Episode 2 : As Mysterious As The Dark Side of The Moon… Cure Moon?!
"Cure… Moon?"
Amari and Chiaki both spoke out in disbelief and wonder, staring up at the kimono-clad boy who stood in front of them.
The one named 'Cure Moon' glanced back to look at the two girls on the ground, moving a hand to shoo them away, "Hurry, it isn't safe right now! Take him back into the school and wait in there!"
"Wait," Amari protested, but Chiaki already was picking up Makoto in her arms and urging her to follow what they were being told to do. "Who are you?"
"Amari-chan, this isn't the time right now, just listen to them and help me over here!"
Amari looked at Cure Moon, mixed emotions sprawled over her face in the midst of what was occurring. However, the other had already turned back to focus on the Yōkai at hand. She got up and followed Chiaki back into the school, glancing back every so often in worry.
"Well, well, well. Look at what the cat dragged in!" The cloaked boy put his hands on his hips as he glared at Cure Moon. "Owner of the Lunar Bead, Cure Moon."
"You must be the cat, Kaze." Cure Moon readied his bead whip, glaring back at the turquoise haired boy, "After all, you were essentially the one who called me here by summoning a Yōkai."
Kaze looked visibly irked by Cure Moon's statement. "Are you trying to make me look like a fool?!" He yelled, fist clenched as he glared at the clearly smirking Pretty Cure. Without a moment's notice, the blue rosary beads were lashed towards Kaze, wrapping itself around the boy.
"Maybe I am," Cure Moon teased, "Maybe I'm not? Maybe you're simply playing yourself for a fool?" He pulled back the length of beads, tightening the coil around the scaly boy.
Before Kaze could bark out another retort, a brilliant white serpent with red markings suddenly soared across the raining skies overhead, holding a bead with an ethereal glow within its claws, catching all three of their attentions.
Cure Moon brought his gaze back to Kaze, pulling on his beads once more in an attempt to pull the cloaked boy over to him, but to no avail. With the breeze, Kaze disappeared and reappeared under a nearby tree, swiftly giving orders to the Yōkai standing by.
"Keep him busy," The turquoise-headed boy jumped into the branches above him, "Do all you can to distract him while I retrieve the stray bead!"
Before Cure Moon could even begin chasing after Kaze into the foliage above, the Yōkai dashed in front of him and swung its katana at the boy in the blue kimono.
Cure Moon stopped in his tracks and blocked the sword by holding up his string of beads in the moment, the sound of metal ringing after hitting one of the glossy stones. With the movement of one hand, he pushed the Yōkai back a couple meters away with the whip.
In the distance, Kaze could be seen jumping up from treetops to try and grab at the white serpent, always missing the grab each time. He always seemed like the type to mess up a timed button input in games, huh.
He had to find a way to get to the kid who was making an utter fool of himself. Cure Moon threw the whip of beads into the air, before shouting a command.
"Release!" The whip fell apart and became beads that simply floated near him.
The Yōkai took another lunge at him, swinging haphazardly at the blue warrior, coming closer to slicing at Cure Moon each time it swung. In retaliation, Cure Moon sent a bead whizzing towards the Yōkai in a barrage, pushing it back, although, not enough to stop it from advancing.
Meanwhile in the school, the two girls had escaped the rain and chaos, looking over their unconscious friend who looked troubled, even in his sleep.
"This is weird, really weird!" Amari yelled, her hands on her head, trying to wrap it around whatever had just transpired, quickly pacing back and forth. "Aaaah, I don't know what to believe right now!"
"Amari, can you please sit down and be more quiet? I'm breaking down too, you know." Chiaki let out a soft groan at the louder of the two, her own mind racing to figure out what happened. For now, she covered Makoto's unconscious body with her own uniform cardigan, letting him rest on her lap.
At Chiaki's words, Amari quieted down before kneeling down next to her and practically collapsing on the ground, "Sorry."
Some time passed, and Makoto had yet to awaken. The sound of the pitter-patter of rain filled most of the silence, aside from the occasional sound of metal getting hit from outside.
The two of them didn't know what to do, but suddenly Amari had gotten up from her collapsed state, a look of determination covering her face.
"Amari-chan, I don't like whatever you're thinking of doing right now." Chiaki looked over at the suddenly energized girl, who had started making a move towards the school doors and peered out the window to see the fight still happening.
Amari glanced over at the pink haired girl and grinned, "You might not like it, but I sure think it's better than sitting around here doing nothing!"
"Ah, wait— Amari!" Chiaki called out to her friend, but was unable to stop the girl from dashing back out into the rain, head first into the fight.
Although it was wet out, Amari had taken off her shoe and tossed it at the Yōkai with dead accuracy, hitting them right on the head, causing the Yōkai to let out a surprised noise. "Hey you!" Amari yelled, pointing at the masked person, garnering both its and Cure Moon's attention.
"What is she doing..?!" The blue Pretty Cure was shocked at the reappearance of the blonde girl.
"I don't know what you did to Maakun or who you think you are, but you should stop trying to fight Cure Moon!"
Cure Moon fully turned around to face Amari, "Are you an idiot?! I told you to stay inside for a reason!"
Amari ignored the boy, instead marching straight into danger, to in front of the Yōkai, completely ignoring her foot getting wet as she walked forward. In a moment of confusion, Amari stood in front of the Yōkai before suddenly grabbing the other by the kimono with both hands and pulling close to butt heads with the Yōkai, managing to crack the mask.
"Are you serious."
The demon mask on the Yōkai had cracked from the blunt force, and after Amari had let go of them, it fell off completely, revealing the face of Makoto. This by itself caused Amari to jump back in shock, "Huh?! Maakun?!"
The Yōkai held a hand to their- his face, startled by the sudden reveal, looking down at the fragmented mask on the walkway. His eyes snapped up to look at Amari, and as if having seen her properly without the mask, he snapped.
This other version of Makoto threw aside the katana he had held, instead lunging at Amari to grab her by the arms.
"It's always her! You always side with her!" He yelled, his eyes flaring with a red color, unlike the 'real' Makoto. The grip on Amari's arms tightened, causing her to let out a cry of pain. "Am I just a toy to the both of you? Do you even care about me?"
"Hey, you, since you decided to get yourself in this mess, I'll tell you something. That 'Maakun' there, is his soul; the things he's spitting out right now are his inner thoughts!" Cure Moon had yelled this towards Amari, who glanced back at the other in a panic.
In response, she yelled back, "Aren't you going to help me?!"
The blue-clothed boy pointed at one of the many shiny beads surrounding him, "You wanna get pummeled by these things? No? That's what I thought." Cure Moon looked off to the side to keep track of Kaze, who seemed to have fallen out of some trees while chasing down the white serpent. "You seem to know him best. I trust in you to be able to calm him down so I can help your friend that's unconscious in there."
"Huh?! You- hey, wait a second! Get back here!" But her yelling only fell on deaf ears as Cure Moon jumped from his spot to chase after Kaze. Seeing as the other had left her with the Yōkai, Amari could only look back at the Makoto in front of her, who held her arms so tightly she could barely move.
He started crying in his anger.
"'Maakun' this, 'Maakun' that, it only makes me sound like a child, and I don't want you to look at me like I'm some sort of child."
Amari was quiet as the Yōkai cried on her chest. If what Cure Moon said was right, then these thoughts were Makoto's true feelings. Knowing that, Amari wasn't sure how to handle the problem.
"And with her!" He started yelling again, shaking Amari, "You always take her side, you never take my side, and you always just laugh off her pushing me around! Do you hate me, is that it?!"
"MAKOTO ARAGI!"
Amari couldn't take it anymore, and at her shouting his name, the Yōkai loosened his grip on her arms in surprise. Even Amari started to cry after Makoto's feelings all came out of the Yōkai's mouth.
Amari started, although shakily, "I always thought you were having fun with us, that's why I didn't think too much about it. I'm sorry, Makoto." With her arms now free, she moved forward and wrapped her arms around the Yōkai. "You're angry, I get that. You're upset, I get that."
The Yōkai was stunned at the hug, seemingly unable to move in her embrace. Amari held him tightly, "You can feel those emotions all you want, but it won't do you any good if you don't tell someone about it." The blonde haired girl pulled away, taking hold of the other Makoto's face, looking right into his tear-filled eyes, "You can't just bottle up your feelings! It'll only hurt you more, and it'll hurt us too, because we'd still be ignorant about the problems that you're trying to face on your own! You aren't alone, Makoto!"
He collapsed onto the ground at her words once she let go of his face. She kneeled down in front of him, "I don't know if the Makoto inside with Chiacchi will remember me saying this, since you're supposed to be him too," Amari took a deep breath as she spoke, "but I want you to know that you don't have to suffer by yourself. We're friends. I'll stick by you, and I'll make sure Chiacchi knows to do so too."
Suddenly, from the side, a bush rustled and the turquoise haired boy popped out of it, waving around the white serpent that he had been chasing earlier, "Haah! Finally, I got you, you sly snake!"
"You're the sly snake here, Kaze." Following Kaze's appearance was the boy clad in blue, whip of beads in hand. With a snap of the whip in his hands, Kaze let out a surprised shriek, having thought he lost the other during their chase. "Ready to die, rat bastard?"
Kaze laughed, although visibly shaken by the surprise of Cure Moon behind him. "You haven't caught me yet, so I'll be taking my leave with the bead, thank you very much!" With a grin and his hand waving around the serpent, the wind started to pick up around Kaze, fully intending to disappear in the breeze.
In an instant, Amari had taken off her other shoe and chucked it at Kaze, managing to hit his hand holding the white serpent, who seemed relieved from being released from such a tight grip.
The serpent switched hands from Kaze to Cure Moon once the scaly boy had let go of it, the serpent dispersing once it had been held by the one blessed by the gods and leaving a shiny bead in Cure Moon's care. Seeing this, Kaze quickly tried to reach back for it, but the other had already left his reach from within his personal hurricane. Kaze clicked his tongue in irritation, while Cure Moon simply looked back and gave him a teasing wink and watched as the other simply left in the wind in a hurry.
"Just because I'm letting you have this one doesn't mean you've won this time, Cure Moon!" Kaze's voice is carried away as well, fading with the breeze and pushing away the storm clouds from earlier.
The boy in the blue kimonos simply sighed once the nuisance disappeared, "Good riddance, for now." Cure Moon moved to picked up the shoe that had helped him obtain the bead, walking over to Amari and the Yōkai.
Upon seeing the other approach, Amari shot up, "How could you leave me alone like that?!"
"Sorry, sorry. You seemed to have handled the situation just fine by yourself. I'm thoroughly impressed at your aim though, hitting both the Yōkai and that stupid snake with such accuracy?" Cure Moon handed the shoe over to Amari. "Sorry for getting your feet all drenched. In fact, sorry for dragging you and your friends into this mess in the first place."
Amari took her shoe back, frowning a bit. "Sure, sure, but what about," She gestured towards the quietly sobbing Yōkai on the ground, "this mess?"
"Ah. Right."
Cure Moon gently led Amari to the side, clearing the area for what he was about to do next. Once he moved Amari aside, Cure Moon faced the Yōkai, "Release!"
His whip fell apart into its separate pieces, blue beads floating around him. Clasping his hands together, the beads assorted themselves into an array, forming a square in front of the Yōkai, five horizontal and four vertical.
"Rin!" Cure Moon interlocked his fingers, with his index fingers pressed together and up. Each shout he gave drew a line on the array of beads, alternating between horizontal and vertical. "Pyo! Toh! Sha! Kai!"
Amari watched in curiosity, as something like this… She'd only think it a dream, but as far as she knew, this was happening right here in front of her. Honestly, she didn't know how to feel. Confused from all that's happened? Worried for Makoto's wellbeing? Angry for getting left to fend for herself in the face of danger? All she knows, whatever she's looking at right now is super pretty.
"Jin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!" With a wave of his hand, after making several hand gestures to make the lines appear, the net of lines pressed onto the Yōkai and wrapped around him. "Ko!" Cure Moon shouted the last syllable and the Yōkai within its grasps disappeared, leaving behind a tiny blue flame as the beads returned to Cure Moon's side in its wake.
"Huh?! Where'd he go?!" Amari snapped out of the daze she was in from watching Cure Moon's movements, looking at the left behind flame where the Makoto Yōkai had been, looking back towards the blue haired boy for an answer. "You didn't hurt him, right?!"
"Calm down, you. He's fine." Cure Moon sighed at Amari's yelling, walking over to the small flame, picking it up and showing a condensed crystal orb in the middle of the flame. "I simply subdued his soul so we can put it back inside of him." He started making his way towards the school building where Chiaki and the other Makoto was, orb in hand. "You want your friend to wake up right? Hurry over then."
"A-ah?! R-right, okay!" Amari, still confused, ran after Cure Moon and followed him inside.
"Amari! I was so worried about you, but I couldn't just leave Makoto in here— woah, you're soaked from top to bottom! Why're you running around in your socks?" A lot of questions and emotions came from Chiaki upon seeing Amari enter back into the school, fully drenched with her shoes in hand, making a trail of water in. Though, seeing Cure Moon holding a small flame was enough to make Chiaki spooked, and the pink-haired girl letting out a shout of surprise.
Amari went over to Chiaki, putting a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down a bit. "It's okay!" She yelled over Chiaki's own shout, "He'll be able to make Makoto wake up, Chiacchi!"
"I know it's strange, but please trust me here. I know what I'm doing." Cure Moon was pretty exhausted with these girls, with all their loud yelling at everything. Chiaki had soon then calmed down a bit, and Cure Moon kneeled down to place the orb of fire over Makoto's chest. In a moment, the orb sank into his body, disappearing as if it had never been there. "There. Thankfully your friend is intact. He'll wake up soon, but with whatever your soaked friend here said to his soul, his mindset will most likely have changed a bit." Cure Moon stood up, soon turning around to make his way out. "Try not to worry him too much about this whole thing. He'll only remember it as a dream more than anything."
Amari scrambled back up as well, bowing in gratitude, "Uhm! Thank you for helping Makoto!"
At that, Cure Moon glanced back at the pigtailed girl with curiosity, "You helped him much more than I did, but I suppose I can say you're welcome." He gave a sly, but gentle smile to Amari, before turning away. "I need to go now, I have other places to be. You three should hurry home as well. Your families are probably worried."
And with that, the boy in the kimono left the school and jumped into the air, vanishing as fast as when he initially appeared.
"Hey, Amari-chan."
"Yeah, Chiacchi?"
"Am I dreaming?"
"No, as far as I can tell. Am I?"
Chiaki,choking back tears, finally processed a lot of the things that happened just previously. "No. No. I don't think you are." She said with a shaky voice, leaning over Makoto in her lap and hugging him a bit, hoping that Cure Moon was right and he'd wake up.
"Gross, why are you crying all over me, Chiaki-san?" A faint voice reached the both of their ears, muffled mostly by Chiaki having covered most of his upper half. Makoto woke up and was pushing away Chiaki, while also wiping away the tears on her face.
"Who the hell do you think you are to just casually call me 'Chiaki-san' right now. Unfair." Chiaki said that, but in the midst of her tears, she had a smile towards Makoto.
All Makoto had was a grin, before struggling to sit up. "Man, I'm all numb." He groaned, "I feel like I was just given the shock of a lifetime. On top of that? A really strange dream, to say the least."
Amari couldn't help herself, she ran and jumped onto Makoto, hugging him tightly.
"Woah! What the heck, Ammy, you're all soaking wet?! Did that rain actually come and drench you this badly?!" Makoto yelped in surprise when coming into contact with the wet girl, "You gotta get off me, you'll make me just as wet!"
"Uwah, sorry!" Amari let go of him, but still stuck next to him. "You were unconscious for so long, we were getting worried about you."
"Well, I'm awake now, so there's no more need to worry?" Makoto stretched, finally able to move more of his limbs, before finally getting up from Chiaki's lap and standing up. "Was I really knocked out that badly?" He smoothed out his clothes, looking at the two girls with a slight sweat.
Chiaki also stood up, rubbing her thighs, sore from housing Makoto's head on them the whole time. "Whatever! You're awake now, so we should get going!"
"Woah, is it really that late already?"
"Ahah.. it seems like it. Best to get going, like Chiacchi said." Amari laughed a bit, also standing up, although still pretty wet. "Hmm.. if I run home fast enough to change, hopefully I won't catch a cold! Haha." She took another look at her wet clothes, most of it sticking uncomfortably to her body, heavy with some water.
Chiaki started pushing Makoto out of the door of the school into the stone walkway, "Alright, enough standing around, let's go, let's go!"
Makoto simply followed along with Chiaki's leading him outside, Amari trailing behind the two. "Oh! Wait, Makoto, I want to tell you something important!" She stopped in her tracks and suddenly shouted, deciding that since she had already told this to Makoto's 'soul', she might as well tell it to Makoto himself.
While being pushed ahead by Chiaki, Makoto glanced back at Amari, confused, "Huh? What happened to calling me 'Maakun'?"
Amari ignored his question, pointing at the brown haired boy to make a point, "Me and Chiacchi are your best friends, therefore, you're legally obligated to confide in us about your issues and we'll help you to the best of our ability!" She put her other hand on her hip, "You can't bottle up all your feelings, or else you'll hurt yourself more than necessary!"
Makoto stared back at Amari, in shock but also in amusement. A moment of silence passed before Makoto broke out into a soft laughter, "What the heck? Hahaha, what a funny coincidence! In my dream, you were there and you said something just like that! Haha! I guess that's a way of saying it must be extremely important to do so." He quieted his laughter, but smiled at Amari and Chiaki. "I won't hide anything then. But that means you two can't hide anything from me either. We'll share our happy moments and our sad moments together, and we'll get through them together."
"Promise?" Amari said in response, walking close to both Chiaki and Makoto, taking both of their hands in her own.
Makoto smiled, holding Amari's hand back, "I promise."
Chiaki, although a little reluctantly, nodded and held Amari's hand in return, "I suppose I'll have to promise too, then."
"Then that's it! We'll stick together until the end of time!" Amari happily smiled, before letting go of both of their hands and running off ahead of them. "I'll see you two tomorrow then!" She waved goodbye to the two, before rushing home.
"Mm. Amari sure is something, isn't she?"
"What happened to calling her 'Ammy'?"
"Well, if she starts calling me Makoto, I'll have to do the same for her, right?"
Chiaki let out a laugh, giving Makoto a soft punch on his upper arm, "You're so weird."
Makoto laughed in response, gently shoving the other girl, "But you like that about me! That's why all three of us are friends."
"Haha, I guess you're right."
"Amari Tendou! You're soaking wet! What have you been doing this whole time?!"
As soon as Amari got home, she tried entering her house as quietly as possible and hoped to rush upstairs to change without alerting her mother. Unfortunately, the sound of water droplets hitting the wooden flooring of the house was very audible and her mother quickly found her in the hallway entrance.
"I, uh, got stuck in the rain with my friends." Well, it was pretty truthful.
"Woooow, sounds believable, if getting stuck in the rain meant standing in a downpour for an hour to get that soaked!" The voice of her little brother rang through the hallway, appearing behind their mother's legs. "Decided to take a shower outside?"
Amari's mother sighed, before pulling her into the main room of the house and leading her upstairs, "At least call me next time if you're going to be late coming home! Now hurry up, wash up and change before you catch a cold."
"Right!" The dirty blonde-haired girl dashed up the stairs quickly into her room, scrambling around to gather another set of clothes and ran into the bathroom. However, due to the wet nature of her steps, she slipped while running around, a loud thud resounding through the house.
"She's such an idiot." Keiichirou sighed at his sister's clumsiness.
"I'm okay…!" Amari's voice weakly came from upstairs.
Eventually, Amari made it into the bath and had basically all the time in the world to think about what happened today.
Cure Moon, just who was he? A boy with flowing blue and blonde hair, all dressed in a stylized kimono. With the ability to use magic?
That… whatever it was, was Makoto's soul, according to Cure Moon. Makoto seemed more at ease now afterwards, but the whole thing was still worrying to Amari. First he gets struck by lightning, and then his soul apparently is taken from him and made into something destructive… It seemed like this wasn't the first time this sort of thing has happened from how she saw Cure Moon and that cloaked boy conversing. That meant others were being forced into that kind of thing… Amari shook her head, not entirely wanting to think about other people having to suffer through what Makoto had.
Stray beads… souls… Cure Moon...
Continuing to unpack and unravel what she knew hurt her head. Amari submerged herself under the water, making some bubbles in the water in frustration. Someone had to know who or what Cure Moon is. If they caused a scene like that every time someone was in that kind of predicament? Anyone would know something was off.
Amari shot up out of the water, determined. "Then I'll just ask everyone I know if they know anything about who the heck Cure Moon is!" She said to herself, clenching her fist, a little excited to go on this mini scavenger hunt for information. Squirting a bottle of shampoo into her hair, she furiously scrubbed away, "First, I have to get a good night's rest and then I'll be good to go!"
Clack.
"I'm home."
"Ah, welcome home Tsukihiko."
Tsukihiko Myou, the younger son of the family running the Myou Shrine in Amanoniwa.
"What were doing out so late? Mom was getting a little worried about you."
Tsukihiko hummed, taking off his shoes as he entered their home, before holding out a small box with a sweet scent coming from it. "I went and got some cake for us to share. First day back in school and all… figured we could celebrate a little bit." He made his way to where the other person speaking to him had been.
His older brother, Yue Myou. The current head priest of the Myou Shrine, as passed onto him by his father who had passed a few years prior. He sat at a low table, with a cup of hot tea in hand, looking over at Tsukihiko. The other placed the cake box on the table, before sitting in front of his brother.
"I got your favorite. The, what was it, Campanelle Cheesecake?" Tsukihiko opened the cake box to reveal three slices from assorted cakes.
"Campanella. Campanelle is a type of pasta, Tsukihiko." Yue sighed a bit, sliding the piece of galaxy-colored cheesecake closer to him, picking up the fork inside the box to take a piece of the cake and eat it.
Tsukihiko did the same with his own slice of strawberry shortcake, where the strawberries were cut into star shapes (the bakery called it 'Reverie Shortcake'), taking a fork and taking a bite of it, "Oh, right."
The two of them ate their cakes in relative silence, only quietly chatting about how their days went. Nothing eventful from both of them, only some rowdy people disrupting the shrine during the day that Yue had to scare off and just a boring old school day for Tsukihiko.
"Thanks for the cake, Tsukihiko."
"I'll go put the one for Mom in the fridge." Tsukihiko closed up the box, standing up with it.
Yue nodded, taking his cup of tea and pouring himself a new cup. Sipping from the hot teacup, he spoke, "Alright. I'll probably stay awake a while longer then, so good night."
"Mm. Good night."
As he said he would, he left towards the kitchen and put the box of cake into the fridge, sticking a note onto it, simply saying 'for Mom' in tired writing. What Yue didn't know, was that instead of leaving right towards his room to sleep, Tsukihiko quietly made his way into the deeper parts of the house, eventually ending up outside in the wide courtyard area. Here was housed the great tree of the town, Konohana.
"Oi, Konohana." Tsukihiko spoke up towards the tree, although quietly as not to attract any unwanted attention.
Silence filled the area again, seemingly getting no response to whatever he was attempting to accomplish. The gentle swaying of the cherry blossoms only answered Tsukihiko's call, at least, until the breeze slightly picked up and in a small hurricane of fallen blossom petals, a figure appeared.
The figured yawned, "Huh…? Isn't it sleeping time, Yue?"
"Wrong. It's Tsukihiko." Tsukihiko sighed, before getting a face full of cloth. "Issun, I know I'm bothering your sleep, but just take today's damn bead from me."
"Awh, don't be mean to him. He's just being Issun." The figure rubbed her eyes of drowsiness, before fully blinking her eyes open.
"Well, then get him off me, Konohana."
Konohana giggled, before plucking the sprite off of Tsukihiko's face, the small fairy groaning in annoyance. "You can call me something else, you know, Tsuki! Konohana sounds so stuffy. I've told you that you can call me Sakuya, right?" The girl hummed, while pinching Issun's tiny face, causing the fairy to squeak and jolt awake.
With Tsukihiko's face now fairy-free, he gently rubbed his temples and adjusted the glasses on his face. "That's too improper. You're still a sacred tree blessed by the gods, so I'll treat you with respect."
Konohana huffed, "That respect sure is cold and harsh."
Konohana, the spirit of the tree of the same name. The spirit takes the form of a girl in a flowy and flowery kimono, always surrounded by cherry blossoms. Though, she insists on being called Sakuya, maybe even Konoha, in order to get closer to Tsukihiko, who seemed so adamant on being this distant.
In Konohana's hand was Issun, a sprite. A strange fairy, to say the least. 90% cloak, 10% bug-styled straw type of hat, with a side of weird ears and wings and a tail.
"Here." Tsukihiko took out from his pocket the bead he collected earlier today, pressing the shiny bead into Issun's face. The now-awake sprite took the bead that was being shoved into his face, rather annoyed.
"So rude. But thanks for today's good work." Issun said, lifting up his hat and stored the bead within, somehow. "Go to bed, it's late."
Duty done, Tsukihiko was already making his way back into the main house, exhausted, "Mhmm." He eventually disappeared behind the sliding doors with a soft clack.
Konohana put Issun down next to her tree, humming, "I wish Tsuki was a little more like Yue. It's almost like he's been forced into this role by us…"
Issun scampered up into the branches of Konohana, "If you think about it, he kind of is. But it's also understandable why he's like that." The sprite curled up in a small niche within the branches. "He doesn't want Yue to find out he's a Pretty Cure, so he's trying not to make it obvious that he knows that he can see you."
The girl sighed, before disappearing in another breeze of petals. "I suppose you're right."
Konohana : Don't you think Tsuki's doing a lot by himself?
Issun : Uh, yeah? I guess?
Konohana : Don't you think you should be finding two other people to fill in the places of Cure Sun and Cure Sea soon, Issun?
Issun : Hrgk.
Konohana : If you aren't out trying to find the other Pretty Cures tomorrow, you aren't getting a share of snacks.
Issun : Okay! Okay, I get it!
Next Episode
The Hunt for Pretty Cure! ...Wait, Me?!