Tense atmosphere, so thick that you could cut it with butter knife, fell into the Pig's Tail. Eyes narrowed, fists clenched, teeth grinded, all while the bystanders gulped down their saliva in anticipation. Mana Aida bit her lips, waiting for her adversary's next move.
The man scoffed as he pulled out his weapon and dug it into the girl's flesh. As he took a large chunk of meat and ripped it straight from its bone, Mana closed her eyes in pained expression.
"Mana…" the man started. Mana could only opened one eye, afraid of the next development.
The man again scoffed and slammed his hand into the table, fork clattered from the between of his fingers.
"The damn thing is still raw, girl! What the hell are you doing?!"
"I'm sorry, Grandpa!" she shouted in apology as she bent down at waist level. The witnessing people in the restaurant sighed in surrender at this. Another failed dish from one supposed genius.
Bando Soukichi stood from his stool and walked away.
"You're still far away from there."
When the man was out of the earshot, Mana crumpled against the counter and put her head sideway on it. A small, long whine barely came out from her open mouth. Kentaro couldn't be more understand his daughter now than ever.
"Even toward his granddaughter, he's still as strict."
"Now, now, Mana-chan. There's always a next time." Alice patted her friend on her back. Mana only turned her head so she was face down on the table.
From the background, a woman smiled at the display.
"That's a very interesting tradition, Mr. Chef."
The woman's deep voice finally attracted the rest of the restaurant's inhabitants of her presence. Aguri frowned at the woman's appearance. Long dirty green hair that reached all the way to ground and chalk white skin. She looked almost like a doll, if not for her height that towered over everyone else in the restaurant. Radiating a dangerous atmosphere around her, the Cures grew nervous at this strange woman as she walked out of the place.
Meanwhile, in Kibougahana, an emergency meeting was called to all the Precures. The one that was known as the Great Gathering. Seven teams from different districts sat inside the Myoudouin dojo, forming a perfect circle as a sign of their camaraderie and equality. Miyuki and her team, however, fidgeting in their seat. They had no idea of there were other teams of Pretty Cures, and now sitting beside them, they had no idea what to say and do.
A ferret with blue muffler walked into the center of the circle and fake-coughed to gather everyone's attention.
"Y'all already got the invitation, right?" he spoke an extremely out of place grimness for his voice. When everyone nodded at this, he continued, "Then y'all know what's goin' on. Black Hole is back."
Mumbles rose from the rank of the Cures, expressing their disbelief. All except for the teams from Wakabadai and Yuunagi.
"Um…" Akane raised her hand, "What's Black Hole, anyway?"
In an instant, all head now were facing her. Having all these warriors' attention at her, the redhead's confidence wilted immediately and made her shrunk herself.
"Black Hole is…" Honoka Yukishiro started, her voice barely a whisper.
"The ultimate enemy of the Pretty Cure." Her partner finished it for her.
The Nanairogaoka's Cures gasped in surprise. Nagisa shook her head as she combed her hair back.
"It's a great evil that made up of the dark energy from our defeated enemies, and fused into one. A creature made of pure evil energy. We have to sacrifice many things to defeat it."
"When we fought it, we still had not defeat our enemies yet," Hibiki said, eyes sweeping through her teammates, "Now we have, I'm sure that Noise and his Minor Land now also empower Black Hole's strength into something that we've never seen."
"Then it means…!" Miyuki cried in horror.
"… Pierrot and the Bad End Kingdom too!" Yayoi covered her mouth in the same horror. Now they understood just what the other Cures had been afraid of. With their experience fighting against the great evil and destruction Pierrot had brought to the world, fighting something that was even worse was not preferable.
"When Pollun first said about 'awakening', no one really sure about that-mepo." The hero said on behalf of the currently-absent Prince of Light, "But then we heard a message from Princess Filia of the Land of Fountains, and we immediately called for this meeting-mepo."
"Ah, I see. The spirits of the Land of Fountains is the spirits that made up the world. If there's the one who notice something foreign, it would be them." Tsubomi nodded. After finding out Saki's partner was the spirit of flower, she had a long and pleasant chat with Flappy. Said fairy jumped up to his partner's head and crossed his arms.
"We found that vile presence is already in Earth-lapi!"
"What?! You said that you only sensed the presence coming right to Earth!"
"Then is then. Now is now." Flappy deadpanned at Saki's expense. But the news was still shook the entire room and sent them into panic.
"Where is it?" Karen demanded with such intense eyes that Flappy almost fell from his perch.
"T-That… in district named Oogai."
"Karen-san, I know this guy is an annoying prick, but please don't yell at him like that."
Karen looked down to the younger girl's face. Saki had a surprisingly serious expression on, something that didn't happen often unless they were right in the middle of crisis. Karen finally lowered her head in a small bow.
"My apology." Saki then leaned toward her conspiratorially and whispered.
"But you should do again later. Finally I see Flappy that nervous since he babbled out to Choppy his feeling."
Karen rose an eyebrow at this. Tarte again fake coughed.
"I know we're in a very dangerous situation, but calm down. We need to know what Black Hole's after."
"In the First Great Gathering, Fusion, one of Black Hole's avatar, was after our Precure power to make itself stronger before it was after Chiffon." Love said as she gritted her teeth. Burdened by guilt of not being able to protect her charge and trapped inside the gelatinous monster was not a very pleasant experience.
"The Second Great Gathering had Bottom going after the Rainbow Jewel, the source of hope and thus the power of Precure as whole." Tsubomi continued, remembering how the utter chaos of having the weakest Precure in history had to fight the strongest enemy generals the side of evil could ever threw them with.
"And the Third Great Gathering had Black Hole itself destroying the Prism Flower, the balance center of all worlds." Divided and conquered, Hibiki learned that day she couldn't tempt fate too much.
"Based on that we can assume that Black Hole is searching for some sort of power… in the district." Setsuna trailed off, before unsurely biting her lips, "Don't tell me…"
"What is it, Setsuna?"
"The truth is, when Lord Moebius had set his eyes on Chiffon, he also had a secondary objective. But then, he decided that Infinity was more important for him and the project was abandoned. I wouldn't say that this artifact is less powerful than Infinity in term of raw power but Lord Moebius was more attracted with unlimited knowledge than incredible source of power but with no way to control it."
"And this artifact is in Oogai?"
"It was, the last time I looked into the remains of Lord Moebius' documentation."
"Which means it was months ago," Miki sighed. "We can't depending on that. Someone might already take it away."
"Then why Oogai?" Ellen challenged the model. Miki wordlessly stared at the songstress before sighed in defeat.
"You got me."
"First thing's first." Honoka stood up as she referred to the present Cures, "We have to scout the district to see if it's true that Black Hole is after something there but if we have no choice but to fight Black Hole right then and there, then we have to fight with everything we have. Call any ally you can find and ask for their help. We can't have the Third accident happen again."
"Hai!"
The room chorused in unison.
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"Next time… for sure!"
Mana threw her right fist to air, snorting loudly through her nose. Rikka only shook her head, but there was a smile on her face.
They were walking through Oogai's streets. Nothing of particular reason; just walking with dear friends and enjoying the afternoon, talking about meaningless things that came up in their mind at the moment. How the sky was so blue, how the park was too crowded for them to do anything, how the fountain was being ridiculously out of place with its intricately made carved stone.
Except for Aguri, who walked a little behind them. Alice noticed this and slowed her pace. Without turning her head, she wondered out loud.
"What's in your mind, Aguri-chan?"
Said girl was slightly surprised at Alice' voice but quickly composed herself. Her eyes shifted to lower left, where Alice was in the opposite of, and mumbled out in an urgent whisper.
"I felt something. Something evil."
"The Jikochu?"
"No… a lot more vile than I've ever sense before."
"Don't tell me…"
"I don't want to just assume King Selfish finally gets out of his bound, but… for some reason, I can't think of the otherwise. This feeling, like someone grips me with a hand as cold as ice."
"Should we tell Mana and the other?"
"Not yet… at least not now. I don't want to make any useless fuss after the entire fiasco with Leva and Gula's Jikochu Seed."
A clown, face covered with porcelain white mask, made such an incredible acrobat in one side of the street, with his audience's applause became loud enough for the five to turn their head. Rikka was particularly interested with his performance, walking on his hands and flipped back to his feet with a simple jerk of his wrist. The clown threw out his arms, and children at the front row became rowdier than ever.
"I don't think I've ever saw him before…" Makoto said, head tilting, "Before I was scouted as idol, I busked in this same street every day. This street was my home, you can say."
"Makopi…?"
"That man… there's something wrong with him." That sentence made both Aguri and Alice on their guard.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for your attention and time. You're being a very good guest for this humble me and I can't be more grateful for your kindness." His face stretched by a way too wide smile, "And I would like to give you… a present! A present that you will never forget in your entire lifetime! Behold, the worst ending in the world!"
The sudden exclamation confused everyone, but when the sky in an instant turned into dark purple and people suddenly collapse with thick purple haze coming from their body, the Cures no longer could ignore the man.
Said jester on the other hand, frowned at them.
"You resisted the evil energy…"
His frown then turned into a small smirk. His lithe body jumped down the high railing almost like he had no weight and he walked closer in a slow stride.
"A whole team of Precure… Who can guess?"
The girls gasped that this man could find out their identity that fast.
"Who are you?" Rikka shouted to him. The man mockingly thought of the question before he swept his hand and gave them a deep bow.
"Where's my manner?" he chuckled, "I'm known as Joker, little ladies. From the Bad End Kingdom, the right hand man and heir of its rightful emperor, Lord Pierrot."
"Bad End Kingdom?" the name was a dead giveaway.
"Yes…" Then his smirk again changed into a frown, "But I guess Bad End Kingdom is no longer important. I'm serving for a greater cause now, or something." He shrugged. "Either way, I'm here to bring about the worst possible end to this world."
"Everyone. Let's transform!" Mana cried from behind of her gritted teeth.
"Precure! Love Link!"
"Precure! Dress-up!"
"Brimming with love! Cure Heart!"
"Light of wisdom! Cure Diamond!"
"Warmth of sunny spots! Cure Rosetta!"
"Blade of courage! Cure Sword!"
"Trump card of love! Cure Ace!"
"Resonate! The beat of love! Doki Doki Pretty Cure!"
Joker snapped his fingers, materializing several cards behind them. The Cures, still in their posing stance, were shocked at the sudden attack. The cards flipped, revealing several king of hearts. Each holding two sword in both sides of the card, the kings came out of their frames and took the chance to stab them dead.
Diamond had her legs tangled when she turned to see the cards were attacking.
'Damn muscle memory!' she cursed in her head and closed her eyes to brace against the incoming pain.
Right in the middle of the leftmost king's swords.
"Diamond!"
Rosetta jumped in the between of her friend and the threat, redirecting the swords to her sides. The blue Cure used the chance to stabilize herself, calling upon her weapon.
"Precure! Diamond Shower!"
The rain of hail froze all of the cards. Ace turned her attention just in time as Joker dashed in with a sword thrusted toward Rosetta, kicking the sword at its bottom hard, Joker lost his grip. Heart and Sword already upon him, fists reared back. Their mind were still disoriented, but their instinct did all the work against this dangerous man.
Both of their fists met Joker's face. And suddenly, he burst into purple cards.
"What?!"
A set of slow, mocking claps.
"Not bad, not bad! You do better than those girls, at least…"
Joker stood on a lamppost in perfect balance, his foot in tiptoe. Those thin black slits were leering.
"You! The blue one! Your name is Cure Diamond, no?" Diamond's left eye twitched.
"What's of it?"
"… You remind me of someone. I would like to mess you up a little, if you allow me."
"Like I would do that!"
"That's too bad~"
He snapped his fingers again. A card appeared floating above his outstretched hand, glowing and spitting out another sword.
"…That depends on whether you let your guard down to me or no…"
Joker threw the sword with deadly precision, right to Cure Heart's head. A blow that was so fast, she couldn't see it.
"Watch out!"
A blur of pink, kicking away the sword. But Cure Heart was the closest, she could catch a glimpse of her rescuer. Their eyes met, and it was like time itself stopped in its track to let these two souls had a moment to take on each other's appearance.
The girl was pink all over, with wide eyes and large twin tails that looked like drill at several parts. She was a little shorter than any of Oogai's Cures except for Aguri, but that was as expected. What attracted her attention the most was that feathery motif that seemed to follow her. Several downs trailing behind her, creating an illusion of a winged angel.
Suddenly, the angel screamed. She lost her footing with the jump kick, and now crashing through the concrete face first.
They stood shell-shocked. How could she fall face first when it was her leg she was outstretched?
"Still a klutz as ever, Happy?" Joker mocked the newcomer. Said newcomer, Happy, stood up and brushed off dirt on her clothes, large red spot visible on the middle of her face.
Then the angry face was gone and replaced by shock.
"Joker! How could you…" a realization, and determined anger came back at full force. "I see. So it's true. Black Hole resurrected you just like the time with Third Great Gathering!"
"I don't know about this Great Gathering, but yes, Black Hole resurrected me as you can see…"
"What are you after?"
"I have no need to tell you that, yes? It's not like I'll do good to you by telling my goal~"
Cure Happy growled, completely unaware of five girls now watching her with jaws unhinged.
"Wait… There's a Precure beside us?" Diamond racked her brains at the information. Now noticing them, Happy turned her head slightly and let out a small giggle.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Miyuki Hoshizora, Cure Happy!"
"Watch where you're looking, Cure Happy!"
Joker dashed forward, sword thrust like bullet. Happy set her lips in a thin line and dodged, sliding under the between of Joker's legs and pushed herself up with her hand. Rotating her body with the hand at its center, she swept Joker's legs over and kicked Joker off when he lost his footing in one spin. The harlequin flew across the street and slammed against the wall, breaking the foundation and burying him under the ruin.
"Woah!" Cure Heart could help but to be impressed.
"It's not over yet!" the fellow pink Cure shouted.
Three rows of card soldiers burst out of the dust cloud with their spears and swords brandished. The frozen king cards broke through their prison and advanced like a herd of charging bulls.
They were stuck in the middle.
Cure Sword pulled out her bow.
"Precure! Sparkle Sword!"
The rain of swords struck the several kings true in the center, banishing them. But there were still too many. Cure Ace looked down, her heart emblem pulsing red.
"My time is almost up!"
She too pulled out her weapon.
"Ace Shot! Bakyu~n!"
The rest of the kings vanished. With that, Ace turned back into Aguri, leaning heavily to Rosetta's shoulder.
"Happy!" Cure Heart turned back to their savior's side of battlefield and again had her jaw unhinged when she saw Cure Happy broke through the soldiers' ranks with hand to hand combat. About two dozen enemies tossed to air with her charge, and she wasn't slowing down at least.
"Joker!"
Happy jumped, fist already shooting out.
A card, materialized in front of her, a crude drawing of herself on it. The drawing broke through its frame and met Happy's punch with its own. The card copy was destroyed in the struggle of power, but Happy was now holding her knuckle and wincing.
"Excellent performance, Cure Happy! Marvelous, indeed!"
"I'm tired of your games!"
"But I-"
"Precure! Fire Strike!"
A giant ball of fire came rushing to the harlequin, who leaped upward and dodged it. A girl, a Cure, stood on the fountain. Her hair stood out like fire and her red costume seemed to sizzling the water into steam, creating a pseudo-aura.
Joker was taken aback, before composing himself as quickly.
"Cure… Rouge, if I'm not mistaken?"
"Joker, I heard a lot about you…"
"What an honor."
"You reminded me of someone. Someone that was a pain in neck." Rouge growled out, "I'll crush you under my heel!"
"Beat Sonic!"
A row of energy bolts slammed into Joker, which sent him flying. Joker rolled on roof of a gazebo, glaring at his attacker.
A purple haired girl in blue dress, her waist ribbons trailing behind her like tails. In her hands was something that suspiciously like an electrical guitar. Rouge frowned.
"Beat, let me take care of him! Something about him pissed me off so much."
"Rouge, remember why we're here. Called the other first, than you can kick his behind as much as you want."
"You girls really like to play dirty…"
Joker stood up, a card spinning behind her. Happy, who realized it, dashed after him.
"Don't you dare get away from us!"
"But I already am."
Joker jumped into the card, which turned into a black joker card, and vanished before Happy arrived."
"Shit…" Rouge spat.
Beat looked at her with disapproval, before noticing extra Cures between them
"You are… Precures?" she said, unsure. She wasn't there in the Third Gathering, and never really experience its introduction tradition.
The yellow Cure nodded before bowing at waist.
"Thank you for you aid. We're Precures from this city."
"Ah, I see."
"She's Ellen Kurokawa, Cure Beat!" Happy hooked her arm on Beat's shoulder and beamed, "While that readhead," she gestured at said redhead that now walking to their left, "Is Cure Rouge, Rin Natsuki. Pleasure to meet you!"
"Ah! That symbol!" a voice called out from Sword's waist. Davi pointed out to Happy's chest, more precisely, at the heart carving on the orb pinned to her ribbon, "Isn't that the Décor symbol?"
"Ah, yes! I'm a Marchenland's Precure." Happy swept her hand, and the same disembodied, stylized heart symbol materialized on the tip of her fingers. She learned how to create the password for Precure to recognize each other when they were briefed.
"Then they are…!"
Rin made the same twisting motion and a thin butterfly danced on her hand. It fluttered to Diamond's face and she unconsciously tried to touch it. The butterfly flew away and back to Rouge who dismissed it.
"Palmier Kingdom."
Ellen mimicked her companion's action and summoned a G-clef combined with a heart at its body. The small note played a short tune, a happy little jingle that made everyone wanted to dance to its tune.
"Majorland."
"That means…" Cure Sword couldn't believe her own eyes, "Not only there are many Precures, they came from different worlds?"
"Not all of us came from those lands; we're only blessed by those lands' spirits the power of Precures." Rouge tried to explain, though she wasn't that sure they would get it.
"I'm from Majorland, though." Ellen added, unaware of Rin's mental self-depreciation. The red Cure pouted at her.
"We're Precure from Trump Kingdom," Mana dismissed her transformation when the other Cures dismissed theirs, "How do you make that?" she painted at the G-clef. Beat smiled at her curiosity.
"It's easy. Just imagine the symbol that associated with you the most and make the gesture."
Mana nodded and she tried to make that sweeping motion. The small wisp of energy danced on her finger, but it didn't form the symbol. Mana clicked her tongue in disappointment.
"You'll get used with it." Ellen's face turned grim. "Now we've seen Joker himself admits it, we know for sure Black Hole is after something here."
"Yeah, we should report this to Honoka-san and Karen-san." Miyuki suggested.
"Karen can wait." Rin said as she looked into her cellphone. "She's fighting another one of them."
"Then what are we waiting for? We have to help her!"
"She and Nozomi are fighting Despariah, they'll be fine." Rin said, almost careless. "If Nozomi can convince her again to relent, then our help is not needed."
But then, she shook her head.
"But if she's the same as Baron Salamander and Toymajin in the Third Great Gathering, then maybe it's- uh…" she looked into her cell once more, "Despariah retreated… Hah! As expected of Nozomi!"
"Rin…" Ellen sighed in exasperation.
"It's better if we bring them to meet the others."
"The others?" Aguri wondered out loud.
"The other Precures, of course!"
Chapter 1 Ends
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For note, this chapter happens after episode 31 of Doki Doki.
First encounter with the force of evil, and Doki Cures meeting their predecessors. One thing that I dislike from New Stage 2 is that Mana doesn't meet Miyuki in the running gag Meet Cute scenario that All Stars movies have. Damn it! If it doesn't broken, don't fix it! I wanna see Miyuki and Mana run into each other and get awkward together!
This fanfiction will be a Smile and Doki Doki focused, but the other teams will have their turn by rotating the third focus. Several Cures will have more focus by proxy of their authority-inducting charisma and their tactician mind, though, and being de facto leaders of the Gathering. Of course, several early chapters will have them in minimum role to establish the setting first.
Expect allusions from each series in this story. The term Great Gathering (Daishuugo) came from All Stars DX's OP songs. The one Rin mentions being similar to Joker is Kawarino, Despariah's right hand man. The tune that Ellen's G-clef plays is intro tune #Kibou Rainbow#, Suite's second ED. The teams' symbols that they use as password are those pink shapes the Cures hold in their DX3 official artwork; which are:
Max Heart: a heart
Splash Star: a pair of star, large and small
GoGo: a butterfly
Fresh: four leaf clover
Heartcatch: heart-shaped sakura petal
Suite: the G-clef
Because Smile and Doki Doki don't have that kind of artwork yet, I use the symbol most associated with the team. Smile team has the Décor's symbol, that stylized heart most visible on their chest ribbons, while Doki Doki, who can't yet materialize theirs, have the cupid bow and arrow on their transformation Loveads and the Lovely Straight Flush. I think those details are pretty neat.
Doki Doki Precure already in its 31 episode mark, but the physical fight in the installment is still not filling up the quota. I'm worried, but I'm sure the finale is surely awesome. I hope the hype is paid well, or Precure franchise might dying like the time with GoGo. It's something I don't want.
See you in the next chapter.