Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 3: Pursuit

FORTY-EIGHT

Godo Kisaragi's estate was large, decorated with lush gardens, and patrolled by Wutaian soldiers in Shinra uniforms. They walked around with their eyes wary and looked more like they were keeping him from going outside than letting anyone in. Given everything we'd learned so far from Yuffie and Gorki about the situation, I was sure they were. Or at least that they thought they were. Gorki's comment about how Godo wasn't as imprisoned as he made himself out to be made me wonder if there was more going on here than it seemed.

Tifa led the way to the front door of the main building, with Jessie, Cid, Vincent, and I right behind her. There were two soldiers standing guard there, one on either side of the wide screen door, and they stared suspiciously at us as we approached. Their blades were sheathed at the moment, but their hands stayed close to them.

"You can't enter," one of them said. "Lord Godo is currently under house arrest and may not have any visitors."

Tifa showed them the gold token Master Gorki had given her. "Let us in. Unless you'd rather face down one of the Wusheng. I'm sure that would go over really well with your superiors at Shinra. If you recover, that is. Now either you move or I'll move you."

The guards exchanged a surprised look, then stood aside and let us in. Inside, the rooms were all divided by large screens instead of walls, and the hardwood floors were covered with soft rugs. We followed the single narrow hall around a corner, passing rooms as we went. None of them were occupied, but we saw what looked like a study and a library of some kind. At the far end of the hall there was a large bedroom, and it wasn't empty. A man was laying tiredly on the bed, which was more a soft mat and cushions than a mattress and frame. He glanced warily at us as we walked in but didn't get up to meet us.

"What do you want?" he grumbled. "I don't have much, but Gorki sent word to expect visitors. If you need somewhere to rest, you can do so here. As you've probably guessed, I am Godo."

"Yuffie's father?" Tifa asked.

He waved us off. "Never heard of her."

"You sure about that?" I frowned.

"I said I don't know her!" Godo insisted, sitting up. "There's no one here in Wutai with that name! No one at all!"

Then he stood up and faced us. He was a tall, broad man in a black gi and belt with a white long-sleeved tunic underneath it. His long hair and neatly-trimmed goatee were as dark as the eyes that looked warily at us. He folded his arms behind his back, then let out a long, tired sigh and began pacing. He was lying about Yuffie, but why?

"There have been a lot of Shinra soldiers here lately," he said. "And too many of my own people are among them."

"We noticed that," I agreed. "Things are tense."

Godo nodded. "To put it mildly. And on top of that, many women have gone missing lately. Young, mostly. Usually two or three a night. I do not know who is responsible for this. And I can do nothing about it so long as I am in this cage. One of my own making..."

"You said women have been disappearing?" Jessie frowned darkly. "How long has this been going on for?"

"Perhaps three months," Godo answered.

She clenched her fist and looked at us. "The timing fits, guys. He's here... that son of a bitch. It's gotta be him."

I blinked. "Corneo?"

"Who's that?" Cid wondered.

"A lowlife crime lord we ran into back in Midgar," Jessie explained, her eyes blazing. "That sick bastard preys on women and feeds them to his pet monsters when he's had his way with them."