Kawah Ijen
Shion knelt down to the floor, more because a large energy had left his body due to what he had just discovered and less because he was attempting to appear less threatening to the children in front of him. "Hello."
There were nine children, not ten, and only one of them smiled back. "Hello," he said. "Where's Papa?"
His time with Nezumi taught him the art of lying, and Shion used it to conceal any of the fury he felt towards the one they call 'Papa'. "He asked me to take you outside the Garden." Shion recalled the map route of Plantation 13 out of all the plantations in No. 3. He will need to be careful about the route he'll take these children through, some of them now had several bodies of the scientists carrying out human experiments, so he'll need to pick the routes that won't get any lingering scents of corpses.
Their eyes widened but still, only the black-haired boy spoke. "We're going out of Cerasus? Are we going to pilot a FRANXX?"
FRANXX. A unique sort of military machine No. 3 is dabbling in. All of it was straightforward and actually admirable if not for the children kidnapping and experimentation. "You can see them outside. But first, I have to check your attendance." He looked at the paper on the clipboard he had stolen. 667 children, all but 10 crossed out; all in codes and no names. His mouth felt vile just by calling them with numbers. "015?"
A blue-haired girl spoke clearly. "Present."
Shion was careful to keep any sadness out of his face. He picked another random code which weren't crossed out. "016?"
016's blue eyes looked rich. "My name is Hiro."
He was startled enough to smile. "Hiro? That's an excellent name."
Hiro beamed. "You don't mind? Would you take our attendance with it? I named all of us! Well, except Ikuno." Hiro gestured to a strong-faced girl with deep purple hair. "She's Code 196. And Code 015's Ichigo!"
Shion was secretly very happy to know that there was someone who wasn't defeated by the environment in this lab. To think that Hiro was a cheerful kid and even named all of them - he was clearly held in a high regard by the others. "That's very nice. Hello, Ichigo. Ikuno. Hiro."
They blinked in surprise. It didn't take much to connect the dots; their names were never acknowledged by the lab. "056?"
"G-Goro!" A blond boy spoke.
Shion continued, and learned that the rest were Mitsuru (Code 326), Miku (Code 390), Zorome (Code 666), Futoshi (Code 214), and Kokoro (Code 556).
"Where's 002?"
None of them knew of anyone with the code 002. Shion gripped the clipboard harder. It must be because she was designated as 'dangerous'.
"Well, that's a surprise. Come on, let's go to her room. We'll pick up your new friend."