Here's your Sgt Frog story! Freshly baked!

….With a hint of lemon.

Since it was about… three in the morning, and it was still dark, they didn't have any trouble going back into their rooms carefully.

Then again, there was Koyuki's arm.

She had to insist that Dororo return into his own room before he got caught outside her own. He only left in a humiliated hurry when Giroro prodded him with an elbow and suggested to him that since he was outside Koyuki's door at three in the morning, there might be some… unfortunate implications if the teachers spotted him.

Giroro only grinned at that.

"Night."

He turned toward Natsumi, who was staring down at the ground.

"Oh. Night."

There was a thin silence.

What am I supposed to do…? H-hug her or something…?

He was about to take a step toward her when she just closed the door and locked it.

Bummer!

Giroro drooped his shoulders. Well, there went that opportunity.

Natsumi was lying belly-side on her bed, dully listening to Koyuki's suggestions on her explanations of how she broke her arm to the doctors and/or teachers. Needless to say, she was on a roll.

"…or maybe we could say I fell off the balcony," Koyuki went on, "or, or that one of the furniture fell on my arm, or… or that a turtle came into the room and stepped on it!" She paused, blinking at her friend. "…Natsumi…?"

"Hm?" The pink haired girl rose her head from her arms. "I'm sorry… um. Yeah, yeah, they seem like great ideas, Koyuki…"

"Are you alright?" Koyuki asked, folding her arms.

"Yeah, I am," Natsumi said quietly. "I'm fine."

"Did something happen?"

"With what?"

"I don't know," Koyuki crawled onto her own bed and sat down, hugging her knees. "Like… with Rio, maybe…?"

Natsumi's face flared up. "N-no, n-nothing like that…"

How stupid will I sound to Koyuki if I ask her if she thinks that Rio is Giroro too…? No, no, better not say anything…

"You sure?"

"P-positive!"

"Natsumi…" Koyuki said slowly, "If you ever need to talk… I'm here, okay?"

"Thanks," Natsumi replied, smiling weakly.

Koyuki looked like she wanted to say something, but held back. "Alright."

She couldn't help but feel that this experience was insanely familiar… and then she did remember.

She never knew how much she hated it when her friends kept things from her.

"I'm not doing it."

Kururu was insanely irritated. He didn't think that his latest project would be so… difficult to cooperate.

"Didn't I explain why this is necessary?"

"Yes. And didn't I suggest someone else to do it?"

"Tell me if there is another Keronian that is around to do this, ku."

Garuru had a hand on a hip and was glaring at him through his visor. "Why not turn the Angol into a Keronian, and attempt to use it on her?"

This guy thinks he's so smart… "We're more interested in Giroro's condition, Lieutenant. Ku-ku-ku. Simply turning Mois into a Keronian won't do- her situation would be different from Giroro's, and in effect, the outcome would be different as well. In order to repeat Giroro's unfortunate state, we would need someone who is naturally a Keronian- and it would be better if they had some sort of blood relation to him, as not all Keronians are the same. Ku-ku-ku."

"I would appreciate it if you didn't seem so excited about this," Garuru snarled.

"So does that mean you'll cooperate? Because don't forget: this test is for Giroro's benefit, ku."

The purple frog was quiet, staring at the demented scientist as he mediated on the latter's words.

Keroro, Tamama, and Angol Mois were nervously watching in the background. The green leader had vowed that they were staying out of thisexperiment in case anything went wrong. The blame would all go to Kururu, and not to them.

Or at least they hoped so. They wouldn't worry about that too much if that frogging Kururu wasn't so good at finding loopholes.

"I don't believe him," Tamama scoffed.

"Kero? Don't believe who, Private? Kururu?"

"Yeah. Telling Garuru all this stuff."

"I think he has a point, though…" Keroro said.

"Not sayin' he doesn't… but I think he has a more ulterior motive."

"…Yeah I still don't have any clue what y-"

"I guess the fact that Garuru is Giroro's brother has nothing to do with Kururu's insistence in using him as a guinea pig."

"….Oh my frog."

Why do I have the sudden urge to burst out laughing?

"You shouldn't!" Keroro scolded, pointing at the screen with a horrifically realistic finger. "You should feeling sorry for us!"

Oh, alright then… pffbbbt hahaha!

"You jerk…" Keroro sobbed.

Finally Garuru sighed. "Alright."

"Ku! …Wait, you're serious?"

Garuru's mouth twisted to a frown. "I'm willing to do anything for my brother. Even if it means being forced to clean after your little mess."
It was Kururu's turn to be quiet; surprisingly, he actually looked a bit disappointed.

"Sergeant Majo-?"

"Darn. I was hoping I was going to have to restrain you."

|"…I beg your pardon?"

"We're going to have to find the Animal Animalizer first," Kururu said, easily averting an extremely awkward conversation. "It somehow got misplaced."

Garuru perked a brow, and Keroro, still in the background, was slamming his head against the wall.

GEE, KURURU, Keroro thought, Thanks for making our Platoon so incompetent!

Uh… I think Garuru figured that out a long time ago, Keroro…

"Oh, hey," Giroro said, his eyes wide. "You turned back."

Dororo, back to his tiny, original form, was lying back-side against the bed, eyes closed. "I'm exhausted…"

"Yeah? Well I'm jealous," Giroro muttered, walking over to his bed.

"I'm sorry," Dororo laughed gently, looking at the metal bracelet on his wrist. "I was worried that Kururu's invention wasn't working; I'm just relieved that it does."

That's actually not what I had in mind, Giroro thought with a sweat drop. He decided not go there."As creepy as that guy is, never underestimate Kururu."

Dororo nodded in agreement. Giroro fell back on his mattress with his arms extended. He took a deep breath.

"….My hair is full of frogging seawater…"

"You should probably go wash it off…"

"I should…" Giroro lazily turned his head in Dororo's direction, and rose his eyebrows when he saw the bright yellow note in his hand. "Hey, what's that?"

"An eviction notice…"

"…An eviction notice?"

"An eviction notice."

"…..We don't even live here."

"Okay, then; it's a note saying that since we broke the rules we're never going on another fieldtrip with this school. Or at least for a couple of months, which I highly doubt we'll really duke around for…"

"…'We'?"

"You. Oh, of c-course you. I meant you…"

"Heh," Giroro wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. "Oh, I get it…"

"G-go take a shower."

Giroro smirked, though inwardly he was pounding his head with two cow-sized bricks with the motivation of turning his brain into an organic spaghetti of intestinal mush.

So it was official- even if Dororo was too much of a wuss to admit it or Koyuki was too strange to figure it out on her own. But they were a couple.

More or less.

But him and Natsumi?

Well… Rio and Natsumi were slowly drifting off into the sunset. Giroro and Natsumi never even left the frogging dock.

Giroro sagged his shoulders as he closed the bathroom door.

In the beginning, Keroro had swayed him into this ridiculous mission with the promise that Natsumi would possibly love him. It had come to his absurdly stupid realization that he was in fact right back where he started since the very beginning.

But hey. He couldn't blame Keroro. He was an idiot; he couldn't help making that mistake.

He could however blame himself for actually buying the idea.

Wait a second. Buying-? I GOT IT! Counterfeit money!

Dororo was startled by the sudden crash that came from the shower.

Counterfeit money! COUNTERFEIT MONEY!

"Giroro, are you okay?" Dororo knocked on the door. "You're kinda thinking out loud again…" He pushed his ear against it and closed his eyes. "…Giroro?"

Giroro was almost but not totally silent. He mentioned something about using illegal means of consuming some sort of product, or something about cheating at a monopoly game, but either way, Dororo was clueless.
"…Aha…. O….okay then…"

Dororo was asleep when Giroro had come out in his pajamas, a towel on his blond, shaggy hair. The smaller ninja was breathing softly and, in childish habit, was hugging his pillow.

As straight as Giroro was, he had to admit that it was pretty darn cute.

Dororo did that a lot as a kid- aside from claiming that the evil rat-mice creatures were obstructing doom in his closet, or of course the unicorns hidden under his bed that would eventually stop talking to him because they kinda forgot about him. But he really was pretty cute.

Too bad it was just too frogging easy to take advantage of him.

Giroro grabbed a marker that was in one of the little cups by the television and moved toward the sleeping figure.

When Giroro was done abstracting his revenge for the latter waking him up early that morning, he dropped the marker back where it belonged and proceeded to dry his irritating nuisance called hair. He sat back on his own bed and pulled his legs inward, crossing them over each other while he toweled his blond, oddly textured hair.

"Oh, and here I thought you were asleep!"

Giroro pulled an inch of soggy towel away from his face and immediately slapped on an extremely annoyed, understandably outraged face.

"SERIOUSLY?!"

"Hey there!" Saburo said cheerfully, sitting on the windowsill. The equally happily response to his greeting was a dampened towel to his face. Or at least an attempt. Saburo caught it in time.

"It's four in the frog-ging MOR-ning," Giroro scowled, clenching his fist.

"I know. Isn't sleep like overrated?"

"Go away. Now."

Saburo shrugged lazily and gave him a friendly smile. "So what are you doing so early in the morning?"

"Nothing that you should be too concerned about. Why are you even here?"

"I don't know. This is just something to get the fans giggling about."

"And again, I'm pretending that last statement never existed." Giroro ignored the brush he was originally reaching for and instead grabbed another towel. "But seriously though. Why are you here?"

"I was bored."

"Get out."

When Saburo finally left, Giroro collapsed onto his bed, relieved to finally succumb to the sweet caress of sleep.

Unfortunately, however, the deeper your sleep, the harder it is to pull yourself out of it if by any chance you had fallen into the pitfalls of a nightmare.

A freakishly tormenting nightmare.

In this dream, Giroro was standing there, staring. Before him were dead moths, crippled and crunched, splayed out all around him. Their carcasses filled the entire floor, and he just backed away a step, wondering what could have possibly happened. He was in his old form, but he didn't wonder about that aspect at all.

All he could possibly think about is what in Keron made these moths die.

And then it came to him- he realized that moths needed air.

Like he did.

Giroro clutched his throat and gasping for air, looking desperately to the side for any substance of that life-dependant matter. He just ran, with his hands grabbing at his throat, in a frenzied hurry to find air.

He slammed against something and recoiled, falling to his backside. Looking closely in front of him he noticed that it was a long glass wall, extending upward and connecting to other walls that encircled him and the dead insects. He was in a large, upside down bowl, trapped.

Giroro slammed his hand against the walls.

Let me out!

No voice.

Get me out of here!

Giroro materialized a gun in his hand, only for it to shatter into pieces and have those pieces strike him. He fell back again, panting heavily. When he looked up, his face was absolutely pale.

Natsumi was looking through the glass, glaring.

"So you're Rio, huh?" She asked bitterly, her voice strangely echoing. "You really think you could trick me into loving someone like you?" She scoffed, lowering her eyes. She added in the most sarcastic, possibly most piercing tone, "Sure. You almost had me there."

His hand lowered to his chest, gripping onto his belt tightly. N…Natsumi… I-I could explain…

"Don't bother," Natsumi scowled, whipping her head toward him. "I'm through with you."

Giroro didn't even need to attempt to breathe anymore.

It's not like had a choice anyway; his heart stopped beating.

"Giroro? Giroro?!"

Giroro gasped, sputtering and coughing in tragic fits. Dororo rubbed his back into small circles.

"W-water," The corporal stammered.

"Wait until you stop," Dororo said gently. "Try to take deep, calm breaths and I'll go get you some."

When the ninja came back and gave him the glass of water, Giroro was more relieved in the fact that he could talk again.

"What happened?" Dororo asked, taking a seat next to him.

Giroro couldn't look at him- not that he could anyway. The light was pretty dim; he guessed that he had been asleep for at the most an hour.

"Did I wake you up?" He asked slowly.

"Um… yeah, but that's not important right now." Dororo drew his legs in. "What happened? Did you have a bad dream?"

"…You could say that," Giroro murmured. Hesitantly, he asked, "Hey, Dororo? …Do… do you think they mean anything?"

"What?"

"Dreams. Do dreams mean anything?"

Dororo thought about this for a moment. "…In what way?"

Giroro ran his fingers through his warm, moist hair. "Like… can they tell the future?"

Dororo closed his eyes.

"…Dororo-?"

"I don't believe so," Dororo answered finally, his eyes still closed. "I believe dreams are… more like keys."

"Keys?"

"Yes." Dororo looked up at him and gently tapped at his own head. "Your mind is like a cellar, containing all these boxes. Boxes of memories, of thoughts, of beliefs." He held out a small, open palm. "Sometimes they're easy to open. Sometimes, though, they're not." He squeezed his hand into a little fist. "Like boxes with locks, they need keys to open them. Dreams can reveal secrets to you about you that not even you were aware of, Giroro."

Oh, I'm perfectly aware of what thought reflects off this dream, Giroro thought soberly. He sighed. But Dororo had a point- silly that something as little as a dream could forebode a troubling future. Hearing someone else say it, however, eased his nerves. Psychobabble annoyed him, but in this case, it calmed him down.

"What was your nightmare about anyway?" Dororo inquired.

"Ah, nothing," Giroro muttered. He waved his hand off sleepily. "I'd rather not think about it."

"Okay, okay," Dororo said. "Get some sleep."

"I will. Thanks."

Giroro could see the slight flash of light that had come off from the ninja's bracelet as he crawled into his own bed.

The corporal sighed and fell back against his pillow, doubting he was going to be able to even close his eyes after that little venture…

Keroro squeezed a yellow fruit into the jar of water.

"When life gives ya lemons, you make lemon juice," Keroro said to Tamama with a curt nod.

"I thought it was called 'lemonade', Mr. Sergeant," The tadpole pointed out, knowledgeable in all things sweet and sugary.

"Phfsfft what? No. That's ridiculous!" Keroro planted his hands on his hips. "It's lemon juice.What do you call that one drink when you squeeze apples into water? Apple juice! And oranges? Orange juice! See? It only makes sense."

Tamama made a face. "I'm… still not sure that's right." He pulled over the container of sugar and set it next to the jar. He scooped two huge spoonfuls of the stuff into the liquid and stirred it.

"I wonder where that stupid Animal Animalizer is," Keroro said, mulling that over. "Kururu doesn't seem to worry too much about it, almost as if he frogging knows where it is."

"But if he knows where it is, shouldn't he get it?"

"Truthfully, I want to prolong Garuru's turning into a Pekoponian as long as I can."

"True," Tamama couldn't help but wonder though. He backed away and put the sugar to the side. "What do you think he'll look like?"

"I don't know, but if you ask me," Keroro tasted his lemon drink and stirred it a little more, "I bet he'll look really ugly and scary and-"

Tamama was stone silent.

"…Garuru's…. right behind me, isn't he?"

"Um. No, Mr. Sergeant… um. Oh, this is awkward. I'm behind you. He's standing right next to you."

About an hour later, Keroro still smelled like lemons.

And that's about as much lemon you're going to get, folks!

"I need coffee," Giroro muttered.

Dororo, Pekoponized again, laughed anxiously. "I'll go get you some more, then."

Giroro suggested that the latter didn't have to turn back- he could have just made himself invisible to the Pekoponian eye or disguised himself as a stuffed plushie. But then Dororo had said- rather hastily- that someone might notice that he was gone (Giroro doubted it).

"Hey," Natsumi said, offering a friendly wave.

"Hi!" Koyuki said cheerfully, carefully sliding into one of the breakfast chairs. She glanced around. "Where's D?"

"Coffee…" Giroro repeated, in the same, exhausted tone.

"Had a hard time sleeping?" Natsumi asked, smiling gently.

Giroro gazed up at her. She doesn't seem distant or upset… maybe I still have some hope…? "Yeah, I did. I had a nightmare."

"Oh. What was it about?"

Giroro twisted his mouth. "I'd rather not say, if you don't mind."

"I don't mind," Natsumi's face reddened. "I-I'm sorry. You're right. That was rude."

Giroro leaned back against his chair. It's not that you were rude. It's that they whole dream was about you.

Natsumi looked at the breakfast menu, having somewhat similar thoughts. What am I thinking, Natsumi scolded. If he tells me his dream, I would be expected to tell him mine! There's no way I'm going to say anything!

She dreamt that she was on another date with Rio, when suddenly he transformed into Giroro. The weird thing was, though, she didn't beat him to a pulp like she would have normally done if it was Keroro or the others. She was just kind of in this forced silence for a while... And when she finally was able to snap out of it, she asked why he was doing this, working so hard for an invasion mission that he didn't like (she had assumed so; of course it was an invasion mission), Giroro couldn't talk; he was voiceless. But his lips formed the word "colorful".

Natsumi head-tabled. That was the weirdest dream I EVER had.

No kidding.

"Hey," Natsumi said suddenly, sitting up. "That gun thing…"

"H-huh?" Giroro's face turned a bright shade of red. "The… th-the g-gun…?"

"Yeah. That…." Natsumi formed her fingers to make her hands into look like little revolvers. She moved them back and forth as if she was firing in an ancient cowboys movie. "…thing."

"Oh…" Giroro scratched his neck. "That thing…" he coughed. "I just… happen to be a good, uh, sharp… shooter?"

Natsumi perked a brow. "I mean you like… making guns. I know there's only two others who can do that-"

"It must be your imagination," Dororo intercepted, giving Giroro his mug of warm coffee. "I-"

Natsumi and Koyuki burst into a fit of laughter.

Startled, Dororo looked at Giroro. "What? What's so funny?"

When he saw Giroro smirking, the ninja assumed that something was wrong with his face (of course, isn't that what you always assume?) and promptly grabbed a metal reflective spoon and stared into it.

Someone had drawn two large circles around his eyes and colored it in, and drawn his nose into a black color. He looked like a panda. Along his cheeks and forehead someone had written "waker-upper", "revenge", and "UNICORNS DESTROY".

It would have been hilarious if it hadn't happened to him.

And isn't that always the case?

"Payback," Giroro said, something of a fang appearing as he smiled wider.

"R-Rio, you JERK!" Dororo sobbed to her perpetrator, waving his arms up and down.

"D-D…" Koyuki struggled to stop herself.

"Koyuki, you too?!" Dororo was filled with misery. He sank into the floor, like that one witch from that one movie with that one girl and that cowardly lion.

"D-did you do that?" Natsumi stammered, covering her mouth in a way to stop the giggles.

"Yeah," Giroro said. "He woke me up early yesterday. I just had to return the favor."

"D?" Koyuki ducked down, pulled the tablecloth up and peered under. "D, what are you doing under there?"
"I'm planting mushrooms…"

"D, you don't plant mushrooms under other people's tables!"

"I don't understand why you make another… whatever you call that machine."

"My, aren't you eager to try out the experiment? Ku-ku-ku~!" Kururu turned to the side. Again to his disappointment, Garuru wasn't flustering or blushing or jabbering in humiliation like a certain younger brother. Instead, the Lieutenant kept a cool demeanor, one that was possibly even cooler than his own, which irritated him.

Garuru growled. "Don't test me. I only want to continue the experiment so as to produce results quickly. So why not make another… Animal Animalizer, as you call it?"

"We need the same variable to produce the same result, ku-ku-ku. Do you know nothing of science?" Kururu smiled at him and rested his cheek against hand, an affectionate gesture. "You're more like your brother than you make yourself out to be."

Garuru waved his hand dismissively, and not looking creeped out, much to Kururu's annoyance. "You're right; I understand you're the scientist. I just want to get everything over with. I suppose I should apologize for being impatient."

Apologize?

Kururu missed Giroro. It was a lot more fun with him.

"So, where exactly is the gun?" Garuru asked, folding his arms.

"The lance corporal has it," Kururu answered, turning back to his computer. Frankly, he was getting bored. And being bored was never a good thing.

"Zeroro."

"Correct."

Garuru blinked at him, his voice slowly edging a confused tone, "Lance Corporal Zeroro? Why?"

"Ku-ku-ku, the reason is beyond me," Kururu shrugged. "I'm supposing it is because he is beginning undergo romantic feelings that he hasn't ever felt before."

Something in Garuru tightened. "You mean… the warrior princess?"

"No. She's a ditzy ninja. She does interact with the warrior princess, however."

"Oh." Whatever he had felt loosened, and tasted a bit like relief. "That's strange. Wait. Does that mean that he is also undergoing the similar effect that Giroro is going through?"

"I gave Dororo a bracelet that will keep him from doing it."

"WHAT?!"

Kururu smirked. There it was. Being a jerk sure was rewarding. "It was too late to give it to Giroro; not to Dororo. I figured he should have a little fun, ku-ku."

"And why not use him?" Garuru said, trying to control another sharp burst of anger.

"We could, but-"

"Don't bother explaining," Garuru said bitterly.

"If it makes you feel any better, Dororo is still somewhat in the same situation as Giroro," Kururu explained with another little shrug. "The difference is, Giroro actually has no hope of turning back on his own now, and he may experience some painful aftereffects of the gun with his body trying to turn him back. Dororo, however, will just be longer and longer each time he uses the gun, but he will not have to face that painful aftereffect, nor face that unfortunate dilemma where his body will be unable to turn back on its own. He'll also slowly begin to lose whatever abilities as he had obtained while he was a Keronian as a Pekoponian. This gun is quite complicated; it was only made to be used once."

"WHAT?!" Keroro said from behind, startling the two higher commands. "So you never intended for my operation to work the first time?!"

Lesson for all who have not watched the first episode where the gun was used: Keroro wanted to originally use the gun to turn animals into operatives to work on his platoon. Needless to say…

"Ku, of course not." Kururu turned and picked at his nose with his pinky. "I mean, who in the right mind would join our platoon with you as the leader willingly?" Before Tamama and Mois could pipe up, he added, "Who don't already worship you like the sun over their heads?"

"You…. YOU'RE SUCH A JERK!"

Well, duh.

"I'll have to agree with the Narrator on that one," Tamama said. "That was kinda redundant."

"Kururu! You shall sit there and think about what you just said," Keroro cried out, pointing at the Sergeant Major who honestly didn't look like he could give a flying frog. "And Tamama! Get me a dictionary."

Tamama gave him a look. "Why?"

"I need to look up redundun. I have no clue what the heck that means."

"…Redundant."

"Yeah, that word."

Garuru's thoughts were as followed: The life of my brother lies in the hands of these idiots...

Commercial Break~

Author's Note: I'll be honest, this wasn't my best. Again. I apologize. *sobs*

Oh well. I hope this wasn't a filler.

Hoped you enjoyed your lemon!

But reading the reviews, I'm starting to see something of a pattern here…. And I'll be extremely honest with you….

…..I have a plot?