The Eminence in Shadow

Akane Nishino is a famous actress and good student who is friendly with her classmates; however, her behavior around them is a front she uses to conceal her own anger and bitterness, left behind in the wake of an incident in which a fan of hers kidnapped and molested her. She despises everyone around her, classmate Minoru Kageno in particular; he barely acknowledges her existence and seems to struggle to even remember her name. He is briefly shown to carry weights in his bag and clothing, to increase his strength. Nishino is kidnapped by criminals who intend to ransom her, but they are interrupted by Kageno, who is disguised as a masked vigilante calling himself Stylish Ruffian Slayer. The criminals refuse to take him seriously at first, but quickly acknowledge him as a dangerous brawler capable of defeating whole gangs by himself, known to them as the Balaclava Berserker, when they witness him dual-wielding crowbars. Slayer defeats both men and frees Nishino, who suspects that Kageno is responsible for her rescue. A few days later, Kageno is abruptly hit by a truck and killed.

In this new world, Kageno is Cid Kagenou, the son of minor nobles of the Kingdom of Midgar, Baron and Lady Kagenou, and younger brother to a sister, Claire. In keeping with his previous life, Cid trains in secret and resumes his vigilante lifestyle by killing bandits. One day, Cid discovers a living blob of rotting flesh and, after experimenting on it, succeeds in curing the curse afflicting it, returning it to its true form; an elven girl. Purely for his own amusement, Cid, in character as Eminence in Shadow, convinces the girl she is a descendant of ancient heroes who defeated a demon called Diablos, whom a Cult is seeking to resurrect. Believing his lies, the girl agrees to form a group called Shadow Garden to resist the cult. Cid gives her the name Alpha, but is secretly amused that Alpha believed his entirely-fabricated story.

The Shadow Seven split up to hunt the cult all over the world; Cid believes they simply grew up and tired of role-playing with him. He enrolls Midgar Academy as Claire did, where he deliberately avoids standing out, choosing two extremely average boys, Skel and Po, to be his friends. As a forfeit for doing badly on a test, Cid is forced to publicly humiliate himself by offering a fake love confession to the much higher-class Alexia, a princess of Midgar; Cid plays along in his role as a “typical background character” and offers the confession, and is shocked when Princess Alexia agrees to be his girlfriend. When she invites Cid to her fencing class, he discovers Alexia is engaged to the royal fencing instructor Zenon, but she has no desire to marry him and has decided to use Cid as a tool of petty vengeance against him.

Now locked in a cell next to a mutated human girl, Alexia has her blood stolen by a cult scientist, who claims that it contains demon DNA. Cid is tortured by knights for Alexia's location, but since he has trained himself to withstand pain, he pretends to be a pathetic but innocent NPC, thinking it makes him look cool. After five long days, Princess Iris orders that Cid be released. Alpha suddenly reappears to Cid, bringing news that they have continued to monitor the cult while increasing the scope of Shadow Garden's influence and power. Cid is impressed that Alpha and her fellow Shadows still occasionally visit to carry on their role-playing game with him, still very unaware of Shadow Garden's existence and power.

Zenon identifies Cid as the one behind recent attacks on the cult and announces himself as one of the cult's core members. The demon girl rampages through the city and fights Princess Iris. Alpha reveals herself to Iris as a member of Shadow Garden, defeats the demon with a single powerful blow, then vanishes. Cid duels Zenon and dominates him; Princess Alexia, who has no idea that Shadow is Cid in disguise, is captivated by his sword style, which expresses the heart of the style she has searched for her entire life. Knowing he is outmatched by Shadow, Zenon swallows pills that turn him demonic and increase his power, but using the principles of a nuclear explosion of which he has dreamed for so long, Cid sets off a magic bomb that dissolves everything in the blast radius to atoms, utterly annihilating Zenon and destroying most of the now-evacuated city.

The false Shadow Garden continues committing murders. A recovered cult relic is given by Iris to the pink-haired student, Sherry, the kingdom's foremost researcher. Cid's friends Po and Skel take him to a new department store, where he discovers that his subordinate Gamma opened the store to fund Shadow Garden, with branches in every city in the world; Cid is impressed but once again remains convinced that Gamma is role-playing, unaware he now owns dozens of stores and is effectively one of the wealthiest men in the world. He also meets Nu, the newest Shadow. On his way home, Cid witnesses Alexia fighting several murderers, so he saves Alexia, slaughters the murderers, and hands one survivor over to Nu for interrogation. Elsewhere, the murderer's boss, Gaunt Knight, confirms they have located the relic. Alexia confirms Shadow Garden is not really behind the murderers, though Iris still insists they are enemies of the kingdom.

Nu informs Cid the murderer she interrogated was a typical Cult foot soldier, an orphan brainwashed with drugs and magic. One such soldier, Rex, is in the city on a Cult mission. During their conversation, Cid is preoccupied, as Skel and Po have entered him in the academy's sword tournament to impress girls; Nu mistakenly thinks Cid's rambling about the festival is him plotting to deal with Rex. At the festival, Cid duels student president Rose, a princess of the neighboring kingdom of Oriana; while still role-playing as a secret hero and keeping his skills hidden, he feigns injury repeatedly but persists in the fight, rising to his feet again after each of her attacks.

Cid reveals that he was excited by the chance to look cool fighting terrorists, and saved Rose merely to appear heroic; Rose, meanwhile, mistakenly believes Cid sacrificed himself out of love for her. After the students are taken to the auditorium, leaving Cid's body in the classroom, Cid secretly revives and heals himself. Rex attacks Sherry to retrieve the relic, but Iris' Crimson Knights help her escape. Cid, who is also killing terrorists, reunites with and saves Sherry. Sherry identifies the relic generating the barrier as the Eye of Avarice, which absorbs magic and explodes once full. Cid deduces the cult are using the Eye to kill the students and prevent them from becoming knights and obstructing their plans. The relic Sherry has been researching is the Eye's control unit, which she hopes can be used to stop the explosion.

Sherry activates the control relic, deactivating the Eye and its barrier. Cid arrives disguised as Eminence in Shadow, and Shadow Garden begins slaughtering the terrorists. Iris, believing that Shadow Garden is responsible for the attack, is enraged by their appearance. Cid finds Gaunt Knight burning Sherry's research and reveals he is Ruslan, Sherry's adoptive father. Ruslan explains he was once a master swordsman, until an illness weakened him. Believing the Eye might cure him, he cultivated a relationship with the woman studying it, Sherry's mother. When she grew too afraid to continue her research, Ruslan killed her and adopted Sherry as a pawn to facilitate the research's completion.

Cid is contacted by Alpha, who requests he visit the sacred city of Lindwurm. Beta, Epsilon and Nu also receive a mission from Alpha. While in Lindwurm themselves to attend the upcoming Goddess Trial, Alexia and Iris visit Cid's department store, where Alexia, planning to try to seduce Cid, purchases thong underwear. A flashback shows that after defeating Ruslan, Cid pretended to have miraculously survived the injury he received while rescuing Rose. Rose, who has sworn to accept what she perceives as his feelings toward her by becoming his lover, hopes that her father might allow them to marry if Cid wins the Trials. Cid mistakenly believes she is trying to convert him to worship the goddess Beatrix, who empowered three legendary warriors and the worship of whom is the dominant religion of Lindwurm. Though he is reluctant to have her along with him on the trip, he opts to avoid her attempts to seduce him rather than actively push her away.

Cid visits a hot spring and happens to meet Alexia in one of the baths. Hiding her embarrassment, Alexia explains the nature of the Goddess Trial: challengers will summon and duel the spirits of famous warriors, with the strength of the challenger directly related to the strength of the summoned spirit. Since she is busy dealing with the Archbishop's murder, Alexia asks Cid to assist her by joining the Crimson Knights; Cid refuses and nonchalantly leaves, fully exposing himself to the intrigued Alexia as he goes. Soon after, Alexia's investigation is cancelled by the interim Archbishop Nelson, whom Alexia holds to be the prime suspect in Drake's murder. Princess Alexia encounters Beta in her Natsume persona, and both take an instant dislike to each other. At the Trial, many fighters are humiliated when no famous warriors manifest to duel them, implying they are unworthy opponents. Cid is suddenly announced as the next challenger, his entry fee having been secretly paid by Rose to show her father Cid's potential.

Alpha reveals she is an elf and a descendant of Olivier, the hero who severed Diablos' left arm one thousand years ago. Cid decides to enter the summoning circle following him and disappears within it, finding himself within the Sanctuary. Alpha appears with the rest of Shadow Garden; after they kidnap Nelson, they enter the Sanctuary as well, as do Princess Alexia and Rose. Cid meets an imprisoned Aurora, who has been trapped for a thousand years; after Cid frees her, she reveals that the Sanctuary is actually a massive prison which stores the memories of every past hero. If they destroy Sanctuary's magical core, Aurora and the other memories will be deleted. As they pass through memories, Cid and the Shadows learn the cult formerly used the Sanctuary to experiment on orphan girls with Diablos' blood in an effort to resurrect him. Most of the subjects died, but some, like Olivier, became strong heroes.

Cid grabs Olivier and kills her with his teeth, revealing to a stunned Nelson he allowed Olivier to stab him in a way in which she missed his organs. He also reveals the secret he figured out: the Sanctuary absorbs magic from the air, so by compressing the whole of his magic into a solid mass within his eye, he can use his magic again. Cid sets off his atomic bomb spell, destroying Nelson and the Sanctuary core. Cid bids farewell to Aurora, who kisses him and offers him the hope that one day he might find the real Aurora. Princess Alexia and Rose decide they must form their own secret organization to stand against both the Cult and Shadow Garden. As Natsume, Beta agrees to help so she can spy on them. Alpha discovers from the Sanctuary's archives that Aurora's true identity is that of the demon Diabolos.

The Bushin Festival arrives, attracting hundreds of fighters to the royal capital; Cid plans to shock the crowd by disguising himself as weak and defeating everyone he fights with astonishing ease. Using magical slime makeup, Gamma gives Cid the pathetic face of Mundane Mann, an unskilled knight who died in poverty. Annerose, a foreign knight who fought at the Goddess Trial, witnesses the disguised Cid allowing himself to be beaten by a fighter named Quinton in an encounter on a street before the festival's beginning, and is amazed that Cid is uninjured. Cid learns the favorites to win the festival are Iris, Rose, Annerose, Quinton and a mysterious, nameless Dark Knight. Rose encounters Cid and informs him that her father has selected a man named Perv Asshat to become her fiancé and force her to give up the sword.

Rose's escape makes her appear guilty, which has dire consequences for inter-kingdom politics. Alexia decides to find and protect her, but Beta stalls her from interfering, already well aware that Rose is hiding in the city's labyrinthine underground ruins. Cid meets an elf named Beatrix who is searching for her missing niece and happens to greatly resemble Alpha. As Mundane, Cid faces Goldy for his first duel, watched by Annerose and Quinton, both of whom are now suspicious of Mundane's abilities. To their great confusion, Mundane dodges Goldy's first attack by flexing his neck, and then causes Goldy's own magic attack to explode backwards on him by sneezing, knocking Goldy unconscious and causing his defeat.

Cid's elder sister Claire visits, but he avoids her by pretending to join Skel in hunting Rose for a sizable reward. Cid actually respects Rose for risking everything to escape an unwanted marriage. Cid overhears the Moonlight Sonata, a personal favorite musical piece of his for its brooding tone, being played on a nearby piano and quickly finds Epsilon is the one performing it. She explains she has been able to cultivate useful connections in Oriana Kingdom by posing as a skilled pianist. Princess Alexia and Beta suspect Rose fled after discovering that Perv is secretly a cultist using magic to brainwash and render the king an invalid, and they enter the underground ruins to find her.

After sadistically punishing Cid for neglecting her, Claire reveals she has replaced the still-absent Rose in the festival and insists Cid watch her from VIP seating. Cid sits beside Iris, who apologises for the Zenon incident. They discuss the dark knight competitor, Beatrix the elvish War Goddess, the festival's very first champion, and Cid realises Beatrix is Alpha's aunt. Cid sneaks away to don his Mundane disguise to duel Annerose. Perv takes his seat beside Iris, who despises him; he expresses confidence that Rose will return and marry him. He also suggests he is interested in hiring strong warriors, particularly Annerose.

Cid sits beside Princess Iris and Beatrix to watch Claire's next match. Perv continues drugging the King, hoping Rose will try to save him. He also plans to have the king publicly assassinate Iris and Princess Alexia's father, the King of Midgar, to cause war. Claire wins her match and furiously searches for Cid, who is again absent from the audience. Iris duels Mundane, but has repeated terrifying premonitions of Mundane killing her instantly with a single counterattack; Mundane shortly disarms and defeats her in a single move. Rose infiltrates the VIP area with help from Shadow Garden and Perv is enraged when she kills her own father, who shows gratitude at being freed from Perv's control at last.

Alpha meets Rose and offers her membership in Shadow Garden, which Rose accepts. Amidst Beatrix' and the Eminence's duel, Princess Iris joins the former in combat against him. After a fight which comes to span much of the city, Eminence again brandishes his atomic, city-obliterating attack, terrifying both Iris and Beatrix, but vanishes at the last second before its detonation, leaving Princess Iris enraged, frustrated, and more determined than ever to take her vengeance. Perv is forced to beg his master's forgiveness for his failure. Beatrix leaves the capital sad that she failed to find her niece. Holed up in her room, now filled with wanted posters of the Eminence, a mentally unraveling Sherry hears the news of his attack and renews her promise to herself to one day kill him. With the Eminence revealed to the world, Shadow Garden begin preparations to support Cid further, hoping he will soon take a more active role in running their organization.

Alpha guides Rose into the monster-infested mountains near Cid and Claire's childhood village, revealing the mountains contain the old Kingdom of Alexandria, now Shadow Garden's new secret base of operations. There, a distraught Rose has everything taken from her - her name, her clothes, and the last memento she has of Cid as she knew him. Now clothed in the characteristic slime suit of Shadow Garden's operatives, she becomes Soldier 666 in their army and begins training to prove her abilities and skill to them, under their supervision.