Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
And thus begins the second arc.
One Month later
Natsumi lay on the sofa, switching channels on the TV. She was at her home, not the agency. She couldn't bare to look at Keroro and Saburo's faces.
She hadn't been able to speak to them in a month. Actually everyone at the agency she hadn't spoken to. She didn't know if she could still take missions- More Peach Summer Snow didn't exist any longer. The only ones who had survived were Peach and Summer.
"Are...Are you feeling any better, sis?" Fuyuki asked, trying to check up on her. He had brought her a meal. He had heard about what happened with Mois but wasn't as shaken up.
Natsumi barely looked up at him. She had barely spoken to anyone actually in the month. Except Momoka. She could talk to Momoka fine.
Even her own brother she hadn't spoken to.
Fuyuki left her food there for her. "Please...Eat up, okay?" He asked, "It's not healthy skipping meals so much."
Natsumi gave a small nod. But everything tasted bland. Like ash. Like what Mois's body was now.
"And the statue to honor the brave heroine who defeated 966 has been finished!" One of the news channels stated, "966's final stages of his plan were exposed and despite an entire city being destroyed in the process, this brave heroine from the team known as More Peach Summer Snow went in with a bomb and managed to destroy him and herself in the process. We thank the brave hero More and will remember her forever fondly!" A sheet was pulled off a statue of Angol Mois.
Natsumi grit her teeth. The agency had leaked the story of 966's plot to the government and news sites so they knew how much they had saved them. They had made Mois into a martyr, a hero, instead of what she really was- a victim.
Natsumi turned off the TV. Mois was being celebrated everywhere for something she hadn't chosen to do. It was a disgrace to her memory.
"You saw the news too, huh?" Momoka asked walking into Natsumi's house. She too was looking rather skinny, taking the grief personally. She had heard that Momoka had stopped talking to everyone in the month too.
"A statue for killing 966, huh?" Natsumi asked, "I bet Mois is crying up there in the afterlife, considering she loved him."
Momoka slumped on the couch.
"Fuyuki's here. Do you want to talk to him?" Natsumi asked.
"He doesn't understand what we went through. What happened." Momoka told her, "Some things are more important than childish crushes."
Natsumi's eyes opened. "So...It's true that you've been ignoring him too. Are you...Are you over him?" She asked.
"Not to be rude, but I haven't had much time to feel any sort of romantic feelings or affection when one of my best friends died!" Momoka sounded irritated. "I..I can't feel anything except regret...I bet the Nishizawa money funded those experiments you know. They must have been expensive. In a way I made that bomb that killed her."
"Don't...Don't say that. It wasn't your fault." Natsumi tried to reassure.
"How can it not be? I have a responsibility. It's always my fault. How can I have so much power and be so powerless. Why do the guards, Paul, decide things for me? Why won't they let me see where the finances are going because I'm not in charge yet? I need to know!" Momoka cried. "I...I can't sleep. I wonder if my money did fund killing her? I can't touch any money."
Natsumi put her arm around Momoka. "I know. I know."
"Should we go into work? Or are we quitting? Is...Is Peach Summer dead?" Momoka asked.
"I don't know." Natsumi shook her head. "I want to be a spy, but...They killed Mois. We're the only ones left. Will they kill us too?"
"We can't protect each other. We couldn't even protect Mois." Momoka told her.
"I...I think I'm going in tomorrow. I need to ask Mom something. If she knew..." Natsumi told her.
"Okay." Momoka nodded, "I'll go in too. Tamama hasn't been that sad about Mois despite that she went to his school, but he has been trying to help me. He's been talking to me. I haven't talked back, but he's been trying..."
Natsumi nodded. They'd go in tomorrow then.
The moment she walked into the agency, Giroro's eyes lit up.
"So...So you came back. You're feeling better, then?" He asked.
Natsumi shook her head. "I came to see Mom. She hasn't been home in a while and here's the only place I know she'll be."
Giroro nodded. He could see that she looked sad. That warrior spirit he loved looked broken. "Natsumi, I heard you haven't been talking or eating much in the last month?"
She gave a small nod.
"Why haven't you come talked to me? Out of everyone I can understand what you're going through." Giroro told her.
Natsumi's eyes widened. He was right. And he sounded hurt that she hadn't gone to him. "You didn't seek me out." She pointed out.
"I assume you needed time to be alone. I know I did." Giroro told her. "But you're back...Is there anything I can do to help you?"
"Can...Can you talk to me? About how you got through it. When Pururu died." Natsumi begged.
Giroro gave a small nod, he beckoned her onto a couch so she could sit comfortably. She was so small and weak looking at the moment. Nowhere near the strong warrior he had fought or the girl in the convenience store talking about spies.
She squirmed into the couch to get comfortable, leaning onto his arm. She didn't even care enough to tease him. She just wanted comfort.
Giroro didn't mind. He wasn't so petty to only like her at her best. "I was twelve. We were told it was a rescue mission, get into a remote government location and rescue the target." Giroro begun, "But it was a lie, we weren't being put in danger for a person's life. We were retrieving information. A briefcase with blueprints to weapons. It was heavily guarded. Just getting to the location was a week's journey in the dessert. When we fled all sorts of traps were sprung. One of which was a bridge. Keroro crossed it first, being the leader. He held the briefcase. After he crossed it, it went out. Pururu, Dororo and I were supposed to jump the gap. Dororo easily made the jump. So did I. We expected Pururu would too. But she was a medic, not a soldier like us. While she jumped a plane flew by with biochemicals spraying her with these sort of acid like things. The burns covered her body, Keroro threw out a rope to catch her and and her spine broke. She wasn't yet dead. Dororo and I pulled her out and immediately carried her off for medical attention as she screamed. It took 24 hours to get her back, just her screaming. But when we brought her back the agency told us that her spine could never be repaired. She sat in a hospital bed dying painfully. Dororo and I always suspected that the agency could have healed her but didn't because of her spine, if she could only move her head after all she wasn't useful to them. Eventually they gave her a needle that poisoned her, to put her out of her misery. They didn't give us time to say our good-byes. Her last seconds were a lot less painful than the hours of pain they put her through just to tell us they couldn't do anything. They weren't even operating! They just asked Keroro if he wanted to give her the injection to put her out of her misery. He shook his head every time but eventually gave in after she begged in the 48th hour." Giroro explained, his fist was shaking.
Natsumi looked up at him horrified. "What...What happened to you, Dororo and the stupid frog after seeing that?"
"Keroro took it the worst initially. Dororo and I were in shock. I was just vomiting and sick for a while. But Keroro blamed himself first as a leader. After a week he put everything he had into being loyal to the agency and tried to make Dororo and I closer to him. He was desperate to not lose us too. A week after that my brother died. I didn't much talk to anyone but Keroro didn't give me my space. Dororo had creative differences with both of us and just straight up left. He was angry. I left too after Garuru died. Garuru was horrified at what happened to Pururu. He was like our mentor, kind of like what Keroro is to you. I think he and Pururu were oddly close and he...He couldn't take one of us dying. He thought he'd fight back but he ended up dying himself." Giroro sighed.
"After I left the agency I spent five years on my own. Two of those years locked up in my own house crying, three trying to figure out who I was and what I had in my life. The fifth year I started working for 966 deciding to market myself to super-villain's and I agreed with his vision at the time..." Giroro sighed, "And now I'm back. Finally facing what happened. So it took me ten years to recover."
Natsumi was shaking. She buried her face in Giroro's shirt. Would it take her ten years to recover from Mois?
"You'll bounce back quicker. You have Momoka. I think my mistake was losing contact with Keroro and Dororo. They needed me too after all." Giroro told her, "But you've been keeping contact with Momoka. You're there for each other. I can't imagine how tough things are for Koyuki all alone."
Natsumi nodded. She didn't want to recover though. Mois wasn't a phase. She was a person.
A dead person.
After crying it out on Giroro, Natsumi finally went to her mother who was finishing up some paperwork.
"Oh, Natsumi, honey! How are you doing? I heard from Fuyuki over the phone that you were quite sick." Aki seemed concerned.
Natsumi frowned. "Did you know?"
"That you were sick?" Aki asked.
"No. About the bomb in my friend." Natsumi clarified.
Aki gave a deep sigh, "Yes." She admitted, "I had a clearance level to know about it. I told you that being a spy was dangerous, people die, your friends die, my husband died in this job..."
"You knew and you didn't tell me." Natsumi was silent, "You didn't stop it or complain against it."
"There are some things you don't need to know. You knew that well enough when you were idolizing this place. I know I don't have clearance to some secrets!" Aki pouted. "Natsumi, honey, I'm sorry."
"So, Saburo, you and the stupid frog were responsible. You didn't stop it when you could have. Mois is dead because of all of you!" Natsumi shouted. Her shout was so loud that it felt like the wall cracked.
Aki turned her head. The wall really had cracked. But it wasn't from Natsumi's shout. They were being attacked.
The underground- the ninjas were back. And they were led by none other than the ex-agent Koyuki. Koyuki's eyes were cold.
"Where the hell is Keroro?" She growled.
Keroro spun into the room from a wheely chair across the hall. "Here I am! Ooops." He announced.
"Throw them all into containment units. All except him. He's mine." Koyuki hissed, pointing to Keroro. She pulled out a knife and darted at him.
Natsumi's eyes widened at seeing her old friend.
"Koyuki-" Natsumi spoke the name in barely a whisper. The wound from her betrayal was still fresh. She hadn't seen her for a long time and she didn't know how Koyuki had taken the news of Mois.
Koyuki threw darts at agent and agent aiming fully for Keroro. Nishizawa guards, agents in the office, including Aki, tried to fight off the darts and the ninja but Koyuki was a potent killing mission.
Finally Koyuki reached Keroro. "You killed her. You killed Mois." She told him, "She was my friend. We were the same, imprisoned by this place. She always believed in you. And you planted a bomb in her." Her eyes were red and puffy. "You don't deserve life." She placed her blade at his throat. "You've made me kill so many people this way, made me a perfect assassin. Be prepared to meet the same end."
Keroro didn't act scared. "I'm sorry." He apologized, "I'm so sorry for what happened to Mois. I'm..I'm sad too. You don't understand how sad I am. I'd like to say it wasn't my fault, but it was. So kill me if you can and think it's right."
Natsumi gulped. She knew it wasn't really right to kill Keroro. Saburo had been the one responsible. Keroro was hurting too. He had tried to save her despite his orders.
She hurled herself at Koyuki, throwing her towards the wall away from Keroro. "It's not his fault." She defended.
"Not his fault? What are you talking about, Natsumi? You loved Mois too! It's all their fault! The agency knew! They didn't tell any of us! If they did I could have brought her to the underground too. We could have been working on how to save her! I could have saved her!" Koyuki shouted.
Natsumi looked at her with utter pity. Koyuki was her enemy. Her foe, no longer her friend, but she felt so sorry for her. They were experiencing the same pain.
"She would have just blown up with you. They would have detonated her there." Natsumi told her, "And then you both would have been dead."
Koyuki cursed. "He should die for tricking us! He pretended to mentor us for years when he knew she was just doomed to die! He said he'd protect us! Save us from going through the same fate! And he didn't have any plans! So he's going to die." She brought up her knife again.
Natsumi grabbed her wrist and struggled against her. She was outmatched against Koyuki, especially because she hadn't eaten in a while. But Koyuki was violent and not thinking properly.
Eventually she threw Natsumi to the side. She was different. The old Koyuki would have never bruised Natsumi.
She walked forward to Keroro. Keroro didn't run.
"Lady Koyuki, this was not the plan." A ninja appeared out of smoke behind her. He draped his arm around her waist pulling her to him away from Keroro.
"I don't care, Dororo! He hurt her! He hurt Mois!" Koyuki cried.
"I doubt that. Keroro might be manipulative and a bit of a bully, but he wouldn't kill someone. He was probably just as manipulated as the rest." Dororo told her, "Please don't kill him. He's my friend."
"Dororo...It's you." Keroro realized. Dororo had grown up to look like a reject vocaloid, still wearing his mask over his mouth but also having long bright pink hair, like cherry blossoms. He had calm pale eyes and a sword by his side and was dressed in light blue.
"I'm sorry Mois died, Lady Koyuki. You know I am. We never planned this. We wanted the agency and 966 to destroy each other. We had planned for More Peach Summer Snow to not get caught up in it." Dororo apologized, "The agency is truly evil."
Koyuki leaned into his hug. Natsumi realized after a moment that Dororo was doing a pressure hold to relax her and make her more docile.
"Sorry, I will try to talk to her later." Dororo apologized, "But we have a plan to go through."
Giroro walked into the room with a gun. He had taken out quite a few ninjas. "So you were the true villain. Manipulating things behind the scene using Koyuki who was working for 966, the agency and you." Giroro hissed, "And your plan is to kill us?"
"No. To destroy the agency. The underground has grown tired of you, we'll be the real spy organization of this country. We don't need to pretend to be heroes." Dororo told him, "Ninjas, lock them up. They're not to be killed. They aren't the ones in charge of this operation. The three heads are and those our our targets."
Keroro frowned. "Dororo- What will you do with us? Are we just your prisoners?"
Dororo nodded. "Giroro, you left the agency when you realized they were evil too. I doubt you're here because you like them."
"I don't. I'm here for Natsumi." Giroro admitted.
"Then you're free to go. You are not my enemy." Dororo gave him a small nod and his eyes twinkled with a smile. He hadn't spoken to him in years but he still felt friendship for him.
"Koyuki! How could you work for these guys?" Natsumi yelled, "They're going to trap us and they're just replacing one place with another. You might have been able to save Mois if you stayed you know."
Koyuki frowned. "That's not true!" She shook her head, "And it's easy to know why I'm working with them. I believe in their goals. They're nice to me, they give me freedom. Dororo is my friend too. The agency didn't give me any freedom, they locked me up here, used me as a tool. But I suppose you didn't really notice because you were too happy with your spy life." She hissed.
Natsumi felt hurt. "They're manipulating you!"
"No. No they aren't. I chose to go to them." Koyuki told her honestly. "I'm happy with my choice. Are you happy with yours to stay with the agency?"
Natsumi didn't know.
It had been years ago, on a mission that she first met Dororo. It was before the creation of More Peach Summer Snow.
It was a simple assassination mission. Kill this guy who had been trying to start a personal army that he would use to overthrow the government.
He was at a fancy ball. Koyuki had been watching from the ceiling with a blow dart. It would be a simple hit, and then instant death.
A panel on the ceiling opened up to reveal another person. "Are you trying to kill him too?" The pink haired man asked.
"Don't tell me we got put on the same mission." Koyuki frowned. "Who do you work for?"
"I'm guessing you work for the agency." Dororo frowned, "Well then I can't give you the hit. I hate the agency. It'll be my kill."
Koyuki shook her head. It would not. She couldn't let someone else kill the guy! It was her job! She pulled a knife out of her boot, ready to fight.
The two dropped down from the ceiling, ready to battle in hand to hand combat. The guy pulled out his sword and the two clashed.
They were both tough. It might be the fight of their life. They could kill each other.
"STOP!" Someone yelled, "This is the police! You have been found to violate several laws, fighting with weapons in a public gathering." The police officer grabbed both of them before they could do lasting damage, both of them cut up. "Off to jail with both you nut jobs."
"Well, this is different." Dororo admitted.
Their weapons were confiscated and they were thrown into a jail cell. Koyuki just sighed.
"I can't fail!" She yelled, "The agency will be so mad at me! My only purpose is to kill...What am I if I've failed?" She asked.
Dororo looked at her with pity as she paced around. "So you really are from the agency. And you've got no purpose except to kill..." He sighed. What a pity. "You won't have no purpose! He tried to reassure. You're very strong. Feel pride in your abilities. After all look at how much damage you did to me. I can't even walk, you nicked a tendon in my leg..." He winced in pain. "You're good."
Koyuki's eyes widened a little shocked. "T-thanks." She smiled a bit.
"I've failed too. I was supposed to be the best assassin. But you were on par with me." Dororo told her.
Koyuki bent down to look at his leg. "Want me to bandage this up?" She asked.
Dororo looked at her, "You'd do that? I just told you that I was an assassin. Your enemy."
"We're both prisoners now. It doesn't matter." Koyuki shrugged. She tore some cloth from her pant leg and tried to bandage his leg up. She had a pouch with herbs in it.
Dororo watched her. She was kind.
"I've failed already...So let's start over. Where are you from? You're an assassin like me...What's your name?" Koyuki asked with a bit of interest.
"Dororo." Dororo told her, "I'm from an organization a bit different from yours. It's called the underground. It exists as a sort of black market spy group in the shadows. You probably don't have the clearance level to have heard about it."
Koyuki looked a bit surprised. "My name's Koyuki." She greeted.
Dororo smiled.
Koyuki was very silent for a moment. "What's it like there? Is it like the agency? Do they make you kill a lot of people? Do you have any friends? How often do you go outside?"
"It's not like the agency. Our followers have freedom. We can leave as we want, and because of that we have loyalty. Family everywhere." Dororo told her, "Although we do do some bad things. We are in no way heroes. We don't con ourselves into thinking we are, like the agency does. We do what's necessary to create peace."
Koyuki looked interested.
"I go outside whenever I want. The forest is a wonderful place to mediate." Dororo smiled, "But I do not have many friends. Family, yes, but because of my different upbringing I'm a little isolated there, and...Easily forgotten." He pouted.
"You don't seem like the forgettable type. I don't think I could forget about you." Koyuki smiled, "It sounds kind of nice. I have no family, but I do have one friend. She's another agent like me. I...I don't get to go outside though. I'd love to see a forest. Smell the trees."
"The flowers. Smell the flowers." Dororo corrected. He felt sorry for her. She was such a nice girl. He sighed. "You can have the assassination when we get out of here. I'll give you the hit and let you win, on a few conditions."
"What?" Koyuki asked.
"Remember my name. But do not tell anyone about me." Dororo told her, "Remember me, and let me be your friend in your heart."
Koyuki looked into his eyes. "I swear on my life. I will remember you."
Dororo knew she was telling the truth. She was quite kind.
After they escaped, Dororo made it his personal mission to free Koyuki from the mental binds that the agency had put on her that she had to be loyal. That she was a tool.
On her missions he would shadow her and sometimes take her to the forest to meditate with him afterward. They taught each other moves and he told her about his time in the agency.
It was their secret. The waterfall where they met was their secret haven. Dororo was her secret, and she was his.
He tried to convince her that the agency was evil, to leave, that he could help free her. But it took years to talk her through the inhumane things they had done to her. To get her to realize wrong things were happening.
By the time he had convinced her to hate them with a passion she had met Natsumi. She vented about the agency constantly.
"I want a family. I want freedom. I don't want to be here anymore, Dororo." She told him, glad he had helped her finish her mission quickly. They painted each others nails.
Her conditioning was gone, and she was even giving him small secrets of the agency's to help his organization.
"Then let me help you. Lady Koyuki you are my best friend. We've known each other for years. Let me free you from the agency, come join me in the underground. We'd be happy to have you. You'd have a home there everyone would love to welcome you as part of our family." Dororo told her.
Koyuki opened her mouth for a moment. This was the first time Dororo had pushed her into an offer of leaving. She knew he wanted her to leave, to help her, but she also knew he knew she wasn't ready to throw away the threads of loyalty that she had because of abuse. "I want to leave." She told him, "But not now."
"Why not?" Dororo asked, "I thought you felt nothing for them any longer."
"Because to be a true member of the underground I need to be a good spy. Let me be your agency on the inside, at least until you've destroyed them. I can help you guys. Bring me to the underground. Introduce me to them, I'll be your inside agent. And when we've beaten the agency then I'll fully be free." Koyuki suggested.
Dororo nodded. He would have put his plan to destroy the agency on hold for her safety but if she wanted to help he would let her.
"All right. They'll love you." And he took her with him.
She was so happy to be home when she was brought back to the lair. "Welcome home, Koyuki. For the first time." Dororo smiled.
She hugged him.
There was only one way to defeat the agency. And it was to destroy the heads. The agency wouldn't be evil any longer or recover from it. The three heads had created this place and it would burn after they were gone.
Dororo had only seen them through holograms. But he would find them.
"For Koyuki, for Pururu...For everybody." He vowed.
One of my goals in this story was to write more Koyuki. And I've done that okay-ish. But Dororo kind of got jilted like usual in my stories. Even in his big flashbacks I couldn't bring myself to write too much for him and Koyuki.
Which is sad because I do ship Dorokoyu, it's just I need to get better at writing it.
The scene could have been cool, two rival spies fighting. I'm so sorry Dororo.
Please review.