Duel of Fates
By Omega Gilgamesh
Disclaimer: I don't own the FFVIII world. Wish I did, but I don't. However, I do own Hideo, don't use him without my permission, which I will give out like a hot potato. Please, just ask first.
Note: Well, this is my first fanfic, just rewritten. For a little history, I was at 195 pages with my first draft, that's 10 chapters, and I had one left to go, and the Mighty Clown of Destiny screwed me over and made my computer die. I had less than half the story posted, with no backup. Why I'm now rewriting it, I have no idea. Probably because I'm still ashamed of how much I was power-playing.
Chapter one: First Impressions
Lights flashed by, the soft rattling and minor tremors were relaxing. Relaxation was hard to find on this trip. Many hopes and dreams ran through the cabins of the train as those lights that flashed by did.
Hideo Masters stood in the hall, leaning on the railing, staring at the passing lights. They were mesmerizing. They helped him relax. He was going to Balamb Garden, and hopefully become a SeeD.
To his left, he saw the SeeD recruiter helping a five year old to look out the window and see the underwater tunnel. There were also preteens and teenagers, like himself, onboard this car. But they were different, they didn't have the same reason for going to Balamb Garden.
Hideo Masters wasn't tall, he was actually a little on the short side. He had light brown hair with blond highlights. He had a blue trench coat with a golden serpentine dragon design that went across the back and coiled the arms with the head and tail meeting on the chest. He wore a black loose jumpsuit under that, with the same dragon design, only silver. The pants and the sleeves were tied off at the ends. Complete with the black garment was a black cloth belt.
He turned around and walked into the cabin behind him. On the bed was his sword, Lunar Edge. A three and a half foot double handed, double edged sword, with a groove going down nearly the full length of the sword and a small hand-guard. The blade was in it's sheath, but under that, it was semi-transparent blue.
A lot was about to happen, and he would be at the center of it all.
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In the bus, Hideo tried to find a quiet spot in himself, a place to meditate. The kid next to him, who was literally hopping with excitement wasn't helping much.
In hopes of ignoring the child, he looked out the window to the grassy fields of the Alcauld Plains. Before he left home, he had never seen this much wildlife in one spot, even if it was mostly grass. But as he had waited in Balamb with the others, waiting for the bus, he felt unusually out of place. There was almost no one there, and other than the wind and a few birds he had never seen before, there wasn't a sound. The absolute calm felt more like a gaping void than anything else.
Hideo pressed his forehead against the cool glass window. It's only been two days, so don't get homesick already. He told himself. Besides, it's not like you could return if you wanted to.
He let his mind drift over various memories, often trying to remember something else as what he thought of easily drifted into unpleasant recollections. After some time of this, the bus stopped, breaking his reverie.
"Everyone, off the bus." One of the SeeDs in front ordered.
As soon as Hideo stepped out of the yellow bus, he was greeted with a sight he never expected. The citadel and school of Balamb Garden loomed above them, it's shadow stretched across the plains for half a mile.
"Keep it going, buddy." The cadet behind him said, giving a light push.
"Oh, sorry." He realized he had been blocking the bus's door. "Uh, it's just…"
The cadet, maybe a year younger than Hideo, looked up at the floating academy and said, "Yeah, it's impressive, ain't it?"
That wasn't the word he would've used; 'beautiful' maybe, but he was more surprised to find this kind of technology out here. If they can get the Garden to hover, then why does the bus still use wheels? That particular mystery was furthered by a series of wide, vertical triangles that descended from the Garden's entrance a hundred feet above them, forming a stairway thirty feet across.
"Up the stairs, everyone." The same SeeD as before ordered.
Some of the other cadets were surprised by the floating stairway, and walked up it with caution. Under Hideo's foot, none of the stairs moved at all, unperturbed by his weight.
The inside of the Garden was cavernous, with only the central column of elevators that broke up the space.
"Welcome to Balamb Garden." The head SeeD announced. "I will go get Headmaster Kramer. Please stay here until then."
When she left, several of the thirty or so new recruits put their luggage on the ground, and some even walked over to one of the nearby benches, tired out by the long trek up the stairs. Hideo didn't have anything to put down, bringing only his sword and a few things in his pockets.
A girl, the same age as Hideo, put her stuffed duffel bag on the ground with a huff, and looked around the room. "This is amazing! Have you ever seen such technology?"
"You must not get out much." Hideo answered, not taking his gaze away from the surroundings.
She chuckled as if it were a joke. "Interesting accent." She commented. Then she turned to look him in the face. She had long chocolate brown hair, black jeans and a blue T-shirt under a blue-and-gold grendel hide vest. "Where are you from? Let me guess, the science fiction community?" She said with a playful tone.
"No, Esthar actually."
She chuckled, apparently taking it as a joke as well. "Yeah right. Seriously, where are you from?" He didn't respond, just looked at her with a pitiful look, as if she said something incredibly stupid. Her grin left her face. "You are serious?"
"Attention all cadets!" The female SeeD from before announced. Then she turned and gave way to an elderly man in a red vest with spectacles. Hideo had seen plenty of things since leaving Esthar that showed him just how technologically inferior the outside lands really were, and seeing a man who had actual corrective lenses, and one who had the financial resources to easily get rather simple surgery for it, was one of them.
"Welcome, everyone. I am the Headmaster and current Garden Master, Cid Kramer." The elderly man announced. The man didn't look anything like a Military Academy leader, more like a university professor. The headmaster then turned to the teenager behind him, maybe eighteen years old. "This is the commander of SeeD, Balamb Garden's elite mercenary squad, Squall Leonhart."
Hideo looked at the man, and felt a swell of fear rise up within him. The commander had a scar running across his forehead. Oh great, with the medical knowledge of this place, I'll probably die if I catch a cold!
After a few minutes of talking about the Garden and SeeD's role within, a few SeeDs started calling out names to give out class schedules. It took Hideo a few seconds to figure out what the material was the schedule was printed on. Is this paper? Actual wood, wasting environmental resources on such small things when personal datapads wasted nothing but a few QPs of energy. He shook his head, and muttered under his breath, "Barbarians."
"Student ID: 3521, Hideo Masters?"
Hideo turned his head and saw one of the Garden Faculty addressing him. "Yes?" He answered.
"Headmaster Cid would like a word with you." Hideo looked past the heavily clothed man and saw the headmaster and the commander standing away from the crowd, looking at him.
"Uh…thanks." He replied, then folded the paper and put it in a pocket before walking over to the two men, feeling this was not going to end well.
"Hello," he greeted them, "I heard you wanted to talk to me?"
The headmaster pulled up a sheet of butchered wood from a file and adjusted his spectacles. "Hideo Masters, age: 15. No family on record, no legal guardians, it says you still got an education on par with your age range, you still attended public schooling, and you left your orphanage to come here."
"Yes, sir. That's all correct." Get to the damn point already! He silently shouted, nervous as hell.
"Out of many children who were interviewed for the position of first official Estharian Garden student, why did they pick you?"
"Sir, I have no family, at my age I doubt anyone was going to take me, I hated the orphanage, I had no connections back home so no one would raise a fuss and cause the government extra paperwork." Hideo added as an afterthought, "And besides that, I've had to endure plenty of schoolyard fights."
The headmaster tilted his head forward so he was looking above his glasses. "Schoolyard fights?"
"Yes, sir. They got pretty bloody sometimes. I knew a kid last year who got beat so bad, he been getting neuro-corrective surgery ever since, and he still can't quite walk as he used to."
The headmaster raised his eyebrows, and looked to Commander Leonhart, who had his arms uncrossed for the first time since Hideo entered the Garden. "Well," the headmaster said, "it seems fighting shouldn't be something entirely new to you." He put the paper back into the file. "I have high hopes for you, being the first Estharian to grace this Garden. That is why I have assigned you to Weapons Master Malak. He's the one who trained Squall here, and many vie for his teaching."
He reach out and grabbed Hideo hand, giving it a solid grip. "That is all, mister Masters. You are excused."
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Hideo squinted while looking out the window of his double-dorm. It was approaching early evening, and the sun was peeking into the view, without automated tinting windows to protect his vision. How can those with glasses even go outside? Despite the brightness, Hideo couldn't help but look over the vast plains. In Esthar, unless you got on the rooftop of a tall building, you would be lucky to see as far a thousand feet straight ahead of you.
He turned from the magnificent view to check the time on the clock on his desk. As was everything else around here, the mechanical part of the clock was far too big just to display a few LED light numbers. It was almost time for class.
He got up and left the small room and then the room connecting his with his dorm-mate Vicks. Vicks was a little older than him, but from what he has seen of him in the hour they've known each other, Hideo wouldn't be surprised if he couldn't hold his own against a Bite Bug. What he should have spent in combat training he spent almost entirely in military intelligence courses.
Hideo made his way halfway around the circular main hallway when he heard someone rapidly approaching saying, "Excuse me, excuse me!" He turned and saw the girl in the Grendel hide vest running up to him. "Hey, they said everyone in our age group is in the same class. Room eight?" He nodded. "Good, 'cause uh, I don't remember where it is."
He pointed straight up. "Second floor."
Recognition registered on her face. "Oh right, all classrooms are on the second floor." He turned and continued walking down the hall, and she followed. "So what's your name? I'm Delta Locke."
"Hideo Masters." He answered, not looking at her while they walked.
"Huh." She murmured.
"What?" He asked.
"Well, I kinda expected some kind of…exotic name, you being from Esthar and all." She answered, nervously.
He shrugged. "Well, most people on the three main continents are descended from immigrants from Centra. I heard names haven't changed much since then."
They got in the elevator, and after the doors closed, Hideo tapped on the doors with his knuckles. "What is this stuff?" He asked.
"Uh…it's glass?"
He turned to her. "Silicates and potashes? Isn't this stuff brittle?"
"Well…yeah, it's glass. If it breaks, the shards can be sharp, if that's what you're asking."
He backed up and leaned against the wall, shaking his head. "I can understand you might not have discovered how to make transparent alloys, but I thought you'd at least have invented hard plastics."
She thought about mentioning that they had invented them already, but thought about the questions that might bring up and decided to let it slide. They found room eight and sat down, she took a seat behind his.
A few minutes later, a tall, honey haired woman in a SeeD uniform walked in and sat at the front desk. "Good evening, class. I am your instructor, Quistis Trepe. As many of you know, Balamb Garden is the headquarters of the elite mercenary organization, SeeD. Besides our top class military education and training, we also employ, or Junction as we call it, Guardian Forces." The rest of the class she talked about what Guardian Forces were, dispelling several myths about them, and talked about how they were sentient beings of magic, theoretically sharing a collective power source known as the GF matrix.
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Evening the next day, Hideo, Delta and the rest of their class gathered in the Training Center, with Instructor Trepe and the Commander there. They had spent the entire day taking tests, from eyesight, to hand-eye coordination, to various balance tests, to strength. A table was brought into the main area outside the monster's lair, various weapons lay on it. Not all the students had already picked a weapon like Hideo had, but since he had good eye-sight and steady hands, they gave him a couple of .45 pistols.
He practiced a few times ejecting and reloading the magazine clips and pulling back the slide to load the chamber, trying to get the feel of the movements down so it would be easier if he had to reload quickly. More than anything, he had nothing else to do.
Delta practiced a little with a pair of deer-hook swords to see if she liked them, the linked crescent blades similar to the hand guards of her double-hook swords. She said she had had those swords almost since she was old enough to hold one. He only saw her practice a little, but she looked very good.
"Attention, class." Instructor Trepe called out. "We have spent the last day explaining GF to you, so now it's time for a demonstration."
This ought to be interesting. Hideo thought. He saw how dedicated many of the students were, but with so few using guns or any kind of advanced weaponry, he had a hard time seeing how these people were considered one of the most elite military forces in the world.
Commander Leonhart stepped forward. "Everyone who is holding a gun, step in front of me, thirty feet away." Hideo and three other did so. The commander pointed to one of them, a thirteen year old with black hair. "You, shoot at me."
The boy did a double take. "Excuse me…uh, sir?"
"Shoot me," he repeated himself, "that's an order."
The boy hesitantly switched the safety off his .5 caliber heavy pistol, and started to lift it to point it, but didn't lift it completely, looking frightened.
"SHOOT ME!" Commander Leonhart shouted, and half a second later a loud bang was heard, along with a flash from the muzzle. In less than the blink of an eye, the commander had his gunblade lifted in the air, a spark fizzling out in midair in front of him.
A deep silence followed, so clear Hideo heard four echoes from the gunshot. The commander lowered his blade, and said, "Fire all your bullets." A couple seconds later, the cadet obliged, and moving faster than what any rational mind would say was humanly possible, his gunblade knocked each bullet out of the air before they would hit him. When the black haired boy's magazine went empty, he ordered Hideo to shoot him as well, and as well, each bullet the Estharian shot was deflected.
When the other two had exhausted their clips, Instructor Trepe stood next to the commander. "GFs do not only make our bodies faster and stronger, and our reflexes faster, but they also have a powerful intuition about them, they can sense things and make calculations faster than any human. They can notice things, such as the minor twitch of a muscle that happens between the time the opponent decides to strike and the moment the body moves to strike, and the more we become in tune with our GF, the better we are to able to recognize such things, such as the exact place and moment of when to strike to knock a bullet out of the air."
Hideo was stunned.
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Two weeks later, Hideo lay on his bed, staring at the window as rain beat lightly against it. He had just received his first GF that day, the one assigned to him by the Garden. He held Krakken, a water GF, in his hand, the sphere's glossy, slightly squishy surface covered a swirl of turquoise and aqua blue within. Tomorrow he would be learning how to use this magical squid to cast magic. Already when he junctioned it, he was able to jump twice as high, run half again as fast as before, and he was much stronger.
From here, he could only go up. All his instructors, including Malak, said he was getting better every day.
I might as well try to get into SeeD while I'm at it. But for now, he had to make a report. They would want to know what he had found out so far, and he was fairly sure the Garden's technology wouldn't pick up the long range signal.
End of Chapter One.
Author's Note: Expect to see these at the end of chapters. For those of you who may have read the original version of the first chapter, you'll notice I've rewritten nearly the entire thing. I'm also making some changes to other chapters as well to make the story flow a little better, and to accommodate the changes I've made. I will also be expanding Hideo's fight sequence in the next chapter.
Anyways, Hideo's sword is the same kind Shu Lin used at the end of her fight with Jen near the end of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.