Shadow Slave | School Days

Each sound continued to reverberate through Sunny's ears for what felt like millennia. His own thoughts were eating him from the inside as he desperately hoped for someone, anyone to arrive to save him. Constantly he would wake up, being forced to stare into the infernal mirror once more as his mind fractured irreparably.

Sunny didn't remember the last time he had been fed; it felt like weeks since food had last graced his being. Combined with the two weeks he had spent unconscious; he had now gone a total of four weeks without any food nor water. And yet, not even his hunger could take his mind off the madness that crept into his mind.

"Who... am... I?" Sunny whispered, his voice hoarse as it echoed throughout the empty room. He could see it perfectly; his eyes were sunken in, and his pale hair was stained with hints of his own dried blood as he continued to stare at it for hours on end.

It only took him a while to realise that Morgan had lied. This place wasn't her room, but a venerable prison meant to break his mind and drive him into madness. Each day she would arrive, not sparing him a passing glance as she replaced several pieces of furniture with mirrors. And soon, all Sunny could see within his cage was himself.

"Who are you! Get out of my face! I'll fucking kill you!" Sunny roared, yet his anger was only directed at the mysterious man in the mirror. Sunny didn't recognise him, frankly, Sunny was starting to forget who 'Sunny' was. Memories that were once tied with his very essence became continuously more foreign as he was forced to delve deeper into the abyss.

"Somebody. Nephis, anybody."

Even her name felt foreign. Like he was speaking of a stranger. This 'Nephis' entity was connected to the 'Sunny' person that he himself didn't recognise. And yet, he found himself calling her name like a lifeline, his desperation turning into hatred as his heart burned with venom.

Sliding his door open slowly, Morgan peeked her head into the room only to see Sunny staring at the ceiling blankly. His eyes were empty and sunken in, his cheeks too receding into his skull as a sign starvation. Making her way towards his cage, Morgan reached in and ran her hand through his hair. A small smile gracing her face.

"So, Sunny. Have you finally come to a decision? Who do you want to be?" Sunny offered no immediate response, yet slowly but surely his lips moved as he muttered a soundless answer. Putting her hand to her ear, Morgan leaned closer to his cage to hear his silent answer as his response put a look of shock on her face.

"Who... is... Sunny?" He mumbled. Morgan took a few steps back, shocked by his sudden questioning before a look of rage arrived on her face. Grabbing him by the shoulder, Morgan opened the door of his cage and slammed him against the floor, mounting him as she began to rain blows on his face.

"Don't give me that bullshit! You will remember who you are! You are my fucking dog, my slave! You will trust me like I am your god, do you understand me!?" In response, all Sunny gave her was an empty, emotionless grin as he stared up at Morgan's bloody fists.

"Do you take me for a fool? Is there anything more pathetic than a slave who begins to trust his slaver?" His low groan elicited a look of disgust from Morgan as she reached into her pocket, pulling a pistol from her pocket and placing it upon his palms.

Pulling the trigger, a large bag escaped throughout the room as Sunny continued to stare up at her with an expression of indifference on his face. Putting his bloody palm in his field of view, Morgan forced him to watch as the bullet slowly dislodged itself and the hole closed.

"You want to know who you are? You're a monster of my creation who was foolish enough to fall in love with the daughter of the people who made you this way! You're a piece of shit who kills without remorse yet dreams of a better life like a hypocrite! That's who you are!"

Standing up, Morgan slowly wiped herself down from all the lingering blood on her hands before throwing Sunny back in his cage. "I'll be back in three weeks. I hope you have a different answer for me then." She said, walking out the door and slamming it behind herself.

It only took one week for Sunny to begin eating himself.

It began with a finger; he chewed it off for his own survival and ate the appendage greedily only for it to regrow once more. A perfect, self refilling source of protein. Yet, that wasn't enough. One finger became two, two became three, three became five.

"Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry."

Sunny's mad ramblings had forced him into hallucinations to free himself from his ever-creeping madness. "It's hilarious! Laugh! LAUGH! It's funny right? I'm pathetic, right? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

One more week was all Morgan needed to break him completely.

--

In the weeks in which she had been estranged from Sunny, Nephis and Cassie had utterly abandoned the idea of chasing after Kai and Effie. Simply put, Effie was exactly right that Nephis had no way to ensure their safety and survival. It was a constant gnawing issue in her mind about how weak she was.

And so, she tried to fix it.

Currently, she was reviewing the recording of Luster and Orion's bout. Luster didn't seem much weaker than Solvane even when she was sure he wasn't giving it his all, but there was something deeper and far more insidious about his style of fighting that she couldn't quite put her hands on.

He was faster than her, that was true, and he was definitely far more powerful. And yet, neither of those two traits seemed to build up the distinction in strength between the two.

It was currently her one thousand and fifty ninth time watching the recording, each time she failed to comprehend the true essence of his fighting style despite her perfect understanding of what move would come next. Placing her hand on her chin, she continued to watch the recording intently, not even noticing the food Cassie had placed before her.

Cassie's voice faded into the background like distant mumbles, only coming to her attention when the other girl placed her mouth next to Nephis' ear and spoke at a volume typically foreign to her. "Breakfast is ready!" She exclaimed, tearing Nephis away from her analysis as she looked down at the food beneath her.

Nodding her head to show her thanks, Nephis briskly finished her meal before returning to the video. Cassie's voice once more inhibited her from fully focusing as she asked mildly. "I can tell you're watching something, I just don't know what. What's so interesting about the video?"

Nephis turned her head towards her blankly before sighing, shifting her feet awkwardly as she almost forgot Cassie was blind. It was getting harder and harder to tell these days. "I'm watching Luster fighting Orion. It's crazy that a guy that young can fight that well. I can understand how he does things that way, but not why. It's like he's looking at the fight in an entirely different way than I am."

Before Cassie could interrupt, a knock resounded from their door as Nephis moved from her seat to open it. Standing there in what could only be assumed were sleeping clothes was Luster, who's eyes were closed despite the fact he was looking directly at her.

"I've been asked to *yawn* beat you up or something. Orion said he doesn't like how you keep *yawn* watching our fight without asking me anything." Nephis could only raise an eyebrow at the younger teen before stepping to the side and inviting him into her home.

As soon as she did, Luster blurred from her vision onto the floor next to her couch, light snores escaping his lips as he immediately fell asleep. It took everything in Nephis' body not to pour cold water over the young boy, mainly because she didn't want to fight him in her house. But also, because he looked really peaceful as he slept.

Instead, Cassie walked up to him, leaning down and poking him on the face continuously until he stirred in his sleep. "You said you were supposed to beat up Neph, but then you fell asleep immediately. Which one do you really want to do?" Luster could only deadpan at her like she had just asked the most obvious question in the world before shooting to his feet.

"I'll beat you up if you give me food!"

And, after a few rounds of eating, they were in the colosseum.

Luster wasn't particularly picky with the clothes he chose to fight in. He had stripped the top of his night gown, removed his moon-coloured sleeping hat and allowed his defined abs and blonde hair to show as he rolled his shoulders lazily.

Meanwhile, Nephis was wearing a white shirt as she typically did combined with a pair of white joggers. They were quite breathable and served for an excellent blend between fashion and combat efficiency. Although, she wasn't particularly concerned with fashion.

"So, uh. I'm not sure what I should do." Luster called, scratching the back of his head sheepishly as his eyes remained closed. "Do I like... go all out or something? I'm not sure. This stuff only happens in TV shows." Instead of replying, Nephis simply stretched and lunged at him, indicating the beginning of the fight.

Nephis had already seen it—the faintest shift in Luster's stance, the tightening of his core, the slight exhale before motion. But from the brief moments she had watched him fight, she knew that was far too little to be enough.

Luster exploded forward, his foot barely skimming the ground before he was already inside her guard. Nephis barely had time to raise her forearms up before his shin slammed into her ribs, launching her sideways. 'He's strong, not strong enough to explain what I saw though.' Nephis mused.

Twisting midair, she absorbed the impact as best she could, rolling back to her feet just as he was already upon her again. She threw a jab to slow his movements—Luster slipped her punch effortlessly, his head weaving past her fist like he'd read her mind. The counter that arrived came instantly.

A right hook to the body. Nephis twisted her torso to absorb the blow, but his feet still buried itself deep into her side, sending her flying past where Cassie stood as a sharp pain tore through her ribs. 'He's fast, was he holding back his strength initially too?' She thought, blurring toward him once more.

She moved to clinch, shooting forward to wrap her arms around his neck. Mistake. Luster's knee hammered into her stomach before she could lock the grip. Her body folded for a fraction of a second, but that time was all he needed as he gripped her wrist.

In a moment, Nephis found her body arced over before slamming roughly into the ground, rattling her bones as Luster swung her around like a ragdoll. Pain tore through her back, but Nephis didn't hesitate. She tucked her legs, using the momentum to bridge and spin from beneath him before sending a high roundhouse kick at his temple.

Luster blocked the blow effortlessly, his forearm absorbing the impact before he grabbed her ankle and yanked Nephis, throwing her away from him as he sat down with a tired expression on his face. "Time out, time out. This isn't worth the amount of food I ate!" He called with an annoyed expression.

Nephis cocked her head to the side in confusion, walking back slowly from where she had been thrown before sitting in front of him. "I don't get it, how are you so strong when you're so young?" Luster only cocked his head to the side as he scratched it sheepishly at her praise.

"I don't think it's that impressive, after all, Lost from Light was far stronger at my age. I'm just doing the bare minimum." Usage of Sunny's moniker caused her eye to twitch slightly, yet she didn't express any rage as she continued to stare at him curiously. "Do you even train?" Luster's mind blanked for a moment, unsure if he should reveal his embarrassing secret or not.

Before he could, Samara landed on the ground next to the two of them before ruffling his hair and staring at Nephis with a mocking expression. "He doesn't train. The reason why his fighting style is so similar to yours is because he watched Revel fight once and got too lazy to figure out what he wanted to do. So, he just mimicked her."

At this, Nephis mouth almost fell open as she stared at him. One didn't simply gain such a well-defined body by eating fried rice every day. And yet, here he was. "You're better off not comparing yourself to him, Luster's a once in a generation genius. He doesn't even know why he's that good at fighting. I will say though, he burns through energy far quicker than most people, so he needs to eat a lot to remain stable."

Nephis only nodded in agreement without saying a word, it explained why he was able to eat through fifteen plates of fried rice while still wanting more. Before Samara could continue to praise her brother, Luster reached forward and poked Nephis on the forehead before pointing at his own eyes.

The two older women stared at him in confusion before Luster began speaking. "You're using your eyes all wrong. All you're doing is looking at people's muscles and trying to determine what they'll do next; it only works to a certain point where people gain supreme control over their muscles."

Sighing, Luster fell on his back, staring at the large ceiling of the colosseum as he continued his explanation. "People are either emotional or rational, all of their emotions and all of their reasoning are going to be for specific goals. You just need to figure out what that goal is, and best to achieve it, how not to achieve it and what actions are most efficient in achieving it. Once you figure that out, you'll be able to see the world like I do."

With that, the young man fell soundly asleep, leaving Nephis to stew over the words of wisdom he had spat out to her as Samara lifted the boy up bridal style. "Well, I'll be taking my brother. Now you don't need to keep watching him like a stalker." Turning around, Samara began to walk away before glancing backward.

"I expect big things from you... rival."

And with that, she disappeared.

--

Three weeks had passed since Nephis last heard any news of Sunny. She still failed to entirely grasp what Luster meant by his words, so instead threw herself and Cassie into immense physical training to hone their other skills. Quite frankly, the thought of Sunny faded more and more from her mind as she threw herself into other duties.

She was becoming quite fond of the colosseum, competing every other week and slowly rising up the ranks till she became second. After her three hundredth bout, she found herself sitting in her bed, sweat pouring from her body as she wiped it idly with a towel.

Opening her phone, the picture of herself and Sunny tugged at her heartstrings further as she found the boy burn into her heart with even greater intensity. "I'll find you, I'll bet my life on it." She whispered to nobody in particular. Suddenly, her door flung open, Cassie burst into her room with an expression of excited shock on her face as she exclaimed.

"Sunny's been busted out of wherever they're keeping him and he's on the run!"