Final Fantasy Eight Chronicles – Zell
On the tiny island of Balamb, just east of Galbadia and south of Trabia, there is an installation called Garden. Within this installation, children, from the ages of five to twenty, are trained in the use of paramagic – the ability to draw magical properties from monsters and use those properties in an elemental way.
This is also the place where SEED – a special, international mercenary agency, is run from. These children, the best of these children, are selected from the crowd and placed in the ranks of glory. SEED, famous for their precision attacks, their skilful manuvours, their unabiding strength and determination.
One of the most famous SEEDs is a teenager. Barely seventeen when he asatained SEEDship, his first mission had been to help a group of rebels, the Timber Owls, to regain Timber's individuality once more. He had help from some other SEEDs, but on the whole, his mission got sidetracked when a greater destiny was given to him.
* * *
There is a boy. About six feet tall, dressed in blue shorts and a short sleeved jacket, he trains in the Training Area. His spiky blond hair is the only give away that he is present.
Surrounded by ferns and trees, the boy sits, patiently, waiting for something to come to him. It was better to wait, he found, as it gave you time to gather your strength in order to defeat the next opponant.
A Grat, a monster with poisonous properties, comes from the left; it's large bulbous tentacles swaying high above its fat body. A T-Rexuar, a high-level monster, comes in from the right, the big dinosaur roaring it's defiance to the world from having lived so long.
It's prayers will be answered soon.
The boy stood, rolling his shoulders back. He cracked his knuckles, shaking his gloved hands to loosen them, giving the air a few swift punches. He rolled his head to the side, then to the other, loosening the muscles in his neck. He then crossed his arms, thinking.
Should he go for the T-Rexaur first, or the Grat? He wouldn't like to be put to sleep again by a Grat, but it's a little dangerous to have a T-Rexaur behind your back whilst you're fighting.
He smiled, and took his position.
* * *
The door for the infirmary rolled open, and Zell limped out, his right arm in a sling, his left leg being supported by crutches.
His ears still stang from the verbal beating that he had received from Dr. Kadowaki.
Next time, young man, train with a partner! And stop thinking you can take more then one T-Rexaur at a time, by yourself!!
He grimaced as he hobbled down the corridor, the sparkling gold lacing around the railings, the large bubbling fountain in the centre of the area helping his headache. Eat now, heal later. He thought to himself, as he managed to squeeze past two girls standing just outside the Cafeteria entrance.
He stopped cold.
A line snaked it's way from the cafeteria's ordering desks all the way past the tables in the back to the cafeteria entrance. It would take him at least half the day just to get to the ordering area, and by that time his favourite food – hotdogs! – would have been well and truly depleted.
He hung his head in shame and depression, his day not seeming to get any better. He raised his hand to scratch the back of his neck, but remembered too late that it was the one supporting his crutch, and he slid to the side and met the floor.
"Aiyaa…" he muttered. "Why does this happen to me?"
"Zell!" A girl called, and a pair of petite hands rolled him over. He looked up at the calming eyes of Selphie, the clear green turning from shock to confused worry. "What are you lying on the floor for?" she asked innocently.
Zell simply looked up at her. Selphie wasn't known for her brains, and when she did use them it was a shining moment. But most of her life passed her by in a myriad of trains and chocobos. She was obviously too caught up in something else to see his bandages. "Nothing, Selph. I'm…" he thought for something to say, to regain some of his lost dignity. "I'm…I'm just looking for…my crutch! Yeah, that'll do…"
Great save, moron. His mind screamed.
"Oh, ok!" Selphie said brightly, jumping to her feet. "Do you want a hand?"
"Yeah, if that's alright…"
Selphie helped him up, her flimsy frame covering her rather large strength. Her weapon of choice, the nunchaku, wasn't known for strength – but she could swing them for all she was worth. "Here, I saved a seat for you!" she squealed, dragging him to a chair and dumping him unceremoniously and painfully.
"Thanks…" he muttered ungratefully, before looking down at the plate before him, his eyes widening and watering at the same time.
On the plate were three steaming, mustard and tomato sauce hotdogs.
He looked up at Selphie with tear filled eyes, his mouth opening but his brain so relieved and grateful that it couldn't process words. She smiled sweetly and leaned forward with her hands clasped behind her back. "You don't have to say anything!" she whispered, her smile seeming to widen with each word.
He nodded like a mad man, his mouth already filled with rich, hot, swimming in sauce goodness. He watched her wander off into the crowd, before wolfing down the rest of the hotdog in one gulp. The taste was exquisite, the sausage cooked to perfection, the sauces just the right consistency and texture, the bun soft and supple like a woman's thigh.
He was halfway through his second one when someone slapped him on the back. "Zell!! How are ya?!" Yelled Irvine, dumping himself into the chair next to Zell's battered frame. His weapon, a large double barrel shotgun, clattered noisily onto the table, landing dangerously close to Zell's remaining hotdogs. It was not allowed to have weapons inside the cafeteria – but people tended to let Irvine have his way. "Hey, have you seen Selphie? I've been looking for her all day, but so far no luck."
"Yeessh, I hvffnp szzn hrrr."
"Dude, that's disgusting. Chew and swallow, hey?"
Chew, chew, chew, gulp. "Yeah, I saw her." He said, spraying Irvine with half chewed hotdog. "She went off just a little while ago."
"Oh…ok…well, have you seen Quistis then?"
"I think she's marking report papers in her room. If I was you, I wouldn't disturb her."
Irvine stood suddenly, dragging the large shotgun to his shoulder. "Oh, come on. I'll just walk in there, acting all serene and things, and say 'Hey baby, put away the books and have some fun for a change'." He did a little spin. "Then I'll whisk her away for a day of fun and a night of foolin' around!"
Zell swallowed once more as a large figure loomed up behind the dancing Irvine, and a black-gloved hand closed over his shoulder. Irvine stopped suddenly, jerking at the suddenly physical contact, even in the crowded cafeteria. His finger jumped on the trigger of his gun, discharging both barrels, blowing a peppered hole in the roof of the cafeteria.
Zell continued to chew his hotdog thoughtfully, as if nothing happened, as every other person in the cafeteria ducked for cover, some girls and guys screaming. After a few seconds of nothing happening, the all stood and stared lasers at Irvine, who was holding his head in agony, the gun discharging beside his head wrecking havoc on his eardrums.
"That," A cold voice said, removing the gun from Irvines hand and opening the breech, catching the empty shells in one hand as they were ejected, "Is why we don't allow weaponry in the cafeteria."
Squall placed the empty weapon and the empty shells in the still stunned Irvine's hands and turned him toward the door, giving him a little push. Irvine tottered off, oblivious of all the evils people were giving him.
Squall then sat heavily in Irvines chair, holding his head in his hands. He growled momentarily, before looking up at Zell, his usually cold features now pale. "You look like a Marlboro gave you a hug." He said coolly, a rare show of humour for Squall.
Zell, content with his hotdog, shrugged as much as his painful body would allow. "At least I don't look like you when Rinoa walked in on you naked." He muttered, swallowing the remnants of hotdog number two by tossing it in the air and catching it in his mouth, swallowing without chewing. "You're face was almost as pale as it is now."
Squall's face revelled in repose. "She didn't…I mean, it didn't happen that way…I mean…" He regained some dignity and composure, before leaning close and whispering conspiritally in Zells ear. "If you tell…"
Zell raised his unharmed hand, wiping mustard and tomato sause from his mouth before raising two fingers, held close together. "Hey, no word from me, Scouts honour."
Squall leant back in his chair with a relieved sigh, before frowning. "Hard to believe you were in the Balamb Scouts…"
Zell snorted. "Hard to believe you weren't." He leant back in his chair, allowing the two delicious gifts from heaven to settle in his stomach before devouring the third and final one. "So how's it going with Rinoa, anyways?"
Squall groaned and leant back in his chair, his head lolling back. "It's like a nightmare that I can't wake up from. It's like one of those assignments that you have to complete but you know it's going to be awful. It's like taking on the whole Galbadian army with nothing but a chocobo leg."
"Not very good, huh?"
"Not at all." Was the answer that Zell wasn't expecting. "It's…great, in fact. It's like I have a whole new experience whenever I see her next. Good or bad, it doesn't really matter that much anymore." Zell looked over at his friend, who was sitting upright now, looking into the distance and sighing thoughtfully.
"Ah. You like being surprised." Zell said with an air of knowledge.
"Exactly."
Zell looked past Squall shoulder, seeing the threat as it creeped up behind him. Zell toyed with the idea of warning Squall…but decided against it, picking up his final hotdog instead. If he likes being surprised, then let him be surprised.
Rinoa, dressed in her usual blue flowing coat and black sports-pants and top, crept up behind Squall, who was leaning forward to ask Zell something before being crash-tackled from his seat, taking the table with them.
Zell, in his usual it-got-nothin-to-do-with-me-pal attitude, simply caught his plate and hotdog as they sailed back into gravity's comfortable grip.
He tried to ignore the cutesy-poo greetings that Rinoa peppered Squall with, who tried unsuccessfully to asatain his cold, loner image in front of all the people in the cafeteria.
When they finally dragged themselves off the floor, Rinoa nodded a greeting to Zell. "Hiya Zell! Gee, it looks like you've just tangled with four T-rexaurs in a row!" she said sweetly. Zell smiled and shrugged.
"Well, it was actually two…I needed the x-p."
Squall and Rinoa simply stared at Zell, mouths gaping, before Rinao turned to Squall, her face set in a frown. "How come you can't take on two T-rexaurs?"
"At the same time." Zell interjected, enjoying the show of emotion that drained onto Squalls face.
"Well…I …I could…" Squall muttered, thoroughly cowed.
"All by myself, too." Zell interjected once more. He smiled as the daggers conveyed by Squalls eyes were diffused by Rinoas cry of jealousy.
"Ooo, no way! At the same time, all by yourself?!" Squall was suddenly yanked away from the over turned table by a determined Rinoa. "Come on, you! You've got some training to do!"
"But…but…" Squall tried to break the death-grip, one arm flailing for Zell, who simply smiled and waved them away, chuckling as Squalls desperate gaze was brutally yanked away from view.
Zell smiled once more, before wolfing the rest of the hotdog down with a single gulp, smacking his lips and suddenly wanting more.
* * *
Zell now hobbled down a corridor to the dorms, his mind solely on sleep in the next few minutes. The hotdogs, persuaded by the drugs given to him by Dr. Kadowaki, had made him drowsy, and he tottered towards his private room with half open eyes.
In his half-drunken stupor he seemed to miss the fact that he had a physical body, and he collided with something soft and unyielding, which made a yelp of surprise. "I don't feel like playing right now, Baku." Zell muttered as he fell to the floor. "Come back tomorrow."
And with that remark, he passed out.
* * *
He smiled and took his postion.
His smile suddenly melted away as the Grat was stomped into a greenish-brown paste by a giant, black and red scaled paw. The boy looked up at a second T-Rexaur, who looked down at the boy with it's beady eyes, cocking it's head to the left to get a better view.
"Okies, this isn't good." The boy muttered to himself, looking over his shoulder at the first T-rexaur, who was beginning to use it's charge attack, jaws gaping. The boy retaliated instantly, flipping backwards and dropping down on the dinosaurs head, smashing it's jaws shut, using it as a jumping platform to launch him at the second T-rex.
Flying through the air and flipping around, he held his hands out in front of him, palms together, fingers splayed. Summoning the power within him, he felt the cold lace through his body, but pushed it back and drew it into his hands, the power ebbing and flowing in his palms.
The Blizaga attack, performed in mid air, blew the boy back, the kick from using such a powerful elemental being too much for his current trajectory. He screamed as the power flowed through him, his loud roar just lifting over the crackling of ice forming almost instantly over a short time.
The attack, thankfully, sheared the top half of the dinosaurs head from it's foundations, leaving a icicle-filled wound, cauterised immediately by sever cold.
He twisted in mid air, landing perfectly on the balls of his feet, and sideflipped as the body of his adversary crashed to the ground, deader then the Chocobo wings the boy had had for lunch the other day.
He looked down at the dead dinosaur, then suddenly whirled around, his fists growing deadly balls of ice. An enormous head was beginning to lance down, jaws gaping, row upon row of razor sharp teeth looming before him.
Concentrating a little more, the boy's ice-covered fists suddenly created long, jagged spikes. Jumping up high above the head as it missed its intended target, the boy came down ferociously, smashing the dinosaurs head with his feet, before grabbing purchase with his free hand and stabbing a spike-filled fist into the tough scales.
The monster roared in anger and pain, flinging it's head up and down, left and right, trying to shake the parasite which had latched on and which would not let go, which was pounding painful cold into it's head an eyes again and again and again.
The dinosaur finally succeeded, the boy suddenly losing his purchase on the scaly hide, flying ungracefully into a palm trunk, which he hit with full force with his shoulder. Yelling out in agony, he dug his icy spikes into the trunk as he slid down, allowing his decent to be a little less painful – and brief – then it usually would have been. When he reached the bottom the ice fell off his hands in large chunks, and he grabbed his wound. Shoulder broken. Not good.
Injured now, his strength sapped from having to hold on atop the giant dinosaur, the boy could only watch as the T-rexaur walked forward slowly, shaking it's head to relieve itself of the pain.
"Ah, crap." He muttered as the T-rexaur bent it's head down and roared.
* * *
When Zell came to, he didn't realise where he was. The roof looked the same as his own rooms, but they all had the dull light blue colour. He could hear somebody typing on a Desk. He frowned. If Irvine was using his Desk to look up porn again, he was going to whup his butt into next week…
Lifting his head, he suddenly realised that that wasn't such a good idea, what with him having a concussion and all. He groaned slightly, the sound emitted from his mouth more of a whimper then a groan, and allowed his head to collapse once more, the second heartbeat in his brain turning it's beat down.
Someone was by his side instantly, a cool cloth placed on his brow. He smiled and closed his eyes. "Ma? Is that you?" he asked hesitantly. "Oh, Ma, I haven't had such a good day today…"
"…You'll be ok…" Someone who wasn't his Ma said to him.
He suddenly sat up, recognising the voice, and turned to see the Pigtailed Library Girl looking at him sheepishly. In his usual Zell-ness, he gaped at her, the cloth slowly sliding off his brow into his lap. It's that girl! The one that always runs away whenever I try to request a book! The one that gave me the Phoenix Down!
"You must rest…" She whispered to him, pushing him back down. He fell back to the sheets without resistance; his sudden burst of strength fading quickly, the nagging pain returning. She picked the cloth up off his lap and replaced it onto his brow gently.
"…Where am I?" He asked drunkenly. The girl smiled shyly, looking down at her hands sheepishly. Her hair was chocolate brown, and was tied back in her usual pigtail. For some reason Zell found that sickenly cute…and he found nothing cute. At all!
She looked down at him with those gigantic blue eyes that she had, and flashed a rare smile. Not something that was thrown shyly across the library floor, and not one that was filled with fear and sudden regret if he ever asked her a question. "We're in you're room. You have nothing to worry about."
"How'd I get here?"
She shrugged. "You ran into me in the hallway…literally."
Oh, bloody hell.
"After I picked myself up, I saw that you were unconscious…so I managed to drag you to your room. I was amazed at where everybody had gotten to…something in the Quad, or something."
"But what about the palm lock?"
She giggled a bit. "You were unconscious. I just pressed you hand against the plate, and the door opened for me."
He tried to rise. "You shouldn't be in here…I'm an instructor, you're just a student…" He got halfway up before she pushed him back down firmly, yet gently. He managed to get a look at his Desk, however, and remembered that he forgotten to log off this morning. "What were you doing on my Desk?" he asked suspiciously.
Her blue eyes filled slightly with tears at the un-side accusation. "Don't worry." She whispered quietly. "I'm not sneeking a peek at my records or anything like that…I was just looking at your White Magic records…"
Zell frowned. "What for?" He had a killer headache.
The Pigtailed Girl placed a finger on her lip, thinking. "Ummm…it'd be best if I showed you." Standing slowly, she put her hands over his body. "Draw…" she whispered.
When magic is drawn from you, it's a strange feeling. It's like someone pulling your hair into your skull by the roots, but without all the distracting pain. It felt weirder the more powerful the spell, some of the more powerful spells making you feel like someone grabbed your head and flushed it down a toilet. You're whole body goes taut, as the muscles give a little life-energy in order to make the magic solid enough to travel.
Zell felt this now, as the magic was drawn from his body, white glowing balls of energy seeming to drip off his body and flow into the Pigtailed Girl's. His whole body flexed as she absorbed the energy easily, her clothes fluttering with invisible wind as the foreign and powerful magic took place in her brain. She took an uneasy step back, and breathed out slowly. "Whoo…"
Zell's head now felt very strange. It was as if someone had taken a jackhammer and drilled a hole in his head, scooped out his brains, then grabbed what remained and flushed it down a toilet. Mixed feels welled. "Ow…" he mumered. "I think I just re-broke my arm…"
She was by his side in an instant, placing a hand on his head and cooing gently. "Are you alright? Did it hurt? I'm so sorry! This was a bad idea, I'll go now – "
"Wait!" Zell almost cried, the Girl stopping in her tracks ,almost halfway out the door. "When you start something, you finish it."
She nodded to herself and walked back into the room. "Ok…I'm not so sure on how this is done…but we'll find out soon, right?"
Zell smiled. "Just as long as you didn't draw my Ultima magic, it ought to be alright."
She nodded, her smile more open now. "Ok…here I go."
For the Cure magics to work, the spell caster must place his or her hands on the skin of the spell receiver. You could do it from a distance, but the magic weakens as it travels through the air, so it's better to have physical contact.
She opened his jacket, and lifted his shirt, placing her hands onto his broad chest. Zell fought the urge to blush and sent mental messages to his nether regions to stay dormant.
Naturally, they refused.
Zell, now seriously blushing as he watched her prepare to transfer the healing energy, prayed to Hyne to not let her look at his pants.
Her eyes travelled his body, looking at the rock hard chest, the washboard abs, his trim biceps, his shorts –
She blushed crimson. Zell mentally cursed Hyne more then he ever had in his life, even more then the time when he had had to take on a Red Dragon all by himself.
He listened as she drew in a breath, and quickly pushed the thoughts away, preparing himself for the influx of paramagic.
It started slowly, hesitantly. The green light seemed to spring slowly from her chest, until it bathed them both, little stars of white excess energy sparkling from her hands, floating up into the air before dissipating into nothingness. Zell felt his body swell, his chest growing, his arms, legs, head. Everything grew twofold, and his mind went on a trip.
He was lost in the whiteness of her eyelashes, still closed, strained with concentration. Her skin was milk white, adding to her fragile beauty. The brown ponytail flopped down past her shoulder, resting on her left breast, and he reached up with his good hand, stroking the hair with infinite gentleness –
And then it was over. His inflated body seemed to puff out to a tremendous proportion suddenly, before shrinking down to normal size, and the Pigtailed Girl collapsed on top of him, too exhausted from the use of powerful magic to move.
Zell slowly came down from his energy-flux induced high, his mind slowly wrapping itself around reality once more. He flexed his right hand, and tested his arm. It was fully healed. He looked down at his leg, to see that the cast had shattered thanks to his metamorphous. He wiggled it a bit. No pain.
He sat up, allowing the Girl to rest her head in his lap, stroking her hair gently. "Thank you…" he murmured.
She opened her eyes tiredly and looked up at him, her blue gaze happy. "You're welcome." She whispered, before falling asleep.
* * *
"Ah, crap." He muttered as the T-rexaur bent it's head down and roared.
He did the only thing he could do. He ran, ducking through bushes, weaving through trees, jumping and flipping over rocks and boulders. "I gotta make it to the safe area…he can't follow me there…" he said to himself as he flipped over another rock, landing in a run.
The sounds behind him didn't sound very promising. Creaking trees, crumpling bushes, smashing rocks. A ricochet sounded as a rock rebounded off a metallic surface – probably a gap in the dirt covered floor – and smashed him in the back of the head, causing him to fall, sprawling, to the ground. He landed on his broken arm and bellowed in anger and agony.
He rolled over to see the dinosaur bearing down on him, with no sign of stopping.
Drawing on all his remaining strength, he flipped up onto his feet, then backflipped backwards as the T-rex almost got him, it's reptile eyes blind with blood and rage as razor sharp teeth snapped onto thin air. As he landed he sent a volley of small ice shards at the huge monster, the Blizzara magic barely piercing the monsters tough hide – but doing more damage then any other elemental attack. He had used his last Blizaga magic to take out the second T-rexaur.
There was a gunshot, and the monster suddenly turned – to see two other students, one blasting the T-rex with a shotgun, the other charging a Fire Spell. The boy tried to warn them, to yell to them to run, but it was too late – they were swept away with a swift flick of the dinosaurs tail, the boy hearing the sickening cracks as the scaly tail smashed their fragile skulls.
Rage welled within the boy, blood running down his tattoo from a gash given by the flip up. He seriously considered using the Ultima Technique – but that would destroy the entire Training Centre, not to mention anything else within a fifty meter radius. No, he would have to use a different tactic. Flipping up into the air, he drove both feet into the dinosaurs head, driving it down into the ground with all the power he could muster.
The dinosaur pulled it's head from the burrow it had created in the ground, shaking the stars and blood from it's vision. It spied it's pray standing, feet spread, one arm up and ready, the other hanging limp by it's side, and roared its fury at the tiny morsel that had inflicted so much pain onto it's ancient body.
The boy roared back, anger and frustration welling up inside him, feeding his strength, filling his muscles with new energy. His blond hair stood on end as energy sparked from his body, blue static flickering and flashing as he threw his head back and roared again, pure ferocity making the giant reptile take a timid step back in confused fear.
When the boy looked back at the T-rexaur, he had changed. He moved like greased lightening, suddenly appearing in mid air before the dinosaurs head, pulling it down into a brutal Booya, before spinning on one foot and Mach Kicking it right in the stomach, his foot only travelling Mach One right now. His Punch Rush still had something to be desired for, using one hand after all, but it still dented the tough scales on the dinosaurs body as the tremendously brutal force hammered again and again and again, before backflipping to gather some room.
Amazingly, the T-rexaur was still functioning, it's body supported on wobbling legs. It roared defiantly, and snapped at it's prey, who suddenly appeared just to the left of the intended destination of the meal. The dinosaur snapped left, and the boy appeared right. The dinosaur snapped right, and the boy appeared left.
Before smiling wickedly.
Flexing his good arm, he threw his head back and screamed to the heavens, to Hyne himself, as he gathered the energy for his final attack. He took his position, setting his legs into a running position. "MY!"
He lifted his good arm in front of him to allow support. "FINAL!"
Finally, he allowed the energy to flow straight through him, blue static coursing over his body as his magic levels topped themselves, making his head feel like it was about to explode, but he was too filled with rage to notice. "HEAVEN!!!"
One second he was there, his body coursing with stored and latent energy – the next he was going Mach Five, his body moving so fast it sluiced through solid objects as if they were ethereal. His legs moved like pistons, moving so fast that he wouldn't have been even to see them, even if he had been paying attention. His good arm whirled beside him, the other arm swinging in motion too. His body seemed to gain speed with each step he took, his teeth gritting with effort as wind became a pastime.
Up in space, two Esthar astronauts fumbled for their cameras as they saw a bright blue line of pure energy streak across Gaia, passing through Galbadia and Esthar before disappearing behind Gaia once more.
Back in the Training Centre, the T-rexaur looked left and right. Where had it's prey gone?
It didn't need to worry about that anymore, as it spied something travelling extremely fast in the distance – coming straight for…
The boy suddenly materialised behind the monster, who stood stock still. Smoke laced it's way up from the boy's shoes and body, and his good fist was embedded into the metallic floor halfway up his elbow.
Then the boy actually arrived, his fist smashing straight through the giant dinosaur as if he had punched straight through some meaty building blocks, the T-rexaur exploding almost on contact.
The boy wrenched his hand out of the metal, taking a step back to look over the destruction he had caused.
"There's gonna be a lot of T-Burgers in the cafeteria tomorrow." He muttered with a frown, eyes slitted, holding his broken arm, before the result of using My Final Heaven finally caught up with him, his left leg collapsing beneath him, plunging him into darkness….
* * *
Zell woke with a start, sitting up in bed abruptly, his body bathed in sweat.
He looked left and right, trying to figure out where he was. Looking out the window, he saw it was dark. No…not the infirmary…that's right, I'm in my room…and the Pigtailed Girl, she healed me using a Curaga Technique…and saw…oh, CRAP!
He quickly looked left and right, in the bathroom, under the bed, desperate to apologise for doing what his body had done, but she was nowhere to be seen. He finally sat down on his bed defeated, disgusted at himself and his lack of self-discipline. Super-smooth, Zell. She does you a favour and you go and do…that!!
He looked up at his Desk and moved over to it, sitting down dejectedly. He looked down at the keyboard – to see a Combat King. The newest edition. Strange… He thought to himself. I don't remember buying this edition…I don't think it's even out yet…
He opened it up and flipped through it, but something just made it seem pale in comparison with something.
He looked down at the screen of his Desk to see that it was on – and there was a note on it.
Flinging the Combat King over his shoulder hurriedly, he opened the file containing the message. He smiled as he read it. She must have dictated it whilst he slept.
Dear Zell……Sorry for passing out over you like that. I guess I'm just not ready for that level of magic just yet, huh? Heh heh…
…Um, when I came to you had fallen asleep. You had looked like an angel, sitting there, you're eyes closed. It looked like you were having a bad dream, however. You kept grimacing and muttered something like, 'Final Heaven'. Still, you looked like you were getting the rest you deserved. And still looking cute…oops!
Ah…um…I left the latest copy of Combat King where you could find it. I'm sure that you'll like it just as much as I liked spending time with you today…even if we spent most of the time sleeping on one another…ooo, that sounds so dodgy, huh? I'm blushing!!
…Anyways, I hope you're feeling better. Oh, you don't need to repay me, or anything like that. Just the thank you was more then enough…
…Um…you're stirring…I'd better go…I'll see you around, or something…
He looked down at the signature.
Angel Lee.
He smiled, leaning back in his chair, before flipping backwards out of the chair and landing on his feet in excitement and ecstasy, pumping his fist into the air, shouting 'Booya!!' for all to hear. She does have a name!!
This made up for all the dodgy things that Hyne did to him today. He flung himself onto the bed, smiling for all he was worth. Angel Lee…Angel Lee, the Library Girl…by Hyne, wait until Selphie hears about this!!
He fell asleep slowly, still smiling. Angel Lee…