"What happened to Koyuki?"

Everyone in the airship turned to look at the large hole that now served as the entrance, where Natsumi stood, disheveled and injured, but back to her normal state of mind. The silence made Natsumi angry and worried. "I said, what happened to Koyuki?"

There was more silence before Pururu answered, "We don't know."

Natsumi bit her lip. "But…she wouldn't leave Dororo. Not in that state he's in."

Even more silence. What had happened while Natsumi was possessed by the dark mass? She had no clue, but now she wanted answers.

Mois looked down, one arm crossed over her chest and holding onto the other arm. "I'm sorry, Natsumi. We haven't seen Koyuki…you could say; missing in action?"

Natsumi clenched her fists, and her teeth dug into her bottom lip even more. "What…what about Giroro?"

There was another long lapse of silence before Kururu chuckled. "Would you like to see for yourself?"

Natsumi jolted, and then ran to the opposite end of the airship, where Kururu sat chuckling before a computer screen. "What do you mean? What happened to Giroro?"

Kururu chuckled even more. "I managed to get some interesting footage. I think you'll enjoy it. Kukuku…"

He pressed a button, and the computer screen became a wave of static, and then showed video footage taken from the sky. Natsumi felt her jaw clench as she saw herself and Giroro battling on the screen. What was the outcome? Had she hurt Giroro? Natsumi couldn't remember a thing.

On the screen, Giroro was climbing onto the branch of a tree, and then lunged at Natsumi. His foot had slipped, and his jump was clumsy. Giroro's tumbling descent was stopped when his lips crashed into Natsumi's, and Giroro fell to the ground.

Kururu was giggling madly, and Natsumi was just staring at the screen, her jaw open wide in shock. Gasps and giggles were heard all around, and only then did Natsumi realize that everyone in the airship who could walk gathered around the computer screen to watch the video footage.

On the screen, Natsumi fell to the ground, and the black mass left her body. Giroro ran over to her, not even aware of the dark mass until it crashed into him. Giroro fell to the ground, and then got up again, and ran away from Natsumi.

The computer screen went blank, and Kururu turned to Natsumi. If Kururu could smile, he would be smiling right now. "Does that answer your question?"

Natsumi just stayed silent, her jaw still hanging loose. Finally, she was able to let out, "What…?"

Keroro suddenly fell to the ground and started rolling on the floor, laughing. "OH MY GOD! Giroro finally kissed Natsumi-dono! And she can't even remember!" he managed to choke out.

Natsumi lifted Keroro and started to strangle him. "GOD DAMNIT, STOP LAUGHING!"

Most everyone else had stopped laughing by now, fearing Natsumi's wrath. Natsumi finally stopped strangling Keroro and dropped him on the ground. She started to walk towards the opening in the airship.

Fuyuki started to move towards Natsumi. "Wait, Nee-chan! Where are you going?"

Natsumi turned around. "I'm going to find Koyuki and Giroro! And when I do, I'll beat the crap out of whoever's responsible for all of the madness here!"

Right as Natsumi turned to leave, Keroro said, "Hey, when you find Giroro, could you give him a kiss for me?"

A laser sword to Keroro's face, and Natsumi was gone.

/

Oh God.

What was this place?

Why was it so dark?

Where where where where where where where

Where was she?

It was pitch black.

She hated it.

There was a sudden ripple in the darkness, as if it was water. The ripples made the darkness disperse, and Koyuki had the shut her eyes with the sudden light. When she was able to open her eyes, she found herself in the middle of a desert. There were mounds of sand as far as the eye could see. The sun above was scorching hot, its burning waves making sweat form on Koyuki's face. But the heat was nothing. The immense pain in the palms of her hands and her feet were unbearable, it was as if someone had stabbed…

Koyuki felt sick when she turned to her left to look at her hand. A large, rusty nail pierced her hand, holding it on a thick wooden board. She looked at her right hand, and then her feet; they were pierced with nails as well, and Koyuki realized that she was a part of some sick crucifying ceremony.

"Are you having fun up there?"

Koyuki jumped when she heard a cold voice behind her. Footsteps walked around the cross, muffled by the sand. Koyuki found herself glaring at the man before her; the same man who had kidnapped her and had…had…

Despite the dry feeling in her mouth, Koyuki managed to gather a large mouthful of spit, which she then sent to the man's face.

The man took out a clean white handkerchief and wiped the spit off his face, as if it was no big deal. "You might want to save that. Unless you want to die of dehydration."

All that Koyuki could manage to say in response was, "You sick bastard."

The masked man put on a mocking smile. "Come now, Koyuki, what happened to all that spunk you had before?"

Koyuki just glared at the man.

A sigh, and the man said, "You really are difficult. Just like that friend of yours. What was his name again? Oh, yes…" The man smirked and began to examine his fingernails, clearly wanting to aggravate Koyuki as much as possible. "Lance Corporal Dororo."

Koyuki grit her teeth, trying not to lose control of herself. "What do you want from us?" she said, her voice trembling with the contained rage.

The man looked up from his fingernails, a nonchalant expression on his face. He began to walk towards Koyuki. "Really? Are you really asking that? I thought it was obvious." His face was right in front of Koyuki's now, and he tilted his head up to make eye contact with her. "I want control of Earth."

Koyuki deepened her glare. "Why?"

The masked man stepped away from Koyuki and sighed. "I suppose I'll show you myself, Koyuki."

The man and the desert background started to swirl, and it was sucked into darkness.

It was like the entire area around Koyuki was a sort of movie screen. She could still feel herself nailed to the cross, but everything else was gone. She was now in the middle of a pure white laboratory, with four Keronians in white gloves and medical masks fiddling with control panels. In the centre of the room, an unconscious black Keronian sat in locked in a metal chair, which was suspended in the air and surrounded by a thick layer of glass. Wires went through small holes in the glass and connected to the Keronian, and two or three IVs were injected into each arm.

One of the scientists, a yellow female Keronian, bit her lip as she flipped a switch. "Now…now inserting the substance into the bloodstream." She seemed nervous, as if what she was doing was wrong.

Blue liquid began to move up the IVs and into the black Keronian's arms. Once the liquid went into his arm, he moaned a bit, and squirmed in his seat.

Another Keronian scientist, this one dark grey, flipped another switch. "Beginning the DNA mutation of subject 42-B," he said.

The other two scientists said nothing, but the yellow Keronian bit her lip. "Say…Kuroro? What do you think...well…what do you think he did to deserve this?"

The grey Keronian, now known to be Kuroro, turned to the yellow Keronian. "I dunno. Murder, conspiracy, smuggling…it could be almost anything."

The yellow Keronian twiddled her white-gloved fingers in her lap. "Yeah, but is anything bad enough to deserve…well…this?"

Kuroro sighed and raised his hand to his temple. "Inono, you are far too innocent. It doesn't matter if subject 42-B deserves it or not. The lab bought him for the sole purpose of this experiment, along with the forty-one others. Purchased just for Experiment B."

Inono twiddled her fingers for a few more seconds, and the only sound was the whirring of machinery. Inono finally said, "What is his name?"

Kuroro looked up from the control switch. "Pardon?"

"His name. What is his name?"

"Inono, that's none of our—"

She moved over to a computer next to the control panel and typed in seemingly random numbers at a rapid pace. After a few moments, Inono sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Jikeke. That's his name."

Kuroro sighed in exasperation. "His name doesn't even matter anymore."

One of the other scientists, this one a deep purple with glasses resting on his face, interrupted Kuroro's and Inono's conversation. "The final stage of the DNA mutation can start now. Are you ready?"

Kuroro nodded, but Inono looked with despair at the glass case that contained Jikeke. "I'm so sorry…"

The four Keronian scientists began typing, flipping switches, and pushing buttons. This went on for about a minute when Jikeke began to scream. He writhed inside of his chair as the wires sparked with electricity. Inono winced at Jikeke's cries of anguish, but continued to do her job.

Koyuki winced as she watched Jikeke writhing in the metal chair. What was the point of this? Why was the masked man showing this to her?

Koyuki's answer came the next moment, when the Keronian began to melt. It began slowly, and Koyuki hardly noticed it; it just started with a small drop of black liquid fell from Jikeke's fingertip. More drops of black liquid then followed suit, until Jikeke looked like something in a painting by Salvador Dali. Koyuki understood what this meant; this was how the dark masses came to be.

All that was left was a black puddle on the floor of the glass cube. Inono looked at it like she was about to die, but Kuroro smiled up at the dark liquid that was once a person. "The experiment was a success."

Koyuki gnawed on her lip as the scene swirled into darkness again. When the vision reformed, there was a small lake with a tree next to it. There were grasslands as far as the eye could see. A small girl in puffy purple clothing sat next to the lake, picking at grass. Koyuki blinked at the girl, and realized that she looked like an Angolian.

Out of nowhere, a large black mass attacked the girl. She screamed as she fell into the lake next to her, and the black mass dove into the water and held her under. A few bubbles escaped and popped on the water's surface, but within a minute, everything was still.

The scene swirled into darkness, and then another scene appeared. It was a small prison cell with only a toilet-sink hybrid and a small bed. A dark grey Keronian sat on the bed, sighing to himself in a melancholy state. Koyuki realized that this was the same Keronian who was in the lab. Kuroro.

Another Keronian who appeared to be a prison guard entered the cell. "You have a visitor," he said.

Before Kuroro could say anything, Inono walked in. "Kuroro…is it true?"

Kuroro snorted. "What's true? That Experiment 42-B escaped at the Angolian base on my watch and killed a girl? Because yes, that is true."

Inono shook her head. "I'm not asking that. I'm asking…is it true…that you were sold to…?"

Kuroro looked at Inono with hesitation before looking away. "Yes. I'm going to be a part of Experiment B now. Just like Jikeke."

Inono twiddled with her fingers. "And…you're doing nothing to try to stop it?"

Kuroro shrugged. "Why should I? They all think that I ordered 42-B to kill that girl."

"But you didn't!"

There was silence, and then Kuroro sighed. "Even if I managed to get out of prison alive, I would be killed. I know too much about all the experiments. They would be afraid that I would try to sell the experiments, or begin a new company and outdo ours. Both situations suck. So I might as well go with the one where I survive."

The prison cell was completely silent. Inono turned back to the door. "Fine. I'll be going then. It…it was nice knowing you, Kuroro."

Another swirl of darkness, another scene. Again, there was the pure white lab. The only difference from the last scene in this lab was that Kuroro was the one in the glass cube now. The seat where Kuroro once sat was now occupied by an orange Keronian with a cigarette sticking out between his teeth.

The same purple Keronian from last time said, "The final stage of the DNA mutation is ready."

The orange Keronian took a drag of his cigarette. "Alrighty. Ya ready, sweet cheeks?"

Inono frowned at the sketch ball trying to flirt with her. She turned to the glass cube with Kuroro inside. Although Inono did not say anything, it was clear that she was just thinking, "I'm sorry."

Kuroro knew that Inono pitied him. He snorted and closed his eyes. He was just trying to be a bigger person, trying to show that he didn't give a shit what happened to him, even as he began to melt into a black pool.

The scene swirled again, and now there was the cockpit of a Keronian ship. Koyuki nearly gasped when she recognized who was inside.

Garuru stood with his arms crossed. "I don't understand how this new experiment will help with the Pekoponian invasion."

Pururu turned around in her chair to look at Garuru. "I'm not quite sure, but they say that the experiment's strength is immense."

Garuru snorted. "Does anyone know what the experiment actually is? Because as far as I know, there's just a large metal box in the holding bay, nothing more."

The scene swirled into black, and then Koyuki found herself in the desert again. The masked man stood in front of her. "Do you understand now?"

Koyuki struggled to find any words, but she finally managed to stutter out, "But…you...Kuroro?"

In one swift motion, the masked man was perhaps one inch away from Koyuki. "I thought you would understand that I have no past, I just am what I am right now until I morph into something else."

Koyuki grimaced at the man so close to her. "I think that the one here who doesn't understand this is you. You do have a past, and what you just showed me proves it."

The masked man smirked. "But what if what I showed you never even happened, and I showed it to you just to toy with your mind?"

Koyuki smiled back. "If it was a complete lie, then showing it to me would be a complete waste of time."

"Not if I wanted to toy with your mind."

"But what if you showed me the truth, and now you're trying to convince me not to believe it?"

"So you really believe that what you saw was the truth?"

"Yes I do…Kuroro."

The masked man paused, and then stepped back from Koyuki. "You know what? I like playing this game with you. We might have time to play again later. After I kill your friends, of course."

Koyuki glared at him. "I don't care if it's me, or one of my friends, or someone on the other side of the world. No matter what it takes, we will defeat you."