Chapter XI
Three For a Convent
"If we knocked, we wouldn't be sneaking in, would we?" - Yuffie
"Tell me again how you talked me into this?" Barret glared at Yuffie under his absurd getup.
Yuffie could barely keep from laughing.
"Tell me again what we are supposed to accomplish?" he said.
This time Yuffie did laugh. "We seek wisdom."
"Why do I have to wear this clown suit?"
"It's a habit, Barret. I'm wearing one too."
"Dressing up in women's clothes is Cloud's habit, not mine."
"We're going into a convent, Barret. They don't let men inside."
"I don't see you with a tablecloth on your head."
"It's called a wimple. Not all nuns wear them but I dare say you would stand out without one."
"And this curtain?"
"Your veil. Since you forgot to shave this morning, you would fail inspection."
Barret grumbled and pulled the cloth tight about his head. "You dressed me in purple?"
"This is Wutai, not Midgar." Yuffie, herself dressed in wine red, twirled around once for his approval. "We Wutai nuns celebrate life, not mourn it."
"We do, now? You're no goddamn nun!"
"Careful Barret. We nuns have to take a vow of no potty talk."
"Dammit - uh, oh hell. Yuffie - I give up. Who are we going in to meet?"
"Mother Noriko of the Falling Leaf."
Barret swore under his breath.
"Come on. You're starting to sweat, big fella."
The two of them walked up the pebbled path, across a pair of sculpted arch bridges. Split leaf maples spread their red pronged leaves, sprinkling the ground with lazy patterns of light. From behind the walls laced in ivy, a bell-like chant echoed into the yard, prompting them to stop and absorb the intertwined melodies. Even Barret seemed moved.
When the chanting paused, the two of them completed their stroll up the path, ending at an old fashioned wooden door with iron hinges. Yuffie stood on tiptoe and tried to peer in the peephole but could see nothing.
"This way." She ignored the wrought iron knocker and pulled Barret's sleeve.
"We're not going to knock?"
"If we knocked, we wouldn't be sneaking in, would we? Careful, don't let those low branches sweep off your wimple."
Yuffie grinned at Barret's rumble. She led him along the outside wall, around a corner to where a stream gurgled out through a gated culvert in the wall. Yuffie squatted beside the stream and peered into the vine-draped darkness. She let her fingers trail in the cool water before speaking.
"Wonder if Mother Noriko knows how loose these bars are."
"Come on, brat. There's no way I could fit through there."
"I don't know. This stream is deeper than it looks. If you got on your back and wedged yourself, I bet you'd slide right through. See this green algae? Slick as grease."
"That's it. I'm leaving."
"Wait! There might be another way."
Barret glared from behind his veil.
"Boost me up."
Barret grabbed her with more roughness than necessary. He heaved her up by the waist, hooked his gunless arm under a foot and shoved her hard up the wall. She clung to the ivy like a wall spider. Up over the wall, minding the spikes on top. She hung and dropped into the yard beyond. Once inside, she crossed the stream on a wooden footbridge. Feeling along the wall, she found the latch to the secret exit door, secret in that one could only open it from the inside. An iron bar clicked into place as the door shut.
Barret jumped when the wall opened beyond the stream.
"Psst! Sister Barret, in here."
Another grumble. Still, he stepped through the door, jumping to keep his habit from catching when the door sprang shut.
"Keep your voice down," Yuffie said. "Mother Noriko hates it when she finds her flock skipping mid-morning prayers."
Yuffie could feel Barret clench his teeth. "Which. Way."
"Gazebo."
Barret plodded behind her. Yuffie pulled out her own wimple and fastened it around her head. She then adopted the head down, demur posture she had seen on nuns who ventured into the city. Stepping into the gazebo, she drew Barret in to sit on the bench beside her. They sat, Yuffie relaxing while watching Barret seethe. Minutes passed. The breeze blew in the scent of plum blossoms. Barret threw back his head, lifted his good arm, started to say something, but ended up shaking his head instead.
"Plum brandy," Yuffie said. "If you think sake is a blast, you ought to try - "
"Goddammit Yuffie!"
Both of them turned at the sound of tongue clucking. A middle aged woman carrying a broom walked into the gazebo and sat on the bench opposite. Unlike Yuffie and Barret, she wore no head covering, just a forest green cloak embossed with a silver pattern on the fringe. Yuffie stared at the patterns, a repeating, knotted double loop. Though they had faded, the pattern still picked up a glint from the sunlight.
"I say, if it's not Miss Yuffie. Coming in to fix our roof?"
"Ah, roof?"
"You wear a carpenter's robe and you have an aptitude for climbing walls. Naturally I assumed Godo sent you in here to fix that nagging leak we have over our inner cloister."
"Does, Godo know about the leak?"
"He may come to know it, should he request a prayer during a rainy day and feel a steady drip, drip, drip between his shoulder blades."
"Do you always pray under the leak?"
"It is an honor to be chosen. We of Purest Waters pride ourselves on our ability to work despite distractions. Endure. In enduring, grow strong."
"So, why do you want your roof fixed?"
"When a distraction become too familiar, it no longer serves its purpose. You will find the tools and tar for patching over in the shed."
Barret gave a muffled, smug grunt.
"Introduce me to your friend, Miss Yuffie?"
Yuffie smirked. "This is Sister Baretta. She, she can't talk because she has a nasty sinus infection."
"Perhaps Sister would like to partake of our famous healing waters?"
"Oh yes. Sister is very fond of healing brews," Yuffie said. "The more vile tasting, the better."
"Excellent. While I fetch the remedy for poor Sister Baretta, ahem, perhaps you, Miss Yuffie, would like to finish sweeping these walkways? The Sisters soon start their afternoon gardening and you know how Mother Noriko adores cleanness."
Before Yuffie could protest, the nun handed her the broom and headed for the stone building. Yuffie stood dazed.
"Get sweeping, Sister Yuffie," Barret said. "Else that nun may give you a paddling with that broom." He added, "Or I will."
"I just realized who that was. That was Sister Juria Maiya. She's on the list. You know, the one with your wife?"
Barret sat up straight.
"She's here? Still?"
"I'm sure of it. Looks like Juria survived Corel somehow."
"You get to work. You do one thing to mess this up or anger the nuns, I'll bust your butt with that broom."
Yuffie muttered, "Like to see you try, big fella," but she attacked the paths with gusto, sweeping away the debris in a storm of pique. As she worked, her movements slowed and her anger ebbed. She found her mind sinking into a sea of calm, her breathing attuned to each sweep. She reflected on past events: Portek's betrayal, the discovery of the hit list, the ugly black towers, and those Takeo fighters flying around. After the fight where she had downed the rogue fighter with her now melted shuriken, they had returned to the city where Barret had taken apart Portek's computer while Yuffie finally tracked down Godo. Father and daughter had a tense chat. Yuffie did concede, however, Godo had become a busy man, busy enough to overlook a traitorous butler he had assigned to his daughter. Then as usual, the chat devolved into a screaming match, something both of them deep down enjoyed. Some families played cards; hers engaged in cage fights.
After long minutes of shared insults and a few thrown punches, they lay exhausted on their mats, where Yuffie asked her father about some of the names on Portek's list. Our Lady of Purest Waters kept popping up like a summer shower. In particular, Godo had a picture of Juria Maiya. She hadn't looked like a terrorist, though neither did Tifa when it came down to it.
Yuffie reached the end of the path where she dusted a pair of planters filled with Wutai snap-traps. A strange plant to find in a convent. She found more planters, a pair of them at the head of each of the four paths that converged on a shaded waterlily pond. Stone benches ringed the pond. She sat on the one facing the great mountain Da-Chao.
"Beautiful day for contemplation."
Yuffie looked up to see Juria, who peered down with a kind look on her face. Yuffie nodded.
"You look troubled."
Yuffie glanced at the gazebo where Barret, having shed his false garments, followed a white and green clad nun into the building.
"Lucky Mother Noriko has a sense of humor," Juria said. "Of course, it never hurts to be a friend of Myrna Wallace."
"Myrna was his wife." Yuffie felt a sudden stab of guilt. It seemed long ago, when Barret had told his story of Myrna's death and the destruction of his home town by Shinra, when she had quipped, "He gets no sympathy from me. He should never have trusted Shinra." She had spent these past months wishing she could take those words back.
Juria sat beside her. The nun took her hand, an un-nunlike action in Yuffie's experience. "Do you know why Shinra hates us so much?"
"Shinra hates everything it can't control."
"You notice how there are almost no churches or temples in Shinra's cities?"
"There was the Temple of the Ancients," Yuffie said, "and the forgotten capital."
"The Cetra had a highly spiritual culture, living symbiotically with the Planet. You will find more ruins of their temples if you look for them."
"Aeris had a church in Midgar. She grew flowers there."
"Rumor has it, a thriving Cetra community once lived in that area, at least before upper Midgar was built."
Yuffie sighed. Some thoughts she had best push from her mind.
"We here at Purest Waters and at other cloisters try to preserve the faith for Wutai and for the whole world. Forget what you've heard about us being brides of the gods. We are our own family. We have our work, yes, and our prayers, yes, but also our joy and our mutual support."
Yuffie said nothing.
"You and Godo have each other; yet you fight. You have both lost something dear and the fights fill the vacuum in your hearts."
Yuffie began to cry silently, her shoulders quivering. "Mother," she said. "I never knew her."
"Kohana. The Flower of Wutai. She came down from the mountains along with her younger sister Umeka to join our order. Their parents met with a tragic end, something Kohana refused to talk about. They had a cousin, too, who left for the north country. The two sisters found a new family in our order, and through us they found inner peace, if not happiness. Then what should happen, but Kohana should meet and fall in love with young Godo Kisaragi, your father. A match made in heaven, as they say. We were happy for them. They were married right in our chapel."
Yuffie looked up. Yes, the gazebo. She had seen a picture of her parents standing in it, her mother decked out in blooms.
"Umeka was almost happier for her sister than Kohana was for herself." Juria looked wistful. "When our dear little Flower of Wutai was killed during the war, Umeka was inconsolable. Your father, he could occupy himself with war and battle. He also had you to raise. But Umeka? She grew cold. She used to sit on these benches at night, staring into space. No one could reach her. She sank deeper into herself until one day when a pair of strangers stopped by. One was Sylvester, a former Shinra officer who had left the army, disillusioned. The other was a Cetra woman named Ifalna."
"Ifalna? As in, Aeris' mother?"
"The Flower Girl, yes, who died at the Ancient Capital, only to rise again. An inspiration for our order, to be sure. Yes, Ifalna. The two of them spirited Umeka away, only days before a group of Turks swung by to look for her. That was, sixteen years ago? The temple received notes from Umeka, including a sad one telling of Ifalna's death. Then two years later, she wrote a hasty note saying she would need to go into hiding and we wouldn't hear from her for a while. That happened right before Wutai surrendered to Shinra. When she did return - "
Yuffie heard an agonized howl from beyond the gardens. She turned to see Barret slumped against a pillar, holding his forehead in his hand. The white robed Noriko stood beside him, a comforting hand on his shoulder. Several nuns working in the gardens turned toward him.
"I didn't know you were allowed to touch strangers," Yuffie said.
"In general. But Avalanche members are hardly strangers to us. You could have simply knocked on the door as guests, you realize."
"And miss all the fun? Aeris thought Barret looked cute in his sailor suit. Wait till she hears about him in a habit."
"I must say, it appears Barret is accepting the remedy after all."
Barret took a goblet from Mother Noriko. He held it a moment before taking a sip. Yuffie saw his eyes pop open wide.
"Spiced plum brandy," Juria said. "Now that, we are forbidden to taste."
Yuffie looked back at her. She appeared to be in deep thought. "Where is my aunt now?" Tension knotted her gut. Juria took her time answering.
"She was in Corel when Shinra destroyed the town but her body was never found. Unlike . . . " Juria bowed her head.
Yuffie waited.
"We at Purest Waters do not take vows of chastity like some orders used to. After all, we have a hard enough time attracting members. Never mind. Still, few here have time for relationships with our schedule. Noriko is married, believe it or not. Her husband is with a temple north of Da-Chao. As for me, I could never juggle my duties here with, well, let's just say, love takes a lot of your time. When I met Genji six years ago and he asked me to marry him, I decided to leave the order. I had already had several crises of faith so Noriko was happy for me. She said it was an honor to marrying us. On our wedding night, I, I tasted some of that plum brandy. Believe me; I know how Barret feels."
Yuffie looked back at where Barret stood. His face had turned even more ruddy and two nuns had to fan him with ivory fans.
"What do you know of his wife?"
Yuffie spoke slowly. "I know she died in Corel when Shinra destroyed the town." She felt another stab of guilt.
"Did he say why Shinra destroyed the town?"
"Wasn't there an explosion at the mako reactor? And Shinra thought it was sabotage?"
"It really was sabotage."
"Oh?"
"Myrna, his wife, was in on the planning. Along with my Genji. As for who came up with the idea? Umeka." Juria shook her head.
"Wow." Yuffie felt her head swim.
"The actual saboteurs were a trio of Ancients who lived on the road, fleeing Shinra.
"Ancients? As in, Cetra?"
"Yes. They were brothers. Jasper maybe and, I think Citrine, and maybe Garnet. Anyway, they hated Shinra with a passion and volunteered - begged - to bomb the place. However, they were not experienced and the bomb went off too early, causing only minor damage. Shinra, though, was ruthless."
Juria paused. Yuffie waited for her to continue.
"Genji was afraid something might go wrong so he sent me away that morning." The nun's composure finally cracked. Juria bowed her head and cried. Yuffie put an arm around her.
"They say," Juria said between sobs, "Genji took down a dozen Shinra. He was a champion swordsman, who once boasted he had dueled the great Sephiroth to a draw, though he usually spoke of that after hitting the plum brandy."
Yuffie looked up at the sky, at the clouds. She didn't know what to say.
"I came back here, where the order welcomed me back. I would be lost without their support. I regret I could not keep my faith during my younger days but Noriko has been especially kind to me. Every week, when we light our candles of remembrance, I light a red one for Genji."
The crash of a gong startled both of them. Yuffie glanced around. Everyone had stopped her task and stared in Noriko's direction.
The gong sounded again.
"Two gongs are an alert," Juria said. "Visitors. Possibly hostile."
"That's quite some doorbell."
A troop of soldiers dressed in the hated Shinra blue trotted into sight. Yuffie huddled on the bench, fastening her wimple about her head. Across the way, Barret looked both lost and furious without his gun. In disgust, he wrapped his head in his garments, if sloppily, though they did conceal his face in time.
A new figure strode into view. He had rumpled red hair, a sparking black nightstick, and a sour, gray expression.
"Reno?" Yuffie whispered. "What in Da-Chao's name is he doing here?"
Juria rose and Yuffie followed. They crossed the gardens where a group of twenty nuns lined up opposite the Shinra troopers.
Reno twirled his nightstick. "We have a simple mission," he said. "We have come to collect a fugitive. She is named Juria Maiya and we believe you are hiding her. Hand her over and we will leave, without trampling as much as a single flower."
Yuffie scanned the surroundings. Where had Reno's sidekick - Rude - decided to hide? Reno never went anywhere without his bald companion. Had he perched somewhere with a sniper rifle?
"Do my eyes deceive me?" Reno said, "Or is this Barret, of Avalanche?"
Barret, who had managed to wrap his wimple around his face as if playing blind man's bluff while holding up a bank, flung down the headgear with a growl. Yuffie bit her cheek to keep from laughing.
"These convents have become more liberal than I remember. Pity you don't have your gun, else you could put up a fight. Defend these weak females? That would stroke your ego. You will come with us too. Call it a two for one deal."
"The hell I will," Barret said. "Where's Baldy?"
Reno snorted. "That information is on a need-to-know basis."
"Come closer. I'll show you I still have a mean left hook."
"Well, that's fortunate as you seem to be missing your right one." Reno ignored Barret's obscene response and turned to Noriko. "Where is the fugitive Miss Maiya?"
"Leave," Noriko said. "I will not have anyone threaten my Sisters or our guests."
"Sisters? How quaint."
With calculated nonchalance, the nuns walked forward. The troops raised their guns. The Sisters stopped, the lines of opposing forces not two meters apart.
Reno sighed. "I tried to be reasonable. Hand over Juria now."
Noriko walked defiantly to him. She folded her arms. "Leave."
"Fair enough." Reno looked up and down the row of nuns. "That one." His Electromag Rod crackled, shooting a bolt of light that snapped into a small nun dressed in reddish lavender robes. She gasped, spinning about and collapsing. She shuddered once before lying still.
"She'll live," Reno assured his audience, "but she will wake with a wicked headache. You will hand over the fugitive, or I shall pick our next lucky winner."
Yuffie missed her shuriken. She felt Juria start to move but Yuffie stopped her with a hand on her elbow. "No. I won't just give you over to these cretins."
"He is hurting my Sisters. I won't let them be killed for - "
"I may be unarmed but I'm not without my tricks." Yuffie activated a red materia on her armlet. "Tidal Wave."
Noriko leapt at Reno but the Xee leader snared her in his Pyramid spell.
"Everyone? Here is your last chance."
"Look out!" Rude, appearing in a doorway, pointing at the rising Leviathan. Reno rolled aside but Yuffie's summoned spirit bowled over his line of troops. The nuns performed a synchronized leap over the wave, coming up with rakes and brooms. As one they fell upon the troops likes ravenous kids at a piñata party.
"Cool!" Yuffie snatched her broom and charged Reno.
"I should have known it would be you."
Yuffie, dodging his Electromag attack, swung around and walloped him with the broom.
"That does it!" Reno fired and missed again. Yuffie heard a yelp behind her.
"What did John call you? Oh yea. Weasel and Beefcake." She swung low with the broom handle, aiming to trip. She wedged the stick between his legs but before she could apply leverage, the body of a Shinra blue flopped across her back. She went down hard.
She heard Reno chuckle. She fingered a Restore materia, punching out a Regen before Reno jammed her in the neck with his electric nightstick.
"Lights out, sweet-cakes."