Futoshi, Zorome, Mitsuru, and Yasuto were outside kicking a basketball around while awaiting an assignment. As they did, Futoshi said to the gang as he passed the ball across the courtyard to Zorome, "I hope I can pilot as well as Hiro did one day in that Franxx he was in."

Zorome groaned, "Are you kidding? He didn't pilot it! Hell no!" He then held the ball in his hands.

Mitsuru chimes in with a rumor that he had heard, saying to the group, "I heard that that girl he piloted with has the ability to pilot a Franxx by itself, so perha-"

"All pistils do," Yasuto suddenly interrupted Mitsuru with. "All pistils can pilot a Franxx by themselves for a limited amount of time, though Code 002 can do it for a comparatively long amount of time compared to you guys and even Kyouko. The reason they do not normally do it is because it will damage them if they do it for too long. When this happens, it's called Stampede Mode. Your Franxx will go down on all-fours and slightly change form. I'm surprised they didn't yeah you guys this. They did when me and Kyouko first became parasites."

"See?" Zorome felt that his point had been proven. "So that girl activated Stampede Mode or whatever and just took Hiro for the ride!"

"You didn't see the whole thing," Yasuto them interjected as he began to add onto what he was saying. "Strelizia, the Franxx of Code 002, was originally deployed with both her and Code 086. However, in the course of the battle, Code 086 died in the line of duty, forcing Code 002 to activate Stampede Mode. Me and Kyouko were looking trough the footage of the battle from security cameras located along Cerasus, and we saw the exact moment Code 086 died and Code 002 took over from the outside. We also saw the moment Hiro stepped into Strelizia, and from then on, Strelizia was no longer on all-fours, indicating that Stampede Mode was no longer in effect."

Zorome, aggravated, exclaimed to Yasuto, "You think you're some know-it-all, huh? I'll believe you when I see those tapes myself!" He then noticed that Hiro was walking by the group. "Hey! You think you're special, huh?" He then tossed the basketball over to Hiro, which took him by surprise and hit him right in the shoulder, knocking him back.

Yasuto said to Futoshi, "He didn't have to be that much of a dick about it." Futoshi modded.

"Can it, new guy," Zorome snapped back at him. "This is between me and Hiro." He then turned to his target. "Trust me, you won't ever pilot a Franxx."

Hiro turned to him and angrily replied, "I know what I did, and I piloted! I know I did!"

"Hey!" Yasuto exclaimed as he split both of them up. "Shut up, both of you! Keep fighting, and Ichigo will deal with this. I'm sure neither of you want to deal with your leader when she's angry."

Zorome and Hiro gave each other dirty looks before they turned away from each other. As Futoshi stared at the scene, he said to himself, "Glad that's over." He then asked Yasuto, "Say, Yasuto, you never really introduced you or your partner to us in full, like how it was in your past teams."

"Ah," Yasuto replied to him as he relaxed and calmed down. "Well, my first squad was Squad 9. However, everyone aside from me and Kyouko got killed in a battle, which resulted in us being placed in Squad 15. We were there for a while until an incident happened that I cannot get into detail about now, hence why we got moved to you guys."

Futoshi, feeling bad that he had brought up bad memories for his team mate, apologized with, "Oh... I'm sorry I asked..."

"It's fine," Yasuto reassured him. "There's nothing wrong with asking."

At the Headquarters of APE, the Seven Sages met to discuss the imminent "kissing" of Plantations 13 and 26 in order to exchange fuel and supplies. Gorilla said to Papa as he stretched his arms, "You know, those two parasites we sent to Squad 13 seem to be doing good so far. They haven't gotten themselves in trouble yet."

"Give it time," Tarsier replied quickly to him, scoffing off any notions that Yasuto and Kyouko were somehow "reformed." "Those two will cause trouble again soon, trust me. We should have deactivated them when we had the chance. No matter how much we try to correct their behavior through treatments, they aren't affected at all."

"Enough," Papa interrupted. "Tarsier, I get that you are frustrated, but let me remind you that these two parasites, Codes 085 and 099, are some of the best pilots we have outside of the Nines, if not the best. It would be simply too risky for us to deactivate them. All we can do is reprimand them if they get way out of hand and hope that they keep fighting well. Besides, I think that with how unique they are, an experimental squad like Squad 13 is the perfect fit for them, especially since Code 002 is now assigned to them. If it's true that she and Code 016 really piloted, the combined power of Strelizia and Heliconia in the same squad would be unstoppable."

"A mock battle with me in a Franxx?"

At the briefing room of Squad 13, the whole squad met before Nana and Hachi, who stood before a giant screen containing a map and information about Cerasus and the surrounding area. They had just proposed that Hiro would pilot with a pistil in the squad in a mock battle to see where he was in terms of his abilities.

"Indeed," Nana replied to him.

"And depending on how well you do," Hachi added. "We may promote you to parasite. So, go ahead and pick any pis-"

"I'll do it," Zero Two almost immediately replied, cutting Hachi off. "After all, you are my darling."

"Wait just a minute," Ichigo also equally quickly interjected. "Let me do it. As the leader of Squad 13, I should be the one doing the testing as long as we can connect. Also, Code 002 is not an official member of Squad 13."

Mitsuru, feeling something was off, asked Ichigo, "Why do you want to pilot with Hiro specifically? You already have Goro as your partner."

Yasuto added, "He's right. Is something else going on that makes you feel like you need to pilot with Hiro?" He immediately gave Kyouko a look and a nod as they both came to the same realization about Ichigo: She had feelings for Hiro, but did not realize it just yet due to APE withholding such information from the parasites.

Kyouko thought to herself as Nana continued with the briefing to Squad 13, "Ichigo is playing a dangerous game by falling in love with Hiro. Given what I know about Zero Two, she would not take kindly at all to Ichigo and Hiro being together. I just hope this doesn't get too problematic, but I have a bad feeling it will. If only APE's laws didn't prevent us from properly teaching the squad about how to express those feelings, then this impending disaster could be avoided."

For the mock battle, Delphinium, piloted by Hiro and Ichigo, would face off against Argentea, piloted by Zorome and Miku. To ensure a fair fight, Heliconia, piloted by Yasuto and Kyouko, would act as a referee and call the fight if it got out of hand.

As the two combatants got ready, Yasuto and Kyouko watched from Heliconia in anticipation. The brunette up front turned to Stealth Mode and said to her partner, "Do you expect Zorome to pull something dirty during the fight?"

"To be honest," Yasuto replied to her. "I can easily see it. I don't know why he's so insistent about Hiro not piloting. Like, dude, calm the fuck down, there's no need to get so physical and hateful about it." He then shrugged. "Hopefully, he mellows out. However, it isn't so much Zorome pulling some dirty shit I'm worried about. It's Hiro."

"What about him?"

"I'm starting to think that he may be only able to pilot with Zero Two," Yasuto replied, making what seemed to be a wild observation. "Think about it. Those two definitely piloted together, regardless of what some idiots think. Remember when we tried piloting with other parasites in Squad 9 as an experiment?"

"Oh yeah," Kyouko said as she recalled an experiment their first squad did about a month into being parasites. "I tried piloting with Code 177, and you tried piloting with Code 101. At least me and 177 managed to walk on a straight line for a bit before we failed. You and 101 moved one step and fell over." The two then laughed loudly as they remembered the memory. "You think Hiro and Zero Two have that deep of a connection despite piloting only once? We at least piloted together throughout all of training and 5 times in Squad 9 before the experiment. I wonder what could cause that deep of a connection just one time."

"True," Yasuto replied. "Well, it looks like they're about to start." He then turned off Stealth Mode and radioed out, "This is Heliconia, standing by as safety."

"This is Argentea," radioed our Zorome as he made Argentea jump into the air, slightly scaring Miku. "We are ready to go."

Then, out of nowhere, Delphinium actually managed to start up, surprising everyone. As its eyes came into view and it stared down Argentea, Yasuto smiled and said, "I guess he proved them wrong."

"Let's do this," Hiro and Ichigo said together as Delphinium confidently marched forward, a training baton in its hand.

"I agree," Zorome called out as Argentea swung at Delphinium, just barely missing as the latter ducked down.

"Damn it," Miku replied. "We missed!" Then, she noticed something about Delphinium. "Huh? Hey, guys, are you alright?"

Delphinium was no longer moving, which scared Yasuto and Kyouko. "Oh shit," Kyouko said through Heliconia. Yasuto then moved into the battlefield slightly to get a better look as Kyouko called out, "Ichigo! Hiro! What the hell happened?!" They saw that Delphinium's face had disappeared, meaning that it no longer was operational.

They then heard Ichigo radio out, "Damn it! The link went bad! Give us three minutes for a time out!"

Miku called out in disbelief, "A time out?! Hell no!"

Zorome replied in agreement, "Exactly!"

Kyouko said to Yasuto, "What should we do?"

"Wait and see," Yasuto replied. "They haven't broken any rules yet. What's going on in there?"

Zorome, inside the cockpit of Argentea, began to grow impatient and angry with Hiro. He decided that enough was enough after waiting a whole minute. "Agh, to hell with this!" He then had Argentea give Delphinium a very sudden and hard roundhouse kick, knocking it to the cold hard ground and shocking the rest of Squad 13.

Yasuto said to himself in shock, "What?!"

"Heh, this is too damn easy!" Zorome then laughed as Argentea looked over a deactivated Delphinium. Then, Argentea made its way to Delphinium before standing over it. "This really does prove I'm the best pilot here! Maybe I can pilot Delphinium with Ichigo, too!" He then readied Argentea's training baton to stab Delphinium.

This annoyed Miku, who declared to him, "What?! You wanna pilot with another girl and leave me in the dust?! Really?!"

Zorome just brushed off the remark as Argentea moved in to stab Delphinium in the neck, which would have given the Franxx a very nasty blow. Everyone watched in anticipation as they expected Delphinium to be severely damaged.

Then, suddenly, Argentea stopped dead in its tracks and began to twitch, almost as if it was hesitant. Yasuto noted this, and said to Kyouko, "That last remark by Zorome must have made Miku hesitant to act. That won't be good for their connection."

The impatient stamen in Argentea said, "What gives?!" Then, suddenly, Argentea stumbled and fell right on top of Delphinium with a loud metallic thud, starling both stamens and both pistils involved. "Damn it! We fell!"

Nana stepped in and radioed to Ichigo, "Ichigo, status report? Ichigo?"

When she got no reply, Yasuto also chimed in, asking her, "Hey, Ichigo, Hiro, are you guys okay? What happened?" Even so, Ichigo completely ignored them.

"Just give up already," Miku tried telling her stamen, to no avail.

"Give me a few more seconds, alright?!"

Then, suddenly, Delphinium began to move again. However, it was not because Hiro had connected again. Instead, the first signs of Stampede Mode had begun to show. Immediately, Nana recognized this and called out, "Ichigo, don't! Piloting a Franxx by yourself is incredibly dangerous!"

Ichigo, tears flowing down her face and in incredible amounts of pain, replied back to her with a defiant and loud, "SHUT UP!" Then, Delphinium got up and grabbed ahold of Argentea by wrapping its arms around the other. As Miku screamed in fear, Delphinium then rammed Argentea into a wall at a very high rate of speed.

Yasuto, deciding that now was the time to end the battle, said, "This has gone far enough. Kyouko, kill it."

"Got it," Kyouko replied as Yasuto had Heliconia march right into the field of battle to where Delphinium and Argentea had crashed. She yelled out to both of them, "HEY! BOTH OF YOU, DEACTIVATE YOUR DAMN FRANXX UNITS NOW! THIS FIGHT HAS GONE FAR ENOUGH!"

"Because both Franxx units have been rendered inoperable," Hachi stated to all of Squad 13. "This mock battle us declared to be a draw and is over."

Kyouko then activated Stealth Mode to talk to Yasuto privately, "This confirms my suspicions. Somehow, Hiro had a deep-enough connection with Zero Two just that one time that he can only pilot with her."

"It sounds crazy," Yasuto replied in disbelief. "But you may be onto something." He then sighed and wiped his face in exhaustion. "Damn it, Hiro... What happened to that bright young boy in the garden who inspired us to give us names and fall in love with each other?"

About half an hour later, as Zero Two walked down an empty white corridor near the gate where they had the mock battle, she saw the two new parasites down the hall talking to each other and wondered what they were discussing. "Those two new guys have always interested me, dating back to when they did some work with the Nines. If things had been different and they were born the right way, they could have easily been part of us based on their skills."

Then, Kyouko noticed Zero Two looking at them. She turned and said, "Ah, Zero Two! Can you talk to us for a sec?"

The pink-haired horned girl thought to herself for a second and then said, "Sure. Why not?" She then walked over to them. "So, what's up?"

Kyouko looked at Yasuto, prompting him to start. "Oh yeah... Uhh... Zero Two, can we ask you a question?"

"Shoot it," she replied, stretching her arms behind her head. "I may or may not give you a good answer."

Yasuto then cleared his throat. "Do you honestly think Hiro piloted with you?"

"Of course," she almost immediately replied. "Darling piloted with me the whole way, and I loved every minute of it."

"That brings us to our next question," Kyouko then interjected. "And a theory we have."

"Ooooh," Zero Two replied, interest piqued by their theory. "I like those."

"You see," the brunette began. "We need to know this: Do you think that you share a deep connection with Hiro?"

"I mean," Zero Two replied as she shrugged. "I guess. My darling and I did have a good bonding experience, especially since it was his first time. After all, I do call him 'Darling' instead of Hiro."

"Yeah," Kyouko replied. "Which leads me to our theory. We think that that one time you piloted with him was so deep in terms of connectivity that Hiro is now only able to pilot with you, and ca-"

"And can pilot with nobody else but me," Zero Two interrupted with, finishing her sentence. "I knew you were gonna bring that up, and to be honest, I agree."

"Oh," Yasuto replied, surprised she accepted it at seemingly face value. "Well, that takes care of that."

Zero Two then smiled and giggled. "I guess it does, Yasuto and Kyouko. I guess it does." She then walked away from them. "Well, I'll see you two later."