Glasses and Red Scar - Chapter 19

Warm air raced through my lungs. I could feel my adrenaline rushing and my heart pumping. I haven't felt so alive in a while, I thought to myself.

I can't remember how I got here, but I was running through a meadow full of long and slender grass, waving in the wind happily until I stepped on them with my pudgy feet. Why do our feet look like this anyway?

This looked like the countryside, but not at all farm-like. Occasional little carved paths divided the grassy hills; the air was filled with the sound of birds chirping. Everything was untouched. Not a living soul was in sight. Not yet anyway.

Judging by the lack of any marks left by human civilization, one might even call this place a wonderland. "One" obviously not being me, of course. Maybe some teenage little Pekoponian girl who lives on the internet and writes alien fanfiction or something would do that. How lame.

I hopped around a tree that appeared in my way and kept running. Looking back, I saw Giroro Senpai trying hard to keep up, even though it was pretty obvious that he had no chance of getting even close to me with the attires he had on. Kuku, he sure looks cute in a pink dress.

Wait, why is he in a dress?

Now that I thought to take a good look at myself, I realized that I had bunny ears and a fluffy tail. What's going on?

Whatever, I must look sexy. Is that why he's chasing me? Damn, I underestimate my irresistibility too much.

"Stop! Kururu! Give me back my belt, you bastard!"

His belt? Oh yeah, I have his belt. Why am I wearing it? This sure is confusing and interesting at the same time.

I continued running. I couldn't remember why at the moment, but letting my Senpai catch me was not an option.

Suddenly, something kicked me in the back. I turned around and saw a squirrel looking at me. It had an innocent little face with a delicate mouth. It opened and the squirrel started screaming like a girl.

"OJI-SAMA!"

The image of the grass land got a little bit blurry.

"GERO! NO! MOIS-DONO, THIS ISN'T WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!"

There were more screaming and yelling, sounds of limbs pushing other things away, and even noises of plastic models falling. Then, with a quick and harsh zipping sound, the squirrel and Senpai in a dress all disappeared. I was now fully aware of how cold I was under a thin blanket and with the exit of the tent fully open.

One, two, three. One after the other, my sleeping companions left the tent, leaving me alone and confused as I rose from the floor, rubbing my eyes.

Where am I? What happened last night? How did I end up in Taichou's tent with the kid and that woman? Last I remembered, Senpai and I…

My memory felt fuzzy. I guess I hadn't slept too well last night with my sleeping bag still in the other tent. This sounded insane in my head, but it's as if my life hadn't been updated in 6 months. Yes that does sound insane. Of course no one has control over my life, but if someone did, I'd probably kick down their door and force feed them bitter curry for neglecting something for so long.

I studied my surroundings as I my memories started to resurface. That's right, I went outside with Senpai last night, and…

Wait. What's that on the floor? Surrounded by blankets, sleeping bags, pillows, and several broken Gundam models, there was a small, clear bottle of… Alright, I guess I know what happened here.

I tucked my head out of the tent's opening, and saw the blonde little alien crying by the ceased fire.

"Mois-dono, please, listen to me de arimasu! That wasn't supposed to happen – I mean – you weren't supposed to see – I mean – that was wrong-"

"No, no! Shut up! Oji-sama is a stupid big meanie! I hate you! Go away!"

Taichou seemed to be desperately trying to fix the situation. He tried to hold on to the Angol girl's wrist but she kept shoving him away. Meanwhile, Tamama hid behind a tree. He saw me coming out, but as soon as our gaze met, he turned away in am embarrassed and guilty manner.

"OH FOR THE KERON LORD'S SAKE, WHO THE FUCK IS MAKING SO MUCH NOISE OUT HERE?!"

The tent opposite from me burst open, and from in it emerged a red… Oh.

"GERO!" Keroro-kun jumped up and almost fell over. As if he hadn't had enough disasters in one morning. He faked a smile even though it was pretty obvious that he was trembling.

"G-Giroro-kun! Up so early, good for you de arimasu! Say, how about we go get some tea, huh? Old buddy?"

"KERORO YOU LITTLE SHIT! FIRST THE FAKE TRAINING TRIP, THEN THE STUPID GUN-DAMNIT MODELS, AND NOW THIS! I SWEAR, ONE MORE FROG TOE OUT OF LINE AND I WILL HAVE A CANNON OUT HERE ON YOUR ASS SO FAST YOU CAN'T EVEN SPELL WHOOPED!"

"Giroro-kun," a blue figure followed the red out of the tent, "calm down. What's gotten into you?"

Dororo put his hand on Senpai's shoulder, trying to cool his temper.

"You seem to be in a really bad mood. Did something happen?"

"THIS IS NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS! THAT! THAT THING!" Giroro Senpai pointed at Taichou while still yelling at the top of his lungs. "HE'S MY BUSINESS! HE WON'T STOP BEING MY BUSINESS UNTIL I'VE BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF HIM!"

"Taichou-dono? And Mois-dono. Everyone's out here. What's going on?"

"Gero…" Taichou became flustered. "Well, Mois-dono is a little upset, because… well… Tamama and I were both up and we didn't think-"

"Waaaah!" Mois buried her face in her hands and started crying even more furiously.

As Taichou rushed back over to her side, attempting to and failing at getting her to stop crying, Tamama dragged himself around them to the other side. He walked to Senpai and whispered something in his ear.

"WHAT?! ARE YOU INSANE?! WITH HER RIGHT NEXT TO YOU IN THE TENT?! YOU ANIMALS!"

"I-I'm sorry desu!" Tamama twitched back in fear. His arms shielded himself in a defensive manner. He looked like he was on the verge of crying as well.

"What? What happened?" Dororo asked as his eyes switched quickly between Senpai, Tamama, the noisy pair in the center of everything, and then back to Tamama again.

Tamama walked over to Dororo and whispered in his ear too, turning his face as flushed as a tomato.

"I knew it! I knew you guys were like that!" The annoying little girl still hadn't stopped crying and ruining everyone's morning. "Oji-sama likes Tamama more than Mois! Oji-sama hates me!"

"No, no! It's not like that, Mois-dono!" Taichou looked helplessly at the three standing by the other tent. "Will some of you help me out here?"

"Wait." Dororo tucked his head in the tent behind him and came back out. "The tent's empty. Where did Kururu-dono go?"

And at the mention of my name, Senpai looked away from Taichou and the Angol girl. Our eyes met across the fire pit.

Suddenly, I wished that this was a dream instead of the meadow field.

--------------------

The entire morning passed with more crying and yelling. Otherwise, it was filled with guilty silences, which felt just as awkward, if not more. As a way to break the ice as well as make Giroro Senpai calm down, Taichou brought up the idea of everyone taking a hike on Mt. Fuji, since it wasn't all that far from here. As no one felt well enough to speak up yet, the trip was settled through the lack of objections.

I thought the suburbs in late autumn was cold, but compared to the conditions on the highest mountain in the country, we might as well have been cozying our asses in the core of the Keronian sun.

We must have been climbing for hours. I couldn't be sure, as time seemed to drag itself on here. The icy cold wind pushed against us as we edged our way slowly up the snow-covered dirt, slipping and falling.

The Angol girl was now giving Taichou the silent treatment, which predictably worked extremely well on the idiot. He clang behind her, filling her ears with as much apologies and sweet talk as he could come up with, while Mois continued to angrily lead the way up the mountain, leaving the rest of us panting and sweating behind them.

Good thing was that all that's been happening had distracted everyone from noticing other things that had become awkward. Senpai was so busy being angry at everyone and threatening to destroy them as well as their families in so many graphic ways that we hadn't had any chance to interact. Not that I wanted to, of course. On one hand, the events that transpired one after another had been so hilarious that I've just been laying back and enjoying the chaos.

On the other hand, I had no idea what to say to him now. Not that I liked to admit it, but I did have areas in which I didn't have expertise. He must've still been angry with me, and I wasn't quite sure how to fix that, or if I even wanted to fix that at this point.

"Uhh, soldiers!" Seeing as things on the girl front were going nowhere, Taichou turned back to us. "How about we, uh, sing a song to lessen the mood, huh?" His expression seemed desperate. How amusing. "Please?"

"If this is the only training we get on this trip, I suggest that you concentrate." Senpai looked at him with a stern glare.

"No, no! It will be fun de arimasu! I'll start." Taichou cleared his throat

~♪Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer. Take one down, pass it around, ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall. ♪~

"See, isn't that fun?" Taichou said. "Mois-dono, care to join in?"

Mois seemed to be sticking to her guns. She dramatically turned her head the other way, and started walking even faster.

"Please? Anyone?"

Giroro Senpai sighed.

~♪Ninety-eight Gumpla models in the box, ninety-eight Gumpla models. If you don't keep climbing, I'll shoot them all down, there won't be any Gumpla left in the box. ♪~

"Oh come on, it's just a children's song." Keroro Taichou said as he patted Senpai's back stiffly. "Uhh, Kururu Souchou?"

~♪Ninety-seven bags of curry in the pot, ninety-seven bags of curry. Throw me in there and let me drown, ninety-six bags of curry in the pot. Kuku. ♪~

"That's… very nice de arimasu. Thank you. Who's next, Tamama Nitou?"

"Tama… Ninety-six bottles… uh… bottles… I can't climb anymore!" Tamama yelled through pants as he fell on the ground. "Just… give me a second…"

"Is this a soldier's attitude? Lift yourself back up and keep climbing! Don't be such a disappointment!"

"Stop using us as your punching bags, Gochou-san! Keep your problems and bad mood to yourself! As if I haven't gone through enough today."

"Oh yeah? I bet having all that cuddle time with my Oji-sama must have been really difficult for you."

"Can you stop being such a drama queen? Gunsou-san doesn't belong to you! Suck it up!"

"There, there! No need to fight de arimasu!" Taichou looked like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown. "Let's continue the fun, shall we? Who's next, Dororo-kun?"

The sound of wind raced by my ears as snow continued to land on us.

"Dororo-kun?"

"Wait," Tamama said as he looked around, "Dorobune Senpai is gone!"

"What? How did he disappear?"

"Kuku. There was a branch a while back. He tripped on it and fell down the path."

"And you never thought to mention it?!" Taichou yelled.

"Kuku."

"Ugh, what do we do now?"

"I'll go find him." Tamama said as he pushed himself up from the ground and dusted off the snow on his legs. "I mean, it's not like I could stay and… uhh, it's not like I'm wanted here anyway."

He turned around and started walking away.

"No, wait. It's too dangerous! I'll go with you de arimasu!"

"Don't bother." Tamama said without looking back. "It's not like she'd let you."

With that last sentence, he started running while shouting Dororo's name. Taichou was left frozen in his spot until the last echoes of Tamama's voice had slowly disappeared into the snow storm.

"Gero…"

Mois was the first one to start walking. She once again had her head raised and her lips sealed, but her exterior seemed not as fierce as before.

We continued hiking in the snow, but now in complete silence. Taichou walked sluggishly with his head down and his body twitching from time to time. Eventually he came to a halt.

"I have to go find them."

Mois also came to a sudden stop.

"Really? You're going to go find your precious little buddy?"

"But Mois-dono, he's been gone for a long time! What if he couldn't find Dororo-kun and got stuck and lost somewhere?"

"So you're admitting that he's more important to you than I am!"

"It's not like that!"

"How is it not? You just can't keep yourself away from him!"

"Mois-dono, we are a platoon and we rescue each other when in need. Tell me you can understand that! I mean, I'm sure if one of these two got lost, the other would definitely go after him!"

As Giroro Senpai and I were being pointed at, he looked away uncomfortably.

"Don't try to get yourself out of this! You just keep abandoning me and going after him! As if I'm just some little meaningless piece of-"

"STOP IT MOIS-DONO!"

Taichou finally snapped, leaving the Angol girl stunned and speechless.

"I can't do this right now! Tamama is gone, and I have to find him! He could be injured or lost! He might need help, and I'm going to look for him!"

With that, Taichou stormed off into the whiteness.

Mois started crying as she ran off in the opposite direction. Giroro Senpai hesitated, looking back and forth, and then decided to go after Mois. I dragged myself behind the advancing pair, slowly losing interest in the situation.

"Uh, Mois… Calm down."

"You don't understand! You don't understand at all! Leave me alone!"

"Look, I know that rejections," he stopped as if to swallow something, "can be hard, but you've got to pull yourself together."

The woman continued to let herself dissolve into a ball of quivering nonsense. How pathetic.

What I couldn't bare looking at even more was Senpai.

What happened? How did everything end up here? How did things transpire like this? What exactly changed? Of course, he's still the same person. Maybe I'm just finally realizing things about him that I didn't before. Maybe we aren't suited for each other after all. My glasses play right into my most important principles, and if it really came down to choosing only one… but maybe I don't have to look at it like that? Maybe it's not such a big deal. Maybe we could just blow pass this. _{But wouldn't that just confirm what he said? That I don't treat this seriously and I'm only having my fun with him? But then what is wrong with that? If what he believes in really does contradicts with my ways so much, I guess it'd be better if we ended things. Why do I have to think about this so seriously? Or maybe I was indeed wrong about him in the first place? Maybe liking him was only an illusion? Maybe I should really look for someone else. Hey, again, it's not like being lovey dovey with a "soulmate" or whatever those Pekoponjins call it and cuddle up by a fire talking about feelings is my goal in life. How stupid would that be? Am I over-thinking this? I'm definitely over-thinking this…}

"I'm sorry, Mois, but I have to go, too."

"Gochou-san?"

"That kid Keroro has no idea what he's doing out there. If I don't go after him, who knows if he wouldn't get eaten by some wild life or trapped under some rock?"

"But…"

"Don't worry. I'll find them as soon as possible and catch right back up with you."

Mois bit her lower lip as more tears fell from her eye sockets.

"I'll be right back, Mois, and…" his eyebrows seemed to drop for a second, "be careful."

Senpai finished his sentence without even as much as acknowledging my existence. He turned around and disappeared into the snow, following our missing teammates.

Tired of all that's been happening, I returned to walking forward against the wind, walking pass the Angol girl frozen at where she was standing without a word.

As I climbed, I heard quick footsteps catching up to me. They slowed down as they got closer, and maintained a short distance behind me. I slowed down, waiting for her to get in front again, but she slowed down as well. I tried speeding up, and so did she. Feeling frustrated, I stopped.

"What do you want?!"

"Would you?"

"Would I what?" Despite her tears finally starting to dry, the woman still annoyed me to no end.

"Like Oji-sama said… If Giroro-san was stuck in a ditch, would you go after him?"

I ignored her and kept on walking. What a stupid question. What a stupid woman.

"But you're going to leave, too, aren't you?" She continued on. "They all have. Aren't you next?"

"It's…" I mumbled, "it's not that simple."

"Kururu-san?"

"What?!"

"Do you want to go in there and wait?" Mois said as she pointed to a small cave hidden in the snow by our far left. It looked warm and cozy.

--------------------

"What do you mean, 'it's not that simple?'"

Mois asked, sitting by the entrance of the little cave, covered under the warmth of her coat. Meanwhile, I sat in the very depth of the cave, being as far from her as possible, counting the rocks stuck in the dirt.

"Did something happen?"

"Well… It's just a little hard to see what's relevant at this point."

"Relevant?"

Sigh. "It's not like someone with your IQ could understand it."

"IQ? You could say, Ironic Question?"

"Forget it."

"No, wait. It's pretty simple though." Mois said as she sat up a little higher. "I mean, I think it is."

"How so?"

"Uhh, well, I guess what Oji-sama said earlier was right. Now that he's been gone, I do worry about him a little. No, that's not…" She scratched her head, trying to think of the right words, "I don't mean I'm worried because he's Oji-sama, you know? Because he always gets himself into trouble? It's more like, he could be and I don't know, and that's why I'm worried. You know what I mean?"

I turned my head even more inward, as I was tired of listening of what sounded like a kindergartener's monologue. "Sure."

"No, no, I don't think I'm explaining it right…" She cupped her chins with her hands and stared down at the ground hard.

"You see, Oji-sama could be in danger, which makes me worried. That makes me want to go look for him, right? And if I want to go look for him, I go look for him, despite what's… 'verelent', right?"

She said as she waved her fingers in the air, as if drawing diagrams.

"I mean, I guess that's why he went to look for Tamama-san, because he just wanted to? So he went even though I didn't want him to?"

I shifted in my spot.

"So I guess in a way, going off ultimately made him happier, and you'd rather be happy than not, right?"

"Is that what you think?" I said sarcastically.

"Umm, yes." The Angol girl's gaze drifted down. "So if those two are happier together than not, making them sad just to make me happy wouldn't be the way to go, would it?"

"You're the one talking."

By now, her expression contained a little bit of sorrow.

"Well yeah. I mean, if you're given the chance to be happier, why wouldn't you take it, right? Despite what's 'leverant', happier is greater than less happy. You could say, for the greater good?"

The way she put it was so… dumb. And so simple; almost too simple to make sense, but somehow it did. Maybe being stupid was her blessing.

"Mois."

"Kururu-san?"

"Thank you… for getting me down that tree last night." I said while making sure that my expression was as stern as it could be.

"You're welcome!" She replied brightly. "Sorry for following you two into the woods though, but I was curious. It worked out in the end, so all in all, Mois is glad to be of help!"

Her cheery chuckle echoed through the shallow cave. That woman sprang towards me as if asking for a hug with the prettiest and most innocent twinkle of light on her face. It burned.

"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME! WOMAN, GET YOUR FACE AWAY FROM MEEEEEEEEEE!"

--------------------

We eventually found everyone tripped over one another and stuck in a gutter. The trip back was nice and peaceful. Taichou was accompanied by his beloved Gumpla models; the fight over him between Tamama and Mois somehow cooled down, and well, us?

"What was that for?" Giroro Senpai asked confusedly after I pressed my lips to his for a gentle kiss after finally arriving back at the Hinata's front door.

"To say that I'd still go after you even if you somehow get yourself to fall out of a helicopter, whirl down the side of the Tokyo Tower, bounce off the back of an inflated purple elephant, and then roll right into a pile of fire crackers."

He seemed a little taken aback by my gesture, but at the same time, his cheeks became a lovely shade of pink.

"Uhh, but what about…"

"How about we just call that an 'agree to disagree'?"

"Hff, alright." His expression turned into something gentler. Kuku, he could never stay mad at me.

"Hey, look." He said as he looked up at the sky.

The heavy clouds that had been pressing over the house when we left had been busy at work while we were away. Now there were small little white flakes of snow falling down on us.

"Looks like there'll be a white Christmas this year."