Egghead Island, Research Stratum.
Inside a laboratory, the machine screen was still playing Kuma's memories from a first-person perspective.
"Waaah! Dad... It's all my fault! If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have... Waaah...!"
Bonney collapsed onto the floor and wept bitterly, her voice filled with guilt and sorrow.
Sephiroth had a lit cigar clenched between his lips. He blinked his slightly moist eyes and muttered:
"Damn! This cigar smoke really stings the eyes..."
Bartholomew Kuma's life could be summed up in one sentence... a coffee table covered in cups of tragedy.
Sephiroth instinctively put himself in Kuma's shoes. If he had gone through what Kuma had...
He felt that not turning into an antisocial, anti-human lunatic would already have been pretty impressive!
Hmm!? Though he was pretty dark himself now, beyond redemption...
Still, Kuma's personality was absurdly kind.
It would not have been an exaggeration to place the title of "saint" on Kuma's head.
It was both praise and criticism.
When someone was excessively kind, they would be constrained at every turn, and Kuma was exactly that kind of person.
Vegapunk looked at the screen and let out a long sigh.
"Sigh! Kuma is the person I've respected most in my life.
Sephiroth, are you confident that you can restore his personality and memories now?"
"Mm! These are Kuma's key memories from childhood to adulthood, and they're fairly complete and not disordered. There shouldn't be a problem.
However, I'll need to prepare some special experimental equipment before I can treat him..." Sephiroth nodded confidently.
A person's experiences determined who they were.
Thus, after Kuma lost his original memories and personality, all that remained was an empty shell.
Even if the machines inside Kuma's body that influenced his emotions and thoughts were removed, if his memories were not reimplanted and