Anyway here's the next chapter. Lot's of Fuyuki in this one!
The lights were always blaring- it was like they were never turned off. And there was this constant beeping of the heart monitor, it was so hard to sleep with it.
Fuyuki just tried to imagine it was alien technology. He tried to drift off as his body healed.
"Rise and shine, sleepy head!" A soft voice of a female was above him. He could barely make out their shape besides the fact that they were short.
Momoka? He thought to himself, smiling and almost puckering his mouth in a way that confused him, what was he expecting? His hand drifted upwards to her hair to feel her short almost spiky hair.
"Um...Fuyuki, I'm a spoken for woman! I have eyes for Mr. Keroro only!" The voice greeted him.
Is this a nightmare...? My best friend running off with Momoka? Fuyuki asked. His eyes finally adjusted to where he was and he saw Mois above him.
Fiddlesticks! It was just Mois! Fuyuki was disappointed. He didn't know why he was disappointed, but something was more annoying than usual about Mois being there.
"Am I still in the hospital?" Fuyuki asked trying his best to get coherent thoughts out.
"Yep!" Mois nodded.
"I thought I wasn't allowed visitors...? Am I getting discharged today?" He did feel better. His bones had finally healed except he still had to wear a cast on one arm.
"You aren't, but I came up here anyway!" Mois hummed.
"How, I thought you needed an elevator key? Did you climb the walls like Koyuki's been doing to give me a gift basket?" Fuyuki asked.
Mois shrugged, "Lock-picked the elevator, opened the door, then hacked the controls." She said matter-of-factually. "Anyway, that doesn't matter!"
Fuyuki just didn't know what to say. He was a bit stunned. He never took Mois as someone who picked locks. But she did seem to be the type of person that invaded people's personal space and boundaries so that's maybe why she needed such a skill?
She sat on his bed, way too close to him for comfort. If he wanted a personal nurse, his first choice wouldn't have been Mois. Admittedly she wouldn't be his last choice either, she might be a little more competent than the sarge, Tamama, or even Giroro. Especially not Kululu though. Boy did he not even want to think about that.
"I wanted to see you." She whispered.
Uh-oh! I've heard about these sort of things from, sarge. These are 'love flags' that I'm triggering like I'm in some sort of shoujo manga. She's about to confess! And he had an IV in his arm and couldn't free himself. He tried to struggle away.
He couldn't, "Mois, I think it would be best if we just remained friends, I mean you're an alien, I'm a human boy, it would just never work out..." Fuyuki began.
Mois gave him a look like, 'What the heck are you thinking about?' "I wanted to talk to you about something other than whatevers going through your strange mind." She flashed her hand, specifically showing him the ring finger that had nothing on it. "Didn't I tell you? Spoken for! I'm Mr. Keroro's girl!"
Fuyuki nodded. He didn't really want to get involved in that and imply that Keroro might not be interested. "So why did you want to see me?"
"I really wanted to know if I could introduce you to a friend of mine." Angol Mois offered, "I think you two could easily get along!"
Fuyuki smiled. He liked friends. "Maybe when I'm discharged? Who's the friend." He was always happy to meet more aliens.
"Kululu. You know, the guy on the fourth floor?" Angol Mois smiled, peppily.
Fuyuki's smile dropped as he remembered sergeant major Kululu. He also briefly remembered the horror stories that Giroro had told him...
He didn't want to go up there. He tried to shake his head, but Mois wouldn't take no for an answer.
"You could say, it's a date? See you tonight!" Mois waved and then she vanished just as mysteriously as she arrived.
Fuyuki no longer wanted to be discharged.
"You sure you're ready?" Pururu asked, "It's okay if you want to stay here another week."
It was lonely on the third floor. And Fuyuki didn't really want to stay there, even if later that day he'd have to face the fourth floor.
But I promised Giroro I wouldn't go up there. Fuyuki remembered. But why was Giroro preventing him? Why did he feel like he was being oddly controlled, like he was a prisoner on where to go in his own house?
Oh! I get it. He didn't want me to go up because Kululu's hiding away an invasion plan! Fuyuki smiled.
That and Giroro hadn't come to save him when he needed him. Momoka had. Fuyuki had cried for Giroro, but of course Giroro didn't come. He wasn't his sister and Giroro didn't hear his screams as much as he would have heard Natsumi's.
He was a little miffed. "I'm fine. And I'm ready to return to the outside world."
Pururu gave a sad look to Fuyuki. He wasn't ever going to be on the outside world. "Umm...Okay." She pretended to agree, to ease his feelings.
And after taking the needles out of him and escorting him downstairs, Fuyuki was finally free.
All of his friends from group A greeted him.
"You're all right, Fuyuki! I was so worried about you!" Keroro threw his arms over his roommate. He hugged him and cried.
Pururu smiled. It was nice to see Keroro making friends that he didn't use.
"Are you okay, Fuyuki? Is there anything you need me to do? You were tough. I'm so glad you aren't dead." Giroro looked so concerned as he looked Fuyuki over like a mother hen. "Your sister visited a lot. She wasn't allowed to see you, but she was really worried about you. She'll be happy to know you're okay. Pururu!" Giroro yelled over to her.
Pururu ran over.
"You should call Natsumi and allow her to visit." Giroro suggested, "She needs to see that her brother is doing all right."
"Visiting hours are over," Pururu reminded.
"You can disobey protocol, right? Convince your bosses it would be in their best interest to give her more visiting time since Fuyuki almost died because of their incompetence." Giroro ordered coldly.
"I can't disobey protocol. You of all people should know that protocol is very important-" Pururu lectured.
"Funny, you seemed so happy to disobey protocol the other day with Garuru." Giroro almost sounded like he was black mailing Pururu, his voice was dismissive.
Pururu blushed. "I'll get right on it, asking if Natsumi can be allowed to visit." She ran off.
Everybody else pat Fuyuki to make sure he was there. Tamama offered him some candy, that being all he could do. "I saved you this piece! That's how worried I was for you."
"I know what it's like to be sickly." Dororo sighed, "I'm just...I'm glad you're okay."
"Me and Natsumi folding cranes to wish for your good health." Koyuki smiled.
"I...I...I can't believe that happened to you." Momoka looked like she wanted to reach out and grab his hand, but they weren't allowed to touch. She was just her usual shy self. "Yanda will never bother you again though."
Fuyuki just smiled. "I'm glad that you're all here to support me!" And they really were. They were all so happy to see him, so nice.
He truly felt better.
Natsumi came as quick as she could, about an hour later. She threw her arms around Fuyuki and held him close.
"Giroro called me and said you were okay." Natsumi told him, "I'm so relieved."
Giroro beamed. He had done something right for once!
"You used up your one phone call on a girl?" Keroro scolded, "Don't you have family?"
"Garuru works here." Giroro reminded.
Keroro just nodded. Still that was lame that he had done that.
"I got so worried, Fuyuki. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you. I've already lost Mom, grandma, dad...They're all gone. You're the only family I have left. I don't care how hard I need to work to keep you safe, I'll do it. So please don't almost die again?" She begged.
Fuyuki didn't know what she was talking about, but she was crying. So he let her hold him. "It's all right. I'm fine, sis."
"But you could have been not fine!" Natsumi reminded. "They didn't protect you-"
"It's nobody's fault but Yanda's. It was just an accident." Fuyuki smiled, "I'll try to protect myself and return the favor by protecting others in return."
Natsumi just held him tightly and cried. Giroro made sure that nobody was able to interrupt their touching reunion.
Sorry, sis. I know I'm going to protect myself, but Kululu's not that dangerous. And I need to know what he's up to and protect the planet. Fuyuki knew he was a liar, but hopefully Natsumi wouldn't be hurt in the process.
She didn't need to cry anymore.
Eventually the evening came. As promised, Angol Mois came into Fuyuki's room. The lights were out, it was night time and it was especially rare to see her active.
"It's time." She told him, making sure she wouldn't wait Keroro.
Fuyuki nodded and let her lead him to the elevator. He was surprised with just how much ease she broke into the controls. "Where did you learn that?" He finally asked.
Angol Mois looked at him incredulously like he was about to accuse her of not being an alien or something. "Breaking into things or hacking control panels?"
"Both." Fuyuki hadn't ever remembered that about Mois. But he didn't really pay attention to her much so maybe that made sense of it.
"I've always been rather good at hacking, I enjoy technology. Especially my cell phone!" Angol Mois perked up. "And I learned how to break into things and hide from staff members in that place, that other institution." She frowned. "They told me where the security cameras were usually located to. How staff usually sets up the patterns of these sort of things...So I'm pretty good at avoiding them."
"Why didn't you, I mean they, want you to be on camera?" Fuyuki asked a pretty innocent question.
Mois pushed him into the elevator. "I guess even though they were all sinful even they knew it would be easier if the courts didn't have evidence." She sighed.
She pressed the '4' button and the two of them went up on that horrible note.
Kululu had told Sai to disengage the cameras. It had been easy to convince her to, he had been honest that Fuyuki was going to visit him and that he was trying to make a difference because he wanted to make friends in his life.
"You're great, Sai. But to be a normal person, to make us work, I need more people in my life. I guess this sounds really sappy but you've changed me I really want to try to make progress." Kululu had told her.
She happily fell for it and disengaged the cameras so he could meet with Fuyuki. She wasn't sure how Fuyuki was going to get up there, but she shrugged and kept in her puppy love state of bliss and not questioning things.
Mois brought Fuyuki to Kululu's room. Fuyuki gulped as he saw the danger signs and Mois opened the doors, bypassing the retinal scanner as if it was nothing by taking something out of her pocket.
"What did you take out?" Fuyuki asked. It looked a little bit round.
"Eyeball." She said simply. Fuyuki looked horrified. "Don't worry! I didn't kill them!" She reassured. "I found the staff member dead a while back, they had tripped on some soap in the ladies bathroom, but I thought to myself, 'Well Mois, there's no reason not to make them useful!' and I got key cards and all sorts of useful things." She chittered enthusiastically. "They're still a missing person, I think. You could say, easy as flushing a goldfish?"
Fuyuki didn't know what to say. He was feeling dizzy and nauseous. No wonder Mois was considered a dangerous person. She didn't even know what she was saying was wrong!
Angol Mois walked into the room. Fuyuki sucked in his breath as he saw the mannequin like Kululu again. He tried not to think about the connotations that were involved while looking at Kululu's hair. That Kululu had hair and could be human.
Angol Mois walked up to Kululu with ease and unhooked his mask. "Well then, this is Fuyuki!" She walked between them.
Kululu grinned dastardly. "I know. You ran out before you could join me in here. Ku, ku, ku."
Fuyuki started shaking his head. He didn't want to be there.
"And this, as you know is Kululu!" Angol Mois introduced. "Uhhh, Fuyuki are you all right?"
Fuyuki was shaking. His knees had buckled under him as he looked at all the wires around the room, the straight jacket, Kululu's spiral glasses, and most frightening of all, his smile. It looked like it was baring into his soul, like Kululu would destroy him with a word.
"I have that effect on people." Kululu sounded a little proud, despite the situation. Frightening people always did make him feel like he was less frightened himself.
Mois looked a bit like she'd scold him. She sent just a glance over and the feeling of superiority vanished and Kululu started shivering. "Stop that! You can leave or something so I can talk to him alone!"
"Don't leave me." Fuyuki begged trying to grab onto Angol Mois's ankle.
Angol Mois kicked him off. "All right, I'll leave. Have a nice play date! I'll be back at 11!" She waved like she was a mom dropping her kids off at preschool for the first time.
Kululu sighed as soon as she left. He could finally be as big of a frightening jerk as he was meant to be, while still convincing Fuyuki to trust him.
"So Fuyuki Hinata..." Kululu grinned, "What brings you here?"
"Mois dragged me." Fuyuki sighed honestly.
"No, I mean to the Hinata House." Kululu corrected, impatiently.
"Oh. Well, it's my house." Fuyuki smiled. "Did you forget? Think it was your own place or something?"
Kululu frowned for a moment. It could have been his domain if this lobotomy wasn't happening. Telling, telling, so he thinks this is his house. It is a bad coincidence that it shares his last name. Ku, ku, ku. But why would he want to leave his own house?
"Fuyuki Hinata, you know how everybody's trying to convince you that we're not aliens, right?" Kululu decided to do this by feeding into Fuyuki's delusions.
Fuyuki's eyes lit up. He knew that! It was some scheme by the men in white. Although some of them were nice, like Sai, most of them were rather odd. But the way Kululu talked it was like he wasn't denying that he was an alien. "You mean, you're not going to deny what's happening?"
"Of course I'm not." Kululu spoke with high authority, like it was obvious. Fuyuki's eyes gleamed- maybe Kululu wasn't as dangerous as he thought, he certainly didn't look dangerous when Mois was looking at him and touching him.
That had kind of killed any fear he had had for Kululu.
"After all I'm an alien. That's pretty plain and simple, right? The-" He tried to wait for Fuyuki to feed into his own delusions.
"Sarge," Fuyuki offered up.
"Yes. Captain told us as this invasion plan to change into humans, but that was what the men in white wanted. They caught us, and so we've been trying to pretend to be human to settle their suspicions that we're aliens." Kululu told Fuyuki, his voice with a fake honest tone.
Fuyuki nodded. Everything made sense now. "Why are you telling me this? I thought you didn't like me. I mean the only one you like is Saburo!" Fuyuki laughed, "I guess it makes enough sense, Saburo is pretty cool." He liked Saburo.
Hadn't seen him for a while. Probably because he was staying at home all the time.
Kululu told him. "I don't dislike you, Fuyuki." He told him, "I'm just not the sort of guy who's really good at being up front with his feelings. I saw you as sort of a fellow nerd, and I sort of admired your passion even if it was rather gross and a little creepy, not as cool as my nerdiness." Kululu boasted. Was this what he was like in Fuyuki's fantasies? He had to be a little true to his character. "Ku, ku, ku."
"Ah yeah! Cuz you're a nerd too! You like to invent things!" Fuyuki grinned. "And lecture about how everything works."
Kululu frowned. Even though he himself had called himself a nerd, he didn't like other people doing it. Calm down. It's to keep your brain. He reminded. "I have to tell you about the Hinata House, Fuyuki. It's not your house. You're confused, it just happens to have the same name. This is the base of the men in white, they've locked you up in this place and are keeping you here against your will- keeping all of us!"
Fuyuki looked shocked. That made sense too. "But then why don't I remember that? Why does Natsumi keep visiting me if I'm locked up against my will? Why is Garuru here? He's an alien."
Kululu tried to come up with an answer on the fly. "Memory manipulation." He answered. "They've made everyone but me and you forget about aliens and who we truly are. Ku, ku, ku. That's why your memories are a little jumbled."
Fuyuki hit his head. "It was so freakin obvious!"
"Garuru and Pururu broke in to free you guys, but they erased their memories too. They're observing what they do like an experiment. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu explained, "And Natsumi? They let her run free, but she's under their watchful eyes...Who knows if they'll ever trap her too, experiment on her to see what makes her tick..." Kululu was careful with each word.
Fuyuki's hand flew to his arm, the one with the bandage from all his blood draws. His sister might go through his horror too? The pills every morning must have been to keep him pleasant, to keep him from fighting back.
"What do I do...?" Fuyuki asked. He was so scared. So nervous.
"Just know that you have a friend in me for now. And maybe...Consider talking to your friends, not about what's happening in the facility how it's because of the men in white, they're always listening so don't tip them off." Kululu advised, "Talk to them about if they have any reasons to leave this place. Escape. What awaits them on the outside world. And grab onto that. Make them desire it even with the memory manipulation."
Fuyuki nodded, following Kululu's ever word. He was gullible as heck and very easily manipulated. "You know sergeant major, you're not nearly as bad of a guy as I thought! You're more honest than anyone else I've talked to here."
Kululu nodded. "Don't tell anyone. It would embarrass me. Just know, I'm here to help you. You'll save your friends, right?" He tried to sound noble.
"I promise I will. I'll save your entire platoon!" Fuyuki promised, "Koyuki, Momoka and Mois too!"
"And at the very end, you'll remember me too, right? After all I'm an alien, and I can help you more than anyone else can. Since I know what the men in white are up to." Kululu told him. "I just can't get out on my own. They put me up here because I know too much."
Fuyuki put his hand over his heart, he understood. "I'll remember you. Because you're an alien and a precious member of sarge's platoon and we-"
"Can be friends." Kululu tried to give a gentle smile. It was hard. He thought he heard cracking from it.
Fuyuki tried not to shudder. The door opened and Angol Mois popped in.
"Should I take Fuyuki back now? Are you done?" She asked.
"Just about. He knows what he has to do to save us all." Kululu pretended to sound noble.
"Mmkay! Save us all now, Fuyuki!" Angol Mois played along. "Our fate is in your hands." She clasped Fuyuki's hands and smiled, like he was some sort of hero.
"Put the mask back on before they realize someone took it off." Kululu ordered, trying to hide his frown. He knew Angol Mois was pretending to be all close to Fuyuki for his sake, but oddly enough it sounded genuine too. And he didn't know why he disliked it.
Angol Mois put the mask on. "Sleep well, Kululu! Good night!"
And the two of them left.
Kululu didn't think he could get a good night's sleep. But seeing how easy Fuyuki was to manipulate made it a lot easier.
And Fuyuki too felt that for once, things were finally starting to make sense in this place.
Please review.