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Koyuki explained the situation to Dororo; Katazuchi sending out Momoka and Fuyuki to find water, them coming back hours later looking exhausted, and Katazuchi swearing them to secrecy. The blue ninja listened intently and pondered on it silently for a while.

"That is incredibly strange..." he mused. "Katazuchi is definitely up to something. But what could a boy like Fuyuki-dono have do with it...?"

"What do you mean?"

"The Sanctum has a built-in water supply, connected directly to the water pipes that run under Japan like any other modern home," Dororo explained, grimly. "There is no need for anyone to fetch water from nearby wells."

"Huh? But, then why on Earth did Katazuchi-san send those two out, knowing that there is the rest of your platoon out there?"

Dororo's eyes narrowed as he mulled over it more. "You say Fuyuki-dono's sister was killed by one of the platoon? And he was shot by another?"

Koyuki nodded, sadly. "I overheard him and Momoka-san talking about it."

"Hmm...He must be full of rage, full of remorse...And Katazuchi may be using that to his advantage." Dororo noticed her lean closer to him, listening intently. "We need to monitor him as much as possible. I will station myself above his office and follow him via the ventilation system."

"I could offer to do more chores around the Sanctum," Koyuki suggested, "that way, I'll be able to talk to him directly, ask subtly question him, watch his body language."

Dororo's brow crested with worry, "I do not want to put you in any danger."

"I can take care of myself, Dororo," she grinned. He always worried about her and even though he didn't need to...She often admitted to herself that it made her a little happy.

He smiled back a little, but grew seriously again very quickly. "It may be more use to try following or questioning Fuyuki-dono and Momoka-dono. Find out what Katazuchi is telling them."

"Alright, I'll meet you every night before lights out near his office to tell you want I find out."


A day after Keroro had announced to the rest of the Platoon that a couple of servants were being delivered to them, he was watching the small transportation pod hover over towards the ship from the window of the docking bay. The whole ship had to be refurbished to accommodate them; the ceiling had to be made higher, separate bedrooms and bathrooms had to be constructed...And that sneaky Sergeant Major Kururu had managed to fix it all up while everybody was sleeping. Apparently, it only took a quick re-write of the internal matrix system and an alteration of the flow of the Main Battery power and...some other things Keroro didn't really understand.

It had also been a day after Private Second Class Tamama went MIA. Keroro felt a huge twist of guilt inside of him whenever he thought of Tamama. It was his orders that made Tamama leave that day, his orders that Tamama, the most inexperienced member of the platoon, was to go solo...There wasn't much avoiding the fact it was his fault.

But feeling guilty wasn't going to get anything done. Pinpointing the Private's location, organising a rescue mission, that was going to get stuff done. But right now, he had to give the new servants a quick tour of the ship and then tell them to clean stuff. Getting that done would lead to getting other things done...eventually...(?)

He took a deep breath, composed his all-important facade of being an awesome leader, and went to greet the new servants just dropped off.

They didn't look all that. One boy and one girl, both dressed in a plain white, short sleeved T-shirt and bright orange, slim-fitting trousers. The boy held his head high, eye's gleaming somewhat. Either the resistance-breaking methods used on him weren't enough or they worked too well, because he seemed a little please to be on the ship. "Oh well," Keroro thought, "a happy servant is an efficient servant I guess." The girl on the other hand...She just looked broken. Her eyes, red and blurry from crying, were focused on her feet but the rest of her face was unreadable.

"Pekoponians! I am Sergeant Keroro," he began, "but I suppose you will have to call me, and the other Keronians aboard 'Master'. You have been told your rights in accordance to the Protection Of Indigenous Species Post Mass Planetary Invasion Act of 2001?" The boy nodded, the girl didn't move a muscle. "Right then, I'll show you around the ship, then you can rest for about an hour in your rooms, and then you can get to work. Any questions that your pitiful Pekoponian brains are dying to ask?"

The boy raised his hand, it was respectful but...sarcastic at the same time. "How come the ceiling is so high? The ship was built for your species who, not meaning this as an insult, are very short, but it can fit our species, who are quite a bit taller, nicely."

"We changed the height of the ceiling when we heard you were coming."

"Oh, that was nice of you. Thanks."

"Erm, you're welcome..."

He raised his hand again. "I have another question; how come you're speaking perfect Earth Japanese?"

"Universal translators."

"Cool. Another question-"

"I think I'm going to send you to help in Kururu's lab. Now, follow me, I'll start by showing you the kitchen."


"Kururu, what in the hell?" Giroro bellowed, storming into the Sergeant Major's laboratory only to be greeted by snide chuckling.

"Problemo, Giroro?" Kururu asked, not turning away from his over-sized computer screen.

"There damn well is! You put a bedroom for one of the Pekoponian servants in my quarters!"

"I resent that blatantly incorrect accusation. I put a bedroom for one of the Pekoponian servants in the closet of your quarters, ku ku ku...By accident, of course."

"Yeah right-" Giroro was about to scoff, until he noticed the blonde Pekoponian boy standing in the corner of the lab, with a calm smile on his face. "Hmph. Well it looks like you've got to put up with one of your own."

Kururu quickly shot a look at the servant, and then turned back to his computer. "Keroro shoved him in here. I needed a lab rat, but I was hoping for one that wasn't so fragile. An Angol, maybe."

The servant gave a curt wave to Giroro. "I'm Saburo-"

"You're furniture," Kururu cut him off. "Worse; you're Pekoponian furniture. Just prop up the wall over there, and occasionally hold things when my hands are full, like a good little idiot."

The servant arched his eyebrow at the yellow scientist semi-curiously, semi-wryly. "Yes, sir."

"Fine, right, whatever, but is there any way you could possibly move the other Pekoponian's bedroom out of my closet?" Giroro implored.

"Oh, of course there's a way. What do you take me for?"

"...You're not going to do it, are you?"

"Kuuu ku ku..."

Giroro sighed irritably and plodded back to his quarters. "Well, maybe the one I have to put up with is quiet..."

When he finally got to his quarters, he planned to give his rifle a quick polish, then plan out a strategy for the attack on Mexico, and then collapse into bed. But then he saw the other servant standing by the door to his room.

"The, um...The green one told me to come here. Said you might have a job for me to do," she spoke barely above a whisper.

"Oh, right, well..." Giroro opened the door and looked around his room for something, anything that needed to be done. "I guess you could clean some of my guns," he said, awkwardly pointing to the weapon rack on the wall next to a table with the cleaning equipment on it. And then he sat at his desk and poured over maps, combat formations, and came up with a seemingly decent stratagem, all the while he could hear a quiet squeaking of polished metal as the servant worked. His mind did once wander onto the topic of said servant. She was not at all like the other one, Sabu-something-or-other...For one, she didn't look at peace with being here. From the quick glance at her eyes when he first saw her, he could tell she despised every moment she was on the ship. And she looked so downtrodden; Giroro almost felt sorry for her. But then he remembered he was a soldier- feelings do not factor into a soldier's life.

His ears pricked up when he heard the sudden stop of polishing. He looked over his shoulder to see the servant pointing a pistol directly at him, fires akin to the ones that engulfed her country blazing in her eyes. "Tch, I'm getting tired of being threatened by pissed off Pekoponians." Giroro pushed himself out of his chair and, calmly as he could, walked towards her. "Just put it down," he said directly. When he was two meters away from her, she let out a ship-shaking roar of fury and pulled the trigger.

There was the sharp click Giroro knew most intimately. But that was all.

The searing fire in her eyes died, her amber orbs growing wide in terror and confusion. "You know the safety's on?" Giroro said, reaching to take the gun from her. As soon as it was in his mitt, he felt her rock hard knuckles connect with his chin like a sledgehammer, sending him flying across the room and putting supernovas in his eyes. He landed head-first on the metal floor with an almighty SMACK, all the light in his eyes going out for a good long second. He winced, hoisting himself up and blinking away the ringing in his ears, the residual sparks in his eyes and the pain in his skull to see her scrambling out of the room; pistol in hand once more.

"Idiot," Giroro growled, taking off after her.

She was fast. Very fast...Surprisingly fast. But he was a Keronian; he was smaller, lighter...if this was an ordinary Pekoponian he was chasing, he'd be much faster than them. But this...this irrefutably extraordinary girl was just as fast as him. She had made it to the Main Battery and left him in the dust at the other end of the corridor.

"INTRUDER IN MAIN BATTERY!" he yelled out. No doubt it would be picked up by Kururu's security cameras and microphones. Sure, she was a Pekoponian, but sneezing at the energy sphere could plunge the whole ship into a power failure.

He saw Garuru, armed with two pistols, and Pururu, armed with that terrifyingly oversized syringe, race around the corner at the opposite end of the corridor, but raced in regardless.

She stood at the control panel, and even though he only saw her from the back he could tell she was shaking her head in bewilderment. "Stop right there! You don't know what that does!" he roared. "Damn Pekoponians are always messing with things they don't understand- it always end badly!" The girl froze. Her head drooped. "You..." her voice was shaky, she was on the verge of sobs, "...You...YOU DAMN STUPID FROGS!" She raised her fist high above her head and smashed it down into the control panel.

Alarms wailed, green steam rose from the surface of the swelling energy sphere. The emerald ball of pure power was writhing and bulging and distorting until a tendril lashed out of it, striking the girl like a whip. Giroro's breathing stopped dead and his heart skipped as he saw her get flung away from it like a ragdoll. He felt like he was rooted to the floor, totally immobile, while the energy sphere kept convulsing and lashing out. That girl landed on the floor completely still, not flinching, not even breathing. Reality slapped him in the face only when Garuru pushed past him to the control panel.

"Pururu!" he shouted over his shoulder as his fingers desperately pounded the panel. Without needing to be directly ordered, Pururu was at the girl's side. She put her ear to her mouth, listened as best she could despite the blaring sirens, put her fingers on her throat, then called out, "Breathing's extremely shallow! Pulse is slightly irregular! We need to get her to the Infirmary ASAP!"

"Go! Giroro, assist her!"

All at once, the alarms silenced and the sphere shrank to its natural state. Garuru let out a quick breath of relief before jumping into action once more and helping his brother and Pururu hoist the Pekoponian onto a hover-gurney.

"Invade Pekopon, they said," Pururu muttered under her breath, "It'll be easy, they said..."


Giroro didn't really know what to do with himself in the Infirmary. Sure, he knew first aid- wouldn't have passed academy training without it. But his place was out in the battlefields, getting shot at, getting scars and wounds and needing bullets pulled out of him. Not stuck in a small, clean hospital room, pulling the bullets out of other people. So the corporal, with his bruised chin, stood awkwardly in the corner, waiting to be asked for assistance or told to get out.

He wasn't paying much attention to what Pururu was doing, and what seemed like little under an hour of waiting, the medic surprised him out of his stupor by saying, "She'll be fine."

"H-huh? Seriously?"

"Yep. The power flux that hit her was actually pretty weak; it sent her into shock more than anything. I think the force of hitting the floor did more damage, but even that is just extensive bruising. She does have an energy burn on her abdomen, but with the right medication applied quick enough, it won't leave too much scarring."

"So what the hell did she think she was doing?" a very annoyed Keroro demanded, storming in with Garuru, who had left to inform him of the situation, following behind.

"Attempting to sabotage the ship, obviously," the Lieutenant replied calmly, but Giroro could sense the frustration bubbling up inside him. "Personally, I would have gone for a more subtle plan."

"This...I don't think this was planned," Giroro said.

Keroro let out an unconvinced, "Ehhhhh?" and Garuru's eyes narrowed behind his visor.

"After Keroro sent her to me for any odd jobs to do, she worked perfectly well for a good long while before trying to shoot me-"

"She tried to shoot you?" Pururu repeated.

"With my own gun, yeah. Safety was on though...so she punched me instead and fled. I think the Main Battery was the first place she found, so she went in there and did the first thing she thought of; fuck shit up."

Garuru mulled silently on this for a moment. Keroro might have been mulling it, but really he looked like he was trying to solve an extremely difficult maths problem. "All we can do is wait for her to regain consciousness and a little bit of her strength and then question her," Pururu said flatly. "Then I suppose we inform Headquarters and let them make a decision about her."

"Nuh-uh, nope, can't tell HQ," Keroro chipped in quickly. "We have lost the Kero Ball, two soldiers, and now we can't keep a supposedly resistance-broken or domesticated or whatever the 'politically correct term is' Pekoponian servant in check? HQ would pull the invasion quicker than you can say 'Forced Retirement'!"

"The Sergeant's right," Garuru nodded. "We'll have to find some other way to deal with this mess."

He didn't know what, but something in Giroro's chest didn't like the idea of that 'some other way'. "When do you think she'll wake up?"

"Three-five hours," Pururu answered.

"I'll wait in the Infirmary until she does...Wake up, I mean. I was the one she attacked first, so she'd be the most surprised to see my face first. I might be able to use that to my advantage and question her more effectively."

"Brilliant idea," Garuru replied. "Alright, you can call us when you've finished questioning her and tell us what she says. I'll be in the Main Battery doing calibrations."


Three hours alone in a room with an unconscious Pekoponian was a mix between incredibly boring and incredibly...strange. One moment Giroro was totally devoid of thought, simply whiling away the minutes until she woke up. And the next...His brain was being wracked and bombarded with rather unwanted thoughts. Thoughts on that punch she gave him, the sheer strength and ferocity behind her white, brutal knuckles, thoughts on how his heart began to race when he chased her and plummeted when he saw her fall.

That punch...The bruise it left still smarted. He'd been beaten up before- a fair number of times, actually. But no single punch he had even received in his life had inflicted that much pain on its own. And never from a girl.

He chanced a look at her, somewhat paranoid that the second he laid eyes on her, she would wake up... and punch him again. And, honestly, he felt a bit weird about staring for too long at an unconscious girl. But her hand...the hand that had closed into a powerful fist of stone when she slammed it into his face was soft and elegant looking when it rested naturally at her sides. Her hand was kind of...pretty. Less pretty than her eyes, though. There were constellations and cosmic dust clouds that were less pretty than those bold amber eyes. "GAH!" Giroro shook his head violently. "NO. This is not the time for that. There is never a time for thinking her hands and her eyes are pretty. You are a soldier; pretty never comes into it."

At that moment, her closed eyelids twitched a little. She was waking up. His heart started doing a thousand-beats-per-second. "Wh-Why am I nervous? Get a grip, soldier!" he mentally screamed. She opened her eyes and locked her gaze on him- which raised his heartbeat even more- then bolted upright. She let out a hiss of pain and winced, tentatively holding her middle. "C-careful," he warned, "you got burned earlier. The medic said it's not too bad though."

Talking just turned her attention back to him. "...Why are you here...?" Her voice was quiet and croaky from being out so long.

"I...Wanted to be here when you woke up," he replied. Honestly, he did want to be there when she woke...and not just to question her. "Are you okay?"

She took a long while to respond, as if she didn't want to give away any signs of weakness to him. "...Thirsty," she muttered, averting her eyes.

"I'll get you some water." He reached over to the small table next to him that had a jug of water and some paper cups. He handed her a full cup, but she didn't take it. She glared at it, her angry, accusing stare shifting from it to him. "It's not poisoned," he said. To convince her, he poured himself some in a separate beaker and took a long drink from it. Only then, did she reach out and take the drink. "...Thanks," she croaked.

While she drank, Giroro knew he should have been thinking up how to go about questioning her, but instead he was trying desperately to hold in what he was about to say...which was this: "I've, uh...I've never been punched by someone like that before."

The girl finished her water and eyed him skeptically. "...Seriously? But you're a soldier, you must've been beaten up load of times."

"Well, yeah, but never punched as hard as that. And never by a girl..."

She averted her eyes from him again, looking down at her lap. "L-look, I'm...sorry, okay? I'm sorry for doing that."

He raised his eyebrow curiously. "Are you really?"

"...If I say 'no', you'll execute me, won't you?"

"No, we're not allowed to."

"...Then no. I'm not sorry at all," she said perfectly honestly. Giroro chuckled a little. This girl...with her brutal honesty and even more brutal strength, her shrewd nature, despite her beauty...She had the heart of a warrior; just like him.

"What's your name?"

She brushed a lock of pinky-redy hair from her eyes and spoke quietly, but with some ever-present confidence. "Natsumi...Natsumi Hinata."