Ficlet: Stalking the Night Fantastic
Because Ninja-girls need hobbies other than materia swiping....
Yuffie loved the night. Deep in the city, she could move… building to building… wall to wall. It was a private challenge, how far could she go without ever once touching the streets? She hadn’t quite made it all the way through the city yet, a few stretches were proving tricky.
She was perched quietly on a streetlight, eyeing her current impasse. Privately owned… a high corp family and warded to boot. But the big estate had just the right spacing of buildings that she could reach across the entire stretch without grounding, if she could only figure out how to pass. She wasn’t worried about anyone spotting her, anyone looking up would see only one of the rather mangy and commonplace pigeons that were the dominate winged species of the city.
It was a question of masking. She’d already determined that certain animals did not trigger the wards, animals she could easily imitate for the period of time she’d need to cross. But an animal with magic traces… now that set off the alarms. Corporate families tended to have fry first, apologize later sort of alarms too. So she’d need to not only disguise herself as a squirrel or pigeon, but hide all the traces of the spells and magics that were part of her.
A hiss and slide against her skin, Leviathan's tattoo slid down from her shoulders to glide across her torso until it was peering out from the high cut shirt, the water dragon's scales rippling as the ancient guardian studied her target.
simple stupid brute wards. crush and smash and feast on the spilled blood and terror and power.
Yuffie loved the dragon, she really did, but the big guy really didn't do discreet very well. Which was why he was primarily tied to their homeground as the ultimate last line of defense. The link Yuffie carried as the top nin of the Kisaragi family was a source of pride and one hell of an offensive surprise, but he was a bit too flashy for this sort of op.
Ninjas were the masters of stealth and hiding. This would be a good test. But she’d been sitting here long enough tonight, time to move on. Not even pigeons stayed in place forever. Yuffie pushed off, bouncing and flipping up the street, retracing her steps home.
Yuffie loved the night. Deep in the city, she could move… building to building… wall to wall. It was a private challenge, how far could she go without ever once touching the streets? She hadn’t quite made it all the way through the city yet, a few stretches were proving tricky.
She was perched quietly on a streetlight, eyeing her current impasse. Privately owned… a high corp family and warded to boot. But the big estate had just the right spacing of buildings that she could reach across the entire stretch without grounding, if she could only figure out how to pass. She wasn’t worried about anyone spotting her, anyone looking up would see only one of the rather mangy and commonplace pigeons that were the dominate winged species of the city.
It was a question of masking. She’d already determined that certain animals did not trigger the wards, animals she could easily imitate for the period of time she’d need to cross. But an animal with magic traces… now that set off the alarms. Corporate families tended to have fry first, apologize later sort of alarms too. So she’d need to not only disguise herself as a squirrel or pigeon, but hide all the traces of the spells and magics that were part of her.
A hiss and slide against her skin, Leviathan's tattoo slid down from her shoulders to glide across her torso until it was peering out from the high cut shirt, the water dragon's scales rippling as the ancient guardian studied her target.
simple stupid brute wards. crush and smash and feast on the spilled blood and terror and power.
Yuffie loved the dragon, she really did, but the big guy really didn't do discreet very well. Which was why he was primarily tied to their homeground as the ultimate last line of defense. The link Yuffie carried as the top nin of the Kisaragi family was a source of pride and one hell of an offensive surprise, but he was a bit too flashy for this sort of op.
Ninjas were the masters of stealth and hiding. This would be a good test. But she’d been sitting here long enough tonight, time to move on. Not even pigeons stayed in place forever. Yuffie pushed off, bouncing and flipping up the street, retracing her steps home.