บท 435: Cid

(A.N. I'm trying something new by using first person point of views, so let me know what you think and please be patient if there are any slip ups.)

As morning dawned on Mount Gagazet, I arrived from Asora with Sephie, Yasaka and Sairaorg behind me. Their purpose was to help the Ronso move and get settled somewhere in Asora while I continued on my journey with Yuna, Rikku, and Paine.

Using the warp panels that were located all over the mountain we quickly reached the snowy pass that would let us cross the mountain, and down into the holy land of Zanarkand. Seeing it spread out below us, I couldn't help but to mutter,

"It's even more amazing in person..."

The ruins of the once great city stretched out as far as the eye could see, the sheer majesty of the city persisting even after over a thousand years. All throughout it glowing Pyreflies danced through the ruined buildings, which were all that remained of the souls of those who once called Zanarkand home. Their only company was the numerous powerful fiends that roamed the streets, each one having fought the others for survival for over a thousand years.

Or at least that was how it was supposed to be.

"Are those....people down there...?" Rikku muttered in confusion, drawing our gazes to the numerous dots that were gathered at the entrance to the ruined city as well.

"That can't be...." Yuna uttered, her confusion evident on her face. Well, it wasn't like I couldn't understand why, Zanarkand was one of the most dangerous places in all of Spira.

What caught even me by surprise was when I felt the slight buildup of demonic power in Yuna's body, which indicated she was about to manifest her devil's wings and fly down there herself to see what was going on.

"Hold on there!" I said as I gently grabbed Yuna's wrist, preventing her from taking off all of a sudden by herself. When she whirled at me to demand why I was holding her back, I said placatingly,

"There's no need to rush off ahead by yourself, all of us should go together." Though she still looked as if she wanted to rush ahead, Yuna eventually nodded slowly to me as the demonic power I felt within her body began to die down.

"So how ARE we going to get down there? Don't tell me we're going to have to walk?!" Rikku exclaimed worriedly as she eyed the long and treacherous path ahead. I smirked though while looking around at all the snow around us, and said as if it were obvious,

"No, there's a much faster and more fun way down a snowy slope you know."

***

""KYAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!""

Yuna and Rikku both cried out fearfully as we raced down the snowy slope on a sheet of metal.

Sitting in the middle of it, I had Rikku and Yuna clinging to me on both sides fearfully as we soared at breakneck speeds, both seemingly trying to make me deaf as they screamed. Paine on the other hand was standing on the rapidly moving sled as cool as could be right behind me.

It's not like the situation was all that bad though, as each of my hands caressed their share of warm and soft skin, the one on the right slipped into Yuna's tight shorts and panties, and the one on the left up Rikku's skirt where my fingers played with the straps of her thong. Looking back at Paine, I said over the whipping wind,

"You know there's still room on my lap if you want to join us." Paine twitched her brows at me in annoyance before saying,

"Thanks, but I'd rather not."

"Suit yourself." I said with a shrug of my shoulders, only for something incredibly ridiculous to happen as we hit a bump.

"Wha-" Paine uttered as she lost her balance, and fell forward so that the crotch of her tight leather shorts landed right onto my nose and mouth.

'Well this is an interesting development...' I thought to myself, since I obviously couldn't speak with my mouth occupied.

With the swiftly moving sled under them on a sharp incline, Paine was unable to regain her previous balance even when she tried to use Yuna and Rikku for grip. Of course, it was even harder for Paine to regain her balance when my tongue traveled the length of her slit, which I was able to perfectly felt through the tight leather.

"N-no....d-don't..." Paine uttered, which was drowned out by the bloodcurdling screams of Yuna and Rikku.

And so we traveled down the snowy slope at breakneck speeds, my fingers playing with Yuna and Rikku, while my tongue toyed with Paine.

***

"NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!" Rikku shouted at me with a red face once the sled finally came to a stop at the very bottom of Mount Gagazet, just a short walk from the entrance to Zanarkand.

"Which part? Using the sled? Or playing with your ass and thong?"

"ALL OF IT!!!" Rikku shouted again, while Yuna tried to placate her and Paine looked away pointedly, trying to act as if she weren't embarrassed despite the fact that the tips of her ears were red.

Though it took a while, once Rikku finally settled down we began to head towards the area where we saw the people earlier. And as expected, there was quite the crowd.

"I'm so excited!"

"To think I'd actually get to see Zanarkand one day!

"And for only 300 Gil too! It's such a steal!"

As we made out way through the crowds of people such things could be heard, and with each one Yuna and Rikku appeared increasingly annoyed.

"What is this...?" Yuna growled as the realization that this place too had become a tourist stop, what was once the most sacred place in all of Spira.

"Who could have done this?" Rikku asked as we reached one spot in particular, the same exact place that they had stopped and made camp at two years ago.

"It's completely unrecognizable now...." Yuna continued as she looked at one place in particular, where someone was standing. I noticed that for the briefest of seconds there was a faraway look in Yuna's eyes, as if she were recalling something, when the person turned around suddenly and said,

"Yuna?" Coming out of her reverie, Yuna focused on the man who was approaching them and asked questioningly,

"Issaru?" The man, Issaru, approached them and said,

"It is an pleasure to see you again Lady Yuna, and I'm honored that you have remembered me." Yuna's only response was to chuckle awkwardly, while Rikku rolled her eyes.

'If I recall correctly Issaru is another Summoner that actually tried to fight Yuna because he thought she betrayed Yevon, though they were the ones who tried to silence her after she learned too much.' I thought to myself, but decided not to mention it since obviously no one else was going to.

"What are you doing here Issaru?" Yuna asked once the greetings were out of the way, to which the former Summoner said,

"I'm here to help Cid with his work." Issaru then looked towards the ruins with a gaze full of awe, before continuing,

"I too once dreamed of seeing this place, and with my work I can help others see the majesty and mysticism of Spira's most sacred place." As he said that Issaru gestured to the hundreds of people who had gathered, missing the obvious annoyance in Yuna's eyes.

"I'm sorry to cut our reunion short, but I have to get to work now. I hope to see you later Lady Yuna." Without giving any of us a chance to respond to anything he said, Issaru walked away as he headed towards the city itself.

"What is pops thinking!?" Rikku exclaimed once Issaru was out of earshot, referring to her and Brother's father, Cid.

"Who knows, maybe we should go ask him ourselves." Paine replied as she began to walk towards the ruins. Yuna however stood in place, seemingly trying to digest all of this until I put my hand on her shoulder,

"Come on, let's go." Yuna looked up at me from the contact, a determined look in her eyes as she nodded in affirmation. We then followed after Paine with Rikku hurrying alongside us.

...

As we wandered through the ruined streets of Zanarkand, all that was noticeable for as far as the eye could see was and endless sea of rubble and Pyreflies. It would have truly been a mesmerizingly sight, if not for the hundreds of people that were digging through said rubble without a single care for the damage they were causing at the same time.

"Looks like sphere hunters from all over Spira are here." Paine said as one of the group's celebrated from uncovering a sphere from some of the rubble. When we looked at the group celebrating though, Yuna uttered with confusion,

"Pacce?" Hearing his name, one of the three kids halted their celebration to look at us, before his face lit up in excitement.

"Lady Yuna!" The trio of children quickly rushed us as they gathered around Yuna, where their leader, Pacce, happily introduced his friends Hana and Taro.

"We're Sphere Hunters!" He then declared proudly, before striking a pose and declaring with one of his friends,

""THE KINDERGUARDIANS!""

"The Kinderguardians!"

The third one declared as she posed a moment too late, making the image more comical than serious as Rikku noticeably fought the urge to laugh out loud. Yuna however appeared concerned for them as she said,

"But aren't you all worried about the powerful fiends around here?" Pacce puffed up his chest proudly as he declared,

"It's alright Lady Yuna, our new friends will protect us!

"..."

Dead silence met Pacce's declaration as the three Gullwings looked around, before Yuna asked,

"What friends?" Rikku however quickly pulled on Yuna's shirt and whispered in her ear,

"Yunie! You should be more delicate since they're probably imaginary!" Pacce however heard this and angrily stated,

"They're not imaginary! They just went out to explore more of Zanarkand by themselves since they haven't joined the Kinderguardians yet!" Rikku however didn't appear to believe him, and was about to say something to Pacce when I put my hand on her shoulder and finally said,

"Wait a second Rikku." Though she looked at me curiously, the three Gullwings suddenly became alert when they felt the ground shudder beneath our feet.

"What was that?!" Rikku exclaimed in surprise, while Paine immediately readied her sword and pointed it in a certain direction.

"It comes!" She declared as her eyes just barely made out a giant figure moving within the debris.

At her lead, both Yuna and Rikku were similarly on their guard as they summoned their weapons to prepare for battle, the two of them knowing all too well how powerful the fiends in Zanarkand were. I however was completely relaxed as I gently pushed Paine's sword aside with a finger and said,

"Hold on there, that fiend has some other company with it." The three of them looked at me with confusion from my statement, until the large figure suddenly leapt up and sailed over us, before landing with a crash that kicked up a giant cloud of dust.

"DADDY!" A shrill voice suddenly cried out, before several figures flew out of the cloud of dust and into my arms, where they snuggled up against me happily.

"My monkeys! How is your adventure going?" I asked as if I wasn't receiving regular reports from Sun, which then prompted a tidal wave of shouting as each of the children tried telling me of the adventures they had since leaving Luca.

"I fought against soooooo many fiends papa!"

"We saw this huuuuuuuuge waterfall!"

"Alec and Myuu dove to the bottom of a giant river! There were even buildings in it!"

On and on the children bombarded me with info about their travels, while Yuna, Paine, and Rikku loosened the tensions in their bodies before recalling the hulking fiend from before. Edith then seemed to recall something as she pulled me towards the fiend and said,

"Daddy! We found a puppy while we were traveling! Can we keep it?! Can we? Can we? Can we?" Looking up at this 'puppy', I couldn't help but chuckle wryly as Sun left THIS out of her reports.

The 'puppy' was a massive fiend that was standing on all four of its legs as it anxiously watched us. It was covered in a thick layer of dark purple fur, that still wasn't thick enough to hide it's rippling muscles, while a long plume of yellow hair stuck up from it's brow, all the way down to its tail and even on the underside of it. On each side of its ferocious looking face was a pair of massive horns promised death to any unfortunate enough to find themselves on the other end of them, while a line of long spikes covered its shoulder blades.

He fiend was none other than the Behemoth, one of the most powerful fiends in all of Spira.

"We call him Spike because of all his spikes!" Edith supplied happily as if it would help their case in getting me to let them keep it. As she approached it though, 'Spike' cowered and shied away from Edith's presence, making me wonder what exactly she did to make it so docile.

Instead of dwelling on it though I stroked my chin and made an expression as if I was thinking, making each of the children practically hold their breath as they awaited my answer, until I finally said,

"Are you sure? Keeping a pet is a lot of responsibility. You'll have to feed him, walk him, and clean up after him every day." Not just Edith, but all of the children nodded excitedly while they chanted,

"""We will! We will! We will!"""

I then made a show of throwing my hands up into the air as if I had no choice, and said,

"Ok then, he's ALL of yours to take care of then."

"""YAAAAAAY!!!"""

The children all cried out with joy as they rushed me for another round of hugs, while the behemoth, Spike, looked resigned to the fact that, instead of one of the most powerful and feared fiends in all of Spira, he would spend the rest of his days as a children's pet. Taking another look at him though, I realized that it would be inconvenient to have such a large animal living in the Misty Manor.

So, I then turned my back to everyone and took several materials out my personal storages. I may not be the craftsman that Hajime is, but I can still make some pretty impressive things if I put my mind to it.

This however was a fairly simple item to make, as I used Creation magic to mold the materials to my liking and to infuse it with both Spirit and Alteration magics. Once I finished making my creation, I turned back around and held it up for everyone to see, making the children cheer while Spike audibly groaned in despair.

"Here's a new collar for Spike, with a set of tags and everything for him! Go ahead and put it on him Edith." Practically snatching the collar from my hands, which was mostly a chain, Edith flew up to spikes neck and looped it around him. The second that the collar was fastened around him though, Spike began to shrink at a rapid pace until finally he was about the size of your average terrier, and his shoulder spikes had disappeared while his horns were little more than rounded nubs.

"Spike shrunk!" Anna cried out in alarm, to which I explained,

"Don't worry, I just made it so that he could fit in our house better. After all, you wouldn't want Spike to crush all of the furniture in the house now, would you?" As if they just now realized that Spike indeed would have been too big for the Misty Manor,the children calmed down while Edith ran up and to me for one biiiiiiiiiiiig hug as she said,

"Thank you daddy!" Smiling warmly, I reached down and patted the top of my daughter's head with affection, which of course brought the rest of them to me for more attention as well while Spike proceeded to fall over as he tried to adjust to his new size.

...

After the reunion with my children I ended up sending them home so they could show Spike the manor, and properly get some rest after traveling for the past several days. Of course I sent Pacce and his friends with them as well, as the only other options would have been to use Spatial magic to wither send them back to Luca, or leave them alone in the dangerous and fiend infested Zanarkand.

With all that done, Yuna and Rikku led the way further into the ruins as we headed for the place where Cid was apparently running his business.

Eventually we came upon a series of ruins that were larger and more intact than the rest, which was all that remained of Zanarkand's Blitzball stadium. There we found a higher concentration of people as they all searched for ancient treasures and goodies, which they could acquire hints to find after paying a small sum to Cid and his employees.

As for the man himself, Cid was staying at the highest point in the stadium that had been reinforced to act as a 'base of operations' of sort, which was also where the majority of the money they'd made was kept. And when we approached him the man immediately focused on us before loudly declaring,

"WELL I'LL BE! IF IT ISN'T YUNA! Come to buy a clue from uncle Cid?" Grinning ear to ear from seeing Yuna, Cid was completely bald with the only hair on his head being his black eyebrows, and the goatee on his chin. Like all Al Bhed he had spiral green eyes and wore a jumpsuit, though curiously he had the word 'Love' tattooed on the side of his head.

"FRED TU OUI DREHG OUI'NA TUEHK(what do you think you're doing)!?" Rikku suddenly shouted at him in Al Bhed, making Cid look at us funny as he asked,

"What's wrong?" Rikku grew increasingly agitated as she practically shouted at him,

"Hello? Making this place a 'gift shop'? It's like if we made a theme park of Home!" Though Home was already repaired, Cid obviously knew what Rikku was referring to as he adopted a serious expression and said,

"I see your point..." He then looked at Yuna and asked her,

"Do you have a problem with what I'm doing Yuna?" Yuna took a deep breath before looking her uncle in the eye, and saying,

"It isn't right."

"..."

"I see..." Cid said after a moment, though I was sure I saw a bit of a shimmer in his eye from what Yuna said to him(A.N.in the game if you tell Cid this you literally find him balling his eyes out later because Yuna told him off).

Only then did Cid turn his attention towards me, seemingly just to find something else to focus on so he didn't lose it in front of Yuna and Rikku, and asked,

"And who are you?" For a moment I didn't reply, instead I slowly looked towards Rikku suggestively before a smile broke out on my face. Meanwhile Rikku's expression turned to horror as she realized that I must've been planning something, but before she could react I took her into my arms right in front of her father and said,

"While not quite yet, I'm the man who'll be banging your daughter in the near future." If she appeared horrified before, Rikku's current expression would've made someone feel like the world was ending as she promptly tried to hide her face from everyone around them. I then kissed the top of Rikku's head affectionately, effectively putting a cherry on top of the image we'd created as Rikku's still visible ears turned red.

"Is that so..." Cid said slowly in a low voice, his expression darkening as several of the employees around them took cover to avoid the worst of it when Cid naturally blew his top. Even Yuna took cover as she hid directly behind me while Rikku just wanted to crawl into a hole, before Cid suddenly shouted,

"THATS FANTASTIC! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Naturally everyone looked up in surprise at his reaction, while even Rikku peaked out cautiously before her father continued,

"I was getting worried there for a bit! Gallivanting all over Spira with all this 'Sphere Hunter' nonsense, I was beginning to think you'd never properly find a husband Rikku! Now we just have to find little Yuna a good man, and the two of you'll be all set!" Cid then began to laugh boisterously at the 'good' news while everyone just gaped at him, until I said while pulling Yuna in close on the other side,

"Actually Yuna is technically already my wife. We just haven't had a ceremony yet." Naturally everything seemed to ground to a complete halt when I said that, while Cid then uttered "Huh?"

He then looked between both Yuna and Rikku, who were both wrapped in my arms, before looking back directly at my face and asking,

"And who do you think you are to think you can just waltz in here and claim both my niece and daughter?" Contrary to when I said I was taking his daughter, Cid's mood completely flipped when I said I had already taken Yuna for myself, as the leader of all the Al Bhed in Spira sized me up.

"Well....." I began slowly as if I was thinking of how to answer.

"I am the Emperor of Asora and another world, while I also control an entire nation in a second world. Not to mention that I'm pretty much an actual God." When he heard that Cid narrowed his eyes while never taking them off of me as he took a step closer, before asking,

"You're an actual emperor?"

"Yep, I even announced myself to Spira not too long ago during a broadcast in Luca. Don't worry though, Yuna and Rikku have already met several of my other wives and I'm pretty sure they'll all get along well in the future."

"I see...." Cid said before either girl could remark abut anything I was saying, as he took another step towards me so that we were now standing directly in front of one another.

"WELCOME TO THE FAMILY SON! CALL ME POPS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Cid then began laughing the hardest I'd heard yet while simultaneously clapping me on the shoulder, confusing a good many people around us as he readily accepted both Yuna and Rikku becoming my wives. Rikku however had completely forgotten to be embarrassed or to argue about becoming mine, as she instead gaped at her father for readily accepting the situation.