Chapter 33: Jenova Cells

"Kukuku... Sephiroth as an enemy. I see, I see. As for whether it is possible or impossible—it is certainly possible. Truly intriguing."

Triggered by a comment from Rufus, Hojo looked back down at the documents in his hands. These were encrypted files stolen by Elfe, which he had gone through the trouble of printing out to ensure no digital leaks occurred. A twisted smirk—his usual unsettling laugh—escaped his lips as if a fascinating hypothesis had just struck him.

"Uhyohyo! What’s this? Sephiroth has defected?!"

The lighthearted Palmer laughed, covering his mouth with his hand. I couldn't help but think: If Sephiroth actually betrays us, it’s a fatal blow to Shinra. The company would collapse!

"Young Master, shouldn't we share the facts first? We need Dr. Hojo to give us a proper explanation afterward."

Heidegger, surprisingly sensible for once, spoke up. Honestly, if he could act this professionally outside of emergencies, his reputation among his subordinates might actually improve.

"Let’s cut the idle chatter and keep it simple. Currently, the Turks are engaging Sephiroth in Nibelheim. Furthermore, I’ve received word that the Experimental Unit at the Mako Reactor has also engaged him."

"Two Sephiroths?! What on earth does that mean?"

Reeve, the voice of reason, cried out in surprise. Unlike Palmer, he understood the gravity of Sephiroth’s betrayal—and he was clearly reeling from the impossibility of there being more than one.

"Exactly what I said. There are two Sephiroths, and they are both hostile toward Shinra."

Even as I spoke the words, they made little sense. Cloud had reported it first, and almost simultaneously, the Turks sent a similar report to Rufus. The two of us had just stared at each other, tilting our heads in confusion. I must have looked like a total idiot, but even Rufus’s "pretty boy" face was ruined by his sheer inability to process the information.

I didn't fully grasp it either, but it seemed there were multiple "fake" Sephiroths.

Hojo, meanwhile, had retreated into his own world, muttering to the documents. We needed him to snap out of it and explain the situation.

"If you’ve come up with a hypothesis, out with it. Otherwise, the President—who has been very quiet—might decide to interrogate you personally."

President Shinra had remained silent, leaving the floor to Rufus. As he turned his gaze toward Hojo and cleared his throat, the noisy atmosphere of the briefing room vanished instantly.

Say what you will, but the President of a mega-corporation certainly has charisma. Even though he’s gradually handing the reins to Vice President Rufus, he still wields absolute power. His word is final. As the President glared at Hojo, demanding an explanation, Hojo took a breath and finally spoke.

"To begin with, Jenova is a celestial lifeform that arrived from the far reaches of space. It travels from planet to planet. If it encounters a lifeform that could be a natural predator, it detaches a portion of its cells to mimic the form of that predator. It approaches when the target’s guard is down, implants its own cells, and mutates them into monsters. It is an invader. When this creature was originally excavated as a fossil, it was mimicking a female of the Cetra. That is why Dr. Gast mistook it for one of the Ancients."

The beginning of everything: the Jenova Project, intended to revive the Ancients in the modern age. It was a project founded on a fundamental misunderstanding.

"While Jenova was not an Ancient, its genetic traits were fascinating. We analyzed that power and used it to create the SOLDIER program. Their extraordinary combat prowess is a result of inheriting a fraction of the power within Jenova's cells."

The fact that SOLDIERs possess physical abilities far beyond those of Public Security troops is thanks to Jenova cells. However, only compatible humans can become SOLDIERs. Implantation and Mako exposure in others usually results in a complete mental breakdown. Even among those who qualify, many eventually develop symptoms similar to Mako poisoning and end up as husks.

"Two types of cells were born from the Jenova Project: the S-Type cells I oversaw, and the G-Type cells handled by Hollander. Currently, only the modified S-Type is used for SOLDIER processing. As I mentioned before, the G-Type had critical flaws and was quickly abandoned. Though it seems Hollander, after being relegated to a minor post, continued his research in secret."

When Dr. Gast, the lead of the project, suddenly vanished, a power struggle broke out between Hojo and Hollander for the position of Head of the Scientific Research Division. Hojo won. Hollander didn't just lose his status; because he knew too much, he couldn't leave Shinra for another organization. He was kept on a short leash by the company, spending his days buried in private research.

This is the "Black Company" side of Shinra. He was competent enough to handle the treatment of Genesis and Angeal—the products of his G-Type research—but that backfired spectacularly when he defected along with them and a group of SOLDIERs.

"As you all know, Hollander joined the defectors and merged with Avalanche. It seems he’s been working with Avalanche scientists to modify their 'Enhanced Humans' using the S-Type cells and SOLDIER technology he stole from Shinra."

Scientists and their long-winded explanations... I could have barked at him to get to the point, but being an engineer myself, I know my own explanations can run long. Palmer had already lost interest and started drinking tea.

"The key point here is the difference between the two cell types. To put it simply, S-Type cells possess traits closer to the original Jenova. They cannot copy themselves onto others, but because of that, they do not suffer from cellular degradation. They are, however, masters of Jenova’s 'mimicry' ability. That is the source of our greatest masterpiece, Sephiroth’s strength."

"Does mimicry translate directly into strength?" Reeve asked.

Hojo answered as if bragging about his own son.

"There is an expression: 'to hear one and know ten.' Sephiroth needs only one training session, one battle, or one experience to fully comprehend a concept and sublimate it into perfection."

Hojo pulled a terminal from his lab coat and operated it with terrifying speed. I was oddly impressed by how well he handled a touchscreen; the executives had only recently switched to these smartphone-style devices. While I was used to them from my previous life, the others were still struggling. The young Rufus adapted quickly, but apparently, the President had to have his son teach him how to use it.

A projector and screen descended from the ceiling. Hojo displayed recent simulation data and graphs of Sephiroth’s performance.

"This graph compares a standard SOLDIER, Zack—who currently has the second-highest success rate in the SOLDIER department—and Sephiroth. For reference, I had the Public Security Division undergo the same training. They couldn't even complete it."

Heidegger let out a low growl at the unnecessary jab. Hojo ignored him and continued.

"As you can see, Sephiroth's strength isn't just about physical specs. It’s his abnormal growth rate, fueled by his ability to reproduce anything he learns perfectly. If we move away from the framework of SOLDIER and use common, cheap terminology... he is a genius with a singular talent."

The graph for a standard SOLDIER showed a gradual upward trend. Zack’s graph was a much steeper climb. But Sephiroth’s line was an vertical explosion that dwarfed them both. The sheer abnormality of his strength was clear just by looking at the data.

"When was this data recorded?" Rufus asked, having noticed something.

Hojo switched the screen as if he had been waiting for that exact question.

"Sharp as always, Vice President. While these graphs represent the same training, the dates they were recorded differ."

"Zack’s data is recent, I assume. When did Sephiroth undergo this training?"

"Sephiroth achieved these results when he was fifteen."

"Unbelievable... He was undergoing such grueling training and producing these results at that age?!" Heidegger exclaimed.

I couldn't blame him. The training itself was absurdly difficult; simply clearing it was a feat. Looking closely, the 'Standard SOLDIER' data was also recent—likely the result of the new recruits under Zack pushing themselves to prove their worth.

"In other words, Sephiroth's true terror is his rate of evolution. Conversely, without a wall to overcome or a rival to push him, his growth hits a plateau."

Sephiroth surely trains on his own, but his greatest spikes in power occur when he has to overcome an obstacle. When a rival exists, he analyzes their strengths and incorporates them into his own technique.

That’s why he was subjected to horrific training from childhood and assigned more high-stakes missions than anyone else. Having elite warriors like Genesis and Angeal by his side allowed him to make their strengths his own. Even Zack, who has grown rapidly in recent years, was initially able to keep up, but Sephiroth quickly analyzed the reason for Zack's strength and absorbed it.

Sephiroth’s strength is like a protagonist’s—overwhelming growth supported by a mountain of perfectly understood experience. If you fail to kill him in the first encounter, you won't get a second chance.

That’s why we’ve been preparing so much to take him down. We’ve avoided direct confrontation as much as possible, focusing on combat simulations to ensure that when the "one" true battle comes, we can win.

"As expected of the superior of Cloud—the man who aims to surpass Sephiroth. You are quick to understand. Or perhaps... did you know about Sephiroth’s traits from the beginning?"

"Ara-ara. You’ve been cooperating with us precisely because you knew what we were thinking, haven't you, Hojo? You wanted to push Cloud to surpass Sephiroth, using him as a stepping stone to force Sephiroth to grow even further."

"Kukuku... I simply couldn't find a 'wall' high enough for Sephiroth anywhere else. Hollander’s failures weren't enough. Foreign warriors were useless. The younger SOLDIERs were insufficient. It just so happened that the most promising candidate was Cloud of the Experimental Unit—a first-class warrior raised by the Advanced Weaponry Division."

Well, I have no intention of being a "stepping stone." My goal was never to beat Sephiroth in training; it was always to kill him. I took advantage of Hojo’s resources to get what I needed, but in the end, the man was just trying to hand-craft a rival for his own son.

Talk about twisted parental devotion.

"Enough. Stop with the usual boasting. We understand the mechanics of Sephiroth’s strength, but how does that explain the current situation?"

Rufus scolded us both. I felt a slight pang of "oops" internally, but I didn't let it show on my face for a second. Hojo resumed his explanation without a hint of remorse.

"That covers Sephiroth's specs, which he inherited from the S-Cells. On the other hand, the G-Cells inherited Jenova’s 'Separation' ability—the power to copy oneself onto others."

"So, of Jenova's traits of mimicry and separation, the S-Cells took mimicry, and the G-Cells took separation," Reeve summarized.

Hojo nodded, satisfied that the point had landed.

"Precisely. And according to the research documents I have from Hollander’s time with Avalanche, they were aiming to create a new type of SOLDIER by taking the copy ability of the G-Cells and integrating the characteristics of the S-Cells. Avalanche has also been doing unique research into enchanting the human body with Materia. Even for an incompetent like Hollander, with that much data to work with, he was bound to produce some kind of result."

"Could you summarize this in a way that us 'ordinary people' not versed in science can understand, Dr. Hojo?" President Shinra asked, folding his hands.

"Very well. To put it simply: Avalanche changed their approach to creating 'the perfect warrior.' Instead of blindly trying to create a high-spec soldier from scratch, they decided to mimic the world's strongest warrior and mass-produce him. The project name in these files says it all."

Hojo displayed the title of the top-secret document Elfe had liberated from Avalanche onto the screen for everyone to see.

[SEPHIROTH COPY PROJECT]