Episode 1, Part 2:
Kirere & Giroro: Intergalactic Challange!

"It's huge…" Kirere muttered to herself as they finally landed. They had gone through a heavy white fog over the ocean, only to come through and see a large island, with numerous ships, spacecraft, and small personal craft parked along its edges. "I don't think I've seen an island so big!"

'You… You live on one….' Giroro thought with a bit of disbelief, but kept this to himself. They parked their hovercrafts and then headed to the large hotel.

"Ah, she's a cute one!" said the clerk at the front check-in. Kirere couldn't quit staring up at the yellow alien, and all of its eyes… Giroro had to nudge the girl to quit her staring. "We don't get many father-daughter participants! Here's your key, have a good time while you're here!"

"We will. Come on, Kirere," Giroro led the little girl up the stairs and, while walking down the hall, she gave a little yelp as she bumped into an alien about her height.

"Watch it, shrimpy!" snapped the boy, and Giroro turned around, presumably to give a few choice words to the child, when he stopped short, giving a choke.

"Y-You…" he said weakly, and there came a resonance Kirere was unfamiliar with. She looked up and saw a full-grown Keronian, and a smaller one at his side who she assumed to be his son. The little boy wore a dark blue hat, like his father, but was a lime green with freckles, and almond shaped, red eyes. His symbol was the same as his father, who was about Giroro's age and height, and was teal, with a red symbol, and half-lidded eyes.

"Someone married you!? Tell me they were desperate," laughed the Keronian, who Giroro recognized in his childhood as the cause of much of his, Dororo, and Keroro's torment. "And what a prissy little runt you had! Pink?!"

"I'm light red!" Kirere shot back.

"That's enough!" Giroro snapped, taking a step in front of Kirere. "If you have something to say, we'll say it, and not in front of children."

"Whatever you say… I can't believe it, but your kid looks like even more of a pansy than you!" laughed the bully, and he patted his son on the shoulder. "Come on, we've got an event coming up."

"…Don't listen to them, we'll do just fine," Giroro reassured her as they walked into the bedroom. "I can't believe he's here… Or that he even got married... And before me."

"He wasn't a friend of yours when you were little, was he?"

"Far from," Giroro answered, setting down his suitcase on his bed. Kirere did the same, but opened it and pulled out a thin blue zip-up sweater. She felt cold…. It was either the ocean air, or fear setting it. "What do you say we go look at what sort of competitions they're having this year?"

"Yeah," she gave a weak smile and nodded, and the two walked out of the hotel and down to where the competitions were being held.

"Archery's a good one… Then there's, shooting, wrestling, survival, close combat, chi skills… Pottery," Giroro began to read through the list, Kirere looking a little less excited at every prospect. "The survival looks like something that doesn't take a lot of, well…"

"Coordination?"

"Y-Yes," he nodded, and folded up the list. "They send us to the middle of the forest area here, and we work to find our way back."

"So, it's like camping, with a race…."

"That's pretty much how it goes."

"Does it take a lot of time?"

"Hehe, want to put more than one competition in, I understand. We should be able to do some more tomorrow," he patted her on the head and grinned proudly. Kirere only gave a sigh… She couldn't destroy his happiness, it'd be too cruel.

"We should hurry and pick up supplies, come on," she nodded at this, and trudged along to follow him.

"Hrm…" she glanced up at a spear, and poked at it. It fell over in response, and Kirere hopped back, then attempted to right it once more. More spears began to fall down, and she eventually backed away, allowing for the spears to fall while she ran from the scene of the accident.

"Eh? There you are. Here," Giroro tossed a backpack into her arms, and she stumbled back a bit at the newfound weight. There was a yell of surprise, followed by a crash, and Kirere cringed; someone had found the spears, apparently, "Now it looks like all we need is a map."

"Huh?" Kirere drowned out what Giroro said after this, and instead wandered away from him, toward something she found a bit more interesting. It was the young boy from before, the one with the red eyes. He was bent over something, in the section specialized for things that were more along the lines of souvenirs…

"Seeds?" Kirere wondered aloud, and the boy jumped a foot in the air and spun around, dropping the packets he had been holding.

"Hey, back off, Shrimpy! What're you doing with that backpack, anyway?! You're actually here to compete?!"

"So you garden?"

"You really don't get it," he tossed aside the packets and huffed. "You don't know much about anything, do you? My dad told me all about yours… That the only reason he didn't get the pulp beat out of him more was because he had his big brother around. Your dad's a wimp, and you're just the same, I'm willing to bet. Get out of this while you still have a shot of making it out alive," he pushed his way past her and shuffled out of the store, and just about the same time Giroro walked up to a silent young girl.

"Kirere? Is everything all right?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, it's fine," she nodded. "Can I buy something? It won't be too much, I promise!"

"All right. Let's just hurry, we've got a lot to do and only a little time to do it. It looks like they're out of maps here, we'll have to hope that there are some we can buy at the race."

"Right!" she brightened, and followed him to the register.

Kirere didn't sleep well at all that night, and looked it in the morning as they stood with the other competitors. A lot of them looked like serious fighters… Even some of the children had eyepatches and scars, she saw and gave a shiver at this. They were all lined at a front line, and from across the line of contestants the same young Keronian shot a glare at them.

"I'm going to die here, before I even have my first boyfriend," she said beneath her breath.

"Hopefully someone has a map around here for sale… Eh, did you say something?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing, nothing!" she shook her head, and then watched, and took a few steps back, as the young green Keron child walked over to them.

"Shrimpy! Here.… Proof I'm not heartless. My dad had an extra one, and you two looked like the only ones without one," the young boy grumbled, and held out a folded up map with both hands. He then turned and promptly away from them as Giroro accepted this.

"Thank you!" she called out and waved to him, and he flinched.

"Ugh… Cheery people are annoying," he mumbled all the while Giroro went to unfolding the map.

"...I don't know about this…" Giroro admitted as he looked it over. "There's something not right here. Why would they give us a map, of all people?"

"Maybe he's not like this dad, and only acts like a tough guy!" Kirere replied. "A lot of times kids don't take after their parents… He might be nicer. Plus it's all printed out, it looks real!" she jumped at the sound of a gunshot, and both looked ahead at the area in front of them.

"No time left to question it now. Come on, let's go!" he motioned, and they ran to one of the numerous helicopters lined up in front of the line.

"Hehe, this is kind of fun!" she admitted with a laugh as they took off and began to fly towards a heavily forested area ahead. "…So where're we going to land?!"

"Land?" Giroro blinked, and she saw he was putting on another backpack now.

"…What's that…?" she asked plainly, and then watched as one of the other pair of competitors threw themselves out of the helicopter's open side. She scooted all the way to the opposite wall of the helicopter, which she thought would be closed. As she tumbled out, giving a shrill scream, she realized that this side was also open.

"Kirere!" Giroro shouted and jumped out after her, and managed to grab hold of her after a few moments of grabbing at her. He opened his parachute, and down they both floated, into the middle of the woods. When they landed, Kirere clung onto the nearest tree, and panted.

"I missed the ground…" she mumbled to herself.

"I know you're accident prone, but to forget a parachute…. Let's just make that the one mistake this trip…"

"Y-Yeah… So what're we doing now?"

"We follow this map back to the site, but we have to be careful; they've laid traps all along the way," he spoke as he unfolded the map, then gave a sigh and a laugh.

"Huh? Something wrong?"

"I just haven't help this much like a soldier in years, is all," this statement cut Kirere like a knife, and he stood and folded the map back up. "This way, we'll head north!"

"Right!" she mustered all she could for confidence… But it was forced at best.
The afternoon came soon, and Kirere gave a groan and took a seat on the forest floor, "I think we've been walking for hours now!"

"It's only been a few hours, we'll be fine," he answered, then caught a glimpse of the child. She looked exhausted and for some reason near tears. "Then again, every soldier needs his rest."

He sighed and took a seat next to her, and opened his backpack, and tossed her an energy bar.

"Curry flavor!?" she gasped and opened it up happily.

"Kururu gave some to me, before we left… I guess he does care when he wants to."

She wasn't listening much; she was too busy devouring the bar, "Mm, so good!"

"That ought to get us through until tonight. Come on, let's move out," he stood once again, and Kirere did the same, wobbling with the heavy weight of her bag.

"So, you and your dad did this a lot, right?"

"Survival missions, yes. Not this particular one, though, we—" an arm suddenly came out in front of her to stop her, and she looked up at her father, puzzled.

"What's wro—" He nodded downward, and she looked down, near their feet, and saw a small glint, "…What is it?"

"Trip wire," he answered, taking a step over it and helping her over it afterward. "We've got to be more vigilant for those things, they-"

"Kyyaaa!"

Giroro slapped a hand over his forehead, and didn't even look up at the pink Keron girl, who was swinging from a tree by rope tied around her feet.

"More vigilant. Got it!" she answered, giving a thumbs up while she still swung back and forth.

"How much further now? It feels like we've gone in a big circle!" she asked, panting and leaning against a tree, and Giroro looked up from his map, and then stood there, shaking, then crumpled it a bit in his hands.

"This tree… It's the third time we've passed it…" he said quietly. "This map is a trick. We feel like we've been going in a circle because we have been going in a circle!"

"What?!" she gasped and ran over to him, then stood at his side to look it over, "But… It looks like the right course!"

"I should've known better… I should have trusted my own instincts…" Giroro cursed to himself, making the map into a ball and then throwing it as far as he could. Kirere jumped a bit at this action, and began to sputter out an apology quiet.

"That's enough," Giroro said sharply, quieting her muttered, and she flinched. "We'll have to make camp for the night, probably. It's getting dark already, so maybe they'll send a search party."

"Can't we radio for help?"

"No reception here," Giroro answered, and then pulled his bag off of his shoulders and looked around. "I could probably get us out of here tomorrow, but it's too dangerous now."

He went to unpack the tent, and stopped as Kirere went to help, "I've got this… Just rest."

"Oh… Okay…" she nodded, and backed away, and wandered a short ways away from the camp, to a clearing where she could see the sky a bit better. "Stupid contest! I didn't want to do this dumb thing in the first place!"

"What?"

"Huh? Oh, I… I didn't mean it like…" Kirere stuttered to her father, who had come to find her. "What I mean is, but…."

But Giroro was gone, and Kirere gave a groan and buried her face in the palms of her hands.

Giroro packed up in silence while Kirere finished off her food, also silent, "We can follow the direction of the sun; I can get us back from there."

"Right," she took up her bag and followed him through the woods, until she couldn't take the quiet anymore. "I'm really sorry about last night! Really! I was tired when I was saying that, I didn't mean it, I—"

"Kirere, be quiet."

"But—"

"No, listen," he instructed her, and she stopped next to him, and tilted up her head to hear.

"What is that, yelling?"

"It sounds like someone in trouble… They're far away, so we have to hurry. Come on!" he instructed, and she followed, Giroro grabbing her backpack as she continued run and nearly fell from a sharp cliff.

"Huh?"

"Well… Look at who it is…" Giroro sighed as the young green Keronian ran over to them, looking frantic.

"Finally, somebody came! No one was answering our flairs!" the young boy shouted out, all while waving his arms rapidly. "My dad fell off on here! He can't climb back up!"

Giroro looked over the edge with Kirere, and sure enough there was the bully, on a small ledge and seemingly out cold. He straightened back up and looked at the boy, "You're going to have to do a little bit better than that."

"W-What?! No, he really is, honest!" the boy flailed his arms. "We need help!"

"I think he's telling the truth this time…" Kirere said, now a bit of worry building in her voice as well. "Maybe… Maybe we should help them, even if they did that stuff with the map."

"What stuff with the map?" the boy repeated, frowning. Giroro tossed it at him.

"The fake map you gave us," Giroro explained as the boy unfolded it and looked it over.

"My… My dad gave me this to give you…" the boy answered in mumble as he studied the map, then closed it. "I… This really wasn't my idea! I swear it wasn't!"

"So it's his doing… Figures he wouldn't grow up, even after all of these years," Giroro snorted.

"So are we going to help him?" Kirere asked.

"I guess we have no choice… It's not the kid's fault who his dad is, after all," Giroro looked over the edge again and then back to Kirere. "Look and see if there's anything for mountain climbing."

"No, but we've got the sleeping bags!" Kirere answered, and the boy shot back at her.

"This isn't anytime to take a nap, you idiot!"

Kirere's head snapped over to him, and Giroro's eyes went wide. Sensing a conflict rising, he hopped in between the two.

"We can tear it up and use it to make a rope down to him," Kirere suggested.

"Or we could just use our rope," the young boy answered, holding up a bundle of brown rope, and he then went to tie it to one of the trees while Giroro looked back down at the fallen bully.

Soon Giroro was scaling down cautiously, the two children watching him over the edge of the cliff as he did so. Both breathed a sigh of relief as he managed to pick up the bully Keronian and heave him over his shoulder, and then he started back up. The children we so intent on watching this, neither realized the rope slipping out of its knot around the tree, and barely had time to grab onto it as it nearly flew past them. Both gripped onto it at the last moment, and Giroro looked down in a panic at the fall beneath him. His fate was in the hands of two children… He didn't have a good feeling about this.

"Pull!" the boy shouted, taking a step back.

"I am!" Kirere shouted in return, and they took another small step back, continuing to do so until they gave a hard tug, falling back onto the ground and sending the two grown men flying into the sky. The bully's child broke Giroro's fall.

"Ugh… My head's spinning…" the young boy moaned as Giroro groggily climbed off of him.

"Kirere?! Kirere, where are you!?"

"Under here!" came a muffled cry from beneath the bully, and a small had wriggled out, begging for rescue.

"That's the best I can do," Giroro said as he finished bandaging around the bully's head, and the teal Keronian gave no answer.
"Hey, Dad, this little runt got our locator working again!" the boy called out and rushed over to his father, the electronic device in hand. Giroro saw the proud look on Kirere's face as she still held a screwdriver in one hand, and gave his own.

It was a little ways away from the finish line, and by the time they made it the sun was setting again. The bully has forced to lean on Giroro for support, and still remained silent and humbled. Kirere talked nonstop to the boy, who eventually rolled his eyes and asked, "Are you sure you're not a robot with an off switch somewhere!?"

The bully and his son crossed the line, followed by Kirere and Giroro. He noticed the girl looked a bit upset, and she muttered and kicked at the ground.

"I'm sorry I made us come in last…" she said apologetically to him, daring not to look her father in the eye. "And that I didn't want to go."

"I'm sorry I didn't ask you before I did it," Giroro added, tilting her head up. "I forget that you like doing different things… But it was still good training for us."

"Really? I… I don't feel like I was useful a whole lot."

"Even a small part's still an important part," Giroro answered. "And the main idea of this whole event is to have a good time, not to be the best…"

"Yeah, I had fun, too," she admitted with a smile. "So do you think we could do this next year?!"

"If they have it. We'll have to see how many insurance claims they have to sort through, first," he patted her on the head as they walked back toward their hotel.

"Bye!" Kirere waved as she turned back to the departing contestants as she and her father were preparing for the flight home. "Oh! I have to give something to someone! I'll be right back!" she said to her father, and was off before Giroro could protest.

She practically tackled the Keron boy as she spotted him, and he jumped at the sight of her pleasant grin, "…What do you want, a handshake?"

"No, I wanted to give you these!" she answered, pulling out a few packets of seeds from one of her gloves. "I saw you looking at them, but you forgot to pick them up!"

"Come on, we're late already!" snapped the father.

"I'll come when I'm ready!" the boy shouted back. "…Thanks, Shrimpy."

"Maybe you could pay me back by showing me around Keron if I visit!"

"Sure. Whatever," he then waved her off and turned away, but looked at the packets of seeds and gave a small laugh.

The ride home didn't seem nearly as long as the ride there, but Kirere and Giroro were both disturbed at the setup that greeted them when they arrived at the Hinata household. The living room was set up like a wake, complete with flowers, candles, and pictures. Kirere was mortified as she saw the pictures with black bands over them were of her and her father. Keroro was there, along with Mois and Tamama, who seemed to be grieving. Natsumi and Fuyuki were puzzled, and Kururu looked on in amusement.

"Keroro!" Giroro greeted the Keronian with a kick to the rear that sent him flying across the room. "What's the meaning of this?! It… It's morbid!"

"Kii-chi, you're alive!" Tamama grinned.

"Kuku… Good, it looks like that money didn't go to waste, after all."

"Kirere-chan! Giroro Goucho!" Keroro sprang up and hugged both. "As sad as I am that I lost our pool, I'm happy to see you alive! You… Are alive, right?"

"What pool?!" Giroro demanded, taking Keroro by the neck.

"Kuku… Whether or not to see if you made it home alive or not," Kururu explained. "Now I expect everyone to pay up."

"Yes, Kururu Soucho was the only one to bet that you'd make it back in one piece!" Keroro admitted while Giroro still held him by the neck.

"Kuku, I like betting on the long shots," Kururu explained. Kururu then gave a choke as Giroro took him by the neck as well, and held out the two annoyances. Kirere tugged at her father's arm, begging him to let them go.

"Nee-chan, do you think we should step in?" Fuyuki asked.

Natsumi crossed her arms and sighed, "I would if I knew what the heck was going on here."

And through the back sliding glass door Romama walked in, two bags of fruit in his hands. He took one look at this, gave a sigh and a shake of the head, and quietly slid the door back, leaving the fruit there but not bothering to get involved in the bizarre fight, "…I want to know, but my better judgment says to let them be."

He heard a crash from inside the house, the beginnings of a growl from Natsumi, and he hurried his pace away from the house.