Taking Hearts, Breaking Limits (Persona 5 Royal x Final Fantasy VII)

VIII

4/21 - Thursday - After School

Ren's POV

They could not handle a single minute of it.

It was way more than they thought it was gonna be. Ren assumed he was just part of some performing arts club and is just surprisingly carrying around a giant sword everywhere. Not to mention his sweet sword skills, which Ren thought he just got from something like fencing and whatnot.

Ren's backstory was just tiny, miniscule even, compared to Cloud's. They couldn't even begin to wrap their heads around the gist of it. He was an ex-mercenary? And he saved the world? Twice?!

When Cloud finished storytelling, everyone was baffled. Well, everyone except Morgana. He actually enjoyed it.

"Were you guys even paying attention? You've been looking at me weirdly all the time." he said.

"So... let me get this straight." Ryuji said. "You're an ex-mercenary. Emphasis on the MERCENARY part. And not only that, but you've saved the world not once, but TWICE?! ARE YOU EVEN FOR REAL RIGHT NOW?!"

"Uh-huh." Cloud replied nonchalantly.

"Okay... let's start from the top, shall we?" Morgana insisted, since he was actually listening unlike everyone else. "You come from a planet called uh... Gaia, was it? Your story started at a place called Nibelheim, your hometown. That right?" Cloud nodded in response.

"You were an infantryman. And one day... you, your friend Zack who was a SOLDIER First Class, and another SOLDIER First Class named Sephiroth went to your hometown for a mission. Sooner or later, Sephiroth found out he was actually some crazy science experiment, went insane, and burned the town?"

"Yup." he said with a monotone, as if he didn't want to talk about it. Ren couldn't blame him. The dude literally burned his hometown.

"After that... you somehow 'killed' Sephiroth, but you and Zack got captured. Zack managed to get you out of there but... he died." Morgana said with his tone down a bit, trying to to take the story too lightly. 

Cloud had a serious face on. Ren felt like Morgana was taking it a bit too far, and sooner or later, Cloud would get his... Fusion Sword(?) and hack him to bits. He was surprised that he was keeping his cool.

"After that, you worked as a merc, yeah?" Ryuji cut in. "After that, you had a run-in with your old friend Tifa, who recommended a job for you. Later on, you were hired by Avalanche, an... 'eco-terrorist group' you called it? Anyway, you planted bombs in some reactors because according to your friend uh... Barret? He said that it was to protect the planet from uh... what was it again?"

"From Shinra to keep the Lifestream from being drained." Cloud helped him.

"Oh right, thanks!" He thanked him. "Anyway, two reactors down yadda-yadda-yadda, but then you fell down onto erm... Sector 5, yeah? And then you met that Aerith girl."

Cloud's expression turned from full-on serious to sad and guilty. When they heard about what happened to Aerith, they felt the same way too. At one point, Ann even shed a tear about it.

"You guys traveled back to Sector 7, but only to find out that your friend, Tifa, was going out on... what was it?"

"An audition in Wall Market." Cloud said.

"Yeah, that! So you did some shit here and there, and got her out. You went back to Sector 7 again but uh... what happened again?"

"That's it, I'm taking over!" Ann announced. "You heard that Shinra was aware about Avalanche in Sector 7 and they... dropped the plate on it." she said trying not to sound so enthusiastic about it.