Rei: Here's my response to the challenge I got from Kawaii Eyez, and this is what the challenge is:

One-shot

Any category

Genre: angstish

Length: around 600--1000 words or a little over

Theme: courage

Due date: Monday the 16th

Dedicated to: Kai because she gave me a challenge! I love challenges by the way… XD nudge nudge

Disclaimer- If I owned Kingdom Hearts… hmm I'll leave that to my imagination and to your curiosity. But I don't own it. T.T

Summary: The last stand, the last fight, one more dance for the ninja who dislikes the word courage. One-shot

The Last Ballad- Yuffe centric oneshot

"Speech"

'Thought'

In the Dark Depths-

Normal POV

Courage is a word that Yuffie Kisaragi hardly ever used.

It was a word that she believed in, yes, but never did she consider herself courageous, a 'hero-type' figure.

No, that belonged to the Keyblade Master, all of his friends, and the 'stronger' people, like Squall and Cloud.

She was the hyper-active 17-year-old girl who kicked ass with her giant Shuriken and mad ninja skills and she'd always be the one to never give up in who she believed deserved to be called a hero.

But it's times like this when she's trapped in a corner and surrounded by tons of heartless that somehow managed to survive- is when she actually thought about it while trying not to get herself killed.

Then again, it's also times like this the only weapon she's got is fear, which turns into anger, and anger morphs into rage, and then she beats the heck out of the heartless so that she doesn't have to be afraid.

Yuffie would KNOW what courage is, and what it means. She just refuses to say it because she hates to elaborate on a word she doesn't care to use.

Despite that, she is brave, and it shows. It's because she could have just run and left the Heartless to take defenseless victims, but she wouldn't do that- because she had a weapon, and she was supposed to PROTECT the people. She may be absent-minded sometimes, but she wouldn't forget her duty.

It's also when she continues to scream at them, telling them about how many Heartless she's killed and how she wouldn't let them get the best of her shows how much she is afraid, afraid of the darkness. Her bottom lip quivers a bit and sweat breaks out under her head band and she continually looks around her to make sure none of the Heartless are trying to sneak up on her, waiting to tear out her heart and lungs and anything they could get their disgusting little claws on.

She thinks to herself, 'Yuffie, you freaking idiot, why did you HAVE to fight with Squall and end up being stuck by yourself in this mess!' But despite your regret it doesn't make what you want to happen occur because you're supposed to learn from your mistakes. That's the way the world works, and she hated that.

She'll fight to the end, all right, but she isn't completely alone in the fact where she's always got that sneaking suspicion that someone hates her or Fate sucks because she doesn't always want to deal with what she's given in life. It's a little childish past time that a lot of people don't like to let go of.

She fights with the grace of a dancer, only this dancer happens to have a very dangerous metal four-point shuriken in her hands. This was her last ballad, and she would fight well. Even if she's that little tomboyish-y girl who hates to go clothes shopping and would rather fight than go on a sugary fake date with a guy who only wants to suck face, she has that thought where she wished that somebody, ANYBODY, would come out and get her out of this mess.

But Squall's too pissed off at her to worry for long and Aerith isn't physical strength oriented, Cloud's got too much of a big stick up his butt to worry about her, even IF she was the only female he could seemingly tolerate# (surprise surprise), Tifa was off probably chasing Cloud around and Sora and his friends were off running around the worlds while she was stuck here, so she had no one.

As she looks around her and sees that still there is a lot left and her Shuriken is stuck in the ground 10 feet away, hell, she'd even take that freaky SEPHIROTH guy as long as he didn't kill her once he was finished with them.

But then again, Yuffie is Yuffie, and she doesn't like being a damsel in distress. She'd rather try to kick your ass before she might be beaten and only then she'd admit she was out of line (not without some arguments though). She doesn't want to be saved because she wants to be just like them, and die a hero and to show everyone she didn't want to run away.

Sometimes it's not good enough, and that's why her parents died, while she lived, and now, she might end up disappearing the same way, and that's what kept her going to keep fighting until her very last breath, she smiles because she might've just gotten rid of the last Heartless in the world so damn, the people better be grateful.

Yuffie Kisaragi was the most courageous girl they'd ever seen, with her grin still in place she strides into town bleeding all over heck with her giant Shuriken at her side, but it isn't enough and soon she wears out and she crashes to the ground, and still she doesn't let go of that smile. She was a hero, and darn it, she was going to die smiling.

Because nobody can defy fate like she can.

The l a s t ballad of Yuffie Kisaragi

may you never be alone –xoxo

End of Drabble

Rei: howl that was horrible. v.v I hope you still like it Kai, because I think this one was pretty confusing even to myself when I wrote it. I don't blame you for saying this sucks because I'm sick and I'm not so good on writing about one thing in particular anyway… ah well please review XD

#- This is what I noticed in KH2. When Aerith talked to Cloud after maybe the third visit, he seemed to visibly WINCE and look away when she was talking to him in that emotionless voice (I think it sounds emotionless...). He almost seemed SCARED of her! I would too, she looked a little creepy when she was talking. And also, he constantly doesn't like to be around Tifa. :P He ran away from her... XD And he wanted her to leave. LOL. I think Yuffie just might be the one girl he's not afraid of in KH2... because I haven't seen any interaction between them. So HAHA I can dream.