kashtavious johnson

Character Credits: Baya belongs to @pinkylicks! ( pinky's amazing Art and info in the images) (edit: i lowkey forgot i said i would add images and im lowkey lazy so just go to pinkylicks acc) Word Count: ~2.8k (prettyy short sorry) Characters: Baya ( @pinkylicks OC), Rudo, Enjin, Riyou, Zanka, Corvus (Mentioned: Mattya, Semiu, Alice Stilza)

Act I: The Price of Pink Frills

The silk was itchy, but the smile was flawlessly molded.

Baya stood before the cracked glass of the vanity inside the Cleaners' headquarters, tugging at the aggressive tulle ruffling around her collar. She hated it. She absolutely, deeply loathed the pastel pink fabric, the stuffed bear sewn haphazardly to her hip, and the mismatched, neon thigh-high socks that made her look like an escaped carnival attraction.

But the look worked. In the Trash Commonalty, people didn’t look closely at a bratty, over-dressed teenager with hair styled into ridiculous, puffy buns. They didn’t see the sharp, predatory calculation in her amber eyes, nor did they look at her bruises as signs of a survivor. They just saw a doll.

"Perfect," she muttered, her voice dropping its usual sugary lilt for a brief, bitter second. She stared at her hair, which currently brushed past her shoulders—longer than her father, Mattya, would ever allow if he were standing right here. He’d probably nag her until she took a pair of rusted shears to it herself, claiming that long hair was just a handle for an enemy to grab in a street fight. But Mattya wasn't here today, and for now, she could pretend she was growing it out.

She strapped her Jinki—a chunky, metallic charm bracelet—around her wrist, letting the heavy silver trinkets clink against one another.

"Baya! Move your frilly butt, we’re leaving!"

The voice boomed through the hallway, vibrating the flimsy drywall. Enjin.

Instantly, Baya flipped the switch in her mind. Her shoulders slouched into a practiced, petulant posture. Her lips turned upward into an exaggerated, bubbly pout. When she kicked the door open, she wasn't the analytical, tribals-born strategist who had cheated death in the pit. She was Baya, the brat of Team Child.

"I'm coming, old man! You can't rush perfection!" Baya squealed, her voice pitching up an octave as she stomped down the corridor.

In the main briefing room, the atmosphere was thick with the usual Cleaners chaos. Enjin was leaning against a heavy metal table, puffing a cloud of smoke into the rafters. Nearby, Rudo was meticulously checking his gloves, his intense, brooding gaze fixed entirely on his boots. Riyou was bouncing on her heels, tinkering with her own gear, while Zanka sat cross-legged on a bench, intently sharpening his hooks and checking his lines.

Zanka lifted his gaze as Baya bounced into the room. His piercing eyes held an unspoken understanding. Though Zanka wasn't one of the three who knew her secret Sphere origins, he was incredibly sharp-witted and respected her combat instinct. He merely offered a terse, professional nod.

"You're late, Baya," Rudo grunted without looking up. "The Aberrant Beasts aren't going to wait around for you to fix your bows."

Baya marched straight up to him, planting her hands on her hips and leaning down until her face was inches from his scowling mask. "Excuse me? Do you know how much effort it takes to look this cute, raw-garbage boy? You should be thanking me for bringing some actual style to this depressing team!"

"Tsk. Annoying," Rudo muttered, turning his head away, though his ears flushed slightly with irritation.

"Alright, break it up, kids," Enjin chuckled, exhaling a final ring of smoke before extinguishing his cigarette against the table. "We’ve got a situation in the outer sectors of Canvas Town. A localized outbreak of Aberrant Beasts has completely blocked off one of the major supply routes. Trade is halted, and the locals are panicking. We’re splitting into two cells to clear them out cleanly and efficiently."

Enjin tapped the map. "Rudo, Riyou, you’re with me on the western flank. Zanka, you’re leading Baya through the eastern alleyways to flush them toward the center. Baya, this means you're on crowd control and tactical support. Don't let your ribbons get caught in a beast's teeth."

"Oh, please! My Jinki will slice those ugly things into confetti before they even smell me," Baya huffed, crossing her arms and tossing her head back with an obnoxious laugh.

But underneath the laughter, her mind was already racing. Eastern alleyways. High-density trash accumulation. Narrow choke points. The terrain was heavily restricted, meaning large-scale offensive Jinki would risk collapsing the unstable, rusted structures around them. Her chakram would need to be perfectly scaled—small enough to navigate the tight corridors, but fast enough to neutralize threats before they reached Zanka.

"Move out," Enjin ordered.

As the team split, Baya fell into step behind Zanka. The moment they stepped into the harsh, gray sunlight of Canvas Town, the bubbly smile returned to Baya's face, a bright neon beacon against the drab, decaying wasteland.

Act II: The Eastern Flank

The air in the eastern sector smelled of stagnant water and rotting metal. The narrow alleyways were flanked by towering walls of compressed garbage, stacked twenty feet high like a labyrinth built by a madman.

Zanka moved with swift, lethal focus, his fingers subtly twitching along his Jinki's threads as he scanned the high ridges of the trash walls. Baya skipped along beside her, humming a childish tune, but her eyes were doing the exact same thing—calculating the structural integrity of the debris mounds, tracking the shift of shadows, measuring wind resistance.

"They're close," Zanka whispered, his voice tense as he prepared his lines. "The ambient negative energy is spiking. Stay alert, Baya."

"Ugh, this place is totally ruining my boots," Baya complained loudly, intentionally letting her voice echo down the alley. It was a calculated risk—a bratty complaint to keep up appearances, but functionally acting as bait to draw the beasts out into an open area she had already identified twenty yards ahead.

Right on cue, a low, wet growl reverberated from the shadows.

From the top of a garbage mound, an Aberrant Beast leaped downward. It was a grotesque amalgamation of discarded iron piping and rotting organic matter, shaped loosely like a predatory hound with jagged, metallic teeth.

"Baya, behind you!" Zanka called out, weaving his threads to intercept.

"I got it, I got it!" Baya shrieked, playing the frantic teenager perfectly even as her muscles locked into pure, rigid precision.

With a practiced flick of her wrist, Baya unleashed the power of her Jinki. The chunky charm bracelet flew from her arm, expanding mid-air as a massive, lethal ring of silver energy. The Chakram whirled with a terrifying hum, the jagged edges of its frame glinting in the pale light.

First charm, Baya analyzed instantly, her eyes tracking the beast's trajectory. Speed variant.

She tapped into the star-shaped charm on her bracelet's mental link. "Faster!" she cheered aloud, her voice sounding like a playground game.

The chakram accelerated instantly, blurring into a silver streak. It sliced clean through the air, shearing off the front legs of the metallic hound before it could land. The beast crashed hard into the dirt, thrashing wildly and screeching in agony.

"Oh, gross! It leaked everywhere!" Baya squealed, leaping backward with dramatic flair to avoid the dark, oily ichor spraying from the wound. But her movement wasn't random; she positioned herself perfectly to block a second beast that was lunging from the left alleyway.

"Zanka, left side!" Baya called out, her voice dropping the high pitch for a fraction of a second to deliver the tactical directive.

Zanka acted instantly, snapping his threads outward to cleanly ensnare and crush the second beast, anchoring its core with flawless execution.

But the ambush wasn't over. Three more Aberrant Beasts surged from the dark recesses of the trash wall, their bodies reinforced with heavy, industrial scrap metal. They were massive, acting as a living shield wall that threatened to trample both Cleaners in the narrow space.

Too tight for pure speed. Need crowd control, Baya thought.

"Hey, ugly! Look over here!" Baya shouted, waving her arms like an annoying child throwing a tantrum.

As the beasts pivoted toward her, she recalled her chakram. The giant ring snapped back toward her hand, shrinking down slightly to adapt to the narrow alleyway. She activated the rabbit-shaped charm on the link.

"Strength!"

The chakram glowed with a heavy, dense golden aura. Baya spun on her heel, using her exceptional flexibility to contort her body under a low-hanging rusted pipe, hurling the heavy chakram with a powerful, rotational release. The weapon didn't just cut; it smashed. The sheer, blunt force of the strength-boosted Jinki slammed into the lead beast, shattering its outer scrap-metal shell into a thousand pieces and sending the remaining two tumbling backward into a heap.

Before they could recover, Baya swapped the charm again, her fingers brushing the stylized spiral emblem. "Disorient~!"

The chakram emitted a high-frequency, undulating pulse of light and sound as it hovered over the fallen beasts. The creatures began to flail aimlessly, their senses completely shattered by the Jinki's disruptive aura, making them easy pickings.

Zanka pulled his lines taut, executing the finishing blows to shatter their cores. Within moments, the alleyway fell completely silent, save for the hum of Baya’s returning bracelet.

Baya caught the Jinki, slipping it back onto her wrist with a dramatic sigh. "Whew! That was, like, totally exhausting. I think I broke a nail!"

Zanka stood over the dissolving remains of the beasts, his expression serious but filled with growing respect. He looked at Baya, noting the lack of heavy breathing despite the intense physical exertion. He saw the calculating gaze fading back beneath the bubbly facade.

"You handled the narrow terrain well, Baya," Zanka said quietly. "You made the enemy completely misjudge your range. Your combat analysis is incredibly precise."

Baya's expression hardened for a fleeting second, thinking of the harsh lessons she had learned surviving the pit. "If they think I'm just a fragile kid, Zanka, they don't look at my feet until I've already tripped them."

She quickly wiped the serious expression away as a loud crash echoed from the central plaza.

"Sounds like Enjin and them are having a party," Baya giggled, skipping past Zanka toward the clearing. "Let's go show them how it's actually done!"

Act III: The Canvas Town Central Plaza

The central plaza of Canvas Town was an open bazaar constructed from corrugated iron, colorful tarps, and salvaged telephone poles. Currently, it was a war zone.

Enjin was right in the thick of it, his Jinki roaring as he shattered a colossal, spider-like Aberrant Beast that had taken over the central trade platform. Rudo and Riyou were operating on the flanks, dealing with a swarm of smaller, parasitic beasts that were pouring out of a ruptured drainage pipe.

"They just keep coming!" Riyou yelled, her twin blades cutting through a beast's sensory organs. "Where is the core nest?!"

Baya and Zanka burst into the plaza. Baya took one look at the battlefield and her internal radar went off. The beasts weren't attacking randomly; they were protecting the massive, rusted water tower overlooking the plaza.

The nest isn't in the drainage pipe, Baya realized instantly, her analytical mind breaking down the enemy's defensive patterns. They're funneling us into the center so the primary beast can ambush us from above.

"Rudo! Look up, you idiot!" Baya screamed, abandoning her playful tone for sheer, piercing urgency.

Rudo skidded to a halt, his head snapping upward just as the rusted metal of the water tower tore open. A monstrous, serpentine Aberrant Beast coiled out of the structure, its body composed of thick, heavy steel cables and broken glass. It lunged straight for Rudo, its massive maw open wide.

Rudo raised his gloves to block, but the sheer momentum of the descending titan was too immense.

"Oh no, you don't!" Baya yelled, leaping onto a stack of wooden crates. She threw her hand forward, the charm bracelet expanding into its largest chakram form yet—spanning nearly six feet in diameter.

She locked her focus onto the ladybug charm. "Disorient!"

The chakram fired a blinding flash of strobe-like crimson energy directly into the serpentine beast's eyes. The creature shrieked, its trajectory warping mid-air as its sensory perception flipped upside down. It missed Rudo completely, crashing violently into an empty merchant stall instead.

"Now, Rudo!" Baya commanded.

Rudo didn't waste the opening. With a surge of raw, black energy from his gloves, he leaped onto the beast's thrashing neck, driving his fists deep into the core buried beneath the layers of glass. With a deafening roar, the core shattered, and the massive serpent dissolved into a mountain of harmless gray ash.

The remaining smaller beasts, sensing the death of their alpha, immediately scattered into the deep recesses of the wasteland, leaving the plaza silent.

Enjin lowered his weapon, wiping a streak of soot from his forehead. He looked at Baya, a smirk playing on his rugged face. "Nice catch, kid. If you hadn't blinded that thing, Rudo would've been a human pancake."

Rudo walked over, dusting the ash off his clothes. He looked at Baya, his gaze intense behind his collar. He opened his mouth, likely to say something stubborn, but forced himself to nod. "Yeah. Thanks."

Baya immediately puffed out her cheeks, crossing her arms and turning away with a dramatic huff. "Humph! You better be grateful! You owe me a whole box of those fancy pastries from the Canvas Town market, Rudo! And they better have the pink frosting, or I'm never saving your butt again!"

"Tsk. Back to being annoying," Rudo muttered, though the tension completely left his shoulders.

Riyou laughed, throwing an arm around Baya's neck, nearly knocking her off balance. "Aw, come on, Baya! You were awesome out there! Let’s go get those pastries, my treat!"

"Yay! Riyou is my absolute favorite!" Baya cheered, jumping up and down with genuine-looking glee, though her eyes remained sharp, scanning the surrounding rooftops one last time to ensure no hidden threats remained.

Act IV: A Quiet Sort of Truth

Later that evening, the Cleaners returned to the headquarters. The mission was a complete success; the trade routes were cleared, and the local merchants were already rebuilding their stalls.

While the rest of the team was downstairs celebrating with a heavy meal, Baya retreated to the quiet sanctuary of the upper balcony. The night air of the Trash Commonalty was cold, carrying the ever-present scent of ozone and dust.

She sat on the rusted railing, her legs dangling over the edge. She had stripped off the annoying pink cardigan and the heavy stuffed bear, leaving her in a simple, gray sleeveless top. Her thigh-high socks were bunched around her ankles, revealing the deep, yellowish-purple bruises on her knees from the day's frantic maneuvers.

She unclasped her charm bracelet, holding it up to the faint light of the distant Spheres hanging high in the sky.

"You played your part well today," a quiet voice said from the doorway.

Baya didn't flinch. She knew the footsteps. It was Corvus. Along with Alice, he was one of the few who understood the heavy burden she and her father carried from their time falling from the Sphere.

"I always play my part well," Baya said, her voice flat, devoid of any bratty theatrics. She traced the edge of the tear-shaped charm on her bracelet. "If you live with a pathological liar long enough, you learn that the best lie is the one people want to believe. They want a cute, useless kid. It makes them feel safe."

Corvus walked over, leaning his back against the railing beside her. He looked up at the sky, then down at her long, pinkish-white hair blowing gently in the wind. "Your hair is getting longer. Mattya isn't going to like that next time he visits."

Baya gripped her bracelet a little tighter, a rare flash of raw resentment crossing her face. "He can nag all he wants. I'm the one who got us out of the pit. My brain, my strategy. He thinks short hair keeps me safe, but I'm tired of cutting away pieces of myself just to survive."

She looked up at Corvus, her amber eyes reflecting the cold starlight. "I hate the frills. I hate the childish act. But as long as it keeps the Cleaners trusting me, and keeps the Vandals from looking too closely at my past, I'll wear the stupid pink dresses."

Corvus offered a rare, small smile. "Just don't lose yourself in the wardrobe, Baya. The Cleaners need your brain more than they need your bows."

"They'll get both," Baya said, a slow, genuine smirk creeping onto her face. It wasn't the bubbly smile she showed Rudo or Riyou, but the sharp, confident smile of a survivor who knew exactly how to play the game. "And tomorrow, I'm making Rudo buy me those pastries anyway."

Corvus chuckled, turning back toward the warmth of the building. "Fair enough. Don't stay out here too long. It gets cold when the wind blows from the pits."

"I know," Baya whispered to the empty air.

She slipped the bracelet back onto her wrist, letting the charms clink softly in the dark. She was Baya. A tribes-folk, a survivor of the pit, a grifter's daughter, and a Cleaner. The world thought she was just a fragile doll, but when the time came, she would spin her chakram and cut the world to pieces.

to be continued... if my lazy ass writes some more

Author's Notes:

Thank you for reading! Baya is @pinkylicks AMAZING OC that I couldn't help but want to write about! The characteristics of Baya are astounding, and I couldn't even imagine myself making something as creative as this!