A Troubled Production
Cast:
Cure Lovely, Aino Megumi - age 14
Cure Princess, Shirayuki Hime - age 15
Cure Fortune, Hikawa Iona - age 14
Phantom, Inutama Anji - age 19
Joker, Karasawa Jou - age 22
Dark PreCure, Tsukikage Sumire - age 21
August, 2014
"You fool. You cannot comprehend that person's anger."
A bolt of crimson energy flies at Cure Lovely. She evades, jumping back with impossible speed.
"Phantom! What are you doing here?"
"That person wishes for you to disappear. I am here to make it so."
"I won't let you!"
The two opponents fly at each other, trading blows so quickly that for a few moments they appear only as colored outlines. Lovely comes close to landing a glowing punch. Phantom falls out of the air.
The color drains from the area as he is seen bleeding on the ground. Words appear.
[You have grown stronger. Now you shall witness my true power. Behold, the darkness of your own heart!]
A cloud of dust erupts from where Phantom fell. When it clears, Cure Lovely is wearing a pink mask over her face. Where Phantom was, another Cure Lovely stands. However, where the original wears pink and white, this new apparition is clothed in scarlet and black. Even her hair is the same deep red.
"Who are you?!"
"Helping others... saving people... I know the truth. You only did it so that you would be praised!"
"That's not true!" Her face is hidden behind the mask, but it is clear from Lovely's eyes that she has been affected.
"Don't try to deny it! I, Unlovely, know everything about you!"
The doppelganger attacks.
There is no such thing as magic in this world, but a movie is a window into another world.
"So Phantom explodes, and suddenly you're wearing a mask?" Still watching the screen, Iona asks the obvious question.
Even if it is a bad movie.
"It's because I'm not really talking in those shots," Megumi explains sheepishly. "Everything where it looks like Cure Lovely is talking after Anji's accident was actually dubbed in later."
"But you're talking normally as Unlovely?"
"Oh, you sweet summer child," Sumire whispers from just behind Iona's ear. Iona shrieks, then Sumire pats her head. "Unlovely didn't even exist until like a week later. Cool outfits like that don't just appear out of thin air, you know? I had to sew like crazy!"
Hime scratches her head. "So when you're playing Lovely and shouting at yourself, you don't know what you're saying or what's being said to you? How did you know what to do?"
"That would be my doing," Joker says. "I told her to act as if Anji was still there. When it was decided that Megumi would take over his part in addition to the hero role, we watched the footage together and tried to make Unlovely's movements match up."
"Maybe you should have tried harder."
Joker wrings his hands. "That actually is the best I could do. I had to teach myself basically all of the special effects over the course of a couple of weeks. Almost all of the money that would have gone for effects instead went to covering our liability after Anji's harness failed."
Sumire pinches his cheek. "Such a caring boss!"