A New Generation: A ZoroMiku Story

45: Zorome's Fears

Miku

There was one day left before Hyaku's trial, which was going to be taken place at the Meeting Centre, it turned out. Miku's anxiety was through the roof but she was managing to play it cool for Zorome so that he didn't suspect a thing...or so she hoped he didn't, at least. She wasn't looking forward to seeing Hyaku in the flesh but she refused to bow down to her fear. That would only make her a coward in the end and that would mean that her tormentor had won. 

Still, she saw Hyaku enough in her dreams as it was, there was nothing she wanted to do with him in person. Well, aside from maybe kicking his ass. Yeah, that was actually about the only thing she wanted to do. She didn't want to just talk while people dithered on whether or not to lock him up. She would deal with him herself if she had to. 

"Are you ready for tomorrow?" Zorome asked. He had just finished toying around with something that Futoshi had given him, some sort of gadget that was meant to help calm nerves. Zorome claimed he didn't need to ever calm his nerves and that he just found the item cool.

"Eh...not really," Miku admitted. "It came so fast...I was kinda hoping they'd just decide to lock Hyaku up or bring him back to Bird Nest so that people can see what's wrong with him. The boy's clearly not right in the head if he thought I was his partner and wanted to kill me."

"Can't say I disagree," Zorome replied. He set down the toy he'd been fooling around with and went to sit on Miku's bed with her. "I'm actually surprised nobody beat that guy up after doing what he did! I mean, like, c'mon, you can't seriously tell me that nobody else wants to beat him up for being such a freakshow?"

"Not everyone resorts to beating people up," Miku said snidely, though she was mostly trying to break the tension of the situation and get things back to normal between the two of them. 

Zorome sputtered but had nothing to say in response to that. Miku smirked. As usual, she'd gotten on his nerves within seconds. It amused her to rile him up sometimes and she knew he didn't mind it too much unless she took things too far, though it was usually Zorome he took things too far. He tended to take things to a whole new level than they should be. But, that was Zorome for her and she would never have it any other way. Perhaps he could've tried peacefully negotiating with Hyaku but something told her that he wouldn't be him if he hadn't been duking it out with him. Besides, she liked Zorome like that, even if he was a bit too impulsive sometimes. It was the way he was and she admired him for that more than she'd ever probably be able to let on to him.

Zorome 

Zorome sat on the edge of the bed while Miku slept last night. He had expected her to be the one awake due to being worried, not himself. But he was unable to deny to himself that he was anxious about what the verdict would be during the trial the next day. He was quite certain he would be able to stop Hyaku from harming Miku if he was released...but what if Hyaku somehow managed to wrangle up a few friends?

It was more than that, though. Zorome was worried about other people now, wondering who was with them and who was against them. While he'd had some bad feelings about Hyaku, of course, he hadn't expected that the boy would try to kill Miku! It had been the least of his worries, the thought of Miku dying, due to him feeling like they were safe now that they no longer had to fight for their lives on a daily basis. But now it was hard for him to feel convinced that she was out of harm's way, especially since she would've died had he not been there to save her before it was too late. 

The trial is tomorrow... Zorome thought, letting out a loud sigh. Why did this have to happen? What's that nimrod's problem? Is one of his friends in charge of this trial? Does he have any friends? That would suck if he did. I usually saw him alone though, aside from that time he kept hanging around Miku when she was mad at me. He's such a loser! What is his problem? Zorome shook his head. He wanted to get up and go for a midnight walk but he refused to leave Miku alone at night now. Ever since that incident, he'd felt considerably more protective of her. As protective as he'd been when they used to fight together in the FranXX. It was a strange feeling. They had been free from the feelings of constant fear and stress for quite some time now. Now what? Was he going to feel the need to fight anyone who gave Miku a dirty look...oh, wait, he already did feel like that at times. Unless they were having a bickering session and someone took his side, of course. Then they could give her dirty looks all they wanted. She did that to him whenever he disagreed, after all. But other than that Zorome hated when someone looked at her funny. 

Another sigh escaped from his mouth. He was just going to have to face his fears if Hyaku was let out and would brace himself for physical altercations if he had to. He was already having a hard time imagining that he'd be able to hold himself back from punching that dickwad in the face as soon as he saw him at the trial, though he guessed doing something like that would either get him kicked out of the trial or thrown into confinement with him.

Ah, oh well. Zorome thought. I'll punch that loser for fun if I end up having to be anywhere near him! I don't think anyone would be able to stop Zorome The Great!