ShadowGarden's Clan

Shadow Garden (シャドウガーデン, Shadou Gāden?) is an mysterious hidden organization founded by Cid Kagenō also known as Shadow. Its primary goal was to eliminate the Cult of Diablos and prevent them from resurrecting the ancient demon, Diablos. However, during the course of their successful mission accomplishments, they also learn about the truth that actually happened between the Three Heroes which have been manipulated behind the scenes, as well as the Cult's origins and true purpose which that caused many misdeed that swept throughout the world to fulfill their own ambitious desires.

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Through the revelations, Shadow Garden's plan is to uncover the truth about the Three Heroes and working in the shadows to save the world from the Cult of Diablos by exposing their crimes in order to avenge their suffering on the oppression they received from the Cult's injustice due to their Demon Possession symptoms, even they mercilessly cut down anyone that belongs to the Cult .

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

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Furthermore, a secret sub-branch within the organization that solely loyal under one of the Seven Shadows, Zeta who reneged on Shadow Garden's original purpose by disregarding any orders from behind the organization's leadership to covertly lead and perform her own mission, which unofficially operates in carrying out her personal agenda to make Shadow as the god of the new world by reviving the Demon Diablos in order to gain immortality.

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

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He performed multiple experiments on the body and accidentally restored the girl to her true self after a month's work. Thinking she might be useful to his cause, he fabricated a story and convinced the elf girl that she was the descendant of one of the Three Heroes who defeated the demon Diabolos, the one responsible for cursing her bloodline with Demon Possession. Adding that the Cult of Diablos, who worshipped the ancient demon, which are responsible for the demonic possession that happened to her and the other descendants and had been planning to resurrect Diablos. The enraged girl then swore loyalty to her new master, Shadow, who renamed her Alpha and the two would co-found Shadow Garden. Ironically, Cid's fabrication was actually true to every detail, unbeknownst to him, and everyone else in Shadow Garden knows this truth, having investigated thoroughly, while he believes it to be role-play.

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

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

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

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

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

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The Seven Shadows (七陰, Shichikage?) are the first seven original members recruited and granted power directly by Shadow himself, who treated demonic possession in each girl which now will become Shadow direct subordinates also the seven executives within Shadow Garden. They spent three years with Shadow and received all of Shadow's martial arts and magic training, so it can be said that they are each Shadow's childhood friends and disciples.

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The Seven Shadows stand in a league of their own within Shadow Garden being as the most powerful and/or skilled with exceptional abilities. Part of that blessing is due to Shadow, who bestowed upon them part of his own magical energy. The other part is his direct teachings in martial arts, warfare, and other practices which contribute to the covert organization. Each of them mastering their respective fields: be it in combat, espionage, science, or economics.

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

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

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Numbers
The Numbers (ナンバーズ, Nanbāzu?) refer to themselves strictly to the order in which they joined, not a ranking system like recruit or lieutenant. However, each set of 100 tends to be a good deal stronger than the next, so the numbers end up being a decent measure anyway. The Seven Shadows gathered nearly 600 people in just two years before Cid enrolled in Midgar Academy.

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

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The Numbers members are regimented among 600+ agents, possibly divided into different roles based on strengths and focused capabilities. Such as soldiers, squad leaders, researchers, spies, scientists, and whatever role they need for the missions. With Lambda's intensive training in practicing magic and swordsmanship, each Numbers member's strength approximately matches at the first-rate dark knight standard for Spellswords.[1] Most of the Numbers members also ostensibly work as staff of Mitsugoshi Company, allowing them to grow civilian personas while operating as an independent espionage outfit.

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

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After graduating from basic training, Numbers member are allowed to personalize the appearance of their slime bodysuit so long as it remains predominantly black, with gold livery, and purple for decorative accessories.

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Zeta's Branch
These sub-branch factions is secretly founded by Zeta, one of the Seven Shadows within the organization that which share the same goal of destroying the Cult of Diablos. However, this faction is created to work with a further goal, namely taking over the world and making Shadow as its god to the new world after he attained immortality by reviving the Demon Diablos through Claire Kagenō, while she become Aurora's host. Because of the nature of their faction, they worked hiddenly in executing their tasks without the leadership's knowledge, both behind and outside the organization's back.

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They consist of Numbers members who are selectively handpicked by Zeta who unofficially run their covert operations, but are still allowed to act on behalf of their organization in a way that legitimizes their actions in carrying out a given tasks, while the members secretly continue their actual activities in furthering the mission without suspicion from their superior.

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Not only Numbers members, Zeta also recruited outsiders who were not affiliated with Shadow Garden to work outside of the organization's boundaries. Unlike Numbers, they are allowed to move freely on their own and act as they please, meaning they can take on high-risk missions from the Shadow Garden that are otherwise forbidden or would require prior clearance from the higher-ups.

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