Or What If? Minoru Kagenou reincarnated as a woman. That's the premise.
To Be A Female Eminence in Shadow is a fanfic written by levelgap, based on The Eminence in Shadow series. The fic began on 3 January 2023.
The fanfiction can be found here
and here.
The fic contains the following tropes:
- Accidental Hero: Chibirisa explodes and kills the cult members at the Muyu region, sparing orphan children from being either experimented on or becoming brainwashed minions for the cult.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Zigzagged. Arisa is still every bit the oblivious Chuunibyou her canon counterpart is but her frail appearance combined with the fact that she doesn't know how to act like a cliché female "mob" makes her natural apathy comes across as more along the lines of melancholy from an outsider's perspective. As Arisa Frelldyll, she's seen as a gloomy, withdrawn young girl who's Delicate and Sickly, while as Shadow, her enemies and allies alike believe that she's long since passed the Despair Event Horizon.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Like in canon, many members of Shadow Garden swore loyalty to Shadow out of gratitude for saving them from Demonic Possession. However because this fic has Shadow being an Angel, from Shadow Garden's point-of-view, someone not remotely associated with the Three Heroes and Diabolos came to their rescue regardless, causing Shadow Garden to be even more loyal to their leader.
- Berserk Button: In Chapter 31, seeing Arisa seemingly die while protecting Rose causes the majority of the school students to go absolutely insane.
- Celestial Body: In Chapter 50, Arisa creates a gigantic angel-like construct Made of Magic whose only features are that its body is patterned after the night sky. After the construct disappears, hundreds of its feathers are left, having the same night sky patterns as well.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- In Chapter 49, Gomez Erbyu completely thrashed Epsilon and would have killed her, had Arisa not intervened.
- In the next chapter, Arisa easily turned the tables on Gomez who was reduced to a bloody and crippled pile before being vaporized for good by the former's I Am The Distant Atomic.
- Cute Monster Girl: In Chapter 64, Eta uses blood samples she collected from Arisa and experimented them on slime resulting in the creation of Chibirisa, a slime clone that looks like Arisa.
- Delicate and Sickly: Played with. As Minoru didn't research into how to be a mob as a female, as Arisa she tries out several ideas on how to be one, only to cross out the vast majority of things she came up due to various reasons (mainly because she can't see herself as a mob no matter her act). At her wits' end, she ends up acting like a gloomy girl who barely even takes care of her appearance. This makes her look deceptively frail, ill, and pitiful, which everyone take note of: this leads to just about everyone developing a sense of protectiveness, fondness, or at the very least sympathy to Arisa. Her parents keep her from attending social circles out of care (to the point Arisa has to break character to convince them to let her alone attend a knight academy), Claire feels like she can't leave Arisa alone in the world, and the academy students sharing a club with Arisa tend to shower her with free gifts. So far, only Alexia feels something is off about Arisa, and sure enough, it's all just an act as Arisa is the powerful and deadly Shadow.
- Enchanted Forest: In Chapter 68, Arisa accidentally creates a violet-colored forest at the Muyu region, resulting in various groups to be attracted to it like monsters and the Cult of Diabolos.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Like the main series, many people misunderstand Shadow's actions.
- Alpha believes Arisa abandoning Shadow Garden is her attempt to protect them from getting caught in her fight against Aurora. Arisa's real reason is that she just wants to start a fight against the Church.
- Shadow Garden misinterprets Arisa's questioning of their headquarters as her calling them out on becoming so complacent by indulging in a lavish environment. In truth, Arisa is genuinely wondering what the building is.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Viscount Grease is completely against the cult's plans in kidnapping Arisa because she bears a lot of similarities with his daughter.
- Fangirl: After several failures and consulting with Epsilon, Arisa decides to become this, believing this to be an ideal female mob character. In Chapter 23, this has backfired, as Arisa is so well known by her Delicate and Sickly persona that two fan clubs fight over their "precious member" and unknowingly has a fan club of shy girls that admire her and her attempts to make friends. Chapter 27 follows this up by showing boys and girls become very infatuated with her that they flooded the Bushin Festival by what appears to be the very last minute of registration period, all for a chance of impressing and going on a date, through the prize of winning the festival, with her.
- Foreshadowing: Several clues litter across the chapters that hint at Arisa's angelic nature.
- Arisa describes her mother, Martha Frelldyll to that of a heroine from a fantasy light novel series. Turns out that both she and Arisa are part of a Heroic Lineage of the Heavenly kind.
- Following Arisa's kidnapping, her parents' constantly worry for their daughter's safety and take extreme lengths to protect her including increasing security personnel and keeping her away from social gatherings. They fear someone knows about the Frelldylls having angel's blood.
- People fawning over Arisa to the point of complete fanaticism.
- The large number of cult members present around Frelldyll territory suggests that Arisa may possess something that's equally valuable to or far greater than that of the royal families.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- Arisa is born to the Frelldyll household, resulting in Claire being the only child to her family.
- Because she is an only child, Arisa becomes the heir to her family, meaning she has to bear all the responsibilities that came with it and had to be tended to 24/7, much to her chagrin.
- Having being reincarnated as a woman, Arisa now became the target for the cult as females are more susceptible to Demonic Possession. Subverted. Chapter 44 reveals that Arisa does not belong to the bloodline of the Three Heroes from which all Demon Possessed children came from, but something else entirely....
- The kidnapping leads Arisa to pick up the magic-suppressing cuffs used to detain her and Claire. Being given an extremely effective Power Limiter allows her to train magic control under conditions that Cid could not subject himself to in canon, leading Arisa to develop even more refined magical control and understanding than Cid, who is already the World's Strongest Man. This change also affects Alpha who also undertook the same albeit less extreme training to improve herself as well.
- Arisa didn't become friends with Skel Etal and Po Tato as she was genuinely creeped out by them.
- Epsilon didn't create her slime body suit as she didn't need to be conscious about her figure when around Arisa, meaning she's in her actual slender and petite form all the time.
- In canon, Cid was framed by Zenon for kidnapping Princess Alexia. In this fic, it's Thea Patty, the Alexia Fan Club's president.
- In Chapter 18, it's revealed Shadow Garden succeeded in rescuing Grease's daughter, Millia, and cured her of Demonic Possession. She's currently a member of Shadow Garden, under the name Juniper.
- In Chapter 31, due to Arisa being far more well-known by the other students than Cid, when she takes a mortal blow for Rose, several students go ballistic seeing her seemingly killed, which results in more students fighting back against the terrorists attacking the academy. This, in turn, results in more student casualties compared to the practically zero body count in canon.
- In Chapter 36, Lutheran ends up revealing his true nature as the killer of Sherry's mother in front of Sherry herself. In the next chapter, Shadow also allows Sherry to kill her own adopted father, setting the latter to a very different path.
- Due to Arisa' absence since the former was dragged back home to deal with potential suitors, Alpha was forced to be the one of participating the trial to forcefully pry the sanctuary open. However, instead of Aurora, she fought Olivier.
- Arisa' absence from Holy City of Lindwurm from the start caused a wrench on Shadow Garden' efforts to break through, which caused some collateral to befall the innocent, something that made Alpha guilty and felt responsible for.
- Good Parents: Despite grooming and pressuring Arisa to be an heir, the Frelldylls are caring and loving parents to Arisa. After she gets kidnapped, as soon as she returns to them safe, they tell her they don't care about her role as heir and only want to take her happiness as their first priority.
- Heroic BSoD: Played for Laughs. Arisa discovers she can't actually become a mob character like she wanted, because all the mob knowledge she knows are more specifically for males. However, it's because of this existential crisis she that exhibits genuine depression, which is why her gloomy girl act is so effective in deceiving people.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: In Chapter 61, Arisa uses the same Energy Absorption trick the Holy Sanctuary utilizes against it thanks to Nelson's actions.
- Humongous Mecha: The Cult of Diabolos possesses a giant machine called El Gigante. It's unleashed to confront the Seven Shades.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: As Shadow, Arisa takes this even further than Cid by wearing magic suppressing cuffs in her wrists even when fighting. As she has learned how to use magic even under its effects, all they really do is suppress her magic signature, which is a beneficial side effect as it prevents people from sensing her unless she makes herself known. And true to this trope, she still takes them off for I Am Atomic.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Claire assumes the reason Arisa joins multiple fanclubs dedicated to different popular students is to have people to befriend.
- In-Series Nickname: Instead of "Lord Shadow", the Shades refer to Arisa as "Lady Shadow".
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Despite not being born to the Kagenou family, Arisa still rescues Claire and heals her Demonic Possession as a result of the cult kidnapping Arisa as well.
- Epsilon is still a master of magic control despite her main motivation not being present.
- After learning the true nature of her father, Sherry ends up killing him. Though she is not after revenge like in canon, she still leaves the academy and specifically her admired Arisa, due to believing her hands have been stained with blood.
- Instant Fan Club: Both Alexia Midgar and Rose Oriana have groups of female admirers. Once tipped off that Zenon is actually a criminal (member of Cult of Diabolos), Arisa uses Alexia's fan club to spread rumors about him and get him off Alexia's back for a bit.
- Kill It Through Its Stomach: In Chapter 75, Delta rips apart the Betsu Beast from the inside after the monster eats her.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Claire becomes this to Arisa, not knowing she doesn't need it at all.
- Little Miss Badass:
- Arisa is only 12 years old when the Cult of Diabolos kidnaps her. The only reason the kidnappers even manage to leave her room alive is because she is curious where they would take her, and to act out her mob fantasy.
- 3 years later, Shadow Garden gains one of their youngest personnel yet in Juniper, or Grease's daughter, Millia, who turns 12 years old that year. She is noted to have a natural knack for combat, learning from anyone she can, and is so lethal to the point only one of the Seven Shades can stop her from a murderous rampage against the Cult of Diabolos.
- Mama Bear: In Chapter 47 & 48, the cultists learn the hard way not to threaten the daughter of a Half-Angel
- Monster Progenitor: Aurora/Diabolos is theorized to be the one responsible for creating monsters in the world. Her first spawn were the 10 Ancient Beasts.
- Off with His Head!: In Chapter 76, a Named Child named Gouman went through this thanks to Gamma's clumsiness causing her to accidentally throwing her sword at him.
- Papa Wolf: As soon as he heard his daughter kidnapped, Baron Frelldyll assembles his men to go out and scour his entire territory . While he doesn't find his daughter due to her being already moved outside of the region, Alpha is impressed by his charisma, and notes it's worthy of being Shadow's father.
- Pen Pals: Claire and Arisa become this following their escape from the cult. Though it's downplayed since Arisa doesn't really want to respond to Claire's letters, she only responds because she thinks not replying would make her stand out.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- Alexia is already feeling suspicious of Arisa from the moment they meet, and after sparring and finding out Arisa's swordplay is a practical mirror of her own, she is more than a bit annoyed. The princess later invites the noble daughter to an outing to confront her, not for putting a fake front (as Alexia herself is no stranger to that), but rather to drop said act and just be frank with her. Arisa doesn't understand this, and just thinks the princess is putting down her effort as a fangirl mob, so she ends up assuming Alexia has an Irrational Hatred of her.
- In Chapter 58, when Alpha and Delta meet at Lindwurm, Alpha notices the visor on Delta's face given to her by Arisa. However, when Alpha asks where she got it, Delta says it's from Aurora due to Arisa ordering the Therianthrope to refer to her by that name. This leads Alpha and Shadow Garden to believe that the Witch of Calamity is MindControling Delta and a long chase ensues with Delta avoiding her friends' attempts to take her visor away from her.
- Power Copying: Interestingly, Chapter 42 reveals being reincarnated as a woman has handicapped Minoru in an unexpected way. As Arisa, she has a hard time coming up with new techniques which can look cool as a girl (despite having lived as one for several years). So instead of trying techniques out herself, she tests them first by telling Epsilon (who has a build most similar to Arisa herself, and most skilled with magic control among Seven Shades) how to perform those techniques, and if it is impressive enough, Arisa will imitate them to perfection and beyond. This leads Epsilon to believe her mistress has been genuinely teaching her, and in turn that leads the rest of Shadow Garden to believe she is their mistress's favorite due to being the sole person who continues to receive direct teaching from Arisa (whereas according to canon, most of the Shades were only taught directly for their foundations before they were tasked to develop their own styles). To a lesser extent, Epsilon also helps the other Shadow Garden members become this, as she takes it upon herself to pass Arisa's personal techniques to them whenever possible.
- Power Limiter: When they are kidnapped, Arisa and Claire are detained using magic suppressing cuffs. Arisa later takes them for her own uses.
- Pretty Butterflies: As a testament of Arisa's mastery in magic control, when rewarding Gamma and her subordinates on the success of Mitsugoshi company she outright transforms the magic she releases into butterflies of light, fluttering in the wind and physically refreshing all who come into contact.
- Reincarnated as the Opposite Sex: The entire premise revolves around the Minoru, the man reincarnating into a woman.
- Shout-Out: Arisa's first name and basic appearance is exactly like Arisa Tachibana from Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody.
- Stepford Smiler: Beta maintains a cute smile all the while resisting a MASSIVE urge to murder Arisa's potential suitors.Arisa: Beta, stop bending the tray you are holding. Even if you look innocent with that calm smile on your face, I can hear the metal tray being bent behind you.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: Unlike Cid whose brown eyes become red when he lets his magic flow in, Arisa's eyes are already yellow/pale gold normally. All that changes when she cuts loose is the sheer coldness in her stare.
- Third Law of Gender-Bending: Despite her behavior being mostly the same as her pre-reincarnated self, Arisa does exhibit a few changes in her personality after becoming a woman.
- Arisa would have befriended Skel and Po like in canon but her newfound womanly instincts caused her to be so repulsed by them that she sped past them.
- Arisa would have never like chocolate as Minoru but she does find them tasty and enjoyable now.
- This Is Unforgivable!: This is generally how people react when Arisa is threatened.
- In Chapter 4, Alpha could barely hold her anger when she learned the cult has kidnapped her mistress. In the next chapter, Claire is also furious that someone dared to kidnap the Delicate and Sickly Arisa.
- In Chapter 31, as Arisa seemingly dies protecting Rose from a terrorist, the sight of her lifeless body enrages all the students. Rose has to order them to surrender before they throw away their lives.
- In Chapter 64, Alpha gets another one, after learning that Eta experimented on the unconscious Arisa. The only reason she hasn't tried to murder the Shade because Arisa approves it.
- Took a Level in Badass: In Chapter 61. Arisa, unlike her canon counterpart who only made his mana dense enough, didn't only annihilate the holy sanctuary but also reabsorbed the sanctuary's stored mana, causing Nelson to panic on an extreme level and in pure disbelief. Aurora was beyond astonished at seeing such a feat.
- Unrelated in the Adaptation: In Chapter 44, it is revealed that Arisa and her mother do not possess the blood of Diabolos, but the blood of a completely separate species of creatures invented original to this fanfic; angels, who are apparently even more ancient than Diabolos, and is the reason why the Cult is hell-bent on capturing them
- Wham Line: The ending to the prologue that tells us what's really happening.Minoru Kagenou: I barely knew a female shadowbroker, so I don't know what to do about it. Mostly because, apparently I discovered I am a girl.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Played with. When Alexia confronts Arisa and tells her to drop her fake act of admiration, Arisa doesn't realize she is being called out for acting and assumes the princess dislikes her, so she spouts out random dramatic lines to kill the conversation as quickly as possible and leave. Said random lines however just so happen to call out Alexia's negative view on others, and actually manages to feel like this trope.
- Played straight in Chapter 64 when Alpha is not amused that Eta was experimenting on the unconscious Arisa. At the end, Alpha makes it clear to Eta that she's going to punish her severely, much to Eta's horror.
- When She Smiles: The Seven Shades are completely enthralled by Arisa's beautiful smile, which she shows rarely due to her odd case of depression (see Heroic BSoD above). Unlike canon, in which the Shades want to defeat the Cult of Diabolos due to various It's Personal reasons, here in addition to all that the Shades also believe Shadow is so melancholic because of a sense of loneliness from seeing something in the fight against the cult which they cannot see, and they cannot bear seeing their mistress quietly suffering. Each of the Shades appear to hold different feelings about this, though they all share the desire to make their mistress smile:
- Epsilon sees Arisa's singleminded focus to training and lack of passion in everything else as a solemn show of resolve in dedicating everything to fight against the Cult of Diabolos. She both admires it and wants to ease it, believing if Shadow Garden can destroy the cult, Arisa will find the peace she believes her mistress wants.
- Alpha questions if Arisa's melancholy is a sign of an Emotionless Girl weighed by personal issues. Specifically, she believes Shadow is trying to take the burden of fighting the cult alone for reasons unknown. As such, she is a lot more troubled by it than Epsilon, and actively strives to prove Shadow Garden are capable of sharing their mistress's burdens. Notably, unlike canon where Alpha anticipates Shadow's participation for the attack on the cult's facilities in Midgar kingdom's capital, here she explicitly wants Shadow to sit back and watch as Shadow Garden do it themselves.
- Gamma believes Arisa's insistence on maintaining the public persona of an ordinary noblewoman is an effort to cling onto ordinary mundane life. Thus, she believes by recreating the things her mistress offhandedly mentions (or "wisdoms" as Gamma dubs it), she can give her mistress a taste of how an ordinary life feels like.
