Claire Kagenou

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

- Claire

Claire Kagenō (クレア・カゲノー) is a third-year student at Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy and heiress to her family. She constantly worries for her younger brother, Cid, 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 the vessel of the Demon Diablos.

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. She wears the Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy uniform consisting of a blazer jacket, with gold accents with white cuffs on the sleevs 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) started 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 by 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 Kagenō family, she has to be uptight and stoic in order 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. Kagenō, who she (like many people) called him as 'Baldy' due to his cowardice.

Although 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 Kagenō. Claire is overly protective of him, and willing to kill anyone if someone hurts him. Claire also bears some similar traits to her brother. Although Claire deeply loves and cares for her younger brother, Claire will get irritated by him when he avoids her or when he shows no knowledge of what's going on with her resulting her angrly strangling her brother, but she would later forgive 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 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 protectiveiveness to her brother is when he went missing during the Red Moon Incident.

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 dispite 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 and nearly execute her brother's "I Am the All-Range Atomic" variant of his " 'I Am Atomic" technique but is unable to endure it due to 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.

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 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.

I Am the All-Range Atomic (Anime/Game)
In the anime, while Claire was being possessed by Aurora. Aurora was able to replicate and imitate Cid's "I Am Atomic" technique. Aurora was able to perform the technique but is not able to complete the technique, as her body was unable to endure, due to the magical pressure exerted by the technique. Similar to Cid's I am the All-Range Atomic, Aurora would gather and magical-infused magic into her hand, discharging power in a set radius around the insertion point. Within 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.

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.

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 Kagenō (影野) has the kanji 影 meaning "shadow".
 * Claire's magic is a light yellow color.
 * 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 on what Cid's thinking.
 * Claire's obsession with Cid is so great that she is even able to recognize Cid'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 it was very similar to her brother's.
 * 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 be so powerful to which she possesses considerable strength and a large amount of 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).
 * 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 Diabolos cult. This has led Zeta to keep her under constant surveillance, keeping this fact a secret from the Shadow Garden itself.
 * Due to her relations with Cid, some 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, revealed by Nina.