After Shuyin’s death, his pyreflies eventually reached the cave at Mushroom Rock. In this state however, he couldn’t do much. He needed a body to act, a mean through which he could put in action his plan: use Vegnagun and destroy Spira.

His first vessel was Nooj. Two years prior to Final Fantasy X-2, the Crimson Squad’s final exercise was held in a cave called Den of Woe, a carefully chosen place. There had been reports of strange things going on in the the cave; some people even had visions of a “big machine”. Vegnagun’s existence wasn’t a mystery to Kinoc¹ and he wanted to get hold of the powerful machina in order to keep under control his rival, Seymour². Therefore, he decided to send the Squad candidates in the cave, hoping to collect more information.

However, the mission turned out to be a total failure. When Baralai, Gippal, Nooj, and Paine arrived at the cave they saw all the other team mates killing each other. The scene prompted them to escape from that terrible place, but on the way to the exit a swarm of pyreflies rushed into Nooj.

The survivors described to Kinoc what had happened, but they weren’t able to give him more information than what he already had. Needless to say, the operation failure could have put Kinoc in a difficult position, especially for what had been witnessed by the four, so he ordered to eliminate them. The survivors managed to escape the assault and got together at the Mi’ihen Travel Agency. There they decided to discover what really happened in the cave, but as they were leaving Nooj shot at his friends.

As you may have guessed, it was Shuyin causing the visions and influencing the candidates’ behaviour. Again, it was Shuyin who, after entering Nooj’s heart during the mission, made him shoot his comrades. Unfortunately for Shuyin, Nooj wasn’t easy to control thanks to his strong will and the Mi’ihen shooting was the only case of him completely overcoming Nooj’s will. After the other survivors of the Crimson Squad were shot, Shuyin was sealed again into Nooj’s subconscious.

What happened into the cave, had a strong impact on the lives of the survivors. Even though Nooj’s apparently crazy action torn their friendship apart, all of them were driven back to that cave. Baralai decided to investigate about what he had seen. When he became the head of the New Yevon party, his position helped him to learn more about Vegnagun. Gippal’s personal reason for forming the Machina Faction was to find a way to defeat Vegnagun. Personal reasons were also at the basis of the Youth League formation. Although Nooj was against New Yevon’s politics, he was also interested in finding out what caused the Crimson Squad’s demise.

On his part, Shuyin tried to take full control of Nooj’s body by constantly sending him thoughts about finding Vegnagun. Shuyin eventually arrived where the machine was located, though Nooj’s desire of destroying Vegnagun strongly clashed with his desire to use it. However, having arrived this far, Shuyin aimed to find another body in order to carry his plan through.

His second vessel was Baralai. During Chapter 3 a secret meeting was held in Bevelle Underground between the three faction leaders. When Baralai pointed a gun at Nooj, Shuyin quickly took the opportunity to switch vessel. He found Baralai more easily controllable and as soon as he possessed him, he leaped into a nearby hole leading to the Farplane.

1. Kinoc was the leader of the Crusaders and Warrior Monks. He was killed by Seymour, his spirit appears in X-2 as the boss Aranea in Bevelle’s 100 Dungeons. [↩]
2. Seymour was the leader of the Guado and a maester of Yevon in Final Fantasy X. He was stopped by Yuna and her party after he tried to become the new Sin in order to kill everyone on Spira. [↩]