I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

She was angry.

 

She was also hungry.

 

So she was both angry and hungry, what was the word for that?

 

Hangry?

 

Either way, she was annoyed, while walking back towards the central street.

 

The shadows around her seemed to have calmed down and were clamping down around her, an black carpet formed below her feet while walking and everyone around her started giving her a wide berth.

 

After 10 mins trying to clamp down her shadows into a more normal form, she decided to walk in the shadow of a building while pretending it wasn't her shadow the one darkening the floor. She still got some looks her way since the shadow was visibly more dark.

 

And since her powers were going out of control she put on the stupid bracelet. And while walking she noticed how some people ran inside their houses when she turned at the block, she brought out her smartphone and started mapping her way to a nearby restaurant.

 

'Might as well eat while trying to calm down the shadows.' Was the thought the girl had.

 

So while navigating the streets and going towards the closest restaurant that was in the slums the girl ignored the presence on her periphery. Some wannabe group of thugs thinking that she was easy prey?

 

Perhaps she had been too lenient with the other group. That girl had hit her right in the correct spot while stopping her, but she doubted there would be another pink-haired girl in the next group. She couldn't help but smile at the idea of the next group that attacked her...

 

And she felt the idea spread to her shadows, for among them a few had grown vicious maw and eyes in it. It took her a few minutes to close those maws and eyes, but since it was only a few she didn't mind it that much. Besides who would believe a shadow had maws and eyes?

 

If a drunk squatter ran to her screaming that, she wouldn't believe it at the very least. So she didn't mind it that much how the homeless ran screaming after seeing those shadows, but she did find it annoying how they threw the empty beer bottles all around swearing to never drink again.

 

And since the little maid ran inside her shadow towards those bottles and commanded shadows to throw them into the nearest canister bin... Well her feelings must have bleed over to the shadows.

 

And on that note, the girl kept walking moving between alleyways and deserted buildings, trying to bait her followers into attacking her, and not having too much success. By the point she arrived at the restaurant, she was annoyed at that, and since every time she tried to go to one of those following they ran away... She was pissed.

 

So when she entered the restaurant she almost jumped back at the welcome she got.

 

Not because they finally attacked her. But because the waiter surprised her with a "WELCOME!" in a cheery tone.

 

She looked down and sure enough, her shadow started painting the floor inside the restaurant, but the girl didn't seem to mind it too much "Table for one?" Asked the waiter.

 

Elizabeth just nodded while trying to hide her face in her hoodie, she had checked before and her eyes were still shining red. And since she was on her powered persona she didn't want to cast Magic to hide it as she had done with Rossie before.

 

She didn't want to risk both identities clashing after all.

 

"Right this way miss!" Said the waiter while guiding Elizabeth to one of the tables, most of the ones inside were occupied, so she ended up in a corner. At least the people that were eating didn't seem to mind her that much.

 

...Weird.

 

Before leaving the girl left her a menu and said "When you are ready to order just use the calling button." And left to take other people's orders. She noticed how the girl seemed to take a step and move four almost in a blur.

 

Was she using a [Skill]?

 

While thinking about that a girl arrived at her table "Do you mind?" She had a violet - pinkish hair and took down her hoodie showcasing a pretty face with good makeup on her.

 

For a second Elizabeth wasn't sure what she was asking for. Did she want her to get the shadows under control? Did she want her table?

"The restaurant is full and you are the only one eating alone." Said the girl while pointing at their surrounding. She indeed had noticed how there weren't empty tables, both from when she walked in and from her shadows.

"So, do you mind if we share a table?" Asked once again the girl.

"O-Oh...Yeah, no problem." Said the girl while pressing the button to call for the waiter, the other girl would need her own menu after all.

"Ready to order?" Started saying the waiter girl and then after noticing the girl she was sharing a table with turned and said "ZOE!" And hugged the girl.

For her part, the girl didn't mind the antics and never stopped facing Elizabeth. "I will have the usual." Said the girl while motioning to Elizabeth "Dunno about her."

Elizabeth for her part just looked at the menu, nothing really called to her even while the feeling of hunger persisted. "Just get me the recommended dish of the day." Said Elizabeth while returning the Menu. The waiter took it, smiling at her, and just walked away in her weird blurry way.

"Don't try to understand her [Skill]." Said the violet-haired girl. "Her bad trigger doesn't let her turn it off, so long she stays within a building it's okay, but outside..." Started saying the violet-haired girl before a loud crashing sound was heard.

"I'M OKAY!!!" Sounded the voice of the waiter girl, Elizabeth stood up to try and see where she was and found her stuck in a soft wall at the end of the alley.

It seemed they had added soft cushions to the walls.

"That happens, she ends up rushing in a straight line." Said the violet-haired girl while smiling at her.

She noticed how no one else seemed too surprised about it. "So, what's your deal red eyes?" Asked the violet-haired girl.

"My deal?" Answered back Elizabeth, she wasn't sure what she was implying.

"Yeah, this is your thing right?" Said Zoe while pointing downwards at the floor and the shadows that were whirling below the table. At some point, they had shrunk and only were around their table.

"Haven't seen a pure [Shadow Skill] going out of control in a while." Started saying the girl.

And before Elizabeth could answer, the waiter girl had returned with their food "Here are two house specials!" She happily put their food and drinks on their table. "Anything else I can help you both with?" And since neither girl answered she went on her way.

Elizabeth noticed how the girl had a few band-aids and some bandages on her arms and legs, probably resulting from a hit against the walls?

"So, either you got your [Bad Trigger] recently and are running away..." Said Zoe while taking a sip of her drink, it looked like orange soda. "...Or you had the [Bad Trigger] while running away." Finished saying after taking her sip.

For her part the blonde just looked warily at the girl in front of her while trying to nudge her shadows to investigate around herself, but to no avail. Her shadows were starting to feel sluggish, almost like they were going to sleep.

"I don't know what you are talking about. I triggered at school..." Started saying Elizabeth, scrolling mentally through her list of shadow-aligned skills.

She had been mostly using the [Feel] to use her skills, so she hadn't practiced that much with her Skills.

For her part Zoe just started laughing "Hey everyone, red eyes here says she [Triggered] at school!" and said so in a loud voice.

That brought almost every customer in a loud laughter that carried to the staff, even the waiter girl giggled a little while hiding her mouth behind her notepad.

"No one [Triggers] at school red-eyes." Said Zoe in a more somber tone after the laughter had toned down and the conversation around her returned to other stuff. "They [Scan] you at school to determine your type of [Skill]. Depending on where you go they may either [Unlock] your [Skills] if they had them locked before. Or even [Brand] you with one of their [Geass]...But if you are a powered, you either [Trigger] without noticing or in a blaze of uncontested power." Finished saying the girl.

Leaving Elizabeth thinking about that, she...Hadn't felt her [Skills] or [Magic] before attending the MPI. But that ceremony didn't actually feel as if it had awakened something new...More like she made a connection with a part of her [Soul] that hadn't been able to.

"Also I didn't go to any of your fancy pants [Schools] and I can do this." Said the girl while her hair turned a shader of darker and started emanating a purple gas... That didn't behave as normal gas.

"Hey, no ruining the food of my customers!" Came the voice of an older man who threw a pair of chopsticks in at the violet-haired girl, returning her hair to its normal hue and stopping her gas from moving on.

"I'M GIVING AN EXPLANATION TO THE NEW GIRL HERE OLD MAN!" Screamed back the girl towards the kitchen.

"Do it at your own place then!" Came the answerback, but no further chopsticks flew this way.

"So as I was saying, you can choose to believe whatever you wish, but if your [Skill] acts as it pleases then you had a [Bad Trigger] even if you don't remember it. Some [Bad Trigger] do end with repressed memory issues..." Said the girl while fishing around in her backpack and bringing a pamphlet.

"...Do everyone here carry one of those?" Asked Elizabeth seeing another one of [The Hydra's Fang] pamphlets.

"Oh? Do you have one already? Good" Said the violet-haired girl before pocketing the pamphlet back into her backpack. "Also don't try to unlock those memories, chances are they got locked for a reason...Most of those that end up with locked memories have an easier time controlling their powers like that too...."

"Shouldn't I try to confront those memories to grow as a person?" Asked Elizabeth, she had started eating at some point without noticing.

"Hah!" laughed the girl. "I mean if you are a normie? Yeah...Maybe even if you were a normal powered...But you are a [Shadow Tainted] one...We don't have those luxuries." Smirked the violet-haired girl.

That...was a new world that she hadn't heard before, they discriminate by elemental affinity?

"Shadow Tainted?" Asked Elizabeth, not sure what it meant.

"...For real? No wait...Are you one of those lab rats from [Avalon]?" Said flabbergasted Zoe. At the mere mention of her hometown, the restaurant got awfully quiet.

"...Not a lab rat." Mumbled Elizabeth. "Also Avalon stopped its information embargo a few days ago." Continued saying the girl while showing her smartphone and a search of her hometown. She wasn't sure if it was because her phone was from Avalon itself or not.

But she had seen the article in the library about Avalon lifting its information embargo. They still couldn't actually walk into Avalon, or travel into it. Since Mother hadn't lifted her spell, but at least the outside world could communicate more easily with them.

And the people from [Avalon] could decide if they wanted to share information with the outside world.

"Sorry sorry...Still...They didn't teach you Avalon Kids about bad triggers right...So..." Said Zoe while bringing her own phone and typing something. "Did they teach you about him at least?"

In the phone was an article titled [The 150-year anniversary of 'The Stygian Bane...A terrible reminder of our darkest time].

"Doesn't ring any bell, was he a [Villain] or something?" Asked Elizabeth, by the name alone she could guess that he had some kind of death count attributed to him or something.

"Hah! A villain...You are a riot girl." Laughed the violet-haired girl. "Nah, he was no [Villain] he was one of the second generation [Twelve]. He was the previous boss of [The American Crusader] and the reason why we get so much hate and why they call the [Shadow Skill User] as [Shadow Tainted]"

And then she showed another picture, this time it focused on two men, at the left it was a younger picture of her father, he hadn't bulked up as much as nowadays, and he kinda looked somewhat lanky. But to his right...

To his right was a smiling man with red eyes and a few shadow puppets on his shoulders, the photo even showed a third puppet messing around in her father's hair.

And then she scrolled down and she dropped her spoon on the plate, the next photo was of a destroyed city "He was one of the first instances of a [Bad Trigger], had a hard time controlling his power so he mostly delegated it to self-control using those puppets. His power was allegedly something akin to infuse emotions in the [Shadows] to create the puppets..." Started saying Zoe while Elizabeth took her phone from her hands and started scrolling and reading.

"A group of psychologists tried to break the lock in his power by making him confront his fears..." Kept speaking the girl while Elizabeth scrolled more and more, trying to absorb everything in the note.

She didn't notice how the restaurant had been emptied, nor how her shadows started to spread once again...Only to be shoved down into the ground by an invisible force.

"They managed to make him confront his fears...And managed to make him materialize his power directly through his body too." And at that point, Elizabeth had arrived at the end of the article, where a single photo was.

No longer was the picture of the happy soldier near her father, nor was any puppet around...

"And then after funneling his power into his own body...He killed every single sentient being in that city." Said the violet-haired girl.

 

The photo of a man bathed in blood and covered in armor made of living shadows was shown at the end. He was wearing a crown made of shadows with two horns, in his body was a silver chain, as if someone had tried to restrain him with it and he didn't even care about it. His cape was made of shadows and his face only held a pair of red shining eyes.

 

She couldn't help but raise a hand to her face while seeing the similarities with her own eyes.

 

"Yeah...They say that the red-eyes are a sign of his [Taint] to the world." Said the violet-haired girl.

 

"How...This...Is he still...Alive?" Asked Elizabeth, fear finally striking at her. She didn't want to think about her own [Skills] running out of control and ending like that.

 

She knew this form had red eyes too, but they had shined crimson when her powers had started to go out of control.

 

"Nah, he managed to kill ten out of the original [Twelve]. But in the end [The American Crusader] managed to put him down with the help of a new group of rising new types of heroes. "Said the violet-haired girl. "You may have heard about her...The original [Stardust Explorer] and the original [American Crusader] joined and after that fight their successor always work together." And sure enough...She was shown a new article with photos of her father bleeding and wounded all over the place and her mother sleeping on a nearby bench.

 

Her father stood guard near her and glared in almost every photo she was shown of the scene. Of course, they looked different, her mother looked more mature and her father looked more juvenile. A stark difference from today where her father was the one looking more mature and her mother the one looking more infantile.

 

"[The Original Stardust Explorer] joined by the original council of magicians suppressed the former hero, now known as [The Stygian Bane] just enough for [The Original American Crusader] to kill him." Said Zoe while taking her phone back. "In the aftermath of it, a transmission got broadcasted to the world at large. No one knows what part of his power allowed him, but any radio or tv under a shadow transmitted the same thing."

 

And after searching for a few minutes she played an audio file.

 

"[I CURSE YOU ALL. THE DWELLERS OF THE DARKNESS WILL FIND THEIR RIGHTEOUS PLACE IN THIS WORLD. MAY THE FUTURE MOTHER WISHES FOR COME TRUE. MAY THOSE THAT SHARE OUR SACRED POWER BRING FORTH HER GLORIOUS DAY!]" It sounded like the voice of a deranged man. But all the shadows around trembled, she looked down at her own only to find it also shaking.

 

"And that is why they call those with [Shadow Type Skills] Tainted, no matter who it is or what. If your skill touches a facet of shadows...Then your skill will react to his voice... Even normal shadows will react to this day." Said the violet-haired girl while pocketing her phone back.

 

"They say that on that day all the shadows in the world tried to encroach the world, and only by the combined work of magicians and powered they managed to stop him from calling up his 'Mother'...Whoever that was." Finished saying Zoe.

 

Elizabeth for her part wasn't sure what to think about that. "So he infused his emotions into the shadows and spread them over the world...So any powered with [Shadow Skills] would lose control and follow in his steps?" Asked the girl, that was some level of power beyond what should be possible.

 

"Also magic, the magical girls or mages that use [Shadow Magic] are affected in the same way...Granted they can just not cast that type of spell...Or make contracts to have a demon cast it for them though." Said the girl with a shrug.

 

"But...No wait...What about [Shadow Pact]?" Asked Elizabeth remembering the name of her Idol.

 

"Now you are getting it..." Smiled Zoe. "You see...Even as [Tainted] as we are... We can still control our skills...Granted is more difficult for us...And some government bodies like to stick us with [Tinker Grade] restrainings to make it [Easier] to control the power. But it is possible."

 

"Then what do we need?" Asked Elizabeth, finally seeing a ray of hope in this terrible situation she had found herself.

 

"We just need someone more powerful to help us understand the skill we have. I don't know who helped [Shadow Pact] but the more powerful your skill is, the more powerful your [Helper] needs to be... And judging by the [Size] of your [Influence]...Your best hope is [Echidna]. " Finished saying Zoe.

 

It all ended with [Echidna and The Hydra's Fang]... Did her father send her this way for that reason?

 

"...Who helped you?" Asked Elizabeth, perhaps this girl could point her in another direction?

 

"[Echidna], my skill transforms my [Shadow] into [Poison] so I needed someone strong enough to survive being around me. And the option the government wanted was to lock me into a space station where they could farm my poison and turn it into energy away from any major city...So I joined [The Hydra's Fang]." Answered back the violet-haired girl.

 

"So you can point me in the right direction...?" Asked Elizabeth finally surrendering to the only option she had available.

 

She just hoped her father knew what he was doing by sending her in this direction instead towards [Shadow Pact]. If anything, he wasn't getting any pictures of her working as a [Powered]...

 

Well, maybe a few ones...But not as many as she had planned!