Disclaimer: I do not own anything at all.

Giroro knew that finding Dororo and using him to locate Angol Mois was a job meant specifically for him. Natsumi couldn't come. Dororo would shy away from her. He didn't want to interact with Pekoponians, thinking that he'd poison them.

That, and he knew Dororo would probably be easier to reason with if he was on his own. They were friends, but he probably wouldn't do well thinking that Giroro had betrayed his trust and told everybody that Dororo was alive, something he hadn't done but Momoka had, but it would be the same to Dororo.

"I'll be back soon," Giroro promised, hugging Natsumi. "And when I come back, I'll have both Dororo and Mois."

"Be safe. Don't get hurt," Natsumi begged, caressing his face. She gave him a quick sweet kiss on the lips and let him go off.

Giroro sighed. Finding Dororo would be easier said then done. Locating people was easier with a sense of smell, or sight, when you could track someone.

All he could do was hear, though. And Dororo was mostly silent in his actions. He hoped Dororo was moving a lot and that his bladed legs were scraping against something.

They were scraping - scraping against metal. And Giroro knew only one place that had the constant sound of metal.

"He's in Kululu's domain," he realized. He really didn't want to interact with Kululu again, but worst case scenario, Dororo was with him.

He wouldn't be working with him, so perhaps Kululu was trying to kill him, too.

Giroro hurried over to his old friend, throwing away his fear of confronting Kululu again. He'd just have to deal.

"Machines won't heal this planet. It has to heal itself!" Dororo insisted, holding his sword toward Kululu.

"Ku. If you think this place is going to heal itself, then you'll die a meaningless and preventable death," Kululu mocked.

"I will not die meaninglessly," Dororo told him, trying to be honorable. "I will die today, bringing you down with me. You are hurting this planet, and my friends. You must die, Kululu."

"Oh? And you're going to fight me on the brink of sacrificing your life, killing yourself and me in the process? You could say, going out with a bang?" Kululu asked. He could see the future, the one in which Dororo's plan of fighting with his all didn't work. Kululu would easily beat him, tearing out his heart with his clockwork soldiers. "Ku, bring it on then." He grinned. There was no risk for him. His vision told him so.

Dororo had no idea he'd fight a losing battle. And he had to try. Now that Momoka knows I'm alive, she'll tell Koyuki. And Koyuki will seek me out... But... My existence will poison her. She's too nice to leave me alone, so I must die. His time was dwindling in this world. He had to save Koyuki, even if it meant sacrificing his own life.

He charged forward, and Kululu mentally ordered one of his clockwork soldiers to strike. The arm swooped down, emitting no smell so Dororo couldn't predict it. It would have been a clean kill.

But then a ray of bullets zoomed forward, hitting the clockwork soldier away.

Ku. Interesting, Kululu thought to himself, seeing Giroro. His eye that predicted the future hadn't shown Giroro. After all, it was only one eye, and it only showed the most likely future. If the future changed in a few seconds by someone's whimsical choice, it seemed like he would be vulnerable. But Kululu played it cool. "Ku, ku, ku. So you're back Giroro. You wanted to join your friend in death?" he offered. Giroro was here now, and he could plan based on that, knowing Giroro wouldn't interrupt his vision now.

Dororo took a deep breath, realizing that Giroro had saved his life. "Thank you," he told him.

"No problem," Giroro smiled. "And no, Kululu, I'm not here to die," he said. "I'm here for Dororo."

Dororo froze up. "Did... Did they send you to find me? To bring me back?" He changed the arm he was holding his sword in, to be closer to him than Kululu.

"Kind of. We need you - " Giroro tried to explain. Kululu cut him off though by grabbing a gun on the wall and shooting at their feet.

"Hey. Rude to interrupt. Dororo and I were in the middle of a battle."

Dororo nodded. "We'll talk after Kululu is dead."

"You can't kill me, though," Kululu pointed out, "Not only am I stronger than you, but the world needs me. The planet won't heal itself. My way is the only answer."

Dororo shook his head. It couldn't be. Machinery couldn't save the planet! Pekopon was pure and natural. It didn't need Kululu to lead it.

Dororo continuously shook his head, but he knew deep down Pekopon wouldn't heal on its own. Kululu walked closer and closer to Dororo, ready to kill him with a laser blade and slice him away.

Giroro wouldn't let that happen. He didn't care if Kululu was in his old platoon. He shot straight at Kululu.

"Urk!" Kululu stepped back and put his hand at his chest, having seen the bullet head straight for him. He didn't feel anything, but there was no way it couldn't have hit. It was a clean shot. And Giroro's split-second decision had made it unpredictable. He had been too focused on Dororo.

Dororo stepped back, covering his nose with his claws. He could smell the blood, and he didn't want to go into a frenzy.

"Wait... Wait a minute..." Kululu looked up at Giroro, confused. "I'm fine." He took his hand off his chest. It wasn't covered in blood.

However, there was a splatter of blood coming from a space in the air between Giroro and him. It dripped to the ground, causing the ground to glow a tiny bit.

A small sprout sprouted slowly from the splatter of blood. Giroro couldn't see the green, he didn't know.

"You aren't hit?" Giroro asked, confused.

Dororo pointed. "Wh-what's bleeding instead, then?" he asked. "Could it be... a spirit? I smell the spiritual energy returning to Pekopon..." He sniffed. "And... is that a plant?"

"So it is." Kululu was confused.

Giroro's mind sparked an idea. "A spirit! I might have hit something!" He smiled. "Dororo... That reminds me what I need from you." He turned to him. "I need you to sniff out Angol Mois."

"I... I can't help you and Momoka, Giroro... Getting closer to you all will poison you - "

"The Nishizawas are working on a cure for the mutations. Keroro has already been cured," said Giroro. "If you help, we can cure you, and you can speak with your friends."

Dororo's face brightened. He could see Koyuki again?

"I-I'll do it!" he agreed.

"STOP IT!" Kululu yelled. "Mois is dead! Don't talk about her as if you can just find her if you try hard enough!" Twenty clockwork soldiers surrounded Giroro and Dororo, blocking the exit, ready to kill them for their insolence.

"She's alive. Or... Or maybe was. I mean, that I hit something between the both of us is proof enough. Wasn't she bleeding? You might not have seen her, but you saw the blood, right?" Giroro asked.

Kululu was silent. The clockwork soldiers darted forward. "Stop," he ordered his soldiers. "You can have a choice right now. Die... or leave and don't return," he decided. He... He needed to consider this. Was Mois there bleeding?

Giroro nodded and lead Dororo away, thankful that mentioning Mois had let them escape again. Kululu was really predictable.

He expected that Mois would follow them, especially since he had mentioned Keroro. Then he could ask Dororo to smell out her exact location.

So he headed back to the Nishizawa fortress.

"Mois..." Kululu spoke out the name as soon as he felt Giroro was out of hearing distance or not listening. He reached out as if to touch her, but grasped only air. "Are... Are you really there? Alive?

"Will you show yourself to me? Please... Reveal yourself," he begged. Nothing appeared before him.

His lip quivered. Giroro had been lying...Hadn't he? Or was she just there and mocking him, not showing herself to him?

He put his finger in the pool of her blood. Was it her blood? It was purple-ish, light, not red like his own blood. It looked spiritual, not like his. It had started crystallizing.

"If you won't show yourself to me... Please talk to me. Tell me what was I to you. What were you to me? Why does it hurt so much that you're not here? Please... Please just talk to me, Mois." He heard only silence, though, as always.

"Nothing is here, my lord." One of his clockwork robots told him, seeing him talk out loud.

And Kululu curled up and cried. Every time he hoped, he was wrong. She wasn't anywhere. She was gone.

Dororo twitched as Giroro brought him to the Nishizawa fortress. He took a deep breath. He had to go in there to be cured. He covered his face with his arms, though, not wanting to be seen.

Giroro picked him up. He'd carry him.

When he opened the doors, Keroro was cheering. Tamama was perfectly well and in his arms, being hugged. He would still have to deal with many stretch marks, and the rest of his hands had to regrow (if it COULD, that was), but for the most part he looked a lot better.

"Giroro! You're back! We... We found the cure!" he said.

Dororo's eyes were wide as he smelled Tamama. "How...? How did you cure him?"

Keroro smiled. "We tried submerging him in salt water and then pumping fresh water into his veins so he wouldn't dry up. And it worked! Took a little while for him to unmutate, but he's back now!" Keroro was overjoyed.

"Wh-what... What happened?" Tamama rubbed his head. All he knew was that Keroro was hugging him. And that seemed good. The nightmare of the last year and a month seemed like just a hazy dream. He didn't remember at all how cruel he had been.

Tamama tried to stand up on his own as Keroro put him down a bit. He quickly became too dizzy to stand, and had to use Keroro to balance himself.

A tear fell down Momoka's cheek in happiness. It was such great news that Tamama was back. She smiled when she saw Dororo. "We could do the same for you, you know," she smiled.

Dororo nodded. "That is why I came."

Koyuki had been looking at Tamama, but her head snapped toward the voice. Covering her mouth to let out an overjoyed sob, she just looked at him. Dororo hid his face in Giroro's shirt.

"I'm... I'm sorry for my terrible body, lady Koyuki," he apologized.

"It's you, no matter what you look like," Koyuki told him. "I... I missed you so much. I thought of you all the time, Dororo. You always remained in my heart. You were right, nothing could separate us."

Dororo smiled and blushed. She tried approaching Giroro to hug her friend, but Giroro shook his head.

"Could be dangerous to touch him. Don't come any closer," Giroro advised. Koyuki frowned. She wanted to hug Dororo.

"Hey... Hey Tamama, can I ask you something?" Natsumi asked, looking over at Tamama, who was still dizzy.

"Sure... Natchi? I guess." Tamama nodded.

"Angol Mois... We need her. But from what I heard from Giroro and Kululu, you said you ate her. But she also contacted us. How can that be?" Natsumi asked.

Dororo nodded. "That's right. You did eat her!" He tried to direct the conversation away from Koyuki's attention on him.

Tamama frowned. "When I wake up, the first thing I get to talk about is that woman?" he muttered.

Keroro put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. "Try to remember what happened to her. Please."

Tamama growled at Keroro's concern with her, but sighed. He finally closed his eyes and tried to remember the hazy dream that had been his mutation.

"She... She lead us to shelter so we wouldn't die... And using her phone, she predicted the bomb locations... One was heading to your house, so she headed off to stop it. I never saw her again," Tamama finally remembered. "She probably blew up deflecting it!" He laughed.

Keroro and Momoka scowled at him. Tamama looked down guiltily.

"Why did you say you ate her, then?" asked Giroro.

"I... I wanted to be the one to kill that woman..." Tamama confessed.

"At the time, right? Because of your mutation messing with your head?" Keroro asked.

"Sure," he lied. "Sure, just you keep on believing that, Mr. Sergeant!" He paused, "So I lied about it. She was dead anyway, so it didn't matter."

"She's not dead. Her body was vaporized, it seems. She's on the spirit plane," Giroro explained. "She's like the sixth sense or something."

"Yes... I think she definitely classifies as a spirit. She bled, I believe, and in her blood a plant sprouted... Energy was returned to Pekopon. With her, there's hope for saving the planet without the help of machinery," Dororo shared.

"Good. So she will be useful." Natsumi smiled. "Dororo... We need you to locate her. Can you smell her out? If you do it, we'll put you in the tank and unmutate you."

Dororo frowned, knowing it had a condition. "She's not here," he said. "If you wanted me to capture her and bring her to you, you should have told me earlier. Her smell... She stayed back with Kululu."

Everybody frowned. They didn't know why she was over with Kululu, but this would mean it was harder to get her.

"Please... Please return me to normal," he begged.

They saw his sad little face and couldn't refuse. Saburo went over to Dororo and picked him up. "We'll put you in the tank then."

Dororo smiled. As he was put into the tank, water slowly surrounded him. He turned to Koyuki hopefully.

"I hope that I will awaken to a green world," he wished. "And I hope to see you again, Lady Koyuki. To actually see you."

"I'll miss you," she told him.

"I love you dearly, my friend," he told her. Finally, he went under. The operation started and Paul inserted the IV and breathing mask.

Koyuki cried out of happiness. Dororo would soon be back to her.

Tamama's memories were slowly coming back to him. He remembered at least how cruel he had been, nightmarishly cruel, and especially manipulative to Keroro. Although he was happy that they had been in a relationship, he suspected that the sort of relationship they had been hadn't been right, it had formed mostly from Keroro's guilt.

Keroro was by Koyuki's side, looking at the tank and waiting for another of his platoon mates to heal. It was as if, as soon as Tamama was back to normal, he was putting equal attention to all of his platoon!

"W-we... We were in a relationship, weren't we?" Tamama asked Keroro hesitantly. He suspected that, now that the conditions that had forced them into that were over, their relationship would be, too. He felt bad. He hadn't wanted to damage his relationship with Keroro like that.

"Yep," Keroro awkwardly responded, keeping his eyes on Dororo instead of Tamama.

Tamama rubbed his arm. "Are... Are we going to talk about that? Or... Or are you mad at me?"

"I'm not mad at you," Keroro told him. "You weren't in your right mind. Neither was I. You felt so alone, and that was mostly my fault. I'm sorry... I won't leave you again," he promised. But he clearly didn't want to talk about their relationship, even though he wasn't mad.

"It... It wasn't a very healthy relationship, was it? I mean... Didn't I sic you on Fukki?" Tamama asked, talking about it despite Keroro's wishes.

"Oh yeah. You did! I had kind of forgotten," Keroro admitted. He had felt so awkward about the relationship part, he had completely forgotten the completely unhealthy part.

"I'm sorry that I was such an unhealthy boyfriend," Tamama apologized.

Keroro stretched out his hand and pat him on the head. "It's all right... It wasn't your fault."

Tamama felt like it really was though. "It's...It's over isn't it?" Tamama asked his eyes wide and sad.

Keroro gave a stiff nod. Tamama tried not to cry, he just turned away from Keroro and headed off to Momoka, leaving Keroro by Dororo's side.

"Are... Are you going to go through treatment, too?" Natsumi asked, cuddling up on a couch with Giroro. "Do you want to?"

"I want to," Giroro said. "But... I have to remain how I am for now. At least until we locate Angol Mois. Without Dororo, I'm the only one who can communicate with her now," he said. "I still have a little bit left of juice in my gun. I should be fine for not poisoning you all."

Natsumi nodded. She hoped this would be all over soon. And that Giroro could return to how he had been before.

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