Valorant Backstories And Other Stories

See you again

Li Zhao sighed softly as he flopped onto his bed. He'd only been in the organisation for three years and since day one they'd forced him to learn how to use a gun. They wanted him to be their killing machine.

Sometimes he wondered if they wouldn't have taken him from his grandma if he wasn't a radiant.

Sometimes, he felt his birthday was cursed. On his third birthday, he discovered he was a radiant, on his fifth birthday, his parents sent him to live with his grandma.

His ninth birthday was the last he ever spent with her. The organisation came for him just when he'd blown out the candles.

He'd expected his grandmother to hand him over right there and then but to his surprise, she defended him.

It didn't make a difference though, despite his grandmother's efforts. They knocked her out and pryed him out of her hands.

He didn't remember much after that.

The first few months were gruelling. He learnt how to use a gun and master his radiant powers. Everyday, his peers picked on him no reason while their elders did nothing.

“Keep your head down.” One of his fellow bullied peers once said to him. “It's better that way. ”

There was one person who refused to keep their head down.

Her name was Reaper. Time after time she would actively defy the organisation when they made her do things she didn't want to do. The more she defied them, the more severe her punishments were. But she never cared.

Reaper also comforted the children who came crying to her in the night for reassurance.

It awed Li and scared him at the same time. How someone could be hurt so many times and still get up to help people.

The first time he ever met Reaper was on a day that his bullies wanted to make examples out of him.

She walked up to them and told them to stop but they just laughed in her face.

That's when all hell broke loose.

Long story short all boys ended up in the infirmary for five weeks with three broken bones each.

The two became friends over their shared love of books. They trained together daily, ate together even sneaking to each other's rooms in the night for simple comfort.

Li Zhao felt comfort in her precence. He was awed by her in everything she did. From how gracefully she she moved during training, to how the dim white lights framed her silver hair and eyes as well as her purple and pink wings.

She was an angel.. dare he say it his angel and he was her mortal.

Why did it have to end so quickly?

It was currently midnight and his 13th birthday. He sat up in his bed, awake and brooding about the few people he'd been forced to kill in the past few months when she entered.

“Sorry I'm late.” She smiled as she sat next to him.

“It's fine.” He smiled, blushing as she moved closer to him.

“Happy birthday!” She smiled giving him a book.

“Thank you, Reaper.”

She flashed him a smile before looking at the bed with with a sad face.

“What's wrong?” He asked.

“I... someone bought me.”

His heart stopped.

“What!? How?! Who?!”

“I... I don't know, the bosses just told me this morning that someone bought me!”

“I... I didn't know how to tell... ” Reaper was interrupted by Li Zhao wrapping her into a breath taking hug. The two stayed like that for a while.

“Don't apologise, okay?” He smiled before releasing her. It wasn't her fault, it was his for becoming her friend in the first place, his birthday's bad luck had affected her.

“I should get going.” She sighed.

“Wait, I have something for you.”

She tilted her head to the side as he opened her hand and placed a bulldog tag in it. The tag was silver with a faint purple design on it that looked similar to his shield ability.

“It's a good luck charm,” He blushed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out another one.

“We'll see each other again, I promise.” Reaper smiled, walking out the door.

He wanted to tell her his feelings for her, he wanted to apologise for giving her bad luck. Everyone suffered because of him, his parents were shunned because of him, his grandma was dead because of him and now Reaper was going to suffer even more because of him. His birthday was cursed, he was cursed. Instead of telling her, he just said.

“Yeah.” He sighed. “See you again, Reaper.”