FFVII – Part 32: Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe

Summary: The Mansion of Nibelheim, revisited. We solve the clues Sephiroth left us and crack a safe that might have been better left uncracked. The party finally catches up with Sephiroth, though he flies away to prepare for the mysterious Reunion.


Nibelheim Mansion

-On the left side of the mansion, there’s a note from Sephiroth. He had to shake the Turks, and mutated him in some way, putting him in the basement. Oh God. What am I going to find there?

-Another note: “Move the dial on the safe carefully but quickly. You have 20 seconds. You cannot go past the numbers while turning. The 4 hints for the numbers are…” And then three options. “Dial (1), Dial (2), and Dial (3).” Not sure what this mean. Let’s do “Dial (1)”.

Dial (1): the lid of the box with the most oxygen
Dial (2): behind the Ivory’s short of tea and ray
Dial (3): the creak in the floor near the chair on the second floor… then to the left five steps, up nine steps, left two steps, and up six steps.

Those must be the location of the clues within this Mansion. What about the fourth?

-LOL – one of the enemies in the mansion is a Halloween-themed shuttlecock.

”Dorky Face.” Not even kidding.

-Near the piano, something is written on the floor: “(2) Left 10.” I try walking to the left ten steps, nothing. Tried walking up 10 steps (left from where I was facing), and nothing.

-OH!!!!! I’m a dorkus malorkus. This is clue #2. “Behind the Ivory’s short of tea and ray” is near the piano. One clue down. Left 10.

-On the second floor, I find clue #1. It’s in the room with plants, hence “the most oxygen” I guess. Right 36.

-In another room, I clicked on a chair and got a squeak sound. That must be the creaky spot in the floor for clue 5…. And found it. Right 59.

So it goes right 36, left 10, right 59. I’m nervous because the note mentioned four hints and these are only three numbers, but let’s try it out.

-Tried it. No luck. But it seems like the first three numbers are right and there’s a fourth to learn as well. Maybe the surgically-altered Turk (and I can’t express exactly how much I’m not looking forward to seeing how they are surgically altered) has the answer.

-I’m about to head into the basement, but actually want to check that note again. In case I have to scroll down for a fourth clue.

YOU TRICKY BASTARD IT WAS THERE AS A HIDDEN LINE HAHAHAHAH!!!!

I’m kind of super proud of myself. Go Coldrun! Right 97.

-Safe time, part 2. I save first out of fear from what might pop out.

-WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THAT

”Lost Number.”

-It looks like Loatheb, from WoW, going through a punk phase. Speaking of phases, midway through the fight, it changed its color to pure purple and shed its tentacles.

-Oh, btw, his purple form is RIDICULOUSLY TOUGH. Cloud attacked him and the hit landed for minimal damage and led to Lost Number retaliating for one-shot damage. I take this to mean his purple form can only be hurt by magic safely.

-Eventually, after a few close call (and Cloud dying a few times), we win. And get the Odin materia! Yay!

-Also got “Cosmo Memory,” a new limit ability. Not sure what it does. Cloud’s always in my party, so I try to give it to him, but he literally doesn’t care.

Neither Tifa nor Barret can use it. My money’s on Cait Sith, or maybe Aeris…. WAIT. Again, I’m a dorkus malorkus. “Cosmo Memory.” It must be Red. [Edit later: still thinking of him as this. I mean Nanaki.]

---

Mansion, Basement

-Eerie music down here.

-What the hell is up in this lab? Is this Sephiroth’s doing, or Hojo’s, or even Gast’s? One of the containment facilities says: “A scratch left by a fingernail inside the beaker… ‘Feeding time…’ that’s our chance!” I’m both confused and terrified. Thanks, FFVII.

-Goody! Just when I didn’t think I could get more freaked, there’s Sephiroth. Well, he’s not freaky so much as his description of the Reunion.

Not just “causing” a calamity. “Becoming” a calamity.

-Interestingly enough, Cloud picks up on this and says, “Jenova’s not an Ancient?” Sephiroth doesn’t answer this exactly, but seems disappointed in Cloud, seeming to imply, “Of course she’s not an Ancient. How could you not know what she is?” He’s on his way to north of Mt. Nibel for this Reunion, and literally floats and flies away.

-But first he throws a green materia at us. Weird, but thanks dude. “Destruct” materia.

-Further in the lab/library, the research seems to tell a story. Two escapees found near Midgar. Escapee A was a former member of SOLDIER, who seemed unaffected by either Mako radiation therapy or Jenova’s effect. Escapee B reacted to Jenova.

-A was found and shot for resisting. B escaped during A’s resistance. B’s whereabouts unknown, but “pursuit is unnecessary due to his diminishing consciousness.”

-Ok. Who are these people? Both are male. I assume we’ve met or heard about them. A is dead, B is alive. Maybe B is Cloud and A was Sephiroth, presumed to be dead but not actually dead? That’s part one of my guess.

Part two of my guess is that after Tifa was shot in that flashback, Cloud and Sephiroth were captured, experimented on, and then… shit happened? I dunno.

-The clones are now calling out for Sephiroth over the mountains. Maybe they’re excited for their Reunion.

---

Next time: I could go to Mt. Nibel, but I first want to check out that town on the western coast.

p.s. After finishing this, it hit me that I never saw the Turk that Sephiroth “scientifically altered,” unless that Turk was Lost Number (which I doubt). Went back to the basement to search, but nothing. Maybe the Turk escaped. I did find this happy camper in the basement:

”Ying / Yang.”