Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Strike

What do you want? It’s late. Go to sleep.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

You too, Daddy. You must be tired after working all day.

 

Strike

Yeah.

 

[GayGay] Clo****** has sent you a link.**

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Wow（＾ω＾）you’re so good to me, babe

 

Strike

Yeah.

Sephiroth stared at the chat window, where no new messages appeared.

A while later, he was jolted back to himself by the nonstop pinging of incoming notifications. The script he had written was still running automatically on the computer.

And yet his first income of the night had come from his nemesis.

He clicked the payment link.

2,000 gil received.

――――

“Kadaj. What exactly is going on here? The manual you gave me said nothing about this.”

Kadaj was dragged into the illegal structure Sephiroth had built inside the Lifestream. The moment his consciousness formed, he was greeted by a glare colder than Shiva herself.

“What manual―wait, you actually scammed money out of someone?!”

The remnant paused for one second, then shouted.

That so-called manual was nothing more than a gold-digger’s guidebook he had casually downloaded through the highly convenient plot-device internet cable.

The original snorted with noble disdain.

“They gave it to me voluntarily. But that is not the issue. I intended to use the money I received to improve Cloud’s combat capability. Why is Cloud sending money to me?”

“Cloud… Big Brother…? You connected with my brother?!”

Fortunately, Kadaj’s brain worked fast. He shoved Sephiroth aside and grabbed the phones, checking the chats one by one.

“The one on the far left.”

Only after watching him rummage across the desk for a while did the original leisurely offer that hint.

“Say that sooner! Sephiroth, do you actually want me to help you or not?!”

He got another cold snort for that.

It was hard to imagine this man, scowling every day, typing things like Babe, you worked so hard today to strangers across the internet.

Although, well. Kadaj had gotten used to it. More or less.

“It really is Big Brother. Uwaaah… so many motorcycles… and with that payment account name… ninety-nine percent… no, that has to be him… Big Brother… really…”

Kadaj was still scrolling through the chat logs in disbelief.

But the socially awkward writing style, the inexplicable health advice, and the sudden money transfer―no matter how he looked at it, this was the man Kadaj admired.

Cloud Strife.

“I’d say it’s one hundred percent him. No need to doubt it.” Sephiroth tapped the table. “The question is whether we should cut contact. This is far too embarrassing.”

A pleased smile still lingered on the original’s face.

Disgusting.

Kadaj felt nonexistent goosebumps rise across his nonexistent skin. He rubbed his shoulders and was just about to persuade him to cut contact when―

The phone vibrated.

Two pairs of green eyes looked at the screen at the same time.

Strike

I saw some very pretty flowers today.

[image] [image]

“Kadaj. Later, move Strike’s chat logs and profile information into the key customer folder. Today, I will find a way to scam―guide him into chatting privately on a social app.”

It took the man less than five seconds to issue the order.

“Yes, Lord Sephiroth.”

Kadaj dropped to one knee and bowed.

Even if he wanted to object, there would be no point. The original’s control over his remnants was absolute.

Besides―

He was genuinely curious how long it would take Sephiroth to realize this was not, in fact, key customer selection.

tbc.

Chapter Text

Strike

Flowers are symbols of important people.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

That sounds like you’ve been through something really heavy, Daddy. Lily-chan doesn’t really get it.

 

Strike

At your age, you should be going to school. Don’t keep doing this.

 

[GayGay] Clo****** has sent you a link.**

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Daddy, y-you don’t have to send me that much spending money. Lily-chan just wanted to keep you company.

 

[GayGay] Mas****** has sent you a link.**

 

Lily-chan of Craving

I sent the money back. I don’t do this for a living. I’m just lonely, that’s all. Geez, Daddy, what kind of girl do you think Lily-chan is!

 

Strike

Sorry…

[sad.jpg] [sorry.jpg]

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Hmph. Next time I won’t let you off so easy ψ(｀∇´)ψ

But, Daddy, didn’t you tell me not to do this?

Then let’s not talk here anymore.

There are all these weird men here. Lily-chan’s kind of scared.

And sometimes messages get eaten. I almost didn’t see your flowers just now.

 

Strike

Where should we switch to?

 

Lily-chan of Craving

If you don’t mind―

[QR code]

This is easier for chatting.

And payments don’t get charged a platform fee here.

Ah, that’s not what I meant.

I just want to return the extra money.

 

Strike

👌

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Daddy?

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Daddy Strike…?

Are you busy?

If you added me… at least say something…

 

Cloud saved the QR code, then got back on his motorcycle and went to make his delivery.

Tonight’s customer lived on the outskirts of Junon. It was not that far from Edge, but the express package had to arrive before the night was over.

As he roared across the grasslands in the night wind, he thought, vaguely, about how he had ended up downloading that chat app in the first place.

――――

“Doctor, what do you mean his cell concentration can’t be measured?”

Tifa asked, her voice pained.

She had come with Cloud today to pick up his test results. In contrast to Cloud, who stood off to the side with his hands hanging at his sides as if none of this had anything to do with him, she looked more like a patient’s family member.

“I mean exactly what I said. The concentration of Jenova cells has exceeded the upper detection limit of our instruments.”

The doctor pushed up his glasses and spoke with unmistakable sympathy.

“However, in terms of systemic stability, this is not deterioration. Mr. Strife’s physical functions are healthy. These extraterrestrial cells are operating quite well inside him.”

Large tears welled up in Tifa’s garnet eyes.

“That’s… that’s too cruel… to Cloud…”

Even while crying, Tifa was still beautiful.

Cloud patted around in his pocket, pulled out a handkerchief, and handed it to her.

Then he turned back to the doctor and shrugged.

“So, in conclusion, I’m not going to die. Right?”

The old man in the white coat hesitated for a second, then nodded.

“That’s great, isn’t it?”

After that, the doctor and Tifa seemed to say something else.

Cloud could not really remember.

――――

“Oh! The handyman guy! Thanks.”

The client opened the door. He was a middle-aged man with his shirt off, and he took the package from Cloud before counting a few bills out of his wallet.

“I’m the branch, a delivery company,” Cloud corrected him.

“Same difference.” The man waved a hand. “Oh, right. Another guy from your company is around here today too. The village chief asked him to go drive off some monsters or something. Want to go take a look?”

He pointed Cloud in the right direction.

Cloud thought about it. There was something he wanted to ask him anyway, so he nodded.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. You really saved us tonight, haha.”

The door closed.

From inside came the sound of packaging being torn open, and a woman speaking softly.

What happened after a package was delivered had nothing to do with the courier.

――――

“That app you recommended to me. It’s pretty good.”

Cloud found the black-haired man sitting on the corpse of a beast he had just finished killing.

Before the man could even finish waving hello, Cloud spoke with unusual urgency.

“What app? Uh… you actually talked to someone on there? I forgot to tell you, that place is full of scammers. Come here. Big Bro will take a look for you.”

Cloud sat down beside him.

The freshly dead body was still warm and elastic beneath them. He unlocked his phone and showed Zack the chat history between himself and “Lily-chan of Craving.”

“Mm-hm, mm-hm, mm-hm… this… I see… I see…”

Zack not only read through their chat log, but also opened Lily-chan’s profile and scrolled through it thoroughly. Cloud had already looked at it too. It was mostly faceless selfies. Nothing special.

“You ran into a gold digger, Cloud.”

……………

“?”

“It’s not a ‘?’ situation! To put it simply, you’re being scammed!”

Scammed…?

What did that mean?

“This person might not be eighteen. She might not even be a woman. Don’t switch to another platform, don’t send any more money, and block her right now.”

A hand in a tactical glove was almost touching the Block button.

Cloud snatched the phone away and hid it behind his back.

Zack lunged for it. The two of them ended up half-seriously wrestling in the grass, rolling through the dirt until they finally collapsed onto their backs, panting, limbs spread out in matching starfish shapes.

“What the hell… you haven’t actually fallen for her, have you…?”

Zack’s confused voice came from beside him.

“No.”

Cloud looked up at the crescent moon hanging in the night sky.

“I just… get the feeling… she doesn’t really want to stay there either…”

Zack scratched at his spiky black hair. He sounded like he was sighing.

He had made his friend worry again.

Cloud swallowed the sourness rising in his chest.

“Okay, look. I’m not gonna stop you from having an online romance. Blowing off some stress once in a while is fine. But―listen, okay? Promise me you’ll show me the chats when you talk to that person from now on. And don’t just keep throwing money at her. Try testing whether she can meet offline. If anything feels wrong, block her immediately. Got it, Cloud?”

“Yeah.”

After all, the problem was on Cloud’s side.

“I promise, Zack.”

He could no longer lift his sword.

tbc

Chapter Text

System Notice: You and Strike are now friends. Go say hi!

 

Lily-chan of Craving

It went through. Daddy, you’re so mean. Lily-chan thought you were going to leave me behind 🥺

 

Strike

Sorry. Was… busy.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Night shift? lol

It’s okay. You do what you need to do.

 

Strike

Yeah.

 

Strike

By the way, I still haven’t seen your face.

I’m a little worried.

Just to make sure. Just to make sure, okay?

Could you send me a photo with your face in it…?

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Daddy, what do you… mean?

You’re suddenly being kind of scary.

 

Strike

Where are you from? Can you meet offline? If not, let’s just delete each other.

That’s what I mean lol

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Wait a second.

Are you… doubting me?

“Zack… don’t bully her.”

Cloud looked at the message his friend had sent and frowned before he could stop himself.

“I’m helping you check her out. Girls online are sharp, okay? That photo might be stolen from someone else, for all we know.”

Zack spoke with the solemn weight of an older brother giving life advice.

The two of them huddled together, staring gravely at the tiny screen of Cloud’s phone.

The other party is typing…

The notification stayed there for a long time.

Cloud silently prayed that Lily-chan would not actually send a photo, while also feeling a little curious about who this girl really was.

His heart was beating so hard it almost leapt out of his chest.

After a long while, an image popped up in the chat window.

The signal here was poor. Only a blurry thumbnail appeared.

“I’m opening it, okay…”

For some reason, Zack looked nervous too. He swallowed audibly and tapped View Original.

Piece by piece, the full image loaded.

…

…

It was a thin, pale figure.

She was wearing a tight black leather outfit, the metal zipper pulled halfway down. One hand covered most of her face, leaving only sharply protruding collarbones that could not possibly be called sexy, and lips painted with lipstick.

Her pose looked stiff, as if she were trying to shrink away from the camera.

“This… doesn’t this make her look even more like a scammer…?”

Zack’s face turned red.

Cloud’s face went red too. He snatched the phone back and typed rapidly.

Strike

You didn’t need to send a photo like that.

The messages just now were from my friend. He was joking. Please unsend it.

 

Lily-chan unsent a message.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

So it was your friend.

Daddy, are you really chatting with a girl online in the middle of the night together with your friend?

What kind of shady night shift is this?

 

Strike

No! You’re misunderstanding! We’re just normal friends who run a handyman service together in Edge.

 

Strike

What about you? Where do you live?

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Me?

I’m from Mideel. I live in Kalm with my mom.

 

Strike

Then we’re pretty close.

 

Strike

Eat more when you can. You look too thin.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Daddy, don’t worry about me.

Lily-chan isn’t on a diet.

 

Strike

By the way. Is your hair natural? Silver hair is rare.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Haha. Daddy’s talking a lot more now.

Is this another test from Friend-kun?

 

Strike

No! I chased him off.

Everything before was me.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

I know, I know.

By the way, it’s dyed. My real hair color is black.

Do you want to see? lol

 

Strike

Go to sleep early.

I’m going to sleep too.

Good night.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Good night.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Let’s talk tomorrow, Daddy Steike.

“Did that count as getting away with it?”

Kadaj had already pulled his collar back up. He was scrubbing the lipstick off his mouth with a tissue as he spoke.

“I believe so.”

Sephiroth sat in his office chair. He put down the phone and rubbed his brow, as if the whole thing had taken a great toll on him.

What the hell was he so exhausted for?

Kadaj was the one who had made the actual sacrifice just now!

“Why did it have to be me?! Lord Sephiroth, can’t you shapeshift?”

He could not help complaining to the original.

“Shapeshifting will not necessarily produce identical results every time. If we send too many photos in the future and Cloud notices inconsistencies in the details, that would be a problem.”

Even when Sephiroth sent photos to other people, he never used shapeshifting. They were all AI-generated.

One might say he was the most knowledgeable alien on all of Gaia when it came to deepfakes.

Although he had over a thousand generated selfies at hand, finding a set that convincingly looked like the same person was difficult. For his long-term strategic objectives, that was an unnecessary risk.

“The biggest problem now is meeting offline, isn’t it?”

Kadaj said.

“Are you worried that Cloud or his friend will run to Kalm to look for an eighteen-year-old online girlfriend who was originally black-haired and moved there from Mideel with her mother?”

A mysterious smile appeared on the original’s face.

“That would make them look like stalkers. Based on my understanding of Cloud, he would not allow himself to cross the line and pry into another person’s private life.”

He paused.

“Especially when the other party is a helpless, defenseless, pitiful young girl.”

…Who the hell described himself like that?

Kadaj only dared to think it.

After all, he was nothing more than a tiny little cog in Sephiroth’s romance-scam industrial chain.

And now he was also working part-time as graphic designer and thirst-trap model.

The remnant sat down. He had barely begun the exhausting work of importing the chat logs when the original’s voice drifted down from above.

“Oh, right. Cloud thought you were too thin. Could you perhaps―”

“I cannot! I am perfectly satisfied with my body!”

Kadaj sprang up at once.

“That is fine. There is no need to get so worked up.”

The silver-haired man shrugged.

Then he lowered his head and continued tirelessly producing worthless emotional labor.

“Hey! Lord Sephiroth, isn’t this spelled wrong?”

Kadaj called the original over and pointed at the words on the screen.

Daddy Steike.

Sephiroth stroked his chin and thought about it for a very long time.

Kadaj truly had no idea what there was to think about. It was a typo.

“Should we unsend it?”

Kadaj asked.

“No. Leave it.”

The original said at last.

“Allow Lily-chan to retain a slight air of clumsy-girl charm. It will make the target lower his guard.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good boy. Continue entering the data.”

“Yes.”

The remnant’s mouse was about to start throwing sparks.

In the operation room, the pleasant chime of incoming money rang out from time to time.

Come to think of it, did the original still remember that his initial objective had been to save up money to buy equipment for his nemesis?

Kadaj glanced at Sephiroth’s back as the man lowered his head and kept typing.

His mouth opened and closed twice.

In the end, he shut it tightly and threw himself back into the vast sea of electronic archiving.

tbc.

Chapter Text

Strike

Buy yourself something to eat. Do you still have money?

 

[GayGay] Strike sent you a gift.

[GayGay] Lily-chan claimed your gift.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Thanks, Daddy.

I’m going to get milk tea now.

Did you see any flowers today too?

The ones from last time were so pretty. We didn’t have flowers like that in Mideel.

 

Strike

Those were yellow lilies.

A friend of mine used to grow them at the church.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

“Used to”?

They don’t grow there anymore?

 

Strike

No.

She’s been gone for two years now.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

“Gone”…?

 

[GayGay] Strike sent you a gift.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Ah, Daddy Strike.

When you get a question you don’t know how to answer, don’t just distract me with gifts!

 

Strike

You’re the one distracting me. Stop drinking milk tea and eat some meat.

[image]

I’m eating lunch right now. I’ll send flowers later.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Hehe. Then I’ll be looking forward to it, Daddy.

 

Strike

It’s no trouble.

“Everything is proceeding according to plan,” Sephiroth said, setting down his phone and swiveling halfway around in his office chair to address Kadaj. “Your photo was quite effective as well. Cloud has started asking whether I’m eating properly. Well done, Kadaj.”

“…He was clearly worried about my collarbones.”

Kadaj rolled his eyes at his workstation.

By now, the original had handed all the other operations over to him. He had even dragged a long shared desk into the conference room, letting the remnant experience the adult world ahead of schedule.

Which was to say—

overtime, KPIs, and delayed retirement.

Why hadn’t a world like this been destroyed already? The original ought to hurry up and die too.

The problem was that both the original and he were already dead.

Dead, and still working. Dead, and still having to deal with a self-centered boss.

This world really was a piece of shit.

Kadaj sighed.

“So, are we ordering equipment for Big Brother this time? I thought all the last ones got returned.”

“We are,” Sephiroth said. “But not under my name. Rather—”

The original brushed a finger over his lips. His green eyes gleamed in the dim operations room.

――――

Cloud closed the lid on his lunch box, put away the leftovers in the back compartment of the bike, and pulled on his goggles.

He still had several deliveries to make that afternoon.

Although he had lost his reason for wielding a sword, he still had to go on existing. He still had to earn money and support the people around him.

If there was anything left for him to worry about, it was Sephiroth’s return.

How was he supposed to protect his friends, protect the world that girl cherished, protect this place where so many people kept struggling to stay alive, if he could no longer fight?

He twisted the throttle and was just about to kick the engine to life when something occurred to him. He took out his phone.

Then he snapped a picture of the cornflower blooming beneath the front wheel.

As he shoved the phone back into the side pouch of the motorcycle, his hand brushed against a cardboard box.

It was not addressed to any customer. It was something he had been planning to send back.

The sender was none other than the silver-haired calamity himself.

Cloud rubbed at his brow, trying to force his attention back to work, but his thoughts drifted in spite of him.

――――

At first, people thought it had merely been a berserk episode.

By the time anyone realized what had happened, Cloud was already standing in front of the hacked-apart, mangled corpse of a monster, blankly being pulled into the arms of a black-haired man. Something firm and warm patted the top of his head over and over.

“That’s enough, Cloud. I’m okay. You don’t have to… you don’t have to go this far…”

What… is this…?

Did I do this…?

When his eyes moved, all he saw were people gathered around him, whispering among themselves. Every person his gaze passed over reflexively looked away, but the murmurs still reached his ears.

“Monster…”

Huh…?

Are they… talking about me?

After that, every time he took hold of a sword, Cloud would lose consciousness. Whenever he opened his eyes again, his hands were always covered in blood.

Reality disgusted him.

The worried looks his friends gave him left him at a loss.

But the thing he found hardest to accept was the doctor’s verdict.

“This is not the same thing as SOLDIER degradation. If I had to describe it, I would say that the predatory instinct of the alien cells rapidly increases in concentration whenever Mr. Strife’s fighting instincts are stimulated.”

I don’t understand.

I don’t know what you’re saying.

He tried his best to focus, staring at the doctor’s moving mouth.

……

It still wasn’t enough.

Tifa had started crying again. Cloud frowned and said softly to her,

“Let’s listen to what the doctor says first. There has to be some kind of solution.”

――――

Strike

[image]

 

Lily-chan of Craving

What flower is that?

It’s blue. It suits you so well, Daddy.

It feels like it bloomed at your feet just waiting for you to pass by.

 

Strike

It’s just an ordinary cornflower.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

But Daddy Strike saw it.

That makes it one of a kind now.

 

Strike

It’s not that special.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Daddy’s getting shy again.

By the way, you’re always the one sending Lily-chan gifts.

Sometimes Lily-chan wants to send you something too.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

It’s nothing expensive.

Just a little thing Lily-chan saw while shopping with her mom.

If it’s inconvenient, can I send it to your shop?

 

Strike

Don’t. I can buy my own things.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

What’s wrong?

Are you still suspicious of me?

Lily-chan really isn’t a scammer!

 

Strike

That’s not the issue.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

If that’s not the issue,

then what is?

 

Strike

……

If I send you another gift, are you going to say I’m avoiding the question again?

 

Lily-chan of Craving

I won’t lol

 

Strike

You literally laughed…

 

Strike

Seriously. You don’t need to spend money on me.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Then when Daddy sends me gifts,

isn’t that unnecessary too?

 

Strike

That’s different!

 

Lily-chan of Craving

How is it different?

I just wanted to, that’s all.

Geez. Daddy, you dummy!

 

Strike

……

I’ll go ask the people at the bar first.

“Tifa, there’s a package that might be delivered to the shop. Could I ask you to sign for it?”

Cloud lifted his head and said so.

The owner of Seventh Heaven—and also the receptionist of Strife Delivery—blinked.

“I mean… sure, I can. But what brought this on so suddenly? Is someone sending you something?”

“Uh… yeah.”

Cloud hesitated.

“Who is it? Can you tell me? Cloud, you’ve been checking your phone a lot lately… Denzel has been complaining too. He says when you’re looking at it, you don’t even hear him talking to you.”

Good grief.

Why didn’t Tifa understand that this was precisely why he had not wanted to tell her?

“…It’s nothing. If you’re busy, forget it.”

“…Cloud…”

Tifa fell silent for a moment.

Cloud had the vague feeling he had just said something hurtful. Damn it.

He opened his mouth, about to apologize—

“Sorry, I—”

“I’m at the bar all the time lately, so it’s fine. You can have it sent to Seventh Heaven.”

She gave in halfway through his apology.

Cloud let out a breath in relief.

“Thanks, Tifa.”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

He did not have the courage to meet the gentleness in her eyes. Instead, he looked back down at the chat window on his phone.

Strike

Done.

You can send it here.

Seventh Heaven, xxxx XX Street, Edge

Just put “Strife Delivery” as the recipient.

Don’t write anything weird.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Wow! Thank you!

I knew Daddy was the best!

 

Strike

You’re the one sending me a gift.

I should be the one thanking you.

 

Lily-chan of Craving

Hehe.

Just wait and see, Daddy.

tbc.

Chapter Text

“Cloud, your package.”

Tifa handed him the box. It was surprisingly light.

Cloud found an empty table and sat down with his back to her, then tore open the packing tape.

Inside was a phone charm.

A small, light black feather dangled from it. There was no shaft. It looked like down, something from close to the inside of a wing.

He casually tied it to his phone.

“Um… Big Brother Cloud…”

Denzel, who had been doing his homework nearby, suddenly spoke up. Cloud flinched.

“What is it? Is there something you don’t understand? I can teach you.”

Cloud had never attended a single day of school in his life. He had no idea what the hell he was talking about, but he forced himself to remain calm.

“You were smiling just now like…”

The brown-haired boy lowered his head and thought about it.

“Like Tommy from my class when he talks to the prettiest girl in school…”

“No dating at your age. Don’t hang out with Tommy.”

Cloud put on a stern face.

“Big Brother Cloud’s girlfriend must be even stronger and prettier than the prettiest girl in school. Her voice must be really nice too…”

Denzel was not listening to him at all. His imagination had already started running.

Wait. What did he mean, stronger?

“I haven’t even heard her voice… Why are you looking at me? Hurry up and do your homework.”

Cloud guiltily added the second half.

Behind the bar, a glass was set down on the wooden counter with a soft thunk.

No one dared to look in that direction.

Denzel lowered his head and began writing again, pencil scratching across paper. Cloud quickly put his phone away and stared blankly at the wood grain of the dining table—

No.

He appreciated it.

Strike

Got the gift.

[image]

 

Lily-chan

You used it? I’m so glad.

I knew it would suit you, Daddy.

 

Strike

You sent it to me so I’d use it, didn’t you?

 

Lily-chan

That’s not what I meant.

 

Lily-chan patted you.

 

Lily-chan

I’m happy just because you were willing to accept it.

 

Strike

Oh.

In the dim conference room, Kadaj was enjoying his break.

Which meant sprawling shamelessly in an office chair and looking up at the green streams of light flowing through the Lifestream above him.

“The target accepted the gift and sent back a photo. Operation successful. You were a great help, Kadaj.”

The silver-haired man beside him was still voluntarily working overtime, having taken over Kadaj’s tasks. Their business had grown larger and larger, and it now ran twenty-four hours a day.

Kadaj strongly suspected that, within a year, half the men on Gaia would have been greeted by Lily-chan at least once.

“The selection criteria you gave me were way too hard! We should’ve just sent him equipment!”

He shouted. What the hell was “not too expensive, not too cheap, preferably thoughtful but not too serious, low-class enough but not vulgar—and absolutely not a fleshlight”?

“Not having a physical body in this world does create many inconveniences. I could have simply used one of my own feathers.”

The silver-haired bastard—though by saying that, Kadaj was also insulting himself—soothed him in a low, magnetic voice.

“With important customers, one must play the long game. You did very well, Kadaj.”

“Say whatever you want… Sephiroth.”

Kadaj muttered.

He would never admit that hearing the original praise him actually made him a little happy.

Sephiroth smiled at him.

“Also, I apologize for interrupting your break—oh, one moment. Let me check the message.”

The phone vibrated.

The one reserved specifically for fishing Cloud.

Kadaj lifted his eyelids and watched the smile gradually disappear from the original’s face.

His expression turned more serious than Kadaj had ever seen it. The killing intent in those green eyes was stronger than it had been back when Kadaj betrayed him.

What?

Had Cloud finally decided to block that annoying Lily-chan?

Kadaj could not help sneering.

“Emergency situation. VIP customer Strike requested a voice call.”

The man calmly showed him the phone screen.

“I did not answer. Have Lily-chan send him a voice message later. Can you do that, Kadaj?”

Call ended.

 

Strike

Sorry.

My finger slipped.

 

Strike

I was just going to type out a thank-you.

But that felt too light.

 

Strike

Lily.

Can I hear your voice?

Just for a second.

It’s fine if you can’t.

 

The wooden door of Seventh Heaven opened with a jingle.

Even faster than the bell came Zack’s booming voice.

“We’re back! How was everyone’s day? Denzel, Tifa, and Cloud! Wow, everyone’s here today.”

“Yo.”

The Black man with the prosthetic arm ducked in after him. Little Marlene clung to his arm and copied Zack’s cheerful greeting.

“We’re back! Denzel, Big Sister Tifa, and Big Brother Cloud!”

“Welcome back. Are you hungry? Go wash your hands. I made salmon cream pasta.”

Tifa smiled the way she always did, though there was a trace of shadow beneath it.

“I want some! Marlene will get the plates.”

Though Marlene was still young, she already had the bearing of Seventh Heaven’s second-in-command. She trotted over to Tifa and took plates and forks from the cupboard.

Denzel put away his homework. Cloud stood up, about to help—

“Rare sight. Cloud was teaching you homework today?”

Zack said to Denzel.

Bad.

Cloud sent Denzel a look, but the brown-haired boy was already leaning forward in excitement. He had no time to look at Cloud.

He shouted with great enthusiasm,

“Big Brother Cloud has a girlfriend!”

Seventh Heaven went silent for one second.

Marlene let out a tiny scream. She dropped a fork.

Zack slowly turned his head. His mako-colored eyes shone frighteningly bright.

“…You have a girlfriend?”

“Yeah! And she’s strong enough to punch Bahamut to death, prettier than Tommy’s girlfriend, and her voice must be really nice too!”

Denzel kept talking.

“Bahamut isn’t a unit of combat power…”

Cloud said dryly.

“Then two punches!”

“Hey, listen when people talk!”

Cloud could not help flicking Denzel on the forehead. The little boy clutched his head and yelled, “Ow, ow, ow! Big Brother Zack, save me!”

Cloud was about to keep messing around with him when a cough made him freeze.

“When did this happen? Why didn’t I know?”

Barret frowned. The eyes hidden beneath his sunglasses were frightening too.

“…Would you mind introducing her to us, Cloud… Big Brother?”

The gavel that brought this interrogation to order was Tifa’s slowly tightening fist.

Cold sweat ran from Cloud’s forehead all the way down to his heels.

――――

“She’s not my girlfriend! You’re misunderstanding!”

The moment dinner ended, Cloud found himself surrounded at the table by three adults and immediately began clarifying.

“It’s that girl online, right, Cloud? I knew you were still sending her money…”

Zack! You!

“What money? Zack, you were helping Cloud hide this too?!”

“No, no, no. I just told him to stop sending money.”

Zack raised both hands in front of the Queen of Fists to prove his innocence.

“So he really did send money!”

“Uh…”

“Who told Cloud he could go talk to girls online?”

“Uh…”

Zack’s face went white.

Nice.

Infighting.

“How much did you give her, kid?”

Cloud had forgotten Barret was there too. The big man turned to look at him. Tifa, who had just grabbed Zack by the collar, looked over as well. Even Zack, still held in place, turned his eyes with difficulty.

“Uh…”

“Don’t start uh-ing like Zack.”

Tifa cut him off impatiently.

“Just… just two thousand gil… and she returned some of it.”

It was actually two thousand gil times n, but Cloud himself could not remember how many times it had happened.

“But she’s pitiful too. It sounds like her family situation is bad. She and her mom finally managed to get away from her alcoholic father. I wanted to help her…”

Cloud lowered his head.

“Girls at the Honeybee Inn can come up with stories like that on the spot…”

“Zack! Not in front of the children!”

“I’m trying to teach Cloud anti-scam knowledge!”

“But what if!”

Cloud shouted.

The entire bar went silent again.

He took a deep breath.

“What if… she really does need help? Back then, when I was wandering around Midgar, when my head was a mess and I didn’t even know who I was, Tifa gave me a place to stay. I want to help her… just like… just like Tifa helped me back then.”

“Cloud…”

No one said anything.

Cloud lowered his eyes. He felt like he had said too much today.

“I’m going upstairs to sleep. Good night, everyone.”

He did not wait for anyone to answer.

No one did.

He quietly went upstairs.

Lily-chan

[Voice message 0:04]

tbc.

Chapter Text

“I can’t do it!”

Kadaj shouted, on the verge of collapse.

He had tried twice to squeeze out a girl’s voice by pitching up his throat, only to be harshly evaluated by the original as, “a high school boy whose classmates signed him up for a cross-dressing contest, who says it’s embarrassing but has already prepared his victory speech, and who will go home and secretly cry if he loses.”

“What are you even talking about, Sephiroth?!”

He knew it. This man had been slacking off at work watching Wutai cartoons.

“The hardest part is having to look your mother in the eye, isn’t it?”

“You’re the one embarrassing Mother! Instead of making invasion plans, you’re here flirting with Big Brother.”

Uh.

He had said too much.

The remnant watched in terror as the original’s movements abruptly stopped.

Second after second passed. Just as Kadaj was getting ready to self-destruct and flee into the Lifestream—

“It is perfectly normal for me to flirt.”

The original began moving again, like a video that had finally finished loading. He even smiled at Kadaj.

No, no, no, no, no. That was absolutely not normal!

“After all, Cloud has become so unambitious. The combat quality of the last two Advents was unsatisfactory. Fortunately, with the highly convenient plot-device internet cable, I can slowly identify the cause and repair my puppet. Mother will surely recognize my grand strategic vision.”

Who repaired a puppet while humming The One and Only Flower in the World? SMAP disbanded ten years ago, you old bastard!

Still.

Cloud truly had not been normal.

Sephiroth had noticed that earlier than anyone.

―――

“What is it, Cloud? Have you finally given up resisting and understood my good intentions?”

During the second-to-last Advent, the blond had already stopped using the Fusion Sword.

Instead, he gripped a baseball bat covered in nails with both hands and roared as he swung it toward the edge of Masamune.

“Shut up—”

Blue eyes, filled with hatred, stared up at Sephiroth as he dodged lightly and spread a single wing, rising into the sky.

Oh.

His eyes.

With his enhanced vision, Sephiroth could see it clearly.

The black pupils were violently changing shape inside Cloud’s eyes, slowly stretching into narrow almond slits.

Rapture.

There was no other word for the emotion surging through him.

In the depths of that intoxication, the bat smashed through his temple.

Pain.

Heat.

But that was fine.

The last trace of adrenaline was pumped into his heart.

While the faint electrical currents in his brain could still command his body, Sephiroth pulled the hero into his arms.

Cloud went rigid for one instant, then began struggling violently, but Sephiroth locked both arms around the smaller warrior and held him in place.

“Welcome to the world, my kin.”

――――

“No. In fact, I was rather satisfied with the result of the second-to-last battle. Jenova is transforming Cloud’s body. It is only a matter of time before he becomes my agent upon the earth.”

Sephiroth emerged from his thoughts.

Kadaj was not listening to him at all.

The remnant was muttering to himself while fiddling with a graphics card, preparing to install a 5090 Ti and test real-time AI rendering.

Sephiroth considered this a permanent solution.

What if Cloud wanted to make voice calls in the future? Or even video calls? Letting Cloud wait a little longer was not a major issue.

The thought of video calls made him angry.

He should never have forced Kadaj onto the stage so hastily in the beginning. Lily-chan’s appearance had already been fixed by that photo. Although it had been unsent, if Cloud had saved it, there was no guarantee he would not compare it against future video footage.

“Lord Sephiroth, it’s installed. Say a few words into the microphone. I’ll run a test.”

Kadaj said this with heavy sarcasm.

“Thank you, Kadaj.”

Sephiroth nodded to the remnant. He leaned toward the microphone and said casually,

“Daddy, you must be tired after working all day.”

Kadaj’s face twisted instantly.

“I’ll… adjust the audio. You can go do whatever you were doing…”

“Call me if anything comes up.”

The progress bar of the voice changer moved slowly across the screen.

While he waited, Sephiroth rolled his chair back to his own workstation and began reviewing another Advent.

That one was the most recent.

――――

Amid the mountain-wide wildfire, he slowly turned his head and smiled at his nemesis.

“We meet again, Cloud… What is that in your hand?”

“Freeze Jet. Got a problem with that?”

Sephiroth fell silent for a moment.

“You intend to fight me with that?”

“It says right here. ‘Uses instant cooling at minus eighty-five degrees to quickly freeze the movements of flying insects.’”

“Do I look like an insect to you?”

“You look like a ghost!”

The blond shouted and hurled the entire can of insect spray at Sephiroth.

Sephiroth did not even lift an eyelid. Masamune swept diagonally, cutting the can cleanly in half.

The contents sprayed out, caught by the hot winds of the fire and enveloping him.

In the smoke and dust, Sephiroth narrowed his eyes.

Then, suddenly, a drilling pain came from behind him.

He lowered his head.

Through his unstable vision, he saw a block of iron growing out from between his ribs.

No.

Not a block of iron.

It was a sword he had seen before, one beloved by a certain person.

Only the memory of that person had long since been discarded into the Lifestream, reduced to pure thought.

From the flank came the distant sound of gunfire.

A fist tore through the air and slammed toward his chest.

In his final field of vision, Sephiroth could only stare blankly at the blond’s unreadable face.

――――

“Done. I’m playing it now.”

Kadaj clicked the mouse.

Sephiroth ended his rest with closed eyes, put on the headphones, and began listening to the result.

The remnant watched the original’s expression nervously.

Completely impossible.

He could not tell what Sephiroth was thinking at all.

Kadaj’s heart climbed into his throat.

Sephiroth took off the headphones and cleared his throat.

“It sounds a little like a moogle. Too forced.”

“Then adjust it yourself! I quit!”

Kadaj wailed.

“This is training, Kadaj,” the original said, utterly unmoved. “Other remnants would never have an opportunity like this. You are approaching the very core of the industrial chain.”

“The core of your mother—wait, your mother is also my mother… Is the core of your industrial chain a fake cute girl voice?!”

“It is a language interface.”

“…What?”

Sephiroth put the headphones back on and dragged the audio track back to the beginning.

“The voice is merely the carrier. What truly requires calibration is grammar, pauses, breathing, and the target’s response pathway upon hearing these elements.”

Kadaj fell silent for a while.

Had this old bastard’s brain suddenly come online?

“The target… is Big Brother?”

“Of course.”

“I thought we were sending him a goodnight voice message.”

“That is why I am deleting the parts that may trigger an excessively strong combat response.”

“…Why are there parts like that?!”

“Why would there not be?” Sephiroth said. “Language is the organ of thought. Imagination is an obstacle to evolution. The planet is the prison of the flesh. Understand that, Kadaj, and you will truly come closer to Mother.”

Sephiroth declared this pretentiously, as if it were nothing.

Kadaj cursed him in every possible language, with organs and without organs, inside his heart.

――――

Cloud lay down in bed and tiredly opened his chat window with Lily-chan.

Now that he thought about it, the messages he had sent asking for a voice note were inappropriate.

He thought he should probably unsend them.

He had just been too happy. Nonsense. That was all.

Suddenly, he rolled over and sat up.

His eyes fixed on the green bar on the screen.

Lily-chan

[Voice message 0:04]

He swallowed without thinking and pressed play, lifting the phone to his ear.

“Daddy Strike, good night. Show me flowers again tomorrow, okay?”

He pressed play again and listened one more time.

Cloud locked the phone and lay back down.

After a while, he could not help listening to it again.

The phone charm brushed against his wrist. The feather lightly swept over his skin, reminding him that Lily-chan was a very, very small existence.

His heart felt strangely calm and full.

Although it was beating a little fast.

His eyes hurt a little too.

Maybe he really had talked too much today.

Before sleeping, he still sent a reply.

Strike

Yeah. Good night.

I’ll take some for you tomorrow.

tbc.

Chapter Text

Cloud opened his eyes.

Was it already morning?

But he was not in his bed at Seventh Heaven. He was lying on a hard military cot.

“I… Where am I…?”

He sat up and looked around.

Judging by the painfully cheap minimalist architecture, he appeared to be in a common Shinra trooper dormitory.

But he had left Shinra years ago.

So this was… a dream?

Someone tugged at his sleeve.

Cloud turned and finally noticed a boy with medium-length silver hair. The boy was leaning against the side of the bed, staring at him curiously with lake-green eyes.

“Kadaj? …No, you’re…”

Who the hell was this little old man?

Cloud still had no idea what was going on. He had silver-hair PTSD, so no one could blame him if his tone came out a little rude.

But why did this little old man immediately start crying?

“You’re the one who showed up in my room, Big Brother. I was kind enough to let you sleep in my bed. Why are you being mean to me…”

How was I being mean?!

There was movement outside the door. Clacking footsteps. Loud banging against the metal.

“They’re looking for me…”

The boy stopped crying and lowered his voice.

“Huh…? Then can you just not go?”

Cloud asked, confused.

“I don’t want to go. There’s no point. And my body hurts.”

“It hurts? …Are you sick?”

“No. But people keep giving me injections.”

Only then did Cloud notice that the boy was wearing hospital clothes. His exposed wrists were covered in dense needle marks.

The boy placed his hand over Cloud’s. His lake-green eyes lowered, as if he were thinking about something.

“If you don’t want to go, then don’t. It probably isn’t anything good anyway.”

Cloud could not help advising him.

The boy looked at him in astonishment, as if Cloud had revealed some earth-shattering secret.

“If I don’t want to go… I can just not go?”

“Yeah,” Cloud said. “I’ll write a note to your teacher.”

When Denzel did not want to go to school, Cloud could make up a hundred lies for the teacher without even trying.

Uh.

Although the people outside did not sound much like teachers.

The boy thought for a long time.

In the end, he shook his head.

“Thank you. I think I just wanted someone to spoil me a little. Now that I’ve said it, I’m fine. Mm.”

Cloud could not help reaching out and ruffling the boy’s hair.

The silver strands were smooth as silk.

The boy lifted himself slightly and narrowed his eyes, as if he were enjoying it.

So there were silver-haired people in this world who could be honest.

That was worth studying. Scientists should really look into it, Cloud thought.

“It’s time.”

The boy gently slipped away from Cloud’s hand and stood up.

“Uh… You’re not staying a little longer?”

Cloud tried to keep him there.

The boy shook his head.

He looked at Cloud quietly for a long while.

“Stop me, okay?”

“This is probably the last time we’ll meet.”

“Goodbye, Big Brother.”

What…?

Hey, wait. What does that mean? Who are you?

Cloud tried to stand up and stop him, but his body felt unbearably heavy. No matter what he did, he could not straighten himself.

All he could do was watch as the boy opened the iron door and disappeared into a sheet of white light without looking back.

――――

Sephiroth projected the PowerPoint onto the whiteboard.

The voice-message flirting operation had been a great success. For some reason, the old bastard had become enthusiastic and insisted on holding a meeting to explain the core technical points to Kadaj.

How had the core grown legs and started closing in on Kadaj by itself?!

The remnant was full of rage. For now, he put his feet up on the table and prepared to see how much more Sephiroth could show off.

The first few slides were, surprisingly, normal.

They were just a work summary.

Sephiroth brought up business growth and profit curves, praised Kadaj for overcoming the technical barrier of voice messaging, and commended him for successfully retaining their VIC customer—

he had upgraded Cloud to his own unique tier—

and exceeding the target.

Kadaj turned his head away and used his silver hair to hide his burning cheeks.

Sephiroth cleared his throat. He seemed, somehow, a little embarrassed himself.

“Now, let us proceed to the second section. This is also the focus of today’s meeting: Noam Skibidomsky & Genocidal Grammar: Theoretical Foundations.”

I knew this old bastard couldn’t stay normal for more than three minutes!

Kadaj whipped his head back around in fury, just in time to see a crude fade-in animation on the PowerPoint.

“Once upon a time, there was a mountain. On the mountain, there was a temple. In the temple lived an old man named Skibidomsky. He kept two six-sevens. One was called Universal Grammar, and the other was called LAD, the Language Acquisition Device…”

“Stop, stop, stop! What is this?!”

Kadaj choked and put his feet down.

Sephiroth paused the slideshow, exited fullscreen, and asked gently,

“Is there a problem?”

“What the hell? What six-seven? What are you even explaining?!”

Who the hell pulled an internet cable into the Lifestream?!

Great. Just great. The original had already been annoying enough as a one-winged angel or whatever, and now he had become a brainrot repeater. Even worse.

“Is that not the kind of slang young people enjoy? I thought it would help you absorb the material more easily…”

“If you keep acting like this,don’t be surprised when your future children don’t even tell you about their school open house!”

“I know you would want to tell me. That is enough, Kadaj.”

The original said this in a rare tone that was both gentle and serious.

“…………”

For a moment, the atmosphere seemed to turn into an embarrassingly sentimental drama.

The remnant covered his face with both hands.

“What are you even trying to teach me… Just kill me or exploit me. Don’t make me feel gross like this…”

“I have never seen such a request,” Sephiroth said, shaking his head. “But I can satisfy it. After all, you are the remnant closest to me, and the one I am most satisfied with.”

Over the next ten minutes, Kadaj finally understood what was going on inside the head of this mad genius.

Sephiroth did not believe Lily-chan was merely a disguise.

He viewed her as a language interface.

Text established habit. Voice entered the body. Once the time was ripe, offline contact would allow possibility to take on real flesh.

Cloud’s predatory impulse was nothing more than the crying of an incomplete organ in its infancy.

What Lily-chan needed to do was provide that organ with a grammar it could acquire.

“…Are you insane? Universal Grammar is only a hypothesis. Skibidomsky—no! Chomsky himself never even found where LAD is! You… Don’t tell me… you found it? On Jenova’s… body…?”

The remnant hated that he could already read a trace of mockery in the original’s inscrutable smile.

“What else did you think?” Sephiroth asked. “As a father—though you never admit it—you, Loz, and Yazoo, from head to toe, what part of you do you imagine I do not know or understand?”

Kadaj felt like he was going to vomit, even though he had no stomach that could produce anything.

He knew very well that this man’s so-called understanding was nothing gentle or kind.

“Keep working hard, Kadaj.”

The corners of Sephiroth’s mouth curved upward, but in his slit pupils there was only a cold abyss.

“I have a feeling our VIC will soon generate his next demand.”

――――

The wind carried news from a retired SOLDIER to Seventh Heaven.

Zack opened the envelope, and his eyebrows relaxed along with it.

But very quickly, he frowned again, put the letter back into the envelope, and let out a deep sigh.

The letter said that Kunsel, who was working in Kalm, would soon come to Seventh Heaven to hold a small hometown gathering with old friends.

He had heard about Cloud’s situation too, and had done a small investigation in Kalm.

In the past six months—

not.

a.

single.

resident.

had.

moved.

there.

from.

Mideel.

tbc.

Chapter Text

Cloud’s life had been almost disturbingly peaceful lately.

By day, he delivered packages and sent Lily-chan pictures of flowers, lunches, and little birds by the roadside. By night, he went home, hid under his blankets, and listened to her say good night.

He had started sending voice messages too.

The first time, he lowered his voice out of embarrassment and only managed a quiet “Mm.” Lily-chan’s reaction was so over the top that, for one brief second, Cloud almost believed he could switch careers and become the post-apocalypse’s very first voice actor.

After that, little by little, he found himself able to say longer things into his phone.

Strike

I’ve got something today.
Might be late getting back to you.

Lily-chan

Daddy is always so busy
What is it?
Don’t tell me… a blind date?

Strike

…A reunion
Though none of us are actually from the same place

Lily-chan

Phew… thank goodness ( ´꒳`)
Lily-chan almost thought
Daddy was cheating on her

Strike

…
Think whatever you want!

Strike

A lot of people died back then, didn’t they?
The coworkers I knew are the only ones left
So I guess we share the same hometown

Lily-chan

Daddy…

Strike

Do you know him?
Sephiroth…
Oh, but you’re young. Maybe you’ve never heard of him

Lily-chan

Is he famous?
Lily-chan hasn’t heard of him

Strike

Back when Shinra was still around, they marketed him like an idol
You were probably little back then

Lily-chan

Haha, no wonder Lily-chan doesn’t know him then

Strike

Right? Not knowing is fine
He wasn’t anyone that impressive

Strike

Outstanding combat ability
Extremely fragile mentally
That was how Shinra evaluated him, apparently

Lily-chan

Daddy, why
do you want to talk about him with Lily-chan?

Strike

…Why, huh

Strike

Maybe I just think
I should’ve talked to him more back then

Strike

I’m going to eat
You should eat more too

Lily-chan

Mm
See you later

Lily-chan

Cloud

Lily-chan unsent a message.

Kadaj stared at the chat log and actually laughed his ass off. It was rare to see this old man slip so badly, lose control, and still have to pretend nothing had happened.

“Lord Sephiroth,” he said, unable to resist courting death, “you’re so dedicated. I almost forgot Lily-chan is supposed to be the ditzy type.”

“Kadaj…”

The original glanced at him and rose from his workstation.

“What… What are you doing…”

Kadaj tensed.

“Going to the bathroom,” Sephiroth said. “Do you want to come with me? I would not mind a bathroom buddy, although I worry it might damage your self-esteem…”

“No! Stop treating me like a child! Wait, why would my self-esteem be damaged?! No, hold on, why do you even need the bathroom when you’re dead? Hey!”

Sephiroth had already walked away. He shut the door, cutting off Kadaj’s screams and his line of sight, then stepped out of the illegal little office built in the Lifestream.

Then, outside the door, he crouched down.

…Cloud.

I wanted to talk to you more too.

――――

“Cloud, Zack. Long time no see. Still running that odd-jobs delivery thing together?”

A man with fluffy red hair falling over his eyes walked into Seventh Heaven. He nodded to the dark-haired woman behind the bar, and Tifa returned a bitter smile.

Then he turned to his old friends as if nothing had happened.

“Same as always. What about you? Still dealing intel?”

The cheerful black-haired man gave the redhead a playful punch to the chest. The other man clutched his heart dramatically.

“Dealing intel? Excuse you. It’s called consulting services.”

The blond young man lowered his head and downed a mouthful of alcohol before fixing his gaze on Kunsel.

“You made it.”

“Yeah. Long time no see, Cloud. Still cool as ever.”

Cloud smiled.

He stood up, opened his arms, and pulled Kunsel into a warm embrace.

“Whoa! Cloud! You got a head start! That’s not fair! I want in too!”

Zack made a fuss and squeezed himself into the small circle. The three of them ended up holding each other, awkward but tight.

“I’m glad you’re still alive,” Kunsel said quietly.

“You too,” Cloud said.

“I was a little scared you wouldn’t come this year…”

“Wow…”

Kunsel loosened his arms a little and looked at the short warrior.

“What… What happened to our little warrior? When did he turn into a shortcake? Don’t tell me… love?”

“…Why are you being nosy too?”

The men’s cheerful laughter echoed through the small bar, almost drowning out Tifa’s very quiet sigh.

――――

“So. Online romance?”

Kunsel asked.

After catching up, the three of them had settled at the bar. The dark-haired owner mixed three house-special Cosmo Canyon cocktails and set them on the counter. The red liquid caught the dim yellow light with a strangely suggestive gleam.

“Uh… Not exactly… Though we did meet online.”

It was not an online romance. It was just a perfectly innocent Daddy-and-Lily-chan arrangement where they said good morning and good night every day, sent voice messages, and exchanged money.

Irritated, Cloud picked up the stirrer and slowly swirled his drink.

“…It’s good that she isn’t after your money,” Kunsel said carefully. “But have you thought about why it’s you? There are plenty of whales on those platforms who tip way faster.”

“If she isn’t after money, then she might be after something even messier…”

Zack added solemnly.

Exactly.

After all, the one who owed a mountain of romantic debts, got chased all the way into Seventh Heaven by a girl right after coming back to life, and ended up in a breakup drama with kneeling and crying and everything was not Cloud.

Cloud shot the relationship expert a look.

“Then what is she after? I haven’t even sent her a photo. She doesn’t know I’m this handsome.”

Zack had just lowered his head to take a sip.

The moment Cloud finished speaking, the alcohol sprayed across the bar in a perfect fan.

Kunsel’s eyelid twitched. Ignoring Zack and Tifa, who gave a tiny shriek as they scrambled for rags to clean up the mess, he looked at Cloud.

“What she’s after is something only she can answer. And honestly, even if you ask her, you might not get an answer. What I care about is whether you’re really ready to enter a relationship like this, Cloud.”

He paused.

“She might not live in Kalm. She might not have a tragic backstory. She might not be a woman. She might even be a virtual account run by an entire scam operation. You…”

Cloud cut him off.

“But she sent me her voice.”

“Voice messages can go through a voice changer too, Cloud,” Zack added.

Tifa had already cleaned the counter and poured him another glass.

“I know!”

Cloud said, too quickly.

“You know a connection like this is fragile, don’t you?” Kunsel said softly.

The eyes hidden beneath his messy red hair made Cloud feel, for one second, like there was nowhere to run.

“Here’s what you do. Go quiet on her for a few days. If she really likes you, she’ll try to move things offline. If she’s a scammer, she’ll make some kind of move too. Push for money, guilt-trip you, something like that. Right? Smoke her out. I’m only teaching you this because you’re my brother.”

Zack said this with great enthusiasm.

Cloud glared at him.

“I don’t want to become some romantic con artist like Zack. And she hasn’t done anything wrong. Why would I deliberately ignore her? That feels like…”

Like bullying her.

“I’m telling you, this works on yandere types too,” Zack said, deadly serious.

“What if Lily-chan is a walking red flag? The kind who shows up at your door to kill you if you don’t reply for a few days. I mean, her ID already gives off that vibe.”

“Let me think…”

Cloud lowered his head and took a sip of the cocktail that had been neglected for far too long.

“Take your time. And don’t take Zack too seriously. This girl really has made you livelier, Cloud. I think that’s a good thing.”

Kunsel set his glass down. He took two envelopes from his pocket and slid them across the bar. Cloud and Zack reached out at the same time, pinning the envelopes under their hands.

“I happen to have a case that seems right up your alley. Want to take it while you’re at it? Think of it as a little trip to Kalm.”

Was Cloud imagining it?

It felt like he had emphasized the word Kalm.

“But… I can’t fight…”

Cloud hesitated.

“It isn’t much of a combat mission. A bunch of Touch Me frogs showed up in some fields. The farmers are trying to get their crops harvested, so they need someone to drive the annoying little things away. Conveniently, there’s a frog researcher who wants to take them off their hands. That’s why I came to you. What do you say? If you’re in, we leave tonight.”

“Okay.”

“I’m good too.”

Zack rolled his shoulders. Cloud drained the rest of his drink in one go, and warmth spread through his stomach all at once.

Four hours later

Lily-chan

Daddy?
What happened?
You haven’t been online for long

If you’re busy…

Remember to come spoil Lily-chan a little when you’re done…

tbc.

Chapter Text

One hour later

Strike

Lily…
Can I video call you for a bit?

Strike

Look, we’ve been talking for so long already
I know you’re not a scammer
I just…

Strike

I just want to see you…
I’m sorry
This is so shitty of me…
[sorry]

…

[GayGay] Strike sent you a gift.

――――

One hour earlier, in the fields outside Kalm

Before sending those messages, Cloud had thought the most troublesome part of the night would be driving a bunch of Touch Me frogs out of a field.

The blond young man narrowed his eyes. By the moonlight, he saw two Touch Me stacked on top of each other.

…Holy shit.

They were… They were mating.

Wearing work boots, he crossed the field in a few strides, arrested the horny criminals, and shoved them into the capture cage.

This did nothing to stop nature from taking its course. The female frog laid a cluster of translucent eggs right there inside the cage. The male hopped down and released sperm over them like it was taking a piss.

“Ugh…”

Cloud turned his face away in disgust.

“Nice! Cloud, you’ve caught way more than me today!”

Zack, also wearing work boots, noticed what was happening. He moved clumsily through the mud, the capture cage in his hand clanging as it swung. There was only one single frog inside.

The frog looked like it was about to get shaken unconscious.

“That’s because you’re slacking off, Zack. The sooner we finish catching them, the sooner we can rest.”

Cloud had not even had time to take out his phone and tell Lily-chan before they were rushed out the door. On the way here, Zack had not stopped talking either. He even told Kunsel that Cloud had been chatting so much with his online girl that even the kids had noticed.

That only annoyed Cloud more. Holding back a breath of irritation, he had stubbornly refused to take his phone out in front of him.

“Hahaha, at this pace, we’ll definitely finish before dawn. Don’t worry.”

Such utterly baseless confidence.

Cloud shot him a sideways look and was just about to speak when—

The two Touch Me inside his cage suddenly jumped. The cage nearly slipped from his hand. Cloud pressed his left hand down on it, forcing the violently rattling cage under control.

“What… is going on…”

He looked up in surprise. Zack was staring back at him with the same expression.

The remaining frogs in the field were fleeing in every direction at terrifying speed. The ones inside the nearby capture cages had also started struggling violently, as if something invisible had startled them. They were desperately trying to drag the cages in the same direction.

Cloud looked around.

Only then did he notice it.

The fields were close to the forest, and the woods were terrifyingly quiet.

Having grown up in the countryside, Cloud knew that forests were not supposed to be quiet like this. At night, there should have been insect calls and birdsong. A turtle crawling into a water channel would make a soft plunk.

No.

Not like this…

A gust of wind blew past.

Cloud sniffed and caught the faint scent of blood.

“Zack.”

He said it calmly.

“I know. It’s… that, right?”

The black-haired warrior dropped his playful expression. At the same time, they both looked toward the Buster Sword lying on the ridge between the fields.

There was only one.

And compared to Zack, Cloud was closer to it.

All at once, a beast’s roar tore through the night. Startled birds rose thickly into the sky. A horned beast burst out of the forest and charged straight at them.

Black and gold split off in two different directions.

“It’s a Behemoth! Damn it, did it come this close to a settlement looking for food? Cloud—the sword… Whoa, why is it coming after me?!”

Purple-black claws swept toward Zack, carrying a foul, musky stench. He rolled awkwardly across the ground, barely escaping the beast’s range.

Before he could feel relieved, a shadow fell over his head and blocked out the moonlight.

Zack looked up.

It was too late to run.

He clenched his teeth, ready to meet his fate.

――――

Three months ago, inside a clinic in the Corel region

“I can’t just not fight,” Cloud said dryly. “Otherwise the Planet will, uh, get sailed away like a ship by a bastard who keeps doing sit-ups.”

He was joking.

No one laughed.

The doctor’s worried brows drew together. After staring at Cloud’s physical exam report for a long time, the old man’s voice trembled unsteadily in the air.

“The erosion of Mr. Strife’s normal cells by Jenova cells is irreversible. Perhaps my descendants, or my descendants’ descendants, will be able to develop a treatment that can slow down these cells, or even destroy them. But at present—”

Fine.

Cloud pressed his lips together and turned away.

He had no interest in hearing the rest.

“Please… take care of yourself.”

The doctor’s words followed him to the door, only to be shut behind the wood.

――――

Now, in the fields outside Kalm

Zack’s eyes were squeezed shut. The expected slap did not smash his skull into pieces.

Trembling, he raised his head—

The short blond warrior held the Buster Sword sideways, standing between Zack and the Behemoth, blocking the beast’s strike.

“Nice one! Cloud… No, wait, hang in there! I’m going to get Kunsel!”

The moment Zack left the beast’s range, the blond warrior shifted his force and let the giant claw sink diagonally into the mud of the field. Then he turned and leapt into the air at an impossible angle, bringing the point of his sword down toward the monster’s eye.

Awoo—

The Behemoth roared in pain. Its attention locked completely onto the blond warrior, and it began a frenzied counterattack.

But that golden figure changed from his earlier vicious offense into something almost playful, constantly slipping past venomous claws, a massive tail sweep that could split a spruce tree, and the thrust of those huge, sharpened horns.

Bad.

Bad, bad, bad.

Cold sweat ran down Zack’s back.

He could see Cloud’s dodges gradually slowing down. Meanwhile, Kunsel was still on the other side of the village fields, negotiating the exact payment and the start time for the fieldwork with the villagers. With all this noise, they were probably already on their way.

The worst thing was Cloud’s predatory impulse.

If it got triggered again—

Sure enough, the young man stepped into the mud, suddenly lost his footing, and exposed an opening.

The enraged beast howled and lunged. It lowered its head and sent the young man flying into the night sky with its horn.

Zack’s lips went numb.

He could only watch as his best friend’s body fell like a puppet with its strings cut.

Then, the giant horn pierced through him.

A sharp mist of blood stained the intoxicating night red.

The Behemoth exhaled a hot breath. It shook its heavy head lightly, trying to throw the prey’s body off.

“Don’t think… this… is over.”

The beast froze.

It looked up at the prey it had thought dead.

And met a pair of cold, serpentine pupils.

“It… hurts!”

The Buster Sword fell to the ground, sinking diagonally into the mud.

Cloud reached out with a work-gloved hand and grabbed the horn still embedded in his body.

“Want to play seesaw? …Never mind. You wouldn’t understand even if I explained.”

The muscles in his arm tensed violently, as if he had turned the horn piercing through his own body into a lever.

In the next instant, reflected in Zack’s blue eyes was the sight of the Behemoth screaming as it was flung into the sky.

Ignoring the gaping hole in his chest that was still dripping blood, the young man landed and immediately sprang up again. He grabbed the Buster Sword, leapt into the air to meet the monster, and swung the sword as large as his own body.

Almost in the next instant, the Behemoth was dismembered.

Literally.

Zack stared, dumbstruck, at his best friend’s back.

The puncture wound through Cloud’s chest was healing at a visible speed. Flesh and blood seemed to be finding their shape again, squirming together as if embracing themselves. First bone, then organs, nerves, muscle…

Aside from the hole torn through his black sweater, there was no sign that Cloud had ever been injured.

The blood-soaked young man did not look back at him. He strode straight toward the Behemoth’s remains.

Then, he crouched down.

Under Zack’s gaze, the blond young man tore strips of flesh from the steaming corpse, piece by piece. The air filled with the nauseating sound of chewing.

This…

This was…

Was this the predatory impulse Tifa had told him about?

Zack took one step forward.

Then stopped.

He did not know whether he should call his best friend’s name or pretend he had seen nothing at all.

“Zack! What happened? I just—oh, Gaia.”

It was Kunsel’s voice.

Zack turned back and saw the red-haired man, along with a group of villagers carrying flashlights and farm tools.

“It was a Behemoth! It suddenly charged out of the forest. Thanks to Cloud… uh…”

This was a little hard to explain.

Especially since Cloud had not only chopped the Behemoth into pieces, but also destroyed the farmers’ fields while he was at it.

At this rate, not only would their emergency odd job fail to make any money, they might even have to pay compensation.

Zack hurriedly looked back again.

He blinked in surprise.

Cloud… was gone?

“What are you looking for? I did see a dark shape dart into the woods just now,” Kunsel said.

“Ah! Right! That was Cloud!”

Zack’s brain spun at top speed.

“The Behemoth that barged in wrecked the fields, and my partner and I barely managed to take it down, but there’s still a smaller cub hiding in the woods! My partner went in after it! Everyone, help us look! Honestly, you’re lucky today. You paid us frog-catching rates and got monster-driving services thrown in. This place is definitely going to be peaceful for the next year!”

The villagers stirred. In the end, several young and able-bodied men were chosen to follow Zack and Kunsel into the forest, which had gone quiet in a way that felt faintly ominous.

――――

Cloud ran without tiring.

Branches whipped against his legs, but worse than that was the pain in his eyes. Hot liquid kept spilling from them, and the sweet, metallic taste of blood in his throat, along with the hard sensation left in his esophagus, reminded him that what had just happened had not been a dream.

A clear stream blocked the path ahead.

He stopped, panting.

What was he even doing?

He had meant to help Zack, but instead he had made people worry about him. Again.

From far away, the wind seemed to carry voices calling his name.

An illusion.

Cloud rubbed his aching eyes. He lowered his head and saw his reflection in the stream.

His eyes glimmered green. The narrow pupils twisted constantly in the rippling water like a TV picture with bad reception.

He instinctively took a step back.

He wiped his face with his arm. His hand was covered in sticky blood too. The more he wiped, the dirtier he got.

He crouched down and splashed cold stream water onto his face.

Great.

Now he had gone from someone who had just killed a person to a killer who had just killed someone but at least still remembered to wash his face.

Cloud did not dare look at his reflection again.

He raised his head and looked around.

Across the stream, he saw a cave.

Good.

He could hide in there for a while before going out again.

Preferably forever.

Exhausted, he crawled into the cave. It was cool and dry inside, and there did not seem to be any strange original inhabitants. If there were, he was not sure he would have the courage to kill them.

Damn this predatory impulse.

Damn Jenova.

Damn Sephiroth.

He reached into his pants pocket and touched something hard and plastic.

Oh…

Cloud froze.

For some reason, his already dried-up tear ducts grew wet again.

He took out his phone and saw the black feather hanging from it.

For some reason, his heart trembled.

Damn it.

Damn it.

Damn it.

With shaking hands, he opened his chat with Lily-chan.

Strike

Lily…
Can I video call you for a bit?

Strike

Look, we’ve been talking for so long already
I know you’re not a scammer
I just…

Strike

I just want to see you…
I’m sorry
This is so shitty of me…
[sorry]

…

[GayGay] Strike sent you a gift.

Cloud closed his eyes in despair.

What kind of asshole left a girl on read, then sent a shameless video call request afterward?

He had only selfishly projected his own savior complex onto her.

Lily should be disappointed in Cloud. She should realize sooner rather than later that he was no different from other men. He was also a… He was also a…

His phone suddenly vibrated.

Cloud froze.

He looked at the call screen.

[Incoming video call from Lily-chan. Answer?]

He swallowed and slid the virtual slider all the way to the right.

A blurry figure appeared in the center of the screen.

“Daddy Strike~~~ you… Why are you covered in blood? What happened? What is going on?! Ka—Mom, stop messing around!”

The screen shook.

For an instant, a band of green light seemed to flash past. The girl turned back and said a few words, apparently telling her mother to move away a little.

When she turned back again, she gave Cloud a shy smile.

“Lily…”

His fingertips tingled as if electricity were running through them. His mouth was unbearably dry, and the burning pain deep in his eyes would not stop no matter what he did.

Through the blurred film of tears and the rectangular screen of his phone, Cloud simply stared at that lagging figure, broken up by the poor connection.

He suddenly forgot what he had wanted to say.

tbc.

Chapter Text

Cloud sniffed. Belated regret closed over him.

At first, he only dared to stare at the white virtual button at the bottom of the screen, but he could not keep doing that forever. He scratched at his hair, then remembered that both his hands and his body were covered in blood, and, afraid of scaring the girl, awkwardly lowered his hand again.

Damn it. He had been covered in blood from the start.

“Uh…”

“Strike…”

Both voices sounded at once. Cloud looked up without thinking.

The girl on the phone screen had wine-red eyes, two slender willow-leaf brows, and shoulder-length hair. Probably because the bleach had faded, uneven patches of black and white were mixed into the color. She was as cute as he had imagined—too cute, even. And the longer he looked at that face, the more familiar it seemed.

“…Tifa…?”

“Tifa? Who’s that, Daddy Strike?”

The fluorescent glow of the screen made the girl’s face look pale, but her eyes were all innocence. Cloud realized he had probably said something rude.

“N-no, nothing! Sorry for calling you so late.”

“It’s okay. Lily-chan doesn’t have anything to do anyway.”

“Are you a shut-in?! Seriously, while you’re still young, you should go to school.”

The girl lowered her head, her long hair falling over her cheeks, and laughed softly under her breath—ku, ku, ku.

Cloud knew she was not taking his advice to heart. Helpless and amused, he laughed along with her. For some reason, talking about this kind of nonsense made him relax.

“I’m on a job. I happened to come to Kalm.”

He said it. Maybe this counted as a test.

“What a coincidence! Lily-chan lives in Kalm too!”

“Yeah.” Cloud had brought the place up precisely because he knew that. “That milk tea shop you told me about—I want to try it too.”

“Looking like that? Daddy Strike will scare the staff away.”

“I’ll pay!”

“Is that the problem?”

They laughed at the same time.

The light suddenly dimmed. Cloud smelled moisture, and heard the patter of raindrops striking leaves. He looked outside. A sudden shower seemed to have started. Thunder rumbled faintly in the distance, and the lightning was striking closer and closer.

“How is it over there? That was thunder just now, wasn’t it?”

He said.

“It’s fine.”

The girl seemed to shift uneasily.

“Daddy Strike, do you think Lily-chan looks the way you imagined?”

Cloud straightened. There was a slick trail of water running down the stone wall. His clothes clung wetly to his back. Only then did he realize he had not noticed it before.

“You’re even cuter than I imagined. Uh, I don’t mean that in a weird way.”

“That’s… good…”

Her cherry-pink lips opened and closed softly. The reflection of lightning on the screen split the girl’s image cleanly in two.

Cloud rubbed his eyes. Just now… had he seen… Sephi…

With a crash, the delayed thunder cut through his thoughts. By reflex, he covered his ears, and the phone fell facedown onto the ground.

“Ah… damn it…”

By the time he hurriedly picked it up, the video call had already been ended by a mistaken touch. When he tried to call back, the screen showed that the other party had declined.

Lily-chan

Sorry, Mommy told Lily-chan to sleep

 

Strike

Okay

I won’t bother you

 

Lily-chan

You’re not bothering me

Lily-chan was happy to see Daddy Strike’s face

Lily-chan thought you might be a bald old guy

 

Strike

Sorry to disappoint you

I’m not a bald old guy

 

Lily-chan

How could I be disappointed?

Ah, Mommy’s really rushing me now

Good night

 

Strike

Yeah, good night

And

thank you for today

――Side Cloud――

Cloud stared blankly at the screen until his phone went to sleep.

After that loudest clap of thunder, the rain had eased. Once it stopped completely, he could go out and meet up with Zack, Kunsel, and the others.

He had run off without thinking. They were probably worried.

Especially Zack.

He leaned back against the cave wall again and looked outside. A wet blue mist drifted through the air, and the grass and trees were very quiet. He sighed. The white cloud of breath he exhaled quickly faded into the air.

Come to think of it, why had Lily’s side been so quiet too?

Cloud stared for a long while at a bead of dew clinging to the rock wall, not yet fallen.

Then he decided not to think about it.

――Side Sephiroth――

“Lord Sephiroth…”

“…What is it, Kadaj?”

“May I ask a question now?”

Kadaj raised his hand. The corners of his mouth were shooting upward, but according to the employee handbook—the employee handbook?!—he had to obtain permission from his superior, namely Sephiroth, before speaking.

“…Ask.”

The man had already released the mimicry and returned to his original form. He folded his arms, turned the office chair around, and faced Kadaj directly.

“What’s with the animal ears on your head? Did Kemono Friends inspire you?”

“This is the cause of the instability in the mimicry.”

The man said it in that accusatory tone of you weren’t listening properly. “Within the Lifestream, Jenova’s will is amplified enough to affect my mimicry. Mother seems to think I am a red fox. Honestly, she…”

What are you showing off for?!

Kadaj stared at the ears, which twitched every now and then. Sephiroth, meanwhile, pretended to be troubled as he lifted a hand and pressed down the fur.

This old bastard definitely thinks he looks cute like this!

Kadaj’s gaze turned cold and disgusted.

Sephiroth gave a small “hmph,” then turned his chair back around and stared at the chat log on the screen in thought.

“Lord Sephiroth, I have one more thing to report.”

Kadaj raised his hand again. He pointed to a certain frame on his own screen and turned the monitor toward Sephiroth.

The man lifted his head and looked at the screen. The pair of animal ears turned forward. After a while, they flattened downward. At the same time, the silver-haired man’s brows furrowed.

For an instant, Sephiroth’s mimicry had failed to hold. Of course, he had cut the video immediately. It had only been 0.01 seconds of footage. Even if Cloud became suspicious, it could still be glossed over.

But what Kadaj was pointing at was not Sephiroth on the screen.

It was the blond young man’s glowing green eyes.

The remnant tapped a few keys, enlarging the image.

There was no need to enlarge it. Sephiroth could already see clearly.

Those unmistakable serpent pupils. Every vein within the green irises was stretching and contracting.

The cells were singing.

Sephiroth lowered his head. Kadaj watched in confusion as he stood up.

“What’s wrong with you? Need to pee again?”

If you have frequent urination, go see a urologist.

“The time is ripe.”

The man ignored him.

“It is almost time to prepare the final Advent.”

He paused, then lowered his eyes to look at the remnant.

“Kadaj, thank you for everything until now.”

Kadaj stared blankly at the silver-haired man.

He really was tall when he stood up. Strangely, however, he did not feel oppressive at all. The expression on his face could even be called clear and gentle.

“You… you…”

Kadaj said “you” for a long time. Vaguely, he began to miss Loz, who had always been bad with words, and Yazoo, who was always putting on airs.

Now he was the only one left.

Maybe Sephiroth was right. He really was the remnant who had accompanied this man the longest, and the one closest to him.

At last, he lowered his head and sighed.

Then he stood up as well, lifting his face to look at his original body.

“Don’t make that face. If you look at me like that, I won’t be able to bear leaving you behind, you shitty old bastard.”

――Side Cloud――

As soon as dawn came, Cloud dragged his exhausted body back to the fields.

Zack, his eyes bloodshot, pulled him into a hug. He said he had brought people out to search for Cloud for a long time, but then the sudden shower had started, and they had no choice but to withdraw with the villagers first.

Cloud listened half-heartedly to Zack’s complaints, commentary, and self-praise. His head was full of Lily’s face, Lily’s voice. He wanted to see that girl, since she was right here in Kalm.

“Can we stay here a few days before going back?”

He cut off Zack’s rambling.

“Uh, sure,” the man said, blinking his cobalt-blue eyes. “Ask Kunsel to apply for the budget. I remember he travels all over the place for business, so he has a ton of hotel memberships. We might even get to stay in a presidential suite.”

“Good.”

Cloud stretched. After he showered and changed at the hotel, he wanted to go take a look at the milk tea shop Lily had mentioned.

The morning sun climbed over the mountainside. The glare made him narrow his eyes despite himself, and tears welled up again. He met the curious, searching gaze of the black-haired man.

“What?”

He asked.

“Nothing.”

Zack looked away and rubbed the top of Cloud’s head.

“Kunsel was right. You really have gotten more cheerful lately.”

Cloud made a noncommittal face and pressed his lips to one side.

His phone vibrated in his pants pocket, making his heart stir.

He did nothing.

But he knew he would definitely read that message.

tbc.

Chapter Text

――Side Cloud――

The blond young man stood wrapped in a bath towel in front of the sliding door of the hotel bathroom.

On the other side of the door, the girl he had just met offline was sitting on the bed, boredly flipping through the hotel TV channels. She seemed to have landed on an anime channel.

“Is family merely a matter of blood? It is the hearts that care for one another that bind people together. Blood only plays a supporting role.”

A deep, Boss-like male voice delivered a line so chuunibyou it was almost unbearable. For some reason, it made the girl laugh happily.

Somehow, he had brought her back to the hotel room he and Zack were staying in. He had to hurry up and send her away before nosy Zack came back.

Cloud yawned and placed his hand on the sliding door.

…The hand that had been about to pull it open withdrew.

He lifted the toilet lid and sat down on it instead. Covering his bright-red face with both hands, he helplessly recalled the course of his “date” with the girl.

――Side Kadaj――

(Three hours earlier)

The silver-white, medium-haired remnant sprawled lazily on the two-person sofa with his hands spread out, watching anime with his original body for the first time, and also for the last.

He glanced sideways at the silver-haired man.

The fox ears on his original body’s head had already disappeared. At the moment, Sephiroth was leaning forward with great interest.

On the image projected onto the white screen, against the backdrop of outer space, two giant robots were hacking at each other with beam sabers. A blond man with slicked-back hair was saying incomprehensible lines inside the cockpit.

“Cloud, too, could become my mother’s wo— cough, man, couldn’t he?”

Sephiroth seemed to be talking to himself.

What the hell was that mid-sentence correction?

“Mo— pfft… cough, cough…”

Even the man himself could not keep from laughing.

Kadaj did not laugh.

He merely looked up at the black curtain above them, and at the bands of green light swimming along the curtain’s edge. After a long while, he suddenly asked,

“What is wrong with you? If you like Brother, then don’t do things that will make him hate you.”

“…I like Cloud?”

His original body turned his head to look at him, still smiling. Then, without turning back, he pressed the pause button on the remote. The image froze in the middle of the fierce robot battle.

“I did not expect even you to misunderstand, Kadaj.”

“My feelings for Cloud are love. Love for family, for a comrade. Love that asks for nothing in return.”

The man said it calmly, steadily.

Kadaj sneered. He still did not look Sephiroth in the eye.

“So you know you love Brother? Once Genocidal Grammar activates, Brother will act like Jenova—Mother—and operate with the goal of killing every intelligent life-form on the Planet. He’ll personally kill the people he loves most. Have you never thought about what that would do to Brother’s mind—”

“Kadaj!”

Sephiroth cut him off sharply.

But Kadaj did not stop.

“What are you planning to do? I’m just asking. After all, I’m about to be used as Advent material, aren’t I? Just like Loz and Yazoo.”

The man looked at him for a while, then spoke quietly.

“Loz, Yazoo, and you are all my family. I love you.”

Kadaj let out a deep, deep sigh. He could feel the energy inside his body still being drawn out in a steady stream, turning into green bands of light that flowed toward the man.

“If you loved me, you shouldn’t have given me consciousness in the first place, you shitty old bastard…”

The remnant’s vision blurred. He slumped limply onto the sofa and was caught gently by the man.

He lay flat, his head resting on his original body’s lap.

“I’m going to curse you…”

He said faintly.

He could barely feel the weight of his silver-white hair where it fell over his shoulder anymore.

Kadaj closed his eyes weakly. Behind his vision, he gazed into an abyss like a black hole.

He had decided.

He had to say something as villainous as possible, something that would hurt his original body as much as possible, on behalf of the other two remnants who had been absorbed before they could even scream.

“I love you too, Daddy…”

He murmured.

Kadaj’s fingers moved, as if trying to grab onto something.

In the end, they only fell beside the edge of Sephiroth’s clothes.

For a long time, no one spoke again.

Only Sephiroth remained on the sofa.

When he stood up, the sofa, the projected anime, and the entire illegal structure inside the Lifestream vanished cleanly, as though they had never existed at all.

The silver-white calamity raised his head and looked toward the upper reaches of the Lifestream.

A white hollow had appeared there without warning.

Beyond it lay the far shore. Having descended several times already, he was quite familiar with the process.

A single black wing unfurled behind him. Sephiroth beat it once, feeling the air lift him gently.

Then he flew toward the hollow without hesitation.

After that, the Lifestream returned to its original silence.

Perhaps it would remain quiet like this.

Or perhaps—

The swollen green river would carry the resentment and unwillingness of the dead, break through the boundary between this world and the far shore, and flood the surface.

And after all life had been exhausted, the Planet would condense into an ark, carrying the calamity and the half-mad hero toward another beautiful star.

None of this was something a remnant could see anymore.

――Side Lili-chan――

(Kalm, one hour later)

The body that had just passed through the white hollow was unbelievably light. Even its vision was unusually clear and vivid.

Most of the color that had drifted through the hair had already faded. The girl now had black-and-white, unevenly mixed hair. Completely unconcerned by the naked stares of the townspeople, she walked along the streets of Kalm after the rain, looking around with curiosity.

It was also Sephiroth’s first time seeing the townscape here without looking through the small window of a large military vehicle.

Not only that, Lili-chan’s height had also been set much shorter than his.

For Cloud’s sake, he had deliberately lowered it. Compared to Sephiroth’s original body, she was forty centimeters shorter.

There was no special meaning to this.

It was merely because this would rouse Cloud’s protective affection.

After arriving at the milk tea shop they had agreed on, he looked around for a while, but did not see that familiar golden spiky head.

So he walked to the ordering counter.

“Hello. Two large oolong milk teas, no ice, to go, please.”

This was the message he had previously typed into the chat interface.

I happen to be going to buy milk tea. If possible, I’d like to meet you.

The other party had agreed readily.

Precisely because last night’s video call had been full of holes, Lily-chan appearing here and now in Kalm would become one hundred percent real.

“Lily…?”

Cloud’s voice came from behind him, slightly above.

Sephiroth lifted his head, faintly displeased.

“…Daddy Strike.”

Oh. He had to remember to show the smile Cloud would like.

He pulled the corners of his mouth into a practiced curve and narrowed his eyes.

“Call me Cloud. I’ve wanted to say that for a while. That isn’t my real name. And don’t add all those extra titles either.”

The young man coughed with a red face, then turned to the staff member.

“I’ll pay. How much?”

Cloud, facing him without a sword and without eyes full of hatred, had come out wearing only work pants and a white tank top. Even his hair looked like it had been hastily shaped with styling product only a couple of times.

How novel.

His gaze shifted. He saw the young man take out his phone to scan and pay, the black feather strap on it swaying lightly with the movement.

He sneered inwardly.

Kadaj’s taste in accessories was like that of a high school girl.

Soon, Cloud would no longer need such weak little things.

“Cloud,” he breathed softly beneath Lili-chan’s mask, “do you want to go see an opera? A touring troupe is performing here today.”

On the way to the pick-up counter, he took out the poster that had been slipped into his arms.

“…I would I were thy canary?” The young man glanced at the poster. “Never seen it. Let’s go together.”

“Really? I’m so happy!”

If this were Lili-chan, she would hold onto Cloud’s arm and cheer loudly.

So Sephiroth did the same, though somewhat stiffly.

Fortunately, the young man seemed absorbed in his own emotions and did not pay much attention to Lily-chan’s expression.

“This… kind of feels like… a d-date…”

He stammered.

“If it isn’t a date, does that mean Lili-chan can’t go out and play with Cloud?”

A Sephiroth who was not Lili-chan would never have dared to even imagine asking that question.

“That’s not what I mean. Let’s go watch it!”

And so, after picking up the milk tea, each of them took a cup and hurried to the touring troupe’s big tent with straws in their mouths.

(Two hours later)

They followed the crowd out of the troupe tent. The blond looked down in dejection at the dark stain on his pants.

He had gotten too excited while clapping, spilled half a cup of milk tea, and even soaked his underwear. A total disaster.

“We can just go back and change now.”

The girl said with a smiling face.

“Th-then you wait downstairs at the hotel…”

“Eh—why? Lily-chan wants to wait in Cloud’s room.”

His arm was held again. This girl was very good at using a cute expression to leave him with no way out.

“My room is a twin room. Someone else is staying with me.”

“Lili-chan wants to become Cloud’s little bird too. To stay in the palm of your hand and go nowhere.”

She blinked her ocher eyes.

This Lily-chan, even though they had only met today…

“I… no, wait, that was the line the boy in the play said just now!”

“Lili-chan is a boy too.”

The girl blinked. Half a beat late, she finally showed a playful smile.

“Eh?”

He was startled, and without thinking, looked the girl holding his arm over from head to toe.

Her face was round. There was not a trace of stubble. She wore a pure white dress. The curve of her chest…

Cloud forced himself to look away.

“A-anyway, once I finish showering and changing, you have to go home right away!”

“Yay!”

The girl cheered softly. Her soft, cold hand held Cloud’s palm, sticky with milk tea stains.

“Then let’s hurry up. Where’s the hotel Cloud is staying at?”

――Side Cloud――

(The present)

That was how Cloud Strife ended up trapped in a hotel bathroom.

In his life full of tragedy, struggle, and existential crisis, the girl had brought him a ray of hope. He did not want to be seen by her as “that kind” of man.

The kind of man who treated a girl’s body as a toy and a pastime.

Filled with guilt, shame, and fear, he glared at his lower half.

On the other side of the door, Lily-chan’s muffled laughter sounded again.

She was waiting for him.

There was not much time.

Cloud wrapped another towel around his lower half.

With a completely inexplicable nervousness, he slowly opened the sliding door.

…Eh?

tbc.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

――Side Cloud――

Ten years later.

Today was a day off. Strife Delivery Service and Lily-chan’s flower shop had both closed for the day.

The night before, Cloud had taken his lover’s hand and turned over the handwritten wooden sign together with her. In rounded handwriting, it read:

Closed for the day.

Now he lay in bed, naked as a newborn, held in a pair of pale white arms. The scent of flowers, sweat, and sheets that had dried after being soaked all mingled together and pressed into his nose, just as they had on so many mornings before.

Cloud moved his tired eyes and looked at the person he had chosen to spend his life with.

The woman holding him was just as bare as he was. Soft breasts pressed against his shoulder, while something hot slid suggestively against his waist.

Cloud let out a soft moan. His body reacted before his will could catch up, eager and exposed, a clear warmth gathering at his lower belly. Behind him, that hidden entrance seemed to stir as well, shyly opening and closing. Unable to hold back, he reached down. Ignoring himself where he was flushed and swollen, he moved past it and pressed two fingers into the only opening below.

“Ngh… mm…”

He quickly found the place that brought him pleasure and began touching it with single-minded focus. A melting sigh spilled from his lips. Behind him, the woman gave a small amused hum.

“Come… come in…”

By then he had no dignity left to preserve. Cloud’s voice broke into a nasal sob.

“You’re getting more and more impatient, Cloud.”

The arms around him slid lazily over his body. One hand gave his hip a light pat.

“Could you lie on your stomach for me? I want you too.”

Cloud made a small, plaintive sound and turned over, burying his face in the shark plush. It had originally been something Lily-chan had bought for the bed, but at some point he had claimed it for himself. The plush, Lily-chan’s favorite songs, Lily-chan’s habit of writing with her left hand—lately he had even been practicing signing invoices left-handed—and the hair ties she used to bind up her hair: all of them had been shamelessly marked by Cloud’s presence.

She laughed softly behind him.

“You’ve adapted so well, Cloud. Back when we first got together, you were so scared you cried.”

“I didn’t…”

He was still making excuses.

The thing that should not have belonged to a woman nudged its way inside, brushing wetly against Cloud’s fingers like a stranger pressed too close on a morning rush-hour train.

“Hand. Out.”

“No…”

he said.

The next second, his wrist was taken and drawn away from his own body.

A small, choked sound slipped from Cloud’s throat.

It soon turned into a high, helpless moan. He clutched the shark plush tightly enough to bend it at the middle. Lily-chan always teased him for being a crybaby, but did he really cry that much?

On that night ten years ago, he clearly remembered that it had been the girl who had cried first, confessing her secret to him.

In the hotel room, where the light had suddenly been switched on, the girl stood barefoot on the carpet and lifted her skirt, showing him what hung between her legs, so different from her small and delicate frame.

“Were you… born that way?”

Cloud asked, staring at the girl’s face. He tried hard not to look down.

The girl nodded without expression.

For a long time, no one in the room spoke.

Then the feelings inside Cloud boiled over.

He pulled those slender shoulders into his arms.

The girl’s hands, which had been clutching the hem of her dress, lowered. After some hesitation, she embraced him back.

“Cloud, you don’t have to do this for me. Lily-chan is fine.”

“How could you… be fine…”

He let his tears seep into her hair, until he felt wetness against his chest.

Neither of them said anything. Only the night wind battered the window with hollow, clattering sounds.

After that, time moved quickly.

That night, he learned that Lily had no last name. Like livestock, she had been kept by her mother in a dark basement, passing the time with only a computer. This trip outside had also been something she had done in secret, without her mother’s knowledge.

If Mother found out…

The girl stopped, unable to finish.

Cloud immediately decided to take her back to Edge with him. Right now.

After leaving a note telling Zack where he had gone, he took the girl’s hand and led her to the parking lot where Fenrir waited.

That night, Tifa was startled too. Everyone at Seventh Heaven looked at the girl with either curiosity or suspicion. Only Denzel clapped his hands and said, “Cloud’s girlfriend really is prettier than the school beauty!”

But Lily was more than beautiful.

With Cloud’s support, and against the objections of nearly everyone around him, she opened a flower shop on the old church grounds in the Sector 7 slums, and soon found her footing in Edge.

The price was Cloud’s complete break with his friends and family.

Tifa accused him of crudely erasing the memory of Aerith, which belonged to all of them, by replacing it with another woman’s name. Even Zack said nothing, only watching him with sorrowful eyes as Cloud argued with Tifa across the table.

But if he had not done that, where would that girl have found a place to belong in this strange city?

Since things had already fallen apart with Seventh Heaven, Cloud first moved Strife Delivery into Lily-chan’s flower shop under the excuse of helping with business. Then, naturally, he began living with Lily-chan. And after that—

The force suddenly grew stronger. Cloud’s entire upper body sank into the plush, and a hoarse cry tore out of him.

When a person is surrounded by love, the excess of happiness can press out a sharp, sour pain. He had learned that at his wedding with the girl he loved.

“Hehe… Cloud, what are you thinking about? Lily-chan thinks she understands a little… hah… You want more, don’t you?”

Cloud nodded again and again. His mouth hung open, and like a ridiculous fool, he left damp traces against the shark’s polyester surface.

“Mm… me too… let’s finish together… ah…”

The girl seemed to laugh. Her hands tightened at Cloud’s waist as she moved hard, again and again. Like a talking doll whose button had been pressed before it could even sing its first note, Cloud let out a cry on the verge of collapse.

Pleasure spilled out of him in a thin, broken stream instead of being released all at once, staining once more the sheets that had hardened and softened again and again. At some point, Cloud had become used to finishing like this. The way boys learned to stand when they urinated, it had become something not worth thinking about.

“Ah… you made a mess again. Cloud really isn’t good at holding back. I’ll get some tissues.”

The warm body left him.

With nothing holding him closed, the remaining heat slipped down between his thighs. Cloud gave a soft whimper.

He had started thinking again.

A bad habit.

Right.

His first night with Lily had been a complete failure.

Cloud considered himself traditional. Lily had also told him she was a first-timer.

So, Cloud, this might be hard on you.

The girl had seemed to say it with a smile.

Huh?

When she said that, Cloud had not realized that he would be the one receiving her.

Now, as he obediently shifted his hips while being wiped clean, Cloud could not summon even the slightest sympathy for the self who had once cried from pain.

“Then let’s stop for tonight.”

The girl had said something like that. She had only touched Cloud gently and lain with him through the night.

But from that night on, Cloud could no longer forgive himself.

He could not forgive the self who had failed to meet Lily-chan’s expectations.

It was Lily-chan’s love that had given him the right to forgive himself.

It was Lily-chan’s love that had given him a place of rest in this impermanent, burning world.

So if something had gone wrong, wasn’t the problem on Cloud’s side?

From that day on, he began buying things to help himself adjust, opening himself in the bedroom at night beneath Lily’s heated gaze.

Had he become a husband Lily could be proud of now?

His trembling lips did not ask the question.

Cloud was simply arranged by the girl into a half-reclining position on the bed. After they made love, he was always exhausted.

A glass of water was brought to his lips. He drank in small sips.

“Um, Cloud,” the girl said as she wiped away the clear droplets that spilled from the corner of his mouth, “I cultivated a new kind of lily. A white lily with five petals. Could we place it in the most prominent spot in our shop, instead of the yellow lilies of reunion?”

Yellow lilies.

Those were the flowers an important friend of Cloud’s had planted in the church.

His heavy eyelids lifted slightly, and Cloud looked at the girl.

“Why does it have to replace the yellow lilies? Can’t they both be the shop’s signature flowers?”

He rarely got stubborn like that.

“Mm? There’s no particular reason. But since you say so, Cloud, we’ll do it your way.”

Lily placed the glass on the bedside table.

She was getting dressed, layer by layer, like a plant whose petals had all fallen away and was now beginning to bear fruit.

“Help me name the flower,” she said. “Something cool-sounding, like Lunar Tear.”

Cloud lowered his head.

He stared at the shark plush’s white teeth and thought for a very, very long time.

“Sephiroth…”

“What?”

“Sephiroth… Could we call it that?”

――Side Sephiroth――

They had been sailing through the vacuum for ten years since leaving Gaia.

They—of course—meant Sephiroth and the blond hero whose mind had been eroded by genocidal grammar.

“Cloud…”

His own voice sounded in the damp, sweltering cabin.

At the same time, there came the sounds of chewing and swallowing, as if he were sharing the room with someone who had been starved for a very long time.

He stroked the blood-soaked blond hair with affection, allowing the hero’s clawed hands to tear into his skin. Cloud ripped away the cartilage at his throat and swallowed it, all while still eyeing Sephiroth’s shoulder.

Only a misty hunger filled those blue eyes.

“Ngh… ah…”

Cloud was moaning.

Sephiroth held one restless thigh without ceremony, opened the hero who had been taken countless times before, and entered that burning heat.

They cried out at the same time.

By the time Sephiroth began to move, Cloud had already abandoned his meal. He sat astride Sephiroth’s hips, legs spread, moving shamelessly against him.

“You’re becoming more and more excellent, Cloud.”

The muscle on Sephiroth’s body was still regenerating. Even if he ignored it, it would repair itself on its own.

So he simply let go and allowed the young man to do as he pleased.

Then he turned his gaze toward the boundless darkness beyond the cockpit.

“It’s already been ten years…”

he said with feeling.

Cloud answered with a muffled, wordless sound.

When they had first begun this journey through space, Cloud had understood nothing. Even though he had already fulfilled the mission of annihilating humanity, he had still tried to recombine with Sephiroth.

In that small cabin sealed away from the vacuum of space, they had fought, torn at each other, and devoured each other thousands—tens of thousands—of times.

Until one day, Sephiroth’s body reacted under pressure—which was perfectly normal and unrelated to desire—and during one of their struggles, he accidentally slipped into a warm, mucous-lined place.

That is to say.

Cloud’s.

Well.

His body.

At that moment, the young man let out a desperate wail.

Sephiroth found it interesting.

After all, even when he had killed that woman and that man, Cloud had never shown such an intense fluctuation.

He pressed on without hesitation. With a sound like silk being torn, he drove in all the way.

The young man curled up as if struck by lightning. The calamity took the opportunity to push him down onto the damp, yielding floor, slick with flesh and blood, and moved again, hard.

Those narrow pupils, so like Sephiroth’s own, shrank to their limit. The irises gradually stained themselves a bright, greenish hue.

“That’s it… Cloud. Just like that… keep going… hah…”

Cloud had been too tight at first. It did not take long before Sephiroth finished inside him.

Ignoring the calamity, who was still shuddering through release, the hero scrambled away on all fours and fled to the corner diagonally opposite Sephiroth. There, he curled up with his arms over his head, trembling.

Sephiroth shrugged.

There were only the two of them anyway. If Cloud did not come to disturb him, then Sephiroth would observe the ship’s speed and angle of travel, making adjustments where necessary to avoid being dragged into the gravity well of a large planet.

After that, however, Cloud underwent a curious change.

He began touching himself.

At first, it was only with his fingers. Later, he started using all sorts of strange objects—bones picked up from the floor, soft fragments of organs—anything he could press inside himself while panting.

Eventually, Sephiroth could no longer bear to watch.

He pulled Cloud’s hand away, carefully removed and cleaned out what had been left inside, opened his thighs, and replaced those things with himself.

After an instant of stiffness, Cloud would cry out and fall apart completely, leaving Sephiroth to clean him up afterward.

Oh, and there was the predatory behavior stirred up by intimacy as well.

As the saying went, appetite and desire were never far apart. During the act, Cloud would often bite Sephiroth’s neck. It made kissing difficult, but since it calmed him down, the calamity allowed it.

Before long, the number of times they made love had caught up with the number of times they devoured each other.

Cloud’s entrance, once tight and puckered, had gradually become a moist and beautiful vertical slit.

Sephiroth had never imagined that Cloud would become so perfectly suited to his shape.

“Hah… ah…”

A sharp pain at his neck drew his wandering attention back.

The blond young man, as if expressing dissatisfaction, sank his fangs deeper into Sephiroth’s flesh the instant he sensed his attention returning.

“Shh… shh… I’m here.”

Sephiroth soothed him in a low voice and, almost casually, drew the exhausted body closer into his arms.

To be honest, the situation of their voyage through space was far from optimistic.

The fuel Gaia had stored was only enough for them to leave the star system. Once the ark lost power, it would drift aimlessly through the empty universe.

Like Jenova, the chance of descending upon a planet capable of supporting life was small. It did not exceed the chance of being torn apart by a celestial body’s gravity, captured by a black hole, struck by drifting debris, or destroyed forever.

Perhaps, by the time they saw the end of the universe, even his own mind would have long since vanished.

But at least—

“Cloud, we will be together. You will never be alone again.”

He kissed the crown of the person he loved most.

Then something unexpected happened again.

“Sephiroth…”

“What?”

He froze for a second.

Cloud’s brain, damaged by the grammar of slaughter, should no longer have been capable of anything beyond instinct.

“Sephiroth…”

With curiosity and fear, he lowered his head.

And met those shining eyes.

end.