The Secret Garden
Based on: Final Fantasy Record Keeper
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy. The OCs featured in this fic belong to various friends. Note that while the characters belong to friends, I am the one writing the fic itself. Thank you to my friends for allowing me to borrow your characters. If you wish to appear, please send me a message and we can work something out.
Notes: This is the sequel to Records of Keeper Canti. It's wibby-wobbly, timey-whimy in its execution. I care not. If you care, shut the fuck up and go away. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Warnings: Cursing, potential OOC, OC x Canon, stupid fluffy romance, sex, angst, self-insert author avatar
FIC START!
Chapter Six
Reassessment
The trio of girls were led to the Combat Basics Year One classroom by a moogle wearing a gear around its pompom and flew in a zigzag pattern. Of course, there were other first year students just as confused as they were, and many were even later to the gathering than they were. All of them were gathered into a room with no desks or chairs, but just told to sit wherever they wished. The instructor was a lady in the same uniform as the students, though the articles did seem a bit more adult than the students ensemble. She had blue hair that was pulled into several different braids, all hanging around her waist. The moogle stayed with the instructor once all of the students for the class were assembled there in the room, still floating about in a zigzag pattern over all of them.
"Settle down, younglings," the instructor said, snapping her fingers. The lights overhead immediately turned as blue as her hair, catching all of their attention. "I am Shivan," she continued. "And I will be bringing you into the basics of combat. All who live here in Dagurreo know, even from a young age, that we are preparing for an eventual invasion. We do not know what this enemy is, but those in power - the Senate and our headmaster, Leviathan - know it is coming for all of us. So, it was decreed and ratified into law that all of us know how to defend ourselves and those weaker than ourselves from whatever eventual enemy we may face."
Canti sat there between her two friends Crystal and Hikari, each of them watching the teacher very closely and paying attention to every single detail.
"All of you have potential for battle. The tests have told us this," Shivan continued. "It it up to you to see where your aptitude lies. This morning, all of you will try different weapons to see what works with your body type and strength. Everything from throwing darts to hammers, from maces to staves, and the tried and true spears and swords are all within these many chests. Explore them all and see what clicks with you."
Crystal raised her hand.
"Yes, miss?" Shivan said, turning to her.
"I've never held a weapon before," Crystal said. "How do I know where to start?"
"That is a good question, which I am sure many of you have," Shivan said, putting her hands together. "How about all of you who have never held a weapon before gather on the left side of the room, and those who have spent some time training over to the right side." She waited for the group to divide, though there were only a few standing on the right side of the room now. "Single file, line up. Each of you will get a few minutes to hold and experiment with each weapon, one at a time. Once you test them all out for yourselves, you'll make a decision."
Each of the first year students, starting with the one nearest the treasure chests where all the weapons were kept, went one-by-one to look at different pieces of weaponry. Save for the shuffling of each one and the clattering of weapons back and forth between hands, it wasn't very noisy. Until, one kid said that he liked the feel of a sword, and then another one responded with how much she thought the bow and arrow was more her style. Soon everyone had an opinion on every piece, and Canti got so lost in everyone else talking that she had a hard time hearing her own thoughts.
Canti was in the middle of the line, so it took a bit for her to get to the first weapon. A sword. She was left handed, and this one was clearly meant for a right handed user, so she immediately passed it to the person behind her, which was Crystal. A staff felt light and easy to use. She made a mental note of that. She couldn't even get an arrow to notch against the bowstring, so that was out. The hammer was simply too heavy to lift, and the mace seemed frightening with its ball and chain at the end of a stick. Canti wasn't sure what to do, everything seemed a bit weird, until she found a spear. It immediately reminded her of Papa Cid. She thought of watching him practice with it, and mimicked one of his poses. The spearhead in her left hand and her right hand holding it steady seemed to make sense. For some reason, she just understood it. It felt natural and she could see herself fighting with this against untold hordes of enemies. She smiled, having faith in being her father's daughter, and placed it down to pass it along to Crystal behind her. Canti tried other weapons, too. A gun, a bo staff, a fighting claw, a double bladed ax, a katana… but nothing seemed to have that same natural feeling to her hands than a spear. What were the chances of that?
Once she had tried everything, Shivan directed her to sit with the other students who had completed it. Everyone was talking about how cool the one weapon they liked was, but she sat there with her legs crossed, waiting for her friends to finish.
Crystal had a huge smile on her face as she sat next to Canti. "Just like my grandpa," she whispered, giving a thumbs up, "I'm gonna use a huge hammer!"
"...I liked the spear," Canti replied, also in a whisper. "It seemed to just… click with me."
"Ah… that's the mark of the Highwind family," Crystal said. "All the Highwinds are dragoons. Everyone knows that. It's tradition. It's in the blood, as they say."
Canti sat there for a moment as she thought about those words. In the blood? But… she was adopted. Did that matter? It made her a little nervous to think about it. She put her hands in her lap, watching as Hikari came over to sit down close to them. Hikari seemed to be confident in how it went, and Crystal seemed downright excited about it. But Canti wasn't sure what to make of it. The spear felt so natural in her hands. She was just like her Papa Cid in so many ways, so maybe it wasn't such a bad thing…
"Ah, great! Everyone has a good feeling for what would work for them, now, right?" Shivan asked, catching everyone's attention with a clap of her hands that let out more shiny blue energy. "You will report your weapon choice to the Garden distributor, and you will have a loaner assigned to you until you can find one that works for you to practice with. Every day, you will bring your weapon with you, and starting tomorrow, everyone will begin formal training with their weapon. There will be general sessions, and sessions where we break off according to weapon types." She waved for all of them to follow her, and her moogle followed behind all of the students to make sure no one wandered off while they were transferring.
Canti was given a spear and a holster to strap to her back to carry it in while she was not using it. She held it in her hands and made a few motions, but she decided to wait until she got home to ask Papa Cid more advice about it. She put it in the holster, watching her friends try with their weapons a bit more.
Hikari had a katana blade, and she seemed to be quite happy about it. She made a few slashes and then put the sword in its sheath, laughing at it. Crystal had a hammer which looked super heavy but she used it with absolute ease. She was much stronger than her appearance would have led onlookers to believe.
…
During lunch break, Canti sat by herself in the middle of the courtyard with her little basket full of fried chocobo and potato wedges as she found in the cafeteria. There were just so many people in there that she didn't want to be in there very long, so she only took something she knew she'd enjoy and wanted to better plan her future trips into the cafeteria better than just barging in there when everyone else did. She was happy there, sitting under a tree's shade, about to take a bite when she heard a voice behind her.
"Hello, miss."
Such a formal voice, one with a depth not many grown-ups could reach. She was instantly mystified by it. Was someone with that kind of voice speaking to her? That voice was so deep it could have belonged to a mystic Eidolon, or maybe a fairy tale prince. Canti looked around to see where it could be coming from, and she found someone who could have been a whole head taller than she was. He had very beautiful purple eyes, and blonde hair that messily fell around his face and down past his shoulders. She didn't recognize him from the first year class she had earlier, so he had to be an upperclassman.
"Do I… know you?" Canti asked, finding it very hard to look away from his purple eyes. She had never seen eyes that color before, and it was easy to just get lost in them.
"Probably not, but I know you, miss," the boy said, pulling a purple rose from his uniform coat to offer to her. When she didn't know if she took it, he nodded to her to indicate that it was indeed for her. "I saw you this morning at Initiation, and… I was quite impressed with what I saw."
"...I don't know how I did it…" she said, putting that crispy chocobo strip in her mouth. Canti hoped that would make the boy leave her be, but he just stood there, staring at her while she ate. She found him enchantingly handsome for someone who must have been only a few years older than she was, and she was very certain that he was going to grow into someone able to enchant any girl who looked at him because of those purple eyes alone. But he sure came off as a bit creepy, staring at her like that. "…what?"
"I couldn't help but notice how cute you are, miss," the boy continued.
"I couldn't help but notice how incredibly creepy you are…" Hikari's voice said from just a few paces away. "Good Goddess, leave her be. Don't bother her."
"He's not bothering me," Canti said, eating a potato wedge. "Though I don't like being stared at, I kinda just wanna eat my lunch."
"Forgive me, miss, I did not mean offense, I only wished to meet you," the boy said, frowning just a little bit. "I am Mateus Palamecia, a third year student here in the Garden. I specialize in black magic."
Canti looked up at him from where she sat. "I am Cantirena Highwind. First year. I specialize in eating in peace now. Please let me do so." She then looked back at her chocobo strip meal and concentrated on that.
Mateus understood the request and took his leave, revealing his black magic staff hanging off his back as he walked off. There was something about how he carried himself that intrigued Canti, as she had never seen anything like this before, and only served to annoy Hikari further. He met up with other older boys, including a few with hair Canti was sure was actually silver colored.
A little bit later, Crystal came up to sit with Hikari and Canti with her lunch. Crystal could not take her eyes off of the boys in that older group. The other two girls were sure she was going to start spilling hearts out her eyes if she stared any harder.
"I'm surprised your cousin wasn't here to shoo that Mateus away," Hikari said as she ravenously ate her lunch. "He sure… seemed kinda weird."
"Kain is probably busy with something important right now," Canti said. "He can't be with me all the time. He said so himself."
"Tidus isn't here…" Hikari said, looking around for a second.
"Minwu isn't either."
"...wait. Are all the Second Years not here?"
"Looks like it," Crystal said. "Where'd they go?"
"Is there some sort of Second Year lunch time Initiation thing?" Hikari wondered aloud.
"That seems kinda dumb," Crystal muttered.
"And this morning's Initiation wasn't?" Canti asked, looking between the two.
"Point taken," her companions agreed.
