Shipments (Anime)

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A shipment refers to the process of "shipping out" an orphan from an "orphanage" to be either slaughtered and sold as food for the Demons, shipped off to a different plantation or location, or, for females, train to become a Sister or Mama. The children are led to believe that they are orphans living at a happy orphanage and that when they are "shipped out" they are being sent to live with foster families.

History
Everyday, the orphans are required to take tests under the guise of "schooling". When in fact, these tests are designed to determine their quality as livestock. Age also determines the rank of their quality. While six is always the youngest minimum age to be shipped out, each Premium Farm has a different maximum shipment age. For Grace Field, the maximum shipment age is twelve, for Glory Bell it is fifteen, and for Grand Valley it is seventeen. This is because each Premium Farm focuses on different developments in their livestock. Grace Field focuses solely on mental development and thus six years old is the minimum age to be shipped out of Grace Field because the human brain is said to be 90% developed by age six, and according to the manga, by age twelve it is completely developed. Whereas Glory Bell and Grand Valley focus on mental and physical development thus qualifying for a higher maximum shipment age to make their bodies more physically developed.

After the children reach the age of six, whichever child has the lowest score will be shipped out roughly once every two months. This allows the most intelligent children who show the most potential to continue to developed to increase their quality, while weeding out the weaker, less intelligent children who are not showing much potential. Those who have full scores will be shipped out no matter what once they reach the maximum shipment age of their respective farm. At Grace Field, the highest score a child can receive on a test is 300. If a child scores lower than 120, their shipment date will be hastened.

Process
At Grace Field, a child is usually shipped out of each plant roughly once every two months. A child is typically informed they will be shipped out about a week before their assigned shipment date, but occasionally will be informed as late as the day before. To keep up the facade that the children are orphans being sent to live with foster families, the child who is being shipped out will be given a luggage to put their belongings in and is dressed in special clothes consisting of a white shirt and grey waistcoat underneath a black blazer, a red necktie, a grey skirt or pants, brown shoes, and a black fedora. Children are shipped out in the evening after dinner, during which time all of the orphans gather around the front door to say their goodbyes to the child who is leaving. Afterwards, The Mama will walk the child to the gate where the child will be handed over to the Demons.

The majority of the time, the child will be killed at the gate. Once the "Gupna" is complete and the Vida has drained the child's body of all it's blood, the child's body will be stripped of their clothes and placed in a shipment bottle to preserve it.

If the child is a twelve year-old girl who has successfully passed a set of requirements, and has received a recommendation from their own Mama, they will be given the option to either die or train to become a Sister or Mama at Headquarters. However, as seen in the bonus chapter Seeking the Sky of Freedom, most sister trainees are "rejected" (killed) during their training. Very few girls training to become Sisters actually get the position, and even fewer get to become Mamas.

Occasionally, a child will be shipped out to be sent to a different plantation or location such as Lambda 7214, a special research facility for experimenting on children.

Trivia

 * It is currently unknown what the maximum shipment age for Goodwill Ridge is.