"This is the plate from one of the Magic Armor Beasts you faced on Shandia Island—the one the woman held. Do you remember the nature of her power?"
"Of course! She controlled fire, right?"
Melt, having witnessed the battle between Yugo and Reina firsthand, answered Shepherd's question with energy.
Shepherd nodded at her response. He handed the Clear Plate engraved with the letter F to a subordinate who had stepped forward, then resumed his explanation.
"The Magic Armor Beast you fought wielded fire. Naturally, we assumed this plate granted the user pyrokinesis, but..."
"Wait, what...?"
As he spoke, Shepherd gave his subordinate a meaningful look.
The male guard member who received the Clear Plate gave a firm nod and thrust it into his own body. He began to transform into a Magic Armor Beast, revealing a startling truth to the group.
"No way! Its appearance is completely different from the beast we saw yesterday!" Melt cried out, covering her mouth in shock as she stared at the creature the guard had become.
The monster Reina had turned into was a humanoid shape seemingly forged from living, roaring flames. However, the being standing before them now bore no resemblance to that form.
It had a distinctive blue-black body, and its arms were encased from the backs of its hands in massive gauntlets. Embedded within the heavy armor were lenses that looked like high-intensity lamps. This was not a creature that looked like it manipulated fire.
Though there was the obvious difference in gender between the two users, the gap between their monstrous forms was far too vast to be explained by that alone. As the group stood frozen in surprise, Ryuga narrowed his eyes.
"I see. Flash."
"Did you realize something, Ryuga-san? ...Oh!" Raiha reflexively responded to Ryuga's murmur, only to cover her mouth when she realized she had broken her silence to ask a question.
After a brief glance at her, Ryuga did something truly rare. He didn't brush her off with his usual dismissive catchphrase; instead, he gave a direct answer.
"Judging by the gauntlets on its arms and the components embedded in them, that Magic Armor Beast possesses the ability to emit blinding light. And the plate he used was engraved with the letter F."
"F for light... so, Flash!"
"The beast Yugo fought used fire," Melt added, catching on. "That would be Fire, or Flame. Both start with F."
"Does that mean... the Clear Plates grant abilities derived from words starting with the letter engraved on them?" Raiha asked.
Shepherd nodded in affirmation of the Yamato group’s deduction. Taking the lead once more, he provided an even more in-depth explanation.
"It is exactly as you suspect. The Clear Plates adapt their gift based on the user. The girl from the other day manifested Fire; my subordinate here manifested Flash. However, the selection isn't entirely random."
"What do you mean?"
"I had several other subordinates test this plate—specifically, the men who landed on Shandia Island with me. Because they knew exactly what had happened there, every single one of them transformed into a Flame Magic Armor Beast identical to the woman we captured."
Yugo and the others exchanged glances as the implications sank in.
Several guards had all turned into the same fire monster Reina had used, yet this particular guard had awakened to the Power of Flash. Was there a specific rule at play, or was it merely coincidence?
Yugo, who had been deep in thought, finally offered his own theory.
"It’s the mental image. Or maybe they awaken to the power that allows them to manifest their own potential most effectively?"
"What do you mean by that, Yugo?"
"The guards who became fire monsters knew what happened on the island. They went in thinking the F plate was for fire, right? Because that image was fixed in their minds, they became the same thing that woman did. But this man..."
"Exactly," Shepherd interrupted. "This guard didn't go to Shandia. He didn't know what happened there or what kind of beast appeared. Furthermore, he happens to specialize in Light Attribute Magic."
"It’s just like Yugo said! He transformed into the form that could draw out his own strength the best!" Melt exclaimed.
It appeared Yugo’s intuition was correct. To bolster the boy's sharp deduction, Shepherd continued.
"To take it a step further, even among those who became fire monsters, their specific abilities varied. Some specialized in long-range attacks like magic, while others were built for close-quarters combat. There is no doubt that the plates transform users into the beast most suited to their individual aptitudes."
"So, a Clear Plate grants a transformation that maximizes the user's potential based on their mental image," Ryuga summarized. "The only restriction is that the ability must be tied to a word starting with the letter on the plate itself."
"That's still incredibly dangerous," Melt noted. "Words can be interpreted in so many ways. You could swap Flash for something like Flare, or..."
"And Fire could be Heat," Yugo added. "Though, personally, I'm just glad it wasn't the other way around."
Yugo felt a secret sense of relief that he hadn't ended up fighting a monster with the exact same powers as his favorite hero. But at the same time, he realized something chilling.
Alphabetically coded items that mutate users into monsters, scattered across an island... the situation was a mirror image of the plot of a hero movie he knew from his past life.
As he considered the fact that the creator and the mastermind behind the distribution were still unknown, Yugo deepened his analysis. He began connecting the dots with the secrets he kept from his friends, peering further into the darkness surrounding the Clear Plates.