Chapter 10: The Spying Idea
Kiku stumbled to the ground at the entrance of an unknown town.
Two days had passed since she left Yuffie on her own. She was trying to get away from Sephiroth. She attempted to teleport away but he would always grab her and the both of them always ended up together. They had been fighting all this time. She looked up at the setting sun in the town full of pink colors.
"Must… hide…" she tiredly stood up and started walking on the pink brick road. "Geez, I sound like a coward." She made a face.
After a while, Sephiroth walked through the entrance of the town full of pink. The buildings were pink, the road was pink, the leaves on the brown trees were pink, and many more.
"This must be Pink Town," he assumed, walking and looking around. "Now… where did she run off to?"
Sephiroth walked past a market square with some people walking around. Villagers shopped at various merchants. He started to wonder if Lazard was around here or not and continued to look around.
"Who was that girl with the white hair?" a woman asked her friend. She had brown hair that reached to her shoulders and brown eyes.
They walked pass Sephiroth and he stopped, glancing over his shoulders.
"Probably just one of those old woman with a young face," the other woman said. Her brown hair was very short and she had darker brown eyes. "Besides… what I find very odd was that red tattoo on her right eye. It must have been difficult to get it on that sensitive skin."
Sephiroth turned to them. "Where did you see that girl?" he questioned.
The two women looked at him with questioning expressions. They wore brown dresses. The woman with the very short hair pointed the way. "Well, we were over there and that girl with the white hair entered the inn," she said.
Sephiroth looked where she was pointing. It was a tall building with no windows and more pink. The sign on it read: Inn.
"She seemed tired," the second woman said. "So I guess she's staying there for the night."
He nodded at them. "Thank you," he turned towards the building.
"Was it okay to tell him?" the first woman asked as they walked off.
The other nodded. "It's not like he's going to attack her, right? This town is made to prevent any kind of harm and violence after all," she said, smiling.
"Oh yeah," the first laughed. "I'm new to this place so I sort of forgot…"
Sephiroth entered the in through the front door. A man with a blue hat and black sunglasses sat behind the counters, sitting on a chair. "May I help you?" the man asked.
"I'm just here to look for someone," Sephiroth replied, scanning around the room. The inside of this building was not pink. The tables and chairs were brown, the wooden floor was black, and the walls were gray.
"Well," the man leaned back on his chair. "This inn closes in about two hours. You'll have to leave here by then if you don't plan on staying."
Sephiroth eyed him. "Have you seen a young girl with white hair?" he asked.
The man grinned. "Sorry, I got paid a lot of gil not to give any type of information of that person's whereabouts," he said, giving Sephiroth a hint.
Sephiroth walked off and headed up the stairs. He searched through the open rooms. He listened to the closed one. There were voices but not one that sounded familiar. He continued his search on the upper floors.
"You have fifteen minutes," the man behind the counter said when Sephiroth walked back down the stairs.
Sephiroth noticed one of the doors that lead downstairs and walked toward it. He stepped down the gray stoned stairway, looking around when he had a view of how the lower floor looked like. He stepped on the last step of the stairs.
There were four hallways from where he was standing. The walls were poorly painted with black, dim lights were set on the ceilings and leading the way down the paths. The floors were quite dusty and the way it looked, no one seemed to have cleaned it for a while now. There were wood chips lying around, some trash, and spider webs.
He was curious to explore further and walked through the hallway to his far left. The walls had scratches here and there. He wondered why there were not a lot of people down here. There were people walking around in the in on the other higher floors. Perhaps there was nothing down here that anyone would want to check out.
Down the hallway he was walking through, there was only one door at the end of the hallway. His footsteps echoed silently and he breathed softly. The air on the lower floor was getting colder. Compared to the upper floors filled with rooms and people, it was more pleasant.
He entered the room and stared at the girl on the bed.
Kiku was lying on a big white bed with no pillows, sleeping. The white blanket was not over her, only lying beside her. She lay on her right side, her head rested on her right arm, her other hand touching her lips, and her legs bent forward. She breathed softly.
Sephiroth walked over to her and took a good look at the red mark over her right eye. It looked more like a tattoo. He stared at her for a moment and scanned the room.
The lights in the room were brighter than the ones in the halls. The only thing in the room was an empty desk.
He turned back to Kiku. He could not help but smile. She looked like a normal teenager, not someone determined to rule the world. What were her motives?
Taking a step back, he decided to let her sleep. Attacking her while she was sleeping did not seem right and Pink town did not allow violence. Since the Zetsumei did not attack anyone here, he should do the same.
He grinned and reached for the white blanket. He covered her small body. The air was cold after all but he was not sure if she could feel hot or cold, considering that she was an Undead but he did it anyway.
Then he left the room.
After a long moment, Kiku clutched her eyes as if she was in pain. "Minerva…" she mumbled angrily. She opened her eyes and looked at the blanket over her with puzzle eyes. "Eh…? Did I sleep-move and put this over me?"
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Sephiroth stepped out of the inn. The man behind the counter asked, "Aren't you going to stay here for the night?"
The long silver haired man looked over his shoulder to him. "I don't have any gil with me," Sephiroth responded. He walked down the road, as the night grew nearer.
He stared up at the dark green sky, slowly walking around the empty area between buildings. There were clouds that cover most of the skies. He wondered if there was a moon if the clouds were going to be clear tonight.
"Sephiroth, glad to see that you made it here so fast," a familiar voice came from behind him.
Sephiroth causally turned around and faced Angeal's clone. "…Director Lazard, was it?" he asked. He did not have the chance to inquire what happen to Lazard when he had betrayed Shinra and who had been funding Hollander's experiments. Zack had given a quick info about what happen to Lazard but Sephiroth wanted it to be clearer. "Angeal's clone?"
He walked up to Sephiroth, smiling. "It's… a long story," he said. "Not worth mentioning. By the way, how did you get here so fast?"
"I ran," Sephiroth replied. "I was just following that girl with the red mark over her right eye and we teleported from various places and then ended up here."
"Oh…" Lazard slowly nodded.
"Are we going to stay here for a while?" Sephiroth asked.
Lazard nodded. "There's nowhere else where we can be. We'll just have to wait until everyone is ready to return to the Firefly Light Village."
"Isn't there something more that I can do?" Sephiroth inquired. He just couldn't stay here and wait. He felt like he should do something. Staying in a town like this was hurting his eyes by the minute.
Lazard thought for a moment. "Is that girl still here?"
Sephiroth nodded, "She's sleeping at some inn."
"…Why don't you keep an eye on that girl with the gray skin for a while then?" he suggested. "In this kind of place, maybe you can ask her some questions about her motives... that is, if she plans to stay here for a long time. It's the perfect chance."
"It's not like she's taking a vacation here," Sephiroth said, looking away. "An enemy would never give information to the other party. I can't use violence here if I wanted to force her to."
"Sephiroth," Lazard crossed his arms. "I want you to try to ask her questions. I got a call from Zack a while ago and he requested that I should look after the people who are from the other world here for the time being."
"Why can't you do it?"
Lazard looked at Sephiroth's expression, whose eyes were still looking somewhere else. He seemed like he did not want to take on the task on being the information gatherer. "If we switch jobs, will you be able to handle the kids?" Lazard asked, chuckling. "Apparently, they like my wing and want to play tomorrow. How will you be able to take my place?"
Sephiroth silently looked back at Lazard.
"All you have to do is keep an eye on her if you don't want to talk to her," Lazard told him. "We could call it 'spying' because she might even have more friends out there. We need to know more about them."
"…Fine," Sephiroth said. He bitterly thought to himself about Kiku and turned his back to Lazard. "I'll stay near the inn and keep an 'eye' on her."
"Sephiroth, wait," Lazard said. "Let's go buy you a cell phone first. I just saw a store that sells some. I'm sure it's still open. We'll be able to contact each other about the progresses from everyone else."
Sephiroth remembered that he did not have one and turned back to him. "Alright," he nodded. "By the way, Lazard… how did you get here?"
He shrugged. "I'm not so sure. Someone must have teleported me and all the people here," he said. "I'm not sure who the person was. Anyway, let's go and get you a cell phone. It's getting late."