Chapter Text
in a place filled in white that seemed like everything and nothing at the same time, in the middle laid a worn out boy surrounded with darkness, as he slowly woke up despair in his eyes.
the boy sat up, he thought he had finally died, yet that was too good to be true, he wanted to sit there forever , just for once , can he just relax? with no burdens, no training and definitely not that masochistic smile , that smile haunted him ever since he lost.
he sat there ,he planned on relaxing in the puddle of darkness, just as he was going to sit back down, there in front of him , a darkish gray light appeared , and it followed , him, that guy with the stupid eyes, obnoxious walk and that masochistic smile.
although he knew he didn't hate him, a weird feeling was always present when he thought about him, but if it wasn't hatred then what was it? no it must be hatred, a mediocrity's rival is a natural talent , and rivals despise each other, right?
The boy sat there in disbelief, he tried screaming, shouting anything, yet he couldn't even let out a whisper, that guy only laughed , he looked like he wanted to fight, as always with that masochistic smile.
the white cleared to reveal, a familiar place, very familiar, has he been here before? , the disgusting yet tolerable smell , that guy jumping up and down with his vital instrument , the boy groans annoyingly as he remembers where he is, how could he forget? his fight against him, the one that haunted him , but not as much as him.
maybe, just maybe, he could change destiny , was he hallucinating? did he really go to the doll festival with them, or did he hallucinate it? doesn't matter he was here to win once and for all, he could finally talk, so he screamed, bring it on.
he ran towards him and broke his rib , and punched it, before mankira can stab him, he moved, he tried to follow up with hitting his chin , he dodged ,and swung mankira at the boy while laughing menacingly.
the boy tried to move, he really did, but no matter how much he tried , it wasn't enough , mankira stopped mid way, it was right at his heart, before stabbing him, the masochist whispered "Zan-zan~" before bringing mankira closer and closer to his heart, when it eventually it reached his heart,blood was spewing everywhere, he began to slowly remove mankira , with that same haunting smile.
Despite being stabbed The boy didn't feel anything, but he also couldn't move, he stayed there frozen, for some reason, he's just clam, the boy would usually be enraged , yet he isn't? well maybe it's because it's him, if it were someone else he would have surely been furious , or maybe not?.
the boy went from clam to irritated, he couldn't figure out why he was so relaxed when it came to him, he was stuck pondering in his mind, whilst he giggled uncontrollably with his blood on mankira.
as soon as the boy, snapped back to reality, he glanced at him , he went to put his hand on his heart, but felt this wet yet warm liquid pouring, could it be, blood?! he swung his hand to his face, blood, his blood pouring everywhere , he is covered in blood, there must've been a way to prevent this right? there must've been a way to prevent this! the boy thought revolted, before his vision disappearing ,his body collapsing and his soul frustrated.
before leaving he was also disappointed "I really thought you and me be makin violence , and right when it starts its over , maybe i should've picked one of the other cleaners" he said as a result
the boy was not only hurt physically, but he was also scared mentally, why couldn't he just try harder, why didn't he beat him worst of all why couldn't he at least satisfy him, he wanted his approval , praise anything ,badly, he thought to laugh ,yet he couldn't, his body couldn't do anything but lie down, he passed out , he reached his limit, with his opponent winning by toying with him, such a shame don't you agree ZANKA.
Zanak woke up, in the infirmary , his chest was wounded , yet his heart was unscarred physically, he glanced around his surroundings, to see Rudo screaming his name.
"GEEZ ZANKA, YOU HAD ME WORRIEDDDDD!!!!!" Rudo said relieved.
"can ya shut up?" Zanka told him calmly yet angry.
Rudo replied with a thumbs up and an okay, at least he was okay, but Rudo was curious , so he asked him "so uhh, why were you mumbling something like uhh 'there must be a way to prevent this' ?"
Zanka way too tired to do anything ,was confused ,finally remembering , when he was covered in blood , he kept repeating that sentence , he must've spoken out loud, he decided to act dumb Zanak being too embarrassed to actually tell him anything.
"was i? i was prob'ably havi'n a bad dream" he answered him sleepily.
"OH OKAY THAT GOOD TO HEAR!!" Rudo clumsily said.
they sat in silence for a bit, Zanak looked around the room, his eyes landed on the calender, it said it was "November 2nd" , didn't he fight Jabber in early October?, so how is it November, unless that was a dream, a dream about him…
He groaned annoyingly figuring that out.
"HEY I DIDN'T DO ANYTHIINGG1!" Rudo screamed thinking he groaned cus of him.
"No it was something else." he replied normally, not wanting to start any conflict.
Before Rudo can go and ramble on some stupid shit, someone put his hand on his shoulder, he smelled like tobacco, of course it was none other than Enjin.
"ZANKAAA YOU'RE FINALLY AWAKE, but how the hell did you manage to begin a fight with Rudo???" he said confused.
Zanka replied exasperated "he got thing's confused, thats all"
"is that so, by the way Rudo, Semiu said you got another mission, so you better go see her."
"OKAY! i uhh am going." he said while waving them a goodbye, that followed with him disappearing to see her.
"Now, Zanka I've been wanting to talk to you" Enjin said seriously.
Zanka was a bit a afraid , but responded with a nervous "what is it?"
"You've been pushing yourself more and more ever since we fought the Raiders .you've been training nonstop,listen i understand ambition is good, but too much ambition is gonna be the end of you, and Mymo mentioned something about that weird poison freak when talking to you ,everything alright?" he affirmed him
Zanka got this feeling of relief and anxious feeling, finally someone had noticed his struggles, but why did he notice his struggle , why couldn't he just ignore it and continue with his day, he started spiraling while acting perfectly fine on the outside, with each word feeling like a knife.
But the part were he mentioned "that weird poison freak" ,time felt like it had stopped , along with the weird feeling, it was neither good not bad, but it felt so terrible yet wonderful, it drove him insane, he drove him insane.
Enjin finished talking and is now waiting for Zanka to respond.
Zanka needed to find a good enough answer yet somehow seem fine, it feels impossible, but he has no time to think and just blurted out " I uhm … i want to get strong'er ,so i am train'in nonstop, and ever since i fought em , i realiz'ed jus how strong a natural talent is, and i needa kick his ass , no matter how much it takes, i needa train." that was true yet
they both sat in silence for a couple seconds, Zanka trying to act fine and calm, while Enjin is tryna figure out what to say.
"so if thats the case" Enjin said in his typical 'cool' way, and followed it up with "i heard there's an upcoming concert, to make up for what happened at the doll festival, you should go."
"when is it?" he responded almost instantly.
Enjin glanced at the calender and told him "on November 4th, soo TWO DAYS FROM NOW!"
Zanka nodded along with telling him okay, Enjin saw that he was finished talking to Zanka, so told him he's gonna go, and later disappeared.
"now it's just , me , myself and I, so i guess he's not gonna let me train in the meantime" he mumbled quietly, before deciding he was gonna sleep till it's November 4th, but that wouldn't be possible with Rudo around, whenever he was board he'd come to Zanka and yap about whatever, and sometimes Amo would tag along, he's like the brother he never knew he needed, but nonetheless Rudo never fails to make Zanka smile.