Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

Jingliu’s final words seemed to hang in the air for several seconds.

Dan Heng watched the exchange with a growing sense of disbelief as Jing Yuan finally moved, turning his attention toward Sushang. The General’s expression remained professional despite the missing eye and the burns scattered across his body, though there was a subtle firmness beneath his voice when he spoke.

"Take Luocha and leave."

Sushang blinked several times, clearly surprised that she had suddenly been entrusted with something that sounded vaguely important.

"Take him where... G-General, Sir?"

Jing Yuan gave her a look that suggested he had not actually thought that far ahead.

"Somewhere that isn’t here. I’ll find him later."

Dan Heng stared at him. That was... remarkably vague. He wasn’t entirely certain where ’away’ was supposed to mean in this situation, but given Luocha’s history and the fact that Jingliu had explicitly mentioned prison, Dan Heng suspected that Sushang was probably expected to escort him toward the Shackling Prison.

Though, perhaps not. ’

Entrusting something like this to Sushang implied a remarkable lack of urgency. If Luocha were genuinely considered an immediate threat, Jing Yuan would have handled the matter himself, or assigned someone significantly more capable of dealing with him.

Sushang was enthusiastic, loyal, and considerably stronger than she looked — only in the physical sense, bat that is to be expected for any Awakened — but she was hardly the sort of person one sent to apprehend a dangerous criminal unless the situation was already considered under control.

Dan Heng looked at Luocha again. The man simply smiled politely, as though being escorted away by a young Cloud Knight from a gathering of murderous monsters was a perfectly normal inconvenience. Dan Heng narrowed his eyes. Perhaps Luocha wasn’t as dangerous as he had initially assumed. Or perhaps everyone here was simply insane.

Then, something brushed against Sunny’s back.

Dan Heng’s attention snapped toward him just in time to see Kafka’s hand pat against the black cloud-adorned denim jacket covering his back. Sunny immediately tried to move away.

He wasn’t fast enough.

Kafka’s hand seemed to stick to him as if it had been coated in glue, the contact remaining firm despite her not actually gripping his clothes. Sunny’s eyes widened as his feet left the ground. Kafka casually lifted him with one hand, his entire body dangling several feet above the ground.

"Hey!"

Sunny flailed uselessly, his boots swinging through the air.

"Put me down!"

Kafka’s smile became more playful as she looked at the struggling Master.

"Whoops~ Nobody ever tell you to not get trapped in a girl’s web, Kiddo? Get it? Because, uh, spider-theme, and..."

She trailed off when Sunny slowly turned his head toward her and gave her a deeply unimpressed squint. Kafka’s smile remained frozen for a second. Then she forced out a small chuckle.

"Heh."

Sunny continued staring.

"Never, ever, speak to me again.

Kafka turned away, still holding him effortlessly as though he weighed nothing. Sunny immediately began struggling harder.

"Dan Heng!"

Dan Heng watched him with a blank expression.

"Dan Heng, you wouldn’t, uh... actually let me get kidnapped like this, right?"

Dan Heng pursed his lips. He looked at Kafka. Then at Sunny. Then at Kafka again.

Really, he should be more concerned. But... what was Dan Heng going to do about it? He glanced at Blade, before immediately looking away. The man was still staring at him as if his guts were lined with all that had ever wronged him.

Finally, he turned away. Behind him came a horrified scream.

"YOU BASTARD!"

Dan Heng ignored him. Sunny’s voice escalated.

"DAN HENG! I’M NOT SERIOUS!"

Dan Heng continued walking.

"YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE MY FRIEND!"

Dan Heng kept walking.

"YOU COWARD!"

Still nothing.

"I SWEAR TO LEFT NUT DAN HENG, IF YOU LET THIS HAPPEN I’LL—"

The remainder became a string of curses so elaborate that Dan Heng briefly wondered whether Sunny had just accidentally placed an ancient hex upon him.

He resisted the urge to smile. This was proper revenge. This was justice.

Mostly.

Dan Heng glanced over his shoulder as Kafka carried Sunny closer to the shore. There was something unsettling about how effortlessly she was doing it.

Sunny was not weak. In fact, Dan Heng had witnessed enough of his strength to know that describing him as merely strong was an insult to the concept. Yet Kafka was holding him like an unruly cat.

Sunny continued flailing, but his attempts to escape accomplished absolutely nothing. Dan Heng’s amusement slowly faded. He had no idea what Kafka intended to do with him. She was a Stellaron Hunter, after all, and while Sunny seemed strangely familiar with her, that familiarity did not necessarily mean trust.

...Perhaps it was similar to Dan Heng’s own history with the madman glaring at him.

Dan Heng had done his research. Kafka was dangerous. All five of them were. Blade, especially. Kafka’s methods were simply less obvious.

Dan Heng wondered if he should intervene. He had already allowed Sunny to be taken halfway across the ruins. Perhaps that was enough. Then again, leaving Sunny with a Stellaron Hunter who might have her own agenda was probably not the smartest decision he had ever made. Dan Heng sighed quietly. He was beginning to regret his revenge almost immediately.

Blade stood nearby with his arms crossed, watching Kafka carry Sunny away. His expression suggested that he had expected something like this to happen. He didn’t intervene. He didn’t even look particularly surprised.

That was somehow more concerning than anything else. Was this part of their plan...?

...Dan Heng couldn’t do anything. There were too many threats, and too many unknowns. He felt like a wanderer in the dark.

The shoreline was only a short distance away now, and Dan Heng had no idea how Kafka intended to leave Scalegorge Waterscape, but at this point, he had decided that particular problem was not his concern. Couldn’t be his concern, really. Once again, there was nothing he could do. Nothing he wanted to do, as the situation would like only deteriorate from there...

Jing Yuan, however, seemed to disagree.

"I wouldn’t worry too much about your companion."

Dan Heng turned toward him. The General’s gaze had shifted toward Blade, his friendly smile remaining intact, though there was something sharper beneath it now.

"Is this the proper time for me to inquire on why, exactly, the Stellaron Hunters are placing all their bets on a mere Master?"

Dan Heng blinked. He suddenly felt as though someone had removed an entire Chapter from the conversation.

Why were the Stellaron Hunters paying attention to Sunny at all?

Dan Heng knew Sunny was powerful. He had seen enough to understand that much.

But the Stellaron Hunters were not known for casually taking an interest in random individuals. Their movements were deliberate. Their actions were connected to some larger objective that Dan Heng still did not fully understand. He had initially assumed their goal was simple enough: Stellarons, and the benefits of collecting them.

Sunny himself had two Stellarons imbedded within him... somewhere. That would have been reason enough...

But the more he learned, the less that explanation made sense. Why did Kafka speak to him with such familiarity? Why had Blade told him not to be rude, which was... really out of character? And why had Jing Yuan immediately attempted to extract information from Blade the moment Sunny was removed from the immediate area?

Dan Heng looked toward Blade, suddenly realizing that he had been missing something enormous. Blade’s lips curled into a faint smirk.

"Could you say there is anything ’mere’ regarding your eye injury, Jing Yuan?"

Jing Yuan’s expression didn’t change. He continued smiling. He didn’t answer.

Dan Heng’s eyes widened slightly as the pieces finally began to fall into place. The apology from earlier. Sunny’s strange answer. Jing Yuan’s suspicion. The burns. The missing eye. It had been Sunny. Sunny had injured Jing Yuan.

And Jing Yuan was afraid of him.

Dan Heng couldn’t explain how he knew.

It was subtle. The General maintained his composure perfectly, but Dan Heng... or Dan Feng, rather, had spent enough time around him to recognize the minute differences between his ordinary professional demeanor and the one he used when something genuinely disturbed him.

There was tension around his remaining eye. His posture was just slightly too rigid. Even his smile seemed carefully measured. This wasn’t arrogance. Jing Yuan wasn’t underestimating Sunny. Quite the opposite. He had experienced Sunny’s strength firsthand, and now he was probing Blade while pretending that Sunny was nothing more than a ’mere Master.’

It was a basic tactic. What bothered Dan Heng was the battle itself. He didn’t know what had happened between them, but something about the situation felt wrong.

Sunny didn’t seem like the type to attack Jing Yuan without reason... probably?... especially considering the Luofu was allied with the Astral Express. More importantly, Sunny had not killed him. He had injured a Transcendent General badly enough to cost him an eye, yet he had apparently stopped there.

That meant either Sunny had been holding back, or the fight had ended for some other reason.

Dan Heng wanted to ask, but Jingliu spoke first.

"Bested by a Master?"

Jingliu raised a brow beneath her blindfold.

"You’ve grown rusty, Jing Yuan."

Her lips curled upward.

"Well, one’s misfortune is another’s boon. Point me in the direction of this Master, Jing Yuan."

Both Blade and Jing Yuan immediately gave her unimpressed looks. The latter even coughed into his fist.

"I certainly would, Mist— Jingliu, but I am afraid that not only can I not let you out of my sight, but he is just barely outside of your... tastes."

Jingliu’s expression fell.

"Oh. Disappointing."

She tilted her head.

"Is their swordsmanship so as well, or did you show at least some competence when they inflicted that wound upon you?"

Jing Yuan’s smile became noticeably more strained.

"You would know better than I. Was he not just in your presence a few moments ago?"

Dan Heng’s expression slowly flattened. This conversation had somehow become a discussion about Sunny’s abilities, despite the fact that Sunny was currently being carried away by Kafka like a captured animal. Dan Heng didn’t quite know how to feel about finding himself in the middle of a conversation about Sunny, the resident idiot.

What was he, the main character?

’Is this what they mean by... glazing?’

Why they were so focused on him? An investment, perhaps.

Sunny was already absurdly strong for his Rank. He had maimed Saints as a Master while apparently not even attempting to kill them. His physical strength was ridiculous. His Memory usage was even more ridiculous. His Aspect itself didn’t seem particularly combat-oriented, at least not directly, yet he somehow compensated for that limitation with an almost excessive mastery of his Memories and innate lethality.

Dan Heng vaguely remembered seeing him use something related to Destruction when they first met. A baseball bat, if memory served. Whatever had happened to that?

If Sunny eventually Transcended — and Dan Heng suspected he would, if his surprisingly strong work ethic was any indication — then he would likely become one of the most powerful Saints in existence, perhaps even surpassing most of them.

Of course Jing Yuan would be wary of him. Of course the Stellaron Hunters would watch him. The realization made Dan Heng’s stomach sink.

Sunny had somehow managed to become politically important without even realizing it.

Because, let’s face it, there was no way he knew what the consequences of appearing too good at his job were.

"The young man who just left?"

Jingliu suddenly spoke.

"Don’t be preposterous, Jing Yuan. He’s never held a blade in his life."

Three pairs of eyes immediately turned toward her. Even Blade stared. Dan Heng simply stood there in silence. There was a long pause before Blade scowled.

"Has that blindfold begun to do its job?"

Jing Yuan continued without missing a beat.

"Senility has finally caught up to you, it seems. Or perhaps that is the Mara?"

Jingliu let out a small giggle.

"Oh, my. To think that the two..."

She paused. Her head tilted toward Dan Heng.

"Ah, even you, Imbibitor Lunae? To think that three of you would conspire to pull a prank on your Mistress after all these years! Putting aside your differences in the name... of boredom. It seems I’ve taught you all well..."

She trailed off, facing each of them in turn. Then her smile became almost unbearably amused.

"...You three are being ridiculous. That young man was not a fighter at all. I’ve seen children with more talent, with more experience. He is more likely to imbed a kitchen knife in his own skull than to finish off an infant."

Dan Heng’s mouth twitched. Blade looked profoundly unimpressed. Jing Yuan merely smiled.

Jingliu continue, reminiscing about her... explosive farewell to Baiheng.

"He was quite amusing, however. Like a jester."

Then Jingliu’s attention shifted toward Blade, and something in her demeanor changed. An odd aura of excitement seemed to radiate from her.

"More importantly, I had quite the duel with your protégé, Yingxing. You may have hit him on the head a few too many times, though. Nobody sane could competently wield such a battle art without losing their minds. So, I need to ask..."

Blade pinched the ridge of his nose. Dan Heng had absolutely no idea why. Then Blade hissed out a single word.

"Eighteen."

He paused, as if expecting Jingliu to understand immediately. When she didn’t, he added:

"Pure human."

Jingliu paused. Her expression became contemplative.

"Everyone is eighteen these days, hm?"

She sighed.

"Ah, I suppose I can make an exception..."

Dan Heng stared at her. He had no idea what that meant, and he didn’t want to know. Blade, however, seemed to have reached the absolute limit of his patience. His scowl deepened as he raised his weapon.

"Enough talk, Jingliu."

Jingliu’s smile remained.

Blade stepped forward, his expression hardening into something far more serious than the irritated amusement he had displayed earlier.

"I accepted your invitation for one reason, and one reason only..."

Jingliu crossed her arms, tilting her head slightly. Her blindfold remained fixed upon him.

"I cannot bring you death. Though, I am sure you know that."

Her voice was calm.

"And I have no interest in battling someone who longs for it."

Blade’s expression twisted. He stepped forward again.

Despite being far taller than Jingliu, there was something strange about the way he moved. It felt as though the physical difference between them meant nothing. If anything, it seemed like Blade was the one being towered over. He tightened his grip around his weapon.

"Of five, three must pay the price."

His voice was low.

"Don’t misunderstand, Jingliu."

Jingliu’s smile widened.

Then, Blade lunged.

The sudden acceleration was violent enough to tear through the surrounding air. Wind exploded outward, forcing Dan Heng to brace himself as debris scattered across the ruined shoreline. His robes snapped behind him, his hair whipping across his face as Blade’s killing intent surged through the area.

Jing Yuan’s expression sharpened. Dan Heng instinctively reached to summon a Memory, but Jingliu did not move. Not yet.

Blade’s figure blurred as he crossed the distance between them, his sword rising with enough force to split stone. His voice thundered across Scalegorge Waterscape as he roared:

"It’s kill or be killed!"