Sparks flew as Nephis continued to engage in her deadly dance with Saint. Sunny merely watched on, observing the battle with cold indifference as the two pushed each other to their limits. He had half the mind to order Saint to go all out, just to see how much Nephis compared. However, destroying his place of training would not be in his favour.
Nephis swung upwards, however her controlled swing was swatted away by Saint's shield as she surged forwards. Saint swung low but Nephis read her moves with picture perfect accuracy, jumping upwards to land a kick to the head of the onyx knight.
Spinning midair, she let her foot fly as her leg extended to collide with Saint's head. However, Saint wasn't a master of battle for nothing. Saint reacted quickly and grabbed Nephis by the leg, preparing to slam her into the ground if not for a mental command by Sunny.
Still being held midair, Nephis opened her mouth to complain before she was unceremoniously dropped to the floor by Saint. "Why did you stop the fight?" Nephis asked, disappointment clear in her tone. "I only did it so you would stop asking me to fight, now you can leave me alone for a little I want to train alone."
Sunny's voice continued to remain cold and impassive towards her, however, Nephis could tell that Sunny wanted to keep his secrets hidden. She wasn't very particular on learning the secrets, however a part of her wanted to be strangely defiant to Sunny. To let him know that she was going to do anything to rebuild their broken bonds.
Nephis moved to lunge at Sunny, however he collapsed onto the ground into a meditative position. Essence swirled around him as the shadows flickered out of the corner of her eyes. 'He's never used essence before, that makes sense' Nephis thought to herself, as she continued to watch him attempt to manipulate essence with curiosity.
Leaping to his feet, Sunny's eyes opened with a smile of satisfaction on his face. "We can spar now; Saint will intervene if I go too far." Sunny remarked. Outstretching an arm, the shadows around him coalesced into a familiar form to both of them. It was the form of the midnight shard.
Sunny juggled the blade from one hand to another before running his finger across the blade. He drew a light trace of blood before it was quickly sucked back into his body via blood weave. Summoning the midnight shard, he held the two in his hands and compared their weight before sighing disappointedly.
"It's not the same." He muttered to himself, before dismissing the shadows and gripping the midnight shard in his hand. Without another word, he lunged at Nephis. Swinging at her side, Sunny's blade soared through the air before being abruptly stopped by Nephis own blade.
The force of impact caused her to slide backwards slightly as she parried the blow and surged forward with a strike of her own. Their deadly dance of offence and defence continued for several minutes before inevitably Sunny kicked out Nephis feet from under her and thrust his sword at her head. Before his sword came close, Saint deflected his blow and slammed him into the wall with force.
Sunny shot through the air and collided with the brown walls of the dojo with a resounding thud. The room shook, Saint's force was not something that one was supposed to deal with unguarded. Sunny remained seated for a few moments as Nephis silver hair made its presence known in front of him.
Her hand was outstretched, beckoning him to take it. Letting out a low laugh, he stared at her for a few moments before muttering silently to himself. His voice remained resolute and resolved. "Never again." Pushing himself to his feet, only then did he notice Rain standing to the sides with her bowl of fried rice still in hand, using the fight as entertainment.
Rushing to Rain's side, Sunny scanned her body frantically, worried that a projectile may have grazed her accidentally. "Are you ok? Did anything hit you while we fought? Why didn't you say anything when you got here?" Sunny barraged her with questions as his hands remained firmly placed on her shoulders.
Rain simply shrugged in reply "You too seemed like you had a lot of tension you needed to relieve, so I let you go at it." Sunny didn't continue the conversation further, instead, one of his shadows disconnected from his body and quickly found its way outside the room.
Stepping through it, Sunny was now standing in the middle of the bustling streets of NQSC. There were too many people, too many sights to see. Instead of engaging with the sensory overload, Sunny simply connected himself to a woman's shadow and followed her for as long as his essence would allow.
He watched how humans spoke to one another, how they interacted and the relationships they formed based off trust. The woman who's shadow he inhabited was a mother of three, she did not have a husband and was struggling to make ends meet on her own.
A pang of guilt flashed through Sunny's heart upon witnessing their struggling state, however there wasn't much he could do for them. He wasn't going to become Nephis charity case and build more chains connecting the two of them than there were before.
One thing that continued to puzzle Sunny was trust. How could these children trust their mother so blindly not to betray them and abandon them simply because it was the easier option in preserving their survival, what possibly was missing from his relationship with Nephis that led her to betray him like that.
These questions only filled Sunny's mind with rage as he stood atop the tallest building he could see. His hair flowed through the wind as he stared aimlessly at the falling sun, the end of a day was marked by it's disappearance into the night.
Before he could retire back to Nephis home, where he would be forced to contemplate assassinating her every hour until he slept. A thought struck his mind. 'What is so special about these people, that made Nephis willing to lie and make me her slave to keep them safe?'
Sunny opened his palms and stared at them, before closing them slowly. 'They don't look special. It isn't me who is lacking, it's them! I said I was prepared to stay in the dream realm if Nephis was there, but what would I be staying there for? Romance? I don't even understand how I feel anyways.'
Sunny's thoughts were cut off as he noticed a presence below him, her flowing blonde hair and blue cloth used to cover her eyes. He couldn't mistake that presence for anyone. It was Cassie.
Jumping downwards, Sunny turned into a shadow to make his collision with the ground noiseless as he hurriedly followed Cassie. He watched her make her way through the building, politely greeting everyone as she ordered herself a secluded room nearing the top of the building.
Although unseen to the eye, Sunny's mind twitched instinctively. He wanted to summon the midnight shard and begin cutting Cassie up, forcing her to suffer how she made him suffer. He wanted to gut her, boil her, drown her, take everything from her.
Soon enough, Cassie made her way into her room. Seated herself upon her bed before glancing around the room. "I know you're there, so you can come out already." Although her voice echoed through the open air, Sunny felt compelled to remove himself from her shadow as he brandished the midnight shard in his left hand.
"Are you here to kill me, Sunny?" Her voice was sombre and resolute, however Sunny's open palm flew through the air and collided with her face, causing her face to go red. "It's Sunless." Taking a second, Sunny walked closer to her, till his face was only inches away from her own.
Grabbing her by the chin, he dismissed the midnight shard and used his free hand to peel her blindfolds off her face. "I want to look you in the eye when I ask you this." His voice was low and dangerous, Cassie nodded silently as her hand slid onto her cheek to cradle her red face.
"I need you to answer and answer honestly. For the first time in your pathetic life, I need you to be completely honest. So that means no more hiding things from me because of your pathetic revelations about fate that you know you can't change because of how cripplingly weak you are."
Although his voice was dripping with anger, Cassie merely smiled at him as she continued to look in the direction of his voice. "Ask me anything, just don't try hurt Nephis...please." Her voice broke as she concluded her sentence, Sunny simply slapped her across the face again, his fist balled so tightly he drew blood.
"Don't try negotiate with me, I'll kill you and make it look like an accident." Sunny summoned the midnight shard once more and placed it to her neck, letting her know how serious he was.
"Now I just need you to tell me. What about Nephis, made you pick her over me. What was she doing that I wasn't. I saved your life, I cared for you, I treated you gently as though you were my own sister. And you sat there and tried to rob me of my chance of being able to see mine ever again!"
Pausing to catch his breathe, Sunny continued once more. "And you knew! You knew that I missed my sister! You knew the entire time and had Nephis take her in like a pitiful dog to make yourselves feel better!" His blade pressed against Cassie's neck so much that a faint trail of blood poured from it.
Sunny pulled the stiletto away fearing he may do something he'd regret. "So, I don't need anymore apologies, half assed attempts at redemption. I just need a simple answer. What made Nephis, no, Changing Star so special."