Did you knew that there was a time where the city of Oriyama was just two tiny separated nameless villages in the middle of Edo-era Japan?
It was by that time that a beautiful yet sad love story began.
The first village's most beautiful girl, Oriko, fell in love with the prince of the second village, Yamano. Knowing that their always-quarreling families would oppose the two's relationship, they promised to send love letters to each other everyday.
And so they did. Everyday they wrote letters to each other, each one replying to the previous one. The one who delivered the letters was a dragon who wore pink and blue ribbons tied to his neck, which always flowed on the wind everytime he took flight. The reason he wore the ribbons was so Oriko and Yamano could recognize him when he arrived.
That went on for days and days. But it had to end someday.
On a May 17th, warriors from Yamano's village spotted the dragon on its way to Oriko's village and trapped him. Worried about her lover's letter wasn't arriving, Oriko headed to the palace where Yamano lived and found out that the dragon was going to be beheaded in public that day.
At the hour of the beheading, the dragon was going to meet his fate, when the two lovers interrupted the whole thing and told them that no matter what they done to stop their love, it was never going to stop. Ever. The villagers from both villages were moved by their words, but their families ignored this and decided to kill both of them as the dragon flew off into the distance.
To honor the starcrossed lovers, the villagers did two things. First, they united their villages into a single little town called Oriyama. And second, they invented a new toy called the "Ribbon Dragon", given by a person to his or her lover on every May 17th to bond them together. The Ribbon Dragon was a hard crumbled ball of duck tape with pink and blue crepe paper ribbons attached to it. There was also a small cord attached to it so the user could twirl it around.
"But what does this have to do with Pretty Cure?" you may ask. Well, this episode is all about a boy, a girl, and a ribbon dragon.
A ribbon dragon that became a monster.
(OP: "Purikyua-gumi ni Grow Up" - Hysteric Blue ft. Lavvie and Lotus)
Class had just ended in Oriyama Junior High. Chloe had just finished packing her bags and was about to leave the classroom when she felt someone tap her shoulder.
"Chloe!"
The cherry-redhead turned around to see Hakuo standing behind her with a soft smile on his face.
"Hakuo-kun… What do you want?" she asked, puzzled.
"Chloe… Do you know what day is today?" Hakuo asked softly. The cherry-redhead raised an eyebrow, trying to guess. "Uh… May 17th?" she asked.
Hakuo nodded. "Exactly. So… I wanted to give you this." the purplish-bluenette boy replied, taking a ball of duck tape and crepe paper out of his pocket and giving it to Chloe.
Chloe looked confused. "Hakuo, I never knew you had Arts and Crafts Class here as well. What's that?" she asked, giggling.
"It's called a ribbon dragon." replied Hakuo, "And it's a popular toy here at Oriyama at this time of the year."
Chloe chuckled sheepishly. "Hehehe… That's rather nice. Merci beaucoup. But does it have any special meaning?"
Hakuo nodded. "According to where I bought it, it was made to honor the starcrossed lovers which gave the city its name, Oriko and Yamano."
"Sounds interesting." Chloe smiled, "Continue, please."
"When someone gives it to the person he loves, it starts symbolizing the relationship between these two people. If it's broken, then this relationship will become broken apart as well, and the two might never see each other again." Hakuo continued.
The cherry-redhead gasped in shock. Sure, she and Hakuo were just starting to be best friends, but she didn't wanted it to end so soon. "Okay… I'll try not breaking it." she whispered, "I hope so."
TODAY'S EPISODE:
Linked by a Ribbon Dragon! Do You Love Me So Much?
Ribon-Doragon de Tsunagatta! Sonna ni Atashi no Koto ga Suki? (リボンドラゴンでつながった！そんなにあたしのことが好き？)
"Ne, grand-soeur, what's that?" Chiara asked raising an eyebrow at Chloe's new toy.
The cherry-redhead smiled and stopped twirling the ribbon dragon as she turned to her sister showing it to her. "It's called a ribbon dragon. Hakuo gave it to me. He said that it's a popular toy here at Oriyama, and it was made to honor a pair of starcrossed lovers."
Chiara smiled. "That looks pretty kewl." she giggled, "Can I touch it?"
Chloe shook her head in disagreedment. "I'm afraid you might not be able to touch it. If it's broken, then Hakuo told me there's a chance of him never forgiving me for that and being mad at me forever." she frowned. Chloe didn't wanted to lose a friend. Just those thoughts made her cry…
"Aw, come on, grand-soeur-chan!" Chiara pleaded, making the large puppy dog eyes, "Onegai~"
Chloe, after wiping her tears, finally gave the ribbon dragon to her blonde sister. "Okay, fine. I just hope you don't wreck it." the cherry-redhead told her.
Chiara smiled, taking the ribbon dragon from her sister's hand. "Alright! I'll do my best!" she grinned, running off as the toy's ribbons flowed in the wind.
"Let's hope you do so…" another slight whisper flew through the cherry-redhead's lips.
The moon shone brightly at the balcony of the Auriville sisters' bedroom as Chiara fiddled around with the ribbon dragon. Suddenly, the blondie girl saw a kitty, and patted it, smiling. "Ooh, cutie kitty~" she giggled.
"Nyan~" the kitty meowed.
Chiara laughed as she patted the kitty. She absolutely loved cute animals or cute animal people; she even thought about glomping Lavvie and Lotus back in episode 1. The blondie smiled as she held the cat. Suddenly, it leaped out from her hands and grabbed the ribbon dragon, which was hanging from her finger.
"Ne! Stop messing with that!" she tried to pull it away from the cat, but it was no use. It kept holding it tight.
And so, Chiara and the kitty struggled to take the ribbon dragon to themselves, as Chiara thought about Chloe and what she've told her.
If it's broken, then Hakuo told me there's a chance of him never forgiving me for that… her redhead sister's voice echoed through her head.
"I'm not… going to upset… my grand-soeur!" cried the blondie in determination. After all, Chloe was her sister, and she was going to do whatever it takes to make her happy!
With these thoughts on her head, Chiara finally made the cat let go of the ribbon dragon, but unfortunately, to Chiara's horror, it also caused some ribbons to tear in half and one of them even ripped apart from the duck tape ball.
As the cat left, Chiara fell to the ground and took a glance at the broken ribbon dragon. "Oh no… Grand-soeur-chan is so going to be mad at me when she finds out…"
Suddenly, she heard Chloe's voice call her. "Petite-soeur! Come on! It's past ten o'clock!"
Chiara gulped, grasping the toy in her soft hands. She slowly walked into the room as Chloe looked at her, worried. "Petite-soeur, where have you been?"
"On the balcony!" the blondie tried explaining, "I was playing with the ribbon dragon until a chat came on and started fiddling with it and we fought and this happened."
Chloe's eyes widened. What did she meant with 'this'? "Chiara… I don't understand. Are you trying to hide something from me?"
That was it. Chiara couldn't hold any longer. "OKAY, I CONFESS! I BROKE YOUR RIBBON DRAGON! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?" she cried, tears coming out of her eyes.
Chloe gasped, covering her mouth in shock. How could her sister, her own sister, do such thing to her?
"Petite-soeur… Why?" it was all she could mutter.
(Eyecatch 1: Cure Rosa twirls around and winks to the camera as Lavvie and Lotus hop in and a tiny PCPP logo appears on the left of the screen.)
(Eyecatch 2: The Perfume Preppy girls look at an oven as if waiting for something. Suddenly, a 'ding' noise is heard. The girls open the oven to see seven cupcakes that have their, Lavvie and Lotus' faces on them as a tiny PCPP logo appears on the left of the screen.)
Chloe couldn't stop thinking about what Chiara had just told her. Even when she was asleep, she couldn't get the horrible thought of Hakuo dumping her out of her mind. She even woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat just of thinking about it.
At school, it got even worse. When Chloe first saw Hakuo that day, she covered her face in shame and ran away. Hakuo raised an eyebrow in confusion.
Later, at lunchtime, Chloe was curled up into a ball, still saddened. Ayameko, Hanae and Ikuko looked at her, weirded out, as Chiara ate her bento, sadly staring at the whole scene.
"Chloe-chan? What's wrong?" Hanae asked, tugging on her glasses. The cherry-redhead just shook her head silently in disagreedment.
Ikuko raised an eyebrow. "What's with ya? Cat got your tongue?" she asked.
Soon, Chloe finally turned to the three and spat out, "Nope. He and Chiara destroyed my ribbon dragon."
After that, the three others were just speechless. "She did what?" asked Ayameko confused.
Chloe nodded. "It's the truth. Now my relationship with Hakuo-kun is doomed!" she cried, taking out what was left of the ribbon dragon.
Chiara frowned and thought about the last night. She couldn't let her sister be that saddened. It wasn't ALL her fault, after all. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? It was half my fault, the cat was also included. But… Sorry. I didn't meant to do that."
Her sister glanced at her and smiled warmly. "Okay. I apologize. But promise you won't do such thing again."
Chiara nodded. "I'll try, grand-soeur-chan. And if I don't, promise you won't be so harsh."
Chloe grinned. "I will."
Suddenly, they heard a voice chuckle, "How cute. Sister bonding. That's ridiculous." They turned around to see Stankou there, holding an Ylang-Ylang flower. There were some students laughing at him for his weird leaf costume.
The denizen of Karlix frowned and turned to the mocking students. "And you, stop laughing! This is serious!"
"Stankou!" Chloe stood up glaring at Stankou, "What do you want, you evil piece of something?"
All Stankou did was walk up to Chloe and take the ribbon dragon away from her, before uniting it with the Ylang-Ylang flower he was holding. Both began glowing red and fused together, until they became… a literal Ylang-Ylang ribbon dragon.
Ayameko groaned, knowing what this meant. She, Chiara, Hanae and Ikuko grabbed their CureBottles and… you know the rest.
"Pretty Cure's Scent of Love! Transmutation, Now!"
Insert random space filler here, blah blah blah, I'm getting sick of these uber-sparkly group henshins.
"In the Name of the Yellow Vanilla Flower, I am Cure Vanilla!"
"In the Name of the Purple Jasmine Flower, I am Cure Jasmine!"
"In the Name of the Orange Tangerine Flower, I am Cure Tangerine!"
"In the Name of the Green Cardamom, I am Cure Cardamomo!"
Soon, the battle began. The entire team fought the monster with all the strength it had… except Chloe. All she did was watch everything sadly.
Jasmine turned to her, cocking an eyebrow as she glared at her. "Chloe-chan, why don'tcha go and transform? We're losing here, ya know!"
But she couldn't. Right now, her mind was entirely on the wish of not making Hakuo upset. She felt something, as if her heart was breaking in thousands of little pieces.
Malachite-green eyes watered up with tears of sadness. Cherry-red eyebrows arched with grief. Her hand reached for her ponytail, which she undid, letting go of the wrapper as she let it fall to the ground.
Chloe fell to the ground as well, about to cry. Just the entire pain, of having her ribbon dragon broken and turned into a mindless beast, of how Hakuo would react if he saw the destroyed soul-linking toy.
She hugged her knees. Her heart was acheing. Her friends were suffering, being defeated by the Ylang-Ylang. "Girls…" she muttered.
Suddenly, something happened. Sadness and grief transmutated into rage. Chloe stood up, an endless stream of sparkling tears running out from her green eyes. She couldn't take this any longer.
CureBottle gripped tightly to her clenched fist, she finally shouted out, "Pretty Cure's Scent of Love! Transmutation, Now!"
She squeezed her eyes shut furiously, leaping up and transforming into Cure Rosa. Sure, it was as sparkly as before, but this time it was more gorgeous. Seriously, everything about it was gorgeous this time.
"In the Name of the Pink Rose, I am Cure Rosa!"
After she did so, Rosa let her long pink hair down and tore off her gloves, much to the other Cures' shock. In rage, she raced up to the Ylang-Ylang and began having a heated battle with it.
"Impossible!" gasped Stankou, "No Pretty Cure ever had such strength!"
Landing on the ground, Rosa glared deeply at the Ylang-Ylang, which was almost dead for good. "Gomenasai, Hakuo-kun… But I've got no choice…" she whispered lightly.
She clapped her hands once and crossed them like an X in front of her chest before uncrossing them as she held a pink ball of light and said, "With the Pink Scent of Grace, take this!" she then twirled around and finally shot the ball at the monster as she shouted, "Pretty Cure Rosa Rhapsody!"
As the ball of light headed straight to the monster, it soon became shaped like a giant humming bird and went really fast, until it created a large hole in the Ylang-Ylang. It started glowing pink and soon, the yellow flower on top of it turned into dust and was blown away, while the rest of the monster turned into the damaged ribbon dragon.
After detransforming and having class, the Auriville sisters were heading home when Chloe realized something. "Hold on, Chiara. I almost forgot." the cherry-redhead said walking away.
Chiara lightly touched her lips before shouting to her sister, "Okay, grand-soeur-chan! And come back soon!"
Chloe ran, as fast as she could, her red ponytail flowing in the wind as she did so. Hakuo had to be somewhere, she just knew it. Finally, she found the purplish-blue-haired boy leaning against a tree, a warm smile on his face.
"Hakuo-kun…" she muttered.
The boy chuckled. "Chloe, where have you been? You almost missed class!"
Chloe gulped. If she told him what happened to the ribbon dragon, she was going to regret it for sure.
Her small index finger pushed a lock of cherry-red hair behind her ear. "Hakuo, I'm sorry, but I have to tell you that-"
"You don't need to tell me nothing." Hakuo slowly closed his eyes in concern, walking up to Chloe.
The pink rose Cure gasped, falling to the ground. "Hakuo, I'm sorry! It wasn't my fault! It was Chiara's and…" She paused. Silence filled the air for a long time as Hakuo kneeled down to Chloe's current level.
The cherry-redhead sighed and closed her eyes, showing the boy the damaged ribbon dragon, now just, well, a "dragon".
"Sorry, Hakuo. I'm just terribly sorry. But the ribbon dragon is broken and I can't fix it."
All Hakuo did was smile softly and stare deep into Chloe's eyes. "I understand."
Chloe's eyes widened in surprise. Of all the reactions she expected, this certainly was the last thing she would have thought of. "Eh?" she asked.
"I'm not mad at you just because of a silly toy. In fact, I think… I'm starting to have a crush on you." the boy replied, before landing a soft kiss on Chloe's lips. Her green eyes widened in surprise as her cheeks became a similar tint of red as her hair.
That kiss… Her first real kiss… And with Hakuo…
It felt so good.
Once they parted, Hakuo patted Chloe's head gently and stood up. "See ya at school, Chloe-chan." he said winking at her as he left.
As he left, Chloe looked surprised as she touched her own lips in confusion. "Hakuo-kun… Kissed me?" she asked to herself, blushing.
She stared at the sky for quite a while. She smiled. Because if Hakuo was okay with her ribbon dragon being broken… Maybe that meant they had some future together. And she loved it.
"Arigato, Hakuo-kun… Thanks for understanding."
(ED: "Smile!" - Miyamoto Kanako)
NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW:
Ayameko: This episode had way too much drama, don'tcha think?
Ikuko: And was a little rushed as well.
Chiara: Hm-hm, but next time's gonna be more of a comedy episode!
Hanae: It's raining and we're bored, but I'll change that with a certain phrase!
Ayameko: I am Waruinaa, hear me roar! RAWR!
Chloe: Not if Pretty Cure stops you, you sick beast! Next time on Pretty Cure Perfume Preppy: "Pretend! Purikyua-Gumi's Big Rainy Adventure!" Hanekaeshita anata wo uketomeru!
GLOSSARY:
Merci beaucoup = "thank you" in French
Grand-soeur = "big sister" in French
Onegai = "please" in Japanese
Nyan = one of the many ways of saying "meow" in Japanese
Petite-soeur = "little sister" in French
Gomenasai = "sorry"/"I'm sorry" in Japanese