The last chapter that takes place inside the Hinata House. God there's way too many characters in this fic on screen at once. The pain and suffering.
It was the middle of the night, but Fuyuki was not asleep. He had gone and seen Kululu before going to bed and had communicated to him that everything was going according to plan- that they'd get the platoon free from the men in white's control.
"That's good." Kululu had told him, "Because the men in white haven't been getting the results they wanted. They were going to turn to experimenting on other things...Humans." Kululu grinned wildly, just to drive the final nail into Fuyuki's mind ensuring that tomorrow would be the day they left.
"Pokoponians." Fuyuki corrected, "What do you mean?"
"I overheard that your sister would be the prime test subject." Ah, sibling love is such a beautiful thing to exploit. Kululu thought to himself.
"Natsumi? But...But they have no reason to bring her here..." Fuyuki looked fearful.
"Her anger and violence is one of the reasons they love to institutionalize people. Face the facts, kid. They could make your sister easily end up here." Kululu had told him.
And with that line, Fuyuki's mind had easily turned to fear.
He was packing what little he could carry as he and the sarge tried to not look suspicious in the dead of night. He was glad that Keroro had agreed to go with him, he had barely even convinced the guy.
Keroro was looking at a gundam model with a forlorn glance. He really didn't want to leave his toys, but it was hard to pack them up. "So go over the plan once more." Keroro told him.
"Four AM will be when we leave." Fuyuki told him, "Because that's when the staff are most tired and populating the break rooms for coffee instead of watching us. Me and Giroro will head up to floor four to break out Kululu and try to sneak him downstairs."
Keroro nodded. "Okay..."
"Dororo and Koyuki, since they're stealthier than the rest of us are going to look around the floor and try to memorize the staff's patterns. They'll harmlessly knock out whoever we can't get past and tie them up in a closet or something." Fuyuki continued.
"What about Momoka, me, Tamama and Mois?" Keroro asked.
"Momoka's waiting on the outside with supplies. She has to escape her house on her own since she goes back for night times. She has a lot of guards but she promised she could do it and shake them off. We are by no means allowed to bring any technology or gps tracking equipment with us." Fuyuki explained.
Angol Mois had suggested that one, although she was especially unhappy about it too.
"There's a department store that Momoka owns that's having some sort of job fair festival? We're all going to meet up there and try to blend in. Sis is going to be at there and then we'll all disappear into the crowd. If the police are going after us the plan is to say that we've taken Momoka hostage and for them to back off or else we...We kill her." Fuyuki gulped.
Keroro still was waiting for where he fit in.
"Angol Mois is going to meet up with a therapist who I've heard offered to help us. The therapist has several key cards that will help us past the doors before the iron gates. Tamama's going to go up to the watch tower and...I'm not sure what he was planning to do to the night guard but he was cracking his knuckles." Fuyuki told Keroro.
Keroro nodded. "So what do I do? What is my purpose? How do I fit in with this plan?"
"Uhhhh..." Fuyuki frowned. Keroro didn't really have a purpose or anything useful about him. "You can go with Mois to talk to our ally on the inside. I hope it's Garuru!"
Keroro nodded. He hoped so too. "And we only pack the essentials?"
"Yep." Fuyuki nodded. "Natsumi said she had train tickets for us so we can go across the country."
"Even...Even that creep on the fourth floor?" Keroro gulped.
"Yeah. I told her the number of people." Fuyuki was glad she had used the last amount of her savings on this. He had to save the platoon and her.
It was an all or nothing bid.
The time to strike rolled around. There was no time for bittersweet good-byes. They knew if they were caught that they might be separated from their friends in group A. And some of them knew that their lives would get all the more miserable if they were caught.
"Don't get all lovey dovey with Mr. Keroro while I'm gone." Tamama hissed still able to get a word in edge-wise. "Your job is by far the most cushy, woman." Tamama was mad that Angol Mois and Keroro were doing the least work.
"Hey! I'm also the one who's arranging all our beds to look like we're still there." Filling the beds with pillows like every one was sleeping was something Mois was very good at. She grumbled a bit but headed off with Keroro.
"Me and Lady Koyuki will try our best." Dororo promised.
"I'm going to smash some faces!" Tamama said enthusiastically.
Giroro and Fuyuki were left alone. "Don't worry...If you're scared, I'll protect you. That creep would scare anyone."
"I'm not-" Fuyuki tried to reassure.
"You can hold my hand if you want." Giroro offered. He wanted to be brotherly to Fuyuki. Specifically brother-in-law-y.
Fuyuki smiled and took Giroro's gesture. And the two of them headed up to floor four.
Fuyuki now had an elevator key, luckily. Sai had given him one. He had always found it a bit odd that suddenly he was allowed to see Kululu under some sort of therapy called 'tea time'. He didn't know what that meant. But he wasn't complaining.
They were quiet on the trip up. "There's a lot of security cameras." He finally pointed as they approached the room with the danger signs. "How are we getting past those?"
They hadn't thought this through- how to break Kululu out. Fuyuki had merely suggested that they rip the wires straight out of the wall and only Giroro was strong enough to do that.
"Hmmm..." Fuyuki thought for a moment. But as he looked into the black orbs he noticed that they looked disengaged. "It must be that staff member that's helping us! They're already disengaged!"
The locks to Kululu's room were free too. As Fuyuki pushed open the door, Kululu stood there waiting for them.
Giroro tensed up as he saw the monstrosity. Kululu stood still in his mask and straight jacket, binds around every corner of his body.
"Heya...Kululu..." Giroro tried to be casual. He didn't think Kululu deserved a casual greeting though. The guy was a monster. "Ummm...You must remember me..."
Fuyuki unhooked the mask.
"I can't say that I do." Kululu said just to be a jerk.
Giroro growled. "But I have a proposition for you." He continued. He didn't know Kululu was already in on the escape plan. "I'm-I'll break you out of here, if you hack the main gate of the Hinata House so that my group can escape. Of course I'm not a monster, after we're out I'll keep a tight leash on you so you don't kill any one, but it must be better than being a prisoner here."
Giroro gave his offer.
Kululu looked at Giroro for a moment. Ah, so that's how Mois must have convinced them to take me. Saying only I can open that giant gate even though there are several methods. Heck, beating up a guard until they told you the pass word could have worked. She really did like him. He tried not to smile.
It was his big moment. His moment of freedom. "Ku, ku, ku. You'd break out a monster just to have a chance on the outside world? I bet there's something rather important to you waiting there...Hmmm, maybe I can guess..." Kululu inspected Giroro's face, knowing Giroro was leaving because of his mother and not any reason. "Is it a girl? Boy?" He teased.
"W-what...No...It's got nothing to do with a crush!" Giroro blushed.
Kululu was stunned for a moment. Man, Giroro gave up secrets about himself way too easily. He didn't even think Giroro had someone on the outside. "Ku, ku, ku. Interesting, you have some poor crush on the outside world. Pathetic. They must be just the worst if you two are together."
"Natsumi isn't like that! I mean...Heh, he said we were together..." Giroro's head was sort of in the clouds. Fuyuki shook him out of his stupor.
He has a crush on Fuyuki's sister? Weird. But useful. This will prove quite useful when I'm on the outside. Giroro felt obligated to not let him do terrible things after all. He'd make sure he was terrible anyway.
"I accept your offer." Kululu told him. "I know this facility like quantum mechanics. It's pretty easy to understand. Ku, ku, ku. Now, what's your plan for breaking me out."
Giroro nudged Fuyuki backwards so he could help Kululu out of his straight jacket. He made sure Fuyuki was away just in case Kululu lashed out and hurt anyone.
He wouldn't put it past him. Garuru had told him he was known to do that. Unhooking the chains and latches, Giroro tried to be quick about the legs and the rest of his body.
"W-what about the headphones? Did you think about those?" Kululu asked.
"The wires?" Giroro was confused.
"They're connected to my brain. You'll have to disconnect them from the wall carefully as to not damage me-" Kululu regretted it the moment he said it.
Giroro unhooked one wire from the wall by just pulling. Kululu screamed loudly in anguish and pain- it was the loudest Fuyuki had ever heard him.
"We'll be found out if you do it that way!" Fuyuki yelled.
"But doing it any other way is a time waster. I don't care about his comfort!" Giroro argued.
Kululu tried not to whimper. His now free hand shot up to his head to cradle it, his bandages soaking with blood.
"T-the walls are sound proof so they don't have to hear my laughter..." Kululu said quickly. "But I won't be much help to you if you just yank them out of the wall. There's over fifty of them and I'd pass out after at least ten..."
Giroro sighed. "Who's the weenie now?" He hissed. "I thought you enjoyed pain."
Other people's! Kululu wanted to say.
"What do we do?" Fuyuki wondered. They were quite wrapped in there.
"No choice. This might hurt my hand quite a bit, but it'll be the quickest way..." Giroro sighed. He punched the wall.
"You aren't seriously thinking you can punch through the wall to crumble it, are you? Ku, ku, ku." Kululu laughed. Even Giroro wasn't that strong. And he probably didn't have that high a pain tolerance- his knuckles would be bruised and bloody.
Giroro continued punching and the wall started crumbled. Kululu was shocked. But his wires were all over the room, tangled everywhere.
Giroro didn't even make a sound of discomfort, even if he was bleeding. He just kept punching and punching. And eventually the only remaining wires were in the ceiling.
"I...I can't reach those, we'll have to yank them..." Giroro breathed heavily.
"The rubble could hit us though." Fuyuki pointed out.
Kululu's wires were moving on their own, untangling and slinking in his bandages. "Have anything to cut them? I think they added quite a bit more than needed. They'll just trail after me if I have that long of them."
It might hurt but it was better than yanking.
Giroro shook his head. They weren't allowed weapons.
Fuyuki pointed to Giroro's sharp pointy teeth.
"You have to be kidding me." Giroro sighed. "I am not putting my mouth on that creep's wires!"
They looked at him.
He sighed and did it anyway. Both Giroro and Kululu were in very much pain from the electrocution.
Eventually Kululu was finally free and he collapsed on the ground.
"No being lazy." Giroro ordered.
"I can't help it. I've never been able to do anything but stand for a while now..." Kululu breathed. "We have to go though, you're right..." He tried to wobble over to some control pads in his room, to hack in some fake footage of being in there for months.
"Can you let him lean on you?" Fuyuki asked. "He looks pathetic."
"No." Giroro scrunched up his nose in disgust. Kululu would just have to learn how to walk like a normal person.
Angol Mois and Keroro looked around waiting for the staff member to rendezvous with them. Eventually the person they least expected walked over- Sai.
"Hello! I'm glad we have another chance to be friends." Sai smiled. "I'm so glad that we'll be together for a long time."
Angol Mois and Keroro looked shocked.
"You?" Keroro asked flabbergasted. "You're helping us? Why?"
"Because I'm a nice person." Sai giggled, patting both their heads despite how little they wanted to be touched. "Anyway, here's some key cards. Follow my lead and we'll meet with your friends."
"How can we trust you?" Angol Mois asked, "You're the worst therapist around."
"Because, missy, I don't steal other people's boyfriends, unlike you. I'm totally trustable." Sai frowned.
Angol Mois honestly didn't know what she was talking about.
"Boy. I guess Sai's been listening to Tamama." Keroro sighed. "Don't worry, Mois. I know you really aren't a boyfriend stealer, I mean, who would you even steal?" Keroro laughed.
Mois sighed. Keroro was so dense.
They all met in front of the big security gate. Fuyuki took a double-take as he looked at Sai.
"Sai? What are you doing here?" Fuyuki asked.
"I'm leaving with you. I'm helping you." Sai giggled. "Don't worry. You can trust me. I'm your friend."
Fuyuki tried to be happy about this choice. But he didn't remember much about Sai from his adventures. She was just a man in white.
"Nobody's around. We tied them up." Koyuki smiled. "And I managed to cut a hole in the chain link fence with my teeth, as you've seen and probably crawled through."
People winced.
"I see you also had to cut something with your teeth today." Giroro sighed.
Tamama grinned. He had a bit of blood on his knuckles. "No guards in the light towers will be bothering us either."
Keroro looked horrified.
"They aren't dead." Tamama reassured. "The ones I couldn't beat up, I told horrifying stories about kale cake too and they collapsed. Then I farted."
Everybody made a disgusted face.
"You're up then. You better be useful." Giroro pushed Kululu forward as he wobbily walked forward. "Your one job is to open this gate."
Kululu nodded. He thought for a moment and his wires shot forward into a code pad. After a moment, it opened.
"I reprogrammed it so after we go through it'll close and the previous code won't work so all the guards who would come after us will be trapped here. Ku, ku, ku. For the time being at least. Buy us a bit of time." Kululu grinned.
"Wow! That was pretty smart!" Keroro congratulated.
Kululu narrowed his eyes. "Who the heck are you?" He hadn't ever planned on this bozo coming along.
Keroro was about to tell him all about how great he was and who he was but Giroro tugged him away.
"We have to get through!" He reminded.
Keroro nodded.
Everybody, including Sai, did not look back at the Hinata House. Instead they walked through the gates and took their last breath of freedom.
The department store was far away where they needed to meet up, but eventually Keroro needed to use the restroom.
Some people complained, like Giroro, that they had to keep moving. But Kululu did not.
"It's all right. I have something to do anyway." Kululu told him.
"It better not be something horrible." Giroro growled.
"Why don't you go think about how you're going to kiss your girlfriend or something now that there's that the no touching rule is gone?" Kululu suggested.
Giroro blushed properly distracted. "He...He called Natsumi my girlfriend..."
Fuyuki wanted to talk to Kululu, but instead Kululu took Sai's hand and tugged her away. Fuyuki was confused why he wanted to go talk to Sai of all people.
"Where is he and Sai going?" Fuyuki asked.
"You'll know when you're an adult, Fuyuki." Dororo told him.
"I still don't quite understand why Sai is even with us." Angol Mois rubbed her head. "Maybe he's telling her to get lost?"
"She'd get the authorities if he did that." Dororo reminded.
Kululu was sure that he was far enough away from the group that they couldn't hear anything now. He knew he'd return to them, he needed them to travel with after all, but he still had a loose end to tie up.
Sai smiled at him.
"I'm so glad we can finally be free to pursue our relationship. We can finally be happy together." Sai ran into his arms. "I might have did some illegal things, but it was all for love."
Kululu grinned. He really grinned. "What love?" He asked almost maliciously.
"Ours." Sai giggled, like he had forgotten. "Remember all those kisses we shared? All the times you told me you loved me?"
"How could I forget?" Kululu frowned. This was the part he had most anticipated and been waiting for during all those kisses- the climax of their relationship.
He let her hug him, embrace him. His hands drifted to her torso to keep her in place. His wires slinked out of his head and drifted around her throat.
"K-kululu...? What are you doing?" Sai asked rather nervously.
Kululu smiled at her, looking her deep in the eyes. "Do you trust me?"
"Of course I do! I thought we established this already!" She said fearfully.
"You shouldn't. I told you, I don't have a heart. I'm a monster. Ku, ku, ku. It was so easy to exploit you. So easy to trick you...Just like all the rest..." Kululu covered her mouth before she could scream.
Tears trickled down Sai's face. She was remembering how she had first feared Kululu, from him being a dangerous mental patient.
"Subject Kululu is known to trick female therapists who are desperate for attention into thinking that they're in love with him, that he cares about them. He's quite a weaver of words, a seducer. This has helped many of his escape plans so he can cause chaos." Sai remembered reading at one point in Kululu's file.
She had ignored it of course. She was different from other girls. She wasn't like them. She was special. That was what he had told her after all. They were in love.
But when she looked in Kululu's eyes, all she saw was coldness. She realized she had been just as easily tricked as the rest. What happened to the therapists that had been tricked?
She realized she was about to know.
"I never loved you. Not ever. You aren't deserving of love." And with those cold, cruel word, Kululu snapped strangled Sai with his wires.
And there was no more Sai Uru.
He turned his clothes inside out so his new group wouldn't spot any blood.
"Where's Sai?" Fuyuki asked when Kululu returned.
Kululu shrugged. "Turned out she was a mole for the men in white and wanted to learn more about us aliens."
"...Translation...?" Dororo asked worriedly.
"I didn't want to aggravate, Fuyuki. Translation is, she thought she could get an award from the Hinata House if she stopped an escape attempt. So she helped orchestrate one. All she cared about was getting praise and furthering her own career. Ku, ku, ku. Truly terrible." Kululu shrugged.
Everybody nodded. None of them really liked Sai. Fuyuki looked concerned though.
"What happened to her?" Fuyuki asked.
"I went into the gas station, stole some drugs that could subdue her for a few days and fed them to her. Don't worry, she's fine she's just taken out of commission for a bit." Kululu lied. "Ku, ku, ku. I do like to drug people without their permission after all."
Giroro gulped. He regretted bringing Kululu along. Maybe he should purchase a leash for him so he couldn't go off with party members and drug them.
He added that on his list of things to do.
Fuyuki felt some sort of nagging suspicion in his stomach that Sai wasn't fine, but everybody else seemed to believe Kululu.
"Let's go to the department store." Keroro said excitedly.
They had to meet up with Momoka and Natsumi.
R.I.P Sai. Thank god she's gone finally.
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