Zero Two

Zero Two is the main heroine and the deuteragonist of DARLING in the FRANXX. She is a human-klaxo sapien hybrid and a member of the APE Special Forces, primarily fighting on the front lines. As an elite Parasite with the codename "002", also known as the "Partner Killer", Zero Two had always accepted solitude due to her horns and Klaxosaur blood. Despite having no regard for human life or her own and being accustomed to fighting solo, she took interest in Hiro and offered an opportunity to pilot with her, making him her new partner and "darling". After Hiro was able to ride with her more than three times, the pair became the 13th Plantation's newest members, piloting the powerful FRANXX Strelizia. Over time, Zero Two developed romantic feelings towards Hiro. However, her determination to become fully human, along with Hiro's apparent fear of her increasing feral characteristics resulted in the couple briefly drifting apart. When their relationship as partners began to take a turn and slowly crumble, they realized their forgotten memories of their meeting during childhood. The two chose to sacrifice their lives in order to safeguard and ensure the survival of humankind. A thousand years later, Hiro and Zero Two's souls reincarnate as a pair of children that meet each other again and rekindle their romance. As a child, Zero Two looked much more like a monster, with red skin, long sharp nails, and fanged teeth. While her eye colour was the same, her sclera was red instead of white. Her horns were also much larger in comparison to her head, and her hair was a lighter shade of pink. In terms of clothes all she was given was a dark grey cloak, and white wrappings from Hiro that substituted for shoes. Growing up, Zero Two developed a fair complexion. She had a slender and athletic figure; she was the tallest girl in the squad and even taller than most of the boys as well. She had waist-length, long pink hair with straight bangs covering her forehead and a pair of red horns on her head and a white limiter headband over her horns. She had sharp, turquoise eyes with rings around the pupils and pinkish-red markings on the canthi. Zero Two's full ensemble was composed of a white military cap with matching overcoat and boots. She was often seen wearing her signature red military uniform, black leggings, and white boots. Zero Two's originally wore the 9's pistil suit: a red bodysuit with white accents. After being assigned to Squad 13, she adopted the squad's standard Pistil uniform: a white bodysuit with red accents. As side effects of aggressively riding Strelizia, Zero Two's fangs and horns can grow at an alarming rate. Her eyes shine red when angered, even while wearing her limiter headband. It once got to the point when her face was deathly pale and her eyes blood red. Her horns could also branch out to the point of being able to touch the ceiling, and her skin color could also revert back to her original red color. In Episode 17, Zero Two was given a flower headband by Miku, which was worn for the rest of the episode. In Episode 21, Zero Two removes her limiter in order to save Hiro, which causes her skin to turn red similarly to her as a child, and her horns to grow and stretch across the room similarly to tree branches. In Episode 23, Zero Two merged with her FRANXX and transformed into Strelizia's True Apus form. In this form, its faceplate was replaced by Zero Two's face, in which she appeared with more pronounced lips and pinkish lip color. She had a white helmet with red lines with a blue horn-like weapon on top of it. There was also a veil-like sheet of light behind Apus' helm. Strelizia True Apus' legs changed into a semblance of a white, shoulder-less, and bare-back dress with green accents. In one of the MATO comics, Strelizia True Apus is considered to be Zero Two's wedding dress. Since childhood, Zero Two had been alone due to her Klaxosaur blood, always being seen as a "monster". The way people treated her as a child made her lose faith in people which is especially seen when she was a child: being very defensive or aggressive when people tried to interact with her. Besides that, Zero Two acted like a wild animal or a feral child, eating with her hands, growling, making other vocal noises instead of speaking and chasing after mice that were near her. However, Zero Two was also shown to a fairly cheerful, curious, and happy girl, and it was during her time with Hiro that shaped much of her personality and quirks in the present, such as her sweet tooth, the way she referred to herself as ("Boku"), and the nickname she had for Hiro, "Darling". Because Hiro treated her as he would anyone else, whereas others didn't treat her as a human for one reason or another, Zero Two developed a deep admiration and liking towards him. Despite having her memories of the darling from her childhood erased, Zero Two retained some fragmented memories which was why she strived to become human no matter what. As she grew up, Zero Two's personality was rumored to be dangerous, cold, and alluring. She was an elite pilot with the pseudonym "Partner Killer", given the mysterious cases of her co-pilots dying after only three sorties FRANXX rides. However, she appeared to be playful towards Hiro and sometimes showed humor; which is evident during their first meeting, in which she teased him and called him a "pervert". However, she prioritized her duty as a Parasite more than anything, not because she wanted to protect Papa and the others, but because she wanted to "become human". Her outlook on life was quite cynical which is why she didn't bother with a name since they were all meant to fight and die. She had also been a prized military asset of APE and sent to fight on the front lines for so long that she had no regard for human life or her own since they all would become a statistic when they died anyway. When people around her died, she hardly batted an eye at it because, to her, it was just a fact of life that everyone dies. Zero Two always kept people at arm's length with mocking humor, nihilism, and emotional detachment. Zero Two also freely talked about how much she hated their society. However, after seeing Hiro's determination to pilot with her, Zero Two noted that they were very similar and she invited him to partner up with her, despite having fought alone during the majority of her life and never leaning on others for support.