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 tral street.

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

  After 10 mins trying to cmp 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 sihe shadow was visibly more dark.

  And since her powers were going out of trol she put oupid bracelet. And while walking she noticed how some people ran iheir houses wheur 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 ighe presen her periphery. Some wannabe group of thugs thinking that she was easy prey?

  Perhaps she had been too le with the roup. 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 group. She couldn't help but smile at the idea of the group that attacked her...

  And she felt the idea spread to her shadows, for among them a few had grown viaw and eyes in it. It took her a few mio close those maws and eyes, but si 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 sihe little maid ran inside her shadow towards those bottles and anded shadows to throw them into the ister bin... Well her feelings must have bleed over to the shadows.

  And on that he girl kept walking moviween alleyways aed buildings, trying to bait her followers into attag her, and not having too much success. By the point she arrived at the restaurant, she was a that, and since every time she tried to go to one of those following they ran away... She issed.

  So wheered the restaurant she almost jumped back at the wele she got.

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

  She looked down and sure enough, her shadow started painting the floor ihe 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 fa 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 doh Rossie before.

  She didn't want to risk both identities g 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 er. At least the people that were eating didn't seem to mihat much.

  ...Weird.

  Before leaving the girl left her a menu and said "When you are ready to order just use the calling button." Ao 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 showg a pretty face with good makeup on her.

  For a sed Elizabeth wasn't sure what she was asking for. Did she wao get the shadows under trol? Did she waable?

  "The restaurant is full and you are the only oing alone." Said the girl while pointing at their surrounding. She indeed had noticed how there werey 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 irl would need her own menu after all.

  "Ready to order?" Started saying the waiter girl and then after notig 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 antid opped fag 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 reended 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 uand 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!!!" Souhe voice of the waiter girl, Elizabeth stood up to try and see where she was and fouu 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 trol in a while." Started saying the girl.

  And before Elizabeth could ahe waiter girl had returned with their food "Here are two house specials!" She happily put their food and drinks oable. "Anything else I help you both with?" And sineither 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] retly and are running away..." Said Zoe while taking a sip of her drink, it looked like e 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 iigate 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, scrollially 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 ughing "Hey everyone, red eyes here says she [Triggered] at school!" and said so in a loud voice.

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

  "No origgers] at school red-eyes." Said Zoe in a more somber toer the ughter had toned down and the versation around her returo other stuff. "They [S] 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 notig or in a bze of untested 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 e 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 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 ers!" Came the voice of an older man who threair 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 kit.

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

  "So as I was saying, you 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 backpad 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 bato her backpack. "Also don't try to unlock those memories, ces are they got locked for a reason...Most of those that end up with locked memories have an easier time trolling their powers like that too...."

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

  "Hah!" ughed 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 b rats from [Avalon]?" Said fbbergasted Zoe. At the mere mention of her hometown, the restaurant got awfully quiet.

  "...Not a b rat." Mumbled Elizabeth. "Also Avalon stopped its information embargo a few days ago." tinued 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 seeicle in the library about Avalon lifting its information embargo. They still couldn't actually walk into Avalon, or travel into it. Siher hadn't lifted her spell, but at least the outside world could unicate more easily with them.

  And the people from [Avalon] could decide if they wao 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 [Vilin] or something?" Asked Elizabeth, by the name alone she could guess that he had some kind of death t attributed to him or something.

  "Hah! A vilin...You are a riot girl." Laughed the violet-haired girl. "Nah, he was no [Vilin] he was one of the sed geion [Twelve]. He was the previous boss of [The Ameri 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 nky. 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 oe, the photo was of a destroyed city "He was one of the first instances of a [Bad Trigger], had a hard time trolling his power so he mostly delegated it to self-trol 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 lo his power by making him front his fears..." Kept speaking the girl while Elizabeth scrolled more and more, trying to absorb everything ie.

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

  "They mao make him front his fears...And mao 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 uppet around...

  "And then after funneling his power into his own body...He killed every single se 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 ade of shadows with two horns, in his body was a silver , 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 faly held a pair of red shining eyes.

  She couldn't help but raise a hand to her face while seeing the simirities 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 trol and ending like that.

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

  "Nah, he mao kill ten out of the inal [Twelve]. But in the end [The Ameri Crusader] mao put him down with the help of a new group of risiypes of heroes. "Said the violet-haired girl. "You may have heard about her...The inal [Stardust Explorer] and the inal [Ameri 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 pd her mother sleeping on a nearby bench.

  Her father stood guard near her and gred in almost every photo she was shown of the se. 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 inal Stardust Explorer] joined by the inal agis suppressed the former hero, now known as [The Stygian Bane] just enough for [The inal Ameri Crusader] to kill him." Said Zoe while taking her phone back. "Iermath of it, a transmission got broadcasted to the world at rge. No one knows art of his power allowed him, but any radio or tv under a shadow transmitted the same thing."

  And after searg for a few minutes she pyed an audio file.

  "[I CURSE YOU ALL. THE DWELLERS OF THE DARKNESS WILL FIND THEIR RIGHTEOUS PLA THIS WORLD. MAY THE FUTURE MOTHER WISHES FOR E 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 bined work of magis and powered they mao 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 trol and follow in his steps?" Asked the girl, that was some level of power beyond what should be possible.

  "Also magic, the magical girls es that use [Shadow Magic] are affected in the same way...Grahey just not cast that type of spell...Or make tracts 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 yetting it..." Smiled Zoe. "You see...Even as [Tainted] as we are... We still trol our skills...Granted is more difficult for us...And some gover bodies like to stick us with [Tinker Grade] restrainings to make it [Easier] to trol 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 uand the skill we have. I don't know who helped [Shadow Pact] but the more powerful your skill is, the more powerful your [Helper] o be... And judging by the [Size] of your [Influence]...Your best hope is [Ea]. " Finished saying Zoe.

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

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

  "[Ea], my skill transforms my [Shadow] into [Poison] so I needed someorong enough to survive being around me. And the option the gover wanted was to lock me into a space statiohey could farm my poison and turn it into energy away from any major city...So I joihe Hydra's Fang]." Answered back the violet-haired girl.

  "So you point me in the right dire...?" Asked Elizabeth finally surrendering to the only option she had avaible.

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

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