Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy Saga ❯ Laguna's Announcement ( Chapter 11 )

Final Fantasy Saga

Chapter XI: Laguna's Announcement

"Laguna, Hojo and Aki are in an uproar over the damages to their building, and I must admit there's no real way they can teach their classes properly with the labs in that condition," Quistis informed Laguna Loire, headmaster of the Mana Academy, in her usual annoyed way. "Your exploits are always destructive, aren't they?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," joked the principal, standing up from his desk and walking towards the window. His desk was as disorderly as usual, his office was as neat as usual, and the last week had been painfully uneventful. Laguna was beginning to find himself bored with the normality, and he was sure there was some way for him to use this as an opportunity to get some entertainment.

"You survived Rufus' personal war, by a miracle. You were there to aid in the defeat of that ice deity. I know this school years already been quite exciting, so I'm pleading with you to make this a quick process Laguna," Quistis sat down on Laguna's desk and looked towards him with her arms crossed.

Turning to face her Laguna smiled happily, "Fine then. It will take us a single week to raise the money, and it will take one week to build the labs over again. Is that satisfactory to you?"

A frown creased itself over Quistis' lips as she replied, "You never give in that easily, what are you hiding Laguna?"

"Oh come on, am I really that transparent Quistis?" Laguna chuckled and shook his head, "I'll make an announcement later about what I have planned. Isn't that good enough for you? Simply two weeks and then it's all back to normal."

Groaning, Quistis walked up and glared at her superior a little, "Just don't let it become too large of a disruption, I'm honestly begging. I did promise your wife that when she came to visit you wouldn't be missing a limb or anything."

"No damage will come to me or the school in this incident, I promise you that," he assured Quistis, smiling as he'd found a way to relieve his boredom.

"You just called this an 'incident' Laguna, you do realize that conjures a truly terrible image right?" he could tell with these words, and her tone, that Quistis really wanted to slap him into submission. Laguna really did love being the boss, though.

"It's just fun to worry you like that," responded gingerly the headmaster, "It'll be more of an event than an incident."

All of a sudden, the buzzer rang and the voice of Laguna's personal assistant came in through his intercom, "There's a very important guest in to see you, Laguna."

"Oh?" Laguna looked towards the intercom and asked with great curiosity, "Who might that be?"

"Your old colleague, Ansem," his assistant responded, "Are you able to receive him now?"

Like there were any question over it? He wished his assistant Moogle were less picky, and realized just how laid back he was. Responding happily, but calmly, Laguna said, "Yes, please allow him in." It had been such a long time since Laguna had seen Ansem last, not since he had ceased being a professor here and left to explore and study that strange race called the Heartless.

A few moments later, Ansem stepped into the room, and right away Laguna could tell that he was different somehow. Physically the man seemed mostly the same, his normal figure even taller than Laguna. His long hair retained its gentle violet hue, and his eyes still retained their lime green shade. Ansem's skin was still dark and smooth, Laguna had always wondered about his nationality, and he still wore his usual black coat with metallic highlights and trimmings. His eyes did seem different though, they seemed tainted by darkness, and right away Laguna could tell from his eyes that Ansem was going to be trouble. If he caused trouble right away, or did it in a subtle fashion, is what remained to be seen.

"Old friend!" Laguna laughed and the two shook hands, then he added, "How many years has it been?"

"Far too many," Ansem's deep voice was just as strong as ever, a testament to his great teaching skill as well. One of Laguna's firm beliefs was that if a teacher sounded strong, it was one of the most key factors in the students having respect. In such a way, there were few teachers which rivaled Ansem, whom had a voice with more power within it than any other man Laguna had ever met.

"I'll simply be on my way," Quistis gathered some papers she had brought and smiled, "Let you two catch up. But Laguna, please consider what we talked about, okay?"

Nodding, Laguna answered calmly, "Of course I will. I've never taken your advice lightly, Quistis."

"Thank you," with those last words, Quistis stepped out of Laguna's office, giving the two old friends time to catch up. Though Laguna had a feeling he would not be able to relax, because it was obvious that Ansem was here for a reason aside from anything peaceful.

* * * * * * *

Ark finished eating his meal and yawned, leaning back and relaxing happily, "Such a nice day! We should go swimming or something."

"Yeah, a day at the beach sounds like a lot of fun!" Rikku smiled and looked to Eliza, "What do you think?"

"Shouldn't we wait until Gren gets out of his class first?" Eliza commented, eating slowly and politely like always. It would bug Ark, but he knew she had to, since she was everything that he couldn't be.

"We could always kill time by going and looking at Cid's ship he's making," Ark suggested, "I liked the looks of that thing."

"No way!" Rikku shook her head, "I get enough of that numb skull when we're at home, always grabbing me and shaking me and all that other annoying stuff… oi."

"Oh it isn't that bad," Eliza smiled as she patted the top of Rikku's head, "At least you have a lot of love, you know?"

"I guess you have a point," sighing and taking another little bite of a snow cone she had in her hand, Rikku added, "It's just annoying."

It was the week after their battle with Shiva, and that had not been long after the revolution with Rufus, and Ark already was starting to be antsy. He was enjoying having the peaceful time with his friends, but he had to admit to himself that in battle there was something he got nowhere else in life. This was a problem which was growing more and more repetitive as he went along, and for once Ark wanted to not have to think about it. In a way, Ark wished that he could just be normal, and not think about things the way he did. Gren, Eliza, Rikku, all three of them seemed to do just fine when things were normal, but to Ark this seemed downright unnatural. Of course, there was a pretty good reason for that. It was times like these, and thoughts like these, which made Ark think about his family. Biggs, Wedge, Jesse, and Marlene… it had been such a long time since he had been with them.

"Hey everyone," Ark suddenly heard Gren's voice, and looked up to see him sitting down with the rest of the group, "How's everything been going?"

"Meh," Ark shrugged, "We've been waiting for you to get here so we can go and do something fun."

"Like what?" Gren inquired, smiling a bit.

Rikku cut in quickly and answered him, "We thought going to the beach would actually be a lot of fun, what do you think?"

"Sounds great," answered the young blond man, standing up even though he had only just sat down, "Shall we?"

It was a pretty long walk to the beach, but that gave them all time to talk and have fun as they went. Ark was feeling something really odd as they walked, almost as if they were being watched, but it was likely just him. Something very strange did happen, however, as they walked. As they passed the Administration building, Eliza pointed and said in shock, "Hey, look at that!"

His attention turning to where Eliza had pointed, Ark saw Laguna walking with a very strange man that he had never seen before, talking as if they were old friends. The man was very tall, standing about a foot taller than Ark, and had a very dominating presence. The mans skin was a dark shade, but he wasn't black, and he had long violet hair. The man also wore a trench coat with rather elaborate and extensive decorations of metal and thread adding many unusual patterns all along the coat. He had a really powerful aura, just looking at the man made Ark's hair tingle. "Who do you think that is?" asked Ark, not turning his attention away from the man for even a second.

"Ansem," Rikku explained, "My family has been a part of this school for some time. My eldest brother went to the school many years ago. Ansem used to be a Biology teacher, though his was considered a brilliant alchemist also. He was one of the original founding members of the school, alongside Laguna and Rufus, and has matching power as such. He left a long time ago though to research some strange monster species which appeared that has since been named the Heartless."

"Impressive," Gren commented, Ark was sure Gren felt the same amount of energy resonating from Ansem, "I hope we get to hear him speak while he's visiting, I'm sure it would be a most interesting lecture."

"Ansem is considered one of the most accomplished researchers on the Heartless, right?" Eliza added, "I think I read about him in one of the newer textbooks."

"Yeah, he is," Rikku answered, "Gren's right, I'm sure if he were to give a guest lecture it would be absolutely amazing."

"What exactly are the Heartless?" Ark wondered aloud, finally looking away from Ansem, his curious eyes meeting with the rest of the group.

Eliza stepped in to answer, "According to the book, nobody is entirely sure where they came from. The theory with the most evidence to support it, is that their origin was in another dimension. They look like shadows of people, though they're a bit smaller, with yellow eyes and holes in their chests. The holes in the chest are how they got their name."

"That's pretty damn weird," Ark muttered to himself, turning again to face Ansem. Even though Ark now knew who the guy was, something didn't seem entirely right about that guy. He smelled familiar to Ark, like he was a memory Ark didn't quite understand yet, but would definitely think about.

A sudden interruption came as a familiar voice called out from behind Ark, "Hey you! d'Speare!"

Shifting to face whoever it was calling out to him, he saw that it was none other than Tifa Lockhart. The girl who had gotten him into so much trouble, but at the exact same time a great deal of fun fights, by challenging him before. She was considered quite the tomboy in general, but her figure was anything but boyish. With rather amazing curves, and what most would call a killer body, Ark couldn't see in the least why so many people called her a tomboy. Sure, she liked to fight, but if anything that was an even more attractive quality in the eyes of a guy like Ark. She was walking up very nonchalantly now, stretching out and smirking as she drew closer to him.

"What's up Tifa? Looking for another beating?" he returned her smirk as Ark spoke, cracking his knuckles.

"It won't be like last time, I going to fight and beat you!" Tifa seemed entirely sure of herself, Ark admired her determination.

Gren shook his head and sighed, commenting to Ark, "You now see how I feel every time you challenge me to a rematch?"

"Shut it, Ashforn!" Ark snapped, then turned back to Tifa, "Let's go. I hope you've gotten stronger than the last time!"

"Trust me, I have," answered Tifa, gripping her hands into fists. Ark was starting to notice that something seemed to be agitating her, and he wondered what had her getting so mad. Whatever it was, Ark hoped Tifa used it to fuel her strength, not as a distraction from the fight.

"You guys head along to the beach, I'll catch up to you later," requested the excited Ark.

"I'm afraid they can't do that," Laguna suddenly cut in. He and Ansem had wandered over apparently. Laguna then explained, "I'll be making a special announcement in a half hour. So you two don't take long, okay? But for the time being it isn't permitted to leave the premises until after my announcement."

"What's going on?" Tifa asked, suddenly a little distracted from Ark. He could see why too, this was actually pretty interesting, perhaps it even had to do with Ansem.

"Until the announcement, it's a secret," Laguna replied as he began to walk off, Ansem stayed for another moment though.

"Ark d'Speare, yes?" Ansem smiled and looked at him a bit, "There's a lot of fury in you, from what Laguna has told me. You are quite the fighter."

"Thanks," Ark felt very strange, this guy was definitely not normal, but what was it that was so different about him?

"I must go, however…" Ansem paused, and then continued, seemingly after thinking for a moment, "After Laguna makes his announcement, it would please me greatly to hear some of your exploits straight from you. Perhaps your friends as well."

"Sure thing," Ark replied as Ansem began to walk away, catching up to Laguna and leaving the group of friends alone to resume where they had left off.

Tifa shrugged and then continued from the page she was on before, "Thirty minutes will be ample time for our rematch. Ready?"

"Everyone, get to the side, okay? I'd like room for this," Ark cracked his knuckles again before taking his common brawling stance.

Tifa followed suit, raising her arms a bit and bending her elbows, her feet moving as well into a grid-like position. It was not long before the two sprang into action, neither of the warriors seemed to have any hesitation. For a while it was in a rather strange pattern where Ark attempted to attack and Tifa dodged, but then Tifa tried to attack and Ark dodged, this cycle went for some time. It took either a while to land even a single blow, and surprisingly enough the one to do it was Tifa. As her fist collided with Ark's face, he flew backwards and hit the ground with a resounding impact. Standing up and smirking, Ark shook his head.

"Good enough for you yet?" Tifa asked, returning Ark's smirk with one of her own, keeping her guard up as she spoke.

* * * * * * *

Sighing and shaking her head, Quistis looked over the estimates for the cost of repairs on the school and couldn't suppress the resulting groan of defeat. How were they going to take care of this? The school was such a massive place that the budget always ran a very tight ship, it seemed impossible to find the extra money for repairs such as this called for. She could feel one hell of a head ache coming on, especially since she was sure Laguna's method of fixing things was just going to blow something else up. That's how it always was, and that was how it would always be. Sometimes she actually did wish Rufus had taken control, at least he was less likely to cause as much collateral damage in the process of teaching the students. But Laguna was her friend and Quistis would always stand by him, even when he drove her to the brink of absolute insanity.

As if the entire world were conspiring to annoy her, Quistis' phone rang, and as she answered she heard the snickering of Setzer. "Good afternoon Ms. Trepe," his voice resounded over the line as she rolled her eyes.

"Hello Setzer, what's is it now? Need more money for your 'special projects'? Looking to recruit some students for another gambling club?" Quistis didn't really have time right now for his common antics.

"I was calling actually to let you know about something Laguna came to me with around a half hour ago, I figured it might be information you want," Setzer explained, "I promise you, it's not a waste of your time."

"Why would you want to help me out?"

"Make no mistake, I'm telling you about this because it is likely you will bring physical harm to the headmaster when you hear what I have to say, that's all, it's for entirely for personal amusement," responded Setzer, continuing to tell Quistis of what had become Laguna's plan to make the money for the school.

* * * * * * *

"LAGUNA LOIRE!!!!! KILL! I WILL KILL YOU!!!!" Laguna could hear Quistis' rage from very far away, and an extremely nervous look crossed his face as he heard this.

Turning towards his guest and retaining his nervous smile, Laguna suggested with a slight snicker, "She's onto me. Maybe we should run."

"What a frightening woman," replied Ansem in his still calm and strong voice, "It sounds wise, but what does she have to be so angry over?"

"I'll explain that later," answered Laguna as the two began to make their light jog to safety from Quistis' wrath.

* * * * * * *

Amazing. That was the only word Gren could think of to use when describing how much more skilled Tifa had gotten since she and Ark had last fought. For a while now Ark had been completely unable to get even a single hit against the young woman, and she was landing blow after blow after blow. When it came to a straight fight, somehow Tifa had actually managed to train enough to get even more powerful than Ark. Gren knew that if Ark went all out though, she would lose, and lose very badly. From what he had seen in the last couple of months, Gren knew just how much power a Summon Creature had, and Ark was in control of Phoenix. Even using his Liberi Fatali it would be difficult for Gren to defeat such a power, and so there was no way Tifa had achieved the level that it would take to do so. She was good, but only in skill, when it came to sheer power she was still a large ways behind.

Much to Gren's surprise, Ark suddenly stopped and dropped his fighting stance. Tifa paused in obvious confusion as well, and Ark then said with a smile, "You've gotten really good! Do you mind if I call it quits?" This was almost definitely the most shocking thing Gren had ever seen Ark do, he was surrendering. What was going on?

"Call it quits?" Tifa seemed just as puzzled by this as Gren, "Why? You seem just fine?"

"It'll take you forever to knock me out at this rate, and if I use any more power than I am... you'll get hurt," reasoned Ark, and then he smiled a bit, "You're good enough to deserve the win though. You obviously have worked very hard to get where you are."

Gren was amazed at the maturity he was seeing in Ark's words. Ark was changing, no that wasn't it. Ark had changed. His power, his relationship with Eliza, and even the way he simply acted in general were different from the beginning of this school year. He still acted like an annoying animal most of the time, but Ark was becoming more and more of a man by the day. It wouldn't be long before Gren developed a sense of respect, and it was entirely possible that soon Ark would acquire the maturity and skill to overcome even the Liberi Fatali. The words of Gren's friend were growing wiser and wiser each time he spoke, at least each time he spoke seriously. It was beginning to make an eerie amount of sense. Mostly only eerie because it was the man who Gren had initially thought was a complete moron, then believed to be a meathead with potential, and only now regarded as a man of possible greatness saying it.

"I don't like being handed my victories, either go all out against me or keep going holding back, but don't surrender like that!" Tifa demanded, gripping her hands into fists, "You defeated all my other friends, and it was my fault for it, so let me at least get hurt alongside them!"

"There's no need for that, I don't want to hurt a woman," Ark shrugged, "Besides, you're much better than them. So what does it matter?"

After hesitating for a while, Tifa explained, "They all felt a lot of dishonor at losing to one person... and since they were doing it for me, I feel I'm to blame. I want to get our honor back..."

"Claim you knocked me out then, I don't really care anymore. Or come challenge me again when you might be able to handle facing my Phoenix," turning back towards the others, Ark finished, "And if there's ever any other way I can help you out, feel free to ask. I greatly respect anyone who's learned their martial arts form as flawlessly as you seem to."

It would have been a lie for anyone to say they expected this to happen, obviously everyone was awed at this turn of events. Only against Gren had Ark lost any fights in his time here, and he had even pushed himself so hard to defeat Cloud Strife, but now he simply was giving up and letting Tifa win? This seemed unusual to everyone, nobody who knew Ark would dare claim this was his regular behavior. Gren made a point to note this though, and he would bring it up once again at a later date when Ark might be in a better position to discuss what was going on.

* * * * * * *

Laguna had managed to survive Quistis long enough to get to the ceremony at which he was going to announce his plan. All of the students, teachers, and excess faculty now sat in the massive auditorium used for times like these. At the center of this auditorium, which resembled more a coliseum than a normal school auditorium. The entire place was abuzz with students talking and activity, until Laguna made his way to the center of the stage and stood ready. Turing on the microphone at the podium behind which he stood, he began his speech.

"Hello students. Hello teachers. Hello Moogles, hello security machines, and hello random monsters... an unfortunate crisis has presented itself to this school, to our school. Due to a series of incidents caused at the very end of last month, we are unable to continue with the classes of Professor Hojo and Professor Aki, because extensive damage has come to their buildings. With the extremely precise and hard to manage budget of this school, repairs to these buildings have become all but possible. If their classes are to continue we are in need of new resources," he paused for a few moments, looking back towards the two teachers who stood behind him on this stage. The first of the two was Quistis, whose arms were crossed as she tapped her foot, still looking beyond displeased with Laguna for his decision. He knew she would get over it though. The second teacher beside him was Setzer, the co-creator of this little idea Laguna was now announcing.

Turning back to the podium, Laguna continued his speech, "It is in the interest of still continuing their classes, Setzer and I have begun to make preparations for a special fund raiser. We wish for all of you students to help us with this, and take part in this fund raiser in some way or another. We will be holding a tournament, a fighting tournament. Fifty percent of all the betting prophets will go towards the rebuilding of the labs, and the prize will be a mystery invention by one of our more infamous engineering students. I promise the rewards are worth it, and so all of you who are capable, I suggest you consider registration. I'll turn things over to Setzer now, who will be explaining the official format of the tournament."

With that Laguna sat down, and as he did so Quistis said with a sigh, "You do realize this is going to cause a lot more damage than it sounds like, right?"

Before he could answer, however, he suddenly heard Ansem say from behind him, "I wish to enter this, I'd like to be of some help to you."

"Oh?" Laguna smiled, he hadn't even noticed Ansem sitting there with Quistis and Setzer, "I think that would be quite a treat, I wasn't even aware you knew how to fight."

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve, nothing more, but it should be enough for me to draw some attention," Ansem responded, still with his frighteningly strong voice.

Meanwhile, Setzer informed the students of the tournaments more technical aspects, "The battles will be three on three in groups of teams. Two out of three matches wins it. There will be betting pools on every battle, with a minimum bet of twenty dollars. Further details will be announced when we have all the entries for the tournament, which is set to begin on Monday."

* * * * * * *

"Hey, Gren, who do you suppose we should use for the third member of our team?" Ark asked happily, smirking as he didn't even wait for the assembly to end before he propositioned his friend.

"You really want to enter?" Gren smirked and shrugged, "Rikku and Eliza don't really enjoy fighting, so we had better look elsewhere for inspiration."

"What about me?" the voice of a woman came from behind Ark and Gren, when Ark looked to see who it was he saw Tifa standing behind them.

Thinking about it for a few seconds, Ark turned to Gren, "I like it, what's your opinion?"

"She's perfect, actually," Gren smiled and nodded in agreement, "In a hand to hand fight she was a match even for you, she should prove more than useful in this."

"Glad you see it my way," Tifa slapped Ark on the back and then explained, "I figure if I fight with you guys and prove myself, it should work perfectly for helping me get some honor back for my friends and I!"

"Why don't you just join with some of them?" Gren asked curiously, crossing his arms a bit, "Wouldn't that be easier?"

"No. First off, we'd have to fight you guys, and its been proven that that doesn't work well. Secondly, most of the others still haven't recovered from fighting Ark," Tifa explained further, nodding, "So in the end, this is the easiest way by a long shot."

"Then it's settled," Ark kept smiling wide as he thought about it, "As the next week begins we are going to fight and beat anyone in our way into submission!"

Tifa leaned in and whispered to Gren as Ark laughed hysterically, "He's really into this, isn't he?"

Gren shook his head and answered simply, "You've got no idea."

To Be Continued

Author's Notes: Here was the real "beginning" of the plot (well, the excuse for a plot) for the Tournament Arc. This is basically just a bunch of fights/excuses to introduce new characters from many Final Fantasy games/introductions of more key characters who will be playing roles in later plots. So there will be very little storyline in this plot, but lots of characters, and lots of intense fights. The battles will grow increasingly intense until the Championship Match. I hope you guys enjoy it! If not, well know that after the Tournament Arc is nothing but very story-intensive plots. So don't despair, because we're now only 1/5 of the way through Final Fantasy Saga!

Here, to kill some time, here is a list of my favorite animes in the order of how much I like them (one I like the most first, and so on). X, Rurouni Kenshin, Wolfs Rain, Read or Die, Trigun, and then Cowboy Bebop. There you go! See you next week!

Next Time: Ark's team, titled Team Blaze Wing, faces their first bouts in the Mana Academy Tournament First Round. Gren must face a black knight capable of leaping high into the air, who also has a key advantage in distance. If Gren cannot find a way to close the gap, then Blaze Wing will take a key loss against their first opponents, Team Blitz. Don't miss the beginning of the tournament to save the school in Final Fantasy Saga Chapter 12: First Match - Gren versus Kaine!