The Eminence Of A True Shadow

by Xsazive

What if Cid had a little different view and turnout on what happened what if he was a little more self aware and what if the world he used to live in was destroyed by his own greed. He will have to live with the world he has chosen and he must become what he was always meant to be, he needs more power. * This is my first fanfic and I do not own nor is any thing written canon*.

2. Chapter 2 A New Curve

Fuck, Fuck, Fuck I've been so careful as to not let my disguise be blown but of course, the moment I try to help my classmate my disguise is figured out in an instant, ugh this is annoying. My name is Minoru Kageno and I am "The Eminence Figure In The Shadows" or at least that's what I want to become eventually. Recently I've become a vigilante with how I've been trying to accomplish that dream. I had the aspiration because of a detective show and now I'm the 'shadow of the police station' they catch up to me only to be like "Oh he got us again just who is this mastermind". I've been trying to stay out of their way and letting them finish the case otherwise it would be me getting all the credit. Of course however tonight I had to be rescuing the one girl who sits next to me in class and always tries to talk to me. Luckily she said she wouldn't reveal my identity to anyone but how can I trust her, fuck I should've just spent that money to buy that voice coder.

Too late now, but I think it will be fine and anyways if she tries blackmailing me I could just kill her. I just hope she doesn't bring too much attention, maybe uh… she will become my lackey that could be cool if the police catch me and then she does something while I'm in custody and then they are like "woah it's not him who could it be?!" That would be so cool and then on my way out I can say something menacing like 'the culprit is dyeing the world pure' I can already imagine it now, ah perfection. Tonight though is something special I finally found the artifact that I'm pretty sure is what I'm looking for. For about a month now I've had a frozen head of some creepy-looking monster that I 'bought' from an antiques store deep in the mountain. I have always dreamed of that scenario where it's some mysterious old man and you buy something that can change your life. Most of the shop however was just filled with a bunch of junk like typewriters and stuff.

However, I found this head at his house because I just knew that fucker was hiding something and I was right, well not at first, but I got hungry and decided to see if he had any ice cream but lucky me I found this head. I grabbed it and ran, luckily I was unnoticed but for the longest time I couldn't think of why I did it. I tried looking it up and nothing came up for it but then I found it when I returned to the old man's house. A ring, a small silver-looking ring that had the same aura that the head had, and then I was sure they go together I asked the man about it and he said that it was a gift passed down in his family for about 800 years. He said that there was some story to it but he couldn't remember anything about it and I asked him if I could buy it and put it in a "museum". He asked me how much I was offering and I said 1.4 million yen he told me 2.1 and I haggled him down by "examining" the ring and telling him the silver content was only 56 percent. He backed down and we settled at a price of around 1.67 million yen.

Thankfully I got rich from stealing from those gangs that I beat up, they always offered some ridiculous amount to not get beat up and on 1 occasion I accepted. Of course the moment he sent the outrageous amount I gave him 'a little' brain damage so he didn't remember. Anyways after purchasing the ring, I kept the two apart even though I felt it pulling on me to unite them. So tonight I have nothing to lose except my life so I might as well see what it is these things want to do.

As I put them together, nothing happened and then BAM it felt like my hand was being ripped apart and the space was being torn to shreds where I was standing. Suddenly, I felt weird, I felt like something was watching me I opened my eyes to find myself in a jungle. I looked up and saw the rift to where I just was but before I could make a move. I saw a bunch of monsters approaching all I could do was hide. I couldn't fight those things and I knew it and even though it hurt my soul to not lunge right at them I know better. It's the same sort of monster of that frozen head I had, I watch as about 300 of them make it through the portal before it closes slicing one of them in half. I sit there waiting holding my breath. Obviously, I'm not on Earth anymore or anywhere near it because there are 3 fucking moons. But something is odd I feel some sort of pressure around my body that I've never felt before. I close my eyes and try to breathe in this pressure and then it hits me. First, it starts with my heart and it feels like heartburn nothing too bad but damn I wish I had some YUMS. It soon passes and then I see it, a bunch of floating lights all around me. Im guessing it is some sort of magic powers. I know of this beccause most religions call it chakra or aura or something similar.

Holy shit I'm seeing magic and I can feel it, something however isn't right, I try to take a deep breath to fill my lungs with the magic and then, they collapse. I start to panic because I can't breathe, it feels like 1000 pounds are on my chest. I try focus all of my mind on the teachings I've read and I've come to the conclusion that it's trying to accumulate with my body so I just lie there breathing sharply. I sit there for what feels like hours and nothing is changing, a day goes by and nothing changes. However, as I'm just lying there I feel water on my face and it feels, so cold, but I open my mouth as wide as I can so I can taste the magic rain. I feel the weight subside only for a second so I turn my body to the side and begin lapping up the water in the puddle next to me. Finally, something changes as I feel my lungs almost grow bigger. It hurts yes, it hurts so much, but it's so much better than that crushing feeling. I get up and realize it. I can feel magic now I pull my hand up and try to imagine a flame. A little flicker of sparks coming out of my finger I start smiling really wide and then, it stops, I guess I'll need some more practice. "Holy shit, holy shit I just found magic, oh my god this is awesome all of my childhood dreams are coming true! This has to be the funnest thing I've ever done, oh my god!"

After having a little geek out I calm down surprisingly fast and then start hearing things around me so I leave that area and go searching for any civilization. After a couple of hours of searching I find a small village and low and behold there are humanoid beings I slowly scout the area making sure they don't see me. I then realize something, they are using magic so freely and so casually. I try to put magic over my ears to try and translate anything that is being said into Japanese somehow it works a little. However, I sneak in steal a journal and a pen, and start trying to learn the language. After about a month of learning, I finally learned how to speak the language albeit not fluent but enough to where I can understand what they mean. I walk into the town only for them to be pointing spears and swords straight at my throat.

"Identify yourself at once traveler."

"Hello my name is… uhhh Jung Lee I wandering trader who's mount and carriage raided bandits" I exclaim hoping they believe my obvious lie.

"Where are you from what kind of name if Jung Lee?" they ask.

"My dad a funny guy decided my name should 'unique'." I lie again.

"Well do you have any use to this village or have any ill intent?" the question.

"I can offer swordsmanship for village return for housing I need a sword mine stolen, and for second question I do not harm anyone." I say proudly my hard work paying look at me and then a burly man walks toward me.

"I'm the captain guard of this here village I would like to see your skill before I would let you join," he says.

"Sure, however, ask that no magic use?" I say trying to string words that make sense.

"Fine by me just so you know I have been wielding a sword since I was 22 so don't feel too bad if you lose just show me what you got," he says bolstering his chest out when talking about his skill.

This dude is a total pushover I mean just looking at his stance I could have already killed him 21 times without even touching a weapon seriously how far back are these people? They bring over a sword and toss it to me it's a nice broadsword with a little etch on it, cool. We get ready in our stances and I know I need a place to stay tonight so I have to try and win this, and maybe show off a little skill. I have to be careful not to show too much though otherwise, they are going to start asking me to do labour. I must do it perfectly to where they know I exist and let me in but also don't want me in a fight.

We start, his sword lunging at me with a furry of swings that were so unprofessional I could dodge them without looking. I let him get a couple of good strikes, where it looks like I am not totally in control. He seems to get frustrated so he starts aiming for more vital spots still without missing a beat I dodge most of them flawlessly. Finally, I poke him in the back with the sword exclaiming that I am the winner. Everyone's mouth dropped without missing a beat the captain turned around to me and started talking.

"Son, I don't know who you are or what that was but welcome aboard, I'll call you 'dancer' that's your codename. Don't think that just because you beat me that you're better I am just trying out a new fencing style so don't get cocky."

" Thank you, sir, I would love to learn from you, I protect this village with life," I say with a fake expression and attitude, I mean I don't care about these people or the town. I just need a place to stay, and food to eat. After I won he gave me a tour around the small town I almost know all the locations already though from stalking.

"So, sir what I call you?"

"My name is Capi, Capi Tan."

Of course, it is, what else would his name be? After walking around the town and showing me where to purchase food he shows me the inn I'll be staying at and after he pays for 1 month of my stay here he tells me that after that I should find my way of sustaining my living situation. Thankfully he said I only have to patrol the village every other week until I pay him back for the inn so I get weeks to go and train with this 'magic'. Plus I've already found a way to make money and that's by killing monsters because unbeknownst to the villagers the monsters drop some cool things from their bodies. Like for instance slimes when they are killed drop their goo and sure it may be corrosive but that's only if it is impure.

After purifying it you can turn it into anything you want you just have to make sure to use magic to shape it and if you can't it will just fall to the floor limp. After making myself a new slimesuit and sword I feel so much cooler not only can I use my magic to harden the slime I can make it also look like I've been stabbed this slime is useful. Also if you kill a Wonderbat you can use their feces and purify it into a cologne and add a couple of dangerous flowers after purifying it becomes perfume. And after selling this to the local store to test its effectiveness the store owner hunted me down and begged me for more and offered to pay me double what I sold it for. Well, that was after I sort of twisted his arm into paying more. So far I've been running around killing any monster that I find without any trouble. I even saw a flying lizard but I haven't figured out flying so I can't compete with it yet. After training every night I've finally got control of most of the magic. (Bunch of 'lore' on elemental magic)

Fire is sort of like a real fire with how it works, if you have it in your hand all you have to supply is the fuel with magic and it can stay lit for however long you want it too, and you can change the color of the fire depending on the color of your magic. Secondly, if you want to throw fire you have to coat it in magic like a present and send it wherever you want it to go so that the elements around the fire don't extinguish it, this also works underwater but you have to supply the air and the magic and also a way for the fumes to leave so it is just useless. You can however use it for propulsion sort of like wind magic but its different because it's bursts of power instead of a constant stream. I've also been testing on explosion like swings needs further improvement because so far it just throws off my momentum to where it leaves me open and looks lousy.

Wind magic is like blowing air out of your mouth except you use your hand and your magic in your lungs it's way harder to do when you aren't doing something like flying because you have to use the correct amount of magic to keep you afloat but also not too much too where you float and don't come down. Trust me that does not feel good on the way down. You can also make it go through your feet so you can stand in the air that one is a little easier to do just because you only have to focus the magic on your feet and it will sort of do the rest. The main perk of wind magic is fighting though you can use it to speed up your movements along with the normal magic to an ungodly speed. I once traveled across a lake in about 5 milliseconds and then collapsed right after exhaustion (somewhere near 720000 mph) it broke the sound barrier and caused a raucous from the town thinking it was a dragon. Super cool but almost ripped my body to shreds, maybe eventually I'll be able to reach faster speeds in the future.

Water magic is simple you just use the water with your magic inside of it and control it to do whatever you want. Even though I could do the same thing with blood and make it 100 times cooler. Also it's not very reliable and not worth the problems that come along with distance from the core. My record is about 500 meters before I couldn't see or tell where the water was so I just said thats my limit. However, there is 1 really cool feature you can use water for and that is cutting you can use at a very high speed and very thin to cut something with laser precision. You can also use slime for this but water you can make into even smaller particles to where it's almost impossible for someone to see it with the naked untrained eye.

Earth magic is super cool it's defensive magic unless you want to send a dirt spike through someone but it takes so long like incredibly long just for it to move a foot so I doubt that it's going to go through anyone anytime soon. You could also use it to make boulders and or shard rocks and throw them at people. For this, you could also just pick up a rock and throw it at someone which is what I would do because I can throw a rock way faster than with magic. There is a way to increase the speed, but in all practice, it's cowardly and boring to work so I'll just stick to my slime sword for now.

Another fun thing with magic is you can reach a limit with how much you can hold and once you go over that limit you start degrading, I heard from the villagers that it's magical overload and that just not using magic for a couple of days should make it go away. So I did some research on it and it's super fascinating, if you just continue through the pain and continually try to increase your magic gathering center or your 'core' while it's overloading you just never get to a stopping point and it just keeps going as long as you can endure it, so far I've only been able to endure it for triple what my reserve used to be.

After I hit that mark though it's gotten increasingly hard to get enough magic to fill the hole but after a day of not using it, it usually refills almost to full so what I've been doing is condensing it. Again something that nobody knew was possible until now, it's kinda like using a crushing machine in your core only you have to do it slowly otherwise you sorta… blow up. After about a year of staying in this village, I've officially been named 'a local' and have grown tremendously in strength.

"JUNG! We need your help the village is being attacked and we can't hold them off we need as many men as possible!"

"Yes sir, let me grab my sword and I'll head down."

I can't believe it, it's finally happening I am so stoked right now! I couldn't even hide my smile when he said it. It's my chance for my dream to begin. So, I ran down the hill all clad in an all-black jumpsuit made of slime. I land in the center of town I see bandits trying to have their way with the women and killing the men. To me none of it matters but it does sort of tick me off that the men can only think of those things. I jump up and land dead center of all of them using earth magic to make the ground shake and wind to make everyone notice me with a gust. I was trying to intimidate them however, after all of them see me they start laughing.

"Look at the fucking gimp over there, what are you gonna do? Run around spanking us?" death 1 says

"No no no, he's a runner who got lost on the trail the fucking idiot!" dead guy 2 says

"I wonder if there's a smoking hot bitch under that suit ready for me to take her!" unalived man 3 says. All the while they are still trying to get the village women's clothes off however, they find themselves staring at the women's panties. But also at their bodies, standing there, unmoving. It takes them a split second to realize they don't have a body anymore.

"My name is 'Dark Bandit Slayer' Etch this name into your minds for the world is to be rid of these evil shadows I see" All of the women start crying and putting their clothes together while trying to get the kids somewhere safe.

"Where the hell is Jung?" I run around killing each of the bandits myself making sure the women are safe and so are the children.

"Capi Tan I have the damage report,"

"Thanks but we need to focus on killing these bandits, I can't count on all of the soldiers but I just want J... Who is that?"

"I'm not sure sir, he claims to be a 'Dark Bandit Slayer' but his real identity is unknown"

"Well he seems to be on our side so let's hope we can repay him"

After killing most of the bandits in town I lay back and watch as the militia take care of most of them. As I change back into my normal clothes I see the captain isn't paying attention to the people around him so I rush in 'as fast as I can' to help him.

"CAPI TAN WATCH OUT." He turns around to see his 2nd in command lunge at him with a knife, thanks to my warning however he only manages to get a slight cut on his cheek.

"Sorry CAPI, but I can't resist the amount of money they are offering me."

"Who? The bandits are paying money for you to kill me?"

"Bandits are you crazy? I would never work with these imbeciles, no I'm working for a different organization and all we need are the kids for some 'research'."

"You sick bastard, I trusted you I basically raised you from your younger years and you do this to me?" As he's about to say something I slam my sword into his Abdomen and slice up.

"Capi tan are you okay" I ask.

"Yes, thank you Jung I was just questioning this bastard."

"What did he say?"

After hearing this explanation it makes sense why the bandits were only taking the children and not killing them. After the whole incident calmed down I talked to the captain about the damage and he was concerned. talking about 'the man clad in black' and making all serious talk about it and I was in pure bliss that it worked finally I can say that I have started my journey. After talking to the captain and leading him down a false trail as to who the identity of the 'Black Bandit Slayer' is I go out and run around trying to find these bandit's controllers who wanted children.

Luckily it wasn't hard to find the bandits who I let escape on purpose and eventually, they just led me right where I wanted to go. It was a mountain cave and all the people outside were dressed in black capes and looking super cool. After sneaking in I found what looked like a modern-day research lab back in my previous dimension. After searching around for a little bit I found some articles and research, but none of it really interested me so I just skimmed through it. Supposedly they are a religeon worshipping some demon that gave them power, yada yada yada… bunch of pansies and lazy people. I eventually found a bird cage-looking structure with a child in it and after waiting for the 'scientists' to leave I made my move. I tried jumping in between the cages bars and it seemed there was some reinforced glass so I just used some water that I kept on me and pinpointed it directly through the glass and started cutting using waterjet methods along with saw methods. Eventually I cut a hole big enough for me to fit through so I jump in and start walking towards the child.

"Hey kid."

"Who are you?" this kid was a girl and she looked like she had purple hair and purple eyes and a small beauty mark on her cheek

"I'm just your everyday 'Dark Bandit Slayer' and I saw you in here wanted to see what the hype was about"

" 'Dark bandit slayer' well, the hype, is that today is the day they are going to put the rest of that things blood in me" after telling me this she points to this huge red monster that is dead and being hanged like cattle. I see the researchers around it like they are addicted to it or something.

" Weird, so why are you here? What's so special about you?"

"They killed my parents, took me here and ever since then they have just been using me for their tests."

"Fair enough well what do you say about breaking out of here?"

"I would say yes please, but im surprised you even made it in here to begin with, the security is off the charts and they watch me whenever I leave this cell."

After she said that I picked her up and took her right out of where I came in, taking a couple of important looking books along with me. After leaving the cave some kind of alarm started blaring so I hurried at fast speeds back to the village. Which was about 300 miles from the cave which for me is a piece of cake even though this girl weighs like 150 pounds. After taking her back to the little shack that I made I laid her down because she passed out from the speed we were going. After waiting for her to wake up she started crying while waking up.

"Why do I have to be here, what do they want from me, what am I supposed to do, can't they just kill me already." I just sit there waiting for her to notice me and realize that she is not in that lab anymore. After looking around for a little bit she looked at me and saw that I was staring at her so she just cleared her throat and started acting really embarrassed.

"How much did you hear?"

"Enough, don't worry though I will let you know what to do."

"What do you mean what to do I'm just a helpless kid."

"Oh please, you're like 14"

"13 thank you"

"Whatever, either way if you're going to stay here you have to learn to live without help and make your own money cause ain't no way I'm payin."

"I just got here and your already expecting me to pay?"

"No, I just want to make sure you don't die."

Although the extra money would be very helpful because I could definitely use more money if I want to be the Shadow Monger I want to be. After clearing it up with her however she got to work right away cleaning up the shak and going out to the town to buy groceries. After she returns home I realize I have to hide her appearance because she sticks out like a sore thumb in a crowd. I put some slime on her face and try molding it into a face I know. After getting her face to fit right it looked passable up close so I told her that if she leaves to go anywhere she needs to wear it too protect her from the people trying to find her. Although waking up and looking over to see my classmate next to me gave me quite a few jumps throughout the night I remember that she's back on earth hopefully those monsters have been dealt with.

About 3 months have passed and the girl who've I've just been calling violet because of her eyes and hair has finally gotten passed the nightmares. We saw those people from the 'religeon' come through the town again and so to say they aren't very discreet in how they looked and one of them even said hi to violet and just walked away unexpectedly. We saw them a couple more times before they finally left the village alone and kept looking and violet has also learned how to hunt, cook, and live by herself almost. I've been giving her training in magic and she actually is far stronger in her depth of magic as I am.

I however, am stronger in a fight due to knowing how to use it but she has taken quite a liking to water magic she's not as good with control over it yet but she seems to be able to wield water magic and earth magic fairly well she still lacks with fire and wind and overall control of the magic but I am impressed. She has gone quite far whatever they gave her made it so that her well for magic is super deep almost 3 times what mine is right now and also it's incredibly potent magic too almost as potent as mine. She has a will to fight too and that's what I'm really impressed. She has taken a liking to a small scythe she bought that's main use is for farming but I tought her how to use it like a sword. She's already to the point where I can hear her voice when we spar I know it's not anywhere near a conversation but it makes me so proud like a father hearing their babies cry for the first time.

But today is when I fucked up I told her that I was going on a mission and I did, but the problem lies with what the mission was. That mission was to kill that big ass lizard in the sky which I heard from locals was a mist dragon from old ages. So I told her that she needs to explore the world and find her own way in life while I'm off on my mission. At first she was hesitant, but after about 6 hours she came back to me and agreed she thought that she needed to go out and become an adventurer under the codename "Aurora" I quite like that name but mine is better. After we both said our goodbye I left to travel up the mountain towards that big ass lizard. And after about a month of traveling I found where it considered home. After scoping out the area for about a week I built up enough courage and went into it's cave. After stepping in I was greeted with flames, luckily I prepared for that and swatted the flames away with my magic.

"WHAT! No human has been able to stop my magic in over 200 years, I commend you for your talents but you may come no further".

"Well, no one has ever made me think I might lose a battle before but not knowing any of your stats I can already tell that I'm going to lose"

"HAHA, so you know that you are going to die, why even face me?"

"Because, I. AM.. THE… SHADOW ATOMIC, after muttering those words I let loose all of the condensed magic I had been saving into a tiny pellet bomb that I shot straight at the heart of the lizard and once it hits it creates a vortex that swallows the dragon in. Battle over, game done, boss defeated. However, I did not account for 1 thing, how strong and pure my magic had gotten. I tried to use my magic to create a wormhole of sorts that throws the object into a perpetual state of atoms. I did not account for the power of the pull of this wormhole and without even a shred of magic left in my body I had no choice than too be pulled along with it and to that aveil I had died pulled in by my own stupid power that I had no idea how to use. Even though I saw my life and body be stretched and compressed into atoms I never lost my will or my consciousness and in the next second I saw a light of oval and walls made of flesh? …. IT'S A BOY!

… Oh, shit.