Chapter 8: New Life

"If this keeps going… Where are we to reach?" asked Hiro as he sat on the breakfast table which was set in the open environment outside the headquarters looking at the sky with a sandwich in his hands, "Will things go just like this? Always in a war, trying to kill and win? I just want to live peacefully with Zero Two… Will, any of this will ever get over?"

"You really love her so much, don't you?" asked Ichigo as she sat beside him.

"Yeah…" said Hiro, "I never would have known that I existed if I never met her…"

"Alright," said Futoshi as he approached them with a big steel pot in his hands, "get ready for today's occasion, it's at evening!"

"What occasion?" asked Hiro confused.

"Yeah," said Ichigo, "There is no special date today, is it?"

"Well," said Goro as he walked towards them, "I talked to Orion and looks like we will need to get to their federation as fast as possible or it will be dangerous for all of us, so I just wanted to declare the start of our journey with a big occasion… And that's why there is going to be a food fest from today evening which is about 1 hour from now!"

"Yes," said Kofuko from behind, "we just have a little to prepare and then not only squad 13 but all the people of Mistilteinn will come to the fest!"

"Sounds like a good idea!" said Zero Two wearing a crimson-colored Kimono with wisteria flowers drawn upon them, with a red tint on her cheeks and her open hair reaching her back. Her horns had a white-colored cloth with a golden colored thread upon them with tiny golden colored bells at both ends of the thread hanging from beside her horns.

"What?" asked Zero Two looking at Hiro shocked on seeing her.

"N-Nothing!" he shouted as he turned his head in the opposite direction.

"I did not expect him to write things…" said Hatake sitting on the desk of his room looking at an old worn-out journal, with handwritten words on it with a fountain pen, "This is the first time I have seen dad's handwriting…"

"Hatake?" asked a voice from the door.

"Hm…" said Hatake as he turned back, "What is it-" he got stuck at the sight in front of his eyes, in front of him was Seraphime wearing nothing but a white towel held by her right hand and an embarrassed look on her face.

"I-I couldn't find my clothes anywhere," she said hesitating, "and there was also no one nearby to take help from… C-Can you please find them for me?"

"S-Sure," said Hatake still recovering up from that shocking sight.

"W-What happened?" asked Seraphime worried, "Why is your nose bleeding?! Has something happened to you?!"

"It's nothing!" he said as he quickly wiped his nose.

"Don't think, don't think, don't think" he said in his mind as they walked inside Seraphime's room, "Just find her the clothes and get out, that's it!"

"P-Please find them fast," said Seraphime, "It's cold…"

"Here!" said Hatake as he passed Seraphime's spandex that she had been wearing all the time.

"N-No…" said Seraphime, "Y-You wanted me to wear something else besides the spandex, I want to wear something else… W-Why don't you select one for me?"

"Hm…" said Hatake, "If I'm to select one for you… This one!" he said as he passed on a white-colored cloth with a light blue tint.

"Thank you!" replied Seraphime as she snatched the cloth from his hands, making him slip. He fell upon the ground with Seraphime.

"What is this situation…" thought Hatake as he looked Seraphime in the eyes as they fell on the floor, "What am I supposed to do?"

"Hatake" said a voice as the door opened, "are you here-"

"N-N-Nana!" shouted Hatake looking at the door.

"What…" said Nana with furious anger, "What the hell are you doing?!"

"N-No," said Hatake, "I-It's not what it looks like, I was just-"

"Get out!" shouted Nana as she punched him on the face and kicked him out of the room, making the door shut.

"Ow…" said Hatake massaging his lower jaw, "Well, that didn't turn out well…"

"How cute!" said a voice from beside him, it was the Klaxo Sapien leader of the 15 Klaxo sapiens when they first met with Orion and Elise for the first time, "I did not expect her to do it that way!" he said laughing.

"What do you mean?" asked Hatake confused.

"It's one of the rules that the queen must follow," said the leader, "the queen can only wear any clothes given by her husband, that is the king! So, she tricked you in finding her a cloth of your choice and then took it in such a way such that it appeared like as if it was a gift given by you!"

"Seriously…" said Hatake with a sigh, "there are a lot of rules I got to change in Prismertine."

"I won't recommend that," said the leader laughing, "if it's worth seeing something that cute!"

"Yeah whatever…" said Hatake.

"Hatake?" said a voice from beside.

"Hachi!" said Hatake with a smile, "What are you all doing here?"

"I don't know either," said Hachi, "Goro called us and told us to be here as fast as possible… Anyways, where's Nana?" he asked

"Behind this door!" replied Hatake pointing towards the door of Seraphime's room.

"I see," said Hachi, "come on!"

"No," said Hatake as he went down the stairs, "I don't even want to show her my face at the moment…"

"Zero Two," said Hiro as they walked through the jungle, "why did you change your outfit all of a sudden?"

"It was an occasion so I wanted to look different." Replied Zero Two looking at the sky, "Why you don't like it?" she asked looking at him with a smile.

"No," said Hiro, "You look beautiful…" he said as they entered an open field, at the center of the field was a huge bonfire and wooden benches with long tables kept near the fire. There were a lot of people of Mistilteinn talking with each other with a smile on their faces.

"Say, Darling," said Zero Two, "we have been fighting all these days since Hatake revived us… Let's just enjoy it… Even if just for today!" she shouted she ran, she pulled Hiro towards the bonfire place as Zero Two laughed her heart out, Hiro just followed her looking at that face of her, in that crimson Kimono the light of the bonfire lit her face with brightness.

"Please…" thought Hiro looking at Zero Two, "Please just don't let this night end here… Let her be happy, happy as much as she wants to be… Even if just for a bit, because seeing her happy is the only reason… I become happy…"

"There you are!" shouted Kokoro as she and Futoshi walked towards them, "we are all ready to start the fest, but where are Hakate and Sera-chan?"

"I don't know…" said Hiro.

"Hey, we are here!" said Orion as he came out of the jungle with Elise.

"What took you two so long?" asked Kokoro.

"We would have been here on time," said Elise, "If you would have told us about this occasion beforehand!"

"I strongly agree upon that at least!" said Hatake coming out of the jungle, "Next time you better tell us beforehand," he said as he approached them.

"And you better take responsibility of her!" shouted a voice from the jungle, it was Nana with Hachi.

"N-Nana, I-I can explain!" said Hatake scared.

"No need to," replied Nana, "I heard it all from Seraphime… I don't blame you."

"Really?" said Hatake with a sigh of relief, "I really thought you were about to kill me!"

"Although," said Nana as a dense aura of hatred could be seen around her, "I'm still angry that you left us!"

"S-Sorry!" said Hatake groveling on the ground.

"Yeah," said a voice from behind, "you are supposed to stay with me!"

"Yeah I-" said Hatake as he got stuck on the view in front of him, it was Seraphime wearing a kimono with dark blue colored edges that slowly mixed into the white color in the middle, her hair this time was kept together as a bun by a blue-colored stick with a butterfly at the end.

"What?" asked Seraphime with an embarrassed look on her face.

"Nothing…" said Hatake with a smile.

"Everyone!" shouted Futoshi standing near a huge metal container, "we are all ready for our fest tonight, please be seated!"

"Alright!" said Mitsuru, "Ai, Hikari, Mizu, and Shinzo, come for food," he said as all the people of Mistilteinn sat on near the long tables kept near the bonfire. Squad 13 was given an even longer separate table for their children to eat together with them.

"Have you seen Izune and Tenki?" asked Futoshi as he walked towards Kofuku who was talking to Zero Two.

"Yeah they should be somewhere around here…" replied Kofuku.

"Uncle Orion!" said Izune and Tenki as they held both of his hands.

"Why do you have three horns?" asked Izune.

"And what is that robot of yours in which you walk around?" asked Tenki.

"Hey, where were you two?" asked Futoshi.

"Kokufu," said Zero Two, "if those are Izune and Tenki, who is that on your back?" she asked pointing towards the child who was on her back asleep.

"Ah," said Kofuku, "that's Kodo, the youngest of the three!"

"Hatake" said Ichigo looking at Hatake's pocket through which a corner of a journal peeked out, "What's with that journal of yours? You were reading it in the morning very well concentrated."

"Yeah," said Hatake with a sigh, "it's dad's journal, he wrote about various things in it. But what felt the most interesting was that he actually had reasons about the codes of a few people."

"Reasons?" asked Zorome, "Didn't the code just meant our serial number or something?"

"Yeah, I thought the same," said Hatake as he opened the journal, "but looks like there were actual reasons for the code of a few people, for example as it says here about Code: 000, usually in graphs 0 means the origin or the place from where everything started."

"What about mine?" asked Seraphime.

"Let's see," said Hatake, "1 is a co-prime, that is neither a prime number nor a non-prime number, so in this case, dad used 001 as your code because you were the only Klaxo Sapien known at that time, so you were neither Klaxosaur nor human."

"And mine?" asked Zero Two.

"002," said Hatake, "dad gave that code because of your uniqueness, as 2 is the only prime number that is even. He gave it because even though you were made from Sera's DNA, yet you had a more human side."

"Don't forget about me!" said Hiro.

"How can I?" asked Hatake, "Code: 16, now 16 is a power of 2 which means no matter how many times you break it, the last number you would reach is 2 which cannot be broken down further. There is no particular reason why he gave that code, maybe it's because no matter how many time people used you or called you useless, you never got angry upon them."

"And finally," said Hatake, "Code: 15. That is you, Ichigo, 15 if you get its prime factors, it gives you the numbers 3 and 5 both of which are odd and also primes, maybe that's the reason why you were chosen as the leader of squad 13. Being a prime is being unique and on top of that looks like odd numbers had something special to do."

"Though," said Hatake as he flipped nearly to the last page, "I'm quite surprised that there is also a special reason behind Kofuku's code!"

"Really?" asked Kofuku shocked.

"Yup," replied Hatake, "Code: 53. Now 53 is a number which I don't know why dad considered very unique, he said that it was a number but yet you don't often hear that number form people's mouth, just like words of people often don't make you happy."

"Alright table's ready!" said Futoshi, on their desk were hot bowls of ramen.

"Hatake," said Elise whispering, "There is nothing about me is there?"

"Why?" asked Hatake.

"That man" she replied, "he never cared, did he? Whenever I saw his face, all I could see was-"

"A monster," said Hatake interrupting, "he looked like a person who never cared about anything but his experiments. Other people's feelings never matter to him. That's what you saw didn't you?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said with sadness upon her face.

"That was just his face you saw." he said with a sad expression, "Trust me he had been hurt so many times that he had forgotten what being human was… Anyways" he said cheering back up, "Let's go our food is getting cold!"

"This food is just great!" said Hatake as he tasted his bowl of ramen.

"Yeah…" said Seraphime with a disappointed look at her bowl.

"What happened Sera-chan?" asked Kofuku, "You're not feeling good?" she asked.

"No, it's just that" replied Seraphime hesitating, "I don't know how to use chopsticks."

"Oh," said Nana with a sorry face, "Hatake why don't you feed her?"

"W-What?" asked Hatake shocked.

"Yeah," replied Hiro, "she is your wife right, you can do that!"

"Alright here it is!" said Futoshi as he put an album on the desk.

"What is that?" asked Zero Two.

"Well," said Kokoro, "we had found an old empty album with a camera, after a few days of the gate passage. So, we decided to store all our memories inside this album!"

"Yeah, now I'm glad we did it!" said Goro, "otherwise we wouldn't have been able to show you!"

They open the album to see the memories inside. It had photos of all kinds, Mitsuru holding a potato plant showing the first harvest they did after the war, Futoshi with his kids, Miku and Zorome during the school opening ceremony and every sweet little memory they could capture.

"Wait, who is that?" asked Hiro looking at the photo of a girl with short and black hair standing with Mitsuru and his kids.

"That's Kofuku!" replied Futoshi.

"What?" asked Zero Two, "How?"

"Well," said Miku, "Kofuku overheard Futoshi one day saying that she would look beautiful if she had long and dyed hair."

"Though," said Futoshi "I really didn't expect her to do it, it was just a thought after all."

"How cute, isn't it?" asked Miku, "I wish someone would change for me too…" she said as she looked at Zorome.

"What are you looking at?" asked Zorome, "I'm not that kind of mad!"

"You can at least be a bit romantic!" shouted Miku angrily.

"But what about you Nana?" asked Zero Two, "Why were you two living so far away from everyone?"

"It's not like we live there all the time" replied Nana, "sometimes I just need to stay away from everyone and that's why we go to that house, it is very peaceful there."

"Come on, let's go sit near the bonfire!" said Orion.

"Yeah sure!" replied Ichigo as everyone followed him and sat near the bonfire.

"What would it taste like?" though Seraphime with a sad expression looking at her bowl of ramen which had become cold, "I really wanted to taste it, but-"

"Here!" said a voice from beside, it was Hatake with ramen on his chopsticks on his right hand and a bowl of fresh hot ramen on the other hand, "They said they had a bit of extra food still left and your bowl might have gotten cold. So, I brought some for you!"

"I…," she said as she burst into tears.

"Wha- What happened? Are you hurt or something?" asked Hatake worried.

"No," replied Seraphime wiping her tears, "it's nothing," she said as she took a bite of the ramen.

"How didn't I see it?" thought Seraphime looking at that smile of Hatake, "This kind face of his, was it always there? Why did he hide it?"

"Tasty, isn't it?" asked Hatake, "You know," he said, "food is the only thing that has made me happy no matter when I have had it, and it is said the happiness increases, even more, when the food is shared…"

"How about we dance too, darling?" asked Zero Two as she got up looking at everyone dance on the Tsuzumi that was played by the people of Mistilteinn.

"Well I'm not sure I can-" said Hiro as Zero Two pulled him with her, they danced for hours on the music, with that light of the bonfire falling on their face.

"it's been so many years…" thought Zero Two looking at the face of Hiro as they sat down tired of dancing, "still he enjoys things no matter how small they might be…"

"Ah, it's finally here!" said Orion looking at the sky, it was a gigantic ship that looked like a modified version of the Klaxosaur mothership coming towards Mistilteinn.

"What is that ship doing here?" asked Goro.

"Like I had told you for a war against VIRM we have to be prepared" replied Orion, "and for that, all of squad 13 will be going with us. So, Hatake asked me to create a better defense system for Mistilteinn and that is why that ship is here."

"I see…" said Goro, "So, it's time to leave already, huh?"

"Sadly, it is," said Elise

"Alright then," said Goro, "Since all of Mistilteinn is here, I suppose a speech of goodbye would be nice!" he said as he took Orion and Elise near the bonfire.

"Everyone!" said Goro with a smile, "It's been so many days since the war, since the sacrifice of Hiro and Zero Two. We have been so happy, living peacefully with love and of course bringing back humanity. But things don't stay the same always, do they? But anyway, once again we have it coming… A war with the same enemy of ours whom we once trusted the most during a time, we squad 13 will be leaving Mistilteinn to fight against them with Orion and Elise. Until then Mistilteinn will be under the protection of them, I hope this is not the last goodbye… I promise that we shall all come back, with that same smile with which we started all of this. But until then, farewell!" he said as all the people of Mistilteinn surrounded every member of the squad 13 in different groups and started talking to them about their journey."

"Looks like this is just the beginning huh?" asked Hachi looking at everyone as they shed tears on their departure.

"We have to keep moving no matter what." Said Hatake replying to Hachi.

"Hey," said Hachi, "won't you let Nana get her memories back?"

"I don't know…" said Hatake looking down, "I'm afraid to tell her, that's all… If I tell her and her memories come back, will she ever forgive me?"

"I haven't told her because you made me promise it." said Hachi, "Though she still gets some lapses of her memory during her sleep. She often talks about her being pulled away from a person whose face she does not remember at all…"

"Hm…" said Hatake, "Don't worry though, I will tell her. I will make her remember, about Koroshi, about their love, why was I thrown out of the squad and of course about what actually happened…"

"Alright!" said Futoshi as he packed everything up after the feast was over, "let's go get some sleep, we got to go to the capital tomorrow!"

"Sure," said Zero Two, "let's go darling!" she said as everyone returned back to their houses.

"Will I ever be able to tell her?" he said as he walked through the jungle.

"Hatake!" said Goro from behind.

"What is it?" asked Hatake.

"I need a favor from you…" said Goro.

"Oh, please!" said Hatake, "I don't want to get slapped again!"

"Nah, this one simple!" said Goro, "I need you to convince Ikuno to go with us…"

"She is not going?" asked Hatake.

"She is supposed to," said Goro, "but she is afraid that she might become a burden because of her physical."

"Ok then," said Hatake, "let's go to her."

"What is this place?" asked Hatake as he got inside an underground room under Ikuno's house. The room moreover looked like a lab with all the chemicals and glass items inside it.

"Hatake?" said a voice beside, it was Ikuno holding a microscope, "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I didn't see you at the fest" replied Hatake, "so Goro told me to check on you."

"Well," said Ikuno, "the road is very hard to go through in this wheelchair you know."

"Yeah," said Hatake looking at Ikuno sitting in the wheelchair, "sorry forgot about that…"

"So, you all are leaving tomorrow then?" she asked.

"We?" asked Hatake, "You are going too!"

"I don't think that I should go…" said Ikuno looking at a test tube, "I mean what use will I be of? I can't fight with you all…"

"You are a scientist!" said Goro as he entered, "that's enough of a reason to take you with us!"

"I see," said Ikuno, "So it's another one of your tricks to try to convince me huh?"

"What has happened actually? What is the problem in your legs?" asked Hatake.

"The nerves…" said Ikuno with a sad expression, "The nerves of my legs have completely stopped to function, there is no feeling in them."

"So, it's just the nerves, right?" asked Hatake, "Orion said that in the capital, there are a lot of scientists and they also have better technology, I'm sure that they will be able to fix you!"

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Goro, "I heard it too! So, now will you go?"

"Only if I will be able to help you all in your fight against VIRM." Said Ikuno.

"Yeah," said Hatake, "Of course you will!"

-end of chapter-

Next chapter releasing on 29/12/19