Chapter 10: Maybe Gonna Fly Now

It never occurred to me how incredibly tedious, and often mentally taxing, living through the same timeline could be. It was often the mundane, predictable things like waking up, having meals and work that was the hardest to accept and get through. Sometimes, one needed to resist the temptation of trying to do something completely different, just to spite the boring, tedious routine. Diverting can be disastrous; it often takes just the slightest misstep to lead the timeline down a new, different and unpredictable path. So I had to persevere and just get on with it, because this time I had a purpose. I had very important tasks to attend to and I could not let minor things like boring routines from stopping me.

"Hi hi!"

Yep, you've guessed it. It was her again, in her most annoying genki girl impersonation. "I'm Marie-Sueanna Window Cure Diva of the Blue Sky. Pleased to meet you, err…"

Your worst nightmare. Gojira. Ken Washio. I was so tempted to just let loose and screw around with her right there and then, but fortunately the more logical and pragmatic side of me intervened. "Ken," I answered, carefully watching her for any signs of recognition or indifference.

"Pleased to meet you, Ken!" There was that nauseating, cutesy wink again. Either she's very good at it, or she's really part of the resetting timeline, and thus forgetting everything that she had done. There were advantages to both possibilities that I could capitalise on for a strategic advantage, but until I could ascertain the truth none of this mere speculation mattered. I just had to play along while carefully observing Marie and covertly subverting her plans before she could even act upon them. I knew her full itinerary, after all; if she was to go out with Megumi one day, I'd make plans with Megumi the day before. If she deviated from that, then I would instantly know that she retained her memories from the past timeline and was just playing along like myself.

Miss Sugimoto, on the other hand, was a more problematic individual. I didn't encounter her that often in the previous timeline, so I couldn't predict her actions as well as Marie's. Therefore she might be the one with the greater potential to cause trouble for us. I resolved to focus more of my attention on her; as far as I knew, she was targeting Blue so I should be spending more time at The Embassy to keep a lookout for this one.

In any case, I found myself at the park with Megumi again, after Yuuko had shuffled us out of Omori Gohan. The last time we were here, we only managed to have a brief chat before a Saiark attack interrupted our conversation. I thought carefully about what I wanted to say to Megumi this time.

"That Marie… she's a strange one, isn't she?"

"She's certainly different… quite nothing like Hime at all." Megumi smiled sheepishly.

"To be frank, I don't trust her at all. I feel like she's just putting up a friendly act in front of us all. Her behaviour just seemed forced and unnatural. And how did she even come here from the Blue Sky Kingdom? Wasn't the place already conquered by the Phantom Empire? How did she evade capture and come here?"

"Isn't that a bit harsh, Ken?" Megumi glared, her brows furled. "You're not giving her a chance at all."

"I apologise for my rudeness, but I feel that I must make a stand. Everyone seems to be accepting her too openly. What if she's a spy for Queen Mirage? What if she's another Phantom Empire general, sent to secretly infiltrate the Happiness Charge team?"

"I understand your concern, Ken, but this is enough." She looked quite cross at me this time.

I raised both hands to indicate defeat. "Look, I'll stop now. I'm really sorry that I have to be the one who has to do this. But please think about what I have said, alright? I'm not asking you to treat her as an enemy just like that. Just exercise a little caution with her, okay? I assure you that I do not mean any ill will towards any of you; I'm just concerned about you and your friends, and that's the honest truth."

"I'll think about it." He glare hadn't fully gone away yet, but at least she had begun to relax a little.

That was good enough for me. I didn't know if that would make any difference, but it was a start. "Thanks, Megumi. And I'm truly sorry for being a jerk about this."

Before she had time to respond, the sound of an explosion announced the arrival of the Saiark. We both turned to look in the direction of the shopping district. A column of smoke could be seen rising over the buildings. I knew that Hime would already be at the scene and fighting alongside Cure Sparkle. Our arrival at the scene wouldn't have any impact on the outcome, but if that's how the timeline goes then I had to play along too.

"I think it came from the shopping district," Megumi announced.

"Yep. Let's get moving."

The day Sagara Seiji introduced his distant cousin Sugimoto Mari, I could tell that she would be a difficult one to deal with. Her timid personality was an automatic defence mechanism against any sort of scrutiny or doubt. It would be a near-impossible task to try and convince the group that this shy and harmless-looking girl could be a serious threat to the world. So I resolved to remain quiet and observed everything about her as much as I could. If there were any signs of weakness or inconsistency, I needed to know. More importantly, I needed to know if this was a fake personality or her real one. And if it were her true self, then what in the nine realms was such a person even doing, allying herself with what amounts to an evil team like that?

But from the last experience, one thing is certain. The presence of these two interfered with the development of the Happiness Charge team. Regardless of their actual motives, they needed to be stopped. So I did something bold. Perhaps a bit too bold, in retrospect.

"What do you think you're doing?"

The voice of Marie rang from behind me as I was quietly following Miss Sugimoto around during one of her daily routines. Her voice was strong enough that it even alerted my quarry, who stopped and skittishly shot a glance at me.

"Just taking a walk?" I answered as casually as I could muster. "Oh hey, Sugimoto-san! What a coincidence!"

That caused Miss Sugimoto to flinch, though she made no attempt to approach. Marie, on the other hand, strode right up and grabbed me by the collar. "Please don't lie to me. I don't like liars." It was her dead serious look and tone that bothered me more than the threat of physical abuse. When she was with the rest of the team she'd be all happy fluffy bunnies like a typical genki girl but here, she was making threats.

"What I'd like to know is what you two are up to," I said, trying to put up a brave front. "What's your angle in this? What do you hope to achieve by hooking up with Megumi and Blue?"

"Oh, he thinks he's a smart one." She motioned for Miss Sugimoto to approach, and she duly complied.

"I'm not afraid of you."

"Well, you'd better be." Her grip tightened, and I could feel myself being lifted off my feet.

"You still haven't answered me yet."

The atmosphere was tense, but I was as calm as a rock. Over at the corner of my eye, I could see another figure lurking over in the rooftops. In fact, I had seen her perched there for some time already, thus bolstering my confidence. Marisu had my back, and so I could do my utmost best to try and pry some information out of these two. "I said, you still haven't answered me yet. What's so special about Megumi and Blue? What's all this really about?"

I felt Marie flinch and shift her posture a little, as her eyes turned towards something behind me. Her grip on me lessened and my feet slowly touched the ground again. "Well, it looks like your time hasn't come yet."

I followed her gaze and nearly jumped in surprise. It was her. Dressed in her dark goth cosplay outfit, she beckoned for Marie to come over. A faint crunching of gravel behind me, quickly followed by a gentle rush of air, could only mean that Marisu had just dropped down from the rooftops behind me. "Be careful," she whispered.

I looked at the goth girl straight in the eye. "Who are you and what do you want?"

She simply stared at us with a deadpan expression, while Marie and Miss Sugimoto proceeded to walk away. "Bye bye, see you again next time!" Marie playfully cooed in her disgusting happiness-charged tone.

I watched as Marie and Miss Sugimoto disappear around the corner. Goth girl here, on the other hand, was as still as a rock. "So you're just going to stare us to death?"

"The parameters for conflict and death have not yet been met," she finally said in the most unremarkable tone, as if she wasn't even putting in any effort to articulate any form of eloquence in her speech pattern. Then with a wave of a hand, she dematerialised before we could do anything else. Why do the villains always get these kind of cool exit moves?

"That was exceedingly dangerous, Ken."

"You've been stalking," I replied, slowly turning around to face Marisu.

"Of course." She gently pressed her hand against her head. "Imagine what would have happened if I wasn't here."

"But I knew you were up there, standing guard. That's why I had the confidence to press harder for answers." I looked down and shook my head. "Unfortunately we still have gotten anywhere at all."

"At least we now have actual confirmation that the three of them are working together," she replied with a smile. On second thought, make that a mischievous grin. "Good job, Ken. But don't do it again or I'll be forced to charge you with reckless endangerment resulting in death by broken neck."

I don't know if she was joking or not with that last bit. I decided that I did not want to know.

Phantom's invasion of Pikarigaoka came right on schedule. Saiarks flooded the town, turning a once peaceful community into a ghost town littered with sarcophagi-like mirrors and giant, rampaging monsters. On cue, Marie transformed into Cure Sparkle and sped out of Omori Gohan without a single word. That left me to my own devices and instead of repeating the same events again, I decided to check up on a hunch.

The path back to The Embassy wasn't as dangerous as I had expected, and I made it back within reasonable time. No doubt the Happiness Charge team, along with Cure Crimson, still had their hands full with the deadly Phantom Empire general so I proceeded to enter with caution. There was no telling what would happen and if anything did, Marisu wouldn't be at my side to protect me from harm's way. Not that I wanted her to do that, though. Her neck-breaking joke still rang clearly in my head.

The living room wasn't empty when I arrived, confirming my suspicions. "Mari," I said.

Miss Sugimoto looked up from her empty cup, only to recoil and sit further back up, holding the tea cup close to her chest. "What… what are you doing here?"

"That's what I wanted to ask of you," I answered as I took a seat opposite her.

"Well… there are Saiarks all around. S-someone has to stay and… and stand guard." Her eyes continually darted from her teacup to the table, to her feet, and to the window behind me, but never straight towards me.

Just then, Blue came in from the kitchen, carrying a tray with a tea pot and another cup. "Oh Ken, I didn't notice you come in," he said, setting the tray down on the table. "I'll go get you a cup."

Once Blue was out of earshot, I leaned forward and tried to look her straight in the eye. It was an exercise in futility, of course, like the two opposing poles of a magnet. She stared at everything but me. "So tell me, what's all this about anyway? Do you really like Blue-sama that much? Or is there an ulterior motive in there?"

It seemed that I might have struck a nerve, as her expression darkened and she clutched at her teacup even tighter.

"Look, I can see that you're not the kind of girl who would get herself caught up in this for no good reason. Please, tell me what's really going on. Besides, Marie and death goth chick aren't here right now. You can tell me, can't you?"

"P-please. Leave me alone." She stared blankly at the floor and for a moment, I thought I could get to her. She could be the enemy's weak link that I might be able to use to break through. Well, it was a nice but fleeting thought, because of what she said next. "Or I'll cry and Blue will hate you forever."

We heard Blue come back out from the kitchen, carrying an extra teacup in hand. He placed this one on the table in front of me and proceeded to fill it up with hot, fragrant tea. I thanked him and picked it up.

"Where's Marie, by the way?" I asked before gently blowing at the surface of the hot tea.

Miss Sugimoto picked up her cup and shifted closer towards Blue. "She… she's out there somewhere. Looking for survivors, perhaps."

With Blue back in the living room, I could no longer carry on with my interrogation and so I let things be for now, content to quietly observe the interactions between Miss Sugimoto and the earth god. Blue seemed a little more hesitant than his usual self, and even consciously maintaining his distance from Miss Sugimoto. Was there an embarrassment factor involved due to my presence, or was he actually heeding my advice from before and is being cautious with this girl? I hoped to observe more, but apparently the battle was already over and the rest of the girls streamed back into the living room. Megumi and Hime collapsed onto the sofa to rest, so I got up to give them some space. Yuuko headed into the kitchen, while Iona walked straight up towards me. "We need to talk," she whispered.

I quietly nodded, keeping my eyes on Miss Sugimoto to make sure that she wasn't watching. Iona then led me into the kitchen, where Yuuko was already expecting us.

"So, what's all this about?" I had some suspicions, of course, but I'd rather hear them out first.

Iona walked over to the stove to stand beside Yuuko, who patiently waited with her arms folded across her chest. Yuuko slowly scanned the room, as if looking out for anything suspicious. Finally she gave Iona the nod to speak. "Marie-Sueanna Cure Diva. Sugimoto Mari. You know about them, don't you Ken? You've been keeping an eye on them all this while, and you know that they're up to something."

I leaned back, with my back towards the door to make sure that no one else could approach without me knowing about it first. I nodded to them. "Did something happen?"

Yuuko leaned a little forward, shifting her weight in the process. "These few days Marie has been acting strange. At every opportunity she would try to attach herself to Megumi to the point that it made us all uncomfortable."

"Glasan had said something similar about Mari and Blue," Iona continued. "It's as if they're trying to take Megumi and Blue away from us."

"Don't worry about Blue-sama," I reassured her. "I'm sure that he's already well aware of things and can take care of himself. Megumi, on the other hand, will probably be needing our help, whether she asks for it or not."

"So who are they, Ken? And what do they really want?"

"I don't know. Please trust me when I say that it's very complicated, but so far I have not been able to get anything out of those two at all. Their actions are completely irrational and illogical, but at the same time are a danger to the Happiness Charge team. They're distractions that are hampering both your personal development, and your development as a team. I can't stress how important it is for all of you to continue training harder to grow in power; I imagine the fight with Phantom today could have gone better, if only you were all stronger?"

"How do you know so much?"

"I can't say at the moment. Blue's wishes, and I'd like to respect those wishes – at least for the moment. But just trust me that you all need to put aside these distractions and grow stronger. Difficult times are coming up ahead."

Iona smirked and looked at Yuuko, who could only shrug back. "This can only mean one thing."

"What's that?" Yuuko asked.

"A training camp!"

Thanks to not getting wounded or killed this round, I finally got to join Iona's beach training camp. Unfortunately, so did Marie and Miss Sugimoto. Marisu declined to join us, however. She said something about having other things to take care of in Pikarigaoka. It could not get any more cryptic than that, and she wouldn't care to explain any further so we dropped the subject at that point.

The cabin by the beach, belonging to Iona's dojo, was a fairly large and spacious building, surrounded by a lush green yard. The sea was just a short distance away. I could imagine myself having a lot of fun here, but had reminded myself that we were here only for training and nothing else. The fate of the world may rest on the results of these two days of activity.

Not long after we had settled in, the actual training itself came up on the itinerary. Or more accurately, Pretty Cure training, and for girls only. This left me, Seiji, Blue, Ribbon and Glasan to our own devices. I could perhaps do with some training myself, but I needed a partner to help. Seiji seemed like the right person for the task, so I approached and asked if he would like to spar with me. He gladly accepted.

Seiji and I went at each other while Blue and the two little fairies looked on. He seemed like quite a good fighter, perhaps nearly on the same level as Iona. They were both trained under the same dojo, after all, so their fighting styles were somewhat similar. However, I'd peg Iona as the one with more combat experience, as Seiji's came from sparring and tournaments where grievous harm and death weren't on the table.

"You've got a very good defence," Seiji commented after I deflected one of his well-placed kicks. I tried to counter with a punch, but he easily grabbed hold of my hand and used its momentum to throw me to the ground. "But your strikes are pathetic and need a lot of work."

I quickly sprung to my feet and kept my distance, ignoring the complaints of my bruised and aching back. "Perhaps you can teach me a few moves."

Seiji smiled. "Possibly, but I doubt that you'll be able to master anything in a single day."

I ducked out of the way of another solid punch, deflected a second one and then leapt aside before a sweep kick could drop me. "No problem. It took a lot of time and hard work to get to this level."

We kept at it for a while without realising that we had attracted quite the audience. Now all the girls had temporarily put their training on hold to watch us spar. Well, it still wasn't much of a spar on my end anyway. Despite being the adept at avoiding attacks, I could not deliver a single solid blow in response. Seiji, on the other hand, took advantage of my weak strikes to launch counters off them. It was practically a one-sided bout, and I found myself greeting the ground more often than I had liked. After tiring ourselves out, I suggested we call it a day.

Megumi ran up to us and offered two bottles of water, one for each of us. After thanking her, she ran back to the girls, who went off to resume training.

"That was a good workout," I said while twisting the cap of the bottle open.

"Your moves. They seemed a little bit familiar," Seiji said as he opened his drink. "Who trained you?"

"Would you believe it if I said someone similar to Iona did?" Okay, so I might have just ventured into weird territory with that comment.

"I don't know," Seiji answered, taking a sip from his water bottle. "I may not be fully involved, but I've been hearing stories about you and that other girl, Marisu. Blue-sama has been pushing the girls to get stronger and train harder too. From what I've heard, he's preparing them to face a very strong enemy that will appear one day."

"Ah well… it's good to hear that he's taken our advice then," I said, finishing my water and placing the empty bottle by my side. "By the way, Seiji, what do you think of your cousin, Mari?"

My question elicited a brief pause from Seiji before he replied. "I don't really know. I'm not really close to her or her parents, but she seems keen to stick around us. Like she's got some ulterior motive to be here."

"It's a little bit suspicious, is what you are saying." I awaited intently for his response.

"I don't know," he replied after thinking about it for a moment. "Maybe. Usually I would be admonishing you for having such views about her, but I think Yuuko and Iona are also harbouring some suspicions too. You're somewhat involved in this too, aren't you?"

"Since you've already got the gist of it, I'm going to say it right out – yes, she isn't what she seems and I'd be wary of her. We still don't know what's her deal, or with Marie, but we need to keep an eye on them both."

Seiji nodded, his eyes following the girls as they acted out their Pretty Cure attacks at the beach. As they trained, both Marie and Miss Sugimoto sat by the sidelines, content to watch the girls practice their moves to perfection. Once in a while, Marie would attempt to cheer Megumi on, while Miss Sugimoto would shoot a glance in our direction. It was either a very cleverly coordinated tactic to keep an eye on me, or there's just something different about Miss Sugimoto that I haven't caught on yet. That little encounter with her during Phantom's invasion still lingered fresh in my mind, and I wondered if I there was still more ground that I could have covered.

The rest of the training, and the barbecue food fest that ensued at the end of the day, went as well as I had expected. I heard that they had a brief skirmish with a Phantom Empire general and a Saiark over at the neighbouring stretch of beach, but it was insignificant enough to me that I didn't pay further heed to. It was a canon encounter, after all, and I would have been more concerned if the fight didn't happen. In the grand scheme of things, this timeline was progressing reasonably well enough and that was all that mattered.

The remaining events that occurred at night, the next day and the trip back home went by as uneventfully as far as canon was concerned.

Soon the time came for the Precures to visit Hawaii. This was a girls-only trip, so all the guys stayed back. I didn't mind; I had something important to accomplish at this time. As for Marie and Miss Sugimoto, both Yuuko and Iona had reassured me that they'll keep an eye on things at their end so I was free to pursue my own agenda here at The Embassy. I went up to the mirror in the living room and gave it a knock.

"Hello Ken, how may I help you?"

I stepped back to give Blue some space as he appeared out of the mirror. Once we had made ourselves comfortable in the living room, I asked, "Blue-sama, do you think the girls are ready to awaken the power of the Shining Make Dresser yet?"

Blue smiled. "Perhaps. The girls have worked hard to reach the level that they are at now."

"That's cool," I remarked. "Maybe we could accelerate things when they get back."

"You seem… rather keen," Blue mused.

"Yeah, of course," I replied. "We need them to get stronger, to prepare them for what's to come."

Blue walked over to the window and stared out into the wide, open space. "For what's to come, huh?" He folded his hands into his chest and let out a long, deep breath. "You haven't given me the full details of what's to come."

"Right. Before, I didn't fully trust that you would believe me after your original response. However, I believe by now you've come to see for yourself just how strange and illogical both Marie-Sueanna Cure Window and Sugimoto Mari's behaviour are. Mari, in particular, has been giving you some trouble of sorts, hasn't she?"

Blue let out a soft chuckle, one that you'd not notice if you weren't paying any attention towards. "Yes, I see now what you have been warning me about. And yes, it is all so illogical that I cannot fathom any explanation myself."

"In any case, what's to come is a dark Cure by the name of Despair. She is the most powerful Cure that we have ever seen."

"Cure Despair." Blue muttered that name slowly. "I wonder if he has anything to do with this…"

"Who's he?"

"Sorry, it's nothing. It's probably nothing at all." Blue continued to stare out the window for a very long time. I wondered what he was thinking. Eventually he seemed to return to his usual demeanour and said with a smile, "alright. I'll ask Hime and make the necessary preparations when they come home tonight."

Later that night, I found myself staring out the window from my room. Things have been going quite well this time around. A little too well, perhaps. I wasn't sure if that was just the paranoid side of me talking, but at the same time we still didn't know much about the forces that were working against us. Just three more key events were to take place – the ceremony for the Shining Make Dresser, the attack of Phantom as Cure Unlovely, and then the simultaneous attack of Cure Tender and Cure Despair. We had to be ready by the time that third event took place.

I gave the view outside the window one final look before retiring to bed. It looks like I wouldn't be getting a visit from Marisu today.

Author's Notes: I hope this chapter hasn't been too talky. I also glossed over Megumi's cold and the train ride back from the beach because I didn't plan for anything out-of-canon to happen then, and this chapter was already getting longer than I wanted for what's purely a development chapter. Anyways, on to the references...

Gonna Fly Now is the theme from the movie Rocky.

Ken Washio is the leader of the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.

The nine realms is a reference to Norse Cosmology, and also related to Thor (of Marvel comics).

Besides Marie, another character who changed tone between saccharine-rich enthusiasm and professional cold-blooded killer was the bunny girl teacher in the anime Absolute Duo. Even though this story was drafted out before that series had even started, I'd thought I mention it because their personalities are so alike.