Blood Feast
Chapter 9: Shadowy Regales
Vincent and Cid, with Yatsui ever playing the tagalong, milled around a scavenger camp on the outer wall of Midgar, just beyond what was left of the Sector 5 slums. They awaited Cloud to join them once he finished whatever errand it was he came to do. Near to an hour had passed, with the blond swordsman finally emerging from the ruins of the black city. His face and pants were smudged with red tinged dirt, beyond that his expression one of mild satisfaction. General decision was then made for Cid to take them to Kalm for a brief rest. A bit of goading had to be done on Yatsui's behalf before he, too, was allowed aboard. Together they disembarked on what Cid liked to call Lil Charger, the Tiny Bronco's aerojet successor.
The flight from city to hamlet, spent somewhat in quiet tension, lasted about a quarter short of an hour. Cid grew disgruntled from Yatsui's distracting aroma. Not even the usual adrenaline rush from flying saved him. He grumbled and cursed and wondered. And when they reached Kalm, he was all too happy to finally escape the cabin stinking of flowers.
Everyone filed out of the jet and strolled into town to the inn conveniently established off the main street leading in. Cloud went to the counter and paid the registrar some five hundred gil for midday board and lunch.
"Man, I'm beat." Cid dragged up the stairs to the inn's second floor behind Cloud and Yatsui.
"All you did was fly a plane. Don't tell me that's hard work," Cloud said skeptically.
"Shit, like you know what it takes to be a pilot. Shut your goddamn cakehole."
"My, your companion surely revels in strong words," Yatsui uttered with a tinge of mirth. Upon fully scaling the staircase, Cid broke away from the group and threw himself down, backside first, onto the bed closest to the window. He withdrew a pack of cigarettes from the inner pocket of his aviator jacket, shook one of the little white cylinders free and stuck it between his lips.
"Fuck, I'll swear what I want, whenever I want. It's a fuckin' free world all around us," he grunted, flicking out a lighter and kindling the end of his cigarette. The smoke easily cut through Yatsui's scent but came nowhere near to snuffing it.
"So, hey uh… Yatsui," Cloud started, turning on his heel to the pale man and watching Vincent eventually ascend to the top of the staircase. "How did you get acquainted with Vincent here? He's not very friendly."
"Well, aside from encountering Vincent Valentine here in lovely little Kalm, I had run him into again in a place called Nibelheim," Yatsui explained, meanwhile adjusting the cuffs of his waistcoat sleeves. "I had offered my assistance—to no great avail— with his current… situation."
"Situation. Do you mean his thing with the monsters?" Cloud asked. Both observed the raven-haired man pass them by to a corner of the room and lean his thin body against the wall, securely wrapped in his crimson cape. He peered back at them languidly over the over the rim of his belted collar, thusly cementing his general disinterest in Yatsui's interaction with the others.
"I just need to get rid of this 'smell', or whatever it encompasses," Vincent muttered pensively. "But everyone who knew what'd been done to my body is dead. So, what can I do? Are there records I can consult? That's why I came to Midgar."
"Did you say smell?" Cloud voiced. "You don't smell… do you? All I smell is him."
"There's a smell," he reiterated.
"How'd you figure that out?"
"I went to Nanaki." Vincent was unsure whether Yatsui wanted the others to know that it was he who first distinguished this barely detectable stench, at least by humans. But then the man casually stepped forward with a seemingly delicate hand splayed across his chest.
"Actually, it was I who discovered it at first, but he preferred a second opinion from that rather interesting beast he called a companion," he confessed. Cloud dedicated his glowing Mako blue eyes back to Vincent. He only nodded prior a quick glare at Yatsui.
"So, now what?" he inquired. "What're you going to do? If you were planning on heading up to the tower, I'd run that by Reeve first. He's been picking at the place since the storms have calmed down. He might have what you're looking for."
He pondered that creature once more. The one that Yatsui revealed himself to be. What could he really do that would free Vincent from the encumbering shackles of his ordeal? From all of his pain, according to the man's own words? What significance did that strange form hold? He still considered the lot of it nonsense, a notion best left to the birds. Yet…
Vincent shook his head. No. Humoring the very thought that Yatsui could be capable of anything other than annoyance left a bitter taste in the back of his throat. The man was a hack and a monster that'd yet to show his true colors. The grayness, the melancholy, it was all a ploy. Surely.
What was there to do? There was nothing else to do but search out Reeve and see what his excavations had turned up, and if any of it pertained to the gunman and his condition that he might use to rectify it. Running wasn't an option. Yatsui wasn't an option. In fact, Yatsui was laughable in his entire being. He wanted no more of him.
Out of the corner of his scarlet eye, he noticed Yatsui stroll to the window and view the tranquil townscape below.
Vincent, I gave you a choice, his ghost of a voice dared brave, seeming to emanate from the back of his head into the air. Neither Cloud nor Cid took heed, or they couldn't. It sits before you, oh so simply. Patiently. There are no strings attached, there are no secrets hidden. It is as easy to grasp as your lungs take air. I require nothing but acceptance. And once it is done, I will leave with the wind. I promise you.
He noted Yatsui lift a hand to his hair to smooth it back from his porcelain cheek and then hug his arms close. Then, as if he were capable of the very same ability to project a voiceless voice, Vincent mused in return, You can't really expect me to do that, can you? If this silly act you've been putting out is in fact real, do you think I can just unload my burdens on another like that? You're talking to the wrong person.
I thought we were kindred.
Vincent's brow had knit together, troubled. Maybe for a second. The problem is we don't think alike. And you were probably never human to begin with. So, how well do you understand our condition to make your judgments? And then hound someone every step of the way until they break down and surrender? Is that even the right way to do things?
Cloud surveyed the two men in their extended silence. In spite of the fact that no words had been exchanged thus far, the subtle shifts in posture, the tiny tips of the head to one side, and especially that crease taking up residence between Vincent's eyebrows, it all spoke volumes of an undercurrent of communication streaming back and forth across the room. For a time, he sensed how alike they were or could've been if he knew more about Yatsui. But that only went as far as their standing.
Cid, on the other hand, grew restless underneath the prolonged hush. His eyes shifted to and fro from man to man while dragging endlessly on his ever shortening cigarette, carelessly letting the ashes fall on his chest. He exhaled a great cloud of smoke and sighed, twisting from them and gazing up the ecru painted walls.
Vincent, is it that you care?
The gunman found pride that he was incapable of blushing, for he feared that he might have done so at that moment. Did he really care? Of course he didn't want to see anyone trying to suffer for his sake. But did he care about Yatsui as an individual?
Vincent Valentine, what have I declared once before? I am only meant to suffer. So you need not worry about me. I am beyond repair, I need not hide it. The best I can do is be a martyr, as you may so sweetly put it, a martyr for those who yet have a chance to turn back on the road that I am doomed to walk forever. Until my amends are accepted…
I can't do that, Vincent blared.
Yatsui flashed a sad, secret smile. You stubborn human man. I admire your staunch position. I am not worthy. But… I will not surrender to your resolve in this matter. Not until you see the light I am offering you in reciprocation for your pain. The light of a normal life that you have won back.
Over my dead-
"Dammit, I had enough of this silent shit! Someone talk!" Cid barked. The other three men stared at the agitated pilot with wide eyes, and Cloud's mouth slightly agape. He felt their gazes burning and calmly cleared his throat thereafter. "As you were."
Vincent sighed in seeming fatigue and pushed himself from the wall, fiddling with the fingerless glove of his right hand. "Nothing's accomplished just standing here like this. I should look for Reeve. Cloud-"
"Sure, he's right here in-"
Yatsui piped up suddenly with that tired voice of his, "Vincent, this is your last…"
"Stop," the gunman declared, his claw hefted in warning. "I'm leaving."
"What?" Cloud quickly spun around to Vincent, puzzled. "What was that about? Hey, Vincent, wait. I can show you there if you want."
"Hey, what about Shinra mansion's basement?" Cid suggested, subsequent to a long, last drag on his cigarette. "That lab must've had somethin' that could help. I'm kinda surprised you haven't turned that shit upside down an' inside out before coming all the way out here, way yer talking."
"I practically lived down there, Cid. I would know every crevice."
"Fuck, I dunno. You might turn into a monster bloodhound when the moon's out, don't mean you can hunt down everything ever, 'specially on the first try. That's what a second run-through is fer, asshole. Or a guide."
Cloud stepped forward. "So, what's it going to be?"
"There is one simple solution," Yatsui announced. All divided attention shot to him in one swift sweep. He interlocked his slender hands and touched his two index fingers to his lips to garner the focus of those around him. "But it is something to which your dear friend refuses consent."
"Huh? Like what? Tell us," Cloud said, unusually interested in hearing the newcomer's proposition.
"Well?" Cid grunted. "You gonna tell us or ain'tcha?"
Yatsui shot a fleeting glance at the gunman, whose leer was on the verge of igniting a dark fire in the center of the room. "I cannot say. It is between me and him. I offer my help but on each occasion that I have, he has refused."
"Vincent?" The blond peered innocently in the other's direction. In spite of himself, Vincent shied away from the Mako eyes burning questioning holes into his face. "You mind telling us what this guy's plan is? Is it safe?"
"You don't know what he asks for in return. He-" Vincent paused. Would he really let him say it? That this bizarre creature in human skin was some self-appointed martyr and promised a return to the lands of milk and honey if they gave up a vital part of their being to him? There wasn't to mention Yatsui neglecting how such could even be accomplished, what the results really, truly entailed. Was the person left behind still a person?
Yatsui's eyes ventured adamancy, persevering even in regards to the fact that Vincent could so easily expose him to Cloud and Cid, therein amassing the forces that could potentially end him before he achieved his purpose if they even so much perceived him as dangerous, evil. But, suspiciously, he made no move.
"You would do that to me?" his eyes probed with such utterly agonizing innocence. Vincent only gazed back with his own scarlet eyes, which in themselves weren't as innocent, as pure. He scowled darkly and moved across the room towards the stairs in a drifting, wraithlike stride.
"I'm leaving," he said in his departure, not looking back. But he knew that Yatsui most likely made some sort of gesticulation as to following him. "Word of advice, Yatsui: You follow me, and I will fill you full of holes. Cid, Cloud, later. I'm sure I can find Reeve on my own."
I will not give up, Vincent Valentine. No matter what you may say.
The pilot sat up straight and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, slapping a hand on his knee in disbelief. "Hot damn, what'd you suggest doing to tick Vince off like that, huh? What, stick it in his ass or something? Yeah, that'd help real good."
"Cid…"