Video Battle! A Super Lazy Day in Zenless Zone Zero
A silly kind of peace has arrived in New Eridu. It all started with a single poster brought in by Billy. "First Annual Pair Video Grand Prix! Grand Prize: 5,000,000 Dennies!" With stars in his eyes, Billy is promptly dismissed by Nicole, who sighs, "Yeah, right, you're thinking of something stupid again." But when she hears the prize money could clear their debts, Anby silently presses the 'enter' button. Thus begins the laziest, most chaotic video battle in history, starring the oddballs of the
Video Battle! A Super Lazy Day in Zenless Zone Zero - Everyone assemble! The Debt Adventure Tale, filming starts now!
Morning sunlight streamed into the Random Phone Shop.
The light crept slowly across the floor, tracing the window frame. At its leading edge was Billy.
Forehead pressed to the ground. A full dogeza.
His messy brown hair flattened against the floor, the old scar on his left cheek twitching faintly. Standing before him was Nico, veins bulging at his temples.
"[serious]Let me do it. Just one more time."
His voice was hoarse.
Not a trace of his usual "It'll work out somehow!" brightness remained.
"[serious]It was all my fault. Running off on my own, not listening to you, getting the camera smashed."
His nails dug into his clenched fists. The wounds from pounding the floor yesterday, still seeping blood, hadn't dried yet.
"Nico, I have a favor to ask."
He raised his head.
His sparkling brown eyes were wet with tears.
"Direct the video. I know your editing is the best. You once told me someone laughed at a video you made yourself—but I need *you* for this."
Deep wrinkles carved themselves between Nico's brows.
"[serious]...That's the first time you've ever said that."
His narrowed, sharp eyes looked down at Billy. His voice was far quieter than usual.
The trauma he carried about editing—ever since a certain streamer had dismissed a video he'd made himself as "boring"—was a secret shared only between the two of them.
Silence.
Nico's fingers tapped the edge of the counter three times. Then, he exhaled deeply.
"[serious]Fine."
He said just that one word and nodded.
Quickly averted his gaze. The tips of his ears were faintly red.
In the corner of the counter, Amby had been watching their exchange.
Her dark gray hair, reaching down to her waist, absorbed the sunlight and swayed quietly.
Her deep purple eyes, expressionless as ever, shifted between the two of them.
Then, with awkward movements, she pulled a fish-shaped phone from her pocket.
A misshapen phone with glue oozing from its seams. A dark piece of history Nico had made long ago as a joke.
She placed it on the counter, opened the ledger, and began running her pen across the page.
——I'll move, too.
She said nothing, but that action was her answer.
No energetic reply echoed through the empty shop.
But the air stirred, just a little.
...
Morning in Nekomata Alley belonged to the cats.
Sunlight filtering into the narrow lane cast mottled shadows on the cobblestones.
From the seafood stall "Shippotei" came the savory smoke of grilled fish. The sign of the cat café "Goronyago" creaked in the wind.
Billy sprinted in at full speed.
He was out of breath.
He raised his gaze.
The rooftop.
"There!"
A cat-eared beastfolk with glossy silver hair tied in high twin-tails. Her long, forked tail swayed lazily in two different directions.
Nekochan Nenneko.
Her large golden eyes looked down at Billy from the rooftop with languid disinterest.
"[surprised]You again... nya."
"[excited]I need to talk to you!"
Billy shouted up at the roof.
Passersby turned around, startled.
"Amby! The debt! Four million dennies! Her parents ran off in the night! And then the contest—!"
His breathing was a complete mess.
Spittle flew.
Order and grammar had all gone out the window.
"...She went to the courthouse alone, stamped the seal, at sixteen! She's been alone this whole time! So, so—"
His loud voice echoed through the alley. His throat trembled, and his final words came out hoarse.
Nekochan blinked three times.
"[gentle]In other words,"
She leaped lightly down from the roof. Her silver hair and forked tail swayed softly.
"—you need money, and you want me to help?"
Billy lost his words.
He choked on his breath, then forcefully pressed his head to the ground.
"[crying]Yes!! Please!!"
His forehead scraped against the cobblestones. Gravel bit in with a small sound.
Nekochan thought for a few seconds.
Her golden, vertically slit pupils stared at Billy's bedhead.
"[laughing]Sounds fun."
An instant answer.
"I'll do it, nya. I'll join in."
From the drying rack on the roof, another silver-haired cat-eared figure frantically poked her face out.
Her partner, Nenneko.
"[angry]Deciding on the spot again!? At least hear the details first, nya!"
"I decided based on the face, not the details, nya."
Nekochan let out a loud "Nyahaha!" laugh.
Billy, his forehead still pressed to the ground, raised his face. Sand stuck to the tip of his nose, his eyebrows still bent into a frown. His mouth tried to smile, but only twitched.
...
Inside the Random Phone Shop.
Billy burst in.
"[excited]Amby!"
Amby, who had been working on the ledger behind the counter, slowly raised her head.
"Your RPG video—make it again, as the story of paying off your debt! This time, we're all joining in!"
Amby's deep purple eyes widened slightly.
Then, she dropped her gaze.
"[whispers]...They'll laugh at me again."
The fingers closing the ledger turned white. Her voice was as faint as a candle flame going out.
"Let them laugh!"
Billy shouted.
"But this time, you don't have to make it alone. I'll play the hero. Nico will be the sage, and he'll edit, too. Nekochan's joining! You write the script. You're the main character."
Nico, who had been adjusting the camera nearby, looked up.
"[serious]I'll handle the editing. You just write the script. ...You're good with numbers, right?"
Amby looked back and forth between their faces.
Silence.
The hands of the wall clock ticked three times. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Amby took a small breath.
"[gentle]...Alright."
She nodded.
Immediately after—she pulled the fish-shaped phone from under the counter.
She placed it firmly in the middle of the table.
"Can this appear, too?"
A completely serious face.
Billy and Nico's gazes dropped to the phone simultaneously.
""...The phone's the main character!?""
"[gentle]As a witness to the debt."
Amby didn't blink.
The two looked at each other. Billy's shoulders trembled, and Nico looked up at the ceiling. Then, they both burst out laughing.
...
Filming began.
Torino Street Shopping District, a main thoroughfare roughly eight hundred meters long. Phone-related shops and restaurants crowded together, and even on a weekday, passersby thronged the street.
"[excited]Let's give it a shot!"
As Billy shouted, Nico readied the camera.
The band-aids on the back of his hand were still fresh.
The script Amby had written had a ridiculous RPG-style structure: "A girl burdened with four million dennies of debt travels with three companions, saves the city from crisis, and incidentally pays off her debt."
Billy as the hero.
Nico as the sage.
Nekochan as the whimsical mage.
Amby as the main character, the "Debt Girl."
And—the fish-shaped phone as the "Legendary Treasure."
"[excited]Cut 1, here we go, nya! Light magic! Nyan-Nyan Beam!"
Nekochan suddenly thrust both hands out in an ad-lib.
"[angry]That's not in the script!!"
Nico's retort flew out rapid-fire.
"[laughing]But let's use it! It's awesome!"
Billy cut in.
"Stick to the script—"
"[excited]Sage, say something cool!"
"Don't you break it!!"
Two, then three veins bulged on Nico's temple.
He glared at the camera monitor with the look of someone witnessing something unbelievable.
Amby watched the three of them, expressionless.
Her deep purple eyes turned toward the camera lens, then quietly traced the continuation of the script with her pen.
—Just then.
"Hey."
A low voice.
From the shadows of the shopping arcade's pillars, four men emerged.
Flashy coats in red, yellow, blue, and green. White "B" patches on their chests.
Bomps.
The guys who had shoved Nico yesterday and tried to destroy the equipment.
The leader in the red coat grinned.
"Looks like you're having fun filming. How about we—"
The man took a step forward.
In that instant—
"We're filming! Please cooperate with traffic!"
A vigorous voice rang through the street.
It was Auntie Tae from Karimochido.
She burst out of her shop, a taiyaki mold in one hand.
"Please cooperate!"
The owner of the greengrocer's eight hundred meters away also shouted.
"Filming in progress!"
The fruit shop owner, street performers, regular shoppers—they all came swarming.
In no time, a crowd of over ten people had formed.
The four Bomps were neatly surrounded by the wall of people.
"Wha—what the!?"
The red coat looked around, mouth half-open. The yellow coat tugged at his companion's sleeve, but there was no escape route anywhere.
Billy, still holding the camera, shouted.
"[laughing]Sorry! Could you yell something for us as BGM!?"
The red coat blinked rapidly.
"[surprised]...Huh?"
That voice was perfectly captured on video.
Yesterday, Billy had asked Auntie Tae to lay the groundwork. He'd told all the shop owners in the district: "If the Bomps show up, surround them with a crowd and turn them into extras while you're at it."
Auntie Tae had instantly agreed: "Sounds fun!"
"[laughing]Yes, that face! I'll take it!!"
Billy's phone captured the red coat's dumbfounded face in close-up.
The camera kept rolling in the shopping district.
The lively crowd.
The deflated Bomps.
And in the middle of it all, Amby held the fish-shaped phone in both hands.
"...Here, take this."
Expressionless, she held the fish-shaped phone out to the camera.
...
Evening.
The break room on the second floor of the Random Phone Shop.
Junk phones were piled high on the shelves, and the orange neon of the shopping district flickered in through the window. The sunset dyed the entire room in warm colors.
Everyone was seated, gathered around the computer monitor.
Nico was typing on the keyboard.
The timeline of the video editing software "Milvy Studio" was lined with the footage they had just shot today.
His narrow, sharp eyes shone with utter seriousness. His fingertips adjusted cuts in units of less than a second.
Nekochan let out a big yawn and stood up.
Her forked tail swayed softly.
"[gentle]I'm heading home, nya. You're posting it first thing tomorrow morning, right?"
At that moment—
"[whispers]...Could you stay?"
Amby spoke.
Her voice was small.
But it resonated clearly in the room.
Her deep purple eyes looked straight up at Nekochan's golden ones.
"I'd like you to check it."
It was the first time she had ever told someone, of her own accord, that she wanted them to stay with her.
Nekochan's eyes went just a little round.
Then, she chuckled. The tip of her tail bounced.
"[gentle]Guess I've got no choice, nya."
She sat back down.
Nico stopped his hands on the keyboard.
"[serious]...I've edited up to here. Want to see?"
He pressed play on the monitor.
The footage began to play.
The scenery of the shopping district.
Billy's smiling face, showing his double tooth.
Nico glaring and retorting.
Nekochan breaking into an ad-lib dance.
Amby, expressionless, holding up the fish-shaped phone.
And—in the background, the Bomps' dumbfounded faces as they shouted "Huh?"
Billy raised his voice.
"[excited]This is amazing!!"
Amby stared at her own image on the screen.
"[gentle]...Incredible."
Just two syllables. Then, she picked up the fish-shaped phone and held it wrapped in both hands.
"Shut up, let me concentrate."
Nico said it while still staring at the screen.
But the corners of his mouth had relaxed, just slightly.
Nekochan pointed at the close-up footage of herself.
"[laughing]This is a face that'll go viral, nya."
The tip of her tail bounced happily.
Everyone laughed.
Only the light of the monitor illuminated the four faces in the darkening room.
Nico's hands began typing on the keyboard again.
A few hours until completion.
Billy stared at his own fist.
The dried wounds ached faintly.
(*It'll work out—*)
He murmured it in his heart, then shook his head.
No.
(*I'll make it work out.*)
Inside the monitor, the Debt Girl played by Amby smiled quietly.
The all-night editing session began.
Whether the completed video would see the light of day was entrusted to Nico's hands—and their prayers.
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