Northern Cross Pretty Cure Episode 1
Opening song: Onegai Precure, Northern † Cross!
The chimes rang at Mizuwa Middle School and the students began packing up. Teiko Hakucho chatted with some of her classmates as they walked to the gate, then they said goodbye and parted ways. A fall breeze blew her black hair around, which she kept chin-length so it would mostly stay away from her glasses, and she smiled, knowing that cooler weather was coming. The sun warmed her as she walked and she tried to stay out of the shadows, since she hadn't brought a coat. A plane flew low overhead, on its way to the airport in the north of town. Teiko noted the carrier and that it was otherwise unremarkable, aside from the fact that this immense vehicle was hundreds of feet off the ground.
Teiko's house wasn't very far from school, so she walked daily. Since there were both residential and business districts in between, she had her choice of routes to take, and liked to try out different paths. Today however, she was returning home by her favorite route. She passed by the ramen shop where a bird had built its nest under an awning. There were no occupants now, but come spring, tiny heads would be poking out and peeping noisily. There was the alley where cats, both stray and owned, liked to congregate. The park with sakura trees where they had flower viewing parties. The house with the tiny dog that would come running out barking wildly and follow you on its side of the fence as you passed. Satisfied it had defended its territory from you, the dog would trot back to the house. And finally she came to her apartment building. The Hakucho apartment was small, especially for five people. "I'm home," Teiko announced as she entered.
"Welcome home," her mother, Akiko, responded from the kotatsu. She was working on her laptop and had papers all over the table.
"Teiko! Welcome home!" came a shout from around the hallway corner, followed by a younger girl.
"Hi Harumi," said Teiko. Harumi came to stop right in front of her big sister and stood with her hands behind her back, grinning. "You're energetic. Did something good happen today?"
Harumi jumped on her and gave her a big hug. "My big sis came home from school today, that's what happened!"
"But I come home from school every day," Teiko said, smiling. Harumi detached herself.
"I don't know!" Harumi made a face and stuck out her tongue. "Do you have time to play before you have to do your homework?" Teiko's workload was light today, and she answered as such. "Yay! Come on!" Akiko just watched, smiling at her daughters. As they played in their room, she put away her work and began preparing dinner.
Teiko played with Harumi until it was time to eat, when their mother served grilled fish with vegetable salad, miso soup and rice. A simple meal, but made with love.
After dinner, the two girls began their work, too. Teiko unpacked her bag and spread her things out on her desk, while Harumi joined their mother at the kotatsu. Soon, Teiko heard another girl's voice along with the opening and closing of the front door.
"I'm home," it said, sounding tired.
"Welcome home," replied Harumi and their mother. Teiko looked at the digital clock on the desk opposite hers, saw that the time was almost seven, stood and stretched. She had been so focused that she hasn't noticed the passage of time, but it paid off, as she was almost done. Teiko walked into the living room and greeted her older sister.
"Hi Ayumi." Ayumi was sitting at the kitchen table, eating her reheated dinner. She grunted in response, finished chewing her food, swallowed and washed it down with a drink of water.
"Teiko, don't go to college. It's too much work to get in. In fact, don't go to high school, either. Cram school isn't worth it." Teiko gave a tolerant, indulgent smile, but knew her sister didn't mean it.
"Ayumi," said their mother, disapprovingly.
"I know. It's just that I'm so busy. I wish I had a minute to do something that I want to for once."
"After the mock exam, you'll have some free time. I know things are hard right now, but you'll be thankful you put in the hard work, later."
Ayumi sighed. "I know, mom."
"You can use the bath first tonight, if you want," Teiko offered. Ayumi gave her a warm smile, knowing how important of a gesture this was; Teiko loved a hot bath. That in itself seemed to energize her and she sat up straighter.
"Ok then, right after dinner I'm hitting the books, then it's a hot bath for me! You'd better not go back on that promise!" Akiko rolled her eyes.
"Don't worry," Teiko said, smiling and walking back to their room to finish her own work. As she walked in, Ayumi called down the hall.
"Thank you!"
Teiko finished her homework in an extra good mood, bolstered by her interactions with her family. Just after the sun had set, she heard her father return home and be greeted by her mother and Harumi. She gave them a few moments to talk before coming out of her room and standing in the entrance to the hallway.
"Hi, dad," she said. He turned to her as he set his briefcase down by the kitchen table.
"Oh, hi there, Teiko. How was your day?"
She could see that he was exhausted; even more so than Ayumi. He almost always had to work late, but he never failed to ask his daughters how they were doing. Spending what little time he had with his family was her father's way of relaxing and she knew that if he didn't get to, he'd probably never stop thinking about work, so she stepped forward to talk with him. Teiko recounted her day while her mother served her father dinner and he ate.
"Harumi, Ayumi's done with the bath, so it's your turn now," said Akiko. Harumi agreed and picked up her drawings.
"Good night, daddy!" she said and gave him a hug before running off to the girls' room, almost hitting Ayumi, who had been coming out to the living room in her pyjamas while still drying her long hair with her bath towel.
"Hi, dad," she said.
"Hi Ayu," he replied. Ayumi had long learned to accept the nickname her dad used because despite her efforts to the contrary, he was not about to quit using it. "How was cram school?"
"The same as usual."
"I know it's a lot of work, but you're doing a great job. You'll be thankful you stuck with it one day when you're a marine biologist." Teiko's father was clearly proud of his daughters.
"Yeah. Thanks, dad. I'm working hard." Ayumi smiled.
"Just like your old man!" Their father laughed.
"I should get back to my work, goodnight mom, dad," Ayumi said and hugged both her parents before returning to the girls' shared room with their best wishes for the night. Mother and father now turned their attention to Teiko.
"I need to get ready for bed," she said.
"Well, have a good day tomorrow," her dad said with a lopsided smile. "Sorry I couldn't spend more time with you."
"I understand," Teiko said, and she did; he worked hard for the family. His job paid well, but he had three children in school, plus the rent from their small apartment and all the other bills. Their mother's part time job provided spending money for the family and not much else. But they were a happy family and Teiko thought about how thankful she was to have them, based on what she'd heard from some of her classmates, as she put a foot into the now tepid water which occupied the tiny tub. She immediately retracted the smile and decided against the bath. She'd get warmer water just washing up anyway. The bath, or lack thereof, didn't keep her down and, once she was dressed, quickly but quietly climbed up to the top bunk above one sleeping sister and opposite another working by desk light. Teiko spent some time reading a fantasy novel she had checked out of the library which featured a woman holding her arm out for a large bird of prey to perch upon on the cover, until her eyes began to close on their own. Then she pulled the blankets up to her chin and snuggled in next to her pink bunny and other stuffed animals and drifted off to the note familiar sound of pencil on paper.
The digital clock on Ayumi's desk announced the beginning of another day in its own jarring fashion. Ayumi hit the snooze button, but Harumi and Teiko were up.
"Good morning." Akiko was preparing breakfast for three; their father had left for work long before the sun rose.
"Good morning," her daughters replied, taking their seats.
"Did you have any dreams?" Harumi asked excitedly. "I dreamed that I was playing soccer at school, but the sky was purple! And then, well, I don't know if we won, but then we were having a pizza party and the pizza was like this big." She held her arms as wide as they could go for emphasis. "No, bigger!"
"Harumi, if you keep talking about pizza, your eggs are going to think you don't want them," their mother joked. Harumi ate an enthusiastic mouthful in response. While Harumi was occupied with breakfast, Teiko took the opportunity to bring up her own dream.
"I think I had the dream about the fountain again," she said, pensively chewing on some toast with jam. Her mother made an interested noise and she continued. "I'm wearing this big, purple princess dress and I'm in a European castle. It's partially bare stone and partly decorated really fancily. I walk around and find this huge fountain in the middle of the hall. It's a swan carved out of stone, and the water is coming out of its beak. And then I just stand there and look at it."
"Yeah, I remember this. You told us about this before," said Harumi.
"But that's not it," Teiko paused. Her mother and sister turned to look at her. She had told them about this exact dream before, but it had always ended there. "As I was standing there, the swan's eye turned to look at me."
"Creepy," said Harumi, after a moment, chopsticks halfway to her mouth.
"Well, it was just a dream." Teiko took another bite of toast. Harumi was wrong, though; it wasn't creepy. She had felt like the statue had wanted to ask her something and wondered what would have happened if the alarm hadn't gone off.
When they finished their breakfast, Teiko returned to their room to prepare for school as Ayumi was just getting out of bed.
"Good morning," Teiko said. Ayumi grunted in reply and shuffled off to eat. Teiko hadn't expected a reply because she knew that her sister was not at all a morning person, but giggled to herself at Ayumi's response anyway. Teiko dressed in her Mizuwa uniform and got ready for school. She packed up her things, picked up her bag and exited the room.
"Bye mom, bye Harumi, bye Ayumi."
"Bye honey. Have a good day at school."
"Bye Teiko! Keep an 'eye' out for the swan!" Harumi chuckled. Ayumi waved with the knife she had been using to spread jam on the piece of toast that would soon follow the one already in her mouth, now that she was running late.
The morning was cool, and the shadows notably longer than last week. Teiko went back inside and got a jacket. Since that set her back a few minutes, she decided to take a more direct route to school. As she walked down the main street, she looked in the various shop windows and watched glimpses of their opening preparations. The sun warmed her, but she knew that soon, even this jacket wouldn't be enough. Trees were displaying their bright yellow and red autumn plumage, like giant peacocks lining the road. A flock of birds was flying overhead as... they...
Teiko came to a stop, staring at the birds. There was nothing notable about most of them, but one was different. This bird's light bluish plumage stood out against the common blackbirds and was quite a bit larger. That long neck, was it a crane? Teiko watched the flock as they flew out of sight, over the buildings of town and presumably into the trees between town and the lake which laid due west. Teiko made a mental note about where she thought the birds might have gone and considered trying to find the crane after school.
When the bell rang, Teiko packed up her bags as usual, but headed west when she left instead of east. The day had progressed surprisingly fast; Teiko had applied herself to her studies as usual, but found herself looking out the window at the bright blue sky more often than she should. None of her friends had seen the crane on their walks to school this morning, even those she knew to live west of school. And so she walked around the back of the school and continued west, passing through neighborhoods until they finally ended and the forest took over. A small park served as the border between worlds; a sort of compromise between green and grey. No one was there now and she didn't see any animals, either. Teiko and her sisters had played there from time to time, when visiting friends on this side of town or when they needed a change of scenery from the local park, since this was the second closest to their apartment.
Teiko passed the swings, slide and jungle gym and found the beaten path into the woods. Some brush obscured the beginnings as it was an unofficial path, but she knew it wandered all the way to the lake, so she moved the bushes aside and entered the woods. Teiko hadn't been this way in months, but once she was a few steps in, she remembered how much she enjoyed the forest. Though the deciduous canopy almost completely enclosed the forest floor, enough light managed to slip through to give it a cheerful light green color. Or it did, when she had walked to the lake in the spring. Now, the green was replaced with a yellow that was surprisingly bright in places where leaves had already begun to fall. The colorful environment put a smile on Teiko's face as she walked.
The thought occurred to Teiko that she should take out her phone so that she could take a picture of the crane in the event that it was actually around here, so she removed the phone from her bag, flipped it open and activated the camera before continuing. Ahead, she could see the first blue specks of the lake through the trees and knew that there was a nice large rock outcropping where she'd sometimes stop and rest nearby. The rock was to the right of the path and when she came to it, she brushed a few leaves off, set her bag down and sat.
It was such a nice day! Even if she didn't find the crane, the view of the lake would still make the trip worth it. She could take some pictures of the leaves and the water and show them to her mom. Her phone had gone to sleep, so she woke it back up, opened her pictures and flipped through them. The most recent ones were of last Sunday afternoon, which she had spent walking around the shopping arcade with her friends. Teiko browsed these at a leisurely pace with the knowledge that she had time to do so. Within the span of a few minutes, though, her fingers began to get cold in the autumn air and since she had no gloves, so she decided to go -
When she caught a glimpse of blue flutter down to the forest floor behind some trees not too far from where she sat. What good luck! The bird was out of sight, so Teiko slowly and quietly stood up and tiptoed towards the cluster of trees. She could hear leaves rustling and peered out from around the side of the tree she had hidden behind. The bird looked smaller than a crane and the blue hue of its feathers wasn't like any cranes she knew of, but even if it wasn't a crane, it was still something interesting. Maybe the science teacher could help her identify it. As she watched, the bird swung its head from side to side, as if looking for something, which it seemingly failed to find. Whether disappointed or satisfied at that thing's absence, the bird settled down at the base of a tree and tucked its beak under its wing. Teiko reactivated the camera on her phone and held it up, waited for it to focus, then pressed the shutter button.
K-chck!
At that moment, Teiko realized she hadn't turned the sound on her phone off and froze, hoping the bird had been oblivious to the noise. Instead, its eyes snapped open and immediately focused on Teiko, half hidden behind a tree trunk. A split second passed in stillness when their eyes locked before the bird leapt up from where it sat and spun its body around to completely face her, never looking away the entire time.
"You'll never catch me!" The bird squawked in a high pitched voice, pointing a wing at the middle school aged girl.
"It talked?" Teiko whispered as sweat beads formed on her face. In what seemed like an hour, Teiko continued to stare at the bird while wondering if she should run.
"Wait, you're not chaotic," the bird said, lowering its guard. Teiko wondered again if she should run. "I need help!" The bird continued. "Actually, the Earth needs help." Something inside Teiko still insisted that she run, but she didn't feel threatened at all by this strange, taking bird and so, deadlocked, remained frozen in place as sweat rolled down her face. "The balance of Earth is about to be thrown into chaos! I was sent here to recruit defenders to protect that balance and our research shows that on Earth, that would be the Legendary Warriors Pretty Cure. Are you a Pretty Cure?" Teiko just continued to stare at the bird, which shuffled a little. "Uh, hello?"
"It's so cute!" Teiko breathed.
"Ack!" The bird nearly fell over. "Did you listen to anything I said?" It shouted in an even squeaker voice.
"I'm being chastised by a talking bird!" Teiko said.
"I'm a swan. A swan fairy, to be exact," said the bird, looking proud.
"Oh!" She raised her phone and snapped some more pictures.
"Listen to me!"
"Earth is in danger and you need to find some Destiny Warriors?" Teiko said.
"Legendary Warriors Pretty Cure!" the swan shouted, then paused to regain its composure. "If you've never heard of them, then maybe they're not active." The swan's eye turned to look hard at Teiko. She flinched and let out a small gasp at the familiarity of this scene. "Would you become a Pretty Cure?"
Teiko opened her mouth, but then pulled back. This could be her chance to live out one of the fantasy novels she enjoyed reading, but... It seemed too good to be true. Through those same books, she had learned to be careful of what she wished for, since you might not get what you expect. Teiko narrowed her eyes and glared at the swan, which caused it to flinch in turn.
"You're awfully suspicious. How do I know you're not the bad guy?" she demanded. The swan fidgeted nervously and began to sweat.
"The Cygnus sends us to worlds where the balance is in danger of being upset! It's really -" The swan stopped abruptly and though she was still a distance away, Teiko saw the feathers on its back rise. "Chaos! Something chaotic has appeared!" it squawked, and spun around to look behind itself. Teiko, too, looked around, but saw nothing moving, though somehow she could feel an oppressive force she couldn't explain that made her uneasy. Finally, she clapped her phone shut and stuffed it in her pocket while sprinting towards the swan, who, if there was something out there, was a sitting duck waiting for it. Her left hand closed over the swan's beak and she scooped it up in her right arm, pivoted while noting how light it was and fled to the far side of the rock outcropping, where there was a little more protection. She slid to a stop and sat down with the swan in her lap and her back to the rock. There they sat for a few minutes which Teiko thought should have been terrifying, but aside from her blood pumping loudly in her ears, nothing sounded and nothing moved. The presumably chaotic force the swan alluded to eventually faded and disappeared. Teiko loosened her grip on the swan's beak and it sighed, then she did the same.
"What was that?" She whispered.
"Well, judging from the amount of chaotic power it had, that must have been a member of the Chaotic Dragons. They're the ones who keep trying to destroy balance and the Cygnus' arch nemesis."
A thought came to Teiko then. "If it's gone away, then we should use this time to get out of here. But... Where can I take a talking blue swan?"
"No, the Chaos Dragon might be able to sense us if we move around too much." The two looked at each other for a moment.
"Well as long as we're waiting here, I'm going to ask you questions," Teiko declared.
Seeing an opportunity to convince Teiko of its position, the swan nodded enthusiastically.
"Who are the Chaos Dragons and why are they here?"
"When the stars were born, everything was in balance. But at some point, dragons came along and tried to upset that balance, because they thrive on Chaos Energy. The Cygnus, the keeper of balance, managed to beat them back, but they eventually regrouped and attacked again. Each time, The Cygnus has successfully defeated them, but now they're sending their warriors out to other worlds. The Cygnus can't go to these worlds and leave its nest unguarded, so it sends us, its Cygnets, to recruit local heroes in the fashion of that particular world (in this case, Legendary Warriors Pretty Cure) to fight the Chaos Dragons and protect their own home."
Teiko took a moment to digest this. "So you think I should be a Pretty Cure? But I'm only 13."
"Age doesn't matter; you can still make a difference. With the power of Pretty Cure, you can definitely defeat them!" the swan said.
"Oh really?" Came a deep, amused voice and with it, the return of the oppressive force from earlier, but so much stronger than before. Teiko stood up, still holding the swan, and looked for the source of the dreadful voice. When she found it, Teiko made a small noise, her mind reeled and her vision blurred as tears of panic erupted from her eyes. She stumbled backwards and tripped over nothing, fell on her butt and rolled into her back, then scrambled back away from the monster, pushing futilely against the loose leaves with her feet and free hand until the back of her head touched the bark of a nearby tree. On the top of the rock formation where she had sat just minutes before, stood something impossible. It looked like a human in that it had two arms, two legs and one head, but the head was well over two meters off the ground and had a long snout which was equipped with knife-like teeth. Beneath the military-like uniform it wore, the creature was covered in red-brown scales instead of skin, and its eyes glowed a faint red in the indirect light. Teiko thought the expression on its face was one of wicked amusement.
"Chaos Dragon," the swan whimpered. Teiko had to look away from it to regain control of her mind. Suddenly, she twisted her body around, jumped up and sprinted away as fast as she could. Her heart felt it would burst right through her chest or at the very least, she'd throw up everything she had eaten for lunch; maybe more. The swan was wiggling around in her arms, which wasn't helping and she held it tighter in response.
Teiko was never on the track team in school, but her classes had always voted her into the sports festival relay races and her speed played a significant role in their victories. It came as a surprise then, when the scaly thing essentially appeared next to her and with one hand, knocked her completely off her feet. She didn't remember letting go of the blue swan, but the swan was not there to break her fall when she landed painfully on her right shoulder and rolled, back over front. As she rolled, her right arm caught on the ground and twisted the elbow behind her back. Teiko had screamed upon impact and was now certain that in between her sobs, she would throw up.
"We were warned the Cygnus might send someone after us, but this is it?" The dragon now held the swan by its long neck, but loose enough that it was not being choked as it struggled.
"Girl! Grab the brooch and say, 'Precure Take Flight!'" The little swan shouted. Teiko looked around frantically, adjusting the glasses, which had caught in her hair and were thus saved from being knocked off her head in the fall.
"You mean this thing?" the dragon said. Teiko saw where he was looking: There was a sparkle among some leaves lying in a beam of light that had managed to pass through the branches above. As the dragon reached for the object on the ground, Teiko summoned a desperate burst of energy to dive for and snatch it up before her adversary had a chance to. The dragon whipped his head around, glaring at Teiko with brightly glowing eyes. Teiko was crouched opposite him, just out of arm's reach, with tears running down her pale face from her wide eyes, dirt and leaves on her clothes, scrapes on her knees and her right arm held tightly to her body. In her left hand, she held the brooch. The dragon hesitated, and that moment of indecision cost him certain victory. Teiko's arm shot straight up in the air.
"Precure Take Flight!"
Appearing as a sparkly, light purple silhouette, Teiko lowered her arm and placed the brooch on her chest over her heart. She pulled her arms and legs up against her chest and curled into the fetal position, against the transparent white shadow of an egg. Surrounding all this was a purple background, so dark it was almost black, and tiny points of light. The brooch produced a glow that was white with a bluish tint which intensified as she burst forth through the shell of the egg. The light from the brooch washed everything else out, then receded back into the brooch revealing a Pretty Cure.
"Outshining the sun, the tail that maintains balance, Cure Deneb!"
Eyecatcher A: Chibi Teiko in a kindergarten rain outfit walks in the rain, followed by a number of colorful cygnets. They splash through a puddle.
