Alright, here we have the next instalment in Little Doctor. Took me awhile to put it up, but hopefully it's worth the wait.
Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII.
It had been a week since the night I had freaked out. I had met Sensei Morizawa, a Wutaian who specialized in the kick-based martial art of self-defense. True to my expectations, training was even worse than with Miranda.
The first lesson with Sensei, I had wanted to quit even before we started, knowing as I did from Miranda's lesson the torture that awaited me.
The look in the short man's eyes showed that he knew it too, and he followed up with what was the most painful series of stretches I had ever done. Ever. It was like trying to turn myself into a human pretzel.
Then, he took a step back and watched me as I stood on shaky legs.
After that, he made me run around the yard 4 times, by which time my legs were quivering in exhaustion.
Then he paused again.
When I didn't do anything, he pushed me into a horse stance, forcing my legs apart in a half squat whilst pulling my arms up as if in preparation to punch out, one hand in front of the other. Every time I shifted, or rose slightly from the squat, he would push me down again, making my legs scream as they stretched.
15 minutes later, he watched me sprawl on the grass, trying to force myself up on my elbows with my exhausted arms. The look on his face was one of smug anticipation. It was as if he were asking me, Well? Had enough?
Pissed beyond belief, I found the energy to stand again, albeit slightly swaying. I glared back defiantly. Like hell I'm going to let you force me to quit! I survived Miranda's lesson, I'll survive yours too!
He snorted then, muttering under his breath before he nodded once sharply and started to teach me a kata.
Lessons with Sensei were always grueling, but I always came away knowing much more than I did before. I suspected that if I had not met his expectations, or had given up halfway, he would never had taught me as much as he did.
In order to improve my lower body strength, he had me do the traditional horse stance for 15 minutes each time. While I was not required to carry any weight due to my young age, he would press me down by the shoulders if he thought I was not bending my knees low enough, making my inner thighs burn with the effort of keeping the stance.
In addition to the usual push-ups, sit-ups and squats, he also made me do the pretzel stretches in order to increase flexibility and improve my body's dexterity. Some were simple, like trying to touch my toes while standing/sitting. Others were more akin to yoga exercises, where I had to coil my body around like in a painful game of Twister.
There were also several kata or patterns that he ran me through again and again and again. Many of them required me to kick accurately, and so he would force me to kick over and over if I did not hit the mark. Each time I had so much as a toe out of line I would be forced to redo the whole thing again. And again. And again. It looked like repetition was a main theme in learning martial arts.
While I drilled kata or stood in horse stance, Sensei would walk around, reciting various principles of our ryu or school. There were rules of conduct, the school's founding history, principles behind certain moves and much much more. Sometimes, while I rested, he would teach me Wutaian, pointing to something and saying the name in the language.
Wutai was definitely a mix of Chinese and Japanese. Even the language was similar to my former world's counterparts. However, there were some noticeable differences here and there, like the different ways of addressing either a male or female. Greetings, too, were different.
If Sensei had not taught me the various greetings, I would never have been able to distinguish between them. A few were subtle insults, while others were more respectful. There were different names for foreigners depending on how accepted one was. Being a student of a Wutaian, I would be much better received than just another "alien".
Learning about Wutai's culture, I recalled that right now, Wutai was still a powerful country. Shinra had only just been started, and SOLDIERs wouldn't appear until much later.
There probably wasn't much I could do to prevent Wutai's fall. And whilst I liked Sensei, Wutai was not my country. In addition, with how separate Wutaians held themselves from other countries, refusing to allow free trade and guarding their rich materia mines, it was only a matter of time before someone got the idea of invading into their heads. While Wutai was strong, it had no allies. A country (or company) with enough resources would be able to overcome the proud people.
But that wasn't my problem now.
What was my problem was the stupid fucking piece of shit sandbag in front of me right now that was hurting my leg more than I hurt it. I drew a deep breath.
"Fucking piece of shit!" I cursed in Wutaian as I kicked. Nurse didn't understand Wutaian, so she just ignored it as another outburst, but Sensei had a strange look on his face. As I was only 4 years old, the curses coming out of my mouth were a stark contrast to my innocent looks. Furthermore, as my teacher, he was supposed to protect my innocence.
Too bad for him I had overheard him saying it on his PHS and threatened to repeat it to my parents. I had to have something over him after all.
"Imma cut off your balls and feed them to you steamed in buns!" Kick.
"Motherfucking son of a whore and a screwdriver!" Kick.
Every kick I did was preceded by a healthy bout of swearing. Sensei cursed a lot over the phone, so it took me a while to run out of different curses. I merrily ran through the list as Sensei eyed me warily.
"Cocksucking jerkassscumbagpieceofshittyf uckcrap!" I panted as I finished the 20 kicks I had been assigned.
"Enough," Sensei said in his soft baritone, "We shall stop for today."
"Osu!" I stood straight, bowing.
Unlike previous lessons, Sensei didn't leave immediately. There was still an hour before lunch time, so I wasn't exactly in a rush to chase him off, but it was unusual that he lingered longer than he was paid to.
"Lucrecia," Sensei said my name. He'd been in Midgar for a while now, so it wasn't a butchered "Look-ee-sha", like most Wutaian would have said.
"Yes, Sensei?" I replied, still toweling off my hair. When there was no reply, I looked up.
Sensei was staring. His eyes never left my face, as if he were searching for the all the answers to his question there.
"Sensei?" I didn't lower my eyes.
"Tell me, Lucrecia," his voice rumbled a little, surprisingly deep for a man his size. "Is there a reason for your determination to gain strength?"
Huh. I didn't think it was that obvious.
And because it would be meaningless -and offensive- to lie to Sensei, I said, "Yes."
"Hmmmm…" The expression on his face could be carved out of granite as far as I was concerned. I couldn't read a damn thing, and it was worrying me.
And without another word, he turned and left.
Well, that was anticlimactic.
I shrugged.
Meh.
As far as I was concerned, if he wasn't going to stop training me, I had no complaints.
xXXXx
When I wasn't recovering from the strenuous work, or lazily listening to Mr. Morris drone on about language and, sometimes, history, I was poring over books that I had asked Daddy-dearest to get.
Books like The history of Kalm, A Guide to Travelling Gaia, Wutai: Country of the Brave, found their places on my little bookshelf beside all the bedtime stories along with A Study of Mako: The hows and The whys, The Compendium of Materia and last but not least Loveless.
…What? I want to know what Genesis was all hyped up over!
I must have seemed quite the industrious little girl, a huge turnabout from the old Lucrecia. Stares and whispers tracked my every move, and the look on Nurse's face was puzzled and not a little anxious.
Not that she cared for me or anything, but I had reacted sharply when she'd been a little too presumptuous. Bang on my door all she wanted in the morning, but she did NOT have the right to boss me around with regards to what I "should" do. That was a right reserved solely for my parents. So there.
In any case, I still had the rest of the afternoon free. That is, until Mr. Morris came to ruin it with his rendition of "Letters, how to massacre phonetics" or "History 100001, every single detail that you didn't really need to know". That wasn't until 2 hours later, so I had plenty of time. I didn't really feel like reading, and I wanted to move around to ease my achy joints.
The house (mansion) I was staying in was a rather large and old building that had seen at least one war. It had many unused rooms that were filled with antiques and other priceless artifacts from older days that were still being cleared out. A few were untouched and coated with dust, and it was possible to hide in one and not be found for weeks.
My father had bought it to promote the family name. Being as our family was one of the Nouveau Riche, young in lineage and new to money, we were constantly frowned upon by the older, more established families as upstarts. Settling down in Kalm, a place known to have a rich culture and history, was just one of the many ways Daddy used to emulate them.
Frankly, I didn't see why the "Old Money" had the right to turn their noses up at us. Money was money and be it "old" or "new", gil was still good in the eyes of any merchant. You could buy the same amount of food for it no matter how long it had been in your family.
The main difference was the contacts that the older families had. While our family could easily purchase Materia or hire tutors and other luxuries, we didn't know people. It was difficult to start businesses in places where people were rather leery of outsiders. The Eastern Continent was relatively open, but doing business in places like Corel or Bone Village without having proper contacts was tricky.
This was made more difficult with the presence of monsters. Many towns and villages remained isolated not just due to poor transportation, but the surrounding hordes of monsters. It was rare that one travelled further than the next town, much less the next continent. Cloud's journey, along with the members of AVALANCHE, would have been the stuff of legends in this day. Even with the creation of SOLDIER later on, travel would still be difficult for civilians.
Which was why I had been somewhat concerned when Daddy had told me that he was going to be travelling again in 2 days' time.
Due to the nature of his business (selling exotic luxury items), he was required to travel and meet many people. Thankfully, most meetings were held in Midgar, but he had once been required to travel as far as Wutai back when the business was new. However, Daddy assured me that he would be hiring the best guards for the trip, and so I was content enough to wish him well.
This next meeting would be in Midgar and probably last another month or so. Mother would be joining Daddy in order to socialize with the wives of the other businessmen, as well as one or two other servants who would see to their comforts.
From the reactions of the household, this was par for course, and my suspicion that Daddy didn't come home often was confirmed. In fact, him being home for more than a week was considered rather generous already.
Naturally, my next concern was with who the authority of the household fell to.
Nurse, thankfully, was not that high up in the hierarchy to assume authority, despite being my personal servant as well as a very senior one.
No, power fell to a stiff old man named Balladry (coughbaldycough) who had come with the house and served the previous master before he had sold it to repay debts. He was familiar with every inch of the house, its history, as well as the names of every master it had been home to. He was born and bred in Kalm, knew everyone here, and was known in turn.
He was also at a loss at how to deal with Lucrecia, and so chose to avoid/ignore her as much as possible while going about doing his duties. Not to say that he hated children(he had several nieces and nephews), but technically, 4-year-old Lucrecia had a higher position than he did, and thus should have the final say in matters.
Being a stickler for rules as well as proper decorum, Balladry would bow to Lucrecia's whims (which, thankfully, were not often) even if they were silly or poorly made. According to whispers in the kitchen, there had been several (though rare) disastrous incidences where his orders were countermanded in favour of indulging her wishes that had ended badly for all parties.
Not to say that Baladry was a blind follower who simply listened to everything his masters said. He knew that children were often rash and had to be taught properly, but it was frowned upon when a servant took it upon himself (or herself) to lead his master, even if he did know better. Daddy was not around enough and too new to servants to know of the problem, while Mother (who I discovered had come from an old family) had never been exposed to such matters.
Thus, the position of Master of the House fell to Lucrecia whenever her parents were not around. Which was too often.
Most times, things went on as normal, Lucrecia being the dutiful daughter and attending her lessons. Being only four, she did not understand the power she held, and thus was not prone to exercising it frequently. On occasions she did, it was usually something small, like wanting a change in menu for dinner, or a pretty dress, or a tea party for her bears.
She was never approached regarding matters of the house. Any queries were addressed to Baladry, who would resolve them or note them down and report them to her parents when they returned. All in all, there were not many problems in the system Baladry had implemented.
However, now that I was here, things would be changing a little.
Obviously, I knew that if Baladry had been any less honourable than he was, my position would have been meaningless. Alone and young as I was, it would be a mere trifling for him to ignore my "orders". I was both grateful and in awe of him.
Knowing that I had the authority to command every servant in the house was empowering, but I quashed the voice that giggled and played King at the back of my head ruthlessly. I would not abuse the power that Baladry had taken such pains to give me.
However, I wanted to see Kalm. Not the view from my window or the people who passed by the front gate. I wanted to meet people, to know people, to talk to the locals and learn about the culture, to talk to the merchants and see what they had to offer.
I was in a whole new world and I wanted to learn what it was like.
Thus, I decided that once my parents were gone, I was announcing my decision to visit the town center and poke around. I would take a chaperone, which would silence any objections to be had…In fact, I would probably take Baladry along, seeing as he was a local and also so knowledgeable of Kalm's culture and history. Well, that and I trusted him to watch out for me more than any other young servant.
Hmmm… But with both Baladry and I gone, there would be nobody to manage the household…
Scratching my head, I racked my brains for the names of the few servants I knew. Janice and Solma, the two gossipy women in charge of the kitchen. Bregon, the gruff man charged with managing the gardens… and Nurse. Whose name I still didn't know.
Well, I've only been here a week, so it's only normal that I know so few people. Besides, it's not like they go out of their way to talk to a kid like me.
I definitely didn't want to put Nurse in charge of anything, knowing as I did her nosy behavior and "I know what's best for you" attitude. In fact, her position as my nursemaid had given her a sense of entitlement that had been a source of contention with the other servants.
I decided that I knew too few people to pick from, and that I should get to know more. Especially with those who were in high positions. I still didn't know who was second to Baladry, and most probably the person who should take over if he were not around.
That's right, Baladry should have taken off days previously, so someone had to have taken over while he wasn't around. I'll just get whoever that was to fill in for the day, not that there's much to do in half a day, and Baladry's only gonna be a short walk away if there was an emergency.
I ran through the idea slowly, nodding. Alright, I'll just find out who that person is and maybe get to know him/her a little. I have to know the name anyway.
Humming cheerfully now that I had a plan, I hobbled back to the study where Mr. Morris was waiting impatiently.
xXXXx
