000 - Application - History
History:
Twenty years ago, Yuffie was born the second son to Godo and Kouhei Kisaragi. Already, tensions between his home country and Template were running on high. And then everything shattered because of an idiot Wutaian kid with a rock, a Template soldier, and a Lightning materia. The events of April 12 were what started the war, which was a nasty, dirty, ten-year fight. And in the end, Template won. Four years before the end of the war, Yuffie lost his older brother, Shougo. The night Godo Kisaragi declared his surrender, after a month-long battle later referred to as the "Bloody August," Yuffie lost his mother. Watching important female figures die became something of a pattern-cross-reference Aeris and Shalua-and it definitely had an effect on him.
By the time he was sixteen, Yuffie had gone through about a dozen severe disagreements with his father, and had left his country in search of Materia, which he would attempt to ransom back to Shinra (…no, this plan would never have worked, and it's pretty standard of Yuffie to ignore the glaringly obvious flaw). In a forest near Junon, he encountered Cloud, Tifa, and Barret. Naturally, as in the original game, he attacked them, managing to steal about seven hundred gil before being made to give it back.
He joined them with every intention of stealing from them. For the most part, Yuffie stayed out of the way of the party, slowly working on their Materia collection. He tried to stay out of the limelight as much as possible in order to have more opportunities to steal what wouldn't be missed.
Generally, Yuffie stayed in the back of the group while they chased Sephiroth from Junon to Costa del Sol (where he worked in the Materia shop and flirted with girls), then into Corel and the Gold Saucer, Gongaga, Cosmo Canyon (and Cosmo was a mind trip for poor Yuffie; he was so used to Red XIII being… Red XIII that the sudden re-name to Nanaki threw him for a loop). Nibelheim also bothered Yuffie, because now they had an ex-Turk in the party, and the last think the thief needed was somebody who'd know what was taken and would be competent enough to stop him. Plus Vincent was just creepy.
Still following Sephiroth, they went through the Nibel Mountains, watched Palmer get hit by a truck in Rocket Town, and then the big moment. Yuffie whined until Cid finally piloted the Tiny Bronco toward Wutai, then promptly skipped out on the party and ran north for home.
First, there was a chase, finally coming to a climax in the house Yuffie had inherited from his mother. Yuffie trapped the party in a giant cage, then skipped out on them-and was promptly mistaken for a girl by Don Corneo, and hauled off with Elena to sit on Da Chao for a few hours. Cloud and the others finally cut Yuffie and Elena down, but not before Don Corneo decided that Yuffie was to be his bride. After that, Yuffie gave back the materia and rejoined the party, mostly convinced of the wrongness of his actions.
The next influential moment in the Jenova War came in the Forgotten City. It was here that Aerith died, nearly killed by Cloud, then stabbed by Sephiroth. Yuffie views this death as a sacrifice. In dying and joining with the Lifestream, Aerith became roughly equivalent to Yuffie's mother, and a touchstone for all the issues he'd concealed.
To atone for his actions with the Materia, and to stop thinking about his grief over Aerith's death, Yuffie argued his way onto Cid's team after the Northern Crater Incident, which left Cloud comatose. Yuffie was on the runaway train and also helped Fort Condor repel the Shinra invaders, and was there when Cloud finally rejoined the party.
Yuffie re-relegated himself to the role of "that guy who stands in the back and makes fun of everybody else," right up until the final crisis. Cloud took most of AVALANCHE into the Northern Crater, while Vincent and Yuffie worked to evacuate Midgar, and Yuffie wound up saving Vincent's life (airscooter incident; the Mako Ray exploded and Vincent nearly fell to his death).
Two years later, we only saw Yuffie briefly. He showed up during the Silver Haired Men crisis, specifically to help with Bahamut SIN, who was rampaging through Edge. He hung around long enough to show moral support for Cloud, but then went back to Wutai (where, Case of Barret tells us, he had been teaching martial arts to Wutaian children).
Somewhere between the time between the Silver Haired Men incident-also known as Advent Children-and the Deepground Crisis (also known as Dirge of Cerberus) Yuffie joined the WRO as an intelligence consultant and the acting head of the Intelligence Department. Around the same time, the Deepground units began the first steps of their plan, attacking the Chocobo Stables and Icicle Inn.
We know that he had at least one run-in with Rosso the Crimson, because of events that happen later.
And then came the Deepground attack on Kalm. It was a show of force, an opening shot. Yuffie wasn't present for the attack, but he was part of the clean-up crew helping in the aftermath. Things only got worse: the Deepground coordinated a simultaneous attack on Template, Gongaga, Costa Del Sol, and Junon. Once Tempalte had been cleared out, the Deepground soldiers re-activated the Mako Reactors.
Yuffie spent most of his time mopping up after the Deepground and frantically phoning in demands to Wutai that they beef up security. He rescued Vincent's unconscious body from Rosso, then left, then showed up again during the Invasion of the WRO.
When Shalua didn't survive, Yuffie lost it. Shalua, as a direct sacrifice, became completely synonymous with Yuffie's mother, and, yet again, a touchstone for the loss of important people (this time for both his mother and Aerith). It didn't help that Yuffie had been a little-or a lot-in love with her.
For the first time in the three years they'd known each other, Yuffie truly lost his temper at Vincent, demanding to know why the other man couldn't have saved her. Despite the fact that he knew about and understood Vincent's guilt issues. Perhaps because Vincent didn't have an answer, when Shelke made the mistake of belittling Shalua's sacrifice, Yuffie punched the girl. A mean right hook to the jaw. Textbook perfect. It didn't help.
He stayed out of the action after that, only joining in on the final assault on the Deepground-overrun portions of Template, disabling the re-started Mako reactors so that AVALANCHE had more time. After that, it was all up to Vincent to save the day.
In the intervening time, Yuffie has become an invaluable member of Reeve's staff and a permanent resident of Template. The Intelligence Division is fast on the rise in importance as far as the WRO is concerned, and Yuffie, as its acting director, is fast on the rise within the Organization. However, Yuffie's been drawing away from Tifa, who befriended Shelke, and hasn't said a word to Vincent since the Deepground Crisis.
Once he arrives in the game, as far he's concerned, yesterday was his twentieth birthday and he spent the night celebrating.
I know this history is hugely long, so one last note: I'm playing Yuffie as if "his" Template and the Template accessible to the player characters (the "real" Template) have suddenly collided, or perhaps switched, thereby avoiding the pesky "are you dead?" question, as well as avoiding mention of characters who aren't in play as of yet. Essentially, at some point, he rolled out of his origin Template and into the common one