Kasumi - 1997
It was morning when they reached the capital. The sun had risen high enough to sweep clear most of the shadows, and Kasumi hung back, watching as her warriors entered the town ahead of her.
She hadn't brought all of them home. In the days to come, there would be visits to make, condolences to offer, graves at which to make offerings. But today was a day for reunions.
The city didn't look any different than when she had left it, but for her, its sound had changed. Its higher registers were lost to her, and the murmur of low conversation and the trundle of chocobo-drawn carts came to her as though she were underwater. A small price to pay for the safety of her homeland.
Beyond the main streets and beneath the watchful eye of the pagoda, the house appeared ahead of her. Kasumi was a ninja; she didn't do fanfare. She slid the door open and stepped inside. Leaving her shoes in the genkan, she went in search of her daughter.
Yuffie was playing by the koi pond, her sleeves dark with wet despite someone's best efforts to tie them back. When she spotted Kasumi, she leapt the railing, her bare feet stamping muddy prints across the floor. Her approach vibrated through the floorboards, and her mouth was open, probably whooping in delight, but her high voice was beyond what Kasumi could hear. But between her grandparents and the injured warriors convalescing at home, she'd been learning hand signals.
Commander! she signed excitedly. 'Mom' wasn't typically a word you needed a sign for, as a ninja. They'd have to work on that.
"My clever girl," said Kasumi, scooping Yuffie into her arms. Yuffie hugged her tightly, no doubt leaving muddy handprints on the back of her kimono. That was fine.
Yuffie's lips shaped the words, "Are you staying?" while her hand signed, Here?
"I am," Kasumi affirmed. "And your father will be home in a few weeks."
Yuffie made a face. Too long!
"But then he's staying, too. We'll both be here, every day."
Yuffie beamed.
Kasumi's mother approached on the path, accompanied by Yuffie's older cousin Hideyuki. Nearly recovered from his injuries, he would have been back on the battlefield in another month. Now, he wouldn't have to be.
"Welcome home," she saw her mother say, and there was something complicated in her expression, but she put her arms around Kasumi, and Kasumi felt Yuffie laughing between them. Yuffie wriggled free, turning to her cousin, and said something excitedly to him.
Kasumi met her mother's gaze and shook her head slightly. She didn't want to be fussed over. She just wanted to be home. Her mother communicated that she was still going to cook her favorite meal that night.
"Yuffie," Kasumi said, "let's find your shoes."
A grin split Yuffie's face without even knowing their destination. She raced back towards the genkan, leaving her grandmother shaking her head over the trail of mud. Kasumi laughed, and Hideyuki patted the old woman's arm, volunteering to take care of it for her.
Kasumi met her daughter back in the genkan, catching her before she could stuff her dirty feet into her shoes. She sat her down and cleaned her off a bit, and Yuffie asked where they were going.
"I'm taking you up Da-chao. I think it's time."
Far up? Yuffie signed eagerly.
"Not all the way," Kasumi amended. "You need to get acquainted first." Yuffie tilted her head curiously, and Kasumi went on, "Da-chao isn't just a mountain. You don't simply climb to the peak and say you've conquered it. It isn't to be conquered. You climb its paths to know it."
It might have been a bit much for a seven-year-old to grasp just yet, but Yuffie nodded seriously, understanding at least that there was a gravity in this. It wasn't just mountain-climbing.
They stepped into their shoes and out of the house. Yuffie's hand slipped into hers, arm swinging. She was taller than the last time Kasumi had had the chance to come home. Kasumi couldn't hear them now, but her memory supplied the chirring of the summer cicadas. A steady sound, it had always lulled her into the belief that the moment would last forever.
It wouldn't, of course, and she didn't want forever in this moment, but she embraced its unhurried pace, its undefined end. She wanted to be here to watch her daughter grow imperceptibly day-by-day, not in fits and starts during too-short visits, the changes glaring after months apart. They would walk their paths together, and know each other.
The lower climb of the mountain was easy enough, especially in the summer. The switchbacks were clear of snow and mud, and someone had walked them recently enough to prune back the explosion of spring growth from choking the path. Yuffie plucked at the leaves as they passed, but soon enough they rose above the greenery, and the statue emerged clear overhead.
Kasumi led her daughter along the path that cut across the chest of Da-chao and onward onto one of his outstretched hands. They settled cross-legged on the back of it, its fingers outstretched westward and another of Da-chao's faces at their backs. The capital lay in miniature below them, all of Wutai stretching out beyond.
From up here, it looked completely untouched. All of Shinra's efforts come to naught. Kasumi knew it wasn't true; the buildings of the capital had been spared, but its people hadn't, and it was worse in the south. All the same, she drank in the sight of it, unscarred and strong.
Yuffie tapped her arm, and only then did she realize her daughter had said something. Concerned, Yuffie gestured to her ears and signed, Does it hurt?
Kasumi shook her head. It had for a time, but the pain and the ringing had largely subsided after the first year. "No," she said. "I just can't hear very well. But there are things you don't hear with your ears. Listen, Yuffie. Can you feel Da-chao here with us?"
Yuffie twisted to look up at the face o the statue behind them. She considered it for a long moment and then asked, Is he watching me?
"Yes, but not through the statue. It's... a reminder, for us. Leviathan and Da-chao are all throughout Wutai. They are the waters that run through our lands and the strength that courses through our bodies."
I'm strong like you, Yuffie signed, and Kasumi caught the want to be on her lips.
"You'll be a forced to be reckoned with. I have no doubt."
Yuffie mimed a few punches into the air. They weren't entirely without form, as if Hideyuki had been showing her. Kasumi smiled softly.
"Just like that," she said. "But in other ways, too."
Others?
Kasumi looked back out over the capital. "The war is over, and I hope none of us see fighting like that again. But Shinra has yet to fall..."
Didn't we defeat them? Yuffie wondered.
Kasumi didn't answer her right away. They had forced Shinra to withdraw, securing victory for Wutai. In their part of the world, they would have peace, and for many, that was the end of it. They had no obligation to a world which had left them to face such an onslaught alone, but at the same time, she felt they couldn't be satisfied simply with pushing Shinra out of Wutai. It was too dangerous a thing to leave unchecked.
They were in no position now to do any more, but the entire world had been watching. It wasn't the expected outcome, and so it could foster change.
"Shinra wanted to make an example of us," she said at last, "and we will be an example, but not the one they hoped for. We beat them back. Other places can do the same."
Yuffie looked skeptical. We won first, she said, as though she didn't like the idea of anyone else defeating Shinra. Her daughter was certainly a fighter.
"We did," Kasumi agreed. "So we can be leaders. Leaders don't do everything themselves. And they rest sometimes, too."
Yuffie leaned back on her hands, mulling it over. Then she sat up and signed, When I'm strong, then we defeat them.
Kasumi held back a laugh, because it would be some time before Yuffie was old enough to fight Shinra, but she knew, at her age, Yuffie had a different estimation of 'old enough.' She was completely serious, and anyway, it was a good long rest. It would let her see her daughter grown.
"All right then," she decided. "It can be up to you."
Really? she read on Yuffie's lips. In her excitement, she forgot to sign it.
Kasumi reached over to ruffle her hair. "We'll want our best warriors, after all. I know you'll be one of them."
Yuffie beamed and mimed a few more punches. Kasumi hoped she'd never have to strike an opponent more threatening than a sparring partner. Wutai could set an example for the rest of the world, if they were willing to follow. They didn't need Shinra, and maybe by the time Yuffie was old enough to be a force in the world herself, Shinra would be gone. Kasumi would rather see what else she might accomplish, with that obstacle removed.