Chaos ensued when all their paths crossed.
Momoka and Fuyuki were getting bored of sitting around and so had ventured out from base camp, Giroror and Saburo had accidentally ran into the action. Natsumi and Tamama were facing off while Haru just kept out of trouble behind a tree.
Many things happened.
Firstly, a stray shot from Tamama fired towards Fuyuki and Momoka leapt into the way of the blast to save him, striking her out. "Oops" Tamama said realising what he had done "I'm sorry momo-chi"
while he was distracted Natsumi hit the tadpole striking him out as well. Giroro landed before the Hinata's firing at Natsumi before she could react and then another quick shot at Fuyuki, hitting them out before he realised he had lost track of Saburo.
"Damn where did that punk go?" he growled.
The boy was going to face off against Kururu.
Giroro was surprised as he was shot from the back he turned around and realised it was Haru who had decided to stop hiding behind a tree. "Well played" he remarked after fading into nothing. Haru seemed to be surprised that he even manged to hit him but he felt proud of himself.
Giroro looked on at his comrades "Seriously has everyone been beaten? We're supposed to be stronger then that!" he scolded his platoon.
"Chill it's only a game" Keroro said
"This is why we never manged to invade Pekopon" he scoffed grumpily.
"Aw cheer up Red, it was a good match" Natsumi said to him with a smile hr just looked away and blushed.
Everyone watched in anticipation for how the rest of the game would pay out only three members remained. Kururu looked at the counter only himself and two pekoponians remain which means the fastest method to ending the boring game was to simply take himself out.
So he did with a single shot to himself the game was over and they all ended up in the 'you failed' room.
"You took yourself out?" Keroro deadpanned.
"I didn't really care about playing anyway kukuku" the yellow one laughed
"Aww I was looking forward to matching against you" Saburo whined
"I didn't think you were that eager for me to damage your ego again kukukuku"
"So we won?" Haru asked.
"Yes, you put up a valiant fight" Giroro replied.
"Yep, you can call this another victory for Pekopon! But next time we won't be going so easy on you yes sir!" Keroro exclaimed.
After the excitement they had all left to go about their usual routine. Giroro had returned to his post making a small fire in the backyard. But he was soon interrupted by Natsumi's father.
"Hey Giroro can I have a word?" Haru asked the small red frog.
"O-of course sir" Giroro said guesturing for him to take a seat on the cinder block near him. It was a nice night but he was too nervous to notice as his thoughts were consumed with how to impress the love of his life's father.
"So your the one marrying my little girl huh?" Haru mused, she had grown up so quickly and he couldn't help but feel guilty for missing so much.
"Yes, and I would appreciate it if I could have your blessing, I will put myself through any test to prove my self of worth" and he meant it, he would travel to the ends of the universe for that woman.
"You don't need to try and impress me Giroro, I trust Natsumi to pass her own judgement, and if she wants to marry you it's her decision." he replied with a sad smile. Besides who was he to say who she could marry he was barely in her life.
Giroro turned his sights up, looking up at the stars "You Pekoponians are something else, on Keron it's all about honour, proving our strength. Wanting to prove ourselves to the rest of the universe." He never failed to be surprised to how different Pekoponians were.
"Sounds rough, I think the only worth that should matter is what you think of yourself". Haru replied though it did sound corny even to him.
"With beliefs like that it's any wonder how we keep loosing. On Keron strength is in numbers, if you don't pull your weight the whole team suffers" It was the truth, a painful truth repeated to him over and over through the years. A single Keronian was nothing without the strength of an army.
"what happens to those who don't meet Keron's standard?" Haru asked a bit concerned as he too looked up at the stars wondering if that was where his planet was.
Giroro didn't know how to answer that question. You were just expected to, regardless. His thoughts made him think of his blue friend, so sick that he was masked at birth but was still pressured to fight in the army despite his condition. Multiple times the army had threatened them for there failure. Wanting to please their people was all that mattered to him and the failure weighted on him heavily. Which is why he always tried to move the invasion along, to get there leader to lead them to victory. His mind doesn't dare dwell on the scientifically enhanced keronians that he had met like Dokuku and Giruru.
Even as a loyal solider he has to admit there are aspects to the army he doesn't agree with but to voice those concerns would be treason. He knew that and so did his platoon.
After long silence Haru spoke up again "That bad huh?"
"My planet does what they must, it's a dangerous universe and we have a lot of enemies" he tried to defend his planet but mostly he was trying to reason with himself. There was a reason why Keron was like this and he knew it but it didn't help accept some of the worst things that the army has done.
"I don't doubt it, the world is more complicated then it seems" Haru mused, Earth was the same way, things happened that were out of his control. And besides wishing that we could all get along there just wasn't much that he could do about it.
"Yeah" Giroro replied simply.
"I'm not interrupting you guys am I?" Natsumi asked.
"Of course not, what's wrong?" Giroro replied in worry.
"The Stupid frog just texted me that a general will be here in the morning" He explained showing him the phone.
"sounds like he's coming to check on us and approve the marriage. Standard treaty stuff from what I researched" Giroro explained.
"What if he doesn't approve of the marriage?" she asked concerned.
"I'm sure he will" he reassured her deciding it best to not bring up the possible war that could break out if he didn't. He didn't need her to stress over it. "In fact i'm certain he will" a small white lie for her sake. The truth is he has no idea what will happen. She seemed to calm down.
"If your sure, I mean it'd be weird that we went through all of this for nothing" she mused with mixed emotion. "It's getting late, night Red, night Dad".
"goodnight" they both said in unison as she left upstairs.
"I take it, it's been a rough couple of days?" Haru asked.
"You have no idea" he deadpanned. He almost died, saved Natsumi from being possibly killed by his father, embarrassed himself over and over again, lied the list went on. To say it was a rough couple of days felt like an understatement. But he never lost sight on why he followed through, what kept him going. He looks up at the window above him. His warrior princess, Natsumi.