Sephiroth is unaware that it's his birthday, marred by a death that the date shares. Zack, however, is determined to prove that the special day can indeed be happy.

When Zack fails to show up to work one morning, Sephiroth grows concerned. Did Hojo get to him? Was he injured? Did he desert, just like— He was… homesick? Was there even a cure for that?

Zack makes a shocking discovery on his way home from the slums.

Zack returns to the library, determined to end his friend’s streak of sleep deprivation… even if he’s gotta get a little creative with the approach. Well, it always worked when he was a kid!

Storming out of Nibelheim’s Mako Reactor, his mind nothing but a dark curtain of static, Sephiroth was desperate, starving, and searching for one thing and one thing alone: Answers. That is, however, until someone stops him before he can even reach the manor.