"Ta-da!"
With enthusiasm only a child could muster, an eight year old girl leapt at her mother brandishing an old stuffed doll in a manner not unlike Simba's presentation at pride rock. However, instead of bowing in awe as expected, the girl's mother turned to look at her daughter with a small frown, pulling her eyes from her phone for just long enough to take a good gander at the doll.
"Oh my god, what happened to her?"
Faltering slightly, the little girl looked back at her doll quizzically as though she half expected it to have made a face at her mother based on the reaction she received. "Well after Coco got Motoyo I had to fix her face," she replied, her dark eyes fixating on the little dog and staring bitterly at him as he wagged his tail in ignorant bliss.
The attack left the stuffed doll in rough shape, missing half her face where Coco held her in his mouth as the child pulled her free. Of course the girl couldn't let the doll go around looking like that, and had decided to fix her up herself judging by the pink and white heart print fabric amateurishly stitched over the exposed fluff on the right side. "I picked the hearts, because I love her!"
The mother grimaced slightly, looking at what she considered to be the most upsetting feature: the eye drawn on the new fabric in black marker, a little too big for the doll's face and positioned more on the side of her face than in front.
"It's creepy, put that away."
The child frowned, holding the doll protectively to her chest. Through pouted lips she mumbled a quiet question. "When are we going to get ice cream?"
With a drawn out sigh of exasperation the woman replied, "Later, Mikazuki. First I need to meet up with my friends and then if you're good we can get some ice cream. Are you ready to go yet?"
-
Mikazuki had long since learned how to entertain herself on her weekends with her mom. As soon as her mother's phone rang, she knew there wouldn't be any more conversing until after they met up with her mother's friends. At least there was the potential for ice cream afterwards. While her mom laughed and chatted with whomever was on the phone, Mikazuki held out her newly repaired doll to examine more thoroughly.
A few chunks of her black yarn hair were ripped short on the side that had previously been in that dog's mouth, the unharmed strands hanging down to the doll's plush feet. She wore a little black plaid dress similar to one the child owned herself, which of course was the immediate draw to the toy. Besides the marker-drawn eye on the now heart-printed right side of her face, the in-tact eye on the left was a simple black button, and she bore a permanent black stitched smile that managed to survive the brutal mauling in one piece.
With a small pale finger Mikazuki traced along the doll's stitched mouth, a smile of her own pulling across her lips as she walked along side her mother down the street. She could spy the group of adults down the road, each raising a hand in greeting as they in turn spotted her mother. They never seemed to look at Mikazuki, probably because she was so short, she reasoned.
As they joined the group, all the adults spoke quickly about things Mikazuki neither understood, nor cared much about. By now she was adept at tuning these things out, and her eyes wandered along with her mind in order to keep herself preoccupied. Just as she found herself wishing for something fun to do, her gaze fell upon a playground just beyond the tree line of the local park. With renewed vigor, the child tapped quickly on her mother, who waved her hand away.
"Can Motoyo and I go to the park?"
Her mother didn't address the question verbally, nor did she break eye contact with her companions, but continued to wave her hand, which Mikazuki took as a yes. Not bothering to wait around for a confirmation, the girl took off running with one hand clasped firmly around Motoyo's plush arm.
The park was void of any company, not that it bothered the child much as she plopped down on the swings and set her doll carefully in her lap. Mikazuki was an only child after all; she was more than capable of entertaining herself. Besides, she had Motoyo's company.
Gripping the metal links tight in her pale little hands, she scooted as far back as she could, careful to hold the doll between her knees before kicking off. Her long black hair flew behind her as she swung forward, a beaming smile adorning her gleeful face. The doll's smile remained as it always did, though her black yarn hair fluttered around her half a face as well. Once the arc of her swing achieved an acceptable height, Mikazuki released one hand from the links and held tightly onto the doll, pressing her lips together tightly with determination.
As the swing arced upwards one last time she released her other hand and flew free of the seat. Though it lasted a mere second, her whirlwind imagination conjured up the image of flying through the air, a bona fide superhero weightless as she soared above the clouds. She landed roughly on the ground hugging the doll tightly to her chest, opening her eyes with a mischievous glint.
"Super Mikazuki and her sidekick Motoyo are here to save the day!" she cried, holding the doll up in the air triumphantly. "Let's go find some citizens in danger!"
Humming her own theme song she ran up the play set, checking in all the tunnels and down all the slides with a careful eye.
"No citizens here!"
She slid down one of the poles to check underneath.
"None here either!"
She scurried back up to the top, holding Motoyo above her head so the doll could check on top of the play set roof.
"None there either? Maybe mom can help us find a citizen!"
Mikazuki leapt again from the playground and trotted back towards the trees, expecting to find her mother and her friends on the other side. However, there seemed to be no trace of the group, the sidewalk that lined the edge of the park stood completely empty on both sides. The girl let out a soft gasp.
"Mom is a citizen in danger! We gotta help her!"
Making wooshing noises as she ran back through the trees, Mikazuki tried to ignore the pang of fear in her chest, zipping in between the greenery with her doll clutched even tighter than normal against her. The more trees she rounded that didn't have her mother on the other side, the heavier her heart became, and slowly her superhero sound effects quieted into a concerned silence.
Slowly the realization that she was lost crept up her spine and made the back of her neck tense uncomfortably. The trees felt as though they were inching nearer, and Mikazuki's limbs shook as she began to cry softly, plopping down onto the ground with her back to one of the trunks, hiding her face behind her knees.
Eventually over her soft cries carried the voices of two women, and the child lifted her head curiously. In the vain hope that one might belong to her mother she took a few steps towards the sound, eventually spotting two women deep within the woods with her.
One of the figures was dressed in the school uniform of the local high school, though it was riddled with large, vibrant stains. Her long hair was a tangled mess, and obscured her face as the woman hung her head.
The other voice belonged to a woman who looked older, dressed in professional looking dress pants and a nice blouse, her hair pulled back into a tight bun and a large bag hanging off her shoulder. She spoke to the high schooler, peering at her with a pointed gaze through thin framed glasses.
"I can help you through this misery, Kasumi. But you need to trust me." The elder woman held out her hand. "Do you trust me?"
The high schooler, Kasumi, lifted her head slowly. Her hair fell back from her face, her cheeks red and eyes bleary and swollen. "I trust you."
Mikazuki took a step closer to the pair, but as soon as the student took hold of the woman's hand, the little girl stopped in her tracks, frozen in place with her doll still clutched tightly to her chest. The elder woman gripped Kasumi's hand tightly in her own, pulling out from her bag what appeared to be a handgun, with a strange glass chamber fastened to the back. Kasumi pulled back as she saw what the woman had, but she was not strong enough to get free from the vice grip.
"Don't struggle, this is going to help you," the elder woman insisted, placing the device against the student's upper arm and pulling the trigger. Kasumi jolted, but didn't scream. Instead, her wide eyes slowly began to droop, and she hunched over slightly as though her energy were being sapped from her.
In that instant, Mikazuki cried out suddenly, "Stop it!"
The woman looked up abruptly, though Kasumi didn't seem to notice or care about the child's outburst. The small glass chamber on the device, Mikazuki noticed, began to fill with a strange, glittery pink liquid. Before she could make out what it was the woman pulled the device away quickly, placing back into her bag. "Go back to your family, little girl. This doesn't concern you."
Mikazuki stood in place, feeling as though her legs wouldn't move no matter how hard she willed them to. Panic began to swell in her chest, infiltrating her heart which began to race, and filling her lungs until they burst with a high pitched scream. Mikazuki felt just as surprised by the action as the woman, but the shriek continued regardless.
"Shut up!" The woman hissed, rummaging through her bag again and pulling out a metal orb and tossing it at the ground between her and the child. Upon impact the orb expanded, metal walls unfolding into long spindly legs as it took on a spider like form complete with two large metal fangs, and clear glass abdomen.
Though Mikazuki's screams continued, she found the will to move her legs and took off running. Clinking and whirring metal parts signaled that the spider monster was giving pursuit, and she felt something heavy leap onto her back. The child topped over, her doll flying from her grip as she hit the ground, the mechanical monstrosity on top of her.
With some desperate thrashes she managed to knock the thing loose, and scurried quickly for her doll, stretching out her hand to reach for it when the monster's fangs clamped down suddenly on her extended arm. Though the bite wasn't as painful as she had anticipated, she watched as the glass abdomen of the spider began to slowly fill with the same pink glittering liquid that she had seen before, and she felt herself growing weaker and her senses slowing down.
Though her perception was slowed, she was certain what happened next really did come out of nowhere. Suddenly someone stood beside Mikazuki, and delivered a swift kick to the mechanical spider to dislodge it from her arm. Weakened, Mikazuki fought to move, grabbing ahold of her doll and crawling towards the bushes. With a strained expression she turned around, huddled against the underbrush and gazing upon her savior. There stood a girl a few years older than herself, donning a red and white polka dotted dress and a red bow in her impossibly long flowing hair.
The way this girl moved was as though she weighed nothing, dancing backwards on agile feet as the mechanical monster lunged repeatedly at her. With a loud whirring sound the spider tensed up its legs and leapt for the fighter's face, but she was prepared with a fist already balled and drawn back for a square punch that sent the contraption flying once again. The warrior winced, shaking her hand and hopping from foot to foot momentarily while the monster recovered. Briefly she and Mikazuki locked eyes, until the machine struck again and she broke eye contact to duck out of the way.
Awe stricken, Mikazuki watched as the girl raised her hand above her head, suddenly shouting an incantation.
b"Menagerie Arsenal!"/b
A burst of light shone above her outstretched hand, solidifying into the shape of a large hammer, which she held above her head as if it too were weightless. Bringing it down to her side and gripping firmly with both hands, the warrior took charge with a loud battle cry as she approached the monster. Raising the hammer over her shoulder, she shouted yet another magical incantation.
b"Pretty Cure Shockwave Blast!"/b
As the hammer struck down upon the mecha monster, a bright red light radiated out from the point of impact, bright enough that Mikazuki was forced to close her eyes and look away. When she opened them again, nothing remained of the strange device the suspicious woman had released upon her, the only trace of its existence the pink fluid it had drained from her which lay splattered across the grass.
With some trepidation, Mikazuki stood, and an immense dizziness immediately began to take hold. The girl in red rushed to her side, wrapping an arm around the smaller girl.
"Woah, be careful!" she cautioned, her full lips pouting in disappointment, "I'm sorry I didn't make it soon enough…" Gazing back into the depths of the park, there wasn't a trace of anyone else in eyesight. "Looks like they already left, huh?"
Mikazuki's vision finally began to clear as she regained some composure, looking out to where the pair of women stood earlier. "That woman…she did something to someone else…"
The girl in red nodded. "There are some people up to no good around here. But that's why I'm here! I'll make sure everything turns out alright. How are you feeling?"
Taking a peek at herself Mikazuki couldn't see anything much the matter, except for two tiny needle sized puncture wounds in her arm where she had been bitten.
"Luckily it didn't take much of your individium. You might not feel like yourself for the next day or two, but it'll replenish soon! So keep your head up," the warrior smiled brightly.
Mikazuki scrunched her face up in confusion. Individum? That sounded like a word a grown up would say. The other girl noticed this, and laughed a hearty guffaw that made Mikazuki tense up in embarrassment. "Don't worry about it, you probably won't have to deal with that stuff anymore."
"Okay…"
"I like your doll by the way," the girl mentioned, helping Mikazuki walk out of the park and back towards the street. "What's her name?"
"Motoyo."
"That's cute! Did you make her yourself?"
"No, my mom's dog ate her face so I had to fix it," Mikazuki muttered, holding up the doll with a small frown. Somewhat unexpectedly, she wasn't feeling very confident about her patch job anymore. It was as if her eyes were being inexplicably drawn to all the imperfections in her stitches, all the uneven hairs, all the ways the doll didn't look normal anymore. "My mom thinks she looks scary."
"I like your doll just the way she is, even if she is scary. That makes her special, right?"
Mikazuki eyed the doll again, but managed a hesitant smile. "Yeah, you're right."
"Tell ya what, why don't you tell me where your mom is and I can take you to her?"
"I don't know…she isn't where she was before," Mikazuki mumbled fretfully, jumping slightly as the girl wrapped her arms around her. "Wh-what are you doing?"
"Let's go look for your mom!" the girl in red grinned, clicking her heels together. Little white wings that had adorned the outsides of her red shoes began to glow, and in one powerful bound the two soared into the air. Mikazuki clung tightly to her savior as they rose higher than the treetops, higher than any jump off the swing could take her. The warrior began to run across the air, little winged heart symbols appearing under her feet with each step she took. Soon the child spotted her mother and her friends congregated around a newsstand not too far away, reading what must have been a humorous article judging by their laughter, and each with a half eaten ice cream cone in hand.
Mikazuki's eyes began to water, a fact she attempted to hide from the superhero girl by looking away. "Actually, can you take me to my dad's house? He lives down that street over there," she mumbled, pointing in the direction her primary caregiver lived.
If the girl in red noticed anything wrong, she was kind enough not to mention it, and soon she glided down from the sky and set Mikazuki, with Motoyo in hand down, on her front sidewalk. "Well there ya go! I've gotta get goin but it was nice meetin ya! Stay outta trouble and keep it easy the next couple days!" The girl took a couple bounds into the sky once again when Mikazuki suddenly blurted out a question after her.
"Wait! What's your name?!"
The girl in red paused and smiled down at her. "They call me Cure Rockabilly!" she shouted back. "What's your name?"
"Mikazuki!"
"Nice to meet you, Mikazuki! Maybe we'll meet again sometime! Until then, stay true to yourself and don't listen to anyone who says otherwise!" Raising her hand in farewell, Cure Rockabilly leapt higher into the sky and out of sight, leaving Mikazuki awestruck and mildly dumbfounded.
Not quite as dumbfounded as her father however, who hadn't been expecting her home quite so soon. The story of being left at the park and ditched for ice cream could wait for now, she decided, as the young girl had only one thing on her mind.
"Dad! We need to go to the library, I need books about monsters and superheroes!"