Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for all the nice reviews! It really warms my heart :)

Now here's something to break yours~

Even though most of the Rurlough were dead, it was still very urgent that the platoon escape. Giroro and Dororo hurried over to the entrance to the ship.

"Keroro, help us open the door!" the lance corporal shouted.

It was Tamama who answered. "Hold on!" There was a pause while he struggled, and then he forced the door open from the inside. "What's going on out there?" he asked a little breathlessly as Dororo and Giroro stepped aboard. Keroro was hastily preparing the ship for flight now; they were finally going to leave the godforsaken planet.

"They've all collapsed!" replied Dororo. "They just started dying, all at once. I don't understand it," he added gravely.

Giroro noticed with pity how weary Dororo looked. In fact, the whole group was a little worse for wear. The gash across Tamama's chest was red and angry. The whites of Keroro's eyes were bloody and he had dark circles under them. And, of course, Giroro was sure that he himself didn't look too good either.

He wondered how Kululu was doing and looked around for him. When he sighted him he froze, speechless.

Kululu was lying on the floor a few feet away. Seeing his body being completely motionless, the line of drying blood coming from his mouth, and his paper-white skin, Giroro was positive that he was dead.

The corporal dropped to his knees beside Kululu and put two fingers to his throat... and he felt nothing. No pulse. Giroro pressed his hand to the sergeant major's bloodied chest and groped his wrist but still could not feel his heart beating.

Giroro could see the others talking and feel the ship begin to move, but he didn't register any of it. He didn't even really notice when Dororo knelt on Kululu's other side and tried to tell Giroro something. But it didn't matter. What mattered was that if he didn't do something then Kululu would be lost.

He wasn't going to let that happen.

He tilted Kululu's head back slightly before instructing Dororo to support his neck.

When Giroro was younger, Garuru had taught him how to perform CPR; he remembered vividly how much his brother had stressed its importance. Giroro had never had to use this skill since his brother was teaching him, but he still remembered how.

He pinched Kululu's nostrils closed and only hesitated a fraction of a second before placing his mouth over the sergeant major's.

Giroro breathed air into Kululu's lungs and then pumped the sergeant major's chest with the heels of his hands to push it out again. He repeated this. He did it again, and again, and again.

What if he really did die? Giroro asked himself this and his mind feverishly and unwelcomely displayed to him over a decade's worth of memories of Kululu, enough for him to torture himself with for the rest of his life if he wanted to.

And what if he lived? What difference would it make, really? The man hardly ever emerged from his dungeon of a hideout under the house, and when he did it was only to disrupt the lives of those around him or to scavenge curry supplies. Kululu was truly a lunatic. Living without him would probably be easier.

But a kind of manic desperation controlled Giroro, driving his entire being into relentless effort. It choreographed his motions. It instilled in Giroro a concrete certainty that keeping Kululu alive was what he had been preparing for since he was born.

Yet Kululu lay still and quiet, unresponsive. "Come on!" Giroro pleaded out loud, unable to hear himself. He felt his breath catching in his throat. He glimpsed the other three platoon members watching the scene ashen-faced and speechless, Dororo while still holding Kululu's head up.

But just as Giroro leaned over Kululu's face again, suddenly Kululu gave a little cough. Giroro jumped back and watched as if through a haze as the sergeant major started taking what deep breaths his mangled body would allow.

Almost spasmodically, Giroro grabbed his arm and blurted, "Kululu!"

Kululu wheezed for a few moments and settled down. At length he looked up and met Giroro's eyes with a strange expression.

Giroro sat back, staring at Kululu in astonishment as the others began to cry and fuss over the sergeant major.

He was alive.

:'\