Tokyo, Japan

Hinata Household

"Hm… This is weird." Muttered Kururu, which made his platoon mates turn their heads in his direction.

"What?" Giroro and Keroro asked, going up behind him so they could see his computer screen as well. The medical exams hadn't gone well at all (not that it came up as a shock), and any kind of distraction was welcome.

"My radar isn't detecting Lieutenant Garuru's ship." The yellow frog explained, typing something on his keyboard. Keroro shrugged, losing interest.

"Their ship is pretty fast, your thing probably can't detect them anymore."

"They can't travel such a huge distant in such a short amount of time. That's too much, even for them." Giroro said, carefully staring at Kururu's computer. His brother's ship was fast, him being the leader of a Class A platoon, but that was too much ever for the best ship the Keron army had.

"I never said they did." Kururu said, staring quizzically at his screen. At this point, the entire platoon was standing behind him, curious about what was happening. "It just vanished."

They couldn't help but notice that he wasn't using his usual "ku ku ku", a sign that he was actually concerned. If it was with the Garuru Platoon or is equipment, that they didn't know.

… But it was probably the latter.

"Maybe your radar thingy is just going nuts. Wouldn't be the first time one of your inventions turned itself against you." Keroro said without paying much attention to what was happening.

"You think they crashed, Sargent Major?" Tamama asked, eating a chocolate and a lollipop at the same time.

At the same time.

The yellow genius leaned back in his chair, shrugging slightly. "I don't know. But it's likely."

Giroro's widened his eyes, staring at his colleague.

"Do you think this could be-"

"- One of the species of aliens that have been around lately?" Kururu interrupted him, realizing where he was going. He tilted his head to the side, still staring at his computer screen. "Absolutely. Your brother is an S Rank Sniper, and is considered to be one of the best our army has ever had, if not the best. That kind of title comes with a price."

Giroro kept quiet, concern written all over his features. His brother was an amazing soldier, he knew that, but it was like Kururu had said – that kind of title came with a price, and his was too high. He knew that any species of aliens that had suffered because of him would retaliate in the first chance they got, and that was an excellent opportunity. The Corporal knew that even the best soldiers had problems, and that one day they wouldn't be more than simple names spoken by Keronians of future generations… The red frog shuddered at the thought, not wanting to think of his life without his brother. It was one thing not to talk to him, but knowing he was there; another completely different was knowing he was gone for good.

"Obviously, the fact that he is the best Sniper in the army isn't exactly shocking. After all, he took you out with half a dozen of shots, ku ku ku." Said Kururu, returning to his normal state. That might have sounded like a compliment, but his platoon mates knew better than to think that he was complimenting the Corporal. He was obviously mocking him, something that he did for a living.

Giroro grunted as soon as he heard him, looking annoyed.

"Stop mentioning that!"

"No. I wish I could've recorded it. It would make an amazing birthday present, ku ku ku~"

Keroro, Dororo and Tamama had to hold the Corporal to prevent him from hurting the Sargent Major.

"Son of a Frog-"

"Of two, actually." Said the yellow frog, typing a few more stuff on his keyboard. A few seconds later he leaned back in his chair, folding his legs over his desk and putting his hands on the back of his head. "Done." He simply stated, his creepy signature grin on his face.

"What?" They all asked, confused. Giroro seemed to chill a bit, curious about Kururu had done.

"An A Class Platoon's ship's security cameras are harder to hack, but nothing that I can't manage. Wanna see it or not?"

They all went up behind him again, be he raised a hand, telling them to back off.

"No need to fuss." He pressed a button and immediately the images were projected into a bigger screen, letting them be in the middle of the room without looking and feeling like canned sausages. Kururu pressed "play" and immediately the recordings of the present day started to play. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening – Taruru and Tororo were having an argument, but stopped as soon as Garuru told them to; Pururu was cleaning her needle; and Zaruru was hanging upside down in the ceiling.

"Move forward to the moment when they go back to the ship after coming here." Suggested Dororo, and Kururu did so. They saw them entering the ship and saluting their leader, except Pururu, who walked towards the leader's office without staring at any of them.

"I didn't realize she was this mad, gero gero." Keroro said, scratching the back of his head. Giroro, rolled his eyes at him.

"Kururu said she was old, idiot."

Kururu kept on watching the recordings without paying much attention to what his teammates were saying. A few seconds later he saw Taruru walking towards one of the quarters, and when the door was opened, Pururu emerged from the other side. They heard Taruru apologizing for his behavior and telling the Nurse how satisfied the Lieutenant was with her job, which made her blush tremendously.

They all stared at Giroro, who started to hit his head against the wall.

"Not." Hit. "This." Hit. "Again." Hit.

His line of thought was, however, cut by the piercing sound of an explosion that came from the screen. They all looked just in time to see Pururu and Taruru hitting the ground, and it didn't take long until the second impact was felt. None of them dared to speak as the two teammates walked towards the main room and as Zoruru told them one of their engines had stopped working, and that the other one wasn't going to last long.

A few seconds later Giroro heard his brother's voice, and as soon as the third impact was felt, he felt his heart tightening in his chest. To make him feel worse, the camera that was in his brother's office stopped working.

Only when he saw him entering the main room with Pururu did Giroro release a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Kururu moved the recordings forward again, stopping when he saw Tororo jumping of the ship.

"Hm." He said, sounding unsurprised. "He told them to jump."

"Which means that he is going to be the last one…" Giroro muttered, and none of this friends dared to tell him otherwise, especially because they knew that it was true. Garuru took the role as a platoon leader much more serious than Keroro ever could, and they knew that he would sacrifice his life without thinking twice if that meant that his teammates would be safe.

After Pururu jumped, they all saw the Lieutenant trying to stabilize the ship, and even though he looked ridiculously calm, Giroro knew he had lost hope a long time ago. After a few seconds of trying to, probably, take the ship to a more discrete place, the purple frog jumped to a place in the room that the cameras couldn't reach.

After that, the recording stopped.

They all stared at the screen without knowing what to think, Giroro wide eyed. He shook his head and sighed, closing his eyes. He looked like he had just lost a battle, the look of defeat on his face.

"Giroro…" Keroro tried, in vain.

"Corporal, your brother is a very intelligent frog, I'm sure he found a way out." Tamama said, forgetting all about his candy as he saw his friend like that. Dororo stood quietly next to Kururu, knowing that nothing they could say would make the red frog feel better.

"At least the others are okay." He finally said, slowly folding his arms. "There's something bugging me. Go back to the moment the third explosion occurred." He ordered, without adverting his gaze from the screen. Kururu wasn't understanding where he was trying to get, but did as he said anyway.

"Here?" He asked once they saw Pururu and Taruru talking to Zoruru in the main room.

"Yes. Put the camera that's recording my brother's office in full screen."

Kururu did so, and as soon as the explosion occurred, Giroro pointed at the screen.

"There, right before the explosion happened! There was a package in his desk, and when Garuru read what was written in it, he immediately knew that it was a trap."

"I can't see what's written in it, the camera's don't reach it." Kururu said. "I can try to see who planted the bomb there, though. I'm pretty sure it happened while they down here." He moved the recording back so it would show the moment they got out of the ship, and seeing that nothing was happening, he moved a bit forward, but stopped the moment he saw what looked like a shadow.

"That's… That's just a shadow." Keroro said. "Maybe it's walking too fast?"

"I don't think so." The yellow frog answered. "But let's see." He clicked "play", and they all saw the shadow… floating at a normal speed.

"What the…" Muttered Giroro, following the shadow until the moment it stopped in front of the Lieutenant's office's door. What happened next let them all awestruck.

"Did that thing just go through the door like it was a frogging ghost?!" Keroro yelled, running to hide behind Tamama. The latter didn't have anything to say about the matter.

"Apparently." Kururu said, looking as shocked as the others, which was incredibly rare. The shadow dropped the package on Garuru's desk and then turned around, floating towards the door. What they saw as it did so nearly made Keroro jump of his skin.

It didn't have a face, nor a body for that matter. All it had was two big, round eyes that shone in contrast to its dark figure. Then the thing looked at the camera and smiled, its "lips'" corners twisting like those clowns' masks they sell on Halloween. It had a terrifying smile, showing, instead of teeth, a white shine just like in its eyes.

It looked like something that came out of a horror movie.

"This isn't creepy or anything…" Tamama muttered, wincing slightly, still staring at the screen.

"Do you think this could be an alien?" Giroro asked, staring at his yellow companion. Keroro, in return, shrugged.

"I have no idea. I never saw anything like this."

Giroro stared at the screen apprehensively, and then turned his head towards Keroro.

"We have to communicate this to the HQ immediately." He said, and the green frog's face suddenly became very pale. Giroro didn't understand why, but Kururu probably knew, because he started laughing.

"Ku ku ku, we can't. Our leader broke the Keroball."

Keroro had taken advantage of the Corporal's distraction to slip out of the room, but once he heard guns being loaded right behind, he knew it was too late. He turned around shaking to see his childhood friend involved in a dark aura, two of his weapons on his hands.

"You broke the Keroball?" He asked calmly and Keroro started running, knowing what was coming.

o – o – o – o – o

Aveiro, Portugal

When Pururu opened her eyes, all she saw was white.

Once her eyes adapted to the light, however, she started to recognize certain shapes and colors. There was a bed in the opposite corner to which she was in, a desk right next to her and a closet, near the bed. She tried to sit, but once she did so she felt an aching pain in her leg, and when she looked down to her body she realized someone had taken care of her wounds.

She heard something move, and only in that moment did she realize that there was someone lying on the bed.

It was a petite girl, with brown hair and eyes, and dark glasses. She quietly got up from her place and sat down next to Pururu, looking as if she didn't know what to do or as if she was a bit frightened. The pink Keronian couldn't blame her.

"Thank you for taking care of my wounds." She said with a soft smile on her lips. That seemed to calm the girl down a bit, since she returned Pururu's smile with one of her own, but still she could see the Pekoponian was extremely nervous.

"Hm… Yeah, you're… You're welcome. It was the least I could do…" The girl said with a soft shrug. Pururu, noticing that the girl wasn't going to say anything more, tried again.

"My name is Pururu." She said, stretching the arm that pained her the less so that the girl could shake her tiny hand. She stared at her briefly, but almost immediately shook her hand, thinking that the alien could feel insulted if she didn't, and she surely didn't want to get in trouble with something that she didn't know.

´"I'm, hm… I'm Inês." She said, stuttering a bit. She then reached her hand to her desk and grabbed something that she then gave to Pururu. It was a glass with, Pururu guessed, water. "You should… drink some water." Then, as if she remembered something, she scratched the back of her head. "You know what water is… right?"

The pink Keronian laughed and grabbed the glass, drinking its content within a few seconds. Inês stared at her in utter bewilderment, but quickly got up and when she sat down again, she had a bottle of water in her hand.

"Here, you can… drink all of it."

"Thank you." Pururu said, taking the bottle from her hands and drinking half of the water inside of it. Once she was satisfied, she stared at the girl with her big violet eyes.

Inês, on the other hand, thought she was absolutely adorable. However, she kept in mind the fact that she was literally from another planet, and didn't want to risk saying the wrong thing.

"Why are you here?"

Pururu, who was staring at some of the photographs the girl had in her room, jumped slightly when she spoke, confusion written all over her face.

"I'm sorry?" She asked, not understanding what she meant.

"Hm, here… Here, on earth. What are you doing here?" Inês took one of her hands to her upper arm, scratching it. She did that when she was nervous, but she couldn't really help it.

"My Platoon and I came here on… a "mission". We were attacked when we were leaving." She spoke in a professional tone, almost as if she was explaining the situation to someone in a higher rank than hers, and Inês felt somewhat intimidated. However, once she completely processed Pururu's words, her eyes went wide.

"Your platoon? Then that means that there are more of… you, and that probably you weren't the only one that… hm, that got injured?" That entire situation was preposterously weird to the brunette girl, and she couldn't help but pause for a while in the middle of her sentences. Nonetheless, for someone who was speaking to an alien, she was doing pretty well.

"Yes. Probably we all got hurt." Then, as if she was remembering something that she shouldn't, her face took on a sad expression. "Some more than others, even."

Inês thought that it would be wiser not to say anything more, seeing how upset she had gotten when the subject of her platoon mates was brought up, so she turned her head towards one of her room's windows.

It was a nice room – she had turned the house's attic, a dark and sad place, into that bright and shiny compartment as soon as her parents told her they were going to turn her room into a playroom. She painted the walls in white, moved her bed, desk and closet to there and with a bit of her parents' help she bought a mirror and a bedside table. She bought these little lights that she put on the wall that was slightly above her bed and that she lights up whenever it gets dark, too.

The attic has two windows, one next to her desk and the other one on the ceiling, right above her bed, and she liked to watch the stars before she fell asleep on summer nights, or watch the rain pour on those cold and dark days of winter.

She was so lost in thought that she didn't even notice the window next to her desk was opened, and that it had started raining. She immediately got up and ran to close the window as soon as she realized, muttering some sarcastic comments as she did saw.

"Come on, man! We're in June…"

"It doesn't usually rain in this time of the year?" Pururu asked, sounding extremely curious, making the girl smile softly as she answered.

"No… June is usually a pretty warm month. Summer's close, after all."

She sat in front of the tiny alien again, wondering if it was now a good time to ask her about her teammates. She was curious but didn't want to be inconvenient, and didn't want to make her feel so sad again.

"Inês?"

She jumped slightly when she heard Pururu call her name, which made her laugh. She started at her apologetically and then spoke again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you… but could you please tell me in which country I am?" She asked politely, and Inês couldn't say no to someone so cute and sweet. She typed something on her phone, and once she found what she was looking for, she turned the screen towards Pururu and pointed at one of the countries that showed up in the map that she searched.

"You're in Portugal… This tiny thing right here, between the sea and Spain." Seeing her confused look, the girl quickly added with a giggle. "Spain is this country right here."

Pururu nodded with a smile, and they soon fell back into a deep silence. Inês, wanting to take the opportunity of being in the company of an alien and feeling the need to help people whenever they were feeling down, ended up asking the question that had been going around her mind for a while now.

"Your teammates… Do you know where they are?"

The effect of that question was the equivalent to the explosion of a grenade. Pururu got very quiet and stared blankly at the wall behind Inês, and she immediately regretted bringing it up. Right when she was thinking Pururu wasn't going to answer her, the pink alien opened her mouth to speak.

"I don't know. We didn't jump of the ship at the same time… I don't even know if they are nearby."

(Let's ignore the fact that they are in a fanfic and that they obviously need to be nearby… Ahem, right. The fourth wall.

Oops~)

"Can you… tell me about them?" Inês asked slowly, carefully choosing her words. "I'm curious about… them. And I want you to meet with them again." She said firmly, and looked the alien in the eyes as she spoke. She sighed and gave her a weak smile, indicating her that she was going to tell her.

"There are five of us." She started, looking up at the girl. "The New Recruit Tororo is a tiny, orange frog and his symbol is a… hm…" She thought for a moment and then made a funny expression, as if she was apologizing. "I don't know what it is, but it's green. He is the youngest but is also the smartest, although that what he has on his brain, lacks on social skills. Sometimes he is a bit… Crude, blunt. But I'm glad he's on our team." The alien smiled, and Inês smiled back at her as to urge her to go on.

"The Private First Class Taruru is the second youngest, and hasn't been on his teens for too long. He's a light blue frog, has freckles and his symbol looks like a drop, and it's yellow and orange. He has a bit of trouble following orders sometimes…"

"Blame it on the hormones." Inês said with a chuckle.

"I'm guessing you're like that sometimes, too." Pururu said, and when the girl didn't answer her, she knew it was true. "But even though he has a bit of a childish behavior, it's a bit hard not to like him. Sure he's annoying… But we all like him a lot."

"The Lance Corporal Zoruru is… singular, definitely. He's half robot, half frog… His organic side is grey, and his symbol is some kind of red three-pointed star. He's an assassin, and a very good one at that. He's very competent, of course, but we tend to… forget him. He's very good at going unnoticed." She smiled awkwardly, looking embarrassed. Inês giggled a bit, but continued to pay attention to her. If they were in fact five, Pururu had to talk about one more.

"And then, there's the Lieutenant Garuru…" She started but suddenly stopped, as if she had gotten sad all of a sudden. "He's purple, and his symbol is a wolf's face… At least it looks like it. We all compare him to a wolf without him knowing, too." She giggled, but almost immediately continued. "He's our leader, and is considered to be the best Sniper our army has, and one of the best it ever had. We all feel extremely safe when we're around him. He and Taruru tend to fight quite a lot because of those "following orders" problems I told you about, but he doesn't hesitate in putting his life at risk if that means that all of us will be safe. He's a good leader." She said, and Inês could see her… blush? Yes, she was sure Pururu was blushing, and she surely knew why. "And he's very brave, too."

"Awwwwwwwww!" Inês yelled, clasping her hands together and getting extremely excited all of a sudden. "You like him!" she stared dreamily at her window, putting both of her hands on her cheeks. "A commander and his subordinate, how romantic…!"

Pururu's face got even redder, if that was even possible. "N-No! N-No, it's nothing like that…"

Inês shook her head lively, and took her index finger to her lips. "You don't need to lie! Your secret is safe with me!"

Well, you gotta love romance for making the friendship between a human and an alien possible.

Shippers…

Inês winked at Pururu, and even though she was still extremely red, that little gesture made her feel much better.

The girl unlocked her phone, and once she saw the time, she got up. She helped Pururu doing the same. "Can you eat the same food as us?" When the little alien nodded, Inês gave her a soft smile.

"Then let's go. Graça is probably almost done making lunch." When she saw the uncomfortable expression Pururu was wearing, Inês smiled. "Graça is our domestic maid. She is the one who takes care of me, since my parents are always away on business trips… She was also the one who found you and brought you to our home." Inês smiled down at her again. "She's a huge UFO geek. I'm sure she's gonna be super excited when she finds out you woke up."

o - o - o - o - o

here's the second one. I hope you enjoy it!