Sitting at a table within the kitchen of a reasonably large home was a girl with deep pink hair that parted into three sections; two of these sections being held up by sunflower hair clips and the rest falling to the middle of her back while the lower half over her nags were dipped-dyed blonde. With her eyes narrowed down at the toast sitting on her plate, she heard what sounded like two or three, she couldn't tell at this early hour with her brain barely functioning as normal, voices that sounded like they belonged to young boys. What they were yelling about was beyond her and all she could do at this moment was wonder if she had enough time to get a second breakfast at her school's cafeteria, knowing that today's two slices of toast weren't going to leave her full for long. She then took a sip from the bottle of chocolate milk beside her plate and after one drop, she realized she ran out.
"I should probably get more chocolate milk with that second breakfast..."
"Gogo! Haven't you been listening to me?" A voice then shouted from the other side of the kitchen. The girl, Gogo, then looked up, watching the person who called out for her pack four lunches. The person was a woman who looked very much like Gogo with the deep burgundy hair, although hers was wrapped tight in a bun with a little chunk of it worn loose under the bun and she appeared to be much older.
"Come again?" Gogo asked with a very large yawn following after.
"I have to work late tomorrow so be prepared to buy things for tomorrow night's dinner if I don't make it to the grocery store today!" The woman said.
"Mom I need money for these kind of luxuries you know..." Gogo pointed out as she rested her hand curled into a fist against her cheek.
Gogo's mother reached into her wallet sitting on the edge of the counter and pulled out enough to cover the groceries and a little extra.
"You can buy lunch tomorrow as well." Gogo's mother declared as she laid the money out in front of Gogo. Gogo nodded in approval and just then, a male voice was shouting from outside,
"Ayami we've got ten minutes to get to work!"
Gogo's mother then shrieked and then dropped the four lunches in front of Gogo, each of them labeled and stacked on top of each other.
"Give the boys their lunch, and don't forget yours!" Gogo's mother instructed as she ran out of the house, but nod before Gogo and the three little boys said bye to them.
"Alright," Gogo began as she pushed her plate to the center of the table and placed the three lunches into their respective bags beside the kitchen table," Who's ready for school?"
Two of the boys said "not me" and the third said "not yet". Gogo then knelt down to look the three of them in the eyes.
"Well, Reo and Ryu, you two don't actually have a choice." Gogo explained briefly as she gave the two of them their backpacks.
"Don't pretend to mix us up." The shorter of the two, Reo, grumbled as he took his bag from Gogo.
"And Mom says you gotta take your plate to the sink." Ryu, the eldest of the three boys reminded Gogo as he stuck his tongue out at her.
"But I can't go to school yet Gogo!" The youngest brother, Satoru wailed frantically in a voice loud enough to alarm the three of them.
"And why's that?" Gogo asked as she crouched even lower to look Satoru in the eyes.
"He can't find his new figure." Reo explained.
"And you looked everywhere?" Gogo inquired as Satoru started to blink back tears.
"He's gone Gogo! I don't know where to look anymore!" Satoru shouted, startling Ryu and Reo again.
"Oh, don't worry, I'm sure he's somewhere around here." Gogo reassured assured as she stood up straight, with her hands on hips," Alright men, let's search for our missing warrior, Raiden Arataka!"
"Yeah!" The three of them shouted in unison.
Later, after Satoru's figure had been found, Gogo found herself running to school after she dropped the boys off to their elementary school.
"Of course, why am I not surprised that Satoru's stupid figure was under his bed?!" Gogo shouted angrily as she ran down the street," And to think, I could've got a second breakfast today. And I now I'm really gonna need it!"
Just before Gogo could rant anymore, she collided with someone on the street.
"Why don't you watch where you're going?" Gogo muttered as she rubbed the back of her head tenderly, her eyes tightly.
"What about you? You practically came out of nowhere!" The other person shouted. Gogo opened her eyes and saw a girl with bright blonde hair and tan skin, giving her quite the glare as if Gogo was the one at fault, who according to the blonde was.
Gogo then noticed she had on the same school uniform as her and said," If you go to Nakagawa, then why are you going the opposite direction?"
"I left my English homework and my kneepads at home!" The girl responded as she sprung to her feet, offering her hand to Gogo, who gingerly took it," I live right around the block, so I can just run home and get them before school starts.
"You got like three minutes." Gogo pointed out and she looked at her watch.
"Then I've got no time to waste!" The girl declared before sprinting off into the other direction," Okada Masumi, and you?"
"You just said you had no time to-! Mitsugi Gogo." Gogo said before sprinting into the other direction.
"I'll see you around!" Masumi said before she ran out.
"Weirdo." Gogo commented as Masumi came out of earshot," Wait, I gotta get to class!"
"Why was I so willing to get to class on time? It's not like we're doing anything important." Gogo thought to herself as she burrowed her head into her folded arms on her desk. Currently, Literature class had just begun and the last thing Gogo felt like doing was participating in a discussion about the book they had been reading when she hadn't read a single word from it in two weeks. She had been too busy to even pick it up these days, being busy in all her other classes. Literature was a class she had considered to be of low priority, thinking if she could just read the entire book before their big final essay on it, she'd be alright.
"Anyone else want to voice their opinions in regards to the themes of respect and trust within these last few chapters?" The Literature teacher, Ms. Hightower asked, with a few hands shooting up quick from a few students in the front row.
"I want to hear from someone I don't usually hear from..." Ms. Hightower declared as she scanned the room," How about you Miss Kemuri?"
The girl with lemon-yellow hair shot her head up and neutrally said," I apologize Ms. Hightower, I was working on homework for another class."
"So shouldn't you be doing it in that class?" Ms. Hightower suggested, with the girl putting away her notebook into her desk and reaching for her literature notebook.
"Ok, Miss Mitsugi!" Ms Hightower called out, with Gogo looking at her as alert as humanely possible while clenching the pencil in her hand," What are you thoughts on the subject?"
"I...I uh..." Gogo trailed off, pretending she had yet to notice the mass of stares stares coming her way as she shrunk a little in her seat,"...I don't know sorry."
"You just can't put your thoughts into words because they're so complex and dexterous, correct?" Ms Hightower asked in a rather sarcastic manner.
Gogo panicked a little as she heard some snickers across the room, causing her to slump lower into her seat as she said,"I just didn't read this last chapter."
Ms Hightower side-eyed Gogo and turned her attention to another student, one who had actually been paying attention to the class discussion. Gogo rolled her eyes and started doodling a somewhat demonic looking caricature of Ms Hightower in her notebook.
By lunch, Gogo found herself eating in her classroom with only a few students huddled around a pair of desk pushed together in the room. It was a nice day so most kids in her class decided to have lunch outside. The few students were a group of girls, talking about things like homework and their lives outside of school. As much as Gogo wanted to, she couldn't find herself able to tune this out as easily as her brothers' shouting, due to the fact that she didn't really have anyone else to talk to at school. So listening in and hearing about the lives of her fellow classmates, even if it was for a few moments, would had to suffice and make for that absence of communication with others for now.
Gogo stared at the half-full bottle of chocolate milk she bought ten minutes ago, still listening to the girls' conversation.
"It's been two months into the new school year, maybe..." Gogo thought to herself as she picked up the chocolate milk bottle and looked over to the window a few feet away from her seat,"...I should try talking to Taeko soon..."
"Oh yeah, that reminds me, you guys aren't going to believe this but...I bumped in Akimichi yesterday after school! You know, he was in our class in middle school last year!" One of the girls exclaimed.
"No way!" Another of them gasped," I heard he got a girlfriend though, and now we don't even get to see him anymore..."
"So this is what girls my age will do after prolonged years of friendship; talk about old times and old crushes." Gogo observed as she sipped on her chocolate milk," Maybe I should do some of this stuff with Taeko..."
Watching the girls talk openly like this, as if there wasn't any else in the room, was admittingly entertaining for Gogo. It was as if she was a part of their conversation without actually being a part of it. As Gogo watched the girls laugh and share their snacks with each other Gogo sighed quietly while looking away for a couple of moments.
"I wonder if those girls actually like doing that kinda stuff..." Gogo wondered as she looked at the group with her head on top of her folded arms on the desk.
"So, Touka, is it true?" One of the girls said suddenly," Did you really ask out Mikio through a love letter?"
"W-wha-? No, it wasn't a love letter, I mean-!" The girl stammered out while her friends started laughing at her.
"You know what, never mind..." Gogo thought to herself as the girls continued to laugh.
It had been two months since the school year had began, and it wasn't just any school year for Gogo, it was her first year of high-school. Which allegedly meant new friends and new experiences and, a whole bunch of other things that Gogo refused to think about as of right now. Basically, it was a whole new chapter to her life, but despite a few differences like a new set of classmates and a new uniform, almost everything felt the same.
As Gogo watched the girls continue to talk amongst themselves, she ended deciding to work on some drawings in the corners of her notebook as she put in her headphones to distract herself from the girls and their conversation.
"I have better things to do anyways, I guess." Gogo thought to herself as she started drawing things like flowers sprouting from the bottom of her page and bolts of lighting underneath a rain cloud.
Later after class, it was club time and Gogo was inside the girls locker room putting on her gym uniform. After she was fully dressed in her gym clothes, she neatly folded her uniform and placed it into her bag. As she inserted her uniform into the bag, she heard a few of her other club-mates chatting amongst themselves.
"I hope Chitose doesn't make up run ten laps around the track as warm-up today." One girl whined as she stretched her arms," My legs were sore for three days after that!"
"She's insane, so insane that I wanna ditch this club now but...every time I mention it in front of her..." One of the girls trailed off.
"She gives you those puppy dog eyes too right?" The other girl questioned before groaning," Chitose's so cruel but, I can't turn her down when she does that!"
"If one of us quits..." Gogo said to herself quietly while continuing to observe the girls," Then this club will be have to disband because we have a bare minimum of club members. And that means despite not even being fond of this track club...I'm stuck here too."
Today's club activities weren't as harsh as last weeks, so the girls were as badly drained of their energy like last time. The club was pretty inclusive, but not many people wanted to join because of either already belonging to another club or they just didn't want to. Not a lot of girls at the school seemed to have been interested and it was hard for the club president, Chitose to round up all of her club members. Most joined because the clubs they wanted to join were full, others genuinely wanted to be here and then there was Gogo, who joined upon the recommendation of the student council president.
By now, most people at the club knew each other, and they all got fairly close, but there were a few members who chose to keep to themselves; Gogo being one of those people. Somehow, the members of this club kinda struck Gogo as boring. They all did. But they did at least seem like nice people, Gogo just didn't have interest in socializing with them.
After club was over, Gogo quickly threw her uniform back on and started looking through her phone to see if she had missed any texts or emails.
Three girls who were in Gogo's homeroom had just finished changing and were currently planning to head out to get something to eat after their club session.
"Should we still go to that crepe place today Hanami?" One of them asked as she laced her hands behind her head.
"Hm, Michi, do you think we should invite her to come with us today?" Hanami asked as she looked towards Gogo," She is in our homeroom."
"Mitsugi? I guess, though she doesn't seem like the type to take detours after club." Michi remarked as she glanced over to Gogo.
"But, she seems kinda...alone." Hanami pointed out as she watched Gogo scroll through her texts. The two girls started paying close attention to Gogo as they watched her idly read a text on her phone. The two of them were quick to notice the distress appearing in Gogo's eyes as they widened greatly as she started to dial a number. As she held the phone to her ear, she dashed out of the change room, her shoes barely on her feet and her gym uniform left on the bench in the change room. Hanami took the bag sitting on the bench and called out to Gogo,
"Um, Mitsugi-!"
"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow too!" Gogo shouted back to her as she waved her free hand to her.
Hanami stared down at the bag in her hands and glanced over to Michi as she tried to think of what to do.
"We'll just give it back to her tomorrow." Michi dismissed as she walked out of the change room, with Hanami following after her.
"But Mom! I had club today, of course I couldn't have seen that message after school!" Gogo complained into the phone as she ran down the street," Wait what? Hinari walked them home? Oh man, I guess I owe her big time for that. Not to mention..."
Gogo had stopped running for a few moments now, barely able to catch her breath as she looked at her brothers' elementary school now in front of her.
"...I ran all the way here."
Gogo hung up on her mom and just further down the road, sighing loudly as she did so.
"I guess I can just buy the groceries for dinner now." Gogo decided as she started to walk slowly to the convenience store down the road. As Gogo walked, the sun was starting to set, slowly but surely. Less and less students were crossing her path and the streets were getting much quieter now.
"Why couldn't she just text me at lunch to tell me I had to make dinner tonight?" Gogo moaned as she continued to walk down the street.
Meanwhile at the convenience store's parking lot, the girl Gogo had bumped this morning, Masumi, was sitting on the curb and munching on chocolate Pocky sticks. This had been her third box this afternoon. Once she had finished eating from it, she threw it to the side like the two boxes she had before. When she was finished with her little Pocky banquet, she wrapped her arms around her knees, regretting it in an instant after she felt a stinging sensation on them.
"That's hurting worse than before..." Masumi cringed as she stretched out her legs. The skinned knee only felt like a minor issue before, considering she was too busy this afternoon with try-outs for the volleyball team. Despite playing as hard as she could, she didn't preform as well as the other girls and the team captains seemed very much uninterested in having her on the team. It was hard to play dumb when she watched the captains give praise to girls who were older than her, girls who in her grade that she never even met before try-outs.
"I wasn't holding back..." Masumi said to herself in reassurance,"...Was I?" All of a sudden, a pale, slender figure caught Masumi's eye and she turned around to see who it was. The figure disappeared, but Masumi was still curious, so she followed it in the direction she saw it head to.
Masumi walked to the other side of the convenience store and located there was Ms. Hightower standing before a set of toy vending machine.
"Why is Ms. Hightower collecting gashapon...?" Masumi wondered as she continued to observe Ms. Hightower from the corner of the convenience store.
"Let's find out." A voice said behind Masumi. Masumi spun around in panic and appearing in the sky out of nowhere was a girl who seemed to be in her mid-teens with fair skin, grey hair that went just past her shoulder and ice cold celadon coloured eyes. She worn a sleeveless black, white and purple dress that went to her knees and violet boots worn over purple and black striped socks. She also had grey and violet fingerless gloves that reached her forearms and lastly, a deep violet hair band with an even deeper violet diamond on the side of it.
"You have the first candle, the Candle of Intrigue, don't you?" The girl asked, her voice as cold as the expression on her face.
Ms. Hightower only scrutinized the girl in front of her and turned her head away in slight disgust, saying," I apologize, but I think you've got the wrong person. See you never."
"Alright, well fine. I'll let you go, but only if you show me what's inside your bag." The girl proposed. Masumi looked over to Ms. Hightower warily, the older woman simply scoffing and continuing to walk.
"I don't need to show off what inside my bag to a snot-nosed punk like you. I don't even know your name! Now if you'll excuse me I've got dinner to-" Ms. Hightower cut herself off once she had bumped into something and fell onto the pavement. The girl had materialized a muted purple barrier surrounding herself, Ms. Hightower and Masumi.
"I'm getting that candle today no matter what." The girl declared as she walked closer towards Ms. Hightower, And the name's Onyx."
"Hey, I don't have anything to do with this, so are you keeping me here?" Masumi questioned nervously. Onyx turned around to face Masumi with a somewhat wicked grin carved onto her face.
"You won't have anything to do with this for long..." Onyx snickered as she conjured up a small black star with a frowning face on it between her fingers while holding one of Masumi's empty Pocky boxes in the other hand," Endopath, turn her cheer into absolute fear!"
The black star appear in front of Masumi, multiplied and one went straight inside of Masumi while the other merged with the Pocky box.
"Endopath!" The monsterfied Pocky box roared, breaking the barrier as it did so.
"Joke's on you, I get to leave now." Ms. Hightower said with a snicker as she rose to her feet.
"You wouldn't leave this poor innocent girl in danger, would you?" Onyx asked as she waved her hand over in Masumi's direction.
"I screwed up! I'm not gonna make the team! All my efforts will have been for nothing because I held back and...and it's all my fault!" Masumi exasperated frantically.
"Your Queen didn't want this happen, correct?" Onyx asked.
Gogo rummaged through her pockets as she reached the convenience store, feeling some loose change jingle around as she wondered to herself," Did I save enough money to buy groceries?"
Suddenly Gogo heard the roar of the Endopath and stopped fishing through her pockets, her heart beating in alarm as she looked up and saw what appeared to be a thirty foot Pocky box on the other side of the convenience store.
"On second thought, cereal doesn't sound like a bad idea for dinner..." Gogo said to herself before sprinting in the opposite direction.
"I just said, you can't have the bag!" Gogo heard a voice shout.
"Hey, that sounded like...Ms. Hightower." Gogo thought to herself as she walked over slowly to the store. Gogo looked towards the other side of the convenience store, not able to make out anything except the cries from the Pocky box monster and more shouting from Ms. Hightower. Should she get involved? It seemed like a rigorous, maybe even life-threatening task, but...if there was a chance that someone she knew, her own homeroom teacher, being in danger, she probably wouldn't have been able to live with the guilt of knowing that she could've done something. So, without further question what to do, Gogo quickly darted to the other side of the convenience store, seeing Ms. Hightower getting harassed by a girl who appeared to her age, clutching on to her teacher's bag and Masumi staring down at the ground helplessly.
"Mitsugi? What are you doing, get out of here!" Ms. Hightower shouted as she tried pulling her bag away from Onyx.
"I think a better question would be, what are you doing?" Gogo asked before an alarm went off on her phone," Oh would you look at that, it's six already..."
"Oh no..." Ms. Hightower said quickly as she tried one last pull from the grey-haired girl.
"Oh yes..." Onyx said as that wicked grin reappeared on her face as Ms. Hightower shaped-shifted into what appeared to be a bunny wearing a cupcake hair clip on one ear.
"What is that...?" Gogo cringed as she looked at the bunny in the place of Ms. Hightower. The bunny wasn't able to put up as good of a fight as Ms. Hightower and within an instant, Onyx yanked the bag out of the bunny's grasp.
"Mitsugi, you gotta get out of here, or at least help me get that bag back!" The bunny, who appeared to be Ms. Hightower cried.
Gogo nodded and immediately ran over towards Onyx, who leapt up high into the sky, standing on a telephone pole as she searched the bag for the candle.
"Got it!" Onyx rejoiced as she held the candle up high, only to nearly have it fall out from her hands as she found herself wobbling on top of the phone pole.
"You need to get that thing away from her!" Ms. Hightower instructed as Gogo kicked the phone pole.
"Ugh, time to use this thing." Onyx declared as she leapt off the phone pole and in front of Gogo.
Onyx held the candle in front of Gogo and Gogo panicked as she took steps backwards, unsure of what else she could do. She then tripped and fell on her behind, with Onyx pointing the candle in front of her face.
"The world's really out for me today..." Gogo said quietly to herself, her terrified gaze on Onyx.
"Ignite." Onyx commanded in a low voice. But, the candle wouldn't light up, which really ruined Onyx's moment. Once Gogo realized there wasn't really anything to be afraid, she stood up slowly.
"What's going on?" Onyx muttered to herself as she flailed the candle around inquisitively.
"Don't you know better, your weak feelings of animosity couldn't ever light one of the Everlasting candles of Cheer." Ms. Hightower explained to her in a snide voice.
"Then what the hell does?" Onyx questioned in irritation as she glowered towards Ms. Hightower.
"Hey, uh, why did you have to hijack Ms. Hightower's bag to get that? Wouldn't it have been easier to ask?" Gogo asked Onyx," I mean, it seemed like it would've been big trouble if it got into the wrong hands but since it didn't..."
"I'll light this stupid candle up and when I do, I'm burning you to a crisp!" Onyx threatened as she waved the candle in front of Gogo," And after that, I'll drain the cheer and happiness out of everyone! You'll all be living the rest your miserable lives like that girl forever!"
Gogo looked a little apprehensive as she saw Masumi staring at the ground in hopelessness.
"Why would you want to do something like that...?" Gogo asked as she stared at the candle in Onyx's hands.
"Happiness is pointless, a lost cause. Just the thought of happy people gives me a migraine. I hope all happiness can be erased by me and only me. It's a misfortune that I would never wish upon another. A world without happy people would be a dream come true."
"I don't know what made you so bitter but..." Gogo began,"...Unlike you, people actually like being happy. It isn't a misfortune or a tragedy or anything like that. So, happiness can't always last as long as we want, and sometimes, we unintentionally make each other unhappy." Gogo looked towards Ms. Hightower and Masumi
But...I wouldn't want to bring misery those who made me unhappy in the first place and I don't my happiness to be erased, and I don't want the happiness of others to be erased..." Gogo immediately thought of her brothers and her classmates as she said that," So, I don't think your dream can come true and, I think you should give that candle thing back to my teacher, or what's left of my teacher."
"Please, with this, I can manipulate hearts and minds alike, I can reap out those insufferable feelings of joy that come and go whenever they please and I can leave what will never disappear; complete and pure despair." Onyx proclaimed as she swung around the candle.
Gogo then reminded her, "But, didn't she just tell you that you can't activate it-"
"I may not be able to use this candle yet, but in the meantime, I have these." Onyx declared as she conjured up a few more of those tiny black stars," And I'm about to make you my next host!"
"Mitsugi, don't let those things touch you!" Ms. Hightower advised as Gogo began to run.
"Could this day get any weirder?" Gogo wailed as she began to dodge the black stars.
"Why are you just standing around, go get her!" Onyx commanded the Endopath. The Endopath started chasing after Gogo and within a few moments, it had her in it's grasp. Gogo silently cursed herself for getting captured and tried to fight her way out of the Endopath's grip.
"What good will it even bring you to try and steal other people's happiness? Wouldn't that make you feel bad?" Gogo reasoned as she writhed around the Endopath's grip.
"Are you kidding me? The misfortune of others is my greatest pleasure!" Onyx answered as the Endopath's clutch tightened as Onyx readied herself to fling a star at Gogo.
"Fine, go on. Try and make everyone sad. Try and spoil everyone's day, clearly I can't convince you otherwise. But, even if you try and make others sad, I won't let you try and take my happiness, and you know what, I'm going to use every inch of my power to keep you from trying to steal anyone else's happiness. Wanna know why, because it's their happiness and you don't get a say in whether or not they get to keep it and I won't stand for any of this any longer!"
A ray of light had emerged out from Gogo, a light so bright and hot that it forced the Endopath to let go of Gogo, who was floating in midair, being held up by the lights.
"Mitsugi, take this!" Ms. Hightower instructed as she threw a locket inside the capsule ball from before.
"What is this thing doing? Stop pulling me towards her!" Onyx shouted as she held onto the candle as tight as she could. Ultimately, the candle was repelled out of her grasp and launched itself into Gogo's other hand.
In Gogo's hand, the candle had began to flicker a bright yellow and magenta flame.
"Mitsugi, set the locket under the flame!" Ms. Hightower instructed," Then yell, Pretty Cure, Turn that frown upside down!"
"And I thought this day couldn't get any weirder..." Gogo said to herself as she did as told, setting flame to the locket, turning the originally pearly white locket yellow, orange and pink.
She then held up the locket and shouted,
"Pretty Cure, Turn that frown upside down!"