Today was only the sixth day.
Sunless sat in the cafeteria, working through his food. He did not look up when the familiar presence approached.
He felt the vibration as Kiyotaka tapped the table before taking a seat across from him.
Sunless did not bother speaking. He simply harbored a quiet, focused hatred for the way this man operated.
'If it goes on like this, Cassie will become too dependent on him. It is just perfect. He is ruining a life for nothing more than a few visions. She can see the future, but she cannot see the person standing right in front of her.'
Sunless despised the coldness of it.
He watched as Kiyotaka kept tapping the table, and he could almost see the strings being pulled.
'That poor girl cannot even deduce that she is being used. Her mind is probably filled with love for Kiyotaka thanks to his attribute.'
Sunless had become sure that what made others open up was a attribute and not his actual aspect.
but the true danger was the way people naturally gravitated toward their own destruction when he was around.
He looked toward them one last time, a bitter taste in his mouth that had nothing to do with the food. But he did not bother telling him off.
If anything, this distraction was working in his favor.
To say honestly, Kiyotaka is not someone loyal or trustworthy. Sunless was preparing his own plans if a day ever comes where he has to go against him.
A contingency plan.
He was making sure to manipulate how Kiyotaka perceived his shadow. He had even turned the shadow into a boulder in his room and warned him that he would drop it on him.
To Kiyotaka, it might have been a joke. To Sunless, it was a necessary deception.
He needed the freak to keep thinking that the shadow could hit someone without its master. He needed a secret weapon that stayed secret.
Sunless got up and started walking away. There were still a few hours left before the survival class so he just walked.
He went past the washroom, the security, and the staffroom until he reached his own dorm.
He opened the gate and went inside, but he kept the door open.
He sat on his bed and closed his eyes, his breathing evening out into the rhythm of a fake sleep.
His shadow detached from him and dissolved into the shadow cast by the open door.
A few minutes passed. A kind hearted sleeper walked past the dorms but stopped as he saw the open door.
He saw a malnourished looking kid sleeping inside. He felt a flicker of pity and reached out to close the door for him, thinking he was doing a good deed.
As the door clicked shut, Sunless stood up. He walked to a stand and drank a cup of water, his mind already tracking the target.
'That guy should be going to the dojo.'
The random sleeper who had closed the door always walked past here at this exact time.
Sunless was sure he would close the door. After all, the boy was a known punching bag for the legacies. He was the type of person who saved seats for them and gave them his own food just to feel safe.
Sunless had essentially become a local celebrity in the academy thanks to his association with Kiyotaka, so it was a given that this sleeper would try to look out for him in some small, pathetic way.
Sunless sat on the bed and started using his shadow senses.
He turned his eyes completely shut to focus on the distant perspective.
He saw the back of the sleeper and the hesitant steps as the boy walked. The steps were a mess. They spoke of a soul that was scared of its own existence.
Sunless did not bother caring about him. If a person cannot care about themselves, they are just a vessel for someone else's will.
'What a mess this footwork is. It is like he is trying to apologize to the floor for stepping on it.'
Soon the sleeper reached the dojo and went inside. He bowed to the legacies present, a submissive habit that had been ingrained into his bones.
The sleeper walked past a row of equipment tables, and Sunless's shadow slipped away, hiding beneath the dark underside of the wood.
Now Sunless stood up from his bed in his room, finding the center of the floor.
A sleeper walked down the stairs of the dojo. It was Caster.
Sunless was surprised to see Caster step down first, but he remained cautious. He did not go into Caster's shadow.
Sunless knew better. If Caster activated that terrifying speed aspect of his, the shadow connection might snap or the sensory overload would be too much to handle.
So Sunless waited until a random sleeper timidly approached the center of the mat.
Sunless slipped into that boy's shadow, expecting a quick defeat.
The sleeper put his hands together and bowed to Caster. Caster returned the gesture with a calm practiced grace.
The fight began.
Sunless did not expect the sleeper to last, but his interest was caught by Caster's behavior.
Caster had his eyes closed. He was not attacking. He was not using his aspect.
He is trying to do to others what Kiyotaka did to him.
Sunless realized the game. Caster was trying to be a teacher, a benchmark for others to test themselves against. But while Kiyotaka did it to break people down and rebuild them as tools, Caster seemed to be trying extra hard to prove something to himself.
Caster's eyes opened as he took out a slow breath. The sleeper rushed him.
Sunless rushed air inside his own room, copying the movements he saw through the shadow.
The sleeper ran smoothly.
Sunless ran awkwardly.
His body uncoordinated as he threw a punch at the empty air. In the dojo, the sleeper's hand was grabbed and pulled forward.
Sunless felt the phantom momentum, his back suddenly exposed. Caster pushed the sleeper down but grabbed his clothing before he could hit the ground, preventing a hard fall.
Sunless heard the voice of the legacy through the shadow connection.
"You are too impulsive. Don't be afraid of me."
At that exact moment, as Caster held the boy, Sunless's shadow slipped from the student and into Caster.
He understood now.
Caster was never going to go all out against these weaklings. He was a perfect subject for study because he was moving with such precision.
Sunless stood in the middle of his dorm, his breathing beginning to match the legacy's rhythm.
He shifted his weight, centering his gravity. He let go of his own clumsy habits and allowed his body to mirror the ghost in his mind.
Sunless began to copy Caster.
***
The shadow drifted back into the room, hovering over Sunless for a moment. It looked down at him with what could only be described as silent pity before dissolving back into his heels.
'Fuck! I couldn't understand a single thing!'
He rolled over and punched the floor, which only resulted in his hand hurting. He groaned, burying his face in his arms.
'I just tried to copy that bastard and I failed miserably. Why does he move like that? Is he even human?'
Sunless was genuinely flabbergasted. He had watched Caster move with the kind of grace that made physics look like a suggestion.
He had thought, with the dangerous confidence of a desperate man, that he could just mirror it. But Caster's basics were so perfect they were invisible.
Sunless had tried to do a simple footwork shift he saw in the dojo. In his mind, it was supposed to be a sharp, lethal pivot. In reality, his left foot got jealous of his right foot, they got into an argument, and he ended up tripping over air and face-planting into his bedpost.
'And then there is Nephis.'
He thought back to the sparring session between Caster and Changing Star. Neither had used an aspect. It was just raw, terrifying skill.
Watching them trade blows was so intense it made his head spin.
Their movements were so fast and efficient that Sunless felt like he was watching a video on four times speed while his own body was stuck in a lagging youtube video.
He actually felt like he was going to puke.
"Huff."
He lifted his arm and looked at it. It was thin, pale, and had about as much muscle as a piece of string.
'For God's sake. Look at this. I am so malnourished that a strong sneeze could probably break my ribs, and here I am trying to fight like a legacy who grew up eating monster.'
He needed to get better. He needed to stop being a punching bag that happened to have a cool shadow. And he knew exactly how to fix it, even if the thought made him want to scream into a pillow.
Kiyotaka would teach him. That was the deal. Sunless would be the spy, the eyes in the dark, and in return, the freak would turn him into something that could actually survive a fight.
'I am basically selling my soul for a gym membership and some karate lessons,' Sunless grumbled, rubbing his sore shoulder. 'What a great life choice I have made.'
He sat up, his joints making a loud popping sound that echoed in the quiet room. He glared at his shadow, which seemed to be hiding deeper under the bed than usual.
'Stop looking at me like that,' he hissed at the floor. 'At least I tried. Tomorrow, I will go find Kiyotaka and tell him to start the training.'
He looked at his thin legs and sighed.
'Damn all these legacies. Honestly. I hope they all get a permanent itch in a place they cannot reach.'
He tried to stand up, stumbled slightly, and decided that the floor was actually a very comfortable place to stay for the next ten minutes.
'Peace and quiet. Just me and my failures.'
***
It was the seventh day.
After a brief, sharp verbal exchange between Kiyotaka and Sunless, the lesson had begun.
Kiyotaka was teaching him the basics. It was exactly what Sunless had maneuvered for, yet as they moved, They were moving in sync, a rhythmic dance of footwork and breathing.
"Sunless," he said gently.
"Did you forget something important?"
For a moment the field remained completely silent.
Then Kiyotaka finished the sentence with quiet certainty.
"We are best friends."
Sunless stared at him for a moment before letting out a quiet breath.
Then he resumed the footwork.
His balance still wavered, but the rhythm lasted longer this time.
Kiyotaka watched silently.
Sunless was sure of it now. Every word, every gesture, every "accident" was a calculation. Kiyotaka was manipulating the very environment to make Sunless feel comfortable. It was a subtle, masterful haunting.
Sunless looked at the boy across from him and saw a freak. Kiyotaka had invited him into every plan, sharing secrets and strategies that he could have easily handled alone.
Why?
There was only one logical answer: Sunless was only able to figure out the plans because Kiyotaka had built them with a back door.
He was being allowed to see the strings so that he would stop looking for the puppeteer.
Then there was the police station.
The way Kiyotaka's expressions had shifted so violently, so perfectly. He had purposely let his emotions escape. It was another bait, another lure to make Sunless believe there was a human being underneath the mask.
Sunless felt a cold shiver that had nothing to do with the wind.
He felt like a chicken being fed high-quality grain. He was being fattened up with knowledge, trust, and skill, only to be slaughtered when the time was right.
He couldn't explain the logic behind the fear, but the instinct was screaming at him. Kiyotaka was not the type of person to make a losing deal. If he was giving, it was only because he intended to take back ten times as much later.
'He doesn't know,' Sunless told himself, a desperate mantra in the back of his mind. 'He doesn't know about [Shadow Bond]. He doesn't know about [Clear Conscience].'
He had been careful. Every time Kiyotaka talked to him, Sunless had retreated into circles, giving answers that meant nothing and everything at once. There was no way for the monster to know the true nature of his soul.
Yet, the doubt lingered. If Kiyotaka knew if he had already figured out the hidden chains of the [Shadow Bond] then the game was already over. That was the worst-case scenario.
Ever since those four questions had been asked, Sunless had stopped hoping for the best.
He lived in the worst-case scenario, Every day he prepared for the worst day.
***
Sunless was running across the open field, ll One of his legs was wrapped in his shadow. The augmentation made every step feel explosive, and it was clear he had improved tremendously over the last week.
His shadow visited the dojo daily, slipping into the feet of every student it could find.
It had lived in the shadows of legacies and common sleepers alike, absorbing their movements. Because of this, Sunless's basics had become really good.
He wasn't just swinging blindly anymore.
He ran and weaved using boxing footwork, keeping his center of gravity low and his head moving. Then, he suddenly switched to aikido, using the momentum of his own turn to punch the stone wall while the shadow was still reinforcing his leg.
He had learned how to string combos together. He had learned how to throw feints that could actually fool a untrained eye.
Sunless had become good at fighting, yet he did not like it.
He knew the math. Even ten versions of him would not be able to defeat a single Caster. And Kiyotaka had toyed with Caster like he was a mere toy.
'If the worst day comes and I get Kiyotaka's Flaw activated, how would I even be able to damage him? I am too weak and slow to even touch that freak.'
Sunless hated that thought. He sat down on the grass as his shadow detached from his leg and sat beside him.
He remembered how thoroughly Kiyotaka had broken Caster. It wasn't a fight,it was a dance. Sunless had not felt that level of mastery ever since.
He felt like he had been close to breaking through to something back then, but the feeling had disappeared the moment he stopped watching.
He looked at his shadow, and a new thought entered his mind. What if he could have multiple shadows? If he had two for his hands and two for his legs, he would be unstoppable.
He would be fast and strong at the same time.
His eyes widened. He stood up and commanded his shadow to augment his right hand. He punched the wall, feeling the familiar surge of power. Then, he tried to move slower than usual, attacking with his left hand while trying to control the shadow to shift over.
His left fist was about to connect, but the shadow only reached it after the impact was already over. There was no massive blow. The hand moved too slow to carry any momentum.
Sunless tried again, moving his other fist a little faster this time. The shadow shifted, but it couldn't reach the knuckles in time.
His bare hand hit the stone without any augmentation at all.
"FUCK!"
Sunless screamed in frustration, his voice echoing across the field.
"And here I thought I figured something out!"
He tried it again. And again. Every time, he failed. The timing was always off. The shadow was a tool that wouldn't respond fast enough to his conscious thoughts.
He eventually gave up and fell to the ground, exhausted. The shadow detached and stood nearby.
Sunless looked toward his shadow, expecting it to mock him for his failure. But it didn't. In fact, the shadow itself looked frustrated.
It began to punch the air with jerky, angry movements. It was trying to copy what Sunless had just done.
Sunless stopped moving and just watched it. He could feel it. The shadow was feeling the exact same thing he was. They were both angry because they were weak.
Him and his shadow were really similar. No, that wasn't right. They were one person.
'Wait. We are one person?'
The idea came back to him with a new clarity. He stood up and started punching the stone wall again. The shadow just looked at him, confused.
Sunless kept punching in a steady rhythm. Left. Right. Left. Right. The shadow observed the pattern for a few seconds, and then it moved.
On its own, the shadow moved incredibly fast. It snapped onto his right fist.
Sunless didn't command it. He didn't even think about it. The shadow just followed his intent and hit the wall with him.
Sunless didn't stop. He punched with his other hand. This time, he didn't give an order again.
The shadow moved through his body on its own and attached itself to the left hand before the strike connected.
His eyes widened, but he kept the rhythm going. He kept punching, and the shadow kept moving. They were not just similar; they were each other. They shared the same intelligence.
The reason Sunless had been failing was because he was trying to instruct the shadow on how to move. That took time. And in a fight, time was everything.
He didn't need to tell his hand to move, so he didn't need to tell the shadow to move either. It knew what he wanted because it was him.
'I finally see hope in crushing you, Kiyotaka!'
As he was punching, Sunless decided to test his new theory. He threw a feint with his fist but didn't actually attack. Instead, he snapped a kick toward the wall with his leg.
The dumb shadow went to his fist instead. It had followed his initial thought and was too committed to the fake-out. Sunless's bare leg hit the wall with a dull thud.
The shadow stopped and stared at Sunless, looking extremely angry. It felt like it was yelling at him for lying to it.
Sunless rubbed his sore shin and looked at his shadow.
"Are you really my shadow? You are so dumb."
Shadow stared at him angwyyyyyy.
******
The first side story ends, and it took me an hour. Now I'll go back and study, I was experimenting with the pacing.
So let me know if the side story moved too fast or if it was good.
Hope you all liked the first side story.
See ya.
I know I said don't expect much....
You know what I want to say rn...
I do have some ideas.
The side stories will become progressively more crazy.
Sunless's ss was the most tamed one.