Well, here it is. Originally the tag end of 'Crossroads', now a new fic. Watch out for the next!The Elemental Cycle V: Beginnings

'No - try it this way.' One red eye followed the instructor's hand as it twisted slightly, changing the angle of the weapon.

The little girl nodded to herself. Shifting her weapon in imitation, she stared at the man-sized scarecrowlike target set at the end of the room. Cocking her arm back, she flung the weapon - a circle of metal, deadly blades extending from it.

Slicing through the cloth and cotton easily, the shuriken made a turn at the end of its trajectory, arcing back down.

'Careful,' the instructor warned.

One eye squinted at the flying weapon. A pale hand extended to catch it, a fraction off. Just a fraction, nothing more, but it was enough. Blades that sliced through cloth went through flesh just as fast, and the girl dropped into a crouch, clutching her bloody hand as the shuriken clanged into the wall behind her.

The instructor sighed. 'You got the throw down pat, but you keep on misjudging the angle of the thing when it comes back.' He eyed the girl carefully. 'Maybe you should consider changing another weapon. I don't blame you - the loss of an eye usually changes the way one sees things - you shouldn't have chosen a pinwheel anyway...'

The girl shook her head stubbornly. 'TRY AGAIN.'

The instructor shook his head, mirroring the girl's movement. He swiftly summoned a cure and cast it on the injured hand, then laid one hand on the girl's shoulder.

'You can practice later. Right now go rest. You deserve it - you've been at this since morning.' He didn't mention the amount of cures she'd used up as well, although that was somewhat of a renewable resource.

Instructor Aedin left the room after securing the weapons they'd been using. Head bowed in dejection, Fujin turned to leave as well, looking longingly at the shuriken racked up by the instructor.

I only wish...

Thwock! Thwap!

The sounds from across the room were distracting him mightily, but that had to be overcome - battle was always noisy.

Clang!

Sound reverberated in the air as gunblades clashed, withdrew and prepared to clash again. Gray-blue eyes stared into gray-green, battle being the only situation where Squall showed the slightest bit of emotion.

Dark gunblade clanged into bright gunblade, sending off sparks. In contrast, the wielder of the black gunblade wore a white vest and gray pants. The trenchcoat one of the instructors had given him (and promptly painted with red crosses on the sleeves) was still far too big, although he wanted to wear it. The bearer of the bright gunblade wore a white shirt, true, but he wore black pants, and (the generous) Instructor Lyhsa had given hima black jacket in contrast to the white one she'd given Squall, but it was identical in the respect that it was too big for the recipient.

Clang! Thwock!

Across the room, Raijin and Instructor Lyhsa sparred furiously. The instructor had handicapped herself (naturally), moving at quarter-speed to give the dark-skinned boy a better chance. Raijin, despite being dimwitted and a tad too talkative, had mastered the staff with astonishing speed, outstripping even some of the older students, which was why he was sparring with Lyhsa now.

The petite instructor seemed to be a kind of jack-of-all-trades. She was teaching Seifer and Squall gunblades, in addition to Raijin's staff and even Quistis' whip. And she was pretty damn good at it too!

Clang!

The two boys strained against each other, eyes locked. Seifer wasn't going to give up that easily.

Disengage, roll, clang, duck...

The silver-haired girl he'd seen before - she'd intrigued him, and he'd tried to find her again, but couldn't somehow - appeared in the doorway, wearing a plain blue shirt tucked into blue pants. Almost like a uniform. She watched them soundlessly with one red eye, the other covered by a black eyepatch.

Duck, swing the gunblade, clang as Squall parried, strike, clang!

The girl walked away, head bowed in - what, dejection? Determination?

His musing lost him the battle. Swing, clang and Squall caught him off guards to deliver a blow with the back of his gunblade, following through to trip him and bring the edge of the gunblade to his neck.

Across the room, Lyhsa whacked Raijin hard on the wrist, causing him to drop the staff, and then tripped him with her weapon. Seifer scowled irritably. Damn that silver-haired girl!

'Good work, Squall. Seifer, I've been watching you, you got distracted. Remember, always concentrate on the battle.' Seifer nodded sullenly, grumbling to himself.

'Okay. Squall, will you get Quistis? I'm gonna show you how two different weapons are used against and with each other, and then you can try. Next time if she gets her catch straight, there may be another student joining you all for a practice, and you get to learn how projectile and bladed weapons work together and against each other.'

Squall nodded and hurried off. Seifer glowered after him. Lyhsa sighed.

'Oh, and Seifer, Instructor Gavin says he would like you to meet him in the Training Center later for extra draw practice.'

Seifer nodded, still wondering about the girl.

The shuriken whizzed through the air, bright beautiful silver. Fujin extended an arm, waiting.

With a shock that made her arm vibrate, she caught the thing, half-spinning to keep her balance as pain shot through her body.

Blood dripped on the ground, red against the polished white floor. It was nighttime (two o'clock to be exact), and technically no one was supposed to leave the dorms. At least, no student under fifteen. The older students could roam the halls and train in the Training Center, but not leave Garden.

Fujin grimaced, carefully placing the shuriken on the floor and pulling a white piece of cloth from her pocket. Steeling herself against the pain, she wrapped it around her hand, which was bleeding through the cloth already wrapped around it. She'd managed to catch it ten times in a row with her other hand (she hadn't been able to before today), which also had bloodstained bandages wrapped around it. It was hard, but once she got the hang of it, she could do it.

In the earlier few days, she'd managed to endure snickers, as she became the only student in her weapons-class to get hurt with her own weapon. The others had mastered the catch and throw with an ease that frustrated her. Instructor Aedin had finally given her extra teaching and silenced the others with an offer to have one of their eyes removed by Dr. Kadowaki to see if they could do better than Fujin with only one eye.

Standing, she got ready for another throw. That had been the eighth with her left hand.

Whizz... nine.

Whizz... ten.

The slight girl placed the shuriken where it was always kept, after wiping off the blood. Her blood. Fujin sighed, swathing her mauled hands with another layer of bandages. She'd see Dr. Kadowaki as soon as possible the next morning, although she'd probably have to skip breakfast. Well, that wasn't a problem - she hardly ate anything at breakfast anyway.

'What'cha doin'?' She jerked around in surprise, the movement lancing pain up her arms.

One of the students, a boy of about fourteen stood framed in the doorway, watching her with green-gray eyes under close-cut golden-blond hair. He noticed the blood on the floor, hissing in surprise.

'You torturing someone here?' Him, she realized suddenly - the boy she'd been watching at gunblade training yesterday. He'd seen her watching him, the only one to do so.

'NEGATIVE.' She used the one leftover cloth to vainly try to wipe the blood off the floor. Tried - she had to stop, dropping the cloth in pain when she hit her wounds.

'Hey, let me help y-' The boy was suddenly kneeling beside her. She'd barely heard him approach. Catching her hands, he made an indistinct sound that she couldn't identify. 'Great Hyne! What have you been doing?'

Looking down, she realized that he was looking at her hands, at the blood soaking through the bandages covering them.

'TRAINING,' she mumbled, trying to pull free and receiving another jolt of pain in return. He shook his head and let her go. Picking up the cloth she'd dropped, he spat on it and vigorously scrubbed the floor, cleaning off the bloodstains. She simply watched him silently, silver hair shading her face and hiding her expression.

'Here.' He stood, extending one hand. 'You need help?'

Shaking her head, Fujin clambered to her feet, hissing as the cloth bandages rubbed against her slashed palms.

'You need to see Dr. Kadowaki,' he said, sounding a bit worried. Why? Why worry about me?

Fujin shook her head. 'SLEEPING.'

'She isn't,' he objected. 'She takes emergency calls at night too.'

She eyed him speculatively, then shook her head again. 'BOTHER.'

He blinked. 'You don't want to bother her? For Hyne's sake, your hands'll be festering by morning! Come on, I'll take you.'

'ILLEGAL,' Fujin complained for lack of a better argument.

He snorted. 'It's illegal being out after 10. You and I are already breaking the rules, what does it matter?' Grabbing her wrists, he pulled her along with him before she could protest.

'Lemme find a place to dump this' - he indicated the cloth he held - 'and I'll take you to the doc.'

Fujin gave up. The boy was way too persistent.

What am I doing again?

Seifer Almasy dropped the wadded-up cloth into the dispenser and headed for the infirmary, pulling his reluctant companion with him. By the wrist - he couldn't well grab her hand with those wounds on her palms. Her hands were hurt bad, judging by the amount of blood soaking the bandages. He wondered what she'd done to them.

'I'm Seifer. Seifer Almasy. Who're you?' he asked curiously.

'FUJIN.'

He glanced at her askance, wondering what happened to her left eye, the one covered with an eyepatch. The edges of a rather nasty scar peeked out from the bottom and top of the eyepatch. Again he wondered why he was helping her - the natural reaction for him should have been to tease her mercilessly.

It had been his first reaction, but there was something about her that made him stop and reconsider the inclination to tease her to madness.

Anyway, he'd better not let them both be seen or they'd be hauled out for disciplining and the word would be out the next day that Seifer Almasy had broken curfew, walking around with a girl.

Stopping at the infirmary door, he let go of Fujin and motioned her to stay put. Then he waved a hand in front of the infirmary doors, so that they hissed open as motion detectors detected his movement. That accomplished, he peeked in, watching for other patients.

No one. The infirmary was silent, except for footsteps moving around - therefore deserted except for .

Stepping inside, Seifer absentmindedly pulled Fujin in with him. The doctor was lining up bottles of potions on a shelf. She looked up as they approached, eyes widening in surprise.

'Seifer? You shouldn't be out after curfew.' The doctor frowned, a crease appearing in her forehead.

'S'Fujin,' he said in defense. 'I was helping her.'

Dr. Kadowaki looked at the slender girl standing behind Seifer, her hands hidden behind her back.

'What is it, then if it forced you two out after curfew.'

Seifer practically dragged Fujin out from behind him to show the doctor her hands. The unaccountably shy girl mumbled something inaudible as shook her head and motioned Fujin over to a chair to treat her.

'Uh... I guess you can get back by yourself,' Seifer mumbled in sudden embarrassment.

Slipping out, he vanished into the hallways.

'And remember, I know you want to practice, but next time do so with an instructor or older student in attendance. You're not doing your hands any good with this.'

Fujin nodded and turned to leave.

'And get some friends!' The doctor called after the girl's retreating back.

Get some friends? No... there's no one who would have me for a friend...

For a moment, the image of a blond boy with piercing gray-green eyes hung in her mind's eye, then she dismissed it, shaking her head wildly to rid her of the ghost.