The two were as different as could possibly be.

Nagisa Misumi was a girl who ran the show for the Verone lacrosse team. Her dexterity was greatly admired, her speed unmatched. She was confident in her body and followed her heart, always leading her teammates to victory.

Honoka Yukishiro was a girl who headed the Verone science club. She had everything down to a science, could manage anything rationally and with a clear head. Greatly admired for her cleverness and beauty, she was the engine behind new and successful experiments.

Making them a team was either a stroke of brilliance or a symptom of insanity.

Shiho and Rina ran up to their friend. "Hey Nagisa!"

Nagisa smiled. "Hello!" Her eyes followed Shiho, who usually directed their conversations.

Shiho did not disappoint. "Hey, did you see the shooting stars?"

Rina quickly nodded, leaving Nagisa surprised. "When did this happen?"

Shiho continued, wide-eyed and cheerful. "There's been a ton of them recently! I had so many wishes that I'm sure to get a good job, a good husband, and live happily ever after!" Rina snorted, and Nagisa couldn't help but laugh a little as well. Shiho always went on about her plans for a perfect life, which often 'planned' for her to be lucky.

"Aren't they actually supposed to be bad omens?" Rina asked as the designated pessimist of the group.

"Don't worry. Bad omens aren't real."

The three stopped walking. The voice had come from near the lockers ahead, from a blue-haired girl. Nagisa rolled her eyes. Must be dyed.

Rina stepped forwards. "What do you mean, Honoka?"

'Honoka' turned all the way towards them, smiling brilliantly. "Shooting stars are simply meteors that fall to the ground. When they enter the atmosphere, they burn, leaving trails behind. There's nothing lucky or unlucky about burning space rocks, and they don't grant any wishes."

While Shiho occupied herself by being sad at not getting wishes granted, Nagisa was taken aback. We started this conversation like five seconds ago outside. How did she hear us? Who is she?

The blue-hair girl turned and left with a short, "Well, see you!"

Nagisa turned to Rina. "Who was she? What was that all about?"

Rina shrugged. "She and you were in different classes last semester, so I'm not surprised you haven't heard. Honoka was given the name 'The Queen of Knowledge.' She seems to know everything, and has corrected a few people like that."

Nagisa made a face. "Sounds like she was picking on us, then."

Shiho perked up. "No, no! I heard she's really nice! She's popular with boys and the kendo club president even confessed to her!"

"Like that has anything to do with anything." Nagisa turned to Rina as the older girl shoved her playfully. "What?"

"She's popular with boys. You're popular with the girls. Perhaps you two should get together," Rina said, mischief in her eyes.

"Oh shut up."

Honoka sat limply in class, bored. The teacher was going on and on about algebra, something she had mastered maybe three grades ago. It was ridiculous that she was restricted to classes based on age, despite her exemplary work in all subjects except physical education and history, and who cares about those, anyways?

The teacher wrote an equation on the board. X-7=19+X

Honoka rolled her eyes, instantly noting the impossibility it in her head. Zero cannot equal twenty-six. Despite that, the teacher was calling on someone. "Nagisa!"

Nagisa shot up immediately. "Yes!" Let it not be said that the lacrosse captain wasn't enthusiastic.

The teacher pointed at the board. "Solve this, please."

That was it. Honoka had to do something. It wasn't that she enjoyed calling people out, not really. It wasn't that she enjoyed showcasing how smart she was. It wasn't that she really gained anything from this encounter either. Sociology was a science as well; she fully understood that calling the teacher out would call his authority in math into doubt, and that he would be more likely to poorly grade her in the future. No, there was only one reason she spoke up then.

Someone was Wrong. The Wrong must be corrected.

She stood up slowly as the teacher dug a deeper hole for himself by saying that Nagisa should be able to solve it. It was not possible! Her mechanical mind felt inflamed as it simulated the possible conversations she might have and fed her the least risky dialogue. "Teacher, the problem is unsolvable."

The teacher blinked, and then made the obvious response, an attempt to save face. "Are you saying it's too hard for Nagisa?"

"No. It results in zero equaling twenty-six. The equation is literally unsolvable because it has an impossible result." Which should be obvious to a math teacher.

The teacher was not as clever as her. She would have responded with, "Good job on catching the trick question." Instead, the teacher simply stared at her as the class as a whole frowned at his mistake. Now it was time to make sure he at least tried to catch his mistakes from now on. "If it were nineteen minus X, then the equation would be possible."

The teacher gaped at the board, then his book, then the board again. She had pointed out a mistake, corrected it, and had not done it disrespectfully. Though he would be mad at her (no human alive likes to be Wrong), he could not take it out on her directly in front of these witnesses. The only option open to him was the one he took. "Er… you're right. I'll be more careful from now on."

Conversation finished. As usual, her mental simulations matched reality perfectly. It only made sense. Her grasp of reality was near-perfect and getting better all the time.

After class, Honoka had barely left before she felt her sleeve grabbed. "Yes?"

It was Nagisa. This was a direct result of the previous class, wasn't it? She mentally simulated the conversation as Nagisa spoke. "Thank you very much… for that."

Perhaps I can go the fastest route? Not that she had anything against the lacrosse captain, but she didn't have anything in common with her either. "It was my pleasure," she said, smiling and turning away.

Nagisa ran to walk alongside her. "No, seriously. I would've never caught what you did."

Nope. "I am glad that you benefited from my words. I only wished to fix the problem."

Nagisa's face showed annoyance. "Is that so? I heard from my friends that you really like correcting people."

Honoka stopped and turned to the other girl. This would require a direct, yet soft touch. Nagisa seemed emotionally-driven, but as annoying as that was, Honoka could still handle it. "I don't like it. I just think it's better that people know the truth than to pretend lies are fine."

Nagisa seemed to accept that. "Well then… I guess… thanks again."

Honoka smiled genuinely this time. It was nice to hear someone thank her for the real reasons behind her actions. "You're welcome."

Nagisa tossed her bag and lacrosse stick onto her table and threw herself on her bed. It had been a long day filled with sports, sleeping in classes, and boy-chat. This was not to mention the love letters she found in her locker. She pulled them out of her pocket. "Getting love letters from girls… eh. What should I do with them? Won't read them, I don't swing that way. Shouldn't toss them, the precious feelings of a young girl are in each…" She broke off, giggling and setting them aside.

"How on earth did Honoka get so popular with boys? It's not like she's… pretty, and smart, and nice-ish, and doesn't sleep in class, and okay, she's pretty cool. Let's see, I want to be popular with boys, and get all the girls. Maybe she wants to be popular with girls, and gets all the boys? Maybe we could trade letters. Wow Nagisa, quit fooling yourself."

A flash came from her window. She got up, seeing streaks of light beginning to fall through the sky. "Shooting stars?" She opened the window and for a few seconds, she simply watched until it occurred to her that she should wish for something. "But Honoka said that… no, screw Honoka. Miss Knowledge Queen can keep her bad luck to herself. I wish for a great boyfriend… and slim legs… and a lot of money… and lots of clothes… and cake! How could I forget about cake! Chocolate cake… Oh, and… hm?"

A small yellow dot looked like it had stopped falling. As Nagisa peered at it, she slowly realized that it hadn't stopped. It was getting bigger, which meant that it was falling towards her! She stumbled backwards, but couldn't avoid getting hit in the head by the object, which ricocheted around her room before bursting apart. "Ow! What the…?"

She rubbed her head and leaned forwards. It appeared to be a cell phone in a pile of playing cards. Cautiously, she touched it, but the phone wasn't even hot. "Uh… phone?" The phone sprang up in a flash of light, causing her to stumble back into a wall. It then spoke.

"MEPOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

She grabbed her lacrosse stick, pointing it like a sword towards the offending object, which spoke again. "Who are you-mepo?"

Nagisa was not prepared for this whatsoever. "What… the… spoon?" She could see that what was speaking was a little animal face on the inside of the phone. "How… what? Huh. Huh?"

"You're a girl-mepo?"

Yes. That was certainly true. "Yeah…? What are you?"

"Why, I'm in your care-mepo!"

"What."

Honoka walked into her yard, wondering where her dog was, since he usually came to meet her. "Chuutaro?"

The dog bounded up, then ran away, clearly leading her along with behavior she recognized from her books on dogs. She ran after him, watching as he paused and turned to look at her occasionally, leading her to the storage shed. She would tell her grandma she was home soon, but first she was going to check to see if Chuutaro had left some sort of dead animal for her to find.

She opened the door, noting the cobwebs, dust, and bizarre glowing box. Wait, what? She walked over to it. Perhaps something electronic? She pulled the string off and opened it, finding a cell phone and a deck of cards. And, as far as she knew, a glow that came from the box itself. Maybe some sort of chemical? And what are these things? Pieces of a game of some sort?

"Hey girl, take me to Mipple, Princess of Hope-mepo!"

"I don't know who that is."

"Don't worry, I can lead you-mepo!"

"Hold on. A cell phone falls from the sky, spits playing cards all over, keeps saying mepo mepo for some reason, and now wants to talk to a princess. The only reason I'm not freaking out is because I'm not sure if I'm dreaming. So why should I do what you say?"

The thing started crying pitifully. "Please! Please take me! I have no one else-mepo!"

"So… it's follow the hallucination's instructions, or listen to it whine. Okay, Nagisa, just make sure to stop before it starts telling you to kill people."

Nagisa was questioning her sanity as the creature carried on her lacrosse stick gave her frequent orders. It made her climb into people's yards, it reversed directions a few times, and the only thing she could think of was I'm sorry mom and dad. Your daughter's crazy now.

"So… who are you?"

"I'm Mepple, Chosen Hero of the Garden of Light-mepo!"

Her headache intensified. "A cell phone is a hero."

"I'm not a cell phone! What is a cell phone? Never mind! Straight again here-mepo!" Nagisa frowned as she entered a building, though it quickly turned to a grin as she stumbled on some people cooking food. "You need to defend the Garden of Light from the Dark Zone-mepo!"

"Uh-huh." She exited the building reluctantly, finding in front of her a straight path to an amusement park. "Are we there yet?"

"A little further! I'm sure it's there-mepo! Hurry-mepo!"

She ran into the park. "You're sure? How much further?"

"Wait-mepo. That's not Mipple-mepo."

"What? We ran all this way, and not to the princess? Why'd you have me do all that then? Oh, right, hallucinations don't have to make sen-"

"This is the end of the road for you, young lady." She stopped, catching her breath, and stared. In front of her was the most ridiculous-looking man she'd ever seen. She took in his poofy hair, leather pants, and what appeared to be shoulder-pads. "I've been looking for you."

She started laughing. "Okay, did Ryouta slip something into my food?"

The man's eyes narrowed. "I am called Pissard. I came to take that from you," he said, gesturing at Mepple.

"Run-mepo!"

Nagisa looked at the overly-dressed man, remembering Mepple's words about defending the something or another of something. Did that mean, according to what seemed less and less a hallucination, that this was an enemy? Eh, whatever. She was told to run, and that was something she was good at. She sprinted in the opposite direction, only to run into Pissard again, almost bouncing off of him. "Don't give me trouble," he growled, reaching for her shoulder.

She nearly tripped over her feet backing up, then pulled Mepple out of her stick and whacked Pissard with it. The man grunted, and they both backed up a few steps. She apparently couldn't run, but she had a stick and he seemed to be willing to be hit with it.

"Nagisa?!" Nagisa moved her eyes away from Pissard. What's Honoka doing here? Is that a cell phone? Oh, great. Just great.

Honoka's day had taken a turn for the surreal. Obviously, her previous mental model of reality wasn't complete. She had multiple hypothesizes. One, this was some sort of fantasy game given to her because she was an exceptional student (why else give her what seemed like expensive technology). Two, this Princess of Hope, Mipple, was an alien. Plausible, if seemingly ridiculous from a logistical standpoint. Three… wait, what in the world was Nagisa doing here? "Nagisa?!"

Honoka took in the situation quickly. Nagisa had an alien phone. She was fending off a geisha clown. And Mipple was shouting, "Mepple! We must save him-mipo!" Remembering her conversation with the Princess, that would suggest that this clown was an enemy of the Garden of Light, whatever that was.

Pissard laughed. "Well, well! The other shows up as well! Hand it over," he said, reaching out his hand.

Mipple went hysterical. "No, Honoka! Don't let him get me-mipo!"

No duh. Honoka took a step back as Nagisa rammed her lacrosse stick into Pissard's hand. "Careful Honoka! He's really fast!"

Enemy attribute: fast? Unobserved, suggests multiple possibilities. Lack of real threat either suggests he does not wish to harm bystanders (ridiculous), doesn't have the brains to realize he should be using speed to beat us up, has non-obvious limitations, and/or has something else to use. Implausible that enemy could be that stupid. Limitations hypothesis is likely, but Nagisa isn't tired, suggesting battle has not gone on that long and that the enemy probably isn't exhausted. Fourth hypothesis most likely.

With that in mind, Honoka grabbed Nagisa's shoulder. "Hold up. Stay together. I think he's going to try something."

Sure enough, Pissard dramatically raised his hands. "I am done toying with you!" His cloak billowed in a non-existent wind, and random park objects rose off the ground.

It was at this moment that something deep inside of Honoka broke. Her nigh-perfect grasp of reality fell apart. The problem was not that she believed herself insane. The problem was that she was far too sane. Telekinesis violated several fundamental principles that she had based her model of reality on, and her mind ground out an answer she was not prepared for: He is using telekinesis. But that is impossible. But it is not impossible. Therefore he is using telekinesis. She was far too sane for this. That could only mean that reality itself had gone insane. What was she supposed to do if physics broke?

She was saved by Nagisa, shoving her out of the way of an incoming bench. "Oy! Queen of Knowledge! Get out of the way!"

The two of them scrambled as a fire hydrant, a trash can, and a metal pole flew down, missing them by inches each time. Honoka glared at their situation, finding no solutions and getting more and more frustrated at the violation of physics. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"You must transform-mepo! Take out the Pretty Cure cards and swipe the Queen-mepo!"

It was all Honoka could do to prevent herself from knocking Mepple out of Nagisa's hand for this new nonsense. Before she could react, though, Nagisa pulled out a bunch of cards. Grumbling to herself, Honoka did the same, pulling out one labeled "Queen" and swiping it in Mipple's card slot.

Suddenly, they were surrounded by rainbows. The two grabbed each other's hand, holding their other hands towards the sky. "Dual Aurora Wave!"

There was a moment where nothing happened, where Nagisa blinked repeatedly and Honoka couldn't help but ask, "What did I just say?" Then the rainbows flooded around them, warping their clothes into frilly shapes and putting Mepple, Mipple, and the cards into little pouches.

In a flash, the two were no longer covered in colors, and Nagisa was saying with a confident voice, "Emissary of Light, Cure Black!"

Disturbingly lacking control of her body, Honoka couldn't help but say, "Emissary of Light, Cure White!"

"We are Pretty Cure!"

"Servant of the Dark Power…"

"Return to the Darkness from which you came!"

The three combatants awkwardly looked at each other for a moment. Nagisa was the first to make a sound. "What…"

Pissard crossed his arms dramatically. "I'm afraid I cannot do that." He was suddenly in front of them, swinging his fist.

Honoka jumped back, then nearly screamed as she went flying. Despite careening wildly, she managed to land perfectly on top of a carousel. She looked down at her legs, eyes widening. "Okay, you know what? Fine! Screw physics! That was amazing!"

Nagisa had landed to her left, seeming concerned. "But what was that?"

Mepple spoke up again. "This is the power of Pretty Cure-mepo!"

Honoka's decision to screw physics (for now) had opened up new lines of thought. We are Pretty Cure. Pretty Cure has superpowers. It's mind-matter interfacing like telekinesis, except it applies to our bodies and is unconscious, like instructions were burned into our brains. Most importantly: if that jump is any indication, we are now strong enough to defend ourselves in hand-to-hand combat. "Nagisa! Let's attack!"

"Are you crazy?!"

Pissard took that moment to leap onto the roof and kick at the girls. Honoka dodged and countered, punching him in the stomach. He grabbed her and flung her off the roof, but her new grace allowed her to land without any damage. This is more than amazing. I'll have to test my limits later.

Nagisa took her turn, blocking a punch and kicking Pissard's legs. The man tumbled off the roof and into a teacup ride. "Damn brats! Raging spirits of heaven, Zakenna! Heart of Darkness, make them understand the horror of the Dark Power!"

Black clouds from nowhere seemed to flow down into a roller coaster, animating it with vile intent. It rose from the tracks, growing claws and teeth, shouting its name for them to hear. "ZAKENNA!"

Honoka took a glance at Nagisa, who wore the same expression Honoka had, one that said, sure, why not have possessed roller coasters? Honoka jumped back up onto the carousel, admiring the effortlessness of it. "Any advice to defeat that, Mepple?" Best to ask the one who knows what we're supposed to be doing.

"You should-"

Nagisa pushed her out of the way as the Zakenna shot laser beams out of its eyes, destroying the carousel. It quickly blasted at them again, but Honoka's new reflexes helped her to avoid getting struck. Light moves instantly in a straight line. Why doesn't it just stare at us until we die instead of turning it off and on and looking away? She didn't find out as it shot spinning spiked wheels at her. She prepared to dodge, but Nagisa showed up and hit the projectiles away. "You okay?"

"I was doing fine!" She noted her frustration and that it was not rational, but she didn't really care at the moment. She had been enjoying her newfound ability to do gymnastics and Nagisa had interrupted her.

"You keep zoning out, how am I supposed to know when you are and aren't fine?"

Trying to keep a lid on her annoyance, she tried Mepple again. "Advice, defeat, now!"

"Hold hands-mepo!"

Nagisa glanced incredulously at her waist. "What? Really? Your advice is to hold hands? Hey!" Honoka had grabbed her hand.

"Reject reality later! Mipple and Mepple are the only ones who know what they're-"

"BLACK THUNDEEEEER!"

"WHITE THUNDEEEEER!" Kill me now.

Black and white lightning fell slowly down and struck their outstretched palms. That's lightning, not thunder! And lightning should be instantaneous! Our powers are Wrong!

"Our beautiful souls…"

"…shall crush your evil heart!"

"Pretty Cure Marble Screeeeeeew!"

Surprisingly, despite the enormous blast that resulted, the only effect it had was that the roller coaster was returned to its proper place and depossessed as the Zakenna exploded into purple stars that ran away, repeating "sorry, sorry" over and over. Pissard was nowhere to be seen, but Honoka wasn't surprised given what they had just done.

Nagisa was, though. "Where did he go?"

Honoka resisted the urge to whack her. "Nagisa. We just violated the law of conservation of energy so far as I can tell, and you want to know where the clown went?" Seriously, priorities.

Nagisa crossed her arms. "That Pissard guy tried to attack us. He might still be around."

"He's not still around-mipo!" Mipple jumped out of Honoka's pouch.

"Mipple!" Mepple jumped out as well.

"Mepple!"

The two suddenly turned into stuffed animals in a puff of smoke.

"Honoka, this isn't a hallucination, is it?"

"I would be happier if it was."

Pissard sailed through the air. Those girls had enormous power. It's greater than anything I've noticed from any other individual in the Garden of Rainbows. They were not intimidated. What did those of the Garden of Light do to them?

"You've been given the power of Pretty Cure-mepo!"

"But that doesn't actually mean anything to me! What kind of power is it? Where does it come from? Why didn't we have control of ourselves at times? And where did my white dress go?" Honoka asked, realizing for the first time that her clothes were back to normal.

Taken aback, Mepple held his hands up. "Um… I don't know-mepo? You're the Emissaries of Light…"

Mipple stepped forwards. "You untransform when you're no longer focusing the power of Light-mipo."

Nagisa smiled. "So if we just kept focusing…"

Honoka finished the thought. "Then we could keep using it as long as we wanted. Will using the Queen cards transform us again?"

"There's no one to fight, though. Why would you want to transform-mepo?" Mepple wondered.

Nagisa and Honoka looked at each other, and Nagisa answered. "Because that was amazing. I've never felt so in tune with my body, much less someone else's."

Honoka frowned. "That sounded wrong, Nagisa. Anyways, I want to test the limits, see how it works."

"Mipo!" Mipple said angrily. "We have to use these powers to defeat Darkness-mipo! The power of Light is not something to play with-mipo!"

"Really? Is it finite? Will it run out if we keep using it?" Honoka asked.

"No-mipo. But-"

Nagisa held up her hand. "Don't worry. We'll help you out. You gave us these amazing powers, it's the least we could do to use them to help you. Right, Knowledge Queen?"

Honoka sighed. "Well, if that's the condition…"

"See? We'll defeat Darkness. We just want to use it for other things sometimes."

Mipple noticeably relaxed. "I guess that's okay-mipo."

"How are you going to make sure that you're not noticed-mepo?"

Honoka shrugged. "Why would that matter? I was going to tell people anyways."

"What? No! We have to keep it a secret!" Nagisa protested.

"Why? We're jumping onto buildings, beating up monsters, and shooting magical yin-yang beams that make a lot of light and sound. You think no one will notice? I mean, look, the carousel's still broken. Don't you think it'd be wrong of us not to tell someone?"

Nagisa turned to the structure that the Zakenna broke. "Yes, but I don't want to scare people."

"It may be unavoidable."

"In that case, how's this. If someone notices us, then we tell them. Otherwise, we let people live without having to know about roller coaster ghosts."

Honoka considered this. They were facing two rather enormous problems. The first was that they didn't know much about their powers, and she at least didn't have practice with moving around so much. She didn't know how strong they were comparatively in this new magical part of physics that she had stumbled upon and they were amateurs at the moment. The second was that they didn't know anything about their enemies. If their opponents were the sort to turn up at any time for any reason, then it would make little difference to them whether or not someone else saw. She made a note to ask Mipple, who seemed the more sensible of the pair, later. For now she would compromise with the illogically driven lacrosse player, since she was forced to be in a team with her. "Okay. That works. We'll stay untransformed around anyone who doesn't know."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow at school. It's getting late."

"Very well. Goodnight."