The moment young Xiao Sang from Garbage Star boarded a smuggling ship, the damn interstellar customs patrol ship blew it out of the sky, launching him into an interstellar arena.
Fighting, hunting, livestreaming... Hey, this tentacle monster that latched onto him while he was escaping and made a nest in his hair is soft and sticky. It seems pretty scared, too?
Poor thing. Maybe it's an underdeveloped juvenile spirit that was forcibly separated from its Sentinel master?
...That very night, on the night-vision feed of an interstellar livestream channel, the little tentacle monster swelled into a fearsome, monstrous shapeshifter.
After cold-blooded fights and brutal slaughter, crushing every obstacle in its path, the colossal creature tucked away its claws and fangs and weakly crawled back into the boy's messy bedhead.
Every spectator across the stars: ...What the hell is this ridiculous nonsense?
Ever since Gu Lingfeng, the Federation's young marshal, commanded an interstellar customs raid, he had been ill.
Unconscious by day, his mental energy fluctuated violently late at night, and all his vitals were so erratic they seemed ready to explode at any moment.
Worst of all, he couldn't summon his spirit at all.
Then one day, his family doctor happened to look up at the holographic projection on the wall.
Well, would you look at that!
“Marshal, good news. Your son's mysteriously missing spirit has been found.”
“Ah, that's wonderful! Where is it?”
“The bad news is, it seems to have gone crazy and is treating the enemy like its father.”
...Xiao Sang warily hugged the little tentacle monster that had become his sole companion. “You mean this is a fragment of your spirit?”
The Federation's young marshal, handsome as ice and snow, replied coolly, “Yes. Thank you for comforting it all this time.”
Xiao Sang: “I haven't been comforting it at all!”
“That's not the point. The point is, I'm taking it home.”
Xiao Sang: “But it's clinging to my hair for dear life. It looks like it doesn't even know you.”
The young marshal thought for a moment, then a huge, terrifying tentacle monster took shape behind him as a phantom.
“Hello. Let me introduce myself. This is my spirit's true form. Can you take it along with the other one?”
Sentinel-and-guide story. Lots of liberties taken with the setting, so just enjoy.
Theme: Fate is the strongest chain, binding you and me, who were never meant to meet.
