Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
Sorry for the short chapter. But hey, at least things are finally starting to happen!
Next chapter's mostly a flashback chapter though. Sorry. =( And it features...You guessed it, kurumois! Because I am a weak, sad little thing.
I'm so weak.
Tamama and Natsumi looked straight into the forest at the bottom of the mountain.
Koyuki or Giroro could be here, Natsumi thought to herself. She didn't know if either of them were living in that particular forest, but she really hoped they were.
"Ready?" Tamama asked, looking over at Natsumi. Natsumi nodded. The two hesitantly stepped into the forest and it seemed to swallow them up.
It was a few hours of tromping through the woods before Natsumi triggered a trap, stepping on a wire on the ground.
Sharp ninja blades flew at her, but Natsumi quickly dodged.
"I think we found where Dororo and Koyuki might be hiding." She grinned, grabbing a log on the ground to use as her shield.
"Is this whole place booby-trapped?" Tamama asked. "Are you going to be okay, Natchi?"
"Of course I am. I'm tough." She flexed her arms. "And anyway, I know Koyuki. I know about her classic traps. We should be able to avoid them if we're careful."
Tamama smiled.
"Or, we can just trigger everything so we don't have to be bothered with it!" she said.
Tamama frowned. That level of thinking was on Giroro's level!
Triggering every trap proved to be a mistake. A paper bomb went off near Tamama. Tamama tried to dodge, but his body was too small to get away.
Natsumi swung toward him and hit him out of the way of the explosion.
"Thanks Natchi," Tamama wheezed. He had forgotten how strong she was. It seemed she hadn't lost any of her skills over the years too.
He was glad she was his partner, working with him.
"You're welcome," she told him. And the two continued walking through the forest. "So..." Natsumi cleared her throat awkwardly trying to make conversation while they walked. "Why was I in a hospital when I awoke? Why didn't Fuyuki keep me close to him or something? He had the materials." She wondered why he had shipped her off to a hospital, where they were going to unplug her eventually. Did Fuyuki just no longer care about her?
Tamama kept on making his way through the forest. "I don't know. When I was with Fukki, you lived inside the Hinata house. I don't know how you got to the hospital."
Natsumi nodded and continued walking.
Eventually the two came across a tiny cabin, all alone in the woods. "Look!"
She recognized the design of the cabin. It closely resembled a ninja cottage.
"Dororo..." Tamama smiled. After all this time, Dororo was finally within his reach.
"Koyuki." Natsumi smiled. She wanted to grab her friend and hug her, to cry in her arms. Even though Koyuki might now be a fair bit older than her.
The door opened of the cottage and Dororo stood decked out in assassin gear in front of them. "I knew someone triggered the traps."
"Dororo!" Tamama greeted. Dororo sprung at him with his sword at hand, it looked as if he was trying to attack Tamama.
"Assassin magic, clean cut!" Dororo yelled. Natsumi kicked Tamama out of the way of Dororo's blade. A tree fell down behind Tamama, cut by Dororo's blade. Tamama winced.
"We come in peace Dororo! What's the big deal?" Natsumi asked waving her hands. Dororo seemed to stop when he saw Natsumi.
"Lady Natsumi!" He looked at her in awe. "You're awake." He seemed to put his sword down as if he trusted Natsumi more than Tamama.
"Please don't attack Tamama." Natsumi begged Dororo. Dororo dipped his head in respect.
"I am sorry." Dororo apologized. "Would you like to come inside for tea? I apologize for my lack of respect and attacking you. It was instinct, but it was wrong."
Natsumi smiled. "We'd love some tea. We have a lot to discuss."
Dororo nodded and let them in his house.
He set three teacups down for them, before making a weird chirping noise, resembling a bird call.
Tamama and Natsumi exchanged a glance, weirdly. What was that about?
"Sorry. I just like to talk to the birds outside," Dororo apologized.
Natsumi nodded. "You have a wonderful house." She tried to make awkward conversation and compliment him.
"Thank you. And I am glad you are feeling well instead of being sick, Lady Natsumi." He seemed to be watching Natsumi the most, and happily, although his eyes would shift to Tamama, sometimes distrusting.
"Why did you attack me, Dororo? I'm your old platoon mate! Remember the great times we had in the Keroro Platoon?" Tamama asked, trying to remind Dororo. Dororo stroked his teacup.
"Some of the memories from the old platoon weren't exactly good. And the Keroro Platoon has disbanded, as you know. We all went our separate ways after... After his noble sacrifice." Dororo still seemed distraught about his friend's death.
Ah... he wants to cut off the memories from his old platoon. Natsumi realized. That, or her brother had caused so many betrayals throughout the world that Dororo was just distrustful of anyone who had lived through Fuyuki's dictatorship.
"So Dororo... the reason we came here was to ask you for help - " Tamama tried to get out his plea to fight against Fuyuki, but Natsumi stopped him, finding her question to be more pressing.
"Where's Koyuki?" she asked. She hadn't seen her friend yet anywhere in the house.
"She... couldn't make it. But it was her greatest wish to see you alive and well, Lady Natsumi." Dororo was vague. The words he used were polite. but felt like a kick in the gut.
Natsumi started at him in shock. Couldn't make it? Did... Did she die too? No... No, not another one! She could feel the tears slipping down her cheeks at the aspect of the loss of her precious friend.
"You know... She was the one who moved you to the hospital you probably woke up in. She paid for your treatment after she realized you needed rare technology and alien tech to live," Dororo admitted in a quiet voice.
Natsumi felt another punch in the gut. When she had awoken, they had told her that her treatment had run out. That the money was out.
Koyuki was definitely gone. She was dead. She let out a muffled cry as she covered her mouth.
Dororo didn't know what to say, so he just sipped his tea. "I'm sorry... I, too, am still in mourning."
"But why did Natchi have to be moved to a hospital?" Tamama wondered.
"Koyuki used to work for Fuyuki as the guard of Lady Natsumi back in his fortress. She loved the job and was devoted to keeping her safe, however... Lady Natsumi's room was right next to Keroro's. After a few Harvests, Koyuki finally caught on that Fuyuki was the one doing them and the reason why. She didn't feel it was safe having Lady Natsumi there, so she stole her away and took her to a hospital instead. She was so devoted to Lady Natsumi. She even went undercover as a citizen to work and get money to pay for your treatment... I heard about how much she missed you, Lady Natsumi," Dororo explained.
"So you only kept in contact with Koyuki? As I expected," Tamama deduced, wondering where Dororo had been off to since the platoon separation.
"Yes. She helped me work through my remaining issues with Keroro. After... After he died, I left to go on the mountains and reflect on our relationship. You know, before he died he went to me during the war and apologized... Apologized for everything. I held some resentment toward him until he died, and I felt miserable for having never said to his face, 'I forgive you.' Koyuki was the one who helped me work through that. At first we stayed in touch via letters, but after she took Lady Natsumi to the hospital, I rejoined her and helped her work," Dororo told him.
Natsumi listened. She was truly gifted to have a friend like Koyuki who had worked to help her until the bitter end.
She wanted to ask how she had died, but she didn't know if she could bare the thought of that Koyuki might have overworked herself to death, for her.
"Dororo... I came here to talk to you about the Harvest. It seems you know about the purpose of it, to bring back Mr. Sergeant." Tamama tried to wheel the conversation back to why he was there. "I want to stop it. And I was wondering if you could help me. If we got the old platoon back together I'm sure we could stop Fukki and that woman!"
Dororo looked sad. "I hate the Harvest more than anything else," he said. "It's good for nobody. But... sadly, I have a more important goal at the present moment. So I do not have time to fight a battle."
"A more important goal?" Natsumi asked confused. At that moment the door slid open, and a little boy walked into the house. He had dark green hair like Koyuki's and light blue eyes. He looked to be about five or so and was carrying some flowers in his hands.
He dropped the flowers when he saw the visitors.
"Kohizou! Didn't you hear the signal? I told you to hide!" Dororo scolded the young child.
"I... I wanted to see what was going on." Kohizou admitted that he had disobeyed.
Natsumi just stared at his face. It resembled Koyuki's.
"So... this is the goal you were talking about," Tamama realized. "Um... we better leave." He put his cup down, knowing Dororo wouldn't abandon his kid for a battle.
He turned around to leave, but Dororo unsheathed his blade. "I'm sorry. But now that you have seen Kohizou, I can not allow you to leave. I promised Koyuki that I'd protect our son at all costs. And... if you leave you might tell someone. There's always that risk."
"Your son?" Natsumi looked at Kohizou. So... Koyuki and Dororo had had a child while she was away. "We won't tell anybody. Don't worry. I wouldn't do anything to endanger Koyuki's child!" Natsumi insisted.
"It is not you I'm worried about. It is my old platoon mate." Dororo's eyes slanted. The Keroro Platoon was over. Instead of helping each other through the grief of losing Keroro, they had all gone their separate ways, and Dororo seemed to be distrustful of Tamama because of him abandoning the rest, even though they had all done the same.
They had fallen to pieces.
"How... How did Koyuki die? I'm sure she wouldn't want this." Natsumi tried to reason with Dororo. But Dororo seemed to only want to protect his son.
"She died protecting Kohizou, Lady Natsumi. She would have done anything to protect him," he told her. "And since she is now dead, the duty falls to me. It is what I promised her."
Natsumi still seemed to be looking at him, waiting for an explanation as to how her friend died.
"I suppose you deserve to know what happened, Lady Natsumi," he realized. "It happened while we were on the run trying to keep Fuyuki away from you. Kohizou had just been born, but... his name was drawn for the Harvest. He was going to be taken away to be murdered, but Koyuki wouldn't let that happen. She wouldn't let our child die. So she pretended that her name had been drawn instead when the guards came to our house. They took her away, falling for her trick. She told me to protect Kohizou... And that was the last I saw of her. I soon took him to move out into the forest, hoping that they couldn't track us down."
Natsumi covered her mouth. It was that Harvest again. Koyuki this time had been a victim. "That's terrible. But... she wouldn't want you to hurt Tamama for her!" she insisted. Dororo looked up at Natsumi with sad eyes.
"I don't want Kohizou's name on that list ever again. It was because someone saw her with him that he was there to begin with... I can't risk it." He looked sad, like he himself was fighting it too.
But he ran toward Tamama, ready to attack anyway.
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