There is No Plot

"Woah..." Hiro held a breath of disbelief as his shoulders trembled in excitement.

He was trying his best not to smile like an idiot, but he couldn't control his lips for some reason.

They were flying.... THEY WERE FLYING THROUGH THE SKIES!!! And he was piloting it! Can you believe it?! He was piloting Strelizia!!!

"I'm can't believe it... I'm actually piloting a FRANXX!"

Strelizia's profile appeared on the side of his interface, [Yep. You can pilot. Congrats to you.]

She could not sound any more unenthusiastic than ever.

"...." Hiro could only wryly smile while scratching the side of his face awkwardly. He didn't know how to respond to his partner's lackluster comment.

But still, although he couldn't put into words how he was feeling, he felt the need to try to do so.

"I can feel myself going deeper inside you..." He uttered in a low voice, relishing in his current experience, "I can't tell where I end and where you begin anymore... but I love it!"

[....uhuh...] Strelizia, immersed as Zero Two, now felt reluctant. Even feeling a little bit put off by the boy's seemingly creepy monologue.

A sliver of disgust welled up the pits of her stomach, but she ignores it. This wasn't the first she had a partner like the boy after all. If anything, he was one of the meeker ones.

Meanwhile, Adam was currently narrowing his eyes at Strelizia's form who was ahead of them. Although he tried to maintain his casual charming smile, his right eye has been twitching nonstop after hearing what Hiro said.

Like, really, what the fuck is he talking about being deep inside his sister, huh?!

Was picking a fight?

The kid was definitely picking a fight, wasn't he?

'Calm down...' Adam chided himself for the second time. 'The kid's just ecstatic to pilot for the first time.'

That's right. He's the old and mature one here, so he should be more understanding.

Yep. Patience, Adam. Just ignore-

[This feels incredible, Zero Two! It's like... it's like I became one with you!]

Twitch!

'Patience...'

[I've never felt so perfect... so whole... I-I'm not one to be presumptuous but Zero Two... When I'm with you, I feel complete... it's like we were ma-]

{I'm stopping you right there.} His sister interrupted the boy with a sharp tone, {I get that you're happy and all, but I don't need an explanation about it. Keep in mind that I'm only doing this because Darling said so.}

[R-right! I'm sorry about that.] Hiro calmed down a bit. His timid self resurfacing again. [It's just that this is the first time I... well... could actually pilot consciously, you know?]

{Yeah, No. I don't know.} Zero Two blandly replied, {Just use your inside voice next time. Everyone has it.}

[Understood!]

For the fear that he might displease Zero Two, the boy finally stopped yapping about very questionable remarks that annoyed him.

Thank goodness for that. Adam didn't know what he'll do if the little runt started running off his mouth again and mistakenly say something he definitely shouldn't have.

'Like that snobbish kid.' Lucky for him, his sister sent him to the clinic. Otherwise, Adam himself would've done something to the kid.

With that, Adam turned his attention back to the mission. Only, Naomi suddenly spoke to him.

[Adam.] Chantrieri's profile appeared on the side of his interface. [Are you okay?] she asked.

"Of course I am!" Adam replies casually, "Why wouldn't I be?"

[Well...] Naomi answers hesitantly, [You seem kind of angry...]

Angry? Him? Not at all!

...Okay, maybe a little. But what the fuck does the kid mean by being 'one with his sister' huh?

He then heard Naomi sigh. [I guess you should be... After all, I made you do something troublesome for me... and even worse, I didn't even think about the consequences for this...]

Naomi grew teary eyed, thinking that she had gone overboard with her privilege as Adam's partner. But before she could go down that self-deprecating train of thoughts, she felt a large palm grasping her slim, perky bottom.

[A-Adam?!] Flustered, Naomi turns to Adam, only to see him grinning at her and then suddenly, she felt his fingers prod her core, eliciting a moan from her mouth.

[Adam!!] The brunette hissed at the older boy, but then another voice joined them.

{Well, aren't you two having fun? Hm? Darling?} Strelizia's expression did not seem amused in the slightest.

Adam sent her his most charming smile, "And we'll have even more fun tonight." he smoothly replied to placates his sister's jealousy. "You can count on it. After all, you still owe me for what you did last night."

Consequently, Naomi's face flushed into a deeper shade of red as she was reminded of what she decided to do in order to make it up to him.

Strelizia narrowed her eyes at him. Before finally uttering, {Hmph. It better be!} and pouting stubbornly before disconnecting her comms. She did not want to stay and watch someone else get teased by her darling without her.

Or maybe that was her darling's angle here? Making her watch and denying her of relief? Is that his punishment for her?

And while the pink-haired girl was busy trying to read her brother's intention, the man resumed his conversation with his partner.

"In any case, You don't need to worry your pretty little head, Naoms." He naturally began rubbing her perky ass. "Again, you're my partner, of course I have to consider your wishes too. Besides, I'd feel bad if your cute friends were to die to something like this."

"B-but what if- Hnn...~" Naomi began to feel hot after his teasing. She bit her lips, trying to finish her sentence, "I-I don't want Hn~... I don't you to be punished.. Mhmm~" She kept suppressing the moans coming out of her breath as Adam was now blatantly rubbing her core.

"Like I said, it's fine." Adam's tone was as casual as ever, but his hand continued pleasure her mildly stained crotch. "Besides, if they really needed us, we can just go there after rescuing your friends."

"Ooohkaay...~" Naomi's nasally replied, her mind slowly succumbing to the pleasure and unaware that she had been instinctively moving her hips against his hand.

"But, if it makes you feel better... how about I give you a little punishment?"

The brunette gulped before biting her lips. She found herself becoming more excited after hearing his suggestion.

"Yessss...."

Now, let it be known to everyone that Chantrieri's current expression was definitely inappropriate for children. Like, could you imagine a mecha robot blushing? Well, that's what was happening, which is kind of confusing and amazing at the same time because- how is it even happening?

Naomi desperately tried to suppress her moans, but Adam's large hands... Papa... why does his fingers feel so good~. It's barely been a minute since he started, but she could already feel a minor climax nearing.

"....huh?"

He stopped.

She was so close.

But he stopped. Why did he stop?!

Looking like a child whose candy has been stolen, she looked behind her only to see Adam grinning at her. 

Ah, this must be the punishment.

She whined. Adam wouldn't be that cruel... would he?

Oh, but he was. And that was something she would learn during the time they took to reach Squad 13. Which wasn't really too long, about half an hour at best.

***

Squad 13 once again found themselves in a difficult situation, something that had been annoyingly familiar to them.

Everything was going well in the beginning, as with the case of their previous mission. Only, their current mission developed in the same way as did before. With the unforeseen klaxosaur adding into the fray, causing their unprepared selves to be overwhelmed and find themselves captured and incapacitated.

Like, really, do they have some bad luck or something?

Why do they keep encountering more klaxosaur than what they were informed in the mission.

Sure, they've already been taught to practice caution in literally every moment of their operation. But still! This was just their second mission and it was going from bad to worse, just like their first mission that ended in failure.

Delphinium and Chlorophytum were currently caught in the middle of the large worm-like klaxosaur's head where there were three over-sized triangular positioned turbines that occupied the majority of its face. The bright blue glowing casing/frame of said turbines were closing on them, crushing them together in the middle of the triangular formation of the turbines.

Meanwhile, Genista was also in a similar helpless state as the large body of the worm-like klaxosaur coiled itself around her, entrapping and crushing her like a snake crushing its prey with a death grip. Fortunately, her dress-like armor was able to endure such hold, otherwise her body would've crumbled under the klaxosaur's serpent-like entrapment.

Let's not forget Argentea, who was barely holding unto her dear life as some of the jagged spikes of long-necked pincer-like mouth was beginning to dig unto her mecha body.

[Shit!] Delphinium cursed frustratingly under her breath.

She could not free herself under the three turbines as it was literally crushing her from all sides. Chlorophytum from beside her was also in a similar state. They were literally being squished together after all.

'Damn it!' Ichigo frustratingly ruminated in her mind. 'What do I do?! Fuck! No one can do anything!'

Just as she was stressing in her mind, she heard a nearby explosion, which was followed by a speedy hovering noise.

[Huh?]

There, from the distance, she found two speeding figures leaving a long and tall smoky trails as they alternatively zigzagged with each other before-

BAM!

In just a matter of seconds, Delphinium and Chlorophytum found themselves blown away from the worm's hold. They recovered in mid air and landed on their feet, just in time to see Chantrieri's ferocious appearance of being stuck on the klaxosaur's 'neck' with her hands grasping on the cracked shell (presumable made from her impact) with her legs in a graceful crouch squatting form.

Behind her, specifically near her tail-bone, were four black, sharp, and large tentacle-like mechanical limbs. They possessed a blue systematic glow, marking a close resemblance to a klaxosaur's living body.

As it turns out, the dress she usually had turned out to be this tentacle-like weapon. Which was quite unusual in comparison to the other FRANXX, but its fearsome might was soon revealed as they extended from Chantrieri's back and swiftly stabbed deep inside the klaxosaur's body like it was made of tofu.

Before the klaxosaur could even tussle, the four sharp ends of the tentacles appeared on opposite sides of the Klaxosaur's large neck, forming an 'X' like appearance. Screeching in pain, it lost total control of its body, loosening the hold on Genista and allowing her to break free and jump to safety.

[C-Chantrieri?] Delphinium goggled at the black female humanoid mecha, utterly surprised by her timely appearance.

Honestly, she was the last person she thought would help them.

"Is Adam piloting that?" Goro asked in disbelief.

The pilots of Genista and Chlorophytum were in a similar state as they witnessed the following incredulous events.

THUD!

The worm-like klaxosaur fell to the ground, but Chantrieri wasn't done with it. She unborrowed her four tentacles and splitting into two, she stabbed it towards the line between its 'head' and 'neck'. Then, motioning with her hands, her tentacles began prying the klaxosaur's head away from its body.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

More of its black shell-like skin broke as Chantrieri pried it neck open, separating the head from the body. The klaxosaur violently struggled, but Chantrieri responded by briefly using her top-left and bottom-right tentacles to begin stabbing relentlessly around its neck. She sent a barrage of lethal attacks inside its neck while the other two tentacles focused on separating the head from the body.

In less than fifteen seconds, she had already pried the head half-way through. Blood spurted everywhere, but the task was almost done from there. With a nasty grin, Chantrieri exerted all the strength in her weapon, thoroughly tearing the head from the body.

The klaxosaur tumbled and tussled around like a headless chicken, but Chantrieri didn't let it struggle for long as she skewered it with her tentacle starting from its headless neck and all the way to the mid-section of its body where after some slight obstruction, she found the core and punctured it.

With that, the worm-like klaxosaur was effectively dead.

And it took less than a minute.

[....] x6

Whether it was Goro, Ichigo, Mitsuru, Ikuno, Futoshi, or Kokoro, (damn that was a mouthful), they all had nothing to say after seeing Chantrieri's might.

Just then however, their attention was stolen by the sight of Strelizia fending off the other klaxosaur that had a pincer-like mouth and a long neck. Argentea could be seen sitting helplessly behind Strelizia, seemingly weak after enduring another life and death situation.

[L-let me handle this!] A very familiar boy's voice resounded through the comms.

[....Hiro?] Ichigo's eyes furrowed.

"Hiro!" Goro grinned, joyful that his friend came to their rescue and is even piloting a FRANXX!

Goro knew he could do it!

But then Ichigo immediately shouted to the boy, [No! We can't afford to rely on Strelizia this time!]

[Even I'm-...] Hiro gritted his teeth, [I'm also part of the team too!] he shouted determinedly. 

[....]

No one said anything for a while. Though, Mitsuru in particular looked like he had swallowed a bitter pill.

[....Very well.] Ichigo answered after a few seconds. [We will all deal with that- together!]

[Understood!]

All the members of squad 13 chorused and assumed their battle stance.

Only Chantrieri didn't seem to have any intention of moving from her position. Inside Chantrieri's cockpit, Naomi looks at the handsome white haired young man behind her.

"...We're not going?"

"Nah. They should handle that themselves." Adam answered lightheartedly, leaning on the backrest casually.

Naomi nodded in understanding before turning her gaze to the front and watching out for her friends, ready to step forward if need.

But really, She and Adam had already done a huge help by eliminating one of the klaxosaurs.

If they did any more than this, then Hachi and the other adults might actually start thinking that squad 13 was incompetent. Naomi definitely didn't want that to happen.

Adam on the other hand, was narrowing his eyes that the supposedly 'lifeless' body of the klaxosaur underneath them. Although he had stabbed through its 'core', it felt different. In short, it was a fake one.

Throughout his years of slaying klaxosaurs, there were indeed rare cases where klaxosaurs develop a fake core as a means of survival mechanism. The annoying thing about these fake cores was that they were so convincing. Too convincing to the point that they could either catch an experienced parasite off-guard and kill them or escape after successfully tricking the parasite into thinking it was dead.

The problem here is that there's a possibility that it could have multiple 'fake' cores, and depending on the size of it, they might face some difficulty in killing it. And by 'they', he meant Squad 13 as a whole.

It would be a different story if he and his brunette were to step up.

But he's not here to show off now, is he?

Nope. This was actually something Squad 13 had to handle by themselves.

Besides, his sister was with them. Adam doubts that he'll actually need to step out any time soon.

***

Strelizia glanced at Chantrieri from the distance. Seeing that the latter didn't seem to have any intentions of moving, she figured that they were gonna sit this one out.

That's fine. She alone can handle this.

Strelizia gripped the body of her lance and shoved the stubborn pincer maw of the klaxosaur, forcing the klaxosaur slightly back before pointing the tip of her spear towards it.

Klaxosaur, having limited intelligence, followed its instinct of lunging forward to mawl the insect in front of it to death.

Only, Strelizia stabbed her lance directly down the throat of the klaxosaur, reaching halfway through its body.

"KRRIEEEKK!!!"

The klaxosaur released an agonizing screech as Strelizia frowned. She wasn't bothered by the screech, but the fact that the klaxosaur's body felt odd.

Most of the times, the core of a klaxosaur (which is essentially their heart) are located deep inside their bodies, usually in the middle or somewhere in the chest.

Zero Two narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"Zero Two?" Hiro asked from behind.

[Something's off.]

Strelizia then grabbed the klaxosaur's entire head and using its pincer-like mouth as handles, she dashed forward, using the jet thrusters on her heels, and pulled the klaxosaur's long body out of the earth.

The ground beneath them shook as a long large and black body emerged from underneath.

[Haaa!!!!] Strelizia increased her output, and with great strength, the klaxosaur's entire body was revealed. Concurrently, the worm-like klaxosaur where Chantrieri was nearby, had been pulled away.

The entire squad 13 stood in shock as they found out that the klaxosaurs they had been fighting this entire time turned out to be one big, like, REALLY, big klaxosaur!

It had an extremely long body, around 750 meters in length with 80 meters or so in diameters in width. It didn't look like a snake, but more of an oversized earth worm that had a pincer-like/claw-like tail. However, since its head had been torn off, all that was revealed underneath was a large gaping maw with several spiky blue fangs that led to the dark interior depths of its innards. If anything, it honestly looked more similar to a leech rather than an earthworm.

Nevertheless, it was an overwhelmingly large klaxosaur.

[What the...] Mitsuru goggled at the thing.

[It was...] Zorome spluttered, [all part of one big klaxosaur?!]

Seeing its entire length as it rose from the ground with its headless neck rearing towards them, Futoshi commented hysterically, [If it's that long, then it would be difficult to look for the core!]

[Be we'll still have to find it!] Goro responded resolutely.

Meanwhile, Adam only held his chin in curiosity or was it amusement? Naomi really couldn't tell which of it was.

"Adam!" She called out to him in worry. Seeing how fearsome it was, she felt like they had to step in.

"They'll be fine." Adam reassured her with a smile.

That's not going to work this time!

"It's way too big!" she stressed.

But then Adam barked a laugh, making her frown in confusion.

....Was there anything funny about what she said?

"I'm sorry, Naoms. It's just that it reminds me of what you said back then when you first saw it."

"!!!!" Naomi's face turned bright red. The image of catching him and Zero Two on the act inside the women's bathroom flashed inside her mind.

"Adam!" She hissed at him. "This isn't the time!"

"They can still handle this." He told her calmly. "My sister is with them after all. And again, we can only step in when they really need it."

"I..." Hearing that, Naomi had no other choice but to sigh. "...Okay. I believe you."

Just then, back to the klaxosaur, as if losing strength or maybe sensing where to attack? Its headless part came crashing down towards them and due to its large size and extremely wide range of body, Delphinium, Argentea, Chlorophytum, and Genista were blown away- well, almost blown away.

Chlorophytum and Delphinium managed to jump out of the way, whereas Genista and Argentea were late by a second, causing them to be blown away by its body. Thankfully, it only launched them away rather than crushing them to the floor.

[This...] Delphinium regained her composure and analyzed the klaxosaur's movement.

Even though there was a part of its body slithering near her, it didn't seem to be actively trying to harm her. Rather, it only seems to be moving its body erratically- as if thrashing its large body around to escape from something.

[God! Somebody stop this thing!] Argentea shrieked as they found themselves directly in the middle of large waving crests of a violently moving klaxosaurs.

No matter which direction they went, there was a part of the klaxaor's long body thrashing around.

[I'll do it!] Delphinium announced. She readied her spear and jumped on the nearest body part of the klaxosaur in front of her.

As she successfully jumped on, she stabilized her footing before running on top of its body. Then, as if sensing her, the body part she sprinted on grew uphill. But she didn't stop. Instead, she ran faster.

And upon reaching the peak, she used its body as a spring board to reach a higher ground to gain strong momentum. She landed on its body with a 'bam!' while making sure her spear pierced through its thick carapace and lodged deep inside its body.

Making sure to pin it stay in place, Delphinium activated a mechanism on her weapons and immediately, a deaf explosion was heard from inside the klaxosaur's body, followed by a strong recoil from the pole of her weapon.

The klaxosaur wrangled even more violently, but the part where Delphinium was remained stuck in place.

'It worked!' Ichigo's eyes gleamed with relief.

The tip of her spear- the spearhead to be exact, has the feature of being launched away with a sturdy chain tied to it, allowing the spearhead to be pulled back to the pole just like a harpoon gun.

With this, her spearheads pierced through the klaxosaur and embedded deep into the ground, essentially trapping that specific part of the klaxosaur in place.

[Come on guys!] Dalphinium beckoned her squadmates.

[Yeah!] Argentea, Cholorphytum, and Genista followed after her lead.

Since they were near its head, Argentea with her claws and Genista with her gunlance stabbed through the klaxosaur in opposite sides and held its neck-section in place, followed by Delphinium (she left one of her spears to nail the klaxosaur in place) to walk over its headless neck and lodge her spear on its open and closing maw vertically. Chlorophytum helped her as well, forcing the klaxosaur's mouth to be stuck mouth wide open.

[H-Hiro!] Delphinium shouted. [We need you!]

Meanwhile, battling the claw-like tail, Strelizia turned her head towards Delphinium's call and immediately figured out their intention.

The problem however, it would be quite a long distance for her to reach the head-part since it was literally on the opposite side of what she was fighting with. If she were to let go of the tail, then the hold in the head will be meaningless since it could thrash around however it wishes.

This means that she needed to move towards the head with an extremely fast speed and finish their plan before it could violently struggle around.

"Think we can do this, Zero Two?" Hiro asked with a wry smile. His eyes however, were gleaming more confidently than ever.

[Easy.] Strelizia replied with a smirk.

She then shoved the claw/pincer-like tail that was clashing with her spear, before using the jet thrusters on her heels to explosively launch herself into the air while using the tail as a springboard. The tail crashed towards the ground while Strelizia flew into the air.

Her shadow briefly hovered over Argentea and Genista, before landing a few meters away in front of Delphinium and Genista.

Bam!

[Hiro!] Delphinium smiled while Strelizia only dashed forward with her lance raised towards the gaping maw.

Delphinium and Chlorophytum timely moved out of the way just as Strelizia swiftly passed by them and successfully boosted inside the klaxosaur's mouth.

BOOM!

Her jet thrusters worked on overdrive. Instead of the bright orange flames, they were now exuding a deep blue hue as Strelizia bulldozed through its lengthy innards.

[HAAAA!!!] Ruthlessly piercing through every obstacles, whether they were viscera, muscles, and blood, she ascended forward without stopping.

Outside the klaxosaur's body, every one could see blue blood exploding through the line gaps between its carapaces.

Zero Two and Hiro's synchronized scream resounded throughout the surroundings as they felt a crisp 'crunch' from their lance before piercing through the klaxosaur's tail and leaving its entire body destroyed from the inside.

Just as she made it outside the klaxosaur with its core pierced through her lance like a corndog, the klaxosaur's body began flickering with explosive lights and then-

BOOOMM!!

It exploded to a large and dense sea of wave of blood coupled along its destroyed bits of viscera and tough shell. In a matter of seconds, the entire squad found themselves in a mist of blue blood.

Meanwhile, the only franxx standing from afar, Chantrieri was spared from being drenched in klaxosaur innards.

"Well, that's one way of finding the real core." Adam commented with a smile.

I mean, if you destroy its entire body, of course you'll easily find the real core, effectively rendering all the fake ones useless.

"...Amazing..." Naomi whispered in awe.

Seeing Strelizia might once again, perhaps Adam's unconditional trust on his sister wasn't unfounded after all.

'He must've known this would happen...' She thought to herself, glancing behind her only to see Adam's ever-charming smile as they watched on the result of the battle in front of them.

She suppose... she should lessen her doubts about him.

Trust.

That was literally the only thing that Adam was requiring from her.

Maybe... she should really just trust her everything to him.

'....But it's hard, you know?' She sighed inwardly, 'Especially with what happened the first time we rode together.'

Fighting against Gutenberg-class that was nearing Super Lehmann-class... that experience still gives her nightmares sometimes.

Sure, it only happened once and Adam already proved himself to be a very experienced pilot. But still... she still felt afraid.

Maybe she gained some trauma?

She doesn't know.

"...." In the end, she could not come up with a conclusion with her turbulent thoughts.

And while the brunette was having an internal dilemma, Adam was holding his chin in thought. His eyes reflected a hint of anticipation as he thought, 'Now that this happened, what will Papa do? What will the council do? I really can't wait to see...~'