Chapter 3:
"Tch!" Kururu searched his worktable for the screwdriver, and his eerie smile turned downward a bit. It was nowhere to be seen. "You. Get me..."
But there was no one there. Mois was watching the house... The rest of the fools were out visiting relatives. He should have been on cloud nine. There was no one to bother him, no one going up to sneak attack a hug on him, and playing loud pop music while he was trying to relax or work.
He should've been thrilled by the silence. But it made it harder to work. He found the screwdriver beneath the workbench, then plugged in his MP3 player into his headphones, and resumed his tinkering.
Kirere sat in silence, forcing down the sukiyaki Garuru had given her. Garuru had been taken aback by her request for hotsauce, and had watched, bewildered, as she dumped out a quarter of the bottle right onto her meal. But she ate it without breaking a sweat, much less reaching for her water. It was almost painful to watch.
Maybe small talk could get his mind off of the painful endeavor, "So what do you... Do... When you're not training?"
"I go to the junkyard," she answered brightly.
"A Pekopon trash heap?"
"Not really. They throw away a lot of stuff that's still really useful, they just don't know to add it together! ...I like watching music videos, too," she added, finishing her food and pushing the bowl inward to the table. "That was really good, thanks!" she added with a lie. If they had not had hotsauce, she would've been unable to eat it at all for sure.
'That's not from my side of the family, that's for certain,' Garuru thought to himself, a little relieved as she finally took a sip of her juice.
"So, your captain... He's competent?"
"Kero-san's really good at what he does!" Kirere answered, not delving into the fact that most of what Keroro did was make Gunpla and enact out scenes that involved him dressing up as Char.
'That was quick. Someone prepped her,' Garuru stood, taking their plates with him, and he then stopped, placing a hand over one ear. "Eh. I have a situation on deck, would you mind amusing yourself for the time being?"
"Okay, I'll head back to Pururu-san's," Kirere slid off the seat, and was just about to do that when halfway down the hall she became aware of another door, one that was open only by a crack. It was the dim lighting and the lone glowing red dot that attracted her to it. She hopped off the moving walkway and peered in.
"...Hello?"
"I'm sure Kirere-chan's around here somewhere," Pururu insisted as Garuru rushed down the hall, poking his head into every door.
"Taruru, give me an update!"
"Um, I see no signs down here... Shouldn't I be..."
"Then try the next floor," answered Garuru. Both he and Pururu stopped as they heard a laugh, from the last room where they'd expect to hear one.
"Gotcha!" Kirere called, and gave a grin. Zoruru's expression remained stationary as always, and he merely made his next move on the chessboard with his good hand.
"Taruru, we found her. Get back to work," Garuru instructed. Taruru gave a groan; he was getting pulled in all sorts of directions today. "I told you to go to Pururu-san's room."
"He was trying to fix his arm but couldn't reach a spot, so I helped him, then I wanted to play chess."
"The child isn't bad, Chuii," Zoruru admitted.
"...I'll play you next," Garuru said after looking over the board and studying it in his mind. Very interesting.
"Pupupu, yeah, you keep having your cute summer comedy drama, kid. Puuupupupu!" Tororo laughed from the annuls of his computer room.
She ended up winning the game against Zoruru, much to the cyborg's suprise. The game with Garuru went in her favor for a while, but in the end he won. Four hours later.
During this, Pururu and Zoruru had both retired to their quarters, silently relieved as the game moved into the kitchen. After the chess match, Garuru left his niece in front of Pururu's door.
"Good game. You don't give up easily," Garuru nodded. "That's admirable, but not knowing when to quit can be your downfall, too. Now don't go off exploring like that again."
Kirere nodded, still a bit upset at losing the game, and hadn't placed her hand on the door when she became aware of a presence. Some sort of a dark aura. She looked to her left, and saw it wasn't Garuru standing next to her anymore, but Tororo.
"You're still awake?" Kirere asked aloud in disbelief.
"Yes, well... I keep odd hours."
"Lucky. I have a bedtime."
"Because you're just a kid," Tororo laughed. "Not even an official soldier. Even I outrank you, pupupu!... So, did you still want to play for a while, since we're both still up? You seem to really enjoy games."
"Sure!" she lit up immediately. "Do you like chess?"
"It's okay if you're into those sorts of things," Tororo shrugged. "I try not to waste my intelligence on something so pointless generally, though."
"So what's your game, then?" she followed him down the hall, and he only gave a laugh.
Giroro bolted up in the middle of the night, knocking right into Keroro, who only and lifted his head up and stared at the corporal with mild annoyance.
"Did something bite you, Giroro Goucho?" Keroro yawned.
"No... Just... A jolt, I suppose," Giroro answered, and laid back down on the hay pallet that had been made for them. What he didn't know at that moment was Kururu had awoken suddenly, resulting in a tumble out of his hammock.
"So what's this game, anyway?" Kirere looked about at the numerous screens, taken aback by how much information was floating all around them. It was a much smaller room than Kururu's, and much, much messier. The boy loved his junk food, that was for sure. Tororo turned around and gave another laugh.
"Pupupu! Well, let's say I've got a little surprise ready for an enemy of mine. I've been working on it for months now!"
"What? An enemy? Oh, like someone you play with online, on a video game?!"
"Sort of," Tororo looked off ward. "Someone I've got an old score to settle with, pupupupu! We're going to cause a little bit of trouble for him."
"...Sounds a little mean..."
"With what he did to me!?" Tororo snarled. "...I need an extra pair of hands, and you'll have to do. Unless you're not bright enough, that is."
"...You're not going to hurt this guy, right?"
"Nope, just play a few pranks. Nothing he doesn't deserve," he chuckled and sat down at his keyboard, and handed her a laptop. "Don't break that, it's worth more than the crummy allowance I'm sure you get. We're going to start with the firewalls."
"...NEH!?" Kururu again fell out of his hammock, almost instantly after settling back down into it, and gave a grumble. "Ku ku! This again?"
But this time something was different. There were red flashing lights all about him, and warning screens on many of his computers. He rushed over to his main chair to see just what was going on.
Someone was trying to get into his system. And they were doing a damn fine job getting through his security. Kururu gave an annoyed grunt, and went to work holding the system intrusion back.
"Puuuupupupu! How're you doing? Do you have that number yet?!" Tororo looked over his shoulder to Kirere, who now had a laptop of her own.
"I stink at math, I can't get this!"
"It's nothing to do with math, it's thinking about what combination he could have to unlock his system," Tororo answered. "Or are you too dim to realize that?"
Kirere's teeth clenched a bit, and she began to pound harder upon the keys. It wasn't too different from fixing something, really. Finding out what went in which place, and putting it where it belonged, and seeing what happened.
"YES!" Tororo gave a wild laugh as the last firewall was disabled, and he found he had full access to Kururu's computers once more.
The same screen came up on Kirere's computer, and she yelped as she immediately recognized the icons and the file names, "W-wait, this is..."
"Exaclty!" Tororo laughed, and Kirere stood and tossed aside the laptop, and tugged on his arm.
"Wait! You can't! This is..."
"Out of the way!" Tororo snapped, pushing her back. "It's your fault, anyway! If you weren't so stupid you would've figured it out already!"
Then he felt a dark, heavy presence behind him, after a period of silence. His typing slowed, then stopped. Instead of fighting him, she'd gone completely silent. His typing came to a halt, and she slowly turned around, totally encompassed by a dark, dark shadow.
"Don't... Call me... Stupid!" in a rare aligning of emotions, Kirere's Kururu pride met with her Giroro temper, and Tororo took a computer monitor to the face.
Kururu, meanwhile, was puzzled, having seen the invasion suddenly stop. They'd managed to get full access, as well as some of his files, but the sudden stopping of all activity worried him a bit. He took the opportunity relax a bit, and to set up all of his firewalls once more, and do an inventory of what exactly had been taken. He was less than pleased to see Kirere's file completely copied.
"...I found her blacked out, and he was like that when I came to check on him," Taruru explained, scratching the back of his head as he looked over the bizarre sight. Kirere had fainted, and the heavy computer monitor still lay on Tororo's face. Pururu pulled it off, and knelt down to check on him, while Garuru lifted up the little girl into his arms.
"Ugh... Megane... Megane!" Tororo muttered, feeling about for a pair of glasses to replace the smashed pair. He found a pair among the wrappers, and pointed at Kirere. "That little brat! He's the one who did that to me!"
"He?" Pururu stood and blinked.
"Kirere-chan is Garuru Chuii's niece," Taruru added.
"Wha... What?" Tororo's hand fell. He'd had his ass handed to him by a GIRL?
He was filled with rage for a moment, visibly shaking, but then while looking at her, glaring, Tororo saw her open her eyes slowly... They were a pretty nice shade of blue.
"Huh?" Taruru noted the changing expression on Tororo's face, then looked over at Kirere, and back at Tororo. "...Oh!"
"I'm going to take her to get some rest. If I find out you did something to her, Tororo, you're going to be lucky if I kill you," Garuru announced, shuffling through the old wrappers and out of Tororo's computer room. Pururu gave a little giggle as she looked once more at Tororo, and she led Taruru out.
"A girl... Beat me up... A girl," Tororo muttered numbly, and was left there, sitting alone to let this sink in. "A girl... Beat me up!"
"Eh...?" Kirere lifted her head and yawned, and was surprised by the sudden change of scenery. She was in a room, except it wasn't Pururu's, or Zoruru's, or any she'd been in before. It was dim, and she only saw a set of yellow eyes at first, and jerked back.
Garuru looked up from his book and pulled out his earbud headphones, and glanced to the child, "Good to see you're awake. We found you fainted in Tororo Shinpei's room."
"...I can explain, I-"
"I have no interest in knowing," Garuru answered, and stood. "Come on. Are you well enough to walk?"
"Yeah," she nodded, and hopped off the bed, and followed Garuru down the long hall, and up an elevator, and down through some more rooms, until she had no idea where they were anymore.
"What's this...?" then Kirere stopped, aware of the towering window at the end of the room. "...Wow!"
Garuru calmly walked over to the window, while Kirere ran forward full force, and pressed her face against the window to get a better look at the surrounding blackness around her.
"Up there is Keron," Garuru pointed upward and right, and Kirere followed his hand, then turned her attention back to the rest of the pitch-black space. "...It's quite far from Pekopon."
"Oh! What's that over there? Is that another planet?!"
"That's a ball of garbage," Garuru said with a cough.
"What about that?"
Garuru gave a small sigh. It was only space, but the girl seemed suddenly excited, as if seeing it for the first time. Then it struck him that it probably was her first time seeing it and being able to remember it. She ran down to the other end of the window to see if she could see anything different, and gave a small gasp of awe.
"I can still see Pekopon from here!" she called out, turning to him. "...Wow, it's really pretty..."
"I guess that's one word for it," Garuru muttered, joining her at the window.
"...Why don't you get along with your brother?"
Talk about a change of pace; the child had the attention span of Keroro. The question did catch him pretty off-guard, though, "...It's a long story, and boring."
"Oh," Kirere nodded, and looked back out to the black void surrounding them.
There was a silence between them, then Garuru's shoulders relaxed a bit, "Just learn from it, and make sure you get along better with your siblings, all right?"
"Yeah," she answered, giving a smile and a nod.