Posted this chapter because there wasn't much romance in the last chapter. Only one more chapter left of this story!
Natsumi lay on some bedding, going in and out of consciousness. Her wounds had immediately been tended too but she was still fairing very poorly.
The humans all looked uneasy about Natsumi's condition, and they all knew what they had to talk about now.
"What...What do we do about Mois?" Keroro asked. "She...She almost killed Natsumi!"
"I think we actually have to talk about it seriously. If...We have to take her out or something. You guys could win in a fight against her, right? If you used your full strength?" Fuyuki asked.
The humans looked desperate for reassurance. Keroro looked at Dororo, Giroro and Tamama, the keronians with the most fighting potential.
"Of course I could beat her!" Giroro reassured. "But by take out do you mean knock out or-?"
Everybody suddenly had a gloomy look. The severity of the situation wasn't something they could ignore. Mois was killing people at this very moment, and she had almost killed Natsumi.
"I think that option should be considered but only if there is no other way to save ourselves." Saburo said glumly. "We can't do anything if we're dead after all." They might have not been fighting to save a friend. They might be fighting for their lives.
"Hey!" Kululu crossed his arms and glared at the rest of them. "Mois's not some evil entity you need to fight. She's just in a state of confusion without her full memories. She's scared and a victim because of our mistakes." He walked over to Keroro, "And might I remind you our job is to rescue her. That's why we were sent to Pekopon." He pointed out.
"A state of confusion or not she still seriously injured Natsumi." Giroro retorted, defensively.
Before Keroro, Giroro, and Kululu could start arguing Saburo raised his arm to demand their attention as the leader.
"I think we definitely need to take her out if she could kill one of us. Now, at the moment I don't mean kill her. I mean just knock her out so we can talk to her. And I think we need to do it sooner rather than later." Saburo told them. "Kululu you don't happen to still have my pen-?"
"Nope. It's back on Keron." Kululu shook his head.
"Dang. Well, I should still be able to provide something in a fight. I'm quick and quick witted." Saburo didn't really want to fight, but he knew he had to. "Even if us humans are a little rusty in battle I think we should be able to beat her. After all we have more numbers."
Everybody looked optimistic except for Kululu.
Numbers mean nothing to a planet destroyer. Kululu thought to himself. The platoon and the humans were about to get thrashed as bad as Natsumi had been.
"I'll uhh stay behind with sis to make sure she's safe." Fuyuki volunteered. "I can't fight anyway."
Everybody nodded. They had a job to do.
Mois had been able to beat Natsumi. That meant she was clearly powerful. So they had to fight smart instead of tough.
This was something Giroro didn't exactly understand, although he understood a tactical ambush. The element of surprise was a powerful one.
"I'm not going to hurt her." Kululu crossed his arms acting like a baby. "Good luck beating her without my tech, because I really think the solution is talking rather than fighting. I'm surprised none of you have even suggested just talking to her."
Saburo sighed. He had assumed Kululu would continue to be an annoying brat and thorn in their side. "You can just watch then to make sure none of us get too injured."
The plan was simple. Dororo and Koyuki set up some ninja traps and trick wire throughout the wreckage that was their city. With Giroro's grenades and land mines one wrong move would cause an explosion doing horrible damage to her.
Once Mois was completely blasted, Momoka would come in to initiate hand to hand combat with her to keep her distracted up close. Tamama would switch positions with her whenever she was tired while blasting her from a distance.
Giroro would shoot her with bullets so she couldn't move.
So that Momoka wasn't dealing with her herself Keroro would be used as a meat shield while Saburo used his agility as a distraction. Dororo would use his ninja abilities to make sure people were swapped out with logs or rubble so they wouldn't be hit and Koyuki would quickly attack from a distance too.
"Hey! I don't want to be a meat shield!" Keroro complained.
"You have no other combat abilities." Giroro reminded.
Keroro grumbled.
It was a fool proof plan. Saburo was confident they could pull it off.
"Good luck. Don't die." Kululu had zero confidence in them.
As planned and as Saburo's information dictated, Mois walked towards the area with everything tricked out. She was either looking for survivors or runaways trying to escape her rampage or just looking for a nice plot of land to break.
Mois was not the most experienced in avoiding traps. And almost instantly she tripped one of the wires. Knives flew towards.
Mois tried to quickly move out of the way landing on one of the many land mines.
Boom! A cloud of smoke appeared as various land mines exploded, as Mois seemed to be rushing to try to avoid them but triggering them over and over again.
"Momoka! Wait a moment before attacking. We don't want you to trigger a mine." Saburo ordered. Was that enough? That was bound to damage her at least.
Cough. There was a coughing noise from the smoke. The explosion noises finally stopped and Momoka rushed in to fight. Tamama stayed somewhat distant from her waiting for the smoke to clear before shooting his first impact.
Momoka threw a punch into the smoke, but Mois seemed to dodge it, hitting Momoka's legs with her lucifer spear and instantly making her fall.
"Did you try to bomb me?" She asked, annoyed. "You don't think bombs work against what I am, do you? I've probably existed on thousands of dead planets. A planet crumbling is a bigger force than a bomb."
She looked at the knives on the ground as she approached Momoka with her spear, having instantly beaten her despite Momoka's impressive martial arts abilities.
"The knives were a nice touch though. I think I can bleed. Too bad I'm too fast now for them to hit." Mois tried to be supportive.
"Keroro!" Momoka yelled.
Keroro rushed in to try to grab Mois or distract her from coming closer to Momoka. She hit the pekoponian suit with the blunt edge of her spear, quickly shooting him several hundred feet.
"Hey, don't just fight Momoka now." Saburo tried to jump into Mois's blind spot, behind her, tapping her on the shoulder to try to save Momoka. "We're all your opponent. You might have beaten Natsumi but all of us together? I doubt you can deal with that."
Now that the smoke had fully cleared Tamama shot his Tamama impact while Giroro started shooting at Mois along with Koyuki trying to throw her knives. Dororo got a substitution art ready to save Momoka and Saburo who were in the blast zone.
Mois sighed, appearing behind Saburo before he could spin behind her. A log appeared where Saburo had been but she was still out of the Tamama impact zone. She spun her spear above her head creating a giant gust of force knocking all of the knives out of the air and even somehow the bullets.
"Thousands are my opponent on a planet apparently. A few pekoponians are nothing to me." Mois told them.
And then before anyone could react, she hit the ground.
"Armaggedon 1/100,000,000th." The ground shook and giant cracks appeared. Apparently she had hit in such a way that crevices appeared in the ground where each of them had landed. Despite losing her memories she was an expert in her field of hitting the ground in exactly the right way.
Momoka fell into the ground, but before the earth could take her and Koyuki managed to zigzag her way across broken building sides and grab Momoka's hand.
That seemed to be the opening Mois wanted and she hit Koyuki on the back. Koyuki screamed and both of them fell to the ground in excruciating pain.
Tamama fell almost immediately to the ground. He tried to shoot a Tamama impact at the ground but it just blasted him into the air instead, hurting himself. He fell to the ground a burnt crisp.
Dororo could not hover in the air on a ninja star in his pekoponian suit. He tried to disappear with his ninja abilities but as soon as Koyuki screamed he materialized to try to help her.
"Found you." Mois told him, hitting him as well to the ground.
Giroro tried to shoot her down as she materialized at Dororo's back, but she just launched herself in the air and hit him like a baseball elsewhere.
Saburo tried his best to dodge, but he couldn't dodge the ground, he quickly became susceptible to the cracks in the ground. He fell halfway into the ground unable to escape it's trap or use his agility to wrangle himself free despite his squirming.
"Last one." Mois approached her spear having some splattered bits of blood on it from Koyuki and Momoka, but not much. She appeared menacing as she approached him.
My plan fell to pieces in moments. She beat us so easily. Saburo realized. Could he have beaten her if he had his pen and could have made better traps? Or was nothing able to withstand an angry, confused, planet destroyer with only the urge to destroy?
Was this the end? Even if they had tried to kill her things wouldn't have worked.
Saburo tried to look for some hope. In the distance he saw Natsumi crawling on the ground, having escaped Fuyuki. She must have heard about their plan of attack and wanted some action.
Giroro was nowhere around to see her bleeding on the ground. Fuyuki hadn't been a good guard anyway.
She had one gun in her hand but not much else. And she was having difficulty raising her arms and pointing Mois. But Mois hadn't seemed to notice Natsumi due to her pathetic state.
Could Natsumi save us? One shot hitting her...Would that be enough to take down an angolian? Saburo wondered. It occurred to him he didn't know angolian biology and how many bullets it would take to take Mois down.
He could barely see Natsumi as she approached, but before Mois could crush Saburo with her horrible spear, Saburo gained a different savior.
Wires sprung up from the cracks in the ground like hungry snakes and wrapped themselves around Mois's arms like chains. Mois tried to struggle free, using the sharp edge of her spear to desperately cut.
The wires must have been part of the building wreckage. And Saburo knew instantly who operated them. Kululu. Kululu's got more tech than the rest of us. He...He can actually beat her.
In a battle where Kululu was going all out, Kululu was sure to win. And despite Saburo's anger at Kululu he knew he was relieved that Kululu had come to his rescue to bail him out.
"Wait!" Instead of keeping to the shadows watching like he was good at, Kululu revealed himself, just as Mois broke free from the initial wires. "Can...Can you not crush my friend?" Kululu asked, not desperately but like a normal request like he was ordering fries at a fast food place.
Mois looked at him oddly. She looked down at Saburo. "Many pekoponians so far have begged for their loved ones lives or their lives. Why would you think asking would work?" She shook off the remnants of wires from her spear as if to fight Kululu next.
Kululu shrugged. "I'm not a pekoponian." He reminded her.
Mois turned her back on him to go back to Saburo who had attacked her.
Kululu pressed a button on his wrist and more wires instantly flew out of hatches on his headphones, grabbing Mois's body as her back was turned and entwining themselves around her waist, pulling Mois away from Saburo and back to him.
You don't want her closer! As soon as she's within four feet she'll hit you with that spear and your suit will be crushed! Saburo thought to himself.
But despite Mois's struggling as Kululu pulled, Kululu didn't see any fear.
"Ah! So you've come to battle too. Like Natsumi Hinata and all these rest-" Mois accused.
"Nah. I just wanted to talk." Kululu replied easy going, making Mois even more confused. As Mois was brought directly in front of Kululu the wires eventually released her.
Despite the fact that Mois could move faster than the speed of light and could have easily destroyed the rest of Kululu's allies, she just stood there right in front of Kululu even more confused.
She turned her head to look at the pekoponians and even Kululu's broken looking platoon mates. The ones who remained conscious like Saburo and Tamama who had really only injured himself, looked at her with either fear or hatred.
When she looked at Kululu though he didn't look like that. She raised her spear to move it forward to hit him.
"Mois, you and I both know you aren't going to do anything with that thing. You might hit the ground. You're prone to doing that, but you wouldn't hit me." Kululu crossed his arms, waiting for her to stop.
"Why?" Mois asked. "Why are you so sure of that?" She was so confused. Her hand was shaking because she didn't want to hurt Kululu.
"You're way too pure to hit someone who's an important person to you." Kululu looked to the distance where Keroro had been blasted too. "Well, um..." Maybe he better revise that statement. "You're too pure to hurt me through actual violence."
Kululu's reasoning for not being afraid of her was so him. It made Saburo snicker despite himself.
Mois just looked even more confused. "Huh?" The new her, who turned out to be a planet destroyer and someone who's only purpose was to destroy wouldn't be something she'd label pure.
She put her spear to the ground, resting it instead of hitting it. She put her hand on her head, very confused by Kululu's complete confidence that she wouldn't hurt him.
Pure? Me? Briefly she saw the image of a yellow keronian shivering in her head. Was that someone she had terrified in her past?
"Stop staring at me! Your eyes are way too innocent and sparkly!" The voice in her memory screamed.
She took a step back even more confused. Was...Someone terrified of her because of her innocence? That was even more surprising than her being a planet destroyer!
It didn't make a whole lot of sense, but a lot of things in her life didn't.
I'm not pure. I'm not innocent. I'm a monster. My only purpose is to destroy life. That was the truth of Mois's past that she had tried to hide from herself for so long. But it...It made her oddly happy to hear someone call her 'pure'. Despite how bloody her spear was and how many people she had killed.
I...I think he's wrong, but...Mois wanted to honor Kululu's belief in her. Despite the keronians having put her in this nightmare she really wanted to believe in Kululu. He was the one person who believed she could be good and pure after all.
And that was what Mois secretly wanted to be. So she wanted to honor his belief.
"You can go. I won't destroy your friend." She told him, "Tell him not to try attacking me again or else I might have to destroy him. I don't like getting attacked. It's awfully mean." Mois nodded and shot up into the sky, flying away from the wreckage.
"Mois, wait! I still wanted to talk to you about things-" It was too late. Mois was already gone. Kululu sighed.
He looked at all the injured pekoponians and keronians around him. He spotted Natsumi collapsing on he ground and sighing in relief.
He had a lot of work to do.
She listened to me. Kululu thought to himself. Either the real Mois was still in there or she still had some attachment to the pekoponian version of him.
It took a while for Giroro and Keroro to make it back to help Kululu with lifting people back to the safe zone.
"I can't believe I was blasted out of the fight." Giroro grumbled. "If I had stayed I'm sure I would have won."
"I can't believe Natsumi tied up Fuyuki despite being injured and then crawled to the battle zone. What was she hoping to accomplish?" Keroro asked.
"She wanted to fight. She's a warrior at heart." Giroro stated proudly. "Natsumi that was very dangerous, but...Um...I'm impressed. Crawling your way to a battlefield while your stomach is bleeding is no easy task."
Natsumi rolled her eyes. "I didn't come to fight! I...I overheard you talking about killing Mois and I...I wanted to beat her before you could seriously hurt her."
"She tried to kill you though!" Fuyuki pointed out once he was rescued from being tied up.
"I know. But...She's my friend." Natsumi's eyes were wide. "She's confused and scared and it's no fun being without your memories. I know. I understand that she's not acting like this because she wants to, it's because her head's messed up. I...I got angry and violent when aliens were brought up when my memories were erased. It's...Not a fun experience having the wrong memories in your head."
"Wait, wait, you're on Kululu's side about that woman just being confused? And that you want to help her?" Tamama asked shocked. "Even though she seriously injured you?"
Natsumi tried to flex her arm as if saying she was fine. She didn't succeed but trying mattered. "I guess Kululu is the only one with actual morals here. Oddly enough. Wow, things really changed since you left."
Kululu grinned cockily at Giroro like Natsumi liked him better than Giroro.
"I..." Giroro looked at the ground. Giroro sighed. "I don't want to fight you, Natsumi. And I need to respect your decisions too. I hate to say this because as an invader I was taught to see this way but fighting isn't always the answer. I'll listen to what you want."
Natsumi smiled. Giroro was trying to regain her trust, she knew, but she was happy Giroro chose to believe her wishes anyway and see things her way.
"How do you suggest helping Mois then?" Saburo asked. "I'm out of ideas after having a beautiful battle strategy."
Natsumi smiled. "With love. If there's anything I know about Mois it's that she's a romantic. I think using the stupid frog to help her remember things will definitely help."
Keroro frowned. "We tried that but it didn't work-"
"Well she's a different person than she was a week ago!" Natsumi pointed out. "And Kululu's not going to mess things up by flirting with her and making her confused. Right, you little jerk?" She glared at Kululu.
Kululu nodded. "Ku. She might have forgotten that terrible travesty with her new memories swirling in her head. It might actually work this time using Keroro." He was certainly on board for another try.
They all agreed to sacrifice Keroro again.
Watching from a distance, they had Keroro walk over to Mois to speak with her.
Mois instantly took a stance to defend herself, swinging her lucifer spear by her side.
"I'm not here to fight!" Keroro raised his arms. "I don't have any cool weapons or mecha suits anyway to fight. Unless a pekoponian suit counts as a mecha suit-Nah, it's not cool enough." He frowned.
"Then what are you here for? Negotiations so that I'll give up this city? Once I'm done with the city I plan to destroy the planet. Me moving on isn't good for the populace." Mois reminded.
"No! I wanted to talk to you about your past. You know me and you were fairly close before. I even babysat you on Keron. You used to call me Uncle and follow me around like a little puppy. It was so much fun." Keroro told her.
Mois looked like she highly doubted that. "If we were so close why did you wipe my memories, keronian?" She asked.
"Oh! I just forgot you were in the house that we were wiping memories in. Honestly I just completely forgot to tell you about the whole leaving Pekopon thing and so it was one big accident. I'm sure we'll laugh about it together in our future." Keroro told her, laughing.
Mois hit him in the stomach with her spear. Hard.
Keroro gagged, immediately winded as he fell to the ground.
"Okay...Okay. Maybe I deserved that. But...You gotta believe we were close. You loved me in fact! And I'm ready to have you back in my life, Mois." Keroro was really bad at the romantic spiel.
Mois looked at Keroro and could remember no love. She hit his legs while he lied on the ground.
Keroro screamed. Despite not all of the nerves connecting and sensations being dull it still hurt.
"I have decided to kill you keronian. For your crime of forgetting about a planet destroyer and destroying her mind I sentence you to death." Mois told him.
"Our planets have a treaty! You can't do that!" Keroro said desperately.
"Oops. Seems I've forgotten about it. I'm sure everybody will be fairly understanding since you made me forget." She smiled innocently.
Keroro was no fool, he knew the smile was horribly sinister. He screamed as the spear came down again.
"Tamama impact!" Tamama yelled. The Tamama impact hit both Mois and Keroro, knocking Keroro out of the way and barely doing any damage to Mois.
Tamama ran forward and grabbed Keroro, turning around and fleeing immediately. Despite having just being beaten Tamama still put himself out there to be attacked.
"I always knew that woman was evil! You all believe me now, right? She literally tried to kill you!" Tamama told Keroro.
As the two ran away Keroro watched Mois in the distance consider if she should go after them.
Keroro knew Tamama was about to get into the usual 'that woman is evil speel' but he didn't care.
"Tamama! You actually did something heroic!" Keroro sounded impressed. "You saved me. And you didn't have to lie about it."
Tamama blushed. "Y-yeah. I did! I did do something heroic. Hey! Why do you sound so surprised?"
"Well you lied about saving me so many times on Keron from the evil of the pekoponians and Mois." Keroro pointed out.
Tamama blushed deeper. "I didn't know you wouldn't like that! I was trying to impress you."
"Ha ha ha." Keroro laughed. "I uhhh don't think lies impress anyone."
Tamama groaned. "One lie just led to another and soon I was buried in a web of them."
"Anyway why did you try so hard to lie to impress me? I was already impressed by you. You're my friend." Keroro pointed out.
Tamama smiled. "But...I wanted to be so cool and impress you so that I could be more than that. I….I like you a lot, Mr. Sergeant."
Keroro's eyes widened. This was a surprise! How many people were in love with him that he didn't know about? First Mois and then Tamama?
He just was stunned as Tamama carried him to safety.
Natsumi sighed. Keroro hadn't worked. I don't want to admit I'm out of ideas! Keroro was her biggest connection during the invasion. Mois and her hadn't been as close as they had been when she had lost her memories. So she clearly couldn't use herself.
"So what's next?" Giroro asked. "She had no memory of Keroro. Do we send in Tamama? But their relationship was never good on Pekopon."
Natsumi wracked her head for any times that Mois had seemed like she had some nostalgia for the time the Keronians had invaded.
Eventually her mind stopped on several moments where Mois had attacked all of them except Kululu due to Kululu's idea that she was 'good' and 'innocent.'
"We use Kululu." Natsumi announced to the group.
"Huh?" Kululu frowned. "I've tried to use myself as much as possible and it just blows up terribly. You saw what happened when I tried to befriend her in a pekoponian suit. You made me out to be a jerk and a stalker. Okay, so I did look like a stalker to her, but-"
Everybody looked at him oddly. They had briefly forgotten that he had tried to text Mois and just looked like a stalker because she didn't remember him. It was something they would pity a normal person for and laugh at Kululu over.
"It might not blow up this time." Natsumi told him. "Out of everyone she seems to react to you the best, probably because you romanticize her innocence to the point of even her being confused and having to adhere to it."
"I don't romanticize it." Kululu said defensively. "She is incredibly innocent."
Koyuki rubbed her very bruised back. Everybody looked at their own injuries disagreeing with that incredibly.
"Maybe we can get her to somewhat remember you." Natsumi suggested. "You talking about her innocence must make her confused and trying to remember why you're so dedicated to that innocent theory at least."
Saburo perked up. "Is there anything the two of you did on your last day that we can use to help her remember you?" Saburo asked.
Kululu frowned deeply. Most of Mois's and his last day involved manipulating Saburo. "UHHH."
Saburo frowned. "Why are you looking at me like that?" He raised an eyebrow. "Oh! I got it. Was it embarrassing? Did you accidentally see her naked or something? Did you kiss her?"
Kululu shook his head. "I...I might have had her operate some robots for me...So um...We could steal your pen together."
Saburo grit his teeth. That was so Kululu that his last day with someone else would have involved being a jerk to someone.
Natsumi sighed. They couldn't use that at all. "Did you talk to her about anything involving you two? Instead of like...stealing from Saburo?"
Saburo still looked angry about that.
"I invited her to my house. You know, so we would keep in contact." Kululu recalled. "Not for any weird reason!" He raised his hands in front of him defensively. "I just wanted her to help me organize some files at home."
Giroro raised a brow. "I highly doubt that. I mean aren't you in love with her? You probably just invited her to your house so you could hang out."
Kululu blushed.
All of the pekoponians who had briefly forgotten who Kululu really was looked shocked by that news.
"Wait, wait...I remember that...Kululu the pekoponian had confessed his love to Mois over text...Oh my god. You're in love with Mois aren't you?" Natsumi covered her mouth trying not to laugh.
"That makes a lot of sense why you've been trying to get us not to attack her." Saburo also covered his mouth hiding snickers.
They were all giggling at him.
Kululu twitched in annoyance. "We've already gone over this! You've already learned this crap! You can't laugh at me twice."
They could. And most of them continued to. Natsumi eventually stopped though, because she could see how Kululu could have fallen for Mois and how it could be useful now.
"This is good though. Mois loves romance. Maybe we were just using the wrong person to initiate romantic thoughts with her." Natsumi pointed out. "The stupid frog is hardly romantic after all."
"Hey!" Both Keroro and Tamama took offense to that.
"No, it's uhh probably true." Tamama did not defend Keroro and just kept him in his arms.
Keroro sighed.
"How about you like actually confess your love to her? As Kululu, the keronian, not the weird pekoponian you pretended to be that was all nice but actually evil. I'm sure a love confession would be exactly the thing that would wake Mois up. I'm sure she's even seen movies about people getting out of amnesia because of a heart wrenching love confession." Natsumi suggested.
Everybody sighed because they knew for a fact Mois had seen movies like that. And she had cried.
Kululu still looked flustered over this idea, but shook his head. "Wouldn't work."
"Why not? It would be stupid enough to work on her!" Natsumi pointed out. "It might not work on a normal person but it totally would work on Mois. Her inner subconcious would let her remember because to her, her romcom was nearing the end-"
Kululu groaned because that did sound like Mois. He rubbed his head. "It wouldn't work because she doesn't remember me at all. So even if I did confess the words wouldn't do anything to calm her down. It would just be a whole lotta nothing said by someone she barely knows."
Natsumi frowned. Crap, Kululu's right. And I thought he'd bail because he was embarrassed.
"Why don't we try to put her in a setting where she could remember then?" Saburo suggested. "If we lured her to the Hinata House and set everything up like the invasion was still happening and all of this was just a dream, I wonder if it would work then."
Saburo started drawing up a scheme and orders in the dirt. Everybody looked at it.
"It would require us acting like we weren't still somewhat mad at the keronians and like our teen selves, but I think it might work. Could the Keroball make the base again?" Saburo asked.
"Sure it could." Keroro replied. "But...Would Mois fall for that? Thinking that this was all a dream? Natsumi and Fuyuki both...Well look older!" They were taller.
Saburo shrugged. "It can't be perfect, but we could try. You up for it?"
"I think I'm well enough to walk again." Natsumi smiled, "And I'm always up for beating up the stupid frog again."
Keroro groaned. He'd have to act like his old self, the Hinata family pet.
"I...I think this could actually be fun." Fuyuki smiled. Even though he was still somewhat mad at Keroro this scheme sounded actually fun. Like he could be his old self.
"I don't think it will work." Kululu crossed his arms. "And um...What you want me to do-"
"You're the key character Kululu!" Saburo told him, "The romantic lead."
Kululu almost barfed. "I hate this so much. So so very much."
"You're the one who wanted to talk to her instead of fight. She's very scared and confused you said." Giroro teased. "Now you can talk to her."
That was true. But Kululu wasn't sure if confessing would really help.
The Hinata House somehow remained intact, despite the many earthquakes. Perhaps the alien encounters over the years had made it stronger.
It was easy enough to create the base again and make everything look like it had several years ago.
Dororo and Koyuki's job was to lure Mois to the house. Because they hadn't been in the house everyday (besides Dororo crying in a corner) they had one of the tougher jobs.
Eventually Mois happened upon the Hinata House and walked in. As the door opened a trap that Koyuki had set triggered releasing sleeping gas.
Mois for once fell down. Kululu quickly moved floor panels and pulled her down into the control room and her chair so they could pretend they were working.
When Mois woke up she sat in a comfy chair next to a keronian who was typing a string of nothing. Mois didn't recognize the keronian.
"W-who are you? Where am I?" Being teleported somewhere else was frightening.
"Did you fall asleep on the job again, Mois?" Kululu asked, pretending things were normal. "I told you to try to get more sleep."
"J-job?" Mois was so confused.
"Can you file this into the 'platoon's big mistakes bin?" Kululu asked, handing her a folder.
Mois just looked confused as she took the folder from the keronian. She threw the folder in the trash.
Kululu smiled. Ku! So she does remember where that bin is located.
"Who are you?" Mois asked. "W-where am I?" She looked scared.
It made Kululu wonder if they were doing the right thing.
"Have you forgotten where we are, Mois?" Kululu tried to sound tired, but friendly. He crossed his arms and put up camera images of the rest of the house.
Giroro was polishing his gun near his tent and stealing glances at Natsumi who was beating Keroro up in the kitchen.
"How dare you try to invade, stupid frog!" Natsumi slammed Keroro against the floor and stepped on him. "I'll teach you a lesson for trying to embarrass me in front of my classmates."
They were all acting normal.
Fuyuki was in his room telling Momoka about his occult theories. It all seemed very normal.
Tamama was just watching Keroro get beaten up as he sipped cola.
Kululu hoped Mois didn't recognize that the pekoponians were older. He hoped nobody slipped up in their act.
Mois looked at the monitors confused, but slowly looked back at her keyboard. "I'm sorry. I forgot what we were working on."
It seemed to be working. She looked embarrassed, nervous, and still scared but she seemed to believe she was somewhere else.
"Budget reports." Kululu replied. "...Is that okay? Are you going to be all right?" He asked, slipping up for a moment worried for how scared she looked.
"Yeah! That's fine!" Mois tried to roll up her sleeves but looked down and saw that she was in her angolian form. She shrugged, unsure of what was going on but going with it. "I'm great at budget reports. You could say, numbers are about to get crunched?"
She stared at the screen and various fake documents that needed to be budgeted. She immediately started typing.
Kululu grinned. It's working! Either muscle memory is still there or she's confused enough to just go along with it!
"Mois, um...Thanks. For always working with me. I know you don't have to you're not getting paid for it, but you do it anyway. I could be just doing this boring job on my own but you're here-" Kululu tried to be a little more romantic or thankful.
Mois smiled at him, like she was currently not trying to torment the city. It was her normal, sweet and innocent smile. "It's no problem, Kululu. I like spending time with you. It's fun."
She...She remembered my name. Kululu tried not to look like he was overcome by emotion. This was working.
He wanted to grab her hand and squeeze it so she didn't leave. But he just continued to pretend to work, letting her get absorbed in her previous job.
She got absorbed quickly but as Kululu peered over at her three minutes later he saw her fingers no longer typing and her no longer smiling. Instead she was staring at the security cameras and monitors of the pekoponians doing their daily things.
Giroro and Keroro had gotten into a fake fight and now Natsumi was trying to fight both of them, only managing to kick Keroro against the wall due to her injures and throwing horrible words at him. Fuyuki was now scolding Keroro and because Tamama had teased Momoka about spending time in Fuyuki's room she was now beating him up too.
Dororo was now crying in a corner too. Koyuki had come from the ceiling to defend Natsumi and fight Giroro and Saburo kept knocking at the door asking to see if anything was interesting but ignoring Natsumi at any chance.
Despite all the violence Kululu could see that everyone was quite happy to be in their old routine. They were all acting like friends and having a good time- except Keroro who was the butt monkey of this routine.
Mois however, he worried wasn't seeing the good times. She seemed fascinated by the images.
Has she realized that the pekoponians are older? That something is wrong? Kululu wondered.
Her hair was glowing and she was floating up, away from the keyboards.
Kululu threw away the charade and immediately grabbed her hand to ground her. "W-where...Where are you going, Mois?" He cleared his throat remembering he had to act like everything was normal. "Ku, ku, ku. Everything you have to do is right here. Trying to ditch out of work is fun, but hardly you-"
Mois's eyes glowed like she was completely focused on something. "You're right. I can't ditch out of my duty."
Oh no. Kululu thought to himself.
"The...Pekoponians are so cruel." She seemed to have forgotten that she was in the Hinata House, or that she had been whisked away. She had forgotten everything.
She touched the screens as she looked at Natsumi call Keroro a stupid frog again.
"All of them are possessed by violence and sin." She recited. "The planet calls for me-"
Yet again she was consumed by her base impulse.
She got up, not seeming to realize she had almost remembered who she was. She turned around about to leave.
Kululu stopped her though launching himself at her and hugging her to try to keep her there.
Mois dropped to the ground, confused by the small keronian clutching her legs tightly. Kululu hugged her waist keeping her there.
"Don't leave!" Kululu begged, shaking despite himself. He knew he was supposed to act in character, but he couldn't help but feel scared. The memories of his time on Keron texting Mois and not knowing if she was in danger or ignoring him flashed in his head.
He didn't want to be separated from her again. He didn't want her to be in pain and him not knowing.
Mois's head turned slowly to Kululu who had buried his head on the back of her cape.
"I...I was so lonely without you." He admitted, hearing the words but not fully processing that he had said them.
"You...You were?" Mois's eyes seemed to return to normal, not intensely focused on something far off that nobody could see but her.
"I shouldn't have waited. I should have taken you with me to Keron. I should have offered you a new life immediately away from this planet and with me. But I didn't want to appear too clingy or forward. I wanted to go slow." Kululu groaned.
The words seemed to resonate with Mois. She turned around and pulled Kululu into a hug. He was shaking, but now she was too.
Something about the words "I should have taken you with me" meant something to her. She didn't fully know what, but she just let herself speak not fully remembering.
"I'm scared!" She admitted despite herself. "Living without anything...Even now...It's terrifying. I know something about this setting is supposed to be something I know but I don't. I'm so scared. I feel so empty." Mois was crying.
Kululu hugged her tighter. He knew he was partially responsible for this. And he knew deep down that she had been scared this entire time she just hadn't been able to express it, hiding it instead.
He caressed her cheek as she cried.
"My mind was already in shambles. But now it's worse. I'm so scared. And even now I don't know when I'll just disappear. My natural desires are pulling me away into this different person before all of whatever I was." Mois cried. "Kululu, please-" She didn't know what to say. Help me? She didn't even fully remember who he was.
As she looked at the keronian she realized she had already forgotten his name again.
"I'll save you." Kululu promised. Mois didn't have to think and ask for his help. "Wherever your mind goes and wherever you are I promise to save you, Mois."
That reassured her a little. But she had already forgotten what she was doing here. Where was she? She thought she had fallen asleep.
A keronian was in her arms and it looked like she had just been crying. She felt like she had been crying but she didn't know.
"I have to go. The planet calls for me. I can not escape my duty." Were her last words to him.
Kululu looked up at her, her eyes so filled with confusion and fear that they didn't scare him at the moment. He moved up to her still holding her cheek as if to kiss her good-bye.
He stopped himself inches from her lips. She hadn't moved away but she didn't seem to fully know him. She seemed fine with the idea of him kissing her though.
"I'll find you and save you." He promised instead, knowing it wasn't right to kiss her.
And with that she flew off, disappearing from the room somehow.
And Kululu knew he hadn't confessed like Natsumi wanted, but he hoped he had brought Mois back a little bit. He knew at least that she was just scared.
He knew he would save her. He had to.
Truthfully I wrote this chapter like I did because I wanted to practice battle scenes.