Chapter 9: Chapter 9: An Unfortunate arrival
The effect that saints had on their environment was akin to a king commanding his royal subjects. As one made their presence known, the sheer strength of their soul influenced the environment causing it to bend to their will without conscious effort being applied.
This pressure exerted onto the environment did not go unnoticed by Sunny.
Kai opened his mouth to explain his lack of involvement in the matter, however it didn't look like Sunny was in much of a listening mood. Sunny raised his arms to his neck and almost began scratching once more like he typically had; however, his arms began to shake as he lowered them to his side.
"Never mind, forget I asked. Stay here and don't say a word to anyone" Sunny commanded as he took a second to steady his breath. Kai could only nod as Sunny made his way into the main section of the cafe 'I can only hope everything goes well' Kai thought to himself as he watched Sunny exit.
A thousand thoughts were going through Sunny's head per minute, why was changing star here? What could she want from him? Extending his shadow into the main area Sunny did what he had always done best. He scouted the area. Hopefully, by gaining even a little bit of information as to the purpose of her arrival he would be able to act accordingly.
Upon the shadow's arrival to the room, it made its way behind Nephis field of vision and connected itself to her shadow. "Is this the cafe which the fire keepers praised for it's culinary skill?" Nephis said turning to Cassie who was visibly still reeling from the immense heat from God Grave.
Taking a second to gather herself Cassie replied "Yes, although the main chef is supposed to be male. What's Aiko doing here?" upon hearing her name Aiko's head snapped towards Cassie's direction and quickly made her way towards her "Hello Cassie, are you looking for Sunny as well?" she asked. To her surprise, Nephis and Cassie stiffened at the mention of her bosses name.
Before they could respond Aiko quickly continued "Kai just came in here asking for him, and the boss dragged him into the back rooms to 'talk' no clue what that was about though" immediately, both Nephis and Cassie stiffened further at the mention of his name however they did not show it. If there was one thing they knew about this Sunny person, it was that he was extremely violent when pressured.
Although Cassie was reluctant in engaging Kai once more fearing his rage, his life and his safety came before any of their personal disagreements.
It appeared Nephis was in agreement with this sentiment as she readied herself to barge into the back rooms of the cafe. However, before she could act, she was met with Sunny making his way out of the back rooms. From the looks of things, he was relatively unharmed, and the cafe was still intact, Cassie and Nephis let out a sigh of relief at the sight of him. His composed figure likely meant Kai was unharmed and simply refusing to engage with them, although it was saddening his safety served as a source of comfort.
Sunny turned his attention to Aiko not even locking eyes with Nephis or Cassie for even a second "Tell the rest of our customers that the cafe is closed for the rest of today" he said, Aiko winced at the thought of losing out on good business however did as she was told. The tone in her bosses voice was clear and commanding, it left no room for her to disagree, and his presence was currently no less oppressive than the two saints who stood before him.
After quickly rushing out the rest of the customers, who had been looking at Nephis and Cassie with expressions of star struck devotion, Aiko turned her head back to the engagement. Her boss looked furious, however at the same time he looked nervous. Such an expression had never been seen on his face even when whispers of a war between Song and Valor had began to arise. 'What could possibly have happened between these three' she thought to herself.
Sunny was the first to speak, he had a lot on his mind, and he wasn't going to finish another conversation with these three without letting it all out. "Hello Master Changing Star, and Lady Cassia. I'd ask you to explain your presence, but I should have already expected something like this." Sunny spat out the words master as though they were filled with Venom, the gaze he had didn't waver for a second as his eyes remained firmly locked with Nephis.
Nephis eyes remained locked with Sunny's, his onyx eyes reflected her face back at her and her nervous expression could be seen by all who took a second to peer under her indifferent mask. She couldn't think of the words to say to Sunny, how could she comfort or support a comrade she didn't even remember. Allowing her thoughts to slow down her speech Cassie took the initiative and spoke first.
"From what I've been able to gather, I'm the one who has caused your slavery as well as your removal from the world" Cassie said, she didn't have an indifferent mask like Nephis did. Her wavering tone and posture portrayed her immense regret as she continued to make failing attempts at looking her former comrade in the eye.
"Although I cannot truly relate to your pain" her voice began to break as she struggled to suppress tears, "I'd like to apolo-" her sentence was cut off by Sunny raising a shaking hand. He brought it to his neck and began scratching once more and suddenly he shouted "Don't! Don't apologize to me" he was drawing blood from his neck as deep gashes formed. Although no blood was spilled the sight was still harrowing to the eye as Nephis and Cassie observed the blood flowing through his body plain to see.
"The last time you apologised to me, or even attempted to give me one. I got stuck in THIS situation, every time I interact with you people or lock eyes with another one of you people. My life is thrown into absolute fucking mayhem!" he roared at them, Nephis and Cassie visibly flinched at this. Cassie had already broken down into tears. There were no words of comfort she could offer him, any assurance that the bond could be broken would merely be lies that even Sunny himself could see through.
And so, Nephis mustered up every ounce of courage and replied.
"If that was true, if ALL of that was true. Then why did you keep sticking around us!" she shouted back, her voice was breaking. There was no rationality or reasoning behind her thoughts anymore, rather just copious amounts of restrained emotion that she had been too busy to release. Upon hearing this, Sunny's nails dragged deeper into his throat. At the rate he was going, he was about to severely wound himself if someone didn't stop him.
Nephis moved to grab his hands but was cut off as Sunny began speaking once more "I couldn't help myself!" he screamed, the statement was so abrupt and confusing that Cassie herself had stopped crying. The entire room was paying undisturbed attention to his words, Sunny's face had tears welling up in his eyes as he took a moment to calm himself down. However, his actions did not portray such a thing as his fingers began getting soaked in his blood.
"I wasn't born with people to relate to, or people I could trust, or a grand mission that was supposed to keep me going forward! And you PEOPLE offered me that, you gave me trust, you gave me a mission and I NEEDED you for meaning! I tried staying on my own, but the more I did, the more I'd see you with your pathetic mission!" he shouted, taking a few seconds to breathe before continuing "I thought that if I remained with you, I trusted you and received trust in return then I could finally have people around me while being FREE!" Nephis moved to reply however Sunny cut her off by continuing.
"And you ripped my freedom out my hands! You forced me to do things I didn't want to! You tried giving me that bullshit of 'I wanted to save your life' and I'll admit it! I bought it! Till you came back and made me feel like I'd have rather died anyways! Now look, listen to me and listen properly because at this rate the next time we see each other it will be as enemies. If you want someone to fight for you? I have an incarnation in God grave ready and willing to do that for you, however, if you come back here to MY cafe and ruin MY life any longer. I will KILL you, and if that doesn't work, I'll kill myself"
Sunny's nails drove deeper into his neck than before, if this went any longer, he would do severe damage that Nephis would be unable to stop.
Nephis rushed at him, attempting to grab his arms and pry them away from his neck as Cassie remained behind in a stupor of anguish. Sunny began resisting violently, continuing to claw at his neck further and further. Nephis then was forced once more to do something that disgusted her to her core.
"Stop hurting yourself" she cried, Sunny's hands fell from his throat. The look of hopelessness and fear returned to his face as he stared her in the eye, he attempted to use shadow step to escape once more however Nephis didn't let him "sleep, stop forcing yourself to suffer because of me." She sobbed quietly. Sunny had heard her though, the feeling of the shadow bond resonated throughout his body as he was pulled into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.
Slowly falling to the ground, Nephis caught him as she placed her hands to his neck once more. This time however, a gentle white glow emanated from her hands as his neck began to rapidly heal itself until all that was left was dried blood.
Unable to endure the commotion of the argument that took place in the main section of the cafe any longer. Kai made his way in despite Sunny's explicit command.
And there he found Nephis, Cassie and the unconscious body of Sunny.