It's been too long! This sound lame I know, but I've been away from the internet for awhile. To anyone willing to forgive me, I'm updating again within the week...

And yeah I was that crazy person who pre-ordered FF13 and have been PS3 comatose for awhile.

"Oh there he is!" Yuffie exclaimed grabbing Cloud's hand. She skipped in the direction she'd pointed to, pulling the blonde along despite his struggle

"Yuff! Stop it! I don't want to go over there," Cloud panicked trying to dig his heels into the ground. Why was this girl so strong?

He realized he was sunk when the man made eye contact with them. Zack waved, a small smile on his face and they were obligated to meet each other in the middle.

"Ohayou," the brunette hugged them both awkwardly in greeting. He lingered with Cloud before they pulled apart. "Are you ready for the next round?"

Yuffie nodded, "We'll have to be. I can't believe how fast things got serious. I'm getting depressed with all these girls around...I mean is that a titanium shuriken? Where do you even buy something like that?" Her lower lip puckered in a pout.

Cloud sat alone on a bench a little ways away from the main square in the Shibuya Plaza. The place had gotten ridiculously crowded, ridiculously fast. Cid, Yuffie, and Zack were all off performing for their places in the semi-semi finals so he'd been left to fend for himself. The competition narrowed down to 200 main character slots after today. So far his chances on surviving this round weren't looking so well. Sure, his little Crisis Core get-up was cute the first few times but eventually he'd have to move on to Soldier Cloud and he wasn't so sure he pulled that off very well. The guy smoking across the street with 250 pounds of solid muscle and a designer costume seemed like pretty tough rival.

"Wow, you're pretty cute," a voice said beside him.

"That's the problem," the blonde mumbled louder than he'd intended. He looked up to find a very pretty, very well-endowed ravenette beside him. Her smile was so white it blinded him a little. "Lockheart?"

"Strife." She reached out pulling his collar straight. He didn't know what quality he possessed that gave women the constant urge to manhandle him. Tifa spoke to him as if they'd known each other for years, "You're probably the best Cloud I've seen all day, if it weren't for the ghetto jumpsuit."

Cloud scrunched his nose up in distaste, "Sorry to offend you, but this is the best I can do."

"It's fine," Tifa said not picking up on the sarcasm laced tone in his voice. She reached over him and grabbed at the pass around his neck. She read his performance papers and her big brown eyes widened in awe. He was due at the B stage late that afternoon... so he hadn't noticed anything particularly interesting in his assignment.

"What?" Cloud asked examining the pass with her.

She bit her lip and looked up at him, "Do you know who's performing at B when you are?"

All the sudden he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer, "Who?"

Tifa stood up, "The one and only Sephiroth. He's as good as it gets here. It's like you've really stepped into Midgar when that guy is around. He's a cold-hearted fuck and thinks he's some kind of demi-god. People believe it too. He'll eat you alive and shit you out like that." She gestured loosely to the entire space Cloud occupied. She picked subconsciously at the black driving gloves she wore, "You're going to need my help."

Before he could refuse, Cloud felt himself being pulled through the crowd by another woman with no sense of personal boundaries.

Tifa had brought the blonde to a nearby fabric shop. She said she was visiting her aunt in Tokyo from Yokohama. The old woman was rooting for her to win her character's place at the convention and had handmade her Lockheart costume. When Tifa explained their problem to the seamstress, Cloud was ushered along into the backrooms of the shop. Both women whizzed around the place in cycles of their own tornados. Tifa was the first to return; with her she bore a ribbed black sweater with a high collar and a silver zipper all the way down the front. She set it down on a work table and Cloud watched quietly as she removed the seams of both the sleeves making it a vest.

She held it out and he tried it on for size. It was perfect.

"The leather contraption you wear over your left side is a little more problematic," She chewed her lip thoughtfully. "Oba-chan has something similar with straps but it's going to take awhile to fix up. What we need to do is find your shoulder-piece. We want a really nice one though, do you have any money?"

"Some," The blonde nodded.

The two were able to buy all the needed accessories for his costume with about four thousand and seven hundred yen. It hurt Cloud to leave the place completely broke. He'd just been peer- pressured into poverty. He did get his epic wolf earrings though. His ears weren't pierced, but Tifa said she could fix that too. It was only slightly concerning when she told him how. By the time they'd made it back to the fabric store, Tifa's aunt had completed the black leather neck-guard that attached to a sleeve for his left arm. It's straps crossed over his chest and also met with another set that created a belt and long, low-slung flap of back leather that covered his matching leg. Black cargos and gloves weren't hard to come up with. When the wolf shoulder-guard was in place, they were nearly finished.

"It is good," Tifa's aunt stated as she tied a red ribbon around Cloud's right arm.

He bowed deeply to her, "I don't know how to possibly thank you." He really hoped they realized he couldn't afford something this nice.

The old woman gave him a toothless grin.

"Kick some ass, and send me the money when you're famous!"

Owari but...I've got one more part for ya real soon, this one was short eh?