Cid mentally hummed to himself while looking around the mostly dilapidated castle that stood at the center of the ancient city Shadow Garden had now claimed for themselves.
'Wait. Does that mean I now technically own an ancient city?...HELL YEAH!' Cid did a small fist-bump to himself as he walked, but by the time Beta turned around to look at him he was back to normal.
Or at least normal for 'Shadow' and not Cid Kagenou.
"How are operations?" He spoke suddenly, his gaze dead ahead and unmoving even as both girls jolted at his sudden words.
Though Alpha hid her reaction much better than Beta, he'd give her credit for that.
"They are well, Lord Shadow." Alpha began, since she was the de-facto leader of Shadow Garden and the Shades in his absence. "Primarily we are focusing on low-danger reconnaissance and recruitment."
"I see…"
"Should we be doing something else, Lord Shadow?" Alpha asked, wondering if and potentially where she could have gone wrong with her planning.
"No. What you're doing currently is well done." Shadow shook his head, sending a wave of relief through the blonde haired elf's body that nearly sent her legs out from under her.
"I see. That's excellent to know." Alpha nodded thankfully, going silent as she heard Beta start to ask questions of their master.
She was glad she had been doing good, she really was. But the anxiety that filled her being continued to gnaw away at her in small nibbles. Not for the first time did she wish that she had the wisdom, the intelligence, the strength of her master. He was as close to perfect as a human being could achieve and even then, Alpha was certain that none of the Shades had reached the depths of what their master knew or could do.
And then, in the midst of her thinking, a memory came to the forefront of her mind. Of a conversation with Delta after her first 'rotation' with Shadow after they had left him. Of what Shadow had said to Delta and what he had been doing.
Of course, Delta being Delta embellished a few of his phrases but Alpha didn't mind that so much. Not since she'd heard words she never could or would have expected to come out of Shadow's mouth, even paraphrased by Delta. He had asked Delta if she thought he was perfect. And according to the Therianthrope he had been genuinely happy when she had told him that she didn't.
Once upon a time, when first being saved by him, Alpha may have gotten mad at Delta for her answer to their precious master. She might have even said yes to his question. Even now she knew that if he asked her that question she would say yes simply because the gap between 'Shadow' and 'Perfection' in her mind were so small it was simply negligible. But now there was also a part of her that felt relief that Shadow seemed to worry about the difference between himself and everyone else too.
It was a small thing, a simple thing in the grand scheme of things. But the idea that both herself and Shadow worried about such small, inane things like this. The thought brought Alpha some strange sense of comfort when she was in her worst mental spirals.
But for now she just continued to walk, trailed very closely by Beta and exactly two paces behind by Shadow himself. The young blonde elf leading their High-Leader to the surprisingly intact room that she had commandeered as her personal office. Shadow walking in and looking around silently, both of the elves silent as their Master inspected the office.
"What was this room beforehand?"
"A small study, based on the books we found that were legible, one that belonged to one of the high ranking officials of the Kingdom." Alpha answered dutifully, wondering where her Master was going with this.
"...should be around here." Shadow mumbled to himself, getting a curious hum from Alpha before he reached out and gripped the base of a wall-mounted lamp and tugged down on it.
And with a creak of rusted machinery and scraping of stone, a section of the wall began to fall out of place, slowly swinging backwards.
"A secret tunnel!?" Beta rushed forward to inspect it curiously, her notebook already out and her eyes sparkling as she leant forward at the precipice of the tunnel to try and see further into the darkness.
"You knew about this Lord Shadow?" Alpha asked, her voice coming out impressed as she crossed her arms and sauntered up behind Beta, peering in the darkness of the unlit tunnel herself.
Shadow grinned and huffed, his expression and stance screaming a casual competence that neither girl believed anyone else in the world could ever pull off as easily as he did.
"Simple deductions. What kind of high-ranking official wouldn't have a hidden way out of their office?" He spoke, waving his hand in both a flippant and grandiose manner simultaneously.
'And also in all the stories there's secret tunnels somewhere in the castle. If it wasn't here it was totally going to be a switch in a bookshelf.' He thought to himself, but obviously he kept such thoughts to himself while letting the girls awe over the find of their master.
Though it was generally a good idea to have some kind of secret exit out of somewhere that the girls evidently wanted to use as a Headquarters. He couldn't blame them of course. A dilapidated city hidden inside a forest filled with poison mist, created by the dragon that guards the area and with many natural choke points as well. It was truly the best possible headquarters they could have asked for but if this was going to be his secret Eminence in Shadow headquarters he was going to make sure it was perfect goddammit.
Though he had come here for a purpose other than this and evidently the girls seemed more interested in the tunnel than any kind of tour or administrative work currently, which he couldn't blame them for. Oh well, you win some you lose some, Cid supposed.
"Of course! Overlooking such a simple thing…" Beta mumbled to herself, writing down something in her notebook quickly before smiling up at Shadow. "I won't make the same mistake again, Lord Shadow!"
"Hm, I wouldn't expect you to. Now, let's explore these tunnels, shall we?" He lifted a hand and created a small purple flame with his mana, beginning to walk forward into the darkness of the tunnel.
And dutifully, as the assistants, guards and companions that Cid had looked for after accidentally curing Alpha of her possession, the two of them followed behind him.
XXXxxxXXX
The Next Morning, Kagenou Estate
"Cid, wake up."
"Mmnnaah!"
"Cid it's already 8 am. Wake up."
"Tired…"
"Oh? Tired. I see. You poor thing, allow me to help."
Cid felt his bed shift as another weight was added and moved around onto it. Of course he was perfectly aware of who it was, their girlish voice was very distinct after all, and what was about to befall him. But as Cid Kagenou he couldn't let such a background character event pass him by!...Also he was sorta enjoying the excuse to lie in his fairly comfortable bed a bit longer.
And then two hands wrapped around his throat, striking quickly before letting off almost entirely as Cid reacted like any normal person might have in such a situation.
"AAHHHH!" The young teen bolted up in his bed and panted, skin pale and eyes blown wide as he 'struggled' to regain his composure after waking up to the feeling of being choked.
"Oh good!" Claire Kagenou, 15 year-old heiress to the Kagenou household, clapped her hands together happily and smiled at her younger brother as if she hadn't just momentarily choked him to wake him up. "You're finally awake. I had a day free and was hoping to spend it with my dear little brother."
'It's going to be one of those days…' Cid sighed mentally to himself as he finally allowed himself to act calming down fully.
"Ok Claire." He nodded, slowly sliding out of bed as Claire just sat on the bed and smiled pleasantly at him.
He didn't even bother asking her to look away. Not only were they siblings but he'd used the opportunity to slip away too many times so she no longer trusted him with such a seemingly innocuous action.
"I was thinking, some training and then perhaps a walk through our lands."
"Sounds good."
"I've heard you haven't made much progress in your classes either, so i'm going to be pushing you pretty hard today, Cid."
"Sounds good."
"And then afterwards you can show off to our parents and perhaps even get pushed forward and join the Midgar Dark Knights Academy when I do in two years!" Claire smiled at her brother as he buttoned up his shirt, staring in the mirror with a blank look as he dressed himself.
"..."
"You said nothing that time."
"Because I don't want to be pushed forward two years."
"What was that, Cid?" He could feel the swelling of mana and the darkening aura behind him from his sister, not daring to look at her through the mirror's reflection in case he caught her gaze.
"Nothing. Sounds great, Claire." He said quickly, finishing up his last button and turning around to face her.
"Excellent, now let's get going."
XXXxxxXXX
Two Hours Later, Riverbank
"Remember to parry to throw me off, Cid!" Claire shouted, the sharpened edge of her blade slamming into the sharpened edge of Cid's blade and throwing it off balance.
"But you're so strong!" Cid yelped, managing to control his stumbling just in time to start ineffectually weathering a storm of attacks from his sister.
"Parry, Cid!"
"I can't- AH!" Cid shifted the position of his blade to weather the following onslaught of rapid-fire attacks from his sister, sparks filling the air and screeching metal filling their ears.
'Claire is being strangely aggressive today.'
Cid yelped and flung himself away, feeling comfortable in doing so because of how large Claire had telegraphed her attacks.
'Apart from a few outliers her attacks are also strangely light today. It'd be a breeze to actually throw her off with a simple flick of my wrist. It's weird…' Cid thought to himself, briefly imagining himself parrying Claire's attack and using the opportunity to stab her straight through the lung.
Claire seemed to jolt in between attacks, her stance shifting ever so slightly to give her a better evasive stance as she continued her attack onslaught on her brother. The teenage girl's attacks looking almost like a blur as she basically pinned her brother on the spot with her weirdly rapid strikes.
'Wait…her attacks would be easier to parry…' Cid's eyes widened.
"Parry, Cid! You need to learn!"
'Huh…She's actually really trying. I feel like I did when I found out that Shadow Garden was real. Have I been overlooking Claire too?'
Cid finally allowed himself to parry one of her countless attacks. He made sure to make it look like he wasn't too proficient with such a manoeuvre but he did actually pull one off.
"That's it! Great job Cid!" Claire beamed, using a heavy attack to force Cid back with a frightened yelp before chasing after him like a dog nipping at his heels.
'This whole time I thought she just got some kind of sick, sadistic pleasure out of it-'
Claire created a series of cuts along his arms when he tried to block statically as 'Cid Kagenou' was prone to doing. Her eyes widening with a gleam in them as they began to turn slightly red with her mana usage.
'-Ok that might still be the case, but there's actually more to it? Was she always like this and I just…missed it?'
Cid, extremely clumsily, parried another strike, watching the expression on Claire's face morph into one of extreme joy as he once again did what she was trying to train him in and help him with.
"I have two years until I leave for the academy Cid! I need to make sure you're as strong as possible!"
"B-By trying to kill me!?"
"I'd never kill you!" She thrusted her blade forward, scratching his cheek and sending a few drops of blood high into the air. "But you'll never learn without stakes."
Cid yelped and continued to 'barely' survive the seemingly never ending onslaught of his sister. Watching her not just for an opening to end the spar in a spectacularly background character fashion, though he was still doing that, but also just to see what she was doing. Try to figure out how and why she did what she did for a brother that he'd purposefully designed to be as standoffish and simultaneously whiny and annoying as possible.
He'd long since purged the events from his memories or hadn't even realised he'd done them in the first place so he had no way of knowing. He had no way of knowing the fondness that she had, had for him from the moment she had laid eyes on him as a baby. Of her hazy and half-delusional memory of Cid saving her from a gang of bandits after she had stubbornly dragged him out of the Kagenou estate to go exploring. Of the little things that he did in between his acting that slipped through the cracks. Like how he'd pick up some of her favourite snacks when he happened to go into the markets in the nearby town, or how he'd take the flack off of her when their parents got especially bad with their expectations of her.
Sure there were other, bigger, things that he'd occasionally do but they meant nothing to Claire in the face of those smaller, more tender and thoughtful things he did. Cid was a boy of extremes, Claire had found over the years, which meant that small things, or something done in moderation, meant a lot more when coming from him.
And it was with that thought that she struck her blade with his one last time and flexed her arms, sending him sailing into the canopy of a nearby tree with a girlish scream.
"Are you ok, Cid?"
"Just peachy…" The boy mumbled, tangled in small branches and covered in leaves.
"Great. How about after a bit more training we go out to the markets? Eating proper meals is important." Claire suggested, half-lecturing him at the end as he toppled out of the tree and hit the ground with a hard smack.
"I know I know." He grouched, rubbing his back as he slowly stood up. "I eat plenty well, Claire."
"Then let us begin the next round of sparring." Claire levelled the tip of her blade at him once more.
Claire was absolutely a battle-maniac, Cid had known that for a while. But it was only now, in the wake of his realisation about her that he realised that was something they both shared in common.
He knew that he was reincarnated and he was like this as Minoru as well, but he had to wonder if it was somehow genetic.
"Start!"
XXXxxxXXX
An hour later, local market
"Sadly it wasn't much but you did genuinely improve today, Cid." Claire spoke happily to her younger brother, the both of them eating some beef skewers as they walked through the markets.
"Thanks." He muttered, munching lackadaisically on his skewer.
"If we can speed up your progress a little more and make a convincing show, I just know that our parents will agree to push you forward two years!" Claire smiled at her brother, getting no reaction from him as he finished off his skewer.
She was silent for a moment as she waited for him to respond, not seeming to take too much offense when he offered no reaction or words in response to her optimism.
"Doesn't that sound great, Cid?"
"I don't have that kind of skill, Claire."
"We both know that's not true, Cid." Claire laughed, waving a hand dismissively in his direction.
If Cid wasn't certain that his background character charade wasn't airtight he would have been freaking out by now. But instead he let his sister continue her speech, never letting her know how close to the truth she skirted.
"You have so much potential, we just have to drag it out of you."
"Sounds painful."
"It will be, but all proper training involves at least a little bit of pain."
"But I don't have potential."
"Of course you do, everyone does. And your's is greater than even mine."
"I'm not so sure about that, Claire." Cid deadpanned, wondering how he had never noticed exactly how sure she sounded when she talked about his potential.
Sure it didn't help him in trying to maintain his performance, not in the slightest, but the fact that she genuinely, without any hint of a lie, believed in him so much was actually surprising to the young teen. He tried to think about why that might be, what he could have done or what she might have seen in him to make her like him so much, make her believe in him so much, but his mind drew a blank. He couldn't think of a single thing.
"You have potential and that's that, don't fight me on this."
"Yes, Claire." He droned obediently, averting his gaze as she gave him a slightly annoyed look.
"I'll prove to you, and our parents, that you do. Just leave it to me, Cid."
"Yes, Claire."
"Hey! While we're in the markets, why not look around at some shops?"
"Yes, Claire." Her eyes narrowed a little on her brother, seeing his attention waning.
"We can even pick out matching outfits." She grinned smugly at him.
And if she knew her brother like she thought she did…
"No thanks."
"Good, you're listening." She nodded to herself, her hands on her hips and her expression confident in her reaffirmation of her brother's habits.
'This isn't exactly what I'd call an ideal day out. Especially with her trying to ruin my background character position by actually trying to bring out my "latent potential". But this is surprisingly enjoyable…Perhaps, once every six months maybe, I can make room in my life for something like this.' Cid thought to himself, following his sister around as she walked through the town streets.
It was a genuine surprise to Cid that he found himself enjoying his time around his sister, wondering what was so different today compared to the 13 years beforehand. The only conclusion that his mind came to was his new revelations about her and everything he'd found out about Shadow Garden affecting his mood.
He'd spent a combined 30 years ignoring any kind of social life in accordance to what he believed he needed to do to reach his goal of becoming the Eminence in Shadow. But now that he'd done it, now that he had his own organisation and secret base and a proper enemy to fight against, now that he had all that. Without even realising, his mindset began to slowly, slowly shift. An imperceptible change to anyone and everyone, but one that would spark quite a lot of change in the near future. A change that, for once, led him to accepting the joy and excitement of his sister to spend a day with him.
A small change, but an immensely important one.
"Look Cid! A matching dress and suit set!"
"No."
Though an inch of change did not mean that he'd ever stoop that low.
XXXxxxXXX
Side Story: Lambda's Discovery
Cid hummed as he sensed the magic signature appear on the edge of his windowsill, the young teenager reclined in his desk chair while reading a regular book. Having quickly stretched into the most elegant position that he could think of the moment he had sensed their approach.
"Lord Shadow." The woman that spoke appeared about six, maybe seven years older than Cid himself.
Her skin was dark and her hair a very light shade of grey. A singular golden eye opened with her other firmly shut, whether due to injury or personal choice he couldn't tell without a closer look. But he couldn't do that, it wouldn't be cool in the slightest.
"Enter."
"Lambda, reporting." The woman spoke, stood ramrod straight at attention and her lone eye locked onto him with an unwavering gaze as she saluted.
"Lambda, I see. Give your report." He had no idea what this was about but she was clearly ex-military so he'd go with the flow and act more military-esque himself.
Not to mention it was super cool! Totally showed off the awesomeness of having his own secret organisation!
"After the catastrophic failure of our headquarters defence I have gotten a verbal report from each and every numbered member responsible for the scenario and even a report from Lady Alpha herself. I wished to get your own opinions on the exact failings of each and every member in attendance. Response times, mental acuity, combative competence, all of it Lord Shadow. As clearly there is much training for everyone to undergo."
'Holy shit this woman is hardcore.' Cid thought to himself, beginning to subtly sweat a little at the cold, intense aura that she gave off.
Clearly, she was very passionate about the training of all of the Shadow Garden members. Which he should be happy about, but currently that intensity was aimed squarely at him to give critiques that she could use to increase their combat strength.
'Shit I can't think of anything! Fuck! WAIT I KNOW!'
"They were unaware of who I was."
"Yes, that came up multiple times in their verbal reports, Lord Shadow. Worry not, steps are being taken to correct such a gross oversight."
"Excellent. Quick work, Lambda."
'I HAVE NOTHING ELSE!'
XXXxxxXXX
Heya peeps!
I'm so happy that this story has garnered so much attention and love on both and ao3. It makes me so happy to see! As of writing this Author's Note, we're sitting on 138 Favourites and 176 Follows on ff and 133 Kudos and 33 bookmarks on ao3. Which is genuinely like twice as much as I expected on either platform XD
I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and while this may be subject to change depending on the reviews I get. Next chapter should be the start of Cid in the Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy. So you guys should have that to look forward to, unless the pushback is too harsh XD
Other than that, I've finished my first semester of uni this year and am just waiting for my exam results and also I've finally started watching Hunter x Hunter after having it on my watchlist for like 5 straight years. I'm actually really enjoying it! So we'll see where this ends up going XD
Come join me on my discord if you want to chat and/or check out my other stories!
Discord code: ctMzhq3
REVIEW REPLIES:
MEleeSmasher: I'm planning to add in some original arcs and events and changing up existing ones.
Omnipotente Vargas: Yes! But no.
Nugget O Awesome: Thank you
Shairetdin: I can tell that you haven't watched the anime because the entire premise relies on him never revealing his deceit. But I'm happy you're enjoying this fic!
Anikong: Thank you for your vote and I'm glad to hear you're enjoying this fic
Nik45: Thank you and that's not a half bad idea. I like it!
Sypho Dias: I didn't get them confused, but the anime has this blue-ish sheen to Beta's hair that screwed with me. It'll be the correct colour going forward xP
Codywhite162: Sorry, no Cid/Claire pairing here
Vault166: Thank you! EiS is one of my new favourite anime/manga so I'm definitely putting some effort in here XD
REVIEW REPLIES OVER
And now it is time for me to disappear into the ether until I write/post chapter 4. You guys may need to wait days, you may need to wait months, I am unsure. But I will eventually continue it when season 2 drops if nothing else. Now I fair thee all well and I'm going to continue watching Hunter x Hunter!