Chapter 5
The sun peeked over the skyline of the city as Hiro ran up the street. His face was wild with excitement to meet his new friend again. Sprinting past tall buildings, the sakura tree upon the hill came into view when he turned the corner. He watched it in earnest as it grew ever closer.
When he came to the gate, however, it was closed. A short iron bar fence sealed the park away from the rest of the world. Hiro looked around and saw no one in sight, the city exhausted from the festivities the night before. He turned and quickly climbed over the fence, then continued up the hill.
She was waiting for him under the tree when he arrived. Her laugh rang clear through the morning breeze, "You're late darling!"
Hiro was out of breath from running. Flustered, he stammered, "I-I came as early as my mom would let me! A-and the gate was shut!" He flopped next to her in the fallen petals and tried to catch his breath.
She laughed again and wondered, "They don't close this place often, I wonder why it's locked up today..." she looked around for an answer but found none.
Once Hiro regained his breath he sat up next to her and replied, "I have no idea, but at least there is no one is here to bother us." he took in the sweet scent of the blossoms and smiled.
Zero Two stood up and said, "Well, I'm getting bored," She ran out from under the tree and beckoned for Hiro to follow, "let's go play!"
When Hiro finally stood up he felt a sharp sting in his arm, and saw a small rock drop to the ground in front of him. He heard Zero Two giggle in the distance and yell, "Too slow!"
Hiro smiled and picked up the rock, throwing it back at her. The rock hit her hand as she caught it, and she threw it back again. The pebble flew back and forth as they played, their laughter ringing through the park.
Sweat started to gather on their foreheads. Zero Two threw the rock high in the air and yelled, "Catch this!" It flew in a high arc, and dissapeared into the tree above Hiro's head.
The tree branches rustled as the rock fell through. Then the rustling stopped and someone yelled "Ow!" from up in the tree.
"Huh?" Hiro, confused, looked up to try and find where the sound came from. Unable to see anything, he yelled, "Who's up there!?"
The branches rustled again and the voice called down, "Who's down there!"
Zero Two, annoyed, ran to Hiro's side and yelled back, "Come down!"
The tree shook and soon a girl about the same age as Hiro and Zero Two jumped down. She was short, and her flat maroon hair fell flatly by her shoulders when she landed. She was not wearing the standard tan dress that most girls wore. Instead, she had torn jeans and a black zipper hoodie. Brown eyes examined Hiro and Zero Two. Standing up straight the girl waved and said, "I'm Enjo, nice to meet you."
Zero Two waved back and replied, "My name's Iota, but you can call me Zero Two."
Enjo looked at Hiro and asked, "And who are you?"
Hiro's face turned red and he answered shakily, "M-me? I-I'm Hiro." He looked up and asked, "Uh, why were you in the tree?"
"Oh! Well you see, I just love climbing." She deftly climbed a short way up the trunk of the sakura tree as a demonstration. She let go of the trunk and continued, "And yesterday I climbed the tree. Usually I can't climb the tree because someone catches me but on the holidays its busy enough here in the park that no one notices. So I climbed the tree yesterday, then I laid down on that nice big branch. It was so comfy I must've fallen asleep!" She laughed. After thinking for a moment she finished her story, "Just now I woke up when something hit my head." She rubbed the back of her head where the rock hit, " But I have no idea what hit me though," she looked at them and asked, "do you have any idea what could've woken me up?"
Zero Two giggled and answered, "No idea."
"None at all." Hiro followed up.
Enjo frowned and said, "Anyways, what were you two doing?"
"Just playing catch." replied Zero Two.
"Sounds fun! Can I join in?"
"Sure! But we seem to have lost the rock we were throwing..." Zero Two ran back out towards the path to get another pebble. As soon as she left the canopy of the tree she looked up to see two people walking towards the tree from the museum. She quickly turned around and ran back under the tree. She yelled to Hiro and Enjo, "Hide!"
All three of them dived under a large root of the tree. Enjo asked, "What's there?"
"Two people, both adults." Zero Two answered.
Hiro, confused, wondered, "Two adults here when the park is closed?"
Enjo peeked over the root and took a closer look as the two adults came into view at the base of the tree. Ducking back into safety she explained, "Two women, one in a labcoat with some sort of funny mask, and one in a suit-"
"Shh!" Hiro put his finger to his lip and whispered, "Listen, they're saying something."
The adults were now at the base of the tree. They overheard one saying, "You never go on a walk with me unless you have bad news, so lets just cut to the chase." She let out a deep sigh "What's wrong this time?"
They heard a robotic voice from the other adult. "What do you want to hear first, the good news, the bad news, or the really bad news?"
"I don't know Ikuno, how about the bad news?"
The robotic voice, presumably Ikuno, said back, "The bad news is I need money-"
"What's new?" The other adult scoffed.
"That's not all, I need a research team, and a construction team. Several of each, maybe."
The other aduld sounded concerned, "Why the sudden need of manpower? You and Naomi seem to have managed fine until now."
"That brings me to the really bad news." Ikuno's voice struggled to come out, "It's VIRM, Namari. They're back."
The other adult, presumably Namari, let out an empty "What?"
"We're in a bad situation. Our only hope is to revive the Franxx program."
Namari contemplated the gravity of the situation. There was silence for a minute while she thought, and then she asked, "How much time do we have?"
"Nine years if we're lucky."
Namari's voice became increasingly worried, "Are you sure you can get working Franxx in nine years? And what about parasites?"
"Oh, that reminds me. We also need full control of the school system and surveilance details on all children that start school next year." Ikuno became more and more monotone as her soul deflated from the stress.
"I can get you what you need, but what happens if you fail, Ikuno?"
The response from Ikuno was devoid of emotion, "We all die."
"What's the good news in all of this?" Namari's voice was in desparate need of hope.
"They might be back, Hiro and Zero Two."
From under the root Hiro and Zero Two looked at eachother in confusion. Namari interrupted their confusion, "Might be? What is that supposed to mean?"
"It's a long story for another time, when we know more about the situation." Her feet shuffled impaitiently, "Anyways, can you get me what I need? Everything?"
"O-of course! Anything you need I can provide. Let's see... We'll tell the public that we are reforming the school system to prepare for any potential threats in the future. We should avoid telling them there is a large threat now, that would just cause panic." Namari started to walk away, "I'll get you what you need, trust me."
Ikuno nodded and started to walk away as well. Namari called after her, "Ikuno, when was the last time you slept?"
Ikuno stopped and shyly replied, "2 days ago."
"I know that you can operate on less sleep with your bionics but you need to get some sleep."
"There's just so much to do-"
"That's an order, Ikuno."
"Ok, I'll get some sleep, President."
"Extend that order to Naomi for me, too."
"Yes Ma'am." Ikuno turned towards the museum and walked away. Namari followed suit in the opposite direction.
When the footsteps faded from their ears, Zero Two asked, "What was that all about?"
Enjo replied, "I dunno. They were talking about 'VIRM' and 'Scientists' and other boring grown up stuff." She stood up and checked their surroundings for other adults.
Hiro observed, "Apparently they were important enough to shut down the entire park for their meeting."
"The park is closed today?" Enjo asked, "Huh, the things you don't know when you sleep in a tree."
Zero Two was still confused. "Why were they talking about me and my darling then?" She asked.
Enjo waved it off, "They were probably talking about the people those statues are made for" she pointed at the group of statues at the bottom of the hill. "You two were probably named after those two, it's just a freak coincidence, that's all."
"Oh, I guess so..." Zero Two's face became filled with dissapointment.
Hiro chimed in, "What was all that stuff about everyone dying then?"
Enjo waved this off as well, "I'm sure that's not what they really meant. Grown up stuff, like I said." She checked their surroundings one more time and said, "If the park really is closed we should get out of here. Follow me." She darted out from under the tree and made way for the gate, Hiro and Zero Two not far behind.
They soon reached the fence. After checking to see no one was in sight they hopped over it into the street.
"What now?" Zero Two asked with a sigh.
Enjo skipped away, saying, "Let's explore!"