Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

’Is this the right address...?’

Looking down at the paper in his hands, Sunny looked back up at the rundown apartment complex in front of him. He almost scoffed.

’This is where one of Belobog’s heroes live?’

Weirdly amused, Sunny tentatively strolled up the steel stairs that led to the second floor, then the third floor. Each step caused the steel plates to creak, causing Sunny to wonder if this place was going to collapse at any moment.

Reaching the highest floor, Sunny looked at the numbers pasted on the doors, comparing them to the paper he had on his hand. Once he found the precise residence, he rapped his fist on the door a couple times, taking a few steps back as he patiently waited.

Sunny heard someone scramble around within the apartment. After around a minute, the door swung open, revealing an annoyed Seele, her purple hair messily tied into a ponytail with her bangs framing her face.

’Nape... wait, what?’

"Who the hell... Sunny?"

Sunny snapped out of his daze.

"Hm... hey, Seele..."

He trailed off, his eyes — which had previously been locked on to her neck — glancing down at the rest of her body, before quickly locking back on her eyes. He furrowed his brows in discomfort.

"...Seele."

She raised a brow, seemingly skeptical of whatever he was going to say.

"What is it now? And how did you find my house?"

Sunny shook his head.

"Natasha told me, and this definitely isn’t a house. More like a den. Also..."

He scowled.

"Can you please put on some clothes? That’s barely anything! It’s cold as hell out here... how cold is hell again?"

The last question was spoken in a curious tone.

Dressed in nothing but a loose crop top and a pair of very — as in, almost nonexistent — short shorts, Seele simply stared at him in bafflement. She then looked down at herself, her eyes squinting, before turning her gaze back up towards Sunny.

"...What are you talking about? It’s way too hot to be wearing anything more than this."

There was an awkward moment of silence.

"...Seele, are you sick? The Stellaron was just sealed. The temperature isn’t going to rise that quickly... the entire planet’s climate has to be corrected first."

He paused for a moment. Actually, now that he was looking at her, she seemed to be sweating quite a bit.

Sunny was definitely not tracing the path of bead of sweat that rolled down her collarbone before falling between—

He froze, looking back up at Seele’s face. She was staring directly at him with a blank expression. She blinked when he made eye contact with her, causing her to quickly glance around, before looking back at him.

’Did... did she not see that?"

Sunny felt like his little... observation was quite obvious.

Assuming that she didn’t find anything amiss, he continued his original line of thought; indeed, she certainly seemed hot... not in that way!

However, that didn’t make much sense. Unless she was partaking in some sort of physical activity, then she shouldn’t be feeling any kind of heat. Now that he thought about it, wasn’t Bronya sweating as well? Dan Heng and March seemed to be somewhat drenched as well... 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

’Oh.’

Looking back towards Seele, he sheepishly smiled.

"Uh... that was my fault. Just give me a second, and I’ll fix it..."

Allowing the Haughty shadow to augment him, Sunny immediately felt an unbreakable will surge from within. An amber glow parted the shadowy depths of his eyes, and he felt more assured in the face of adversity.

Without summoning the Lance of Preservation, he attempted to remove the blessings that he shared with the others when they fought Cocolia. Due to him passing out during the fight, the passive effects of warmth and a stubborn body continued to enshroud them. Unless he manually removed it, then they would constantly experience it’s effects.

When it came to manifesting a shield — whether it was an automatic one that was summoned before impact or a manual one that protects an area — it required him to actively wield the lance.

No wonder March wanted that ice cream so badly. They were all heating up.

Sucks to suck though. He ate it, and he wasn’t giving it back.

Before he could do anything, though, Seele called out:

"Actually, could you wait to do that until after you leave?"

Sunny blinked, having not expected her request.

"I could...? Still, you’re wearing practically nothing. I’d call you a more derogatory term, but that would be rude. It would make more sense for me to decrease it now, then turn it back up after I leave."

She glared at him as if his idea was ridiculous. Seele menacingly growled:

"Leave it on now, and turn it off after. Got that?"

Although he was puzzled, Sunny slowly nodded. If she wanted a portable heater, she could have it.

However, her lack of clothing was quite... distracting.

Seele huffed at his confirmation, cocking her head into her apartment as Haughty slipped off his body.

"You’re not going to wait there all day, are you? You can come in."

Sunny shrugged.

"It’s fine. I just wanted to drop off a message before I leave."

Seele suddenly stiffened.

"...Huh?"

Confused by her reaction, Sunny explained:

"I’m going on a bit of a treasure hunt in the Dream Realm. I won’t be able to help you train until I’m back, which probably won’t be long. Maybe a day at most. Anyways, if you need anything, just look for someone named Sparkle. She... uh, actually, that might not be a good idea..."

Sunny stopped mid-rant, realizing that his suggestion wasn’t very practical.

On the other hand, Seele let out a sigh of relief. She didn’t say anything for a moment, before her expression darkened.

"Either way, you’re still coming in."

Bewildered, Sunny scrutinized her for a moment.

"...Okay, is something wrong with you? Did that punch from last night really rattle your brain? If so, I must apologize for giving you brain dam—"

He was cut off with a yelp as Seele dragged him into her apartment, locking the door behind them.

’Am I being kidnapped?’

That was the first thought that went through Sunny’s mind as he stepped through the threshold of the wolf’s den. He dismissed the thought, as he was neither a child, nor was he napping. Those conditions had to be met before snatching a human, so he wasn’t really being kidnapped.

Just snatched.

As he looked around, Sunny immediately located countless different kinds of rubbish splayed across the floor. Soda cans, plastic bags and the like littered the area, causing him to almost consider the fact that Seele was trying to force him into servitude, but that was impossible.

He was the employer, not her!

...Sunny wasn’t dense enough to believe that Seele didn’t have any ulterior motives. In fact, he was confident that most of her actions were tailored for a very specific goal — like how she didn’t want him to release the passive effect of the Preservation, or how she dragged him into her very humble abode.

The question was: What was it that she wanted?

Well, he wasn’t in a rush. He was planning to enter the Dreamscape again later, but he still had time.

Seele walked over to him, forcefully brushing past him as she hopped onto a slightly ragged couch. Sunny could visibly see the occasional crumb of food, along with a couple... comic books?

Seele clicked her tongue.

"You just gonna stand there and ogle? Sit down."

’What a forceful tone...’

He could tell that she was somewhat embarrassed due to the state of her apartment, but whatever she wanted from him was something she was willing to sacrifice appearances for.

Accepting her offer to take a seat, Sunny sat at the edge of the couch. He wasn’t too bothered by the crumbs, as his living situation before being infected by the Nightmare Spell was more or less the same.

...It was much cleaner, but his point still stands.

As if reading his thoughts, Seele coughed.

"It’s... not usually this bad."

Sunny simply sent her a pitiful look, as he nodded.

’Am I supposed to believe that?’

Taking his time to look around, Sunny noticed a few things. First of all, her shelf was filled with numerous comics and novels, which seemed to be separated as if they belonged to different people.

There were a few boxes haphazardly stacked on top of eachother, with messy marker scribbles describing what was contained within each of them. A dim lightbulb hung from the ceiling, held up by a mere bundle of wires. It slightly swayed in different directions, as if moved by an unseen wind.

A little further away, a small stove and fridge stood against eachother, accompanied by absolutely nothing. There was also two doors that led to other rooms, her bedroom and bathroom, if Sunny guessed correctly.

Outside of the walls — which had paint flaking off — there wasn’t much to say. Sunny silently picked up the comic book Seele left on her couch, causing her to flinch as he flipped through it.

"Uh, maybe you should..."

As Sunny flipped through it, his face slowly began to contort into an appalled expression.

"Is this... a knock-off of The Amazing Spider-Man?!"

At his exclamation, Seele simply blinked.

"What’s that? A knock-off of The Superior Spider-Man?"

Both of them looked at the other as if they were crazy.

Now, Sunny may have not been an expert when it came to... a lot of things, but back on Earth, the only way to keep a grip on the outskirts’ population was to give them some form of entertainment. Naturally, he was quite aware of a few pieces of media, even if he didn’t touch them much after his parents died.

So, as someone who was aware that the creator of The Amazing Spider-Man had died on Earth before the descent of the Nightmare Spell, which was before interstellar travel existed, he could only come to the singular conclusion that somebody had stolen the source material, and had the gall to call it ’Superior’!

He didn’t care much for these things, but Sunny couldn’t stand for copyright infringement!