Chapter Twenty-Four: The Warrior
Lachlan entered the elevator first, slightly unnerved by the sight. The elevator was glass, and they were far, far above the city. It was at once thrilling, beautiful, and dizzying.
Daichi waved his badge over a scanner, which turned green and chimed softly. He then pushed a button, and they began a steady ascent.
When the doors opened, Lachlan could do nothing but stare.
On the gray wall was printed "Soldier Floor".
"Uh…Daichi? Are you sure you've got the right floor?"
"Positive." Daichi exited the elevator. He didn't turn around for Lachlan to see, but he imagined a slight smirk on the Turk's face.
"Erm…right." There was nothing to do but follow. The only thing he could think of that was worse than being on the soldier floor was being on the soldier floor by himself.
He took a brief moment to think of what he knew about Soldiers. They were, first of all, heroes. No boy that he knew of hadn't played at being Soldier on the playgrounds. They were idols, but more often than not, unreachable ones. Little was actually known, and rumors were rampant. Some said they weren't even human, but that some special surgery turned them into something else. It didn't stop young men from enlisting, forever dreaming of being a Soldier First Class. Few made it that far. Most just disappeared into the ranks and files of the Shinra army.
He supposed he should have felt awed. He was stepping into a world of heroes, after all. But he found more fear in his heart than admiration. After all, no one actually knew anything about them.
Except, of course, that they were lethal warriors.
For the scholar, it was a very daunting thing.
"This way," Daichi said, and Lachlan left his thoughts to return to the real world. They weren't helping him anyway.
Lachlan followed, making a point to not look directly at any of the uniformed men passing by him. Daichi was not affected, and Lachlan thought that he was walking a bit too arrogantly, like he owned the place. A few Soldiers recognized him, calling out or nodding a brief "hello".
"Where exactly are we going?" Lachlan asked, clutching his hat in his sweating hands.
"To see Sephiroth."
"Where?"
"The company training room."
"But Sephiroth would be too young to—"
Lachlan stopped dead in his tracks.
Impossible! He's too young!
But a sick feeling in his heart told him that it had to be so.
A Soldier! At age seven!
Daichi stopped as well, waiting for Lachlan to follow. When he didn't, he turned to face the scholar.
"Come and see for yourself."
Something told him that he did not want to see this, but he followed anyway.
Lachlan and Daichi arrived at the training room. Through the glass doors, Lachlan saw Sephiroth as he had never dreamed he could be.
He was dressed in Soldier uniform, and Lachlan idly wondered if they'd had to specially make one that small. He had the standard pauldrons, and leather gloves and boots. His sleeveless sweater and pants were blue, and both were baggy, almost dangling off his slender limbs. Around his waist was a belt embossed with the Soldier logo.
He looked just like a Soldier.
Albeit a very small one.
"He is third class," Daichi said. "But in name only. Hojo has not allowed him to go out on assignment."
"That's a relief, I guess."
Lachlan couldn't read the look that Daichi gave him out of the corner of his eye.
"He has been recommended for second class."
Lachlan shook his head. "I don't believe it! What is Shinra thinking, putting that type of label on a child? He'll get himself killed!"
"He'll get himself killed, eh?" Daichi was smirking, which made Lachlan very uncomfortable. "Watch. He's just about to start a simulation."
Sephiroth wore a helmet that covered his eyes and ears, putting him in a different world that they two men could not be privy to. Lachlan held his breath as Sephiroth drew a sword from a sheathe across his back. The blade was probably the length of his body, but he held it with ease. He was steady; breathing easily, stance firm, and the barest hint of a confident smirk on his lips as he appraised his virtual enemy.
A computerized voice began the battle with, "Activating combat mode."
And then Sephiroth lunged.
Lachlan was stunned, breathless. He supposed the battle could only have lasted a minute or two, but he saw all that he needed to see to get Daichi's point.
The boy was a warrior. And a better one than Lachlan had ever imagined possible.
The way he moved was like something from a fantasy. His feet glided effortlessly, deft and precise. In the deadly dance, his blade flew, sometimes in a playful stabs or parries, other times in thrusts of lunges too quick to see anything but a silver streak of the blade's path. Though he could not see the enemy that Sephiroth was facing, there was no doubt in mind who the victor was once the boy fell still at last.
Looking at him like that, it was easy to forget that he was only a child.
"Conflict resolved," the computer said.
"Woah," was all that Lachlan could say.
Daichi went into the training room without a word, while Lachlan remained outside. He couldn't hear, but he knew the two exchanged brief greetings. Sephiroth tilted his head again in response to something Daichi said, a small smirk on his face. He removed his helmet and took a ready stance again.
And then Daichi pulled a gun on Sephiroth.
Lachlan reacted in fear, running forward, but only hitting the glass. The door did not open; it had been sealed. The sound of him hitting the glass caught the boy's attention. Sephiroth looked his way for a moment, head slightly tilted in confusion.
Lachlan knew it was stupid. Even if he could get in, how would he stop the two of them? Instead, as Sephiroth drew his sword, he put his hands over his eyes, but found himself peeking through his fingers in morbid, terrified curiosity.
Daichi fired.
Sephiroth's blade flashed.
It was so quick that Lachlan was left dumbfounded. What exactly had happened?
Daichi fired again, and a third time.
The boy's blade flashed twice more.
Lachlan blinked. Maybe he had missed it as he did so.
The third round, Lachlan held his eyes open, determined not to miss it.
Sephiroth was deflecting the bullets with his sword.
Lachlan's mouth fell open. "Impossible…"
Sephiroth humored the Turk for a while, batting at the bullets as easily as if he were swatting flies. He was smiling – something Lachlan had never seen him do before. He looked free, unrestrained as he and his sword danced together. Lachlan sadly thought that this was probably the most freedom the boy had ever enjoyed.
After the boy tired of the practice, he brought it to an end by sidestepping behind Daichi and pressing the tip of his blade into the Turk's lower back, though not hard enough to draw blood. Daichi dropped the gun in defeat and left the boy to his practice.
Daichi headed past Lachlan and toward the elevators. Lachlan followed without a word.
"He bested his own swordmasters a year ago. There is no one except for the higher ranked Soldiers who can even present a challenge for him."
"Oh," Lachlan said. "Erm…wow."
"How do you feel about him now?" Daichi asked. "Do you see your pupil differently?"
Lachlan did, but he wasn't sure just how yet. Sephiroth was incredible. Only at age seven, and he was nearly unrivaled. It was at once a miracle and a curse.
The disturbing thought came to him: had Sephiroth ever killed another human? Had his innocence already been stripped away? He didn't dare to ask.
So what was Sephiroth? A prodigy? A threat? A monster?
They returned to the ground floor, which Lachlan assumed was his cue to leave for the day. His thoughts were heavy and tangled.
"He is a child," Lachlan said, still half undecided himself. "And…if no one else will, then I will try to treat him like one. He deserves a childhood."
Daichi sighed. "Once, I thought like you too. But time here will show you that it is impossible."
"I don't want to believe it," Lachlan said.
There was great sadness in Daichi's eyes as he said, "Neither do I."
A/N: Only in FFVII do swords beat guns. ;P
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