Ninja And The Demon – Chapter 11
Valentine Gunslinger
Everyone can refuse to admit something happened, but they eventually come around. But Yuffie never would, she knew that. She just held Chaos' head in her lap, closed her eyes, and sobbed as the world she knew came crashing down around her.
Little did she know that the demon Chaos was leaving this world, but the man he had once been was returning. The rose on the table behind her began to glow, and all of the fallen petals returned to the bud. With a flash, the red rose became a pure and vibrant white. And with that… the curse was broken.
Chaos' body began to shine. Yuffie saw this and freaked out, backing away from his bloody body. He began to shine brighter, and she watched in amazement as he began to change.
His black skin slowly became pale, and his horns and fangs vanished. Hair grew out to his shoulders, a dark ebony color. His claws shrunk back into normal hands. To her surprise, his left arm became a golden claw. His wings disappeared silently along with his tail. The red cloak that he had been wearing that had been discarded during the fight suddenly reappeared around his shoulders, a bright contrast against his solid black clothes and metal tipped boots. The shinning glow around his body dimmed, and the attic was dark once again.
Yuffie took a hesitant step toward the man when he suddenly rolled over to his right, away from her. He got to his hands and knees, and then slowly stood up. He saw his reflection in the mirror, and looked like he wanted to cry. Then he saw Yuffie's reflection next to his. The man spun around, cloak and hair fanning out behind him.
"Yuffie?" he asked, his voice still deep but without the animal growl. It almost made her knees give out underneath her. She didn't speak. Then again, it wasn't like she could anyway. Instead she just reached out a hand to him, and he ran across the attic and swept her into his arms. She flung herself at him and he spun her around, holding her close.
"Oh… Yuffife… thank the Planet…" he gasped, setting her down, only to be greeted by a slap.
"Don't you EVER do that to me again!" she cried, crying again.
He gasped from the pain, "I deserved that… but that really hurt Yuffie."
She let out a choked laugh and flung her arms around him. "I'm so sorry… I was just so scared…" she whispered into his chest. He wrapped his arms securely around her again, noticing that he couldn't smell her hair. He realized that he was taller, and busted out laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"N-nothing… ahaha!"
"Oh like I'm going to believe that." Yuffie said, crossing her arms over her chest.
He smiled down at her and kissed her forehead, "I just noticed that I was taller than I thought I was."
"And how is that funny?" she asked him. He answered by pulling her closer, forcing her to tilt her head a ways back to see his face. "Oh dear you did get taller." She giggled, and then erupted into laughter. He found himself laughing along with her, but he silenced her when he scooped her up bridal style.
"My dear, it's time to go to bed. We've both had a night."
"I agree with that. And you were right. You said that I would never forget tonight."
He chuckled and kissed her temple. "That I did." He told her, his cloak billowing out behind him as he carried her down the stairs.
When he reached her room, he set her back on her feet and let her change into something to sleep in. He took off his cloak and let it fall across the back of a chair. Just then, Yuffie came in wearing a light purple nightgown with her hair down in a low ponytail. He smiled and kissed her cheek.
"Do you want to get something else on?" she asked, crawling into bed.
He laughed, "I would, but I don't think I have anything else that isn't horribly out of style."
Yuffie smiled. "Good point. So… are you going to sleep in your room?"
"Are you kidding?" he replied, taking his boots off and undoing his bandana. "I'm not leaving you at all until we leave this place."
"We're leaving?"
"After that, yes. You're father knows where you are. We'll talk about what we're doing in the morning."
Yuffie giggled, "You're still the person I know."
"So I didn't change? That's a relief."
She smiled brightly, but it disappeared. "Wait…" she said, sitting up.
He came to sit on the edge of her bed, "What is it Yuffie?"
"I don't know your name."
He blinked a few times before he smiled. "Vincent."
Yuffie tilted her head to the side. "Vincent." She repeated, tasting the new name. "Oh I like that much more than Chaos."
"You have no idea how much I agree with that." He said, standing up and walking around to the other side to the bed and crawling in next to her. Yuffie immediately rolled over and snuggled into Vincent's chest. He sighed and hugged her close. Nothing on this planet was going to take her away from him again.
The next morning, Yuffie found herself comfortably warm and held protectively. She wrapped her arms around the sleeping man next to her and squeezed. "Vincent…"
He groaned and buried his head in her hair that was fanned out on the pillow. "What?" he grumbled after a while.
"Time to get up…"
He immediately sat up and rubbed his eyes with the heel of his right hand. He swung his legs out of bed and stood up, which made Yuffie pout. "Well, you didn't have to take that literally."
"You might want to get packed. We're leaving."
"Now?" Yuffie asked in disbelief.
He turned around to look at her, "After what happened last night, this is the last place I want to be."
"But how can you think about traveling when you first get up?"
"Easy. I was a Turk." He said, putting on his boots and doing up his bandana.
She groaned and rolled out of bed, getting up and grabbing some traveling clothes from her dresser and heading into the bathroom. She came out a few minutes later ready to go. She grabbed her bag from the closet and packed what she needed. Vincent left the room and was back within minutes. He held out her sketchbook, and she took it with some confusion.
"They're beautiful, but you now have someone else to draw. I shouldn't deprive you of you're only sketchbook."
She smiled at his generosity and put it into her bag. Reaching inside the closet, she brought out her weapon.
Vincent's eyes widened at the sight of it. "Yuffie… what is that?"
"It's my shuriken, what else?" she said, twirling it a few times.
Vincent was astounded that she could actually use something like that. "Well, if you would follow me I have a few things to pick up."
She nodded and followed the dark figure down to the darkest mansion. He opened the door to Hojo's lab, and Yuffie shuddered. "Vinnie… how can you stand this place?"
"Who said I did?" he replied, avoiding looking at the examination lab. He walked to the lab and found locked cabinet. "I think it was here," he muttered to himself, trying the handle, only to discover a padlock. He frowned and looked around for something to break the lock. Then he found himself looking down at his golden claw. No doubt Hojo didn't want him to forget this little experience. That was just fine with Vincent. He had another weapon. He grabbed the padlock with his claw, and pulled. The thing might as well have been made out of string.
Yuffie looked in astonishment at the broken padlock next to Vincent's foot. "Oh that's just not right…"
"Tell me about it." He said, looking at the padlock himself. Clearing his mind, he opened the cabinet. He smiled; this was exactly where Hojo put them. Yuffie watched in stunned silence as her love looked at a large case of… guns. She scampered forward and looked at the bottom at the biggest one.
"Death… Penalty…" she read on the handle.
Vincent's head snapped down to look at her. "What did you say?"
She pointed to the gun on the bottom shelf. "I was just reading the handle on that one."
He bent down to look at it, and his eyes widened. He picked it up gently and found a card tied to the nozzle. He undid it and read the card aloud.
"This is for you Vincent. Good job on finding your love. –L" He smiled wryly and let the card fall to the ground. He hid the gun beneath his cloak and looked at the wide variety of smaller guns.
"Vincent… who's "L"?" Yuffie asked, watching him carefully make his selections.
"Someone who I thought I loved, that's all." He replied, picking up a gun with the words Peacemaker on the side.
Yuffie nodded, knowing she wasn't going to get anything else about it out of him for a long time. She watched him pick up another gun, the Outsider. "So, where these all yours or are they just here?"
"Some of these were mine. I never forget a gun, but it's been thirty years…" he told her, picking up the Quicksilver, and placing it in a side holster with the rest of his guns. "Come, we need to get out of here."
"What about gil?" she asked, following him out of the room quickly.
"That's the next stop." He replied, going into the parlor, and opening a wall.
"How come I never knew about this stuff?" she asked as he unlocked a hidden safe.
"Because it was supposed to stay hidden." He answered, taking the money inside.
"Whose money is that exactly Vincent?"
He stood up and pocketed the money, closed the safe and the wall before leaving the parlor. "Mine."
Yuffie followed behind Vincent through the city, avoiding the glances of the civilians. But what she didn't know was that they were looking at Vincent and not her. After all, none of them had ever seen a tall, pale man wearing a tattered, blood red cape before. Children looked at him from a distance, and the adults avoided looking at him in general. But one thing that was whispered that caught the dark man's ear:
"Vincent Valentine is back."
He stopped walking and looked at the older man who had said his name. He studied him for a while before giving him a curt nod. The man smiled, "I knew that Hojo couldn't get his way with you."
"Who said he did?" Vincent replied. "Is that you? Roger?"
The man, identified as Roger smiled. "So you haven't forgotten me!"
"Who could forget the man that's saved their life?"
Roger nodded and gestured them to follow him. "Come, it would be wonderful to talk to you after all these years."
"Actually, I was on my way out of town."
"Ah… in that case, good luck in your travels, where ever you may be going." Roger said, going back about his business. Vincent resumed his walking, and Yuffie caught up with him.
"Um… who was that Vinnie?"
"That was Roger. He was a Turk in my division."
"Ah, you mean the same squad?"
"What are you talking about?"
Yuffie giggled, "Times changed, and I'm assuming so did the Turks. They're more of an elite police force now."
"A… police force? What have the Turks been reduced to?"
"Reduced to? What did they used to be?"
"The Turks used to be independent from Shinra, but we did what they wanted us to. Slowly, the government was gaining control, and not many people liked that. The Turks were excellent marksmen, the perfect assassin. The people didn't want to see us working for them. Eventually, Shinra gained control. And that's exactly what we became, assassins. I was the best they had."
Yuffie stopped walking, starring at Vincent's red back. He stopped after a few steps and looked back at her with a sad look in his eyes. "My life wasn't beautiful Yuffie. I hated what I did, but I didn't know what else I could do. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize to me Vincent." She said, walking up to join him. "Apologize to the ones that you hurt." They walked in silence for a few minutes until they left the city. "So… where are we headed?" Yuffie asked.
"Do you wish to head back to Wutai?"
She shuddered, "Oh please no. I want to get as far away as possible."
"Well… we might want to head to Rocket Town then. There's always a pilot that's willing to fly somewhere for a fair pay. We'll buy their silence as well."
"So… Rocket Town it is! Now… where is that?"
"North." Vincent replied, setting off. "Hurry, I wish to be there before the end of the week."
Never trust that you're safe traveling on a mountain path. Yuffie learned that very quickly. When two Crown Lances shot up, it was time to fight. But Vincent surprised her. He whipped out the Peacemaker and soon made mincemeat of the two monsters. They fell to the ground and didn't move. He walked right past them, while Yuffie followed in amazement.
"Do you think that you can teach me to shoot like that?"
"You wish to learn how to shoot?"
"Yeah, why not?" When Vincent didn't reply, Yuffie let it drop. She'd but him about it later. Traveling a ways, they found a sleeping griffin on the path.
Vincent held out a hand for Yuffie to stop, and starred at the griffin. "What is that doing here? They're not native here…"
"Well, let's worry about why it's here after we get rid of it?"
"Are you mad? Attacking a griffin?"
"Yup!" she cried, swinging her shuriken at the beast. It roared and leapt at its attacker, but Yuffie danced away, catching her shuriken. She threw it a few more times, each striking the beast perfectly. Vincent drew his Peacemaker again and shot the final blow, the griffin falling to the ground.
"Hey! I was handling it fine by myself!" Yuffie said, hands on her hips. Vincent just shook his head and continued walking up the path. He was going to have to have a talk with the young ninja about some common sense…
A few days later, the odd couple reached Rocket Town. They asked around and were soon pointed in the direction of a pilot who would fly people anywhere they wished, only if they could put up with some strong language.
Vincent knocked on the pilot's door and looked down at a man with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.
"Lemme guess. You two idiots want a f&$ing ride right?"
Yuffie winced at the language, and Vincent almost cringed. "Yes. Wherever you're going, we'll go."
"As long as it's away from here." Yuffie added.
The pilot smiled. "Well I'll be! Two people on the run! Some people are gonna get the wrong idea ya' know."
"You mean people like you?" Vincent asked.
The pilot shook his head. "Nah. You should see the group I usually haul around. You two will be no problem. I'll just fly you on my airship. Now… you two have no objections to where you go?"
"Midgar would be preferable." Vincent said.
"Eh, well, do you mind making one f&$ing side trip? I'm stopping in Costa del Sol for a week."
"That's fine!" Yuffie said brightly. Vincent sighed and closed his red eyes. Well, at least it was away from here.
"All right, follow me! My name's Cid, and you'll have to put up with me for the next week! Boy, I feel f$&ing sorry for you two…"
A/N: Oh I really don't like how this turned out. I like the first part, but not when they start traveling. Well... now everything's all peachy...
KatoriTsubasa
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I hope that this made up for last chapter! Thanks for reviewing!
-Vincent's Angel of Chaos-