Disclaimer: Giroro is very irritated with me. After much stalking I almost got the rights… And then he showed up.
"Speaking"
'Thoughts'
Author Speaking
Chapter 7
Natsumi and Giroro sat beside the campfire on a warm summer night. The mouth watering smell of roasting sweet potatoes filled the air as the human and the keronian sat next to each other in the low flickering light of the fire. Neither of them said a word, but just sat there simply enjoying the feeling of being near the other while a chorus of crickets chirped softly in the grass.
Natsumi looked over at the small red alien and sighed softly, how could she ever tell him she loved him? She was so close to him but she felt so very far away. If her thoughts were to escape her mind and somehow make their way to him, then would he feel the same? But she dared not ask, the fear of rejection laid like a heavy burden on her heart that held her in place, kept her from reaching across that tiny gap that separated them. So for now, until that burden becomes too great for her to handle alone, she was fine, sitting here with him, that gap was a shot one, so although she may not be able to reach out and touch him as her heart desired, she could sit there, and watch.
Giroro leaned back and stared at the stars contemplating something, they sat there together for a moment more wrapped in a warm blanket of the night before Giroro spoke in husky tones like he did, "Hey Natsumi, there's something I've been meaning to tell you…" He kept speaking, his mouth moving to form the words, but all the sounds mixed together and faded away.
'What did he say?' The image began to blur and the warmth slowly faded, Natsumi felt herself begin to panic, 'No! No! Bring back the night and the campfire! Bring back the smell sweet potatoes! Bring back Giroro! Please!'
Despite her desperate pleas the dreamy world evanesed until it was nothing more than a memory again, and Natsumi was left alone in the dark.
Natsumi blinked her eyes open and looked around confused, 'Where am I?'
"Good morning!" Koyuki greeted her with a smile.
"Mmmnh, what happened?" Natsumi asked, trying her best to sit up.
"Oh, you just kinda fell over in the middle of class… So I took you here!" Koyuki said with a smile on her face.
Memories of earlier that day and Ginjiro slowly came back to her like she was fitting together the pieces of a huge puzzle.
Natsumi sat all the way up and swung her legs out of bed, "What time is it?"
"Around fourth period," She replied after a bit of thought, "The nurse says you can go home early if you don't feel well enough to continue."
"Yeah, I think I will. You had better head back to class, you shouldn't miss any more of class on the first day if you can help it." She said as she hopped up from the uncomfortable mattress.
"Okay!" The adorable ninja complied.
She shuffled out of the nurses office as Koyuki went the other way and trecked back to class.
Natsumi finally made it out to the school's front gates which were right next to the sports field but stopped dead in her tracks as she heard her younger brother scream.
"Fuyuki?" She whipped her head around trying to pinpoint the source of the noise when she heard another scream come from the soccer field.
She ran up to the fence and leaned over trying to see if her little brother was getting beaten up again, the bullying had mostly stopped once he and Momoka became a couple but every once and a while she still had to crack open a few skulls.
A fast soccer ball flew towards the goalie's head and Fuyuki screamed again, realising there was no real danger, she was about to leave, but then the weirdest thing happened. The green haired kid Keiji from her class threw himself in front of the speeding ball and collapsed on the ground after taking a blow to the head. Natsumi watched dumbfounded as Ginjiro, Kurou, Daichi, and some dark blue haired kid she didn't know ran up from the sidelines, grabbed Keiji, and ran off again. Natsumi stood there for a moment with an stunned look on her face as she tried to process what had just happened.
Finally everything clicked into place for the pink haired girl and she formulated a rough plan in her mind. There was something she needed to find out for sure before she could go home and rest, and she knew just how to find out.
Two hours and twenty minutes later, Fuyuki stood up from his desk stretching, 'It feels so good to stand up after a long class!'
He walked over to Momoka whose seat was on the other side of the room and took his girlfriend's delicate hand in his own, brushing the back of it lightly with his thumb. In response she giggled and squeezed his hand tightly as though if she let go he would fade away.
The two lovebirds walked out of class hand in hand with a few jealous glares from some the other students which they ignored. Just as they exited the room Tamama ran out and made a quick turn, accidentally bumping into the pair and sending them all sprawling to the floor.
"Ouch! What the hell was that for!" Momoka yelled as her bi-polar personality kicked in.
Fuyuki laughed nervously as he stood up and brushed himself off, his little peach could be pretty scary if she wanted to, "What she meant is we're sorry."
"I'm sorry! Are you alr-" Tamama froze mid-sentence and did a double take as he realised who he was talking to, "Are… Are… Are…"
"I think you broke him," Fuyuki said light heartedly as he offered his hand to the stuttering teenager, "Are you ok, Tamiko?"
Tamama sat completely rigid for a moment staring at them before his large eyes started watering, "I have to go…" He quickly scrambled to get away from the confused humans as fast as possible, disappearing into the crowds.
"That was weird, he's probably just shy," Fuyuki said looking back to Momoka who had a dazed expression on her face for just a moment before shaking herself back to reality.
"Yeah, probably. Let's go home, Fuyuki," She said with a tired sigh.
The two walked out of the school building together and out to the main gates.
"Psst!" Fuyuki stopped and looked around at the strange noise, 'What was that?'
"Fuyuki?" Momoka turned to look at him as he searched his surroundings for the source of the noise.
"Psst! Hey, over here!" Fuyuki turned to a large bush beside the school wall as someone called out in a low hiss.
"Natsumi?!" He exclaimed as he made out his sister crouching in the concealing branches of the bush, "What are you doing?!"
"Not so loud idiot! Get in here!" Her hand shot out and grasped her younger brother by his shirt, dragging him and his girlfriend into the brush with her.
"What are you doing?!" Momoka asked in a furious whisper.
"Shhh, here they come…" Natsumi said motioning silently for the two newcomers to look through the branches.
Fuyuki peered out of the bush through a tiny gap in the branches and waited for someone to wander into his limited line of sight.
For a moment, Fuyuki honestly thought his sister had gone insane as Tamiko and the four older students he had encountered during gym passed by, carrying one who had jumped onto the soccer field.
'Why is Natsumi stalking them?' He thought perplexed.
Natsumi sighed seeing her brothers still confused expression, "Just watch, you'll see eventually."
After the five teenagers had passed, Natsumi jumped out of the bushes and began trailing behind the group stealthily. Fuyuki sighed and followed his insane sister and Momoka walked beside him, still holding his hand. They followed the odd group far enough behind that the could talk out loud without being heard, but not so far that they would lose sight of the mysterious quintet.
"Natsumi, why are we following them?" Momoka asked the pink haired psychopath.
"Yeah, just tell us sis," Fuyuki pleaded, his feet were getting sore from all the extra walking this was taking.
"I think… They aren't who they say they are…" Natsumi replied cryptically with her attention focused on staying out of sight.
He sighed and snuggled up closer to Momoka who said, "At least we get a nice romantic walk out of it, right baby?"
"Yeah," He said softly as he nuzzled her cheek, breathing in her sweet scent.
Natsumi held out a hand and signaled for the overly affectionate couple to stop walking. Natsumi's victims, as Fuyuki had taken to thinking of them, entered a worn out old house that looked just about ready to fall over and disintegrate at the slightest breeze, leaving the door wide open behind them.
"It could be a trap…" Natsumi said suspiciously as her quarry disappeared from sight into the dark house.
"Pfft, not if they're living in a place like that, I bet they can't even tie their own shoes!" Momoka commented harshly.
"You guys, look!" Fuyuki said, wide eyed as a faint blue light poured onto the street from the old house, the three stalkers stared for a long moment in amazement before Fuyuki broke the silence, "We have to go check this out!"
"Yeah!" Momoka agreed, but Natsumi was already ahead of them creeping towards the strange house.
They snuck up to the front door and peered inside to see a thick metal trap door imbedded into the floorboards and a not-so-hidden keypad attached to the wall.
Fuyuki stepped fuzzily over to the air tight trap door and felt around the edges for some secret button or switch to open it up. He felt as though he was moving through water, and everything would float away is he stirred the liquid around him too much. Yes, a watery dream, and he would wake up tomorrow and get ready for the first day of school all over again.
'There is a word on the tip of my tongue… I just can't place it… What was it?'
"Are you okay bro?" Natsumi asked abandoning her study of the keypad and kneeling down beside Fuyuki after seeing the dazed look in his eyes.
"Yes, yes. I'm just fine." Though his voice didn't come from him, it came from somewhere else, somewhere far away.
"Sweetie?" Momoka laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and all the water evaporated into blue light and he came hurtling back to reality.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry!" He said with a weak smile.
Natsumi gave her brother a look overflowing with concern before she stood up, walking back to the keypad and stared at it for a moment while biting her lip as if trying to recover some long forgotten memory lost on the trail of time.
'That word… What is it? It's so familiar...' Fuyuki thought as he tried to focus and find that one word that was haunting him relentlessly.
Natsumi's face lit up with sudden recollection and she expertly punched in a sequence of numbers and something in the trap door clicked in response.
"Natsumi! How did you do that?" Momoka asked in amazement as the heavy metal door slid effortlessly open.
"That idiot, all his passwords are exactly the same, it's sad how easy it is to hack you…" She mumbled to herself in triumph, the sound of her success drowning out Momoka's question.
The pekoponian trio clicked their way down the long metal spiral staircase, 'That word… That one word… It's car- …No, it's something else…'
The stairs proceeded into an opening that lead to a series of awry hallways each marked in some unknown language. As soon as they set foot into the white room the lights dimmed into a flickering red glow and a high pitched siren blared accompanied by a voice from hidden speakers repeating, "INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT."
"What's going on!" Momoka squealed and attached herself to Fuyuki in fear.
"Oh shit! They noticed us!" Natsumi yelled over the strident alarm.
Fuyuki knew he should be panicking but for some reason beyond his comprehension he was completely and utterly calm, the only thought on his mind was, 'That word… What is that word…'
"It's not my fault!" A wailing voice called over the intercom, shutting off the automatic alarm, "There's someone on the first floor, and their life signs are pekoponian!"
"Pekoponian?! Did he just say…" Momoka's eyes went wide, "No, it can't be…"
"Come on! We have to get out of here before they catch us!" Natsumi yelled grabbing a stunned Momoka and a rapt Fuyuki by the wrists and attempted to drag them back towards the stairs, but to her horror and over joyment, quickly descending the steel staircase was a familiar scar faced boy.
"Kururu, what's wrong? I heard the alarm go off and-" Giroro froze in place and stood as still as a statue when he locked eyes with Natsumi.
She stared at him for only a second before turning and trying to drag her underclassmen away from the gun toting Corporal and down one of the white hallways but found her escape path blocked by Dororo and Tamama.
"Kuukukukukukukuku!" Kururu's laugh came over the intercom.
They were cornered on all sides.
Then the wordslipped quietly through Fuyuki's lips, "Keroro…"
Woohoo! I wrote a long chapter! (At least compared to my others…)
For Natsumi's memory/dream thing I was gonna have a direct cut of dialogue from one of the GiroNatsu scenes in the anime, but I decided that was getting too close to copyright infringement… As if I haven't passed that line already.
SO MUCH FUYUMOMO! SO… MUCH… FLUFF! KYAH~
Have you ever heard of Sgt Frog Abridged? If you haven't seen it go look it up on YouTube, it's the best thing since Nutella!
I never really cared about rates or reviews, but if you like my story please favorite! Thanks! ^^