Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon

by Sana Jisushi

You asked for it, you got it! OC fic. Asa the misfit and Yoko the ice queen are drawn together against the Etherium to save every world that's ever been. There are clocks. Clocks and moldy bread.

21. Fateful Cultural Festival!

My story? It started like anyone else's would.

The clock in the middle of town would chime every hour, with a different tone for each hour of the day. The neighbours hadn't complained to town council yet, so instead of stopping at eight o'clock, the sound rang out night and day. But they would complain. The future said so for certain.

Not that Akatoki Kirei had known.

I was a regular girl set on the path that regular girls go.

She pushed aside the blinds and surveyed the town from her bedroom window. The Morning Garden Apartments were in a decent neighbourhood, but nothing fun ever happened there. Sure, there was Sapphire Park, but the town council was putting forward a bid to revitalize the town square and clean up the green area there, and when that happened, everyone would probably just go there instead. Oh, well. It wasn't as if she had any say in the matter, regardless of what would become of the neighbourhood. Or Kazahana City.

Eleven-fifty-nine.

Why did they call it a city if it was a town, anyway? Kirei sighed and followed the train of her distracted haze, staring out at nothing.

Twelve.

BONG. BONG. BONG. BONG.

Kirei's head shot back and her eyes snapped open. Before 'oh, right, the clock tower' could register in her brain, she looked around for the source of the noise. Light caught her eye in the middle of town. Just above the clock tower... something was coming down from the sky. Something sparkling.

Kirei's red eyes fixed on the light as she went for the window screen.

I certainly wasn't some sort of born warrior.

Sneaking out of her room wasn't that hard. She was only living on the second level, and there was a tree just tall enough and just strong enough to support her on the way down. Her parents were probably already asleep, and they didn't have a history of waking up at the slightest noise. Kirei, discarding her pajamas for a pink dress at the top of her laundry pile, climbed out the window and down the tree with a flashlight in her hand. It wouldn't take long to get there. She knew her way around.

BONG. BONG. BONG. BONG.

Kirei couldn't keep her heart from beating overtime or her ears from reciting go back home and be a good child right now or you're going to get yourself killed, so she tried not to think at all. She just focused on the sparkling light. It was right above the tower now, and beginning to separate into two. What was it? Definitely not fireflies. She took deeper breaths and ran through the streets and paths.

I hadn't even thought of doing anything bigger than what my family expected of me, at least not for any considerable length of time.

BONG. BONG. BONG.

Kirei burst into the town square and caught her breath. The two lights had kept descending, and she should have been right where they were. She looked up. There was definitely something sparkling and descending toward her, a pink light that reminded her of the sun rising. She put out her hands and the item dropped into them.

As the sparkle and glow faded, what appeared in her hands was a pink cassette player with a sun symbol on the case and a deck of hole-punched cards loaded inside.

"...what."

BONG.

While Kirei was still staring, something popped out of the tape player. A fuzzy white creature many times the object's size emerged, launched out, and landed on the ground. He (it was a he, right?) dusted himself off and waved up at her.

"Hello ~sasa!"

Kirei shook her head to make sure she was still in her right mind. "Um... what's going on, exactly?"

"We can explain that ~muu!" Another high-pitched voice, this one more feminine, came from in front of the two of them. Kirei looked back up. There was another fluffy creature, but this one was black instead of white, and she had a purple moon symbol on her forehead instead of a pink sun symbol like the one in front of Kirei. The black fuzzy thing (Kirei wasn't sure what else to call them) waved from the arms of a girl standing under a streetlight.

Kirei slowly went to pick up the white little fuzzy guy, not taking her eyes off the other two. "...Who are all of you people?"

"Don't worry!" The other girl smiled. The first thing Kirei noticed was her rumpled uniform - Clair Academy, right? And who wore their uniform after school? She didn't seem to mind, anyway, as she twirled her hair, so purple it was almost black.

"Just listen to them explain! I promise, we'll be perfectly fine!"

Well, I hadn't yet, anyway.

Present day.

Ogata Kirei hid the tape player clipped to her waist and sighed, overlooking the supper table. "So how was your day?"

Mia looked up from her fish. "Well, it's been exciting, anyway... We're all working really hard on our displays for the cultural festival," she said. "You two are still coming, right?"

Kirei nodded and looked at the blue-haired beside her. "We wouldn't miss something like this."

"Right," he added. "It sounds like a more interesting cultural festival than the one we had when we were your age. Wasn't it a haunted house?"

"It was a maid cafe, Tomokazu," Kirei laughed. "The haunted house was the next year."

"I must be getting old," he said. The two of them laughed as if he'd just made a joke that went completely over Mia's head.

"I'm glad you'll be coming! It's too bad Karei-nee couldn't make it." Mia bowed, got up from her seat, and picked up her dishes. "I'm going to go back to the school, okay?"

"All right." Kirei smiled and returned to her food as her daughter put the dishes in the washer and went over to her room. Once Mia was out of sight, Kirei sighed.

Tomokazu lowered his voice. "You think something's going to happen, too, don't you?"

"I'm sure of it," she said. "That's why I said what I did. This is going to come to a head sooner rather than later, full Moon Dial or not."

"With Lord Eiender gone, and considering who's left, probably." He folded his hands. "Is that why you told that girl?"

"Mhm. We're not going to be able to hide for much longer." She looked at him. "I'd rather Mia not know, or get too deeply into this, but that just makes me ridiculous, doesn't it?"

"Maybe. I don't know."

Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon ~solar eclipse~

Episode 20: Fateful Cultural Festival! Kainatrol Steps It Up!

In the week since the fundraiser, the school had been buzzing with preparations for the cultural festival. The entire curriculum was put on hold, with every class devoted solely to polishing their portion of the festival. After school, there were club activities - Yukari was in orchestra, Hoshi in gardening club ("what? Can't I do stuff like that too?"), Mia had tennis club, Yoko had been dragged into physics club at Yukari's urging that she at least try something, and did you really expect Asa to be a part of anything? (Although she was weighing her options for next year.) After that, the students could go home, but most of them stayed all night after school to devote all their time to the festival. The Lily Class had cleared the desks and chairs over to the side for the night and laid out school-provided sleeping bags with the Clair Academy crest on them all over the floor in an orderly fashion. Ami-sensei, the acting chaperone by virtue of her position, had her own large purple sleeping bag in front of her desk.

"So."

Kondou Hoshi sat down in the corner, looking over her friends in their small circle with their takeout from the convenience store down the road. The rest of the class was similarly divided into little friend clusters, eating whatever they had procured elsewhere.

"Since Ogata's not back yet, and since everyone else in here is busy talking about stupid stuff in their own little circles, we need to talk, and I'm pretty sure you all know what about." She looked at Asa. "And no, I don't mean last week's DaiFighter episode."

Asa pouted. "But DaiFighter was so cool, getting up after General Iron almost crushed him! And GoldFighter reappearing again was-"

"Come on," Hoshi interrupted. "While I still have no idea how you managed to get the Visual Media Club to let you use their TV, we're talking about the real issue here. You know, the Pretty Cure thing?"

Asa sighed and nodded. Well, the Cure thing was almost as good as DaiFighter.

Yoko nodded and looked at Yukari. "You're sure about this, right?"

"She basically told me," Yukari replied. "Mia has no idea, so don't tell her. You know how long it takes for her to believe something out-of-the-ordinary. I have a sinking feeling that 'hey, did you know your mom's just come out of magical girl retirement and has been helping Yoko and Asa this whole time?' counts."

"Sometimes you can be sensible," Hoshi said. "So what are we gonna do about it?"

Asa took a bite of some unknown freeze-dried vegetable. "Keep watch over Mia! Obviously, if Dawn's her mom, then she's gonna be really important, right? Maybe she's, I dunno, the secret third Cure!"

"Wouldn't that be fifth Cure?", Yoko asked.

"Why are you humouring her?" Hoshi facepalmed. "Ogata's less involved than the rest of us. Besides, you two don't have any sparkly magic thing about your families. Obviously, this Cure thing has nothing to do with who your parents are. Now, other than making crazy theories about Ogata, what else are we gonna do?"

"Work on our exhibit for the festival," Yoko sighed. "It feels awkward, given the subject, but it's what we have to do."

"Yoko-", Asa started.

Yoko shook her head. "We have no idea what the Etherium is going to do. Although we've been searching for Moon Pieces, we've been on the defensive this entire time. All we have to go off of is Mireyes saying that there was another Moon Piece inside the school, and we've looked already! They might even have found it by now."

"You did find that other one in the store," Yukari offered, inspecting her shrimp. "And we did manage to get just enough to pay for it!"

"Barely," Yoko said. "And only by adding our own spending money to the pool."

"Leaving us with just enough to have to eat this garbage when we're stuck at school all week." Hoshi grimaced and poked at her boxed lunch. "At least Ogata got to go home for supper. I live out of town!"

Asa stared at her own box. "It's not that bad. I eat this all the time..."

"...oh, yeah." Hoshi looked away and went back to eating. Still, Yoko could swear that she heard her muttering, "...the wasabi isn't even green."

Asa tugged a string off her uniform jacket. "So, uh, about the Moon Piece!"

"I've got it," Yoko said, holding up her Storage Card. "It's the only one I have, but..."

"I've still got the other one," Asa said. "That leaves eleven, and we know the Etherium has at least seven of those. It's not supposed to go this way..."

Hoshi rolled her eyes. "Says the one who sleeps through math."

Asa made a face. "Hoshi, you are the worst best friend ever."

Yoko put her lunch box aside and stood up. "I'm going to go check on the physics club. The Fujisawas were setting up the obstacle course, and I need to make sure that they haven't broken anything."

"Okay!" Asa smiled. "Keep looking for the Moon Piece while you're up, alright?"

Yoko sighed. "...Sure."

"This is it."

There was truly nothing there now. No illusions of carved ivory walls, except for brief moments where they tried to re-assert themselves into being. The war room was a blank space where even the floors felt like they weren't going to last much longer. Those pledged to the Etherium were standing on illusions, existence rejecting the place that wasn't a place. Kainatrol stood between Tachimany, eight cloaked seers today, and the rest of them. She wondered how "the rest of them" had dwindled to just Mireyes and Binbeat. Well, it didn't matter. It wouldn't matter for long, anyway.

"We still have six Moon Pieces to go," Kainatrol announced, "and aside from two girls, their friends, and their fluffy little monster, we also have to deal with three people who were supposed to be out of our hair for good. Furthermore, we still haven't heard from our other deserter since his disappearance." She smirked. "There's no reason to panic, though. I'm sure our illustrious leaders have everything under control. Don't you?"

Tachimany nodded in unison and fanned out.

"We've discovered that-"

"-all of our opponents-"

"-will be occupied in the coming days-"

"-with the exact same thing."

"It's a public event-"

"so we have the choice-"

"-of either searching the area in their absence-"

"-or confronting them all at once."

Binbeat scratched his head. "You mean that thing at the school? That sounds boring. School sucks."

Kainatrol whirled around, raising her hand back. With a flash of purple light behind the veil that hid her eyes, Mireyes grabbed Kainatrol's wrist and held it in the air.

"He was speaking out of turn," Kainatrol seethed.

Mireyes stood where she was. "Have you ever thought that perhaps even fewer people would like to listen to you?"

Tachimany coughed in unison. "Regarding the plan?"

Kainatrol took a deep breath, wrenched herself from the old woman's grip, and glared. "Yes, of course." She turned back to Tachimany. "We've probably found all that we can find in the last sweep of the town. Certainly, confronting the Cures and their allies again, in a more prepared fashion and when they are all together at once, will be more fruitful. Who knows? They may even lead us to the remaining Moon Pieces themselves."

Tachimany shifted into four doctors. "A good idea."

"Of course, none of you mind-"

"-if we go down as well-"

"-to assist with the plan?"

Kainatrol smirked. "Certainly not. Besides, it's all about you now, isn't it? You are our senior, and with Lord Eiender gone, you're the next up." Her mask gleamed in the nonexistent light. "I'll just stay behind and guard the Moon Dial until you need me. I've never been good with confrontation..."

Tachimany all nodded. "Then it's settled." This would work out for everyone, they thought. Tachimany themselves were more used to their initial focus, recruitment and jobs that required disguise, but they'd always fought when they needed to. Being in charge now officially meant a different set of duties. Tachimany had never been predisposed to rigidity, but Kainatrol seemed fine with doing all of those administerial things for them, so that worked out nicely, didn't it?

It was odd, how helpful she was all of a sudden, but she'd been like that to Lord Eiender, too. She must have just been that loyal to the cause.

Why did she agree to these things?

Yoko walked down the hallway, transformation phone in hand. She was certainly afraid for the physics club breaking school property, but the other matter kept nagging at her, no matter how important the first was.

"Yoko?" Starry popped his head out of the phone. "We'll find it, don't worry ~susu!"

Yoko facepalmed. "Another Moon Piece in the school? We've been searching for weeks. The only places we haven't checked are the attic, the teacher's lounge, the men's washrooms, and the bell tower. What do those have in common?"

Starry blinked. "I'm not sure ~susu..."

"They're all places we're not allowed to be!" Yoko twitched. "I know we need the Moon Pieces, but that old woman is our enemy. She could have been lying to us! I'm not risking breaking the school rules on something that isn't verifiable again. It was bad enough the last time-"

"Mom, I don't want to talk about this right now."

Yoko stopped and blinked at the voice around the corner. She slowly began to walk toward it, closer to the wall.

Starry peered up at her from the phone. "That was Takashi, right ~susu?"

"Shh." She pressed herself against the wall and briefly looked over, standing next to the staircase. Her brother was pacing back and forth on the platform where the stairs turned back around, holding his cell phone away from his ear.

"Come on, Mom, it's not like we're in the same room or anything. We're divided by class, and my class is all guys." He paused, then groaned after a few seconds. "You just don't like her... What? Look, I'm sorry, but can we not talk about this right now? ...Yeah. I'll see you." He pressed the button to hang up and sighed. "Not this again."

"What is it?" Seira's voice.

"It's just my parents. They're being stupid."

"It's not me, is it?"

Takashi groaned. "They don't like that you were out of the country that long. 'Practically a foreigner' or something. She said it was fine at first, but now that we've been together for a couple months, she's going on about how I 'shouldn't take this too seriously'. I told you it was stupid."

"What? That's - No offense, but that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life."

"I know!", Takashi said. "Ugh. They're just gonna have to deal with it. I guess it could be worse. They'd disown me if it were something like... I don't even know what. If you were a guy, for one."

Yoko's grip on the transformation phone tightened.

Seira giggled. "Well, I guess you're clear there..."

"Yeah, you're right." The two of them started to walk down the stairs. "Come on, let's go for takeout or something. I don't exactly want to go home right now."

As they walked away, Starry stared up at Yoko.

"What's wrong ~susu? You look terrible ~susu..."

"Nothing," Yoko said hollowly. "It's just that he's right. ...Come on. Let's go. Physics club, right?"

"I don't trust that woman one bit," Mireyes snapped. She walked ahead in the void, crystal ball hovering between her hands.

Binbeat tagged along behind, alternating between floating and running. "So what're we gonna do?"

"Go to the school, first of all," Mireyes said, "but certainly not for her. We simply need to find that Moon Piece. You recall when I foresaw its presence there, correct?"

Binbeat stretched up his arms. "How d'you know someone else didn't get it first?"

"...I don't," Mireyes said, "not for certain. That isn't how precognition works. One can't simply call up the entire scenario. One simply sees what one needs to see."

"Geez, you always say boring stuff like that." Binbeat hovered by Mireyes and pouted. "So what'd you see that you needed to?"

"Look." Mireyes' eyes glowed purple behind her veil, the magic circle went up underneath her, and the crystal ball showed a circle of people. Pretty Cure, old and new, and their friends and allies.

"Yeah, of course they're gonna be there." Binbeat rolled his eyes. "What else?"

Mireyes tilted her head up at him, face covered as always. "I saw that all thirteen Moon Pieces will assemble there. It will be soon. I believe that the trigger will be the event with which we were ordered to interfere, hence my willingness to oblige - to a certain extent."

"Then what's gonna happen?", Binbeat asked.

Mireyes frowned. "Then it all ends."

The rest of the preparations for the festival were... eventful, but when the day came, Clair Academy was bursting with activity. The track field had been taken over for sports demonstrations and open-participation games, and the soccer field was covered in little booths for carnival games and unhealthy food. Decorations lined the walkway up to the front door, and above it hung a sign with blue and gold balloons that had "Academy Festival" written on them. The sign itself read:

|WELCOM-|

|E |

Mia stared up at the sign. "Um..."

"Did they run out of space on the first line?" Yoko twitched. "It doesn't even look nice."

"It looks fine!" Asa pointed up at the sign. "It's got balloons and happy faces and everything."

Yukari rubbed the back of her head. "It is a little unbalanced, but what can you do?"

"Make a new sign," Hoshi deadpanned.

"I agree!" The voice came from behind, and the five girls turned to look. Nakata Ami stood there, hands on hips. "The name 'Academy Festival is just so generic! I tried to suggest 'Justice Festival', but the school administration never listens to me! Life can be so unfair..."

"Ami-sensei!" Mia smiled and bowed. "How's the festival going?"

"Busy, naturally." She laughed. "It's difficult, but it's so exciting to see the students come together around festival season!"

Hoshi raised an eyebrow. "You say 'festival season', but I'm pretty sure this is the only school in the country that has the cultural festival at the end of the school year."

Asa sweatdropped. "Yeah, even Kazahana City Middle School has it in the fall."

"So did my old school in the city," Yoko said. "It's fairly common. Why is it different here?"

"That's a good question!" Ami clasped her hands together, and the girls could swear that she was giving off an aura of bubbles and sparkles. "Clair Academy decided to hold its cultural festival in the springtime long ago to honour the history of Kazahana City! You remember the story I told you on the school trip, right? The Haru family, who founded our city, has historically been symbolized by the spring!"

"I guess that makes sense." Yoko frowned. "Ami-sensei, I-"

"Yes? Ah, just a second!" Ami brightened (was that even possible?) and turned to the side a little to wave at an approaching couple. "Kirei! Tomokazu-kun!"

Mia stepped to the other side and waved with a smile on her face. "Ah, Mom and Dad! There you are!"

The other girls moved back a little to open up the circle and watched as the red-haired woman with the heart necklace and her blue-haired companion stepped up to it. Four sets of eyes rest on the woman, reconciling the mother and best friend the other two saw with the mystery who had kept stepping in to help. Ogata Kirei. Dawn.

She smiled. "Ami, good to see you. Mia, there you are. And your friends, right?"

Mia nodded. "Oh, this is Kawada Asa-san, and this is Nakayama Yoko-san - she fixed your van for Ami-sensei! This is Kondou Hoshi-san, who lives over in Fubuki Town, and this is Okamoto Yukari-san; her parents run Okamoto's Gifts down in the Seiki district."

"Nice to meet you." Mia's mother smiled. "As it were."

"...yeah," Yoko said. Asa started to say something, but Yoko shot her a glare. The girls looked at one another, all wondering what they could say that wouldn't be a completely idiotic idea.

Mia's father coughed. "It's nice to meet you all. And it's nice to see you, too, Ami. What's your class working on?"

"An exhibit of everything publicly known about Kazahana City's Pretty Cure," Ami replied with a smile. "Past and present! The students are very excited about it."

"Yeah!", Asa chirped. "It's fun, even if it's kind of embarrassing."

"Asa!", Hoshi and Yoko whispered at the same time.

Asa sweatdropped. "What?"

Yukari shook her head. "It's nice to meet you. My parents are around here somewhere, too. I saw them in the crowd when the orchestra was getting ready for our first performance. We're doing another one at three, and then one more later tonight."

"Mine aren't here yet," Hoshi said, glad for the topic change. "It takes a while to get into town."

"My mom's too busy." Asa looked away, as if expecting her to show up in the crowd regardless, like in the climax of a movie. "She has more than one job, so she's always working."

"My parents are going to be here," Yoko sighed, trying not to sound like she didn't want them there. "After my dad gets home and my mom's soap operas finish, so probably about five-thirty or so."

Mia looked around the circle, trembling a little, and cleared her throat. "Ami-sensei? I know we've already set up the exhibit and none of us is doing anything big like wearing those Pretty Cure costumes, but did you need us for anything?"

Ami-sensei lit up and applauded. "Now that's the spirit of volunteerism! Offering to help without even being asked! This world will surely get better if the future belongs to such people!" She tilted her head. "Hmm. You can certainly go up and patrol the exhibit! Misaki-san and Izumi-san could use a break from security duty. Oh, and Mitsuishi-san and Araki-san need water and refreshments!" She handed the girls some change. "Get something from one of the food stands, will you? Being Pretty Cure all day must be tiring for them!"

Yoko sweatdropped. "Yeah, really. I guess we'll be off, then." She bowed at Mia's parents. "It was nice meeting you."

"The same," Tomokazu said. Kirei just gave the same serious smile that Yoko had seen every time she'd seen her as 'Dawn'. It- Yoko had to get this off her mind. It was weirding her out too much. She turned and walked away, and the others followed.

That irritating, difficult, overpowered, brazen old hag.

That witch.

Protecting the brat was bad enough, Kainatrol thought as she stepped through a gap that widened in the wall. Now Mireyes was going around and hiding critical information from her. When the Shifting Multitudes had served their purpose and Kainatrol became the Boss, she decided, the crone had to go. She and her annoying little boy sidekick. That would leave her alone, but who cared? That was the whole point.

She carried the Moon Dial over to where she'd seen Mireyes and Binbeat talking about her. They were gone, of course, but a few words to the Dial and power flowing into it, and a clock appeared in front of her. She touched it, and their afterimages appeared, acting out the scene she'd just watched. Echoes. Impressions of the past, provided that the act had gone on in the bounds of the Etherium. Who knew it was possible to dredge those things up? Having the Moon Dial was so convenient.

Kainatrol watched their conversation pass and walked closer to them until she could stare into the crystal ball as Mireyes used Future Sight. Five young girls and three adults stood in an awkward circle, talking, making introductions.

Wait.

That was...

Kainatrol's eye mask gleamed.

"So who's doing what?", Yukari asked.

"I can go get the water right now," Mia offered. "It's a one-person job."

"Okay, sure." Yoko nodded. "I can switch out the security detail. Who's with me there- hey, Asa, are you listening?"

"Real food!" Asa had stars in her eyes, staring at the literary club's okonomiyaki stand. For that matter, so did Hoshi.

Yoko sighed. "Okay, you two are getting the food. Remember to get some for Araki-san and Mitsuishi-san." Mitsuishi-san. Thinking of Seira made her think of Takashi's conversation with their parents, and Yoko had done quite enough dwelling on that. Moving on. "Yukari, that leaves you and I for security. Let's go."

"Sounds good to me!" Yukari gave the V-sign. The group splintered off into three groups, going in three different directions.

Mia entered the school, walked through the lively corridors and past the populated classrooms, and opened the door to the cafeteria's kitchen. It was deserted at the moment, left unlocked so that students could grab the supplies they were storing in there. Mia walked over to a few flats of water stacked on top of each other and reached for a few bottles.

"Well, then."

She froze. That voice. No way. She slowly turned around, reaching blindly for something to defend herself with but knowing it was hopeless. There stood a woman with dark red hair, a red vest over a white dress shirt and pants, white gloves, and a white eye mask with red jewel accents covering yellow eyes.

"No." Mia could barely make out the word. She scrambled back, eyes huge, hands still moving around in search of something that would help. "No. No, no, no. Not you- ah!" She tripped backwards over the flats of water, knocking them down and crashing to the floor. She was cringing and rubbing her side when Kainatrol walked forward with a wide smile.

"I wasn't going to show up today," Kainatrol laughed. "But I decided to follow that old bag and see what was in that crystal ball of hers. Did you know that she's trying to get the Moon Pieces before I do? Because she doesn't trust me. Imagine that."

Mia looked up at her, shivering and trying to move. Kainatrol's eyes locked onto hers. The red magic circle of Tamer's Chain drew itself under her.

"And who knew? Aside from being a friend of those girls, you're also Devance's and Dawn's brat. Oh, this will be fun."

The other four were accounted for. Asa, Hoshi, Yoko, and Yukari had gathered in front of the Lily Class' room in a small clump, to the side of the door so that people could still get in.

"Food, check. Security switchout, check." Yukari adjusted her glasses. "But the water's not here. Has anyone seen Mia?"

"Who knows?" Hoshi shrugged. "Ogata probably got distracted. Or hungry."

Asa ate a takoyaki ball in one bite and poked Hoshi in the arm. "I guess we are all hungry, but come on! When you split up and your friend goes missing, that's the first sign to panic! Geez, Hoshi, the one time in your life that you don't worry..."

"I'm worried, alright," Hoshi said. "About you making a big deal out of nothing."

"Will you just stop it?" Yoko turned her head and glared at Hoshi. "You don't have to criticize her about everything, even if you are always trying to look out for her."

Asa blinked. "Huh? But you always-"

Hoshi stared for a few seconds. Then, she facepalmed. "I'm not getting into this."

"What?", Yoko asked.

"What do you mean, what?", she groaned. "Don't tell me you don't even realize how obvious you're being."

"I'm not-"

"Hey, there she is." Yukari pushed through the circle and waved at a red-haired figure down the hall. "Mia! What took you?"

Mia stopped in the middle of the hallway. She slowly turned her head towards the group and stared at nothing.

"Mia?" Yukari started to walk over to her, and the others followed. "Hey, Mia, are you feeling alright? Why haven't you got the water?"

Mia turned the rest of her body around so she was fully facing them. She slowly began to smile as the image of her blank eyes began to sink in. She briskly turned back around and began to walk away through the crowd.

Yukari gaped. "Mia...?"

Yoko stared and began to shake. "Oh... no. Not now."

"I knew it." Asa pulled her transformation phone out and gestured to Yoko. "Come on! Before we lose her!"

Hoshi shook her head. "Okay, what's going on?"

Yoko looked straight at Hoshi. "Do you remember the magic show in the park last fall?"

"Come on!" Asa grabbed Yoko's wrist.

Yoko blinked and turned a little pink, but kept her attention on the other two. "Hoshi, Yukari, you need to warn everyone, okay? Or at least find D- find Ogata-san! We're going to take care of this!"

She tugged Yoko forward. Yoko, wide-eyed, nodded and walked along, the two of them leaving the others behind.

"Do you really think we should just leave them behind?", Asa asked. "I mean. we need their support in case we need to use the Unison Second!"

"We're obviously dealing with Kainatrol," Yoko said. "You know what she can do to people who don't have any powers. Remember the last time she controlled Ogata-san? Or Yukari? We'd just be putting them in danger."

Asa saw a head of red hair with a pink bow moving around a corner and sped up. "You mean Mia by 'Ogata-san', right? It's getting a little confusing now."

Yoko pulled back a little, still moving forward. "Yes, but that's not the point right now! And what are you doing? We can't run in the halls!"

Asa didn't slow down. "We can't let anyone get hurt, either!"

Yoko frowned as they turned the corner after her. "Fair point."

They stopped and looked up. Mia was nowhere to be seen, and the crowd was moving behind them. In front of them was the deserted staircase to the roof.

"This has to be a trap," Asa said, and then tugged at Yoko's wrist to ascend the stairs. "Let's go."

"You're walking right into one when you know what's going to happen?", Yoko asked, lagging a few steps behind. "Again?"

"It's like I keep telling you!" Asa kept walking. "It'll turn out."

Yoko picked up her own pace. "But what if it doesn't? Just because it happens on TV-"

Asa, for once in her life, looked completely serious. "We still need to save our friends, don't we?"

Yoko looked at the stairs. "...Right." They turned the next corner and climbed the rest of the stairs to the door before flinging it open.

It wasn't Mia behind the door. In fact, the roof appeared completely deserted. Asa and Yoko cautiously stepped out of the small upper-level "room" that the top of the stairs comprised. They looked side to side, over at the metal fence around the rooftop, the bell tower on the other side of the school, the people on the ground having fun.

"This shouldn't even be possible," Yoko said. "Where did she go?"

"I dunno..." Asa tugged Yoko's sleeve. "Hey, look at that!"

"What?" Yoko turned her head to where Asa was pointing. A white cat with a gold collar weaved around the benches on the rooftop and toward the girls, looking up.

"I'm pretty sure I've seen that cat before." Asa let go of Yoko and knelt down to inspect it. "I mean, it's got to be important, right?"

"...Asa?"

Asa looked up. Another cat was approaching them from another direction - and another, and another. Ten cats. All identical. White fur with gold collars. They encircled the girls and shifted into the form of four white-haired doctors.

"We were wondering-"

"-when you would arrive," Tachimany said.

"Let's make this fast-"

"and get you out of the way."

Hoshi marched forward with her eyes fixed on the end of the hallway. "The sooner we find her, the sooner we can get back and help Asa and Nakayama. What are they thinking!"

Yukari walked quickly to keep up with her, occasionally running when she started to lag behind. "You know they've probably got a plan, and besides! If you were Ogata-san, wouldn't you want to know that Mia was-"

"That's not the point," Hoshi groaned. "Maybe I am being a little hard on her-"

"Irrational, overprotective...", Yukari offered.

"Shut up, Okamoto."

"Proving my point?"

"Fine." She still wasn't looking at her. "The point is, we just need to find this Dawn lady, and then we can go track down Asa and Nakayama and help. We saw her ten minutes ago, it can't be that hard..."

"Ami-sensei!" Yukari ran a few steps ahead of Hoshi and waved down the hall. "Hey, Ami-sensei!"

"What?" Hoshi stopped, raised her eyebrows, and rested her hands on her hips.

Yukari looked back and smiled. "Well, she'd know, wouldn't she?"

"Wait, do you think-" Hoshi cut off. Yukari was already on her way to the teacher, who had just stepped out of the staff room. "Oh, come on!" Hoshi twitched and followed after.

"Ami-sensei!" Yukari waved and stopped in front of her. "There you are! We need you for something."

"Oh, hello!" Ami blinked. "Wait, Okamoto-san, weren't you on security?"

"It's sort of a special case." Yukari played with the end of her braid. "Anyways, I know this is a weird thing to ask, but you and Mia's parents are really good friends, right?"

"Of course!" The teacher frowned and looked over to the staircase. "Is this something that needs to be talked about somewhere less open?"

Hoshi blinked. "Wait, you mean you know? Like, know?"

"We know, too," Yukari reminded her, "and Yoko and Asa are our best friends."

"Well, yeah, but-" Hoshi cut off, but the phrase ditzy science teacher hung in the air where everyone could feel it.

Ami nodded and gestured for the two of them to follow her. They walked down the stairs in the opposite direction from the crowds and gathered beneath the staircase.

"Kirei and I are best friends," she began, a lot more serious than the two of them had ever seen her. "I've known both her and Tomokazu since we were your age. Either this involves Mia or it involves..."

"The other thing?", Yukari offered.

Hoshi cut in. "All of the above. The crazy mind control lady's got Ogata and is using her as bait, and Asa and Nakayama ran after her like a bunch of mice to a trap with cheese on it and told us to find backup."

"What?" Ami's hand hovered over the cassette player clipped to her belt, before moving to her pocket and drawing out her phone. "Where was this?"

"I know where they left from," Hoshi said. "They were going further into the east wing, same end as our classroom. But these guys can teleport, so who knows where they are!"

Ami-sensei looked straight into Hoshi's eyes and then into Yukari's. She nodded after a few seconds. "You're telling the truth and you're under your own power, at least! I was worried for a second. Naturally, I'm still worried, but we can do this. Will you two stay with me while I call? I'll have somebody else cover you at the exhibit!"

Yukari nodded. "I think we all know this is more important than the exhibit."

"No kidding," Hoshi said.

"Then it's settled!" Ami clapped and pressed the first speed dial on her phone. She brought the phone up to her ear and frowned. "...Kirei?"

"Ami?"

"Kirei, where are you two? We have a situation."

"Soccer field, with all the food and game stands." Kirei held her phone up while she and her blue-haired companion scanned the field. "We spotted a certain group of people earlier and we're trying to track them down. A certain group of shrine maidens, in fact. Nine of them."

"Tachimany too? I know Kainatrol's here."

"She's what?" Kirei turned away from the phone. "Tomokazu. It isn't just them. Kainatrol's here, too."

"If she's here, then everyone is," he said, eyes narrowing. "She'll only come out and fight for two reasons. One, because she has to, and two, because she wants to."

"And if she wants to, then that means..." Kirei returned to the phone. "Ami. Who is it? Who has she got?"

Ami hesitated. "From all accounts, Mia."

"That-" Kirei's words caught in her throat. She paused. "...she would. Where is she?"

"I don't know. Kawada-san and Nakayama-san were following Mia. Kondou-san and Okamoto-san came to tell you and ran into me."

"Do they know?" Kirei started walking faster, back in the direction of the school. Even though he could only hear half of the conversation, Tomokazu walked to keep up with her, still keeping his eyes open.

"Only about you," Ami said. "It's about time to change that, though, isn't it?"

"Your part of this is your business," Kirei replied. "Tell them if you want. Mine is out regardless. But-"

"Don't worry." Ami paused - she might have covered the phone to speak with Hoshi and Yukari for a second or two, or at least that was what Kirei guessed she was doing. "I know this is serious, but we've been through this before. The girls can handle themselves, and we've got them as much as they've got us! Right, Kirei?"

Kirei took a deep breath. "...You're the same as always, Ami."

Tomokazu stopped where he was, looking up at the school. "Kirei!"

She halted and turned to where he was staring. A red glow, almost like a circle of runes, appeared for a second on top of the bell tower. Kirei and Tomokazu looked at each other and nodded. they made their way behind a stand, and Kirei pressed a button on her phone to put Ami on the speaker.

"Ami," Kirei said. "Either she's on top of the bell tower or she's laid another trap, but she obviously wants us up there."

"The bell tower?" Ami paused again. "...She's playing with us. The girls are on the other side of the school."

"Gyah!"

Cure Sunday went flying backwards. She cried out and shut her eyes as she hit the wire fence around the rooftop.

"Sunday!" Night ran at Tachimany and threw a punch. They shifted out of their four-doctor form just before it would connect, leaving her off-balance. They solidified their shift into three aged women, and one of them shoved Night down. She skidded across the concrete.

Sunday twitched her fingers and pried herself out of the new dent in the fence. "Night!" She ran towards one of Tachimany's bodies and leapt into the air. Two more of their bodies moved quickly, grabbed her leg, and slammed her into the cement hard enough that it cracked and crushed.

"No!" Night picked herself up, holding her side. Three of Tachimany promptly grabbed her and held her back as she tried to pull away. "Sunday, get up!"

Sunday stiffened and shook, trying to will her body to move. In the back of her mind, she considered that she couldn't have survived this if she weren't a Cure. There had been a lot of things so far that she couldn't have survived, but now she couldn't even move.

Night struggled in the grasp of three identical shrine maidens. The remaining six circled around her, each with the same pondering look.

"One down-"

"-and three to go."

"Plus five more-"

"-but one's taken care of-"

"-and two are just backup for you."

"This should be easy."

Sunday breathed in and tried to clear her head. Get up. Just think of something. An image, fuzzy and blurry, started to appear. A young man with a helmet and a red bodysuit, with armour over top and a logo that looked like the sun. A general standing over him, smirking, sure that he was dead. And then he stood up.

DaiFighter stood up.

And then Cure Sunday started to move.

Tachimany shifted into the form of twelve soldiers. Three kept holding Night back. The rest stood around her, hands at their swords.

"Get rid of one more-"

"-and then we'll have the Moon Pieces."

"If all goes well."

Night shut her eyes and lowered her head. "Asa..."

"Let her go."

Some of the Tachimany-bodies turned around; all of them at least widened their eyes and stood up. Cure Sunday pulled herself to her feet, knees bent and trying to stay up, holding one arm, and glaring at the sword-wielding soldiers.

Night opened her eyes. "Asa?"

"I said..." She clenched one fist and charged at the group with a punch. "Do it now!"

The hit connected. One Tachimany went flying into two of the others. Night wrenched her way free of the three holding her and scrambled over to Sunday.

Sunday looked up at her, still not quite standing up straight, and grabbed her hand. "Let's finish this part up now, okay?"

Night shook, looking at her. She started to smile despite herself. "...right."

A magic circle drew itself underneath them in pink and blue light.

"Sun Limit!"

"Night Limit!"

A dark blue aura grew around them, as it had done many times before.

"You've used up your days..."

"...and you're out of time!"

"Pretty Cure Second Spin!"

They flew straight at the gathered enemies and bowled a number of them down, spun around, and slammed right into them. The glow burned away and Sunday and Night stood there. Two soldiers stood on each side; the rest had disappeared.

Sunday looked at Night. "Did we just..."

"Oh, no-"

"-you didn't."

The Cures looked up. Around them, the four remaining Tachimany... divided. It was just as if they were shifting, but they simply produced eight more bodies to return to the twelve they had previously.

"To defeat one of us-"

"-you have to defeat all of us."

"We are many minds-"

"-in many bodies-"

"-but still united."

"To kill us-"

"-is to kill us all."

"In a form like this-"

"-where there are twelve of us-"

"-we are practically invincible."

Two of them drew out their prop swords. They slashed at the air in front of Sunday and Night; even that produced enough force to knock the injured Cures back to the ground. They began to converge upon them when a red light flashed across the courtyard. Both the Cures and Tachimany looked up to the light, already fading, at the bell tower in the school's west wing.

"Kainatrol."

"What's she doing?"

"It must be-"

"-that plan she's got."

They turned back to the Cures and shifted into the form of two businessmen. Both of them nodded.

"We'll continue this later-"

"-but, after all, you're already beaten."

"If you're still concerned about your friend-"

"-then we'd recommend you hurry."

They teleported out with a magic circle and a flash of gold light. The damaged rooftop repaired itself as the Cures looked on.

Kirei hesitated and looked from the bell tower to Tomokazu to her phone.

"She wants us up there. ...I know this is suicidal, but we should split up."

"What do you mean?", Ami asked from the phone.

Tomokazu shook his head. "If she can control people in the building when she's all the way up there, she must have the Moon Dial. If she's got that, only the Moon Pieces can shield us, and we've only got one."

"I know, but this is our best shot." Kirei took out her pink transformation cassette player. "If my guess is correct, then Kainatrol is running the show, even if nobody else knows it. If that's right, we need to play to what we know she's like."

Sunbi popped out of the player and looked up at them. "Play to what we know she's like ~sasa?"

"Absolutely." Kirei frowned. "Unfortunately for us, she's sadistic, possibly insane, and driven to make people pay, and she's got a complex about being in charge even when she's pretending she's not. She'll be a lot more predictable if she thinks she's in control. You know what she's like when she's losing."

Tomokazu's expression hardened. "That's true. When somebody else has an edge over her, who knows what she'll do. She won't stop until they're worse than dead."

Kirei handed her phone to Sunbi and drew out a deck of cards with holes punched into them so that they'd fit inside the cassette player. She popped in one that looked like the Storage Card, closed the case, and pressed play. A Moon Piece with the serial number XI emerged, and Sunbi caught it. Kirei removed the Storage Card and placed the Copy Card in its place.

"So the best shot we have is to make her think that she's winning," she said. "Ami, I need you to do something for me. We all need to work as a cohesive whole. The kids, knowing them, should take care of the rest."

"Alright!" Ami nodded, even though Kirei couldn't hear it over the phone. "Just tell me what to do!"

"We're fighting on our own front now," Kirei said, "and the girls on another. If this is the way that destiny has turned out, we'll have to make the best of it."

"Don't worry," Ami said. "It's a good thing! Even across time, friendship and justice and loyalty will prevail! Isn't that what we always said?"

Kirei paused... and actually laughed. "You really never change, Ami."

"I do my best. Hold on." Ami covered the receiver again. She looked over to Hoshi and Yukari. "We've got one part of this, but please find Kawada-san and Nakayama-san. I think they'll need your help. After all, you're good friends!"

"Of course!", Yukari said.

"Not so fast, Okamoto." Hoshi put her hands on her hips. "Ami-sensei. I know we should trust you, but this is more important than day-to-day stuff. Do you really know what you're doing?"

"I'm hurt!" Ami clasped both hands over her phone. "Do you have that little faith in me?"

Hoshi didn't move. "Do you know what you're doing?"

Ami quieted down. Still covering the phone receiver with one hand, she went to her waist with the other and unclipped her purple portable cassette player. Inside was a deck of cards.

"I know you may only think of me as a silly, overdramatic person, maybe more of a child than an adult." She held out the player. "But Kondou-san, I really do believe that the world will improve if we all work together, and I also believe that it isn't a waste of time to fight for justice, even if it hurts. I know that we can all do this, and you are as much a part of that as anyone else."

Yukari stepped forward. "Ami-sensei..."

Ami looked at her students before her. "If you won't take my word as Nakata Ami, homeroom teacher of the Lily Class, then take it as Cure Dusk, alright?"

Hoshi stared first at her teacher, then at the item she was holding out, and then back up. "...Okay. You got me."

"We're with you," Yukari said.

He stood in the field, amidst children and parents and townspeople cluelessly having fun.

He didn't even know why he was there. He certainly didn't want to see them again. He especially didn't want to see her again. But then, he did, even if it was because he hated her. Especially that.

He didn't know what to do, but he knew more than anyone else who was gathered here. He still had to do something. After all, what he was working for all this time was at stake.

A blue magic circle drew itself under the Master Magician.