A young man with hair as black as ink and eyes of pure onyx stood before the main entrance of the Academy, an emerald prism hanging from his neck. The outer walls loomed gargantuan and timeless, a stone horizon that forbade anyone from glimpsing what lay beyond.
The massive, immovable gates remained shut, reminding Sunny of the pillars of a portal—one that, once crossed, would lead him into an entirely different world.
The sun still slumbered in that crisp winter dawn. Only the biting wind and the rhythmic, dark thrumming of a young shadow's heart broke the silence. The rest of the landscape was a desert of asphalt and frozen quiet, occupied by only three young Aspirants. Three souls as different as they were unique, bound only by the chilling certainty that once they crossed that threshold, they would never be the same again.
<
Sunny shook his head. 'Not much, actually. The author skipped this Arc just to throw the hero and his companions straight into the Dream Realm. I'm completely in the dark about what might happen—especially considering the changes that have already taken place.'
Sunny could feel the soles of his feet rooting into the ground beneath his feet. His leg muscles felt strained, almost to the point of tearing; the air felt heavy, thickening in his lungs.
The transition felt so utterly wrong. To go from the biting, perennial frost of the black mountain to a mundane environment like an Academy—two battlefields so fundamentally different—left a bitter taste in his mouth. It was dizzying.
Sunny took a long, deep breath. When he exhaled, a thick cloud of vapor escaped his lips, rising toward the sky and over those impenetrable walls. Beside him, Yuki watched his bewildered expression with silent, analytical intensity.
'One month. I have only one month to learn everything I need to survive the Forgotten Shore. I don't even know where to start.' The thought echoed like a thousand blades piercing his chest. He gritted his teeth, forcing the fear down, burying it where it couldn't be seen.
The Cricket pointed its cane to the left. <
Sunny shifted his gaze. 'There she is. The true protagonist of this world. As well as Sunless's love int... sorry, my supposed love interest.'
Standing to his left was a light.
A girl with hair of brilliant, shimmering silver and eyes of the same hue, lost in the void. Under a light grey athletic jacket, she wore a heavy shirt with the Night&Gale logo, dark jeans, and a pair of blue headphones. Her hair wasn't cut short this time; instead, it was pulled back into an elegant, silver ponytail.
The girl's shadow burned with a determination fierce enough to reduce the world to ash if necessary.
'Ladies and gentlemen, Nephis. Changing Star, the princess of the Immortal Flame Clan. The Nephilim. The Star of Misfortune. The Autistic Blowtorch. The Ruinous Star. The Pyromaniac-in-Chief. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It's Freaky Star. Tafazzi...'
<
'I could go on until I hit Antarctica if I wanted to, buddy.' Sunny shot back with a half-smirk.
He turned his gaze back to Nephis.
'Pretty, I'll give her that,' Sunny thought, scratching his temple. 'Though with that white hair, she kind of looks like a granny. I never did understand this fetish for white-haired characters.'
<
Turning to his right, Sunny offered Yuki a faint smile. "What do you think? Should we go introduce ourselves?" He gestured toward Nephis with a tilt of his head.
Yuki shifted her gaze between Sunny and the silver-haired girl behind him. Opening her mouth, as if trying to excavate the words from ice, she managed: "Go... ahead... I... here."
Sunny blinked. 'Well... you can't say she didn't put in the effort.'
"Okay. Suit yourself," he said, narrowing his eyes and shrugging.
Spinning on his heel, Sunny began to walk toward Nephis. As he did so...
'The Simpleton Match girl.'
<
As he walked toward Nephis, a part of him, the [Child of War] attribute screamed. It recognized the warrior within her—it begged him to cross blade, to confront her in a duel. It did the same with Yuki behind him. Both girls were experienced and unmatched fighters.
Approaching the silver-haired girl, Sunny extended his hand.
"Hi, I'm Sunless, but my friends call me Sunny," he said, offering her his most amicable, non-threatening greeting.
Nephis paused her music and slid the headphones down around her neck. She turned toward him, her gaze dropping to the offered hand with a look of profound suspicion. She studied him from head to toe, looking almost annoyed that the dark-haired boy had dared to interrupt her flow of thought.
Sunny tried again, his hand still hanging in the air. "I said... hi. I'm Sunless, but my friends call me Sunny."
"Mh," Nephis grunted, giving a stiff nod. She offered neither a smile nor the basic courtesy of a handshake.
<
Sunny's right eye twitched for a fraction of a second. Maintaining his forced smile, "And you are?"
"Nephis," she said coldly.
With that, Changing Star returned her gaze to the void, slid her headphones back over her ears, and proceeded to ignore him.
Seeing that there was no room for him here, Sunny withdrew his hand and raised his arms in a gesture of complete surrender. He turned and walked away.
'I give up! It's pretty obvious she's not in the mood for talking—let alone being likable.' he thought, thoroughly annoyed, as he turned back to Yuki.
<> the Cricket mused, scratching its temple and leaning its cane against Sunny's earlobe. <
Sunny rolled his eyes. 'It's not that hard to figure out. Her autism truly knows no bounds. There's just no helping it.'
When he reached Yuki, he noticed she hadn't taken her eyes off him for a single second. Her face, much like her shadow, remained a portrait of perennial frost.
"Nothing to say?" Sunny asked, arching an eyebrow.
Yuki didn't answer. She simply turned her gaze toward the Academy walls, mimicking the way he had been staring at them earlier.
Sunny, exhausted by the suffocating quiet left in the wake of fire and ice, exhaled another slowly, deep breath.
"What a headache," He said.
The air had suddenly become impossibly heavy.
After several more interminable minutes of awkward silence, much to his immense relief, the gates finally hissed open. The three Aspirants crossed the threshold.
'Oh! Thank the dead Gods!'