We return to On the Way to a Smile for the next two days, just to get through Yuffie. Grin and bear it. It’s short, and I think we can make it through and be stronger for it.
The story begins in the Forgotten City as the party says farewell to Aerith, just after Meteor was destroyed. Vincent sneaks off before the rest of the party, and Yuffie feels as though he’s abandoning the group. After all they’ve been through, how can he just leave without a word, as nothing happened? Vincent tells the child, “take care.”
Cid says he’s going to his woman, knowing full well Lucrecia is dead. Barrett says he should do the same, and Yuffie thinks both men are taking this too lightly. Cid responds that it means they all know they’ll see each other again. Reluctant, but with no other recourse, she accepts. Until she remembers the Materia. Yuffie then spends the next while convincing everyone to give her their Materia. They all agree that the offense stones no longer mean anything in this new world but agree to divvy up the healing stuff. Cloud takes care of the attack Materia, so that's what was in the backpack during the movie. Yuffie gets enough to help Wutai, and the rest of the group goes their separate ways.
Yuffie, riding a Chocobo, talks about how she foresees her welcome back party. She’ll be revered as a hero. Should she change her clothes to look the part or resemble the tired savior she was? In the end, she snuck back into town to wash her face, only to be confronted by her father, Godo, hammering something. Godo tells her to look around at the damage the Lifestream caused when it came through. While he was glad to see her, he cared nothing for the return of his daughter or her heroism.
He then told her his view of how everything happened. The universe wanted the Planet to die, and it summoned Meteor for that task. There is no mention of Sephiroth. Instead of accepting death, the Planet fought back and won its continued existence. There was no mention of Yuffie, Aerith, or anyone else. Wutai is out in the middle of nowhere, so do they just not know what’s going on? Godo tells his daughter not to tell anyone of her involvement as they may not be so kind.
Seeing the damage of the town and all the wounded people, Yuffie sets up a doctor's office of sorts. She uses the Materia to heal as many as she can. Some can’t be fully healed, but she does what she can. Her own mental strength is tested during this. Even in story, magic use still uses MP, and she says she'll ask about ethers next time she can. I like it when game mechanics have lore behind them. I’ll give the story a point for that alone. One night, Yuffie is awoken by people throwing rocks at the tower she's in. She’s unsure why anyone would tempt damaging the Sacred Tower. It turns out Godo has locked, the hard way, his daughter in. He's sealed Yuffie in. She tries to think about what's going on until someone else starts pounding on the tower. The person in question is yelling that Yuffie infected Yuri’s mom. Yuffie brought the disease from Midgar and is infecting everyone. Later that night, another person knocks against the tower. It ends up being Yuri himself, who Yuffie barely remembers. She is able to remember just enough that, when Yuri breaks her out, they reconnect quickly and reminisce. The two of them run away to escape the coming adults, holding hands the whole way.
They ran until they encountered a monster. Since Yuffie is the great warrior, she kills the creature with ease. The two then go to a scenic overlook that was over the town and talked about what had happened. They spoke of Midgar, the disease, and compared Yuffie to rats. Rats spread disease but do not suffer its effects. Wutai has a very negative view of the outside world and is very closed-minded and ignorant of what’s going on. Yuffie said she’d find the true culprit but was reprimanded by Yuri, who wondered how she could be so selfish. The actual plan of attack is to cure everyone, not place blame.
To find a cure, the two head south to the area where the Quadra Magic Materia was found. The mountain keeping people away had been destroyed by the Lifestream, so now anyone could go. The two ventured into a dark cave and found nothing. As they exited, another monster attacked. The monster launched a fireball at the two kids and missed. Yuffie, once again, easily dispatched the foe. However, that fireball would do more damage than either could imagine.
Suddenly, the ground erupted, and a liquid came blasting out. It bounced around the cave and flooded it. Yuffie managed to escape, but Yuri was still trapped. She was able to find her friend quickly, but the damage was done. Yuri was smothered by a black liquid that, when moved, fell from his mouth. Unfortunately, Yuffie continued to think only of herself and wanted him to get up. If Yuri died, Uffie would be blamed for his death. Yuri was able to reprimand the ninja again, proving he was still alive. She then tried to drag him back to safety but was unable to, being so physically weak. Then she heard a voice. “Need some help?” It was Nanaki, who she still called Red XIII, much to his dismay.
When the two stories converged, I called it a night. It had nothing to do with the screaming raccoon in my neighbor's yard. I’m halfway through, so straight shot tomorrow to finish this up. Hopefully, my opinion on Yuffle changes soon.
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