Monster Hunter pt 7.

Quistis waited with baited breath for the hunting party to return. Ever since their departure the day before she had been hovering about between the Command Centre and the main gate, figuring that any information on their death or injury would have to be delivered to the Command Centre first. So far she had heard neither hide nor hair of the Anjanath party, but there was a slow trickle of casualties from less successful expeditions. One unlucky guy was sporting a broken knee and the loose appendage dangled, rotating slowly as he was stretchered away in the direction of the Infirmary, his distraught handler following along behind the burly palico-medics. Such sights were apparently not uncommon however, because when Quistis poked her head in through the Infirmary door to see if the Professor had heard anything of the Anjanath party that Quistis had missed, she was waved away and told that they were too busy to speak to her today.

So back to the front gate it was. She paced as she waited, and stewed. She was still angry with Seifer for locking her in the barrack for a week, a feeling which had only been compounded by him leaving her behind to go on a hunt. The first hunt. It was supposed to be a momentous occasion, one they would be able to experience together. But instead of being out with everyone else out there in the forest, here she was, sat on the dock and waiting for them all to come back. If they came back at all. Her self-pity was intermittently interrupted by stabs of fear that one or all of them would not survive. Hunting was dangerous and people got killed all the time. There was every chance that one in their party would not make it back and the more Quistis thought about it the more she worried that she might be a part of the reason why they were more likely to perish. She chewed the inside of her cheek as she paced, beating herself up with thoughts of Seifer's broken, mangled body, dripping from the jaws of a gigantic dinosaur who snapped him up like a tasty morsel and wondered - what if her going with him, or not going with him, was the difference between him coming back alive, or not coming back at all? These cheery thoughts tied her over until morning when her fretting was interrupted by Professor Kadowaki.

"Good Morning, Miss Trepe." The good Professor said, wandering over with her hands clasped behind her back.

"Morning." Quistis greeted her, looking anything but pleased to see her.

"How are you today?"

"Impatient, thank you."

Professor Kadowaki raised an eyebrow and tsked, grabbing hold of Quistis' hand and pulling the tall girl down to her level. She checked her pulse, the pallor of her skin, how bloodshot her eyes were and even made Quistis stick out her tongue, before tutting again and dragging her off in the direction of the Infirmary.

Quistis made to protest, but Kadowaki wasn't having any of it. "Standing around the front gate like a dame before the dance is not going to bring that boy back any faster."

She stood Quistis in a corner of her office and asked her to perform a number of cognitive tests. "Stand over there please and stand on one foot. Good, now close your eyes and stick your chin out. Further. Good. Now count backwards from 1000 please."

A pass, with flying colours.

"Excellent - you'd be surprised by how many people start counting up - now put both feet on the floor, shoulder width apart, put your arms out straight - a little higher please - and rotate them in opposite directions. Good, now I would like you to say the following phrase backwards: The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick…. Would you like to try again? … Oh nevermind it's almost impossible to say forwards anyway, I'll give you a pass for that one."

Phew.

"How do you feel?" The Professor asked, testing Quistis' temperature and taking her pulse again.

"Fine," Quistis said, "Just tired."

"Mm, I'm not surprised, you've been standing around outside all night. You should get some rest, he'll come back eventually."

"And if he doesn't?"

The Professor fixed her with a look and said simply, "Then there's nothing you can do about it anyway."

"But if only I had gone with him, I could have prevented him from coming to any harm!" Quistis complained. "I'm meant to be out there, as his handler, not standing about in the base counting seagull droppings!"

Kadowaki breathed a long suffering sigh and patted Quistis' hand. "Listen," She began softly, unable to stop her motherly inclinations from bleeding over into her daily interactions with the hunters and handlers under her care, "When you came into my infirmary, limp and bleeding, he told me right away that it was his fault you were injured. He was very concerned that you weren't permanently damaged and took the whole thing very seriously indeed. I know you're itching to get out there and hunt some monsters, but try to be a little more conscious of how he feels. You've had a lucky escape this time and I'm sure he's thinking that the next time might not be so lucky."

"But he won't even let me out of the settlement! This is overkill, isn't it?" Quistis whined, making Kadowaki hold up a hand and shake her head.

"Not in his mind it isn't. You've just survived a very nasty attack, Quistis, I'm not at all surprised he's nervous of taking you outside again - it's his responsibility to make sure that you both come back alive and you very nearly didn't." The wrinkled old prune smiled, "Give him some time to calm down and I'm sure it won't be long before you're out on another expedition." At Quistis' doubtful expression she continued, "Hunters are like puppies really, they can't get on without their handlers for long."

Their little heart to heart drawing to a close, the Professor trotted over to another bookshelf, scampering up the attached ladder and pulling out a thin pamphlet from a group of much thicker files and throwing it down on her desk. It professed to be Team Trelmasy's medical file and Quistis watched as the Professor filled in a page, finishing it off with a big green stamp before tucking it into the pamphlet. She gave the pamphlet a pat, "All done, you're free to return to your duty."

Quistis thanked the Professor and then wandered out into the sunshine again, mulling over the Professor's assessment of Seifer's behaviour. He hardly seemed the caring type. He was brash and rude and every word dripped in sarcasm. He leapt at any chance to poke fun or make her uncomfortable. He had stood around her bedside for the whole week, barely leaving her alone for a moment, bullying her about her pills and forcing her to 'rest and recuperate'... She found an abandoned supply crate to sit on in view of the main gate and sulked. Alright so maybe he had his moments of compassion. But killing someone with kindness wasn't really showing them kindness. And he'd left her behind on their first hunt! Granted she hadn't been signed off yet, and no she wasn't really going to be doing anything useful, and yes she realised that their mode of travel would be another of those damnable wingdrakes… But she couldn't shake the feeling of being hard done by.

The midday sun was high in the sky by the time the hunting party had Astera's main gate back in its sights. All seven members were heavily laden with monster material while the palicos scampered ahead, picking up interesting mushrooms, flowers and other things like bones and insects that might be of use. It had taken all morning to harvest the Anjanath and much grunting, heaving and name calling to roll the creature over to they could skin both sides. They had taken the hide, the webbing from the spine, the nasal plate - or as much of it was left after the killing blow - and as many teeth and claws as they could extricate. What was left resembled more of a skinless chicken than a fearsome predator.

They stuffed their packs quite happily, regaling their handlers with some of the more 'awesome' moments of the battle as they set off home. It was around this time that Xu seemed to remember that she was in a bad mood and had turned her attention to Seifer. She scolded him as they walked: "When we get back to base you need to apologise to Quistis."

"-The fuck?!" Seifer snapped, "Why the fuck should I be apologising to her?!"

"Because you almost got her killed, that's why! You're the hunter, it's your responsibility to keep her safe, not stand by and watch while she gets kicked all over the countryside."

"I didn't 'stand and watch'! I fucking killed the thing!"

"After it used Quistis for a stress ball! You're supposed to be looking after her!"

"I already know that, Yang. Hyne, the fuck is the matter with you? Getting all up in my shit today, pretending like you give a fuck… What's the matter? Choir boys not blowing you off the way they used to? Well don't start taking it out on me!"

Shaking a little at the sheer insolence - not to mention the inappropriate and downright crude implications on her sexual preferences - Xu shot back, "Well if you already know that there shouldn't be anything stopping you from saying sorry to her! You owe her an apology, Almasy."

"Oh I do, do I? Should be down on my knees, should I? Grovel for forgiveness, should I? Piss off, Yang."

"Who else is going to apologise? It's your fault, you have to account for it-"

He whirled around, anger in his eyes as he got in her face. "I know it's my fault, you bitch, I have eyes in my head, I can see it's my fault, you don't have to tell me about it! Why the fuck do you think I left her behind today? Why the fuck do you think I forced her to stay in her bed all week? Why the fuck do you think I stood over her the whole time, feeding her medicine while she bitched and screamed, making sure that nothing fucking happened?" He spat off to the side. "You haven't got a fucking clue about me, or her. So stay the fuck out."

Xu scoffed at the blustering man who towered over her, his cheeks puffing, "Don't try and tell me you give a shit about her, Almasy, we've all seen you stomping about the base like a bully, treating everyone like they're beneath you, what makes you think I believe that Quistis is any different?"

"If I didn't give a shit about her I would have left her to bleed out on the rocks, picked up my shit and fucked off home, wouldn't I." He replied, turning away. "And anyway, it's not like you're in any position to start lecturing me."

"What?" Her eyes narrowed.

"Word around base is you nearly managed to pop off your handler, once upon a time." He said, nonchalant now he seemed to have the upper hand. He wasn't good at straight arguments with logic and reason and would more than likely lose if the focus remained on his shortfalls, but luckily for him Xu's record wasn't exactly clean either. Nida looked nervously at Xu as she stormed after Seifer's retreating back.

"And what the fuck do you know about it?" She hissed.

"Oh, not much," He said, blasé, "Just that you were pratting about in the desert getting all mushy about lover-boy when you should have been paying attention and didn't even notice a Diablos, of all things - something I'm sure would have been almost impossible to miss if you'd have been doing your job right, but who knows, maybe your sideburns were muffling your hearing." He shrugged at Xu's outraged expression. She opened and closed her mouth, fury rendering her mute. Seifer regarded the hissing spitting woman with disappointment. He gave her reddening cheek an audacious pat. "My point, oh short and hairy one, is that you and I are really no different, so you can stop pretending like you don't know how I feel about getting my handler hurt, and go back to grooming your moustache, or licking your own bollocks, or whatever it is you sexually repressed types do when you're not out frightening the local kids."

He waved a hand dismissively at her and pushed on ahead, skipping around Team Yang's hissing palico and leaving Nida to try to calm Xu down. Anger still rolled off Seifer in waves, but the brisk walk helped. It wasn't like he didn't plan on apologising to Quistis at some point, but he sure as shit didn't need to be 'told' to do it. If anything Xu had only made the situation worse! If he went and apologised to Quistis now it would look like he was only doing it because Xu had told him to. So he wouldn't. Not in the conventional way anyway. He had already spoken to Fuujin while they were skinning the Anjanath and she had offered him her share of the loot. She and Raijin didn't have a use for it anyway, being as they were so much higher rank and their armour was constructed of much rarer materials which gave better contributions to attribute points and defence, so Fuujin had happily donated hers and Raijin's packloads to Seifer's cause. He only hoped there was enough material here to carry out his plan, if Xu would stop flapping her gums for long enough for him to actually get on with it.

They trundled into Astera not long after 3pm, tired and hungry and footsore. The Palicos immediately scampered off to the cafeteria for some food before bed, but the rest of the hunting party could not retire so easily because they still had to report to the Command Centre.

Quistis saw them arrive and hurried over, relieved to see that they were all alright.

"How'd it go?" She asked, noting the layers of gore and mud and other things the hunter's were caked in. It had long since dried and was beginning to flake off.

"Easy." Seifer replied, shouldering his pack a little higher and indicating it with a jerk of his thumb. "Got heaps of loot from it."

"Oh, good."

He had been about to put the pack on the floor and pull out some things to show her, but the dull tone of her reply stopped him. Was she disappointed? Did she wish it had been harder for him? He snorted. He wouldn't be surprised if she did, then at least he might see how much he needed her presence and would wish that she had been there too and would feel bad about leaving her behind. Fucking women.

Assuming she was still angry with him for leaving her behind he decided to ignore her for the time being and stepped around her in the direction of the Command Centre. She could be all miserable and dejected if she liked, but it wasn't going to stop him from completing his quest. The hunt team stopped before the Command Centre table and waited to be acknowledged. Quistis trailed behind.

"Welcome back." The balding fat man from a week ago greeted them with a smile, looking at them all in turn and noting the state of the hunters. "I take it you were successful in your hunt?"

Xu nodded, "Yes Sir, the Anjanath was defeated in section 15, Sir."

"Good, good." He nodded, "How did our new recruits fare?"

"Very well, hunters Tilmitt and Almasy delivered the killing blows. No casualties were obtained on our side, Sir."

"Excellent!" He clapped his hands, beaming at them while the rest of the Command Centre merely nodded or rolled their eyes at his exuberance. General Caraway was nowhere to be seen. "Then you all deserve a reward, 800 gil each I think and some tokens for the research commission."

"Tokens?" Selphie asked, "Are they like coupons?"

Seifer rolled his eyes as the Commander explained - of course Selphie would be the kind of person to collect coupons - "Of a sort, they can be exchanged here in Astera for a number of different rewards or items, enhancements for gears and weaponry, food from the cafeteria… That sort of thing. It's more of a currency really than a coupon. Now, I suggest you all get some rest and a bath, we will dispatch your pay in a short while."

He noticed Quistis hovering at the back of the group. "Miss Trepe, was it?" She nodded. "How are you feeling? I understand you were out of action for a while."

"Yes," She stepped up to the table, "I'm much better now, thank you, Sir. Signed off and ready for duty."

"Good good," He smiled, "I'm glad to hear it. Well run along and try not to get into too much trouble."

They nodded and departed, the sounds of the Commander's contented sighing following in their wake.

Seifer looked back at him over his shoulder. He had turned around and was looking out over the see with his hands behind his back, bouncing on his toes and humming. Weird. How was that guy a commander? And what was he doing out here in the New World anyway? This wasn't the place for fuzzy bunnies.

"So," Seifer addressed Quistis, "You've been signed off."

"Yes." Came the sullen reply.

He huffed. "What did you do while we were gone?"

"Sat around and waited for you to come back. What do you think I did?"

He took in her frowning face, folded arms, slight pout… The way she didn't want to meet his eye. "Why are you sulking?"

"Because I'm annoyed with you."

"What the hell for?!"

"For leaving me behind!"

"You were injured!"

"I was signed off while you were away! I would have been perfectly fit for it at the time! It's almost like you're trying to sabotage me!"

"Sabo-!" He almost couldn't believe his ears. Sabotage her? "Why on earth would I sabotage you?! Where do you women get this rubbish?"

"I don't know why - but that's how it looks! You don't consult me before the hunt, you don't want to tell me how it went now, you don't want me going with you - it's hard not to think that you're just trying to sabotage me, or get rid of me, or something!"

He dragged a hand down his face, trying to keep his cool. She was just upset. She didn't really believe this bullshit, she'd been saying only a few days ago about how they were meant to be a team and so forth. She was just taking out her frustrations, that was all. He gave her a considering look. She glared back. He shook his head.

"You know, I was going to save this until later, but I guess we can do it now if it'll make you feel better." He said. At this her expression turned wary, but he beckoned her to follow him and she tentatively did. He lead them up to the forge and through the gaggle of handlers who were gathered around the noticeboard beside the entrance. A few turned to watch as he passed, giggling and waving. Unable to help himself, he gave them a grin in return, feeling good about himself. They ducked into the forge and went straight over to the forgemaster. Seifer unloaded his pack in a heap on the counter in front of him. "Your best Anjanath hunt armour please." and then pointed at Quistis, "For her."

"For me?!" She almost choked on her own breath. "For me?"

Seifer nodded as the forge crew carried his materials off to begin construction. "It was meant to be a surprise."

"A surprise."

"Ok, well not a surprise, a gift. To say say sorry for getting you hurt. And for leaving you behind - I knew you wanted to go but I just didn't think it was wise."

She gave him an appraising look as Professor Kadowaki's words came back to her. He continued. "I'm not going to take you on a hunt like that-" he indicated the knee-length skirt and plain white blouse she had on "-so if you're going to come with me you need some proper gear. The other hunt pairs have it, it's just us who doesn't have the right kit. So, I thought, if I bought you some armour, then you could come with me into the field and get to see some of the action, and I won't have to feel like I'm carrying around a knob of melting butter or keep having to check over my shoulder that you've not been wiped out by a herd of rampaging mosswine or anything else stupid. And that way we'll both be happy."

Quistis was stunned. She had taken her hunter for a dumb insensitive brute, albeit good-looking and a dab hand with a sharp stick, but a dumb brute nonetheless and had fully expected to have to fight a gruelling uphill battle to win back her rights to go on hunts with him. She had not expected him to be so… reasonable about the whole affair. In fact, if she were honest, she was even a bit touched by his generosity.

That feeling changed though when she saw the armour he had bought for her.

"Oh, hell no." she muttered as the forge crew proudly exhibited their creation on a mannequin for her to see.

Beside her, Seifer suppressed a giggle. "Why not? What's the matter with it?"

"What's the matter with it?" She repeated, incredulously, pointing at the armour as though he might have been looking at something else. "There's hardly anything of it! I thought we were meant to be hunting monsters, not putting on a show!"

"Well, there's gotta be some truth behind the phrase 'knock 'em dead', right?" He said with a smile.

She scowled and looked back at the armour, wafting a hand up and down it, "And what is this supposed to be protecting anyway, because it sure as hell isn't protecting anyone's modesty!"

Offended, the forgemaster spoke up, "Hey hey! That's some high quality stuff you're looking at!"

"Tch, for a bikini I suppose!" Quistis scoffed, not impressed in the slightest.

The forgemaster puffed himself up as he began irritably listing off the various attributes of the Anja Mail; "It's got an armour rating of 100, +15 flame resistance, 3 bonus adrenaline points, a stamina boost, special ammo boost, artillery boosters, extra bang for your fire elemented buck and it's light, breathable and fashionable."

"And it comes in a nice colour too." Seifer added, making Quistis' face burn.

"But…" She protested weakly, "It hardly covers anything…"

"Oh that doesn't matter," Seifer said, grabbing her by an elbow and the mannequin in the other hand and wheeling Quistis off in the direction of the dressing rooms, thoroughly enjoying himself by this point, "Everyone knows your armour stats aren't about how much it covers, it's about the other mitigating attributes it offers you! Now come along, Mother Superior, let's go put it on and see what you think!"

And with that she was tossed unceremoniously into a changing stall, followed shortly afterwards by her new set of armour. She pulled them on reluctantly, grumbling about how Seifer seemed to be much too excited about the whole affair.

She emerged from the changing room several minutes later having spent several minutes longer in fact than it had taken her to put the pieces on. Looking in the mirror at her new ensemble had not helped to warm her up to the idea of wearing this on a semi-regular basis. The body was a scandalously short blush pink crop top, with a lace up front and heavy feather ruff that reached down her back in a rough, shaggy cloak. The top stopped just above the bottom of her ribcage and exposed everything underneath until the heavy leather and alloy belt that sat low on her hips. A pair of thigh-high pink leather boots with alloy kneepads and heel and toe-guards clung to her legs, making them feel slightly stiff and clunky, but a lot stronger and more powerful than before and a dark pink pair of gauntlets with bone elbow and knuckle guards and bone launcher adorned her arms. There was also a helmet, which was mostly metal, with a buffed leather inside for comfort and two stiff wings that stuck up like ears, but she didn't put it on. There was no point in wearing it in the forge and she felt ridiculous enough in full armour without adding the helmet on top. She carried it under her arm instead.

Seifer had his back to her when she emerged and she padded over, feeling awfully self conscious. He was sorting through another pack full of anjanath material although the pack was obviously not his. She coughed lightly and he looked round. Then flushed a little pink. It made her want to run screaming back to the dressing room and change.

Clearing his throat Seifer asked, "How does it feel?"

"Nasty and exposed!" She all but howled. However, she wanted him to know that she appreciated him buying her the set, so added a little more quietly, "But I do feel stronger. And it's more comfortable than I expected."

He grinned and then indicated the pack behind him. "Great, I'm going to ask for a set for me and then we need to start getting ready to go back out. There's something about the Ancient Forest Camp that doesn't sit right and I want to go back and check it out."

Quistis raised an eyebrow. "And I'm going with you?"

"That was the idea," He said, grunting as he hauled the pack up onto the forgemaster's counter - who raised an eyebrow at the mountain of dead monster bits being dumped pretty much in his lap - and began to shake the contents out. "I'm not convinced that the Anjanath was the one to destroy the camp, but I don't know what else might, so I need you to come with me and help me assess some of the damage."

"But I thought hunters were supposed to be the ones with all the hands-on knowledge."

"You kidding?" He asked, standing back with the empty pack and giving her a quizzical look. "You're the one with the brains here, darling. I'm just the guy with the big pointy stick." At her unimpressed expression he re-adjusted his answer. "I'm fine against your bog-standard mean and ugly, but I don't think we're talking about your average monster here. The camp was strange. One half of it was burnt, but the other half had just been… Torn off. I don't think that Anjanath ever made it through the entrance, otherwise it wouldn't have bothered with beating the shit out of it from the inside of the tree, it would have just torched the place and fucked off. I think we're looking at something else, probably with the power of flight, but not necessarily great against fire."

She raised an eyebrow and put her forefinger and thumb to her chin in her thinking pose. They stood in silence for a moment until Quistis looked up at Seifer again and shrugged. "I don't know. Pukei-Pukei aren't brilliant against fire elements, but I doubt it would bother to attack a camp so far in the air, or have the strength to 'tear it off' as you put it. The Rathalos might be able to do it, but it wouldn't have a problem with fire."

"So it's something bigger." Seifer said.

"Maybe…" Quistis muttered, assuming her thinking pose again before saying, "I guess we would have to go and have a look to be able tell for sure…" Then, looking up, she wrinkled her nose and said, "But I think you should have a bath before then."

Seifer shrugged, supposing that she was right, and they both trotted off to look for a bath and bed. He would come back and pick up the Anjanath armour later.