FINAL FANTASY XIII: Reminiscence Tracer Of The Memories

C9: Breathless (Caius Ballad)

Translation credits to Galvea@GameFAQs.

CHAPTER 9: BREATHLESS
Whenever the wind dies down, an unpleasant smell assaults my nostrils. It’s the smell of something burning…

The smell of cooking or a bonfire would be nice, relaxing, but this smell in the air only sickens me. It’s the smell you get when things you should and shouldn’t burn are made to burn together, all the same, and it comes as an attack to the very back of my nose. And there’s the smell of dust and sweat in the mix too.

I try to see what’s burning, but I don’t find any likely fires around me. I think the smell must have been carried here by the winds, from far away, but just as I’m thinking that it dawns on me. What an idiot I am. The smell is coming from me. The smell of smoke has seeped into my hair and clothes. It must have gotten all over me when I passed the barricade on the corner of the street, just a moment ago. The militia holed up in the barricade had been burning scraps of old tire and assorted trash in steel drums. A makeshift smoke-screen.

Just a few months ago, this was a sleepy, out-of-the-way town. Now it’s a complete battlefield. Gunshots, explosions, howls of outrage and screams echo through these old brick streets. And those aren’t exclusive to this town, either. All the neighbouring provinces, too, have turned into a battleground for violence.

This country currently lies divided by a civil war. It started with a relatively peaceful demonstration, but there was a violent crackdown, blood was shed, and that angered the people, turned them into a rioting mob. The government tried to subdue the people with force, but a part of the military sided with the citizens, turned on the government instead. Eventually the banners of revolution were flown, there was a coup d’etat, and the reins of power changed hands; and this time, the new authority began to crack down on their predecessors. Ethnic feuds from long ago, old hatchets that should have been buried, were dug up, sparks of conflict flew everywhere, people died in accidental skirmishes which then became an all out war, armed forces were deployed from other countries on the sly, adding fuel to fire – it was a domino effect arranged by the devil himself, and things got progressively worse until finally, everyone’s stuck in this quicksand, a civil war going nowhere. There are so many forces in play here you’d be hard put to tell friend from foe. Nobody knows where the next bullet is going to come from.

This is the sort of battlefield I’m reporting from. And I chose to come here of my own free will.

I’m staring straight in the face of reality, of the truth behind “this world”.

It’s been half a year since the end of my journey.

I wasn’t able to meet Lightning in the end, but I found out the whole story about “that other world” from Hope Estheim; he told me everything in his second interview.

The story of Lightning’s return, her 13 days before the end of the world – the liberation of souls, the battle with God, and our rebirth in a new world. Lightning and her friends fought for us when “that other world” ended, and thanks to them we were reborn into “this world”.

This should have been a new world filled with hope.

But what’s really going on here in “this world”?

I don’t know anymore. I’ve seen too many terrible things on the battlefields.

Lightning and her friends defeated Bhunivelze, the God of Light. They ended the age of God’s reign over mankind, and gifted us with a new world where we can be free. They did all that for us, but look at us now. In a world without God, humans have taken to killing each other. What did they fight for? What was the point? Or is this depressing world exactly what we deserve? Humans are foolish and driven by greed, and this world, this mess of hatred and strife – is this the world tailor-made for humanity?