ALL STARS: THE GREAT BATTLE OF THE LIGHT CHAPTER 5 (Part 2)
FANFIC IN SPANISH
Eight Chapters for the moment and working in some more. If you understand spanish, take a look ;D it's fun, I swear.
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3 (Part 1)
CHAPTER 3 (Part 2)
CHAPTER 4 (Part 1)
CHAPTER 4 (Part 2)
CHAPTER 5 (Part 1)
A nice friend from fanfiction.net, dan_heron , is traslating the whole thing for me. Btw english is NOT our mother laguaje, so if you guys can point the script errors, we'll be glad for it. I'm planning publish the fic in english in ff.net too, but we think it's better check the errors first. We gonna try to update the parts fast, but I can't press my friend with the traslation ^^; the chapters are a little large and still needs tons of editing.
SUMMARY
It all started with a Festival. The Pretty Cures know precious little about each other team but they all must come together as a new battle looms near. They can't decide to fight or flight, for their enemy already decided for them. A far more dangerous enemy that any ruler of Darkness. Yuri warning (you know girlxgirl).
PREVIOUSLY...
“What's next?” Nagisa asked with her eyes closed.
“If we want a real fight we will have to do something more than just provoking them into a fight,” Honoka replied and a smile grew on her face. “They think we're going after the important things, right?”
“That's what they said.”
“Then go for them and maybe some more,” continued the girl genius. “If our friends can't feel motivated enough to fight us with everything, then what we're doing will be for nothing. They have to be ready for when we....”
“Shh, don't say any more,” Nagisa interrupted her, holding her tightly. “Don't even think of saying it, I don't want to think about... that.”
“Nagisa...”
The dark haired girl hugged Nagisa back and gave her a deep kiss, one the athlete answered without thinking, almost with urgency and desperation. Honoka however took the lead, setting the rhythm of the kiss in every moment, managing to calm down her partner. After a brief pause they exchanged an intense look and they started kissing again, this time a kiss full of desire and frantic caresses.
“Honoka... I love you,” the girl managed to say between gasps.
“I love you too, Nagisa,” her girlfriend replied with a tender look and a sweet tone.
That was the beginning of a long night, one where they showed the intense and pure love they felt for each other. Even though their mutual love filled their thoughts at the moment, they couldn't help but thinking about the other very special and powerful bond that they had found out about not too long ago. It was that bond that kept them against wall even during that moment of love.
Chapter 5:
The Rainbow's Light (Part 2)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Next day the photo shot took place in several open places around Clover Town. To surprise of the girls, their new friends made a surprise visit to watch the photo shot, cheer on them and just spend some time chatting. When the people from the production saw that Urara Kusagano was friends with Momoka and Miki they didn't even think it twice to offer her an interesting contract: a production outdoors with the young blond singing her latests songs and the quartet Clover dancing in the same stage with Momoka Kurumi acting as the host of the event.
The idea went beyond wonderful for the girls and they didn't doubt giving the yes to the production people.
They would get into details later on while Urara's manager and Momoka's and Miki's company went through the finer details. The session went as usual despite a few disasters caused by the models’ friends, but nothing to worry about. Too much. It was their usual behavior according to Miki and Momoka, so their respective productions were already used to them. The last place the photo shot would take place in was the clover field on the city's hills. As soon as they made it to a place with good lighting for sunset, Mai veered away from the group and couldn't fight the desire to sketch the landscape in her sketchpad.
“Saki, look!” Mai said excited, trying to get her partner's attention. Failing to hear any answer from her partner, she turned around and saw Saki being dragged around by Nozomi, talking about something with obvious excitement. The rest of the girls were amusing themselves with the photo shot, a few making quite a ruckus in particular.
Saki was so entertained with Nozomi that she couldn't pay attention to Mai's voice. The artist sighed a little at this but she didn't have time to dwell about it as Erika soon came over to Mai, asking her some tips about colors for some designs she had in mind. The older girl distracted herself with the ever energetic Erika, although she couldn't help stealing glances at her partner from time to time. Erika was fascinated with Mai and her great artistic talent, and enjoyed spending time with her. It didn't matter that Mai was a bit older than Erika, Mai had a talent to get along with energetic people like Saki, so Erika, brimming with energy, got along nicely with her.
On the other hand, with Tsubomi hanging all the time of Itsuki's arm, the young designer didn't feel too comfortable with the closeness she had used to enjoy with Tsubomi. Lately it was a bit uncomfortable stay close to the couple when they decided to get all on in their amorous plans. Not even being in a group of their new friends was enough to keep them from their displays of affection. If there was something that upset Erika, it was feeling like the third wheel.
Meanwhile, the talk that had Saki so entertained started thanks to a simple comment from Nozomi. Something that had been haunting the pink haired girl's mind for the last couple nights.
“Saki-chan, do you remember the night of the festival, when we were talking through the devices?”
“Yeah, I remember,” the other girl replied after a few moments. It took her a couple seconds to ignore the desire of remembering the amorous moment she shared with Mai after that chat. “Why the question?”
“When we talked about splitting Cure Black and Cure White during the fight... you weren't really happy with the idea,” said the girl, clearly embarrassed but she didn't give Saki time to reply before she continued. “After you explained what could happen if the plan worked... well the truth is, I... I was wondering how strong is the bond you two share. Even Flappy said the bond that tied Honoka and Nagisa was far deeper. I just want to know, I wouldn't like if one of us say something that could upset you. I really wouldn't,” she finished, looking at her friends out of the corner of her eye.
Saki stared for a moment, she hadn't thought that part of the chat would still bother Nozomi; if she had to be honest, she had all but forgotten about that detail and she had thought it would be the same for Nozomi and her team. She smiled reassuringly at Nozomi, in part happy that she cared enough to worry about it, and partly embarrassed. Back then she hadn't thought her words would worry her new friends so much.
“Mai and I don't work the same way you girls do,” Saki murmured, looking at the rest of the girls. She smiled when she saw Mai talking excitedly with Erika. “You work like a team, each of you know what to do, have your distinctive skills that can compensate for each other,” she said in a clearer voice. “Look, for example,” she looked up, trying to find a way to explain herself. It didn't take long before she saw Rin and smiled. “You girls work like a soccer team,” she said, “Each of you have a specific roll and place according to your skills,” she continued talking with the tone she took when she was in front of her softball team. “With everybody doing their part, you can ensure your victory. If one of the players isn't in her place, the others can compensate for her absence. I mean, you girls depend on teamwork and the trust on each other as a team.”
Even Nozomi could relate the example to her friends. She was sure even the other two new teams worked in a similar way too. She nodded and let Saki continue her explanation.
“I'm not saying you are less or anything like that,” Saki immediately clarified. “I don't doubt for a second you love your friends and you would do anything for them.”
“Of course I would, they are my friends!” Nozomi replied with a big smile.
“Good, now,” she stopped for a moment to pick up her next words. “Without counting the times we got extra help on our last fights,” she continued, smiling as she thought of Michiru and Kaoru, “Mai and I always worked alone, like a tennis duo. We are both together or nothing, we depend on each other one hundred percept to keep one playing. If one of us is missing, or isn't in the right condition to play, the other can't just take over her place in any way, we are like two people in one. Not only that but we have to be in complete harmony and always have warm feelings for each other. Otherwise, if our hearts are somehow apart we just can't properly use our powers, if the thing gets too badly, we wouldn't even be able to transform!"
Nozomi smiled privately, sitting down and hugging her knees. She understand many things now and it wasn't hard to imagine what Saki was going to say next.
“Your enemies managed to split you apart, didn't they?” saddened she asked.
“Yeah, physically and sentimentally, they managed it many times,” Saki replied, looking up to the sky. “We also stumbled a few times and we had to learn the hard way that we should be together and be honest about it. We understood better as time went by and we became inseparable on our own will, not because we needed to do it to fight as Pretty Cure, but because we learned to love each other and respect our differences. The difference between a combat team, like yours, and a battle couple, like Mai and I... or Cure Black and Cure White... is that the team can fight, think and act on their own without depending completely on anybody else, you can rely on others and the trust of your teamwork to carry you on. Those who fight like a battle couple, we have to be two people with a single heart just by being together, and there's no other option. It has to be like that when you depend so deeply on somebody else.”
The pigtailed girl understood better why the effusive and negative reaction to their first strategy. She was no fool, at least not as much as her klutzy personality could make others think. If Saki and Mai had to be a single heart in two bodies in every sense, even with they had such varied and amazing powers, then Nagisa and Honoka, who could only rely on their feet and fists, would have a mutual reliance far deeper and harder to understand by other people.
She finally understood the real reason of why Black and White were such formidable fighters. They weren't just two warriors fighting together, they were a single being in perfect harmony.
She smiled at Saki, letting her know she had understood perfectly what she was talking about. The athlete replied with a far wider smile and in no time they shared a comfortable laugh. It didn't take long before Rin and Urara joined the pair and soon the conversation took a more relaxed tone. Nozomi would tell the other girls about what she had talked about with Saki; she knew her friends still had that little doubt since their late conversation.
Soon Saki noticed the absence of her partner so she excused herself with the girls to go looking for Mai. She didn't need to look long for her or even ask Erika about Mai's whereabouts, she just needed to let herself be guided by her instincts, she only needed to feel for her. She found the beautiful landscape downhill, bathed by the dying sunlight and full of glowing clovers covered by the early dew. She could see Mai's silhouette a few meters in a place with a better view of the landscape. She was drawing, completely immersed in the traces, as was her wont to do. Saki didn't have the heart to interrupted her so she simply sat at her side, completely sure Mai wouldn't even notice until the drawing was finished or Saki didn't something to snap her out of her trance.
She took a peek over Mai's shoulder and saw what promised to be a beautiful drawing of the scene in front of them. She decided to remain quiet and decided to simply lay down and wait for Mai to finish her piece. In the distance she could hear Flappy, Choppy and the rest of the magic beings playing in the clover fields past where anybody could see. Even though Tart was a very well known “mascot” around Clover Town, the rest of the fairies decided to keep their existence a secret for the normal people.
It was around an hour later, maybe a bit more, when Mai gave the final touches to her work before the night could keep her from finishing. After signing the drawing she came back to reality and looked around, finding Saki sleeping placidly next to her, snuggling gently to Mai's hips.
“Saki! I'm sorry!” she gasped, noticing of the time that her partner must have spent there.
The other girl woke up and stretched lazily, letting out a resounding yawn. She scratched the back of her head and looked at Mai with a giant smile.
“I didn't want to interrupt,” she said with a little yawn. “I wanted to see the finished drawing,” she pointed at the sketchpad. “Ah, is so late already?”
“Yes, a little,” Mai said, looking at the first stars on the sky. “They must be finishing with the photo session, right?”
“I think so.”
They were about to make their way back to their friends when they saw an intense light descending from the sky. It wasn't moonlight, or a falling star, and certainly it wasn't made by human means. It was a giant rainbow falling over the valley Mai had just drawn. The light was reassuring, nice, warm and very comforting, and instead of putting them on edge or even manage to surprise them, made them feel very calm and quiet, almost as if the phenomenon wasn't so out of the ordinary.
“It's beautiful,” Saki murmured.
“If feels... good,” Mai said in a subdued voice, her fingers itching to start drawing once again.
“Let's go for Nozomi and the others, they will love this!” said the girl with sudden happiness, missing the fleeting look of gloom on Mai. “Mai?” she asked, not hearing a reply from her partner.
“Saki... I...”
She hadn't even finished speaking when they heard screams in the background, right where the rainbow had landed. Screams of the little magical creatures. Both immediately jumped in alert and raced down the valley. Mai turned on her communicator and called Erika. The image of the young girl showed up in the device almost immediately.
“Mai? Where are you? We're done with the session and we saw this rainbow and-.”
“We're going where the rainbow landed! Choppy and the others seem to be in problems!”
“We'll be right there!”
Erika told the others about the news as Miki finished changing from her work clothes, and Momoka decided to go ahead and go to Miki's house. She wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. Only Love's and Nozomi's teams, along with Yuri managed to transform since the others needed of their magical partners to transform and they all rushed to look for them.
Saki and Mai made it first and only managed to see the rainbow breaking into little stars. The light disappeared, leaving only the light of the moon and the lampposts on the road to lit the scene. They saw the little silhouettes on the ground, but there were only far too few. To their relief they found Flappy and Choppy there, laying down next to each other. Not far they saw Milk, Chypre, Coffret and Potpourri. There was no sign of anybody else.
“Flappy!” Saki hugged her little partner tightly. “Flappy, come on, open your eyes, tell me you're okay, please!” little tears were forming around her brown eyes. “Flappy!”
Mai meanwhile was gently caressing her little friend's head, trying to arouse her with encouraging words. She felt like crying too, but she was comforted on the knowledge that the spirit's little body was warm and had no sign of any kind of injury. The rest of the fairies seemed to be in the same condition too, thankfully.
“Choppy, I'm here, wake up, please.”
Finally the Spirit of the Birds reacted at the same time than her loved one in Saki's arms. They needed a few seconds to focus and recognize their protegees.
“Flappy, so good to see you're okay!” Saki shouted, hugging her little friend.
“We aren't hurt, don't worry-lapi,” the spirit said with a smile and looked around. “It can't be, they took them-lapi!” he whispered.
“Choppy, what happened?” Mai asked, not wanting to let her little partner go.
The other girls arrived with calls for their magical guardians. It had taken a little while longer to arrive since they had missed the exact place where the rainbow had landed. Tsubomi, Erika and Itsuki frantically picked up their fairies, tearing up a little but they found some relief when they noticed they weren't injured. Yuri could only look on in relief. However, Love, Setsuna, Miki and Inori were still anxiously looking around; Tart and Azukina were missing so they started to look around. The other girls looked with horror that the only fairy remaining was Milk.
“Coco, Nuts, Syrup!” Nozomi screamed out loud.
“They aren't here-lapi,” said the spirit. “The rainbow's light took them. It fell over everybody, it took us by surprise-lapi.”
Rin held Nozomi trying to calm her down while Karen picked up Milk, lovingly holding her close while she finished waking up. Love and her friends were expectantly waiting for an explanation from their friends.
“It was such a warm and comfortable light-chopi, we didn't realize anything was wrong until Coco and the others started to float-chopi,” said the bird spirit from her place at Mai's arms.
“Suddenly the light shone brightly and we knew no more-lapi.”
Nozomi freed herself from Rin's hold and ran around the area, calling out for her friends, Komachi and Urara soon joining her but they found no trace of any of their friends. Love likewise started to call out for Tart and Azukina, but they had no better luck than her friends. The other girls looked on with sadness, not knowing what to do at that moment. Karen felt Milk coming to and no sooner had the little fairy opened her eyes she tried to jump off Karen's arms, trying to look around.
“Milk, wait!”
“Coco-sama! Nuts-sama! Syrup!” screamed the little one, too stunned to take her human form at the moment, but she was still strong enough to free herself and started running.
“Milk!” the bluenette ran after her but she stopped when she felt something crumbling under her feet.
She looked down and saw a brown piece of paper and made a quick stop to pick it up. It was crumpled and slightly wet after being stopped against the fresh grass, but she managed to unfold the note and read. Her eyes widening as saucers. She took a deep breath and read out loud the note's contents, everybody focusing on Karen, even those that had been looking around.
“Good evening. We decided to stop wasting our time and do what we should have done from the beginning. Your friends will help us achieve our goal, so we left the ones that served no purpose for us. Now that we have your friend Syrup under our power we only need Infinity, that is to say, the little Chiffon. We already have Cure Flower and her fairy with us-.”
No soon had she said that Tsubomi let out an anguished scream, holding onto Itsuki. Karen swallowed thickly and continued reading.
“... so now we also have access to the Pretty Cure Castle. Right now we're on our way for Infinity, so you won't make it on time. We will get rid of all of you because it is necessary to fulfill our mission. As for your friends, we hope you said your good byes because you will never see them again. But don't worry about your own fate, you can go to classes and live your life as normal. Once summer break begins, at the end of that week we will find you to end our duel; you need to stop existing for the success of our mission. We'll be waiting for you on the forest on the west area of Wakabadai district, at the feet of the lion-shaped mountain. If you try to find us before, or one of you try to play the lone heroine, we WILL kill you without a second thought.
Sincerely: Cure Black and Cure White.”
There was only a second of silence.
“We have to rescue them!” Love screamed in despair.
“Gr-grandma!” Tsubomi cried, clinging desperately off Itsuki. “I have to make sure she's okay, they are lying! They must be lying! It's impossible they could have captured her!”
“Tsubomi, come!” Setsuna said right away, taking the smaller girl by the shoulder; she asked Akarun to take her to the greenhouse of Kibougahana.
While the two girls traveled the rest of the group fell little by little in despair. Nozomi and her friends were openly crying, Milk crying her heart out against Karen's chest, blaming herself for being unable to fulfill her mission of protecting her friends. Love was out of it, only managing to remain standing because of Miki and Inori's efforts. Saki and Mai held her partners tightly, ashamed and silently thanking the fact they hadn't been taken. It wasn't long before Setsuna returned, holding a heartbroken Tsubomi. That was all they needed to know Cure Flower and Coupe had been captured by Black and White.
“If they want a fight, we're going to give it to them!” Yuri shouted, getting everybody's attention. “Crying won't solve anything, if Black and White want a fight they will have it! We'll play by their rules, we will beat them and we will recover our friends! We have fought them several times already, we know how they fight, we know their weak points and we outnumber them!” she looked at everybody with strict eyes, speaking with a voice full of power. “We will fight with everything we have! Do you understand!”
Yuri's mighty voice had an immediate effect on her partners. Little by little they recovered, drying their tears and took a deep breath, nodding at the words of their senior. They would fight, they would no longer hold back! Black and White had gone too far this time.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Why in half parts? Cause the chapters are VERY LARGE for the 10,000 characters limit for a LJ post.
Read and enjoy. From my fangirl heart for you, guys. Remember, of you don't like yuri ^^; just don't flame so much, please. But, if you don't mind at all, then feel free to read it.
Oh, yeah! Our dear hen_yo is drawing scenes from the fanfic, here's the first ones (now with color) :
interview scene
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d116/DekaEve/Scene1-1.jpg
Soccer Game scene
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d116/DekaEve/Scene2-1.jpg
Saki and Mai scene
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d116/DekaEve/Scene3-1.jpg
PEACE~
Eight Chapters for the moment and working in some more. If you understand spanish, take a look ;D it's fun, I swear.
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3 (Part 1)
CHAPTER 3 (Part 2)
CHAPTER 4 (Part 1)
CHAPTER 4 (Part 2)
CHAPTER 5 (Part 1)
A nice friend from fanfiction.net, dan_heron , is traslating the whole thing for me. Btw english is NOT our mother laguaje, so if you guys can point the script errors, we'll be glad for it. I'm planning publish the fic in english in ff.net too, but we think it's better check the errors first. We gonna try to update the parts fast, but I can't press my friend with the traslation ^^; the chapters are a little large and still needs tons of editing.
SUMMARY
It all started with a Festival. The Pretty Cures know precious little about each other team but they all must come together as a new battle looms near. They can't decide to fight or flight, for their enemy already decided for them. A far more dangerous enemy that any ruler of Darkness. Yuri warning (you know girlxgirl).
PREVIOUSLY...
“What's next?” Nagisa asked with her eyes closed.
“If we want a real fight we will have to do something more than just provoking them into a fight,” Honoka replied and a smile grew on her face. “They think we're going after the important things, right?”
“That's what they said.”
“Then go for them and maybe some more,” continued the girl genius. “If our friends can't feel motivated enough to fight us with everything, then what we're doing will be for nothing. They have to be ready for when we....”
“Shh, don't say any more,” Nagisa interrupted her, holding her tightly. “Don't even think of saying it, I don't want to think about... that.”
“Nagisa...”
The dark haired girl hugged Nagisa back and gave her a deep kiss, one the athlete answered without thinking, almost with urgency and desperation. Honoka however took the lead, setting the rhythm of the kiss in every moment, managing to calm down her partner. After a brief pause they exchanged an intense look and they started kissing again, this time a kiss full of desire and frantic caresses.
“Honoka... I love you,” the girl managed to say between gasps.
“I love you too, Nagisa,” her girlfriend replied with a tender look and a sweet tone.
That was the beginning of a long night, one where they showed the intense and pure love they felt for each other. Even though their mutual love filled their thoughts at the moment, they couldn't help but thinking about the other very special and powerful bond that they had found out about not too long ago. It was that bond that kept them against wall even during that moment of love.
Chapter 5:
The Rainbow's Light (Part 2)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Next day the photo shot took place in several open places around Clover Town. To surprise of the girls, their new friends made a surprise visit to watch the photo shot, cheer on them and just spend some time chatting. When the people from the production saw that Urara Kusagano was friends with Momoka and Miki they didn't even think it twice to offer her an interesting contract: a production outdoors with the young blond singing her latests songs and the quartet Clover dancing in the same stage with Momoka Kurumi acting as the host of the event.
The idea went beyond wonderful for the girls and they didn't doubt giving the yes to the production people.
They would get into details later on while Urara's manager and Momoka's and Miki's company went through the finer details. The session went as usual despite a few disasters caused by the models’ friends, but nothing to worry about. Too much. It was their usual behavior according to Miki and Momoka, so their respective productions were already used to them. The last place the photo shot would take place in was the clover field on the city's hills. As soon as they made it to a place with good lighting for sunset, Mai veered away from the group and couldn't fight the desire to sketch the landscape in her sketchpad.
“Saki, look!” Mai said excited, trying to get her partner's attention. Failing to hear any answer from her partner, she turned around and saw Saki being dragged around by Nozomi, talking about something with obvious excitement. The rest of the girls were amusing themselves with the photo shot, a few making quite a ruckus in particular.
Saki was so entertained with Nozomi that she couldn't pay attention to Mai's voice. The artist sighed a little at this but she didn't have time to dwell about it as Erika soon came over to Mai, asking her some tips about colors for some designs she had in mind. The older girl distracted herself with the ever energetic Erika, although she couldn't help stealing glances at her partner from time to time. Erika was fascinated with Mai and her great artistic talent, and enjoyed spending time with her. It didn't matter that Mai was a bit older than Erika, Mai had a talent to get along with energetic people like Saki, so Erika, brimming with energy, got along nicely with her.
On the other hand, with Tsubomi hanging all the time of Itsuki's arm, the young designer didn't feel too comfortable with the closeness she had used to enjoy with Tsubomi. Lately it was a bit uncomfortable stay close to the couple when they decided to get all on in their amorous plans. Not even being in a group of their new friends was enough to keep them from their displays of affection. If there was something that upset Erika, it was feeling like the third wheel.
Meanwhile, the talk that had Saki so entertained started thanks to a simple comment from Nozomi. Something that had been haunting the pink haired girl's mind for the last couple nights.
“Saki-chan, do you remember the night of the festival, when we were talking through the devices?”
“Yeah, I remember,” the other girl replied after a few moments. It took her a couple seconds to ignore the desire of remembering the amorous moment she shared with Mai after that chat. “Why the question?”
“When we talked about splitting Cure Black and Cure White during the fight... you weren't really happy with the idea,” said the girl, clearly embarrassed but she didn't give Saki time to reply before she continued. “After you explained what could happen if the plan worked... well the truth is, I... I was wondering how strong is the bond you two share. Even Flappy said the bond that tied Honoka and Nagisa was far deeper. I just want to know, I wouldn't like if one of us say something that could upset you. I really wouldn't,” she finished, looking at her friends out of the corner of her eye.
Saki stared for a moment, she hadn't thought that part of the chat would still bother Nozomi; if she had to be honest, she had all but forgotten about that detail and she had thought it would be the same for Nozomi and her team. She smiled reassuringly at Nozomi, in part happy that she cared enough to worry about it, and partly embarrassed. Back then she hadn't thought her words would worry her new friends so much.
“Mai and I don't work the same way you girls do,” Saki murmured, looking at the rest of the girls. She smiled when she saw Mai talking excitedly with Erika. “You work like a team, each of you know what to do, have your distinctive skills that can compensate for each other,” she said in a clearer voice. “Look, for example,” she looked up, trying to find a way to explain herself. It didn't take long before she saw Rin and smiled. “You girls work like a soccer team,” she said, “Each of you have a specific roll and place according to your skills,” she continued talking with the tone she took when she was in front of her softball team. “With everybody doing their part, you can ensure your victory. If one of the players isn't in her place, the others can compensate for her absence. I mean, you girls depend on teamwork and the trust on each other as a team.”
Even Nozomi could relate the example to her friends. She was sure even the other two new teams worked in a similar way too. She nodded and let Saki continue her explanation.
“I'm not saying you are less or anything like that,” Saki immediately clarified. “I don't doubt for a second you love your friends and you would do anything for them.”
“Of course I would, they are my friends!” Nozomi replied with a big smile.
“Good, now,” she stopped for a moment to pick up her next words. “Without counting the times we got extra help on our last fights,” she continued, smiling as she thought of Michiru and Kaoru, “Mai and I always worked alone, like a tennis duo. We are both together or nothing, we depend on each other one hundred percept to keep one playing. If one of us is missing, or isn't in the right condition to play, the other can't just take over her place in any way, we are like two people in one. Not only that but we have to be in complete harmony and always have warm feelings for each other. Otherwise, if our hearts are somehow apart we just can't properly use our powers, if the thing gets too badly, we wouldn't even be able to transform!"
Nozomi smiled privately, sitting down and hugging her knees. She understand many things now and it wasn't hard to imagine what Saki was going to say next.
“Your enemies managed to split you apart, didn't they?” saddened she asked.
“Yeah, physically and sentimentally, they managed it many times,” Saki replied, looking up to the sky. “We also stumbled a few times and we had to learn the hard way that we should be together and be honest about it. We understood better as time went by and we became inseparable on our own will, not because we needed to do it to fight as Pretty Cure, but because we learned to love each other and respect our differences. The difference between a combat team, like yours, and a battle couple, like Mai and I... or Cure Black and Cure White... is that the team can fight, think and act on their own without depending completely on anybody else, you can rely on others and the trust of your teamwork to carry you on. Those who fight like a battle couple, we have to be two people with a single heart just by being together, and there's no other option. It has to be like that when you depend so deeply on somebody else.”
The pigtailed girl understood better why the effusive and negative reaction to their first strategy. She was no fool, at least not as much as her klutzy personality could make others think. If Saki and Mai had to be a single heart in two bodies in every sense, even with they had such varied and amazing powers, then Nagisa and Honoka, who could only rely on their feet and fists, would have a mutual reliance far deeper and harder to understand by other people.
She finally understood the real reason of why Black and White were such formidable fighters. They weren't just two warriors fighting together, they were a single being in perfect harmony.
She smiled at Saki, letting her know she had understood perfectly what she was talking about. The athlete replied with a far wider smile and in no time they shared a comfortable laugh. It didn't take long before Rin and Urara joined the pair and soon the conversation took a more relaxed tone. Nozomi would tell the other girls about what she had talked about with Saki; she knew her friends still had that little doubt since their late conversation.
Soon Saki noticed the absence of her partner so she excused herself with the girls to go looking for Mai. She didn't need to look long for her or even ask Erika about Mai's whereabouts, she just needed to let herself be guided by her instincts, she only needed to feel for her. She found the beautiful landscape downhill, bathed by the dying sunlight and full of glowing clovers covered by the early dew. She could see Mai's silhouette a few meters in a place with a better view of the landscape. She was drawing, completely immersed in the traces, as was her wont to do. Saki didn't have the heart to interrupted her so she simply sat at her side, completely sure Mai wouldn't even notice until the drawing was finished or Saki didn't something to snap her out of her trance.
She took a peek over Mai's shoulder and saw what promised to be a beautiful drawing of the scene in front of them. She decided to remain quiet and decided to simply lay down and wait for Mai to finish her piece. In the distance she could hear Flappy, Choppy and the rest of the magic beings playing in the clover fields past where anybody could see. Even though Tart was a very well known “mascot” around Clover Town, the rest of the fairies decided to keep their existence a secret for the normal people.
It was around an hour later, maybe a bit more, when Mai gave the final touches to her work before the night could keep her from finishing. After signing the drawing she came back to reality and looked around, finding Saki sleeping placidly next to her, snuggling gently to Mai's hips.
“Saki! I'm sorry!” she gasped, noticing of the time that her partner must have spent there.
The other girl woke up and stretched lazily, letting out a resounding yawn. She scratched the back of her head and looked at Mai with a giant smile.
“I didn't want to interrupt,” she said with a little yawn. “I wanted to see the finished drawing,” she pointed at the sketchpad. “Ah, is so late already?”
“Yes, a little,” Mai said, looking at the first stars on the sky. “They must be finishing with the photo session, right?”
“I think so.”
They were about to make their way back to their friends when they saw an intense light descending from the sky. It wasn't moonlight, or a falling star, and certainly it wasn't made by human means. It was a giant rainbow falling over the valley Mai had just drawn. The light was reassuring, nice, warm and very comforting, and instead of putting them on edge or even manage to surprise them, made them feel very calm and quiet, almost as if the phenomenon wasn't so out of the ordinary.
“It's beautiful,” Saki murmured.
“If feels... good,” Mai said in a subdued voice, her fingers itching to start drawing once again.
“Let's go for Nozomi and the others, they will love this!” said the girl with sudden happiness, missing the fleeting look of gloom on Mai. “Mai?” she asked, not hearing a reply from her partner.
“Saki... I...”
She hadn't even finished speaking when they heard screams in the background, right where the rainbow had landed. Screams of the little magical creatures. Both immediately jumped in alert and raced down the valley. Mai turned on her communicator and called Erika. The image of the young girl showed up in the device almost immediately.
“Mai? Where are you? We're done with the session and we saw this rainbow and-.”
“We're going where the rainbow landed! Choppy and the others seem to be in problems!”
“We'll be right there!”
Erika told the others about the news as Miki finished changing from her work clothes, and Momoka decided to go ahead and go to Miki's house. She wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. Only Love's and Nozomi's teams, along with Yuri managed to transform since the others needed of their magical partners to transform and they all rushed to look for them.
Saki and Mai made it first and only managed to see the rainbow breaking into little stars. The light disappeared, leaving only the light of the moon and the lampposts on the road to lit the scene. They saw the little silhouettes on the ground, but there were only far too few. To their relief they found Flappy and Choppy there, laying down next to each other. Not far they saw Milk, Chypre, Coffret and Potpourri. There was no sign of anybody else.
“Flappy!” Saki hugged her little partner tightly. “Flappy, come on, open your eyes, tell me you're okay, please!” little tears were forming around her brown eyes. “Flappy!”
Mai meanwhile was gently caressing her little friend's head, trying to arouse her with encouraging words. She felt like crying too, but she was comforted on the knowledge that the spirit's little body was warm and had no sign of any kind of injury. The rest of the fairies seemed to be in the same condition too, thankfully.
“Choppy, I'm here, wake up, please.”
Finally the Spirit of the Birds reacted at the same time than her loved one in Saki's arms. They needed a few seconds to focus and recognize their protegees.
“Flappy, so good to see you're okay!” Saki shouted, hugging her little friend.
“We aren't hurt, don't worry-lapi,” the spirit said with a smile and looked around. “It can't be, they took them-lapi!” he whispered.
“Choppy, what happened?” Mai asked, not wanting to let her little partner go.
The other girls arrived with calls for their magical guardians. It had taken a little while longer to arrive since they had missed the exact place where the rainbow had landed. Tsubomi, Erika and Itsuki frantically picked up their fairies, tearing up a little but they found some relief when they noticed they weren't injured. Yuri could only look on in relief. However, Love, Setsuna, Miki and Inori were still anxiously looking around; Tart and Azukina were missing so they started to look around. The other girls looked with horror that the only fairy remaining was Milk.
“Coco, Nuts, Syrup!” Nozomi screamed out loud.
“They aren't here-lapi,” said the spirit. “The rainbow's light took them. It fell over everybody, it took us by surprise-lapi.”
Rin held Nozomi trying to calm her down while Karen picked up Milk, lovingly holding her close while she finished waking up. Love and her friends were expectantly waiting for an explanation from their friends.
“It was such a warm and comfortable light-chopi, we didn't realize anything was wrong until Coco and the others started to float-chopi,” said the bird spirit from her place at Mai's arms.
“Suddenly the light shone brightly and we knew no more-lapi.”
Nozomi freed herself from Rin's hold and ran around the area, calling out for her friends, Komachi and Urara soon joining her but they found no trace of any of their friends. Love likewise started to call out for Tart and Azukina, but they had no better luck than her friends. The other girls looked on with sadness, not knowing what to do at that moment. Karen felt Milk coming to and no sooner had the little fairy opened her eyes she tried to jump off Karen's arms, trying to look around.
“Milk, wait!”
“Coco-sama! Nuts-sama! Syrup!” screamed the little one, too stunned to take her human form at the moment, but she was still strong enough to free herself and started running.
“Milk!” the bluenette ran after her but she stopped when she felt something crumbling under her feet.
She looked down and saw a brown piece of paper and made a quick stop to pick it up. It was crumpled and slightly wet after being stopped against the fresh grass, but she managed to unfold the note and read. Her eyes widening as saucers. She took a deep breath and read out loud the note's contents, everybody focusing on Karen, even those that had been looking around.
“Good evening. We decided to stop wasting our time and do what we should have done from the beginning. Your friends will help us achieve our goal, so we left the ones that served no purpose for us. Now that we have your friend Syrup under our power we only need Infinity, that is to say, the little Chiffon. We already have Cure Flower and her fairy with us-.”
No soon had she said that Tsubomi let out an anguished scream, holding onto Itsuki. Karen swallowed thickly and continued reading.
“... so now we also have access to the Pretty Cure Castle. Right now we're on our way for Infinity, so you won't make it on time. We will get rid of all of you because it is necessary to fulfill our mission. As for your friends, we hope you said your good byes because you will never see them again. But don't worry about your own fate, you can go to classes and live your life as normal. Once summer break begins, at the end of that week we will find you to end our duel; you need to stop existing for the success of our mission. We'll be waiting for you on the forest on the west area of Wakabadai district, at the feet of the lion-shaped mountain. If you try to find us before, or one of you try to play the lone heroine, we WILL kill you without a second thought.
Sincerely: Cure Black and Cure White.”
There was only a second of silence.
“We have to rescue them!” Love screamed in despair.
“Gr-grandma!” Tsubomi cried, clinging desperately off Itsuki. “I have to make sure she's okay, they are lying! They must be lying! It's impossible they could have captured her!”
“Tsubomi, come!” Setsuna said right away, taking the smaller girl by the shoulder; she asked Akarun to take her to the greenhouse of Kibougahana.
While the two girls traveled the rest of the group fell little by little in despair. Nozomi and her friends were openly crying, Milk crying her heart out against Karen's chest, blaming herself for being unable to fulfill her mission of protecting her friends. Love was out of it, only managing to remain standing because of Miki and Inori's efforts. Saki and Mai held her partners tightly, ashamed and silently thanking the fact they hadn't been taken. It wasn't long before Setsuna returned, holding a heartbroken Tsubomi. That was all they needed to know Cure Flower and Coupe had been captured by Black and White.
“If they want a fight, we're going to give it to them!” Yuri shouted, getting everybody's attention. “Crying won't solve anything, if Black and White want a fight they will have it! We'll play by their rules, we will beat them and we will recover our friends! We have fought them several times already, we know how they fight, we know their weak points and we outnumber them!” she looked at everybody with strict eyes, speaking with a voice full of power. “We will fight with everything we have! Do you understand!”
Yuri's mighty voice had an immediate effect on her partners. Little by little they recovered, drying their tears and took a deep breath, nodding at the words of their senior. They would fight, they would no longer hold back! Black and White had gone too far this time.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Why in half parts? Cause the chapters are VERY LARGE for the 10,000 characters limit for a LJ post.
Read and enjoy. From my fangirl heart for you, guys. Remember, of you don't like yuri ^^; just don't flame so much, please. But, if you don't mind at all, then feel free to read it.
Oh, yeah! Our dear hen_yo is drawing scenes from the fanfic, here's the first ones (now with color) :
interview scene
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d116/DekaEve/Scene1-1.jpg
Soccer Game scene
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d116/DekaEve/Scene2-1.jpg
Saki and Mai scene
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d116/DekaEve/Scene3-1.jpg
PEACE~