The Sherry in Shadow

Chapter 1: A Year of Research

Aldin Research Academy in Laugus was more than an institution of learning—it was a beacon, a refuge for the brightest minds to flourish unrestrained by the confines of a typical curriculum. Amidst these intellectual luminaries was a woman with pink hair as striking as her mind, Sherry Barnett. A transfer from the Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy, Sherry's groundbreaking research in ancient languages and civilizations had catapulted her to prominence within the year since she joined.

Sherry's brilliance was undeniable, her destiny for greatness mirrored in the adulation of her peers. She has even earned herself a personal lab and research funding from the academy, a dream for any aspiring scholar. Yet, behind the gleam of her success, a somber shadow often danced in her eyes, glimpsed only when she believed no one was watching.

Sherry did find some solace in the academy, and her research was undoubtedly fulfilling. However, a sense of incongruity lingered, like a square peg attempting to fit into a round hole. In other words, she was never supposed to be here.

Her life had been derailed when she was forced to leave Midgar Academy after a series of tragic events. The first was the loss of her mother, a pain so acute it could have driven her to the brink of madness, had it not been for her adoptive father throwing her a lifeline. He gave her shelter and bestowed upon her the honor of continuing her mother's work—an act of kindness that anchored her during those turbulent times.

And yet tragedy had a cruel way of repeating itself – when Shadow Garden raided Midgar academy. Despite playing a crucial role in saving her classmates, she had been powerless to protect her father. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, this time Sherry bore witness to who killed her second parent. She saw an ebony sword twisted through her father's heart in a chilling echo of her mother's own fatality. There can be no doubt, the culprit who killed her mother came back to finish her father as well. The culprit was none other than the elusive phantom known as Shadow.

"Heh," Sherry lets out a melancholic sigh quietly in her lab. She lifts up a small item and inspects it: her latest object of research.

She had no understanding as to why Shadow targeted her family, but it hardly mattered anymore. She's lost everything now, sanity and all. A certain dark-haired boy suddenly flashed in her mind. This gave Sherry pause. Perhaps it's just as accurate to say she's given up on everything?

"No, not everything," she smirks. Not revenge.

As hours slipped by, Sherry found herself alone in the lab, her classmates having departed for the day. Deciding to retire to her dorm room too, she brought the small pendant—a lizard-like artifact—along with her, her 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 research demands it.

As she opened the door of her dorm, laid bare before her was a massive corkboard that has been transformed into a complex tapestry of suspicions, theories, and connections, all spiraling around the enigma of Shadow Garden. Newspaper clippings, wanted posters, receipts from a certain store, notes in Sherry's handwriting, and pins connected by a tangle of colored strings paint a vivid mosaic of her relentless investigation this past year.

The most striking feature is a large, imposing photo of the elusive Shadow, his face obscured by his trademark cloak. A knife is stabbed into the image with force, pinning a note that reads "KILLED DAD!" in bold, fierce lettering alongside a hand-drawn angry emoticon to show she means business.

Curiously, in a dark corner of the wall, there's a single, somewhat tattered school photo of a dark-haired boy she had recalled earlier, tucked away from the chaos. There's a small note here as well: "Chocolate Provider, Friend, Innocent". The first 2 words were crossed out.

Paying the wall no mind, Sherry sits hunched over her desk and began work. In one hand, she held the pendant, and the other, a pen. Her obsession for the last few days has been to figure out how to control this artifact.

"'Chop the tail, grow the tail', hmm? ...magic here, and then this expands... Ah! Then this would– I see... Let's try it!"

Setting her pen aside, she cradled the artifact against her chest, her fingers delicately traced over the emblem's tail and eyes. Her eyes fluttered shut as she focused, channeling her magic into the artifact. Suddenly, she felt a strange sensation around her nose. Her eyes snapped open, and she cautiously lifted a hand to her face. It felt... larger. Startled, she managed to knock a jar of slime off her desk. Turning to a nearby mirror, she saw the results of her experiment.

"Ha ha!" Her nose has extruded to twice its size, almost comically so. "I'm unrecognizable!" Sherry kept flicking it, ensuring its elasticity.

The Artifact of Chameleon had been a challenge to manipulate, but achieving this level of control was a significant stride towards her objective. Now, she could finally initiate the next stage of her plan.

A newfound resolve filled her as she rose from her desk, her gaze falling upon the intricate web of information sprawled across the corkboard. Her plan was now clear, crystallized in her mind with unwavering certainty.

With an air of purpose, she strode across the room, her overgrown nose bobbing with each step. As she approached the corkboard, her shadow fell over the photo of Shadow, her newly enlarged nose coming perilously close to the knife that pinned the picture. A predatory smirk graced her lips as she spoke, her voice laced with icy resolve. "Don't you think your family deserves a turn?"

Sherry pointed her nose to the wanted posters of the other Shadow Garden members. A cackle burst from her lips, echoing through the empty room. She no longer cared about appearing deranged.