Tamama Presents: Tamama's fear – de arimasu
The moment Dororo said it, Tamama was thrown into a state of shock. D-does he know about th-that –?! he thought, linking Dororo's response to what Bakaka had said all those years ago.
Dororo was tired of wasting time. He rushed at Tamama again, this time slamming him into the wall and holding him there with his legs, propelled by his wings.
"You stupid fool!" Dororo yelled, waving his katana above the horns on his head. "It was unwise of you to refuse my request. We could have been unstoppable! But instead you choose to help your friends? Friends who sent you here all by yourself to do their dirty work?! How stupid can you be?!"
Tamama stuttered, "B-but if I'd joined you, I would just be a mindless killing machine, des –"
Dororo elbowed Tamama again in the gut, crippling him from saying any more. "Being a mindless killing machine is better than being a pathetic, useless waste." He lifted his katana high in the air, tip pointing downward, gleaming in the low light reflected off the metal tubes. "This is the end."
Tamama's eyes widened in fear.
Once opening his eyes, Tamama saw the entire bathroom was in pieces. The adjacent stalls, the sinks, (urinals,) and the bathroom door had been completely blown from their places on the wall. He could see into the hallway.
Although he'd been the one to cause it, he didn't understand.
"Wh-wha... what... h-happened... des-ka...?" he ruminated in a shaky voice. He noticed Bakaka, lying on the ground, all but burnt to a crisp in front of the other bullies who had followed Tamama into the bathroom. Crouched or fallen back from whatever had just ravaged through the bathroom, they watched Tamama with terrified faces, frozen.
It was then Tamama realized that huge burst of light and all this destruction had come from him.
A teacher dashed to the bathroom behind those who remained on the floor, breathing hard. Her breath shortened even more when she saw the gaping hole with crumbling sides of the wall where the door should be. "Ch-children, what's going –?"
The remaining bullies bolted around the teacher and away from Tamama, screaming as they fled into the hall. The only two left were Bakaka – unconscious, on the ground, – and Tamama.
"W-wait, I didn't –" he tried to defend, but he could see there was nothing he could say that would dispel the truth of the scene.
"Tamama, come with me," the teacher said. "We're going to call your parents."
Tamama nodded slowly. "O... okay..."
"What were you thinking?!" Tamama's mother prodded the moment they returned home – after an extremely long and trivial meeting with the principal of his school and Bakaka's furious parents.
"I said I was sorry, desu..." Tamama murmured, not looking her in the eye.
"It doesn't matter that you're sorry!" she burst. "You put that kid in the hospital! His parents could have sued us for what you've done, and we still don't really know what that is!"
Tamama said out of the corner of his mouth, "The principal said it wasn't completely uncommon. Other tadpoles have developed powers like that too, desu."
"Your mother is right," said his father, going to stand behind his wife. He put a supportive hand on her shoulder, staring at Tamama sternly. "Why were you in the bathroom with all those other kids in the first place?"
Tamama avoided his father's question with a blatant pause. "That was the first time it happened... I was just as surprised as everyone else..."
"Well, learn to control it!" his father ordered, pointing a finger at Tamama as he walked past and into the kitchen.
"I don't know how, desu!" Tamama yelled at him.
"Tamama..."
He turned back toward his mother.
"What can we do to help you...? Do you know why that happened...?"
Of course he knew why; he'd been cornered and outnumbered, his food ruined, and his fear and rage had become too overwhelming and somehow turned into a weapon – a dangerous and destructive one.
"I don't know why it happened, desu," he lied.
Every day since then, Tamama became wearier of his strange and powerful new ability, as did everyone around him. Bakaka, and the others who had been in the bathroom when he'd blown it to bits, dared not touch him again. And word quickly spread around the school of what had happened, so the other kids steered clear of him too.
There was a number of kids who didn't believe what they heard – that Tamama had destroyed an entire bathroom – because Bakaka just didn't want to admit he'd been defeated by Tamama. These kids decided to disprove them by putting Tamama to the test – by acting the part of the bully to see for themselves. They received exactly the same response that Bakaka had, though. Everyone that tried to disprove Tamama's destructive power by putting him in a tight situation was given the same treatment.
Each time Tamama blew someone up, he always had hell to pay – from the school and the kids' parents. His own parents got less and less understanding each time and even suggested sending him somewhere he could learn to control himself – though there was no such place. (Closest thing to it was the Keron Army, and they refused to allow him to join the military at such a young age.) They never knew that the only time Tamama did it was when he was provoked.
Tamama's power became known around the school as a "Tamama Impact." And the name stuck with him. Soon enough, that's all Tamama would have to say to ward off anyone in the school who threatened him. The other kids even recognized he only used it when he had to, and felt less frightened of him. They stuck around him, knowing no bully would go against them when Tamama was around.
You might even say he gained some friends.
No one bothered to make remarks about Tamama's white face or tadpole tail anymore – they were too afraid. And Tamama soon forgot about his tail too...
He never stopped watching his late night TV shows. And he always kept an eye on the one who gave him the confidence to stand up to his bullies.
Because, without him, Tamama would have stayed that fragile child who was pushed around by everyone – even his own little brothers – forever.
And from Keroro's courage, displayed multiple times on TV, eventually... Tamama gained something even more powerful.
The katana in Dororo's hand gleamed above him as it was brought down, slicing clean through the air with a deft whoosh. In that moment, Tamama regained ahold of himself.
Just like back then with Bakaka, he was cornered. And alone. And afraid.
There was only one way out.
His eyes shrank into tiny dots, and he inhaled, just in time to prevent Dororo's stab to his heart. "TAMAMA IMPACTO!"
He had no room to err this time; Dororo was literally on top of him, pinned against him. At the last second, it seemed to dawn on him what Tamama had done, but it was too late.
Tamama's impact blew right into him, swallowing his entire body. It knocked him and his katana backward, off of Tamama, who was thrust even farther into the wall where Dororo had pinned him due to his impact.
Once all the negative energy had been expelled from Tamama's mouth and he landed on his feet on the ground, he scanned the area to find the singed Dragon Dororo. Feathery wings and scaly tail cradled crookedly around him, he was completely out; unconscious. Just as he should have been.
"Serves him right," Tamama grumbled, assessing the damage done to him as he brushed himself off. He'd been rushed multiple times by Dororo, every attack fierce and relentless, but somehow... he was all right. He had many, many cuts and bruises all over every inch of his body, but he considered it a miracle that Dororo's katana hadn't caught him once.
Tamama ambled slowly – and wobbly – up to the Kero Ball, a few feet away from Dororo the Keronian-slash-Dragon Warrior toast. He bent down and picked it up, then stared at Dororo, lying there burnt.
"I... I defeated him... des-ka?!" he questioned airily, with utter disbelief. He switched the Kero Ball off to one hand, resting his free hand on his hip. He smirked and glared down at Dororo with conceit. "Most powerful member, huh? Looks like you won't be flying again any time soon, desu."
Tamama continued the direction he'd been going before running into Dororo – toward an opening where, coincidentally, Tamama reestablished the path of goo left by the remaining Dragon Warriors.
Now, the only colors left of the goo were brash red and pungent yellow.
Oh yeah, that's what I was thinking of...
Dororo had been a tough one to beat. So much that Tamama had almost completely forgotten what he'd been doing or where he'd been heading before. He followed the goo into what was a more open area – and deeper still – in the base. How did I not get infected by Dororo if he made contact with me multiple times?! Tamama thought. It must not be infectious unless you actually touch the substance Kururu made...
I wonder what Gunsou-san and... that woman are doing... if they're still okay...
Tamama was worried about Keroro, but he didn't want to think about him while he was trapped in a room alone with Mois.
I hope he scratches her face off by accident, he thought, snickering to himself.
...And what about Fu-ki and Na-chi..?
Tamama could only assume that they stayed upstairs like he'd told them to. If they crept down into the base to try and help him... surely, they'd only make things worse. They could be infected and be working against him. Or worse: be taken as hostages. Or not be taken as hostages at all...
Tamama arrived in a huge hall-like space that was so long and dark that he couldn't see where it ended.
It was full of metal tubes again, but this time mainly of those that stretched from the ground up to the ceiling in large column clusters. The few spurts of light were small and only in the centers of a circle of tube clusters – not consistently, either.
Tamama took a few steps forward before noticing something unsettling about the goop trail he'd been following on the ground: the red trail, for Giroro, had disappeared. When he looked back toward the entrance of the area, he saw the red goop had at least entered, but then abruptly stopped. In a thick puddle at the entrance before ending, too. As though Giroro had hovered there for a good while to make sure he was rid of it.
That could only mean one thing.
I was unlucky enough to run into the Dororo Dragon Warrior, Tamama recounted. Now, the Giroro Dragon Warrior is somewhere close by...?!
He could only pray that he was wrong, and Giroro hadn't dwelled here once being rid of his trail of goo.
Tamama thought it best to leave the Kero Ball there at the entrance while he went through the dark and eerie forest of tubes. He slinked cautiously forward with his hands raised, legs positioned in a fighting stance, ready to take on anything that might jump out at him. There were so many shadows around all of the unlit and tall tubed columns; no one could blame him. Anything could be prowling there.
Tamama went down the entire hall of tube columns without any suspicious movements or signs of anything else being present. Only Kururu's yellow goo trail accompanied him the entire way.
He reached the end of the hall in less time than he'd thought – he hadn't been able to see it thanks to the lack of lighting. And when he got to the end, seeing the iridescent lights lining the next area – which was a series of hallways made purely of shiny, black tiles – he sighed in relief, the tension in his body dispelling as he stepped out of his martial arts fighting stance.
"Better go back and get the Kero Ball, desu," he said softly.
Tamama turned his back on the exit he'd just reached on the opposite side of the hall. So he didn't see the pair of slanted eyes that glinted red above the exit as they opened. The body of the eyes rotated to be square with Tamama's back, shifting the hold of its claws on the wall, and as it did, Tamama heard it skitter. He froze in mid-step, right where he was in the center of the hall of tubular columns; the tension he'd dispelled from his body returned immediately.
"Giroro... senpai...?"
A deep, throaty laugh echoed down the halls.
"What an embarrassing name you just called me. But I guess it's better than a pet name like 'Tama-chan'," stated a courtly voice.
Tamama turned around – very slowly – to face him. "Wh-why don't you come down into the light so I can see you, des-ka...?"
Giroro laughed again. "What kind of battle tactic is that? Letting my opponent steal the upper hand by going on level ground as him for some sort of gentlemanly, chivalric greeting? Ridiculous."
Tamama gulped. Another platoon member, driven mad by their own power, huh...? "So then... why do you want to fight me...?" Tamama asked.
"...Why do I want... to fight you...?"
For once, Tamama's assailant was thrown off by something he'd said, not the other way around. "Yeah. When I faced Dororo-san, he told me he allowed the concoction to take him over so he could gain power. Bragged that he was the 'most powerful' member. So what's your reason, des-ka...?"
Giroro's didn't say anything or move for a disturbingly long time. All during which, his glowing red eyes stared at Tamama. (Tamama could make out the rest of his body only very vaguely due to the darkness – he saw a tail, a pair of wings, and some horns, which meant he must look pretty similar to the Lance Corporal Dororo dragon.)
After that excruciatingly long time, Giroro answered, "I crave destruction of the enemy on the battlefield. All of them. Everything they have. Down to the very last one. And I wish to be as brutal in my methods as possible.
"I am the most destructive member."
Already Dragon Giroro has appeared! What kind of challenge will he put up for Tamama, hm~? (Btw, yes, Dragon Giroro is clinging to the wall like a spider who's about to pounce... heh.)
Thanks for reading! Hope I'm still keeping you guys on the edge of your seats! Comments are appreciated~!