Hello everyone! This is MidnightFenrir speaking and I am proud to present you my latest fanfiction: "Unknown Shores"!
This is an AU post Lightning Returns fanfiction and it took me a lot of thinking to decide how I was going to write it. The summary warned you so you know what you're getting in.
"Blablabla" = dialogue
Blablabla= thoughts/reading
With that, let's get started! Enjoy.
"Philosophers speak of a place where myths wash like tides upon the shores of the real."
Claire "Lightning" Farron had never been one to take much interest in gossip. There was enough about her to ignore and she never listened when it was about someone else. But it seemed like today was very much different. One can only ignore gossip so much and when every single person around you is talking about it, it becomes quite hard not to listen, be it false information or not.
"I heard he's quite young! Only three or four years older than us!"
So what? There are even younger people in the army, you know?
"They say he has platinum hair! But also that it goes perfectly with his green eyes!"
And I'm the one who's strange because I have strawberry-blond hair? Give me a break...
"Hey, look! Someone managed to get a picture of him!"
"What?! Show me! I want to see too!"
"Wow...! The guy sure looks handsome, doesn't he?"
"You bet! If only it was of better quality..."
"Hey it's not my fault! It's the photo that's bad!"
Just what's so special about that guy?
"Does he have a girlfriend?"
"Sure doesn't look like it!"
"I wouldn't mind if he asked me out..."
"Handsome, smart and not too old, just perfect!"
Just knock it off already!
"But I heard that several girls already asked him to go out with them and they were all rejected."
"You think he's gay? What a shame."
That's it! I had enough!
*Blam*
"Can't you just stop talking about that guy for a god damn minute?! There are people trying to work here! If the only thing you have to do is squeal, you can do it outside!" the blue eyed pinkette shouted as she slammed her hands on the table and stood up.
Around her, the whole library fell silent before other voices also raised in agreement and the whle gossip club left, grumbling something about the "ice queen that kills all the fun".
"Tch! Sometimes, I swear..." Lightning muttered to herself as she sat down again and tried to focus on the book she was reading.
...it is at such a prize only that one can be considered a human being, which means-
"Well, sunshine, I see that you still live up to your names!"
But, it seemed, to no avail. Closing the book with a resigned sigh, Lightning turned to face her interlocutor.
"What I said to those gossipers is also true for you, Fang. And how many times did I tell you to STOP calling me that?" she replied to the bronze-skinned woman who was looking at her with a wide grin.
"As many times as I told you I won't. And besides, you know you can't make me shut my mouth anyway." the dark-haired countered.
"I wouldn't bet on that, Oerba Yun."
"Try it, Farron."
The two glared at each other for a moment before Fang grinned and sat to face her friend, her head resting on her right hand.
"The 'ice queen' that 'strikes as fast and as suddenly as lightning', huh? How come I didn't get a pseudonym like that?"
"Is it not enough that you are called the Highwind by your peers?" Lightning retorted.
"Hey! It ain't my fault if those guys can't hand themselves in a fight ya know." Fang replied before leaning down to whisper. "And it's not as if the 'army of one' was here to challenge me."
Lightning glared at Fang once more before she shook her head. "That's in the past. I can't afford to be as careless and light-headed nowadays."
The black-haired woman sighed before leaning back. "Yeah... I guess so. Must be pretty hard for you. Having to live like that with your sister."
"I'll survive." came the reply from the pinkette. "How about you? How's it going with Vanille?"
"Glad you asked! Girl's doing great with her job and she's on her way to become the best animal caretaker around!"
"An animal caretaker and a street fighter together, huh? Who would've thought about it?" Lightning wondered out loud.
"Only people as perceptive as you, sunshine." Fang replied, blushing slightly before she stood up. "Now, I believe I have an 'appointment' to take care of. I'll see ya later!" she said as she went toward the exit.
"Don't be too hard on them!" Lightning called as her friend was going through the door and Fang waved in acknowledgment.
'Perceptive', huh? You're saying that someone like me, who couldn't even realize what trouble she was getting in until it was too late, is perceptive?What a sick joke...
Looking at the clock, Lightning saw that she had five minutes before the next lesson to get to the lecture hall where the *sigh* new teacher would give her and the students in the same year a presentation of his program if we wished to attend his courses. But she knew that most of the girls would go just for getting some eye-candy.
Lightning putted her book and notebooks inside her back before heading out. She hoped that the presentation wouldn't take long since she had to work right after. The less time wasted with this the better. Why was she going anyway? Maybe because there was a slim chance that the courses he would give were interesting but she knew better than to hope for something like that.
That's right... Hope is something I cannot do anymore. I can only fail or succeed. And I will succeed, I MUST succeed. For Serah...
-Change scene-
As he watched the students slowly starting to fill the lecture hall, Hope couldn't help but let out a short sigh when he clearly saw that a majority of them were girls. Just like his colleagues, he had heard that he had been the subject of most of the gossip around the entire Nova Crystallis academy and when it came to him that the fact that he was single and living alone had been leaked by God-knows-who, he hadn't been surprised to see several girls whispering and eying him on his passage, even following him. He wouldn't be surprised if he heard tomorrow that someone had created a fan club of him.
What will it be this time? 'We will never loose Hope?' or a classic like 'We were Hopeless before'?
Whatever it was going to be, it would only create more complications for him and he had more important matters to tend to.
Not for the first time since the day began, Hope checked his watch.
Eight to four pm.
His presentation would begin in a few minutes. He had done it three times already and this fourth one would be the last of the day. He already had several lists of students wishing to attend his courses and seventy-five percent of them were girls. Hope was to select only fifty students and he was bent on checking meticulously every single one of them to make sure they would take his courses for the sake of learning and not anything else.
Three to four.
But to be transferred here, by personal request of the headmaster no less... Were philosophy teachers that rare nowadays? Or was it that nobody was interested enough in philosophy to teach it and, maybe, become a philosopher? He couldn't understand why no found interesting something that touched everything, questioned and thought everything in very different ways. But with society as it was today, Hope somehow understood that no one asked questions about the way things happen. The medias tell and explain everything so there is no need for questions anymore.
Hope sighed heavily.
Maybe I should have gone for economics just like dad suggested.
Four pm.
Oh well, no turning back. Let's get this show on the road one more time.
"Good afternoon, everyone. I am the new philosophy teacher at Nova Crysallis academy. My name, is Hope Estheim."
-Scene Change-
Lightning was running. She couldn't believe she was going to be late because of Fang! The damn girl just HAD to use a street sign as a baseball bat against her opponents and making the entire fence collapse on the road leading, of course, to the lecture hall SHE was going to.
I swear to you, Fang, next time I see you I'm going to wipe that shitty grin off your face!
Lightning all but kicked the doors open and stood in the entrance, breathing heavily. She could feel that everyone was staring at her but she didn't care. It seemed the teacher's presentation had only began so she couldn't have missed anything truly important.
Closing the doors, she went to one the benches' corner. From the corner of her eyes, she could see that the teacher had stopped his speech to look at her. Was he going to lecture her for being later?
If that's the case, I'm getting out of here the instant the words leave his mouth.
"Would you like me to repeat?" She heard his voice and it took her several seconds to register the fact that he was asking her.
"E-excuse me?" she replied, not sure if she had heard correctly.
"I said: Would you like me to repeat what I've said before you've arrived?" the teacher repeated.
This time, she truly looked at him. He looked young, indeed. Only slightly older than her, maybe two or three years. He had short messy silver hair and even though she was quite far, she could see his green eyes locked onto her. He was wearing brown pants along with a white and yellow jacket and a blue shirt.
"It is my fault for arriving late. I do not wish to trouble your presentation because of that. Please, proceed from where you stopped." Lightning answered as she took out her notebook and pen.
The teacher nodded. "If you wish to know, just ask me after the presentation is over."
"Will do, sir."
"So, as I was saying, the goal of my courses will not be to bombard you with loads of informations and material that you would have to assimilate over time. My objective is to make you learn how to think about things from a different angle, to question what's around us and take something from that reflection. Of course, you will still learn the way the previous philosophers before us thought about it too and you will compare your thinking to their. A lot of people say that philosophy is restricted to it's own definition. I disagree. I believe that philosophy is something that can be applied to everlasting in this world, that can touch everything as long as we think about it. But I'll get to it later in the courses. Next, I plan to..."
At that point, Lightning was writing all over her notebook to take notes of what he was saying. It was not everyday that a new teacher in philosophy appeared in the academy. Lightning herself wasn't really into it, even if she found it really interesting sometimes. But there was no doubt in her mind that Serrah would love to get the notes she would write from his courses, if she managed to get a place. Her sister wasn't done with college yet but she was showing a passion for the ways of thinking of old and how the world was going around.
Not even a dozen of minutes later, the presentation was over and Lightning had filled several pages of her notebook, writing what the man had said word-for-word sometimes. She was sure her sister would be happy to learn the same stuff that herself would.
"All right, we're done. For those of you that wish to attend the courses, please write you names on those papers. Just your names, no phone number or anything else." The teacher said as he shut down the projector and started to pack his belongings into his bag.
Lightning had to wait for the crowd of girls to finish before she could write her own name on the little space there was left in the right corner of the page. She refrained from sighing. There was no way he was going to notice her name in all of those.
"So? Do you want to know what I've said when you weren't there?" she heard his voice and she looked up to see that he was looking at her with small smile.
She shook her head. "I've heard everything I deemed important to hear. I do not think I might have missed a lot of things before I arrived anyway." she replied.
The man's smile got wider. "True. The only thing you missed was me telling the big lines of the courses' program. And it's not that much important if you will attend the courses themselves."
Lightning nodded. "Right. But I have yet to learn your name yet, sir."
"Oh, of course. How foolish of me. I'm Hope Eisthem." he presented himself before asking, "And you are?"
Who in their right mind name their child Hope? And it's clearly not just a surname.
"Lightning, sir. Lightning Farron."
The teacher raised an eyebrow at her name but didn't ask, settling for a nod before smiling. "'Lightning', huh? I'll be sure to remember that when I check my lists."
"Sir, if I may ask, how many students asked to take you courses?"
"With you, that makes two hundred and thirteen people."
"And how many will you accept?"
"Fifty. But I'll be checking every single of those names myself when I get home. And I'm pretty sure I won't have even fifty truly interested students. And those who are interested but won't work won't stay long."
"I see..." Lightning muttered, slightly disappointed at her chances.
"But do not worry. I can already tell you will be part of those fifty that I'll choose. There is something in your eyes, miss Farron, something that tells me you wish to learn and not only for yourself." The teacher continued and Lightning's eyes widened.
"How did you-"
"Freud worked on both the human mind, the human body and the interactions between both. But it's true that it takes quite some perception to tell what people are thinking based only on their actions and what you can see at first glance."
Who the hell is this guy? Oh well, since the cat's out of the bag...
"Truth to be told, my sister wants to become a teacher someday and she is quite fascinated in how people thought in the past and what their methods of thinking were. So I thought that while I could kill two birds with one stone by learning and taking notes for both me and my sister." Lightning told him. There was no point in hiding it.
"Ah, I see. Well, if my courses interest her, tell your sister she can come whenever she wants to my classes. I will always have room for those who wish to learn." The silver haired replied before he lifted his bag. "And now, I will be on my way. I wish you a pleasant evening, miss Lightning."
"Likewise, sir."
As he was leaving the hall, he turned one last time.
"Oh, and drop that 'sir' nonsense. I may be a teacher but I am in no way your superior. Just call me 'Hope' or 'Mr Estheim' if you don't feel like calling me by my first name" he said before going through the door, leaving Lightning to her thoughts.
Now that was interesting. He sure is unlike every other teacher I've met so far. Maybe that's because he's closer to us students than them in terms of age? Or maybe that's just the way he acts with everyone.
Lightning climbed the stairs and pushed the doors.
Oh well, maybe I finally found something worth of interest rather than training and fighting.
The doors closed and she walked away.
And now, to find Fang and that grin of her. Payback's gonna be a bitch.
There you go! First chapter of this story.
I thought long and hard and I could very well have made that into a one-shot for Valentine day but, guess what, we're not valentine day.
I accept all comments, be it flame, praise, critics or advice.
This is MidnightFenrir, author of "Unknown Shores", signing out!