hi, I'm back! sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, a basic explanation for the hiatus is that I lost inspiration for this story for a while, but I'm back now, so I hope i'll be able to update regularly until the story is finished.
also, thank you to anyone who's reading this story. I'll readily admit it's not my best work, but even still I'm trying to improve.
Inori walked past some rubble until she found herself in a clearing which she assumed was the one she was called to. Standing in it was milky rose, who had wriggled her way to a leader position because most people were unwilling to be a part of such heavy decisions. It had left a lot of higher spots up for grabs, and kurumi was more than willing to lead.
When inori approached, she glared daggers in her direction. Inori, who was confused, asked, "um, should i transform? Or…"
Kurumi sighed and nodded her head, and inori transformed into cure pine.
It didn't take long for the other girls to get there, and most of them were transformed before they even came into sight. This only heightened inori's embarrassment, as she realized she didn't get some kind of memo she supposedly was supposed to.
Once a large amount of girls in unnaturally frilly dresses were there, milky rose jumped onto a large rock and began to speak, "Ok! It has been decided that, from this day forward, all available precure will be taking daily training to improve your skills, and to prepare you to fight fusion."
"Now, for roll. Cure Bloom?"
"Here!"
"Cure egret?"
"Here!"
"Cure mint?"
"Present!"
"Cure Aqua?"
"Does this really have to be so tedious?"
"Milky rose? Wait, nevermind. Cure peach?"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Cure Berry?"
"Get on with it already!"
"Cure Pine?"
"Here!"
"Cure Blossom?"
"Hello!"
"Cure Happy?"
"Here!"
"Cure Sunny?"
"This is boring!"
"Cure Peace?"
"H-here!"
"Cure March?"
"Here."
"Cure beauty?"
"I'm here."
"Cure Tender?"
"Hello!"
"Ok, it looks like everyone's here!" She pulled out a device that resembled an eyeshadow palette. "The rules are simple. You can be in teams or solo, you can go anywhere but near fusion or the hotel, and the last woman standing wins. Got it? Got it. Ok, GO!"
Pine panicked. She didn't know what her plan was, but she was more than sure she wanted to get away from the initial chaos. She turned around and jumped blindly, her only goal being to not loose.
After a couple strait minutes of running, pine noticed footsteps from behind her. She quickly turned around and pulled a defensive stance,
Only to be tackled by someone who apparently didn't know how to stop.
"G-get off me!" Pine yelled as he pushed the girl off her.
"I-I'm so sorry!" The girl yelped as she stood up. The girl was adorned in bright yellow, and it was someone pine didn't know personally. She assumed it must be one of the newer cures, whose first meeting of other precure was the fusion attack, before the dome went up.
"I-i was just wondering," the girl stuttered, "If you wanted to team up?" She forced a scared smile.
"Ok, let's team up. May I ask your name?"
The girl looked downward and started fidgeting her hands. "I-i'm cure peace. My powers are electrokinesis, if it matters. My powers aren't very effective unless it's cloudy or i'm underwa-"
Pine raised a hand and silenced peace, gesturing her to hide under a large chunk of rubble, probably from a destroyed house.
As peace hid, she made sure to see who- or what, they were hiding from. It was Cure tender, who was a very young cure compared to most of the others, only being 12 years old. She had just barely entered the city when the dome went up, and her personality made it hard to get information out of her. Luckily, she had been interrogated during her first few days in the hotel and they were sure she was trustworthy.
But, since none of them had seen her fighting, there was no telling how strong she could be. Not that they would've treated anyone any differently, but it was good to be cautious.
Pine whispered to peace, "you attack her from the upper left, i attack from bottom right, Ok?" Peace nodded.
The delicate silence that had been building while they were hiding was suddenly broken, as both yellow cures jumped out towards the precure tender, and were both building up simple attacks so they could catch her.
Tender noticed just in time, and jumped forward, before unleashing her finisher attack, tender rising starburst.
Pine and peace were caught in this attack, and after the starlight faded, both had been knocked to the ground, and looked noticeably tired. "You're out!" Tender declared.
The two walked back to the hotel in shame, since they had been declared losers on their first fight.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Rose was doing fairly well so far, since she had already taken out cure Mint and was hot on the trail of cure bloom. All she needed was some higher ground or to get close enough, and she could take her out with a blizzard no problem. She was fairly sure bloom didn't even notice her.
But bloom did, and she was leading her right into a trap. As they ran, she was bringing them closer and closer to the clearing they started in, and so far it was the center of conflict.
Rose was ready. She had pulled out her milky palette and was preparing a blizzard, and bloom noticed this just in time. She managed to punch rose it the gut before she was hit by the attack, so in the end, both ended up getting out.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Egret was flying above the starting point, watching the battle between cures rage beneath her. Most of the precure had fled to around the dome, but 3 fighters still remained strong.
She made sure to keep a safe distance, as she knew getting too close could result in an almost immediate loss.
She saw one of them, who was wearing blue, chanced a risky move, and readied an attack that got one of her competitors to fall to the ground. But this opened the chance for the other of her opponents to unleash an attack on her, sending her back to the hotel.
Only one remained, and egret decided this was the moment to pounce. She dived foot-first into the girl, causing her to stutter back, before she, too, flew into the air and faced off against egret.
They battled, before blossom sent egret flying towards the hotel, getting her out for being out of bounds.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Tender and March were locked in a race across the map, nither slowing down to attack in fear of falling behind. They continued to run, until they realized they were nearing fusion.
March skidded to a stop, while tender opened her magic wings and flew directly upward, until she realized she was about to hit the domehead, making her fall right back down again, knocking her down and causing her to get out.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Peach was walking through the expanse of decaying buildings, looking for any other cures. She didn't see anybody, and she could only assume she was one of the last to still be in.
She looked forward, now seeing cure march standing on the other end of the road, ready to charge.
She had already set up a march shoot, and it was in the middle of the road. Peach got out her cure stick, and prepared to attack, and now it was only up to who was quicker.
A ball of wind raged and a heart shot forward, the light energy dispelling the wind and hitting her green opponent, deciding the winner in one blow.