The Forgotten Hero

Chapter 3

            “I figure you could get in trouble with Shin-Ra, so you’re going to…”

            “Oh dear Shiva, you didn’t…” Ms. Alm’s face turned grimed as she noticed a bus filled with happy-go-lucky tourists pull up. “You did, didn’t you!?”

            “I figured it’d be the most convenient way for you to take pictures without getting in trouble. You’re just a tourist, you don’t know any better,” her boss laughed on the other side. “Also, I’m going to have to publish your stories under a different name, an alias. Have anything in mind?”

            “Just go ahead and use Elizabeth Lane,” Ms. Alm gritted her teeth together as she walked onto the bus. The bus driver seemed to know who he was picking up as he didn’t ask for any gil and he drove off.

            Ms. Alm snapped her phone shut angrily and she eyed each of the passengers with the sort of eye a starving wolf would eye a chocobo. Some of the passengers whispered amongst themselves, asking why on Gaia a Turk was on the bus.

            Ms. Alm maneuvered her way through the aisle. Looking for a completely free area, but alas there was none. Sighing, she glanced at a young girl sitting with a couple of free seats next to her. Her attire was unusual to say the least. Ms. Alm shrugged and gripped onto the cargo area above everyone’s heads as she looked at her.

            “Mind if I sit here?”

            “If you weren’t from Shin-Ra you could sit next to me,” The girl replied with a huff and she crossed her arms.

            “Good,” Ms. Alm smirked and sat next to the girl.

            “Hey, hey, hey!” The girl stood up with her hands on her hips. Ms. Alm examined the girl with a bored look. “I said you couldn’t sit here!”

            “You said if I wasn’t from Shin-Ra I could sit next to you, I’m not from Shin-Ra,” Ms. Alm replied in a matter of fact tone. “I’m not a Turk, I’m a photojournalist dressed like a Turk to get the inside story.”

            The girl, who oddly enough resembled a ninja, tilted her head. She was obviously confused. Ms. Alm shook her head. This girl didn’t appear to be too bright. After running a hand through her auburn hair, she made a mental note to change clothes as soon as possible…She’d have to buy a new set of clothes first, though.

            The ninja girl finally seemed to accept Ms. Alm’s excuse as she plopped down in the uncomfortable seat. The girl kept glancing over at Ms. Alm and then looked straight ahead. The action was repeated multiple times until Ms. Alm grew tired of it.

            “Is there something I can help you with?” Ms. Alm looked at the short haired girl next to her.

            “You don’t have any Materia by any chance do you?”

            “No, sorry,” Ms. Alm narrowed her eyes. That was a queer question to have been asked out of the blue. Was this girl wanting to see some Materia? Perhaps that was why she was on the tourist’s bus. She did look foreign.

            “What’s your name?” Ms. Alm asked her.

            “Why should I tell you?” The girl replied in an immature way.

            “Just trying to make some conversation,” Ms. Alm crossed on leg over another and moved it up and down.

            This was going to be a long bus ride. Hopefully she could ditch these jokers once they arrived at Kalm. Who’s to say that the hooded man would go to the same place as these people? Tourists weren’t exactly her kind of people. They seemed over excited at every little thing that they deemed out of the ordinary.

            “Yuffie.”

            “Uh, what?” Ms. Alm snapped out of her thoughts and turned to the ninja girl.

            “The name’s Yuffie Kisaragi!” Yuffie nearly shouted at Ms. Alm.

            Ms. Allm blinked, “Nice to meet you, Yuffie…My name’s Verna Alm. Just call me Verna, Ms. Alm sounds old.” She crossed her arms and leaned the back of her head against the window. Being called Ms. Alm in a non-professional situation was too formal for her taste.

            “Like I would call you Ms. Alm,” Yuffie squirmed in her seat looking rather pale.

            “Hey,” Verna reached out and touched the young girl’s shoulder, “Are you feeling alright?”

            “I feel sick…”

            Verna held in a laugh, it must be motion sickness. Poor thing. She glanced around until she saw a bathroom in the back of the bus. Nodding to herself, she made note if Yuffie looked like she was actually going to be sick.

            “Go back there if you need to vomit, I don’t exactly care for having someone throw up on me,” Verna watched her cautiously. “We should be there soon, anyways.”

            “Mmm,” Yuffie groaned in reply. This was the last time she rode the bus.

            Verna’s ears twitched as she heard an elderly couple a few seats away gossip. A man in a black cloak? Subconsciously she leaned towards them, trying to get into a better hearing range. She closed her eyes, blocking her visual sense to heighten her auditory sense.

            “I told you, I saw him!” The woman stated as she nudged her husband. “His cloak hid most of his features, but I know it was him!”

            “And how did you know it was Sephiroth?”

            “Under the cloak you could see his glowing eyes! That’s what he’s rumored to have right?”

            “So it could just be some freak!”

            “But he also had a long sword, and it had blood on it! Blood!”

            “Excuse me,” Verna piped up as she moved closer to the couple. “I’m writing a news article on the late President’s death and I couldn’t help but over hear you. Was the sword by any chance thin?”

            “Yes, it was!” The woman nodded eagerly. “You believe me don’t you!”

            Verna took out her camera and went through her pictures until she landed on a close up wound from the president, “I have a picture of the fatal wound the President received. Could you by any chance look at it and tell me if you think that the wound could have been inflicted by the sword you’ve seen?”

            “Of course…” The woman said just above a mere whisper.

            Verna handed her the camera. The woman’s hand shot up to her face and she quivered ever so slightly. The woman’s pale blue eyes met Verna’s green ones and nodded. Verna frowned. This was just more evidence to suggest Sephiroth killed the late President.

            “Thank you very much,” Verna took the camera back and looked at the picture. “Do you mind if I use you as an eye witness, I won’t use your name. I can’t even use my own name with something as dangerous as this.”

            “Go ahead,” The woman nodded.

            At that moment Yuffie got up and ran to the bathroom. Verna turned around. She must have seen the picture causing her to finally lose it. Sighing, she sat back and stared out the window. She wasn’t sure how to take the fact that Sephiroth might be the killer, he was her hero.

            “Uh…” Verna shot up from her seat and stared out the window. A weird dog whose tail appeared to be on fire and a man with a gun on his arm was just past. She stood up and tried to get a better look as the figures grew smaller and smaller by the second.

            “Could that have been…AVALANCHE?” She whispered to herself.