Disclaimer: I own nothing.
I'm considering changing one of the main characters on the story tag to Kululu or Keroro instead of Tamama, since Tamama seems to mostly be doing things with Natsumi and aid her story. I mean, Keroro hasn't appeared much but the story revolves around him so it might make since, but it's also me writing this and everything I touch seems to turn into Kululu, so maybe I should just change it to Kululu? He seems to be getting a lot of time.
Tamama, Kohizou and Natsumi entered the revolution base to drop Kohizou off to safety. Tamama was silent and stoic thinking about the loss of Dororo and how they had finally found a member of his old platoon, but they had immediately lost him.
"Be brave." Natsumi pat Kohizou on the head, before handing him off to an older gentleman. She'd return to him later when she had completely defeated her brother, and their lives would be safe.
"Dororo..." Tamama whispered. The ninja had tried to kill him, but he was still a beloved platoon mate and mentor. "Our plans... Maybe we should abandon them." He looked up at Natsumi with wide eyes. "Maybe we don't want to find Giroro, maybe the same thing would happen."
Natsumi shook her head. "Giroro's not Dororo. I am certain he'd fight with us. And... he has to be okay... unlike Dororo."
"He... He changed after you got sick, though. I think he was lonely that you were gone. And then after Mr. Sergeant said the invasion was a lie... I think he broke. His purpose was gone after the Keroro Platoon was disbanded. Maybe he's just as bad, if not worse than Dororo," Tamama told her.
Natsumi didn't like to think about that. "We have to try, though. We have to," she whispered silently to Tamama.
"I... I have no leads on where he is."
"He's the kind of guy who likes fighting, drawing attention to himself. I'm sure if we looked through old newspapers or something, we'd be able to find him." Natsumi tried to reignite Tamama's will to fight.
Tamama gave a small nod, before sniffing and wiping his nose. He had to try, she was right. Or else Keroro's soul would never get to rest.
They decided to try to figure out where he was from hard research, from just scanning old newspaper clippings that were in libraries that the revolution had raided.
It took hours of boring labor, before even one of them got a clue to where he was.
"Red warrior wins again: Coliseum champion, beloved by people." Natsumi read a headline on an old black and white newspaper. Newspapers weren't used much anymore, so Tamama's revolution usually didn't look up information in them, but it seemed to prove useful. "What's the coliseum?" she asked Tamama.
"The revolution doesn't go there much," he told her. "It's where Fukki puts people usually if he doesn't want to kill them straight out, if he wants them to fight for the people's entertainment. People of the revolution, or people who have spoken against the Harvest, usually end up there. It's a spooky place. It's pretty much a guaranteed slow death, unless you're the coliseum champion. Then you've never lost, and are regarded with honor." Tamama shivered.
"He would be the champion, wouldn't he?" The corner's of Natsumi's mouth went up in a smirk as she thought to herself. She had to be sure, though. It might just be someone dressed in red instead of a red Keronian.
"Can we look up any pictures on what the champion looks like?" Natsumi asked, showing Tamama the headline.
Tamama shook his head. "We can't hack into Fukki's security, thanks to Kululu. But... maybe there's a picture of the champion in one of these newspapers." Tamama and Natsumi hurriedly started skimming the pictures.
Natsumi grinned as she found one. There was a clear picture of Giroro covered in a few more scars than she remembered him having. But he still clearly had his belt on, and held some of his favorite guns in front of someone he had beaten. "He's in the coliseum. We've found him."
"Makes sense. If Giroro spoke up against the Harvest and Fukki didn't like that, he probably would have put him in the coliseum. I heard the champion is undefeated, and was the first one ever put in the coliseum. Fukki must have made it to hold him." Tamama's eyes started twinkling as he realized where Giroro was, and that a rescue mission would soon fall to him and Natsumi.
"Why wouldn't he escape?" Natsumi wondered, glancing at the picture. From what she saw of Giroro, he didn't look desperate, he looked to be fighting with valor. He even looked like he was having a little fun. "Why would he work for Fuyuki and Angol Mois's entertainment?"
Tamama gave a sad look. "Maybe he didn't know what to do with his life anymore after you and Mr. Sergeant were gone. After Mr. Sergeant died we all... split up. Staying together reminded us too much of him, of the Keroro Platoon. From what Momocchi told me, Giroro stayed by your side for a little bit until Fukki started invading the planet, then he left to tour the galaxy. Maybe he came back when he realized Fukki had been successful, but saw what Fukki had done to Pekopon?" Tamama asked. He could see Giroro doing that.
"We have to free him. Free him from that awful coliseum. I'm sure... No, I'm positive that he'd join our cause and fight by my side," Natsumi told Tamama enthusiastically.
"I'm also pretty sure that if you asked, he'd do it," Tamama nodded. He smiled. He missed Giroro. The corporal had also been like a mentor to him, same as Dororo. It would be nice to see him again.
"But how do we break him out?" asked Natsumi.
"Easy. If you enlist in the coliseum and fight your way up to the champion you can talk to him. Then you can break him out," Tamama told her.
"Me? Why not you?" Natsumi asked.
"Everybody's looking for me since I'm the revolution leader. Nobody, however, would find it suspicious if you begged someone to let you fight in the coliseum for honor," Tamama explained.
"Will...F uyuki be there? Does he watch the coliseum battles?" Natsumi could feel a knot in her stomach tighten at the thought of seeing her evil brother.
"He probably has better things to do than watch Giroro fight," Tamama reassured her. Natsumi felt more at ease.
"I'll do it, then."
Tamama smiled. They would succeed with Giroro, even if they had failed with Dororo.
Angol Mois dropped Dororo in front of Fuyuki. "Tamama got away, but I'll catch him. You could say, look who the cat dragged in?"
Fuyuki looked with glee at Dororo. "So... he's here. That's good."
Dororo looked between them. "What do you want from me?"
"We want to reunite you and the Sarge. The Sarge asked for his platoon last Harvest, after all. I'm sorry, Dororo, but we'll have to cage you until he awakens. Mmkay?" Fuyuki asked. He had a cage for Dororo prepared. A large cage, hard to escape from, about the size of an old zoo exhibit's. It had a part of it closed off for privacy and looked quite pampered for a cage. "There's no hard feelings between us, so there's no need for you to live horrible while we wait for November 1st," he reminded him.
"But I'm still a prisoner and will live like such," Dororo noted as Mois swung the door open for him to enter.
"He came willingly, Fuyuki," she told him, "in return for us to never draw his son, Kohizou's, name for the Harvest."
"How... pure of him," Fuyuki smiled. He doubted Keroro had asked for his platoon so he could eat them - he knew the Sarge just wanted to be himself again - but he couldn't help noting that detail.
Keroro had finally asked for something that seemed to be part of his old self. And Fuyuki just wanted to give it to him.
"Your terms are agreed. No harm will come to Kohizou and if I ever see him, I will give him a good life." Fuyuki tilted his head. "I didn't know you had a son."
Dororo looked down. "Thank you for sparing him," he told him. "He... He was the child Koyuki died for."
"Huh. Yeah, I was thinking when she was dragged here that I was supposed to be given a child." Fuyuki rubbed his chin. "So... you and Koyuki...?"
Dororo didn't look Fuyuki in the eye. This was Koyuki's murderer. The one who had killed her. "Yes. You killed my wife."
"We weren't going to kill her, you know. If she had given the information on where she had hid my sister..." Fuyuki trailed off. "Did she happen to tell you?"
"No," Dororo lied. Fuyuki didn't deserve to know Natsumi was awake. And he didn't know if Fuyuki would hurt her.
"Darn," Fuyuki cursed.
"You killed her nonetheless. She's dead now because of you," Dororo said. He fought back tears.
"Not because of me," Fuyuki admitted. "She died because of an accident. Because of Mois." He pointed to Angol Mois, the guilty party.
Mois turned around, to not partake in the conversation at all.
Dororo cried.
Fuyuki and Mois left Dororo alone to cry. Mois didn't speak much to Fuyuki. She didn't tell him about Natsumi.
If... If he learns Natsumi has awakened... he might waver from our goal. And we've come so far. We can't just give up Uncle's life for Natsumi's. She'd have to add tracking down that girl to kill her before Fuyuki found out.
She had to keep him on track.
She confided in Kululu that Natsumi was awake, though, when the two of them were alone. "I found Dororo," she first told him.
He was surprised, but he hid it easily. "Good for you," he lied. He had honestly thought Dororo was untraceable. Had Tamama found him and then she had been lead to Tamama?
"He's here if you want to visit him," she offered.
"Nah. There's probably a lot of bad blood between us since I'm working for the enemy. He probably doesn't want to talk to his old platoon mate, ku, ku, ku," Kululu told her.
"You don't want to reunite with your old platoon?" Mois asked. Their goal was to bring Keroro his old platoon to hopefully reignite his old persona.
"Nah, I see Giroro enough as is," Kululu admitted. "And Giroro takes up all the stupid my brain has a capacity for for my old platoon. Ku, ku, ku!" he chuckled. "Anyway, how did the retrieval of Dororo go?" he asked, trying to get information on her mission.
"I saw Tamama, but he got away," she admitted.
Good for him. Kululu thought to himself. He knew that kid was strong. "Anything else?"
"Dororo... Dororo had a kid... Apparently he and Koyuki were together..." Mois sounded regretful, guilty even. It had been her fault Koyuki had died, after all, because of her curse. Despite how desperately Koyuki had begged for her life.
Kululu detected her sadness. He knew what had happened to Koyuki and how it affected Angol Mois. He squeezed her hand, gently and pulled her closer to him so he could give her a soft kiss on her lips.
"It wasn't your fault," he tried to tell her. "That's one death you didn't have anything to do with."
"I did. It was my fault." She shook. "And... And I ruined Dororo's life, and his kid's life, too, because of it."
"She shouldn't have given herself up. She should have ran. She came here knowing she'd die," Kululu tried to comfort her. "She gave up before her death even began." He moved to her earlobe to nibble on it, to try to comfort her.
She was silent for a good few moments. "There... was someone else there," she admitted, slowly.
"Who? Another kid? Geez, how busy were they? Ku, ku, ku."
"No..." She shook her head. "It was... Natsumi. She was with them. She... woke up."
Kululu stopped kissing her for a moment. "Natsumi?" She must have recovered much faster than he had expected. The minimum he had predicted was fifty years. "Are you sure?"
"Positive." Mois nodded. "Don't tell Fuyuki... I'm afraid he'll waver from our goal if he knows she's alive."
Kululu was silent and nodded solemnly. He thought for a moment. "Mois?" he asked, "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure," she agreed.
"Would you kill Natsumi if it meant that Keroro would come back?"
"I'd kill anyone to get Uncle to come back. But you know that," she told him. "If Natsumi stands in my way, I will definitely kill her."
Kululu nodded. He had expected that answer.
He clenched his fist, a little sad. He knew anyone that stood in her way would be killed for Keroro.
Even him. If his death meant bringing Keroro back, she wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice him. It was easy to realize this was what she meant.
He was obviously part of the "anyone" in her statement.
Still, he didn't care. If it made her return to her old self, he'd be happy of it. That was all he cared about.
"And you know I'll help you every step of the way," he told her.
"I know." She hugged him, kissing him again on the lips. She cuddled up against him. She was always glad to have nice talks like this with Kululu.
Tamama helped Natsumi into golden armor, to make her look like a coliseum contestant. "So what do I do?" she asked.
"Talk bad about the Harvest near the coliseum. They'll throw you in. Since you're pretty much a background character to them, you'll probably have to fight a lot of contestants quickly, and then if you win you'll meet the champion. If you look interesting, so maybe they'll make your fights longer, and give you a small break. So just do it fast and all boring. I'll try to sneak into the crowd to watch from afar." Tamama told her, giving her instructions. "Umm... Natchi?"
"Yes?" Natsumi asked, flexing her wrist to make sure she could move.
"...It's going to be a battle to the death, you know that right?" Tamama asked. "If... If you want to meet Giroro, you'll have to kill people. Or else you'll die yourself."
Natsumi felt her heart plunge into fear. Kill someone? They were probably in there just because they knew the Harvest was wrong!
Still... she knew her mission... Their mission relied on this. "I... I can't..." she finally said. "I'm no killer."
"Then use this. If you do it quickly and just get through round and round again, then maybe they won't notice." Tamama handed her a gun.
"This is still killing," she told him.
"It's got a drug that makes it look like the person is dead for 24 hours. Shoot them with it and it should be good," Tamama told her.
Natsumi smiled. "Thanks."
Tamama nodded.
He then took her to the elevator to transport her to where the coliseum was.
Natsumi was on her own. "HEY!" she yelled loudly at some guards guarding the coliseum entrance. "The Harvest is stupid. It's a terrible, inhumane thing."
Almost immediately, the two picked her up. "You'll regret saying that," they told her. "You're lucky you're so close to the coliseum. We'll drop you in there, scum. You won't last a minute, but you'll last longer than if we took you to our Emperor."
Natsumi smiled as they threw her in with a lot of other scared people. She had made it.
Now she just needed to compete.
See you soon, Giroro. She smiled.
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