…

Chapter 8

Strain

…

Me and Ichigo are beside Hiro's hospital bed, sitting on wooden chairs just brought for us, and an absent silence pervades the dusty air of the empty, aseptic room. We are both trying to carve from his face a semblance of hint of what he's thinking, if he's thinking anything at all. Since we sat in front of him, he's been staring the sunlight coming from the window right of him, ignoring us for quite a while, hand joined and sit upright, back abandoned on a stack of white pillows. If the doctor didn't tell us he was fine health-wise, we would assume he was in the same state of 02.

"The doctor says she will awake eventually." Ichigo says to him, trying to get through him.

His gaze shifts to the blanket over his lap, gaining some semblance of awareness, then lips part and we hang on them for a reply, but no sound comes out.

"Really?"

"Yes. Did you not ask him about her?"

Hiro then lifts his head and looks at us, and in his eyes a light veil of relief.

"I... When I came to myself, I was in the… thing beside the wall. The doctor took me out and made me some checks, and I saw 02 in that state… By the way, who is he?"

"A Parasite like us." Ichigo informs him.

"What…? B…but, we're… at Bird's Nest, right?" Hiro's eyes begin to dance between us, with a face like he's convinced of being in a dream.

"Yes. It's a bit complicated to explain… let's get to one thing at a time for now." I say gesturing my palms pressing down, trying to actively control the flow of the conversation. I see Ichigo glancing at me with my eye's tail… I just don't want to overload his head before we get to hear his story. According to what the doctor said, he's still a bit shaken and his head is still weak, so…"

"Hiro, what happened inside of Star Entity?" Ichigo asked Hiro. Maybe talking about the weather was more appropriate…?

Hiro focuses on her, albeit still in a daze, and adjusts himself better against the pillows.

"I… During the operation we managed to reach the door… Then something paralyzed Strelitzia. It was the Princess. She attacked us and took control of Strelitzia."

"Yes, we heard that, from 02 and Dr. FranXX."

"Really? Was she ok?" He looked at Ichigo relieved.

"She was fine, her… constitution saved her." Ichigo explains to him. "She was messy, but she could hold herself together."

"I'm glad…" I can see Hiro recuperate part of his spirit. "She was grabbed and hurled from the cockpit! It was horrible!" Says in pain.

"…Then? What happened?" I press on.

"The Princess immobilized me in the Stamen seat and brought me inside the weapon. Then… she used me to pilot it… I had no chance of fighting back" Hiro shuddered a bit. I did with him.

"How was she like?" I ask him, trying to picture the 'Princess' or whatever that Klaxxosaur was. Hiro then pinched his nose trying to remember.

"Small stature… blue skin, two light blue horns with white long hair… very similar to a human girl."

Whoa, whoa, hang on!

"…a Klaxxosaur the shape of a girl?" Ichigo was completely unable to believe him.

"S-She was as tall as me. But had a six-tail that used like tentacles."

Ah, well, that's the catch. The height… no, I meant- the tail!

"Anyways… I could sense there was… someone high in the sky and the Princess fired some kind of… laser from Star Entity at it, but then she was hit by something, I think, and Star Entity stopped. The Princess was incapacitated by some… violet web."

That's when the VIRM's violet cocoon surrounded Start Entity and started the countdown to destruction.

"So… I saw her in pain, then I decided to connect directly to her to try and help her resist."

"You connected to the Klaxxosaur Princess?" Ichigo asks widening her eyes sliding at the edge of the seat. "Like, connected with her to… what? What was the Host? Wasn't Star Entity down?"

"I-I think the Host was her." I look at Hiro like he's saying some bullshit, which I clearly think he's saying.

"I did the same with 02 at the attack of the Gran Crevasse to recover her… It's like… you have only to focus on the… horns. Or… tail." He tries to explain, visibly blushing.

I reflexively grab my chin with the right hand. Then he really connected to directly to her? Oh, boy.

Usually, when we Parasites connect to a FranXX, the latter acts as a 'Host', mediating the connection between Pistil and Stamen and distributing sensory and physical feedback. In this case, I can't imagine what would happen if one acted as 'Host' and the other as 'Parasite'. But I guess that Klaxxosaurs are… no wait, FranXX are really Klaxxosaurs! Well, that explains all this 'connection without host' stuff, doesn't it? The Princess was a Klaxxosaur and can be a Host, and… no, there's still something's amiss. The Host is something you control…

"After that, I passed out… and then I saw 02… in a dream. A second later I awoke and, somehow, she was already at the Pistil position… already piloting together. I could feel her being connected. She even called me Darling!"

"And the Princess?" Ichigo asked.

"The Princess disappeared…" He shrugged. "Then I sensed another presence in the sky, and I fired the same laser as the Princess… And the presence disappeared."

That was the GRB fired from Star Entity… I should shut my mouth about what happened afterwards in the battlefield. That really couldn't be helped, if he wouldn't have fired the laser, we wouldn't be here talking because VIRM would have mauled us to death.

"You fired the laser…" Ichigo ponders, and I can sense her mixed emotions.

I look her in the eyes. He just woke up from his deathbed: you should really stop on your tracks.

Ichigo locks into my eyes for a brief moment, then drops her gaze to the ground while sealing her mouth. Yeah… why wouldn't you say to him 'You destroyed half of the battlefield, friendly forces included'? Don't you even approach the subject, Ichigo, one catatonic friend is enough.

"Yes… after that, I called out to 02, and… she didn't respond." His expression darkens. "Then, I got out of my seat and went to check on her… she was… unresponsive. She… was a-already… like that." His voice starts to crumble.

No way. Could it be…

…It's like Ikuno's case of permanent injury?

I must tell the doctor about this, stat.

"I dismounted and leaned on her… and… I saw the ejection module's canopy activating on its own. I felt a very sharp pain in the back of my head, then all went black..."

He was in verge of tears. Actually, tears start to stream on his cheeks… I console my best friend by getting up and arching my right arm on his shuddering shoulders, with him sobbing in silence between his own hands. Ichigo gets up and reaches the other side of the bed to do the same with his slouched back, while caressing his sides.

The canopy must have collided with his head, and then the ejection module must have slipped out of Star Entity... somehow.

Eventually Hiro stops crying, relieved from his load on his chest. I level my head with his and give him a friendly smile. "Anyways, did you have breakfast yet?" I divert his attention to a happier subject.

He smiles back and places his hand on my back, reaching from below my armpit. "No… I just woke up."

"Want something to eat?"

"Yes, please… I'm a bit starving."

"I'll ask if there's a breakfast tray somewhere around here." I ruffle his hair and start walking towards the door, accompanied by a perfect excuse to get outside of the room and talk to the doctor.

...

...

After the sound of the elevator closing, Zorome and Miku jolt up from their hiding, looking over the glass of the artificial tree garden over to the elevator

"Was that Goro?" Zorome asks curious.

"Y…Yes. I guess he just went upstairs, to the hospital... Ouch!" Miku responds in a pinch.

"What was that?" He turns to a Miku straightening her back with both hands.

"For how much time we were like that? Felt like forever!" Miku asks Zorome, while stretching and bending her sore back.

"Yeah! I'm surprised Ichigo didn't send any requests yet! Did she ever do the roundup with Kokoro?" Some strange occurrence that was, Zorome was convinced that by now he would have tons of work to do. "Well, whatever. I'm gonna go and find Hachi then. I wanna ask some things."

"Ha! I'll accompany you… I'll ensure you won't make a fuss!" Miku grabs him by his wrinkled collar, straightening it.

"Really…?" Zorome says while Miku nags him.

"…I'm not in the mood for work, ok?" She brazenly confesses.

"Well… Ok!" Zorome felt relieved at the thought that Miku would sacrifice her own work time to help him. "Actually… how do you go to the command station?" He asks wondering.

Miku shudders to his Stamen's naivety.

"Zorome! Don't you tell me you were going there without knowing how!" Miku frowns while locking her hand onto her sides and leaning over him, her twintails dancing. "How helpless can you be!" She then shoots her hand in her skirt's pocket and gets out her Communicator.

"Function: call Hachi!" She shouts at it. -Blip- the device turns on and lights up its orange holographic display, visualizing an image of Hachi over a "Calling…" green caption.

"Call outgoing to: Commander Hachi." A robotic female voice confirms the accepted vocal command.

"You have his number! How!" Zorome protests.

"Yeah, weren't you at th-… ah, no… you weren't… Ah… Hehehe!" She giggles quite embarrassedly. "Whoops, I was supposed to give it to you… I forgot!"

"Ahhh! That's why everyone didn't bat an eye earlier." Zorome connects the fact that no one asked him how to reach the Command Station when he announced it in the rec room: it was because it was obvious to them.

"Yes?" A very loud, mature voice comes out from the handheld.

"Uwa!" Miku recoils and flips her Communicator high in the air in the jumpscare, rotating unnaturally fast it's weightless holographic screen, and Zorome jumps to catch it in mid-air with quite the athleticism.

"Code 390? What's happening?" Hachi's emotionless voice resounds from the loud speaker, and a 'Voice only' red message hangs on the screen. Zorome recovers from the jump, then dials down the volume of the call, and speaks to the device back.

"UUmmm, h-hello? I'm actually code 666… I had 390 help to call you, sir."

A once scared as hell Miku sighs in relief as Zorome recovers her precious gadget from a potentially destructive flip.

"Oh, good morning. What do you need?" Hachi asks with his usual no-nonsense attitude.

"Aaaah… I'd… like to talk… I mean… ask!... about…" Zorome breathes deeply to calm down, obviously being very nervous. "I would ask you, sir, if I could come over in the command station, because I would like to ask something."

"Mh…. Is it an emergency?" Hachi asks.

"N-no, I mean… It's not, but it's… personal. Could you sir, spare… some time?" Zorome says with a scared voice, unsure of Hachi's response.

"Mh. Sure, no problem." The officer responds in his characteristic monotone, but without hesitation. "If you want, just get into the elevator, I'll call it over. Is 390 coming over as well?"

"Y-yes sir."

"Please do."

"T-Thank you sir! Be right there!" Zorome ends the call, grinning with a smile. He then hands the device over to Miku.

"Thanks." She says, while taking it off his hands. "Shall we go?"

"Yessir!" Says Zorome all jolly. He then marches in good spirits towards the elevator, whistling in high spirits and flinging his arms about. Miku looks at him half-ironic and half-amused when he does a spin while walking, then decides to follow his partner to the entrance of where they would ascend the command building, towards its utmost top.

"Such a kid…" She tenderly complains.

The elevator opens right before Miku and Zorome reach its entrance, inviting them in. So, they take the hint and get right into it without hesitation- then the doors closing right behind them, startling them both.

"Whoa!" Zorome reacts, with Miku on his side none the wiser.

The button panel colors flashes all green, then unpowers, only the top button staying lit, labelled 'Command Station'. So, the cabin starts to move upwards, accelerating and rising the 'Current floor' orange vertival bar to the right of it.

"Hehe…!" Miku giggles beside Zorome. "Well, it's the first time for me too!"

She didn't notice until too late, but the hand of Zorome was closing on hers, making her jolt in surprise.

"Zoro…" She winds up the scolding, only to stop in her tracks after turning towards him. Zorome's face was directed at the floor, visibly scared and darting looks at her.

"What… where went the bold Zorome I knew?" She points out at him,

He shamefully looks away.

"Ah…No I meant… Sorry… I didn't mean it." Miku backpedals immediately at his reaction, waving her hands worriedly, having promised to not step on him like that again.

Zorome takes a breath. "It was way easier when we piloted our FranXX." Zorome wonders back to those times. "Now don't know how to… talk to him. Will he… shame me…? I'm…"

At those times, he would just sit down in the briefing room and behave all fired up and arrogant, all sure of himself about his piloting skills. Always pushing himself, his FranXX's envelope and the one of his partner's, wanting to impress the Adults… now, what face will he wear when meeting him, now that he's useless all the time?

"…He's an Adult, right?" He tells Miku. "To them, we are…" He hangs his words on his lips, unable to take them out.

That strange day, lost in the City below Mistilteinn, the Adult granny told him.

"We were… their hope and salvation." He finally let his words fall to the ground.

Miku shoots up her eyebrows and freezes in her spot.

"Who told you…?"

"An Adult."

"W-What! When!"

"Remember when got lost in the City?"

Miku gets surprised and covers her mouth, unstable on her feet. Her gaze bounces around left and right the elevator, trying to process the revelation.

"I see. But… I think Hachi is different from every Adult. Did he ever shout at us, or disrespected us? Never! Even when we made mistakes, he always remained… Hachi." She inserts her hand in his, trying to make amends.

"Nana sure did!" He regains the light in his eyes while cradling her hand with his own. "But even for her, it was different. I… felt I needed her regardless." Melancholia takes over him.

"Heh… I'm… helpless, right?" He says, forlorn, to her.

"It's ok, I sometimes feel the same." She then presses herself onto him, hands still joined, and places her head against his shoulder. He opens his mouth in surprise, then smiles full teeth, in joy, while she does the same.

A moment, then both eyes lock onto each other, guided by emotions they didn't ever feel before. Miku and Zorome keep the gazes interlocked, trying to decipher their own instincts, but in vain, as they gravitate toward each other both attracted by an invisible force. That motion was their everything in that moment, as they notice each other's lips in an inescapable attraction.

-Bing!-

The elevator doors open, and they turn, finding a serious as ever and unmovable, towering Hachi looming over them, right beside the door jamb, having called the elevator.

The two Parasites jerk in pure fear and detach immediately from their intimacy, springing apart one beside the other. Going instantly at attention, both stares firmly planted on the steel tiled floor of the elevator, Miku sweating all over and Zorome trembling like crazy.

That was the one thing that was not allowed.

Something.

Absolutely.

Not.

Allowed.

Hachi stares at them.

"Rest." He orders implacable.

As like both were like tied to a pole from behind, at the command they reflexively slump their backs returning to a more comfortable posture, although still tense, a hole inside each one's chest.

Hachi blinks a few times, then…

"Please come in."

They slowly come out of the elevator, stopping just a foot outside from the door frame, like stepping at centimetres from a gigantic, endless chasm.

"Did something happen?" Hachi asks to the two strangely behaving kids.

"…" Both freeze in their respective positions, still in complete disarray.

"…Hello?"

"I-I-I'm sorryyy! P-Please…" Miku almost in tears begs him with a sliver of voice.

"About what?" He calmly questions her a bit taken aback. "Didn't you come to ask me something?" He asks Zorome, who's still under heavy breathing.

Zorome, convinced that it was impossible that he wouldn't have seen that, diverts the conversation far from that point regardless. So, he courageously lifts his head and declares his intentions-

"It was!... About Nana!" He almost shouts in his face, still tense like a chord.

Hachi recoils, still emotionless. "Oh. I… didn't expect that."

"Yes? Someone called me?" A thin woman in a dark gray officer uniform with a long gown, red-brownish short bobbed hair, slanted eyes and an assuring smile, comes over beside Hachi, who turns to greet her.

"No. Please, return to your post." He sharply orders her.

The woman freezes in the spot. Then, maintaining her smile, she bows, turns her back and returns from where she came, in silence. Hachi observes her walking away, then closes his eyes and sighs.

'Greet' was an overstatement, noted to himself Zorome, as he clearly understands that Hachi wasn't angry about the scene of him and Miku… close to each other in the elevator. Then, he relaxes and starts looking around.

Behind Hachi there's an oval room, full of widescreen terminals on desks full of technological stuff like headsets and tablets, arranged in a semicircle around a gigantic tactical display, in the usual black screen and bright orange fonts. White roller chairs are scattered around, some empty, some other carrying electronical equipment. On the floor could be seen stacks of trays like the ones that their companions where distributing at meal time.

"Where… is she? Is she ok…?" Miku presses on.

Hachi examines her intentions, then nods.

"Come with me." He guides himself among the messy terminal desks. Zorome and Miku follow him from behind, reaching the other side of the room, where a smaller interface panel was embedded to the wall. He passes a finger on the side of the panel, and a tactical screen comes online. The Parasites, some meters behind him, fiddle with the gadgets are on the tables, still a bit unsure where to position themselves around all that mess of a room.

"Function: search operator. Restriction: Cerasus. Code: 007." He recites the voice commands and the screen shows a slowly filling loading bar, that stops halfway prompting a message onscreen.

"Search completed. Found: -one- result." Speaks back the screen, in a virtual male voice.

"Function: Show results onscreen, video feed."

The screen flickers, then goes black. A four squared meters room comes slowly visible as the camera adjusts its exposure, containing a small bed, a WC and some food trays lying on the floor, abandoned. A silhouette could be seen sitting slouched against the wall… It was Nana. Totally immobile, arms bandaging her belly, nonresponsive.

"Nana!" Zorome exclaims, widening his eyes. "Is she even fine?"

"Yes…"

"Could we speak to her?" Miku asks.

"There's no intercom. That's actually a cell room." Hachi informs them professionally.

"W-WHY! Cell room?" Miku blurts out, in incredulity.

Hachi turns to them and starts explaining. "Just before the Gran Crevasse assault, she had her emotional block busted. So Papa ordered Protocol 84 to be applied on her."

"What was… that Protocol?"

"The same that each one of the normal Parasites undergoes, the emotional block procedure."

"NO!" Zorome yells in despair, afraid of Nana not being herself anymore.

"Don't agitate, she didn't. Everything fell apart before that."

Both the Parasites calm themselves, as Hachi darts his gaze between them, pondering. "Did you want to see her in person?" He presses them.

"I… Why is she there and not here? Where is she, sir?" Zorome asks politely.

"She's in a detention centre just a hundred kilometers north from here."

"Why she's still there!" Miku gets loud on her own.

"She refuses to go out."

"Why‼" Miku shows herself extremely nervous.

"390, relax." Hachi says tranquil to Miku, who lightly jolts upwards in shame.

"Why…? Why didn't you take her back!" Zorome asks him, dropping the formal etiquette.

"I've been checking up on her on a regular basis."

"Doesn't she want to return…?" Miku asks.

"Indeed, I… think need your help." Hachi admits with a very rare frown.

"Since you're already here and are preoccupied for her, I think you're up for the task. I'm actually unable to bring her back… she's emotionally unstable. If you could come with me, she might listen to you." He admits his worries to the two young ones.

Zorome and Miku widen their eyes and exchange glances made of pure surprise. A sense of purpose pervaded them: at last, they were needed.

"Just say the word Hachi. We're not leaving Nana behind!" A decisive Zorome closes his fists hard, while Miku nods convinced.

"We're in!" She announces.

"Nice. Present yourself in front of the east exit of Bird's Nest by 14:00, extraction by air transport. Don't forget to warn 015 of your absence."

"Roger!" They utter both in unison, fists in the air.

...

...

"Hey…"

I approach to the doctor while he's sitting in front of the intensive care ward's control station, inspecting some reports with big pictures of white images of human head sections on transparent black sheets, reclined on a chair and leaning his feet on the desk.

"Hey, man." The dark-haired pretend-doctor salutes back, still looking at the papers. "Is our Hiro still moping?" He slyly asks.

"He snapped out of it, I think. Are there any breakfast trays left?"

"Sure, take them, in that cupboard." Still inspecting the photos, he points blindly behind him where a steel cabinet was hanging to the wall above the steel sarcophagi. I move towards it and open the steel doors, to reveal quite the stock of ready-to-eat supplies.

"Whoa, that's quite the stuff you have here."

"Yeah, we have to take strict turns in monitoring the place, so hunger and food provision tends to be a problem." He casually says while turns the page.

I take one tray out, and close back the cabinet. Looking right of it, I still see 02 lying in the intensive care unit, still lips slightly apart and nonresponsive eyes. Then I close in to the Parasite doctor to inform him about my recent musings.

"You know, something came up when talking to him." I start the conversation. He stops in his tracks and turns to me.

"Like…?"

"You know one of my teammates, Ikuno?"

"Mmmm, no?"

"A white haired girl… Maybe she came over for a check-up."

"Uhmmm… I would be notified. No one with white hair came up here recently."

"Heh, I guessed right then. Anyways, she strained her FranXX in combat and her hair decolored."

"Sure, that's called Passive Feedback."

"Ah… that's what its called. No one ever mentioned it to me."

"Mh. Yeah, it's not a thing to be told if you're a Parasite. I'm a bit old, so I got acquainted with it."

"But your hair is fine…"

"It's not just your hair, it's something that depends on you on a personal level."

"Personal?" Like personal… what?

"Yeah, for example, to me happened that I can't move my leg."

"What!? Do you think I'm blind? You can walk!"

"Maybe…" He gets up his right leg and pulls up his pantaloon. He…

"Oh my... I'm sorry."

He shows me his prosthetic leg. Robotic prosthetic leg, to be precise: a solid-looking black carbon structure resembling a leg with synthetic muscles, tendons and bones, painted with hexagonal patterns.

"Cellular degradation is totally a pain. Don't sweat it, it's like having a real one that's a thousand times better."

"Then… could it be that 02… Ehm…"

"Yes…?" He compels me intrigued, while resting his leg down.

"Since she fired th-" I realize right there the mistake, reflexively bringing my hand to my mouth, hard.

Oh no, no, no, no! DAMN! SHE FIRED THE FRICKING LASER THAT KILLED EVERYONE! How the hell can I tell him that? I can't! How would he react knowing that? Would he harm 02?

"She was the Pistil in Star Entity that fired the Gamma Ray Burst, wasn't she? And Hiro was the Stamen, right?" He completes my phrase without even breaking a sweat or a breath.

Oh no, I fucked up. Royally. Again.

"If it's like that… then I owe my life to them."

"…Really?" I drop my surprise to bring up another one.

"Yeah. Mine and my Pistil's. If she wouldn't have done that, we would have been killed by a VIRM."

I let that sink in for a moment… I thought he would react badly.

"In fact… you did think it was Passive Feedback, didn't you? Well, I anticipated you, and discovered that it was not the cause."

Whoa, fast!

"Are you sure?"

"She doesn't have the signs of cellular degradation AT ALL. She's like the Nines, isn't she?"

"Oh."

"Well, that was that. No problem at all~" He turns away his roller chair, grabbing once again the bundle of papers he was studying and diving himself into them again.

I'm so downcast I could slump on the floor.

"Could you please not mention this to Hiro?"

"Sure, I don't want his head to burst… with gamma rays."

I instantly regain my good spirits at his pun. "Hahahah! Good one!"

"No biggie~"

"What's your code, by the way? We never exchanged ours." I asked him, curious.

He turns right again to me, serious.

"Oh, I didn't? I'm code 013."

Oh damn! He has a code more advanced than Ichigo!

"I'm code 056, nice to meet you."

"Wait… you're also Goro, are you? Go-Ro? That's clever! What I would be then?"

That's something Hiro would do in the past. We all bear the nickname he gave us when we were little… Let's see if I can do the same… Grabbing my chin and concentrating on the Onyomi and Kunyomi readings of his code… Hiza? No, that sucks. How about… Onyomi and English?

Hisui.

Nice! That's kinda appropriate.

"Hisui."

"Hah! What? Hisui…?"

"Yeah, like ishi, but not quite like one!"

"Hah! Hahahahaha! You scoundrel!" He chuckles away, while he salutes me turning to his papers.

I wave back to return to Hiro's room, having obtained the food pack.

About when I walk in the central corridor, he shouts at me from behind.

"Actually, I kinda like it! Approved!"

Hah, you're the scoundrel, Hisui, Auspicious Sun.

...

...

Hiro adjusts himself again on the bed, having finished his breakfast. He starts to be a bit distant, fiddling with his thumbs.

"I actually can't wrap around my head the fact that everyone…"

Yeah. Ichigo told him what happened around here while I was outside, just a little though.

"We're managing to scrape through. We wish everyone would help, but…" Ichigo refers to the widespread apathy that hit our comrades, moping and hiding away all day.

"Papa and the Adults…" He thinks deeply shaking his head in disappoint.

"I… actually saw more things when I connected to the Princess." He confesses. "I got visions that she was a Klaxxo-sapient… it was a civilization that lived on earth before humanity, right just before the... dinosaur extinction…?"

A… full blown civilization? Oh my. This really pulls me in. Were there any more Klaxxo like her, human-like? No one ever bothered telling us the truth, so I'm more than ready to take it in, anywhere and everywhere.

"We heard the Princess talk about their 'bond' but… sixty million years?" I ask him, wanting for more. "How much further did you see?" I try to compel him, while feeling a bit agitated.

"The Klaxxo-sapiens were a… civilization… far advanced than ours. At some point, they were attacked by… VIRM." Hiro pushes himself to recollect the details.

I need to be more careful about what I ask, I don't want to tire him before he tires me. But I also want to know… Stop a second. What did I just hear? Did he say Papa was there, sixty million years ago?

"To survive the war, they turned themselves into weapons, the Klaxxosaurs. After repelling Papa, they went inside the core of the planet…. The destruction that VIRM caused made earth inhabitable… for many years." Hiro reveals us.

"What about the meteor that extinguished the dinosaurs that we were taught about?" Ichigo tries to connect the dots that I'm too aghast to even see.

"That was part of the war. VIRM just… diverted the path of a meteor and hurled it towards the Earth to end all life on the planet. They couldn't destroy the Klaxxo-sapiens, so they resorted to the extreme solution."

I jump above my seat and look at him. No way. No way in hell. I wasn't ready for this. Not in a million years.

I just look at him while my breath goes wild, thinking how much of a bind we were. What the hell the Adults were thinking? Did they know all along? Were they even aware of who they were?

"They were using Humanity to destroy the Klaxxo, going as far as destroying the planet. That I gathered from the Princess when I connected to her, so I couldn't just stay there and watch." Hiro completes his report.

All our lives to… do what? Do their bidding then die quietly?

I just lift my hands up on my mouth, gasping for air while waves of sickness are passing through me. Instead ending up stressing him, I am at the verge of…

"Papa… You…"

You are the worst of the worst. You just deserve to die immersed in the curses that you brought upon us. Not only you fooled me, my dear friends, all our comrades that me and Ichigo dug up from Gran Crevasse, all of the fallen in the battle of Gran Crevasse, all of the others that remained helpless on the battlefield to die a painful death to radiation, all of the Parasites that sacrificed their lives and emotions to serve your DAMN WORD in all those decades, all of the culled Children from the Garden from the time where your stupid rules imposed kids like us to be spirited away, and never be seen again…! This…

THIS IS THE DROP. THAT SPILLED THE CUP.

IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT.

I HATE YOU SO MUCH.

"Goro! Please, return in yourself!" I feel my left arm being shaken and a distant voice calling for me. Recognizing that of Ichigo, I recollect myself to find her standing beside me, shaking me by my uniform, scared as hell. My heart is beating like crazy, my body feels heated and tensed up, my teeth grinding. What happened? Hiro also looks at me scared. Why…? Did I…? I just try to recollect what was I doing…

Did I just have a fit of rage in front of them? That's…

"Goro… You are bleeding…" Ichigo makes me notice my hands… My nostrils were picking up the iron-like scent of my own blood… Did I just drive my fingernails into the palms of my hands?

"Goro…?" Hiro is definitely worried about me, mouth open wide.

"S-Sorry…" I feebly say. What happened to me? I feel so lightheaded I could…

I feel myself slumping on the chair, with Ichigo trying to support me falling down. Right now, my legs aren't there, I can't feel them. My mind feels so light! It's like I'm in a dream, everything around me blurry and swirling slowly. Ichigo worriedly fixates me, trying to find what happened with me. She's so cute!

"I-I'll bring s-some wipes. A-And the doctor." She zips out of the door, not bothering to close the door behind. Slowly but steadily, my vision readjusts by itself albeit my glasses fogging completely, and my heart keeps pumping over and over making me nauseous. I just fix a point in my vision and try to focus my thoughts, while keeping my arms forward, trying to not dirty my uniform with blood. That would be a pain to wash out! Ah, I still have to get my stuff from the laundry… Damn me, always going about, dilly-dallying…

"Goro…! Are you ok? I… never saw you like that…" Hiro gets himself sitting on the border of his bed, trying to get to me. "I don't know what happened during my coma, but…!"

Hiro keeps looking at me, analyzing me, like him figuring out a complex problem from way back in class at the Garden. S-So what? Catching up with me having a limit? Do you think I never felt anything just because I didn't show it like you do constantly? Good thing that in Mistilteinn I preferred staying alone and with time I stopped chasing Ichigo, who in turn was your shadow constantly and everywhere you went, otherwise I would had felled a tree each day with my bare hands!

He snaps his look away, embarrassed and taken aback. Did I just glare at him? Why am I doing this…? Hiro is my friend… Why…?

"Ah…Sorry about… that. It's a while that I'm… pissy about everything. I'm just…" I just can barely talk.

The door opens, I turn and see Hisui literally waltzing into the room, with his characteristic long strides. He grabs me unceremoniously by the head and takes a look at each eye, feels my forehead with a thermometer and takes my pulse. After a while, he releases my wrist and a side of his mouth rises.

"Tachycardia, arousal, high temperature. Let's hook you up to the aid machine, could be just stress, maybe not. First though, disinfectant…" He takes a plastic bottle, squeezes it and a rivulet of oxygenated water comes out from the nozzle, landing on a synthetic cotton swab on his other gloved hand. Then he brushes it on my bloody fingernail injuries -ouch that stings- and bandages them with a gauze.

"Please come with me." He taps me on the shoulder, but I resist.

"Wait… I don't feel my legs."

He looks at me and nods.

"Stress catches up with you at the most inappropriate of times. Grab onto me, namegiver!" He takes my arm over his shoulder and gets me up standing. "Having my leg, you're a feather!"

"Hah…" I weakly respond.

In a daze, I feel Ichigo helping me at my other side, grabbing onto me.

In a moment, both of them bring me a room over, with an operation bed and some sort of machine looming over it.

"Let's get him onto the bed." Hisui says with confidence. Like that, I'm leaned against the table and Ichigo helps me laying down, looking extremely worried. The moment I get horizontal on it, I feel the world slowing down. Hisui then attaches me a… clamp… on my finger, integrated with a needle, making me jolt.

"Do you feel slumped?"

"Y-Yeah…"

"Ok. That's normal. You've got quite the low pressure. Ichigo, how much are you overworking your team?"

"I… overworking? What are you…?" She recoils as his sudden attack hits her pride.

"Don't mistake me as a fool, I was a Team Leader like you. Those days I used to see that very often, while the Adults gave us missions days after days… an absolute hell. That's a nervous breakdown, by the way." He points his index finger at me, with absolutely no emotion at all.

"What…!" She gets defensive at Hisui's barrage.

"I'll give you a tip: never destroy your teammates like that, because I'm not going cover for your incompetence. He's staying here for the day." He states while adjusting the apparatus dangling onto the bed I'm occupying.

"…" She opens her mouth, completely ashamed of herself. "I'm sorry…"

"You should be. Don't ever take anyone for granted, even your close ones. That's all."

She scatters towards the wall, leaning against it with arms crossed and a resentful expression.

"D-don't yell… to 'chigo… Hisui… It's… not her… fault…"

"Sorry Goro, some things are to be said. It can be dangerous, and there's always a way around those things."

As always, Hisui looks like a pro. He examines me, and nods.

"If you feel like sleeping, don't hesitate."

I… feel myself drifting… I just look at him tapping away at the machine's terminal, and that sound culls my awareness. I just… my eyes are beating into my orbits… I want to close them. It's like I never really slept well in my whole life, and now the sleep backlog is knocking hard on my head all at once.

I think I'm gonna follow Hisui's advice…

I'll be right back…

Just… in a…

Little…

Whi…

le…

...

Strain - END

...

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