In the study, Robin won big early on with excellent mechanics and superb technique. But the gap in raw stats proved insurmountable, and she suffered a crushing defeat midway through.
Still, at least she made Sephiroth abandon his idea of teasing her with a grand Birthday Party.
The next day, after Isabella and the others returned to Babylon aboard the Red Tears, they held a small family Birthday Party for Robin.
Over the following days, Sephiroth carried on with his various jobs and activities as usual, using Teleportation to switch between his three identities: Great Angel, Shining, and Bondrewd.
However, since Perona and the other core members of Kessoku Band had temporarily settled in Heaven's Gate Town to avoid retaliation from Bondrewd, things had actually become easier for Sephiroth.
In the morning, he attended Babylon's work meetings as the Great Angel. In the afternoon, he became Shining and worked on arrangements for Kessoku Band's new songs in the recording studio in Heaven's Gate Town.
Occasionally, he appeared on Road Island as Bondrewd to put his "allies" through their paces.
With the help of the Artificial Heaven system, a few jumps let him appear in different places half a planet apart on the same day.
With travel time reduced to a dozen seconds or so, he was not really all that busy. After all, most of the actual work was not done by his own hands.
...Until the afternoon of February 13.
White light gathered high above Kuja Castle, then descended into the Royal Palace.
That night, the lights in the palace's Inner Court stayed on late. They only went out after the moon moved from above the window frame to the eaves on the other side.
Early morning, February 14-
The Inner Court of Kuja Castle's Royal Palace gradually brightened