14 Years, 7 Days Chapter 3: He Gets Very Talkative, a final fantasy: unlimited fanfic

Thank you for the reviews ONCE AGAIN!!!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!

Anyway, sorry for the long wait...but it's here! Third chapter...and more fun are coming up! I hope you guys will like this chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy Unlimited and it's wonderful characters. Nor do I own that whole lot of black stuff from The Keys to the Kingdom. You'll understand what I am talking about when you read this.

Okay, off with the formalities. Let the fun begin...

"Greetings, Count-sama. What task do you have for me?" Pisto said.

"Go and get Makenshi up here," The Count paused, "As soon as possible, if not immediately."

Pisto bowed his head and tried to hide the shiver he felt, "Y-Yes, Count-sama."

As Pisto left, Oscar moved out from the shadows and turned towards the Count.

"Count-sama, do you think Pisto can do it?" Oscar inquired concernedly.

The Count shrugged, " Who cares about that fish man anyway? As long as Makenshi stop doing whatever he is doing, then I'm happy. Urgh, I'm so full!"

14 years, 7 days.

By: XiaoBai

Third Day: He Gets Very Talkative.

"Urgh, finally got out of that stupid park." Grey Cloud muttered, kicking aside charred tree trucks, "That stupid Helba and her stupid plants...damn it, now my clothes are dirty."

Looking around, Grey Cloud removed his mask and sniffed the air slightly. He brightened up and began to float, "There's water somewhere near...good."

Then, in a whirlwind of mist, the grey swordsman disappeared.

"Oh, for the great gods of the mist..." Madoushi sighed, "I had gotten here late once again."

Looking at the burnt mess Grey Cloud had left behind, the red-haired swordsman noticed a figure and recognized her as Helba.

He bent down, flipped the plant woman over and shook her awake.

"What happened?" Madoushi asked.

"Makenshi...he...he burnt down my garden!" Helba wailed. Wincing slightly, Madoushi stood up and raised and eyebrow at the scene.

"Garden?" He muttered, "Did you see where Makenshi go?"

"I don't know!!! That guy burnt my GARDEN and didn't even apologize!!!" Helba cried. Madoushi flinched again at the high pitch voice and frowned irritably, "Shut up, you stupid woman! How can you call this place a GARDEN?!" He bent down again and grabbed Helba roughly, "Do you know where he went?!"

Helba trembled to see the same furious eyes (except that they are red instead of green...) as Makenshi and stuttered, "I did s-see him g-going there." She pointed southwards and Madoushi groaned slightly.

"Oh no, not the ocean again..." Madoushi stood up and began walking towards south, snapping at the plant woman to stop her irritating wailing.

Pisto sat in his makeshift throne in his damaged Ocean base and tried to think of a plan.

"I need to get Makenshi unconscious first..." Pisto muttered thoughtfully, " That way, he won't be able to attack anyone...but then, how do I make him unconscious?"

After a long time of pondering, Pisto, who had once claim himself as the master of all plotters, was stumped. He did not know what to do in order to stop the grey swordsman. In fact, his brain had told him that it was practically impossible to stop him.

Just when Pisto was about to break down in tears, his makeshift alarm system suddenly sounded, signifying the arrival of an intruder.

Pisto stood from his makeshift throne and muttered in annoyance, "It's probably some stupid animal coming to the ocean for a drink..." He stepped out of the damaged Ocean base and swam to the shore, preparing to eliminate the being that had interrupted his thoughts.

Pisto rose above the sea nonchalantly and was about to summon his water gun when he saw the intruder.

Grey Cloud was standing in the water a few metres away from him, clad only in his pants. His cape and blouse were in his hands, partially washed.

Pisto froze when he saw the frown on Grey Cloud's face.

"What's this? The stupid fishy man again?" Grey Cloud said while shifting his weight from the right leg to left leg, "What are you doing here?"

Pisto sank back immediately into the ocean but the grey swordsman was too fast for him.

"I asked you a question, fish man. Now answer me!" The swordsman growled, tightening his grip on Pisto's head.

Pisto nodded meekly and squeaked, "C-Count-sama sent me to get you."

Grey Cloud raised his eyebrow, "Didn't I told you to tell him that I am down here?" His green eyes narrowed, "Or did you forgot to do that?"

Pisto shook his head frantically, "No, no! I did tell Count-sama! It's just that, he wanted you to go back because, because he wanted to tell you something!"

"Really?" Grey Cloud said suspiciously. Pisto nodded vigorously again. Grey Cloud let go of Pisto's head and turned back to the clothes in his hand.

"I will go back after I done what I need to do, fish man. Tell Count-sama about that."

"B-But, if you do not go back now, Count-sama will be very upset! He, he will probably revert to his big form!" Pisto said hurriedly.

Grey Cloud sighed irritably, "Okay, okay! Just shut up with your pathetic whining! I will go back AFTER I wash my clothes!"

"Oh, wonderful!" Pisto said in relief. He sat down on the water surface. The grey swordsman growled, "What are you doing now?"

"I need to escort you back, White- I mean, Grey Cloud." Pisto said.

"Whatever." Grey Cloud said, reverting back to washing his clothes.

Things went peacefully, until Pisto decided to start up a conversation with the grey swordsman. This would probably be the biggest mistake the fish man made in his blue life as he had forgotten that Grey Cloud was very different from White Cloud.

They were VERY different.

"So, where's Helba?" Pisto said. The grey swordsman raised an eyebrow.

"Who's Helba?" He asked. He paused suddenly before nodding, "Oh, that plant woman. She's probably half-dead."

"Half-dead? What did you do to her?" Pisto asked curiously. Inwardly, he was rubbing his hands together gleefully. This would be the best chance to gain information about the grey swordsman's battle format.

"Burnt down that ridiculous jungle she calls GARDEN and gave a few kicks." Grey Cloud replied nonchalantly. He frowned and looked up, "Can you just shut up for a moment. I need to wash my clothes."

Pisto snapped his mouth shut and returned to staring at the swordsman, observing his weapon of choice.

The two of them kept silent for another moment before Grey Cloud suddenly stood up, holding his blouse and cloak in front of him in triumph.

"Done! Now to dry them..." He moved towards the shore again and hung them on a stumpy tree. Then he sat down and glared at Pisto.

"So... what shall I do with you?"

Pisto jumped from his water seat anxiously, "What? I did not do anything!"

Grey Cloud stared with condescension at the fish man, "You annoy me, fishy man. You were checking out my weapons status, aren't you?"

Pisto was sweating profusely by now, "U-Uh, N-No--"

"Oh," A nasty smile appeared and Grey Cloud's eyes glinted dangerously, " I think you were, fishy man."

The sword was already in his hand. The other one held a mist bottle.

"N-No--"Pisto stuttered, stepping backwards into the water.

"I heard," the grey swordsman said, tossing the mist bottle up and down in his hand, "That the old four Death Lords are tremendously difficult to kill..."

"G-Grey C-Cloud, don't-don't d-do--"

The nasty smile widened.

"Well, aren't you glad about that?" The grey swordsman threw the bottle swiftly into the air and sliced it with the sword.

"White-hot Crescendo!"

To Pisto's surprise, the mist dragon that appeared was rather small. Confidence began to seep back into Pisto as he got his water gun out.

"Is this all you can give me, Makenshi?" Pisto yelled, his water gun ready.

Grey Cloud only laughed chillingly, "Wait and see, fishy man!"

Before Pisto's tiny eyes, the small dragon began to grow as it twirled towards the fish man.

"Crescendo: A sound or a music that began to get louder." The grey swordsman recited cheerfully. It was picked from White Cloud's memory of his lessons with his teacher when he was young.

The mist dragon hit Pisto and pushed the fish man up into the air. It was still expanding. Pisto screamed in terror.

"Be gone, hopefully for good, fishy man!" Grey Cloud yelled after the disappearing Pisto, chuckling darkly before returning to his clothes, which had dried at an astonishing speed.

"Now, I think I should get back to the task at hand..." The grey swordsman said gleefully, straightening his cloak. He picked up his sword and then disappeared in yet another whirl of mist.

Ai flopped down upon a tree root and sighed, "I'm too tired to go on."

Lisa looked around, " I guess we can camp for the night here...the sun is setting..."

Yuu nodded and led Chobi under the tree. Ai scooted away from the yellow bird, afraid that it would chew on her ponytail again.

Lisa turned her head slightly and glanced at Kaze worriedly. She wondered briefly whether the meeting with the grey swordsman had affect the man at all and was about to said something when there was a tremendous shaking of the ground.

Yuu stumbled and held on to the panicky Chobi while Ai yelped and grabbed on to the tree root.

Suddenly, the ground cracked and opened up. Ai screamed as she began to fall, grabbing for Yuu's hand. Yuu caught her as Chobi turned into his warrior form, lifting the siblings onto his back. Lisa seemed to have jumped out of the crack's way and was just inches from the yawning gap, but Kaze seemed to be nowhere in sight.

"Kaze!" Yuu shouted, looking over the gap anxiously, but there was no sign of the man.

"Oh...I hope he managed to escape..." Ai muttered, staring down at the abyss, " This hole seemed to go really deep..."

Kaze looked blankly at the eternal darkness he was currently felling through. However, he wasn't felling in the speed he was expecting; Kaze felt as though he had just plunged into a pool and was just floating amidst the blackness.

The silent man wondered briefly where in the world was he and pondered whether his demon gun would, or could, get him out of here. He glanced down at his right arm before losing that thought; the gun doesn't seem to be in the mood right now.

So Kaze simply relaxed and sort of laid back into the darkness. Since he couldn't do anything, he might as well sort his thoughts out right now and do some meditating to get rid of the time.

Moving into a lotus position, Kaze began to think about the subject that was slightly bothering him: Grey Cloud.

That man had claimed himself to be the alter ego of White Cloud, his eternal rival, and Kaze had noticed that besides the attitude, there wasn't any other difference between the white one and the grey one.

However, there was this...problem that grey swordsman was talking about.

'Something that concerns me?' The black-cloaked man thought rather skeptically. He had thought initially that perhaps this problem of White Cloud might involve killing Kaze in many different ways possible. But after many minutes of rethinking, Kaze remembered that Grey Cloud had many chances to help fulfill that trouble. So that couldn't be the problem.

Kaze sat for another several minutes, thinking so zealously that a white hair might pop up any time. White hair? Does that means White Cloud had so many problems that all his hair turned white? Kaze was about to chuckle when he caught himself.

"Oh no...how long was I here?" He muttered, knowing that he was beginning to think funny thoughts, pun intended, thank you very much. The man shook his head slightly and frowned into the endless blackness. The demon gun might help him get out by summoning the phoenix, but...

Just when Kaze was about to examine his gun for any hidden trigger, there was a burst of light and another figure suddenly appeared. Kaze's frown deepened and his left hand closed around the handle of his red gun.

Then he stopped when he realized who it was.

It was the grey swordsman, swearing with all his might about ruining his clothes or something.

For a moment, Kaze watched the person snarled and growled and literally almost smiled when he realized it was as good as watching White Cloud swearing. Kaze paused suddenly, shocked by his thoughts and shook his head hard. The blankness must have gotten to him more seriously than he had thought.

That action, however, made the grey swordsman notice him and he frowned in Kaze's direction.

"Who is it?" He sort of swam over and blinked when he saw Kaze staring back at him, " Oh, it's you. What are you doing here, and where's here anyway?"

Kaze merely stared at him before replying quietly, "I don't know."

"Hm?" Grey Cloud hummed in surprise, "I thought this was you house or something...seeing that you like black a lot and it's black all over here..."

Kaze gritted his teeth, knowing very well that the swordsman was poking fun of him. He wondered briefly if the white swordsman would do it but pushed it away, for he knew that Grey Cloud was completely different from White Cloud.

"Anyway," Grey Cloud asked conversationally, "How did you get here?"

Kaze remained silent, not wishing to speak to someone who would probably mock his every word. But Grey Cloud poked him in the arm, "Come on. Answer me. If I know how you get here, then we might be able to get out."

Kaze sighed inwardly and spoke, "Ground trembled, ground cracked, gap appeared, fell through it and came here."

Grey Cloud snorted with laughter, "You know, you should've become a tune weaver in our world...you got the words to rhyme! My dear White Cloud couldn't do that to save his life."

Now, Kaze was genuinely interested; it was not everyday you get to hear about the white swordsman's traits and past, for he was a mysterious man.

The grey swordsman smirked as he looked at Kaze, "Interested? I could tell you...cause it'll just irritated Shiroi-chan more."

"Shiroi-chan?" Kaze asked quietly. Grey Cloud waved his hand casually, "Oh, just a small nickname we used in our homeworld...means 'White', you know? Anyway, when Shiroi-chan was around five years old..."

Kaze sat listening attentively as the grey swordsman reeled off White Cloud's childhood stories and took delight in telling those embarrassing events that happened to White Cloud.

Kaze didn't remembered when was the last time he was so interested in something so much. He also didn't recalled when was the last time he talked so much. Listening to Grey Cloud talking about White Cloud seemed to make him speak and ask many things concerning the white swordsman and he had almost laughed several times.

The man vaguely recalled a statement made by someone he sort of knew.

"Rivals are not enemies, Kaze. They are battle buddies instead. Oh, they fight, all right, but they fight because they wanted to know who is stronger, unlike enemies, who fight because they hated each other."

Kaze had considered White Cloud as an enemy once...but that was before he met that man personally. Before, he only remembered his homeworld being destroyed and there was a man in white amidst the ruins... naturally, one would think that man was the evil doer...but after he met White Cloud, Kaze noticed that the man had no intention of killing anyone of them, despite his orders...

So, was White Cloud an enemy, or a battle buddy?

Kaze really didn't know.

Tsuzuka

DONE!!! Oh my goodness, this took AGES!

Well, it's not as long as I wanted it to be, but then, better short than never!

Okay, I admit that everyone is EXTREMELY OOC here...I really can't help it...they have to act like this to let the story go on...I hope you guys would forgive me...

Soo...Kaze had lightened up a little and Grey Cloud's been spreading White Cloud's embarrassing happenings. That poor guy...he must had been screaming and snarling at the grey swordsman the whole time...ah well, he'll come back soon...even if it's for a while... And poor Kaze...confused little git he is now. Heh.

Uhh...I got the idea of the black-water-like stuff thing that the two were stuck in from a book by Garth Nix. Name's The Keys to the Kingdom...heard of that? That black stuff was supposed to be a dimension one had to go through to get to another place...well... I might collaborate that together with this fic...

Well, I think that's about it...as I had said in Dilemma of the Cloud, I am VERY busy these days... and I won't be really free...so, please pardon me if the next update will take a long time...

And finally, PLEASE REVIEW!

XiaoBai.