They Live!!!!!
By: GQ and Zhak
Chapter Fourteen: Yuffie Snaps
Wutai…
Yuffie jumped from stone to stone; she felt that her feet barely touched those stones as she continued her way up a mountain. When she finally reached the top, she just stood still, panting hard but she was relieved to have reached it in less than five minutes. She was becoming more agile compared to before. It turned out that training with Zack really did wonders for her… and she even improved in her rope lessons. She smiled to herself, "I'm sure dad will be so proud of me…" she thought before gazing down at the area below the mountain from where she was standing at the edge. A strong breeze began to blow from behind her, giving her a slight push that almost made her fall off, but she maintained her balance. She brushed off her own hair that blew against her face when the wind blew against her. "GAWDS!!! I could've killed myself!" she wailed in annoyance before looking down again, then up at the orangey skies. It was already sunset. She gazed into the horizon before her and wondered silently what her friends are doing at that moment.
"I miss them," she sighed out loud, blowing a few strands of her bangs away from her face. "Life's boring without them."
She decided at that moment that she was tired of training. She wearily started walking back home to the Pagoda and maybe see her father again drinking tea. But then, an idea struck her.
Lord Godo had repeatedly been telling her to mingle with the townspeople more often, especially after they arrived from Midgar. "After all, you'll be their ruler someday. You should try to get to know them," he had been telling her a dozen times. "And don't worry, they aren't as violent or rude as those people in Midgar. Wutaians are humbler people."
"Well… it's better than moping around the house," she said to herself as she started hopping down the ledges of the mountain. As soon as she reached the bottom, she jogged towards the nearest tea-house. There would be people there… and pretty much everybody knew her name already. "I guess it's time to go mingle," she thought.
She entered the tea-house. The aroma of freshly brewed tea floated to her nostrils. The locals looked up at her; some gaped and some minded their own businesses again. She smiled uneasily. "Eh… hi…" she uttered meekly as she made her way towards the stools in front of the counter (the place is sort of modeled after a modern bar… it somewhat reminded her of the 7th Heaven). There was an elderly couple sitting there, chatting with each other. They looked up at Yuffie.
"Ah! What a beautiful young lady!" the lady said, looking at her up and down. Yuffie smiled uneasily at her.
Okay… mingle. Be social. "Hi! I'm Yuffie Kisaragi! Daughter of Lord Godo…" she said, forcing her friendliest smile.
The gentleman touched his chin in thought. "That Lord Godo fellow… he's the leader of this place, right?" he asked.
"W-ell… yeah…"
"So that makes you almost a Princess!" the lady gasped. Yuffie raised an eyebrow, but still tried not to look rude. The couple noticed her discomfort. "Oh—forgive us, child. We moved from our old place, you see, since President ShinRa wanted to place another Mako Reactor near our hometown after the other exploded! So, we aren't so familiar with your country yet…" she said apologetically.
Yuffie shook her head. "Oh, no, ma'am, it's all right. I know what it's like to be a foreigner… kinda," she said, thinking of the first time she stepped foot in Midgar—everybody looked at her as a typical Wutaian tourist or something. "So, where were you guys originally from?"
"Gongaga…" the gentleman replied, sighing. "I know, child, that old country of ours is poor, poverty-stricken… but it was a cozy place…" He sighed again. "We would have stayed longer, if President ShinRa didn't plan to build another Reactor."
Before Yuffie could explain to them that President ShinRa was dead and that they didn't need to worry anymore, the lady spoke again. "Ah, yes. I wanted to stay longer… so that Zack would have moved with us here. I wish he came back then…"
Yuffie froze. "Z… Zack?" she asked in a small voice.
The couple nodded. "Our son."
The wife smiled. "Poor Zack… he would have liked Wutai. It's so peaceful here… but if we stayed in Gongaga any longer, we might have died."
Yuffie felt a bit dizzy at that moment. "Uh… uhm… why wasn't your son with you? Could you tell me more about, uhm… Zack?" she asked.
The gentleman sipped his tea and closed his eyes. "Zack is a nice boy… he left home when he was 16 since, you know, we were a poor family and all…"
His wife got a hanky to wipe a few tears off her eyes. "He wanted to go to Midgar and get a job as a SOLDIER. He planned to serve ShinRa and send us part of his salary to help…"
"The thing is, though, sometime later, he didn't send us anything, or contact us… we thought maybe he had a busy life in the Big City, after all."
"We kept sending him letters, though. And brownies, too, since the boy loved his brownies. We told him to come back anytime to Gongaga to see his folks again when he had the time…"
"And just recently, he did write us again… but he said he had a different job this time. He didn't tell where, but it was bodyguard duty, he tells us."
"He wrote letters to us every week, telling us about his duties as a bodyguard to this pretty young lady whom he had described of kind of annoying but cute. Heh heh,"
"And in the latest, oh we were so happy when Zack wrote to us that he could be falling in love with the girl," the man said, laughing. "But he said that we shouldn't expect grandchildren so soon."
Yuffie blushed, but kept listening: "But we really want to see him again. He didn't tell us where he is working as a bodyguard, though, because he says it's very confidential."
Yuffie thought for a while, feeling her heart beating faster by the minute, "Did he… mention her name?" she asked.
"No, 'fraid not." The man told her with a dismayed look on his face.
"But he did describe her, right?" the woman asked in curiosity. The man nodded and smiled back at Yuffie. "Well yes… and come to think of it, the way we pictured her when he described her to us; it's like he's talking about you!" he said.
"OH MY GAWD!!!!!" Yuffie shrieked, surprising everyone, including the couple; and she just rushed out of the teahouse as fast as she could in tears.
Lord Godo was in his pagoda, drinking his late afternoon tea, when he heard loud stomping footsteps approaching him. He didn't need to ask who it was even if his eyes were closed (he's concentrating); he already knew who it was: "Yuffie, dear, please stop that. You might destroy the pagoda," he said sternly.
Yuffie stopped when she had finally approached him. She was panting hard and tears were streaming down her face, although she had a very angry look. Her hair was really messed up and she was sweaty too. "Daddy…" she snarled, scaring the servants, making them step backwards away from her and her father.
"Yes darling?" her father asked coolly as he opened his eyes calmly… and then he jerked up in surprise and accidentally let go of his teacup when he saw the enraged look on his daughter's face. "Wh…what the--?! A monster?!" he cried out in shock.
She shrieked at his face, "GAWDS!!!!! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?!?!?" she fell on her knees and took her father's hands in hers. "How could you do this to Zack?! He was only trying to work for a living so that he could support his poor parents… OH THE HUMANITY!!!!! And now poor Zacky is suffering because he can't send money to his folks and… and… WHAT IF THEY DIE IN POVERTY!!!??? You are such a bad ruler, daddy! You don't care about the oppressed!!! HOW COULD YOU???!!!!!" she was shouting frantically.
Silence.
"Wh…what?" Lord Godo asked in confusion.
"AAARGH!!! GAWDS! You won't even listen to me??!!!" she shrieked in her spoiled-brat way and got up, stomping her way towards the main house itself and headed for the place where she could use the telephone.
Midgar…
"And then for the next quarter, I expect the sales to be…" Rufus ShinRa trailed off when his mobile phone began to ring. Everybody fell silent. He got it from his pocket, "Pardon me…" he told his new executives [composed of Scarlet (still on the Weapons Department), Reeve (Urban Development), Sephiroth (Peace Keepings---since Rufus imprisoned Heidegger for his loyalty to Old Man), and Lucrecia (the new head of the merged Science and Space Development Division)] and the Turks (composed of Vincent, Tseng, Rude, Reno and Elena) before staring at the caller I.D. An unknown number. He answered the call with a frown on his face, "Yes?"
He had to withdraw the mobile phone from his ear when somebody just shrieked shrilly from the other line. The others also heard it. Rufus realized that it'd be rather dangerous for his eardrums if he puts the phone close to his ear again, so he just set it on loudspeaker mode so that the others could hear it as well. "Is this some kind of a joke?!" he demanded angrily.
"YOU!!! You and all the other megalomaniacs I know!!! I HATE YOU ALL!!!" a familiar voice shrieked from the speaker, making the phone vibrate violently.
Rufus raised an eyebrow. "Yuffie? Whatever are you talking about?"
"And you even have the nerve to act IGNORANT! You're the reason why there are oppressed people! GAWDS!" A loud click followed. Yuffie just hung up the phone.
Rufus, dumbfounded, looked at his employees, hoping for an explanation.
Reno was the only one who responded. "PMS?" he shrugged.
Sephiroth just laughed.
Rufus decided to redial the number to talk to Yuffie again.
Yuffie was wiping her tears away when she heard the phone ringing again. "I have to find Zack…" she was thinking silently before going to the phone and mindlessly picked up the receiver and answered it. She greeted in Wutaian.
And the person on the other line replied in Wutaian, asking her what was the commotion all about.
Her eyes widened. "ARGH!!! It's you again, you Megalomaniac!" she shrieked.
"Oh finally you can speak in English again," Rufus told her with an arrogant tone. "And stop calling me a Megalomaniac. You must have me confused with Old Man."
Yuffie frowned. "Like father, like son they always say," she told him snottily.
"Oh… how dare you… and you're just like your father: stubborn and…" he stopped when he heard her sniff.
Elena was surprised. She got up from her seat and rushed to Rufus and she asked Yuffie, "Are you crying?", since it's still in loudspeaker mode.
Sephiroth stopped laughing, knowing that the situation suddenly sounded serious.
Giving up, Yuffie just wiped her tears away, "Is Zack there?" she asked weakly.
The other line paused.
She thought that they had hung up on her because it was too quiet. Thinking the line's dead already, she just proceeded, "Go ahead… hang up… but I'll still look for him… I know he's still there and… I want him back here… because…"
"MWAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Silence.
Scarlet, Reeve and Tseng had to jump onto Sephiroth to restrain him from laughing, covering his mouth. "Mrwh…" Sephiroth struggled to laugh.
"You ruined the moment!" Lucrecia pointed out to her son.
"OH MY GAWD!!!!! YA'LL HEARD WHAT I SAID?!?!?" they heard Yuffie shriek from the other line.
"Duh." Reno pointed out.
Silence.
BOOG.
The sound of a person dropping down on wooden floor.
Then there was the dial tone.
"I think she fainted…" Elena stated flatly.
"Whatever." Rufus said before ending the call completely and just proceeded, "Anyway, back to business…"
"Yuffie! Yuffie!!!" Lord Godo was shaking his daughter hard in panic.
Yuffie slowly opened her eyes and looked up at her father. She shrieked and pushed him away from herself, "GAWDS!!! Don't you dare touch me!" she instantly got up and ran off from her father, proceeding to her own room.
Lord Godo plus some other servants followed after her, but they could not keep up with her ninja speed. By the time they reached about 10 feet from the door, she already shut the door. Violently.
The servants looked at their master questioningly. Lord Godo just sighed wearily. "Never mind. She's just in one of her moods. Tomorrow, she'll be in her usual, chipper self…"