Chapter Eight: Night on the SS Winno
The sky was painted with a thousand, blue and silver stars and a large, white moon. Kain finds himself at the head of the boat, gazing out at the indigo-colored horizon, remaining silent as the salty, cool breeze against the ocean blows against his frame and hair. For a moment, Wakka and Lulu watch him, then they nod to each other, walking to the upper area of the boat. Below, the Luca Goers, fully healed and confident as ever, surrounded Yuna and conversate as she giggles. In the distance, Vorador is leaning against a wooden pole with his arms crossed, keeping a vigilant watch over her. In the deck below, the Aurochs are standing around, talking. After a moment, Kain walks along the deck, heading towards the group.
Kain
"So, may I inquire on the occasion of such excitement?"
The Goers, their names Bickson and Graav, turn to face him. At the sight of Kain, the two leap back, giving a small yelp. Kain places his hands on his hips and stares at them as the humans cower pathetically.
Bickson
"Y-You!"
Graav
"You're that crazy blitzer from before!"
Kain
[smirks and glances at Vorador]
"To quote an old friend,"
"I see my reputation preceeds me."
Bickson
"Y-You're a demon! You don't deserve the honor to be a blitzer!"
Yuna gives the blitzer a glare, clenching a fist.
Yuna
"Don't call him that!"
Bickson
"But it's the truth!"
"You saw what he did to me back at Kilika!"
"You'll be sorry! You're gonna be in hell once you enter the ring!"
"Vampires and water don't mix from what I hear."
Kain glares and grabs the blitzer by his jaws, slightly adding pressure to his grip.
Kain
"Trust me, my little, pathetic child."
"I have no intention on playing these silly games eternally.... just long enough to repay a debt."
"As for our little chat about water..."
"Well...."
Kain added small pressure to his grip, enough for a small cracking noise to be heard. Yuna gasped at the sound, only to recieve a wink from Kain, who then fixed his sights on the human.
Kain
"Just be thankful you're not like him."
[glances at Vorador]
Shifting his hold to Bickson's throat, Kain reeled his arm back and lunged it forward, releasing his hold. The human went airborn, flying through the air, landing with a huge splash on the surface of the ocean. The other two blitzers gasped, running towards the edge to try and fish out their fallen companion. Chuckling at what he had accomplished, Kain turned away... only to see a look of concern on Yuna's face.
Kain
"Don't tell me you feel sympathy for him..."
Yuna
[lowers her head]
"They were being rude, I know, but..."
"It just isn't right..."
Kain
[crosses his arms]
"Why is that?"
Yuna
"Sir Dante used to always tell me..."
"That fighting for yourself is only useful if your opponent is worthy of fighting."
"I know you're powerful, Sir Kain... and even though they are blitzers..."
"They're not as strong as you. But even if they are rude..."
"They put their lives on the line everyday, just to make people happy."
"To forget about Sin...."
[she lifts her head]
You understand, right?"
Kain
[turns away]
"As you wish..."
Coldly, Kain turns away from the human girl and walks towards the front of the boat, when he hears something from above. Turning his head to the side, he seats himself on the stairs, hearing a voice that is seem to belong Lulu's...
Lulu
"Well? Say something."
"You'll take responsibility?"
Wakka
"Relax! He's bound to know someone in Luca."
Lulu
"And if not?"
Wakka
"He could always join a blitz team."
"Anyhow, it's better than just leaving him in Besaid!"
Lulu
"What? Just leaving him in Luca?"
Wakka
"What do you want me to do?"
"Wheither we live him in Besaid or Luca, he's just going to kill people."
"Wouldn't you choose people you barely know over the people we grew up with?"
Lulu
"How could you speak so horridly?"
"But to make the situation even worse..."
"Yuna wants to make him a guardian."
Wakka
"Oh yeah, geez... There's that too, eh?"
Lulu
"And whose fault is that?"
Wakka
[his voice raises]
"Not mine!"
[Silence]
"It is mine, huh?"
"Why do you think she wants to make him a guardian, anyway?"
Lulu
"Because.... he's Sir Dante's son."
Wakka
"For real?"
"Wait, you sure 'bout that? He's really Sir Dante's son?"
"I mean.... they're nothing alike, ya know?"
Lulu
"I know it's hard to say... but Yuna seems to believe so."
Kain glares at the conversation involving him and his father. Just the thought of his father 'cause him to growl in the pit of his throat, yet he says nothing.
Wakka
"Okay."
Lulu
""Okay?" "Okay?" That's all you have to say?"
Wakka
"Well, yeah, I mean..."
"He's gotta decide for himself, ya? Well, him and Yuna, I guess."
"And.... he seems to be tamer around us..."
"Like, he could've killed that blitzer at Kilika..."
"But for some reason, I dunno what... he didn't."
Lulu
"You're right... for once."
"I wonder which is best..."
"Why don't you tell him he should?"
Wakka
"Should what?"
Lulu
"Become Yuna's guardian."
A small chuckle erupted from Kain, unnoticable, yet loud enough for a nearby passer to hear. Just the way they were talking about him, it was just humorous...
"To hear humans deciding on how they would tell me what I should do..."
"Me, the ruthless, arrogant vampire to walk the planet..."
"Such irony, one would say..."
Wakka
"Why me?"
Lulu
"Because Yuna can't."
Wakka
"Why not?"
Lulu
"Kain hates his father--what he was, what he did."
"Do you really think she can possibly say to him..."
" 'I want you to be my guardian, like your father was to mine?' "
Wakka
"Aren't you being over-sensitive?"
[Lulu sighs]
"All right, all right."
"I'll try talking to him after the tournament."
Lulu
"Be discreet."
Wakka
"I know. It's his decision."
The most strangest waves of emotion and paranoia began to build up within Kain. How much had Yuna told Lulu...? And why would she want him of all people as her guardian? Then he glanced at Vorador, still watching over the summoner protectively.
"She doesn't fear vampires... but she knows what they're capable of..."
"If she was anything like the wretches in Nosgoth, she would use that fear and knowledge to protect herself,"
"Hence having vampires for guardians..."
"But what she had told Umah in Kilika..."
"I only have as many guardians as there are people I can trust."
"I trust them all with my life!' "
"That didn't seem like taking advantage of Vorador and myself..."
Wakka
"He doesn't like his father?"
Lulu
"Apparently. He told Yuna as much."
Wakka
"Hating your own father, huh? Sounds like a luxury to me."
"I don't even remember my parents."
"Can't say how I feel about 'em."
Lulu
"I...I was five then, so I remember mine a little."
Wakka
"Dammit!"
"Sin just takes everything away from us."
Sighing with annoyance and carrying a bored aura, Kain picks himself off of the stairs, walking to the front of the boat. He eyes the deck, noticing that all have evacuated, probably trying to fish out the blitzer. He walks forward, only to step down on a strange object with a hard surface. Lifting his foot and looking at the ground, he sees a blitzball. Strangly enough, he is reminded of his past...
A small child with lightly tanned skin and short brown hair appears, standing in a feild of grass and few trees. He is donned in noble clothing, and in his hand is a wooden sword. With a face of determination, he constantly begins to swing the sword throw the air, stabbing, swinging, and slicing at nothing more than oxygen. At first, he seems to be enjoying himself, until his footing is lost, causing him to fall flat on his back. A small groan erupts from the boy as hestands up... but a strange man approaches him. He's tall for being a human, deathly pale at that too. He too is wearing noble clothing, and his white is in strands of ivory white while his eyes are a grayish blue.
Dante
"Well, well, trying to follow in my footsteps, are you?"
"I usually charge for lessons, you know..."
[he pulls out his own sword... the same one from Auron in Zanarkand]
"The attacks are done... like this!"
Dante flips over the boy and begins to slash and swing his sword through the air, practically shadow boxing, or walking with danger. He twirls the sword like a baton in one hand, concluding with kneeling onto the ground and plunging an invisble attacker from behind. After a smirk, he sheathes his sword.
Dante
"You can't do it, Son."
"But don't worry yourself..."
"You're not the only one."
"No one else can match my skills. I'm the best!"
Kain growls in his rage. In Nosgoth, he would've found a nice, innocent human, walking about the area, and ripped his throat out. It would've been his pleasure to do the similar actions to one of the Luca Goers... when he had an idea. Seeing he was about to go into the blitz arena, why not take the rage out on the ball? The vampire stomped on a small area of the ball, causing it to fly up to his claw. With another growl, he slammed the ball on the ground, attacking it with a series of hits with his palm, and a few kick. Slamming the ball hard on the ground, Kain kicks off the boat, going airborn. Twirling in midair, he delivers a powerful kicking manoeuvre as the ball went zipping through the air. Flipping backwards, the vampire landed delicately on the boat.
Kain
"The best? You're time is long since over, Dante..."
His eyes widen at the sound of gasps behind him. We he turns around, Kain finds himself surrounded by Wakka and the Aurochs.
Wakka
"Whoa! What was that called, Kain?"
Kain
"Doesn't have a name... I just made it out of pure rage."
Wakka
"Show us one more time, ya?"
Kain
[shrugs]
"If I must..."
Kain cracks his back as Wakka lowers the ball to the ground. He prepares to do the move once more as the Aurochs step aside. Looking back, Kain sees Yuna in the distance, waving at him. Kain looks away, which causes Yuna's smile to fade and her arm to drop. Kain does the shot once more as the Aurochs cheer. After a moment of chanting, they run to the back of the boat, attempting to practice the shot. Sighing, the vampire moves himself to the front of the boat... only to realize that he was no longer alone. Looking down, he sees Yuna gazing at the sea...
Yuna
"That was a Devil Shot, wasn't it?"
Kain
[glances at her mysteriously]
"I take it my father did a similar shot?"
Yuna
[she nods, but refuses to look at him]
"Sir Dante showed it to me when I was a child."
"He called it the "Sublimely Magnificent Devil Shot Mark III.""
Kain winces at the name and rolls his eyes. Yuna looks up at him and giggles at his facial expression. But as before, it isn't a mocking laugh.
Kain
"What a ridiculous name."
"There is no Mark I or Mark II. If there had been, I would've known..."
"But my father... a blitzball player? Pathetic... "
[he notices Yuna's face has returned to a saddened feature.]
"Is he alive, you think?"
Yuna
"I don't know."
"But, Sir Kain was my father's guardian..."
"So if anything happened to him..."
"I should think word would get around fast."
Kain
[nods]
"I would imagine..."
Yuna
[she looks up at Kain]
"What would you do if you found him?"
Kain
"I thought he died over 320 years ago..."
"Well..."
"I would probably just kill him."
[Yuna gasps, but Kain ignores it]
"After everything he put his family through..."
"Just leaving one day, and never returning home..."
[his rage is soothed, and he glaces at Yuna]
"Your father's famous, Yuna. Everyone in Spira knows him..."
"Isn't it hard for you?"
Yuna
[she lowers her head]
"It is hard to follow in his footsteps as a summoner."
"But the honor of having a father like him surpasses all that, I think."
Kain
"Well, there wasn't much to honor about mine..."
Yuna
[gives Kain a cold look]
"You shouldn't say that about your father!"
Kain
[returns the look]
"I have the right!"
There is a long silence. Yuna looks at Kain with a furious look, that then forms into a solemn, depressed stare of sadness. Kain blinks in surprise as Yuna sighs.
Yuna
"I guess... you do."
Before he can respond, she turns and walks away, carrying a sad aura. Kain stands there, watching her leave...
And for the first time, he felt ashamed...