Disclaimer: Do I own FFVIII? No. Kinda wish I did. I own Hideo, and that's about it. Seth, Sevial and Xak are all owned by my friend Demonic Chocobo, and I'm using them with his permission. They played a larger role in my first draft of Duel of Fates, but they were really just there for my friend, so this cameo will probably be the only time you'll see them.
Note: I have been told that the fight sequence in this chapter is a little long for a beginning fight. I'm just warning you about that, because I'm not going to change it.
Chapter Two: Nightmares
"This is a Malboro." Instructor Trepe told the class. It was two months into the school, and Hideo was getting restless.
He was established as a SeeD hopeful, because despite his relative lack of strength and magic power, he had a good tactical mind. While this was generally seen as a good thing, his instructors insisted that he harden his battle prowess. The fact that he had repeatedly outsmarted his technology teacher gave him a bad reputation among the faculty, and he naturally tried to distance himself from the other students, despite any distancing or attraction because he came from Esthar.
"The Malboro has half a dozen hearts situated here, here, here, here, here, and here." Quistis pointed out on the large screen with targets. "Other than their hearts, stomach, intestines, and gas sack," that caused a few students to chuckle, "they don't have any other internal organs." She continued with a hint of annoyance. "Because of this, a good strategy when combating one is to take out the gas sack." She highlighted the largest organ. Hideo still had a hard time adjusting to two dimensional displays, they just seemed so inadequate for teaching anatomy.
"By doing this, it reduces our chances of being hit by their famed breath attack." The blonde instructor continued. "A Malboro's breath comprises of many different substances, sometimes cyanide and ammonia depending on what it's eaten. Usually, exposure to Malboros breath causes vomiting, loss of eyesight, either hypersensitive hearing or loss of it, vertigo or loss of balance, varying degrees of internal bleeding, and sometimes temporary insanity."
"I knew viagra was made from Malboros!" Seth shouted, causing most of the class to roar with laughter. Seth and his two friends, Sevial and Xak, had become infamous within the Garden as pranksters, and generally for being disrespectful. They were good fighters, though.
"Thank you, Seth." Quistis replied sarcastically. "Now, back to the lesson. Malboro tissue is slightly flammable."
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"Hideo, can I talk to you?" Quistis asked without turning her head as the young Estharian was about to walk out of the class. The class had just been dismissed, and Hideo had a lesson with Malak to attend.
"Yes, Instructor?" He asked after stepping in front of her desk.
"You signed up for SeeD candidacy. You do realize that less than five percent of students who try out for SeeD during their first year actually succeed?"
"Yes, ma'am, I realize this. I still want to try, though."
She took her glasses off. "Well then, one of the prerequisites is to obtain your own GF. You know where the list of nearby GFs are, so I'll be expecting you to choose which one you'll go after by the end of the day."
"Yes, ma'am." He answered, then left the room.
An hour later, his private lesson with Malak was wrapping up, Hideo was finishing up his set. Standing up on one leg, he swept his sword across in front of him, then stepped his hanging leg down away from where his sword was swinging. Then, with the flick of the wrist, he spun his sword around, and went from leaning heavily on one leg to the other, stabbing his sword out with one hand, and twisting it 180 degrees to open up the wound.
"Remember, don't twist until you're almost fully extended." Malak instructed.
"Yes, sir." Hideo answered meekly, then finished the set up.
"I hear you are to obtain your own GF." Malak stated. The weapons master had been one of the first instructors at the Garden, training many of the first SeeDs. He was tall, broad shouldered, had dark brown skin and a shaved smooth head.
"Yes, though I'm not sure which one to go after." He answered.
"Do your blocking set." Malak instructed, then pulled out his boken, a katana shaped piece of ebony, and started striking at Hideo, strikes that would be blocked by the moves in the set. After the first few strikes were averted, Malak quickly changed his tempo, attacking with a broken, unpredictable rhythm, and varying speeds of attack. By the time Hideo had finished the set, he had been struck five out of eighteen attempts. Malak looked at Hideo with an evaluating eye.
After a few seconds, Malak said, "You react too quickly."
"Huh?"
"A block executed too quickly is just as bad as a block executed too late. The same goes for offense. You need to slow down, be methodical." He readied his boken. "Attack me as fast as you can."
Hideo gripped his sword. "You sure you don't want to use your steel sword?"
"I'm sure."
Hideo then ran forward and started a series of attacks, throwing each one recklessly fast. Malak barely moved. Each attack was deflected with a slow, simple motion. It ended when Hideo over extended a thrust, lost balance, and found the Weapons Master's boken pressed against his throat.
"The same goes for offense." Malak repeated.
Hideo backed off, and sheathed his sword at his waist.
"I think the best GF for you is Ixion. You're not the strongest of my students, but you're definitely the quickest. Even when doing techniques properly, you're one of the fastest of the SeeD candidates I'm training. I think learning how to fight one faster than you will do you much good."
"I'll think about it." Hideo replied.
"Then you are dismissed." Malak said. Hideo saluted, then left to wash up.
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The next afternoon, Hideo met Instructor Trepe at the front gate, and they set off for the northern Balamb Mountain Range. The roaming Bug Bites and occasional Glacial Eye kept things from getting boring in the, otherwise, uneventful trek. The entire time, Quistis never said a word, and since coming to the Garden, Hideo found himself becoming less social than usual, though his previous social life was lacking then. Almost two decades have passed since Adel's reign, Esthar as a country hasn't harmed a fly since, and yet no one seemed to think any differently of his homeland.
Not really paying attention to their surroundings, Hideo was slightly surprised when he noticed the ground suddenly getting darker. He looked up and notice dark thunder heads looming above them. They were on the mountain foot-hills. The mountain range created a weather shield from the Northern Zephyrs Jet Stream, giving the island mild weather.
"Looks like Ixion is home." Hideo thought, looking at those raging black clouds. They soon found the trail, marked with two small flags with the Garden crests on them, indicating both property of Balamb Garden, and the start of the test.
"Hideo," Quistis said, slightly startling Hideo by breaking her silence so suddenly, "I trust you've studied the topography of this trail, and the reports of Ixion himself?"
Hideo nodded.
"Then pick a time limit for yourself, as an additional test to show you understand the extent of your own abilities. You must complete the test within this time, yet the less time you have left, the higher your score will be."
Hideo looked back at the trail. It was about a mile vertically, the trail itself was about three miles. He could run a mile in five minutes, that would be fifteen minutes if the trail were straight, double that to factor in the incline, increase that some to factor in monsters, and Ixion himself.
"I'd say one hour." He answered.
She pressed a few buttons on her wrist watch. "One hour it is." She looked up at him. "Time starts as soon as you walk past those flags."
Hideo turned around and looked at the trail. Even though he had only been at the Garden for a few months, he knew he couldn't afford to wait another quarter for a SeeD exam. Even if it did result in a lower score, he couldn't take any chances. Besides, it wasn't his choice to come to the Garden in the first place.
He took a deep breath, and said, "I'm ready."
Quistis stepped next to him. "I'll accompany you along the way, but you'll have to face Ixion alone."
Hideo stepped forward, and gradually built up to a jog up by the time he passed the flags. The timer was running.
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"Who designed this path?" Hideo thought as he inched his way to the side, chest and stomach scraping against the bare rock as he and Quistis walked along a path that protruded just inches from the cliff wall. He constantly chided himself for thinking only in distance and incline, believing he could go at a run the entire length.
When they got out from the narrow walkway and onto a path wide enough for them to walk to the top of the cliff, they had just wasted fifteen minutes crossing one hundred yards. Hideo redoubled his efforts to make it to the summit, where the thunder GF resided; Quistis was struggling to keep up.
Hideo was running out of breath, yet that didn't stop him. Suddenly, what looked like a small boulder up the path unfolded itself, revealing what looked like an armadillo. It then rolled back up, and started rolling down the trail.
Hideo brought his hand up and, relying purely on instinctive timing, shot a Fira spell, hitting the ground just an instant before the Raldo rolled over it. The explosion blasted the monster dozens of feet into the air, well over Hideo's head, but it's momentum carried it clear off the cliff side, leading to a long fall.
Hideo continued along, not caring to see what happened to the unfortunate beast.
Right about when Hideo started considering stopping to catch his breath, he ran around a large boulder and saw the summit, a hundred yards up the path. He allowed himself a few seconds to get some air back in his blood, then continued up the trail.
The summit itself was actually man-made, it resembled the top of a huge castle tower, with dragon teeth walls made out of stone bricks bordering the edges. Some sections of the walls were collapsed, due to the elements. The central area was about a hundred feet across, all of it made out of closely fitting stone brick. Just one large, round floor.
"An arena." Hideo noted with mild interest. Other than the continuous roaring of the storm clouds not even a hundred feet above his head, all seemed peaceful.
"Come out, Ixion." Hideo called out.
After a few flashes, several lightning bolts shot down, striking the central area of the arena, sending a shower of sparks as Ixion appeared, blue lightning bolts crackling along his body.
A unicorn larger than a draft horse with a wicked, zigzag bladed horn, and a thick, silvery mane adorning it's neck. It buckled up on it's hind legs, kicked it's front legs a few times, then landed with enough force that Hideo felt it all the way in his chest.
Then, Ixion charged. Hideo quickly cast Triple on himself as he rolled to the side at the last second, letting the silvery stallion pass him by. As he rolled onto his feet, he quickly turned around and shot off a triad of Fire spells. Each hit the unicorn like a hammer, making him stagger back a bit, but otherwise didn't faze him.
Hideo quickly slid his sword back in it's sheath, pulled out his .45 pistols from their breast holsters, and began firing. He did not aim for the head or the heart, or any major organs or arteries. Guardian Forces didn't have blood flow, being neither living nor undead. Instead, he shot the stallion's haunches, hoping that would slow it down.
Ixion then jumped forward, evading Hideo's fire. As soon as it's hind legs touched stone floor, it turned and jumped again, moving more like a cheetah. It zigzagged back and forth towards Hideo, too fast for him to follow with his guns.
At the last leap, Hideo dropped his guns and pulled out his sword to deflect the beast's bladed horn before it could skewer him. Using the deflection, Hideo stepped in closer to strike at the neck, but the Lightning GF recovered fast enough to slam his head into Hideo's side. Immediately after, he charged forward, using it's front shoulder to knock the Estharian to the side.
Rolling to recover from his fall, Hideo decided to go on the offensive. He leapt at the stallion, going low for a horizontal cut to the legs. The beast reared back onto it's hind legs like Hideo expected, and he cast Blizzard at the ground under the GF. A blue chunk of ice fired off from his outstretched hand, leaving a comet like trail behind. It struck the ground and dispersed to ice, covering a ten by ten foot area.
Hideo stepped back, only to step forward again to swing at the GF, making it back up more onto the ice covered ground. It's hooves started slipping on the ice, and Hideo went for the opening.
He swung his sword at the GF's horn, knock it's head to the side, and he lunged forward to imbed his sword deep into the stallion's shoulder. He didn't expect Ixion to swing it's long neck back and knock him away, leaving his sword sticking out of the GF.
He did a kick-up back onto his feet, and saw lightning running up and down the length of Ixion's horn. It's smooth, callused hooves were still slipping on the ice as it tried to get off, but the lightning on it's horn was rapidly growing.
Hideo quickly cast a Shell around him just before multi-twined lightning bolt fired from the GF's horn. The bolt slammed into the shield, the Shell quickly dissipating much of the energy. But the spell persisted, and Hideo couldn't hold it up long enough. The Shell spell evaporated, and the lightning bolt slammed into Hideo, sending him flying back across the ground, stopped twenty feet short of the edge of the summit.
He laid there in a fetal position for a few seconds as the pain faded. He slowly got back onto his hands and feet, his muscles stiff as wood. The clicking of hooves brought his mind back to his opponent as the Lightning GF charged at him, now free from the icy ground.
Hideo jumped to the side, and Ixion dug it's hooves into the ground to stop right next to the Estharian. An instant later, the GF lowered it's head and swung it's bladed horn diagonally up. Hideo stumbled back to avoid the horn's arc, and landed on his back. The GF shuffled forward and swung it's head down, bringing it's horn to bare on Hideo. The Estharian rolled to the side hastily, and rolled again as the GF followed up on it's attack by trying to stomp it's front hooves on Hideo.
He continued to rolled around the GF as it tried to stomp on him. He realized this was getting nowhere, and he lifted his legs to his chest and kicked Ixion in the jawbone. Using the momentum of lifting his legs, he rolled backward onto his feet and sprang forward, reaching for his sword. The GF spun in place, turning the side with the sword in it away from Hideo. The Estharian ducked down and rolled under the stallion.
Ixion reacted instantly by jumping and spinning onto it's front legs, facing away from it's opponent, and kicking Hideo in the chest with it's hind hooves.
Shocking pain raced through Hideo as the blow cracked his sternum. He flew back and crashed into the dragon tooth wall. His body broke through the brittle stone, but it slowed him enough to fall into the skeleton of a tree growing a few yards down from the summit. Acting out of whatever reflexes he could muster in his pain wracked mind, he reached out and grabbed a thick branch, halting his otherwise fatal plunge.
He was on the brink of blacking out, as the blow knocked the wind out of him, and he couldn't breathe back in. On instinct, he cast his lone Cura spell on himself, healing his chest enough so he could breathe in a much needed breath. He grabbed onto the branch with his other hand and took a few more breaths.
Think, Hideo! The GF was faster than him in both speed and reflexes, and despite it's size, it was also more agile. More importantly, with his sword and guns gone, he had nothing but his magic and his wits. Unless he got incredibly lucky, he needed to use his head to win this fight. He had to get his sword back, he had no magic strong enough to overpower this creature.
Taking a few more breaths, he cast cure on himself once more to help relieve any sore muscles he couldn't afford to have, then formed a Reflect spell in front of him. He hoisted himself onto the branch, and jumped back onto the summit, where Ixion was waiting for him.
Hideo ran to the right, starting a wide circle around the GF. Ixion moved to intercept his path, and Hideo moved the other way, forming a Fire spell in his hand, and threw it at his adversary. The stallion hopped nimbly to the side as the fireball flew past it, and lightning bolts gathered on it's horn again. Hideo stopped and accessed his spell stock as the multi-twined lightning fired at him. The bolts bounced off his Reflect spell, splitting off in several directions, some hitting the ground in front of him, kicking up dirt and pieces of stone.
Out of the dust flew a Fira spell. The large fireball hit Ixion square in the chest, burning it's hair and sending it stumbling back. Hideo jumped forward through the flames, and grabbed a hold of his sword. He pulled it out and swung it at Ixion's blade, knocking it's head away from him. Using the momentum from the strike, he continued to spin around fully, with his sword above his head, and swung it down, cutting through the stallion GF's mane and slicing cleanly through it's neck.
The clouds surrounding the summit suddenly bounced away from Hideo and the GF, and shrank back, with a pulse similar to a heartbeat. The head of the GF never touched the ground, but merely hovered there, body and head in suspended animation. There was no blood, just pink flesh and vertebrae exposed.
Hideo felt a sense of foreboding surround him. Never in his life had he experienced such a silence, even the roar of the storm was gone.
"You, young one, are worthy of my strength." A hollow voice said.
Small electrical bolts fired off between the GF's head and body, then more appeared, and yet more again as the two pieces came out of suspension and reconnected. A rough sphere of lightning surrounded the GF, throwing Hideo back, and the space inside that sphere warped as Ixion's form changed. He got smaller and smaller, more stubby like a pony, and more still as it's body became a floating sphere.
That sphere hung there, lightning cackling across it's surface. "Accept my power, young one." The sphere then floated over to him. Hideo reached out, and grabbed the sphere, and it dissolved into his flesh.
He breathed in, taking in the sensation of this new GF, familiarizing himself with it's power.
He broke from his reverie when he heard as light clapping coming from the edge of the arena. Quistis Trepe was walking towards him. "Good. Not everyone succeeds on their first try, though you had a pretty close call there."
Hideo scoffed at the understatement.
Quistis then looked at her watch. "Six minutes, thirteen seconds left. That's good for a score of eighty-four. Congratulations, Hideo Masters, you've passed."
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It was the near the end of the twilight period, when the stars started to completely fill the sky, Hideo and Quistis were just returning to the Garden. The entire trip back, Quistis preferred taking the front line whenever they encountered any monsters. "Reward for a job well done." Quistis told him.
When they got through the Front Gate, Quistis stopped her student. "Hideo, you should see Doctor Kadowaki. Unless you know the human anatomy very well, curative magic won't completely heal you."
"Sure." Hideo replied, slightly breathless. He wouldn't be surprised if Quistis noticed he was having trouble breathing again.
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It had been a month since he acquired his own GF, and Hideo was having trouble sleeping. He never did sleep well, but the Garden was changing him. He had found something of a friend in Delta, and his roommate wasn't a bad conversationalist. Despite the fact that most of the students politely avoided him because of his nationality, it became one of the few places he had ever felt safe, a rare haven for him. He normally had dreamless sleep, due to the accumulative exhaustion of constantly watching his back, always expecting someone to attack him out of the blue or some law official recognizing him. As soon as he started feeling comfortable, safe, the nightmares returned. It was his past that haunted his sleep this night.
His grip of the gun was sleek with sweat. He peeked around the corner of the dumpster, and saw the lookout there with his automatic pistol. He waited in the shadows of the dumpster until the look out turned his head the other way. As quickly as he could, Hideo pulled the knife out of his belt, and charged on his quiet, soft-soled shoes.
As soon as the look out noticed the young street urchin out of the corner of his eye, the young sandy blond slashed deeply into the man's wrist, forcing him to drop the gun. He then grabbed a handful of the man's hair to hold his head still as he slit the man's throat, jugular, and carotid arteries. Hideo barely blinked as the blood pulsed out onto his face. This was what he was after, this was what his whole life meant on this night, and he was going to enjoy it.
Grabbing the lookout's gun, he stepped into the nightclub, and the first person to greet him got Hideo's gun pressed right against the unshaven underside of his jaw to muffle the guns report as the bullet sprayed his brains against the ceiling. Two down, not even a sound. Even if the whole goddamn nightclub knew he was coming, he'll die while gutting every one of them!
Soon, another one fell, then another, and another. The legendary Demon Chimeras were falling like rain in his blood lust.
After the last one, the leader of the gang, fell to his knees begging for mercy, Hideo aimed the automatic pistol at the man's face, and unloaded the entire 35 round clip, shredding the man's head.
End of Chapter Two.
Author's note: Let me guess, that last part was a little graphic, right? Well, why do you think he was having nightmares about it then? Anyways, if you're wondering about the "automatic pistol", there was one in The Matrix: Reloaded, and I believe there was one in Syphon Filter.
Also, while I am a martial artist myself, it's just too damn hard to write the real stuff in text, so what you'll get is the watered down "Hollywoodized" kind of action.