Chapter One

A green tank top with white shorts to match. Her favourite outfit Some thought it was her only outfit - far from it; Miss Kisaragi had a lot of clothes. Too many in her opinion, although Yuffie was not one to pay much attention to clothes. Strapping on the fishnet leg guard, she contemplated whether her heavy shoulder armour would be required for the day.

Thinking it would be just a normal day, she shrugged and left the armour in its usual place - at the end of her unkempt bed. She looked about her room, wondering what else she'd need for the day whilst putting on her sturdy Doc Martins. She sprang up and waded through the junk on her floor to her bedroom door. She sighed happily at her most prized weapon which was currently sitting securly on pegs knocked into her bedroom door. The Conformer. The beauty which had helped slay Sephiroth. A shadow seemed to befall Yuffie at the thought of the one winged angel. Then sorrow touched her soul. Sorrow for an old friend and sorrow for the insane man who just wanted a mother.

Frowning, the eighteen year old shook her head, her brown locks falling into her eyes. The cobwebs of the past needed cleaning. She stretched, eyes closed, as if finally letting go. Her beautiful brown eyes opened again after a reflectful, silent moment, sparkles gracing the big orbs. A smile matched the twinkle in her eyes as she reached out for her beloved weapon and lifted it from its post with surprising ease. She loved the comforting feel of her Conformer. She loved its smoothness and ease to handle. A morbid side of her admired the deadly blades and how, with the correct skills, a single throw could kill a numerous amount of beings. Yuffie knew of her skill with the Comformer, and often boasted about it to anyone near her. Over the years she had concluded that the weapon had to have beeen made for her. No one else could yield it as well as she.

Shivering happily, she began her routine check on her materia. The one thing which pleased her more than her weapon was materia. Yuffie loved materia. She'd loved it since her father and the sensei at the Wutai dojo had shown her the multi-coloured spheres, when she was seven. Ever since then, she had studied materia in depth, reading book after book, listening to people about it. Materia was what she lived for. In her opinion, it was better than sex. (Not that she had ever had sex, or was planning to have sex, but from the more experienced girls of Wutai, it sounded boring and repeative.)

After defeating Sephiroth, AVALANCE had let Yuffie keep most of the materia, claiming they had no need for it anymore. Feeling sorry for her comrades, she had insisted they take at least a little bit, but she was perfectly content with having a huge amount of the wonderous stuff. She had stashed most of her newly won materia in a secret place where no one, not even her cunning father, could possibly guess. Of course, she had given a fair amount to Wutai, but they were only things like mastered Fire and Ice. As much as she wanted Wutai to be restored to its full glory, she couldn't bear to part with her higher materia such as Ultima or the Comet materia.

Grinning, she quickly scanned over her beautiful magic gems. Ah, the pretty colours, and the way they reflected the light. Almost like a rainbow - blue, green, yellow, re-

Red.

There was supposed to be a red materia in her Conformer's materia slots. Knights of the Round, in fact. Her favourite summon monster. But it wasn't there. Someone must have taken it. Which meant someone had broken into her room while she was asleep and had stolen her materia. Someone was going to die.

A fury built.gradually built itself up inside her while her emotions responded to the messages her brain was relaying to the rest of her body. Almost blind with rage, she grabbed hold of the door handle and flung open the door, slamming it shut behind her. She marched down the soft, green- carpeted floor, her loud boots sounding much like a horde of elephants and barged into the room of her first suspect, who was snoring peacefully until the loud shoutings of a very pissed off Yuffie reached the victims ears.

"OLD MAN! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?" Yuffie bellowed, holding up her Conformer and pointing furiously at the empty slot where the missing orb should be.

"Eh? Wha?" Lord Godo sat up, a mighty yawn drowning out his words.

"If it wasn't already obvious enough," Yuffie said between clenched teeth. "My materia has gone MISSING. And I want to know where you put it. And if you don't tell me right NOW, I'll kick your sorry arse all the way to Midgar."

"Don't talk to your father like that, brat." Her father growled. "I don't know anything about your bloody materia." He sighed deeply, rubbing his weary, sleep-filled old eyes.

Yuffie remained silent for a moment, studying her father. After a long debate with herself, she came to a one-word conclusion.

"...shit."

~

Twenty minutes later, father and daughter were sitting by a table. Said father was smoking on a cigar, and said daughter was looking dangerous, her conformer still grasped tightly in one hand.



"Yuffie, if you are going to go on this damn goosechase, I want you to bring back more materia for Wutai." Lord Godo exhaled stale smoke into the air, his eyelids closing shut in thought.

"I brought back friggin' tons of materia from the war, old man. And once more it isn't good enough for you." Yuffie scowled at him through the smoke hovering above the table.

"...I'll pay you."

There was a pregnant pause.

"What sort of materia do you want?"

Lord Godo grinned.

~

The slamming of the door signalled Yuffie's departure from the Kisaragi residence. Godo shook his head slowly and flicked the finished fag end into the ashtray in the centre of the low table. His daughter was arrogant, headstrong, hot-headed and determined, just like himself, but her beauty and rarely seen compassion was something she had inherited from her mother. Already at eighteen she was beginning to resembled the now deceased Mrs Kisaragi. Her hair was still cut in the tomboyish style she liked, but her body was curvier than it had been. She had gained a little height as well, but not much, only a few inches or so. Thinking about this, Godo suddenly realised she was no longer his 'little girl'. Reflecting on his thoughts in more depth, Godo sadly thought - no, she'd stopped being his 'little girl' since she was very young. He chuckled to himself. I'm getting soft. Damn old age. Stretching, he cast his mind onto more important things, like what he was going to have for breakfast.