Chapter 1: The Darkest Shadow is Right Beneath Your Notice

In Gotham High, usually there was a junior year student sat in a seat adjacent to the window gazing at the familiar grey clouds as the teacher taught about derivatives. His name was Eric. Blond hair, green eyes, average facial features. Perfectly average, TOO average. 

Now, move to the right of this desk, then move two seats back and you will find another mob character. Black hair and red eyes (supposedly due to a melanin deficiency in his iris) covered with brown contacts, plain clothes, slouched in a manner that conveyed a student struggling to pay attention but falling slowly to the sweet temptation of sleep.

'Perfect'

This student was Cid Kageno. In his previous life, he was known as Minoru Kageno and he is what one would call a nutjob. Being reborn had been an incredibly experience for him. And while his initial disappointment at being reborn in America instead of some fantasy world with magic had been great (he would never admit it, but some of the times he shits his pants may not have been involuntary), he had quickly returned to a state of elation as he felt something other.

An ambient energy in the air that was simply missing in his previous life. It wasn't until he had been able to open his baby eyes to realize this since he initially thought it was simply the sexual tension between his parents (his extremely horny parents). And while that was almost certainly a part of the issue, it was at most 20 – 30%. This world had magic.

His dream was not out of reach.

So, he trained. He had begun by training his magic since excessively training the physical body could cause irreparably damage to the body since it was still in a stage of development. Thus, he focused on magic. Learning to sense it consistently, detect different 'textures' of it, other miscellaneous properties, and even how to manipulate and direct it in different forms. Meanwhile, he kept up a strict diet to provide his body with the ideal nutritional values needed to bring him to his peak once he could begin more powerful physical training.

Of course, as soon as he could reasonably, he began to train physically. Weighted clothes, hand-held grip strengtheners, suspiciously easily acquired poisons to build up immunity, intense workouts to build up muscles for his ideal physique.

He had also taken some time during his middle school years to adapt to his new environment properly. The culture of America was certainly different, but it was essential that he cultivated his mob status from a young age, but his efforts were mostly ignored in elementary school since children were simpletons. He had worried that it would be the same in middle school, but luckily Gotham was a hellhole, so the kids soon became knock-off street thugs. His act was more than enough to fool them into beating him up and stealing his lunch money. Exactly as he had planned!

His parents, Background Characters #1 and #2, were concerned about him. However, they were busy at work and since Cid reassured them that it was all fine and simply some friendly rough housing they relented, especially since his wounds became less overt and more along the lines of public humiliation, wedgies, and swirlies. His older sister, Claire, was currently going to college in Metropolis but she had tried to defend him as best as she could. He could appreciate the sentiment, but it had really messed with his attempts to establish his mob status.

Now, this present day shows the results of his years of careful strategic social planning. He had become a true mob. His grades were slightly below average, his physical abilities were the same. He joined no extracurriculars and hung out with those in the social ladder that could only be considered above the dumb geeks (not to be confused with smart geeks or nerds).

Currently, Cid found himself observing Eric when he could. 

He had begun to suspect that 'Eric' was the protagonist, considering his seating decision and his general blandness. Perhaps if it was one or the other, but both?

He probably had secret powers that would soon awaken, then get a harem of super-heroines vying for his attention and end his story by killing a God followed by an epilogue that gave vague answers to shipping and hastily cover up any plot-holes. Classic JRPG stuff.

For all his averageness, one thing that was noticeable was that Eric never missed a day of school. Perhaps his powers had already awoken and now he would begin the long journey to become the Hokage after finding the One Piece and saving Orihime from Frieza.

Of course, he could be wrong. Cid had thought a lot of people were the protagonists over the years. Take Arthur Lewis in his previous year's Calculus AB class, the most recent example. Clearly a shoo-in for some kind of anti-hero plot with his brooding and rumored delinquency. At least that was what he thought until his classmate ended up dead due to the schemes of a deranged supervillain clown called the Joker and something called 'Rot Beer'. Apparently, his dream of avenging his long dead father was replaced with the reality of becoming a puddle.

Before that it was Jack Mikaelson, who died via being exposed to fear toxin and falling off the roof of a Gotham High Rise.

Before even that it was Eli Peters, who died due to 'catching a train' as the Joker pushed him in front of a train. Not nearly as creative as 'Rot Beer' but Cid could understand it was probably in the heat of the moment and they can't all be winners.

Disappointing, but an experience he could learn from. The Eminence in Shadow must control the world from the shadows, and it was better he learned from his mistakes guessing who the protagonist was rather than something important like getting the atmosphere right for a first meeting or screwing up his mob persona.

"Cid?"

The perfectly average Cid Kageno found himself broken out of his thoughts as a voice called out his name. It wasn't a masculine voice, not even Johnny's own squeaky voice so that meant this voice belong to a female. And there was only one girl who would be willing to talk to him outside of mandatory school events.

He allowed his face to slowly morph into a nervous smile.

"A-ah, h-hello Gordon-san." Yes, the Japanese honorifics despite having grown up in Gotham to showcase how out of touch he was, along with a stutter to convey his place as a background character. Sometimes he felt that his genius could prevent light from escaping its gravitation pull.

He wondered why she kept trying to establish a line of communication with him, it was starting to unnerve him. Did she know about Shadow? Impossible, he didn't leave evidence or survivors.

"I just wanted to ask if you were okay?"

Why?

"I heard about what happened to Eric and I know you weren't close or anything, but hearing about that happening to a classmate you know can be-"

"Something happened to Eric?" This was bad! He was sure that he had finally found the protagonist!

"Yes, you didn't know?"

"NO!" Cid could feel his mob persona shake at his irritation. "This is horrible!" 

How could he call himself the Eminence in Shadow if he doesn't even know when something happens to his Persons of Interest! What kind of puppet master just loses their target? Did Aizen just misplace Ichigo one day? Did Black Zetsu go 'oopsie daisy, guess Obito drowned in the bathtub while I wasn't looking Madara-sama'?

"The Joker took hostages and made them drink Red Bull and threw them off the roof to see 'if they could really fly'." 

If nothing else, no one could accuse the Joker of being unoriginal. Though he wondered why the deranged clown kept getting sent to a 'prison' which he showed that he could break out of consistently. If anyone needed the death sentence, it was the Joker.

Of course, the answer was obvious. It was the one true rival that Cid could see in his future. If he lurked in shadows to hunt shadows, then his rival was the darkness that wreathed itself in the guise of justice to hinder the light.

His true enemy. . .

The Batman.