Daggers and Flowers

Chapter 17- The Festival

Yuffie chewed the inside of her cheek and looked around the crowded city. She huffed and put her hands on her hips. She didn't even know where to start looking for Lyra or the boys. When she and Vincent first arrived at Junon, they heard about the festival and wondered if they had the wrong idea. Kalm was too, well, calm and it was easy to get to from Edge, but hard to hide in. Junon was a chaotic sprawling city similar to what Midgar was like with ruins and slums. It would be difficult to find anyone in Junon, but the Remnants of Sephiroth would stand out in any place they ran to. Lyra was pretty but normal-looking enough and regrettably short. She would have no trouble blending in.

The mischief festival, with all its colorful wigs and costumes and elaborate masks, made Yuffie feel like she was looking for a needle in a haystack.

She continued down the street, weaving in and out of groups of festivalgoers and dodging vendors. Vincent had made her swear up and down to every god they knew that she would focus on finding Lyra and behave. No shenanigans!! And boy, oh boy was it hard to stay on task.

Everywhere she turned Yuffie saw conflicting patterns and colors and with every turn she made, she ran into a carnival game, a puppet show, and even a sword-swallowing act. She was beginning to wish that she and Vincent hadn't split up. The few WRO soldiers they had were spread thin throughout the city but they were likely having the same amount of sorry luck Yuffie was having.

Yuffie snagged a mask from the next costume vendor she passed. Maybe Lyra or one of the boys had spotted her and were hiding? It was better to fit in anyway. The Wutain War had ended years ago and Wutai was slowly returning to its former self, but people outside of Wutai still gave her weird looks and avoided her. It didn't bother her, usually. But sometimes she wished it was socially acceptable to punch people in the face for giving her dirty looks.

Yuffie gave the vendor some gil and picked a black and red ladybug mask. The mask was handmade, the vendor claimed, and was of high quality. The ladybug mask didn't feel like plastic or that it would disintegrate at the barest touch so she slid it over her face and continued on her way.

The sun was starting to dip to the west by the time she gave up. Yuffie's throat was dry and cracked. She lost count of how many times she had described Lyra and how many amused looks she got when describing the Remnants. She hadn't outright called the boys Remnants of Sephiroth, just described their hair and eyes and roughly their height. She got a lot of laughs from that, and there were a lot of silver wigs being sold and worn.

She found a bit of shade under a stairwell and drank some water around noon. She checked her phone. No calls or texts from Lyra, even though the stupid girl had promised to stay in touch. A few texts from her dad and Tifa asking her how her day was going. Many of the WRO soldiers were still looking for Lyra, asking Yuffie if she'd heard anything. None from Vincent, which was typical but frustrating given the circumstances. She sent him a text to meet at the alleyway and made her way there.

She was halfway down the long empty alleyway when she heard them talking. Yuffie hid behind one of the many overflowing dumpsters and crawled through the space behind it. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of rot and garbage and the gravel bit into her palms, but like hell was she going to let a Turk get the better of her. She peeked through the cracks of wooden pallets stacked on the other side of the dumpster. They blocked her passage but provided some lovely cover.

"We're on vacation," Tseng was saying. His back was to her, but he sounded annoyed. Elena was rocking on the balls of her feet next to him. Vincent stood before them scowling and crossing his arms.

"Really? Junon isn't that interesting," Vincent said. "I've heard Costa del Sol is better."

"Nah, too touristy," Elena chirped. Yuffie grimaced as a cockroach skittered past her but she kept still as a stone and quiet as a mouse.