I opted not to watch the Chiefs and decided to read. Light, and temperature, is a waining recourse, so let's take advantage of what we can before it’s gone.
What appears to be a midpoint in the story, Nanaki cries out to an entity named Gilligan, a pitch black monster inside of him. His cries go unheard, and the former Red XIII knows that this enemy is his enemy alone.
We then go to the start of this story. After the defeat of Sephiroth, Nanaki told his petrified father the story of his travels. He also promised that he would continue to journey and tell Seto of everything that happened on those journeys. He returned to Cosmo Canyon and informed the villagers of his decision. He was traveling to honor the wishes of the deceased Bugenhagen. It’s a shame Bugen is gone, but at least it’s confirmed, and I can stop writing fan fiction about his continuing existence. The villagers happily saw Nanaki off as he ran down and through the canyons.
The effects of Holy and Meteor affected more than just Midgar. All throughout the canyons were boulders and misplaced rocks that weren’t previously there. It means nothing compared to the damage of Midgar, but is something worth noticing.
As Nanaki walks through the somewhat familiar landscape, he felt an immense pain in his heart. He closed his eyes, as he often did when confronted with new information, and described the pain as a hole and a black void of memories that seemed to be changing shape. He, as soon as he stopped trembling from fear, ran as fast as he could back to town. The villagers were shocked to see him return so quickly and joked if he was already homesick. Nanaki replied as well as he could and made off on his journey again. He passed the place where he first felt the pain. Nothing happened. Gilligan, as Nanaki named him, remained away. The fear, however, was still there. Nanaki then laid out his travel plans and first went to Wutai, where Yuffie lived. Nanaki had mixed feelings with how she treated him, almost as a pet, but he always found her the easiest to understand because she was the youngest of the group
As he was nearing Wutai, he stumbled upon the girl by happenstance. She was dragging a boy, roughly her age, through the grass. He had planned to pretend to attack her, but the uncertainty of wither the boy was alive or not changed this plan. He walked up to Yuffie and asked if she needed help.
We then learn the boy's name is Yuri, and he caught a disease in Midgar. It’s not named, but it’s clear it’s Geostigma. Yuri alive but unconscious, and Yuffie is too weak to properly carry him, which is why he's being dragged. Wutai thinks the disease is contagious, but Yuffie doesn’t care and just wants to be helpful. For some reason, Yuri’s disease angered Nanaki. He couldn’t understand why Yuffie would be so selfless but decided there’s nothing he could do and aided her. Yuffie hoped to find Materia to heal everyone, but Nanaki knew no such thing existed. He then felt sorrowful as the girl became sad.
He spent several weeks in Wutai, only somewhat helping. He mostly just watched and took in the happenings. When Yuffie asked him to do things, he did but was never proactive when working with the sick. After a quick conversation with a few of them, he came to realize that this may be calling: to be a reliquary for future humans. His life span was five to ten times that of a normal human, and he could carry information across many generations.
After a time, Yuffie asked Nanaki to go find information out in the world. He agreed, and, as we walked out of range of Wutai, felt Gilligan once more. He fell to the ground and screamed out in pain. But cause pain wasn't all that Gilligan did. Memories of Nanaki’s friends began to be wiped from his brain. He'd see their face flash in his mind and then forget their names. In time, Gilligan laid off. Nanaki remembered his friends and started to form theories of what Gilligan was. “Was Gilligan's true form the fear he felt when everyone dies?” He pushed the thoughts away and began to head to Midgar, the epicenter of the Geostigma.
He got to the Nibel area when he heard a gunshot ring through the forest. He ran to where he thought he heard the shot and found a boy being attacked by a Nibel Bear. The bear had been shot but was still the strongest of the three. Or at least between it and the boy. Nanaki picked the boy up by his shirt and carried him to safety. From this point, the boy tried to tell Nanaki, who he called Red, to attack the bear’s throat. Nanaki roared, which stopped the bear. The boy once more commanded “Red” to attack. Nanaki thought humans should stay quiet when it comes to the realm of beasts. Suddenly, another gunshot is heard as a bullet hits the bear, slaying it. The boy’s father came out of the thicket and kept the gun aimed at Nanaki, seemingly in defense and just-in-case. The hunter then tells us some backstory on Shinra's activities in the area. Bear tails are an ingredient in potions, so they used to be hunted for them. Not only that, but Nanaki’s race used to have a bounty on them for Shinra’s experiments. The boy wanted to keep “Red” as a pet and was shocked to learn that he could talk. Nanaki had no interest in talking to such people, though. As he turned to leave, the hunter shot near him, grazing his ear. Nanaki then ran away but circled back.
The boy remained absolute in being friends with Red, but his father said he’d never be able to tame him. The hunter continued with the bear and said the family was going to eat it tonight. Nanaki remembered a conversation with his grandfather. It was about the difference between monsters, who kill for fun, and those who kill to survive. Nanaki then thought that the two weren’t so bad as they were using the whole animal.
After the family left, two bear cubs came out of the thicket looking for their mother. Nanaki decided to provide for them or the night, but he wound up getting attached. The three spend many months together until the two cubs could provide for themselves. Nanaki completely forgot, or ignored, Yuffie’s request. During these months, Gilligan attacked many times. Nanaki eventually learned how to deal with the feelings and learned how to cope until the hole became a moot point.
In time, the humans came back. The same boy was once again beset by bears. This time, it was the bears whom Nanaki raised. When the boy saw Nanaki, he called him "Red" and asked for help again. Nanaki responded that he would have to abide by the forest’s rules. Inspired, the boy got up and, before he shot at one of the nears, was struck by the brother. Nanaki, for reasons, did try to save the boy before he was killed. He went to cover the boy and was struck by his brothers, Pasu and Rin, in his stead. He then told the bears to go home, which they did. Nanaki heard the hunter's voice and went to hide.
The boy’s father, accompanied by Elena of the Turks, came and confronted the boy, Goddy. Nanaki returned to his cave and went to sleep.
During the night, Nanaki woke up and saw that the cubs were gone. He panicked and went out to search for them. Gunfire echoed, and Gilligan attacked again. The faces of Pazu and Rin came to his mind before fading like the others. He endured and began to walk toward the gunshot. He kept walking and came upon a town. In the center were the dead bodies of his brothers. Nanaki hadn't come for vengeance, an emotion of humans. However, when another bullet was fired near him, he was too angry to respond. Nanaki knew that he was being torn between his human side and his beast side. Another shot is heard, and Nanaki broke into a nearby hut. “What moved me was human emotion but in here right now, I have the instincts of a beast.” Nanaki blacked out.
Nanaki awoke when he heard, “I wanted to become friends with you!" He woke up on a bloodstained floor with a familiar man in red nearby. Vincent asked if Nanaki could get up...
Did Nanaki just kill an entire village? What’s Vincent doing? Of all the stories in this book, I’m most enamored with this one. It makes sense since Red is one of my favorites, but this is so riveting, and I want to keep reading. If it weren’t for the Packers game, I would have kept reading and then got upset that this took four hours to write. Nanaki figuring out his beast side and his intelligence side as well as coming to terms with his lifespan compared to his friends is the best read I’ve had in a long time. I want to know what’s going on! Are we gonna deal with his human side tomorrow? Weather be damned! Unless I die, I’m finishing this.
No comments:
Post a Comment