(June 3 2024)—-
I still feel terrible after telling G11 she couldn't fight. I wasn't aware she would react that way... she basically became a shut-in. I regret what I did... but I had to make that decision. G11's laziness got UMP-45 killed. I've been trying to keep busy in order to keep my mind off of what I did. I've been giving Narukami, Suomi and the rest of the girls tactical support lately. We're getting closer and closer to chasing Akechi out of his region everyday. I'd say I support the team twice a day at best, but the rest of the time, guilt is eating me up. I'm still in a wheelchair, but I've been getting better. I Woke up one morning, and I just sat up in my bed as the thoughts of guilt came creeping in not even five seconds after waking up. I got myself out of bed to try and quell those dark thoughts as much as I could. I wheeled myself down the hallway past all the rooms.
"Privyet, Shikikan." AK-12 said as she passed by.
"Private what?" I asked in confusion.
"Privyet. It's 'hello' in Russian." AK-12 clarified.
"Oh, well in that case, 'preevet,' AK-12." I relied, completely butchering the pronunciation. AK-12 chuckled slightly, but not in a demeaning way.
"You'll get it, Shikikan." 12 said. "It takes practice sometimes." I continued down the hallway not knowing what to do with myself. I wheeled past Narukami's room and couldn't help but notice he was pretty hard at work on something. I knocked lightly at the door to get his attention as to not startle him. Nanako noticed me.
"Oh, hi Klonoa!" Nanako said happily. "Big Bro! Klonoa's here!" This snapped Narukami out of his work-induced trance.
"Hey Brother." Narukami greeted me. "How's your stomach doing?"
"It's getting better." I answered. "So what are you working on right now?"
"I'm drawing out my idea for how to take this small town." Narukami said with a confident expression. "Akechi is using this town as a barrier… guarding his personal estate. We take the town, we can go get Akechi. I was going to show you these once it was finished to see if you're ok with it but looks like you came to me." I looked the battle plan Narukami drew up, and I was amazed.
"Did you use the drone to see the layout of this town?" I asked.
"When we were taking the outpost to the East of this small town, I took the liberty of checking the town out." Narukami said, accompanied by a pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I was discreet. I wouldn't put AN-94 and Super Shorty in danger."
"This is an air-tight plan, brother." I complemented Narukami. "I'm raring for something to do, so let's get everyone briefed and on the road ASAP."
"Sounds like a plan." Narukami said as he stood up. "Meet in the planning room in an hour?"
"You got it Brother!" I said with excitement. "We can't scare Akechi too much for now. We don't want him running to Neptune's region."
"I don't think you'll have to worry about that." Narukami said. "You should check the tv in the lobby. I recorded something I think you'll like to see." I left Narukami's room and headed down to the lobby, like he said. I got myself onto the couch and turned the tv on.
"Oh boy! More funny Chris-Chan stuff!" MP5 yelled as she ran over to the couch and vaulted the back of it, landing in a sitting position on the couch. "Play it play it!" I turned the tv on, navigated the menus, yadda yadda yadda, I didn't know what I was doing. MP5 reached over and hit the right buttons on the remote and got me to the recording I wanted to see. The first thing I saw was the same setup I saw the last time I watched one of Chris-Chan's news shows, only this time, Akechi was on his knees instead of in the armchair.
"Goro Akechi…" Chris chan started. "You have dishonored me… for you have allowed the troll Klonoa and his female friends to escape."
"Please Goddess Sonichu!" Akechi simpered. "Please give me some more time."
"Hmmm…" Chris Chan started. MP5 was starting to lose it because this was super funny. "I gave you lots of time, Mr. Goro, and yet you are failing to keep the evil trolls in control, and among which you are now relieved of your enforcing duties. You are also not allowed to leave your region. If you are caught in my wife Neptune's region, you will be labeled as a troll and arrested."
"Goddess Sonichu… please!" Akechi pleaded on his hands and knees. "I am just a lowly servant among your trestles…"
"Shut up you incompetent troll!" Chris Chan yelled. "If you want to be affiliated with me in any way, you will need to present to me Klonoa the trolling-stupid and Yu Narukami the escapee, for they will be shown the truth and will be made to fight on my side. You will also have to bring me the one they call 'Suomi,' for I will make her my sweetheart, and among which I will do the hanky-panky with her."
"You'll never get her." I whispered under my breath."
"You may leave now, Mr. Goro." Chris Chan said. Akechi got on his feet and slowly trudged off screen. Chris Chan continued speaking. "For those of you who want to support my endeavors of ridding the dimension of trolls, I have made these medallions of Klonoa, and even better, they can easily be split into four pieces, among which it will be easier to shove them up your… hmmm… "a" hole. Klonoa is a troll, and all trolls must be disrespected and ridiculed, among which. I need more people to buy these, and no sending me play money like the order I got last week. Now go to my Ebay. Buy. Buy. Buy." He repeatedly said 'buy' in that annoying voice of his, so I turned the tv off and sat on the couch processing the vital information I got out of that interview.
"Do you know what this means, MP5?" I asked.
"I think so…" MP5 started, "Why would Chris Chan sell something that's meant to go up your butt?"
"I'm talking about what he told Akechi about not being able to leave his region." I said excitedly. "Akechi can't run. His days are numbered." MP5 gazed at me, and her eyes widened in excitement.
"We've almost won, Shikikan!" MP5 said excitedly.
—-
MP5 and I went upstairs and met Narukami and the rest of the girls in the planning room to go over the plan with everyone. It wouldn't be easy, but if the plan succeeded, there would be nothing left between us and Akechi. Narukami also also reported the town was full of CWC honor guards, so it was obvious Akechi was getting super paranoid. Everyone knew what their roles were after only fifteen minutes of planning, so everyone started heading to the garage. Nanako then came into the room and walked up to Narukami.
"Do you have to go fight, big bro?" Nanako asked Narukami.
"Yeah, but don't worry." Narukami reassured Nanako. "I'll be back tonight."
"I'm worried about you, big bro." Nanako admitted. "What if you don't come back? I don't want to lose you... I already lost Dad." I saw a tear rolling down Nanako's face. I'll admit, I was starting to get choked up.
"Tell you what," Narukami started. "Klonoa will be watching us fight over the computers so he'll be helping us. Do you want to help Klonoa?"
"Sure." Nanako said slightly more calm. Narukami walked towards me and held out his fist for a fistbump.
"We'll take the town, Brother. Keep Nanako safe." Narukami said in a hushed tone.
"She'll be safe." I reassured Narukami. "I'll make sure you come home tonight." AN-94 then poked her head into the room.
"We'll make sure nothing happens to your big bro, Nanako." AN-94 reassured. This calmed Nanako down even more.
"Thank you, Ms. 94." Nanako said sweetly. After that exchange. Narukami nodded at me slightly with a smile then took off with the rest of the girls running down the hall towards the garage. I was wheeling myself to the room with the monitors so I could get set up and ready to be the eye in the sky. On the way to the computer room, I passed by G11's room so I glanced in there to see how she was doing. She was lying motionless on her bed, face down. I figured she was just asleep so I was about to continue, but then I heard a sniffle.
"I think she's sad, Klonoa." Nanako whispered while tugging at my sleeve. I knocked lightly at the door. G11 lifted her head up slightly and looked towards me.
"G11…" I started, feeling kind of fidgety, "I'm going to be tactical support for everyone taking a town to the East. Want to come with me?" G11 wiped her eyes and slowly got out of her bed and followed me to the computer room. Just as we were about to enter, Soppo came running down the hallway.
"I found you, Catman!" She yelled excitedly. "Let's play together!"
"I can't play right now, Soppo." I said as I reached down and picked her up. "I'll play with you tonight when I'm done helping everyone. You can play with Nanako though."
"Ooh, we can decorate the walls!" Nanako said happily. She picked Soppo up and ran down the hall to grab some boxes of crayons.
After I got everything set up, I got the drone in position over the town. Nanako and Soppo were drawing on the walls. The hospital was kind of drab and could get depressing sometimes, so a lot of colors on the wall would be a nice change of pace. G11 was sitting in the corner not saying a word. I felt even worse when I saw how much my decision affected her.
"G11…" I started. "I'm really sorry about what I said a week ago…"
"It's not your fault… it's mine." G11 cut me off. "I know I messed up." As much as I wanted to say, 'yes you did,' I didn't want to make her feel worse. I sat there in awkward silence as I watched the teams driving to the town via the drone's camera feed. I sat there trying to think of things to say. I didn't want to act like everything is forgiven but I also didn't want to hurt G11 further. 'Just strike up a casual conversation, Klonoa.' I thought to myself.
"So… how did you and 404 meet?" I asked. G11 looked up at the ceiling and sighed.
"they saved my life." G11 answered with a shaky voice. "I know I owe them a lot, but instead I ended up failing them."
"Did 404 save you during a firefight?" I asked.
"I wasn't always a tactical doll," G11 said sadly. "I used to be a civilian service bot before I got abandoned by my previous owners." 'You probably got abandoned because you were being lazy all the time.' That's what I was about to say, but I kept my mouth shut. That would have just been unnecessarily hurtful. "And yes, it's because I was super lazy back then too." G11 admitted.
"So then what happened?" I asked curiously. "You don't have to answer that if you don't want to."
"No… it's ok." G11 closed her eyes and did a long exhale. "After I got abandoned… I wandered the streets alone, until a group of scavengers found me, knocked me out, and kidnapped me. The scavengers wanted to dissect me and sell my parts on the black market."
"Goodness…" I muttered. "I never knew you had gone through all this."
"Anyway," G11 continued. "404 found where the scavengers were hiding and saved me." Another tear rolled down G11's face. "I'm a T-doll now because of them. 45 saw potential in me… but she was wrong."
"You still do have potential, you know." I said. "You have a hidden talent somewhere, you just need to find it."
"No I don't. The only thing I thought I could do was fight... but I was wrong." G11 said with a regretful tone. "404 should have just let me die in that warehouse."
"The hard part about fighting is that you are never going to be in the mood to go through it." I told G11. "I've had to push through being too tired and feeling ready to just give up entirely, but I'm glad I made myself go through everything in the end, because we are winning so far. A few more big pushes and we will take this region from Akechi." G11 looked at me with wide eyes. "Everyone is trying very hard, but in the end we are going to win. After the day is won, everyone will be proud of the part they played in winning freedom and sticking it to Chris-Chan himself."
"Chris-Chan did… things to me…" G11 said as she balled up and started shivering.
"My point is you have to go through hard times in order to win the good times waiting for you." I said. "It isn't easy to take the hard times head on, but that's why you have to push yourself and be brave."
"He's right." Nanako said, who was apparently listening to what I'd been saying the whole time. "My big bro is very brave, because he always does things he doesn't want to do. He can always do everything though, because he's very strong. I think everyone should be like big bro."
"I'll be like your big bro… someday." G11 said with determination.
Everyone reached the town about forty minutes later. G11 had fallen asleep, of course, while Nanako and Soppo were still decorating the walls. I got the communications all set up and radioed Narukami.
"Everyone all set to go?" I asked.
"We're all good." Narukami radioed back. "We're leaving the cars about a thousand yards away from the city and hoofing it the rest of the way." I watched the team move towards the city. I then noticed a sniper on top of a water tower in the city.
"Narukami, stop!" I radioed. I looked over to Nanako, who looked a little concerned. "There's a sniper on the water tower. Can you take him out?"
"My gun probably won't be able to go that far." Narukami said. "M200… would you mind…" I heard a suppressed gunshot over the radio and saw the guard on top of the water tower lose his head. "Sniper's dead. We good to move, Brother?" Narukami asked.
"You're all clear." I instructed. "Narukami, take AR-15, Springfield and M-200 to the top of the water tower and get set up, but wait for my command. Suomi, UMP-9 and HK, split up the rest of the forces evenly and surround the city. I'll let you all know when to start charging."
"Roger that, Klonoa." Suomi said over the radio. I watched everyone get into position. The sniper team snuck over to the water tower and took it. They started taking out stragglers and gate guards to clear the way for the three teams waiting to help take the town. I suddenly heard bullets whizzing by from Narukami's radio!
"M-200!" Narukami yelled over the radio. I repositioned the drone to view the water tower. Narukami Springfield and AR-15 were being fired upon. M-200 had been shot and… unfortunately… killed.
"Narukami! Take cover!" I frantically yelled over the radio. "Everyone, move into the town!" All the girls started charging down the streets and weaving through buildings, taking the heat off of Narukami and his team. Suddenly I saw a smoke trail coming from one of the buildings and it barely missed the water tower. It was an RPG! "Narukami! There's an RPG! Get off the water tower NOW!" I yelled. I saw Narukami and his team jump off the water tower onto a building below, fortunately it wasn't an extremely big fall. The RPG hit the water tower just as Springfield was jumping off, so the explosion threw her off. When she landed on the building, I heard a SNAP over the radio, followed by a scream.
"Shikikan!" AR-15 yelled. "Springfield broke her leg!" My heart was pounding out of my chest. I didn't expect that to happen. The attack wasn't going according to plan! I was frantically planning something else out in my head. Things got even worse when I looked at the monitors again and saw enemies coming onto the roof where Narukami's team landed. AR-15 ran towards the door where the enemies came out and took them out using her still-amazing hand to hand skills. She tossed Narukami one of the enemy's pistols and Narukami ran over to the staircase to help. I zoomed out the view on the drone feed and saw HK's team taking the streets nearby. It's risky, but I want everyone to survive. Losing M-200 was already starting to wear on me mentally, but I had to stay strong.
"Bren, Negev, PPK and MP5, head South down the alleyways to the building next to the water tower and help Narukami clear it!" I commanded frantically.
"¡Ir hat es, Bubula!" Negev acknowledged over the radio. They very quickly made it to the house, with MP5 and PPK clearing out the house and Bren and Negev covering them.
"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" I heard Narukami yell over the radio.
"Oy mate, you can't be too careful nowadays, can you now?" Bren asked jokingly. They had taken the house, which happened to be on the corner of an intersection where a lot of the CWC honor guard soldiers were running by. This could turn the tides in our favor.
"Alright Brother, this house is ours. What's next?" Narukami asked.
"Narukami and AR-15, take up sniping positions on the roof, but make sure you two are behind cover. Bren and Negev, I want the two of you to set up your guns on the second floor windows and thin out any honor guards running by to help the other girls take the city. MP5 and PPK, get Springfield inside and care for her leg as best you can."
"Yessir, Shikikan!" MP5 replied in her normal playful manner. I watched as Narukami, AR-15, MP5 and PPK went onto the roof. I was surprised to see Springfield still firing at the enemy squads, despite her very hurt leg.
"We'll take it from here, Springfield!" AR-15 yelled. "MP5 and PPK will bring you inside and take care of your leg!"
"Negative on that!" Springfield yelled. "I can still snipe!"
"Shikikan's orders, I'm sorry." MP5 said as she and PPK carefully picked up Springfield and took her back into the house.
"Put me down! I can still fight!" Springfield yelled. It turned out capturing that house was a very good move, with the LMGs in the windows thinning out the hordes of CWC honor guards and Narukami and AR-15 taking out snipers and RPGs in the area, the three other teams were able to move through the streets and houses with more ease. We definitely had this mission in the bag. Everyone in the town was staying on track, gaining ground and keeping the CWC honor guards surrounded. I suddenly heard an explosion. I thought it came from the radio, but the explosion woke G11 up. Soppo and Nanako got super startled. That was when I realized; the explosion happened at the hospital!
"What was that?" Nanako asked. G11 looked out the window and went completely pale.
"T-they're here!" G11 stammered. "The CWC honor guard… they've breached the front wall!" This wasn't good at all! I couldn't call the team back or Akechi might retake the city! Even if I did call them back, they were over an hour East of us. They wouldn't make it back to save us from being captured or killed. Nanako was really panicking. She jumped into my lap.
"I'm scared, Klonoa! What are we going to do?" Nanako asked me while hyperventilating.
"I know this hospital is festering with bookworms!" I heard from a loudspeaker outside. I looked out the window and saw one of Akechi's trucks, the one that had the giant speaker on it. But that voice… I had heard it before. A long time ago
"Oh no!" Nanako shouted while in tears. "I don't want to go back to the bad guy's castle!" At this point, even Soppo was scared out of her mind. She too jumped into my lap.
"If you little smarties want to live long enough to keep learning, you had better surrender." That's when I realized the voice was I. ! "My men are checking every room, so stand in the hallway with your hands up, and don't hold any guns! Children are too incompetant to handle firearms! Everyone will be captured… except for you, Klonoa. You shall be executed, by orders of Goro Akechi!"
"CATMAN!" Soppo shouted hysterically. "NO! I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE!" Soppo and Nanako started crying super hard. I held them close to me and looked at G11, who was crouching near the window with a conflicted look. She looked at me, then her eyes filled with determination.
"Klonoa? What's going on?" Suomi asked frantically over the radio.
"Suomi…" I started. "I. is at the hospital... Soppo, Nanako and G11 are going to be kidnapped... I think I'll be killed. Stay over there and keep fighting. It's okay."
"NO! I won't let anything happen to you!" Suomi shouted over the radio.
"Shikikan." G11 started. "Wait here, don't move!" G11 ran out of the computer room. I wasn't sure what she was doing. At the time I thought she was going to give herself up. I didn't want that to happen. Luckily, she had ran to the armory. She had my AK and her G11 in her hands. She tossed me my AK.
"Shikikan, stay here." G11 instructed. "If they come in, hold them off for as long as you can!" G11 scowled and loaded her gun. "I am a tactical doll, and I will defend my Shikikan!"
—-_(G11)_—-
Hi everyone reading this. G11 here, or 'Sleepo-Beepo' as I'm known around the hospital. I don't really mind my nickname.
I left the room where the Shikikan and Nanako and Sopmod Jr. were I closed the door behind me and slid a table in front of the door so it would be harder for the enemies to get into the room. I readied my gun and walked down the hallway, ready for someone to jump out at me. No one did, but that's because they were looking around on the second floor. I went down the staircase to the second floor door and looked through my scope and put the red dot over what I intended to destroy, just like what HK416 told me to do, then I held down the trigger, trying to keep the gun steady as it fired over and over again. The enemies were taken by surprise. I was able to take a good amount of them out before they started returning fire. Other guys started charging at the door I was behind. I heard the door below me open and more bad guys running up the stairs. It was easy to tell where they were because the stairs were metal, and metal is loud when you run on it. I leaned on the second floor door to keep it shut and shot at the bad guys coming up the stairs. I would have kept shooting at them, but my gun ran out of those little shells. I had to reload. I ran up to the third floor, got behind a table with a flower pot on it, and I finally had a few moments to reload. The G11 isn't the easiest gun to reload, but luckily I've had a good amount of practice. I slowly walked down the stairs and started firing at the enemies, I was able to push them back. I pushed them all back to the second floor door, so they went through the door and ran down the hallway on the second floor. They thought by getting far away they could get the advantage over me, so I had to focus. I put the red dot over the bad guys, then I fired 3-round burst at them. I took down one bad guy, then another and so on. I was getting tired from focusing, but I had to ignore my desire to go to sleep.
I ran down the hallway and checked the rooms to make sure they were all clear. I went around the doorways very carefully in case there was an honor guard in it. After a while the second floor was clear, so I went down to the first floor and took out everyone waiting to ambush me. I had only the lobby left to clear. I was getting very very sleepy, but I had to prove to Klonoa that I can be a good fighter. I don't want to let HK416 down anymore, and I want UMP-45 to be right about me after all. Maybe she's watching me fight right now. I fought my hardest, harder than I had ever fought in my life. I didn't want to go back to jail, where Chris Chan might do more bad stuff to me. I didn't want any of that to happen to Sopmod Jr or Nanako. The gray-haired squeaker was yelling at me from outside the hospital, telling me to surrender, but I wouldn't do that. I kept pushing the enemy back until they started running outside. I didn't want to let any of them get away, so I ran to the big hole in the wall and took out as many guards as I could. They ran over to a big truck and got into it. I shot at the wheels on the truck and made the truck go slower. The bad guy with the squeaky voice called me a wretched child as he drove the truck away from the hospital. I tried catching up to the truck on foot, but even though they had flat tires, I still wasn't fast enough. Oh well, at least they won't be coming back anytime soon. I did a final check around the hospital to make sure there were no more enemies. After I confirmed the hospital was clear of attackers, I went back to the Shikikan.
—-_(Klonoa)_—-
I heard a knock on the door, so I asked who it was, worried it might be one of the CWC honor guards.
"It's G11. The honor guards are gone." I opened the door to see G11 pushing a table aside. She came into the room after she got the table out of the way. "It's safe now." Nanako and Soppo both breathed huge sighs of relief. I couldn't believe it. G11 stepped up when we were in dire straits. She fought off a small army all by herself! I got back onto the radio.
"Suomi? Narukami?" I radioed.
"Klonoa!" Narukami answered. "What's going on?"
"We're safe now." I said as I leaned back in my wheelchair. "You can go back and take the town."
"You don't need to worry about the town." Narukami said. "It was difficult, but Suomi and I decided to stay and fight. We both knew you wouldn't want to let Akechi keep the town."
"We saw it though." Suomi said. "We took the town successfully and we're leaving most of the girls there to hold the town and help the townspeople rebuild. We're heading back to the hospital now."
"You two are the absolute best!" I exclaimed. I didn't know what to say, but Nanako did.
"Big bro!" Nanako said into the mic. "Big sis G11 made all the bad guys run away!" There was a long pause after Nanako told them this. They probably didn't believe her.
"Klonoa, is this actually true?" Suomi asked. "I mean, no offense to G11… but is this true?"
"It is true." I said proudly as I looked at G11. "G11 saved us, and I am very proud of her." G11's eyes widened and she got a look of excitement.
"That's such a relief!" Suomi said. "I was worried about you, I figure Akechi wants you dead. We're almost home. Stay aware, they may come back and try again."
"They can try," G11 leaned over my shoulder and spoke into the mic. "But they will fail. I now know what has to be done. Akechi will pay for everything he has done!" I was shocked when I heard G11 say all this, and with such strength and determination. She truly had a change of heart.
"That he will." Suomi acknowledged. "We'll be home soon." Nanako quickly came to my other shoulder.
"Bye, big bro!" Nanako yelled into the mic.
"Bye Nanako." Narukami said sweetly. "I'll see you soon."
—-
I was just sitting there scanning the town and making sure there weren't any more guards hanging around. G11 was looking out the window to make sure no one tried coming through the giant hole that got blown into the South wall of the hospital. Nanako was looking out the window too, but I think she was waiting for her big bro to come back. Soppo was swinging on my ear.
"Big bro is home!" Nanako yelled. We all went down to the garage to meet them. Narukami ran to Nanako right when he saw her and gave her a giant bear hug. Suomi got out of the car, saw me, then did the exact same thing to me.
"Big bro! You made it home!" Nanako happily said to Narukami.
"I'll always come back, Nanako." Narukami said. "I love you." Just then another car came into the garage. UMP-9, M4, Negev, MP40 and AN-94 got out of it.
"M4!" Soppo yelled in excitement. She ran to M4 as fast as her stubby little legs could carry her. M4 picked up Soppo and cradled her.
"Thank you for taking such good care of her, Shikikan. She really likes you." M4 said.
"It's not a problem." I admitted. "She's been a little angel, surprising enough."
"What did you do while we were gone, Nanako?" Narukami asked his little Sister. Nanako got really excited by that question.
"Soap-mod Jr. and I decorated the walls!" Nanako told Narukami. "Can you come upstairs with me so I can show you?" It wasn't exactly a question, because Nanako grabbed Narukami's hand and started running up to the computer room, so the rest of us followed. Honestly I was so focused on the surveillance footage I never got to look at the drawings. I wanted to see them. Nanako and Soppo had colored more of the wall than I expected. Most of the North and West walls were super colorful on the bottom because that was as far as they could reach. Soppo was showing M4 an identical drawing she made in my room a while ago. The one of me and M4 walking through a flower field swinging Soppo. Nanako was also showing off her drawings.
"Look big bro, I drew you and big sis UMP-9 fighting the bad guys and that long-haired evil guy." Nanako said. I looked over to UMP-9, who had tears in her eyes.
"B-b-big…sis?" 9 whimpered happily. "You think of me as... a… big sis?" She then gave Nanako a big hug. "45 was the best big sis to me… I want to be the best big sis in the world to you, Nanako."
"I like spending time with you, big sis UMP-9." Nanako said while hugging 9. "You are very funny, and you are also strong and brave, just like my big bro." Narukami smiled and narrowed his eyes… looking back it was probably supposed to hide the tears that were welling up in his eyes. "We also drew big sis G11, because she made the bad guys run away." Nanako pointed to a drawing on G11 on the wall, right next to it was a caption saying 'thank you G11.' 9 let go of Nanako, stood up and walked over to G11.
"Is this true, Sleepo-beepo?" 9 asked.
"It's true." G11 stated. "I'm done being lazy. I'm going to start pushing myself, so I can become someone I can be proud of." 9 stood there stunned. She then looked at me.
"Shikikan, if it's ok with you, I want G11 back on the team." I didn't even hesitate. I nodded 'yes' to 9. 9 then held out her hand to G11 for a handshake.
"Welcome back to 404, Sleepo." 9 said proudly. I then turned to Narukami and whispered to him.
"You didn't tell 9 that G11 saved our lives?" I asked Narukami.
"I wanted it to be a surprise for 9." Narukami admitted. All in all, I don't regret telling G11 she couldn't fight anymore, because now she's turned over a new leaf and is now a dependable T-doll. You could call me naive for trusting her again so easily, but I knew in the moment she would let any of us down again. I saw how capable she truly was when she applied herself, which seems to be something she's going to start doing from now on.
(June 7 2024)_—-
It's been a few days since everything happened, and I'm still mentally recovering from how stressful the mission was, M-200's death, even more so. We buried her near UMP-45 and gave her a very respectful burial, which was all we could do for her. She was at rest, but I wish it had gone down differently. I should have been more aware. I Was sitting in my room staring out the window at the sunset when heard a knock on my door.
"Come in." I said as I spun the wheelchair around to see who it was. It was Suomi. I was glad to see her. She always makes me feel super happy for some reason.
"Good evening, Klonoa. Suomi said with a smile. "I have some good news for you."
"Is Kar98k having another Oktoberfest?" I asked eagerly. "I could use another Angry Orchard!"
"That's not it, but there are still some left over." Suomi said. I was salivating at the thought of another angry orchard. "The good news is I think you can finally start walking again."
"Oh awesome!" I interjected. "I haven't used my legs in a while." I stood up slowly, but then got really wobbly. I remembered how to stand, it's just that my legs were used to being asleep all day. Suomi grabbed me before I could hit the floor. She lifted me up and kept me steady until I regained my balance. I'm glad to say the pain in my belly was all gone. It felt great to walk again!
"Are you going to go get an Angry Orchard now?" Suomi asked. "I'll come with you to make sure you don't fall."
"Actually, there's somewhere I want to go first." I started taking baby steps at first, but then quickly regained my strength. I walked to the roof access door, went through it and up the stairs, with Suomi's help, then walked onto the roof. The sun was setting, so there was that beautiful reddish-orange light cascading over the sandy hills and the distant towns on the horizon. I walked over to the edge and sat down, admiring the view. I sat there thinking for a bit. Thinking about how clueless and scared I was when I first came here, UMP-45, M-200, and everything I went through at the hands of Akechi. I didn't say a word.
"Klonoa…?" Suomi asked in a concerned tone. "Are you doing ok?" I inhaled deeply as I focused on the horizon, physically seeing all the land we took from Akechi. I was filled with confidence completely, there weren't many times in my life I felt that way so strongly.
"We're going to win, Suomi." I said. "Everything Akechi has done to us, to the people who lived in those annexed towns, all the prisoners he's captured and terrorized, we're going to make him pay." Suomi glanced ahead, towards the beautiful horizon, then back at me.
"When we go to confront Akechi… I'll be by your side." Suomi said gleefully. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else." She came and sat next to me. I just looked as far in the distance as I could. Lone buildings here and there, getting smaller and smaller the further away they got. Towns that used to be living under stringent rules made by Chris Chan and enforced by Akechi… no longer. Freedom soon will come.