Chapter One - Oversized bugs are NOT your friend
If oranges were blue, would they still be oranges? {Not this again.} Screw off, I'm thinking. {Yeah well, I'm thinking too.} Shut up! {Make me.} …I really shouldn't argue with myself so much… {No kidding.} I thought I told you to shut up! Sixteen year old Ayori Taro walked down an icy street, cursing the voices in her head. She'd just finished another day of school, during which Krin had announced she was leaving the next day. Her best friend was leaving for the Christmas break, leaving her alone again. No parties, no best friend… Looks like another holiday in front of the Playstation. Just me and my computer generated friends.
As she started thinking about the game she owned, a car drove by. She glanced quickly, losing her balance and falling on the ice. "Ow. Ayo, this is NOT your day…"
She stood up quickly, glancing around to see if anyone noticed her fall. There was nobody around, so she smiled and continued towards her house. When she got there, she ran upstairs and flipped on her Playstation. "All right. Squall, Zell, Seifer. Here I come boys."
She didn't realize how right she was.
~~~
2 minutes later….
Ayori stared at her Playstation. Why wasn't it working? She flipped it on again. Nothing. What the hell is wrong with you? Stupid thing… Oh. Hey. Look at that switch… I never saw that before. I wonder what it does? Ayori reached out and - you guessed it. She flipped the switch.
At first, nothing happened. Ayori stared at her console, wondering if she'd broken it. Then, suddenly, the console began to beep in steady pulses. It convulsed once and Ayo gasped, leaning forward on her hands and knees and holding it down with one hand. All of a sudden everything began to turn black and she started to fall forward. She reached out grabbing the closest thing to her - her backpack.
Everything around her was swirling into a giant sea of color. There were no individual hues, rather there was one giant mass of color. Ayori would have thought it was beautiful had she not been trying to keep her lunch in her stomach. She closed her eyes to keep from throwing up, but it made her feel worse. Eventually the color became darkness; it swallowed her whole and she passed out.
~~~
When Ayori opened her eyes, firstly she noticed that she was no longer in her room. The next thing she noticed was that she was in the middle of a field. Nothing was around her besides grass, grass, and what looked to be a mountain in the distance. Another thing she noticed was that it was much warmer than it should have been. "Okay, great. Ayo, what the hell did you do? I must be dreaming, there's no way I could've traveled, well, anywhere. How did I pass out so quickly…?" She stood up, noticing her backpack next to her. "Ah, how convenient. Bet my CDs broke this time…"
"SCREEEE!"
"…What the hell?"
"SCREEEEEE! SCREE!"
"Well. That's great. Not only am I in the middle of a grassy field, but now some giant mosquito is flying at me. Woo! Good thing this is a dream," She rolled her eyes, pushed a clump of shoulder-length auburn hair behind her ear and watched it approach. "Yes. That's right. I don't plan on moving, because I'm an idiot."
The oversized bug flew towards her at a rapid pace, quickly followed by two more identical to it. "SCREE!" A cry came from the second bug, as it flew through the air. The first one came to a slow halt in front of her, bobbing in the air while its wings made a slight thumping noise as it flapped.
"…. Dear GOD that noise is annoying." Ayori blew up at her bangs from habit, and looked down at her backpack. Did she have anything she could use as a weapon?
"I told my mom I wanted an army knife, but noo…" She sighed, lifting her backpack from the ground. She returned her gaze to the three bugs, noticing that they hadn't moved.
"Ah, so I get the first move? Alrighty then. You guys look awfully familiar, like those Bite… thingies. Bite Bugs. You have... I dunno. About 100 HP. I never really paid attention… just hacked you up." Ayori held the straps of her backpack and got into a fighting stance. She sprang forward at the nearest bug, whacking it into the ground with her bag. She heard a 'crunch' as she did so.
"Shit! CDs!" Ayori growled and jumped back to her original place. She fished through the bag, pulling out a package meant for carrying CDs without their cases. She lightly tossed it away, and faced her attackers. The bugs were up again, and looked ready to go. "….Oh crap. I forgot about the whole 'they can attack you' thing. Damn."
The second bug dove forward, slashing out and cutting Ayori's arm. "OW! God DAMNIT!" Ayori gripped her arm, and watched as the first bug -the one she'd hit- got ready to strike. She deemed her cut a minor one and abandoned it for a better grip on the straps of her weapon. Her pale blue eyes stared into its blank onyx ones, and she got her backpack ready again.
The bug dove forward at her, but before it could strike she swung her backpack like a baseball bat, knocking the bug to the side. As she watched it stagger back into the air, the final bug struck her across her right shoulder. The wound cut deep, and blood started to flow down her bare arm. "Augh! Now would be a good time to run!"
As soon as she started to back away, a shot rang out through the air.
Bang. The third bug fell to the ground, lifeless.
Bang. The second bug followed suit.
"Oh yeah. Time to die!" Ayori, ignoring from where the shots came, dove forward and whacked the first bug with her backpack. The bug didn't fall to the ground, so she hit it again. When this didn't work, she knocked it to the ground and started jumping on it until it gave up and disappeared.
Ew. Bug guts. Ayori gasped as she heard applause from behind her, and spun to face the source.
"Congratulations. In all 18 years of my life, I've never seen a battle quite like that," drawled a male voice. From what Ayori could see, he was at least six feet tall, sporting a long brown coat and a cowboy hat.
"Oh… my god," Ayori whispered to herself. "Is that… Irvine?"
~~~
The young man strongly resembling Irvine Kinneas walked over to her, tipping his hat in greeting. "Hey there. What's a pretty girl like you doing out in the middle of nowhere?"
"I have absolutely no idea." Yeah. That was smart, Ayo.
The lanky cowboy arched an eyebrow and grinned. "So what, you're lost then?"
Ayori glanced around her. "….Looks that way." She was tempted to ask him his name, but wasn't sure she wanted to find out.
"Well, if you're looking for Garden then you're a little off. It's over that hill over there," he gestured an arm to the east as he spoke. "In the harbor."
Garden? Harbor? Oh, this is rich. Go on Ayo, ask what town's over there. Go on, ask! Ayori sighed, glancing to the east then back at the young man. God, he was tall. "Exactly which town would that be?"
The man chuckled, taking off his hat and shaking his head. "That would be the town of Balamb."
"Ah," Ayori scratched the side of her head, gazing off to the North.Let me guess, over there would be this bigass crater, home to a strange looking alien named Pupu…. While she was gazing across the field, she noticed a green and black case in the grass. Whoops. CDs… Ayori bent down, picked the case up and returned it to her backpack.
The man chuckled again, returning the hat to its original place on his head. "Would'ya like an escort? In case some evil Bite Bugs come and attack ya 'gain." The grin on his face widened, showing how amused he was with that statement. Ayori narrowed her eyes.
"Sure. But I think I need some bandages or something." The humor in his face left instantly. He glanced at the wounds on her shoulders and arms, his eyes growing a little wider in the process. He murmured something under his breath, and opened his hand in Ayori's direction. A green glow enveloped her, and when it disappeared her cuts went with it.
"Ooh. Cool. Cure, right?"
"Yop." The cowboy smiled again, gesturing to the shorter girl. "Shall we then?"
"Sure." Ayori lifted her backpack from the ground, and started walking to the east.
"Oh," the cowboy started. "By the way, the name's Irvine. Irvine Kinneas." He stuck his hand out, with a big smile on his face.
I was right… "My name's Ayori Taro. But, most people call me Ayo," She shook his hand, and they continued walking to the east.
~~~
Alright. Let's think about this Ayo, shall we? One: You are having a really weird dream. Two: In this dream, you got hacked up by Bite Bugs and saved by FF8's cowboy -Irvine. Three: He used a cure on you, and it felt all tingly and cool. Four: Point Three was retarded. Five: You're going to Garden. You're probably going to meet people like Quistis, Selphie, Squall, and Zell. Maybe even Seifer. What the hell are you gonna do now?
"Earth to Ayo-chan," Irvine called, waving a hand in front of her face.
Ayori blinked and realized she hadn't been listening to him. "Oh, sorry. I was drifting." She smiled at him, and he shrugged. "What were you saying?"
"We'll be at Balamb in a few minutes. Getting tired?"
"Nope. Not really." Ayori looked down at her shoes. Good thing I wore my running shoes upstairs again… walking around barefoot would be kind of suspicious.
When Balamb came into view, Ayori could only stop and stare in awe. It was beautiful. The archway over the entrance was shining white, and you could see the hotel from outside the town. If you looked even further back, you could make out Balamb Garden bobbing on the water.
"Wow.." Ayori stared as the sun reflected off some of the buildings. If this was Balamb, what did Esthar look like?
"Hey, are you coming? Or did you want to beat a monster with that bag of yours to say goodbye?" Irvine was standing under the archway, fists on hips and pretending to look impatient.
Ayori made a face. "No, that's quite alright." She took a deep breath and headed in after Irvine.
~~~
Walking down the street, Ayori was absorbed in staring at the buildings. She'd never seen them at these angles before. They looked… so real. But they couldn't be real, because this was a dream. Wasn't it?
Irvine glanced back at her, frowned, then returned his gaze to ahead of them. He spotted another young man running down the road. This young man had short blonde hair that was spiked in the front, baggy shorts, and a large black tattoo…
"Zell..." Ayori breathed, her eyes wide. There was no doubt about it. Nobody else in the world would think about getting a tattoo along the side of their face like that.
"HEY! ZELL!" Irvine waved as the young man came close to them. Zell waved back, grinning and jumping like a madman.
"Hey, Irvine! You took such a long walk that I was sent out to get you!"
"Are you serious?" Irvine scoffed. "They have no faith in me."
Zell shrugged, still grinning. He set his eyes on Ayori, his eyebrows shooting upwards. "Hey, Irvine, who's this? Don't tell me you found a new girl…"
Irvine grinned. "Well I-…" Irvine started, before Ayori whacked him in the arm. She turned to face Zell, a smile spreading across her face.
"Hi, I'm Ayori. And yes, Irvine found me, but probably not in the sense you're thinking."
"Ah." Zell nodded knowingly, and stuck out his hand. "I'm Zell Dincht. Nice to meet you."
Ayori returned the gesture. These guys sure like to shake hands.
"I found Ayo-chan here trying to defeat three Bite Bugs with a bag. It was quite interesting. She killed one by jumping on it a lot." Irvine grinned, messing up Ayori's hair. She batted his hand away and proceeded to fix the mess on her head. "She's short, like you Zell. You're almost the same height."
Zell grinned. "She's shorter."
"By like an inch!" Irvine exclaimed, but Zell just shook his head dismissively.
"Anyway, are you two heading to Garden? We're sailing soon. Oh hey… would that would mean you're a new student, Ayo?"
"Uhh…" Ayori blanked. New student? Would that work? No… but did she have a choice? "Uh… yeah. Actually, I'm hoping to start going to school at Garden really soon. ….Uh… Wanna be a SeeD." Ayori nodded. She immediately felt like an idiot though, because of the surprised looks the two gave her.
"Well. At least you have potential, right? I mean… you killed a Bite Bug with a bag and shoes. So… yeah. You might want to get yourself a real weapon, though." Irvine nodded, looking thoughtful.
Ayori smirked. No kidding. She shifted her backpack onto her other shoulder, and the three continued down the road to the docks. When they reached the top of a low slope, Zell ran inside a nearby house. Ayori and Irvine heard him yell something, and he came back out grinning. "Okay. Let's go. I just wanted to say bye to my ma before I left."
When they got to Garden, Ayori was so amazed at its size that she actually fell down looking up at it. Zell pulled her back to her feet and dragged her along as she stared at the deck they'd be climbing on. They ascended to the deck via rope ladder, and pulled it up after them. As soon as they did so, Garden began to move.
"Wow, that was a close one," Irvine said, sighing in relief. He glanced at Ayori. "You almost made me late! You and your crazy bug whacking!" He exclaimed, trying to look condescending.
"Oh shut up. Just because I can't kill them in one hit doesn't mean you can tease me. And I KILLED one with my crazy bug whacking!"
Zell laughed. "I can't wait for you to tell that part to Squall, Irvine." Zell must have noticed the look Ayori gave him when he said Squall, because then he continued, "and maybe you can introduce our newest student to him."
Irvine looked at Ayori and Zell, grinning and shaking his head. "Nah. I'll leave that up to you Zell. Now, if you'll both excuse me," Irvine turned on his heel and marched to the door to the stairway to 2F. "I've got some ladies to find." He waved a hand in the air above him, stepped through the door, and disappeared.
"Well," Ayori said, with a slightly amused look on her face. "It's too bad he made such a dramatic exit just to have us follow him in." Zell smirked.
"Well," he said, motioning to the door that Irvine disappeared through. "Shall we?"
~~~