Shadow Garden

Shadow Garden (シャドウガーデン) is an mysterious hidden organization founded by Cid Kagenō also known as Shadow. Its primary goal was to eliminate the Cult of Diablos and prevent them from resurrecting the ancient demon, Diablos. However, during the course of their successful mission accomplishments, they also learn the Cult's origins and purpose, as well as the truth that actually happened between the Three Heroes.

As a relatively unknown organization, they became such a threat to the other nations in the Other World that even the Cult of Diablos fears them. In response, the Cult works their public connections to defame and incriminate Shadow Garden for their own evils.

History
The origins of Shadow Garden date back to the boyhood of one Cid Kagenō, who was determined to fulfill his dream of becoming an "eminence in the shadows." To accomplish this, Cid routinely snuck out of his home to fight against bandits within his vicinity. During one such outing, he discovered a rotting but surprisingly alive body, heavily mutated by Demon Possession. Originally aiming to relieve it of its suffering, Cid noticed it possessed an abundance of magic power and gleefully took it for testing his own limits.

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 and convinced 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. Adding that the Cult of Diablos worshipped the ancient demon and had been planning to resurrect Diablos, the enraged girl and swore loyalty to her new master, who renamed her Alpha. Ironically, Cid's fabrication was actually true to every detail, unbeknownst to him, and everyone else in Shadow Garden knows this truth while he believes it to be roleplay.

Together, Shadow and Alpha formed the organization Shadow Garden, and the duo recruited six more girls within their first year, each possessing the same affliction as Alpha and cured just as similarly. They spent their time training and learning under their leader, studying subjects such as swordsmanship, economics, the arts, and literature. Furthermore, Cid's stories from his previous life inspired them to use those concepts to expand their influence, creating public personas that garnered acclaim and prestige by monetizing the knowledge he gifted them.

Membership
Shadow Garden was initially established with only seven members and their strength that had been trained directly by Shadow himself were able to wipe out cult members, in just 3 years.

After the Seven Shadows decide to leave their master in order to expand the organization, Shadow Garden now has grown to power with their hidden headquarters Alexandria with the protection of the Mist Dragon making their base look like a natural fortress, the Mitsugoshi Company as an important fundraising base that creates innovative products which based from "Shadow Wisdom" to funding and administering their operations missions, also their organization membership has now grown to have over 600 members in just 2 years and still increasing because of the artifact device called “Locator of Possess” developed by Eta based on the "Shadow Wisdom" allowing Shadow Garden to locate the possessed girls all over the world.

Since the membership scale became huge, Seven Shadows and the upper members of Numbers have been based in a mansion built on the roof of Mitsugoshi Company in the capital, while some of the lower members have gathered in Alexandria to practice their skills and cultivate cacao and coffee trees in large plantations.

Shadow Garden's members have shown far greater power and skill compared to the Cult of Diablos and other nation forces, despite being a relatively new organization. This is a combination of the fact that all of the Shadow Garden's members are young women who were cured of Demon Possession, which in turn increased their magical power and being given far superior training by the Shadow, and later the Seven Shadows for newer members.

Seven Shadows
The Seven Shadows (七陰) are the first seven original members recruited and granted power directly by Shadow himself, who treated demonic possession in each girl which now will become Shadow direct subordinates also the seven executives within Shadow Garden. They spent three years with Shadow and received all of Shadow's martial arts and magic training, so it can be said that they are each Shadow's childhood friends and disciples. The Seven Shadows stand in a league of their own within Shadow Garden being as the most powerful and/or skilled with exceptional abilities. Part of that blessing is due to Shadow, who bestowed upon them part of his own magical energy. The other part is his direct teachings in martial arts, warfare, and other practices which contribute to the covert organization. Each of them mastering their respective fields: be it in combat, espionage, science, or economics.

Their strength is on a completely different level from the rest of other members, as well as the ones with high authority to govern the Shadow Garden, overruled only by Shadow himself. The overall strength and skills of the Seven Shadows had surpassed that of the Knights of Rounds members thus far revealed. So far, there are only two members other than the Seven Shadows who received the privilege of being granted power directly from Shadow himself, considered to be the highest honor for the organization: Victoria and Rose Oriana.

According to Epsilon, they planned to make a second "Seven Shadows" with powers on par with the original first Seven, and so far, Victoria is the only known candidate. While Rose qualified having received her power from Shadow himself, she publicly became the new Queen of Oriana Kingdom and wouldn't be a consideration due to conflict of responsibilities.

Numbers
The Numbers (ナンバーズ) refer to themselves strictly to the order in which they joined, not a ranking system like recruit or lieutenant. 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 Seven Shadows gathered nearly 600 people in just two years before Cid enrolled in Midgar Academy.

The highest Numbers members from 8 to 24 are direct subordinates of the "Seven Shadows" and receive a Greek name, thus they are Named Numbers. If they are nearly the same level in ability and strength as their superiors, they are recognized by the Seven Shadows and earn their Named Rank. They have their own functions to fulfill as well and possess a certain amount of authority to give orders to other members. For instance, no.100 has seniority and higher authority than no.200, and other lower members are prohibited to give their names and are distinguished by their 'number'. In the anime, the "Named Number" members wear decorated jackets over their slime suits.

The Numbers members are regimented among 600+ agents, possibly divided into different roles based on strengths and focused capabilities. Such as soldiers, squad leaders, researchers, spies, scientists, and whatever role they need for the missions. With Lambda's intensive training in practicing magic and swordsmanship, each Numbers member's strength approximately matches at the first-rate dark knight standard for Spellswords. Most of the Numbers members also ostensibly work as staff of Mitsugoshi Company, allowing them to grow civilian personas while operating as an independent espionage outfit.

Every member with a double and triple-digit "number name" holds such titles from when they originally joined the organization in their numerical enlistment. They have a chance to climb into the higher ranks, but the requirement is that the newer members must challenge the older members, no matter how wide the numerical gap and then earn the right to challenge a high-ranking "Named Numbers" member. If the challenger number earns the opportunity, they can replace an established Named Number. Such was the case with Nu who joined, when Cid began his first year at Midgar Academy and quickly rose to Named Number status.

Zeta's Branch
At some point, Zeta created her own sub-faction within the organization between herself, Victoria and Nina (who is not a member of Shadow Garden) so she can perform tasks behind the organization's back. While this sub-faction still want to defeat the cult, they want to go further by taking over the world and making Shadow its god to the new world after he attains immortality by reviving Demon Diablos through Claire Kagenō, when she become Aurora's host.

Background
After Shadow and Alpha founded Shadow Garden, they trained and tried to find and rescue the possessed victims. While they search for the possessed, the two of them had destroyed the branch cult bases and killed several cult members, including members of Rounds over the last three years. Shadow and Alpha then found 6 girls, which they rescue and bring them to the Shadow Garden who would later be named Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta and Eta. Then, Shadow trained them in swordsmanship and taught them the knowledge called "Shadow Wisdom" that came from his previous life.

First Assault on the Cult
Three years after Cid and Alpha first met, Shadow Garden immediately mobilized to find Shadow's elder sister, Claire Kagenō, when she was abducted by Viscount Grease and then launched a full assault. With Cid's serendipitous help, they managed to find the secret hideout where she was kept, and Shadow Garden attacked the hideout at night, killing all guards aiming to capture Grease. Intending to extract information about the Cult of Diablos, Grease managed to escape from their grasp, but didn't get that far as Shadow intercepted him, and after a brief one-sided fight, Shadow killed him. Claire was rescued and Shadow Garden returned home.

Afterward, however, the seven members of Shadow Garden confronted their master and claimed that in order to keep up with the Cult's movements, it would be best for them to split up and expand their influence. Not knowing that the Cult actually existed, Shadow assumed that the others had simply grown tired of their "role-playing" and wanted to live their own lives, which he allowed. As such, each of the seven went out into the world, leaving only one person to stay with Shadow on a rotation basis while the rest will focus on their mission to build Shadow Garden organization into the combat force for their war against the Cult of Diablos.

Membership Drive and Network Expansion
Due to being a relatively new organization compared to the millennia-old Cult of Diablos, Shadow Garden was outmatched in terms of personnel, political power, and societal influence. This forced the "Seven Shadows" to rapidly expand Shadow Garden's membership, and they each went on a very aggressive recruitment spree of finding and taking in other demon-possessed girls in order to strengthen their numbers for their ultimate showdown against the Cult of Diablos. They accomplished this while concurrently and covertly sabotaging the Cult at various opportunities and increasing their own power, all in hopes of toppling the Cult at some point in the future, as well establishing public personas to allow them access with various avenues of society and gaining new privileges to hunt for the Cult's leaders.

Searching for a New Base
When Shadow brought together his first seven, they lived in a small house made from recreated construction knowledge from Cid's past life. This was their home while they hid and served Shadow in his youth, and it was situated in a small abandoned town with no traffic, save for the occasional bandit and smuggler. They eventually refurbished the town into a secret base to conduct operations. When the number of members exceeded 100, it became difficult to function as a "hideout".

Although Shadow Garden had used the abandoned town as their base for years, it did not last forever, as the Cult had sent in their forces to investigate why their carriages carrying the possessed never arrived and this led to the town being discovered. After ambushing the intruders, Alpha and the others realized that they could no longer stay and were forced to abandon the town.

Zeta was tasked in finding a new base of operations and succeeded by revealing an ancient city once abandoned long ago, Alexandria, located east of the Sacred Land Lindwurm, beyond the Abyss Woods. The Seven Shadows, save for Eta, entered while the rest of Shadow Garden remained behind and reported back to Shadow in case they didn't return. Inside the ancient city, the Shadows encountered the Mist Dragon and were nearly killed until Shadow appeared and brought the dragon down to submission. Impressed, the Mist Dragon formed a pact and allowed Shadow Garden to use Alexandria as their new home.

After relocating the base to Alexandria, Shadow Garden will carry out follow-up actions such as improving urban functions, training members, securing logistics, and build their war chest.

Princess Alexia's Kidnapping
At Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy, Cid was framed for the kidnapping of Princess Alexia Midgar, so Shadow Garden activates to help him in finding her and discovers the act was a ploy by the Cult. Their goal was to abduct the princess, take her blood for experimentation and frame Cid as the culprit to make him a scapegoat before executing him. Shadow Garden mobilized, uncovering and destroying their enemies' hideouts from the Fenrir's Sect in the Midgar Kingdom's capital. Alpha defeated a rampaging monster and encountered Iris Midgar, while Shadow rescued princess Alexia and killed the culprit, Zenon Griffey, an swordsmanship instructor at the Academy and a high ranking member from Fenrir's Sect by obliterating him and the location by using his ultimate attack, "I Am Atomic". After this, the world learned of the existence of Shadow Garden and the Cult of Diablos.

Midgar Academy Terrorist Attack
Shadow Garden were investigating a series of serial murders targeting citizens by individuals publicly believed to be Shadow Garden. Cid comes to Mitsugoshi Company and he surprised to finds out that the company is run by Gamma and tells them how their business is going and then gives a report about the attack which makes Cid have a clue as to who the culprit is, which Gamma introduce Nu to support him. Cid and Nu went out searching for these pretenders and successfully captured one, learning that the Cult of Diablos sent out Third Children with the purpose of luring out the real Shadow Garden and also confirming that a "Named" First Children, The Game of Betrayal Rex, had been seen in the royal capital.

Their major confrontation was when the cult took over Midgar Academy, using a magic blocking field from an artifact, in order to incriminate Shadow Garden. With Gamma the only one of the "Seven Shadows" in the capital at the time to taking command, Shadow Garden had infiltrated the academy and awaited orders. Also, Shadow already killed several Cult members, including Rex when he was looking for a way to remove the effects of the "Eye of Avarice" artifact. While the standoff was active, Shadow Garden collected intel and research before the school was set ablaze by the Cult to cover their tracks and add to Shadow Garden's infamy. When the magic blocking field was disabled, Shadow had already slaughtered most of terrorists along with their leader, Lutheran Barnett, while Nu and a squad of Shadow Garden members finished off the rest and rescued the hostage students.

After the incident, Shadow and his organization were labelled wanted criminals by the kingdom, due to Lutheran Barnett ensuring they served as scapegoat for the attack. Despite being branded criminals, this did not impede Shadow Garden's mission with all members vowing to continue their leader's resolve. Alpha tells Gamma to assemble the available "Seven Shadows" to discuss their next move.

Sanctuary Infiltration
With their next operation to infiltrate the Holy Ground of Lindwurm to find out about the truth behind the history of the Three Heroes, Demon Diablos, and the Cult of Diablos true objective. Alpha sent a letter to Shadow to visit it while Shadow Garden's target was Archbishop Drake for answers. However, he was killed by the cult executioner, Venom, so they decided to wait for the Sanctuary to open. Meanwhile, Cid Kagenō received passage to Lindwurm from princess Rose Oriana and met Beta, posing as her public persona, Miss "Natsume Kafka". Beta signs a book and gives it to him which contains all the details of the mission, while Cid feels disappointed with her because she uses his story to make money, but he let it slide.

When the Goddess's Trial event was about to end, Shadow appeared and summoned the Witch of Calamity, Aurora, surprising everyone in attendance by defeating the summoned ancient warriors. After Shadow defeated Aurora and left, the Sanctuary door suddenly appeared in the arena. Shadow Garden operatives made themselves known, with Alpha joined by Delta and Epsilon, who moved to capture Acting Archbishop Jack Nelson for questioning before he calling Venom to kill Epsilon only to find that Venom is already dead. After that, Epsilon bring Nelson heading into the Holy Ground along with Beta, Princess Alexia and Princess Rose followed and were escorted around the Sanctuary.

Alpha explained to the princesses about the truth behind the Three Heroes and Demon Possession, from which the cult wanted to maintain under their control. Alpha and Shadow Garden even suspected that the Cult's goal wasn't just reviving the demon, thus they proceeded to see for themselves by exploring the Hero Olivier's memories.

After the group explored enough and arrived at the Sanctuary center, they learned the Cult's true objective was to create Tears of Diablos. The memories revealed that the Tears grant extraordinary strength and conditional immortality, needing to be taken annually, with the main ingredient of "Diablos cells" cultivated from the demon's body and the blood of the heroes' descendants. Alpha then exposed Nelson's true affiliation as a 11th Seat Knight of Rounds, which he confirms by revealing himself as Nelson the Avaricious and separating them.

While Alpha and Delta fight against Nelson and his deluge of copies in the Sanctuary defense system, Epsilon's group used instant cameras and gathered all information they needed from an archive about the Demon Possession to expand their hypothesis. After getting the required information, and learning about the Sanctuary defenses work and power source, Shadow Garden conclude their business and leave, just after Nelson called a memory of Olivier. Concurrently, Shadow was with Aurora and they met Nelson, fighting against practically unlimited Olivier copies until Shadow used his ultimate spell "I Am the All-Range Atomic", which unnerved Aurora by the amount of magic he had, in order to destroyed all Oliviers, Nelson and everything else inside the Sanctuary.

As Alpha's team was outside and saw Shadow wipe out the Sanctuary from existence, Epsilon reported that everything inside the Sanctuary had been obliterated, and Alpha noted that it was the simplest and most effective solution. Beta relayed to Alpha that she was working with princesses Alexia and Rose to learn more about the Cult, using her "Natsume Kafka" identity to infiltrate their inner circle. They also confirmed their theory that Aurora had another name, that she was the true identity of the Demon Diablos.

The news of the Sanctuary being obliterated had spread far and wide, causing the Midgar Kingdom's government to place more notoriety upon Shadow Garden.

Bushin Festival Tournament
After successfully completing the Sanctuary mission, All Shadow Garden team decide to rest until Alpha receives news from Gamma, who is come back on her negotiation business from Velgalta Empire outskirt as the Mitsugoshi Company influences had reached their imperial capital, that the Royal Chancellor Perv Asshat from the Oriana Kingdom will be visiting the Royal Capital of Midgar with the King Raphael Oriana. Hearing the news, Shadow Garden immediately started planning an operation to investigate the Oriana Kingdom, suspecting it was the Cult of Diablos' next target.

Next day, The Bushin Festival is starting and strong warriors all over the world start gathering. Seeing them, Cid decides to participate in the tournament by asked Gamma to help him with a disguise and enter the Bushin Festival. Cid now disguise his appearance and adopts the identity of an unremarkable swordsman, Mundane Mann, with Gamma and Nu's help using their cosmetic prowess in order to enter the tournament as a dark horse contestant. Before registering into the qualifying match competition, he catches the attention of veteran competitor Quinton and former member of the Seven Swords of Velgalta, Annerose Nichtsehen.

Following the encounters, Cid easily passes through the preliminaries before briefly encountering a conflicted Rose over her family situation about her engagements on Perv Asshat. Afterwards, he would later learn the news that she being branded as fugitive in an attempted for attacking her fianceé, Duke Perv Asshat much to his confusion. Noticing the news, Beta decides to track down Rose's location giving Alexia more intel on Perv Asshat, which will keep her occupied and not do something to get in trouble.

Before Cid's turn to enter the arena, he met Beatrix, who is revealed to have a possible family connection with Alpha and decide to test him to confirm his abilities. Even Cid trying to trick her in his Mob character, Beatrix be able to know his strength as he also tell that she quite strong. Nevertheless, Cid would continue to proceed through the Bushin tournament as he faking his abilities in his 'Mundane' persona and defeating notable participants, such as "Victorious Golden Dragon" Goldoh Kinmeki and later Quinton with ease to reach the quarterfinals.

Prior to the qualifying final rounds as Cid continue his planned, he then decides to search Rose in order to avoid meeting with his sister, Claire as she also a participants of the competition. During his investigation, Cid met Epsilon who is revealed to have become a prominent pianist for composing pieces of music from famous composers much to his chagrin. But knowing that she likes his "Moonlight Sonata", he decide not to bother it, even he received info about Rose whereabouts is in the capital underground. Regardless, Cid in his Shadow persona successfully reunites with Rose Oriana who is escape captured by the Cult's pursuers and offering his magic to support her goals, which the princess accepts.

Beta alongside Alexia then notice a powerful magic and they find Rose, but Alexia wants answer from her by fighting her until Rose defeat her as she decide to leave before Beta telling that she not gonna stop her and hope we will meet again as she wonder that this is her Lord Shadow decision. Afterward, Cid is still caught by Claire despite his efforts and she insists him to take the Bushin ticket and observes her compete from a special seating section, to which Cid accepts as he lack of choice before continuing his final preparations for the upcoming match.

At the start of the final set of rounds, Cid enter the special seating from the ticket and follows through on the special viewing where he meets Princess Iris Midgar and she also apologized for Zenon incident. Cid then felt excited when he tell the princess about Mundane Mann and his perfect reputation, even he got to know about Beatrix that he knew she was strong is a famous elf who become the first Bushin Festival champion that haven't showed her face in public for over a decade. Cid decide to sneaks away from his seat and change his appearance using 'Mundane' identity because his match against Annerose Nichtsehen will begin. Annerose tried to strike first, but Mundane quickly overpowers her until Annerose decide to use counterattack which Mundane outsmart her and then slashes her, winning to the final round as Cid easily outduels her with his skills, earning the swordswoman's respect.

At the time before or during the Bushin match between Mundane and Iris Midgar, Beta and other Shadow Garden Numbers appear in front of Rose and tells her that she can proceed and fulfil her mission as they already clear her way by killing cult members that stationed in the arena and subduing civilians.

In the final match, Cid in his "Mundane Mann" persona competes against the tournament favorite Iris, but their bout ended as Cid effortlessly dominates the battle to claim the victory and the audience are shocked on their match. However, upon the conclusion outcome, Rose Oriana suddenly revealed herself in public to confront her fianceé, only to unexpectedly assassinated her own father, King Raphael Oriana before attempting suicide. It was then Mundane decide to save and protect Rose from the Cult capture, discarding his disguise to revealing himself as Shadow, he convinces her to continue fighting and allows the princess fugitive to escape. By the time Perv wants to capture her, all of his men are already defeated by other Shadow Garden members. Rose was running away from the arena stadium until she was met by Alpha, who convinced her to join Shadow Garden to seek the justice she wanted, to which Rose agreed to join.

Novel/Manga
Beatrix decide to battling Shadow alongside Princess Iris. Although Shadow demonstrated his superior prowess, both demanded to know why he didn't finish them and he tells them that Shadow Garden only kill their enemies. Before an ostentatious exit, Shadow reminds them to remember who their true enemy is.

Anime
As a result, Beatrix decides to fight by clash swords with Shadow as Perv Asshat uses this chance to escape and running back straight to the Oriana Kingdom.

Shadow is fighting Beatrix, however, he starts getting easy overwhelming her while she barely manages to defend herself. Then, Iris Midgar shows up and states she wants to join the fight to confront Shadow as she draws an artifact mithril blade with ancient runes, surprising him but also amusing him that she would resort to what he sees as a clutch, which annoyed her and turns the blade into a large fire magic from the sword and swings at Shadow.

But, Shadow easily dodges and states that it has good visuals and is more fit for a festival spectacular as he block Beatrix attacks and continuing their fight, with Iris joining Beatrix to fight Shadow as their fight continues through the city and the two manage to push him towards a construction on a building. It was then Shadow takes two crowbars and blocks both Iris and Beatrix attacks, noting that crowbars indeed have potential and they are keep on fighting on top of a train and on the water until reached the clock tower.

On the tower, Shadow congratulates Beatrix on her swordsmanship that are almost equal, but her use of magic isn't as good before Iris suddenly attack him, only Shadow to blocks her attack with his fist, stating that he can't be defeated with borrowed power. Shadow then hearing their both plans, but he tells them to show their worth as Iris attacks Shadow by swinging her sword until she lets it go and attempts immobilize Shadow by grab him. However, Shadow kicks her chin with his knee, which at the same time Beatrix already finishes charging her attack technique to strike in that moment to take him down when she knocks Shadow's sword, but he dodges her attack as he grabs and slams her over Iris until he stomps both of them.

Shadow decide to leave after he skillfully overwhelms both of them, but the girls manage to stand up until Iris tells him that by now every knight in the capital city should have been mobilized as Shadow has turned the whole kingdom into his enemy and there isn't a place he can run to. However to their shock, Shadow starts laughing maniacally and then states he ain't running as there is no reason to, until he displaying his formidable strength by activates his magic power that its ranges covering most of the entire city and states that the playtime is over. Seeing his mighty power, the girls are left stunned and Shadow starts casting his "I Am Atomic" attack, but stops before the end and disappear as the weather also change.

After the ruined festival, the Midgar Kingdom are looking for Shadow. Shadow Garden guessed that it was their lord's plan to keep the Kingdom occupied with himself as a bait, in order not get involved with the things happening in Oriana Kingdom. Since Shadow is actively involving himself, they decide to hurry up and tie up the loose ends and send more personal to investigate the Lawless City, as well as keep a close eye on the Major Corporate Alliance.

Red Moon Incident
Beta suddenly learn from her master that a Red Moon will soon occur and decide to leads a small squad consisting of 664, 665, and 666 to infiltrate the Red Tower in Outlaw City to obtain the blood of the powerful Vampire's progenitor; Elizabeth, known as the Blood Queen for their research. 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 Trading Company Conflict
Shadow Garden continued to grow in power through the Mitsugoshi Company, because of their innovative product and 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, especially the Great Commerce Alliance, who subsequently attempted to sabotage them by attacking their supply lines and even send their best mercenaries The Clovers to infiltrate at their Mitsugoshi Ltd's Headquarters along with Garter private army and their rear guard. Fortunately, the meager mercenaries hired by them were no match for Shadow Garden's well-trained forces and supplies kept running smoothly. Also, they are failing an attempt of The Clovers mission raid by killing all of them along with their support from behind.

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 current Mitsugoshi Company and form a new company, one that would be completely owned by him.

Working together with Yukime the ruler of the White Tower of the Lawless City and the president of 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 Trading Company Conflict, but their position 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.

Oriana's "Black Rose" Civil War Wedding Incident
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 Kouadoi" to a nearby ruins site, with Queen Reina where she retrieves the "Ring of Succession". 559 moves to engage the group to collect the ring because they feel it is the "Key", and decide to kill the queen. But, 666 saves her mother from being killed by 559's assault, to which 559 brands 666 as a traitor to Shadow Garden.

While 666 and her mother are taken to Duke Doem, 559 engages in combat and killing all 40 First Children, except Kouadoi. After running out of mana, she is saved from death at the hands of Kouadoi by Shadow himself. Upon 559 informing Shadow about 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 (posing as Miss Shiron) masquerades as the genius composer and pianist, in order to infiltrate the royal castle. Upon recognizing Cid arrived at the capital, 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 Reina 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 Vegaltan soldiers in a single night.

Cid then infiltrates the castle and learns that Queen Reina 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 Shadows". During the wedding ceremony Rose activates the "Key" by slipping it onto her finger, after that a recording of the current king's projection appears which contains the truth of what happened, including the crime conspiracy of Duke Doem and the Cult that already exists in the kingdom. When Rose assault on Doem and defeat him, Mordred reveals himself after killing both Doem and the Queen Reina, also 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. Hearing the news, Alpha immediately rush over to the Oriana Kingdom to take charge of the damage control operation by rebuilding the capital and making a decision for Rose about her own kingdom situation.

Return to Earth
Shadow and Beta exited the Black Rose and arrived in Japan on Earth, 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 of 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 kidnapped Akane and took her with them.

After arriving back in their world via a "Black Rose" phenomenon, Shadow rushed to the Midgar Academy, concerned about the ending of academy’s winter vacation. However, given the urgency of his travel, Alpha suspected that there might be something important happening at the Academy, whether related to the Cult or perhaps even Diablos. Alpha then noticed that Zeta also have arrived from her mission and joined Shadow at the Academy for a new mission and continuing the meeting about Rose Oriana situation for becoming a new monarch of Oriana Kingdom for their plans.

The Academy Disappearances
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, namely using her previous act of patricide and blaming her for summoning the "Black Rose" in the first place. The international defamation resulted in Oriana Kingdom becoming a heretic state, thus losing all allies and trade capital. Although knowing that other nations will rally against them, Shadow Garden was not deterred and continued supporting the kingdom from the shadows whilst trying to expose the cult.

Shadow Garden also noticed that the cult had begun running out of Tears of Diabolos. In response, the cult's Fenrir Sect kidnapped students at the Midgar Academy, intent on awakening and recovering the right arm of Diabolos sealed underneath the school so they might make more Tears. In response, Zeta led her secret personal branch to stop the cult and rescue the students. In the end, the Fenrir sect was defeated after the Shadow and Zeta's group killed several key members, including Fenrir himself, and the students were saved.

Unbeknownst to the rest of Shadow Garden, however, Zeta had her own objective: to make the Shadow immortal using the Tears, allowing him to rule the world from the shadows and prevent the cult from ever rising again after Shadow Garden had defeated them. To this end, she recovered Diabolos' right arm rather than destroy it and later forced Claire Kagenō to absorb it after confirming that she had become Diabolos' host.

Equipment and Artifacts
Thanks to the initial inventions of their Lord, Shadow, the Seven 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 Kagenō/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.
 * Homing Pigeons: Pigeons trained to find a recipient anywhere to deliver a message, a common form of communication in 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.

Founder

 * Shadow (Cid Kagenō) (No.00) : Leader; figurehead.

Shadow is the founder and ideological "inspiration" of Shadow Garden. The members of the Shadow Garden revere him and view him as the ultimate mastermind.

Seven Shadows
The Seven Shadows are the original seven members of Shadow Garden, recruited and trained directly by Shadow himself. They are named after the Greek Letters Alpha (Α/α) to Eta (Η/η) and are the general overseers of the different facets of the organization.
 * [Α] Alpha (No. 01) : Second-in-Command; actual leader.
 * [Β] Beta (No. 02) : Operations Coordinator; head of mission logistics.
 * [Γ] Gamma (No. 03) : Head of finance and administration; Mitsugoshi Company owner.
 * [Δ] Delta (No. 04) : Main fighting force.
 * [Ε] Epsilon (No. 05) : Head of espionage and Infiltration.
 * [Ζ] Zeta (No. 06) : Head of exploration and reconnaissance; leads her own secret sub-branch.
 * [Η] Eta (No. 07) : Head of research and development.

Numbers
The Numbers are those recruited by the Seven Shadows, their enumeration starts from 8 and continues onward, with the latest number recently reaching 666.

Named Numbers
Members whose abilities were recognized by the Seven Shadows and granted a Greek number name like them, ranking from Theta (Θ/θ) to Omega (Ω/ω).
 * [Λ] Lambda (No. 11) : Shadow Garden's drill instructor.
 * [Ν] Nu (No. 13) : Gamma's personal aid and bodyguard.
 * [Χ] Kai (No. 22) : Epsilon's subordinate
 * [Ω] Omega (No. 24) : Epsilon's subordinate

Regular Numbers
Nameless infantry; however, they might earn the right to challenge a Named Number for their rank by defeating a gatekeeper.
 * 89: Gatekeeper.
 * 559 (Victoria) : High-ranking three-digit number; member of Zeta's secret branch.
 * 664: Queen Rose's bodyguard.
 * 665: Queen Rose's bodyguard.
 * 666 (Rose Oriana) : Queen of the Oriana Kingdom.
 * Cult defector (Designation Unknown) : Ex-First Child who joined after being cured of Demon Possession.

Zeta's Branch
A sub-branch of Shadow Garden that was secretly founded and operated solely by Zeta.
 * Nina (Designation Unknown) : An unofficial member of Shadow Garden under Zeta's direct command.

Allies

 * Yukime: Queen of the Lawless City and owner of the Snow Fox Corporation; Mitsugoshi Company trade partner.

List of Successful Mission Accomplishments
Shadow began Shadow Garden with Alpha's recruitment and expanded to the initial seven members, having taught the "Seven Shadows" a myriad of knowledge playing to their respective strengths. When they expanded, his teachings became the corner stones of instruction for the rest of Shadow Garden's 600+ membership, who hold him in the highest reverence.

Due to Cid's previous memories from his prior life in modern day Japan, he "grants" his knowledgeable staff quite a few tips in improving Shadow Garden's science, business, economic and technology in what he describes as knowledge from the "Shadow Wisdoms" when it's merely his previous life's memories. In just two years and using what little information Cid gave them, they managed to build a powerful organization to take on the Cult of Diablos.

They have a formidable private army, take the kingdom's long-abandoned former capital as their headquarters base, and having information network using public connections everywhere, also have considerable resources and wealth thanks to their front organization Mitsugoshi Company, even they have establishing a coded covert communications network across the continent that incorporate designs and flair from the modern day by making a "Numbers Station" that sending the message of Morse Code machine station to boot with using Telegraph Key for the wireless telegraphy method to Shadow Garden's intelligence operative officers, which are operating in the foreign countries.

The rest of Shadow Garden members thinks that Cid is a powerful all-knowing leader who has everything in the palm of his hand, because they impressed by how Cid is seemingly able to see through the Cult's plans and come up with countermeasures quickly. Whenever he goes about his Shadow persona, he (unknowingly) creates new opportunities for success for them; such as:
 * Exposing the Cult to the public alongside their debut
 * Fenrir Sect weakened.
 * Eliminated Zenon Griffey.
 * Gaining intelligence on the Eye of Avarice artifact and saving the Midgar Academy, despite branding as "criminal".
 * Eliminating terror attack mastermind and former Knight of Rounds, Lutheran Barnett.
 * Infiltrating Lindwurm's Holy Sanctuary to investigate and acquire any information about the Cult.
 * Attaining photo copies of ancient records via The Rolapoid.
 * Annihilating Sanctuary.
 * Eliminating Nelson Sect.
 * Recruiting Rose Oriana after the Bushin Festival.
 * Preventing plotted assassination of King Klaus Midgar.
 * Strength assessment of Beatrix, Goddess of War.
 * Securing Elisabeth's blood sample for studying Demon Possession.
 * Securing ally in reviving and healing Vampire Queen Elisabeth.
 * Alpha and Beta learn Red Mist vampire ability.
 * Making Midgar Kingdom economically dependent on Mitsugoshi Company.
 * Removing competitors loyal to the Cult's public assets by taking all their asset and Cult's funds.
 * Cult is defunded within Midgar Kingdom.
 * Yukime allies with Shadow Garden.
 * Snow Fox Corporation partners with Mitsugoshi.
 * Lawless City becomes allied territory.
 * Oriana Kingdom becoming an ally state after the Black Rose incident, despite branding as "Heretic State."
 * Exposing crimes of Cult puppet, Chancellor Perv Asshat.
 * Eliminating Mordred Sect.
 * Installing allied ruler, Queen Rose Oriana.
 * Attaining advanced Earth's technology and otherworlder to advance their power.
 * Preventing Fenrir Sect's mission of using Diablos' right arm to resupply Tears of Diablos.
 * Eliminating Fenrir Sect.
 * Claire Kagenō bonded to Diablos's right arm by Zeta.

In just one year after the Shadow Garden operation began when Cid entered the Academy until he was 16 years old, their success was so effective that it made the Cult of Diablos's power decrease, even their core combat power the "Knights of Rounds" has already decreased by about a third which made them serious about destroying Shadow Garden after their "Round Table" council meeting.

Trivia

 * Only 9 people of more than 600 member in Shadow Garden had received their power directly from Cid, these being are the original Seven Shadows, Victoria and Rose Oriana.
 * In the ranking of who is the strongest among the original members: Shadow firstly, Alpha, Zeta, Delta, Beta and Epsilon equally, Eta, and Gamma lastly.
 * In terms of power, Cid is ahead of Alpha, who is above Delta.
 * Delta would be the third strongest of the group, being the most gifted in terms of strength, hunting, and the "Berserker type", being almost the same as Zeta, who beats Delta in terms of magic control and will be more self-controlled, while Beta and Epsilon are tied for fifth place.
 * Eta and Gamma are the weakest members of the Seven Shadows due to the former's sleep disorder and the latter's discoordination, but Eta is better in combat so she is "ahead" of Gamma. However, the amount of magic they possess is so great and their strength is so enormous that even their clumsy movements are enough to kill elite soldiers.
 * Only Alpha and Epsilon can cure the people who had the Demon Possession beside Cid.
 * The members of Shadow Garden, including the "Seven 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, even if the man himself doesn't care.
 * Claire Kagenō is the only exception to this behavior, as it is seen as sibling squabbling by the Seven Shadows, who know their master cherishes his sister.
 * Apart from a few exceptions, the Numbers are as their name suggests, as each is given and called upon by their number as a new name. The "Named Numbers" are the top twenty-four members, named for a Greek letter, and considered commanding officers.
 * The orders given by Cid are considered absolute, so they take priority even if they contradict the orders of the Seven Shadows. Such as, when Cid suddenly enter the arena during the Goddess's Trial to fight Aurora who would become the key to enter the Sanctuary and Cid as "John Smith" ordering Delta to fight Juggernaut to continue his secret undercover work.
 * Delta usually bites all Shadow Garden members that are weaker than her, an act of asserting dominance within Beastkin, so only the other highest ranking Named Number members can deal with her directly, especially the other six Shadows.
 * Nearly every Shadow Garden's members was disinherited and abandoned by their parents due to their suffered from the possession which caused their families to disown them.
 * Due to being discarded by their family, friends and associates, most members of the Shadow Garden choose to fully discard their former identities and names, in order to distance themselves from their former lives and embrace their new identities as members of the Shadow Garden.
 * All members of Shadow Garden have an undying loyalty to their leader and master Shadow, which most of them worships and reveres their leader as an infallible being who can foresee the future and is neigh invulnerable, some of them have even falling in love with him.
 * They repeat all of his quotes like religious scripture. Also, they formed an entire culture around his knowledge and teachings, even they've rebuilt an ancient city in his honor. The more extreme members of the organization believe Shadow is a God in Human Form.
 * This fanaticism the point where they form a "renegade splinter faction", secretly under the leadership of one of the Seven Shadows, Zeta.
 * Due to having a "sentimental relationship" with Cid, Alexia earned the ire of many within Shadow Garden. Especially Beta, being the most hostile towards her in her public persona as Natsume Kafka.
 * When Beta found out that Cid and Alexia were dating, she turned red with anger and jealousy. In contrast, Alpha did not give much importance to this fact as she knew it was only a cover.
 * Shadow Garden were deemed suspicious by the Midgar Kingdom following Alexia's kidnapping. Due to the efforts of the Cult of Diablos, particularly Lutheran Barnett as he manages to frame them for the attack on the academy, the organization is seen as a renegade armed group and are wanted by the Kingdom.
 * Alpha admits to Gamma that she thought Shadow Garden was the force of good and the Cult of Diablos was the force of evil. However, after listening in Shadow's "statement", this inspires her to have Shadow Garden take any action, including illegal and shady ones to accomplish their goals even if meant having the entire world against them.
 * Rose notices that the Shadow Garden were framed for the crime because of three things; the swordsmanship, the prowess and the real Shadow Garden members aside from Shadow were composed of women. After seeing the night and day difference of the real Shadow Garden members, particularly Shadow's, Rose notes that only the real Shadow garden members use Shadow's swordsmanship, even she went on to warn and prevent the Midgar Kingdom from making an enemy out of such a powerful group, but was promptly ignored.
 * During the Red Moon Arc, Marie's companions are skeptical of Shadow rescuing them and Yukime brands them as a mysterious armed group.
 * Most of the public is generally unaware of the exact details of the Shadow Garden's existence beyond what the authorities have told them, and even they do not have much information.
 * Even the Cult of Diablos, for all of their connections, is only aware that Shadow being the leader of the Shadow Garden organization, the "Seven Shadows" being his most powerful and trusted subordinates, and the organization is exclusively made of female members (Shadow excluded).
 * The Head Librarian himself warns Alexia that the Shadow Garden may become a bigger threat than the Cult and not to fully trust & rely on them on his dying breath after being severely wounded against Shadow.
 * Until now, according to the light novel, the web novel and the manga, has all the Shadow Garden 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 casts a shadow over their eyes where the masks would go, which generated a small controversy with the fans of this work. Since the idea is that no one from the civilian public and their enemies must know their secret identities.
 * From the KAGE-JITSU mini-episodes on Kadokawa's YouTube channel, Eta's development of the Locator of Possess allowed Shadow Garden's membership to skyrocket to 600+ members within one month's time.
 * In the anime final episode, the technology that Eta are doing communicated with the other Shadow Garden members using Morse code is the same like the real Numbers Station as she making the Wireless Telegraphy method and using the Telegraph Key for transmitting message.