The Perfect SOLDIER
A FFVII Sephiroth x Cloud story
by Lara Yokoshima

I. My first vision

Finally, after arduous hours of work at the mine near my town, I could save enough money to take the cheapest train to Migdar, the most important industrial city of the Planet. As if not being enough, it also possessed the most amazing army in the whole world, and its owners, the ShinRa Inc. couldn’t be more proud of this powerful army. I was going to be one of the many dreamy, unexperienced youngsters who would try to be part of this army; but my true objective was not only getting recruited. My devotion and admiration to one of the most legendary soldiers pushed me to be like him; the Great Sephiroth, my worshiped idol, was the most incredible SOLDIER that the Planet had ever ‘produced’.

The long hours that I passed in that rusty, old train, where rewarded with my endless daydreams, in where I viewed myself as a powerful warrior, fighting back to back with my mythological Sephiroth. Any 14 year-old boy, like me, would think of that and even more. When was the first time I heard of the Great Sephiroth?

Trying to remember, I closed my tired eyelids for a moment. The image of a peaceful afternoon came into my mind, with the vibrant sound of the earth being smashed by drills and other machinery that incessantly built the Mako reactor on Mt. Nibel. I was only a little 8 year-old boy, playing alone in my room like I always used to.

“Cloud! My son, come here!”

I heard how the gentle voice of my mother called me, almost desperate that I ran over there to see something that looked important. She pointed at the small television that we had in our almost empty living room, while I ran at her truly excited.

“Look Cloud! The war against the Wutai rebels is over, they just announced it…” my mother said cheerfully. I just stood by her side, watching scenes of forgotten battlefields from the deserted region of Wutai by TV.

“It is possible that your father may come back…” she whispered with great hope in her eyes. I saw her for a couple of seconds, but then I returned my eyes to the monitor. That’s when I saw him.

After a blond man dressed with an elegant, red wine suit finished his speech claiming the victory over Wutai, he mentioned their most precious soldier, the one who indefatigably helped them defeat the rebels from Wutai. At the moment he pronounced his name, that by the way I never forgot, the above-mentioned soldier appeared. Dressed with his flawless black uniform, black leather boots and certainly a regal demeanor, the young warrior that barely surpassed the 22 years of age climbed to the stage, being welcomed by thousands of applauses. His long, silver hair and his fine, shining jade colored eyes were the first things that attracted my attention. He didn’t look like any regular human for sure.

“The first class SOLDIER, Sephiroth”, my excited mother repeated his name, and staring into my eyes she said: “He is our hero, my dear Cloud”.

Decorated in public with dozens of medals, to the honor, to his bravery, to the justice and so on, Sephiroth accepted each one of them with a serious and decisive face, almost without showing any feeling at all; that made me think he was truly a complicated being. The event ended with the last words of the same man in red suit that was speaking from the beginning. Later I learned that he was the ShinRa President, owner of the company with his same name, the most powerful man in the economic and politic history of this planet. After thanking to the public, the president retired, and Sephiroth followed him from the back.

Maybe this looked a little silly, but thanks to those few seconds I saw him through a television, an easily impressionable little kid like me could be ‘enchanted’ by this character’s features. He is our hero; I remembered the words of my mother. Then I decided it wasn’t just our hero… he was almost a divine savior. To me, he was comparable to a god.