Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
I'm so excited, this is like the final battle chapter. The next chapter is the epilogue and then I'll be done! YAY! I will then probably start working on something completely different, and then get distracted by a different story I want to write.
"You have to stop!" Natsumi begged. "Please... you don't want this. Your platoon... Your friends... We'll all die."
"And I care, because?" Kululu asked, confused. "Ku, ku, ku. I care nothing for my platoon. And I don't have any friends." He looked over at Saburo and frowned.
"Come on, Kululu... Don't do this," Keroro begged. But Natsumi was slowly realizing that convincing him was futile.
Kululu had the least memories out of the mutants. He didn't remember any of the good times with them. He had no positive bond with them at all. He'd even be willing to kill Saburo, after all.
"He won't listen. We have to attack," she realized. The clockwork soldiers moved against her, though, matching each of the five humans and each of the three frogs. (Two, technically, since Giroro was human)
There were hundreds of them. It was like they were their own civilization and they were hard and cold. When Natsumi tried to punch one, her hand just clashed against metal. They were strong. Rather slow and frightening, but she was no match for them.
Giroro managed to take down a few with weaponry, but soon he was outnumbered and also unable to take them all down to get to Kululu.
Keroro and Fuyuki were just at a loss. Saburo could dodge them rather easily, but attacking was out of the question.
Koyuki was experiencing the same issue as Natsumi. Only Momoka could punch into their metal flesh.
"I'm going to destroy this planet," Kululu declared. "Won't you like that, Mois? Isn't it great?" he asked, turning to his side, hoping she was there.
"Uhh... she's not there, dude." Giroro pointed out.
Kululu frowned awkwardly. He couldn't hear Mois, so he never knew where she was. "Oh. She's not even here for the destruction of the planet? Darn." He was a bit irritated. He knew she'd come eventually. So the shaking continued.
It was hard for everybody to stand.
"Tamama Impact!" Tamama blew up one of the soldiers. "You have to stop this! If the planet dies, so will all the Nishizawa sweets!"
Kululu's eyes widened as a soldier collapsed and he saw Tamama. His eye twitched. "Y-you're alive?"
"Yep. Why's that a problem—Oh wait, you tried to kill me." Tamama realized that coming along on this mission perhaps hadn't been his best idea.
Kululu held his remote for the drills in his hand, but he seemed to forget about everyone else. He charged at Tamama in anger, a blade in his hand, ready to stab.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Tamama apologized, but Kululu tried to stab at him anyway.
Keroro ran forward and pushed Tamama out of the way of Kululu's attacks. He wasn't about to let Tamama be lost to him. His arm started bleeding from Kululu's blade.
Kululu hissed as Tamama frighteningly ran into the crowd of soldiers to be attacked by them instead.
"You'll die soon with the rest of them, anyway," he hissed.
"I'm sorry! I know you're mad because you think I ate that woman!" Tamama told him.
"You... You killed her..." Kululu growled. His anger hadn't waned. He would have his revenge.
"I didn't kill her! I lied! She's fine! She went off to deflect a bomb headed for you instead. Her body was obliterated on this plane, but the radiation apparently mutated her into a spirit, the sixth sense or something!" Tamama tried to explain.
"I don't believe you," Kululu told him, "and honestly, I don't care. How she died doesn't matter at the moment. What matters is this planet's destruction."
Saburo tried to sneak up on Kululu as he talked. If he got the button out of his hand, he could turn it off. He could save them all.
However, Kululu saw him with his eye that could see the future. He grinned and a clockwork soldier grabbed Saburo, despite his struggles.
Soon enough, his clockwork soldiers had grabbed everybody. Natsumi's fighting ran out, and even Momoka had been captured when he used Fuyuki as a distraction.
"I wonder if I should let you live till the grand finale or die before planetary destruction has even happened. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu had all of them now. "Easy answer. Kill them. Crack their necks. They don't deserve to see the finale."
Natsumi winced.
They were all unaware that Kululu had forgotten one person.
Dororo didn't let his dizziness bother him. The planet was shaking. Pekopon needed him. He ran to the group's side as fast he could, before their necks were snapped.
He had to think fast. To save his friends. They had saved him from his mutation, after all. He knew attacking Kululu wouldn't work, Kululu was stronger than him. But he suspected why Kululu was trying to destroy the planet - to impress Angol Mois, in a way.
He had heard what they had spoken about while he was in the tank. Their plan, a plan that he fully supported and approved of.
He ran forward and swiftly stole the talisman off Koyuki, knowing at the time he didn't have the strength to save anyone. He showed himself to Kululu and held the talisman in his hands.
"Stop," he ordered.
"Why?" Kululu asked. He put his hand up to prevent the soldiers from cracking the groups necks immediately though. He wanted to see what Dororo had planned. He seemed weak from the unmutating process. An easy kill, if Dororo wanted a fight.
"Release them, or I'll smash this," Dororo bargained. He tried to bluff, he didn't really want to kill Mois. He hoped Kululu would believe him, though.
"And I would care why?" Kululu asked.
"We trapped Mois's spirit in this talisman. If I smash it she won't even be on the spirit plane. She'll be dead from even death. She'll be gone. That's it."
Kululu took a sharp intake of air.
"It's true. Mois's in there," they all agreed. Their faces didn't show any signs of lying.
"I'll give it to you if you release them," Dororo lied. He hoped he was good at bargaining. His face remained strong and willfull so Kululu couldn't see that he was bluffing.
"Ku..." Kululu thought. "Fine. But you only get one person released. Only one of them can live till the finale. Since it's one person's life, you hold hostage." He made a fair negotiation.
Dororo winced, but nodded. "I... I choose Koyuki," he decided quickly.
"I see your plan. You're going to keep the necklace," Kululu predicted. "So give me the necklace and then I'll release her."
"How do I know you will?" Dororo tried to negotiate.
"Doesn't matter to me if she dies now or in fifteen minutes," Kululu told him. Dororo frowned. His plan had failed. Kululu approached him and took the necklace from Dororo's weak body and released Koyuki.
"You need to do the ritual somehow, Koyuki," Dororo told her.
"I can't," she told him. "Not on my own. All I would need to do is shove it into the ground, cracking it clean in half, but... on my own... I might not be able to make a clean cut. She'd die if I didn't do it right, and... the energy on my own would kill me. And... I don't even have the necklace," she told him.
"Then beat Kululu. I have faith in you," said Dororo.
Koyuki nodded and quickly ran toward Kululu with her knife. She had to kill him, for the planet. Kululu dodged, predicting her movements.
"Guess you lost your life, anyway." He stabbed downward into Koyuki's back as she tried to spring toward him. It was a near-fatal wound. She fell to the ground, but as her eyes widened in shock, she made a quick decision. She didn't grab the necklace out of Kululu's hands, she swatted it out of his hands.
It flew through the air and toward Natsumi. Natsumi grabbed it with her teeth, catching it. She was still in the firm grip of the clockwork soldier, though.
Kululu screamed in annoyance. Dororo screamed in anguish. Despite being weak, he launched himself at Kululu, attacking him wildly and distracting him for a few moments.
Natsumi tried to talk. She couldn't struggle free of the soldiers grip, but she knew one person who could.
"Giroro," she whispered, thinking fast. "You have the All Things Are Living gun strapped to your belt, right?"
"Always. Don't want to turn back into a Keronian. It could poison you," Giroro told her.
"Wiggle. Turn back. Being smaller will release you from their grip," she realized. Giroro smiled. It was a smart move, but risky.
He wiggled, and soon enough, he was a Keronian in a pile of clothes. He ran out and quickly bulleted down the soldier holding Natsumi.
Natsumi took the necklace out of her mouth and held it.
Giroro and Natsumi quickly worked to freeing their friends, soon enough they were ready to face Kululu again.
"Ahhh!" Dororo screamed as he to fell to the ground right as Kululu smacked him down to Koyuki's side. Dororo curled up to Koyuki, who was trying desperately to breathe.
"Congratulations... My timer says you've made it to the grand finale. Ku, ku, ku. One minute and a half left," he told them, laughing.
Natsumi's eyes widened. Koyuki was on the ground, and she was the one supposed to do the ritual to bond Angol Mois to the core. However, she couldn't. They needed Mois, though. She was the only one who could save the planet and possibly talk Kululu out of it.
She remembered what Koyuki had said on how to do the ritual, but that she might die. She had to risk it.
"Ku, ku, ku, ku! Praise me, Mois! You would want this sort of thing, right? Killing everyone is the stuff you love, my dear planet destroyer! Soon enough they'll all be dead too!" Kululu laughed to himself, begging for praise.
He... He wants to impress his distant memories of her. She really is the only one who can help. She looked at Giroro.
"I love you." She spoke her simple last words and quickly without fear. She split the talisman in half with her bare hands, then shoved it into the dirt.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Natsumi screamed as intense pain wracked her body, and a light shown brightly as Mois's spirit energy was released. It felt exactly like Natsumi was being obliterated twice in one place, as Mois had felt.
She fell to the ground, closing her eyes, and let her hand fall limply onto the cold dirt. As she fell, Mois rose from the light, in her Angolian garb and incredibly sparkly, more so than usual.
She turned to Kululu, knowing what was happening instantly, having heard it in her talisman. "Why would I want the planet destroyed?" she asked him softly, trying to be gentle about it. "You're on it, after all. And I would never want you to die?"
Kululu just started shaking, looking at her shocked and her calm smile. He fell to his knees as his plan fell apart. He just made a small awkward smile, like he had made a mistake, and weakly clicked the button moments before the planet would be destroyed, causing his machines to stop.
"Thank you." She smiled at Kululu. "Now... As promised, I'll become the spirit governing the world and pump my spirit energy into the core. That should give the core natural energy and get the plants growing back," she spoke to the others calmly. They just watched her with a sense of wonder and relief that she had saved their life.
All except Dororo and Koyuki. They were lying on the ground, incredibly injured, along with Natsumi, who they didn't know if she was dead or not.
Giroro rushed to Natsumi's side to try to see if she had a heart beat.
"Is this where you want me to reside? Would you fully bond me to the core?" Mois asked.
"Yeah... This is fine," Fuyuki told her. "Do I need to speak some words to finish what my sister sacrificed herself for?"
"Just pledge that this planet will be safe and you'll all protect my place of spiritual rest," Mois smiled.
"You won't be harmed. Ever. You'll be safe. We'll protect you, I promise," Fuyuki told her. "I pledge on my love for the occult."
Angol Mois frowned. Not exactly the mystical bond she had wanted, but it would do. As if in sheer seconds, a giant tree sprouted up behind her. Tons of the clockwork soldiers were sucked up into its giant bark and roots.
It was huge. And it was green. Dororo looked up at it from the ground, holding Koyuki's hand.
"We did it," he breathed out, smiling.
Mois smiled as well and turned around. She'd have to go into it now, to pump her energy into the core.
"Wait!" Kululu grabbed her hand, getting up. "Where are you going?"
"I have to go away for a very long time. It's the only way to save the planet. I need to be with the core. To be in this tree and rest and fuel the world. I'm sorry... I can't stay with all of you for much longer." She frowned politely.
Kululu shook his head desperately. "No! No! If you at least leave me again... at least tell me what you are to me. Why do I feel so strongly for you? What are we? Don't... Don't leave me again," he begged.
Mois tried to smile. She leaned down to him and put her forehead against his, her third eye against where he had no eyes.
"You know all the answers to those questions. Your mind may have forgotten, but your heart never would." Her spirit energy finally returned his memories to him.
His face contorted in realization as she pulled away. "Wait! Don't leave! Please... if you really have to... Take me with you. Please..." he said. "I love you. I want to be with you, Mois. I remember... And I know I love you now... Take me with you." He pulled at her hand.
"I'll always lurk in your heart," she said. "I know you love me. Don't worry. I love you very much too."
Kululu smiled. That would mean she'd take him with her, right?
She leaned down and kissed him on the lips, putting her arms around him. She kissed him for a good minute, before pulling away, pushing him away from her and being sucked into the tree.
Kululu grasped for her, but she was gone. Again. He fell to the ground, crying desperately. But she was gone.
"Wh-why couldn't I come into the spirit world too?" He just cried.
Most of them pitied Kululu, but Giroro was busy with his own problems of trying to resuscitate Natsumi. The fear of poisoning her wasn't there as he clutched her and held her, trying to shake her awake.
He tried everything he could, CPR, shaking, everything. But nothing would awaken her body. Finally he just cried. She was gone. There was no way to save her.
A tear dripped onto her cheek. He moved forward and gave her one last kiss.
The tear sunk into her skin, the radiation from his lips fell into her body, her skin became a little lighter like sunlight, and on the top of her head, two flowers sprouted, opening up to get energy. Her eyes opened, having mutated just a little bit, enough to give her the energy to survive.
Giroro could see twigs growing around her arms, coming from her shoulders and looping around like a bracelet. Flowers were sprouting all over her.
It didn't matter to him. As long as she had the energy to survive.
He hugged her.
"I'm alive?" She twitched her fingers and touched her head. "And I'm a mutant!" She didn't know how to feel about that. Disgusted? No... She felt powerful.
She glanced over at Koyuki. Dororo was bandaging her up desperately. It looked like she'd have the strength to pull through though.
She hugged Giroro. She was a little freaked out about mutating, but she felt good about it. "It's over, Giroro. You know what that means? You can finally go back to your old self!"
Giroro smiled. "What about you?"
Natsumi shook her head, "My mutation... The sun's energy is the only thing saving me from the energy I exerted releasing Mois's seal. I should probably keep it. And, I look way cute. Much cuter than the mutation made you look."
Giroro grinned. He was happy that she was proud of who she was.
He held her hand. Soon, they would be able to have a normal life, and the world would regrow and heal.
They would be happy. Like they deserved. Despite the weirdness they had endured.
Please review! One more chapter left! YAY!