A Collision of Heaven and Earth

Episode 04: A Fallen Star

During my time in California, there were a few passing moments where I wondered if Angol Mois ever actually intended on following through with her destruction of Earth. I worried that someday she would finally snap, and none of us would be there to convince her out of it. However, time passed, and the fear slipped into the back of my mind; Mois vanished after the frogs left and did nothing to disturb the planet.

But here she was now, flesh and blood. Mois, as expected of an incredibly long-lived being, looked exactly the same age, though her hair had grown past her shoulders and swept around her young face in voluminous, windswept waves. She gripped her Lucifer Spear tightly and surveyed the room with one steady slow-turning look.

"Where is he?" She demanded, clicking the end of her spear against the tiled floor.

"Lady Mois," Keroro pushed through the crowd. "Are you looking for me?"

Mois whirled to look at him with widening eyes. She spent a good few breathless minutes observing him, recognizing his human body. Then, her shoulders sagged and she relaxed.

"I was so scared," Mois pressed one hand to her face, covering her eyes. "I thought you were dead."

A few of us, myself included, came up to gently escort her away from the crowd of people, away from prying eyes. There were a lot of people in the ballroom unaware of our past with her – Momoka's hired hands, the injured ambassadors, a few friends Fuyuki had called in for a favor on the promise they'd meet real Keronians.

The lanky blonde man beside me spoke suddenly – "Take her to my office." I recognized his voice and looked up at his bespectacled face, and he flashed me a sly, toothy smirk. Kululu. He opened the door outside to the veranda, but took us to a small, dark room at the end of it. Flicking on the lights, he revealed it was an office lined with whirring machines and computer monitors. The mahogany desk was littered with assorted metal trinkets and mechanical objects. I pulled up a wheeled computer chair and gestured for Mois to sit.

Keroro crouched in front of her. "Mois, where have you been? When we went back to Keron, we heard you were in exile."

Exile?

Angol Mois pursed her lips and looked away. I realized, up close, that she looked tired – she clearly hadn't been eating much and she had dark circles under her eyes. The pure, glowing naivety had gone out of her face. Fear bloomed deep in me. Mois was arguably the most powerful being I had ever met, and even her health and happiness had degraded since those old days in my adolescence.

"I was supposed to be in exile, but my father the king pardoned me," She explained, fists tight in her lap. "To appease the masses, he kept me locked in my quarters with only my favorite handmaiden. I have been alone."

"How did you get out?"

Mois swallowed. "My handmaiden has been gracious to me. I was not supposed to hear news of the outside world, but she told me all about Keronian relations with the Pekoponians. A few days ago, when I heard about the attack, she... helped me escape. She will probably be executed."

With that last bit, Mois closed her eyes, and one lone tear escaped down her cheek. My heart ached for her. I'd had no idea.

"Mois," I began, stepping to her and touching her hand, "Were you imprisoned because you refused to destroy this planet?"

"Yes. I am the prophesied Heretic. I have disturbed the Order." She wiped her face with her wrist and continued, "In the religion of the Angols, we have a prophet who declares the order in which the planets must be destroyed. If I don't destroy Pekopon, the universe will be left to atrophy, and all life will eventually run out of resources and die off."

I stared. It had never occurred to me as a young girl, but I suddenly realized Mois and the Angols were part of something much larger than I could even wrap my mind around.

"Guys."

Giroro walked into the office, shutting the door behind him. The night before, I'd mistaken his hair for black, but now I could see it was a very dark wine-red color. It looked as if he'd gotten it cut into a short cropped haircut several months ago, and was just now starting to grow out and hang in his face. He pushed his hair out of his eyes.

"I hate to interrupt the tearful reunion," he continued, "But Momoka is in the ballroom trying to organize everyone, and the Keronian ambassadors are freaking out about there being an Angol here."

"Um... Mois, stay here with Kululu," Keroro instructed.

"Tch. Why do I have to watch her?"

"It's your office!"

I stood up and turned, but in the small, crowded space ended up running into Giroro. He was dressed more conservatively in a military-style jacket today, thankfully, or else my face would have planted right into his chest. I still wasn't used to how hugely tall he was. Intimidated, I shyly lifted my head to glance up at him just as he looked down at me. Maybe he noticed that I stared at him for a millisecond too long, because it was just long enough to make it awkward before I turned away. I excused myself and escaped into the hallway.

I certainly wasn't in any shape to be planning anything. The only thought that kept scrolling through my head was "WHAT THE HELL" in big, blocky letters, like the custom airplane banners.

Koyuki was walking down the corridor with Dororo, looking for us. "Natsumi, there you are. What's going on with – whoa, what's with you?"

I realized my concern and confusion had arranged my face into some kind of upset scowl, and I willed myself to relax.

"I... I'll talk to you about it later," I replied, flashing back to my brief, weird admiration of Giroro's strong jawline and smoky-dark eyes. Rubbing my face, I sighed and continued, "They're trying to figure out what's up with Mois, but I know for a fact she's not here to hurt us or our planet."

"Oh, good," Koyuki breathed in relief.

The others joined us, and we began walking back to the meeting. I think Giroro sensed something was off because he said nothing to me, even though he walked right beside me. To myself, I silently hoped I would get used to his human form. There was no reason for me to be acting like a preteen with a crush; this was the grumpy alien who pitched a tent in my backyard because he was too proud to sleep in a "Pekoponian" household. The whole situation was just really bizarre.

The meeting was a blur for me. My mind was preoccupied with Angol Mois's tidbit about her home life. Maybe I should have been more worried about Slater and the Messengers, but at that point in time, that whole thing seemed distant and unreal. I knew Giroro. I knew Mois. Those two issues seemed a lot more important and central to my life than Momoka's war.

I remember that she had some of her bodyguards (where did she get those people?) track down a number of Messenger towns – entire ghost towns that had been taken over by the Messengers. Government officials and authorities didn't seem to bother these towns, which lead Momoka to believe they had been "bought" under the table with bribe money. What we needed to do was manage to get our hands on a Messenger and drag them back here, where Kululu would interrogate them until we got information on their leader and where to find said leader.

"It's the only way to confirm Slater is the ringmaster," she concluded.

Momoka seemed pretty headstrong and confident now. I recalled her being such a shy young girl – when she wasn't freaking out about Fuyuki, of course. I realized I didn't even know what, if anything, had happened with her crush on my brother. It made me sad that I didn't even know that about my own sibling. Maybe I'd ask him later.

After the meeting, I stopped by Kululu's office. He was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room from Mois, visibly disgruntled. However, Mois seemed lost in thought, resting her elbows on the desktop and supporting her chin with her hands. She brightened when she saw me.

"Natsumi," she greeted.

To Kululu's dismay, I pushed aside some sketchy concepts on paper and sat on top of the desk in front of Mois, crossing my legs. "I need you to tell me more about what's going on with your home world. I know nothing about Angol."

"Well..." Mois frowned. I guess she was thinking about whether she should tell me or not; Angol business seemed to be pretty serious, confidential stuff. "First of all, the universe goes in cycles. It is born and then it dies. The prophet is the last Angol from the last cycle, who destroyed the final planet and initiated the creation of this universe."

I stared at her. This was, already, way over my head. Mois was talking about things on such a massive, unfathomable scale.

"When the new cycle begins, the prophet supposedly receives a vision, detailing in which order the planets must be destroyed. We cannot veer from this order. As long as I allow Pekopon to exist, none of the other Angols can carry out their assignments."

"But what's the big deal? You said something about... resources and atrophy," I urged her on.

She sighed. "If we do not destroy the planets, the universe will be unable to recreate itself. All stars will burn out, all life will die off. Prophecy says there will be a cycle in which a Heretic refuses to destroy their planet, and as the universe's resources deplete, all civilizations in that universe will go to war and fight one another over the remaining resources."

"And you're the Heretic," I said.

"That's what everyone seems to think, and that's how it seems to be so far," Mois agreed, sadly.

"Not that I want you to destroy Earth, but why are you holding out on this?"

Angol Mois looked up and met my eyes. I'd never seen her look so serious about anything, ever. "Keroro loves this planet. I'd even say he likes it better here than on Keron. He has found his passion, and I plan to support him. I've decided for myself that love trumps duty."

I wished I could be as steadfast and self-assured all the time as Mois was at that moment. But another thought lingered beneath that one – we had a planet-destroyer on our side. Suddenly that war didn't seem as hopeless as I'd thought.

–

That night I joined Giroro by the fire again, which was as quiet and uneventful as it used to be when I was a kid (though after that day's events, I needed a bit of "uneventful"). I came back into the house late at night, smelling like wood and ash, and wandered upstairs to my bedroom. In order to reach my room, however, I had to pass Koyuki's, and she opened her door as I walk by.

"Natsumi."

"Hm?"

Instead of answering my inquisitive "hm," she waved for me to come inside.

"I've been wanting to have girl-talk with you like the old days," she declared, throwing herself on her bed. "And I've been going wiiiiild wondering what you were gonna tell me earlier."

My shoulders sagged. I'd just spent the past hour or two trying not to stare at the shadows and fire-light flickering off Giroro's face. I didn't want to think about it anymore.

"I'm having a hard time adjusting to the frogs being human," I half-lied. "It's like having a bunch of random strangers act buddy-buddy with me. I just feel bad."

"Oh, is that all? Yeah, I got used to it. Don't worry." Koyuki hugged her pillow. "I guess that's why you didn't want to say it around Dororo? He isn't bothered by that stuff anyway."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. Actually, he seems happy as long as he's with friends who appreciate him. That's why he's thinking about staying."

I gave Koyuki a confused look. "Staying?"

"He's thinking about staying behind to help out with my dojo," she explained. "He never fit in on Keron and now that they have the technology to give him a human body he kind of just wants to stay here. That'd be really nice. I missed him."

I imagined moving back to Japan and going into the mountains for the weekend to hang out with Koyuki and Dororo. For the first time in a long time, I felt excited about something in the far future. I had plans.

"That sounds great," I said, and I meant it.

Author's Note: The point of this chapter is that Mois's life sucks right now. Also, Angol mythology and society are things that exist. How does this play into the overarching plotline? Hmm... Maybe you'll find out. P.S. I've posted a link to my current writing playlist in my profile in case you guys want a sort of "soundtrack" to this fic. A word of warning, though - I have songs on there that served as background music for future chapters that I've written but have not posted yet. So, spoilers? Kind of, maybe?