Finally, I've finished this first chapter.
I wanna make it a little gory, make Ultimecia hell of a bitch, you know?
I always make her and The Emperor the bad guys.
Please expect that a lot.
A new day... A new school... Even for me, this was gonna be a little scary. I've moved in with my older sister, Freya, feeling I needed to get somewhere new in life. My sister was a Burmecian, while I was a genome. Basically, I was a human with a long, monkey-like tail, and she was an anthropomorphic rat. Obviously, we're not blood relatives, but we might as well have been. I used to live with my younger sister, Mikoto, who was a genome, like me. But she's gone off to do her own thing. The only genomes I know are only myself and her. Freya has been taking care of me, and I've been taking care of Mikoto. Now Mikoto is old enough to take care of herself, but I came to live with Freya, as I didn't like to live alone.
Anyway, this school I was to attend... I was gonna be in year 11, and Freya was in 6th Form, or year 12. I've heard from Freya it's a pretty nice place. She told me there was another genome there, and I didn't really know what to make of that. He was in her year, and from what she's told me, he's a little quiet. Quite the opposite of me, where as I'm a little loud.
Okay then, first day... I felt really nervous, but I guess I would have. When I walked into my registration room, I sighed in relief as I saw someone I knew. It was Tidus; I had known him since I was a kid. I seemed to survive up till break... That must have been a good sign. I stuck with Tidus up until now, but during break I ran off to Freya.
"Zidane! How is your day going so far?"
"It's going great so far!"
"That's good. Well, I have Dragoon training starting soon, so I'll see you during lunch break, okay?"
"Yeah, I'll see you later Freya."
I looked around, for someone I recognised, finding no one, not even Tidus. But someone caught my eye; he was sitting beneath a tree, reading. He had long, silver hair, and a feather sticking out from his forehead.
"Hey, Freya, wait! Who's that over there?"
"Oh that's Kuja. Now I must be off, goodbye Zidane."
"Bye Freya."
I just seemed to automatically walk over to him. I was feeling pretty brave and confident today apparently. I sat down in front of him; he lowered his book and stared at me.
"Hi, I'm Zidane!"
My tail was literally wagging in excitement.
"You're a genome?" He asked.
"Yes! I hear there's another here as well, although I haven't met them yet."
"Yes, my name is Kuja, I'm that genome."
"But you don't have a tail!"
"Yes, I do. But I prefer to keep it out of the way."
"I love my tail, it's so expressive!"
"You seem to be a very energetic happy young genome. Of all the others I've met, you seem to be the most emotional."
"There are others? I only knew about myself and my sister! Will you take me to see them?"
"I'm sorry, but they don't live anywhere near here."
"Aww, that's too bad."
My ears perked up when the bell rang, signifying the end of break.
"Well I must be off. I have magicks to study."
"Wow, you study magicks? You've gotta be pretty smart for that."
"I think I'll take that as s compliment. Thank you Zidane. I'm sure we'll meet again soon."
I seemed to have been lucky this morning. Now I'm lost and cannot find my maths class anywhere.
"Hey, get off him!" I heard a small voice shout.
I hid behind a corner of lockers, and saw a little girl with purple hair and a horn shouting boldly at kids much older than her. In fact, they looked older than me too. On further inspection, one of the older kids were man handling a little black mage, trying to shake him down of all his possessions. Before I knew what was happening, I ran out in front of them.
"Leave the kid alone!" I demanded.
"Oh, aren't we the brave one? I take it you must be the new kid." She said, looking not bothered at all.
"Didn't you hear me? Put the kid down!"
Dropping the little black mage, he ran behind me, as did the little girl.
"Who do you think you are?"
"I think I'm Ultimecia."
"Well I don't care who you are, why are you being mean to those smaller than you?"
"Seems we have a feisty one here, eh boys?"
The gang of boys behind her were muttering amongst themselves, probably agreeing with her.
"Maybe we should teach you a lesson or two..."
Ultimecia came closer to me and I wasn't sure what to do; she was a girl, I couldn't hit her, that would look bad on my end, plus she could twist it into something worse. But I didn't want to flee either. I pushed back the two kids behind me, and silently told them to run. As soon as they darted off, Ultimecia had me pinned up on the wall, hand on my neck, slowly choking me.
"No one has ever stood up for someone else when I'm involved. Just because you're the new kid, don't think you'll be getting any special treatment."
She held on to me tighter, making it even harder to breath.
"What... The hell... Are you doing?"
"No one talks to me with such disrespect."
A sword like knife suddenly appeared in Ultimecia's hand. She brought it closer to my face, and I started to panic. She brought the knife to my right cheek, just below my eye and pushed down, earning a squeal of pain from me. She brought the knife down, and then crossed the bridge of my nose, back up to my left eye, to make a crudely drawn 'U'.
"What are you doing?" I heard someone shout.
I tried to turn my head, but no avail. I heard footsteps coming toward me.
"Put the kid down Ultimecia. Now."
"Since when do you care about little runts like this, Kuja?"
"Just put him down now, before I do something that I'll regret."
"Hmph. Whatever Kuja."
Ultimecia held her face inches from mine.
"I'm going to make your life here a living hell."
After that, she let go, and I slid to the floor, gasping for air. Kuja kneeled down on front of me.
"Are you alright Zidane?"
"I-I'm not sure... She just gave me a bit of a fright that's all."
"Well, for goodness sake, keep away from her."
"I got a feeling that's gonna be a lot harder than it sounds."
"Why don't you stick by me until she backs off?"
"Really? You'd protect me? Oh jeez I sound like a little kid."
"Think nothing of it."
About five minutes passed, and I was still sitting on the floor, still a little dazed.
"Are you feeling alright? You've been sitting there, staring into space for ages."
"My face is kinda hurting."
Kuja came up to my face, studying it.
"Oh damn it, she's marked you."
"Is that bad?"
"You're going to be her target for a long time."
I let my head fall back on the wall, groaning as I did so.
"Look, just stay with me and you'll be alright."
"But why? I've just met you, and you taking care of me as if I were your little brother or something."
"You could say that." Kuja smiled.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing, don't worry about it, just rest for a few more minutes, and then I'll take you to your next class."
"Kuja, you don't have to escort me everywhere."
I leaned my head against the wall, closing my eyes. Before I knew it I was being engulfed by a black wave, stealing all of my conscious thought.
"Come on Zidane, you've been out for hours, wake up."
I slowly opened my eyes, feeling really ill. I moaned loudly in discomfort, feeling nauseous. Whoever was next to me shoved a bucket into my hands.
"Wha-?"
I didn't even have time to ask why a bucket had been shoved into my hands, because I began to throw up violently inside of it. I could feel someone holding my hair back, still not knowing who it was, I thanked them quietly, laying my head down on a pillow that seemed to already be beneath my head before I had woken up.
"I thought she might have been lenient on you because you were the new kid. But she used the poison anyway. I'm just glad you're taking it well."
Taking it well? I feel as if my skin is about to crawl away from my body, my head feels as if it's going to explode and- oh God!
"There there, get it all out."
I hated being sick. It made me feel so disorientated. I lay back down, feeling terribly weak. I opened my eyes, and I was met with an unfamiliar room... It looked nothing like a nurse's office, where I had expected to be, and it wasn't my bedroom either.
"Where am I?" I burst out.
My voice was all crackly and dry. I wanted to talk more, bit decided against it when another wave of vomit came up my throat. I closed my eyes again.
"You're at my house. I have the antidote here, and no one else has it. Freya's been worried, but I've told her you're safe in my hands."
Who's house'? Whose hands? I don't know. I couldn't open my eyes again; it seemed as if they were glued shut.
"Can you take the bucket away now...? It's getting to heavy for me to hold..."
"Of course."
The bucket was taken from my grasp. But moments later it was given back to me.
"Drink this. We need to purge you as much as we can."
Before I could speak, liquid was being poured into my mouth. I gulped it down, not having much choice. It was only water, but as soon as I finished it, it just came back up. Throwing up water was easier on the throat.
"There we are. I don't think there's anything left in there. Now go to sleep. Your body needs to heal..."
"I can't sleep, I'm tired..."
"Come on Zidane, just try at least..."
I held up the bucket, and it was taken from me. I turned over on my side and tried to go to sleep. I felt someone smooth my tail and I practically purred, feeling a lot more relaxed. I only allowed Freya to stroke my tail, but right now, I was just beyond caring.
"Do you like that? I like it too, but no one will stroke my tail."
Suddenly realising who it was, I shot up, but was immediately pushed back down again.
"Kuja? I'll stroke your tail..."
"Maybe we'll wait until you get better."
As Kuja continued to stroke my tail, I fell into a deep sleep.
I didn't want to wake up... But I could hear someone calling my name.
"No... I don't want to get up yet... Five more minutes..."
"Zidane, stop hibernating and wake up."
I opened my eyes, and Kuja was looming over me, looking a little worried.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Oh nothing; I'm just surprised you woke up."
"What happened...?"
"You were poisoned by Ultimecia."
"P-poisoned?"
Alright, time to panic. I sprang up to the sitting position and grabbed Kuja's shirt.
"No! I can't be poisoned! I'm gonna die, aren't I? There are so many things I haven't experienced yet! My first job, finishing school, my first love, my first kiss...!"
Feeling very impulsive, frightened and driven by male hormones, I quickly moved forward and kissed Kuja. I've never kissed anyone before, so I imagine I was probably a bit sloppy. The thing that surprised me the most was that Kuja was kissing me back. I quickly broke the contact, realising what I had just done. Kuja looked back at me with worried eyes, his face paler than the moon. Before I could apologise, Kuja had passed out.
Jeez, I felt a little guilty... Wait! He's waking up! I pretended to be asleep.
"Ugh... What a dream... Oh man what a dream... I must have drifted off sometime last night..."
That's perfect; he thinks it's a dream!
"Zidane, wake up."
I opened my eyes, and looked up at Kuja. He was avoiding my eyes.
"Umm... What happened? I repeated.
"You have been poisoned by Ultimecia."
Before I could even respond, Kuja held me down roughly.
"Don't spazz out; you are going to be fine!"
I smiled, despite myself.
"That's good... But why have you been taking care of me Kuja? Where's Freya?"
Oh crap, where was Freya? Damn it, don't panic...
"Freya is back at her home, I've been looking after you, because I'm giving you the antidote for the poison. You only have one dose left, stay there."
Kuja walked out of the room, and I could hear him shuffling around, looking for the antidote. I hated taking tablets, or swallowing something yucky. Ugh, just thinking about it made me want to throw up. Kuja walked back in holding a needle. Wait. Did I just say needle?
"NO, GET IT AWAY FROM ME!"
"Zidane, what's the matter? It's just an injection. The needle is clean, and you've only one more dose. Stop acting like a child and come here."
Did I mention I was terrified of needles? Kuja was edging closer and closer toward me, trying not to startle me.
"OH MY GOD GET IT AWAY KUJA!"
"Would you rather take a harmless injection, or would you rather let the poison spread and kill you?"
Alright, it was getting a little too much for my brain now. It was my turn to pass out. I just hope Kuja would give me the injection while I was unconscious.