Day 51: Breakfast

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie Kisaragi, indomitable bouncing ball of sunshine and unfathomable ebullience, was tired. It'd been a long night full of gibberish and getting nowhere fast

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[zack_fair]

In this case, the sudden switch from night to morning had definitely worked in his favor. Zack had been about to suffer the business end of an electrified weapon of imminent pain when everything had suddenly shifted and he'd woken up in his bed once more. His first thought as he sat up was that he hoped Cloud was all right, but night had probably ended at the same time for both of them. Honestly, that whole fight could have gone a lot worse. He hoped that the brainwashed girl had also come out of it okay, even if she'd been trying to kill or maim them

[thatdamnedninja]

"Depends how we wanna look at it," Yuffie said to the ceiling. "I mean, on the one hand, I did a totally good deed. Two, maybe! 'Cept that second one, that might be a matter of opinion… Anyway. On the other hand, I didn't get what I went out for." Story of her life. "I also didn't get eaten. That's always a plus, right? Yeah."

She dropped her arm, raised her head, and peered across at the SOLDIER. Ex-SOLDIER, whatever. Yuffie hadn't figured that he'd come gatecrash her table... No way would this be a plain ol' social call. What did they have to be social about? If it wasn't for Cloud-and Aerith, she reminded herself-they probably wouldn't have gone anywhere near each other in the first place. Not with the intent of being entirely civil, anyway.

"So, uh." She scratched her cheek, nails catching lightly on the thin scar she'd gained from Faker Blake-slash-Yuri. "What's up? Need something? Got news? Both?"

[zack_fair]

Yuffie, doing a good deed? Zack was half-tempted to just start laughing, but he realized that wouldn't be the best way to start off their conversation, especially since he had a few pretty important things to discuss with the girl. The moment that she started talking about it being a matter of opinion he was pretty much convinced that she was lying through her teeth, but he decided to humor her nonetheless. "Is that so? And what would those be?" Unless she was going to keep him in the dark, but then why bring it up at all? Oh, right. To be obnoxious. He wouldn't put it past her

[thatdamnedninja]

He didn't believe her.

He totally didn't believe her

[zack_fair]

So Yuffie and Tifa had spent part of the night together, huh? That made Zack wonder what Tifa thought of the ninja girl, and he'd have to ask her at some point. They were clearly friends, especially if Yuffie had given up time and energy to heal her, but he was still curious

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie shook her head. "Nah, it was a Limit. It's nothin' fancy, especially not here, but it comes in handy." Oh, did it ever come in handy. She might not be able to work wonders with it, but she'd saved Sagara's life. A bit of tiredness and nausea was a small price to pay for something like that. "Tifa's materia… er, I think it's an Ice." Basic, but again, better than nothing. Things were looking up!

… In that respect, anyway.

No amount of materia would change the fact that they kept losing people. Who'd be next? It was-no. No. Yuffie kicked herself sharply in the ankle. What good were those kinds of thoughts? None. They were bad news, and they had no place in her life. Staying positive all the time was impossible, even for the best and the brightest, but stupid doubts… they had claws. Geostigma was gone, but the memories weren't.

"They don't get to go home. They're out there-here, y'know? In this world. They believe all the Institute's lies; they're living all the Institute's lies." Yuffie bit her lip, looking out across the

[zack_fair]

So she also had a healing Limit, huh? Zack figured it wasn't that rare, but thinking of his own was just going to push salt into the wound. He'd found the strength to use that one from meeting Aerith, and now she was gone. Now he wished he hadn't asked in the first place

[thatdamnedninja]

When in doubt, talk about materia. Worked for Yuffie! It'd been a coping mechanism of hers for years, ever since she'd found out what materia really was. The key to her dreams, the source of power… everything she'd needed. Everything Wutai had needed. How much easier would life be here if they just had some more materia? The Ice and Lightning alone wouldn't go too far. Too many people to share them between, and then there were elemental weaknesses and all that fun stuff to consider

[zack_fair]

More materia? Well, that was definitely something he wished he had known about before now. Zack eyed the girl carefully, noting the way that she seemed to know which exact ones were apparently around. How could she know with such specificity and yet not have gotten her sticky fingers on them yet? It all sounded kind of suspicious, but seeing how she had decided to bring it up with him in the first place, it seemed like she'd be willing to spill. "How do you know?" he asked. "Where are they?"

He wasn't sure how useful some of those would be, but he could definitely see Poison coming in handy, at the least. And Leviathan? Zack had only heard rumors of that mythical water snake that called Wutai its home, but Yuffie was speaking as if she'd seen it in action. He wasn't going to deny its existence, having seen enough things during his time in SOLDIER that should have been impossible. It was just a shame that he'd probably never get to see the creature for himself

[thatdamnedninja]

"You've run into special counselling patients before, right? Y'know, those ones that get all brainwashed up and sicced on any patient that wanders by their post?" By now, there's no way Zack wouldn't have. He wasn't the kind of guy who'd settle for hanging out in his room all night; he'd be right out there in the thick of things. And the thick of things was always the best place to find the crazies.

Yuffie laughed, just shortly, under her breath. "It was a while back now, but I was one of 'em. That's how I got my shuriken." Crackity-crack-crack went Mori's collarbone, somewhere in the back of her mind. She ignored it. "And those were the materia I had. All of 'em mastered, and I'm pretty they're all mine." Which was yet another big black mark on Landel's record. Her stuff was her stuff; nobody else had the right to mess with it!

"I don't know for sure where he keeps it all. It's gotta be somewhere, though, and I'm guessin' that the third floor is our best bet." She raked her fingers through her hair, frustrated that something so

[zack_fair]

It was funny that she was bringing up brainwashing when Zack had only just run into someone who'd been under those effects last night. Still, it got less funny when Yuffie revealed that she had actually been victim to it before. Zack immediately tensed, because even if this girl had given him a hard time in the past, she hardly deserved something like that. He'd always been looking out for her, after all, and some small part of him had wondered if she'd maybe been kind of lonely back then