Notice: This chapter contains graphic descriptions of torture and death. If you have a weak stomach for this kind of thing, you can go ahead and skip this one - it's mostly background, so you shouldn't be terribly lost on the plot.


Natsumi groaned as awareness slowly began to trickle back into her. Her vision swam, and when she tried to sit up a wave of dizziness forced her back down.

"Shhh, Natsumi." It was her mother's voice. "Just lay back down and rest."

"Is she awake?" Someone whispered nearby, and Natsumi opened her eyes to see who it was. All around her were the Keronian forms of her family and friends. Even the stupid frog was there, his face reflecting concern for her well-being. She bit her lip in an attempt to keep the tears from forming in her eyes, moved that everyone cared so much for her. Yet, in spite of the reunion that was taking place around her, an uneasy sensation was gnawing at the back of her mind. Something didn't feel right.

"What's… uhh… what happened?" She cast a glance over the faces around her, then gasped and bolted upright, causing an intense wave of nausea. "Where is… Giroro…?" She gulped, clutching painfully at her side.

"No, no, Master Natsumi," cried Keroro, looking alarmed, "you musn't sit up yet! You are still very weak, de arimasu!"

Natsumi reached out and caught his throat in a vice grip, leaning in so close that he could see the flames flickering dangerously behind her eyes. "Don't patronize me, you stupid frog! I'm not so weak that I can't clobber you!..." She stopped and winced as another spell of nausea hit her, then took a deep breath and continued. "I know he was out there earlier. What happened?"

Tamama's eyes grew dangerously wide at the sight of his Sergeant being throttled by Natsumi, but Dororo stepped in and stopped a potentially volatile situation. "He is here, Natsumi, and he is fine." He paused, his eyes flickering with worry. "At least… he is fine physically. When Moa brought the two of you in, he was being restrained by the Lucifer Spear –otherwise, I'm certain he would have already killed you both. He took out four Greaves on his own, one with his bare hands – something no creature should be able to do. I am afraid of him, yes, even despite the heavy restraints we have placed him in, but… I am also afraid for him." A tear shone at the corner of one of his large eyes; the ninja had been childhood friends with Keroro and Giroro, and while the former had often exploited and bullied him, Giroro had genuinely been a good friend. "Natsumi… I believe we may have lost him."

Natsumi sat in silence for a few moments, allowing the numbing trickle of denial to slowly wash over the stinging blow reality had just dealt. Finally, she stood and looked him in the eye with an expression chiseled in granite. "I don't believe that," she stated flatly, turning her gaze to Keroro, who looked away uncomfortably. "You know him better than that – he'll never give up fighting. Besides, I saw those… things too, and I didn't lose my mind! They can't be all that…" She stopped, unable to say the words. Deep down, she knew that they were that bad, yet at the same time she felt that something else must have been going on.

Dororo could tell what she was feeling. "Keroro," he said, turning, "I believe I should speak to Natsumi alone for a few moments."

Keroro knew what was coming, and his enthusiasm was almost excessive as he began parading people away. "Alright soldiers, wars don't win themselves! Step lively now, left right left right!..."

When no one else was left in their vicinity, Dororo turned to her with a melancholy, distant expression. At first she was afraid that he was in "trauma mode," but he finally addressed her in a sad, but stable, voice. "I didn't want the others to hear what I'm about to tell you, and I'm certain Keroro didn't want to be reminded of it. It's about an event that occurred many years ago, between the end of the Keron War and the formation of the platoon.

"Back then, there were only the three of us – Keroro, Giroro, and I. All three of us had been in the war; we were young, and the things we witnessed during this period of real combat left lasting scars both physical and mental. At the time, we thought there could be nothing more horrific than a body riddled with bullets or embedded with shrapnel. Giroro had it the worst, as he was on the frontlines of battle and witnessed firsthand many good soldiers and friends being killed before his eyes.

"But one day, we happened upon something that turned that notion completely upside down. It was a discovery that made a stir all over Keron – people still talk of it to this day, with mingling fear and fascination – but the three of us have never spoken of it since. It started so innocently: Keroro, being a somewhat rebellious teenager at the time, had rallied us into sneaking off in one of his father's ships for a cruise around the west end of the galaxy. I objected, of course, but Keroro always managed to get his way.

"In a dead area just outside the rim of our solar system, we noticed a Keron ship that wasn't moving and was seemingly without power. We knew that to be stranded in outer space was a certain death sentence, and we didn't hesitate to make contact with them. God! – if only we knew what we'd find on that vessel!

"The smell was the first thing we noticed – the heavy, fetid stench of blood and decay – and we knew immediately that we shouldn't have come. Yet we couldn't bring ourselves to turn and run; we were entranced by the horrors we imagined lay within that abandoned vessel. When we did find them, we wished it had been our imaginations, because our terrified notions were only fragments of the brutal reality.

"We saw firsthand that day what the Greaves do to their victims. Of the five members of the platoon that had manned that ship, only one was alive. The other four had been systematically butchered while they still lived – actually, now that I think of it, there were two alive on that ship, because one was still moving when we found him; Giroro shot him and ended his misery. Their hands and feet had been removed, and the flesh that remained on their limbs stripped away and eaten. Their bellies had been slashed open and their intestines carefully removed so they could be tied to those of their companions. Finally, after the victims had been forced to watch it all, their eyes were cut out and pieces of their skull removed for the Greaves to wear as trophies."

Natsumi broke eye contact with him momentarily, feeling sick once more. Dororo frowned apologetically. "Shall I stop?"

She paused, then shook her head. "What about the other one?"

"Ah… Second Lieutenant Kalili. After many years of faithful service, she was in line to be promoted to First Lieutenant upon returning from the mission that proved to be her last. When we found her, she was unscathed and fully conscious, but incoherent – she had been forced to watch as the Greaves mutilated her friends before her. We rushed her back to Keron; throughout the entire trip, she said not a word, nor did she even acknowledge our presence. Upon her return she was inspected and found to be in perfect physical health, but was admitted to the psychiatric ward for obvious reasons…"

He stopped, clearly not wanting to proceed. After taking a deep breath, he continued, "…they found her body three days later. She had mutilated herself in the same fashion that the Greaves had done to her companions. She'd removed her left hand and both feet, and cannibalized the flesh off of the limbs, then used the splintered bone fragments to slash at her belly and eyes. And the very worst part of it was… when they found her, her disfigured face was fixed in a smile of twisted satisfaction."

He finished with a sigh, then looked up at her. "You see, Natsumi, that is why we cannot win against this enemy. Even if we have every advantage against them in physical combat, they have already beaten us psychologically. Giroro forfeited his sanity when he thought of what would happen if the Greaves ever caught you, and even with my years of meditation I have not been able to banish the demons that spring up within me when I think of those damnable creatures."

Natsumi looked away for several moments in deep thought as she tried to process what she'd just been told. Finally she stood and faced the assassin, and when she spoke her voice was calm and certain.

"If Giroro has lost the fight for his sanity, then I'll continue to fight for him. Take me to him."