Consequences Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

"P-pink lizard demon-baby!" he shrieked, grabbing onto the nearest thing for protection; a golf club. He then began to swing it at her, eventually knocking down a tailpipe from a high shelf. It landed right on his head, sending him falling to the ground.

"O-oh no! I-I killed him!" Kirere yelped as she ran out to inspect him; he was only knocked out cold, thankfully, she realized after leaning over his face. She was caught off guard, however, when he suddenly gripped her on the sides and lifted her up.

"You... You are real...." He said in awe as she squirmed in his arms. "And you're squishy..."

"UGH! Let me.... GO! Kururu-san! Giroro-san! Help! Anybody! Help! Help!"

"Woah... Woah, calm down..." he flinched as he sat up, and continued to keep a tight grip on her. "....What are you, a kappa? You’re not a mermaid...."

"NEH!" she broke away from him, and took off running.

"Hey, slow down, pink lizard-baby!" he shouted, jumping up and running after her. Kirere didn't pay much attention to what was ahead of her, only getting away from the man. She didn't see the sharp metal shard sticking out from a scrap heap, and didn't realize its existence until she had already run her leg against it, giving herself a good-sized cut.

"Owww!" she fell to the ground, gripping onto her left leg. She then crouched down in fear as the mechanic bent down over her.



"...There, that ought to do it. You're lucky you didn't slice off something, the way you were running!" he finished bandaging her leg and Kirere looked down at his handiwork, silent. The mechanic adjusted the icepack top his own head, and gave a smile. "I didn't think yokai would be so careless!"

"...I'm not a yokai," Kirere sniffed, and sat back on the bed. She'd been brought to a small room in the same building as the garage, which wasn't much more than a stove, a shelf, a television, an old wooden chair, and a rickety bed.

"Right. The electricity and all, it repels yokai," he gave a nod, and immediately regretted it, as the pain from the tailpipe incident came traveling back in a sharp, stinging reminder. "So what are you, anyway?"

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

"You're not supposed to trespass, either," he answered. "What were you doing here?"

"Building," she replied after a silence, fidgeting as the wound continued to sting a bit.

"Hehe, a little guy like you? Well, I guess I'm not going nuts, thinking it was just oversized rats moving everything,"he stood as the kettle began to sound, and poured some hot water into a cup of Ramen. "Did you want some?"

"I'm a girl!" Kirere snapped. "And no, I don't!"

"Woah, okay, sorry.... I just didn't want to think because you were pink you were a girl, it causes problems," he laughed. "So what's your name, anyway?... Ah, I gotcha. I'm a stranger. Well, I'm Haruki Suzuyama. See? It's on my jumpsuit. Now we know one another."

Kirere snorted at this, holding back a chuckle.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, it sounds like Haruhi Suzumiya. I get that a lot. So what's your name, smartie?"

"Kirere," she answered through her laughing.

"Kirere? Not much better," he took a seat, sitting backwards in his chair and looking over. "Hrm? What's eating you now?" he asked as he noticed her expression had switched to thoughtful after she'd gotten a good laugh from his unfortunate name.

"Pekoponians like you aren't supposed to be able to see me! I have my anti-barrier on!" Kirere explained, pointing to her forehead and the symbol on it.

"Peko-whatnows? And an anti-what? You mean, no one else can see you with that thing on?"

"Well.... Saburo-san can... And Koyuki-san... And Fuyuki-san and Natsumi-san, and--"

"Woah, they don't sound too effective, then!" Haruki gave a small laugh. "Kinda a shoddy technology you got there.”

“It is not!” Kirere snapped. “It’s a lot cooler than anything Pekopon has!”

“There you go again with that Pekopon...” Haruki sighed. “Maybe... Maybe there’s some reason I can see you after all, and it’s the same as why those other people can see you, too.”

“...Well, they weren’t really too, too surprised by Keronians, either,” Kirere said with a bit of thought.

“Eh, I guess a normal person would be, though... I mean, the closest thing to what you look like is an Olympic Mascot. It might be because I was raised thinking yokai and all that stuff was real,” Haruki shrugged. “My grandma raised to believe in monsters and spirits. You could imagine how I faired when moved out of the little village we lived in and into Tokyo... Everyone thought I was crazy. Heck, they still do! Looks like I was the sane one, though.”

“Mm,” Kirere nodded.

“I wish my grandma could see you now, actually, hehe! She’d probably think you were pretty cute!” he laughed. “And pink was her favorite color, too.... So, there any others of you?”

“Oh, NO!” Kirere hopped down and hobbled to the door. “Kuru-san!”

“Woah, hang on...” Haruhi stood and followed her over. “Your buddy’s missing?”

“No, my mom--Dad--Um, I’ve gotta go!” she shouted, breaking into a run as he opened the door. Haruki was quick to follow the young girl to the car she had been working on, taking care as it was now dark in the junkyard.

“Kuru-san!? Kuru-san!?” Kirere shouted, looking all around for the yellow Keronian. Then came a noise from an overturned refrigerator; three consecutive, angry-sounding pounds.

“He under here?”

“Yeah,” Kirere nodded, and watched as Haruki gripped onto the refrigerator’s top and lifted it up, throwing it back.

“Ku... Ku ku!”

“Kuru-san?!” Kirere shouted, running to Kururu, who was sprawled out on the dirt.

“Looks like he had his one hand stuck under it,” Haruki muttered as he overlooked the new alien. He smelt like soup base, Haruki realized as an afterthought to lifting up Kururu. He even looked the same color as a bullion cube.

“Oh, no! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Kirere cried, her hands at her mouth.

“I’ll get him fixed up, too,” Haruki sighed, and looked over to her. “Are all of you guys this klutzy? It’d explain why there aren’t a lot of you.”



“...That hurts,” Kururu said blandly as Haruki continued stitching.

“Relax, Four-eyes, and be glad it’s not worse,” Haruki answered as he sat on the side of the tub while Kururu sat in the tub, on top of a milk crate. “It could be broken, you’re lucky it’s just a gash.”

“Watch it,” Kururu snapped after flinching.

“Are you always this annoying?!”

“Yes, I take pride in it,” Kururu answered.

“There, done... You’re a pain in the ass as a patient, I’ll tell you that.”

“You’re an ugly nurse, kukuku!” Kururu examined his hand and snorted. “This is shoddy.”

“Well I couldn’t exactly take you to the emergency room... Although the vet might’ve worked,” Haruki said with a bit of thought.

“Kururu-san?” Kirere asked weakly from her hiding place behind the bathroom door.

“Mr. Personality’s all right... Physically at least,” Haruki stood and looked down at Kirere, then to Kururu. “So do you guys need a ride home?”



Aki was a bit surprised when right behind her pulled up a beat-up white delivery scooter, and off hopped a man in a mechanic’s suit, carrying both Kirere and Kururu in his arms.

“Woah. Hottie,” Haruki blinked as he laid eyes on Aki. Kirere could’ve sworn she heard something
similar to a low grunt emit from Kururu. “Um, Ma’am, I know it’s late, but... Do these belong to you?”

“Kuru-chan! Kirere-chan!” Aki gasped as she saw both were injured. “What happened!?”

“A couple of unfortunate accidents, I--“

“This is Haruki Suzuyama, he took care of me and Kuru-san!” Kirere chirped up.

Aki took both of the aliens from his arms and gave a smile, “Did he now? That was awfully nice of him.”

“All in the line of duty,” Haruki answered with a bashful chuckle. “Your little monsters are cute! And don’t worry, I won’t say anything. No one would believe me if I told them anyway, heh.”

“I’m glad, I’d have to hurt you, otherwise,” Aki answered with a wink that shook Haruki a bit. Those eyes... She was serious.

"We're not monsters, we're aliens!" Kirere said happily. Aki only gave a sigh and shook her head in a matronly manner. "See you around, Haruki!"she made sure to wave goodbye to the mechanic as Aki carried both into the house.

"Thank you," Aki gave a smile and turned away from him, into the house.

"Yeah, see you too, little weird aliens!" Haruki remained there waving a few moments, then his smile faded. "A-ALIENS?!"

"You're not going to do a mind-wipe, Kuru-chan?" Aki asked the yellow scientist.

"Kuku! My equipment was damaged from having a pile of junk land on top of me," was Kururu's answer as they walked into the home. "Kuku! We'll have to hope he's right about everyone thinking he's a fool until I can do the job."

"I could handle him if he did go to say anything," she added cheerfully.

"I know you could,"was Kururu's reply.

"Kirere!" Giroro hopped off of the couch and ran over to her. "What happened?!" Natsumi, who had been sitting beside the nervous Keron soldier, stood and walked over to her mother, Kururu, and Kirere.

"I slipped and cut myself, but. Suzuyama-san helped me!" she hopped down to the floor, and Giroro immediately began inspecting the wound.

"Kuku, I'm hurt, too," Kururu said in the background of all of this. He went unnoticed by Giroro.

"Wait. Suzuyama?" Giroro stood up, and looked down at her.

Kirere lit up, "Oh! He's the owner of--" She the trailed off as she opened her eyes and saw Giroro's face. It was his "you're in trouble now" face.



"Did I hear that right? She's not here because she's.... Grounded?" Keroro repeated, and Giroro gave a nod.

"She compromised our position," Giroro answered as they all sat there the following morning. "Our presence is now known to another Pekoponian! A mechanic named Haruki Suzuyama."

"....N-named WHAT?!" Keroro laughed. "Geroooo gero gero!"

"What's so funny?"

"N-nothing. It's an otaku thing, it's lost on your kind," Keroro wiped his eyes and adjusted his papers. "So many odd names as of late! Pekopon's such an amusing place."

"Another Pekoponian?" Dororo looked to Giroro. "Shouldn't we be concerned by this?"

"Kukuku! I wouldn't worry. He's open in his belief of monsters and spirits.... Kukuku, in short, his talking makes even me look sane!"

"We'll keep him under surveillance," Giroro added. "In the meantime, Kirere is barred from visiting the junkyard where he works.... What? What's the look for?"

"....You're being pretty harsh on her, Goucho-san," Tamama admitted, taking another dip into his bag of chips. The looks were similar all throughout the room.

"Could you say, authoritative parenting?" Mois added.

"None of you understand anything," Giroro snarled, and stood from his seat. "I'll be doing something actually useful to our operation if you need me!"

"....'Kay then. Moving on," Keroro was a bit shaken, but shuffled his papers around again.

Giroro, meanwhile, walked up to the kitchen, and retrieved a bag of spicy chips and a can of soda, and then made his was down to the lab, and to Kirere's room. What she had done was indeed grave, but she was still injured, and she had indeed apologized.

She hadn't expected the invisibility shield to not work... That was something you couldn't control. The man was probably a bit "off", like the other Pekoponians they had befriended over the years, and the shield didn't work on him.

Giroro heaved a sigh, and opened the door, not looking forward to this but still knowing it was necessary, "Kirere, I--"

She was nowhere in the room, though. She wasn't even in her closet, or underneath her bed. She was nowhere in the lab.



"Hey, kiddo, how're you doing down there?" Haruki knocked on the side of the car body, and Kirere climbed out from beneath it and gave a thumbs up. "....Must be nice to be able to be able to squeeze into the small places like that. You sure your dad's okay with you doing this?"

"Can I have the wrench?"

"Huh? Oh, sure," he kicked it gently over to her, and she took it and went back to work. “You're a lot better than my last assistant. Real weirdo, just kept laughing, and smiling. It was creepy.... Well, I think I'm done up here."

"Same!" Kirere squirmed out and then stood back, waiting for him to start up the car. Haruki slammed the hood shut and then went to starting up the car.

"Ha ha! Hey, perfect!" he exclaimed as it did indeed start up. "Everything sounds great!"

"I finally made something and Natsumi-san didn't have to destroy it, and it didn't blow up, either!" Kirere cheered happily.

"I didn't really understand that, but okay," Haruki scratched the back of his head and walked over to one of the shelves, pulling down a coffee can and pulling out some bills. "Here ya go."

"What's this for?" she took the bills and looked back up at Haruki.

"Ah, right! You aliens probably use like, Imperial Credits, right? Well, that's money, it's--"

"I know what it is, but why are you giving it to me?"

"Well, you helped me. I can't guarantee the paydays'll always be good, but I like to think I'm a fair guy," Haruki shrugged. "You ought to be getting home, now, don't you think? It's almost lunchtime."

"Oh, yeah!" Kirere nodded.

"I'll give you a ride home, just let me get my helmet."

"Thanks!" Kirere called out, running out of the garage.

Giroro, meanwhile, remained floating there, on his hovercraft, watching this exchange. He said nothing, and floated off.