Notes: There are some grammar mistakes and random broken sentence fragments I always end up missing while revising the text…
Thinking about this chapter now, I easily could have separated it in 3 different chapters, taking place in the same day from different points of view… However, what's done is done, and it'll stay like this. Excuse me for the longest chapter yet.
CHAPTER 9
Classes were almost starting, and many students of Kishou School were going to their rooms. Fuyuki stood by the front gate while other students passed by, sometimes stopping to say a quick "hi" to him before continuing. Keroro was standing right beside him, standing out from the crowd, considering how she was the only one not wearing an uniform there, but just plain green pants and a white jacket.
A few students glanced at the pair curiously while passing by, wondering about the unknown girl next to Fuyuki, but no one stopped to talk to him, although a girl with straight bangs and glass lenses hiding her eyes silently observed them from afar, hiding behind a tree and writing notes in a small diary.
After waiting a few minutes, Fuyuki saw Momoka and Tamama walking among the crowd and waved to them, who quickly head towards him. "Hey, Tamama!"
"Hi, Fu-fu…" Momoka started to reply, but quickly froze when she realized who he had mentioned. Fuyuki hadn't said her name… he had said Tamama's. She briefly glanced at Tamama, who replied enthusiastically in her usual childish way.
"Hi, Fukki!"
Momoka glared at the one walking alongside her. "Fukki?!" Her inner self screamed in her thoughts.
"Calm down!" Momoka told herself., "Tamama always called Fuyuki like that! There's nothing weird about it!"
"Keroro became a human girl 15 days ago, and Fuyuki is already more interested in her than in you! Are you going to let it happen again?!" Inner Momoka complained.
"Nothing will happen this time!" The usually unconfident Momoka replied decisively. "Besides, randomly screaming or attacking someone wouldn't help anything." Nihizawa sighed. After a quick grunt, she couldn't hear the second voice inside her head afterwards.
While approaching Fuyuki, Tamama noticed another person who was standing right beside him, looking rather annoyed. "Sergeant?"
"Eh… Hi, private second class Tamama!" The green haired girl spoke hesitantly, although her eyes were fixated on her subordinate.
"And that stupid alien is there!" Inner Momoka muttered angrily, visibly frowning, after noticing that the person next to Fuyuki was Keroro.
"Eh… I just wanted to say… Gero…" Keroro sighed, her dark eyes facing Tamama's own. "I'm sorry for running away yesterday…"
"Tama?" The younger girl was confused for a second, but soon laughed cheerfully, "There's no way I'd stay angry at you, Sergeant!"
"Really?"
"Of course!" Tamama latched onto the sergeant's arm. Keroro was surprised for a moment, but quickly smiled. Well, at least, one problem had ended.
"Eh… we're already going to class, so…" Momoka tried to hurry them up, hoping Keroro would just disappear from there.
"Gero? Roger! Don't worry about it. Eh…. Private second class Tamama?" Keroro looked at Tamama, who released her, showing some disappointment in her eyes but without complaining loudly.
"Good luck!" The Sergeant saluted the three students and left afterwards, quickly disappearing among the crowd, while Fuyuki and the others started heading to class.
/KeroGirls – 09: Fuyuki, cosmic turnabout! Yes, sir!/
The new expanded occult club, with twice as many members as just a month before, though that still meant only 4 members, was beginning its first real meeting after Tamama and Lulu joined.
Actually, Lulu wasn't there. After waiting several minutes for her, Fuyuki decided to start the meeting anyway. He sit behind the front desk facing Momoka and Tamama, who were in students' chairs. Fuyuki started talking about unknown animals, once in a while asking for the two girl's opinions. Nishizawa looked intently, forcing herself to give attention to Fuyuki even if the subject often wasn't very interesting.
Tamama started the meeting with genuine enthusiasm, but soon was often looking at a window outside, thinking idly. She had recovered her room and sweets, but still was forced to attend that boring Pekoponian school, even when she didn't feel like doing it.
"… even so, after accepting the authenticity of this picture, it just opens more questions. Like, what kind of creature is this? A fish? An amphibian? Some lost evolution branch completely unconnected to known species? I get excited just thinking about the possibilities!"
"I don't even know about every species from the planet… why would a new one be interesting…" Tamama yawned, just to get scolded by Nishizawa, who was sitting beside her.
"Don't say stupid things!" Momoka stepped on Tamama's shoe while glaring at her.
Fuyuki closed the book he was reading, feeling embarrassed "I suppose an unknown Earth animal isn't very interesting for someone who isn't even from this planet, but…" He turned around, opening a drawer just to pull up another thick book. "What about ghosts then? That should be interesting, even for an alien."
At that moment, the door was forcefully pushed open, quickly hitting the wall. Everyone curiously looked at the entrance just to see a smiling Lulu standing there, her glasses almost falling from her face while she waved one arm around. "Aloha!"
"Ah…hi, Tsukishima."
The frantic girl quickly ran through the room, dropping several pictures in front of Fuyuki. "Hey, president, what do you think, doesn't this look interesting?!"
The boy looked at those pictures. They were mostly of what looked like an old abandoned mansion, in ruins, rotten wood and rusted metal columns falling everywhere. However, several areas of those pictures seemed to lack focus, showing random blurs. Looking closely at their pattern, there seemed to be a wall surrounding the mansion somehow.
"See, if you look at them closely…" Lulu took two pictures from the table, proceeding to almost slap them on Fuyuki's face. "It seems there's a phantom building there! Isn't it cool?! Let's go there!" She exclaimed, smiling like always.
"Wow!" Fuyuki nodded happily. "It seems interesting! Nishizawa, Tama- er, I mean Nankyoku! What about going there tomorrow?"
"It seems nice, Fuyuki!" Momoka said, but her voice didn't even reach, Fuyuki's ears. Immediately after he mentioned "tomorrow", Lulu grabbed his hands.
"Tomorrow?! Let's go right now!" She exclaimed excitedly, pulling Fuyuki halfway through the desk.
"Take your hands off him!" Momoka yelled, standing up and grabbing the crazy girl's green blazer, forcefully pulling her off Fuyuki.
"It seems a bit sudden, but, why not, Nishizawa?" Fuyuki wondered, looking at Momoka, who was still grabbing Lulu. Momoka's face suddenly changed from anger to a bright smile as she looked at Fuyuki, even though she kept holding the other girl, just as quickly, it the happiness turned into disappointment.
"I'm sorry, Fuyuki, but I can't go."
"Momochi's mother said we'd have a training session this afternoon." Tamama explained, looking worriedly at Momoka, who just glared angrily at her.
"And this is all your fault!" Momoka yelled, still grappling with the crazy transfer student.
"I'm sorry, Tsukishima." Fuyuki said, after understanding the situation, "ButIthink it'd be better to leave this for tomorrow."
"Humph. That's no fun…" The girl's smile vanish for a moment, as she slowly whimpered towards the door.
"Did she give up that easily…?" Momoka blinked, looking at former energetic girl slowly leaving the clubroom.
"Hey, Momochi, Fukki, I'm already going, ok?" Tamama said as she head towards the exit.
Soon, only Fuyuki and Momoka remained in the room. "It's weird." Fuyuki said, laughing. "Usually we could hold a meeting just fine, the two of us, but now it feels like we're finishing already."
"Fuyuki…" Momoka looked at the boy, but hesitated, blushing as she looked away from him. "Hm… I'm leaving…"
"Is there some problem?" The youngest Hinata approached her, genuinely oblivious to her true feeling, but noticing her discomfort.
"Nothing! Nothing! I'm leaving!" Momoka quickly excused herself and left too.
"This is it, I guess…" Fuyuki sighed, looking silently at the door Nishizawa had left open. He was excited about the new members, but couldn't even do a full meeting with them.
Lulu suddenly burst through the doorway, grabbing Fuyuki's arm while smiling excitedly. "Fuyuki! Come on! You want to go!"
"Eh, wa-wait!" The young Hinata could barely react before he was dragged through the school's corridors by the hyperactive girl.
"LET'S GO!"
/-
It was already near sunset, the sky already had a slightly darker tint, though one would have difficulties actually noticing it. A group of 3 schoolgirls walked across a busy street, two of them pulling along the third one across the road.
"Cheer up, Doro!" a spunky student said, while she pulled Dororo by grabbing her hand. "You always disappear right after leaving school! Can't you just stay with us for once?" Unlike the other two, she kept her blazer open, revealing the white t-shirt underneath. She was also by far the loudest one there.
"Satsuki is right!" Yayoi cheered for her friend. Although her appearance and mannerisms greatly differed from Satsuki's, showing more refrained gestures and more refined looks, her actual attitude was rather close to her friends, and the two always seemed to agree about everything. In that particular day, they had decided to hang around Doro for once, after school, and were determined to stop her from trying to disappear to who knows where after helping the clubs.
Natsumi and Koyuki accompanied them from a distance. When Dororo glanced at the redhead, she just nodded negatively, "I… I don't have anything to do with this." she tried to say. The younger ninja just watched the scene, constantly smiling. Truthfully, Dororo wasn't sure or particularly enthusiastic about that idea, but finally decided to go along with it after noticing Koyuki's expression.
"Understood, La, eh… Shiwazu, I'm sorry to cause so much trouble." Dororo forced herself to smile for a second, a reaction which seemed enough to stop the other girl.
"Just Satsuki is enough! Haven't I said it already?"
"And call me Yayoi!" The long haired one talked right after her friend, smiling, but still keeping her ever present airy expression.
"I'm sorry, Satsuki, Yayoi." Dororo replied, genuinely smiling that time. Natsumi and Koyuki quickly joined the group after the situation improved, and they continued walking throughout the streets. Everything seemed to be going along just fine…
Yet, that warm feeling that Dororo had just started to feel disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. A chilling wind suddenly blew around her. She could feel it again. There was someone observing her with a cold gaze that pierced and scanned her completely.
She stopped walking and looked around the crowd. Everyone seemed to walk around normally, only giving a few curious or occasional glances to the group. Yet, she could still feel that freezing gaze. She took another step forward, and stumbled on something.
The blue haired girl took a few steps backwards. Suddenly, she could see the source of that sensation. There was a lone boy standing there, in the middle of the street, glaring coldly at her with exotic black eyes – his iris was red, but the area around it was black. In addition, he sported short and messy gray hair that seemed terribly out of place in someone with facial features that seemed only a little older than the ones of Dororo's current body.
His clothes also immediately stood out from the crowd. A gray coat with a 3 pointed red ninja star on the left side of his chest, similarly colored pants and black combat boots. In spite of that odd appearance, the crowd seemed to just ignore him, unconsciously avoid the bizarre figure, acting like they couldn't even see him. Dororo herself only had notice him after actually touching him once.
"Have I seen him before?" Dororo's blue eyes observed the figure again, trying to avoid his chilling gaze, but she just couldn't remember any Pekoponian like that, not even in her memories of the old ninja village.
"Dororo, are you seeing something?" Koyuki wondered, poking her friend's forehead with a finger.
"Do…?" The blue haired girl's attention was taken by Koyuki for just a moment, but, when she looked at where the boy was supposed to be standing, she couldn't see him anymore. The chilling sensation had vanished too.
"I was just dizzy. Don't worry about it, lady Koyuki." Dororo smiled, trying to avoid worrying her friend. Whoever that was, he seemed to be awfully hard to track in a crowd. Dororo went along with Natsumi's friends afterwards, quickly leaving that incident behind her.
/
Several hours after getting that guilt out of her head, Keroro returned to the Hinata's, carrying several boxes inside plastic bags. Giroro was waiting for her right behind the front gate, looking gruff like always.
Keroro was happily humming a Keronian tune and just walked past the corporal, completely unaware of her glare.
"Hey, Keroro! What were you doing?!" The redhead yelled, crossing her arms while looking at her supposed leader.
"Gero? I was buying some games and Gunpla…" Keroro sighed, turning around to face Giroro. "Here comes an angry rant about wasting money, isn't it?"
"We haven't been in contact with the HQ ever since we ended up like this." Giroro said, staring inquisitively at Keroro.
"Huh…Roger."
"Then… we won't be able to receive any money while we stay like this, isn't that so?" Giroro asked, still staring at the sergeant.
Keroro's skin became pale, and she dropping the bags she held on the floor, her eyes finally opening in realization. "Tha-That's… true…"
"THEN WHY ARE YOU WASTING MONEY WITH THAT TRASH?!" The redhead finally exploded, lashing out on her irresponsible leader.
"THESE ARE NOT TRASH!"
"THEY ARE!
The two soldiers looked continuously at each other, completely failing to notice a third person there.
"Is Keroro here?"
"Don't you have eyes?!" Keroro said, blindly snapping at the one who had just interrupted her. She blinked when, turning around, failed to see anyone next to them. "Gero?" Her eyes quickly focused downwards, on a small figure, a Keronian, was at the entrance too, calmly looking at them.
It was an older female Keronian, the white area of her face having shrunk to below her mouth, and there were no a tadpole tail. Her skin was green, slightly lighted than Keroro's, and, rather than a helmet, like most Keronians, she had a black afro, similar to the one that Keroro often sported. She didn't have a symbol on her belly, but wore a pink apron with a red star in the middle. She carried a purple plastic bag with her, several small boxes obviously inside it.
"Gero?!" The green haired girl looked with surprise at that Keronian, staggering for a few seconds. "M-MOM?!"
"Yes, I'm Keroro's mother."
"No, no! I mean…" Keroro cooled off quickly after noticing her mother hadn't really caught on anything, a large grin quickly spreading around her face. "Anyway, come in, come in! Master Keroro will meet you soon!" The green haired girl said, opening the front door to the Keronian woman.
"Thank you. I hope he hasn't caused much trouble here." The mother smiled while entering, she briefly glance at the weird Pekoponian, but continued walking, apparently without any further thought about it.
"What are you doing Keroro?!" Giroro whispered on her leader's ear, completely confused about her actions.
"Don't you see, Giroro? This is perfect! Gero, Gero!" The sergeant smiled confidently and whispered to Giroro. "I'll activate my Copy Robot. We'll make up some story about the communication equipment breaking down, and we'll say that we're my servants! I mean… servants of the copy robot who is supposed to be myself… do you follow these orders?"
"Ye-yes." Giroro nodded apprehensively.
"Good. Stay in the living room with her while I go down the basement to activate it." Keroro grinned. "This is perfect. Not only we'll recover contact with Keron, using the copy robot, we'll probably receive some bonuses for actually having something to report about the invasion!" Unable to contain her confidence, she started laughing loudly, "Gero! Gero! Gero! Gero!"
"It's a good idea… But do you want to undermine this operation before it even starts?!" Giroro complained while crossing the doorway, walking towards Keroro's mother, who stood at the end of the corridor, next to the living room's door.
/-
Tsukishima had dragged Fuyuki out of school and through various blocks, only stopping when reaching the place she had mentioned earlier. Fuyuki was sweating and panting, staggering and barely keeping himself from falling when Lulu released his arm. He sit on the street and breathed heavily, trying to gather some energy.
"Have we arrived?" He asked, without even raising his head.
"Of course!"
After resting for a minute, Fuyuki finally face forward. He was sitting in front of the building that Lulu meant to show. Unlike Lulu's camera, his vision could easily pierce through the illusion that surrounded it. That ruined mansion was merely a translucent image, covering up solid and well conserved metallic walls. It wasn't a haunted building, it was some hideout covered by an Anti-Barrier, an aura of normality that surrounded the building, making everyone unaware of aliens unable to see its true form.
"Is that something built by the sergeant?" Fuyuki silently wondered. There were other aliens on Earth, however, the Keroro platoon seemed to be one of the few actually courageous enough to build such huge structures in the middle of the city. The Anti-Barrier was hardly a perfect protection, after all. However, there weren't star emblems or Keronian letters anywhere, just plain gray metallic walls. Fuyuki looked at the wall, from one extremity to the other, but couldn't even locate a door, window or any kind of entrance. There could still one in the other sides, but whoever built that clearly didn't want visitors.
"Hey, Fuyuki, let's go in!" Lulu excitedly pointed at the wall and started running towards it.
"Stop, Tsukishima, you'll just run into-!" Fuyuki's voice was cut midway through his worried yell as he noticed as section of the wall opening, disappearing into the floor, as the girl approached it.
"Come, Fuyuki! Don't you want to see the haunted mansion?!" She waived to Fuyuki
Fuyuki looked suspiciously at the weird girl inside the building. Could she see through the anti-barrier? Had the wall automatically opened because she approached it or had she unlocked it somehow? If she had unlocked it, how? The boy slowly followed her, cautiously observing the hidden doorway. There didn't seem to be any visible systems, only a plain solid wall with metallic tiles. A small fly was nearby, its legs fixed on the wall, and its head facing Fuyuki. He briefly looked at the curious insect, but quickly dismissed that line of thought and quickened his steps after noticing he couldn't see Lulu anymore.
He quickly ran through the entrance, just to stop almost as quickly. From outside, he could only see darkness inside that building… However, as soon as he put a foot inside, the darkness vanished. Rather than just pitch black, he could see a starry night sky in front of him, above him, below him… everywhere. Moving by pure inertia, he continued entering in the surreal location. However, soon he stopped, hurriedly facing the exit. Rather than a way to the streets, he just found a metallic barrier about as tall as the wall that he had seen previously.
"What this?!" A sudden vertigo took over the boy, as he thought he was standing on nothing, about to fall into an infinite sky. However… nothing happened, he was still there. Slowly, he could notice a slight irregularity in the light next to his feet. He wasn't standing in the air, but in a translucent platform with a small blue tint. Looking around, he noticed similar platforms everywhere, even though previously he could see only a night sky, creating stairways in multiple directions and formats, below and above him, sometimes crossing one with the other.
Fuyuki crouched and moved his hand past the platform, trying to reach below it. Like expected, his hand could move freely. That also mean that someone could easily fall from that place… had Tsukishima fallen into that seemingly endless sky? "Maybe, but I hope not…" Fuyuki thought. Trying to forget that possibility, he quickly let himself become lost in that surreal space.
"I suppose this is similar to that one time the Sergeant rebuilt our home. This space can be infinitely bigger than the exterior of this building. This night sky, probably, isn't just an illusion. The stairways extend themselves until I can't make them out anymore… what kind of alien lives in a place like this?"
The inquisitive teenager slowly descended through the mysterious stairways. After going up and down through several stairs, he was drained, panting on a large translucent tile while resting. He still hadn't found Lulu, nor any kind of exit. How much time he'd stay there?
/
The middle-aged Keronian admired the Hinata's living room, walking around it "So, Keroro is living here? This place is certainly lovely. It doesn't even feel very different from how things are back home."
"It's not a bad place... certainly…" Giroro sighed, but soon was she was facing away from Keroro's mother, staring at the floor, "that's another reason for our invasion… not to lazily waste days here."
The door to the main hallway suddenly opened, Mois and Keroro, holding green flags with a yellow star in the center, suddenly appeared.
"Here comes the leader of Keronian's invasion forces!" Mois said, waving her flag.
"The strongest! The most fearful! The most handsome! The best invader!" The green haired girl announced, "The great Sergeant Keroro!"
"Will this really work?" Giroro briefly asked herself before the diminutive green figure appeared between the two girls.
"Keroro?" The older woman ran to the apparent, Keronian, holding his hands.
"It's me, Sergeant Keroro!" The copy robot responded with a slightly paused tone. His looks were almost identical to Keroro's Keronian body, but his eyes were slanted and oval and he had pointy feet… the differences should be enough to show that there was something wrong, yet, everyone seemed to be fooled by that construct. So, in spite of its obvious appearance problems, the alien sergeant never considered the possibility of that robot not fooling his mother.
"You seem healthy, Keroro." the sergeant's mother held the hands of the copy robot and looked at its eyes. Briefly, her black irises shrunk, but a calm expression returned to her face just as quickly.
"Of course. I'm Sergeant Keroro!" The false Keronian awkwardly saluted the older woman, releasing itself from her hands.
"Huh?" She looked puzzled at him.
"Eh… excuse him! Uncle is just too stressed out because he's been working on Pekopon's invasion these last few days!" Mois interrupted, standing in the way of the robot.
"Lady Mois, don't push Master Keroro like that!" The real sergeant protested. Giroro, by that time, was sitting on the sofa, just silently watching the incoming disaster.
Keroro's mother stared at the robot for several seconds while everyone else just nervously silenced, suddenly, she smiled.
"Keroro, what do you think of this?" She said, opening her plastic bag and removing a small lunch box from it, handing it to the robot.
"Gero…? It's a lunch box. Thank you very much, mother." The robot answered calmly. Although his words didn't flow very naturally, it was a good enough impersonation to calm down everyone.
"Ah, what a great son!" Keroro's mother scratched the robot's head proudly, while the real sergeant just let herself drop on a nearby couch. The older Keronian turned away from her apparent son, briefly looking at the green haired girl, who remained calm, smiling with closed eyes, while Giroro and Mois nervously watched that scene.
/
Elsewhere, Satsuki and Yayoi were inside a large clothing store, standing next to several rows of feminine shirts and blouses. Dororo was next to them, observing everything unenthusiastically, though she tried to smile when noticed the two girls looking at her. They had successfully dragged an unwilling "Doro" into a clothing store, just to be quickly disappointed when Koyuki's supposed cousin showed no interest in anything that the shop offered.
"What about this?" Natsumi stood away from the group, pointing at a collection of traditional Japanese garments for summer, yukatas. A small board was hanging in front of them, announcing a discount. Dororo didn't say anything, but her eyes seemed briefly fixated on them. Satsuki and Yayoi nodded to each other and pushed the blue haired girl towards that section of the store. "Wa-wait!"
"Azumaya, you like these, right? So choose one, we'll pay this time." Yayoi said.
"We're trying to find a gift for you, so accept it!" Satsuki's frustration was clearly visible. Even though that day had brought some uncomfortable memories of Dororo's childhood, when Keroro dragged him to do some random activity somewhere, it was clear that they weren't about to force her to do anything, but just wanted to see her doing it.
"I'm sorry if I've caused any problems, Shiwa… eh… Satsuki and Yayoi." Dororo smiled calmly, but that expression quickly disappeared from her face again. She was hit by the same chilling sensation from before, only this time it was much stronger. She could see Satsuki's lips slowly moving as if to thank her, but no sound came from them, and soon they stopped completely.
She looked around. It wasn't only Satsuki. Yayoi and almost everyone else she could see inside the store were completely frozen. Natsumi and Koyuki quickly ran to her side, being the only ones still moving.
"What's happening? Is this another stupid plan of your friends, Dororo?!" Natsumi accusatively looked at the ninja, who was visibly hurt by those words.
"Even… even if they're doing something… they obviously didn't tell me anything…" Dororo talked with teary eyes.
"We believe in you, Dororo!" Koyuki placed her hands on Dororo's and Natsumi's shoulders, with her usual feline smile. "Right, Natsumi?"
"I… I was just surprised, I'm sorry." The older Hinata sibling apologized.
"Don't worry about it." Dororo replied. Her eyes eased, but quickly reverted to their usual unreadable state.
"Understood!" Koyuki nodded knowingly. The two ninjas stood around Natsumi, facing the surroundings defensively.
"Is there… something coming?" Natsumi wondered, just confused by that situation.
"Zeroro!" A sudden shout echoed inside the store,
"That voice…" Koyuki recognized that tone, even though she had only heard it once. Natsumi quickly turned around, facing the source of that shout who stood by the store's exit door. She had recognized that voice too, but what she saw there barely resembled what her memories told her.
Both Koyuki and Natsumi expected to see a gray Keronian standing there, but, rather than that, saw a teenager little older than themselves slowly walking towards them. In spite of his youthful face, he had messy gray hair and cold dark eyes, staring intently at them.
"Zeroro… I don't know why you're using that stupid disguise… However, if you want to continue, I'll play this little game too."
"He knows who I am? And… that's a disguise…" Dororo wondered while looking at the person in front of them, the same one she had seen earlier in the streets.
"So… that must be…" Natsumi and Koyuki concluded, looking at the boy as he raised his left arm.
"Pekopon suit class A - Assassin combat mode." A sudden red line cut the stranger's body in half. The skin and clothes of its left side were ripped apart, giving place to a metallic body. Its artificial arm, unlike the other parts of its body, which looked mostly smooth, was completely spiked, ending in a large claw attached to his body. He lowered his raised arm, briefly covering his mouth with the claw. As soon as his face returned to view, his mouth was covered with bandages.
"Do you understand now… Zeroro?!"
"Eh… I really have no idea." Dororo scratched the back of her head embarrassedly. "Who are you?"
The aggressiveness of the strange cyborg disappeared while he silently looked at the floor, his face covered by shadows.
"Dororo, he mentioned a Pekopon suit and that metallic body reminds me of a Garuru Platoon member… Isn't it obvious?!" Natsumi said, crossing her arms.
"That's the one that defeated me that day… when the Garuru Platoon froze the entire Earth and attempted to invade." Koyuki said, placing a hand over her chest, while glaring at the one in front of them.
"Ah! You're…eh… Zuriri?" Dororo asked, genuinely confused, although it just came out as a teasing. "No, I mean… Jobibi?" The other cyborg closed his hands and raised his head, glaring furiously at Dororo.
"My name is ZORURU!" He shouted in an uncharacteristic explosion of anger, brandishing his large metallic arm, as his fingers extended into small blades. As a blur, he leaped towards Dororo, slashing through her almost instantly, before Koyuki and Natsumi could even react. The large claw ripped through Dororo's school uniform… However, the ninja had disappeared.
"What-?" Zoruru didn't even react before a blade pushed against his metallic body, failing to cut through it, but still hitting with enough force to throwing him at a roll of clothes.
Koyuki threw away her school clothes instantly, her own black ninja outfit appearing almost magically around her body. "Stay here, Natsumi!"
"Wait! Lady Koyuki, stay with lady Natsumi and protect her and the others here!" Dororo ordered, looking sideways at Koyuki, who hesitantly nodded.
The blue haired ninja turned to the fallen assassin afterwards, "Why are you doing this? If there's anything I can do…" Dororo asked, reappearing in her usual ninja garb standing right behind the fallen Zoruru, who slowly got up.
"Shut up!" The Keronian assassin faced Dororo almost instantly and hit her with a powerful uppercut, using his metallic arm. The force of the attack was enough to propel the blue ninja towards the ceiling. Her body broke through it, falling disappearing in the floor above.
"Dororo!" Koyuki couldn't just stay still after watching that scene, immediately jumping towards the alien assassin, who faced her emotionlessly.
"Last time you got me easily." Koyuki said, stopping her rush abruptly before actually approaching him. It was just a brief moment, but one long enough to confuse Zoruru, who just stood defensively, raising his mechanical arm.
"Blizzard Spikes!" Koyuki yelled while falling, holding a small knife. Azumaya attempted to pierce Zoruru with her weapon, but he easily held her hand with his metallic arm, not showing any worry. Unexpectedly, right afterwards, he was hit by several pieces of ice, which came falling from the sky, somehow merging with his Pekopon suit and freezing it.
"This is it!" Koyuki yelled while she pierced Zoruru's chest with her blade, using both hands to break through the surface of his body.
"Koyuki won?!" Natsumi asked herself, but quickly noticed something very wrong. "Zoruru hasn't made a single sound…"
"This… is not my actual body, Pekoponian woman." The gray haired assassin said. Koyuki looked at him in surprise, hesitating long enough that Zoruru was easily able to grab her neck with his metallic hand.
"Don't touch Koyuki!" Dororo's usually calm voice was full of anger as a large shuriken of light cut Zoruru's mechanical hand, freeing Koyuki, who was held by Dororo before falling. Dororo glared at Zoruru, still holding Koyuki on her arms.
"That technique…" Zoruru looked at the star disappeared after hitting the floor. "So, you're really Zeroro."
"Are you fine, lady Koyuki?"
"Don't worry, Dororo!" Koyuki jumped from Dororo's arms, her characteristic smile drawn on her face.
"Now, about you…" The blue ninja stepped forward, staring intently at the gray haired assassin.
"ZERORO!" Zoruru snapped, raising his broken arm. The damaged tip of his arm fell off, instantly replaced by a new hand that came from inside his arm. He opened his hand, its palm facing upwards as a giant shuriken of light, similar to Dororo's attack, appeared above him. Dororo answered, making a similar star shaped energy attack and both quickly threw them at each other. The two projectiles clashed in mid air, releasing several sparks throughout the room. They continuously tried to force themselves through each other, seemingly unable to do any damage.
"I've won." Zoruru closed his raised fist and, simultaneously, his energy star blew up, consuming the other shuriken and pushing away several pieces of clothes. From the smoke of the blast, several fragments of the energy blade flew rapidly towards a surprised Dororo, who just looked at them in surprise. Arms, chest, legs and a last fragment dig into Dororo's forehead, yet she didn't even move, or bleed.
Zoruru's black eyes looked at the figure standing in front of him. There was something obviously wrong there. The image before him faded away, replaced by a small wooden pole which fell on the floor alongside Dororo's clothes.
"That's not an Assassin Magic." Zoruru stared at the fallen figure.
"You should already know this…" Dororo leaped from behind a cloth stand, clashing her short sword against Zoruru's metallic arm.
"Are you an idiot, Zeroro?!" The Keronian assassin moved his mechanical arm forward, pushing Dororo backward. However, the ninja's expression remained unfazed.
A second Dororo appeared behind Zoruru, wielding a similar sword, only this one had a yellow glow around it. "Shooting Star Slash!"
Zoruru just looked in surprise as the blade dig through the shoulder of his Pekopon suit. In a flash, the metallic shoulder exploded, and parts of his body, including the large mechanical arm fell to the ground.
Zoruru's expression changed for once, he could barely keep his eyes open. Although it was just an artificial body, he could feel the pain of that body just as well as his own, and that attack surpassed even his trained endurance. He fell on his knees, holding his destroyed shoulder in pain.
"Zeroro…"
"My name is Dororo." The long haired girl spoke, looking away from the defeated Zoruru.
/
Fuyuki was still wandering through the sea of stars, his feet starting to hurt after walking around so much. How much time had passed? He wasn't sure himself. It certainly wasn't more than an hour, but, still, walking through that labyrinth was becoming tiresome.
The boy raised his head and looked forward, preparing to continue his aimless march. Yet, he was instantly surprised by a little something in front of him. One of the stars seemingly had gotten bigger. He rubbed his eyes, wondering if his mind was just playing tricks with him, but it still remained there. Had its size increased or had he actually approached it? He couldn't tell, but decided to head towards that light anyway. Even if he didn't know what it was supposed to be, at least, he had some kind of guiding point.
/
Keroro had left the living room and the others, closing the door of her room and sighing. Her mother had been fooled by that copy robo, so she had no reason to stay around and let her notice something wrong.
Trying to forget the earlier tension, Keroro immediately headed to turn on the tv, but stopped when she saw her own silhouette reflected by the dark screen. That was the second time she had attempted to hide her identity from some Keronian that had appeared for a visit. Would she really need to continue hiding like that?
"How much time will I live like this…?" Keroro wondered, looking at the fingers of her human hand. "Maybe if I told her…"
Keroro closed her hand and stared at the door of her room. After a few moments of silence, she spoke to no one in particular, "I am Sergeant Kero-!", only to stop abruptly when the door of her room opened just to reveal her mother standing there.
"Mom- No! I mean… Keroro's mother?!" The apparent teenager hurriedly tried to correct herself, waving her arms around defensively.
"Are you really… Keroro?" The green Keronian calmly asked.
"Gero…" The teenage girl in front of the green Keronian lowered her shoulders, looking at the floor while sitting down. "Yes… I'm Segeant Keroro, mom…"
"Why are you in hiding in that Pekopon suit?" Keroro's mother was confused by the figure in front of her.
"This… isn't… a Pekopon suit…" The sergeant, who looked more like a scared child at that moment, lowered her head as her green bangs covered her face.
"Keroro…" The Keronian seemed surprised for a moment, taken aback by that revelation. She slowly approached the bigger girl, suddenly leaping towards her and giving a hug. "Don't worry, your mother is here, Keroro…"
"Mom… I… I…" Keroro stammered unable to say anything, while tears dropped from her eyes. She quickly burst out crying, resting her head on her mother's diminutive figure.
Giroro and Mois were standing in the corridor in front of Keroro's room. The corporal showed annoyance at the scene. "He's crying like a little kid…"
"You could say, moving scene!" Mois smiled, carrying the Keroro copyrobo close to her chest, like a plushy.
"Moving scene?!" Giroro glared at Mois. "Did we really travel through the entire universe to end up like this?!" The corporal turned around, punching the nearby wall.
"Giroro?" Mois looked worriedly at the redhead.
/
Zoruru stared at the long haired ninja standing next to him while he stood up again, holding the damaged shoulder of his Pekopon suit, sparks and a few drops of blood slowly emerged from the damaged section. "So… currently… this is your actual body?"
"Correct. Are you still continuing this pointless battle?" Dororo ordered, speaking through her gray mask.
"It's not pointless!" Zoruru angrily protested. "But…" He lowered his head, as his Pekoponian suit started shinning. After a few moments, it had reverted to its previous fully organic appearance, including a complete arm and shoulder, although he still kept holding it in pain. "You've defeated me."
"What about everyone else?! Did you freeze the entire planet again?" Natsumi demanded, grabbing the collar of Zoruru's gray coat.
"This was just a small scale interruption." Zoruru replied, just getting a raised eyebrow from the redhead.
"He means that only this place has been frozen." Dororo explained. "Outside, life should be going on as usual."
"What about the people here?" Koyuki wondered, pointing at Yayoi and Satsuki, who were standing still basically like statues, without even any visible breathing.
"These Pekoponians will be fine in a few minutes." Zoruru explained.
The two ninjas nodded to each other and, after a quick spin, were already sporting the green blazers and blue skirt of their school uniforms. Zoruru looked straight at Dororo's face, uncovered by that characteristic mask. Although he had seen it before, this was the first time he was certain that it was Zeroro, somehow.
The Keronian assassin's usual cold expression disappeared for a moment when the blue haired girl faced him, letting his face briefly show his internal conflict. "That was… Zeroro's face? No, it wasn't his real face. So… does this mean the one before me right now isn't Zeroro, even if it's a continuation of his existence?"
"Why do you hate me so much?" Dororo asked, scrambling Zoruru's thoughts.
"You expect to understand me? You who has always been surrounded by friends and admired by everyone think you can understand what I feel?!" Zoruru pointed accusatively at her forehead.
"Do…ro?" Dororo was just puzzled by that accusation. From her point of view, that wouldn't describe her life at all, and yet… Unlike the perfectly mechanical movements that Zoruru had presented up to that moment, his hand clearly shook unconsciously while he made that accusation. It was genuine anger and frustration. It wasn't just some empty threat.
Dororo considered asking about that, but, before she could act, a column of light appeared in the middle of the store and spread to cover it a second later. The light faded out, and people's voices and noises returned, just as they were before. Even though Dororo only had lost sight of him for a moment, it was enough to let Zoruru escape, although she felt he wouldn't attempt another attack anytime soon.
"Hey, Doro. What are you doing over there? Come on!" Satsuki's voice shattered Dororo's thoughts. Yayoi was standing right beside her, alongside Koyuki.
"I'm going!" Dororo smiled and answered naturally, trying to hide any lingering worry. While walking towards the others, she noticed Natsumi hadn't returned to the group, cautiously inspecting the store.
"Don't worry, Zoruru won't return so soon, Natsumi." Dororo said, after noticing Natsumi's state.
"If you say so…" The redhead sighed, smiling right afterwards. "Let's go, then!" Natsumi said, walking up to Dororo and grabbing her hand, heading towards the others alongside her.
/
Fuyuki panted as he stood in front of a shinning portal. Fuyuki had thought that the light might have been coming from some room with better illumination, but it actually came from the entrance itself. Blue light irradiated from it, tinting everything next to it with a soft blue.
He hesitated for a moment, but decided to step through the portal. First, he touched it with a finger, after not noticing any pain, he removed it and turned aside, placing his right leg through it, and trying to touch some floor. Only after making sure he could walk afterwards, he went inside.
Right after stepping through it, Fuyuki saw an all too familiar location… the same endless universe from where he had just come from. Stars and infinite space were everywhere. Yet, this one was different. Fuyuki looked around, but couldn't see the translucent tiles or stairways anywhere, just a clean image. Or not so clean.
Fuyuki turned around, looking behind the portal. He couldn't quite make out what he was seeing due to the distance, but there seemed to be 4 men in blue suits sitting on small white couches placed around some blue spherical object. Right beside that object, there was a cylinder, illuminated by some internal lighting.
Fuyuki slowly and silently approached them. As he came closer, he could see that they were in fact human-like aliens, with dark cylindrical faces. Their only facial features were colored symbols where their face should be. Those symbols seemed painted there, without ever showing any movement and each one had his own, although every single one was a basic geometrical figure painted in a single color. They were talking amongst themselves, seemingly completely oblivious to Fuyuki.
"It's understandable. An insult of this magnitude can't be just ignored." The polite voice of one of those aliens echoed through the room.
"So, we've pretty much decided, correct?" An alien with a more aggressive tone asked, although his voice only showed certainty. It was pretty clear that his question had been merely a formality.
"I regretfully accept your arguments. Unfortunately, we made a misjudgment when examining this 'Pekopon' during its previous trial." A third alien spoke calmly, his voice echoing like the first one.
"See, Henry, we should have done this since the last time." The aggressive voice spoke again. As he spoke, Fuyuki could see one of the aliens gesticulating. It was the one sitting on the one couch that was facing away from the entrance, the only one who couldn't possibly face Fuyuki, although none of the others seemed to react to his presence, even as he approached them.
"So, there's absolute consensus on this matter. Pekopon will return to space dust for harboring a creature that attempted to attack a member of the universal jury." A 4th voice announced the alien sitting to the left crossed his legs.
"No objections."
"This is a fair evaluation"
"Then, let's finish this!" The different voices spoke in agreement, seemingly reaching a decision. Meanwhile, Fuyuki stood only a few meters from them, although they seemingly still hadn't noticed his presence. The spherical object in the middle of them seemed to be an extremely detailed three dimensional image of Earth, floating slightly above the invisible ground level of that room. The large cylinder beside it was big enough to store one person… and that's what it seemed to be doing.
Fuyuki could clearly see, through the strong light coming from inside and the chains of blue energy that reverberated around it, a female human inside the container – no, not exactly a human, but it was someone he knew well. Alisa Southerncross.
Her body was standing upright inside the glass, her eyes closed, a invisible force keeping her floating just above the floor.
"Alisa… attacked one of these guys… and now they want to destroy Earth…?" Fuyuki silently concluded, looking at them in shock. "Are these guys serious?"
"Stop it!" Fuyuki yelled, finally announcing his presence.
"What do we have here?" The one alien that couldn't see Fuyuki from his point of view turned his floating seat around, facing the human boy. Rather than some kind of face, Fuyuki only could see a red circle drawn on the alien's black head. "Another intruder…" He affirmed, calmly observing Fuyuki.
"We'll continue this session later." The alien raised his hand, which was completely covered by a white glove, as a small window of light popped up next to him. After his finger touched it, the other aliens disappeared. It seemed they were merely holographic images. "Now, another Pekoponian has invaded this temple. Truly, this isn't a planet that is fit to exist in this universe."
"What are you talking about? What happened here? Did Alisa attempt to attack you?" Fuyuki wondered, looking at the contained that kept Alisa sealed.
"Alisa Southerncross… 'dark hunter'… Heh." Even though the alien didn't have facial features, he seemingly really amused by that situation, leaning forward on his seat, towards Fuyuki. "You call her Dark Hunter, isn't it? A monster hunter who destroys being of darkness. I have another name for that… killer."
Fuyuki opened his mouth to argue, but couldn't actually think of anything.
"And yet, here you are, Pekoponian, apparently worried about her. Pekopon is a decadent planet. One which shall turn into space dust soon." The alien rose. "I'm a Jurian, a judge of planets. Your planet, your people, have been considered guilty and will suffer punishment." He revealed, pointing a finger at Fuyuki.
"Judge of planets…" Fuyuki's stared at that alien, grasping what he had told him. As he understood the meaning of those words, his eyes changed from fear and uncertainty to determination, looking forward the tall Jurian standing in front of him. "Have you… Have you ever destroyed a planet?"
"Of course. Were planets often not guilty, the universe would have no use for cosmic judges." The alien explained confidently.
"So… you've really destroyed entire planets…" Fuyuki closed his fists, lowering his head just enough to let his hair fall in front of his eyes, covering them in shadows. "You call Alisa a killer… and yet… How… How many innocent people have you killed?!" Fuyuki accused him, raising his head and pointing decisively at the alien. "Even destroying a single world, you probably killed more innocents than anyone from this planet! How can you judge anything under these conditions?!"
"Stupid Pekoponian." The alien slowly walked towards Fuyuki, "A bad seed will eventually give birth to a bad tree that will consume the others around it. If a planet is considering guilty, it will only bring an unfortunate destiny for the universe. Cutting this plant, cutting the seed of evil, is the natural and expected action of cosmic judges."
The alien raised his right arm, the palm of his hand facing Fuyuki, who slowly walked backwards, distancing himself from the Jurian. Two white lights appeared around Fuyuki and quickly flew around him, creating small lighting bolts wrapped around his body in a continuous spiral, from head to shoes.
"Usually we don't apply personal punishments, however, I'm really angry right now, stupid boy… so…"
Fuyuki closed his eyes, expecting to be crushed or burned by those lighting bolts around his body, but he felt nothing. Quickly, however, he heard Alisa's crying out in pain. He looked ahead, watching the currents around the contained that kept her imprisoned getting bigger and bigger. Alisa herself was barely visible through the energy spinning around it.
"Stop it, please!" Fuyuki pleaded, but his cry was just ignored by the Jurian, who looked intently at the dark hunter.
"Stop!"
"Stop!"
It didn't matter how many times he yelled, the Jurian just continued his punishment. After a minute had passed, Alisa's voice stopped, even though the energy still was flowing around the cylinder.
"You're someone who takes pleasure from the suffering of others…" Fuyuki said, his head lowered again, hair falling over it and his eyes covered by shadows. He voice didn't seem angry, just cold.
"You speak about evil… about some corrupt seed…" Fuyuki pushed himself against the energy chains that surrounded him. Although initially he was pushed back, he forced himself to walk towards them a second time. They bended around his body and quickly were broken, its fragments becoming merely a small lighting show that disappeared in seconds.
Fuyuki slowly walked towards the tall figure standing in front of him. The Jurian turned around, after noticing his steps. The boy had freed himself and his presence was completely different from before. He wasn't trying to look at the alien's non existent eyes nor attempting to stop him with words. Fuyuki was just slowly walking forward, without saying anything or doing any exaggerated gestures.
The Jurian wasn't really confused by that attitude. He could sense and feel the anger pouring from the boy's body, although the feelings of a being he considered about as important as an insect didn't matter to him. And, just as he expected, the boy suddenly lashed out, dropping his previous passive behavior and attempting to punch the alien, still with his eyes hidden in shadows. Fuyuki's fist couldn't even connection to him, stopped by a translucent blue wall that suddenly came into existence between them.
"And now… judgeme-" The alien suddenly screamed out loud, moving his arms back in pain, while the loud sound of a metallic humming broke into the room. The blue barrier vanished as Fuyuki returned to his senses, his eyes looking in surprise as a white drill pierced through the alien's belly. Rather than blood, waves of red light emerged from the hole, flying in various directions, often clashing against the invisible floor and ceiling of that room.
Fuyuki started feeling dizzy and fell to the floor. Gathering strength, he raised his head, looking forward, but he could only see a smaller humanoid figure standing behind the Jurian. Fuyuki blinked, but his vision was too blurry and he could barely make out anything. It looked like the person had long hair, but that was everything he could make out.
"Who is that?" Fuyuki wondered as his vision darkened. He couldn't keep his head raised anymore, letting it hit the floor. A numbness spread through his entire body as his consciousness slowly faded away.
/
After the Sergeant calmed down, her mother silently listened to her explanation about the recent events, reacting completely calmly to everything, almost like it was just a joke.
Giroro had returned to Keroro's room and listened to most of the explanation that Keroro had given, sitting on the floor alongside her 'leader'.
"So, if I've understood this correctly… you're Giroro?" The green Keronian asked, looking at the human-looking girl with a red jacket sitting in front of her.
"Ri-right…" Giroro's cheeks were red as she nervously scratched the back of her head.
"You look so cute." Keroro's mother said, while handing a red package to her, "Here, didn't you love these?"
"Thanks…" Giroro meekly accepted the gift, although she was bothered by the comment.
"I wanted to sightsee before leaving… but I guess this isn't the best time for that." Keroro's mother said, looking at the two in front of her. It didn't matter how she looked at them, although she was certain about her son's identity, she could only see two apprehensive Pekoponians there.
"I'll talk to your father about this, Keroro. I'm sure he'll be able to do something." The green Keronian said, standing up, but her words just worried the Sergeant even more.
"Wa-wait, mother!" Keroro yelled, standing up. "If father learns about this embarrassing situation, won't he be angry?!"
Keroro's mother just laughed, looking upwards, at her child's dark eyes. "Don't worry about it, Keroro. I'm sure he'll help you." The green Keronian picked a black box that was behind her in the floor and gave it to Keroro. "Here, Keroro, I made this lunch that you loved so much!"
"Mom! I'm not…" Keroro was about to object receiving the old lunchbox, but stopped while seeing her own nimble arms. "I… suppose I'm not exactly an adult right now, isn't it?" She said, sitting on the floor with it. "Thank you, mom."
The warm atmosphere suddenly disappeared when a small fridge right behind them opened, revealing a bright rainbow light and distressed Mois coming from it. "Uncle! There's a problem! A high energy reaction downtown one strong enough to… to… you could say Hellmargedon!"
"Gero?!" Keroro and Giroro got up, and were about to run to that portal, but, before doing so, looked at Keroro's mother once more.
"It seems you're really busy even at times like this, eh? Don't worry, I'll take my leave."
"Huh… thanks, mom." Keroro saluted to her mother, who just smiled back, waving to them as they followed Mois into the fridge.
/
Fuyuki awakened…. Yet, he still couldn't feel his body, see or hear anything. To him, it was like the entire world had become an endless void. Was that a dream? Or… was he dead?
"No… if I were dead, but still conscious, wouldn't that make me a ghost? I should still be in that room in that case." He concluded, trying to move the hands he couldn't see or feel.
"Fuyuki."
When the voice of a girl broke that silence he felt the smell of osmanthus. He quickly felt an itching spreading through his entire body and his eyes started to hurt. After a few seconds, the endless sea of star slowly lightened up before his eyes. He raised his head, looking straight into a pair of pearl colored eyes.
"Fuyuki." Alisa spoke again, crouching right next to Fuyuki.
The boy blinked a few times, before opening his eyes completely and, when he did, immediately looked at her in surprised and jumped away embarrassedly.
"A-Alisa?!" The dark hunter was there, seemingly unhurt and staring at Fuyuki. Although she looked like a human girl physically and her plain sleeveless white shirt, gray skirt and black leggings and undershirt didn't stand out much, her attitude was as odd as ever.
"Thank you." Alisa talked without changing her expression, although she showed some disappointment right afterwards. "But, we lost him..."
"I did nothing, actually…" Fuyuki revealed, looking at everywhere, but seeing nothing besides the one floating couch. Neither the unknown person nor the Jurian were there. It was almost like he had just awakened from some nightmare.
"Hm… Hey, Alisa, where were you these last few days? You said you'd stay in this town, but just disappeared."
"After hearing some rumors, we were searching for that Jurian," Nebula confessed, the red eye on Alisa's black cat ears opened itself as his voice resounded around that closed room. ", but, when we found him, we were easily captured."
"Hey, Alisa… Did you… kill him?" Fuyuki wondered, looking at the vacant chair. He wasn't sure about how he felt about this. He knew that Alisa probably attacked aliens that weren't just mindless beats sometimes, but he hadn't actually seen that much, ever since she had become a friend.
"No. When I awakened, the barrier had disappeared and the Jurian wasn't here anymore."
"So, that wasn't you…" Fuyuki concluded, somewhat worried about that person's identity. "Huh… wasn't there anyone else here? A girl with blond hair?"
"No one has entered this room since I awakened." Alisa answered, glancing upwards at her daddy, who just confirmed her conclusion. "There's nothing here anymore. Fuyuki, come. I'll take you home." Alisa said, going directly to the point, like always.
"Thank you, Alisa, but I came here with another person, Tsukishima, a classmate, but she just disappeared. I… wouldn't feel well if I just left her behind like this." Fuyuki explained, receiving a disappointed look from Alisa.
"But, actually, I don't know where we could even start looking for her… I guess it'd better to return home right now. The sergeant might have something that's able to locate her…" Fuyuki admitted. Right afterwards, almost on cue, a loud laugh greeted him.
The voice came from the white couch that had been turned away from him. Two thin legs touched the floor and spun it around, revealing that Lulu had been sitting there. She laughed greatly while waving to Fuyuki, even though he was standing close to that seat. "Aloha!"
"You were about to leave without me?!" Lulu jumped from the couch while pointing at Fuyuki, she then winked. "But I got you, right?"
"Eh… I suppose…" Fuyuki sighed. "I really shouldn't even have worried about her…" His eased face quickly contorted into surprise as he stared at Lulu. "She… was she sitting there the entire time? So… could it be that she's the one who did that?"
"What's the problem, saw a ghost?" Lulu smirked, leaning towards Fuyuki, who just walked away from her.
"No-no. Nothing like that." He thought about asking her about that incident, but, before he could bring himself to do it a loud noise came from the place where the ceiling should be.
Everyone looked upwards to see several metal plates falling from a explosion that broke through the seemingly endless space above them, revealing the true height of that room, which actually was fairly tall anyway, taking several seconds for the plates to hit the ground. The image of the universe around the damaged area faded away to reveal gray metal plates and two forms descended through the hole that had been opened.
They were standing on small circular aircrafts, one green and one red.
"Sergeant?" Fuyuki wondered, recognizing the vehicles and his suspicions quickly were confirmed when they descended further, allowing him to see the pony tailed girl with a green jacket and the redhead holding onto large gray levers attached to the small saucers. Both groups looking confused at each other.
"Gero… Fuyuki?! What about the planet destroying energy?" Keroro looked at him in confusion and then at Alisa and Lulu, just blinking after failing to detect any signs of something with a power comparable to Angol Mois'.
"Did you stop it?" Giroro wondered as her craft landed on the room's floor. Fuyuki just nodded negatively.
"And that girl…?" The redhead looked at Lulu, who was just absently smiling.
"Go on with whatever it is you're doing! It seems fun! I'm not bothered at all!" She said while hiding her arms on her back. Giroro continued observing her. There was something oddly familiar about her…but also… something felt completely wrong.
"Eh… Should we erase her memories?" Keroro wondered, looking at Fuyuki while pointing at her.
"I… I really don't know…" Fuyuki face palmed. It had only been a few days since she had appeared, but Tsukishima always seemed to be creating problems… He looked at her briefly, noticing that she was just smiling seemingly innocently. "I guess you should let her keep the memories." Fuyuki said, smiling to a confused Keroro. "I wouldn't like to forget everything I've seen… and, she's an Occult club member, so, I think it's fair."
/
A few hours after the end of her class, Natsumi returned home, opening the front door with a smile on her face. Although Zoruru had appeared and started that battle, everything else turned out fine.
"If it hadn't been for Zoruru appearing there, it'd have been easy to forget that Dororo is actually an alien…" Natsumi thought while removing her shoes at the entrance. "Thinking about it… the stupid frog has been more normal these last few days…" However, her positive thoughts about the former green alien stopped when she noticed dust on her white socks after taking a few steps in at the house's entrance. "This is…" She leaned closer to the wooden floor, touching it with a finger just to confirm her suspicions. "STUPID FROG!"
She immediately ran to the living room, where she immediately saw Mois, sitting on a couch and watching tv, a green Keronian with a yellow helmet sitting on her lap.
"Stupid frog?!" Natsumi pointed at the alien, who remained perfectly calm.
"This isn't auntie, Natsumi. It's just the copy robot." Mois explained.
"What?" Natsumi stared at the smiling girl in confusion, but quickly concentrated on finding Keroro again "Where is the stupid frog anyway?!"
"Auntie left with Giroro after there was some high energy reaction, but nothing seemed to have happened, and they should be returning at any moment now."
"Thanks, Mois!"
A few minutes later, Fuyuki, Keroro and Giroro arrived, although only the first two entered through the front door, immediately facing an angry Natsumi.
She was tapping her right foot impatiently, obviously having waited a few minutes, at least, for them, although it was enough time for her to get changed into an orange dress and black biker shorts.
"Sis?" Fuyuki wondered, but quickly was thrown aside by the annoyed Natsumi.
"You didn't even start your chores today, did you, stupid frog?!" Natsumi yelled, grabbing the collar of Keroro's jacket while glaring at her.
"I… I… have an explanation for this, lady Natsumi…" Keroro spoke weakly, but just got pushed into a nearby wall.
"I don't want to know about your excuses!" Natsumi said, crossing her arms while Keroro just shivered while looking at her.
Fuyuki watched the situation uncomfortably. Somehow, he never had noticed how… strange… that behavior was. Natsumi herself probably didn't either. Watching the green Keronian shivering in fear from his sister was often even funny… however, looking at the girl standing against the wall, with her trembling arms raised defensively while a pale face looked in terror at Natsumi sister and still with a hot head after what happened with that Jurian, he couldn't just sit back and smile.
"Stop it!" Fuyuki yelled, standing between Keroro and Natsumi, to the surprise of both. "I'm sure the Sergeant has a good reason for this… Even if she doesn't have… you know she'll clean everything anyway, sis, so, stop!"
"Fuyuki…" Natsumi looked in surprise at her brother, opening her mouth to say something, but stopped. After a while, she actually spoke it, "Alright… but if the stupid frog skips his chores, you will do it, got that?" She left to the stairs right after that.
Fuyuki sighed. He didn't think Natsumi would give up so easily although, "I'm not really sure if Keroro will do it…" He turned around just to see the sergeant looking at him with a big smile and teary eyes.
"I… I won't disappoint you, lord Fuyuki!" Keroro saluted the boy, who just smiled back, scratching the back of his head. They looked directly at each other for a while, before embarrassedly looking away.
"I'm going." Keroro said, walking past Fuyuki, however, he grabbed her arm before she left.
"Sergeant… Are you… going to stay… like this?" Fuyuki asked slowly, with his face painted red.
"Gero?" Keroro was embarrassed initially, just looking at Fuyuki from the corner of her eyes, but she quickly faced him directly, drawing a confident smirk on her face. "Hm… what is it, lord Fuyuki? Could it be… you're falling in love with me…?"
Fuyuki took a few steps away from the sergeant, babbling incoherently.
"Or should I say… with this body?" Keroro curled one of her large lateral hair bangs with her right hand.
"I'm sorry!" Fuyuki looked fearfully at her and excused himself, quickly running to his room. As soon as he left, Keroro dropped her smirk and sighed.
"I… I don't know what I'm thinking anymore… Please, Kururu… appear with one of your inventions and fix everything…" Keroro talked alone, looking at nowhere in particular. "If I stay like this much longer, I…" She placed two hands above her chest, looking at the stairs, sighing again, "Lord Fuyuki…"
Afterwards, Keroro shook her head, trying to forget pointless thoughts. "I just need to clean everything now! Forget pointless problems!"
Leaving that confusion behind her, Keroro proceeded to quickly clean the Hinata residence, running through every room of the house with her blue vacuum.
When everything was done, a tired and annoyed Keroro went right to Kururu's lab. She stood in front of the metallic building shaped like Kururu's Keronian head, knocking the "teeth" of the structure, but received no reply.
"Let me handle this." Giroro said, suddenly appearing from a shadowed part of the room holding a large cylindrical weapon, colored dark gray, a bazooka, with her two hands and supporting it on her shoulder.
"Gero… What were you doing here?" Keroro wondered.
"Don't you think the way Kururu has been missing lately is really suspicious?" Giroro said, crouching on the dusty floor of that room while aiming her weapon.
"I suppose so…" Keroro agreed watching as the projectile of Giroro's weapon flew through the air, exploding on the door of Kururu's lab. Large fragments of white metal landed everywhere, but Keroro and Giroro just ignored them, running inside.
Right after entering inside, they found a Kururu with an open mouth, closing some metallic suitcase, various colorful wrappings of sweets or candies lied on the floor. "What?!" She said, showing some uncharacteristic genuine confusion. She also was missing her characteristic orange cap, revealing that she had long hair that fell right past her shoulders, otherwise, her visual was the same from before, the same orange jacket and boots, shorts in a darker tone and oversized round glasses.
"What's this all about Kururu?!" Keroro said, crossing her arms. "Haven't you been working on a way to make us go back to normal?!" Giroro just scowled silently, aiming her weapon at the blond girl.
"Forget it, no interest!" She spoke with a tone far too enthusiastic compared to her normal voice. "I've gotten everything I need! So, I'll just leave now!"
"Who are you?!" Giroro yelled while putting a finger on her bazooka's trigger,
"I'm Kururu, I guess, am I not?" The girl standing in front of them smirked. "Besides, you've got some bigger problems!" She raised her right arm, holding a small remote controller, pointing it at a dark side of the room, which lighted up instantly to reveal a large panel of monitors.
There was a particularly large one in the middle, which had a message on a main window:
/-
VITAL SIGNS OF KERORO PLATOON: NEGATIVE #1 THROUGH #5
AUTOMATIC COUNTDOWN INITIATED - 13 DAYS REMAINING
/-
Keroro and Giroro looked at it in surprise, but quickly realized they didn't know what that countdown was about, however, when they looked away from the screen and back at Kururu, she had disappeared.
"Was that... really… Kururu?" Keroro wondered, while Giroro angrily stepped on one of the candies.
"Coward!" Giroro complained, however, when she attempted to move, she noticed a sticky yellow substance on her boot. "These are gums?"
"What's happening here?" Keroro asked, looking at the ominous screen which provided the only light source for that side of the room.
/-
In the next day…
A lone triangular ship crossed the vastness of space. It was mostly gray colored, with a purple streak crossing the middle. Two large yellow eye-shaped sensors were located right next to the front of the ship, separated by the purple line. It was the Garuru platoon's combat and transport ship and, inside it, four Keronians were silently standing on a control room.
It was shaped rather strangely, even for Keronian standards. Rather than several seats on a single planet, there was a half sphere in the middle of a large room, 5 holes built into that sphere, each with a small compartment containing a seat, a control panel and small screens. Garuru's was on the center of the sphere, at the highest point, while the other 4 seats were spread around it, 3 of them also occupied by other Keronians. The set up of the ship wasn't the most appropriate for interaction between its members, but rather designed to be efficient, each one able to concentrate on different tasks without bothering others.
A pink Keronian, Chief Medic Pururu, was in one of them, looking worriedly at larger monitor's on the walls of the room. Right beside her seat there was private 1st class Taruru, a young adult Keronian with blue skin, a white hat and eyes always fixated on something. The symbol on his chest was a two colored water drop- half yellow half orange. He was the only one there that constantly showed some displeasure with the layout of that room, although he never protested directly.
The last Keronian there was a dark orange colored one who looked like a kid. He was Tororo, who had recently been promoted into a 2nd class soldier, finally leaving behind his old "new recruit" ranking. He was clearly the youngest member of that platoon, still keeping his tadpole tail and white face. His face seemed to show an ever present overconfidence through a constant smirk, his eyes hidden behind large round glasses. Rather than the usual Keronian helmets, he sported a green cap with ear protectors that resembled Kururu's oversized earphones. His symbol was a green circle with three small protuberances, one in the middle of the lowest point and two from the diagonally upwards.
A blue planet, Pekopon, appeared in the large monitor that stood in front of the control room.
"Pekopon, eh? I wonder how master Tamama is doing!" Taruru said.
"So, are we really going to Japan, lieutenant Garuru?" Pururu asked, looking at the leader of her platoon.
"Of course. Lance corporal Zoruru is probably there anyway." Garuru said, carrying his eternal scowl, just like his brother.
"How boring. I don't see why I must waste this sudden vacation like this." Tororo complained, placing his legs on his control panel. Interactivity? Getting to know the other platoon members better? He had no use for those useless things.
Even though usually the Garuru platoon, in a mission, would have been attentions enough to examine its surroundings at all times, because they didn't expect to find any opposition, their security measures were much smaller that day. Unknown to them, a lone robot hovered next to Pekopon's orbit.
From the outside, it looked like a usual Keronian personal robot, like Keroro's old Keroro Robo, a central Keronian head-shaped structure with legs and arms sprouting from it. This robot resembled the face of a black Keronian wearing slanted red glasses. Its arms were white, but with black forearms and hands, a similar color scheme for its legs too.
It sighted Garuru's ship, but waited patiently until it started atmospheric re-entry, flames surrounding the space craft. At that moment, the robot raised an arm and pointed its fist towards at the craft as its red glasses shone. Finally, an explosive voiced cried out from inside the robot, "ROCKET PUNCH!"
The black fist flew through space, crashing right through the middle of Garuru's ship. It was barely a black blue to the Keronians inside the ship. The Keronians looked at the hole opened right in front of Garuru's place, and had only a few seconds to react before an explosion engulfed that room and the entire ship.
The robot continued watching outside without making any movements. Its arm automatically returned and it watched as 4 particularly large fragments of the ship continued to fall to Earth below, turning into fireballs as they crossed the sky.
Inside one of those fireballs, Garuru was on his seat, arms crossed. "Of course, whoever is behind the special forces unit, probably doesn't want the Keroro platoon back before the end of the countdown. I only hope the others are fine too." He leaned on his seat, just staying on his current trajectory, after noticing that the radar showed he was approaching Japan anyway.
"Giroro…"