The big Chiyoko Hatanaka yap session!!! Aka, "Garupartners AU", where I gave the Garuru Platoon (and some other canon frogs) their own humans and they're the opposite of their Keroplatoon human counterparts.
Up first, Natsumi's Opposite, Chiyoko!
Yapping under the cut:
Hatanaka Chiyoko is a 12-year-old girl living in Inner Tokyo City with her father Keiji, who works as an animator, and older brother Hikari, a skeptic and a big fan of slice-of-life dramas, with her mother being absent and leaving for years at a time to do who knows what (mirroring Hinata Natsumi's family). Hikari soon after also left home with little to no explanation, to attend college out of Tokyo. Where Natsumi is more of a parentified eldest daughter, Chiyoko is in the opposite situation: after being diagnosed when she was younger with a muscle condition which is causing her to get weaker with time, her father became extremely overprotective of her, never leaving her alone and never letting her do anything by herself, barely even letting her leave the house, in fear that her condition might worsen.
Chiyoko is significantly more meek and childish compared to Natsumi, and they're opposite even based on their skills, with Natsumi being a sports prodigy and Chiyoko fainting after even the smallest physical effort. What Chiyoko lacks in physical skills she makes up for emotionally. She's an optimist, always in a good mood and with a constant positive outlook on life. She's full of energy, always striving to be kind and do the right thing, and believes in people' (and aliens') innate goodness. She never gives up when she puts her mind to something, and just sees every day as a new opportunity to have a great time.
Chiyoko takes Garuru's arrival as a godsent. She used to struggle with believing her (possibly short) life wasn't being lived to its fullest under the lock and key of her worried dad, but that significantly changed when an emergency escape pod crash landed into her backyard in the middle of the night. Despite a first meeting less than ideal, with a wounded Garuru immediately going for the offensive, Chiyoko managed to win him over after beating him in a fight, and she offered him to stay at her place, eager to have some excitement in her otherwise dull life. After that, Chiyoko started attending Kissho Academy, after being homeschooled most of her life, in an attempt to track down Garuru's Platoon-mates to gain his trust and get him to open up to her. She was placed in class 1-B, where she soon befriended her classmate Eitaro Okamoto, who turned out to be the human partner of Taruru. After that, the two befriended Ryōta Shibata, Nene Enokizono and Yuzusa Azumaya (human partners of Pururu, Tororo and Zoruru, respectively), and they became a pretty tight friendgroup.
My version of the Character Interests' Chart from the Keroro magazine:
Chiyoko values Garuru's opinion of her more than anything, and dreads the thought of being useless to him or slowing him down, viewing him as some sort of older brother figure, and often pushing onto him her insecurities about her actual older brother leaving her behind out of the blue. She has a pretty low self esteem behind her happy mask, believing herself to be lesser than everyone else, a nuisance or a liability, and often tells herself that everyone else would be better off without her. Garuru, on his behalf, sees a bit of Giroro as a tadpole in her, and set out to take her under his wing, teaching her useful life skills like how to defend herself or how to use a sniper (or, well, skills that he thinks are useful anyway). He also does what he can to involve her in missions to make her more independent, all the while doing his best to keep her safe. Despite the two's close relationship, they both know everything they have right now will be broken as soon as orders from HQ will be given. They try not to think about it and enjoy the time they have.
Chiyoko also has a close relationship with Dororo, both sharing the same life-loving mentality and the same adoration for nature and the smaller things. Chiyoko is the only student of his dojo (doesn't even pay the fee <3), which she usually visits to get help on how to get better at fighting to be able to protect her friends if the situation were to call for it.
My version of the Relationship chart from the manga:
And the Garuru Platoon version:
ANYWAYYYY YAPPING DONE!!! I put way too much effort into this.
