Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Gundam Wing.
AN I had to split this chapter, cause it was unbearably long when put together. Plus, I had to explain rankings, which is at the bottom of the page.
-:-:-:-:-:-
Boei Academy
Chapter Five
On The Fields
(Part One)
By Angel-Goddess
-:-:-:-:-:-
Usagi absent-mindedly stared at her timetable as soon as she had shoved all her books into her set locker.
Tuesday:
Archery - Field 24 – Kyudo Hiroshi
Hand-to-Hand Combat – Arena 2 – Sento Darumi
- Break -
Martial Arts – Arena 4 – Katana Hiromi
Staff fighting and Fencing – Court 12 – Katana Hiromi
- Lunch Break -
Horse Riding – Northern Stables – Uma Daisuke
Athletics – Track Field 5 – Aou Namaki
Usagi paled almost immediately upon setting her eyes on it. Nope, it didn't look too good. The only thing that didn't seem bad about this day is archery and horse riding. Okay, so maybe I've never ridden a horse before. She thought, as she unconsciously tugged at the black collar of her silver uniform. But I'll manage, everyone seems to do well on his or her first go anyway. Usagi assured herself. Besides, how hard can riding a horse be? It seemed quite simple in all those western movies.
Usagi looked up from her timetable when the bell rang, signalling the start of the day. Idle chatter and footsteps of young men started to fill the hall she was currently in. She turned around to face the students; completely aware to the fact that they were sizing her up. Most of them ignored her as if she didn't exist, while others looked at her in pure disgust or resentment. There were only very few boys that actually smiled kindly at her and acknowledged the fact that she was a living, breathing human like everyone else in the school.
One boy with a high rank - Usagi knew this because he had a Tiger featured on his golden-framed badge - shoved a lower-classed student roughly as he approached Usagi, causing him to fly into her forcefully. Usagi gasped in surprise as the air was knocked out of her lungs violently. All she saw was the ceiling of the hall rapidly spin and everything going hazy as she was knocked to the cold floor. She blinked repeatedly, trying to get the white spots that danced around out of her vision. She pulled herself up with difficulty.
She could hear the cruel laughter from the boys surrounding her.Usagi could feel her face heat up, and she knew without a doubt that she was blushing. Tears of anger and hurt unwillingly started to collect in her bright blue eyes, but she promised herself stubbornly that she wouldn't give these stupid boys the chance to see her upset. She swallowed the lump that forced itself up in her throat and blinked rapidly to stop the tears. No more, I'm not going to let them step over me like this… I'm not going to be a crybaby anymore…
She straightened her top, pretending that nothing had ever happened and brushed away the small wrinkles on the skirt of her prestigious uniform while trying to make a straight face. She was thankful that her skirt didn't fly up.
She noticed that a few boys were helping the blushing lower-classed student up and asking him if he was all right. She felt slightly indignant about the fact that no one seemed to care enough about her wellbeing to even ask. Some of the high-ranking boys were still snickering at the 'accident' and congratulating the boy that had shoved the other into her.
"Hey, hey! Clear out, buddy! You're blocking my way!" An agitated, yet commanding voice rang out through the hallway.
Usagi watched in bewilderment as the others immediately did as bid and continued their way down the corridor. But not without sending final looks of malice her way.
"Hey, you uh … okay?" a same voice asked.
Usagi blinked in surprise at the boy was looking at her intently with cobalt blue eyes so dark it looked almost violet. She looked behind her, wondering who he was talking to. Seeing no one there, she pointed a finger at herself incredulously. "Me?" she asked mellifluously, her voice wary. She couldn't believe it … someone other than Quatre was actually talking to her, rather than bullying her!
The boy smiled brightly, his eyes dancing in mirth. "Yes, you. You took quite a hard fall there. If you want, I can go beat the guy up for ya!" He suggested amiably with a grin. He gave her a sly wink before pushing a lock of brown hair away from his face.
Usagi almost jumped at the idea, but realised that it would've been a cowardly action. "No, it's okay. I'm used to it … besides, I can fight my own battles." She declined the offer, beaming at the considerate boy.
"Okay! If you're sure!" He gave her one last smile before sauntering away cheerfully. It was only then that Usagi noticed that the boy had long hair, tied in a braid.
-:-:-:-:-:-
"Tsukino-san, you're late."
Usagi winced at the unwelcome attention that was directed to her instantaneously. She looked away from the staring beady eyes of the boys that were gleaming, eagerly awaiting for their teacher to penalize her in any kind of way.
"I'm sorry …" She apologized, "The academy was just so big … I got lost." she finished softly, looking down at her shoes. She was surely going to get a whole weeks worth of detention!
"That's alright. But I expect you to be prompt to every other class. I usually am not this lenient on tardy students, Tsukino-san. Consider yourself lucky." Usagi looked up in surprise, meeting the teacher's bright amber eyes for the first time. She nodded, relief coursing through her.
He turned to his disappointed class, his short raven hair blowing gently in the breeze. "Minna, you know what to do! Get to work!" he ordered.
There was a brief rustle as the boys got up from their seating positions and picked their archery equipment off a rack nearby before heading for the targets, which were further out in the field.
"Tsukino-san, I'm Kyudo-sensei," He introduced himself with a slight nod, studying her for a moment. "...But you can call me Kyudo-chan!" He added, winking at her and watching with amusement as her face turned cherry red at the action.
Usagi took a step away from her archery teacher, feeling numb. Was this guy for real!? He had to be more than ten years older than her! … Though he did look only in his early twenties … but this wasn't legal! He was hitting on her!
"Have you ever handled a bow before?" He asked her, being serious this time.
Usagi nodded, feeling extremely glad that she had asked her friend and fellow senshi to teach her how to use it.
A silly smile lit up her teacher's face. "Do you know how to use a long bow?" Seeing her blank face he started to laugh animatedly, pointing his index finger at her as he bent down slowly, unable to balance himself. The thought of his frail new female student trying to use a bow that towered over her was just too much!
Usagi sweatdropped. What kind of teacher was he? Certainly not one she had ever encountered before, that's for sure.
He wiped his teary amber eyes, "Ahh… gomen, Tsukino-san. Forgive my earlier actions. Go get yourself a bow and a quiver and head over to the spare target board." He instructed her. His face was straight for a few seconds, before a smile crept onto his face and he started to laugh at her again.
Usagi just swept past her crazy teacher and collected the necessary equipment with a sigh and trudged her way to the spare target board. She glanced at the arrows; there were roughly twenty of them in the quiver. She pulled one out and put the quiver on grass, by her feet.
I'll work hard, she promised herself. I'll show everyone that girls are just as good as boys!
She clipped the end of the arrow to the string of her bow and positioned it so that her arrow rested slightly on the crevice carved in the bow, balancing it. She held the bow on a slight tilt of sixty degrees to the left so the arrow wouldn't drop off. Usagi licked her dry lips; now very aware of the attention she was receiving from the rest of her class.
Carefully, she drew the string with her index and middle fingers, the arrow's end securely tucked snugly between them. Closing her right eye she tried to aim at the hand-sized yellow circle in the middle. Come on, Usagi… you can do it! She encouraged herself as she let the arrow loose.
The sound of the arrow hitting the board was heard as the sharp object lodged itself deeply into the board.
Usagi face-faulted. Sure she hit the board … but she had hit the white circle. The first of the outer rings.
The boys in her class hollered with laughter.
"Hey! Tsukino! I heard you challenged one of the best archers around. Jeris Renorl. I doubt you'd be able to beat him with skills like that!" One of her classmates shouted.
"She's worse than you, Gavin!"
"Shut up, you aren't exactly a pro either!"
"Well, at least she hit the board!" Someone else shouted back, making some of the boys gasp.
Usagi's heart leapt. Someone was standing up for her?
"… She did better than I thought she would. I expected the arrow to fly up and come down, burying itself into the ground!" He finished with cackles.
Some of the boys in the class were now rolling on the grass with laughter.
Usagi tried to ignore them as she bent down and picked out another arrow. While she did that, the boys struggled to control themselves. Feeling flustered at the silence of the boys that were watching her, Usagi drew the string back so far that the arrow dropped away.
Giggles erupted from her spectators, who seemed to be having a jolly good time watching her suffer. She picked up her fallen arrow and instead concentrated on correcting how she held her bow the way Rei taught her to block out the laughter of her cruel classmates. How she would love to hit them in their behind with the fallen arrow she just reloaded. Maybe play a little 'hunting' game with them. Yes, she could just hear the sound of, "Ouch! My buttocks!" in her head if she shot at them.
This time, as she let the arrow loose, she had forgotten about the feathers attached at the end. Rei had warned her to keep her other hand well away from a soon-to-be-loosed arrow, but it had slipped her mind as she tried to prove to the boys that girls could do as well as boys when it came to archery. Usagi winced and dropped her bow as she held her left index finger in her other hand. Blood seeped out from the perfectly straight cut, as though she had cut herself intentionally with a razor. Who knew feathers could be so dangerous?
Once again, laughter was heard from her viewers. I hate this school… she thought bitterly as she picked up her fallen bow and a new arrow, trying to disregard the throbbing of her slitted finger.
-:-:-:-:-:-
Usagi felt a little cross as she trudged up the hill and trailed after her classmates when archery lessons had finally finished. Out of the twenty arrows that she had fired at the target board, only two had actually come close to the yellow circle. Yet, they didn't even touch the yellow circle. There's no way I'm going to be able to beat Jeris tomorrow. There just isn't enough time for me to practice! She thought crossly.
As she followed some of her classmates to the hand-to-hand combat arena she felt dread build up inside her. Hand-to-hand combat … that didn't sound too good at all. Usagi felt so nervous that all she wanted to do was to run to the nearest toilet and stay there.
"'Ey, little blonde squirt. Ye must be the new kid, eh?" A rough voice asked, well… more like stated.
Usagi turned to see a well-built man in his early thirties with a short brown beard. He was dressed plainly; a white slip-on shirt with black cargo pants that had its ends tucked into heavy, black army-styled boots. He had a large unlit cigar hanging out at the side of his mouth, giving him a 'mean macho man' look. His ocean blue eyes looked her up and down briefly before he snorted.
"Yer know, I doubt ye'd excel in dis class. Yer t' skinny, squirt. Ye 'ave no muscles either. I could break ye in half with one hand!" He commented.
Usagi's brow furrowed at his words. Girls weren't meant to have muscles. She wasn't skinny either… and why did he call her squirt? "I'm Tsukino Usagi…" she introduced herself, in hopes of getting him to call her by her name instead of 'squirt'. The man had a strong southern accent. It was obvious he was a foreigner.
He waved her off, "Yer, yer. I know. Sit down, squirt."
Turning his attention to his loud class, he bellowed loudly to make himself heard. "Alright, yer maggots! Listen up! This lesson, I wanna see yer muscles pumpin' and yer body sweat. Yer goin' to work hard! I wanna see ye work till ye drop, ye hear me!?"
"Hai, Sento-sama!" The class chorused as one, moving into three straight lines.
"I want two o' yer turds t' come t' the front and demonstrate yer knowledge o' last lesson's drill!" He barked roughly, pointing at two of the boys he randomly picked.
The two got up to the front, a safe distance away from the class and faced each other. They bowed, before striking lightning fast at their opponent. The drill included various throws, punches, and kicks. There were even some moves that could easily put Haruka to shame!
The colour immediately drained from Usagi's face. I'm not going to make it out of this lesson alive…She thought with wide eyes. Kami-sama … save me…please!!
-:-:-:-:-:-
Recess! Finally… a break. Oh, Kami-sama, I need to sit… Usagi bit her lip and sat down stiffly on a bench near her locker, trying to give her sore muscles a rest. She didn't feel all that hungry, which was a first. All she wanted to do right now was rest.
She flinched as she inspected one of her new bruises that her sparring partner had dealt earlier. It was so bad that it had already begun to turn purple! What was worse was that she hadn't acquired only one bruise … she had at least fifteen or so! Not to mention her middle finger had been dislocated during the tiresome lesson. Sento-sama thought she made a big deal over a 'tiny boo-boo'.
-
The boy Usagi was paired up with dodged her punch easily and grabbed her arm; he turned and bent down, easily drawing her over his hip and executing a perfect throw manoeuvre. Usagi watched as colours flew past her in slow motion. Instinctively she held out her left hand –which was free - to stop her fall, but the force that she had been thrown had been so great that her hand buckled underneath her weight and she fell to the ground, gasping for air.
Usagi cried out as pain laced through her fingertips and right up her arm. Waves of nausea were starting to overcome her. She looked at her left hand and felt sick as she saw her middle finger was out of place. Most likely broken. Tears collected at the corner of her sapphire eyes as she tried to stop the pain by squeezing her left hand's fingers together using her right. She whimpered in agony.
She could barely make out the shapes in front of her due to her tears. She blinked and the tears cleared for a moment, allowing her a brief glance at her surroundings. She could see the somewhat blurry form of her instructor kneel down next to her, a slight concern on his face.
"Now, now, what's this?" Sento-sama's normally rough voice was oddly gentle as he carefully took her left hand into his and inspected it. "Ahh, com'on, squirt. Don't cry over a tiny boo-boo like this! 'Ey, don't make such a big deal!"
The dam broke and the tears started to flow out.
"Aww!! Come on, now!! Yertch. Girls. Alright, alright! I'll fix it fer ye. Just stop cryin'!" Sento-sama cried, looking alarmed.
If Usagi weren't in so much pain, she would've laughed. Her tough hand-to-hand combat teacher was a sucker for tears.
"It'll hurt ye fer a while. But all the pain will be gone once I'm done." He warned her, wrapping his large hand securely on her middle finger.
Usagi squeezed her eyes shut and let out a cry of pain as her instructor snapped the bone back into place. She could still hear the disgusting sound of the bone being corrected echoing inside her head. The throbbing in her hand seemed to lessen, but it didn't go away.
He handed her a tissue without a word. She gratefully took it and blew her nose as she wiped her tears away from her eyes with her good hand.
"Yer know, squirt… I think it's better if ye sat out fer the rest o' the lesson." He told her kindly. "But ye better be ready t' do some serious catchin' up next session!" He barked at her, returning to his 'mean macho man' attitude.
A watery smile lit Usagi's face, "Hai, Sento-sama!" Despite his façade, her hand-to-hand combat teacher was actually a very kind man.
-
The wretched bell rang, warning all the students in the academy to start heading out to their next lesson, so as not to be marked down as tardy.
Usagi winced as she slowly got up from the bench, her muscles were screaming with pain at being stretched. She hobbled across to her locker and keyed in her five-number combination. There was a short 'beep' and her locker opened automatically. She reached inside her messy locker and pulled out her timetable. Taking a short glance at it, she groaned and let her head hit the bottom of her locker. "This day will never end…" she muttered to herself. It felt good just to lean there and do nothing.
"Hurry up, get to class." She heard someone say somewhere behind her. She ignored it, whoever the person was; they were most likely speaking to their friend.
No one spoke to her in this horrible place. She was already getting used to being neglected by everyone by now. The high-ranking boys didn't speak to her for she was 'unworthy', and people in the same rank as her or lower would ignore her … because … well, because she was girl!
Besides, it wasn't as if she had options in the situation anyway. It was either be ignored, or be bullied. Of course she much rather prefer being ignored to being tormented.
"I'm talking to you." The gruff voice said again in a darker tone.
Usagi blinked, Talking … to me? She turned and looked up, straight into displeased prussian blue eyes. It was obvious that he wasn't used to being ignored.
"You!" She cried, pointing a finger at him. It was the boy she saw at the office when she had first come to school and the very same one that had told her that she was 'dreadfully weak' when she was sulking over the challenges she had lost back in the park yesterday.
He just stared at her, no emotion of his face. "What about me?" He finally asked stiffly.
"You're that jerk!" She shouted at him just as three high-ranking students walked past. Usagi dimly realised that the three boys had immediately gawked at her and started talking among themselves. Her sapphire eyes briefly landed on the three whispering boys. What's wrong with them? They seem surprised…She thought, before turning her full attention to the jerk in front of her. "I'm going to prove to you that I'm not weak!" she fumed heatedly.
He smirked, knowing that she was starting to get agitated at the simple action. "See that you do." He stated, he turned his back away and started to walk away. But before he was even five metres away from the irritated blonde, he reminded her, "Better hurry to class."
Usagi stared in disbelief at his back, before glaring at him. The nerve of that … that… jerk!! She balled her hands into fists. I'll prove that I'm not weak …I'll show these boys what girls can really do! With those encouraging thoughts, Usagi loudly slammed her locker shut and rushed off to find her Martial Arts class, almost completely forgetting about her sore muscles.
-:-:-:-:-:-
Some have asked about rankings and such. Well, I'll just hint to you the main rankings in Boei Academy and how rankings are achieved.
There are five main rankings. This is their order.
High classed Fighter - Lion.
High/Medium classed Fighter - Tiger
Medium classed - Leopard
Medium/Low classed - Wolf
Low Classed - Fox
Rankings are achieved as when you beat or lose to people. If you're a newcomer (you start off as Medium/Low) you immediately get challenged to crazy fights, it's the custom.
Lose fifteen times, and you're classed as a Lower fighter.
However, if you continue to beat people of higher ranks that you are, you can slowly work your way to the top.
Get it? E-mail me if you still don't understand.
Much Love,
Angel-Goddess
aka Tenshi-Megami