Fire Emblem Fan Fiction / Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ A Warrior's Life ❯ The Flame Haired Man of Mystery ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two:

The Flame-haired man of mystery

We entered an exceedingly large room that looked like a waiting room or a rec-room perhaps. There were all sorts of awards donning the walls, trophy cases on each side, photographs, and glass cases that held miscellaneous items. Surrounding us were chairs, couches, a TV against the far wall, and a pool table or two. Temporary looking tables with boxes of files on them were set up in the front. Given we seemed to have extra waiting time; I spent it further admiring the gratifying walls. For one thing, it seemed as though the school had been established during the very early 1900's, because no date I could see went before 1907.

 

After a moment of scanning the walls, one thing perked my interest. I moved my eyes up and down over the piece of fabric, held in the glass, trying to decipher if it was what I thought it was. I peeked down to my long wool jacket, as if I could see my gi through the heavy, warm material. Then I looked back up, and in a moment of realization did my epiphany occur,

 

“Oh my Kami!” I exclaimed in a shocked whisper, “That belonged to my mom!” I pointed to it for Roy, knowing that my quiet outburst must have caught his attention, him being so close to me after all. His close proximity was comforting, there were almost vibes of happiness emanating off of him, and I couldn't complain about the warmth. I was a bit perplexed on how he could be so warm in only his t-shirt and armor, despite the chilled January weather, but then I realized how hot and insulating that armor must be.

 

“Seriously? Wow, did you know she attended here?” Roy responded, sounding just as ecstatic as I was. I smiled as I read the card beside the fabric,

 

“No, not at all…hrmm…1983, so that means I was just a baby when she came here…” I heard Roy chuckle cheerfully,

 

“Really? When were you born? I was born in '85.” I pursed my lips in fake disappointment,

 

“'82. You make me feel old.” His grin widened as he grabbed the long, re-black gradient ear of my bunny hat and seemed to examine it,

 

“Hehe, naw, you're not that old. By the way, I love that hat.” I giggled as he dropped it, my cheeks warming with the extra blood running through it.

 

“Hmph, please, that hat makes you look like an imbecile.” A rough voice cut in from behind. Immediately both Roy and I spun towards the sharp voice, ready to glare - and yell in my case - at the man who had so rudely eavesdropped and then insulted. There, against the far wall, seemingly too far for the average human to eavesdrop on a conversation from where we were standing, was the body of the voice. He was a bit of a diminutive man, only standing at around 5'3”, but with hair that made him as tall as me. The hair was jet-black; barely a tinge of brown in it, and it looked like a flame. His body was ripped, the most muscular body I had ever seen, yet it was not disproportionate to the rest of his body as muscles like that would have looked on any other man. Royal blue spandex that covered all but his arms and neck further enunciated his muscular build, Then, my eyes met his: they were cold, mocking, and emotionless like little onyx stones. Above them were the most dangerously sloping eyebrows I had ever seen, and below, a mouth stretched into a menacing, permanent looking scowl. Overall, he looked incredibly handsome, and very, very mean.

I took a few steps closer, and Roy moved to my side protectively as I shot back,

 

“I wouldn't be talking if I were you, shorty! At least I don't look like a shoddy troll doll!” He lifted himself off of the wall, but his arms stayed firmly across his chest, almost as stone-like as his eyes. His scowl that I thought was permanently etched upon his face turned up into a sinister looking smirk,

 

“Hmph, daring to insult the Saiyajin Prince…you're a worthless piece of flesh.” I let a hushed growl escape my lips as I took another step forward, and Roy grabbed onto my sleeve as a means to hold me back,

 

“Saiyajin? Is that some kind of race of troll? Huh, no wonder you're their prince, you must be the most repulsive looking of them all.” Now it was his turn to stalk forward and growl. Now we only stood about ten feet apart, with Roy trying desperately to greater lengthen that space.

 

“In that case, you must be the president of all human idiots. Did you happen to find your wit in the same brainless place that you found that hat?”

 

At this point in time, already a group of spectators had formed around us, anticipating a brawl. And their wish was probably going to be fulfilled, for I was not too far off from punching the troll right in the gut, and I'm sure the tiny prince wasn't too far off either.

 

“No, because I didn't see you there! I would have remembered such a hideous face!”

 

And then, instantaneously, I was flying through the air, and then skidding across the floor. A symphony of “gasp”'s filled the air, and as I sat up again I could see Roy rushing towards me, and feel a sharp pain in my jaw. Next to me was my hat, still open to the shape of my head due to the quick impact that had caused it to fly off in the first place.

 

Easily ignoring that pain, I jumped to my feet and smirked, eager for the fight,

 

“Wow, no one's been able to do that to me before!” The prince looked as though he were about to say something - most likely a mocking insult - until he too was caught off guard, and sent flying to wall from which he came. This roused more “gasp”'s through the augmenting crowd and my mouth played up into a proud smirk.

 

“Oh my Kami, Vi, are you okay? Are you hurt?!” Roy fretted as he came to my side.

 

“I'm fine…” I breathed, barely able to pay attention to him. All of my concentration was focused on the “Saiyajin” that was getting to his feet fifteen feet away. I wasn't going to make the same mistake again. He was not to be underestimated.

 

“Seems as though I've underestimated you…” He explained almost silently, his onyx pupils locked onto my every movement.

 

“Likewise…” I mouthed, scarcely audible as well. I refused to remove my eyes from him, and I could have sworn that, for just an instant, surprise had flashed across his seemingly dead, angry eyes. I wondered what I said that had triggered that, but I ignored it.

 

Then he lunged at me and our first battle began.

 

I could see from the corners of my eyes that the crowd was desperately trying to follow our movements, and Roy was both quite interested and very frantic. Alas, most, if not all of my attention was focused on the Prince. He always seemed just out of my reach of my attacks, or had already predicted my onslaught and guarded accordingly. Unfortunately for him though, I was just the same. I could see his patience lessening more and more as the fight went on, and his frustrated yet concentrated expressions continued to amuse me more and more.

 

For once, I needed to increase my ki for a fight. In response, I felt him increase his own ki as well. Hidden shock passed over both of our eyes for a brief moment, but there was no pause in the battle.

`Who is he…? I thought as I upped the ante and shot a ki blast to his face. Almost as if I expected it, he shot the energy away like a fly and hurled a barrage of them at me. I had never met or fought anyone who could do the things I could do, or even keep up with me for that matter. Other than my family that is.

 

`Who in hell's name is this girl…?!' The Prince thought likewise as I disappeared, reappeared behind him, and attempted to slam my fists into his back. For once, I succeeded, and he was forced towards the ground, seeing as the fight had taken to the air.

 

But he never did hit the ground. He stopped himself right before he touched the surface, and pounced off of it as to rebound back for me. Then as he was halfway back to where I was hovering, he disappeared just as I had done, and I found myself flying towards the ceiling with a pain in my gut.

 

Like monkey-see-monkey-doo, I rebounded off of the ceiling just as the troll had done off of the ground, and lunged for him with my fist in the air. Just as I was about to make an impact with his face,

 

“HEY! FLYING IDIOTS! GET YOUR ASSES TO THE GROUND THIS INSTANT!!!”

 

I froze right before my fist could touch his face. I turned to see an older man, maybe in his fifty's or sixty's, looking extremely pissed off.

 

“Shut it, old man! This is between me and the woman!” The prince barked, still not removing himself from the fighting position.

 

`What the hell?! Does he know who he's talking to?!' I did a double take in my mind. This guy had to be the Headmaster or something important like that! But then something else stuck out in my mind, and I turned back to the troll prince with a glare,

 

“Woman? I have a name you know!” He turned to face me and matched the glare,

 

“Like I care, woman.” He enunciated “woman” with extra malice and insult.

 

“BOTH OF YOU! STOP FIGHTING LIKE TWO LITTLE BRATS BEFORE I EXPEL YOU! Either of you say one more word, and I'll expel both of you!”

 

The prince opened his mouth with an amused look, about to defy the elder's command. My eyes went wide with shock, and I used the hand I still had outstretched, ready to punch, but instead used it to clamp his mouth shut,

 

“No, no! We're very sorry, sir!” I laughed sheepishly, “Expulsion won't be necessary!”

 

“Hm, yes, I would hope not. Now please, both of you, to the ground perhaps?” I nodded and slowly - and unwillingly for that matter - removed my hand from the prince's mouth, afraid he might say something more. Thankfully, he only shot me a death glare, so I lowered myself to the floor, and then felt my hand that I had used to cover his mouth throb with a warm liquid trickling through my fingers.

 

`Damn, the troll bit me!” I thought angrily as I bowed respectively to the old man, and then headed back to Roy. The Prince was a bit more reluctant than I was, but alas, he lowered himself as well, and in a flash, was back against the wall without another word or look.

 

“Vi! Are you okay?! What did that bastard do to you?!” Roy whispered worriedly as I returned to his side, trying my best to hide my crimson coated palm from his view. I flashed him a grin,

 

“Yeah! I'm fine! Please, Roy, I knocked down a tree. Do you really think that a troll could hurt me?” He gave a brief smile, but there was none of the usual humor that I had seen thus far in it.

 

“Oh, really? Is that why your hand is bleeding?”

 

I guess I hadn't realized the fluids were seeping through my fingers. He softly lifted my hand to examine it, and I felt the warmth spread through my cheeks again like every other time he'd touched me today.

 

“You're hand looks really bad. What did he do to you?” Roy explained with a disapproving look. Before I could answer, he chivalrously took the edge of his cape, and gently cleaned my bite wound. I winced once, not so much that the gash was really painful, but more so from the touch of the fabric against my raw skin. He let an exasperated sigh escape his lips,

 

“He bit you? What an animal!”I laughed sheepishly in response, but his expression did not lighten much. I sighed now,

 

“Don't worry, Roy. I'm absolutely fine! This'll be gone by tomorrow, I promise!” My eyes concealed complete and pure sincerity as I stared into his, desperately trying to lighten his mood. His mouth and eyes softened a bit, and I now shot him an impish grin, “Besides, I doubt he gave me rabies or anything!” This worked, for his lips twisted up into a satisfied and humorous smile,

 

“I wouldn't be too sure about that!” He retorted with a light chuckle. I laughed similarly, but then stopped short as the man from before started to speak again,

 

“Students, welcome to Warrior University, I am your headmaster and you will refer to me as such.” Ha! I knew it! Well, it didn't matter really, what's done is done, and I'm quite sure troll boy wasn't regretting his actions as much as I was. Actually, I should rephrase that. I was only regretting that the headmaster caught us. “I don't have very much to say, but listen up because it's important! You're going to be receiving your dorm keys in a few minutes, and then you must go directly to your rooms and await further instructions. There will be NO changing of rooms.” A chorus of groans erupted through the group. I was not one of the contributors though, I was quite eager to new people, hell, it worked out quite well so far! The Headmaster ignored the groans completely and continued, “The schedules will be coming through your mail slots tomorrow, and only specific, necessary changes will be made to them, so no coming to me about crap about it. No alcohol or tobacco is allowed on campus without consequence of immediate expulsion. Late to class three times and you have a suspension. That is all.” As soon as those last words left his aged mouth, he swiftly turned and marched out of the room.

“Line up! Girls on the left, boys on the right!” a new voice now suddenly came from the far back of the room. All heads motioned towards it, and there were now four teachers sitting at the makeshift tables.

 

“Awwwwww…” Roy turned back to me with a pout on his face, “looks like we have to go.” I was about to respond, until a sort of realization flashed across his face, “Oh, I'm sorry, I almost forgot, I picked up your hat for you!” He lifted the red and black rabbit hat from his side, and fitted it onto my head with a sweet smile. A familiar warmth spread across my cheeks, and my mouth mimicked his.

 

“Thanks, Roy.” He shook his head, letting his ginger locks sway with it,

 

“No, problem, Vi! Look, after getting your key, can you meet me over by the dorm entrances? I wanna know your room number. And if ya want, after we're allowed to leave the rooms again…I can, um, take you out to eat.” My cheeks further reddened as did his, and my head bobbled up and down enthusiastically,

 

“Yeah! I'd love that!” He grinned, and started to turn towards the tables,

 

“Cool! I'll see you in a few!” Then he ran off. I sighed as I watched him jump into the boy's line, and then giggled a bit to myself as I started for the girl's,

 

“Wow, I don't deserve to be this lucky!” I whispered with a smile. “Hehehe, what a turnaround from last week. I can't same I'm not outright grateful!” My mind kept reeling on the last half that I had spent thus far at the university like an overplayed movie. Quite honestly, this was the best experience I'd ever had in my life, nothing seemed bad about it. Even the fight with the prince had been enjoyable. As my personal film got to that part, a smirk played across my face; I hoped that he was in some classes with me, I could hardly wait to be his sorry, spandex-clad ass into the dirt!

 

“Name,” a dull, bored voice tore through my fantasy and snapped me back to reality. With a quick shake of my head, I answered a tad disoriented,

 

“Uh, Victoria Oji,” The teacher's fingers raked through the files rapidly, until she reached the “O” files and slowed down a tad. In moments, she pulled out a plastic Ziploc bag that held a standard key within it, and shoved it into my waiting palms.

 

“NEXT!” She called as I stepped away from the line.

 

“I gazed briefly at the little brass key that I held between my gloved fingers. I wondered sheepishly for a moment how I was going to refrain from losing it. My eyes searched over the three digit number imprinted on the front, trying to memorize it. My focus not on where I was going, I soon found myself smack into someone's rigid chest. With a great blush flooding upon my cheeks, I looked up to apologize. A happy grin and shining blue eyes met me, and with relief, I realized it was just Roy.

 

“Oh, sorry about that, Roy. I was just trying to commit this room number to memory. It's 297 by the way.” I explained, a smile forming on my lips as the blood dissipated from my face. He nodded,

 

“297, 297…cool, I think I got it! Mine's 154.” I repeated both numbers in my head as if they were two different sides of a broken record. As soon as I knew them by heart, I looked back up at him with a smile,

 

“Okay, I'll see you later then!” I turned not even 45° to leave, but he trapped me in a soft hug,

“I'll come to your room as soon as I'm allowed!” He then let go, grinned, and ran off down the hall marked “100”.

 

After about thirty seconds of having my body frozen in place and out of the range of my mind's control, I was able to throw my brain out of its stupor and start walking unstably down the “200” hallway.

 

“Damn,” I breathed, still seemingly intoxicated by Roy's recent contact, “That boy sure knows how to stun a girl!” A small smile formed on my lips as I once again watched the past events play through in my head. This didn't last long though, for in mere seconds, I was already in front of room 297. It was the second to last door in the hall, being that room 300 was the first in the 300 hallway right beside this hall. Swiftly and eagerly I inserted the key into the lock and stormed into the room with increasing excitement. At first glance of the room, it was quiet, empty, and overall seemingly tranquil. It was also very warm, so I was able to strip of my coat, exposing my red and orange gi. My eyes scanned over the curtain covered beds lined nest to each other, and immediately I chose the one closest to the window, plopping my coat upon it as to claim it as my own. Only briefly did continue to explore the room - it was a comfortable size for three people, a couch, three bedside tables and bureaus to accompany the beds, and a large cabinet against the far wall for the purpose of a TV or something of the sort. Upon further examination I discovered a bathroom that held a toilet, sink, and three showers with benches installed within them.

 

When I exited the bathroom, content with my explorations, still no one was in the room. So, I decided to take a small rest on my bed. I gently tugged the curtain aside and crawled onto the mattress, then pulled the mattress back and lay down. It was exceptionally comfortable, and I was very sure I would have no trouble sleeping. I was actually afraid to close my eyes, expecting that if I if, I would actually succeed in falling asleep fairly quickly. So, I simply let my mind wander as I stared at the canopy above me. I was peaceful just lying there, and I let a contented smile form on my lips. My brain found its way back to the fight not even a half an hour ago, and that smile morphed into a smirk as a laugh escaped it. Despite how much I wanted to pound that troll into the ground, I couldn't help but admit how funny and spontaneous that fight had been. But that thought in turn made me think of how worried Roy was afterwards. My eyebrows knitted in a bit of frustration and lament for my actions, and I lifted my hand to examine my wounded palm. It was already scabbing over and would probably be perfectly healed by the end of the day. I was always a fast healer, and this time was no different. But why had Roy been so worried? Foolishly, I closed my eyes to think on it, and soon found myself drifting into a serene sleep.

 

End of Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z nor do I own Fire Emblem. However, I do own this story and all characters otherwise not already copyrighted.

 

This story and all characters that are not already owned are © by PrinceVegetasLover