Disclaimer: I own nothing.

So yeah, this chapter I wrote. I think you can tell because apparently there's a humorous creepy tone to it. You learn a bit more about the characters and all.

Reminder to please review, it really makes my sister happy. (And me)

When Fuyuki finished reading the list, instead of feeling cold fear, a scream of shock erupted from his throat.

"NO!" It was a short, high-pitched scream, but it was enough to startle himself into falling backward into the pool that the men in white had chosen as the exercise location of the day.

The pool was only three feet deep, but it was enough to feel like an endless abyss to someone who couldn't swim. Once submerged, Fuyuki felt he might never get out.

"Are you all right?" Koyuki asked, easily pulling Fuyuki out of the water and back into the breathable air around him. He coughed up the water that had filled his lungs.

"T-thanks…" he spoke gratefully.

Koyuki smiled at him. "No problem. Maybe you should work on your grip and footing, though. You were thrashing around like a dead fish or something."

"You know I can't swim, right? That's why I was thrashing around. I was drowning," he answered seriously. Had Koyuki forgotten about his problem? Maybe she had, or Natsumi had neglected to tell her.

All Koyuki did was raise an eyebrow. "You were drowning in a three foot deep pool?" She shook her head. "Fuyuki… you need to get stronger. If you had been in my gang, you wouldn't have lasted a week."

"Gang?" Fuyuki was confused. "Don't you mean ninja clan?"

"Ninja clan?—Oh… you must be confused be thinking of something else. The Forest Ninja is just the name of our gang. We aren't really ninja." She gave a quick smile in a playful, friendly tone. "Sorry."

She isn't really a ninja? Fuyuki's head spun. What is she talking about? Wait… has she been lying to me this whole time about being a ninja? No… Lance Corporal Dororo is a ninja, too, so she couldn't be lying, because she taught him all she knows…. So she must be playing a joke on me right now! he decided.

"Anyway, Fuyuki… why did you fall in?" Koyuki asked with concern.

"Oh…. It's 'cuz of that…."

Fuyuki pointed to the wall with the list of rules. Maybe Koyuki would be able to decipher how it got into his house, or perhaps, since she was in such a joking mood it seemed, she might be the one who put it there using her ninja tricks.

"Oh." She paused for a moment, "Yeah, you really have to train your mind and body to not be surprised by that. I mean, those rules are scary, but not in a terrifying, controlling way, but more of a 'Why would anyone think it was a good idea to have these rules' way. You don't really have to worry about following them. I mean, I don't follow them, and D doesn't, either."

"Miss Koyuki!" Dororo popped out of the water to shush his friend. "Don't listen to her, Fuyuki. I only don't follow one of those rules because the doctors here made a generous exception for me. They decided I would be much more helpful and kinder if they were kind in return. Isn't that a lovely philosophy?"

"They aren't that kind," Koyuki complained with a frown. "I mean, for some reason they don't like me climbing up onto the walls and falling down from the ceiling on top of them to ambush them!"

"I think you'll have to reexamine your statement to figure out the reason yourself of why they wouldn't let you do that," said Dororo.

"It just doesn't make sense! Isn't doing that to get breakfast normal? I don't understand!" she said. "They keep telling me to be more 'normal' even though I do the most normal things, like stealing all the keys to their rooms, and flying kites out into the yard!"

"I don't think they consider putting yourself on a kite and trying to fly out of this place normal, Miss Koyuki," he said to her. "Although I honestly don't see why not, when all spirits themselves just wants to fly freely into the air and soar!"

"Yeah! I mean, isn't it normal to try to escape imprisonment on kites?"

Fuyuki carefully stepped between the two, while also making sure not to slip into the water. Again.

"What I meant is who put this list of rules in my house. And, why are they trying to control me?" Fuyuki asked. "Th-this isn't normal…. Someone got into my house and is trying to take control over it." He thought for a second. "Maybe I should call Mom and tell her; she'd be worried…."

"You have a Mom?" Koyuki asked rather bluntly.

"Of course he does, Miss Koyuki," Dororo answered. "Everybody has a mother, even Mother Nature herself, whose mother is Lady Earth, who gave birth to all the plants and animals herself."

"Of course I have a Mom! You've met her, Koyuki!" Fuyuki insisted

"Th-he pink haired girl? But she looks awfully young…" Koyuki trailed off

"No! That's my sister. She's your friend but I don't need to remind you that. I guess you really are just playing a prank on me…." Fuyuki decided to stop questioning Koyuki about these rules; it wouldn't be the best to do when she was in a playful sort of lying mood.

Koyuki glanced at Dororo and looked away. "I don't have a Mom…."

Things got quiet and awkward fast.

"Well, uhhh…. Almost end of exercise period, huh?" Fuyuki checked his non-existent watch. "Got to be going, bye!" Waving, he ran out of the pool, only tripping a total of three times, each time caught by Koyuki, who was the one he was fleeing from. It was awkward.

Eventually, exercise period ended just as Fuyuki had predicted, and he was forced to head off to another therapy meeting with Pururu.

"So what happened today, guys?" Pururu asked. As usual, she sat facing Fuyuki and Mois. "I know I'm usually supposed to ask that as your therapist, and you both say 'Fine,' and we leave it at that, but let's try a different approach." Pururu paused. "How about you tell me what happened today, and I explain what really happened."

Fuyuki paused. He didn't really like the way that sounded, but he trusted Pururu and might be able to get the answers he needed about what these rules were about. He could tell, though, that Mois was biting her lip to hold back some sort of response, probably to express her disinterest in doing that.

Fuyuki put a supporting hand on her shoulder as if to say, "it's all right, we can trust Pururu."

I wonder why Mois isn't being secretive about Sarge's invasion plan of just pretending to be human too…. Was she just out of the loop, or does she not support it? he wondered. He decided, though, that even if they were pretending to be human, he'd just have to play along to get the information he needed.

"Well, my day started like any other with those men in white taking my blood… for some reason." Fuyuki frowned. "Are they doing some sort of experiment? Like, getting my DNA so they can make my clone?" His eyes glowed in excitement.

Pururu turned to Mois and waited for what she could say about the event and her take on the matter. Mois just shrugged.

"I slept through the morning check-ups. You could say, the early bird gets the needle and I didn't want that?" Mois smiled.

"You need to have your health checks. How will the doctors know how to help your narcolepsy if you don't let them examine you?" Pururu asked. "And you, Fuyuki… those aren't men in white. They're just doctors. Doctors who want to help you."

"Doctors? Really?" Fuyuki tried to keep the anger and fear out of his rising voice. "If they really wanted to help, then why have they invaded my house and set up rules that imprison me here?" His voice was now urgent and shrill; he couldn't keep it calm. "Why so many creepy rules?"

"Because they're Pekoponians," Mois answered simplistically. A gloom fell over her face. "Some think stupidly that they're helping, but then they accidentally do bad. And some don't try to help at all, and just think only of themselves and keep sinning. That's just what Pekoponians do."

Pururu quieted her by giving her a scolding glare.

"Fuyuki, those rules were, in fact, put up by them… the staff. But they're only to help. If you want, we can go through them and I can explain each one individually," she ensured.

"If they're there to help, why didn't Mom or Sis tell me someone set them up in our house?"

Pururu gave Fuyuki a somewhat sad look.

"And if the doctors are there to help, and if mysterious things are happening on Floor 4, then why was the Corporal sent up there for fighting? I mean, all I've heard about this Floor 4 is 'don't go up there, it's dangerous,' but he was still sent up there."

Pururu stopped writing down notes and instead looked at Fuyuki in shock. "Giroro was sent up to Floor 4? They're not allowed to do that anymore!"

"Yeah, he was sent to this thing called the Healing Room. I don't remember having one of those." Fuyuki clutched his head. "Why's life gotten so weird lately?"

Instead of calming the boy, Pururu set her papers down.

"I'm sorry about this, but I think we'll have to cancel our therapy session for the day. I have to talk to Garuru. You two…. You two can go to your rooms or something and have some extra free time."

Before Fuyuki could question her anymore about the rules, Pururu was already leaving.

"Yay! More sleep!" Mois seemed to be the only one happy, and she immediately set off to do her favorite thing.

Fuyuki headed over to dinner, hoping to question the Sarge about these rules instead. Thinking about Keroro more, the answer about these rules seemed obvious: They had been set up by Keroro as a "take over the house" scheme. He would probably even deny this if Fuyuki asked him.

Instead, he instead decided to ask Tamama, who Keroro usually told his plans too.

"Hey, Tamama…" Fuyuki asked while taking a bite out of his food. "Did the Sarge set up all those rules that are hanging around my house?"

"Of course not! That seems pretty absurd." Tamama laughed. "I mean, Mr. Keroro is pretty cool and all, but I don't think he'd be able to. It's the staff that does that."

"Of course I did!" Keroro said when he overheard the conversation. "My old job was to hang those things up. And they made me come up with all the rules, too, so I set up some cool ones."

Fuyuki must have heard something wrong because he could have sworn he heard Koyuki cough the word "liar" and then look at him with a twinkle in her eye.

Fuyuki would have questioned Keroro more about his confession of being the one who had set up the rules, but he heard Lieutenant Garuru's voice bellow through the dining hall instead before he could complete his thought.

"You sent my little brother WHERE?"

"Into the healing room…" one of the men in white—or was he a doctor?—sniveled. "I-I'm sorry that Miss Uru forgot he was your brother. It won't happen again."

"It better not. Remember, Giroro's not supposed to be up there with that creep," he snarled. Yanda, Fuyuki guessed, though admittedly he wouldn't have used that word to define the guy on first impression.

"All right! Don't worry! He won't be sent up there again!" the doctor promised, shaking. "B-but I'm sure Mr. Hae's brother could take care of himself. He's tough like you."

"Darn right he's tough. A lot tougher than most of these doctors here."

When Garuru realized that the patients around him were listening to their conversation, he cleared his throat awkwardly and calmed down.

"We'd better take this outside. Don't worry, though; violence is something permeated by this institution." Pausing, Garuru whispered something into the doctor's ear. It must have been a threat of some sort, because the man turned white. Garuru then led him out of the cafeteria.

Honestly, even though Fuyuki should've been concerned by these rules all over his house, he was getting more and more interested in the occult legend that was Floor 4.

After dinner and seeing a couple more doctors, Fuyuki was sent to another collective therapy room. Giroro sat on a chair, waiting for the rest of the group.

"I see you've returned safely," Keroro smiled. Giroro growled at his teasing.

"Where'd you get that cut?" Tamama asked, pointing to a cut on Giroro's forehead. It was small, light, and didn't look like it went very deep.

He shrugged. "Must have been in the fight."

A therapist sat down in front of all the group. Fuyuki recognized her as the woman who had tried to make Yanda and Giroro hug earlier that day, the lady with the pink-brown professional bun and sapphire eyes. Her fair complexion served as a fine supplement to the makeup applied gently on her face.

"Hello, everyone!" The woman clasped her hands together with a cheery look on her face. "Sadly, Ingrid is sick today, so I volunteered to fill in." She beamed at them. "I'm Sai Uru, but you can just call me Sai. I'll do the same for you and call you by your name. Let's all be friends here, all right?"

She seemed so kind that Fuyuki felt inclined to trust her, even if she was just a normal human. Sai frowned at the awkward silence the group was giving off.

"Who wants to start?" she asked, sounding optimistic.

Nobody said a word.

"All right…." She clapped her hands. "If nobody wants to start, I suppose I will. Anybody want to sing a friendship song?"

Everybody (except Keroro) groaned, but none more so than Giroro, who sent a harsh glare her way.

"No? Very well, then. Ooh! I have an idea. Let's all take the time to learn a little bit about each other. We'll start from the beginning…. Beginning…. Roots…. Hmmm…." She tapped her foot. "I've got it!" She smiled, her genius idea taking place in her head. "How about we talk about the roots of your problems! Where it all began."

Nobody seemed too happy by this idea.

"Well, if you don't want to talk about it, I've got all your roots right here in my little notebook." Sai Uru flashed them a pleasant grin.

"What about Patient Confidentiality?" Keroro finally asked.

"This will be a great bonding experience for all of you! Learning all of each other's problems. 'Patient Confidentiality' needs to fly right out the window for this exercise!" she proclaimed.

"Ahhh, like the bird flying out a window to feed its young…." Dororo had a spaced-out look on his face, obviously not being caught up with the conversation. Tamama glared at him.

"Koyuki. Koyuki Azumaya. Where are you?"

Sai looked around the room for Koyuki, as if expecting her to eagerly raise her hand for sharing time. Koyuki didn't. "Well, you're here because you've been raised in a gang all your life, and after being abandoned by those awful people, we decided to be your new family and raise you into being a normal girl! Kind of like the story of Pinocchio! Isn't that great?" Sai made herself frown. "Now do you want to talk about how lonely and betrayed you felt when they abandoned you? Or why you hold onto their strange, strange rituals when we only want to help normalize you?"

Koyuki's blinking eyes looked as if they were sputtering; she was at a loss for words.

"M-my gang… my family didn't abandon me," she finally answered. "They just couldn't save me when the police came. It was my fault for not training hard enough. But in no way is this hospital my new family!"

Her body jerked slightly, as if to lunge, but Dororo's hand clamped onto her shoulder to keep her down. He gave her a reassuring look, and she rested her head on his shoulder.

"I know…. It's probably not worth it. I'll definitely be caught and be sent up there and nobody wants that. I should pick the battles I can win…" she repeated, almost word-for-word like a lesson that had been taught to her.

Dororo nodded. "Striking in stealth is the best way. That is what you taught me, Miss Koyuki."

"Yay! You bonded!" Sai clapped her hands together. "Now, Tamama—"

Tamama's expression was happy and cheerful.

"I don't know your last name because you don't have any. And let's see… you're here for a bi-polar issue—"

Sai didn't get any farther than that.

"HOW DARE YOU SAY I'M BI-POLAR! IN NO WAY AM I BI-POLAR AT ALL!" he shouted. "TAMAMA IMPACT!" A light-energy flowed from his mouth and blasted the empty chair right next to her to smithereens.

She shook her head, disappointed in him. "Unfortunately ,yours is a genetic disorder that can only be helped with pills…. Uhhh, don't know what else to say about that…." She quickly turned to Keroro for the next assessment.

"I can tell you my root on my own if you want!" he volunteered.

"Oh, that's all right, Keroro. You're not really allowed to since on the file it says you're a 'compulsive liar.' Anyway, you started your problems after realizing how much guilt you held for damaging and hurting two of your childhood friends, eventually letting them end up here. Don't you know all that guilt can just go away if you just give them a nice big hug and tell them how you feel?" Sai asked.

"I… I didn't do anything…. I-it's not my fault…. I'm so…."

Keroro couldn't finish his apology and instead stood up. "I'm going to go build some Gundam." He left the room.

The team was one less.

"Dororo. Your root is trauma from being bullied and used by your closest friend, which eventually caused you to start a drug addiction. Do you want to talk about it?" Sai furrowed her eyebrows, giving him a cute, sympathetic look.

"I don't think I have a drug addiction." Dororo took out what appeared to be a small roll of paper as he spoke. "Just let your spirit be free. Trauma doesn't bother me anyway." He began to smile more than someone normally should.

Sai frowned and pointed to the door, holding her nose. Dororo left with Koyuki, who helped him out.

Two had left the group again.

"Now, Mois." Sai shook her head over and over again, trying to make sense of the next subject. "Your root—the source of your delusions—that was when you were caught in one of the world's biggest earthquakes! Three years ago you fell down a fissure and almost lost your life, causing you to be traumatized and have severe delusions," Sai stated. "Or that's the current theory, at least."

"HA!" Tamama let out a laugh.

"I caused the earthquake!" she claimed. "I didn't almost lose my life, I had complete control! If anybody was smart enough or were seismologists they would have seen that the source of the quakes were coming from that area and that my story was true!" Mois paused and spoke slowly, "I don't know why everybody is against me…. I just want to destroy your planet and everybody on it."

Fuyuki could have sworn he heard something similar earlier that evening.

"Re-examine what you said, Miss, and go to your room. Murder is always awful!" Sai pointed toward the door.

To her surprise, Tamama followed after her, probably to make fun of her some more.

Two more had left, leaving only Giroro and Fuyuki as survivors.

"Now Giroro…."

"Whatever you have to say, I don't want to hear it." He growled and narrowed his eyes. "Say it and I'll rip your throat out!"

"Don't be like that," she pouted. "It's best to face things, Corporal Grumpy."

Hey, that sounds sort of like what I call him, thought Fuyuki, sort of.

Giroro's hands tightened on the arms of his chair, and he made permanent nail-marks in the covering. "I thought there were rules against you… against you saying things like that. Intentionally trying to get me ANGRY at you!"

"You're among friends! It's all good!" She glanced down at the file again. "Giroro, you—"

Giroro punched her across the face.

"Ah!" She made a small scream and pressed her hand to her cheek, smearing some of her makeup. She slowly looked up at Giroro. "Mister… you're in big trouble."

"Don't worry. I'll head up to Floor 4 on my own. It's still better than hearing what you have to say." Giroro marched out of the room alone.

"A-are you okay?" Fuyuki asked, getting closer to Sai. She was a nice girl and didn't deserve such a strong punch. Sai collapsed in a sofa, trying to rub her wound and not cry.

"N-no…" she sniffled. "Thank you, though, Fuyuki…. You're a nice patient…. You're the only one who appreciates me and my efforts to help all of you…." She paused. "I'll help you too…. You really deserve it."

Fuyuki was curious to what she had to say. He didn't have any roots; he wasn't a tree.

Sai sat up and gathered her papers back into a stack. "Now, let's see… your delusions started from after you saw your mother crash in a motorcycle accident."

Fuyuki froze. This lie wasn't very funny. But… at the same time, deep memories tried to surface at the top of his brain. He saw small flashes of things he didn't even want to see. They must have been memories of nightmares that he had had in the past—of his mother's smashed skull, some of her brain still against the pavement… and her palm facing up, her hand spread out slightly in a clutching position, just like she was sleeping… the hand being the only restful part of his mother.

Fuyuki began to shiver. He stepped away from Sai, and felt the wall come closer behind him. He began to scream from the images in his head.

"NOOO! That didn't happen!" Fuyuki clutched his head and scrambled out of the room, unable to help Sai's injury anymore. Running but avoiding the walls, he turned the corner and hid in his room, locking the door, hiding under a blanket and crying. Even if it was a nightmare, he didn't want to see that image.

His mother Aki was alive, she was just at work and would be home soon to play with Keroro and him.

The therapist was lying.

Everybody was lying to him and he didn't know why.

And with that, all the patients had been driven from the room by a single therapist.