Zack XXIV: The Weaponsmith
Wutai was constructed on the steep slopes of the valley sharply transitioning into the mountain ranges surrounding the city on three sides. The houses were built on small and larger terraces sitting flat on the flanks of the hills, and roads were twisting up and down between the wooden buildings in confusing patterns. Getting around the city either took a lot of walking up and down stairs or even longer detours. As Zack was walking around, he began to understand why Reno had recommended him to take a look around. It was Zack's first time in the actual capital city of Wutai, which had hardly been touched directly by the war, and he had no idea where he was going half the time.
Still, everyone he passed stared at him in open distrust and he even heard a few mean comments directed at him as he passed people in the street. It was no surprise, seeing as his black SOLDIER uniform, spiky hair and two large swords on his back not only stood out like a sore thumb, but they marked him as a member of the despised Shinra party. Not only that, one person or another may actually remember the sword he was carrying from the local news, because although Zack himself had not been to Wutai much, his sword most definitely had been, and people may even mistake him for its previous owner, who must have appeared at least a few times on the local news. What was glory for one side entailed suffering for the other. It is not that we were unaware of it, or that we did not care about it. More like we tried not to think about it. After the war between Wutai and Shinra had been waging for over ten years at this point, everyone knew what he was, and why he was in the city at present. Zack tried his best to ignore the comments, but it still hurt to be called names for a war he did not bear any responsibly for or even knew much about. But he had clearly fallen into the trap of being blinded by the glory Shinra's propaganda aired out into the world.
He finally reached a high-up plateau that gave him a pretty good view of the city. In view was the airport, on the side of the city closest to the gap between the mountains where the valley opened to the plains below. There was a large river running through the city, fed by several smaller streams and canals originating from the mountainsides. Wooden bridges crossed the water in several places. From above, he was able to see that the city actually had quite a lot of greenery, each garden surrounded by buildings and walls, so that only the house fronts and walls were visible from the street side, and the vegetation was mostly invisible from the street. Having originated from the forested Gongaga village and lived in Midgar for several years at this point, Zack could not understand why people were hiding their trees and grass behind walls instead of showing their beauty off to the world.
The city was stretching all the way across the valley up the sides of the mountains up to a certain point, where apparently the slope got too steep to reasonably build on, and there was a sharp transition between the densely populated city and the forests that surrounded the city, thickly stretching up the mountains. The air was impressively clean, seeing as Wutai City was relatively large and densely populated. Which could be the case because there were only few cars out and about, and little to no industry. In comparison, he was able to spot many chocobo carriages, pack chocobos, and people riding the large yellow birds all around the city, up and down the steep slopes and narrow roads. Clearly, the birds offered many advantages due to their agility and maneuverability, which enabled them to take the tight turns of the serpentine street at relatively high speeds much more easily than a car could have.
Zack wondered where all of Wutai's advanced war machinery was manufactured, seeing as he could not see any major industrial sites, even from this vantage point. Midgar was full of heavy industry, both on top and below the plate, producing and recycling the parts required for constructing Midgar itself and everything the people of Midgar consumed. A single larger building emitting dark smoke even higher up the mountain, which Zack could vaguely discern from where he stood, caught his attention. He spontaneously decided to walk higher up and find out what it was.
After some guessing which road to take and losing his way twice, Zack finally arrived at the two-story building with a large chimney in the back. Zack was immediately intrigued by the large sign over the door saying "Weaponsmith". He had heard about weaponsmiths, people who hand-crafted swords and weapons over an open fire. All of Shinra's weapons were industrially manufactured in large quantities, and people in the slums made their weapons from recycled junk. Junk shops were everywhere, but none of them called themselves "weaponsmiths".
As he was still debating whether it would be appropriate to simply walk into the store as an enemy of Wutai, he heard a familiar voice approaching. He turned around and spotted three members of the first Crescent unit walking toward the store, talking in agitation. As they noticed Zack, they stopped in their tracks for a short moment and then marched on, staring at Zack, their conversation immediately dead. Among them was Argentum, the second-in-command of the first unit, who had been the first to receive them at the airport earlier.
Zack and Argentum had crossed swords once before while the unit had attempted to infiltrate Midgar four months ago. He had been a formidable foe, and the outcome their battle had remained inconclusive as the Crescent unit was ordered to withdraw, before either of them could claim victory. Zack raised a hand and lightly waved at the approaching soldiers, earning him confused looks from the two men he was not acquainted with, while Argentum only returned a piercing stare.
"Looking for trouble?", the Wutai soldier questioned Zack, who demonstratively looked around, saying: "No, I was just, uh, sightseeing?" Argentum rolled his eyes. "Do you think this place is a tourist attraction or something?" Zack scratched his head, but before he could come up with an answer, one of the others interjected, shaking his fist: "Have some respect, Shinra minion!", which cause Zack to physically take a step back. If he stirred up trouble now, he had no doubt that Reno would never let him hear the end of it.
The third Crescent soldier laughed at him: "Are you scared without that monster protecting you?" Although he did not know whom the soldier meant, this taunt hit Zack harder than expected, because it reminded him of how Angeal had referred to himself as a monster just before he attacked Zack. He clenched his fists in anger, but did not know what to say. His gaze met Argentum's, who was watching him closely from behind the other two Crescent members.
After no one stirred for a few seconds, Argentum finally rose his voice, waving over his shoulder at the weaponsmith's shop: "Why don't you two go on ahead?" One of the others opened his mouth to protest, but Argentum interrupted him: "Don't worry, I can take him." The others laughed and shouted ridicule at Zack as they walked off into the store.
When they were out of earshot, Zack commented: "You're confident." Argentum waved away the remark. "You're all bark, no bite." Zack folded his arms and sighed. "It's called self-control. I'm not here to start trouble." Argentum raised his eyebrows. "Then what do you call it in Shinra propaganda when you're walking around out in the open in the capital of a country you are trying to subjugate with not one, but two swords on your back?"
Zack scratched the back of his head. "I'm on standby." Argentum reached for the halberd on his back. "That doesn't really answer the question why you're here and not… say… hiding in your room crying yourself to sleep." Zack shook his head. "Not today, Argentum." The Crescent commander laughed out loud and let go of his lance. "I'm kidding. Aurum would have my head if the negotiations were canceled just so I could get a rematch." Zack exhaled in relief. "Not funny, man." Argentum put his hand on his hips. "That's a matter of perspective." Wutai soldiers were always so disciplined and preoccupied with honor that Zack had no idea that they could be such pranksters.
"By the way, my name is Yasuhiro. Argentum is just my title in the Crescent Unit", Argentum explained. "Makes sense. I'm Zack. That's… my name." Argentum pointed at the weaponsmith's shop. "You wanna check it out? That's what you're here for, right?" Zack stared at him in surprise, but Argentum, no, Yasuhiro, just waved his hand. "I know young guys like you. Always obsessing about swords and the like. To the point of where one sword isn't even enough." He turned around and gestured at Zack to follow him inside.
Zack reluctantly followed him into the sparsely lit salesroom of the shop. After his eyes had adjusted to the dim lighting, Zack could only gawk around in wonder. Further toward the back, a wide counter separated the customer from the clerk, and behind that counter, the wall was decked in a variety of swords, lances, halberds and maces in various sizes and shapes. In the front area, human-sized weapons of every kind were on display for customers to browse and try out, including some that hardly looked like any of the weapons Zack had ever seen. Behind the counter stood a burly middle-aged man dressed in blue Wutai robes with loose, black pants. The two Crescent members who had walked in before stood at the counters and were discussing with the shopkeeper about their gun lances that were laid out on the countertop.
Zack saw the shopkeeper raising his hand in greeting over Yasuhiro's shoulder, but he immediately froze as he noticed the SOLDIER walking behind him. The other two Crescent members turned around and reached for their lances on the counter. But Yasuhiro raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture and calmed the shop keeper: "This sword nerd just wants to take a look at your craftsmanship. Those Shinra folks just have the crappiest weapons. See, that's why he has two. In case one of them breaks when it meets a proper blade. I'll keep an eye on him." The shopkeeper eyed Zack with open distrust, but finally warned him: "Don't touch anything!", and turned back to examine the gun lances on his counter. Argentum joined them and leaned with his back against the counter to be able to watch Zack. He shrugged and moved his hand in a semicircle in front of his body as if to invite Zack to look around without the others noticing, who had already turned their attention back to the matter they had previously been discussing.
Zack turned toward the weapons on display and studied them with his arms folded. He noticed the shopkeeper occasionally looking up from his work to check on him, but he finally left this job to Argentum and left through a door in the back of the shop, taking the two gun lances with him. The variety of swords on display was impressive. Zack had had no idea that there were that many different kinds of swords. Though most of them were light and slim with the typical curved blades that were well-known throughout the world as Wutaian-style swords, just like the one Sephiroth carried. But to Zack's surprise, even this style of sword had a large variety of subtypes, with different lengths and blade finishes, even some that had two blades on opposite sides of a longer handle. Somewhere in a corner of the shop he discovered the possibly strangest sword he had ever seen, whose blade was more like a case with six nozzles on either side and steel pipes connecting the back of the case with a tank. A sign on the sword stand read "Fire Sword". This "sword" looked overly gimmicky to Zack for it to be meant as a serious weapon. But just going by its looks, he guessed that it was something Miss Scarlet would enjoy. It was not the only weapon that looked more like an impractical, fancy gadget he would rather have expected in a slum junk shop than in a "weaponsmith" shop. The sizes and colors of some swords, including the apparently illogical arrangement of materia slots in some of them, were equally surprising to him. Perhaps the weaponsmith was not as austere as Zack would have expected from a traditional craftsman, just as Argentum was a humorist, despite being a Wutaian soldier. But no matter the craftiness he witnessed in the shop, none of the swords on display were even remotely similar to his own, and he was unsure if he would even be able to use any of the Wutaian swords. Curiously enough, he did not see a sword that was even remotely as long as Sephiroth's was. His may have been custom-made.
As he was looking over the swords displayed in the shop, he heard one of the Crescent members calling out to him: "Hey Shinra boy!" Zack looked at him without responding, his arms still folded. "Why you need two swords, eh? Think that makes ya twice as strong, eh? Wanna get a third? To make you three times as strong?" The other lightly slapped the side of his arm, laughing at Zack, who only rolled his eyes and said: "Long story", before he turned back to closer look at the swords. It appeared as if this shop had a particular style of designing the handle, because all of them looked similar, no matter which size of blade it was attached to. And not just that, the design looked somewhat familiar. Or maybe all Wutai swords looked like that?
Finally, the shopkeeper came back, returning the lances to the two Crescent members. While they inspected the result of his work, he looked over at Zack and called out to him: "Never seen anything like that, have you? Too bad I won't sell you anything." Zack, who was perching over a particularly interesting piece, moved back into an upright position and looked at the shopkeeper. "No, I just thought that the design looks really familiar. My friend has a sword just like that." The four men stared at him, their postures frozen. "But his is really long, so maybe it's from a different place", Zack continued without noticing. The shopkeeper folded his arms, looking even more displeased than before. But before he could say anything, Yasuhiro pushed himself off the counter and dragged Zack out of the shop, saying loudly: "I think you've seen enough."
"Hey, what's the big idea?", Zack protested as he was being dragged out onto the street. "That's a really sensitive topic", Yasuhiro explained after they passed the door. "I was just wondering, geez.", Zack tried to defend himself after Yasuhiro let go of him. "Maybe you should ask you friend, then", he suggested. "My friend? You mean Sephiroth?" The Crescent soldier inhaled and exhaled deeply and finally said: "This has been interesting. But don't forget that nothing will be different the next time we meet on the battlefield." With that, he turned around and returned into the shop, leaving Zack by himself out on the street.