Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
A third of the city was recreated by Kululu. He was going to replace this desolate wasteland with a mechanical world.
"You will inhabit it," he ordered his clockwork soldiers. To rule you needed citizens to rule. Since most of Pekopon's population was dead, Kululu had decided to make a population and soldiers all in one.
It wasn't too hard. Figuring out to make one with artificial intelligence and than mass-produce them with varying bodies was incredibly easy, actually.
And now he had an army. He grinned to himself, laughing loudly.
"Who is your leader?" he asked his army.
"Kululu," they all chanted in their mechanical voices. "Kululu is our leader."
"Ku, ku, ku." Kululu was pleased. Now all he needed was to use the soldiers to destroy the rest of the Pekoponians scurrying around, along with Dororo, and the planet would be his.
I think I'll keep Giroro alive for a while, though. It would be nice to rub my completed invaded planet in his face. That would be a nice feeling. Rubbing salt in Giroro's wounds sounded incredibly appealing.
Natsumi was safe in Momoka's fortress. It was lavish and luxurious and there was no way to get bored in it.
But still, she was antsy. "What's wrong?" Fuyuki asked, seeing her searching for a way out.
Natsumi glanced to the side if anyone was there, but seeing that it was only her and her brother, she decided to talk to him.
"I want to go out," she told him.
"That might not be a good idea. Especially with Giroro and Kululu still out there, it might be dangerous," Fuyuki pointed out. Natsumi frowned.
"I know... But... I want to find Mom," she explained. She knew her mother was probably dead, but seeing Momoka so happy with her mother just reminded her that her mother was still out there, probably dead, but she needed to find the body anyway. She needed closure.
"Natsumi... Momoka was alive. That's a miracle... But Mom... Mom probably isn't," Fuyuki reminded her gently.
"I know. I just need closure. So many of our friends have become mutants. The stupid frog died. Dororo is still missing. I just... I want to know for sure this one thing," she begged him. "Let me go out."
Fuyuki stared at her for a good while. "Okay. But I'm coming with you. We don't need to drag the others into this. This is something we need to find out."
Natsumi smiled at his offer to help her. "Okay."
They went outside. The sun shined in Natsumi's face as she breathed the dusty and not quite fresh air. She still wasn't sure if there were any long-term effects of being out here that she should be worried about. Most likely it had decreased her lifespan by ten years or something like that.
"Come on." She helped Fuyuki walk, letting him lean on her. He had just had surgery on his foot, and he still wasn't supposed to put full support on it.
They walked through the barren wasteland, looking for their mother. They called for her name, checked the corpses, but they could find no such memories of Aki.
They found Aki's old work place. It was in a dire state. Natsumi plugged her nose, grimacing as she looked around.
"Check the corpses. Maybe there's a name tag on one of them..." She wanted to find her mother's motorcycle, too. If she found that, she knew her mother was there.
Looking down at the various corpses, Natsumi gritted her teeth and began fiddling with whatever fabrics would fall off of it.
She saw a finger twitch of the ashy skeleton-like thing. Its face was in a constant state of terror.
She had seen a few fingers twitch or hands in her time outside. She assumed it was just the wind moving the light figure.
Suddenly, the hand shot forward and wrapped around her neck. She screamed, letting out a gurgle as it squeezed.
"SIS!" Fuyuki yelled, seeing the corpse moving. He painstakingly dragged out a plywood plank. Eventually, he mustered the strength to lift it up and hit the corpse.
Natsumi gasped for air.
The corpse didn't make a sound, just a gurgling as it fell to pieces. Natsumi rubbed her neck.
"Are... Are they alive?" she asked.
"Is it like a zombie?" Fuyuki's eyes glowed at the premise.
"Fuyuki... stop geeking out about this. It's serious!" she argued.
Fuyuki frowned. "Sorry."
"I... I don't think it was a zombie, exactly. It felt more like the texture of one of those rats - you know - filled with radiation. Maybe the corpse died, but the insides kind of mutated into a radiation monster." Natsumi tried to be smart about the circumstances.
"What did it want, then? Brains?" Fuyuki was still going with his zombie theory.
"I don't know." She sighed, unaware that the rest of them, the corpses they had checked, were silently getting up. They didn't have eyes, they only heard something in their territory.
Hands wound around Fuyuki and Natsumi as they were pulled into the pile of moving corpses. One of the jaws fell off of the corpses.
Natsumi and Fuyuki tried to struggle free, but the arms were cold and lifeless. They gripped on rigidely.
And they pulled Natsumi and Fuyuki into their pile, to join them in death. To rub against their non-mutated bodies.
"HELP!" Natsumi screamed as she struggled. She knew nobody would hear, though. They hadn't told anyone they were leaving.
Tears rolled down Natsumi's face as a head rubbed against her. Fuyuki was gasping for air as he was pulled into the monstrous pile of corpses.
They were going to die. Just like their mother had.
The happy feeling hadn't faded, although the adrenaline of his and Natsumi's fight had.
She had beaten him, but for some reason he was happy, and more than a little proud.
This Natsumi girl was clearly something important to him. But what? Who was she? She was a Pekoponian, the enemy, so she couldn't be a comrade. A partner.
He tried to think, listen to the sound of her voice in her head. He could see the image of what she looked like, despite having no eyes. She was in his memories, her smile, her laughter, her punches... Her anger.
And... her naked body?
That was worrisome. Giroro frowned.
Natsumi, who are you to me? he wondered. He pressed his hand up against his heart. He could hear the accelerated beating, as it was no longer steady. It was distressed by this girl.
The girl who had beaten him. The one he had almost killed. The one he was impressed with.
Had... Had she been his lover in the past? To him, there were only two important things, water and invasion. Not even friendship was important, and he knew he had a past friendship with Dororo.
But love... Love wasn't a warrior's way. It was different. But most likely, he and this Natsumi girl had been lovers.
What do I do? Do I continue on with my goals? Or... Or do I go back to her? I'm different now. But only by her side was I happy... Satisfied. I'm no longer the person she knows, though, Giroro thought to himself. "What do I do? Do... Do I seek out Natsumi? Should I seek her out? Dororo warned me against it, but... I have to be near her. I have to learn more. I want to be by her again."
"Go to her. Go to Natsumi." Giroro heard a very light, feminine voice. He whirled his head around, looking around. Who had spoken? His echo-location couldn't sense a presence anywhere. Had the voice been in his head? Was it just a projection of his inner will?
"Why? Why should I go to Natsumi?" Giroro asked, begging the voice for answers.
He heard the sound of a gulp, but still no movement there. "Because she's in trouble. She'll die without you. The choice is yours, if you do what the old Giroro would do. Are you the soldier you always were, or just a mindless invader?" asked the voice.
Giroro's socketless eyes widened at the question. Where did his heart lie? And what did the voice mean that Natsumi was in trouble?
Natsumi... His feelings knew her. His gut instincts knew her, and that was what mattered. And every fiber of his body was telling him to save her.
That he could not let anything harm her.
A whirlwind of images flooded his mind of Natsumi in trouble and him helping her out, and embarrassingly saying it was no big deal.
But the fear he had felt in that moment that she might have been in trouble resonated with him.
He focused and heard a gasp for air tear from her, if he focused and singled her out.
He rushed off. Invasion didn't matter. Not as much as Natsumi did at least. He wasn't a mindless invader, he had to return to who he was.
So he tried to locate her.
Angol Mois smiled as she saw Giroro rush off.
"He... He heard me... Didn't he?" she asked herself. She had found him after she had noticed Natsumi was in trouble, knowing he'd be the one to help her. She had tried to yell at him for help, but he didn't hear.
Finally, when she clearly thought her words, he had finally picked up on them. It was like telepathy or something like that. It was hard, and she was very bad at it, but he had picked up on it like a miracle.
Was it because of her sixth sense or his sense of hearing? Or was it a combination of both?
Most likely both. Maybe, when Natsumi was safe, she could experiment with it. Maybe Giroro was her link to the world. To communicate with it.
She felt hope.
Maybe it WAS safer to stay locked away... Natsumi thought. Ahe was turning purple from loss of oxygen. She was going to die.
Suddenly a small pocket of air opened, and she heard bullets whizz through the air.
She gasped for air, but didn't celebrate for very long. Instead, she dove her hands into the pile and attempted to fish out Fuyuki. Pulling him by the air, she got his nose and mouth out, and he gasped for air.
Giroro kept on shooting the pile, knowing which parts of it were the people and which were the mutated corpses. Soon enough, Fuyuki and Natsumi were gasping in a pile of ashes.
"Mutated corpses. They're always trouble," Giroro hissed. Natsumi turned to him, surprised to see him as her savior.
"G-Giroro? Wh-Why are you here?" she asked. Did he want to be the one to kill me? she wondered.
Giroro thought for a moment. His eyelids closed, and Natsumi breathed a sigh of relief, to not see the expressionless darkness that were his new eyes.
"Because although I don't want it to be, I'm a fighter and a lover," he told her simply, sighing. "My... My memories of you are jumbled... B-but... It's clear you're there. You're always there. You're important to me. And my primary instinct is always your safety," Giroro stuttered. "Actually, ignore that lover comment," he blushed. He realized he didn't actually know if him and Natsumi were lovers.
Natsumi giggled, first in relief, and then her giggling grew louder into actual laughter as she realized Giroro was coming back to her. He was acting like his normal self. "But we are lovers, Giroro! You are a fighter and my lover!"
Giroro blushed a darker red. Fuyuki scratched his head. He hadn't heard about this!
Giroro suddenly hugged Natsumi. Natsumi hugged him back tightly, and he felt safe. He felt like himself again. He felt so at peace, reuniting with her. "I'm sorry for not coming back," he whispered. His Natsumi memories at least were now fully coming back. He could remember leaving her, promising to come back, and their life specifically together.
"It's all right. All that matters is you're alive now," she told him, small tears coming out of her eyes in relief. "Just... let's not go where the other can't follow anymore, okay?" she suggested.
Giroro nodded, agreeing with her.
He felt so loved, so at peace. He put his coarse hands on her face and moved forward to kiss her, not being able to feel the sensation, but knowing he wanted to kiss her.
He heard her physical recoil and flinch.
His heart broke.
"Natsumi?" he asked in distress as she pulled away. "I-is something wrong?" His memories were now becoming less and less a blur. It was clear, the bond they shared. So why didn't Natsumi want to kiss him?
"N-no..." She shook her head, lying about the fact that she couldn't stomach his newly mutated physical appearance. "I'm sorry."
Giroro could hear the tone in her voice. She was disgusted by him. Repulsed. She didn't want to be with him anymore.
He smiled softly, trying to hide the hurt. "I-it's all right..."
They had been separated for nine months. The restart of their relationship was bound to be a little rocky. Natsumi and Giroro just hadn't expected the fact that most likely the physical repulsion Natsumi was feeling might end their relationship and make it unable to be continued.
Giroro dropped his hands from her. "We better get the two of you back to safety. Where are you taking shelter?" he asked gruffly.
They told him, hoping to brush off the awkward disgust Natsumi was feeling.
Dororo smelled Giroro's and Natsumi's scents intermingling. Giroro must have joined up with them, despite his warnings. Had Giroro remembered his love for the girl? If so, there was very little Dororo could do to separate them.
Maybe this is for the best. I mean, Giroro's going to be closest to Natsumi. I... I'll be able to figure out how bad being near them will be, and if Giroro will mutate Natsumi drastically just by his presence,Dororo thought. He hated using Natsumi as a test subject. He felt dirty and terrible. It was something like Kululu would do.
But he had his own selfish desires, too. He wasn't absolutely selfless. He wanted to know if there was even a small chance he could see Koyuki. He missed her. He wanted to talk to her.
I'm sorry, Natsumi. He had been weak.
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