This chapter was another one that was emotionally very difficult to write…
For anyone medically-knowledgeable who reads this chapter: Yes, I am aware that in Real Life, bones breaking generally aren't very loud (well, so I've read; are they?). However, for dramatic effect I'm going with the usual pop-culture/Hollywood "Big loud snap/crack" trope even though it is not (as far as I know) realistic.
As you can tell, I'm not a trained medical professional, so if anything else in this chapter is off, or even point-&-laugh-at-me dead wrong, I'm sorry.
PLEASE SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES
-CHAPTER START-
Realm PC-5 – Earth – Japan – Kibōgahana
One Day After Chapter 1 – 10:15 AM
Since yesterday the girls, their fairies, and their families had been on-edge, keeping eyes & ears open for the strange dark creatures. At the moment, the quartet of Tsubomi Hanasaki, Erika Kurumi, Itsuki Myōdōin, and Yuri Tsukikage were gathered at the Hanasaki Botanical Garden, comparing notes on the enemies they'd fought yesterday. They'd been able to puzzle out a few things, such as how the monsters were divided into two main types – shadowy creatures of black & dark-blue and little in the way of other colors or features, without exception menacing in appearance (well, the littlest ones were kinda cute… until they opened their jagged, glowing mouths) and demeanor, and the more colorful, sometimes almost funny-looking ones which all bore the same odd emblem somewhere on their bodies and seemed to release what looked like ethereal hearts when slain. It was almost as if they were two different types of dark creature working together, their only shared features being partially- or wholly-black bodies and glowing yellow eyes.
"Seriously, what was up with that?" Erika K. asked. "So, are they like the Desertrians, how they were people's Hearts separated from their physical essence and turned into monsters? So how come we didn't find the little tiny-people-curled-up-inside gems like we did with the old monsters?"
"When released, the Hearts looked to float up and then fade away" Yuri replied. "Maybe they were returning to where they belong…"
Tsubomi was about to add her theory into the conversation, when suddenly the three fairies' heads perked up and they all looked toward outside.
"What is it?" Itsuki asked them.
"There a big thing of magic coming" Potpourri replied.
"It doesn't feel evil, though" Coffret added. "I don't know what in the worlds it is, but I'm kinda confident it's not an enemy."
Curious, the four girls and three fairies headed outside, in front of the botanical garden's entrance. After a few seconds of still silence, a sizable magic rune-circle, white with a pink outer rim, appeared on the ground. With a flash of light, six figures appeared standing atop it, and as the light faded the locals saw they were five girls and one boy in casual clothes around the age of Tsubomi, Erika, and Itsuki – the boy had shoulder-length grey/silver hair, while among the girls one had shoulder-length light-pink hair in pigtails, one with long purplish-black hair, one with long red hair in a ponytail, one with short blue hair, and one with blonde hair in two big curls. The six newcomers looked around, spotting the quartet and recognizing them from the 'debrief' (in other words: Kyōsuke has all episodes of HeartCatch on DVD, so he & the girls watched the show all the way through a day ago).
"Are you guys connected in any way to those weird monsters that attacked us yesterday?" Erika K. asked the newcomers.
"What kinda monsters?" Kyōko Sakura asked.
In response, Chypret pulled out a piece of paper with a crayon-drawn picture of a Soldier on it, red-and-black emblem clearly displayed.
"You've encountered the Heartless already?" Homura asked.
"Heartless? That's what they're called?" Coffret said. "But… It looked and felt like they were all Heart, and nothing else."
"Yeah, and we also have enemies called 'Nobodies' that are all 'body', but no Heart" Kyōsuke replied. "We didn't name them; we just roll with it."
"Anyway," Madoka stepped forward, "we are part of the Dimensional Defense Force, a collection of people and organizations and civilizations banded together to fight common enemies and share knowledge and trade and such. One of the evil factions we're fighting has its sights set on this world and two neighboring others; we know that this world and those two others all have teams of powerful magical-girls called PreCures."
"Eh?-!" Tsubomi spoke up, shocked. "Two more PreCure teams?-!"
"Yep" Sayaka replied. "There's the four HeartCatch PreCures, the four Suite PreCures, and the five Smile PreCures… as far as we know, anyway."
"So, what now?" Chypret asked.
"We have something that will allow all of you to watch and learn about everything the DDF has been through up to this point," Mami said, "as well as the other two PreCure teams."
"Alright" Itsuki replied. "Just give us time to get the others."
"Others?" Sayaka asked.
"When the Heartless attacked us yesterday," Yuri said, "it was right in front of our families. We had to transform in front of them to protect them. We explained everything afterwards; they're all caught up on things now."
"I see…" Homura replied. "Well, I suppose it can't be helped. We'll wait for you to get everyone together, then."
As they all headed inside the building, Madoka wondered how the other two groups were doing…
-SCENE BREAK-
Realm PC-6 – Earth – Japan – Kanon Town
One Day After Chapter 1 – 12:05 PM
The Suite PreCures were at the old concert hall where they frequently hung out. The massive enchanted pipe organ dominated one end of the huge chamber, and the girls (and Hummy & the Fairy Tones) sat on the steps at the foot of the old stage. Things had been quiet since yesterday's encounter with the "Nobodies"; Hibiki & Kanade's families had by now fully accepted the fact that they and their two friends were the famous PreCures, there'd been no other sightings of their mysterious new foe, and King Mephisto & Queen Aphrodite had yet to find any more intel.
"I wonder what the other two PreCure teams are like" Hibiki thought aloud.
"Papa said he's found out that one of them has four members, like us," Ako replied, "and the other has five. He hasn't figured anything else out yet, though."
"Hmm?" Hummy's ears perked up as she looked out toward the exit. "Hey girls, there's something magical coming -nya."
"What is it?" Kanade asked. "More of those 'Nobody' things?"
"I don't know. But it feels like it's bad -nya."
Wary, the girls headed outside, transformation modules at the ready. They then startled as, within seconds, a multitude of little 'whorls' of Darkness appeared in thin air a couple feet off the ground. From them emerged a horde of dark creatures of varying form and size, some with glowing circular yellow eyes and others with angular red eyes; the yellow-eyed ones shared a certain symbol, excepting some which had no symbol and looked more "natural" than the others, while the red-eyed creatures all shared a different symbol.
"The hell are these?" Hibiki said.
"Probably the 'Heartless' and 'Unversed' that the King mentioned" Seiren replied.
Quickly, the four girls transformed. The Heartless and Unversed began their attack, and Cures Melody, Rhythm, Beat, and Muse retuned the favor, the dark-creature cannon fodder beginning to fall at a fairly quick rate. The quartet got a surprise then as, only around half a minute into the fight, a large magic rune-circle, white with an orange tint, appeared in the middle of the area. In a flash of light, four people appeared standing atop it: a blue-eyed, orange-haired girl in a red outfit holding an orange-bladed energy sword; a tall red-eyed blonde in a predominantly-black outfit and carrying a black pole-axe with a large gold gem in the 'head'; a slightly shorter green-eyed blonde in dark-blue jeans, a brown jacket over a green t-shirt, and hefting a large hammer of sorts; and the shortest of the newcomers (though still a little taller than the three older Suite PreCures), with long brown hair, green eyes, wearing a black jacket over a light-grey shirt and dark-grey pants, armored boots, and a rather impressive arm cannon over her right arm.
The dark creatures divided their attention, a sizable amount of them immediately rushing at the new arrivals. In response, the head of the taller blonde's axe flipped upward, and a scythe-blade made of golden magical energy sprang forth. With one quick swing, she bisected a Scrapper that tried to tackle her, and with another she de-winged an Air Pirate that tried to divebomb her. The other three girls flew into motion; the girl with the arm cannon fired blue-tinted purple bolts of energy at the smaller enemies, while the younger blonde used her hammer to tackle the Large Bodies and Bruisers, with the sword-wielding redhead handling the rest. However, the Heartless and Unversed did not ignore the PreCures for long, soon forcing them to stop staring and join in the fight again.
The yellow and bluish bolts of magic of Fate's Photon Lancer and Cure Beat's Beat Sonic helped to clear the skies of flying Unversed & Heartless, while Cure Muse's Shining Circle trapped a sizable pack of Heartless in close proximity so that Marie's Sunburst could wipe them all out in one go. Teana used Fūton: Shinkūha to cut down a trio of Soldiers that tried to drop onto Cure Rhythm from above, while Cure Melody used a magically-empowered diving kick to take out a Neoshadow trying to sneak up on Sarah. A large Dark Portal appeared several meters off the ground, and out of it dropped a large Unversed, its body looking like a giant demonic pumpkin with a wide crooked mouth, two thorny tentacles on either side with pale flower-buds at each end, and four black thorny vines curled into wheels – a Cursed Coach. It opened its mouth wide, and several explosive pumpkin-bombs flew out, forcing Fate and Cure Rhythm to get some distance to dodge. In response, Melody and Rhythm pulled out their Belltier weapons, loaded them with two Fairy Tones each, and split them into two separate pieces, with which they 'drew' fiery hearts of magical energy and launched them at the monster:
"PreCure: Miracle Heart Arpeggio!"
"PreCure: Fantastic Piacere!"
The two heart-shaped blasts of Light and Fire magic raced out, enveloping the Cursed Coach. With a duet shout of "Finalé!", the magic 'detonated', consuming the Unversed and destroying it, the blast also taking out a handful of lesser Heartless and Unversed that were too close. Faced with all this firepower and with dwindled numbers, the remaining Heartless and Unversed 'jumped' out, retreating. The two quartets approached each other, meeting in the middle.
"Um… Are you girls one of the other PreCure teams that my father mentioned?" Cure Muse asked.
"No," Teana replied, "but we have people on the way to meet up with them. We're part of the Dimensional Defense Force, a coalition of people, groups, and civilizations from different realms, banded together to fight many different foes, as well as swap knowledge, tech, goods, and other stuff. Those monsters just now were the underlings of one of the enemy factions we're dealing with, and at least three of that faction's higher-up fighters may have their sights set on this world and on the two of the 'other PreCures'."
"It's a really long story" Marie said. "Rather than tell you, we can show you. Get anyone who's in on you four being magical girls, and have them meet up with you & us here; we've got something that'll let you see and hear the histories of the DDF's members up 'til now, as well as of the other two PreCure teams."
"Um… Okay" Hibiki/Melody replied.
"It'll make more sense once we can explain things in more detail" Sarah said.
As Sarah and Teana started talking with the Cures, Marie turned to Fate.
"You think Theta Team's doing okay with the third PreCure team?" she asked.
"I'm sure they're fine" Fate replied. "From what I understand, Master Yen-Sid beat us there, so he's probably already given explanations to that team. *Giggle* I just hope Erika and Mariko aren't fangirling them too hard…"
-SCENE BREAK-
Realm PC-7b – Mysterious Library – PreCure Secret Base/Clubhouse
One Day After Chapter 1 – 2:15 PM
Upon arriving via dimensional transfer in Nanairogaoka, the seven kids of Theta Team were a bit surprised to discover that not only had Master Yen-Sid helped the Smile PreCures get their powers back, rescue Candy, and then explained to them the basics of the DDF, he'd left them an 'archive-footage' device already, so they knew who Theta Team were upon first meeting them. In addition, the bit from the end of the last world meant that the Smile girls were prepared for Erika and Mariko's inevitable bit of fangirling. After proper introductions, everyone had headed to the Mysterious Library to hammer details out… and to make friends, of course; Timmy and Yayoi had started to bond over sketching & drawing things, Miyuki and Mariko were glad to find cheerful, happiness-seeking cuddle-bugs in each other, and all seven of them took a shine to experienced (a 10-year-old brother, 8-year-old sister, 6-year-old sister, 4-year-old brother, 3-year-old brother, and newborn sister) 'big sis' figure Nao.
Right now, Erika S. was lost in thought, still a little shaken up from what she'd seen happen differently in this timeline from the "canon" one, according to magically-acquired/created 'footage'. It had mostly gone according to 'canon', until the "Three Bad-End Generals' last chances" plotline of Episodes 40 through 44. The fights of "Sunny vs. Wolfrun" and "Peace vs. Akaoni" had gone as canon, but then Ep. 44's events, of Happy vs. Wolfrun", had taken place, even though in canon it took place after "March vs. Majorina" and "Beauty vs. Joker". Then, when March vs. Majorina had happened, there had been some significant changes. First, the Midorikawa parents had both been present starting from toward the end of the search for Hina and Yūta, getting involved literally less than a minute before Nao and her other siblings found the two kids in Majorina's clutches. Thus, Nao's mother & father had been present along with the kids to witness her transformation into Cure March, and her fighting desperately to protect them all. In the ensuing exchange of blows, two more changes took place: Majorina did not yet assume her more powerful younger form, and one of March's blows shattered the bars of the 'cage' holding Hina & Yūta, who had been quickly whisked away to safety by their father.
And then, things had gotten bad…
-Flashback Start-
"MARCH SHOOTER IMPACT!-!-!"
Cure March's superpowered kick sent the Hyper-Akanbe hurtling hundreds of feet straight up into the air. The greenish glow left her body as she landed back down on the ground, soon falling to one knee, panting from exhaustion. Behind her, her parents and siblings looked on in awe. Several seconds later, the giant apple-themed monster made a ground-shaking landing… on its feet, battered but still intact. March gritted her teeth as she struggled back to her feet.
"I… can't fail here…" Majorina's voice was heard. "This is my last chance… If I lose here, I'm through! I won't let it end like this! Do you hear me, Cure March?-! I don't have the option of losing here! It's all, or nothing!-!"
With that, Majorina assumed her stronger form within the Hyper-Akanbe, which turned red and nearly doubled in size. A second later, a barrier of energy 'fencing' sprang up around Nao/March's family, trapping them. Before March could do anything to try to help them, the pumped-up Hyper-Akanbe fired an explosive Bullet Seed barrage at her. She moved to dodge, but realized that they would hit her family if she did, so instead she placed herself in the attack's path, doing her best to deflect them, but in her exhausted and wounded state some of them got through, hitting her hard and knocking her back. She heard her siblings crying out to her, as well as the stomp-stomp-stomp of Majorina's Hyper-Akanbe coming closer.
"The Black Nose…" Majorina's voice was heard. "Been using it for too long… I can feel Joker's dark power starting to infect my mind… I have to… finish this!"
The monster charged, pulling a feint and trying to circle around March and go for her trapped family. In a burst of speed Nao threw herself into the beast's path, and the monster promptly snatched her up in its massive hands, gripping her tightly so she had no chance of getting free. Due to the increased size of the monster, the only parts of her sticking out from above and below the hands' grip were her head, neck, shoulders, and her lower legs from halfway down the shin down to her feet.
"Gonna end this… Dark Energy… for Pierrot-sama… Make you… suffer!"
The Hyper-Akanbe began to squeeze, slowly increasing the pressure. With how much damage she'd taken already, and how exhausted she was, Cure March's outfit's magical protective properties were weakened and nearly worn out, so it wasn't long before the crushing pressure began to overcome it. Nao/March gritted her teeth as it started to hurt, steadily getting worse. She let out pained gasps, trying not to openly cry out as the pressure slowly built.
And then, as the Hyper-Akanbe tightened its grip more, the protective properties of Cure March's magical outfit, stressed to the breaking point by this long and difficult battle, finally failed. The sickening *snap* of a limb breaking sounded out, followed a split-second later by Nao/March letting out a loud and long scream of agonizing pain. Her family cried out in horror, some of them already crying from the sights and sounds of her suffering right in front of them while they were completely helpless to stop it. The Hyper-Akanbe kept squeezing, and Nao/March let out another scream that abruptly became much louder as two more bones gave way. Her ankles and feet, hanging/sticking out the bottom of the monster's grip, were visibly trembling and twitching as the horrible pain coursed through her body, and with another snap one of them went limp.
It was like a living nightmare for Nao's parents and siblings, one that seemed to be lasting forever. Seeing Nao/March hanging there, twitching and shaking in pain, being very slowly squeezed to death, tears streaming down her face, while hearing the failing of bones & joints along with her horrible, ear-piercing, heart-chilling screams… Keita was desperately trying to shield little Kōta's eyes, to not let him see, feeling sick to his stomach from the hellish spectacle before him; Hina and Yūta were forcing themselves to watch, remembering how this had all happened because they went out to get apples without telling Nao, and now trying to 'punish' themselves for it, until their mother Tomoko, who was all but coming apart emotionally herself, forced them to stop, holding them close to her and desperately trying to cover their eyes; Haru was sobbing her heart out, clutching onto their father Genji as hard as she could. Every time Nao screamed, the children flinched and trembled as if physically struck, crying harder.
Several of Nao's ribs had broken by this point, a few jagged edges poking at her lungs, threatening to puncture them. To her, it felt like every bone between her neck and her ankles was broken, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. She could almost hear her own racing heartbeat in her ears; it sounded irregular. Her body went limp as her consciousness started getting 'fuzzy', threatening to black out from the horrible pain.
"Now… End this, once and for a-"
There was a burst of movement and a flash of flame, and the Hyper-Akanbe stumbled back, its hands – still clenched around Nao/March – severed at the wrists by the sword of flame wielded by a very, very angry Cure Sunny. Less than a second later, a large combined blast of pink light and yellow lightning slammed into the monster, blasting it back. A figure in blue leapt in, landing beside Nao/March who was still clasped between the severed giant hands now on the ground, whimpering and making pitiful gasps for breath. Cure Beauty trembled, feeling tears come to her eyes, and then turned and glared at the Hyper-Akanbe with an openly murderous look on her face.
The Majorina-Akanbe fired another Bullet Seed barrage, but Cure Sunny rushed forward while surrounded in an inferno of Fire-based magical energy that burnt the projectiles to ashes before they could even reach her. Her eyes glowed red and her body drew in power as she charged in closer.
"Sunny… Fire…"
With a war-cry, she leapt forward like a blazing comet, right into the Hyper-Akanbe's mouth. The monster clutched at its 'throat', trying to pull her out.
"BURNING EXPLOSION!-!-!"
True to the name, a brilliant and devastatingly powerful explosion of flames, almost white-hot, erupted from within the Hyper-Akanbe, blowing it to bits from the inside. From amidst the roiling flames and smoke, Cure Sunny leapt high and out, landing in front of her friends, her crimson glow fading out as she gasped for breath, clutching at a few surface burns along her limbs. The barrier imprisoning Nao's family came undone, and immediately they all rushed toward their fallen member, screaming out her name, as the giant hands gripping her dissolved away; she cried out in pain as she dropped a foot or two to the ground, her transformation coming undone.
"Don't touch her!" Genji Midorikawa shouted out as a few of the kids and the other Cures drew near to Nao, fearing that any physical contact in the wrong place could send a fresh wave of agony through her broken body, or even cause more damage. He stopped and knelt beside her, his heart breaking at the sight; her limbs were twisted and swollen and bruised, and her shirt had come partially open to reveal her stomach and chest in the same state; her face was streaked with tears, contorted in a grimace of pain as she let out wheezes and whimpers, the very act of breathing causing her pain. With extreme care, he very slowly lifted her head up into his lap, and after a few seconds her eyes opened as she looked up at him.
"Pa…pa…?" she whispered out. "A… Are you a… all okay?"
Genji almost burst into tears right there; even after everything she'd just been subjected to, she still worried about everyone else's welfare first. "Yes, sweetie" he said softly. "We're fine. It's… It's gonna be okay, Nao. We're all here."
The rest of Nao's family and the other four Cures gathered round, the latter group in shock. Candy hopped down from atop Cure Happy's head and down to beside Nao, tears in her eyes as she let out tiny squeaks like trying and failing to sob, not quite able to believe the horrible sight in front of her. Suddenly, there was a faint groan from within the settling smoke and dust, catching everyone's attention. They all stared as young-form Majorina, burnt and beaten, staggered out, barely on her feet from the looks of it. But then, everyone got a nasty shock as, from out of nowhere, a purplish beam of energy around a foot thick blasted a hole through Majorina's chest from behind. When it faded, they all got the sickening sight of the inside of her upper torso, a hole burned neatly through it, as she coughed out blood and then toppled forward, dead by the time her face hit the ground. They all then heard a new sound: subdued laughter, a tenor voice chuckling.
(MUSIC: Naruto Shippūden OST Vol. 2 – "Hidan")
"As I told the other two… Pierrot-sama and I have no use for failures."
Everyone looked up and out past where Majorina had been, to see a man floating in a relaxed position a few meters above the ground, his hand outstretched toward where Majorina had been standing. He looked like a sort of harlequin – purple hair topped by a red, yellow, & blue jester's hat, a purple feather-like mantle on his shoulders with a red belt, a plain white suit with red-rimmed purple legs from mid-thigh down, black pointy shoes, pointed ears, and a white mask with black eye-holes covering the top half of his face. He held a few purple and gold playing cards in his free hand. And despite his almost-goofy appearance, Nao's family somehow sensed/felt that his 'presence' or 'aura', for lack of better words, was positively terrifying.
"Greetings, PreCures" he said with a fanged grin. "How unexpected to see you on this fine day, hm?"
"Joker…" Cure Beauty growled, as she and the other Cures took stances.
"Who… What the hell are you?" Keita asked.
Joker chuckled. "I, my dear boy, am the loyal right-hand man to the illustrious Lord Pierrot, he who shall bring about the ultimate Bad End to this world."
"W-Why did you… kill your own…?" Cure Happy was still shocked.
"Why? Well, because she failed the last chance that Pierrot-sama and I gave her, of course! Oh, come now, children, don't look so surprised. After all…" His eyes flashed red as his slasher's grin grew. "I did the same to Akaoni and Wolfrun after their recent losses to Cures Peace and Happy."
The Cures gasped in shock and horror at this casual admission.
"Yes," Joker continued, as he slowly drifted down to the ground, "I told all three of them before their respective battles that this would be their last chance to atone for their previous failures. Why, today I even gave Majorina a little help, augmented her aggression and implanted a few ideas in her head, but even that wasn't enough. Well, I suppose I could have just influenced her to snap Cure March's neck nice and quick, but…" his eyes flashed red again "then I wouldn't have gotten to hear her scream…" he licked his lips at that last part.
"You twisted monster…" Cure Peace breathed out.
"Oh, I haven't even gotten started yet! Say… did any of those three wastes of dark energy ever tell you lot just how they came to be in Pierrot-sama's service? No? Well… The fairies of Märchenland all correspond, on some level, to fairy-tale characters. Those three, as fairies, were confined to the role of the 'bad guys', and the other fairies feared and shunned and hated them for it. They were left so consumed by their pain, their sorrow, their desire for a better life, that Pierrot-sama's voice reached them. He and I offered them a way to stop the pain, to become strong enough to make it stop, and desperate as they were they agreed to it. So, I poured Pierrot-sama's power into their bodies and into their minds, reshaping both to serve our purposes.
"You brainwashed them…" Cure Peace said with dawning horror. "You… took three innocent fairies when they were at their weakest, and turned them into reprogrammed slaves…"
"Well, kiddo, if you want to put it that way, then… yes! A shame they couldn't live up to what we set them out to do, though they were at least useful in harvesting Bad Energy to further Pierrot-sama's revival. …Ahhh! I know! There might just be a way to still make use of them after all!"
He reached his hand out and pointed it at Majorina's corpse, which broke down into motes of green light and flowed through the air, forming a glowing point of 'dark light' hovering over Joker's opened palm. With a flick of a wrist, two more appeared – one blue, one red. He grinned maliciously.
"Pierrot-sama and I will make them usable again…" he said. "We shall revive them… and torture them for their failures, until their minds are broken and degraded into mindless, bloodthirsty savage beasts, living only to crush and destroy in Pierrot-sama's name! Their screams will be beautiful! And then… then I'll make them fight you girls to the death! They won't win, of course, not against you girls, but it should buy me a little more time to get more important things done. Ahh, I can't wait to see the looks on your faces when I have forced you to have innocent blood on your hands! I think I'll wait until Cure March has recovered, though; I want to make sure all five of you suffer that guilt and horror of being forced to become murderers!"
He threw his hands high and his head back, a big fanged grin on his face.
"And then! Once all is done, and I have gathered the last of the Bad Energy we need, Pierrot-sama shall be revived! The Earth shall meet its 'Worst End'! He and I shall conduct a chorus, of seven billion voices screaming in terror and despair! An eternal, beautiful symphony!-! Heeheeheee! Wondrous!"
"He's…" Genji murmured. "He's pure evil…"
After a few seconds, Joker turned his gaze back down to the group. With his psychotic grin focused on them, his eyes flashed bright red. Instantly everyone present cried out in surprised pain, a suffocating 'presence' combined with a brief magical stimulation of body-wide pain receptors making them all tremble and groan; Nao cried out, her already-battered body flaring up in pain again, while Tomoko felt movement in her lower body, her unborn Yui reacting to the evil stimulus as well. As soon as it had started, the effect cut off after only a couple seconds, leaving only echoes and memory.
"Do try to stay alive until the time is right, PreCures…" he said. He vanished, instantly reappearing right next to Cure Peace, using her head as an armrest.
"Rest up, recover…"
He vanished again, reappearing right behind the kneeling Genji, his head peeking over the man's shoulder.
"Tend to your wounded and sort things out…"
He vanished again as the man flinched away from where he'd been.
"And prepare yourselves for what's coming…" He was softly patting Hina & Yūta on the heads, vanishing just as they flipped out and clung to each other.
"For I am so looking forward to fighting you…" He hovered upside-down right behind Cure Happy, running a fingertip along her ankle before vanishing again, making her jump. He reappeared kneeling low right next to Nao, his face right next to hers.
"And I am looking forward to seeing your despair and pain…"
His unnaturally-long tongue licked up the drying tears from one of Nao's cheeks (her skin briefly feeling deathly cold and numb where it had touched) before he vanished again, appearing standing in his original position. He began to slowly float up into the air.
"Now then, Pierrot-sama's revival draws near, so I have important preparations to make! I will see you again soon, girls! Adieu!"
In a whirling flash of purple playing-cards, Joker vanished, his high, deranged laughter echoing through the air. Seconds later, with adrenaline fading out and pain & exhaustion finally overcoming her, Nao lost consciousness.
-Break-
Nanairogaoka Hospital
Some Time Later
"…And that is where we stand presently" Reika finished.
Quite a few people were present in the large hospital room. Besides the four unharmed Cures, Candy, and the Midorikawa family, Pop had arrived as well, having hurried over as soon as Candy contacted him and tearfully told him what had happened. Furthermore, by sheer coincidence, Akane's family had been here at the hospital for her little brother Genki's yearly checkup, and they had heard her unmistakable voice, panicked and near to tears, coming from the mouth of the local magical-girl heroine Cure Sunny as she and the other Cures accompanied a small pack of doctors & nurses, Cure Beauty explaining the situation to the lead one, as well as a gurney carrying her friend Nao in a horrible state. They'd seen the few amateur videos and pictures taken of the locally-famous heroes now & then, but now, seeing them up-close, hearing their familiar voices, it was quickly obvious to the Hino family that it was their daughter and her friends Miyuki, Yayoi, and Reika, and that by process of elimination Nao must've been the fifth member.
As Nao was rushed into emergency treatment, Akane's family had followed the group, and once the doctors had rushed her past the door that the others weren't allowed to follow through, Akane/Sunny had turned around to find her mother & father right there, giving looks of understanding. As emotionally shaken as she was at the moment, her mother placing a hand on her shoulder had been all it took to make her collapse into her parents' arms, de-transforming as she finally started crying. The other three had dispelled their transformations as well, supporting each other as the adrenaline wore off and the worrying cranked up. Nao's family had caught up a minute later, and once things had calmed down a bit Miyuki had suggested that, with how things were going, they might as well bring the other three families into the loop as well.
So here they were, packed into this sizable room – the Cure group, Candy & Pop, Nao's parents and siblings, Akane's parents and brother, Miyuki's mother, Yayoi's mother, Reika's older brother, and – via magic holographic video-screens courtesy of the 'Phone' Cure Décor – Miyuki's father & grandmother and Reika's mother & grandfather, along with the Midorikawa family doctor and the head of the group who'd tended to Nao's injuries. The Cure group, mostly Reika, had just finished explained the whole situation, starting with Märchenland's troubles and the 'birth' of the PreCures, and ending with the recent battle and the encounter with Joker.
And of course, in the center of the room, Nao lay on a hospital bed, still unconscious, machines hooked up to her to monitor her vitals, bandages covering her body beneath the sheet. Her arms and (beneath the covers) her legs were encased in a sort of strange, delicate-looking yet surprisingly sturdy latticework-like structure – some kind of fancy new type of cast invented by some tech-head in America to hopefully replace the thick, unwieldy, uncomfortable plaster casts of old [AN: it's a real thing; look up "Cortex cast". It's not in public use yet in our world, though; still experimental and "just one guy's bright idea" for us Real-Lifers, so don't get your limbs broken or you will still have to suffer the Heavy Thick Itchy Cast of Doom]. Thankfully, there was no threateningly serious damage to any of her organs; her lungs were bruised lightly from her broken ribs' poking edges, but not punctured, and her heart was okay. But she had a large amount of broken bones – arms, ribs, legs (including a small fracture in one of her femurs, the strongest bones in the body, which spoke of just how much force she'd been subjected to), a few cracks in her hip bones, and one of her legs had partially dislocated. Her feet, ankles, shoulders, and neck were undamaged, and mercifully her spinal cord was, too, though a few vertebrae had little fractures. Turns out, as 'cartoony' as it sounds, being squeezed nearly to death by a pair of goofy-looking giant hands can actually cause horrendous damage.
"This has never happened before…" Akane said, still sounding quite upset. "We've been at this for months now, but none of us have ever gotten anywhere near this badly hurt before…"
"Desperation drove Cure March's opponent to extremes" Reika's grandfather replied. "The knowledge that failure would mean her life, in addition to Joker's corruptive influence on her mind, pushed her to lengths she would have never dreamed of before."
"Yeah…" Akane murmured. "I guess so… When Wolfrun fought me, he fought harder and fiercer than ever before, and he did the same in his final fight against Miyuki. I'm pretty sure he dislocated my shoulder at one point, though I managed to pop it back into place pretty quickly."
"If that's true, I'll want to x-ray that shoulder of yours after this," the doctor said to her, "just in case."
"I still can't believe that the Bad End trio used to be Märchenland fairies…" Pop said. "Upon further thought, they do look a bit familiar… Oh… Oh no, I think I know who they were! Wolrun, Oninin, and Majorin… Because they represented the bad guys, even though they were actually nice people, a lot of fairies were really mean to them and scared of them and such. I tried to fix it, but the fairies wouldn't listen to me. And one day, those three disappeared, shortly before Pierrot's forces began their attack. I assumed they'd fallen to the Bad End forces, but… Joker must've found them when they were at their weakest emotionally, and used Pierrot's power to brainwash them! We of Märchenland drove them into the arms of the enemy!"
"And now Joker and Pierrot are torturing them, making them into mindless berserkers with the intent of forcing us to kill them…" Reika said.
"That's just… t-too cruel…" Yayoi started to cry.
"This… 'Joker'…" Miyuki's grandmother said. "He's a monster…"
"I…" Genki spoke up. "I never imagined a magical-girl villain could be so… depraved and vile…"
"And he's strong, too" Miyuki said, speaking softly. "When we first fought him, he took on all five of us at once and won easily. Even later, when Cure Beauty fought him, she had to go all-out, and she only won because she managed to catch him by surprise with a trick… and even then, she didn't cause any serious damage to him; he chose to fall back once the other three were KO-ed and Candy was rescued."
"We've gotten stronger since then" Akane replied. "Maybe it'll be enough."
"And he is planning to wait until Nao recovers before he initiates his endgame," Reika added, "if only because he wants to make all five of us suffer at the same time…"
10-year-old Keita, second-oldest of the Midorikawa siblings, had yet to leave the position he'd assumed since being allowed in here: knelt down at Nao's bedside, resting his head on folded arms beside her hand, listening to the entire explanation and conversation but saying nothing. He was dull and listless, his heart wounded by what he'd seen earlier today… The young boy let out a ragged sigh as he laid his head down next to his beloved big sister's hand. Suddenly, he felt something slowly, gently brush against the side of his head, and as he opened his eyes he saw that it was a lattice-casted hand, its owner's tired, half-open dark-green eyes looking straight at him. He gasped softly, feeling tears start to come to his eyes.
"N… Nao!-!"
Keita's shout startled nearly everyone, and they looked to the bed to see that Nao was indeed awake. Immediately the rest of her family crowded around the bed, with the four other Cures trying to squeeze in as well; they were very careful not to touch her limbs (other than her shoulders and her ankles & feet) or her torso (other than the top-most portion). Her mother slowly reached out a trembling hand and gently stroked her cheek. After a few seconds, Nao looked down at the foot of the bed, seeing Hina and Yūta there, tears in their eyes as they looked back at her.
"A… Are you two okay?" she asked them, her voice rough and weak.
At this, the two children burst into tears, sobbing as remorse and guilt overtook them.
"It's our fault!" Hina wailed. "W-we ju… just wanted to get the apples! We just wanted to help!"
"Apples?" Genji questioned.
"We…" Keita replied. "We all went shopping together so Nao-néechan could make mom's curry recipe, but we forgot the apples. S-So these two… went out without telling us, because they saw how upset néechan was about forgetting them and messing it up, and they wanted to help and cheer her up, I guess, so they snuck out and went to get some. And while they were out, that witch found them…"
"Our fault!" Yūta sobbed. "Our fault onée-chan got hurt! Our fault!"
"If anything, it's…" Nao took a slightly wheezing breath "m-my fault for forgetting the apples in the first place. Mom, Dad, I'm… sorry I screwed up watching these guys so badly…"
"It's not your fault, sweetheart" her mother replied. "I'm not upset with you."
'Though I'm a bit tempted to literally keep those two on leashes for a while, if this whole incident doesn't scare them into never pulling something like that again…' the woman thought.
"H… How long have you been awake, Nao?" Reika asked.
"I woke up enough to actually make sense of words while Pop was puzzling out the Bad End Trio's origins" the injured girl replied. "…Is that… Akane's little brother?"
"Akane-chan's family was here for checkups when we brought you in" Miyuki replied. "We were all still in our PreCure forms, and they recognized her voice, and then puzzled out who we were because… well, we five are always together nowadays. After that, with two families having found out in one day, I… decided that maybe we should bring the other three in on things as well."
Moving her head slowly, Nao looked around at the sizable 'audience' in the room, including two doctors, one of whom she recognized as the family doctor.
"N-Nao…"
Hearing the tiny voice, Nao looked down at the little fairy who had now climbed up onto the bed; Candy's hair/ears drooped as if to accentuate her sadness, her little eyes holding tears as she looked up at Nao's face and injured body.
"You were fortunate, Nao-dono" Pop chimed in, hopping up beside his baby sister. "There wasn't any directly-fatal damage; your lungs are bruised, but not dangerously so, and your spinal cord is undamaged, though a couple of vertebrae have cracks in them. You've got a lot of broken bones, though; even with magically-boosted healing, you'll be out of commission for a little while."
"Magically-boosted healing?" the more experienced doctor asked. "I get that magic exists – you explained its basic functions and such – but can it passively effect healing?"
"Yes, Doctor" the elder fairy replied. "Because she is a PreCure, that magic inherent in Nao-dono's body will result in her injuries healing between two and three times faster than a normal person's, the rate depending on how 'vital' or important each injured point is; for instance, her lungs and spinal vertebrae will probably be completely healed within 48 hours. Her other bones will take longer, but still much faster than a regular non-magic-using human's. …She won't be up & about for a few days at least, though; from what I can remember of human anatomy, and with some calculations… I'd say it'll still be about two weeks before all her bones are completely healed."
"Well, compared to the six weeks it can normally take, I'd say that's a marked improvement" the doctor said. "And thanks to that other little spell-trick you used on the damaged bones, we didn't have to put any pins in…"
"Good" Nao murmured with a tiny grin. "I don't wanna set off metal detectors…"
"I didn't know you knew any medical magic, Pop" Yayoi chimed in.
"Trust me, you don't want to hear the story of why I went to the trouble of learning it" He shuddered at an unpleasant memory.
"So what's broken?" Nao asked her family doctor.
"Seven ribs, a couple microfractures in your sternum, your right humerus, your left humerus and ulna, your right middle finger, a few small fractures in your hip bones, your right kneecap has a small fracture but the joint as a whole is intact, both tibias just below the knee, one worse than the other, and your femurs both have some small fractures. Also, your right hip was dislocated. Other than the one finger, your hands and wrists are unbroken (though there is some bruising), as are your ankles and feet, as well as your neck, shoulders, and skull."
"Can it… be just mom & dad in here with me for a few minutes?" she asked. "Please? Just for a little?"
Everyone acquiesced to her request, leaving or being led out, and soon it was just Nao and her parents in the room, the latter at either side of her bed.
"Mom… Dad… I'm sorry you and the kids got caught up in all this."
"You don't need to apologize, Nao" Genji replied, smiling at her.
"You were so brave…" Tomoko said.
"I just wanted… needed to protect you all… The thought of anything happening, to you or to the kids…"
"You're one of 'the kids', sweetie" her father said.
"But I'm the oldest… I'm s-supposed to protect and look after the others… When she was crushing me, I… I knew that I was giving myself up to protect you all… But even with that, I… I…" Tears finally built up in her eyes, and she sobbed. "I was so scared…" she squeaked out. "I was so… so scared…"
Tomoko Midorikawa gently embraced her eldest daughter around the head and shoulders, hearing and feeling as the girl shook and sobbed.
"I t-thought… that I was going to die… and it was gonna be… s-slow and horrible…" she whimpered. "I was so scared… A-And it hurt… Mama, it hurt so much! I couldn't even breathe… I ju… just w-wanted it to stop! I can still f-feel it! It's so scary and it hurts so much, mama!"
The parents gently held their still-traumatized daughter as she cried. They could fix out the details of her being a superheroine later. Right now, she needed time to heal, and more than that she needed the certain kind of comfort and security that only they, as her mother and father, could provide…
-Flashback End-
Nao's youngest sibling, Yui, was born the next day after the battle. Due to the rapid healing, Nao had been discharged from the hospital in only eight days. Two weeks to the day after that battle, Joker had made his attempt to psychologically break Reika, only to be bested by her in a swordfight, blasted by her brand-new Blizzard Arrow attack, and then narrowly escape as the girls (Nao/March still in a few bandages) obliterated his last Hyper-Akanbe with their Royal Rainbow Burst. The rest had gone as "canon" did, more or less – the final fight against the Bad End Trio, now starting off the fight in the pumped-up, Darkness-wreathed, rage-consumed state that canon-them had only gone into for the final seconds of the battle; Miyuki reaching through their pain and rage, comforting and purifying them; Joker arriving and creating the Bad End PreCures, and then ravaging the world while the Cures fought and killed their dark counterparts; Joker gleefully sacrificing his own life-force to complete Pierrot's revival; Candy's rebirth as the next destined Queen of Märchenland; and the climactic final battles that saw Pierrot destroyed, but the girls stripped of their powers and separated from Candy… until Master Yen-Sid came along yesterday, that is.
The girls' families being brought into the loop turned out well. The emotional and physical support was quite helpful to the girls, especially in the wake of the final battle. One thing of note was that the events of that day had changed something in Keita; the 10-year-old had taken it upon himself to be more responsible, taking care of himself however he could and doing more to care for and control his younger siblings, primarily in order to lighten Nao's workload in any way he could. The other kids understood and accepted this, also doing whatever they could to make things a little easier for their big sister (though, for six-year-old Hina, four-year-old Yūta, and three-year-old Kōta, this wasn't much, as they were simply too young, too little, to not need lots of being taken care of and watched over and having things done for them by Nao and Keita). Also, for a while afterward, the kids had taken the habit of sleeping in the same room and sometimes the same bed as Nao, as close to her as they could, simply to help reassure themselves that she was okay, that they wouldn't wake up and find out that they'd dreamed her recovery and she was actually gone.
Erika S. was startled from her thoughts as the girl in question sat down next to her.
"What's up?" Nao asked her.
"J-Just… thinking about some of the differences b-between this timeline and the TV show's back w-where I come from."
"Differences?"
"…N-Nothing major…" the little girl averted her gaze nervously.
"Come on, it's not like one of us died in the other timeline… right?"
"N-No, but… in the show's timeline, y-you didn't almost-die. The f-fight against Majorina went pretty differently."
"Oh…" Nao suppressed a shudder at the memory.
"A-Also, Cure Happy's f-fight against Wolfrun took place after Beauty's a-against Joker. And a couple other differences, too. B-But overall, things went pretty much the same."
Erika moved to stand up, but let out a quiet squeak as the movement made her immediately realize she had 'gone' while lost in thought. She blushed lightly, fidgeting her fingers, until she felt Nao's hand on her shoulder.
"U-Uh… I've gotta go f-find Timmy or Lai to… h-help me take care of something" she said.
"Want me to take care of it for you, hon?" Nao asked.
"Huh?" Erika's eyes widened a little. "O-Oh, I wouldn't want t-to trouble you with s-such a task…"
"Sweetie, I have six younger siblings. And I've helped raise each one. I can help you, no problem. Lemme change you, and then maybe you can show me that 'Aero' line of spells you use."
"Um… Okay."
As Erika let Nao take her hand and stand her up, she thought about how, between Fate and Mion and Aqua and Yang and a few others, and now Nao, there were more people like Sarah in the multiverse than she thought. And she was quite okay with that.
-CHAPTER END-
Next Time: the three PreCure teams finally meet, and the bad guys (well, the sapient ones) show themselves. Expect a delay due to a class report (1200-1600 words; Post-WW African-American literature) and an ongoing translation project, but Chapter Three probably will be up before the end of April. Probably.
