I see that many of my reviewers dislike Saburo. He was going to be more in this chapter, but honestly I got side-tracked. Sorry Saburo.
Don't worry. My heart remains filled with the Gironatsu.
The whole yard was quiet. It was like the escaped patients were frozen in time. Nobody thought about the Hinata House staff finding them except Fuyuki.
Fuyuki knew the men in white were persistent. They didn't get much T.V in the old country home, but he felt like aliens escaping the Hinata House was probably on the news.
"What are we going to do if they catch you guys?" Fuyuki asked Kululu, the only one who was really listening to him about aliens.
He knew he should be starting the healing process, remind everyone that they were aliens, but he was worried.
Kululu just put a hand on his face and pushed him away. "I have better things to do, brat. Don't bother me." Really Kululu was just as bad as the rest of them, quickly forgetting about threats because of one large distraction.
The distraction went by the name of 'Keroro'. Or more specifically Keroro's relationship with Angol Mois. Kululu didn't know why it was drawing so much of his attention, maybe it was because he was bugged out that Angol Mois had never told him about Keroro before or her desire to have him as her boyfriend.
It was like he had just been a small slice of her life and she had so much more than just him. Even though she had helped him and put her own safety at risk, Kululu was still a little mad that she had let him believe that she had a crush on him.
"Um...Sergeant Major...? You're staring at the sarge and awful lot..." Fuyuki pointed out.
"Say 'Ahhhh,' Mr. Keroro!" Angol Mois spoon fed Keroro like a baby.
Keroro of course could still not function in society properly so he loved getting attention and exploiting people. "K...Ahh!" He happily played pretend with Angol Mois, being a sort of happy couple.
Kululu's eyes narrowed and he watched. Eventually he stood up to join their conversation.
"K-kululu! But the men in white! They're still probably following us...Shouldn't we like booby-trap this place or something?" Fuyuki asked.
Kululu didn't listen as he went ahead to Keroro and Angol Mois.
Giroro put a hand on Fuyuki's shoulder and sniffled. "Don't stop him. He's doing something very important. He's fighting for what he wants."
"W-what...? When did you and Kululu become friends?" Fuyuki was shocked that Giroro would defend him.
"We didn't. I just relate to his situation a little bit with Natsumi. Although...I pity Keroro, Kululu probably won't just leave him alone like I will for Saburo. After all I care about Natsumi's happiness, so I'm not going to cause problems for Saburo." Giroro vowed.
"That's good, I guess..." Fuyuki was so confused. Wasn't anyone focusing on the real issue? The bigger picture instead of their love lives?
"It doesn't mean I'm going to give up though." Giroro swore. "Someday I'll prove to her that I'm the better person for her."
"You are aware that the Hinata House staff could catch us at any time, right?" Fuyuki tried to point out again. "I mean it's not like we're doing any preventative measures..."
Giroro didn't listen. Instead he watched Kululu and Keroro with baited breath. It was a painful experience. Not because Giroro felt bad for Kululu, quite the opposite.
Kululu was picking on Keroro quite a bit. Like way more than necessary. He was being the biggest jerk he could to ruin his life. A part of Giroro and Fuyuki suspected he wasn't even doing it because he was jealous. He was just awful.
Eventually after Keroro was reduced to tears and Mois was comforting him, Kululu walked off, grinning. He felt better.
And Fuyuki was left to wonder why nobody was listening to him about the danger they were in.
Kululu had actually heard. His mind took a few minutes to process what Fuyuki had said though. He needed to be in a better mood.
He's right. We haven't really taken any preventative measures. And it's my mind at stake if they find us. Kululu remembered.
He hated being around so many people. He hated having to socialize. It made it a lot harder for him to think. Not because they were distractions, but because of his illness.
During present times when he was around people, he was more afraid of interacting with them than anything else, even if that anything else was a real threat and a real issue. He had to constantly stress and be at the top of his game to appear frightening and like something that everybody respected, but feared.
Kululu's biggest secret wasn't that he had tricked them all into escaping, that was pretty predictable for him. No, his biggest secret was that he suffered from a strong social anxiety.
The most frightening patient around, the devil of the fourth floor can not have anxiety. Anxiety is seen as rather harmless to others and only causes worry and discomfort for the person who has the anxiety. Kululu tried to not let his anxiety control his life, but time and time again his interactions with people revolved around it. Sometimes, even if he didn't have a real problem with them it was just easier to arrange their deaths than have to interact.
But Kululu needed these people. They were his darling little scapegoats. His meat shields. So he had to play at least somewhat nice.
Fuyuki's right though. I can't get distracted by how badly I failed with interacting with Mois, how I thought I...Meant something to her. I need to focus on me. I'm all that matters not her. She was just a scape goat to him to. He tried to ignore that she had put her happiness at stake for him and was the only one who knew of his plans.
It hurt to much to know he was failing at this and betraying her.
"Saburo, Fuyuki," Kululu flicked his wrist and called the two of them over. "I was wondering if you could retrieve some parts of me. I can make a pretty unhackable network to detect if there are intruders and I can booby trap this place. Ku, ku, ku."
Fuyuki nodded.
Saburo sighed. "You do know that I have parents, right? Parents who will someday come home?"
"Keep telling yourself that, kid. I know how parents are. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu mocked.
Saburo frowned. "I can get you some parts."
"So you did listen to me! I knew you weren't just focused on picking on the sarge." Fuyuki laughed, "I mean...Usually Giroro is more of your butt monkey."
"Fair point, fair point." Kululu agreed. But how do you know that? Was the version of Kululu in Fuyuki's head rather accurate to who he was? This boy is more perceptive than anyone's given him credit for. He's smart and observant. He wasn't even trying to be. He was just picking up key character traits with ease.
No wonder even though he had delusions he was so charismatic and had managed to convince everyone to escape. Fuyuki was a powerful kid.
Kululu made a note to watch out for him. If he ever got on Fuyuki's bad side it might be bad for him.
He needed to play nice, make friends. "Want to help me make traps?" He offered Fuyuki.
"I'd love to."
Natsumi, Giroro, Saburo, Kululu and Fuyuki were the only ones who were really doing anything and making traps, fortifying their defenses. Natsumi and Giroro were laughing and bonding and fixing things up with Saburo. Whenever the two of them would get too close, Saburo would come in and kiss Natsumi. Giroro was trying to contain his rage and jealousy.
"Let it boil!" Tamama called as he didn't help.
Meanwhile Fuyuki and Kululu made traps by themselves. Fuyuki watched Kululu a bit, trying to figure him out. He hadn't mentioned anything more about the aliens, just like Natsumi.
Natsumi had immediately gone back to her rather normal self about denying their presence.
"Kululu...Why isn't anyone acknowledging that they're aliens yet?" Fuyuki asked.
Kululu shrugged.
"Don't they wonder why they were in the Hinata House? What it was? Or do they just easily accept that they were prisoners?" Fuyuki was confused.
He's a smart kid. Better to give him a half-truth instead of the whole truth. He'll accept the half-truth. "The Hinata House was pretending to be a mental hospital for mental patients. Although publicly they said their main purpose was to help, really it was to learn new things about the universe through experimentation. Mostly on your alien friends. Ku, ku, ku." He neglected to mention that it was actually on the more violent patients sent to the healing room.
Kululu and Giroro had been experimented on by far the most.
"Oh...A mental hospital!" Everything was starting to make sense now. The therapy sessions, Sai's weird songs and behaviors...She was just as bad as all of the rest of the men in white. "So they must have given us pretend diagnosis. I bet that's why they kept calling me delusional."
"Yeah. Ku, ku, ku. Pretend." Kululu lied. He knew Fuyuki actually was delusional.
"Sarge would be easy to peg down. He's quite a hoarder. Even I wanted him to stay for a time because he really did look like he needed help." Fuyuki admitted, "I heard the men in white and Momoka mention bipolar disorder in relation to Tamama..."
You should have let Keroro stay! Kululu thought to himself.
"Dororo's obviously depressed, because of his trauma switch thing." Fuyuki decided. "Easy to convince us he needed to stay too."
"Actually he's got that and he's a druggie." Kululu corrected.
Fuyuki looked shocked. "A druggie? They got him addicted to drugs?"
Kululu nodded.
"Koyuki's just not normal. Not much to say about her. Momoka gets really weird sometimes...They were saying Mois was delusional to like me...That leaves you and Giroro. What were your fake problems?" Fuyuki asked.
"What problem doesn't Giroro have? Ku, ku, ku." Kululu laughed, "His anger management for one. War related PTSD, all sorts of things..."
Fuyuki frowned. So Giroro had felt a need to stay to. "What about you? You seem to know that you had no reason to stay."
"They tried to peg me with a disorder, put down all sorts of things, antisocial personality disorder, narcissism...A whole jumble. But eventually they decided I was just evil. The laughter was what made me look really insane. Ku, ku, ku. So no jail for me." Kululu hummed.
They had considered anxiety too. But most doctors didn't seem anxiety patients as having violent or dangerous traits. Anxiety was considered 'cute' and 'jittery' so Kululu of course couldn't have it.
Fuyuki looked at him for a moment inspecting him. "Nah...If I had to give you a disorder...It would be social anxiety." He finally decided.
Kululu tried not to show that he was unnerved. "Why that one?"
"You're not very good at making friends. I mean, you clearly want to interact more with Saburo but you're even picking on him. You're afraid of Mois and she's clearly your friend, it looks like you analyze everything you say to make it sound 'jerky' or give a certain image to you. Maybe being a jerk is easier to you than trying to be anything else because at least you have excuses to make mistakes in interaction and you don't have to worry about it—" Fuyuki started explaining.
Kululu snapped. His hand lunged forward to Fuyuki's neck, holding it in a way so Fuyuki couldn't breath. His long, untrimmed nails dug into Fuyuki's flesh.
"I would keep the speculations to a minimum, kid. I've killed people for saying less things about me. Ku, ku, ku, And your annoying one-dimensional character trope of going after aliens despite them not being real is rather tiring..."
Fuyuki didn't question why Kululu was against aliens suddenly. He couldn't breath.
"Kululu!" Dororo was the only one able to see that Fuyuki was turning purple and choking. "Release him! That hug is too strong." He was smoking a pipe. Obviously he was high and didn't know that Fuyuki was in actual danger.
Ku. Calm down, Kululu. You need these people, remember? They didn't question Sai, but I probably can't hide Fuyuki's body. He had a three strike minimum for deaths and Keroro was higher on his list than Fuyuki. He dropped him.
Fuyuki gasped for air for a moment.
Kululu glared down at him. "Ku, ku, ku. Just remember...You released me into the world..."
"I won't tell anyone." Fuyuki said finally. It was the last thing Kululu expected him to say.
"About the murder attempt? About your belief in aliens?" Kululu was confused.
"About your social anxiety. I can see it's a touchy subject. I'm sorry...I didn't understand before how important your image was to you. I never thought you could really have it, violent people aren't usually socially anxious, right?"
Kululu didn't know. He hadn't put much research into the subject. "Stop apologizing. It's gross."
"The Hinata House was smart, weren't they? They trapped us all there because we all had real reasons for being there. Only me and Mois escaped their brain washing because we had the least amount of actual trauma and illness."
Nope. Pretty sure you two are the worst. I mean you don't even acknowledge reality for what it is. Neither does she. Kululu had suspicious on what happened to both of them. In Fuyuki's case it was less of suspicious and more of- he had directly read it in his file.
"Thanks for trusting me enough to help motivate me to escape and to take you with me." Fuyuki thanked.
Kululu gagged. He hated optimists. They're the ones I mess up most with socially! The ones that were most difficult to read and that he usually enjoyed his time with most.
He didn't need another 'oh someone's in love with me' episode. Fuyuki would not get in his head like Mois had.
Instead he walked away determined to prove Fuyuki wrong that he wasn't anxious and socialize more with Saburo who he thought was rather cool.
It mentally killed Kululu inside. But to prove Fuyuki wrong he did it.
And Fuyuki bore no ill will on the murder attempt.
Still as he touched his neck, he wondered...Is that what happened to Sai too? Fuyuki was perceptive. Rather detective like. And slowly he was figuring out Kululu's crimes and plan.
This chapter took a while to write because my chapter summary (Which was written for my sister who originally was going to write this chapter was pretty much this: "HAHAHA. SHORT CHAPTER SUMMARY SUCK IT!") But I played myself because she left...
And then I had nothing to go off of except the word 'idk.'
Please review.