"Well, I'll see ya soon Manager." Zak patted Maxios' back by the conveyor belt of the airport. Lugging two suitcases and a large backpack, Zak gave a wave and left.

"Have fun visiting your family." Maxios waved, only carrying a large duffel bag and and a suitcase. "So much stuff is packed..." He thought as Zak waded his way through the crowds. Carefully, Maxios began to walk to a quiet corner of the airport so he could call someone. Taking out his smartphone, he unlocked it and opened up his contacts; scrolling through them as he pressed on the one Ryuzaki gave him. Putting up to his ear, Maxios waited for the ringing to die down and have a human voice come out from the other side.

"Hello?" A young man dressed in a black bomber jacket picked up. His most distinct feature was crimson hair that was sharp looking and sprayed out, laying over his forehead and ears. His amber eyes looked around. "Maxios, hm?" Putting his hand into his denim, blue jeans' pocket, he twisted his body to scan the area. "Yeah, I'm the guy. Names Masaru Kurenai. Nice to meet you." Beginning to walk straight forwards, Masaru hummed as his sneakers made little to no noise; being drowned out by the masses.

"Nice to meet you too!" Maxios replied with a grin. "Where are you?"

"Right here." Masaru tapped Maxios' head. Spinning around, Maxios looked down at Masaru, who was almost as tall as the adult. "Yo."

"Hey... you seem... young..."

"I'm sixteen." Masaru gave a mocking peace sign and wide grin.

"That... explains a lot..."

"Anyways, lets get outta here and somewhere quieter so we can discuss this plan about getting the Zeroth Dragon."

"For sure. Also, got any food? I didn't eat on the flight."

(Opening here)

"The preparations are set." Laying on a freshly made bed inside a hotel room, Zak spoke into his phone quietly.

"Very good." Izanoku smiled as she replied on her own device just as quietly, sitting in her seat quite comfortably. "We're on our flight right now. It was surprisingly easy to trick the people at the gates."

"Art of fake I.Ds, that's my thing." Zak stifled a laugh. "Jokes aside, being crafty with your hands is a good thing. Why else do you think I wear my gloves?"

"For the aesthetics, obviously." She replied with sarcasm in her tone, before covering her mouth with her hand. She quietly laughed as Callum snored, laying his head on her shoulder.

"Well, I'll get the weapons to capture Zoa shortly. Right now, I'm beat..." Zak yawned.

"You did well. Sleep for a couple of hours. This flight isn't gonna end any time soon." Izanoku replied, crossing her legs.

"Yep. Have a safe trip." Zak nodded. Ending the call, he rolled on his side and let out a loud sigh of relief.

"This is a good place!" Masaru exclaimed as he and Maxios walked into an Internet Cafe. Maxios had a laptop in a case with him, and Masaru had some money stashed in his pockets. The warm, cosy feeling of the cafe brought a relaxing tone as the two sat down at a table. The apparent contrast of Maxios' roughly done suit to Masaru's casual wear was jarring; and add to the fact that one was an adult and one was still technically a minor, Maxios got some weird stares from other patrons.

"Yeah... sure." Maxios shrugged as he took a seat. Unzipping his case and taking out his laptop, Maxios busted it open and logged in. "Pass me a menu. Please."

"Here." Masaru gave Maxios a laminated menu for him to gloss over. "I go to this place all the time... if you want to try something, I'd suggest the Nasi Lemak. It's really good!"

"Isn't that like... the national dish, or whatever?" Maxios raised a brow. "What the hell?! They also serve coconuts!" He exclaimed. "Okay, I need to get one!!"

"Yep. Both are tasty, too~" Masaru nodded. "Lemme get our orders." Standing up, Masaru left to order the food from the counter. Maxios gave a thumbs up as a response as he yawned, looking around. The cafe was quite modern, with a focus on the colour of marble white. The various windows spotted around were open to let the heat escape, and the tables were organised in a neat fashion. There was a large glass pane, which let you look out to the road and other various shops across the cafe.

"What a beautiful country..." Maxios muttered to himself as he moved back to tapping away at his sleek, black laptop with neon green highlights. He opened up his email and clicked on one Ryuzaki sent him. "Blah, blah, blah, explain stuff to Masaru, blah, blah, blah, show him this PowerPoint... Easy enough." Maxios thought as he eyes scanned the screen. Pressing the link, he opened up a five slide show, and began to read it in his head. "How detailed..." He chuckled to himself, being entertained by Ryuzaki's dramatisation of the situation. "Wait... Malaysia has forests?"

"Well, of course." Masaru sat down with a tray of food. "What country doesn't have some form of wildlife?" He grinned cheekily.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh..." Maxios trailed off. "Fuck, you're riiiiiiiiigHOLY SHIT THAT LOOKS SUPER GOOD!" Maxios exclaimed loudly.

"Smells great too," Masaru added, before starting to hand Maxios a plate of his food, and the coconut he ordered. Both males had a plate of Nasi Lemak, which was a dish that contained various items that came together in a harmonious way. It was a plate of rice, with a dark red and spicy sauce drizzled over it called sambal. Around it, the plate had garnishes, including: fresh, crunchy cucumber slices, ikan bilis (small fried anchovies), a scattering of roasted peanuts, and hard-boiled egg which was cut in half to expose it's yellow, soft cooked yolk. Looking at it, Maxios' mouth started to salivate; and his nose was taken to heaven from the subtle smells of the sambal and the rice. The coconut had the top hacked off and had a straw and spoon inside, floating in the sweet coconut water inside the husk. "Eat up." Masaru began to dig into his food.

"Mmmm..." Maxios grinned with his spoon in his hand. Taking a sip of the coconut's innards, Maxios stabbed his spoon into the rice and started to eat. "Here's to Malaysia!" He shouted, shovelling a spoonful of rice, sambal and peanuts into his mouth. Immediately hitting his tongue was the fluffy rice. The tender, mild flavour of it was then overshadowed by a heat; the paste on the rice. The flames produced from the condiment was gentle, yet the exotic flavours were bursting inside his mouth. The pillowy nature of the rice was complimented by the crunch of the peanuts, which brought two different textures to the meal, keeping it interesting and made Maxios want more.

"So?" Masaru asked as he took a sip of his iced coffee.

"That's... fucking... awesome!" Maxios exclaimed. "I love it!"

"Glad you do." He smiled, beginning to eat his meal.

"By the way," Maxios pointed his spoon to Masaru. "You know about the Zeroth Dragon right?"

"Of course!" Masaru nodded, swallowing his food. "I want to help prevent Gyze from being resurrected."

"Gy...ze...?" Maxios raised a brow, trying to pronounce the word. "What the hell is that?"

"Well." Putting down his utensils, Masaru put his index finger on his chin. "If you read the vanguard lore, you would know there are two sides of Cray. The harmonic lights of the Messiah, and the relentless destruction of Gyze."

"So, Gyze is the evil one?"

"Correct. The Satan of Vanguard, if you will." Masaru gave a thumbs up, giggling. "You see, the evil Ryuzucchi talked about is the resurrection of Gyze. In lore by combining the six "Zeroth Dragon", you can resurrect Gyze from his eternal slumber."

"And when Gyze is resurrected the world will end..."

"Grim stuff, right?" Masaru whistled carelessly.

"I suddenly feel regret taking this mission up..." Maxios groaned. "Well, time to save the world!"

"Well," Taking his tall glass of iced coffee, Masaru swirled it around and took a sip from it. "Now that you know why I want to stop Gyze... how about you? Why'd you put yourself into this?"

"Hmmm... I was bored."

"Boredom..." Masaru chuckled. "I guess that can do weird things to a man."

"Maybe not just that..." Maxios laughed awkwardly. "It's mainly for the people who sacrificed themselves, and to honour the people close to me who died in the Void Incident-thing."

"I see..." Masaru put down his drink. "However... I don't know what this Incident is."

"Oh right... the incident was never reported on publicly... it was all hush hush, except the deaths of Izo and Kaiko."

"Yes, I remember reading that." Masaru replied. "So, what even happened?"

"A bunch of crap. Apparently I was also a target. Barely scraped outta that fucking shit..." Maxios took a deep breath to compose himself.

"Oh yeah, you got crushed under steel beams."

"Yeah... I was out of commission for a hell of a long time." Maxios scraped his spoon against the very clean plate, gathering rogue grains of rice and other foods. "And when I finally woke up, a week later I found out my younger brother died."

"Yza Blade...?" Masaru asked. Maxios nodded. "Ah, the pervert who asked if a girl's boobs were real on live TV. How did he die?"

"A portal to Cray opened, and he jumped inside to beat the Void's fat ass." Maxios replied. "Or... that's what I heard. There are people I know who are hanging on a hope that he's still stuck on Cray, and he can be returned home. But that... is too far-fetched, even for me."

"...sorry for your loss, by the way." Masaru replied. "It must be hard, being nearly killed than having your brother be killed. The turmoil your mother and father had to go through must've been horrible..."

"My father's dead."

"Oh my god..." Masaru replied, being surprised by this.

"I'm over it. It's a really long time ago." Maxios laughed lightly. "As for my mom... she was heartbroken when she heard Yza was probably dead. She cried and cried... feeling regrets because she never really did properly take care of her son."

"She must be distraught nowadays, right?"

"Yeah. She doesn't work anymore, and I provide for her. She's actually living with me and my girlfriend right now." Maxios replied. "I want to try and comfort my mom. Make it so she doesn't have to work as hard; because she's been through a lot."

"I imagine she's a very strong woman."

"My mom is the strongest woman I know." Maxios put down his clean plate and picked up his coconut husk. He began to drink from it. "She's been through hell again and again... and she's still staying strong. Heart of steel, I tell you."

"Well, I assume we should be getting ready to go to the jungle." Masaru stood up. "We got pretty side-tracked..."

"Hehe... yeah, we kinda did." Maxios laughed nervously. "Let's get going."

"How long I've been... cutting?" Zeon laughed with a fake smile. "I'm pretty sure I don't cut."

"Don't lie..." Rukia creased her brows, and knelt down to his level. Speaking to him face to face, she sighed. "I saw it. The cuts on your wrist."

"So... you did pull up my sleeves on purpose..." Zeon muttered grimly, narrowing his eyes and lowering his head in shame. "This can't be happening... I've been keeping this a secret for so long, and to have it be found out by her of all people..."

"No! It was an accident I saw them... I just..." Rukia took a deep breath, recomposing herself. "I'm worried for you, okay."

Zeon's eyes widened, turning his face away from hers. "...right."

"So... please tell me how long you've been doing it."

"...that's... none of your business." Zeon replied in a cold and quiet tone.

"Okay then... how about... why are you doing this? If you tell me, we can get through this, together."

"If I told you... would you still like me?"

"Of course I would!" She exclaimed. "I don't want to see you writhe in pain.... all by yourself..." Putting her hands on his shoulder, Rukia wanted to help reassure Zeon wasn't alone. "I'm your friend for a reason. You can tell me."

"...I..." He spoke, shivering. In this instance, Zeon could feel his chest tighten while he recalled painful and emotional memories. "Don't break..." Zeon thought, as his eyes started to water up. A mix of emotions stirred up his insides, and began to make him break into tears.

"It'll be okay. I won't tell anyone else about it." Rukia said, moving her hand under his chin, and pushed it up, so she could see his face. It was pale as snow while tears ran down his cheeks. "Why do you do this..." She thought, feeling guilt. "Is it because you do so much work and destroy your body just to try and find Yza for me and Shika? Is it because of what you did while working with Backlion? Is it because of your home life? Please say something... I can't guess the reason why..."

"I-if I told you..." Zeon started to speak, smiling at Rukia weakly with his eyes closed. "It would hurt me more."

"Does it have to do with me? Is that why you don't want to tell me?"

"No..." Zeon shook his head, curling his open palms into fists. "It's a... complicated situation."

"I won't judge. I swear." Rukia replied, shifting her hands to his hands, holding them tightly. "Just know I'll be here for you."

"Don't let go... Your hands are so warm..." Zeon thought, opening his eyes with his teeth gritted tightly. "To make it short and simple... it's because I hate myself." He replied, closing his eyes and lowering his head again. "That and... I love you... But the sad reality is that, I'll never be able to be with you in a relationship, because I know you're in love with Yza. And that, hurts the most. Knowing that I never even had a chance in the first place."

(Ending here)

Rukia embraced Zeon tightly, trying to comfort him. "Even you hate yourself, I don't... No, no one does. If you want to explain more, please do... I don't want to see you suffer."

"Please stop..." Zeon pried Rukia off himself, feeling his chest constrict tighter. "I don't want you to waste any more time on this... just, focus on... Yza."

"Forget about him!" Zeon flinched at her reaction. "Right now, I want to help you!" Rukia said with sincerity. "Even though it's a little selfish, don't want to lose someone close to me. Not after what happened with Yza."

Zeon covered his face with his hands. "I..." He sniffled, not sure how to reply. "I'm sorry..."

"No, I should be." Rukia denounced Zeon. "It's partially my fault for not noticing sooner..."

"None of it is your fault... all of it is mine. I did it, not you."

"It's okay, I don't mind. Besides, what matters more now is that I know you do this, and now I can help."

"Thanks..."

"You want to get some ice cream? That'll cheer you up, right?" Rukia asked with a sweet smile.

Zeon looked up at her, and nodded with a weak, but genuine smile. "S-sure..." Standing up, he and Rukia headed out of the bathroom, and towards the kitchen. "I hate this feeling... Stupid brain... why was it her? Why couldn't it be someone else..."

Next time on Z World:

#11: "Don't stop me."

================================

A/N

Firstly, welcome Taddle_Fantasy character, Masaru Kurenai! Check out his Cardfight!! Vanguard Alter book. While it's not part of the CCEU, it also has to do with Gyze and Zeroth Dragons, and best of all, if you like Masaru, he's the main character there!

Okay, so... on a serious note; I do recognise and know that the issue of cutting is a sensitive one, and I'm trying to tread it carefully, since these kinds of things are a real issue. I'm not sure how realistic Zeon's issues are, but I think he has enough justified reasons to do so.

I probably depicted it pretty bad but hey... you'll never know unless you try, right? As they say, the master has failed more times than the student.

If you do feel offended by this chapter, I completely understand. Anyways, let's uhh.. lighten up the mood a little.

YEP, WE GONNA GO TO THE JUNGLE.

WHERE'S RYU?

IN KYOTO.

WHY DIDN'T HE JOIN?

FUCK KNOWS.

Lowkey wish I could somehow fit him in. Jungle boy in a jungle, let's go!

Meh...

That's all, Fox out!