We join Yuki in a dance studio on campus, twirling and swaying to a vaguely Celtic melody. Kaede is nearby, watching Yuki's performance. "That was wonderful!" she comments as she applauds. "You'll do well with the orchestra for sure!"
"Thank you, Kae-sempai--I can't wait to dance with the orchestra either." Yuki replies.
"Come to think of it, you're one of the first dancers that has performed in a long time." Kaede muses as Yuki gathers her things. "Is that making you nervous at all?"
"No--all I want is to give a good performance to the audience, distinction or not." Yuki replies.
"A fitting answer." Kaede smiles as the two girls depart. Neither of them notice the small orange glow that appears from behind a mirror as a female voice sings Simple as can be...
[DANZEN! Futari wa PreCure (Flash Fire ver.)]
We join Homura at her locker the next day, gathering her books for class. But before she can start towards classroom 8C, Aiden arrives at his locker. "Hey, Homura! Did you hear about the Festival of Dance that's coming up in a few days?"
"What about it?" Homura asks, interested.
"Rumor is Yuki's participating, and I thought you'd like to come lend her support." Aiden replies."
"What kind of a dance is she going to do?" Homura asks, picturing Yuki doing a variety of dances, including a tap dance, a waltz, and an Irish jig.
"You'll have to ask her--if you want to pay her a visit in the art wing after math class, you can ask." Aiden replies before heading off to another classroom.
I think I will... Homura smiles as she finishes gathering her books and closes up her locker. As she passes by the art wing on the way to classroom 8C, we hear a very faint female voice from one of the dance practice rooms singing Simple as can be...
[Episode title: "A graceful debut! The dancing Rainbow Note!"]
"Wow..." Homura gasps in awe over one of the dance studios in the art wing and the various mats and mirrors inside.
Homura's DS shakes and Hinote appears. "It's beautiful-hino!"
"I'm glad you think so." Yuki replies as she stretches for a few moments. "In a week or two, I'm going to dance before the school for the first time."
"Really?" Homura is piqued. "As much as I dream about being up on stage dancing...well..."
"She has two left feet-hino." Hinote giggles.
"Look who's talking!" Homura snaps.
"Hey!" Yuki's DS shakes and Kouri appears to quell the impending fight. "While it is true we have two left feet-kori, we are quite capable dancers."
"And I'm not?" Homura grumbles.
"If you've never danced before, I'd be happy to let you try." Yuki assures Homura. "What kind of music would you like to dance to?" she asks as she thumbs through a box of CDs.
"Hm..." Homura thinks for a moment. "Something with a groove, but not too fast."
"I think I know just the thing..." With that, Yuki places a CD into a CD player and presses PLAY.
Homura listens to the jazzy melody for a while before improvising a few hesitant jumps and steps around the room, her mind racing with what she could bump into or break.
"It's even more fun when you do it with a partner." Aiden tells Homura as he motions for Yuki to start the music over. "I'll help you with when to lead and when to follow, okay?" he assures Homura. Yuki just selects the next song on the CD: "In the Mood"
At first, Homura's steps are jerky with fear, but with Aiden's help, they become more confident. Before long, Aiden and Homura are spinning and swirling about the room to the jazzy groove as if they were naturals.
"Bravo-hino!" Hinote applauds at the song's conclusion.
"Encore-kori!" Kouri's applause is just as enthusiastic.
"I don't know about an encore, I'm a little dizzy..." Homura groans, her head still spinning from the dance.
"Now, see? You have a little bit of a dancer in you after all." Aiden assures Homura.
Aiden's DS shakes and Eika appears. "Homura can dance-eiko? This I have to see!"
"Again?" Aiden offers Homura his hand as Yuki resets the CD player.
"I guess..." Homura shyly giggles. "That was kinda fun." With that, the two of them go spinning and grooving through "In the Mood" once again.
[CM break]
A few weeks later, Yuki is in a dressing room, preparing for the dance festival to begin. I'm a little nervous, but I'm sure I'll do fine...
"Yuki?" Yuki steps out of the dressing room in a sparkly blue and silver outfit and whirls around to find Homura standing in the doorway. "Nervous at all?"
"A little..." Yuki stammers.
"We came to wish you good luck-kori." Kouri smiles as she flies into Yuki's arms.
"Thank you..." Yuki and Kouri snuggle for a little while before crashes and screaming in the wings get her attention. "What's going on?"
"Don't tell me..." Homura grumbles as she peeks out onto the stage where one of the palm trees--now with sickly yellow eyes, vine-like arms, and its trunk split in two to form legs--is wreaking havoc with the set.
Kaede is just as panicked. "Oh my!" How are we going to protect the instruments from something this hideous?"
"Don't worry, Kae-sempai, Hanshou-san and I will scare it away!" Homura assures Kaede as she runs back into the wings.
"Creep crashing the wings at five o'clock!" Aiden reports to Homura as he too dashes into the wings to avoid set pieces and wires. Yuki meets with Homura some minutes later, and all three dash into a section of dressing rooms seconds before the section Yuki was getting ready in is trashed by the Urusainaa.
"Why did the Black Realm pick now to send an Urusainaa?" Homura grumbles.
"Look, over that way!" Aiden points out an orange glow in one dressing room as a female voice sings Simple as can be...
"A Rainbow Note!" Yuki gasps.
"We'll think of a way to get it away from here once we deal with the creep." Aiden assures Yuki as he closes the door behind Homura. "I'll wait for you two to change."
Once Homura is sure she and Yuki are not being followed, they jam the music note game cards into their DSes, join hands and call "Dual Elemental Fury!" sending a wave of flames and ice over them.
Inside the cocoon of flames and ice, Homura's body, now glowing red, first gains a ruffley shirt-like outfit, colored red, gold, and orange, before gaining a matching skirt in the same colors. Yuki gets the same sort of outfit on her glowing blue body, only hers is colored in silver, light blue, and dark blue. Homura next gains some black fingerless gloves, while Yuki gets some white gloves that have fingers. Homura's next piece of clothing is red pants with gold trim and brown shoes, with a gold bow with a red button on the shirt to finish. Yuki gains some light blue pants with silver and dark blue trim and white shoes, with a light blue bow with a dark blue button in the center.
As the cocoon clears, Homura steps onto the stage and challenges the palm leaf-Urusainaa. "The flames of a pulsing rhythm, Cure Ember!"
"The lullaby of a winter's night, Cure Glacier!" Yuki agrees as she joins her partner.
"We are PreCure!" both call to no one in particular.
"So this is the stage..." Lautia muses as she warps into view. "Odd that anything natural would be here..."
"Today was supposed to be a day of celebration of nature...and I will not stand for someone ruining my debut!" Glacier snaps back.
"So you were supposed to perform in this place?" Lautia giggles. "I suppose I'll let you do a little two-step with Urusainaa--entertain me!" With that, she warps away, prompting the Urusainaa to begin firing vines at PreCure. PreCure, meanwhile, frantically jumps away at every vine's appearing, until they are cornered in the wings at stage left by a patchwork of criss-crossing vines.
"Boy, when the creep-maker said she wanted to do a two step, she wasn't kidding!" Aiden gasps at the network of vines on one half of the stage.
"You think I can flip over all of those vines?" Ember whispers to Hinote.
"I don't know-hino...many of the gaps between vines look too small for a human to fit." Hinote notes.
"I'll fix that--Star Beam!" Eika fires a beam of rainbow stars at the mass of vines, snapping many of them and creating openings large enough for a person to fit between them. "Try now-eiko!"
"Here goes..." Ember quickly backflps through the vines, using the holes as guidelines. She then delivers a flaming kick to the Urusainaa. Glacier follows her partner soon after, landing an icy punch on the Urusainaa's face.
"The Rainbow Note! Protect the Rainbow Note-hino!" Hinote panics.
"Got it!" Aiden finds the orange Note behind another set piece.
"Mystic Chill!" Kouri helps by freezing the Urusainaa to a wall.
Ember takes that opportunity to charge a fireball. "Fire of a beat eternal..."
"Melody soft as falling snow..." Glacier says as she charges an ice ball.
"Together with the songs of PreCure..." Ember continues, holding her ball high.
"Let all the world sing of the promise of love!" Glacier adds, holding her ball high.
"PreCure...Frosty Fever!" With that, both balls are slammed to the ground, making a wave of fire and ice engulf the Urusainaa, returning it to a normal palm leaf and healing what damage was caused.
Homura picks up the palm leaf and reattaches it to a prop tree. "I think this belongs right here."
Yuki, meanwhile, summons the Score of Colors for Hinote. "I'm so excited only two Rainbow Notes are left-hino!" he smiles as the orange note flies into the top right space on the left page.
"Me neither, I can't wait to see what Lyrical Flash does." Yuki agrees.
"Well, what we can tell you is that it is an upgrade of Melodic Fever-kori." Kouri replies.
"Not to mention it is the only thing that can damage Lady Dischord-eiko." Eika adds. The Rainbow Notes singing Take a melody... Simple as can be... Give it some words, and... Raise your voices! Sing a melody of... Love, oh love as the Score of Colors closes punctuates her point.
"We'll find out soon enough...and besides, don't you have a debut to attend to?" Homura smiles. Yuki giggles in embarrassment over this.
We cut to the auditorium, where Kaede emerges and takes a bow for the audience as the orchestra finishes tuning. "Yuki made a wonderful debut..." Homura explains via voiceover as Yuki walks onstage and bows to the audience before striking a pose. "I think our battle made her even more determined to make sure that 'the show must go on'....and our show for the Rainbow Notes is definitely going on." Kaede then signals the orchestra, and they begin to play a waltz-like arrangement of the Eight Melodies, which Yuki swirls and sways to. "With two Notes to go, I can sense victory!" The scene of Yuki dancing becomes a manga-esque drawing to end the episode.
[ED: Ganbalance de Dance ~Melodies of Fire and Ice~]
[NEXT WEEK: "The all-important grade! PreCure's marathon study session!"]