A/N: As of this moment, I am taking someone as a beta-reader to aid me in the writing of this story…so kudos to Ski October for her assistance. If anybody can guess as to what those two ladies were doing in the last part of the last chapter, you get a cookie with a coffee of your choice! But seriously, do read and review would you kindly?
Monday…
Yuffie knew that she had a long job ahead of her. But she also knew that this was the most challenging job she had ever taken given this was the first time in a while she had to go dark on a job. She only hoped that this would not turn personal…she was not ready for commitment, and what she saw Reno do ultimately destroyed her faith in finding love for herself. She felt that the only thing she can do at the moment was to make sure that every girl she worked for or on never had to go through what she did…by getting them their happy endings. Well, she knew that sooner or later, she'd have to deal with the target, and so she had a plan for this job. She would move very slowly—there were pros and cons to moving very slowly, one of which was that she could gain more accurate information on how to help her client bag this target…the biggest con of all however was that she was risking attachment the longer she stayed with him, and it was hard to do that what with how much she liked the man already.
Her first step in moving slowly was to schedule an appointment with the good doctor. Once she established communications with him, she would go with the story that this was a maintenance checkup. She wasn't lying…she was just killing two birds with one stone; while she gave Western medicine a lot of credibility from a physical and scientific standpoint, she didn't want to have someone prescribe a drug to her that could get her addicted unless absolutely and unavoidably necessary…she believed in good old-fashioned Traditional Wutainese Medicine for all general ailments outside of things science could treat, hence her most plausible excuse would be asking for a recommendation before starting a maintenance run for her body's spiritual energies. That, and she would be getting more information out of him as to what he liked…which was why she found herself searching the internet for information on the mansion at 117 Hikaru St.
According to the data she saw on the screen, the clinic was named "Haoyuan Yiwushi", and as per Vincent's specialty, was a Traditional Wutainese Medicine clinic. Perhaps Vincent was brought up by his mother if he was that fluent in the Chishan dialect, although the fact that he spoke perfect basic proved otherwise. Needless to say, she was waiting for the phone to come off the hook on the other side—if she was lucky, she wouldn't have to go back there to get more information out of him in the subtlest manner possible.
"Hello?"
She never knew why that happened; Yuffie only knew that the voice of her target sent shivers up her spine enough to threaten the stability of her legs. It was as if hearing Vincent's voice turned her into mush whether through the phone or in person. "Um, hi; this is Yuffie Kisaragi from Kisaragi Imports, I'd like to book an appointment for a possible regular acupuncture therapy."
"You actually seemed healthy the last time I saw you. Is there anything wrong?"
"No, nothing wrong per se; I just wanted to get a checkup for safety's sake…you know, so I can start a recommended treatment regularly for maintenance?"
"I can understand that. Anyway, I'm booked up for this week, but next week, I have some openings on Monday and Wednesday for a checkup. Can you hold on until then?"
"I think I can. It's just an estimate for a maintenance run after all. How does Monday sound?"
"Monday is fine. Is two or three a good time for you?"
"No, I won't have as much time to get back to work. I was thinking more along the lines of 5 in the evening?"
"I think that is a very good idea. The sooner you get my recommendation for your treatment the better off you'll be until your next appointment. That way, I know how to treat you."
"I understand that. Well, thank-you, and see you at the appointment." With that said, Yuffie hung up her smart-phone, and went back to work. She had a few more orders to fill out before the day was over.
Meanwhile, at 117 Hikaru St…
Vincent put down his phone. Now he had a new patient walking in—and it was the young delivery girl Yuffie. He'd heard a lot about that family…if only in whispers. But all in all it seemed interesting that she'd come down here for a maintenance run at all…given the connections that her father had here in Little Wutai, coupled with the fact that he knew her father was partially the reason the South won the war of attrition against the North. Many people knew that the Wutainese Civil War started because politicians from North Wutai saw fit to take soldiers and invade the Southern city of Xianghe…the council of course was not happy about this, and so the kings of the Southern Kingdoms threatened war if the Northern Empire did not pull her troops out of Xianghe. This only resulted in five more cities being overrun by the Northern army, his homeland of Chishan in the Meihuo Province being included.
The death knell for the Civil War came when the Southern Council joined forces with rebels from the Northern Imperial Army and the later intervention of the World Regenesis Organization. During the initial stages of the war, the Southern Kingdoms had waged a war that continued with a stalemate against the North as they halted the advance of the latter at the valley city of Baixue in the Zhonghai province bordering Meihuo before they slowly advanced to the North and systematically began taking back all lands that were taken in the initial stage of the conflict. It was somewhere in the push back that the Southern Kingdoms realized that the war was progressing much too slowly—both sides were too evenly matched on all counts to the point that the kings worried that they'd be paying a very hefty sum afterwards. That all changed when rebel factions from North Wutai began hassling their homeland from within—it wasn't long until the Northern Rebels and the Southern Kingdoms joined forces and began to turn the tides in the South's favor. It wasn't until later on in the war that the WRO was informed of the situation, and they intervened on behalf of the Southern Wutai Kingdoms. By the end of the war, after realizing that he was fighting three opponents at the same time the Emperor of the Northern Empire surrendered, was forced to pay reparations to those whose homes were destroyed in his mad quest for power, and stepped down from power as the Empress took power. Now that the war was over, the North had begun to work towards paying penance for their crimes under the watchful eye of the Empress, he had finally opened that practice…and his Uncle Yeh aided in that endeavor along with money he had earned in his time with the Wutainese special operations units, most notably his tenure with the 239th Rangers Battalion under Captain Saika. "Are you ready for your piano lesson?"
The following week, 5 PM…
Yuffie was a bit nervous…she found that aside from the random strolls he took, Dr. Valentine spent a bit of his time outside of treating patients to tend to his newly-ordered plants, playing the piano, practicing some Tai Chi, and maintaining what she assumed was a .45 ACP Quicksilver M1911-patterned semiautomatic pistol with a long slide and tactical rail…a standard-issue sidearm in the Southern Wutainese Army Special Forces branches as an offensive pistol. She really needed to be careful…one wrong word or move, and she'll probably end up bullet-ridden if Valentine was a trigger-happy person. But then again, he could be doing it as a force of habit—according to Tseng, after the war, some soldiers retain the habits they gained from the war (periodic exercise and constant weapon maintenance being prime examples).
As she looked around, she couldn't help but notice that the flowers were growing beautifully at the moment…and she also noted some bonsai growing on a shelf near the black pine, as well as a mulberry bush that was newly added to the yard. She headed towards the main building drinking in the scenery with her eyes. Perhaps if he didn't take up medicine, Valentine should have been a landscaping designer.
"I see you appreciate my handiwork," said a voice in front of her. Yuffie yelped upon hearing the speaker, and found herself looking at the very man she was looking for.
"Yeah, you really should consider work for landscaping."
"Very well Ms. Kisaragi, come on in, and we'll start with your checkup promptly."
She followed Vincent around until she found herself sitting in a room covered in drawers and shelves containing dried goods…no doubt that those drawers carried the medicines that Traditional Wutainese doctors used to treat their patients, while the shelves carried the dried goods that are also found. It was there that she was settled down upon a stool while he sat behind a counter near the back of the store. "If you'll excuse me Ms. Kisaragi, I'd like for you to hand me your wrist."
The procedure was simple…skin-to-skin contact was to a necessary part of Traditional Wutainese Medicine, as the doctors usually required the knowledge of the pulse to determine the symptoms. The wrist was normally enough to tell a doctor what is wrong. Yuffie gave Vincent her right hand, before he gently used his right hand to pull it back, and allowing his left index and middle fingers to feel for a pulse. The touch felt like the wind was sweeping something across, and it quickened her heart rate. It was there that she studied in detail his left arm: it was covered in a complex array of tattoos on the back of his forearm, most notable of the tattoos being chains going around his wrist and intersecting at a circle over where it would be a good spot to cut for suicide and another set of chains going down the middle of his forearm before it disappeared into his sleeve. Before she could study further into the designs of the tattoos, the good doctor gently put her hand down. "You a very good pulse—very healthy; are you active per chance?"
"Uh yeah, I do quite a few sports."
"You do?"
"I practice shurikenjutsu in my spare time, and mixed martial arts."
"Interesting…most women I've ever met only want the men to do the fighting for them. It's good to see another person that takes the martial arts as seriously as you do."
"So, do you practice any martial arts?"
"I practice Yeh-style Tai Chi, as well as Wufeng."
"Who taught you?"
"My mother…and let me tell you, she was no pushover at all; I've seen her take out opponents at least double her size in defense of her patients."
"Wait a minute…you said 'was'…does that mean…"
The silence was awkward, but it was clear that he was still paying attention to her pulse.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have…"
"No worries. You haven't offended me. By the way, you're fine. No problems thus far, just keep at it with your lifestyle, but you may wish to contact me the second symptoms occur. I don't think you're severe enough to warrant acupuncture…a regular acupressure treatment for your purposes should do fine for now."
"Thanks doc."
"Well, now that your checkup is done and over with, is there anything else you need?"
"Yeah, a couple things; can I have some shiitake and dried ginger?"
"They should be in the third aisle from your left, on the left side."
"Can you show me?"
"Sure thing, now if you'll just follow me…" Vincent got up and walked towards the third aisle with Yuffie following. The entire shelf on the left side was apparently dedicated to dried mushrooms of all sorts with labels to identify them from Southern Wutai lingzhi mushrooms intended for tea, all the way down to dried matsutake mushrooms from the North for cooking. Walking down the aisle, they eventually found what they were looking for…and Vincent handed her to a clear plastic container of dried shiitake mushrooms with tongs and a bag provided to pick them.
"The ginger will be in one of the containers right behind you."
Sure enough, as soon as Yuffie turned, she found the container of ginger behind her. She shrugged and started picking her groceries. As soon as she got what she needed, she met Vincent back at the counter. "That'll be 65 gil in total for the mushrooms and ginger. And I will see you next week for your next appointment."
"What about for the checkup?"
"I do checkups here for free."
"Wow! A lot of doctors I've heard of charge even for the checkups."
"My mother believed in helping people as best she could, hence the free checkup. I'm upholding her memory as best I can with this clinic."
As she turned to leave, Yuffie stole one more glance at her target. "Bye Doc."
Vincent turned to his patient and waved to her slightly. "Farewell, I'll see you at the next appointment."
Five minutes later…
Oh she could not believe it! Phase one of 'moving slowly' was going well! Now that she had a regular appointment with Doctor Valentine, she knew that getting more information out of him would be significantly easier! Now that she got the shiitake and the ginger that was on her shopping list from Dad, Yuffie could celebrate now that she had essentially killed two birds with one stone on this one trip…on second thought, she made it three birds with one stone for today.
Although her mood was kind of getting killed by the fact that there was the danger of getting too attached—and this was the kind of risk that came with the 'moving slowly' mindset. If she screwed over a client, it would be a bad reputation for her, and then nobody would come to her for advice. But enough about that! In fact, to hell with the danger of falling in love…no way she was going to let some pretty-boy doctor win her heart over! This was a time to celebrate phase one's commencement and she knew just what to do in a time like this…and it was off to "The Seventh Heaven"! Yep…she was not going to go through what she did with Reno…never again! She'll never EVER fall in love again…right?
A/N: The way I see it, in Wutai, they predominantly speak Japanese, but there are also others that speak Mandarin or even Korean as well (I'm a little more familiar with the former through a background in Cantonese).
Songs Used:
"Afternoon of Konoha" by Toshiro Masuda from "Naruto"—Yuffie making an appointment.
"Fisherman's Song of the East China Sea" from "Kung Fu Hustle"—Vincent's checkup, and shopping.
"Piano Black" by Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts from "Cowboy Bebop"—Yuffie's celebration.
Vocabulary and Culture Notes:
Haoyuan Yiwushi—Vincent's clinic, literally means "Good Karma Clinic"
Xianghe—Mandarin for "Fragrant River".
Meihuo—Mandarin for "Beautiful Fire".
Shurikenjutsu—the Japanese art of throwing stars and spikes.
Yeh—a common Chinese surname, meaning "Leaf"
Tai Chi—Mandarin for "Extreme Boundlessness", short for Tai Chi Chuan (Extreme Boundless Fist), a rather well-known martial art for its emphasis on slow and circular movements.
Wufeng—Mandarin for "Phoenix Dance", a made-up style of dance-fighting.