She fixed her gaze on the gray sky above, watching clouds saturate the monochrome, highlighted by the flickers of neon lights that buzzed about new apartment complexes, new bars, new products that were just as likely to kill as raise the standard of living, new shopping centers, new jobs, new and improved Midgar. Or, rather,Edge.
Fuck it. Midgar. There was no reason to make the name new too, as just about everything else in the city, purportedly, was.
This hiring mercenaries business was new too, by the by. Reeve normally strayed from involving the WRO in behavior that may or may not have strongly reminded one of ShinRa’s conduct, but mercenaries, so Kisaragi was told, were a necessary evil. With a serious shortage of manpower on the organization’s payroll, and so many families still in need of assistance, any sort of help, no matter where it came from, was a form of a blessing. At least, that was the Commissioner’s stance on the matter.
Yuffie tended to think that if mercenaries were a blessing, they were a blessing in disguise. A don’t mess with me kind of disguise, with straight set lips, and cold eyes, and attitudes that the ninja would payto break with incessant chatter and pointed teasing. But, alas, nothing so fun was currently occupying her thoughts, so her partner for the night, a certain Squall Leonhart, a steadfast-looking guy, who acted nothing like the tempestuous name he sported, was safe.
In terms of general safety, however, that was still an open question.
After all, the pair hadn’t managed to track down their target of yet, while having already scoured two-thirds of the city center, which suggested that the intelligence they received was wrong.
Not surprising, that, really. Shortage of manpower, remember?
Still, the fact that two trained operatives were unable to apprehend a, supposedly, former ShinRa employee with no previous combat training, who was simply sought for the purposes of returning to Headquarters documentation he came into possession of as an accounting assistant, didn’t really fill Yuffie with much confidence about what would happen when they did find the guy.
Anti-WRO sentiment wasn’t a new thing, after all.
And as Kisaragi turned her attention away from the sky, proceeding towards the edge of town, to the Old Church, she instinctively placed her hand against the blade of her shuriken, which protruded just far enough from the belt affixed diagonally across the ninja’s back to catch the slowly dimming in the distance lights of Midgar’s busiest district. Yuffie could wager just about anything that she, and theTempestuous One, weren’t going to find only one man.
Nonetheless, the brunette offered an easy grin to her partner. There was no reason to make an outward display of her grim thoughts.
“Y’ever wondered what the world would look like with Sight-Sound Synesthesia?”
Because that was a very important question to ask in a monotonously gray city, with an equally monotonously, and perpetually, gray sky, and, especially, now.
His boots clicked on the hard streets as the duo worked there way around the city, thoughts away on both the work he was doing and if it would truly be worth the payment that was received. After all, SeeD was the best of the best, and Squall always did take a certain pride in being the embodiment of that [at least in his own mind], but after scrounging the first two thirds of the city his patience was beginning to become shot.
The city itself was dull in the mans eyes, nothing of interest to him other than his work. It certainly was far from his favorite place the Balamb Garden had stopped, but these days business was business, and any money in both his and the Garden’s pocket would be worth a simple bit of work.
It was an odd thought to the SeeD member, finding his position currently awkward, and yet one he likely had been and would be in many more times as a mercenary. He was always more comfortable, [relatively] easier going for his demeanor when he had been hired out for wars, or personal battles. Far from being inept to the job, but far from being his norm as well.
Money is money though, and that was the true motivation in his work.
And despite how easy the mission had been made out to be when he was briefed, or how simple in truly was on paper, the fact remained that after several hours of searching with no results and two armed youths slowly getting tenser, it would all likely end up in a brawl. The thought caused a shake of the head on the man, and a firmer grip on the hilt of the blade on his shoulder as the cold medal dug just a tiny bit deeper in to his shoulder.
His thoughts disperse yet again as the girl diverted the path they had been travelling, moving towards the edge of the city instead of the interior they’d been covering. He gnawed the inside of his cheek as he studied both the new scenery and the ninja for once, taking in both with mild curiosity. Her named had been mentioned when they were both assigned together,  yet he had never been one for being a peoples man. He tapped the metal of his weapon as the pace slowed at the approaching of the building, finally remembering with a grin what he’d been after.
Yuffie Kisaragi. That had been it.
A brow raised on his face, a storm of confusion forming at her question. Was she trying to make idle chit chat, or was she truly curious about such an.. odd question during a time like this? He finally removed the weight of the blade from his shoulder as they stopped, pressing the tip of the blade in to the ground as he leaned on it, his lips pursed before he spoke.
The pause that came afterward was short, and yet it felt ten times longer for the man. He couldn’t be as short and blunt as he wished to be, this girl did hold almost everything on the line for him, from his pay to his actual ability to get around the city, His foot tapped on the ground as he formed an appropriate response, before finally speaking again.
His statement dripped with the lack of knowledge in how to handle these circumstances, his eyes darting around the area before he finally grunted, giving in to his normal self before finally posing his last question.
“You gonna get that star ready? We’ve searched everywhere but here, and i’m beginning to think this wont end peacefully like I was told.”
