Shadow Slave | School Days

Replace Mordret with Sunny in the room with Asterion, Gilead, Tyris, Noctis, Anvil, Solvane. Who's coming out alive?

--

Sunlight bore down with an almost suffocating weight, making the air thick and heavy. Sweat clung to Sunny's skin as he pulled off his shirt, which resisted his will stubbornly before succumbing. Tossing it onto a nearby rock, he stepped towards the lakes edge.

Water shimmered beneath the glare of the sky; a restless surface disturbed only by the occasional breeze. He didn't hesitate—diving in with a sharp exhale as he allowed the cool water to wash away his fatigue and stress. Frankly, he expected himself to be angrier at Nephis' words.

After all, she was the one masquerading that he was not to be called 'Lost from Light' and instead they address him with a name fitting for a human and yet it turned out she viewed him in a similar manner. Humans were uniform in that way, one could expect all humans to act a certain way when they met their threshold.

He wasn't disappointed she said it, he was saddened how low her threshold was.

"I guess that's all she thought of me, a tool to use for her own pity to alleviate boredom. And to think I let her lie to me... disgusting." He mumbled as he allowed the water to envelop his body. Relief hit instantly. Heat peeled away as he surfaced, slicking his pale hair back and blinking droplets from his lashes.

He hadn't quite expected the river to be so oddly soothing, upon dipping his head below water once more, he saw hundreds of thousands of fish, each of them darting away from him as he waded within the water. Deciding to set himself a challenge, Sunny dove beneath the water, chasing after the nearest one in a burst of speed.

It was quite arrogant to expect a creature which spent most of their time on land to compete with a fish within the water, and such arrogance was what Sunny would allow himself to indulge in. Within the water, he was free, there were noises of the living who expected nothing from him and in return he expected nothing from them either.

Currently, he didn't even intend to eat. Chasing them was merely an idle pastime to fill the hole in his heart and frankly... he thought it was working. The image of Nephis' face flashed into his mind. Immediately, water flashed into his throat, taking an unconscious inhale as he found his stomach being filled with salty water.

Rising to the surface, Sunny coughed the water which had gone the wrong way before staring into the bright sky. "I feel sick." Vile, destructive impulses welled within his soul. He wanted to hurt something or someone as quickly as possible, and yet he was surrounded by people he cared about.

--

Eubin, Clara, Jessica and Lily all stared at the scene before them with wide eyes. Hel had been left behind to monitor Nephis' movements, frankly after her treatment of Sunny, it was quite hard for none of them to make an attempt on her life and yet they resisted.

All their rage, stress and lingering aggression had immediately been washed away as they remained within the trees, gazing upon Sunny's form as he continuously breached the water. The sight they were gazing upon didn't seem quite human, he was... perfect. At least when it came to appearance.

Sunny's hair, damp and pale, clung to his forehead as he tipped his head back, exposing the curve of his throat to the endless sky. Muscles shifted beneath glistening skin, each slow movement effortless, as though he belonged to the water and the world itself bent to his will.

Eubin didn't even notice when her nose began to start bleeding, a reaction which the remaining three girls shared as they watched Sunny exit the water slowly. "Wow." Was all Clara could breathe out, her eyes remaining utterly fixed on his presence until he breached the water in it's entirety.

He was completely naked. Which was to be expected.

Yet, that didn't stop their shared surprise as each of them pressed their hands against the others mouth in an attempt to suppress a gasp. Finally, after controlling themselves. Lily finally broke her silence, her face a furious red as she stared at the group with a stone still gaze.

"Do you think it's heavy?" In response, all she got were furious nods as Jessica cleared her throat. "That would hurt, initially at least. I am nothing but supremely adaptable." At this comment, a light laugh emanated through the clearing, each of them trying to pry their eyes off Sunny's form.

Suddenly, after he clothed himself, his head snapped in their direction, his eyes narrowed as he shook his head. Staring emptily into the sky, a smile arrived on his face. It wasn't one of joy, it wasn't one of satisfaction, it wasn't one filled with malice. It was an empty facsimile of what a smile was supposed to be.

"I wonder if I'll always be alone."

Picking up his knives, he blurred from their view, leaving the water behind him as he arrived within the tree branches above them. Surprisingly, he wasn't looking at them, he was looking above them. Golden hair came into view as Luster laid on the tree, staring down at the women with a lazy wave as he placed his hand over his mouth.

"*Yawn* Hello Sunless. I have a message for you and Song. It was intended for Orion, but I thought you'd be more interested." Pulling out a small cartridge from his pocket, he also revealed a small piece of paper as he shook his head to ward off his lethargy. "Just put the cartridge in a *yawn* phone and you'll be fine. As for the letter, you can do as you..."

He didn't end up finishing his sentence as he had already fallen asleep, leaving the cartridge and letter in Sunny's hands as he lazily slept on the treetop. Surprise was an emotion that was shared between all the Song sisters as their eyes narrowed towards the small boy. It was clear he worked for Orion who was under Asterion's command, and although the chances of Sunny working for Asterion were certainly zero, the same couldn't be said for him.

Additionally, he had managed to sneak up on all of them at once, carefully positioning himself within their blind spot, timing his movements with their speech. None of them gained the opportunity to further pursue their suspicions as Sunny's eyes narrowed at the letter.

"What's in it?" Lily asked, her curiosity piqued as Sunny shook his head before sitting down next to Luster's unconscious body. "The war's format has been leaked, supposedly the strongest people fight first before the grunts clean up the work. It's an individual battle to start off the war."

It was a reasonable choice, if such a battle did occur each side had a chance of severely injuring the other, and by proxy they would also be severely draining the military might of the other side. But Sunny didn't care about that, it was who would be fighting that concerned him.

"We'll talk about the rest at dinner, but first...why are you here?" At his comment, each one of them had a furious blush arrive on their face as their eyes struggled to remain locked with his rather than drifting downward. 'I can take him.' Eubin thought, wiping a nosebleed as she concocted an excuse.

"I...no, we came to speak to you. And we won't let you brush us off for even a second, do you understand?" The sudden seriousness that took over her voice caused Sunny to stiffen as he turned to Luster. Lifting him off the floor, Sunny threw the boy into the river without a second thought before turning back to them.

"Hey! You fucking cunt, fuck you! I was trying to sleep you stupid piece of shit! Who do you think you are! Fucking Changing Star once and leaving her limping got to your head didn't it!?"

Luster's infuriated shouting didn't register in any of their minds as Sunny sat down, focusing on what Eubin was about to say as Jessica raised a hand to interrupt her. "I think I speak for everyone here when I say this. You are more than your strength; do you understand that? You're a human, and one of the strongest ones I know and I'm not talking about physically. "

Sunny stared at them impassively, he had heard all of this before from a variety of different people, but he wasn't about to interrupt them. Surely, they had something more to say. In fact, a part of him wished they had his defect so they would be rendered unable to say their next words.

To Sunny's surprise, Lily took over from her, cutting off Eubin once more as she began speaking. "Look, none of us are going to sit here and tell you that we would be able to endure everything you have, that's outlandish and incredulous to even say. But you have a limit. I've seen it personally, the cutting, the scratching, all of it. You wouldn't get any better alone, and do you know who helped you?"

His face was now contorted into a grimace, his body unwilling to answer the question before his gaze passed over the women. "You guys did. All of you." He whispered, his eyes refusing to meet theirs as Clara finally took over. Throwing him his prized headphones as she smiled kindly at him.

"So, even though we might not be able to compete with you, we might give up before you, hell, if what Eubin told me about what Morgan did to you was true, then I'm not sure anyone alive could have stayed with you. But that's the issue Sunny, there are certain things you can do that nobody else can, that's what makes you special. And what makes us special, the things you like about us so much, part of that is being able to pick up your slack."

They were kind words, words that he appreciated, words that were slowly helping him revive his shattered self esteem. And yet, the person he wanted to hear them from the most had called him an unfeeling machine. So, in the end, did it really matter? Wasn't she right?

Finally noticing her chance to speak, Eubin took it with malicious glee as she cleared her throat and stared at her sisters with a cocky expression which quickly faded away into a gentle one. "If you were just an extremely strong, unfeeling machine, none of us would ever care about you and I promise you that with my life. You would simply be a tool that was easy to manipulate, but you aren't. You're so much more, you cook, and you love doing it, the look in your eyes when you speak of the stars. All of it, there is so much more to who you are than just being the strongest."

His lip trembled, eyes watering with suppressed emotion as he inhaled deeply to control himself. As he moved to wipe his eyes, Eubin's strings coiled around his arm, gently guiding it away from his face as they all stared at him. From the way they spoke, one would think they were Siamese twins.

"Sunny, it's ok to cry."

Before he was Lost from Light, he was a killer, before he was a killer, he was an experiment, before he was an experiment, he was a slave. But before all of that, not even the weight of the entire world could deny that at his core he was a human. Just like the rest of them.

Each of them watched as Sunny broke down into tears, confused as to what to do before Sunny quickly closed the distance between all of them. In a single movement, he pulled them all close to him before enveloping them into a hug. As he made contact, they felt his body visibly convulse, his muscles tightening and preparing for danger.

But he supressed it, he supressed his trauma because there was a dream he wanted to reach. It was a far one, but it was a bright one. And at least he knew, no matter how distant of a star it was. It was a star that existed.

"I love you guys."

--

Standing outside Sunny's range of sensory, water dripped from a blonde boy's hair, an annoyed expression traced across his face as he stared through a camera at the scene before him. A smile arrived upon his face, it wasn't a cruel one, in fact, one could describe it as more solemn than anything.

"Enjoy your time with them, before you make the whole world your enemy."