Chapter 623: A Mission Most Dangerous

"I assume you’re done?"

Sunny’s thoughts slowed down to halt. Then, he turned towards Kafka, who was politely seated with that same artificial smile.

’Here it comes...’

It would have been stupid to believe that Kafka had practically kidnapped him just to have a good time. Something told him that she didn’t care much for things like that.

This outing was strictly business, and Sunny wasn’t against it.

Pushing Jingliu’s Essence technique to the back of his mind so that, in the future, he could study and implement it into his Shadow Dance, he replied evenly:

"What do you want?"

Kafka remained silent as Sunny’s shadow boat swayed amongst the waves. There was an almost imperceptible crease of her brow, signaling some form of emotion. Perhaps it was displeasure, or confusion, or frustration.

He couldn’t know. He wasn’t a mind reader.

Eventually, she chose to break the silence, her following words carrying their usual smoky texture.

"Well, it isn’t really about what I want, Kiddo. Not that the difference really matters, but..."

She shook her head, continuing with a deliberate pace.

"Elio wants you to steal something."

Kafka’s fingers twitched momentarily.

Sunny’s arm darted to his side. A folded slip of paper found their way between his middle and ring fingers. He internally sighed.

’That could have ended up in the sea...’

Granted, she threw it with the knowledge that Sunny would be able to see, react, and catch the Script in time, but it was still really unnecessary. It was like she was actively trying to look cool.

Moreover...

There was something tucked into the folded paper.

At the same time, his shadow watched as Dan Heng and the three Saints parted ways... well, mostly parted ways. Jing Yuan placed something on Jingliu’s wrist, and was taking her away. Meanwhile, Dan Heng and Blade had a bloodthirsty standoff for a few moments, before the former carefully walked away.

The latter seemed to actually have some self-control!

Sunny eyed Kafka with barely-hidden caution as he opened up the paper slip, his eyes not once leaving hers. He picked up the object hidden within the once-folded paper, raising it to his eyes.

An unassuming flash drive was held in his hands.

His curious gaze shifted from Kafka’s statically amused one as he scanned it. Finding nothing that could clue him in on what it was for, he turned his gaze to the Script.

There were only two words.

Sunny’s brow furrowed. A moment later, he read aloud:

"Ask Kafka."

He looked up, expressively unamused by this turn of events. What was even the point of giving him what was supposed to be his instructions if he was just going to need to hear it from Kafka anyways?

"What, exactly, was the point of that?"

Kafka just shrugged.

"Who knows? Well, Elio does, but he doesn’t count."

Sunny noted the fact that she referred to Elio as a he, and not a ’He’. According to Clara’s warnings, that implied that he wasn’t a Sacred or Divine human; not that Sunny knew if they even existed in the modern day or not.

Without using the proper runic dialect when referring to the pronouns of a greater being, such as the Aeons, the Gods, the Daemons, and the Sacred, Cursed, Divine, and Unholy existences, humans would effectively direct their attention towards themselves, whether the entity was dead or alive.

Of course, that seemed to only be the case if they were being referred to in a singular or direct manner. If Sunny was talking about all of the above, or those corresponding to a particular Rank, it didn’t matter. However, if he were to specify the Daemons as a group, then he’d need to address them properly.

Was it possible that Kafka simply didn’t know? He doubted it.

For now, Sunny decided to assume that Elio was Supreme. That seemed like a fair point to measure his powers. The ’Kingdom’ part of Divine Kingdom sounded like a Sovereign thing. Perhaps the whole seer shenanigans were from an earlier Ability?

Those were just guesses for now. At the moment, he just stared at Kafka.

And stared.

And stared...

The typically composed woman’s lips shifted for a moment, the nature of her smile changing from an artificial allure to something more genuine and awkward. She turned her head, eyes pointed to the side as she slowly spoke:

"Uh... girls tend to get the wrong idea if you stare for too long, y’know? Just for the future..."

Sunny’s face scrunched up as he looked at her with a perplexed expression.

"I was waiting for you to explain."

Kafka shifted her gaze back towards him, blinking once as she did so.

Then, her smile softened.

"Kiddo, you’re supposed to ask the question."

Sunny squinted.

"I did."

Kafka sighed in exasperation.

"The only questions you asked were about what we needed from you — which was before you read the Script — and about why Elio wrote the note in the first place. You didn’t ask me about the details of the mission."

Sunny scowled in annoyance.

"Okay? So what? Just tell me!"

Kafka leaned forward, voice lowered as if it was coated in an unending supply of patience.

"Listen, Kiddo."

All other considerations fell out of his mind. His shadow sense fell into the deepest pits of his mind. Every cell of his body, every thought in his mind...

They all honed in on Kafka, licking up every word as if they were dipped in honey—

’Ew!’

With a blink, he quickly snapped out of his trance. That was weird. Why in the world would he start thinking of honey, of all things? He must have truly lost it.

He noticed Kafka releasing a titter under her breath, but she continued to speak:

"The Script is meant to be followed exactly as it is written. Sure, there’s room to maneuver, but most of the time, you have to take what is written on them as literally as you can. If there’s some kind of figure of speech hidden in there, then maybe you could work with that."

She paused.

"But there isn’t. My Script told me what’s on your Script. Before you opened it, you were wondering what we needed, right? That’s what you were supposed to ask, because it was meant to be the answer to your thoughts. Right now, we went Off-Script, so Elio needs to rewrite a few pages. Maybe even the entire book."

Sunny didn’t like the odd emotion oozing from her as she spoke. Kafka exhaled, then continued:

"Even tiny deviations could mess it all up, no matter how useless or unnecessary they seem. Eventually, it’ll get to a point where Elio can’t even fix it. In that case, we’re all screwed. You get me?"

Sunny’s nose scrunched up in disgust. He couldn’t even care that the end of the world was supposedly at stake, or whatever.

He didn’t like this Elio guy.

"Yeah, sure, whatever. So what you need from me? Again."

Kafka leaned back, and, as if nothing happened, she wore her enigmatically pleasant smile again, magenta eyes piercing him with something that wasn’t quite casualness, but wasn’t exactly intensity, either.

With her legs crossed, she let her ankles swing slightly.

"Before I tell you what this mission is all about, just know that you have the right to refuse."

Sunny’s brows raised in skepticism.

"...So, I didn’t have the right to refuse last time?"

Kafka had the audacity to look a little bashful. Just a little, considering anyone else wouldn’t know what to look for.

"The Astral Express was necessary, whether you were on it or not. But since you were, we needed you to get involved. If you rejected the Memories we were offering you... we’d have to call in a Memokeeper to manipulate you a bit."

Sunny let out a displeased huff. He wasn’t particularly surprised, but it still pissed him off.

The Stellaron Hunters were slaves, and they wanted him to be even more of a slave than he already was? How in the world did [Sunless] agree to work with them?

"Just get to it."

If Kafka was annoyed by his dismissive tone, she didn’t let it show. Instead, she began by saying:

"Your part of the mission isn’t important, but it’s deadly. It’ll make our lives easier, but not yours. Actually..."

A hint of confliction flashed in her expression.

"There’s somebody who wants to talk to you, on the 20th of December. They suggested to Elio to have you come along, since there won’t be a conflict between Fate and Destiny. Technically, you’d get involved anyways, but if you decide to go along with the Script, at least you’d get something out of it."

Kafka sharpened her gaze.

"Supposedly, having you help us out will make the conversation they planned out for their meeting with you go along much easier."

She flashed him a humorous smirk.

"But that’s above my pay-grade."

...So, somebody wanted to meet him, and they would find it easier to speak with him if they went along with this mission?

Moreover, that was the day before his birthday. And Sunny’s birthday was the day Kafka once said would be the one in which he’d regain his memories.

Was there a connection there?

Sunny brushed those thoughts aside.

"So, what’s the mission about, anyways?"

Kafka let her arm hang over the edge of the gunwales, casually leaning back to look up at the moon.

So bright.

So infectious...

"It’s pretty simple, actually. That flash drive you have? It’s a program that Wolfie’s been working on for the past six years."

Sunny’s eyes widened.

Six years? She was, at most, eighteen, so...

She’s been working on it since she was twelve?

Now that he thought about it, she must have been a Master for a while now. The earliest accounts of her existence as a Stellaron Hunter were...

Also six years ago.

...She was a Master at twelve.

Sunny had no idea what to think. He hadn’t even been infected by the Spell at that point.

Kafka’s vision lingered on Sunny for a few moments as she easily deciphered his thoughts.

"If you’re curious, she was infected at six. Youngest carrier of the Spell in all of human history."

Then, she frowned.

"Well, youngest natural carrier, actually. That doesn’t include those who were born inside a Nightmare."

Sunny blinked owlishly.

’...How the fuck did she survive?!’

A First Nightmare at six?! Could she even count?!

...Well, Sunny knew that, uh, Silver Wolf was a bit of this. A bit of that. You know.

Cool and stuff.

Actually, it was getting a little scary.

Sunny shook his head.

"Yeah, that’s cool and all, but, uh... what does this thing do, exactly?"

He waved the flash drive around. Kafka answered simply:

"It’s designed to get past all forms of security. Stick it into a computer, and all locks are practically nonexistent."

Sunny had a feeling he knew where this was going.

"You need me to hack into someone’s computer?"

"Pretty much. Except... you need to do it without the mask."

Sunny’s brows raised so highly it was as if they merged with his hairline.

"Erm, what?"

Kafka sent him an amused grin.

"This mission needs the Starkiller, not Mongrel... have I mentioned how classy that nickname is, by the way? Far better than Mongrel."

He frowned, not quite appreciating the insult. Frankly, he had no idea why [Sunless] went with that, of all things.

"No, you haven’t."

He could guess why he couldn’t use his Stellaron Hunter persona. This seemed to be a mission where he needed to not have pursuers on his trail. Still, he didn’t really like it.

Moreover, Kafka called the mission deadly. His life was going to be at stake either way, but he couldn’t use Weaver’s Mask to conceal his presence? That was going to be a hassle.

Seeing that he had nothing more to say, Kafka continued with further explanations.

"While you’re doing that, Silver Wolf, SAM, and myself will be hunting down a big baddie. You’ll be the one looking for it, since the moment we try to break in from the outside, our cover will be blown."

Sunny’s expression darkened momentarily, before returning to balanced neutrality. Kafka didn’t indicate that she noticed.

Sunny reviewed the information in his head, before asking:

"And what do I get out of it?"

Kafka looked back at the moon.

"A Supreme Memory."

"Deal!"

"Thought so."

She let out a husky hum as the small boat bumped against a shore, lantern lights becoming visible in the distance. The sand parted against the hull, and Kafka rose to her feet. Sunny just watched her silently...

Then, he blinked.

"Where is this supposed to happen, anyways? And when?"

Kafka winked at him.

"You owe someone a favor, don’t you? When she calls, you’ll know."

Sunny didn’t react for a few moments.

Then, his already pale complexion somehow grew paler as the implications of her words registered in his mind.

’Wait, wait, wait—’

She walked over to the front of the boat, but before she walked over the edge, she added:

"Kiddo, when making a choice, you’ll often have to throw away something to gain something else. But, as long as it isn’t something you regret..."

She turned, smiling.

"Then it’ll all turn out okay, won’t it?"

Kafka didn’t wait for an answer. She didn’t step off the boat, either.

Instead, she just aimed her hand, flicked her wrist, and shot out a line of what seemed to be a spider’s web. It fired off into the distance, stuck to the side of a building, then rapidly retracted.

Once it was taut, it pulled Kafka with startling momentum.

Sunny stared as she swung from building to building, her words echoing in his mind.

Then, he sneered in frustration.

"What does she know...?"