Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

”...There was a test?”

’Now there is.’

Sunny smiled.

”All you have to do is pass my test, and you can become my right-hand man.”

He paused for a second.

”Right-hand woman. That’s what I meant.”

Seele scowled in discontent.

”Weren’t you the the one that asked me to join your little cult?”

Sunny tilted his head.

”It’s not a cult. It’s a secret organization! A cult does creepy rituals and stuff to try to summon some sort of evil abomination, while secret organizations work in the shadows in order to accomplish their grand goal!”

Pausing for a second, Sunny continued:

”Besides, didn’t you want to save... wherever you come from? As long as you pass this test, I’ll definitely help you out with that.”

It was the truth. In exchange for Seele’s help in his quest for world domination, Sunny would gracefully put her home under his protection. His benevolence and generosity truly knew no bounds.

He liked free things, but he also didn’t like free things. As such, he made sure to sneakily slip in some credits into Natasha’s account when she wasn’t looking. He had found a strange hacking app on his phone, so it wasn’t very difficult to transfer the credits after finding her bank account.

Seele sighed.

”Fine, I’ll do your stupid test.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

”You really will help, right?”

Sunny simply scoffed, a smirk plastered on his face.

”Of course I will. I’m the most honest man in the world after all. Two worlds, even. The rules are simple. All you have to do is find me.”

Seele raised her brow.

”Like... hide-and-seek?”

He frowned for a second, before nodding.

”Yes, I suppose that it is basically just hide-and-seek. Anyways, for today, tomorrow, and the day after, I’ll be hiding in a single spot on this island. I won’t move to a different location at any point, so you don’t have to check the same places multiple times. I won’t hide in the shadows, and I won’t hide in small spaces.”

Making sure that Seele understood the rules, Sunny used Shadow Step to signal the start of the game while also going to his chosen hiding spot. Swimming through the shadows, Sunny did not exit the residential building. Rather, he just welcomed himself into another’s room...

***

”...Finally finished.”

Sparkle exhaustingly mumbled to herself as she rested her head on her desk. Countless dolls that resembled her were piled up in an empty corner of her room, having been haphazardly tossed there by her whenever she completed one of them. She had just finished the final one — which was also the only normal doll out of the bunch.

The rest were... not something that would be able to get through customs.

Her eyes had lost the amused glint that they usually shone with, and there were dark circles under her eyes. Her hair was a little messy, and she was much paler than usual.

Sparkle’s signature smile had disappeared, leaving a perpetual scowl on her face.

She had stayed up to make dolls for multiple days, and the fatigue was starting to catch up to her. It had gotten bad enough that her Flaw had completely dissipated, something that had only occurred a handful of times.

Usually because of something that Sunny would do, whether it was good or bad.

”I’m so bored...”

Unlike others that tended to have Flaws that brought them great pain, Sparkle’s Flaw was one that did the opposite — both in the most literal sense, and because she didn’t like who she was without it.

Right now, she was no longer Sparkle, a silly troublemaker that just wants to have as much fun as possible — preferably with Sunny.

She was just...

Her thoughts were cut off when she heard movement where her bed was. Sparkle turned her head in confusion, blinking as she saw Sunny tuck himself under her blankets. Her lips parted as she wondered whether or not she was seeing things.

”Sunny?”

She spoke in a soft tone, completely unlike her usually chipper and excessively enthusiastic voice.

Sunny’s strange golden eyes gazed at her for a second, before he tiredly asked:

”What’s wrong with you? You look like you were cooped up in here for days.”

Sparkle huffed in annoyance.

”It really hurts my feelings when you insult my appearance.”

Sunny rolled his eyes.

”Right... whatever you say. Besides, I wasn’t insulting you.”

Considering that Sunny was probably the only person in two worlds with an inability to lie, Sparkle was slightly confused.

”Then what did you mean?”

Sunny coughed into his fist. With how long she had known him, Sparkle recognized that as a cue that his answer was embarrassing.

’Fuck... nice one Hanabi. He came here for whatever reason because he was comfortable, and you just had to ruin it by asking too many questions. Can’t you just keep your mouth shut for just a second? Maybe someone as useless as you really should have just killed yo—’

”I was just pissed because you somehow look pretty no matter what.”

”...Oh.”

Sparkle swiftly turned around before covering her face with her hands. She could practically feel the heat that radiated from it. The corners of her mouth were slightly upturned.

Those words had completely resuscitated her Flaw.

”Since when were you so flirty?”

She turned back around to see Sunny staring at he in confusion.

”I... I am?”

Sparkle shook her head with mirth.

”Nevermind. Anyways, what is there to be pissed about? You’re probably the prettiest guy I know.”

Sunny glared at her.

”Don’t you mean handsome and muscular? And... how many many guys am I being compared to, exactly?”

Sparkle looked at his face for a second, before looking at the rest of his body.

’Yeah... definitely a pretty boy.’

Sparkle had a smug expression on her face. Was he getting jealous?

”Want to tell me why you want to know?”

She adjusted her word choice, making sure that the question was whether or not he wanted to answer rather than directly asking the question.

Sunny’s eye twitched, revealing that he was particularly annoyed by her question.

”No. No I don’t.”

Just by looking at his face, Sparkle could guess what he was thinking:

’What was the purpose of her asking such a tactless question? Can’t Sparkle just take a hint, inferring the answer herself? Why was he always surrounded by troublesome people?’

Sunny sighed.

”I’m going to go to sleep. If a purple-haired girl knocks on your door, tell her that I said she passed the test.”

’A test? What is he talking about? And who’s this girl...’

Sparkle froze. The elation from her Flaw plummeted, bringing her back to a sober state.

Now that she thought about it, one of the Abyss Watchers had said something about a girl being around Sunny. At first, she wasn’t too worried about it. She had thought that he was just learning about how to make friends.

However, didn’t they leave the Sanctuary of Noctis alone the previous day? With Sunny around, many strange things were bound to happen around them. As such, it wouldn’t be too far fetched to say that an intimate moment could have occurred — even if only by accident.

Not only that, but the girl was an Awakened. She was bound to be attractive, right?

’No... Sunny wouldn’t get that close to a person just after a day, no matter how attractive they are.’

In the Forgotten Shore, it had taken almost two months of wandering the coral hell before Sunny could open up to her. Of course, there were certain... circumstances that pushed him to do so, but considering that she was the only person around him during that period of time, she doubted that he could have formed any bond — much less a romantic one in less than a day.

Although Sparkle was glad that she was just overthinking things, she still felt somewhat uneasy.

Looking at Sunny, she wondered if it would be okay to probe around a little.

”Inviting another girl to my room? Aren’t you getting a little bold?”

To her surprise, Sunny chuckled.

”I guess I have been pretty bold lately.”

Sparkle abruptly stood up from her chair, walking over to where Sunny was. His eyes were closed, but considering the way he frowned, he must have saw her through his shadows. Sparkle didn’t care.

With a small hop, she jumped onto her bed, throwing one of her legs over Sunny’s midsection. He opened his eyes, looking at her in confusion as she straddled him.

”...Sparkle, I’m too tired to play with you right now.”

”It’s a good thing I’m not playing around then, right?”

Sunny’s eyes flickered downwards for a moment. He sighed.

”Alright. Tell me what’s wrong.”

He seemed to have figured out that she was upset about something. Maybe she had a particularly nasty expression on her face...

Actually, she was surprised by how calm he was. She would have thought that he would be squirming around in discomfort, or throwing her across her room by now.

”...Sunny, you’re going to show me this girl.”

”...Am I?”

”Don’t test me.”

Suddenly, Sunny sat up, becoming face to face with Sparkle. He placed his hands on the sides of her head. She felt her heart skip a beat as heat rushed up to her head. She must have looked like a tomato right now.

He leaned forward...

’Wait... is this really happening? Does he actually see me as a woman? But didn’t he always reject me? Did the memory wipe actually help me? Is Sunny going to help Sparkle become a woman today?!’

Sparkle watched with both confusion and anticipation as he leaned forward. She closed her eyes, waiting to once again taste those soft lips.

Just for him to ram his forehead into her skull.

”Who do you think you are, bossing me around? I’m going to become the king of everything, so show some respect you half-assed jester!”

Sparkle groaned as she felt a splitting headache consume her.

’...That’s it. I’m killing him before fucking his corpse. That other girl could watch.’

She laughed at the morbid joke. Despite this, she wasn’t feeling very elated at all. Instead, she was stuck between both anger and arousal.

She looked up at Sunny as she picked herself back up. Sparkle lunged at him, trying to get his neck between her lithe fingers. Before she could get her hands on him, she was suddenly restrained by his arms.

’Tch. Why does such a small guy have to be so strong?!’

When it came to physical abilities, the only thing that Sparkle beat him in was flexibility. It was quite the impressive feat, since Sunny always had reminded her of an acrobat whenever he fought.

She could have tried to escape his grasp, as she had the ability to soften her bones — courtesy of the Sequence 7 potion: Magician. However, it would only have worked successfully if she was restrained by an object, not by a human.

She scowled against his chest.

”Let me go!”

”Sparkle, I’m going to take over the world.”

Sparkle paused.

”Okay... so are you going to fuck me or not?”

He kicked her off the bed. Before she made contact with the ground, she extended her hand to hold herself up, before springing up to her feet.

”Hey! Answer the question!”

”First of all, no. Second of all, I forgot to tell you, but your dress has been slipping for a while. Third of all, you’re not funny!”

Sunny’s face was almost crimson, and he seemed particularly indignant about being solicited.

Sparkle pouted at his words.

”I thought it was funny...”

She looked down at her red floral dress for a second, before realizing that quite a bit of her chest was on display. It didn’t show too much, but she couldn’t quite go out like this, could she?

Readjusting it, Sparkle looked towards Sunny. He looked back at her for a second before sighing. He shuffled to the side, patting the empty space next to him.

She looked towards her desk, where the last of her dolls was. This one was completely normal, with no special effects imbedded into it. She grabbed it, bringing it along with her as she plopped down next to Sunny.

She passed the doll over to him, causing him to hesitantly take it out of her hands. He stared at it for a second, gazing at the smug expression stitched onto her face.

”...This is pretty good.”

Sparkle felt pride well up in her chest. A compliment from Sunny was an honor of the highest order! After all, he wasn’t one to lie or exaggerate.

”It’s yours now. This way, you’ll always be thinking about your dear Sparkle!”

”...Damnation. Why did I say anything?”

Sparkle wrapped herself around him like a koala... although she doubted Sunny knew what a koala was.

He stared at her in annoyance for a second, before redirecting his gaze back to the doll that was modeled after herself.

She watched as Sunny let out a horrified shriek after he looked at the bottom of the doll, which had a small opening just for him.

”The real thing is better by the way~”

He glared at her in disgust.

”I’m going to sleep. Don’t try anything...”

Sparkle just giggled.

He really had a unique way of cheering her up.