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Gloomy grey clouds hovered over the already dimmed room through the glass windows. Zanka laid there, on his bed, with his blue-tinged cotton blanket ruffled under his body, and cotton pillows scattered around—which is, by the way, a seemingly uncharacteristic sight, considering who the owner of the room is.
Another heaved sigh left the man’s lips, thoughts running loudly against the soft silence of his room, all of which circles back to two main crux: A red-head and a dread-head. It isn’t as if Zanka wanted to sound ungrateful, it’s just that, his inferiority had acted up once again after realizing the fact that his colleague, Riyo, had been on par with the man who mopped the floors with Zanka’s body—in fact, she’d done it twice. Jabber had done it twice as well, the mopping part.
He wasn’t sure how Riyo managed to drag his barely conscious self away from the deranged tetanus-shot during their fight inside the imitation trash beast. But once he saw how she swung her blade, dancing with Jabber’s tempo on top of a moving vehicle, he thought, ‘Hey, maybe it is possible.’ Possible that she could’ve fought Jabber while Zanka was on the ground—tucked in a fetal position like a fucking child, unable to even put a scratch on that deranged purple guy, but, well, even if he did, the dreadhead would’ve just gotten hard. So, how Riyo managed to shoo away the masochistic man was beyond his average-joe comprehension.
Two knocks on his door was enough to cut him off from his moping. He didn’t answer for a second, so when the door opened, he knew who it was. After all, only one person would’ve done that—entering rooms and not giving a damn about anything else in the world. Someone very carefree and spontaneous: Riyo Reaper. The said girl peeked through the crack of the door, green eyes squinted and scrutinizing the grey-filled room. Zanka kept his eyes on the ceiling.
“Zanka,” She called out. “Spar?”
He stays silent. Molars pressed tightly against each other. Nose twitching inconspicuously. He tried to hide it, the growing anxiety in his heart.
But blades are sharper than sticks.
Green eyes, as whet as her scissors, had noticed. Riyo let half of her body inside his room, hand gripping on the door, another foot hesitant behind the doorframe. Her head tilts in curiosity, “What’s up?”
“… I mean, if you’re tired I can’t force you,” Riyo assured. “But, like, if there’s any problem, you could always talk it out with me y’know.” She added, the once hesitant foot now decisively leaving the unresponsive room. Before she could close the door, Zanka’s hitched breath had her paused for a while.
“Look,” He says after a short lull. “I’m sorry. It’s just, these past few nights I’ve been thinkin’ that maybe, maybe, the practices we’ve been doin’ aren't for me. Jabber… I couldn’t even score him, twice. And yet, despite doin’ the same stuff with me, you managed to fend him off durin’ those two times, once savin’ my ass from gettin’ my blood exchanged for poison.”
…
“Are you undermining me?”
The frog-like look on Riyo’s face stunned the furrow-browed man. His mouth gaped but no sound emerged.
It isn’t that, I swear.
Riyo’s chortle took him off of his slightly panicked state, one hand over her bare abdomen and another slapping her knee. After she’d calmed down, she swung the door fully open, body leaning against the wooden doorframe, right leg crossed over the other, arms crossed in a nonchalant manner.
“Dude, what’s gotten into you? If you got some awesome training techniques you wanna try, you could always tell me, and you know that. I’m like, literally always down to ride your boat. Instead of glooming around like that, move your body! Even Enjin said you’re the best instrument user ‘round here. Just because I won by luck against someone you lost to, doesn’t mean you’re worse than me. It just means that maybe I’m luckier than you.” Then again, Riyo let out a cackle.
It’s always like this with her.
Her blithe attitude like she has no care for what others would think, what the world thinks. Riyo, always going against the norms. Always lighting up the mood.
Her blades are sharp, but even so, the handles are still blunt and graspable. Not all of it would hurt.