Chapter 22
Cosmo Canyon definitely wasn't the worst place Yuffie had ever been to with this lot. Especially after Nibelheim, it was actually pretty nice, and that made her hate it a little. With all Wutai's might, it had fallen to the Shinra, while this peaceful nothing town carried on unassailed.
And it was the kind of place where you could feel how old it was, decades of tradition held within the walls of the canyon. Generally speaking, it wasn't Yuffie's jam. Too dry, too full of stuffy old nerds who smiled politely at her as she passed them in the corridors. It was dull as anything, but she could tell that was the way it wanted to be. It suited the people here.
There was a shop that sold some materia, but it was weak magic, and overpriced. Yuffie considered pocketing a few. It would've been child's play--the shopkeeper was dozing behind the counter--but if he realized later that anything was missing from his inventory, Tifa and the others would look straight to her. She'd have to put it off until they were about to leave.
Although, there was nothing stopping her from leaving now, on her own. To be honest, she'd stuck with this group a lot longer than she'd originally intended. She'd meant to stay only long enough to gain their trust, so they'd let their guard down around her, and she could make off with their valuables... Maybe not Aeris's special materia, since Yuffie had to admit it had felt like a dud to her, but the rest.
But then, they actually had started to trust her. She'd fought alongside them and listened to their stories, and they even speculated about her helping them out with future plans. Jessie and Aeris talked to her like they were friends, and even Barret had started actually listening to what she had to say. When she'd nearly beefed it up on Mt. Nibel, they'd all been so worried, so relieved. She mattered to them, and, unexpectedly, that mattered to her.
She could hear people out in the hall chatting about Nanaki being back. They were excited, happy. Yuffie couldn't imagine anyone talking about her like that, if she went back home to Wutai empty-handed. Probably nobody missed her except her cats. She was sure plenty of people were even thrilled to have her gone.
But things were getting pretty heavy lately. She'd be smart to bail, before they actually did come up against Sephiroth. It was one thing, when he'd been the former Shinra general who'd conquered her homeland. It was something else to volunteer to fight some kind of superhuman science experiment and his genocidal monster friend.
So, why was leaving the harder option to consider? Why should it matter what Tifa and the others would think?
Cosmo Canyon wasn't a big settlement, and it didn't take Yuffie long to get the lay of it, and to confirm there really wasn't anything fun to do if you weren't into books. At loose ends, she wandered back towards the clinic, wondering if Nanaki was still there with Cloud.
She stopped in the hall outside, hearing voices.
"There's unfortunately no prescribed treatment for Mako poisoning," someone woman was saying, probably a doctor. "It isn't a typical illness, but a reaction of the brain to an overload of stimuli. Since Mako is condensed from the Lifestream, it contains the memory fragments of the dead, and the human mind doesn't know how to process them."
"Are you saying there's no way to cleanse his body of the Mako?" asked Jessie.
"The Mako itself isn't the problem at this point. We've observed that in most cases, as long as the body survives the initial exposure, it will eventually process the excess energy. It's the mind that has trouble recovering. But most cases do improve with time, and there's evidence that being around the familiar does help." A pause. "And you seem to be doing quite well for your level of exposure."
She must have been talking to Cloud, but he didn't say anything. He wasn't exactly a talker, that one.
"What about relapse?" asked Tifa. "Is that a risk?"
"Typically only with additional exposure," said the doctor. "He shouldn't be going anywhere near a Mako reactor. But... as to this 'Jenova' he says he has... I don't know the first thing about it."
"Aren't there... I don't know, any tests you can run?"
"I'm going to run some standard ones, to get a sense of his general physical health, but otherwise I wouldn't know what to look for. I'd need more information on the contaminant."
"I see..."
They were all so worried about him, especially Tifa. He was pretty pathetic, so Yuffie could see how a nice person would be sympathetic.
Yuffie didn't think she was a nice person. Sure, it was messed up what had happened to Cloud, but she didn't see why it was their responsibility to do anything about it. And was a guy like that really going to join AVALANCHE? What was he going to contribute? The whole idea of it was just a way for them to keep looking after him.
And now they were talking about sending people back to Nibelheim to take care of the rest of the freak show. Of course it was Nanaki's suggestion; he was quiet, but he was like the rest of them that way. Nice.
"Yes, I think perhaps we ought to," Bugenhagen was saying in response. "Even if there's nothing that we can do for them in the end, I can't imagine they're being well cared for by the Shinra."
"Thank you," said Tifa. "I don't know how we can repay you for looking after them."
"Nonsense!" said Bugenhagen. "If you should save the Planet, then we'll all be in your debt."
Yuffie might have mentioned how they'd brought Nanaki back home, so the old man ought to be grateful already, but nobody brought it up.
"Huh," said Barret. "We ain't exactly used to people bein' that grateful for anythin' we're doin.'"
No kidding.
"Well, we've never bought into anything the Shinra had to say," said the doctor. "Anyone on the side of the Planet is welcome here."
"Knew I was gonna like this place," said Barret.
"You know, speaking of all that," said Jessie, "we should celebrate."
"Celebrate?" Tifa wondered.
"AVALANCHE, and its new leader."
"Oh. You mean embarrass me."
"Only a little," Jessie said. "You wanna come, too, Cloud? And Nanaki... I have no idea if you drink, but you're welcome to join us."
"I appreciate that," said Nanaki, "but I'd like to take the time to enjoy being home."
"Oh, of course."
"I... could maybe go for a drink," said Cloud, proving he wasn't mute after all.
"And we should see if anyone knows where Aeris has gotten to," said Tifa.
"Wouldn't be a proper celebration without her," Jessie agreed.
Yuffie waited a beat, but no one mentioned her, and she heard footsteps. Hurriedly she slipped down the corridor and ducked into the next room over so they wouldn't see her. They were noisy as they passed, already chatting about the planetarium show they'd seen, but soon their voices faded away down the hall. Yuffie let out a breath.
"Yuffie?"
She jumped and looked around, and then down, as Nanaki padded to a stop outside the doorway. "How'd you know I was here?" she demanded.
"Your scent."
"Hey!"
"I don't mean that you smell bad," he clarified. "My nose is just sharp."
"Oh."
"Why were you spying on us?"
"I wasn't spying," Yuffie said, folding her arms. "Just listening. I like to know what's going on, too, you know."
"There's no need to do that in secret. I'm sure they would have invited you."
"Maybe I didn't wanna be invited."
Nanaki tilted his head. "Not in a celebratory mood?"
"No," Yuffie said, more emphatically than she'd intended.
Nanaki regarded her steadily with his one eye, and then he said, "What about a walk?"
"A walk? What, you wanna take a walk with me?"
"I think it would be good," he said mildly, "after that long drive today."
Yuffie's instinct was to suspect him of some kind of ulterior motive here, but she couldn't see it. Was he just trying to be nice? After he'd saved her life up on Mt. Nibel, she was pretty sure he didn't hate her, but that was different from actually wanting to spend time with her.
"...sure," she decided cautiously.
She wasn't sure what to expect--a lecture, some kind of attempted heart-to-heart?--but Nanaki made no effort to strike up a conversation. Yuffie followed him out of the canyon's torch-lit corridors and into the early twilight. He moved at a leisurely pace now, and though she had no idea what was going through his head, she could read his body language well enough to recognize that he was more relaxed here than she'd ever seen him.
A couple kids ran past, delightedly shouting Nanaki's name though they didn't stop to talk to him. Everybody here knew him, and why wouldn't they? He stood out.
Yuffie frowned at the thought.
"How come there aren't any more... whatever-you-ares here? This is your hometown, right?"
Nanaki's tail flicked in discomfort. "My parents both died defending this canyon," he said, "when I was still a cub. I am the last of my kind."
"Like Aeris?" Yuffie had been hoping for a different explanation, like some weird series of events that led to Bugenhagen adopting him even though there were a bunch of other cat-things living someplace else. But of course it wasn't that. This bunch was one tragic backstory after another.
"Yes," Nanaki said. "We have that unfortunate trait in common."
Yuffie figured she might be the last Kisaragi, since she sure as hell didn't plan on having kids, but the things that made her family line significant could be taught. They weren't in her blood.
"That really sucks," she said. "It's gotta be so much pressure, being the last of something. Everybody expects you to be all the things your ancestors were, but it's all gonna end with you anyways."
"...that's surprisingly insightful," Nanaki remarked.
Yuffie shot him a look. "You don't have to act surprised whenever I say something smart. I'm not stupid."
"I didn't mean to imply it. It's simply that... you aren't the most sensitive, to others' feelings."
"So I'm self-centered, is that what you're saying?"
"Well..." Nanaki faltered.
"You know what? That's fine. I don't have some sob story about how I lost everything and that turned me against the Shinra. I'm in this for me, because I want more. Wutai's so pathetic these days I could just die--but I'm gonna change all that."
Nanaki was regarding her thoughtfully again. "I see," he said. "You care as much about your homeland as I do mine."
Not the reaction she was expecting. "Yeah, maybe," she admitted. "But are you really gonna stay here when we move on?"
"It is my duty to protect this place."
"Yeah, but like... What do you think's more likely to happen? Shinra troops show up to storm the place, or they mess up the Planet so bad that the whole thing's done for?"
Nanaki didn't reply, but his tail swished again.
"You know I'm right," she said, a touch triumphantly. Nanaki really was smart, so it felt good to get one over on him. Of course, now she was starting to convince herself, too. "Nothing was gonna happen if I hung around Wutai waiting for a fight. You gotta take the fight to them. Besides, didn't you get caught by that Hojo guy, too? Don't you wanna get back at 'em?"
"It almost sounds," Nanaki said, "as though you don't want me to leave the group."
"Hey, I'm not gonna go so far as saying I'd miss you or anything, but you're like... the most dependable one of the lot. And you don't care about any of that stupid stuff like who likes who."
"No," he agreed. "It would be quite pointless."
Maybe he would've cared more if there were other cat-things around to like, Yuffie reflected, but she wasn't going to take it back. "Anyway you should think about it," she said.
"Perhaps I will," he said. "But tonight, I am home."
"Yeah, rub it in why don't you."
"I am sorry that you miss your homeland. But I was unsure I would ever see mine again. I think I have every right to enjoy it, and you are quite welcome here yourself."
"I don't feel all that welcome," Yuffie said, and for whatever reason that was the thing that really seemed to annoy him.
"If you want to join them, then join them," he said. "But don't complain to me about feeling left out."
He walked on in the direction of the pub, and Yuffie didn't follow him. What was that about? she wondered. Hadn't they been getting along okay? Besides, they'd invited him, so it wasn't like she'd hit on a nerve or anything.
Or had he taken it as an insult to his hospitality?
Yuffie had never been good with manners like that. It was one of the things that drove her dad crazy.
She hung around by the bonfire, watching the entrance to the pub, before she made up her mind. The inn was right there. She'd go in, and if they invited her to sit down, then she'd sit down, but if not, then screw them. They could have their little celebration without her.
Yuffie could hear raised voices as she approached, a toast to AVALANCHE. Glasses clinked as she ducked inside, and she was sure they'd be too caught up in that to notice her, but she paused to look around. Jessie and Barret sat on one side of a table, with Aeris and Tifa close together on the other. Cloud sat quietly on the end, having barely touched his drink. She didn't see Nanaki anywhere.
"Yuffie!" Jessie exclaimed, lifting her hand in a wave. "You up for joining us? Aeris was saying you wanted some time to yourself."
Was it as simple as that? They'd run into Aeris first and figured Yuffie wasn't interested?
"I can stay for a little while," Yuffie said, taking a seat next to Jessie. "Nanaki's not with you?"
Jessie shook her head. "He went by a minute ago. Said his room's back that way." She gestured to a door in back of the pub, below the inn.
"So did you find anything fun to do?" Aeris asked her, leaning forward like her interest was sincere.
"No. This whole place is a drag. Even their materia sucks." Yuffie hesitated. "How was the... planetarium?" she ventured.
"It was amazing!" said Jessie. "You've gotta see it, Yuffie. I thought it'd just be a display projected on the ceiling, but it's a whole 3D simulation based on actual data picked up by the telescope. Really advanced stuff. I want one."
Yuffie didn't give a damn about technology, but she appreciated Jessie's unabashed avarice in that moment.
"So I think we know where to find Jessie the next couple days," Tifa remarked, amused.
"Was pretty impressive, though," said Barret. "An' I never realized how... connected it all is. The Planet havin' life is what makes it possible for everythin' else to be born. Like we're all just borrowin' a piece of it as we make our journey through life."
"You know, I like that way of putting it," said Aeris.
"Still sounds like a bunch of nerd crap," Yuffie decided.
"Sure you're not just jealous?" Jessie asked. "I'm sure Bugenhagen would take you through it if you asked."
"Ugh. Pain in the ass. Old people go on forever if you let 'em."
"So much for that," Aeris said with a shrug.
"Say, Yuffie," Jessie said, gesturing at Barret and herself, "are we old people?"
"Huh? This some kinda trick question?"
"I'm just curious how we seem from your perspective."
Definitely a trick question, Yuffie thought. Had they been talking about her again when she wasn't here? "If you're about to call me a kid," she said suspiciously, "then yeah, you're old people."
Jessie laughed. "Well, in that case, how 'bout a drink?"
Yuffie sat back in surprise. "Seriously?" Sure, she'd tried to get a drink from the bartender earlier, but that was because he'd told her no right off the bat, before she could even tell him she didn't want anything alcoholic. She'd had to argue, on principle.
"Why not?" said Jessie. "We're all celebrating, you should join us. Tifa'll get you something good for a beginner."
Yuffie glanced around the table at their various half-empty mugs. "Can't I just have what you guys are having?" she asked. Since this was supposed to be a bonding experience and all.
But Tifa shook her head. "You're not gonna have any fun starting with the hard stuff, trust me." She waved to the barkeep and without deliberation ordered Yuffie some kind of cocktail.
"Who made you the expert?" Yuffie wondered.
"She is a bartender," Aeris said.
"Since when?"
"Well, not lately," Tifa admitted. "My bar was in Sector 7."
"Oh."
"You mighta noticed," said Barret, "bein' in AVALANCHE don't pay that well. The bar helped with that."
"Um..." Cloud spoke up from the end of the table. "What happened to Sector 7?"
They all looked at him in one of those silences where nobody wanted to explain. The bartender brought Yuffie's drink, and she took a cautious sip instead of offering what the others would probably take for an insensitive explanation. She'd tasted alcohol a couple times before and been put off by it, but this wasn't so bad. Sort of fruity. She guessed Tifa really did know what she was doing.
"Shinra dropped the plate," Barret told Cloud at last. "Destroyed the whole town."
"What? I didn't think even Shinra would..." He trailed off.
"Says the human experiment," Yuffie remarked. He was definitely still messed up in the head if he thought Shinra was capable of having morals after that experience.
"It's a pretty hard thing to wrap your mind around," Jessie said sympathetically. "But it's just one more reason we gotta take 'em out."
Cloud nodded. "Yeah... I kinda wish I could help."
"Well, why can't you?" Jessie said. "Maybe you weren't in SOLDIER, but you still got some kinda training, right? None of us've actually been part of Shinra, except for Vincent, and any insider info he's got is thirty years out of date."
Well, there was the invite. Yuffie couldn't complain about how nice Jessie had been to her, treating her like an equal from the start, but she thought Jessie was a little too eager to trust people.
"I guess... I might know a little," Cloud said.
"Wait, Vincent was with Shinra?" said Barret.
Jessie glanced at him. "Oh... I guess we forgot to mention the Turk part."
"An' he was a Turk?"
"You really didn't realize he was with the Shinra, Barret?" Tifa asked. "How did you think he knew about the Jenova Project?"
"You said you found 'im locked up down there. I figured he knew 'cause he was an experiment, too. Sure looks weird enough."
"...I guess that's a fair assumption," Jessie admitted.
"Man, if I'da known we brought a Turk in..."
"It was thirty years ago," Aeris reminded him.
"Yeah," Jessie agreed. "That's a lot longer than any of us've been turned off to Shinra, when you think about it. You know, I'm gonna see if I can find him. He should be here, too."
"I'm not sure he's one for celebrating," Tifa said.
"Maybe not. But maybe he'd at least be up for a little one-on-one social interaction, you know?"
Aeris laughed. "Well, last time I saw him, he was all the way up on top of the observatory."
"Got it," Jessie said. "Thanks, Aeris." She downed the last of her drink, hopped up from the table, and left the pub.
"...Jessie's sure got weird taste in men," Barret remarked once she had gone.
"I'll say," said Yuffie, making a face. She was into Vincent? He was so creepy. Plus he smelled funny. She wondered if Nanaki thought so, too.
"You know," said Tifa, "I always assumed I was just missing something."
Barret shook his head. "Don't think so. I used to think Biggs was jealous, way he acted whenever she was seein' somebody, but I think he was just worried 'bout her judgment."
"Oh, come on," said Aeris. "What's wrong with Vincent? Sure the outfit's a bit dramatic, but I think he's handsome."
"I don't know," Tifa said. "It still feels like he's hiding things from us."
"Doesn't he have a right to keep some things to himself? Nanaki didn't even tell us his own name when we met."
"...I guess you're right. I just worry, about his connection to Sephiroth."
"Why'd you bring 'im along then?" Barret wondered, and Yuffie thought it was one of the smartest questions he'd ever asked.
Tifa shook her head. "Well, I didn't want him shutting himself back up in that coffin. That's awful."
"He seemed pretty into it," Yuffie pointed out, but Tifa just gave her a wry look.
"It could be," Aeris said seriously, "that when the time comes, Vincent won't be able to help us fight Sephiroth... But I don't think he'll stand in the way."
"Did you talk to him?" Tifa asked.
"A little," Aeris said.
There was a clink at the end of the table, and Cloud straightened up with a start. "Sorry, guys," he said, rubbing at his eyes. "I think I've gotta hit the sack."
"Yeah, go ahead," said Tifa. "We'll see you in the morning."
Yuffie watched him make his way up to the inn and said, "Can I maybe vote on the next person we let join up? Since I'm not the newest member anymore and these last two've been real duds."
"Thought you weren't really a member," Barret remarked.
"Oh, hell, I don't know," Yuffie said. "But I've sure got seniority over Cloud."
Aeris smiled at her. "In that case, maybe you should show him the ropes. Since you've got the experience and all."
"No way!"
"It's him or Vincent," Tifa put in.
"Ugh..."
"Come on," said Aeris. "Your positive attitude might just rub off on them."
"You're joking, right?"
"Absolutely," Aeris confirmed, her smile widening.
Jessie never did come back with Vincent, but Tifa reasoned it was more likely they'd lost her to Bugenhagen's machines than that she was having some kind of alone time with him. Yuffie made it through her one drink without feeling a thing until she stood up and the room spun a little. She let Aeris steady her with an arm around her shoulders on the way back to their room.
They were short a bed, which Yuffie had noticed earlier and decided not to care about, since she wasn't going to be sharing. She sat down to tug off her sneakers and narrowed her eyes at Aeris and Tifa on the other side of the room.
"I'm right here," she reminded them. "Don't you two do anything gross."
Aeris laughed. "We'll behave," she promised, and it was true all they did was cuddle, but even the cuddling was bad enough. Yuffie rolled over and slept with her back to them.
They were gone when she woke, though Jessie lay sprawled across the middle bed, sound asleep. Yuffie had no idea how late she'd been out, and decided to let her be.
But she had the misfortune of running into Cloud as she stepped out into the hallway. She started to grimace, but then she decided she could give being nice a try for five seconds. Maybe she'd like it, you never knew.
"Morning," she said.
"Morning," Cloud replied, scratching his head. He looked unsure, maybe even wary. Was he scared of her? There was a confidence booster.
"Tifa's up already," Yuffie went on, figuring he might be looking for her. "She's probably getting breakfast with Aeris or something."
Cloud nodded, and Yuffie walked with him out into the inn's reception area.
"Good morning!" greeted the innkeeper. "Did you sleep well?"
"Uhh, yeah," Yuffie said, taken aback by the level of cheer in his voice.
"It's nice having so many new faces recently," the innkeeper went on, like they were having some kind of conversation. "They don't let a lot of people in, so it's usually just my long term guests."
Yuffie didn't really care what he thought of it, but there was something about the way he said it that told her there might be some information worth finding out. "You got other guests besides us?" she asked.
"Not right now, but there was a young man who spent the night just the other day, before you came."
A young man? Yuffie wondered, tapping her lip. It had been a while since they'd heard anything about Sephiroth, and while she wouldn't have called him young, this guy was getting up there. "Did he leave his name or anything?"
The innkeeper shook his head. "No, but he had quite a look. Real spiky black hair."
Cloud, who'd started to wander away towards the pub, froze and then turned on his heel. "Did- did he have a scar on his cheek?" he asked, pointing to his face. "Here."
"Come to think of it, I think he did. He a friend of yours?"
Cloud nodded. "Y-yeah."
Yuffie glanced at him. If he wasn't going to ask follow-up questions then she'd have to. "He didn't happen to mention where he was headed, did he?"
"Not to me," said the innkeeper, "but I know he spoke to some of the elders here. You could try asking them."
"Yeah, all right. Thanks."
Cloud hadn't moved, so Yuffie sighed and grabbed him by the arm. "C'mon. We gotta tell Aeris and Tifa."
Frankly she didn't give a damn about this Zack guy either, but everyone else seemed to. If they were close to tracking him down, then Yuffie hoped he lived up to at least some of the hype.