Well, that was a pretty depressing post... How about a story to lighten up the mood?
This was inspired by a picture from Zerochan, in an Academy AU. Bartz is asleep on his desk, Zidane looks like he's yelling, Squall is slapping Bartz's back with a ruler, and Sephiroth was carrying a rolled-up poster and was emitting the dark aura of doom. Picture can be found here: http://www.zerochan.net/1485425
On to the story!
Warnings: This is probably rated K+. OOC (Out Of Character).
Golbez picked up his things and left the class in silence. Most of the students proceeded to talk with each other, read or do other things. 'Thank Cosmos this next lesson is the last lesson of the day... Rather unfortunately, Sephiroth is our teacher.' Zidane thought. He had no qualms about having Sephiroth as the final teacher of the day, it's just that Cloud would make a big fuss out of it and those two would actually take out their swords and have a duel in the middle of the class. Well, Cloud hates Sephiroth, so this behavior is pretty normal in their class. And to think that students and teachers alike are not allowed to bring their weapons to school...so said swords consists of rolled-up pieces of newspaper or, on rare occasions, posters. During the first few days of school, Garland, homeroom teacher of the class, got called by the principal for bringing his HUGE broadsword into class. Squall got in trouble for bringing his gunblade. Zidane got into trouble for accidentally summoning his Mage Mashers. Firion got into trouble by bringing his bow. Kuja got called by the principal for attempting to cast Ultima on Zidane, who was annoying him to no end (brothers...). Long story short, practically EVERYONE got into trouble just because of casting some magic or summoning a weapon. Well, in their defense, manikins were still roaming around, so they bring weapons for protection. The rule doesn't apply once you are out of the school building, which is why Lightning and Squall always spar right in front of the school building, with a huge space, perfect for sparring matches.
This particular day, Bartz was feeling extremely sleepy and decided to get a little bit of shut eye. Golbez had left the class with 5 minutes of free time, so the students were slightly relieved to have a little bit of down time before Sephiroth came by.
'Let me sleep for just 5 friggin' minutes...' Bartz thought. He was out like a light soon after.
In front of Bartz, Zidane was talking to Tidus about the Blitzball club's next match. The coach is Jecht, who also happens to be Tidus's father.
"I'm just hoping we can win." Tidus muttered.
"With a coach like Jecht? I would be surprised if we actually lost!" Zidane exclaimed.
"True." Tidus sighed.
Meanwhile, behind Bartz, Squall was trying to calm Cloud down.
"I just hate Sephiroth with every fiber of my being." Cloud growled.
"Whatever, Strife. You have NO idea how bad Ultimecia can be." Squall gave Cloud a pointed look.
"As bad as Ultimecia can be, I KNOW Sephiroth is worse." Cloud replied heatedly.
Squall groaned. This wasn't the first time they had this argument.
"Let's just drop it, alright?"
"Whatever, Leonhart."
5 minutes have passed, and Sephiroth still hasn't entered the class, which caused the class to stay silent in shock for a while. Said silence was broken by the sound of someone snoring.
"Uh, guys? Do you hear snoring?" Zidane asked nervously.
Everyone looked at Zidane and nodded. Zidane and Squall gulped nervously, took a chance and turned to look at Bartz.
Bartz Kaluser, master mime, was sleeping soundly, just before the class of Mr. Sephiroth, the strictest and scariest teacher at school.
CUE BACKGROUND MUSIC!!! (aka One-Winged Angel)
Estrans interius
Ira vehementi
Estrans interius
Ira vehementi
Sephiroth!
Sephiroth!
The latin chanting was enough to send shivers down everyone's spines. Then, as if on cue, Sephiroth was standing in the doorway of the class. He looked at Bartz, then emitted the dark aura of total doom.
Zidane and Squall, noticing this, tried everything in their power to wake up the sleeping mime. The other students were scared out of their minds, except for Cloud, who was glaring cyanide-drenched Buster Swords at Sephiroth. If looks could kill, said glare would be enough to send Sephiroth to the place where Feral Chaos lives (I'm assuming Edge of Madness) a million times over.
Zidane was whisper-yelling. "Bartz! Wake up, dang it!"
Squall, however, resorted to slapping Bartz's back with a plastic ruler, while whispering loudly, "Wake up, Klauser!"
Bartz, however, seemed unaffected. Heck, he even started drooling on his notebook which he used as a pillow!
Sephiroth summoned a rolled-up poster from Jenova-knows-where and proceeded towards Bartz. And, if Hetalia is anything to go by, poster swords are effective weapons for defeating weird aliens. Or, in this case, waking up sleeping mimes in an extremely painful way.
"Something tells me Bartz is screwed." Cloud couldn't help but snicker at his statement earlier.
"Shut it, Strife. Or I'll decide to use Blasting Zone on you until you are dead." Squall growled, malice evident in his voice before smacking Bartz again, albeit with more power.
Well, Squall, as the author, I suggest you smack harder next time, because Sephiroth just lifted Bartz out of his seat. Bartz didn't even stir from the sudden movement.
"YOU MEAN HE DIDN'T FEEL THE RULER ON HIS BACK?!" Squall growled, annoyed.
Well, no.
"WHAT!"
"Squall! Quit breaking the fourth wall!" Zidane hissed.
Sephiroth glanced at Bartz and smirked.
"Excuse me while I handle this...STUDENT...who dares sleep during school hours." Sephiroth teleported out of the classroom and returned moments later. Lessons then proceeded as normal. Well, as normal as things can get with Cloud and Sephiroth in the exact same room.
When Cloud and Sephiroth started dueling again, Zidane, Squall, Tidus and Firion shared a look. A single thought passed through all of their minds.
'Flag pole. After school. ASAP.'
~After class
The first thing Bartz noticed when he woke up was the ground, just 5 meters from where he was situated.
'Wait...the ground?'
Bartz dared himself to look up. He nearly fainted.
He was hung up by his leg from the top of the flagpole. He had the perfect view of the ground. The weather was pretty windy, which freaked Bartz out a LOT.
He couldn't take it anymore. He was terrified.
"WAAAAAHHH! SQUALL! ZIDANE! TIDUS! FIRION! ANYONE! GET ME DOWN! I'M SCARED OF HEIGHTS!"
The four students heard Bartz's screams from in front of the school. The genome was the one who yelled back.
"JUST HANG IN THERE, BARTZ!"
Squall then told Zidane to try and climb the flagpole. Tidus only stood speechless as he looked at Bartz. Firion only shook his head as Bartz screamed his head off.
Apparently, Sephiroth waxed the flagpole, since Zidane had difficulty trying to climb it, slipping every few steps.
Tidus then looked at his watch. "See you guys tomorrow at the arcade. I got Blitzball practice." Tidus then ran towards the beach, trying his best to ignore Bartz's terrified shrieks. Firion headed to the archery center. "Archery practice. I'll see you tomorrow." He left without further discussion. In reality, Firion just couldn't take any more of Bartz's shrieks of terror.
"Hey, Zidane, try throwing those knives of yours at the rope." Squall whispered into Zidane's ear. Zidane only nodded as he summoned his Mage Mashers. He threw one towards the rope, severing it...
Causing the mime to plummet face-first into the ground.
"I'm okay..." came Bartz's muffled reply, then came a moan of pain from the mime.
EXTENDED ENDING:
"So...Bartz, I've been meaning to ask you something..." Zidane started as the three friends were walking back home.
"What? My head hurts..." Bartz groaned.
"Why are you scared of heights, man?"
"ONE. WORD." Bartz growled, anger suddenly lacing every word he uttered. "EXDEATH."
"Alright! Yeesh!" Zidane held his hands up in defeat.
"And...Exdeath is a tree, right?" Squall asked.
"An evil, warlock tree, to be exact." Bartz sighed.
"At least your nemesis isn't a time witch." Squall growled, recalling Ultimecia.
"Or your brother who left you in some unknown planet when you were young." Zidane hung his head, while the other two friends were struck speechless.
"Kuja did that to you?" Squall asked.
"I thought we were talking about why Bartz is scared of heights!" Zidane shot back.
"True. But the rest is self-explanatory. Trees grow high so Bartz is scared of heights." Squall replied in his bored tone.
"Guys... Don't remind me of the reasons why I'm scared of heights..." Bartz groaned.
The three decided to let the subject drop and focused on more important things; mainly, how they are going to finish the project Exdeath set to be due next month, when they have a truckload of homework from Sephiroth and the self-proclaimed Emperor Mateus. Every. Single. Day. Memorizing the many types of Materia and the history of the Palamecian Empire was not a simple task, you know!
Zidane, Bartz and Squall, along with Tidus, Firion, Cloud and Luneth simultaneously groaned as they, somehow, thought of all the tasks they had to complete for the remaining term at, somehow, the exact same time. How exactly? I have absolutely no idea. It's one of the mysteries of the universe.
"This is going to be one long term..." Said students groaned while doing something to release some of their stress.
Tidus started taking his practice more seriously. Firion decided that archery was NOT going to cut it and decided to beat the snot out of some Emperor Mateus manikins instead. Squall decided to thunk his head on the trunk of a tree multiple times, muttering about the evils of the world. Zidane and Bartz decided to spar with each other. Cloud decided to crush some Sephiroth manikins, just for the heck of it. Luneth decided to punch his pillow to release stress (when questioned, he claims that his method works).
Just another normal day for Zidane...
A/N: Okay, I have been playing too much Dissidia lately. And yes, I'm a HUGE fan of Zidane, as well as 589 in general. What can I say? I love the genome's personality and his gameplay style. Ever since I was introduced to fighting games, I'm more of an aerial and speed person, which is why I main Ness in SSBB. His air game is great, and his attacks come out quick as well, with okay KO power. Zidane has a lot of BRV to HP links. It's easy to spam Meo Twister on a high-level manikin in Confessions of the Creator and see where it goes from there. And personality wise, remember this line? Basically this quote of his became one of my mottoes.
"Do I need a reason to help someone?" -Zidane
I'm thinking of the owner of Final Fantasy. Starts with an S, ends with an X. That's right! It's Squeenix! Or Square Enix, whichever you prefer. I own nothing but the plot (because if I owned Final Fantasy, then Final Fantasy 9 would be remade on the PSP or something)!
This is also my very first fan fiction, so comments would be appreciated!
What the heck am I doing?! It's exam week! I have to study! Well, exams last until next Monday, so... UGH.
