Invisible Hollow Incident | A Zenless Zone Zero Fan Story

Chapter 3: First Day

Pacing down the hall, bathroom pass in hand, Cyrus was in no rush to get back to class, it wasn't that he disliked school but rather he was enjoying the time alone, hearing his footsteps reverberate around the empty halls, it allowed his mind to take a break. As he goes to round a corner, he suddenly stops as he hears something, it almost sounded like a thump, though it was barely perceptible to the point he almost questioned if he heard anything. He stands there for a while, listening out until he hears another noise, the rumbling of thunder.

"Huh... maybe school really is slowly draining my sanity."

Continuing towards his class, it starts bucketing down rain outside as more thunder can be heard, except this time instead of the low rumble it was before, it was loud claps.

Then he stops as he hears the thump again.

Maybe it was just because the light happened to flicker at the same moment, maybe it was because Cyrus was already on edge from the sudden loud entrance of the storm, but this time he hadn't just stopped to listen out for more noise, something felt off. His arms and legs are tense and unstable, his heart pounding so hard it almost hurt. Before he could process what was happening there was another clap of thunder and the lights went out.
Again, another loud sound, but this time it wasn't the clap of thunder, but of glass exploding out of a window frame.

That's when the screams started.

With a sharp intake of breath, Cyrus' head perked up, looking around it takes him a few seconds to register his surroundings and remember where he is. The school rooftop, he had quickly made his way up there as soon as the recess started to have some food away from the crowds, at some point during this he had dozed off.
Having nightmares about that day isn't anything new to him, they have been plaguing his sleep ever since the attack had happened, though as much of his memory was still a blur with his mind filling in details as it saw fit, he could never truly predict what he would see in his sleep. As a yawn overtakes him, Cyrus starts slowly stretching in preparation to get up before suddenly stopping as a jolt of pain shoots up his side.

"Oop, okay okay, injury, have to remember to be careful with that."

Slowly lifting up his shirt, he checks the bandages to see splotches of red are fading in at the center. Again, this is nothing new, it was a deep strike to a sensitive area dealt by an Ethereal, the medic that had initially tended to it was amazed it hadn't ended up corrupting Cyrus. Though they decided to keep a close eye on it as the wound hadn't shown and still hasn't been showing any signs of starting to heal properly, only developing a sickly green shade around the edges. Getting up with infinitely more care, he is about to check the time when the bell starts ringing.
Starting down the stairs he eventually makes it to his next class and takes a seat, waiting for the teacher to arrive, someone presumably from the same class enters just behind him and takes a seat next to Cyrus. He doesn't think much of it at first until...

"You look like you could just drop asleep where you are sitting."

"Huh?"
Turning he looks to the person who had sat next to him, the first thing that immediately caught his eye was the bright red running through the underside of her hair, the second was the shark tail.

"That wasn't meant as an insult or anything... here."

The new arrival who Cyrus could only guess was a shark thiren rummages through her bag before producing a lollipop and offers it up to him.

"I have trouble staying awake through some of the boring classes as well, having something sugary helps me

He hesitates for a moment, unsure what to do, though the passage of time was small, a lot of thoughts crossed through his mind, some simply confusion, he had noticed this person earlier in the day and they hadn't appeared to be overly social. Other parts were just initial nervousness, outside his small group of friends at his old school, he didn't have much experience interacting with other people. But there was something else there in the back of his mind, a smaller, much darker line of thought, spurred from already having his life overturned once. Pushing it to the side he barely manages to push out a "thank you" before accepting the lollipop which, just as she says, makes him feel a little better and more awake.