Invisible Hollow Incident | A Zenless Zone Zero Fan Story

Chapter 9: Unexpected Day Out

Covered in sweat and... shaking... that's something new, but also not overly unexpected.

It seems that every night the nightmares get a little worse, at first Cyrus could keep away from the Ethereals long enough that they weren't really a bother, but that didn't last long. Then the pain started, an aspect that was getting more and more real every passing night, something that was infinitely more scary to Cyrus in a way he couldn't understand.

Once he is feeling up to it, he gets out of bed and gets dressed, slowly dropping down the ladder to find the video store already fully open and bustling. He notices a familiar figure talking with Wise and Belle, though Cyrus' tired brain can't recall where he has seen her before. Aware of how exhausted he looks and not feeling up to answering any questions, he quickly slips out of the video store.

--
"Who's the kid?"

Belle, Wise and Jane had been discussing recent events, general catch up with life, discussing the hollow entrances that had been popping up recently until the conversation had been interrupted by Cyrus appearing at the stairs before heading out.

"He..."

Belle looks over to Wise, posing a silent question, Wise simply nods.

"He used to live in the precinct that was... hit by that new dangerous Hollow, we're providing a place for him to stay until he's deemed well enough to live on his own."

"Ahhhh... so that's who he is..."

"Huh?"

"Qingyi mentioned that her and Zhu Yuan had an interesting run in with someone that was from the Hollow incident. Judging by how he was looking just now, really seems to still be struggling with it."

Wise stops to think, Jane was indeed very correct, despite the time that Cyrus had already been living under the store roof, he had barely talked to either Belle or himself, even Anby, who he seemed to have a bit more trust in, was in the dark about how he was really holding up. Now here is Jane, barely seen him for a minute and already displayed an understanding of the situation. Weighing up the options in his mind, Wise comes to a decision.

"Jane, could you come to the back for a moment? There's something I need to talk to you about."

"Oh? Found yourself in a tight spot?"

"Something like that... yeah..."

Both Jane and Wise make their way into the backroom of the store.
"Well, you know I'm always happy to lend a hand if I have the time. Which, lucky you, I have an excess of today. Things have been real quiet for me the last couple days, though I can't imagine that will be the case forever as it's only because my department has been tied up investigating some new group and don't 'have enough data to reliably post me with them.' Anyway, this isn't about me, this is about you, what's on your mind?"

"It's actually about Cyrus, I'm worried about him."
Wise goes on to recap the night when Cyrus had initially shown up and a brief overview of what had happened since, how he had taken going to school, his unexpected involvement when the hollow entrance appeared in sixth street, taking him to the outpost to get checked up.
"He just... feels like there's just something draining him constantly but I have no idea what. I'm really out of my depth with this."

Jane seems to take a moment to consider everything Wise told her, carefully turning everything over in her mind before finally taking a long, almost hesitant breath in.
"Do you know where he would have gone?"

"Cyrus? He just got up so he may have gone out to Coff Cafe for breakfast."

"Good. You don't need him for anything today right?"