Shadow Slave

Projected onto the wall, a languid jade beauty with a slim waist and long eyelashes was traversing a labyrinth of crimson coral, her voluptuous figure barely covered by a flimsy seaweed attire. A teenage boy of about thirteen years of age was scurrying along as he shouted:

"...Are you crazy?!"

Sitting on the sofa near the real Changing Star, Rain felt like sinking into the earth. As the movie went by, her cheeks slowly turned bright red. The daughter of the Immortal Flame clan, on the contrary, became increasingly more deadpan and devoid of emotion. By now, her face was so still that it seemed paralyzed.

Rain awkwardly cleared her throat.

"Uh… come to think of it, the actress they chose does not look like you at all. You are much prettier!"

Nephis shifted and briefly glanced down. Then, she said evenly:

"Thank you."

After a while, she added:

"Why would they cast a child to play Sunny? What a strange decision. Only a complete fool could mistake him for a young boy."

Rain let out a nervous laugh.

"Yeah! Yeah… definitely…"

She looked away in utter embarrassment, and then forced out:

"And what is up with that stupid catchphrase? That does not sound like something Sunny would say at all!"

Changing Star moved, suddenly becoming a little more lively.

"Oh, no. That actually happened. A lot!"

The brief moment of liveliness passed, and instead, Changing Star seemed to grow more rigid and cold with each

of idiot

screen. Rain glanced at Lady Nephis curiously, wondering how much of

her apparent relationship with Sunny

been

from Changing Star's stoic face. The

and passion. Holding the grief-stricken

life does not matter… but yours does! Immortal Flame must never be extinguished! As long as it burns, humanity still has hope! The Dreamers of the Dark City have hope! As

Rain shifted uncomfortably.

or is it getting hot in

Changing Star's face. She looked at the projection

however,

Rain frowned.

'Huh?'

that she smelled smoke. Turning around, the teenage girl noticed a thin stream of

'That's strange...'

opened her mouth to say

The projector suddenly exploded.

***

Changing Star clean up the debris

what was

empty house. She lingered for a bit, then went back into the guest bedroom and rummaged through Effie's closet. She had no clothes apart from the tracksuit that the Academy had issued to her, which was soaked with sweat after

the better part of the last

she found a pair of gym shorts to match it. Sadly, other articles of Effie's clothing did not fit her too well. She was going to have

again

trying to deal with

some time,