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 Dark City. The brief moment of liveliness passed, and instead, Changing Star seemed to

of idiot directed that

handsome young man with broad shoulders and a noble bearing appeared on the screen. Rain glanced at Lady Nephis curiously, wondering

her apparent relationship with

it be… that there had been an

she failed to glimpse anything from Changing Star's stoic face. The movie progressed, slowly reaching its

passion. Holding the grief-stricken jade beauty by the

cry for me, my lady. My 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!

Rain shifted uncomfortably.

is it getting hot in

Changing Star's face. She looked at the

however,

Rain frowned.

'Huh?'

moment, she thought that she smelled smoke. Turning around, the teenage girl noticed

'That's strange...'

opened her mouth to say something,

The projector suddenly exploded.

***

suddenly and violently interrupted, Rain only stayed for long enough to help Changing Star clean up the debris of the malfunctioned projector. Then, she found an

what was going to explode

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

of course… but she had worn armor for the better part of the last three years. Putting on something mundane was

found a pair of gym shorts to match it. Sadly, other articles of Effie's clothing did not fit

again felt very

in the living room with nothing to do. She simply sat in silence for a while, trying to deal with the disturbing oddity of not being in danger. Then, she shifted uncomfortably, looked around, and took out the state-of-the-art communicator the government provided

some