Disclaimer: I don't own FFVIII, or anything in this fanfic relating to the places, peoples, locations, things, objects, terms, or events that occurred or appeared in the game.
Chapter Five: The Shadow Runner
Walking up the stairs, Hideo stepped out onto the second floor deck. He found Delta already there. It had been a week since they were inaugurated into SeeD, and since then, the Garden had become mobile once again, traveling across the continents. They were currently in the seas northwest of the Centra Isles.
"Hey." He said to her.
"Hey." She repeated.
He stood next to her, propping his arms on the railing, staring out across the vast horizon. Looking out to sea, seeing it stretch infinitely out onto the horizon always made him feel at peace, made him feel less attached to this world.
After some time, Delta broke the silence between them. "They're still junctioned, aren't they?"
"Huh?" He asked.
"Your GF." She answered, some concern in her voice. "You never seem go without them. Aren't you worried about what it'll do to your memory?"
"Nope." He answered simply, as if it were no big deal. He noticed she was about to say more, but interrupted her. "I don't have many happy memories. Most of them I would be glad to forget."
Delta looked at him inquisitively. "What do you mean? The orphanage?"
Hideo sighed. He didn't like talking about his past, or the past in general. Even more than that, he hated being pitied. He knew that she was raised in an upper class family, being closely related to a Count in Dollet, and he doubted she would understand what it was like for him. But some part of him, for some reason he didn't understand, wanted to tell her, wanted her to understand him, even a little. He had been alone for many years, and until now, he thought he wanted had to stay there way.
"I'm an orphan, but I was never left at an orphanage. I was left to die in some back alley in the lowest levels of Esthar. Never knew my parents, and I don't want to. The farthest back I can remember, I was scavenging for food in dumpsters with barely a few cloths on my back." He paused to make sure he didn't reveal too much. There were some things too painful to talk about.
"I think I was eight when I joined my first gang."
"You were in a gang?" She asked, surprised.
"I wouldn't be alive if I weren't." He answered. He tried to keep himself from getting angry at her naivety. After he escaped that life, he found out that nearly everyone outside the slums believed gangs were only kids who wanted to be known and get violent, that it was one of the surest ways to get killed. To him, it was an opinion made by those who were born in wealth and golden cribs, who walked on flower pedals and never on dirt.
"But weren't you afraid you'd get killed or something?" She asked, still surprised.
"Of course I was, that was life. There were plenty of times I'd have bullets flying over my head, a rival gang member with a knife in front of me, people trying to knock me into a secluded corner, but it would have been worse if I hadn't been with them."
"What do you mean? How could it have been worse?" She asked, incredulous.
Hideo was starting to get angry. He didn't want to be angry, not with her. It was ironic, when he thought about it: he had always hated the wealthy with a passion, and now his only friend was an aristocrat.
"If I hadn't joined, I would've been killed a lot sooner. At least when we were together, I could get food regularly, and I got respect. Down there, if you didn't have respect, you had a death warrant. We watched each other's backs. As long as I wore the stripes of a real gang, no one dared touch me unless they thought they could take on an entire neighborhood. You couldn't walk down one block without finding some guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, said or saw something they shouldn't have, or was caught in a random drive-by shooting. The authorities considered us poor folk as little more than 'statistics'."
Delta didn't say anything for nearly a minute, and Hideo didn't look at her that time.
He then rolled up his right dragon emblazoned jumpsuit's sleeve up to his elbow. Delta gasped.
Along the underside of his forearm, there were dozens of scars. Some were lines from cuts, and some were other kinds. "These," Hideo said, pointing to the many white pinpoints along his arm, "are from needles. These," He pointed to the white lines across his wrist, "were an initiation that nearly killed me. And this," he pointed to a round spot of scar tissue, "is from the cigar of a guy I didn't beat in a fight."
He unrolled his sleeve, and said, "And that's just my forearm."
Delta wasn't looking him in the eyes anymore. "Have you…have you ever killed…"
"You mean murdered?" Hideo interceded. "Yeah, I have. It's the only law down there, kill or be killed. If I hadn't done it to them, they would've done it to me. I did it all, drugs, murder, vandalism, you name it. The slums were my cradle, knives and guns were my toys, and threats were my lullabies."
Delta didn't say anything, she wasn't even looking at him anymore. Hideo turned back to stare out to the ocean, and they didn't speak for several minutes. He tried to find that calm again, but the echoes of his memories wouldn't leave him; screams, fires, gunshots, pools of blood, Tetsuya.
Hideo closed his eyes tightly. Tetsuya…
"How did you manage to come to the Garden?" Delta asked eventually.
"I wasn't always in the lower streets. Most people live on the upper levels, where there's floating streets and walkways, and you can see nearly the whole sky. Where the gangs were, where I was, was at the ground level, the very bottom of Esthar. Back then, the he two of us always dreamed of getting up there."
"'The two of you'?" She asked.
Hideo felt a tremor run through him. Tetsuya, the one who raised him, the older brother who protected him and kept him alive, the only family he had, the one whom Hideo wasn't even sure he was blood related to, was a subject he wasn't going to talk about, even to her. "Forget about it." He said. He could barely contain the rush of memories, and he fought to hold back his tears.
"But-" She started.
"I said forget about it!" He cut her off with a cold edge she had never heard him use before.
She didn't say anymore, but she had a look of guilt that made Hideo wish he hadn't said it so harshly. "I eventually managed to jack a hover car and get up there." Hideo continued. "For several days, I hid in an unused apartment. By chance, I met up with my mentor, Liam." He was glad he turned the subject to his mentor, which was the closest thing to a father he ever had. It helped distract him from his brother. "He was a hacker who was looking for a place to lay low, and ended up in my hiding spot. Instead of kicking me out, he took me under his wing, teaching me about computers, how they worked, and eventually how to hack them. I think I was twelve then." He turned toward the ocean view, and rested his chin on his hands as he looked out to sea. "Everything changed for me then. When I saw how I could affect things with numbers and codes that didn't physically exist, when I saw my imagination make changes before my eyes, I…I don't know how to explain it. I found my release, a place where I could go an be free of the pain I knew in my past, I place I could always return to and feel at peace. It quickly became my obsession, and in less than a year, Liam said I had learned everything I could learn from him."
"So instead of being a gangster, you became a hacker." She said distantly.
"Yeah, from one life of crime to another. At least this one got me real money, clean air, and sunshine." And the greatest reward: striking back at those who always turned a blind eye and deaf ear to me. He silently added.
"And you were never caught?"
"I had a few close calls, but I guess I got tired of it all." I'd never tire of the exhilaration, the reward of a successful hack. "I left Esthar, hoping to get a new life." I left in order to get my life back. "I guess I was trying to let go of the past." I guess I'll never be able to escape it. "I wanted to taste freedom for once, to not be forever on the run." The more of this 'freedom' I get, the tighter my leash becomes. "The Garden intrigued me." I couldn't have cared less. "I just wanted to leave Esthar." In order to return. "I'm not sure if I'll ever go back." I will return someday, I swear on my life, I will see your beauty again.
0000000000
When he returned to his Dorm, he found a message with the SeeD Seal on it, saying to meet Malak in the Training Center, and to bring his sword, guns, and GFs.
As he walked down the sub-hallway to the antechamber outside the Monster's Lair, he heard the sounds of steel beating against steel. When he got there, he found Malak and Commander Leonhart dueling. The commander was brandishing his famous gunblade with a kind of lion engraving on the blade, and the Weapon's Master was using his Nodachi, a katana with a four-and-a-half foot long blade. The extra length made the breadth of the blade look almost needle thin.
They were fighting almost like they were in a dance, using perfect form throughout it all. Malak was making long, flowing slices, while using the curvature of the blade to slide the oncoming attacks away along it's length. The commander, on the other hand, had the shorter weapon with the strange curved hilt, making all his strikes, blocks, and every other movement centered on the wrists, making every move a whipping motion.
After a minute of being admired by the junior SeeD, the two of them stopped. "I'm glad you came." Malak said, wiping some sweat from his brow. The commander put his gunblade away. His two belts were a strange kind of holder, acting kind of like a loophole.
"The symbol for the Garden is based on the concept of balance." Malak explained. "One represents the GF, the outside power. It's what gives us our strength, increases our magic, and sharpens our senses. The other represents the self, the inner power. This is your mind, your inner spirit. The GF, though an individual, can be used by anyone, but what you are is something no one else has. We're here to discover what that is."
Hideo was completely lost. "Huh?"
"Your Limit Break, Hideo. Everyone's is different. Squall here has nearly mastered his, the Renzokuken technique." Hideo was surprised he talked about the commander on a first name basis. No one did that. But of course, the Weapon's Master was his teacher. It was strange to think that he was being taught by the same man who trained the 'Legendary Mercenary'.
"Everyone has a Limit Break as unique as the person who uses them. We're here to find out yours." He nodded to Commander Leonhart, who pulled out his gunblade, and advanced on the young Estharian.
A moment of panic gripped Hideo. The Commander is challenging me directly? I'm dead! He fumbled a bit trying to grip his sword, but he managed to pull it out just in time to deflect the first blow. In less time than he would have thought possible, the commander used the momentum of the deflection to spin around and do another strike. Very quickly, Hideo became purely on the defensive, only paying attention to blocking and parrying all of Commander Leonhart's attacks. It wasn't long before, with an upward strike to Hideo's block, the young Estharian was thrown onto his back.
"HALT!" Malak shouted with a booming sense of authority in his voice. In the blink of an eye, the commander went from an offensive stance to just standing there casually with his gunblade put away.
"Hideo," Malak said in his lecturing tone, "you can't just let your opponent clobber you like that. Let them make the first move, let them expose themselves, let them set the terms so you can exploit them. Relax, and let the GF guide your instincts."
"Master," Hideo said while getting up, "how is this supposed to reveal my Limit Break?" He actually was embarrassed by how poor his performance was in front of the commander. He was a supposed to be a SeeD, not a wide eyed coward!
"The challenge. Limit Breaks are created through the connection between yourself and the nature of GF. Naturally, the more challenging the opposition, the more you'll rely on this bond. You have to find a stillness and harmony within yourself, and it will come out."
He stepped back to give them more room. "Once again." Malak ordered, and in a flash, Comander Leonhart had his gunblade out. In the instant between barely blocking a couple of strikes, Hideo forced his mind to be calm, and to make his body let go of any tension. He barely noticed his defense getting better, and that he was counterattacking and not just defending. His mind, his attention, his life became a constant rhythm of action and reaction.
He clashed his blade onto Squall's, pushed it to one side, bringing him shoulder to shoulder with the commander. As soon as his foot touched down, he hammered his elbow into his opponent's ribs. He tried to step away, but Squall had wrapped his foot around Hideo's and with a hard tug, he pulled him back in.
Hideo knocked the oncoming attack up, and stepped past his opponent, then stepped his other foot around into a scissor stance, hooking it around Squall's leg, and quickly spun around into a table-top horse stance, putting pressure onto his opponent's leg, forcing him off balance. Squall was too close in for swordplay, so Hideo put his arm around his opponent's chest, and pushed him over his thigh, tripping him to the ground.
Before his opponent could turn around to face him, Squall did a kick up, kicking Hideo's back in the process, to create some distance between them. Hideo didn't waste any time, and stepped back using a wide horizontal swing. With an easy flip of the wrist, Squall knocked it out of the way, and as Hideo stepped in, Squall kicked him in the stomach before he got the chance to attack.
Hideo regained himself almost instantly, and stepped in with a downward vertical slash, only to pull the sword in close to him before it was to be blocked by Squall, and shuffle-stepped in closer to stab. Squall twisted, using his elbow to push the blade to the side, away from his torso, cutting it in the process, and with his raised gunblade, butted Hideo in the forehead.
Hideo staggered back, dizzy from the hit, and then he felt the pulling, buzzing tingle of his GF's instincts. Then, a fire erupted in his vision, one that blazed through his body, yet throughout it's fury, there was a calm harmony about it.
He moved, sprinting away to the side, leaving a shadowy, distorted trail in his wake, before the area was engulfed in an Ultima spell. Almost immediately after, several massive bullets went flying at him. He could see them approaching, and without thinking, he ran up the nearby wall, straight up it as if gravity had been turned sideways. A Fira spell shot at him, and he jumped off the wall at an angle towards the ground. As soon as he landed, he ran straight at Squall. In an instant, he stepped to the side to as the last of the gunblade's bullets flew past him. He swung his Lunar Edge, and stopped it a hair's breadth from Squall's neck.
"Halt!" Malak said, again with impressive authority. In that moment, the euphoria Hideo experienced was gone, time and thought returned to him.
After a few moments to collect himself and his breath, Hideo asked. "Was that it?"
"Yes, that was the Shadow Run technique, I believe. You're the first student I've taught who's had it." Malak turned to the commander. "How's your arm?"
Hideo then noticed that Squall's arm was cut from when he blocked with his elbow earlier.
"It's nothing." Squall answered.
"So Hideo Masters, you're a Shadow Runner. Speed truly is your ally."
A Shadow Runner, eh? Hideo mused. Appropriate; I've been running from the shadows of my past, I'm being controlled by a shadow, and I'm chasing shadows.
0000000000
That night, Hideo set up a link up to the Estharian geo-synchronous satellite he used to contact the Estharian Encoded Transmissions Central. He hated waiting for responses, so he decided to do something different this time.
Through the transmission, he hacked into the EETC, then into their direct link to the Presidential Palace. After doing a few tricks while there, the sounds of a portable comlink clicked. "This is the President."
"Hey, shit head. Increase your IQ lately?" Hideo greeted.
"Hideo?" He hissed. "How the heck did you get this number? It can only be accessed through the-"
"Through the Presidential Palace Mainframe. Geez, have you already forgotten what I do for a living?"
"Well I'm busy, talk to the Prime Minister." The president said abruptly.
A few seconds later, another voice came through. "What is it, 'Masters'?"
"I'm tired of being told the same thing. This is the last time I'm going to say this: unless you want me to interrogate Cid himself, this trail is cold, there's nothing more I can do here! Go invade and conquer Manitech Headquarters or something if you want more, ain't that what you Galbadians are good at?"
He could hear a low growl on the other end. "One would rightfully call you an impatient little brat, Masters, so I'll tell you this now instead of letting you know in the morning. We've already infiltrated Manitech, and our intelligence has intercepted a communiqué to the Garden. They want SeeD to go to their secret primary research facility and download their files. You are going to go along, use that Fly of yours, and make a copy for us, including a copy of all passwords and codes for full access."
Hideo stopped himself from cursing. "Mister Prime Minister, how do you expect me to do that, huh? I don't choose SeeD assignments, and I can't ask to be put on this assignment unless you want me to be caught, which it really wouldn't surprise me if you did."
"Find a way." Was all he said before he hung up.
End of Chapter Five.
Author's Notes: Okay, a bit uneventful, but I wanted it to kinda set up the next chapter. A sort of calm before the storm. I'll be spending a little more time making corrections to chapter six, since the turn the plot takes has been said to be a little too abrupt.