Darling In The Franxx (Story Recap)

The Beast and The Prince

Sypnosis:
An unusual phenomenon begins within Zero Two's body. It is mentally unstable by the influence, Zero Two to expose hostile to shouts more than ever. Even the words of Hiro, her partner, were getting out of reach. In the middle of such a fight, Hiro connects deeply with the consciousness of Zero Two and catches a glimpse of the memory that flows from there. It was a memory of their childhood, Hiro remembers that they had once met when she was nameless and unable to speak.

Plot:

Nana warns that Hiro's and Zero Two's consciousnesses will connect through Strelizia and merge. Zero Two is strangling Hiro, who suddenly has a vision.

Remembering their past, Zero Two narrates that her small room was the entirety of her world, where a closed room never touched anything outside. Hiro narrates that the Garden, a place where children lived, was the entirety of his. Zero Two adds that one day, she went outside for the first time. Though Zero Two says that she can't forget, Hiro says he'd forgotten completely. She says she can remember the vastness of the outside and how warm the hand she held was, or the promise they made.

As a child, a shackled Zero Two wonders who she is, though she never crossed her mind as a child. She was trapped in her room for as long as she could remember. Though she felt like she had even older memories, she soon forgot about them. When a person enters, Zero Two says that she was probably a stand-in mother. She would bring her food and pet her head. One day, for the first and only time, she brought her something that wasn't food. Though she tries to eat and break it at first, her "mother" flips open the page and Zero Twobegins looking at it. She is amazed by its bright colors and different shapes. Though it had words, she couldn't read. After that day, she never showed up again. The book was her first "pretty thing." She was sure the outside world surely had many more. She adds that she was half right and half wrong. She is unshackled and dragged out of her room.

Looking out a window, Hiro also wonders who he is. In contrast, he says that he always thought about it. He was in the Garden for as far back as he could remember. They lived there to become parasites who would fight for Papa and the others. All children were referred to by their code numbers. The lower the number, the higher the child's potential as a parasite. The double-digits up to 099, especially the teens in particular, were given special treatment. Hiro was one of them, and he was told he was special, unlike everyone else. When Hiro tosses a ball, it rolls into Ichigo's feet. She sits crying and doesn't look up. Ichigo wonders if she's strange since everyone else has stopped showing emotion, though she continues to cry and says she wants to be like everyone else. She asks if she should get more injections. Hiro says that their codes are in the teens, so they were different from the others to begin with. She says she doesn't want that and being different is scary. Hiro sits beside her and asks if she wants a name since he gave himself one. He says his name and says she'll feel better if she has a name like him, so he names her "Ichigo." She asks why Ichigo and he says it was what came to mind when he thought of her number. He says that having a name makes it feel okay to be different. She is amazed and asks if he can name the others. He begins naming the other children, including Mitsuru, who was happy to receive his name. The other children are happy to get names. Two adults enter and say that they can't change their designation without permission. Hiro politely asks what the problem is. The adults realize he's one of the teens and simply tells him not to just do as he please before leaving. Hiro thinks that they never answered his questions and the other children never asked any.

The children watch as the adults pack up one of the beds. Hiro narrates that children were gradually disappearing from the Garden at regular intervals, though the adults wouldn't tell them why. Hiro was designated a special research subject and underwent tests at the Lab all by himself. If he did well, he was given a reward (two pieces of candy). One day, after testing, he witnesses Zero Two being dragged along for testing. Dr. FRANXX looks over her and notes that she leagues better than all of their past specimens and can't believe she developed such a human form. A laser is centered on her palm and when it fires a hole into her palm, she screams in pain. Dr. FRANXX is amazed at how quickly her skin regrows. Hiro asks an adult who "the girl with horns" is. She becomes frustrated and scolds him for always asking questions and orders him to his room. There, he decides to find out for himself who she is. After testing, he tries to sneak off, but is stopped by an adult. He fails in his other attempts and runs out of ideas. Outside, he notices the girl trying to get her book back from an adult. He scales a large tree to look through her window. Zero Twomanages to take the book back and the woman gives up. For a reason unknown to Hiro, he is overjoyed to see her happy.