Darling in the Franxx: Left Behind

Chapter 6

"he's a demon."

"Why would anyone pilot with that thing"

Those were the last words 003 heard from Mitsuru before he left the plantation in mission to meet with the 9's.

A routine mission where he was to help defend one of the gardens from a horde of klaxosaurs. This was not a massive task for Hesperis, specially when she had 2 pilots.

After the incident with Mitsuru, 003 had realized how much stress he could put in his partner if allowed the connection to go too deep, the APE had long realized that, so every partner 003 ever had was always the most experienced from each Squad he was ever paired with, even if that meant putting the squad leader with someone from a replacement division.

Now, 003 knew that the damage he would cause in his partner was far greater if the parasite wasn't already used to the stress of battle. His partners did last 24 hours of connection at most, but those were while going all out, fighting with everything Hesperis had to offer. With Mitsuru, around 40 minutes were enough to make his vitals go lower than anything acceptable for a parasite.

If only he had realized this earlier.

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5 years earlier (at Cosmos)/(No One's POV)

A young boy is seen in white room. 

This boy was special. Or so he was told.

Everyone who came in his room always said that all the pain he felt was because they wanted to make sure he was perfect, even the one doctor with a bunch of metal in his body.

The boy never had someone like him to talk. It had been years since he last saw another child, even the slight memory he had of another child wasn't meant to exist, because this memory included someone that he wasn't meant to meet. However, every time they tried to see if he had any memory from another child, he managed to trick their machines and scientists. 

One day, something different happened. 

One day, when the doctor with metal in his body went to his room, he wasn't there to hurt him, he was there to take him to another place.

The boy was now in a massive room, with toys and books. His room never had things like that, so he was beyond exited to play with them, but he wasn't the only one with this feeling.

Playing with one of the toys was a purple haired girl. She had a pair of glasses and seemingly forgot that she did so every 30 seconds, because every time she looked down, her classes fell from her face.

This made the boy chuckle. 

Hearing him chuckle made the girl hide herself behind the toys from embarrassment.

Seeing this reaction made the boy look at her with concern and curiosity.

Doctor: "I'll let you two meet eachother."

As the  doctor left, the boy made his way to the girl and sat down in front of the toys.

The girl peeked from over the toys and saw that the boy had a pair of horns in his head.

Girl: "You have horns!"

The boy simply looked at her with a questioning look