ZZZ Fanfic: Nekomata's Toy Story

A fanfiction I thought of in 2025 where Nekomata from Zenless Zone Zero has to earn her respect again.

I call this one, Nekomata’s “Toy Story”. Nekomata was a popular character in the early days of Zenless Zone Zero. However, as time went by and newer and technically better characters were added, like Jane Doe & Ju Fufu, Nekomiya Mana declined in popularity. This would be where Nekomiya Mana has to redeem herself and prove herself.

Jane Doe and Jufufu get added. The proxies Belle and Wise say “I don’t want to play with you anymore.” to Nekomiya Mana. Nekomata watches Belle and Wise play with Jufufu and Jane Doe during commissions from afar, standing behind a window in a closeby building. There’s a poster of Zenless Zone Zero 1.0 on the wall in Nekomata’s room, featuring Nicole Demara flipping a Denny, as well as Belle & Wise sitting at their PC desk, Eous the bangboo, Anby, Billy, and Nekomata being featured on the poster. Nekomata looks at her phone and sees all the internet comments saying things like “Nekomata is so not meta! She’s trash bro!”  First feeling sadness, then denial, then finally anger. “Enough is enough.” Nekomata muses to herself. If she confronts Jane Doe, you know Nekomata is going to lose at least a couple of her nine lives, so that confrontation would have to be methodical or a slow burn if she knows better.

Nekomata sees Jufufu dancing happily outside by a fountain, and Nekomata crosses her arms with disdain. “Look at her. Dancing around all happy and s**t.” Nekomata uncrosses her arms, takes her blades or “claws” out, and walks towards Jufufu. The Phaethon Bangboo Eous, who’s also by the fountain, turns around and notices Nekomata. “Hey Nekomata, what are you doing here?”

“Oh you know, just sniffing to see if someone stole my mackerel, if you catch my drift.” said Nekomata.

Jufufu stops and happily greets Nekomata. “Oh hi there, fellow cat thiren! I didn’t steal your mackerel. I prefer noodles and dumplings that Pan Yinhu makes. It’s delicious!”

“Fellow cat thiren?! Is that all I am to you?” replies Nekomata, offended by the generalization.

“Huh?” asks Jufufu.

“Wait, Nekomata-” Phaethon tries to interject.

“There’s only room for one cute cat thiren! This place ain’t big enough for the two of us! I want to regain my status as the top kitty like I had in 1.0!” challenges Nekomata.

“If you insist! But I warn ya! I know Spinjitsu!” Jufufu accepts the challenge right there. They start fighting. Nekomata gives it everything she’s got.

“Nekomata, there’s something you should know.” says the Phaethon Bangboo.

“You can tell me after I kick her butt!” says Nekomata, not wanting to hear what Phaethon has to say in the moment. They fight for a few more minutes, and the ground starts quaking, which causes Nekomata and Jufufu to stop fighting. “Uh, guys, that’s what I was warning you about. We were waiting for ethereals to come up from the ground so we could save the village.”

“Oh.” Nekomata suddenly realizes, as she sees ethereals begin to come up from the ground just up the trail on the hill that’s headed toward the village. “Looks like the party’s finally started.” Jane Doe says as she walks from the opposite direction of the trail to the fountain and takes out her blades.

The battle starts, and Nekomata charges and yells “I still exist!” as she starts fighting ethereals.

“Don’t you see? You’re just not S Rank material.” says Jane Doe, which infuriates Nekomata as she keeps killing ethereals along with Jane Doe and Jufufu. Once all the waves of ethereals are defeated, then the boss rises up out of the ground, who’s of course much bigger than the other ethereals. Nekomata, Jufufu, and Jane Doe start fighting the boss for a minute, then the boss suddenly starts teleporting and evading them and heading towards the village.

“It’s heading towards the village. We have to stop that ethereal!” exclaims Phaethon. Because of the brawl at the beginning with Nekomata and Jufufu at the beginning, they weren’t entirely prepared to fight the ethereal boss, so the boss goes to the village and has some of the people captive in a laser cage.

“Let’s take care of this.” says Jane Doe, with her blades ready and charging towards the ethereal boss with Nekomata and Jufufu.

“Wait a sec,” Nekomata objects. Jane and Jufufu stop. “I need to prove my worthiness again, so how about I take care of the ethereal boss and you deal with the hostages.

“I’m a pro at deactivating lasers, so you got it. Just try not to get killed.” Jane says before walking off.

Jufufu gives a “Nyah!” and a wink before following Jane to the hostages, which irritates Nekomata. Once Jane & Jufufu are out of sight, Nekomata turns to the ethereal boss. “Alright big fellow, let’s do this.” she says calmly. She goes in and attacks with her claws, which does some damage but also angers the ethereal boss. The ethereal boss then smacks Nekomata away like she’s a small child, and she lands with a tumble on the ground. She gets to her hands and knees and starts coughing, then she looks back at the boss with a determined expression on her face. “You wanna play that way? So be it!” Nekomata then does her ultimate and claws at the boss from all sides. Once her ultimate is over and she slows goes back to regular attacks, the boss is able to smack her again. She lands on her back on the ground, and she slowly gets back up to her feet to try again. This time she holds her midsection in pain for a moment before she goes back in. Luckily, Nekomata is a cat so she has nine lives. She’s so determined, that suddenly she gets struck by lightning and transforms into her S Rank version, Super Saiyan Kitty mode activated. Nekomata, now electrically charged, and S Rank, jumps up into the air and slices up the boss with her class at sonic speed. When she’s done, the boss falls over into a million pieces like minced meat.

Jane and Jufufu come walking back with a group of people who were the hostages behind them. “We got the hostages, and-” Jufufu says happily, then suddenly pauses. Everyone is flabbergasted that Nekomata just defeated a high HP boss and is kneeling on the ground catching her breath, the ground looking like it just got hit by a meteor, with a huge crater and the area slightly darkened with charcoal and ash.

“Well, what happened here?” asked Jane as she did tricks with her blades and approached Nekomata.

“Did you defeat the ethereal all by yourself?” asked Jufufu, genuinely surprised.

“Yes…I did.” said Nekomata calmly and in a low voice that you’d miss if you made too loud of a noise.

“I’ve got to say, I didn’t think you had it in you, Nekomata.” said Jane Doe. Nekomata lifted her head up and looked up at Jane Doe. “Thanks. I’m glad you approve, Jane.” Nekomata turned her head towards Jufufu and looked at her. “And what about you, Jufufu?”

Jufufu giggled. “Well, what you did was pretty good and heroic and all, but… I’d still say you’re a mid character and not meta enough.”

“The hell did you just say?” Nekomata got up to her feet and approached Jufufu angrily.

“Oh, you could never beat the power of my spinjitsu, Nekomiya Mana.” said Jufufu, still smiling and happy as always.

“And oh I oughta wipe that smirk off your face, you p***y…cat!” said Nekomata at her wit’s end. Jane Doe got between them to restrain them from getting into a catfight. “Woah hold your horses there, kitties. As someone who the fans consider the best ZZZ character overall, I’d say I have the right to say that Nekomata may not be the most popular character right now, but she’s still remembered better in the long run than someone like you ever will, Jufufu, who’s only popular for one banner. I have secret intel to know that ZZZ is taking a different direction from how things were in Season 1. All the world’s a stage, and the people are the actors.”

After a momentary pause, Nekomata spoke up. “You really think so? That people remember me?”

“Don’t just take my word for it. Just listen to what the people you helped save think about you.” Jane turned towards the crowd and said, “What do you think of Nekomata?” Most of the people cheered but a couple still booed. 

Once the crowd noise died down, Jufufu said “Mid.”