A brown-haired boy and a light brown-haired girl with shoulder-length hair, both aged around 18, approached a mansion in what looked like a large forest. They both carried a luggage bag each as they looked at each other and rung the doorbell. "Yasuto," the girl said to the boy. "Let's hope Squad 13 takes us in well."

"Same," the boy replied as he brushed his shoulders. "Kyouko, we'll be fine. This represents a fresh start for us."

Then, the door opened. Inmediately, a girl with short blue hair covering one of her eyes answered it. "Hello? Are you the two new parasites? Code 085 and Code 099?"

"Yes," Yasuto replied. "I am Code 085, and my pistil is Code 099, though we named ourselves Yasuto and Kyouko. I believe Hiro is in this squad, right?"

The girl, surprised, replied, "Uh, yeah! He's in Squad 13. I assume you were named by him in the Garden? Oh! I forgot to introduce myself!" She then extended her hand for a handshake. "I'm Code 015, the leader of Squad 13. As you may know, my "name" is Ichigo. Kinda fitting given my code number, huh?"

"It sure is," Kyouko replied as she and then Yasuto shook her hand. "We were not exactly named by him, but when we visited they Garden soon after we became pilots, we saw you guys and heard Hiro naming you. You guys grew up pretty well, I see."

"I suppose," Ichigo replied, not knowing how to react to the two. She thought to herself, "These two seem a bit familiar, but..."

The two then walked into the mansion, where they were met by a grand staircase that split off into two staircases leading to the upstairs. "Wow," Yasuto said. "This place looks pretty nice."

"It is," Ichigo replied. "Let's go meet the rest of the squad." She then lead them to the dining area in the house. "You'll meet the rest of the squad there."

When the three walked into the dining room, the entirety of Squad 13 was sitting and chatting with each other. They then all turned to look at the three, looking over the two new pilots.

"Everyone," Ichigo announced to her squad. "This is Code 085 and Code 099, also known as Yasuto and Kyouko. They are our newest pilots. They've been pilots for 5 years, and will be a much welcome addition to our team. Their Franxx unit, Heliconia, is all set to roll if we get something. Make them feel welcome."

Immediately, a girl with longer hair said to them, "Hi! I'm Code 556, also known as Kokoro. My partner is Code 214, also known as Futoshi." A slightly larger boy with brown hair waved hi.

"Another new pilot? And two of them?" A girl with pigtails seemed a bit annoyed. "Isn't one new one enough?" After Ichigo shot her a glare, she backed off and introduced herself. "Sorry. I'm Code 390, also known as Miku, and my partner is Zorome, Code 666."

"Hi," Zorome said to the two. "Yes, I know my code number is the devil's number. I'm not the devil, trust me."

"You sure act like it sometimes," Miku slyly said to him.

Zorome, annoyed, shot back, "Really?"

Ichigo said to the two, "It's fine. That's their way of interaction. It can be entertaining to watch sometimes." She then smiled.

"I'm Ikuno," said a girl with violet hair and a ponytail. "My code is Code 196. My partner is Mitsuru, who is Code 326." Mitsuru waved hi at them without looking.

Finally, a boy stood up from the table and walked towards the two. "Hi, I'm Hiro, Code 016. I heard you two talking about me earlier."

"Yeah," Kyouko replied. "We once visited the Garden as pilots and saw you naming your fellow parasite candidates based on their code numbers. We thought it was cool, so we came up with our names the same way." She then looked him over. "I must say, you look a lot different from back then."

A girl with pink hair then shot her a glare suddenly. Yasuto recognized her immediately. "What? No way!"

The girl told them, "You're not admiring my Darling in a longing way, are you?"

"No, not at all," Kyouko replied, surprised. "You must be Code 002 of the Nines. Or, well, previously of the Nines."

"That, I was," Zero Two replied. "I was Nine Iota back then. Now, I just go by Zero Two."

Yasuto said to her, "I'm surprised you chose a brand new squad like this one to make yourself a home." He thought to himself in worry, "At least she was never like the other Nines. The rest were all a bunch of stuck-up pricks. But... This one..."

"Who are you piloting with now? We know 086 got killed in the last battle you guys had." Kyouko then sat down at a table.

"I'm piloting with Hiro, my Darling," Zero Two replied as she pointed at Hiro. "He apparently doesn't remember it, but the two of us were amazing out on the battlefield."

"Yeah," Hiro himself replied as he shrugged. "I guess I did pilot, and I did pretty well."

Then, two older people, about their mid-20s, stepped in. The girl, who had long red hair, spoke first. "Hello, everyone! I'm back! As it was in the Garden, I'll be your caretaker here too. If you don't know who I am, which would be surprising, I'm Nana, your APE-assigned caretaker here at Plantation 13. Me and my partner Hachi will watch over you and ensure you are taken care of."

Hachi then bowed to the squad and said, "My name is Hachi. I will work alongside Nana to ensure you guys remain safe and sound. Thank you."

As the rest of Squad 13 smiled in joy of their former Garden caretaker coming back, Kyouko and Yasuto were in absolute shock. Yasuto thought to himself, "What the fuck?! They're... THEY'RE CARETAKERS NOW?! CODE 007 AND CODE 008 ARE CARETAKERS?!"

Nana felt something was off about the two new parasites. She turned to Hachi and whispered to him, "I don't know why, but something feels weird about 085 and 099."

"Same here," Hachi whispered back to her. "Nothing that would be bad, though. Just the suspicion that I've met them before."

Yasuto broke the ice by going up to both of them and shaking their hands as he said, "Hello. I am Code 085, and my partner over there is Code 099. We have been pilots for 5 years now, and we are delighted to be assigned to your squad, Nana 13 and Hachi." He was able to keep his shock under wraps as he introduced himself and his partner.

"I can tell you will be a pleasure to work with," Nana replied to him. "I'm glad to have you and Code 099 on the team. Your experience with Heliconia will be a major help for us."

Kyouko also shook their hands as she said, "Thank you for the kind words." She thought to herself, "Look at what APE has done to them. They've basically become slaves."

As the two relaxed near the small riverbank in Mistilltein, the two chatted about the day's events. Kyouko said to Yasuto, "So far, the squad seems very nice. Their leader is nicer than the last one."

"You can say that again," Yasuto replied as he washed his face in the water. "What he did was bullshit, and he fucking deserved that punch." He then sighed. "Anyways, I still can't believe Nine Iota, 007, AND 008 are assigned to our squad."

"Me neither," Kyouko replied. "What a coincidence, eh? Anyways..." She then began to unbutton her uniform shirt as she seductively approached Yasuto. "Since there's no cameras out in this area, and since they're all still inside, we can christen this place, if you know what I mean..."

Yasuto chuckled before he moved in for a kiss. After they split, he replied. "We could go for a quick little romp. Just gotta make sure nobody finds out like the last 100-something times we've done this." The two then laughed as Kyouko practically ripped her uniform shirt off herself and then undid her bra.

"Let's have some APE-triggering fun," Kyouko replied as she tackled Yasuto to the ground and landed on top of him, making both of them laugh.

Later, as the pistils in Squad 13 got changed, Miku groaned as she put on underwear, "Damn, these things are freaking tight." She then adjusted herself. "Why can't they make them a bit bigger so it isn't literally a fight to put them on?"

Kyouko said as she took her bra off, "I think I need to get a new bra. Kokoro, if you think your chest is big, you have no clue." She then pointed to her exposed chest. "I'm still growing, and I haven't gotten a new set of bras in a year and a half. You'd think APE would care about that, but nope." She shrugged as she also sighed.

Kokoro looked over at her as she put her bra in her locker and said as she looked at her chest and Kyouko's chest, "I do notice that your... Well... Breasts are bigger. Will mine grow to that eventually?" She blushed slightly in slight embarrassment.

"Maybe", Kyouko replied as she also struggled with her underwear. "Since me and Yasuto are older than you guys, it's even more so of a challenge for us to put on the special underwear." She then adjusted herself.

"Anyways," Kokoro replied. "I hope we get used to actual connecting soon. It feels so weird outside of training."

Miku then suddenly approached her from behind and hugged her, saying to her, "It's as if butterflies are flying all around your stomach and spreading into the rest of your body!" The two then laughed.

Ichigo then told them, "It's not that bad. It kinda put me at ease, in fact." She then stood in the machine that put on the suit she wore in the Franxx. As it scanned her body and put the suit on, she said, "It did feel a bit weird at first, but I got the hang of it."

"Same here," Kyouko replied. "Listen, for all of you, connecting for your first time does feel weird. Trust me, you'll only get better at it every time you do it. I've been doing it for 5 years." She then turned to Ichigo. "Say, Ichigo, are you sure you wanna pilot with Hiro eventually?" She looked concerned for her new leader.

"Trust me," she adamantly replied. "I. Will. Be. Fine." She emphasized each word in that sentence to prove her point, and she was clearly getting frustrated.

As Kyouko, Kokoro, and Miku stepped into their scanners, Miku said, "Speaking of Hiro, I still can't believe he rides with another girl once and she's already calling him "darling." It's so cute." She then laughed. "Maybe those two will make a good pai-"

Suddenly, she was interrupted when Ichigo punched the half-door on her scanner in frustration. "Enough! For God's sake, stop doubting I can do this! Me and Hiro are only 1 number apart. Read my lips: When the time comes, WE. WILL. BE. FINE! That is all I have to say on the matter. Thank you!" She then walked out of the changing room as Ikuno stepped out of her scanner.

Miku said in confusion, "Gee, what was that all about?"

"I have an idea," Kyouko replied. "I think she wanted to pilot with Hiro the whole time, and was angry when he failed his aptitude test with... Who was that girl he was with?"

"Naomi," Ikuno replied in a quiet voice. "It was Naomi."

"Yeah," the older brunette replied. "Naomi, Code 703. I think Ichigo was going to request Hiro to be with her and Goro to go with Naomi if they passed." She thought to herself, "There's a lot more to it than just that, though. These guys may not know it yet, but what Ichigo is experiencing is love."

"Still," Kokoro said to the group as her bodysuit was put on by the scanner. "Her reaction seems a bit disproportionate."

Later on, as Squad 13 got ready to roll out, Kyouko and Yasuto hopped into Heliconia, their Franxx. For their first drill, these two would leave their bay early and guide Squad 13 through the motions.

Heliconia was originally a black standard model Franxx when it was first delivered to the two parasites 5 years ago. However, over the years, it had received a variety of modifications, some by APE and others by the pilots themselves. Like Squad 13's unique Franxx, it now had a moving face that appeared when it was activated. However, unlike their Franxx, Kyouko's body was not completely immobilized when piloting, and she could freely move her head and speak through her regular body, which would be replicated by the facial movements of their Franxx unless she activated a mode called "Stealth Mode," which allowed for her and Yasuto to speak to each other without anyone else hearing them. Among the physical changes to their Franxx included the removal of its original yellow goggles and replacement with flip-down red goggles, the addition of missile batteries to the forearms that could fire up to 20 missiles at once, 10 on each forearm, to complement the original spear harpoon, the modification of said spear harpoon by replacing the original harpoon with a perforated harpoon that could implant itself in a Klaxosaur and then fire off hundreds of metal shotgun shells, the repainting of its spear harpoon to a dark crimson, and the repainting of its black sections on its body to red and its gray/white sections to light yellow to match the colors of the flower they were named after. These modifications were done both as experiments and as a form of repair due to damage sustained over the years. If Stampede Mode was activated, it would go down to all fours like all other Franxx, its "mouth" would expand into a larger mouth flap to fit sharp teeth, and its eyes would transform into a bright red with no pupils or irises.

As Heliconia stood outside the closed Franxx bays, Kyouko said to Hachi, "Do you wanna give the speech, or me?"

"Either one," he replied from a command center. "You've heard it plenty of times, after all."

"Got it," she replied. She then said to Yasuto, "Ready?"

"Of course," he replied as he looked out to the now-opening bays.

Kyouko then said to Squad 13 through Heliconia, "Okay, here's the rundown. Hachi will give us the overall strategic instructions, but Delphinum, piloted by Ichigo and Goro, will be the field commander and make any and all tactical decisions. Any decisions made by her are final unless overruled by Hachi. Now, when you connect for the first time, it will feel at bit weird. Trust me, it only happens for the first time. All other times, you will feel fine. Remember, communicate, communicate, COMMUNICATE! Over 80% of line of duty deaths among parasites are caused primarily or in part by a lack of communication between pistil and stamen. Don't be part of the problem, be part of the solution. If you go down in a real battle, the rest of us have to stop what we're doing to rescue you, and now we'll have two major problems to deal with. As long as you keep talking to not only your partner, but your fellow teammates in other Franxx, you will most likely be fine. So, now that that's out of the way, connect."

Yasuto then said to Kyouko, "Good job with that speech."

"Thanks," Kyouko replied as she smiled. "Say, what music do you wanna put on for practice? I was thinking some Journey might be a good idea. Throw on Escape."

"Same here," Yasuto replied as he pressed the onscreen button for an app on his HUD in the Franxx called "Stored Music." He then scrolled down to an album called "ESCAPE BY JOURNEY-FOUND AUG 8 2062 (FIND #1-1)-RELEASE DATE JUL 17 1981" and selected it. As soon as he did, the first song in the album, Don't Stop Believin', started playing. The stamen said, "Ahhh, I always love it when this song comes on."

As the other Franxx units stepped forward, Futoshi said to Kokoro in Genista, "How was I? Was I bad?"

"Not at all," Kokoro replied as she smiled and chuckled. "You did pretty good."

Zorome, in his usual somewhat arrogant self, replied to them, "Quit it with all the lovebirds crap. Me and Miku were the first to finish, after all. Take that, double-digits!" Zorome then had Argentea point at Delphinium.

Kyouko then jokingly said to him, "You know, being the first to finish isn't always a good thing." Yasuto could barely contain his laughter at the sex joke that flew right past everyone else's heads.

"Well," Goro said to himself and Ichigo. "Looks like he's in high spirits."

Ikuno then stepped in and said, "What exactly is the point of competing like this?"

"I'll show you why," Zorome replied as he made Argentea do several high-skill front flips in front of the team. As Argentea maneuvered almost seamlessly, the rest of the team looked on in curiosity and concern. "How's that?!"

"Be careful," Miku yelled at Zorome. "You're gonna-" Then, suddenly, Argentea lost its balance, and it began to fall. Thankfully, Delphinium reached its hand out and grabbed a hold of Argentea before it crashed into the ground, averting disaster.

Yasuto said to himself as he facepalmed, "Oh great, this shit again. There's always that one stamen in every squad..."

Ichigo asked them, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Miku replied, dizzy from the ride.

Kyouko said to the gang, "I kinda expected that. Miku, were you overextered at all?"

"I'm fine now," she replied as Zorome had Argentea dust itself off.

Then, Hachi broke up the conversation by radioing out, "Line up in formation with Delphinium in the center and advance. Heliconia, follow up behind them and give reports to me about their progress."

All of the team then radioed out, "Roger." The 5 Franxx units then proceeded out into the barren desert that stretched for miles around Cerasus Plantation for their training.

Ichigo then radioed to Heliconia, "Heliconia, we won't let you down."

"Thank you," Kyouko replied.

As they rolled out into the sunset, Hiro walked along the outer platform observation deck of Cerasus in a Franxx training unit, exercising himself and trying to blow off steam. As he came to a stop to watch the rest of Squad 13 roll out, he said to himself, "I swear, I will pilot again one day, whether it's with Zero Two or someone else. I know I can do it." He then continued along his run, determined in his goal.

Later that night, after everyone else had returned to their quarters, Kyouko and Yasuto stayed up to install a new set of songs into Heliconia's computers. After plugging in a laptop into a small USB port in the side of Heliconia's right leg, Yasuto said to Kyouko, "Alright, I'm in. All I gotta do is now navigate to the Music folder we created and put it in there." He then selected the .flac files they had converted a vinyl album they found to and copied them to Heliconia's Music folder. As it loaded, he looked over the Franxx from the bottom, looking for any dents.

"With the sudden change in squads," Kyouko said. "We haven't had time to convert that News Of The World album into .flac files. I'm glad we're getting along to it. It's a great album from what I've listened to."

"Hell yeah," Yasuto replied as he labelled the new album in Heliconia's music folder "NEWS OF THE WORLD BY QUEEN-FOUND FEB 20 2067 (FIND #22-1)-RELEASED OCT 28 1977" before closing out the folder, having successfully installed it. "Alright, it's done. Tomorrow, we'll put in The Game by Queen and that will complete our haul from our 15th find. Say, it says here that with that album installed, we now have 212 songs installed here. Nice."

"Say," Kyouko replied as she wrapped her arms around Yasuto from behind while giving him a longing smile. "One of the songs on there is like sex in the form of music. Get Down Make Love, it's called."

"Oh yeah," Yasuto replied. "Maybe we can find a spot away from the cameras and go do that ourselves."

"Certainly," Kyouko replied as Yasuto closed the laptop before standing up.