Edited 2/2/16
Disclaimer: Sigh. I still own nothing.
AN: What's that? Triangles? Of love? Somewhat introduced in this chapter?
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The Kisaragi Clan has many enduring and admirable qualities that have been passed down throughout the generations. The Patented Kisaragi Grin, for one thing, is as famous and revered as the myth of Leviathan's creation. We're also known for our shrewd business skills, perfect aim, and extreme height deficiency. However, if I had to pick the Kisaragi quality that is the most well-known, the widest spread, and the most feared, it would be the fact that every single descendant of my family line is as stubborn as a freaking bull chocobo.
Godo is no exception, and neither is yours truly.
We Kisaragis do not apologize. We're just too stubborn. Hell, I didn't apologize after stealing all my friends' Materia and leaving them pretty much defenseless against Don Corneo's wyvern-thing of Spastic and Unsuccessful Doom. I didn't apologize for locking Teef and Spikes in a closet for twenty-four hours last Valentine's Day. And I sure as Hell didn't apologize for replacing Vinnie's shampoo with syrup that one time. Call it what you want, charming quirk or fatal character flaw, my family generally does not apologize for anything—we shift the blame to someone else or proclaim that our actions came only from the best intentions, hence no apology needed.
So, when Godo apologized to me all on his own, sincerely and without me having to rant and rave and have a general shit fit, I knew things were about to get very serious.
I threw my hands up, waving them around defensively. "Whoa, whoa! What's with the sorryness? I just saved your butt, old man, and, yeah, Draknor is off being all shadowy and dark and creepy, but we're all safe here and there should be no apologies!"
But Godo sighed and shook his head, pity in his eyes.
For the record? I hate the pitying look. And getting it from Godo? Was enough to set my teeth, and my nerves, on edge. Still, a real ninja knows when to put aside frustration, shut up, and listen. And Cid had come back with the tea (excellently brewed, I might add… I'll never understand how the walking, cursing Nicotine Factory got so good at making tea), and a few sips of the steamy liquid had my nerves relaxing.
Godo took a few big gulps as well, before looking around at our motley crew of world-savers. "This story goes back to the dawn of time, or at least to Wutai's creation," he began, and his voice had taken on the booming tone it always got when he told the nine myths of Leviathan at the Solstice Festivals, and I could see everyone around the table lean in just barely, captivated already. Kind of like how Reno gets when he sees a pair of particularly large, definitely fake tits. Only not as pervy.
"It is thought in our culture that many millennia ago, the world was completely covered I water. Leviathan, Great Serpent and God of All Tides ruled over the waters, keeping peace among his subjects. Yet he grew restless with naught but the ocean to swim in, his watery view unchanging, unmarred by any land. And so he drew together a great host of his subjects, and together they pulled the ocean floor from its resting place, to form an island. He called it Wutai, meaning First and Last. Upon this land he created life from the oceans, crafting a people small and stealthy, and gifted in the original art of the Magicks. To them he gave the name Ninja, and watched over them as they prospered.
"But in all things there is balance. It must always be so. Opposing Leviathan's water-domain and his new land, there came to be another continent, Centra, formed by the Lightning Bird, Quezacotl. For many years, they ruled in peace, Leviathan with Wutai and Quezacotl with Centra. They balanced one another, and there was peace.
"But a darkness was brewing within the light of Quezacotl's heart. He hid it well, but Leviathan eventually noticed. A great battle erupted, water against lightning and Ninja against the swordsmen of Centra. Neither side could gain an advantage, their balance against one another too even. It was during a break in the fighting, when each power rested, gasping for breath, that the First Powers were forged. Leviathan, realizing that the fighting would destroy everything if it was not finished quickly, left his watery haven and took to the heavens, seeking out the original Creators, those who had forged him from the strength of the ocean and its tides. Quezacotl, seeing Leviathan's departure to Heaven, descended into the depths of Hell, to seek the opposing Power. When Leviathan returned, he shone with the Power of Light, bright and blessed and burning with its glory and goodness. Yet when Quezacotl surfaced, he too bore a new Power, the Black power of darkness and hatred and despair. The fighting resumed, even more furious than before.
"Yet Leviathan had the upper hand, for the Power of Light embodies all elements—water, earth, wind, lightning and fire. The Black power knows only lightning and fire, the core elements of destruction, and it was soon overpowered by the Light. Quezacotl was defeated and banished to the Underworld, taking the Black Power with him. There, in the fires of Hell, the corruption of his heart consumed him. Leviathan and his people were victorious, and they set about rebuilding the world, forging peace with the people of Centra.
"But what of the Powers? The Black Power was said to have been locked away in Hell with Quezacotl and his hatred. The Power of Light was locked away as well, in the tallest level of a great tower in Wutai, so that it would always have contact with the Heavens from which it was born. At the First War's conclusion, it was said that Powers should never be used again, so that peace would be promoted between all people, both Good and Evil."
Godo paused to take a breath, and sip some more of his tea.
"What was spread as legend for centuries among the people of Wutai was known to be truth among its ruling Clans. Perhaps the First War did not really take place, but the Power of Light existed, burning in the top-most floor of the Pagoda. Yet we had sworn not to use it, and we held to that oath, even during our war with Shin-Ra. But now…" he trailed off, shaking his greyed head.
Reno shifted, one crimson eyebrow quirked in obvious skepticism. "So… Lemme get this straight, yo. Lemme just see if I'm understanding where this is all going. These mystical powers are real… and Draknor has somehow gone to the depths of Hell, and gotten this… Black Power. He burned down Wutai so that the Power of Light couldn't be used when he tries to become a god and take over the world."
Godo nodded. "That's correct."
"So… what is Yuffie's role in all of this?" Tifa asked hesitantly.
Again, he looked at me across the table and there was so much emotion scrawled across his face that I couldn't even begin to try and decipher it. A giant, leaden Tonberry took up sudden residence in my stomach and started gnawing on my innards, much to my dismay. "When the Power was sealed in the Pagoda, Izayoi, the High Priestess and Lady of Wutai at the time, took it upon herself to safeguard it even further. Half the power was locked away, while the other half she took into herself, binding it into her blood and soul. When she died, the power passed to her daughter, Sasame. As the bloodline continued over the decades and centuries, the Power continued to manifest itself in each female heir to the throne. Meaning that Yuffie—"
But I had heard enough. The Tonberry had killed itself on my stomach acid and was now a dead weight, tugging by stomach down somewhere near my pinkie toes.
My chair scraped back with a wincing crunch as I stood and strode purposefully from the room. I didn't even dare to glance back at anyone; I just needed to get the hell out of there. I was not about to sit there and listen to my dear old dad tell me that there was some crazy, mystic, mumbo-jumbo flowing through me, and that I was destined to save the world from some creepy scientist dude who happened to have a god-complex just short of Sephiroth's. And that he never felt the need to inform me of this tiny tidbit of information, until it was too late and I was needed to become some magical High Priestess of Light and All Things Good before said crazy scientist ended the world as we knew it in cold blood.
Because, honestly? I'm not the High Priestess, saintly, martyr type. That was Aerith's job, Gawd rest her soul. And me? I'm no Aerith. I'm just plain old, Yuffie Kisaragi, who cackles like a demented chocobo, is clumsy unless flipping around with a shuriken, and drools when sleeping or faced with Vinnie's leather-clad tush.
I'm pretty sure holier-than-thou High Priestesses aren't supposed to drool.
And also: generally when you've got some mystical power and a destiny bigger than Teef's cleavage, it's good to know about it before you're a fully-fledged adult. Not that I actually act like an adult most of the time, but hey, I've got the twenty-two years of life under my belt to prove it. I mean, Gawd, I felt like Godo had just told me I was adopted and that my actual parents were like a retard chocobo and an evil tonberry of doom or something…. Not that there's any other kind of tonberry, mind you.
In short, it was a lot to process. Which meant me standing outside in the drizzling rain, thinking 'you've got to be fucking kidding me' over and over and over again. But hey, it was better than having yet another freak out slash meltdown in front of everyone, right? Besides, I like the rain. Not for any stupid reason like, 'so no one can tell I'm crying wahblahwahwahwah.' I mean, come on! People can still totally tell that you're crying even if you're standing in the rain! Hello? Your face gets all blotchy and snotty and you come down with a major case of the sniffles. How are gonna explain that, sweetcakes? "Oh, sorry, I'm just allergic to the rain; it makes me come down with the blotch. BUT I'M NOT CRYING, I PROMISE!" I mean, seriously.
Nah, I like the rain 'cause it's all cleansing and whatnot, even when Aerith the Great Goddess Earth-mother isn't putting her essence in it and healing everyone of Geostigma. Not that Aerith actually was a goddess or anything, but I figure she came pretty damn close. Supposedly Leviathan always said that rain was a symbol of rebirth, what with water evaporating into the atmosphere and then being reborn as it falls to the ground again. Kinda like the circle of life, only all watery 'cause that's just how we Wutaiians do.
It was a warm rain, I remember. A spring rain. It soaked into my clothes and plastered my hair to my face and stung as it dripped into my eyes and I wanted to just soak it all up like a sponge and then drown myself in it so only my pruney corpse would be left behind.
For a while, it was just me and the steady drumming of rain on the pavement, like fingers tapping on my skull trying to chase out everything negative and twisted and confused that I was feeling at that second. Trying to chase them out, and failing miserably. Still, there was no way in hell that I was ready to face Godo at that point. So when the bar's front door opened, and Nanaki stepped out, I was pretty damn relieved. Like, more relieved than a PMSing bitch who'd finally gotten her hands on some Midol.
"'Sup, Nanaki?" I asked as he padded over to me, tail tucked carefully under the slight cover of the building and out of the rain.
"They're worried about you inside."
I looked out at the rain, staring as hard as I could at anything other than the creature beside me. "I'm good."
"You're not." That got my attention, and I quirked an eyebrow at him in question. "I know what it's like," he continued, "to find out that a piece of you is a lie. Or that a piece of you has been omitted, in this case."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yes. Do you remember our first trip to Cosmo Canyon? When I decided to continue on with AVALANCHE?"
"Of course! You and Cloud and Teef went into that cave thing, and Aerith and I were bored to death, so we went through all of Cloud's stuff trying to find his hair gel. She just wanted to know what product he used, but I was gonna replace it with something funny. And probably total grossness, too. And we found the weirdest stuff, too! Did you know he was carrying around this nice ass dress and a wig and women's lingerie with us the entire—"
"Yuffie."
I ducked my head sheepishly. "Uh… sorry, Nanaki. I'm guessing something super important happened with you guys?"
"I had grown up thinking my father to be a coward who had abandoned my mother and my tribe when they needed him most. When we went into that cave, I learned that he really fought to the death to protect them, even after he had been turned to stone by the enemy's arrows. But… I had spent my life hating him. That hatred was so much a part of me that I could hardly process anything when I found out that it wasn't justified. It was good to know that my father wasn't a coward, didn't abandon or betray anyone… but it was still a challenge to accept it."
There was a long silence between us, broken only by the splattering rain and the occasional, far-off crash of thunder.
Finally, I sighed. "So what's the moral of the story?"
He gently bumped my thigh with his furry shoulder. "That this power, whatever it is, it's a part of you, even if you didn't know you had it until now. I had to unlearn a part of me… you just have to discover this new part of you."
I glanced down at him, scuffing my foot along the pavement. "Seriously, Nanaki? How come you're so smart. You're supposed to be, like… the equivalent of my age, and I always feel like a big piece of dumb around you."
He grinned, showing lots and lots of teeth. If I hadn't been so used to him, I probably would've run away to the nearest animal control center, screaming about the rabid dog-cat that was after me.
"You're not dumb, Yuffie. My grandpa just taught me well."
I laughed, but there wasn't any humor in it…and it may have been a little hysterical on top of that. "Well, obviously my old man didn't teach me anything. At least, not anything useful in this situation. Plus everything burned down with Wutai, which means I don't even have any way of learning how to find or use or whatever with this stupid power." I frowned. This wasn't going to be anything like using materia, which came with the simple pleasure that it was materia. And as we all know, materia equals all things beautiful and awesome and fan-freaking-tastic.
"Well, it's been suggested that you come back to Cosmo Canyon with me and take a look at the library there. I can't guarantee that you'll find anything useful, but it seems like the best option as of right now."
Shaking soaking bangs out of my eyes, I straightened from my slump against the wall. "Well, better than standing in the rain moping, I guess. When are we leaving?"
"As soon as you're ready. Vincent's offered to accompany us as well. Reno made a few rude insinuations."
"Nanaki… can you remind me why we ever stopped trying to kill him?"
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After quickly throwing my few belongings into a bag, it was time to face my old man. I found him sitting quietly in one of the other spare bedrooms upstairs, looking out the window towards the east. I came to stand next to him, arms crossed and tense and twitchy.
"You should've told me, ya know."
"I know."
"It really sucks to have this all sprung on me all of a sudden, ya know."
"I know."
"…Sometimes… you're a real shit dad, ya know."
"I know."
"I still love you, though."
He didn't seem to have a response to that, other than to reach out and squeeze my hand, before we each retreated back into our respective bubbles. There were no more apologies, no more sorrys, no more nothing. We were back to our stubborn, contrary, typical relationship. And that was that.
Once I left Godo, I immediately found myself faced with a teary-eyed Tifa, looking to say goodbye.
"Damn, Teef! Are the hormones getting to you already?" I snickered as she pulled me into a tight hug.
"Oh, shut up," she sniffled, wiping her eyes. "You're the closest thing I have to a sister; you should be used to me caring by this point."
"Aww, Tifa… I'll be back before you know it…probably. But Nanaki does have like a crap-ton of books there, so really I may die of old age before we find any info that we can use." I shuddered a little it at the thought of being shut up inside a musty old library, growing old and stupid over piles of dusty, crackling books. But then I thought of being shut up in said musty old library with Vinnie, and things started to look a little brighter. Plus, I wanted to ask him about that whole potential dream-connection thing. I was kinda nervous to bring it up though, because either A: he would have no idea what I was talking about or B: he would. If it was the first one, it meant that I was most definitely insane. As in clinically, needing to be locked away in a room with padded walls, etc., etc. If it was the second option then… well… that required a whole lot more thought.
In the meantime, though, I simply finished my goodbye with Teef and everyone else (Barrett shouted a lot, Cloud messed with my hair in the obnoxious surrogate-big-brother way he has, Reeve nodded with a small smile, and Reno kept giving me really subtle eyebrow wiggles in Vincent's direction. And when I say really subtle, I mean not at all), and then hopped on the Shera with Nanaki, Vincent and Cid at the helm. Or wheel. Or buttons. Or whatever he uses to pilot the damn thing.
Anyhoo, someone must've slipped me a tranquilizer, because the next thing I knew, I was slumped in a corner, half-asleep and drooling and so not bothered by the motion of the airship. And then I was being dragged unsteadily off said airship, saying a slurred goodbye to Cid and then taken promptly to a nice hotel room in Cosmo Canyon to sleep off the rest of the meds.
My dreams were fuzzy and weird, all technicolor and jarring and filled with stupid high priestesses and stupider crazy scientists and way too much twisted shenanigans for me to even begin to unravel. Of course, my dreams were a whole lot more interesting than what was waiting for me when I woke up.
First of all, Nanaki's library really is huge. And totally unorganized, which is surprising seeing as he's all like… serious and anal and wound-up. I love him though. But I detest his library.
Going through those books was more tedious than watching Aerith take five hours to give herself a perfect mani-pedi. And it literally took her five hours. That's pretty damn tedious in my book. Of course, my nails are so short and gross that giving them any sort of special treatment would just be a waste of life and nail polish, but I digress. All in all, I was turning into a pile of Yuffie-goo, forged in the fires of lamesauce and smelted with an extra dose of boredom. And we weren't even making any progress, which was the worst of it.
…I think I even noticed Vince getting twitchy with annoyance, which usually means bad things for the people nearest to him at said time of twitchiness. And when I say bad things, I mean lots and lots of bullet holes.
I was getting worried, too, I'll admit it. I mean, it's one thing to find out that you've got these hidden powers that are just chilling inside of you. That on its own would've been a fine discovery to make. But it is a completely other chocobo race when the power that you have and have no idea how to use is probably the only thing that can stop the imminent apocalypse via psycho-sociopath scientist jerk-wad. What if I couldn't figure out how to use the power? What if I could, but it wasn't enough anyway? What if the entire world ended and it was all my damn fault?
There were some awful things I could sit back gleefully and watch happen (mainly Barrett prancing around in that sailor suit), but the world ending was not one of them.
Which is probably why I was so frustrated when, a week later, I still knew nothing about this thing of light and goodness that was supposed to be within me. I was also a bit peeved that a lot of Nanaki's history books fingered Wutai as the instigator, or at least main problem, in the Wutai-Shin-Ra war. So not true.
It was also why I was absolutely ecstatic to receive a call from Tifa, telling the three of us to get our behinds back to Edge immediately. Reeve had managed to dig up some source who had lots of good, juicy information and help for me and we were needed back to make big official discussions pronto.
I was so excited to be getting out of there and hopefully moving towards something that could actually be of some use, that I point-blank refused any tranquilizers on the flight back. I wanted to be lucid as soon as I got there, and I would be damned if airsickness and drugs would keep me from my goals! Excessive drug use is bad for you anyway, kiddies. Listen to your Auntie Yuffie.
Still, that meant that I spent the flight crouched behind a few crates, clutching my stomach like an old man with ulcers and moaning something fierce. Vinnie came to check on me a few times, but he never stayed long. I think he was worried about me puking all over his nice, shiny, Turk-shoes. And, to be honest, I don't really blame him. Still, my airsickness and his absences meant that I didn't really have a chance to ask him about our dream-encounter. And, Gawd, if that doesn't make it sound dirtier than it really was.
When we finally, finally reached Edge, I was feeling mighty chipper, especially for someone who had lost their entire stomach contents not thirty minutes before. I skipped ahead of the guys and sashayed my way up to the front door of the Seventh Heaven, veins and muscles and soul thrumming with excitement at the prospect of some Leviathan-blessed answers.
Flinging open the door, I strode in with the biggest grin that I could possibly muster slathered all over my face. Only to falter and gape open mouthed at what was waiting for me inside.
All I could spit out was, "What the hell is he doing here?!"
My confusion, rage and general what-the-fuck were all completely justified. Because sitting in front of me, surrounded by my friends, was none other than Rufus Shin-Ra.
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AN: Once again, I'm alive! And seeing as it is finally summer, I will finally be able to update this baby on a more regular basis. But first: my excuses. Number 1—I was in the hospital for most of spring break (which was when I was planning on writing ahead for this….that failed.) Number 2—after spring break I had to do that whole school thing. Education is so inconvenient sometimes. And Number 3—As soon as I got on summer break, I got my wisdom teeth out and really didn't feel like doing much of anything other than lying on a couch and drooling.
As a note on the story, I can feel some of you getting twitchy in the pants area. And no, not about Rufus, but about this whole mystical powers thing. I promise, I'm going to try to keep it as far from cliché as possible, and I also promise that I'm not going to make it easy on Yuffie to work this out. I'm not turning her into a Mary-Sue, so no worries. I wouldn't do that to y'all after seven chapters.
But on to more important things. I am now back and planning on working on this A LOT. And I also want to apologize to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, because I'm pretty sure I didn't respond to anyone… and for that, I'm so sorry. As of this chapter, I'll be back to responding to all the signed reviews I get. So, without further ado, HUGE thanks go out to everyone who reviewed last time: MadBlossomingPrincess, JingYee, often indecisive, Alamorn, Ashes, serenbach, warrior of six blades, Tiggerz16, Missyluv, Le Requiem (oh hai gurl hai!), and LiveLifeLikeNeverBefore! If any of you are still out there, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will continue reviewing so I can shower you with thanks and plushies and cookies and love. And stuff.
