Angel Fallen
A Final Fantasy VII Side Story
By Chadwick V. Simmons
Part IX
The last embers of the dying fire hissed in protest as a sneaker clad foot kicked a light dusting of snow over it, dousing the hot coals for good. With a disgusted sigh, the person who had delivered the kick stepped back to look once again at her surroundings.
It was early in the day, the first rays of the sun just now starting to crest the horizon. It had been a bitter cold night and a thin blanket of snow had fallen, covering the barren and rocky ground. Off to the east, daybreak provided a silvery backdrop for the craggy ring of cliffs encircling the large bowl shaped depression in which the woman and her companions stood. Faint columns of smoke could barely be seen in the distance, marking the location of Kalm. The west remained blanketed in darkness, and to the south the dark outline of mountains could be seen, their peaks glimmering in the morning sunlight. To the north, the towering wreckage of huge buildings and other unidentifiable structures rose towards the sky, a myriad of multi-colored lights winking on and off throughout the chaotic jumble. That wreckage was all that remained of the once mighty metropolis called Midgar.
With a sigh, the woman turned her attention back to her immediate surroundings and the task at hand.
"Any thoughts on what may have happened, Miss Kisaragi?" The words were spoken by a large unshaven man with deep brown eyes and a tangled growth of chestnut brown hair just starting to go gray at the temples. He fidgeted with the collar of his homespun woolen tunic as he respectfully awaited an answer.
Yuffie took a deep breath and looked around the campsite once again.
There was little to see, and few clues to what may have transpired here the previous night. The only features of the camp were the blackened firepit and a woolen bedroll to the side of it. That bedroll contained the frozen body of an unknown traveler who had been discovered here very early this morning.
Yuffie stroked her chin in contemplation and brushed a few stray strands of her short brown hair out of her eyes. She pulled her new cloak tighter about her and shivered in the chill morning breeze blowing in from the ocean to the west. She couldn't help but stop and think about her home in Wutai. It was always a lot warmer there than it was here, due in large part to the proximity of the fire caves located in the Da-Chao mountains just north of the village. She was use to wearing shorts and a tank top year round, and this bitter cold was starting to wear on her nerves. The fur lined cloak and her newly purchased woolen trousers and heavy sweater were barely enough to make this unfamiliar weather tolerable.
"Ma'am?" Concern was apparent in the man's voice.
Yuffie turned her thoughts away from memories of better days and focused her attention on the man addressing her. "Well Sergeant Elno, I'm really not quite sure what to say."
Sergeant Elno was the leader of a small guard patrol that had stumbled across the body of this unfortunate traveler frozen to death in his bedroll very early this morning. Not knowing what to make of the situation they'd sent word back to their headquarters in the refugee town of Midgar requesting that someone be sent to investigate the rather suspicious occurrence. Yuffie had been staying in the town trying to help the refugees as best she could. Upon hearing about the incident in question, she'd jumped on the chance to do something other than care for those wounded when Meteor had torn Midgar almost entirely apart. The role she'd played in saving the world from Sephiroth and his sinister plans had earned her the title of hero and guaranteed her a good deal of respect from the citizens left in the shanty town. As a result, when she'd asked the Captain of the newly formed City Guard to be assigned as an investigator of the incident her request had met with immediate approval.
Now, Yuffie found herself regretting her impulsive decision to come out here and solve this mysterious case. To be honest, she had to admit to herself that she was at a loss of how to explain the odd scene.
"It's rather odd that someone would decide to camp out here with so little provisions on a night like last, especially when Midgar is only another hours walk away." Yuffie was thinking out loud, trying to sort through her jumbled thoughts.
Sergeant Elno nodded his agreement. "Yeah, only someone who was either unfamiliar with this area or who was trying to avoid Midgar would try something like that. Judging from the man's dress I'd say he probably hails from Kalm, so he should be very familiar with the area. Also he doesn't seem to be carrying anything illegal on him and so far as I know he's not a wanted man, so I can't really see why he'd be trying to avoid Midgar either. It just doesn't make much sense."
Yuffie scrunched up her face in confusion. "Is a lone traveler between Kalm and Midgar an unusual occurrence? Especially during the night like this?"
Sergeant Elno stopped to scratch at his coarsely bearded chin. "Not really. We've been doing a lot of scavenging in the ruins lately and some of the things we've found are in high demand. This fella here was carrying a decent chunk of gil on him so I'd wager he was coming to town to snag himself one of those types of items before they're all gone. The people of Kalm are an industrious lot and work hard to make a living. That means they don't stop work till late in the day for the most part. It's not unthinkable that this here fella just got a late start on his trip. Given the time the shops usually close in Kalm, he still should've been able to make it to Midgar no more than an hour past sunset. That would also explain why he was traveling light. He probably had no intention of camping out here."
Once again, Yuffie frowned in consideration. "Then why DID he camp out here? And furthermore, if he was headed to Midgar straight from Kalm, why did he set up camp to the south of the city?"
With a resigned shrug the Sergeant hesitantly replied. "Good questions, both. Ones we don't seem to have answers for."
Yuffie reached over her shoulder to adjust the strap holding the Conformer to her back and also tightened the straps securing a long shield-like piece of armor to her left arm. That done, she glanced back towards the body wrapped in the heavy bedroll. "So what about the body? Anything unusual there?"
The Sergeant was nodding before Yuffie had even finished her questions. "Yeah, there is something odd about it, which is why I sent for someone to investigate this more thoroughly."
Elno walked over and crouched down beside the pile of woolen blankets before continuing. "It's the oddest damn thing. There's not a mark on his body and he's frozen solid as a brick. He had to have frozen to death, but that explanation just doesn't make sense either. We found him in a pile of blankets and not two feet from the embers of his fire. Those embers still had plenty of heat left to them as you could see for yourself, and these blankets would help him retain that heat. Despite the unpleasant cold weather he should have been able to survive the night with only a mild bit of discomfort." The sergeant shook his head in bewilderment. "Even on the off chance he had a heart attack and dropped over dead, his body wouldn't have had time to freeze to the core like this, especially not under these conditions."
"So you're saying this is unnatural to say the least," Yuffie queried.
"Yeah, without a doubt," Sergeant Elno replied. "I'd be tempted to say someone hit him with a blast from an ice materia, but even though that would explain the state his body is in, I can't see how that would be the case. There is absolutely no sign of a struggle, which means if someone did ice him then they'd have had to do it while he was asleep in his bedroll. If that were the case you'd see a lot of frost around here and all over the body as well. But there is nothing of the sort. If magic was used it seems more like someone drew the heat out of his body instead of blasting him with ice."
Yuffie frowned in concentration. "I've never heard of a materia that can do that"
"Yeah me neither," Sergeant Elno said as he rose to his feet.
"So you think there was someone else here with him then? Someone who did this to him?" Yuffie gazed thoughtfully at the ground. "Any tracks to support that theory?"
The sergeant was already shaking his head. "No tracks at all. The ground is too hard. It's mostly rock around here. The only tracks would be in the snow, which didn't fall until just before dawn. Whoever did this, and I'm convinced someone else was here, would likely have been long gone by that time."
"So we really have no way of knowing what happened here do we, Sergeant?" Frustration was evident in Yuffie's voice.
"I'm afraid not. We just don't have enough clues to go on." The Sergeant shrugged apologetically. "When we received word they were sending a veteran adventurer like you to investigate we sort of hoped you might have a better idea of what was going on here, or at least have a few tricks with you to find out."
Yuffie smiled wanly. "Sorry I couldn't be of more help to you, Sergeant. Some things are beyond even us veteran adventurers."
Elno gave a hearty laugh. "Well you can't expect everything in life to be easy!"
Yuffie returned the good-natured laugh with a chuckle of her own. "Well, Sergeant, if it wouldn't be too much trouble you might want to send a messenger to Kalm to see if anyone odd has shown up there this morning. I'll ask around in Midgar as well when I return there, though it's a pretty big place and anyone wanting to sneak in should be able to pull it off pretty easily. Its about all I can think to do though."
Elno was already nodding his approval of the plan. "I'll send one of my men right away Miss Kisaragi. With any luck maybe we'll catch the culprit after all." With a salute he turned and walked away.
Yuffie was left standing alone by the firepit, feeling ill at ease and not a little dejected. Her adventures with Cloud and company had forced her to do a bit of growing up. Now more of a young woman than a flighty little girl, Yuffie found she truly appreciated the respect afforded to her as a hero of the recent conflicts. She also found that she was uncomfortable with the thought of living on that reputation for the rest of her life. She wanted desperately to further her reputation and make a real name for herself in the world. That was one of the reasons she'd wanted to solve this little mystery so badly. She had viewed the task as a starting point on her quest for fame and world renown. Now, with her inability to solve the case apparent, she felt far from her normally cheerful self.
With an irate huff, she turned her attention to the ruins of Midgar. It was a long shot, but the idea she had presented to Sergeant Elno did hold some merit. Perhaps with a little luck she could solve this case after all. She'd certainly feel a lot better about herself if she could pull it off.
Once again pulling her cloak tight about her, Yuffie set off towards the distant lights of Midgar. No one was near enough to hear her last mumbled words as she trudged across the lightening landscape. "GAWD! I just wish I had a good Luck Plus materia. I think I'm gonna need it."