—no…a simple transformation cannot be this powerful. Something was very wrong with this picture…it's as if Valentine no longer existed. He simply charged what mana he had left, and attacked the dark blue beast with everything he had, only to be grabbed by the neck with one hand, and then have it snapped at the twitch of his opponent's thumb before he was thrown down.

The indigo demon then turned to see the unarmed demon fleeing—he was not worth killing. These knock-offs were nothing but insects to him. But he did sense something nearby…something familiar…something that made him feel warm a long time ago…as he recalled from his memories, this thing made him feel at peace. As he turned around, he saw a girl no older than twenty standing in place, frozen in fear…

Yuffie could not believe what she saw…a winged and red-eyed demon was tearing four weaker demons to pieces. And when that thing was done, it started moving towards her…she couldn't run—she was too scared to do that. But the way that creature was moving, it was as if it didn't want to frighten her as it moved its right hand slowly and gently. Once it made it to Yuffie, it reached out its clawed hand; she closed her eyes briefly and then opened them again when she felt that it touched her gently on the cheek and brought its hand down in the same way.

She then watched as the demon reached its hand under her chin and pulled her up slightly while it lowered itself with closed eyes. It was then that she realized the identity of the demon—it was Vincent! Before she could say a word, Yuffie realized that she was locked in a kiss as Vincent grabbed her in a hug—raising her temperature to the heat which was only exchanged between lovers…the next thing she knew, she saw him slump to the floor shirtless while he reverted back to his human form. What the hell was going on?

A/N: I borrowed from Chinese culture for this Biwa song. The dragon represents the emperor, and the empress is the phoenix—both are symbols of longevity and immortality, but the dragon is the more masculine of the pair.

Translations and Vocabulary:

Samisen—also called a "shamisen"; it is a three-stringed Japanese analogue to the banjo, played with a bachi. It has no frets.

Shakuhachi—a bamboo flute, used by some monks as a truncheon. It also has a dirtier meaning nowadays.

Sutra—an East-Indian scripture, usually a Buddhist one.

Mana—mystic energy; RPG people would refer to it and count it as MP.

Koshirae—the normal mount for a katana being used that includes a sheath, hand guard, and a handle, as well as butt caps for the sheath and handle.

Songs Played:

"Eternal" by Rin

"The Beginning is the End is the Beginning" by Smashing Pumpkins