Chapter 2 – PikaPika! The Meaning of Strength

Kurisu stood, surrounded in a radiant light. Her white skirt flowed over her purple shorts as the ribbons on her back began to descend. Her blonde-hair gleamed brightly in the light of the sun, and she opened her eyes towards the crystal-like monster ahead of her. She was no longer Suzumiya Kurisu. Standing before everyone was the legendary warrior, Pretty Cure. She was now Cure Diamond.

"Pretty Cure?!" Zir-Q raised his transparent eyebrow. "Impossible! They're only myth!"

"You take that back-tsuu!" Rubee retorted. "The Pretty Cure are very much real-tsuu! And you'll finally get yours-tsuu!"

"Um…" Cure Diamond stood there with the most confused look on her face. "I…don't really understand what's going on…but this isn't something I'd normally wear, y'know." The other three stood there, silent from the innocent comment she let out. "D-Don't look at me like that! I'm surrounded by a light and all, and now I have this getup! It's weird! WEIRD!"

Zir-Q couldn't take much more of this. "Baah! Synthesan! Crush her into tiny pieces!" The Synthesan let out a loud roar and raised its fist. It then thrust a punch towards the girl in white.

"Yow!" Diamond gasped. Her first instinct was to jump over the fist, but how can she leap over something that big? As the fist neared, Diamond crouched down and jumped up into the air. Before she knew it, not only was she over the fist but over the Synthesan itself. Everyone looked up in awe at how high she had jump. "Woah woah woah!" she exclaimed. "That was scary! And I'm flying! I'm totally flying!...Someone get me down!"

He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Were the Pretty Cure more than just a legend? "Synthesan!" Zir-Q commanded. "While she's defenseless!"

"Who're you callin' defenseless, you walking window?!" The blonde watched the Synthesan jump after her; it was tall, so reaching her didn't take long. It punched at her again with a left hook, but Diamond pushed in the punch off its path with her right hand, twirling over the arm and running down it. "Oh…my…GOOOSH!" Without controlling herself, she felt her foot jam itself to the Synthesan's zirconium face and sent it pummeling into the dirt of the park. She landed onto the top railing of the swings, trying to regain her balance. "I can jump high…and I got super strength! I'm like a super hero…like Kamen Rider or something!"

Rubee excitedly buzzed next to Diamond. "You're one of the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure-tsuu! You've been granted the powers to defeat evil and restore balance to the worlds-tsuu!"

"Woah…sounds hardcore…"

Their little conversation was interrupted by the hollowed groans of Takeru's Synthesan form. "You…" it growled, "…you're mocking me, aren't you…" Diamond was confused by this. "You think…I'm weak, don't you! Don't look down on me!" It charged again at Diamond, who jumped out of the way. Its hulking crystalline body slammed into the swings and knocked it down.

"Woah there, cowboy," Diamond said, landing behind the Synthesan. "I never said anything about you."

"Then why are you fighting?!" The Synthesan launched out another punch, and Diamond did her best to hold it back by holding out her arms and pushing it back.

"I'm…the legendary hero, right?!" Diamond sounded somewhat unsure of herself. "And you're the monster terrorizing the peace! Super hero rules dictate that the hero has to stop the monster!"

"Then you're using your strength just because it was granted to you?! You use it like a new toy!" Diamond felt boots slide back on the dirt. "You don't have anything to fight for! You fight because you're told to! You're just abusing your strength, you hypocrite!" The blonde felt herself slip, and the Synthesan slammed her through two trees. As she slid down, the Synthesan raised his fists. "I won't lose! I won't become weak! And I won't…fail…ever again!"

'Fail?'

The crystalline fist slammed into the trees in a loud boom. "Kuri-tsuu!" Rubee cried. The Synthesan slowly retracted its fist. Takeru was breathing heavily inside his crystalline body, staring down at his handy work through the Synthesan's eyes. It then returned to Zir-Q.

"Gwah ha ha ha ha ha!" Zir-Q snorted an obnoxious laugh as his soldier returned to his side. "Good job, poppet! Guess that's all a Pretty Cure was: a legend." He grinned as he looked at the red bee buzzing about the destroyed trees. "One Gem of Light destroyed. Let's go, Synthesan. We'll collect more negative energy from any place you want!"

The Synthesan paused and looked out at the school up the hill. That blue-haired girl was there, the one that opposed him. "I won't…be made weak…I will not be weak…Never…ever again…" it droned constantly as it stomped towards the school with Zir-Q trailing behind.

Soon, the sun had set, and the pair had disappeared. Rubee sobbed around the fallen trees. "Why-tsuu…this wasn't supposed to happen-tsuu…"

All of a sudden, the trees began to push themselves off from the ground. A dirty and scratched Cure Diamond sat there, huffing and puffing. "Why're you crying?" she asked the red bee. "It's not like I'm dead yet…" The bee buzzed happily and snuggled into Diamond's stomach. Meanwhile, the blonde thought long and hard about Takeru's words.

"I wont't…fail…ever again!"

"You don't have anything to fight for! You fight because you're told to!"

"Rubee…" Diamond said, "…why am I a Precure?"

Rubee looked up at the Pretty Cure. "You're a Pretty Cure because the Gem of Light chose you-tsuu. You have a duty to protect the world from the Counterfeti Army-tsuu!"

Just like Takeru said, Kurisu didn't have a purpose to fight. She's only fighting because she's told to. "He's right…" Diamond replied. "I'm only fighting because I'm told to. I don't have a duty to the world that I don't know. I'm just forced into this fight not of my own will."

"But I've seen you fight-tsuu!" Rubee retorted. "Not as a Pretty Cure, but as Kuri-tsuu! You put yourself in harm's way to protect your friends against all odds-tsuu! You looked at death in the face-tsuu, and you fought back-tsuu!"

As Diamond listened carefully to Rubee's words, she thought about why she fought in the first place. In her hometown, she's revered as a martial arts expert, and one of the only females who can cause that much damage. She's a hero and a legend in her own right, but she never fought for fame and glory. She thought back on why she started to fight in the first place. It all began with that one incident. The incident…where she cried the most in her life.

"You're chosen by the Gem of Light because you have something no one else has-tsuu!"

Then she realized it; Kurisu had something more than anyone else she knew. It's what made her special and what made her go on. That boy she fought, Takeru, he lacked it. His need for strength was driven for all the wrong reasons, probably for the one failure he mentioned. Whatever that failure was, it made him give up everything he had, and he was quickly overtaken by the power granted to him.

"You know what…forget what I said…" Diamond stated and stood up. "That guy…Takeru-san…he's wrong."

"Wrong about what-tsuu?"

Diamond looked towards the school; that crystalline beast could be seen from the park she was in. "I'm not fighting because I'm told to. I'm not fighting because I'm a Pretty Cure. I'm fighting because…I have a reason to. I can't give up here or ever. Even if I don't have a duty to the world, I have a duty to those around me." She closed her eyes and placed her hand over heart-shaped diamond on the pale blue ribbon on her chest. "I have people I need to protect. And even if I have to protect someone I don't know, at least they'll live. Knowing that they're alive…is the drive I need to keep on going!" She had a renewed look. She had fallen, but she stood up right away.

Rubee couldn't help by admire her. "Kuri-tsuu…"

"First off, it's KuriSU," Diamond corrected. "And secondly…call me Cure Diamond. Now let's go. We have people to protect!"

The Synthesan neared the gates of the school. Its empty eyes narrowed as it glared into the building ahead.

"Now, show them your strength!" Zir-Q announced.

Takeru remembered how Kurisu had defeated his underlings and himself in front of everyone in the school. His reasoning now was to destroy it all so they'd know how strong he was. The Synthesan clasped its two hands together and prepared to smash down the closed gates. But it didn't hear a crash. Takeru looked through his arms to see that the girl in white had stopped his attack. "You…YOU!"

"Takeru-san!" Diamond called out to him. "I'm going to stop you! And not because I'm a Pretty Cure!" She looked up at Takeru in his Synthesan form instead of the form itself. "Because…I have someone to protect. I have to protect you from destroying what you have left of yourself!"

Hearing Diamond talk about protecting once again set the Synthesan off. In a wild rage, it lifted its leg to kick. Diamond quickly jumped out of the way. "What do you know?!" it roared, voicing out Takeru's negativity. "You're just trying to be a hero! You don't know the feeling of failing like I have! Failing something you should never have failed in! You're all talk! That's all you are!"

As the Synthesan continued its frenzy, Diamond crouched and jumped towards its center where Takeru was. "And you think I haven't?!" she yelled and launched a double punch that sent it flying next to Zir-Q.

"Wh-what power!" Zir-Q stuttered.

Diamond landed with Rubee buzzing next to her. "Even I know the feeling of failure. And the price I paid for it." Her face sank, and her fists clenched. "But that slip up…no, I can't even call it a slip up. I learned from it, the biggest mistake of my life. It made me stronger, so that I would never go through that again. I would never have to fail protecting someone ever again." The Synthesan didn't move. "My failure gave me the strength to become stronger than I was and help me move forward! Because of that day…I swore that I'd never fail again, and I would continue the path I'm on!" She then pointed at the Synthesan. "You fell and gave up on your road the minute you failed! You gave up on yourself before you could ever try! Do you think anyone would be proud of what you are now?!"

Takeru's eyes widened as the Synthesan laid on its back. "…Chika…" he muttered inside its body. The Synthesan began to rise again.

"Give up your pride! You don't need it when moving on! All you need is the determination to move on and move forward. And every human being on this planet…no, every living being on this planet has the will to keep on living! Even you!"

"I've heard enough, poppet." Zir-Q appeared before Cure Diamond. She never realized how big the Synthesan being was. He raised his large crystalline arms and slammed it onto Diamond, but she raised her hands to block. "Strength should never be used to protect, but oppress! You take what you want and make it yours! To protect and to be protected is a sign of weakness!"

Diamond pushed off Zir-Q's large hands and launched a jumping double front kick his chest and chin. "You're wrong! There's nothing wrong with protecting or being protected! There's nothing wrong with being weak! Everyone will always be protected by something until they can stand on their own. We learn from our weaknesses and grow stronger. And I will never forgive you for using that boy's weakness as your strength!"

The two began to exchange blows in a rapid motion. "That is his own strength, powered by his own negativity! I'm merely helping him use it to his full potential!"

"But that's because you've exploited it! You're not helping anyone, you're using him! And I won't forgive you for using him as your own…TOOL!" She let a powerful punch that somewhat cracked Zir-Q's chest and sent him flying back. There were diamond shards growing on Diamond's right knuckles.

"Urgh!" Zir-Q groaned as he jumped back onto his feet. "Synthesan, finish her off!" The Synthesan stood, but it wasn't moving. "Synthesan? What're you doing?! Obliterate her!" When he looked at Takeru, he was shocked to find that the light in his eyes were slowly returning. There was a faint glow in his chest. "No…no! I won't fail here!"

"Diamond!" Rubee flew next to Cure Diamond, pointing to her hand. "You're slowly grasping the power of the Pretty Cure-tsuu! Channel that power through your Gem of Light and purify that boy-tsuu!"

"L-Like this?" the blonde questioned as she raised the Diamond of Light ring on her left middle finger. She slammed her right palm over the Diamond of Light, and a brilliant aura glowed from her beneath her. Rubee buzzed away as quickly as he could. "Th-this is the power of the Pretty Cure…" Diamond realized her potential as she looked at Takeru before her. Her eyes gleamed as she gripped her left hand tightly. "I'll polish that which has dulled your heart!" When she let go, light bursted on her palm that became diamond engulfing her arm, then her entire right arm. "Illuminate! Diamond of Light!" With a powerful straight punch, she let a large image of her crystalized fist hit the Synthesan, freezing it in its place and raising it in the air. "Pretty Cure…" Diamond then jumped up into the air and pulled back her diamond arm. "Diamond…Impact!"

A second punch slammed into the center of the cubic zirconium Synthesan. Takeru felt the light engulf him as Diamond slid past the crackling Synthesan. "Polification…" With a swing of her right arm, the diamond armor shattered. "…complete!" The Synthesan's body then exploded into many shards. The shards began to melt and fade, and the unconscious Takeru slowly floated to the ground.

"Damn…" Zir-Q muttered from afar while holding his chest. "The Legendary Warriors, Pretty Cure…I'll have to report this to Lord Glass." He then quickly disappeared.

As night fell, and Cure Diamond stood over the unconscious Takeru, Rubee then floated next to her, looking into his chest. "The Counterfeit Heart has been shattered-tsuu, and his real Birthstone is beginning to recover-tsuu."

Diamond simply looked down at him and sighed. "Can't let him sleep here," she said and carried him over her should. "But…I hope he'll be okay…I'm not sure if my words got to him."

"Don't get yourself down-tsuu," Rubee eplied. "They probably did. You never know."

"Yeah…"

The next morning, the students began to return to Jyuunisujou for their second day of school. Kurisu let out a loud yawn as she groggily walked down the road to the hill. "Man…after last night, I feel so drained…"

"That's because you're not used to being a Pretty Cure-tsuu," said a voice from Kurisu's back. In a panic, Kurisu slapped her back, and the other students looked at her weirdly. She then let out a nervous laugh.

"Hey, you, shut up," she whispered. "I'm only taking you with me because seeing a red bee the size of a pillow flying around will get everyone suspicious! So stay quiet!"

"But Kuri-tsuu~," Rubee whined as he poked his head out of Kurisu's bag, "your bag smells!"

"Shut up! My bag does NOT smell! Ugh…" As Kurisu headed to the park to cool off, she heard familiar screams. "Oh no, not again…" she muttered to herself and ran to the source of the commotion. Sure enough, it was Mariko, Seina, and Yuki being hassled by two older teens. "They just can't go to school without getting into trouble, can they…" The blonde began to lower her tie and unbutton the top button of her shirt, but Rubee stopped her.

"Kuri-tsuu, look!"

Kurisu then looked up to see Takeru heading towards the three girls and two teens. "Oh no…not him…I guess he hadn't learned a thing…"

"Oi, aniki!" said one of the teens. "Just give us the word, huh?...Aniki?" Before he knew it, the hatted teen felt pure fist slam into his face, sending him flying into the bushes. Takeru had launched the punch and was now glaring at the shaved-headed teen.

"A-Aniki?!"

"Leave…now…" he muttered towards the thug as he grabbed his collar. "And if I ever see you mess with these uniforms ever again, I'll beat you down so you'll never get up again." The teen was speechless, but he heeded his warning, grabbed his partner, and ran off. Takeru looked at the girls with a dazed look. "You girls okay?"

"Uh…yeah…" the three of them replied, Yuki somewhat blushing.

Takeru turned to leave, but he caught sight of Kurisu. After a long look, he turned away and left the park. Mariko, Yuki, and Seina then ran to the blonde.

"Y'know…" Kurisu muttered to herself, though she was really talking to Rubee in her bag, "…I was wrong. I think he'll be just fine…"