#9689

Chloe So 蘇皓兒 (@chloe_so) 1994年4月6日 T166cm

@heckthis-heckallofthis hates this so much so I'm posting it AND tagging them just so they explode on their blog.

While we're at it take a doodle of 9689 from this morning when I was trying to figure out how to draw him. Smug bastard.

First up, the code gives you a glimpse of their seniority, since they're assigned at birth in chronological order.

The alphabetic prefix in the front (two alphabets for RBCs, one for the neutrophils) is like a modifier for that code - it indicates the "generation", and then the numbers indicate their position in said generation.

So to say, AA5100 may have a bigger number than AE3803, but with the alphabets you can tell she's definitely a little older, but still close enough to have reasonably been in the same class/batch, with the prefix going AA, AB, AC and so on. Hence you can also tell that the age gap between them is smaller than that between AE3803 and NT4201.

On the other hand, neutrophils only use one alphabet because they just... aren't as numerous as RBCs are. And reflecting in real biology about how shortlived they are and thus quickly replaced, it would be likely that when the "counter" runs out at Z-9999 it would simply rollover and reset to A-0001.

That said, this also gives us insight to the squad. 1146 is the oldest, followed by 2048, then 2626 and then 4989.

Spoiler warning for White Brigade Chapter 19!!!

As we've come to find out, Band Cell is coded 7776, and that his new rival is 9689. We can definitely tell it was a code assigned at birth due to it being the primary record of each "student" at the bone marrow school. 9689 also lashes out at 7776 about his incompetency despite seniority, confirming that 7776 is older than 9689. On relating that implied hierachy back to the squad's, it is definitely supported since 1146 has been described as the eldest brother and 4989 the youngest.

Interestingly, it does quite make sense chronologically that 7776 was a tiny myelocyte at the time when the squad were relatively young band cells released on a left shift because of this, and that at this time 9689 would be at the point transitioning from promyelocyte to myelocyte.