Chapter 3 - The former Sorceress' Knight and SeeD.

"How long have you been sitting here?" Seifer rubbed the sleep from his eyes, sitting up straighter.

"Uh.. not long. A few minutes I guess. Qui... Miss Trepe put me here." She smiled weakly. "She then left us with an assignment, saying she'd be back in ten minutes."

Seifer rolled his eyes. "You're new then. You're new, and Quistis left you here without books. What the hell are you staring at?" Seifer's voice grew louder as he turned his attention to the students glancing back at them.

"That would be me," Ayori smiled again. Seifer wasn't as... terrifying as she had first thought. I might live to see tomorrow after all, she thought to herself.

"And who are you?"

"Ayori Taro, but some people call me Ayo."

"Aa. Seifer Almasy," he said, gesturing to himself. Ayori smiled, nodding. Seifer blinked, sighing. "So what work did Miss Trepe leave us to do, Ayo?"

"Uh... Reading."

"Pages?"

Damn short term memory.. {Short term memory? Don't blame it, it doesn't exist.} Damnit. {What?} I thought I'd lost you with the fall. {Well poopie on you.} Ayori smiled slightly, then realized Seifer was still looking at her. She blushed. "I don't remember, my subconscious was screaming 'Book! Need book!'" {Was not.} "I think it was... 64 or something. Then she said do the questions."

"What questions?"

"THE questions." Ayori nodded, looking serious. Seifer smirked.

"Well, I can't do the questions if I don't know what page the reading's on, eh?" His smirk grew into a grin, and Ayori nodded.

~~~

The rest of the day consisted of tours from Zell, and going to classrooms she was put in. He'd gotten Ayori's schedule, so she sat in on these classes, where the teachers talked about certain monsters, and element based attacks. Granted, she didn't really pay attention...

No course of events that followed could top her meeting with Seifer. Not even when Zell brought her out to the 2F deck to watch the water. The former Sorceress' Knight had left quite an impression on her. "Ayo? Ayo-chan? You're spacing out on me again."
Ayori blinked, and focused her eyes. "Oh... Sorry Zell." She smiled apologetically.

Zell shrugged it off, as if he was used to being ignored. She felt a twinge of guilt, and noted to pay more attention to the talkative blond.

"I just said that maybe you'll end up with a GF all your own one day. For some reason, Squall doesn't think there's a limited number of them. They're cool, if you don't mind losing your memory." Zell grinned, and Ayori smiled in return. She wasn't ready to forget good 'ole Earth just yet.
However, the longer she stayed here the less she wanted to leave. Sure, there were monsters everywhere, but nothing can get to you when you're on a giant school in the middle of the ocean, right?

She glanced out at the water, thinking about what Zell said. More GFs? I didn't even want to go around collecting the other ones! {Uh, note to Ayo. You didn't even beat the game yet. You haven't collected all the GFs.} Yeah yeah.. You'd think I'd have appeared in the part of the game I left off, ne? {Consider yourself lucky then. I personally wasn't looking forward to killing Elnoyle's to get Squall's ultimate weapon.} I'm still not.

"We should be at FH tomorrow morning. Then we - as in me, Quistis, Irvine, and Squall - will be making up a new SeeD Field Test... This is going to be harder than the ones we had to do. Squall wants some elite SeeDs, not students that got lucky."

"Great, challenges. Maybe I'll meet up with some Bite Bugs, ne?" Ayori smiled weakly, not looking forward to fighting more monsters.

~~~

Three days later...

Knock, knock, knock. Ayori groaned when she realized someone was knocking on her door. She rolled out of bed, and wrapped the comforter around her. She walked over to the door, and pressed the airlock. The door slid open, revealing Zell, who was grinning from ear to ear.

"Guess what." He said, practically bouncing.

"Bite Bugs are taking over the world," Ayori groaned, adjusting her comforter.

Zell's face turned mock-solemn. "No, but that's still a possibility. It's good that you're aware of that." Zell grinned again. "You've aced every test given to you, and Headmaster Squall says you can take the SeeD test."

Ayori blinked. "Another test?"

"I'm sure you'll do fine. The catch is... you can't study for it. You have to take it in three hours. Good luck, ne? You'll be writing in the 2F classroom. See ya," Without pausing to hear her reply, he took off running out the main part of the room, and disappeared into the hallway.

Ayori heard the sound of air whooshing, and looked over to see her roommate Nika blinking at her. "SeeD? Wow, you're lucky Ayo." Ayori frowned. "I don't feel very lucky."
Nika shrugged, "At least you get to try real soon, ne? You don't have to wait like three years before you're allowed." She smiled weakly. "I might be roommateless again soon."

Ayori sighed, returning Nika's smile. Nika'd been very nice to her, and had been the first student not to gawk at her clothes. She wore the uniform now, but she hated every second of it. Ayori Taro was NOT a skirt person.

~~~

"It wasn't too bad," Ayori replied quietly, after Irvine inquired about the SeeD test. "I knew most of the answers from the tests I've taken, and some was common knowledge. Then there were a couple I had to guess... but there weren't too many of those."

Zell whistled from his seat on the other side of the table. The three of them were sitting in the cafeteria, as Zell stuffed hotdogs in his mouth and Irvine occasionally shot him a disgusted glance. Ayori found this amusing.

"So basically, you think you passed. The SeeD test. The one that I passed by about 2 marks," Zell was shaking his head in disbelief. "Amazing. Truly."

"You shouldn't do too bad on the Field Test, we helped make it up after all... but you still have to work on those weapon skills." On her second day at Garden, Irvine had taken Ayori to the weapons room to choose a weapon. It took almost an hour of digging before she found it - a sword. She loved it. It was curved at the end, and she couldn't even remember what it was called, but she loved it. The handle on it was carved to look like a dragon breathing fire. The marksmanship was beautiful, and she was told it was one of a kind.

"My weapon skills are fine," Ayori pouted. Irvine laughed.

"Your sword is awesome, and can probably cut through steel, but you can't handle it at all! Watching you try and swing it has to be the funniest thing in the world." Irvine grinned, and snatched one of Zell's hot dogs. Before Zell could protest, Irvine shoved it in his mouth and it was gone.

"Damned Irvine," Zell frowned. He pulled his plate away, and turned back to Ayori. "The SeeD Field Test is sure to be hard, so you'll want to be really good at handleing that sword of yours."

"Yeah, the problem is, who around here can teach me to use a sword?"

~~~

The thought hadn't even occured to her. She should have known from that evil glint in Zell's eyes that this was going to be a bad idea. It wasn't who he'd decided to get to teach her... wait, yes it was. Of all people, of everyone in Garden, there were two guys with swords. Gunblades to be exact. There were TWO people that were qualified to teach her how to use the sword.
One was Headmaster, and they weren't about to ask him.

The other...

"Ayori," came a voice from behind her.

She closed her eyes briefly, and spun to face the source. If possible, he was even more gorgeous standing up. His short blond hair bouncing slightly, his long grey coat swishing at his knees as he strode towards her. She wanted that coat.
"Seifer," she nodded to him, his smirk turning to a wicked grin.

He gestured to the door of the Training Grounds, pressing the airlock and watching the door open. "After you."

Ayori heard a monster wailing inside. She took a deep breath, and stepped into the large jungle-like room.

~~~

They'd been in the Training Grounds for little over an hour, and Ayori was covered in slime. A large turnip with tentacles swishing through the air decided to spit on her. It was disgusting, sticky, and smelled like garlic.

"Don't kid around Seifer."

"I'm not. I really don't have any."

"Draw some!"

"No GF."

"You're lying. You have some. Use it!"

"I don't have any!"

"You lie. If you don't use it, I'm gonna... hug you! And get it all over your coat!"

Seifer faltered, and sighed deeply. He loved his coat. "Ayo... how the hell'd you pass that SeeD exam? You can't use magic without a Guardian Force."

"ARGH!" Ayori sat on a log, growling. "This sucks. I want a GF."

Seifer plopped down beside her. "Hai... I know what you mean. I can attack and use potions. Goodie for me. I'm lucky, I can kill a T-Rexaur in only a few shots."

"How long are we staying in here?" Ayori glanced up at Seifer, and he smiled at the sight. The goo was set in her hair, and it was seperated in clumps all over her head. It resembled Squall's in a way, except it was longer and redder. She also had a large clump on her left cheek, which he promptly brushed off. She smiled.

"We're staying here until you can kill something in less than five hits."

Ayori groaned. It usually took her at least ten hits to kill something. She frowned, glancing around the grounds.

Seifer blinked. He must have been seeing things, because the second Ayori frowned, he could've sworn she was Squall. At first he thought it was just the hair, but when he looked closer, he could almost see a resemblance between her and Squall. In fact, if you cut her hair and gave her a scar...

Ayori looked back at Seifer, to notice him staring at her. "What?"

"Are you and Leonhart related?"

She blinked. "...What?"

"Are you related to Squall?"

"Not that I know of." Ayori scratched her gooey head. Where had this come from? Seifer's eyes narrowed slightly and he stood, glancing around the Grounds.
"Maybe we'll end early today."

"Nani? You just said we were staying until I could get five hits!"

He glanced at her, and looked away again. "I changed my mind."

Okay.... {Get going, he looks pissed.} I didn't do anything! {Does it matter? Just go.} Ayori sighed, standing slowly. Seifer started walking back to the door, and she followed close behind.
She stopped dead when she heard it - the almost deafening roar. Only one monster in the Training Grounds could possibly make that noise. She cringed as she saw Seifer turn slowly, looking behind her. She turned slowly too, and came face to face with a giant, red, Tyrannosaurus Rex, also known in this world as a T-Rexaur.

In the game, T-Rexaur's had frightened her. She always pumped out her GFs when one showed up but that was a game. This, she had come to realize, was not a game. This was real. She could get hurt here; hell, she could even die here. And at this moment, she didn't have a Guardian Force to protect her.

"Get back!" Seifer roared, and she wasn't about to argue. She ran so she was a row behind Seifer, but off to the right. With the T-Rexaur was a turnip monster, the one she could never remember the name of. The T-Rexuar charged Seifer, ramming him with his massive skull. Seifer fell back, but returned to his place. He winced slightly, and Ayori could see blood under his clothes.

Blood? {They had to get hurt somehow... and I doubt numbers appeared over their heads when they did.} Oh crap...

The turnip monster waved its tentacles in the air, sending dust at Seifer. He had just begun to prepare an attack... when his eyes closed and he slumped forward. "SEIFER!" Ayori screamed. He didn't respond. She couldn't leave him here... he'd die! She gripped her small sword, took a battle stance, and ran at the turnip monster. With all the strength she could muster, she hacked at it furiously. A large gash appeared across its torso, and it slumped forward, disappearing.

"One shot! Not bad..." Ayori's triumph wasn't enough to save her from what happened next. The T-Rexaur, now alerted of her presence, came charging forward. He crashed into her with such force it knocked her back at least 20 feet. The pain ripped through her whole body, settling on her left arm. Aa... looks like its broken. Shit! She looked up at the monster, who was eyeing her hungrily.

"That was fun, ne? Guess I'm gonna end up dying after all." Her eyes narrowed. "That's too bad really, I wanted to kick some dino-ass."

{You give up to easily.} Oh really? And what do you propose I do? {Let me handle this.} .....Nani?

Ayori almost didn't see it coming. The room just suddenly started getting darker. It reminded her a bit of Diablos, except the darkness had a red hue to it. She felt herself changing, growing smaller. What the hell? What's going on? {My name is Ari, and I'm going to help you.} WHAT?!?

Ayori's body disappeared, leaving a smaller bat-like demon in its wake. The demon was maybe four feet tall, and had black leathery wings that were double its height in length. It had pointed ears sticking out from its head horizontally. The red hue shone off the demon's leatherish skin, causing it to almost glow.
Its eyes opened slowly, revealing irises dark as onyx. Its eyes narrowed, and two clawed hands formed a circle. In the circle, a red ball of light formed. An impish smirk appeared on the demon's face, and it posed almost like a human baseball pitcher, with the ball of light in its clawed hand. It launched the ball of light forward, sending it flying at the T-Rexaur.
When the light struck the torso of the monster, it exploded outward in tiny red tendrils. The monster cried out in pain. The cry was cut off however, when the T-Rexaur's body dematerialized, leaving no signs of being there in the first place.

The light came back slowly, and the demon that called itself Ari disappeared, returning Ayori to her original place. Overwhelmed by both pain and shock, Ayori gladly submitted to the darkness that welcomed her.

A few feet away, a once-sleeping Seifer stared at the body in shock.

~~~