Days had passed since the day Rumi came over to Gogo's place, and Gogo hadn't had much of a chance to talk to Rumi all that much ever since then. They were both considerably busy with schoolwork this week and they hadn't faced an attack from Melancholy in a week. While it felt nice to think that Melancholy was taking a break to accommodate to the girls' busy lives, Gogo knew that such a thought couldn't be true and chances were they were just waiting for the perfect time to strike. The thing that bothered Gogo most was worrying that her next battle could easily be last. But of course, every time she thought of that, she reminded herself she had a teammate now. It was no longer up to her alone to put an end to Melancholy. Though Gogo had to admit, playing the waiting game was driving her edge.
During the end of Gogo's club session, Gogo tried opening her locket and made sure no one was watching, since looking at the little holographic inside had started to bring Gogo at ease whenever she looked at it. She looked around and made sure no one was watching. It seemed to coast was clear, but then Gogo got quite distracted as she tried to open the locket as the chatter of her club-mates filled her ears. It got so bad she found herself paying attention more to their quiet conservation rather than opening the locket and soon enough, she gave up and relinquished her attention over to the conversation amongst her club-mates a few feet away. Though she basically eavesdropping, she at least pretended to be folding her gym uniform into her bag as her club mates continued their conversation.
"Did you guys hear about the ghost couple that plays the piano in the music room during the night?" One girl asked Hanami and Michi, with the former nodding rapidly in return.
Hanami was sitting on the bench in front of her and nervously answered," Yeah! I hear that they can only be heard at the dead of night, when no one but a few teachers and students are around!"
"Why would anyone be here in the dead of night?" Michi asked flatly as she arched an eyebrow," And how do you know it's a ghost couple? It all sounds fishy to me."
The girl and Hanami looked at Michi angrily and the girl said to her," That's because those students had forgot stuff like their textbooks and homework in their classrooms! And some teachers even stay around late to grade papers in class!"
"And it's totally a couple because one person is playing the piano while the other is humming to the tune!" Hanami declared loudly.
"Couldn't it just be the same person?" Michi asked suspiciously.
"No!" The girl and Hanami responded in unison, with the former adding," Because a girl in second-year heard the sound last week and wanted to check who was in there. So bravely, she went and swung open the door and saw a pair of ghosts! A boy and a girl!"
But Michi was as skeptic as ever, saying,"So then, have any teachers reported to see this alleged pair of ghosts?"
"Well, I heard Mr. Natsume heard the piano playing and Ms. Honjo and Ms. Hightower...but they wouldn't confirm if it was there a pair of ghosts or not!" Hanami exasperated with a sigh following after.
"Hightower saw a ghost?" Gogo asked quiet sounding uninterested but being quite the opposite as she walked out of the change room.
As Gogo walked out from the change rooms, she heard more and more talk about the phantom couple from other students she passed in the hall. Apparently, this was a bigger rumor than she thought it to be. Many kids relayed the same things that the girls were talking about in the change rooms but others provided her with new information like how the fear of the ghost couple had been so bad for some students that they couldn't even step inside the music room for their club meet. Gogo had yet to see the school discuss a rumor so much like this one. As long as she was in the school, she couldn't escape it. And she was sure getting tired of hearing about it by the time she reached the school's gates. Just as she was about to set foot off the school grounds, she heard a voice call for her.
"Mitsugi!"
Gogo spun around and found Rumi approaching her. Stiffly, she smiled and waved and Rumi smiled back once she reached Gogo.
"How have you been these last few days?" Rumi asked as she pointed to a bench near to the two of them. Gogo followed her over to the bench and the two of them sat down.
"I've been alright, what about you?" Gogo, heard a painful ring of awkwardness echo in her tone," Did you hear about that ghost rumor?"
Gogo was hoping to have escaped the rumor once she was far enough from the school and pulling into her conversation was the last thing she wanted to do, but thanks to the kids from school, it was all she was thinking about.
Rumi chuckled a little awkwardly and said," Most of the kids in my class were talking about it today. I'm not sure if I believe them though, it's just a rumor anyways."
"Well, I certainly don't think there's a ghost couple at the school." Gogo grumbled, annoyed with herself for even bringing the subject up.
Just then, the two of them heard a pair of voices shouting at each other on the other end of the school yard. Curiously, they looked over a saw a boy in first year getting shouted at by a second year girl holding a rolled up newspaper in one hand.
"I'm serious Hiroshi, your photos aren't getting better at all. I couldn't even tell that this was taken at the school, let alone the music room!" The second year girl scolded as she held a photograph that was held inside the rolled-up newspaper and handed it to Hiroshi, "I think we should have Tadeshi take over your role and you could just-"
The first-year Hiroshi then claimed,"-But I did see the ghost couple! But, I could only open the door a creak and just when I was about to open it fully the girl humming to the tune shrieked and I kinda sorta ran off. But you can't really blame me for the photo's quality, I mean since it was night time and I only brought my phone and not my actual camera and-"
"It's these kind of shots that are making our paper flop! Either you get a better shot of it by tomorrow night or you going to be revising articles from now on." The second year girl declared as she walked off back into the school, leaving Hiroshi alone with the photograph.
"I'm doomed." Hiroshi sighed to himself as he looked at the photo while sitting himself down on the ground. Just before he was about to take a closer look at the shot, he felt the gaze of somebody on him and turned his head to the right, finding Gogo and Rumi spying on him. He looked closer at Gogo and a few moments later, a devious smile came to his face.
"You girls, help me exploit the ghost couple of Nakagawa!" Hiroshi declared as he briefly pushed up his glasses while pointing to the two of them.
"Pass." Gogo said uninterestedly before Hiroshi walked up towards her.
"And in exchange, you can receive an embarrassing photo of any of your enemies, or even friends!" Hiroshi bargained as he fished out a couple of photos from his bag while walking with the two of them," You can choose from Hashimoto Yukina getting sprayed by a soft drink, Torino Michi tripping over her shoelaces, or even a very, very exclusive one of-!"
"What part of 'pass' don't you understand?" Gogo interrupted as she pushed the photos out of her face.
"Wait, there's a really good one in here I know you wouldn't be able to resist though!" Hiroshi exclaimed as he handed Gogo a photo, one that really had her in shock.
"You wouldn't want anyone thinking you're a teacher's pet would you?" Hiroshi asked as he held out the picture of herself and Ms. Hightower sitting on one of the benches after class while Gogo was eating leftovers from her lunch. But being seen as teacher's pet was the least of her worries when her eyes traveled to the Candle of Intrigue peeking out from her bag. If there came a day where she had to fight an Endopath as a Pretty Cure and use the candle in front of her classmates, Hiroshi would have proof that she was Cure Joy.
Now it was Gogo's turn to reason as she said," Well, why do you even want to be in the newspaper club anyways? It's full of those kinda of kids you don't even remember seeing in class plus that one girl was really mean to you just then and-"
"-I don't care! I'll do anything to take pictures for the club! Even though I keep bringing down the paper with my photos, this club means a lot to me! And I only have this one chance, I can't afford to screw this up." Hiroshi interrupted, before Rumi chimed in.
"But, why do we have help you?" Rumi questioned, with Hiroshi looking towards the side sheepishly in response.
"The president of the newspaper club Mari will probably believe me if two other people can back me up in the case that I don't take the shot..." Hiroshi confessed, sounding a bit embarrassed.
"Haven't you got evidence from anyone else though?" Rumi asked.
"Well, I tried talking to the second-year girl who had claimed to have seen the two of them, but no one has seen her at school ever since that night." Hiroshi explained," Some said that her body's been possessed by the girl and now their just waiting for a boy to come. Another reason as to why I can't go by myself."
"No ghost is going to want to possess this kid's body." Gogo thought to herself as she narrowed her eyes on the lanky Hiroshi," But you know it wasn't just the girl who saw them. Apparently a few teachers had heard the couple, maybe there's a chance that one of them saw the couple."
"This is news to me," Hiroshi said quietly in bewilderment," But which teachers got a chance to hear them?"
"I believe it was Mr. Natsume, Ms. Honjo and Ms. Hightower." Rumi debriefed as she listed the three of them off of her fingers," But, Mr. Natsume hasn't said anything about the ghost couple and refused to tell anyone about the incident in my class."
"Stubborn huh? For now, so that we don't waste any time, let's move down the list to Ms. Honjo." Hiroshi declared, with Gogo and Rumi appearing to still be a bit hesitant to work with him. It was either that or Hiroshi could've ended up doing something like blow up the picture of Gogo and Ms. Hightower and post it around the school.
"So, shall we begin?" Hiroshi asked, sounding a little more upbeat now as he pointed towards the school. Gogo and Rumi figured they didn't really have a choice in their situation and unwillingly followed Hiroshi.
Hiroshi led the three of them as he started to ramble about more, lesser heard rumors about the ghost couple and how others in his club tried to look for the couple at night, but had no luck in finding them.
"Even Mari had gone searching for the couple and after me, she's been the closest to get a view of them from our club! But, she didn't see them in the end of course." Hiroshi explained, having a hint of arrogance detectable in his voice, likely due to the fact that he came closer to seeing the couple than the club president herself.
Hiroshi suddenly then stopped in front of a classroom and pointed to it saying," This is where Ms. Honjo can be found after school since this is where her last class is held."
Hiroshi then knocked on the door, and a voice that sounded as if it belonged to a woman said," Come in."
The class room was very much empty for the most part, all the seats in class empty and not a single sound being heard within the classroom except for maybe the faint voices of kids outside as the window was open. Ms. Honjo sat in her desk and had a stack of papers in front of her. She was tall, but she seemed quite tense as she offered the three of them a nervous smile and gestured them to sit down in the desks in the front row. Hiroshi leaned against one desk, Gogo sat on top of another one, and Rumi simply sat in the chair of the desk closest to the window.
"What can I do for you three?" Ms. Honjo asked as she pushed the papers to the side. She didn't recognize any of them and so, her biggest fear right was for them to ask her about the incident that happened last week. That was all everyone at school seemed to be curious about right now.
"Ms. Honjo, we heard that you had heard something...suspicious last week when you stayed late at the school." Hiroshi began as he took out a notepad from his bag along with a pen," And we just wanted to know, did you get a chance to see it?"
Ms. Honjo drew out a large sigh as she said," I'm going to tell you the same thing as I told everyone else. I didn't get to see any ghosts and that's because weren't any to begin with."
"Oh, come on! Everyone knows you were one of the three teachers who heard the ghosts!" Hiroshi whined stubbornly," At least tell us if they were bad musicians!"
"How would that prove if they were ghosts or not?" Gogo muttered under her breath with her eyes narrowed.
"Well think about it. If they were just students, they could be playing off-key but if they were ghosts they'd have all the time in the world to practice and they'd probably be pretty good." Rumi explained to Gogo quietly.
"Ghosts aren't real and I'm afraid that you three are wasting your time trying to find any proof of them being real." Ms. Honjo concluded as she went back to her grading.
"But even I can tell you don't believe that!" Hiroshi shot back as he pointed to Ms. Honjo's hands," If you really didn't believe in the ghost couple being real, your hands wouldn't be shaking as much as they are right now."
Ms. Honjo's stared down at her hands sheepishly as she said," That's just because it's cold in here! Look, you're a part of the newspaper club right? If you really want to see whether or not this ghost couple exists, you should just go looking for them yourself."
"I already did." Hiroshi answered quietly in his defense, his head now hung," But I couldn't see them and in the case that I do see them, my president might not believe me even with a picture."
Hiroshi rubbed his eyes with his hands, and looked up to Ms. Honjo his eyes all watery now," Please, if I screw this up I might lose my role in my club. I might even get kicked out of the club at this rate!"
Ms. Honjo had a guilty look written all over her face now as she put her hands in front of Hiroshi in an attempt to calm his down," But, there's not much to say. I mean, all I heard was a really low humming from what sounded like a young girl and the sound of the piano playing. The person playing the piano was playing as if they were in a rush, and it sounded quite off with the humming. It was hard to tell that they were playing the same tune."
"Could you recognize which song it was?" Rumi then questioned.
Ms. Honjo tried thinking, and even tried to at least hum what she could remember of the tune but with no avail she merely responded with," The tune was slow, and because of how distorted the two of them sounded together, it was extra hard to identify what song it could've been. I'm sorry, but that's all I can really say."
"It's ok. It's been a big help though, so thank you." Hiroshi said as he put the notepad and pen in his bag. He walked out after saying goodbye to Ms. Honjo and Gogo and Rumi followed him out.
As Gogo and Rumi followed Hiroshi outside of the class, they both stared at Hiroshi with different expressions on their faces. Rumi had a look of pity on hers and Gogo seemed to skeptic as she looked at Hiroshi.
"I feel like you guys are glaring holes into me, what gives?" Hiroshi asked, sounding slightly uninterested.
"You weren't really crying back there." Gogo stated, surprising Rumi but receiving no reaction from Hiroshi whatsoever.
"What makes you makes say that?" Hiroshi asked, still appearing to be uninterested in Gogo's theory.
"I can see the bottle of eye-drops in your back pocket." Gogo pointed out tonelessly, causing Hiroshi to stop walking for a moment.
Gogo and Rumi awaited uneasily for Hiroshi's next move and he turned around to face the pair, wearing the indifferent look on his face before it shifted into a more sheepish one as he said,
"At this point, I'll do anything to stay in the newspaper club."
"So, you pretend to fake cry moments after you practically shout at her? You're a total snake!" Gogo shouted while Hiroshi tried calming her down," That also means you've had them on you the entire day you weirdo!"
"Hey I'll have you know that I actually do need them!" Hiroshi yelled back to her," I have a permanently scratched cornea so sometimes my eyes dry out!"
"Aw, you poor two-faced snake." Gogo countered in a somewhat bratty tone as she rolled her eyes," Rumi I say we just ditch him while we can, what do you think?"
"Hey you can't do that! If you do, I'll show everyone that picture of you and Hightower and I'll even photoshop it to make it look like you two or at the mall or something!" Hiroshi threatened, but at this point, Gogo really couldn't take being around him right now.
Rumi, however, was too busy looking at something going on outside as she pressed her face against the window and said to herself quietly," What is Mr. Natsume doing?"
Gogo and Hiroshi joined Rumi in looking out the glass window and saw Mr. Natsume trying to shoo away none other than Mari who appeared to be interviewing him. At least, trying to interview him.
"She's trying to get answers about the ghost couple..." Hiroshi observed," Come on, I wanna get a better look at this!"
Hiroshi then bolted off and Rumi was about to chase after him, but Gogo grabbed the collar of her uniform before she could. Rumi looked at her wondering as to why she did that and Gogo held a small envelope with a bunch of photos inside, a devious smile on her face now.
"We don't need to help him anymore." Gogo declared, with a mischievous chuckle escaping her lips.
Rumi still seemed rather confused though as she asked," But didn't he keep his blackmailing pictures inside a plastic bag?"
Gogo had a blank look in her eye before she began frantically searching through the envelope for that picture of her and Ms. Hightower. Rumi then grabbed a hold of Gogo's hand and followed Hiroshi in the direction he ran towards.
They found Hiroshi standing beside the corner of the school building with a cupped hand around his ear as he tried listening to the conversation.
"Please Mr. Natsume, everyone knows that you had heard the ghost couple. Could you at least describe what you heard? Do you think it really could be a ghost?" Mari asked, seeming rather anxious being in Mr. Natsume's presence as she kept her eyes on her notepad. No one could really blame Mari for being so tense, considering that Mr. Natsume did appear to be rather intimidating. He was probably the tallest teacher at the school, towering over both students and teachers alike, and none of his own students could ever recall seeing him smile.
"Mari's really brave- I mean, stupid, for trying to get answers from Mr. Natsume, considering he kept his mouth shut about the ghost couple this entire week." Hiroshi whispered, as he continued to watch from the corner of the building.
"Write this down in your notepad. there aren't any ghosts at this school and you kids are just wasting your time trying to find any." Mr. Natsume declared sternly as he walked past Mari, not even listening to her as she tried calling him back.
"Dead-end." Mari groaned to herself as she scribbled against the notepad in frustration," Time to go ask Ms. Honjo I guess."
Mari started walking towards the front entrance of the school and Hiroshi started to try and remember who else they had left to interrogate.
"Guess this just leaves Ms. Hightower." Hiroshi declared neutrally, though the thought of it drove Gogo and Rumi on edge.
Gogo then thought to herself worriedly," There's no way she would transform into that at school...she's smarter than that, right?"
"It sure would be weird to walk in on Ms. Hightower as Lulu, I wonder what we should do in the event of that happening? Tell him the truth or pretend we don't see her and make him think he's seeing things?" Rumi wondered in her head absently.
As the three of them walked towards Ms. Hightower's classroom, the two girls seemed reasonably nervous as Ms. Hightower could be unpredictable in her own little way and while they expected that she wouldn't do so much as to transform in an empty classroom where anyone could've barged in at random, they knew it was best not to keep their hopes up.
"We'll say it's her pet rabbit and that she brought it to class today because she had to bring it to the vet immediately after school otherwise they wouldn't make it to their appointment. Even if that's sounds fishy we can work with it. Or maybe we say she's a stuffed animal from one of the girls in class." Gogo thought to herself as beads of sweat started forming at her temples.
The three of three reached the class room where Ms. Hightower would usually be found in after school and just before Hiroshi was going to open the door, Gogo quickly took hold of his hand. Hiroshi's eyes widened once he found his right hand in Gogo's vice grip as she knocked on the door.
"Ms. Hightower, are you in there?" Gogo asked looking as if she was ready to wince before saying," We have someone here who'd like to interview you."
No response came for a few moments, and the two girls awaited anxiously for a response, wishing that they weren't going to hear Lulu's child-like, high-pitched voice give them a response.
"I'm about to leave, so you better make it quick." Ms. Hightower said as she opened the door. Somehow, a tremendous wave of relief came to both Gogo and Rumi as they met eyes with Ms. Hightower and not Lulu as they had previously expected.
Hiroshi didn't waste a single second as he whipped his pen and notepad while saying," We've heard that got a chance to hear the ghost couple. Can you confirm whether or not you indeed heard them play? And even maybe disclose whether or not you've seen them as well?"
"Hiroshi, don't you think you're pushing it a bit?" Rumi asked quietly.
"You better not fake any tears again." Gogo warned as she pointed a finger towards him.
"Relax, I'm not going to pull that on someone as smart as Ms. Hightower. She's much too good for those tricks." Hiroshi claimed as he looked towards Ms. Hightower," So, we would like to know what exactly happened the night you stayed after school you stayed after school."
"What's in it for me?" Ms. Hightower questioned flatly as she arched an eyebrow.
"The satisfaction of knowing that a kind, gracious teacher like yourself helped out a boy in need who's about to lose something very important if he can't get evidence leading to the ghost couple." Hiroshi asked, his tone sounding extremely fake to Gogo and Rumi. The two of them appeared rather appalled with Hiroshi for using a different tactic of manipulation and then they glanced over to Ms. Hightower who didn't seem to be exactly buying into his act.
"Flattery huh? He won't get anywhere with tha-" Ms. Hightower thought to herself, but then she felt something weird, as if her heart sank at the sight of Hiroshi, thought she didn't quite understand why. She knew he was being rather insincere with the praise he had been dishing out, but maybe there was more to that last statement of his than she realized.
"Fine, I'll tell you about...my encounter with the phantom couple!" Ms. Hightower declared, sounding a whole lot more enthusiastic now and exciting Hiroshi quite a bit.
"It was last week Tuesday and I remembered that I had left a folder full of assignments I had to grade for the next day at the school. So, I went into the classroom I last taught in and took it out from the desk. As I left the class room and walked towards the main entrance, I could hear the sound of the piano playing from across the hall. At first, I thought I was probably hearing things, but then, as I inched towards the music room, the playing didn't stop. But just before I took one last step and opened the door, I ended up stepping on a pencil and slipped and suddenly, the playing stopped." Ms. Hightower explained, leaving Hiroshi in awe since he hadn't been able to pry this much information out of the other teachers.
"And you were so close too!" Hiroshi griped as he squeezed his pencil feeling both overwhelmed and frustrated," Didn't you at least open the door?"
"I did but no one was there." Ms. Hightower confessed under the belief that this last piece of information would disappoint Hiroshi though it did the exact opposite.
"Only ghosts would be able to do something like that!" Hiroshi exclaimed ecstatically," Thanks for your time today, I'm going to go get new batteries for my camera for tomorrow. I'll see you two tomorrow night."
"Why are you guys working with him?" Ms. Hightower asked once Hiroshi was out of earshot.
Gogo sighed and answered with," He's blackmailing us. But there's no way we're going with him tomorrow night to see if the ghost couple is real."
"Somehow, I feel like he will forget about us by the time he sees the ghost couple." Rumi stated sheepishly.
"In any case however, I think you two should tag along with him. Since it might not actually be a ghost, but something much worse..." Ms. Hightower advised," After all, from a logical standpoint, what else could it be?"
Double-blinking with a blank look on her face Gogo answered with," Just a recording?"
"No, an Endopath!" Ms. Hightower corrected.
"Oh, you mean that kind of logical standpoint." Gogo replied flatly," But, can an Endopath really take on the form of a person? Or even a couple?"
"We don't know yet, but it is a possibility." Ms. Hightower explained," But it might not even be that Endopath is taking the guise of the couple but rather something else in the room, such as the piano."
"So, do you really think there's a chance that there's an Endopath inside the music room?" Rumi probed nervously," But if that was the case, wouldn't you have been able to like...at least, sense it or something?"
Ms. Hightower seemed a bit unprepared to answer this question, though it was beginning to look like she wasn't ever going to prepared for questions from Rumi. But there really wasn't much point beating around the bush for this one.
"It's just that, it's kinda harder to distinguish the different types of sadness between an Endopath and regular humans here. My ability to detect an Endopath is kinda clouded because of this. In Euphorium, it was much easier." Ms. Hightower responded in dismisal," But, I'm curious to know...why were you two looking so nervous when you came in here with that kid?"
Gogo and Rumi exchanged expressions and then wore an unimpressed look that one could read as "Isn't it obvious?" towards Ms. Hightower.
"We thought that you may've been transformed as Lulu since no one was around and you did have the whole class room to yourself." Rumi explained with a forced chuckle with Ms. Hightower nodding thoughtfully in response.
"I see, that makes sense..." Ms. Hightower commented with Gogo and Rumi nodding in agreement," Not! How long do you guys think I've been keeping up with this alter ego thing? I wouldn't be as dim-witted as to let myself be seen by a random student or teacher."
"I guess we both kinda forgot that we known you as Ms. Hightower all this time to think even think that you wouldn't do something like that. But, you can't really blame us since during that night at Gogo's place you were switching between forms a lot while Gogo's brothers were just downstairs." Rumi reminded her promptly, leading Ms. Hightower to cross her arms as she said,
"Well, there weren't in truth that many people around compared to how many people are act the school and prolonged times of being in human form can get to me after awhile. Especially at the end of the week." Ms. Hightower explained," Plus, Gogo somehow strikes me as a very cautious, near secretive person so the idea that I could've been caught was the least of my worries that night."
Gogo gulped down and scrutinized her teacher, thinking to herself," She's not the only one at this school who thinks this."
"Anyways, we should all tag a long with Hiroshi tomorrow night to see if there really is a ghost couple, or an Endopath...or, anything else in between." Ms. Hightower affirmed, with Gogo and Rumi nodding hesitantly in agreement, forcing Ms. Hightower to say," Come on! Worst case scenario, it's just another Endopath. But, something tells me this might be nothing more than a prank pulled by some students. And if it does happen to be another Endopath, it's not a big deal! You guys know what you're dealing with, for the most part when it comes to facing them, unlike ghosts."
Gogo and Rumi pretended to be relaxed at the thought, but they were feeling much more distressed as Ms. Hightower tried to encourage them.
"That isn't very reassuring..." Gogo and Rumi thought to themselves.
The next night, the three of them had been reassembled in front of the school, with Lulu tagging along in Gogo's bag. Hiroshi brought his camera, a whole set of extra batteries and a back-up memory card for tonight, since he decided wouldn't let anything inconvenience him from getting a shot of the ghost couple.
Rumi and Gogo both seemed reasonably tired as they walked into the school, with flashlights in hand and the latter yawning loudly as she said, "This better not take all night, otherwise my parents are going to kill me." She then stretched out her arms and muttered to herself," I was lucky enough to have left the house without them knowing since they're working late again."
Gogo then looked at Rumi with a puzzled look on her face as she asked," So how were you able to leave your place at this hour on a school night?"
Rumi then answered with, "Oh, well, I was planning to tell my dad that I left a textbook at school but he went out to get something from the convenience store and I couldn't really wait for him so-"
"You snuck out?!" Gogo interjected, much louder than intended as Hiroshi spun around, looking quite annoyed and startled as he pointed his flashlight towards Gogo.
"Will you two be quiet? You'll scare away the ghosts!" Hiroshi reprimanded as he continued to walk.
Gogo seemed just as annoyed with him for blinding her temporarily with his flashlight while Rumi seemed a bit regretful in her actions as her gaze fell to the ground. So, to distract herself, she started looking around the school halls as they walked. The school indeed felt very different at night, with no one around to see the moonlight streaming through the windows. It felt enchanting really, and it made her wonder just how many high-school had ever gotten the chance to walk through the school at night. As they passed a classroom that was no longer in use, she wondered what decade the alleged ghost couple were from. Perhaps they were new to the whole ghost thing and didn't really grasp the supposed rules of the ghost world and powers. It would've been interesting to have met them while they were in the middle of trying to figure out how not to get caught.
"Must be novice ghosts." Rumi mused in a soft voice while Hiroshi and Gogo stared at Hiroshi's camera. It was heavy and the lens was huge but for some reason, Gogo felt as if something didn't add up as Hiroshi held the camera in his hands, looking more worried than excited as he fidgeted with the camera's lens.
"When you'd get the camera?" Gogo finally asked, startling Hiroshi slightly as he was too busy staring at the camera.
"It's actually my older brother's..." Hiroshi said sheepishly, his eyes widening as he realized what he just implied," It's not what you think though! He let me borrow it! But, he got it for his birthday last month from our parents, so if anything happens to it...it'll be on me."
Gogo nodded as she listened as asked out of nowhere," How long have you known Mari?"
Hiroshi wasn't even the slightest bit surprised at the question as he turned on the camera to check the battery percentage as he vacantly said," Longer than you'd think. We're cousins and we've been doing stuff like this years now. Except back then, it was only for fun. So every story made the cut and every shot was a good one. She's gotten strict though, ever since she became the president of the newspaper club. The guy who she wants to replace me with even said he would've felt guilty taking my position and said something about Mari being a changed person."
"Maybe being president got to her head." Gogo suggested with a shrug.
Hiroshi then began playing around with the macro function on the camera as he replied," Perhaps so."
All of a sudden, the group then heard the piano playing as they got closer to the music room, it appeared whoever was playing the piano had just started as just a few moments ago, it was dead silence in the halls. When the playing began and rang through the halls of the school, Gogo nearly shrieked, though Hiroshi pressed his hand over her mouth before she could.
"Now's our chance!" Hiroshi prompted as he ran to the side of the music room's door.
Though it was rather quiet with the piano playing, the sound of someone humming could definitely be heard when the three of them listened close enough. The humming sounded somewhat shaky. It sounded as if another person was there and they were chuckling away at the other person's humming.
"Aika, come on, I'm dying to hear you sing already." A masculine voice said as the piano stopped playing.
"It's the ghost couple!" Gogo and Hiroshi yell-whispered in fright while Rumi looked beyond towards the end of the hall. Something, or rather, someone caught her eye. Despite the fact that the figure was far and hidden in the shadows, Rumi could identify the figure from the camera and newspaper they held in their hands.
"Mari?" Rumi whispered, knowing that Mari of course wouldn't hear her.
"What are you waiting for? Just open the door already!" Gogo urged in a somewhat loud whisper as Hiroshi stared fearfully towards the door knob.
"I don't think I can do this anymore!" Hiroshi confessed with his eyes pressed shut.
Gogo seemed greatly enraged as she responded with," We didn't come all this way for nothing!"
That last part of her sentence appeared to be louder than intended and suddenly, the piano playing stopped again.
"You scared them away." Hiroshi declared bitterly with his brows furrowed as he glared at Gogo.
"It's not like you were going to open the door." Gogo reminded him as she stuck her tongue out at him while opening the door.
As Gogo and Hiroshi both walked in, Rumi stared into the doorway, not really seeing anything, but trying to figure out whether or not her ears were playing tricks on her as she double-blinked.
"Was I the only one who heard footsteps when the playing stopped?" Rumi asked, near inaudible to Gogo and Hiroshi as they started to inspect the room for any traces of the ghosts.
Outside of the music room, Mari could be seen tip-toeing towards the room as she held her camera tight.
"If Gogo didn't yell like that we would've had the shot by now." Hiroshi said flatly as he turned the flashlight of his phone towards the bottom of a table.
Gogo then smacked Hiroshi over the head with a rolled-up script as she said," As if! We would've still been out there because you're too scared to look for the ghosts."
Hiroshi seemed a bit irritated as he rubbed the back of his and glowered towards Gogo again as he said," Hey we've at least made this far didn't-?! Uh, Gogo what are you looking at?"
His flashlight had been directed to the corner of the room as he held it at his waist and it under the light appeared to be a pair of students huddling close beside each other. Nervously, Hiroshi directed the flashlight to where their faces should've been and as Gogo and Hiroshi saw their faces, they screamed in an instant.
"It's the ghost couple!" Gogo and Hiroshi clamored as the latter dropped the flashlight.
Rumi just shook her head in objection as she got a better look at the couple, who seemed pretty alive to her.
"Nope, they're just third-years." Rumi disclosed as she flashed her phone's light to them," Eiza and Murakami right?"
Hiroshi still seemed frightened though now it appeared to be for another reason as he marched up towards the couple as examined them to see if they actually were ghosts. Hiroshi pinched the boy's skin and he muttered 'Don't do that' and Hiroshi screamed again.
"Just what were you two thinking?" Hiroshi wailed as he gawked at the couple.
The boy, Eiza, then looked over to Murakami with a loving look in his eye as he said," Aika and I aren't going to be able to see each for much longer because she's switching schools at the end of the term, so we thought it would be nice to hang out hear by ourselves while we still had some time left."
"Didn't the thought of just going on a regular date ever occur to you, you nasty third-years!" Hiroshi spat viciously as he glared angrily towards the couple.
"Hey, Hiroshi relax! They didn't mean to cause any harm." Gogo said in the couple's defense.
"Yeah but, now...I don't have a shot to show Mari." Hiroshi declared somberly as he held the camera so tight in his hands that his knuckles turned white. Rumi and the couple seemed to feel sorry for Hiroshi, while Gogo crossed her arms and adverted her gaze from him.
"That's ok, you were meant for better things anyway..." A voice that sounded a lot like Nijoux's echoed in the room as Nijoux appeared hovering near to the ceiling of the class.
Rumi motioned the couple and Hiroshi to leave and while the couple was successful in escaping, Hiroshi had been cornered by Nijoux within an instant. Nijoux then slapped a black star onto Hiroshi's forehead and announced as she held a songbook in her free hand,
"Endopath, turn his cheer into absolute fear!"
The songbook was released from her grip and was morphed into a monstrous looking gigantic songbook, crying out," Endopath!"
"Don't you think it's a bit too late at night for this stuff?" Gogo attempted to reason with a yawn in between as she and Rumi held up their lockets high.
"Pretty Cure, turn that frown upside down!" Gogo and Rumi said in unison as yellow, white and pink lights flooded out from their lockets and around them.
"A warm ray of sunshine to brighten up your day, Cure Joy!" Joy introduced.
"A soothing sensation to bring you at peace, Cure Delight!" Delight introduced.
The Endopath stomped towards them and Gogo looked over to Delight briefly and said," Let's end this as quick as possible, ok?"
Delight nodded in affirmation and the two darted towards the Endopath in a matter of seconds. The Endopath tried it's hardest to land an attack on the Cures, and despite it's best efforts, it wasn't landing a single attack.
However, the Cures also weren't landing any attacks either as it seemed they were too busy dodging the Endopath's attacks to do anything. For the most part, the Endopath had tried as many approaches it could conceive off of the top of it's head and yet, the girls were a step ahead of it and dodged quickly. It was tiring the Endopath out mentally to try and figure out where the girls would go next and continued to throw punches in their direction.
Lulu was spectating the battle from inside the bag and the longer she watched, the more she felt like something wasn't quite right with the girls today. They had just enough time to deliver an attack to the Endopath, yet they hadn't even thrown a single punch at all. The fight was getting hard to watch as no party had been dealt with any damage as of yet and it seemed the Endopath was growing severely impatient with the Cures. As was Lulu.
"Just what are they plotting?" Lulu wondered aloud quietly as she narrowed her eyes on the Cures. Just then, Cure Joy jumped up high and held her hands out as if she was finally ready to attack.
Lulu was about to exhale a sigh of relief, but then she noticed what kinda of stance Joy was taking on and continued to eye her curiously,
"She's not actually going to use a magic-based attack already is she?" Lulu asked as she studied Joy, who was now holding her hands out in front of herself.
"Pretty Cure, Vivacious Spark!" She cried out.
The Endopath appeared to still be confused as to what was going on so Joy's attack was able to land. Once the attack made contact with the Endopath and Joy was on the ground again, she looked at the Endopath who had stumbled to it's feet for just a moment with a smug look on her face.
"What do they think they're doing, trying to avoid making any physical attacks?" Lulu whispered incredulously as she watched Delight follow suite.
"Pretty Cure, Effervescent Beam!" Delight cried out as she leapt up above the Endopath with her hands aimed towards it as a tri-beam of white, blue and pink lights emerged out from them. Nervously, Lulu glanced over to Nijoux's direction to see whether or not she had caught on to what the Cures were doing.
With a yawn and her eyes fixated on the two Cures Nijoux spoke up and said to the Endopath," This battle is going nowhere, so end it now."
Lulu directed her gaze back to the Cures as the Endopath stomped hard, so hard that the Cures lost their balance momentarily.
"You two gotta stop playing around and fight this thing head on!" Lulu called out from inside Rumi's bag, her hands, or paws, cupped around her mouth.
Delight turned her attention towards Joy, though by the time she did this Joy had already started charging towards the Endopath. Joy balled one of her hands into a fist and rested the other hand on top of it as she ran. She had to admit, the battle was taking longer than expected but that was only because the girls were experiencing some difficulties in using the same magic-based attack again. It was like they were recharging, but they hadn't done any kind of attack aside from using their powers.
"I thought it was safe to assume that if we didn't try and fight back physically, we would've been able to store away more energy for the magic-based attacks, but I guess that really isn't how it works." Joy thought to herself as she clenched her teeth," And now we've got no other choice but to do this old fashioned way."
But just before Joy was going to leap up to fight against the Endopath, the music notes in the Endopath's pages were flying out from the book and once they got close enough to Joy, they bursted and produced a loud, off-key sound that sounded like it came from a piano.
Joy cringed at the sound as she impulsively clasped her hands over her ears and shut her eyes tight for a few moments.
"That sound could make my ears bleed..." Joy lamented as she cautiously pulled her hands away from her ears. She shook her head and leapt up, deciding that now was her best time to attack and motioned Delight to follow her lead.
The fight picked up and the girls were now fighting as normal, though Lulu still seemed a tad skeptic after their display from earlier. The Cures delivered as many punches and kicks they could preform in the small window of time before the Endopath would blast of swarm of exploding notes towards them again.
"Try and stay as far away from the notes as possible, they're a whole lot louder when they're up in your face." Joy advised Delight as the two of them continued to attack, with Delight nodding in response before getting hit with a note. The note didn't yet explode when it came in contact with her and instead flung her to the other side of the room. Just before it exploded, Delight pressed her hands over her ears before the note exploded.
She turned her head away from the note with her eyes closed and after it exploded, she reopened her eyes and something near to the piano's leg caught her eye.
As Joy continued to fight, she made sure to keep her distance from as many notes as she could, but soon enough, that was too was becoming a challenge as the Endopath just continued to release more from the book. The abundance of the notes were overwhelming but at least it kept the Endopath somewhat occupied for her to attack. Joy tried sneaking up from behind the Endopath to land a kick in the center of it's back but suddenly, after realizing Joy was out of sight, the Endopath spun around and swatted her away with it's large hands and sent her flying towards a dresser in the corner of the room.
Joy winced as she felt the pain surge through her body but then, she saw Delight holding something and mouthing the word 'catch'. She couldn't exactly tell what it was with how dimly lit the room was but once she caught it, her eyes widened with surprise.
Delight sprang up from where she was crouching and was racing towards the Endopath at full speed. Just like Joy, she was faced with a hoard of notes appearing from the book and it appeared that any form of contact with them would inevitably cause them to burst. Before, this was quite the hindrance but Delight paid no heed to the noise now as pushed some of the notes of of her way and even leapt on quite a few of them.
"How is she able to handle all the sounds coming from the notes?" Nijoux questioned under her breath, before her eyes widened in realization," Don't tell me-!"
Joy then came rushing to Delight's side and smacked a wave of notes out of existence, appearing to be unfazed by their sounds as well.
"Earplugs, who would've thought there would be earplugs in the music room?" Joy asked, sounding more grateful rather than skeptic.
The Endopath seemed unaware of how the Cures were now able to obliterate the notes without being affected by the sounds and didn't notice the girls charging straight towards it. After one last wave of notes, it finally saw the pair emerging from behind them and they both punched it hard, knocking the Endopath to it's feet.
The punch had conveniently hit the black star on the top of the page and produced a crack in it, causing a dark wave of energy to disperse out of it.
"And here comes the fun part." Joy declared as she conjured up her scepter and pointed it in front of the Endopath.
"Pretty Cure, Brilliant Elation!" She yelled, causing the area around her to turn pale yellow. The Endopath was cleansed and it had turned back into a normal music book with another white charm placed on top of it.
Nijoux however seemed quite enraged as she stared at the Pretty Cures and said," Don't think this will be the last time you'll see me! Next time, you girls are going to be toast, ripped to shreds and nothing is going to stop me from ending you two!"
As she disappeared, Joy and Delight looked at the spot where Nijoux had been, wearing opposite expressions while doing so.
"Well someone's angry." Joy observed flatly as she took the white charm from off the music book.
"Good job today girls." Lulu appraised as she transformed into Ms. Hightower during mid-sentence, causing the two Cures to eye her in curiosity.
"Why the sudden transformation?" Delight asked as Ms. Hightower walked up to the two of them.
"No reason really, I just have one question." Ms. Hightower began as she now stood behind the two of them.
Suddenly, she pulled on both of their ears, surprising them greatly as she asked," Just why did two not put any effort into this fight until the second half of it?"
Joy pulled herself free from Ms. Hightower's grip, rubbing her ear tenderly as she sputtered out," It's because we thought our magic would've been enough to defeat it."
"So that's the reason as to why you two were hesitant to fight today?" Ms. Hightower asked briskly as she raised an eyebrow at Joy.
Joy dropped her gaze to her feet and weakly added," Not just that but...you see, well..."
Delight then lifted up her right arm to show the two of them the back of it, revealing that there had been a large gash that was quite hard to look at for both Joy and Ms. Hightower.
"We aren't experts at fighting, our bodies can't constantly keep up with all these attacks." Delight declared neutrally, with Joy nodding in return as they awaited to hear Ms. Hightower's input. Though it appeared she clearly wasn't expecting this. She took a deep breath and adverted her gaze from Delight's wound and looked at the Cures with a stern look in her eyes.
"So, now that you know your magic alone can't defeat them and you'll still have to fight these monsters head on, what do you believe should be your next move?" Ms. Hightower questioned.
Joy looked down to her hand that had been rather scraped today and answered," One part of me wants to just back out while I can but I know that if I were to do that, a scraped hand and a skinned knee would be the least of my worries soon enough. So... I guess we'll just have to train and get strong enough to not worry about getting beat up as badly as we've been getting."
"So you mean like, going to the gym and stuff?" Delight asked.
Joy nodded and responded," We can't let these bruises get to us anymore. If we keep on worrying over small stuff like this then I guess we wouldn't stand much of a chance against Castra or whoever is in charge of Melancholy. So, starting tomorrow, we're going to focussing on becoming as strong as we can!"