Official Weathery Days Precure Tumblr!

    “Geeeeeez, Miyuuukiiiii! You’re so sloooooow!” Apoio complained as I walked up to him, a plate of cookies and two glasses of milk in hand.

    “Excuse you. I get winded up stairs. You can fly everywhere. Don’t even trip.” I glared at the fairy, setting a glass of milk and two of the cookies next to him.

    “Maybe you should consider one of those weight loss programs.” He suggested, taking a cookie from the pile, dipping it in the milk. Apoio proceeded to take a sizable bite out of the treat, crumbs sticking around his mouth. I didn’t really notice, because I was too busy foaming at the mouth at what he just said.

    “Y-You! Grr…” I grumbled, leaning closer to him. “I wouldn’t talk about weight loss when you’re becoming a literal butterball.” I poked his spherical body, which had grown even more spherical since we met.

    “Sh-shut up! I-It’sh jusht the dimenshonal weight shift! I’m jusht heafier in this universe!” He yelled through a mouthful of cookie. I watched him use his magicky levitate-y powers to chug down half the glass of milk.

    “Yeah, uh-huh. Sure. Or maybe you’re just pudgy.” I chuckled, picking him up and tossing him over my shoulder onto the bed. He landed on the blanket with a floomp. I made sure to keep my cool, but he was getting so heavy, I damn near broke my arm.

    “W-Well, screw you, Miyuki! I bet Rahh would accept me for my weight!”

    “Rahh would except you regardless. He’s practically in love with you.” I rolled my eyes, but when I looked at Apoio, I burst into laughter. He was blushing so hard you’d think he was a winged tomato.

    “H-He is not in love with me! I just protect him!”

    “You say that but he may want your fairy dick.”

    “MIYUKI I SWEAR TO GOD.”

    “WHAT CAN’T YOU HANDLE THE TRUTH-” I laughed, before both me and Apoio let out a horrified squeak at the Skype Call noise. Doot deet doot, bloop bloop, deet dootdoot, bleep bloop, doot deet doot, bloop bloop, deet dootdoot. Damn it, who’s even Skyping me all of the sudden? I walked over, leaving Apoio to pull himself from the carpet.

    “I’M GOING TO GET A SNACK.” He growled, and I heard the sound of angry gulping and chewing as he finished off the cookies and milk. I swear to God if I turned around and my share of the cookies were gone I was going to kill him. I pulled out the chair at my desk, sitting in front of it to see Rui’s skype icon. She’d had changed it to a picture of her holding a cup of Starbucks. I laughed internally because I was there when she took that picture. Not even a whole second later, she tripped, spilled it all over the ground and her shirt, and her hair was sticky for days. I couldn’t breathe. I pushed the “answer call” button, and was greeted by Rui’s face.

    “MIYUKI!” She hollered, and I nearly flew out of my chair. Damn, that was loud. “Did you recruit another Precure without telling me!?”

    “Wh-what? The hell are you talking about? The last Precure was you. Well, save for Otoha, but I don’t think she counts.”

    “Then explain THIS SHIT.” I was greeted by a link to a website in the chat. I clicked on it, to be taken to ‘Nagayamanews.jp’. More specifically, an article titled ‘The Top Ten Most Attractive Men in Film’.

    “...Rui, why.” I asked, my eyebrows flatlining. I saw Rui’s eyes widen, and hot red blush spread across her face.

    “UH-Uh...Ignore that. I meant this.” She squeaked, sending me another link. Nagayamanews.jp again. Except this time, it was much more interesting. Not in a necessarily good way though.

    “‘New Precure Sighted in Nagayama’!?” I yelped, leaning back in my chair.

    “Can you explain this?” Rui asked, raising an eyebrow.

    “Hold on, let me read.” I said, scrolling through the article. “Engaging narrator mode.”

    “Shut up and read it, you dork.” Rui looked unimpressed, but she had a smirk. She loved my gags, and she fucking knew it.

    “Alright. Ahem. ‘Its no secret that the strange warriors that have appeared to defeat monsters, the Precure, have been running around Nagayama City day and night in an attempt to keep our city safe. The amazing Cure Heat and the less than competent Cure Shine-’ HEY!” I narrowed my eyes, glaring at Rui through my computer screen. She giggled.

    “Keep reading.” She smiled, giving me an innocent look. Bitch. I sighed, and continued.

    “‘-and the less than competent Cure Shine have been working hard at keeping the peace. However, it appears a new Precure may be joining their roster. Residents found themselves skeptical as they walked outside this morning to find a massive creature, Rainy Days, they are called, terrorizing the city. However, a mysterious Precure, described as ‘having horns of ebony and a dress of white’ by witnesses, appeared and tore it to shreds. With a cry of ‘Precure Pure Pure Purifying’, the Rainy Day was obliterated before it could do much damage, and the Precure disappeared before a good look could be obtained.’”

    “After last week’s ‘Cure Shade’ incident, which was swiftly dispatched by the aforementioned Precure, people were skeptical of this new Cure, but after various feats of heroism, this ‘Cure Mystery’, as they have been dubbed, has secured the hearts of Nagayama City. We will post more information as it becomes available.’ ...What in every single hell?” I raised an eyebrow. “I’m competent! Way more competent than this random Precure!”

    “Not the point, Miyuki. Although I certainly wouldn’t say I agree with you.” I punched my webcam in response, and watched Rui jump. She simply chuckled at my antics. “Look, just check out the image gallery.”

    “Image gallery?” I scrolled down to see a few photos, under the label ‘Image Gallery’. “Ah.” I clicked on the photo, and raised my eyebrows. Each picture was extremely blurry and far away. Fortunately, my hermit class skill, ‘Photo Rendering Eyes’, earned by years of staring at a blurry computer screen, allowed me to decipher the image. And by decipher, I mean, I realized this ‘Cure Mystery’ was wearing red anime sunglasses, which I told Rui.

    “...Good. Anything else relevant?”

    “I don’t trust it in the slightest. Is that relevant?” Rui raised an eyebrow at my response.

    “You mean you don’t think they’re real?”

    “No, I mean I think we have another Otoha case, but not Otoha this time.”

    “You think its a Rainy Day?”

    “Hell fucking yeah I do.” I grumbled, before squeaking in surprise as Amai’s face came up, asking to join the call. I added her in, and soon Amai sat in her delightfully pink room right next to Rui. Her bangs were still as unkempt as ever, but her hair seemed to be full of all kinds of pins and I think there’s pieces of candy and toys in there.

    “...Tryin’ the deco style?” Rui asked, smirking

    “You know it.” Amai replied, standing up and showing us her outfit. It received a round of applause from Rui and I.

    “So, whatcha need, living runway?” I asked, coming up with my nteenth new nickname for her.

    “I wanted to ask you guys if you’ve seen that new Precure.” Rui and I froze up instantly, eyeing each other in the chat momentarily.

    “Uh...yeah, we did, why?” Rui questioned, and I could see she was starting to sweat.

    “I’m intrigued. That messy team of Cure Shine and Cure Heat, who, IMO, is getting dragged down by Cure Shine.” I grabbed my arm to make sure I didn’t punch the fashionable cunt through the internet. “But...that Cure Mystery. What’re they doing? All by themself, their outfit looks completely different, and the horns and all. They look like a completely separate person.”

    “O-Oh, really...?” I shakily asked, trying not to seem suspicious.

    “We should totally go downtown and watch for when they show up.”

    “E-Eh? Why?”

    “Because there’s a Rainy Day attacking downtown.”

    “WHAT!?” Rui and I had the same response, and her eyebrows practically broke the roof. I looked at Rui, and she looked at me, and we nodded.

    “S-Sure thing, Amai…” I chuckled, digging around in my drawer for my Cure Box and Cure Coin. “W-We’ll be there in twenty minutes! I sure hope that Cure Shine doesn’t show up before us! She’s amazing!”

    “I hope to God you’re kidding. She couldn’t do speed if she was a drug addict.” I ended the call right there. I didn’t have time for these insults. I turned around, and saw my plate of cookies was empty. I cursed Apoio with every curse in my library, even English ones, but I immediately sprinted downstairs to see my mom and brother in the living room.

    “Miyuki? You decided to come out of your room! How wonderful!” She said, wrapping her arms around my neck.

    “M-Mom!” I choked as she hugged me tighter. For a business woman, she has strong as hell arms. “I l-love you too, b-but I need to go downtown!”

    “Downtown? Dearie, no! There’s a monster down there! We need to wait for it to be safe.”

    “But Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!” I groaned, only to get a tsk, tsk, tsk out of her.

    “No buts, Miyuki. I don’t want to hear my daughter got ripped to shreds by some random purple blob.”

    “...Alright, fine. But let me at least say one thing.” I sighed. It was clear I wasn’t going to win this argument.

    “Yes dear?” Mom asked, raising an eyebrow. I inhaled to say something, and immediately sprinted past her, curling into a ball and jumping out the window. Unfortunately, the window was open, so I just hit my head against the bottom of the pane and flopped onto the sill, half in and half out. “M-Miyuki! Oh my God!”

    “Sorry, Mom! I’ve got fish to fry! And their name is…” If my Mom knew I was a Precure, I could totally make a sick pun. But alas, she didn’t and so my excellent comedy had to wait. “Not being here!” I hastily finished the joke, sliding off of the windowsill and sprinting off into the small patch of trees between my house and civilization. I didn’t realize I didn’t bring Apoio with me until I left, but I didn’t need that pudgeball. Today was my day. He could...do whatever he was doing. I simply braced myself for scolding when I got home and burst out onto the sidewalk, sprinting towards downtown.

    Then I realized I was running towards uptown, so I made a u-turn and sprinted the other way.

    “Rere! Rere! I wanna be strong! Rere! Rere!” The golem-shaped Rainy Day pounded at buildings, kicking over metal signs and breaking parking meters. Rui and I watched from the corner of a rooftop, the wind making us look way more swaggie than we actually were.

    “...Ya think they’re coming?” I asked Rui, turning around to look at her. I was on me knees, keeping a ground lookout, while the teenage queen watched the skyline.

    “...I don’t think so, but if we start fighting and they suddenly come in and save the day, Imma be pissed.” She grunted back. I dug around in my hoodie pocket, pulling out the Cure Box. I saw Rui pull the same thing from her vest.

    “Let’s just transform and take down this thing. I’d hate to just leave it to rampage for some fake ass Precure to come out.” I said, Rui nodding. I turned to Rahh, who had come alongside Rui, who seemed to be monitoring the air alongside us. “If you see them, give us a warning.” Rahh gave me a paws-up, and Rui and I nodded to each other.

“Precure! Weather-!” Our yelling and waving of magical objects was interrupted by a white blur that crashed into the asphalt, leaving a small crater around it. Something popped up on Rahh’s monitor, and he stared at it startled.

“I-It’s Cure Mystery! Cure Mystery!” He yelped, shaking a paw at the screen. Rui and I got a front row seat as we watched this new Precure sashay, yes, sashay over to the golem. The Rainy Day stared them down, and raised a massive hand to whack the smaller person aside. I braced myself for Precure bits to get splattered all over the street, but Cure Mystery grabbed its arm with one hand. Wrapping their arms around the monster’s wrist, they took a step back, and in a move of grace I have never seen before, they launched the Rainy Day into the sky.

“Holy shit!” Was the only thing I could say as the once intimidating golem was now meek as it shot towards the clouds. Cure Mystery launched themself into the air, unleashing a furious flurry of punches and kicks. The Rainy Day literally seemed to crack from the assault of strikes, and not the good kind of crack. If I was narrating in that cramped studio, Rui probably would have punched me again. Good thing we were on a roof where she could easy push me off of the ledge.

    “Precure!” A rather childish voice echoed from Cure Mystery. I was surprised it traveled this far, since they were, oh I don’t know, a good 36,000 feet above sea level. I saw a bright white glow, and particles seemed to spiral around them. “Pure Pure Purifying!” A line of bright white pierced the Rainy Day, and then the entire sky flooded with white. It was blinding, like the time I walked in on my Dad when he forgot to lock the bathroom door. My parents had to chain me away from the bleach for awhile. Ugh, I shuddered at the memory.

    Oh right, we were watching some weirdo beat up a Rainy Day and somehow do it better than the rest of us. Cure Mystery hit the ground with a gentle clack, compared to their crater-worthy entrance. Suddenly, a familiar black-haired girl sprinted out of an alleyway. Wait, oh my God, she wasn’t going to-oh my God she was.

    “Cure Mystery! Cure Mystery!” Amai yelped, once again not keeping to herself quietly. This girl was just breaking her personality left and right the past few weeks. “I’ve got you now!” She whipped out her cell phone, covered in all kinds of charms and stickers, and I saw from the camera flash she took a photo. At the exact same moment, the strange Cure fled the scene, ignoring the Skin that had dropped.

    Rui and I climbed down the fire escape (despite the fact that there were perfectly good and safe stairs nearby), and with a hop, she landed perfectly. I landed with my feet behind my ears because ow. I was not made for gymnastics and five feet is a far drop.

    “Guys! Did you see them? Didya see!?” She asked excitedly, staring at her phone. My phone buzzed, and it was a text from Amai, showing me a very blurry picture of Cure Mystery. They looked like an animation smear with sunglasses. “Oh my God, I need to sell this to all the tabloids! #CUREMYSTERY HERE I COME!” Amai cheered, but I grabbed her by the back of her oversized pink sweater.

    “Halt.” I frowned, handing her over to Rui. I walked away, picked up the skin, a bright copper color, and shoved it in my pocket. Walking back, I asked Amai a question. “Amai, why are you so interested about this ‘Cure Mystery’ or whatever?”

    “Because they’re so...secretive.  It’s like finding out that your favorite anime is ending and is being replaced by a ‘successor anime’ that is ripping off something that ripped your favorite anime off, but in a good way. Just imagine who this Precure might be! They don’t even associate with those Cure Shine and Cure Heat fellows!” Amai was off on one of her tangents again. I rolled my eyes, but rolled them back as a group of cameras came rushing forward, mostly around Amai. Lots of bright flashes ensued, and I realized how much I hated bright lights. It was only, what, 11 AM? I did not have time for this. A lady with heavy makeup to hide her hideous personality walked up to Amai. Jeez, she looked like if she stopped smiling, her makeup would crack and fly off of her face.

    “And here I am with renowned local star, Kurosaba Amai, who has just witnessed the elusive Cure Mystery in action! Miss Kurosaba, what exactly happened here?” She asked, holding the microphone up to Amai. Amai looked over at us, but back to the camera.

    “Y-Yes, well, uh, I...I was just heading downtown...and...uh...I...uh…” She stammered. Amai may seem confident a good 200% of the time, be it on stage or in life in general, but the moment you put a camera in front of her and asked her questions, she became the weakest bitch in the chain-link fence known as the sisterhood. She shot another glance at the two of us through her bangs, and we instantly knew what to do.

    “Ready Rui?” I asked, stepping in front of Amai.

    “I most certainly am, Miyuki.” Rui agreed, a smirk on her face, following in my footsteps. We both slid our left foot forwards, held our right fists up, and spun them in one, two, three circles.

    “Para-Para-Para-Papparazzi PUNCH!” We yelled at the same time, our fists colliding with the two cameras in front of us. I felt glass shatter and slice my knuckles a bit, but I didn’t care. I loved having permission to punch out rude people, even if it was a camera. And I hated watching Amai suffer like that. Made me sick. Rui stuck her tongue out, holding up two of her bloody fingers up in a peace sign over her eye, which she winked.

“Don’t mess with our friend again, okay~?” She asked sweetly, and I scooped up Amai in my arms, before immediately handing her to Rui. Damn, she was heavy. Rui seemed to have no problem carrying her. The two of us sprinted off into the distance. And I made slight eye contact with a rather muscular stranger who was standing next to some small bony guy. I didn’t think much of it though, and looked back towards where I was going. Much to my dismay, a lamp post was going in the opposite direction. This could have been shoujo as fuck had I not nearly broken both my nose and my ribs on contact.

“...That girl. The one they’re carrying.” The muscular one said, chewing a piece of Pocky in his mouth.

“ What about her?” The nerd-looking one asked, looking up from his book to watch the trio of girls and one me sprinting away. The beefy one smirked.

“Nothing.” He chuckled, nibbling so hard that the chocolate treat splintered into pieces. “...Let’s keep an eye on her though.”

    “Phew, thanks guys. You got me out of a real jam.” Amai sighed, giving us a soft smile. The soft smile was kind of lost as we proceeded to pant our lungs out on Otoha’s couch. Also, we were in Otoha’s house. She was the closest one to us, and as strong as Rui is, I couldn’t just have her heave Amai for a mile and a half to my and/or her house. And Amai lived...somewhere. That moment when you realize you have never been to a close friend’s house. I shrugged it off, leaving my fantasy of wherever Amai lived (probably a fashionable cardboard box by the freeway) to rot while I checked out the kitchen. Otoha always had good stuff, or at least the ingredients for good stuff. I shuddered at the thought of strawberries and goat cheese. Not yummy at all.

    “It was no problem, Amai. We always have your back. The Ruiyuki Idol Protection Agency will always be by your side!” Rui puffed out her chest, thudding it with her fist. I heard her yelp when the whacked herself in the boob though. I rustled through the cabinets, pulling out a bag of flour, some sugar, and who the hell keeps their butter in their cabinets?! Otoha’s family is weird.

    “We got you Amai, don’t worry.” I shot the two of them a thumbs up, pulling out the eggs from the fridge and placing them on the counter. I hummed a jaunty tune, taking out some assorted bowls and measuring items.

    “Alright guys, my mom said you can stay as long as you need. Just don’t go into her room.” I saw Otoha visibly shudder. She looked pale as a ghost. Paler than me. That’s a hella surprise. I cracked a few eggs into the bowl.

    “Fantastic. I think I’ll stay here until things are less awkward at home.” I grinned as I continued my work.

    “Anyway, so what the hell was going on down there? I heard on the news that a Rainy Day was attacking, and then all of the sudden this ‘Cure Mystery’ appeared. Did you guys-” She paused as Amai poked up with interest from the couch. “Er...I mean, did they add another Precure to their team?”

    “I wish. Cure Mystery refuses to associate with...the other two. They appear, then disappear, and Shine and Heat are none the wiser.” Rui explained, shrugging. “They’re strong enough to take out a Rainy Day in less than a minute. We’ve seen it through our own eyes.” I made that ‘agreement’ noise when Rui finished her sentence, violently assaulting dough with a whisk.

    “Well, I’ll tweet out this photo. Maybe I can get some information on them.” Amai pulled out her phone, pushing some of the buttons on it, and then a few seconds later, all our phones buzzed with a new tweet from ‘Kurosaba Amai (@amaiabitch69)’. I laughed every time I saw her name. I retweeted it, trying to ignore my own username ‘Koyama Miyuki (@swaggieliciousnerd)’. I went through a phase. Shut up. “Oh hey!”

    We all turned back to Amai, and she held up her phone. Damn her and her fans, she already has 23 retweets in the past twenty seconds. It was still going up, too. I looked at what she was gesturing to, and it was a rather strange reply.

------

AsgDlg000flgj RKD101DEsf9GFgnd (@soorRTKGmg)

STOP

------

    “...Stop?” I raised an eyebrow. “Stop what?”

    “I don’t know, but I screenshotted it. I went to the account, and listen to this shit.” Amai chuckled darkly, pulling it open. The entirety of the background was just solid white. I was confused when she said ‘listen to this shit’, but then I realized, very low static was playing. It was almost inaudible, but we all heard it. Every single tweet was a retweet of a picture or something related to Cure Mystery, and every single one was just ‘STOP’ in all caps. I felt like I was in a creepypasta for a moment, then I realized if anyone wanted to fuck with me they’d have Cure Shine to contend with. They’d probably still win though.

    “...I think this is Cure Mystery’s Tweeter account.” Rui said after examining the page.

    “What makes you say that?” I raised my other eyebrow at her. Damn, my eyebrow game was strong today.

    “Because if you’ve watched a horror movie ever, you know that the OBVIOUSLY CREEPY THING is the ANTAGONIST’S DOING. It’s the biggest trope in the horror book, and you all fell for it.”

    “Oooooh.” A collective wave of shame washed over everyone. I thought we were better than this. Damn tropes and their trickiness. In this downtime, I looked out the window. It’d started raining. Damn Nagayama’s inclement weather. It’s like demons just decided to smack around the clouds until they cried and just ruined everyone’s day plans. The oven went ‘ding’ and I literally screamed.

    “M-Miyuki!? Are you alright?” Otoha asked, concerned, helping me up as I had just flopped onto the carpet ass-first.

    “Y-Yeah, sorry. The oven scared me, is all.” I chuckled. Maybe I really was in a creepypasta. I walked over to the oven, giving it a swift kick in an attempt to open the door. After a good thirty seconds of jumping around on one leg, cursing every deity in existence at how I nearly broke my toes, I gripped the handle and popped it open. I pulled the object in question out of the oven, and placed it on the table. I dug out a canister of frosting, using great force to resist the urge to eat it, and began slathering it gratuitously upon the thing.

    “Well, the point stands. We need to find out who this Cure Mystery is. They very well could be a danger who’s just eliminating all other threats.” Rui said, crossing her arms and sitting on the ottoman, barely crushing Amai’s legs.

    “Well, why don’t we try asking other people?” Otoha perked up. I looked at her, and then realized that that was something we could have done the whole time.

    “Excellent!” I punched the sky (or the ceiling at least). “You guys do that, and I’ll stay here and watch the news!” I chuckled. What a dastardly plan. Let them do all the work while I stay home and let my social fears fester as I watch fake humans make assholes of themselves on daytime television. Even though it was, what, 2 PM?  Right now, the shows should be fading out of terrible children’s cartoons. Still, a few might be happening until the 3 o’clock mark. Then I’d be screwed. I imagined myself yelling at the screen “YOU HAVE THE MAP DON’T ASK ME”, and I snickered a bit at the thought.

    “Tsk, tsk, tsk. You’re not getting off so easily, Miyuki.” I practically heard a devilish grin behind me, and then I realized Amai was breathing down my neck. “As I have paparazzi after me, I shall wait in Otoha’s house and watch the news. You, on the other hand,” She grabbed me by the hood and turned me around towards the front door. “...shall go outside with Rui and Otoha.”

“...” I didn’t say anything, but I did indeed pout. I crossed my arms, stuck out my tongue, and stared at everything in a disappointed manner. I looked like Apoio when I refuse to get him a snack at fucking 1 in the morning.

“In the mean time, I’m stealing a slice of this good-ass cake.” Amai finally said, noticing the beautifully hand-crafted pastry sitting on the table.

“Wait! Not yet!” I growled, struggling my way out of the otaku’s grip. I sprinted over to Otoha’s fridge, and took out a box of strawberries. I shoved the fashion queen out of the way, and with lightning speed powers only gifted to a Precure (or a girl with too much time on her hands), the cake had a ring of strawberries around the edge, a single one in the center. “There we go. A cake is worthless if no effort is put into it!” I chuckled at my own proverb. The girls applauded my resourcefulness, and Amai produced a knife for the slicing to begin. No one wanted to go near it though, as we had no idea where she got it from and she had just tossed it into the air in such a way that it stabbed a cutting board on the way down. Fortunately, Amai was happy to slice the cake while we all hid on the other side of the room.

“Mmmm, this is some good-ass cake.” Amai chuckled, happily gnawing away at the piece she’d happily taken for herself. In the meantime, Otoha swiped the knife away from the sociopath, freeing the rest of us to take our individual slices.

“Alright, Cure Mystery Infohunt Squad, Mission Start!” We cheered together, pointing at the door. None of us moved though, too busy finishing this cake. Wow, I outdid myself for some bare bones ingredients. It was a good ten or so minutes before the three of us were kicked out of Otoha’s apartment. And so, we trekked our way to the city.

“Pardon me, sir, have you heard about Cure Mystery?” Otoha asked.

“Hello, ma’am, have you opened your heart to our lord and savior Cure Mystery?” Rui questioned.

“What can you tell me about Cure Mystery?” I interrogated, in my best Shepard impersonation. Of course, we got little to no information on the subject. They either told us what we already knew, or nothing at all. The three of us regrouped in front of Sweet Marie’s (which Rui had to hold me by the hood to keep me from dashing into).

“Geez, finding info is harder than I thought.” Otoha grumbled, sipping her milkshake.

“I just got a text from Amai, she said no one on Tweeter was being helpful.” Rui stared at her phone in disdain. This was not gonna be easy.

Suddenly, all our phones buzzed at once, and we checked them. An unknown number texted us.

“...Did you guys get that message too?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Does yours say ‘Heartcatch Street, 4:30:27 PM, Stop’?” Rui replied, but she knew my answer, as did Otoha.

“Well, we better get going.” I replied, shoving my phone in my pocket. I proceeded to take out my Cure Box, but Rui stopped me.

“You fool! First of all, do you even know where Heartcatch Street is? Second of all, don’t transform in the middle of public! Third of all, why are we even going? It could be a trap!”

“First, no. Second, fine. Third, exactly.” I answered the questions rapid fire, and dodged my way into an alleyway. “We have exactly ten minutes, and I don’t want to be there too late for the party.”

“...Party? Oh, for Christ’s sake. Alright, let’s go.” Rui just seemed to grumble. So much for the great and fantastic Cure Heat, eh? I saw her dig out her Cure Box, and we got ready to transform, Otoha watching us with menacingly interested eyes.

“Precure! Weather Scan!” A lot of fabulous twirling later, and the two of us clacked onto the ground, not even bothering with our mottos because it was pointless if there wasn’t a bad guy to yell them at. Suddenly, Rahh popped up from the pin that was attached to Rui’s skirt.

“A-Alright! L-Let me calibrate for Splash Star Street!” He pulled out his weird hologram monitor and started fiddling with it a bit. “Ah! There! I see something!”

“What is it?” Rui asked coolly, which did not match her hot blooded image.

“An influx of s-strong emotions, and I see two th-things right next to it!”

“What things?”

“I d-don’t know, but there’s a lot of darkness! It’s the same magic that denotes a Rainy Day, but a lot more c-condensed!”

“Hmmm, looks like we may have found who’s making these Rainy Days.” I thought back to the girl in the jumpsuit, and the two guys Otoha told me about. Could they have something to do with these? I mean, they obviously did, but if they didn’t I was gonna be super pissed. “Come on, Heat! Let’s go!” I readied a jump, and leapt up to the roof of Sweet Marie’s. Or, tried to, as I came dangerously close, only to end up practically eating the concrete on the roof and falling back down. There was a dust cloud. Rui couldn’t help but laugh.

“M-Miyuki! You’re s-such a mess!” She quirked out between laughs. When Rui’s fits of laughter lightened into chuckles, she took a step back, and charged forward. I saw some fire materialize under her hands, and right before she hit the wall, she forced a burst of flame downwards, sending her rocketing into the sky, or more like the roof. I simply sat on my ass attempting to calm my hair down. All that heat is seriously damaging, even to the immortal Precure hair. “Come on, Miyuyu! I don’t got all day!” She yelled back. I frowned at her, and climbed onto all fours. I leaned back, and then did my best frog impression, flying up, over Rui, and landing with a perfect ten. Haha, just kidding, I landed face first around fifteen or so feet past her. At least I made it. “...6/10.” Rui fake applauded, and Rahh simply laughed.

“Shut up, and let’s go.” I growled, peeling myself up, and before she could taunt me more, I took the fuck off. Rui chased after me though, using her fiery bursts to propel her forward. We’d be at Splash Star Street in no time, but I wasn’t focused on that. I skidded to a stop, turning around as Rui flew towards me at what could have very well been sixty miles per hour. I pushed my hands together, letting a few sparkles hover around me. “Shining…”

“...Flash!” I yelped, giving a quick spin, and a burst of light blinded Rui, knocking her off of her streak.

“Not fair!” She cried, pouting and staring up at me.

“Neither is using your damn fire powers!” I laughed, a bit maniacally. I turned on my heel, leaving her to eat my dust. I’d probably be paying for that later, but later was not now. And so, I continued Sonic the Hedgehog-ing my way towards Splash Star Street, nothing but the thought of winning the race on my mind.

I skidded to halt just as my shoes touched the curb of the roof. I stared down, to see three people. The girl with that balloon crown, some dude in a business suit, aaaaand...Cure Mystery!? I ducked down behind the edge, peeking out at what was going on. God damn it, why couldn’t there be like some…CureNoculars? Love BinoCures? PreScopes? Whoever names Precure stuff is better than me at it. I just wanted some binoculars.

“And now…” I shut my thoughts up as the blurry people far below starting talking. “...may your frustration be turned into strength!” A familiar blast of purple lightning erupted from the street, and the business man fell to his knees. I also noticed the balloon crown girl was extremely pale. Wow, go tanning much? I bet she was ashy. Bitches be ashy when they look like that. Straight up looking like a volcanic eruption. Looking like the snorted cocaine through their elbows. Looking like they just-”Come forth, Rainy Day! Wreak havoc on this perfect world!” Oh right, Precure duties. I put my ashy monologue on hold, and watched something purple, gelatinous, and looked kind of like a giant typewriter replace the man in a puff of purple smoke.

“Rere! Rere! I hate business! But I have to do it! It makes money! Rere! Rere!” It chanted, and I rolled my eyes. Yeesh, never did I want to be in that position. I finally stood up, time to make my entrance. But, I shot down a small ball of light first to draw attention to me. I needed to look as cool as possible.

“Eh!?” The girl said, turning to me, as did the Rainy Day and Cure Mystery.

“Hold it right there!” I hollered, placing a foot on top of the roof’s edge. “How dare you! Using people’s emotions to make them do your dirty work! Turning them into monsters for no good reason! Absolutely despicable!”

“Wh-!? Who are you?” Balloon crown lady asked. I saw Rui flying at me out of the corner of my eye, and I quickly sidestepped. Rui proceeded to collide with the roof curb, trip, and fall two stories and faceplant in a trashcan. We all stared at her for a good seven seconds (I used this time to make a Vine of it. Excellent.), before I finally snapped up.

“I am…” I jumped down from the roof, and got ready to look cool as hell again.

“The Protector of the Sun and every living thing’s glow, Cure Shine!” I shouted, hearing Rui dig herself out from the trashcan.

“The Bringer of warmth and obliterating flames! Cure Heat!” She also shouted.

“Together, we are the protectors of happiness and sunshine! For good days forever more!” We both jumped backward, but not that far, because the wall would have clipped through the wall and caused a glitch in the real world. Would have been a mess. “Weathery Days Precure!”

“...Well, ‘Weathery Days Precure’, was it? You must have been the two to take down the previous creations of the Bad Weather Group. But this time, I, Weathave, and my precious Rainy Day, shall destroy you!”

“...Weathave? Are you serious?” I raised an eyebrow.

“It’s an anagram for Heat Wave, you nerd!” She growled. “But enough talk, go get ‘em, Rainy Day!”

“Rere! Don’t frustrate me! I’ll get mad! Rere!” The Rainy Day stomped back and forth, charging at me. Something opened up in the front, and it was like a cannon. With little ‘pew pew pew’ noises, several bubbles containing cartoony letters flew out. What was this, a cheesy typing game for kids? Rui suddenly slid in front of me, knocking the bubbles aside.

“Miyuki! Go save Cure Mystery! They can’t be here on their own! They must’ve captured them!” I was skeptical of this command, but this Rainy Day looked like something I didn’t want to mess with. I couldn’t stop Rui anyway. She was always like that. That’s why she was the leader of the group, after all. She sprung into the air, and started rapid fire kicking the shit out of the bubbles in the air, landing on one of the keys. Suddenly, one of the “T” bubbles popped, and the Rainy Day got whacked in the face with the stampy thing. Something clicked in Rui’s brain, and she knew what to do. “Hup! T-Y-P-E-W-R-I-T-E-R!” She called out, continually punching and kicking at the keyboard. The Rainy Day just sort of stumbled back, as the buttons whacked it in the face. The bubbles that were attacking her popped one by one as she typed out more words.

“Don’t worry, I got you!” I called to Cure Mystery, sprinting over to the strange Precure. Weathave was too focused and keeping Rui from obliterating her Rainy Day, so I was free to run over. Then I realized…Cure Mystery wasn’t tied up. They just, stood there. They weren’t even moving. “C-Cure Mystery…?” I asked, and I watched their head slowly tilt towards me. Their entire face seemed to be obscured by a black, shiny sphere, save for the comically oversized red anime sunglasses. “Are you...okay?” I looked them over. Their body seemed metallic, and also very small. They were a good two feet shorter than me, and their body seemed to be made of white metal with a little skirt to match. Their arms and legs seemed to be made of silvery metal, and their shoes were the same red as their sunglasses. Also, witch hat. I reached a hand up to poke at their face, and their head just...stared at me. Something was wrong.

“Precure!” I suddenly heard Rui’s voice. “Burning Flair!” She shouted, and I suddenly felt a blast of hot wind hurricane throughout the cul-de-sac. I turned around to see a fried typewriter, but it wasn’t done. Wait...it wasn’t done? But...it should be purified! Something punched me in the spine, and I practically spat out a lung. When I re-opened my eyes, I was embedded in the brick wall on the other side of the road.

“Wh...Wh…” I turned my head around slowly, my entire body aching. Being put through a BRICK WALL will do that to you.

“Now, Rainy Days! If you can’t win separately, merge together!” Weathave shouted, clasping her hands together. Cure Mystery shot into the air, and let out a purple glow. There was an explosion, and I dug my heels into the ground in an attempt to not fly everywhere. Rui was less lucky, and got tossed onto her butt. When we managed to open our eyes without fear of being sandblasted to shit, we saw an abomination. In place of both the typewriter and Cure Mystery, there was some weird amalgamation. It had the top half of Cure Mystery, but its entire lower body was more akin to the typewriter, but instead of the two legs, there were eight. Also, shoulder cannons.

“Rere! RerereRERERERERERERERE!” It giggled maniacally, the distortion of the Rainy Day’s voice even more distorted. It sounded like a Boo had a child with Bowser and then that child had a stroke. Disturbing was an understatement. More like bone-chilling. Icy.

“Now, see the beautiful horribleness of not one, but TWO Rainy Days!” The monster leaned forward, shooting two massive letter bubbles out of its cannons. Rui and I went to dodge, but they homed after us. I was quickly smashed into the cement. Rui got sent flying. I sat up just in time to watch her use a burst of fire in an attempt to recover.

“Oh no you don’t!” She said, summoning a ball of fire in her hand. “Heated Fefnir Halberd!” Rui stroked the air in a disturbing manner, and the ball of fire became a spear. She reeled back, and launched the weapon with perfect accuracy. The Rainy Day was TOAST! Or, would have been, as it put up a massive hand and easily deflected the pointy object.

“RerereRE!” Another hand came out of its back, shooting towards Rui, who was still levitating in the air somehow. She used a few more flaming shots to try and keep herself away from the hand, but the girl was smacked down quickly. There was a crater where she wound up. Ouch.

    “Rui!” I yelped in an attempt to get up, but I took another cannon bubble to the face. Gah, that felt dislocated. Or, would have been, if Precure could be dislocated. I got on my hands and knees, and pushed myself up again. “I...I won’t let you hurt her like that!” I growled. “I...won’t let you hurt my precious friend like that!” I got ready to unleash something, anything I could muster, but a hand punched me back into the concrete. There was a glass shattering noise, and I felt...weaker. Human. I struggled to get up but I could barely lift my head. My Precure clothes were gone, leaving me with that silk thin dress I’d seen so many times. Was this...it? No...it couldn’t be. And it wasn’t.

    “Fairy Shielding Pierce!” An unfamiliar voice howled, and a burst of light shot from somewhere behind me. It hit the Rainy Day right between the eyes, and something around it broke. Something that was previously invisible, but now had a glowing yellow tint before it shattered effortlessly. I struggled to get up, but with a head wound, that was no easy task. I propped myself onto my elbows just in time to see two guys. One big and muscular, the other thin and dorky, sprint in front of us. A girl with messy black hair followed, holding something in her hand. Was...was that a Cure Box…? My vision was starting to blur. The scrawny one ran up to me, and something wet touched my face. Suddenly, there was more shattering noises, but the pain faded instantly.

    I looked down. Gray hoodie, sweatpants, sneakers. I checked my hair, brown, unkempt, long but not too long. I was back to normal...but why. I turned my head, to see the glasses-wearing dude giving me a smirk. What was that smirk for? My mind snapped back to the girl and the muscular dude. Wait a minute...I’d recognize that mess of hair anywhere.

    “Amai!” I shouted, attempting to sit up. Pain shot through my spine. Okay, ow, not pleasant. The scrawny dude put his hand against my chest, and kept me down.

    “Shhh, it’s alright. We’re here to help, Shine.” S-Shine!? How’d he know my Precure name!?

“H-How do you…” I asked weakly, but I heard laughter. Despicable laughter.

“Oh, whats this? A big strong man and his hikikomori girlfriend coming to save two Precure?” Weathave asked, sitting on a cloud she materialized from nowhere. “Oh, how pitiful.”

“This chick ain’t no hikikomori, and she sure as hell ain’t mah girlfriend!” The muscular one puffed out his chest. “That nerd o’er there’s /mah/ girlfriend!” Scrawny dude blushed a bit, shooting the other one a look. “But this ain’t no time for semantics!” A plink of yellow light later, and the muscular guy had turned into...a fairy!? Did someone put acid in that cake and its finally kicking in? “Come on, new chick! Let’s go!”

“You got it, Sole!” The messy girl held up her Cure Box, and this...’Sole’ character tossed her a blue Cure Coin. Wait, what was Amai doing!?

“Precure! Weather Scan!”

The familiar pinking noise was all it took, as things were flooded in blue light. Amai practically skated around in a world of bubbles. Her hair lengthened to lengths I didn’t even think were possible. Torrents of water came up in every jump, wrapping around her like ribbons that formed her outfit. Shoes, skirt, top, etcetera. A ribbon wrapped itself around her now blue hair, and she posed in a splash of teal.

“Wielder of rain and brilliant lightning, Cure Stormy!”

In short, I was shocked. In long, however, HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT HOLD UP SINCE WHEN WHAT WHO WHY WHERE AND HOW!? I finally managed to shuffle myself into a more upright position, while the dork lord did...whatever he was doing.

“Amai!? What the hell!?” Rui asked, slowly getting up. Oh, I see how it is. I have to be smacked down but the LEADER stays in tact. Or, relatively in tact. She looked beat up too, but to a lesser degree. Amai didn’t even turn around, she just glared at Weathave with that deadly look she gave people whenever they stole her food. She taught me how to do it once. No one ever took my french fries again.

“You!” The now blue-haired girl jammed a finger at Weathave. “How dare you abuse your power to cause suffering!” Amai growled. “And how dare you hurt two of my best friends like that!” She took a step forward. “Why would you call your horrible creatures ‘Rainy Days’!? Don’t you fools know that a rainy day is a good thing!? It’s a fresh start, a reset to all the mistakes made in the sunlight!” She’s started running up to Weathave now. “And to abuse the beauty of the rain is unforgivable! You’re a pitiful excuse for a rainy day, thats what you are!” And then in that moment, she delivered the most glorious action movie one liner I have ever heard in my life.

“You ignored the drizzle, but I’m the storm, motherfucker.” I would have applauded her if my arms weren’t killing me.

“Oh, would you look at that? A little knight has come to protect her harem.” Weathave laughed, unaware that that’d be her downfall. You can do a lot of things, but you do NOT laugh at Amai Panini Yukine Marié Gonzalez Rasputin Kurosaba III. I feel like said villain knew this when Amai had her newly-powered fist in her face.

“Oh-oh how DARE you!” Weathave shouted from the wall she became embedded in.

“Thats my line!” Amai smirked, cocking her hips.

“Grrr...Rainy Day, take her out!”

“Rere! RereeeeeererererERERERERrere!” The massive amalgamation charged at Amai, who used her skinny-ness to slip through the monster’s spindly legs. She pulled an arm back, and uppercut the underside of the Rainy Day, sending it flying into the air. Amai pushed a leg out, and spun around on her heel, creating a torrent of water that launched her into the sky.

“Stormy Waterfall Jet!” She called, ramming against the anime typewriter with a hard rush of refreshing liquid. This was probably not very refreshing though. Amai had positioned herself above the Rainy Day, doing a flip in midair and ramming the back of her leg into the Rainy Day with all her strength. The creature slammed into the concrete with a screech, leaving behind a crater larger than what both Rui and I were sitting in.

“Go, Am-I mean Stormy! Finish it!” I yowled, and Rui cheered with me with many yells of “You can do it, Stormy!”

Amai raised an open hand to the sky, and thunder crackled in the air suddenly. I was about to chalk it up to Nagayama having weather akin to Detroit’s social status, but then I realized Amai was glowing a shady blue color. “Precure…” She hummed, slowly levitating off of the ground. Suddenly, everything flashed white, and sparks started bouncing and springing around her. It seemed to center itself around her arm, which she brought down to her chest. Then, actual lightning struck Amai. Like, legitimate. I felt the heat coming off of it, and I was a good 50 feet away. She slowly moved her hand down, tossing the sparks between her hands, slowly moving faster and faster. “Arc…” When she reached what was probably warp speed, she threw her hand up into the now cloudy sky. “Flash!” Amai swung her arm down, pointing straight at the Rainy Day. A spark echoed from the sky, and then a pillar of electrifying light in all kinds of colors shot from the sky like some twisted second coming bullshit. She pretty much just Master Spark’d those two from the clouds. Damn, why couldn’t I have a cool attack like that? Maximum bullshit right there.

“And don’t you think about coming back with your pissweak excuse for a monster again!” Amai growled when her attack finished. The business man and a little child who I assumed to be Cure Mystery sat unconscious next to a fried Weathave.

“Y-You...You’ll pay for this!” Said villain growled, before creating some kind of cloud and jumping into it. The cloud popped, leaving nothing behind save for some white puffs. Word to the wise, do not eat these. When I was finally capable of getting up I tried one and it tasted like ass and cotton balls, and it was the consistency of milk that became so old it became that awkward state of semi-solid but semi-liquid.

“So, Amai’s a Precure huh?” Rui said as the nerd helped me up. “But...who are you two?” She asked, gesturing to the buff fairy, who returned to his previous form as the muscular guy from before. Rahh, who had perched himself on Rui’s shoulder suddenly, seemed to be a bit terrified of this guy. I gave him a little scratch behind the ear, and he purred.

“Ah, wonderin’ about me? The name’s Sole. I’mma fairy from that Bright Land you’ve probs heard about.” He grumbled, crossing his arms. “If it weren’t for me, you two would’a been toast.”

“...Sole?” Rui perked up at the name, turning to Rahh. “The same Sole you’ve told me about?” Rahh shakily nodded. He started shaking even more when this fairy-turned-human scooped up Rahh off of Rui’s shoulder, dangling him in the air.

“P-Put me down!”

“Not so fast, squirt. I didn’t think ya had it in ya to find yer Precure!” Sole said, giving the fairy a sharp toothed grin. “I’m actually a lil’ proud o’ ya!”

“R-Really…?” Rahh squeaked, a hopeful glimmer in his eyes.

“Yep! Here’s yer reward!” And then he fucking ate Rahh. Or that’s what I thought, instead he just lowered the fairy to his mouth, and licked him. Not a short lick either, but a long ass lick that coated the entire front half of Rahh in saliva. I’m pretty sure I heard Rahh moan, but in all honesty I’m trying to repress that memory. At least he was courteous enough to not put it back on Rui’s shoulder. He simply left the vibrating fairy in the air and turned to the scrawny guy. “Now, this here’s Heleos. Mah partner and best pal!” He puffed out his chest, giving it a good whack of pride. Heleos, who seemed to be shaking and a little jealous of that lick he just gave Rahh, simply nodded. He adjusted his glasses and turned to me.

“We’ve been monitoring you two for awhile now. And when we saw Amai running in the same direction as a giant swirling mass of darkness, we couldn’t just LET her go. Sole tried to stop her, but lo and behold, she was actually a Precure.” He explained, gesturing to the fashionable queen who had reverted to her regular self.

“Wow. Fashionista, Idol, and now Precure. Is there anything you don’t do?” I raised an eyebrow at this bitch. Damn, she could do everything.

“Math.” Except math.

“Speaking of being an Idol…” Rui scratched her chin, having untransformed in the time it took to write this sentence. “Don’t we have a place to be?”

    “...” It took a solid five or seven seconds before it finally clicked in me and Amai’s heads.

    “SHIT! We need to be at Prism World in like…” Amai whipped out her phone (consequently hitting me in the face) and checked the time. “...now seconds!”

    “E-Eh? But don’t you wanna hear about your new Precure duties?” Heleos asked, but Amai nearly punched him in the face.

    “Fans come first! Come on, we’ve got a show to do!” Amai raised her leg, and sprinted down the street. She then proceeded to pant from exhaustion a good fifty feet later and just sort of laid down in the middle of the street. Excellent. Rui and I ran over to her, scooping her off the ground, and sprinting in the direction of Prism World. Not once did it occur to us that we could have transformed and been there instantly.

    Amai, Rui, and I all skated out onto the stage at Prism World. I looked at the crowd that nearly filled the store. Mom and Dad, Koyama, Otoha, Otoha’s Mom, Heleos, Sole, Rahh, and Apoio (all as humans, which I wish he’d told me earlier he could do. He said he forgot. I swear to God.) And a bunch of other people.

    “Everyone! Thank you for coming to our show!” Amai waved at the crowd, standing between Rui and I. I took a moment to tug at the cute outfits she’d designed. She said she’d spent all night making them. Cute little white tank tops with rainbows around the edge, and ruffled short skirts covered in stars, each coordinated to our respective colors. Yellow, Blue, and Red. Also, knee high white socks with rainbow stripes down the sides, and red sneakers. It was cute, really.

    “Today, we are happy to announce our new unit for the coming spring!” Rui announched, stepping forward. I took a deep breath and recited my line as well.

    “Please, continue to support us in our careers! Now, let us introduce ourselves…” We all took another step forward, and raised our fist to the sky.

    “Rui!”

    “Miyuki!”

    “Amai”

    “We are…” We lowered our hands and pointed at the crowd. “PReTTY GiRLS!”

    “Everyone…” Amai started in her broken engrish again, but we all joined in. “Let’s Dance Together!”

    Let’s Dance Together! Go for it, Go for it! Do you wanna dance with me?

    “Shining Splash!”

    “Blazing Splash!”

    “Storming Splash!”

    That was pretty much all Rui and I had to worry about. Just dance, and let Amai take center stage until our cue.

    “Number Two!” Alright. “1000% Pure Angelic Arrow!” Amai skated about, just like we’d rehearsed.

    “Number Three!” Here we go. “Aurora…” Amai flew into the sky, performing the jump no one had ever seen, save for us. She got so excited when she finally managed to do it, she called us all down to the practice rink. Not that it wasn’t 1 AM or anything, but I still have bruises when she beat me for falling asleep. “Sparkling!”

    That was our cue, and Rui and I began skating, twirling the batons in our hands. Wait...Amai was skating with us. She wasn’t going to try...that. Was she? She wasn’t interfering with the routine, but I could tell she was up to something. And for once, I was okay with this surprise.

    “Rui!”

    “Miyuki!” We tossed our batons into the air, skating to opposite sides of the rink and catching them in mid-air. Amai seemed to read our minds as we circled along the outer edge to regroup, and she was right there in the center as we all skated forward. We gave eachother the look of understanding, and then Amai jumped with the shout of “Number Four!”

    “Number Two!” This was smart. Amai wasn’t just only performing four jumps. She was easing the burden of us noobish stars by only making us perform two. Although, the jump that followed was completely different than rehearsed.

    “Hrrrraaaagh…” Rui growled, bursting into flames and taking into the sky. “The burning power of Phoenix!”

    “Wraaaaaaaaugh…” Amai howled in response, diving deep into the water. “The sacred power of Leviathan!”

    “Haaaaaaaah!” I shouted, flying higher into the sky, above the clouds, surrounded by a spiral of wind. “The soaring power of Dragon!”

    Amai leapt out of the water to meet Rui as she flew over, and I dove from the air to meet the two of them, as we all linked hands.

    “Although we may be very different,” Rui started.

    “Our goal is the same!” I finished, as we flew up into the night sky, the mythical creatures we’d named trailing behind us.

    “Keeping the magic of balance and harmony!” We finally released each other’s grip, posing and winking in perfect succession.

    “Together Forever! Mythical Protectors!”

    We all clacked onto the ground, not missing a beat. The crowd was going wild. I mean, wild wild. Like I’m pretty sure there was a fire hazard. Confetti everywhere. I was so happy, and Rui and I hugged Amai, who had started crying and was vigorously thanking everyone. Ah, the autographs. It was fun being famous. Even if you were only famous for standing next to a famous person. Sunglasses and bitches for days. Even if I got like 0 bitches out of that. If you wanna be my bitch holla at me you got my Tweeter. Okay, enough fourth wall breaking. Back to the tale at hand.

    I plonked myself down as the everything slowly started to cool down at a table with a gigantic white blob on it. I thought it was ice cream or cotton candy or marshmallows or something, but when I went to steal a piece, it squeaked. I then proceeded to sit up and realize that it wasn’t some white blob. It was Apoio.

    “Apoio!? How the hell? What the heckle deckle even happened to you!?” I whispered.

    “Shhhhh…” He shushed. “Remember how I was...urgh...mad at you this morning…?”

    “What does that have to do with-!?”

    “Well...I was so, oof, mad at you that I…” He struggled to sit up. “I...may or may not have eaten all the food in your kitchen.”

    “You WHAT!?” I slammed my hands on the silvery table, and earned a few odd looks. I brushed them aside. “Apoio! Do you know how many SNACKS I still had in there!? I was so excited to come home to a nice plate of unhealthy and you EAT ALL OF IT!?”

    “Urgh...yeah, hell yeah I did…”

    “Hey Miyuki, who’s the chub?” Sole walked over, arms crossed.

    “It’s Apoio.” I frowned, sitting back down and crossing my arms.

    “...No foolin’?” He raised an eyebrow, and also a hand, which he used to deliver a firm smack across Apoio’s entirety. There was a red mark afterwards. Served him right. Bitchass eatin’ my snacks. “Oh my God, it really is Apoio! Geez, buddy! I knew you were chubby back in Bright Land but look at you! You’ve gone full fatass!” He turned to look up at me. “What in sam hill are ya feedin’ him?”

    “He fed himself. My entire kitchen.”

    “Oh damn. Welp, enjoy yer giant fairy, kiddo.” He sent me off with a wave, before walking back over to socialize with people he’d never see again and probably get drunk and make out with Heleos.

Prism World was a cute little shop in the shopping district of Nagayama. Of course, ‘little’ wasn’t the right word, since the place was huge. Not like, department store huge, but it was really spacious, it had tables line by the windows, there was plenty of room for all the clothes, there was a cafe on the left side, and it had two floors.

Oh, and there was a giant rink in the middle. Not an ice rink, god no. No one would come here if this place was always -5 degrees. I didn’t know for sure, I wasn’t one to come here often, but Amai told me its some fancy glass. I pondered this as Rui, Otoha, Kristina, and I all stared down at the massive ice rink, waiting for the hikikomori to come out and perform.

“Come ooooooon, Amaaaaai!” Otoha yelled, and we got a few agitated looks. I reached into my bag, pulled out a binder, and whacked her across the face.

“Thank you.” Kristina grumbled, a bit embarrassed as everyone was looking at us. I took a sip from my smoothie, frowning that it wasn’t bleach. Yeah, I didn’t want to deal with the secondhand embarrassment either.

“And now, one of the regulars here at Prism World, we now give you the fashion girl with a lot of groove! Here she is, Kurosaba Amai!” The announcer howled, and I suddenly realized we were sitting right next to a speaker. After adjusting my hair and making sure my eardrums hadn’t collapsed in on themselves, I looked over the second floor banister to see Amai skate out onto the stage. She always looked so outgoing whenever she did these shows.

    “Everyone! Let’s dance together~!” Amai sang, saying the last half of that sentence in such broken English that all our American viewers cringed. I turned around to see Kristina half in tears laughing so hard.

    “Ret’su daans togezaah!” She cried, banging her fist on the table. I took another sip of my smoothie, and during that I saw Rui upload a Vine of Amai saying that. I liked it, and shared it to Tweeter, because we only use Tweeter in Japan for some reason. I jumped in my seat a bit when I heard the music start blaring. Oh right, speakers. I turned back to the stage and found Amai abusing her elite dancing skills. Wait, where had I heard this song before?

    “I change for you, jibun to. Itsudemo mukiai! I don’t give up, jibun ni. Yume no, hikari, yume ga susumou!” Oh, that’s right, Dream Goes On. Amai’s favorite song. She says it’s her theme song. Don’t really understand why she says that, but I’m not one to talk. CoughmythemesongisradioactivebyimaginedragonsIDON’TCAREIFITSINENGLISHDON’TJUDGEMEcough. I’m still trying to convince the girls to play that song when I walk down the hall at school.

    “Hup!” I snapped back to reality with the sound of Amai’s jumping. “Stardust Splash!” For a moment, a group of shooting stars passed behind her, and she landed on the ground with a ‘splash’ sound.

    “Number Two!” She shouted, hopping into the air again. She had a huge grin on her face. A bow and arrow appeared in her hand that she aimed at nothing. Pink circles surrounded her, growing more and more intense as the seconds ticked on. “1000% Pure Angelic Arrow!” She launched the arrow, and it hit a plaid-patterned heart, that burst into gemstones. Amai winked, and posed as a giant heart appeared behind her, surrounded by pretty flowers.

    “Number Three!” She skated, leaping into the air. I was surprised. I’d heard she was trying to do three jumps for awhile now, and she was finally doing it. I saw her start sparkling as she flew through what looked like a night sky. She became surrounded by ribbons of bright colors. “Aurora…” She said, closing her eyes. Then, she was immediately interrupted as a giant robot foot smashed through the massive glass windows above us. “Ah-!” She shrieked, falling from her height, landing into the arms of a certain red-haired Precure.

    “I’ve got you~!” Cure Heat said, giving Amai a wink, before running over to the door where Otoha, Rui, Kristina, and I stood. “Stay here, the Precure will handle this for you!” She winked again. I took this opportunity to duck behind some wayward debris, and transform as well.

    “Come on, Cure Heat!” I commanded, running into the building, and I heard the steady clack of shoes behind me as we headed into the building and began our brawl.

    I had no idea how intensely Otoha was watching me and Rui fight.

    Otoha later told me the entirety of what happened that day from her point of view, as I was clearly lost beforehand.

    Otoha closed the door behind her as she arrived in the rather large apartment above her family’s record shop. She put on some of her obscure rock music, and started making herself some lunch. A sandwich of strawberries and goat cheese. She assured me it was delicious, but like hell I was going to try it. I will gladly stay here with my cheeseburger and waffle fries, call me basic if you want, at least I’m not eating something that probably tastes like someone left cream cheese in their ass for days and then added strawberry.

    “Otoha, dear, are you home?” Otoha’s mom asked from upstairs.

    “Yeah, mom!” Otoha called back. “Need something?”

    “No, I’m just making sure that was you and not some crazy robber!”

    “Mom, we live in the safest area of Nagayama.”

    “Well, you never know!” Otoha rolled her eyes, turning to a photo frame with a picture of her family. Her mom, her dad, her little sister, and her.

    “Look at the woman you left me with, Dad.” Otoha chuckled, placing the photo back down. Her dad died when she was eight. She missed him, but her dad would have wanted her to not be hung up about him. She sighed and went back to her disgusting sandwich. She plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV. The monster attack from earlier was on.

    “Precure? Mysterious heroes or simply a greater foe seeking to remove all competition?” Otoha’s eyebrows flattened, and she realized she was watching the equivalent to FOX news. She hit the remote with her fist and the station changed to a different news channel.

    “Exclusive Interview with one of the mysterious Precure!” Otoha sat up as the news lady held the mic up to that blonde one’s face. It was meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~! Okay, enough breaking the fourth wall, let’s continue my beautiful narration-OW! You guys didn’t see that, but Rui just punched me in the face. Anyway, Otoha sat up in her chair, and the lady turned to this ‘Cure Shine’. “So, Miss Cure Shine, what exactly is it that you’re doing?”

    “Well, we fight monsters.” She shrugged, flicking a pink Skin in her hand.

    “I see. What exactly are these monsters?” Cure Shine shrugged in response.

    “I dunno, apparently they’re called Rainy Days.”

    “Rainy Days, huh? Interesting. Now why do YOU two specifically fight these monsters in those...outfits.” The interviewer chose her words carefully. “Couldn’t the police or army do better?”

    “The police or army aren’t the chosen ones.” It was at this point that the red-headed one came in and punched Cure Shine out of the camera shot. The camera followed Cure Shine’s ascension into space, followed by her descent into the bushes.

    “Sorry about that, folks.” She said, and the name ‘Cure Heat’ popped up next to her. “I’m Cure Heat, we’re the Precure, and we’re just trying to protect the city we love.”

    “I see. But how did you get these powers?”

    “If I hadn’t just punched out Cure Shine, that idiot would have told you.”

    “Ah, well, is she your junior? She seems relatively new at this.” The newslady asked, and Otoha burst into laughter at the Precure’s response.

    “La idiota over there is my senior. I just became a Precure a week ago.” Otoha laughed. Oh my god, stop laughing at my misfortune. SHE GOT ME BY SURPRISE, THAT WAS A FLUKE. I sipped my coffee angrily, and returned to my narration.

    “Well then, thank you for protecting our city.” Cure Heat nodded, and ran off to get Cure Shine out from the rose bushes. So many thorns. I shuddered. “Coming up, find out how centipedes in YOUR vagina is more likely than you think!” Otoha immediately threw out the rest of her sandwich and turned off the TV.

    “Oh man, I wish I was a Precure.” Otoha sighed. “Their cute outfits, their cool attacks, the wacky adventures. It must be so fun.” She chuckled. An idea pinged into her head, and she grabbed a nearby makeup compact. She popped it open and looked into the mirror. “Heheheh, this is gonna be great.”

    She flicked on some generic magical girl transformation music, got out an old plastic multicolored disco ball, some ribbons, and a makeup brush. Otoha popped open the compact once more, blinking twice. “Precure! Beauty, on!” She winked, imagining the mirror to burst into light. She brushed on some of the blush that was in the compact, and kicked on the disco ball. What followed was a series of elegant turns and twists, as she swung the ribbon around, pretend her clothes were changing. An elegant violet dress spun itself around her, her hair becoming voluminous and a purple shade as well. She clapped her hands. “I am everything, and everything is beautiful! Cure Pretty!” You guys can’t see this but I am trying really hard not to laugh into the mic.

    Otoha’s Precure activities, Prekatsu, were interrupted by the sound of her doorbell ringing. She didn’t remember having a doorbell, but she walked over anyway. Upon opening the door, she was met with two men. One of them, small, pale, and wintery, with long hair and a purple suit. His pupils seemed to be made of...suns? The other, was much taller, so tall Otoha couldn’t see half his face through the doorframe. He looked like he was covered in poorly done foundation and concealer, and it had smudged and rubbed and dripped off, revealing patches of bright red skin. He was also wearing a purple suit, but his bulging muscles and giant belly seemed to be straining it past its limits.

    “Uh, hello!” Otoha said, looking over the two. She tried to sound friendly, but it came out more concerned. “Can I help you?”

    “Hi, hello.” The thin one said. “Are you...Maeuchi Otoha?” He asked, reading an index card.

    “Yes, that’s me.”

    “Ah, very good!” He smiled softly, the suns he had for pupils glinting. Damn, Otoha wanted some. “We’d like to present you with this gift.”

    “Gift…?” Otoha asked, opening her mouth. The moment the confused word left her mouth, the large one popped open the silver briefcase he was holding. Inside the suitcase, was a black Cure Box and a violet Cure Coin.

“This is your complementary Cure Box and Cure Coin. We heard you wished to become a Precure!” The big one chuckled heartily at the innocent comment. How strange. Maybe its because he’s a FUCKING VILLAIN OTOH-OW! Wow, some of you have a major punching prob-OW! Okay, okay, I get it!

“H-How did you hear that?”

“A little birdie told us.” He said, this time bursting into more suspicious chuckles with his ‘business associate’. Otoha turned around to see a tiny bird sitting on her windowsill. She chucked a rock at it, hitting it in the face before it flew away.

“W-Well, uh…” Otoha couldn’t help but blush. “Th-thank you very much.” She gladly accepted the gifts, giving the two of them a grateful bow. The two bowed back as well.

“Oh no, thank YOU, Otoha.” The thin one smiled. “Your assistance to the Precure is very much needed.” With another dark cackle, he closed the door, grinning smugly. Otoha didn’t see it, but he totally high fived the other guy.

Otoha stared at the objects in her hands. She could have swore she’d seen these before, somewhere. Regardless, she started trembling with excitement. “I...I don’t believe it…” She punched the sky, Cure Coin still in hand. “I’M A PRECURE!” No you ain’t bitch. OW! Okay, everyone is punching me and its REALLY RUDE. “I’m gonna go to town and defeat a bunch of monsters! Like a whole BUSHEL of monsters!” Otoha shoved the objects in her jacket pocket, and yelled up the stairs to her mom. “Mom! I’ll be back in like an hour or seven!”

“Be home before dinner, hon!”

“No promises!” She yelled back, sprinting out the door of her apartment, and out of the record store. Sometimes she forgot she was already IN TOWN. But she needed to go MORE IN TOWN! So, she did.

        “Alright, monsters. Rainy Days, they were called. If I were a giant monster, where would I be?” Otoha pondered as she walked down the sidewalk. “Hmmm, this is going to be harder than I thought.” It was at this point, she passed me and Rui sitting outside of Sweet Marie’s Sweets Shop. It was my favorite place in the whole wide everything. I happened to be munching on a roll cake, but not just any roll cake. The Marie Pastel Roll is a sacred object that gives me the power to not disappear into nothingness due to lack of not giving a fuck.

    “Otoha!” Rui called, despite the fact that Otoha was literally a foot away from us. “Come over here!” She pulled out a chair for her friend to sit on, and I was amazed what this girl could fit in her purse. Otoha sat down.

    “Hey guys!” She smiled, and I immediately questioned her cheeriness.

    “The hell are you so happy about?” I raised an eyebrow. This wasn’t like Otoha. I wasn’t about to lose my only other cynical friend. If I’m the only one with an angry view of the world, I’ll seem like a bad person.

    “Ooooh, nothing you need to concern yourselves about.” She grinned, giggling. I could see her poking at something in her pocket. She seemed looking around for something, and I was starting to get suspicious. I followed her eyes, to a guy who tossed a candy wrapper onto the cement. Otoha’s eye twitched, and I heard her whisper “Good enough”. She stood up. “Hey, I’m going to go into that alley aaaand, do a thing.” She said.

    “Think about me while you’re there.” I joked, getting a light swat from Rui. I watched Otoha duck into the alley, and the moment I turned around to talk shit with Rui, there was a literal explosion of purple light. A brick actually came flying off a wall. Fortunately, Apoio was on hand, so his excellent face-shielding skills could be abused once more. Then, out of the alley stepped a girl with long, flowing violet hair, tied into a massive braid. Her outfit was that of a light purple corset, covered by a big white coat with white trim. A large purple “S” was embroidered into the back of her jacket. When I got a better look at her face, even her lipstick was a shade of purple. I heard the sound of high heels clacking against the pavement, as this new girl turned to face the litterer, who was currently shocked and scared.

    “Lover of the world and protector of all that is beautiful! Cure Shade!” That cheesy pose, that terrible intro phrase, and the fact that it was pretty damn obvious, Precure or otherwise, immediately gave it away.

    “Otoha!” I whispered, hoping to get the transformed girl’s attention. How the hell did she transform? How the hell did she get a Cure Box, or a Cure Coin? She didn’t have a fairy! Why did her outfit look like something Liberace would wear when he didn’t want to be seen?

    “Quiet, civilian!” She hollered back at me. “I am Cure Shade, and I am hear to tell you that littering is wrong, and only a monster would do it!” She was terrifying the guy who had done virtually nothing wrong. “And I will destroy you for it!” Oh god what. Suddenly, a sphere of black and purple energy materialized in her hands. “Precure!” I mouthed ‘run’ to the guy, and he seemed to get my message, sprinting down the street and into an alley, just as the sphere turned into a beam of light. “Shadow Flaring!”

    “Otoha!” I ran up to her, but she seemed to completely ignore me.

    “Damn, I missed! I will have to capture this criminal!” She growled, but snapped her head around to a parking meter that had run out of time. “After I finish this THIEF!” Otoha immediately ran up to the car, kicking it. To my surprise, instead of Otoha crumpling to the ground, she kicked the car clean out of the parking spot and over a building.

    “O-Otoha! Stop this!” Rui demanded.

    “Halt, civilian! Do not stop me from enacting my civic duties!” She growled, sounding less and less like Otoha, and more like Thor by the second, but not the good kind of Thor. Otoha ran over to another car, this one under a “no parking” sign. “HOW DARE YOU!” With another kick, she sent the car flying, and it landed on another car.

    “...Do you think we should transform?” I asked Rui, who stared at me blankly.

    “...Mmmmmm, I’m gonna say YES, before she accidentally kills someone. Again.” She replied, and I took out my Cure Box. Together, we dropped the Coins into the Cure Boxes, and let the background change.

    “Precure! Weather Scan!”

    Many twirls and whirls later, we both landed, and this time, my entire spine DIDN’T BREAK! Hurrah.

    “Protector of the Sun and every living thing’s glow, Cure Shine!”

    “Bringer of warmth and obliterating flames! Cure Heat!”

    We clasped our hands together, pointing at the enemy with our other arms. “You! Oh foul beast who wishes to harm the world! We shall never let good cheer and happiness fall into your hands!” Rui said.

    “Together, we are the protectors of happiness and sunshine! For good days forever more!” We jumped backwards, posing just like we rehearsed. “Weathery Days Precure!”

    “I’m telling you, we need a better name.” Rui berated.

    “Shut up, its cool!” I growled back, as we corrected our spines back into place.

    “Eeeeeh? Precure? Turning on one of their own?” I snapped my neck around so hard I almost became an owl at the new voice, to see a man in a tuxedo and top hat, twirling a cane covered in flowers. He had elf ears for some reason. Who the fuck was this.

    “Who are you?” Rui hollered, voicing my thoughts. Wow, wavelength. Like it wasn’t an obvious question to ask.

    “Who am I? Who am I? Why, who are you?” He asked playfully, as if toying with us.

    “I asked you first!”

    “I asked you second.” I suddenly had millions of war flashbacks to a series about stop motion dolls in high school. I pushed the thought out of my head, going back to the argument.

    “I’m Cure Heat! The strongest Precure around! What did you do to Otoha!?” I would have swung at Rui if that last sentence did halt my fist an inch from her face.

    “I simply granted her wish. She wished to be a Precure. I made her a Precure.” This strange man laughed.

    “Precure, my ass! Otoha’s more sensible than whatever she’s doing right now! At least, slightly. What did you do to her!?” I shouted, realizing I was angry about the whole situation. Otoha wanted to be a Precure? Since when?

    “Mhhmhmhmhmhmhmmmm…” He chuckled darkly. “You want to know what I did to her? Better yet, I’ll show you!” This rather strange male shot Otoha a look, who stared at him in a horrified way. Then, I heard the same words from before.

    “And now, may your jealousy be transformed into strength! Come forth, Rainy Day! Wreak havoc on this perfect world!” An explosion of black lightning sent Rui and I flying, and not in the good way flying. We were pretty much tumbling through the air, limbs flailing, before we finally crashed fifty feet away. I looked up, to see what looked like this ‘Cure Shade’, but completely purple, looking as though made of metal, with piercing red eyes.

    “Rere! Rere! I want to be a Precure! It’s not fair anyone else gets to be one! Rere! Rere!” Oh god, this is where things get complicated.

    “Go, my precious Rainy Day! Create a storm for the ages!” The man pointed at the crumpled pile of magical girl known as me and Rui. The Rainy Day flailed its arms about, creating miniature storm clouds in front of it. It suddenly punched the clouds, sending a bolt of violet-white lightning at us. We went flying again, but this time simply upwards. The asphalt crater softened our fall, as did Apoio’s squishiness.

    “It’s not fair! Why do stupid dumb Miyuki and Rui get to be Precure! I want to be a Precure! I’m jealous! So jealous! Rere! Rere!” The Rainy Day stomped around, throwing about more lightning bolts wildly.

    “I don’t believe it, it’s using her jealousy to become more powerful!” Rui proclaimed, standing up. “Come on, Miyuki! We’ll save Otoha!”

    “Someone’s cheesy this morning.”

    “Its 4 in the afternoon.”

    “This is still morning in my book.” I frowned, standing up. “But you’re right. We have to save Otoha!” We both turned to the monster that was once our friend. Something in my gut told me this was going to be a harder fight than I expected. Maybe its because that thing in my gut was Otoha’s purple fist. I found myself embedded in a brick wall the next second.

    “Rere! Rere! I’m a Precure! I’m strong!” The monster posing as our friend laughed. Rui swung a kick at its face. The thing dodged, but Rui followed up with another kick, sending the Rainy Day reeling backwards.

    “I won’t let you just recklessly destroy things while using Otoha as a scapegoat!” Rui shouted, her fists lighting on fire. “Fire Fist Barrage!” She growled, charging at the Rainy Day, swinging her burning fists wildly. I watched the Rainy Day get wrecked with each punch. Rui finished it with a flaming uppercut, sending the Rainy Day in the sky. “Shine! Your turn!” I suddenly remembered we were supposed to use our code names.

    “G-Got it!” I yelped, shaking off the rocks and dirt. I made the shape of a pistol with my fingers, aiming up at the monster. I saw a few sparkles of light, and I closed one eye. I couldn’t miss. I stuck my tongue out, and watched the light in front of my hand glow brighter and brighter. “Sparkling Glitter Bullet!” With the pull of an imaginary trigger, the ball of light shot forward, becoming more spear-like, before crashing into the Rainy Day with an explosion of yellow. The monster hit the ground with a thud, leaving a crater.

    “Rere! How dare you! You’re not real Precure! Precure would never hurt another Precure! Rere!” The monster growled, sparks of black light surrounding it.

    “E-Eh!? Shine! Heat! Watch out!” Apoio hollered, Rahh in the background being a cheerleader once more.

    “Wha-” I couldn’t even get a word out, before another explosion of lightning occured. Fortunately, we weren’t sent tumbling like Jichael Mackson discovering a blogging website for socially awkward teenager. I turned back to the Rainy Day to see it...crying? Rainy Days could cry? Glittery purple tears fell from the thing’s metallic eyes.

    “I...I just wanted...to be a Precure…” The monster sobbed, but it wasn’t in the normal Rainy Day’s voice. “I wanted to protect everyone…” Otoha’s voice cried.

    “...Shine.” Rui elbowed me as I just sort of stared at it in shock. I got down on one knee, putting my hand around what I thought was its chin, looking at it in those sad, crimson eyes.

    “...Listen to me.” I said, a stern, but soft look on my face. “Being a Precure means nothing. You don’t need to be a Precure to protect anyone. Everyone protects everyone, we’re just a situational type of deal. You know what you can do to be just like us? Be nice. Be friendly. Help those who need it. You don’t need no fancy shmancy special powers. That’s how you protect people.”

    “I’m sure your Dad’s very proud of you, Otoha-chan.”

    I couldn’t believe what happened next. A crack or two appeared on the mask of the Rainy Day. Then more cracks. It started glowing white, and then, the metallic bits exploded off it at once, to reveal a sobbing Otoha. She tackled me, and I wrapped my arms around her.

    “M-Miyuki! I-I’m so sorry!” She cried, and I stroked her hair. “I-I don’t know what came over me! I’m sorry! I’m f-fucking sorry!”

    “Don’t cry, Otoha.” I smiled, letting her sob onto my shirt. I hoped that washed out.

    “Thanks for lettin’ me stay at your place, Miyuki.” Otoha smiled, hugging a pillow.

    “No problem, Otoha. You’ve had a rough day.” I laughed, tossing her a popsicle.

    “Sorry about earlier today.” She sighed, looking at me with those sweet eyes. She was so cute. I hated cute girls, cause they were cuter than me.

    “Oh, no problem, Oto.” I chuckled. “You were actually one of the easiest Rainy Days we’ve had to deal with.”

    “Really?”

    “Mhm.” I gave Apoio a cookie, which he happily munched on. “I mean, still pretty difficult. Do you know how hard it was to shoot one of my best bros in the face?”

    “Not that hard.”

    “True.” I chuckled, sitting down on the bed next to her. “Still, I can’t help but feel like we forgot something. Something...important.” I looked out the window, it was raining.

    “And so, when a number, which we will call a, is added to b, which is multiplied by an imaginary number, that is what is known as a complex number. Complex numbers are very important in terms of trigonometry…” Blah blah blah, she was yammering away about things no one cared about.

“Pssst! Pssst! Miyuki!” Amai gently pushed me with her math book. “Miyuki! Wake up!” She whispered. We sat in the back left corner of the classroom. I was up against a window, right in front of some shady kid who would probably not have any influence on my life at all in the coming weeks. Amai sat next to me. Fortunately, I was too asleep to notice. Unfortunately, I was also too asleep to notice what the teacher was doing, and I only felt the strong WHAP!

“Aaah!” I cried, snapping out of my peaceful sleep as I felt the the book connect with my head.

“Ms.Koyama!” Mrs.Geralstein nearly growled. “You’re second year in high school, you should be well aware that sleeping in class is not tolerated!”

“Yes, Mrs.Geralstein. I apologize, Mrs.Geralstein.” I apologized, rubbing the back of head.

“As you should be.” She growled, turning around and walking off. When she wasn’t looking, I flipped her off. “Anyway, class, so as I was saying, turn to page 394 and do the problems there. I’ll be right back, I have an errand to run.” The sound of shuffling books filled the room as she left, and then all the books were quickly abandoned as the students scattered to socialize.

“Haha! You got in trouble, Miyuki!” Amai stuck her tongue out at me.

“Well, someone’s cheery today.” I frowned at her.

“Well, it’s after 11 am, so I don’t feel like a psychopath.” She chuckled. “You on the other hand, are unconscious.”

“Shut up.” I groaned. “I had a really late night.”

“Up playing your vidya games again?” Amai chuckled, even though she was the one

who obsessed over video games more than me.

    “Uh...yeah, sure.” I rolled my eyes. It was an obvious lie. In reality, I was up late last night tending to my new Precure duties. And by new Precure duties, I meant some asshole unleashed a Rainy Day in the park at around two in the morning, and as the official Precure of the area, it fell on me to take care of it, and by take care of it, I mean almost have my legs ripped off because for the first time in three years, I wasn’t awake at 2 AM.

Suddenly, the bell rang, and I shrieked and dropped my book in surprise. The entire class turned to me, the source of the horrified shout. “U-Uh...a spider?” I stammered, thwacking an empty windowsill with my book. The students eventually shrugged and went back to their assorted musings. “Geez, this Precure business is ruining my life.” I sighed, letting my head fall to the desk with a thunk, just like my hopes and dreams and general perception of society..

    “For the last FUCKING time, Rahh, stop crying!” Sole shouted, swinging a paw down on the sobbing fairy. Rahh was knocked clear across the tree hideout. “Listen, we get it, Cure Solar is DEAD. But crying isn’t going to change that!”

“SOLE!” Heleos let out a low growl, placing a paw on Sole’s shoulder. “Stop it. He’s going through a hard time right now.”

“So!? Am I supposed to just blatantly let him pussy out of our mission because the giver of said mission is gone!? Is Bright Land going to be saved just by crying!?” Sole argued, baring his teeth. Heleos responded by giving his lover a kiss on the nose.

“Silence, Sole. I understand what you’re saying, but you don’t quite understand Rahh as much as you think you do.”

    “Understand? UNDERSTAND!? I UNDERSTAND that we need to get our pudgy asses out there and find the Sun Stars before the Bad Weather Group screws us all over! And the pudgiest of them all is being a useless piece of shit!”

    “Sole, cool it with the swearing.” Heleos commanded firmly. “We should be more worried about Apoio, he hasn’t come back since last night.”

    “Ah, he was a finicky one anyway. I very well KNEW he would defect as soon as he got the chance. And I’ll bet you I know for CERTAIN who’s gonna defect next!” The fairy glared at Rahh, who burst into more violent sobs.

    “W-Well you know, what, FINE!” Rahh sobbed, wiping his face of tears. “If...if you’re gonna be a big fat stupid dumb MEANIE, I’ll go off on my own and find the Precure by myself!” He unfolded his wings, and flew through an opening in the leaves so fast you’d think there’d be a sale on hand sanitizer outside. Sadly, there was none. There WAS a sale on jewelry however, over in Shiroyama City, but what use do fairies have for jewlery?

    “Rahh! Come back here!” Sole howled, getting ready to take off but was stopped by his companion.

    “Just let him go, Sole. He knows what he’s doing.”

    “For once.” Sole pouted, laying a reluctant smooch on his partner’s cheek.

    “Oh my god, right? And it smells so bad too!” Kristina and her alternative girl crew burst into laughter. Otoha, Rui, Amai, and I collectively stared at her from across the courtyard a few feet away. We watched as she waved goodbye to her group of ratchets and walked back to us.

    “I don’t understand why you’re friends with them.” I grumbled as she stepped over to us.

    “I don’t understand why you wear the same hoodie every day.” She shot back, sitting down next to Otoha. I wasn’t even WEARING it today, but it still stung. Not my fault I’m too lazy to wear different outfits every day.

    “Heh.” Amai giggled. “You know, Miyuki, I can help you with your fashion sense.” She looked me over. I returned the look-over. She had her school uniform on, like the rest of us, but she made it look at lot more fashionable.

    “...No thanks, Amai.” I took a bite out of my sandwich. “But, I look good enough.”

    “Ugh, JUST good enough isn’t good enough!” She contradicted, brushing her bangs from her eyes. I saw a glint of her silver-blue optics before they fell back in the way again. “Don’t you wanna get a boyfriend?”

    “But I’m hardcore lesbian though.” I chuckled, taking another bite. The joke seemed to frustrate the usually quiet girl more.

    “Fine, girlfriend, whatever!” She threw her hands in the air. “Just let me make you pretty!”

    “Are you implying I’m not pretty?” I asked, giving her puppy dog eyes.

    “FFFFFFFFFFFF-!” She spat, sighing. “I don’t know why I try.” Amai raised up a hand and patted me on the head, and we all laughed. My laugh ended quickly, as I suddenly got a sinking feeling in my stomach. “Oh no.”

    “What?” Otoha asked, but I could tell she got the feeling too.

    “Headmistress Ichigo.” The moment I said that, we all on cue looked in different directions of away, as a cheerful woman with bobbed shoulder-length blonde hair, a red ribbon, and a tasteful business suit walked past.

    “Hello girls!” She sang to us, and continued walking by into the other side of the school.

    “...That was close.” We all turned back, letting go of our held breath. Word around the school was that she would bite your head off if you got her upset. She seemed cheerful to me, but I wasn’t one to take risks. Well, except for, you know, being a Precure.

    “Phew, that was a close call.” I heard a voice emanate from my uniform. I familiar high pitched voice. I looked down to see a white, cat-shaped pin on my lapel. “We almost got eaten!” The pin jiggled as the voice echoed from it. I snapped my hand over it, shushing the creature. I turned to my gang, to which I was met with more egregious stares.

    “...Miyuki. Was that you? Because I think your balls went in the wrong direction.”

    “I-I don’t have balls! I am a 100% bonafide lady!” I stammered, the blush on my face turning up to eleven.

    “Sure, you say that, but we don’t know that.” Rui rolled her eyes, chuckling.

    “Sh-shut up!” I blushed. “I-I need to go to the restroom!” With that, I sprinted away from my homies. Or should I say, ex-homies. Even though I’d be back in like five minutes.

    “E-Eh? What do you mean budget restructuring?! Again!?” Ichigo asked, shocked. “I spent all night the past few days perfecting the school’s budget!”

“Yes, but we found some errors.”

“What do you mean errors!?” She snatched the stack of papers from her assistant’s hand, running her eyes over the pages.

    “Well…” Her assistant began, before having the papers shoved back into her arms.

    “Don’t answer that.” She grumbled, stomping over to the door.

    “W-Wait! H-Headmistress!”

    “Don’t even talk to me!” With a slam, the door had been shut behind her. I, both fortunately and unfortunately, heard the entire conversation. I watched her stomp away, a dark aura so thick a tentacle could have reached out, grabbed me, and made this whole thing R-18. As she stormed down the corridor, I saw someone step out in front of her. This weird girl in some kind of jumpsuit, and she had like a white balloon crown.

    “Oh no! Quick, hide!” The pin spoke, and fortunately, I had enough common sense to obey. I ducked behind a nearby desk.

    “Apoio! You really need to stop doing that!” I scolded. The pin let out a soft yellow glow, before Apoio popped from it. “You’re gonna get me in trouble! And you’ll probably be dissected o they can figure out the source of your fairy magic and then we’ll probably start World War III! And you KNOW how much I hate World Wars.”

    “...You’re kind of in the middle of one, Miyuki.” Apoio said flatly, giving me an unimpressed look.

    “...Whatever!” I rolled my eyes, a bit embarrassed.

    “And now, may your anger be transformed into strength!” Wait, who’s voice was that? Suddenly, the sound of thunder echoed through the hallway, and I was sent flying forwards when a massive explosion of heat shot out from behind us. A lot of things got tossed up as well, and thats the story of how I almost got my first concussion. Fortunately, Apoio is extremely good at taking desks to the face. “Come forth, Rainy Day! Wreak havoc on this perfect world!” There was another explosion, but this time of black lightning. This was a much stronger explosion than the last two, as evidenced by me and Apoio flying out of a window and into the courtyard, and the rest of the windows around us shattered as well. Several teenage girls screamed in horror. Its at this point I realized our school has an 8:1 girl to boy ratio. What the hell, we’re not even an all girls school, but look at all these bitches.

    “Ah! Miyuki!” I felt someone pull me off the ground. It was Kristina. “Miyuki! Talk to me! Are you alright!?”

    “Y-Yeah, I’m fine…” I said, standing up.

    “Miyuki!” I lifted my head, watching as Amai and Otoha ran over, concerned.

    “Relax, I’m fine, you two.” I said.

    “Fine? Fine!?” Otoha asked incredulously. “You just got LAUNCHED through a WINDOW.”

    “Don’t worry, my years of watching Inception has helped me learn how to dodge glass easily.” I jokingly replied.

    “...That joke didn’t even begin to make sense.” Amai huffed. The school began to shake violently, and suddenly, something burst out of the roof. The object flew high into the air, before flipping over and flying down so it hovered just over to courtyard. It looked like a massive sun, except it was flat, and appeared to be made of sheets of metal mashed together. It had four tentacle-like arms, with comically giant gloves on the ends. The corona spun wildly about, and the sun had a face made of two massive, pasted on cardboard eyes and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. The mouth appeared drawn-on, but the tongue was definitely real, as evidenced by it flopping out and landing inches away from Amai. Once again, this whole thing could have become R-18.

    “Rere! Rere! I’ll show YOU error! Rere! Rere! And error starts with a smile!” The corona spun even faster, and it slammed an arm down, cracking a picnic table in half.

    “Oh sweet jesus! Let’s get out of here!” Otoha squeaked, and the girls began to run. I forced my arm out of Kristina’s grip.

    “You guys go ahead!” I said. “I’ll try and distract it!” I turned around, reaching into my pocket and gripping the Cure Box.

    “E-Eh!? Miyuki, are you insane? Come on!” Kristina grabbed my sleeve again and yanked on it. “I don’t want you to get hurt!”

    “Why are you suddenly being so caring!? In any other situation you’d trip me and leave me to be eaten by the zombies!” I asked, as she managed to pull me in her direction.

    “Because we’re friends, you dumbass!”

    “...” I stared at her for a few seconds. I wasn’t entirely certain I’d ever seen Kristina this concerned before. “Alright, fine, we’ll get out of here together. But only because you said that and I’d feel like a complete asshole if I stayed.” I grumbled. Another hand came down and smashed the fountain into pieces. A blast of water hit Amai and sent her flying in the opposite direction. “...Will she be alright?” I was answered by a shaky thumbs up. Otoha ran over to her and peeled her off the brick wall.

    “Come on, let’s go!” Kristina tugged on me again, and this time I followed. The four of us fled across the courtyard and into the other side of the school. We ducked behind a wall of lockers, screams of terror echoing behind us.

    “Phew, glad we got out of there.” Otoha sighed, wiping the sweat from her forehead. “...Hey, has anyone seen Rui?” She asked, looking around. I turned around, but Rui wasn’t there.

    “Did that blue-haired mongrel run off?” Amai chuckled.

    “Oh no, oh no, oh no, Rui’s gone. Rui’s gone and there’s a monster attacking. This is bad, very very bad.” Kristina breathed, fanning herself slightly. “Where do you think she could have gone, Miyuki!?” She turned around to be faced with a fluttering post-it note. She grabbed it out of the air.

    Dearest Kristina,

    Brb lol #seeuinlike2secs #probably

    Love, XxXMiyukiGirlYaoiLuvrXxX

    P.S. Don’t question the username

    P.P.S. Don’t question why I feel the need to use a username on a post-it note

    “GOD DAMN IT, MIYUKI! I SWEAR TO THE HEAVENS WHEN YOU GET BACK I WILL MAKE YOU RUN SO MANY LAPS A PROFESSIONAL STRIPPER WILL HAVE DONE LESS LAPS THEN YOU!” Kristina shook a fist at the sky, violently crumpling the post-it note before she could read the P.P.P.S. She took hold of Amai’s still-dripping-wet hand. “Come on, Amai, Otoha. We’ve got TWO girls to hunt down.” Kristina probably was really worried. Maybe I should have been less dodgy with my escape. ...Nah, she would be fine.

    “Alright, are you ready Apoio?” I asked, running towards the Rainy Day. I pulled out my Cure Box, my fingers wrapped around the monitor.

    “Ready!” Apoio reached into his tiny backpack and threw me my Cure Coin, which I caught flawlessly. Move over, Kristina, the basketball team has a new-THUD.

    For those of you who don’t know what THUD means, it basically means I just wiped out and slammed into the dirt.

    “Rere! Rere! Oh my, looks like YOU errored! We’ll have to correct that! Rere! Rere!” The Rainy Day said, reaching a hand down and picking me up by my uniform’s collar. It opened it’s jaws in front of me, its razor sharp teeth glinting in the sunlight.

    “Oh no you don’t!” I grumbled, flailing about. Struggling, I wriggled myself into an awkward enough position to where I could transform. I should write a book on how to become Dhalsim.

    “Hurry Miyuki! Transform before it eats you!”

    “Sorry, but I’m afraid Miyuki is not on the menu today!” I plunked the Cure Coin into the Cure Box, and I managed to wriggle myself from the monsters grip, and I started to fall.

    “Precure! Weather Scan!”

    I was surrounded by that familiar golden light again. It seemed like the whole world stopped as I spun and twirled into a Precure. I felt myself become filled with a brimming confidence, I was ready to fight. “Protector-” I was interrupted by a mouthful of dirt and brick shards. I guess being a magical girl doesn’t automatically make you graceful. Damn it. I stood up and dusted myself to face the monster. “L-Let’s try that again.” I laughed nervously. I cleared my throat and got ready to pose again.

    “Protector of the Sun and every living thing’s glow, Cure Shine!” I posed violently. Not that the pose held for long, as a gloved hand wrapped its sticky fingers around my waist and tossed me up. I was met with its sickening grin, before I fell back down into its palm. Was this what I thought it was? What the hell kind of symbolism is this!? “Yuck, grody!” I cried, attempting to pull myself out of the sticky mess. “What is this? A gay fanfic written by a twelve-year-old? This is TOO MUCH JIZZ!” Augh, it was in my hair, all over my clothes, this would probably take years to wash out.

    “I...I think its glue, Miyuki.” Apoio said, blushing.

    “...Oh thank god.” I uttered, breathing out a sigh of relief before yanking myself from the sticky mess. “Alright, you Rainy Day! Time to meet your maker!”

    “Rere! Rere! My maker? You suggest she made an error? False! In turn, YOU have made an error! Failure! Failure! Rere! Rere!” Another one of it’s tentacle-like arms came bearing down on me, and I found myself sandwiched between gloves.

    “Ow! Okay, that hurt more than I expected!” I muttered, kicking the hand off me and slipping off the bottom hand with ease, save for some rather strong glue strands. “Alright, you hot mess! Time to take you down! Precure…” I got ready to attack, but was interrupted by the thing’s hand, which smacked me across the courtyard and into some plants. Right in between the branches of a tree. “...Nevermind.” I sat up, burning up inside. “Geez, Apoio, this thing is tougher than the last two!”

    “This is so strange, you handled the last two...relatively fine.” He said, letting sarcasm trickle out in the last few words. Fortunately, he was in reach for me to grab and throw to the ground. “Okay, point taken.” He grumbled, his top half now buried in soil.

    “Rere! Rere! Time to finish you off!” The Rainy Day laughed, and started charging what looked like a fireball between its four arms. Millions of war flashbacks to dodgeball. The cardboard creature shot the ball outward with full force, and I brought a hand up in meek attempt to shield myself. Well, this was the end of my short Precure life. Suddenly, a burst of hot wind hit me.

    “Oh no you don’t, motherfucker!” Wait, I knew that immature voice anywhere. I opened my eyes to see Rui, and another fairy floating next to her, which seemed to be holding a shield in front of her.

    “R-Rui!?” I screeched, shocked at the sudden appearance. She turned around and waved at me.

    “Hiiiii Miyuki!” She grinned and I noticed something in her hand. I also noticed that her eyebrows were now significantly more singed. Apoio seemed to perk up at the sound of the fairy’s voice.

    “Rahh!” Apoio cheered, flying up to the other white puffball.

    “Apoio!” Rahh seemed to tear up instantly, as the two hugged. It was at this point that I noticed that Rahh had arms and Apoio didn’t. Poor Apoio. I bet he could never open any jars. “Oh, oh Apoio! I missed you so much!” Rahh cried, snuggling his fairy friend. “Sole was so mean! He beat me up!”

    “Shhh, shhh, it’s okay Rahh.” Apoio said in a soothing voice that I had certainly never heard before. “Did you find your Precure?”

    “Y-Yeah! I did! Take that Sole! You and your dumb dummy dumb face!” Rahh punched the air. Wait...Sole? There were even MORE fairies?

    “Oh wow! I’m so proud of you Rahh! Who is it?”

    “Th-this girl!” Rahh sniffled, gesturing to Rui. WAIT, RUI!? Uggs-wearing, coffee-spilling, life-endangering, rock-em-sock-em Rui was a Precure!?

    “That’s right, Miyuki!” Rui grinned, as if she heard my thoughts. She winked, and turned to face the monster. “Get ready, mister Rainy Day! I’m taking you DOWN!” The blue-haired girl turned to Rahh. “Let’s go Rahh!”

    “Got it!” Rahh cheered, tossing her (surprisingly orange) Cure Coin up into the air, which Rui caught flawlessly. She dropped it into her Cure Box, and the front began to glow. Then, she said the same words I had said.

    “Precure! Weather Scan!”

    Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of red-orange light, but it didn’t hurt. I saw Rui dance and twirl about in a familiar fashion, except she seemed so much more elegant than I did. Compared to me, she was a ballerina and I was a refrigerator. Her blue hair seemed to go up in flames, becoming a much shorter hairdo. The ribbons spun around her like scorching hot threads, and an outfit similar to mine appeared on her in flashes of flame and light. Her accent color was obviously orange, and her vest was covered in tiny flames. Her shoes clacked to the ground, and there was a glint in her eye that I’d never seen before. I was only really half paying attention, because I was thinking of a dog wearing too many hats. Heheh, silly dog. Those hats aren’t for you. She quickly re-grabbed my attention with her quote.

    “Bringer of warmth and obliterating flames! Cure Heat!”

    “Waaaah, that was so cool, Rui!” I said, amazed.

    “I know, right?” She turned back to face me, admiring her cute outfit. It seemed to suit her, despite barely looking like Rui herself. “Amai would be soooooo jealous.”

    “Oh man, if she saw you rocking that, she would literally obliterate you.”

    “She totally would. I bet she’d go online and try to find one.”

    “Or maybe try and make one herself. I can just imagine Amai running around, snapping photos of you for reference while you were fighting.”

    “With her ghetto ass iPhone 4S. Like, get with the times, sister.”

    “AHEM. News flash, ladies. We have a monster that is currently wreaking havoc.” Apoio coughed, pointing with his foot towards the monster who just seemed to be twiddling it’s thumbs.

    “Yeah, yeah, alright.” I rolled my eyes. “Are you ready for your first fight, Rui-I mean, Cure Heat?” I asked, a confident grin on my face.

    “I sure am, Cure Shine!” She chuckled back, saluting me. On cue, we both jumped at the Rainy Day’s face, and delivered the strongest kicks we could to its face. To my surprise, it seemed to crack down the middle. Shards of cardboard and metal went flying as we landed. Rui landed with a perfect ten, I landed with my face down. Ow. I pulled myself up, to see the monster seem to malfunction and clink and clatter wildly. Suddenly, its cardboard faceplate burst into flames, flying off in all kinds of directions.

    “Hurry, Cure Heat! Attack it now!” Apoio commanded, while Rahh cheered in the background.

    “Go, Go, Cure Shine! Fight, Fight, Cure Heat! Let’s, Let’s, Go, Go! Oh, Oh, Oh!” Rahh cheered.

    “Alright! I can do this!” Cure Heat said, getting into some weird fighting stance. “Huaaaaaa…” She waved her hands, like she was doing some kind of energy charging, and then something happened.

    Cure Heat held her hands above her, and a ball of flame started forming. The ball grew larger and larger, and when it stopped growing it was the size of one of those giant exercise balls. The kind where you threw it someone and you’re pretty sure if they were under the age of five they were dead. She levitated the ball to be in front of her, and she pulled her fist back, lodging it into it. Before I knew it, Cure Heat started charging at the pile of machinery that was once concealed by the cardboard sun.

Once she was a few feet away, she dug her heels into the ground, and launched her fist forward. The massive fireball seemed to grow once it was launched, becoming a massive fist-shaped block of fire.

“Precure…” She growled, the fist colliding with the Rainy Day. It immediately burst into flames so hot I’m pretty sure the sun would have been like ‘damn’. “Burning…” Cure Heat raised her fist to the sky, and brought it down with full force. “Flair!” With the shout of the last word, the whole thing exploded in a burst of red light. Once I shielded myself from any debris and a similar eyebrow singing to what she had just dealt with, I turned back to see Headmistress Ichigo floating there, and a Skin. This time, it was blue. Just like before, Headmistress Ichigo hit the ground with a thump. Fortunately, no drowning was possible. Not that her tasteful suit wasn’t immediately stained with dirt and mud and flowers and I think someone walked their dog and didn’t clean up after it.

“Well...you’re certainly a fast learner, aren’t you?” I said to Rui, watching her detransform. I did the same, walking up to her and scratching my head.

“Or maybe you’re just dumb?” Rui chuckled as she helped me pick up Headmistress Ichigo. I would have bopped her on the head if my arms weren’t full of lady. We laid her down next to the (now shattered) fountain, the water a slow trickle now. Apoio flew over to pick up the Skin, which he placed in his backpack.

“P...Precure…” Headmistress Ichigo opened her eyes weakly to see me and Rui leering over her. “Wh...what happened?”

“You passed out in the middle of a monster attack!” Rui lied. “Don’t worry, the Precure came and saved us all!”

“And...you two helped me?” She asked. “But...I thought you were scared of me.”

“Scared? Please. You’re our favorite headmistress!” Rui once again lied. I was so thankful I let her handle this.

“Th...Thank you two.” Headmistress Ichigo smiled, and we propper her up against one of the shattered stone pieces of the fountain. I heard the sound of footsteps behind me, and I turned around to be met with a tanned fist.

“Miyuki Josephine Maria Cupcake Leandra Koyama III!” Kristina scowled, tears in her eyes. “Do you know how cruel that was?! Do you know how WORRIED I was!?” Ow, that was gonna be a bruise tomorrow. “One hundred laps! One thousand laps! Oh but thank god you’re safe!” She sobbed, wrapping her arms around my neck and crying violently into my shoulder.

“There, there.” I said, patting her blonde hair. I looked up at Otoha and Amai, who shrugged at me.

We got sent home early that day. Something about small amount of collateral damage. Of course, by collateral damage, they meant “every single window in the school is shattered someone help us”. At least, probably. I was happy to head home, after the day I had, I was not in the mood for more mathematics.

    “Soooooo, I’m a Precure, huh?” Rui asked later that night while we were on the phone.

    “Yep.” I flatly replied, staring at my homework with disinterest as I flushed it down the toilet. Haha, no problems for me.

    “Cool.” She replied, seeming to not care much that she was now a legendary warrior charged with defending the earth.

    “So, how’d you and that Rahh fellow meet?” I asked, looking at Apoio who was nibbling on some cookies at the foot of my bed. “Seems really convenient if you ask me.”

    “Well, once you left, I realized I needed to grab something from my locker. While I was walking there, I heard yelling and crying noises. I turned a corner, and boom, Rahh collided with me worse than that time the Moon almost collided with the Earth and destroyed the land of Termina.”

    “...That’s a game, Rui.” I frowned, but couldn’t help but chuckle. Boy, someone should write about that. Precure who get their power from masks with dead people’s spirits in them. Heh, that’d be cool. “So, I assume he explained everything from there when all the windows shattered?”

    “Yeah, and that’s when I came back and found you fighting that thing.”

    “How’d you know it was me?” I asked, hearing her curse every deity she knew after knocking over a bottle of nail polish.

    “Well, aside from the fact that it was obvious, Rahh had already pulled out my Cure Coin, and I guess I could just sort of...tell it was you?” She let that question hang in the air.

    “Huh, I guess when you’re a Precure, you can figure out who other Precure are.” I reiterated the obvious. “Weird. Maybe it’s just ‘cause I was Precure first.”

    “You’re dead last in skill, Miyuki.”

    “O-Oh, you shut up! You just became a Precure!”

    “And I took out that monster way faster than I’m sure you did on your first day.” Rui said smugly, stabbing me with a kabillion needles over the phone.

    “W-Well…!” I stammered, I didn’t have anything to come back with.

“Sunny Sword!”

“Raining Raven Assault!”

I stood there watching them fight. A girl with long, flowing, white hair, and four strange creatures clashing swords with another girl, with short black hair tied into a bun. I didn’t know their names. I didn’t know why they were fighting. I just wanted them to stop, but I couldn’t move.

I looked down, to see myself enveloped in what looked like a glowing white-gold dress, almost paper thin. Nothing held me down, yet I could not move my legs. I looked back up, just in time to watch the shady girl slam a well-placed stab into the other. She collapsed to the ground, the armor she donned breaking apart into a similar dress to what I wore.

“This...nd...Bright...eth.” I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but the shady girl was pointing her sword at the brighter one’s neck.

“I’ll...ver...give up...ight Land…” The brighter one screamed, but she still sounded so fuzzy. What happened next, I could see clearly. The brighter girl brought her hand down on what looked like a golden sphere. I hadn’t noticed it until now, but the moment her hand touched it, it shattered into pieces, and the pieces disappeared, leaving only the pink pedestal they remained on. The girl shouted something at the creatures who were fighting alongside him. They all hastily retreated with the pedestal into the sky, which had changed from a soft, cheery blue, into a disconcerting scarlet color.

With my eyes following them, I didn’t see the swing of black metal, but I heard the blood-curdling scream that followed. One of the creatures turned and started screaming something inaudible. Another kept him from flying to what had happened, pulling him up into the sky behind them. I didn’t have the courage to turn and see what occurred. As the fairy-like beings disappeared into the foreboding sky, I felt something cold on my neck, and a whisper in my ear.

“You’re next…”

I nearly fell off my bed in panic when I was jolted awake. Clinging to my sheets in pure terror, I turned my head slightly to see my brother sitting there with the smuggest of smug grins, an ice pack in his hand.

“Did I scare you?” He asked, as though my fearful reaction was not enough confirmation.

“Scare me? Scare me!? Koizumi, I nearly pissed the bed!” I hollered, sitting up. “What are you doing!?”

“Mom told me to wake you up, so I did.” He explained. I watched as he slowly climbed down the ladder to my bed.

“But, why!? You and Mom both know I sleep until like, four!” I hissed, and pulled the sheets off my body. “Auuuugh, why on a Sunday?”

“She said your friends are at the door.”

“What friends?”

“Your friends.”

“I don’t-”

“MIYUKI, IF YOU DON’T GET YOUR DISHEVELED ASS DOWN HERE IN FIVE MINUTES I’M MAKING YOU DO LAPS AROUND THE MALL.” Yep, how could I forget my loving friends. That was Kristina’s voice. I remember just a few years ago when she moved here from America. Since the mall was mentioned, it was safe to assume that Amai and Otoha were coming too. I hopped out of bed, landing with a perfect six as my hand slipped and I almost took a desk to the face. I hobbled on over to the window and opened it, to see the three familiar heads of hair outside my back door. Kristina’s blonde, Amai’s black, and Otoha’s...weirdo spectrum.

“I’ll be down in like five to ten minutes, give or take any or such mess that my family can and probably will incur!” I called. The trio looked up at me.

“WELL HURRY UP.” Kristina yelled back, shaking a wristbanded fist. I shut the window, and proceeded downstairs for breakfast and a quick swig of bleach.

“Good morning, dear!” My mom said in her usual sing-songy voice. “Would you like some waffles? And some fresh-squeezed orange juice?” Blech, orange juice. I accepted anyway. Mom made good waffles, and orange juice wasn’t horrible if you pretended to drink it.

“Thanks Mom.” I plopped down at the table, still in my t-shirt and pajama bottoms.

“No problem, dear. How was school?”

“...Mom, it’s Saturday.”

“...Oh yeah, I forgot. Sorry, Miyuki!” She laughed, bringing a hand to her forehead. “I’ve just been so busy with work that I guess I forgot how days work! But I’m home with my family now, and that’s all the matters.” Oh lord, someone give me some wine with this cheese. The sentiment was there, so I let it slide.

I was glad to have Mom home. She was busy with work a lot, being a very powerful businesswoman and all. This usually meant she left us home with Dad while she was working late or out of the country, and while I love my Dad, its just nice to have another female in the house. I took a bite out of the deliciously fluffy waffles. Aah, I missed Mom’s cooking. The light fluffiness of the waffles mixed perfectly with the sticky maple syrup and combined into a heavenly blend like no other.

“MIYUKI!” I snapped out of the trance the god-waffles had put me in, dropping my fork entirely with a clatter. Oh my god, Kristina, give me TEN seconds. I looked down to see my plate empty of waffles. Despite my mild disappointment at Jesus-y breakfast food, I was glad I could finally get away and not deal with Kristina’s rants for seventy-kabillion years.

I sprinted upstairs, threw on my usual clothes, a gray hoodie and blue jeans, sprinted back downstairs practically chugging mouthwash, said bye to Mom and Koizumi, and practically kicked the door off its hinges. Whew, forty seconds, new record.

“There you are, Miyuki!” Kristina sighed exasperatedly. I spit my mouthwash out into the bushes around my door and turned to face her.

“Yes, yes, hi Kristina.” I retorted. I brushed the disheveled brown mess known as my hair out of my face. She reached out a single tan hand and grabbed mine. I never realized how pale I was until I was standing next to this girl.

“Come on, we need to get there or I make you run sixty laps around the fountain!”

“Didn’t you say ‘around the mall’ earlier?”

“I feel generous today.”

I glanced at Otoha and Amai, who were casually laughing their asses off at our bickering. Otoha took a step forward, wiping tears out of her eyes.

“Well, let’s just head out because if I have to watch you guys get into another catfight I’m going to puncture a lung.” The multicolor-haired girl walked off, Amai following her.

“It wasn’t a catfight!” I argued. “It was a stream of very strategically placed punches and kicks that resulted in me being the winner!”

“You just swung your hands wildly at each other and then Miyuki fell down.” Otoha replied flatly.

“Why can you never be on MY side?!” I groaned as I was dragged away by Kristina. Why could I tell this was going to be a long day?

    “Rahh, stop crying.” Sole said, peeking out between the leaves of the tree they sat in.

    “B-But Cure Solar...Cure Solar is…” Rahh whimpered, tears in his button-like eyes.

    “I know what happened to Cure Solar, Rahh. But that’s over, and you need to get over it so we can complete our mission.”

    “Sole! How can you say that? Cure Solar is gone, our homeland on the verge of destroyed, and you’re not even a bit upset?!” Apoio said, cuddling the sobbing fairy.

    “Of course I’m upset, I’m not completely emotionless. I just know that sitting around acting like children who lost their Mommy is not going to get back Bright Land.” Sole sighed. “And if you’re just going to sit here and sob, then I’ll go off on my own and find the legendary Precure.”

    “Sole.” Heleos placed a paw on Sole’s shoulder. “Please. We all need to stick together if we want a chance of finding the Precure and getting Bright Land back.”

    “But he’s just-!” Sole angrily choked, but stopped himself. “Alright, fine. We’ll wait around a bit longer.”

    “Thank you, Sole.” Heleos said, placing a kiss on his fairy friend’s cheek, causing him to blush violently. The fairy walked away, pulling a locket out and looking at it. A picture of Cure Solar was there, posing happily with them in one of the many flower fields of Bright Land. They were so happy. It burned him up inside. He was getting that happiness back, one way or another.

But for now, they had to lie in wait. The time to take Bright Land back would come.

    “Can you believe this?” Kristina said, incredulously. “Basketball sneakers for only 5000 Yen?” I still had a really hard time believing she was on the basketball team. I mean, yeah she was almost 6 feet tall, but her neatly done blonde hair, he black paint-spatter tank top, her denim short-shorts, her perfect makeup, her high-heeled open toed shoes that laced almost up to her knees, all of that did not give off the image of one of the top basketball players in the district. Before I could ask her about it, she had already made her purchase.

    “We’ve been sitting in a sporting goods store for the past twenty minutes all for you to buy one pair of Basketball shoes?” I asked incredulously.

    “First of all, they’re SNEAKERS. Secondly, you never know what kind of stuff you can find in sporting goods stores!”

    “...Sporting goods?” Amai said, looking up from her phone.

    “Shut it.” Kristina bonked the black-haired girl on the head.

    “Look, can we just check out GameSlow already?” I groaned. I hated it, but it was the only game retailer within thirty miles of my house.

    “Alright, alright, fine. Ya nerd.” Kristina laughed.

    “You got a problem with nerds, mate?” Amai slid in behind me, arms crossed.

    “Yeah, you wanna fight?” Otoha also appeared, arms equally crossed. It was too easy for me to do what came next.

    “MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAT! DUN DUN DUN DUN DUNDUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUNDUN!” I shouted. As expected, everyone joined in into the song, so the next shout sounded like a church choir fighting tournament. We all burst into laughter as we left the store. Ah, good times.

    “Anyway, so then I said; ‘If you want to fight, take it to the back of the school, because that’s where your head is gonna be when I smack it off your damn neck stump.’” Otoha laughed, reminiscing about one of the times she had almost gotten into a fight with another girl. Otoha was a sweet girl, but she could cut someone if she wanted to.

She’d always been like that, wild and crazy, not that I minded. She kept things interesting, even if she did manage to drag us into her wacked-out schemes every single time. But I never once regretted hanging with Otoha and the rest. We were like an almost-gang, except without the hate crimes and shooting people. Mostly, but that was just because we never should take Amai to a firing range ever.

“Miyuki...Miyuki...MIYUKI!” I walked straight into Otoha’s snapping fingers. Ow.

“Ow, what?” I asked, rubbing my forehead.

“We’re here.” She replied. I turned and saw the obnoxious ‘GameSlow’ logo that always looked like it was going to fall down and kill someone.

“Oh.” I quickly plodded inside, the girls following me. I turned over to one of the shelves, shuffling through the small square boxes lined up messily. “Let’s see, Enkatsu 3rd My Queen, no...Attractive Beat My Deco Color Marriage, no…” I muttered, flipping through the choices. I had no plans to buy anything, but I was drawn to this place, no matter how terrible it was. I always felt like I was going to find something out of the ordinary here.

I had no idea that it would be today.

“Uuuu…” I heard a pained groan come from a space in between the shelves. It sounded like some kind of animal. I walked over, and found out it was some kind of animal. Only problem...I didn’t know any animals that looked like it. It was like a big poofy ball with a head and two pointed ears. It had a pink backpack with blue trim for some reason. The creature was wriggling around, and I picked it up.

“Y..You okay, little dude?” I asked it, not expecting an answer. The creature’s eyes opened, and they were two black spheres that shined in the fluorescent light. They looked up at me, at first startled, then calm, as it snuggled itself into my hands. Its eyes softly closed, and quickly snapped open.

The creature leapt out of my hands, and I was surprised as two tiny wings flapped out from its back. It flew close to my face, and flew back in surprise.

“U-Um…” I said, looking around to see if anyone else was seeing this. Everyone else was just browsing and doing their own thing. I felt the wet pink nose of the thing press against my forehead, or at least I hope it was its nose, and there was a sudden blinding flash. During said flash, I fell backwards and landed on my ass.

    “Miyuki!” Otoha said, trotting over and helping me up. “Are you alright?” She asked as I took her hand.

    “Ow, yeah…” I replied, rubbing my bruised booty. “I’m fine, just got surprised.” I wasn’t sure if I should tell her about the thing. Where had it gone anyway?

    “Surprised? By what? This place is as predictable as a fanfic where their tongues battled for dominance.”

    “Hah. But no, I got surprised, by, um…” I looked around for an excuse, snapping a random case from the shelf. “I found this for only 4000 Yen!”

    “...Jaws 2?” Otoha asked inquisitively. I looked at the box.

    “Jaws 2?!” I exclaimed, jamming the box back into the shelf with disgust. “Look, nevermind. Thanks for the save. I’m fine. Exit my vicinity now.” I waved my hands to emphasize my point.

    “...Alright.” Otoha complied, raising an eyebrow. What’s a girl gotta do to get some privacy?

    “Psst! Miyuki! Is that your name?” I looked down to see the fluffy creature from before poking its head out of the pouch on my hoodie.

    “...What are you, dude?”

    “Wow, rude.” The creature flew up. “You can understand me, right?”

    “Clearly, you’re speaking Japanese.”

    “...That explains it.” The creature said. “My name’s Apoio!”

    “...Japanese?” Apoio asked, surprised. “Oh! I’m not speaking Japanese, silly! I just gave you the ability to understand me!”

    “...You can do that?” I proceeded to ponder if I can talk to animals. “So can I talk to all animals, now?”

    “No, you can’t. And for the record, I’m not an animal! I’m a fairy!”

    “A...fairy?” I responded, confused. “As in...like, magical creature fairy?”

    “Yes!” Apoio said, flying in circles around my head. “I’m from Bright Land, a kingdom in another world!”

    “Did Mom put LSD in my waffles because that is the most drugged statement I have ever heard.”

    “This is serious!” Apoio exclaimed, flying into my face. “Bright Land is in danger, and I have to find the legendary warriors, Precure!”

    “Precure?”

    “Yes! Precure!”

    “So...why are you talking to me?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “I’m not a warrior of any kind. I have trouble opening a water bottle.”

    “Because I recognized you from the fight with Cure Solar!”

    “Cure...Solar?” The name struck a bell. “Wait, what fight? I wasn’t in any fight! Well, except for that time Otoha and Amai wound up throwing punches at each other over a cute tank top. Still can’t believe I managed to steal that from them.” I reminisced. I still had that tank top, hot pink with colorful neon paint splatters.

    “Yes, you were! Well, you weren’t in the fight, persay. But you saw it!” Apoio explained. “Did you have a weird dream last night?”

“...How did you know?” I questioned, suspicious of how he knew of my dream. “The one with the two girls fighting and then a bunch of puffballs flew away?”

“Yeah! Yeah! That was Cure Solar fighting Storm Heart! She...” Apoio looked down at his tiny paw feet. “She sacrificed herself so we could escape here.”

“Oh…” I bowed my head. “I’m...I’m sorry…”

“But it’s gonna be okay! Because you, Miyuki, are one of the legendary Precure!”

“I assumed, but you still haven’t explained how you knew about my dream.” I said, still taking this in. What? Legendary warrior? People dying? I’m so confused.

“Oh! One of Bright Land’s qualities is that it can bring dreaming people into it to explore and frolic! But the Precure are the only ones who become self-aware of it!”

“So...that dream..was actually me entering another world?” I was surprised. I’m the type of person who gets winded climbing stairs, so interdimensional travel in my sleep seemed to be a bit too effort-intensive for me.

“Yeah! Now come on! We need to get outside!” Apoio fluttered down onto my sleeve, and began dragging me towards the entrance of the store.

“W-What? Why!?”

“Miyuki! Where are you going?” Amai called, creepily looking at some of the AO games that sat on the far wall. I felt Apoio scramble into my sleeve.

“U-Um...My stomach hurts, I’m going to the bathroom!”

“...Okay then?” Amai raised an eyebrow, not that you could see it through the bangs that covered her eyes. “Have fun.”

“Sure will!” I choked out, scrambling outside of the store. “Okay, what the hell.”

Apoio popped out of my sleeve again. “There’s the door!” He pointed, despite his lack of arms. “Hurry!”

“I still don’t understand why we’re leaving, but okay.” I sprinted through the line of glass doors, and was met with a rather terrifying sight.

    Something that looked akin to a giant car-robot hybrid was stomping around the parking lot, muttering nothing but angry, selfish things.

    “Ah! We’re too late!” Apoio shrieked, as a massive metallic foot came a bit to close to us.

    “What the fuck is that!?” I cursed, staring at the monstrosity.

    “It’s a Rainy Day!” Apoio explained, as we both took off running from the beast. “They were created by the bad guys who attack Bright Land! They’re trying to take the Sun Stars!”

    “...Sun Stars?”

    “I’ll explain this all later!” Apoio and I turned a corner into an alcove, where he levitated something out of his tiny backpack, and it looked like a tiny handheld monitor for a computer from the 80s. The silver outside had a slot in the top that looked like it would hold quarters.

    “What’s this?” I asked, panting. I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins. Another loud stomp echoed from around the corner. Oh god, this was it. This is the day I die.

    “It’s a Cure Box! You use it to transform!” Apoio wiggled his feet as he speedily explained. “Quick, transform!”

    “O-Okay!” I said, and held the box close to my heart, “Um...Transform!” I shouted, holding the object to the sky. I was totally ready to...wait. Nothing happened. “...Transform!” I called again. Still nothing. “Change!” Nothing again. “Activate! Evolution! Set Up! Make Up! Love Link! Metamorphosis!” I wildly shook the box, nothing happening. “Is this thing defective!? Because we are five seconds from death!”

    Apoio stared blankly at the box. He was clearly confused, and then with a snapping sound, he jumped back. “Oh! I completely forgot!” The fairy floated over to my chest, and gently bumped his nose against it.

    “Y-Yo! What are you doing!” I yanked my chest away from him, blushing wildly. “Pervert!”

    “Look at it!” Apoio said, and I looked down to see a massive glowing spot across where my heart was.

    “...Do I need to see a doctor?”

    “No! You have a Cure Coin! You truly are a Precure!” As Apoio said it, a golden quarter levitated out of my chest. Although, on further expection, it was twice as thick, engraved with a wreath around the edges and a massive “P” scrawled across it.

    “I...don’t fully understand.” I took the coin out of the air, and the glowing stopped. “What is this? What just happened? How did you-” The stomping, which had receded a bit, suddenly sounded a lot closer. “I can ask questions later! How do I transform?!”

    “Put the Cure Coin into the Cure Box!” Apoio explained, and just then, the whole alcove became a lot breezier. I looked up to the sound of crumbling debris...the robot had torn the roof off.

    “Rere! Rere! What’s that? I want it! What’s that? I want it!” Oh god, its voice sounded like broken, demonic giggles. Like someone who had no skills in audio editing tried to make a horror movie. “Rere! Give me that! Rere!” The beast reached one of its gargantuan hands down towards us.

    “What do we do now!?” I inquired, panicked. We had about three seconds.

    “Quick! Say ‘Precure! Weather Scan!’”

    “Why?”

    “Just do it!” Apoio flailed his legs exasperatedly.

    “U..Um…okay!” I complied, and dropped the Cure Coin into the slot. I held it up to the monster, and with every fiber of my being praying he wouldn’t bite my head off, I shouted.

“Precure! Weather Scan!”

    A felt a suddenly gold light overtake me. It felt like I was flying through a shining tunnel. I realized I was wearing the same paper-thin dress as the dream. Despite every fiber in my body screaming at me to panic, it was so calming. My eyes closed as I felt ribbons wrap around my body, and change form. I opened my eyes once more, realizing I was falling. I let my new shoes clatter to the ground. And I stood up, brushing my new golden ponytail away.  I won’t back down, not now, not ever. “Protector of the Sun and every living thing’s glow...”

    “Cure Shine!”

    And with a pose, the light faded. I was back in the alcove, standing in between a puffy white fairy and a giant car monster, wearing what looked like a cross between a general and a school girl’s uniform.

    “Rere! Rere! You’re cute! I want you! Rere! Rere!” The monster cooed, its arm reaching for me again.

    “Okay, nevermind, fleeing!” I immediately sprinted between the Rainy Day’s legs, and out into the parking lot. The thing turned around.

    “B-But...I always get what I want! Rere! Rere!” With every ‘Rere’, it stomped, making the ground quake.

    “Seriously, what is that thing? Why is it attacking us?!” I asked Apoio as he flew over.

    “Rainy Day’s are made when someone’s heart gets clouded, and then someone rips out their heart and combines it with an object! Then the Rainy Day acts on its urges and attacks everything!” He explained, as another seismic wave sent us undulating.

    “W-Wait? They killed someone!?”

    “No, oh my god.” Apoio started chuckling. “Heart in a metaphorical sense.”

    “....OooooOH.” In the middle of my thoughtful “oh”, another quake knocked me up.

    “Rere! You...you can’t keep me from getting what I want! I’ll destroy you!” It’s voice suddenly got a lot lower on that last sentence. Not that I noticed initially, as I was too busy noticing it CHARGING AT US.

    “Holy shit!” I hollered, getting up and immediately running. I could hear Apoio screaming and following me. Unfortunately, we were only about forty feet from the fence that lead into a river. There was no way in hell I was going to deal with getting wet.

    “Jump!” Apoio commanded. I didn’t even ask why, I just hopped into the air. I expected a weak little bounce, but what I got made me look like I got hit by a car and got propelled into the sky. I heard a bird shriek, and I’m pretty sure I may have given a seagull a concussion.

    “Yo what the hell.” I said in surprise, flipping through the air and landing on the other side of the monster. The Rainy Day continued charging forward, and broke straight through the fence and into the river. There was a crackle of electricity, and the thing sat in the river, surrounded by water and metal and wire. It let out a few weakened “Rere”s, and I think it had started sobbing. I would have felt bad if it didn’t try to kill me.

    “Quick, attack it!” Apoio directed.

    “With what!?”

    “I don’t know, just finish it off!”

    “A-Alright!” I said, having no idea what to do. Normally in stuff like this, the hero receives some arcane wisdom and learns to attack. Apoio was far from wise and at this point I wasn’t too certain if this was very arcane either. I just sort of flailed my arms, hoping for something to happen, and to my surprise, it did.

    I clapped my hands, balling them into fists and placing my arms across my chest. One foot lifted off the ground, and I could feel myself spinning, and spinning, and spinning. I flew off of the ground, drilling into the sky.

“Precure…” I went faster, and I could feel a glow emanating from me. I threw my hands up, and the glow surrounding me lifted off, forming a massive sphere of yellow light above me. “Shining…” I leaned back, and then with all my might, threw the sphere. “Light!” The ball crashed into the Rainy Day with the force of a meteor, turning it a rainbow of colors, before shattering into black shards. In its place was now a levitating child, and something that looked like a Cure Coin, but thinner and a bright green color. I gently landed on the ground, and watched as the levitation wore off the child, and they splashed into the water. Similarly, a nearby pickup truck crashed into the asphalt behind us.

“You did it!” Apoio said, fluttering around my head in circles. “For your first time being a Precure, that wasn’t half bad!”

“...I have so many questions, but sweet Jesus that was REALLY COOL.” I said, getting a giddy excited feeling. “...We should probably save that kid though.” Apoio agreed, and we both ran down into the water and pulled the kid out, and the green coin-like object. “Let’s get him inside.”

    “Miyuki! Thank goodness you’re alright!” Otoha wrapped her arms around me, as did Kristina, and Amai. “We were so worried!”

    “Yeah...uh...thanks guys.” I smiled, wrapping my arms around the three, or at least trying to. Damn stubby arms. “But I’m fine, I just was taking that kid back to his mom.” I gestured to the woman I was talking to, who was affectionately holding her son’s hand.

    “Mommy! It was soooo coool! I met this creepy dude with white hair, and he turned me into a monster! And then I was smashing up stuff! And then that girl,” He pointed to me. “she transformed into a superhero and turned me back to normal!” I winced at his remark. Apoio had made it clear not to tell anyone I was a Precure, so if this kid got the word out, I’d be ruined.

    “Aheheheheh! What an interesting dream you had!” I rubbed the back of my neck, laughing nervously. I prayed to every deity and their mom that no one would believe this kid. “I’m no superhero, kiddo!”

    “Well, regardless, thank you so very much for bringing my son back!” The woman said for the seventh time. “And you’re a superhero to me, Miyuki.” She planted a kiss on my cheek, and I felt blush run across my face. “Thank you again! Come on, honey, let’s go home.”

    “Yes Mommy!”  The boy and his mom waved at me, and I returned said wave, as the two left.

    “So...what was that about?” Amai asked.

    “Oh, uh, nothing. I found her kid after...whatever that was...attacked. He was in the creek, so I took him back.” I answered, hoping she’d believe my story.

    “I think she was talking about that kiss, Miyuki~!” Krisitina said, brushing up against me.

    “Isn’t she a bit too old to be your girlfriend, Miyuki~?” Otoha also said, rubbing against my back. I could see the snide looks on both their faces, like they radiated smugness.

    “B-Both of you, shut up!” I said, now even more flustered. “She’s just a girl I did a good deed for! Unlike SOME people who chose to run away!”

    “Miyuki, you ran away too, just earlier than the rest of us.” Otoha snapped her fingers.

    “I did not! I-” I felt a tug at my shirt, and looked down to see Apoio pulling on it from my pocket. “I simply ended up being safe!”

    “Yeah, sure, whatever, coward.” Kristina said, shrugging nonchalantly. That last word struck a nerve with me. Fortunately, I struck her face. “Ow!”

    “Well, it’s getting late you guys.” Otoha pulled out a pocket watch and looked at it. She was always into that weird antique stuff. And it seemed she want to glue gears and clocks to everything. “Let’s all head home.”

    “You’re right, I’m exhausted.” I agreed. Amai stood next to me, quietly nodding with a creepy smile on her face. I noticed she was carrying an armful of her weirdo games. I didn’t say anything.

    “Yeah, let’s all head home.” Kristina slung her shopping bags over her shoulder. “I could use some rest.”

    And so we did, parting ways at my house’s entrance. It was at that moment, Apoio popped out of my hoodie pocket. “Is this your dwelling?” He asked, flying up to the door.

    “If by dwelling you mean my house, then yes.” I opened the door, and Apoio flew inside. No one was home at the moment, so he was free to fly about. “Now, I have some questions for you, Mr.Fairy.”

    “I told you, my name is Apoio!” Apoio argued, before tripping over thin air and falling inside a vase. “Speaking of my name, help.”

    “I fail to see how those two things are related.” I muttered, walking over to the face. I wrapped my fingers around his tail, and with a swift POP, he was out and dangling from my fist. “But, point stands, what the hell was ANY of that?”

    “Well, I’ve already explained you being a Precure and the whole reason we’re here. What more explanation do you need?”

    “What are those Sun Stars you were talking about? Who created that monster? And what in God’s name,” I dug around in my pocket with my free hand, yanking out the green coin from earlier “is THIS?

“That?” He wriggled free from my hands, and flew up to the coin. “That’s a Skin!”

“Ew.” I immediately dropped it onto the ground. If we were in the 1960s, it would have fallen through the cracks and we’d be eternally screwed. Fortunately, it is 2014 and our hardwood floors are sealed and we have also learn tolerable hairstyles that don’t require twenty cans of hairspray per day. The “Skin”, as Apoio had grossly called it, bounced harmlessly off the floor and landed on its side.

“Hey!” He flew down over it. “Be careful! Skins are very rare and valuable!”

“They’re gross.”

“They’re not actual skins!”

“Then call them something nicer!”

“Uuuuugh!” Apoio groaned, levitating the coin above him. “You dummy, Skins are some of the most powerful artifacts left from Bright Land!”

“Are they really?” I asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

“Okay, fine, they’re fairly common, but not green!” He defended.

“Wait, there are more colors than ocular-injury green?”

“Well, duh! Green Skins are really rare, because they mean Treasure!” I pulled the Skin from the air.

“So, how do I use it?” I inquired. I pulled out the Cure Box in hopes of finding some answers. I then proceeded to smack my forehead so hard that I’m 500% sure a random pickle jar in Otoha’s kitchen shattered. I dismissed the idea, and went back to the Cure Box, looking at the slot in disgust. “How did I not think of this before?” I dropped the Skin into the Cure Box, and suddenly the inside of it was overtaken with a lime green glow. The once solid black front had several different icons flash through it, before stopping on a pixelated treasure chest. “What the-” Before I could finish my sentence, the front started glowing white, and something gently flew out. It looked like a shard of amber, but the moment the glow faded, it (ironically) shone out a bright light, becoming a levitating sparkle the size of a nickel.

“I-It’s a Sun Star! A Sun Star!” Apoio cheered. I didn’t have time to ask him what the hell a Sun Star was, as he quickly started rooting around in his backpack, with his nose mind you. for something. He quickly levitated a large, filthy, pink piece of what looked like plastic and probably belonged in a broken down knockoff Flormart. I swear to god that backpack was like the TARDIS. The fairy gently set it down onto the table we had in the entryway where the vase he had fallen into was. “Hurry! Put it here!”

“Uh, why?”

“Just do it!”

“Alright, alright!” I held up my hands defensively, and went to do as I was told. As soon as my finger touched it, it bounced off, and flew down above the plastic hunk. It flew around it, making happy gurgling noises, which I didn’t know was a thing something could make. and then eventually settled right in the middle, levitating between the two prongs. “...Well, now that that’s out of the way, what was that?”

“Remember that big golden orb that Cure Solar shattered in your dream?”

“Y...Yeah?”

“That was the Sun Stone. Its what keeps the power of Bright Land in check and keeps the world sunny and happy!” Apoio said, hugging himself with his tail. “The Rainy Days wanted it so they could take over Bright Land and make it all depressing and stuffs!”

“...So these are the pieces of the Sun Stone?” I inferred, looking at the glowing shard.

“Correct!” Apoio clapped his feet together, somehow. It was really a feat of physics. Then again, so many laws of physics were broken today that I doubt a fairy clapping its feet would matter in the grand scheme of the shattered picture of the universe. Or, multiverse, I suppose. “The Sun Stars are remnants of the Sun Stone, and its our job to rebuild it and take back Bright Land!”

“Well, if you took the entire holder-thing-”

“Glow Chalice.” He interrupted, giving me its proper name.

“HOLDER-THING,” I emphasized. “Couldn’t you have taken the whole Sun Stone too?”

“Its not like we had much time!” Apoio argued. “And if we got caught, the entirety of the Sun Stone would fall into their grasp! They’d be unstoppable!”

“...Alright, I withdraw my argument.” I said, crossing my arms. “But, now, why am I a Precure? Why was I chosen? I’m just a shlub who cries over fictional characters, not some eternal warrior of justice!”

“I have no idea.” Apoio shrugged. He seemed to have about as much knowledge on the subject as I did. “I just saw you had the heart of a Precure, and I guess I was right, since you were able to transform and all.”

“Huh. Well, am I gonna be the only one fighting that ‘Rainy Day Trio’  or whatever?” I looked out the sliding glass door opposite us.

“Of course not!” I turned around, surprised. “There’s a bunch of other Precure out there! You just have to know where to look!”

“...Were any of my friends Precure?” I asked, once again toying with the Sun Star. It bobbed back and forth happily.

“I wouldn’t know.” Apoio said. “I can only see the specific Precure I was assigned to. The other fairies have to find theirs.”

“...Other fairies?” I said, surprised by this revelation. “There’s more of you?”

“Yeah, my brothers from Bright Land. Rahh, Sole, and Heleos. They all came with me. I just happened to go out and find you!”

“Wow, so you’re telling me, that me, and potentially some other people, have to rely on the power of fairies to save the entirety of another dimension from people who have the ability to create monsters thats could very well kill us in a manner of seconds that we’re only able to kill due to random happenstance and good fashion sense?”

“...Yes?” Apoio squeaked, sounding intimidated. Good.

“...Alright, I suppose that works out then.” I shrugged, and went over to the base of the stairs. Suddenly, I heard the door open. It was Mom.

“Oh, hi Miyuki!” Mom said, walking over and giving me a kiss. “I was just out on an emergency business call. Don’t worry, I’m still here for the week.” She rubbed my back soothingly. “I’m about to get started on dinner. Want anything specific?”

“If I say ‘Night Breakfast’ will you actually make waffles.”

“Sure thing, hon.” My mom giggled at my frivolity. “You head on upstairs and relax, I’ll call you when dinner’s done.”