Here's another chapter. There are 21 chapters of this fic planned out. I'm almost half-way through. I am so happy.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Momoka's cries echoed throughout the room as she clutched Future Fuyuki's dead body. Future Kululu looked down upon her as if she was pitiful.
Future Keroro's mouth hung agape. "Wh-what... What did you do? Wh-why did you do that?" He couldn't process anything. I thought Fuyuki would be safe if I stayed by Kululu's side... That he'd kill no more of my friends! But... Fuyuki is dead... "I thought... you were helping them! I thought things were turning different! I thought you were going to be more friendly!" I thought that after she returned, you were going to put this murdering thing aside! I suppose I was wrong.
"Helping them? I made no promises not to kill anyone from our time," Future Kululu pointed out.
"Y-you told me... you wouldn't hurt Giroro or Fuyuki... when I came to work for you..." Future Keroro reminded Kululu of a promise he had given long ago. One that if Keroro gave his life to him, he would no longer exclusively target Keroro's friends.
"Ku. Suppose I broke that promise, then." Future Kululu dismissed it, Fuyuki's life not important to him.
"B-but... why? Wh-why would you... kill... Fuyuki?" Future Keroro's eyes were filled with tears. A softer side that Future Fuyuki had never seen throughout the years of Future Keroro's betrayal.
"He made a mistake. As soon as he targeted Mois, his fate was assured," Future Kululu replied.
"Th-thanks, I guess?" Mois looked rather confused at Kululu killing someone just for her. She supposed it was a little sweet. She looked at the clock, wondering if she should leave the room since the 10 minutes were ticking down.
Tamama would have said something and laughed, saying it was her fault that someone was dead, but for once... he realized now wasn't the time.
"Don't worry. I'm not going to let anything or anyone hurt you. Not ever," Future Kululu promised.
Kululu just face-palmed, one of the few people in the room not completely destroyed or effected by Fuyuki's dead body on the ground. Instead he was focusing on himself, or the other version of himself. Way to make it look like I have a creepy obsession, me! Kululu didn't like how his older self was acting.
"Th-thank you?" Mois said again, still very confused.
"Now, about you..." Future Kululu for once turned away from Mois when talking about her. Instead, his gaze pierced Kululu. "Why did you just stand there doing nothing? Why did you draw attention to her, putting her in danger?!"
Kululu put up his hands like he didn't understand why he was being interrogated. "She wasn't in any danger! Future Fuyuki made it quite clear that he was interested in you - well, us. I had no idea that Future Fuyuki would pull that, and even if I did, I'm not responsible for her. Mois can take care of herself. She would have been fine." Anyway... it's your fault she was targeted. Not mine. If you hadn't made it seem like you were obsessed with her... a thing I am trying very hard not to bring any attention to... then Fuyuki wouldn't have targeted her. He wasn't targeting anyone else from the past. He was trying to get to YOU! Not her. You were the problem, not me.
"She wouldn't have been fine! She might have been hurt. I would have expected younger me to at least do something - twitch, move, try to help at least even a little bit," said the older Kululu. "But you didn't do anything! If it had been just you and her here, she would have died."
"Help and me don't really go along together," said Kululu. "My job is to make a time machine, not make sure that nothing ever happens to Mois. I have more faith in her that she could have probably handled the situation herself, anyway."
He tried to keep a cool, calm and collected head. However, his thoughts drifted off to something else. Is... Is that what happened? Is that how she died? Because I didn't do anything? The way he's reacting seems to be more anger towards me instead of over-protectiveness. And anger towards me, sadly, means anger toward him. Ku. This is weird. Stop giving me a hard time!
"She had a gun pointed to her. She wouldn't have been fine," Future Kululu yelled.
"Kululu... Well, Future Kululu... There's no need to be mean to Kululu for my sake. He really didn't do anything..." Mois put in, trying to smooth things over.
"Exactly! He did nothing. I can't believe my younger self is so weak and pathetic. Why didn't you do anything? I know that you're at least somewhat intelligent. You had the power to at least try to regain Fuyuki's attention! Were you afraid what your platoon mates would think if you helped someone? Geez, that is the most pathetic fear I have ever heard of." Future Kululu shook his head, angry at Kululu.
I was not afraid! Kululu didn't say anything to defend himself, because he, in fact, had been trying to make sure that nobody associated his older self's obsession with him. So he just shrugged, trying to play it cool. He would do whatever it took to maintain his public image of above all this. "It doesn't matter that I didn't do anything. I mean, you handled the situation fine."
Momoka finally stopped crying for a moment to interrupt. "Fine? FINE? He killed Fuyuki! And if what he's saying is true, Fuyuki's death could have been avoided if you stepped up and helped out!"
"Hey! I had nothing to do with this!" he defended.
"You're him! He's you! Of course you had something to do with this!" Momoka glared, holding Future Fuyuki's dead hand.
"Ummm... does that mean I'm responsible for every single one of Future Me's decisions?" regular Fuyuki asked, worried that Future Kululu was going to shoot him.
"No. Trust me. Some of the decisions of your future self have nothing to do with you," Keroro told his friend, thinking back to the time his older self kissed Tamama. "I'm still trying to figure out my own agenda, for instance. I guess... your other self just sort of shot himself in the foot!" Keroro tried to make a light-hearted joke to lighten up the mood. It didn't work, and everybody just sort of glared at him.
"If it makes you feel any better, I would have killed Fuyuki regardless of whether my younger self helped Mois," Future Kululu told them. "As I said before, I'm not letting anybody hurt her."
Kululu covered his ears. Shut up! I don't need you to embarrass me! Kululu covered his ears.
Momoka cried again.
"2 minutes. You all have 2 minutes before I kill anybody left in this room," Future Kululu reminded them.
Mois was the first to try to leave from that reminder.
"Except you. I'm not going to kill you," he told her. "You can leave if you want, though."
I'm sure a dead body doesn't bother her that much. She's probably killed millions from her planetary destruction, after all, Kululu thought. Kind of cool, he added secretly to himself.
Mois decided to stay there, to make sure that everybody else made it out okay.
Future Natsumi was already way out the door with her son. She wasn't about to let Teri be near the dead body of her brother. She had high-tailed it out of there as soon as the shot had been fired.
Future Giroro felt more responsible for his younger self who was standing there rather shocked. He knew Natsumi couldn't be around to protect the younger Fuyuki, too, so he took it upon himself to evacuate them.
"Come on, guys. We'd better leave." He pulled at both their arms. Fuyuki reluctuntly left the room with him, still looking behind his shoulder to check up on everybody else.
"I suppose... this is our farewell, then." Future Koyuki smiled down at Dororo.
"For now it is. I'm sorry," Dororo told her. Koyuki gave him one last hug before she waved good-bye and jumped off to join Natsumi.
Dororo left the room, too.
"Cool Mr. Sergeant... I'm sorry, we have to leave." Tamama pulled Future Keroro away from Future Fuyuki's body. Future Keroro gave one last mourningful look to his friend before nodding.
"Thanks, Tamama." He gave Tamama a sweet hug, before letting Tamama lead him and the other Keroro out of the room, as if he was pulling around a Keroro harem.
The only two that were left were Kululu and Momoka.
"Three... two... one," Future Kululu finished.
"Ku ku ku. I doubt you're going to kill me, even if you do seem a little mad," Kululu remarked.
"Not today. I'm not going to kill you today," Future Kululu promised. "However, one brave soul hasn't left yet." He walked up to Future Fuyuki's body and picked up his gun.
"I-I'm not leaving him," Momoka sniffled.
"Momoka... maybe it's best if you do... just this one time," Mois begged.
"Don't tell me what to do! You don't know how hard life has been like in the past ten years! You didn't have to see! You were lucky, you were dead!" Momoka yelled, cradling Future Fuyuki's head in her lap. She stroked his hair, wishing he was alive once again.
"Lucky? Lucky she was dead?" Future Kululu pointed the gun at Momoka. "I suppose you have a death wish, too. Kuuuu, ku, ku, ku."
Momoka stood her ground by Fuyuki's side, and Future Kululu's finger pressed the trigger, shooting a clean bullet through her head. She fell to the ground next to her dead lover.
Fuyuki turned to look over his shoulder one last time to check the room that Future Kululu was in. He looked back just as Momoka fell to the ground, dead.
"MOMOKA!" he yelled, pulling away from Future Giroro to run to her as if to catch her before she hit the ground. Both Giroros grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back.
"There's nothing you can do now. It's too late," Future Giroro told him, "I'm sorry." It seemed to wreck Fuyuki's mind more to see a future version of Momoka die over a future version of himself die.
Giroro let Fuyuki drop to the ground and gave him a pat on the back as Fuyuki cried.
"Momoka..." Mois looked at the dead body of yet another person she knew.
"You weren't lucky. Not at all." Future Kululu put the gun down.
"We... We should be getting back to work," Kululu reminded him. Future Kululu instead went up to Mois, to make sure she was completely fine after the battle.
"Nothing got on you, right? No blood? You're fine?" He made her bend down to look at her face and make sure there wasn't a single scratch on it.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Mois told him. The future Kululu smiled.
Kululu felt kind of awkward watching his future self fuss over Angol Mois.
"So..." He coughed for a moment, making his presence known. "You sure you're fine? I mean... psychologically? You did just have a gun pointed at you... D-do you want some curry or someth-" Kululu for once tried to help, to make himself not an awkward third wheel to a future version of himself and his coworker. But Future Kululu cut him off.
"Be quiet. You made it quite clear that you wouldn't help her. You haven't earned the right to help her now." He narrowed his eyes, the spirals in his glasses narrowing to signify his distrust of his younger self.
"Ummm... Kululu was just trying to be a bit nice..." Mois didn't understand Kululu's hatred of himself.
"What he wants is to go back to work, I suppose. I must leave with him, I'm sorry, but it's for the best," Future Kululu apologized.
"That's fine," she told him. She let him leave with Kululu.
Hey... Wait a minute... He only decided to do work with me to prevent me from doing anything remotely nice or being near Mois, Kululu realized. He didn't really know what to think about that.
He liked that they were getting back to work, but he disliked the fact that his future self seemed almost a bit possessive.
He really didn't know what to think.
Tamama tried to comfort both Keroros, unaware that Momoka had just been shot. Future Keroro seemed the exact opposite of Keroro, down in the dumps and sad, while Keroro seemed to be making jokes to lighten up the mood and keep himself in denial of the fact that he had just witnessed a Fuyuki dying.
"Mr. Sergeants? It's all right... there's still a Fuyuki alive," He tried to tell them. They both didn't listen.
He finally just wrapped an arm around both of them, which seemed to shut them both up.
I'll keep you happy, Mr. Sergeants. Don't worry... everything will be fine.
"Hey... me?" Giroro pat Fuyuki's back, wondering how he could get Fuyuki distracted from the deaths he had just witnessed. Fuyuki had never seen anyone die in front of him before.
"Yeah?" Future Giroro asked.
"I've been meaning to ask... What the hell happened to Kululu? I mean... our Kululu is dislikable and wicked, a complete jerk, but... I doubt he'd kill Fuyuki and Momoka. What happened... to Kululu to make the future like this?" He asked the question that had been second most important thing on his mind, the first most being about how life with Natsumi was like.
"Hmmm... I was wondering when one of you would ask this question. You probably want me to tell Fuyuki to... distract him, I'm guessing?" he asked.
"Yeah. That was my plan, too," Giroro admitted.
"I'll tell you, then... but not here. It wouldn't be good if Kululu picked up on his security cameras how we're talking about his old life... reminding him. I'll tell you if you meet me outside of here, outside of the base," Future Giroro told him.
"Where?" Giroro asked.
"Meet me at Natsumi's old school. Her homeroom classroom. Bring Fuyuki, but come alone besides that. I'm not having story time for the rest of them," he ordered.
Giroro nodded as Future Giroro ran off, to wait at the promised place.
"We have to go, Fuyuki. It'll be fine," Giroro told him. Fuyuki tried to stop the tears from coming.
Eventually, he started to take deep breaths. In five minutes he was ready to go, to learn more about the world and why he and Momoka had to die.
They set off.
"Glad you made it," Future Giroro told them, sitting on a broken desk.
"Tell us. What happened to Kululu? Why did things end up the way they did?" Fuyuki asked.
Future Giroro opened his mouth and began to speak.