Whoa! Now THIS is my longest chapter ever!
Thanks for all the reviews! They help me go on! Wahahahahaha! -Hands over lovely ice cream to reviewers- Thanks for the continued support!
And now I hope the climax's building up. Heh. Now... just one more scene at the -BLEEP BLEEP! Must not make spoiler-haters angry!-
Oh, oh! And the first swearword in this fic! Wow. Geez, Ysselle. You DO have to take advantage of the T rating.
Ysselle: Like duh. Gotta take what you can take, big boy.
Rufus: Hmph. I shall take over the world, then.
Ysselle: Now THAT'S too much. You couldn't even handle a little bird in Mt. Corel.
Rufus: -sighs- That was then.
...So, yeah. Two chappies left! I think.
As I have stated early in the opening, Rufus Shinra was not like anyone. After all, none among us could boast of being born an heir to the lordship of the whole world. But besides that, he was still way different. How so?
Rufus Shinra did not anything about his mother.
Of course he never assumed that he had sprung directly from his father – and even if it were true, he would not accept it, for there was never great love between them. However, he had no idea regarding his own mother. He was not aware of her personality, capabilities, or appearance – in fact, he was not even sure if she was dead or alive. It was therefore natural that he desired to confront Lord Godo after General Sephiroth gave out such dark hints below the Shinra mansion.
Aah… But no move in the present could be effective if you know not the past, young master.
Hmph.
Wutai. What on Gaia prompted him to go into Wutai? Sephiroth?
And why did he try to coerce Sephiroth into defecting to AVALANCHE?
Is there a link between Rufus and AVALANCHE?
If so, what is a Shinra doing in AVALANCHE? And… why is Fuhito bent on having him killed?
Argh! Too many questions!
Ysselle Blaze, staring at the looming continent of Wutai, shook her head, then sighed.
"…Motion sickness?"
Hah.
"No, silly boy," she scoffed, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Usually this is what people look like when they're thinking."
"Now really… what was I thinking?" Rufus breathed in a slightly dramatic overtone. "The gunwoman getting airsick?"
"Ha-ha…"
"Tell me," he began, changing the topic. "Do you remember your mother?"
Her mother–?!
Why on the Planet did he decide to bring up such a topic?
"M-my… m-mother?" She stammered, momentarily losing her Corelian accent.
"Yes. The woman who bore you, in case you do not know what a mother is."
"'Course I remember."
And that's why it hurts. Because I remember.
"Can you tell me something about her?"
Of all people to ask… a Shinra!
"Sure I can, baby."
Ysselle breathed deeply before continuing.
"She was pretty. Darn pretty. Long jet-black hair, dark chocolate eyes, nice lips, porcelain skin… y'know. Get the picture? Hmm. Yeah. Real pretty. And kind. Anyways, I… um… never saw her happy. Nope. Not even a smile. Why? Dunno, but it's got something to do with her dead sis – my aunt, if you will; only, I never knew her. So yeah. Always a melancholy dearie, my mom was. Hah. Died when I was four. Three years after her sis. People say grief took the living daylights off her. Bullshit if there was another reason. "
Ysselle failed to hide the bitterness in her tone – something the blond in white had been able to notice, perhaps.
"This aunt of yours… how did she die?"
Oho! So you asking that? Your people murdered her, Shinra boy.
But she couldn't say that, right?
"Someone killed her. Fuckers. And don't ask me who killed her; I was just four then, damn it."
"…Hmph. C'est la vie."
That's life, huh? Well, that sucks. Not everyone's lucky as you.
"…Yeah, guess it is."
Ysselle withdrew herself and gazed once more through the chopper's window, surveying the dark blue seas and the jagged mountains to the west. She would not speak again for the rest of the trip.
At length the chopper arrived at Wutai, the once-proud settlement to the utmost west. Rufus alighted right after the helicopter had landed just outside the city, his spotless snow-white overcoat flapping due to the winds the dying rotors produced.
"Stay here," he ordered to his man, Gasov.
And then Ysselle descended, her dark hair flying with the western breeze.
"So we're here. In Wutai…" she exhaled in a quiet voice.
"Are you coming with me?"
Of course he knew what her answer would be…
"Ha-ha. What's the point of bringing me here if I don't get to go somewhere?"
…or a variation of it.
"…I did not ask you to come, did I?"
With that settled, he leisurely made his way through the streets of the western city.
Strangely, however, Ysselle seemed to be agitated. "Hurry up!" she hissed.
"…And why?"
She began looking around her. Upon doing the same, Rufus saw a couple of Wutaian bystanders staring – no, scowling – at them.
"Are you nuts?!?" she continued through gritted teeth. "You're Rufus Shinra! Shinra!"
"…And so?"
"These people would like to get their hands on your neck!" She answered loudly, possibly thinking that he, Vice President Rufus Shinra, was not aware of that. (In truth, he was aware.) "By Odin, Ruffy! They still haven't forgotten the War! Sure they're disarmed and deprived of Materia, but–!"
"…Hmph. I would like to see these cowards try." He loaded his shotgun, not caring whether the people saw him or not – better if they did! "They submitted to my father. I reckon they will tremble before me."
Hah. He was better than his father. Far better. Had he just not proven that? He had scaled a mountain, passed – literally and figuratively, for he had survived an attack thrice – through fire, and he had talked face-to-face with the great General Sephiroth.
"You and your Shinra blood!" Ysselle wrung her hands in defeat. "I don't even know why you're here, of all forsaken locations, in the first place!"
Which was true. Kurai had not been clear on that part.
"Oh, I fancy a chat with Lord Godo Kisaragi," Rufus replied offhandedly.
"WHAT?!" Ysselle exclaimed, her hands balling into fists. "You want to die so darn badly, don't you, little boy?!" She drew her two guns. "Here, lemme help."
"Godo shall listen to what I have to ask," he answered with a tone of finality. "This matter is pressing… Aah. Here it is. The Pagoda."
…
Rufus and Ysselle entered the Pagoda. For a giant tower easily overlooking Wutai, it was empty – there were only a few Wutaian ink paintings adorning the walls, and the wooden floor was in fact bare. And there were almost no people, too. In fact, there was only one little boy inside the ground floor.
"M-miss Toushin?!" that boy cried aloud upon seeing the pair of newcomers.
"Kutsueki," Ysselle said in response, acknowledging him. She had lost her wilderness drawl.
"W-who's that?!" The boy shouted in alarm upon seeing Rufus. "I-is t-that… him?! The… Shinra?!"
At Ysselle's quick nod the boy began to shake his fists. "Down with the Shinra!" he growled, sounding like the AVALANCHE troopers shouting their battle cry.
Hmph. Let him try.
Rufus raised Agamemnon at the boy. Pity… he seemed barely above ten years of age.
The boy's slit-like Wutaian eyes grew wide in shock at first, but then he quickly gritted his teeth and resolved to fight… to whatever end.
"Kutsueki! Back down!" Ysselle barked at the boy. Her Corelian accent seemed to have gone completely, replaced by something… Wutaian? "He's beyond you."
"B-but, M-m-miss Toushin! Gorki and the others must know, at least!"
"Enough!" She commanded in a stern voice Rufus Shinra had never heard before – not even in Mt. Corel. "The Vice President is here for a diplomatic talk with Lord Godo. Be cordial."
Perhaps Ysselle had some influence here, thought Rufus, for the child lowered his fist and settled down, managing only a growl – like an angry dog that could do nothing after being spanked by its master.
"Go call Lord Godo."
And the child was off, dashing his way up the Pagoda.
"You should not have stopped him," the man in white articulated softly, gazing coldly at the child's climbing back. "I reckon I need to practice my aim, anyway."
Ysselle's eyes flashed dangerously in answer.
"But what's done is done. Hmph." Surveying the gunwoman's face, he asked, "Who is Miss Toushin?"
"They call me that here," she uttered in a low voice. "It means 'Sword Blade'."
Fitting name for a cold knife.
"You've been here before." It was not a question exactly.
She confirmed it. "…Yes."
And your accent's gone, I noticed.
Footsteps. Footsteps from the upper levels, descending.
And then, a rich, deep voice.
"So you have come, young Rufus Shinra."
Vice President and gunwoman alike looked up. Lord Godo Kisaragi of Wutai, garbed in a simple yet elegant kimono, had been barely level with them before he addressed his former foe's son. But now he stood right in front of them (with the little boy, Kutsueki, behind him). He was tall, and dignified. A lord of men indeed.
"You have newly been elected Vice President, I heard. Congratulations."
You do not sound like you mean it.
"…Lord Godo," was all Rufus Shinra said, nodding his head with as much stateliness he could.
The ruler of Wutai spoke again, now motioning towards the gunwoman. "And Miss Toushin… What do they call you outside, again? Ah… Ysselle. Good. Always a pleasure to see you."
"…" Ysselle avoided his gaze.
"Well, Kutsueki says you desire to talk with me, young Shinra," Lord Godo resumed. "Diplomatic talk? And what would the mighty Shinra Inc. want with a little resort town such as Wutai, I wonder?"
Oh yes… It was a challenge. A subtle one.
Hmph.
"This has nothing to do with war, I assure you," Rufus declared. "Tell me about my mother."
A spasm of – what was that? Shock? Doubt? Fear? – came across Godo Kisaragi's face. Clearly he had not been expecting that.
"Kutsueki, leave us," he ordered the boy. "Ysselle, you may join us. Master Shinra, upstairs?"
The boy tried to object. "But, my lord–"
"Do as I say."
And so the boy left the Pagoda. Lord Godo then led the two foreigners up to his level, four more floors above the ground. The level was simply furnished with mats such as those Wutaians are accustomed to kneeling (instead of sitting) as well as a low table. Lord Godo then sat on the mat behind the low table (the one farthest from the stairs and nearest to the wall) and motioned the two to do the same.
"So, your mother." Lord Godo repeated. "What about her?"
"Everything. General Sephiroth hinted that you know her," Rufus replied.
"So the great warrior… I see." Lord Godo was nodding.
"Now, tell me all you know. Time is pressing, and I sadly do not possess patience."
"Very well, then." Godo Kisaragi then glanced at the ink paintings on his wall. Depicted on the scrolls were three seasons: winter, spring, and summer.
"It all began with three sisters…"
Back when Wutai was still strong, the young Lord Godo's best ninja had three daughters. These were their names: Fuyuki, named after the Winter; Haruko, named after the Spring; Kyuuka, named after the Summer. They were all beautiful, but all agreed that the youngest, Kyuuka, was the loveliest with her graceful ebony tresses and smart sapphire eyes – eyes that were considered very unusual, and therefore very prized, in Wutai. As the ninja excelled in every sport of war, and having no male son to teach his fine moves, he instructed his daughters instead in the art of espionage and assassination. Fuyuki became best with the shuriken. Haruko specialized at the strange secret weapons of Wutai: bladed fans, harpoons, poisoned darts, and the like. Kyuuka, however, felt at home with knives.
And so time passed, and the three sisters bloomed so beautifully that they considered the father blessed by the Five Gods. Yet it was also the time when Shinra, the weapon-manufacturing company, began to challenge Wutai for supremacy in Gaia. Open war threatened to open until the President, Rufus' father, asked for a truce. In exchange for peace (and millions of gil), he had Kyuuka marry him.
Needless to say Wutai also feared Shinra – perhaps even more than Shinra fearing Wutai. So Lord Godo had his best ninja instruct Kyuuka to assassinate the President with a long, thin Wutaian knife: Chishio – the Bloodknife.
But Kyuuka foolishly waited for a year or so. Why? Some in Wutai accused her of actually beginning to love the evil President. But in the end, Lord Godo as well as her father had been successful in coaxing her to attempt her mission. But she failed. Stories in Wutai said that it was because her scalding tears fell upon the sleeping form of the President, thus waking him up and discovering all her designs. So she ran, carrying her newborn son. But thus burdened, it had been easy for the Turks to track her. They killed her and took the child back to the President, who – grudgingly, seeing that he had no more children – had the boy named his heir.
And, in vengeance, President Shinra began the War.
"And that boy… he is kneeling next to me, listening to my Tale of Knives," Lord Godo spoke in conclusion, staring into Rufus' smart blue eyes.
Very smart blue eyes… they always say…
Rufus was stunned. He – he couldn't believe it. It was a lie. It had to be.
…His cold, calm demeanor was breaking…
"You LIE!"
"I wish I were," Lord Godo uttered. "To think of Shinra's boy being of our blood… But it is true, unfortunately. Sephiroth seemed to think so, too. He it was who returned Chishio to us."
And then Lord Godo held out a long thin Wutaian knife for Rufus to see. Its blade shone crimson. He thrust the hilt of the knife to the Vice President. "Yours now. None among us would take it; people say it's cursed."
And Rufus unwillingly took Chishio and belted it.
"Sephiroth…" Lord Godo continued. "He hunted down the Turk who killed her after our chat. Wanted confirmation. And he got it, along with the blade." Then, he sighed. "Always delves deep, General Sephiroth does."
"You lie…"
But Rufus was merely repeating it, trying to find solace in it…
"Have you not wondered why your father dislikes you so much?"
So that was it… It was not because of his ideas. It was because of his past, after all…
"That's it. You have wasted my time," the Vice President snarled. "Let us go, Ysselle – Ysselle?"
Rufus turned around. But Ysselle was nowhere to be found.
"Where…?"
"Aaah… Ysselle Blaze left a while ago, while I was in the midst of my story," Lord Godo Kisaragi answered. "She knew it all anyway... although she did not YET know you were her aunt's son. You see, Miss Toushin, Ysselle, the huntswoman, is Mizuyuri Saya, Haruko's daughter by an Immanuel Blaze."
At that, without so much as a nod of farewell to the lord of Wutai, Rufus Shinra sprinted down, out of the accursed Pagoda, out of the accursed town. He had to find Ysselle. He had to hear her cheeky, confident voice saying it all wasn't true. That it was all a lie. That Godo and Sephiroth were mistaken. That his mother was not a Wutaian. That his mother's failure was the cause of the War. That Ysselle was not related to him.
But all he found was his man, dark-haired Gazov, glazed eyes open, throat cut wide.
And the chopper was gone.
