Katori: Wow, chapter four
.Katori: Wow, chapter four! I'm really glad some people liked this!
Sin:….. You totally left a cliffhanger for everyone last chapter!
Katori: I know, and that's why I uploaded this one so …er….quickly!
Sin: Katori Tsubasa owns nothing.
Katori:…….yeah….. as sad as that is….
Sin: Well…. Wow, I don't really have anything to say….
Katori: And the clouds opened up and God yelled down: I love you Katori!
Sin: /scowls/
If you feel so empty, so used up, so let down
If you feel so angry, so ripped off, so stepped on
You're not the only one refusing to back down
You're not the only one so get up.
-Riot
-Three Days Grace
Emotion:
Underestimation
"Commencing data fragment link….Initiating Synaptic Net Dive in counting…3…2…1… Successfully uploaded…"
Shelke sat up on the terminal, careful not to hit any of the keys on the board as she subconsciously entered the world of the computer. All around her she could see the Data, as if there were screens that suspended in mid-air without wires. Her mind raced through the data so quickly that the screens before could barely keep up with her. They closed and opened with amazing warp-like speed and Shelke did this all without so much as batting an eyelash. She quickly dove into an radio-signal uplink and uploaded the information there, quickly mouthing the user and then pinpointed the location. Her job wasn't finished there, she quickly pulled the co-ordinates off of the hacked signal transmissions and pasted them onto one of her own creations.
As said before, this was all done in a matter of seconds, what normally would have taken someone twenty plus minutes took her less then twenty seconds.
"Vincent Valentine, I've managed to find out the position of Miss. Kisaragi, it appears that the signals her phone is outputting pinpoints her at this location." She quickly uploaded the information onto Vincent's Cell phone and then proceeded to continue copying the Omega reports and Dr. Crescent's findings onto her computer.
"Thank you Shelke," Finally came the reply, and then there was a pause in which she knew he was looking over the location, "Are you certain that this is the place?"
Shelke felt indignant, her network hadn't failed her once and she most certainly had traced the signals from Yuffie Kisaragi's phone as soon as the conversation had started. She found her to be at THAT exact place, and even showed Nanaki, or Red XIII the place on a map, shortly after she had been told to phone Vincent and relay the news to him. After a short period in which Nanaki talked to the gunslinger, Shelke quickly uploaded her mind onto the network she'd created there and pinpointed it AGAIN just to make sure.
"Yes, I am positive that-…..what? Vincent, the signal just cut out… but that could only mean that either the phone was shut off or it's been broken." Vincent knew her hidden meaning, he had felt it too and cursed himself for not trying to catch up to her that morning; Yuffie was in trouble.
The hotel on the other side of the city had reported a break-in situated at around twelve o'clock last night, the room in question was broken into and immediately searched. When they came up with nothing and heard the commotion in the next room, they broke through their doors just after the woman had gotten off of the phone with the police. They injured the mother and the son was shoved into the closet while they searched that room as well for whatever they were looking for. This would have been a normal break in if it wasn't for the fact that they had released the name of the room they had originally broken into. The room was under the name of a certain Ninja; Yuffie Kisaragi.
"Thank you again Shelke, contact me as soon as that signal comes back on, I'm going to see if I can get there before Cid brings Tifa along."
The call ended and Shelke sighed in an annoyed manner, sometimes Vincent Valentine was rather one track minded. She heard a chuckle in front of her as fur brushed up against her leg, she sighed and absently ran her fingers across Red's mane.
"You don't need to worry, she's much to stubborn to die," She reminded her companion, scratching Nanaki's ears as she finished uploading the remaining files onto the hard drive.
Nanaki smiled as he watched the young girl before him slide off the helmet she'd created and looked down at him curiously. Shelke had been living with him for over seven months now, and he found that her presence was rather calming to him and the residents of Cosmo Canyon. Every morning she went out and helped at a breakfast place just down the street for a bit of gil that she used to pay Nanaki with. No matter how many times he told her that he was happy to have her she simply would not let him keep her there without taking the money in return.
"I know Shelke, but sometimes… you just can't help worrying about those you care for…"
"Worrying about…those you…care for?"
"Yes."
"Nanaki, do you worry about me?"
The Cosmo Canyon native laughed heartily, "Every day Shelke, every day…but for now why don't you catch your rest… you had a late night."
Shelke obediently marched into her room and laid down on the bed, she could feel the weariness that the SND had placed on her mind, it had been a while since she had last used that. She would have to start re-training her conscious to use it again even though Nanaki had assured her she would never have to do it again.
For some reason, she just didn't believe him, some may have called her paranoid but she knew that something was coming. Even my the tone of voice Vincent had used with her; she knew that he could feel it too and that made her a little more content as she slowly fell into a daze… but just a little more…
...
It had taken all of her remaining strength to cast the Full Cure on herself, after she'd lain there for about an hour. She was breathing in slowly and catching her breath, she flexed her arm and winced as a wave of pain shot up it. She opened her eyes and saw that her sight had dimmed a little bit more, she couldn't quite remember how long the curse gave her until she was completely blind, but she estimated about a week. Everything hurt, it turn just to take in the air in order for her to survive and it hurt for her to move in any which way.
But dying wasn't an option, she would carry on, blindness or not. Perhaps this was fueled by the rage she felt in letting herself be beaten so easily and caught off guard by the woman she assumed was dead. Or perhaps she was still trying to prove to herself that she deserved to be an Avalanche member.
Or maybe it was the fact that Aeris still believed in her and that Yuffie didn't want to let the flower girl down. And in a small part of her mind she knew that she didn't want to die, and how it sickened her how the last real thought she had while being struck down was of someone she could care less about. Or so she thought.
The curse was one of ancient descent, it had started about the time that Wutai had first been founded. The curse was one like that of Geostigma, but instead of the final result as death, the person was blinded for the rest of their lives. The curse was known as the Namida, or Wutainese for tears and was known for it's effect on the eyes and the heart. Unlike the other ailments like petrifying that could be cured with a simple materia or remedy, this curse couldn't be healed. There was no known cure, and the only clue to it was the flower with a similar name and similar attributes.
As soon as enough pollen had made contact with the eyes, the person went through intense pain for 24 hours and wouldn't be able to see, after a few days this would subside, but the curse did not. Many said that this was a curse from Leviathan and the other Gods for those who sought only beauty and craved it. But no one could be sure as to who could come in contact with the curse for there were no cases that were ever the same. People from children to teens, to elderly could contradict the disease and would stay blind for the rest of their days.
But not even the flower was found during a regular day, it usually appeared to show great omen.
During the time of the curse, it had been said that Leviathan had been angered with the men on the outside of the village and those they traded to. They had been kidnapping beautiful girls and selling them across the seas on boats to that many would call a 'whore house'. So Leviathan ordered a powerful sorceress to came across them dressed as a beautiful woman, pretending to be a flower girl and offering them the flower known as the Namida. They kidnapped her and the day before they were to sell her they all were stricken ill by a searing pain in their eyes, all of those who touched the girls were cursed with it. They were cursed to walk blind, and all of their descendants would eventually gain the decease as well, not one of them knowing that the flower girl had touched their eyes.
The sorceress was distinguished as a Cetra in her day and her deeds were now known as folktale and legends. No one knew her story was real or the true hidden past of the long heirs of Wutai, known as the Kisaragi's.
In order for her deeds long, long ago the Cetra Yasashi Kisaragi was given an important title amongst the self-sufficient village of Wutai. However, because of her heritage there weren't many people she could trust with her secret so she was simply known as the village healer. When a man who claimed the throne was finally crowned and the royal bloodline started the woman warned him that if he took down the surrounding forest and contaminated the pure stream running along side it then there would be consequences.
But he didn't listen, and for it, the Cetra had to suffer the anguish of hearing as all the plants cried out in pain, it was from then on that the Cetra and the Royal bloodline became enemies. The Cetra cursed the heir to the thrown with the Namida, and they retaliated by banishing her out of the village. The original name of the royal line of Wutai was the Chinotori's and the Cetra's last name was Kisaragi; no one knew exactly what decade the male descendant from the Kisaragi's took the throne, but ever since then all of the heirs to the Kisaragi throne were female.
And because of the age long tradition; they had to marry to take the throne, which cause a lot of uproar among the more spirited Kisaragi females who were certain that they could rule alone. It was also proclaimed that all of the Kisaragi bloodline of Wutai would study under the art of the Ninja, or ninjitsu, therefore creating what was now known as the Wusheng. When the Kisaragi's and Chinotori's were still at war, the ninjitsu was passed down from mother to child.
No one knew of the tale of the Cetra, the story was lost in time, and the knowledge of the Kisaragi's holding Cetra blood was lost. According to the ancient scriptures, the Kisaragi's were always the heirs to the throne, and the Chinotori's were never heard of again.
It had been only in the last decade that the flowers had been spotted near the edge of the village, many believed that it was because Leviathan was once again angered with what the ruler of Wutai, Godo, had done with the town. The first person who had come across the curse had been put under quarantine, but had disappeared only a few weeks after.
According to her sensei, Yuffie knew that the disease created horrible scars across the person's eyes and not only made them blind, but it warped their eye's as well. Now, she held this curse, and because of the white materia casting it on her here was no telling how long she would have until all she saw was darkness, or how horrid the scars she would have.
She slowly reached for her cell phone, pulling it out of her pocket and looking for any damage obtained during the fight. Miraculously, the piece of technology wasn't even scratched after all that had happened. Yuffie smiled slightly and winced as she groggily turned to her side to look at the phone and punch in the number.
The phone beeped slightly as the call went through, it was dying, and she would only have about ten more minutes until it lost all the battery power. It rang once and then twice, after about the fifth ring she was going to give up, but a hurried voice picked up on the other line.
"Hello?! Yuffie?!" Cried Tifa's distressed voice from the other line, Yuffie's would-be grin turned more into a grimace as she heard her friend's tone. She wanted to tell Tifa that she was alright, that nothing was wrong and she was just checking in, but both would know it was a lie.
"I'm fine, I'm coming…there…don't…. come…" She didn't notice how much it hurt for her to speak, she had barely choked out those words and then clicked the phone shut, careful to save the battery power.
"Yuffie?! YUFFIE! Answer me, are you still there?! Yuffie-" beeeeep…beeeeep…beeeeep… Tifa looked down at the phone as if she wasn't too sure if Yuffie had actually hung up on her. "Damnit Yuffie… I knew something was wrong…" Tifa glanced over at the television that showed what the camera's had captured in the hotel.
In the video, it showed Yuffie entering her hotel room at exactly 10:18 p.m and fast forward about an hour and a half later when two sketchy men snuck up to her door and stood there for about ten minutes, then broke in. Yuffie had been gone, and had left an appropriate amount of gil under her pillow, but now they assumed that she'd been kidnapped.
Tifa sighed, picked up the phone once more and dialed the only one who had made contact with Yuffie Kisaragi last night.
"Hello Tifa." Came a response after two rings.
"Where the hell is she, Vincent."
"According to Shelke she's at the City of the Ancients, and then her phone signal cut out about a minute ago."
"Why didn't you- wait… a minute ago? I…. Oh my gosh, Vincent, what do you think happened? I just got a call from her, she told me that she was coming and not to follow her…"
There was silence on the other side, she waited with anticipation to see if he was perhaps planning something. She heard him dispel of his breath heavily and then there was a bit of static before he finally replied, but not telling Tifa what she wanted to hear in the least.
"Then we wait for her return…"
Click.
She had to move, she couldn't just lie there and wait to die, she had already made her decision to live, so it was now or never. She slowly lifted herself off of the ground and stumbled to her feet, already breathing heavily, she searched for the path she was treading before and then limped her way down it.
It was going to be a long walk home.
Her legs felt like lead weights and each step brought more heaviness onto her step, she thought of a mantra in her head 'just a few more steps' and after those 'steps' a couple more. To survive a trek like that you had to not think of the end, but the small steps before you, an impossible task became less and less if you slowly chipped away at it. She absently wiped a trail of blood away from her mouth and spit the metallic taste out of her mouth and onto the ground cringing at the sight of her own blood.
...
'Just a few more steps, then I can rest…' the five she managed to stumble slowly turned into ten, then twenty and finally around fifty, 'Just a few more…'
"STOP! STOP! PLEASE JUST STOP; YOU'RE KILLING HIM! I'LL DO ANYTHING JUST LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
"No…." She moaned, curling up in the fetal position, tears running down her cheeks as the images flashed before her eyes. She felt the pain stabbing at her like a sharp knife, slicing through her chest and into her heart like a needle pulling thread. In and out the needle worked, until she felt herself on the bridge of insanity, she moaned louder, unable to wake from her nightmares.
"HOJO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"
"NO!" Tears streamed down her face, "NO THIS IS NO EXPERIMENT! IT'S-"
"GIVE HIM BACK!" The pain… She just couldn't take it anymore, "GIVE MY SON BACK!"
"LET ME SEE HIM!"
"JUST ONCE!"
"I'm so sorry…..Vincent….. I'm…. Oh Gods please forgive me… I'M SO SORRY!"
"I've hurt you so, so much…"
"I can't take it anymore… I'm……………."
"I'm dying…"
"NOOOO!" She bolted upright bathed in sweat and her own tears, her short hair plastered to her face and neck. She pulled her knees to her chest, and even though she could have sworn that there were no more tears left to cry she grabbed her pillow and held on for dear life as sobs wracked her body. "Sh…Shalua….I wish…. I wish you were here…"
She could cry now, no one was watching…
"Someone… anyone… make this pain…make it go away…"
"Someone… anyone… make this pain…go away…"
Then she heard it, the faint music, she wiped away her tears and reached for it.
...
/Who… are you?/
She dragged on, stumbling and staggering across the barren landscape, soon she would reach the water and need to take an airship to the other side. Even though she hated them with a passion, she would need to in order to make it there alive, she was too wounded to walk the whole way.
/So where are we?/
Could she phone Tifa and get her to pick her up? Would she sacrifice all that she'd done so far to stop them from uprooting their lives just so she could sleep?
She took out her Cell phone and turned it on to find that the battery power was only a few minutes from death, she quickly dialed in the number and paused in her tracks so catch her breath. The phone picked up and she felt relief seep into the cold pit of her stomach as the voice on the other end said hello in her usual tone of voice.
"Could you come and pick me up? Bring Cid… not……augh…."
"Of course Yuffie."
Yuffie fell backwards and stared up at the sky breathing in calm and deep breaths, she flinched as her wound ached. The last thing she saw was the blood red seeping through her clothes as the cut re-opened, and sometime later on the roar of an engine entered her subconscious mind.
Images of what was happening around her flashed before her mind; she could hear Cid cursing and lifting her up with unbelievable ease, the next second Shelke was sitting beside her speaking in words that Yuffie couldn't make out, only a few more seconds after that she was being moved from the ship with a surprising gentleness. Then Tifa's voice entered her ears then all she saw was darkness, finally her mind and body could rest.
If you feel so empty
So used up
So let down
If you feel so angry just get up…
Let's start a riot, a riot
Let's start a riot…
-Riot
-Three Days Grace
Katori: wow… what a chapter, it's probably really confusing to a lot of you… I'll probably have to rewrite it when I'm of a sane mind… I'm really falling behind schedule, a lot more things were supposed to happen this chapter but it seems right to end it there. Yuffie needs time to regenerate and I think a fresh new chapter would be able to give the story enough time to process. This is my first real attempt to write a long intricate storyline and I think this could really go somewhere.
Actually, this is an FYI corner for those who want to learn mope about me but I'm getting into Naruto now, I read the manga up to 5 and then trailed off about five months after, I felt the story was getting no where and they were all too one-track minded. Considering Sakura and Ino's strong bond that is completely ruined by someone who is as annoying as Sasuke, I like Naruto more then I like that power-hungry pretty-boy.
After reading up until you actually meet Gaara I was uninterested… and then when I saw the battle between him and Lee I was AMAZED, so I completely ignore the anime, but damn, that fighting style is amazing and now Gaara and Rock Lee are my favorite characters…
So this is yet another storyline that proves it; manga is better then anime, the only anime that is better then the manga I think is Hellsing, simply because Hellsing is a sexy and dark anime and the manga kind of ruins that sexiness with all of their weird humor and gore.
Yeah…. That was my FYI corner, if this catches on I guess I could get requests for me to comment on other anime's…but I highly doubt people want to hear about what I like when they could formulate their own opinion… Actually Sin is asleep right now, it kind of scares me, she's actually dormant when I'm writing this!