Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

After a few hours of peacefully planning with Sparkle by planting the fear of being swung around in her, Sunny woke up, expecting to find himself in the clinic, or in the Goethe Grabd Hotel.

Instead, he was uncomfortably laid down on a slide.

’...Did something happen?’

Immediately, he sent his shadows out to look for any possible dangers, as well as Bronya and Seele. He doubted they left him behind, so there was a good chance that they were attacked by something.

Sunny frowned, finding the two of them... bonding(?)... within the orphanage. Actually, it consisted more of Seele bragging over things that weren’t very praiseworthy, while Bronya reprimanded her over doing stupid things.

Standing up, he thought about approaching them. There were people who were injured at the clinic, and the medicine was quite important for their health. He found it quite stupid that they didn’t just bring his unconscious body and the medical equipment along with them to Boulder Town.

...However, after watching them converse about their childhoods, Sunny decided to let them be. They must have been exhausted after fighting the Architect of Lost Preservation, so it was reasonable to allow them to indulge for a bit. Only a little reasonable, as the lives of others hinged on the medical equipment.

Besides, he found something else that caught his attention.

Picking up the bags of bandages, metal, and rubbing alcohol as to not lose them, Sunny strolled down the stairs that led to the bottom of the hill the orphanage rested on, the voice of a young girl reaching his ears.

"Oh! It’s here, we found it! Thank you, Perkins!"

Soon after, a robotic voice followed.

"Beep — Don’t mention it, Clara."

After a few seconds, Sunny came upon a strange sight. He probably would have made a face of surprise if he didn’t see them through his shadows earlier.

Standing in the middle of Rivet Town’s street was the snow-haired girl named Clara — the one who looked like a bunny and accompanied Svarog. Dressed in her red coat, she stood alongside a robot that was around her height. To put it simply, it was a traffic light with legs.

Making sure his footsteps were audible so that Clara could hear him approaching, he walked over to them. She turned around, a look of surprise on her face. She carried a large bag with a singular hand, which was strange due to how heavy it looked.

Once he got close, he almost tripped.

There was a strange shift in the world. One that was quite reminiscent...

"Warning. Warning. Danger detected—"

Sunny blinked. The robot’s lights started to flicker in a mirage of green, yellow, and red.

"Uh... is it supposed to do that?"

Clara seemed alarmed by the sudden change in the robot, and frantically exclaimed:

"Perkins, don’t! Stop!"

She glanced at Sunny.

"I’ve seen this person before. H—He’s not bad, right?"

’Little lady, you don’t sound very sure of yourself...’

Sunny sighed.

"I’m not going to hurt you. My name is Sunless, by the way. Just call me Sunny."

The flickering lights stopped, the robot known as Perkins shifting slightly.

"Command received. Danger removed. Deactivating active defense mode."

Sighing in relief, Clara turned back to Sunny with a frown.

"This place is dangerous. You should leave."

He raised a brow, amused that a kid would tell an Awakened what was dangerous and what wasn’t. As far as he was concerned, this place was too dangerous for her.

"Shouldn’t you be the one leaving, missy?"

She shook her head.

"Perkins is protecting me. I’ll be alright. I’m going to leave after I gather up these painkillers. Besides, I’m sturdier than I look!"

He tilted his head. Was this the bravado of a child?

...Now that he thought about it, didn’t she look too pristine? There weren’t any imperfections or blemishes on her skin, which was quite abnormal. Not only that, but her feat of strength was quite impressive — considering the size of the bag she held, it would take an adult mundane human to easily carry it with two hands. She could do so with one.

’...Nah, I’m just looking to deeply into it.’

His attention was now drawn to the bag.

"Is that what you came here for?"

Clara nodded.

"There are a lot of people hurt at the vagrant camp, I guess the miners are no different? I came to get painkillers..."

Sunny couldn’t help but blink again.

"Huh. That’s the last thing we needed to pick up."

Looking around, he didn’t see anymore. He sighed, it seemed that he would need to look around...

"Here you are. I hope the medicine is of help to you..."

Sunny looked back in confusion, finding that Clara had walked up to him. She held out a small bag, while the other bag that held the painkillers seemed smaller.

Somehow, she had moved them from one bag to another in only a few seconds. Even as an Awakened, Sunny wouldn’t be able to move at such speeds.

’...Is she the one who strengthens the robots?’

He deduced that she was an Awakened. One who seemed to be quick while possessing the ability to enhance the automatons. However, that didn’t explain the pressure in the area. It wasn’t something that felt harmful, but he knew it was there. Was it from an external source?

Instead of asking her about such things, Sunny simply smiled as he recieved the painkillers.

"Thanks. Uh... you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but what’s your relationship with Svarog?"

Assuming that his guesses were true, it made quite a bit of sense why Svarog would keep an Awakened child around — one that had the ability augment his kind. Now that he thought about it, she might have been the youngest one he had ever met.

...Wasn’t that strange? Sunny had thought the age group to become infected ranged from preteens to those who were barely young adults. Clara didn’t seem to be older than ten. How did she even survive the First Nightmare — much less the Dream Realm? Was she truly that lucky?

The more he thought about it, the more inconsistencies he found.

Although he wasn’t planning on asking that currently, he was fortunate enough for her to answer his previous question.

"Mr. Svarog, he... he’s my family. I met Mr. Svarog when I was real little. He took me in and took care of me."

She seemed to suddenly recall something.

"I’m really sorry about what happened back in the Great Mine... Mr. Svarog doesn’t trust any humans besides me, especially everyone from Wildfire."

Sunny frowned.

"In that case, why did he get involved with the incident in the mine?"

To be seperate from humans, one shouldn’t be involved in human conflicts.

"He heard that the miners and vagrants had begun to engage in a large-scale conflict... He wanted to stop everyone from getting hurt fighting over the mines. Wildfire wants everyone to leave the underground... But Mr. Svarog wants everyone to stay here. According to his calculations, the overground is already unsafe."

’That... is worrying. Very worrying.’

A threat in the Overworld? One that is even worse than the situation in the Underworld? Sunny was convinced that Svarog wasn’t aware of the Fallen Terror that used to be in Rivet Town, which was incomparable to any other creature on the planet.

But what if Svarog was aware?

That horrified Sunny. What would make the robot think that the Overworld had something more dangerous than a Fallen Terror?

Clara continued:

"He says that his responsibility is ’preservation’. To do that, he must make decisions that best protect humanity."

Sunny grimaced. From the looks of things, nothing would be getting ’preserved’ anytime soon. Maybe as a frozen museum.

"The Fragmentum will swallow up all of the underground sooner or later."

Clara lowered her head, seeming downtrodden.

"I know that Wildfire wants to talk to Mr. Svarog... But no matter how many times you talk to him, Mr. Svarog won’t change his mind... So, please trust me! I’ll try to persuade Mr. Svarog. Hopefully, one day he will finally listen..."

Sunny looked at her for a few moments. Honestly, he didn’t think that Clara should be the one who should try to convince Svarog. Maybe he should speak to the robot himself.

Either way, he turned around, noticing the two approaching women.

Seele and Bronya looked at him for a second, before turning to the snow-haired girl he had been talking to.

"...Clara? What are you doing here?"

"You’re... Miss Seele from Wildfire? I came here to..."

And so, a brief explanation about her purpose for being here, along with what she and Sunny had been talking about was told. Meanwhile, he was thinking deeply about the situation.

’Overworld dangerous, Underworld safe. Considering that this place is nowhere near peaceful, between the human conflicts and Fragmentum — one that contained a Fallen Terror of all things — that would mean the snow isn’t whiter on the other side... what does that even mean? Anyways, assuming that Svarog is well-informed, then that means that there is something exceptionally threatening up there...’

But what could it be? He wasn’t sure if Svarog considered Cocolia to be a threat, but he doubted she was more dangerous than a Fallen Terror with strange abilities. Did she have a secret weapon...

A moment later, Sunny froze.

’The Stellaron.’

Or maybe he was completely wrong. He wasn’t a robot. It would be quite comedic if it was something else entirely.