Preface
A Soup of Sues is the result of my participation in NaNoWriMo 2014 and, as the title implies, contains Mary Sues. Before I begin, I would like to say two things:
Firstly, is my assumption that you, the reader, have at least a passing familiarity with the term "Mary Sue." If you don't know what a Sue is, I would recommend giving at least a cursory glance at the definition online, which you can easily find from a search engine, or on a site like TV Tropes. You may also find the term being discussed on forums here (e.g. in the Writers Anonymous forum).
The second point pertains to why I am even writing about Mary Sues. Parodies of them have been done to death already. There are even some very good stories that have taken a deconstructionist approach to them, on this site even. I wanted to try something completely out of left field as a personal writing challenge, so my task would be to take the concept of Mary Sues at face value and run with them with a totally straight face, and see how far I could go without resorting to parodies and deconstructions. It's a very different angle or take into the whole Mary Sue business, and I thought that it might be an interesting experience to explore.
So for better or for worse, and without further ado, let us begin.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pretty Cure. This work of fiction is purely for entertainment purposes only and not for profit. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or OC Precures of other fanfictions, is purely coincidental.
Chapter 1: Encounters of the Sue Kind
"Are you all right?"
I slowly opened my eyes to the sound of the voice. My vision was a blur and my head throbbed with the pangs of a headache, no doubt from whatever activity that brought about my present situation. I tried to remember what I did last night, only to have the headaches intensify, forcing me to temporarily abandon any further mental exercise and divert my cognitive attention elsewhere.
"Are you all right?" the voice asked again, followed by a gentle shake on my left arm. It was a girl. I would have liked to imagine that it was my annoying little sister, waking me up for school or some other irritating matter while I chose the comfort of my warm, soft bed over the somewhat violent methods that she would resort to next. But alas, that wasn't her voice. Did I have too much to drink last night and ended up in a most troublesome situation the following morning? Ugh… there's that headache again. I quickly abandoned thoughts of last night.
One thing was certain – I wasn't at home and in my own comfortable bed. I wasn't even resting on a bed or anything soft for that matter. In fact it felt like the familiar sensation of multiple sharp but itchy pricks from lying down on a bed of grass. My hands reached out and touched the surface of my so-called bed. It was indeed grass.
I sprang up into a sitting position, narrowly colliding with one of the girls kneeling beside me. It was by some miracle or luck that she snapped back in time. My vision still hadn't fully returned to me, but I could discern that there were two of them. Not being able to clearly see their facial features, their most immediately identifiable trait was their hair.
The girl closest to me had shoulder-length red, or could it perhaps be pink or maroon, hair. I couldn't really tell the difference right now. Not that it mattered, because it was the most striking trait that my visual cortex could process and detail at the moment. Her companion was kneeling behind her, peering over her shoulder like a timid little sister in the presence of strangers. She had waist-length blue, cyan or marine, hair. They both looked roughly the same age as me, maybe even a little younger. The one in blue was cradling what looked like a white stuffed toy in her arms.
Now usually hair colour is not the first thing that one would notice and identify, but who goes around in bright and colourful hair in public? Cosplayers were the first thing that came to mind. I am in Tokyo, after all. On cue, the headache makes itself known again. When did I remember myself being in Tokyo? What was I doing in Tokyo? In any case, I unconsciously brought my hand up to my temple as the pain in my head intensified.
"Are you hurt?" the redhead asked, with a hint of curiosity and concern in her tone of voice.
"Yeah…" The pain quickly subsided the moment I ceased allocating memory-related tasks to my mental faculties. "Just a little bit of headache."
I looked around, my vision finally clearing to a point where I can actually make out shapes and patterns to a very reasonable level of detail. None of my surroundings particularly clicked in my mind, but this was certainly not Tokyo at all.
"What happened?" I asked.
"We found you lying unconscious here. Do you remember how you got here?"
"No," I promptly answered. I didn't want to even try and think about that any further. But I did want to know what happened, and how I even got here in the first place – wherever this place is. "Where am I?"
"You're in the park."
"Yeah. I mean, where am I?"
"Oh." The redhead lifted her index finger and placed it on her lip while considering my question. "You're in the town of Pikarigaoka."
"Pikarigaoka…" A sudden wave of familiarity washed over me. Or was it more like déjà vu? It didn't matter, but I took stock of my surroundings again just to be sure. Indeed, I began noticing details that my mind had simply overlooked the first time around. There was the familiar-looking bridge over the familiar river, and the familiar cityscape that was broken up by the occasional and irregular pattern of oversized fungi and sweets.
Now for the uninitiated, the town of Pikarigaoka exists in the fictional world of Happiness Charge Pretty Cure, where magical girls all over the globe known as Pretty Cure, which are more commonly pronounced Precure, fight off an invasion from another dimension, the Phantom Empire. A typical attack involves one of their generals appearing in a population centre, magically trapping a random citizen in a sarcophagus-like mirror and then bringing forth a giant monster known as a Saiark to corrupt the landscape. Those strange-looking patterns of fungi and sweets around the city are signs of Saiark corruption.
Of course, the whole premise itself is rather silly, but Pretty Cure falls within the realm of entertainment for young girls. That aside, the realization that I've been dropped into such a fictional world itself was an almost assuredly absurd notion, but since I couldn't deny or refute any of the elements that stood before my eyes, I had to accept the reality of the situation.
"Ken."
"Huh?" The redhead tilted her head slightly, giving off a somewhat perplexed expression.
"Sorry. I mean my name is Ken."
"I'm Aino Megumi. And this is my friend, Shirayuki Hime," she said, gesturing to the bluenette behind her.
Of course! It was so obvious who these two were. Being dropped into a fictional world only to immediately meet two main characters from that world? It could not get any more clichéd than that. "The both of you are Precures?"
The girls snapped back, their eyes wide open as they put their hands to their open mouths in surprise. There was also a slight hint of movement from Hime's plush toy. That was most definitely Ribbon, Hime's fairy partner. Fairies and spirits are common entities in Pretty Cure, usually having small plush toy-like appearances and often forming lifelong bonds of friendship with their respective partners. In any case, theirs was a reasonable reaction; having a total stranger know your secret identity is certainly a shocking revelation, and I needed to take advantage of this if I am to integrate myself and determine is happening.
"How do you know about us?" Megumi asked. Hime simply withdrew further behind Megumi, occasionally throwing me odd glances which I couldn't clearly identify as curiosity or suspicion. I don't remember if she was always this shy; in any case, I wasn't certain how far I was in the canon timeline to make proper judgements like that.
"I'm from another world." I paused to give some careful thought about where I was going with this opening line. "It's like Shirayuki-san situation where she's from the Blue Sky Kingdom, but mine's a different world. I'm not really sure about the details myself, but I was hoping to get some answers or at the very least, some clues, if I could be allowed to talk to Blue-sama?"
This was the part where I hoped that name-dropping Blue, an individual who is powerful enough to seed the world with Precures and acts as their guide and mentor, would give me at least a tiny fraction of credibility which could in turn persuade these two to help arrange an audience with him.
"So you're in some kind of trouble and need Blue-sama to help sort things out for you." Megumi beamed with a wide smile. "Of course we'll help!"
"You will?" Both Hime and I voiced out at the same time. I couldn't believe that it was so simple. On Hime's reaction, I suspected that she had some reservations about me. I couldn't blame her; she had a shy personality and didn't easily make friends or get close to people whereas Megumi was the kind of happy-go-lucky and always-charging-forward-cheerfully type.
Megumi nodded. "It wouldn't be true happiness if I didn't try to at least help someone in need!"
"Thanks. I appreciate it," I said, her happiness-charged attitude eliciting a smile from me.
We walked through the town of Pikarigaoka, the three of us, while I took in the scenery. Seeing the town on a television screen was one thing, but to experience the place itself first hand is another. You could sense the sheer happiness of the place, as if that emotion was a real and tangible thing in this world. It's not something that could be easily put down into words; subjective and perceptual feelings like this are never easy to explain without experiencing it first-hand.
We walked past several landmarks that I had a passing familiarity with. There was the karate dojo where Megumi's childhood friend trained, the array of shop houses where Megumi often visits for marketing supplies, and the famous lunch shop, Omori Gohan. Seeing this place reminded me that I needed to establish where I was in the canon timeline. "So… how many Precures are there in your team now?"
Hime has yet to open up to me, so she continued to flinch and hide behind Megumi, leaving the redhead to answer my question. "Four," she said, thinking to herself for a moment before continuing. "Though the fourth was a very recent addition."
"Cure Honey and Cure Fortune?" I asked, just to be sure.
"Yeah!"
The seemed rather odd. By this time, Hime should have had more exposure to strangers and made friends already, but she still seemed to be quite the timid one. Perhaps I was just a special case. After all, it is not an everyday occurrence where some stranger shows up on your turf proclaiming to know your secret identity and ask to speak to your leader. Am I sounding like some kind of alien invader from another dimension now? If Megumi or Hime were to be slightly more genre-savvy, I would probably have received a smack in the head for using such clichéd methods by now.
My train of thought was interrupted by the sound of panic. From the opposite direction, a crowd was running past, clearly afraid of what was ahead of us. The atmosphere itself seemed to have changed too. I no longer felt as much happiness as I did from the town centre earlier; terrible feelings seemed to be washing over, and I could almost sense where this feeling was coming from.
"Quickly find somewhere safe to hide!" Megumi said before sprinting off together with Hime and Ribbon.
Without hesitating, I quickly took off after them both.
It didn't take long for the two girls to notice me running after them. Without breaking her stride Megumi turned her head back slightly to address me. "What do you think you're doing, Ken?"
"You told me to find somewhere safe," I answered, feeling a little bit surprised at the pace that the girls were going and that I could actually keep up with them without losing stride. "When the Phantom Empire attacks, the safest place to be is by the side of any one of you girls."
That was nothing but a blatant paraphrase from another show. It was a lame response, but one that was necessary. I couldn't afford to let those two out of my sight, not when I was still in unfamiliar territory, so my best strategy was to stick to them at all times regardless of the danger.
"When the fight starts, be careful and stay behind cover!"
"Roger that!"
We soon reached the epicentre of the invasion. A large, black humanoid towered over the surrounding shops wielding an appropriately-sized hammer in one hand and a cordless power drill in another. It wore a pair of red sunglasses, a green scarf and denim overalls. This was a Saiark.
The colour of a Saiark's scarf identifies who summoned it. The green scarf marks it as a Saiark of Namakelder, a lazy slacker of a general who prefers loafing around than actual fighting. I am amazed that he can operate as a legitimate threat with such a lax attitude. Speaking of the devil, Namakelder himself was standing atop the flat rooftops behind the Saiark, dressed in his usual green coat and leaning on a walking cane. A pair of antenna jutted out of his top hat, though I have to wonder if it was just for show or did he really exhibit insect-like attributes.
"So you've come, Precures." Namakelder casually twirled his cane around his finger and smiled confidently at the two girls. "It's really such a bother to have you show up."
While the girls traded threats and taunts with the Phantom Empire general, I searched for a place to hide and take stock of the situation. Standing in the presence of a real Saiark was a completely different experience compared to just seeing one onscreen. For one, while still looking hugely ridiculous, I could sense its terrible presence that drowned out all feelings of happiness within the surrounding area. It felt suffocating. There was also the tiny little fact that this thing could probably and easily squash a person like a bug.
Besides Namakelder and the Saiark, there should also be other Choiarks around. These are the common foot soldiers, or mooks as I prefer to call them, of the Phantom Empire. Often, hordes of them accompany a general during the invasion. For the moment I did not catch sight of any, but if my gut feeling is to be believed, they would show up sooner or later. In any case, I found myself eagerly awaiting the next event to unfold – the transformation of Megumi and Hime into their Pretty Cure forms.
I had set myself up for a disappointment. As a matter of fact, I shouldn't have been surprised that their transformation sequence didn't take a whole minute to complete while they danced around in magical light while their clothes changed from within glowing hearts and ribbons. This may be a genre convention in magical girl shows, but obviously it wouldn't really make sense to have something as ridiculous as that play out during an actual battle. So instead, what I got was Megumi and Hime being briefly engulfed in a bright glow, and that was it. They have transformed and were ready to kick ass and chew bubble gum.
On cue, a legion of black-dressed Choiarks appeared, literally crawling out of the woodwork and spreading around the two Precures. Megumi and Hime, as Cure Lovely and Cure Princess respectively ducked, weaved and punch at speeds I would never have believed possible. They were truly indeed magical girls, their physical capabilities magnified by their Pretty Cure powers beyond the limits of what one could consider human.
As they fought the sea of Choiarks around them, the Saiark moved in to engage. Without any concern for friend or foe, it swung its hammer left and right haphazardly, causing massive collateral damage as the hammer collided with surrounding buildings. Lovely and Princess seemed to struggle with its chaotic swings, constantly being pushed back as they tried to avoid one too many wild swings from that enormous creature. As they continued to battle, two more girls landed by their side and, for a brief moment, managed to block one of the Saiark's overhead swings and push it back a little.
The girl in yellow is Cure Honey. She is the only Precure of the four who fought with a weapon – a baton that she sometimes also used with ribbons. I considered her a support class type of Precure; her core skills cover healing, buffing and de-buffing, though she can be quite a handful in a fight and throws a very mean finisher. You wouldn't want to be at the receiving end of that.
The purple one is Cure Fortune. I label her as the lone wolf type who eventually softens up and joins the group. Conceptually, she's the most experienced and strongest fighter of the four, but from what I had gathered earlier she must have just recently joined the group so her cohesion with the team may not be so solid yet.
The four of them launched a fresh set of attacks. With a brief flash of light, Cure Lovely's clothes transformed into a longer red dress with black high-heeled shoes. This is one of her form changes, Cherry Flamenco. With a graceful spin of a flamenco dancer, a ring of fire expanded around her and cleared the immediate surroundings of Choiarks. With fewer obstacles in the way, Princess, Honey and Fortune dashed past her and proceeded to engage the Saiark three-on-one.
It seemed as if the three girls would be able to push the Saiark back even more, but it quickly recovered from their attacks and continued swinging its hammer with reckless abandon. Princess was forced to take to the skies to avoid one of its many wild swings, while Honey and Fortune leapt back together, unable to hold on to their advantage any further. While their attention was drawn to the berserk Saiark, Choiarks began to surround them once more.
The four of them continued to lose ground over the combined fanaticism of the Choiarks and the ferocious advances of the Saiark. Namakelder, on the other hand, just hung back lazily and out of harm's way. The thought of sneaking up behind the Phantom Empire general with a heavy and blunt object briefly crossed my mind, but I hurriedly dismissed the idea as being too reckless. After seeing the Precures fight, and seeing how they moved, there was absolutely no way that any ordinary human could compete on their level.
Something had been bothering me about this fight but before I managed to put a foot on it, the battleground has expanded. As the fight spilled over to my position, I turned around and darted towards the next nearest piece of rubble that I could spot. I leapt over and ducked behind a large slab of concrete, noting that it was perhaps once part of a nearby shop, and hoped that I wasn't noticed during my brief sprint.
I was wrong. Something did take notice of me. I caught a glimpse of a shadow over me and quickly jumped aside as a foot came stomping down on my position. Turning to face my attacker, I was partially relieved to find out that it wasn't the Saiark. Still, there were at least half a dozen Choiarks standing before me, and I wasn't sure how I would stand up to a single Choiark, let alone a group of them.
Throwing caution to the wind, I curled up my fingers and swung as hard as possible at the nearest Choiark. My fist exploded in pain, immediately recoiling and forcing me to double back after the impact. It was a stupid move that only served to piss off the Choiark that I had hit. I reflexively raised my arms to protect myself from the inevitable beating, but what came next was completely unexpected and unparalleled.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a fifth Precure had landed right in front of me and, with a single roundhouse kick, she sent the group of Choiarks airborne. The ease in which she defeated them made me think of how she was on a whole new level above the other four Precures. Come to think of it, I realised just what was off with this whole scenario. This Saiark, along with the whole fight had never occurred in canon. Furthermore, I didn't even recognise this new girl at all. The timeline here seemed to be completely off its rails. Was it my fault, my appearance in this world throwing the entire series off like this? Despite the urgency of the matter, I still couldn't help but ponder how unprecedented this entire scene was being played out.
This new arrival was attired in a completely different style from the other four Precures. For one, she did not have the same black corset-like dress that the others wore. Her dress seemed more like a very outlandish red sailor fuku, lined with white and yellow frills and ribbons with a large heart-shaped brooch on her chest. Her hair was a multi-coloured mix of crimson, blue, brown, yellow and white. When she turned her head towards me, I was unexpectedly drawn to her sparkling green eyes. She then leapt into the main fray, beating aside Choiarks with bewildering speed and precision.
I watched the battle unfold with my mouth agape. She swept aside Choiark after Choiark, and then went after the Saiark without waiting for the other four Cures to gather for support. In a rapid series of punches and kicks, she quickly brought it down to the ground. Without a single pause, she leapt to the skies and raised a single palm. A bright flash of light followed, and then the Saiark was bathed in a soft, warm glow. That was her finishing move, purifying the Saiark and restoring happiness to the nexus of dark and terrible feelings.
Having lost the Saiark, and therefore the fight, Namakelder threw some snide remarks at the Precures before disappearing, teleporting back to the Blue Sky Kingdom where the Phantom Empire was presently based from. Or at least that's where I had assumed he would go.
"Cure Crimson!" Lovely called out, obviously referring to this fifth new Cure, who simply nodded in response.
It was rather surprising that they both knew each other. Also, the title Crimson sounded completely out of place in this happiness-centric world. My mind swirled with theories and conjectures, but until I had a solid clue to latch onto, they were nothing more than theories and conjectures. I stepped out from cover and walked right up to the group. "Do you know each other?"
I didn't direct my question at any one in particular, but Lovely and Princess simply nodded to me. Honey and Fortune, on the other hand, expressed surprise and gave me odd looks, but that is to be expected. To them, a random stranger had just approached, asking questions as if he already knew them.
Cure Crimson didn't bother to pay any attention to me as she reverted back to her civilian form. I turned to her and asked, "And you are?"
She turned and stared me down with an icy gaze, seemingly irritated that I had even dared to speak to her. I then realized a slight mistake earlier about her eyes – only one of her eyes was green. Her other eye was sparking red. The palm of my hand craved to meet my face right there and then. It took all my effort to prevent that fateful meeting.
"I'm Ken," I repeated. "You are…?"
She sighed audibly before answering. "Akahime Marisu."
"Aka-what?"
"You heard me the first time," she shot back in an unpleasant tone. "In any case, I'm busy and have no time for games. See you around."
With that, she turned and walked away, nonchalantly waving to us with the back of her hand. Some part of me wanted to run after her and demand more answers, but the other part reminded me that I still had unfinished business with these girls to attend to.
"Mari… su…" I found myself muttering under my breath. Was that even a proper first name? I was caught off guard and wasn't even aware until later that my surroundings had already begun to magically restore itself, an effect that often followed after a Saiark had been defeated by the Precures.
Author's Notes:
The chapter title, Encounters of the Sue Kind, is a reference to the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
In the anime Kill la Kill, after Mako Mankanshoku was told to find somewhere safe, she replied that the safest place to be was by Matoi Ryuko's side.
The phrase, to kick ass and chew bubblegum, was popularised by the PC game Duke Nukem 3D.
Marisu's multicoloured hair and eyes is a common trait among certain types of Mary Sues.
