~~May 3rd, 2019 – The Horrible Ship Ride, Costa Del Sol & Tifa's Birthday~~

It's our second day in Costa Del Sol, and I have to say this again: I'm so GLAD to finally get off that boat! I was hurling during the whole boat ride. Cloud gave a Tranquilizer to help me get over the motion sickness, but it really didn't help. Well, at least he tried to help. It was so horrible. I hate ships!

To top it all off, I had to wear a stupid Shinra sailor suit! I hated it

When were about to go to Junon, Barret threw this at me and was like, "Put it on, kid."

I took it off its landing spot (the top of my head) and I spat, "What the hell is this? I'm not putting this on!"

Barret frowned and yelled, "Listen up, kid! You hafta put on the damn suit! It's either that, or the Combatant uniform!" He pointed to Tifa, Aeris and Red, who were holding their Combatant uniforms in disgust. When he saw me stick out my tongue he continued his yelling, "Now you see what I mean?! Get your scrawny (expletory) in the damn house and put the suit on!"

I was about to stomp into the house and then I turned around and asked him, "What're you putting on, ya big bear?"

He raised his eyebrows at me and then quickly said, "That ain't any of your business!" Then he turned around, hoping I didn't catch that sailor suit that was sticking out of his travel pack.

So anyway, back to the boat ride. While I was busy puking my guts out in the cargo area, I couldn't help hearing an evil laugh. I gave myself another Tranquilizer looked up. I think I saw a guy with a very long blade standing over a dead body and laughing like crazy. It looks like he killed that sailor, so I used my super ninja skills to sneak upstairs. I ran upstairs with super stealth and hoped he didn't see me. I think I saw that guy somewhere before, but I can't remember where.

Just when I reached the top of the stairs, I heard an alarm sound and some guy on a radio say, "Emergency alert! Reports of a suspicious character found!"

I gulped. That was probably us, or maybe that crazy guy with the long sword. I was trying to think of where I saw that guy, but I saw Cloud and everyone else. I ran towards them and we started talking.

Cloud asked us if we were all right before we started talking about real business. I was petrified again, and I couldn't say anything about the guy with the long sword.

Tifa looked around. "Everyone's here, right?" She looked around at all of us and when she realized that we were all here, she looked relieved.

I was just staring at Barret now. I was going to start laughing. He looked so dumb in his sailor suit! He looked harmless! He looked like...a bear wearing a marshmallow! Barret caught me trying to stop myself from laughing out loud and glared at me before he put in his two cents. "Hey, wait. You don't think that suspicious character is Sephiroth!?"

I stopped laughing. Now I remembered where I saw that guy with the long sword. Dad showed me a picture of him when I was 11. Dad said that Sephiroth was a great hero before he died. I thought so too. Now I think that Sephiroth is a monster.

Tifa looked surprised. "Really?!"

Barret looked at her and rudely asked, "How the hell am I supposed to know?"

"Um," I heard myself saying. Everyone looked at me. I wish they wouldn't.

Cloud smiled at me with that usual comforting smile of his and said, "Go on, Yuffie."

I gathered up my courage and said, "I think I saw him downstairs!"

Cloud raised his eyebrows, walked up to me and put his hands on my shoulders while everyone else stood there, looking shocked. "What did he do, Yuffie? Did he hurt you?"

I looked at him and told him, "He killed someone and he was laughing about it. I sneaked away before he even saw me."

Cloud looked angry, but sort of relieved. "It's a good thing you got out of there while you could, Yuffie. I don't know what we could have done without you."

I smiled and Barret snorted. Cloud's so nice. I'm glad he's the official leader instead of the bear wearing a marshmallow. I forgot all about my motion sickness until the boat started bobbing in the water strongly. I sat down and tried not to hurl in front of everyone.

Cloud looked stood in the middle of our circle and looked around at all of us. "Let's find out what he's going to do."

Red nodded, "It's the most logical thing to do. Then, who's going to go?"

I shook my head and said, "N, not me. I don't even like Sephiroth anyway. And besides," I stopped talking because I was about to puke again. I ran to the side of the ship and started to puke. Aeris joined me and started tapping my back.

"You guys go on ahead. I'll stay with Yuffie," she told the others. Aeris is a nice person too. I guess her bad past taught her to be nicer than other people are.

The rest of them nodded and ran downstairs. Aeris and the surviving Shinra sailor nearby helped take care of my motion sickness. It wasn't long until some guy on the radio say that the boat will be docking in Costa Del Sol (yay, a beach!) in 5 minutes.

"Let's go hide until the boat's docked, Yuffie," Aeris told me. Then she turned to the Shinra sailor, "Thank you so much for your help, sir."

We started walking away while the sailor waved at us and said, "My pleasure! And thanks for the flower!"

Aeris and I met up with the others after the boat docked. The others told us about their fight against Jenova. Aeris and I missed a lot! Damn my motion sickness!

Barret spoke up, "Damn! Sure is hot in here! But I sure feel better now that I could say good-bye to this sailor suit! Yo listen up!! Y'all be sure to mingle like regular folks here!

I didn't hear his second sentence. I started laughing again. This time I laughed out loud.

Aeris sounded like she didn't understand the hilarity of the situation, "Oh, that's too bad. I really liked Barret's sailor suit. He looked so cute."

Barret frowned at her, "Whatcha mean 'cute'?"

Tifa tried changing the subject, but one look at Barret changed her objective. "Right, well uh, Barret, why don't you use that sailor suit for pyjamas?" She turned to Cloud, "Right, Cloud?"

Cloud looked at Barret. Shortly after, he looked like he was trying to stop himself from laughing. "Ahh, you look like a bear wearing a marshmallow," he said, trying to stop himself from laughing out loud.

I laughed even harder because that's what I think too. Barret got really steamed and started stomping his feet on the deck.

Red started coughing. I turned and saw that he looking kinda sick. The poor guy. He said that the sun was drying his nose. I felt sorry for him and said that mine was too. The rest of the group raised their eyebrows at me. I thought it over and decided that what I said was really stupid.

"All right," Cloud said, breaking the silence, "We'll take a break and then head off. Don't wander far off."

Red sighed and looked very relieved. "It looks like my mane got messed up. I'm going to rest somewhere cool." With that, he slowly walked in the direction of the main part of the town.

Finally! A beach! Now's the time to relax! "Don't bother looking for me!" I yelled as I ran into the main part of the town.

When I reached the bridge that connected the town to the docks, I saw a guy trying to find a girl to help him sell materia. That was a big opportunity for me to steal some materia. But then I changed my mind. What would the others think? Besides, I could steal their materia instead. They trust me now and wouldn't expect me to do what I'm gonna do. I'd better lay low for now.

"Yuffie?" I heard Aeris say behind me. "Aren't you going down to the beach with the rest of us?" she asked me.

I nodded and went with her. For a beach resort, there's really nothing for a teenager to do except to relax to the beach. Tifa shortly joined us. She said she saw one of her old friends, but she'd like to relax before she caught up on old times. We walked down to the beach and Aeris stopped in her tracks.

"What's the matter?" I asked her.

Tifa looked at what Aeris was looking at and gasped.

"What the heck are you looking at?" I asked angrily. I was being left out. I pushed myself between their bodies and looked at what they were looking at.

They were looking at a pale ugly old scientist-type guy. Gross! And he was surrounded by a whole bunch of googly-eyed girls who were feeding him food and massaging his feet! Double gross!

We didn't notice Cloud sneak up behind us. "What're you three staring at?"

Aeris turned around and said, "Oh Cloud!!" She was obviously too surprised to say anything else.

Tifa pointed at the ugly old man and said, "Look at that!!"

Cloud looked above their heads. "Hm? Who, Hojo? Is that man over there Hojo?"

Tifa nodded and commanded him to "go over there and talk to him". Cloud walked over to where that guy Hojo was (surrounded by all those girls...you'd think he paid them or something). Tifa, Aeris and I followed him.

One of the girls looked up at Cloud and the rest of us and shrieked, "God!! What do you want?"

Cloud ignored her rudeness and pointed to Hojo. "I want to talk with that man," he commanded.

The rude girl mumbled something that sounded like "who do you think you are, you punk?" and said, "Professor Hojo, that scary man says he wants to talk to you."

Hojo just sat in his chair with his eyes closed. "I'm busy right now."

The rude girl looked at Cloud again and tried making up an excuse (it looked like Cloud scared her), but she got up the courage to say, "Too bad."

Hojo looked up. He looked like he recognized Cloud, Tifa and Aeris. "No," he said, "I remember you all now. Yes, Yes. I remembered now." He got up from his chair. "It's been a long time, Cloud. Well, sometimes you've got to do something like this."

What a weirdo! I don't even want to think about what he's doing.

Cloud gave him a puzzled look, "What are you doing?"

"It should be obvious," he said, "I'm getting a tan."

Ugh...He SHOULD be getting a tan...but...gross!

Cloud didn't take him seriously, "Answer me!"

Hojo grinned. "Hmm! I believe we're after the same goal."

"You mean Sephiroth," Cloud said.

"Did you see him?" Hojo asked, walking up to Cloud. After examining Cloud's face, he started laughing as if he knew something we didn't.

Cloud got mad, "What is it?"

Hojo stopped laughing and said innocently, "Nothing. I just remembered a certain hypothesis." He looked at Cloud closely. "Haven't you had the feeling someone is calling you? Or that you had to visit some place?"

"I'll go anywhere Sephiroth is at!" Cloud exclaimed, "To beat him and put an end to all this!"

Hojo grinned. "I see. This can be interesting. Were you in SOLDIER?" He laughed. "Would you like to be my guinea pig?"

At this point, Cloud looked really pissed off and started to draw his sword.

Hojo didn't stop there. "Oh, now what? Are you going to draw your sword?" Hojo laughed again.

As much as this guy pissed me off, I didn't want him to die, yet. "Stop Cloud!" I yelled, clutching onto his arm, "If he dies, we won't get anymore information!"

Cloud looked down at me and then put his sword away. I sighed, relieved.

Hojo laughed again, then he turned to Aeris. "Say, aren't you the 'Ancient'?"

"I'm Aeris. The least you can do is remember my name, Professor Hojo," Aeris said sternly. "I know I'm an Ancient. My mother told me."

I grinned. Aeris was showing Hojo some attitude. At least SOMEONE was standing up to him. I was just kinda surprised that it was Aeris.

Hojo didn't look damaged. "Your mother?" he asked, and when seeing Aeris getting angrier than she already was, he quickly said, "Oh, you mean Ifalna. How is she?"

A flicker of sadness crossed Aeris' face when she exclaimed, "You didn't know?! She died."

Hojo turned around and simply said, "I see."

Aeris was full of questions. "Professor Hojo, is Jenova an Ancient? Is Sephiroth an Ancient? Do we all have the same blood?"

Hojo started mumbling and sat back in his chair.

Mumbling equals you're hiding something, which I pointed out. Even after our cries for Hojo to answer us, he still said nothing. Cloud gave up and told us to split up and have fun.

I went swimming. I haven't been swimming in a long time. I was really nice to relax after days of materia hunting and fighting. Aeris was sleeping in the inn. Tifa went to visit her childhood friend, Johnny. Red was resting in the shadows of two buildings, hitting a soccer ball to some kids with his tail. Cloud was all over the place, checking up on all of us. He should really learn how to relax! He has to work the hardest out of us all.

Where was Barret, you ask? Well, I didn't see him during the day. When I came into the inn, after a day of relaxation (and trying to find Tifa a birthday present), I wanted to go into the bathroom for a shower. When I knocked on the door, I heard gunshots and a Barret-like voice yell, "Hey, yo!! Someone's in here, awright!!"

Apparently, our dear friend Barret spent the whole day in the bathroom trying on his sailor suit. I didn't even get to shower until 11:00, which was when he came out and announced that he was going to the pub.

Gawd...Anyway today's Tifa's 20th birthday. We let her sleep in today and when she woke up, we surprised her with a big breakfast. We invited her friend Johnny too. She was so happy, she started to cry. She thanked us over and over. We had to get going quickly, so we had the birthday cake (vanilla with blue flowers on it – Aeris and I baked it) and we gave her our presents by the time it was 10. All of us didn't have a lot of time to find Tifa a birthday present because we were busy fighting and hiding.

Barret gave Tifa a Fire Ring that he found in the old Shinra villa (he didn't tell her that he found it in the Shinra villa, otherwise she would've told him to take it back).

Aeris gave Tifa some hairpins that she made herself. They looked so pretty. Aeris decorated them with pink, blue, white and purple flowers. She dried the flowers and then stuck them on the hairpins she bought at the Item Shop in Costa Del Sol.

Red gave Tifa a Star Pendant. I have no idea where or how he got it. Tifa was very thankful and gave a pat on his nose.

Cloud gave Tifa a necklace he made from the necklace taken from a Star Pendant and Tifa's materia. I remembered Tifa saying that she couldn't find her materia (because she unequipped herself before she went to visit Johnny), but I guess that's where it all went. It looked so beautiful. Four materia, Tifa's "Steal", "Enemy Skill", "Seal" and "Heal" materia, all in one necklace. That was so sweet of Cloud!

I didn't know Tifa as long as the others did and I tried to find out what she liked and what she didn't like. It was hard. I was never good at thinking of gifts for other people. I looked everywhere in Costa Del Sol and tried to find the perfect gift for Tifa. I learned from Cloud that she used to play the piano when she was little and she would really want to play the piano again. I also know that she needed an upgrade for her glove, which was a Mythril Claw (which was slowly coming apart). It's too bad I couldn't find a portable piano, but I did find her an upgraded glove. I gave her a Motor Drive (which I bought off some guy standing outside the Shinra villa) and I threw in a Carbon Bangle too. She looked very grateful and gave me a hug.

Lastly, Johnny gave Tifa a very expensive-looking bracelet. It was loaded with rubies! We all stared at it while Tifa held it in her hands. I wonder how much he paid for it.

After the partying was finished, Cloud gave us one hour to get ready before we leave. I didn't have any business to finish up, so I'm writing again. That's basically what happened for the past few days.