No One Knows Like I Do
The usual disclaimer...
A/N: You guys are the greatest! Thanks so much!!
Chapter 12 - The SeeD Exam
"Good morning all. As you all know, today is the SeeD field exam. You are to meet your instructor at the front gate at 1000 hours. Don't be late. Senior SeeD are to assemble at the front gate also and wait for further instruction. Good luck to all the SeeD candidates and I hope you all with return safely." Squall switched off the loudspeaker and sighed. He stared blankly out of the large window of the bridge, letting his mind wander.
"I hope everything goes well, unlike last year. We didn't have a lot of SeeD graduates," Xu said.
"Yeah, there's a lot of potential SeeDs within the candidates," Quistis answered knowingly.
"Sounds like you have a few in mind. Care to name 'em?"
"Well there's Rinoa-"
"Wait. Why didn't she become a SeeD after you all saved the world?"
"Because she wants to earn it," Squall interrupted. "She wants to prove herself."
"Oh, the whole spoiled rich girl thing? I get it. Who else Quistis?"
"The people I really had in mind were Seifer, Fujin and Raijin. They're got talent to be SeeDs and I know that for sure since we fought all three of them. I hate to admit that Seifer has what it takes, but it's true. There are also some other students in my class that also have potential. I hope they make it."
Xu nodded slightly. "Absolutely. I hope that Fujin will pass. That experience a couple years ago scarred her permenantly." Xu was referred to the SeeD exam two years ago in which Fujin lost her eye. Xu sighed slightly and recomposed herself. "Well, I better get our mode of transportation ready."
"Hey, what is it? You don't like my flying?" Nida questioned jokingly while coming up the small elevator that connected the bridge and Cid's office.
"Are you trying to put me on a guilt trip? I think that all the students will feel more 'official' if they were riding on the Ragnarok. You know the exam takes place in Esthar this year."
"Oh yeah. So this time you get away with insulting me," Nida said slowly while pacing around Xu.
"As Squall would say, 'Whatever.' " Xu threw up her hand in Nida's face which brought a scowl to his face. Squall gave Xu an impassive glance, which caused Quistis to chuckle slightly.
"Get serious everyone. This is no time to be joking around," Squall said sharply.
All three looked at Squall before they sighed and began to do their respective duties.
~*~*~
Fujin chewed on a piece of her bagel slowly, while mentally preparing herself for the SeeD field exam. She had the dorm all to herself and was glad that she didn't have to see Rose's snobby face early in the morning. After a traumatizing experience two years ago, she had become anxious about it every time she thought of it. Unfortunately her mind had wandered to that time once more.
Two Years Ago
A frigid breeze swept through the Bika Snowfield, located several miles away from Trabia Garden. A group of SeeD candidates stood shivering in the field awaiting further instruction from Xu. Fujin and Seifer had been amongst the group eager to get the exam over with. The mission that year had taken place near Trabia Garden and both Balamb and Trabia arranged for a simulated monster outbreak. The Gardens set up camps of tents pretending they were villages and the SeeD candidates' jobs was to simply detain the monsters and keep them from attacking the villagers. The monsters were indeed real, but slightly domesticated by the Gardens so that they wouldn't be as lethal As the exam progressed, Xu would assign different senior SeeDs to pretend to be stubborn villagers who wanted to help, or children who needed saving increasing the crisis factor. Some SeeD candidates found the exercise to be a little weird since some well-known senior SeeDs had been pretending to act helpless. Xu repeatedly reminded all the SeeD candidates to take the exam seriously or else their grade would suffer.
Fujin had been assigned with two male students and one female named Terrance, Andrew and Alexandra. Andrew and Terrance slacked off in class and carried that behavior to the field leaving Alexandra and Fujin to cover for their blunders. The group's job had been to keep the monsters at bay while leading "children" to safety. Once in the distressed "village", the group had began to plan their way of attack.
"I think we should just go in there and go ballistic!" Terrance exclaimed excitedly.
"No, we should come up with a plan at least!" Alexandra argued back placing a hand on her hip. "You just can't go in there and go crazy! They'll get you before you could even blink!"
"Man, I agree with Terry. We can't sit around and plan like some punks!" Andrew huffed.
Alexandra shook her head vehemently. "Fujin, what do you think?"
"IMMEDIATE ACTION. PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY." Fujin took her pinwheel like chakram in hand and headed towards a Bite Bug who was "terrorizing" a nearby "helpless woman". The others followed suit annihilating any enemy that stood in the way. After eliminating the Bite Bug, Fujin guided the woman to safety.
What everyone didn't know was that a wild Mesmerize had managed to find it's way into the pseudo village. The deformed unicorn like creature charged toward Fujin at a swift pace. Reacting quickly, Fujin pushed the senior SeeD out of the way, but didn't move in time to save herself. At that same moment, the Mesmerize rose on its hind legs, let out a shrill cry and brought its head down, slashing Fujin's face with the blade atop its head.
Fujin screamed in pain and immediately collapsed to the ground, throwing her weapon to the side and grabbing the left side of her face as white hot pain overtook her senses. She weakly cast Curaga, but it did little to save her injury since the spell had been weak. Warm blood seeped its way between her pale fingers, and rolled down the rest of her hand. She began shivering terror, fearing what kind of damage the gash had caused. The female senior SeeD immediately slaughtered the beast, firing her gun in rapid succession. She rushed over to Fujin to check her injuries. She was alarmed by what she saw.
"Oh Hyne!" She grabbed her two-way radio and contacted Xu trying to keep her voice calm. "Xu, we have one student injury. Please send medics to Section 2 immediately!"
"10-4. I'm on it," Xu's voice blared over the transmission.
The female senior SeeD did her best at carrying Fujin inside of a tent and rested her on a cot anxiously awaiting the paramedics. Within minutes Dr. Kadowaki and a medical assistant arrived and without delay, began to stabilize Fujin. Overcome with pain, Fujin moaned quietly and felt herself become increasingly cold. The last thing she remembered was hearing Dr. Kadowaki surmise that her left eye was fatally wounded before she blacked out.
Fujin was treated at Trabia Garden and had emergency surgery on her eye. It couldn't be saved, and thus, her eye was removed. What she was left with was a hollow spot of where her eye should have been that had been sealed closed. Recovery had been several weeks and she had to remain at Trabia Garden until she was well enough to be transported back to Balamb Garden. Fujin wore an eye patch to hide the hideous scar, but it seemed to her that it had drawn even more attention to it. She tried to force herself to ignore the stares, but it was in vain...it was even more than it had ever been when she had both eyes.
Since that time, Fujin trained long and hard testing her reflexes and dexterity. She skipped a year for taking the field test not feeling ready enough to take it again. Instead, Squall and his friends took the test, passed and ultimately ended up saving the world.
'All I came away with was a wounded eye and pride,' Fujin presently thought cynically. 'I was only fifteen then....and I lost my eye.' Feeling herself slip into slight depression, she instantaneously put her feelings to the side convincing herself that there were better things to do than reflect. Checking the clock on the kitchenette wall, Fujin realized that it was close to twenty of ten. She went into her room and gingerly changed into the official Balamb Garden uniform: a dark blue top with white designs on the shoulders and white trim on the sleeves, a dark blue pleated skirt, knee high stockings and black shoes. It was required that all students wear the regulation uniform for the SeeD field exam; no exceptions. Fujin cringed at the sight of herself dressed in the uniform and adjusted the yellow bow at the collar of her top. It was little wonder why she never wore the uniform. She strapped her pinwheel to her back carefully and walked out of the dorm, feeling her stomach fill with anxiety.
~*~*~
"Are you ready, man? I'm all jittery, ya know," Raijin announced as he and Seifer walked through Balamb Garden's beautiful campus.
"I'm always ready," Seifer stated confidently. In truth, he was a little nervous and at the moment Fujin was all he could think about.
"Okay boss. Whatever ya say, ya know." Raijin knew that something had happened between Seifer and Fujin, but chose to stay out of it. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing he could do to get them on speaking terms again. He had heard about their altercation from Seifer, who had tried to place most of the blame on Fujin. Raijin knew that all wasn't her fault, but he wasn't about to get involved once again.
The duo arrived at the front gate where most of the SeeD candidates appeared to be present. Seifer leaned against the wall where a gargoyle was perched above him and looked around at the various students chatting nervously or excitedly. Raijin joined up beside him quietly and followed Seifer's gaze. First, he spotted Rinoa talking to a dark skinned girl. Knowing that Seifer was not looking at Rinoa, he continued to look around. His eyes immediately landed on Fujin, who stood a few feet away looking extremely uncomfortable. Knowing full well that her uniform was the thing that brought the discomfort, Raijin chuckled slightly.
"What's so funny?" Seifer asked distractedly.
"Fujin is. She looks so weird like that, ya know."
"Hmm. Yeah, she does." Seifer also chuckled slightly, but suddenly remembered that he was angry with Fujin and his laughter diminished quickly.
"I'll be back, boss." Raijin elbowed his way through the crowd of students towards his sister's direction. Feeling that someone was coming over to her, Fujin looked up half expecting to see Seifer. Instead, she was slightly relieved when it was just Raijin. If it were Seifer, she would just pretend to ignore him....not that it would be hard to do it at the present state.
"Heya Fuj. You okay?"
"Fine. Why do you care?" Fujin asked snappishly while she tugged on her skirt wishing it were longer.
"Hey now, I'm not Seifer, ya know." Fujin grunted irritably at the sound of his name. "Look, I was just asking because you look all uncomfortable, ya know." Raijin gestured downwardly at her skirt that she continuously tugged at.
"It's too short," Fujin answered sharply. "Is there something you want?"
Taking aback by Fujin's brusqueness, Raijin answered shakily. "W-well no, I was just seeing if you were okay...."
Fujin was slightly regretful of her abruptness, but she made no effort to amend her mistake. "I said I was fine."
Raijin decided that he would leave his sister in peace. Sighing heavily, he walked back to where Seifer was standing and stood beside him quietly once more. At that moment Cid and his wife Edea stood in front of the group of students along with Xu, Squall, Quistis, Zell, Selphie and Irvine who stood behind them on the steps of the front gate standing in normal SeeD fashion.
"Good morning all of you. Before me I see a large amount of potential in this group." Cid clasped his hands behind his back and studied the group of students. "If there's anything that I don't like to see, it's wasted talent. I know that you all have what it takes. The question is: are you willing to accept the challenge? Good luck to you all and I hope to see you all return home safely." Cid stepped back to let his wife speak.
"My, you all look like a strong group," Edea started smoothly. "I don't think I'm a woman of many words, but I would like to wish you all a safe trip. You are our future SeeDs for our Garden. Hopefully, you will have a chance to spread all over the world bringing a bit of this Garden with you and to protect citizens. You, children, are our future."
Some students cheered slightly, feeling very important. Hating to break the moment, Xu stepped forward to deliver a speech of all business. She cleared her throat loudly to silence the cheering students.
"All right everyone, here's the deal. As you know, this year's exam is taking place in Esthar." A few students breathed in awe since they had never seen the city "in person". "We are to investigate several reports of malfunctions within the city an example being a computer malfunction in the Presidential Palace. What we must do is get to the root of the problem. According to the reports, the malfunctions are not caused by any technical failures. There may be some other factors that play a role in this conundrum. Our mode of transportation is the Ragnarok so I expect to meet all of you at the hanger at 1200 hours." Xu paused and then gestured at Squall, Zell, Quistis, Irvine and Selphie. "Once we are aboard the Ragnarok, Squall will give further instruction. Quistis will go over the rules and Selphie and Irvine will answer any questions you may have. You are all free until 1200 hours. Remember to meet at the hangar."
Cid and Edea walked back towards the Garden followed by Xu and the others. The group of SeeD candidates rapidly thinned out, with students going where they pleased. Everyone had less than an hour to do last minute preparation or to grab a quick breakfast. Seifer and Raijin walked further into the gates, but stopped at the waterfalls and took a seat on the steps leading up to the main building. A few feet away, Fujin slowly walked through the campus until Rinoa ran up beside her.
"Hi Fujin," she greeted warmly. "I noticed that you looked a little uneasy...is everything okay?"
Fujin looked at Rinoa blandly. "FINE."
"Why don't I believe you?"
"WHY CARE?"
"What? I always try to help when anyone has a problem."
"YOUR BIG PROBLEM," Fujin snorted derisively.
"Are you saying that my biggest problem is trying to be helpful?" Rinoa balked.
"AFFIRMATIVE. NOSY."
"I am not!" Rinoa exclaimed defensively. "I can see that I'm bothering so I leave you alone. I'm going to try to catch up with Squall so I'll see you on the Ragnarok and don't worry. You're sure to pass."
Fujin nodded in response and picked up her pace a little. She wanted to go back to her room to rest for a few minutes. She walked towards the main building nearing Seifer and Raijin. She had made eye contact with Raijin who understood that she was apologizing with her gaze, but she pretending as if Seifer hadn't been sitting there. As she walked up the steps, she moved closer to Seifer and jabbed her knee into his shoulder on purpose. Seifer had a right mind to grab her leg and pull her down to the ground violently, but he managed to keep the urge to himself. Raijin watched with mild shock. He was shocked by Seifer's expression since it looked like he would bring serious harm to her any minute.
"Boss!" Seifer snapped his attention to Raijin.
"What?"
"Chill, ya know. She'll calm down in a few days, ya know."
"Yeah, whatever." Seifer didn't want Fujin angry with him, but his pride stood in the way of him apologizing to her. 'I'm not gonna appear to be some desperate loser. She can come to me when she's ready.' Seifer had never had to ask a girl for forgiveness and he didn't want to start now even if it was Fujin.
'You're a prideful bastard Seifer and it's pathetic.' Fujin had said that to him one time before when she had worked up the guts to say something negative to him.
'She's right though,' Seifer thought disdainfully. 'I need my pride....if I don't have that, what else is left?'
~*~*~
As she walked up the dormitory hall, Fujin noticed that she received more stares than usual. She supposed that it was the uniform; no one had ever seen her wear it. However, something in her gut told her that the students weren't staring at her for that reason. She reached the hall where he dorm had been located and spotted Rose talking to Macy and Ashley along with two other guys. They all stopped talking when Fujin walked by them and it made her uncomfortable. She could feel their stares burning the back of her head, but she pretended to be unfazed.
Rose had decided to speak up when she thought Fujin was gone. "I'm telling you, she was trying to come on to me!"
"Oh Hyne, really?" Ashley asked incrediously.
"Mmm hmm. I always knew that something was weird about her!"
"You said that you thought she was a lesbian. Now you're saying she's bi?" Macy asked scrunching her eyebrows.
"Wow! I never knew Fujin had it in her!" One guy exclaimed.
Fujin couldn't believe her ears. Now Rose was stooping to petty levels trying to soil Fujin's already ruined reputation. Fujin would've liked to think that she could've cared less about what people thought about her, but there were times when she would become wary of the various rumors about her. Several other students in the vicinity heard what Rose said and of course, the rumor mill was in business again.
'I can't get a break...' Fujin thought wistfully. 'I don't have time to think about this...'
Once more, Fujin sucked up her feelings and cast them aside adding more to the bitter, growing demon inside of her.
Eh...what did ya'll think?? I'm sorry about the delay, it's just that I had so many ideas for this chapter and didn't know what to do with them. I finally figured it out! Oh, since I have started back at college again I probably won't get to update as much. Hopefully I can update once a week...we shall see!! See ya next chapter!
The usual disclaimer...
A/N: You guys are the greatest! Thanks so much!!
Chapter 12 - The SeeD Exam
"Good morning all. As you all know, today is the SeeD field exam. You are to meet your instructor at the front gate at 1000 hours. Don't be late. Senior SeeD are to assemble at the front gate also and wait for further instruction. Good luck to all the SeeD candidates and I hope you all with return safely." Squall switched off the loudspeaker and sighed. He stared blankly out of the large window of the bridge, letting his mind wander.
"I hope everything goes well, unlike last year. We didn't have a lot of SeeD graduates," Xu said.
"Yeah, there's a lot of potential SeeDs within the candidates," Quistis answered knowingly.
"Sounds like you have a few in mind. Care to name 'em?"
"Well there's Rinoa-"
"Wait. Why didn't she become a SeeD after you all saved the world?"
"Because she wants to earn it," Squall interrupted. "She wants to prove herself."
"Oh, the whole spoiled rich girl thing? I get it. Who else Quistis?"
"The people I really had in mind were Seifer, Fujin and Raijin. They're got talent to be SeeDs and I know that for sure since we fought all three of them. I hate to admit that Seifer has what it takes, but it's true. There are also some other students in my class that also have potential. I hope they make it."
Xu nodded slightly. "Absolutely. I hope that Fujin will pass. That experience a couple years ago scarred her permenantly." Xu was referred to the SeeD exam two years ago in which Fujin lost her eye. Xu sighed slightly and recomposed herself. "Well, I better get our mode of transportation ready."
"Hey, what is it? You don't like my flying?" Nida questioned jokingly while coming up the small elevator that connected the bridge and Cid's office.
"Are you trying to put me on a guilt trip? I think that all the students will feel more 'official' if they were riding on the Ragnarok. You know the exam takes place in Esthar this year."
"Oh yeah. So this time you get away with insulting me," Nida said slowly while pacing around Xu.
"As Squall would say, 'Whatever.' " Xu threw up her hand in Nida's face which brought a scowl to his face. Squall gave Xu an impassive glance, which caused Quistis to chuckle slightly.
"Get serious everyone. This is no time to be joking around," Squall said sharply.
All three looked at Squall before they sighed and began to do their respective duties.
~*~*~
Fujin chewed on a piece of her bagel slowly, while mentally preparing herself for the SeeD field exam. She had the dorm all to herself and was glad that she didn't have to see Rose's snobby face early in the morning. After a traumatizing experience two years ago, she had become anxious about it every time she thought of it. Unfortunately her mind had wandered to that time once more.
Two Years Ago
A frigid breeze swept through the Bika Snowfield, located several miles away from Trabia Garden. A group of SeeD candidates stood shivering in the field awaiting further instruction from Xu. Fujin and Seifer had been amongst the group eager to get the exam over with. The mission that year had taken place near Trabia Garden and both Balamb and Trabia arranged for a simulated monster outbreak. The Gardens set up camps of tents pretending they were villages and the SeeD candidates' jobs was to simply detain the monsters and keep them from attacking the villagers. The monsters were indeed real, but slightly domesticated by the Gardens so that they wouldn't be as lethal As the exam progressed, Xu would assign different senior SeeDs to pretend to be stubborn villagers who wanted to help, or children who needed saving increasing the crisis factor. Some SeeD candidates found the exercise to be a little weird since some well-known senior SeeDs had been pretending to act helpless. Xu repeatedly reminded all the SeeD candidates to take the exam seriously or else their grade would suffer.
Fujin had been assigned with two male students and one female named Terrance, Andrew and Alexandra. Andrew and Terrance slacked off in class and carried that behavior to the field leaving Alexandra and Fujin to cover for their blunders. The group's job had been to keep the monsters at bay while leading "children" to safety. Once in the distressed "village", the group had began to plan their way of attack.
"I think we should just go in there and go ballistic!" Terrance exclaimed excitedly.
"No, we should come up with a plan at least!" Alexandra argued back placing a hand on her hip. "You just can't go in there and go crazy! They'll get you before you could even blink!"
"Man, I agree with Terry. We can't sit around and plan like some punks!" Andrew huffed.
Alexandra shook her head vehemently. "Fujin, what do you think?"
"IMMEDIATE ACTION. PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY." Fujin took her pinwheel like chakram in hand and headed towards a Bite Bug who was "terrorizing" a nearby "helpless woman". The others followed suit annihilating any enemy that stood in the way. After eliminating the Bite Bug, Fujin guided the woman to safety.
What everyone didn't know was that a wild Mesmerize had managed to find it's way into the pseudo village. The deformed unicorn like creature charged toward Fujin at a swift pace. Reacting quickly, Fujin pushed the senior SeeD out of the way, but didn't move in time to save herself. At that same moment, the Mesmerize rose on its hind legs, let out a shrill cry and brought its head down, slashing Fujin's face with the blade atop its head.
Fujin screamed in pain and immediately collapsed to the ground, throwing her weapon to the side and grabbing the left side of her face as white hot pain overtook her senses. She weakly cast Curaga, but it did little to save her injury since the spell had been weak. Warm blood seeped its way between her pale fingers, and rolled down the rest of her hand. She began shivering terror, fearing what kind of damage the gash had caused. The female senior SeeD immediately slaughtered the beast, firing her gun in rapid succession. She rushed over to Fujin to check her injuries. She was alarmed by what she saw.
"Oh Hyne!" She grabbed her two-way radio and contacted Xu trying to keep her voice calm. "Xu, we have one student injury. Please send medics to Section 2 immediately!"
"10-4. I'm on it," Xu's voice blared over the transmission.
The female senior SeeD did her best at carrying Fujin inside of a tent and rested her on a cot anxiously awaiting the paramedics. Within minutes Dr. Kadowaki and a medical assistant arrived and without delay, began to stabilize Fujin. Overcome with pain, Fujin moaned quietly and felt herself become increasingly cold. The last thing she remembered was hearing Dr. Kadowaki surmise that her left eye was fatally wounded before she blacked out.
Fujin was treated at Trabia Garden and had emergency surgery on her eye. It couldn't be saved, and thus, her eye was removed. What she was left with was a hollow spot of where her eye should have been that had been sealed closed. Recovery had been several weeks and she had to remain at Trabia Garden until she was well enough to be transported back to Balamb Garden. Fujin wore an eye patch to hide the hideous scar, but it seemed to her that it had drawn even more attention to it. She tried to force herself to ignore the stares, but it was in vain...it was even more than it had ever been when she had both eyes.
Since that time, Fujin trained long and hard testing her reflexes and dexterity. She skipped a year for taking the field test not feeling ready enough to take it again. Instead, Squall and his friends took the test, passed and ultimately ended up saving the world.
'All I came away with was a wounded eye and pride,' Fujin presently thought cynically. 'I was only fifteen then....and I lost my eye.' Feeling herself slip into slight depression, she instantaneously put her feelings to the side convincing herself that there were better things to do than reflect. Checking the clock on the kitchenette wall, Fujin realized that it was close to twenty of ten. She went into her room and gingerly changed into the official Balamb Garden uniform: a dark blue top with white designs on the shoulders and white trim on the sleeves, a dark blue pleated skirt, knee high stockings and black shoes. It was required that all students wear the regulation uniform for the SeeD field exam; no exceptions. Fujin cringed at the sight of herself dressed in the uniform and adjusted the yellow bow at the collar of her top. It was little wonder why she never wore the uniform. She strapped her pinwheel to her back carefully and walked out of the dorm, feeling her stomach fill with anxiety.
~*~*~
"Are you ready, man? I'm all jittery, ya know," Raijin announced as he and Seifer walked through Balamb Garden's beautiful campus.
"I'm always ready," Seifer stated confidently. In truth, he was a little nervous and at the moment Fujin was all he could think about.
"Okay boss. Whatever ya say, ya know." Raijin knew that something had happened between Seifer and Fujin, but chose to stay out of it. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing he could do to get them on speaking terms again. He had heard about their altercation from Seifer, who had tried to place most of the blame on Fujin. Raijin knew that all wasn't her fault, but he wasn't about to get involved once again.
The duo arrived at the front gate where most of the SeeD candidates appeared to be present. Seifer leaned against the wall where a gargoyle was perched above him and looked around at the various students chatting nervously or excitedly. Raijin joined up beside him quietly and followed Seifer's gaze. First, he spotted Rinoa talking to a dark skinned girl. Knowing that Seifer was not looking at Rinoa, he continued to look around. His eyes immediately landed on Fujin, who stood a few feet away looking extremely uncomfortable. Knowing full well that her uniform was the thing that brought the discomfort, Raijin chuckled slightly.
"What's so funny?" Seifer asked distractedly.
"Fujin is. She looks so weird like that, ya know."
"Hmm. Yeah, she does." Seifer also chuckled slightly, but suddenly remembered that he was angry with Fujin and his laughter diminished quickly.
"I'll be back, boss." Raijin elbowed his way through the crowd of students towards his sister's direction. Feeling that someone was coming over to her, Fujin looked up half expecting to see Seifer. Instead, she was slightly relieved when it was just Raijin. If it were Seifer, she would just pretend to ignore him....not that it would be hard to do it at the present state.
"Heya Fuj. You okay?"
"Fine. Why do you care?" Fujin asked snappishly while she tugged on her skirt wishing it were longer.
"Hey now, I'm not Seifer, ya know." Fujin grunted irritably at the sound of his name. "Look, I was just asking because you look all uncomfortable, ya know." Raijin gestured downwardly at her skirt that she continuously tugged at.
"It's too short," Fujin answered sharply. "Is there something you want?"
Taking aback by Fujin's brusqueness, Raijin answered shakily. "W-well no, I was just seeing if you were okay...."
Fujin was slightly regretful of her abruptness, but she made no effort to amend her mistake. "I said I was fine."
Raijin decided that he would leave his sister in peace. Sighing heavily, he walked back to where Seifer was standing and stood beside him quietly once more. At that moment Cid and his wife Edea stood in front of the group of students along with Xu, Squall, Quistis, Zell, Selphie and Irvine who stood behind them on the steps of the front gate standing in normal SeeD fashion.
"Good morning all of you. Before me I see a large amount of potential in this group." Cid clasped his hands behind his back and studied the group of students. "If there's anything that I don't like to see, it's wasted talent. I know that you all have what it takes. The question is: are you willing to accept the challenge? Good luck to you all and I hope to see you all return home safely." Cid stepped back to let his wife speak.
"My, you all look like a strong group," Edea started smoothly. "I don't think I'm a woman of many words, but I would like to wish you all a safe trip. You are our future SeeDs for our Garden. Hopefully, you will have a chance to spread all over the world bringing a bit of this Garden with you and to protect citizens. You, children, are our future."
Some students cheered slightly, feeling very important. Hating to break the moment, Xu stepped forward to deliver a speech of all business. She cleared her throat loudly to silence the cheering students.
"All right everyone, here's the deal. As you know, this year's exam is taking place in Esthar." A few students breathed in awe since they had never seen the city "in person". "We are to investigate several reports of malfunctions within the city an example being a computer malfunction in the Presidential Palace. What we must do is get to the root of the problem. According to the reports, the malfunctions are not caused by any technical failures. There may be some other factors that play a role in this conundrum. Our mode of transportation is the Ragnarok so I expect to meet all of you at the hanger at 1200 hours." Xu paused and then gestured at Squall, Zell, Quistis, Irvine and Selphie. "Once we are aboard the Ragnarok, Squall will give further instruction. Quistis will go over the rules and Selphie and Irvine will answer any questions you may have. You are all free until 1200 hours. Remember to meet at the hangar."
Cid and Edea walked back towards the Garden followed by Xu and the others. The group of SeeD candidates rapidly thinned out, with students going where they pleased. Everyone had less than an hour to do last minute preparation or to grab a quick breakfast. Seifer and Raijin walked further into the gates, but stopped at the waterfalls and took a seat on the steps leading up to the main building. A few feet away, Fujin slowly walked through the campus until Rinoa ran up beside her.
"Hi Fujin," she greeted warmly. "I noticed that you looked a little uneasy...is everything okay?"
Fujin looked at Rinoa blandly. "FINE."
"Why don't I believe you?"
"WHY CARE?"
"What? I always try to help when anyone has a problem."
"YOUR BIG PROBLEM," Fujin snorted derisively.
"Are you saying that my biggest problem is trying to be helpful?" Rinoa balked.
"AFFIRMATIVE. NOSY."
"I am not!" Rinoa exclaimed defensively. "I can see that I'm bothering so I leave you alone. I'm going to try to catch up with Squall so I'll see you on the Ragnarok and don't worry. You're sure to pass."
Fujin nodded in response and picked up her pace a little. She wanted to go back to her room to rest for a few minutes. She walked towards the main building nearing Seifer and Raijin. She had made eye contact with Raijin who understood that she was apologizing with her gaze, but she pretending as if Seifer hadn't been sitting there. As she walked up the steps, she moved closer to Seifer and jabbed her knee into his shoulder on purpose. Seifer had a right mind to grab her leg and pull her down to the ground violently, but he managed to keep the urge to himself. Raijin watched with mild shock. He was shocked by Seifer's expression since it looked like he would bring serious harm to her any minute.
"Boss!" Seifer snapped his attention to Raijin.
"What?"
"Chill, ya know. She'll calm down in a few days, ya know."
"Yeah, whatever." Seifer didn't want Fujin angry with him, but his pride stood in the way of him apologizing to her. 'I'm not gonna appear to be some desperate loser. She can come to me when she's ready.' Seifer had never had to ask a girl for forgiveness and he didn't want to start now even if it was Fujin.
'You're a prideful bastard Seifer and it's pathetic.' Fujin had said that to him one time before when she had worked up the guts to say something negative to him.
'She's right though,' Seifer thought disdainfully. 'I need my pride....if I don't have that, what else is left?'
~*~*~
As she walked up the dormitory hall, Fujin noticed that she received more stares than usual. She supposed that it was the uniform; no one had ever seen her wear it. However, something in her gut told her that the students weren't staring at her for that reason. She reached the hall where he dorm had been located and spotted Rose talking to Macy and Ashley along with two other guys. They all stopped talking when Fujin walked by them and it made her uncomfortable. She could feel their stares burning the back of her head, but she pretended to be unfazed.
Rose had decided to speak up when she thought Fujin was gone. "I'm telling you, she was trying to come on to me!"
"Oh Hyne, really?" Ashley asked incrediously.
"Mmm hmm. I always knew that something was weird about her!"
"You said that you thought she was a lesbian. Now you're saying she's bi?" Macy asked scrunching her eyebrows.
"Wow! I never knew Fujin had it in her!" One guy exclaimed.
Fujin couldn't believe her ears. Now Rose was stooping to petty levels trying to soil Fujin's already ruined reputation. Fujin would've liked to think that she could've cared less about what people thought about her, but there were times when she would become wary of the various rumors about her. Several other students in the vicinity heard what Rose said and of course, the rumor mill was in business again.
'I can't get a break...' Fujin thought wistfully. 'I don't have time to think about this...'
Once more, Fujin sucked up her feelings and cast them aside adding more to the bitter, growing demon inside of her.
Eh...what did ya'll think?? I'm sorry about the delay, it's just that I had so many ideas for this chapter and didn't know what to do with them. I finally figured it out! Oh, since I have started back at college again I probably won't get to update as much. Hopefully I can update once a week...we shall see!! See ya next chapter!