Chapter 10

Trouble at Corridor Six

Squall gave a yelp as he stared at his wine glass. After gaping intently into the deep, red wine, his scar began to emit a burning sensation, distracting him from his thoughts.

Irvine looked up immediately, his expression slightly concerned. "Something wrong, Squall?"

For a moment Squall remained silent as he felt eyes turn towards him. Shaking his head, he felt his scar and quietly rose from his chair. "Please excuse me," he mumbled, saying nothing more as he strode out of the dining hall.

A puzzled look on his face, Irvine, too, dismissed himself from the table, although not before he snatched a few pastries from the maids. Saying a brisk excuse, the sharpshooter hurried out of the room, keeping a close eye on Squall. As he recalled, the King of Esthar had often threatened him if he had not kept the prince away from harm.

"Squall?" Irvine called, looking around the halls quietly. "Oh, Squaaaall," he called out, almost in a singsong voice.

"I do wish you would stop doing that."

Irvine jumped slightly as he caught sight of his best friend leaning against the wall. "Well you've got to stop showing up like that. You know how jumpy I get when people just do that," he growled, removing a pastry from his pocket and taking a bite out of it. "Hey, this pastry's not bad."

Squall scowled. "Well if you're going to just stand here like an idiot talking about a pastry, then I suggest you go back in there and woo Selphie about it. You're distracting me," he grumbled in irritation.

Irvine winced at Squall. "Ouch. You cut me deep, Squall," he said, before tossing the rest of the pastry into his mouth. "So, what happened back there?"

Squall chose to ignore Irvine's muffled mouth chewing on the pastry. With one hand, he ran his gloved fingers over his scar, trying to recall what had happened previously. "…Laguna…" he mumbled nonchalantly. "He's worried…"

Irvine made a choking sound as he failed to swallow the contents in his mouth. Spitting out parts of the pastry that he had not swallowed, Irvine leaned against the wall as he pounded on his chest. "…The…The king?!" he cried with great difficulty as he continued to cough away the pastry he had choked on. "Wh…what…What did he say?!"

"Nothing really," Squall answered, shrugging. "It's not like he's psychic. Laguna's not very good at telepathy either. All I'm certain of is that he's worried about me most likely. Whenever my scar hurts, it's Laguna trying to reach me."

Irvine's worried look changed into a serious one. "Wait a minute…If Laguna's trying to reach you, but can't get to you…That means…"

Squall nodded, glancing out the window. "He's coming to Balamb…"

*

The room was quiet as intensity filled the air. Sitting on a chair that leaned against a small table, Selphie had her hand propped up against her chin. With her other hand, she held five cards, which she glanced at carefully. "Humph, 'Angel fall from the sky.' Pffft! Who does he think he is!" she grumbled slamming her cards against the table, making it shake.

Zell inhaled sharply as he once again lost to Selphie in a game of poker. "Relax, Seph. It's one line. I don't see any harm in that," he said, handing Selphie the card deck.

Selphie snatched the deck absent-mindedly from the table. "What a line! Does he even think I would fall for such a line! I've seen clowns with better ones!" she snarled, cutting the deck and reshuffling it vigorously.

Raijin and Zell gulped as they watched Selphie literally throw the cards at them when she finished shuffling.

Raijin leaned close to Zell, quietly whispering, "I don't think we should have made her shuffle, ya know."

Zell nodded. "I agree," he whispered back quietly. "Good thing she's upset. Otherwise she'd notice that we owe her over a thousand G."

Because she had been angrily muttering about her encounter with Irvine, Selphie failed to notice Raijin and Zell whispering about her. "…I mean, just because I'm some lady-in-waiting does not mean I'm some bubble-headed girl who'd fall for a line," she continued to grumble angrily.

Wanting Selphie to shut up, Zell tried to agree with her argument. Little did he know that he had only made things worse. "Sephie, why don't you just forget about Irvine? Don't let him get to you. That's a normal thing for him, to be flirting with girls…"

At this, Selphie threw her cards down on the table, making it shake violently. "Why that…that playboy! Does he think I'm that easy?! Does he think I would be just another one of those…girls?!" she suddenly growled.

In the meantime, Raijin backed away quickly from the table, avoiding any harm Selphie might inflict during her rage.

"Do you think I'm that easy, Zell?" Selphie finally asked, turning towards Zell. Her usually cheerful face was twisted into a death glare.

Zell gulped as he stared at his childhood friend uneasily. "Well…I…erm…um…No!" he said quickly before Selphie could explode into another rage. "No, Selphie! Of course you're not easy!"

"Of course I'm not–"

Before Selphie was able to finish her sentence, a loud crashing noise was heard, diverting her attention. Raijin and Zell also rose to their feet as the crashing noise echoed throughout the halls.

"What in the world?" Selphie mumbled, tossing her cards towards the table and running out of the room. Behind her trailed Zell and Raijin, their money problems long forgotten.

"It's coming from one of the desolated corridors," Zell said, picking up the pace as he rushed in front of Selphie.

For a moment, Raijin remained silent as he thought carefully who had been staying at the guests' corridors. He remembered Cid mentioning that the desolated corridors were hardly used for anything, although there were a couple of extra rooms fit for any noble. "Which corridor, ya know?"

Selphie thought for a moment as she followed Zell through the narrow hallways. "…The sound appeared to have come from one of the fancy rooms…" she muttered thoughtfully, her face forming a small scowl. "Well there's only one corridor in the desolated area that would hold any noble rooms…And that's…Corridor Six."

"Seifer!" Raijin growled, zooming past Zell and Selphie. As quickly as possible, he tore through the corridors until he found Corridor Six. As it turned out, Selphie had been right about Corridor Six. The minute Raijin arrived at the scene, he caught sight of his best friend struggling to stay away from a large creature.

Seifer held his Gunblade with both hands as he tried to push away the creature's fangs from sinking into him. To his surprise, the creature was a lot stronger than he had predicted. "Blast it!"

In an instant, Raijin whipped out his metal rod strapped to his pants and held them in the air. With a fierce cry, he launched his rod against the creature's skull, distracting it from eating Seifer.

Taking the distraction to his advantage, Seifer kicked the beast off of him and jumped to his feet. He gave a grateful grin to Raijin and swung Hyperion readily into the air. "What took you so long?"

Raijin returned the grin. "A poker game, ya know," he retorted, spinning his rod dangerously into the air.

"Well let's just hope your fighting skills aren't as bad as your gambling," Seifer scoffed, watching the monster readying itself for another attack.

The beast suddenly charged, although its attack was focused neither on Seifer nor Raijin.

"What's going on he – WHOA!!!!" Zell yelped, as he was knocked onto the floor. Apparently, the creature chose to land on his chest. As a reflex, Zell immediately punched at the monster with all his might. Luckily, he had slipped on his spiked knuckle gloves earlier when he had been training.

The beast wailed in pain as it backed away from Zell. It then began to snarl, baring its teeth in a ravenous growl.

"Here it comes!" Seifer warned, watching as the monster slashed its way towards him. Again Seifer wound his Gunblade deeply into the monster's side, sending a deep gash at the side of its belly.

Surprisingly, the creature remained alive; the look in its eyes still gleamed with ferocity.

"Damn it! Why don't you just die?!" Seifer growled, watching as the creature continued to attack.

"It's Spirit Creature! You have to stab it directly where the heart beats, otherwise it'll still survive!" Selphie yelled, arriving at the scene.

Taking Selphie's advice, Zell called to Seifer. "Hey, Raijin and I will distract it. You take the open shot!" he said, glancing at the monster. Zell then motioned his head to Raijin, giving him a signal.

"Hey, ugly!" Raijin screamed, thrusting his rod against the creature's skull. "Over here, ya know!"

The creature snarled, backing away from Raijin's metal rod. With an angry roar, it found a new target to prey upon. To everyone's shock, the creature suddenly charged at Selphie, who appeared to be unarmed at the moment.

"Selphie!" Zell shouted, trying to run towards his childhood friend. "Get out!"

Watching the creature jump into the air and fling itself towards her, Selphie instantly withdrew something under her dress. In a split second, the creature was sent flying backwards into the air, as if a great force had struck it.

"Don't mess with me, I'm in no mood," the small brunette said in a low, dangerous growl. In her hands, she held out a nun-chuck. From the looks of it, Selphie was armed, and knew how to fend for herself.

Zell's jaw dropped in surprise as he stared at Selphie in disbelief. In an instant, he clapped his hands together and swooned, stars filling his eyes. "I think I'm in love…"

"There's time for that later, chicken-wuss!" Seifer growled, snapping Zell out of his love-struck moment. Glancing back at the monster, he gritted his teeth and lunged forward just as the creature leaped into the air. With a mighty swing forward, Seifer plunged Hyperion deep into the creature's chest, tearing its heart apart.

The Spirit Creature fell limply against the floor. It's breathing grew ragged as it twitched slightly against the ground.

Everyone watched silently as the monster continued to twitch in pain, it's breath ceasing. Finally, after a moment or so, the Spirit Creature stopped growling and grew limp. It's eyes closed permanently, and lay motionless on the floor. The creature was dead.

Seifer gave a sigh of relief as he let his arm carrying Hyperion drop to his side. His other arm swept across his forehead, wiping sweat off his brow. He turned to look at Selphie, studying her for a moment. "What…the hell was that…thing?" he panted in exhaustion.

Selphie walked over to the dead creature, looking over it carefully. "…Spirit Creature. They are summons called forth from the undead. Very high level magic. It's forbidden too," she replied, moving the monster's head with the tip of her boot. "Yeck! Looks like whoever summoned this wasn't very good. It's supposed to disintegrate the moment it dies. This one's still quite…solid…"

"Spirit Creature?" Zell mumbled, thinking for a moment. He crouched forward, staring at the monster in silence. "Hmm…I thought you said they were forbidden magic."

Selphie glanced at Zell and nodded. "That's right. Summoning the undead is very dangerous. It's totally against the law."

"What for?" Seifer inquired, curious with the subject.

Selphie thought for a moment, turning to Seifer. "Well, for one thing, it's a forbidden art. It tampers with nature's course. The dead are supposed to remain so. If the rule is ignored, it could set an imbalance to nature. So I've heard. Next, it requires a great deal of magic. There aren't many who can call forth a creature of the undead. The power is too much for even a great summoner to handle. It demands vast amounts of magic, and it saps away a person's magic quickly. Often, the summoner dies before even completing the process," she explained, her eyes stern with thought.

Seifer glanced at the monster, kicking at it. "Hmph. That explains the rotting corpse. Whoever summoned this must have figured that it'd be better to have an incomplete summoning. After all, it almost came out quite efficiently…" he said, wiping his precious Hyperion with a large rag Raijin had passed him.

"But who would summon that, ya know?" Raijin asked, wiping his weapon clean as well. "If it already requires a lot of magic, then whoever summoned it should be nearby, ya know," he pointed out logically.

Selphie nodded. "That's right. So whoever created this shouldn't be too far off. But the only problem is…who would do such a thing? And why to you Seifer?" she asked, glancing at Seifer. "Clearly, someone has intentions of getting rid of you. It did appear inside your room, right?"

Seifer nodded quietly. "But what would they want with me?"