The following morning, they all agreed to meet in Tamama's training area in the Nishizawa mansion, Kururu bringing along both the aging gun and the super soldier, who was focused intently upon a rubber ball Kururu had brought to keep her entertained. It was something to keep her away from his earphones, which she had taken a liking to pulling back and watching him recoil in pain.
"All right, Kururu Socho, let's make sure this sleeper cell does more than just sleep!" Keroro said cheerfully.
"And puke," Tamama muttered.
'I've got a bad feeling about this," Giroro thought to himself as he, too stood there, along with Tamama, Kururu, and Dororo. 'The last time we tried to make a super soldier... Natsumi...'
Kururu set down the baby and then stood back, taking out the gun and taking aim.
Giroro didn't look at first, but then felt compelled after hearing nothing but dead silence in the room.
"She's so..." Tamama began.
"Kururu Soucho, she's a little short, even by our standards," Keroro laughed and pointed down to the child, who now stood up to his shoulders.
"That's the oldest I can make her safely for now, until I make another model of the gun. Kuku, her genetic structure's not exactly the same as ours, some corners had to be clipped, kukukuu!" Kururu explained, putting the gun to his side. "If you want to be technical, Teicho, she's about eleven."
"That's the oldest you can make her?" Keroro's voice fell as he continued to point to the bewildered child.
"Kuku, well, I told you there were a few bugs!"
"Yes, but..."
She was too cute, Tamama glared. She could pose a potential problem to group dynamic.
"Eh? What happened? Why's everything so much smaller again?" she blinked and looked about at the group. She looked similar to a young Pururu, save for the coloring, and the purple earmuffs had been replaced by headphones. On her one wrist there was a black band, with a silver buckle in the middle.
"Okaaaayyyyy so, slight change of plans," Keroro clasped his hands together and grinned. "Kirere-chan, why don't you show us what you can do?"
"Do?" she blinked, and Keroro pushed her over to a dummy, and placed a gun in her hand.
Keroro took a few steps back and placed his hands behind his back, and waited. Kirere looked at the gun and studied it, then took fire. The dummy had been missed totally, and there was another hole in yet another wall.
"Gero?" Keroro pushed her forward a few more feet. Another miss, another hole.
Five more feet. She knicked the dummy this time.
She finally managed a hit from five feet. There was a general feeling of doom spread out about the room.
"...Well, shooting's not for everyone!" Keroro answered with a grin, although the happy one was replaced by a much, much more nervous one. "Maybe you'd fare better with a blade."
"Kuku, I wouldn't try that," Kururu chuckled. "I almost lost my head, last time."
"...Intelligence could be the way to go!" Keroro answered cheerfully, revealing a paper test and #2 pencil. "Have at it, Kirere-chan!"
"Okay," she looked down at it as she took it from Keroro's hands and looked it over.
"...Gunso-san, she stinks," Tamama said flatly after she was out of earshot and the five stood around in a circle, waiting for her to finish.
"Now, now, Tamama Nitohei, let's give her a benefit of a doubt," Keroro said hopefully. "She could just have her own niche! Like your advanced fighting abilities, Kururu Soucho's supreme intelligence, Giroro Goucho's vast expertise in weaponry, and my steady and unfaltering leadership abilities!"
"Um, K-Keroro-kun?" Dororo sputtered.
"Leadership abilities? That's what you think you bring to the table?" Giroro snorted. Kururu gave a chuckle.
"Here, done," Kirere passed the paper to Kururu, who adjusted his glasses and scanned it over. Question twelve had told her to find the "x" on the triangle, and she had indeed circled the "x". The rest of the answers weren't much better.
"...Gero," Keroro murmured. The cloud of dread was apparent in the room, "We... We should call it a day." Tamama, nodded, Dororo cleared his throat and looked away, Kururu gave a chuckle, and Giroro... Just kept looking at the young girl. She looked a great deal like him at that age, aside from the eyes.
"Ku ku, back you go, then," Kururu went to hold up the gun to Kirere, but found it wasn't at his side, as it had been before. "Eh?... Well, I guess you're stuck like that for now, then. Any alteration of your structure has to be changed back manually, kuku."
Kirere looked more relieved than anything, Giroro noted, and she watched as Tamama, Keroro, and Kururu left the training area.
"This sucks..." Tamama muttered.
"I'm reallyyyy in a hole, aren't I?" Keroro laughed, a heavy gloom cloud still over him.
"Kuku, perhaps I'd have been better off focusing on some of my other weapons..." Kururu added beneath his breath.
"Giroro-kun, did you want me to try to get through to her?" Dororo suggested quietly, seeing as the child was close to tears and shaking.
She rushed past them, nearly knocking down Giroro, and hurried out of the training room.
"W-wait, where do you think you're going?" Giroro called out, then balled his fists. "She's going to get killed or get us found out! Dororo!"
Dororo gave a nod and was gone from sight. Giroro went to go catch up with the other three.
"Those three... Time for them to learn a lesson themselves."
It took a bit of searching, but Dororo finally found the orange-pink Keron child up in a tree outside of the Nishizawa property. "Kirere-chan?"
"Who're you?" she sniffed and turned to him. Dororo jerked back at this, and had to remind himself that she was indeed still just a child.
"D-Dororo Heicho. A member of the platoon," he answered.
"I don't remember you being there..."
"...W-well, I was... I'm not going to hurt you; your father wanted me to find you. You could've been in a lot of danger!"
"I don't even know what's going on," she answered, wiping her eyes. "One minute I was small, and next..."
"You're supposed to be another fighter in Teicho's platoon," Dororo took a seat on the branch next to her. "Kururu-dono thought you'd be some sort of super fighter, from what I can tell. I got left out of a lot of the details."
"I'm not as good as they thought, right? I mean, that's what they meant when they said I sucked."
"Kirere-chan, you heard that?"
Kirere nodded, "Yeah, my hearing's pretty good..."
"Like Giroro-kun's, I see. You have to walk before you can run. It's a popular saying on Pekopon," Dororo answered. "There's probably a lot of potential in you, but no one wants to take the time to find it... A garden's much prettier if you give it time to grow, and not rush it."
"Is that another Pekopon saying?"
"That's a fact," he stood and looked down at her. "Do you want to go home, now? It's not safe for either of us to be off of the Nishizawa property when we can be seen."
"Please," she nodded, her crying having stopped by now. Dororo lifted her up, and she was fast asleep by the time Dororo returned to Giroro's tent.
"Is she...?" Giroro looked down at the child.
"She'll be fine, she's just upset," Dororo answered, his eyes showing a grin beneath his mask. "Where are the others?"
"That doesn't matter, thank you, Dororo," Giroro nodded and took the child from his friend's arms.
"Anytime. Now I have to get back, Koyuki-dono will be worried," Dororo stepped back out of the tent, and was gone from Giroro's sight in moments.
Giroro looked back down at Kirere, and laid her on the blanket after giving a sigh.
"Mew," Neko peered into the tent, and came closer to sniff the new person in the tent.
Giroro looked to Kirere, then to the "do your life over" gun, which he had stashed among the rest of his arsenal. Kururu probably knew it was he who had stolen it, but said nothing for one reason or another. Those three wouldn't be talking for the rest of the night or day, at any rate.
He fell asleep sitting up, leading to stiff joints when he woke up in the morning. He gave a yell as he saw a pair of large blue eyes staring back at him.
"Sorry!" Kirere yelped, and jumped back. "I-I... You're Giroro, right? You're one of my parents? I think you are."
"W-well, yes," Giroro had now regained his bearings and shook his head a bit. Yes, this was really happening; this wasn't some kind of dream or nightmare.
"Where's my mother?"
"He's not your mother, and he's probably in a body cast after the lesson I gave him," Giroro answered. "...You're really here, aren't you? This isn't some delusion."
"I'm pretty sure," she blinked. "I remember taking some kinds of tests, then a lot of nothing, except maybe some yelling... And now I'm back here."
Giroro continued to look her over, only jerked out of his studying the young child by a growling in her stomach, "...We'll get you something to eat."
"Do you have anything spicy?" she asked intently.
"We'll find something, as long as it's not more paint," Giroro muttered, and stood.
Natsumi nearly dropped her glass of juice as she watched Giroro walk in, Kirere behind him, "W-what happened now?"
"Kururu," Giroro grumbled.
"Is that my mom?" Kirere pointed to Natsumi, nothing the similar color of her skin and Natsumi's hair.
Giroro's face went a deep shade of crimson, "N-no! She's not! A Pekoponian, are you serious! HA HA HA!"
"...Then why...?"
"Let's see, there's cereal, rice, bread..." Giroro had zoomed over to the shelves, and was reading out the labels of any food he could find.
"'Morning, Nee-chan. Hey, Kirere! She's all grown up!" Fuyuki gasped. "I had no ideas Keronians aged that quick!"
"Cereal's a good choice!" Giroro then tossed the box in Kirere's direction, only to have it hit her square on the head. The squeak she made as she hit the ground was adorable, but Giroro was too busy being horrified. There was a split second when he thought the box had done her in.
"Kirere?" he hopped down from the counter and ran over to her.
"Ow,"she sat up and rubbed her forehead. "I saw stars..."
"Are you sure she's all right, Goucho?" Fuyuki blinked, and watched as Giroro helped the young girl up.
"It's just a bump," Giroro answered nonchalantly.
"Guess I'm not good at catching, either," Kirere muttered.
"Fuyuki, we'll be late," Natsumi picked up her schoolbag and looked to her brother. "Giroro, are you going to be...?"
"We'll be fine," Giroro nodded.
"...Okay," Natsumi seemed a bit unsure but left with her brother all the same.
"Sorry I couldn't catch that," Kirere sighed once more.
"There's no use in apologies, it's happened," Giroro answered, and headed down to the base with her close behind.
"Ku ku, I wondered what happened to you," Kururu turned about in his chair, revealing two black eyes and an arm in a sling. Kirere immediately lit up at the sight of Kururu, and Giroro continued to stare down the scientist. "I think I might have actually been starting to worry, ku ku!"
"And yet you didn't come looking?" Giroro snapped.
"I didn't wake up until about three in the morning... On the floor, kukuku... Good to know you've still got your right hook, Senpai."
"And the left one, too,"Giroro muttered. "We're going to the shooting range."
"The shooting range?" Kirere asked.
"Kuku, good, I need some results," Kururu turned back about to his screens. "An organic-based weapon's no good if it can lose against a cereal box."
"Come on, Kirere," Giroro glared at the back of the chair, and then headed down to the shooting range with Kirere at his side. "We have to get to work."
"Work?" Kirere caught the pair of earphones Giroro tossed to her, and put these on, then stood back as he went to work on the shooting range. Perfect shots, every one.
"Now you try," Giroro stood back, and watched. "Try not to hit the wall this time."
"Huh?" she looked back at him, and her trigger finger pulled at the same time. The shot fired, but at the base of the target. It toppled over onto the ground. ."..Hey, I hit it!"
"...Y-yes, you did," Giroro couldn't crush the victorious grin. He just... Couldn't.
"Giroro Gocho!" Keroro hobbled with a small limp and with the support of a crutch, Mois not far behind him. "You seem in better spirits this morning!" Giroro raised the gun toward Keroro's head. "Or I could have called it wrong."
"Kirere-chan? Could you say, a rapid progression?" Mois blinked, looking down at the tiny Keronian.
"We're training here, Keroro," Giroro snapped. "So unless it's useful..."
"Gero, I just wanted to welcome Kirere-chan to the platoon,"Keroro answered innocently. This angelic smile was gone as soon as another shot was fired, this one bouncing off the wall and nearly shooting Giroro and Kirere. He managed to hit the ground with the young girl just in time, and the laser hit Keroro.
"...Ge...Gero," he coughed before hitting the ground.
"He's survived worse," Giroro answered as Kirere went to go check on Keroro.
"Ojii-sama?" Mois knelt down and shook her uncle.
"Are you sure he's..."
"He'll be fine, don't pity him, it only encourages him," Giroro answered in his usual blunt manner. "So you need work in shooting... We'll find something else you excel in."
After the day, it was found Kirere did not excel in swordsmanship, hacking, physical combat, harnessing her chi, medical arts, cooking... Even sewing had resulted in Giroro having to pull out the needle from Kirere's hand while she screamed.
Kirere trudged back to the lab by herself, having left Giroro at his tent. His disappointment was evident.
"Ku ku, no results, then?" she heard after attempting to slink into the lab as quietly as possible. There were blue sparks coming from Kururu's work area, and the yellow Keronian wore a welding mask. "Kuku, at least you were managing average before."
Kirere walked over to him, and Kururu lifted up the welding mask, to get a better look at what she was so interested in. She looked over the work table, and picked up a converter to study it.
"What's this do?"
"Kuku, you wouldn't understand it," Kururu answered with a snort, "Hrm?" he noted her continuing to fiddle with the parts. He waited to go back to welding together, and watched her begin to piece together the machine.
"...That was kind of fun," she admitted.
"Kuku, do you even realize what you just made?"
"No, but it looked like it went together... I mean, the pieces seemed to fit and all," she put the machine back down and looked up at Kururu.
"Kukuku..." the scientist gave an amused, if not a bit dark chuckle at this. "Looks like I have a little more work to do. You can sleep in the hammock for the time being."
His dark plotting came to a screeching halt as he felt a sudden warmth; at first, he wasn't sure what it was, but recoiled back as soon as he realized the young girl had wrapped her arms about his waist.
"Ugh! Hey, don't do that!" Kururu snapped, and backed away from her, then leaned against the table. "If you're looking for the mushy type, go to your other genetic donor! Just... Don't do that."
"A-all right," she nodded, still a bit confused at his reaction, or the fact he had even shown one.
Kururu was still panting, then shook his head and pulled the welding mask down over his face, "I don't know if I'll be able to handle another attack like that."