[7]Beginning

Sunny quickly checked his Shadow Fragments and fount that he now had fourteen. Indeed, he had slain the damaged straggler in a single hit. It wasn't Sunny's most proud kill.

He had ambushed the monster before it could fully emerge from the mud, and he basically rendered his right hand a bloody mess, but there was no denying that the carapace scavenger had picked the wrong meal.

Sunny was happy about another thing though. He had gotten the Azure Blade again.

He remembered the first time he killed this monster and gained this memory.  The chances of getting a memory from the same monster twice seemed abysmal, but that was his [Fated] attribute at play.

He was worried about his Shadows, and whether he would see them again.  He even missed Fiend. Still, he knew that he couldn't stop to think about it. At least,  not yet.

Sunny slung the rucksack he made last night off his shoulders. He hadn't cracked the shell of the scavenger as much as he had the first time he fought it, but Gloomy coated the Azure Blade, and Sunny was able to cut apart enough meat to fill the sack.

He took the soul shard, knowing he could give it to Nephis later in the day. Sunny used small bone fragments and seaweed to set a makeshift splint for his fingers on his right hand.

Finally,  he took off towards the clearing he found Nephis at the first time he came to the forgotten shore. He had set up camp on his headless statue to accommodate up to 6 people with seaweed beds and a campfire last night, even though he knew it was only going to be the two girls meeting up with him.

This was to ease their suspicions that Sunny might have somehow expected them. They'd lower their guard if they thought he had set up his camp thinking that the fire he had seen was from a cohort.

As Sunny walked, he realized that he should let Nephis and Cassie closer to him and be tempted to follow him to his camp, since he knew they had originally been heading towards the statue.

He knew that they would also likely run into more monsters like that though. In the end, he met the pair of girls at the middle clearing where he had first found them at when he encountered them all those years ago.

***

After waiting for a while, Sunny had finally spotted Nephis and Cassie entering the clearing. Cassie was wearing a familiar tunic with a cloak over it. It came equipped with Sandals. She was wearing the armor type memory that Nephis had received in her first nightmare. She was attached to Nephis with a familiar golden rope between them.

Nephis... Sunny had no comments. When Sunny had stumbled upon the girls before his regression, he was just glad to have human company.

The Sunny now, had long fallen in love with Nephis,  so seeing her like this, more youthful and innocent than how he had remembered her, not to mention barely clothed? This was a little much.

Sunny sent Gloomy out to greet the girls. It was the best way he knew to get them to refrain from attacking him. He could have sworn Gloomy shook his head and sighed. Huh, Sunny must've been seeing hallucinations.

Nephis stopped in the middle of the clearing. Slowly, Cassie caught up and put her hand on Nephis' shoulder.

"Why did you stop?"

Nephis glanced up at the sky and Supported Cassie.

"It's getting late."

There was an awkward pause. Cassia asked:

"So you think we should turn back?"

Nephis blinked and cleared her throat.

"We might not make it today."

Sunny was a little shocked. Nephis had actually spoken a full sentence to Cassie? This was blasphemy! To think that he was wanting to tease her about her stoic facade along their trip.

That was when Nephis finally noticed Gloomy walking out from the shadows. She immediately zeroed onto it. She drew her weapon and stared it down.

Sunny remembered that it was startled when she noticed it instantly in the past. Things were different now. Sunny was sure that if his shadow had eyes, Nephis would have been the once startled iinstead. As it was, Gloomy had come out with its hands raised, and made a shape that looked like a flag waving.

Cassie was the first to speak:

"Neph, what's wrong?"

"There's a shadow."

"What? Is there a carapace monster nearby?"

"No, Soz, it looks like a human."

"There's a human shadow?"

"Yeah. It's not attached to anything,  it just walked into the clearing like a normal person."

"Huh? There are nightmare creatures like that?"

Finally, Sunny had deemed it time to speak up.

"Ah. Sorry for spooking you both."

Cassia and Nephis both jumped and turned to face Sunny, who had somehow silently walked out into the open clearing without them noticing him at all. In fact, he was just a few steps away from them.

...Nephis almost swung her sword at him.

Sunny, was confused for a moment, and then realized what he did wrong. His days as an army scout and hunting creatures at the chained isles, combined with his Shadow Dance. In other words, even in bright sunlight, it would take a miracle to hear Sunny as he casually walked up beside you.

He was as silent as the women of house Song. He had basically gotten into striking range without alerting the girls. It looked like he had used his shadow as a distraction.

'Whoops.'

Still, Sunny did not give up.

"You guys remember me from the Academy right? I was looking for places to move to at the labyrinth, at decided to search in this direction, considering I had seen a light coming from this way at night. I was hoping to find a cohort or something."

Nephis slowly put down her sword. She had pegged this kid as a prankster in the Academy, but he had shown that he was quite the threat if he put his mind to it. She wasn't even sure if she could actually beat him in a fight.

... He certainly proved that he could sneak up on her. She was going to ask what his intentions were,  but what he said next answered her question.

"Ah, I have a campsite at a high point a while into the labyrinth behind me. You are both welcome to come with me if you want. "

"Although, if you aren't comfortable with me, you could refuse or head back the way you came."

Nephis studied Sunny for a moment. He was shorter than her. His lusterless black hair was a mess. His armor type memory was a sort of fabric type. His right arm was shifted in a sort of makeshift seaweed sling, and his right hand looked a bit mangled.

On his back looked to be a seaweed rucksack that he cobbled together quickly. She realized that he was recently in a fight.

"What happened to you?"

Sunny shrugged his shoulders,

"Carapace scavenger."

Nephis looked at him for a moment, and wearily asked:

"You got away from one of those things?"

Sunny shook his head and gestured to his rucksack.

"I killed it. They have a few weak points."

Nephis was impressed and intrigued. She had never heard of a kid named Sunless in any of the Legacy clans before. Was he an assassin sent to kill her? He certainly wasn't lacking the skill or the courage for it.

"... how about you follow us back to our campsite instead?"