Now in his room, it was time to test the full capabilities of his shadow. With a bit of luck he could figure out a way to hide it even when it is ineffective inside natural shadows.
'Can I hide it outside them?'
Sunny's first idea was to change its shape into a extremely narrow line, however it had a limit to how much he could keep narrowing and stretching. With this he reached the conclusion that to make it usable it would need to border natural shadows of a certain length.
'Anyone with good spatial awareness will figure out that something is wrong.'
At least his shadow didn't create that feeling of fundamental wrongness... Which could mean that the wrongness comes from his flaw and not from his [Devoid] attribute.
'Worrying...'
If a connection to people is one to the world, wouldn't that mean that the more connected that he is to someone the worst the world's retaliation will become? Or was there something else to his shadow that he was ignoring?
Oblivious, or perhaps uninterested, in his thoughts his shadow kept looking from a place in the room to another as if it was its first time here.
'Budy... you have been here before...'
Sunny let out a sigh after his shadow changed from confused to completely still in a single motion.
'This guy... it is as if he completely became unaware of everything from time to time.'
Come to think of it, he was unusually still the first time that he came to his room too... as if he wasn't really there, or at least his mind... soul?... shadow? whatever gives a personality to a shadow!
Yet... I don't think that he goes anywhere else... Is it some kind of overthinker, or is it just that it tends to day-dream?
Wait... Do shadows sleep?
'whatever'
The line is way too ineffective. May work on mere beasts, but even then to the instincts of some it may look like an unnatural worm or something.
'Everything about me is unnatural, though'
...What else should he try?
Maybe hiding it in a surface that it can fully cover?
Without much thought of it Sunny summoned the Silver bell and tried to wrap his shadow around it. However something strange occured...
As if completing a natural transformation his shadow wrapped around the Silver bell in a deeper way than intended. Sunny didn't know why, but the bell felt different from before. This subtle change felt as the key to his issues. Also he couldn't see through his shadow anymore after it happened.
Soon enough, Sunny tried to wrap other objects in the shadows, and then tried to discern how wrapped objects interact with natural shadows, and what was that strange change that he felt after wrapping them.
He arrived to three conclusions:
First, a wrapped object fully covered by natural shadows would become a beacon of sorts. It felt as it was glowing, even though it clearly wasn't. This only happened if almost the full object was in the shadows.
Second, when an object was wrapped in his shadow and covered by shadows... 'I really need better terminology.' ...the inserting-needle like feeling would progress much slower than usual.
'The dreamy guy should be able to survive two whole days with this...'
Lastly, after wrapping an object in his shadows, it would roughly double its meaningful traits. Which was to say traits useful in battle or deception, and enchantments.
Now, however, a question lingered in Sunny's mind. What happens if he tries to wrap his shadow around him?
He still remembered a strange part of his shadow description...
Aspect Ability: [Foreign Shadow].
Aspect Ability Description: [Your shadow is more independent than most. It is a door, and unnatural among its peers.]
'It is a door... A door to what?'
Sunny didn't intend to figure that out, at least not today. There would be time to try another day, anyway.
Staying firm to his choice, Sunny concluded that it was time to send his shadow to explore. If someone realized that there was a strange shadow in the academy he was confident in his ability to move any suspicion away from him. After all, he was already suspicious without apparent reason, and he was now rejected by shadows because of his flaw. Who would suspect of his affinity to them?
That was how his shadow started to move through the corridors of the academy. It used the art pieces that legacies loved for some reason as a hiding place, and slipped away from them for mere moments to make context of what was around it. Once it was sure that there was no one around, it would move to the next hiding place. Therefore, keeping the chances of being discovered at a minimum.
There was an issue to this, though...
'This is taking too much time's
Sunny internally groaned, sprawling himself on his bed. The wrongness of the world only made it harder to think of it as "his."
In the end his shadow arrived to the combat class that it intended to see way too late. All the students were now in the locker rooms. If he wanted to know how to get along with Nephis he should try and see how she was interacting with others while he still had the chance. He moved the towards the girl's lo—
'Now wait a second. What am I even thinking about!? Am I trying to become someone that she should actually be wary about!?'
Sunny facepalmed repeatedly, angry at his own stupidity. After reassuring himself with the thought that this was the fault of his flaw, he moved his shadow towards the boy's locker room. With how popular Nephis must be because of her true name he didn't doubt that he could know a little bit more about her personality in there.
He arrived and found the number two in the scores, Caster, talking with a bunch of people around him. His shadow wrapped around a new bench, which was already slightly darker than the others.
'This should be interesting...'
"She is Nephis of the Immortal Flame clan."
As soon as he said that, Sunny opened his eyes and mouth wide.
"I trust that I don't need to tell you about her grandfather. Her parents were Smile of Heaven and Broken Sword."
Sunny didn't know why number two seemed to be scolding to one of his fans, but that was not important in the slightest right now.
Even he knew who Immortal Flame and Broken Sword were. The former was the first human to conquer the Second Nightmare and become a Master. The latter — the first one to conquer the Third Nightmare and become a Saint.
They, as well as their companions, were among the most famous heroes of the human race, someone who had managed to change history with their own two hands. If what Caster said was true, then Nephis wasn't just an aristocrat… she was royalty!
That was where the "Lady" came from! Who knows how many signs of her class Sunny had ignorent because of th—
Wait, that didn't make any sense! What about her lack of belongings?!
Echoing his thoughts, the scolded Sleeper asked in a trembling voice:
"Then why… why is she so…"
Caster sighed.
"Because they're all dead. The Immortal Flame clan is long gone."
For a few moments, the locker room was completely silent. Caster looked down.
"She's the only one left."
***
Sunny focused for a long while in retrieving his shadow, certain that dividing his attention would represent problems.
After retrieving it he started a kind of mental training to forget about the wrongness surrounding his mental image of Nephis. He hoped that if he had a positive mental image of her, being friendly could become more natural when the moment came.
Then again... if he succeeded and his memories and thoughts were not directly affected by his flaw, then...
'Rain...'
He really didn't want to feel wrongness in her, had he not failed enough as a brother already?
Feeling suddenly gloomy Sunny chose to keep his mind only in the task in hand. If he succeeded with this, then he would do all in his power to perceive his sister without any kind of wrongness before they meet again... If they meet again...
The task kept going for a while in his room. The lights on the whole night, in fact, on from the first moment that he entered the room.
Slowly, and unaware of it, Sunny started to focus in his own body to combat the wrongness at its core...
***
Days flew by.
Sunny kept trying to learn all the things that Teacher Julius was forcefully putting in his brain. He started to suspect that the main effect that the wrongness had in Teacher Julius' perception was that he didn't realize when it was time to allow his student time to process the information.
The consequence took the shape of overwhelming lessons every day. And during the first two weeks Sunny's mind lacked any concept of free time or distraction.
Now, Sunny had somehow adapted to the unnatural amounts of information that he received every day. Therefore, he was once again allowing his mind to wander about his strategies to befriend Nephis. Something that he had to complete at least a week before their departure to the dream realm.
He needed the Sleepers to think about him as a friend of Nephis, rather than someone with one or two positive interactions with her.
Otherwise...
'Maybe I'm just being paranoid...'
No, that was wrong. Even if his flaw made him more wary than usual, he shouldn't disregard his previous caution. Actually, he has been allowing the wrongness to distract him of his surroundings too much.
To Sunny's fortune, his classes have not only allowed him to force his mind to do more than it should be allowed to, but also, they have allowed him to interact with the world, and ,unexpectedly, people even with the wrongness around them.
Now, Sunny's perception is ready to be at the same level as before...
'Now then, how should I ask Teacher Julius for free time...'