Riiip!

Another ball of paper flies into the bin along with the rest. A girl with shoulder length auburn hair tied into two braids sat on the edge of a theatre stage. She let out a frustrated sigh, a chocolate pocky stick hung out of her mouth and twisted as she munched away at it messily. Crumbs dropped onto her sketchpad which she brushed off and began drawing another image.

Creating a poster design was hard. Fukuyama Usagi had been ripping pages from the sketchpad for almost an hour now and wasn't able to create the perfect picture for the poster.

"Ugh.. why can't I think of a good design?" she thought as she tore another page out and tossed it into the bin beside her, "And why did I have to design the poster? Sure, I can draw but that doesn't mean leave everything to me! Kuro is so in trouble when she's back!"

Alongside her friend, Iwakiri Kuro, they both run their school's theatre club. Kuzukumo Academy was the biggest and only school in their area since it resides in the middle of a small town. Every student came from or just outside of Kuzukumo. The town was fairly big itself and it had all the stores any town or city could possibly have. It was a coastal town, it wasn't a main tourist attraction but it was commonly known for it's best festivities and celebrations during the holidays which is what attracts people from other places to come and visit.

Usagi and Kuro created the theatre club due to their love for theatre and to inspire the other students to get involved with new things. It had taken them a while to find a good amount of people to join but they did it and this year, they were given a chance to create a live performance for the end of the year by their music teacher, Mr. Taketa. Usagi took it as an opportunity to give theatre enough recognition for it to become an official subject or to at least allow them to perform every year.

Along with the student council, they decided Romeo & Juliet would be the best idea to start off with it. They had divided up the cast and given roles for members to perfect but they were far from finished. Kuro had been off school with the flu so everything was dropped on Usagi which stressed her out. Sure, it wasn't Kuro's fault but Usagi couldn't handle this much pressure. Now she had to draw out a poster for the show!

Today, she was lacking inspiration for some reason. Usually she would just doodle whatever came to her mind, but nothing was happening. Everything she tried to draw came out a mess or just didn't make sense. Usagi was an amazing artist and she had drawn for a lot of other students before either for fun or for their work. She was always sweet enough to help them out. But today was different. Her mind was flat lining tragically which was only causing her to stress out even more.

"C'monnnnn! Work, brain, work! Maybe I haven't had enough chocolate..." her eyes wondered over to the box of chocolate pocky beside her. Then she snatched it up, pulling up way too many sticks and shoved them all into her mouth along with the one she was already eating. As she chomped away happily at the chocolates, she heard the door to the theatre open behind her.

"Ms. Fukuyama?" a voice called her name.

Mr. Taketa stood in the doorway, watching the young girl stuff her face with pocky. Usagi ate as quick as she could to finish the pocky and greeted her teacher with a messy, chocolate covered grin, "Morning, Mr. Taketa! have a free period so I decided to come here."

"I see," Taketa smiled, he walked over to where Usagi was and sat down beside her on the stage, "What are you doing there?" he pointed at her sketchpad which she absentmindedly had drawn on again. It was half a drawing of a woman that was supposed to be Juliet. She shook her head and tore the page from the pad and threw it into the bin again.

"I'm trying to create a poster design for the show. We're doing Romeo and Juliet but I have no idea of what to do for it..." she handed the pad over to him so he could get a better look. His eyes squinted, narrowed and then widened again, comically, before he nodded and handed it back to the younger girl with a little chuckle.

"I'm sure you'll find some inspiration. Why not look online? Or maybe ask a friend or two to give you some ideas? We have a long way to go until the show so you'll have plenty of time to think about it."

Taketa pulled his shirt sleeve up to look at the time his watch predicted. Usagi couldn't help but smile at her teacher, he always tried to be helpful to the students. He was a young teacher, only in his early 20s himself so it was easier for the students to relate to him than the older teachers. He was known for being comical in his own way and he's even managed to ease the shy ones out of their shells after some time. He was, by far, the school's favourite teacher. He was an extremely tall man with prussian blue short hair and dark eyes. He was always dressed in a crisp white shirt and black pants.

Taketa enjoyed theatre as well as music, when Usagi and Kuro requested to create the club, he immediately supported their idea. He often helped Usagi and Kuro teach it during their club meetings and casting choices too.

"Ah, it's almost time for morning music lessons. Can you help me pull the piano out from the corner?" Taketa hopped onto his feet from the stage and made his way over to the old piano sat in the corner between the stage and the wall. Usagi nodded, she dropped her sketchpad and pencil into her bag and jumped off the stage...

The lunch bell sounded and classrooms of students filled out into the corridors. In Usagi's homeroom, their teacher wrapped up the lesson swiftly for lunch, she wiped the chalk from the board behind her as she turned to smile at the class.

She readjusted her large wire framed glasses, pushing them up her nose so they fit right. She was a pretty woman, even through the glasses. She always dressed smart in her blouses and pencil skirts. As she smiled upon the class, she placed the board cleaner onto her desk and bowed to them, "That wraps up this subject today. Please remember that the math homework is due next week, class dismissed."

"Ugh... I haven't even started it. Math is so boring and it hurts my brain!" Usagi complained to herself in her head. She packed away her belongings neatly into her bag and darted out of the door. She left the corridors quickly into the courtyard where other students were sat around on the grass or benches eating their lunches together and chatting away happily. Her gaze fixed on a lone girl with silver long hair sat at the far end of the courtyard. Sakuma Eme, she was the vice president of the student council at Kuzukumo Academy, she was well-known among the students but always kept to herself. Usagi was really the only one who talked to her properly.

Usagi debated on joining her friend or just going to the theatre room again to eat lunch and doodle more, "I really want to get the poster out of the way..." she thought to herself, then decided to join Eme instead. She approached the girl with a genuine smile on her face and then sat down opposite her.

Usagi greeted her friend as she unpacked her food for today. It was her favourite: Yakisoba and her most loved chocolate with a note on it.

Hey, sweetheart.

I hope you have a good day, I love you!

Your father and I won't be home until late tonight,
I have a business meeting at work and your father
is visiting your grandparents, your grandpa
decided to play about with the power tools again and messed something up.

I'll see you soon, many kisses!

- Mom.

Usagi frowned at the note, another night at home alone again. She screwed the note up and dropped it into her bag before opening up the lunchbox containing her food, "Of course you're sucking up to me with this food..."

"Everything alright, Usagi?" Eme questioned her since she saw the foul look on Usagi's face. Usagi shook it off and gave her a fake smile, "Yeah! All good! How's the student council going?" she asked, she was quick to change the subject at that point.

"It's okay, meetings and more meetings. We're still discussing on having theatre being put down as a subject."

Usagi groaned. For while, she had been fighting for it to become an official subject to learn at school. If not, let the students choose to learn it at least. The student council have been discussing it along with the principal, a lot of students don't see the point in it but many others are just as passionate as Usagi is about it. Eme another person who agreed to Usagi forming a theatre club. She believed the school needed more extra curricular clubs as well as something different so theatre club was a good idea. Although she isn't apart of it herself, she sometimes visits during club meetings to help out.

"It's going to take forever to decide! Theatre deserves to be a subject just as much as-" Usagi was cut off.

"Just as much as math, I know.. You always tell me." Eme finished the sentence she had heard at least a thousand times already before cracking a small smile, "How is theatre club going?" Eme then asked her friend before taking a bite out of her sandwich.

Usagi swallowed down a mouthful of noodles, "It's great! I need your help actually..." she replied as she reached into her bag to retrieve her sketchpad and pencil, during class sheher decided to doodle again until Ms. Maeda caught her and scolded her for it. This time she started on the palace Juliet lived in with an outline of Juliet herself on the balcony. She showed Eme the sketch.

"My inspiration is gone, I don't know what to draw for the poster for our show," she explained before dropping the book and tearing the page out of it, "Could you give me some ideas?"

Eme gazed off into a nearby tree as she began to think, Usagi looked at her with a hopeful look in her eyes. Then Eme shook her head with a regretful smile, "Sorry Usagi. I'm not good at things like this."

Usagi pulled her sketchpad onto her lap and sighed, any hope Usagi had was beginning to wear thin. Sure, she could look online but she didn't really want to draw any inspiration from the internet, she wanted this to be something special and look amazing too. Eme couldn't help but chuckle at her, she always enjoyed Usagi's company and appreciated her talent of acting and drawing. Being vice-president meant she had to work extra hard and she never really had time to do what she wanted anyway. She envied students who had all the time in the world and only wished she could be the same sometimes.

"Obviously you need the two star-crossed lovers, right?"

Usagi glanced back up at her from her pad and nodded, "Yeah. That's what I've been trying to do but I can't seem to find a good 'scene' for them." she replied.

"You'll find something, Usagi. Take a stroll after school, maybe that'll help you a bit." Eme shoved her things into her bag and stood up from the grass, she now had a distasteful look on her face, "Thanks for spending lunch with me. I have another meeting to go to, I'll see you soon."

Eme departed quickly, not looking back at her friend she had just left. Usagi looked back down at her sketchpad, "Did I do something to upset her...?" she wondered. Defeated, she began tucking her sketchpad back into her own bag along with the scrapped paper and her pencil. She decided to shovel down the rest of her food and rushed off to the theatre again to enjoy her chocolate and to wrack her brain a little bit on deciding what to do about the poster design.

"It's not a big jump, Felice, stop being such a baby!" a small, male voice snapped.

A strange-looking owl flapped his tiny wings aggressively to stay afloat. His wings and body were covered in a mixture of brown and beige feathers and he possessed large, yellow eyes. He had a bright red collar fastened around it's neck with a small charm dangling off it.

"Shut up, bird! You're not the one who's dangling for your life!" another voice shouted back and it was feminine.

The other creature was a black and white cat that had a tuft of fur poking out of her chest and large, red eyes. She dug her claws into the tree branch that she stood on. The owl flew over to his friend and perched himself beside her on the branch, "I don't need to dangle for my life, I can fly." he laughed as he mocked her.

"Just wait until I get down, Ardour, I'll pluck you like a chicken!" Felice yelled back at him, making her fur stand up on her back out of anger. Ardour laughed at her again, but the teasing soon came to a fast halt when they had noticed someone staring up at them with wide eyes, clearly horrified at discovering two talking animals.

A young girl with auburn hair and magenta coloured eyes gazed up at them, she was wearing a backpack and a school uniform. It was Usagi. School had finished for the day, she decided to take Eme's advice and go for a walk before she went home, she went to one of her favourite places too. The hills outside of Kuzukumo were an amazing place to go and she had hoped to draw inspiration there. She had never expected to see a cat and an owl bickering with one another, she was convinced that this was all a dream. Usagi pinched her arm just to make sure and she began to inwardly panic once she realised this was all real.

"U-Umm.. hello?" Usagi began to speak as she approached the tree cautiously. The creatures blinked at one another before Ardour decided to fly up higher into the tree to hide and began hooting loudly. Felice shook her head and Usagi looked incredibly confused.

"Give it up, Ardour, she's already witnessed us talking!" she shouted at the owl before fixing her gaze onto Usagi, "You there! Can you help me down? I'm stuck and my idiot brother won't help me down."

Usagi nodded like a robot, still stunned at the animals talking. She stepped up into her tiptoes and reached up to the branch, she gently wrapped her hands around Felice and brought her down to the ground safely. As Felice leapt out of her arms, Ardour dove out of the leaves and fluttered down beside Felice on the floor. Both animals and Usagi stared at one another for a moment until one of them broke the silence.

"We should explain..." Ardour suggested to his sister but she shook her head.

"There's nothing to explain. Hello, um, Human... My name is Felice," she nodded her head at the owl, "And this is my brother, Ardour. We're fairies from a place known as Jovial Kingdom and we've been sent here to find some special individuals to help us."

Ardour side-eyed his sister and went along with it, he nodded his little owl head, "Thank you for helping us but we should really get going." he bowed to Usagi and lifted himself from the ground again to fly.

"You're not going anywhere." a sinister voice snarled at them from behind Usagi, they all turned to face the source. A tall, slender woman stood before them with sleek black shoulder length slicked back perfectly. She wore a black catsuit with a grey leather jacket and brown combat boots. The most noticeable feature, however, was the metallic scorpion tail draped over her shoulders like it was nothing. Her pale green eyes stared daggers into the fairies before she turned to look at Usagi, "How nice of you to find them for me, I'll be taking them now."

Usagi gazed at her scorpion tower, she opened her mouth to say something but nothing would come out. She was petrified of the woman and didn't move an inch when she began to walk towards the fairies. Felice and Ardour yelped and they began to scatter, fleeing from the woman. The sounds of their cries affected Usagi in an inexplicable way and she ran to the fairies, sweeping them up into her arms protectively. The woman stopped and glowered upon Usagi, she gritted her teeth and hissed. She felt bad vibes from the woman and now had the feeling to protect the poor animals.

"Hand them over to me, little girl. Don't take what isn't yours!"

"Run, Human! She's a dangerous descendant of Melancholia!" Felice warned Usagi and in a panic, the girl took off down the hill to get away from the woman. Azalea tossed the scorpion tail from her shoulder and she raised it up by her head. A dark aura began to form in her hands and a small, black and red box materialized in her two hands.

Usagi continued to run but came to a sudden halt upon seeing a familiar face. Eme stepped out from the bushes, looking rather guilty. She trailed her eyes over to Usagi's panicked face, then to the animals in her arms and then up at the scorpion woman holding the box in her direction. The lid split in two, moving aside and unleashing a black mist that consumed Eme. She attempted to yell out, but she was silenced as she was trapped. "Usagi?" was all she could save before her body morphed into the mist which was pulled back into the box where she was captured.

"Thanks for the Holiday Cheer, kid, and now I'll summon my monster to get rid of ya'! Rise, Unfestive!" the woman cackled and tossed the box into the grass, it erupted the same dark mist into the air, it poured out in a large stream. Usagi watched as the darkness spread into Eme's bag that was left behind.

The bag grew in size and towered over Usagi's small frame, it grew a distorted, ugly face that glared down at her. The strap of the bag snapped and divided into four, as it stood up on them and grew fists in the other. Eme's bag had become a horrifying monster, Usagi and the fairies shook in place as they gaped the the enormous creature before them. Unfestive made no delay, it swooped into action and attempted to grab Usagi. Like clockwork, her legs moved for her and she was running for her life.

"I can't believe they're already here! We were supposed to find the Pretty Cure.." Ardour cried as he clung onto Usagi's shirt in fear, "We shouldn't have gotten you involved with this, Human!"

"Stop calling me that! My name is Fukuyama Usagi, I live here. I don't know why, but I felt like I needed to protect you both from her, so don't be sorry. Now please tell me what we're gonna do about that thing! I'm not sure how long I can run for!"

"We're looking for legendary warriors called Pretty Cure, they're the only ones who can stop that Unfestive," Felice explained, her claws dug into Usagi's clothes as she held onto her, "That woman is called Azalea. She's a venomous woman.. literally! She comes from Melancholia, a dark place full of dark people. They're here to steal the Holiday Cheer from everyone!"

"Holiday Cheer? You mean like Christmas and Easter?" Usagi rose a brow at them and they nodded in response.

"Holiday Cheer is a type of magic. It brings peace and love, your kingdoms celebrate holidays as do ours!" Ardour picked up from his sister, "Melancholia want that magic to fuel their dark power. They stole that girl's Cheer just now!"

Usagi slowed down upon realising that her friend had just been attacked, she looks back at the Unfestive running at her aggressively. "That thing was created by Eme's Cheer? But why? People deserve to celebrate the holidays.. especially Easter!"

Azalea noticed Usagi wasn't running anymore so she commanded Unfestive to stop. She looked at her quizzically before following their path to where her creature was. Usagi was visibly upset, she no longer had the look of fear but rather.. determination, anger.

"Well what kind of friend are ya'?" Azalea mocked her with an obnoxious laugh, "Ya' left ya' pal behind! Oh well, she's better off there," she shook the gloomy-looking box which Eme was still trapped inside of. Then Azalea burst into a fit of loud cackling as she tossed the box aside carelessly. But her smile was soon wiped off her face when she saw Usagi catching the box.

"How DARE you! You attack these poor creatures, you steal our Holiday Cheer and then toss my friend aside like she's nothing?" Usagi shouted at the woman, anger consuming her quickly.

Azalea tutted in response and folded her arms with attitude, "Friends? What a joke! I'm getting bored of ya' already so just give me the stupid fairies and we can be done with this, kid!" she held out her slender hand, waiting patiently.

"No! I don't know what happened between you two, but I am not going to let you hurt them! Why don't you just go away!?"

Usagi screamed and a warm pink and yellow light blinded Azalea and Unfestive. Felice and Ardour were released from Usagi's arms as she was immersed in the powerful light, the fairies gasped and cheered with joy whilst she panicked.

"Wha-!" a stunning necklace materialized from the light, forming a thin silver chain with a charm hanging off it. The charm was in the shape of a pink and yellow rabbit with brown parts over the ears and forehead, resembling chocolate. The chain wrapped around her neck and linked up at the back and the rabbit itself began to glow.

"You're a Pretty Cure, Usagi! Kiss the charm and shout, 'Pretty Cure, let's get festive!'" she heard Ardour's voice from behind the light, she narrowed her eyes to look for him but he wasn't there. Usagi glanced back down at the charm, feeling uneasy about everything that was happening. She thought back on Eme, she knew she had to do something and it seemed like this was her only chance.

Usagi lifted and gently kissed the pendant, "Pretty Cure, let's get festive!" she called out.

The light shifted up into her clothes, covering her body whole. A pink, yellow and blue puffy dress took place where her uniform used to be, it was puffed up sleeves and a light blue bow around her torso, fastened at the wrong. She kicked out her legs and knee high socks and pink ankle boots formed around them. White gloves appeared on her hands two golden bangles decorated with small, Easter eggs followed by her hair being freed from their braids and growing longer. They were forced into two, loose ponytails at the bottom of her head and her locks switched from auburn to pastel pink with a pair of white bunny ears sprouting.

Once her transformation was done, the light vanished to reveal the new Usagi. She hopped around playfully before striking a pose that would become something significant to her, "The Cure of Easter! Cure Bunny!"

It took a moment to register what Bunny had just said before she looked down at herself. Bright colors everywhere, she looked and felt so much different now. She stared at her gloves hands, then to her dress and shoes and then felt her new hair, gasping at the colour it had switched to. Then the bunny ears, which almost made her pass out, she could feel her hand on them.

"What am I?" she questioned herself, Felice and Ardour grinned on at her like proud parents, Ardour looked like he was about to cry himself, "You're Cure Bunny! You can defeat that Unfestive, you just have to believe in yourself and what you're capable of!"

"What I'm capable of? Okay! Watch me!"

Bunny clumsily charged at Unfestive. Both Azalea and the creature were still in awe at what they had witnessed, Azalea snapped back into action and barked for Unfestive to go for her. As it charged back at her, Bunny bounced off the floor head on at the creature. One of her bunny ears began to glow and she delivered the first... punch? With her rabbit ear?! Her attack must have had some power behind it since Unfestive began to stumble around, groaning and mumbling in frustration.

"I didn't create you just to be a useless waste of space, get her!" Azalea yelled at the creature.

Unfestive decided to whip its strap-like arms at Bunny which caught her off guard. She was essentially slapped quite hard and sent flying into the ground. Bunny grimaced at the pain shooting through her back but she wasn't going to stay down. She rose to her feet and stepped into a stance, ready to fight. "How am I even doing this? I literally just found out I'm a 'Pretty Cure' and now I'm fighting some big thing? Somehow this feels right.. I'm defending what I believe in."

Unfestive whipped at her again but Bunny was prepared. She caught the strap in her hands, slowing it to a halt and she held onto it tightly. Then she tugged the strap, pulling the Unfestive in her direction. As it flew, she jumped up and kicked it as hard as she could, causing it to crash land into a tree nearby and fall down, stunned. Bunny landed on her feet, her gold bangles began to glow and shake with power and she looked down at them with brow raised.

"Quick, purify the Unfestive! Concentrate on your power and you can do it!" Felice guided Bunny and pointed her paw at the bangles.

Bunny didn't question it, she closed her eyes and focus on bringing the power out of the bangles. She brought her hands together in front of her and a pink and yellow light withdrew the bangles and into her hands, "Satisfying your sweet tooth!"

Bunny somehow managed to form a chocolate egg with the light and it grew to the size of her body. She grabbed onto it and pulled a face when the weight of it almost dragged her to the floor, she stood strong however and prepare to throw it at the Unfestive.

"Pretty Cure, Chocolate Bomb!" she shouted and launched the egg towards the monster. The egg collided with it's body and the Unfestive began to writhe about wildly before melting back down into mist. However, it changed from black to gold and blew off into the air. Eme's bag dropped into the grass, the contents of it still inside the bag somehow. The box exploded too, releasing Eme and handing back the Holiday Cheer that was stolen from her. She laid on the grass unconscious. Cure Bunny looked on after what she had just done and smile. She whipped her head around to try and find Azalea, who had vanished long ago. She looked back at Felice and Ardour, who looked incredibly shocked.

"Did Azalea just retreat?" Ardour broke the awkward silence in the air.

"Yes.. yes she did..." Felice answered his question.

Sounds of stirring alarmed them, Eme was about to wake up! Bunny fumbled about with her dress until she somehow managed to change back into Usagi just in time. Eme sat up from her 'nap', she glanced around groggily and felt incredibly confused as to why she was asleep outside. Her eyes settled on Usagi, who was looking at her with concern.

"Usagi? Why am I here?"

Usagi shrugged, "I'm not sure. You followed me here and then," Usagi turned to search for Felice and Ardour, but they had completely vanished somehow, "You passed out for a little while. I stayed here until you woke up, of course."

Eme nodded, "Thank you. I just came to apologize for my actions earlier. Sometimes I envy you and other students, you all get so much time to yourselves to enjoy what you love but I never get to do it anymore and I wish I could," Eme flashed her a small smile, "But I don't think I should take what I have for granted. A lot of people wanted to be on the student council plus this can open up so many opportunities for me in the future. I just wanted to say I'm sorry for doing what I did. Will you forgive me?"

A grin formed across Usagi's face slowly and she pulled Eme into a tight hug, "Of course, Eme! I understand how you felt. Maybe we can hang outside of school together someday?"

Eme agreed and her own grin formed, she retrieved her bag from the floor and placed it over her shoulders, "I'll see you tomorrow, Usagi. See you!" the girls waved to each other as they parted.

The sun was setting quickly, Usagi decided it was time to go home. She picked up her own backpack which felt heavier than before, she opened it up to see Felice and Ardour hiding inside. She almost screamed upon seeing them but covered her mouth quickly so she didn't alarm Eme.

"What are you two doing?" she whisper-yelled at the two.

"Since you're a Pretty Cure, you deserve an explanation." Felice replied, "And there's A LOT to explain."

Usagi let out a defeated sigh, she just wanted this day to be over. "Alright, I'll take you guys home but you CANNOT expose yourself to my family. You stay in my room no matter what, okay?" she barked at the pair and they nodded in unison.

She ordered them to get back inside properly and she zipped up her bag. She shrugged it onto her shoulders and began her own walk home.