-ok I think this has to be my favorite chapter so far. It's the big bro chappie-
Aliens line up for your titles
Giroro- Ganrougel
Keroro- Kurse
Dororo- Aldmora
Tamama- Taiki
Kururu- Krueger
Mois- Molioke
After a while Molioke's father had vanished and Krueger snuck back to his underground home. Aki began making calls to everyone who would need to know about Haru. Fuyuki stayed beside his father's body until he knew it would be taken care of. Kurse kneeled next to his best friend in case he was needed.
Natsumi decided she had stared at the sky long enough and started walking slowly through the hole in the wall. Koyuki and Molioke were talking to each other, Natsumi couldn't make out what. She looked around for her closest friend.
"Hey guys? Where's Ganrougel?" Natsumi asked.
"No one knows when he left but he hasn't been here in a while." Koyuki answered.
Natsumi felt an unsettling pit in her stomach. She quickly approached her mother who was still on the phone with Grandma Akina. "Mom, do you know where Ganrougel went?"
"No hun. I thought he was in the living room with everyone else. Maybe he went upstairs." Aki answered quickly before returning to the call. "Yes, it's Natsumi. That's the name of her friend. Yes I know."
Natsumi ran up to her room and just as she feared, he wasn't there. She checked that her crystal was in her pocket before jumping down the stairs. At the door she slipped on her shoes but was stopped by Aki.
"Where are you going?" Aki asked softly.
"I have to find Ganrougel." Natsumi answered easily as she put on a coat and tried to step around her mother.
"Natsumi," Koyuki and Molioke stood behind her. "Your father just-"
"Yeah I know," Natsumi tried not to snap her words at her friends but she couldn't stop the anger. "And I couldn't do anything. I just stood there; but I can help Ganrougel. After what just happened I can't stand to think of him alone. Last time, when I merely mentioned soldier, he broke down and started ripping himself apart. I mean that literally with blood and screaming. This bull creep comes up not just having an actual past with him but says a name that might be his own! Who knows what that's going to trigger?! I understand you're looking out for me and that I'm probably not thinking clearly but he's definitely worse than me right now."
Everyone was silent for a moment. Koyuki stepped closer and hugged Natsumi. "I'll go ask Aldmora if he knows where he might go."
"And I'll ask Krueger." Molioke volunteered with her hand in the air. "You could say he has a horse's sense."
"Thanks." Natsumi smiled and sighed. She hugged her friends before heading outside. Koyuki and Molioke went off in their own directions. Natsumi took off on the opposite path down the sidewalk. She held her crystal in her hand as she thought hard about finding him intact. The core lit up a pale red and flickered in different patterns.
She ran past confused pedestrians and leapt over the hoods of cars that couldn't stop fast enough for her. Past stores and schools. Beyond homes and empty parks, Natsumi had run for hours. Short of breath and losing feeling in her fingers, she called out for him. "Red! Where are you?!"
Around the corner of a thick lineup of trees, Natsumi found a graveyard. She sighed and walked into it. Through the dimming sunlight and autumn fog she looked at the stones. Realization creeping into her mind that soon she would be here for her father. Her steps cracked the leaves beneath her as she shivered in the cold. Deeper in the maze of old stones, Natsumi found a man kneeling before a grave.
He wore a deep purple trench coat that trailed over the grass. He looked up to her slowly. "Why are you here?"
"I'm sorry I just-" Natsumi thought for a moment. She felt bad and didn't want to upset the man. "I'm looking for a friend."
"Does your friend like to hang out in graveyards?" The man asked.
"I don't think so, I don't really know why I ended up here." Natsumi looked to the ground.
"Is your friend in real trouble?" The man stood up and stuffed his hands in his pockets. He was much taller than Natsumi expected.
"Yes. I'm sorry I shouldn't bring you into my problems, you seem like you've been through enough." Natsumi gestured to the grave.
The man chuckled deeply. "Kid, I've been mourning for a long time. All I do is come here and regret and I don't think Giroro is going to get any worse."
Natsumi's eyes widened. "Giroro?" She looked closer at the stone and saw the name carved into it.
"Yeah, my little brother Giroro." The man smiled fondly at the name.
"How common is that name?" Natsumi asked not really believing.
"The farthest from common you could get. My dad was a little weird and wanted names everyone would hear and instantly know it was his sons." The man explained.
"I heard about him." Natsumi muttered. "Giroro."
"I bet you would. He was all over the news years ago." The man sighed.
"Not from the news." Natsumi frowned. "He was killed right? By people he trusted?"
"Yes." The man answered roughly.
"They cut him up," Natsumi braced herself. Saying the dark theory of Ganrougel's past. "removed his legs and replaced them with deer legs, took out his eye, put horns on his head, and jammed extra bones into his chest and back. They covered his body in blood, making him red all over."
The man grabbed her arm and pulled her close. "How do you know that?! That wasn't in the news, that part of his file is under strict classification! Who told you?!"
"No one told me." Natsumi whimpered. She squirmed in his tight grip. "I saw him."
"Stop lying! You couldn't have seen him, his body is missing!" The man yelled as he shook Natsumi. Natsumi yelped and clutched her crystal. Suddenly a loud grunt echoed over the graves. A large deer jumped towards them, knocking the man away from Natsumi.
The deer almost charged him down until Natsumi grabbed his shoulders and pulled him close. "Don't hurt him!"
"He was hurting you first." Ganrougel growled.
"It's ok. I forgive him; I know why he's angry." Natsumi swallowed the lump in her throat. She looked to the man sitting on the ground and staring in disbelief of the deer. Natsumi whispered to Ganrougel. "Change to your other form."
Ganrougel nodded and transformed without removing his glare from the man.
"H-how is that possible?" The man whispered as he watched in horror.
"The world isn't as simple as you think. There are strange things, changes people can only imagine. I promise you that this isn't a cruel joke. I really didn't think this would happen. Today is just... a really bad and different kind of day." Natsumi tried to explain. She rested her head against Ganrougel and hugged him. "Ganrougel... do you remember him? Picture how he would look a long time ago when he was younger. He-he had a little brother, who was betrayed and killed."
Ganrougel held his breath as he felt the buzzing in the back of his mind. Something he had forgotten and missed for so long. "Garuru..."
The buzz burst into a deafening surge as images and sounds erupted in his mind. Ganrougel held his head in a deadly grip as he tried to contain the pain. He stepped away from Natsumi with a shaken balance. He groaned and yelled as he felt his body shifting.
"What's happening to him?!" Garuru stood by Natsumi and covered his ears from the loud growling.
"He's remembering something." Natsumi explained but watched Ganrougel's body stretch. "But this is different from last time."
"What happened last time?" Garuru asked.
"He was really afraid like there was something very wrong with him and tried to rip out the extra ribs and his horns. I know it was probably a really bad idea to ask him to remember more of his past after what happened today but when I found out he was your brother I just-" Natsumi choked on the guilt as she watched Ganrougel trip over a couple headstones and collapse to the ground behind them. "I thought maybe you could help him more than me."
After a short while Ganrougel's heavy breath huffed from behind the graves. Natsumi whimpered as she though about how terrible she was to do this to him. Garuru placed a hand on her shoulder, looked into her eyes, and sighed. "You can hear him breath right? He's been through so much more than you and I know. I doubt a few dark memories are going to kill him at this point."
"But I-" Natsumi blurted.
"I can tell you care a lot for him and that's all he needs; someone who can care about him." Garuru smirked quickly before it faded into an empty glance. "I don't think I did enough of that when he was alive."
Natsumi nodded and dashed to look past the graves. The sight was unexpected and stunned her. Her cheeks flushed.
"Stop worrying won't you?" Ganrougel's voice whispered between panting breaths from the pale lips.
"Eeep." Natsumi squeaked as she returned to the other side of the stones and leaned against them, sliding to her knees. She tried to quiet her thundering heart as she processed what she saw.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Garuru asked as he ran to see what froze Natsumi. At first glance he saw a collapsed young man with blonde hair struggling to breath, but where there should have been legs he found the entire body of a deer; four legs and even a tiny tail.
"I scared her didn't I? Is there a lot of blood? More missing parts?" Ganrougel asked as he looked up to him.
Garuru took a deep breath. "Actually I think her reaction is the opposite. You almost look normal except for the centaur-like deer body and you're still missing your eye."
"What?" Ganrougel leaned up and looked to his hands, they were his old skin color; not stained red. He looked to his chest and saw the matching pair of ribs down both sides. He reached his hand up and ran his fingers through the soft blonde hair. He stood up and tried to walk with four feet around to Natsumi. "Are you ok?"
"Y-yeah, I'm just... ya know." Natsumi forced a smile as her cheeks burnt red.
"You're... not embarrassed are you?" Ganrougel smirked.
"Oh sure my boyfriend just up and turned into a freaking muscular Greek god of hotness, no I'm totally not embarrassed." Natsumi huffed sarcastically as she blushed an even deeper red.
"Did the Greek's have half-deer men?" Ganrougel crossed his arms trying to brush off the blunt compliment.
"Boyfriend?" Garuru asked as he rejoined the conversation. "So it took you dying to finally find someone to start a relationship with?"
"Shut up. Natsumi's completely different than anyone I could have met when I was alive." Ganrougel huffed.
"She couldn't be more than what 15?" Garuru placed a hand on his chin as he thought. "Do your parents know?"
"No." Natsumi sighed as she remembered she wouldn't be able to ever tell her father.
"What's wrong?" Garuru asked knowing that he missed something.
"The bull... killed my dad today. I'll never get to tell him anything." Natsumi whispered.
"What kind of bull?" Garuru asked.
"He's a monster like me." Ganrougel explained. "He has some hostility against me and killed her father, who was a monster hunter and also had history with the bull, so that he could focus on just me."
"So that's what became of him." Garuru muttered. "After your body went missing from the morgue they found another soldier dead and fused with a bull's body in a similar way yours was with a deer. His body ended up going missing too."
"There would have been two other dead soldiers after me." Ganrougel closed his eyes and listened for the response.
"There were." Garuru answered.
"Those two and the bull were the ones I first killed." Ganrougel sighed. "They're the ones who killed me."
"Did you remember it?" Natsumi looked up.
"Almost. I know that there were three of them and we were all deployed for special training at the time. I don't remember anything more about them right now." Ganrougel responded. He offered his hand to her and helped her to her feet. "I'm sorry."
"Don't start that ok?!" Natsumi barked. She took a deep breath and sighed. "You know how I see it? Guy kills you, you get revenge and kill him back, then he gets bored looking for you to return the favor and tortures a random person he found. Him coming after my dad was not influenced by you. He decided to screw things up like this. So please just don't apologize when you didn't do anything."
"Definitely the girl for you." Garuru chuckled lightly. After Ganrougel huffed at him once more he placed a hand on Natsumi's head and lightly ruffled her hair. "Welcome to the family."
"Oh, uh..." Natsumi's blushed returned. "Thanks."
"You can't just rush her like that." Ganrougel glared.
"Dad and I had made a promise that as soon as you found someone who could stand you and you genuinely liked, they were instantly accepted as a member of the family." Garuru crossed his arms, not moving on the subject.
Ganrougel sighed before turning back to Natsumi. "Let's get you home. I'm sure you ran off as soon as you realized I was gone so your mom is probably worried."
"I have been running for a while haven't I?" Natsumi admitted. "Wait were you around me the whole time, just far enough away so I wouldn't know where you were?"
Ganrougel didn't answer as he rubbed his neck, blushing with guilt.
Natsumi huffed and crossed her arms. "Jerk."
"Little bro, you should know better than to make a girl worry about you." Garuru shook his head.
"I haven't been little since I was ten." Ganrougel argued.
"You're still my little bro." Garuru stated easily.
Natsumi giggled before hugging Ganrougel. "I'm so glad you're ok though."
"You gonna come meet the rest of us? I'm sure there's no way you're going to stay away now." Ganrougel glanced to Garuru who nodded. "To the house then."