Title: The GF Mage

Author: Tsubasa Kya

Disclaimer: I make no profits off this.

Chapter 5

It was three parts boredom and one part curiosity that formed the recipe for what came to be Kagome's interest the first day of midwinter holiday break in classes and training. There were too many hours in the day, and without Squall to occupy much more time than it took to read or return a letter at the moment she was absolutely soaring in her courses. Granted, the courses with the older students – the computer course and the foreign language one – she was struggling a bit in, but she kept reasonable scores in the classes.

Still, with the week long break and no classes to take, Kagome was constantly trying to find something to do. After just a few hours into the first day of the midwinter break, she got caught attempting to bust into the training center and fight some fiends. Needless to say, the headmaster was less than thrilled, but he chastised Kagome and sent her off to serve detention with the disciplinary committee… who then assigned the very watchful SeeD Balthier to supervise her detention.

So while Kagome learned her lesson by mopping floors, Balthier leaned back on two legs of his chair against a wall and settled instantly for a nap. She hated mopping. The menial labors of clean up hardly seemed like a warrior's duties. That was often why Kagome's area of the dorm room tended to get a bit messy. She cleaned it up before dorm inspection happened once a week, but didn't like doing it.

"Oi! Stay off'a my floor!" Kagome snapped as a fifth person tromped muddy boots over the floor.

She hated mopping. She especially hated mopping the cafeteria—in daylight hours, with traffic. The next person who mucks up my floor is getting a broom in the face. Kagome thought heatedly, feeling the blood rush to her head.

She soaped up the muddy prints and turned around, headed for the bucket to rinse her mop out. She put the mop head in the dirty water and stood back a step to brush a hand over her forehead. With Balthier sleeping she could as easily wander off… but if the job wasn't done by the end of her hour's worth of detention time, she'd just get another detention.

As she was wringing out the mop head, she heard heavy footprints…

Clomp… Clomp… Schlumph… The water drenching the floor from Kagome's mopping was moved. Again.

Nuh uh! It wasn't going to happen again. She reached for the lever, releasing the mop head from the handle. The stick was lighter that way, and a very angry Kagome spun around and rushed at the idiot who wanted to muck up her clean floors—mop handle raised as a loud shout emitted from her lips.

Her attack was defeated pretty much before it began. With a 'shick' sound, her mop handle was cut off at the top, so when she attacked it didn't hit anything. It fell uselessly to the ground, and she toppled over on her face in shock.

It wasn't until her face hit the floor that Kagome realized… the person she'd just attacked was Cadet Sephiroth…

She felt the eyes of the few people in the cafeteria had turned to her. She looked up at him, feeling her arms shaking slightly as she shifted herself up a bit. Those odd blue eyes looked down at her practically screaming at her to apologize for disturbing his passage to the counter.

Then, she did something that no normal child would do because even a normal child would have the common sense that Cadet Sephiroth was not one to mess around with. He was the sort that people shied out of the way of. His presence was incredibly commanding. Superior SeeD's didn't try bossing that particular cadet around because he wouldn't allow it. But, of course, Kagome was as usual herself.

Which—given her track record—she could afford to not be once in a while… But, get a child to pay attention to her track record… a person might just win a medal…

Kagome stood up and held her remaining mop handle like it was a sword. "Get off'a my floor!" she yelled. Her shriek managed to wake Balthier and he tipped off his chair. "I mean it!" she said, brandishing her sword at him.

Balthier—unlike the presently gaping cadets and lunch ladies—got to his feet and moved to intervene. Unfortunately for the child, Cadet Sephiroth had other plans. He held his hand out to Balthier, motioning him to halt. "She's a brash child, Cadet Strife!"

Cadet Sephiroth merely looked down at Kagome while she stared up at him with a fiercely determined expression on her face. She would not back down from this. She would protect her mopped floor even if he did use that sharp, very real sword to cut off her mop handle. That wouldn't even phase her!

Still, this would definitely be a battle Squall would love to hear about. But, of course, only if he stepped on her mopped floor, of course. If he stopped messing up her floor—her nicely mopped spot of the floor—she wouldn't hurt him. She wouldn't have to hurt him. He might have a sword, and weird cat-like pupils, and mean looking eyes, and maybe he was ridiculously gigantic and she was only a pudgy little girl. But she was a tough, mean pudgy little girl who just last week got into a fight with a twelve year old—and won! She was a real warrior, with real strength. It didn't matter that she'd spent three days in the infirmary herself and not to mention the phone call she had with her father (she hadn't liked that very much as he yelled at her for using precious infirmary utilities).

Still… now that she was riled up, she found herself kind of wanting to fight, hoping he'd dare to step forward… especially since it would make such a good story to tell Squall. So, she taunted him…

"Go on, take a step on my floor! I double doggy dare ya, and when ya do, I'm gonna knock you a new one!" she wasn't exactly sure what her taunt 'knock you a new one' meant, but when she'd heard an older cadet say it, it had certainly seemed taunting.

He took a step forward. She swiped her sliced off mop handle at him and he knocked her attack aside. Then everything suddenly went dark.

When she woke up, she found herself in the infirmary. She sat up with a loud holler. "GAAAH!"

Hearing her patient's shout, Doctor Kadowaki entered the bed's enclosure, clucking her tongue. "Noisy from the first; as usual." She said. "You're quite a silly child. Really, picking a fight with a boy twice your age, thrice your size, and fully trained! You're lucky he went easy on you."

"Blast!" Kagome shouted, ignoring the doctor. "He cheated in our fight. He must'a used magic."

"Of course he did. Standard sleep spell." The doctor sighed. She tried to talk to Kagome, but the young girl simply did not want to hear it.

Pushing the blankets off her body, Kagome said, "I can go now, right?" She was already climbing out of the bed before the doctor could even say anything. However, she was picked up and placed back on the bed.

"Not so fast," Doctor Kadowaki insisted.

"You can't keep me here forever!" Kagome yelled angrily.

"Fine!" The doctor sighed, throwing her hands up in retreat. "Don't come crying to me when you realize you can't walk straight. The magic will wear off."

Kagome was already gone before the woman could even finish talking. She had a problem to fix because now she had an ultimate rival; and she was going to beat him and prove herself the strongest warrior in the whole world. She rushed out of the hospital wing, tripping over her clumsy feet and then walking herself into a wall.

It might have been better if she'd stayed and heard the doctor out, but she wasn't willing to listen. She was eight after all, and knew herself better than any doctor. And no doctor was going to stop her from finding her ultimate rival, ooh, the thought of him made her so mad – that bloody cheater used magic in their fight.

Kagome shook her head from her position on the floor. She got to her feet and took a few steps only to topple forward, earning sniggers from the people in the hall. Kagome glared at those other cadets.

"I'll smash my fist in yer faces too!" she yelled at them, only to watch them all giggle and keep on going. "Yeah, that's right, keep walkin' cuz I'm better than all you!"

She got to her feet and held the wall able to make it several feet before she saw Ashe. Great. If there was anyone who would stop her from going and defeating her ultimate rival, Ashe would. Well, then her ultimate rival would just have to suffer extreme humiliation a little later than she planned.

Especially since Ashe stopped right in front of Kagome, putting one hand on her sword hilt and the other on her uniformed hip. "You're such trouble."

"I am not!" Kagome yelled. She clenched her fists. Everyone always called her that, but it wasn't true. Her own father accused her of being troublesome, and she wasn't. She just wanted to be a warrior and people kept getting in her way.

"Come on then, I'll carry you ba—"

"I can walk all myself!" Kagome was in a yelling mood. She took a step, and fell flat on her face.

"I can see that." Ashe rolled her eyes. She scooped up the young girl, who fought it, but then she said, "Enough of that." She spoke very sternly and Kagome grumpily stopped fighting as she was ordered to.

Kagome was taken back to her dorm and set on her bed. She didn't like the way things were going.

"You go to sleep." Ashe told her seriously.

Kagome crossed her arms over her chest irritably and huffed. The larger problem was, Kagome did not want to go to sleep. But at least Ashe seemed assured she would stay there because she turned and left. Kagome sat there, grumpy and determined not to do what Ashe told her to do which was nap. Eventually she realized that by sitting there, she was starting to get sleepy. So she shook herself and slapped her cheeks, then whined and rubbed the red marks she'd just made. She grasped her notebook for writing to Squall, deciding that sleep was currently a bad idea because Ashe wanted her to.

She regaled the tale of her ultimate rival's attack on her person and consequent cheating to her best friend, and after her letter was finished she set it aside and tried to think of what else she could do while staying in the bed. She didn't have a whole lot of options so she pulled out one of her class books and started reading it.

That put her to sleep.

The following morning she was awake even earlier than her normal time. She quietly got her uniform together and carried her boots, her baggy pajama shorts making soft whispering noises. First, a shower. Then she'd finish putting together her letter for Squall and get that over to the mail slot. After that, she could go for breakfast and lastly, find her ultimate rival and demand a rematch.

That jerk really didn't know who she was, did he? He must not if he made such a dumb mistake as to get on her bad side. She'd been battling fiends since she got her first sippy cup! Arg!

She got all the way down the dormitory hall to the bathroom before realizing she forgot her shower sandals. Sharing showers meant everyone had to have shower sandals so that people weren't sharing foot fungus. She then had to tread all the way back, get her sandals, and by that time she may as well not have bothered getting up early because it was her normal wake up time.

Sheesh, what a hassle.

But she was going to be the best warrior ever, and a mere detour getting her shower was nothing she couldn't handle. She set her pile of stuff on the counter, taking off her pretty tourmaline pendant and setting that aside. She remembered her mother telling her not to take it off, but she didn't want to wear it in the water and so she never did. After showering, she pulled her uniform on and when she bent to put on her socks and combat boots, she heard a tearing noise.

She felt her eyes tear up. 'I'm not fat!' she thought bitterly. But she turned around to look at herself in the mirror. There was a huge rip in her uniform shorts. Great.

Kagome picked up her boots and pajamas, running practically barefoot back to her dorm. She grabbed a new pair of shorts and changed quickly. It was a mercenary school; things like propriety weren't particularly on the teacher's agendas, so she didn't even think about the fact that she was a young girl in a room with ten others. Besides, it was very early morning and it was the holiday break. Those who were close enough had traveled home. Those who stayed were sleeping still.

She and Squall had been the only ones who got up early. Well… she was. And then she'd wake Squall.

But now… Squall had gone away and it wasn't time for them to reunite just yet. She stuck the ripped shorts under her mattress. Her father could not find out about those. He had called just to yell at her when he got her usual three-month health exam report and it said she was five pounds heavier than she'd been at the last report. She didn't want to know what he'd do if he found out she ripped her pants because her bottom was too big for them…

She shuddered and put her hand to her cheek. "Daddy…" he'd hit her. She still remembered it.

"Cadet Higurashi!"

Kagome felt her spine snap to attention at the barked words, but then there was a snickering of the kind she'd absolutely never forget.

...Seifer...

"Hey fatty-" he said in greeting. She never let him finish. Before he knew what had happened, she was streaking across the room and –

Foiled. She was struggling to crack a few knuckles on Seifer's pretty boy skull, but someone had her by the back of her clothes. Ashe cast Esuna on Kagome, removing the Berserk status effect Kagome had inadvertently cast upon herself. She'd forgotten her necklace in the showers.

"Kagome, what were you told?" Ashe asked.

Kagome bristled, hanging there. Ashe was straining to hold her weight up like that, and soon Kagome was set on the floor again. Kagome crossed her arms over her chest and said, "Harrumph!" She stuck her tongue out at Seifer who still held his hands to his face as if to protect it. "I have more important things to do." She stalked back to the bathroom and located her tourmaline gem. With that on, she went back to get her socks and shoes on in her dorm. Seifer was gone – where he went to, Kagome had no idea. She didn't even know where Quistis had gone off to. That girl could sleep like a log. She was very rarely awake at this time of the morning.

On her bed were two letters. The first one was from Paine and the other instructors and girls at the Gullwing's School for Girls. Paine wished her a merry midwinter and told her of how things were going at the Gullwing's. Paine said she had adopted a young charge… Squall Leonhart…

It confirmed what Kagome already knew. But Paine had more to say about it.

I know you meant well when you gave away Griever the GF. I was right to choose you. It is thanks to you that I have met Squall. He may not be a young girl in Lower Esthar City, but he needs you and me both. He speaks very highly of you, but he does not trust me. I believe he is troubled where he is. He will not tell me what is wrong; I hope that you will write to him and he will tell you.

Squallie was in trouble! Kagome had to save him! She tossed the letter down and looked at the second bit of mail. It was from Squall, which was indeed very convenient.

Dear Kagome

I donno why yoo hate me. Yoo don't rite no more and I tried too ask Cid too take me back as a Gunblayd Spesialest but Cid said no. Magic skool is boring. The uther cadets are stopid. They don't shut up never. They try too get in my bizness. I miss haveen too wake up early. I miss haveen a wood praktis sword. I miss being brave with yoo.

I told yoo about Paine. She visits, sometimes. She took me on a car ride from Galbadia City too Deling City. She says that Deling City is the new capitle city of Galbadia. We walked around and met Laguna Loire and Seifer. Laguna is the president of Esthar where yoo come from. I didn't know Seifer had a father. Seifer is a jerk. He said he knew his father was very important all along. I wish my father cared too look for me.

Then we saw a parade. They threw sweets. Seifer ran too get it, but I just stood by Paine.

When we were walking after the parade, me, Paine, Laguna, and Seifer came across a girl getting kidnapped. For my first time, I saw what yoo saw when we gotta fix problems. I saw a girl was being kidnapped and I had too fix it. Seifer says I made the problem worser. I wasn't thinking. I ran and jumped in the back of their van before the bad guys could close the door.

They were stronger than me. They caught me, so I bit off the bad guy's littlest finger. I got tied up and they hit me a lot of times. But Laguna and Paine and Seifer found us. Laguna telled Seifer too stay in his car, but Seifer followed anyway. When Paine and Laguna saved me and the little girl, I heard Laguna tell Seifer next time he'd tie him up and make sure he stayed in the car. We returned the little girl too her home. She was the daughter of General Fury Caraway.

It made me really know I never ever ever want too feel the way I did. I was weak. I was helpless. I don't want too feel that way. I want too go back too being a SeeD and never ever be weak again. I want too be strong, and I wont be at the Magic skool. But that don't matter, does it? Headmaster Cid don't want me at Balamb Garden.

I guess this is the last time I try too rite too yoo.

Bye. Squall Leonhart.

Goodbye. He'd said goodbye. The word absolutely floored Kagome and though she went through a slew of emotions before getting to the end of the letter, now she just felt an icy spear through the heart. Her eyes fell on the picture beside her bed, and the flower that stood in a small pyramid of ice. Squall gave it to her, but now he wouldn't give her anything. It was goodbye. It was the end.

They'd never see each other again…

"Sweet Hyne!" Kagome growled loudly. She'd heard a handful of older students say that when they were very angry and frustrated; well, she was so angry that she felt like she could pick up her whole bed and throw it across the room. She tried. It was bolted to the floor. She tried to pick up her trunk and toss it. It had too many books in it. She wasn't giving up. She tossed each and every book out of the trunk. Then for good measure, she tried tossing the trunk but all she could manage was turning it upside down. She took her lamp and threw it; the metal base dented and the light bulb shattered.

She was throwing off so much Berserk magic, that it was lingering on surfaces. She didn't feel the same kind of crazy she felt when people called her ugly. This was cold. This was as icy as Squall. And to think her morning started out just with the problem of hiding a pair of ripped uniform shorts!

She trashed the dorm and then went in search of Headmaster Cid. He was the problem. He was the reason why Squall was saying goodbye. He was going to pay. First though she needed to find someone who could take her to see Cid. It seemed that when she needed someone, no one was anywhere to be found. So she did the next best thing and went to get herself in some trouble.

The halls and class rooms were empty. That wasn't surprising since it was barely six thirty in the morning. Those who weren't already off on vacation were still in bed. Cid wasn't in the cafeteria or the hospital wing or the library. She checked every room her keycard gave her access to, but since she was female, her keycard didn't give her access to the men's bathrooms or locker rooms or showers, so she couldn't check there for him.

By the time she got to the second floor in her search for him, it was seven and any young cadet would be waking up by now if only to avoid the seven-o-five wake-up call which involved the SeeD dorm watcher to come in and tear your blankets right off the bed even on holidays. Kagome had once heard older cadets who slept past the seven AM bell got their mattress flipped on top of them even. Only SeeD got to sleep past the seven AM bell in Garden, but by then rising early was habit so few slept in.

Standing upon the second floor bridge to the elevator, Kagome waited for it to arrive. A boy of nine stepped off the elevator, his scruffy black hair and dark skin a contrast for his yellow shirt and beige shorts. He carried a deck of Triple Triad cards in his hands. His name was Liu, and he was a very laid-back kid from Timber who, while he never made Kagome angry also wasn't typically someone Kagome hung around.

He saw her and asked, "Hey. You wanna play Triple Triad?"

Kagome glared at him and said icily, "Do I look like I wanna play a dumb card game?"

Liu gulped and dashed off to his usual spot in the middle of the bridge, where he sat in his free time playing cards. She was not a happy camper. The whole of Gaia could see this, and Hyne himself best not interfere with her plans to go save her ice princess.

Kagome waited impatiently for the door to the elevator to slide shut and then glared at the panel. There were five buttons on the panel: B2, B1, 1, 2, and 3. She could only gain access to floors one and two by herself, though she'd been to the headmaster's office plenty of times already to know that only SeeD or Garden Staff would get access to the third floor. Kagome had heard that only the Headmaster and Garden Staff had access to the basement floors.

She decided she needed to get to the third floor and to do that, she had to find a SeeD. By the time she made it back to the cafeteria – the most likely place to cause a scene and get in trouble for it – it was closer to eight in the morning. The SeeD and cadets were awake, showered, and sleepily eating their food or waiting in the slowly growing serving lines. There were two serving windows and it was an unspoken rule that cadets didn't take food from the second line just like it was a cadet's job to run errands for anyone older than them. Hazing was an issue around the place, but none dared try ordering Kagome around. She wouldn't have that!

Boldly Kagome stepped into the SeeD food line, still feeling that rage inside her like stabs of icicles. Balthier was in that line just in front of her. He didn't particularly concern himself with things like which line was which but then again he was rather laid back. He even tried to perk up a conversation with Kagome, but her teeth were grit together far too hard to respond in kind.

The lunch lady looked down at Kagome in surprise, but she handed the girl a breakfast tray without delaying further. Kagome snatched up the tray, ready to go cause a scene that would get her a month's worth of detentions, but at least she'd go to see Cid and she could knock him a touch of sense.

Kagome furiously marched toward a table with a handful of junior cadets seated sleepily eating their food. She literally dumped the tray of bacon, eggs, pancakes, and sausages on a student, upended another kid's tray onto a third cadet, and then took a basket of scones from the table and threw them at a cadet whose back was turned. This all happened in just short of a minute, and it erupted into a free-for-all food fight between those junior cadets who were present. Minutes later, greatly annoyed SeeD were wading into the mess, dragging the junior cadets apart and keeping their wild, frantic motions from being able to grab and throw food.

Kagome's actions resulted in the detentions of three-dozen junior cadets including herself, but no one got dragged in to Cid's office. No one seemed to know who started the fight, so no one got charged with the blame. Kagome told Balthier that she started it, but he still didn't take her before Cid. She was stuck with an extra bell of work scrubbing pots in the kitchens and bread and water suppers for a week.

Tired and irritable, she made her way to the Quad. She'd show them that wouldn't take her seriously!

She removed a few screws in the stage, attempting to topple it; surely that would get her dragged to the elusive Cid, right? She was caught at her work by the Garden Festival Committee and for her attempts, she was forced to spend the day helping put together game stands for the Midwinter Festival and Dance.

Why was it when she didn't do anything wrong, she got dragged before Cid, but when she was trying to get dragged before him, she couldn't? It was greatly frustrating for her.

After causing a shelf in the library to crash down (the librarian said it was always unsteady), toilet-papering the entire Dorm Hall (memos went out, telling cadets once again that while it is Homecoming for most SeeD graduates there is no need to waste perfectly good paper products), and causing a power-outage for three of the second floor classrooms (it was blamed on a faulty outlet maintenance had been meaning to repair), Kagome was ready to pull her hair out.

Already five days had passed since she got the letter from Squall. She wrote him a letter saying, "I'm coming to get you. Pack your bags and be ready to run away when I get there!"

She still felt that cold, oppressive anger chilling her flesh as she approached the front gates. Being that she was only eight, she wasn't allowed beyond those monitored gates without appropriate company. Getting out was certainly going to be tough, but she swore she would. Then once she was out she had to find her way to Galbadia City. She had her school book satchel overstuffed with clothes and her geography book in hand to guide her way. Old man Mac who watched the gate caught her trying to escape. Still, nothing was done. Ashe was called, and she was taken back where she was supposed to be, so she could be watched more closely lest she get up to trouble.

The holiday was fast coming to an end and she hadn't been able to get herself into enough trouble to get herself dragged to Cid's office, and somehow the man never bothered leaving the third floor apparently. She never saw him eating, or walking around...

Finally the day of the Midwinter Festival and Dance had arrived, on the longest night of Midwinter. She couldn't find him there either, and she was just so angry and frustrated at being ignored. She stormed around for a short while, and then it hit her. She was forever getting dragged before Cid if she got into a fight…

Her eyes scanned the crowd for a viable target. Dark blue eyes locked on Seifer Almasy, oh that jerkface, just looking at him made her so mad. She rushed at him, tackled him, pounded him with her fists, bit and scratched him, kicked and elbowed him. He got her good too, and it was clear he was surprised by her sudden viciousness, but she didn't care. Both of them were at last dragged to see Headmaster Cid, who had been walking about all the little game booths set up in the Quad with SeeD Balthier, chatting idly. Had she walked another ten feet and rounded a booth, she would have run right into him!

"Cadet Higurashi…" SeeD Balthier let out a long suffering sigh. "Can't you take a holiday break from trouble?"

Kagome wrestled her way out of the loose grip of her SeeD captor, rocketing at Headmaster Cid. SeeD Balthier intercepted her before she could do any damage to the old man much to her dismay. "Lemme at 'im, I'll beat 'im up for it! It's all your fault, you stupid old fart!"

They could tell this was an issue best handled privately. Seifer was taken to the infirmary to get his broken nose and bruises fixed; Kagome was taken up to Cid's office.

She still couldn't calm down. She was left with a couple of annoyed SeeD to watch her and make sure she didn't do too much damage in Cid's office to wait for Cid to arrive. She paced back and forth on the floor, but soon climbed onto the desk to pace. The SeeD went to take her off, but strong bolts of lightning shocked them when they touched her, disallowing such action. So she was left to pace, lightning crackling over the surface of her skin like static electricity.

When Cid finally arrived, SeeD Balthier, SeeD Yuna, and SeeD Ashe were all there. Ashe because she had always been Kagome's dorm room mistress, Yuna because she was Kagome's personal trainer, and Balthier because he typically oversaw much of Kagome's detention times – not that the eight year old bothered to care why those three in particular were chosen to come. She was still far too angry to do much but pace like an anxious wolf cub.

"Kagome, my dear," Cid began, striding forward in spite of Kagome's angry glare, "what is it that has you upset?"

"YOU!" she stopped pacing to favor clenching her fists and kicking the lamp off the desk. The glass lamp shattered on the floor. Cid was coming to the conclusion that breakable items were best kept in storage as long as Kagome was around, no matter how much he liked them.

"What did Headmaster do, Kagome?" Ashe asked reasonably.

"He told Squallie he can't ever come back, and all Squallie wants is to save the world! Squallie's all by himself now, and I write letters every week but he says he doesn't get them and – and I want to go rescue him and I would'a done if old man Mac didn't stop me, I was right at the gate, and its all stupid Fart's fault!" she pointed an accusatory little finger at Cid, and there was a brief moment of silence as the group attempted to sort out the hastily spoken words.

Yuna was first. "Oh, my…"

"Oh my, indeed," Cid agreed. "This certainly sounds dire."

"It's bad, because you made it bad!" Kagome shouted. "If you weren't a jerkface, Squallie'd be home now."

Balthier asked Kagome, "How do you know this?"

"Duh! Squallie's my best friend. He wrote me a letter and told me everything. How Cid won't even let him come back."

Ashe told Cid, "Sir, it wouldn't hurt to contact the Magic Guild. I'd be honored to take on such a mission."

Cid nodded. "Kagome, my dear, you must go with Yuna. Yuna, my dear… please escort Kagome back to her dorm."

Kagome didn't get to hear any more of what they talked about because she was forced to leave. Once in the safety of her dorm, Yuna saw Kagome dressed in her pajamas and tucked her in for an early bed. Kagome still seethed with anger, but she couldn't object now that she'd seen Cid about it and heard that they were going to go to the Magic Guild. Logic was falling back in place, and she rubbed her cheek recalling what her father had done once. He could do it again. She didn't like it, but he could.

She had to calm down and behave now. "Yuna?" Kagome asked in a small voice, her hand gripping the tourmaline pendant around her neck, feeling the lightning bolt shape of the gem.

"Yes, Kagome?" Yuna sat on Kagome's bedside, smoothing the blankets under Kagome's chin.

"What are they going to talk about? Why couldn't I stay? I was just angry for a little while…" Okay, that was a fib, but Yuna didn't call it out.

"They're going to talk about the possibility of going to the Magic Guild and getting in touch with the Headmaster of the Magic Guild. Missions cost money; there are expenses that need to be paid for travel, food, lodgings, sometimes even money needed to award to miscellaneous expenses." Yuna explained to the young cadet.

"I have money." Kagome said, getting up and opening her bedside drawer. She pulled out a money pouch, dumping the coins on the bed. Copper coins and Silver Gil clattered against each other. "I'll pay for it all."

"Kagome, I know you're a bright girl – the brightest of your class." Yuna picked up a silver Gil; Kagome had five of them, and seventeen copper. "How many of these did you learn it takes to get one train ticket from Balamb City to Timber?"

"Oh, um, one-thousand." She said.

"Very good." Yuna nodded. "And how many SeeD is the least we would send out on a mission?"

"Three…" Kagome could already tell where this was going.

"So how much money needs to be allocated for the mission's travel expenses just to Timber?"

"Three-thousand Gil."

"So you see? This is a costly process; the pros and cons must be weighed, and in the end-"

"Money is why you're gonna leave my best friend to grow all alone." Kagome fought to hold back the tears that wanted to come. "He's not important to you. Money is… just like my daddy trying to pay for me to be a SeeD when its all I ever wanted."

"It's not that easy, Kagome… I wish I could make you understand," Yuna sighed.

"I understand." Kagome rolled over, burying her face in her pillow and seething again. She wanted to scream and shout and kick and hit and shriek some more, but she kept that burning inside her.

"Kagome…"

"Go away!" Kagome said to her weapon's instructor. "You won't teach me the sword, or save my best friend, or let me save my best friend. You're all jerks."

Yuna sighed. She could see she wasn't getting anywhere further with this and left Kagome there.

The young girl slept fitfully, tossing and turning. When she got up in the morning, it was well past the time she normally woke and Seifer glared at her from the end of her bed, leaning on the bed's foot rail.

"You didn't have to hit me, just 'cuz your boyfriend''s gone."

"Shut up, or I'll have to hit you again." Kagome snapped. "You're just jealous because I have a boyfriend and you don't." Seifer bristled, wanting to object but Kagome didn't give him a chance. She got out of bed and tossed on the previous day's cadet uniform.

Word was going around at breakfast. A team of SeeDs were being dispatched to Galbadia City. Ordinarily teams went without mention, coming and going free as day and night came and went, changing as the seasons did if needed. This team, however, was an unusual team of SeeDs who had apparently not been out for years. SeeD Auron, a sword specialist who could train Gunbladists if needed, SeeD Ashe, normally stuck as Kagome's dorm mistress since she was one of few who could handle her temper, and SeeD Balthier who was typically on detention assignment.

Kagome perked up, wondering why Ashe was said to be on a mission assignment. Dare she hope that her best friend would in fact get rescued? She ran up to Ashe when she saw the woman coming for her breakfast.

"Ashe! Ashe! Are you going, are you, huh huh?"

Ashe grinned down at Kagome and ruffled her hair. "Yes, we're going to get to the bottom of this. SeeD Yuna will watch over you, Quistis, and Seifer while I'm gone, so try to behave?"

Kagome nodded absently, while internally she began plotting how she could get herself on that mission team. The chances of her, a Junior Cadet, being put on a SeeD detail was so slim it was laughable to anyone except Kagome. She was, however, a very determined girl. If anyone could do it, she vowed it would be her.

"We should be back before classes start up, Kagome," Ashe was saying, "So maybe you and Yuna could head to the stores for new sheets for Squall's bed," it had collected the dust of half a year of being unused, "and chalk his name on his slate?"

"That'll be five minutes work," Kagome muttered. Thankfully Ashe had said 'maybe'. If she'd issued an order to do it, then Kagome would have to do it before she could plot a way to get on the mission detail. Instead, Kagome made the executive decision to do it when she got back – with Squall.

"Behave, Kagome. I mean it." Ashe stated.

"I'm behaved." Kagome threw her lip out in a pout that might have been pretty on a more appropriately proportioned young woman but was horrid on the eight year old girl. "Are you going to be driving to Balamb City in a SeeD vehicle?"

Ashe's lips quirked ironically. "We wouldn't want to walk in this blizzard, would we? Even fiends don't go out in this weather. It's just that we don't have the same common sense."

Nodding emphatically, Kagome hopped up. "I'm going to go get things ready!" she told Ashe, not bothering to add, 'for my own departure.' If Ashe knew she planned to go with, she'd probably make Kagome stay behind. Besides, what better way was there to get battle experience than storming a Magic Guild and rescuing her best friend, battling those cheating wimpy mages who thought they could best a SeeD.

She rushed to get a bag packed, smiling brightly as she went.

When she entered the car park, she grinned as she saw the line of gray and yellow vehicles. She recalled from class that the gray vehicles were more driven in summertime when there wouldn't be a chance of snow and ice on the roads. The yellow vehicles were for winter, with ice tractor wheels. The gray vehicles could be winterized if the need arose, with chains on the wheels.

No one was yet present. Kagome went to the service counter. There was no one there – the holiday didn't require the typical SeeD to guard the car park and be certain no one took the vehicles joy-riding, but after she broke in, they would probably think twice and put a guard on the car park twenty-four-seven. The car park was capable of holding ten vehicles, but the school only had six so far; three gray and three yellow. Since she didn't know which of the vehicles they'd be checking out, she simply hid five of the six sets of keys. The key-chain of the remaining vehicle was yellow and had a number two engraved in it. With the other keys hidden, she took that set of keys to the vehicle parked in the number two stall, unlocking it and tossing her bag inside. Her plan was fool-proof.

Leaving the door open, she ran to replace the keys in the car park office. Some might think this pudgy little girl was a little too bright for her age but she considered herself perfectly genius; the best SeeD in the making a client would ever find. Rushing back to the vehicle, she climbed in and shut the door, locking them. She climbed into the space behind the back seat and the back of the cab, hunkering down there to hide.

Sure enough, her plan of hiding the other vehicle's keys worked and soon she heard Ashe's voice as she opened the driver's side door. "-Could be anything, Balthier. Squall being a Sorcerer, the Magic Guild should want him to be allowed equal right to become a SeeD if that's what he wants."

Balthier replied, "I don't like it. The Magic Guild wanted Edea's successor from the day of the attack on the orphanage," as always, the SeeD in charge of detention sounded humored, though what he said was less than a humorous subject. "We claimed not to know which of the children received those powers and that was true enough then but now?"

Auron's deep voice was next, sounding dry and without concern. "Now on Cid's orders, we investigate and find out why Leonhart suddenly wants to leave the Magic Guild."

Kagome liked that idea and grinned as she stayed hunkered down, feeling the vehicle start up and drive off toward Balamb. This was Kagome's very first SeeD mission. Granted, she wasn't supposed to be going, but… when would 'no' ever stop a determined child?

...TO BE CONTINUED...