Chapter Two

Histories Mysteries

Fujin woke up bright and early the next morning in order to get in a good workout in the Garden's training center which she had been neglecting as of late.

She had been through a lot recently: Squall and his team whooping Seifer's butt and then he screaming at Raijin and herself to help then she completely losing it and telling Seifer to take his posse and shove it.

She got dressed in her casual blue dress shirt and matching pants and walking to the "danger zone" section of the Garden, not bothering to take a shower because even if you walked in sealed in a sanitation bubble ten minutes later you would smell like decomposing shit. She jumped down the set of stairs and looped around the aquarium in the center of the walkway.

Just yesterday she remembered Raijin telling her that they recovered Seifer alive and he was in emergency medical care, which she admitted surprised her some, and surprising Fujin was not an easy thing to accomplish. But she didn't show much emotion after that and walked back to her dorm without another word, which surprised Raijin; he thought she would at least be happy that he didn't end up ventilated.

As she came up on the training center she remembered that old rumor she heard passed around that she lost her eye battling a T-Rexaur one day when she was drunk and careless. God, what horseshit.

If a T-Rexaur clawed at my face I would have lost a lot more than just my eye, she mused.

Of course she had to cross the path in her mind about how she did loose it. Well, it was technically still there, she just couldn't see out of it. Seifer, in fact, played a part in the incident, not that it was intentional but he was the primary cause.

Back then Fujin never blamed him for it because it was an accident and she had a small crush on him at the time, but never told him so left the whole thing unaccounted for. Of course Seifer was swore to secrecy about the true nature of the injury but she knew it was pounding him inside not to tell anyone. He was never very good with secrets.

But then again, many people could be held accountable for the accident and Fujin did. Her parents weren't abusing or raping her, they were neglectful. Her mother was a world-renowned martial artist and her father worked a full time job at Deling's broadcasting station, trying to get television working again. Of course she saw them daily but they were never home when she woke up and pretty much fended for herself.

Fujin stopped just short of the automatic door to the training center and leaned up against the wall, tapping out the theme song to the Lone Ranger with her fingernails.

Then the core blew and everybody in the station, including my father and my mother who was visiting him got reduced to ash in a millisecond, she recalled.

After she got the news her parents were both vaporized she was put in care of the Matron Edea's orphanage. She, of course, was never adopted. Most people who came by wanted a sweet, caring, future homemakers daughter, not a sadistic, psychopathic future mercenary.

I bet if those bastards knew that they wouldn't criticize me for talking the way I do.

She sighed and walked into the training complex observing that no one was here yet, hell, she was probably the only person awake in Garden short of the kitchen staff. And the simple lack of one or two people made her feel the encompassing loneliness that had haunted her ever sense that accident.

Her only known release was with the 6'7", muscular, tanned-skinned man known as Raijin, who was the first person too greet her when she went into the orphanage. She thanked him during the rare moments of vulnerability and/or sadness she felt but never went to far into it, and Raijin was at least smart enough to know not to plague her about it in fear of a sore shin.

They're brother/sister relationship started pretty much from the beginning. Fujin felt much of her world come crashing down in one cataclysmic blast when her family died and focused all her time into her school work and isolating herself from everybody but Raijin, simply because he was so damn stupid it was funny and she couldn't help but laugh.

But they felt a mutual benefaction to each other and made it work to the best of the situation. Edea had basic and advanced classes her "children" would take school and up until Fujin showed up, Raijin wasn't doing too well. But Fujin knew all the material and never to this day had gotten anything lower than a 98% on any test she had taken, in fact she and Raijin passed the SeeD test but declined the diploma because they were both to lazy to put that much effort into it. Hell the hours alone were enough to kill Jesus, and he was a carpenter!

Fujin helped Raijin with his studies and he soon became a C-average student making Fujin feel confident enough too attempt to help other struggling students. But, of course, they made fun of her; joking about her hair, the way she dressed and even going as cruel as to mock her for loosing her parents, and you gotta believe that her eye injury didn't help things much later on.

So this is where Raijin paid her back, by generally beating all the other kids dizzy and driving them away from her. Fujin thanked him but Raijin knew it would only continue and he couldn't be there to assist her every time so he helped bring out her confidence. She already knew how to fight with the skill of a second-degree blackbelt in tai maun chi but wasn't motivated and maybe even a little scared to use her talents in fear of pushing people even farther away.

Raijin, though, didn't really care about her lack of motivation when it came to self defense and the next time some kid decided too spend his time picking on her, Raijin kept on urging her to stick up for herself. The constant prods from Raijin and the insults flinging left and right from this kid were enough to drive her into a bloodthirsty frenzy and break the kids arm when he tried to push her. She then proceeded to pummel him into the dirt and even Raijin, who was nearly triple her size, could pry her off.

Fujin lightly chuckled to herself at that poor kids unfortunate "accident", but you gotta believe that he didn't bully anyone after that. He also probably had to eat from a tube for a while.

Fujin walked from the training hall entry sector and walked right to the huge doors that led into the fighting area. This door was monstrous, standing at least 15 feet tall and composed completely out of a titanium-adamantium alloy; it was an excellent work out just having to open the damn thing. And you had to latch and unlatch it every time you left or went back in. Serious penalties followed anyone who left the door open and ready for the dangerous beasts behind it too break into the Garden itself.

Fujin put all of her strength into turning the wheel lock and popping open the dogs. She pulled it open, quickly stepped inside the forest-like dwelling of the training zone and pulled it closed with all her might. Once closed the wheel lock would reset itself and Fujin drew her Sai off her back and proceeded into the feral environment.

The room was oddly quiet today; usually you couldn't go very far in there without being attacked by something on the spot. But it still didn't take long, as she heard the distant quaking of an approaching T-Rexaur. The huge, prehistoric lizard bounded around the corner, looked down at Fujin and let loose a horrific growl that shook the bulletproof Lexan glass of the high up windows.

"READY?" she sneered.

Many scientists have said that monsters can understand English or whatever language spoken on their native continent but a beast this huge probably didn't have much brain as it did brawn. Even so, almost in response the beast blasted another growl and charged at her, its giant clawed feet shaking the complex with every step. It lunged down and buried its jaws in the dirt floor as Fujin jumped up out of its way and landed on its head. It knew she was up there and shook violently to remove her, and she got to play a very amusing hybrid sport of bull riding.

Fujin's hand pulsed with a torrent of color and mixed into a funnel of wind she shot down into the top of the creature's head. The force of the mini-tornado slammed its head into the dirt and left it temporarily stunned. Fujin grinned and waited patiently until the T-Rexaur got back up and resumed its effort to throw her off. When it did, it no doubt remembered she was there and released an explosion of fire from its mouth, directly hitting the exit door and leaving a permanent scorch mark. Fujin dropped her shuriken down on its head and it magically erected itself upright.

"ZAN!"

Her circular blade spun to life and began to drill its way into the creature's skull with a wide-arching spray of blood. The T-Rexaur screamed with pain and tried even harder to throw her and the weapon off but the Sai only spun faster and soon completely tore threw its flesh, bone and brain and erupted from the bottom of its jaw, landing harmlessly on the ground below followed by a shower of gore and a dead dinosaur.

Fujin jumped off its head and landed with an almost inaudible plop, then walked to retrieve her weapon, shook off as much blood and gray matter as she could and smiled at her accomplishment of killing the enormous lizard by drilling a six foot hole through its skull. Fujin retied her Sai to the rope on her back and tilted her head to the side to stare into the blank eyes of this huge beast. Instantly she grew red with anger and quickly untied her Sai and slashed at its dead right eye, splattering blood everywhere that hadn't gotten it yet and much on herself as well.

Fujin turned around and walked back to the huge door, covered in murder and feeling very proud of herself. She unlocked the door and walked out latching it behind. As she turned around she nearly collided with Raijin and a somewhat peeved but living Seifer who was holding his gunblade, Hyperion, tightly within his gloved hand.

Seifer grimaced at his past disciplinary committee associate. "Christ Fuj, you look like you just stepped out of a horror movie."

"Yeah?" she said. "Well it's gonna get a lot worse in here unless you get the hell out of my way."

She shoved her way past them both and walked out of the training facility brushing her silver and now blood red hair behind her ear.

Seifer looked at Raijin who silently shrugged. "What the hell was that all about?"

"I think ya know, ya know?"

"I know we had that little scuffle back at Lunatic Pandora but you would think she would at least be happy that I wasn't killed."

"We'll ask her about it later at breakfast, ya know? But until then, we should get in a little celebratory training, ya know?" Raijin said with one of his big goofy grins.

"If you say so."

They walked to the huge door and turned the wheel lock and pulled it open and were greeted with the large maimed corpse of a T-Rexaur.

Raijin held a hand over his mouth and choked down an impending wash of hurl and lung-butter. "Uh...I think I'm gonna skip training today, ya know?"

Seifer sighed and put the Hyperion back in its scabbard. "Yeah...I know."