Cid Kagenou

"Once you decide where you're standing is the peak, you stop moving."

- Shadow

Cid Kagenō (シド・カゲノー), formerly Minoru Kagenō, is the titular antihero and main protagonist of The Eminence in Shadow series. He is the leader of the secret organization Shadow Garden under the moniker Shadow, which he founded to live out his chūnibyō fantasies, unaware that his imaginary enemies actually exist.

Cid Kagenō
Cid is a slim young man with a muscular frame, with short dark hair, black eyes, and his facial features are often described as generic and frail. Cid's eyes turn red whenever he uses his Overdrive technique. Cid also bears a resemblance to his previous life as Minoru Kagenō.

Attending the Midgar Academy, he is required to wear a uniform consisting of a dress shirt, trousers, a blazer jacket, a tie, and a pair of loafers.

Shadow
Under his Shadow guise, Cid adorns a full-body slime suit, gloves, a domino mask, and boots along with a hooded trench coat. This attire is dyed jet black with golden accents. His eye color also changes from black to red when getting into extreme situations.

Mundane Mann
Under his Mundane Mann (ジミナ・セーネン) guise, Cid adorns a plain man's face etched atop his, a hunched back, drop shoulders and misaligned pelvis.

John Smith
Under his John Smith guise, Cid adorns a suit, fingerless gloves, and another domino mask to conceal his identity.

Minoru Kagenō
In his previous life as Minoru Kagenō, due to his constant training, he possessed a rather tall and muscular physique. Despite this, however, his face remained rather plain, with short black hair and black eyes. Minoru also bears a resemblance to his life as Cid after he had reincarnated.

While as a student at Sakurazka High, he wore a standard white school coat, light blue shirt, blue pants, and blue tie.

Personality
"Even side characters have their battles to fight."

- Cid Kagenou

Inspired by TV shows, video games and other stories, Cid is obsessed with becoming the 'Eminence in the Shadow', a person who exerts enormous power and influence in the darkness of society. He spares no effort in dedicating himself to that goal and takes great pride in his achievements. He appreciates other people's hard work and disdains those whose strength is purely borrowed.

His followers believe him to be a brilliant mastermind when in reality his success comes from dumb luck, improvisation, and his superior combat prowess. In his "civilian" persona, Cid hates drawing attention, portraying himself as a below-average student. While in his "Shadow" persona, he is obsessed with appearing cool and mysterious, muttering ominous lines and performing silly antics. More than a few of his decisions are aimed at acting out various fantasies and story clichés he thinks are cool. For instance, his participation in the God of War Festival Tournament (under the false identity 'Mundane Mann') was solely to fulfill his specific fantasy of being a mysterious fighter who is at first laughed at for being supposedly weak, but ultimately shocks everyone with his true strength.

Shadow Garden is extremely loyal to Cid, and quite a few of its members hold a secret adoration romantically towards him, although Cid is oblivious to that or simply pays it no mind. It annoys Cid whenever some of his subordinates take credit for the otherworldly knowledge, they learned from him and often mistakenly think that they are using it for themselves. He likes money and prefers to earn it himself, rather than rely on the funds gathered by his subordinates. Even to the extent that he went to Lawless City with the reason to head over to the "Blood Queen" Elisabeth, a Vampire Progenitors as his target, only targeted her money as The Crimson Tower is said to be the most riches and has hold the most amount of gold, amongst the three monarchs.

Even though he relies heavily on luck, improvisation, and physical dexterity, Cid has shown that he is intelligent and cunning, and has the ingenuity to be able to achieve some of his initial goals before and after creating Shadow Garden. For example, before the creation of his organization, he was able to create the Slime Suit and develop a cure for Demon Possession which was previously unknown which also considered as a long lost technique. His intelligence and knowledge are only surpassed by Gamma and Eta, 2 of the Seven Shadows.

When it comes to his public persona, he is often obsessed with making himself a "mob character", seeming as mediocre as possible. An example of this behavior is shown when he befriends two young men who fit his description as average, tried to fake a confession to girl although it backfired, allowed himself to be tortured by investigators for a week and even disregarded his injuries because he felt that it supported his image as a mob character, even though he could have easily escaped or simply recovered his injuries using his powers. Furthermore, Cid will happily allow himself to be beaten and stabbed if he believes that it will make him more "mob-like". On one occasion, he stopped his own heart for 10 minutes for the sake of what he called a "mob saves the main character event".

Although Cid appears apathetic when he admits that he does not know how to react at all, to things like family ties and other things, since he himself admitted that he has discarded everything that harassed him to become what he yearned for the most, Cid himself admitted that while The more he did it, the more he realized that he could not discard, even if it was little, since if he did, it would not become what he really wants, implying that if he cares a little about those around him, and it makes him angry, even a little, those who dare to violate and selfishly use it, retaliating against those who dare to carry out such actions, killing them in the same way as they used and killed others, as seen in the case when he impaled himself against the vice-principal, Lutheran Barnett. Cid also is willing to accept and become a "villain" if it helps him to protect those he cares about, not telling to Sherry Barnett that her own father was in fact the man who killed her mother and was a member of Cult of Diablos and the mastermind behind the attack to the academy so she could keep the good image of her father intact.

Cid appreciates vintage red wine, despite admitting he doesn't know anything about aroma or flavor, and bitter coffee for show when his actual favourite drink is apple juice and takes his coffee with loads of sugar and milk. Cid will take preferably freshly made and chilled apple juice over it on any given day, while he would "enjoy" a glass of expensive vintage wine when he is on Shadow and John Smith persona.

Cid believes that there is no such thing as pinnacle of power, he believed that when a person stops, that is their limit and that a person can always raise a higher limit without as long as they stop walking to stain themselves.

Powers & Abilities
Iris Midgar, upon facing him under his "Shadow" persona, claimed Cid to be "the most powerful being in the world", even though he was not even fighting her seriously. This also applies to other worlds, defeating Ragnarok, a demon that ruled another dimension, with relative ease. So far, even though he has yet to go all-out, all of Cid's battles have ended with overwhelming victories, easily defeating high-ranking Cult of Diablos members and even Knights of Rounds whilst the only opponents he had to get a "little serious" against were Aurora's projection, Beatrix, Elisabeth, Alpha, and the aforementioned Ragnarok.

Superhuman Physical Prowess
Cid is an extremely powerful warrior with physical strength strong enough to shatter concrete with just the shockwaves of his attacks, as shown in his battle with Beatrix. Even without mana, Cid appears to be able to take out dozens, if not hundreds, of zombies without breaking a sweat due to a lifetime of martial arts training, as shown in the Sanctuary with Aurora. Even when showing such unnatural levels of strength, he always seems to be holding his punches, as each time he pulls out a new level of physical prowess to match his opponent. With his earthling knowledge of how his body works, Cid can dodge attacks with minimal movement and, when taking physical attacks such as stabs, he can redirect them to non-vital areas to avoid damage to vital organs. He also has superhuman speed and reflexes, which goes into sleight of hand; being able to pickpocket his money back right after being pickpocketed, and taking their money at the same time.

During his physical training on Earth, it is speculated that he reached enough strength to be able to break and bend wood and certain hard metals, ranging from copper to normal iron. Even after reincarnating, he still repeated everything he had already experienced plus what he was experimenting with himself since he was a baby, from controlling his digestive flow, to being able to stand up at a young age, without anyone noticing, to the point that when he learned magic, he reached levels beyond what was imagined, being able to run tirelessly at very fast speeds without using magic, due to the experiments he did, until he controlled his heart rate and normal body temperature.

Superhuman Senses
Through training in his childhood and experimentation with his magic both on himself and otherwise, Cid developed heightened human senses beyond what a human, whether a magical warrior or normal person, can. have, having a better range of vision, better hearing, and better control of the touch of things, among other things;


 * Superhuman Reflexes (Developing): Cid developed the ability to dodge without problem, in a semi-instinctive way, the shots of pistols and semi-rifles, to a degree and age, that should not be possible for any magical knight, either from a young age or an adult, even at a young age., it would be difficult for them to dodge or block one of these shots from firearms, since these as such travel at a speed of more than 1080km / h, unless of course, they use magic in part to resist the damage. This is seen when Cid Kageno killed the bandits in a caravan where he would meet the Elf girl who would be called Alpha.


 * Superhuman Detection: Even a few moments after being reborn as "Cid Kagenō", he was already aware and felt the magic that circulated him, even before he was old enough to even feel, use and know about magic, ( It is speculated that this was thanks to the training in Buddhism and meditation that he undertook before dying on Earth), since then, he improved his detection both in the magic that he had in himself, as in that of other living beings, and in the environment in which he was surrounded, be it earth, water, fire or air, even his magic wave changes. This allows him to react at the moment or just before a change in his environment happens, allowing him to react to danger before it occurs. During the Attack on the Midgar royal academy, Cid was the only one who noticed immediately., that everyone's magic was sealed-absorbed, and at the same time he noticed the arrival of enemies near the place before all.

Master Swordsmanship
Before reincarnating, Minoru displayed a desire to become an 'Eminence in the Shadow' and began practicing various fencing starting from his childhood and spanning his teenage years until he reincarnated. After his reincarnation, Minoru, now named Cid, repeated his training assimilating his newfound magic into it. At age six, he had already mastered fencing, adapting his previous style of swordsmanship with the style of his current world. His skill at using swords has been honed by training to the pinnacle of human limits. His main natural style is perfect in the fundamentals, based not on talent, power, speed, or usage of magic, but on endless amounts of effort in training. Cid can switch to a flashier style if the situation calls for it, And he usually lets his enemy attack first to better adapt to his combat style so that he can know how his opponent fights and how to defeat him more easily.

During his fight against Beatrix, Cid as Shadow also showed that his swordsmanship is super fast, superior to that of any other being in the world, during a span of a few seconds, (if not in 1 second), both Shadow and Beatrix fought so quickly, that they cut every drop of rain in a very large cubic radius within the fighting arena, without using magic and special techniques in it, except for the fast magic-level flashes that they used on their feet to move, all this while Iris Midgar witnessed everything until Cid decided to take it a little serious against Beatrix.

Even without enhancing himself with magic, he can outfight any magic-using opponent. He is skilled enough to simultaneously fight and effortlessly defeat Beatrix and Iris Midgar, two of the most accomplished Spellswords in the world. After the fight, Iris believes Shadow was the world's strongest Spellsword. He has also shown that he can masterfully dual-wield swords in an effective and manageable way. This skill is shown in his battle against Ragnarok, the 'Grand Ruler of the Fourth Realm', in which he uses two swords against the demon and manages to defeat him without so many problems.

Cid is already classified as a master and instructor of the sword, since when he welcomed the 7 girls who would be the " Seven Shadows", Cid disciplined them in the art both in the correct handling of the sword (as he knew ), as in magic, causing them to become very powerful. Although of the Seven Shadows of theirs, only Alpha mainly, learned their style of swordsmanship and magic at a very high level. While below her, only Beta and Epsilon handled it in a way not as high as their partner Alpha but although manageable and in their improved style.

The other members (such as Gamma, Delta, Zeta, and Eta) could only manage to handle the sword well and control their magic well, since; Gamma was very clumsy in combat no matter how hard she tried because she stumbled for the most part, Delta was more of a head of muscles than of intelligence, for which reason she rarely used techniques taught by her Master Cid, Zeta has a natural talent to master and handle any weapon she uses, but she doesn't like to fully master the same weapon as she gets bored after a short time using it and Eta when she had a lazy rhythm, she practically does not go out to fight like the other "Seven Shadows" but she does know something about the sword.

Warrior Perception
Cid developed a type of Sensation, which is more than a skill, which is only achieved by the strongest elite warriors and those who have fully mastered the handling of the sword and direct combat, called the "warrior sense". Cid can perceive, understand and comprehend what a person who has struggled a lot is like, either in swordsmanship or in magic, which allows him to adapt and handle the situation that is presented to him when he comes face to face with a powerful enemy, to the point of using the knowledge he learns from it to ascertain his identity.

For Cid, he sees it and handles it as a type of "conversation", since for him, a fight is about exchanging words, (in the sense of techniques and some other things), while one fights with the other when he fought as Shadow in the " Goddess's Trial" against Aurora, Cid was able to feel and understand in a certain way, how Aurora handled and behaved while fighting her, which made him very excited, although in the end he was disappointed to learn that she was not there at her best and that she was just a puppet imprisoned by the tests, which made him end everything in a flash.

According to Cid's words, if the opponent does not have a soul or conscience as such, it will be somewhat easy for him to able to predict his movements and understand how he behaves to defend himself more easily. Since according to Cid, when exchanging "words" with someone, for his part, has to answer him, when he faces a fragment of Olivier, Cid realized that she did not have a soul, since she did not answer him at all, neither with the sword nor with her mouth, that although she had a lot of power. In the end, it was just another puppet of the Cult of Diabolos. The swordsman Beatrix also has this sense, but at a lower level, since Cid does not need to touch someone to know how powerful or what kind of ability he has or can have in part, although sometimes it is seen.

Master Combatant
In his previous life, as Minoru Kagenō, he practiced and mastered various disciplines such as karate, boxing, mixed martial arts, Buddhism, yoga from an early age. Around his adolescence, he reached the pinnacle of the strength of the human body, both in skill and in other respects. He was capable of dominating and defeating average thugs to people who had undergone military training. When he reincarnated as Cid, he repeated his training and grew stronger in hand-to-hand combat allowing him to effortlessly subdue power opponents with his bare hands. With his mastery of the various martial arts of his previous life, Cid refined his utility of them into new combat methods, relying on simpler movements than the contemporary styles of his second life. When Cid fight against Iris Midgar and Beatrix during Bushin Festival, he throws them both away using a technique from Yujitso, and with his skills he defeated Gettan, delivering several blows only using his body, even though Gettan had been heavily strengthened by the Tears of Diablos.

Scientific Ingenuity
Even though he has a mentality that ranges from a 15-year-old teenager to that of an 8-10-year-old child, Cid has shown great ingenuity both in the scientific and creative parts. Since in his dreams to be an 'Eminence in the Shadow', he carried out multiple experiments at a magical and biological level while training and strengthening his body among other things, both with himself and with other bodies, (presumptuously those of the bandits and he only did it with a civilian that I already thought was dead who would it be, Alpha), which allowed him to create and develop apart from the well-known "Slime Suit", multiple things, abilities and powers both for himself and for him to later teach his Shadow Garden followers, that sometimes he does not even know that he has developed or acquired them until and more later to find out. This peculiarity of his allows him to sometimes even create things at the last moment when he faces situations in which his powers or abilities are insufficient to solve problems quickly.

Previous World Knowledge
After being reborn into the Kagenō family, Minoru retained all of his past abilities and knowledge while studying magic. It is never explained how he retains his memories of his old life. This immensely augmented his abilities, turning him into one of the most powerful people in the world. His knowledge of his previous and more advanced world allowed his organization to develop its technology and resources exponentially.

Gaze of emptiness
Cid can launch a cold gaze of death or extremely dark bloodlust through small minor movements of their hands to those opponents who are not close or are not equal to him in the level of fencing and other things, causing his opponents to become intimidated which makes their survival instincts become strongly activated by the fear of death. Anyone in Cid's presence will experience hallucinations of how they would die in their future against Cid, often in several possible ways, either beheaded or mutilated.

This ability as such, although it can be learned, requires an intention of control at the level of the desire to kill and manipulate things in one's favor, although Cid had managed to learn this ability on his own, Cid developed it, to a level, well above normal, to the point that it could seem real.

When Iris Midgar faced Cid as "Jimina Senen", he threw at her just by staring at her. The result how she would die if she thought of facing him, which in the end, partially breaks her spirit to fight although she tried to hit him, which results in her losing the Bushin Festival shocking everyone, including her father, the King Klaus Midgar.

Knowledge of Languages
Cid has mastered several languages including the language of his per-reincarnation homeland, Japanese, and other languages he learns in his pursuit of magic on Earth. He enjoys using English while speaking. He also has basic knowledge about the Runes of Norse mythology and about the Greek alphabet.

Tuned Perception
Cid has a keen perception and can distinguish the identity of other people even if they attempt to hide their identities. For instance, he was able to see through Lutheran Barnett's disguise and uncover his identity as a member of the cult and the person who organized the attack on the academy.

Stealth Dexterity
Cid in his physical and magical training, before and after reincarnating, became an expert in stealth which allows him to go anywhere he wants without being seen or detected unless he wants to.

Antihuman Immunity
Through the use and experimentation of his magic on his own body at a biological level, Cid developed a practical immunity to any type of chemical substance, poison, or narcotic that is harmful to him or that harms his body, whether ingested or breathed, ranging from aphrodisiacs to deadly poisons that can kill very large creatures. This is shown when Eta tried to dissect her master, Cid's brain, secretly putting an aphrodisiac in his coffee to be able to study her lord without his knowledge, but when she saw that it didn't affect her at all, she tried a poison that she made herself believe, which she says, can kill even a dragon, but it didn't work against her master either.

It is speculated that it also has strong resistance to biologically deadly gases, such as carbon dioxide gases emanating from active volcanoes, and sulfuric acid gases.

Magic
Cid has refined the control of his magic throughout his life. Unlike the red color of normal magic users, Cid's magic is purple and resembles the pattern of a circuit. He can cure children who are Demon Possessed as well as create slime suits and swords. Other uses of his magic involve wide-area detection magic, boosting an army's combat power and mind control. He can also strengthen the defense of his slime suit to the point that he remains unscathed after receiving an all-out barrage from Maximilian, someone who has similar quantities of magic.

He also developed the ability to hide, condense and ultimately compress his tremendous magical power, which allows him to evade the academy's magic detectors and ultimately, the power to prevent his magic from being drained by artifacts that are designed for it, which according to Nelson, the 11th seat Knight of Rounds from Cult of Diablos, it is practically impossible, (it is speculated that the latter was due to the teachings she learned from Sherry when she analyzed the "Eye of Avarice").

Standard Equipment:

 * Shadow vs Beatrix and Iris Midgar.gifSlime Bodysuit: A completely black bodysuit made from slime jelly mixed with black pigments. From this suit he can create weapons made of slime material, that is capable of stretching and he can extend them from any part of the suit. Unlike the members of his organization and his Seven Shadows of Shadow Garden, Cid is the only one with the ability to make his slime weapons manifest in any part of his body as he wishes, only being surpassed in magic control. and precision for Epsilon, although she has never manifested weapons like Cid does since she is only interested in improving her body. In terms of defense when he uses it, it becomes so effective that Cid doesn't even need to make him change shape to protect himself from powerful burst attacks, either from artifacts or from his enemies (according to him, why aren't they? good conductors of magic, and because those who use them, do not know how to handle the magic they use well, as we see Cid stopping with his hand, the powerful magical burst of fire from the magic sword of Iris Midgar,


 * Training Weights: Cid in his marital status, whether at school or in his daily life, before and after reincarnating, wears hidden training weight bracelets on his wrists and feet, which help him keep fit and exercise since you do not want to neglect and obsidian in your physical abilities. When he participated in the "Festival of the Goddess of War" as a Mundane Mann, in the middle of the finals, when he met Annerose, Cid decided to remove the weights that he had on his two arms, and later when he defeated Annerose, although it was to show off, she confesses that she was the first to make him take off his weights, implying that he only takes them off when he changes to his "Shadow" alias.


 * Iron Crowbars: Cid before and after reincarnating, managed to perfectly master the Iron Crowbars from the construction workers and use them as his second favorite weapon in short-range combat. Curiously, he exercises them based on the art style of " Tonfa", being able to use them very well either made of his Slime suit or taken in a normal way, when he fought against Beatrix and Iris Midgar. Cid saw one of those crowbars in a building and he wielded them for pleasure and excellence for condo, capable of dominating them and easily repelling the 2 swordswomen simultaneously for a long time. But to his surprise, Beatrix broke them, although he expected it since it was made of normal metal.


 * Magic Threads: Cid has achieved the ability to create and wield steel wires and magic strings that he can wield with his fingers as if he were a puppeteer. By wielding these threads, he can use them as lethal weapons creating webs of threads that can slice through the members of his adversaries and even control them without the need to move from his position at all. Cid uses these threads for the first time at the Great Trading Company Conflict when he assumes the secret identity of "John Smith" against his members of Shadow Garden subduing them without much problem, (which is the Numbers three squad team consist of 664, 665, and 666, also specifically against Alpha), and then during his fight with Gettan. He also uses magic threads but as Shadow against Ragnarok during the civil war at Oriana Kingdom's capital.

Overdrive
A technique used by Cid, when his eyes turn red will enhances his overall abilities limits such as his magic and physical abilities surpassed. This had allowed him as a 6-year-old to defeat one of the country's worst criminals, Scarface.

Bionic Perception of Time
Through the use of magic, Cid can perceive and see everything that happens around him in a way that makes time stop around him, allowing him to dodge and read the movements of his opponents to the last second, even if these are very powerful, being able to dodge strong attacks from his childhood to his adolescence, like those of his sister Claire, and the famous swordswoman Beatrix.

I Am Atomic
His signature technique is the result of all of his hard work to finally defeat his last challenge (of surviving a nuclear weapon by becoming a nuclear weapon) in where he pours much of his power into his blade into a devastating strike that once struck against its target, he or she will disintegrate followed by a nuclear explosion that can shake the land to pieces and even affect space. The attack can also project a barrier ensuring anyone outside it would not be affected by the attack. Notably, it does not leave any radiation behind like a real nuclear explosion.

Before the Seven Shadows were gathered and when rescuing Zeta before joining Shadow Garden, Cid uses a low-powered "I Am Atomic" (at least it was in an incomplete state). In the manga version, it causes a huge explosion reminiscent of a nuclear explosion at the moment of thrusting, creating a large hole that changes the terrain. In the anime version, the scale of destruction is further expanded, and instead of thrusting, the sword is swung on the spot and detonated. At the time of "I Am Atomic", it is a technique that blows up the surrounding area, so the difference from I Am All Range Atomic is almost invisible.

It seems that the damage range can be adjusted to some extent, and when it was used against Zenon, Alexia, who was nearby, suffered no damage at all. In the battle with Beatrix and Iris at the Bushin Festival in the anime version, contrary to the above, Cid showed a huge range of damage that covered the entire Midgar Kingdom capital (however, at this time, he didn't intend to use it, so he used it by blowing it on the cloud).

Over time, Cid developed different versions of his ultimate technique, while fighting against strong enemies depending on where and where he is, which are:


 * I Am the All-Range Atomic: It is a variation of "I AM ATOMIC", which is an esoteric technique designed to annihilate everything within a small range in all directions, but with just as devastating destructive power. This version is used when Cid confronts multiple clone-puppets of Olivier summoned on Nelson's orders inside the Cult of Diablos's Sanctuary, which was in some kind of hidden dimensional plane, in which Cid and Aurora were trying to escape.


 * I Am Recovery Atomic: Used in the same way as "I AM ATOMIC", he can heal people within a large radius. This technique is first used to heal everyone and stop Elizabeth's rampant control, in the Battle of the Red Tower at the Lawless City.


 * I Am Atomic Sword: A variation on "I AM ATOMIC", in which light pools around the tip of his sword and spreads out, spreading across the ground, to the horizon. Cid then halves everything he finds in his path. This build allows him to directionally annihilate everything instead of an entire area at whatever enemy Cid points his sword at without damaging or fully hurting the people around him. Cid uses this technique when he's in his "Shadow" persona (in Earth, the people from Messiah settlement he is called "The Black Knight"), Cid holds his sword horizontally and his magic light gathers around his sword, spiraling in a bluish-purple glow as it converges at the blade’s tip with his sword extends forth until stretches across the ground to the horizon. Then, Cid released his attack against a slavering horde of Magical Beasts during the Stampede on the settlement which his attack cleaves forth with a flash of light that bisects the night, shredding through all who stand within it until its wake as a bluish-purple afterglow drifts by and illuminates everything the sword sliced through. Everything as far as the eye can see was all slain, whether it beasts, trees, and buildings alike—now has a perfect horizontal line cut through it.


 * Hidden technique: Utsusemi no Atomic: A variation of "I AM ATOMIC", where Shadow's sword splits into nine swords that transform into nine dragons. These dragons descend on the enemy and eat them alive with each dragon consuming a part of the enemy. The first chews the right arm to pieces, the second chews the left arm, the third shreds the right leg, the fourth does likewise to the left one, the fifth and sixth rips the body into two, the seventh punches through the chest, while the eight severs the neck, and finally -- the ninth holds the head between its jaws.

Magic Projectiles
Cid can magically detach and fire small pieces of slime from his suit as high-velocity projectiles that he developed at launch with the speeds as fast as bullets from pistols with the point of the fingers of his hands, with enough force to pierce a person's heart or skull. He uses this in full effect when mowing down dozens of fake Shadow Garden members.

Power Bestowal
Cid managed to acquire the ability to share and transmit part of his magical power permanently, allowing those who receive it, not only to be cured of any Affliction, whether magical or not but also to increase their magical power strongly, allowing they better control their magical power and with even much higher damage. Upon receiving Cid's magical power, they turn one with him in a certain way, allowing him to understand its power as the people who receive it develop, like Shadow, it also grows, but depending on how they handle it, and practice.

It is understood that when curing a possessed or normal person Cid spends little magic power, but when he gives direct magic power, he spends more of it. It is not known how much he spends doing it, but it is implied that 2 to 3 tenths of his magic since his power became very great while he was developing it since he was little. Cid developed this ability after accidentally healing Alpha the first time they met.

Elemental Manipulation
Cid can control various natural elements that which he can handle efficiently, either to heal, attack or defend himself, which are; Darkness, Light, Water, Wind, Lightning, and Fire, the ones that he has used the most throughout his life until now. Cid then mediates the combination of various elements to extreme degrees. Cid is speculated to have the ability to control natural Phenomena, such as;


 * Weather Manipulation: is the ability to psionically control and alter the forces of the atmosphere, creating changes in the weather. The user can intensify winds, summon storm clouds, and affect barometric pressure. Can be concentrated to generate indoor storms and to control the movement of rain/wind/lightning. One has the power to psionically control the weather in a wide range of distances. Characters can create or summon clear sky, rain, hail, snow, thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. It can be used offensively, or as the cycle of life for everyday human beings. During his battle against Beatrix and Iris Midgar, Shadow gave them a demonstration of his power, being able to completely clear the entire rainy climate with thunder, using a portion of his magic, derived from his ultimate technique, in the kingdom of Midgar, already For only later, instantly disappear from the place without a trace.


 * Shadow, Water Currents.gif), against Iris Midgar and Beatriz.]]Water Currents: Cid can alter the currents of rivers, lakes and, in extreme cases, the seas themselves, embedding his magic in it in an effective way, and turning them into his territory of management, for whatever he likes, whether it be transporting, throwing attack or defend. According to Beatrix words, that is an ability that only vampires have, to control liquids like that, although the latter, Shadow clarified, that magic does not flow very well in running water, which according to him, he hoped would work as expected, until you perfect it (to the current date) until you perfect it. According to what Shadow said, this is a "Secret technique of Witchcraft", it is speculated that Aurora learned the trick of manipulating liquids.

Soil Pressure
Through the use of his magic, Cid can exert a strong stomp against the ground, which then causes a tremendous pressure of magical gravity, capable of fatally crushing all those who receive them, instantly destroying their internal organs and bones from this. Until now, only Beatrix and barely, Iris Midgar, were able to resist the damage exerted by this ability of Cid being Shadow, during his fight in the kingdom of Midgar, but that was only because he held back and had no intention of killing them, it is speculated that he did it just to see how much they could resist.

Dark Bird Cage
Through the use of the magical threads that he used in his previous fights as "John Smith", Shadow can unleash a large, extremely lethal Network of Magical Threads, shaped like a kind of cage that cut extremely powerful enemies into multiple small pieces, from a Dragon, Even a Demon King, according to the protagonist, this technique is extremely effective against large enemies that can fly. During the battle against the demon king of the fourth world, called Ragnarok, he employs this technique that cuts almost without a trace of him except his remaining demonic arm.

Ebony Swirl
Shadow can unleash the powerful magic of a jet-black whirlwind with his Slime Sword, which can eradicate multiple enemies in just a few seconds. During the Ghouls attack in the "Lawless City", he used this technique to kill all of them. that there was while saving a magical swordswoman from Magic Swordsmen Guild.

Serious Dash
By boosting himself with mana, Cid is capable of traveling at superhuman speeds of 1,200 km/h. Cid will generally avoid using this in his civilian persona as it would not make sense for a mob to be in another town within a short time.


 * Speed: Massively Hypersonic+ (Faster than when he was a 10-year-old and moved this fast), higher over time (Up until volume 2, he could be kept up somewhat by people such as Iris who are inferior to the Seven Shadows, however by volume 3, not even one of the Seven Shadows can perceive his movements).

Instant Flash
Cid can move almost instantly to any place within his radius of reach in less than 1 second, to the point as if he were teleporting, using magical power in a small amount.


 * Visual image: By moving so fast, through comprehension of magical power, Cid can leave an afterimage of himself, capable of confusing and misleading his enemies, while eliminating them. According to Alpha's words, to be able to do that, he needs a very strong magical core to support the exerted load. Cid having complete control of his magic can stop just moments before reaching his destination without any problem, which makes counter-attacks not work on him. So far, only 2 people have seen it: Annerose and Alpha.


 * Shadow, Raindrop Steps.gifRaindrop Steps: Cid can also move very quickly but super stealthily, merging into the natural environment, which completely disappears from one's sight along with his presence and detection, only to then in an instant appear anywhere without his presence. enemy realizes, to be able to finish it in an instant. When Cid faced Beatrix for the first time, he used this superhuman speed against Beatrix, but in a contained way, allowing her to react before hurting her, to prove her title, according to [[Beatrix]], that ability she has is super. terrifying, since it is practically impossible, even for her, to calculate how many raindrops fall around one, it is speculated that if Cid, in his Shadow fact, had gotten a little serious against Beatrix when exercising said technique, she would have already died, unable to react on time.

Walk on Water
Cid can walk on water using his magical power on it. This is seen after Cid finishes training with his sister Claire Kagenō when they were kids in the anime.

Air Travel
Cid can leap and channel magic into his slime suit to perform air jumps and glide through the air, which is act as a paraglider, allowing him to indefinitely stay in the air for extended periods as if he were flying.

Cling to Wall
Through the use of magic, Cid can cling, walk and stay fixed on walls or any solid structure, it is speculated that he can also stay fixed on these structures without using magic like a ninja. In the anime, he uses this ability to avoid his sister, Claire, who visits him in his room and he sticks to the ceiling so as not to be seen, as a curious fact, Cid can also exercise this ability unconsciously, since when an infatuated Rose tried to get into his room on the train during the night, Cid stuck to the ceiling again but while he was sleeping.

Enhancement of Magical Senses
Cid can enhance his 5 senses through the use of magic, allowing him to sensitize and exceed beyond the capabilities of what you already have enhanced, to the point of noticing the little things that cannot be perceived or detected, though Of course, as Cid had said before, it is still far from being compared to the tracking and hearing abilities of the Beastmen. Cid can exert his sense enhancements, both passively and actively, at any time he wants, implying here that if he wanted to, Cid could see, feel, or perhaps even be able to touch, those things that hide before him, supernaturally.

When he fought against Aurora projection for the first time, during "the test of the goddess", Cid passively noticed that invisible and intangible magic chains surrounded Aurora, that they could not be seen, or touched, even for one of the soldiers the strongest of the magic knights, who would be like Iris Midgar or Beatrix, could notice, realizing that due to those restrictions, Aurora's projection couldn't fight to its full potential and that partly left him with pity, which at the same time ending made him finish the battle fast.

when he disguises himself as "John Smith", Cid reinforces his eyes with magic to notice and see the difference between the counterfeit bills made by Yukime and those of the Mitsugoshi Company.

Longevity
It is implied that he can magically extend his lifespan. Although with time he began to yearn for eternity since he still wants and plans to continue his role as the Eminence in Shadow. Initially, at the God of War Festival arc, before he meets Rose Oriana, he thought of living for 200 years. Then, in Red Moon Incident arc when he saw Elisabeth's treasury at the Crimson Tower, he decide to live at least 300 years. He is more concerned about getting funds to live for 300 years (as he does not consider the money earned by Mitsugoshi Company as his own) and talks as if it is already set in stone that he will live for 300 years. When he turned 16, he said that he could live until he was 600 years old through the use of his magic which grew in proportion as he gained more strength and power with the time that he trained and experimented on himself.

Mob-Fu
In his "civilian" persona, Cid never displays his true power, practicing what he calls Mob Fu, or the art of losing battles with style. He has created 48 Ultimate Forms, which are used according to the situation he is in. Known forms include:

Spinning Guard, Bloody Tornado
On being struck by a sword, Cid will leap back at the same time and use the one-second window to arch his body, aiming for the sky, whilst using blood bags and the momentum to make a spinning stream of blood around himself as he flies into a wall.

10 Minutes Of Being Near Death: Heart Break Mob
Starting with using magic to circulate blood to his brain, Cid can stop his heart to fake dying. Within ten minutes, Cid must forcefully restart his heart correctly or risk dying for real if he does it wrong. This technique can be combined with taking an attack that looks lethal enough to allow Cid to pretend to be dead.

Graceful Exit Stage Right
Cid will attempt to leave a conversation by stating an excuse, talking fast, and leaving at the same time. This may fail if the conversation partner knows who Cid is, has a reason to talk to him, or is of a high enough social class that Cid cannot reasonably leave unless he is allowed to.

Master of Acting, Vocal, and Disguise
Outside of his combat abilities, Cid is a master actor who successfully portrays himself as a mundane individual as well as other secret identities. Other than his Shadow persona, Cid has adopted several disguises to further benefit in his dream of becoming "the Eminence in Shadow", such as Mundane Mann and John Smith. Whenever he switches personas, Cid provides a different tone and inflection to each of his characters.

Knowledge of Science and Business
Knows various sciences; economy, commerce, and agriculture, among others which he has managed to retain although in a somewhat vague way from his previous life. That knowledge has served to help him educate his subordinates nearby, "the Seven Shadows". He trained them since they were little when he rescued them. They have used the knowledge taught by Cid to manage to recreate and use the things that he knew from his previous life.

Piano Proficiency


He is a skilled pianist who can play Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata", which is his favorite musical piece and for which he is most skilled with it, and has knowledge and ability to play other musical notes.

Through it, by order of his parents before reincarnating, he has become so skilled in it both for pleasure and others. Through this knowledge, he has taught Epsilon hers how to play them and other things, while he took care of her and taught her Members, like the other original Shadows, since Epsilon told him that she liked his music.

Supernatural Luck
While debatable as an actual ability, and more or less entirely serving comedic purposes, Cid displays a humorously implausible amount of luck, with both random guesses and random information he invented on the spot often inexplicably being correct. For instance, despite being oblivious to the Cult of Diablos' existence, he informed Alpha about the cult during their first meeting, believing he made it all up, despite getting every detail correct. Following his sister's kidnapping, he randomly threw a knife at a map Beta was analyzing and claimed that it was the location where Claire was being held, unaware that he was right. The members of Shadow Garden naturally mistake this for his brilliance and insight.

Intellectual Deduction Analysis
Cid is very intelligent in his analysis when he tries to defend Akane Nishino by immediately pointing out that a knight of Akane's caliber shouldn't be able to generate dull cuts on Yuudai Saejima's body and he solves the mystery of the magic collar bomb under his "Suzuki Hope" identity.

Power Copying
Cid can replicate any technique he's seen. He copied Aurora's Blood Magic using water as a substitute with such precision. He also mimics Epsilon's advanced slime techniques to improve his disguise abilities and defeats Fenrir by copying his ultimate technique after just seeing it once, much to his amazement.

Weaknesses
For all of his unmatched strengths, however, Cid suffers from massive flaws in his personality that prevent him from being as effective as he could be.

Communication Issues
Arguably Cid's biggest issue is a simple lack of communication with those around him. This is best seen in his relationships with his subordinates: due to believing the Cult of Diablos to be a fabrication he made up and Shadow Garden to be merely going along with his "role-playing", he constantly ignores them whenever they give him a status update. This problem is only exaggerated by Cid frequently taking his act too far, unintentionally causing himself and his organization to be seen as enemies by the entire world.

Lack of Knowledge
Despite his intelligence, due to having only focussed on learning combat, Cid has a general lack of knowledge of the world he inhabits, which is only exaggerated by his disregard for his subordinates informing him on such matters. The consequence of this is perhaps best seen during the "Red Moon Incident" when he just walked away from Elisabeth's coffin upon finding it empty, unaware that the ritual to revive her was still ongoing. While he would ultimately return to the scene and defeat the resurrected Blood Queen, Claire and several Shadow Garden members nearly died as a result of his earlier mistake.

Trivia

 * His past name was 影野 実, Kagenou Minoru. 野 may be ateji to substitute の, thus his name is the beginning of the series title "陰の実力者になりたくて!" (Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!) with 実 being read as "Minoru"; alternatively, 影野 read together means "shadow field", as in Shadow Garden.
 * His new life's family name is カゲノー, Kagenō. When read in the Japanese naming order, Kagenō Cid, which becomes "Kage no Cid", as in "Cid of the Shadows".
 * Cid Kageno also has another meaningful name, such as Cid means "Lord" in Spanish and Arabic while Kagenou sounds like "Of The Shadows" in Japanese. Meaning he didn't have to think too hard of a cool alias for his secret identity, which literally translates to "Lord Of The Shadows".
 * The favorite phrase that Cid usually says in English, whether in his Shadow alias or not; "I need more power", refers to the words, I wish eh ideal, from the character of Vergil, from the saga and video game franchise, Devil May Cry.
 * It is unknown how many languages Cid has learned throughout his previous life on Earth and after reincarnating. Currently, it is known that he knows four to five languages in total including Japanese and English and the language of his current world.
 * Throughout his training, Cid collected various rare and expensive items such as art and antiques from the loots of various bandits he defeated.
 * One of the reasons Cid is always hunting bandits is that he needs money to fund his secret lifestyle as a shadow broker. Alexia baits him into becoming her fake boyfriend by offering him money, he pickpockets around the Lawless City, and he intended to create a credit crisis to affect both the Great Commerce Alliance and Mitsugoshi Company to have a retirement fund. The last point is especially ironic, because he is oblivious that Mitsugoshi is a Shadow Garden front, operated by Gamma, and it actually belongs to him as its leader.
 * So far, Cid has managed to make eight girls fall in love with him: Beta, Epsilon, Nu, Victoria (559), Sherry Barnett, Rose Oriana (666), Aurora, and Alexia Midgar.
 * As Minoru, Akane Nishino had fallen in love with him at some point in time after she found out that he was the masked vigilante that saved her.
 * It is confirmed to us within the Master of Garden game that both Alpha and her presumed aunt, Beatrix, are also in love with Cid. It is not yet clear if the information that the game provides about the characters can be considered canonical.
 * Delta as such is not included in part, because she has more of an interest in animal reproduction than as a love interest, at the level of how humans and elves see it as such. That is, she will not mind sharing and agrees that her Chief, Cid, should have a harem. Although for Cid, it seems something problematic to deal with yet, since he still has no love plans at all.
 * Cid owes a meal to Alpha after eating her share of food she provided during the abduction incident involving Princess Alexia, but has yet to receive an opportunity to return the favor.
 * When people saw Cid's "I am Atomic" spell, they believed it was an artifact that went out of control, as people can't believe that one person could have so much magic power and declare it an impossibility.
 * In response to a threat that the armies of Midgar Kingdom would seek to apprehend Shadow, Cid demonstrates "I Am Atomic" has the range to completely annihilate the entire capital city of Midgar Kingdom in a single blast. Thus, the military power of any nation is nothing Shadow has to fear.
 * In the web novel, "I am Atomic!" was written as "I am Taepodong!", a North Korean-ICBM, but the author soon changed it to "Atomic" for political reasons.
 * As a curiosity, Cid has also taught both directly and indirectly his style and handling of the sword and how to control magic to the people around them, people like his sister Claire Kagenō taught him how to handle magic, Alexia Midgar learned and persisted in his full mastery of the sword imitating Shadow, and Rose Oriana who practices and imitates the elegant way of handling the sword of Shadow, who knew him before as Fancy Bandit Slayer.
 * Due to being in love with Cid and always aware of what he does, both Rose and Alexia have become suspicious of his identity as Shadow.
 * In a certain way, Cid takes justice in a vengeful way against those who confess that they have used others in a selfish way. So much so to the point of killing them exactly as they killed others, such as when Shadow murdered Lutheran Barnett.
 * But he also holds a sense of mercy, as he was willing to let Sherry see him as a villain instead of trampling the memories of her step-father. Willing to be the monster she'd scorn to protect the happiness she cherished.
 * He often speculates that he may not be the only person to reincarnate in the other world, though it's unknown if there are others.
 * According to Alexia's, Shadow reached a sufficient level to generate chaos in the world, since during the "Goddess's Trial", Aurora was invoked as an ideal opponent for Shadow. As according to the trials, Shadow has great power comparable to Aurora, known as the witch who brought ruin to the world.
 * According to Iris Midgar, the ability that Shadow used on her that made her lose her fighting spirit was something similar to what Iris's teacher taught her in her childhood, called the "The vacuum". But, when she saw this attempt in "Mundane Mann", she realized by the time she lost, that what Mundane exercised was at a much higher level than she could ever reach, no matter how much she trained in her own way.
 * According to Beatrix, Shadow's "sword" is as if it merged with nature itself, akin to some kind of natural phenomenon. I.e. like raindrops or lightning, which makes it very dangerous since like any natural phenomenon, it is not known where or when it will attack until it is too late to protect oneself.
 * Shadow confesses to Iris Midgar and Beatrix, that only his name and his way of acting are all that he is, that everything else that has happened is just a fanciful fiction of his mind, unaware of the Cult's reality and their centuries of machinations. But they only take it as a strong insult that motivates them even more to fight.
 * Shadow admits that he only likes to remember people that he admits are very powerful, in swordsmanship, in magic, and other things. Acknowledging that he has only barely admitted Beatrix as one of them, because she pales from the correct handling of magic. Meanwhile, he sees Iris as an amusing but somewhat regrettable case, seeing that she threw away her swordsman's pride by relying on a magical artifact, only to try to kill him. At present, it is speculated that, apart from Beatrix, Cid remembers Aurora as she gave some fun after a long time without a decent opponent. This is apart from the training he did with Delta, and also Elisabeth and Ragnarok, who were the only ones that forced him to get a little serious.
 * Only nine people out of the 600+ members in Shadow Garden have received their power directly from Shadow. These being the original Seven Shadows, Victoria (No. 559) and Rose Oriana (No. 666).
 * Cid in his "Suzuki Hope" disguise, shares the same initials as Sherlock Holmes for his highlighting intelligence, amazing analytical ability, and his deductive prowess.
 * The general public knows Cid as the Warlock, or "Demon Shadow", a being from the depths of Hell who commands an army of beautiful temptresses to commit acts of terrorism. Such as attacking colosseums, government institutions, and religious centers. The Cult of Diablos knows him as Shadow, the master of Shadow Garden and male leader of an otherwise all female secret society that seeks to overthrow their control over the world.
 * Minoru was already so obsessed on Earth, where he hunted down and brutalized biker gangs, earning the name "Ski Mask Berserker." When he returned to Earth as Cid via the Black Rose, many of the Earthlings feared his monstrous strength.