...than the sword.

They'd ignored the warning signs, more fool them. The boy was up in the air, right up close, and plucking the Reality Pen from their fingers with a disgusting lack of effort and more warning than Kururu would have liked to admit; when the Sergeant Major chased him down it was with a wild frustration that was offset drastically by the alien's playful evasions and bright laughter... But a bright feeling bubbled in their own chest alongside the annoyance.

It had been fun. And since, in the end, that alien boy had used the pen to save their life, and given them a pretty fun time of it in the process, they didn't reply to the request for friendship but they did let him keep the pen. That was answer enough for them both.

(And when Saburo stood in the path of destruction, for the sake of this planet of his that Kururu had come to conquer, damn it, Kururu got in the way, tossed him the replacement pen -- how could they not? That time it was a more mutual saving. That time, the stolen pen shattered in pieces on the sand, this new one was a gift unfettered. They looked up at the stars in the aftermath, and when Saburo thanked them, they knew the chance had long passed to even want to rebuff it.)