Shadow

— Shadow, to her CotS beast's Tangible Reflection while severely wounded in *Flower*

**Shadow** (シャドー, *Shadō*) is one of the main four protagonists of the light novel series, *Zenith: Across Worlds*. She is first seen in chapter 3 and is the second out of the four to be introduced. In real life, her name is **Kaede Aomine** (青峰楓, *Aomine Kaede*). She was entrapped in the MMORPG, Zenith: Across Worlds, when she first starts the game.

One of the founding members of the Third Corruption, Shadow picked Soldier for her class and is currently level 16.

## Appearance

Standing at around the average height for her age, Shadow is a teenage girl of an olive complexion. Her eyes and hair are brown. She is most seen with her hair up in a ponytail, with her bangs left loose to hang over her eyes and to the sides, framing her face. She does not have any tattoos or scars.

On her torso, she wears a collared, dark blue military style jacket, the sleeves rolled up to below her elbows. Under it, is a black tank top while, tied over her jacket sleeve on her upper left arm is a white cloth. At her hip, she wears a thick black tactical belt; several magazine pouches are strapped to it towards her back. While her forearms are bare, her hands are protected by sturdy fingerless gloves that are dark gray with a lighter gray underside. Being tactical gloves, the knuckles are slightly reinforced with a hard material. Below, she wears dark gray skinny cargo pants. The holster for her main weapon, Farrow, is strapped to the outside of her right thigh. The ends of her pants are tucked into the tops of her footwear, which consist of black military boots. She wears her personalized dog tags, her class accessory, around her neck on her chain.

In combat or in preparation for a quest, she removes her belt and straps on a tactical vest that offer more protection. Compared to standard military vests, the vest she wears is thinner and of a lighter material, to allow for more movement. When the quest she is completing at the time is at a location with a hot temperature or requires even more movement, she takes off her jacket wears only her tank top and vest.

In *Contest the Competition* she was briefly seen wearing a dark blue cloak over her clothes before the CotS Opening Ceremony. Later, in the arc epilogue, she had briefly worn the bronze medal she had won from the competition.

## Background

There is very little information on Shadow's background. As seen from her flashback in *New Player*, she is one of the select players that was allowed into the beta run of ZAW. Her comments suggest that she was not in the alpha, which is also supported by no mention of her participation in the prior test when brought up in conversation by Glass and Rayde.

## Personality

Although she often shares jokes with the group and occasionally outbursts along with her friends if she is passionate about the topic, she remains thoughtful and reflective during discussions. She is often referred to as the most quiet member of her guild. As seen during slow challenges in the Second Annual Clash of the Shops, as well as some time spent with the other members of Zenith's Guardians, she can easily become bored or uninterested. Some have described her as "apathetic" considering that many questions on her preferences are answered with, "I don't know", but this has since been proved to be *only* on such things as her preferences, suggesting otherwise simply an indecisiveness. Upon her first meeting Rayde, potentially saving a stranger from the Ice Serpent, and from her thoughts throughout CotS about deaths and how much she cared for the other Coalition members, it is clear that she is not indecisive nor apathetic about items important to her or actions that embrace the values she believes in.

## Equipment and Abilities

### Weapons

Shadow makes the use of one fusion-type weapon. As seen in chapter 3 from her input into ZAW's system after the message of the virus, it is her only weapon.

* **Farrow** (フェロウ, *Ferō*): Shadow's gunblade, the combination of both a sword and gun. Stored in its more compact form, the gun, the weapon is said to easily switch from that to the sword form and vice versa with a flick of the wrist. The blade is held in a compartment near the muzzle when folded; because of this, it reserves a shorter than average blade than a full length sword. Designed in a center band around the firearm's main body is her insignia, a blue sword aimed upwards that is encircled and wrapped by spines vines. In contrast, the muzzle, blade compartment, and grip are black and the blade and gun body are silver. Magazines are fed into the magazine well located below the grip. Each magazine holds ten rounds, and Shadow may have at maximum seven magazines on her person at one time. Most often, two magazines are stored on her belt for quick-grab, one in her gunblade, and the other four in her inventory. In *Flower*, it was stated that although it has ranged capabilities, Farrow's lack of scopes or zooming allows for only a short to medium-long attack range.

### Abilities

Unlike most characters, all of Shadow's abilities have been seen in the current state of the light novels. Save for her Defend ability, her abilities reflect her strength subclass, which focuses on offensive tactics and the damage inflicted on the opponent.

* Melee - **Power Punch** (パワーパンチ, *Pawāpanchi*): A powerful melee attack, allowing the user to jump a few meters into the air and then drive a fist to the ground, creating a devastating smash effect in the surrounding area.

* Dash - **Beort** (ビオ売ると, *Biouruto*): A teleportation ability, allowing the user to disappear from where he/she was and reappear in another chosen location at a cost proportional to the distance.

* Attack - **Linker** (リンカ, *Rinka*): An ability that can only be used if the user equips a weapon with melee and ranged capabilities. Once the ability is cast, the user charges with his/her weapon, and hits the opponent twice with an enhanced strength bonus. The user then proceeds to perform a ranged attack following suit, firing a damaging ray of energy.

* Defend - **Alech** (アレック, *Arekku*): A regenerative ability, which heals the intended target at a cost proportional to the user’s ability meter.

* Special - **Star Boom** (スターブーム,*Sutābūmu*): A special ability that, when used, can allow the user to charge his/her melee weapon, adding a damage bonus, which is then thrown like an aerofoil. The weapon creates the image of a energy-lit disc, which can hit the opponent on its way forth, and backlash the opponent as it returns to the user. If it makes contact the second time, a small explosion erupts at the point of injury.

## Chronology

### Welcome to Zenith Arc

First seen in *New Player*, she wakes in an ice cave located in Mount Zenith. Realizing that she has been trapped within the game after remembering how she had to change her username and revert her level when she had last attempted to log in, she continues along the cave until she is pursued by an ice serpent. After disabling it, she flees the cave and meets Rayde outside, "dragging" her to the nearby town, Autumncrest, to put distance between them and it. They acquaint and, after sharing similar stories about their gameplay, she accepts Rayde's friend and party request. When Rayde leaves to customize her armor, Shadow is greeted by a wild Ponju and feeds it before it is eaten by a Saesith, which she kills. Rayde returns and they leave to their first quest. Tasked with killing a Corrupted, they exchange attacks and support to one another automatically and rhythmically, the experience revealing how well they fight together, strengthening their friendship in the process.

After the fight, the two attempt to sleep in a deserted village in the forest, perturbed by eerie noises. When they wake, they enter another quest that explores the reason why the village is empty and easily move on to beat a low leveled NPC, Blaze. As they move on, Rayde and Shadow receive a notification about an event that will take place in Autumncrest, and they separate before they enter, agreeing to meet up in the morning.

### Clash of the Shops Arc

Shadow and Rayde meet one another on the morning of the Second Annual Clash of the Shops, where they discuss their respective sponsors. The ceremony begins after she learns of Dozer's bad reputation among players from Rayde, who leaves her when she is called up. After waiting for her turn to proceed to her podium, she degradedly steps to her podium amid a lower applause, self conscious, and listens to the rules. When she lines up, Dozer gives her a small wooden box before the gun fires.

When the event officially starts, she is trapped in the fog conjured by DarkWind. After she decodes the secret behind the kopiurufu illusions, they are released from the fog and she begins running. En route to the first objective, she acquaints with the representatives that have kept pace with her: Winter, Lane, Guradel, and Blaze. Although they complete the first objective with Shadow's suggestion that they should use the lampposts and shop signs to move above the crowd, before they are free, she falls and is stabbed in the back by a representative. Saved and healed by Guradel, aided in running by Winter until she recovered, they proceed to the next challenge. In the second objective, she is saved by Guradel and Lane on close calls and is protected by Blaze with his defensive attack; she heals Winter after she is choked by Jet. Later, she defeats Jet and Daren, the leaders of the Silver Hawk Guild, and they leave in high hopes. En route to the next objective, she realizes how grateful she is toward the other Coalition members and assesses each Coalition member's potential to betray, but they are soon interrupted by the rule change. They receive a notification about the death of a representative and Shadow analyzes it: “... we have to assume that a player died either in front of us or behind us. So, we just have to be wary, you know, in case they really did die ahead of us... it means that the objectives are getting harder.” In the third objective, the five hide under a table cloth and she and Lane are separated from the others where they struggle to remain hidden from the uroko-jōmonos. Using Draken as a distraction, they escape relatively easily; Shadow leaves the objective with a cut on her back and Lane checks her wound. After, they converse with one another and she hears of Lane's first meeting with his sponsor.

Catching up to Rayde in the fourth objective, they struggle in their attempt to solve the riddle. After the second notice of a player death is sent to them, Shadow realizes from Rayde's reaction the harsh reality she now inhabits, deeply troubled by the mystery as to what happens to players after their deaths: “If there are real people trapped within a game... do even they... get a second chance?” Lane comforts her through his words, “Hang in there,” and they continue with the riddle. Later, Rayde flicks Shadow on her forehead and the riddle is deciphered by her and the other arriving representatives. After she thinks about betrayal from seeing two representatives she names the "pink and punk duo", the Coalition finally solves the riddle with Shadow's help. On the way to the fifth objective, Shadow describes to Lane her story of how she became the representative of Dozer’s Souvenir Shop, and thanks him for his words he said earlier. Upon reaching the next challenge, the members are split up, leaving to their own doors. Shadow fights a substantially higher leveled player, Reyn, under pressure as the Coalition's fifteen minute timer slowly ran out. After she beats him, she exits the objective to a happy reunion with all the members.

En route to Glacier's Hollow, being notified of three more player deaths, a depressed Shadow talks to Lane and he tells her strictly but concernedly to stop lying. They console and talk about the Hollow. Out of sight of both Guradel and Winter, Shadow is knocked out and later awakens to find Guradel and Winter healing her, with Blaze in front of them, deflecting bullets, and Lane firing in their direction. She is shot in the shoulder with an enhanced bullet and is slowly healed by Guradel's Centric Mend. Another bullet comes forth after Blaze deflects it and the pair are protected by Winter who jumps in its path. Shadow worries for her and supplies her with limited aid. She protects her by deflecting bullets until she finds out that Winter's health has been steadily draining; she holds her in her arms and talks to her until she dies.

     Comforted by Guradel, she voices her feelings and deep-seated worries about the treachery and hails insults towards Lane. Seeing an expression that "did not belong to a killer", Guradel alerts her to Blaze's lying about his abilities; she remembers Winter's last words about the ease of deflecting bullets and, after they are hit by Dragon's Wheel, it is clear that Blaze is the one who betrays them. After Lane and Guradel lose to him, Shadow, who is still weak from her injuries, engages him after she obtains Farrow from Guradel and loses as well. They discuss betrayal and, before she is stabbed in the shin, Lane engages him once more. Guradel moves her away from the battle and before she is able to help, Lane tackles him and Blaze over the cliff. Comforted by Guradel once more, after she thinks she hears Lane yelling from the cliff and rushes to see over the abyss, she poignantly takes her leave.

She sees the "pink and punk duo" once more en route to Glacier's Hollow and watches their fight for a short time, moving on to the caves afterwards. Exploring, she makes her way to the next open Beast cavern. Defeating an uroko-jōmono, the "NPC" that had asked for her assistance steals her only full magazine and Shadow realizes it is a Tangible Reflection sent from the real beast. When she is shot at, she cleverly decodes that the Beast is a player-type creature, as well as its location. Although disabled by gunshot wounds, she flees from a crowd of uroko-jōmonos and scales the wall to the Beast, using Beort before she falls. Moving on to defeat it, she quickly drains its health and collects the Kiken Stone before exiting up a ladder. She deploys Dozer's small wooden box that is revealed to be a portable Maiyakami and, passing many representatives, she loses altitude and crashes on the Lower Nymril Plain. Realizing later that the crash had been due to Rayde, the two race toward the finish line. With Draken and Guradel caught up, the four sprint, tied for first place. She stops with the others when Rayde is knocked to the ground by a creature blocking the route and the two later cut off the creature's tentacle. She fires a bullet through it and sprints after Rayde when they realize it is a Tangible Reflection; she places third in the event. Thanked by Dozer and self conscious of her performance involving the Coalition, the chapter ends with her sitting on the ground with Guradel. She lies that she is fine and, in answer to Guradel's "Keep strong like that!..." she agrees.

It is revealed in the epilogue that she and Rayde had left when the deaths of the representatives were being announced, lying and brushing it off to Rayde that she had not been with either Winter, Lane, and Blaze at the time. She is strongly pressured to open up, finally doing so when Rayde mistakes Shadow's silence for mistrust. She denies it, and implies that the betrayal had taught her not to trust. Rayde comforts her and they move on together, Shadow saying softly that "I'm finally learning to breathe again." They continue along and pass two groups of players; both whisper about them after they pass but the second stare at Shadow's companion. She questions Rayde about what had happened and after talking about a creature she had beat, they continue along.

## Relationships

### Rayde

Shadow and Rayde have shared a close friendship ever since their first meeting atop Mount Zenith. Although she endures Rayde's pranks and violence, it is clear that they both enjoy the other's company. The pair has been shown to joke with one another in most scenes, even in times that doing so would distract them from their objective or be a danger to their wellbeing. Additionally, they both exercise a sense of care over the other. In battle, Rayde and Shadow are quick to share their healing and restoration potions. Other times, if one notices that the other is troubled, she will attempt to comfort her to the best of her ability. However, although they may care for each other, this leads to a secrecy between them on Rayde's part, clear in CotS, The Epilogue. Reserving to herself her haunting misgivings about player deaths and her actions in Glacier's Hollow, she deals with the pain by herself in order to prevent further worry to Shadow, who has not noticed as of yet.

### Guradel

A player Shadow befriended during the Second Annual Clash of the Shops, the two along with Winter, Blaze and Lane made up the event's Coalition. After the competition, they are often seen with one another when the main and side four are together. In chapter 19, for example, Shadow and Guradel were pitted against each other in the arena, both of whom had seemed to enjoy the experience until the duel was interrupted.

It is implied that Guradel holds affection for her, often seen through his extreme attempts to heal or save her during the competition, even if the result would clearly be fruitless. Although his sadness was apparent when he would see Shadow and Lane together, he did not act angrily or display any hint of bad-natured jealousy. However despite these, it seems that Shadow has not noticed his affection yet.

### Lane

Shadow and Lane met one another during the Clash of the Shops event en route to the first objective. Although Shadow had not seemed to care for his actions in the beginning, she later accepted him happily when he opened up to her; they often conversed with one another in between objectives. At times when Shadow had been perturbed or depressed, Lane would be the first to notice and to comfort her. However, although their relationship with one another would be punctuated by seriousness, it was playful and, at times, comical. For instance, in *Blind*, when Shadow paces around, worrying about their position during the riddle objective, Lane coolly walks up to her and holds her in place, murmuring, "Stop pacing." Since the competition, she often reflects about him, and although her thoughts at times bring her back to the painful memories, she slowly learns to accept his death with the help of Guradel and Rayde, that a very likely possibility being that no one has seen him since.

It is unknown whether or not Shadow and Lane had both liked one another in a romantic sense. They had both seemed to concentrate on each other during conversations and had equal reactions of desperation and heroics when the other was injured. However, Shadow often mentioned that the reason for doing so was that she "sincerely cared for all four of them, even in the midst of those bonds breaking [the betrayal]". On the other hand, Lane would only mention his stories and thoughts to her, be it relevant to the current events or simply to cheer her up, even if doing so would ridicule himself. Additionally, although Shadow is extremely depressed when Winter dies, she has a different reaction when Lane does, as seen when she finally leaves Guradel; she is silent and deceiving, suggesting an emptiness.

## Quotes

* "I'm so glad I got into the beta... Two more weeks left; the real thing is going to come out in stores soon."
* "Alright then. Not the greatest day so far."
* "Let me guess: there's bad news, too?"
* "... we have to assume that a player died either in front of us or behind us. So, we just have to be wary, you know, in case they really did die ahead of us... it means that the objectives are getting harder."
* "If there are real people trapped within a game... do even they... get a second chance?"
* "This is why we use guns."
* "Lane!... Winter is dead!... She was shot!... She was eliminated!"
* "That 'three percent'... it matters now, doesn't it?"

## Trivia

* The kanji of her first name in real life, 謡子 (*Yōko*), means "noh (Japanese word for skill or talent), child".
* On the inside of the end cover for the Clash of the Shops Volume, there was an info page that listed her preferences and traits which included:
	+ Her blood type is B and she is left-handed.
	+ She stands at a height of 164 cm (5' 5").
	+ She eats any food if it contains strawberries.
	+ Her favorite color is blue.
	+ Her favorite candy is a chocolate found in Zenith with caramel and cookie.
* She has been seen eating foods that are flavored or contain strawberry so much that it has become a running gag between the other characters.
* The fan-made ship names that involve her include:
	+ between her and Lane: "Shane"
	+ between her and Guradel: "Guradow" or "Shadel"
	+ between her and Rayde: "Shayde"
	+ between her and Reyn: "Sheyn"
* *To Each One's Own, Sorrow*, the second poem that was released with chapter 16, takes place during the CotS Epilogue. It is mainly told from her point of view.
* In the character song she shares with Rayde, BEAUTIFUL≑SENTENCE, she is the second of the two voices to sing.
* In the 2nd Annual Clash of the Shops, she places third and receives a bronze medal.
* Her favorite weather is rainy.
* Rayde's nickname for Shadow, Miss Maiya, refers to the vehicle Shadow had used during the last moments of the CotS: Dozer's Maiyakami.