A/N: Last chapter yaaaay

The house was quiet the rest of that evening. Everyone ate wordlessly, suspense filling the air.

Finally, Jun broke the silence. "Mom, Dad? Um… why did you throw sis out?"

Pururu inhaled. "That… wasn't your sister…." The last few words weren't even audible as she spoke them. One glance between Garuru and her and he shook his head.

"Wasn't my what?" asked Jun.

Garuru slapped his dishes down on the table, standing up. "I'm going for a walk."

Pururu gasped, covering her mouth. She was starting to cry again.

"What's going on?" asked Jun.

They were too devastated to give him an answer.

It was past curfew but Garuru didn't care. It wasn't like he was actually going for a walk. He just slumped against the side of his house and cried.

A couple nights later, after everything had sunken in and the shock had settled for both of them, he met Pururu at the top of the roof. She was staring out into space, her cheeks cracked with dried tears.

Garuru sat down beside her and drew her body close to his. They both inhaled.

"I thought for sure she'd win," Pururu murmured. "Our little girl…. She was always so tough. I—I didn't even think to worry."

"I'm just as astonished as you are," Garuru told her softly. He inhaled sharply and gripped the sides of his head. "God—we should have never gone through with it. We should have never had children!"

"Garuru!" Pururu yelled. "Don't say that."

"She's dead, Pururu!" Garuru gripped her, the sobs overtaking him once more as he tucked his head over her shoulder. "Pulala's dead. Urere killed her. She's never coming back."

Pururu clutched his arms, knowing that now was not the time to say anything.

They'd seen death before. They'd both been the cause of it before. But never before had someone close to them died, someone who they knew all their life, who they loved dearly….

Their own daughter.

God.

"It wasn't our fault," Pururu whispered to him. "It was the Contract. The Nishizawa Contract took her away."

"Yes," Garuru nodded. Pulala was dead. They couldn't mourn her. They couldn't even hold a public funeral for her. Everyone else thought she was alive. It was all because of the Nishizawa Contract.

Of course, it wasn't.

The same thought floated through both their heads: that this was the price of humanity. This was karma. Thousands, perhaps millions of times before, they had taken the lives of teens, all in the exact same way their own daughter was taken from them.

The fault was all theirs—a cruel irony they didn't want to admit. They should never have chosen to play human. Because it wasn't easy, being human.

And it wasn't even just them.

"Cut the bullshit."

Garuru and Pururu flinched at their son's language during breakfast.

"Jun," Garuru said sternly.

"Where's my sister."

Garuru and Pururu exchanged a worried look.

"Where is she!" Jun demanded.

Garuru slowly opened his mouth. For his son's own safety, he'd have to—

"Screw it, I'm gonna tell him." Pururu stood up.

"Puru—!" Garuru covered his mouth. "Kimi."

"So that's what your real name is." Jun stood up as well. "I know you're keeping secrets from me, Mom and Dad." It had already been bad enough finding out so many years ago that their names weren't actually Mom and Dad.

"Honey, we just want to protect you from the peacekeepers—"

"I can take care of myself," he snapped.

Pururu sighed. She looked at Garuru. "We need to tell him."

"No, yeah, you're totally right," he immediately agreed. "We are not repeating Pul…. We are not repeating what happened."

They sat him down on a cushion and sat across from him.

"Jun." Pururu took a deep breath and tilted her chin up, trying her hardest not to cry. "Your sister…. She's dead."

Jun's eyes widened. "But I saw her—"

"That was her demon," said Garuru. He clenched his fists. "Um… you see… on your sixteenth birthday when your demon 'leaves' you… you demon doesn't actually… leave you."

"What… does happen?" he asked cautiously.

"You fight." Garuru narrowed his eyes. "If you win, your demon leaves. If your demon lives… well… they get to keep your body." He sighed, raising a shaky hand to his head. "Your sister… she didn't win."

A horrified wail escaped Jun's throat. "So she's really dead!"

Garuru and Pururu nodded sadly.

Jun started sobbing. "Why—Why didn't you tell her about the fight?!"

"Contract rules," said Pururu. "We were so sure—so certain that she would just win…. So many other kids do."

"It was her stupid demon," Garuru growled. "I should have recognized that name sooner. Urere. His demon ability is 100% success in everything he does. Goddammit!" He brought his fist down on the ground. Jun flinched at his outburst. He'd never seen his father this angry. He started crying again.

"Come here." Pururu opened her arms and caught Jun in them. She stroked his hair. "We won't repeat this mistake again."

"I don't care!" he bawled. "My sister's dead!"

She inhaled, shuddering. "I know. And… there's nothing we can do about that anymore. We can only change the future. We'll make sure you get a weak demon. One that you can easily beat. Your father… he knows almost every demon there is. Once you find out which demon you're getting, we'll train you. And then beat your demon and live on to have a happy, fulfilling life."

After several hours of Jun crying and Pururu rocking him like he was a little kid again, he sniffled and asked his parents, "So… a lot of the adults walking around…. They're demons?"

"Correct," said Garuru.

"Then you're…?"

"We're both demons," he confessed.

"Ah." Jun took this in. "I already kind of knew."

"What?" Pururu and Garuru looked at each other. "How?"

"Well… uh… you never sleep. Aaand one time I saw Dad summon a sniper from out of nowhere. I just didn't know which demon Dad was until I went to the temple to look at demons," he told them. "When Dad told me about Garuru, I knew that one had to be him."

"Oh—" said Garuru.

"Plus you kind of yelled it a couple days ago when Pulala—well… when her demon—came home." He looked up at his mom. "And I assume your name is Pururu?"

"Yes," she answered. "In the demon realm, I'm known as a healing demon."

He turned around to face them. "Demons are, like, immortal or something, right? So… what will you do when I die?"

"You won't die," Pururu assured him.

"When I die of old age," he clarified. "What will you do? Where will you go?"

"Eventually the energy in this human body will run out," said Pururu. "And we'll go back to the demon realm."

"Like… you'll wake up?"

She shrugged. "I suppose so. Then I'll resume my work for the medic…. Your father will return to his work for the Demon King—"

"I hope this body lasts a good long while," Garuru grimaced.

"You work for the Demon King?" said Jun. "The most powerful demon alive?"

"The worst demon alive." He coughed. "It's not a job I take pride in, Jun."

"So—So you guys must be, like, super famous in the demon realm!" For some reason this delighted Jun. He almost formed half of a smile. Then he stopped, remembering that his sister was dead.

With a quieter tone, Jun asked, "Will you remember Pulala and me? Even thousands of years from now?"

"Of course we will, honey," Pururu assured him.

"Do you promise… to never have kids in any other of your lives in the human world?"

Pururu and Garuru both started chattering at once. "Oh, yeah, definitely no more after this."

"Very good one-time experience."

"Two kids is enough!"

"No more heartbreaking moments."

"I just can't go through with this again."

They squeezed each other's hands. Then they brought Jun in for a tight, loving hug. "We won't let you die like Pulala did, Jun. We won't repeat the same mistake."

When it was time to take Jun to his Possession, although Garuru and Pururu had done extensive research on his demon and told Jun exactly how to beat it, they were still afraid for him.

But two years later, when Jun walked into the house as a sixteen-year-old, Jun gave his parents a hug and looked straight into their eyes. "I won. I really did. That demon didn't stand a chance against me. No need to throw out all my music and posters. You can't earn your place in the world unless you fight for it." He smirked. "If you still don't believe I'm me, then Dad"—He pointed his finger at Garuru—"your secret rubber duck stash is in the bottom bathroom cupboard and your replacement utensils are in the drawer where the paper plates are supposed to be because you can't use chopsticks but you don't want Mom to know."

She laughed. "I already do."

"And Mom I know that you have a crippling fear of growing old. But you really should work on that sometime. You've grown old a thousand times before. Aren't you used to it—"

"Yup, he's our son," she said with a laugh.

They hugged him and cried in happiness.

Many years later, as Garuru and Pururu sat together at their grandchild's wedding ceremony, they found each other's hands through the folds of their robes and clasped them, sharing the same thought.

This was what it meant to be human.

Not the death of their daughter. Not the devastation of loss.

Being human was being able to experience progress and change, all in such short a time. Being human was to love, hate, cry, and laugh together. Being human was to make mistakes and find ways to mend and prevent them.

Being human was to love and forgive.

"Pururu," Garuru asked her after the ceremony when they were alone together, "will you marry me?"

"Garuru," she laughed. "We're already married!"

"Back home, I mean," he clarified. "In the demon realm. We'll… be returning there soon."

She gave him a sweet smile and stroked his cheek. "Garuru, I've loved you for over ten thousand years." She kissed him on the lips. "Why would I say no?"

In time, they both passed away. They met each other back in the demon realm, where an extravagant demonic wedding ceremony was held for them.

Years later, when they came back to the human plane with new hosts, they weren't sure where their descendants had drifted off to, but that was all right…

…as long as they were somewhere in the world, just being human—

—a glorious and fortunate thing to be.

END

UPDATE:

Giroro continued to keep many cats in his house and preach about how communication was vital to relationships

Tamama kept tracking down Keroro in their subsequent lives on the human plane together and scoring heavily

Keroro remained unaware all these humans he was scam-dating were demons… and all the same one

Zeroro discovered natto and became one happy camper

Kululu remained being a soggy bagel because he was too stuck-up to ever learn to move on like Garuru and Pururu did

Taruru never won a single staring contest with a bar of soap. But he did win one with a pogo stick

Tororo's book fell out of popularity and he later became a renowned video game hacker on TouTube

Zoruru eventually got his revenge for the popsicle. He tripped Zeroro in the mall once. Ha

A/N: Originally I was going to have it that Garuru and Pururu just... never told Jun what happened to his sister until like the day before his Possession. Like it was some big family secret. Then I scrapped that because Communication Is Important.

Idk why I decided to write this. Okay I lied I do. It was an excuse to write more Kururuko. And I didn't even do much of that godammit.

Anyway I hope y'all enjoyed. Please share your comments! I love readin' 'em.