Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon ~solar eclipse~ ep16
She should start calling herself Kainatroll at this rate.
Information: Fanseries wiki and fanseries ad comm
Episodes: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Bonus 16 17 18 19 20 Bonus 21 22 23 24 Ending & Epilogue
She can't prove it, of course, but she's right.
The main tent of the Chronos Travelling Show was being eaten away by nothingness. The woman standing in front of him -- was that even really her, the same person who had performed with him and her sister and the others for years? -- gave an unearthly smirk behind the white eye mask that had materialized on her face.
"So?" She laughed a little. "What'll it be, Kairos?"
The magician took off his top hat and frowned at her, trying to shake off the shivers as the world eroded around him.
"The Garden of Rings isn't worth living in anymore."
I never meant a word of it.
Five identical white-haired girls stepped out of the shadows behind her. Kairos stepped back, staring at them.
"Who..."
"Oh, them?" The red-haired woman's smirk widened. "They're the recruiters of this operation. Etherium, it's called."
"We are Tachimany," one of the girls said.
"Now, you there," said another.
"Do you really--"
"--want to--"
"--enlist with us?"
I was a coward and I didn't want to die. That's all I ever came here for.
Kairos felt the world undo itself around him. He stared straight at the empty space in front of Kainatrol, as if something or someone had been there.
He nodded.
Tachimany shifted into the form of two businessmen. Kairos' eyes shot open, and he tensed up. The two men who had been five teenage girls nodded at each other.
"If that's the case--"
"--then unlock the power--"
"--of your being--"
"--before this world ends."
Unlock the power of his being? He'd heard stories about that, but it wasn't real -- the world was being eaten away, she was gone and her sister responsible, standing in front of him and calling herself by another name, what else was there to do? He shut his eyes and a blue light surrounded him.
"Now say the incantation--"
"--like she just did."
And that's why I need the Moon Pieces.
He held out his hand and opened his eyes. A white eye mask materialized in his hand, just like the ones they were wearing. His suit and top hat shimmered and turned white.
"The power of this life shines brightly as the world from which it came fades away. I am..."
"Go on, just think of a name and a title," Kainatrol said. "If you're serious."
He put on his mask with a glare as it shone in the light. "I am the Master Magician of the Etherium... Mekuramast. I will leave nothing behind."
Four other figures teleported in. A man with a yellow-trimmed coat and a bottle of some sort of potion waved. "Hello, hello! Welcome to the show. I am Suiyacross, the Curing Poison."
A woman with a skimpy dancing outfit twirled the end of her hair. "Save the introductions. It'll be good to have you two with us. I didn't know you had the kind of pull to bring someone else in..." She looked at the redhead. "Kainatrol."
A young teenage boy in white and dark blue looked off to the side. "...Hn."
For one hundred twenty-five years, before the encounter with Cure Dawn and Cure Dusk, that was how it was.
Kore... I need the Moon Pieces because of you.
Present day. Things had changed ever since then. The team had been Kainatrol, Tachimany, Suiyacross, Hitosalesque and Devance. Lord Eiender -- the Boss, before he stopped saying his own name -- was in his own category. Then there was him, Mekuramast. A number of years later, Binbeat had joined, but things generally stayed the same. Not after Pretty Cure. Now the Curing Poison and the Lost Dancer were gone, defeated, and no one had seen the Flawless Marksman in twenty-five years, though Mekuramast had a good idea of where he had gone. Mireyes was new, too. The Moon Dial was gone, so they hadn't destroyed her world, but she was there.
Mekuramast liked getting out of the Etherium to wander about on Earth, or the Land of Legends, or whatever else it was called. It felt different, almost nostalgic, to actually experience time passing around him. In the Etherium, time only worked to the extent that they weren't standing around frozen. Nobody aged in there. The passage of time was harder to gauge. There was no world around them, just a large expanse of nothing where worlds used to be. Here? Here was a world, a place, a real thing. And so he'd be real, too, for as long as he was there.
Oh, right. Finding Pretty Cure.
He honestly would have just blown the whole thing off. Spiting Kainatrol (since when did she give the orders around here?) was something he did every time he could get away with it. He looked down from the rafters of the bus depot as the Lily Class boarded the bus for their school trip.
But no. They had the Moon Pieces. He removed his top hat and drew out his wand.
"Gessou Village? I'll have to make myself appear there."
-
Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon ~solar eclipse~
Episode 16: Class Trip! A Night in the Mountains!
-
"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer..."
Kondou Hoshi facepalmed. "Asa, we haven't even left the town limits yet. Could you stop?"
"Geez, Hoshi," Kawada Asa complained, though she stopped singing and slouched back in her bus seat. "Even when I do normal-people things, you say it's weird."
"I think it's fun." Okamoto Yukari twirled the end of her braid. It had been a while now, but it was still hard to get used to her wearing it down instead of around her head. Ever since she'd taken her hair down to make a point to Hoshi -- which had just looked ridiculous, but she thought the idea was charming enough -- she'd kept it in a normal braid instead of a wrap-around. "Take one down, pass it around, ninety-nine--"
"How about not, Okamoto?" Hoshi groaned. "If we do that, we'll get thrown off the bus. Look at Ogata, she's not making any noise."
Ogata Mia turned pink and sweatdropped, quickly and poorly hiding the "Hottest Celeb Guys of the Year" spread open in the teen magazine she was reading.
Nakayama Yoko shook her head. The Lily Class kept changing, didn't it? It felt strange, though, even thinking that she was nearly used to the current situation. She, Asa, Hoshi, Yukari and Mia were quite possibly the strangest group of friends in town. For one, most of them used to be afraid of her. They all had different interests. Pick any combination of the five of them, and they'd fought over how important it was to be yourself versus how important it was to be normal. Yoko still wasn't sure sometimes what the answer was.
Oh, and she and Asa were Pretty Cure, defenders of the town and the multiverse. They shared custody of a small orange creature named Starry, who had taught them about Pretty Cure and that they had to find the thirteen Moon Pieces, which the Elder of the Garden of Days had scattered across Kazahana City to buy time. Finally, as they'd found out when Hoshi threw herself in front of an attack and granted them more power to destroy two Hidoinaa two weeks ago, Hoshi, Yukari and Mia had known about all this for months. Difficult to swallow, certainly, but it was all there.
"What do you think we'll do in Gessou Village, anyway?", Asa asked.
Yoko looked over at her. "...you slept through Ami-sensei's overview, didn't you, Asa?"
Asa gulped. "Maybe?"
Yukari pushed up her glasses. "Gessou Village is a historic reconstruction from ancient times. There are lots of things to see there that have been preserved from the past! It's really interesting. Plus we'll get to go hiking and do things like that."
"What about shopping?", Mia asked.
"Of course!" Yukari grinned. "It's my favourite thing!"
Hoshi groaned and looked out the window. "Hey, Ami-sensei's keeping up. What's with the van, anyway?"
Asa, Yoko, and Yukari all pressed their faces up against the window. Ami-sensei was driving in the next lane over in a dented, mud-splattered van, covered in enough dust to obscure its intended colour entirely and making clunking and rattling noises as it went along. Mia looked away and busied herself with her magazine.
"That's what I want to know!" Yoko gaped at the van. "What on earth is that supposed to be?"
Mia turned pink. "My mom's van... It needs a little work, but Ami-sensei doesn't have a car of her own, and she needed it to take the supplies that wouldn't fit on the bus."
"Needs work?" Yoko continued to stare out the window. "That needs a lot of work. It looks like it's going to spontaneously combust."
Mia's head sunk behind her magazine. "Nakayama-san, even if that's true, you don't have to say so!"
Yukari patted Mia's head. "Don't worry. That's just our Ice Queen Nakayama."
"I told you not to call me that," Yoko grumbled.
"Cheer up, Yoko. We're nearly there! Just ninety-eight more beer bottles to go!"
"Yeah!" Asa gave the thumbs up. "You take one down, pass it around..."
Hoshi glared in their general direction the rest of the ride up.
-
The white carved walls in the core of the Etherium were fading away more obviously now, and no one knew where the room began and ended. Mireyes, Binbeat, and Tachimany (two businessmen today) gathered in their battle outfits, and Kainatrol, in hers, stood in front of them.
"The Boss' plan is near fruition," Kainatrol began, hitting her riding crop against her gloved hand. "The only problem is that we only have one Moon Piece: the one I retrieved from the shrine. The three of you and Mekuramast have all found some, but had them conveniently snatched away by Pretty Cure."
Binbeat glared. "Sorry, lady."
"Binbeat," Mireyes admonished, not as strongly as she usually would.
"Hmph."
Kainatrol's grip on her riding crop increased. "Be that as it may, you'll get your chances now to relieve yourself of some of your bad luck. Mekuramast is off chasing after Pretty Cure. It seems they'll be out of the area for the next few days. Go into Kazahana City while they're away and track down any Moon Pieces you can get. I don't need the Moon Dial full, but get it as close to that as you can. This is all for the sake of the Boss' plan."
The others looked at each other, nodded, and teleported out with magic circles in green, purple, and gold. Kainatrol smirked and looked around the completely still room.
-
"Asa, come on! We're going to be late!"
"I'm coming!", Asa called from inside the room. "I just have to finish unpacking!"
"Geez, do that later." Hoshi sighed and walked the three other girls back into the bedroom they'd been assigned in Aki Guest Lodge. The walls were yellowing, the three bunk beds were old and their mattresses basically foam pads covered in rubber, there was one small desk, and everything had been drawn on by previous users. All the other rooms in the living quarters the class had been assigned looked much the same. Asa was unloading things onto her cold bed.
"Come on, Asa..." Yoko blinked. "Wait, why did you bring that?" She pointed into Asa's bag. A mechanical device was stuffed inside it, taking up more space than it should have and leaving little room for clothes.
Asa pulled it out and set it up on the desk, placing Moon Piece number IV in the metal claw at the top. "You never know! We might need it!"
"What is that thing?", Yukari asked.
"Ami-sensei's communicator to Mars," Yoko sighed.
"It actually contacts the Garden of Days," Asa said. Yoko instinctively looked around for anyone who might have overheard. Seeing nothing, she gave a sigh of relief.
"Come on!" Hoshi groaned. "You're holding us up."
"We'll get in trouble if we're late," Mia said.
"Sorry," Asa said. They filed out the door, closing it behind them, and followed the rest of the Lily Class out of the building and towards the meeting spot.
The class met up in a large, well-marked clearing just outside of the village. Ami-sensei cleared her throat, standing at the front with a podium in front of her and Ogata Kirei's broken-down van behind her.
"All right, everybody! To start off with, we're going to be touring the preserved historic sites of Gessou Village!" She twirled around and gestured toward the village with a flourish. "Follow me, and we'll stop at various buildings that have been kept in their original state, as well as important places to the history of the area! After all, we're close enough to home that everything here has affected the development of Kazahana City. Learning this will improve all your lives greatly!"
"And you'll finally get that promotion, right?", someone called out from the crowd.
"Yes!", Ami-sensei replied without a hint of irony.
"And the world will become a beautiful place?", Yukari added.
"That's exactly what I was going to say!", Ami-sensei said.
"And everyone will know the true meaning of justice!" Asa gave a heroic pose probably ripped off of DaiFighter.
"Justice and love and friendship!" Ami-sensei did the exact same pose.
Everyone else either stared, laughed, smiled, or, if the person's name was Kondou Hoshi, facepalmed.
-
They'd been searching the town for months now, so finding Moon Pieces had become easier than it sounded. Of course, once Tachimany had gone off to investigate the old fairgrounds, Mireyes pulled out her crystal ball.
"Why can't we just go to the school and find the one we already tried looking for?", Binbeat asked. "Besides, why don't you wanna tell people your power could help us find the Moon Pieces?"
"Future Sight isn't infallible, Binbeat," Mireyes said. "As for the Moon Piece at Clair Academy, I'm saving that one in reserve. Kainatrol's recent behaviour makes me uneasy."
"What, having a stick up her butt? She's always like that."
"Acting as if she is in control of everything." Mireyes sighed. "I will be investigating the southwest area of Kazahana City. Binbeat, go to Sapphire Park. Try not to cause too much trouble."
"Geez, fine." Binbeat crossed his fingers behind his back. "Causing trouble's our job. Can we just go now?"
Mireyes facepalmed. "I suppose so." She teleported out in a flash of light with a purple magic circle underneath her feet.
Binbeat grinned, teleported to the park, and drew out a Hidoinaa crystal. "Now, this is gonna be fun!"
-
Something felt off about this assignment. It might have been because the Boss had suddenly become more reclusive and Kainatrol was giving the orders. Mekuramast automatically hated anything that came out of her mouth. On the other hand, being given free reign to go after Pretty Cure? Maybe she just wanted him out of the way. Hm.
Oh, there they were. In civilian clothes and without his eye mask, he wandered up to the back of the street, a little bit away from where the Lily Class was gathered. Right at the edge of the village was a small, calm lake covered in mist from the waterfall leading into it from the mountains. Mekuramast's eyes went from the class gathered on the rocky beach to the lake itself, and then to the thick, towering tree that the teacher stood in front of.
"Now, class!" He swore he'd seen that woman before. At the magic show, or around town somewhere? "This is Gessou Lake, the centrepiece of Gessou Village. Nekoi-sensei should be giving the lecture here, since I teach science, not history, but, as your long-suffering homeroom teacher, I will plow through this interdepartmental obstacle with nothing but pure burning spirit!"
Mia's eyes lit up. "It's really pretty, isn't it?"
"It is," Ami-sensei said, "but it's a tragic place, too. Gessou Village used to have three great families who ran the affairs of the general area. They were the Haru family, the Fuyuki family, and the Aki family, the last of whom gave their name to the lodge we're staying in tonight."
Yoko raised her hand. "But didn't the Haru family found Kazahana City? Why would they make their own town if they were already powerful in a nearby village?"
"That's what I'm getting to," Ami-sensei continued. "The children of the Haru and Fuyuki families fell in love, but the Aki family didn't want the other members of the triumvirate to unite against them, so they pressured the children's parents to break them up. The two of them met at this lake and tried to run away together, but they were caught and got into a fight. The history books don't all agree on what happened to them, but most say that both of them died that day."
The man standing two meters behind them clenched his fists at his sides.
"That's a pretty depressing story, isn't it?" Omemi Emiru pushed up her glasses, the glint of the sun obscuring her eyes.
"But they could have survived!" Asa put her hands on her hips. "Not all the books say they died, right?"
"True," Ami-sensei sighed, "but what we do know is that the Haru family and the Fuyuki family both left town outright after that. The Haru family went and founded Kazahana City, and the Fuyuki family founded Fubuki Town. It's a terribly sad story... If only these people had believed in the power of love and justice!"
Yoko was looking at the ground. Yukari frowned and raised her hand. "Ami-sensei, is my watch wrong or have you gone over time?"
Ami-sensei blinked and looked at her own watch. "Ah! You're right! It's past twelve, isn't it? You can all go for lunch and look around the village shops. Stick together and don't get lost!"
The class cheered and broke up into small groups. Asa immediately grabbed Yoko's wrist. "Hey, Yoko, let's--"
Yoko didn't look at her. "That story... Something like that could happen to anyone, couldn't it?"
Hoshi put her hands on her hips. "Sure, it could, but get your mind off that, Nakayama. You're scaring people."
"Let's go look at the stores, okay?" Yukari looked at Yoko and smiled. "That'll cheer you up!"
"She's not you, Okamoto," Hoshi sighed.
"It still works," Yukari said. "It works for anyone."
Yoko sweatdropped and brought her head back up, her face bright pink. "You're right. Let's all go."
Asa frowned at Yoko. Hmm... "I'm going to go see something, okay? You guys go on ahead!" She smiled and waved, running off.
"Where's she going?" Mia blinked.
"Who knows?" Hoshi shook her head. "She'll be back."
"That's a level of trust I haven't seen from you, Hoshi," Yukari teased.
"Yeah, yeah." Hoshi waved her hand dismissively. "Let's just go. But if you force us into too many girly purse stores, I'm out of here."
They left Asa to do her thing, whatever that was, and walked along, talking about lunch options.
-
Spindly, leafless trees twisted into green-eyed monsters and tore up the landscape. Binbeat stood on top of one of the Hidoinaa, tossing Moon Piece serial number VI from hand to hand.
"Blah, blah, blah," he said, half to the Hidoinaa, partially to himself, and partially to the clueless and panicked parkgoers. "What does she mean, don't cause too much trouble? That's way boring. This is fun!"
A radio reporter hid at the side with a microphone, running out of the way of the branches. "Now for the small town news. In an unbelievable twist, it appears that the reports of monstrous beings in Kazahana City are indeed true, which casts doubt on the falsehood of similar reports from twenty-six years ago. However, that leaves one question: where are the mysterious girls who have until now been spotted fighting them?"
"Binbeat?"
Binbeat dug a golden communication ring out of his pocket and lifted it up to speak into it. "Yeah, what's going on?"
"I've found a Moon Piece at the bus station," Mireyes said. "Our months of searching the town have paid off. Tachimany are nearly done at the old fairgrounds. If you've found anything, return to the Etherium's core."
"Aww, man." He stuck his tongue out at the ring, not that it transmitted anything but audio. "Comin'." He teleported out, leaving the monsters to rampage in the park. At least he'd gotten some fun out of it.
-
Having decided that lunch came first and shopping immediately after, the group of Yoko, Mia, Hoshi, and Yukari all bought takeout lunch boxes from a nearby restaurant and found a weathered picnic table by the back steps of the Aki Guest Lodge. Yoko took a seat on one side and looked up at the sky. Even though it was only just past noon, it looked like two stars were falling out of the sky. She blinked and shook her head, and they were gone.
"I'm letting this get to my head."
Mia took the seat next to her, and Hoshi and Yukari the opposite side. They opened their lunch boxes up and looked at one another's.
"Egg omelette again?" Hoshi stared at Yoko's box. "Is that the only thing you ever eat?"
Yoko started to glare, but stopped herself and just sighed. "I like egg omelette."
Mia carefully poked a child-sized lunchbox set between her and Yoko. "Um, who's the fifth box for? It's a little small."
"Oh, right." Yoko opened up the transformation phone attached to her bag. "It's lunchtime, Starry."
A ball of light jumped out of the phone and popped into the form of the plush-like orange creature. "Thanks a lot ~susu! I was really hungry ~susu!" Starry hopped onto the table, opened the box, and began eating the riceballs and natto inside.
Yukari smiled as if she were already used to seeing him up and walking around rather than pretending to be a plushie. "I wonder when Asa's getting back?"
Yoko's face turned pink and she concentrated on her egg omelette. The other three girls looked at each other, and Starry just kept eating. The table was silent for the next minute until--
"WORK, YOU PIECE OF JUNK!"
Yoko's head shot up. "Was that Ami-sensei?"
Hoshi got up from her food. "Sounded like it. Wanna go check it out?"
Yukari and Mia nodded. The girls picked up their lunch boxes (and Yoko took Starry's, which was already mostly empty, as he went back into the phone) and walked down to the clearing where the bus had parked.
Ami-sensei stood halfway in and halfway out of Mia's mother's van, turning the key again and again. No response came, and she pulled herself out of the van and kicked the side.
"Stupid-this-is-important-why-won't-you-work-when-I-need-you-you-horrible-excuse-for-a-VAN!"
"Uh... Ami-sensei?"
She turned around and sweatdropped at her four students standing in a line. "Oh... I'm sorry." She sighed. "It's terrible, really! I just heard on the radio, there's an emergency back in Kazahana City!"
"A what?" Yoko's hand instinctively went to her phone. Oh. Right. Asa was still out. Yoko stopped where she was.
"I couldn't hear much, and Gessou Village is remote enough and high enough up on the mountain that we don't have cell reception up here yet," Ami-sensei said. "At least not for my phone. I know there's better technology these days, but a teacher's salary is somewhat limited..." A hand went to a purple portable tape player clipped to the side of her skirt. Did people seriously still carry those? "I need to get back into town, but the van won't work. I can try to fix it, since there are tools in the bus, but I don't know much about cars. But don't worry! I know enough about physics to figure it out! It'll just..." She frowned. "It might take too long, that's all."
The other girls looked at Yoko. She took a deep breath and stepped forward.
"...I can fix it."
Ami-sensei blinked. "You can, Nakayama-san?"
"Sure." She nodded. "Provided it isn't really terrible, I think I can help you get it fixed. But, um... could you lend me something to put over my clothes? My parents will kill me if I get oil and grease on my uniform."
The teacher's eyes lit up and she twirled around before clasping Yoko's hands. "Absolutely! I've got just the thing. Please do your best, Nakayama-san!"
Yoko sweatdropped and slowly nodded. "...All right." She turned to her friends. "This could take a while. You can go back to the table. Could you watch over our -- my lunchboxes for me?"
-
Asa hadn't had a lot of spending money, but with what she had plus a little bit of her lunch money, she'd gone into a tourist shop and picked up a present. It was a tiny snowglobe with a girl inside looking mournfully up to the sky and reaching her hand out. Asa laughed a little, walking out of the store and looking at it.
It even sort of looked like Yoko, when Asa thought about it. Maybe giving her this would mean she wouldn't be so depressed.
Asa put the snowglobe in the orange bag she carried with her, old and ripped in places with "Asa" stitched onto the front. Now to find the others! Her eyes lit up at a shiny sign in a store through an alleyway.
She bolted over that way. The next thing she knew, she'd hit the dusty ground.
Coughing and pulling herself to her knees, she turned her head around to see that she'd been tripped by a whip of scarves. A blue-haired man walked into the alley, summoning a white eye mask and transforming his clothes into a white suit and top hat.
"This has gone on far enough," he said, walking up to her. "Where are the Moon Pieces?"
Asa pulled herself to her feet, cringing at the gravel embedded in her hands and knees.
"I don't have them," she said, not even having to lie. "See?" She took out her transformation phone and slashed the Storage Card, yielding nothing.
Mekuramast frowned. "Then they're with the other girl." He pointed his wand at her. "Tell me where she is. I need them."
"Wait!" Asa moved to the side. "Why'd you help us?"
"Help?" He shook his head. "I never did anything like that."
"You did so." She pointed into his face. "Back when Yoko and I were stuck in Omemi-san's fake world. You threw one of your cards so I'd figure out it was an illusion, and you put one of your scarves on the window so I'd find Yoko. You're secretly just like GoldFighter, aren't you?"
"I do n--" He blinked. "Who?"
"GoldFighter!" Asa put her hands on her hips. "His real name's Korekiri Yuu. He says he's DaiFighter's eternal rival, but he's actually a pretty good guy. He's just trying to save someone."
Sigh. "Why do I even ask with you?" Mekuramast returned to the serious frown he had before. "I didn't do what I did to help you. I just didn't want Kainatrol to get her way. That is it."
Asa stood her ground. "Then why do you hate each other?"
Mekuramast's eye mask glinted in the sun, blocking his eyes.
"It's none of your business."
-
"Three new Moon Pieces," Tachimany said, in the form of four doctors again, as they turned Moon Piece serial number IX over in their hands.
"We better have gotten that many," Binbeat said, tossing number VI around. "We've been searching for months, and Pretty Cure aren't even here."
Mireyes drew number VIII out from her robes. "With this plus the one that Kainatrol retrieved from the shrine a number of months ago, we should have four. The Moon Dial still won't even be close to a functional level."
"Don't you think I know that?"
A wall phased out of existence to allow a smug-looking Kainatrol to pass through, carrying the Moon Dial. Only one Moon Piece, numbered with XII and sitting at the top of the circle, was inside. She placed it on a carved white stand (had that been there before?) and stepped back.
"This is the next phase of the Boss' plan," she said, unable to keep her own amusement out of her voice. "Of our plan. But, of course, with only four Moon Pieces, we can't go anywhere."
"So, what are we gonna do?" Binbeat made a face.
"Just set the ones you have into the Moon Dial and leave everything else to me." Kainatrol snapped her fingers. "Now, we can go pay those girls a visit."
-
With Ami-sensei's help (and instructing her whenever she didn't know the name for something or what it did), it hadn't taken long for Yoko to fix the van. Ami-sensei had thanked her and driven off, leading Yoko to wonder what kind of emergency was happening in the town anyway. Either way, it was time to go back to her friends and her lunch box. She walked up the hill, looking over through the trees into the village--
A scream.
Yoko quickly darted to the side and ran towards the sound. The village. An alleyway. She ran that way, panting and gasping for breath, and stopped at the entrance to cling to the side of a building and try to ignore the gelatinous feeling in her legs.
Someone grabbed her from behind. She twisted and saw an expressionless face and blank eyes. Looking forward, she saw a woman in a white suit, gloves, and eye mask, with a dark red vest.
"K-Kainatrol," Yoko managed, struggling to escape and breathe at the same time.
"It's amazing the kinds of traps you'll fall for." Kainatrol tugged at one of her gloves with disinterest. "Not that it matters. Hand over the Moon Pieces."
Yoko glared. "I can't."
"In that case." Kainatrol walked over to the struggling girl, removed the transformation phone from her bag, and flipped it open.
"Take that ~susu!" Starry popped out of the phone and smacked her in the face.
"Ngh!" Kainatrol dropped Yoko's phone and seethed at the little creature. Having broken off eye contact, the bystander holding Yoko fuzzily returned to normal, and she quickly shoved him off before he realized what was going on.
"Good work, Starry." Yoko picked up the phone and ran past Kainatrol, followed by the mascot. "Now where's Asa?"
"Right here."
Yoko stopped and looked up. Tachimany, in their form of six lumberjacks, filed into the alleyway from all sides. Two of them held Asa, squirming around to get out, followed by a frowning Mekuramast.
"I had this under control," Mekuramast said, glaring at Kainatrol. "Why didn't you tell me the rest of the plan?"
"Do you think I suddenly trust you?" She smacked her riding crop into her palm. "Either way, you at least gain some credibility for catching one of them. I got the other, so all we need to do..."
Yoko opened her phone up again, but one Tachimany grabbed her while another took the phone and slashed the Storage Card. Three Moon Pieces emerged in midair, and a third Tachimany grabbed them.
"No!" Asa called out. She wrestled her way out of the grip of the two bodies holding her and ran to Yoko's side, grabbing the purple transformation phone out of the hand of the body holding it. Tachimany (that body) brandished a golden axe, but Asa ducked out of the way of its swing and shot her hand up to knock him back before swirling on the one holding Yoko. With this distraction, Yoko twisted out of Tachimany's arms and took her phone and cards from Asa. Standing in the middle of the circle, they nodded and slashed their Moon Cards.
"Dual Infinite Phase!"
The light washed over them, and they appeared in their Cure outfits, posing in the middle of the circle.
"On behalf of the light, I am Cure Sunday!"
"In the name of the shadows, I am Cure Night!"
"We are Pretty Cure!"
"We'll defend at all hours..."
"...to ensure a peaceful era!"
Kainatrol crossed her arms. "It doesn't matter. We got what we came for. Let's go back."
"Oh, no, you don't!" Sunday pointed at her. "You aren't escaping that easily!"
"Hmm, hmm. Aren't we?" She smirked. "Tachimany?"
"Exactly as planned," said one body.
"We'll start it now," said another.
Still standing in a circle around the Cures, they shifted into the form of eight hooded figures. A giant gold magic circle lit up underneath their feet.
"What the--" Sunday looked around.
"What are they doing?", Night asked.
A flash of light, and everybody was gone.
White. Carved walls shifting into nothingness and back again. In the middle, everyone from the Etherium standing and surrounding the Cures.
"We're back here again!?" Night looked around the room.
"In the Etherium?" Sunday got into a battle-ready position.
"No duh." Binbeat appeared, floating in the air. "We only got four Moon Pieces. Plus yours, we only got seven. We need thirteen."
Mireyes cleared her throat on the other side of them. "The Moon Pieces that are here will be amplified by the Etherium, which by its nature lacks much of a concept of time." She looked up at Kainatrol. "That was your theory, wasn't it?"
"Quite." Kainatrol adjusted her eye mask. "Tachimany, bring the Moon Pieces."
One of Tachimany's bodies went over and placed pieces I, II, and V into the Moon Dial. It gave off a black glow for a split second.
"Now what?", one of their bodies said.
"What's your plan--"
"--and why did you--"
"--ask us to bring--"
"--Pretty Cure here--"
"--after we took--"
"--their three Moon Pieces--"
"--away from them?"
Sunday and Night exchanged glances. They didn't know about the fourth one? The one that was sitting back at the guest lodge in the Communicator to Mars?
"All right, I've had enough of this!" Night looked at their gathered enemies around the room. "Stop playing with us!"
"Yeah!" Sunday posed. "There's nothing you'll stop at unless we stop you ourselves!"
Night raised an eyebrow. "Where have I heard that before?"
"You might be right," Kainatrol said, positioning herself behind the Moon Dial. "But, you won't ever know... Moon Dial!"
Her eyes, then her whole body, took on a deep red glow that spread to the Moon Dial itself. The room around them swirled and faded in and out of existence more quickly than before.
"Erase these two," she said. "Completely!"
"What--" Night started.
"No way!" Sunday gasped.
The light enveloped them, deep and red. There was no time to get out of the way or even to think, to move, to do anything but the first reflex.
Night grabbed Sunday's hand.
The light flashed and faded. Where Pretty Cure had stood, there was nothing but a snow globe with a sad girl inside, which dropped to the floor and cracked.
-
Back in Gessou Village, Starry scrambled out of the alleyway and through the roads, eyes fixed on the Aki Guest Lodge.
"Where did Sunday and Night go ~susu?" He ran as fast as his tiny legs could, not even caring about being seen. "I need to get someone to help ~susu!"
-
It felt... blank. Empty. Of course it would. Nothing was there, right?
No. They were there. Two people, holding hands, resonating with the power of time. People who should not have been there.
Things that should not have been there called out to each other. Maybe. Or it might have just been a coincidence that, while drifting through the nothingness, they happened to touch an apparition of a clock. It expanded in front of them and spun backwards, and backwards, and...
Sunday and Night opened their eyes. The world unfolding in front of them wasn't the Etherium at all. It was an actual place, although a strange one. People moved around in horse-drawn carts or walked through stone-covered streets, all gathering around a circus tent that was... white? No, the colour was fading in. Blue and red.
"We're not dead..."
The girls looked at each other, slowly and reluctantly letting go of one another's hands. Sunday spoke again.
"...but where are we?"
-
Yoko: It's time for...
Everyone: Asa and Yoko's Comment Corner! (All mascots add their respective sentence enders.)
Hoshi: WHAT just happened? What is wrong with you people? You could have at least called us, or not fallen for stupid traps, or--
Mia: Kondou-san, you're being a bit too harsh.
Hoshi: Yeah, yeah. So the author's been looking into that other series that used the same fake design sheet we did, and...
Asa: I want my own action figure!
Yoko: What?
Asa: Some Bouken fan made Mahiru and Kaguya action figures by customizing existing ones. I want my own action figure.
Ami-sensei: Speaking of Bouken, our author's found a group dedicated to reposting Bouken promo images and Blue Moon chapters under both titles, and wanted to remind everyone that these are separate independent projects.
Starry: I think everybody already knows that ~susu...
Yukari: See you all next time!
-
Next Episode: The World of the Past! The Pain of Two Sisters!
Information: Fanseries wiki and fanseries ad comm
Episodes: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Bonus 16 17 18 19 20 Bonus 21 22 23 24 Ending & Epilogue
She can't prove it, of course, but she's right.
The main tent of the Chronos Travelling Show was being eaten away by nothingness. The woman standing in front of him -- was that even really her, the same person who had performed with him and her sister and the others for years? -- gave an unearthly smirk behind the white eye mask that had materialized on her face.
"So?" She laughed a little. "What'll it be, Kairos?"
The magician took off his top hat and frowned at her, trying to shake off the shivers as the world eroded around him.
"The Garden of Rings isn't worth living in anymore."
I never meant a word of it.
Five identical white-haired girls stepped out of the shadows behind her. Kairos stepped back, staring at them.
"Who..."
"Oh, them?" The red-haired woman's smirk widened. "They're the recruiters of this operation. Etherium, it's called."
"We are Tachimany," one of the girls said.
"Now, you there," said another.
"Do you really--"
"--want to--"
"--enlist with us?"
I was a coward and I didn't want to die. That's all I ever came here for.
Kairos felt the world undo itself around him. He stared straight at the empty space in front of Kainatrol, as if something or someone had been there.
He nodded.
Tachimany shifted into the form of two businessmen. Kairos' eyes shot open, and he tensed up. The two men who had been five teenage girls nodded at each other.
"If that's the case--"
"--then unlock the power--"
"--of your being--"
"--before this world ends."
Unlock the power of his being? He'd heard stories about that, but it wasn't real -- the world was being eaten away, she was gone and her sister responsible, standing in front of him and calling herself by another name, what else was there to do? He shut his eyes and a blue light surrounded him.
"Now say the incantation--"
"--like she just did."
And that's why I need the Moon Pieces.
He held out his hand and opened his eyes. A white eye mask materialized in his hand, just like the ones they were wearing. His suit and top hat shimmered and turned white.
"The power of this life shines brightly as the world from which it came fades away. I am..."
"Go on, just think of a name and a title," Kainatrol said. "If you're serious."
He put on his mask with a glare as it shone in the light. "I am the Master Magician of the Etherium... Mekuramast. I will leave nothing behind."
Four other figures teleported in. A man with a yellow-trimmed coat and a bottle of some sort of potion waved. "Hello, hello! Welcome to the show. I am Suiyacross, the Curing Poison."
A woman with a skimpy dancing outfit twirled the end of her hair. "Save the introductions. It'll be good to have you two with us. I didn't know you had the kind of pull to bring someone else in..." She looked at the redhead. "Kainatrol."
A young teenage boy in white and dark blue looked off to the side. "...Hn."
For one hundred twenty-five years, before the encounter with Cure Dawn and Cure Dusk, that was how it was.
Kore... I need the Moon Pieces because of you.
Present day. Things had changed ever since then. The team had been Kainatrol, Tachimany, Suiyacross, Hitosalesque and Devance. Lord Eiender -- the Boss, before he stopped saying his own name -- was in his own category. Then there was him, Mekuramast. A number of years later, Binbeat had joined, but things generally stayed the same. Not after Pretty Cure. Now the Curing Poison and the Lost Dancer were gone, defeated, and no one had seen the Flawless Marksman in twenty-five years, though Mekuramast had a good idea of where he had gone. Mireyes was new, too. The Moon Dial was gone, so they hadn't destroyed her world, but she was there.
Mekuramast liked getting out of the Etherium to wander about on Earth, or the Land of Legends, or whatever else it was called. It felt different, almost nostalgic, to actually experience time passing around him. In the Etherium, time only worked to the extent that they weren't standing around frozen. Nobody aged in there. The passage of time was harder to gauge. There was no world around them, just a large expanse of nothing where worlds used to be. Here? Here was a world, a place, a real thing. And so he'd be real, too, for as long as he was there.
Oh, right. Finding Pretty Cure.
He honestly would have just blown the whole thing off. Spiting Kainatrol (since when did she give the orders around here?) was something he did every time he could get away with it. He looked down from the rafters of the bus depot as the Lily Class boarded the bus for their school trip.
But no. They had the Moon Pieces. He removed his top hat and drew out his wand.
"Gessou Village? I'll have to make myself appear there."
-
Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon ~solar eclipse~
Episode 16: Class Trip! A Night in the Mountains!
-
"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer..."
Kondou Hoshi facepalmed. "Asa, we haven't even left the town limits yet. Could you stop?"
"Geez, Hoshi," Kawada Asa complained, though she stopped singing and slouched back in her bus seat. "Even when I do normal-people things, you say it's weird."
"I think it's fun." Okamoto Yukari twirled the end of her braid. It had been a while now, but it was still hard to get used to her wearing it down instead of around her head. Ever since she'd taken her hair down to make a point to Hoshi -- which had just looked ridiculous, but she thought the idea was charming enough -- she'd kept it in a normal braid instead of a wrap-around. "Take one down, pass it around, ninety-nine--"
"How about not, Okamoto?" Hoshi groaned. "If we do that, we'll get thrown off the bus. Look at Ogata, she's not making any noise."
Ogata Mia turned pink and sweatdropped, quickly and poorly hiding the "Hottest Celeb Guys of the Year" spread open in the teen magazine she was reading.
Nakayama Yoko shook her head. The Lily Class kept changing, didn't it? It felt strange, though, even thinking that she was nearly used to the current situation. She, Asa, Hoshi, Yukari and Mia were quite possibly the strangest group of friends in town. For one, most of them used to be afraid of her. They all had different interests. Pick any combination of the five of them, and they'd fought over how important it was to be yourself versus how important it was to be normal. Yoko still wasn't sure sometimes what the answer was.
Oh, and she and Asa were Pretty Cure, defenders of the town and the multiverse. They shared custody of a small orange creature named Starry, who had taught them about Pretty Cure and that they had to find the thirteen Moon Pieces, which the Elder of the Garden of Days had scattered across Kazahana City to buy time. Finally, as they'd found out when Hoshi threw herself in front of an attack and granted them more power to destroy two Hidoinaa two weeks ago, Hoshi, Yukari and Mia had known about all this for months. Difficult to swallow, certainly, but it was all there.
"What do you think we'll do in Gessou Village, anyway?", Asa asked.
Yoko looked over at her. "...you slept through Ami-sensei's overview, didn't you, Asa?"
Asa gulped. "Maybe?"
Yukari pushed up her glasses. "Gessou Village is a historic reconstruction from ancient times. There are lots of things to see there that have been preserved from the past! It's really interesting. Plus we'll get to go hiking and do things like that."
"What about shopping?", Mia asked.
"Of course!" Yukari grinned. "It's my favourite thing!"
Hoshi groaned and looked out the window. "Hey, Ami-sensei's keeping up. What's with the van, anyway?"
Asa, Yoko, and Yukari all pressed their faces up against the window. Ami-sensei was driving in the next lane over in a dented, mud-splattered van, covered in enough dust to obscure its intended colour entirely and making clunking and rattling noises as it went along. Mia looked away and busied herself with her magazine.
"That's what I want to know!" Yoko gaped at the van. "What on earth is that supposed to be?"
Mia turned pink. "My mom's van... It needs a little work, but Ami-sensei doesn't have a car of her own, and she needed it to take the supplies that wouldn't fit on the bus."
"Needs work?" Yoko continued to stare out the window. "That needs a lot of work. It looks like it's going to spontaneously combust."
Mia's head sunk behind her magazine. "Nakayama-san, even if that's true, you don't have to say so!"
Yukari patted Mia's head. "Don't worry. That's just our Ice Queen Nakayama."
"I told you not to call me that," Yoko grumbled.
"Cheer up, Yoko. We're nearly there! Just ninety-eight more beer bottles to go!"
"Yeah!" Asa gave the thumbs up. "You take one down, pass it around..."
Hoshi glared in their general direction the rest of the ride up.
-
The white carved walls in the core of the Etherium were fading away more obviously now, and no one knew where the room began and ended. Mireyes, Binbeat, and Tachimany (two businessmen today) gathered in their battle outfits, and Kainatrol, in hers, stood in front of them.
"The Boss' plan is near fruition," Kainatrol began, hitting her riding crop against her gloved hand. "The only problem is that we only have one Moon Piece: the one I retrieved from the shrine. The three of you and Mekuramast have all found some, but had them conveniently snatched away by Pretty Cure."
Binbeat glared. "Sorry, lady."
"Binbeat," Mireyes admonished, not as strongly as she usually would.
"Hmph."
Kainatrol's grip on her riding crop increased. "Be that as it may, you'll get your chances now to relieve yourself of some of your bad luck. Mekuramast is off chasing after Pretty Cure. It seems they'll be out of the area for the next few days. Go into Kazahana City while they're away and track down any Moon Pieces you can get. I don't need the Moon Dial full, but get it as close to that as you can. This is all for the sake of the Boss' plan."
The others looked at each other, nodded, and teleported out with magic circles in green, purple, and gold. Kainatrol smirked and looked around the completely still room.
-
"Asa, come on! We're going to be late!"
"I'm coming!", Asa called from inside the room. "I just have to finish unpacking!"
"Geez, do that later." Hoshi sighed and walked the three other girls back into the bedroom they'd been assigned in Aki Guest Lodge. The walls were yellowing, the three bunk beds were old and their mattresses basically foam pads covered in rubber, there was one small desk, and everything had been drawn on by previous users. All the other rooms in the living quarters the class had been assigned looked much the same. Asa was unloading things onto her cold bed.
"Come on, Asa..." Yoko blinked. "Wait, why did you bring that?" She pointed into Asa's bag. A mechanical device was stuffed inside it, taking up more space than it should have and leaving little room for clothes.
Asa pulled it out and set it up on the desk, placing Moon Piece number IV in the metal claw at the top. "You never know! We might need it!"
"What is that thing?", Yukari asked.
"Ami-sensei's communicator to Mars," Yoko sighed.
"It actually contacts the Garden of Days," Asa said. Yoko instinctively looked around for anyone who might have overheard. Seeing nothing, she gave a sigh of relief.
"Come on!" Hoshi groaned. "You're holding us up."
"We'll get in trouble if we're late," Mia said.
"Sorry," Asa said. They filed out the door, closing it behind them, and followed the rest of the Lily Class out of the building and towards the meeting spot.
The class met up in a large, well-marked clearing just outside of the village. Ami-sensei cleared her throat, standing at the front with a podium in front of her and Ogata Kirei's broken-down van behind her.
"All right, everybody! To start off with, we're going to be touring the preserved historic sites of Gessou Village!" She twirled around and gestured toward the village with a flourish. "Follow me, and we'll stop at various buildings that have been kept in their original state, as well as important places to the history of the area! After all, we're close enough to home that everything here has affected the development of Kazahana City. Learning this will improve all your lives greatly!"
"And you'll finally get that promotion, right?", someone called out from the crowd.
"Yes!", Ami-sensei replied without a hint of irony.
"And the world will become a beautiful place?", Yukari added.
"That's exactly what I was going to say!", Ami-sensei said.
"And everyone will know the true meaning of justice!" Asa gave a heroic pose probably ripped off of DaiFighter.
"Justice and love and friendship!" Ami-sensei did the exact same pose.
Everyone else either stared, laughed, smiled, or, if the person's name was Kondou Hoshi, facepalmed.
-
They'd been searching the town for months now, so finding Moon Pieces had become easier than it sounded. Of course, once Tachimany had gone off to investigate the old fairgrounds, Mireyes pulled out her crystal ball.
"Why can't we just go to the school and find the one we already tried looking for?", Binbeat asked. "Besides, why don't you wanna tell people your power could help us find the Moon Pieces?"
"Future Sight isn't infallible, Binbeat," Mireyes said. "As for the Moon Piece at Clair Academy, I'm saving that one in reserve. Kainatrol's recent behaviour makes me uneasy."
"What, having a stick up her butt? She's always like that."
"Acting as if she is in control of everything." Mireyes sighed. "I will be investigating the southwest area of Kazahana City. Binbeat, go to Sapphire Park. Try not to cause too much trouble."
"Geez, fine." Binbeat crossed his fingers behind his back. "Causing trouble's our job. Can we just go now?"
Mireyes facepalmed. "I suppose so." She teleported out in a flash of light with a purple magic circle underneath her feet.
Binbeat grinned, teleported to the park, and drew out a Hidoinaa crystal. "Now, this is gonna be fun!"
-
Something felt off about this assignment. It might have been because the Boss had suddenly become more reclusive and Kainatrol was giving the orders. Mekuramast automatically hated anything that came out of her mouth. On the other hand, being given free reign to go after Pretty Cure? Maybe she just wanted him out of the way. Hm.
Oh, there they were. In civilian clothes and without his eye mask, he wandered up to the back of the street, a little bit away from where the Lily Class was gathered. Right at the edge of the village was a small, calm lake covered in mist from the waterfall leading into it from the mountains. Mekuramast's eyes went from the class gathered on the rocky beach to the lake itself, and then to the thick, towering tree that the teacher stood in front of.
"Now, class!" He swore he'd seen that woman before. At the magic show, or around town somewhere? "This is Gessou Lake, the centrepiece of Gessou Village. Nekoi-sensei should be giving the lecture here, since I teach science, not history, but, as your long-suffering homeroom teacher, I will plow through this interdepartmental obstacle with nothing but pure burning spirit!"
Mia's eyes lit up. "It's really pretty, isn't it?"
"It is," Ami-sensei said, "but it's a tragic place, too. Gessou Village used to have three great families who ran the affairs of the general area. They were the Haru family, the Fuyuki family, and the Aki family, the last of whom gave their name to the lodge we're staying in tonight."
Yoko raised her hand. "But didn't the Haru family found Kazahana City? Why would they make their own town if they were already powerful in a nearby village?"
"That's what I'm getting to," Ami-sensei continued. "The children of the Haru and Fuyuki families fell in love, but the Aki family didn't want the other members of the triumvirate to unite against them, so they pressured the children's parents to break them up. The two of them met at this lake and tried to run away together, but they were caught and got into a fight. The history books don't all agree on what happened to them, but most say that both of them died that day."
The man standing two meters behind them clenched his fists at his sides.
"That's a pretty depressing story, isn't it?" Omemi Emiru pushed up her glasses, the glint of the sun obscuring her eyes.
"But they could have survived!" Asa put her hands on her hips. "Not all the books say they died, right?"
"True," Ami-sensei sighed, "but what we do know is that the Haru family and the Fuyuki family both left town outright after that. The Haru family went and founded Kazahana City, and the Fuyuki family founded Fubuki Town. It's a terribly sad story... If only these people had believed in the power of love and justice!"
Yoko was looking at the ground. Yukari frowned and raised her hand. "Ami-sensei, is my watch wrong or have you gone over time?"
Ami-sensei blinked and looked at her own watch. "Ah! You're right! It's past twelve, isn't it? You can all go for lunch and look around the village shops. Stick together and don't get lost!"
The class cheered and broke up into small groups. Asa immediately grabbed Yoko's wrist. "Hey, Yoko, let's--"
Yoko didn't look at her. "That story... Something like that could happen to anyone, couldn't it?"
Hoshi put her hands on her hips. "Sure, it could, but get your mind off that, Nakayama. You're scaring people."
"Let's go look at the stores, okay?" Yukari looked at Yoko and smiled. "That'll cheer you up!"
"She's not you, Okamoto," Hoshi sighed.
"It still works," Yukari said. "It works for anyone."
Yoko sweatdropped and brought her head back up, her face bright pink. "You're right. Let's all go."
Asa frowned at Yoko. Hmm... "I'm going to go see something, okay? You guys go on ahead!" She smiled and waved, running off.
"Where's she going?" Mia blinked.
"Who knows?" Hoshi shook her head. "She'll be back."
"That's a level of trust I haven't seen from you, Hoshi," Yukari teased.
"Yeah, yeah." Hoshi waved her hand dismissively. "Let's just go. But if you force us into too many girly purse stores, I'm out of here."
They left Asa to do her thing, whatever that was, and walked along, talking about lunch options.
-
Spindly, leafless trees twisted into green-eyed monsters and tore up the landscape. Binbeat stood on top of one of the Hidoinaa, tossing Moon Piece serial number VI from hand to hand.
"Blah, blah, blah," he said, half to the Hidoinaa, partially to himself, and partially to the clueless and panicked parkgoers. "What does she mean, don't cause too much trouble? That's way boring. This is fun!"
A radio reporter hid at the side with a microphone, running out of the way of the branches. "Now for the small town news. In an unbelievable twist, it appears that the reports of monstrous beings in Kazahana City are indeed true, which casts doubt on the falsehood of similar reports from twenty-six years ago. However, that leaves one question: where are the mysterious girls who have until now been spotted fighting them?"
"Binbeat?"
Binbeat dug a golden communication ring out of his pocket and lifted it up to speak into it. "Yeah, what's going on?"
"I've found a Moon Piece at the bus station," Mireyes said. "Our months of searching the town have paid off. Tachimany are nearly done at the old fairgrounds. If you've found anything, return to the Etherium's core."
"Aww, man." He stuck his tongue out at the ring, not that it transmitted anything but audio. "Comin'." He teleported out, leaving the monsters to rampage in the park. At least he'd gotten some fun out of it.
-
Having decided that lunch came first and shopping immediately after, the group of Yoko, Mia, Hoshi, and Yukari all bought takeout lunch boxes from a nearby restaurant and found a weathered picnic table by the back steps of the Aki Guest Lodge. Yoko took a seat on one side and looked up at the sky. Even though it was only just past noon, it looked like two stars were falling out of the sky. She blinked and shook her head, and they were gone.
"I'm letting this get to my head."
Mia took the seat next to her, and Hoshi and Yukari the opposite side. They opened their lunch boxes up and looked at one another's.
"Egg omelette again?" Hoshi stared at Yoko's box. "Is that the only thing you ever eat?"
Yoko started to glare, but stopped herself and just sighed. "I like egg omelette."
Mia carefully poked a child-sized lunchbox set between her and Yoko. "Um, who's the fifth box for? It's a little small."
"Oh, right." Yoko opened up the transformation phone attached to her bag. "It's lunchtime, Starry."
A ball of light jumped out of the phone and popped into the form of the plush-like orange creature. "Thanks a lot ~susu! I was really hungry ~susu!" Starry hopped onto the table, opened the box, and began eating the riceballs and natto inside.
Yukari smiled as if she were already used to seeing him up and walking around rather than pretending to be a plushie. "I wonder when Asa's getting back?"
Yoko's face turned pink and she concentrated on her egg omelette. The other three girls looked at each other, and Starry just kept eating. The table was silent for the next minute until--
"WORK, YOU PIECE OF JUNK!"
Yoko's head shot up. "Was that Ami-sensei?"
Hoshi got up from her food. "Sounded like it. Wanna go check it out?"
Yukari and Mia nodded. The girls picked up their lunch boxes (and Yoko took Starry's, which was already mostly empty, as he went back into the phone) and walked down to the clearing where the bus had parked.
Ami-sensei stood halfway in and halfway out of Mia's mother's van, turning the key again and again. No response came, and she pulled herself out of the van and kicked the side.
"Stupid-this-is-important-why-won't-you-work-when-I-need-you-you-horrible-excuse-for-a-VAN!"
"Uh... Ami-sensei?"
She turned around and sweatdropped at her four students standing in a line. "Oh... I'm sorry." She sighed. "It's terrible, really! I just heard on the radio, there's an emergency back in Kazahana City!"
"A what?" Yoko's hand instinctively went to her phone. Oh. Right. Asa was still out. Yoko stopped where she was.
"I couldn't hear much, and Gessou Village is remote enough and high enough up on the mountain that we don't have cell reception up here yet," Ami-sensei said. "At least not for my phone. I know there's better technology these days, but a teacher's salary is somewhat limited..." A hand went to a purple portable tape player clipped to the side of her skirt. Did people seriously still carry those? "I need to get back into town, but the van won't work. I can try to fix it, since there are tools in the bus, but I don't know much about cars. But don't worry! I know enough about physics to figure it out! It'll just..." She frowned. "It might take too long, that's all."
The other girls looked at Yoko. She took a deep breath and stepped forward.
"...I can fix it."
Ami-sensei blinked. "You can, Nakayama-san?"
"Sure." She nodded. "Provided it isn't really terrible, I think I can help you get it fixed. But, um... could you lend me something to put over my clothes? My parents will kill me if I get oil and grease on my uniform."
The teacher's eyes lit up and she twirled around before clasping Yoko's hands. "Absolutely! I've got just the thing. Please do your best, Nakayama-san!"
Yoko sweatdropped and slowly nodded. "...All right." She turned to her friends. "This could take a while. You can go back to the table. Could you watch over our -- my lunchboxes for me?"
-
Asa hadn't had a lot of spending money, but with what she had plus a little bit of her lunch money, she'd gone into a tourist shop and picked up a present. It was a tiny snowglobe with a girl inside looking mournfully up to the sky and reaching her hand out. Asa laughed a little, walking out of the store and looking at it.
It even sort of looked like Yoko, when Asa thought about it. Maybe giving her this would mean she wouldn't be so depressed.
Asa put the snowglobe in the orange bag she carried with her, old and ripped in places with "Asa" stitched onto the front. Now to find the others! Her eyes lit up at a shiny sign in a store through an alleyway.
She bolted over that way. The next thing she knew, she'd hit the dusty ground.
Coughing and pulling herself to her knees, she turned her head around to see that she'd been tripped by a whip of scarves. A blue-haired man walked into the alley, summoning a white eye mask and transforming his clothes into a white suit and top hat.
"This has gone on far enough," he said, walking up to her. "Where are the Moon Pieces?"
Asa pulled herself to her feet, cringing at the gravel embedded in her hands and knees.
"I don't have them," she said, not even having to lie. "See?" She took out her transformation phone and slashed the Storage Card, yielding nothing.
Mekuramast frowned. "Then they're with the other girl." He pointed his wand at her. "Tell me where she is. I need them."
"Wait!" Asa moved to the side. "Why'd you help us?"
"Help?" He shook his head. "I never did anything like that."
"You did so." She pointed into his face. "Back when Yoko and I were stuck in Omemi-san's fake world. You threw one of your cards so I'd figure out it was an illusion, and you put one of your scarves on the window so I'd find Yoko. You're secretly just like GoldFighter, aren't you?"
"I do n--" He blinked. "Who?"
"GoldFighter!" Asa put her hands on her hips. "His real name's Korekiri Yuu. He says he's DaiFighter's eternal rival, but he's actually a pretty good guy. He's just trying to save someone."
Sigh. "Why do I even ask with you?" Mekuramast returned to the serious frown he had before. "I didn't do what I did to help you. I just didn't want Kainatrol to get her way. That is it."
Asa stood her ground. "Then why do you hate each other?"
Mekuramast's eye mask glinted in the sun, blocking his eyes.
"It's none of your business."
-
"Three new Moon Pieces," Tachimany said, in the form of four doctors again, as they turned Moon Piece serial number IX over in their hands.
"We better have gotten that many," Binbeat said, tossing number VI around. "We've been searching for months, and Pretty Cure aren't even here."
Mireyes drew number VIII out from her robes. "With this plus the one that Kainatrol retrieved from the shrine a number of months ago, we should have four. The Moon Dial still won't even be close to a functional level."
"Don't you think I know that?"
A wall phased out of existence to allow a smug-looking Kainatrol to pass through, carrying the Moon Dial. Only one Moon Piece, numbered with XII and sitting at the top of the circle, was inside. She placed it on a carved white stand (had that been there before?) and stepped back.
"This is the next phase of the Boss' plan," she said, unable to keep her own amusement out of her voice. "Of our plan. But, of course, with only four Moon Pieces, we can't go anywhere."
"So, what are we gonna do?" Binbeat made a face.
"Just set the ones you have into the Moon Dial and leave everything else to me." Kainatrol snapped her fingers. "Now, we can go pay those girls a visit."
-
With Ami-sensei's help (and instructing her whenever she didn't know the name for something or what it did), it hadn't taken long for Yoko to fix the van. Ami-sensei had thanked her and driven off, leading Yoko to wonder what kind of emergency was happening in the town anyway. Either way, it was time to go back to her friends and her lunch box. She walked up the hill, looking over through the trees into the village--
A scream.
Yoko quickly darted to the side and ran towards the sound. The village. An alleyway. She ran that way, panting and gasping for breath, and stopped at the entrance to cling to the side of a building and try to ignore the gelatinous feeling in her legs.
Someone grabbed her from behind. She twisted and saw an expressionless face and blank eyes. Looking forward, she saw a woman in a white suit, gloves, and eye mask, with a dark red vest.
"K-Kainatrol," Yoko managed, struggling to escape and breathe at the same time.
"It's amazing the kinds of traps you'll fall for." Kainatrol tugged at one of her gloves with disinterest. "Not that it matters. Hand over the Moon Pieces."
Yoko glared. "I can't."
"In that case." Kainatrol walked over to the struggling girl, removed the transformation phone from her bag, and flipped it open.
"Take that ~susu!" Starry popped out of the phone and smacked her in the face.
"Ngh!" Kainatrol dropped Yoko's phone and seethed at the little creature. Having broken off eye contact, the bystander holding Yoko fuzzily returned to normal, and she quickly shoved him off before he realized what was going on.
"Good work, Starry." Yoko picked up the phone and ran past Kainatrol, followed by the mascot. "Now where's Asa?"
"Right here."
Yoko stopped and looked up. Tachimany, in their form of six lumberjacks, filed into the alleyway from all sides. Two of them held Asa, squirming around to get out, followed by a frowning Mekuramast.
"I had this under control," Mekuramast said, glaring at Kainatrol. "Why didn't you tell me the rest of the plan?"
"Do you think I suddenly trust you?" She smacked her riding crop into her palm. "Either way, you at least gain some credibility for catching one of them. I got the other, so all we need to do..."
Yoko opened her phone up again, but one Tachimany grabbed her while another took the phone and slashed the Storage Card. Three Moon Pieces emerged in midair, and a third Tachimany grabbed them.
"No!" Asa called out. She wrestled her way out of the grip of the two bodies holding her and ran to Yoko's side, grabbing the purple transformation phone out of the hand of the body holding it. Tachimany (that body) brandished a golden axe, but Asa ducked out of the way of its swing and shot her hand up to knock him back before swirling on the one holding Yoko. With this distraction, Yoko twisted out of Tachimany's arms and took her phone and cards from Asa. Standing in the middle of the circle, they nodded and slashed their Moon Cards.
"Dual Infinite Phase!"
The light washed over them, and they appeared in their Cure outfits, posing in the middle of the circle.
"On behalf of the light, I am Cure Sunday!"
"In the name of the shadows, I am Cure Night!"
"We are Pretty Cure!"
"We'll defend at all hours..."
"...to ensure a peaceful era!"
Kainatrol crossed her arms. "It doesn't matter. We got what we came for. Let's go back."
"Oh, no, you don't!" Sunday pointed at her. "You aren't escaping that easily!"
"Hmm, hmm. Aren't we?" She smirked. "Tachimany?"
"Exactly as planned," said one body.
"We'll start it now," said another.
Still standing in a circle around the Cures, they shifted into the form of eight hooded figures. A giant gold magic circle lit up underneath their feet.
"What the--" Sunday looked around.
"What are they doing?", Night asked.
A flash of light, and everybody was gone.
White. Carved walls shifting into nothingness and back again. In the middle, everyone from the Etherium standing and surrounding the Cures.
"We're back here again!?" Night looked around the room.
"In the Etherium?" Sunday got into a battle-ready position.
"No duh." Binbeat appeared, floating in the air. "We only got four Moon Pieces. Plus yours, we only got seven. We need thirteen."
Mireyes cleared her throat on the other side of them. "The Moon Pieces that are here will be amplified by the Etherium, which by its nature lacks much of a concept of time." She looked up at Kainatrol. "That was your theory, wasn't it?"
"Quite." Kainatrol adjusted her eye mask. "Tachimany, bring the Moon Pieces."
One of Tachimany's bodies went over and placed pieces I, II, and V into the Moon Dial. It gave off a black glow for a split second.
"Now what?", one of their bodies said.
"What's your plan--"
"--and why did you--"
"--ask us to bring--"
"--Pretty Cure here--"
"--after we took--"
"--their three Moon Pieces--"
"--away from them?"
Sunday and Night exchanged glances. They didn't know about the fourth one? The one that was sitting back at the guest lodge in the Communicator to Mars?
"All right, I've had enough of this!" Night looked at their gathered enemies around the room. "Stop playing with us!"
"Yeah!" Sunday posed. "There's nothing you'll stop at unless we stop you ourselves!"
Night raised an eyebrow. "Where have I heard that before?"
"You might be right," Kainatrol said, positioning herself behind the Moon Dial. "But, you won't ever know... Moon Dial!"
Her eyes, then her whole body, took on a deep red glow that spread to the Moon Dial itself. The room around them swirled and faded in and out of existence more quickly than before.
"Erase these two," she said. "Completely!"
"What--" Night started.
"No way!" Sunday gasped.
The light enveloped them, deep and red. There was no time to get out of the way or even to think, to move, to do anything but the first reflex.
Night grabbed Sunday's hand.
The light flashed and faded. Where Pretty Cure had stood, there was nothing but a snow globe with a sad girl inside, which dropped to the floor and cracked.
-
Back in Gessou Village, Starry scrambled out of the alleyway and through the roads, eyes fixed on the Aki Guest Lodge.
"Where did Sunday and Night go ~susu?" He ran as fast as his tiny legs could, not even caring about being seen. "I need to get someone to help ~susu!"
-
It felt... blank. Empty. Of course it would. Nothing was there, right?
No. They were there. Two people, holding hands, resonating with the power of time. People who should not have been there.
Things that should not have been there called out to each other. Maybe. Or it might have just been a coincidence that, while drifting through the nothingness, they happened to touch an apparition of a clock. It expanded in front of them and spun backwards, and backwards, and...
Sunday and Night opened their eyes. The world unfolding in front of them wasn't the Etherium at all. It was an actual place, although a strange one. People moved around in horse-drawn carts or walked through stone-covered streets, all gathering around a circus tent that was... white? No, the colour was fading in. Blue and red.
"We're not dead..."
The girls looked at each other, slowly and reluctantly letting go of one another's hands. Sunday spoke again.
"...but where are we?"
-
Yoko: It's time for...
Everyone: Asa and Yoko's Comment Corner! (All mascots add their respective sentence enders.)
Hoshi: WHAT just happened? What is wrong with you people? You could have at least called us, or not fallen for stupid traps, or--
Mia: Kondou-san, you're being a bit too harsh.
Hoshi: Yeah, yeah. So the author's been looking into that other series that used the same fake design sheet we did, and...
Asa: I want my own action figure!
Yoko: What?
Asa: Some Bouken fan made Mahiru and Kaguya action figures by customizing existing ones. I want my own action figure.
Ami-sensei: Speaking of Bouken, our author's found a group dedicated to reposting Bouken promo images and Blue Moon chapters under both titles, and wanted to remind everyone that these are separate independent projects.
Starry: I think everybody already knows that ~susu...
Yukari: See you all next time!
-
Next Episode: The World of the Past! The Pain of Two Sisters!