III. The Precure
The five girls stood in the doorway to Wolfrun's room. They had changed in appearance somewhat in the past year, but Wolfrun still knew it was them.
Miyuki, Akane, Yayoi, Nao, Reika.
"H-h-how..."
Before Wolfrun could utter anything coherent, Miyuki shot across the room and threw herself onto him, knocking the air out of his lungs. Also, her sheer momentum caused the supports of the hammock to break, and the both of them crashed to the ground. Wolfrun took most of the impact, naturally, but he was in too much shock to notice. He just laid on his side, his tail thumping rapidly against the ground as Miyuki recovered from the fall. She made a strange "apupupu" sound as she did.
The other girls were soon by their side. Yayoi's eyes were wide with concern. "Are you guys alright?" Her hands were balled up in front of her mouth.
Miyuki rubbed her head and laughed softly. "Yeah I think so." She glanced over at Wolfrun, who was somewhat tangled in the mess that had been his hammock. "Oh my goodness! I'm sorry about your hammock! Are you okay?" She placed a hand on his leg, but he didn't respond. He simply laid there with his hands over his face, but they could not hide the wide grin that was forming down his snout. His tail continued to wag, kicking up some of the fabric of the hammock. The other girls giggled but Miyuki remained adamant in getting his attention.
"Wolfrun! Please! Are you okay? Please say something!" she began to shake him a bit. Wolfrun recovered from his temporary paralysis and sat up slowly, trying to retain a straight face, but his tail still swayed lazily behind him.
"H-hey. I'm okay. That hammock needed to get fixed anyway." He couldn't seem to raise his voice above that of a mouse's squeak. "Why are you here? I-I mean how..." he wiped his eyes. He was still half asleep for the most part. His arm plopped down onto his lap as he realized the situation. "This is a dream isn't it?"
"Wolfrun is not dreaming!" Candy shrieked, flying up in the air. Appearing from nowhere seemed to be her forte. She landed softly in front of him and started waving her tiny arms. "Candy wished upon Pegasus's star! She wished to see her friends again, and when she woke up she saw that her bookshelf was glowing!" Candy was referring to the way in which Märchenland and Earth had been connected over a year ago. Portals within bookshelves that required the books to be moved in a certain way to open them, allowing the traveler to be transported to the place they were thinking about. Candy had used this to return to Earth and reunite with the Precure.
"Candy brought them all to Märchenland to say hello! We can all be friends again! We can play all we want now!" Candy soon began to run around the room, the five girls watching in amusement. Wolfrun was still soaking in all the information.
Akane turned her attention back to the wolf. "Well you're looking good, fuzzball! Still haven't chopped off all that hair I see, but at least you're tying it up so it doesn't attack anyone!" The four other girls started to laugh and Miyuki shoved Akane, mumbling something about being nicer, despite laughing herself.
Wolfrun grew hot and took off the hairband Red had given him, letting his long white hair drop down to his shoulders. "I only tie it up when I sleep! And there's nothing wrong with my hair!" He crossed his arms and tried to look angry, but he still could barely contain his giddiness. This is what he had been thinking about for nearly a year, and now it was happening. He slowly rose to his feet, his knees cracking. He stretched his arms towards the ceiling, fingers laced. After that whole ordeal was over, he noticed that the Precure were simply watching him. "Why are you lookin at me like that?" Once again, Wolfrun tried to sound annoyed but he broke out into a sort of half laugh at the end.
"Well, we thought we'd never see you again." Miyuki answered for the group. The other four nodded in agreement.
"Ehh? Did you stare at Akaoni and Majorina like that too? Have you even seen them yet?" Wolfrun began to pick at his ear with his pinky.
"Yes. We saw all the repairs Akaoni had done to Märchenland as well as the school Majorina is running." Reika's calm voice broke through the lively atmosphere. "We talked to them for a while as well." She made a sort of scowl after saying this. "They said that they were worried about you, and that we should go and see you right away."
The smiles on their faces morphed into looks of concern. Wolfrun scratched the back of his head and looked down. He coughed.
"Is everything okay, Wolfrun?" Yayoi prodded.
Wolfrun sighed. "This past year has been...rough. And I...I haven't been..." He trailed off and looked back up. "...I'm glad you guys are here and..." He fiddled with his hands and looked around. "Oh what the hell." With one quick movement he had wrapped the five of them up with his large arms in a sloppy group hug. They squeaked in surprise, but hugged back the best they could. "Can we all just...go somewhere? I'm sick of staying in this house." He withdrew from the girls. "I'm sick of being alone." he added quietly.
"Majorina actually told us to take you somewhere." Nao remembered.
"Correct, and we already have something planned." Reika added with a warm smile.
"Oh?" Wolfrun hadn't expected this.
Miyuki shot up. "That's right! We're gonna take you to my grandma's!"
"WHAT!?"
"She's been asking about you ever since she saw you that one time! 'Where is that wolf friend of yours? When is that cute wolf boy coming back? How do you know that wolf of yours?'" Miyuki did her best impression of an old woman.
"But I tried to burn her house down." Wolfrun felt an almost physical pain recalling the memory. He had come a long way, that's for sure. "Why would she want to see me again?"
"Well, she didn't really know you tried to do that. And I didn't tell her. As far as she knows you just left when she went in to get your food." Miyuki grinned sheepishly. "She really wants to meet you, Wolfrun. Well, properly, anyway. And I didn't have the heart to tell her that you wouldn't be coming back. So..."
"She really wants to see me again?" The girls nodded in response. He smiled, prompting his tail to wiggle a bit once more. "Heh. As long as she still wants to give me food, I'm good to go!" Wolfrun took a couple long strides towards the doorway, but stopped when he noticed that nobody was following him. "Aren't we gonna go?"
"Well, we're gonna be staying there a few nights. You're probably gonna need to pack some stuff." Miyuki shrugged slightly. "We'll help if you want."
"Yeah, you're not gonna wear that weird biker getup the whole time, are you?" Akane was back at poking fun again, but he felt okay with it, strangely. It put him at ease. He wasn't going to let her get away with it, of course.
"Hey, leather is always in style! It may be the only piece of clothing I own, but I rock it!"
The girls grew quiet. Nao eventually interrupted the silence. "Is that really the only thing you have to wear?"
Candy finally spoke up. Where had she gone anyway? "What about the clothing Candy had the fairies make you?" She jumped up multiple times to try to get to Wolfrun's eye level until Yayoi picked her up.
"Pff. They got the size all wrong. Not that I'd wear that stuff anyway. I've been using them as rags though." He nonchalantly gestured toward a multicolored pile of cloth in the corner of the room. Candy started to produce a low-pitched growl. As low-pitched as she could manage anyway. Her imminent outburst was prevented by an excited Yayoi.
"We can buy you clothes!" she nearly screamed, squeezing Candy tightly. "There's a thrift shop nearby with all sorts of old clothes we could buy!"
"W-what? Really?" Wolfrun wasn't sure what to make of this.
"Yeah! It's pretty cheap, and if we all pitch in we can get you all the essentials!" she turned to her friends. "What do you guys think?"
"I'm not spending my money on him." Nao muttered, then turned to Wolfrun. "Uh, no offense, but my parents don't pay me anything for babysitting, so any money I get is going to be saved."
"Is there even gonna be stuff that fits him? He's humongous!" Akane took a few short steps up to Wolfrun and looked up at him. She just barely came up to his pectoral muscles. "Even after that year away you still look as tall as you used to. Guess I stopped growin' then." She shrugged. "But anyway, not many people in town are as tall as him. Do you really think a thrift store would carry his size?"
"My size?"
"The size of one's clothing indicates how large it is, making it much easier for that person to purchase clothing that fits to their liking." Of course Reika went ahead and explained it.
"I know what it means, I'm just not sure what my size is." Wolfrun started to feel a bit silly. This discussion of clothing was becoming unnecessarily long.
"We can measure you! My mom has all the measuring tape and stuff! C'mon let's go!" Yayoi was growing very enthusiastic now. And slightly impatient.
"Hey, we can't just bring him to Earth without a plan!" Nao piped up.
Yayoi let out a playful scoff. Was she usually this outgoing? This was the most Wolfrun had ever heard her speak. "My mom is at work for most of the day. My house is empty. We can take the portal to the bookshelf in my room. No problem!" She winked and pointed a finger at nothing in particular. She was really putting on a show.
"That seems like the best course of action." It appeared that all decisions eventually fell upon Reika's approval. "Are you okay with this, Wolfrun?"
"Yeah, I'm good to go! I just wanna get out of here." After all this time, he was going to see Earth again. He had not been this excited since, well, he couldn't remember.
"It's settled now! Show us to your nearest bookshelf!" Yayoi was acting just plain silly now, but Wolfrun couldn't help but be amused.
"There's one in Majorina's room. I'm not really allowed in there, but I'm sure she'd make an exception this time." He sauntered out of his room with the five girls and one fairy in tow. He turned down the hallway and stopped. The door before them had two crude drawings taped to it, one of Wolfrun's face and the other of Akaoni's. Both of them were crossed out. These warnings seemed to be the only hindrance though, as Wolfrun opened the door with ease, revealing a modest sized room cluttered with seemingly random objects. They most likely held some significance in...witching, but Wolfrun never could make sense of it. Not that it mattered. What they were looking for was located up against the wall to their right. Wolfrun walked up to the bookshelf, about to perform the combination to open the portal, but then stopped. "Uh, it's probably best if Yayoi does it. I'm not sure exactly what to think of to get to her house." He stepped aside and let the small blond get through.
Right. Left. Apart. Wolfrun knew the motions very well, as he had tried it in vain many times in the past year after Candy had shown him how. Of course, this time it worked, and the bookshelf began to glow with an intense pinkish light. He had never actually used this method of transport, since Joker had granted him and his two comrades the power to teleport instantly between the two worlds. This method seemed a bit inconvenient comparatively, but he knew he shouldn't be picky.
Yayoi vanished into the light with Candy in her grasp, followed closely by Nao, Reika, and Akane. Miyuki was about to enter too, but stopped once she noticed Wolfrun's hesitation. "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." He wasn't exactly sure why he had stopped. Perhaps it was just the strangeness of the situation. It was a bit overwhelming. In a good way though.
Miyuki responded by holding out a hand to him, which he gently grabbed. They both entered the portal together.
Passing through it felt just like walking through a normal passage. Except for the blinding light, which stuck in Wolfrun's vision for a few seconds after he, presumably, arrived at his destination. The floor under his boots felt a bit more cushy, and he caught a whiff of something he had not smelled in quite a while.
Earth
He used his free hand to attempt to rub the black orb from his vision, and he slowly started to make out the shapes of the other Precure, minus Yayoi. The room they were in steadily drifted into view as well. It was small yet messy, much like the room they had just left in order to get here. Instead of magical items, though, there were assorted sketchpads, pencils, brushes, and other art stuff. Wolfrun also caught sight of a small television.
I'll have to see if I can take one back with me...
Akane was the first to take notice of their presence. She snickered. "Whaddaya got there, Miyuki?"
Miyuki looked down at her hand, which was still wrapped around Wolfrun's. She hastily withdrew it and quickly walked over to the other girls. Wolfrun stared at his hand, wondering what had just happened.
"So where did Yayoi go?" Miyuki pondered.
On cue, Yayoi appeared in the doorway, hands on her hips, a smiling Candy on her head. She held a roll of measuring tape in her left hand, promptly using the right to point at the large wolf in her room. "It is time!" she stated loudly. She then strode over to Wolfrun, pulling taut a length of the tape. She looked up at him, then down at the tape, back up to him, and back to the tape. Her face turned red.
"Yayoi, do you know how to take these measurements?" Reika asked softly.
Yayoi hung her head solemnly. "N-no not really. I just got too excited."
Miyuki quickly moved over to her side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Pshh, there's no such thing as being too excited! This is an exciting time, after all!"
Yayoi looked up once more and smiled, and then looked at the tape in her hands. "Does anyone know how to do this then?"
Nao appeared in front of her and took the tape from her hands. "I've done this plenty of times with my siblings." She turned around to gaze upon her new target. "He's a lot bigger than they are, sure, but the same rules should still apply. Yayoi, grab a pencil and some paper and write down the numbers I give you." Yayoi nodded enthusiastically and went to fetch those items. Meanwhile, Nao grabbed Wolfrun's arm. "Here, stand next to the bed. Yeah like that." She then climbed up on the bed and stood, her head now reaching above Wolfrun's height. She unraveled the measuring tape. "Someone grab the bottom of this. I'm gonna see how tall he is first."
Miyuki dropped to the ground to grab the end of the tape, noticing Wolfrun's boots in the process, and then gazed over to where the other girls had put their shoes. "Oh, whoops!" She quickly pulled hers off and added them to the collection. "Boy, it really is hard to remember to take off your shoes when using that bookcase to travel." Her attention was drawn to Wolfrun's boots once more. "Hey, uh, can you, I mean, would you like...um..."
"You want me to take my boots off?" Miyuki nodded quickly at this. "Why? What's going on?"
Miyuki shrugged. "It's a human thing. You don't have to if you don't want to, but..."
Wolfrun bent down and undid the buckles of his boots. "Alright alright. I remember seeing this in some of your TV shows."
"Oh? When did you ever watch TV?" Akane queried.
"Back at the Bad End Kingdom we had a little television that played some Earth shows. Nothing much, but I used to watch it a lot." He finished loosening all the belts, allowing him to pull off his boots, which he then threw with the other shoes. The soft carpet felt nice on his bare feet, which Miyuki was staring at.
"You're...not wearing socks."
"Yeah." Wolfrun replied curtly. "Why would I be?"
"I...I don't know." Miyuki's face was a bit flushed. "Sorry. I guess we can buy you socks too."
"No need. They make my feet too hot. That's why I don't wear them in the first place."
"Hey I still need to measure him." Nao said impatiently. "We can talk about his feet when I'm actually measuring them."
Miyuki returned to her position of holding the bottom of the tape while Nao placed a hand on Wolfrun's head, pushing his hair down.
"Hey, watch it!" Wolfrun was not used to people touching his hair.
"Oh calm down you big baby. If my little brother can stay still during this so can you." She scrutinized the number on the tape for a few moments before speaking again. "Looks to be about 208 centimeters. Write it down, Yayoi."
Yayoi, who had previously been scribbling away anyway, stopped whatever she was doing to write down the number. Nao stepped off the bed and gathered up the measuring tape. She was now standing directly behind Wolfrun. "Okay, lift your arms up now." He complied, allowing Nao to wrap the tape around his waist. "Alright that's around 74 centimeters." She moved down then, coming to Wolfrun's feet. "It'd probably be better for you to sit on the bed for this." Once again he followed Nao's instructions. She lifted one of his feet up and put the tape to it. "And his feet are 33 centimeters." She stood up and adopted a triumphant stance. "That's really all we should need then."
Miyuki had her mouth covered, as if she were laughing at something. "My, what big feet you have!" She said in a strange, high-pitched voice.
"Uh, yeah. They are pretty big compared to you guys."
"Oh, I was just making a joke about what Little Red Riding hood says to the wolf."
"She never said that to me..." Wolfrun was really hoping that this subject would not be brought up. Of course Miyuki would try to talk about it.
"N-no, of course not! Because it's actually about your eyes! And your teeth! Those are big!" Miyuki laughed nervously.
"Red never said that either." Wolfrun was actually getting a little annoyed now, but he didn't want to show it. He didn't want to scare away the friends he thought he had lost. "Look, whatever you read in your weird Earth storybooks about me is not true, okay? And I don't want to talk about it. Period." He stood up from the bed. "Anyway, we're all set now, right? Let's go."
"Wolfrun, I do not believe it would be wise to have you come with us. That was why we took measurements here instead of having you try on the clothes there." Wolfrun was already out of the room once Reika finished, but he peeked his head back in after a moment.
"What? I don't get to come with you?" Finally, after all his time away from Earth, he wasn't even going to be able to see it?
"Buddy, you kinda stand out, dontcha think?" Akane raised her hands to the top of her head to emulate ears.
"Pff. I would come here all the time and people barely even looked at me! Of course, I'd usually be flying, so they probably couldn't see me. I did get kicked out of that one restaurant though..." Wolfrun looked off to the side and stared at nothing in particular. "I guess it'd be easier if I just stayed here then, huh?" he sighed.
"Wait, you got kicked out of a restaurant?"
"Please don't be sad, Wolfrun! Once we get back we can all walk together to my grandma's house. The way there is pretty empty at this time of day." Miyuki pleaded.
"Hey, maybe you can fly us there when we get back!" Yayoi's excitement returned at this prospect.
"Can't actually fly anymore. That was a power given to me by Joker. I'm stuck on the ground with the rest of you guys now."
"Drat!" Yayoi stormed off with Candy in her arms, prompting the rest of the girls to start to head out as well. They stopped by the doorway to get their shoes.
"Wow, she sure is acting funny today." Nao looked in the direction Yayoi went.
Akane shrugged. "It's just her way of showing excitement. We've seen it before. Nothing exciting has happened in a while, that's all." Turning to Wolfrun. "Just hang tight buddy. We'll be back in a jiffy!" She disappeared from the room, followed by Nao and Reika, the latter offering him a gentle smile before she departed.
Miyuki remained, holding her shoes with one hand while she rubbed her neck with the other. Her face was flushed. "Wolfrun I...sorry for bringing up the Little Red Riding Hood story. I forgot that it was a sore subject for you." She attempted eye contact but failed pretty horribly.
"It's fine. Just remember that I don't want to talk about that stuff, yeah?" Miyuki nodded vigorously at his request and darted out of the room, calling back to assure him that the five of them would be back soon.
And now Wolfrun was alone in Yayoi's house, not entirely sure what to do with himself. He moved over to the bed and plopped down on it, prompting creaks of protest from the bedframe. Wolfrun ran the previous twenty minutes in his head.
The Precure had returned.
They were going to take him to see Miyuki's grandmother.
And right now, they were out picking up Earth clothes for him to wear.
His tail began to wag again. This whole situation seemed really silly to him. But he was happy, dammit! Maybe that year of nothingness spent in Märchenland would actually lead up to something good. The future suddenly felt much brighter.
However, at the present moment, Wolfrun was bored. And hungry! He rose to a standing position and left the room in search of the kitchen. Surely Yayoi wouldn't mind if he got a bite to eat. Skipping breakfast is never a good idea (although by that time it was more like a lunch).
The hallway outside of the room naturally lead into the kitchen, and straight away Wolfrun spotted some strawberries in a bowl. They smelled earthy. He took a handful and dumped them into his mouth. While he worked on chewing the berries he moved to the fridge and opened it. A small container of soba caught his eye. Inspecting it, it seemed to have a bunch of vegetables mixed into it. Mostly potatoes. Probably. He didn't care. He took out the soba and attempted to eat it as he did the strawberries. Of course, many of the noodles missed their target and hit the floor.
"Oh dammit!" Wolfrun knelt down to pick up the noodles, which he promptly put into his mouth. Thankfully he had not tipped the container all the way, so most of the meal stayed within it. He quickly located some chopsticks and tried again. He had seen chopsticks used many times on the television and he had tried to teach himself to use them, but after a year of not using them it was as if he was using them for the first time again. Despite this, he was able to eventually devour all of the soba. He placed the empty container and chopsticks on the counter.
With the hunger mostly taken care of, that only left the boredom. Wolfrun roamed the house aimlessly, looking at lamps and plants and whatever happened to be lying around. Everything was pretty tidy. A few pictures decorated the walls. Photographs of Yayoi and who were presumably her parents. The father was only in a few of them and seemed to disappear in pictures where Yayoi was older. Wolfrun started to feel dizzy.
Both of his parents were dead. Right? Did he even truly have parents? Or did he only come into existence when he had a role to play in a story? How could he be sure the memories before that were actually real?
A stinging feeling from both of his palms coaxed him back into reality. He looked down and saw his hands balled into fists, the claws sinking slightly into his flesh. He uncurled his fingers and wiped his hands on his legs as if to wipe away the pain. He decided to head back into Yayoi's room. It seemed to have a lot of things in there that could distract him.
Wolfrun made a beeline straight for the TV. It seemed different than the one they had in the Bad End Kingdom, but these things all worked similarly, right? He found the power button after a bit of prodding. An excited man appeared on the screen. Other excited people were soon revealed. Lots of colors. Wolfrun remembered this. It was something called a "game show", and he had hated them. His outlook on things was a bit different now, of course, but all the noise still irked him. He looked for the dial to change the channel, but no such thing could be found on the device. There were just a bunch of buttons that he didn't want to mess with. He eventually gave up on the TV, but left it on for background noise. Wolfrun wandered around the small room.
A small, pink object lying on the desk caught his attention. He recognized it. It was a Smile Pact, the strange little things which allowed the Precure to transform. Taking it into his hands, it was hard to believe it had lead to their eventual defeat. The thing felt quite flimsy, actually. He flipped it open with his hand.
"Stomach stomach, growling loudly..." he began to mumble, emulating the strange speeches the Precure would give upon transformation. He held the Smile Pact out in front of him. "...Cure Wolfy!"
He stayed perfectly still for a few moments before bursting out laughing. He then imagined himself in one of those ridiculous outfits, prompting more laughter. He tossed the Smile Pact back onto the desk and tried to calm down. The thought of himself being a Precure was just too damn funny though!
A small, colorful figurine snapped him out of his fit. It was Robotter! Of course Yayoi would have it in her room. Upon further inspection, it seemed to be the same figurine that he used to own. No Meanie Master though. Meanie Master was his favorite out of the two figures he had. Behind Yayoi's figure were small books with the title of the show written on them. Curious, he grabbed one and attempted to open it, but it resisted. With some persuasion, he was able to get it apart.
Oh.
It wasn't a book. There were no pages, only a small circular object held in place on one side. Wolfrun snapped it closed again. He deduced that it must have been one of those devices that had to be put into another device in order for it to work. Presumably Robotter episodes were on the circle thing. He had seen it on TV but he had no idea how that could work. Earth seemed to have a sort of magic of its own that he never had quite figured out.
Replacing the case where he found it, Wolfrun found himself staring at the papers and notebooks scattered across the room. He was aware that Yayoi drew, but he had never looked at her work. He had seen the flattering portrait of Majorina she painted when they were all competing in the witch's weird gameworld, but he was too overcome with grief when Majorina picked Yayoi's painting over his to notice if it was any good or not. Having dabbled in some art himself he felt curious of what she could do.
Looking through the various drawings, it was very apparent that she had considerable skill. Wolfrun filed through the various papers and notebooks, finding mostly drawings of people and some rough comic sketches. He eventually came upon a sketchbook with "Precure Adventures" written on it. He picked it up and sat on the bed.
Unsurprisingly, it was full of drawings of the girls in their Precure forms, posing dynamically and unleashing devastating attacks. Having experienced the attacks firsthand, Wolfrun had to admit that Yayoi had translated them onto paper quite well.
Turning the next page, he saw a familiar face. Akaoni swung his club while Yayoi dodged with a look of determination on her face. Wolfrun recalled her usually looking terrified during fights. Majorina popped up soon afterward. He flipped to the next page.
And there he was. Arms crossed, legs set apart, a sneer on his face. It was quite unnerving to look at. As he moved forward in the notebook the drawings became more intense, some depicting battles that actually happened and others that were probably thought up by Yayoi herself. Wolfrun had never used a sword, anyway.
Near the end there was a drawing of the Precure and the ex Generals grouped together, smiling, with a small sketch of Joker laying on the ground with X'd out eyes. A caption saying "friends forever" was at its side. The subsequent pages were filled with drawings of all of them hanging out and playing. Yayoi sitting on Akaoni's shoulders, Reika playing chess with Majorina, and other things of that sort. Wolfrun spotted a sketch of Yayoi clutching onto his back while flying, explaining her previous disappointed outburst. Of course, Wolfrun himself sometimes missed the feeling flying gave him, but it was also a reassuring reminder that Joker was gone for good.
The sunlight that had been streaming in through the window finally began to take its toll on the wolf. The warmth coupled with the steady noise coming from the television had caused him to become drowsy. He figured that the girls still wouldn't be back for a while yet, so he decided to lay down on the bed and attempt to pick up where he had left off in his hammock.
Well, not exactly. Technically he had left off on the floor. He did not want to sleep on the floor.
Wolfrun quickly found an acceptable position on his side. The events of the day continued to buzz around in his head as well as what was to come. They were going back to that house in the mountains surrounded by trees. Where he had met the first person in his life who had not feared him. Whose first instinct was to treat him with kindness. And he had not known how to process it at the time.
I was an idiot.
But I guess it wasn't really me...
His eyes soon closed as he fell into a light sleep.
I hope she still wants to feed me.
…
"Do you really think we had to get him this much stuff?"
"Pshh it's barely anything, considering he has nothing! The poor guy deserves to be comfortable."
"Well, he looks plenty comfortable lying there on Yayoi's bed."
Wolfrun sat up on the bed and yawned while Akane walked up to him. "Hey sleepyhead, just how much are you planning on sleeping today?" A cocky grin was plastered on her face.
"Hey, it was the best way to kill time while you were out." Wolfrun maneuvered himself so that his legs hung over the bed. All of the girls were in the room now, Yayoi, Miyuki, and Reika were holding plastic bags, presumably holding his new clothing. "So what did you manage to find?"
Reika's soft voice began. "Well, we went to the used clothing store and found a few things that would be your size, but I'm afraid it might not be enough." She placed the bag she was holding onto the bed next to him and motioned for Miyuki and Yayoi to place the bags down as well.
"I hope you like them." Yayoi beamed at him while also placing her bag down.
"I still think the clothing we made you was better." Candy was sulking on top of Yayoi's head.
"They make some damn fine rags though." Wolfrun quipped with a grin while Yayoi attempted to hold an angry Candy back.
Avoiding Candy's futile attempts of revenge, Wolfrun noticed that Miyuki was hanging back, still holding her bag, which he noticed looked a bit different than the other two. "So is that one for me too?"
"Oh, uh, yeah. We didn't realize until we had already left that we didn't...uh..." Miyuki looked over to her friends, turning red. Akane decided to take over.
"We never asked you if you needed any underwear, so we went out to another store to get you a few pairs. I just told 'em they were for my dad." She stuck her hand into the bag and pulled something out. "Got ya some swim trunks too! Gotta take advantage of the heat before autumn arrives!" she said while throwing the trunks at Wolfrun, who barely managed to catch them before they hit his face.
"T-thanks. Thanks guys." Truth was he wore the fairy-made underwear that he was given, but that was only out of necessity. He did not feel it necessary to tell everyone that though.
Plus it would give ground to Candy in the invisible war the two were fighting.
"Alright girls lets give the guy some space while he changes." Akane said with a clap of her hands. "We'll be right out in the kitchen so you can come out when you're done." Everyone except for Nao began to file out of the room.
Nao produced a small soccer bag and tossed it onto the bed. "Here, you can put your stuff in this for the trip." After that she joined the other girls outside, closing the door behind her.
Wolfrun rifled through the bags, finding a white shirt with "I *heart* Tokyo" written on it (what the heck was a Tokyo?), a black tank top, a pair of gray denim pants, some dark blue track pants, and an old pair of sneakers. The underwear bag contained three pairs of boxer shorts. It was better than nothing.
And considering they didn't have to do it in the first place...
Wolfrun quickly undressed, stuffing his leather pantsuit, belts, and patchy fairy-made underwear into the soccer bag. The new underwear fit surprisingly well. The next order of business was to put tail holes into the pants, which Wolfrun accomplished using his claws. He had done it before so he knew exactly where to put them. He then pulled on the denim pants, the tank top, and slipped on the sneakers. There was no mirror in the room, but he sure felt different. Of course he had worn that other outfit for a large chunk of his life. He stuffed the rest of his things into the bag and slung it over his shoulder, walking out to where the girls were.
Wolfrun entered the kitchen, where the girls were gathered around the counter. Hearing him approach, Yayoi began to talk. "Wolfrun, did you eat th-" she stopped as she and her friends turned to face him. "Oh wow."
"What? Do I look silly? I haven't looked in a mirror yet."
"No! You look, well, it's surprisingly fitting." Miyuki seemed like she was holding back a bit of excitement. "Considering we've only ever seen you wear one thing all the time, you pull these off pretty well!"
"Yeah! You really nail the Earth look, what with bein a wolf 'n all." Akane gave him a thumbs up and a wide grin.
"Oh, you really think so?" He looked down at himself and felt his heart leap a little. It felt weird, but not unpleasant.
"Alright! I guess we're ready to go now!" Miyuki jumped up and grabbed a bag off of the ground, the other four following suit. "C'mon Wolfrun! The path to the mountain is fairly close by, but we should get there quickly before we draw too much attention from anyone that might be around." They collectively headed to the door, with Wolfrun following behind somewhat awkwardly.
The door swung open and Wolfrun was hit with a gush of wind. He stepped out a few paces and halted, closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply through his nose. He breathed out, making an audible "ahh" sound. Now this was the scent he remembered. "Y'know, you humans may not smell the best, but your world sure smells pretty nice."
"Hey! We smell perfectly fine!" Nao objected.
"Well, he probably has a much more sensitive nose, since he is a wolf." Reika offered.
"Candy, do you think humans smell?" Yayoi held the small fairy out in front of her.
Candy put on a thoughtful face before replying. "Candy has never really noticed humans smelling like anything."
"Hey, we can discuss whether or not humans smell once we get to Mrs. Hoshizora's. C'mon guys, let's get a leg up!" Akane shouted at the group as she began to jog ahead, beckoning them with a wave of her arm. They all stopped talking and regrouped with Akane.
"Hoshizora." Wolfrun repeated to himself. Miyuki overheard.
"Yeah, that's our family surname."
"That's quite a mouthful. Am I gonna have to call her that the whole time?" Wolfrun could not imagine himself saying that name more than ten times in his life.
"I'm sure she'll have you call her something else. We'll find out when we get there." She smiled slightly. Reika and Nao were chatting in front of them while Akane led the way. Yayoi played with Candy's ears, much to the fairy's delight. Miyuki cleared her throat. "Thanks for coming out with us, Wolfrun. I know it might be a bit weird for you, hanging out with some teenage girls, but we'll try to keep you entertained as best we can."
"Hmm? Why wouldn't I wanna hang out with you guys?"
"Well, uh, gee I dunno." Miyuki rubbed her arms before continuing. "It was a dumb thing to say. Just forget it. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself." She brushed her arm against his before moving up to the front of the group to tell Akane she was about to take the wrong path. Wolfrun had not known Miyuki long enough in a friendly context to determine whether or not she normally acted like this, but she definitely was acting strange.
Once the correct path was determined, the group became less of a queue and more of an amorphous blob. They were all talking about something or other, but Wolfrun was paying more attention to his surroundings. Just as Miyuki had said, the road seemed to be quite deserted, with many trees providing shade from the late summer sun. Everything had a greenish-gold hue to it. His gaze moved in front of him just in time to see something fall off of Akane's bag. She did not seem to notice. Wolfrun bent down to pick it up. It was a small doll, bearing a strong likeness to Akane herself, that had burst at the seams. A lot of the stuffing seemed to have already fallen out.
Crap. I remember this.
It was back when he was still a Bad End General, and Joker had started to lay down the heat. He had told each general that their next battle with the Precure had to be won or else they risked being sent back to their storyland world. Or worse. It was a simple manipulation tactic and he never really did follow through with the threat, but it had worked to push each of them to their limits. Wolfrun had chosen Akane as the first Precure to defeat, since she had bested him in quite a few one on one fights.
During the fight, that same doll fell off of her bag. Wolfrun had taken notice and picked it up, inquiring about its purpose. When Akane told him her friends had made it for her and that it was an important treasure to her, he destroyed it. He thought it uneventful at the time, if not a little humorous. How could a little thing like that be a "treasure"? Of course now he knew better.
He felt dizzy, stopping in his tracks. "Akane." Barely above a whisper. It was enough. She turned around to face him and saw him holding the doll.
"Oh, that thing keeps falling off. I really need to fix the strap." She walked up to him and took it from his hands.
"Why didn't you fix the rest of it?" his voice still quiet. The other four noticed the two of them hanging behind, and stopped walking.
"Well, they all offered to make me a new one, but I wanted the original." She looked at her small doppelganger with a smile. "Damn I still love this thing." She promptly fastened it as best she could to her bag.
"Akane I can't- I mean I'm sor- I didn't- I wasn't myself when I..." It had suddenly gotten very hard to talk. Wolfrun looked at the doll again and he got dizzier. Harder to breath.
"What's wrong Wolfrun?" Akane asked.
"I'm sorry. Please just put that doll away. I can't look at it." He had closed his eyes at this point, his arms stiff and shaking. He got this way whenever he thought about the things he had done as a Bad End General, but it had not happened in a while.
"O-okay Wolfrun. I'm putting it in my bag now." He opened his eyes to reveal she was telling the truth. "And I forgive you for...y'know."
"Thanks." Wolfrun's breathing began to slow down. "I'm okay now. Let's keep going." He strode forward, meeting with the other girls, who all had a look of concern on their face. He decided to jump in before they could potentially bring up what just happened. "So how long are we gonna be walking on this road?"
"Uh, it takes about an hour. We still have a ways to go." Miyuki began to walk forward as well, and the rest followed.
The rest of the journey consisted mostly of small talk and sight-seeing. A man on a bicycle passed by them and saw Wolfrun before the girls could push him into the forest (of course they still tried to) but he did not say anything. He stared of course, but continued on his way. Reika theorized that he must have thought it was just a costume.
The sun was just beginning to dip low in the sky when the strange gathering of humans, wolf, and fairy made it to the serene, secluded house of Miyuki's grandmother. It had not changed much since Wolfrun had last seen it. Of course, he had not had time to observe it last time. "Grandma, we're here!" Miyuki's sing-song voice reached out into the surrounding forests.
Footsteps could be heard from inside. They got louder. Any second now, Wolfrun was going to come face to face with the woman who had caused him such anger and confusion almost two years ago.
Well, here goes.