Cissnei

Cissnei (シスネ), known as Shuriken (Female) (real name chosen by player) in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, is a playable female Turk from Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- and supporting character in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-. As her name in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- implies, her chosen weapon is a singular large shuriken, called "Rekka", that returns to its wielder when thrown and can be augmented with Materia.

Initially an additional player character first appearing in Episode 18 of Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, Shuriken (Female) reappeared as a prominent support character in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- where she is given a name, albeit admittedly not her real name, and further characterization.

Appearance and personality
Cissnei generally wears the standard Turk uniform of black suit with black tie, white undershirt and black boots. However, in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy, during a "break period" in Costa del Sol, she wears a white and yellow swimsuit while conversing with Zack Fair.

Strong of mind and body, Cissnei takes it upon herself to look after the other Turks, especially the junior members. She is usually perceived as quiet, and motivated by her job. While she is rather cold-hearted and focused, she does show remorse. She is generally reserved and keeps her poise, keeping relations at a professional level.

Her loyalty to the Shinra Company and the Turks in particular is unquestionable. Having been raised by them, she came to realize throughout the years that, while the company has done some questionable things, they have also brought ease and progress to the lives of countless people and supports the company because of this.

Story
As a young girl, Cissnei was discovered in an orphanage and was raised and trained specifically so that she could one day become a Turk; encouraged to believe that everyone was a potential enemy her extensive training resulted in her admittance into the organization at such an early age as to be bestowed with the distinction of being the youngest member to join. Later, her Turk colleagues gradually reformed her life views, particularly her paranoia, allowing her to realize that not everyone was against her as she had been previously taught.

The Genesis War
Midgar during an attack launched by Genesis Copies, along with Reno, Rude, and Tseng. Soon after her first meeting with Zack, she would face off against a Genesis Copy. Zack enters and defeats the Copy before it had a chance to finish Cissnei off. She reveals to Zack that when she was little, she wanted to have wings, and that they symbolize freedom, not monsters. During a Digital Mind Wave scene, Cissnei encounters Zack in one of the Midgar upper plates trying to locate Dr. Hollander. It would be her idea to split up and look for him.

When Zack returns to Shinra Headquarters, she is talked about by a 2nd and 3rd Class SOLDIER when they talk about who they thought was the hottest woman in Shinra. Only when Zack mentions her does the 2nd Class remark about how good the black suit looks on her, and how fun it would be with her in Costa del Sol.

She later appears in Costa del Sol on vacation with Zack after defeating Genesis. It would be cut short due to the Genesis Copies appearing and attacking cities. This would also include Junon. When she arrives with both Zack and Tseng, total chaos surrounds them. She and Tseng leave Zack to deal with the Copies whilst they moved to a higher level. Zack could eventually find Cissnei, and discover that he has a fan club. It would turn out that she is a member, due to her providing information under a codename, "Black Suit". The last place she is seen is during the chapter's end scene when she runs past Zack along with Tseng attempting to capture Hollander, who is being flown away by Genesis Copies.

Combating AVALANCHE
With the Player Turk rendered comatose due to injuries and Mako poisoning and Veld having deserted to pursue his daughter, Tseng is instructed to link with the Turks' secondary division to bolster numbers. Three years after the destruction the Corel reactor, Cissnei and Katana (Male), having been brought over from the secondary division, stand by in witness as the comatose Turk awakens from their coma.

Pursuing two research samples that had escaped from the Nibelheim Mansion, the Cissnei finds herself in competition with the Shinra army to locate them. While searching the Nibelheim forest, she starts questioning why the Turks were hunting the subjects; whom they were partially responsible for imprisoning in the mansion four years previously.

Finally coming across the escapees on the beach, the pursuing Turk turns out to be Cissnei. Conflicted, Cissnei attempts to do her duty and capture Zack, however, after seeing the extent of damage the experiments have done to Cloud, she reports that Zack was no longer in the forest and lets Zack go, handing him keys to a motorcycle with a sidecar (presumably hers) to assist in his escape, while she returns to Nibelheim to investigate the mansion where they discover Veld pouring through the mansion's archives.

Learning that he needed a certain Materia to remove the Materia from Elfé's body and stop it draining her life, Veld has been searching for these support Materia, learning that the Turks already possessed one given to them by Shears during the Corel reactor incident. The pair search through the mansion and come across clues to another of Hojo's "research subjects", Vincent Valentine, Veld's old Turk partner, who informs them of the location of such a Materia elsewhere in the Mansion. As AVALANCHE appears to also find the support Materia, the Player Turk and Veld lose the orb to Fuhito while Scarlet informs the President in Midgar that the Turks are assisting Veld in spite of their orders to "shoot on sight".

Conflict with Shinra
Hidden within their headquarters within the Shinra building as Scarlet embarks on a hunt for them, the Turks meet with Reeve to locate the next Materia. Learning that it is in the remains of the Gongaga Mako reactor they, along with Cait Sith, steal a submarine from Junon to travel and evade the Shinra military. Entering the reactor they find AVALANCHE troops already combing the facility for the support Materia. Thanks to the timely arrival of Veld and Shears, who was rescued by Veld in Corel and had been working with him since, the next support Materia was obtained.

Later on, she appears again in Gongaga Village where she tells Zack that Angeal was sighted, and that she left the Turks for a while, and would return to them soon. During the time they both have to talk, Cissnei informs Zack that he has great parents, and due to the fact of what has been going on with him, they are worried he will never find a wife. When she is asked about her parents, Cissnei states that she was raised by Shinra. As Zack prepares to leave, he asks her to keep his parents company, and says that they will probably ask her to join the family. Strangely enough, she states it already happened. As Zack shouts her name, "Cissnei", she tells him that is not her real name.

When the fugitives Zack and Cloud are relocated, the Turks, although now near-fugitives themselves, attempt a Priority-S retrieval attempt. After some final orders from Tseng, Cissnei joins her coworkers in the search, citing that she had yet to tell Zack her real name and thus must find and save him. In spite of reassurances from Tseng that she would find them in time the search and rescue mission would ultimately fail as she and the other Turks were unable to get to the fugitive pair before the Shinra military did.

When the fugitives Zack and Cloud are relocated, the Turks attempt a Priority-S retrieval attempt, however, they are unable to acquire them before the Shinra military ambushed them. Learning the AVALANCHE was attempting to break into Corel Prison, the Turks presume that a Materia piece must be there and embark across the desert to obtain it. Discovering Shalua Rui in the desert, the Player Turk brings her to shelter in the caverns under the desert.

While waiting for her to recover, the Player Turk finds the final support Materia within the caverns while being pursued by AVALANCHE Ravens. Escaping with Shalua, they brave a sandstorm before being cornered. Shalua announces her hatred of the Turks, however, the Ravens still attack. Once again Shears and Veld arrive to support them and Shears takes Shalua to a safe location. However, it is at this juncture that Scarlet catches up to and surrounds the Player Turk and Veld. Attacking them into submission, Scarlet captures Veld and takes him back to Midgar to be executed.

While Tseng, Rude and Reno attempt to discern the location of where Veld is being held, the other Turks and Shears meet in Wall Market and split the Materia orbs amongst themselves before dispatching to look for Elfé. Meanwhile Elena, Gun (Female)'s sister, witnesses a trio of insurgent Ravens and attempts to follow them before getting bored and going home.

Assisted by Rufus, Tseng manages to locate Veld and attempts to liberate him while ordering the Player Turk, who is being pursued by Shinra troops through Wall Market, to secure an escape out of Midgar. While abducting a truck to get through checkpoints set up by the military, the Player Turk discovers that not only was the truck being driven by a Raven dressed as a Shinra troop, but that Elena had been kidnapped and was in the truck with them.

Eventually, after leaving the truck and having it leave while Elena was still on board, the Player Turk follows it to a train where, onboard, they exchange the support Materia with the Ravens for Elena. Elsewhere in the Sector 5 Slums, Shears is confronted by Fuhito. He opts to go with Fuhito, giving him possession of the support Materia, in order to find Elfé. However, he is instead beaten down and the support Materia stolen from him.

While Reno, Rude and Tseng free Veld, the Player Turk commandeers a helicopter to chase after AVALANCHE before they use the support Materia to summon Ziconiaide and kill Elfé to make it whole. Crashing the helicopter into the truck the Ravens were using, the Player Turk witnesses as Fuhito gathers the support Materia around a limp and weak Elfé on the highway and summons Ziconiaide above Midgar. While managing to save Elfé, the Materia inside her fuses with the support Materia on its own and Fuhito ascends to give the newly formed Materia orb to Ziconiaide.

As the Player Turks all chase after Fuhito along the construct created by Ziconiaide's summoning, Tseng, Reno, Rude, Veld and an awakened Elfé are captured by the Shinra military. Splitting into teams of two when the pathways branched into a maze, the Turks come across Behemoths. As the others battle the Behemoths, the Player Turk catches up to Fuhito and is saved from his attack by Shears. Teaming up against the AVALANCHE commander, the Player Turk and Shears manage to defeat Fuhito, however, in an attempt to continue Ziconiaide's awaken he places the Materia inside himself and transforms; mortally wounding Shears in his new form.

As the Player Turk manages to best Fuhito even in his transformed state, Fuhito attempts to take them with him in his defeat, however, a dying Shears holds him back and the pair erupt in a blast of light. Meanwhile, confronted with the offer that the Turks would be spared from capture and execution if Veld and Elfé are killed, Tseng turns his gun on the pair and fires.

As Tseng leaves with the bodies of Veld and Elfé, Reno and Rude wait for their remaining comrades still fighting Ziconiaide. Reaching the end of the airborne construct, the Player Turk attacks Ziconiaide only to be unable to affect it by themselves. With the arrival of other Turks they manage to damage the monster, however, the other Turks are taken down by the summon and the Player Turk is also worn down.

However, with the memories of the people they met as a Turk fighting their own battles, the Player Turk gathers their strength of will to continue the battle and destroyed Ziconiaide. While destroying Ziconiaide, the shockwave emitted from its destruction destroyed the construct on which the attacking Turks were standing. Reno and Rude could only watch in horror as the entire construction vanishes in an explosion of light.

Exile
Following the defeat of Zirconiade, the Player Turks go into hiding across the Planet; retiring to Midgar, Junon, Costa del Sol, Cosmo Canyon, Icicle Inn, and Wutai. Unbeknownst to them, as Zirconiade had been summoned the Planet had awakened one of its WEAPONs to deal with the threat. However, because the Turks were successful in defeating Zirconiade before the WEAPON's arrival the WEAPON no longer had a purpose.

Instead of returning to sleep, the WEAPON started to consider the Turks a threat due to their defeat of Zirconiade and how, technically, they had destroyed what was a large part of the Planet’s ecology. A number of weeks afterwards, Veld, calls the Player Turks to inform them that the WEAPON has now hunting them.

Given an advanced radar system on their PHS to track and hunt the Jade WEAPON in turn and learning that the dark mist that the WEAPON generates and surrounds itself with could only be penetrated by the light given from various Materia Pillars across the Planet, the Turks first locate these pillars to enable themselves to do battle against the WEAPON.

Coming to a location covered in mist, the WEAPON is supported by various oval-like constructs which the Turks battle while the WEAPON attempts to bombard them from above. After numerous hunts and battles across the Planet, the Turks finally manage to destroy the WEAPON and return to their respective lives in exile.

Return
During Meteorfall, Reno oversaw the evacuation of Sector 4 while Rude cleared Sector 2 and Elena cleared Sector 3. Moving to clear Sector 5 together with Tseng, the four are met and assisted by the previous Turks and Veld returning to assist in the evacuation of the city's citizens.

Equipment and Stats
Each Turk has a weapon particular to him or her. Weapon upgrades can be purchased using RP (Rank Points) gained from completing missions. It is possible to have the weapon's attacks take on elemental attributes by slotting the appropriate Materia into the weapon.

On the Way to a Smile
While not specified by name, many of the Turks who had gone into hiding following the battle against Zirconiade reappear during the events of Final Fantasy VII as specified in the chapter Case of Shinra. Following Tseng being attacked by Sephiroth in the Temple of the Ancients, Cait Sith appears to stable his condition before contacting three of the Turks to bring him to Junon for treatment.

Later on, while observing the ruins of the Shinra building following the attack by the Diamond WEAPON, Reno and Rude recollected the times themselves and the other Turks had spent in their now ruined headquarters, "All the tough times they've been through together with their comrades, the times when they got scolded by their superior, the times when they would tease the girls while they had nothing to do and get teased back".

During Meteorfall, the Turks and Veld return to assist in the evacuation of Midgar and, following the Meteor's destruction, the Turks leave, returning to the lives they had obtained in their exile, but also worked to gather intelligence on the current state of the planet from their respective locations; sending the information to Veld who in turn would offer it to Tseng when required.

Dead Fantasy
For more information, see Dead Fantasy Wiki: Cissnei Cissnei has appeared in the two Dead Fantasy music videos. In both music videos, she is seen in the swimsuit she wore in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- while on vacation in Costa Del Sol with Zack Fair.

In Dead Fantasy Obsessed, she performs the song "Obsessed" by with Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII and Kasumi from the Dead or Alive videogame series as her back-up dancers. In Dead Fantasy Gee, she sings and dances along with Tifa, Kasumi, Yuna, Ayane, Rikku, Hitomi, Rinoa Heartilly, and Kairi performing "Gee" from. Her singing voice is provided by Tiffany.

Etymology
Cissnei may be derived from "cisne", the Portuguese and Spanish word for "swan".

Trivia

 * Shuriken (Female) is the only playable Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- Turk to be seen in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-.
 * During development of Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, "Tian" was considered as an alternate codename for Cissnei.
 * While any of the Player Turks can be chosen for Episode 19 and pursue Zack and Cloud as they escape the Nibelheim Mansion, the Turk whose encounter with them is considered canon is Cissnei, due to events in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-.
 * If the player starts up Zack's Fan Club in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, Cissnei becomes a member and acts as the group's information source on Zack, acting under the name "Black Suit".
 * While she operates under and answers to the name Cissnei in Crisis Core, she admits that it is not her real name.
 * In Special Episode Reno, Cissnei's assignment to keep surveillance on Zack Fair is first revealed.