Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, locations, or items of Final Fantasy VII, they belong to Square-Enix.
Chapter Three
Expression and Conflict
"Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
'Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break"
----------One Step Closer by Linkin Park
Silent as shadow, swift as a bolt of lightning, such was the lesson that had been burned into his mind since he was born, since he could walk, since he could talk. The light of the was his friend today, the bustle of the small crowds in Nibelhiem's streets his cloak.
Garbed in a cloak he was, both metephorically and literally. Tajiri fingered the hilt of the wakizashi, which he had named Soul Force, that lay hidden in the endless folds. He had spotted his prey long ago, but, like a patient hunter, waited for the appropriate moment to claim his prize.
As he waded through the people of the marketplace, he made a mental note of everyone she talked with, everywhere she went, and everything she bought. He also studied her armament and any small movement she made. He had been taught long ago that he should be aware of everything about his target. Some things revealed strengths or weaknesses, others offered opportunities to guage reaction times and reflexes.
So far he had decided that Yuffie Kisaragi was very well trained indeed. He studied her graceful movements as she had made her way through this small town. She seemed very confident, and so far he could see no falter in her competent step. She was also very attentive.
He had figured that she would know she was being followed, but he hadn't expected her to notice so soon.
He watched as she turned away from one of the vendors in the street, and towards him. For a brief moment their eyes met, and she scowled at him from afar.
Muttering a curse under his breath, he quickly made his way towards her. She walked away quickly without taking a second look at him. Tajiri followed until she disappeared down a cluttered, narrow alley. He took a deep breath as he turned the corner.
He saw nothing down the alley. It was quiet. He gripped the Soul Force tighter as he readied for an ambush.
It never came.
Tajiri let out a sigh and tuned from the alley. He was about to walk away, but heard the tell-tale whir of a quick, airborne object.
Spinning miraculously fast, he drew the Soul Force and deflected the shuriken that was intent on splitting his head. A metallic clang resounded throughout the narrow confines of his current position, and the Conformer flew back to it's owner, a disgruntled Yuffie Kisaragi. She scowled and said nothing.
"Yuffie Kisaragi," Tajiri said, his voice just above a whisper, "I am a warrior of the Juuka-Sa, my master requires an audience with you."
Yuffie laughed. "Go with you? I don't think so. Your other lackies weren't very polite so I'll have to decline."
Tajiri removed his cloak to reveal his black armor. "I'm afraid I have my orders and your consent is not required, only you."
He slid the blade silently into it's sheathe. That done, he charged bare-handed.
Yuffie was completely taken aback when the mysterious warrior sheathed his sword before attaking her. It took her opponent mere seconds to close the long gap between them, and before she knew it, the man tackled her to the ground. Yuffie struggled underneath her aggressor as his hands reached for her neck. He was so far unsuccessful due to her constant wriggling.
Yuffie struggled, but to no avail, for the man in black armor nearly had his strong hand on her neck. With out thinking, Yuffie lashed out with her knee into her assailent's groin. Her powerful strike was met with a metallic clang and, to her disappointment, only a slight grunt of pain from the mysterious man.
Yuffie gritted her teeth and let go of one of his hands, his free hand darted to her throat and an instant later, she could feel her conciousness slipping away. Through the haze she managed to bring her hand up and slap it open-handed into the man's face.
He let out a cry as the bones in his nose shattered. He sat up and began clutching his face in pain. Yuffie, regaining her composure, grabbed the front plate of his armor and tossed him off of her. She paid no attention to where he landed and, quickly swiping the Conformer from where it had fallen from her grasp earlier, quickly rose to her feet.
By the time she turned to face him again he was already on his feet. He had already settled into a defensive position, a small smile upon his face, even though blood slowly streamed from his now broken nose.
"Impressive, I had hoped you would offer me a challenge," he said.
Yuffie smirked at him and whipped the Conformer at his face once again. With impossible speed he leaped out of it's path and stuck itself into the brick wall of the alley. He charged again, but she was ready this time.
As he neared she unleahed a powerful side-kick into his chest. Instead of stopping outright and falling over as she hoped, he stopped short and caught her foot with both of his hands. His foot then lashed out and caught her in the back of her knee, causing her to collapse. Yuffie hit the ground hard and rolled backward, breaking his hold on her foot, and jumped back to her feet.
A third time, he charged.
In his rage he came at her with both arms extended. As he neared Yuffie sidestepped his advance and grabbed his right arm with both hands and hyper-extended his already locked out elbow joint. She was rewarded with hearing an audible crack and seeing her opponent's arm bent at a gross angle to which it had never been meant to bend. He screamed in pain and she used his momentum to guide him into a wall. After a sickeningly fleshy thud, he was silent and fell to ground, unconcious.
Yuffie breathed a sigh of relief, but knew she had to get moving soon. These people had been after her for years, even before the Meteor Crisis, and they always attacked in groups of three or more.
While retrieving the Conformer, she felt a slight twinge of irony at the fact it these people, the Juuka-Sa, were the reason she had even hooked up with AVALANCHE in the first place. They had chased her out of Junon and she fled into the forested mountains just south of that city. She may have never attacked AVALANCHE if it hadn't been for the fact that she had been in hiding for a few weeks and was running low on supplies. She wondered why they hadn't been more aggressive while she was off on that grand adventure all those years ago. They were watching, she was sure of that, for she had seen some of them on several occasions. She didn't quite understand it, they leave her alone for all that time and, about three years prior to the vurrent day, came after her with increased fury.
It also troubled her that during all those years, she hadn't even known what affiliation they all had with each other, before today she didn't even have the name of the group that wanted her captured. Another thought occured to Yuffie as she ran with all possible speed back to the mansion, not one other hunting party from this mysterious band of ninja warriors ever made any kind of vocal sound. Not one before the one on this day had ever spoke, or even screamed, moaned, or grunted in pain. Yet that guy did. Somehow she found it frighteningly intriguing.
After a bit of a struggle, Tajiri Kasadra regained conciousness. The defeated ninja sat up and let out a groan. He tried to move his right arm, but only recieved a shot of searing pain. Slowly he hauled himself to his feet. A little dizzy from the hefty amout of bloodloss and what could be a potential concussion limited his movement at first, but he soon learned to cope.
Tajiri stumbled over to where his coak lay. Near it he found a puddle of clear water. Staring at his reflection, he took inventory of his wounds.
His nose was smashed almost flat and looked intensely grotesque, but it at least stopped bleeing, for now. The rest of his face was cluttered with all types of cust and bruises. Some of those cuts were still bleeding freely. He already knew his elbow was dislocated and that he would have to set it later but before the swelling grew worse.
With his left hand only, he tore strips of cloth from his cloak and fashioned them into makeshift bandages. When he was finished most of his face was covered. He also made a temporary sling for his arm before he set out for the inn. Luckily, it was only a few dozen yards from the mouth of the alley he was in.
He knew he had failed, and Nejaa would find that unacceptable.
Ignoring the the stares of the few curious pedestrians on the street, Tajiri made his way into the local inn where he had procured shelter for himself since Yuffie Kisaragi had fled Wutai. He knew she would flee to this quaint town, for it was the nearest place where she could resupply before disappearing into any deep forest she chose to lose herself in while running from the inevitable.
Tajiri pushed the door in slowly and called to the innkeeper.
"Get me my chocobo," Tajiri ordered.
"But sir," the innkeeper replied at seeing some of Tajiri's wounds, "I cannot allow you to travel with such wounds. You must see the town doctor."
"My chocobo," Tajiri repeated, uncharacteristically losing his temper with the small man before him. To his annoyance, the inkeeper shook his head.
One flawless motion and a swift stroke from the Soul Force removed that shaking head from it's body. The female receptionist gasped in horror as the headless body fell to the floor and blood flowed freely from the neck. Tajiri glared at the receptionist and pointed the bloodied blade at her face.
"Bring me my chocobo," he said sternly. She hesitated in fear for a moment and then motioned for him to follow her.
Before following her out of the room he turned around. A disgusted look came to his face as he spied the headless body on the floor and the bodyless head that had rolled into the far corner. This man's blood was on his hands. He didn't have to kill that man, he hadn't wanted to kill him. For the first time in years he had let his anger take control, and now an innocent had died for Tajiri's lack of disapline.
An exhausted Yuffie slumped to the floor after closing the thick door of the Shinra Masion behind her. She sat on the floor, leaning against the door, lost in her own thoughts for a while, when she heard the most peculiar sound echoing into the atrium.
It was the soft sound of music that interrupted her troubled thoughts as she sat alone in that place. The flowing rhythm and soft notes that crescendoed and died, repeating in the same way over and over helped to soothe her uneasy mind find a somewhat unexplicable, temporary peace.
Yuffie stood and traced the entrancing sound back to it's source. Yuffie had only been in the mansion a few times when she was with AVALANCE, and she remembered there was a broken piano somewhere on the ground floor of the West Wing. As she made her way across the wide atrium to the Grand Dining Hall she shook her head. That ancient instrument would never be able to produce such an amazing sound, and she didn't care how good the musician was. She couldn't help but to smile to herself when memories of Cloud attempting to play it on one of the occasions they were here. She had to admit it was one of their estranged leader's many hilarious screw-ups.
The door to the Dining Hall opened silently and she was amazed. Vincent sat on the bench of an astonishingly new grand piano. His scarlet eyes were closed and he seemed oblivious to her presence as he played. Yuffie had never heard such moving music in her life, but then again, she had been on the run for so long that normal things in a teenager's life such as music had simply been forgotten or ignored, for she more pressing concerns. Things such as when would she sleep next, where is her next meal coming from, and all of her other spare time was spent training in the ninja's secret arts.
What surprised her most was the fact that Vincent wore a content smile on his face as he played. While wrapped in his own music he seemed to let go of everything that troubled him. He looked as if the nightmares he had faced were nothing in comparison to the pure emotion echoing through the empty halls of old building of death. He played as if the demons beneath his skin were mere illusions.
Like all good things, the music drew to a close. Vincent merely sat on the bench after the last note had died into silence, the smile still adoning his normally expressionless features.
"Beautiful," Yuffie commented in awe.
Vincent, suddenly aware of his company, reacted instantly. The smile erased itself on a heartbeat and his eyes flew open. He quietly stood.
"I never knew you could play," Yuffie said uncomfortably.
Silence.
"Are you just going to ignore me now?"
To her surprise, he walked right up to her and stared into her eyes.
"It helps," he said quietly, speaking of the music. "It is the only form of expression left to me now."
He left the room and Yuffie was left to stand, staring at the piano, alone.
-------My first fight scene, I think it could still need a little work. If anyone has any tips at these battle scenes, I could use them, because I know that there's going to be a few more in the coming chapters. Once again, please R&R.
Chapter Three
Expression and Conflict
"Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
'Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break"
----------One Step Closer by Linkin Park
Silent as shadow, swift as a bolt of lightning, such was the lesson that had been burned into his mind since he was born, since he could walk, since he could talk. The light of the was his friend today, the bustle of the small crowds in Nibelhiem's streets his cloak.
Garbed in a cloak he was, both metephorically and literally. Tajiri fingered the hilt of the wakizashi, which he had named Soul Force, that lay hidden in the endless folds. He had spotted his prey long ago, but, like a patient hunter, waited for the appropriate moment to claim his prize.
As he waded through the people of the marketplace, he made a mental note of everyone she talked with, everywhere she went, and everything she bought. He also studied her armament and any small movement she made. He had been taught long ago that he should be aware of everything about his target. Some things revealed strengths or weaknesses, others offered opportunities to guage reaction times and reflexes.
So far he had decided that Yuffie Kisaragi was very well trained indeed. He studied her graceful movements as she had made her way through this small town. She seemed very confident, and so far he could see no falter in her competent step. She was also very attentive.
He had figured that she would know she was being followed, but he hadn't expected her to notice so soon.
He watched as she turned away from one of the vendors in the street, and towards him. For a brief moment their eyes met, and she scowled at him from afar.
Muttering a curse under his breath, he quickly made his way towards her. She walked away quickly without taking a second look at him. Tajiri followed until she disappeared down a cluttered, narrow alley. He took a deep breath as he turned the corner.
He saw nothing down the alley. It was quiet. He gripped the Soul Force tighter as he readied for an ambush.
It never came.
Tajiri let out a sigh and tuned from the alley. He was about to walk away, but heard the tell-tale whir of a quick, airborne object.
Spinning miraculously fast, he drew the Soul Force and deflected the shuriken that was intent on splitting his head. A metallic clang resounded throughout the narrow confines of his current position, and the Conformer flew back to it's owner, a disgruntled Yuffie Kisaragi. She scowled and said nothing.
"Yuffie Kisaragi," Tajiri said, his voice just above a whisper, "I am a warrior of the Juuka-Sa, my master requires an audience with you."
Yuffie laughed. "Go with you? I don't think so. Your other lackies weren't very polite so I'll have to decline."
Tajiri removed his cloak to reveal his black armor. "I'm afraid I have my orders and your consent is not required, only you."
He slid the blade silently into it's sheathe. That done, he charged bare-handed.
Yuffie was completely taken aback when the mysterious warrior sheathed his sword before attaking her. It took her opponent mere seconds to close the long gap between them, and before she knew it, the man tackled her to the ground. Yuffie struggled underneath her aggressor as his hands reached for her neck. He was so far unsuccessful due to her constant wriggling.
Yuffie struggled, but to no avail, for the man in black armor nearly had his strong hand on her neck. With out thinking, Yuffie lashed out with her knee into her assailent's groin. Her powerful strike was met with a metallic clang and, to her disappointment, only a slight grunt of pain from the mysterious man.
Yuffie gritted her teeth and let go of one of his hands, his free hand darted to her throat and an instant later, she could feel her conciousness slipping away. Through the haze she managed to bring her hand up and slap it open-handed into the man's face.
He let out a cry as the bones in his nose shattered. He sat up and began clutching his face in pain. Yuffie, regaining her composure, grabbed the front plate of his armor and tossed him off of her. She paid no attention to where he landed and, quickly swiping the Conformer from where it had fallen from her grasp earlier, quickly rose to her feet.
By the time she turned to face him again he was already on his feet. He had already settled into a defensive position, a small smile upon his face, even though blood slowly streamed from his now broken nose.
"Impressive, I had hoped you would offer me a challenge," he said.
Yuffie smirked at him and whipped the Conformer at his face once again. With impossible speed he leaped out of it's path and stuck itself into the brick wall of the alley. He charged again, but she was ready this time.
As he neared she unleahed a powerful side-kick into his chest. Instead of stopping outright and falling over as she hoped, he stopped short and caught her foot with both of his hands. His foot then lashed out and caught her in the back of her knee, causing her to collapse. Yuffie hit the ground hard and rolled backward, breaking his hold on her foot, and jumped back to her feet.
A third time, he charged.
In his rage he came at her with both arms extended. As he neared Yuffie sidestepped his advance and grabbed his right arm with both hands and hyper-extended his already locked out elbow joint. She was rewarded with hearing an audible crack and seeing her opponent's arm bent at a gross angle to which it had never been meant to bend. He screamed in pain and she used his momentum to guide him into a wall. After a sickeningly fleshy thud, he was silent and fell to ground, unconcious.
Yuffie breathed a sigh of relief, but knew she had to get moving soon. These people had been after her for years, even before the Meteor Crisis, and they always attacked in groups of three or more.
While retrieving the Conformer, she felt a slight twinge of irony at the fact it these people, the Juuka-Sa, were the reason she had even hooked up with AVALANCHE in the first place. They had chased her out of Junon and she fled into the forested mountains just south of that city. She may have never attacked AVALANCHE if it hadn't been for the fact that she had been in hiding for a few weeks and was running low on supplies. She wondered why they hadn't been more aggressive while she was off on that grand adventure all those years ago. They were watching, she was sure of that, for she had seen some of them on several occasions. She didn't quite understand it, they leave her alone for all that time and, about three years prior to the vurrent day, came after her with increased fury.
It also troubled her that during all those years, she hadn't even known what affiliation they all had with each other, before today she didn't even have the name of the group that wanted her captured. Another thought occured to Yuffie as she ran with all possible speed back to the mansion, not one other hunting party from this mysterious band of ninja warriors ever made any kind of vocal sound. Not one before the one on this day had ever spoke, or even screamed, moaned, or grunted in pain. Yet that guy did. Somehow she found it frighteningly intriguing.
After a bit of a struggle, Tajiri Kasadra regained conciousness. The defeated ninja sat up and let out a groan. He tried to move his right arm, but only recieved a shot of searing pain. Slowly he hauled himself to his feet. A little dizzy from the hefty amout of bloodloss and what could be a potential concussion limited his movement at first, but he soon learned to cope.
Tajiri stumbled over to where his coak lay. Near it he found a puddle of clear water. Staring at his reflection, he took inventory of his wounds.
His nose was smashed almost flat and looked intensely grotesque, but it at least stopped bleeing, for now. The rest of his face was cluttered with all types of cust and bruises. Some of those cuts were still bleeding freely. He already knew his elbow was dislocated and that he would have to set it later but before the swelling grew worse.
With his left hand only, he tore strips of cloth from his cloak and fashioned them into makeshift bandages. When he was finished most of his face was covered. He also made a temporary sling for his arm before he set out for the inn. Luckily, it was only a few dozen yards from the mouth of the alley he was in.
He knew he had failed, and Nejaa would find that unacceptable.
Ignoring the the stares of the few curious pedestrians on the street, Tajiri made his way into the local inn where he had procured shelter for himself since Yuffie Kisaragi had fled Wutai. He knew she would flee to this quaint town, for it was the nearest place where she could resupply before disappearing into any deep forest she chose to lose herself in while running from the inevitable.
Tajiri pushed the door in slowly and called to the innkeeper.
"Get me my chocobo," Tajiri ordered.
"But sir," the innkeeper replied at seeing some of Tajiri's wounds, "I cannot allow you to travel with such wounds. You must see the town doctor."
"My chocobo," Tajiri repeated, uncharacteristically losing his temper with the small man before him. To his annoyance, the inkeeper shook his head.
One flawless motion and a swift stroke from the Soul Force removed that shaking head from it's body. The female receptionist gasped in horror as the headless body fell to the floor and blood flowed freely from the neck. Tajiri glared at the receptionist and pointed the bloodied blade at her face.
"Bring me my chocobo," he said sternly. She hesitated in fear for a moment and then motioned for him to follow her.
Before following her out of the room he turned around. A disgusted look came to his face as he spied the headless body on the floor and the bodyless head that had rolled into the far corner. This man's blood was on his hands. He didn't have to kill that man, he hadn't wanted to kill him. For the first time in years he had let his anger take control, and now an innocent had died for Tajiri's lack of disapline.
An exhausted Yuffie slumped to the floor after closing the thick door of the Shinra Masion behind her. She sat on the floor, leaning against the door, lost in her own thoughts for a while, when she heard the most peculiar sound echoing into the atrium.
It was the soft sound of music that interrupted her troubled thoughts as she sat alone in that place. The flowing rhythm and soft notes that crescendoed and died, repeating in the same way over and over helped to soothe her uneasy mind find a somewhat unexplicable, temporary peace.
Yuffie stood and traced the entrancing sound back to it's source. Yuffie had only been in the mansion a few times when she was with AVALANCE, and she remembered there was a broken piano somewhere on the ground floor of the West Wing. As she made her way across the wide atrium to the Grand Dining Hall she shook her head. That ancient instrument would never be able to produce such an amazing sound, and she didn't care how good the musician was. She couldn't help but to smile to herself when memories of Cloud attempting to play it on one of the occasions they were here. She had to admit it was one of their estranged leader's many hilarious screw-ups.
The door to the Dining Hall opened silently and she was amazed. Vincent sat on the bench of an astonishingly new grand piano. His scarlet eyes were closed and he seemed oblivious to her presence as he played. Yuffie had never heard such moving music in her life, but then again, she had been on the run for so long that normal things in a teenager's life such as music had simply been forgotten or ignored, for she more pressing concerns. Things such as when would she sleep next, where is her next meal coming from, and all of her other spare time was spent training in the ninja's secret arts.
What surprised her most was the fact that Vincent wore a content smile on his face as he played. While wrapped in his own music he seemed to let go of everything that troubled him. He looked as if the nightmares he had faced were nothing in comparison to the pure emotion echoing through the empty halls of old building of death. He played as if the demons beneath his skin were mere illusions.
Like all good things, the music drew to a close. Vincent merely sat on the bench after the last note had died into silence, the smile still adoning his normally expressionless features.
"Beautiful," Yuffie commented in awe.
Vincent, suddenly aware of his company, reacted instantly. The smile erased itself on a heartbeat and his eyes flew open. He quietly stood.
"I never knew you could play," Yuffie said uncomfortably.
Silence.
"Are you just going to ignore me now?"
To her surprise, he walked right up to her and stared into her eyes.
"It helps," he said quietly, speaking of the music. "It is the only form of expression left to me now."
He left the room and Yuffie was left to stand, staring at the piano, alone.
-------My first fight scene, I think it could still need a little work. If anyone has any tips at these battle scenes, I could use them, because I know that there's going to be a few more in the coming chapters. Once again, please R&R.