Shadow Garden

Shadow Garden (シャドウガーデン) is an organization founded by Cid Kagenou also known as Shadow. Its primary goal was to eliminate the Cult of Diablos and prevent them from resurrecting the ancient demon, Diabolos.

History
The origins of Shadow Garden date back to a young boy's childhood. That boy was Cid Kagenou, determined to fulfill his dream of becoming an 'eminence in the shadows.' To accomplish this, Cid repeatedly snuck out of his home to fight against bandits within his vicinity. During one of these outings, he discovered a rotting but surprisingly alive body, heavily mutated by Demon Possession. As he was about to relieve it of its suffering, he noticed it possessed an abundance of magic power.

He performed multiple experiments on the body and accidentally restored the girl to her true self. Thinking she might be useful to his cause, he fabricated a story, convincing the elf girl that she was the descendant of one of the Three Heroes who defeated the demon Diabolos, the one responsible for cursing her bloodline with Demon Possession. He explained that a cult worshipping the demon called the Cult of Diablos has been planning to resurrect Diablos. The girl became enraged and swore loyalty to her new master, naming her Alpha. However, Cid's fabrication was revealed to be true to every detail, unbeknownst to him.

Together, they formed the organization Shadow Garden. As time passed, the duo recruited six more girls, each possessing the same infliction as Alpha. They spent their time training and learning from their leader, studying subjects such as swordsmanship, economics, and literature. Furthermore, Cid's stories inspired them to use those concepts to expand their influence.

Seven Shadows
These member are the first seven members recruited and the only ones who had granted power directly by Shadow himself. The Seven Shadows stand in a league of their own in the Shadow Garden because of their most powerful & skilled ability, and that blessing Shadow bestow upon them are part of what makes them so special.

Also, their strength is on completely different level from the rest of other members, and the ones with the high authority to manage/lead the Shadow Garden. If any member other than those Seven Shadows who received the privilege of granted his power directly from Shadow himself, it is considered to be the highest honor for the organization.

According to Epsilon, they planned to make a Second "Seven Shadows" with their power are the same as the original first Seven Shadows. Victoria is a only known candidate.

Numbers
The Numbers refer strictly to the order in which they joined, not a ranking system. However, each set of 100 tends to be a good deal stronger than the next, so the numbers end up being a decent measure anyway.

The highest Numbers member from 8 to 24 are a direct subordinates of the "Seven Shadows" and they are given a Greek name, if they are of nearly the same level of ability and strength as their superiors. They have their own functions to fulfill as well and possess a certain amount of authority to give orders to other members.

The Numbers member are regimented, and The rest of the members up to 600 are possibly divided into soldiers and squad leaders, researchers, spies, scientists, whatever role they need for the missions.

Every member with a double and triple-digit "number name" they got from when they originally joined the organization, have a chance to climbed into the higher ranks. The requirement is that the new member who just joined recently will challenge the old members who have joined for a long time, no matter how the numerical gap and then earned the right to challenge a high-ranking "Named Numbers" member.

The Assault on Viscount Olba
After Claire was kidnapped by Olba, Shadow Garden immediately mobilized to find her. With Cid's help, they managed to find a secret hideout where she was kept. At night, Shadow Garden attacked the hideout, killing all of its guards. They were close to capturing Olba, intending to extract information about the Order of Diabolos before he manages to escape from their grasp. He didn't get that far as Shadow killed him. Claire was rescued and Shadow Garden returned home.

Afterward however, the members of Shadow Garden confronted their master and claimed that to keep up with the Order's movements, it would be best for them to split up and expand their influence. Not knowing that the Order actually exist, Shadow assumed that the others had simply grown tired of their "role-playing" and wanted to live their own lives, which he allowed.

Princess Alexia's Kidnapping
At Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy, Cid was framed for the kidnapping of Alexia Midgar. Cid calls in Shadow Garden to help him in finding her and discovers the act to be a ploy by the cult. They mobilize, uncovering, and destroying their enemies' hideouts in the kingdom. Alpha defeats a rampaging monster while Shadow rescues the princess. After this point, the world knows the existence of Shadow Garden and the Order of Diabolos.

The Midgar Academy Terrorist Attack
Gamma, Nu, and Shadow Garden were investigating a series of attacks by individual citizens believed to be Shadow Garden. Cid and Nu went out searching for these pretenders and successfully captured one, learning from him that he was from the Order of Diabolos.

Their major confrontation is when the cult took over Midgar Academy, to frame and discredit Shadow Garden. Shadow had already slaughtered most of them while Nu and a squad of Shadow Garden members finished off the rest and rescues the hostages. Despite being branded as criminals, this does not impede Shadow Garden's mission with all its members vowing to continue.

Holy Ground Infiltration
Their next operation is to infiltrate the Holy Ground and find out the truth behind the Three Heroes, Diabolos, and the order. Alpha and her team composed of Delta and Epsilon capture Archbishop Nelson for questioning before heading into the Holy Ground with Beta (posing as Miss Natsume), Princess Alexia, and Princess Rose.

After getting the required information, Alpha's team escaped before Shadow wiped out the Holy Ground from existence, causing more notoriety for them.

The God of War Tournament
Shadow Garden started to make plans on investigating the Oriana Kingdom, suspecting it to be the next target of the Order of Diabolos. Shadow and later Alpha search for Rose Oriana, who became a fugitive for assassinating her father. Rose was convinced to join the Shadow Garden which she agreed to.

Red Moon Incident
Beta leads a small squad to infiltrate Outlaw City to obtain Elizabeth's blood, a powerful Vampire Queen. When Elizabeth woke up and was about to destroy the world, Beta joined with other individuals to stop her. Only with Shadow's arrival that victory was assured.

Great Trade Alliance Conflict
Shadow Garden continued to grow in power through the Mitsugoshi Company, introducing banking notes to the world, which they learned about from Shadow's previous life, that would become very popular among the kingdom's citizens. However, this ended up drawing the envy of many of their competitors, who subsequently attempted to sabotage them by attacking their supply lines. Fortunately, the meager mercenaries hired by them were no match for Shadow Garden's well-trained forces and supplies kept running smoothly.

Around the same time, Shadow concluded that he had lost control of his organization. Although the members remained blindly loyal to him and believed that he could easily see through his plans, they had, in fact, completely cut him out of the decision-making process. In addition, he was not receiving any share of the profits made by them. He thus planned to destroy the Mitsugoshi Company and form a new organization, one that would be completely owned by him.

Working together with the Snow Fox Corporation under the alias "John Smith", Shadow stole the Mitsugoshi Company's entire stock of banking notes and replaced them with counterfeits. Faced with a potential financial collapse, Shadow Garden moved out to silence this "John Smith" and retrieve the stolen money, only to be shocked upon learning of his true identity. However, in his arrogance, Shadow sends his followers an encrypted message revealing the location of the money, allowing them to retrieve it and causing them to believe that this was his plan all along. Afterward, believing his followers could not possibly have decoded the message, Shadow assumed it was stolen by a rival company and subsequently beat its manager to death.

In the end, the Mitsugoshi Company not only won the Great Trade Alliance Conflict, but it was now arguably more powerful than ever with the elimination of all of its competitors and Snow Fox Corporation's newfound alliance with Shadow Garden.

Wedding in the Oriana Kingdom
666 and her squad are tasked with investigating Saisho Stronghold, under the leadership of 559. They follow a group of 40 first Children led by "The Raging Gale Kwadoi" to a nearby ruins site, where Queen Oriana retrieves the "Key". 559 moves to engage the group to collect the Key, during which 666 saves her mother, Queen Oriana from being killed by 559's assault. 559 brands 666 a traitor to Shadow Garden, after which 666 and her mother are taken to Count Doem.

559 engages in combat with Cult of Diabolos forces, killing all but Kwadoi. After running out of mana, she is saved from death at the hands of Kwadoi by Shadow himself. Upon 559 informing Shadow of the traitor in Shadow Garden's midst, Shadow moves to deal with the matter himself. However, Shadow was actually moving to interfere with the announced wedding between Rose Oriana and Duke Doem, unaware of Rose's identity as 666.

In the capital of the Oriana Kingdom, Epsilon masquerades as the genius composer and pianist, S to infiltrate the royal castle. Upon recognizing the arriving Cid, she offers to introduce him as her apprentice so he can infiltrate the castle himself. Cid takes her up on this and is led into playing a song to prove his validity as the apprentice of the famous Shiron. After playing "Moonlight Sonata" to high acclaim, Cid unknowingly steals the "Key" from Duke Doem's pocket.

Later Cid speaks with Rose, and after remaining in hiding as Duke Doem enters the room, he learns that Queen Oriana is allegedly being held hostage to force Rose to comply. After mentioning to Epsilon that he would like to see the "Black Rose", unaware of its status as a weapon that annihilated an army of 100,000 Velgaltan soldiers in a single night.

Cid then infiltrates the castle and learns that Queen Oriana and Duke Doem are in cahoots, that night assuming the role of Shadow and showing rose the truth. Rose faints, and after returning her to her room, he takes the part of Cid and talks with her briefly, before vanishing and leaving her with the "Key". Cid then frets after losing a ring he swiped from Duke Doem, unaware of its true identity as the "Key".

After returning, Cid informs Epsilon that the showdown will happen at the wedding ceremony, upon hearing this she gathers more members of Shadow Garden, along with Beta of the Seven Shades. During the wedding ceremony Rose activates the "Key" by slipping it onto her finger, after which Mordred reveals himself and opens the now unlocked Black Rose, letting loose hordes of Obsidian Beasts upon the capital. Shadow Garden then make their move to suppress the outbreak, with Epsilon and Beta confronting Mordred, 9th seat of the Knights of the Round.

Mordred then summons Ragnarok, Grand Ruler of the Fourth Realm through the Black Rose, with which Shadow himself engages in combat. While Shadow fights Ragnarok, Beta and Epsilon drive Mordred back before "checking their facts" with him. Shadow then defeats Ragnarok, sending its body parts flying one after the other much to Mordred's surprise.

After which, Mordred absorbs Ragnarok's power only to be destroyed, along with the Black Rose, by Shadow's "I Am Atomic" technique. Shadow then dives into the now collapsing Black Rose, followed soon after by Beta before it closes in its entirety.

Return to Earth
Shadow and Beta exited the Black Rose and arrived on Earth, Japan, Shadow's former world. They discovered that the once great nation had been ravaged apart by magical beasts and what remained of the population had settled in small communities and would occasionally war against each other for resources.

Posing as survivors of a magical beast attack, Shadow and Beta are taken in by a group called Messiah. Shadow, under the alias, Minoru was taken under care by Nishino Akane. But Beta, disguised as her Natsume persona, was to be observed and studied by Nishino Akira. Beta believed that the plan was to obtain information from two different sources but in truth, Shadow didn't want Beta to discover that he was actually from this world.

Shadow would secretly sneak out of the base to hunt and destroy numerous nearby magical beast nests, unknowingly thwarting schemes orchestrated by a rival human faction. Meanwhile, Beta would secretly steal technology from Akira to learn more, intending to implement them into Shadow Garden's plans. Shadow and Beta would find a way to return to their world but not before Beta kidnapping Akane and took her with them.

Midgar Academy Kidnappings
Despite successfully taking control of the Oriana Kingdom using Rose as an ally ruler, the cult managed to minimize Shadow Garden's gains by creating a faux story about the new queen being a patricide who summoned the Black Rose in the first place, resulting in the nation becoming a pariah state.

Equipment and Artifacts
Thanks to the initial inventions of their Lord, Shadow, the 7 shadows were able to develop all sorts of tools, outfits, and things recreated from Shadow's ideas and memories (mostly thanks to Eta), not just improving maps and tracking. But also to further assist them in their reporting and data collection about worship, among other things, these things are:


 * Slime Suit: Revolutionary apparel invention created by Cid kagenou/Shadow with nigh limitless utility. Refined by Cid and the Seven Shadows since Shadow Garden's founding, the upgraded version of the suit is now used by everyone, from the Seven Shadows to all subordinates in the Numbers.
 * Slime weapons: The shapeshifting ability of the bodysuit extended and hardened into weaponry for close-range, distant, and melee combat. These weapons are as finite as the mass of the slime bodysuit.
 * Locator of Possess: An Artifact created by Eta, allowing Shadow Garden to locate the possessed girls all over the world.
 * The Rolapoid: An artifact created by Eta, based on Cid's 'Shadow Wisdom', that is a reverse engineered instant camera with self-developing film.
 * Homing Pigeons: Pigeons trained to find a recipient anywhere to deliver a message, a common form of communication in the world.

Known Members
The organization was initially established with seven members and has now grown to have over 600 members.

Leader & Founder

 * Shadow

Seven Shadows
The Seven Shadows are the original seven members of Shadow Garden. Due to being directly trained by their leader Shadow himself, they are each master within their respective fields: be it in combat, espionage, science, or economics. The power of the "Seven Shadows" far exceeds the rest of the other members, to the point that they rival the most powerful members of the cult and the strongest warriors in the world.


 * Alpha (Second-in-Command)
 * Beta (Provides support to all other shadows in their labors)
 * Gamma (Finance and Administration)
 * Delta (Main fighting force)
 * Epsilon (Espionage and Infiltration)
 * Zeta (Exploration and Reconnaissance)
 * Eta (Research and Development)

Numbers
The Numbers of Shadow Garden. They are those that go after the 7 Shadows of Shadow Garden, whose enumeration starts from 8 to the last, i.e. the last reaches more than No° 600.


 * Lambda (No.11)
 * Nu (No. 13)
 * Kai (No. 22)
 * Omega (No. 24)
 * 89
 * 559 (Victoria)
 * 664
 * 665
 * 666 (Rose Oriana)
 * One Numbers member that used to be a former "Named" First Children

Zeta's Branch
A sub-branch of Shadow Garden secretly founded and operated solely by Zeta to protect the Shadow without his knowledge.
 * Nina

Allies

 * Yukime

Trivia

 * Only 9 people, of more than 600 in the Shadow Garden, have received their power directly from Cid, these being are the 7 original Shadows, Victoria and Rose Oriana.
 * Apart from a few exceptions, the Numbers, as the name suggests, are each given and called upon by their number.
 * The orders given by Cid are considered absolute, so they have priority even if they contradict the orders of the 7 Shadows.
 * In terms of power, Alpha is the most powerful only behind Cid and above Delta.
 * Delta usually bites all Shadow Garden members that are weaker than her, so only the other 6 Shadows and the highest ranking Number members can deal with her directly.
 * The 7 shadows are extremely hostile against anyone who threatens or hurts Cid, to the point that they will not hesitate to slaughter the individual or group that poses a threat to their master.
 * Only Alpha and Epsilon can cure the people who had the demon possession beside Cid.
 * Until now, according to the light novel, the web novel and the manga, all the members, including Shadow, wear a mask to cover their identity, although on a few occasions they have taken it off in front of their enemies or acquaintances when they want to. But in the anime, none of the Shadow Garden members wear the mask, only wearing a black hooded cloak, which generates a small controversy with the fans of this work. Since the idea is that, no one from the civil public and the enemy must know their secret identities.