Alpha

"If that's what you want, then I'll devote my life to it."

- Alpha

Alpha (アルファ) (Aλφα) is the first of Shadow Garden's original "Seven Shadows", as well as a descendant of the "Elf Hero" Olivier. After being cured of Demon Possession by Shadow, she devoted her life to him. Though technically second-in-command, she is the organization's true leader in all but name, since she is the one managing it.

Appearance
Alpha is a young, slender, voluptuous, and extremally ravishingly beautiful female elf with long golden blond hair and blue eyes. She has often been described as strongly resembling her ancestor, the "Elf Hero" Olivier, as well as the Goddess of War, Beatrix, her aunt. Those who once saw her are said to be become utterly mesmerized by her bewitching beauty. Even Cid himself described her as an unparalleled beauty, standing in a league of her own among the most beautiful individuals. When Rose Oriana and Alexia Midgar saw her beautiful visage at the sanctuary, after she revealed her face to them, their initial thought was that her beauty was so captivating that it itself alone is enough to make someone grasping for their breath. She appeared to be the perfect embodiment of elegance, with features so refined that it seemed as though someone had sculpted her out of stone, meticulously chiselling her body with the most graceful and exquisite features.

In her civilian attire, Alpha normally wears a revealing dark decorative gown with opera gloves and high heels, a choker, and a necklace. Alpha tends to wear this look as her default fashion, usually when overseeing affairs within Shadow Garden. Depending on the occasion, Alpha will wear another attire, such as when she dressed as in a school uniform to see Cid after Princess Alexia's abduction and update him.

During her Shadow Garden activities, she adorns herself in the customary slime bodysuit, with the chest area exposing her cleavage. There are also unique decorations patterned around her uniform, reminiscent of her gown's décor, with numerous gold accents displaying status. She wears Shadow Garden bracers with golden ends, lining, and design, signifying her authority. The lining of her shoulders connects at the throat where a piece of the bodysuit is stylistically placed over her sternum. Under her breasts, a gold diamond shape is centered atop her diaphragm, with two parallel gold trims starting from her bustier at the exposed cleavage and descends to where her torso meets her pelvis. Along her hips are ornate golden stripes, with symmetrical decoration of two belts originating from her inner thigh and a third belt around the center of the femur. On her feet, she wears platform high heels with gold edged collars.

Additionally, in the written media, she wears a domino mask with an attached flower and frill to hide her identity when operating. However, her mask is omitted in the anime, showing her face to other characters such as the princesses Alexia Midgar, Rose Oriana and the cult 11th Seat Knight of Rounds, Jack Nelson.

Personality
"You poor thing, I know it hurts... You don't have to suffer anymore! You don't have to feel any more pain, any more sadness!"

- Alpha to Millia, before mercy killing the mutated girl

Alpha is determined to bring an end to the reign of the Cult of Diablos, believing it to be Cid's wish. She has made the promise to Cid that she will give her life to him in return for returning her to her real form, curing her from being nothing more than a rotting mass of flesh. Hence why she is determined to make Shadow Garden prosper, in order to fulfill that goal and looks down on those who get in the way of her and her comrades.

However, Alpha is more than that, being compassionate and extremely loyal to Cid and caring to all her comrades specially her fellow six shades in the Shadow Garden. Alpha has the utmost faith in her leader as she knows his full strength and she is completely loyal to him, but there are times she is concerned for his safety and well-being and pleads for him to trust her and Shadow Garden. Her faith is so strong, she's even willing to give her life to him without any hesitation and nearly did so when it looked like Shadow abandoned her and Shadow Garden. When such a betrayal was a consideration, Alpha rejoiced alongside the others when they learned he was actually covertly securing funds, which secured their civilian identities from association with Shadow Garden. Alpha is the only member of the Shadow garden and the Seven Shades, who doesn't use any honorifics like lord, master, arji or sama when addressing Cid; she simply calls him Cid or when he is in his alter-ego Shadow.

Befitting to her position as the second-in-command, Alpha acts with utmost professionalism and takes her role very seriously, often maintaining a cold and imposing appearance, and is not above reprehending her comrades for their behaviour and how they act during the missions, specially Delta. She is aware about her wild and chaotic nature and keeps her in line whenever she seems to turn reckless since she, alongside Cid, is the only one capable of controlling Delta. Alpha, when acting as the leader of the Shades and the Shadow Garden, is very serious and rarely smiles. She reveals her most natural self when she is with Cid, radiating happiness and a warm smile. When the girls left Cid to expand the Shadow Garden and eliminate the cult from the world, her face in the anime, just before her departure, appeared very sad, and it seemed like she was on the verge of tears as she turned away

As she spearheaded most of Shadow Garden's operations, Alpha always ensures that those under her command return safely and refuses to give them an order that she would not be willing to do herself. She is known to many to be extremely attractive, yet solemn, but having a strong sense of justice and a heart of kindness.

Powers & Abilities
Alpha is the second-strongest member of Shadow Garden, surpassed only by Shadow. Her strength is so undisputed that none within the organization dare oppose her directly, including her fellow "Shadows". Even Cid was impressed by how much she had grown. Rose and Alexia noted that while Shadow is the ultimate threshold of strength, Alpha is at least at the level of his footing. However, while proficient in many areas, she is outmatched by her comrades in the fields they specialize in.

Supernatural Physical Prowess
It is speculated that one of the reasons Alpha become so powerful was due to the failed initial experiments that Shadow experimented on her, which raised her internal magical level drastically. This was further compounded when he dissipated and finally contained her lack of control over her magical power back inside her body when she was under Demon Possession. She gained all that magical power after regaining her physical body.

Professional Swordsmanship
Alpha has shown to be an extremely skilled and powerful swordswoman as seen when she easily disarmed Iris Midgar, the strongest swordswoman in the Kingdom, albeit by catching her off-guard, and defeating a monstrously mutated Millia which Iris struggled against. Alpha is also the only other person aside from Shadow in Shadow Garden that is known to have defeated Delta, whose destructive power is second only to the former. Even Cid was impressed by how much she had grown in power and skill of the sword.

Cid once mentioned in the anime that Beatrix was just barely at the level of the Shadow Garden in terms of sword skills despite being the World Strongest Swordswoman. Alpha being the strongest and stated as the best magic user in the group implies that she’s exponentially stronger than Beatrix. This was further supported when Alpha was able to scratch Shadow’s cheek, draw blood, and cut all of his strings despite being emotionally unstable, forcing him to use his real sword to push her away while Beatrix was unable to land a single blow against him during their respective serious battles.

Skilled Combatant
Alpha has shown that she is a great hand-to-hand fighter, training to be a woman suitable to stand by Shadow despite the fact that she is mostly only known by her greatest strength which are sword attacks. During her combat practice against Karen, (who would later join Shadow Garden, and become Chi), at one instance in which Karen managed to disarm Alpha, she gave her a couple of strong blows in quick succession using bobseo style and finished her with one to her head and body, blasting her away. According to Lambda's words and analysis, Alpha, if she is ever in need can fight bare-handed, and resort to brute force just like Delta.

Advanced Intellect
Throughout the series, Alpha is noted to spearhead most of the operations of Shadow Garden, transforming the organization into what it is known for. Her intellectual prowess is further shown during the Sanctuary infiltration where she accurately deduced major information regarding the goal of the Cult of Diablos, particularly their interest in Diablos and their connection to Demon Possession. Despite this feat however, she shares the same utmost reverence to Lord Shadow as her fellow shadows, failing to notice her master's true witless actions.

During her battle with John Smith, she was able to deduce that he was Shadow just from the way he fights, moves and techniques displayed, faster than Delta was able to discern his identity through her nose.

Infiltration
Aside from her combat abilities, she also possesses excellent stealth, infiltration and reconnaissance abilities, being personally educated by Cid himself who had honed and perfected such abilities from a combination of both his past and present life. Alpha is very good at erasing her presence completely from anyone, aside from Shadow, who can detect her after easily having known her for years.

Leadership Skills
Alpha is a exceptional commander, serving as Shadow Garden's second-in-command and effectively its true leader since she is the one who manages the organization and saw to its growth to a global network of agents. Meanwhile, although Shadow is the official leader, he often has no idea what is going on, which Alpha is ignorant of given his role in her origin.

Magic
Despite her rarely displaying the use of magic, Alpha is known to be extremely gifted in the practice, being able to heal those under the possession without any difficulty, something only Cid and Epsilon are capable of. Shadow always compares others using Alpha as a benchmark, and no one has been able to match her skill thus far.

Standard Equipment:

 * Slime Bodysuit:


 * Slime Weapons:

Bursts of Magical Cuts (Game)
TBD

Magic Download
Alpha can charge her magic into her slime sword and launch it in the form of a powerful dive attack against her enemy. When she fights the mutation of the Millia, Viscount Grease's daughter, Alpha uses this ability for the first time.

Red Mist Form
Given her mastery of magic and discipline of character, Alpha is always looking to improve her technique, thus she has been able to master the Vampire Queen's technique in record time after studying its source. Now, Alpha can master this technique and her body can become a kind of magical mist pool like the Red Mist, with which she can deal a lot of damage, pierce through physical attacks, and better magic when she is somewhat small or partially invincible. She used this ability during the Trade Conflict against a counterfeiting master, revealed to be Shadow. She acted frantically from feeling betrayed, but Shadow defeated her as she couldn't resume the use of Red Mist when he was likely to irreparably spread her along the winds. He taught her that despite being a killer technique, it lacks in force and can be blown away with wind, showing that her potential has not been fully realised.

In the anime, this technique has a blue aura enveloping her entire body. She is untouchable from any physical attacks and has to solidify to attack. It worked remarkably well against John Smith, serving to draw blood from him multiple times. It forced him to use his hand to block and resort to wind damages to defeat her technique. This skill also allows her to fly.

Quick Flash
Alpha can use her magic to move quickly against her enemies, this ability was taught to her by her leader, Shadow, just like the other original members of Shadow Garden. She is the second fastest behind him as seen whenever the group travels together.

Skilled Tactician
After the fall and revival of Mitigoshi, Alpha has started to study and think of the bigger picture. Under the tutelage of Gamma, she can make quick deductions and better reform her plans to the ever changing situation that Shadow Garden often becomes entangled in, focusing on making sure that she has the skill to foresee a wide variety of variables that could affect the plans success, often making Gamma feel a bit worried that Alpha could be a better tactician then her, but Alpha usually insists to work on the outlayer of the plan, with Gamma focusing on the majority of the work.

Trivia

 * Alpha's magic is a blue color.
 * Alpha has shown to have a special respect and affection for Cid, as her biggest fear is not being able to be by his side anymore.
 * Despite being the strongest of the Seven Shadows, Alpha is always training and developing new combat techniques with the sole objective of always keeping up with Cid.
 * Like Gamma, Alpha as well has devoted her life solely for Cid and his cause.
 * Alpha is Cid's first disciple and first friend after his reincarnation.
 * Alpha always assumes a role when interacting with the other shadows or members of the Shadow Garden, similar to how Cid takes on the role of Shadow. Cid is the pillar of support for Alpha. Among the seven shadows, she is seen as a flawless leader, creating a clear distinction between her and the others. With Cid, she can be her true self without any need for pretense. He stands as her unwavering grip on support, never to abandon her – a family member, friend, mentor, and the object of her affection and devotion: her love.
 * Unlike in the light novel, anime, game, and web novel, Alpha is seen participating in the assault on Midgar Academy, while not in the other story routes, as only Gamma was available for it. (possibly it was done, to encourage the humor of the readers).
 * Both Alpha and Aurora share something in common, and both are unexpected results because of the experiments and results, which both parties sought differently. Alpha was accidentally cured by her Lord Shadow, and Aurora became a powerful demon, because of the experiments of the Cult of Diabolos.
 * It is speculated that the reason why Alpha, Epsilon and their Lord Shadow can cure the cursed, it is because like Shadow, Alpha and Epsilon, they partially experienced their magic, and partly with their body, to be able to Win strong control, about their magic, at the same time as companied with the power of Shadow, they can also cure cursed girls from the Curse of Diabolos. This is speculated from the Game.
 * Cid currently owes her a meal after eating both shares of food she provided during the abduction incident involving Princess Alexia, but he has yet to have an opportunity to return the favor.
 * Alpha is the practical leader of Shadow Garden since Cid doesn't really do anything but indulge in his fantasies as a "Eminence in the Shadow," but he is still seen as active by his involvement. She is highly competent, mature, determined, and charismatic. All of the Seven Shadows acknowledge her as having the highest authority in the organization after Shadow and loyally follow her orders.
 * So far, Alpha's leadership has only been challenged by Delta once shortly after the start of Shadow Garden, when Delta challenged Alpha for the position of second in command. However, Alpha defeated her effortlessly, and after Delta's traumatic defeat, the Beastkin Wolf holds the upmost respect and fear for Alpha. In addition, Delta obeys her orders without question.
 * Alpha's hair color is platinum in Web-novels as (白金) and for some reason, Google Translate keeps translating as Gold/blonde (金). This topic has been a debate between the initial older readers of web-novel series. Even the official translator of the light-novel series, Taishi, has no idea of the hair color in the web-novel.
 * It was revealed in the Chapter 3 on Syosetu, her hair color is stated as (金髪), which is translated as "Blonde"
 * It is revealed in the short episodes of Kage-Jitsu, that Alpha lacks a sense and taste for female fashion, since childhood, she has always been afflicted with the Demon Curse, but even so, she tries to learn, from the tastes and the beauty of it, such as wearing sexy underwear, supported by Gamma.
 * Like many members in the Shadow Garden, such as Beta, Epsilon, Delta, among others, Alpha has a loving desire for her Lord, Shadow, having desires to be his wife, without saying so aloud. This is revealed more within the Master of Garden game than in the anime itself.
 * During Alexia's kidnapping only in the anime, when Alpha found out that Cid was dating, she partially attempted to flirt with him by dressing in a schoolgirl outfit. This implied her love interest in him and the jealousy she felt seeing Cid with another girl.
 * According to the surveys, with the voice actors of the characters, Alpha is madly in love with Cid, which was ascertained by her Japanese voice actress, Asami Seto [ Japanese VA interview ] during her interview.