Claire Kagenou

"Don't you dare touch a hair on Cid's head."

- Claire

Claire Kagenou (クレア・カゲノー) is the older sister of Cid Kagenou, she is a third-year student at Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy and heiress to her family. She constantly worries for her brother, due to his seemingly nonchalant attitude and disregard for his future, to the point of suffering from a brother complex. Following the "Red Moon Incident," she became Diablos' vessel.

Appearance
Claire is a young woman with a tall, slender build, as well as long black hair that reaches her knees, and red eyes evocative of her brother's depiction. Similarly like her brother, her right side bang is longer than her left side bang. She wears the Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy uniform consisting of a blazer jacket, with gold accents with white cuffs on the sleeves with gold accents, a white dress shirt, a navy-blue tie, a plaid pattern on the skirt, a navy-blue cummerbund with gold accents, she wears black tights, and knee-high high heel boots with yellow crosscutting laces.

After becoming host to Aurora, Claire's eyes turn violet whenever the ancient mage asserts control of her body with her right arm (left in the anime) starts to appear in ancient magical circles on the back of her hand, (in the anime, the mark is red with geometric pattern that would reach down to her forearm). She would start to conceal the seal on her arm with a white bandage wrapping around her arm.

Personality
"How was I suppose to know it would become a slide?!"

- Claire to Mary

Being the heir to the Kagenou family, she has to be uptight and stoic to maintain her family's reputation. She also possesses a sharp tongue and doesn't mind criticizing or insulting people including her own father, Mr. Kagenou, who she (like many people) called him as 'Baldy' due to his cowardice.

Her biggest flaw is her reckless behavior which has gotten her in trouble on multiple occasions. This reckless side of her is often shown when she is worried about her younger brother, Cid Kagenou. Claire is overly protective of him, and willing to kill anyone if someone hurts him. Claire also bears some similar traits in stark contrast to her brother. Although Claire deeply loves and cares for her younger brother, Claire will gets irritated by him when he avoids her or when he shows no knowledge of what's going on with her resulting, but she would later forgives him.

Another example of Claire's protectiveness towards her brother is when Second Princess Alexia Midgar was kidnapped and Cid was being interrogated as a "suspect", Claire immediately rampaged and attempted to rescue him. She was only stopped by Rose Oriana, who had to use her physical strength to nearly break one of her arms, but even this wasn't enough to stop Claire, who immediately attempted to attack First Princess Iris Midgar, seeking revenge for the torture inflicted onto Cid. Another example of her overly protectiveness to her brother is when he went missing during the Red Moon Incident.

Another example of her attachment towards her brother is when Claire had showed signs of Demon Possession, Claire quietly feared what would happen to her brother when she was gone, but after the symptoms vanished due to her brother curing her of Demon Possession, Claire had quietly feared that one day, she believed that it would return and she would succumb to it despite being unknowingly cured of it by her brother.

After the events of the Red Moon Incident, after receiving a mark from Aurora. Claire would come to believe that she has a special power that is dormant within her. And after speaking with Cid about the Librianain's death and the situation of the academy, she comes to believe that she was the "Chosen One".

Powers & Abilities
Due to having been trained since childhood, Claire possesses abilities far above the average Dark Knight. She is widely considered to be the current strongest student at the Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy after Rose Oriana was expelled and Iris Midgar graduated. The Knight Order is very interested in recruiting her and even Iris herself wants her to join her Crimson Order after she graduates.

Physical Prowess
At age 15, Claire has been shown to quickly dodge a kick from Grease to the head despite being bound by Magic Sealing Chains. She was strong enough to easily break the chains that bound her, despite tearing her skin in the process. She barely reacted to the pain due to intense rage towards Viscount Grease for the threats against her brother's life. She also struggles even though her shoulder is dislocated by Rose. She could also decapitate a Ghoul with a single kick showering great strength. Claire nearly has a strong enough body to replicate her brother's "I Am the All-Range Atomic" variant of his " 'I Am Atomic" technique but is unable to execute the technique due to being unable to endure the magical pressure exerted by the technique while being possessed by Aurora.[ANIME ONLY]

Swordsmanship
Claire is a sword and magic prodigy who is hailed as the future of her house. Having trained since childhood, Claire's abilities are superior to normal Spellswords. Through her training with Cid, Claire learned how to efficiently control her mana usage, allowing her to defeat an opponent whose mana pool is higher. Although her swordsmanship is quite good, surpassing guardian or royal knights, she is still not at the level of Princess Rose or Iris.

She is also strong enough to win the Bushin Festival tournament; although the competition's favorites (Iris Midgar, Annerose Nichtsehen and "Mundane Mann") all quit before facing her.

Magic
Before her brother Cid was born, Claire learned some normal teachings on how magic should be handled by her family.

When her brother was born, a few years later she developed a good talent for handling the sword and magic, but soon after she began to practice with the sword with her brother Cid, although she saw that her brother was not progressing. not at all, at the level that his swordsmanship was partially equal and that his growth and development with the sword were normal, she discovered the way his brother advised him on how to use and handle magic instead of having more magic, it was very good and recommended more than what she had learned, compared to what they taught her and Cid, even though she was older than him.

After a while, she began to follow the advice and teachings of her brother, which in the end made her more and better at knowing how to use it, although she never wondered how her brother knew about this, or how he discovered it, already developing at 12, the ability to normally heal others and herself normally as others would but more quickly and efficiently.

Even after Claire receives power from Aurora when her possession has been cured, her body can't withstand the strain when Aurora temporarily takes over due to Aurora's sheer prowess.

Healing Magic: Upon realizing that many "mutations" or "infections" are actually magical overload, Claire works on trying to understand the nature of the abnormality and develops magic that can not only reverse magical overload like her brother but replace missing limbs or blood.

Power Mimicry: While being possessed by Aurora, she was able to use her body to replicate her brother's "I Am Atomic" technique.[ANIME/GAME ONLY].

Nuclear Magic
In the anime/game, Claire while being possessed by Aurora was able to use her body to replicate her brother's nuclear or atomic magic technique. Aurora was able to perform the technique however, but she was unable to execute the technique as her body was unable to endure its due to the magical pressure exerted by the technique.[ANIME/GAME ONLY].

I…Am…Atomic Variations:
I Am the All-Range Atomic: Similar to Cid's "I Am the All-Range Atomic", Aurora magical-infused magic into her hand but in the anime  the end results of the technique were not seen as Claire was unable to endure the magical pressure exerted by the technique. In the Game, Aurora manages to execute the "I Am the All-Range Atomic" Technique, while possessing Claire's body, but in exchange for all the magical energy of both Claire and partly Aurora, being completely exhausted, along with all physical energy, by Claire.

Special techniques:
Fast Flash Special: Claire can move quickly, using her magic power, although it is a skill that can be learned normally when you reach the level of a magic knight at least, or a strong magic swordsman, it is speculated that this skill of Claire, she is a bit taller and more efficient than the others, as she has more control of her magic, thanks to her younger brother's teachings. Cid.

Blood Magic

 * Blood Manipulation: After becoming the vessel for Aurora, Claire gained Aurora's ability to manipulate Blood. This is further refined under Elizabeth's tutelage, who has mastered this art to the point of Aurora admitting that the Vampire Queen is in fact better.

Intelligence
As the eldest child of her house, Claire received high-quality education and training before her enrollment into the Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy. After her enrollment, Claire would maintain high grades and aptitude, bringing prestige for the school. Claire's grades earned her an honor roll acknowledgement and made the juxtaposition between her and Cid more jarring.

Deadly rain of weapons
TBA

Sword Strike (Game)
TBA

Thought Detection
Claire has shown that she is able to find out what Cid's thinking. As in the light novel, she'd quickly found out that Cid thought about going limp and taking a nap. But in the manga, she quickly knew that Cid was thinking that it was a pain to deal with her and was going to let her keep him down and sleep. While she sat on top of him while she was strangling him.

Weapons and Equipment
TBA

Weaknesses
Although hailed as a prodigy, Claire's only flaw is her reckless behavior mainly due to her overprotectiveness and attachment towards her brother. As she desires to keep him safe, this will cause her to put herself in harm's way. Although she's strong she can be overpowered by the strength of other opponents causing Cid to save her secretly.

Additionally, while having Aurora's soul inside her, Claire will die if Aurora's soul would ever be extracted by force.

Trivia

 * The name Claire means "bright" or "clear" in French.
 * Claire's surname Kagenou (影野) has the kanji Kage, 影 meaning "shadow".
 * Claire's magic is a light yellow color[ANIME ONLY].
 * Claire often annoys Cid, because he does everything possible to avoid her. Despite this, Cid genuinely cares about her and her well-being.
 * Claire has shown that she's able to guess what Cid is thinking.
 * Claire's obsession with Cid is so great that she is even able to recognize Shadow's way of walking and standing.
 * For example: during the events of the Crimson Tower, she only needed a few moments to recognize that Shadow's way of standing was very similar to her brother's.
 * Within the game, Claire has shown her obsession with Cid is so great that she would still want to be his sister if she were to be reborn. (It is not yet clear if the events or the information that the game provides about the characters can be considered canonical)
 * Claire is the first person outside of Shadow Garden to have received power from Cid, given how strong she had become after she was cured of her Demon Possession symptoms.
 * Given how Claire was cured by Cid of her possession, it's likely that his healing method made her more powerful, explaining why she possesses considerable strength and immense magic. This is comparable to the Seven Shadows, as they each gained tremendous power after Cid cured them. This is further enhanced when she not only becomes the vessel of Aurora but is infected with a different type of magical overload, Vampirism, evolving into something more refined than the Origin or the Branch (Aurora/Diablos and Elisabeth/Progenitor Vampires respectively).
 * Being his sister and closest family, Claire is the only person who can threaten or abuse Cid without arousing the wrath of the Seven Shadows.
 * Since her kidnapping and after the events of the Crimson Tower, Claire's safety is the highest priority for Shadow Garden, in case she gets involved in the fight against the Cult of Diablos. This has led Zeta to keep her under constant surveillance, but hiding such a fact from the Shadow Garden itself.
 * Due to her relations with Cid, the members of Shadow Garden hold the highest respect for her, with Beta referring her to the title of mistress as a sign of respect.
 * Claire has a hidden girlish side, as revealed by Nina.
 * Claire and Akane Nishino (after her being experimented on) have similar facial features, as they have black hair and red eyes.
 * Both Claire and Akane have a similar obsession with Cid/Minoru.
 * Both were saved by him.