Shadow Slave: Foreign shadow

​”And that is how, armed with nothing but a measly dagger, I defeated a Master and an Awakened swordsman at the same time and conquered my First Nightmare. Did I mention that my performance was so brilliant that even the Gods woke from their slumber just to give me a standing ovation? They even showered me with their blessings toward the end for the sheer spectacle of it.” ​Sunny concluded his tale by thumping his left hand against his chest in a gesture of pure, unadulterated pride. His right hand, meanwhile, was occupied with skewering an inviting piece of meat from the plate before him.

​Cassie giggled brightly, her cheeks flushing with every titter. ”You are such a bad liar, Sunny!” she said, huffing slightly and pressing her right index finger against her lips to stifle her laughter.

​”Liar?” Sunny arched an eyebrow as if mortally offended. ”I’ll have you know I am the most honest person in the world—two worlds, actually.” He declared it with a tone of smug self-satisfaction, sounding as though he were reciting a line from a book he had read a thousand times.

​”sure, sure,” Cassie laughed louder and more genuinely. A sweet, refreshing melody of silver bells on a gloomy rainy day.

​Their table was tucked away in a corner of the Academy cafeteria, seemingly by design, placed further apart from the others. It felt almost like a private room the world had set specifically for them—an oasis where the tables where other Sleepers ate and gossiped felt like distant planets rather than just two steps away.

​It was a bubble where no one disturbed them, where the world left them to each other’s company. Until... a third person crashed into their serenity, acting like a sudden, unexpected snowstorm.

​Hearing the heavy clack of a tray full of food being slammed down right in front of him, Sunny looked up. Yuki was taking a seat at their table, her gaze fixed intently on her plate as she settled in.

​’I suppose I am your only friend here, aren’t I?’ Sunny thought as he met her ice eyes. He offered a welcoming smile, the corners of his lips twitching upward. Then he looked at her plate again. ’And I see we have... hunger.’

​Her plate was an unspeakable mountain of fats. Vegetables were a distant memory, something seen through a telescope from nautical miles away, obscured by the waves of a tidal bore in the middle of a storm, during a rare celestial alignment specifically designed to generate that exact oceanic cataclysm.

​Naturally, Sunny didn’t point that out loud.

​Yuki returned his greeting with a curt nod, as if words were needles that pricked her throat. Sunny had already realized her Flaw made verbal communication difficult, though he had yet to fully decipher its mechanics.

​”Sunny? What’s happening?” Cassie asked, having sensed the arrival of a newcomer and growing worried by the sudden silence.

​Sunny turned back to her. ”Nothing serious, just an acquaintance of mine.” He gestured toward Yuki with his right hand. ”Cassie, meet Yuki. She’s an ice beauty of few words. We passed our First Nightmares together.”

​”Pleasure to meet you,” Cassie greeted her with a brilliant, ice-melting smile, turning her sightless gaze toward where she presumed the other girl was sitting.

​Sunny shifted his hand to point at the blind Seer on his right. ”Yuki, this is Cassie. If you ever feel sad or depressed, you can just hug her to feel better.” He added that last part with a broad, mischievous grin.

​Hearing that, Cassie shot him a look—one that, judging by the way she pursed her lips, threatened to leave a small bite mark on his neck as revenge for the mockery.

​Yuki didn’t immediately return the greeting. She simply sat in silence, staring.

Her eyes, a shade somewhere between deep blue and pale azure, were locked onto the girl to Sunny’s right. Her expression remained as cold and impassive as a marble statue.

​”Yuki?” Sunny prompted, seeing that silence as the stillness of a serial killer.

Instinctively, his muscles tightened—especially his wrists and ankles. A cold sweat broke out on his skin.

​He wasn’t sure what was happening, but just in case, Sunny moved his right hand behind his back, ready to summon the [Deplorable Dagger] if things went south.

​Sensing the sudden, drastic shift in the atmosphere, Cassie looked around nervously, her eyes shifting between Sunny and Yuki.

”Ehm... hello?” she tried again, in vain.

​> the Jiminy Cricket warned him, standing perfectly still on his back so as not to trigger the Miss Frost’s predatory instincts.

​Before Sunny could weigh his options, Yuki rose abruptly and walked around the table until she reached the blonde girl. Their faces were inches apart. Yuki stood perfectly still, staring at her face, closer than social norms would ever dictate.

​> the Jiminy Cricket whispered with a thin, shaky voice, edging sideways along Sunny’s shoulder without taking its eyes off the Ice Maiden.

​Yuki raised her hands toward Cassie. Sunny tensed his thighs and ankles, ready to spring, grab Cassie, and run as fast as his legs would carry him.

Then...

​Yuki grabbed Cassie’s cheeks and began to squeeze them energetically.

​”Auwww. Aaaww. Ouawww!”

​Cassie’s cheeks looked as soft as two marshmallows.

​Releasing them, leaving faint red marks on the Seer’s plump cheeks, Yuki calmly returned to her seat. She settled back, stretched her spine against the chair, placed her right hand over her stomach with her hips pushed forward, closed her eyes, and let out a long, satisfied sigh.

​”Thank you for the meal,” she said, sounding utterly content.

​Cassie, who was now busy massaging her manhandled face, didn’t know whether to cry because everyone wanted to squeeze her or be happy at this bizarre display of affection.

​Seeing this, Sunny relaxed his muscles and recomposed himself. He rested his hand back on the table and resumed eating. ’Glad to see they’re getting along so well already,’ he thought with a smirk. His eyes darted from an afflicted Cassie to a Yuki who had seemingly merged into the atmosphere of their table.

​The duo had become a trio, and lunch resumed with the same sweet, serene rhythm as before—only now made more interesting by the presence of the newcomer.

​”So, I’m doing this sacred ritual to summon a specific deity, and for some absurd, inexplicable reason, I end up calling forth two others who have nothing to do with it. I mean, what are we even talking about?” Sunny resumed his tall tales, using a tone that suggested it was all a big joke.

​Cassie laughed, listening to the heart of his improbable deeds. Yuki, however, seemed to believe his every single sentence—not out of naivety, but because she sensed that, somehow, he was telling the truth.

​Then, suddenly, the background chatter of the other Sleepers—who had felt light-years away—surged and hit them like a flock of seagulls descending on a sandbank.

​Every eye in the room turned toward a screen hanging atop the central column of the cafeteria. In particular, the gazes of a proud Legacy, a stubborn princess, and a treacherous shadow were drawn to it like magnets.

​”How… how can this be?!”

​”I’m not seeing things, right?”

​”What kind of monsters are these two?!”

​Sunny raised his coffee cup to his lips, savoring the warm aroma of the natural brew. He took a slow sip as a satisfied smile spread across his face. ’Everything according to plan.’

​On the screen, the results and rankings of the recent interviews finally flickered into view. The board displayed the following list:

​

1⁰-​Sunless | True Name: Everlasting Gloom.

2⁰-​Nephis Immortal Flame | True Name: Changing Star.

3⁰-​Yukino | Aspect Rank: Sacred.

4⁰-​Han Li Caster | Aspect Rank: Ascendant.

5⁰-​Markus | Aspect Rank: Ascendant.

​...

Setting down his half-empty cup of coffee, Sunny looked at Yuki across the table, arching an eyebrow in genuine secondary shock. ’A Sacred-rank Aspect? Not bad at all,’ he mused, nodding slowly with a faint, impressed smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

​Yuki met his gaze with her usual expressionless mask, yet, unexpectedly, a tiny ghost of a smile graced her red lips—a sharp contrast against her porcelain skin and the cool palette of her blue-and-white attire.

​Then, Sunny’s eyes drifted back down to her tray. ’What the—’

​Sunny blinked. Then he blinked again. He actually rubbed his eyes, certain that his mind was playing tricks on him.

​Even the mental projection of his Flaw, the loquacious Jiminy Cricket, hopped down from his shoulder to investigate the scene.

​The mountain of junk food on Yuki’s tray had vanished. It wasn’t just eaten; it looked as if the atomic bonds of the meal had disintegrated into nothingness, or perhaps a localized wormhole had opened and vacuum-sealed the entire contents into the void.

​Sunny stared in disbelief. The Cricket scrambled under the table, looking left and right, searching for where the mountain of calories could have possibly been hidden. Finding nothing, the imaginary creature looked up at Sunny, scratched its forehead with a bewildered expression, and shrugged while shaking its head.

​The food was gone.

​Only a single, lonely cracker crumb remained, dragging itself across the plastic tray like the sole survivor of a decimated brigade—the lone veteran of a mission that had gone spectacularly, catastrophically wrong. Sunny briefly considered whether to award the crumb an Iron Cross for its bravery or to simply send the soldier home to its loved ones.

​Sunny looked at Yuki again, this time with a newfound sense of existential dread.

​> the Cricket whispered, leaping back onto his shoulder in one swift, agile bound.

​’Agreed,’ Sunny replied with a mental nod.

Suddenly, the awakening of a corrupted God was no longer the only threat looming over the entire world.