Happy birthday to Momoshiro! This chapter is for you!

Sakura Moon co-wrote the last section of this fic and she edited this chapter. A round of applause for her!

SAGE KNOWLEDGE: ELECTRICTY AND MAGICK

('Sage knowledge' is from Hemera unless specified. Taken directly from FFXII)

"With the discovery and harnessing of electricity, it was suddenly possible to operate devices of a far larger scale than ever before conceived. However, the vast quantity of solid fuel required to generate electrical power, and the development of methods to artificially condense Mist, led to the latter supplanting the former as the dominant usable energy source in Hemera. Only the most energy-hungry devices still use electricity today."

3. Javelin

Though I cannot yet conclude without larger sample sizes and longer inspections, after careful study of Cyril Town and Sprohm Town, its neighboring areas, and the Spira Islands, I have come to accept several observations by the Archadian Scholars. First, they are technologically primitive compared to Hemera. One of the reasons may be that many of the precious natural resources used in our technologies; the magicites, the lost Nethicites, crystals, skystones are nonexistent, and the southern part of continent is completely veiled in Mist while the northern areas are Jagd zones. Though it is peculiar how Mist failed to gather inside into crystals where intense Mist is everywhere on the lands…

Inui Sadaharu

Madmoon 20, year 710

Sprohm Town, Country of Ivalice, World of Gaia

Madmoon 20, Year 710

Much to Echizen's displeasure, Momoshiro decided to tag along until they get to the nearest town, Sprohm. In less than twenty four hours, they had already traveled the distance of what would normally take about three days on foot. They stood in the shade of the stone buildings while Momoshiro desperately gasped for air. Much to the teen's annoyance, while he was doubled over and bullets, the boy stood as if he had just woken up from his beauty sleep and never jogged – or ran – the entire way from Aisenfield. He internally accused the boy of trying to leave him behind. He could feel a headache coming on soon.

"Well, we're here kid. You go your way, I go mine." Momoshiro winced. He had not managed to make Echizen call him by his real name yet nor did he succeed in getting rid of that degrading form of address.

"W-wait," he muttered between breaths, "I'll go with you… to the tavern. Just… give me a minute…."

Echizen sighed. "You're wasting our lifespan kid." He said, but leaned against the stone wall anyway. The trip to the tavern looked less than pleasing with the walk down the street burned by the high midday sun during the summer while sweating bullets.

The boy needed to go to the tavern to collect his reward for the Aisenfield mission and look for new ones. At the same time, Momoshiro needed to head back to Cyril, which was in that direction. He had gotten very annoyed when he learned that the boy intended to run the whole way and only sheer pride and the thought of the boy's mocking smirk forced Momoshiro to keep up with him. But what aggravated him more was the run seem to have no effect on Ryoma whatsoever.

Sometimes during their break last night when Momoshiro had been asleep like a log, Echizen had already switched back to his shoddy set of equipments.

The whispers didn't start when they entered the Long Ear Tavern though Momoshiro half expected it. He realized it was because the boy was together with him and was irritated that the boy waited for him to enter the tavern was just because of this and not out of companionship. The spectators probably thought he was Momoshiro's assistant or that sort and that made him feel a bit better. An armed, green highlighted haired fourteen year old boy does stand out in a tavern alone.

"Whaaaat!?" A voice drifted from a corner of the tavern. The teen saw Echizen's nose wrinkled in distaste. "This is so annoying nya!! We have to have job classes? Why can't we all be able to use everything nya?"

"Eiji, it's the rules of this country. You can't join a clan without it. At least they allow you to have a support class, and you can switch jobs in the middle if you're fast enough.(1)" Inui replied passively. "We need to if we want to register here as a clan."

"According to this guide, only certain jobs can do certain things! That means I can't use the sword, steal, and magick and I can't use black magick and white magick at the same time! Never mind arcane or time magick! This is so annoying!"

Inui wrote something on a notebook. "Hmm, this shows that people of Ivalice prefer to stick to a specific job and hone it. We need to watch out for high-leveled clanners from now on. They will be very skilled in their jobs."

"Eiji, you can't even use white magick." Fuji smiled.

"That's not the point!"

Oishi gently patted his partner's back. "We're not in Hemera anymore Eiji, we have to follow the rules."

"But I like Hemera." He grumbled.

Fuji spotted them and waved at duo. "Hey there."

"Good to see you Fuji-sempai, Eiji-sempai, sempai-tachi" Momoshiro greeted.

"Waa Ochibi!!" Eiji glomped Echizen while the boy wasn't paying attention as he was looking to the side. "Can you believe it? They make you have job classes nyaa!" The redhead said the words 'job classes' sardonically. "How do you live here?"

"Let go!" Ryoma yelled, feeling extremely uncomfortable in the close proximity of others. Momoshiro felt amused by this, though he was a bit wounded by his sempai's preference for the chibi. 'Who's the kid now?' The sight was drawing amused chuckles throughout the room. "Before I turn you into a frog." Echizen almost growled, he tried prying Eiji off of him but it was not working.

"E-Eiji, it's impolite! He doesn't like it." Oishi fretted.

The redhead let go reluctantly – though whether it was because of the boy's threat (there is a spell to turn people into frogs) or Oishi's fretting was unclear – and Ryoma immediately scurried behind the smiling brunet and the stoic captain, who he already deemed to be the best to keep that rabid redhead in check.

"There's no helping it once Eiji finds something to his liking." Kawamura chuckled.

"What are you Ochibi? An archer?" Eiji called at the Chibi behind Fuji.

"A bow related job." Inui muttered.

Fuji smiled at the boy. "I say an assassin." Ryoma decided not to comment on any of them and headed towards the counter to finish what he came to do.

"We were heading to the Royal Bervania Palace to register our clan." Oishi explained.

"Ochibi! Join our clan. Even a wolf pup needs nakama (2) nyaa!"

Someone in the crowd muttered. "No. Way." As if on cue from the name 'wolf pup', whispers started around the room. "You mean that redhead was glomping..."

"Then who's that teen who came in with him?"

Momshiro was a bit embarrassed that they started taking about him.

"Yadda." Ryoma bitterly stated, annoyed that his cover was blown, especially after a rather embarrassing moment for his part. He quickly did what he needed to get the reward and left without a farewell.

"EEhh? Where did you go with Ochibi nyaa?"

"I met him at Aisenfield. A three days walk from here while I was training. Apparently he was taking a job."

"Did you see the Diamond Rain?" Inui asked.

"Huh? What? Since when-"

"Latest rumor."

"Oh." He felt embarrassed since he is technically a bar owner's son. But he couldn't have known. He was training in the wilderness for almost a week.

"Hey Momo!" The pub owner called the teen over. "You were with the boy when you came in no? Explain yourself."

"Yes uncle, I was…" Momoshiro started, knowing that pub owners always tried to gather as much information as possible.

The job system of Ivalice is quite fascinating. I wonder what I should choose. There are so many jobs that look interesting. Some of our friends had already chosen their jobs. Eiji is choosing to become a Thief (I can just hear Oishi mumbling the topic of immorality inside his head) and Inui chose to be a scholar – no surprises there. I'm excited to find out what Tezuka may opt for and see how Kaido make of this. For me, I might try out as an archer. I've never done it before, but it looks appealing enough from the way Echizen showed us.

Fuji Syuusuke

Madmoon 22, year 710

Sprohm Town, Country of Ivalice, World of Gaia

Madmoon 23, Year 710

"You're ready kupo?" The moogle, Clan Rouge's (3) party leader asked over the gathering crowd. A red, black, and a white mage sat on the side. A soldier stood beside them.

Moogles are known for their small bat-like wings, soft hair covering their bodies, large ears, and the colored pom-pom on their heads. They are only around 80-120 cm tall. In certain regions, Moogles call themselves with the pronoun "mog", but typically they end their sentences with the word "Kupo". Their intelligence and lifestyles are similar to Humes, which makes it easy for 

Moogles to live amongst the Humes. With their dexterous hands, they are knowledgeable in the field of engineering. It is said that Moogles built the first airship in Hemera; a masterpiece of technological advancement (4).

The current moogle, a famous gunner and the leader of Clan Rouge, stood on several crate boxes as he signaled four humes to the clearing in the center of the mass in the public square. The crowd whispered among themselves and pointed their fingers, some even made bets. Momoshiro wished that they could have the initiation somewhere more private.

He nodded to the moogle. But it is four against one for Gaia's sake. It's hardly fair even though they're probably the weakest of Clan Rouge. Momoshiro wanted to hit himself for deciding to try out such a hard clan.

Today is Madmoon 23, his sixteenth birthday. After a sad farewell back in Cyril with his father and the townsfolk he had known for most of his life yesterday, he gathered his travel gear and came back to Sprohm; a city famous for clan tryouts.

The judge blew the whistle. Momoshiro nervously fingered a precious card in his pocket…

The moon had already rose high in the night sky. Echizen came to a halt in the middle of the prairies. From behind, a hunched over shadow almost slugged towards him.

"You're pretty good kid, to keep up with me." He muttered.

"W-were you… throwing… me, off… on purpose?" Momoshiro collapsed on a nearby rock.

He smirked. From a leather card case strapped against his left thigh, he flipped through his thick deck, took one out decorated with pink flowery designs and handed to the teen. "Your reward I suppose."

"T-that's a law card." Momoshiro sat up instantly. A law card is an opposite of an anti-law card. It imposes a new law instead of taking one away. "It's for… color magick." He was so shocked that he forgot to breathe normally.

"You can't use magick. And with your skills and that javelin of yours, you'll have to sell your soul to Zalera, the Death Seraph to pass some of the initiation missions certain Clans put you through." Echizen smirked. "Unless of course, you want to join open clans or the ones that have herb picking as -"

He cautiously took the card with a perplexed expression. "Thanks. But… why me? This is a really rare card though… rarer than even the other ones."

"Not where I get it." Echizen patted his deck. "Plus I'm running out of space."

"Where-" Momoshiro stared at the case in awe.

He simply smirked again and shook his head. "Mada mada dane."

It was cheap shot, but was worth a try. Of course, he's not going to give away where he's getting those cards. "How did you know that much about me? How did you know that I-"

"I saw a flan carcass on the way. If you don't use magick to kill a flan, then obviously you can't." And he spoke no more of it that night.

Momoshiro could sell that card for fortunes, and could worth as much as the best spear in the armory, but that would be tampering on Echizen's (rare?) kindness. He needed to get into that clan. The card would nullify three of his enemies almost completely.

He threw the car card into the air and it burst into light. The crowd gasped, amazed at seeing the card for the first time in their lives.

The white mage and the black mage have now been completely nullified, except maybe they can whack him with their staves or something. The red mage still has her rapier, but her magick is out of the problem. That means he only needs to deal with the soldier.

"He's only got a javelin. Yet he has a Rank 5 law card?" Momoshiro caught one of the comments.

"That idiot, spending all his gil on a one-time thing."

Before his four stunned opponents have a chance to recover from the shock, he thrust his javelin through the abdomen of the solider, getting rid of his biggest problem. The solider 'dies' after one final scream. The rest should be a piece of cake.

Momoshiro attacked the red mage. Since he's heavy melee, Momoshiro easily managed to harm her. He noticed the white/black mage throwing potions to cure her as he slowly grinded her down.

One thing he forgot to account for--their items. Even though Momoshiro could score a hit with the distance advantage of his javelin, the mages will keep on curing the red mage with potions.

Still, there was no way in hell that he would give up and surrendered that easily. He would just have to make due. Momoshiro heard steps coming his way; he quickly dodged the red mage—who thrust her rapier at him. Quickly getting some footing, he stabbed the red mage with his javelin. The red mage faltered, but survived the damage. 'So close, if only I had stabbed her in a more vital place.'

Keeping an eye on the soldier, Momoshiro went on the offensive toward the mages (who had grouped together while wielding their staves and rapier together). He quickly headed for the white mage, who only stared helplessly as she watched him charged at her. The black mage stood directly in the path of his direction, causing Momoshiro to skid off—barely scratching the 

white mage as he tried to avoid collision (though he didn't want to admit that he was startled when the black mage did that).

Momoshiro tried to keep his breathing even while handling the stress that was beginning to form; thanks to the small fact that there are spectators watching him. By then, the mages have grouped together and the red mage looked like she was going to charge at him with the other two backing her up. 'It's now and never,' Momoshiro thought as he tensed his muscles to prepare for the attack that he had practiced. Running toward them, he wielded the javelin above his head, legs slightly bent as he jumped through the air. High in the sun's view, he blinded the mages—who stopped in their tracks.

"GAH!"

He flung down the weapon at them in one hard movement. In that one attack, he forced all his power into it—causing the red mage to die from the high damage move. Momoshiro rejoiced the fact that he had managed to take down a clan person in a single move.

He moved on to the other two mages, who were nothing more than children with sticks without their magick. He quickly eliminated one of the mages and eyed the last one. That's it! He's almost there. Not paying attention to his back, the mage smirks at him. Momoshiro doesn't understand why until…

He felt the sword puncture through his back.

Momoshiro felt his body becoming slower. Reaction slowed down. His vision began to fade as darkness slowly crept toward the center. There was a vision of green. The last time he saw was the judge declaring the other side winner. Darkness took over.

"You're not ready for the big leagues kid." The solider smirked as he drove his sword deeper into Momoshiro's shoulder.

"Winner Clan Rogue!" The judge declared, he blew his whistle and everyone who had 'died' were revived. Momoshiro stood up from where he was slain.

Phoenix Downs (5). He scoffed. Of course. How could he have been so careless? Momoshiro wanted to punch himself silly for forgetting that one key item. One of the mages must have used it while he was too busy battling one of them. Momoshiro walked away from the battlefield. Someone approached him. It was a moogle.

"Will you join our clan kupo?"

"Huh?"

"How 'bout it kupo?"

Momoshiro grinned weakly. "…If you're letting me join because of that law card, then no. It was a gift you see..."

"I see kupo," The moogle turned away from Momoshiro, disappointed by that fact.

Momoshiro sighed; disappointment rang through him. A part of him hoped that he was asked because of his skills, but his intuition told him that it was only because of Echizen's rare gift of kindness that attracted a lot of the crowd's attention. His deep instincts had never led him astray.

He turned down quite a few recruitment offers, his intuition telling him that it was only because of the law card. Momoshiro could slowly feel his dream and hopes being destroyed. 'Do I look like a gil bank to you?' He thought to himself as law and anti-law cards are generally expensive.

"Didn't know you wield a spear like that Momo!" A loud voice boomed behind Momoshiro.

Momoshiro was startled, though after realizing who the caller was, he felt that he shouldn't have been too surprised really by the sudden greeting. "I didn't know you guys were watching," he said sheepishly. After hearing the compliment, Momoshiro felt like he had really improved since the beginning. "Thanks for the praise Eiji." Momoshiro rubbed the back of his head. "All those days training in the wilderness really show."

"Hey Momo, why don't you join us instead?" Kawamura called. "Well…I am in no position to talk since I'm the newest…"

"But-"

"Hmm, it would be beneficial to have a local Gaian to guide us through this continent, especially one who is the adopted son of an informant."

"How-"

"Don't underestimate Inui, Momoshiro-san." Oishi smiled kindly.

"You're not good as Ochibi, but you'll do." Eiji grinned. "Just Kidding! Hey I'm only joking!" He added after he saw the teen's long face.

"Fsshhh…"

"Tezuka, it's okay ne?" Fuji faced the stoic captain.

"Ah-ah."

Momoshiro heard the stoic captain utter a word for the first time.

"Welcome to Clan Seishun Momo-chan!"

Joining Clan Seishun wasn't exactly what he had in mind, but he just knew that he wouldn't regret it. He hasn't seen them fight but his intuition tells him these people could change the world – and he's going to be one of them. Next time he sees Echizen, he will thank him and prove to him that he can be stronger. This was the best birthday present ever.

1. I made that up. In the actual FFTA, you can't once the battle starts but I need this for future chapters. I'm also ignoring the fact that certain jobs can be only done by certain race.

2. Nakama: friends, allies, teammates etc.

3. Clan Rouge is made up :)

4. Taken from final fantasy wikia

5. Famous Final Fantasy item. Used to revive 'dead' characters. Doesn't seem to work in cutscenes lol.

To all my dear readers,

Unfortunately, this will be the last installment of First Dawn forever. I simply do not have the time to continue three stories at once, nor do I have the storyline for this fic after this chapter. I just thought the concept was interesting.

I'm sorry to share even more unfortunate news. My two main fics will be on hold for some time. I am very busy these days and I cannot continue to dump my hours into these works.

First Dawn will conclude with one more chapters that contains information on the characters and the setting.

Firey

Published: 23/07/08

Revised: