CHAPTER 1 - Enter the Protector of Optimism - Cure Hope!

'Come on, answer the phone,' muttered Nobuko Arakawa to herself as she waited for her friend to pick up on the other end. 'Don't know why I'm responsible for you waking up on time, but whatever.'

'H-hey, Nobuko,' her friend began, having finally answered the phone. 'Why are you calling me this early? I was trying to sleep in this morning, y'know?'

Incredulous, Nobuko responded with an annoyed tone, 'Sleep in? Keiko, you know it's Monday, right? We've got school.' She pinched her temple and sighed. 'Honestly, did you stay up all night playing games again?'

'Wait,' she slowly began to respond. 'It's Monday?' A few moments of silenced passed when suddenly her tone of voice changed dramatically. 'Ah jeez it is! Sorry, Nobuko! I gotta get ready quick! I'll meet you at school! Goodbye!'

'I'll see you a-' But before Nobuko could finish her sentence, the line went dead. She smiled to herself and shook her head. 'That girl, honestly.' Locking her phone and putting in her skirt pocket, she grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder and began to leave her room. Before she did, however, she stopped at her dresser and looked at a photo on top of it.

The photo was of two girls, one about thirteen and one about eight. The older of the two had short, dark hair with a blue hairclip keeping it out of her eyes and was wearing her school uniform, the younger girl had long magenta hair and was wearing a pink tank top and shorts. Both girls were smiling together.

'Don't worry, sis, I'll make today number one, like I always do,' she sadly smiled at the photo, tears starting to form in her eyes. Realizing what was happening, she pulled a tissue out of her pocket and wiped her eyes clean, before finally leaving her room and heading downstairs to the living room.

'Ah, Nobuko,' her mother greeted her. 'Are you going to have breakfast this morning, or not?'

'Ah, sorry, I really can't,' she apologized. 'Don't have any time today, sorry!'

'Well, if you want, you can grab an apple from the kitchen before you go.'

'Already did, mom! Thanks, I'll see you after school!' she called out to her mother as she closed the front door behind her.

Taking a bite from her apple, she walked down her street, wondering if Keiko had remembered to write her essay that was due that morning. 'She probably hasn't,' she thought to herself 'Keiko loves video games and dramas and hates schoolwork.' She began to mindlessly kick a pebble down the sidewalk like a soccer ball. 'Goal!' she whispered as she kicked it hard and into a storm drain.

Having finished her apple, she looked around for a place to throw it out, quickly spotting a trash can on the other side of the alleyway she was standing at the entrance of. Nobuko had to go that way anyways, so it's not like it was out of her way or anything. Halfway down the alleyway, a voice suddenly broke out, 'Look out-pan!'

Stopping in her tracks, Nobuko looked around in confusion. 'Who said that?' she asked out loud.

'Help-pyn!' another voice shouted. Only this time, Nobuko knew exactly where it was coming from – above her. She turned her head to the sky, making sure to squint so the sun wasn't blinding her, and saw two things that she couldn't quite tell what they were falling from seemingly out of nowhere. Before too long, she could make out just what it was, or at least what it appeared to be: a cat and a dog, falling out of the sky.

Wham! – the two animals smacked right onto Nobuko's face, causing her to stumble and fall onto the concrete path of the alleyway, dropping her apple core, which rolled away from her. Although it's not as if she even remembered that she had that any more.

'Ouch,' she groaned, rubbing her thigh as she slowly got up. Brushing herself off and checking for any scrapes or bruises, she finally got a good look at what had fallen onto her face. A cat and a dog, or at least what looked like a cat and dog, seeing as they were light pink and dark green, respectively, and walking on their hind legs, were helping each other up.

'Come on, Panchon-pyn,' the dog spoke, having a young and boyish voice. 'Are you hurt-pyn? Tell me if you are, OK-pyn?'

'No, I'm fine-pan,' the cat responded. 'Thanks, though, Pynchon-pan.'

Having taken Nobuko more than a few seconds to process exactly what it was that she was seeing, she suddenly blurted out in surprise, 'T-that dog and cat are talking!' The two animals turned and looked at her in confusion.

'I'm not a dog-pyn,' the dog snapped back. 'And Panchon's not a cat-pyn.'

'Hello-pan! I am Panchon-pan!' the cat, or rather, Panchon, excitedly greeted Nobuko.

'H-hi', she nervously greeted back. 'Wait, wait, wait. Who, or what exactly, are you two?'

'I am Panchon-pan!' Panchon repeated 'And this is Pynchon-pan!' She gestured to the dog, who was still looking at Nobuko with an annoyed glare.

'Panchon-pyn!' he snapped. 'We have a mission to complete here, we can't waste time talking wi-' He stopped suddenly mid-sentence and thought for a moment. 'Actually, you, what's your name-pyn?' he asked, while pointing his paw at Nobuko.

'My name? Nobuko Arakawa.'

'Well then, Ms. Arakawa, I think you can help us on our mission-pyn.'

'Mission?'

'Yes, mission-pyn. We're looking for someone-pyn.'

'For who?'

'The legendary warriors-pyn'

'Precure-pan!' Panchon suddenly yelled out. 'We're looking for the legendary warriors called Precure-pan!'

'Wait, wait, wait, wait!' began Nobuko, suddenly jumping back to reality. 'I don't know who these Precure are and I gotta go to school anyways.' She checked the time on her phone. 'Well, I'm not going to be late, luckily.'

'Just listen Ms. Arakawa-pyn,' Pynchon began to explain. 'Panchon and I are going to have troubles in this world by ourselves-pyn. I see you've got a bag there, just let us in there and help us find the legendary warriors-pyn. That's all I ask-pyn.'

'We won't bother you, Nobuko-pan!' happily smiled Panchon.

'Alright, I don't know why I'm even doing this, but.' She knelt down and unclasped her bag, opening it up. 'Get in, before I change my mind,' she joked. Panchon and Pynchon climbed inside the bag and settled themselves amongst her books and papers.

'OK, Ms. Arakawa-pyn,' Pynchon said from inside her bag. 'We're all ready to go-pyn.'

'Yeah, well, don't mess up my papers while you're in there,' she retorted as she slung her bag over her shoulder once more and headed to school, now with two strange creatures in tow.

'Alright, alright class, settle down,' the teacher, Mr. Kita, calmly said, shuffling a pile of papers on his desk. 'Now, before you hand in your essays – we have a new student in our class this morning.' He stood up and gestured towards the door, 'Why don't you come in, Ms. Mizuhara and write your name on the board?'

A girl walked into the classroom and grabbed a piece of chalk and wrote her name on the board: Jenny Mizuhara. She turned to the rest of the class – she had shoulder length brown hair and dark-green eyes. 'I-I'm Jenny Mizuhara,' she nervously stammered. 'It's nice to meet you all.' She bowed to the class.

'Why don't you tell something about yourself to the rest of your classmates?' suggest Mr. Kita.

'Huh? Oh, ok,' she quietly replied. 'I, um, just moved here with my mom and I have a little brother named Takashi. Also, I, um, really like collecting flowers.'

'Well, that's all very interesting and I'm glad that you've introduced yourself to the class. Now then,' he paused to look for an empty desk for her. 'There's an open seat back there in the third row, next to Ms. Arakawa. Why don't you go and sit down and I'll get class started for today, OK?'

'Yes, sir,' she replied before going to the seat he chose for her. Taking her seat, she sighed and took out her notebook and pens and began to pay attention to what Mr. Kita was telling the class, but soon realized he was talking about handing in an essay that was due. Obviously being new to the class, Jenny didn't have anything to turn in.

'Hey,' whispered a voice next to her. 'Mizuhara.'

She looked to her left and saw her classmate, with her notebook up and hiding her face, looking at her and smiling. 'What do you want?' she quietly whispered back.

'I'm Nobuko Arakawa, I just wanted to say "Nice to meet you"' Nobuko answered 'Oh, and you said you liked flowers? That's cool. What flowers are your favorite?'

'C-chrysanthemums' she quietly replied.

'Those are pretty. I like roses myself, I'm also partial to daisies, I know those are pretty standard flowers to like but -'

'MS. ARAKAWA!' Mr. Kita suddenly shouted. Nobuko gulped and slowly cast her glance up, their teacher was standing right at her desk, arms crossed, looking mildly annoyed. 'Your essay, please?'

She opened up her bag and took out her paper and sheepishly handed it to him, 'Here it is, sorry.'

'Thank you,' he replied, taking the paper and adding it to the pile of papers he already had in his hands. 'Oh, and Ms. Arakawa? I understand you might want to talk to our new student, but please do that during lunch or after class, understand?'

'Yes, sir,' she quietly replied, looking down at her desk, cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

Later that day, during lunch, as most of the class began talking amongst themselves or heading out to eat together outside, Nobuko couldn't help but notice what Jenny had taken out of her bag.

'Neat!' she exclaimed. 'An American-style lunchbox. Seen those on TV.'

'Y-yeah,' Jenny quietly replied back. 'My mom's, um, she's from New York and wanted me to use this today.'

'Oh cool. Anyways, I was wondering, do you wanna eat lunch with me today?'

'N-no thanks.'

'Oh, alright then,' she began to head towards the classroom door. 'Well, I'll see you after lunch then, suppose.'

Finding a secluded spot in the school, Nobuko plopped down onto the bench and opened up her bag. Peering inside, she whispered 'Hey, sorry about that! I almost forgot you two were in there.'

'Honestly-pyn,' grumbled Pynchon, climbing out of the bag alongside Panchon. 'Annoying enough that I had to be quiet, but that took too long-pyn.'

'Sorry!' she apologized again. 'That's just how school can be.'

'I am hungry-pan!' Panchon suddenly exclaimed. 'Nobuko, give me food-pan!

'Food?' Nobuko took out her bento box and removed the lid. Picking one of her octopus sausages up with her chopsticks, she brought it towards Panchon. 'Here, Panchon.'

She grabbed hold of the sausage, opened her mouth wide, and swallowed it in one bite, her stomach distending for a brief moment. 'That was yummy-pan! Hey, Pynchon-pan? Are you hungry too-pan?'

'Hm? Well I guess a little bit-pyn.' Pynchon's stomach audibly growled, as if to call out his own lie. Turning slightly red, he blurted out, 'OK, I'm very hungry, alright-pyn!?'

'Here you go,' Nobuko offered him another one of her octopus sausages, smiling slightly.

Grabbing hold of it in his paws, he sat down and took a small bite. 'T-thank you, Ms. Arakawa-pyn,' he whispered.

Sighing, Nobuko stretched her arms and began to eat her lunch. In between bites, she began to ask, 'Hey, since we've got time. What exactly is your mission? Who are the Pre-whatever you've got to find?'

'I don't know-pan!' Panchon happily answered. 'Don't know who the Precure are-pan!'

'You don't know?' she asked incredulously. 'Then how do you expect to find them?'

'That's exactly why I asked you for help-pyn,' Pynchon began, swallowing the last bite of his octopus sausage. 'We don't know who the Precure are-pyn. They have to awaken first-pyn.'

'Awaken?'

'Suppose I should start from the beginning then, Ms. Arakawa-pyn?'

'Sure.'

'There's someone out there named Myedo, who wants all the worlds to fall under his control-pyn. I don't know the details, but he sends his minions to attack and conquer worlds in his name-pyn. Panchon and I were sent by our elder to this world to find the legendary warriors, Precure, the only ones who can fight against Myedo and his underlings-pyn!'

'OK, but you said they have to awaken, right? What does that mean, are they asleep or something?'

'All we know is that their powers are dormant and something has to be done to awaken them-pyn.'

'Think I'm starting to get it,' Nobuko began before stopping suddenly and casting a glance behind her. 'Someone's coming, hurry you two, get inside my bag before they notice you!' Clasping her bag shut, she turned around to see who was coming: it was only Keiko, causing her to breathe a sigh of relief as she wiped the sweat off her forehead.

'Yo, Nobuko!' her friend greeted her. 'Was there anyone else here with you?'

'Eh, what do you mean?'

'Thought I heard you talking to someone before I got here.'

'No, no, no one else here,' Nobuko gestured her hand dismissively. 'Was thinking out loud to myself for a little bit, probably just heard that.'

'Could swear it sounded like three people,' Keiko wondered, putting her hands on her hips. 'Whatever, might've just been hearing things.' She yawned and brushed her hair out of her eyes. 'Anyways, you done with lunch? Wanna start heading back to class?'

'Yeah, I'm ready.'

'Well then, lead the way, Mistress Nobuko,' she joked as she exaggeratedly bowed to her friend.

Nobuko simply rolled her eyes in annoyance and retorted back, 'Don't call me that!' She began to storm off, Keiko following close behind, giggling uncontrollably to herself.

The sound of the bell rang throughout the entire school – class was done for the day. Having put her books away, making sure to not smother Panchon and Pynchon, Nobuko looked over at Jenny, who was busy putting her own supplies away.

'Hey, Mizuhara,' she began. 'If you aren't busy, I could show you around the school before you head home?' No response – Jenny simply put the rest of her notebooks back in her bag. 'Mizuhara?'

'Leave me alone!' Jenny finally snapped. She quickly stood up from her desk and knocked her chair over in annoyance and anger, resulting in the rest of the classroom stopping what they were doing to look over at the two girls. 'I don't want to be your friend, so please just stop talking to me!' She hurried out of the classroom in a huff as her classmate's eyes followed.

'Mizuhara...' Nobuko quietly whispered to herself, picking up Jenny's chair and pushing it in against her desk. Someone's hand placed itself on her shoulder, immediately knowing who it was, she brushed it away. 'Hey, Keiko.'

'Don't worry about Mizuhara,' Keiko reassured her friend, smiling. 'You'll have plenty of time to make friends with her if you want.' She gave her a reassuring thumbs up. 'Anyways, can't chat much, gotta head home, parents are gonna be late this evening, so I gotta make dinner tonight. Bye-bye!' Flashing a peace sign, she sped out of the classroom in a hurry.

Checking her desk and bag to make sure she wasn't forgetting anything, Nobuko left the classroom only a few minutes after her friend. Walking down the empty corridor of the school, her footsteps echoing with every step she took, she suddenly spoke up. 'Hey, Panchon, Pychon. Do you think I did something wrong to Mizuhara?'

'No-pan!' Panchon answered from inside her bag.

'I don't think so, Ms. Arakawa-pyn,' said Pynchon. 'I think something was just bothering that girl-pyn.'

'Think you're right, I shouldn't expect to just make friends with everyone new.' She paused for a moment before continuing, 'Everyone has things that bother them, even if they don't want to talk about it. Even me.'

'What's bothering you-pan?'

Taken aback by the directness of the question, Nobuko needed to take a second to think of an answer. 'Nothing right now, I mean in general, y'know?' She pulled open the doors at the rear entrance to the school and stepped outside into the crisp and cool air, letting a gentle breeze that had been blowing go over herself, relaxing her immensely. 'Don't worry, if something is up with me, I'll let you guys know first, OK?'

Walking across the rear school grounds and occasionally waving goodbye to friends she passed by who were busy with their after-school clubs, all seemed well for Nobuko, who had already put what had happened not even ten minutes ago behind her. At least, she had put it behind her until stepping in front of the school's greenhouse and noticed Jenny sitting alone on one of the benches, her knees curled up in front of her chest. Thinking quickly, she hid herself at the edge of the greenhouse and peered from behind the corner. Jenny had her face buried in her knees and hadn't noticed her yet. But, there was one thing that Nobuko had noticed about Jenny: she was crying. She couldn't see her tears, of course, but since the wind had died down, she could just so slightly hear the sounds of her weeping quietly to herself.

Nobuko thought about what to do – she had to go this way to head home, but she didn't want Jenny to think she had been eavesdropping on her, there was obviously something going on with her. Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself to act as if she had just casually turned the corner and was completely oblivious to her being there, hoping that Jenny wouldn't notice her passing by. As she slowly started to step around the corner of the greenhouse, a loud scream pierced the air. Immediately forgetting about her 'acting casual' plan, she rushed around the corner to see what was going on.

What she saw shocked her to her core – Jenny was still there, only now sitting on the ground and cowering in fear at what stood before her. It was a woman – covering her upper torso, arms, and legs was a sandy-colored armor that resembled the exoskeleton of some sort of arthropod, the same type of material made up her heeled boots, as well. Her hair was dirty blonde and cut fairly short, albeit not to the level of a pixie cut, what appeared to be tattoos of some sort marked the outer corners of both of her eyes. And, what had surprised Nobuko the most: rising up from behind the woman's head, was a large scorpion tail.

'I am Alacrania!' the woman boastfully declared as she pointed at Jenny, still trying to hide from her. 'And you, young lady, will make the perfect start for Master Myedo's conquering of this pathetic little world!' Moving her hands around, she conjured a dark and cloudy sphere, about the size of a soccer ball in front of her. 'O Dark Spirits! Turn this girl into a puppet for me!' She launched the sphere at Jenny, who attempted to protect herself by covering herself with her arms.

The sphere hit her arms and the dark clouds engulfed her entire body. She let out a piercing scream as several small bolts of lightning flashed from amongst the clouds. The clouds rapidly grew in size, becoming at least nine meters in height, before dissipating just as rapidly as they had grown. Where the clouds had once been now stood an immense and dark grey creature with a mouth that appeared to be screaming, although it was making no sound, and eyes that just from their very shape gave the feeling of immense anger. Both the insides of the creature's mouth and its eyes were crimson in color. In addition, the creature had a slight feminine build to it and seemed to be wearing the same school uniform that Jenny had been wearing.

'Mizuhara!' Nobuko thought to herself as she worriedly looked at the massive creature while also hoping to see what had happened to her classmate. Before long, her eyes were drawn to it: embedded in the creature's chest was a dark purple orb and trapped inside the orb, her eyes completely colorless, was Jenny.

'She said Myedo-pyn!' shouted Pynchon as he and Panchon suddenly burst from Nobuko's bag and onto the floor. 'She's one of Myedo's underlings-pyn!'

'W-what do we do-pan?' Panchon worriedly asked. 'We haven't found the Precure yet-pan!'

'Hmm?' began Alacrania, having noticed the three of them at this point. 'Oh, young lady. You should feel blessed – you've witnessed the beginning of Master Myedo's reign over this world!' She raised her arm towards the creature that had once been, or had trapped, Jenny and shouted 'Puppet! Rampage for me, if you'd be so kind.' The creature let out a loud and deep roar and smashed its fist into the greenhouse, shattering it completely. After the greenhouse was in pieces, it turned and slowly began lumbering towards the main building of the school.

'N-no,' Nobuko murmured as she took a cautious step back. 'This can't be happening.' She began to take another step back but stopped herself mid-step. 'No,' she said again, more forcefully this time. 'I have to do something!' She clenched her fist in determination and shouted 'I have to save Mizuhara!'

As soon as those words left her mouth, an immensely bright light appeared in front of Nobuko, who had to cover her eyes due to its blindingness. The light quickly faded but in its place floated what appeared to be a pink and white-colored bracelet with a darker pink trim going around its outer edge and a closed locket of some sort on its top.

'A Cure Bracelet-pan!' happily shouted Panchon. 'Nobuko, you're a Precure-pan!'

'What?!' Nobuko shouted in confusion as to what was going on.

'Quickly, put on the bracelet and transform-pyn!' shouted Pynchon.

Not knowing what else to do, Nobuko quickly grabbed hold of the bracelet floating in front of her and attached it to her right arm. As soon as the bracelet was attached to her, it suddenly felt as if she understood everything that was going on and knew exactly what she had to do. She looked in front of her with determination and shouted 'Precure! Power up!' The locket on top of the Cure Bracelet opened up and engulfed Nobuko in a bright pink light. The bright light caused changes in her appearance: her medium-length magenta hair grew in length and changed in color to dark pink, with her small ponytail having grown in both length and volume, now going all the way down her back, with it being held in place by a golden band. Her dark purple eyes changed in color to light pink. Small triangular golden earrings appeared on her ears, her school uniform was replaced with a predominantly dark pink dress, albeit with lighter pink and rounded sleeves, a large white bow across her chest, and a second, almost pearl white, layer peeking just barely peaking from underneath her skirt. Her shoes were replaced with light pink high heeled shoes with a magenta trim going across the top and serving as an accent on the bottom half of the shoes.

The pink light having finally faded as soon as it appeared, the newly transformed Nobuko looked towards both Alacrania and the creature, which was still making its way to the main part of the school, with an immense level of intensity and determination and shouted the phrase that she seemed to instinctively know, 'The protector of optimism across all worlds, Cure Hope!'

Just as quickly as she had understood everything, Nobuko suddenly found herself snapped back into reality. 'Wait, wait, wait!' she panicked as she started looking over her new outfit. 'What on Earth just happened to me? Am I really a Precure? I don't understand this at all!'

'Well, well, a Precure? I didn't expect them to still exist. It doesn't matter anyways,' Alacrania chuckled to herself before facing the creature and shouting 'Puppet! Change of plans! Destroy this girl for me, instead!' She gestured, a slight smug smile on her face, towards Cure Hope. The creature roared in anger as it turned and lumbered towards Hope.

'W-what do I do?!' yelled Cure Hope, panicking and on the verge of just running away.

'You have to fight it-pan!'

'F-fight it? But it's got Mizuhara, I don't want to hurt her!'

'If you don't fight it, then she's as good as gone-pyn.'

'I got it,' Cure Hope replied with determination as she began running towards the creature. The creature let out a roar and swung its fist towards her, sensing when it was about to make contact with her, she quickly leaped out of the way of the danger. 'Whoa!' she exclaimed, looking back at Panchon and Pynchon. 'I can do that?!'

'Behind you-pan!'

Hope turned just in time to see the hands of the creature about to squish her like an insect, almost reflexively she raised her hands in defense and, to her shock and surprise, she had managed to prevent herself from being smashed. Tossing the creature's hands off her, she leapt into the air, to the point where she was now at head level with her opponent. 'Take this!' she angrily yelled as she swung her fist at the creature, a wave of energy was emitted from her punch, knocking the creature back as it let out a yell of agony. Now filled with even more determination, she attempted the same move again, but this time, the creature swung its arm at Hope and smashed right into her, knocking her onto the hard ground with a thud.

'Be careful, Hope-pan!' cried Panchon, as Pynchon attempted to comfort her.

Only flashing a quick smile and a thumbs up towards the two of them before seeming to rush back towards her opponent, Cure Hope suddenly made a beeline to one of the many light poles placed along the side of the pathway, grabbing hold of it, she tore it out of the ground as if it weighed nothing at all, quickly turned on her feet towards the creature, and punted the pole at it as if it were a javelin.

The pole jammed itself directly in the forehead of the creature, causing it to take a few steps back before collapsing in a daze.

'Now's your chance-pyn!' Pynchon yelled at Hope. 'Defeat that thing before it recovers-pyn!'

'OK!' Hope sped towards the dazed creature and leapt into the air once more, in the air, she found herself with the same feelings that she had when she put on the Cure Bracelet for the first time only a few minutes ago. 'The power of the goddess, come to me!' she shouted as her Cure Bracelet opened once more, shooting out a beam of pink light once more. Raising both her fists above her, the light struck both of them, causing a pink aura to form around them. 'Hope Beam!' she yelled as she brought her fists in front of her, as a ray of energy fired from the two of them and struck the still dazed creature.

The creature let out an immense and earthshaking roar as the same clouds that had created it began to appear again, only this time they were a light pink in color. The pink clouds continued to cover the creature as it continued roaring, once the creature was completely covered in them, there was a bright flash of light and all sounds stopped from the mass. The clouds dissipated and, with them, was all signs of the creature – all that was there was Jenny Mizuhara, lying on the ground.

'Cure Hope!' Alacrania snapped. 'You got lucky this time!' But before Hope could react, she vanished.

'Mizuhara!' Hope shouted, rushing towards the motionless Jenny, not even paying attention to the fact that the greenhouse had been restored following her defeat of the creature. 'She's fine!' she called at Panchon and Pynchon after getting to her. Picking her up in her arms, Hope carried Jenny to the bench she had been crying on before everything happened and gently set her down.

'Come on, let's go,' she calmly remarked as she hurried back to the side of the greenhouse, with her two companions following closely behind. Once hidden from sight, Hope detransformed in a flash and turned back into Nobuko Arakawa, second-year middle school student. Opening her bag, she gestured for the two of them to get back in.

'I'm sleepy-pan,' yawned Panchon, pulling herself into the bag.

'You did good today, Ms. Arakawa-pyn,' commented Pynchon as he climbed in after Panchon.

Peering around the corner, Nobuko couldn't help but notice Jenny sitting on the bench, as if nothing had happened. 'Good, she's OK,' she thought to herself as she prepared to walk past her as if the strangest thing ever hadn't just happened.

As she briskly walked past Jenny, attempting to not look at her and act casual, her train of thought was interrupted by Jenny calling out 'U-um, Arakawa!'

Not even turning to look at her, she simply called back, 'Yes, Mizuhara?'

'I, um, want to apologize. For earlier, I mean. I think that, um, I'd like to try being friends.'

Finally turning to look at her, Nobuko smiled at her and wryly asked, 'You sure, Mizuhara?'

'Y-yes, Arakawa. I'm sure.'

'Well, if you have to go this way to get home, why don't we walk together? I have to go this way, too.'

'Y-yeah, I'd like that.' Jenny said, smiling slightly at Nobuko.

'Come on then, let's go,' Nobuko beckoned towards Jenny as she began to walk down the pathway again. Nodding, Jenny got up from the bench, brushed herself off, and quickly caught up with Nobuko and the two girls, their friendship just seeded, began walking home together, chatting casually between each other along the way.

Later, Nobuko and Jenny had reached the neighborhood when Jenny stopped to gesture towards a house near them. 'Um, Arakawa, I guess this is goodbye for now. That's my house right there. I'll see you tomorrow.'

Excited, Nobuko looked at the house Jenny was pointing out. 'No way!' she exclaimed. 'You live here? Wait just a second!' Making sure there were no cars coming, she jogged across the street before excitedly pointing at another house on the corner across from Jenny's house. 'I live right here!'

'O-oh! That's great!'

'Yeah!' she beamed. 'Maybe you could come over soon? Anyways, see ya, Mizuhara.'

'Yes, goodbye for now, Arakawa.'

And with that, the two girls headed to their homes with a friendly wave and a smile.