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

III. My first escape

9:00 pm. Five months have already passed since I was admitted to the ShinRa Army, and by now I have already passed trough several physical and mental training hours. In that moment I was in my bedroom, sitting in front of my desk and studying a book about the ancient history of materia, the substance that came from the Planet and that we used as another effective defensive mean, as well as an offensive one.

Few minutes passed when I heard little laughs that came from outside the corridor. Then a few steps, and I could calculate that at least two or three cadets where outside their rooms, surely planning something.

I rose from my chair, getting closer to the door. I didn’t want to open it, but my curiosity was bigger than my fear of being discovered outside my room, since 7:30 pm was the restricted hour. I opened the sliding door, which made a soft mechanic sound. I looked around, noticing that at the left side of the corridor, almost reaching the corner that leaded to the elevators, there was a small group of three young men perhaps not much older than me. Suddenly they started moving, going to the emergency stairs near the elevators, because they also stopped functioning after 7:30 pm, just like the lights of the corridor.

In total darkness, I secretly followed them in utter silence, so they wouldn’t notice someone else near them. That night I was wearing my black cotton pants and a sleeveless shirt to sleep; taking only my black boots, I didn’t have enough time to put them correctly but I followed them anyway.

I followed their tracks until we reached the basement of the building, later escaping from the same small window they used to get out. I still didn’t know where we were heading, but it really didn’t matter do me. The only thing that was important right now was that they didn’t discover us; the punishment for not respecting the curfew was something that would discourage the bravest. After walking through bushes and crossing the inner streets of the military camp, we arrived to a building that looked like a storage one. In fact, it was a storage building where they kept the weapons and materia used for practices. I was so absorbed by the lights and shines that appeared in the minuscule windows of the storage building, that I tripped with a dried tree branch. I left out a slight moan when I fell, hastily looking around to check if they had seen me.

“Cloud?” one of the youths with a familiar voice interrogated. The boys slowly got closer to me, a little bit insecure at the beginning. I recognized one of them, but the other two I never saw them before. Maybe they were from another floor of our same building. I have to admit that I wasn’t a really sociable guy, I almost never came out of my room and thus I didn’t know much people.

I raised my body to respond with a shy ‘hello’, while I stroked the back of my neck with my hand, certainly ashamed. The boy I knew, Travis, got closer to me and took my arm immediately. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“What are ‘you’ doing here?” I asked the same, letting them know they were also in the same situation. Travis let my arm go and looked to the other two boys, not knowing what to do. The other guys just shrugged and told Travis that it didn’t matter, that they could let me come with them. Travis nodded and motioned to me that I stayed quiet and I began following them once again.

“Where are we going?” I asked Travis in a whisper.

“Remember that our combat teacher told us about those admittion exams for the special SOLDIER school?” my friend tried to make me remember. I affirmed with my head, staring at his eyes with full attention.

“Well… today we’ll able to witness one!” he said surely excited. But how? I asked immediately, knowing that those tests were extremely secret and that no rookie could enter, not even knowing about their date and location. Travis explained later that a low class SOLDIER he met at the cafeteria told him he was going to let him in with other two people, in exchange of something of course. Obviously I asked how much he had paid.

“200 gils?!” I almost shout absolutely stunned. It was truly a huge amount of money for someone like me who didn’t came from a wealthy family, but for Travis that wasn’t a big deal.

Forgetting about the money issue, we directed ourselves to the entrance of the storage building, and Travis knocked the door with a code. Just after, a young man a little older than us opened the door a bit, staring at us with a dark crimson eye. He checked that we were the ones, and it seemed that it was no problem letting me in.

Inside of the immense room I could perceive screams and sword sounds that clashed against each other with strength. In front of me there were at least 50 soldiers forming a semicircle, looking at the spectacle. Most of them made a racket and gave their support to their favorite. The one that had let us in was the low class SOLDIER in charge of ‘taking care’ of the door.

We accommodated ourselves between the other high ranked soldiers, trying to mix among them so we wouldn’t look suspicious. Then I began observing the battles carefully.

There were four SOLDIER second class, with their purple uniforms, and just one SOLDIER first class that was the one who supervised the confrontations between professional SOLDIERS and regular soldiers. Each new fighter was armed with a simple steel sword, to fight the SOLDIER’s huge mythril swords.

I had never seen any SOLDIER fight that close to me like that night. I could notice their training was in fact superior to ours, where skills and velocity were shown with their sword abilities… not many could be part of this superior soldiers elite.

Impressed, I saw how regular soldiers went through the test, one after another, being defeated easily by the more professional SOLDIERs. Only one of them could pass the test, showing his endurance and stamina. The fights went on, while the hours kept passing and at the end of the battles only six of the 50 soldiers were able to pass the test. Everything went normal, the test had finished by now and the chosen ones had already been confirmed by the first class SOLDIER, who was sitting near a corner writing over a sheet of paper.

“Looks like this is over”, Travis murmured, and after saying this he began walking to the exit. Imitating him I also went to the door, following the other soldiers. But suddenly, a masculine voice ordered us to stop.

“This is not over yet,” said that voice while all of us turned our sights to the middle of the room. “But sir…” one of the SOLDIER wanted to interrupt, later becoming silent. I never imagined that the greatest SOLDIER of all time, the only one in his superior class, was among us.

“Sephiroth...” many voices pronounced his name. With my mouth fully opened in pure amazement, I stood still when I saw him closer to me than I ever imagined. Just a few feet away from me, that man with long, silver hair and shining jade eyes was standing there, between the crowd, wearing black, leather pants and a long black coat, high boots and a brown belt. The half-opened coat let us see his strong torso, and from his wide belt hung sheathed the longest sword I have ever seen in all my life.

“The test will finish when all of you defeat me… at the same time” he said seriously to the six soldiers standing in front of him.

Nobody could still believe it. Was it possible he wanted that six of the most outstanding soldiers attacked him directly? No lone man could defeat them all at the same time; he wouldn’t even have enough time to attack. But we all knew Sephiroth was no ordinary man.

Sephiroth adopted a fighting position; his right hand was over the handle of his enormous katana, prepared to receive the attacks. The soldiers didn’t have a doubt he was talking seriously, and with courage the six of them hurled themselves to him. The truth is that everything occurred so fast that my inexperienced eyes couldn’t fully catch it. Only rapid successions of fast and well-controlled movements, made Sephiroth’s body swirl and move in almost an elegant way, sending each one of the six soldiers to the floor. After all of them stayed immobile over the floor, Sephiroth sheathed his huge 6 feet sword, producing a metallic sound and then an audible click.

It’s not enough to say that all of us were absolutely impressed. Obviously none of them were able to pass the test, but Sephiroth only smiled and spoke in a low tone of voice with the SOLDIER that was taking the notes. It seemed that after all, Sephiroth’s participation in the test was only a mere game to him. Turning his head to stare at the six soldiers that by now were beginning to stand in their feet, he later raised his sight to see the others. I could feel his eyes seeing mine for just a matter of seconds, that cold and calculating sight typical of a well-trained assassin. But Sephiroth was so special, even more than any professional assassin the world might see.

Sephiroth retired without saying more, and I just let out a soft sight, as if all this time I was containing my breath. I looked at my companions that like me were really astounded, and after that we all went together to our respective rooms, always talking about how incredible and frightening was watching the legend in real, full action. This was my first adventure since I arrived here, and I would assure myself to never forget it in the time I would spend here. Only one more year and a half for my graduation, and then I could participate in a test like the ones we witnessed moments ago. The test would not only decide my future as a SOLDIER, or as a loser, but it would decide the rest of my entire life.