The sun had long since set, and the canyon had fallen into darkness. Red and Yuffie had camped beneath a sheltered rock overhang. They sat on opposite sides of a crackling, popping fire. Yuffie took occasional spoonfuls of a cup of instant noodle soup. Red lay there, looking slightly forlorn, absentmindedly pushing around a small pile of sand with his paw while the tip of his tail twitched up in the air.
 Yuffie looked across at him. "You not hungry?" she asked. He didn't answer. "Hey, what's wrong?" He glanced up at her.
 "Look at your shoulders," he said simply. She looked down at them. On each of her shoulders were four small scabs, all about the same size.
 "I wonder where these came from," said Yuffie, puzzled.
 ".......I made them......." sighed Red. His claws popped out for a second, then they slid back in.
 "You made them? Oh......" she trailed off. "Do you feel bad about it?"
 "Yeah," he replied. "Really bad."
 Yuffie smiled. "Don't worry. You didn't know it was me, right?" She shuffled over next to him. "Is that one of the reasons you insisted on coming with me?"
 He nodded. "That's one of the reasons.....but the other's a little more personal. Do you want to hear it?"
 "Sure," she replied. Red cleared his throat, and began. "Everyone knows what happened to my father, but I've never told anybody about my mother. Her........her......"
 "Take it slow, Red," she said.
 "Her name was....Sadakko....." he said quietly.
 "That's a nice name. It sounds like you loved her a lot," she said.
 "She was my best friend. My only friend," he replied, then he continued.
 "For my species, to have a single cub is quite rare, and since my parents had no other children, I was always the center of attention. Both my mother and father loved me very much. Together with Grandpa, we were a very close family. But they realized that I would have to fight. From an early age my father taught me everything I know about fighting.  When the Gi tribe attacked, I was only ten years old, about the equivalent of a two to three-year-old in human terms. Seto left to defend the town, but the Gi tribe's poisoned arrows turned him to stone. Of course, I didn't know this. My mother was shocked by his death, and she became depressed.
 I asked where he had gone. She didn't want me to become a warrior, so she told me he had run away. From that day on, I hated him from the bottom of my heart. Now that I know the truth, I feel ashamed that I could generate such emotions towards someone who was so close.
I was never very good friends with any of the other children, but with my father gone, they picked on me often. My only real friends were Grandpa and my mother. I was happy enough, but my life was about to change forever. It was twenty-eight years ago.......
One day, a man with a sword broke into the archives and stole something, a black jewel, which was quite valuable. Naturally, my mother tried to stop him. They got into a fight in the town square. I hid behind a rock, and I saw everything. One second she was assured of victory, then the next she was.... she was.....d-dead....!"
 A tear slid down his cheek and landed in the dust.
"I guess I wanted revenge......I was too weak to save her......all I did was hide....." More tears ran down his face.
 I've never seen him cry before........ thought Yuffie. I'm no counsellor, that's Tifa's job! Still, she tried to be sympathetic. "Are you okay to tell me anything else?" she said. He looked at her, and smiled half-heartedly.
 "I'll be okay. It happens whenever I think about her." He rubbed his eye, and started again. "The swordsman's name was Shoki. Right after he killed her, he cut out my right eye." Yuffie gasped, disgusted.
 "Oh my God........ So that's what happened to it.....I was always afraid to ask," she said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
 "After I recovered, I began to try and find anything I could about him, the stones, and something he mentioned, called the Onikage," he explained. Yuffie's eye's widened with fear.
 "The Onikage.....!! Do you know what they are!?" she inquired. He shook his head. Yuffie began to speak again. "Onikage means 'shadow devil.' Nobody knows if they really exist, but there's a legend about a war that took place over 1000 years ago between the humans and the Onikage. The humans won, and sealed the demons away behind the 'Demon's Gate.' It was inside a mountain called Mt. Onasuke, and they were sealed in by using a pair of stones, called 'Gateway Stones,' one black and the other white.
 The only way to open the gate is to read an ancient scroll. That'll tell you how to use the stones." Yuffie finished, and Red nodded.
 "That must have been the scroll that was stolen by.....what was his name?.......Sho-Dai, that's it! He must be looking for the white stone now!"
 Yuffie nodded. "I think it's kept at my dad's house in Wutai. We've got to hurry, so we should get some rest." She stood up, popped the truck's door open, and climbed in. It was cramped but bearable. She could stand it for one night.
 "Good night, Red," she said, but he was already fast asleep.

 The sun shone through the window, onto his face. He could feel its welcome warmth, but only on the left side of his face. The other side was covered in a large sterile bandage. Even though the heat felt good, he didn't smile. Too much had happened. Outside his room he could hear two voices, adressing each other in hushed tones.  "What did you need to talk to me about, Doctor?"
 "Well, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that Nanaki will be all right. There were no complications during the surgery. He was very lucky. If that sword had gone in a few centimeters deeper, a major blood vessel would have ruptured and he would have died instantly."
 "What's the bad news?"
 "Ah......well," said the doctor, clearing his throat. "He is totally blind in his right eye. The damage was so great that we had to remove it. There is also some permanent scarring."
 "At least he is still among the living! We should be grateful for that!" Nanaki recognized that voice as his grandfather's.
 "Yes." The doctor sighed. "Please, give him my deepest condolences......."
 "I will. Thank you so much." He heard footsteps walking away.
 There was a knock at the door of his room.
 "Come in," he said quietly. The door creaked open. His grandfather and a small, nervous-looking boy, about seven or eight years old, came in. The boy clutched two pieces of paper in his hand.
 "Nanaki, you've got a visitor," said his grandfather, then he left. The boy glanced around the room, then took a step forward. He flinched a bit when he noticed the bandage. Nanaki looked at him. He knew his name, Marcus, but not much else. Marcus was one of the kids who would pick on him.
 "H-hi....... this card is from all the kids at the school. We hope you get well soon....!!" he stuttered. He put the card on the table, next to the vase of fresh flowers.  "Thank you," Nanaki replied, "but I don't go to your school. You didn't have to give me this."
 Marcus shook his head. "It was my idea to give you a card."
 "Your idea?" Marcus sat down on the bed next to him. He gave him the other piece of paper. Nanaki unfolded and looked at it. There was a drawing of him and Marcus, playing a game and smiling. He began to read it aloud.
 "'Let's be friends. I'm sorry I picked on you. I hope you get better soon!' You.....want to be my friend?" he asked. "I thought you didn't like me."
 Marcus shook his head again. "Well........ after what happened to your mom, I felt really bad. You were so sad, and then you got hurt. Was your mom your best friend?" Nanaki looked down at the floor, feeling a tightness in his throat. I can't cry, he though. I've cried too much.
 "Yeah," he said.
 "When that bad man did all those things and hurt you, I felt like I needed to make up for all the mean stuff I did to you. I'm really sorry......" Marcus stared down at his knees, kicking his legs nervously. "So......do you want to be friends?" he said, as if expecting him to say no.
 Nanaki's heart raced.
 A friend! I'll finally have a friend, just like Mother said I would!
 "Okay."
 Marcus smiled.
 "Do you wanna play a little later?" he asked. Nanaki nodded vigorously.
 "Yeah!" he said happily, his tail wagging. Marcus stood up and began to skip towards the door. He opened the door and waved goodbye. "See you later!" he called, then the door clicked shut.

 The chugging ferry, with the name 'Cosmo Express' emblazoned on the rusty hull, lumbered up to the pier. Seagulls wheeled and dove above the sea. Scattered across the glittering water were various other boats of different sizes. The ferry stopped, bobbing up and down as the gangway extended. Almost as soon as it clanged to the ground, tourists began to noisily file off the boat.
 "Yay! We're here!"
 "Let's go shopping! With the low exchange rate and all......."
 "Oh wow kids, look at that bird! Oh, it's gone...."
"How many pictures of that red dog-thing did you take?"
 "About a roll's worth. How 'bout you?"
 Last off the boat were Yuffie and Red. Yuffie watched in horror as the noisy throng of vacationers wandered towards the city. She put her hand on her forehead.
 "No matter what happens, Wutai will always be a tourist trap," she groaned. Red looked up at her.
 "At least those tourists didn't take hundreds of pictures of you. Is it really that hard to tell that I'm not a dog?" he replied sulkily.
 "It's kinda hard to tell what you are, period!" Yuffie teased. She began to clomp down the gangway. "Come on, we've gotta get going." Red nodded, and followed her down. When he reached the pier, he began to look around, puzzled.
 "Wutai sure has gotten big," he commented. Yuffie nodded.
 "All of Shinra's trade restrictions kept the place small, but with them gone, it's begun to grow." She beckoned him closer. "C'mon, I'll show you around."
 A few minutes later they were standing in the middle of a dusty street. There were people bustling around everywhere. There were smartly dressed businessmen, food vendors, and the ubiquitous tourists, snapping pictures of almost everything. As Red and Yuffie proceeded down the street, a pair of men in plain brown tunics stepped out from behind a building.
"Look! It's him! He's with that girl in the yellow pants and Hawaiian shirt!" cried Faber, nudging Ricdeau in the ribs.
 "Hey! Nanaki's here! We've found him!" he replied. "Do you still have it?"
"Yeah........" said Faber ominously, as he slid something black and shiny out of his tunic, then he slipped it back in, as a grin crept across his face. Then he soundlessly slipped into the crowd, with Ricdeau right behind him. Up ahead, Yuffie glanced backwards.
"I think somebody's following us," she whispered. "Let's sneak down this alley." They unobtrusively changed direction and walked down a narrow alley between two buildings.
"Uh, Yuffie, it's blocked!" exclaimed Red. A large pile of boxes and a dumpster blocked their exit.
 "Dammit!" she cursed.
 I was sure there was an exit....... she thought, as she heard the two men enter and block the entrance to the alley.
 "Don't move, thief!" she heard a voice yell.......