"He struck again. There's nothing we can do for now."
The peach-haired woman in her twenties made a frustrated clicking sound as she stared down at the latest victim - a small boy with long brown hair sleeping serenely on his bed.
"But... my son - what did he do to deserve this?" a woman in her thirties cried, covering her tear-streaked face in her callused hands. "He's so young... he has a lot to live for, a-and then-"
"He's not dead, Nishijima-san," the dark-haired disheveled-looking man said comfortingly. "He's just in a deep sleep -"
"He hasn't woken up in a week! He might as well be!" the woman said hysterically. "Oh why... why did this happen.." She continued to sob as the detective duo looked pensively.
The peach-haired woman glanced at the sleeping boy and spotted something glinting inside his hand. She carefully reached over and unfurled his fist, revealing a star-shaped phone charm. "Hisoka, look at this," she told her partner.
The man named Hisoka looked at the boy's hand. "Well I''ll be. He really did strike again," he said. "Either he's or it's just one elaborate prank. What do you think. Hara-san?"
Hara bit her lip in deep thought. It's too good to be true but... could someone like that actually exist?
OP 1 - Dream High! Fantasy Precure
Meanwhile in the prestigious St. Dominica Academy, a girl with short pink hair was slumped over her study desk in her dorm room, visibly snoring. Her room looked like a tornado passed through it, with her clothes strewn all over the floor and bed, and piles of books stacked up like towers on a battlefield.
Suddenly the cuckoo clock on the wall began tweeting away as midnight struck. The girl bolted awake, rubbing her brown eyes and stretching her arms. Yawning widely, she stared at the clock noncommitally and stood up to open the window above her bed. The sky looked beautiful at this time of night, with glittering stars splashed all over the pitch-black abyss and the nightlife of the city of Tsukuyomi still alive as ever.
The girl shook her head awake and stared at the stars above. It's a beautiful night to make a wish, she thought. But what should I wish for, even? Something simple, like better grades? Or maybe something on a larger scale, like world peace?
Or maybe... she clasped her hands in a prayer and closed her eyes. "I wish... I were able to stay up for more than an hour!"
She opened one eye, and then another, and the stars kept on sparkling away. What did she expect to happen anyway? That one of them could somehow fall out of the sky because of the severity of her wish?
Because that did happen. Just now, in fact.
The girl couldn't believe her eyes. Was she dreaming again? She's become quite an expert on lucid dreaming. It gave her something to do while she's on one of her sleep-a-thons. She stared at the star hurtling down towards Tsukuyomi, towards the dorm...
And towards her.
The girl backed away from the window but it was too late. The star hit her squarely on the chest, making her collapse on the bed. Her chest seemed to flow a faint yellow color as she absorbed the star inside her. She felt warmth, so much warmth, as the feeling of euphoria washed over her.
"What a good dream," Nemui Momoshiro muttered serenely before falling asleep once again with a smile on her face.
Episode 1: Wish Upon A Star! The Arrival of a Dreaming Hero!
One alarm clock, then the next, and then the next, until all five clocks on the bedside table plus the cuckoo clock blared their annoying alarms all over the small room, but to no avail Nemui was still snoring on her bed. She struggled to open her eyes, then sluggishly got out the bed by gracefully falling off of it.
It took her half an hour just to get herself ready for school each morning and she's often late because of this. She finally showed up on her homeroom door, leaning on the doorframe.
"Glad to join us, Momoshiro," Aiko Hiiragi said nonchalantly, totally unsurprised by the tardiness of her student. "Just proceed to your seat. Good thing I'm not done with my announcements yet!"
Nemui dragged her feet across the classroom and took her seat by the window. A bespectacled girl with braided green hair looked at her worryingly. "Nemu-chan, is something wrong?" she asked.
"Hm? Oh, it's nothing, Shiori," Nemui said, stifling a yawn. "Just had this really bizaare dream, is all."
"Oh, good," Shiori Satou said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I was so worried when you didn't show up earlier. But then again I should get used to it since you always - wake up, Nemu-chan!"
Nemui's head jerked up in surprise. "I wasn't asleep I swear!" She said a little too loudly, making a few heads turn to their direction. Hiiragi-sensei raised a brow at them but brushed it off, slamming her hands on her desk instead to grab the class's attention.
"Now then! Before I forget, we have a new student joining us today!" the purple-haired teacher chirped excitedly. "Why don't you give her a warm welcome? Now please, come in!" she said to someone by the door.
A girl with black hair in a tiny ponytail and gray eyes walked in the classroom animatedly, probably sweating bullets. She took a piece of chalk from the teacher's desk and wrote her full name - Stella Hoshikawa - in huge characters on the blackboard. She then turned to the anticipating class and gulped.
"My name is Stella! Stella Hoshikawa!" the girl said, almost shouting her name in nervousness. "Pleased to meet you!"
The class greeted her back in response. "There's no need to be nervous, Hoshikawa," Hiiragi-sensei said with a smile.
"She seems nice," Shiori said, looking at the transfer student. "What do you think Nemu- Nemu-chan! Wake up!"
"H-Huh?! Huh?" Nemui looked left and right, feeling disoriented. "Oh, new student. Cool." And then nodded off again.
"Nemu-chan..." Shiori sighed.
Stella meanwhile was staring at the sleeping girl intently. She seems to be glowing... could she be...?
During break, Stella was quickly surrounded by curious classmates.
"Where do you live, Hoshikawa-san?"
"Stella-chan I really love your hair? What's your shampoo..."
"Let's hang out at Sweet Dreams sometime, Hoshikawa!..."
Stella was overwhelmed with all this attention but managed to answer every last question. Nemui was the only one who didn't confront her; she was busy sleeping as usual.
"Nemui..." Shiori sighed, nudging her best friend awake. "Come on, we have to talk to the new girl!"
"You do it on your own, I don't min- Hey!" Nemui yawned, but then got yanked out of her chair by Shiori and was dragged to where Stella was seated.
"Stella-san! I'd like you to meet Nemui Momoshiro!" Shiori told the new girl. "She gets tired easily so I took the liberty of introducing her to you instead!"
"Oh, uh, thanks," Stella said. "Is she... always like that?" She stared at the pink-haired girl, who's starting to sleep again.
"Oh yes, everyday," a classmate said. "She has narcolepsy so she's actually allowed to sleep in class. Lucky."
Nemui leered at the classmate mid-yawn. I was tolerated to sleep, not allowed to, she thought. "Welcome to St. Dominica, new person," she said groggily, waving at her as she started nodding off again.
"Nemu-chan!" Shiori said exasperatingly. "That's not how you greet the new-"
"No no, it's okay! I don't mind," Stella said. "If her condition makes her sleep then I am in no place of judging her."
"It was supposed to be cured..." Nemui said, rubbing her eyes. "I wished upon a star last night about being more awake and then this... this star actually fell from the sky and went into my chest."
"Momoshiro-san, you're probably lucid dreaming again," another classmate said.
Nemui giggled, but Stella's expression changed. N-No way! Is she telling the truth?!
There was a knock on the door of the headmaster's office. "Come in," said Souji Yuzuki, adjusting his glasses as he filed some stacks of papers on his desk. He's a man in his mid-forties with slightly graying hair.
A girl with long auburn hair peeked her head through the little gap on the door. "Dad? Can I speak with you?"
"Of course, An. Please, come in," Yuzuki said with a smile. "What can I do for you?"
"Well... it's about sis." An Yuzuki entered the headmaster's office and sat on a chair in front of him.
"Suzu? What about her?"
"Well, it's just that -"
"Has she been neglecting her studies? That girl, always paying more attention to archery than her academics," Souji interjected. "And she's also paying more attention to her piano lessons than guitar!"
"Dad -"
"You should be more like her, An," Souji said brightly. "I mean yes I'm proud that you took up karate but it wouldn't hurt to pay more attention to your homework, right? Your mom would've wanted that."
An was suddenly more interested at that tiny spot on the floor than facing her father. It always turns out like this, with her dad suddenly changing the topic to Suzu's countless achievements. It irritated her to no end. She even forgot the reason why she even came here!
"Well anyways, what was it An?"
"...Nothing, dad. Just dropping by." An forced a smile.
"That's nice dear. I thought it was something much important but I'm glad it's not." Suuji smiled genuinely while An felt a bit offended inside. Saying hi wasn't important?!
"Yeah. That's pretty much it," the girl sighed inwardly. "Sorry to disturb you."
"Oh it's fine, my dear. Glad to see my daughter looking so well. Wish that Suzu would visit her own dear father just like you do."
Okay this is getting ridiculous. "All right dad! See you!" And with that she's out the door, and when she finally closed the door forever she resisted the urge to punch it and instead stomped her feet repeatedly.
"This is unfair! Unfair! Why does he focus on big sis Suzu all the time?!" she whined.
"Do you want to change that?"
An turned around and saw a young man with dark messy hair and a bandaged eye. He's wearing disheveled clothing, almost like a hobo, but still looked presentable. "Sounds like your sister can be a bit of a pain."
"She's annoying," An said. "Why am I stuck with Miss Perfect as my big sister? Everyone notices her more than me..."
"Well then, how about making a wish about it?" The man cupped his hands together, and when he opened them again a yellow star-shaped phone charm rested on his palm. "If you wish from the bottom of your heart, I'm pretty sure it'll come true."
The man handed her the charm and An felt... weird. Like she's compelled to make one wish right now -
"I wish..." she closed her eyes and gripped the charm tightly in her hand, "I Wish I'm better than my sister!"
And when she opened her eyes, the mysterious man had vanished.
Stella, Shiori, and Nemui were eating lunch at the cafeteria.
"Mmmm! This stuff tastes great!" Stella said. "What's this called?"
"It's rice," Shiori said pointedly. "Where did you even come from, Stella-san? You've never had rice before?"
"O-Oh! I uh... no I mean, it's been a long time since I had rice! Ehehehe," she tried to laugh it off.
Nemui gobbled down her bento and drank up her miso soup at the speed of light. "Most probably because she's out of this world," she said offhandedly.
"Wh-Wh-what?!" Shiori and Stella stammered together.
"Nemu-chan, I can't believe you'd say something like that, and in front of the new student at that!" Shiori scolded her. "Are you implying that Stella is an alien?"
Stella was sweating bullets again.
"Yeah because she's been dodging those kinds of questions all day," Nemui said nonchalantly, sipping on her bowl of miso soup. "If she has no trouble in telling everyone where she came from, she would've told us right off the bat."
"Nemu-chan!" Shiori couldn't believe her friend. "What if she just doesn't want to tell? What about that, Nemu-chan-"
But Nemui was already snoozing away over her empty soup bowl.
"Nemui!"
Stella was still sweating nervously. Darn she'sgood... and I'm in so much trouble, she thought.
All of a sudden there was a scream. Everyone in the cafeteria looked towards the window that occupied the whole wall that was overlooking the school sports field and they can see some sort of a hologram - no, it's not a hologram because it's wrecking havoc in the school's open field, uprooting trees and screaming its heart out. It looked like a glitchy, gigantic version of a girl...
The school's in completely pandemonium and everyone broke out shouting as they ran out of the cafeteria.
"What's going on?!" Shiori said. That ensuing chaos was so loud that it woke Nemui up. "Nemu-chan, let's get out of here!"
Stella stood up and darted out of the cafeteria as well. Nemui watched her go and, standing up, she followe her to the field.
"Nemu - Nemui!" Shiori shouted for her, but she's gone.
The glitchy giantess was howling. "I WANT TO BE BETTER," it said. "PAY ATTENTION TO ME!"
Stella traipsed across the field, stopping at a safe distance away from the monster. "All right! I've been waiting for this!" she said, her eyes glinting with excitement. She placed a hand over her heart, and extracted a purple key from her chest. "Precure..." she did a motion of unlocking something in midair with the key, "Wake Up!"
There was a flash of purple light that surrounded Stella, and when it dissipated, she was replaced by a purple-clad girl with a longer pigtail.
"A dreamer of courage, Cure Reverie!"
"Cure... Reverie?" A voice said. Nemui was watching her from behind this whole time, catching Reverie and the sheep doll by surprise.
"Momoshiro-san! I uh... I'll explain later!" Reverie said. Who knew that sleepyhead can be sneaky, she thought as she charged for the Kyoumu, sticking her leg out to kick it. But the Kyoumu summoned a bow made out of dark energy and fired an arrow at Reverie, sending her flying towards the bleachers.
Nemui flinched at the impact. "Ow..."
The Kyoumu faced the sleepyhead and said, "THERE YOU ARE..." and came running for her. "GIVE ME BACK MY STAR," it said.
"My -" Nemui began.
"- Star?!" Reverie finished. "So the Star's really inside her...! Momoshiro-san, run for it!" she yelled as she flew towards the monster, fists ready.
"GIVE IT BACK. IT'S MINE," screeched the Kyoumu, reaching for Nemui, who was standing there, dumbstruck -
"MOMOSHIRO-SAN!" Reverie screamed.
And then there was a blinding pink light that startled the monster so much that it got knocked backwards, and Nemui was floating in midair, and placed her heart on her chest to retrieve the same key that Stella took from her own chest -
"Precure, Wake Up!"
She turned the key as if she's opening something, and she's now floating in a space of pink light. Her skirt disappeared and is replaced by a pink version of Cure Reverie's outfit, and her hair grew long, curled itself, and tied into pigtails. She opened her eyes, now a bright pink, and swooped down to the ground.
"A dreamer of peace, Cure Fancy!"
Reverie was gaping as she landed a punch on the Kyoumu; she was watching Nemui's transformation while she's fighting. She couldn't believe her eyes. She's the new Precure?! Cure Fancy...
Nemui - now Cure Fancy - was still twirling around, staring at her own get-up. She felt... different. As if she's finally awake and ready for the first time of her life. She didn't feel even a speckle of sleepiness inside her. She's... awake.
"This is one weird dream..." she said.
"This isn't a dream, Cure Fancy!" Reverie said. "Precure Reverie Shot!" She began lobbing purple orbs of light at the glitchy monster, which retaliated by sending more arrows of darkness at her. One of them hit her; Reverie shrieked and got knocked off backwards and landed on the ruined bleachers. "Ugh.. it's a tough one..."
"WHY IS SHE BETTER THAN ME?!" the monster wailed. "EVERYONE LOVES HER WHILE I'M MOSTLY LEFT OUT OF EVERYTHING... GIVE ME THAT STAR!" it lunged for Fancy again, but the pink girl had a trick up her sleeve already, summoning a pink heart-shaped barrier to shield herself. "Precure Fancy Shield!"
"Hold it off, Cure Fancy!" Reverie yelled, standing up and took off from the bleachers again. "I'm gonna finish it !" She put her arms forward, ready to strike.
Fancy nodded, then crossed her arms, kicking the monster away just to be safe. She backflipped backwards and landed nicely on the grounded. "Precure... Fancy Embrace!" She uncrossed her arms and summoned a chain made out of hearts, and used them to hold it in its place. She gave it a good tug, then gave a thumbs-up at Reverie.
"Thanks!" Reverie said gratefully. "Precure..." She rushed at the monster, glowing faintly in purple light, "Reverie Catharsis!" She entered the monster's chest, disappearing inside.
It was like swimming in midair, but Reverie managed to reach the monster's core, where the host was crying. An Yuzuki's sobs echoed through the abyss, her body shaking. "I just... w-want to be noticed too," she wept. "I know my sis is so much better than me b-but... this isn't f-fair..."
Reverie reached in and placed her hand on the girl's shoulder. "It's okay! It's all right," she said. "You don't have to compare herself to her! But you can use her as inspiration to spur you on! To one day be as great as her. No - to be better than her, even!"
An sniveled. "R-Really?"
Reverie nodded. "If anything, she might be jealous of you too. I don't know much about your sister, but it seemed like a lot of pressure has been put on her."
An looked down, sadly realizing this.. "Yeah... she probably didn't like the attention too.." she mumbled.
"See? Now come on," Reverie hugged the girl and stood up, extending a hand to her. "You two are sisters. You gotta help each other out, y'know?"
An smiled. "Yeah, you're right. Thanks!" She grabbed her hand and -
To Fancy it seemed like an eternity, waiting for Reverie to emerge. But after a while Reverie jumped out of the monster, holding an unconscious girl in her arms. The monster cried out before disappearing in puffs of smoke.
"Reverie!" Fancy ran towards the purple girl, who was still holding the girl. "Isn't that... the student council president's little sister?"
"She is? Dang, no wonder she's so jealous of her," Reverie said. She noticed that An's been holding something in her fist, and carefully unfurled it. "I knew it," she said, holding a star-shaped phone charm by its string.
"What is that?" Fancy asked.
"It's a Cursed Charm," Reverie said, putting it away. "I'll tell you the details really soon. You're pretty good on your first try, Cure Fancy!"
"H-Huh?"
"Yeah! You were so rad out there, keeping your cool while you tied that Kyoumu down!" Reverie's eyes were sparkling happily.
"Kyoumu?"
"Anyways, Cure Fancy! Or should I say... Nemui Momoshiro-san!" Reverie said, putting her hand forward. "Want to be a Precure and work with me?"
"M-Me? As a... Precure?" Fancy said slowly. What a bizaare dream I'm having...
ED 1 - Lullaby Kiss
On the next episode!
Nemui: What a weird dream...
Stella: That wasn't a dream, Momoshiro-san! It actually happened! You're now a Precure!
Nemui: A Precure? But... I don't want to fight..
Stella: WHAT?! Next time on Fantasy Precure!: This Can Never Work! The Precure Breaks Up!
Nemui: Sweet dreams, everyone! Zzz...