HiroZero

HiroZero is the het ship between Hiro and Zero Two from the DARLING in the FRANXX fandom.

Canon
Hiro and Zero Two met when they were small children and living in the Garden. Zero Two was kept isolated at the lab, a facility Hiro often frequented due to his 'child genius' status. Zero Two was the specimen of a ghastly, inhumane experiment conducted by Dr. FRANXX to observe her klaxosaur abilities. Hiro first noticed her when she was being dragged to a room to be experimented on, and he was intrigued by her red skin and horns, but even more so by her battle against the adults when they attempted to confiscate her picture book but she fought back to keep it. Up to that point, he felt he was the only one fighting that battle against authority and was amazed to find someone like him. He felt a deep desire to see her again but every time he tried to sneak away, he was caught. One day, he was leaving the lab after a checkup and heard her scream in pain. Following her screams, he witnessed the horrific experiments she was forced to go through and he begged the adults to help her but the adults replied it wasn’t his business.. The frustration by the adults ignoring Zero Two’s suffering, his desire to learn more about the outside world, and confused why the adults never answered his questions made Hiro determine to rescue her so they could explore the outside world together.

When Hiro was around nine years old, he found the room in which Zero Two resided and hatched a plan to rescue her. Breaking the glass to free her, Hiro and Zero Two ran away from the garden in the snow. Zero Two was initially aggressive towards him due to her lack of trust in others but Hiro understood she didn’t understand what he was saying. During the time they spent together, Hiro cared for Zero Two, gave her wrappings to substitute socks and even named her. Zero Two got comfortable with him after he gave her her first piece of candy and showed him her beloved storybook, which he read to her, as she didn’t understand the words. They continued running away as the adults chased them and the two rested in front of mistlet tree. Hiro tells her the meaning of marriage and she smiles at him for the first time. When they decide to resume walking, Zero Two hurts herself and Hiro bends down to treat her wound by licking her blue blood. As he kneels before her, Zero Two misinterprets his actions as Hiro wanting to marry her. Hiro smiles and says once they get out of the Garden, he'll marry her and become her ‘darling’, moving Zero Two to tears.

Right them, the adults find them and surround them. Hiro tries to protect Zero Two but gets hit on his head and falls unconscious. Zero Two cries and screams for her ‘darling’, as they are taken away to have their memories erased. While Hiro's memories were successfully erased, Zero Two's weren't completely due to her determination to hold onto her memories of him. Hiro was sent back to the Garden and Zero Two was sent back to her room. As such, Zero Two tried holding onto her memories after recalling familiar actions, such as the way Hiro referred to himself with the word "boku", the way he licked her wound, and she learned not only her name but the word ‘darling’. Since then, she vowed to reunite with him, no matter what it takes, no matter how many people she needs to use as a stepping stone to get to him.

About five years later, when Hiro is 14-years-old, HiroZero first meets at the lake in Mistilteinn while Zero Two was skinny-dipping. When he rushes into the water, she jumps out with a fish in her mouth and he is shocked to see a naked girl for the first time. While Zero Two calls Hiro a "pervert" for holding her underwear, he insists he thought she was drowning and she thanks him for jumping in to "save" him. They chat for a bit, then Zero Two decides she has taken a liking towards Hiro and asks him if he will be her "darling". She pushes him into the lake and licks him, commenting he tastes like danger. Her partner and a group of officers come to take her away and Hiro asks what her name is. She replies her code number is 002 but is called Zero Two. The next day, a klaxosaur attacks and Strelizia, piloted by Zero Two, crashes near Hiro. Her partner dies from his injuries and Zero Two is ready to keep fighting despite being injured and Hiro’s protests. He then asks to pilot with her to prove his worthiness as a parasite and Zero Two relents, pulling him inside the cockpit and wanting to get a taste of him because he is now her darling. She kisses him and Strelizia is activated. Afterwards, Zero Two pulls an unconscious Hiro out and announces she has found her darling.

The next day, Zero Two visits Mistilteinn to eat breakfast with Hiro, who doesn’t recall what happened but he is assured by her that he did pilot a FRANXX. Nana takes Zero Two back to the city and warns her to stay away from Squad 13 because they are not equipped to be around a pistil like her. Zero Two, however, ignores this and proceeds to watch Hiro as he trains. For Hiro’s mock battle, Zero Two offers to be his partner but Ichigo asks and Nana prefers Ichigo over Zero Two. However, after a seemingly successful synchronization, his connection with Ichigo falters and she asks what Zero Two did earlier that worked. He brings up the kiss and she proceeds to kiss him but he says he feels nothing. Hiro later tells Goro that he has decided to continue piloting with Zero Two because she is the only one compatible with him and he doesn’t care about the rumors about her regarding her partners never pilot with her more than three times because they die.

After training, he finds her sitting alone and stares at her horns, and she calls him a pervert. She takes him to a balcony with a view of the city. Hiro is amazed, as he has never been in the city but Zero Two is indifferent, calling the city lifeless and tells him how they will only become a statistic once they die. She offers to get him out but then says she is kidding. During the squad’s first mission, most of the parasites are surrounded by klaxosaurs and Zero Two and Hiro are denied going to save them. Mitsuru offers to go with Zero Two since Hiro is not an official stamen yet. Hiro reluctantly agrees and Zero Two, dismayed, walks quietly away from him. After the battle, Zero Two declares only Hiro is fit to be her darling and Mitsuru is left gravely injured. While recovering, Mitsuru pleads with Hiro not to ride with her because she will devour him. Hiro doesn’t know what to do and, while bathing, Zero Two surprises him and asks him to run away with her. He stares at her horns and she asks him if he is like the others. A klaxosaur then attacks and Zero Two is taken away. Hiro asks Nana if the partner killing rumors are true, but she does not answer. Despite being afraid, his resolve to continue piloting provokes him to stop Zero Two and asks her to stay because she gives him a reason to fly. She is amused because no one has said such embarrassing things like that to her but she agrees. They then pilot Strelizia together again and help Squad 13 take out the klaxosaur.

Zero Two announces she will be living at Mistilteinn and Hiro shows her around. She is interested when he mentions rain and asks him to make it rain, but he says he can’t. When Goro finds out Hiro has a tumor on his chest as a result of piloting with Zero Two, he asks Hiro to stop but Hiro refuses. Similarly, Ichigo asks Zero Two not to go hard on Hiro or else she will kill him, and Zero Two replies it is Hiro’s decision to ride with her and him dying is no big deal.

Zero Two offers Hiro a choice to not ride with her a third time but he insists he will. During the battle, Hiro succumbs to his illness and almost dies. He has a vision of Zero Two and apologizes to her but she ignores him and walks away. As he wakes up, his resolve to never run away helps him survive and he sees a berserk Zero Two and comforts her as he says he is her partner. They reconnect and land the killing blow on the klaxosaur, later walking out of the cockpit together.

During a trip to the beach, Hiro and Zero Two swim together and she tells him that a kiss is a declaration that a person belongs to you and should be shared with someone special. Everyone notices how happy Hiro has been since he met Zero Two and is revealed the two have been made official partners. During the Boys vs Girls conflict, both take part in it. When Hiro notes it’s getting out of hand, Zero Two decides to spice things up by tricking the boys into walking in on the girls bathing. Following that, she steals their clothes and leads Hiro on a chase throughout the house. He asks her why she did it and she replies she wanted to take part in a human fight.

Over time, Zero Two began acting distant with Hiro and speaking less to him, which concerned him. He asks her to be more open with him because he wants to understand her but she stops him and says they only need to understand each other when they pilot Strelizia. Afterwards, she tells him not to worry because they will be together until they die. Her behavior becomes increasingly disturbing and she even begins refusing to listen to Hiro when she disobeys orders. Hiro again tries to help Zero Two open up to him about what is bothering her and driving her obsession. Zero Two asks him to kiss her but when he backs up after seeing her fangs, she brushes him aside. He later sees that she has bitten off her nails and tries to tend to her but she again rejects him. Frustrated with her, Hiro confesses that what she is and her past don’t matter to him because he is attracted to the person she is and, after realizing what his feelings mean, he says he loves her. Zero Two coldly offers to show him what goes beyond kissing by unzipping her uniform and shoving him to the ground to try and have sex with him. Hiro rejects this because that’s not what he means. She calls him nothing but her fodder, which saddens him. During a battle, she reveals she needs to kill more klaxosaurs to become human but he says that’s not possible. As he tries to stop her from losing control, she resists a c begins strangling him and says she is going to become human so she can find her darling from before. This causes him to connect deeply into her consciousness and recall his forgotten memories.

With tears in his eyes, Hiro mentions this to Zero Two and she begins crying as she realizes Hiro is her long-lost darling and becomes remorseful for her actions. Ichigo bans Zero Two from seeing Hiro after what she did. Zero Two is kept in her room by the squad as she pleads for them to let her see Hiro. She finally becomes frustrated to the point of being physically violent but Goro convinces Ichigo to let Zero Two see Hiro. But when they find he escaped from his hospital room, Zero Two thinks they tricked her and attacks them in a fit of rage. Hiro later finds his friends hurt and Zero Two strangling Ichigo. He calls her a monster and Zero Two, seeing this as punishment, decides to leave for good. Hiro, however, is despaired at her departure and attempts to stop her before Ichigo stops him and kisses him, and confesses her love to him.

During the siege of the Gran Crevasse, Hiro sees Zero Two pilot Strelizia in stampede mode and becomes concerned as she appears to be losing her sanity. Dr. FRANXX asks Hiro if he finds her more beautiful and proud than anyone like a klaxosaur, and Hiro replies she is a normal girl. He returns to Mistilteinn and finds her room destroyed, along with the mirror he gifted her. He gasps when he sees it in its broken, taped-up state. Hiro wonders why he is hesitating to help her and abruptly rushes into the battle, realising he needs her because without her, cants do anything.

Ichigo reluctantly helps him and she sees his mind is full of nothing but Zero Two. Upon reuniting, Zero Two is trapped within her unstable mentality. Hiro connects with her consciousness and sees how much she struggled to never forget him, and pledges to be there for her no matter what. When she regains her composure, she pushes Hiro away because she is a monster and called him a fodder but he retorts he called her a monster and they are even. She says she is a monster but Hiro disagrees. He tells her they can see the world together now and kisses her. They reconnect and Zero Two confesses her love to Hiro, and he confesses his love to her as Strelizia evolves and neutralizes the klaxosaur.

They begin an official relationship and spend all their time together as the squad is left to fend for themselves at Mistilteinn. Zero Two begins rewriting her old picture book and Hiro visits her at night to see her drawings. He comments its a sad story but she says it was her first pretty thing and she wanted to have something beautiful with him when they were children. She moves his bangs and sees he is growing small horns as a result of ingesting her blood when they were little. They kiss and she says she knows what it means to be human. They later attend Kokoro and Mitsuru’s wedding, which is ruined by the 9’s and the couple’s memories are erased. Hiro and Zero Two are angered and decide to finally rebel against Papa, who promises to free all the parasites in exchange for their cooperation in the final battle.

During the first battle, Hiro and Zero Two reaffirm their promise to be together forever. However, the klaxosaur princess forces Hiro to link with and severely injured Zero Two. She kisses Hiro to link with him, much to Zero Two’s dismay and she attempts to save him before the princess takes him and Strelizia. She then loses consciousness after realizing Hiro delayed the self-destruction of Hringhorni. After waking up, she decides to rescue him and finds him close to death, and she kisses him to revive him. They reconnect and fight back against VIRM, who retreat. However, Hiro finds Zero Two in a catatonic state. Over the next few days, he tends to her but she doesn’t respond to him and mysterious injuries begin appearing on her body, and she begins wondering around and stares at the sky. He finds the last page of her picture book is blank and he realizes she did this on purpose because she anticipated they would part ways. He touches her horns with his and discovers she is mentally connected to Strelizia and she is fighting in space. He decides to go to space and rescue her despite the protests of his friends who say it is a suicide mission. In response to Goro’s protest, Hiro says Zero Two kept her end of their promise, so he can’t leave her behind or else he will feel guilty and he is better off dead if Zero Two doesn’t smile at him.

During the galactic battle, Hiro reaches Strelizia and connects with it to enter Zero Two’s consciousness, which is filled with pages from her picture book. She pleads with him to stay from her because she wants him to stay as a human but he says he wants to be with her forever. She says she is a minster and she is fine with being alone but he calls her a liar because that wouldn’t be true if her last page is blank. He asks her to let him stay with her so they can rewrite the story’s ending. He is on one knee with one hand offered out to her and she accepts, and he vows to never let her go, symbolically marrying each other. Strelizia evolves into Strelizia True Apus which is of Zero Two wearing what resembles a wedding dress and the two enter a warp gate with a klaxosaur bomb to end the war with VIRM for good.

Over the next two years of travelling in space, Hiro realizes he is becoming a klaxosaur but tells Zero Two he is not scared because he feels that he is becoming part of her. She also worries that he is getting weak after he rarely falls asleep. Upon reaching the VIRM home planet, their connection is severed and Hiro’s consciousness begins fading while Zero Two is attacked by VIRM. She begs their friends to save him and they realise something is amiss, send their prayers to them. Zero Two tells Hiro that humans are strong and all their lives turned out like this because of Hiro. He says it’s not something to be proud of because he caused them trouble but she says it was because of his desire to live. She says they are bound by a kiss and attracted to each other by nature, and asks him to join her. They reconnect and kiss, and Zero Two says they are the Jian. She says she is blessed to have been born and met everyone, and she loves Hiro, who declares he loves her too. They detonate the bomb and acknowledge they are about to die. However, both are not afraid and believe they will meet on Earth and pick up where they left off as long as their souls exist, and profess their love to each other one last time before the bomb explodes, destroying the planet and killing Hiro and Zero Two. Their souls begin making the long trip back to Earth.

A thousand years later, their souls return to Earth and reincarnate into two children who meet at a cherry blossom tree.

Fanon
It is the most popular ship of the fandom due to it being the central point of the show's plot. It made it to the list of top 10 anime ships, being in the top 10 since the series debut. HiroZero reached 6th place, behind MitsuKoko, after they confessed their love to each other. Following their sacrifice during the finale, they rose to 4th place.

HiroZero rivals with HiroIchi, thought the latter was sunk as of Episode 15.

While HiroZero wasn't an official ship until Episode 15, many of the show's fans shipped them. Some even predicted a previous meeting during their childhood which made them "instantly attracted" to each other, which was confirmed in Episode 13.

Some DARLING fans dislike this ship as they feel their relationship was toxic. Some called out Zero Two for manipulating and using Hiro for the first half of the show. However, many fans will argue that the time they spent together was filled with cutesy moments and that Zero Two truly loved Hiro from the start.

Quotes
"Let me get a taste of you. After all... you are now my darling!"

- Zero Two to Hiro before kissing him for the first time.

"I’m your partner. I’m not going to leave you alone"

- Hiro to Zero Two.

"Once we get out of here... I want to be with you forever too. And then I'll be your Da."

- Hiro to Zero Two when they were children.

"The picture book... You were the girl with the picture book back then, weren't you"

- Hiro to Zero Two after remembering his past.

"You're my wings, right? If I'm with you, I can fly anywhere I want... We'll always be together right."

- Zero Two to Hiro.

"Zero Two, I love you! I love you for who you are!"

- Hiro to Zero Two when he confessed.

"Darling, I love you!"

- Zero Two to Hiro after reconcili.

"I hereby vow to never let you go."

- Hiro to Zero Two.

Fandom
DEVIANT ART

PIXIV
 * ゼロヒロ tag on pixiv.
 * ヒロゼロ tag on pixiv.
 * ゼロヒロ on pixiv encyclopedia.
 * ヒロゼロ on pixiv encyclopedia.

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * DARLING's director, Atsushi Nishigori, said he always intended for Hiro and Zero Two to have a happy ending but felt he needed to make their fate more sentimental after discussing it with his assistants. So he went ahead with them making the decision to give up their own lives to save those of their friends and start over as humans via reincarnation.
 * Hiro’s first kiss was with Zero Two but it is unknown if Hiro was hers.
 * Although they are the main pairing, their relationship never goes beyond kissing due to Hiro’s shyness and Zero Two’s teasing of him for this. However their relationship is serious due to that they had promised to be together forever and symbolic get married by exchanging vows to never let the other go.
 * According to Zero Two, even before she realized he was her long-lost darling, she couldn’t bear to watch Hiro suffering and would go out of her way to help even people (such as Ichigo) she didn’t get along with if it would make Hiro smile.
 * In the third Drama CD, Hiro expresses he still wants to get married but Zero Two tells him there is no point in that because they already promised to be together forever. From their perspective, marriage simply means a vow to be true to each other in sickness and health until parted by death.
 * Zero Two asked Hiro to draw a picture of the prince to add as a page in her picture book but he was too embarrassed to show her. Despite being amused at how terrible his drawing skills were, Zero Two decided to include it in her book with the notation ‘My Beloved Darling’.
 * As they are the main coupling, Hiro and Zero Two were the first ones to kiss but never consummated their relationship. They also stayed together for about three years before they sacrificed themselves.
 * While Zero Two’s English voice actress, Tia Ballard supports HiroZero, Hiro’s English voice actor, Matt Shipman, supports HiroIchi because he is married to Ichigo’s English voice actress, Brittany Landa, in real life.