Fusion Sword

The First Tsurugi (translated as "First Sword" in Japanese) is the collection of six swords, and their single combined form, used by Cloud Strife as his primary weapon in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the sequel film to Final Fantasy VII.

The Swords
The First Tsurugi is composed of six separate swords that assemble into one large sword which Cloud uses in his battles against the antagonists Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz, the summoned Bahamut SHIN, and Sephiroth. It is also disassembled for the final attack on Sephiroth at the end of the movie.

The swords of the First Tsurugi are not named in the movie, but their distinctive appearances and functions can be used to distinguish them. The First Tsurugi consists of one main blade, one hollow blade that serves as the front edge, two identical (but asymmetrically opposite) blades that form the back, and two identical (also asymmetrically opposite) smaller blades that attach to the sides. In its fully assembled state, the First Tsurugi is clearly inspired by Zack's Buster Sword in its shape and size.

The swords of the First Tsurugi in its disassembled state are usually stored in racks inside the special compartments (three racks per compartment) on both sides of Cloud's motorcycle, the Fenrir. In addition, Cloud wears a harness on his back which he carries the swords in. Since this harness is never shown fully occupied, it is possible that all six swords can be carried by Cloud at once.

Main Blade
The main blade resembles an exaggerated two-handed sword in its shape and appearance, though Cloud usually wields it with only one hand, invariably his right one, despite its apparent size and weight. It consists of a long hilt wrapped in a red material, a distinctively large handguard which the other swords are locked into, a wide length of blade, and an equally long but thinner length ending in a point. The main blade is the only sword among the six that is double-sided, and is somewhat similar in silhouette to Cloud's Ultima Weapon.

The main blade has two forms. In the first, the appearance is as described above, with the blade of the sword appearing to be one solid length of metal except for the transition between the wide and thin halves. In the second, the blade is pulled outward; the edges are locked apart and a complex inner portion of the sword is visible, giving the blade an appearance not identical to but reminiscent of Cloud's Apocalypse sword. It is in this second form that the other swords are assembled onto the main blade.

The main blade, by itself and as other swords are attached, is Cloud's primary weapon. In addition, Cloud is shown to be able to use his Blade Beam Limit Break using only the main blade.

Hollow Blade
The hollow blade, as its description suggests, does not have an inner core as expected for a sword. Rather, it is essentially (though not exactly) a thick sheet of metal folded in a V-shape when looked from above, the edge of the sword being the the bottom point of the V, with its lower one-third of its length wrapping around a red double-hilt. This hollow blade is locked onto the front edge of the main blade, where it snugly covers that entire side of the main blade, and its own edge serves as the striking point for the assembled sword. It is this addition that turns the First Tsurugi from a symmetric shape to the distinctive Buster Sword appearance.

The hollow blade, while not Cloud's primary weapon, was perfectly capable of serving as such when Cloud was deprived of the main blade in the battle at Ajit against Yazoo and Loz. Despite its lack of an inner core, it is strong and sturdy enough to deflect and block both bullets from Yazoo's Velvet Nightmare handgun and Loz's physical attacks. After regaining the main blade, Cloud uses the hollow one as an off-hand weapon. He also ejects the hollow blade from the completed First Tsurugi as an off-hand weapon during the fight with Sephiroth.

Two Back Blades
The two back blades are identical long swords, mirror images of each other, with one side completely straight and the other a saw-tooth pattern, and a long black hilt for each. These two swords are attached to the back of the main blade, on both sides of the main blade's back edge, with the saw-tooths pointed forward toward the hollow blade. The addition of these two swords completes the trapezoidal silhouette of the First Tsurugi.

The back blades were used by Cloud in the fight against the summoned Bahamut. One was an off-hand weapon to complement the main+hollow blade in Cloud's right hand; the back blade's saw-tooth edge is the striking edge, and Cloud wielded it until he attached it to the main blade in preparation for the Braver limit break. The other blade was carried on his back harness, until it was attached in the same battle in preparation for the Climhazzard limit break.

Two Small Blades
The two small blades are identical, mirror image dagger-like swords, though they are still quite long. They are singled edged, with a gear-like mechanism between the hilt and the blade that allow them to fold up like a switchblade. It is in this folded form that the two small blades are locked onto the two sides of the assembled sword, with their edges turned forward toward the hollow blade. In addition, a small blade can be quickly ejected from the assembly if needed, providing Cloud with a needed off-hand weapon as was the case in the second motorcycle battle against Yazoo and Loz.

One of the small blades was used by Cloud in the fight against Yazoo and Loz, and then Kadaj, as the off-hand weapon, then reinserted into the assembled sword in preparation for the Finishing Touch limit break. As part of the assembled First Tsurugi, the two small blades do not appear to have any vital function like the rest of the swords, possibly only adding extra weight, and therefore force, to strikes, and providing a decorative appearance.

Completed First Tsurugi
As mentioned before, with the locking of the hollow blade, two back blades, and two small blades onto the main blade, the completed First Tsurugi takes on the distinctive appearance of Zack's Buster Sword, which was placed on the cliff outside Midgar by Cloud as a memorial of his friend and not used for fighting in the movie. Unlike the Buster Sword, which contains two obvious round slots for Materia to be inserted, the First Tsurugi does not have any similarly obvious placement options (similar to Cloud's Materia slot-less Nail Bat joke weapon).

The First Tsurugi, much like the Buster Sword, is primarily a crushing weapon, not necessarily a slicing weapon as a katana such as Sephiroth's Masamune would be, though Cloud is perfectly capable of slicing through even concrete with it. Although its appearance is as stout and sturdy as the Buster Sword, Cloud does not demonstrate any more difficulty carrying and wielding it with one hand than he does using only the presumably lighter main blade by itself. In addition, the First Tsurugi does not appear any stronger or weaker than Kadaj's Souba (a tasseled double-katana) or Sephiroth's Masamune long katana, neither damaging nor being damaged by repeated full-strength edge-to-edge blows between either, which would certainly damage a real sword's edge if not outright break one of or both of the swords. However, it is demonstrably capable of cutting through Yazoo's Velvet Nightmare gun and Loz's Dual Hound pile bunker, even when missing one of the small blades from the full assembly.

Omnislash Version 5
In Japanese, called "Choukyuu Bushin Hakazan Version 5", Cloud's final limit break in Advent Children is a fast succession of six slashes using the six swords of the First Tsurugi one time each. It is significantly different from the Omnislash in the original game, which only used one single sword for a longer sequence of many more slashes. Omnislash Version 5 is performed according to the following steps:


 * 1) The completed First Tsurugi is fully disassembled in an instant, the five swords ejected upwards from the main blade in a circle around the target (which may not be on a parallel plane with the ground), who is in the air above the performer.
 * 2) The performer then flies (as an effect of the limit break, as Cloud does not fly or otherwise change directions in midair under his own power usually) upward, leaves the main blade directly above the target, and flies toward one of the swords around the circle.
 * 3) Grabbing the sword with his right hand, he flies straight into, and through, the target on the way to the next sword, striking the target with the sword currently being held.
 * 4) Once past, he releases his current sword, takes the next one, and repeats the fly-by process until all five swords have been used and released.
 * 5) This done, he flies up to the main blade still directly above the target, grabs it, and performs the final strike by flying through the target again straight toward the ground, releasing the main blade as well. This leaves him on the ground, the five swords landing in succession in a circle around him a moment later, and the main sword falling from the sky directly on top of him a moment after that.