Author's notes: Credit for finding mistakes in chapter 1: 00zau
life fills in the recreated woods: a fish-filled lake, bugs on the leafs, apples and berries on the trees, a teenage boy, and many birds.
A white bird comes out of the great forest, above the trees. It reaches for the sun in the sky, but it hits an invisible ceiling of great illusion and delusion. The poor little thing falls into the ground full of soft green, but no trees. Coincidentally, it lands to next to its only witness, a black-haired teenage boy.
He saw the wonderful scene of unfortunate flight with his one and only functional eye.
He opens a book, has to flip the pages to look for an entry of a bird, whose image matches with the bird that's on the ground and seems dead. As the boy finally finds the entry for this bird, he stops looking at the bleeding corpse. He sits down and silently reads the passage as he toys with the strings of his eyepatch.
The sounds of desperate flapping interrupts the boy. He looks away from his book and their valuable pages, he sees the injured Dove fly into the dark depths of the forest.
He gets up and chases it, he must help it! After all, this is a part of the only purpose he can find within his life after being regarded as an 'living embodiment of failure'.
In its broken state, the bird flies through the land of trees and berries . It soars low and close to the earth's green hair. Through the dark tunnel of life, there is light ahead. And the bird repeatedly kicks on the ground to stay in the air, to fly into its goal of light in its dark journey.
As the bird keeps moving ahead, the light grows in size and it becomes a sun. Then it devours the dark wooden cave.
The bird made it, it flown into the land of paradise, an ordinary lake with ordinary fish.
For animals, it's wonderful.
For humans, it's a bore.
The exhausted bird lies down on the floor of living and fresh grass. It has gone to its desired destination, but it is still a bloody mess. It can't hardly fly to save its own life. All it can do is find any insects or find some seeds on the ground and feast on them. It can only hope for a miracle that its wounds heal up quickly, so it can fly again.
From the dark wooden cave, there are sounds of the grass getting stomp on by black shoes, they are pushing a boy's body towards the injured bird. The body is holding a book with both of its arms.
The head of the masculine figure looks at the white feathered victim in need of rescue. Its right eye focuses on the heavy breathing of the bird rather than his own, to properly check if it is still alive. The ears of the boy hears the unusual clicking noises of the bird, great pain comes out of the bird.
As it gets out of the woods the boy's body slows down till it stops at the point whem distance between them is so small and close. He sits down with both crossed legs. He uncages the book with his arms.
He peeks inside of the book. He tries to look for a page that'll tell him what do to with an injured bird. There are no pages in there that are related to his interest.
In great anger, he throws the book carelessly at the wet land. He looks around the wet land, he can at least find anything that can be used to help the bird. Simply wrapping the bird around with a towel or a piece of cloth can at least prevent the poor thing from getting infections.
He spots some clothes: panties, black tights, and a unique red parasite uniform that admittedly looks much better than the typical gray uniforms. The red uniform resembles a long-sleeved dress.
Something in the lake makes some splashes.
The boy picks up the red dress and turned his body. He looked at the book he thrown at the ground, he realizes there is a DENT on it. He is annoyed.
The boy turns his attention back to the bird. He gently wraps the long, red piece of clothing around the bird. Then, he lays down the bird to the soft ground.
He hears a huge splash from the lake as a girl goes underwater. His head turns to the spot in the lake where the splash is made.
For a second, he sees a girl.
Now, there is nothing. It's just the water that is always there.
He looks at the lake and watches it. The lake is silent and nothing is coming out of it.
Hiro is so afraid, so ashamed, so embarrassed.
Why can't he place any of the pieces together?
There were clothes here that would've led him to a trail and saved someone's life, instead he looked at the trail of bread and ate it, the ones who used it never came back home.
Why? Why? Why is he so useless? Such a hinderance, not for one, but to all.
Why did he get so caught up in his meaningless activities, as he dragged people down into the ship that sank while he got placed on the raft to live?
Why didn't Naomi's send off to the Seed stop Hiro from continuing his meaningless and useless practices?
Because of Hiro, the squad lost a valuable friend they had known since their childhood.
Why couldn't he just rode a Franxx with her? The other people in his squad worked together with their partner and operated their own Franxx. So why couldn't he done the same and just rode with her to victory?
"Why can't I be useful for once in my life?" He talked in somber.
He moves closer to the lake, right on the edge where the water meets the ground. Just to take a closer look at the waters that now serves as a grave. He thinks about the possibilities of a more fortunate future.
He wondered what he could've done if he just noticed this person earlier, if he could've prevented this tragedy, if he could've saved her. However, everything that was a piece of thought was just speculation no matter the debates.
Everything that occurred couldn't be undone. This incident was just another thing he accepted.
Some bubbles comes out of the water. A quick flash of a bleared, pink creature comes through the water, below the surface. It seems to be approaching the surprised boy.
Hiro thinks of the most horrifying thing that might be lurking in the lake.
Maybe it was a monster that taken the girl into the depths of the water. It probably drowned the girl and and contained her screams within the water, so no one heard them.
Now, it notices him! Now, it's his time to die and accept it as well!
It comes out of the water and it is a sight that truly fucks with Hiro's mind. It gets him to scream internally... A NAKED PINK-HAIRED BABE!
Her leap out of the water is truly a magnificent sight, a sight he unexpectedly loves. For a moment, the world slows down for him. He sees every detail of that tall feminine body, unfamiliar for the world of boys. He sees the curves of her body, her big breast jiggle, the fish in her mouth, and the shiny red horns on her head.
He saw the shiny red horns on her head!
Did he hallucinate a miracle and everything he sees was imagine? Did his mind force him to imagine this, to forget that she's dead?
He hasn't even notice it, but the girl already is on the solid ground, in the shallow parts of the lake. Now, she's aware of his presence as well.
Hiro looks like he has a heart-attack, after he gets through his first one in seconds.
The girl spits out the fish and ask, "is this an ocean?"
Hiro is confused.
"I thought you were dead, too." The girl says.
He heard the unthinkable.
Did she read the kind of books that Mitsuru reads religiously? Hiro read one page in Mitsuru's dark collection and he regretted it for the rest of his life.
"This ocean is really weird." Says the girl.
"Why do you want to swim in an ocean in the nude?" The boy wonders and questions.
The girl gets closer to the boy, whose one eye is screaming by this sudden puzzle, and it can't place the pieces together without breaking them. It doesn't help that she sniffs him out like a flower.
"To bathe."
Honestly, that isn't weird for Hiro. If a bird can take a bath in a public fountain, why can't a human bathe in a lake?
He realizes that the girl assumes that the water is an ocean. Yet, he wonders if he is ignorant about bodies of water or she is just stupid?
"Do you want to bathe, too?"
"Nah…" His voice lowers and his teeth clenches.
"But you have stared at this water for so long. It's like you wanted to swim in it. If you did, I couldn't blame you. This water felt so nice when it touched my skin and-"
His mind simplifies her paragraphs: Water. Water. Water. Blah. Blah. Blah. Jump in, boy. Jump in the water. Jump in with her. Don't you want that, Hiro?
Hiro snaps out of his horny mind and points to the red uniform on the ground, "I CAME HERE FOR THAT!"
She squishes her cheeks and let out a muffled "oh!"
She gets out of the lake completely and walks on the same ground as the boy. She grabs his shoulders and places his body right in front of her. Hiro looks at her in the eyes. Her grin forms her face, "So you're pervert! Do you like what you see? I could keep it on display... for you. Would you like-"
"NO!" The maniac speaks. "I just need that thing to carry what's inside of it, a bird!"
"Your food?"
"I'm bringing it to the nursery."
She stares at him with tight eyes. "You're weird."
To hear words like that come out of her mouth surprises Hiro.
As his eye turns away from her body, he says, "Why don't you wear some clothes before you say that again."
He tries so hard to keep his dignity (or what little he has left).
"Ok" She replies. "Just turn around. I'm uncomfortable when people see me putting on my clothes, but I'll be taking that uniform back."
He turns around in defeat. "Fine."
The girl picks up the clothes, one by one. She puts on a white headband that is wrapped nicely around her horns, it clicks on to the horns.
"You can look now."
The boy turns his head, he sees a naked horned girl wearing a headband.
His eye opens. "I thought you said- Just put what you have-"
The clothes on her hands rips are torn to shreds. She stretches a bit and gleefully aims the ball of destroyed fabric to the high tree of the forest, only to have the ball fall apart and its pieces blow away to the trees of the. She seems to moving like she is displaying her body to Hiro.
No, she is displaying her body!
Hiro's embarrasment provides his face with red blushes on his cheeks. His own hands covers up his right eye and his eyepatch (despite only having one eye that can actually see her).
"Come on, I know you want to see more of this!" She giggles and childishly spins around.
"You're right... it's just... I don't know." Hiro feels so uncomfortable. There's something about this that should scream to him as heaven but he is too conflicted to accept it.
"I think it's because... I don't deserve this..."
Unexpectedly, she charges at him and pulls his head to her face, she licks his face. Her eyes get filled with fascination.
"Your taste… It makes my heart pound…" Her eyes become seductive. "It's a taste of danger..." Her mouth opens wide and displays her teeth, featuring sharp canines. "You have earned this."
Everything starts to feel weirder for Hiro (somehow).
With both of her hands, she pushes him to the ground. Her body pins down him like a nail.
"Do you have a partner?" Her gentle voice comes out. It's soft like a pillow.
"No." The boy shames himself.
His face fills in the information for the girl. She doesn't need any more pieces. She understands the full picture.
"Do, you want one?" She questions.
Hiro nods.
She whispers into his ear, "Do you want to be my darling?"
Without knowing it, she places Hiro in a mentally tight spot.
Darling was a word that was unfamiliar to Hiro. He realized that he had read about the word a dictionary. He known it's been used to address one's beloved one. He only knew about one thing that used words connected to that idea, but it was in a different book.
"You mean like the doves?" Hiro questions.
"Like the doves." She calmly respond, even though she has no idea about what she actually says.
Before Hiro can ask any questions, there is rustling in the woods.
The girl gets up from Hiro and says, "Times up..."
"Sorry, whoever you are." Her voice gets colder.
"Hiro." He calmly spoke.