Chapter 99 - "PROJECT S" - #020916

CLASSIFIED. CLEARANCE: EXECUTIVE - DIRECTOR VIP LEVEL ONLY. SHINRA ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY. HARD COPY ONLY. WITHHELD SHIPMENT TO STORAGE #31.

MISSION TITLE: "PROJECT S"
SHINRA ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY
Department of Public Safety - Investigation Section of the General Affairs Department "Turks"
Subject ID: #223 - Professor Hojo
Staff Assigned: Classified.
Report: 09.16.2002

NOTES: Presence and transcript requested by President Shinra.

MEETING TRANSCRIPT #020918
Meeting Attendees: President Shinra, Professor Hojo
Date of Interview: 09.16.02
Location of Interview: Executive Suite, Floor 70, HQ
List of Acronyms:
Professor Hojo=H
President Shinra=S

Intelligent Verbatim Transcript

[Begin Transcript at 0:09:25]

President Shinra (S): "Don't waste my time Hojo, what is the point here?"

Professor Hojo (H): "We've known each other for many years."

S: "Sure."

H: "You've funded so many of my projects and seen the results of all of them. Look at what the SOLDIER program has done for Shinra. Look at the monsters that crawl out of Deepground. Together, we have performed miracles with mako."

S: "'Together' is the wrong word."

H: "Well, my efforts have been-"

S: "And don't hold up the SOLDIER program like it is a success."

[10:00]

H: "What happened is Hollander's fault."

S: "Excuses."

H: "Before Hollander-"

S: "SOLDIER has thrown up like a sick child and now, even Genesis appears to have lived like a tick in our side."

H: "He is simply a weed. He will come back until we pull him up by the roots."

S: "I don't want another Genesis situation with Sephiroth."

H: "What about him?"

S: "Sephiroth is holding on to Shinra by a thread. Not even the Turks will tell me why he hasn't left yet."

[pause]

S [cont.]: "All that they have is his 'intention to leave' but he doesn't move."

H: "He can't. Not while he is on his drugs but that doesn't mean he isn't a threat to Shinra."

S: "So you agree."

H: "There has always been a risk with him but it is growing. I've realized that. That's why I am here."

[pause]

H [cont.]: "Allow me the funding to restart Project S."

[pause]

S: "Talk."

H: "Evolution, President Shinra."

[11:00]

H [cont.]: "Even you have mentioned the flaws of the SOLDIER program. We have learned so much from Project S but there is an inherent problem. Hollander's subjects meddled with mine. He is no longer the man he was at the middle or even the end of the war."

S: "You mean after he took massive psychological damage that you did nothing to mitigate?"

H: "I shouldn't have to. Sephiroth shouldn't need coddling. He should be perfect and he was, he took orders, he obeyed them, he lived his life within his cage until Angeal and Genesis came along and started giving him 'ideas.'

S: "Fine. Fix him in Deepground."

H: "A full restart is for the best."

S: "Seems like a waste of resources."

H: "I cannot wipe the memory clean of a man this physically famous. The minute he steps out of the facility, the employees, his past, everything will work against the conditioning. Even then, as secure as Deepground is, the ability of restraining, keeping and maintaining Sephiroth is a massive undertaking."

S: "You are prepared for it."

[12:00]

H: "I have the padded cell ready. I've made the combination of sedatives. We have the staff trained. The restraints have been tested. It is all in place. It's been in place for years but what if we don't need it?"

S: "'Retirement,' as you have always so sweetly called it, has always been the plan."

H: "The personnel, resources and lives, what if we don't need to commit them?"

S: "Shinra can afford it."

H: "I have been dabbling in cloning. Imagine this: a Sephiroth, naive, ready for another twenty, thirty years. We won't have to retrain him. We just...start over and upgrade him."

S: "Hmm."

H: This is the perfect opportunity. Sephiroth has yet to defect but we know he will. Project G's Genesis limps around in a remote area of the world. I already have enough DNA and biological material. We should send him to Genesis. It is statistically probable that they would fight. Let them cancel each other out and then we will go in and collect the bodies."

[13:00]

S: "He hasn't fought Genesis yet."

H: "Sephiroth's weakness has always been his emotions."

S: "So?"

H: "Send him home, Shinra. Let him find everything out."

[pause]

H [cont.]: "Send him home. Let us open all the doors. Let him wander into his own past. He will lash out in pain. If Genesis doesn't get him, I'm sure Zack Fair, the puppy and loyal First Class killer will do the job for us."

H [cont.]: "Let's start over."

[End of Excerpt at 00:13:53. Transcribed by Staff#145. Reviewed and verified by Staff #641.]