Shadow Slave - One Shots

The boat drifted across the black water, its fragile hull barely making a ripple on the eerily calm surface.

Sunny sat at the back, gripping the oar tightly as he guided them westward. It was a slow, grueling process, rowing through an endless expanse of darkness with no landmarks, no stars to steer by, and no way to know if they were even moving in the right direction. 

Nephis sat at the front of the boat, silent and still. Cassie lay between them, her breathing slow and steady.

Sunny exhaled through his nose, forcing himself to focus. He didn't like this.

The black sea stretched in all directions, vast. A lesser person might have taken comfort in its stillness, in the way nothing disturbed its surface. But Sunny knew better. The silence wasn't peace - it was waiting.

Beneath them, things moved.

He couldn't see them, couldn't sense them even with his shadow sense. But he knew they were there. He could feel it, like a weight pressing down on his chest. Enormous things, lurking just below, waiting for a reason to rise.

If one of them decided to attack…

He clenched his jaw and kept rowing.

There was nothing he could do against creatures like those. No amount of skill, no clever trick, no desperate gamble could save them if the sea itself decided to claim them.

And yet, for now, it didn't.

Sunny narrowed his eyes.

For once, it seemed, luck was on their side.

*********

Hours passed.

The rhythmic motion of rowing gave Sunny... and the sight of Cassie sleeping next to him allowed him to strain himself for so long. them. Every now and then, his grip faltered, his muscles screaming in protest, but he kept going.

It was strange.

He had spent so long inside the mind hex that he hadn't even noticed how… foggy everything had felt. It was only now, with each stroke of the oar pulling them farther from that cursed tree, that he realized how much clearer his thoughts had become.

Like a fever breaking.

A quiet, bitter chuckle left his lips.

He hadn't even realized how deeply the tree had sunk its roots into his mind. It had twisted them all, played with their desires, and even after he had recognized the hex, it had still managed to make him hesitate.

And, despite everything, despite the cold, the exhaustion, and the countless horrors waiting just beneath them, he found himself smiling.

It was small, barely there. But it was real.

And then, just as he was about to push forward again, he felt Cassie shift slightly in his arms.

Her breath hitched.

She stopped, suddenly prosessing what happened.

And then, suddenly, she broke.

Heavy, gasping sobs wracked her body as she buried her face against his chest, clutching at him with trembling fingers.

"Thank you," she choked out, over and over. "Thank you, thank you, thank you…"

Her voice cracked, raw with emotion.

Sunny stiffened.

He had expected Cassie to react once she woke up, but he hadn't expected… this.

She was crying.

Not quiet, graceful tears, but the kind of desperate, soul-deep weeping that people tried to hold back but couldn't.

Sunny had no idea what to do with that.

"I'm-" His throat felt dry. "It's… no big deal?"

Cassie didn't respond. She only clung to him tighter, shaking with the force of her sobs.

Sunny sat there, awkward and frozen, before hesitantly reaching up and patting her back.

It was stiff and incredibly awkward.

But Cassie didn't seem to care.

She only curled up closer, as if trying to make herself as small as possible, pressing against him like he was the only thing keeping her from falling apart completely.1

And, in that moment, Sunny didn't push her away.

He let her cry.

*********

Time passed, but Sunny wasn't keeping track. Or rather, he wasn't able to.

Cassie's sobs had quieted, turning into faint, occasional sniffles as she remained curled against him. Even now, her fingers clutched weakly at his armor, as if afraid that letting go would mean losing herself again.

Sunny let out a slow breath, his arms still loosely wrapped around her.

He was still uncomfortable.

He wasn't used to… this.

Comforting people.

He had always been alone in life, excluding his little sister but he sent her away to an adoption center. He had to live in the streets for many years, growing more and more colder only to find out that in search for his sister, his sister didn't spare a thought for her older brother.

He had to fight his way out, rob, do dirty work for an ounce of money. All for him to survive, so he could live to see another day. So, it was weird indeed. Weird to see a girl, so fragile, so small, to be curled up in his arms crying her heart out.

A smile shot its way to his face, before dying down as he steeled himself to not let any emotions show.

'I'm just taking care of her. It's not like I like her or anything.'

However, deep down that night, something that was once died, reawoken.

Sunny shifted slightly, adjusting his grip on the oar. The boat rocked with the motion, but it held steady. The sea remained calm, dark and still, stretching endlessly around them like an abyss without end.

He let his gaze drift upward.

If there had been stars, he would have used them to guide their path. But above them, the sky was nothing but an endless black void, giving him no point of reference. The only thing he could rely on was his own sense of direction, and even that was fragile at best.

Still, he kept rowing west.

And for now, luck seemed to be on their side.

The creatures lurking beneath them hadn't moved. Their boat remained untouched. The waters, despite their ominous depths, were still.

But Sunny knew better than to trust in luck. He never knew when the [Fated] Attribute would kick in any time soon.

And just as that thought crossed his mind, his senses prickled with warning.

'Something's wrong.'

One second, the sea was calm.

...

The next, it was boiling with movement.

Sunny barely had time to register the grotesque tentacles rising from the abyss before they lashed forward, wrapping around the hull with unnatural speed.

And then-

A flash of movement.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Nephis standing, sword in hand, white flames surging to life-

Before another tentacle shot out and dragged her down into the dark depths below.

Darkness swallowed everything.

For a brief, disoriented second, all he could hear was the muffled roar of the sea, the eerie, distorted echoes of wood breaking apart, and something else—something massive shifting in the depths.

Then, his body reacted.

His limbs thrashed as he forced himself upward. The heavy pull of the abyss tried to drag him down, but he kicked against it, rising back to the surface with a desperate gasp.

Cold air filled his lungs.

The sea around him was churning violently. Splintered pieces of their boat drifted aimlessly, swallowed by the waves.

Nephis was gone. But, he didn't think much of it. He knew how resilient, how will-lived Changing Star. So he didn't give it much thought and hoped that she surived.

Cassie-

Sunny's breath hitched.

Cassie.

Where was she?

He twisted, searching frantically, his perception flaring outward-

And then he saw it.

A glimpse of pale skin in the water with a pale yellow hair being dragged down the depths.

For a moment, something inside him hesitated.

He was still gasping for breath, his body aching, exhaustion clawing at his limbs.

If he swam for that hand-shaped island just a little ways ahead, he could escape. He could survive.

That was all that mattered, right?

'Well. What are you waiting for, go!' His spite spoke. A part of him wanted to go, to leave his companions behind and survive alone. Because that was what he was taught after all.

To surivive.

Why should he care about lives that will most likely betray him sooner or later.

But something deeper, something wordless and stubborn, made his body move before his mind could catch up.

'No.' Sunless thought.

'No?! You have your chance, but you'd rather go and sacrifice a measly blind girl who will drag you down? Why? Are you that twisted?!' His spite spat out with venom.

'Why?... Because I want to.' 

And with that thought ending off, Sunny took a deep breath-

And then he dove.