Zero

Renata is short and slender, with blond hair and blue eyes. She looks like a 14-year-old, even though she claimed to be 18 when she entered Cassell College. She is very inexpressive. Her face was said to be beautiful, according to her fellow orphans.

A victim of abuse from a young age, Renata saw herself as a tool to be used by others, and feared becoming useless, since she believed that useless people get left behind.

In Cassell College, she was called "The Vacuum Queen", because of her obsession with cleanliness. She avoided any type of physical contact, had a habit of putting cushions on public seats before sitting down and washing her hands immediately after she finished reading a book from the library.

She liked Lu Mingfei, since he reminded her of Subject Zero.

Early life

Renata's parents were a dysfunctional couple. Renata's mother was a country girl and her father Evgenii brought her to Moscow, looking for a job in the Academy of Sciences. The pair had a daughter whom they named Renata, but they were afraid of her. Renata was abnormally smart for a girl her age, making advanced calculations and even repairing the circuits of a radio at the age of three. Her draconic ancestry caught the eye of Herzog, who required hybrid children for his experiments. Evgenii sold her to the project in exchange for a professor title, but it was quickly revoked and he spent the rest of his life as a librarian.

By 1991, 13 year old Renata was the youngest among the orphans in Herzog's research facility: Black Swan Bay. She always carried a teddy bear named "Zorro", a name that she gave him because "he was a hero who protected her from monsters at night".

The first time she was put in solitary confinement, she cried hard for her mother, and realized that she was truly alone in the world, and no one would come to save her. Unexpectedly, a giant Black Snake knocked down her door and set her free. After running through the hallways for a while, she woke up still in her cell. Despite thinking it was all a dream, the snake kept showing up every night of full moon.

She soon realized those weren't mere dreams, she could genuinely visit any place in that state, almost as if her spirit could leave her body. She used those opportunities to read books in the forbidden library, try food in the kitchen and explore the facilities.

Days away from her fourteenth birthday, she was wearing a hairpin with the shape of a yellow butterfly. The nurses used it to point out the kids who were being problematic and went through solitary confinement. She was in trouble because she wet the bed; the nurses rarely bothered to let her out of her room at night so she could go to the bathroom.

Renata was looking for traces of the Black Snake when Doctor Herzog introduced her to a new guest, Major Bondarev from Moscow. Herzog asked Renata what she was doing, and she lied, telling him that she was looking for arctic poppies. That night the nurses went to play cards with the guards and Renata wandered through the hallways. She was the only orphan who's brain wasn't altered by Herzog's surgery, so she still had free will, while the rest of the children were controllable through the sound of the wood clappers.

Finding the devil

Looking for the snake, Renata sneaked out of her bedroom at night and reached a door with a red sign that said "Room Zero" in it. The nurses used to say there were monsters inside, some kids even heard the voices of two boys having long conversations. The nurses told disobedient kids that the devil in Room Zero would eat them if they misbehaved.

There was a boy inside. He was wearing a straight-jacket and a barbwire cage over his face. He had no name, so he told her to call him "Zero" (shortened to "Z"), like the number in the room. After Renata asked for the snake, Z clarified that it was his pet. He demanded that she tell him a secret, since friends tell each other secrets and she confessed that she used to wet her bed sometimes. In return, he confessed that he was insane, hearing two voices arguing in his head all day. One was merciful and the other was ruthless, both the result of Herzog's brain surgery. She pitied him and cried, and he mentioned that he used to cry a lot as well.

The emergency alarm was activated because of a recently discovered spy, so the nurses rushed to Z's room. Renata was terrified, she knew they were going to punish her severely for leaving her room. Subject Zero said that he could help her if she set him free. Fearing the strange kid, she refused to help him, so he commanded her to do so with the influence of his golden eyes.

The moment she untied his bondage, he immediately assaulted her, ripping off her gown, biting her face and covering her body with his blood, but the nurses came in and contained him before he could harm her any further. One of the nurses wanted to give Renata a sedative so she could sleep that night after experiencing the trauma of Z's attack, but the chief nurse stopped her, arguing that Renata was likely asking for it. Sexual assault didn't make much sense to Herzog since they were both children. The chief nurse once again blamed the girls in the orphanage for provoking the boys and suggested that Herzog performed brain surgery on Renata in order to make her more subservient. Herzog objected to the idea, and they sent Renata back to her room.

Befriending Zero

Renata waited for the black snake that night, but it was getting late. Suddenly, Subject Zero broke through the wall, with the black snake next to him. She understood the motivation for his previous assault, he wanted to shift the anger of the nurses towards himself, so they'd pity Renata instead of punishing her. Regardless, she was afraid and doubtful of him, but she still trusted the Black Snake. Zero ordered the snake to dance and he filled her room with Christmas decorations. He took her hand, and they ran through the hallways, after a while, the feeling of freedom made her laugh uncontrollably.

They climbed the church outside and rested on top of the chimneys. He asked her for a gift since they were friends, and friends give gifts to one another. She used to hide a metal box inside of Zorro with dead flowers in it and she gave it to him as a gift, in exchange he promised to make her free, and then they both made an oath to stay together until then.

Subject Zero made a plan to escape, and it required Renata to crawl through the ventilation ducts to steal a weapon and drug the sleigh dogs, so they'd think that she was their mother. In the meantime, Herzog and Bondarev organized their own escape, which implicated the destruction of the whole base.

Mirror Eyes

The entire conversation happened inside of a vision created by Subject Zero, they were both still in their rooms. This skill was called Dream World, it allowed Subject Zero to create visions and projections of himself, which he frequently used it to leave his body and explore his surroundings, he shared it with the dragon black snake, allowing the creature to wander through the hallways on those nights of full moon as well.

Renata's own Yanling skill was called Mirror Eyes and it allowed her to temporarily copy the brain processes of others, this included stealing their memories, knowledge and Yanling Skills. This included Z's Dream World, every time she came into contact with a vision of the snake, she acquired the skill to create visions herself, making her monthly night trips possible.

A dance was organized on Christmas night. Bondarev told the children that he'd take them back with him to Moscow and the orphans were anxious about the prospect of being separated. Khorkina was the most popular among the girls, but the frail Renata started to capture the boys' attention. Herzog gifted them beautiful outfits to distract them and gassed the room with hallucinogenic drugs through the ventilation system. Because of the drugs, the party went out of control and everyone inside became extremely lustful and violent. Renata started panicking and attempted to leave, but the door was blocked. Anton, who was attracted to her, forced her back to the dance floor. He started acting aggressive, pulling down her dress. The rest of the orphans and staff helped Anton and pushed her down to the ground. Before they could do anything, Subject Zero showed up and attacked Anton, beating him severely. Subject Zero helped Renata to fix her clothes and took her away from the others. He explained the reason behind their behavior and warned her about Herzog's trap. Before they started their escape, they danced under the Christmas tree. After that, Subject Zero vanished. While Renata escaped the room, Herzog ignited the place and everyone inside was consumed by the fire. Bondarev shot Herzog multiple times and took some of his embryos with him in a helicopter, along with the skeleton of the buried dragon. Renata recognized the corpse, it looked like Z's pet, the black snake that visited her every month.

Renata had to drag Subject Zero out of his room, he could walk, but he was aimless due to the wood instrument's effect. Renata couldn't find a way out and right before she suffocated, the black snake roared in a frequency that broke the walls. The sleigh dogs came to her rescue and they hid under the ice sheets. Soviet fighter jets were instructed to kill any survivor to prevent an information leak. The ice was successful at hiding them from a visual scan, but the tracking devices on the dog collars gave them away. In an impulse for survival, Renata ordered the dogs to run away from her. The jet pilot obliterated the animals and going against his moral principles, he was forced to fire a missile at the girl as well. Renata tried to fire an anti-aircraft machine gun at the fighter jet, but the weapon jammed and the explosion from the pilot's attack reached her. Her nerves were damaged, her hair burnt, and the resulting wounds were fatal.

A dying Renata recited her oath to Subject Zero, who managed to stand up. Feeling guilty because she chose to die instead of leaving him behind, wings sprung from his back, he took some bullets from the gun she stole and made them float in the air. He fired them with a simple touch, and they brought the first jet down, the others pointed all of their weapons at the pair. After Bondarev extracted an embryo from the Snake's skeleton, the giant corpse suddenly resuscitated, flying away from the boat and bringing the rest of the fighter jets down.

Subject Zero kissed Renata and baptized her in the water, healing her back to life, then they departed to Moscow to find her parents. After her resurrection, she was covered in scars, which brought her great sadness, but she molted her old skin like a reptile. She was more beautiful than ever and Subject Zero bought her beautiful clothes to match. He started making enormous amounts of money, she never knew how though. She also stopped aging entirely.

Reaching Moscow

After finding her parents, he learned about their attitude towards Renata. Subject Zero made an offer to buy her for a huge sum of money and the couple agreed, embracing and celebrating. Furious at them, he took a military sword and stabbed them both to death.

Subject Zero invited Renata to go to China with him, where they could appreciate the four seasons of a year instead of the usual cold. Realizing that the Romanovs suspected of someone escaping from Black Swan Bay, they departed to China on foot by following the railroad.

Renata used her Mirror Eyes skill and realized that Subject Zero killed her parents. He explained how little they cared about her, and it slowly brought her to tears. Feeling both annoyed and a little sorry for her, He decided to make a new contract, in which he changed her name to Zero.

In truth, Subject Zero hated the idea of owning people, he claimed to himself that he would only keep her by his side as long as she was useful to him.

The ambush

Before they reached the border, they were constantly ambushed by dragon slayers of the Secret Party. Eventually, they were captured.

Cassell College.

In 2020, at the request of Subject Zero, who now went by the name of Lu Mingze, she created a new identity as an 18-year-old. She kept Zero as her name and got successfully recruited by Cassell College. During the 3E test, she was the only one who didn't clap when Lu Mingfei was introduced.

The Student Union dance.

She was invited to the freshmen ball dance of the Student Union, where her dancing skills impressed the other guests. Initially dancing on her own, she invited Lu Mingfei to join her, telling him that it was because he had the right height, when in truth he physically resembled Subject Zero/Lu Mingze. After the song ended, she made a bow to the admiring students, which Mingfei failed to do properly, and she proceeded to leave the event, failing to recreate her fourteenth birthday dance.

Attacking the temple.

The college was attacked soon after by a team of mercenaries hired by Subject Zero. His orders for Zero were to attack the school's church in order to create a distraction. The temple was being guarded by Chu Zihang. Before leaving the mercenary team, Zero and Mai taunted one another. Mai offered to conceal Zero's presence with her skill, but she claimed that it wasn't necessary.

Since Cassell's students had earpieces functioning at all times, a masked Zero was soon identified by the students with the nickname that Mai gave her: Deadpan, which mocked her plain figure and her face's lack of expression. Zihang unleashed an explosion using King's Blaze and, to his surprise, "Deadpan" immediately replicated it using her Mirror Eyes skill, fighting fire with fire. The distraction allowed Old Tang to sneak into the Ice Cellar unnoticed and liberate Constantine.

Operation Bronze

Two months after the attack, Zero was among the students that were assigned to participate in the operation to hunt Norton. By that time, she had accepted to become a member of the Student Union, which surprised Mingfei. Zero was coupled with Caesar in the A team, which was tasked with supporting Mingfei and Nono in their underwater mission.

During the operation, Manstein fell unconscious and Caesar became the new leader. He made Zero responsible for launching the torpedo that would kill the Dragon King, but the ship was impacted by Norton, damaging the projectile's underwater capabilities. Caesar noticed that it was still useful as an air missile. He decided to face Norton with a rifle to distract him while Zero fired the torpedo.

Zero warned Caesar about the risk of completely losing his hearing if he was still using his Yanling during the launch of the torpedo, but he dismissed her concerns. Zero fired in time, wounding Norton and sending him back to the bottom of the river. Caesar's ears were harmed and Zero was nearly burned by the detonation, but neither suffered any permanent injuries. Later that night, they brought Nono back to the surface. When she saw Mingfei floating alone in the river, she dived to help him get back to the ship.

Months later, Mingfei accidentally set her hair on fire during a chemistry exercise. She asked him for a meal as compensation. During the summer break, she congratulated him on his birthday.

Mission in Japan

Guarding the red well.

In 2022, Zero was sent by principal Anjou to investigate the Yamata no Orochi. When the Japanese hybrids announced their independence from the Secret Party, Zero sticked to her mission, infiltrating as many aspects of the organization as she could.

She finally arrived at Mount Fuji, where the Orochi and the Oni Clan attempted to reach the Well of Bones, an underground river where Izanami's embryo, the Eight Headed Snake was in the process of embryonic development. Zero defended Miyamoto Shio from the assassins of the Oni Clan and gave him 35 minutes to reach the Well of Bones and pour mercury to kill the dragon embryo and the many subspecies that guarded it.

On her way out, Zero fought and defeated three gangsters of the Oni Clan by mirroring a Yanling skill that allowed her to ignore physical pain, as a result, Zero gravely injured her body, especially her knees. Gen Chisei, the patriarch of the Orochi families arrived and gave Zero a first aid kit.

Reunion

Zero drove back to Shinjuku to meet with Caesar, Chu Zihang, Finger and Lu Mingfei, who were in the process of negotiating with Sakurai Nanami and Fuma Kotaro. Kotaro brought Zero to the presence of the Cassell students. She held an umbrella to cover the old man from the rain while keeping a knife behind Kotaro's head.

Once an agreement was made to negotiate with Chisei in person the following day, Zero was delivered to her allies and she asked Mingfei to hold her, since she could barely walk on her own, but Finger went to her aid instead. She entered Takamagahara with the Aces to discuss their next move. Once Caesar made the decision to remain at the club for the next 24 hours, Zero asked them to call a doctor and fell unconscious. Zero was awake while a surgeon removed metal fragments from her knee, he didn't bring enough anesthesia, so she drank a bottle of vodka. After the surgery was finished, she fell asleep.

Fighting Herzog

Zero was forced to hide with Finger in a bathroom when gangsters of the Oni Clan attacked Takamagahara. Finger fought some of the Oni and stole two of their shotguns. Zero was impressed with his combat skills, due to his historically low G-Rank.

Since she couldn't walk on her own, Finger invited her to sit on his shoulders and they fought together. Once they managed to escape the club, she instructed Finger to take her to a military airport, where she used her Mirror Eyes to learn how to fly an experimental aircraft from a specialized pilot.

At the skies above Mount Fuji, she managed to reach Herzog, who had just turned himself into a Dragon Emperor. Herzog was inexperienced with his new abilities, giving Zero a small advantage to distract him. Herzog initially underestimated Zero, but she managed to shoot him multiple times while evading him at high speeds.

Herzog noticed that Zero wounded him, surprised and furious, he tried to see through the cockpit to learn the identity of the aircraft's pilot. Her face was familiar to him, but he failed to recognize her, he noticed that she was running out of fuel and decided to take the opportunity to bring her down.

Zero ejected herself from the cockpit but the parachute got stuck. Lu Mingze appeared in the middle of the sky, looking similar to his old self from Black Swan Bay (as the result of a 100% fusion with Lu Mingfei). He recited their vow one more time and opened her parachute. After an intense fight, Lu Mingze started to lose, but he managed to place Herzog in the path of the Gattuso Family's orbital projectile, obliterating him for good.

After Caesar and Chu Zihang started their internships, Zero and Mingfei would often have late night supper at the cafeteria.

Brazil

In 2024, Zero traveled with Lu Mingfei, who was now the president of the Student Union, to Brazil. Their mission was to hunt down Porquinho, one of Herzog's main operatives. When Porquinho was trapped, Zero shot him with a Frigga Bullet using a sniper rifle. She paid a child who saw her for his silence. The child felt guilty about helping Zero, since Porquinho protected him from his abusive mother. Pitying the kid, Zero offered to help him too.

Mingfei promised to buy her supper once they went back to the college, and felt worried about her when he had to run away.