The SOLDIER General's Self-Saving Shizun
is a crossover fanfic between The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong and Final Fantasy VII, written on Archive of Our Own by esama.
When the Sun and Moon Dew Flower unexpectedly rots instead of blossoming into a new body, Shen Qingqiu finds himself expelled from Proud Immortal Demon Way and landing in Midgar. In a certain silver-haired, shirt-loathing SOLDIER's body after a Mako overdose.
So now he has to content with an American corporate dystopia, a mad scientist bent on driving him to suffer a mental breakdown, trying to rebuild his cultivation from scratch and people looking at him weirdly for being normal.
And that's without being aware of Luo Binghe still chasing after him, in spite of the dimensions now separating them.
Contains the following tropes
- Abusive Parents: Hojo. This dude forced open surgery without anaesthesia on Sephiroth for showing interest in being a person rather than an unfeeling weapon. After reading this report, the Turks decide to immediately separate them by sending Sephiroth to Wutai and keep him there as long as possible.
- Antiquated Linguistics: When Sephiroth stumbles upon a Wutaiin squad and casually chats with them in their native tongue, the captain points at his accent being quite archaic — a consequence of several years spent living in a xianxia epic.
- Badass Adorable: Post-transmigration Sephiroth still is a deadly One-Man Army who could potentially destroy Midgar if he suffers a meltdown, but he's also prone to pouting and squeeing over monsters. The gap moe almost traumatizes Genesis and the Turks.
- Bad Bedroom, Bad Life: Sephiroth's room is basically empty to showcase he's nothing beyond a Living Prop to Shinra. Shen Yuan redecorating the place with comfy furniture and accessories is taken as a serious call for help as a consequence.
- Defusing The Tykebomb: The Turks are awfully aware that Sephiroth has the potential to ravage Midgar if he's pushed too far by Shinra's casual dehumanization of him, so they do their utmost to give him time and privacy in order to take a breath and figure himself.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Genesis barely veils his envy of Sephiroth's power, but he wants to upstage the Silver General through his genuine work. As Sephiroth shows disorientation and amnesia following a minute of brain-death in the labs, the other First-class is nothing but horrified at the thought of the other man losing all of his martial prowess.
- The Turks have done a lot of messed-up black ops to protect Shinra's interests, yet they think Sephiroth's treatment by Hojo was utterly fucked-up.
- President Shinra, who blatantly dismisses Sephiroth as an investment, considers Hojo more as an hindrance than an asset to his company and claims the man's best days are long behind him.
- Excrement Statement: Accidentally done by a qi-deviating Sephiroth projectile vomiting a liter of blood all over Hojo, and casually declaring bad blood needs to go. Reno outright relishes in the sheer poetry of the moment.
- Facial Markings: Many cultivators and demons don painted marks on the spot between their eyebrows for spiritual purposes. Because of that, Sephiroth is intrigued by Tseng, whose design involves a crimson dot on his forehead.
- Heroes Gone Fishing: As the transmigration happened before Nibelheim's destruction, Sephiroth still is held as a war hero. Genesis dragging him in town for a shopping trip causes several minds to break.
- Hero-Worshipper: The SOLDIER Third and Second-class towards the Firsts, but it's mostly aimed towards Sephiroth. When the qi-deviating Silver General decides to teach a bunch of cadets sword tips, the worship goes another level up.
- Identical Stranger: Downplayed but Shen Yuan, Shen Qingqiu and Sephiroth apparently share some resemblance in the facial features.
- Internal Reveal: Courtesy of Luo Binghe interrogating him, Shang Qinghua coughs up the existence of transmigration and how it's not actually reincarnating.
- I Will Find You: Luo Binghe won't let a measly detail such as interdimensional travel keep him away from his Shizun.
- Lethal Chef: Genesis' idea of tea making is dunking the thing in hot water until it gets brown. Sephiroth is not impressed.
- Moment of Weakness: As Luo Binghe is forcing Liu Qingge to gaze into a scrying device to get an inkling of Shen Qingqiu's whereabouts, he taunts the Bai Zhan War God with the prospect to hear the late Qing Jing Peak Lord's voice again. Liu Qingge's resolve to not help briefly falters, triggering the device.
- Next Life as a Fictional Character: And this time, it's Sephiroth! Shen Yuan is a wee bit exasperated and worried, since it's been years as he last played the game and he might not remember the fine details.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Sephiroth acting like a human being with interests not linked to the military?! The knee-jerk reaction is to blame the Mako overdose for outright scrambling his brain, but as time goes by, a few people such as Tseng start to suspect there's something more at work.
- Point of Divergence: The Sun and Moon Dew Flower rotting before it could blossom forced the System to punt Shen Yuan's soul out of Proud Immortal Demon Way and stuff it in a brain-dead Sephiroth's body.
- The Power of Friendship: Lampooned by Angeal who threatens Sephiroth with a heartfelt speech if he claims being fine when he's obviously not. There will be genuine emotions, the horror!
- Real Men Hate Affection: Sephiroth shows flat distaste for "anime bullshit" such as big speeches about friendship and bonds, dreading the possibility of a crossover with Kingdom Hearts because of that. Angeal cheerfully teases him with a fake threat of genuine emotions.
- "Reborn as Villainess" Story: Congratulation, Shen Yuan, you're not the scummy teacher who abused his student into becoming a kingdom-destroying menace anymore! Now you are the planet-destroying menace!
- Strong and Skilled: Pre-transmigration Sephiroth was inhumanly powerful but was mainly self-taught in swordsmanship. Post-transmigration Sephiroth has the memory of xianxia training and a much better grasp on life energy circulating principles.
- Too Dumb to Live: When Hojo hears about Sephiroth apparently exploring a new part of his abilities in a virtual simulation, does he wait for the simulation to end? No, he outright disturbs it by dropping a Behemoth on Sephiroth who proceeds to Freak Out and attempts to slaughter him.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Justified because Sephiroth outgrew his previous coat and shirts and couldn't be bothered to buy properly-sized ones. One of Shen Yuan's first decisions after landing in his new body is doing online shopping to fix the situation because he's not fond of freezing his tits — cue everybody in Shinra being freaked.
- Yandere: Luo Binghe flat-out rejects the idea of letting his Shizun move on and reincarnate, doing everything to stuff the man's soul back in Shen Qingqiu's body. When you're ready to chase somebody into another dimension, it's saying something about your obsession levels.
- Younger Than They Look: Shen Yuan transmigrates in a twenty-one years old Sephiroth's body. It's mentioned several times it's easy to forget the guy's actual age when he behaves so arrogantly, and is so muscled.
