Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

Everyone seemed stunned into a grave silence by these words... even Noctis, who must have heard and seen a lot during his long life. Frozen, Sunny stared at Dan Heng, his lightless pupils narrowing into two vertical slits. Everyone... was dead?

Everyone?

His thoughts were interrupted by Noctis, who let out a deep sigh.

”Everyone is dead... ah, I barely remember the last time something like that happened. But when I was young, at the dawn of the Age of Heroes, things like that were rather common... you wouldn’t remember, I guess. That is what happens when human champions grow unfit for their duty.”

He looked away with a dark expression, and then added in a grim tone:

”And we, the champions of this kingdom, have been unfit for quite a while now... if the Lords can even be called champions, still. Come to think of it, I am surprised that this had not happened sooner.”

He sighed again, then shrugged and turned to Dan Heng, seemingly having no desire to elaborate on this strange statement:

”Thank you for delivering this message, girl. If everyone in the north is dead... that makes you the last one, then?”

Dan Heng seemed to want to speak, but instead sighed and nodded.

Noctis pursed his lips.

”Ah, well, I am very sorry. For what it is worth, you are welcomed to stay here, in my Sanctuary. This is a place for those who are lost, lonesome, and have nowhere else to go. Don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything...”

He turned away, as if losing any interest in the conversation, but at that moment, Dan Heng suddenly spoke:

”Actually, there is indeed something that I need.”

The sorcerer stopped, then looked at her with a slight frown and asked with a bit of surprise:

”Really? Oh... then tell me! I am sure I’ll be able to help.”

The woman glanced strangely at the Sunny and the others, and then said, her voice deep and pleasant:

”I am looking for my friends. I wonder if you would be able to help me find them, Lord Noctis.”

Noctis blinked a couple of times, then glanced at Sunny, March, and Veliona with a strange expression on his face. Finally, he answered in a cautious tone:

”Of course! Gladly. But... uh... do you, perhaps... not know how your friends look, where they are, and what they are called? If so, finding them will be... difficult.”

Before Dan Heng could answer, Sunny interrupted:

”No point in doing that. We’re right here.”

Dan Heng blinked, before sending a long look at the four-armed Devil. Then, she looked at the scrawny child on the Devil’s shoulders, then the crippled girl next to him.

Her gaze returned to the Devil.

”March?”

Sunny palmed his face.

”No. Try again.”

Dan Heng pursed her lips.

”Seele?”

Sunny shook his head, causing her to once again answer:

”...Sparkle?

He scowled.

”Sunny! It’s me, Sunny! Unlike you, I’m still a dude... just with some extra—”

He was cut off as March pushed his head down, leaping off as she tackled the now-female Dan Heng.

”Dan Heng! Everything’s been so weird! Sunny was short, and now he’s tall, and Seele got divided in half, and I’m a twerp, and you have cool horns, and... why are you a girl?”

March squinted her eyes as she let go of Dan Heng. She took a couple of steps back, staring at her like she was the greatest anomaly she has ever encountered.

It seemed like she completely forgot about the fact that Dan Heng was now a woman in her moment of excitement.

Noctis stared at all this, then looked at Sunny with an inexplicable expression. The immortal sorcerer hesitated for a couple of seconds, and then cautiously asked:

”Ah, Sunless... is this beautiful priestess one of your friends, too?”

Sunny glanced at him:

”He—She’s not my— why do I even bother. Sure. Why not?”

Having been called out on her change in gender, Dan Heng wore a small, but awkward smile.

”That’s... complicated. I actually thought that you were Sunny, March.”

The small girl blinked.

”...Oh! It’s because I’m so short, isn’t it? This is really the worst...”

Dan Heng coughed.

”Well, partly. In truth, I somewhat hoped he was also sharing in my... struggles.”

Sunny grit his teeth as he bared his fangs towards the beautiful woman.

”What, so since you’re miserable, I have to be miserable, too? Well, jokes on you, since this Nightmare started, I was actually a woman for a bit, and it didn’t suck at all! Uh... not that I particularly miss it, but if it ever happened again, I wouldn’t be too bothered, I think. So... deal with it!”

Sunny did have plenty of experience being a woman while stuck in the labyrinth of nightmares alongside the horse of the same name.

Dan Heng raised an elegant brow in confusion, before smiling.

”Although I don’t get what that’s all about, I did miss you all.”

Sunny’s heart skipped a beat as his eyes widened. If he heard something like that back in the real world, he’d look at Dan Heng like he was crazy... but Dan Heng was now a ’she’.

A ’she’ with a reasonable personality!

Sunny raised one of his four arms, fanning himself with his long digits.

”Phew! I don’t know about the rest of you, but isn’t it getting kind of warm in here? Seriously, what the hell am I supposed to do with this? I mean, Dan Heng was supposed to be the tall, broody guy with a stick up his ass. That was the dynamic! Now he’s... she’s... whatever — now I’m stuck looking at this calm, elegant, long-haired priestess situation, and it’s weirdly hot. Like, I keep trying to remember the guy who gave me lectures about discipline and self-control, but all I see now is this pretty face smiling like she’s in a perfume ad. And I don’t trust perfume ads! This is a Nightmare, right? Has to be. First I get stuck as a devil with extra arms, then March shrinks, Seele splits in half, and now Dan Heng pulls the ultimate switch-up and decides to be a woman? What’s next, Noctis growing a conscience? And — oh no, she’s looking at me weirdly! Don’t think you can just stand there all composed and mysterious while I’m falling apart over here. You can’t just upgrade your exterior without warning. There should’ve been a memo! A meeting! A vote! Something! Crap, it’s like trying to spar with your reflection and realizing your reflection is hotter than you. I don’t know if I’m supposed to punch you, insult you, or ask you out to dinner... and now everyone’s looking at me.”

Sunny looked around to see horrified, annoyed, and confused expressions. He then looked at the amulet in his hand, before shutting his eyes.

”I said all that out loud, didn’t I?”

Noctis remained silent for a while, then looked away and mumbled in a barely audible whisper:

”By the Moon... I guess I really need to improve my friend-making skills. Otherwise, I would not be able to call myself the friendliest man in all of the Kingdom of Hope anymore...”