School Days | A Shadow Slave Fanfic

Pulling off his shirt, Sunny threw it lazily to the corner of the apartment as he fell onto the couch with a thud. Standing close to him, Nephis shook her head idly with a small smile gracing her features as she stared down at Sunny's toned body.

His muscles had developed immensely since the last time she saw him, he almost appeared more like a sculpture made by Greek gods compared to a human. Pale skin and raven-colored hair served as the perfect contrast only making his allure in Nephis eyes increase tenfold.

Nephis too hadn't been slacking off either, her commitment to being able to inhibit Sunny from killing should he ever reach that point was immense. And she knew for such a goal to be feasible she needed the strength required to restrain him, although her training was gruelling, it still wasn't close to enough to compare to the torture she had seen Sunny inflict on himself.

Despite that, Nephis strength had improved by thousands of times compared to what she was initially. Her toned muscles, dripping with sweat from the effort of training only served to increase her confidence. 

How she compared to the woman she had fought before Seishan, was a pertinent thought that remained on her mind constantly. And yet, she never bothered to ask the source of information she could trust the most about dealings in the underworld. Sunny. 

It was clear they had a relationship of an unknown nature when Sunny still remained there, although it was highly unlikely that the relationship she had with Sunny would take a romantic turn, the thought of Seishan even coming close to Sunny at all with such intentions sickened her.

Today was the day she and Sunny would begin venturing into the underworld. He had made it extremely clear to her that she didn't need to bring any supplies, and only weapons were of true value whenever visiting such a place.

Unlike Sunny, who carried the knife which had once been lodged in his thigh to the hilt, Nephis fought barehanded. Sunny had always wondered why she chose that option, continuously drilling into her how to fight effectively against someone with a weapon, and yet, she still never changed her mind.

The reasoning was simple, killing somebody by accident with a weapon was all too common even for regular civilians. So in the case of two high-level opponents fighting one another, unless each opponent was supremely skilled, the chance of a meaningless death was all too high.

Sighing once more, she sat down on Sunny's stomach, causing him to yelp in surprise before launching himself at her. In a single movement, she was now on the couch with him, lying with her head on his bare chest as she listened to the sound of his heartbeat.

His heart beat rhythmically, smooth yet so slow that one might mistake it for their own. Even in the heat of battle, she had never seen Sunny change his facial expression from cold indifference as he cut down tens of people by himself. Despite that, she always got to see a different side of him when she was alone with him.

A special side, saved only for her.

Lifting himself, Sunny played idly with her hair for a few moments before his eyes focused, looking out of the window with a slight grimace. The stars were beautiful and the moon bathed the apartment in its pale moonlight. Such a sight would typically be appreciated by Sunny before anyone else, and yet, it only brought him unease.

"It's time," Sunny said, lifting himself completely as Nephis followed suit, Sunny searched around the room frantically, looking for a shirt to wear before Nephis threw him one with an exasperated expression. "If you knew you'd have such a hard time finding your shirts at night, then why did you buy only black ones?"

Of course, she preferred it that way. There was something about black clothes that suited Sunny in a way that she could only describe as insidious and oddly alluring. Watching him pull the shirt over his body before stretching slightly was amusing, yet slowly the mood shifted to become more serious as Sunny picked up his knife.

Swinging it through the air to test his skill, Sunny smiled slightly to himself before turning to Nephiss. "I'm ready, are you?" she only nodded in response before Sunny moved to the couch which blocked the open window, the only entrance and exit they've had to their makeshift home.

In one deft movement of his knife, Sunny sliced the couch in two, the thin line representing where it had once been cut slowly becoming wider as he kicked each half away from the other. Smiling with an impressed expression, Nephis squeezed his shoulder as he looked up with a smile before jumping out the window.

Sunny followed suit, scanning the ground for the nearest manhole that he could find before quickly locating it. Balling his hand into a fist, he slammed it onto the manhole before diving in, signalling for Nephis to follow suit as he fell downward.

A strange sense of nostalgia hit Sunny as white tiles overwhelmed his view. Each hallway was dimly lit with a large path for water to flow through beneath his feet, soon after, Nephis arrived. Unlike Sunny, she hadn't aimed herself away from the path of the water, causing her to be in a direct collision course with it.

Reacting quickly, Sunny gracefully plucked her out of the air before placing her on the side. "Thanks for that, but you could have warned me!" she exclaimed, finding herself doing another facial expression she hadn't once used before. She was pouting. Sunny laughed lightly before looking ahead.

The white hallways were like a maze, each spanning into different directions which themselves twisted and turned into different pathways. There was no one definite route to go to reach a specific destination, nor was there a map one could use to navigate the area.

Morgan herself had forced her subordinates to scout a path directly to where she was located, finding the trial and error too tedious to go through. And that's exactly what Sunny planned to do as well. Although he had never been sent on menial tasks like scouting, usually being the one to finish the job when all went wrong, Sunny was still able to achieve a fair bit of information through eavesdropping. 

After all, one didn't escape from the underworld without information.

And so, Sunny and Nephis began their tedious journey through the underworld. Sunny didn't plan on making his way directly to Morgan, lest he deliver Nephis to an early death, instead, he planned on gathering information from as many people as possible before making a move.

Unable to track time conventionally, Nephis had been forced to count the seconds as she watched Sunny meander through the paths of the underworld. She had almost suspected for a brief moment that Sunny had gotten lost until they reached a large clearing.

From the narrow hallways of the underworld, emerged a gigantic, truly incomprehensibly large-sized room. It was so large, that Nephis wasn't even sure she could see all four walls. The floor was so deep beneath her she was sure she'd die if pushed into it, and yet, that's exactly what Sunny did. 

Giving her a light shove, Sunny jumped after her as the two soared downward toward the ground. "Are you trying to kill me from shock!?" Nephis exclaimed, the winds blowing past her drowning her voice as Sunny only gave her a thumbs up, likely not hearing a word she said.

Eventually, the two collided with something supremely soft. It felt slightly jelly-like and absorbed all their force with a slight ripple through its bulbous mass. Its form was red, likely a covering for something softer that hid beneath its surface, and it appeared slightly reflective.

"It's honey, how disgusting, how do people even eat this!" Sunny grumbled to himself, as he slowly made his way toward Nephis. She too was struggling to keep her balance on the constantly shifting platform, however, she managed to maintain enough composure to stare at Sunny with a mock annoyed expression.

"If you're going to push me somewhere, at least don't convince me I was going to die while you're at it!" she grumbled, Sunny cocked his head to the side, a look of genuine confusion marring his features as he stared at her. "Why would you think you were going to die? I'd never let you die."

The innocent resolve behind his statement sent a blush searing through Nephis face as she silently agreed with his words. 'He's so... cute... I can't even pretend to be angry at him!' Sighing with defeat, she noticed that the distance between herself and the ground had become more manageable. 

Before she could even make the decision, Sunny scooped her into his arms and leapt downward, colliding with the floor noiselessly as he placed her gently next to him. In front of the two, stood thousands of people, each of them arguing and bartering with others as they all attempted to get what they considered a 'fair deal.'

Turning to Nephis, Sunny offered her a slight smile. "Welcome to the underworld's trading hub!"