Shadow Slave | School Days

After being guided to a room by Eubin, who had worn a teasing smile the entire way there, Sunny and Nephis stood alone as the two fell onto the bed with a satisfied thud. Letting loose a sigh, Sunny turned to Nephis with an impassive expression before rolling to face her.

 "So… what did Eubin talk to you about?" Sunny asked tentatively, his eyes focused on Nephis features as he attempted clumsily to read her emotions. Nephis remained silent, never meeting Sunny's eye for longer than a moment before sighing to herself, finally conjuring the lie she'd tell Sunny.

"She asked about how we met, what you're like when you aren't fighting and what your favourite subjects are at school." Frowning slightly at the fact Eubin could easily locate his school, Sunny pressed the subject no further before silence settled upon the two again.

Suddenly, Sunny sat up and began stripping, reaching into his bag and pulling out a spare set of underwear, shirts and shorts. Finally, his alabaster skin came into full view as the tattoo that coiled around his arm remained ever pristine, its scales appearing alive under the light of the room.

Nephis eyes remained fixed on Sunny's form, her eyes trailing his chest as a blush rose upon her face. Licking her lips unconsciously, she tapped beside her so Sunny could sit down once more, eager to get as much contact with his toned muscles as possible.

Instead, Sunny simply leaned in and captured her lips, the gesture was short yet appreciated as Sunny quickly pulled back. "I need to shower, but oddly the showers aren't in the rooms like they are everywhere else. I'll go ask Eubin." As he moved to the door, Nephis blitzed toward him, extending an arm with a furious blush on her face to bar his exit.

"Where do you think you're going looking like that!?" she hissed, placing her hands on his abs she lightly ran her fingers across them before her glare toward Sunny increased in intensity. "These…" she stated, pulling him toward her and gripping his bicep to enunciate her point.

"Are for my eyes only, do you understand?" Sunny could only nod furiously, not knowing what particularly he had done wrong as Nephis turned around slightly to glance at the door. "I'll go and ask her where the showers are, wrap a towel around your body if you're too lazy to use a shirt."

Nephis eyes burned with feminine fury as Sunny reeled back slightly, a smile tugging at his lips as he nodded furiously. Slipping out of her grip, Sunny quickly pulled out one of his pitch-black towels before sliding it around his body, covering his upper body from view.

"Good boy, now I'll go ask her." Sunny wasn't given the chance to reply as Nephis quickly slipped out the room, closing the door firmly behind her as he heard her steps recede into the distance. "Good boy? Aren't only dogs called good boy? Does this make me her dog? Am I against being her dog?"

Sunny's mind was quickly thrown into overdrive by the combination of these questions.

Meanwhile, Nephis made her way around the house courteously, making sure to give the large array of tigers and lions which oddly seemed entirely comfortable with each other's presence enough space allowing her to move as she liked. Surprisingly, some of the animals seemed to have taken a liking to her even, occasionally licking her palms and nuzzling her feet.

Kneeling to meet the eyes of a dog, a rottweiler. Nephis smiled pleasantly as she stared at the creature's big brown eyes before rubbing its head furiously, only eliciting a large smile from the creature. "Do you know where your owner is?" she asked playfully, as if understanding her sentiment, the rottweiler let loose a small bark before turning its head to the chandelier that stood hanging above them.

The chandelier was a beautiful sight, radiating pale rays of light down onto the entire house, whilst not being bright enough to become obnoxious to the more sensitive animals in the house. However, what truly puzzled her was the young woman who appeared to be floating in the air.

Eubin lay on her back, appearing to be a being ignored by gravity itself as she floated next to the chandelier, holding her phone in hand as she watched a compilation of cute animals. Something that seemed to bring a genuine smile to her face.

"I can't fly so stop looking at me like I can. Wires do wonders city girl." Eubin commented idly, never taking her eyes off her phone as Nephis lip turned into an ugly grimace. "Where are the showers in this house, Sunny wants to use one." This caught Eubin's attention with immediate effect.

In a blur, Eubin was in front of her with a wide smile, almost perverted in its nature as she stared at Nephis giddily. "They're down the hallway to the left, having a shower in your room steams up the place. Let him know as soon as possible!" Thankfully for Eubin, Nephis didn't seem to be able to catch the cause of her enthusiasm as she responded with an indifferent huff.

After five minutes, Sunny roamed through the hallways, leaving Nephis to her thoughts in his room as he held his towel close to his sides. Suddenly, Eubin appeared from the ceiling and landed before him gracefully, a wide smile gracing her features upon acknowledging his presence.

"Sorry Sunny, but all the towels you need are in the shower. I can't allow… foreign towels in the sanctity of my chambers so you need to take that off." Sunny stared at her with a puzzled expression, times like these made him lament his lack of social interaction as he was unable to pick up the very clear social queue that she wanted to see him shirtless.

Obliging begrudgingly, Sunny handed over his towel before spinning on staring at her for a few moments, studying her expression. Eubin's façade of indifference was beginning to show cracks as she fought back a nosebleed, holding her hand to her head and feigning being tired.

"You can go now, no need to keep looking at me for years." Sunny did as he was told, allowing Eubin the opportunity to release her bloody nose into a napkin as she stared down at the black towel in her arms. Looking left and right, Eubin slowly raised the towel to her nose, preparing to inhale before being stopped by a graceful woman with flowing white hair.

Nephis snatched the towel from her hands forcefully, her glare increasing in intensity tenfold each moment as she stared at Eubin with a scowl. "My girlfriend senses told me you'd do something like this. These towels are mine to sni—hold. So, back the fuck off."

Eubin's smile almost tore her face in two as she jabbed an accusing finger in Nephis chest. "You've been sniffing his clothes! I wonder how Sunny would react to that. Maybe he'd break up with you or even worse!" She teased, yet Nephis found no humour in it as she huffed and turned around.

"Sunny and I are far too intimate for something so tame to bother him." Before Eubin could continue her onslaught of teasing, Nephis grabbed her by the arm before pulling her to the living room, leaving Sunny alone to his shower. Unluckily for the two, the showers lacked soundproofing, meaning Sunny had heard the entire engagement.

"The woman you are Neph." Sunny groaned to himself, as he allowed water to flow down his body with a fierce blush settling itself upon his pale alabaster skin. Downstairs, Nephis sat across from Eubin with a tentative expression on her face, readying herself to do something she never thought she would.

She was going to ask Eubin for advice.

After minutes of sitting in uncomfortable silence, Nephis lips finally parted, allowing her quiet request to be heard. "I need… advice." Nephis commented, her eyes remaining fixed on Eubin's form as the woman only offered a small smile in response, beckoning her to continue.

"I've realised that, if I am to stay with Sunny and help him when he most needs it… killing people is inevitable. But I've never taken a life before and I feel like I'll freeze up when I do it."

The explanation was reasonable, after all in this year alone Nephis had gone from being an ordinary citizen to a member of the underworld. Frankly, her lack of killing a single person had taken Eubin by surprise although she didn't show it. "Sunny's really coddled you hasn't he. Let me guess, you haven't experienced the press of death yet."

Eubin's voice was calm and matter of fact, yet Nephis could only remain confused at the odd terminology. Sighing and muttering a silent curse under her breathe, Eubin shook her head and began her explanation.

"When you fight an opponent who not only has the will to kill you and the strength to pull it off too, you experience a phenomenon called the press of death. It affects people differently, some people panic, others delve into the beauty of the battlefield and let their mind go."

Pointing to her eyes, Eubin gave her a wink before closing in on Nephis, their eyes fixed on each other as the two peered into the others souls. "See, for people like me, Sunny, Morgan. We're a little different, and you might be too. Death doesn't faze us; it's been a part of our life for as long as we've lived so of course we're resistant. But as you should know from your boyfriend's pressure, everyone has a limit."

Nephis cocked her head to the side before a small frown graced her features. "How do you rationalise it? How do you take a life so easily? They have hopes, dreams and futures ahead of them too! Ones of value! Futures like ours! So, what gives you the right to take it?"

Although Nephis raised her voice, her annoyance was born out of confusion more so than a genuine moral dilemma. She had already come to accept that there were people in the world who were better off dead, but thinking someone should die and being able to watch the light fade from their eyes was an entirely different matter.

"Are you vegan?" Eubin asked, Nephis cocked her head to the side in confusion. "What does that have to do with anything?" She asked, annoyance creeping into her tone as Eubin waved her off. "If you aren't, then let me ask you this. What makes humans so different than the meat you eat every day?"

"Ultimately, we take lives unconsciously for our own purposes. I take lives because it furthers my goals, you take lives because they suit your tastebuds when dead. Thinking about why you kill will only slow you down, you must kill. It's as simple as that, killing is part of your life and it always has been since you were young."

Shrugging her shoulders, Eubin turned around and sat down once more, crossing her legs over each other as she rested her chin in her palm. "Your opponent is trying to kill you, rob you, do something you don't like. So, what do you do? Kill them. Think about it like that and it'll be as easy as breathing."

Before Nephis could offer a response, Sunny made his presence known, a towel in his hands as his form glimmered with lingering drops of water. Wiping his hair, Sunny allowed a look of annoyance to settle on his face before he turned to Eubin. "Do you have a blow dryer?"

Eubin nodded, relaying the directions of it to Sunny before he quickly disappeared. As he left, a trail of blood flowed from Eubin's nose as she wiped it off with a tissue, meanwhile, Nephis was too star studded to even realise that Sunny had disobeyed her orders, a blush furiously tugging at her cheeks.

Regardless of her embarrassment, a thought tore through her mind, giving her clarity amid all the several mental pictures of Sunny shirtless that floated through her mind.

'I'm sure killing will become easy when I'm fighting Morgan.'