Giroro grunted as he managed to dodge another torrent of shuriken. Lance Corporal Zoruru definitely wasn't someone he could underestimate- even though he was more forgettable than Dororo, both were still well-known assassins whose skills far surpass a normal warrior's. Even though Natsumi had defeated Private First Class Taruru, making the battle seemingly easier, Zoruru's ninja arts immensely overpowered the two.

Fortunately, the human and Keronian pair formed quite the formidable duo, covering for each other when one is caught off-guard.

But defending only does what it does- defending.

Giroro understood that perfectly as he had been keeping track of the battle. Up to this point, neither he nor his partner had managed to even land a single blow on Zoruru, whilst the latter had almost defeated the two on several instances.

Taruru was one story.

Zoruru was basically unbeatable at this point. As much as he hated to admit it, the only way to survive this encounter is for the two to escape. Only Dororo, he felt... no, he knew, could defeat the gray Keronian.

"Natsumi! We're retreating!" Giroro called.

"What!? But we almost have him!" Natsumi replied. "I can keep going!"

The red Keronian scoffed. "Idiotl! We're both already weary, but the opponent hasn't even been damaged once!"

"But that's-"

"You think you can actually escape from me?" Zoruru interrupted. "That's quite amusing. Why don't you two try it for yourselves!?" He flew towards Natsumi once more, this time intending to put an end to her existence, but Giroro intervened again and threw a smoke grenade at his face. "You-"

"Return to our base now!" Giroro shouted the moment the canister exploded with smoke. Natsumi begrudgingly nodded and flew away as fast as she could, Giroro following soon after.

Zoruru didn't remain in the smoke for long, however, as he simply flew upwards to escape the smoke explosion. He spotted the two flying away and growled. "You're not getting away!"

"Lance Corporal Zoruru, that's enough," Garuru's voice intervened. "Following them might lead to an ambush, for all we know. Return to the ship."

"...yes sir."

The sound of static invaded their ears again, signalling someone else joining the conversation. "Sir! The opponent's hacking attempts have ceased!" Tororo informed.

"Hmph. Most likely, Sergeant Major Kururu only aimed to keep our digital battle at a stalemate," Garuru said. "No need to mind him anymore then. Focus on searching for any Pekoponians who may have survived the planet atrophication. We definitely don't need more Pekoponians whose bonds with other aliens could interfere with our invasion."

"Yes sir!"

Tamama peered from around a corner. "I don't see anyone so far, no."

A human chuckled behind him. "Guess we're safe, huh?"

"Sure, I guess." Tamama sighed and looked back. "But you should still be a bit more wary, Mr. Saburo..."

He wasn't quite sure whether the human was listening at all, but he was becoming a more annoyed when he saw Saburo heading towards a storage room. "Oh, cool, wonder what's in this room. Should be interesting."

You lil'... Tamama suppressed his urge to lash out and calmly followed the human. In his mind, he wondered why Kururu was fascinated by this person at all, but then remembered both were weirdos who he didn't quite like. "H-hey, don't just waltz into a random room like that..." Jeez, I miss Sarge...

"Uh oh," Saburo said.

"W-what?" The Keroro Platoon's Private Second Class glanced inside and saw a Keronian sitting alone, eating from a familiar cup of Type G combat rations. Tamama tensed at first, realizing they could either get out of this by fighting or negotiating, but then he slowly recognized the Keronian. "Wait... you're... Warrant Officer Bariri!"

The Keronian slowly got up. "You're... Private Second Class Tamama, from that damned Sergeant Keroro's platoon...!"

Damned? Tamama blinked. No, Bariri's skin is lighter... His eyes widened again. "No, wait, you're Commander Geriri!"

"Damn right!" Geriri yelled and tossed his rations cup against the floor. "You dare show your face in front of me, you bastard!"

"I- I thought you were discharged by Keron HQ!"

"I'm guessing he's not a friend of yours," Saburo nonchalantly noted.

No shit! Tamama thought.

Geriri growled. "Yeah, I got discharged because of your yellow friend's video! You know how humiliated I was!?" He pulled out a sword beam handle, with which the energy blade manifested itself onto. "I had to hide on the ship in this unused storage room to escape all the criticisms, but who would've thought I'd be meeting you directly so soon?"

"Uh oh, I'm guessing we'll have to fight now!" Saburo stated and sketched a sword on a piece of paper. The Koredinite within his Reality Pen radiated with power and turned his sword into a reality. But he stopped when Tamama raised a hand.

"...let me have this one, Mr. Saburo," Tamama said. His fists shook as he recalled their first and only operation with ex-Commander Geriri, who had disregarded their lives for the sake of his stupid invasion plan. He forced Keroro to discharge Dororo and then cruelly told them to their faces that their lives are meant to die on the battlefield for the sake of their superiors. Thinking back to that time, Tamama felt rage coming to him. "I owe this bastard some bad memories."

"...heh, if you say so." Saburo turned and walked out the room. "Good luck, Tamama."

He gave no response and glared Geriri down, who seemed quite amused.

"Hmph. I'll defeat you and take my time torturing you," the ex-commander said with a wicked grin. "Then I'll capture that Pekoponian and regain my trust from the others. And you know what's next? I'll use my regained authority to get rid of your retarded boss' platoon. Every, one, of, them! And then I'll-"

"You talk too much!" Tamama yelled and lunged at his opponent, catching him by surprise.

Geriri yelped and jumped asides, then turned towards Tamama with his sword raised. "How dare you interru-"

"Tamama Impact!" the Nishizawa-affiliated alien roared and quickly took a deep breath, releasing it as a destructive beam. "Go to hell!"

"W-whoa!" The heartless Keronian barely dodged it once more, his feet slightly grazed by the energy. "You brat... I'll teach you some manner!" Before Tamama could regain his balance, Geriri rushed at the younger Keronian and delivered a swift punch to the stomach. "Take that!"

Tamama felt his body being sent back slightly. Before he could even make any remarks, he was then punched across the face. The blow repeated itself as Geriri gave him absolutely no time to reverse the situation, not even letting him talk. In a few seconds, he was delivered a final punch and was sent across the storage room, knocking into some shelves, causing some more cups of Type G combat rations to fall off.

Geriri scoffed. "You weak ass Keronian. That's what you get for going against me." He shrugged and turned around. "Now you'd know how terrifying my strength can be." Heading towards the door, he was just wondering where the human had went, when he felt Tamama's presence shine.

"Strength? My ass," Tamama muttered. "You call that strength? Even without being an expert, I could tell... you're the weak ass bastard here."

"W-what!? Now you're asking for it!" Geriri stomped back towards Tamama and grabbed him by the neck. "You fucking brat. I literally just gave you the beating of your life just now! You couldn't even talk back to me, do you really think it's wise to-"

"Shut up!" Tamama screamed and delivered his own punch. His fists, fueled with rage and annoyance, immediately sent Geriri crashing into the wall. "Beating of my life, my ass... of course I can't talk if you hit me before I can." Tamama pounded his fists together and cracked his knuckles. "Of course anyone would recoil from being punched in the stomach."

"W-what... that strength..."

Tamama scowled. "You see just now? All it took me was one punch to send you flying. That's strength, not you stopping me from talking."

Geriri coughed. "W-when did you... get that strong... you bastard..."

"...you really haven't changed," Tamama muttered. "I train everyday to destroy that woman, so I'd know more than you about strength. You who sit behind our screen everyday commanding people? You wouldn't know shit about power!" He stomped over to Geriri. "You even thought you hurt me, but really, I'm not even that weakened! You're nothing but a bug to me, you prideful bastard!"

His opponent's eyes widened and he began to tremble in fear as Tamama inched closer. "G-get away from me, you brat!"

"Right now I should be searching for my Sarge, but since you're here..." The young Keronian's face twisted into a sadistic grin. "I'm going to take my time and torture you, you flea!"

Geriri paled and quickly got up. He ran out the room screaming for his life, forgetting completely about his discharge.

Tamama maintained his sadist face for a while before sighing. "Ah, there he goes. Guess he won't be a problem anymore." Feeling a bit better, he walked out the room as well and looked around. "Now then... where did Mr. Saburo go? Gonna have to find him, jeez..."

The embodiment of jealousy started humming to himself as he stealthily sneaked through the hallway once more.

"Y-you're Keroro!" the owl-like Keronian exclaimed.

"Yes, it's me!" Keroro exclaimed. "Your good ol' leader Keroro! Toriri, my subordinate!"

Toriri smiled. "You're back! What're you doing here!?" he asked. "Aren't you supposed to be on Pekopon?" Then he looked around. "Actually, before that... I heard there are Pekoponians roaming the Grand Star right now. Have you seen any?" he asked.

"K-kero? Weren't you at the guest room?" Keroro asked, slightly confused.

"Not exactly... Nuii got really anxious about the thought of failing to apprehend the Pekoponians when they arrive, so I was sort of trying to comfort her this entire time." Toriri scratched his head. "So I guess I never got to see the Pekoponians directly."

...I'm safe for now. Keroro rubbed his chin. "W-well, um... that's too bad, I guess. Anyways, Toriri." He looked around before looking back to his past subordinate. "I'm not supposed to be here, so, like... tell me if anyone comes so I can have time to hide, okay?"

The owl-like Keronian tilted his head, confused. "Uh, sure. But why would you need to hide? it's not like they'd shoot or arrest you on the spot, they'd just berate you for returning."

No, they'd definitely shoot and arrest me on the spot! Keroro gulped. "W-well. Um. Just do it, okay!?"

"O-okay, okay, calm down." Toriri then rummaged through his mind for a while, before an idea lit up. "Hey, why don't you come to my room? Saruru and Inunu are hanging out there like usual, and Nuii's sort of stuck dealing with them right now while I'm here. Want to surprise everyone?"

"Uhh, no thanks, kero." Keroro sighed. "I'm not exactly..." Wait a second... I'm sure I can negotiate with these guys, they used to work under me! Keroro suddenly smiled- these were his old friends, surely they wouldn't be opposed to his decision to protect Earth! Even more so, he was sure they'd help him, as they weren't crazy war-addicts like Giroro or the other soldiers were. He grinned and patted Toriri's back. "Never mind, take me to our room!"

Toriri smiled. "Alright then! Let's go!"

The two looked around and saw that no soldiers were around. They exchanged nods and sneakily rushed through the hallway.