Extra Chapter: Karin

Chi is assigned to work in Mitsugoshi once again. Sometimes she worked as an employee, sometimes as a guard. In most instances she would dress like a man and she was quite popular among female customers. It didn't help that she also behaved like a gentleman most of the time.

But there is only one person who can make her show her feminine side.

"Waaaaahhh!" The sound of a little girl crying. A cry that she is very familiar with. She rushed towards the direction of the voice as soon as she heard it. She entered the break room and found a few Mitsugoshi employees trying to calm down the crying 5 year old green haired human girl who is being carried by one of them.

"Karin!? Why is she here?" Chi asked.

"I'm sorry, Lady Chi! She wouldn't stop crying so we're forced to bring her here! She wants to see you!"

"Alright. Give her to me." Chi held out her hand to receive the crying girl. As soon as the girl is in her arms, she stops crying and tearfully called out to her.

"Mama…"

"Urgh…!" Those words never fail to affect her even though the girl is not her daughter.

"Wh-What's wrong, Karin?" She gently asked the girl.

"I miss you, Mama." The girl simply replied.

"A-Ahem. I miss you too but… I'm bus-" She stopped herself when she saw the girl giving her the puppy eyes.

"Alright. I'll play with you."

"Yaaaay!" Truly, puppy eyes are the strongest force in the world.

Chi brought the toys and started playing house with the girl. She was about to play the role of the father but Karin simply said "Mama is mama.", insisting on making her taking the role of the mother. And so she becomes the mother while the child played the role of the daughter. The father is strangely absent but the child didn't mind it.

Never in her life would Chi thought she would be a mother. As Karen von Herzog she is devoted to her duties as a First Child of the Cult and as a member of the Seven Blades of Velgalta and to her family. As Chi of Shadow Garden, she is even more devoted to her current duties.

Back when she first joined Shadow Garden as No. 111, she slowly learned the truth about the Cult, truth that she and her family used to turn a blind eye on. She was forced to face the truth head on when she and her family became the victims of the Cult's evil.

Her family was slaughtered by a fellow First Child and a candidate of Rounds, Sergey Gormann, when she was discovered to have suffered from the Demonic Possession. She almost died had she not met Shadow Garden and was rescued by them. She had difficulty adjusting to the new organization considering she was their enemy… and she still tried to justify her and her family's affiliation to the Cult. But one day she broke…

She and No. 122, who would later be named Omega, discovered a Cult base where they kept Possessed infants as experimental subjects. The sight of Possessed babies horrified not only her but even the laidback No. 122. It was a sight that haunted her dreams to this very day considering her family have allowed this to happen for generations.

Luckily, the infants they rescued can be cured by Shadow Garden. But what of others that they could not find? What of the others that suffered long before Shadow Garden was formed? So many victims burdened her conscience.

That is why she became close to one of the babies that they cured. Said baby even called her mother. At first she was reluctant but she relented after being subjected to the power of the girl's puppy eyes. She named her Karin, a name similar to her former name. She would give the girl her surname considering she had basically adopted her but the Herzog family no longer exist. She is no longer Karen von Herzog. She is simply Chi now.

Her taking care of the girl was not only approved but even endorsed by the Seven Shades as they couldn't possibly leave the infants alone after rescuing and curing them of Possession. Leaving them at orphanages would simply mean abandoning them to the Cult considering most orphanages in the world are managed by the Cult as part of their Children of Diablos recruitment system, thus they decided to raise the babies. Other infants they rescued that day were taken care of by other Shadow Garden members too. But none of them grew as close to each other as Chi and Karin did.

Two years have passed and the girl is as clingy towards her as always. The girl understands that she is busy and would often be away for some time but she could not stand being apart for long. She would cry whenever she missed her mother, just like now.

"Excuse me. Chi. Lady Gamma summoned you." Said Nu as she entered the break room.

"I'll be right there. Wait here, Karin." Said Chi as she stood up, ready to answer the summons. But as she was about to leave the room, Karin pulled on the sleeves of her uniform.

"What is it, Karin?" Chi asked.

"Carry." The girl said while raising her hands upwards, wanting a hug.

"O-Okay." Chi blushed and carries her and left the room, with Nu and other girls watching amusedly.

She has endured Omega's relentless teasing and she couldn't stand it if Nu and others started teasing her too. But for the sake of the child, enduring some teasing is nothing.

As she was walking through the store building to reach Gamma's office, she coincidentally met with Cid, who is accompanying his sister Claire on a shopping spree.

"Ah! Lord Sh—Mr. Cid!" Chi instinctively called out nervously. Despite lacking in presence and aura, she knows that the man before her is the person she revered and feared most ever since she witnessed his destruction magic years ago.

"Hm? You look familiar. And that girl…" Cid said nonchalantly. His eyes gazed upon the girl in Chi's arms with interest.

"Cid. What's your relationship with this girl?" Asked Claire, clearly not deceived by Chi's choice of dress.

"N-No. I just tend to remember the names and faces of customers, milady. We aren't acquainted yet."

"Hm. I see. Good." Claire said while crossing her arms.

"Papa."

…..

A certain girl uttered a word with two syllables that shocked everyone who is present.

"What…?" Claire broke the silence with a question.

"Papa!" Karin said while reaching out her hands at Cid with a smile.

"Eehhh…!?" Cid was flabbergasted. Claire immediately glared at Chi with scary eyes.

"You said you're not acquainted yet…" Her glare intimidates even the veteran fighter Chi.

"N-No! This is a misunderstanding! This child is-" She stopped herself before saying something that could hurt the girl's feelings, as she is sensitive to such words.

"This child is what!?" Claire asked again.

"S-Sis!" Cid called out and Claire turned her attention to him with shining red eyes.

"So… Cid. Let me ask you again. What is your relationship with this girl!?" Claire asked once again whilst grabbing the collar of Cid's shirt.

"S-Sis! I swear! She's not my child! Just look at her hair! It's not black or blonde! She's clearly adopted!"

"No! Don't say that!" Chi warned but it's too late. The girl had heard everything and started crying.

"WAAAAAHHHH!"

Everyone, even Claire, panicked and rushed to calm the girl down.

"Haaah… I'm sorry. I let my emotions get the better of me." Claire apologized after realizing her mistake.

"I-It's okay, milady." Chi replied.

"Well… Now that the girl's no longer crying, we can resume our shopping, Cid!" Claire declared, only to find Cid no longer by her side.

"CID!? Not again! Where is he!?" Shouted Claire as she rushed to find Cid.

"Karin!? How did she-!? I swear she was beside me just a moment ago!" Chi also coincidentally lost track of Karin whilst being distracted by Claire. She also left to search for the girl.

When they both left, Cid sighed from his hiding place, which is under the table of a confectionery booth.

"Haaah. I managed to escape her. I have a tight schedule and must finish it tonight. Sorry sis." Cid muttered as he put his hand on his pocket, where the playing cards that he just purchased (with 100% discount) lies.

"Hm? Why are you here?" Cid asked a certain girl when he noticed her hiding under the table with him.

"Hee hee hee." The girl just giggled, finding out that hiding from her mother is fun.

"Hmm… I see. So you're determined to walk the path of the shadows. I knew I saw potential in you last time we met. I suppose I can spare some time for a budding Shadowbroker. Wanna play with me?"

"Yes!" The girl answered happily.

"Alright. Let's play a game called hide and seek!" Declared Cid. And for the next few hours they cannot be found by both Claire and Chi. They even got to eat some sweets at the confectionery they were hiding in.

Author's Note:

Had a random thought while working when I remembered the Possessed infants that Chi and Omega rescued in the Seven Shades Chronicles and I ended up writing this omake chapter.

Next chapter could take longer to releasebecause I may need to re-read Vol. 6 to make sure my Jack the Ripper plot isn't a copy paste of the light novel.

Anime0CC0Manga: wait, everything feels mixed up, and certain things are skipped

Answer: Yeah it is written like that intentionally because there is a plot happening in Midgar simultaneously with the Phantom of the Opera plot. The previous chapters focused on the Phantom of the Opera plot so the next chapters will focus on the Jack the Ripper plot.

I almost considered not writing the Jack the Ripper part entirely as I originally planned it to be similar to Light Novel Vol. 6 plot but I decided I'll just write it in a way that matches the context of this fic.

HundredMask: Prime Delta Content? always welcome to see our cute doggo, Adra's kindness will be a plot point I swear, Alpha trying to recruit PotO is pretty funny, but reasonable at the same time seeing he's basically a vigilante, also, I get that Dark knight isn't a persona, but Shadow garden doesn't know about the persona stuff anyways, as far as they know, the villainous legends are all separate people, and of them all, only Necromancer is pure, inhuman evil, will we get alpha and PotO interaction? very excited to read more

First Durandal, what's next? Caliburn? it'd be a good weapon for the "hero king Claude", also, Sherry X Claude is always nice to see, and now we got Adra's loyalty? very nice, I like it, now I wonder how he'll deal with if she dies under Necromancer's hands, it'll be one breakdown to remember

Answer: Always a pleasure to see you enjoying my content.

Pssst… Excalibur is confirmed in my fic and it's not Cid's Excalibur!

We shall see how Adra's fate goes.

A-Yellow-Lizard: Yet another victim of misunderstandings haha. I'd love a few more claude and cid moments, they're really precious and I love having them together.

Answer: Yeah, they haven't interacted in a while. I suppose they need to meet again soon.

Guest: I really hope Adra survives to the end of this fic. He is the most entertaining member of the Seven Wraiths. It would be really sad if he dies at some point. :(

Answer: We shall see. No promises though.

TheVirtualPug: Will the Necromancer remain so unapologetically evil for long? When it is revealed that Claude is the Necromancer, there will be a lot of opportunities to change that or at the very least add to it. If SG or anyone else discovers that Claude DOES care for both Sherry and his sister, it would present many opportunities to explore Claude/Necromancer (in the eyes of the rest of the world) further.

I wonder what bullshit story SG will come up with when they discover Claude's true identity. Claude is being possessed and is resisting? Necromancer reincarnated into Claude but somehow eventually grew to care for his family? Claude is the Necromancer's reincarnation but only got his memories much later in life thus allowing him to retain a measure lf humanity and thus caring for his sister and sherry?

Answer: I have a plan for that.

Generalliam0529: cool to see my comment.

theres no issue with you following the ln and/or manga 8n design. The sheild. is a anime only thing, and if memorie serves me right, anime shadow has been shown to be a fair bit stronger than his other counterparts.

part 2 to my comment that i just posted:

I actually prefer that you dont go to outlandish with shadow power (as in anime outlandish vs ln outlandish) as in the anime, brining his power to such a absurde level is fine as, in the og series, the un-rivaled apex of power. HOWEVER, in this fic, he's not. If shadow rised to this absurde powerlevel, so would necromancer, and if necromancer could destroy the world were all kinda screwed.

Answer: Indeed. No need to suddenly turn this fic into DBZ.