[Flesh and blood and the mortality that comes from it. Agency coupled with the choice to define oneself on their own, not by what one has been told. Fine and novel concepts, but there is a part of Sephiroth that he keeps wrapped up within himself, unseen to the world, that disallows him to take it to heart.

But it sparks, maybe for the first time, a further want to explain.]

You don’t understand.

[He steps back two more paces, adopting a ready, defensive stance seen just minutes before. This won’t clear his heart, but maybe it will organize the thoughts in a single file line. Masamune gleams.]

Flesh and blood. Fallibility. That doesn’t change the fact that I’m different from you — from everyone I have ever met.

[The squeeze of leather, grip tight.]

Do you think telling me what I had believed was a lie makes it better? If not descended from a monster, then descended from nothing, instead?

[A blank space where family should be — emblematic of a want unfulfilled.]

Don’t. If you want to fight, then begin.