Rieko stretched as she walked into the kitchen. Nothing feels better than a nice shower, she thought to herself. Winter break was coming to an end, and she didn't want to go back to school quite yet. She'd finished her homework, done her chores…now what was left to be done was bum around the house.

Rieko sat down at the low table and saw a piece of paper on it—a note.

'Oro, what's this?' Rieko thought to herself. She picked it up.

Hey girls, good morning!

I have some errands to run, but I'd like you to do some stuff while I'm out.

-Get the mail

-Pick up your rooms

-Do the dishes

See you later,

Mom

Rieko sighed as she put the note down. Her sisters, Midori and Hiroko, were still asleep, so Rieko figured she might as well get the mail. The weather was pretty chilly and it had snowed the night before, so Rieko put on her lime green coat and tan boots and opened the front door.

There was a fresh layer of snow, the air crisp. Tire tacks were the only disturbance, left behind from when Rieko's mother went out. Her father's car was gone, too; he was at work.

Rieko started to walk down the driveway. Their house had a driveway that was over a hundred meters long, and their house was surrounded by woods, the perfect kind of privacy you could find in the very northern parts of Hokkaido.

She opened the mailbox only to find nothing inside. 'So I walked here for nothing', Reiko thought to herself. She turned to start walking back to the house when she saw something standing out against the white snow. Rieko turned to it and saw what looked like a two-foot tall navy blue frog, laying face-down in the snow.

Rieko picked up a stick and poked the frog with it. It twitched a little. Rieko turned it over and saw that the frog had a golden half-circle shape on its stomach and forehead, and a gray cloth was wrapped around its head, covering its right eye.

Without even thinking, Rieko took off her coat and wrapped up the creature in it, and carried it home with her, shivering a little from the cold.

When Rieko got inside the house, Hiroko was at the top of the stairs, still in pajamas.

"Hey, Onee-chan!" Hiroko said, rubbing her eyes. "Where've you been?"

"Oro!" Rieko said, signaling Hiroko not to wake up Midori. "I've just been getting the mail. Is Midori-chan awake yet?"

"I am now," Midori said, coming beside Hiroko. "Rieko-chan, what's that you're holding? A package?"

"No," Rieko said. "Actually, I'm not sure what it is."

"Let me see!" Hiroko ran up to Rieko and grabbed the bundle from her arms. "I don't see why you had to take off your coat out there—what the…?"

"What is it, Hiroko?" Midori asked, coming up behind her. Midori looked down at the odd creature in Hiroko's arms. "Ah, Rieko…what is this?"

"I really don't know," Rieko said. "Actually, I don't even know why I bothered saving it…but I felt like I should."

"Well, Rieko-chan," Midori said as Hiroko handed the frog-thing back to her, "we'll leave this up to you. Good luck!"

Midori and Hiroko walked into the kitchen as Rieko sighed, starting to climb up the stairs with the frog bundled up in her arms. She walked into her small room and closed the door behind her.

Reiko's room was small and crammed, but still cozy. There was a bed, a desk with a laptop, a dresser, and a bookshelf. On the window wall there was a bongo drum, an acoustic guitar, a pan flute, and many different types of recorders. Yep, this was a little slice of heaven.

Reiko put the frog gently on the floor, and took some blankets of her bed and laid them on top of it. Then, she plopped down on her back onto the bed.

'Oro, I'm tired', she thought. 'And what will mom say if she sees this frog thing? She'll totally flip out at me, I know, but I couldn't keep myself from helping the poor thing…he might have died…'

Reiko heard a grunt from the floor. She sat up on her bed and looked down as the frog sat up slowly, rubbing its head.

"Where…where am I?" he said, mostly to himself.

Reiko smiled. "Good," she said, "you're okay." Reiko suddenly froze where she was: 'that animal thing just talked! Animals can't talk! Is he a super-intelligent alien or something?'

The frog looked up at Reiko, who couldn't take his seriousness entirely seriously with his one eye covered up. "Who are you?" the frog asked.

Reiko stood up. "I'm Okumara Reiko. Why, who're you?"

"Well, I'm…I'm…" the frog looked at his navy blue hands in concentration, as if trying to remember something.

"…You don't remember you're name?" Reiko asked, a bit sad.

"I'm afraid not," the frog said finally. Suddenly, a loud growl was heard throughout the room. Reiko and the frog looked at the frog's white stomach with the golden half-circle, realizing that was the source of the sound.

Reiko laughed. "You must be hungry," she said. "Come on, let's go downstairs and have something to eat. You can meet my sisters, too."

Reiko opened the door to her room and started to go down the stairs, and the frog followed her, looking around the big house.

They entered the kitchen where Midori and Hiroko were sitting on the floor cushions, eating some leftover curry.

"Yo, Rei--," Hiroko cut off as she spotted the frog following Reiko. "So…it's feeling better?" Hiroko said in a confused/nervous manner.

"Yes, I am feeling much better now. Thank you for your hospitality."

Midori and Hiroko sat wide-eyed at the frog, their faces frozen.

"Did that just talk?!" they said in unison.

Reiko shook her head, sweat dropping. "What have I gotten myself into…?"

"So, er…what's your name?" Midori said, trying to stay as calm as possible.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid I can't remember." The frog put his hand against the back of his head, as if to start in with nervous laughter.

"I'm gonna go get us some breakfast, oro…" Reiko said, trying to escape the tension.

"You come right back here," Midori said. Hiroko grabbed the back of Reiko's shirt as she passed by to the fridge.

"O-oro…?" Reiko said as Midori and Hiroko loomed over her.

"What is with you saying 'oro' all the time?!" Midori and Hiroko yelled in unison.

"Seriously!" Midori said. "All we ever hear is oro this, oro that…it's so annoying! 'Oro, oro, oro'!"

The frog watched this with a blank expression as millions of thoughts flew through his head. Oro…..oro….oro….

"Oro!" the frog yelled out at last.

Hiroko turned to him. "Oh, not you, too!" she cried out.

"No, no, no!" the frog said, shaking his head. "My name, my name! That's my name! Ororo!"

Midori and Hiroko stood with slumped shoulders in utter disbelief. "You're kidding…"

"This is great!" Rieko exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "I'm so glad you've remembered your name!"

"So," Hiroko said, "can you remember anything else?"

Ororo looked down at the floor. "No…I'm afraid not."

Rieko smiled sweetly. "I'm sure you'll remember everything soon enough," she said. "But we should get you some food."

Reiko started heating up some more leftover curry as Ororo sat silently at the table. Rieko finally brought over two bowls of steaming curry and two sets of chopsticks.

"Thank you," Ororo said as Rieko placed the bowl in front of him. Ororo immediately began digging into the curry, eating it as quickly as possible.

ororo…ororo…

Ororo looked up and stopped eating immediately as the voice in his head grew louder.

ororo…Ororo…

Ororo squeezed his eyes shut and put his hands on his head. The voice was getting louder.

Ororo…Ororo!

"Ororo!" Rieko exclaimed as she saw the navy blue frog faint onto the floor. Rieko jolted up and ran over to where Ororo lay. "Ororo, are you okay?"

Reiko watched the one visible eye open slowly. "Oro…m-my head…"

"Ororo, wake up! Are you okay?"

Ororo's eye was completely open now. "Y-yes, I'm fine now…I just had a bad headache, that's all."

Rieko never kept her eyes off Ororo as she ate, she was so worried. But Ororo wasn't hungry anymore, not after that voice. It was a girl's voice, a little girl, and she sounded scared.

Ororo stood up, and Rieko looked at him. "Oro…?"

"Rieko-san, thank you for your hospitality. I think I might go lay down for a while."

Rieko looked at Ororo, and nodded. "Right. Tell me if you need anything."

Ororo walked up the stairs and went into Rieko's bedroom. He laid ontop of the blankets that Rieko had set up and closed his eyes, only to find himself greeted to an image of a little Keronian girl standing over him. She was an ocean blue, with a light blue stomach and face. She had a white emblem on her forhead and stomach that looked like an ocean wave, and had large purple eyes.

Ororo...! What happened...? Your eye, it's...! Ororo...Ororo!

Ororo bolted awake, gasping. He felt like he knew the child from somewhere, but it felt so long ago...and what did she mean by his eye?

Ororo lifted a shaking hand to his right eye, and felt the cloth wrapped around his head, covering the eye. He suddenly remembered what happened to his eye, and why it was covered at all times. Ororo shivered as the memory flooded back to him, along with many others.

He decided to talk to Rieko, who now seemed like his only ally. Ororo opened the door and walked down the stairs into the kitchen, where Midori, Hiroko, and Rieko were sitting down for lunch.

"Hey, Ororo!" Rieko said when she saw him. "You've been out cold for hours...is everything okay?"

Ororo looked into Rieko's face with a solemn expression. Rieko automatically knew something was wrong. "Is there something wrong?"

Ororo stood in the kitchen doorway, being studied by the three Okumara sisters. "I...I remember more now," he said. "I now know where I come from, who my friends and enemies are...and I remember...that I work for the Keronian government, and I'm here on a mission to conquer this planet.