• Author's notes: This story is a sort of fanfiction in that I incorporate some elements of Final Fantasy and Full Metal Alchemist into the story. However, the world is entirely original as are all of the characters. Thanks for reading!


    "Two for you and the young lady?"

    Geo eyed the man behind the booth curiously. He was wearing an odd outfit and had the most unusually polite smile.

    "Yes, please," Hunter said and handed the man four silver coins.

    "Enjoy!"

    "So tell me again what this game is called," Geo asked, her tone a bit more frosty than she'd intended.

    Hunter sighed wearily. "Blitzball, Geo. Bliztball! Geeze, I still can't believe you've never heard of it."

    Her lips twisted bitterly. "Well we don't exactly keep up with Friday night sports out in the desert. Receptions not the best, you know." That was obvious sarcasm. No doubt Hunter had caught on.

    "Sorry," he said, seemingly genuine. "I guess I didn't think about that."

    An awkward pause followed. Geo wasn't really sure how to respond. Fortunately, they'd reached the stadium, and when they stepped inside, it was unlike anything Geo had ever seen.

    "Wow..."

    There were thousands of seats set up side-by-side, hundreds of feet into the air, while a large ring of earth levitated in the center of the arena.

    "Impossible!"

    Hunter grinned. "You'd think that, but some of the best mages in Liedra set that rock in place with a powerful spell. It won't budge, I assure you. What do you say we go find a seat?"

    Geo nodded, clearly dumbstruck, and followed him without taking her eyes off of the granite-colored arena. They took their seat on the 50th level.

    "Crunch balls?" Hunter asked.

    "Sure," she said taking a large hand full—nearly half of the small box.

    Hunter stared awkwardly but didn't complain. After all, it was her first Blitzball game.

    Right as the sun disappeared behind the horizon, the ring lit up with lights. People everywhere began chanting and screaming. Geo, filled to the brim with excitement, leapt out of her chair and cheered violently, knocking over Hunter's drink and crunch balls in the process.

    "Ah!"

    "Go Xea!"

    Hunter stared in awe at her sudden burst of energy. Already she was getting right into the game.

    "Ladies and Gentlemen," the announcer said. "I'd like to welcome to the arena, Symria!"

    Both boos and cheers resonated throughout the entire stadium. Geo was joining in on the boos.

    The players from Symria stormed into the ring and waved to the crowd in their yellow and green jerseys.

    "Now...for the moment you've all been waiting for—"

    Lights were flashing and searching through the crowd. Geo followed them in awe. She'd never seen such large lights.

    "XEA!" the announcer yelled.

    People went crazy as the players wearing the blue and silver jerseys came sprinting out into levitating field.

    "Players ready!"

    The ten starting players on each team positioned themselves in their strategic positions on opposite sides. Two centers joined in the middle of the field on opposite sides of the referee holding the game ball.

    Hunter leaned in to Geo. "You see our Center? The girl?"

    Geo squinted her eyes in in the direction of the Xea girl in the center of the sphere. "Yeah."

    "That's Izzy Neptune. She's a former Military Mage," he explained.

    Wow...

    Her thoughts were interrupted suddenly by the sound of the referee blowing his whistle. He threw the game ball up into the air, and both centers raced to capture the ball first. Izzy quickly and swiftly grabbed the ball tightly.

    "Wow! That was amazing!" Geo was shocked by the woman's speed.

    "She's the best player on the team," Hunter explained.

    "I can tell..." Geo found herself in awe at the intensity of Blitzball. Back home, they played something similar, but the ball remained on the ground, and they were only allowed to use their feet. Her sister, Matti, was excellent at it.

    Geo felt herself suddenly aching to see her family.

    She returned her attention, however, as players attacked the opposing team for possession of the ball. There were two goals on each side of the sphere. The team with the most points at the end of the game would win.

    Geo watched as Izzy practically floated to the center of the sphere and made a quick, immediate pass to another player as she ran full speed toward the goal.

    "How do they float like that?" she asked.

    "That granite is surrounded by an extremely low-gravity field."

    Geo nodded, still overwhelmed by how advanced all of this technology was.

    Izzy's teammate hastily passed her the ball. There were only about ten seconds left on the clock, and the game was tied.

    "Izzy needs to make this shot or we'll go into overtime," Hunter said as he moved to the edge of his seat. Geo followed and bit her nails nervously.

    Izzy caught the ball, turned toward the goal, and as the clock counted down to three seconds, she leaped in the air, did a good 360-degree spin, and bicycle-kicked the ball toward the goal. As the clock counted down, "3."

    People stood up from their seats. "2".

    Everyone's mouths dropped as they all watched the ball gracefully float through every opponents hands. "1!"

    The goalie dove to his right for the ball, but it zipped right past him. The buzzer sounded the end of the game. "XEA WINS," the announcer shouted.

    Everyone soared into the air and cheered for Xea. Izzy ran to the edge of the arena and completed two back-flips off of the side to land close to the first row of stands. She gave everyone high-fives before running into the locker room.

    As Hunter and Geo were leaving the stadium, she turned to him and said, "That was awesome! Thanks for bringing me."

    "No problem," he said. "Maybe you can watch another game sometime."

    Before she could respond, a small voice shouted from behind them.

    "Hey, you! You're not going to say hello to an old friend?"

    Hunter smiled before turning around and ran over to the young woman standing in the hallway. Geo watched curiously as the two exchanged hugs and kisses on the cheeks.

    "Geo! Come here! I want you to meet someone!"

    Arching a brow, she joined the two just inside the gate. When she arrived, she was shocked to see Izzy Neptune standing before her, blitzball in hand.

    "Izzy, this is Geo. Geo, this is Izzy."

    "Hi there," she said cheerfully.

    Izzy was still wearing her blitzball uniform and appeared to be in great physical shape. She had her shiny, silvery hair pulled back into a ponytail, and her eyes were an incredible shade of light lavender.

    "H-hi," Geo said, fumbling on her words in the process. She was surprised to feel slightly intimidated by the woman in front of her.

    "So," Izzy said turning to Hunter. "What brings you two here?"

    Geo watched Hunter become curiously uncomfortable.

    "Well, that is—" There was an awkward pause as his eyes flashed toward Geo and back to Izzy. "You want to join us for dinner?"

    Geo wasn't sure how to feel about Hunter's odd change in behavior, but she was ecstatic to get the chance to talk more with Izzy.

    "Sure, I'd love that," Izzy accepted. "Just let me get cleaned up."





    They walked together across the street to a nearby restaurant, and a young skinny waitress with thick, black hair and alluring green eyes walked up to the table.

    "Hey there," Hunter said, obviously flirting. Geo and Izzy both exchanged knowing glances.

    "He hasn't changed a bit," Izzy sighed. Geo shrugged. She'd only known Hunter for a day.

    "What can I get you tonight," the waitress asked.

    "Well, let's see here," Hunter said opening the menu. "I'll take a small portion of eel, and a tea, please."

    "Will that be sweetened or unsweetened," she asked. Hunter smiled charmingly.

    "I like my tea sweet."

    Geo felt suddenly embarrassed.

    "I'll have the same," Izzy interrupted. "But I like my tea unsweetened." She eyed Hunter playfully.

    Hunter rolled his eyes.

    "So tell me now what this dinner is about," Izzy asked after the waitress had finished taking orders.

    Hunter leaned toward her and said quietly, "You have to promise to keep your mouth shut about this. I'm only telling you because you're former military."

    "Cross my heart. Hope to die."

    Geo wondered if it was really okay for Hunter to be discussing this outside the capitol. Is he really a Colonel?

    "She's helping me investigate our situation with the Dryads."

    "What's wrong with them? I thought we were finally at peace," Izzy asked.

    "We are, but lately they've been brutally attacking our smaller settlements. We think it's only a matter of time before they move on to the big cities. We're afraid another war is ahead if we don't find out what's happening. The last messenger we sent was killed."

    Geo nearly choked on her food. They didn't mention that.

    "That is strange. So what part do you play in this," she asked, turning her attention to Geo. Geo stared blankly, unable to fully answer that question. As she was about to speak, Hunter interjected.

    "Geo is the last remaining Elemental on Liedra," he said excitedly.

    "What did you say?"

    Hunter's head snapped toward Geo, whose eyes now were as wide as the plate in front of her. He opened his mouth to respond but no words seemed to form. Apparently, he wasn't aware that she didn't know.

    "What do you mean by last?"

    Hunter lifted his finger and tried to explain but still couldn't think of the right words.

    "I'm out of here," she said finally before throwing her napkin down on the table.

    "What? You can't go."

    "Geo, please," Izzy interjected. "Sit down. Give Hunter a chance to explain."

    As much as Geo wanted to give Hunter the benefit of the doubt, she was just too shocked. "There's nothing to explain. I'm leaving," she said before storming out of the restaurant.

    "Check please!" Hunter yelled at the waitress.





    "I can't believe this. How could he not tell me this to begin with? The last Elemental? By last does he mean last last?" Geo sighed wearily. "This is too much..."

    Meanwhile, Hunter and Izzy were going crazy looking for her. "Geo," they screamed in unison. But there was still no answer. "We're never going to find her," Hunter panicked. "She could be anywhere!"

    Then again...all we have to do is listen for her, Hunter thought ironically before laughing aloud.

    "It's not funny, Hunter! Geo's probably never been to a big city like this before."

    "How did you know that," Hunter asked. He didn't remember telling Izzy that Geo was a Pariah.

    Izzy paused to roll her eyes. "I saw the "X" on her arm. I'm not blind you know. And neither is everyone else."

    "So you don't care that she's a—you know—a Pariah?"

    "What matters right now is that we need to find her."

    She's right. Geo could really get into trouble if anyone finds out she's with the Pariah Tribe.



    "Great. What am I going to do now," Geo asked herself helplessly. She paused as the sound of yelling and screaming echoed down the streets. She looked and saw a large crowd of shady looking people standing outside of a building. What's going on there, she thought.

    She approached one of the by-standers. "What's going on?"

    The unknown man turned around and replied, "There's a fight tonight at the Ring." He had a huge grin on his face.

    "The Ring?"

    "Yeah! There's a fight every night! But tonight's prize is one hundred silver coins," the man explained.

    That's a lot of money, Geo thought. And then she had an idea.

    "Where do you sign up?"

    Casperia: Part 3