Thank you for all the positive feedbacks to my story. Reading them makes me more inspired to write the next chapters so if you like it or whatever reactions you have, please feel free to express your ideas, opinions or compliments. Much love, DeusLiteratia. :)
Quistis sighed while graciously entering the headmaster's office where the commander, Squall Leonhart is sitting on the huge office desk in the middle of the room just in front of the wide windows and is busy scribbling on a paper. Her heart skipped a beat once more, seeing how irresistible her commander is, becoming more handsome as he matured through the years and today, if she didn't get a hold of herself, she might've already reached across the desk like a hungry lion and grabbed this guy on his collar and bury his face into hers. She sighed again deeply and made her best to return to her usual sultry composure. "Hi there handsome." she flirtatiously greeted but meant it as a joke.
The lone wolf which is also now on his mid twenties like her although she is a year older, has gotten taller and looking sharper than ever with his much manly features, in his new clean brush up haircut and dark blue three piece suit with a small pin of the garden logo on his left chest. He lazily lifted his head as he noticed the hot lady standing in front of the door. His scar on his forehead was now gone. He finally decided have it removed two years ago as part of what he privately calls his self changes.
"Whatever." he muttered skeptically.
"You know when Rinoa stepped out of the picture, I thought it is the time that I should take my chance on you. But look at me now, still all I can do is to maintain my distance and love you from here." She dramatically joked but inside, all of it is in fact the truth. If she could just scream it into this man's face.
Squall smiled. "You better stop it or else I'm gonna start believing you." He joked in return which made the instructor's face blush. That goddamn smile that can instantly dissolve every inch of clothing that covers her body.
"So what's the princess been up to this days?" She cleared her throat and changed the topic. She cannot handle that kind of topic or she might lose her grip on herself.
"I don't know. Haven't heard from her." The brunet said as he continued writing on his desk.
"Rinoa… I can only see her now on the TV, newspapers and magazines. I'm happy that she's now developed into a more matured, strong, independent woman. Now with her leadership with Deling City ever since the system changed from dictatorship into monarchy. All the charity works that she's doing and inspiring people throughout the world, everybody loves her. And she's also getting prettier." She shared while taunting her childhood friend.
"I'm also happy for her. So how's the exam?" He also changed the topic, avoiding his past relationship with Rinoa to be discussed.
She just managed a weak laugh at the man's weak attempt to escape the issue and sagged as she walked towards one of the chairs in front of the desk and plopped down tiredly. "Well, we have much more applicants today compared last year. That means more passers, more classes. Ugh, I'm starting to feel the stress coming in the next semester." She complained.
"And what do you suggest, Instructor Trepe?" The commander leaned on his executive chair and folded his arms on his chest while seriously looking at the instructor which on the other hand is now massaging her strained temples.
"I suggest we stop recruiting for the next three years. We haven't fall short of men for several years now. I don't have any idea why you kept acquiring soldiers." She commented tiredly.
The commander stood up and placed both his hands on his pockets. "We still need more soldiers." He simply stated.
"Why?" The blonde confusingly looked up at the tall man.
"We have future changes in our operations soon." He turned his back and looked outside the huge window just behind his chair.
"Changes? What is it?" Quistis asked again interestingly as she also stood up and slowly approached the commander and stopped at a decent distance behind him.
Squall turned to face her. "We've been receiving numerous reports about monster invasions as what we have seen on the TV. As we can see, the effects of the Lunar Cry, even if it's seldom happening compared to the past few years is now becoming out of control by the local soldiers. Monsters are now becoming more aggressive and the locals needed our help. Our units are mostly deployed inside the cities to handle the human to human crimes but not much is focusing on the monster to human attacks. That's why we're expanding. We will build a new set of units. We'll be putting them in the outskirt areas to control the monsters invading towns and cities." He explained.
The blonde looked at the distant sea through the window as she processed everything that she heard and said "I see. When will this take effect?"
"As soon as the next batch of SeeDs graduated we will start deploying them." He replied. "I've already conducted a meeting regarding this with the administration and Headmaster Cid. I've got the thumbs up and I already have the accountants calculate how much we should be paid for this. My recent trip in Dollet was to talk about this with the countries' leaders and they are really interested. They said they will pay us a lot more than what the accountants estimated." He explained.
"So this new squad is for the monster control. That is actually a good idea. I've already watched the news and there are lots of monster attacks that has been reported and I'm sure citizens are growing worried about this." The blonde recalled leaning her chin on her fingers.
"We need someone who is really strong and can fend off any type of monsters. I need you guys to train them more carefully. Teach the basic S.O.P's when it comes to crime control and safety but specialize them in slaying monsters. Make sure they are skilled enough to handle this type of job." He ordered.
"Noted. I'll start arranging for the changes in the curriculum soon and I will hold a meeting with the whole faculty regarding this as soon as its confidentiality is lifted." Quistis seriously replied.
"On a second thought, what do you say we change the last part of the aptitude test. What supposed to be a man to man duel will be a face to face with the domestic monsters. Have a medic team stand by and SeeDs to respond if things gets out of hand. Everyone is welcome to watch. I will also be out there. I will closely observe." Squall turned his back again and looked sideways.
"Well what can I say, I'm up for it. I'll inform the faculty. Let's see…" The blonde pulled her mobile phone from her pocket and tapped. "This is exciting! How about we call the new squad, the Balamb Security Regiment?" The instructor suggested and she softly chuckled.
Squall nodded with a faint smile. "Whatever."
"Over here!" Selphie shouted as she spotted the pinkette walking down the stairs to the quad.
Claire looked at the brunette's direction. She was supposed to go to the balcony of the quad to breathe some fresh air as this portion of the school is usually windy and most of the students liked to hang out here to study or chit chat. What now? She asked to herself and walked towards the SeeD.
"How's the test?" The brunette stood up from the bench and jumped excitedly in front of the ex soldier who just shrugged. "By the way, I forgot to tell you. The last part of the aptitude test is a practice match. You will be fighting one of the applicants and the next level will be one of the students here." She explained while looking at her tablet.
"A throw down. That's exciting." She dryly replied.
"C'mon! I'm confident that you can pass this so I'm not even worried. You just hafta kick their asses!" She punched her fist upward in excitement as the school speaker lit up and a female voice announced:
Attention. All of the aptitude test applicants, please gather at the second floor hallway in five minutes. Please standby for the result of your exam. Attention. All of the aptitude test applicants, please gather at the second floor hallway in five minutes. Please standby for the result of your exam. Thank you.
With that, Claire quickly paced through the quad followed by the brunette and up the stairs until they entered the main lobby. They quickly walked the rounded hallway towards the staircase leading to the elevator at the center of the enormous lobby where some applicants are fighting to get inside first.
"Excuse me! Excuse me! Emergency! Give way please!" Selphie shouted at the pretty huge crowd. The applicants made her a path as they spotted the woman in uniform. The brunette casually pressed the up button and waited for the elevator to come down without even looking. A ting was heard and the elevator door opened. The brunette entered and as she faces the door, she looked at the ex soldier in horror as the latter didn't even moved to ride with her. "What are you waiting for? Jump in! We're gonna be late!" She said urgently.
Claire sighed and said, "I think I should take the next one with them." She looked sideways at the pissed people.
"Oh nonsense. We're gonna be late! Hello?!" And she tapped her wristwatch with her index finger. The pinkette didn't want to prolong the long wait that the others are suffering so she didn't have any choice but to go with Selphie. And she doesn't even have a clue why she's tagging along, as a matter of fact.
When they reached the second floor hallway, they saw the commander's head secretary, Xu standing on one side waiting for them to come and she was surprised to see the nunchaku specialist to arrive at a place where she wasn't even needed. "Selphie what are you doing here?" She asked without sounding mean.
"I'm here to cheer my friend right here!" She excitedly patted the pinkette on her shoulders and the latter rolled her eyes.
"Oh well. Let's just wait for the others to come." The short black haired SeeD told them while browsing on the folder that she's holding. Few minutes have passed and the applicants arrived in bunches, panting as they hurriedly ran and eventually became complete.
"You guys are late! If you really want to become a SeeD, tardiness is one of the things you need to get rid of yourself!" She shouted irritably and the people murmured their apologies.
"Now. Let's get this over with. When I call your names, please step forward. Understood!" She said in a loud voice making sure that everyone heard her. And they chorused a YES.
"Gilroy Vaughn? Come over here!"
"Tabo Cape-ford!"
"Sherana Kelt!"
She goes on with the next six names who passed the test until…
"Okay so we already have our nine applicants! I'm glad to announce to you all that we still have one slot left!" She said with a grin.
Selphie was clearly nervous. "Just one? Gosh…" She murmured.
"Trust me." Claire assured and the brunette nodded nervously.
Xu stared at the folders as she wanted to make sure of the last name that she will be announcing. "Farron! Claire Farron! Step forward!"
The ex-soldier glanced at the awestruck Selphie and said "I told you." She smiled. And the latter replied with a big smile and giggled in excitement.
"The rest of you, thank you for participating. I'm hoping to see you again next year." Xu ended and the crowd dispersed and headed towards the elevator with disappointing reactions.
A huge guy clad in tattoos refused to go and left standing alone suddenly burst in anger and complained. "Hey miss! With all due fucking respect, do you have any fucking idea how many we are here, sticking our asses the whole day in this shit?! We're like a hundred or two! And now you're telling me you morons will only pass ten of us?! Are you seriously fucking sick?!" He yelled.
Now this is interesting. Claire stood at one side, right hand on her waist, entertaining herself with the fight that is about to come.
Xu cleared her throat and sighed deeply, obviously controlling herself not to take on this guy. "First of all young man, choose your words. No one has the right, nor is allowed to speak such profanities inside this premises. And lastly, you were already informed that there are only limited slots that we will give you so you-"
"Then at least pass even half of us!" The bearded man waved his hands in anger. "I'm pretty damn sure I passed that motherfucking exam because I knew all the goddamn answers to those goddamn questions! I'm fucking sure most of us do! So what the fuck are you saying that we failed the exam?!"
"I'm warning you, stop-" Xu failed to continue her sentence and is shocked when the guy suddenly raised his right fist to hit her and Claire is quick enough to position herself in front of her and raised her own arm to block the guys assault.
"What do you think you're doing?" The pinkette asked.
The man inserted his full force on his raised arm to fight against the strength of the woman and desired to bruise that perfect, unblemished face. Their arms shook as their forces fight against each other. "You don't fucking know anything lady because you are nothing but a leech using your stupid connections inside this shithole!" And he glared at the shocked brunette who have her nunchakus raised as she stands guard in front of Xu who is now talking on her radio as she requests for SeeDs to respond and arrest the applicant.
Selphie closed her eyes tightly and shook her head as she realizes what is about to come. "Oh boy… You'll regret that."
"What did you say?" The pinkette narrowed her eyes, those resentful, soul-burning look on her eyes that she always had when she killed those fal'Cie's and even Bhunivelze, and gritted her teeth as she felt all of her blood rose into her head.
"I said you are nothing but a BLOOD SUCKING BITCH—" He's not yet finished saying the B-word when he felt a strong, painful thrust on his stomach that made him kneel down the floor and cross his arms around his abdomen. He coughed and blood came out of his mouth.
"What the—" He looked up at the pink haired woman standing in front of him.
Selphie peaked down on him and sported a sorry expression on her face. "I hate to say this but you asked for it. Now you musta learned how to respect women." She waved her index finger on him and winked at the pinkette. Claire sighed to calm herself down. What makes her flip in an instant is insulting her.
"Thank you for defending me." Xu bowed to her. "If it weren't for you maybe I got bruises and blood all over my face with that big fist of his." She smiled in gratitude. Claire turned to look at her and bowed slightly.
Three men in black armored uniforms and black caps and with the garden logo on their left arm suddenly arrived with huge guns and grabbed both arms of the offender and cuffed his arms on his back. "You are under arrest for assaulting an officer and civilians. You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult a lawyer before speaking to any soldier and to have a lawyer present during questioning now or in the future. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you are not a Balamb citizen, you may still contact your country's consulate prior to any questioning. For now you will be detained at the Basement Prison until you are summoned in front of the high court." One of the soldiers stated.
They stood him up and saluted to the female SeeDs. "We will take care of this one. We will escort him down there while no one is still around." One of the soldier said.
"Good. Could be a big problem if a student accidentally walked by and see this commotion." Xu responded while straightening her uniform. "You guys, follow me." She walked towards the elevator and everyone followed her. Once they are inside, Xu pushed the button for the third floor and said. "We're going to the board room for now to brief you guys. Looks like you will be meeting the commander earlier than what's planned." One female passer squealed and blushed upon hearing it and everyone looked at her confusingly.
"What's her problem?" Claire audibly asked and raised an eyebrow while looking at the giggling woman.
Selphie tapped her in her shoulder while shaking her head. "Uhh… That's nothin' new. Women are always like that whenever they hear the word commander, especially his name." And the pinkette rolled her eyes upon hearing it.
The elevator stopped at the third floor where the offices are located. You can see a wide lobby with carpeted floor, expensive-looking sculptures and paintings decorated the area and huge, elegant doors of the offices can be seen around.
"Follow me." Xu instructed and walked towards the second glass door from their right.
Selphie grabbed the ex soldier in her arm and whispered. "Can I borrow your phone?" Which the latter gave her a confusing look. "Just a sec, please?" She pleaded.
"Why?" Claire hesitated but ended up handing her phone to the SeeD.
The brunette grabbed it and typed something in it quickly and returned the phone to the owner. "I'll stop right here. Here's my number. I have some errands to do downstairs so I need to leave. Update me okay!" She smiled and winked and with that, she quickly turned and headed for the elevator again and left.
The pinkette just sighed and approached the room where everyone is waiting for the commander to arrive. She opened the door and Xu gestured for her to take one of the vacant seats surrounding a huge, oval wooden table. She chose to seat on the farthest office chair across the secretary.
The black haired SeeD cleared her throat and started. "What happened earlier was very surprising to say the least." She paused. "But as a shocker as it is, let's just forget about the incident and focus ourselves to the task at hand. You still need to pass the second stage of the aptitude test."
"The reason why you are here, well, there will be changes. To further explain this to you, the commander will join us anytime soon and will do the honors. Let's wait for him." She added.
Claire was leaning on her chair and is already feeling strained for what happened today. What a long day. She told herself as her phone vibrated from her pocket and she checked it to see who texted her.
Claire, it's me Hope. Where are you?
She sighed again and shut her eyes tightly, ignoring the message. Few seconds later her phone vibrated again.
We need to talk. I need to see you.
She decided to respond to his message.
Not now. And where did you get my number?
A message. It doesn't matter. I'm sorry. I know I should've had the guts to call you or to face you. But I'm a coward. I wanted to explain to you everything.
Don't insist, Hope. We can talk. But not right now. You're not a kid anymore so try to understand.
Her phone vibrated again but she decided to put it back in her pocket and sighed again deeply. She stared at the window beside her and thought of what will happen if ever she decides to talk with him.
Few minutes later, four class A SeeDs entered the room and they stood mightily on each side of the door while one of them held it open to give way to the radiant instructor named Quistis Trepe who quickly approached the black haired woman standing in front of the board room and instantly discussed something with her.
Claire shifted her gaze and looked at the newly arrived SeeDs just like every applicants in the room did. And suddenly every SeeD faced the door and saluted synchronically as a tall and handsome, brown haired young man in a dark blue suit emerged from the door. Squall Leonhart.