A Collision of Heaven and Earth
Episode 14: Role Reversal
I fluttered in and out of consciousness. I remember voices – "The bullet hit an artery," they said – and little hands and fingers all over me. There was a needle with some kind of anesthetic, maybe, and whirring, hot, mechanical tools like nothing I'd ever seen in a doctor's office or hospital. Sometimes the voices spoke to me in my half-awake, half-hallucinating dreamland. At some point Kululu joined them, and I wondered how much time had passed. I wasn't sure if he was human or Keronian, but I know he was weaving his magic healing stitches into my leg.
It wasn't until much later that I felt scrunched – like, abnormally small, like when I would play hide and seek as a little kid and fit myself into a breathtakingly tiny space. When I came to, my face was angled toward my outstretched hand, but the hand I saw wasn't mine. It was little and pink and had tiny baby fingers. I wiggled my own fingers, and the baby fingers wiggled in response.
The funk gradually lifted off my brain and I realized I was Keronian.
There was a Keronian nurse in the room, and I guess she noticed I was starting to panic because she immediately rushed to my bedside. "Miss, please calm down! This is only temporary."
I had sat up and was still staring at my chubby, short arms and little fingers, breathing heavily. My body felt cool and dry. I needed something to drink.
"We had to reverse the body-transformation technology to fit you on the ship," The nurse told me, handing me a bottle of war. Still not quite believing what I was seeing and feeling, I accepted and guzzled the water.
"What happened?" I finally managed to ask, quenched.
"The others who came with you were able to tell us the location of your hideout," she said. "We sent several teams out to the underground tunnels with food, weapons, medical supplies, and the like."
My shoulders sagged with relief. The mission had been a success, after all.
"Also, another thing – there are a few people who chose not to return to the hideout. They're on the ship, waiting for you."
I smiled. "Is it Giroro, Dororo, and Koyuki?"
"More than that," the nurse replied. "The rest of the original scouting platoon is here, as well as the rest of – what do they call you? The Five? And also Lady Mois of Angol."
"Oh, dear. All of them?"
"Yes, Miss."
Getting out of bed was weird. It would have been bad enough if I was just learning how to walk on little amphibian alien legs, but on top of that, one of them had been recently injured. Kululu's healing thread certainly did its job well, but I still felt like I was recovering from a bad sprain or something. Thankfully, the nurse accompanied me out of the room, holding my hand like I was a three-year-old.
Tamama and Keroro were the first to see me. Running into them while they were in their frog forms was so nostalgic for me, even though Tamama had lost his tail and the white on his face was receding. They both launched dramatically into a bout of waterworks and threw their arms around me.
"Oh, Natsumi, I thought you were gonna die," Tamama wailed in anguish.
"I forgive you for all the mean things you've ever said to me," Keroro added through his waterfall of tears.
I patted them on the back. "Thanks. You guys seem very sincere."
They dragged me through the corridors of the mother ship until I got to what looked like some sort of recreational room with a few of what I can only describe as the Keronian equivalent to arcade games, and a few other tabletop games similar to ping pong or foosball. Kululu sat on a bench in the corner of the room, closest to me out of everyone in there. He had a laptop resting on his knees and was typing away.
"Oh, Natsumi," he greeted me. "I see my stitching worked quite well."
"My leg's still a little sore, but I feel great. Thanks," I said, demonstrating a weak little kick with my bad leg.
I looked around the room. Dororo and a dark greenish-teal frog who I could only assume was Koyuki were concentrating hard on a game that seemed similar to air hockey, but involved magnets and a floating disc. The others were gathered around the table, enthralled by their game. Dororo managed to knock a disc into Koyuki's goal and everyone threw their hands in the air and shouted among themselves. From the back I recognized Giroro, who stood at the edge of the crowd with his arms crossed.
He hadn't noticed me, so I moved forward; I touched his shoulder and he turned. If I'd had any leftover misgivings about him at all, they were destroyed in that moment. Seeing his face, the one I remembered from my adolescence, the body that sat beside me and kept me company by the fire every night... It sent a flurry of butterflies into a frenzy in my belly. Giroro took a moment to recognize me in my frog form, but I assumed it was similar to what I'd felt upon seeing him as a human – that strange sense of familiarity.
He grabbed my hand. "I'm glad you're okay."
"Me too," I joked, but continued, "In all seriousness, thank you for helping me."
"Hey! It's Natsumi!"
Our moment was interrupted by Momoka, who came bounding over. She was little and light blue, and her hat had similar spikes to the cowlicks in her hair. "We were so worried! How's your leg?"
Fuyuki, a much darker blue tone, joined her, followed shortly by Koyuki, who abandoned her game in favor of fawning over me. They nearly tackled me over and re-injured me with a huge group hug. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Saburo – a silvery-white frog wearing that same yellow beanie – standing off to the side.
"Come here, dummy," I told him. "We're not five without you."
Wordlessly, he shrugged, and I managed to snatch the hem of his hat and drag him into the cuddle pile. I kind of enjoyed being a Keronian. We were all so small and cute, our skin soft, and it almost made me feel like a little kid again. When we broke from our hug, the five of us sat in a semicircle on the floor, allowing Keroro's platoon and a little white and purple frog – Angol Mois – to join us.
"Okay, so we contacted the Keronians," I began. "What's next?"
Momoka heaved a frustrated sigh. "They gave us as much aid that they could, but the Keronians have declined to give us any back-up."
"They'd rather not send their own soldiers to Earth. It would give Pekoponian governments the wrong idea," Keroro chimed in.
"Understandable, considering their end goal still seems to be peace," I said absently, rearranging my legs into a butterfly stretch position.
Keroro continued, "At least now we have enough medical supplies to speed up the recovery process for the injured back at the dojo, and the success of this mission really boosted morale."
"Speaking of the dojo, I recalled a conversation we had there... with Mois," Momoka turned suddenly to point a sharp stare in Mois's direction.
Angol Mois flinched back a little. "M-me? But... what? Why?"
"I have a question. When the five kids first came to my summer home, I showed them a video of Vincent Slater, the supposed leader of the Messengers, but you've never seen him, correct?"
"Ah," Mois sat and puzzled over this statement for a second. "No, I haven't."
Momoka pressed her lips together in a tight, unnerving smile. "Back at the dojo, you said that Janja was engaged to a man named Vitya. They are both part of the Serpa clan, correct? So, his name is Serpa Vitya?"
I suddenly realized what she was getting at and inhaled sharply.
"Y-yes."
"Describe him for us. Vitya, I mean."
"Like most Serpas, he has fair skin and dark hair," Mois described. "But he comes from a family line that is famous for having very bright blue eyes instead of the usual brown or black eyes."
Kululu tapped his laptop keyboard a few times and turned it around. "This is the image of Vincent Slater Momoka sent me. Sounds about right?"
Angol Mois stared at the photograph of Slater on the screen, her gaze hyper-focused on his slick dark hair, light skin, and brilliant, soul-searingly blue eyes. He seemed to be smirking at us from the computer screen.
"We, uh," she stumbled over her words, gulping, "We need to get in contact with my father."
Before beaming us back down to the ninja's headquarters, Momoka, Keroro, and Mois went to the higher-ranking Keronians in charge of the mother ship, and told them about their findings – we weren't dealing with one, but two Angols, and both of them were older and more experienced than Angol Mois. The higher-ranking officers agreed they needed to contact the Angols regarding the fact that there were runaway members of their race attacking a planet that hadn't been prophetically assigned to them. After that, we were switched back into our human forms and dumped on Earth, with the promise they'd keep in touch.
We re-entered the dojo to a chorus of cheers and applause. I felt exhausted. I needed a night of rest that didn't involve being pumped full of anesthetic. However, I couldn't help but perk up a little when I saw the smiles on everyone's faces. There was a feeling of victory in the air – that sense of "We did it!" As my eyes swept over the crowd I couldn't help but notice we'd multiplied. I recognized the girl with the megaphone from before, and she nodded in acknowledgment; the ninja had granted some of the protestors sanctuary in our underground army.
Dinner had to be brought down into the dojo so everyone could eat together instead of some of us going up to the living quarters. It contributed to the overall feeling of teamwork and togetherness. I introduced myself to a few people and listened as they told me their story. Some of them came from anti-Keronian, Messenger families, but didn't buy into the blind hatred. On the other end of the spectrum, a few families were in there, fighting for our side together. Some were Momoka fans, some paranormal bloggers, and others had only a shallow grasp of the situation until our fight at the airport made the news.
I was part of a circle of young adults roughly my age, catching up on what was happening politically concerning various world governments and the Keronians, when I felt Giroro's arms slip around my waist from behind. Other people in the circle laughed or mocked me, and one of them even said "aww" in a teasing voice before I shot them a nasty look.
"What is it?" I said.
"Come sit by me," he grumbled irritably, pressing his face into my shoulder.
I reached up and fluffed his hair with one hand. "Since when are you needy?"
"Excuse me," Giroro sounded offended, "You almost died in my arms."
"I guess that makes us even. Remember your little stunt after the airport fight?" I turned around and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, kissing him lightly. I suddenly became aware that a large chunk of the crowd was staring at us and this was our first real public display of affection, but I couldn't bring myself to care.
"Get a room," somebody in the circle joked, and the other people around us burst into snickers.
"We have a room," Giroro muttered, more to me than in response to the person. "I think we should head up that way."
"Oh, shut up. We haven't even eaten yet."
The food was great, but all food tastes great when you have a couple good drinks. Those of us who were of age passed a few wine bottles around. It was cheap wine, probably a few ten-dollar bottles of white zin and moscato from the nearest convenience store – not enough to get me drunk, but just enough to give my skin that bubbling warmth that accompanies a slight buzz. It made me really cuddly and I found myself threading my arm underneath Giroro's and resting my chin affectionately on his shoulder. Sometimes he would brush aside from bangs and turn to kiss my forehead. I could've fallen asleep like that.
Tamama hit my arm at one point, clearly a little more far-gone than I was. He wobbled, uncoordinated. "I am so fucking glad you two are finally together."
"For real," Keroro agreed. He lifted his wine glass in the air. "A toast, to Natsumi and Giroro!"
"Idiot, that's embarrassing. And you'll probably break this, so stop waving it around," Giroro snapped, grabbing the sergeant's wrist and forcing him to put the glass down.
I giggled halfheartedly, nuzzling his shoulder. Giroro noticed my lethargy, sighed, and dragged me into his lap. I was barely able to keep my eyes open with his warmth so close to me.
"I think I'm starting to sober up," I yawned. "I always get sleepy on the upswing."
He ran his fingers through my hair. "Do you want to go to bed?"
With my eyes closed and my face resting against his chest, I nodded slowly. He adjusted me a bit, looping one arm around my shoulders and the other underneath my knees, before picking me up. The people at the table laughed, but I was too tired and contented to care.
The corridors in the living area were quiet, though I could hear distant laughter and voices, as if a few other roommates had already retired to their respective rooms. Giroro had to shift me a bit to open our door. He gently laid me down on the bedsheets of the bottom bunk. While he was changing into his sweatpants, I pulled off my own uncomfortable, dirty clothes that I'd been wearing for at least two days and threw them at him.
"Natsumi, that's rude," He sighed, batting away my pants. "I just carried you up the stairs."
I just whined sleepily and pulled the blanket over my head. Giroro snatched it off me, but slid onto the bed next to me before throwing the covers back over both of us. He grabbed my face and kissed and kissed me. I wasn't sure if it was how tired I was or his influence on me, but I felt like I was spinning in anti-gravity.
"You should turn the lights off," I murmured against his mouth.
He was happy to oblige.
Author's Note: I missed my Wednesday deadline by about 10 minutes. :( Happy belated 7/23 (Natsumi Day)!