Final Fantasy VII (7): On The Way To A Smile

Case of Yuffie: Page 12

Yuffie hesitated for a moment but ran back to the cave. Near the cave's entrance, she found Yuri lying on the ground. She tried to help him up but even with all her strength, lifting him up by the torso alone was too much for her.

"Get up, Yuri! Get up!"

"I can't. Yuffie, go. If you stay here you'll—"

"Idiot! I can't look after your mother for you, you know."

Yuffie turned Yuri round so that he was facing upwards and tried to pull him along by his sides with all the strength her arms could muster.

"Just go—"

A black liquid came bubbling out of his mouth.

Yuffie sat in a place somewhere between the cave and Wutai.

"Come on, Yuri. Walk. If you die, it's going to be my fault too. They'll say you died with the Midgar disease because you escaped with someone who just came back from Midgar - Me. They'll all be accusing me."

"So you dragged me all the way here..." Yuri spluttered as if he was enduring the pain or having difficulty breathing, "because of a reason like that."

"That's right."

"—That's not the real reason, is it—"

Yuri was cut short. Panicking, Yuffie looked at him. It's alright. He's still alive. I have to bring him back to his mother somehow. Yuffie stood up and once again stretched out her arms around Yuri.

"Need some help?"

She turned round and saw Red XIII.

"Red!?"

"Can't you call me Nanaki?" said Nanaki, displeased at the name.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm on a journey to see the world. I've just started, though."

Nanaki walked on easily with Yuri on his back. He lay there face down on his back like some washing hung out to dry and Yuffie had her hand on him so that he wouldn't fall off. Nanaki told her how he had planned to go to Wutai as his starting point and then go east from there. He chose Wutai because it was at the borders of the Western region. Yuffie had told him that Wutai was the centre of the world, isolated by the seas and stretched out to the east and west - Just the kind of world view one would expect of someone raised in Wutai. Yuri's back was shaking. Yuffie was afraid that he was having convulsions. But when she looked at his face, he was smiling. The black liquid from his mouth had eased.

"Tell me something interesting, Nanaki," Yuffie began to speak in a small voice.

"Hmmm—" Nanaki thought. "Oh yeah. I got a new mobile phone. I was told the PHS was really dated. When I returned to Midgar with Cloud and the others, they gave me one. It should have been paid for but the manager at a phone shop was giving out all the ones he could for free. He thought people would be too worried if they couldn't contact anyone during these hard times. He's a nice person."

"Hmmm. But can you use a phone?"

"Of course. It takes a while but I can if I put it to the ground and use my claws. I can use it with a bit of effort," replied Nanaki as he looked at Yuffie with a worried face. "I'm not giving it to you."

"Give it over!"