We thought the children would rebel in episode 18 of the anime. Remember that?
I do.
Mastermind in the FranXX
Episode 18
LUCIFER'S REBELLION
"Five minutes until we hit the Barrier!" the driver barked into the cabin. "Strap yourselves in, it's bad today!"
They did as he commanded, but Kyuma had questions. "Barrier? What's the Barrier?"
Higosa barely heard him over the roar of the engines. She lowered the green-tinted goggles over her eyes and made a futile attempt to pop her ears against the changing air pressure. A ferocious gust hammered the vehicle's armored exterior; it swayed to the side for one terrifying second, then the powerful wheels once again found purchase. Hopefully their squadmates were still fine.
"Falcon to Stryker 1, Stryker 2. We'll be torn from the sky if we follow you in! Gonna have to find a more stable point of entry. We'll see you at the A.O., over!"
"Copy that, Falcon! Stay safe, out!" The message sent, their driver twisted his head to Kyuma. "They ever teach you guys what a hurricane or typhoon is?"
She didn't like the sound of this. "Briefly, but we've never seen or experienced one! Why?"
The gunner responded instead. "Asphodel's the eye. Barrier's the eye wall."
"Is it always this turbulent, then?"
"No. It calms and intensifies on occasion, but don't ask us what causes it! We don't know how it works because it shouldn't fuckin' exist!"
Reassuring. Very reassuring.
Inyo spoke up from the seat across them. "Your squad probably entered the city during a lull in the chaos. You were lucky - they don't happen often. But it usually isn't this bad, either."
Another lurch. She shared a nervous look with her partner... or tried to, at least. Though there were differences between their gear and the older scavengers', similarities existed too; full body coverage was one of them. She wasn't used to not seeing Kyuma's face, and she'd be lying to herself if she said it didn't bother her.
Perhaps her nerves would settle with a little small talk. "So... we were told each squad gets their gear from a different source. Where does yours come from?"
As one, the other passengers looked directly to Itan. He shuffled in his seat, uncomfortable. "Why the hell do I always have to say it?"
"'Cause it's funny," Sagi grunted.
The wind howled against the exterior. Itan released an unamused huff, but complied nevertheless.
"The squad of Hauptfeldwebel Friedrich Richter of the Kampfschwimmer, the Verwendungsgruppe 3402, German Navy."
Half of whatever he just said was systematically butchered by the rebreather's static. Inyo tried to suppress her laughter.
"Could... could you repeat that?" Higosa mumbled.
"No, damn it!"
The shaking of the transport interrupted any further conversation. The driver screamed over the groaning metal. "One minute!"
Kyuma missed their Franxx, judging from the way he gripped his seat. "Will this thing hold?"
She squinted past the driver, out the camera-based, minimalist heads-up display they were using for navigation.
A blizzard extended across the horizon in the straightest line she'd ever seen. The snow blew parallel to the ground.
A wall of white, from the ground to the stratosphere.
"She's survived worse! Thirty seconds!"
Nevermind, full body coverage was a good thing. The mask obscured her terror.
"Ten seconds!"
Breathe. Breathe, girl, breathe.
"Five!"
Red lights flickered overhead.
"Four!"
The Stryker roared its defiance.
"Three!"
She grabbed Kyuma's hand, squeezed it tight.
"Two!"
The shaking, holy shit the shaking-
"One!"
Higosa closed her eyes.
"Nana packed you a lunch, doctor."
He was drooling already. Err, metaphorically speaking, of course. "Ohohoho! How thoughtful, how thoughtful!" Cracking open the paper bag, he snuck a peek at the contents. "Ham sandwiches! My favorite!"
Hachi remained unphased and walked with him to the briefing room doors. "Are you certain you will be alright? Some of the men could provide a security detail, just in case."
Werner waved him off. "Bah! I will be fine. This has been a long time coming, and you will need every man for the assault. Is Nana prepared?"
"Yes. She has the parasite suits and will meet them at the rendezvous." The man paused, then cupped his chin between his thumb and index finger. "I will admit, however, that the weather concerns me. If it strengthens any more, the entire operation will be put at risk."
"The technicians are preparing the countermeasures, are they not?"
"They do not yet have an ETA."
He was such a worry-wart. Werner leaned on his cane, sighing. "Hachi."
"Doctor?"
A critical eye regarded the taller man's features. "Have some faith in your old schoolmates. They will see this through to the end. The squad will be fine."
He knew the words reached him despite the unchanged expression. "It has been an honor to serve with you, doctor."
Oh, please. He waved the coordinator off. "Bah! I'm not dead yet, Hachi. We shall see each other once more. Now, tend to your men - they need their leader."
"Of course." Hachi dipped away with a bow of the head and left Werner to his thoughts. He stored the lunch in his backpack, away from anything that would squish the food, then tugged his rolling luggage into the briefing room. Even through his coat, he shivered; the breach left by Strelizia's rather sudden departure proved far too costly to repair. All they could do was seal the room off. It was an elegant solution, all things considered, given there would never be another briefing held here ever again.
Yes, such circumstances were a boon. At long last, after many tribulations and tests of sanity, the appointed time had arrived. It was time to leave Plantation 13. A sad parting to some, but not him.
He had waited long enough.
Werner tapped a small button underneath his chin as he walked onto the hangar's gantry. The left glove came off, the sleeves of both jacket and shirt were rolled to his elbow. Lifting the arm aloft, he approached the still-slumbering entity and bellowed into the interpreter encapsulating his jaw.
"DELPHINIUM!"
At first, nothing. For a panicked second he wondered if he'd made a mistake while removing the limiter. But then a low, mechanized groan echoed through the frost-covered bay, and black static overwhelmed the blank faceplate. He swallowed his nerves and took a hesitant step forward. Sweat arced down his cheek. The last time he'd done this... had been...
"Can... can you hear me? Do you know who I am?"
Delphinium lifted their head with a bit of struggle, stared him down. To this day, the sheer size difference still threw him off.
Werner... Frank...
He loosed a relieved sigh. "Are you two alright? Is the saurian still stable?"
It is... tired. We... have a... headache...
Blasted Nana and Hachi and their stupid stunts! "Understandable. It is the first time you've woken since the procedure. It will fade as you adjust."
They rolled their neck and flexed their fingers to try and loosen up. A glance to the left, then the right.
Where... are Argentea... and Strelizia?
"They are... gone. They have been freed."
How?
Old wounds came back to haunt him. He slouched in exhaustion. "I did everything I could, I assure you, but I could not save Argen. Teana woke up roughly two weeks ago. The children helped put her to rest before the Suffering took effect. During her short time awake, she personally freed over fifty pairs of your kind. It was quite the performance."
A satisfactory outcome. Good. And Strelizia?
...
He bowed his head.
What happened, Werner Frank? Did their idea have any merit? Did it fail?
"Quite the opposite," he rasped. "I performed the operation with my own two hands. Not a night passes where I am not haunted by their deaths... but it worked. It worked to perfection and then some."
Delphinium leaned forward, joints hissing. The static pulsed and throbbed, almost eager in nature.
And?
"The hybrids live. They are healthy. They are with Elistre." A moment to collect himself. "Strelizia watches over them."
Then there is hope.
Werner leaned against his cane. "Yes, there is hope for both our species. Elistre and the klaxosaurs captured and occupied the Grand Crevasse launch site, as requested. We have now progressed to the final step of the arrangement. All we require is the dispersal device. I know how to construct it, but I lack the necessary materials. To that end, I propose-"
We shall transport you to the mobile factory.
Finally! People who understood him! Intellect and strategy to rival his own! "Indeed, indeed!"
Delphinium nodded in agreement.
Please bring the girl to us, along with her chosen partner. We wish to see how she has grown.
He winced. If only it were that simple. "Ah... we've run into a slight issue there..."
What do you mean? Has something happened to her? Explain!
Aged hands lifted in placation. "She has not been harmed, I assure you. At least, not for the time being. She and the other children are being held against their will by those who misunderstand the magma. We shall be undergoing an operation within the day to recover them, but..."
Wake the others and explain the situation in detail. We shall formulate a strategy at once!
He turned to the silent Genista. "Of course."
Plans, strategies, agreements and alliances. A tenuous deal struck in the shadows between the members of two wartorn, expiring species.
In exchange for returning to them their lost future...
An arm raised. A weary shout. A static-filled faceplate.
...the klaxosaurs would return to him the world he once knew.
Ugh. Why did they need to stay dry? She wanted to go play in the rain!
CRACK!
...Oooooookay, maybe not.
Really though, these adventures were great. A ton of fun! And the fire created so many funky shadows on the cave walls. They danced this way and that, twisted and twirled and spiraled! So cool!
You did well chopping this firewood. It should last us until the storm ends.
That he did! "Darling does everything perfectly."
He put on a great show, too. Hehehe - ahem. She hadn't stared! Nope!
"I'm... not sure about everything, but..." He scratched his cheek and grinned in embarrassment. So humble! "I do try."
She totally stared, yupyup.
"Don't be silly, darling!" Zero Two proclaimed. She leaned against him and brought a hand to her forehead in dramatic zealotry. "Your existence itself is perfection! Mediocrity is impossible!"
I'm going to be sick.
He barked out a laugh. "If I'm perfect, you must be too."
Get a room.
An eye cracked open. "We would, but someone likes to eavesdrop."
She expected a retort, but instead her counterpart just huffed and turned away to watch the rain, arms folded.
...
Zero Two felt bad. She got it, she did. The girl was jealous and she didn't want to be. They reminded her of what she'd lost. Perhaps the relationship she'd had with that boy in the picture shared some similarities to the one she held with darling. Perhaps it didn't. Either way, their guide was alone, and they weren't.
It sucked. It sucked for all of them. She couldn't 'tone it down'. That phrase didn't exist in her vocabulary, not with him, and the mere thought of treating darling like a non-darling made her violently nauseous. There was only darling. She could treat him but one way - with love, passion, adoration and worship.
But at the same time, such acts disturbed her counterpart. If the situations were reversed...
She couldn't finish that thought. The opposite would never happen.
She would've killed herself long before this point.
"Are you cold? You're wearing almost nothing."
...I'm fine.
Hmm? Really? Then why was she trying to suppress her shivers? How thickheaded. It reminded her of herself, before she reunited with her darling.
...
She threw her jacket across the cave. "Here. Put it on."
The girl stared at her, startled.
What are you...
"You're freezing. I can tell."
Your health is more important, you stupid girl!
Zero Two rolled her eyes. "I'll be fine. I have another jacket I can use."
What?
She shifted her position and pushed her head under darling's coat. Watch the horns, watch the horns...
Blinking, he undid the top-most buttons, then held his arms out to the side while she wiggled and rummaged up his chest. Her head popped out of the collar, a brilliant smile lighting up her face. The jacket was wide enough for both of them, but she had to mash herself against him to fit.
Just the way she liked it! Nice and tight!
"Hi!"
Darling stifled his laughter. "Hi."
Arms wrapped around his torso. Zero Two planted herself in his lap. "Mind if I join you?"
He pecked her lips. "You don't need permission."
She rubbed her face against the crook of his neck, basking in his warmth and scent. Her periphery caught the other girl pulling on the jacket.
"See? Now we're all warm!"
The princess shot her a peeved glance. Her eyebrow twitched. Hey, at least she was trying, okay? What part of 'impossible' did the girl not understand?
...Thanks.
Mint orbs softened. Why'd this have to be so awkward?
The cave's sudden shaking dispersed her thoughts. What the - an earthquake?!
Strelizia's nearly upside down head blocked their view of the outside world. It pushed its face right up against the entrance, and a curious growl rattled their eardrums.
She tried to stand up and stop it from causing a cave-in. "W-Wait! Strelizia! Hold on! You're too big, you can't fit insi-whoa!"
"Oof!"
They tilted sideways and faceplanted into the ground. Oh. Right. She was still attached to darling.
"...Pff!"
Huh?
Melodious, tinkling laughter graced their auditory senses. Not a mental signal, but an actual sound. Was that...? As one, she and darling craned their necks to the source. The girl leaned against the wall, giggling into her hand.
Her voice was... beautiful.
She wrapped the coat tighter around her body and stared out the window, lamenting the rapidly deteriorating conditions.
It was a white-out.
They couldn't see the ground, and they were only on the third floor of the complex. The dead earth disappeared beneath a haze of frost and ice and snow. Ichigo found her thoughts trapped on the 'how'. How were they going to get out? How could they escape this mess? How could they find their missing squadmates without alerting Papa? How could they get in touch with Nana or Hachi, assuming they hadn't been abandoned?
"You're overthinking things again."
Once upon a time, she would've considered those words an admonishment. Now she considered them a reprieve. "Not like there's much else to do."
Goro leaned against the window sill, rested his weight on his elbows. "I'm not worried. You know how smart they are."
"Right now I'm more concerned about us. I wish I knew what APE was planning."
Her partner made to respond, but his words were cut off by an alarmed exclamation from another squad member.
"Guys?"
She didn't like Kokoro's panicked expression. Her normally serene eyes flickered from side to side, searching for something unseen in the storm beyond the glass.
Mitsuru prodded her when she didn't continue her thought. "What's wrong, Kokoro?"
His words jolted her back to reality. Nervous and uncertain, Genista's pistil twisted her head back to the group. "You don't hear that?"
Ikuno frowned. "Hear what?"
"The... voices?"
What? Now wasn't the time for jokes - but Kokoro wasn't one for jokes in the first place. Had something gone wrong with her maintenance?
Mitsuru, however, was all business. He took a step forward, beady eyes narrowed. "Describe them."
Kokoro swallowed, jolted back to the window like a monster lurked on the other side. Okay, something was wrong.
"A... a man and a w-woman..." she blurted. "Speaking as - like they're r-reading a line from the same book. Talking together, with the s-same... tone...?"
Kokoro wasn't insane. They all knew that. Sure, the girl was a little curious and a tad bit shy and aloof, but she was sound in the head and actually quite smart and capable. She wouldn't lie about something so... strange.
Ichigo and Goro shared a suspicious glance.
"What did they say?" Mitsuru probed. "These voices?"
The poor girl jumped, launched herself away from the wall. Sweat gleamed on her forehead; even from her position by the far window, Ichigo could see the goosebumps rise on her neck. Her voice came in a raspy, hushed whisper, even more so than usual.
"'We're coming for you'."
No sooner did the words leave her lips before she fell to her knees, clutching at her head. An agonized moan bubbled from the back of her throat and her eyes spasmed in their sockets, as if she suffered from a nightmare. Ichigo rushed to her side, grasped at her shoulders.
"Kokoro! Hey, Kokoro! What's wrong?!"
The blonde whimpered. Tears brimmed on her lashes. "Can't... focus...! It hurts, it hurts so bad!"
Then the episode passed. Kokoro doubled over onto her hands, gasping for breath, staring at nothing and everything. A mighty crack thundered in from the south. The shockwave passed over them; the walls quaked and cold metal furniture rattled against the floor. Ichigo winced, ears ringing. Alarms blared.
"What the hell was that?!" Futoshi bellowed.
A boot kicked open the door. APE soldiers stormed the room, grabbed at their arms and shoulders.
"H-Hey, hey!" Goro grunted. "What're you doing?!"
The men offered no response. Squad 13 was led from the room and pushed down the hall while the soldiers took up defensive escort positions on either side. One barked into a personal radio.
"November, 3-2. VIPs secure. We are en route to extraction point, over."
Explosions and the sound of gunfire filtered in past the howling wind. Ichigo swallowed and tried to calm her racing thoughts. The sudden turn of events sent her scrambling to recover her mental footing. The soldier's radio buzzed with static.
"Negative 3-2, aerial transport has been compromised by the storm. You are to divert to holding point Bravo and await further orders. How copy? Over."
"3-2 copies. Diverting to holding point Bravo. Out."
A klaxosaur attack? It had to be, it couldn't be anything else. But why would they attack Garden? Unless... had Hiro and Zero Two come back for them?!
They were ushered up a stairway and forced into a jog. The guards were taking the event seriously, judging from their alert movements and the positioning of their weapons against their shoulders. Another earthquake sent tremors through the foundation. Hazy, flickering light poked through the snow battering the windows. Off in the distance Ichigo spied the shroud of a bipedal behemoth moving in the direction of Garden's southern wall. A Franxx?
A shockwave ruined their balance. She braced against a wall, but a guard grabbed her and forced her into the middle with the rest of the squad. He aimed his rifle at the stairs. The dull echo of gunfire and shouting drifted up from the lower levels. The soldier's radio crackled to life once again.
"Break, break. All units, be advised: one-six hostiles in the compound. I say again: one-six hostiles in the compound. Heavily armed. Weather has broken contact with Command. Route to your established defensive positions and await further orders. November out."
Their armed guard pressured them forward. "Keep moving!"
Down more halls, up another flight of stairs. They were on the fifth level now; how high were they going to go? But the chaotic sounds of combat were closing in. How far away? Klaxosaur ground forces? They needed weapons to defend themselves!
"Something's wrong," one of the guards muttered. "What're the others doing? They're gaining too much ground."
Another one watched the hall. "The training. Has to be the training."
"Huh?"
"We weren't trained for this!" he snarled. "They drilled us to stay in the open, away from any potential flanking vectors! These guys, though - they're humans! How do you keep distance and pacing against a rifle? We're supposed to be on the same side! This is blue on blue!"
Wait. The attackers were-
"Military, I think. Well-equipped. Captured Zorome, Miku."
Adrenaline surged through her veins. She shot Mitsuru a panicked glance, watched the nervous sweat descend his cheek.
"APE? Were they APE?"
"No."
Oh no.
"Clear it!" the squad lead barked. "We'll improvise! Get the VIPs into that room-" He pointed to their right, at an empty classroom. "-and then get into cover and stay there! Focus on the stairwell, they'll have to come from that direction!"
Ichigo and the other parasites found themselves corralled into the spacious room. The stomping of boots signaled movement; one soldier hunkered down in the open doorway, aiming to their left, at the direction they'd come from. More gunfire, this time from the floor below. Another shockwave-induced earthquake, another muffled explosion.
Goro scowled. "Are the klaxosaurs attacking, too? What's making all that noise?"
"No," Kokoro murmured. Ichigo watched her tremble. She seemed almost... excited?
"No?"
"It's Genista."
Okay, had the girl hit her head or something? That was impossible. Kokoro and Futo... err, Mitsuru were both here, with them. Genista couldn't be moving. There was no... way...
...
"K-Kokoro?" Futoshi stuttered. "Are... are you saying... Genista's m-moving... by itself?"
Kokoro nodded.
"L-Like... like Strelizia?"
Kokoro nodded again.
Perhaps it was the combat adrenaline, or maybe the increased paranoia in the wake of Zorome and Miku's death, that forced Ichigo to more carefully evaluate Kokoro's words. Either way, she saw something deeper there, some hidden revelation yet to be discovered, and her mind raced to uncover the pieces. She wasn't the only one.
"I'm such an idiot."
Her focus shifted to a scowling Mitsuru, who stared at the floor in annoyed understanding.
"It's all connected," he spat. "All of it. How did I not realize it sooner? It's so obvious!"
Ikuno's eyebrow twitched. "Please, mister boy genius, feel free to give the rest of us a clue."
"The soldiers, they were inside the city! The only one who... the doctor, guys! He's behind everything! Every security camera in the plantation fed into his office!"
It hit Goro next. "The bastard knew they were there. No, not just knew, he - he let them in!"
"The doctor designed the Franxx. He created them!" The words flew from Mitsuru's lips. "Strelizia went berserk, but it was never hostile. Even during the kissing operation with Plantation 26 - remember the combat footage? The only time it lashed out at Delphinium was when it was surrounded! It attacked the klaxosaurs. Aside from Hiro's transformation, both he and Zero Two were perfectly fine afterwards."
That time, and when they fought the princess of the klaxosaurs, and when Strelizia came for them when they tried to escape Garden... he was right. Those cables she'd seen, in the aftermath of its first rampage...
Strelizia hadn't tried to attack them. It was trying to protect them!
"Argentea, too," Futoshi added. "It was in the same state as Strelizia. I remember. And it was still attacking the klaxosaurs."
She looked at Kokoro. One machine was a strange tick, an odd behavior. Two was a suspicious coincidence. But three machines?
"They're all the same," she assumed. "Delphinium, Chlorophytum, Genista - they're probably all moving. And if Kokoro can hear Genista, and Genista knows where she is..."
Ikuno finished for her. "That's how Strelizia found them. It knew where Zero Two was."
Smoke erupted in the hallway. The soldiers released startled shouts.
"That old man is behind all of it," Ichigo muttered. The squad backed against the far wall. "This isn't a random attack. They're coming for-"
Gunfire erupted. Ichigo slammed her hands over her ears, but it did little to stop the ringing. A moment later the violence ended; through her eardrums' throbbing she made out heavy boots thudding against the cold floor and the metronomic barking of human voices.
It was as her hearing returned to her that she spied a pair of glowing green eyes peering through the dissipating smoke. The figure emerged from the fog like a phantom, clad from head to toe in brown and olive body armor. She couldn't locate a single speck of skin. The thing lowered its weapon, a rifle of unusual design.
"Squad 13?" came the screeching rasp.
The noise jostled her and she winced involuntarily. Against her better judgment, Ichigo offered a reply. "Y-Yes? That's us."
The soldier strode across the floor like a well-trained professional. Wait... that gait, that posture, had she seen it before?
"Any injuries?"
Something about the man's voice struck her as familiar. It was hard to place, distorted as it was by the static of the rebreather. "...No. Um, sorry. Do I know you from somewhere?"
He lifted the - oh, those were goggles? - onto the helmet. Wait - wait wait wait, those eyes! The bridge of his nose! The way he talked!
No damn way!
Kokoro's jaw dropped. She leveled an accusing finger. "CODE 090?!"
Put on the spot, the... err, former parasite lifted his hand is an awkward half-wave.
"Uh, yes, hello. Nice to see you again."
Now she was just confused. "What - how... huh?"
He covered his eyes again. "I promise we'll explain everything once we're out of this mess. Is your squad able to run?"
The emotions drained away. Right, now wasn't the time. Questions later, escape now.
"We're ready."
090 nodded and beckoned them into the hall. He held the side of his helmet. "Green to Red, Squad 13 is secure. We're making our way to the entrance point now, over."
So there was another team here, too? Stepping over the dead body in the doorway, Ichigo glanced up and down the hall. The presumed other members of Squad 26 guarded both sides, watching for any movement. Unlike the APE soldier, 090 didn't have his radio on speaker. She couldn't hear the reply, but the former parasite nodded.
"Understood, we'll be careful. Out." Then he looked from her to his squad. "Alright, the others are gonna meet us at our entrance point! Form up around Squad 13, stay alert! Let's get moving!"
One of the man's squadmates opened up with a rifle right as he finished the sentence. The deafening noise scrambled her thoughts. Contact? From around the corner! That was the way to the upper levels. Ape knew what happened already?!
She whipped her head around, searching for anything that may have given them away. There, a camera in the classroom! Of course, all of Garden was bugged!
"Get going!" 090 roared. "Cover them! Go, go!"
Goro grabbed her hand and tugged her along, shouting over the noise. "C'mon, Ichigo! It's time to leave!"
Whatever remaining hesitance she had drained away with his touch. "Right!"
Squad 13 took off towards the staircase the APE soldiers had led them up, surrounded on all sides by the ten members of the fallen Chrysanthemum. 090 barked orders as they went.
"Sajimi, Mureiko! Cover that corner!"
Two of his squad members rushed into position and aimed their rifles down a connecting hallway to their left, cover the rest of them as they ran past. As Ikuno ran by they fired several bursts of lead into an APE soldier attempting to flank. The gunfire drowned out the man's screams.
Wait - wait, names? 090 hadn't said their numbers, he said...! What the heck had happened in the two weeks they'd been stuck at Garden?!
No, later! Questions later! Fourth floor, keep going!
The gunfire intensified with each level they descended. Was APE tracking them or something? A bullet shattered a window - the window she'd passed but a second earlier. His actions on point, Goro caught her as she fell and hoisted her to her feet in one smooth motion. His vice-like grip filled her with an odd sense of comfort and kept her from panicking. He was here, he had her. She was okay.
"Three behind!" a static-filled voice come out. "Suppress! Suppress!"
Squad 26 staggered their retreat while they descended the stairs to the third floor. One fired, one fell back, vice versa, repeat. Who taught them those tactics? They were parasites, not ground soldiers!
Third floor, almost to the second. Halfway there - wait, something in that doorway? Was that a - oof!
She was shoved to the left. A shot ran out, something red crossed her vision. More shouting, more gunfire. What was...
A pained scream. A voice she knew. What - no, what - wait huh?! That - Goro's-
Dragged into a room. Yet more shots. Members of 26 lifting him up, pulling off his blood-stained pants. Holding him down, securing a tourniquet, blood bubbling from the side of his right thigh.
Panic drowned every cell in her body. She scrambled to his side faster than she'd ever moved in her life. Couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't think. Choking and dying and no no nononononono no no nono nononononono ononono NONONONONONONO-
"G-Go-"
Goro Goro Goro Goro Goro Goro Goro GoroGoroGoroGoroGoroGOROGOROGOROGOROGOROGOROGORO-
Goro had-
Her Goro had been shot.
"Goro?! GORO?!"
He grit out a pained half-smirk. "I'm... I'm okay. Are y-you... hurt, Ichigo?"
Ichigo grabbed his hand and squeezed. "Don't ask me that, you jerk! You're not supposed to take bullets for me!"
The medic dressed the wound with some sort of clotting agent, then began sealing it with a bandage. He hissed.
"It's a-alright. Just a leg..."
Just a- "Just a leg?! They taught us basic anatomy, Goro! That could've torn your femoral artery to shreds!"
"It didn't, but she's right," the medic groaned. Ichigo made out a feminine voice behind the rebreather's filter. "We're lucky APE doesn't use hollow points. Round went right through you... got a bit of muscle, I think? It's hard to tell. I dressed the wound the best I could, but-"
The voice stopped and her panic grew tenfold. But when she lifted her eyes to ask what went wrong, she found the medic staring at her instead. Or, more specifically, her ankle.
"Son of a bitch, they're tracking us!" The girl slapped a hand on her helmet. "Kyuma! We've got a problem! Get in here!"
Of course! How could she be such an idiot! APE was using the ankle trackers to locate their position!
"Alright, listen!" the medic shouted. "Squad 13's got ankle bracelets! The trackers! APE knows exactly where we are!"
The situation was getting desperate. Ichigo's worried gaze turned back to her partner, who squeezed her hand in reassurance.
Their companion returned her attention to Goro. "Alright, you! How fast do you think your heart's beating right now?"
Goro gulped. "F-Fast."
"Good. Hold still!" She grabbed a pen-like device from her vest, popped the cap and pushed it against his hip. "It's morphine. Painkiller. Shittier version of the ketamine APE supplies you with - slower to take effect and tends to slow your pulse. Now be a man and pull up your pants, we've gotta go!"
Then she grabbed a different pen and gave it to Ichigo. "Epinephrine! You're responsible for him, got it? If he's acting drowsy or lightheaded, or you think he's gonna pass out, you stab this into one of his limbs! Preferably the thigh - his other one - but if you don't have that much time a deltoid is better than nothing!"
Ichigo struggled to make out her words over the incessant roar of the rifles, but she got the gist of it: either his uninjured thigh or his shoulder. She nodded and tucked the autoinjector into a safe pocket. Then she helped Goro with his belt, grabbed his hand and supported him while he painfully stumbled to his feet. The gunfire died off long enough for her ears to voice their ringing displeasure.
"We're going to make a break for the second floor!" the medic shouted. "Once there we're going to link up with the distraction squad buying us time, push to the ground level and get to the transports. Then we're getting the hell out of here!"
Okay.
She was terrified, but okay. Another soldier explained the plan to the rest of Squad 13 in a room directly across the hall. Ikuno flashed her a concerned glance. Ichigo gulped and tried to reply with a nod. The 26ers stacked on either side of the two doorways. Goro tested his leg.
They were going to survive. None of them were going to die in this frozen, insufferable place. Not Squad 26, not her squad, not her, and definitely not Goro!
"You guys ready?" the medic girl asked.
Goro took a deep breath and pushed away the pain. "Y-Yeah, we're good."
The helmeted head nodded, then tapped the shoulder of the person in front of her. The tap was passed along until it reached the man by the frame.
"Flashes and smokes in three... two... one!"
They threw two pairs of devices to both sides of the hallway.
"GO!"
The world flashed by in a blur. The cacophony of the rifles assaulted her auditory senses. She focused on Goro's held hand. More shouting, more orders, more screams of death and pain. At one point they were pushed along by a pair of hands; she didn't know their owner. She almost tripped down the stairs, pausing but a moment to make sure he was still with her. Sweat matted his hair to his forehead, and that simple fact gave her an immeasurable amount of relief. Her squadmates gasped for breath behind them. Squad 26, miraculously, brought up the rear, exhausted but somehow still alive. They were on the second floor.
Ichigo stumbled into the hallway and was met by an APE soldier aiming a rifle at her forehead. Time stopped. She watched his finger clench against the trigger mechanism.
A knife entered his jugular. An arm spun the dying man away, forced him to the ground. The assailant turned; she found herself confronted by a helmet of somewhat different design. Red goggles, not green. Memories of her fallen friends danced before her eyes.
"Keep running, little birdy. Only dead children stop and gawk."
The machine-man's horrid rasp forced her legs into motion. The first three floors were scary: bullets flying this way and that; APE soldiers barreling down on them, barking demands; the smoke and the ringing of her ears and their Squad 26 rescuers desperately holding the line against an all-encompassing onslaught. Indeed, warzones embodied fear. Death lurked around any corner, but that death was bull-faced and up front about it.
The second floor was not a warzone. It was a house of horrors.
Movement in the shadows. Disappearing flashes of red. An APE soldier, here and there, rounded the corner for cover and then vanished into the mist.
No more streams of bullets. The gunshots were not constant. And when they came, they were not expected.
Their breathing and their clattering footsteps served as the group's lone company. No more shouting. No more screaming.
Just single shots, then silence.
A wall of frozen air greeted Ichigo when she reached the ground level. Her body flinched away on reflex and behind her, Goro yelped in pain. The cold agitated his wound. The entire floor howled with the outside blizzard's wind. Squad 13 shivered, but Squad 26 wasn't phased. 090 pushed to the front to urge them on.
"Let's go! This way!"
They rushed to a connection in the hall and rounded the corner. Snow billowed through a large, double-doored entranceway. She guessed the room to be one of the many gargantuan storage rooms; her suspicions were soon confirmed. The back wall simply did not exist. Broken shelves littered the area. Beakers, vials and containers lay crushed and fragmented on the floor, their unknown contents mixing and squirling into potentially dangerous combinations. And beyond all of this roared the storm.
"So we've got good news and bad news."
Ichigo's heart slammed against her chest and clogged her throat. The soldiers with red goggles entered behind them. She hadn't even heard them approach. One continued talking casually, as if he was discussing breakfast or the weather.
"Good news: the dragoons - our transports - they're fine and ready to go. Bad news: in order to avoid APE's anti-armor weapons, they had to retreat to the forest. You're gonna have to run. Hey you - yeah, you. With the glasses. Lift up your arms. No, not above, to the - yeah, there you go. Hold still."
They were human. Just six people, four men and two women. She eyed them to be around Hachi's age. They weren't machines? How could six people clear a whole floor of Garden, brimming with hostile APE soldiers?! One of the women had her hold her arms out to the side, like the man did with Goro. She undid a multitude of straps, removed her helmet, and then strapped her backpack to Ichigo's shoulders. A pair of tubes coiled under her arms, connecting to the helmet's mask. The woman fitted the helmet over her head and secured it until it was tight, then adjusted the tubes and pack to her smaller frame. Ichigo could barely breathe - until the lady tapped something on the undersize of the mask. Cool, refreshing air drifted up her nostrils. The heavy goggles were lowered over her eyes, covering everything not hidden by the mask. Their red tint faded until she couldn't detect a difference. The other man continued talking, his voice no longer muffled by the rebreather.
"Good news: you're all still alive! Great job, guys! Bad news: most of APE's forces are alive, too. Good news: most of those forces are in this compound, with us, currently en route to our position. Bad news: their outside forces will attempt to surround us so we can't escape. We don't have time to wait out the storm. Good news: we'll deal with the guys in here. Bad news: you're gonna have to deal with everything outside the compound by yourselves. Good news: those helmets will protect your heads from the storm. You won't even get a runny nose! The goggles adjust to lighting and weather automatically, and the radio key is a button outside your right ear. Bad news: we don't have enough time to give you the full setup, so the rest of your body will be chilled to the bone. If you stay out there longer than an hour, you'll probably die to exposure, even with the helmets. Grab a buddy, grab their hand and do not let them go. Understood?"
Ichigo gulped. Goro took her hand. She couldn't see his face, and she didn't like it.
"Understood!" Squad 13 replied.
"Fantastic," their impromptu briefer drawled. He pointed behind them, at the horrible blizzard. "Now get out of here."
Squad 26 formed up around them. They took stock of themselves, then shared nods and thumbs up. 090 counted them off.
"Three."
The memories bubbled to the surface. Ichigo took a breath.
"Two."
Yeah, that's right.
"One."
If Hiro and Zero Two could do this twice...
"GO!"
They could do it once.
"Status."
"Sir!" the tech responded. "Core destabilization ratios are almost in place. We're following the doctor's instructions to the letter."
Hachi nodded. "Good. How long until it is ready?"
"We estimate five minutes for optimal dispersal."
"Activate it as soon as it is ready. I will be with the transports. Don't wait for my approval, but contact me once you begin the process. Understood?"
"Understood!"
The human species recorded its history through a system they called 'events': occasions or happenings on the timeline deemed to hold personal or collective worth. The size and scope of events varied massively. Some affected but a few lives, while others shaped entire star systems or galaxies. For humanity, the most important events occurred on the world or species level. Some held such profound importance that they were readily taught to all members of the race: the extinction of the dinosaurs; the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the fall of the Berlin Wall, to name but a few.
As time passed and the future became the present, historians young and old would judge the happenings of these momentous and historic months. After all, the people involved were some of the most famous to ever exist. Their names were known to children and lecturers far and wide, their visages carved into stone and their deeds recorded in the most prestigious of tomes.
Ichigo, Goro, Futoshi, Ikuno, Mitsuru, Kokoro. The heroes of humanity. The founders of a new age. They who struggled against the death of the world and won.
Behind them fought the ghosts of what they once were: the child soldiers who suffered needlessly, born to fight and die.
Before them fought the ghosts of who they strove to become: the harbingers and trailblazers, who forged the path and bestowed upon them the inspiration of gods. The mythical forest of the horned girl and her stalwart mate loomed beyond the howling blizzard. The rampaging machine, so horribly reminiscent of the fallen Argentea, blocked out the surroundings with its towering shadow.
They wished for these things. They wished for the most caring of bonds and the strength of legends. The compassion of a lover and the power to slay their demons by the dozens.
Garden would, in time, become a university, one of the best, and the thirteenth plantation would become its city. The trail these parasites followed, the lines their legs carved into the snow, would be cordoned off and protected for centuries. Their characters would be analyzed, their actions studied.
For it was here, you see, that the finger of history pointed. Of all the moments hailed and cherished during these soon-to-be famous months, this one stood above. This one was lauded as the greatest. The event of events, the single blip on the timeline to which the scholars and scribes proclaimed with glee: "It was here the world itself began!"
The children ran.
Through the snow, they ran.
Those same books would one day claim this mad dash to freedom an original happening, the first of its kind. They were wrong. In truth, it was a recreation of a legendary event years prior, told through hushed whispers and hearsay, in which a nine year old child soldier attempted to escape with a monster, an experiment gone wrong.
Two children had become sixteen. Like their sacred forebears, they wished for freedom - but the oppressors would not let them leave. Not without a fight.
"Left side! Left side! One hundred meters, five riflemen!"
Their firearms were, at this point, over a century old. Squad 26 did not know the origin of the rifles they held, and neither did it matter. They were given a name - Heckler and Koch, model 416 - and it was good enough. Names gave them reason. Names gave them belonging.
It impressed Squad 26 that even the weapons of the old world had names. The city of survivors taught them, as one of their first lessons, the concept of purpose. Nothing was meaningless. Everything existed for some reason. From that purpose came the name, and from the name came existence.
The children shouldered their rifles. The countries of old and the bullets they made fired at APE in defiance. Their goggles gave them sight and their masks gave them breath.
So they ran.
But APE's soldiers would not stand for rebellion. No quarter was given. The wind brought to them the sounds of the scavengers' final stand: the dull echoes of gunfire, the thuds of an explosion. Papa's troops mobilized all the resources at their disposal. The roaring of engines alerted the escapees to the presence of oncoming armored personnel carriers. The distance closed.
"Heavy armor! Our rear, danger close!"
Tremors knocked them from their feet and the party collapsed into the snow. Ichigo crawled to Goro, who winced against the powder stained crimson. His wound reopened. A shadow infringed upon her vision; she twisted her head to the sky and saw two titans step over them, locked in mortal combat. Genista had lost its cannon, but its counterpart still had its lance.
The M9 launched itself onto its foe. Genista's foot hovered perilously, afraid as it was of crushing the children, and lost its balance as a result. The machines impacted the ground some dozens of meters to their side. Ichigo threw herself over her partner. Together they braced against the oncoming wave of snow. It battered her back, but through some miracle they were not buried alive.
"Stay down!" erupted 090's voice over the helmet's radio. "Incoming!"
A missile streaked through the gray skies and slammed against one of the fast approaching APE transports. Where the snow chilled her back, the explosion's fireball singed. Its companion screeched to a halt to allow its passengers exit. A choppy, monstrous noise filled her mind and drowned her thoughts. Some sort of mechanical contraption hovered over them, fighting against the blizzard's winds. The aged gunship's nose-mounted minigun swiveled and erupted like dragon's fire.
The hailstorm of bullets crashed against the hostile forces. The men fell to the frozen ground, some alive and some dead. The APE APC's turret aimed to the clouds and returned fire. Flak explosions surrounded their sudden ally. One impacted in front of the cockpit. Horrendous shrieking filled the air; it struggled for a moment, then fell from the sky. Assuming its enemy's demise, the turret turned its focus to Genista, which continued to wrestled with the other Franxx.
"Holy shit," Ichigo whispered. "Goro? H-Hey, Goro?!"
Her partner groaned. "I'm... I'm here. I'm alright."
Noise of a nearby struggle cut off her reply.
"Mitsuru! Let me go! Let me go, Mitsuru!"
"Like hell I'm letting you go! What's gotten into you?!"
Kokoro struggled against her grip. Her helmeted visage stared at Genista's distant struggle.
"I need to help them! They need my help!"
Ikuno and Futoshi dropped to the snow next to Ichigo.
"Are you two okay?" the girl demanded over the sound of exchanged gunfire.
Ichigo shook her head. "Goro's wound reopened! If we don't get out of-"
From beyond Garden's southern wall came the sound of an explosion - a natural explosion. An eruption.
Then came the shockwave.
Then came the magma.
The blizzard's frost and snow impacted the blast like a mosquito impacts a windshield. The clouds parted. Through her bleary periphery, Ichigo spotted several strange particles, glowing orange, carry away individual snowflakes. Trying to focus on the spots proved futile. Despite the intensity of her focus, the firefly-like lights blinked out of existence; she couldn't get a good look. Winds died and gunfire ceased. The soldiers of both APE and Squad 26 looked around, startled and alert.
A gathering of those same particles drew Ichigo's gaze to the forest of her stolen memories. She tried to blink away the glow.
"Get up, Ichigo!"
When she opened her eyes, she saw a boy.
"If we can do it, you can too!"
Attached to the boy's hand was a red girl cloaked in black.
"Geh-uuuuu, Ihio! Ra! Raa!"
And then they were gone.
The mask's oxygen stun her dry lips. "D-Did you g-guys... see that?"
Goro sat himself up with a bit of effort. "See... what?"
Confusion and doubt bogged down Ichigo's tired mind. "Never - nevermind."
Mechanical whirling, the bad kind, forced her eyes skyward. The gunship sputtered and groaned.
Inside the Apache, Naomi struggled for control. She swore and fought to salvage the crippled symbol of her people. Bari, the copilot, was dead, her body ruined by shrapnel. Naomi missed her and her experience. Howling wind pierced the shattered glass. It rattled her bones, even through the muffling of her helmet. She blinked away her tears. Her copilot's body blinked away its existence. Her mind couldn't afford the blessing of confusion, so consumed was she by the chaos. She could only sit and watch while the machine's instruments fluctuated to impossible values. Orange sparks flew from the rotors. Her steed held firm, aloft and well. Only the damaged minigun and broken copilot's cockpit hinted to the Apache's brush with fiery demise.
In her lap rested Bari's pilot helmet.
"You can do it. You can finish it."
A deep breath, to calm her nerves. Naomi ripped the helmet from her head and grabbed the dead woman's. Hers synced to the piloting heads-up display. The copilot's synced with the weapons.
HELLFIRE-IV : 24
"I can do it," she gasped out. "I can finish it."
On the ground below, thirty millimeter cannon shells signaled the arrival of the Strykers. 090 bellowed orders over the inter-squad frequency.
"Get ready! We're leaving when the transports get here!"
The supporting fire slammed into APE's remaining armor. A volley of rounds cleaved its turret while another pierced the wheels. Squad 13 scrambled away, with Squad 26 providing covering fire. But Kokoro fought against Mitsuru's grip - her eyes were still on Genista's pinned form. The M9 struggled to keep it grounded while they wrestled for control of the spear.
"Genista! GENISTA!" she screamed into the distance. "Get up! You can beat it, so get up!"
In the storm, the machine hadn't heard the girl's cries. The blizzard was gone now; Genista heard her crystal clear.
The black static plaguing its faceplate vanished. Light erupted from its eye sockets, flashing like the sun, then bled down to its featureless face until the whole thing glowed a solid, blinding white. Strength surged through the frame. Genista's mountainous arms overpowered the M9's grip. The other machine's shoulders sparked and creaked into the struggle, to no avail. The rogue Franxx got to its knees, then to its feet.
And then it ripped the M9's left arm from its socket. The spear went with it.
Stunned stiff, Kokoro finally allowed Mitsuru to pull her away.
A right hook to the M9's jaw sent it to the earth. Powder flew, an earthquake rolled through the dirt. Genista flung the arm away, grabbed its stunned foe and wrapped its arm around the M9's neck. It hoisted the machine to its knees and twisted it in the Apache's direction.
Naomi took the opening. The gunship strained as it turned, but turn it did. The girl aligned the targeting reticule with the M9's face. A crack echoed through the air. Something rocketed from the M9's head, angled in the direction of the retreating rebels, right as Naomi loosed twenty-four armor-piercing, high explosive rockets into the machine's cockpit.
The children felt the heat of the M9's death on their backs. The escape pod barely missed one of the waiting transports. To his credit, the gunner paused in his suppressive fire for but a moment. The pod slid open automatically - it was the stamen seat, and the occupant was unconscious.
But the stamen was a girl.
090 focused on her suit and not her gender. "That's - wait, that's APE special forces! Rohiji, Itsuya, get her inside and secured! She's worth something!"
"Copy!" the two members replied. They grabbed the girl and dragged her into their Stryker. 090 beckoned Squad 13 into theirs.
"We're going! Get to your seats!" the driver barked.
Futoshi shook his head. "Th-There are others still-"
"They're dead," the gunner interrupted. "Sagi radioed in and told us the plan. You're wearing their helmets - that's proof of a scavenger's death. We know where they are and we'll come back for them, but not now!"
090 entered after his partner. "We're all inside!"
The driver didn't need to hear anything else. He flipped a switch, and the door sealed itself. "Stryker 1 to Stryker 2 and Falcon, final checks, over!"
"Stryker 2 is solid green, over!"
"Falcon's yellow but okay! I can get her home! I'll be on your six, over!"
Ikuno went stiff as a statue but didn't say anything.
"Copy. Follow us, fifty meter spacing. Out!"
But as they approached the collapsed portion of the southern wall, APE's remaining functional turrets took aim. The gunner hissed out a creative curse.
The sky cracked like lightning. Once, twice. The turrets - and the sections of wall they rested on - were reduced to rubble and ash. The vehicles made it through the hole.
Ichigo suspected the source. She turned to Kokoro to confirm; the girl merely flashed a thumbs up. The squad leader added it to her racing brain's mental picture. Genista was what got them inside, but where were the others? Were they really moving too, like they suspected? And if they were, could she hear Delphinium like Kokoro heard Genista?
Her focus was drawn away. Rebreather static disrupted Goro's pained hiss. 090's partner, the medic girl, was busy replacing his bandages. She muttered something about stitches. Ichigo squeezed his hand.
"Did the morphine help?"
"Y-Yeah, but I can still feel it throb. Ugh..."
Somehow, they were alive. All of them, except...
"Who were those guys?" Mitsuru huffed. He wanted answers, and he wanted them yesterday.
090 slouched in his seat, fumbling with the straps of his helmet. It took him far longer than they expected to finally pry the thing from his head. That lady secured her helmet in probably thirty seconds, but it took 090 almost two minutes to remove his own. It reminded Ichigo of some sort of airtight capsule, which made sense upon consideration. The rest of her body was cold, wet, clammy, shivering. But her head felt fine. No real sweat or humidity. The filtered air cooled her throat.
Some sort of environmental gear? Who designed such a thing? Why weren't they given these as standard issue, given the state of the world?
090 coughed into the cramped cabin. "They're the ones who got Zorome and Miku out."
Silence. Just the whirl of the engine, the grip of the tires against the dead ground. Futoshi, as expected, asked the golden question.
"What do you mean?"
After confirming the safety was back on, 090's partner released her strange rifle's magazine and freed the bullet from the chamber. Mitsuru watched it roll in the cabin's dim light. It wasn't an APE round, not by any stretch of the imagination. She placed the weapon on her lap, then looked at the other occupants.
"Your squadmates are still alive. They're wounded, but - anyway, Zorome asked those guys to get you out. Your teammates saved our lives back at Chrysanthemum, so we wanted to help. We owed them. That girl in the helicopter, that thing in the sky, she said she knew you too, I think?"
Futoshi buried his helmet in his hands. His shoulders shook.
"Naomi!" Ikuno rasped. "It's Naomi!"
"What in the fuckin' - Luke! You seeing that?"
"Oh, you see it too? Thought I was just going insane, honestly."
Whatever feelings Squad 13 felt in response to the revelation fell to the side upon hearing the driver's surprised expletive. Ichigo craned her head to glance out the vehicle's heads-up display.
To their left, bathed in that weird orange glow, sat Plantation 13. Thick green vines crawled up its surface and tethered it in place. Tall grass covered the surface in the immediate vicinity, waving in an invisible breeze. A small armada of transport craft flew from Cerasus' hangars, pointed in the direction they just came from.
Beyond the plantation raged the storm.
It fought to collapse on them all, but didn't. The glow held it at bay. An invisible dome forced the ice and snow away on all sides. To their south, past their former home, lay an opening. A gap, as tall as the sky, carved through the storm, providing an exit and reprieve from the horrible weather.
And in front of the opening were-
"It's fuckin' impossible. I'm telling you, it's impossible."
"Then why the hell are they standing there?!"
"Are those... animals?" Kokoro whispered.
Four animals. Quadrupeds. Waiting.
The eyes stared directly at the armored transports. Not the ones leaving - the ones approaching.
Theirs.
The gunner gripped his seat, pale as a ghost.
"They're horses."
Ichigo lifted the goggles from her eyes, unbelieving. She squinted and tried to make sense of it all. "I thought animals that size were extinct?"
Their driver looked over his shoulder, eyes wide, abject confusion plainly evident.
"They are."
"H-Hachi... you... bas-tard! Took... you... long enough..."
Hachi said nothing. Blood spewed from Sagi's mouth. The surrounding rooms were filled with bodies, a dozen and a half per every fallen member of the scavenger squad.
"We... d-did it..." the dying man continued. "We... won."
"Yes," Hachi acknowledged. "You won."
A fierce, bloody grin spread the soldier's lips. The look of a lion, finally satisfied with its kill.
"Did... they..."
"They're en route to Asphodel now. They've escaped."
"Good..."
Sagi took a breath, though in truth it was more of a choking cough. Hachi's men entered through the destroyed wall and rushed past them. The fight was not yet over, but everyone present could see the ending. A medic stopped to begin his work; the dead man waved him away.
"L-List...en... you asshole..." He swallowed his blood. "You... t-take that... pistol..."
Hachi unholstered his sidearm as requested and flipped off the safety. He leveled it at Sagi's forehead. The wounded soldier stared past the barrel, out the destroyed wall, to the blue, cloudless sky. The mild breeze caressed him. His grin widened.
History remembers they who were larger than life. History remembers the speech writers, the titans of industry, the military generals and the wealthy.
Alexander the Great. Julius Caesar. George Washington.
The soldiers they commanded, however, are not remembered. They receive no granite monuments, no named streets, and their faces are not put on currency.
Those same future history books, the ones lauding the lives of Squad 13, would forget these particular scavengers. Squad 26 would receive a few paragraphs and nothing more.
But unlike the countless parasites and soldiers fated to die in this tragic story, Sagi, and the men and women he led on their violent crusade, would have their graves marked by tombstones. Their final resting places would be a graveyard, not a battlefield. In their home, surrounded by their friends, and not on a field of death.
"I... saw it... on their f-faces. On... that b-birdy's face. I s-saw it, Hachi. He's... an eagle. They will... set us... free."
Code 989 - the utterly worthless failure of a parasite who named himself Sagi, the Japanese translation for Fraud - died a free man.
Bang.