Ryūko was interrupted by a tall, pink-haired girl with red horns. "Ohayoue, darling!" said Zero Two, bursting through the door and darting straight to Hiro. "Did you go somewhere without me?" she knowingly asked him with a cocked eyebrow and a teasing smile, before licking his neck. "I know you did..." Well, there was no use denying the true facts, so Hiro went directly to the point, taking in her lovely redolence. "Yes, I did," he began. "I actually went back in time." "Is this your girlfriend, senpai?" asked Matsuri. "She's sexy as hell!" Hiro blushed at these words. He had never heard somebody tell him directly about his relationship with Zero Two in that language of the present day which is so easily lost upon the people of the future. But his "girlfriend," as Matsuri called her, turned quickly to her in response, fondling his cheek as . "My darling and I are one," she said, "but I still haven't shown him what comes after kissing yet, right, darling?" she turned to Hiro once again. "U-um, no," Hiro stammered, his cheeks as red as ripe tomatoes. "Not yet." Zero Two giggled before jumping to her feet and leaping to where Mei was, licking her cheek without hesitation, much to the latter's surprise and discomfort. "I see you know all about it," the voluptuous oni perceived, "even though you're from a very different world from ours." All this time, Ryūko and Satsuki stood there, frozen in amazement. For one thing, they had never seen a horned girl before, let alone watch one playfully lick other people. Oh, dear, thought Ryūko. We might be next line to get tasted by this damn girl. Is she a cannibal??? The hell she is. This pink-haired girl doesn't seem to be human, though. "But say, darling," Zero Two said, again turning to her long-lost love, "why didn't you take me along?" "Nana and Dr. Franxx had me go alone, as much as I wanted you to come with me," said Hiro. "Next time, though, I think we can go together!" "That'd be a splendid date, I must say," remarked Nene. "What do I call this ship?" "Beats me," a clueless Himeko replied. "I don't even know what the horned girl's name is." "There's no need to ship them," Mitsuko added. "It's already sailing the high seas, from what it looks like." Harumin chimed in on her big sister's comment. "So it looks like big sister forgot all about the tests we're supposed to have in our time, huh?" she grinned. Mitsuko was taken rather aback. "I can't deny it, can I?" "No. Not with how interested you are in this business," Harumin giggled. "Once we do get back to Tokyo," Mitsuko replied, "you will study for that test." "Meh, I don't even know how long we'll be here," her sister retorted. "I think we can put it out of our heads for the meanwhile." In the meanwhile of the Taniguchi sisters' conversation, the rest of Squad 13 entered the briefing room, and all of them had some very surprised faces. ZoroMiku was no exception. "Who are these girls?" Miku whispered to her partner. Zorome smirked. "Now's my time to get you back from the last time this question came up, Miku," he said in his huskiest voice. "Zorome the Great doesn't give a damn about who they are, but they are flaming hot," he teased. The tsunderes promptly began exchanging linguistic blows. "What did you just tell me?" Miku immediately asked with her hands on her hips, so incensed was she. "I'll say it again for your pleasure," her partner replied, grinning wider than ever. "Zorome the Great doesn't give a damn about who they are, but they're freaking hot!" Miku opened her mouth to reply, when Nana, Hachi, and Dr. Franxx all entered the room to begin the daily morning briefing. "Take a seat, kids," spoke Nana with a smile. "I've never had to handle this many parasites at once, I must confess," she said, turning to Hachi. "But not all of them are even parasites," he corrected her. "These newcomers that the doctor brought in haven't even had yellow blood cell injections yet. Just those two sisters escorted by code 056 have had blood tests," he said, referring to the Kiryūin siblings. "We'll wait for their results before taking care of the big group Hiro brought." "Understood," said Nana as the group seated themselves and came to order. "First off, we at APE want to thank you girls for visiting us and joining our cause," she said to the newcomers. "Your service to us will be most regarded and appreciated." "Get over this babbly nonsense already," Ryūko muttered under her teeth. "If we saved the world once, it should be a piece of cake doing it again..." "Not so fast, Ryūko," Satsuki whispered, having overheard her sister's words. "I don't know how powerful these scream dragons are, or where they come from." Nana continued. "And now, I will be assigning you ladies new code numbers, as I understand you all have names from your past. I will start with you," she said, motioning to Ryūko. Well, looks like we're all going to be integrated into the system now, she said to herself. I wonder what our blood test results came back as. "I can't say whether it's going to be the same with the rest of you," Nana said to Yuzu's side of the room, "but we have some very unusual code numbers as a result of these two sisters' blood tests." Satsuki's eyes widened. "And what does that mean?" she asked Nana. "You'll see, Kiryuin Satsuki, as I'm told your name is. Your little sister's is quite unique in and of itself." The briefing display projected the number: -017. "Why negative?" Mitsuko reacted. "What does it mean?" "I don't know yet," Nana replied. "That's what her blood test results were." Suddenly, Ryūko realized why her code number was infinite. "The Life Fibers in my blood are unreadable to the tests," she said. "That could be why." "Perhaps it is," said Satsuki. "I'm curious to see my code number, now. Remember when Iori shot some of your blood into Junketsu? My blood had to have had some reaction with your transfusion." It dawned on the both of them. "So your code number might be negative, too?" Ryūko asked. "That's how I read the riddle," Satsuki replied. "Let's see what the test comes up with." Soon enough, -019 appeared on the screen. Hachi's jaw dropped to the ground in amazement. "Does that mean that these sisters exhibit a respective positive and negative pulse?" he asked Dr. Franxx. "It's possible," he replied. "My verdict is that these co-pistils cannot be assigned ordinary numbers, as it would be a hassle to address them by name as 'negative one seven' or 'negative one nine." "So how should we designate them?" said Nana. "The same way the Nines are," said Dr. Franxx. "That shouldn't be a problem." "Well, in that event," said Satsuki, "I will take it upon myself to name this new faction. I'm assuming you're all here?" she spoke towards the door of the time chamber. Yuzu's eyes widened. "Harumin, was there somebody in the time-travel room this whole time?" She shrugged her shoulders. "I wouldn't be surprised, Yuzucchi." Just then, the door of the chamber burst open with a crash as twelve stars shone in the darkness of the unlit interior. Ryūko smiled as she spoke. "The Elite Four are here." "But they're not alone," remarked Satsuki. TO BE CONTINUED