Another Chapter is here!
Quathis: Thank you.
Kazeshuriken: True true.
Enjoy!
Yuffie's blood pounded in her ears, a repetitive beating that left her deaf to everything else as her hastened body avoided the scything, yet slow swings of the large sword by leaping back and then rolling out of the way of the follow-up strike. The shockwave that followed was expected and she went with it, carrying herself further out of the path despite driving a deep ache into her bones. That pain was drowned out by the shock of the next spell being triggered surging through her mind.
The deep thrum of gravity resounded as the Demi 2 spell brought the Asura onto his knees once more. A pale blue glow flowed from him and into her as she plundered from him the mental strength to use spells again, clearing her mind of the mental exhaustion she faced to this point. Darting to his backside with hastened speed and taking to the air with a jump, Yuffie then fired the Bolt 3 spell at a downwards angle upon his unprotected back as the intensified gravity wore off.
Three voices cried out as one in a pained groan as it flew from her outstretched hand in a blinding, brilliant flash and struck the Asura in his back. The floor trembled as the blast crashed the giant into it mercilessly. Seizing the opportunity, the light of the Limit Break swaddled her as she hit the ground and lunged forward with her Magic Shuriken, the muscles in her arms and legs strengthened to strike like Greased Lightning.
The blades of her shuriken tore into his unprotected body, ripping into the greenish-flesh as she passed by. But, the moment it finished, one of the hands that held nothing grabbed her leg and then threw her across the arena. Despite bringing her arm-guard up to protect her head, the world flashed as she hit the ground and then reality returned with pain that wrenched a cry from her throat that was audible to all who had gathered.
She tried to catch the breath stolen from her lung on impact as she stood, every muscle in her body aching to the point of trembling. But her father managed to get back on his feet first. He pointed the three-pronged vajra in his offhand towards her and the golden points were illuminated with a crimson glow.
That blood-tinted light then coiled around her body and strangled her. It forcibly ripped her life essence away from her body and into the prongs, like a vampire bat supping freshly-drawn blood and channeling it into nourishment to repair the damage she had done. That much was evident as the gouge in his flesh she opened up seconds ago sealed shut.
The kunoichi shook it off and raised her arm as the mask of the Cheater came to the forefront now. They both ended up casting the same spell, crafting maleficent orbs of bane-liquid that crashed into one another and splashed all over the arena. The burning sensation of it stinging her skin left Yuffie feeling as though it was eating the patches of flesh it touched raw….
"Ughh…" Then the nausea and fever came, her head swimming. She stumbled as her body suddenly felt worsened aches and agony, burning on the inside. Her legs caved in on her, leaving her on her knees and swooning like she was drunk.
"You've been poisoned!" yelled… someone. The pain left her unable to think straight enough to guess who. But she understood that she needed to cure herself and fast, before her father finished her off. Reaching into her pouch, she grasped the Heal Materia and pulled it out.
But burning agony laced her fingers and robbed her hands of their strength as the flesh from it began to sag. The materia rolled out of her hand and she curled up in pain while it felt like acid was pumping through her veins. Even breathing was a Hell in itself, and she realized she was going to die unless she cured it.
Have to reach it, she told herself as she forced a weak, trembling hand towards the materia that was within an arm's length. But her consciousness, swimming in pain and fever, wavered and her body felt like it was sloughing apart.
Healing light wreathed her before her body could give out, strength returning and allowing her to grasp the Heal Materia. The gentle jolt to her mind was welcomed as she felt the burning sensation of her flesh and muscles being eaten away vanish instantly. She let loose a shuddering breath in relief before looking up to see that her father's three-pronged vajra was pointing at her, softly aglow with the light that had saved her. "You… healed me?"
"At this point, the difference between us should have been made clear. Though you have gained strength, you still cannot hope to triumph over me. Do you still wish to continue after tasting what it means to come to Death's door?"
"Don't make fun of me!" she yelled as she rose back up onto her feet. He was taking it easy on her—probably the whole time. That explained why his swings were slow and he always hit her with the shockwave instead of the sharpened blade. "I'm serious about this! I'm not going to stop until I beat you and make you live up to your promise!"
"Your courage borders on stubbornness," Godo said. "That is unacceptable for one in your position, Yuffie. It will lead our people to their end. Why can't you understand this?"
"You're the stubborn one!" Yuffie said, pointing to Aerith. "They need those parts to save the Planet and you're in the way even after everything we told you, just because you don't want to piss off Shinra! You and the other Mighty Gods have all this power, but you're just lying around instead of throwing your weight behind us or doing something!"
"…You cannot understand," Godo said, a note of cold resignation within the three voices that spoke in one. "You are too young, too naïve to comprehend the burden of power—no matter how often I try to explain it through words."
"And everything I'm saying goes in one ear and out the other with you," Yuffie said as her anger came bubbling up. It was laced with sorrow as she realized they couldn't understand each other except like this. "That's why we're here in the first place, doing this!"
"…Then come." All four hands grabbed the hilt as the Asura took on a fighting stance to end it with a single strike. "Make me understand your words with your weapon. Put every drop of your meager power and stubborn resolve into it. As the mountain that shields Wutai from all that threaten it within and without, I will shatter them both and make you understand my words."
"Fine!" she yelled as her anger at his stubbornness, her sorrow that they can't understand each other any other way, and her resolve formed a mold for the nebulous energy of her undefined Limit Break to fill in and shape itself. If he was as stubborn as an unmoving mountain, then she would simply have to become strong enough to shatter it.
Blazing light wrapped Yuffie as her body tensed for the strike to end it all….
[-oOo-]
Aerith felt really sad listening to the father and daughter coming to the same realization. They were both speaking, but they couldn't hear what the other was saying. So they were going to hash it out with force instead.
It was another thing that made her grateful to her adoptive mother. Elmyra had always been patient with her, even as she slowly began to develop the ability to hear the voice of the Planet. Their relationship had never been strained like this.
She watched as Yuffie leapt into the air as high as she could and fell towards her father, the furious light wreathing her gathering into her gauntlet. The Asura swung the flat of his sword upwards to meet the arm-guard. The moment they connected, all that power was unleashed.
In an instant, the world itself dropped from under Aerith's feet. The pagoda tremored like it had been ground zero of an earthquake, shaking on its support beams and threatening to buckle under the impact. Many of those who had gathered to bear witness to the fight screamed and voiced their shock, surprise, and pain as they were knocked around too.
Aerith herself felt as though she had been thrown around. Like a doll in the hands of a hyperactive, thrashing child. Fortunately, something soft broke her fall forward as the tremors faded away and things came to a standstill.
"Aerith," came from beneath her. She looked down to see that she had landed on Crimson, lying over her back as she had fallen over from the attack too. "Your hand?"
"Ah." The last of the Ancients removed her hand from Crimson's bottom and got to her feet, apologizing profusely as she offered to help her up. "Sorry about that."
"It's not really that big of a deal," Crimson said as she got up and dusted herself off. "We ended up better than the others did."
Aerith looked to see that the Mighty Gods were a tangled mess. Shake was struggling to push off the other two on top of her, while Gorky was rubbing his back like he had thrown it out. Shera was patting the ground in search of her glasses, while Cid was rubbing his head where it hit Cloud's, leaving one muttering a string of curses and the other apologizing.
"What just happened?" Aerith asked.
"It looks like she developed a new Limit Break and decided this was the best place to test it. It's a miracle that the entire building didn't collapse…." Her voice trailed off as her gaze fixed itself back towards the arena and Aerith's followed.
Standing in the veil of dust that had been thrown up on the impact, Yuffie was wobbling on her feet as she stood on the edge of a gaping hole. Her attack had struck down her father with enough force that the Asura had been knocked through the rest of the floors, until he hit the bottom and retook his human form. By the rules of the match, he could no longer fight—if move after that.
"…I… win…." She muttered in a voice that was so soft that the creaking of wood from the building mostly overlapped it. Then her half-lidded eyes closed in exhaustion… and she fell towards her death in exhaustion!
"Catch her!" Crimson yelled abruptly, a note of sincere fear in her voice. But they wouldn't make it. The quake had disorientated and knocked them around as much as it had Aerith, and they were just getting back on their feet or untangling themselves.
Time seemed to slow as Aerith watched the youngest of their group disappear down the mouth of the hole before Cloud, who had been the fastest, could catch her. Cries and screams came out from both the Mighty Gods and her friends, and Aerith's heart stilled at the thought Yuffie would die doing this for this her cause. The worst fear she confessed to her mother was coming true….
Then she heard a voice beckon her and looked down to see a Summon Materia near her feet, knocked free of the altar during that last attack. Her desperate fingers clutched it and she wordlessly invoked the summoning within. The strong jolt to her mind dazed her as the ancient summoning materialized and speared forward.
Its elongated and serpentine body cut through the air and brushed past the others roughly to slink down the hole, folding its fins into its body to dive down smoothly. The prehensile whiskers on its face cradled her body and slowed her descent. Aerith darted over to the edge to see that Leviathan stopped Yuffie mere feet from the bottom floor, next to her father lying helpless on the ground in exhaustion. His eyes were wide in horror and fear.
The revered Ruler of the Waves positioned the kunoichi into her father's arms as he forced his exhausted body upright. Then it coiled around on the bottom floor as the others made their way down. Aerith still felt dazed by the summoning's weight upon her mind, but kept her steps steady as she reached the bottom.
The Five Mighty Gods bowed their heads in reverence to the Leviathan. The only exception was Godo, the Omni himself. Instead, he held his unconscious daughter tight in his arms as if afraid to let her go. Leviathan seemingly paid that no mind as it spoke.
"It has been a long time since I have breathed deep the air of these lands and tasted the sea upon the breeze." Its voice was gentle upon the ears, akin to the lapping waves upon the shores. "Harken my words, those who worship my name. For I will make my will known now."
"You honor us with your presence," Gorky said from his pose of supplication. "What is it you wish for us to heed?"
"The Cetra's words are truth. This world faces great turmoil, and the seas will not spare this land from the aftereffects." It turned its gaze upon Yuffie. "This warrior, who has proven her worth in my presence, will depart from these lands and continue her journey as my hand in the events that will unfold."
Godo shook his head, holding his daughter tighter. "If there needs to be one who acts in your name, it will be I. She will stay in the village."
"The decision had been made the moment you wagered against her and lost." Leviathan rose up and hovered over the man. "Continue your duties as the one who protects like the mountain, while she becomes the one who act in my name."
"I will not make her a sacrifice to you," he stated firmer, clear defiance in his voice this time. "She will stay in the village, and I will take her place!"
It clicked for Aerith then, why he healed her during the match and never used the poison prior to when she did. He couldn't bear the thought of her suffering and dying after he had sacrificed much to uphold his position. He had let his daughter slip through his arms once, but he couldn't do so a second time and send her to what he perceived to be her death against Sephiroth.
Even if it meant defying one of the very gods he worshipped. And, considering Leviathan's fins unfolded and the air pressure in the room abruptly dropped, like a storm was approaching, there was a very real chance he was about to be smote for it.
Aerith prepared to cut her connection with it before that could happen, but Crimson's fingers wrapped hers to stop it. They remained braced as Aerith's emerald eyes met the honey-brown pair. There was a cold firmness behind them.
"Don't," Crimson stressed. "Yuffie fought and nearly died for this. You cut the connection, and we may not get another chance."
This time, when it spoke, Leviathan's voice carried a tempestuous rumble. "My will is akin to the churning depths. Just as it cannot be tempered by the will of man, nor can it be swayed by one who clings to her with like a drowning man to flotsam in a storm."
Yuffie's father still looked defiant as he rose onto his feet and stared the summoning in the eyes. Aerith looked to Crimson again and saw her face was fixed in firm expression, as unyielding as her fingers. She… she was really going to let this happen.
"Lord Godo," called Gorky, his voice pleading. "We cannot lose you as well. Please, think of the village. Think of what Miss Yuffie will feel when she wakes without you. Have faith that she can carry out this task and return alive."
Just like that, all of the tension and willingness to fight drained from his body. His death would be an insurmountable loss for Wutai at the moment, more so given the circumstances. The man who spoke doubtlessly of the good of the village before could not act in a way that he chastised his daughter for.
"Still your fears," spoke the Ruler of the Waves, its tone settling and fins retracting upon his silent surrender. "I will accompany the child in this endeavor. No matter how vast the distance, know that she will be under my protection wherever the waves reach."
With that said, Crimson released her grip on Aerith's hands. Aerith took that as cue to let the summoning fade. The summoning dissipated into glowing, deep-blue motes and the light within the materia dimmed.
"…I will take her to my home and let her rest," Godo said after a moment, breaking the silence that followed. There was a clear note of authority in his tone. It all but dared anyone to speak out against it. "Come morning, I will see you escorted to where you will find what you need, and have a boat prepared to retrieve your plane. But you will fend for yourselves."
"That's fine," Crimson said, letting him depart without a word more.
Aerith stepped forward, thinking of something to say and reassure him that Yuffie would be safe. But nothing came to mind as he walked out the door, past the worried villagers that had gathered after the shaking of the pagoda reverberated through the village. How could she promise him that after everything that's happened so far?
As the rest of the Mighty Gods went to calm the people down, and Cid left with Shera, Aerith turned to see that Crimson was lingering behind and speaking softly to Cloud. When he finished and walked towards Aerith, their eyes met. Crimson turned away, not daring to look her in the eyes for long.
"We need to head back," Cloud told her, setting a hand on her shoulder. "Our welcome in the village will probably be worn out soon."
Aerith wordlessly nodded, her grasp tightening on Leviathan's Summoning Materia in the palm of her hand….