glub glub

Ok now picture this. Zanka and Jabber in a secret relationship where Jabber sneaks into Zanka’s room whenever he has time. Sometimes they fight, sometimes they fuck, sometimes they get high together. Honeymoon phase or whatever.

On this particular night, an off-duty Jabber knocks on Zanka’s window with a ziploc of edibles and a shirt that reads “CHOKING HAZARD” with a downward pointing arrow right below the words. Zanka nearly kicks him out, but Jabber always weasels his way in somehow, so about half an hour later they’re both in the clouds, making out on Zanka’s bed.

Jabber takes that god-awful shirt off. Soon, Zanka’s is gone too, and things are getting hot. They’re pressed up against each other, chest to chest, Jabber’s hands fisting in Zanka’s hair—

Knockknockknock.

Zanka’s head snaps to the side, staring at the door.

“Yo, Zanka?” Enjin’s voice wafts through.

Oh, shit.

Another set of knocks.“You awake?”

Jabber giggles, and Zanka slaps a hand over his mouth, trying to figure out whether or not he should answer. Eventually, he does, eking out a “yeah, gimme a second!” While he pries Jabber’s legs off from around his waist.

He motions for Jabber to go hide behind the other side of the bed as he grabs his shirt and hastily puts it on, trying to gather his thoughts so he can function like a normal human being in front of his mentor.

Zanka opens the door, and the light from the hallway hits him like a fucking flash bang. He squints, hoping his reaction isn’t too obvious.

“Yeah?”

“Okay, so, don’t kill me,” Enjin says, “But I was finishing up the report from our mission today and I accidentally. Erased like. Half of it. So can you come downstairs and…Hm. What a shirt you got on there.”

Zanka, who wasn’t really paying attention to half the shit the man in front of him was saying, looks down at himself.

It’s Jabber’s stupid fucking shirt.

Zanka closes his eyes and heaves out a long-suffering sigh. “This’s…it ain’t mine.”

“Whose is it, then?” Enjin asks, his voice filled with mirth.

Zanka…is really not equipped to come up with an excuse. His brain feels like it’s leaking out of his ears.

“Listen,” He starts, trying really hard to blink normally. “I’m…really tired…so…”

“Yeah, bet you are. You even on this planet right now, kid?”

Zanka looks up, and Enjin’s lips are pursed like he’s trying not to laugh. Yeah, he knows. This is going to be so fucking embarrassing in the morning, but Zanka cannot do this right now.

“…No. Talk to you tomorrow.” And then he closes the door.

A few seconds go by. Enjin laughs once, and then his footsteps patter away from Zanka’s room. As soon as he’s out of earshot, Jabber starts giggling deliriously like a fucking maniac.

Zanka turns back around, watching Jabber’s silhouette climb back up onto his bed, then collapse onto it in a fit of giggles.

“Yo, he’s funny,” Jabber spreads himself out while Zanka takes off the offending piece of fabric and twists it up until it’s one long rope, “I knew my shirt was swag, don’t even—“

Enjin and Riyo know that they stumbled upon a boy inside a well, tried to motivate him to come out, but when they came back a day later with some rope no one was there. They assumed that he climbed out by himself and survived. A week after they left Kamuatari the Hell Guard start posting missing posters around the district

Zanka's disappearance paired with Enjin and Riyo's arrival and departure has become a source of tension between the Hell Guard and the Cleaners. While Mr and Mrs. Nijiku couldn't care less, Kyouka is often blinded by grief and her already low opinion on givers to let the facts speak to her: that Enjin and Riyo have nothing to do with Zanka going missing. She's really just looking for someone to take her anger out on since they don't know what happened to Zanka at all

Goka, for all his self-loathing and loathing towards his younger brother, feels like he's taken something for granted. He won't be able to see his brother's flame anymore. Wom't be able to figure out if he will finally understand Kyouka's pride for Zanka, if he will look at his brother's flame and feel anything other than resentment and awe

Years later, Enjin's weekly suicidal exploration of No Man's Lands is interrupted by another stupid Hell Guard "surprise visit."

So, when Rudo falls from the Sphere and runs into trash beasts, what defeats them isn't an umbrella, but a wooden stick.