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.
