Emerald Princess of Vernea
Chapter TwoYuffie kept her head held high as she ran up the stairs towards the second floor of the pagoda. Her eyes were firmly fixed on each of the stairs as she ran up, her mind entirely focused on defeating her next opponent. Her shuriken was still in her hand – the blades now wiped clean of blood, ready to fight again.
The young ninja was somewhat nervous as she powered her way up the wooden stairs, followed closely by Cloud and the others. This was the first time she had ever defeated Gorky, and so this was the first time she had ever climbed the stairs to the second floor. Defeating the Sacred Gods was the only way to climb the pagoda – there were no exceptions to this rule. And right now Yuffie was pumped up, and ready to defeat each and every one of the Sacred Gods.
The door to the next floor was just ahead of her, and Yuffie narrowed her eyes and ran harder. The door was already open, she could see the light beyond, and she felt a sudden surge of anxiety hit her, making her feel sick to her stomach. She very nearly stopped, overcome by her anxiety. But no, Yuffie just swallowed hard and pushed away that large lump in her throat, and burst through the door and onto the second floor.
She had expected a change of scenery as she ran out onto the second floor, but was surprised to find that the room was exactly the same as the first floor. The décor was identical, from the panelled walls to the door leading to the third floor. For a moment Yuffie gazed at that door, wondering if she would be able to make it to the third floor. Of course before that she had to defeat the God of the second floor, so she turned her attention ahead of her to look at her next opponent.
To her surprise, she saw that Shake was standing ahead of her, and not her next opponent. The little kid, who was probably no more than maybe ten or twelve years old, was standing where her opponent should have been, his arms folded as though he was waiting for something. Yuffie looked around the room for her opponent, clearly unable to grasp the obvious. The only people in the room were herself, Shake, Cloud and the others. Normally they would not be allowed to climb the pagoda, but since they were accompanying Yuffie, Gorky had made an exception.
When she was finished looking around the otherwise empty room, Yuffie turned back to Shake. "Who's next?" she demanded of him, glaring at him through fierce eyes.
Shake raised an eyebrow and scowled at her angrily, wondering if the girl was joking or not. He would have thought it was obvious considering where he was standing, and wondered if she was as dumb as she looked. "Are you blind? I'm right here!"
Now it was Yuffie's turn to wonder whether he was joking. She stared at his face, and when it finally hit her that he was being serious, she jumped back in shock. "What?" she asked in disbelief. "I gotta fight a punk?"
"Heh! Punk," Shake replied, smirking slyly as he glared at Yuffie. "I'm more of an adult than some bimbo girl!"
"Wh, what did you say?" Yuffie snapped angrily, tightening her grip on her shuriken. She longed to run over there and wipe that little smirk off his face – give him a bit of this and a bit of that, and end it all with a great big swiping of THAT! She could not believe that a little kid would be the God in charge of the second floor. She clenched her fists as she swiped her shuriken in front of her, showing off her skill.
Unfortunately, Shake did not seem to be in the least bit intimidated by her anger. He just watched as she twirled her shuriken round and round, the smile on his face getting wider and wider as she got angrier and angrier.
"See what I mean?" he asked her, pointing at her rudely. "That kind of anger's what makes you so immature" Shake then pushed himself away from the wall and took a few steps towards her, standing in the starting spot. He then raised his fists, ready to fight. "Don't pat yourself on the back until you beat me!"
Never one to back down from a challenge, Yuffie also raised her fists, glaring at Shake through the gap between her blades. "Now watch…!" she said.
Again Shake laughed at her anger. "'Bout the only thing your do really good is breath!" he said. He was more amused by her than afraid, and clearly enjoyed making her even more angry. "Sure you're brave enough to fight?"
"Stop yappin'!" Yuffie ordered, losing her patience with the brat.
"Hm, so someone finally got past Gorky."
Yuffie looked out of the corner of her eyes as someone stepped out of the third floor doorway. This person was female, but dressed very manly as she was the same kind of kimono as Gorky, although hers was white and had a purple tunic over the top. She had a head of very long black hair that had been pulled up to the top of her head, secured by an elastic band. She stopped in the corner by the door, looking out at Shake and Yuffie.
Now Yuffie understood. Shake hadn't just been some observer watching the fight. As one of the Sacred Gods of the pagoda, he had been there to referee the fight, and make sure that the challenger did indeed earn the right to progress to the next floor. That meant that if she defeated Shake, then this woman would be her next opponent on the third floor.
"So, I guess it's time for Chekhov to stand in…" Shake said, shrugging his shoulders. Chekhov was there to make sure that Yuffie passed fairly, but Shake knew that she would not reach the third floor. He turned back to Yuffie, giving her his best smirk. "Here I go, brat! Speed Change!"
The second trial then began. Shake closed his eyes and threw his arms up into the air. At the same time a white cloud began to rise up from the ground, seeping out through the cracks in the floorboards just as Gorky's had done. Instead of swirling around Shake the cloud gathered and formed a ghostly barrier between Shake and Yuffie, like a line daring her to cross. When the wall was fully complete Shake lowered his arms and charge forward, straight through the wall.
When he emerged from the cloud, he was no longer the bratty little boy known as Shake. As with Gorky, the magic of the cloud transformed his body into that of a monster. The monster that Shake became would test the limits of Yuffie's speed and accuracy, forcing her to focus.
The monster he became was very different from Gorky's, and one that Cloud recognised from the rocky plains around Cosmo Canyon. The monster looked like some oversized penguin, with sharp green spikes on the end of its fur-tipped fins and tail. Its eyes were a piercing but empty green, and its hair was a fiery mass of green and red.
The Shake-monster zipped out of the cloud, moving so fast that Yuffie barely had time to dodge. As she jumped aside she felt the sharp sting of the spikes as they scraped her skin, and when she looked down she saw a number of quick cuts in her thigh. The monster was incredibly fast – much faster than she had imagined.
By the time Yuffie turned around, Shake was on the attack again. He zoomed towards her, his clawed feet scraping loudly on the ground as he ran. Again Yuffie was forced to jump up into the air to avoid him, but once again she felt the sting of his spikes as they scraped into her skin.
The longer the battle went on, the more it seemed to become a game of dodge than a fight. Shake moved so fast that Yuffie could not make any kind of attack, for by the time she finished dodging one assault, Shake was already making his next. It was all Yuffie could do just to avoid him.
As Shake began his tenth assault, Yuffie had an idea. As she landed she jumped straight up into the air, for once completely missing Shake. As Yuffie jumped up higher, she threw her shuriken ahead of her. The blades caught onto the wooden ceiling and became stuck.
Yuffie grabbed onto the blade as she caught up to it and swung her body upside down, pushing her feet firmly against the ceiling. The shuriken did not fall from the ceiling and Yuffie remained perched upside down on the ceiling, looking down at the arena below her.
Down below, Shake looked up at her through his fierce green eyes. For a moment Yuffie could have sworn that beak-face of his was smirking. He knew that Yuffie could not move fast enough to attack him – she didn't even know where he was coming from half the time.
"What's the matter, brat?" he squawked loudly, his voice distorted as he tried to speak through the beak of the bird monster. "Think you can hit me from up there?"
Yuffie's lip curled angrily, barely able to contain her rage. "Shut up!" she shouted back at him. "I'll get you when I'm ready, LOUDMOUTH!"
Then Yuffie stopped, as an idea suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks. 'Loudmouth'… Of course, that would be her advantage in this battle. Shake had transformed into a creature designed for speed, and with those claws and the wooden floors, he was making an awful lot of noise when he made his attacks. If she could listen to him carefully, she should be able to anticipate where he was going to attack.
Her mind made up, Yuffie opened her eyes and sneered down at Shake. "Watch out, brat!" she said, returning the insult. "I'm comin' down!"
With that Yuffie pulled her shuriken free from the ceiling and pushed herself down towards the ground. As she expected Shake made a sudden dash away from the middle, moving out of her way as she came falling down, flipping over just in time so she didn't land on her head.
Instead of getting up again, Yuffie remained where she was and closed her eyes, trying to listen for the sounds of Shake moving. She could easily hear the sound of his clawed feet as they scrambled across the wood, moving round and round the room at top speed to taunt her. Yuffie kept her eyes closed and followed the sounds of the scrambling, waiting for that moment when Shake would attack.
That moment came soon enough. The rhythm of the scrambling became erratic, as Shake swerved towards her. Yuffie instantly knew which direction he was coming from and spun round, swinging her shuriken behind her with a mighty cry.
She hit him right on the mark. The blade sliced through the creature's neck, and the head went flying up into the air. The monster's legs meanwhile kept on running, skidding and crashing limply into the wall. Yuffie stood solid, until she heard the head crash on the floor, and turned around.
Behind her, she could see the two halves of the monster. As she watched, white smoke began to rise from the ground around the two halves, absorbing them back into the magical forces. By the time the clouds faded only Shake remained, standing where the legs had fallen by the wall. He looked pretty angry, and as Yuffie watched him, he kicked at the wall.
"URRGRAAAAGH!" he shouted, annoyed. "So you CAN fight a bit!"
Now it was Yuffie's turn to smirk, the pleasure clearly visible in her face. "Of course!" she exclaimed. She made no attempt to hide the smugness in her voice. She soon stopped smirking as she heard an amused laugh behind her.
"Ho, ho, ho…" Chekhov mused, applauding the battle. "It's been a while since I felt pain…" She then turned and walked back out of the door, heading up towards the third floor again.
Yuffie watched her go, feeling the reality of the situation slowly sink in. She had just gained access to the third floor of the pagoda, and earned her chance to fight Chekhov. Already her body was beginning to feel a little weary, but she was not about to give up just yet.
Walking over towards the door, Yuffie paused for a moment and looked back at Shake. The boy was still sulking by the wall, glaring at Yuffie through angry eyes. Yuffie responded by sticking out her tongue rudely, before she laughed and headed up the stairs towards the next floor of the pagoda.
Emerald: A little note about Chekhov. I sometimes find it a little hard to tell whether NPC's are male or female. I got the impression from looking at Chekhov that it was a woman, so I stuck with that. Sorry if any of you prefer her as male.