This one was fun. The
contest was to write a short story about school. I wasn't sure what to do at first, and finally decided to have a little peek into the Academy, a college in my stories. It's somewhat like the X-Men school, only in that it's specifically for people with unusual abilities. However, the school isn't simply to teach them to use their abilities. Rather, they're being trained to defend the world. From what? From itself.
Zelda flopped over on her bed with a groan. “Stacey, I truly think the teachers are trying to make our holiday miserable.”
Stacey laughed and leaned back in her desk chair. “Oh, come on. It’s not their fault we got snowed in here. Even Kyle can’t melt a way out.”
She sighed and rolled over onto her stomach, gazing out the window. Her blonde curls tumbled down over her shoulder and pooled up on the bed. Her fair skin was bronzed by the sunset, though her eyes remained their pure blue, the same blue as her brother. “I suppose they wish they were home with their own families, too, huh?”
Stacey smiled to her friend. “That’s right.” Her hair was a darker blonde than Zelda’s, and she often admired that golden colour. But, at least Wei liked it. “Do you think the boys are back?”
Zelda hopped up off of the bed and stretched her arms up over her head. “We could check.”
Stacey grinned and got up as well. “Let’s.”
They headed out of their dorm room and out into the hall. They shared a dorm with two other girls, who were both probably still at dinner. The floor they were on was littered with over a hundred dorm rooms for girls, all positioned around a two-story library. They were on the second floor, and below them was another floor of dorms, for the boys. This second year of the school’s existence, the dorms were only about half full. Zelda and just about everyone else anticipated the dorms being full by the time they were finished with their four years. The Academy was drawing a great amount of attention across the world, and more and more people like Zelda and Stacey were coming out of hiding.
Downstairs, they came to a door and knocked.
“Yeah, what?” came an annoyed voice.
“Korin, are Haru and Wei in there?” Zelda asked through the door.
“Nope.”
Stacey rolled her eyes and spoke up, “Well, do you know where they are?”
“Wei’s still eating. Haru’s looking for Professor Sesu.”
Zelda frowned slightly at that and glanced at Stacey. “Thanks, Korin.” They walked away from the door, heading outside. There were only a couple of inches of snow on the school grounds, but immediately off of them, including the road leading out from the gate, there was eight feet of it. Zelda sighed. “You’d think they could extend the barrier to include the road leading out to the highway.”
“As if that would help,” Stacey laughed. “Besides, our location’s a secret, remember?”
She groaned, “I know, I know.”
“You just want to see Li,” she said with a grin, nudging her friend.
“And so what if I do? You’ve got Wei here, so it’s no wonder you’re not complaining.” She shook her head. “I’m going to go look for Haru.”
Stacey waved with a smile. “See ya.”
She broke away and headed off of the path, shivering at the wind that blew past. They hadn’t thought to grab their coats before leaving the dormitory. Oh well, getting sick would just be one more thing to add to the list of miseries this Christmas was providing. “Why couldn’t they build the school in Okinawa instead of Hokkaido?” she muttered to herself.
She caught sight of Haru and “Professor Sesu”, standing down by the lake. Having one of their heart-to-hearts, probably. Zelda smiled. She shouldn’t bother them; Seth was just as much Haru’s brother as he was her own, however Seth had bonded quite a bit more to Zelda during hers and Haru’s childhood. Now that Seth was teaching at the Academy, the two had been able to grow closer together. It was a relief for Zelda, who’d always felt a little sorry for Haru. He was two years younger than Zelda, and was often overlooked when it came to Zelda’s power. On his own, in secret, he’d worked his tail off his sophomore year – Zelda’s senior year – and had wound up graduating alongside Zelda. Even now, he was the youngest member of the Academy even in his second year, however he was near the top of his classes. He was finally getting the attention he’d long deserved, and it was a relief.
Leaving them alone, Zelda turned instead towards one of the buildings that lined the perimeter of the school grounds. Every teacher had their own building, with an office on the first floor and an apartment above. Zelda spent a great deal of time at one of those buildings. Blue eyes lifted to see a trail of smoke rising off of the roof of one of them, and she smiled.
She ran across the snow-covered ground to the Head-Master’s building and ducked inside. There were three floors to this one, as the second floor was the apartment for his secretary, who greeted her now.
“Good evening, Zelda,” said the young woman who sat behind a desk there in the front room.
Zelda smiled warmly to her. “Good evening, Kimiko. I know where he is.” She made her way past the desk. “Merry Christmas,” she said as she passed, then ducked into the stairwell and headed up. It opened out onto the roof, and she pushed the door open quietly, the hinges always well-oiled.
Her gaze found him at once and her warm smile returned. He was wearing his uniform, as always, and sat on an old rocking chair beside a fire, over which a pot of coffee was perking. He was watching the sunset, which didn’t surprise her. They often talked during the sunrise, which he caught every morning. She stepped out onto the roof and let the door close quietly behind her.
He lifted his head from his hand and turned. Dark eyes found Zelda and the aged man smiled. He was into his fifties now, his hair almost entirely gray. “Zelda. I didn’t expect to see you.”
She bowed politely then started forward. “Good evening, General. I missed you this morning. I saw the smoke, so I thought I’d come say hello.”
“I’m glad that you did,” he said as he turned forward again. He sounded tired, maybe even a little sad.
She kicked out a small place beside him, clearing it of snow, then sat down on her knees. “Did you want to talk to me?” she asked as she, too, watched the sunset.
“I do, actually.” He poured some of the coffee into a cup and handed it down to her. “I received word today from the SDF.”
She took the cup, though only held it in her hands, letting it warm them, as her gaze turned troubled. “I imagine it wasn’t good news.”
“You imagine correctly. The civil war in the United States is becoming out of hand. China and Russia are forming a shaky alliance to the end of settling the civil war before it spills out into the rest of the world.”
“And by settle,” Zelda said darkly, “You mean annihilate?”
He sighed. “It would seem the world is in need of a Negotiator long before we expected it, my dear.” His hand gently rested on her head, stroking the soft hair with the same affection he had ever since he’d met her fifteen years ago. “You’re the best this world has ever seen. But I can’t force you.”
She took a sip of the coffee. “This is precisely why I’m here, Awada-sama. That’s why you made this school. We’re all here to save the world. That’s precisely what I plan to do.”
He smiled, greatly relieved. “I’ll brief the rest of the Academy tomorrow.”
Zelda took another sip of the coffee, then handed it back up to him. “I won’t fail you, Awada. Not you, or anyone else.” She rose to her feet and brushed off her knees, then watched as the last of the sun dipped behind the mountains. “I promise.”
It went a little over the 1000 word limit, so I sent a pm to the owner of the competition asking if she'll accept 1300 words. We'll see if I'll have to edit it or not. For those curious, Negotiators are a certain office that's being trained at the Academy. Like a police negotiator, they work between two parties to come to an agreement. However, rather than the parties being the police and a criminal, the Negotiators work between two or more warring countries. Rather than having two ambassadors who clearly want their own side to come out on top, the Negotiator is set apart, and has no favorite. Zelda developed the skill of persuasive speech at a very young age, and throughout high school, she was the top debater in the country (Japan), and even led their team to a number of victories overseas. It was this, along with her peculiar and very useful ability to heal, that made her a prime target for the Academy. Stacey, Wei, and Haru all have their own abilities, as well, though I don't mention at all what they are in the story. Stacey is by far my favorite, though you'll have to ask if you want to know. Oh, and as an explanation for "Professor Sesu" - In Japanese, 'th' is pronounced as an 's', hense "Thank-you" sounds like "Sank-you". But in the Japanese, it wouldn't be written as Ses; rather, when a consonant is the last sound on the end of a word, a u is added - for example, the number 5 in Japanese is pronounced "Rok", but is spelled out as "Roku". If you think about it, when you say "rok", there is the hint of a 'u' at the end, in order to make the 'k' sound. Just some food for thought.
Oh, by the way, that's why in Final Fantasy VII, her name
really is Aerith. It's just pronounced Aeris in Japanese, and that's why it was translated that way. Likewise, if you listen to One Winged Angel, when they sing "Sephiroth", it comes out sounding "Sephiros".
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