Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Kkyaaa. _;; Revise the original estimate--this'll probably be more like eleven or twelve parts. Aaah, I can't do short stories...
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.
Green Eyes in Overdrive
by flame mage
round 5: Warrior
**********
"I don't get it," I said after a while. This was probably a dense move on my part, but I was really having trouble here. "The Farplane is supposed to show you reflections of your memories of the dead, right?"
"No," Miyu contradicted me from the other side of the bench. "The Farplane shows you the spirits of the deceased--those who were Sent. The fact that Reppi's spirit is not there means that she is an Unsent."
"Can't be," I shot out without thinking. "We figured it out. There's no way the fiends could've killed her, but even if a Yevonite killed her, wouldn't they just say they found her and get the temple to Send her? I thought that killing someone and not getting them a proper Sending is supposed to turn you into a fiend when you die. And what kinda Yevonite would risk that?" Thank you, Miyu, and all your theological lectures. But I still think the Farplane is crap. Don't let them Send me when I die.
"Maybe someone did not want her to be sent," Miyu suggested.
"Or maybe it was a priest that killed her, and he felt like since he was a priest, he was immune to the whole fiend thing," added Bickson.
Miyu glared at him. "Or maybe he wasn't even a Yevonite at all."
The Goer captain glared right back. "Or maybe it wasn't even a 'he.'"
"Or maybe we're gonna sit here thinking up theories until we die! How the hell is this helping us, anyway?" I demanded. "Who cares what happened to Reppi? All I care about is making sure my own personal ass is not on the line here."
"As much as I care about your ass, Linna, there's a larger issue at work here," Bickson said. "Reppi isn't our best lead; she's our only lead. I have a gut feeling that finding out what happened to her is the only way we're gonna find out what happened to the others. And I know for a fact that you *do* care about what happened to them."
"Besides, moving around will help us stay out of the reach of whoever is looking for Bickson," Miyu added reasonably.
"But where are we moving TO, Miyu?" Naaga asked. Her voice sounded like a little kid's, and I realized she'd barely spoken at all when Bickson and Miyu were there. My fists clenched. She shouldn't have to be here.
Miyu turned to face the little shrimp and gave her a long, measured look before speaking. Then she answered, "We're going to Reppi's home."
"You think there might be something there that would tell us how she disappeared?" Bickson wanted to know.
"I do." The goalie nodded. "At the least, it can only help us."
"Except that it wastes time," I pointed out. "Where'd she live, anyway?"
"The same town I am from," Miyu answered quietly. "By the Moonflow. We could be there in a matter of hours."
"So you knew Reppi?" Naaga wanted to know.
"Yes. Not well, but we were acquaintances. It's a small village. We all knew each other."
"That's what we're gonna do then, huh? Ransack the dead chick's house and see if Letty and Jassu and the others are hiding out under her bed?" I asked skeptically. Bickson shrugged. Miyu nodded. "Fine," I sighed. "I'm outnumbered. Let's go."
*****
Dawn had already broken by the time we left. Naaga, who had gotten more than enough beauty sleep on the way over, was walking. That definitely wasn't the word for what the rest of us were doing, though--more like dragging. I was down to the put-one-foot-in-front-of-the-other- pause-repeat-pause-repeat mental stage. Aside from the little shrimp, only Miyu seemed to be anywhere other than a complete zombified state--she looked almost awake, and she was walking the same calm, steady, graceful way she always did that drove me completely nuts.
"So am I the only one here who's totally zonked?" Bickson asked casually from behind me.
I slowed down half a beat so he could catch up. "You don't know the half of it, street rat."
"Trust me, I do. Although lemme be the first to admit I don't know how you're putting up with the veil. It's not your color at all."
"And there, babe, you are wrong. Blondes can get away with anything, whereas you will never be able to wear red."
He laughed. "I don't need to wear red. All I gotta look good in is blue, purple, and gold."
"Not to mention a little extra black and blue if ya keep getting on my nerves," I threatened, pretending to roll up my sleeves.
"Touche. Note to self: never insult a chick who can beat you up."
"Ah, you got nothin' to worry about. Maybe the power of Yevon will protect you." He didn't say anything, and I shot a glance after him. "What gives? I say something wrong?"
"Nah. This Yevon connection bugs me, though. I know you don't really get it, but the temples--for people like Miyu, and even for people like me who aren't as serious about it--we were all raised to believe that the temples could do no wrong. They're supposed to be our only hope against Sin."
"But you don't still think they can't screw up," I cut in. "You were the one that told me you were starting to see where the teachings might be wrong and that you didn't really trust the temples and everything."
"Yeah, that's right. I think Yevon's been corrupted lately, or maybe it's always been corrupt. But...ugh, dammit," he swore, pounding a fist into his other hand, "I still don't want to believe they killed Reppi."
"So how do you explain the prayer beads and stuff?"
He shook his head. "I can't. That's getting on my nerves."
"There's something else I can't figure out," I told him. "The Zalitz connection. You told me he deserted a while back. So what was he doing handling my shipment?"
"No idea. Maybe he went back to work. Or maybe someone got him confused with someone else. Those docks are so badly organized it isn't even funny."
"That's what gets me. All those maybes. There are just too many variables we can't even predict here."
"Maybe we'll get lucky and something in Reppi's place'll tell us something," he suggested optimistically.
"That'd be against Murphy's Law, babe. It was pretty convenient that Miyu and Reppi are from the same place, though."
"Yeah, you didn't know that? I get the feeling that they practically grew up together. Reppi mentioned her once or twice, but I gather they had a falling out when Miyu joined the Crusaders. The people around here are known for being pretty strict Yevonites. They would've seen that as a slap in the face--kinda like an Al Bhed becoming a summoner."
"Man. Would your parents freak out like that too?"
He shrugged. "I dunno. Probably not. The way they saw me, if I took off on Crusade or decided to become an Al Bhed specialist or something, they'd probably decide that must be the right path and come with."
"I'm not totally sure what the qualifications are, but I'd say you'd probably already be classified as a serious Al Bhed specialist," I cracked. "So when does your test subject get to meet these mythical parents, huh?"
Bickson rolled his eyes and hefted his bag up higher on his shoulder. "This is like the third time you've asked me in the last two weeks. Why do you keep bringing that up?"
"Chill. You're already panicking like a true commitment-ophobe." There was probably an English word for that, but I didn't know what it was, and he looked like he got the idea. "With the Al Bhed, it's just a thing. Most of us lived in a pretty compact space back Home, and it's always been that way with us. The first thing you're supposed to do when you start going out with someone is introduce them to your parents. It's like a law."
"Probably he's just scared that if you meet 'em, they'll let slip that he's cheating on you or something," Naaga interrupted. The blitzball hit her on the shoulder, not hard enough to rebound. I had to chase after it as it rolled away and zip it back into my bag.
"Children," Miyu said pointedly, turning to face us, "we are here."
*****
Miyu wasn't kidding when she said it was a small town. Even through the veil, I could see the small bamboo huts, smaller and dingier than the bright ones in Kilika and Besaid. No matter what time of day it is at the Moonflow bank, it always seems like sunset. The stupid pyreflies stained the sky with their incessant glow. The rose color just made the pathos of it all stand out even more.
"Swords! Fine steel swords!" I whirled to see a boy, maybe thirteen, trudging toward us with a broadsword that was almost as tall as he was. He was dragging it through the dirt--couldn't lift it, I guessed--and as he got closer, he kept shouting at us. "C'mon, lady, with a fancy uniform like that you need a sword!" he pleaded Miyu. As we got close, he was shoved aside by an old woman with a massive reed basket balanced on her head. "Potions," she cackled, "potions! Never know when life might strike us a blow, do we, dearies? We must be prepared! My lovely potions could save your lives someday, mark my words!" Within seconds, we were surrounded by a throng of people, all waving goods at us. I felt Naaga press closer to me.
Miyu walked with her head held high, her metal goggles firmly in place over her eyes so I couldn't read her expression. No one seemed to recognize her. A group of kids charged past us, their bare feet stained with mud from the banks. The line of her mouth tightened.
Eventually, the disappointed crowd of merchants wandered off when it became apparent that we weren't going to buy anything. When the noise had faded enough so she could be heard again, Naaga spoke. "Miyu?" she asked softly from behind her dark veil. "Where's Reppi's house?"
"Wait a moment." Miyu held up a hand. "It has been so long...it was at the far end of the village. I--"
"What happened there?" Bickson interrupted suddenly. I turned to see what he was staring at. The wall of one of the huts had caved in and was hanging limply in the water.
"That," the goalie said simply, "is--was--Reppi's home." She started toward it and pushed aside the flap of cloth that served as the door.
"Hey," I said. "You know you're just walkin' into her house, right? Isn't anyone gonna stop you?"
A smile crossed her lips, and it wasn't a happy one. "No," she said. "You see they no longer know me here. But even as a stranger, I will not be challenged. They are so...trusting here. So naive about the world beyond this riverbank."
She sounded like she was about to start getting poetic on me, so I brushed past her and stepped into the hut. Through the hole in the wall.
I'd been expecting the inside to look like our hut in Besaid--small, but clean and brightly decorated. I was dead wrong. The place looked like a hurricane had hit it full-force. The furniture--what there was left of it--was a complete shambles of broken and rotted wood. The hammock that I guessed must've been Reppi's bed was in a twisted heap on the ground. There were papers strewn everywhere.
I looked at Miyu. She shook her head, eyes wide. "This is absurd," she breathed. "The custom in this village is to leave the home of a deceased person untouched for seven years. By that time, the moonflow has broken the remains of the wood down chemically and a new home can be built in that location. But it hasn't been seven years. I can't understand why anyone would desecrate the home of a dead woman."
"Unless they were looking for the same thing we are," Bickson said dryly.
"What *are* we looking for?" Naaga asked.
"She kept a sphere journal," he replied. "I remember that, because she used to record on it after every game. That might give us a clue."
"Would she not take it with her, Bickson?" Miyu wondered.
The Goer shrugged. "Who knows? Just look for a medium-sized pink sphere."
I sighed and got down on my hands and my knees to sift through the junk. My right knee hit a weak point in the decaying wood and I nearly went down, but my hands shot out automatically at the last second and I managed to avoid falling completely on my face. The heel of my left hand hit something hard, though, and when I regained my balance I looked to see what it was. A pink sphere was rolling across the floor.
"Hey, this it?" I asked, stopping it with one foot and kicking it into my hand. I nearly fell over again--I'd forgotten that I was still wearing that stupid pilgrim getup over my blitz uniform.
"Looks like it," Bickson replied, taking it from me. "But there's only one way to find out. Miyu, do you have a viewer?"
"I am not in possession of a handheld sphere-viewing device, no. However..." she swallowed, then continued hesitantly, "...the home of my family does contain one or two viewers with which it would be possible to learn the contents of the sphere."
"Great. Which way to your place?" Naaga asked.
Miyu brushed a hand back through her glossy hair absently. "We must be cautious. If my family is not at home at the moment, we will be able to watch the sphere. If they are, however...well, suffice it to say I cannot be certain we will be able to gain entry."
"Why?" Naaga asked. I was halfway through the process of getting up off the floor at the time; I kicked her shin hard enough to throw her off balance but not hard enough so it'd be noticed under my robes. Then I winced internally. Twenty years old and still acting like my kid sister.
But Miyu actually answered the question, with the same wistful kind of directness she'd used when she first told me why she got into blitzball. "Years ago, I fell in love with a blitzball player," she said. "Linna can tell you the story sometime, if you care to hear it. But my parents did not approve. When he and I became engaged...well, my parents were scandalized, of course. I was thrown out of the house. I stayed at the inn with him, and we managed to get by while we were scraping up money for a wedding. But...when he died..." she trailed off, then continued, "...I left without a backward glance. It's been more than three years since I've been here. I doubt I'd be welcomed."
"Is there any other way we can get a viewer quickly?" Bickson wanted to know.
The goalie shook her head. "No. No. Chances are they will be out on the docks at this time of day. We should be able to pass undetected." She held out her hand for the sphere and Bickson handed it over. "I'll lead the way."
She stepped out primly through the door--I went back out the way I'd come in, figuring what the hell--and started down the dusty row of huts. She stopped at the opposite end of the village, near the gate we'd come in through and gestured to one of the houses. "This," she told us, "is mine." I watched her as she pushed aside the fabric flap that served as a door. It seemed almost like she steeled herself before she did it.
Unlike the Besaiders, these people didn't have laced-bamboo windows, and since all the walls were intact in this hut, it took my eyes a while to focus in the relative darkness. When they did, I realized that the fact that there were no gaping holes in the walls was the nicest thing that could be said about the place. Hammocks and shields and jewelry were strewn everywhere. There wasn't even a floor here, just dry grass spread over swept dirt. In fact, there was more dirt inside the house than outside it on that dusty road. I wanted to scream. I didn't want to see this squalor. I didn't want to be here. I was supposed to be back in Luca in a clean, cool blitz sphere, not here surrounded by filth and stench and Moonflow.
I thought all that even before I noticed the people.
There were five of them. Two were ancient--an old man with twisted fingers and a long beard and an equally old woman. Both were so thin and pale they could've been skeletons. Sitting next to them were three little kids of varying sizes, two girls and a boy, all of whom had the same shiny dark hair and somber eyes.
"I am home," Miyu whispered.
Kkyaaa. _;; Revise the original estimate--this'll probably be more like eleven or twelve parts. Aaah, I can't do short stories...
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.
Green Eyes in Overdrive
by flame mage
round 5: Warrior
**********
"I don't get it," I said after a while. This was probably a dense move on my part, but I was really having trouble here. "The Farplane is supposed to show you reflections of your memories of the dead, right?"
"No," Miyu contradicted me from the other side of the bench. "The Farplane shows you the spirits of the deceased--those who were Sent. The fact that Reppi's spirit is not there means that she is an Unsent."
"Can't be," I shot out without thinking. "We figured it out. There's no way the fiends could've killed her, but even if a Yevonite killed her, wouldn't they just say they found her and get the temple to Send her? I thought that killing someone and not getting them a proper Sending is supposed to turn you into a fiend when you die. And what kinda Yevonite would risk that?" Thank you, Miyu, and all your theological lectures. But I still think the Farplane is crap. Don't let them Send me when I die.
"Maybe someone did not want her to be sent," Miyu suggested.
"Or maybe it was a priest that killed her, and he felt like since he was a priest, he was immune to the whole fiend thing," added Bickson.
Miyu glared at him. "Or maybe he wasn't even a Yevonite at all."
The Goer captain glared right back. "Or maybe it wasn't even a 'he.'"
"Or maybe we're gonna sit here thinking up theories until we die! How the hell is this helping us, anyway?" I demanded. "Who cares what happened to Reppi? All I care about is making sure my own personal ass is not on the line here."
"As much as I care about your ass, Linna, there's a larger issue at work here," Bickson said. "Reppi isn't our best lead; she's our only lead. I have a gut feeling that finding out what happened to her is the only way we're gonna find out what happened to the others. And I know for a fact that you *do* care about what happened to them."
"Besides, moving around will help us stay out of the reach of whoever is looking for Bickson," Miyu added reasonably.
"But where are we moving TO, Miyu?" Naaga asked. Her voice sounded like a little kid's, and I realized she'd barely spoken at all when Bickson and Miyu were there. My fists clenched. She shouldn't have to be here.
Miyu turned to face the little shrimp and gave her a long, measured look before speaking. Then she answered, "We're going to Reppi's home."
"You think there might be something there that would tell us how she disappeared?" Bickson wanted to know.
"I do." The goalie nodded. "At the least, it can only help us."
"Except that it wastes time," I pointed out. "Where'd she live, anyway?"
"The same town I am from," Miyu answered quietly. "By the Moonflow. We could be there in a matter of hours."
"So you knew Reppi?" Naaga wanted to know.
"Yes. Not well, but we were acquaintances. It's a small village. We all knew each other."
"That's what we're gonna do then, huh? Ransack the dead chick's house and see if Letty and Jassu and the others are hiding out under her bed?" I asked skeptically. Bickson shrugged. Miyu nodded. "Fine," I sighed. "I'm outnumbered. Let's go."
*****
Dawn had already broken by the time we left. Naaga, who had gotten more than enough beauty sleep on the way over, was walking. That definitely wasn't the word for what the rest of us were doing, though--more like dragging. I was down to the put-one-foot-in-front-of-the-other- pause-repeat-pause-repeat mental stage. Aside from the little shrimp, only Miyu seemed to be anywhere other than a complete zombified state--she looked almost awake, and she was walking the same calm, steady, graceful way she always did that drove me completely nuts.
"So am I the only one here who's totally zonked?" Bickson asked casually from behind me.
I slowed down half a beat so he could catch up. "You don't know the half of it, street rat."
"Trust me, I do. Although lemme be the first to admit I don't know how you're putting up with the veil. It's not your color at all."
"And there, babe, you are wrong. Blondes can get away with anything, whereas you will never be able to wear red."
He laughed. "I don't need to wear red. All I gotta look good in is blue, purple, and gold."
"Not to mention a little extra black and blue if ya keep getting on my nerves," I threatened, pretending to roll up my sleeves.
"Touche. Note to self: never insult a chick who can beat you up."
"Ah, you got nothin' to worry about. Maybe the power of Yevon will protect you." He didn't say anything, and I shot a glance after him. "What gives? I say something wrong?"
"Nah. This Yevon connection bugs me, though. I know you don't really get it, but the temples--for people like Miyu, and even for people like me who aren't as serious about it--we were all raised to believe that the temples could do no wrong. They're supposed to be our only hope against Sin."
"But you don't still think they can't screw up," I cut in. "You were the one that told me you were starting to see where the teachings might be wrong and that you didn't really trust the temples and everything."
"Yeah, that's right. I think Yevon's been corrupted lately, or maybe it's always been corrupt. But...ugh, dammit," he swore, pounding a fist into his other hand, "I still don't want to believe they killed Reppi."
"So how do you explain the prayer beads and stuff?"
He shook his head. "I can't. That's getting on my nerves."
"There's something else I can't figure out," I told him. "The Zalitz connection. You told me he deserted a while back. So what was he doing handling my shipment?"
"No idea. Maybe he went back to work. Or maybe someone got him confused with someone else. Those docks are so badly organized it isn't even funny."
"That's what gets me. All those maybes. There are just too many variables we can't even predict here."
"Maybe we'll get lucky and something in Reppi's place'll tell us something," he suggested optimistically.
"That'd be against Murphy's Law, babe. It was pretty convenient that Miyu and Reppi are from the same place, though."
"Yeah, you didn't know that? I get the feeling that they practically grew up together. Reppi mentioned her once or twice, but I gather they had a falling out when Miyu joined the Crusaders. The people around here are known for being pretty strict Yevonites. They would've seen that as a slap in the face--kinda like an Al Bhed becoming a summoner."
"Man. Would your parents freak out like that too?"
He shrugged. "I dunno. Probably not. The way they saw me, if I took off on Crusade or decided to become an Al Bhed specialist or something, they'd probably decide that must be the right path and come with."
"I'm not totally sure what the qualifications are, but I'd say you'd probably already be classified as a serious Al Bhed specialist," I cracked. "So when does your test subject get to meet these mythical parents, huh?"
Bickson rolled his eyes and hefted his bag up higher on his shoulder. "This is like the third time you've asked me in the last two weeks. Why do you keep bringing that up?"
"Chill. You're already panicking like a true commitment-ophobe." There was probably an English word for that, but I didn't know what it was, and he looked like he got the idea. "With the Al Bhed, it's just a thing. Most of us lived in a pretty compact space back Home, and it's always been that way with us. The first thing you're supposed to do when you start going out with someone is introduce them to your parents. It's like a law."
"Probably he's just scared that if you meet 'em, they'll let slip that he's cheating on you or something," Naaga interrupted. The blitzball hit her on the shoulder, not hard enough to rebound. I had to chase after it as it rolled away and zip it back into my bag.
"Children," Miyu said pointedly, turning to face us, "we are here."
*****
Miyu wasn't kidding when she said it was a small town. Even through the veil, I could see the small bamboo huts, smaller and dingier than the bright ones in Kilika and Besaid. No matter what time of day it is at the Moonflow bank, it always seems like sunset. The stupid pyreflies stained the sky with their incessant glow. The rose color just made the pathos of it all stand out even more.
"Swords! Fine steel swords!" I whirled to see a boy, maybe thirteen, trudging toward us with a broadsword that was almost as tall as he was. He was dragging it through the dirt--couldn't lift it, I guessed--and as he got closer, he kept shouting at us. "C'mon, lady, with a fancy uniform like that you need a sword!" he pleaded Miyu. As we got close, he was shoved aside by an old woman with a massive reed basket balanced on her head. "Potions," she cackled, "potions! Never know when life might strike us a blow, do we, dearies? We must be prepared! My lovely potions could save your lives someday, mark my words!" Within seconds, we were surrounded by a throng of people, all waving goods at us. I felt Naaga press closer to me.
Miyu walked with her head held high, her metal goggles firmly in place over her eyes so I couldn't read her expression. No one seemed to recognize her. A group of kids charged past us, their bare feet stained with mud from the banks. The line of her mouth tightened.
Eventually, the disappointed crowd of merchants wandered off when it became apparent that we weren't going to buy anything. When the noise had faded enough so she could be heard again, Naaga spoke. "Miyu?" she asked softly from behind her dark veil. "Where's Reppi's house?"
"Wait a moment." Miyu held up a hand. "It has been so long...it was at the far end of the village. I--"
"What happened there?" Bickson interrupted suddenly. I turned to see what he was staring at. The wall of one of the huts had caved in and was hanging limply in the water.
"That," the goalie said simply, "is--was--Reppi's home." She started toward it and pushed aside the flap of cloth that served as the door.
"Hey," I said. "You know you're just walkin' into her house, right? Isn't anyone gonna stop you?"
A smile crossed her lips, and it wasn't a happy one. "No," she said. "You see they no longer know me here. But even as a stranger, I will not be challenged. They are so...trusting here. So naive about the world beyond this riverbank."
She sounded like she was about to start getting poetic on me, so I brushed past her and stepped into the hut. Through the hole in the wall.
I'd been expecting the inside to look like our hut in Besaid--small, but clean and brightly decorated. I was dead wrong. The place looked like a hurricane had hit it full-force. The furniture--what there was left of it--was a complete shambles of broken and rotted wood. The hammock that I guessed must've been Reppi's bed was in a twisted heap on the ground. There were papers strewn everywhere.
I looked at Miyu. She shook her head, eyes wide. "This is absurd," she breathed. "The custom in this village is to leave the home of a deceased person untouched for seven years. By that time, the moonflow has broken the remains of the wood down chemically and a new home can be built in that location. But it hasn't been seven years. I can't understand why anyone would desecrate the home of a dead woman."
"Unless they were looking for the same thing we are," Bickson said dryly.
"What *are* we looking for?" Naaga asked.
"She kept a sphere journal," he replied. "I remember that, because she used to record on it after every game. That might give us a clue."
"Would she not take it with her, Bickson?" Miyu wondered.
The Goer shrugged. "Who knows? Just look for a medium-sized pink sphere."
I sighed and got down on my hands and my knees to sift through the junk. My right knee hit a weak point in the decaying wood and I nearly went down, but my hands shot out automatically at the last second and I managed to avoid falling completely on my face. The heel of my left hand hit something hard, though, and when I regained my balance I looked to see what it was. A pink sphere was rolling across the floor.
"Hey, this it?" I asked, stopping it with one foot and kicking it into my hand. I nearly fell over again--I'd forgotten that I was still wearing that stupid pilgrim getup over my blitz uniform.
"Looks like it," Bickson replied, taking it from me. "But there's only one way to find out. Miyu, do you have a viewer?"
"I am not in possession of a handheld sphere-viewing device, no. However..." she swallowed, then continued hesitantly, "...the home of my family does contain one or two viewers with which it would be possible to learn the contents of the sphere."
"Great. Which way to your place?" Naaga asked.
Miyu brushed a hand back through her glossy hair absently. "We must be cautious. If my family is not at home at the moment, we will be able to watch the sphere. If they are, however...well, suffice it to say I cannot be certain we will be able to gain entry."
"Why?" Naaga asked. I was halfway through the process of getting up off the floor at the time; I kicked her shin hard enough to throw her off balance but not hard enough so it'd be noticed under my robes. Then I winced internally. Twenty years old and still acting like my kid sister.
But Miyu actually answered the question, with the same wistful kind of directness she'd used when she first told me why she got into blitzball. "Years ago, I fell in love with a blitzball player," she said. "Linna can tell you the story sometime, if you care to hear it. But my parents did not approve. When he and I became engaged...well, my parents were scandalized, of course. I was thrown out of the house. I stayed at the inn with him, and we managed to get by while we were scraping up money for a wedding. But...when he died..." she trailed off, then continued, "...I left without a backward glance. It's been more than three years since I've been here. I doubt I'd be welcomed."
"Is there any other way we can get a viewer quickly?" Bickson wanted to know.
The goalie shook her head. "No. No. Chances are they will be out on the docks at this time of day. We should be able to pass undetected." She held out her hand for the sphere and Bickson handed it over. "I'll lead the way."
She stepped out primly through the door--I went back out the way I'd come in, figuring what the hell--and started down the dusty row of huts. She stopped at the opposite end of the village, near the gate we'd come in through and gestured to one of the houses. "This," she told us, "is mine." I watched her as she pushed aside the fabric flap that served as a door. It seemed almost like she steeled herself before she did it.
Unlike the Besaiders, these people didn't have laced-bamboo windows, and since all the walls were intact in this hut, it took my eyes a while to focus in the relative darkness. When they did, I realized that the fact that there were no gaping holes in the walls was the nicest thing that could be said about the place. Hammocks and shields and jewelry were strewn everywhere. There wasn't even a floor here, just dry grass spread over swept dirt. In fact, there was more dirt inside the house than outside it on that dusty road. I wanted to scream. I didn't want to see this squalor. I didn't want to be here. I was supposed to be back in Luca in a clean, cool blitz sphere, not here surrounded by filth and stench and Moonflow.
I thought all that even before I noticed the people.
There were five of them. Two were ancient--an old man with twisted fingers and a long beard and an equally old woman. Both were so thin and pale they could've been skeletons. Sitting next to them were three little kids of varying sizes, two girls and a boy, all of whom had the same shiny dark hair and somber eyes.
"I am home," Miyu whispered.