Since Crisis Core has rendered all this completely AU, I decided it needs cleaning up. I plan on keeping to this storyline till I find an end for this alternate universe. If you were in love with this prior to the edit, I deeply apologize...But I am my own beta, and rereading through this, I wanted to smack myself for having so many run-on sentences and incomplete explanations. I also wanted to recalculate some of the ages. I'm basing most of them on some things I recall from the game and from Last Order. My timeline has Sephiroth at age 34 (It looks like 34 in that file in the beginning of Last Order to me.) when he 'died' in the reactor core, 24 leading in Wutai, approximately 20 when he made general, and roughly 16 when Ana'e meets him the first time. I had the impression that the wutai conflict had been going on for a long time when they sent Sephiroth and SOLDIER in to end it, and Elmyra says her husband had been called to the front 15 years before the game, and implies the war went on for a good while after. I'm also trying to stick to the interview format, since Ana'e keeps yelling "Godsdammit, I would never just go rambling on to some stranger! You fix it now before people think I'm on drugs!" in my head.
Disclaimer! I don't own Sephiroth or Zack (Who belong to Square Enix) or anyone else who should show up in here except Ana'e and Jair...and most of the time I think Ana'e owns me, not the other way around! Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental, or the Oversoul whispering in my ear, depending on your belief system.
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Date, 15th of 5th moon, 1999 Old Midgar calendar, or 15th of 5th moon, 2nd year Post Meteorfall by Edge reckoning. Personal log and report of Johnasi Zuri of the W.R.O. recent history investgation and scientific archival corps.I have been sent to find and interview one of the last surviving officers of the SOLDIER support corps of the Shinra army. In light of recent events (reference case file delta 7. Jenova project # 67,#73, and #77, reunion remnants, A.K.A Loz, Yazoo and Kadaj. See attempted second advent section.), the W.R.O. has requested that anyone with a connection to Sephiroth (See Jenova project archives, case file alpha 3 and previous.) be interviewed in order to prepare for a possible second return, and to aid the unnumbered former subject of the Jenova project (See trooper info file C.S. NB 15-MIPD, and Shinra Science Dept Jenova project specimen file Ho-C Nib.) in prevention or neutralization in the event it succeeds.
To that end, I have travelled to the village of Phoenix's Fell in the southeastern corner of the continent, nearly 150 miles from Fort Condor to find one Ana'eledore Kyruk and her life mate Jairedh Ornari. I found and queried Dr. Ornari at the clinic he had established in the village, and have his observations in the accompanying addenda to this report. He gave what information he was able to, but wasn't accquainted on a personal level with the details of anything earlier than 12 years prior to the present day. He directed me to his life mate (See Mideelan and far northern marriage customs, handfasting, empathic bonding.) Colonel (On indefinite leave according to the last Shinra Records.) Ana'elidore Kyruk (Decorations listed, Oakleaf merit, Mithril Circle, Bloodrose, Silver moon, Order of the Red Badge, Order of the Jade Shield, Blue Helmet award, Orb of Courage, and Wutai silver drop.) She had been the then General Sephiroth's aide de camp for nearly 14 years before his madness and attempt to destroy the planet.
On a personal note, I must admit to some trepidation as I approach the house, and the woman living in it. This woman held one of the most classified jobs one could have as a Shinra trooper for a record length of time. By all accounts, she carried it through with honor and skill, maintaining the confidentiality required for it from the day she started...and that is what worries me. She may regard the information as still confidential and classified, and refuse to speak to me. Colonel Kyruk is by all accounts a formidable woman, nearly as powerful and dangerous as a SOLDIER, and by reputation twice as irrascible...I can only hope that I can impress upon her the desperate need for information about the former Shinra General that has driven the W.R.O. to intrude upon her. I am aware of the fact that she could most likely snap my neck without so much as breaking a sweat, health or no, as I knock on the door of the cabin by the cliff as Dr. Ornari has directed me. It is only by force of will that I do not retreat from the slightly hostile expression on the tall, pale woman who answers the door. Even without the bandages wound around her leg and shoulder, it is apparent that she is not in the best health...Yet another urgency to my coming here. The good doctor assures me that though her disease is the slow progressing variant for now, geostigma is unpredictable in it's virulence even from day to day.
Beginning holo-recording now.
Yes, I am Ana'eledore Kyruk, though I haven't been a colonel for nearly five years..With Shinra essentially gone, I guess you could call me retired. Sephiroth you say? Yes I knew him...before. Well, before he went dissappeared and went mad of course! Of course I still remember him...Oh! You want to know about him! No! Go away...I'll not violate confidentiality! Can't you damn reporters leave a sick woman alone! Oh, Jair sent you?...A state historian, not a reporter you say? The new government needs to know?..huh!. You hold on and I'll verify all that...Hell yes I'm suspicious! The last idiot tried to dose me with truth serum! Show me some I.D. now boy!...Johnasi Zuri. Just you wait a minute while I call and verify this...you'll have to excuse me if I don't take your unadorned word for it...And stop flinching. I'm not going to rip your head off...unless you are lying. Huh, I guess you really are an archivist. Jair says you are what you say you are as well...But why should I tell you anything anyway? What! Clones, trying to bring him back! Mid twenties and a teenager...The hell you say!
Oh planet, it must be those poor kids from Hojo's lab...I wonder what happened to their foster parents? Well, I'll answer on one condition..that this interview is not made public knowledge in any way for at least fifteen years, if at all..I would prefer it kept on a permanent need to know basis. I regard the General's privacy as inviolable, but I know that the man he was before would not have allowed the being he later became to even exist, much less do the kind of things he's done...and I suppose I should tell someone what he was really like, before people forget the good things he did...I don't know, maybe he was just manipulating me all along..Maybe I was blind and he had me completely decieved, or maybe he just never showed me his dark side. He never really frightened me, you know, even when he was angry with me. He called me his "little aide"..I don't really know why, I wasn't much shorter than him. I think it started as a test of my self control, a sarcastic thing, because I'm anything but little, especially for a woman, but as I became better at my job, and he became less acid, I found I didn't mind at all being called "little aide"..it seemed to be an almost affectionate term from him..And in turn, I loved him like I would have an elder brother.
He wasn't evil, he just went insane from the strain of believing himself to be nothing more than an experiment...He had to believe that he was destined for godhood, therefore more than human, because otherwise he would have to believe that he was less than human. The experiences of his terrible childhood warped him. In order to survive it, he learned to build himself up in his own mind, to believe that he was better than anyone else...that everyone else was beneath him. A point of view first encouraged by Dr. Gast, who believed Sephiroth to be an ancient, and destined to lead mankind to the promised land. Confirmed in his mind by all the tests he survived, both physical and mental, and later by all the people he met..especially in battle. He never, till the very end, found an equal, let alone someone who could best him. Though his earliest childhood was supervised by Dr. Gast, his adolescence was left to his father, Hojo...and that was horrific enough by itself to drive a person mad. From what I learned after he dissappeared, and what Sephiroth himself told me, Hojo essentially tried to test him to the point of destruction. Maybe in the end he succeeded, starting with Sephiroth's heart and mind first.
Even in his madness he wasn't completely without compassion, you know. He wanted to remake the world, to transform it into the promised land. I don't believe he really even wanted to kill everyone...He just wanted to make them as strong as he was the only way he believed he could, by making them a part of himself. In truth, I'm not completely sure that they were right to stop him to this day. No Mr. Zuri, I don't agree with his methods...but I can't help but wonder sometimes, if this world would be better off without humans. People can do some of the most horrible things to one another, and the world around them.
He was always courteous, calm and polite..he expected the same in return, and made no bones about letting you know his displeasure when he wasn't treated with the same courtesy...That made him seem to those who didn't know him to be absolutely cold, calculating, ruthless, and totally without compassion..not true, or any number of people would not be here today...even some of your so-called heroes. Don't get me wrong, he could be deliberately brutal and cruel, but always for a purpose, like teaching someone a necessary lesson, or in a fight. He was an unholy terror to face in battle, or if you'd pissed him off or lied to him...He would hurt you if you lied. He hated liars, and he always seemed to know, with only one exception, when he was being lied to...Always. If you told the truth, though, and if you faced him when he was angry without flinching; if you kept your cool, and accepted your punishment with courage and dignity, he seemed to respect that. Not many people truly earned his respect..the closest I ever saw was one of his young SOLDIER firsts. He was always fair when he had to mete out a punishment...For that matter, unless your offense was something that endangered yourself or another, he was usually even a little lenient. He was FAR less arbitrary when compared to the other generals. I even knew him to be kind every once in a while...I should know, I was his aide de camp for many years...
You wouldn't think it, but armor and uniforms need a lot of time to keep them in good shape, not to mention tons of paperwork required to keep things running smoothly, when he was far too busy to have time...Hence the need for an aide...someone has to act as secretary, a valet, keep his armor polished, his clothing laundered and properly pressed, his leathers in good shape, and occasionally help maintain his longer than regulation hair. I will never ever forget him. He was terrifying and magnificent! Terrifying in his anger, magnificent in battle, a driven and gifted general, and oh, the way he wielded that sword! Even the few times I witnessed him in full battle mode left an indelible impression on my mind...He was as beautiful and dangerous as an erupting volcano, and as much a force of nature to his enemies.
It might seem strange, but to my knowledge, he never killed in any manner but cleanly and quickly, usually with a single stroke of his masamune. It was a point of honor with him. If he wanted you dead, dead was what you were going to be, no doubt about it! The same went if he wanted you to stay alive, "safe as houses", as the saying goes...though if you ended up needing a rescue, especially if you'd done something stupid that required him to bail you out, you had better be prepared to be the subject of mockery. He had no patience for anyone who couldn't be bothered to learn how to defend themselves. In his view, if you could learn how to at least minimally defend yourself, it was your duty to do so. The only exceptions were children...He always seemed tolerant of children, even when they would crowd around him in the streets, begging him for autographs and pictures. Anyone else though, who was not disabled in some way, could expect cutting remarks and acid wit for a week afterwards. It was nearly bad enough to make you wish you had died. He could use his voice like he used his sword, to cut anyone who acted like an idiot in front of him into little ribbons...It was very much like being verbally skinned alive.
It was a treatment I unfortunately merited a couple of times, usually by being somewhere I wasn't supposed to be..like too close to a battle front. I remember when I first went to serve him after his last aide had been killed on the field. Planet, but that seems like a lifetime ago! I'd heard just after I arrived in camp that the poor idiot had just stood there without defending himself!..not entirely his fault of course...aides weren't adequately trained to defend themselves at that time. General Sephiroth wasn't pleased, to have a female aide de camp, much less a slightly plump (at the time!..officer training academy food, along with sitting in classes day in day out, can really put weight on you.), six foot tall, gawky, young, female aide. The associated rumors alone were disgusting and vicious...Totally false, of course. I was an aide de camp, not anybody's doxy! I was a brand new lieutenant just out of officer training school at the time, hadn't seen any fighting...In other words, I was so shiny-new that it was a miracle I didn't squeak when I walked! I was absolutely determined to show him I could be just as good, if not better, and twice as professional as any of the aides he'd had before.
It helped that I had bright memories of a certain tall, young...he didn't look any older than barely thirteen at that time, but I think he told me later that he was in fact a bit older than that, for that matter, he was pretty much ageless, he never looked as old as he should have...silver haired, and how strange that was, I'd thought at the time, Shinra guard lieutenant. The SOLDIER program was in its infancy, and he hadn't joined yet, you see...who had been assigned by his squad leader to practice restorative magic on the minor wounds of the young hostages of a pack of bandits that they'd recently rescued. Most of them sported minor cuts and scrapes, but a few had more serious wounds. The bandits had raided our town school, and decided to hold the kids for ransom...and they hadn't been gentle with us. The rest of the guard troop went to mop up the last of the bandits that had attacked our little village, and left him behind with a radio to help heal and to guard us just in case they doubled back. I doubt he'd remember me from back then...He called me a "practical child." Practicality and effectiveness seemed to impress him. I was about eight or so at the time...I had all the other kids in line in order of severity of injury, and had begun to apply basic bandages, before he arrived on the scene...Don't go 'awww' at me! If you call me nurse-Jane-Fuzzy what-the-hell-ever, you're gonna need a bandage yourself boy! No mister Zuri, I'm not an Ifrit damned leader or healer of any sort! I was simply the only one there who had any knowledge of healing! My aunt was the town nurse and midwife, she raised me after my parents were killed...I didn't get along with my little sister you see. She was forgetting our parents, our history, everything, and didn't even want to remember them after they were gone...I suppose it was her way of dealing with the loss, but I couldn't understand her attitude at all till it was far too late. No, I don't really regret it...she found a sort of happiness on her own, and I doubt she remembers anything at all anymore.
My parents? Well, nothing extraordinary there...Mother was a professional materia prospector, born and raised on Mideel, and my father was a monster hunter from the northern continent...They died just after I turned five. Dad went missing on a hunt, and Mother died that same year when the fever came around. No, it's a northern thing, fevers and minor plagues sweep through the villages up there every year at the beginning of spring. Usually it's not bad, minor stuff that can be treated with herbs from the area, it's only when the person has a weakened immune system...like from grief...Anyway, when my sister was adopted, they sent me to live with my aunt instead...And you simply can't live with someone at that age and not pick up a few things. Why didn't I become a nurse? Sheesh! Do I LOOK like the nurturing, ass wiping, bedpan handling type? Besides, I don't like sick people! Oh nevermind, I digress.
When I took the military entrance exams, They showed I had a strong aptitude for sensory magic..one that was considered unusually high for my level of strength, and through that they found out I'm a form of sensitive, an empath to be exact..low level of course, useless in battle, I have to shut it down...probably got it from my grandfather. I sense moods and strong emotions, nothing more. Sensitivities aren't that uncommon, even in the military, they just tend to recognize and train some of the more useful sorts. A talent for sensory magic out of proportion with one's strength level is a big indicator for sensitivity. If you have an untrained person who seems to pick up sensory or healing spells with ease, but can't keep up at the same pace with any other type, you probably have a sensitive of some sort there...You should definitely let your higher ups know about that bit, how to recognize sensitivity...If they're as ignorant of it as you were, then there are any number of people either being wasted or even possibly driven insane. Certain kinds of sensitives need to be trained to shut it down, or they'll get lost in the emotions or whatever of everyone around them! I'm really glad I wasn't stronger in that particular aspect, because the stronger sensitives had to submit to blocks or meds, to keep them out of shinra heads...Either that, or they dissappeared. Into the labs or just terminated, I don't know...That may have something to do with their rarity, if they were getting killed off by shinra before they had a chance to have kids...What a sad thought...Anyway! The army tended to weed anyone too strongly sensitive to handle it out pretty quick. How did the army deal with them? Well, you can probably imagine how a lot were placed...psychometry and short term precog in the scout corps, empathy and clairvoyance to the spy corps...etc. If my talent had been stronger, I'd have most likely ended up in INTDIV...that's the army's intelligence division to you. No, not the TURKS, they didn't take in sensitives of any kind on a permanent basis...Too many things they didn't want anyone sensing, I suppose. On very RARE occasions they'd hire one on for specific jobs, but for the most part they avoided them. The powers that be decided I belonged in support track, in officer training to be an aide...Probably a good thing they could see I wasn't command track material, because I really am no kind of leader...I can function as one for limited times if there is no one else around to do it, but I'd be a walking ad for an ulcer medication if I tried to do it for long.
When they told me who my first permanent assignment was to be, well I was both overjoyed and intimidated to say the least! I'd I grown up on stories of him and his lightning fast rise to rank, and how he practically rebuilt SOLDIER with the elite of the Shinra army, and also how he'd gone through aides like a hot knife through butter. It was a rare candidate who made it through a week with him before he dismissed them...Maybe they thought that being able to sense his moods would make me better able to avoid offending him. I refused their "additional mission" as an obviously unethical order. An aide de camp must keep all details about their officer in confidence. They had asked me to report on the general's emotional states, and I bluntly refused the order. They decided out of desperation to send me anyway after my idiot predecesor got himself demised. In a way they were right, I always knew where I stood with him, and how to react to him. I knew full well that he would always be uncompromising when it came to matters of honor, and as long as I was competent, professional, and never acted in an insubordinate or dishonorable manner then he would at least tolerate me. That was half the problem with his other aides...They all had tried to either challenge him, or seduce him. Both were behaviors guaranteed to offend him.
Anyway, the first real fighting I saw as his aide was a small skirmish..Some bandits had at the last gotten a squad past our lines that was intent on destroying whatever they could get their hands on. They started by setting the tents on fire. I, being a young idiot, went back in to get the General's uniforms and kit, and ran into the enemy on the way out. Naturally, I was laden down with various bits of kit, and at that time fairly untrained...Shinra corp was notorious for it's inadequate self-defense training of their non-combatant officers at that time... They knocked me down and were about to chop me into hamburger or worse, when an annoyed General came to my rescue. I stood in silence as he stripped off my hide later that day without ever raising his cultured and pleasant baritone voice...He almost never shouted except on the battlefield...He never needed to, because he had such a commanding presence. I would have been less embarrassed had he stripped me naked and beaten me. The nicest thing he called me that day was "idiot girl". Yet I knew he wasn't entirely displeased with me...He wouldn't have bothered dressing me down if he had been, he'd have just sent me back to headquarters with my reassignment papers. I accepted the dressing down with equanimity and responded sensibly and respectfully when he required it of me. I think he halfway expected me to run away, come after him in a rage, or to just break down in tears. Maybe that is why he decided to give me a real chance..or maybe he just enjoyed the novelty of having an aide who never showed outright fear of him, yet still treated him with the deference due his rank and accomplishments. In turn, he treated me like one of his men, like one of his SOLDIERs or trainees...Like one of the guys. I think he forgot, or perhaps just completely ignored the fact that I was a woman most of the time.
He did test me before accepting me as his permanent aide de camp...With some complex and dicey paperwork as a secretary, as a valet, with the proper maintenance of his uniforms and armor, and by having me attend him in the bath a couple of times. Oh, don't be daft...I was respectful, not dead! Of course I was aware of him as a very attractive man, I just refused to act unproffessionally! That was the absolute acid test, you know...If I'd been just a shade less disciplined or less honorable, I might have tried something stupid then. In planet's honest truth, I don't even know what he looked like at all between waist and knees...I carefully kept my eyes averted, or focused on his face, as I passed him towels; even when I wrapped a robe around him, I didn't even try to peek. I think I earned a couple of points with him after he had toweled his hair dry too. He was combing through it and yanking at the tangles, only making them worse, apparently oblivious to any pain."If you will permit me sir..I said taking the comb from him.."If you start from the bottom, and work your way up, it pulls the knots out instead of tightening them on top of one another." and being careful not to pull, I combed his hair till it was smooth as silk...Something I must admit I enjoyed immensely, though I carefully didn't show it..."Hmph! Good, little aide..now hand me the formal jacket." he said, testing me yet again..most people, even most new aides, would have just handed him the dress uniform tunic which was only for parades and extremely formal occasions. "Which one sir, the dress formal, or the undress formal?" I asked. "The undress formal lieutenant..When we get back to Midgar, you will be moving into the aide's quarters at the SOLDIER training dojo." he said offhandedly with a small but satisfied smile. I just nodded blandly and said "Yes sir." though I felt like jumping up and down...But I acted in every way the complete professional. I'd passed all his tests, I didn't want to fowl it up by acting like a crazed fan. It all seemed to impress him sufficiently, so he decided to keep me on. I began to breathe a tad easier when I'd made it through that first week in the field though.
When we finally got back to the dojo near Midgar six months later, I did move into the aide's quarters..though not without a qualm or two after I saw they were actually part of the general's suite. I had my own room, office and bathroom, but they were connected to his through a common living room."Won't there be rumors?..I am female, sir.." I asked neutrally. There had already been a few, really nasty ones..I always fell back on the lecture the general gave all the new SOLDIER recruits..."All of the men and women here are your family from now on, and you will treat your fellow recruits with the same respect you would give a sibling, those above you in rank the respect due an elder sibling, and you will treat your commanders with the same obedience and respect you would treat your parents with. What this means to you right now is if any of you are in a 'particular' relationship with one another, you have twenty-four hours to put in for a transfer to separate units, without prejudice. I will not allow disruptions and jealousies for a pair of idiots!" he'd say in his parade ground voice, and order them to read the files on Rodai and Talsarin..The infamous lovers who tried to protect one another, and left their posts. They failed, and as a result, the defenses failed at a critical point, and caused the deaths of their entire unit, and the town they were guarding...Hence the rule against fraternization within the same chain of command. It didn't mean one couldn't have a relationship within the army, it just meant that you couldn't be in the same unit as your beloved...It helped that there was more than one division of SOLDIER training at that time. He wasn't kicking the pairs out of the program, he was just demanding they switch part of the pair to one of the other training units. The rules just made it easier to sort of put him in a sibling category in my mind when I began to love him...It gave me an outlet for my feelings that was still within the bounds of propriety. If he'd even hinted that he wished it otherwise, I suppose I would likely have flung myself at his feet...But I think I'm much happier that he didn't, on a personal level. In fact he made it very clear that he disapproved of such dubious behaviour. If he wasn't worried about nasty gossip, then neither would I be...It was his reputation and good opinion that I was concerned with, not my own or anyone else's.
"It's merely rumor lieutenant. I think you're fully capable of quashing any rumors...Though if it becomes a problem, I'll want to know about it." he replied, his tone making it perfectly clear that rumors was damn well all it had better be...Not that I'd ever try anything that even hinted at fraternization, even if I'd wanted to...It would have been unprofessional and dishonorable. "It will not be a problem sir." I said firmly. "Good...as soon as you are settled, please locate the sector seven files for me lieutenant...I haven't been able to find them for several weeks." he ordered. I winced, having gotten a good look at the files already...They were hopelessly fouled up...this was an opportunity I'd been waiting for. "What is it lieutenant?" he asked to the dismayed expression on my face. I took a breath, "Request permission to reorganize the files sir." I said in a rush. "What is your reason for this request lieutenant?" he asked with a frown."I don't want to speak ill of the dead sir"..."If you are referring to that idiot I had as an aide before you, go ahead...I spoke ill of him to his face, and he was completely oblivious." he muttered, obviously annoyed at the memory...remembering the rumors about his former aide, that he was a starstruck nitwit, I understood his irritation. "Sorry sir...The files are a complete mess. It appears that my predecesor simply put things in various drawers at random." (A severe understatement..I'd actually found a dead rodent in one of the cabinets, squashed between the misfiled folders.) "The only way to make them usable again is to completely reorganize them." I said keeping it polite, though it was obvious to anyone who'd even glanced at those files that my predecessor was an incompetent idiot who had spent all his time drooling over the general rather than doing his job. "Very well, how long will this reorganization take, lieutenant?" he asked with an air of resignation. "A bare minimum of two days, if you can spare me from other tasks, possibly seven to ten days if not sir." I wasn't exaggerating my estimate in any way. "Your are excused from any other duties till this project is finished...Requisition any supplies you need from central lieutenant, and you may make use of the main room if you need space." That was more than I had dared hope..I could spread the files out and reorder them more easily "Thank you sir, I'll start on it right away." It took me three days of being at them from reveille to midnight, and I ended up using the floor, and every other available surface of the main room, but by the time I'd finished, anyone could lay their hands on a given file in less than one minute. It earned me my promotion to major..the only thing that ever made any kind of impression on Sephiroth was competence and professionalism.
He kept me on, mostly because he didn't want to be inconvenienced by having to break in another aide, or by being stuck with whatever incompetent the company sent him for an aide again, (he'd had some real geniuses in the past..like the last one before me, too stupid to get out of the way of a battle.) I think, and once I proved that I wasn't some incompetent, fawning, drooling, fanbrat, he decided to keep me on even after my first tour of duty had ended. He could have requested another aide at that point, someone with at least nominal combat training and experience...But instead, he decided that he wasn't going to lose another assistant because they couldn't defend themselves adequately...In those days support track officers weren't properly trained to defend themselves, we were told to rely on the enlisted men for defense, that after all "that was what they were there for"...I wasn't ever stupid enough to parrot that kind of rigamarole back at the general, though I'd heard that some of his prior aides had, and ended up out on their singed ears, fast enough to make their heads swim! He started training me with his pre-SOLDIER class to make sure I was proficient with at least two major weapons, as well as unarmed combat and knife fighting. He started by asking me about all of my experiences with self defense..what kind of training I'd had...Not much other than basic training, magic defense, a decent gun course and a kick-em-in-the-crotch-and-run women's self-defense class. To size me up he had me stand with my arms straight out, and prowled slowly around me staring at me with those icy, aqua eyes that seemed to see every flaw, every weakness, so intently I swear I could feel it! I was sweating bullets the whole time! He decided I should stick to my own long range weapon; a discreet little handgun with armour piercing ammo..that I had been previously trained in and was judged adequate with. The second weapon he chose for me was a double bladed labrys axe that I initially had no idea how to use. He said I had a good reach for it, and was just not suited for swordwork. I was deeply honored that Sephiroth decided to train me himself, as he had trained many SOLDIERs before. Yes Mr. Zuri!, I actually did feel very honored...and even more than I was intimidated! In truth, it was much simpler than sending me all the way across town to the army training grounds...and I don't think his confidence in them was at an all time high after learning how little training that support track people were actually given. He did it himself, so he could be sure it was done correctly.
He started out by chasing me around the dojo or having one of the other SOLDIER trainees run me around for an hour or so teaching me evasion tactics...a method that involved me simply ducking, dodging, blocking or otherwise getting out of the way of his strikes. As I grew more skilled, he began to teach me how to handle my labrys. Working with a double bladed axe is tricky to say the least, at least until you learn how to use its momentum, and build enough strength in your arms for control...but once you master it, it's both weapon and shield in one! By the time he was finished with me, I could hold my own against all comers, up to and including pre-mako SOLDIER recruits...and I could, at least give a good accounting of myself against full fledged SOLDIERs.