Some roof hopping later, Marine found the source of the chaos - a girl floating in mid-air was a dead giveaway. The Cures had agreed not to fly for the sake of stealth but she spotted her and turned to face her. Marine's eyes had already looked over the floating figure's outfit and she only made eye contact after taking in the short, wavy blonde hair, pointy ears and pale-skinned face.

"Interesting motif on your skirt there," spoke Marine. "Are those strings meant to make your skirt look like a bridge?"

"Yes and the wide pleats represent the planks of the bridge," answered the humanoid girl. Marine felt uncomfortable being scrutinised by her green eyes.

"The rest of your clothes look off, what's with that antiquated look?" It was the first thing Marine could think to say to keep her mind off the green-eyed stare.

"This is contemporary where I come from. But I suppose to someone who dresses so ostentatiously I must look so plain. Is that supposed to be a flower skirt?"

"Yeah, I am the flower that flutters by the ocean winds, Cure Marine." She posed to match the declaration. "Where do you come from for that look to be contemporary?"

"I am Mizuhashi Parsee, from the underworld. I am the bridge princess who watches over the passage from my world to the surface," stated Parsee. "Something pulled me from behind and next thing I know, I'm in this disgustingly lively place with a sun over my head. Such pointlessly tall structures, built so stupidly close together, with so many humans crawling around wearing such extravagant outfits... It makes me so sick I had to do something about it."

"So you admit to causing all this trouble for everyone?" Marine took up a fighting stance.

"And you must be a guardian of this accursed place. Good, I need a target to shoot my heart out and the docile cattle on the ground wouldn't bring any satisfaction."

Originally the Cures had meant to notify each other with an effect akin to a signal flare when they found the culprit. That detail got lost when Marine heard Parsee's utter disregard for human worth. Not that it mattered as Parsee answered Marine's bloodrush with a projectile that made a lot of smoke, light and noise.

Marine was knocked into the air and gracefully began flying herself by conjuring Coffret-turned-cape. She saw Parsee raise her altitude and the civilians running for cover. The unnatural influence didn't override their survival instincts and they were experienced at getting to safety when Precure had to show up.


One day, Nuts came across a copy of the Art of War when doing a library dive. One all-nighter later, he realised that logistics was more important than tactics. His own experiences reinforced this lesson: a whole kingdom could be re-built from ground up if its people were gathered and they had resources. Likewise, the legendary warriors were only invincible when they worked together. The first requirement to that would be situation awareness.

Milk scolded him the next morning for not exercising restraint. During that rant, he came up with ideas for how the Precure could contact each other in times of emergency. Cell phone networks were a wonderful feature of the human world but they were prone to get overloaded during episodes of mass panic. Such episodes were exactly when Precure needed clear communication.

Consulting with the other fairies, they settled on a unified spell to solve the issue. And so Fuup transmitted Kaoru's voice to Moup who was eating Michiru's okonomiyaki while Porun was playing tag with Flappi and Larun. In the short time it took Kaoru to get Saki's group up to speed, Hikari and Akane had turned off and cleaned the grills. Binning half-cooked okonomiyaki was regretable but store hygiene was important.

"There's a bookstore a few minutes away from here," said Akane. "I'll bring everyone over."

"Ok, I'll contact Mai while waiting for you," answered Kaoru.

"Mai is with Miyuki today," interjected Saki. "Tell her to come to the secret base where I'll wait for her."

"Mai to secret base, got it," replied Kaoru.

The girls ran to the nearest bookshelf - opening portals from them was a very convenient ability the Smile Precure had. While in transit, the fairies were busy spreading the word.


Parsee opened with one shot, straight and fast. Marine did a barrel roll to dodge as she closed the distance. Parsee noted the width she had evaded by.

"You like it up-close huh?" said Parsee as her arm stopped Marine's roundhouse kick. Marine answered by twisting into a punch with the opposite arm. Her fist was caught but she followed through with her foot rising to meet her opponent's chin. In response, Parsee released the fist and backflipped to dodge the kick. Actually, she stopped the backflip, tucked her legs in and sprang forwards into a double kick. Marine had misread, she only had time to bring her arms into a block. As Parsee's momentum knocked Marine back, she sent another fast shot to pursue. Seeing it coming, Marine braced her arms again and took the impact.

"You're an amateur in flight and your reactions to my bullets were clumsy," sneered Parsee. "Is that all you got?"

"You want a shooting match do you?" shouted Marine. "Marine Shoot!" With a circular wave, she conjured dozens of bullets. Parsee sighed once she saw their collective trajectories formed a narrow cone. She drifted sideways just enough for the closest bullets to rustle her hair as they blew by. Mild surprise showed on her face before she flew up to arc over a dozen quaver-shaped bullets that came from behind.

"Beat Sonic!" yelled Beat from a rooftop. The enemy dodging an attack from a blind spot was very surprising but she did not stop because of that. Another wave of quaver shots flew out. Marine floated up to intercept Parsee's dodge. Without taking her eyes off her flower-dressed opponent, Parsee dropped altitude and let the quavers come into view over her head. The kick from her 7 o'clock direction made her expression turn to surprise but not pain, as if she'd jumped at a successful prank. As the momentum threw her in the air, Parsee turned to see Milky Rose landing on the street.

"Espoir Shower!" came Berry's attack from behind. Parsee twirled sideways to avoid it and looked up.

"O wind of the heavens!" Windy gave Regina a mighty tailwind. She charged in, power-infused spearpoint first. While Parsee sharply accelerated backwards, she sprayed out green fireballs to deter pursuit. Regina cut down the ones that would hit her and ignored the wide shots that had assumed she'd dodge.

Both sides stopped moving and assessed the other. The Cures were wondering why only Milky Rose successfully caught Parsee unaware. Parsee took in the variety of fighters who joined the fight. The spear-wielder caught her eye: she was the only fighter with a weapon and her outfit wasn't as simple. Her dress was a dark green background with floral patterns on one side, expressed with black stems and white flowers. The other side had a bird motif, also in white. Diamond-checkered, black and white socks extended beyond the knee-length hemline. A white jacket covered the arms.

"I see, you lot are basically a bunch of fairies who like to body slam," said Parsee. She sneered with jealousy at their colourful clothes and coordinated combat. The Cures interpreted the sneer as snobbery.

"Who are you calling fairies?" reacted Marine. Being a citizen of Palmier, a kingdom of fairies, Milky Rose gave her a look but did not break dialogue.

"Fairies are the weakest race," explained Parsee. "They are insignificant individually but they are remarkably coordinated when they're ganging up on a strong foe. Easy to agitate and quick to go down, they're only good for warmup before a proper duel. Doesn't that match you girls?"

"If you want to warm up, we'll happily heat things up for you," said Beat.

"We'll show you what 'fairies' can do when they work together!" said Milky Rose.

"Then come dance with me," said Parsee. Oblong concentrations of energy radiated out from her and coalesced into bullets. Half of them were yellow and flew like they were swung by a clockwise cyclone. The other half was blue and came like they rode an anti-clockwise cyclone. Facing wave after wave of these uncomfortably dense bullets, the Precure took shelter behind buildings while shattered windows showered the surroundings in glass.

"Hey, how does hiding count as 'working together'?" taunted Parsee as she threw a large, green orb of energy. It emerged near Berry's location in a cloud of rubble. Jumping aside, Berry could only block the continuous, bi-cyclonic barrage with her arms while seeking new cover. Parsee gleefully launched another big orb at her stranded target. Beat jumped towards Berry, clenching her teeth as she got grazed by a blue bullet.

"Beat Barrier!" the protective sphere could shelter from the curved rain of smaller bullets but only slowed down the green shot. That delay was enough for Berry to regain her bearings and jump away with Beat in her arms. While Parsee was focussed on them, Marine and Regina had moved to her sides. Both fired their own barrage, spreading the shots wide. Parsee didn't turn to look at either side as she drifted back, occasionally twisting her body to evade. Her onslaught of blue and yellow bullets did not stop either, forcing Marine and Regina to retreat out of view.

"Don't tell me you fairies can't even dodge the warm up?" asked Parsee. "This is boring, I'll give you a break so you can figure out how to stand. Be sure to satisfy me next time." Contrary to what the Precure were used to, Parsee did not leave. She stayed in the air with a condescending gaze as they regrouped.


"What happened here?" cried Sunny as she pulled Shiny Luminous and Cure Bright out of a nearby bookshelf.

"So much destruction..." lamented Luminous.

"Windy!" called out Bright, "Everyone ok?"

"Nothing serious," answered Beat, rubbing at where she got hit. "But this Parsee up there fights very differently."

"How can she afford to shoot every direction at once?" said Marine.

"She even has spare power to shoot something through Beat's barrier," added Berry.

"I shot her from behind and she dodged like she could see it," said Beat.

"But she didn't see me when I kicked her from behind?" pondered Milky Rose.

"It's bullet sense, little fairies," shouted Parsee from above, "aren't you jealous you can't dodge without turning your head?"

"Ok, so her sense only works for projectiles," analysed Regina, "but we can't get close to her while she's constantly shooting everywhere."

"Then we'll need to wait for more of us to gather before we can seriously attack," stated Sunny.

"Hey, why aren't you getting jealous?" shouted Parsee.

"Everyone has different pros and cons!" Marine shouted back. "We can't have every pro at once, we know to cherish what we do have!"

"What you do have? I'll show you it's pointless to cherish the irrelevant!" Parsee took out a card, held it up and declared "Jealousy Sign: Green-Eyed Monster!"


The sky vanished. What replaced it looked like a dense mesh of green strands.

"This is like when an Akanbe shows up..." said Sunny. "Watch out! She's coming!"

Parsee was riding a flying mount that was invisible except for its huge, green eyes. As it travelled, it left behind a thick, glowing gas trail that persisted while giving off a sickly green hue. The Precure scattered as Parsee crashed the monster into where they were standing.

"Sunny Fire!" The volleyball star accurately spiked the blazing ball despite her target moving fast. Parsee jumped up without looking, lazily flipping over. Her mount did a vertical U-turn and Parsee was back on it while upside down. Locking eyes with Sunny, she charged in while casually tilting her head to avoid Berry's Espoir Shower.

Sunny kicked off the ground and threw a punch at Parsee's upside down face. The arm that parried that punch then lunged to grab. But that move was aborted as Parsee threw her body hard onto her back because of Marine Shoot. Sunny had dived out of the way when Parsee righted her posture.

"Luminous Heartiel Action!" The heart-shaped light passed through the gas trail where Parsee had turned a sharp corner. Her new direction made her face Regina's spear charge. Twisting her body out of the way, Parsee grabbed the spear's shaft and threw it and its wielder into the green clouds behind. Her exposure to it was brief, but Regina cried out in pain when she emerged.

"Are you ok?" asked Luminous as she saved Regina from hitting the asphalt ground. Regina could only cough and gulp air.

"Tough fairy aren't you?" Parsee taunted while coming in for another charge.

"Milky Rose Metal Blizzard!" Hundreds of petals were coming in from Parsee's side. She turned her mount to fly in the same direction. Weaving through the gaps, she carefully let the barrage pass over, under and around her.

"Thanks..." uttered Regina weakly while being carried by Luminous. "I can stand on my own now."

"You're still weak, you can rely on me more" answered Luminous.


Conservation of strength. That was the overall strategy Precure had in mind while they waited for reinforcements. But as they continued being defensive, the flaw in this approach became apparent.

"We're trapped by an invisible dome!" exclaimed Berry as she felt the edge of their available space, then jumped away as Parsee's mount charged at her.

"There's not much space left which doesn't have clouds!" announced Sunny.

"I can't blow them away!" cried Windy while flying under a cloud line. Parsee flew past where she was, another area marked off.

"Parsee herself flies through them just fine!" observed Beat while watching for the right timing. They had to attack back.

"She hasn't been shooting while riding that thing, we can do this!" shouted Marine.

Parsee had locked onto Windy, slowly cutting off what little room she had left. As Windy zigzagged around the numerous cloud pillars, Parsee ignored the maze and came straight through.

"O light of the moon!" Bright jumped up and let off a blinding flash. Parsee was still rubbing her eyes when Marine, Beat, Berry and Sunny all released their finisher moves from as close as they could get.

Parsee laid flat on her invisible mount to duck under Blue Forte Wave. Her hands pushed her up in the air over Heartful Beat Rock and Espoir Shower Fresh. A mid-air pirouette with eyes still closed evaded Sunny Fire Burning. While the Precure were stunned that none of their attacks hit, Parsee's monster had regrouped with her and was rushing towards Marine.

"Finally putting up a meaningful fight!" Parsee cheered while Marine could only think to block. "Oh curse me!" Marine had been expecting to be hit by a huge body, not a kick. The momentum sent her flying, but both the monster and the clouds had disappeared. The sky returned with the sight of relief on Mint, Muse, Egret and Bloom's faces.

"What just happened?" asked Marine.

"You don't know the rules of spellcard duels?" snickered Parsee, as if everyone present didn't know how to tie shoe laces.

"Where's Happy and Peace?" asked Sunny.

"Fetching everyone else, they shouldn't be long," answered Egret. "What was that gloomy dome you were in?"

"Seems Parsee up there can seal off an area as a private battleground," conjectured Beat. "She's very strong, don't block her attacks."

"Regina?!" Mint noticed her state.

"I'm-" started Regina.

"-going to rest with me," declared Milky Rose as she took her from Luminous. Another Metal Blizzard wasn't possible so soon and regular melee was not looking favourable.