Sherry Barnett

Sherry Barnett (シェリー・バーネット) is a professor in Laugus and formerly a second-year student at Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy. She was targeted by the Cult of Diablos after being assigned with studying an artifact retrieved from them. Although being saved by Shadow, she developed a vendetta against him for killing her adoptive father, unaware that he was a Cult member.

Appearance
Sherry is a cute girl of moderate height with a slender physique possessing pastel pink hair and eyes. She has short, shoulder-length hair, braided on both sides with an apogee on top of her head.

As a student, she wore the standard Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy uniform. A navy-blue blazer adorned with white and gold accents. Her white shirt complimented a navy blue wispy and necktie ornamented with gold trim. A white skirt with a navy blue and gold hem covered black leggings. White lace-up block heel boots and a black robe with red jewels on the sides rounded out the outfit.

Personality
"When it's all over, will you listen to my story?"

- Sherry to Cid Kagenou

Sherry is a smart and bright young girl with a thirst for knowledge. That intelligence allows her to decipher ancient languages, a rare feat even for intellectuals. She invests a lot of time into academics and as a consequence, Sherry’s social acumen has major gaps. Even basic social interactions prove challenging, making relationships difficult to cultivate. Her foster father was aware of this problem and openly expressed concerns about her lack of friends. For those she has formed a relationship with, Sherry is attentive and loyal.

After receiving chocolate from Cid, she made a conscious effort to actively approach him, in hopes of being closer to him. Sherry eventually developed a one-way crush. In a few instances, the former student displayed clumsiness when she traversed the campus occupied by Cult members posing as Shadow Garden.

Following the death of her stepfather, her personality changes. She becomes more withdrawn and loses her cheery disposition. In the anime, she becomes dangerously obsessed with Shadow, unaware that he and Cid are the same person.

Background
For the first nine years of her life, Sherry was solely raised by her mother Lukreia, who worked as a researcher. Her father died shortly after Sherry’s birth and was never a part of her life. Although employed, Lukreia harbored financial difficulties but worked hard to raise Sherry in a loving environment. A mysterious man named Lutheran Barnett appeared in Sherry’s life one day. Introducing himself as a friend, he expressed an interest in her mother’s work and offered to become Lukeria’s patron. After agreeing to the terms, her mother began to study artifacts Lutheran supplied, including the "Eye of Avarice." The relationship between the two progressed to intimacy and financial concerns were soon alleviated.

Those times did not last long. Sherry, attempting to observe her mother’s work, a common occurrence, witnessed the murder of her mother at the hands of a mysterious man. The man was Barnett, but Sherry’s trauma-ridden mind is incapable of recollecting those details. The only memories that remain are the blood and tears.

After her mother's funeral, Lutheran accepts guardianship and treats her like his blood. Ever since, she spent the rest of her childhood with her adoptive father, unaware of his ulterior motives. Sherry, deprived of the ability to spend any more time with her mother, sought the next best alternative. Delving into her mother’s passion, research.

Midgar Academy Terrorist Attack
Sherry and Lutheran Barnett are paid a visit by Princess Iris Midgar and Alexia Midgar. Iris gives them an artifact salvaged from a Cult of Diablos warehouse fire. She formally requests Sherry’s assistance in deciphering it. Sherry is regarded as one of the brightest minds in the kingdom, inspiring confidence in Iris’s decision. Due to Iris’s diminished faith in the Knight Order after Zenon Griffey’s involvement in Alexia’s kidnapping, the request was on behalf of the newly created Crimson Order. Sherry’s demure response causes her father to encourage the endeavor, stating it is a rare opportunity. After acceptance, Iris articulated her desire to assign the Crimson Order to guard her from potential danger. Lutheran agrees to the circumspect proposition, under the condition that only two guards be assigned to Sherry's laboratory, so as not to overwhelm or impede her work. Princess Iris accepts the terms and chooses two trusted men for protection: Glen and Marco Granger.

The next day, while researching the artifacts given to her by Princess Iris, Sherry unexpectedly is approached by a boy. He nonchalantly gives her a box of chocolates. Unbeknownst to her, it was part of a mutual humiliation arrangement set up by his friends. Back in her research room, she is perplexed by the strange gift and even more befuddled by the boy's actions. Her father, Lutheran, enters the room and questions Sherry’s possession of chocolate. Sensing her confusion, Lutheran explains chocolate is comestible and highly sought after. Sherry explains how she came by the chocolate. As chocolate is regarded as a luxury item, Lutheran surmises the boy may be infatuated with Sherry, suggesting it may have been “love at first sight.” He advises Sherry to consider her reply carefully while also exercising reasonable haste. Lutheran explains while study and research can take precedence, social interactions are a necessity for a healthy life. A sudden coughing fit from Lutheran brings the current conversation topic to an end. Sherry hurriedly offers assistance, expressing distress about his deteriorating condition. Lutheran dismisses her concerns by claiming he has felt better lately and how fortunate he is to have a good daughter. Sherry redirects the compliment, stating she is lucky to be his adoptive daughter.

Sherry learns that the boy, Cid Kagenou, is a participant in the Bushin Festival preliminary tournament. To satisfy her curiosity, she spectates his match and witnesses his humiliating defeat at the hands of the Student Council President Rose Oriana. Summoning the courage to approach him, she offers him homemade cookies as a token of her appreciation and a friendship offering. After Cid’s acceptance, she tells her father, who is quietly observing the interaction for moral support, that she made a friend. After some small talk, Lutheran advises Cid to take care of his injuries, parting ways with the pair.

The cookie exchange brought no equilibrium to Sherry’s turbulent mind. Ideas of subsequent interactions distract her from work. Knowing his name, she realizes he is rumored to be in a relationship with Alexia Midgar. Sherry decides to cease restless speculation and talk with the source. Alexia, having a few minutes of free time, respectfully invites Sherry into her room. Her initial guess on Sherry’s company relates to the artifact, but Sherry refutes the claim. Nervously, she broaches the topic of Alexia and Cid’s relationship, asking for confirmation. Alexia states they separated and the relationship in question was fictitious for an unspecified purpose. After hearing her answer, Sherry visibly relaxes and expresses joy. She explains a friendship with Cid started the other day. The open question about his relationship made concentration on research impossible. She feels happy that her actions are not interfering with an established relationship. She ecstatically states her work to decipher the artifact will continue at a new accelerated pace. Taking her leave and lost in ecstasy, Sherry failed to hear or see the fate of Alexia’s teacup. A porcelain mound of smoldering anger and jealousy

Five days later, while engrossed in artifactual analysis, a group of black hooded people attack the Academy. A hoodlum, proclaiming to be from ‘Shadow Garden’ barges into her research room through a window. He reveals his name as Rex, the Game of Betrayal, explaining his job is to retrieve the artifact. Once his mission is concluded, he is permitted to wreak havoc indiscriminately. Rex, seeing the artifact in Sherry's hands, goes for the kill. His lethal blow is interrupted by an opportune parry from Glen. Glen and Marco engage in combat against the terrorists to allow Sherry to retreat. Her retreat is hindered by inexperience in combat. Noisy clothing and improper positioning make her a prime target for kidnapping. Cid lethally intervenes from a distance to save her from being captured or detected. Encountering Cid, she hurriedly attempts to expound on several topics at once. Cid tells her he will listen but first asks her to remove her noisy slippers.

The two of them then head to the Vice Principal's room. Sherry locates the book she was after and explains to Cid that the Eye of Avarice is inhibiting their magic. The artifact absorbs and stores the magic from any user, but it can be programmed to ignore some magical frequencies. Sherry hypothesizes it can absorb magical outliers that are too small to detect or powerful spells that exceed its capacity. The latter is conjecture, for no human is capable of maintaining stability on that level. Once the artifact has reached maximum capacity, it undergoes a violent exothermic reaction.

Sherry expounds that the artifact could be manipulated to disable or control other artifacts like the one creating a magic-nullifying barrier around the Academy. Cid partially understands the significance of these ideas. Since all the students are in the auditorium, Sherry speculates that the artifact is located nearby. The possibility of energy capacity being reached could endanger the lives of the students. Sherry states her father did not publish his findings and gave the artifact to the government for safekeeping due to the potential danger. She further explains that the artifact she was researching is used to control the Eye of Avarice. That control would allow for stability in applications where long-term energy storage is required. Sherry cautiously sketches her plan to use the basement and secret passageways to reach the auditorium. Once she is close to the Eye of Avarice, she will activate this artifact and counter the Eye of Avarice's magic seal. However, she left all the tools to fine-tune the artifact in her research room. Cid volunteers himself for the retrieval of the tools and leaves Sherry to her own devices.

Cid, having returned safely with all the tools required for the operation, silently observes as Sherry fine-tunes the artifact. Before leaving the lab, Sherry confides in Cid about the death of her mother. Lutheran offered comfort at the time of her death, declaring her mother was a great researcher and offered to raise Sherry. She is determined to repay him by completing the research. With a final goodbye, she heads to the auditorium through the Academy's secret tunnels alone.

Sherry reaches the auditorium unimpeded and makes visual conformation of the Eye of Avarice, located in a knight's hand. She activates her artifact and throws it to disable the magic-blocking field. With the magical obstruction disabled, Rose Oriana made quick work of a nearby terrorist. She announces the return of their magic and the time to initiate a counterattack is now. A cry of rebellion reverberates through the auditorium as the students engage in combat. Descending from the roof amidst the chaos, Shadow and Shadow Garden members join the battle to retake lost ground.

Unable to locate her father in the auditorium, Sherry retraces her steps through the tunnels to find him. She does find Lutheran, along with Shadow standing over his corpse. Lutheran recently confessed to killing her mother and orchestrating the entire terrorist incident only moments before her arrival. She collapses onto Lutheran’s corpse, only able to gasp in between tears. Shadow’s form disappears into the night, leaving behind the mentally shattered Sherry.

In the aftermath of the incident, Sherry tells Cid she will head to Laugus to further her research and bids him a sullen farewell. Behind her dead eyes, future machinations against Shadow can be inferred. Revenge is the only thing animating her soulless body as she turns away from her one remaining friend.

Anime/Game
In the anime, Sherry reads about how Iris and Beatrix chased Shadow off during the Bushin Festival, and Rose Oriana is still missing after she killed her father, King Raphael Oriana. It is also revealed that she has become so obsessed with seeking vengeance that her entire room is plastered with Shadow's wanted poster.

Powers & Abilities
Sherry possesses extraordinary intelligence, especially in the field of linguistics. She has been shown to possess both crystallized and fluid intelligence. Such academic mastery allows her to decipher ancient languages and artifacts.

Her fighting, and especially her stealth capabilities, are close to non-existent. Cid’s constant interventions were required to keep her from an untimely death.

Cid Kagenou / Shadow
Sherry was Cid's upperclassman at Midgar Academy, when the two encountered one another after Cid passed Sherry his chocolate at random. Cid and Sherry had a friendly relationship, although Cid doesn't know that Sherry had developed genuine feelings for him. It was during the terrorist attack at the academy that Cid took serious interest in her, thinking she might be important to the "main plot".

One thing to note is that it's implied Cid genuinely did care for Sherry, as he constantly protected her from the terrorists. This was explicitly demonstrated when he was disgusted upon learning that Lutheran Barnett murdered Sherry's mother as he personally gave the villain the same painful death in retribution. Although, he did not tell the witnessing Sherry about her adoptive father's true nature, thinking it was better she kept her loving view of him and hating his alter-ego Shadow.

In the anime, she is seen to have developed an obsessive vendetta towards Shadow. The said scene is absent in the light novels.

Lutheran Barnett
Lutheran was Sherry's stepfather and adopted her after her mother Lukeria's funeral while continuing the latter's work. While working undercover as assistant principal at Midgar Academy, he puts on the facade of a humble man with a close relationship with Sherry. In reality, Lutheran was power-hungry and exploited his stepdaughter and her late mother to further his own gain unbeknownst to her. Sherry deeply cares about her stepfather and is unaware of his misdeeds even after his death.

Lukreia
Sherry's late mother, Sherry spent much of her childhood next to her while working. After her death, Sherry would continue her work spending the rest of her childhood with Lutheran as her stepfather.

Alexia Midgar
Assumedly Alexia's former upperclassman, not much is known of their interactions aside from being entrusted to decipher a device founded from the Zenon incident and when she notably talked to the princess regarding Cid. Upon hearing that the two never dated in the first place, she was relieved and reiterated that they weren't dating much to her ire.

In the game, the princess alongside Nu has expressed jealousy towards the former student when two gave chocolates and cookies to each other respectively.

Iris Midgar
Although a student, Iris has acknowledged her mechanical abilities and entrusted her with the device from a Cult of Diablos base during the Zenon incident. It is unknown whether the two interacted beyond the device.

Trivia

 * Sherry likes to put a lot of sugar and milk in her coffee.
 * Each adaption of The Eminence in Shadow presents Sherry's parting from Cid differently. In the manga, Sherry does not seem distraught by her stepfather's death and cheerfully bids Cid farewell. The light novel and web novel have no visuals, but Sherry leaves with a grin. Cid's accidental eavesdropping gives readers foreshadowing and raises questions about what the smile may mean. In the anime, she struggles to keep her face presentable. She nearly cries when Cid asks her about the future. The sadness in her face transitions to anger. Instead of reaching a critical point, it melts away to a suggestive smile. Her lip's part to say, "It's a secret."
 * In the anime final episode, there is a scene where Sherry developed an obsessive vendetta against Shadow and laughed maniacally after stabbing a news portrait of his face with a knife. Whether this is canon or not is yet to be confirmed due to Sherry's absence after her debut in the first light novel.
 * At present, the identity of Sherry's biological father is unknown.