"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, it's the perfect day for tea on the porch, isn't it?" Himawari beamed at her sister, who was sitting nearby bundled up in three sweaters. Her face poked out, red from the excessive heat, and she had a sullen look on her face as she sipped her tea.

"It really isn't cold enough for that," Himawari said pointedly.

"Yeah, I sort of regret most of these layers."

"The joke's not worth it, huh?"

"Not really."

Nao began shrugging off the first sweater, but as she pulled it over her head and brushed her hair back into place, she noticed someone walking into the courtyard. They had blonde hair and tanned skin, and wore a dark-colored peacoat. Nao threw her sweater backwards into the house, squinting at the person to get a better look.

"Isn't that Yoshi?"

Himawari followed her sister's gaze. "Didn't she already arrive, like, two hours ago?"

Nao shrugged, waving her arm to get Yoshi's attention. "Yoshi! Over here?"

They looked around, and then pointed at themselves, puzzled.

"Yeah! We have tea!"

They raised their hand in acknowledgement, walking over to the two sisters and stopping just before the porch.

Himawari squinted. Nao squinted.

The person standing in front of them was most certainly not Yoshi, but the resemblance was startling and uncanny, down to the big grin, curly hair, and mass of freckles on their face.

"Um, sorry. I'm not actually Yoshi," they said in a voice much deeper than Yoshi's own, apologetic smile on their face as they adjusted the violin case under their arm.

Himawari took a sip of tea and looked the kid over. "You look incredibly like her. Sorry about that."

"Oh, it's no trouble. I get that a lot."

Nao's squint deepened. "You…do?"

Not-Yoshi looked puzzled for a moment, but then their face cleared. "Oh! She must not have told you! I'm her twin brother, Ito Kiharu. It's nice to meet you." He bowed low.

Nao and Himawari stared at Kiharu for a long moment.

"...Whaaaaaaaaaat?!"

Episode 4: "The Genius Violinist! Return His Precious Violin to Us!"

"She never said anything about a twin," Nao said, giving Kiharu a cup of tea. He had sat down near the sisters, placing his violin case carefully down next to him. The small baubles connected to the handle of his violin chimed with the movement.

Kiharu laughed as he accepted the small porcelain teacup. "That's Kiyoshi for you. She likes to assume that people would see the resemblance and put two and two together, but we look so similar we just get mistaken for each other all the time."

"Kiyoshi?"

"Oh, her full name. She goes by Yoshi so it's less confusing for people. Kiharu and Kiyoshi can be pretty easily mixed up, especially since the first kanji in our names is the same."

"Oh," Nao nodded. It sounded reasonable to her.

Himawari broke in. "We don't usually see you at the dojo, do we?"

Kiharu shook his head. "I usually have violin practice right now, but today is off since we just had a concert."

"I wish I could play an instrument," Nao said thoughtfully. "I always thought it would be nice to learn piano or something."

"It's not as hard as you'd think."

"That's because you're a musical prodigy, Haru," Yoshi broke in, walking toward them with her school bag slung over her shoulder and her usual goldenrod track jacket on. "Not everyone can look at a sheet of music once and play it perfectly."

Nao waggled her fingers at her in greeting. "We didn't hear you come up."

"Yeah, we walk quietly. Comes with taking a martial art."

"We?"

"Yeah, me and-" Yoshi turned around to see that it was just her standing there, the lone figure in front of the other three. "…Ok, well, Isao was just behind me."

"It's because he saw me. I don't think he likes me very much," Kiharu mused.

Yoshi crossed her arms, thinking. "He doesn't ever seem to want to talk to you. What did you do to him, Haru?"

"Me? Excuse me, but who was it that broke his arm last year?"

"That was an accident-"

Nao vaguely remembered the incident – Isao fell down a hill and actually ended up chipping a bone in his elbow, which wasn't like breaking his arm but still managed to make him miss about two weeks of practice. It was strange to think that it was Yoshi who had accidentally caused the whole thing. Nao wondered how long she'd been coming to the dojo.

"Anyways, why are you here?" Yoshi's voice broke Nao out of her memories. "You don't usually come to the dojo on your days off."

"Oh, right," Kiharu said, reaching for his violin case and holding it up to Yoshi. "I have to actually go back to school to help the student council figure out this year's budget and look over club applications, so I was wondering if you could go get a new string for this."

Yoshi took the handle, carefully inspecting it before looking back at her brother. "It's kind of out of the way…"

Kiharu clasped his hands together. "Please, Kiyoshi? It would really help me out! I don't have time to do it before practice tomorrow!" He checked his watch and stood up. "I'd owe you a lot…" he trailed off, looking at his twin hopefully.

Yoshi sighed in mock exasperation. "I guess I can help you out." She looked at Nao. "Wanna come with? It's not that far and anyways, there's something, uh, club related I wanted to talk about."

Nao nodded, leaning backwards and reaching an arm out to grab a pair of her shoes from right inside the doorway. "Sure."

Himawari looked affronted. "You never do errands for me!"

"It's because you're just too lazy to walk over to the fridge and get it yourself."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you can't help me out every once in a while!"

Kiharu's face brightened and he gave his sister a huge hug, ignoring the Yamamoto sisters and their bickering. "Thank you! I'm off, but I owe you big time!" He scuttled toward the entrance, waving at the girls over his shoulder. "See you at home!" He called, before rounding the gate and disappearing.

Yoshi pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked the time. "I hope he doesn't miss the train," she muttered, but replaced her phone and gave Nao an expectant look. "You ready to go? The store isn't too far; it's like a ten minute walk from here."

"I'm ready," Nao said, sliding on her ballet flats and jumping to her feet. "I'll be back in a bit, Himawari."

As they walked to the gate, Nao could hear Himawari yelling at their backs, "Can you pick me up some green tea ice cream popsicles when you're out?"

Nao threw her a sulky look over her shoulder.

"You're gonna stop by and get them, aren't you," Yoshi whispered.

Nao's face was like thunder.

Anger echoed in the halls of the Dark Castle.

"I hate them!" Peria roared in rage, picking up a ceramic pot from a nearby plinth and throwing it at the wall with all her might. It shattered in a shower of dust, making a satisfying cracking sound. "How dare they-!" She picked up another, but as she raised her arms to throw the pot, something grabbed her wrist, shocking her and causing her to drop it. It clattered to the ground with a dull thunk, rolling a few feet away and stopping gently against the wall.

"Let go of me," she hissed.

The girl holding her wrist said nothing. Her dark hair was curled on the sides of her face in tight finger rolls, and her pink eyes were the same shade as Peria's. They narrowed, and the girl let go of Peria roughly, throwing her arm away from her dismissively and withdrawing back inside the dark cape she wore. "Night said not to underestimate Pretty Cure." Her voice was quiet and monotone.

Peria rubbed her wrist, sulking. "Go away, Apoa," she muttered, but there was no real hostility in her voice.

"You almost had them."

"I said go away."

"You could have killed the Princess and her knight, and destroyed the other before she could activate the-"

"I said go away!" Peria wheeled around, her eyes wild. "I don't need a performance evaluation, especially from you!"

She was breathing heavily from anger, and her chest felt tight. She sank to the ground, crouching with her forehead resting on her knees. Apoa stared at her, unblinking.

"You're too irrational."

Peria didn't move.

"Are you unfit to continue?" Apoa asked.

Peria's head jerked up, glaring daggers. "No," she hissed through clenched teeth.

"Then why," Apoa said, "have you decided you've lost?" She turned around, walking away from Peria with long, slow strides. "I never realized you accepted defeat so easily." She stopped, looking over her shoulder at Peria. "...what a waste."

Peria ducked her head again, listening as the footsteps started up again and receded down the hall and eventually became too faint to hear. By her feet, a small shard of pottery rested, and with careful fingers she picked it up and ran her thumb over the smooth surface.

She tossed it back on the ground and stood up. She crossed over to the other side of the hall, staring for a long moment at the intact pot before smashing her foot into it, grinding the ceramic into dust, feeling the grit underneath her boot and the sharp edges scraping against the fabric.

"I don't lose," she said quietly.

"So, Kiharu is on student council?"

"Yeah, he's historian."

"…and they're approving new clubs?"

"Don't worry," Yoshi winked at Nao. "I know two people on the council, so I'm pretty sure that's enough pull to get a club passed." She looked thoughtful. "It's a good club idea anyways, so I doubt there'll be any issues."

The shops on the street were packing up their outside displays, some signs already reading "closed." The sun was hovering around the horizon, bathing the area in an orange-red light, the tops of the trees golden with the last rays of sun. Nao wished she brought another jacket, shoving her hands in her sweater pockets, but Yoshi's legs were longer than hers and she found herself walking quickly to keep even. She'd warm up from the exercise.

"Who's the other person you know on the student council?" She asked. "I think you mentioned them before."

"Oh," Yoshi said, trying to look dismissive but failing, "she's my…my best friend." Her face lit up. "Her name is Ueda Riko – you may have seen her around the second floor. She's got hair that covers her face, like this." Yoshi put her hand up to obscure her right eye, grinning. "She's the treasurer." Her smile softened into something halfway between embarrassed and bashful, her cheeks turning a lovely shade of pink. "But- I mean- You don't want to hear me talk about that. I'll introduce you someday."

They passed a small bookstore Nao liked to stop into on weekends, the closed sign flicking on as they walked past. "How late is the music shop open?" She asked, and Yoshi seemed to jump at the change of subject.

"It doesn't close for a while," Yoshi said, checking the time again. "Anyways, we just need to drop this off. Kiharu wouldn't ask us to deliver it unless he knew we'd have time."

Nao nodded. "You guys look really similar. You and your brother, I mean. I didn't realize fraternal twins could look almost identical."

Yoshi grinned. "We're special, is all. Even when we were little kids people got us mixed up a lot." She shrugged it off. "Anyways, enough about my brother. I wanted to ask you about this Pretty Cure stuff."

"Like what?"

"Well, um, more specifically, the Starlight Shards."

"Yes…?" Nao asked. Where is Yoshi going with this…?

Yoshi stopped walking and held up a small packet with a small pattern of pastel stars on the brocade, one of the charms Kiharu had attached to his violin case. When Yoshi shook it, it chimed very faintly.

Nao stopped dead, staring at it. "That sounds…"

"Like a Starlight Shard? Yeah." Yoshi opened the envelope and shook the contents of it into her hand.

A pale yellow crystal fell out.

Yoshi and Nao stared at it for a long moment.

"How did he get one of those?" Nao asked, perplexed.

Yoshi shrugged. "I think he bought it a couple days ago at the shrine downtown for good luck at the concert. It's the newest addition."

"Not the omamori, the shard! What would you usually find in them? Just pieces of wood, right?" Nao said, taking the shard from Yoshi. It had the same familiar warmth as the other ones.

"I don't know. I've never opened one. You're not really supposed to, right?"

Nao extended her hand back at Yoshi. "Then we shouldn't have-"

"The concert's over, it's fine," Yoshi said, waving Nao's hand away. "We can…aha!" She bent down and scooped up a small pebble from the street that looked to be the same size as the Starlight Shard. She tucked it back in the packet and folded it shut once more, reattaching it to the violin case.

Nao frowned, but slipped the shard into her pocket. "Won't the charm stop working now?"

"Not necessarily." Yoshi shook her head, her curls tumbling around her face. "It's less about what the charm is and more what the person believes it to be. Kiharu believes it works so whether it's a shard or a pebble inside, it'll keep giving him luck. It's his faith in it that powers it." She paused. "I hope."

A guilty expression crossed her face for a moment, but Nao quickly chimed in with "I won't tell him if you don't. He'll replace it again next year, anyways."

Yoshi smiled in gratitude, and they began walking again.

"You didn't strike me as the type to really believe in good luck charms," Nao added, clasping her arms behind her back as she walked.

Yoshi laughed, scratching her cheek in embarrassment. "It's not that, I just…" Her expression became thoughtful. "Ever since this Pretty Cure stuff, I've been second guessing a lot. Like, if I can transform into a magical warrior, maybe things like good luck charms being real aren't so far-fetched. I used to get them a lot as a kid, but I never really believed they worked." She smiled down at the ground. "But now…it kind of makes me hopeful."

They walked in comfortable silence the rest of the way to the store.

"Closed?"

Yoshi and Nao stood in front of the store front, dusk falling around them.

"How can it be closed? The sun hasn't even yet!" Yoshi said, checking the time again.

"What are the hours?" Nao leaned in, inspecting the small, handwritten notice to the right of the door. "Let's see…Wednesday, it's…."

Yoshi crowded up against her, violin case tucked under her arm. "It's not open?" She said in disbelief. "That's- that's so stupid!" Nao looked over at her. Yoshi was biting her thumbnail, looking frustrated. "It was supposed to be open!"

Nao straightened up. "It's getting dark…"

Yoshi gave her a look of dismay. "But I…I can't leave! Kiharu asked me-"

"But they're closed. There's nothing you can do now…" Nao saw the gleam in Yoshi's eyes and felt a vague sense of unease.

"Kiharu always puts his violin in the same place when he wants it to be fixed and Mr. Akimaru is busy. If I can just…"

Nao watched in amazement as Yoshi plucked a bobby pin from her hair – she used them to help keep her headband in place during judo – and stuck it into the lock, wiggling it around expertly.

"Do you even know how to pick a lock?"

"Nope," Yoshi replied. "I saw someone do this in a movie once, though."

Nao sighed and looked around, noticing something at the back of the building and hitting Yoshi's shoulder lightly with the back of her hand. "There's a window open. If you boost me up I can probably sneak through and let you in."

Yoshi looked long and hard at the bobby pin, now bent and twisted from being jammed in the lock, and tossed it aside to follow Nao.

The interior of the shop was dark, but clean and warm. Nao carefully picked her way into the main room, her arms sore and burning from squeezing into the small opening in the window. Yoshi had done her best to get Nao to the right height, not even complaining when Nao stood on her shoulders to hoist herself up, but she had managed to fall face-first onto the floor anyways. Her nose still smarted, but she considered it a victory.

I can't believe I'm breaking into a shop to leave something…

She unlocked the bolts and opened the shop door. It chimed pleasantly.

"I'm home," Yoshi said, the joke apparent in her voice.

"Welcome back," Nao said on reflex, closing the door behind Yoshi. "Let's just leave the violin and leave."

There was a soft noise at the door. Nao turned toward it, the hairs at the back of her neck pricking, but there was nothing, nobody standing there.

"Yoshi! Did you hear that?" She whispered hoarsely.

"Hear what?" Yoshi said, halfway to the back counter. "I didn't hear anythi-"

There was a nasty cracking sound from the front door, the doorknob splintering and clattering to the floor. It rolled away into the shelves of cellos and music stands.

"What a dingy shop."

Peria pushed open the door with her fingertips, striding in and trailing her hand on the counter.

Nao took a step backwards, already on the defensive. "Did you follow us?" She asked.

Peria rolled her eyes. "I have better things to do than chase after little girls pretending to be heroes." She snapped her fingers, and the violin case bucked in Yoshi's grip. Her fingers sought for purchase on the smooth plastic case, but it had been yanked out of her hands, floating over to Peria and gently lowering into her outstretched hands. "I'm here for the shard. It's in here, isn't it? Why else would you be hiding it?"

Nao's hand brushed against her pocket.

Yoshi snorted angrily. "That's not- Let go! Don't touch that!" She stomped forward, but Nao threw her arm out in a silent protest against her movement. Yoshi froze.

"She doesn't know the shard isn't in there," Nao breathed, and Yoshi nodded imperceptibly.

"What are you two whispering about?" Peria snapped, opening the clasps of the case and yanking the violin out roughly by the neck. The case she threw to the ground. Yoshi threw her arm out as if to stop her, but Nao kept her arm up.

Not yet.

"There's no shard here," Peria groused, nudging the violin case with her foot and turning her angry gaze onto the two girls. "Was this really all you were trying to protect?" she shoved the violin in Yoshi's direction.

"It's precious to me," Yoshi said through clenched teeth.

"I can't imagine why," Peria mused, picking up the snapped string with her index finger and thumb as if it was a worm. "It's broken."

Yoshi's hands clenched into fists, and Nao could see her face turning red.

"Oh well," Peria said. "If you're not going to tell me where the shard is, I'll just have to beat it out of you."

From her pocket, she withdrew a Starlight Shard, throwing the dull crystal at the floor. "From the depths of space…Uchui! Obey!" She watched with manic eyes as the shadow appeared from the void and stretched toward the ceiling. Stifling a harsh laugh, Peria stared at Yoshi, keeping eye contact as she shoved Kiharu's violin into the chest of the smoky figure.

Nao could hear Yoshi whimper a small, quiet "no." The Uchui that towered before them was a massive violin, narrow eyes with slit pupils situated on the scroll, the bridge warped into a snarling mouth. Two arms ending in claws that sprouted from the corners. Two thin, jagged legs.

"Make them pay for getting my clothes wet," she said, snapping her fingers. The Uchui roared in agreement, its back brushing against the ceiling and its wooden shoulders and neck pushing up roughly, causing it to crack, claws slashing at the walls for leverage. The ceiling crumbled easily, sending huge slabs of the broken roof towards Nao and Yoshi.

Nao threw her arms up as debris and dust was thrown up, the ground shaking under her feet, the Uchui roaring once more. It almost sounded like Godzilla in the old movies, and coming from an enormous violin with arms and legs would have made it even funnier, except it was trying to kill her. She didn't feel much like laughing in the face of that fact.

Blinking her pink eyes against the dust, she saw Yoshi standing not five feet away, a huge purple bruise developing on her arm from where she shielded herself from a falling roof beam. Yoshi caught her gaze, and their eyes locked. They nodded.

It's time.

In unison, they pulled out their mirrors.

"Pretty Cure! Cosmos Activate!"

Peria slid to the side, turning against the bright pink and gold glows that flooded through the store. In a shower of pink sparks and gold flame, Cure Galaxy and Cure Solar stood in the middle of the debris.

"The promise of infinite possibility! I am Cure Galaxy!"

"The fire of a beautiful dream! I am Cure Solar!"

"Feels wrong to do this without Star," Solar muttered, but the Uchui was faster than it appeared, reaching its huge arms out to grab Solar – but Solar was much, much faster. She easily evaded its grip, crouching before jumping high. Her leg lashed out, catching the side of the head of the Uchui in a powerful kick.

It staggered to the side, but Cure Galaxy was waiting for it, spinning, the momentum carrying her fist forward and hitting the Uchui square in the middle of the face before it could hit the ground. The monster recoiled, shrieking, falling backwards and writhing in pain.

Cure Solar landed lightly on her feet.

"We're finishing this," she said, making the peace signs and touching her fingertips together, but she hesitated.

Galaxy cupped her hands around her mouth. "It won't harm Kiharu's violin!" She yelled. "Destroy it!"

Solar nodded, placing her fingers so that they surrounded the mirror attached to her dress. "Pretty Cure…Rising Flare!"

The Uchui reeled as the magic attack hit it square in the chest. It crashed to the floor, smoking, its wooden exterior cracking and damaged, but it didn't dissolve. It was moving slowly, struggling to get back up, but not destroyed.

"It wasn't enough-!" Solar gasped. She spun to face Galaxy. "Use your magic!"

"I don't know how!" Cure Galaxy squeaked, holding her hands up in front of her in defense. "I've never-!" But her words died in her mouth when she saw the desperation and fear on Solar's face. We don't have Star or Stella with us today, Galaxy realized. If we can't manage to take the Uchui down, we're toast. She swallowed – hard – and turned to face the struggling Uchui.

She felt strange, like her body wasn't her own, her arms moving of their own accord. She felt like she was watching herself move, walking forward and standing perpendicular to the monster. "I hope this works," she whispered.

She made a heart with her hands, placing them over the star mirror on her chest, and closed her eyes. She could feel the power, the magic. It had the same resonance as the Starlight Shards. She could feel the Shard, too, tucked away safe in the pocket of her sweater.

The mirror on her chest began glowing pink.

"You underestimated us again," Cure Galaxy said, her eyes snapping open. "Pretty Cure…" She threw her arms up, over her head; hands still cupped together holding the glow carefully between them. "Shining Heart!" She slammed her arms down, the glow following the trail of her arms and acting much like a whip, crashing down over the Uchui and tearing the wooden body clean in two. The Uchui's roar faded out as its entire body began to glow pink, the wood splintering and dissolving, the shadowy figure twisting up into the darkening sky. Kiharu's violin clattered to the ground unscathed.

Peria was thrown back by the force of the blast, sending her sprawling into the pile of destroyed instruments with a heavy crash. She pushed herself up, teetering unsteadily on her feet, long strands of stray hair obscuring her face.

Her expression was murderous.

Without a word, she opened up a void behind her, turning on her heel and disappearing into the murky depths.

As it snapped shut behind her, Cure Galaxy could almost make out words, but they were lost in the smoke of the void, and that, too, soon vanished.

"I'm sorry you couldn't get the violin to the store on time," Cure Galaxy said, kicking at some rubble in the middle of the shop. She knew that the store would reform, the walls rebuilding and the destroyed instruments becoming whole once more, but it still made her uneasy. It was a magic fix she wasn't used to.

She should have bruises, cracked ribs. Yoshi's nasty bruise from the building collapsing had disappeared, leaving her arm unblemished. Galaxy looked around at the deep claw marks in the walls. She closed and opened her fist around the blue Starlight Shard, retrieved from the dissolved Uchui, wondering if she would rather have scars. "Kind of like a record of survival," she mumbled to the open shop as the rubble disappeared, the store shelves fading back to their bolted place on the walls, the glass moving in slow motion back into the window.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," Nao said, her sweater and leggings fading back onto her body as she resumed her civilian form. Yoshi was already ahead of her, placing the violin reverently back in its case and arranging the broken string in line with the others. It was a miracle it hadn't broken further. "You ready to go?" Nao asked, motioning at the door, which was reforming in front of them in long splinters. Yoshi nodded, and the two members of Pretty Cure jumped over the door and the cracked wall, hearing the building set back behind them.

Nao turned around. There was no record of the shop ever having been destroyed. It looked perfect, peaceful. She turned to Yoshi, who was also looking back, and her expression mirrored Nao's unease.

"I'll never get used to that," Yoshi said, sticking her hands in her jacket pockets.

"Me either," Nao agreed, and as the stars began to appear in the sky, the two began walking home, only stopping once at the 24-hour convenience store to pick up Himawari's popsicles. They helped themselves to two each as a reward for their hard work.

Himawari had bought a pack for herself, anyways.

Next time on Starlight Pretty Cure!

Himeko: Wow! You found two Starlight Shards? I knew you both would be good Pretty Cures!

Yoshi: All in a day's work! Although I'm still not sure how the one got in my brother's good luck charm…

Nao: I guess it's a mystery we'll never solve.

Yoshi: Speaking of mysteries, I've been having really, really weird dreams lately!

Nao: Can we talk about this later? My sister wants me to run errands…

Himeko: But there's a new kind of Uchui on the loose!

Nao: Next time on Starlight Pretty Cure: "Geez! My sister is such a pain! What do I do?"