Zack skipped every other step giddily as he made his way to Sephiroth's place in the next morning. I do not know who was more excited to see Sephiroth, him or me, but at least his excitement would be noticed by our friend. Zack had been waiting for so long to actually train with his idol that he could hardly believe it was finally happening. While he was completely certain that he would get his butt kicked, it was all worth it to him, just for the experience and excitement, and he would recover in no time anyway, or so he thought. Having reached Sephiroth's door, he knocked three times, then another three times when he did not answer immediately. The door finally slid open and out stepped the tall, silver-haired SOLDIER, dressed in his usual combat gear, sword in hand, looking as tired as he could be expected after spending all day in the dusty archive and possibly reading the files he brought home after curfew all night through. Raising a hand and stepping aside, Zack said "Good morning!" Sephiroth passed him and responded indifferently: "Morning!"
Zack turned to follow Sephiroth, but the older SOLDIER was doing his best to pay no attention to him, although he must have been at least a little bit happy to be met with a friendly face, even if he did not let it show. They walked to the helipad, where Sephiroth nonchalantly bypassed the short queue of SOLDIERS waiting to be taken to their destinations and got on the next helicopter with Zack. "Wow, that's convenient!", Zack commented, which earned him a questioning look from his colleague. "What?" Zack crossed his hands behind his neck and explained: "Well, for you to be able to skip the line like that?" Sephiroth raised his eyebrows and countered: "You're a class 1st", as if that explained anything. He nodded toward the window, through which the SOLDIER quarters were seen getting smaller and smaller as the helicopter gained height. "You outrank everyone. Aside from me", he added.
It came as no surprise that it was news to Zack that he could simply pass by everyone else and claim the next available vehicle. He had been under my wing (no pun intended) for a long time and I used to have great time management. As such, I did not mind waiting for my turn. Sephiroth, being the first ever SOLDIER, had grown up being everyone else's senior and as such never had to learn to take waiting time into account when he planned his day. It was natural to have everyone make way for him. It was part of what earned him his reputation of being an arrogant prick. But his behavior did not stem from arrogance, but rather from his detachment from the lives of regular people and from the need to keep up the illusion that he was in control. He had his own problems, of course, and not just a few. And he kept those well-concealed, whenever he could.
After landing at the Shinra Headquarters, they got off the helicopter and made their way to the combat simulator on the SOLDIER floor, only to find it currently in use and the door locked. They could hear the faint noise of swords clanging against each other, hinting at lively training session. Leaning against the opposite wall, Zack said: "Looks like we have to wait for them to finish." Sephiroth shook his head. "If you want to train, we'll train, but I'm not waiting around here." Zack shrugged. "What are you going to do about it?" Sephiroth clicked his tongue as he pulled out his keycard. "I told you, we outrank everyone in SOLDIER." He swiped it over the reader, pressed a few buttons, and when the door slid open, the fighting noises from the inside died one after another.
Zack reluctantly followed Sephiroth, who stepped in first and was greeted by a feminine voice yelling: "What the hell?" A man joined in: "Hey, that's Sephiroth!", and then another man added: "And the other guy!" Zack stood beside Sephiroth to finally see who was inside and his eyes fell on three familiar figures, each of them wearing a black SOLDIER uniform, marking them as class 1st. "What do you want?", the blond man, whose name Zack had forgotten, demanded to know as Venus pushed up her visor to get a better look at them, and Zack waved at her as she did so, which caused her to groan and roll her eyes. "I want to use the combat simulator", Sephiroth stated in a matter-of-factual way, which earned him a snicker from the black-haired man, whose name Zack had also forgotten. Venus pushed down her visor again and responded: "Well then, you have to wait until we're done." To her two friends, she said as she turned away: "Let's continue." Sephiroth never once had to fight over his rights, aside from occasional disputes with Genesis over who was the top SOLDIER or who would get the last doughnut, and so he was at a loss for words at the reaction he got from her. Unexpected assistance came in the shape of the blonde man, who threw in: "Hey, isn't this a good opportunity?" Venus glanced at him from the side as the other man threw back: "Right, right!" Venus groaned again and threw her hands in the air in frustration as she turned back and pointed her sword at Zack and Sephiroth: "We'll let you use the simulator if you win!"
Sephiroth raised his eyebrows, but took only a few moments to decide what to do. He drew his sword and went into his battle stance, his sword pointed straight at his opponents. "Let us?", he commented her choice of words, which earned him a smirk from her as she, too, assumed her stance. As her two friends joined in, hollering: "Yo!" and "Let's do it!", Zack raised his hands and tried to de-escalate the situation by stepping in between the two parties and pleading: "Hey, uh, we can wait, it's fine. We… don't need to fight?" His bargaining was commented by the black-haired man: "Three to two? Doesn't that seem kinda unfair?" The blonde man flexed his neck as he added: "Too bad, I'm not going to miss the fun." To everyone's surprise, Sephiroth relaxed his stance as he responded: "You're right! That's really unfair", sheathed his sword, turned away and leaned against the wall. Nodding their way, he said to Zack: "You do it." Zack threw his hands in the air, yelling: "What? No!" Venus cursed at them: "Don't you dare make fun of us!" Sephiroth added curtly: "That's your training for today." – "Prepare yourself!", Venus yelled as she raised her sword and Zack whirled around, pleading: "No, wait!" He was barely able to parry her first blow as he sluggishly drew his sword and immediately had to get out of the way to evade a tri-fire from the black-haired man, only to be dealt the first hit by the blonde man.
I must hand it to Sephiroth, he was quite sly when it came to weaseling his way out of things he did not really want to do without outright refusing them. It was not that he did not want to fight those three – he would have been happy to teach them a lesson by giving them a butt kicking they would not so easily forget. He was not at all opposed to accepting a challenge from someone who ridiculed him. It was the match with Zack that he did not want to get himself into. After he gave Genesis the wound he never recovered from that started the whole mess that tore us apart, I think he was afraid of hurting anyone else close to him. And Zack, quite frankly, was still too green to stand up to Sephiroth, even in a play fight. There was a realistic chance that he could be killed by Sephiroth by a mere stroke of misfortune if he did not hold himself back well enough, or if Zack was as clumsy as he was currently being, faced with three freshly promoted class 1st SOLDIERs.
Their fighting strategy was quite unusual, and watching them really showed me what Genesis, Sephiroth and I had always been lacking: synergy through teamwork. Every time Zack regained some freedom to maneuver, two of them would drive him into a position where he could not escape the devastating blow from the third, after which the cat and mouse game started all over, and every time he managed to turn the situation around just enough to counterattack, they covered each other impeccably, and he could not manage to land a single strike. Their skills, too, complemented each other quite well. The blonde, bulky man (I actually did not know who was who either because they never introduced themselves and I could only assume that the woman was Venus) was a powerful, but rather slow fighter, who did not even flinch when Zack's massive sword came down on him, but rather blocked the blow with full force, stopping it in its tracks and pushing him back. Venus was quick and could change her position or get behind her opponent within the blink of an eye. She was never even grazed by Zack's sword because she was too fast for him. The black-haired man was holding a sword, but his main job appeared to be spellcasting. Not just the powerful tri-fire he had set off in the beginning of the battle, but he could also use a variety of buffs, which he applied generously to his two friends, while rarely coming in close quarters with his opponent. There was no way Zack could win this kind of fight by himself, especially not without any preparation. Sephiroth, who was standing by, still leaning against the wall, seemed to think the same way, as he had to yawn heartily about halfway through Zack's ordeal and rolled his eyes a few times, probably believing that no one was watching him.
When Zack finally ended up on the floor, his sword sliding away, three swords pointed at him from all directions, and he could do nothing but raise his hands and plead: "OK, OK, I give up!". The three nodded and smirked at each other triumphantly. It was a trifling victory, considering their great advantage in numbers and surprise attack, but a victory nonetheless. Not the kind of victory I would be proud of, but I could imagine that their tactics were very useful on an actual battlefield where they gained safety in numbers. The tinkling and rainbow sparkle of a curaga spell cast on Zack drew their attention away from each other and to their second remaining opponent. Sephiroth had pushed himself off the wall and done what he did best when one of his friends was wounded, even if the wound was as small as a paper cut (yes, that did happen once), that is, throw cure spells around. The three turned away from Zack and regrouped, their swords pointed at Sephiroth.
"Now it's your turn, you coward!", Venus spat at him, and the blonde man chimed in: "Are you proud of making your friend take the fall for you?", which Sephiroth acknowledged with a disdainful scoff, followed by the black-haired man throwing another provocation his way with a condescending tone: "What's wrong? Can't fight without your friends?" No matter what I said in praise of their fighting style, I had no doubt that these three were bullies of the worst kind, and I knew just as well how much Sephiroth hated bullies, and that these three were in for a beating of a lifetime. Zack, in what little wisdom he possessed, had already recovered his sword and retreated to the side wall of the room, as far away from them as possible, and was watching from the side. He was just as surprised as I was to witness the nature of the beating they would receive, for Sephiroth drew his sword and assumed his stance, but then remained still. Neither did the other three move, aside from the light trembling of their hands holding their swords. Whether it was from excitement or fear, I could not tell, but all of them were straining to watch every single muscle in Sephiroth's body for the smallest hint at a lightning-fast motion that would announce their doom. But Sephiroth's mouth only twitched into a grimace and he let out a tiny chuckle when one of his hands let go of his sword slowly, slowly, and reached into his coat, where he sometimes stored things when it took too much effort for him to actually reach his pockets and just as slowly, slowly, pulled out something concealed in his fist. Expecting a grenade or another explosive, the three backed away, but stared intently when he revealed a small plant, holding it with two fingers and outstretched arm, as if to show it to them.
Dead as I was, I still broke out into a roaring laugh when I realized what it was. Clearly, they had no idea, for they just shot each other questioning glances. And neither did Zack, who was pinching his eyes and stretching his neck forward to get a better view. The smell of chocobos slowly spreading through the room could have alerted them as to its nature, for the small plant with the large red bulbous root and the fan-shaped green-purplish leaves was notorious for its distinct aroma. Everyone going to battle, especially in larger groups, should be aware of it because it was easily confused with a plant that had a similar smell, but served the very different purpose of catching chocobos, and many a traveler had fallen into the trap of accidentally picking the wrong plant and falling off a cliff or attacking their own comrades in confusion. But using such tactics was so untypical for Sephiroth that no one in their right mind could have expected it. Nonetheless, he smirked again before he threw the loco weed into the air and cut it in half with his sword. The smell of chocobos became almost overbearing as the fumes spread through the room.
Naturally, being dead, I was immune to its effects, but those three? Venus' eyes focused on something hanging in front of her in mid-air and, lowering her sword, she set one foot before the next in an attempt to follow whatever it was across the room. The other two were not so well-off, as the blond man started swinging his sword around aimlessly, getting dangerously close to the other man, who started shooting fire balls at his friend, who was hit more than once with full force, his uniform charring away, but he appeared to not feel any pain. Venus eventually turned around and mistook her smoking friend for a bomb and struck him down, as swiftly as she could, under the influence of the loco weed. But not only these three were affected by it; Zack had gotten up from where he had sat and approached Sephiroth with slow, unsteady footsteps, raising his sword high above his head. Naturally, Sephiroth noticed the approaching hazard and slapped Zack hard across the face before he could reach him. Squeezing Zack's cheek hard with one hand, Sephiroth groaned at him: "Why did you inhale it?" Zack tried to wind himself out of Sephiroth's grip in vain, yelling: "What? What's going on? Let me go!" Sephiroth sighed and let him go, which immediately sent Zack falling backwards on the ground, from where he continued to yell: "What's the matter, man? What's wrong with you?" Sephiroth only shrugged, shook his head and pointed at the other three, one of whom (the blonde man) was already down and the other two were taking turns in slapping their swords across each other's head, which finally sent the black-haired man to the ground. Venus turned towards her two remaining opponents and came for them, yelling and swinging her sword wildly. Sephiroth did not draw, but took a few lightning-fast steps toward her to drive the handle of his sword into her solarplexus, an attack that was very effective in temporarily disabling an opponent without causing them serious harm.
Zack scratched his head in wonder at the scene in front of him as Venus, too, collapsed on the ground. "What the hell?", he wondered incredulously. Sephiroth turned back to him and asked, equally full of disbelief: "Haven't you ever seen a loco weed?" Zack shook his head. I was not too surprised, seeing as loco weed was native to the Wutaian continent, and Zack had not been there nearly as often as we had. Of course, one could buy it in Midgar if they knew where to look. Sephiroth folded his arms and sighed: "Well, then, that's your lesson for today." He turned back toward the three who lay on the ground in front of him and cast a curaga on the blonde man, who was the only one seriously injured after having been hit by several spells and sword strikes.
"I didn't realize you used such tricks", Zack said carefully in order to not offend his friend, but he was completely correct in saying that. I, myself, was wondering why Sephiroth was carrying around loco weed. "It doesn't seem like your thing", Zack continued, which provoked Sephiroth to shake his head and gesture with his free hand, his back still turned to Zack. "Angeal taught me this trick. I thought it would fit your style." He did that sometimes when he tried to conceal something. I was beginning to think that Sephiroth had originally planned to use it on Zack. Like I said, he was a genius at avoiding things he was not really keen on doing, such as sparring with Zack, whose strength and speed were both far inferior to the top SOLDIER. It was simply too dangerous for him in case Sephiroth got carried away in a match, which could happen very easily. This was the reason Sephiroth had at some point stopped fighting "for fun" against those who could not stand up to him if he got serious. Naturally, this was another thing that got him his reputation of being an arrogant prick. I, on the other hand, felt myself falling for him all over again because he was so smart and cool.
Sephiroth turned around and came toward Zack, explaining: "Anyway, looks like you lost you lost your rank as the second strongest in SOLDIER." Zack scratched his head again and objected: "Does that even count? They ganged up on me!" Sephiroth shrugged. "Doesn't matter. Real battles aren't always fair either. You should train with them until you defeat them all together. No need to ask me again before you accomplish that. Training's over."