Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy Saga ❯ Rivalry Olympics ( Chapter 7 )

Final Fantasy Saga

Chapter VII: Rivalry Olympics

The breeze was very gentle, the sun was very bright, the sky was very blue, and the day was only just beginning. Ark was wondering why it was that it had grown so cold in the recent days, and it was only October. Other than that though this seemed like the absolutely perfect morning to be alive, especially considering he had only just recently finished his recovery from fighting with Cloud. Eliza had explained to Ark the events that had gone on, about Rufus and Laguna's battle, and about her ability to summon Odin, and Ark had never conceived that so much was behind the duels he had been fighting in the first weeks of the semester. Ark laid happily in the grass, contemplating these things happily as he unwound from a hard few days of studying. Well, as close to studying as Ark ever came, at least.

"Ark!" he heard Eliza say as she stood over him and looked down, her arms crossed at her chest, "Might I ask why you aren't at class?"

"I could ask you the same think," commented Ark as he opened his eyes to see Eliza, just sighing a bit.

Shaking her head, Eliza answered him, "I told the teacher that I could find you and drag you into class, and it looks like I was right."

"But Algebra really isn't my thing, I mean who on earth can understand all that math stuff?" Ark asked and shook his head, "A waste of my time on a beautiful day like this, don't you agree?"

Eliza then laid down next to him and smiled, looking up at the sky as well, "Okay, I'll stay five minutes, but then we're both going to class."

This would have annoyed Ark, but he was sure he could con her into hanging out with him instead of going to class again, so he just nodded happily and smiled back," Sounds great!"

"It's really strange, this place," Eliza seemed to be just as relaxed as Ark, which was strange since she was usually the most responsible of the two.

"Of course it is," Ark explained as he laughed just a bit, "That's the reason it's so hard for people to attend, because few can handle this place."

"I know that," Eliza punched Ark's shoulder, unusually hard too, "I'm just saying, it's really nice to be somewhere and have each day be a brand new adventure. I've never had as much fun anywhere in my whole life."

"Yeah," Ark looked at Eliza and added a little hesitantly, "But you know… until you got here, there was something missing from this place."

Turning to look at Ark, obvious surprise in her eyes from what he had said, Eliza had an absolutely amazing smile on her face. It was rare that Ark said kind things like that, and it was simply because he wasn't usually very good about talking about his emotions unless he was angry. "Ark," Eliza whispered slowly and shook her head, "You're one of the best friends anyone could ever ask for, you know that?"

"Thanks," Ark smiled and looked back up to the sky, noticing that some clouds were coming. White fluffy ones.

"We have to get to class now, though," Eliza stood up and kicked Ark in the side, gently, "Come on, you!"

"Hey!" Ark sighed and sat up, looking at Eliza with a sweet puppy dog face, "Do we really have to?"

"Don't try that with me," Eliza grabbed Ark by his ear and started to drag him, Ark whining and complaining the entire time. He wasn't at all used to having someone around that stopped him from ditching his classes whenever he felt like.

* * * * * * *

"We need to do something to get ourselves some glory," Sora said, looking to Riku and Kairi, "We've been here a few weeks now, and still our group hasn't gotten a reputation at all! Don't you guys think it's wrong for people as great as us to not be popular by now?"

"You worry too much," Riku said, his bright green eyes as piercing as ever, "So what if we aren't popular like some of the other people around here? We have a chance to learn more here than anywhere else in the world, nobody has ever learned everything that there is to teach at this school, it's like an infinite well of knowledge."

"Riku's right Sora, we shouldn't focus on being popular, we need to study as hard as we can and become as wise as possible here," Kairi reasoned, and Sora found he always was bugged when she sided with Riku just because he had something that would vaguely resemble a point. Shouldn't a girlfriend always be on her boyfriend's side?

Letting out a groan of annoyance, Sora shrugged and kept ranting anyways, "But we haven't even really hanged out with any new people. We should pick one of the more popular groups around here and start some trouble, just for the sake of getting known and getting to know some people." His friends looked at each other, and then looked at Sora a little strangely, so he reasoned further, "Riku, think of what great friends we are because we compete for so much. It not only gives us something to do, but we always have respect because our skills are similar in so many ways."

"That actually makes a little sense," a brief chuckle escaped Kairi as she looked at Riku, "Why don't we give it a try? We are off for the next two days anyways, we have nothing better to do really."

"I guess I have no other choice, I'm voted out here," Riku smiled and shrugged at the same time, "But who are we going to have a contest with?"

Sora looked around the area a bit to try and find some people that would work for their plan. There was the Beasts, a group which consisted of Kimarhi, Biran, Yenke, Red XIII, and Gau. However, they were a bit too savage and the only contests they'd likely want to take part in would involve Sora and his friends getting mauled. Which would be kind of funny if it were just Riku, but that wasn't the point of this. There also was the Turks, which had Reno, Rude, Elena, and Tseng in it. They were too serious though, never wanting to really do anything fun, and would likely ignore Sora if he went up to challenge them. After a while, he then noticed a small little group that had only three people, but when he thought about it they seemed absolutely perfect. Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin were sitting at one of the tables in the patio area, talking and laughing and such, Fujin kicking Raijin a few times. They were perfect.

"Them," Sora pointed to the group, "Those three are pretty popular, and there's the same number of them as us."

"What are we waiting for, then?" Riku asked, standing up and beginning to walk over to their new rivals, Sora and Kairi following behind him.

As they got to the table Seifer's group was at, Raijin took notice of the three friends and looked at them, asking calmly, "How can we help you?"

"You see, my friends and I have a problem," began Riku, "We're amazingly bored, and have nothing much to do, so we wanted to challenge you guys to a competition of sorts."

"A competition?" Seifer seemed slightly intrigued, looking at the three people and then adding, "What do you have in mind?"

"We pair off. Each set of people come up with a method of contest, and then we call it an Olympic rivalry," smiling cheerfully, Riku cracked his knuckles, "Then the winner gets some kind of special prize from the loser."

"FOOLISH," the woman, Fujin, shook her head, kicking Raijin for absolutely no apparent reason after saying it.

"Well, the execution does sound over thought and dorky to me," Seifer responded, "But the idea in itself seems like it could be fun. Consider us in."

* * * * * * *

Gren sighed as he looked over his homework, wishing he could be a bit more like Ark at times like these. The brute might be dumb as a doornail, but he also never stressed about what his grades were. It mattered little though, as the passing of time was all Gren was doing especially, he had as good as graduated. He had actually just realized that this year would be his final at the Mana Academy, and this dawning upon him gave Gren a great deal of pride. He had been through so much, and he was going to finish it all at the top of his class most likely. A lot had happened, and although some of the times were very rough, he'd managed to have a lot of fun in it all as well. He wanted to leave this place behind with a legacy, and Gren believed he could do so by making his friend Ark into the stuff of legends. By helping Ark reach his full potential, Gren would also leave as more than just a student.

At this point homework had become quite redundant, and as such Gren decided to take a break from it. Moving to look out the window, he noticed that dark clouds had gathered over the school, extending as far as the eye could see. It was very strange weather for this time of year, or for most times of year in fact. The island was large, but not that large, and was in a place usually considered tropical, as such they did not really get weather like this often. This combined with the downright unnatural cold of the recent days was beginning to have Gren wonder if there might be something more than mere strange weather going on. What if something were causing the climate to change as it had been changing? These thoughts were strange, but then Gren also had a tendency to be correct with his unusual hunches.

Deciding to go and see what Ark and Eliza thought about all this, Gren got up and headed out of the boys dormitory. They were in class at the moment, but he wouldn't get there until around when their class would end anyways. Intending to perhaps stop and get something to eat on his way, Gren made his way in the general direction of the algebra class. Putting his hands into his pockets and taking a deep breath, Gren felt a slight burning sensation within his lungs. It had gotten colder today, much colder than it was on a normal day at the Mana Academy. To the point at which Gren was certain he was correct, breathing out a fine mist in the sharp cold, and shaking his head. Something was far from right.

* * * * * * *

The first two members who were going to compete against each other would be Riku and Raijin. These two had chosen to run a race, a race around the largest park in the school, Esper Meadows. Riku felt pretty excited about this, strangely, and at the same time he was confident that he could beat his opponent. Raijin didn't exactly look fast, and the fact was that Riku was a rising star in the academies track team. He took a moment to stretch and then looked over at Raijin. Simply standing there, arms crossed, Raijin seemed less than enthusiastic over the game, even though he had been the one to pick what they did.

"Don't worry about him," Seifer said to Riku, as if reading the young mans mind, "He always shows a bit of a poker face, except to Fujin from time to time."

"Ah," Riku acknowledged the explanation, and nodded, "In that case, I won't hold back even a little bit."

"Very well," Raijin smiled and got into a sprint position, which baffled Riku. Looking at the junior a bit, he noticed no flaws in his stance, Raijin had to be a runner as well. This would make things more interesting, but Riku wasn't about to simply give up because the playing field was even now.

Moving and preparing to sprint as well, still finding himself smiling, Riku awaited the signal to begin. Seifer raised his Gunblade to the air, and waited for a moment. Tension built up in Riku's entire body waiting for that sound, for the sound that would signal him to turn this tension into energy. Then, Seifer pulled the trigger, shot a blast into the sky, and the two began to run. Riku was amazed at how fast Raijin was, and soon found he was not in the lead, but following behind Raijin. This race was going to be harder than Riku had first anticipated, but that only made him look forward to it more. Putting more of his strength into it, seeing that Raijin would not be getting tired and that he had to pick up the pace to win, Riku started to run as fast as he possibly could. This was a bad idea for long distance racing normally, but if he didn't pull it off then he had no other way to win against Raijin.

The others watched as their friends ran along the side of the park, and in the end saw the final result of that long and tireless race. Riku was extremely exhausted from just trying to keep up with Raijin, and as they approached the final distance he could feel his muscles aching, begging the rest of his body to give way. He had to find it somewhere though, if he didn't beckon the strength to himself then he was going to lose the race, and he couldn't let himself do that. Pushing himself harder, Riku began to move just a little bit faster, which was just enough to start gaining on Raijin. Closer and closer, inch by inch, Riku could feel the distance between the two shrinking, until finally he was running alongside of Raijin. This made Raijin smile, and shake his head in disbelief, Riku had seemingly surprised him by making it this far. Pushing just a little bit more, as much more as he could get away with before his body would give out, Riku surged beyond Raijin and passed the finish line as the winner.

* * * * * * *

Kairi was surprised actually that Riku had beaten Raijin, for a second she was pretty sure he wouldn't. Now it was time for her to do her own part, with her contest against Fujin. They had decided that their contest would be a battle of wits, taking the form of a game of Go Fish. It had been easy to decide, since Kairi was no match for Fujin physically, and Fujin wasn't capable of most of the things which Kairi was good at even a little. Kairi cooked and cleaned a lot, and was decided upon becoming the worlds best chef, studying directly under Instructor Quina Quen. As such her skills focused mainly on that sort of thing, whereas Fujin had been learning to fight since an early age apparently. So rather than either of them doing something they have little to no experience at, they would play a simple card game to decide their abilities against each other. The first one to run out of cards won, it would be that simple.

Each of them drew five cards, and Kairi had been dealt an ace, a five, a three, a queen, and a joker. The odds that Fujin had all of those exact cards were low, especially since there was a fraught one other joker in the entire deck, but she had to try her best to win this. Though she had no idea what hand Fujin was dealt, it was Kairi's turn first and so she had to take a venture into the dark. "Do you have a queen?" she asked Fujin, looking with hope for getting off to a good start.

"FISH," answered the eye-patch clad young woman, shaking her head as she looked at her cards and then asked, "ACE?"

Handing over her ace, Kairi got the feeling that Fujin rarely lost at card games. It went on like that for every single turn, until finally Fujin only had a single card left. She had either guessed each of Kairi's cards, or drawn ones that she needed, each and every turn, finally down to just one, with Kairi having all her cards still left. This wasn't looking good, but Fujin's last card had to be something tricky if she hadn't yet gotten rid of it. Hoping this would give her some time, Kairi knew that if Fujin did have whatever card she asked for, then Fujin would still win. So, knowing the odds, Kairi looked at Fujin for a while before asking, "Have a joker?"

However, instead of her common response, Fujin smirked and handed over a joker, now out of cards. Fujin had won. "VICTORY," declared a proud Fujin, smiling and standing up.

* * * * * * *

With one win and one loss on each side, the decisive match would be the one between Sora and Seifer. Their contest would bring to a close the rivalry between these two groups, even though that rivalry had only lasted the span of a single day. Now the question would become, what would they do to decide things once and for all? It was hard to believe that Riku defeated Raijin, and Sora found it even harder to believe that Kairi had been beaten by Fujin, so now everything rested on him. Since Seifer was the leader, Sora was pretty sure that he'd be the toughest of the three students, and so he found himself wishing that Riku had decided to take Seifer on instead. This was going to be tough, but Sora knew he could do it, he had little other choice. So, after a moment of reflecting, he asked Seifer, "So, how should we settle this?"

Seifer walked over to two staves he had laying in the grass, and he picked them both up, "There is only one way for people to earn my respect." Seifer then tossed one of the staves at Sora and added, "They have to defeat me."

Looking for a while and then smiling, Sora decided this was actually a really good way to do this. Since they were just staffs nobody would be seriously hurt, and this was something Sora felt competent enough at. He twirled the staff slowly and smiled with a big, dumb grin, then nodded and answered Seifer, "Let's do it!"

Seifer took the staff in both hands and ran towards Sora. He was fast, extremely fast, Sora didn't even have time to react before Seifer had hit him in the gut twice. Falling to his knees, Sora gasped, and collapsed. In such a short time Seifer had managed to totally flatten him, he was absolutely in awe at this mans skill. Ton finish him off, Seifer gave him a very swift blow to the face, it felt more like a tap than a bash though. As if the tap were so precise Sora didn't even feel it, but it was also at the same time enough to surround him in an oblivion, defeated.

* * * * * * *

As Sora slowly came to, he saw Seifer and his other friends talking to Riku and Kairi, and he could feel an extreme chill in the air. Looking around a bit as he sat up, he suddenly realized that it was snowing now. What was going on? It didn't really matter, all that he could remember at the moment was Seifer completely and utterly defeating him. Walking over and rubbing the back of his head, a strange ache throbbing like his brain had been hit by a car, Sora asked, "What are you guys doing?"

"Hanging out, obviously," Seifer shook his head and smirked, "Did I go a little to hard on you and damage your brain?"

"The brain was already damaged, don't worry," Riku laughed, and everyone else joined in, Sora glaring at them all with the fury of a thousand suns.

Kairi smiled and gave Sora a hug, looking him over a bit and then asking, "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Sora smiled his usual smile and then hugged Kairi back, "But man, I didn't even stand a chance against you Seifer."

"Few do," Seifer added, sitting on one of the parks benches, "But don't worry, it doesn't mean you're weak. Just weaker than I am."

"STRANGE," Fujin said, catching some of the snow in her hand, and then blowing it away like a dandy lion.

"Yeah, Halloween is tomorrow and it looks like it'll be the coldest ever," Raijin noted aloud, looking up at the sky. This snow was beyond unusual.

* * * * * * *

Gren waited outside of Ark and Eliza's class, leaning against one of the street lamps that decorated the campus as the snow fell around him. He looked up at the sky as he waited, a most concerned look upon his face as thoughts of worry plagued his mind. It had never snowed in October before, as far as his memory served, and to top it off he had this strange feeling inside ever since the snow began to fall. He couldn't quite explain it, but the only other time that he ever had this feeling was when he used the Liberi Fatali. It's reminded him of the day he got that attack, the day things had changed so much and he had become who he now was.

After talking with Ark and Eliza, Gren was confident they could find some sort of way to begin looking for answers about what was happening. Looking down, he saw their class get out, and was about to head to talk to them when he felt something very strange in the air again. This wasn't like the slow ache he felt from the snow, it was more like a whirlwind of chaos and a lingering suffering which had grown powerful over the course of many years. Like some kind of dark energy, rather than a bad presence, filling the immediate space nearby. He looked to his right and saw the source of it. A lone figure stood in the snow, watching Gren, Ark, and Eliza. It was wearing a dark brown cloak with a hood shrouding it's face, and as such Gren couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, it's size being neutral.

"Who is that?" Gren heard Ark say from behind him, obviously having felt that exact same presence, though aside from the three of them nobody else seemed to take notice of this lone figure.

"I don't know, but something is very wrong here, and I think that whoever it is… we can thank them for the snow," Gren answered, wishing he'd thought to bring some kind of weapon with him.

Eliza then clutched her chest, and when Gren looked to her he could see tears falling from her eyes, and freezing very quickly to her cheeks. Eliza all the while uttering the words, "Cold of… cold of the greatest ice… frozen in time by… by the most powerful of loves… and the darkest of hates…"

To Be Continued

Author's Notes: Well, hope you liked the beginning of the Shiva arc! I did use the storyline of the Kingdom Hearts characters facing the Seifer gang to mostly fill space, but also at the same time was wanting to establish how skilled Seifer is. As you might have guessed from his appearances thus far, his crew is going to wind up serving a larger purpose later on in the storyline. Anyways, just to help people be a little less confused (if this confused any of you): Riku is a character from Kingdom Hearts, Sora's best friend. Rikku is a character from Final Fantasy X, a thief Al Bhed who is Yuna's cousin. This distinction is important, because Rikku is also going to show up in later chapters (as a love interest for Mr. Ashforn, no less!). Now then, also premiering with this plot arc is "Next Time", another segment that will be added to the end of each chapter from now on to give a brief preview of the next chapter.

Next Time: Where does Odin come from? What is his past? Who is the mysterious figure which stalks Ark and his friends now? When the entire school is frozen, frozen in time and in place, it becomes up to Ark and his allies to try and solve these mysteries, or face never seeing another day again. Don't miss the next exciting chapter in this tale, Final Fantasy Saga Chapter 8: Frozen Queen.