Zenless Zone Zero Novels & Stories

“Is everything ready?” “Just about,” I’d said as I flashed him a friendly smile, but once again, my grin was met with a straight line. He came into the room, and began to disrobe, acting as if I wasn’t even present as he let his clothes fall to the floor. Shocked, I turned away just in time to miss a glance at his bottom half as his boxer briefs fell, my face scorching hot. Once I’d heard the splash of his body hiring the water, and his pleased groan hit the air, I turned back around to see him leaning back, eyes closed. His chest covered in a mixture of scars, varying in size and shapes.

We were in so much trouble. When I reached the living room, Zane was sitting on the edge of a small, worn-out leather couch. He was completely shirtless, wearing nothing but his grey joggers. His massive back was hunched forward, he rested his head in his large hands. Even from behind, he looked like a giant. His shoulders were tense and rigid. On the coffee table in front of him sat a white first-aid kit, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and a roll of bloody gauze.

Sophia’s voice sounded crystalline, vibrating with a metallic reverb. "Signal is... grainy, Sophia," Zero’s voice crackled through a phantom earpiece, sounding like he was speaking from the bottom of a well. "You’re in the Buffer Zone. Lucas hasn't noticed you yet, but his pulse-checks are constant. You need to move toward the central spire. That’s where he’s anchoring the 'Soul-Fragments'."

Before I died for the hundredth time, I ducked into a flower shop to escape the rain. The girl behind the counter offered me a chair and asked if I was hungry. As the raindrops dripped from the awning, I suddenly broke down. I spent a hundred lifetimes, desperate to get that sort of care from my family. When I was reborn for the 101st time, the fake heir, Damian, was rehearsing his speech to celebrate his third year with the family. I didn’t bother to correct Damian when he referred to us as a family of five. Instead, I picked up my phone and called a flower shop. “Deliver a bouquet of white lilies to the Killington estate on the evening of the 16th.” “What should we write on t

Today was the seventh anniversary of the plane crash that took my twin sister, Chloe. My husband, Julian, checked the watch on his wrist and urged me on. “I’ve only blocked off ten minutes for this visit. Hurry up and lay the flowers.” He was a pathological stickler for time, meticulously managing every minute and second of his life. Shopping was sixty minutes, intimacy was fifteen minutes, and dinner was ten minutes… As he walked back to the car to grab an umbrella, his phone slipped from his hand, hit the ground, and lit up with a cloud calendar notification. It was his hidden master schedule for family. I stole a glance at it, and my blood instantly ran cold. The entry for me read, “

"THE ICE IS TOO THICK! WE CAN'T CLIMB THAT FACE WITHOUT A LADDER!" "Stay here, Noah," Zero-Zero commanded gently. "Hold the light steady." Zero-Zero didn't search for handholds or ropes. He stepped up to the sheer granite wall, his broad chest expanding as he took a single deep breath. With a powerful, explosive leap, Zero-Zero launched his body fifteen feet straight up the icy cliff face! His heavy boots slammed onto a tiny two-inch stone ledge, his bare fingers biting into the frozen granite cracks like steel pitons! CHIP-CHIP!