Disclaimer: Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.
Author's Notes: Ookay, first thing's first. I apologize for not updating for this long. Summer started and I just went into this "I wanna sleep" faze and couldn't will myself into writing. Fear not! I would never let this story die cuz I like it too much. Anyway, I wrote a little coming into my birthday, but then I found I couldn't get my internet to run. On my birthday, I got it to work for like three hours so I just put up the revamped Prologue to Eternal Love, which is currently up for all your viewing pleasure. D However, I didn't have time to explain what that post was about because my internet died on me again. Besides that, I was strapped for time as I was leaving that day to go to China… cuz that's my bday present and all. Yay me! So, I took off and went on my vacation and got back a short while ago. I finished writing this chapter and I started on the next, but I'm in a semi-writer's block right now. It's one of those, "Oh, I hate how this came out" things. I'll try to get that chapter out as soon as I can, but my family is keeping me busy with helping them use their PCs or translating English or… mom's got me doing a tour guide job to Washington. Anyway, I'll try my best.
Minako: Okay! I'll do yours point for point:
For a RikkuxShuyin, I was thinking that'd be cute, but I doubt that's what'll happen. Plus, it wouldn't make sense since Shuyin went a thousand years as a ghost out of love for Lenne. /
Hmm, I think I might bring in Gippal. Lovely how it'll spice things up a bit. Oh, I'm definitely bringing in Baralai and Nooj. I have to have some mention of them flipping out since good ol' Shuyin's back in town. Of course, all this will be later on.
Will I bring back Lenne? Well, you'll just have to read.
Paine, ouch. Yes, she's not going to like Shuyin for a while, but can ya blame her? Don't worry, somehow I'll soften her heart.
Tidus is a copy of Shuyin, though, so yes, they'll keep thinking so. Whether they'll keep liking that fact, that's up for grabs.
Yunie's thoughts are in this chapter. Oh, but she's no Lenne clone.
tbc? You better believe it.
Dominican Angel: Sorry for not updating soon, but better late than never, right?
Forbidden Smiles: Nah, I wouldn't make something bad happen so early in the story. I need them all to feel safe and secure. Then, I can really step on their hopes and dreams for the future! )
Chapter 5: Impressions
Rikku
Yunie had to see. It was amazing how much Kirin looked just like me. Even if she was born a thousand plus years in the past, every bit about her was just like me! It was like she was my copy!
"Okay okay, I get it. You're really excited about seeing this Kirin girl Shuyin keeps talking about, but you're gonna have to stop dragging me around like this. I'm starting to get dizzy." Yunie started to say.
"Fine, but I can't wait for you to see her! Trust me, you'll be as hoppity as me when you do." I told my cousin.
I mean, who wouldn't be excited seeing somebody who looks just like somebody who you know? And who wouldn't be even more excited if that look-alike wasn't the twin of the person you know? It's just too fantastibulous to stay calm about!
It took a while, Shuyin walking a lot faster than Yunie right now, but we got there sooner or later. "So Yunie? What do you think? She's got my nose and my mouth and my hair and my skin and… well everything!"
"I have to admit, this Kirin does look a lot like you. Is she Al Bhed, too?" Yunie asked me.
"Haha! No, she's not Al Bhed. I think Shuyin said the only Al Bhed he knew were the guys that used to own the Celsius." I told her, knowing what her next question would be.
"Somebody else owned the Celsius?"
"Of course! Nowadays, nobody really owns a brand new airship. We can only find them because Yevon made learning about machina a bad thing." I explained.
Poopie on Yevon. Like dad said, "All because of the Yevon taboo on machina, we're running around in the dark!" Not even the Al Bhed know enough about machina to build something like an airship. It was a breakthrough for us to have even gotten some machina ships running. The teachings really made a mess out of Spira.
"Oh, I see. So, who did Shuyin say used to own the Celsius?" Yunie asked. I don't know, but by the sound of her voice, she didn't want to believe anything Shuyin told me.
Well, I believed Shuyin and he told me, "Uh…" Oh poopie, what did he tell me again? "Well, he did mention them, but uh…"
"Did he really mention them, Rikku? I don't know. I still don't really think I believe his innocence story. I mean, think about it reasonably: He was stuck in a cave, smoldering over his guilt for so long that he stopped being himself. Remember what Fayth said, "Just a shadow." Even though he's alive again, I doubt he could regain himself so quickly." Yunie doesn't really have much trust in people anymore.
Not that I would blame her. She used to be a Yevonite like everybody else who wasn't Al Bhed. She used to think that the pilgrimage that summoners went on would eventually stop Sin from returning all together. Then, Bevelle took that hope away from her. Ever since then, she's had very little faith in anything Yevon related. And just before, Shuyin practically did the same thing. She put all her faith into that sphere, thinking that she'd found him again and Shuyin played around with her emotions just to spite us all. Why she would trust anyone or anything ever again, she'd be a glutting for punishment.
Suddenly, his voice came back in the picture, "That's glutton for punishment."
"Huh?" Both me and Yunie asked. How'd he hear my thoughts?
"You kinda said the last sentence out loud." Shuyin chuckled, "Why you would trust anyone or anything ever again, you'd be a glutting for punishment. It's glutton."
"I said that out loud?" I squealed, my cheeks turning red. How embarrassing!
Yunie started laughing a little, "Well, yes, you did start to stare off into space after what I said before. And then, you started mumbling things until that last sentence. You just blurted out that one!"
Is it possible to die of embarrassment? How did that happen? I don't usually zone out… do I? Did Kirin do that, too?
"Oh, and yea, Kirin was like that, too, so don't worry." Shuyin said. What was this guy, a mind reader?
"Did I say that out loud, too?" I asked.
"No, but I've been around the block a few times and it doesn't take a genius to know you were thinking about how your look-alike would've been in the same situation." He told me. "Anyway, I came here because I just realized I never told you about my friends. You wanted to hear about them, right? With the change from ferry to airship, I totally forgot about that conversation we had before."
I think that comment was meant for Yunie as much as it was meant for me. She was still cautious around him and I don't think him showing up just as we started talking about him would've helped the issue. Him, in his know-it-all thousand-year oldness probably guessed that, too.
"Oh right! I forgot, too! I guess, with Paine getting all dramatic on us, and then you with the guilt trip, it just slipped our minds." I said, making sure that Yunie knew about how Paine had messed up our conversation.
"Heh, yea, I forgot about that. Well, anyway, I could tell you about them now, if you'd like. I think your dad, Cid, is busy yelling at the crew." He joked.
"Tell Yunie about the guys that used to own the Celsius! We were just talking about that before, but I didn't remember what you told me." I suggested.
"Oh, you mean Akoji and Pally? Well, Akoji was this guy who was really obsessed with Lenne." To this, he chuckled a little to himself before continuing, "He had tattoos all over himself of her name. When I met him, he was pissed at me because I was playing around with Lenne at the time. I think he was probably jealous that I was the guy she was with and not him, but it didn't really matter. He was pretty cool later, after Kirin calmed him down. Of course, to this day I have no idea what they were talking about. I…"
"They were speaking Al Bhed? Kirin speaks Al Bhed, too!" I asked. I mean, it was enough that she looked like me and acted like me, but she spoke the other language that I spoke, too?
"Yea, believe me, I was just as surprised as you were. She told me that with Damu being Ju's best friend and all, she met up with a lot of Al Bhed on Kresia Island. She must've had to pick it up sooner or later or else she'd be walking around looking like a mute."
"Kresia… Island?" It couldn't be.
"Yea, that's where you guys live, right? Wait… oh, I'm sorry… I just remembered that. I felt it about twenty years back… Sin destroyed Kresia, didn't it…" He said softly, his voice telling me that he had felt their pain when our first home was lost to Sin.
"So Kresia was the home of the Al Bhed for a long time, huh? I didn't know. I just knew that Sin destroyed it and my dad organized the survivors to build Home and we stayed in Bikanel… that is until the guado came." I told them both. I don't think I even mentioned that to Yuna. She knew about Home being destroyed because that's when the guado came and kidnapped her, but I never told her why we started living on Bikanel.
"Yea, I never went to Kresia before, but from what Ju, Damu, and Kirin told me, it was pretty cool. Spira's been through a lot of losses… You know what? That's all in the past, right Rikku? Zanarkand's gone and so is Kresia and Home, but we're alive to preserve their memory. I didn't even talk about Pally yet." Now who's all gentleman-like and trying to cheer me up.
That's probably how Kirin used to do it before. All I have to do is force him into big brother mode and he's all cheery again. I guess it does make sense. He's all about keeping his friends happy so if you make a little sad, Super Shuyin'll have to come to the rescue. That's just like how his copy was. He always kept positive about finding a way to save Yunie during the pilgrimage and it really had an effect on me.
"Akoji sounds a lot like Brother then." Yunie finally said. She actually sounded less held-back than before. Maybe she was starting to trust Shuyin like I was.
"Well, I never met Brother, but…" He started to say.
I interrupted to inform him that, "Brother's an idiot. For some reason, he's got this mondo crush on Yunie even though I'm sure he knows that they're cousins, too!"
To this, Shuyin made a face and rolled his eyes a little, "That's… disturbing… Anyway, Akoji had a crush on Lenne and thank goodness they weren't related like in this interesting case. Pally was more reserved. She seemed shy to me and my Al Bhed wasn't very helpful to break the ice when we met."
"You spoke Al Bhed, too!" Did everybody speak Al Bhed back then?
"Uh, no. I don't speak Al Bhed at all. I don't even remember what I said, but it was supposed to mean 'hi'."
I laughed at that. Many people who claimed they spoke Al Bhed had tried and failed. It isn't just about knowing how to translate letter for letter what the word is; they never seem to understand that we have a separate pronunciation key, too. I mean, take his duplicate for instance. We ran all over, finding those books to teach him how to understand Al Bhed. He could read it, but trying to say what he was reading in Al Bhed, you'd think he was raised by a Hypello.
"I think the word you're searching for is 're'." I told him.
"Yea! And that's what I said! I said, 'reeay!' But, when I said it, she looked at me like I was gonna eat her!" He said loudly, arms raised high.
Even Yunie started laughing at that. Shuyin definitely spoke better Al Bhed than him, but boy was it awful. A little later on, even Shuyin started laughing. If only I'd been there to see him totally freak out Pally. That would've been so fun.
Anyway, we wasted a lot of time yammering next to the Master Summon, but vydran was waiting for us and he has a very short temper. Together, the three of us went back down to the ronso village. The walk was spent with small talk. Shuyin told us about the adventures he used to go on with Lenne and Kirin and how Rothel was a prankster who got them into a lot of trouble before. He'd really changed. Maybe, he finally decided that what I told him was right and that he can't go on living out his second chance at life by feeling guilty for what he can't change. Anyway, when he talked about Kion and Vena, suddenly he came up with the weirdest idea…
"What?" Yunie asked him after he finished saying it.
"The airship. Its name is also Vena, right?" Shuyin asked.
I don't know where he heard that from, but I had a pretty good idea it came from the other blonde guy we have around nowadays, "Who told you that?"
"Him! He told me it was called the Vena!" With that, he pointed in the direction of his double.
"Oh, hey guys! Uh… something wrong?" He asked.
I promptly patted him on the back of the head, "Why are you going around telling people the airship's name is Vena?"
After an 'ow', followed by rubbing, he replied with, "What do you mean? Cid and Brother called it that before! I remember from two years ago! We were fighting Sin and Cid shouted out, "VENA!" What else could it have meant?"
I shook my head and sighed, "Vena means fire, as in FIRE AT SIN. We never gave the airship a name!"
"Oh! So Vena's name means fire in Al Bhed. That's still cool. If I told her that, she'd probably say, 'what? I'm not hotheaded! DO YOU THINK I'M HOTHEADED!' Then, she'd probably grab at my ear and repeat, louder." Shuyin laughed, mimicking what he said Vena would have done.
Following that scene, I started to scold the dork that said he knew Al Bhed who kept trying to shoo me away. Shuyin had gone off to tell Yunie more tales of his exploits, Paine went back to stalking Shuyin's every move, vydran bossed people around, and Brother and Buddy were put in charge of flying the Celsius back with us.
"So, how did you like the sightseeing?" Shuyin asked me later on in the day.
"It was fun to see Kirin. It was also great to hear you talk about the stuff you've done before. I think I liked story about how you and Rothel messed around with those Bevelle guards. Rothel seemed like a lot of fun to be around."
"Yea, he sure keeps you on your feet. But you know, that's what gets us into hot water a lot of the time, too. He's great to be around, but he'll also get your face on wanted posters if you're not careful." He said, chuckling a little as her remembered the good times he'd shared with his friends.
"Well, he sure doesn't sound like Wakka. He's your clone's best friend, but he'd never pull a prank, I think. I mean, the guy's a little lacking in the imagination department. I heard that from Lulu and from personal experience, I can tell you he's a dodo." I said.
"Haha, maybe. You never know a person until you've seen them in their natural habitat. This Wakka, is he a blitzer?" He asked.
"Yea, he used to be captain of the Besaid Aurochs."
"Ah, I see now. This Wakka's a team captain. Rothel's our team captain. They have to be a little mischievous or else the guy'll walk all over him. Of course, Rothel's that way to me all the time, but you get him with Lenne, Kirin, or Ju… especially Ju, he'll ease off right away. With me, Rothel can be a little wild and rowdy because he knows I can handle that. In front of somebody as cute as Kirin or as graceful as Lenne, that side of him just can't show. And forget about Ju, if he's around, we ALL tend to tone down a little. The only time we've ever horsed around with that guy was at the beach, when all of us were at our worst…" I'm glad he's thinking of happy times with his friends and not only about how he lost them in the end. He's so much better this way.
As we continued on our way back to Besaid, I felt that things were going to be fine. And, if things keep up like this, life's gonna get a whole bunch more interesting…
Author's Notes: Yes, so a little bit on the dull side, but like I said, semi-writer's block. / Hopefully the next chapter will be better.
The Aurochs are still in training, but their old captain's off the active roster and back home with little Vidina. What's his and Lulu's take on this whole Shuyin thing? Wakka had to battle many fiends when Shuyin ran amuck last time. The episode almost led to the torching of the temple. Will he be able to accept Shuyin's reformation? Find out next time!