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SMALL NOTES BEFORE READING!
This is a JiraKage fanfiction nobody asked for, I'm probably the only existing person that used to ship Jirara and Kagege back when Keroro was popular.
Who the heck writes about an inexistent ship from a forgotten show that was popular in 2010-2013? Here I am.
All you need to know is that I filled unknown information about these two with my personal ideas and that I have a weird AU where they are still frogs, but more humanoid. Here's a small ref. Read notes at the end for more useless info, and enjoy!
The Shurara Corps had been defeated, its leader brought back to Keron Star to be reformed, its subordinates arrested and taken away from Pekopon. The notice was everywhere to be read around the Alien City hidden in the depths of the Earth, and Jirara's eyes happened to fall on the poster fixated on a huge bulletin board near the entrance of the City. The photo attached to it depicted the young Shirara, who had a pink Keronian by his side, holding five wooden figurines resembling five of the Corps members: Giruru, Dokuku, Putata, Mekeke and Robobo. Jirara was fast to realize those were the members who where arrested after following the mad leader of the group. Weren't there a total of ten members? Jirara was sure one of his old acquaintances was one of them. One of his comrades, one of his best subordinates and students: Kagege.
He hadn't seen the failed member of the Red Assassins since him and Zeroro were removed from the team. Jirara remembered those days so clearly, the days his hands used to be constantly covered in blood. He remembered how pure Zeroro's soul was, so much to label him as "unfit" to be a member of the Red Assassins. He remembered the endless fights with the shadow-master who was Kagege, probably the only one who could defeat Jirara himself. However, he much had the same problems that afflicted Zeroro: he would never go all the way in, he would never bring himself to actually kill someone for the sake of someone else. Yet Kagege never realized it, and would make up excuses to stay in the team and not loose his position. His expulsion hit him hard, and Jirara as well: he had to loose the only one whose skills matched his own, but what could they be used for, if Kagege wasn't committed to be an actual mercenary? Jirara remembered his anger, how the subordinate had run wild and attacked his leader, only to be defeated. Such a conflicted soul.
The poster on the bulletin board depicted what used to be Shurara's mansion on Pekopon as well; Jirara wondered if the lack of the five other members on the news meant they were still hanging around the planet. He wasn't sure why himself, but he felt he needed to meet one last time his former subordinate, tell him how, now, he no longer wished to be an assassin. How he now understood the way Kagege and Zeroro felt back in the days. Should he apologize for robbing Kagege of his position in the team? Should he be grateful he had driven Kagege away from that absurd lifestyle? Probably the white Keronian never really gave up trying to be an assassin, as he joined the Shurara Corps immediately after leaving the mercenary team. Jirara, driven by an unknown force, had made up his mind; an inexplicable need to meet Kagege moved his feet. He ripped the poster off the bulletin board, and, careful to avoid other aliens' gazes, he left the City in the shadows.
---
Jirara reached the decadent mansion, which had an enormous hole on the roof. Jirara considered leaving; it felt nobody lived there any longer. However, as if his body moved by itself, the dark purple Keronian stepped foot inside the mansion, entering through the front door. Water was dripping from the holes in the roof, overgrown plants engulfed the furniture and slid through the cracks in the walls and the floor planks; the massive stairs leading to an upper floor were completely destroyed. Doors were missing, except for a few. He silently checked around the place, looking inside the empty rooms, constantly followed by the echoing of his footsteps in the silence. The place was desert.
Jirara reached for one of the few intact doors, and cautiously twisted the doorknob. The room behind it was pitch black; no holes for the light to peek through. He could catch a glimpse of a few windows, all shut with wooden bars. On the far end of the room, there was a giant broken machine, which seemed to be some sort of headlight. Every light bulb appeared to be shattered, glass was everywhere on the floor. Jirara stepped inside, intrigued by the unusual room. A few seconds later the door on his back closed shut, making the loudest of noises. He wasn't surprised. Six obnoxious lights were suddenly switched on from the top of the room, making Jirara cast six shadows around his own figure. While he brought his armored arm on his face to cover his eyes, those same six shadows grew larger and twisted around his feet, only to merge a few moments later to form a perfect copy of Jirara himself. The former assassin knew exactly the one behind the assassin magic, "shadow clones" trick.
It stood menacing in front of the real one. A few silent seconds passed by until Jirara's eyes adjusted to the sudden light.
"What... in the world... are you here for..."
"Long time no see, Kagege."
The shadow clone twitched at the greeting.
"I thought... you were dead...
Go away. I don't need your pity." Jirara wasn't sure where that came from.
"Oh, right. I heard the Shurara corps was defeated and disbanded." This seemed to infuriate the one controlling the shadow puppet.
"Why are you here!? To make fun of me? Leave me alone. For what I care, I have no business with you."
"I'm not here to make fun of you. I felt like we could have... a talk."
"A talk? What do you want to talk about, the time you kicked me out of your stupid mercenary group for no reason?" Kagege seemed to be still holding a grudge towards Jirara, the latter naively believing the former had moved on.
"You were kicked out because you were merciful." The clone grew bigger, and started to distort.
"There you are... Still looking down on ME! I'll show you how... merciful I AM!" The clone jumped over Jirara, and a fight quickly started. However, it didn't last long.
Jirara was the one to teach those shadow tricks to Kagege, so he knew exactly what to do. He knew his subordinate was most likely hiding behind one of the six lights on the ceiling, in order to avoid his own shadow to be cast. Avoiding his cloned twin, Jirara jumped towards the lights, rhythmically breaking them with his sharp claws one after the other, until he reached the one Kagege was hiding behind of. They stared in each other's eyes for an instant, a cold glaze that terrorized the white Keronian; Jirara managed to grab him by his neck through the thick scarf wrapping it, and pulled the other on the ground with a fast motion. Seconds later hitting the floor, Kagege shouted at the sharp pain running through his back. Jirara was now pointing at what now was Kagege's shadow, casted on the ground by the last of the six lights that Jirara hadn't shattered.
"NO!" Kagege pulled himself back on his feet, shouting, failing to ignore the pain. It was too late, as Jirara had now possesed the other one's body, however leaving him conscious.
"Go.... Away!!" He struggled to say, as his body contorted in order to fight the intruder. He felt his breath getting slower and heavier.
"I.... breath...! I can't breathe...!!" He managed to bring his hands to his neck, while falling on his knees. He desperately fought for air, until he could fight no more. He put one hand on the ground to help himself from falling, and a few moments later Jirara burst out of his shadow, letting him finally breathe. While Kagege was catching his breath, Jirara quickly jumped in front of him, stabbing his arm with his claws, and making him fall on his back again. Another stroke of pain Kagege couldn't help shouting for. Jirara had secured the now weakened shadow-assassin on the ground, his claws still deep in his blood stained candid flesh. Jirara then proceeded to block Kagege's other arm pinning him to the ground. He was now standing on top of him to stop his useless fight.
Kagege was exhausted, the lack of breath knocked him out; but he still hadn't given up. However, the more Kagege tried to escape from Jirara, the more blood came out of his stabbed arm. Time passed, and he stopped struggling against the grip of metal. His breath stabilized for the most part. Moments later, a weak laugh started forming in Kagege's mouth, growing louder.
"So. I'm still no match. What a failure I am." He said, shifting his head to avoid Jirara's gaze, bringing himself to stare at the ceiling.
Jirara wasn't sure what to respond. He felt the need to meet Kagege, but wasn't sure what for, or what to tell him. They just laid on the ground in silence, only Kagege's loud breathing could be heard as he tried to catch as much air as possible. Jirara noticed another weak and slower attempt from Kagege to free himself, only causing more blood loss.
"It's gonna get worse." Jirara said in a stoic and calm tone of voice. Kagege felt ashamed, humiliated, defeated. He couldn't do anything, but be laughed at for his useless attempts to free himself.
"So? What are you gonna do? Kill me? Go ahead." Kagege turned his gaze to look at Jirara's claws stuck in his flesh. He trembled at every shot of pain.
"I did not come here to kill you... I didn't mean to hurt you. I wish I didn't." Jirara felt empty, lost in his own mind.
"You do realize your hand has fucking transfixed my arm, do you? Of course you didn't want to hurt me" He said chuckling.
"You gave me no choice..." For a moment Jirara didn't know what else to respond. He just lowered his absent gaze, then he started giving voice to whatever passed through his mind. "I... meant to tell you, that the Red Assassins no longer exist... that I'm no longer a mercenary. That I faked my own death to run away from this horrific life." He paused, feeling Kagege's surprised gaze on himself. "I meant to tell you that I'm sorry for what I did, you were the best subordinate I had, and-"
"What the fuck!?" Kagege interrupted him as he tried to shift himself up, as he were about to punch the other in the face, if only at least one of his hands had been free from Jirara's grip.
"You're sorry? You doomed me. It was the only job I had. I had to join this pathetic useless group, leaded by a stupid child that wanted some stupid revenge over his classmate, and we even lost. I'm forced to live hidden from society, else I'm gonna get arrested. Don't give me that bullshit."
"You could have taken another direction, you could have gone to another planet where they wouldn't know who you were."
"I knew nothing but how to kill--"
"Yet you refused to kill anyone. You even refused to kill me moments ago. If you were going to, you would have the instant I stepped foot inside this room."
Kagege froze. He was right. He had always been right. He knew nothing about killing someone, he could never bring himself to do such a thing. Once again, he turned his head to avoid Jirara's eyes, and looked up. He started to feel the same he felt before meeting Jirara back in the days: abandoned. Useless. A burden. Jirara had welcomed him in his group, he had given him a job, he trained him to be one of his best subordinates. He felt the art of assassination was all he needed to feel complete, to feel useful. He had a family.
He tried to answer right away, but he stopped; it was much like he was about to cry. "You... were the only one I had. You were family, and you shoved me away...!" His voice cracked. "You knew I had nothing. I was abandoned, and you took me in just to do the same later on! How should I feel...? Grateful?"
Jirara saddened hearing those words. He knew it all about being abandoned, but that was exactly why he showed no mercy during his assassin days. "You were better than what I was... than what I am. You had mercy. You were a good person. I realize it now only."
Kagege's eye twitched at Jirara's final sentence. "Eh... That's exactly the proof I needed to know you kicked me out because you simply found me to be useless... when I thought we were family." He closed his eye.
Jirara lowered his head. He felt ashamed and regretted his past actions, because when he had kicked Kagege out of the group, he knew he had no one to return to.
For a few seconds, which felt like ages, silence filled the room. Jirara then lifted his head; freeing one of Kagege's arms, he slowly removed the metal mask he had covering his mouth, putting it aside. He wasn't sure what he was doing, or why. He just did it. Jirara removed Kagege's scarf, revealing his neck, and moved down the v-neck shirt the white keronian was wearing only to reveal the grey-ish chest bearing Kagege's shadow insignia. He closed in and gently lip-kissed the bare chest, much to Kagege's surprise. Kagege's free hand moved on his own and had grabbed Jirara by his turtle-neck shirt to move him away; the motion resulted in more blood dripping out of his still constricted arm. He was confused, he didn't understand Jirara at all. His only eye gave away his shock. He panted for how tiresome it was to move that little, as the blood loss had weakened him too much.
Whatever was happening managed to make Kagege feel even more shame; he went to lean back on the ground as he couldn't keep the semi-raised position any longer, but still holding Jirara away from his body. He couldn't stand this any longer, and closing his eye he squeezed out drops of tears.
"Why... Why are you mocking me like this... I don't understand anything anymore." Strength started to leave his body.
"I... I..." Yet again he wasn't sure what to say, how to explain. He didn't know himself what was he doing, how could he explain? What did he feel? Did he just feel sorry for Kagege? Did he feel more than just that? Did he feel affection, or even love?
"I don't know myself... But I'm not mocking you. I... don't know. I don't know what this feeling is." More silence followed, broken by a few of Kagege's soft sobs. "I think I want to repair our relationship..." Kagege didn't respond. He didn't even look at Jirara, as if he didn't believe the purple Keronian's words.
"I know apologizing won't make up for leaving you behind. But I wish we can get over our past selves and start anew." Kagege shoved his free hand on his face, both to wipe his eye and to avoid being looked at.
"Why?"
Why.
"Why me. Why not Zeroro or any other from the Red Assassins."
Why?
Jirara's heart beating grew faster. Did he know the answer?
"Let's find out together."
Kagege shifted his hand, and looked at Jirara in disbelief. He was even more confused.
"Besides, we're both forced to hide away from society. We might as well do that together."
Kagege laughed. He wasn't sure why, but he softly laughed. He started to feel dizzy, and suddenly remembered how his arm was still skewered by Jirara's claws.
"Do you think you will free my arm now?" Jirara was surprised: he had forgotten the position they had been this whole time. He looked at Kagege's livid arm, covered in dripping blood. He proceeded by grabbing Kagege's scarf, and then finally removed his hand from the other's arm. Kagege let out a small groan and grabbed his aching wound, contorting in pain. Then he rose and sat with Jirara still towering over him on his knees. The purple one wrapped the scarf he had retrieved around the wound to stop the bleeding. Jirara put himself back on his feet, and offered an hand to Kagege to help him stand up. The white Keronian accepted the help, but as soon as he got up he distanced himself from Jirara. They stood one in front of the other in silence.
Kagege turned around, as to leave, but Jirara stopped him by grabbing his hand. Kagege turned to look at the other.
"Jir-" stopping his voice, Jirara had pulled Kagege closer, and awkwardly hugged him with strength.
"I won't leave you this time... If you let me be by your side." Kagege flushed, feeling a weird mix of emotions. His chest burned, the wound hurt because of Jirara's arm pressing on it, his head spinned. What was this feeling?
Kagege didn't return the hug, instead he had pushed Jirara away as fast as possible. He stared at him, but averted his gaze immediately after. He could no longer bring himself to look in Jirara's eyes. He held his covered wound tightly.
"I... need to think about it. About all of this."
Jirara was surprisingly calm. He lowered his gaze. They said no more, and moments later Kagege threw a piece of glass that was on the ground at the last light on the ceiling, bringing darkness to the room.
Jirara was now alone in the desert mansion.
"I'm sorry."