Shadow Slave

Now that he knew that he was — insanity! — going to act, Sunny had to decide how exactly, and do it very fast.

Sadly, the question was not as easy as it seemed.

His life was too complicated for anything to be easy…

Not only was the answer to the question not too obvious, but, what's worse, he had mere seconds to make a decision, which was not nearly enough to think things through with any sort of clarity.

But what choice did he have? None at all...

Sunny grimaced.

'Let's speedrun our options.'

The safest and most cowardly option was to Shadow Step into the classroom through the shadow spying on Rain, grab the girl, and bring her away.

At least it seemed safe on the surface.

In reality, though, such an action would cause all types of terrible consequences both for him and for his sister. Not only was he going to have a lot of explaining to do, revealing all the things he wanted to keep hidden, he would also leave countless witnesses, as well as digital evidence, connecting Rain to him and vice versa.

In the future, whenever he was going to end up having really dangerous enemies — which Sunny had no doubt would happen one day, soon — that evidence was going to come to light and lead them to her. Which was not something he was willing to accept.

leave that option as the last resort, and act on it only

only one path left — doing his civil duty and going directly to the Gate, in hopes of stalling the tide of Nightmare Creatures

not technically obligated to respond to a call like that. Many, maybe even most, did not, and chose to run instead.

was eager to do. Or maybe, it simply couldn't

a carrot instead of a stick when dealing with them.

sure that he was even going to see

the Gate, but this could also be done in several

…Two ways, really.

Mongrel, protecting his identity from the prying

risk, as every time he did so without proper preparations could potentially leave behind context clues that would allow smart people

time to weigh all the pros

wanted to have a hope of surviving for thirteen minutes, he was going to have to go all out, showcasing the full scope of his true powers. That meant that all his efforts to create an image of a talented, but not too dangerous or noteworthy young Awakened

going to become really, really famous… and draw the eyes of entities he wanted to remain blind

have a quirky neighbor… if he suddenly showed up near your school in your moment

So…

Sunless was going to have to

to have to stand and

messed

hundred and seventy seconds