Yuffie Kisaragi, a ninja girl from Wutai, was the daughter of Wutai's lord.
In a sense, she could be called a princess.
After Wutai lost the war against Shinra, her homeland had been turned into a tourist attraction. Yuffie could not accept Wutai living under Shinra's rule, and the fact that her own father had submitted to Shinra made him, in her eyes, nothing but a coward.
Refusing to accept it, she left Wutai and began traveling the world. Her goal was to collect enough materia to restore her homeland.
And the place most likely to have the most materia was, of course, Shinra's headquarters—Midgar.
She had only just arrived in Midgar when she spotted something interesting from a distance. Some kind of force had wiped out Shinra's elite troops.
So, following the logic that the enemy of her enemy was a friend, Yuffie began investigating who exactly was opposing Shinra.
Eventually, she stumbled across a place where strange activity was taking place.
After sneaking closer without making a sound, she had not even had time to listen in properly before her instincts screamed danger. She turned and ran.
As it turned out, that decision was the right one.
She had barely dashed ten meters away when, on glancing back, she saw a thick metal rolling shutter melt open in an instant, leaving a hole in it.
So Yuffie did not hesitate. She flung out a shuriken—a special one fitted with a smoke-bomb effect.
The smoke it released was choking and painfully sharp.
The powder in it was made from chili peppers.
With that, the other side would be too blinded and stung to chase her, right?
Yet the moment she slipped into a shadowed area and prepared to hide, her face twisted.
Tears welled rapidly in her eyes, and a sound escaped her lips before she could stop it.
She staggered and fell forward, then hurriedly braced herself with both hands to keep from rolling.
Because rolling would make the injury to her rear even worse. It would press on the thing stuck there and drive it in deeper.
Aaaaah, it hurt so much! It had definitely split open!
And it burned. It felt like a red-hot blade had stabbed into her.
Suddenly sensing something, Yuffie bit down on her lip and yanked the shuriken from her waist, about to—
Her wrist was caught.
And it felt like the other person was going to crush it. Her grip went weak, and the shuriken slipped from her hand.
The other person lifted her up by the wrist, and something cold pressed against her cheek.
She suspected that if her mouth had been open right then, he would have shoved that hard thing straight into it.
Ah. Maybe not. It was probably a handgun, and it was a little too big.
"U-um, there might be a bit of a—"
"Yuffie Kisaragi?"
He cut her off and spoke her name.
No way. He knew her?
"Huh? Yuffie Kisaragi? Who's that?"
She played dumb.
"No?"
The next second, the trigger of the gun pressed against her cheek began to bend.
"Yes! I'm Yuffie Kisaragi! I'm the real one!"
Only after she blurted that out did the trigger stop moving, and Yuffie finally let out a breath.
If she had been half a second slower, her head might have been gone.
So whose hands had she fallen into?
That terrifying reaction speed… was he one of Shinra's special forces?
Could he be on Sephiroth's level?
He probably was. How else could he be this strong?
Then she was finished. If she had fallen into Shinra's hands, she could not even imagine what would happen to her.
"Huh? You're Yuffie Kisaragi?"
The startled voice made Yuffie turn her head. Behind her was a long-haired young woman who had just run over, looking at her in surprise.
She knew her too? Was Yuffie really that famous?
Then the person holding her suddenly dropped her and rushed back toward the warehouse.
Something strange and black seemed to have slipped inside it.
But Yuffie had no time to pay attention to whatever that odd thing was. Since she had just been held up and then dropped, her pain-weakened body failed to keep its balance, and she fell backward, landing heavily on her rear.
"Waaaah!"
This time, Yuffie really cried.
A short while later—
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
Yuffie bit down hard on a piece of cloth while someone helped pull the shuriken out of her.
Right now, she bitterly hated herself for adding chili powder to the shuriken. She had only made herself suffer even more.
"Mmmph!"
Her teeth were about to crack from how hard she was biting down, and her whole body trembled violently.
Tifa, who was helping pull it out, looked at where it had struck and nearly sucked in a breath.
Should she say this girl was just unlucky? What were the odds of hitting that exact spot?
Or had Kain done it on purpose?
"Give her a panacea."
"Okay."
Aerith caught the panacea Kain handed over.
She opened it and brought it toward the girl, who looked close to passing out from pain.
"I don't want anything from him!"
The girl slapped Aerith's hand away like she was throwing a tantrum. The bottle flew out, and the panacea inside spilled all over the floor.
That made Aerith a little angry. This was extremely precious stuff.
But before Aerith could truly get upset, her expression stiffened slightly.
Because Kain looked angry now.
Kain took out another bottle of panacea, opened it, and drew the liquid into a syringe—one without a needle. Then he walked over and aimed it toward Yuffie's three injured spots—
Uh.
"Aaaaaah!"
The scream was so miserable that Aerith instinctively clenched in sympathy.
Of course, she and Tifa were mostly dumbfounded.
Because Kain had injected the panacea directly through the wound.
Technically, if medicine was being administered, delivering it there really would make it take effect the fastest.
But this was supposed to be medical treatment.
Half an hour later—
"What?"
Kain raised an eyebrow at the girl whose wound had mostly healed. She actually dared to stand in front of him with an attitude that made it seem like he owed her something, hand held out as if demanding payment.
"Compensation!"
"Compensation?"
"Right! I was just passing by, and you attacked me for no reason. You even hit me there, and then you treated it in such an outrageous way. That means you saw everything. I won't be able to get married now. But I don't need you to take responsibility. You just need to compensate me for the physical and emotional damage!"
Yuffie spoke with her cheeks puffed up in anger. Her face looked like it had been reddened by the sun, though more than half of it was actually embarrassment.
This guy had done something that violent to a beautiful girl's butt. Absolutely unforgivable.
Now she was going to fleece him properly.
The next second, a cold gun barrel pressed against her cheek. It pushed a little hard, as if it were about to force its way into her mouth.
"Tifa, I think we should just silence her."
His tone was perfectly flat, and the trigger began to bend again. Yuffie's face went deathly pale.
"W-wait! I-I was joking! It was a joke!"
Was this guy really this humorless?
This rigid? This emotionally clueless? Was his head made of wood?
"A joke?"
"Yes, really! It was a joke! I'm sorry! I really am!"
She immediately bowed at a perfect ninety degrees.
"There won't be a next time."
"Mm-hm, mm-hm!"
Watching the girl nod like a chick pecking at rice, Kain knew she had not learned a thing. He could tell from the sly look in her eyes.
"U-um, Aerith told me about your operation. I want to join too. So can I pick out some weapons from over there?"
"You can."
As soon as he gave permission, she happily ran over, mainly picking through the cold weapons. That had been her real goal.
On one hand, she did want to join the operation. On the other, she wanted to get her hands on a cold weapon better than the one she carried herself.
As for why Kain had brought out light equipment instead of heavy firepower, heavy weapons were large, and the Whispers could easily interfere. One mistake could cause friendly fire.
"Mr. Kain, um… there's something I need your help with."
Aerith's slightly awkward voice came from beside him. When he looked over, her face was flushed.
She seemed to be struggling to say what the trouble was.
Looking more closely at her movements—especially at how tightly she had pressed her legs together—Kain probably understood why she was so embarrassed to ask.
She needed to use the restroom.
Because the Whispers had their eyes on her, she needed him to protect her.
(End of Chapter)
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