With a warmer climate, more open layout, less piping and such strewn about, and no unreasonable guards, South Figaro feels rather more inviting than Narshe. 1-20 "Kids Run Through the City" plays.

The Blast Voice and Bio Blast are available here if you missed getting them in the castle. Also, many of the items around town (the outdoor ones only) will be replaced with different ones after the Major Plot Spoiler if not taken now, though not all of the changes are improvements.

Someone clad in black from head to toe arrives just ahead of the party. The mysterious person enters the pub. 1-11 "Shadow" plays inside as long as the stranger remains there. The party finds him at the bar with a large dog, and may attempt to speak with him. However, he ignores them.

The ninja, as he appears to be, ignores him, but Edgar drags Lock aside.

The NA version throws in an extraneous bit about money, and leaves out the part about his true self that suggests he might not be as inhuman as he seems.

The claim that Shadow is capable of killing his best friend—and that's an intentional and meaningful choice of victim on the part of the writer that should be left intact rather than turned into a juvenile reference to his mama—turns out to be delightfully ironic.

If the party tries interacting with the dog...

Though less accurate, the NA version deserves points for style and memorability.

The party leaves him alone to explore the rest of town and stock up on supplies. However, the owner of the mansion in the northwest corner of town seems a bit suspicious.

The mansion also hides some treasure... see Lock's Scenario for details.

His loose-lipped daughter in another room doesn't help his case any, either, assuming you have any idea who Leo is.

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do here, even if you've figured out what's going on, so the party heads northeast toward the Returner Headquarters.

Lock can steal a Mithril Claw (rare) from a Belmodar in this region, though it's not useful quite yet.

Along the way, they notice a lone house and step inside to investigate. "Kids Run Through the City" plays here too. No one is home, but things keep drawing Edgar's attention...

あいつ (aitsu) doesn't translate well. It's more or less "he" or "she" (or "him" or "her") with a bit of a discourteous edge to it. It's unfortunate and inconvenient that "they" is still facing resistance as a singular pronoun in English, while other gender-neutral pronoun options for people (like "ze") aren't as widely recognized and tend to face even more opposition. Besides, Edgar knows who he means and would use masculine pronouns here anyway.

Anyhow, I get the impression that you're intended to think he's referring to a woman that he's been involved with, until he actually says "Mash", or even until he says "man" later if you weren't paying attention to names earlier.

When they exit, they find an old man standing by the house. Edgar tries talking to him.

He pauses, presumably to get out something with Mash's picture on it.

This guy's speech is strongly accented, so it's rather difficult to make out at times, but I think I've got it now... On the other hand, it's an excuse to use an awkward hickish accent. Something I'm honestly not very good at.

Edgar has a line in the ROM that fits here, but isn't used anywhere that I can find.

Explore carefully to find a Main Gauche and Giant's Bracer hidden off the main path.

1-9 "Mt. Kolts" plays here. As the party navigates through the system of caves and mountain trails, it seems as though they're being followed, and shortly before the far end of the pass, someone blocks the exit.

There's a line in the ROM that fits here but isn't used in either version...

Maybe it's just as well; the NA version especially is far too confrontational...

Boss battle! Vargas starts with two burly, yet flammable, bears tanking for him. None of them have any particularly dangerous or interesting attacks. Lock can steal a Potion (common) or Mithril Claw (rare) from Vargas, but it's probably not worth it. The High Potions on the bears might be, though.

Either way, when next hit after having taken at least 720 total damage, Vargas starts yelling again.

"Off with ya now" isn't half as badass as the original line.

A familiar-looking muscular young man jumps into the fray... The intense 1-14 "The Unforgiven" plays for the rest of the battle.

連風燕略拳 translates, very roughly, to something like Serial Wind Swallow Pillage Fist, and that "swallow" is the bird, not a verb. Martial arts moves with all-kanji names tend to be awkward, and often more poetic than can be translated cleanly.

It's also noted on the Japanese Final Fantasy Glossary Wiki site that 略 seems out of place in a martial arts attack name. The contributor who notes this speculates that perhaps it's being used in the sense of noting an omission or abbreviation, which would imply the real name is even longer and make the given one something more like "Serial Wind Swallow... and so on... Fist".

A more recent response to that gives a more likely explanation. 略 also has rarer, older meaning that has to do with sharpness (apparently related to the 䂮 kanji that is generally only used in Chinese). The name as a whole would then invoke something along the lines of an attack that raises a series of swift, piercing winds suggestive of a swallow dancing in the air. More or less. Anyway, back to the story.

A fierce wind blows Edgar, Lock, and Tina away. Mash manages to brace himself well enough to stay in the fight.

終死拳 approximately translates to "final death fist". "Finality Fist" if you're going for style points.

Mash's special combat ability unleashes various extreme martial arts skills, chosen by inputting specific button sequences, sort of like in a fighting game, if generally less complicated. Some have healing effects, but most are attacks, with enough variety and power to keep the skillset viable through the endgame, though his equipment selection is limited. Mash gradually learns more skills as his experience increases; refer to his character entry for details.

For now, Mash uses Bakuretsu Ken (the left, right, left skill) against Vargas (or the tutorial gets more insistent if Vargas is hit after at least 1232 total damage).

Vargas is finished, leaving everyone else free to talk, and, of course, that's exactly what they do.

Going by the JP version, it seems that Lock has never met Mash before. Which makes sense if his involvement with Edgar is recent.

じいや (jiiya) means an old male servant. The female equivalent, ばあや (baaya), can be translated as "old maid" or "wet nurse".

"Bear" comes out of nowhere here in the NA version. When he was actually called that earlier, it was localized as "bodybuilder"!

You can also return to South Figaro at this point for a brief scene with Master Duncan's wife.