Chapter 2 : The Fateful Encounter
On the way back to Luca, Tidus locked himself in a cabin, not opening to anyone either answering calls.
"Tidus!" one of the girls from his team called. "Come on, let me in! You know you want it!"
By her side, another girl was chuckling.
"Go away, Balgerda! And that goes for you two, Doram!"
The girls looked at each other, unable to understand.
"He never objected before!" Doram said.
"Why can't you girls just leavehim alone? You're a bunch of maniacs!"
The girls spun around in the same time to see Bickson with his arms crossed standing behind them.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Balgerda asked.
"He must be focusing on the game! It's not the time to disturb him with your bad habits!"
"Hmph!"
They walked away to the dock and Bickson went to knock at the door.
"You okay?" he asked still a bit worried.
"Yeah, I just want to be alone for a while..."
"Well I thought you'd want to know that there's a summoner on board. Apparently she's the daughter of Braska!"
There was a long silence then the lock was pulled and the door opened on a curious face.
"You serious?"
"Yup! And she's cute, just your kind!"
Tidus turned around and folded his arms.
"Bah... I don't want to see her. I might get mad at her and hold her responsible for my parents' death and it's not true... I don't want a girl to think I'm rude!"
"You'll never change... Anyway, we should arrive soon, so you might as well come up. You probably won't be able to see her because the whole crew's all over her..."
"I said I don't care," he said as he walked to the stairs leading to the deck.
He saw a crew gathered on the edge of the ship and went by, not even trying to see the summoner.
He grabbed a cable and looked at the city as they were entering the port. With the tournament held here, there were a lot of people, from all around the world. Humans, Ronso, Guado, even Al Behd since they had a team.
He smiled with contempt. It was the first time he could actually see this as a player. The past years, just before the games, he was always feeling the pressure of the title he had to live up to: the title of Jecht's son. He had a surprise in store for everyone... He has mastered his father's unique skill of shooting without telling anybody. Since everyone knew about the legendary Jecht Shot, everyone would recognize it. He smiled to himself thinking about the faces of the crowds when he'll do it. Jecht always said:
"You can't do it kid! But don't worry, you're not the only one!"
Then he would demonstrate it to Tidus, and only him. Like he wanted him to remember the stance and end up doing it.
Tidus looked up.
"I'll do this for you, dad... I hope you'll be proud..."
The ship docked at the sound of a guy giving live news.
"Here they come back home all the way from Kilika! Our very own Luca Goers!"
A lot of people were gathered around the dock to cheer their favorite team and try to get autographs or even just to shake hands.
A guy was holfing a mic in front of a camera as he walked close to the disembarking team. Bickson was waving at the crowd with both hands, along with Abus and Graav. The girls came behind with Raudy, the goaler. Tidus was the last to come down the ship accompanied with comments.
"Here's a nice surprise! The son of Jecht!"
The cheers from the crowd intensified as Tidus walked down the ship. The guy with the mic came to him.
"So, are you gonna lend your team a helping hand this year?" he asked showing Tidus the mic.
He hesitated a moment then answered with determination.
"Yes! This year, ten years after my father's death, I'll play in his name, and when we win, I'll dedictate this victory to him!"
"Do you have special techniques like you father?"
"I could never be as good as he was but I'll give you a show to remember!"
The cheers went wild as the team started walking away.
"Thank you very much! Now welcome the Al Behd Psyshes, far away from their home just to play this game!"
A team of goggle wearing people disembarked. The guy tried to talk to them, but they past by as if they were very busy.
"Now here come the shame of this league, never won a single game, stastically impossible, I've never seen a team this bad! The Besai-----d Aurochs!"
Some people in the crowds burried laughs while others looked like they wanted to cry.
"They're only some die hard fans today."
Leaving the docks, Bickson laughed.
"Yeah, right! The only fans they got are their parents! Well the ones who still have their parents!"
The others didn't laugh at that because most of them lost their parents at a young age too, especially Tidus who was raised by Auron.
To change the subject, Raudy tried to be fun.
"Hey! I saw the summoner! She's cute but I better like the guardian girl following her!"
Graav whistled.
"The chick dressed in black?"
"The one with the feather collar barely hiding her chest?" Balgerda asked with disgust.
"Yeaaaaaaahhh...." the other guys except Tidus trailed off.
It seemed they were about to slobber all around the place.
"Big breasts?" Tidus asked with a funny smile.
"You could say that... You should have come up and see for yourself instead of sulking by yourself in your room."
"I guess so..."
They heard people running behind them so they turned around.
"What's going on?" Tidus asked someone passing close to him.
"Grand Maester Mika's here! Everyone's going to see him!"
Since they didn't have much to do yet, they decided to go take a look. On another dock, a ship was docked and from it disembarked a young man, around 20, 25 years old. He had blue hair with two long strands behind him. He had long hands and fingers caracteristic of the Guado people. He had blue eyes and was wearingstrange clothes.
"Hey, isn't that Seymour Guado?" Tidus asked recognizing the guy.
Seymour was half human, half Guado. His father was Jyscal Guado, a Measter of Yevon.
Once he was on the ground, he turned to the ship and put a knee down. An old man came down with guards.
"And that's Mika! I can't believe he's been a Measter for fifty years!"
The old man stopped in front of Seymour and showed a hand to him.
"Get up, Seymour Guado."
Seymour did and turned to the crowd. His eyes rested on someone in the crowd and locked. He smiled but Tidus couldn't see who he was smiling to. Then Mika showed him to the crowd.
"The Measter Jyscal Guado passed away. This is a great loss for us all. Now I make Seymour Guado a measter of Yevon."
Seymour bowed and smiled.
"It is an honor to carry out my father's duty. He brought Yevon's teaching's to the Guado. He dreamt of a world where all people would be united. I will try to carry out his wish the best I can."
"I don't like this guy," Tidus whispered to Bickson. "There's something about this guy I don't trust..."
"I know what you mean," Bickson whispered back.
"Let's leave this place."
They walked through the crowd and trough the docks.
They reached the large stadium and went in the left way to their room. Bickson came last holding a sheet of paper.
"We still have plenty of time before the game. The Aurochs aren't playing the first round. We play the Ronso Fangs. When we win, we 'll play the Kilika beasts. The Psyches play the Glories and the winning team plays the Aurochs. We'll play the winner of this side."
"Personnaly, I think we'll play the Psyches in finals." Balgerda said.
"Either the Psyches or the Glories." Bickson said.
"Well last year the Aurochs played us.... we won easily but they still made it to the finals."
"If they ever made it, a miracle can't happen twice! Against us, they don't stand a chance!"
The whole team seemed pretty enthusiastic but Tidus couldn't share they cheerfulness. He walked to the door.
"Hey, where're you going?" Bickson asked. "The game's starting soon!"
"I need to drink something. I'm too nervous."
"Hey, don't get drunk for the game or you'll be disqualified."
"Yeah, yeah..."
He left the room and hurried out of the stadium. He crossed the bridge to the inner city. The city wasn't big but it was still the second biggest city in the world. The biggest one was Bevelle since that's where the Grand Measter was living.
He walked across the place and into a café. At the counter, there was a cute girl about his age with shoulder length brown hair. He walked to the counter close to her.
"Hey there Tidus!" the bartender greeted. "I warn you, I'm not serving you anything!"
"Just give a glass of energetic juice, I'm gonna need it."
"Here you go," he said handing him the glass.
He took it and swallowed half of it in a single gulp. Then he turned to the girl. She didn't seem to figure out if she would sit down or go.
"Hi, you here for the tournament?" Tidus asked with a big smile.
She smiled shyly then decided to sit down.
"Yes but not just because of that."
"My name's Tidus. I play with the Goers."
"I figured it out because of your outfit. I'm Yuna."
"That's a cute name. Fits you perfectly."
The girl smiled.
"In fact, I was looking for someone but he's not here. Someone said he was here?"
She looked around.
"Who? Your boyfriend?" Tidus asked jokingly still secretly hoping she would say no.
"No, I was looking for sir Auron."
Tidus widened his eyes.
"You know Auron? He's here?"
"That's what I heard. You know him?"
"You bet! He pratically raised me!"
"You wouldn't happen to be sir Jecht's son, would you?"
"... Yeah?! How'd you know?"
"You looked familiar to me."
As the conversation was getting more intense, a Ronso stepped in. Blue fur and a broken horn on his forehead. He looked around apparently looking for someone. He placed his eyes on Yuna and walked to her. When he saw Tidus, he folded his arms and stared at him. Tidus shivered. For a Ronso, this one wasn't very big but he was still bigger than him.
"Come on, Kimahri. He was very kind to me. He's sir Jecht's son."
Kimahri was still frowning at Tidus and he was really thinking about leaving when a shadow covered him completely. He turned his head and nearly fell down his bench when he saw two other Ronso, one with grey fur, the other one with a golden fur. Both were even bigger than Kimahri.
The small Ronso looked at them not saying a thing.
"What's wrong, Kimahri?" one asked. "Why not talk? Haven't seen Ronso friends for long time!"
"Easy, Yenke. Kimahri, small Ronso." The other one said.
"Kimahri forget Yenke? Forget Biran? Forget Ronso friends?"
"You forget who took your horn!"
"Hornless! Hornless!"
The grey one hit Kimahri as a chalenge. Tidus got off his bench and looked at Kimahri.
"Take him on!" he said.
Kimahri punched the Ronso.
"Take it outside!" the bartender said. "The game's starting!"
The grey Ronso took advantage of the situation to hit Kimahri back.
'The game!" Tidus exclaimed slapping his forehead. "Bickson's gonna kill me!"
He ran out the café, not noticing that Yuna wasn't there anymore and not caring about Auron anymore.
Note: So??? I'm trying my best to place game events in but to be perfect, I'd have to replay it a third time! (yes, I already played it twice! First took me 87h, second I'm at 102h so far and I'm not done!) Usually, I'm more concern about perfection but since it's a twisted version, it can be different, can't it? Please review! Anything at all! Is this the worst thing you've ever read or what? I accept flames, they help me get better! I do this all for you since it doesn't pay! I love to write and think I do it for someone!
In case you like it, look forward my other ten fanfics. They're all about FFVIII though, my favorite game! Most are done, so it could help you wait for the next chapters of this one!