Episode 2, Part One: Fujuju: Mr. Fujuju's Wild Ride
"Hullsy! Martin, Maggie! Martin, Oliver! Burgess! And finally, Nash!" called out the teacher as she finished passing back tests. Two blonde-haired, blue-eyed children looked up from their papers to one another and returned mirror grins. The boy revealed his paper, then the girl revealed hers, showing a higher grade. She stuck out her tongue and he sighed and slumped down in his chair. Then the bell sounded, and both were out like a light.
"You know of course that this means I get to choose where we go this weekend," said the girl proudly as they walked down the hall side-by-side.
"But you want to go the Antarctic, and that's going to be boring!" he sighed with a groan.
"Like the jungle's so much better?"
"Yeah, they've got them… Jaguars! And spiders as big as dinner plates!"
"…We're going to Antarctica, and that's that."
"We're home!" called Maggie as she opened the door, and both shuddered at the sound of pots clamoring in the kitchen. Oliver poked his head in first, and the girl standing the destroyed kitchen turned around, looking distraught. It looked as though bags of flour had blown up in the kitchen, and Maggie kicked at a pot accidentally as she took another step into the kitchen.
"Fantastic, I was just starting on lunch for us!" the older girl said, holding out a pot proudly. Both twins put hands on their mouths at the sight of the green bubbling stew.
"What… What is that?" Oliver began.
"Corned beef!" she answered. "It should be done in a little while!"
"We're actually…. Going to go have lunch with our tutor, Frannie," Maggie replied, and Oliver nodded. The girl with two long purple pigtails and bright blue eyes looked a bit crestfallen at this, and held it out.
"Are you sure you don't want to try at least a li—"
"We'll bring you back something, so don't fill up!" Maggie called out, rushing to the door with Oliver next to her.
"That was close," Maggie sighed, wiping her forehead.
"You're telling me! I think I saw a bloody tentacle floating around in that mess!"
"She tries so hard… I feel bad sometimes…"
"Think of it as survival. There's no way we'd survive eating that another day, and we don't have to sneak off and eat fast food anymore."
"I guess so," they came to an old red phone booth, its clear glass windows covered in black paper and a sign over it that red "out of service". Both children looked to their right, then their left, and both shuffled in, coming out into a large library/laboratory, stuffed with books, various machines, beakers, and electric heaters, as well as a metal staircase that led up to an open air kitchen.
"Something smells great!" Oliver exclaimed, while Maggie looked over on a small table to the mail, the topmost piece being a postcard.
"Who's he know in Japan?" she asked herself quietly, lifting it up.
"Ah, children! Terrific you're here!" Fujuju looked up from his stove and grinned widely. "I just finished making lunch! I hope sandwiches and homemade vegetable soup are all right!"
"You're a lifesaver!" Oliver said as he hopped up the stairs to the kitchen and dining area.
"Fujufujufuju!" the Keronian gave a wide, proud smile as his handiwork and removed the white apron he had been wearing.
"We got our tests back! I got higher than Oliver!"
"By two points!"
"It's still higher!"
"Now, now… We know the rules, whoever gets higher on their exams gets to pick what we do for the weekend, and this weekend we chose where Maggie wants to go," Fujuju explained as he took his seat with the children.
"I want to see who this person is that sent you this postcard," Maggie answered, holding up the card with the Nishizawa Peach Group Logo on its front.
"Wow, it's decorated in goldleaf! You know someone this fancy!?" Oliver gasped, and turned it around. "They can't write worth anything…"
"It's written in Japanese!... Clown," Maggie grumbled. "Eh, Fujuju? What's wrong with you?"
"Well… I suppose we could visit, I just don't know if it's the safest thing to do…" Fujuju admitted anxiously, looking off ward.
"Not the safest?" Maggie repeated.
"WHAAAAA make it stop, make it stop!" Keroro cried as the motorcycle flew out of his room, through the living room, and straight out a wall.
"…Still has too much of a kick, kukuku!" Kururu chuckled as he and Kirere stuck their heads out of the base room. Natsumi still stood there, stunned and wondered what had just happened, and Giroro rushed into the living room, guns drawn.
"Natsumi, are you all right?!" he asked quickly, and her mouth only twitched.
"What… What just happened….?" Natsumi asked.
"We told him that new part was a bad idea," Kirere sighed. Keroro stumbled back into the home, gray with soot and looking a bit dazed himself.
"A nice truck broke my fall…." he mumbled before passing out onto the ground.
"He'll live," Pururu announced as she placed a light on Keroro's other eye and examined it, then shut it off. She sighed and then looked over at the rest of the platoon, who was lined up as they watched her work. "I've known you all a little too long to ask what you were doing…"
"That's probably for the best, Pururu. Thank you again for wasting your time with this idiot," Giroro snorted.
"It's no problem, I never mind it if it's for a friend!" she answered with a smile.
"She's so much nicer than Chunini, I wish she was the one who came over and ate all of our food and ran up our phone bills instead," Kirere sighed longingly.
"Who's Chunini?" Pururu asked, tilting her head, and before the young girl had said anything, Giroro and Tamama were already there with their hands over her mouth.
"Uhhhhh… It's Kururu Soucho's sister's name!" Tamama replied quickly.
"Yes, that's right!" Giroro nodded.
"I thought Kururu's sister was Kirere-chan's mom… And she'd passed away," Pururu blinked. Kururu only gave a laugh and shuffled away.
"I'm out of this one," the yellow scientist chuckled, opening the fridge and taking his leave.
"All right, we didn't want to say anything, but she's Kururu's girlfriend, he's just keeping it quiet," Giroro explained.
"Hardly, kuku!" came Kururu's call from the other side of the fridge door.
"She must be a very strong woman," Pururu said with a forced pleasant smile.
"She's definitely something else," Tamama sighed, and Giroro only shut his eyes and folded his arms in silent agreement.
"I should really be getting back now, we've got an assignment, but we were in the neighborhood," Pururu held up her hand to wave goodbye, and it was peaceful. For all of five seconds. Then through the door darted two flying streaks, zooming around until suddenly coming to a sudden stop.
"What's going on now?! Stupid Frog, did you do this again?!" Natsumi shouted, rushing into the room and then stopping as she saw the two puzzled, blonde-haired teens on matching brooms. "F-Foreigners?... On brooms?"
"Wow, these pins Fujuju gave us really do work!" Maggie gasped, looking down at the pin on her jacket, which matched Fujuju's own symbol.
"No kidding! I understand her just like she was speaking English!" Oliver added with an excited grin, which quickly then left. "Say, where'd he run off to, anyway?"
"Down here…" he grunted, and rose from the floor, clutching the back of his head. "My, you both grossly forgot your manners just now!"
"Sorry, we don't have the best control of these yet!" Maggie answered apologetically.
"Fujuju-san!" Tamama gasped happily. "What're you doing here?!"
"They asked to come see my friends, and I obliged… These are my pupils, Oliver and Maggie Martin," Fujuju stood and straightened his scarf, and stepped aside to introduce the two, who were now off of their brooms and standing side by side.
"Fujuju? Who's that?" Pururu asked aloud, and Giroro yelped, being the lone person left alone to answer this.
"But a humble scholar, my dear," Fujuju answered with a polite bow to her. "Kirere-chan, this must be your older sister?"
"Ummm no actually she's pretty old, like my dad's age," Kirere answered, and Pururu flinched at this.
"Well I certainly wouldn't have known!" Fujuju replied, widening his toothy grin. "Please pardon our intrusion. You, too, Miss Hinata. I'll have fixed whatever the children damaged."
"Ugh, why couldn't you have been the one my brother found! Come on, I'll show you the hole Stupid Frog made earlier, maybe you can fix it…"
"I'll certainly do the best I can," Fujuju answered as they walked out.
"Gero… Why do I feel as though I'm being talked about?" Keroro raised his head wearily and shook it, then stopped, fixating upon the two unfamiliar pairs of legs. His eyes then traveled up until he was looking at the faces of the Martin twins. "You… You…."
"Gunso-san, it's all right, they're with Fujuju-san!" Tamama exclaimed, holding up his hands in protest.
"YOU'RE WEARING SHOES ON THE CARPET!" Keroro cried, in full panic mode.
"He's a weird one," Maggie muttered as Keroro continued to seethe. Oliver turned to her and grinned.
"I like him!"
"There, that should it, good as new!" Fujuju stood and looked back at his handiwork proudly, a bizarre-looking hammer still in his hand.
"I'll never get this clean!" Keroro grumbled from his room as he continued to vacuum the carpet, all while shaking his head. Oliver and Maggie sat in the living room, across from a puzzled Natsumi.
"So we sent out an ad online for a tutor, and before you knew it he answered! Our sister's an artist, but she has a lot of other odd jobs, too, so she's happy we've got a friend to be around a lot, since she's gone so much," Maggie finished. "How did you meet your friend?"
"My younger brother… Weird things like this seem to follow him…" Natsumi answered with a sigh.
"Nee-chan, I'm home! Gunso, I have the model you wa—Huh!? Who're you?" Fuyuki asked, startled at the presence of the two strangers.
"These are the Martin twins… Fujuju brought them," Natsumi explained, and Fuyuki scratched the back of his head, not quite sure what to think of them.
"Hey, let's take a tour!" Oliver exclaimed. "With this many aliens around, there's got to be a lot of fun weird things around here!"
"Tama-chan, would you mind helping me entertain the guests?" Fujuju asked, and Tamama looked up from the gift Fujuju had brought; a large, blue tin of cookies, which he was quickly working his way through.
"Sure, come on!"
"No way!" Giroro barked. "Whenever you show someone around the base, something awful happens! I'm putting a stop to this now!"
"You sort of look like a piranha when you're mad like that…" said Oliver after a pause.
"You little—That's it!" Giroro snarled, and went for the boy, but Natsumi quickly lifted him up by the shoulders and looked at him plainly.
"Be nice to the guests," she instructed him.
"N… Natsumi…."
"If they keep Stupid Frog busy, then I'm all for it!" Natsumi set him back on the floor and brushed aside one of her pigtails. "Just try not to damage anything in here, or end the earth."
"Oh, I think we're at least that reliable!" Oliver laughed and scratched the back of his head.
"C'mon, I'll show you the pool!" Tamama exclaimed, taking off in a run with the twins following him quickly and Fujuju being more leisurely in his walk.
Natsumi didn't notice that he'd left behind the hammer he'd used to repair the wall. Neither did Fuyuki as he followed his sister to help with dinner. And Giroro grumbled and was too busy with his foul mood to notice it there. It was only when Keroro walked out and was totally alone that he spied it from across the room, and shuffled over to it.
"Fancy… What a work of craftsmanship!" he muttered to himself as he studied it, and yelped and turned around as he heard the clearing of someone's throat, being sure to hide it behind his back and Pururu stood across from him with her hands on her hips.
"Keroro-kun, what's going on? I'm feeling like everyone's got something to hide here these days!" Pururu said with a sigh of disappointment. "Every time I come there's someone new who I've never even heard of, and I've known you, Dororo-kun, and Giroro-kun for years!"
"Ehhhh well…" Keroro looked to either side for escape, and found none. "All right… Pururu-chan, the truth is that…."
By the time he had finished the tale of Romama being his uncle, finding an ancient Keronian Platoon, and Kirere really being the result of genetic experimentation with Kururu and Giroro's DNA, her brow was twitching.
"Gero? Pururu-chan, is… Is everything all right? I know it's an awful lot to take in, but it feels as though everything's been topsy turvy lately! Like we're constantly in sweeps week!"
"If it was something you didn't want to tell me, you could have told me that, instead of making up some wild story," Pururu answered.
"But… But I…."
"If it's a prank you're all trying to pull on me, it's a childish one," she added, turning and stomping away from him.
"….This is why I'm not married," Keroro slumped his shoulders, and gave a sigh of relief, "Still, part of me is happy she didn't believe it… Now to more important matters! What is this thing, exactly?" he asked himself, examining the hammer.
"So what was that thing you used to patch up the wall quickly like that, Fujuju-san?" Tamama asked as they walked along, and Fujuju smiled proudly.
"Some old memories of my days when we were still working on the technology for the Kero Balls used today! I was on the original manufacturing team…. I couldn't remember exactly what went into them, but I still retained enough to make something fairly useful!"
"Wow, that's—Wait, where did those Pekoponian twins go?" Tamama swiveled around and noticed they were now alone in the long silver hallway.
"Ohhh dear," was Fujuju's quiet response.
"What's this place?" Maggie asked quietly as she followed in behind her brother cautiously.
"Looks almost like a garden…" he muttered, and stopped, taking her and pulling her to a wall that hid them both.
"Looks like it's another one!" Maggie whispered as Dororo walked in, looking ready to garden with his tools in hand.
"How many are there, you think?" Oliver asked. "…What's he doing, gardening?"
"Aw, looks pretty harmless, eh?" Maggie whispered with a smile, and gave a yelp as three shuriken landed on the wall next to them.
"Who's there?" Dororo demanded, now with his sword drawn and looking ready to take the attackers.
"Guess he's not harmless after all…" Maggie whispered, and Dororo came closer to them, losing his battle-ready look as he laid eyes on them and switching to pleasant and cheerful Dororo. "Ah, Fujuju-dono's Pekoponian friends! I heard you were visiting!"
"News travels fast," Oliver said, still shaking a bit.
"I… I was there in the living room with you, actually…." Dororo answered.
"Really? We didn't see you there…." Maggie said, and then watched as Dororo fell into his trauma mode before their eyes. "Did… Did I say something wrong?"
"Maybe we should just go," Oliver said, taking his sister by the shoulders and leading her out.
"They've got to be here somewhere… Maggie! Oliver!" Fujuju called out.
"Maybe Kii-chi's seen them, I saw her go back down here…" Tamama said aloud, and Fujuju continued to look anxious as they got off of the conveyer belt and went to search in a room.
"What do you think this place is?" Maggie asked and she kicked about at the gears stern on the floor, along with the numerous parts and pieces of machines littering the floor everywhere.
"Whoever it is, they have horrible taste in music," Oliver answered as he looked over the stack of CDs on the workbench table.
"Looks like they were working on something…" Maggie poked at the silver, soccer-ball sized ball, and yelped as it floated up and opened, seemingly coming to life and opening to reveal two white, Keroro-like eyes. It spun around them, studying them, and then gave a few odd clicking noises.
"Hehe, maybe it's friendly, too!" Oliver exclaimed. It answered with the fire of a laser, which missed him by inches and instead melted the metal sheet next to him.
It continued to fire, and the twins continued to dodge, until there came a yell of a young girl, and Kirere shouted out, "Kero-Bot, Stop!"
The ball then fell to the ground, as quiet as before, and Kirere lifted it back up, studying it, "Looks like some of it overheated…."
"We're… We're really sorry…." Maggie bent down, and Kirere looked up and smiled.
"It's okay, it's better it got caught now!" she answered cheerily, hopping up onto her stool and going to work with a small screwdriver.
"So… You're sure you're not upset…?" Maggie asked.
"No, it's fine! I'm just glad no one got shot this time!"
"T-This time?" Oliver yelped, and Maggie pulled him along to follow her out.
"…Where'd the bolts go….?" Kirere asked herself, stopping and reaching for one of the drawers. She felt for the handle a few times, missing each time, then looked down, horrified to see a hole going straight through the drawer. She then looked up and noticed that it was only one of many holes in her workshop, and her jaw fell.
Tamama and Fujuju both heard the scream and crying that followed, and rushed to Kirere's workshop.
"Kii-chi, what happened?!" Tamama asked, rushing to his adopted little sister.
"They… They…"
"Which way did they go?" Fujuju asked, and she pointed in the direction they had gone while still in hysterics.
"Thanks!" Tamama called, and shuddered as she answered with another long, loud cry.
"There you two are!" Fujuju sighed as he found the two in Kururu's lab, Kururu not looking his usual cool.
"I want them out or they're food for my next project," he instructed Tamama in an unusually abrupt tone.
"Hehe…. We seemed to cause more trouble than we thought we would," Oliver said apologetically.
"We'll take care of whatever we messed up, honest!" Maggie answered, and Fujuju went to speak, but was knocked off of his feet by a sudden shaking, as the rest in the room were.
"What's going on now?!" Tamama cried out.
"I'm not sure… But I don't think they're the source of it this time!" Fujuju returned.