Chapter Four

Anger Management

Cid was calmly sitting down to a nice relaxing cup of tea with his visiting wife, Edea, who was generally brushing up against her loving husband and telling stories about her old orphanage kids.

"Cid dear, whatever happened to Meis? He was such a nice boy and was always such a joy to be around."

"He graduated about a year ago, honey." Cid replied smiling.

"Did you know him well?" She mused while also drinking her tea.

"Not really but we played billiards quite often and I lost profusely!"

They were both laughing then were abruptly halted as soon as Seifer and Raijin busted into his office arguing about who would win in a fight pitting Mr. T vs. Zeus.

"Knock knock!" Seifer yelled sarcastically.

Cid sighed and gave his wife an annoyed look before spinning around in his chair and confronting the two intruders who seemed quite amused about the whole ordeal.

"Seifer, Raijin, to what do I owe this unannounced and apparently unavoidable visit?"

"Well, I know I've been somewhat of a bastard lately Cid, but I want that put all in the past! I'm a changed man and I want to work for your prestigious organization once again! I'll take the preliminary exam, whatever final test afterward and work as a mercenary for Garden's worldwide!" Finished Seifer putting his right hand over his heart and pretending a flag and music were being played in the background.

"Plus we wanna cheer up Fujin, ya know?" added Raijin who got a quick smack in the chest by Seifer. "What did I do wrong, ya know? That's what were really doing this for, ya know?"

Seifer smacked his head and angrily began to draw the Hyperion as Raijin realized his mistake and began to hastily back up.

"Seifer, please. Raijin is just concerned about his friend and I understand why you would want to reapply for SeeD work."

Seifer blinked in disbelief. "You do?"

"Of course! You think that the only way Fujin will become less depressed is to have her join you two in a mission in which you will attempt team work or whatever style the former disciplinary committee engages in to raise spirits of everyone in the group and in the end be a...how do you say, 'posse' once again."

"...Damn Cid, you hit the nail on the head."

"I know, and I will reinstate all three of you back into the Garden." Cid walked over to his desk and began shuffling through drawers and papers.

Seifer and Raijin waited patiently until Raijin managed to catch the wandering eye of Matron Edea who smiled and held out her slender hand to the big man. "It's good to see you again, Raijin."

Raijin smiled and shook her hand with all of his somewhat uncontrollable strength. "The pleasure is all mine, ya know? So, are you still running the orphanage, ya know?"

Edea pulled her hand away and smiled but was silently swearing about how much that hurt. "N-No, I closed down before the whole war thing and took up a job as an ambassador."

Raijin nodded understandingly and looked over at Seifer who was trying his best to not listen. "I can see why you became her knight, ya know? She's such a nice lady, ya know? Hey! If you ever need like, a bodyguard or anything I'll be glad to help out, ya know?"

Edea smiled and nodded just as a resounding "AH-HA!" blared over from Cid and he came around the desk holding three sheets of paper. "You're both going to have to fill back out the applications."

Seifer and Raijin both groaned and took the documents angrily.

"Because all three of you have been here for longer than four years I see no reason why we can't just cut to the finals. Give Fujin's hers and return them to either Xu or myself as soon as possible."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Thanks Cid, see ya." And with that Seifer turned around and walked away and Raijin followed shortly after he thanked Cid for the second chance and waved goodbye to Edea.

Seifer burst open the door and began shouting as soon as he entered the hall but stopped immediately when he saw a very peeved-looking Fujin standing there with her arms crossed and her platinum hair flowing down and around her face like a thunder cloud, making her look even more menacing. Raijin soon joined them out in the hall and was about to ask Seifer how he should fill out the "last name" column until he saw Fujin, and even he wasn't dumb enough not to know what she was pissed about.

"Uh...hey Fuj, how'r things?"

"RAGE!!!"

"That's all I wanted to know."

"Why is everybody so damn concerned with my happiness all of a sudden?! I am happy! I'm fucking ecstatic! I don't need you, Raijin or Squall and his band of moron's following me around trying to make me smile!"

Raijin slowly raised his hand like he was back in elementary school.

"WHAT?!!"

"This just may be my observation but maybe if you smiled they would leave you alone, ya know?"


Fujin scowled and began preparing for Raijin's worst imaginable fear.

"RAGE!!!"

She swiftly kicked Raijin in his shin and he buckled under his own superior weight, hitting the ground and pouting like an oversized baby. "Ow! Ow! OWWWW!!!"

"Oh, stop your bitching." Seifer said sarcastically.

"DOUBLE RAGE!!!"

Seifer received the same violent treatment and hit the ground right along side Raijin, rubbing his shin trying to suppress the extreme agony of Fujin's steel-toed boot bashing into bone.

"I just want too be left alone for awhile!" She looked down at Seifer and gritted her teeth. "And I should kick your ass even more for abandoning us you jerk-off knight wannabe!"

"I SAID I WAS SORRY!!!" he screamed adjusting himself so the Hyperion wasn't jabbing him in his side.

It looked as if Fujin was going to comment but made an about-face and proceeded into the elevator, going back to the lobby.

"Fuj, wait! We need to talk about something! GODDAMN IT!!! This is all your fault, Raijin!!"

"How is it my fault, ya know?! I was trying to be nice! If you hadn't gone off to be a knight with Edea we could have been heroes too and avoiding this whole thing, ya know?!"

"YES I FREAKIN' KNOW!! AH! DAMNIT! MIGRAINE!!!"

*~*

The elevator chimed happily and Fujin stomped out angrily into the lobby only to be greeted by Rinoa, Selphie and Quistis who all smiled and held up a hastily made banner that read, "Get happy soon, Fuugin." Squall, Zell and Irvine were behind the girls and waved nervously as she came out.

"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SPELL MY NAME RIGHT!!" She screamed. "RAGE!!!" Fujin was getting so tired of yelling that she thought what was left of her voice would give out.

Zell smacked his forehead and was gravely considering grabbing one of the passing lower classmen and beating the crap out of him.

 "I told you it was spelt with only one U!"

"And no 'G'!" screamed Fujin using all of her limited self control to resist unstrapping her Sai and decapitating the entire group.

"Wanna hear the song I wrote?!" Asked Selphie with her childish-brand of valley girl innocence.

Fujin frowned and sighed and was about to tell them off again and storm out but she couldn't yell at Selphie, hell no one could, mainly because she was so young and cute but also because she might go get hopped up on Pepsi and caffeine pills and go on a school nunchucking.

But at the moment Fujin was in no mood to hear a song and could only think of one thing that might get her out of this. "I have to go fish. I'll listen to your song later." She walked the rest of the way down the steps and brushed past them and out of the Garden but not before Selphie managed to brighten her spirits a bit more.

"That eye patch really lights up your face, Fuj! Don't ever change on us, K?"

Fujin stopped just short of the exit booth to let them know she heard and continued walking thinking only about apologizing to Seifer and Raijin who were both probably checking themselves into the infirmary right now. And she wasn't sure if anyone noticed or cared, but she wasn't carrying a fishing pole.

As soon as she exited, Seifer and Raijin limped out of the elevator and nearly tripped down the stairs. Seifer caught himself and regained his cool and calm psycho demeanor but Raijin stumbled, yelped in pain and was caught by Quistis who couldn't even hope to hold up Raijin's overwhelming bulk and had to be assisted by just about the entire group.

Squall and Irvine stayed back and watched thinking about helping but felt they had it under control and would never want to take away other people's glory. Hey, Raijin is a big guy and holding up even a quarter of him is quite the accomplishment.

"So," started Seifer making sure Raijin had first composed himself before continuing. "Any of you see Fujin come through here?"

"Yeah, you just missed her," replied Zell.

Raijin saw the crumpled banner on the floor and picked it up and straightened it out. "Fuugin?"

"We tried to cheer her up but I think we only made things worse," said Rinoa with a heavy sigh.

Seifer looked at the banner and quickly looked back up with a glare of anger in his eyes. "Were trying to make things better here! She's very sensitive and when someone can't even spell her name right she tends to get a little bit pissed off!"

"And she didn't even wanna hear my song!" pouted Selphie who got a comforting pat on the back by Quistis.

"Not to mention she raised her voice inside school grounds to well over sixty-three decibels, that's quite a bit over a normal indoor voice." Commented Quistis with an air of instructor intelligence.


"SO FUCKING WHAT!!!" Screamed Seifer, who no doubt just violated that rule as well. "She screams all the time! It's how she talks! Can't you thickheaded cockbusters get it through that she's not the most social person on earth! That she has problems totally blowing all of yours out of the water and she doesn't need anybody to remind her to change her sucky life! Cid calls her in constantly because he thinks she has a medical depressive problem! She can't express herself like she probably wants to because everyone thinks she shouldn't talk more than blurting out loud, single-word sentences! She can only use one eye for Christ's sake! Do you all have two working eyes?"

Everybody including Squall and Raijin felt their left eyes and silently nodded.

"Well she doesn't! And while she is probably forcing herself too appreciate what your trying to do for her your fucking bombing it yo—"

"That's quite enough, Seifer!" shouted Quistis. "Your tone is completely unnecessary and your excessive swearing will not be tolerated especially when so many students are walking by!"


"Why the hell do you care?! You're not an instructor anymore! Your just another of Cid's lapdogs who would save the world or jump off a cliff if he commanded!" Seifer was beyond reason now and even Raijin backed off and just seemed too be waiting for him to stop and calm down.

"You jealous that someone other than you is noticed now, Seifer?" Squall mocked with a slight grin, almost like he was suddenly enjoying rubbing this in his face. "Maybe if you hadn't gone and turned traitor to Balamb Garden someone would give a rat's ass about you too."

Being as close as they were, the whole group could have sworn they saw his face burn red. "Shut your face, Leonhart! Just shut your stupid fucking face!"

"Hey now, you guys are gonna say something your going to regret, ya know? C'mon, we can be friends!" encouraged Raijin hoping someone would come to their senses.

"I'm never going to be friends with this damn nazi." Growled Squall through clenched teeth and an accusatory finger pointed straight at Seifer, who looked as if he was going to get so angry he would go nova. "Seifer is a disgrace to the SeeD's and doesn't deserve such gracious treatment by Cid! You're a baby, Seifer! A spoiled freakin' baby!"

That was the end of his limit. Seifer exploded and tackled Squall. The group, especially Rinoa tried to break them up but they rolled down the walkway exchanging punches and the occasional tumbling spot swap. Squall got on top and began repeatedly slamming Seifer's head into the iron floor until he punched Squall in the eye he had scarred just a few week's earlier.

"Both of you stop it!" Screamed Selphie who suicidally got in-between them right after Squall kicked Seifer into the guard rail on the opposite side. Seifer drew Hyperion and Squall the Lionheart and both blinded by rage, swung their mighty gunblades, narrowly missing slicing Selphie in two as she hit the ground and rolled out of the way.

Rinoa and Quistis came to her aid and moved her to the rest of the group as another crowd began forming to watch Squall and Seifer exchange slashes and strikes of their weapons as sparks and gashes began to form when one of them occasionally got hit hard and jammed their gunblades into the ground or rail, but quickly pulled it out and began the flurry of sword strikes again.

"Some one is gonna get killed!" shouted Zell.

Irvine actually had Exeter drawn and looked like he was going to fire a warning shot into the air, or shoot whoever seemed to be losing.

Rinoa and Quistis were comforting Selphie who was crying and nursing a shallow cut she had received when she rolled on the steel grate floor.

Raijin figured that apparently no one else was going to try to stop two of the best fighters in Garden in fear of getting dismembered, not that he could blame them. So with his staff in hand and some quickly collected courage, he ran into the fray, despite the instant screams against such an action and slammed both of the gunblades down with a heavy straight crack and then a double bash into the noses of the combatant's. Squall and Seifer both fell back clutching their gushing red noses.

Raijin waved over Dr. Kadowaki who came shortly after the fight began. Raijin sighed, unable to hear himself over the cacophony of screams and curse words being shouted and walked out of the exit gripping his staff, which had little splotches of blood on both ends. He walked into the bright mid-day sun and slid his staff back into the holster on his back. He shaded his eyes with his flattened palm and looked into the sky, watching a flock of birds fly by.

"Maybe it would be better if I stayed away for a few hours until they cool down." And he promptly started toward the beach.