The moon appeared to be blood-red.
It was a special night, according to some. Claims had been made about that lunar eclipse and those which would follow. But what they didn't know was that an entirely different series of events was soon to take place.
Somewhere in Japan, five technicolor lights appeared within the city. There was a sixth light that was bigger and colorless. They all split off, with the colored lights hitting random places in a pentagonal arrangement, and the colorless light hitting the city's center. The green light struck the Lower West Corner. The yellow light struck the Upper Corner. The blue light struck the Upper East Corner. The red light struck the Upper West Corner. The pink light struck the Lower East Corner.
A teenage boy wearing a pink nightgown was woken up by the resulting noise. He rushed to the window and was promptly treated to the spectacular light show. He watched in awe as the lights scattered all over the city.
Little did he know that this was the start of a series of events in which he would soon be involved...
A Chrysler Voyager minivan pulled up outside the gates of Altair Private Academy, a school in Sunrise Heights which was said to be one of the best private schools in all of Japan. Altair was divided into three sections: a general education section for those who didn't know what they wanted to do; a rhythmic gymnastics section; and an American football section. Hitomi Ichinose, who wore a pink tunic with a double-layered skirt, had signed up with the rhythmic gymnastics section on the advice of his mother.
"Have a good day," his mother said as the minivan drove away. Just then, Tsumugi Nikaido, his longtime friend and karate classmate, showed up on roller skates. She wore a red tank top and jean shorts. Her hair was tied in twintails, her standard-issue ballet slippers were hanging from a belt loop on her shorts, and she wore elbow pads and knee pads.
"Good morning, Lisa," Hitomi said in plain English. He reverted back to Japanese as he continued, "Did you see the light show last night?"
"Yeah!" Tsumugi exclaimed. "The lights went all over Dream City! One was pink and the others were red, yellow, green, blue and white. I saw the white light hit the center of the city from my window!"
"I thought the lights were awesome, too. It's always cool to see a light show."
Tsumugi skated through the gate and said, "Come on, Hitomi!"
Hitomi walked through the gate as a limousine pulled up, with a tall girl with jet black hair, clad in a blue tutu, inside. Her name was Itsuko Godai. She stepped out of the limo and curtsied to the driver, then walked up to Hitomi and Tsumugi. "Good morning, Hitomi. Good morning, Tsumugi."
Both curtsied to her and said, "Good morning."
Itsuko looked around and said, "Ana should be here around now. She's probably jogging a bit slower than usual today."
In came Ana Yotsuya, who was wearing a green dress and running shoes. "Good morning," she said as she stopped. Hitomi and Tsumugi watched as Ana and Itsuko went ahead to their class.
"Something's been bugging me lately," Hitomi said as he watched the two go into the school building. "Why are Ana and Itsuko always together?"
Tsumugi said, "I've heard Itsuko's aunt leads the agency to which Ana belongs."
"Hmm. No wonder, then."
Suddenly, they noticed a short-haired girl in a yellow tutu going clumsily into the air. "SAEKO!" Tsumugi shouted.
Hitomi ran over to the scene and caught her before she hit the ground. "Are you all right?" he asked.
"I'm fine," Saeko replied.
Tsumugi walked over and picked up a stray banana peel. "Ugh! Bloody litterbugs!" she groaned in disgust as she threw the peel into the nearest wastebasket. "Anyway, this girl is my friend, Saeko Mitaka. I met her shortly after signing up for karate class. She does ballet, but I teach her what I know of karate every now and then, so she can defend herself against anyone who picks on her."
"Thank you for saving me, Mister..."
"Ichinose, Hitomi Ichinose."
The first bell rang. Tsumugi said, "Let's get to class!"
The head teacher of Rhythmic Gymnastics Class G was Eric Napier, an American. His assistants were the British Esther Nashton and the Franco-Spaniard Edmundo Navarro. The classes were taught in Room 107 in the dance building.
Today, it was Coach Napier's turn to lead the jogging.
"FAI-TO! FAI-TO! FAI-TO!" was the chant as they went jogging. All were clad in pink tracksuits worn over their rhythmic gymnastics clothes. For the most part, Hitomi was able to pay attention. However, he briefly got distracted once by the sight of a girl clad in a sailor fuku with waist-length pink hair and blue eyes. She was getting a good talking to from someone who appeared to be her sister.
"Rica!" the older girl said. "What are you doing here?"
The younger girl said, "Just looking for someone."
"Even if it's me," the older girl replied, "this isn't the time to hang around here. Perhaps you'd want to visit us during the school festival?"
Hitomi asked, "Does this girl remind you of anyone, Princess?"
"Yeah," Tsumugi said. "Someone I saw on TV when I was younger."
"Mr. Ichinose! Miss Nikaido! Pay attention!" Coach Napier barked.
The jogging continued.
Coach Nashton led the ballet portion of the class. The students practiced their plies, tendus, releves, degages, piques, etc. at the barre. As they did, she inspected them for proper posture and proper turnout.
"Miss Hisakawa," she said, "how many times do I have to tell you? For proper turnout, you should engage your thigh muscles so that your feet are turned outward, not inward. Miss Murasaki, I understand you're very eager about all things ballet, but for now, you should only do these things in first or second position around here. Miss Yukihiro, your arm movement should come from the back. Miss Mitaka, keep up the good work. Miss Nikaido, you seem to be catching on. Watching your friend's dance classes must've worked wonders."
Walking up to Hitomi, she continued, "Mr. Ichinose, please pay attention. Watch your back. Keep it straight."
However, Hitomi couldn't quite stop thinking about what had gone on near the sports grounds.
Every day, they learned a different apparatus or two.
Monday, the hoop. Tuesday, the ribbon. Wednesday, the clubs and the double rings. Thursday, the ball. Friday, the stick. Saturday, the rope.
Today was Tuesday.
Unexpectedly, Hitomi proved to be one of the best with the ribbon. Coach Navarro could only gaze with surprise. "Sacrebleu!" he said. "The first boy to enroll in our rhythmic gymnastics program, and he's already proving to be a natural with the ribbon!"
Tsumugi herself proved to be no slouch with the ribbon. She put on a pair of wireless headphones and started Track #7 of the CD inside of the boom box to which they were assigned.
As the priestesses on the recording started their invocation, Tsumugi started practicing her ribbon routine. Once the musical interlude started, she really got going. The other students were practicing their own routines, wearing their own wireless headphones and practicing to different pieces of music. Saeko was doing hers to Adam's Giselle. Ana's was to Morricone's Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. Itsuko's was to Williams's Raiders of the Lost Ark. Sakura Hisakawa practiced to Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. And Hitomi was practicing to Ortolani's Cannibal Holocaust.
Such a beautiful piece it was, that it sounded much sweeter than its title. Hitomi liked Italian music ever since Tsumugi had first given him an Italian film record for his birthday several years before. However, she also knew that he liked the local J-pop music, particularly that of Morning Musume and its members past and present, just as much. Indeed, for a middle-class teenager, he had a rather unusual collection of music.
The massive amount of space required for 15 simultaneous individual ribbon routines was why the dance studio where the classes took place was so immense. The place was three stories tall with a wooden floor covered in heavy-duty vinyl and a single mirror wall. There was also a locker room with one portion reserved for the girls and the other reserved for the boys. The latter had never been used before.
On the routines went. The coaches watched and made note of any flaws that popped up, in order to help the students improve their technique.
Suddenly, Hitomi stumbled and got tangled in his ribbon. "What in tarnation!?" Coach Napier exploded. Hitomi gave them the OK sign and said, "Sorry, I haven't been able to concentrate since I saw that strange girl on the grounds while we were jogging."
"For God's sake, son," Coach Napier said, "keep your mind here and now where it belongs! I will advise you to not let chance encounters with strangers distract you from rhythmic gymnastics practice in the future!"
However, Hitomi had more important things to worry about than getting distracted by thoughts about the events that had transpired while he and the rest of the class were jogging that day.
He had not yet purchased a birthday present for Tsumugi. And her birthday was today.
When he got home, Hitomi changed into a leather jacket, a T-shirt, and jeans before departing. As he entered the DVD store to look for the present, he saw the strange girl again, but this time, he decided he wouldn't let her distract him. "What's up with her?" he asked as he started his search.
He went through the shelves as fast as he could. On and on and on he searched, until finally…
"Eureka!" said he. "The first Blu-ray volume of Delta Dynamos! Tsumugi is a fan of this series, but she hasn't been able to locate it yet, no matter how many times she searched every video store in Soho. Is she ever going to love this!"
Suddenly, he heard a mysterious voice. "Delta Dynamos! I love this show! The most awesome magical girl series this side of Sailor Moon!"
He looked around and saw the girl. "You're that girl who wandered onto the grounds of Altair Private Academy, aren't you?"
The girl looked shocked that he had presumed to be familiar with her. "How did you know!?" she exclaimed.
"Easy: I happened to notice your presence as my rhythmic gymnastics class was jogging right by today," Hitomi said. "Who are you, really?"
The pinkhead curtsied and replied, "My name is Rica Bandai, but you can call me Ribbon." The perplexed redheaded megane said, "I'm Hitomi Ichinose. I see your hair happens to be my favorite color."
Rica said, "Pink's also my favorite color. In fact, I'm all pink in my true form!"
Hitomi was confused. "True… form?"
"Yeah!" said the strange twintailed girl. "At first glance, I'm just another human being, just like you. But in fact…"
POOF! The girl was gone, and in her place was a pink-furred bunny rabbit. Hitomi did a double take. "You're a… a ra… a bunny rabbit!?"
"What?" Ribbon asked. "You've never seen a member of the leporidae family before?"
"Well, actually," Hitomi said, "yes. But I've never seen one that can turn into a human girl before!"
Suddenly, Ribbon took on an expression as though she had seen a ghost. "OH D-D-D-DEAR!"
"What now?" Hitomi asked.
"There's a… m-monster… t-t-turning… p-p-people… t-to stone!"
Sure enough, a creature resembling a basilisk was going around biting people and turning them to stone. "Oh, crap! Let's get out of here!" Hitomi shouted.
He grabbed the Delta Dynamos Blu-ray set ("I'm not leaving this place without it!") and took off for the cash register, only to find that the lady stationed there had also been petrified. He looked around outside the window and saw other people already looking like freshly-carved marble. He put down the Blu-ray set, saying, "I'll take care of you later. Right now, I've got a city to save."
The basilisk-like creature came up behind Hitomi and shouted, "HEBINODOKU!"
Hitomi screamed and pushed through the door. "Who the hell are you, you basilisk?"
"BASILISK IS MY MASTER!" the creature roared. "CALL ME HEBINODOKU!"
Hitomi asked, "Who is this Basilisk?"
Ribbon said, "She's a general for the Nightmare Beauties. The Hebinodoku she sends can turn people to stone!"
"SURRENDER," the Hebinodoku said, "OR FROM THIS POINT ONWARD, FOR EVERY MINUTE YOU RESIST I TURN ANOTHER HUMAN INTO STONE. STARTING WITH FOUR-EYES!"
Ribbon said, "I think it means you."
Hitomi looked around at those that the Hebinodoku had already petrified. "Go ahead. Turn me to stone. What's one more body amongst foundations to you? To me, one can make a huge difference. Sure, it may be a cramped-up pity life here in the city, which is part of the reason why my family lives in the suburbs, away from the bustling of the city, but without cities, life as we know it may not be able to go on!
"Who among these people gives us the electricity, the water, and the gas which we take for granted? How do their differences make things more lively? And how do people expect to get along when you petrify those that power this city? Your works of art cannot be considered art. Such still life as this only has a place in musea, not in the middle of a bustling shopping center!
"Life would be more beautiful if people were able to move from place to place as they please and think for themselves. How can they, if they've been turned to stone? You are trying to stop a city dead in its tracks. That, I cannot forgive!"
The Hebinodoku lunged at Hitomi. But there he stood firmly. The creature drew closer and closer to him, at a seemingly ever-increasing speed...
He didn't turn to stone.
Instead, a flash of light between him and the Hebinodoku blew the creature back. The pink light started to move. Hitomi followed it. Ribbon asked, "Where are you going?"
"Wherever that light's taking me," Hitomi said, "I have a good feeling about this."
It stopped short of the edge of Soho. "A 3DS? The light stopped over one of these things?"
"Just pick it up!" Ribbon said. "It's one of five that dropped down with me last night!"
"You mean there are others like it?"
"Others like you, it would seem! Four others, to be exact!"
Hitomi picked up the 3DS and turned it on. He then pressed Up twice on the D-Pad, then Down twice, then Left, Right, Left, Right, and finally, the B, A, and Start buttons. All of a sudden, the screens turned a bright white at the top and pink below.
"PRETTY CURE! SHOW YOUR MOVES!"
Hitomi was promptly shielded by a barrier of pink light. The Hebinodoku tried to throw a nearby boulder at him, but the light instantly disintegrated the boulder and blew it into the creature's face. When the light dissipated, he was dressed differently.
"The flowery ribbon spinning gracefully in the wind! I am Cure Twirl! YATTA! PRETTY CURE!"
Upon finishing his transformation, Hitomi promptly freaked out. "What's going on!? I figured I'd be a Super Sentai type, but I never thought I'd look like this when fighting my enemies!"
"AN OPENING! HEBINODOKU!"
That was enough for Hitomi to jump out of the way. Before he knew it, he was catapulted sky-high. "Whoa!" said he. "I never knew I could jump that high!"
He extended his right leg with his toes pointed downward and landed right on the creature's neck. Believing it to be no more, he said, "Smashing."
He promptly got thrown backwards when the creature got back up. "Hitomi!" Ribbon shouted.
Hitomi said, "I'm OK."
Ribbon said, "You're overthinking things; this is one monster that your average everyday k-k-karate can't d-defeat!"
"You're right. But I've got to fight it somehow!"
The monster lunged at him once again, and this time, he leaped over it, almost as if he were a gazelle. "DODGE THIS!" roared the frustrated creature. "HEBINODOKU!"
"TWIRL BEAM!"
Suddenly, laser beams shot out of Hitomi's eyes, blasting the Hebinodoku far away. "How did I do that!?"
Ribbon said, "Believe that there's some way to save the city from this terror!"
The Hebinodoku lunged at Hitomi again. "TWIRL TELEPORT!"
He was back inside the building. "COWARD!" the Hebinodoku roared as it entered through the still-open door.
"I AM NOT A COWARD!" Hitomi bellowed as he charged at the Hebinodoku. "TWIRL PUNCH!"
He swung his fist at the Hebinodoku and hit it hard. However, it wouldn't give up so easily after being punched. In fact, it rethought its strategy in nothing flat and simply wrapped itself around him. "Ribbon!" he shouted. "Help!"
"Hitomi!"
The Hebinodoku said, "EITHER SURRENDER, OR I KILL THIS REBEL!"
"I'm no rebel!" Hitomi shouted. "Ribbon, don't give in."
"B-But Hitomi!" Ribbon wailed. "You'll d-d-die!"
"Don't worry about me," Hitomi said. "Remember what you said earlier? I've got to believe I can save the city from this terror. Well, I can. And I will!"
With these words, he broke free from the Hebinodoku's clutches. "Graceful Ribbon."
A pink gymnastics ribbon appeared in his left hand. He twirled it above him as he performed a pair of counter-clockwise tiptoe turns, then he leapt into the air. He landed and performed a half turn, swinging the ribbon in front of him. Swinging it above him, he then performed a clockwise pirouette en dedans and changed hands so the ribbon was now in his right hand. He posed on his tiptoes with his arms forming a Y shape.
"Pretty Cure Elegant Spiral!"
With these words, he started twirling the ribbon in front of him. The ribbon took on a spiral shape as it extended with each small tiptoe step he made, until it touched the Hebinodoku, causing a long ribbon to form. It wrapped itself around the creature and squeezed it tight, purifying it. An explosion of light followed, after which he curtsied.
As he looked around, he saw a mysterious woman glaring at him from the shadows. She sneered at him silently before vanishing. "Was that Basilisk?" he asked.
"Seems so," Ribbon said. "Full name Basilisk the Sculptor."
At that point, a strange card appeared in his hands. "And what's this?"
"It's a Cure Chip," Ribbon replied. "It's one of many and will come in handy at some point during your mission. Well, I didn't receive an invite to your friend's birthday party, so I'm afraid I can't come with you for now. But I have the feeling we'll meet again."
As the humans in the vicinity returned to normal, Hitomi detransformed. He was wearing his glasses again. "Well, ti vedrò più tarde!" said Ribbon.
"I don't know what that means," Hitomi said, "but have a nice day."
Ribbon left.
The birthday party took place at Nikaido Manor. Tsumugi looked marvelous for the occasion; her hair was down, and she wore a red headband, a red blouse, dark-rinse blue jeans, and red ballet flats. There were several guests present. Hitomi was the last of them to arrive, but he did get there with a few minutes to spare.
When it came time to hand out presents, Hitomi was eager to give her his present, but he decided to save the best for last. When everyone else had passed out their presents, Tsumugi asked, "What took you so long, Hitomi? Why the hesitation?"
"Why do you ask, Princess?"
"Just wondering, is all. I figured you had a good reason, mate."
"I figured I should save the best for last," he said as he gave her the present. As she opened it, he said in plain English, "Happy birthday, Lisa."
There it was. Tsumugi couldn't contain her excitement. There, before her eyes, was the first Blu-ray volume of the science fantasy magical girl series Delta Dynamos. "Crikey, Hitomi," she said, "you shouldn't have."
"I had you in mind when shopping for your present," Hitomi said. "I knew you were a fan of this series but hadn't yet been able to find it. Better still, it's the collector's edition."
The fangirl within Tsumugi suddenly exploded as she spun around twice and shouted, "AWESOME!"
Fun was had by all that night.