Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

’Tingyuuuun...! What did you do?!’

Within the Express’ kitchen, Sunny inwardly wailed as he ate his way through a tower of pancakes and waffles. After all, one was not complete without the other.

In response to his cries of distress, he gained nothing. Not a single response came from that temptress of a fox, leaving nothing but silence in his Soul Sea.

Ever since his possession incident, Tingyun had been hibernating within the lightless cocoon of his Shadow Core, progressing to her next evolution. Using Saint as a reference, he would have assumed that she was going to experience an increase in Class... but he knew that was not the case.

Because when Sunny had maxed out Tingyun’s Shadow Fragment counter in order to increase her Rank to that of an Awkakened, she became a Monster instead. A mere Dormant Monster.

So, believing that her current evolution was that of a Rank increase, he was quite glad that his efforts weren’t for nothing...

But he was also very pissed. For more than one reason.

Firstly, Sunny had no idea what stunt she had pulled to trigger her evolution. Moreover, he suspected that she had something to do with the invasive Heliobus’ expulsion. Lacking knowledge of both occurrences, Sunny found that he was quite annoyed.

He didn’t like not knowing things. A lack of information could easily be the death of him — though, he doubted that the current situation was that extreme, that assumption was also brought on by a void of knowledge.

Second, Tingyun screwed him over financially! Well, maybe it wasn’t that extreme, but now he had to invest more resources into her!

Before, Sunny was able to quickly max out her Shadow Fragment counter due to the fact that she was only of the Dormant Rank at the time. When he fed her Dormant Memories, she gained one Fragment for each Tier, and when it came to Awakened Memories, it was doubled to two Fragments per Tier. For the rare Ascended Memory, it was four, and so on.

Unlike his other Shadows, Tingyun grew in Class by being fed Shadow Fragments, meaning that he probably could have brought her to the Titan Class if he was given a month or two, with all the resources that would soon be coming in from SoundlessHeaven.

If she Awakened, however... that rate of progression would be doubled!

...Well, it was a good thing his Shadows weren’t like Sunny himself. While Sunny didn’t receive Shadow Fragments from those of a lesser Rank than himself, his Shadow Creatures could grow from lower Ranked Memories. Similarly, other humans could do so as well when consuming Soul Shards.

With each Rank below their own, however, the gains were halved. If an Ascended human consumed an Awakened Soul Shard, they’d effectively only gain half a Soul Shard.

Still, it was better than Sunny’s own growth process...

But he got to keep the Soul Shards as spoils, even if he couldn’t consume them, so it was still somewhat of a win.

The third and final reason that he was so bothered by Tingyun’s disappearance was a simple one. He was lonely, of course!

...What? It wasn’t like he grew attached, or anything. It was just that anyone would feel bothered if a voice in their ear suddenly disappeared. Completely normal!

Sunny clenched his fists as he heard the door to the kitchen open, leading to him turning his head:

”March, I’m being ignored! Can you beli—”

The kitchen door slammed shut. She hadn’t even taken a step in before turning around.

”...Never mind. You’re just ignoring me, too. What a bitch!”

Sunny shook his head with a smug look. Sure, he might have told her that everything about her was wrong and stupid, and maybe she got a little mad about it, but so what? That didn’t mean he deserved to be ignored — unless he was anyone else, that is.

In conclusion, March was being a baby about something she didn’t even understand. Something she couldn’t even explain.

Honestly, she should be thanking him for pointing her flawed beliefs out.

Sunny continued to eat without a care in the world, before suddenly:

[Your Shadow has evolved.]

His jaw hung open midbite for a moment.

’Oh, Tingyun, you must have heard my pleas!’

He giggled as he checked her runes, before freezing.

They were unchanged.

’Oh, it’s just Saint...’

Sunny blinked.

’It’s Saint!’

***

’Alright, how do I do this?’

Sunny psyched himself up to summon his Shadow — his favorite Shadow, at that. Sure, he treated them relatively equally, but some are more equal than others, and that was alright!

He couldn’t simply summon Saint. No, he needed to add style. Swagger. Hype. He couldn’t have her see her master, and think: ’This idiot is no different from before. Maybe I should be the master.’ No, no, he needed to leave her impressed. So stunned that she had no choice but to get on one knee and ask for his hand in marriage!

’...Wait, what?’

He was really losing it, huh?

’Hm... but if it’s Saint, I wouldn’t say no?’

Shivering at the weird direction his thoughts took, Sunny made sure to give his room some ambience. Summoning the Shadow Lantern, he let darkness flood his room. Then, he spent some Essence to manifest the shadows, but only stopped halfway. The manifested shadows were not fully corporeal, but weren’t incorporeal either, creating a hazy mist that was unsure what laws it wanted to follow — Sunny’s, or the world.

Summoning Nightmare into his Soul Sea, he activated the [Mantle of Fear] Ability. Sure, Saint was completely immune to mind attacks, but surely she could appreciate his domineering presence, right?

With the onyx carapace of the Mantle covering his body, he took a seat in the Shadow Chair, Serpent slithering off his body and turning into a jet black odachi. He rested the tenebrous blade in his lap as he brought up his knee, maintaining a sense of casualness while still emanating a sharp pressure.

’Hell yeah.’

Saint was going to be blown off her rockers... er, her armor? It was made of rock, anyways.

Unless... she became the Steel Saint?! Yes, that seemed like an appropriate path of progression.

No longer stalling, Sunny dragged his hand up his face, covering his eyes.

From the depths of his shadow, Saint appeared. Feeling her greater presence, Sunny darkly chuckled as he swept his hair back.

”So, you have returned. I sure hope you don’t intend on disappointing me, Sai— Unholy shit, what happened to you?!”

In the end, Sunny was the one who left stunned and deeply impressed.