Crisis Core: The Novel

Chapter 3 - Wutai

Angeal and Zack ran like shadows through the knell of thick night, cloaked in that familiar darkness that was friend to all SOLDIER's. They skidded to a halt at a crossroad under a waxing moon, and Angeal took stock of their mission.

"Fort Tamblin is straight ahead. Let's hurry, B Unit is standing by."

"I got this! I GOT THIS!" Zack bounced on his heels.

"Calm down, Zack."

"No can do. The Director is ranking this mission himself, right? I have to make a good impression."

Angeal rolled his eyes and marched on in annoyed silence, while Zack trotted alongside like a good puppy. The deer path the Predator Drone had marked for them wound through dense wilderness, and Angeal peered at the sight of wild apple trees.

"Zack, do you know about dumbapples?" he asked, a sudden recollection occurring to him.

"Uh...No, what is that?"

Angeal glanced back at him like he was crazy. "Unbelievable...How can you not know about dumbapples? You'll never make 1st at that rate."

Zack cocked his head after him.

"Whoa wait!" But his mentor just walked on. "Angeeeeaaaalll, what are dumbapples?!"

Angeal regarded his student, a subtle amusement at Zack's flustered expression. "The official name is Banora White. The trees bear fruit at random times during the year. Because of that, the townspeople affectionately call them dumbapples."

Angeal still gazed affectionately at the treeline, flashing back to earlier times; to trees that bent over like old women, bowing into the ground like an overhang of white branches, a tunneling walkway made of boughs.

"The locals had plenty to spare," he continued in his reminiscing tone.

"Oh really? So you stole them," Zack teased. Angeal's eyes took him to windmills in farm country, blue apples on bowed white trees.

"But even then," he continued, "I had my honor. The largest Banora White tree grew on a wealthy man's estate. But I never stole from that tree because the wealthy man's son was my friend."

"If he was a friend, you should have just asked for some!"

Angeal stuck a finger up. "Honor can be quite a burden at times."

Zack sighed with hands on hips, contemplating like he was trying to use brain cells he didn't have. Angeal did this a lot, weaved intricate moral tales with hidden lessons for Zack to find like dog-biscuits. When he did find them, it was an exhausting philosophical dialogue that left Zack sleeping that night like they'd been sparring full-speed.

"So...what exactly does this have to do with me?"

Angeal leaned into his young student with mischief in his eyes. "No story is not worth hearing."

He strolled off, leaving Zack to scratch his head. But when Zack heard him laughing down the trail, he ran after him fuming.

"What? That's it?" he complained. Angeal laughed harder. "Yeah, well, thanks a lot!"

Down the trail the air became sharp and Angeal gave off a quiet vibe to initiate code-silence. Zack's body tensed with the subtle signals from his mentor, phasing from a bounding puppy to a stalking wolf. They came to a pagoda and crouched behind some brush. The Fort.

Zack skidded to a crouch behind his mentor, feeling his muscles coiling like a panther again. Angeal scanned the target.

"B Unit will set off an explosion. That's our cue."