It went unspoken in the Watcher's Council that no one expected the newest Slayer to last long. He was an aberration -- a male Slayer? That young? -- and consequently, what also went unspoken and understood was that Giles would fail his assignment. No one is assigned a Slayer twice, so assigning him to the doomed one was an intentional, specific move to get him out of the way and off the roster. Afterwards, after his Slayer's death, he would be shuffled to something quieter, probably something archival with his skills.
The whole thing pisses him off. Dismissing him is bad enough, but dismissing a young boy's life is something Giles cannot stomach. The injustice of it rankles him too badly to let it go, and although Giles had always intended to do his best by his Slayer, to train her as well as he was physically able, to stand by her through tragedy as duty demanded, now he finds himself incensed and determined to go above and beyond.
The Council might have the privilege of distance, but Giles isn't going to watch a child die in front of him. It wasn't about proving the Council wrong; it was about defying the darkness in the world, scraping together something good.
It's too bad he never learned Japanese and that there's no time to waste after a Slayer is Called to go to them. It's the most vulnerable point in their career, when they're exposed constantly to supernatural danger but with no clue what's going on. Giles is forced to resort to spellcasting to learn the language he needs to help his Slayer, leaving him with a profound migraine as he boards the plane on a twenty-hour flight to Japan. It's still there when he gets off, and being magically induced he already knows no pill is going to help it. Yet he doesn't have a choice. A headache is better than being mutually unintelligible.
He will do this. That determination doesn't exactly convey well on Giles, though: he's a dowdy figure in an old tweed suit (complete with suspenders) carrying an old-fashioned, battered leather travel bag, and there's not a lot of ways for an adult male foreigner to safely approach an elementary school student without looking suspicious as hell. He gets in late, and is traipsing over to his hotel across the dark streets on foot, head throbbing the whole way, as he tries to come up with a plan. This is all so last minute and rushed that the usual protocol of inserting himself at the Slayer's school just wasn't feasible.
Good thing he runs into him all on his own, in circumstances that leave little doubt who he is.
FOR PETITE SLAYER-KUN
The whole thing pisses him off. Dismissing him is bad enough, but dismissing a young boy's life is something Giles cannot stomach. The injustice of it rankles him too badly to let it go, and although Giles had always intended to do his best by his Slayer, to train her as well as he was physically able, to stand by her through tragedy as duty demanded, now he finds himself incensed and determined to go above and beyond.
The Council might have the privilege of distance, but Giles isn't going to watch a child die in front of him. It wasn't about proving the Council wrong; it was about defying the darkness in the world, scraping together something good.
It's too bad he never learned Japanese and that there's no time to waste after a Slayer is Called to go to them. It's the most vulnerable point in their career, when they're exposed constantly to supernatural danger but with no clue what's going on. Giles is forced to resort to spellcasting to learn the language he needs to help his Slayer, leaving him with a profound migraine as he boards the plane on a twenty-hour flight to Japan. It's still there when he gets off, and being magically induced he already knows no pill is going to help it. Yet he doesn't have a choice. A headache is better than being mutually unintelligible.
He will do this. That determination doesn't exactly convey well on Giles, though: he's a dowdy figure in an old tweed suit (complete with suspenders) carrying an old-fashioned, battered leather travel bag, and there's not a lot of ways for an adult male foreigner to safely approach an elementary school student without looking suspicious as hell. He gets in late, and is traipsing over to his hotel across the dark streets on foot, head throbbing the whole way, as he tries to come up with a plan. This is all so last minute and rushed that the usual protocol of inserting himself at the Slayer's school just wasn't feasible.
Good thing he runs into him all on his own, in circumstances that leave little doubt who he is.