"Hey guys, look at this quiz I found online!" Miku called out to the other girls, waving her pink phone in the air. The school day has yet to start, and the Student Council girls and Zero Two were wasting time waiting for the bell to ring. "It says it can find your 'spirit animal'!"

"Hmm? Lemme see!" Zero Two was there in a flash, grabbing Miku's phone while pulling out her own.

Ikuno glanced up from her book and scoffed. "'spirit animals?' How idiotic…"

Miku scowled but before she could respond with a rude retort, Kokoro popped up between them. "Now now," she said with a motherly tone, a hand on both their shoulders, "no need to act that way."

Smiling, Ichigo pulled out her blue phone. "Yeah, even though it's stupid, it sounds fun! We should all take it together."

"Well sure why not." Instantly, Ikuno lost all her skepticism and was taking out her own purple phone. Miku rolled her eyes at the bespectacled girl's sudden shift in opinion just because of Ichigo while Kokoro softly giggled.

Pulling out her green phone, Kokoro announced, "Okay, we'll start it all together in 3… 2… 1!"

A couple minutes later, their results came in.

Grinning, Ichigo waved her phone that had a small moving picture of a cat on it. "I got a cute kitty-cat!"

The others laughed. "How fitting," smiled Ikuno. "I got an owl." She showed off her phone to the others, who collectively aww-ed at the adorable owl on the screen.

"I got a bunny!" Miku announced proudly, thrusting her phone into the air. An auburn rabbit cheerfully jumped around on its screen. "That's exactly like me!"

Kokoro gently smiled. She held up her own phone where a big brown bear blissfully rolled around. "I don't know, I got a bear…"

Miku threw her arms around Kokoro's shoulders with a grin. "It fits great! Because you're like a big cuddly mother bear!" She said, nuzzling her face into a giggling Kokoro's cheek.

"How about you, Zero Two?" Asked Ichigo. The others turned towards the unusually quiet girl. "Yeah, Zero Two," Miku grinned, "what'd you get?"

"I got a dinosaur."

"… oh... I mean, s-some dinosaurs can be... cute…?"

"It's got big teeth and big horns." She held up the phone in her hands, showing off the monstrous looking dinosaur snarling on her screen.

The others were silent. "U-uh, it's fine," Kokoro smiled cautiously. "These online quiz things are just for fun. We probably shouldn't take them seriou-"

"That's amazing! Don't we look exactly the same!?" Zero Two held up the red phone next to her face and silently imitated the roaring dinosaur on her screen. The four girls had to admit the two of them were pretty similar looking.

"Hey, Miku, where'd you find this quiz?" Zero Two asked excitedly. "These are fun!"

XXX-XXX-XXX

"Hey, darling! Look!"

Hiro glanced up from where he was tinkering with Strelizia. It was lunchtime, and Hiro had taken the chance to mess around with some of the mecha's calibrations for the fun of it while eating. Usually, Zero Two preferred to have lunch on the roof, but she was always happy to spend some alone time with her darling.

While Hiro had been messing around with their mecha, Zero Two was amusing herself with her latest interest - online quizzes. She waved her phone in his face, the result of her latest quiz on its screen.

"It says that if I were a flower, I'd be a sakura blossom!"

Hiro laughed, and pulled her into his lap to hug her close and place a light kiss against the back of her hair, Zero Two happily basking under his attention.

"Yeah, that sounds just like you. Beautiful like sakura blossoms.."

She beamed up at him with a bright smile.

XXX-XXX-XXX

"Pssst. Psssst! Hey, Ikuno…"

Ikuno loudly sighed, before turning around to face the pink haired girl who sat behind her. "Yes, Zero Two?"

"Look! It says my energy is red!" The pink haired girl was wildly waving her phone in front of Ikuno's face. "'I'm bold and brave! I exude so much confidence and have the ability to tackle anything in this world with gusto!' Doesn't that just fit perfectly?"

Ikuno stared at her tiredly. "Zero Two, this is the fifth quiz result you showed me in the past thirty minutes. Can't you do something normal like, I don't know, text Hiro or the girls or play games on your phone or read or literally anything else?"

With a loud gasp, Zero Two nodded. "You're right! I should text this to Hiro and the other girls! Ikuno, you're so smart!" She hurriedly went back to her phone and began rapidly typing.

"Did you literally not hear a word I said or…?" When her phone buzzed, Ikuno glanced down at it. On the lock screen, she could see Zero Two had posted a ton of things in the group-chat the girls had together. Sighing again, Ikuno tiredly swiped the notifications away and returned to her book.

XXX-XXX-XXX

"This is your fault Miku. I hope you realize that."

The girl in question rolled her eyes. "How was I supposed to know she'd become so obsessed? Besides, they're just quizzes. It's not like she hurting anyone by doing them."

The girls were gathered in the Student Council room after school, busy working on preparing for the Sports Festival. The boys had finished their share of the work and Zero Two had already wandered off, not being part of the Student Council in the first place.

Ikuno groaned, before faceplanting her desk. "That's because you don't sit next to her. She feels the need to let me know every result. By the way, Kokoro, here's where the decorations are going."

Kokoro softly giggled as she accepted the paper the face-down Ikuno had handed her. Ichigo placed a comforting hand on Ikuno's shoulder. "Look on the bright side," the petite blue haired girl said encouragingly. "Zero Two thinks you two are close enough friends that she can share this kinda stuff with. That's pretty big for someone like her."

Sighing loudly, Ikuno propped her head up to grumpily say, "I guess."

Suddenly, in unison, all their phones chimed at once. They each pulled out their phone to see Zero Two had posted yet another quiz result in the group-chat.

Once again, Ikuno sighed loudly, before dropping her head back onto the desk.

XXX-XXX-XXX

Having left school at the same time as Hiro, Zero Two was waiting in his room for him to finish his homework so they could do something more interesting.

Lying on his bed with her phone held over her head, Zero Two began yet another online quiz, this one claiming to be able to perfectly predict the future of your relationship.

Of the few insecurities she had, her relationship with her darling was the furthest from being one of them. Zero Two had no doubt whatsoever that the two of them were meant for each other, or for the love they shared together.

Humming a little tune to herself, she began to work her way through the quiz's questions with remarkable speed. The faster she finished this one, the faster she could go on to the next quiz.

Finishing with record speed, Zero Two waited with a smile on her face as the results loaded. It was always a nice boost to her confidence hearing people praise the relationship she had with her darling.

The smile dropped off her face in an instant when the results said the exact opposite. Frowning, she refreshed the page. But the big fat "INCOMPATIBLE" did not leave her screen. So Zero Two retook the quiz. And again. And again and again and again; yet that disgusting word would not stop showing up everytime she pressed 'get results'.

Now, Zero Two was getting angry. Who the FUCK did this piece of shit quiz think it was to call what she shared with her darling fucking 'incompatible?!' Better yet, what kind of absolute idiot designed this stupid worthless test? And where could she find them so she could put a foot through their face?

Looking up from where he was doing his homework on the floor, Hiro raised an eyebrow at the sight of Zero Two glaring at her phone with pure unadulterated hate. He slowly got up with a sigh and trudged over to the angry pink-haired girl who was too consumed with her anger with whatever was on her phone's screen to notice his approach.

Once he was close enough, Hiro threw himself onto the bed, entirely ignoring that Zero Two was already occupying most of its space. When her darling suddenly landed on her, Zero Two squealed with surprise.

"D-darling?!"

"Mhmm. Hold me for a bit, Zero Two."

Adjusting her position so she could better embrace her darling, Zero Two smiled. "Of course."

Tossing her phone aside, anger (temporarily) forgotten, she happily cuddled her darling. She doubted he knew what she had been annoyed with, but of course her darling would know exactly what to do to make her feel better.

XXX-XXX-XXX

"I noticed a suspicious lack of quiz results last night…" Ikuno began, raising an eyebrow at Zero Two. The girls had once again gathered together before the bell rang, and were wasting time by talking about whatever came up.

"Yeah, that was weird. Did something happen?" Piped in Miku.

Zero Two scoffed. "Online quizzes are so stupid. Completely inaccurate."

The others girls glanced at each other in confusion. Was this the same person as yesterday?

"Ah, darling!" Cheerfully called out Zero Two, who had spotted Hiro come in with Goro and Mitsuru. She got up from her seat and gleefully pranced over to her darling to glomp him with a surprise tackle hug.

Taking the seat Zero Two had left behind, Mitsuru glanced at where she was on the ground nuzzling her face into a laughing Hiro's neck. "What's up with her?"

Kokoro shrugged.

XXX-XXX-XXX-XXX

Writing this author's note a couple hours before the newest episode comes out. I'll post this story after I've watched Ep17.

Literally all I want from Ep17 is for Hiro and Zero Two to get their little marriage thing done without any interruptions. Just let us have that moment of happiness, please.

Oh my fucking god what an episode. Zero Two being cute as fuck, Hiro being bro as fuck, Ikuno jumping from the bottom of the best girl list right to the top (still under Zero Two, of course), Nine Alpha being a piece of shit, Kokoro and Mitsuru getting it on, Klaxohime going from nonexistent to best girl in 2 episodes - so many things happened in this one episode! I really can't wait to learn more about the klaxosaur princess because she looks like she's gonna be so much fun to write. Also, anyone else surprised when it was the little old looking hunched-over APE member that went all ninja? lol that made me laugh.

So yeah, that was a fun episode that also progressed the plot a lot. I guess Hringhorni is some sort of orbital laser weapon? I honestly can't wait for where this story goes.

Anyways, I'm probably going to get started on another fic. This episode made me really appreciate Kokoro and Mitsuru a lot more, especially how much Mitsuru has grown. And Ikuno. Oh Ikuno, you absolute beast. I love you now, but you're still going to be my favorite character to pick on.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to leave a review!