On the Way to a Smile

On the Way to a Smile is a small series of novellas taking place between the time of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Written by Kazushige Nojima, the first story, Case of Denzel, was released in episodes on the official Japanese Advent Children website, and was released together with Case of Tifa in V-Jump's Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Prologue book. Case of Barret was released exclusively in English, with the North American and European limited edition box set of Advent Children. At TGS 2008, it was announced that Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete would include the collected stories of On the Way to a Smile in book format, with the Japanese version of Case of Barret, as well as three new stories: Case of Yuffie, Case of the Turks, and Case of Red XIII.

Case of Denzel
Thia novella is told indirectly through the perspective of Denzel, the young orphan featured in Advent Children. Four years after Meteor fell on Midgar, the new city of Edge, where Johnny has opened a bar modeled after Tifa's. A narration of the city structure of Midgar and Edge follows, with Johnny thinking he loves and admires Tifa for having the strength to open a new bar after the destruction of Sector 7. One day, Denzel comes to the bar, and meets with Reeve Tuesti. Johnny leaves to serve Reeve, and Reeve mentions Denzel has requested Reeve let him join the World Regenesis Organization. Denzel proceeds to tell Reeve about his life prior to the fall of Meteor.

Before the fall of Meteor, Denzel lived a life above the Sector 7 plate with his parents, who work for Shin-Ra. Denzel's father Eber aims to move his family into a more luxurious sector, perhaps Sector 3, and following his promotion at Shin-Ra relays to a disgusted Denzel the poor quality of life in the Slums below. Denzel also remembers a lesson his mother Chloe taught him; that life is nothing without smiles. The next day, Eber attempts to evacuate Chloe and Denzel before the pillar supporting the plate is destroyed. Chloe rushes to warn their friends, and Eber goes back to save her while handing Denzel to a Shin-Ra employee named Arkham to be taken to safety. At his father's new residence in Sector 5, Denzel watches on the news as Sector 7 is destroyed. Denzel rushes to the edge of Sector 6, where a soldier tells him to remember it was the work of AVALANCHE.

The following day, Denzel awakens to find Arkham has left for work, and attempts to find friends of his parents in Sector 5. His search fails as everyone there is at work, and then gets lost in the streets. Frustrated, Denzel throws a model of an airship through a window, proclaiming he hates everyone. The owner Ruvi comes out and noticing Denzel is crying, invites him inside. Ruvi comforts Denzel and helps him find his way back home. Denzel subsequently begins to help Ruvi around the house, and the two read to fall asleep. Ruvi shows Denzel a book of monsters, and Denzel wonders if he could fight one of them, if he met one. In the present, Johnny comes back and remarks that Denzel's hankerchief looks like a girl's. He replies "it is", and tells of the day Ruvi made him the hankerchief and a matching shirt, then took him outside to show him Meteor in the sky. Ruvi tells Denzel she plans to stay there, and Denzel stays with her.

The Sister Ray is moved to Midgar, and is destroyed with the rest of Shin-Ra. Finally, on the day Meteor is to fall, the Lifestream emerges to push it back and destroy it with the help of Holy. Denzel awakens during this, and Ruvi forces him to take shelter as the Lifestream destroys her home, a beam of light from it striking Ruvi and knocking Denzel unconcious. When Denzel awakens the next morning, Ruvi is dead, a black substance leaking from her mouth, and Denzel leaves Midgar with a band of survivors led by a man named Gaskin. On the way to the Slums, Denzel rescues a child whose clothing is stained with the same black substance - no one helps him, claiming "he's contagious". However, the child dies as Denzel tries to comfort him. In the present, Denzel tells Reeve that back then, no one understood the black substance was Geostigma.

Denzel and the other survivors live in the Slums from then on with Gaskin. A man comes one day scavenging for machinery pieces, offering food to any child who helps - the materials are going to build the new city of Edge. Gaskin gathers the survivors eventually and tells them they're going to help build Edge, and reveals he has contracted Geostigma as well. He dies a month later. The adults move on but the children stay, content to be surviving on their own. One by one the children also leave, until only Denzel and a boy named Rick remain. Low on money, Denzel suggests they eat rats rather than go to Edge, since his father told him they did so in the Slums. Rick bitterly tells Denzel he used to live in the Slums, and the rats are inedible due to the polluted water from the plate. Rick leaves Denzel alone, and Denzel attempts to survive by himself. He eventually goes to the Sector 5 Church, where he finds Cloud's motorcycle and uses his cellphone. Tifa answers, and Denzel faints, noticing a black substance on his forehead.

In the present, Denzel tells Reeve he only survived thanks to others, and wants to be the type of person they are, which is why he wants to join the WRO. Reeve tells him children are no longer allowed and leaves, thanking him for taking care of his mother. The story ends as Denzel thinks that everyone, including children, can be strong,

Case of Tifa
This novella consists of Tifa's account of the events following Meteor's destruction, overlapping in part with Denzel's story. As the story begins, Tifa is living with Marlene and Denzel and thinks that Marlene has become her daughter now, with Barret on a journey to settle his past. Marlene remarks the she knows Tifa is lonely, and Tifa wonders how Cloud is doing, having since left them and not come back in a while. The next part of the story re-tells Tifa and AVALANCHE's crusade against Shin-Ra, and their battle with Sephiroth and Aeris' sacrifice to summon Holy. Tifa then reflects on when Sephiroth destroyed Nibelheim, and her personal vendettas with him and Shin-Ra that motivated her to fight. Finally, Tifa thinks back on the day Meteor fell, and Cloud remarked that the only way he would be forgiven was to start a new life, which he can do with Tifa.

The party members of VII go their seperate ways afterwards, except for Barret, Cloud and Tifa, who return to their respective hometowns Corel and Nibelheim, then to Kalm where Elmyra Gainsborough has been taking care of Marlene. The town has become a refuge for the survivors of Midgar's destruction, and the four of them return to Midgar where the other survivors are rebuilding. Tifa thinks back to her wish that Meteor would wash away her sins while a part of AVALANCHE, and both Cloud and Barret agree she'll find her own way to atone. One day, Barret retrieves a variety of fruits and uses them to make alcohol, and remarks they could sell it, as with so many problems in the world another bar would be a profitable venture. Tifa agrees to manage the new bar, if only to keep herself busy.

At this time Edge is being built, and the three agree to open the bar there. After building the bar and collecting the ingredients for the alcohol, the three can't decide on a name for it. Marlene remarks she still likes "Seventh Heaven", and while it reminds Tifa of the past, she agrees and the bar is named and opened and becomes a success. Cloud becomes the person to go find the alcohol ingredients they need while Tifa and Marlene run the bar and Barret goes off on a journey to settle his past (see below). Tifa thinks that the three of them left, her, Marlene and Cloud, became a family. Several months later, Cloud has acquired his motorcycle Fenrir to help his trips, and when he leaves without warning one day Tifa asks him why; Cloud admits that he's been making deliveries for people on the side between towns while he was out finding ingredients for the bar. Although embarassed, Tifa is happy he's doing something he likes and thinks she feels for him as a mother would.

Marlene and Tifa suggest he open an official business, and Cloud hesitantly accepts, leading to the Strife Delivery Service. Due to the monsters still around that make travel dangerous, the business becomes a success, but life at the bar changes. Cloud is almost always gone making deliveries, and while Tifa's attempts to keep them together fall short, Marlene notices a change in Cloud. Tifa cleans Cloud's office/room one day, and notices a bouqet of flowers from Elmyra to be delivered to the Forgotten Capital. That night after the bar is closed, Cloud drinks even though he rarely does, and when Tifa attempts to talk to him about the bouqet he hasn't delivered yet, Cloud refuses to speak to her. Claiming he wants to be alone, a frustrated Tifa tells him to drink in his room. Barret's telephone calls to Marlene attract Tifa's attention to what their strained relationship is doing to Marlene, and Tifa and Cloud come to a silent agreement to put up a happy front around her. It works at first, but Tifa is still concerned over what she wants to say to him that she can't. She goes to see Cloud as he sleeps one night, and asks him if he loves her as he wakes up. Cloud doesn't respond but for a dubious look, and Tifa says that she and Marlene must not be enough for him, if he still can't approach them after all this time.

Shortly after this, Cloud brings Denzel to the bar, telling Tifa he came to "his place". Tifa finds out Denzel was a victim of the destruction of Sector 7, making her feel obligated to take care of him. Cloud and Marlene agree, and Denzel begins to live in the bar with them. Cloud stays at the bar more often to be with Denzel, who looks up to Cloud, but Denzel is distant towards Tifa. The four of them continue to live as a family despite Tifa's reservations, and one night she speaks to Cloud, asking if whatever problem he had was solved. Cloud admits it wasn't, as "you can't reclaim lost lives", and then reveals he'd been staying at the Sector 5 Church when he found Denzel. Tifa smiles and says that Aeris had brought him to both of them, not just him. Cloud smiles back at her.

Several days after that conversation, Cloud leaves, and Tifa wonders if that smile he had previously was just for show. She attempts to call him on his cellphone, but it switches to the messaging service.

Case of Barret
Released with the North American and European limited edition box set of Advent Children, was a third On the Way to a Smile story. Centering on Barret, the novella opens as Barret travels the world, having left Marlene with Tifa and Cloud. Barret thinks that the Mako Reactors no longer work around the world, and thinks about his isolation due to his Gun-Arm. Barret thinks to a time when he accidentally bumped and hurt a child in Junon, and his mother pleaded for mercy from him while staring at the arm. In a flashback, Barret's early prosthetics after his initial injury fail to appease him, and his doctor Sakaki tells him that due to his hatred of Shin-Ra, nothing he attaches will do for him. Sakaki finally gives him a universal attachment so he can attach whatever he pleases, including weapons. Barret subsequently attaches any weapon he can.

In the present, Barret returns to Sakaki and requests a new attachment, with a hand, so he can live a normal life. While Sakaki prepares the new prosthetic, Barret helps his nephew with maintaining his car in his work. Barret uses the time to contemplate what to do with his life, and asks the nephew. The nephew tells him to find his own way, perhaps by finding the monster dens and destroying them. When a monster attacks, Barret kills it using his Gun-Arm, horrifying the nephew. Barret remarks the monster den may be inside him. At their destination, Barret thinks that the lack of Mako energy is forcing people to use manual labor without a reliable source of energy. At the village, an old man begs them to take his daugher, who has Geostigma, to Midgar - she dies before they can accept her, angering Barret further at their helplessness. The father says during her burial that even if treatment for Geostigma is found, without an airship no one could get to the cure in time.

Meanwhile, in a desert east of Rocket Town, an oil refinery has been built. Shera, who has also contracted Geostigma, is overseeing the drilling, which is going poorly. Barret goes to Rocket Town, and meets a crew member from the Highwind, who takes him to see Cid. Cid is busy building the Shera, his new airship, but it lacks a reliable engine. Barret and Cid catch up on the other party members, and Barret suggests using Mako for the airship, just enough to help the people who need it. When Cid points out this is a bad idea, Barret becomes enraged again and fires his Gun-Arm into the air, asking Cid how he is supposed to fix his past mistakes when he's unsure of which choices he made were the wrong ones.

Cid tells Barret that no one will use Mako anymore because everyone knows what it did to the Lifestream, and no one will restart the reactors after the Lifestream saved them from Meteor. Furthermore, according to Red XIII, the Lifestream's flow no longer makes contact with the abandoned reactors even if they wanted to use them. Cid tells Barret about oil, and that it was originally being developed as a fuel until Mako was discovered. Cid and his workers rediscovered the oil field near Rocket Town and reactivated the refinery, and are working to manufacture jet fuel for the airship. The two go to see Shera, who tell them they have enough oil for a test flight, assuming the engine works, but they need a better field.

As the novella ends, Barret returns to Sakaki, who presents him with his new prosthetic steel hand. Barret attaches it and sets out to find a new oil field, thinking of using his new hand to send a letter to Marlene, but decides to write and deliver it in person.

Trivia
Case of Barret complements information found in Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-. A man named Sakaki worked on the design of Barret's gun-arm in the novella, and Dirge of Cerberus adds that Shalua Rui also did. Cid has work done on his new airship in Case of Barret, while Dirge of Cerberus reveals that it was originally built by an ancient race before Cid discovered it.

On the Way to a Smile