Shadow Slave: Foreign shadow

Sunny stepped out of the police station bathroom and made his way toward the cafeteria where Jet was waiting. A radiant smile colored his lips, looking like a splash of pink paint accidentally dropped onto a stark white canvas.

​After the emotional roller coaster of the last hour, he had ended up taking yet another shower. The hardest part had been convincing Thene not to join him.

​

’She hasn’t even been back from the Shadow Realm for thirty minutes and she’s already laying siege to my chastity. Typical,’ Sunny mused in the quiet solace of his mind. An immense, buoyant joy flooded his heart.

​Thene had returned to his Soul Sea for the time being. Sunny truly wished he could dedicate all the time in the world to her, but unfortunately, the world wasn’t going to return the favor.

​> the Jiminy Cricket’s voice asked. It had made himself scarce to give the ”lovebirds” some privacy.

​Sunny rolled his eyes. ’You could have stayed if you wanted. What did you think—that I was planning to have a tryst in a police station bathroom? Honestly, give me some credit.’

​Finally, he reached the dining hall. As he stepped inside, he spotted Jet sitting at a table.

​However, the Soul Reaper was not alone. Seated directly across from her was another girl, roughly his age.

​She wore a light blue dress with a white skirt that reached her knees. Her hair was a soft black, styled with a striking ice-blue braid. Her complexion was a delicate, pale rose, and her face was a perfect oval featuring a dainty, pointed nose. Her eyes were a shade of light celestial blue, meeting the deep azure of the sea at the horizon. Looking at her was like observing an enchanting snow spirit—or a statue carved from living ice. A true beauty, indeed.

​Even her shadow seemed frozen; at least, that was what Sunny perceived through his Shadow sense.

​As his gaze settled on the ice beauty sitting before Master Jet, Sunny—who was already fed up with plot twists and script changes—couldn’t help but ask one, polite question:

​’Who the fuck are you now?!’

***

Master Jet sat in the police station breakroom, a space the officers had graciously cleared for her. Seated across from her was a young girl who had completed her First Nightmare barely two hours before Sunless.

​The Sleeper had arrived at the precinct a few minutes after Jet’s own protégé. Consequently, the Soul Reaper had found herself pulling double duty, babysitting two Aspirant at once.

​

’I hope they at least give me a raise for this,’ Jet thought, boredom gnawing at her as she considered her increased workload.

​Following protocol, Jet had attempted some small talk with the girl. To say the conversation was awkward would have been an understatement.

​This girl was a wall—a block of ice, actually.

​Her face was utterly expressionless. Watching her was like staring at a marble Venus; she was cold, detached, and hauntingly still. Whenever Jet spoke to her, the girl never made eye contact. Her responses were the bare minimum, as if every spoken word cost her a fortune in gold.

​

’Is that her Flaw?’ Jet wondered.

​Suddenly, hearing footsteps enter the cafeteria, Jet turned. To her immense relief, she saw the boy finally approaching.

​Sunny wore a black t-shirt under a matching completely untied hoodie, the hood pulled back. His jeans were the same uniform shade of dark. Around his neck hung a pendant with a brilliant emerald prism—the only splash of color on a canvas dominated by shadows.

​

’Cool pendant. A Memory from his Nightmare, perhaps?’ Jet thought, eyeing the prism with quite interest.

​”Took your time, didn’t you, little Devil? You must really enjoy showers,” Jet said, flashing him a smirk and arching an eyebrow.

​”Well, you know how it is. I had this gloomy lady to attend to,” Sunny replied, shrugging with practiced nonchalance. Both his hands were hidden in the hoodie pocket.

​Jet opened her mouth to retort, but paused for a beat of genuine doubt. ”Ah... I see!”

​For some reason, Sunny’s gaze remained fixed on the other girl. He looked at her with a bewildered intensity, as if she were a creature from another planet.

​Jet turned back to the girl. ”Sunny, meet Yuki. Yuki, this is Sunless. Since both of you survived your First Nightmares, I suppose congratulations are in order,” she concluded, crossing her arms and legs as she leaned back in her chair.

​”Nice to meet you. I’m Sunless, but my friends call me Sunny,” he said, offering a faint smile as he sat beside her. He remained visibly on guard. Jet noticed that, for some reason, his eyes kept darting between the girl and his own shoulder, as if there were a third person standing there.

But there was no one.

​Their gazes met. Her celestial blue met his bottomless black.

​Yuki opened her mouth as if to respond, but no sound came out at first. After a long, awkward silence, she managed a single word: ​”Yuki.”

​Both Jet and Sunny blinked, stunned by the brevity. Then, they moved on as if nothing were wrong.

After a quick meal, Jet proceeded with the standard protocol.

​”Alright. Are you almost finished with your food?” Jet asked the two of them.

​Sunny stopped fidgeting with a stray fry and looked up. ”Mh-mh!” he replied with a nod. Yuki simply nodded in silence.

​”Then I’ll begin,” Jet said. ”Yuki, we already did yours. Sunny, as per protocol, I am obligated to inform you of a few things. It’s mostly a formality. First of all, concerning your Nightmare...”

​She leaned forward slightly. ”You are entitled to receive free psychological counseling. No matter what traumatic experience you encountered, there is no shame in asking for help. Your mind is as important as your body—it’s only right to keep it healthy. Are you interested?”

​Sunny hesitated for a moment, glancing at his shoulder as if tempted to actually consider it, before shaking his head in refusal.

​Jet shrugged. ”As you wish. You can always talk to me if you prefer. Was it very hard... your First Nightmare?”

​Sunny paused for a moment, his right eye twitched violently. For a second, it was impossible to tell if he was about to laugh or cry. Finally, he looked her dead in the eye. ”Define ’hard.’”

​He took a deep breath and began his tale.

​”First of all, I spent nearly a month in a temple where I had to constantly protect my virginity,” he explained, putting a heavy, pained emphasis on constantly.

​”Then some random dudes razed the place to the ground and I ended up in chains. Lo and behold, I found myself having to protect my virginity again. As if that wasn’t enough, I had to climb a mountain completely exposed to the elements—at night, moreover. All while facing an army of Awakened, both humans and Nightmare Creatures, while a Master—a lunatic like few others—tried to scramble my mind, and another Awakened played at being a god-slayer. In the end, I summoned a God—three, actually—and solved everything.”

​He finished the entire rant in a single breath.

”The end.”

​A profound, heavy silence fell over the cafeteria. Both Master Jet and Yuki stared at him, mouths slightly agape at what sounded like total nonsense.

​Surprisingly, Yuki watched Sunny with wide eyes, as if she actually believed him. For the first time, a flicker of emotion breached her frozen mask: shock.

​”All right then, keep your secrets.” Jet finally said, rolling her eyes.

​But then, her gaze lingered for a moment on the boy’s shadow. His shadow waved at her in a friendly manner. Her eyes narrowed, then snapped back to Sunny.

​

’Hold up! Wait a minute!’ A violent shiver ran down Jet’s spine.

​Her piercing blue eyes darted back to the floor.

​Before her mind could even process the thought, her body acted on instinct. Jet surged to her feet, her chair nearly clattering to the floor from the force. In a flash of sparks, she manifested a curved, obsidian scythe, pointing the reaping blade directly at the thing beneath Sunny’s feet.

The two Sleepers stared at the Master with bewildered eyes, watching an Ascendant of the Government—a veteran—literally break into a cold sweat. Through his Shadow sense, Sunny could feel Jet’s own shadow shuddering in primal fear.

​”What the-” Sunny began, then his gaze followed the line of her scythe’s blade. ”Oooh!” He exhaled, realizing the misunderstanding.

​”Jet, it’s alright. It’s not some kind of Nightmare Creature. It’s just part of my Aspect,” Sunny explained, his voice calm and rational.

​”Your Aspect?” Jet asked, her voice tight with disbelief. She didn’t dare take her piercing blue eyes off the shadow, which was currently trembling with both hands raised in the air, pleading for its life.

If shadows could talk, they would have heard Gloomy say something like: ’Hey, yo! I was just chilling around here!’

​

”Yep!” Sunny nodded. ”You see, my shadow is more independent than most. It’s also incredibly sensitive, so... if you could kindly not point a weapon at it, I’d appreciate it. And so would he.”

​Jet looked at Sunny for a beat before shifting her gaze back to the shivering shadow. Slowly, she lowered the scythe and dismissed it back into her Soul Sea.

​Seeing the threat vanish, Gloomy wiped an imaginary bead of sweat from his forehead and slumped in a sigh of pure relief.

​Regaining her composure, Jet sat back down. She swallowed, cleared her throat, and picked up where she had left off. However, Sunny noticed that a lingering, inexplicable sense of dread still clung to the Soul Reaper’s shadow like a cold mist.

​”Right... as I was saying. Now, I’m supposed to offer you both the chance to attend the Academy. It’ll prepare you for your first expedition into the Dream Realm before the Winter Solstice. What do you think? Are you interested?”

​Sunny nodded without hesitation. ”Yes.”

​Surprisingly, Yuki also responded aloud, though the word seemed to be dragged out of her mouth by force. ”Yes.”

​Jet nodded in turn. ”Good. It’s settled then.” She stood up, gesturing toward the exit. ”Let’s go. I’ll escort you.”

​As the two Sleepers rose to follow her, a lightbulb clicked on in Sunny’s head.

​”Hey!” he blurted out. He glanced briefly toward his shoulder, as if something invisible there were trying to hold him back.

”Now that I think about it... Master Jet, didn’t you promise me a kiss if I survived my First Nightmare?” He flashed a grin that was wider than it was long, completely devoid of shame.

​Jet froze on the threshold. Beside him, Yuki glanced between the two of them, one eyebrow arching in silent amusement.

​Jet turned back toward Sunny, her brow furrowing as a vivid red blossomed across her cheeks. With two swift, purposeful strides, she crossed the room and flicked Sunny hard on the forehead with two fingers.