Preword:
This is a giant crossover story. Power levels between action stories are subjective. This story chose its relative standards under the premise of 'I want to write a one-vs-many battle like in All-Stars movies'. While not essential, familiarity with the Precure titles from "Futari wa Pretty Cure" up to "Dokidoki Pretty Cure" is optimal. Why only up to "Dokidoki"? Because the end of that series was when I decided to write this story. Also note there is one detail I changed from the "Splash Star" canon. Artistic license was used on Parsee's attacks.
"Hibiki and Kanade always give me strange looks when I dress up for an occasion. Am I doing something wrong?"
It began when Ellen said that within Erika's earshot. That led to a dress-up day out so Ellen could demonstrate her clothing sense. Erika and Miki were first to arrive at the meeting spot.
"Oh, that's from the latest Fashion Weekly issue," noted Erika. "I like your alternate choice for the top."
"Thanks," Miki took the compliment while posing at a few choice angles. "The original couldn't bring out my perfection as-is but luckily I had something in my wardrobe to compliment the rest. Nowhere near as adventurous as your outfit though."
"I saw a movie yesterday and the burning question hit me: what would have been fashionable if modern textiles were available to the Swiss a few centuries ago? This is one of my answers."
"The ankle scarf is a really neat touch."
"Thanks, it was worth digging around to find the right shoes to compliment it."
As the two veterans admired each other, Kurumi showed up.
"Woah, you two really know what you're doing," exclaimed Kurumi after greetings were exchanged.
"As I said before: I'm perfect," said Miki. "Though you're packing some punch with that blouse."
"It's the best I have, but I need to buy better today," declared Kurumi.
"A maiden's war preparations?" conjectured Erika. "Who's the objective?"
"A man who I cook for and live under the same roof with. He only has eyes for another girl." Kurumi basked in the ensuing gawking. To keep the stupefied pair in suspense, she drew attention to the approach of Regina and Kaoru.
"Excellent, you three look like you know how to buy clothes," waved Regina.
"You know how to make black work for you," said Kurumi. Erika and Miki had fixed their expressions but were still distracted.
"That's my problem, it's all I know how to make work," said Regina. "I want to wow papa with some variety."
"I want to learn how to pick out clothes for myself too," said Kaoru. "Mai picked this for me today, and I usually keep wearing the same fixed sets of clothes day in day out."
"Well you've certainly come to the right place," Kurumi held her nose high. "We'll polish your fashion sense as we meander through the high street. Wait what's that commotion over there?"
The girls tensed up. They were all veterans of fighting enemies who caused public disorder via giant summoned monsters. Their expectations were betrayed when Ellen emerged from the crowd as the centre of the ruckus. Doubly betrayed as she had the look of a fully-clothed Samba dancer.
"Hey everyone, sorry I'm a bit late!" greeted Ellen, who was doing her best to ignore all the stares from the crowd. Kurumi was quickest to recover: from facepalm she grabbed Ellen's right arm. Erika's stupor was similarly shaken off quickly: she clenched her jaw shut and grabbed Ellen's left arm.
"What's the rush? I'm not that late?" asked Ellen.
"I don't know where to begin with your sense," said Erika.
"You actually one-upped Nozomi in flabbergasting me," added Kurumi.
"We'll just dress you up ourselves to teach you how it's done," said Erika as they marched off Ellen to the nearest store.
Tsubomi nervously put down her tea cup. She thought she was used to rich environments since she'd visited Itsuki's home a number of times. But the Western grandeur of the Yotsuba mansion overwhelmed her. Maybe she should have gone with Erika to town instead, but Alice's schedule was too packed to postpone this. The conviction that persuaded Erika to let her fellow fashion club members off was crumbling just from the size of the room she was waiting in. Sitting beside her was Itsuki, engaging in small talk with Karen who sat on the opposite facing sofa.
Presently, Sebastian heralded Alice's entry and Tsubomi's nerves propelled her to standing attention.
"You don't need to be so formal Tsubomi," soothed Alice. She'd just come out of a stiff meeting full of executives clinging to protocol. But no fatigue from that business ritual showed on her face.
"The projector is loaded with your presentation," said Sebastian as automatic blinds and sliding machinery turned the room into a miniature cinema. As he handed Tsubomi the projector controller, she looked around at her small audience. A reassuring hand on her back from Itsuki, a supportive nod from Karen and a gentle smile from Alice. She gathered her courage and spoke up.
"Thank you for coming to listen to my request today. I would like everyone's advice-" Tsubomi paused as she made the title appear: 'Space Botany'. "-to make flowers bloom in space." Both Alice and Karen had a perspective far above a commoner but they were taken aback by the scope of Tsubomi's dream.
"It's ok, go on," said Itsuki when Tsubomi turned to her, unsure how to interpret the stunned silence of the rich. She'd helped Tsubomi write the slides and rehearse the talk. There was a certain satifaction to seeing she wasn't the only one blown away by Tsubomi's dream.
It was a slow business hour at Akane's restaurant. But the cooking did not slow down on this particular day. A week ago, Michiru mentioned she wanted to explore other types of cooking besides bakery. Now she was here with Saki and Hikari to try their hands at okonomiyaki grilling.
"This is difficult, it's still flour but why does it behave so differently?" complained Saki.
"The craft is long," said Akane. "You think you can pick it up as quickly as riding a bicycle? If I were to try baking bread, I'd probably make a lot of failures before my first half-decent piece."
"Saki still makes failures even after having baked for years," revealed Michiru.
"Michiru! You didn't have to say that," came Saki's weak response.
"Hikari, that's a pretty good first attempt," praised Akane.
"The extra thickness compared to a crepe threw me off," Hikari assessed, "and I'm not used to flipping. I'll get it right before I go home today." She set aside her first completed plate and went straight for take two.
"Wanna eat what we made?" asked Saki.
"Not yet," replied Michiru. "I want to enjoy this a bit more before taking a break." She too reached for the ingredients again after loading her first plate.
"Ok, I'll watch you while eating your first ever okonomiyaki."
"Hey Saki, you could do with the most practice you know," chided Akane.
"Can't let good food go to waste, and isn't it best to eat this while it's hot?" Saki pointed out. Akane couldn't answer back.
"-and then the princess would give a sideways glance which the duke misses," Komachi rattled off from her notepad. "Meantime, the gardener-"
"Uh, Komachi. Sorry but that'll go way over the heads of children," Miyuki pointed out. It was uncomfortable seeing the older girl deflate but her plot notes were derailing far off the objective: a picture book.
"Miyuki, I've finished roughs for the prince and princess," reported Yayoi.
"Great!" Miyuki took a look. "Is this prince wearing power armour?"
"Isn't this what plate armour looks like?" Yayoi defended.
"They certainly don't have shoulders like that," Ako criticised. "And this is not a princess dress. It's just a bedsheet with folds." Yayoi felt a strange weight of authentic expertise from the primary school girl.
"Was this what you had in mind for the castle?" Mai asked, showing her sketchbook.
"Woah uh, it's a good drawing Mai but well," Miyuki was at a loss for the right words. "The castle is so detailed it steals the show. It's meant to be a backdrop in the horizon. As is, nobody will be looking at the characters with that on the page."
"It's impractical," Ako declared. "The main reason a castle gets built isn't to look good."
It was Miyuki's vision to create a picture book but given she could only do crayon drawings, she asked for some help. She was grateful she got it but never expected it meant herding cats with a dog in the midst. If only she could express her vision better, but this impromptu first gathering of creativity and expertise was still better than what she could do alone.
"It's a good donut, but Kanade's cupcakes are better."
Thus Hibiki sparked a sweets cook off. Kanade outwardly sighed but was secretly happy for the praise and chance to show off. The number of girls who wanted to watch or join in was unexpected but manageable. Seika, the head of the Sweets Club, let them use the home economics classroom. The other group who wanted to eat without participating was... actually Kanade was used to that. Those girls were working up an appetite with soccer.
"Oops, I got pieces of egg shell in my batter," said Nozomi sheepishly.
"That's ok, Scoop them out with this," Seika said as she handed a spoon. "Let me show you how to crack eggs better."
"I'll have you know Aniki's donuts changed a world," said Tarte, jumping onto Love's shoulder. "You're serious you can make something that good?"
"I don't know if I can meet a bar that high but I do know I can change Hibiki's mood with my sweets," shrugged Kanade. "You be the judge." Her deftness with the wisk already gave her credibility.
"Hey stop moving around on my shoulder Tarte!" said Love. It was her first time mixing batter but she hadn't made a mess thanks to prior kitchen experience carrying over. The same couldn't be said for Nozomi, who had Seika encouraging and cleaning up after her.
"My batter is ready, where's the oven?" inquired Aguri.
"Aguri-chan, you're not done with that batter," stated Kanade as she poured the contents of her bowl into a mold. "It takes more than just frosting to make a good cupcake." Aguri was stunned her rebuttal was pre-emptively countered.
"Love, who will you give your first cupcake to?" asked Setsuna. She too had a wisk held in a rotating hand.
"I want to surprise mum with it," answered Love. "Oh but since you'd get to eat one first, I guess that wouldn't be my first cupcake. How about you?"
"After having you and Tarte confirm the taste, probably Westar. My world is hungry for more delicious food, I want to bring over baking knowledge."
"That's nice. Oh but we can't forget to give some to Miki and Buki."
"Of course not. What about Daichi?"
"Uh..." Love's eyes wandered to the window. "Oh my gosh, are they having a girls vs boys match down there?"
"This can't be happening," Nagisa uttered her trademark phrase. "How did it come to this?" The girls they had been playing soccer against were walking off and were being replaced by five boys.
"We thrashed them too hard," answered Rin. "I can understand why they'd want to stop playing against us. Didn't expect boys to show up though."
"Word spread real fast about our All-Stars soccer team, even before our first match ended," added Waon. 14 is the delicate age when children naturally segregate by sex when playing soccer. The transcendental competency of this 5-girl team blew away the inhibition puberty put down: when they're this good, who cares that these opponents were girls? "No worries, they're not regular members of the boys' soccer team."
"It's a straight, clean match. Challenge accepted," smiled Nao as she checked her ponytail wasn't coming loose.
"Oh yeah, can't let girls down by backing away here," chimed Hibiki. She liaised with the assembled opponents so the match would end in time to eat Kanade's sweets fresh out of the oven.
"We're really doing this... Alright then," Nagisa put on her game face and got her team into a planning huddle. Since Nagisa was the only one on her team who didn't have extensive soccer experience, she was the goalkeeper. Her lacross experience and hours of watching Fujimura's matches served her well when reading what's going on in the game. Her loud voice could carry commands across the five-a-side sized soccer field. The other girls were experienced team players who could respond properly to Nagisa's yells after being briefed beforehand.
The match started with the boys getting a quick offense through. Acknowledging she couldn't overtake their striker, Nao took a sharp turn and ran towards the sidelines. This confused the boys but didn't stop them cheering for the goal attempt. Nagisa punched it away. The ball flew out to the sides, where Nao chested it back to the ground. By the time the boys had scrambled a defence, Nao was already in shooting range of the goal. Two defenders were in her way.
"Pass 4!" yelled Nagisa from the other side of the pitch, i.e. 4 o'clock direction. The ball transferred from Nao's feet to Hibiki who immediately passed to Waon. She had been carefully avoiding standing off-side on the other side of the pitch. It was a long shot but there was nobody in the way. Waon took her shot. It hit the goal post and rebounded.
The boys sighed in relief. That only happened because they had taken their eyes off Hibiki. Seemingly out of nowhere, she jumped from behind and kicked the ball in the air.
"Score!" Hibiki gave Waon a high-five and accepted congratulations from the other girls, ignoring the dumbstruck opponents.
Rikka indulged in the moment, listening to Mana reading the introductory poem signaling a Karuta match. She'd finished memorising where the 50 torifuda cards were. It was one of those rare occasions Mana wasn't running off to help someone else or being monopolised by Regina. Right now, Mana was there just for her.
They had just finished drafting the overall plan for a joint-school culture festival. Technically they were no longer on the student council but they'd been asked for help. The details would be worked out by this year's student council. Since it was still early in the day, they had invited the other party to some recreation: Karuta.
Mana read the first yomifuda card: "If I lay my head-"
Rikka's hand darted for the upper corner of her territory where the matching card was. But her fingers only scraped the tabletop. She glimpsed up to see Reika's stone face.
'It's just one card, don't get ruffled,' Rikka calmed herself. Reika moved the furthest card from her territory to the space now vacated in Rikka's territory.
"If I should live long, then perhaps the present days-" Mana read the next yomifuda. This one was a dud, one of the 50 cards which didn't have their torifuda counterparts in play this round. When Rikka let down her tension, she noticed Reika was looking at her arm not the table. Suspicion crept into Rikka.
"An-" The third yomifuda was one of the seven poems that had a unique first syllable. This one was deep in her territory so Rikka stole a glance as she snapped it away. Reika had flinched but stopped when she saw Rikka was going to reach first.
"Quick hand you have," complimented Reika.
"And your eye is quicker," Rikka answered back. "You're not wasting energy reaching for a card you see I'm going to get first." Blissful indulgence evaporated in the face of the efficient competition.
"Chuutarou, this is a mirror," taught Buki. Honoka's pet dog barked in surprise at seeing himself. Buki explained and demonstrated to him there wasn't a second dog on the other side. Once the dog had settled down, Honoka put a wig on him.
"Chuutarou, how do you feel?" asked Honoka, relaying through Buki. She was fascinated by her animal communication magic. Truth be told, Honoka wanted to go on an expedition into nature with Buki to interview the wildlife. But one afternoon wasn't enough time for such a venture. Getting to hear what your pet is thinking wasn't a bad alternative.
"He says it's itchy and it's not as cool as when you dress up as a mighty fighter," translated Buki. She noted down the itchy detail in a notebook. Her dad would appreciate the feedback on this latest iteration of the pet wig.
"Huh, he knew I was Precure?" Honoka gasped.
"It was when he was helping a small friend find his master." Buki took off the wig. "I'm amazed dad can keep trying with this wig series."
"Thomas Edison had 1000 failures when he was developing the light bulb," said Honoka. "When asked if he'd learnt nothing from all those failures, his answer was 'no, I have learnt 1000 different materials that aren't suitable'."
"That's a nice quote," said Buki. Chuutarou barked when he got fitted with the next wig. "Oh he likes this one."
"Agent, not attending the ball is out of the question for the lady," stated Urara, the spymaster.
"Madam, with all due respect that ball is a trap," warned Makoto, the spy.
"It's our job to disarm the trap, so the lady can do her job. Who are the involved players?"
"There are three groups who are poised to strike. The first is... is... I've forgotten my lines."
Their assumed personas vanished and they were school girls again.
"Let's take a break," said Urara.
"Acting just does not come to me naturally," admitted Makoto. "How do you do it so well?"
"All my life I've aspired to follow my late mother's footsteps. She was a world-class actress," explained Urara. "I've got a few showbiz events under my belt now but this film role is a big step for me so I don't want to mess up, even if it's a side character."
"That is admirable."
"You got to the big stage before me. How did you do it?"
"When I fled the invasion of my world, I only had Davy and the clothes on my back. The only way I knew to make a living here was to sing. I also had to put myself in the public eye so my princess could find me if she was alive. I've sung for her since I was young, so that's what gave me my drive."
"Wow, that is a hard motivator."
"It was a rough start and I had that ulterior motive, but I do love singing. I'd have quit halfway through otherwise. How about you?"
"Yes, I love acting. I'm not just doing it to pursue the memory of my mother."
"That's good," Makoto looked at the script to refresh her memory. "Ok let's do this, from the top."
"Agent, not attending the ball is out of the question for the lady," stated Urara, the spymaster.
The ensuing lecture and clothes changing marathon could have lasted for hours. Hummy was enjoying the ever changing view of Ellen but Coffret was at his limit. Fuup wasn't great company to be hiding in a bag with. The flying blob was getting melancholy from being denied the planned sightseeing. Coffret envied how Hummy could move about publically without attracting unwanted attention. Just for an instant, his head flared with hot jealousy towards the talking cat before he shook himself out of it.
'It's not fair, Momo-nee had to give up on a social life to become a model, but Miki can even make time to dance on stage. We're the same age and yet all her friends have well developed bodies. I wish they'd just... wait what am I thinking?' Erika regained control of her train of thought. To force herself back to reality, she looked at her hands. They were holding a pair of shirts.
'That's right, I picked up these clothes to show Ellen what doesn't work together. But this sure is good fabric, I want to cut it up to use on... stop it me!' Erika shook her head hard to clear that derailment.
'Why did I suddenly feel so jealous of Erika's mother owning a clothes store?' Miki stared hard at her reflection in the changing booth. 'I'm a perfect hard worker, there's no reason I should be ashamed of my family's income.' She had been helping Kaoru rotate through a roster of outfits to teach her some fashion basics. In the mirror, she saw Kaoru glaring at her hand while holding an imaginary pen or brush. Before she could speak to Kaoru, a sudden image of Kurumi in the arms of a man came to her mind. Her face flushed, but not with guilty excitement.
'Why? I'm perfect but I've yet to have a love life. How could Kurumi get ahead of me so far? I wish she'd... wait, wait, why am I getting these ugly thoughts?'
"Girls, did everyone feel unnatural jealousy just now?" Ellen's head popped out from the neighbouring booth. Miki felt instant relief it wasn't just her that was affected.
"Yeah something tampered with our minds," said Kurumi, emerging from the booth she was helping Regina get changed in. "But different to when I had a mask of despair forced on me."
"I haven't felt emotion this strong since papa got saved," said Regina.
"Everyone in the store is acting strange," said Erika as she returned to the changing area. "There's fights breaking out between the customers."
"Something out there must be attacking everyone's hearts," conjectured Ellen. Her long experience of being under mind control made her grimace. The other girls also switched into veteran mode. They had all fought enemies who had exploited unnatural mental influences. The petty jealousies fell off as they steeled their hearts with responsibility.
"We should go out there together," said Miki as she helped Kaoru finish dressing.
"I still need to get changed," said Regina. Experiencing tens of battles does not make a teenage girl an exhibitionist.
"Same here," chimed in Ellen.
"We'll lend a hand," said Erika as she entered Ellen's booth. "We don't want you realising you were under-dressed when everything's back to normal." While helping the two finish dressing, they picked which directions they'd search in.
"I'll contact Michiru and the others," said Kaoru. "Good luck finding the mastermind quickly." The other girls nodded and transformed.