Darling in the Franxx: Left Behind

Chapter 5

(Briefing  Room)/(No One's POV)

Having full days of training is a great way of not only making a parasite's connection more stable, but also allows them to truly become one with their partners mind. They can discover eachother's limits in terms of speed, strategy, etc.

Such days were never like they were meant to with 003. He was never allowed to interact with his partners other than exchange a few orders while in battle. Following this routine for years on end, he grew to be a great strategist on his own, but his way of battling was always him against whatever threat. His way of thinking had to change, if only a little, when he was paired with a group of experimental parasites created using Code: 002 as a genetic base, meaning that they were extremely compatible with 003. Now he had a team and a partner, but he never felt like he was truly part of something.

*poke* *poke*

003 gets some sort of déjà vu, quickly regaining his posture, he mutters.

003: "This is the second time someone gets my attention like this"

Zero Two: "and here I though you were dead"

As all the parasites finished their endurance training, with their bodies exhausted after hours upon hours of exercising, they made their way back to the boarding house for a much needed rest.

Another use of long training sessions was to identify weak points in a squad. One such weak point in Squad 13 seemed to be the connecting between Chlorophythum's pilots. Ikuno's connection to the Franxx was fine, her connection to Mitsuru however, was far from reasonable. Both 003 and Nana realized this while looking at the training footage, but decided to wait, for this was the first time they had connected for a long period of time.

{time skip}

The following day was going calmly, while the other parasites were doing their daily things, 003 was at the lake. Letting go of all the worry that filled his mind, a rare moment of calmness in the chaotic life of Dr. Franxx's special experiment.

Allowing his mind to be empty also made 003's spacial awareness basically disappear, so unbeknownst to him, someone else had made their way to the lake.

???: "so there you are"

Keeping his eyes closed while he floated in the water, he asked.

003: "can't see, who there?"

Ikuno: "you said we could talk"

003 then remembered that Ikuno had asked to talk to him the day before, but due to the training she must have forgotten or was to tired to do so.

003: "my room, 10 minutes"

Nodding in agreement, Ikuno made her leave as 003 got dressed and went to their little meeting.

A few minutes later, 003 entered his room to find Ikuno sitting on his bed.

Sitting beside her, they started their conversation.

Ikuno had many questions, why he could pilot as Pistil, why the mention of One made him look in distress, why his Franxx was a far cry from the happy demeanor he had when he entered it, and so on.

003 did know the answers to most questions, either being very personal or related to his biology. However, some of the answers Ikuno received, didn't seem to add up. If the pistil seat was meant for someone with an X chromosome, and the Stamen one someone with a Y chromosome, then...

Ikuno: "Wait what? So you are... both?"

003: "at a very deep level, yeah kinda. My guess is that the only thing mandatory for a Pistil is the X chromosome, and APE must have found a way of making people with both X and Y chromosomes, they probably found a way of making one of them not manifest in our bodies"