"You two will scrub down the parking lot and wash all of the cars," a large man with dark skin and angry muscles said. "And if there's any fighting you have to answer Fujin!"
Raijin was the dumber of Seifer's lackeys, and despite his immense physical strength he always played second fiddle to Fujin. Fujin was an angry young woman with grey hair and an unexplained eye patch. Plus, for some unknown reason, she only spoke in one-word sentences.
"WORK!" Fujin commanded as she looked at the two young women with her one eye. It freaked Tessa out, but Selphie didn't seem to notice or care.
"Sure thing," Selphie said energetically as she grabbed one of the two buckets full of soapy water. Spilling an ample amount onto her boots, Selphie bounded to the nearest car. She reached into the bucket and pulled out and old rag, which she slammed against the windshield of the car. Humming happily, she began to wipe the windshield.
"YOU!" Fujin yelled at Tessa, who jumped at the power of the grey-haired woman's voice. Tessa looked at her feet and picked up the other bucket. She shuffled to the only other car, which just happened to be beside Selphie's.
"We're going to be scouting for other jokers like you two, so stay here," Raijin told Tessa and Selphie. "And you'd better both be alive when we get back!"
The man and woman left the garage and Tessa heard a door lock, which meant she was trapped with Selphie. Tessa set her bucket on the hood of the car and reached in, feeling for a rag or sponge, something to clean with.
"Here you go," Selphie said. Tessa heard a splashing sound before a soaked sponge slapped against one of the windows of the car. Luckily, she caught it before it slid to the ground. "They put two in mine."
"Thanks," Tessa said awkwardly as she squatted to begin to scrub the side of the car. Her car was a yellow SUV with a solitary red line that extended around its entire perimeter. She held her breath as she moved the sponge up and down the metal. She didn't know what kind of soap they were using, but it had an awful smell.
The two women worked in silence for an undetermined amount of time, and Tessa was working on the front bumper when Fujin unlocked the door and ran inside, her eye wide with fear.
"DISMISSED!" she yelled with a jerk of her arm before running back out of the garage. Avoiding Selphie's look in her direction, Tessa threw the sponge in the bucket (which had been moved from the car hood to the garage floor) and ran after Fujin to see what happening.
Tessa tore out the door, and she could hear Selphie on her heels. She caught a glimpse of Fujin at the end of the yellow hallway that led from the garage to the commons of the Garden's interior. Fujin was running in the direction of the dorms, but when they reached them she passed by without a second glance.
By this time Selphie had caught up with Tessa and the two were running stride for stride. Tessa looked down at Selphie's hands and noticed that she had her nunchuks out.
Where did those come from? Tessa thought as she pressed ahead, still keeping Fujin's form in her line of sight. Fujin reached the cafeteria and turned into the red hallway that led to it. Tessa and Selphie followed a few seconds later.
"What the hell?" Tessa said aloud when she reached the swinging doors that led to the cafeteria. There was a crowd of people gathered around trying to peer through the two small glass windows to see what was causing the ruckus.
Tessa stopped and Selphie ran into her, toppling both women. Tessa looked and saw a large group of feet shuffle and make way for Fujin's to get through. Tessa picked herself up and felt Selphie roll off and hit the floor.
She tapped the nearest person, a short guy in a SeeD uniform, on the shoulder. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Yeah," Selphie said when she finally got back to her feet. "What's happening?"
The SeeD turned around and looked at Selphie, completely disregarding Tessa. "I just got here, but someone told me that this guy just snapped and bit another guy in the neck."
Tessa felt the blood drain from her face, but she watched in awe as Selphie shouldered her way through the crowd. Selphie pushed the doors open, and Tessa caught a glimpse of Raijin trying to hold back a man while trying to not get bitten before the doors closed again. A spit second later Selphie reappeared, her face white as chalk.
"Someone get a medic, quick!" she yelled before vanishing behind the red doors again.
Everyone just stood around, looking confused and scared. "Move it!" Tessa yelled as she tried to push her own way through the small sea of people. "I'm a medical major!"
When she reached the doors Tessa pushed through uninhibited. She slipped and fell in a sticky, red liquid: blood. It took everything that Tessa had to keep from barfing as she climbed out of the pool of blood. She wiped her hands on her pants and looked around.
Selphie was using her nunchuks to restrain a SeeD with a large chunk of skin and cartilage missing from his neck. The guy was pinned to the ground, clutching at his neck and going into hysterics. Meanwhile, Raijin was holding the stranger in a headlock while Fujin kicked his ribs and stomach, but the man wouldn't calm down.
"What are you doing in here?" Selphie yelled when she saw Tessa standing in front of the door.
"You called for a medic?" Tessa asked weakly.
"If that's you, then get over here!" Selphie yelled back. Tessa stumbled to Selphie's side and helped hold the SeeD down.
The moment Tessa looked into the SeeD's eyes though, her years of medical training kicked in immediately. "His neck has one large open wound, it appears to be a bite. No major arteries or veins were hit, but some of his vocal cords are missing. If we don't do something soon, he'll drown in his own blood, though. I need to get something in there to help him start to breathe. Go see if there's a sterile basting utensil in the kitchen. Stat!" she yelled at Selphie. "Get a knife while you're at it, something sharp!"
Selphie climbed to her feat and ran to the kitchen, leaving just Tessa to hold him down. The SeeD then started to wildly thrash about. "Hey!" she yelled at Fujin who stopped kicking the guy long enough to look in her direction. "Get over here and help me!"
Fujin abandoned her attempts to help incapacitate the attacker and helped Tessa hold the SeeD down, which helped stop his thrashing. Selphie returned a few seconds later with a bating utensil in one hand and a large steak knife in the other. At her heels were two lunch ladies, one scared out of her mind and the other calm and silent. The calm one had only one arm.
"Get Dr, Kadowaki!" Selphie yelled at the lunch ladies as she handed the tools to Tessa. "Go, now!"
"Hold him down!" Tessa yelled at Selphie as the two lunch ladies ran out the doors and into the hallway. "This is going to hurt and he's going to try to fight me!"
Selphie threw her nunchuks aside and held the SeeD down as Tessa tucked the basting utensil under her arm. She took the knife in one hand and grabbed the SeeD's head with the other. She turned his head so that his neck, where he'd been bitten, was better exposed.
Tessa took the knife and, as carefully as she could, she cut at the skin around the bite. This only caused the SeeD to fight harder, but the two formidable women were more than enough to handle him. Tessa pushed aside several veins and set the knife down on her pant leg and grabbed the basting utensil. Using one hand to keep the gap open, Tessa plunged the tool into the SeeD's neck and began sucking out the blood that had become trapped. She withdrew the basting utensil, squirted its contents onto the linoleum floor, and repeated the process.
Soon the SeeD stopped struggling and Tessa stopped draining the blood long enough to grab a limp hand at the wrist. "Shit, he has no pulse!" Tessa said as she threw the basting utensil aside. She picked up the knife and began hacking away at the SeeD's shirt.
"You, help him!" Tessa ordered Fujin as she pointed as Raijin who was still struggling with the crazed attacker. Then she turned to Selphie. "You try to seal that hole in his neck as best you can."
"With what?" Selphie asked nervously, looking around.
"Use your hands!" Tessa shouted as she grabbed Selphie's hands and pressed them against the SeeD's wound. "Keep them there!"
Tessa then started to push down on the SeeD's chest with her own hands, and then she moved and closed his nose with one hand. She took a deep breath and put her mouth on the SeeD's and breathed the air from her lungs into his as best she could.
She moved back to his chest and started pushing on it again, but she still couldn't get his heart to beat. Tessa moved back to his mouth and took another deep breath and was about to expel the air into his lungs when a stern voice told her stop.
"I'm sorry, he's dead," a heavy woman with a plump face and thick glasses said. She was wearing her dark brown hair back in a bun and a long white coat covered her body.
"No, he's not!" Tessa screamed as she started pushing on his chest again. Selphie let go of his neck and stood up. Tessa looked up at her, shrieking. "What are you doing?"
Selphie grabbed Tessa from behind and pulled her away from the dead SeeD. Tessa turned around and buried her face into Selphie's blood-soaked chest, large tears falling from her eyes. Selphie just patted her back sympathetically.
After a minute or so Tessa backed away from Selphie and looked at Raijin and Fujin, whom were still struggling with the attacker. Large beads of sweat were covering Raijin's head, clearly showing how tired he was.
The attacker finally broke out of Raijin's fatigued grip and charged at Selphie. Tessa pushed her out of the way and stood ready to embrace the attack. She cupped her hands together and as soon as the madman reached her she swung her elbow into the side of his head.
There was a sickening CRACK and the man collapsed at Tessa's feet. She backed away and tripped over the body of the dead SeeD. Tessa fell hard on her butt, landing in another large pool of blood.
"Hey, are you okay?" Selphie asked, offering Tessa a hand. Tessa took it and stood shivering like she was freezing to death.
"I-I…" was all that Tessa could say. She closed her eyes and swallowed a large ball of spit that had lodged itself in her throat.
"Get her out of here," the woman in the white coat ordered as she loomed over the bodies of the attacker and his victim.
Selphie wrapped her arm around Tessa's shoulder and led her through the red double doors. The crowd of people had grown even larger and everyone moved out of the way of the two women. They passed Latasha who stared at the bloody Tessa with her mouth hanging wide open.
"Let's get you cleaned up," Selphie said sadly as she led Tessa to the dorms. Tessa shuffled along with Selphie, her mind blank and her breathing laboured. The people in the commons pointed at the two women and kept asking Selphie what happened, but neither spoke to the bystanders.
When they got to the dorms they passed Tessa's and walked further down the hallway. They stopped outside of dorm number 32S. A young man with spiked blonde hair and a large tattoo on his face answered the door. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open, just like everyone else's had.
"Zell, can we come in? There's been a murder in the cafeteria," Selphie said regrettably.
"Sure, just let me go kick that guy's ass," Zell said as he opened the door for the two women. He slammed his right fist into his left palm and made to leave, but Selphie grabbed the back of his SeeD's uniform.
"There's no ass to kick, it's over," Selphie said with a look at Tessa. "We just need to use your bathroom."
"Sure thing, it's right over there," Zell said pointing to a door on the left side of the room. The walls of the room were covered with posters of men in various fighting stances, and his desk was covered with copies of Weapons Monthly and Combat King.
"Thanks," Selphie said as she the still speechless Tessa to the bathroom. She was turning the knob when Zell put his hand on her shoulder.
"Did the killer attack her?" Zell asked with a nod at Tessa.
"No," Selphie said with her eyes lowered. "She killed him."