Uchiha in Zenless Zone Zero

After that, another month passed in the blink of an eye.

After graduating from high school, Zhong Yan didn't choose to go to university. Instead, he stayed home and became a full-time novelist.

With the completion of his first novel—which received extremely high viewership and praise—Zhong Yan struck while the iron was hot and quickly released his second work.

The response to the new book was similarly positive. Its story was based on the Uchiha as inspiration, launching into a series of tales. However, due to suppression by the New Eridu authorities, he wrote the connections more subtly, ensuring readers wouldn't pick up on it directly.

As for income, the royalties from the new book, combined with licensing fees from the previous one, brought in at least ten million Dennies a month.

To the average person, that's a lifetime goal. But to Zhong Yan, it wasn't much—he had far grander dreams.

In addition, Zhong Yan would occasionally work alongside the Eous operated by the Phaethon siblings, earning extra income as an agent. The amounts were also substantial—though not exactly clean—so required special methods to launder before being deposited into his account.

However, half a month ago, Wise, on behalf of Phaethon, announced a temporary suspension of all assignments and a full year of rest.

When this was made public, many past clients immediately called in.

Wise's response was firm: no matter how astronomical the offered reward, he would no longer take on any commissions.

The reason? Belle was pregnant. And as the only one at home who could take care of her, Wise wouldn't prioritize money over his sister's well-being.

As for Zhong Yan, he was also taking good care of Belle, frequently visiting her at the video rental shop, and sometimes even staying overnight.

Wise was thrilled about becoming an uncle. Even before the child was born, he had already prepared a mountain of gifts and even asked to name the baby.

Zhong Yan didn't refuse—an uncle did have that right, especially considering Wise was the only family Belle had left in the world.

The bond between the siblings was so close that it wouldn't be wrong to call it a father-daughter relationship. After all... a big brother is like a father.

Besides Belle, Zhong Yan was also handling another matter—tracing the whereabouts of the Exaltists.

Ever since two of the Twelve Shields were captured alive, the Exaltists had completely vanished. No trace of them was found in the outer ring or in the Hollows.

Inside Kamui Space, one of Zhong Yan's shadow clones was interrogating the captured Twelve Shields day and night. But no matter what method was used, not a single useful clue could be extracted.

Incidentally, this job originally belonged to Airi. But since she was now responsible for helping Ying get acclimated to the Akatsuki environment, Zhong Yan had replaced her with a shadow clone.

Initially, Zhong Yan thought this interrogation would go on indefinitely. But that day, something unexpected happened.

The two captured Twelve Shields, seemingly pushed to their limits, suddenly broke down and disintegrated into a cloud of Ether particles.

Witnessing this, Zhong Yan's shadow clone froze for a moment. Once he gathered himself, he immediately reported the event to Zhong Yan.

Because the clone's consciousness was linked to the original, Zhong Yan knew this had nothing to do with the clone's actions.

This proved that those people could be tortured to death.

Now, with his only lead gone, Zhong Yan had completely lost the trail of the Exaltists.

At this point, he could only take things one step at a time. Even a full-scale sweep of Hollow Zero might not yield anything—because the Exaltists' base of operations wasn't in the Hollow at all. It was somewhere beyond New Eridu.

This world was vast. Besides New Eridu, many places were untouched by Hollow influence—like Belle's hometown, for instance.

But that place was too far. Zhong Yan had no intention of exploring it. All he wanted now was to live a peaceful life in New Eridu.

He used to act with little concern for consequences. But now, things were different.

He was the father of three children. Even if he didn't think of himself, he had to think of them.

So, the matter of the Exaltists would have to be shelved. Even if this meant allowing them time to develop a drug that could let Ethereals leave the Hollows—it couldn't be helped.

...

"Sis, can your mech really take us to the sky?" Out in the wastelands of New Eridu's outer ring, three members of the Akatsuki—Airi, Chi, and Ying—were gathered for some activity.

The activity? Airi wanted to test how powerful Ying's mech really was.

"Uh... I don't think that's a good idea. If someone sees us, we might end up on the news..." Ying replied hesitantly, looking at Airi's eager expression.

Airi waved it off like it was nothing. "Let 'em talk. If we end up on TV, that just means Boss will see we can make some noise too."

"You're gonna get scolded again," Chi chimed in. Since joining Akatsuki, he'd already seen Zhong Yan reprimand Airi more than once.

But Airi clearly wasn't listening. With a grin, she said, "Relax! Maybe no one will even see us. And even if they do, what's the worst Boss will do? Yell at me a little? I can take that. It's no big deal."

She was clearly used to Zhong Yan's lectures—so much so that if she didn't get scolded once in a while, she actually missed it.

Just as Ying was about to be persuaded, a space-time vortex suddenly opened beside them, cutting off the conversation.

Zhong Yan stepped out.

Airi froze, shocked, especially when she saw the cold, unamused look in his eyes. She immediately realized—he'd heard everything.

Panicking, she stretched out her arms and ran up.

"Boss! I missed you!"

Thinking the hug would work, she lunged forward—only to pass right through him.

Losing her balance, she crashed face-first onto the ground.

"OW!"

After a long moment, she groaned and sat up, rubbing her aching head.

That's when Zhong Yan spoke.

"There's a mission. I'm assigning it to you."