01x19 - Inhumanity

[bunniefuu]

You handled that one awfully crudely.

We wished to eliminate irregular elements

before this vital mission.

That is all.

Keep doing this to them,

and there's no guarantee

the Children will remain docile forever.

You need not worry.

Save for those two,

13th Unit has remained exempt.

What do you mean?

With the Parasites all gathered,

we've taken this opportunity

to wipe any unnecessary emotional

disturbances and memories

from their minds.

You did what?

Werner, exercise some patience.

This plan was as much your desire as ours.

Using heavy-handed means

to achieve your ends.

As ever, with you all.

2025 AD

Mr. Werner.

Who said you could come in?

I was asked by the headmaster

to retrieve you.

APE?

You must know of them.

WERNER FRANK

What does that society

of new money upstarts want with me?

For you to join their ranks.

They claim to be quite impressed

with your research.

Mine?

What research would that be?

You can ask them yourself once you go.

I've accepted their offer.

You accepted it?

That's right.

Without even asking me?

Since your first clone experiments,

you've made no effort to stop

your ill*gal experimentation.

It's been a source of criticism.

ill*gal you say,

yet they're only outlawed after the fact.

They never anticipated someone who would

commit ungodly acts as regularly as you.

Well, I am an atheist.

It's a matter of ethics.

Still, I do get results.

Yes, perhaps. I do not doubt your talents.

However, I find you monstrous.

What, me?

APE.

An association of scientists

of uncertain birth and nationality.

A mysterious organization with

a Council of Sages at its heart.

Using revolutionary mining technology,

they extracted magma fuel from

depths untouched by humanity

and successfully refined it into

a low-cost and versatile energy source.

This energy revolution

accelerated humanity's

progress as a material civilization,

simultaneously cementing

APE's international,

political, and economic influence.

Excuse me, but might you be

Mr. Werner Frank?

Yes, that's me.

I knew it! It's an honor to meet you.

What, me?

Of course!

I've read every paper you've published!

I haven't even introduced myself.

My name is Karina Milsa.

Karina Milsa.

The one who did the work on

telomere regeneration therapy?

That's me.

Do you find the contract

to be dissatisfactory?

No. I just wasn't expecting

so generous an offer.

It simply represents

our honest assessment of your abilities.

But if I must be honest,

what's being asked of me seems

a bit different from my area of expertise.

There is plenty for a man of your talents

to contribute.

Immortality

With magma fuel, even that is not a dream.

Magma fuel?

Not only was magma fuel

the ideal energy source,

it could apparently even

make immortality possible.

Was that not altogether too convenient?

But as a researcher,

I could not deny it piqued my interest.

2030 AD

No sign of the value that indicates aging.

Indeed.

We've done it!

You mean we've succeeded?

I think we can safely say yes.

We owe it to Dr. Frank

joining the project.

You don't seem very happy.

Do I look that way?

Is something bothering you?

This is only a conjecture, but I suspect

the price of human immortality will be

the loss of reproductive capabilities.

We've seen no signs of that yet.

No amount of scientific enhancement

can overcome the inherent frailty

of the body and mind.

Moreover, it would be inelegant.

Doctor, do you think humanity

should not have immortality?

I'm not saying that. I've always wanted

to know the extremes, the limits

the human life form could attain.

Perhaps I'll find it in

our post-immortality evolutionary path.

But could what lies down that path

even be called human?

Would it be a god, then?

Well, I'm an atheist.

As I had predicted,

it later became evident

that the immortality procedure

resulted in infertility.

Nonetheless, a great number

of people chose immortality.

Around then, bolstered by magma fuel,

humanity went from a state of decline to

nearly the apex of material civilization.

However, this only applied to

the wealthy who chose immortality,

further widening the gap

between rich and poor.

A few years later, in East Asia, a bill

was passed enacting harsh taxes on birth

to combat population growth

caused by immortality.

This was the first step toward

humanity's abandonment of reproduction.

Around that time, rapid desertification

was observed in southern North America.

Some linked the phenomenon

to magma fuel mining,

but they were of course flatly ignored.

This is really important!

I hate to do this to you, Kokoro,

but I've made up my mind!

What were you talking about?

Oh, you saw?

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to.

Futoshi said he wanted to change partners.

He said he would partner with Ikuno,

so I should partner with you.

Why would he say that?

Yes, I'm not sure how to take it.

They've told us about what supposedly

happened between you and me.

But seeing as we have no memory of it,

even if it were true,

I can't imagine that I'll ever come

to feel that way about you.

Yes. I suppose I feel the same.

2036 AD

More than 70 percent of humanity

had become immortal by then.

The plan was for all of humanity

to undergo the procedure within two years.

But I myself

You're still not planning

to undergo the procedure?

I'm not fond of having

my body tampered with.

If anything,

I'd rather have a mechanical body.

Isn't it about time

you started thinking about the long-term?

Leave me be. That's not for me.

And you? You're not undergoing it?

No. In truth, I wish to have children.

Really?

Surprised?

I was not aware

you had a partner for that.

He's quite dense,

so I don't think he knows how I feel.

Well, if you have someone in mind,

you ought to invite him to dinner.

I have.

I see. So you're doing what you can.

It's astounding

how hopelessly dense he is.

What?

Me?

You have terrible taste.

Though that might not be so bad.

Around then,

the desertification worsened worldwide.

APE proposed the Plantation Project,

to create arks for each nation,

effectively becoming

the leaders of the world.

2037 AD

That year, it appeared before humanity.

It tore through a mining facility,

crying like a newborn baby all the while,

turned toward the mainland,

before being silenced

by a few nuclear missiles.

The price of that victory was all of

Eastern Australia becoming off-limits.

Afterwards, those crying lizards,

or Klaxosaurs, began appearing regularly.

It soon became clear that they were

drawn to magma fuel mining facilities.

The Plantations were modified into

anti-Klaxosaur mobile shelter fortresses,

the cities were abandoned,

and humanity vanished from the surface.

Where are you going?

They've obtained an undamaged

Klaxosaur corpse in Alaska.

But we were going to submit

our marriage certificate next week.

If I don't make it back,

go ahead and submit it.

I was obsessed with it.

I found its mysterious structure,

at once organic and mechanical,

to be incredibly beautiful.

Eventually, I discovered that

it contained the female XX chromosomes.

I did not know what to make of it,

but it seemed ominous.

With my research's success,

I was appointed to lead the development

of an anti-Klaxosaur weapon.

The robots that came to be named FRANXX.

2042 AD, ANTI-KLAXOSAUR WEAPON FRANXX

PROTOTYPE, ACTIVATION TEST 30

Though development of the FRANXX

finally reached the prototype stage,

they refused to activate.

After numerous test cases,

reproductive capability was found to be

an important factor for pilots.

You don't have to ride yourself.

When you have a suitable candidate

so close at hand,

it would be a shame not to use her.

I appreciate it.

Don't look at me like that.

Well, here I go.

Is this a curse?

Even so, the tests continued.

At the cost of many lives, we discovered

that the exceptional stress

placed on pilots

could be eliminated by making

the pilots male to female pairs

injected with artificial

yellow blood cells,

conductors for the FRANXX

to pilot connection.

Ironically, the now infertile human race

found itself in need of new children.

Those FRANXX pilots, the Parasites,

were called Children,

and were told to call humans Adults.

Those two haven't just had

their memories erased.

They had them replaced

with carefully faked memories.

Is there no way

to get back their real memories?

This is so messed up!

Was what they did so bad,

they had to get their memories erased?

Well, I mean, Papa has his reasons, right?

For real, Zorome?

They spit on the wedding ceremony

we all put together.

But still, since the day we were born,

Papa was all we've had.

What's gotten into you?

I thought better of you!

Oh, Hiro. Where is Zero Two?

It's okay.

Just her final maintenance, she said.

I'm thinking of going directly to Papa

to ask about Mitsuru and Kokoro.

To tell him how we feel.

When the FRANXX were first deployed,

we lost a unit for every Klaxosaur k*lled.

Nonetheless, we were able to develop

effective anti-Klaxosaur weapons.

At the cost of vast losses,

we learned how to combat them.

The Garden was established

as a Child nursery.

And each Plantation was fitted with an

isolated Parasite facility, Mistilteinn.

The Parasites were deemed

to require emotions,

and a traditional environment was

found best suited to their development.

Exceptional care was paid

to the Children's physical health,

with every aspect regulated

to ensure they were always in top form.

Eventually, the Adults who lived

cloistered deep within the Plantations

all but put the Klaxosaurs out of mind.

Thanks to magma fuel and immortality,

they were able to live their lives

in never-ending doldrums.

Meanwhile, I sought a place for myself.

Something to set my mind on.

By then, my interests had drifted

from the future of humanity,

so I lost myself in my research

to find a more perfect life form.

Around then,

I caught wind of a curious rumor.

The Klaxosaurs had one among them

who was a sort of queen bee.

Through whatever means, APE had

located where that queen was hiding.

You may join the mission.

However, on one condition.

A condition?

If you meet the Klaxosaur Queen,

bring back a DNA sample. Anything will do.

To our surprise,

what awaited us were the ruins of an

ancient civilization we had never seen.

What have you come here for?

Who's that?

Ignorant fools. Why have you come?

Why do you k*ll my kin?

What is happening?

Where is that voice coming from?

No It's speaking directly to our minds.

Klaxosaur signal detected!

What? From which direction?

From all directions!

All directions?

Prepare to engage!

Form a perimeter around our location!

Such a thoroughly warlike race.

One is rapidly approaching!

Don't k*ll that one. Bring it here.

I was enthralled.

Without a doubt, she was

the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

Your hand.

You smell of my kin.

Death is too merciful for

the magnitude of your sin.

Even with one arm devoured,

I was still captivated by Klaxosaurs,

and in love with the Klaxosaur Princess.

Perhaps, as she had said,

I was no longer human at that point.

Leave this place. And tell your people

to never touch my kin again.

What is it?

We have a request.

Please return Mitsuru

Codes 326 and 556's

memories to the way they were before.

That is impossible.

Their memories were not simply blocked.

The unnecessary information was deleted.

There is no way to restore it.

No.

This action is a gross violation that

would normally warrant severe punishment,

but in light of your combat record,

we will do no more than file a report.

Now return to the standby area at once.

-Hey, wait--

-Apologize!

Apologize, I said!

Futoshi!

How can you look so calm after

erasing someone's precious memories?

Don't think you can just have

the last word!

At least look a bit apologetic!

At least say sorry!

Can we ask you just one thing?

What is it?

Please tell us.

How many more Klaxosaurs do we have

to k*ll before we can become Adults?

Then what are we even living for?

Are we really just here

to ride FRANXX and die?

At least tell us that! Papa!

Zorome

You stole my precious memories,

and Zero Two's.

Mitsuru's and Kokoro's as well.

There's no way we'll ever think of you

as Papa again.

Once this battle is over, set us free!

As you wish.

We ask only that you fulfill your role

in the next mission.

This discussion is over.

You'll fight your fate?

Very well. Then show me.

Show me whether you can

truly become human.

We'll decide our fates for ourselves.

I saw what you did in Zero Two's memories.

I can't forgive you.

Darling, you're so horny.

Hey, Zero Two. We've made our decision.

Right.

Let's go, Zero Two.

At times, fate can be cruel.

But sometimes,

it can be powerless in the face of desire.

Zero Two How you must resent me.

Soon. Soon, my dream shall come true.

Now show me that beautiful,

perfect form of yours.