The Eminence in Shadow, Vol. 1 (Light Novel)
Page 1
Copyright
The Eminence in Shadow 01
DAISUKE AIZAWA
Translation by Kristi Fernandez
Cover art by Touzai
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
KAGE NO JITSURYOKUSHA NI NARITAKUTE ! Vol. 1
©Daisuke Aizawa 2018
First published in Japan in 2018 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.
English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through TUTTLE-MORI AGENCY, INC., Tokyo.
English translation © 2020 by Yen Press, LLC
Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Aizawa, Daisuke, author. | Touzai, illustrator. | Fernandez, Kristi, 1992– translator.
Title: The eminence in shadow / Daisuke Aizawa ; illustration by Touzai ; translation by Kristi Fernandez ; cover art by Touzai.
Other titles: Kage no jitsuryokusha ni naritakute. English
Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2020.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019034416 | ISBN 9781975359058 (v. 1 ; hardcover)
Subjects: CYAC: Secret societies—Fiction. | Good and evil—Fiction. | Fantasy.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.A369 Em 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019034416
ISBNs: 978-1-9753-5905-8 (hardcover)
978-1-9753-5906-5 (ebook)
E3-20201217-JV-PC-COR
Contents
Cover
Insert
Title Page
Copyright
Prologue Preparing the Perfect Stage!
Chapter 1 Starting the Shadowbroker Tutorial!
Chapter 2 Assuming the Role of a Side Character at School!
Chapter 3 My Official Beginning as a Mastermind in Action!
Chapter 4 The Two Sides of the Shadow Garden?!
Chapter 5 Mastering the Peaceful Life of a Nobody!
Chapter 6 That Scene Where Terrorists Take Over the School
Final Chapter My Idea of the Ultimate Shadow Commander!
Appendix
Afterword
Yen Newsletter
Prologue
Preparing the Perfect Stage!
I honestly can’t remember what catalyzed this desire. All I know is I’ve admired shadowbrokers for as long as I can remember.
Was it a certain anime? Or was it a manga—or a movie? Eh, I guess it doesn’t matter. I was all in for anything that featured a mastermind, or an eminence in shadow as I like to call them. These characters were never the protagonists or final bosses but were relegated to a role behind the scenes where they flaunted their powers and meddled in the affairs of others. I’ve always looked up to the men in the shadows. I wanted to be one of them.
Think of children who worship their favorite superheroes. That was me but with master puppeteers.
Well, there was one thing that set us apart: My reverence for them wasn’t short-lived. In fact, it buried itself deeper in my heart, never dying out and always guiding me through life. To become stronger, I learned everything from karate to boxing, from swordplay to mixed martial arts. I hammed it up during all my practices, concealing my true power from the world and preparing for the fated day.
At school, I played the part of being pleasantly mediocre, an unassuming face in the crowd. Like an NPC in a game or a part of the mob. I didn’t do any harm. But behind this facade of normalcy, I was training full throttle. That’s how I spent my entire youth.
But as time passed, an uneasy feeling started to haunt me: I was due for a reality check.
Yeah, that’s right.
This was all for nothing.
I realized I’d never become as powerful as shadow commanders in the stories. It didn’t matter how hard I trained in martial arts. Sure, I could clobber a few punks…but that was it. It’d be a tough fight if anyone drew a gun, and if I was surrounded by soldiers in full gear, I’d be toast, donezo, old news.
The idea of a shadowbroker getting curb stomped by some soldiers… Ha! Ridiculous! Let’s say I trained for ten more years—or that I became the greatest martial artist in the world. I’d still get rekt by a gang of commandos.
Or maybe I’d manage to escape by the skin of my teeth or train hard enough to fight back. It’s all in the realm of possibility. But even if I somehow managed to do that, these guys could set off a nuke and vaporize me in an instant. There is a limit to the human body. That much I know.
That said, my master puppeteers would never be taken down by a nuke. Which means I needed to be impervious to them, too.
What does one need to survive a nuclear attack?
Is it the ability to pack a punch?
Could it be a body of steel?
How about unlimited stamina?
Wrong, wrong, and wrong again. You need a totally different kind of power.
Some call it magic. Others, mana. Or chi, or aura, or…you get the point. Anything will do. I needed to obtain this clandestine ability. I’d managed to reach this conclusion when I finally confronted reality head-on.
I’ll try to explain. Let’s say someone is on a quest for magical powers. Anyone would think they’re nuts. Hell, I know I would. I’d think they’d gone bonkers.
But consider this: No one in the world has proved that magic exists—or disproved it.
I couldn’t find these powers with my sanity intact. I had to dive to the depths of lunacy.
I started training in a new way that was damn near impossible.
After all, no one knows how to acquire magic, mana, chi, auras, or what have you.
I practiced Zen meditation; I braved the purification ceremony of standing under waterfalls; I focused my entire being inward; I fasted; I mastered the art of yoga; I converted religions; I searched for holy spirits; I prayed to god; I strapped myself to a cross. There was no right answer, which meant I groped my way through the darkness and sprinted down my chosen path.
Which brings us here. I’m just about ready to start my final summer as a high schooler, and I’ve yet to discover magic or mana or chi or auras…
It is already dark by the time I finish my daily training session.
I pick up and put on my underwear, which I’d chucked to the side, and wiggle my arms through the sleeves of my school uniform. I have yet to pick up these secret magical skills, but I’ve been starting to feel the effects of my training, I think, of late.
Like right now.
I can see flashing lights going off in my mind and sense the world is spinning.
It could be magic…or auras… In either case, I’m feeling its effects—that’s for sure. I’m proud to announce that I’ve completed another successful session.
When I’m in the thick of it, I rip off every single article of clothing and get buck naked in the forest. It makes me one with the universe. I bash my skull into the trunk of a giant tree to physically force out my worldly thoughts. Plus, it stimulates my brain and urges my latent powers to awaken.
You know, I’m all about logic when it comes to these things.
Yeah, everything’s beginning to get all blurry right about now. It’s a sensation comparable to giving myself a concussion. I make my way out of the forest with the lightest of footsteps, feeling like I’m treading on clouds.
Just then, I see light—two beams floating in the air and slicing through space. How strange. They’re beckoning me, guiding me somewhere.
“Ma-magic…?” I whisper, tiptoeing toward the illumination.
It must be… It’s gotta be! I finally found the powers of the unknown!
I notice that I’ve gone from walking to sprinting, tripping over the roots of trees and continuing to stagger forward—on and on like a beast in the forest.
“Magic! Magic! Magic! MAGIC, MAGIC, MAGIC!!!!!” I chant, bounding toward the lights and ready to snatch them out of midair…
“Hmm…?”
As a pair of headlights flood my vision with a blinding whiteness, I hear the shrill whine of a sudden brake ringing and ringing.
And then a collision. Its impact pierces through my body… And my magic…
In conclusion, I was able to find magical powers.
When I open my eyes, I sense that I’m surrounded by its energy, though I gotta admit it looks different from the two lights. Eh, no biggie.
Oh, and one other small detail: As a side effect, I manage to reincarnate. I bet I opened a door to another world when I found magic or something. Whatever.
As for right now, I’m a baby boy, a few months old. I only recently started forming thoughts, but it’s still hard for me to guess how much time has elapsed at any given moment. Plus, I don’t know any words, but I guess it’s plenty to recognize that this civilization is more or less the same as Europe in the Middle Ages.
But none of that’s important. I’ve acquired magical powers. That’s the end-all be-all. I couldn’t care less about how it happened or any bonus features.
I notice magic as soon as I start displaying glimmers of consciousness. All around me, I can see minuscule grains of light floating and shimmering. It reminds me of those times in my past life when I frolicked through a field of flowers stark naked—to train and find spirits, obviously.
As it turns out, my training wasn’t a total waste after all. I mean, my ability to detect this energy is proof enough, and I can control it as easily as my limbs. It’s comparable to when I strapped my naked body to a cross, a nod to Jesus…or maybe when I flip-flopped religions and danced around in prayer in my birthday suit… I bet every little thing in my training sessions helped me in the long run. It’s already taught me that I can get stronger.
Plus, time is of no consequence for a baby. I’m ready to use these years to train and become an eminence in shadow, once and for all… Oops, I think I’ve made a doodie.
Which reminds me. I heard somewhere that birds let their droppings dribble out involuntarily, and I think human babies are the same. I can fight the good fight with logic and reasoning, but it feels as though my instincts take over, whispering Just do it in my ear.
That said, this is me we’re talking about. I spent my waking hours training in my past life. Pooling together all the strength in my body, I tighten my sphincter, buying me some time…
“Wwwaaaahhhhh!”
…to summon people.
I think it’s been ten years.
You know, magic is something else. It means I can surpass the bodily limitations of humans: lift ginormous boulders with a single finger, dash twice as fast as a horse, leap higher than a house.
That said, I’m no match for nukes. Well, I know my defenses will increase with my magical capacity, but have you seen the firepower of those weapons on Earth? There was a time when I contemplated forgetting about them entirely, ’cause we don’t have nukes in this world.
But what good is a master puppeteer who settles for less?
No good. Not at all.
That means my next mission is to become strong enough to beat weapons of mass destruction. After extensive research and training, I found one potential solution, which I’ve been incorporating into my daily experiments.
Oh yeah. And it seems I’ve been born into a noble family. For generations, members of this family have trained to become dark knights, who use magic to power up and slay enemies in battle. And as my family’s rising star of a son (…NOT), I’m living my days as your average apprentice. After all, shadowbrokers need to be extremely selective about when, where, and to whom they reveal their powers. Yeah…I’ll lie in wait until then.
I know I’m not exerting my true potential and that I am cutting corners, but I learned some skills as an apprentice that have come in handy. Like how magic is used on the battlefield in this world. It’s been a good opportunity for me to reflect on my own techniques.
To be completely honest, it’s clear to me the fighting styles from my past life were a hundred times more logical and refined than the ones here. I mean, look at any contemporary martial arts battle. These fighters rebuke unnecessary movements, drawing from various combat schools and whittling them down to the crème de la crème. This creates the conditions for the “perfect” fight. It relies on the rules of the game, of course, but this mental attitude can be used to identify the best of the best in any situation.
And then consider this world. First and foremost, their fighting techniques stay in their country of origin. Which means different schools of combat don’t cross borders. Plus, there are certain secret skills that countries won’t allow out of their jurisdiction—not that we’d be able to spread them to begin with, since no forms of media are readily available to us. This means we can’t combine techniques from other forms of fighting, much less reject or improve our own.
If I had to describe this system in one word, I’d call it unrefined.
But there’s one fundamental difference between the two worlds. That’s right: magic. It completely changes the baseline of physical performance.
Take physical strength, for example.
I can lift someone up with one hand, which means any knowledge about hand-to-hand combat and wrestling, or “ground fighting,” goes out the window. Even if we’re in a mounted grappling position, I can soar through the air by flexing my abs. If I’ve got my foot hooked on an opponent in an offensive guard, I can blast them off me by activating my leg muscles. Yeah. Ground fighting is out of the question.
It’s like how humans have their method of combat and gorillas have a breed of their own. And I’ll just leave it at that.
There are also differences in the distance and speed at which combatants step into their attacks—meaning it’s harder to predict their movements in battle. This might be the most important thing. I mean, martial arts are all about reading your opponent at an appropriate range. The angle, position, and distance of your attacks are everything.
It took me a while to get the hang of the last one, especially because these fighters attack from afar. Like sixteen feet apart. I mean, I guess I get it. They’re lightning fast and take ginormous steps, and I’d just assumed this was their way of fighting…until I realized it was to compensate for their poor defense tactics.
I’m sure this is relatable to all martial artists: Those who can’t guard will stand too far from their opponents.
It’s really scary to get hit. I get it. It’s tempting to retreat to where your opponent can’t reach you. But this results in a contest where one fight
er attacks and the other retreats, and vice versa, which is a real snore. You call this outboxing? Try again. This is just an exercise of running back and forth.
It doesn’t matter if the fighters are five or a hundred meters apart. They can’t land a decent hit either way. It could be six or seven or ten meters—it’s all the same.
This has been a public service announcement to close the gap and duke it out.
But once you cross a certain threshold, one millimeter can make a huge difference. And it stands at the exact point where I can both land a blow and react to an attack. Throw in other factors like the angle of my hits, and the slightest turn can mean an advantage—or a disadvantage. The narrowest of margins is the best range between two fighters.
A battle shouldn’t be about one combatant dashing in sixteen feet and the other leaping back nineteen.
I guess I came into this whole thing with an idea of what to expect from other worlds, which—compounded with my unfamiliarity with magic—left me confused about their combat scene. But, eh, I’ve gotten my bearings straight as of late. It’s all chill now.
I train every day at home, where our dad basically directs us on how to throw down, and I grapple with my older sister. I know she’s only two years older than me, but she has natural talent, according to everyone else. If she keeps it up, she’s the one who will take over as head of the family, which isn’t uncommon in this world, since magic can make women powerful enough to become the heir.
“Geez, you’re so strong…,” I whimper every day as she kicks my ass.
But I can’t win. If I want to become a shadow commander, I’ve got to establish myself as the most average of all background characters.
That’s how I’ve been living out my day-to-day. Tack on lessons about how to act as an aristocrat and hanging out with people to secure my place as a low-profile extra, and I’ve barely got any free time during the day.
Which means the only time for me to train is after everyone else has gone to bed, late into the night. I may be cutting into my beauty sleep, but I’ve been using magic to recover super-quick and meditation to catch some z’s in new ways. And now, I’ve pretty much got short sleeper syndrome. I make it work.