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!"

Dark City. The brief moment of liveliness passed, and instead,

kind of idiot directed that stupid

Rain glanced at Lady Nephis curiously, wondering how much of what was

how her apparent relationship with Sunny fit

be… that there had been an actual

she failed to glimpse anything from Changing Star's stoic face. The

radiated courage and passion. Holding

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

Rain shifted uncomfortably.

it me, or is it getting

on Changing Star's face. She looked at the

however, suddenly

Rain frowned.

'Huh?'

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

'That's strange...'

opened her mouth to say something, but before

The projector suddenly exploded.

***

clean up the debris of

was going

was gone, Nephis was once again left alone in the empty house. She lingered for a bit, then went back into the guest bedroom and rummaged through Effie's closet. She had

armor for the better part of

shirt on, 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

such matters again

in silence for a while, trying to deal with the disturbing oddity

stared at it for some time, then tentatively accessed the