CHAPTER 2 - The Second Precure is the Precure of Change!


'You know, I still can't believe it,' Keiko observed. 'I can't believe that the two of you would start becoming friends after what happened on your first day, Mizuhara.'

Jenny chuckled nervously and replied, 'W-well, you know how it is. Guess I was just being rude, you know?'

'Yeah!' Nobuko interjected, putting her hand on Jenny's shoulder. 'Plus, it turns out that Mizuhara and I basically live next door, so might as well become friends, right?'

'I see, I see,' Keiko commented, crossing her arms across her chest. 'Soon the entire school will fear us – The Terrible Trio!'

'Terrible...' Jenny slowly began.

'...Trio?' Nobuko finished for her, before the two girls burst into laughter.

Offended, she looked up at the two of them and asked, exasperatedly, 'What? What's wrong with The Terrible Trio?'

'Keiko,' Nobuko began. 'You're the only terrible one here, not us.' She sighed as Keiko took a moment to process the fact that she had just been insulted. 'Anyways, Mizuhara, I'll see you at my house, yeah?'

'Yeah, we'll be over soon.'

'Alright, see you,' Nobuko waved goodbye to the two of them as she picked her bag off the ground, slung it over her shoulder, and headed home.

'Huh, Nobuko's house? What's that all about, Mizuhara?'

'My family's going to her house because they invited us over yesterday to welcome us to the neighborhood. I should be going now. Farewell, Sawada.' She limply waved her hand in farewell at Keiko as she began walking in the same direction as Nobuko.

'I'm home!' Nobuko called out as she pushed open the front door. 'Mizuhara says she'll be here pretty soon!'

'Ah, Nobuko,' her mother responded from somewhere in the house. 'I'm in the kitchen, come in here and take a look at what I'm making for our new neighbors.'

Tossing her bag onto the living room table, she walked into the kitchen to see her mother washing something in the sink. Heading over to the stove, where something – it seemed – was cooking away in a pot, she carefully lifted off the lid to try and take a brief peek at whatever her mother was making. Unfortunately for her, all that was in the pot was water. 'Uh, mom,' she began, putting the lid back on the pot. 'There's nothing in here.'

'Of course not, silly!' her mother laughed. 'The water isn't boiling yet, is it?'

'No.'

'Exactly!' she smiled, as she turned, revealing that she had been washing a potato. 'Can't exactly make my famous beef and potato spaghetti unless it's boiling.' She casually tossed the potato from one hand to another. 'Be a dear for me and get the potato peeler, won't you?'

Nodding in affirmation, Nobuko opened the drawer that they all called the 'miscellaneous kitchen stuff drawer' and looked around for the potato peeler. As she searched, she thought to herself, 'Famous beef and potato spaghetti? I want Mizuhara and her family to like us, not hate us. Whatever, it's mom's "specialty", I suppose. Having finally found the peeler, she handed to her mother.

'OK, mom, need me for anything else?'

'No, I don't think so, I'll be down here so when the neighbors come, I'll call for you and dad.'

Without a word, Nobuko left the kitchen, grabbed her bag from the living room table, and made her way upstairs and to her room. Before getting to her room, however, she stopped at a closed door and quietly knocked twice.

'Come in, Nobuko,' a voice from inside the room answered.

Opening the door, she stepped slowly inside – the room was nothing out of the ordinary, just an office-type that many houses had, with her dad sitting at his desk, typing his work out on the computer. Still, she always felt nervous about going in here, since she had never been let inside as a child. 'Hey, dad, the neighbors,'

'Will be here today,' he finished for her. 'I already know, I already know.' He gestured his thumb at the computer screen. 'Just finishing up some work here. I'll be helping your mom out with dinner when I'm done, gonna make some salad to go with whatever she's making.'

'She's making her famous beef and potato spaghetti,' Nobuko quietly remarked.

'Oh,' her father responded. After a few seconds of silence, he began laughing, 'Well, I think my salad will at least counterbalance that!'

'Yeah, it better!' she laughed back. 'Well, just wanted to make sure you knew. I'll be in my room if you need me!'

Finally in her room, she mindlessly tossed her bag onto the bed, and started to unbutton her top, getting ready to change into her casual clothes. Before she could unbutton more than the first two buttons, she suddenly remembered something important she had almost forgotten in her bag – Panchon and Pynchon.

'I'm super sorry!' she apologized to the two of them as they crawled out of her bag and onto her bed. 'Really hope you weren't hurt when I tossed my bag around.'

'Honestly, Ms. Arakawa-pyn,' Pynchon began, putting his arms on his hips. 'And you shouldn't forget your mission either, you know-pyn.'

'Y-yeah,' she replied as she plopped down onto the bed with them. It hadn't even been two days since it had happened – that strange scorpion-like woman calling herself Alacrania turning Jenny into some sort of creature and Nobuko herself transforming into one of the legendary warriors named Cure Hope to fight it – but she still couldn't believe that it wasn't some bizarre dream. It clearly hadn't been, Panchon and Pynchon were there on her bed, and her Cure Bracelet was still on her right arm. She thought back to that fight and remembered something else – she had called for the power of the goddess, but who was this goddess, she wondered to herself.

'Nobuko-pan!'

Finding herself suddenly jerked away from her thoughts, she answered, 'Yeah, Panchon?'

'I'm hungry-pan!'

'Really? What about the snacks I bought for you at the convenience store?'

'I can't open them-pan.' Panchon said bluntly. 'Look, my paws are small-pan!' She thrust her arms out towards Nobuko and showed her small paws at the end of them. 'Small-pan!' she exclaimed.

Nobuko giggled as she gently pinched one of Panchon's paws. 'Yeah, they are pretty small.' Grabbing her bag, she rummaged around inside it before finding the snacks she had bought for them underneath one of her notebooks. Taking them out – they were actually just little bags of cat and dog treats – she tore them open and handed Panchon the now opened bag of cat treats. 'Here you go, Panchon.' Looking towards Pynchon, who was now sitting on one of her pillows, she offered him the dog treats. 'Want these?'

'Yes, please-pyn.'

'Bon appetit,' she joked as she gave him the dog treats. Sighing, she fell backwards onto the bed with a thud. 'Now, could you please tell me more about all this Precure stuff, Pynchon?'

'Alright, alright-pyn,' Pynchon began, tossing a dog treat into his mouth. 'Being a Precure means...'

'Means?'

'Being a legendary warrior-pyn!'

Taken completely aback by this matter of fact statement, it took Nobuko more than a few seconds for her to come up with a respond. 'Pynchon! I already know that! I wanna know more about being a Precure!'

He let out an exasperated sigh before continuing, 'Unfortunately, that's all I know-pyn. The elder didn't explain much when he sent Panchon and I to this world-pyn.'

'Well, what about the elder?' she asked. 'Can't we contact him and get more info?'

'Ah!' Panchon exclaimed. 'Remember what the elder said about the Cure Bracelets-pan?'

Pynchon looked over at her in confusion for a moment before realizing what she was talking about. 'That's it, Panchon-pyn!' he snapped his fingers in excitement before looking at Nobuko. 'Ms. Arakawa-pyn! The elder told us that the Cure Bracelet can be used to talk to him-pyn!'

Nobuko looked at her Cure Bracelet nervously. 'OK, what do I do?'

He thought long and hard before finally admitting, 'I don't know-pyn.'

'Hey!' she snapped at him, getting right into face. 'Don't tell me to do something and then tell me you don't know what I need to do!' She gently poked his cheek with her finger. 'So, I guess we can't talk to this elder, then?' She sighed and glanced at the clock on the wall, 3:26 PM it read. 'I wanted to at least understand something about all this before Mizuhara got here.'

'Um, I know what to do-pan,' Panchon quietly spoke up. 'Nobuko, you have to hold you arm up-pan.'

'Like this?' she questioned, holding her arm with the Cure Bracelet in front of her chest.

'Yes-pan!' she affirmed. 'Now say "The two worlds connect and let us communicate"-pan!'

'The two worlds connect and let us communicate-pan!' she shouted.

'Nobuko-pan,' Panchon giggled. 'You don't have to say "pan"-pan.'

'Ah, sorry!' But before she could continue, a yellow light began to emit from the Cure Bracelet, it quickly grew in luminosity before suddenly flashing before Nobuko's eyes and fading away as soon as it appeared. The locket on the Cure Bracelet had opened once more and an image of a creature that looked similar to Panchon and Pynchon appeared from the opened locket, looking similar to a hologram from a science-fiction movie.

'Huh?' the creature began as it looked around in confusion. 'What in the wor-' it stopped when it noticed Nobuko. It fell backwards in fright and yelped out 'Ah! W-who are you!? How did you contact me!? If this is another subscription offer, I'm not interested!'

Before she could even come up with a response to that, Panchon and Pynchon happily climbed onto Nobuko's lap.

'Elder-pan!' Panchon happily shouted.

'It's us-pyn!' added Pynchon.

'Panchon, Pychon!' the elder said, smiling. 'It's been so long, how have you two been? Have you found a Precure yet?'

'Hello?' Nobuko interrupted, raising her other hand in a confused greeting. The elder looked back at her before coming to the realization of how she was able to contact him.

'Oh, so you're a Precure!' he observed. 'I'm so sorry, young lady, I should have realized.'

'Don't worry, don't worry,' she reassured him. 'Anyways, mind telling us more about this Precure stuff anyways? Those two don't know much and I certainly don't either.'

'We don't-pan!'

'You didn't exactly tell us much, elder-pyn.'

The elder sat down, or rather appeared to have sat down, but being an image coming from the Cure Bracelet, he looked like he was now floating in the air to the three of them in Nobuko's room. 'You're right, you're right,' he began. 'Panchon, Pychon, and uh-'

'Nobuko'

'Yes, thank you. Now then, the Precure are warriors that have been protecting the universe since long before I came about. Unfortunately, I don't know where they came from, the source of their powers, or even really what makes them awaken but what I do know is this: they are the only thing standing in the way of Myedo's plan to have all worlds and people from falling under his control.'

'Hmm, I see,' Nobuko concurred. 'What about this Myedo person, can you tell me about him?'

'Myedo wants to take over all worlds.'

'Yes, you just said that.'

'Alright, and, from what I know from the previous elder, he has his underlings who do his dirty work for him. Panchon and Pynchon, you probably told Nobuko here that they conquer worlds for him, right?'

'Yes-pyn.'

'Well,' he continued, crossing his arms and sighing. 'It's more than that. They don't just take over some place and Myedo now rules it, they turn all the people living there into obedient servants of Myedo as well, so there won't be any resistance to his rule.'

'T-that's terrible-pan!' cried Panchon, tears beginning to swell in her eyes.

'It is,' the elder affirmed, slowly looking towards the floor as if he dreaded what he had to say next. 'And I'm sad to say, they tried attacking us as well.'

'W-WHAT-PYN!?' screamed Pynchon in disbelief.

'It's true,' he replied regretfully. 'We were able to stop them by sending most of our world to another dimension, where Myedo's underlings can't reach us. But -' He suddenly stopped speaking.

'B-but what-pan?' cried Panchon.

'We couldn't save everyone. Some had already been turned, others decided to stay to try and fight. The previous elder was one of them. I hadn't completed my training under him yet.'

'So that's why,' Nobuko slowly began. 'You don't know much about this Precure stuff.' A knock on the door interrupted them. 'Y-yes?' she called out before whispering to the three of them, 'Be quiet, please!'

'Nobuko,' her father said from the other side. 'The Mizuharas are here. Come downstairs, your mother needs you for something, too.'

'B-be right there!' she called back. Staying quiet and listening as her father's footsteps thudded down the hallway and down the stairs, she looked at the elder. 'Hey, elder, sir. Sorry, but personal things have called.'

'I understand, I understand,' he nodded. 'Panchon and Pynchon, I hope it won't be long before you contact me again. And Nobuko, it was nice to meet you, and I hope you can save us all from Myedo.' He bowed to them and the image from the Cure Bracelet faded away and the locket closed itself.

Pulling herself out of bed, Nobuko looked at herself in the mirror and frowned slightly. 'Well, I wanted to change my clothes,' she observed, putting her hands on her hips in disappointed. 'Suppose I don't have time for that now.' Looking at Panchon and Pynchon, both of whom had resumed eating their snacks, she gestured her finger towards them both. 'Hey, you two, don't go messing around while I'm downstairs.'

'I won't-pan!' Panchon beamed as she raised her arm.

'I wouldn't dream of it, Ms. Arakawa-pyn,' Pynchon added, half-jokingly, tossing another dog treat into his mouth.

'OK then, I'll be back soon, I hope,' she waved goodbye to the two of them as she exited her room and headed downstairs.

Once downstairs and in the living room, she encountered father sitting on the couch, chatting with a woman she didn't recognize. 'Mizuhara's mother,' she thought to herself.

'Ah, you must be Nobuko,' the woman greeted her kindly. 'I'm Jenny's mother, she's told me a bit about you. Quite lucky to live next door to someone going to the same school as her, isn't she?' She laughed.

'Y-yeah,' she nervously chuckled, rubbing the back of her head with her hand. 'Where is Mizuhara, anyways?'

'She's in the kitchen with your mother and Takashi.' she replied.

'Takashi?'

'Her little brother.'

'Ah, right,' she nodded, remembering that Jenny had mentioned him when she introduced herself to the rest of the class. 'Well, I'll go see what mom wanted, then.' Entering the kitchen, her mother was still busy preparing while Jenny and a young boy, Jenny's brother, watched. 'Hey, mom, you said you needed me?'

Her mother turned around to look at her, 'Yes, Nobuko. There's a slight problem with tonight's dinner.'

'Which is?'

'Well, you're not going to believe this,' she began laughing. 'But I wanted to have ice cream for dessert, but we're out of it!'

Sighing and shaking her head in disbelief, Nobuko knew just what to say next, 'And you want me to get some, right?'

Handing her daughter a ¥1000 banknote, she nervously smiled, 'Be a dear and get some at the convenience store, please?'

Folding the note and putting it in her skirt pocket, she sighed, 'Don't have a choice do I?' She nodded at Jenny, 'Hey, Mizuhara? Wanna come with me?'

'S-sure,' she nodded back before looking at her little brother. 'Wanna come too, Takashi?'

'Nah,' he said, completely bluntly. 'Rather stay here and watch TV.'

Shrugging her shoulders, she simply remarked, 'Brothers. They can't be helped, can they?'

'Wouldn't know, haven't been cursed with one like you have, Mizuhara.' The two girls chuckled together. 'I'll meet you outside, I'm gonna grab something from my room real quick.'

'OK, Arakawa.'

Not even a few minutes later, the two of them were now standing outside of Nobuko's house as she called into the house, 'We're off now, we'll try to be back sooner rather than later.' After hearing her mother, father, and Jenny's mother wishing them well, Nobuko shut the door, took her house keys from her pocket, and locked it. While turned around, she carefully opened what she had got from her room – her purse, which she put the ¥1000 note in, and looked inside it. Panchon and Pynchon both resting in it, with Panchon using the note like a blanket. 'Remember to be quiet, OK?' she whispered to the both of them. 'Mizuhara's here too.'

'Got it-pan,' Panchon whispered back.

'Understood, Ms. Arakawa-pyn,' confirmed Pynchon.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she closed her purse up and began to make her way from the front steps of her house to the sidewalk. 'Come on, Mizuhara, convenience store's this way.' She pointed towards the left, away from the direction they'd need to go if they wanted to go to Jenny's house and school. Flashing a thumbs up in understanding at her, the two of them began their journey to the local convenience store to buy the ice cream for that evening's dinner between their two families.

The door slowly creaked upon, letting the light from outside enter the dimly lit room. As someone quietly stepped inside and began to shut the door, they were startled by a voice coming from somewhere else in the room.

'Who's there?' the voice demanded.

'Relax, Ge, it's only me,' Alacrania assured the voice.

'Alacrania,' Ge responded, stepping out of the shadows. She slyly smiled at her companion. 'It's been a few days since you've been here, Bishyu and I were starting to wonder if something had happened to you.' She looked behind her for a moment. 'Or at least, I was, Bishyu is the same as he's always been.'

As if on cue, Bishyu stepped out of the shadows next to Ge. Waving at Alacrania he spoke, his voice having a rather haughty and full of himself tone, 'Welcome back, Alacrania. I hope you don't mind us having you do our work. I can't leave this place, the people here won't respect my beauty.' Chuckling, he tossed a few strands of his long, silver hair out of his face.

'I'm sure they wont,' Alacrania muttered under her breath before facing Ge. 'Ge, there's something you need to know. Something I encountered while I was out there.'

'What?'

'There was a girl, she turned into a Precure.'

'What?!' Ge screamed, stomping her boot onto the ground in frustration and disbelief. 'The Precure still exist?!'

'It seems so,' she shrugged. 'She called herself Cure Hope, it that means anything to you.'

'No, it doesn't,' she looked over at Bishyu and thought for a moment before continuing. 'Bishyu, I need you do to something for me.'

Sighing over-dramatically, he moaned, 'Oh, do I have to leave this place? I really don't want to – I don't know why Master Myedo had to send someone of my beauty to such an ugly and backwards world.' He continued to moan and groan as Ge simply rolled her eyes in frustration at him.

'Never mind then,' she angrily muttered. 'Alacrania, I need you to go and find the Precure for me.'

'And you?'

'I'll be reporting this to Master Myedo.' She briskly turned and started to head back into the shadows before tilting her head back, 'Oh, and don't take too long to defeat them, OK?'

'Pretty lucky that the ice cream was half-off today, Mizuhara?' Nobuko smiled as the two them of them stepped out from the automatic doors of the convenience store. She held up the bag with a tub of vanilla ice cream the two of them had decided to buy.

'Y-yeah!' Jenny beamed. 'Let's hurry back to your place before it melts though!'

The two girls made their way down the sidewalk, which was surprisingly devoid of people for the late afternoon. As they walked, their footsteps almost in sync with each other, they continued to chat casually with each other. Their conversation soon hit the topic of their dreams.

'Hey, Arakawa,' Jenny began, nervously. 'Have you ever had a recurring dream?'

'Yeah, why?'

'Well, it's just, I've had the same dream for the past few days, and I'd really like to tell someone about it.'

'OK, what's this dream then?'

'It's hard to describe,' she began, trying to remember it. 'It feels like I'm in danger and not myself during it. But eventually someone comes and saves me during it, and I feel a sense of relief like I'm back to normal.' She scratched her head, 'Like I said, it's really weird because I know I've had this dream a few times, but it's hard for me to remember the details, you know?'

'Just how dreams are.'

'There is one more thing I remember,' she continued. 'The person who saved me – they called themselves Cure Hope.'

Hearing that name, Nobuko ceased walking and began panicking to herself, 'C-cure Hope?' she wondered. 'Does she know that's me? No, she can't – can she? I mean, she was already turned when I transfo-'

'Arakawa?' Jenny asked, waving her hands in front of her friend's face. 'Are you OK?'

'Huh?' she gasped. 'Y-yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine. Cure Hope, eh?'

Jenny began to chortle, 'Yeah, it's kind of a dumb sounding name, isn't it? Sounds like something from a magical girl anime!'

'It's not a dumb name! I ch-' she snapped, before realizing she was about to reveal her identity to Jenny. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself down before continuing. 'I mean, I don't think it sounds dumb, I think it's a pretty cute name myself.'

'Yeah, I mean, not my fault my brain comes up with those kind of names, is it?'

'It was my brain that came up with Cure Hope,' Nobuko thought to herself before suddenly remembering the ice cream she was carrying. 'The ice cream!' she exclaimed, reaching into the bag and feeling the tub with her fingers. 'It's still pretty cold, we should be good. Let's go!' She quickly ran down the sidewalk, with Jenny following close behind.

As they prepared to turn the corner, Nobuko felt a familiar presence behind her, as she prepared to stop and carefully see if her suspicions were correct, an all-too familiar voice spoke up.

'I finally found you!' the voice, which Nobuko immediately identified as belonging to Alacrania shouted. The two of them slowly turned around. 'Oh, and the young lady you saved is with you! How cute.'

'A-arakawa,' Jenny shuddered, taking a step back. 'W-who's that and why does she know you?'

Moving her hand through her dirty-blonde hair, she smirked at the two of them mockingly, 'I'd have thought you'd remember me, Alacrania, but I suppose not.' She looked around, 'It'd normally be a waste of my powers to re-' she stopped, noticing a dog sleeping on the sidewalk across the street from them. 'Never mind then,' she chuckled. Conjuring an identical dark sphere as before, she shouted 'O Dark Spirits! Turn this dog into a puppet for me!' as she launched the sphere at the sleeping dog.

The dog yelped in pain as the sphere burst and the clouds engulfed it. They rapidly grew in size before disappearing – in their place was another creature, similar to the one that Jenny had been turned into, only this one was on all fours and had a canid appearance to it. The creature let out a thunderous and deafening roar.

'W-what is that thing?!' Jenny screamed in terror at the creature. 'Arakawa!' She grabbed a hold of Nobuko's arm and shook it vigorously. 'Answer me!'

'Take these,' Nobuko bluntly replied, handing Jenny her purse and the bag with the ice cream in it. 'Hurry and hide.' She turned and looked at her with determination, 'Now!'

'B-but what abou-?' Jenny began, nervously holding the purse and bag.

'I'll be fine, just go!'

Swallowing her fear, she hurried off behind the corner. 'Please be OK,' she whispered to herself as she curled up and carefully peaked around the corner, the curiosity of wanting to see whatever Nobuko was going to do being too hard for her to resist.

Clenching her fists in anger, Nobuko looked intently at both the creature and Alacrania. 'Precure! Power up!' she shouted at the top of her voice. Her Cure Bracelet opened and engulfed her in its bright pink light, instantly transforming her into her Precure form. 'The protector of optimism across all worlds, Cure Hope!'

'C-cure Hope!' Jenny exclaimed in shock. 'Y-you're Cure Hope? That wasn't a dream!?'

'Mizuhara,' Hope replied, turning towards her. 'I'd wanted you to not find out – for both our sakes.'

'Oh, isn't this lovely,' Alacrania mocked. 'The rescuee and the rescuer meet again! Enjoy this reunion while you still can.' Turning her head towards the creature, 'Puppet! Destroy Cure Hope!' she commanded before leaping away.

The creature roared and began to slowly lumber towards Hope. Running as fast as she could, she leapt into the air and swung her fist at the creature, launching a wave of energy at it. The creature stumbled back as the energy wave struck it. Continuing to swing her fists, Hope launched wave after wave of energy at the creature, hoping to move it away from the neighborhood. Unfortunately for her, the creature soon realized what she was doing and, as she prepared to send another attack, it opened its mouth and emitted a shockwave, knocking Hope out of the air and sending her smashing onto the cold, hard ground.

'Arakawa!' Jenny screamed in horror as she saw Hope lying motionless on the ground. As Hope slowly picked herself up, she called out to her, 'P-please be careful!' Hope looked over at her, smiling, and flashed her a peace sign.

'She protected you, you know-pyn.' Pynchon suddenly spoke up.

Surprised by the unfamiliar voice, Jenny hurriedly looked around in a panic. 'W-who said that?' she worriedly asked.

'In here-pan!' yelled Panchon. Realizing that the voices were coming from Nobuko's purse, which was still clenched in her hands, she slowly opened it up and carefully took a look inside, fearful of whatever it was that was speaking to her.

'Hello! I am Panchon-pan!' Panchon excitedly greeted her. Taken by complete surprise at the talking cat and dog in the purse, Jenny let out an ear-piercing scream as she dropped the purse and fell onto the ground in shock.

'A-a- t-t-talking cat,' she stammered. She looked all around at her surroundings in confusion before giggling to herself, 'That's it. I'm just dreaming, that's it. T-this is just a crazy dream.'

'I'm afraid this is no dream-pyn,' Pynchon calmly told her. 'This is very real-pyn.'

'W-what? There's no way, it can't be!'

'It is-pyn.'

'B-but you said that Arakawa protected me! And that strange woman said that same thing too!' She looked over at Hope, who was still engaged in combat with the strange dog-like creature. 'Please just tell me what's going on!'

'Look, we don't have time to tell you everything-pyn,' he began. 'But, that woman turned you into a creature just like she did to that dog-pyn. And Hope, er, Ms. Arakawa, after she saw what happened to you, her desire to save you caused her to awaken as a Precure-pyn.'

'A Precure?'

'The legendary warriors-pan!' Panchon happily explained. 'We've got to find them to protect everyone-pan!'

'I think I understand now,' Jenny slowly replied, picking herself up off the ground. 'Arakawa, she wanted to protect me and she did. She saved my life.' Slowly clenching her fingers into a fist, she continued speaking, 'You two, whatever your names are, do you know what this means?'

'No-pan!'

'It means I have to pay her back!' she yelled. 'Arakawa, no, Cure Hope saved my life and now I have to help her too!' A bright light, nigh identical to that which had appeared in front of Nobuko, appeared in front of her. After it faded away, in its place was another bracelet, again nigh identical to Nobuko's, only this one was dark green with a light green trim instead of pink. 'W-what is this!?' she excitedly stammered.

'It's a Cure Bracelet-pan!' Panchon shouted with joy.

'You've awoken as a Precure-pyn!' Pynchon said, triumphantly. 'If you want to help Hope, put the bracelet on and shout "Precure! Power up!"-pyn!'

Nodding in understanding, Jenny grabbed the Cure Bracelet and attached it to her arm. Doing exactly what Pynchon had told her, she shouted, 'Precure! Power up!' with all the determination she was able to muster. As soon as she finished shouting those words, her Cure Bracelet opened itself and engulfed her entire body with a bright green light. Her shoulder-length brown hair changed in color to dark green and grew in length until it was long enough to form two large buns on the sides of her head, with two strands of hair framing her face. Silver butterfly-shaped earrings appeared on her ears. Her clothes were replaced with a dark green dress which, at first glance, looked nigh identical to Hope's dress, but there were several differences between the two of them: Jenny's new dress lacked sleeves like Hope's, her bow was light green, and, instead of a white layer peeking from underneath the skirt portion of the dress, were light green bike shorts. Light green knee-length high heeled boots with dark green laces appeared on her feet.

Her transformation complete, Jenny shouted the words which instinctively came to her, 'The protector of change across all worlds, Cure Papillon!'

'A second Precure!?' yelled Alacrania, having taken notice at what had happened to Jenny. 'Ge won't be happy about this!'

'Ge?' Papillon wondered to herself before shouting to Hope, 'Cure Hope!' Hope barely even had time to react before Papillon had rushed by her side. Looking directly into her light pink eyes, she grabbed hold of Hope's hand and squeezed it tightly, 'I'm gonna pay you back for saving my life!'

But before Hope could even say anything in response, Papillon had grabbed a hold of one of the creature's legs, lifted it above her own head, and slammed it into the ground, resulting in a large hole where it struck.

'P-papillon,' Hope said, too astonished to say any other words.

'You'd been fighting this thing,' Papillon explained, dodging a counterattack from the creature with ease. 'It was already weakened by the time I attacked it. Now, come on, let's finish this thing!

'OK!' Hope shouted back at her. The two Cures sped towards the creature, leapt high into the air, and performed a double-attack against it, with Hope using a punch and Papillon a flying kick, with both attacks performed at once, the energy emitted from them combined in strength and collided with the creature, which yelped in pain and confusion.

'Papillon-pan!' Panchon yelled. 'Hurry and finish it off-pan!'

'Right!' she affirmed, leaping into the air. 'The power of the goddess, come to me!' Her Cure Bracelet opened and shot out a beam of green light, the light struck her right hand, resulting in a light green aura glow around it. Preparing herself, she clenched her fist tight, wound back, and swung it forward, shouting 'Papillon Swarm!' as she did so. As those words left her mouth, numerous butterflies, all in various shades of green, shot out from her hand and towards the creature. The butterflies all landed on the creature, completely covering it, with not a single centimeter left bare, before they simultaneously exploded in an immense array of green, with each butterfly's color having corresponded to the color of their explosion.

As the butterflies exploded, the creature let out one last agonizing roar before everything vanished – the creature and the explosions – leaving only the dog, which looked at both Hope and Papillon with curiosity before running off.

'Precure, you won't be able to defeat me forever!' Alacrania shouted as she disappeared in a flash.

The two girls detransformed and ran towards each other, embracing each other in a tight hug once they did.

'Mizuhara!' cried Nobuko. 'You're a Precure too!'

'Y-yeah, I am!'

'This is great-pan!' cheered Panchon, as she held Pynchon's paws and the two of them happily danced together.

'There are two Precure now-pyn!'

In the midst of all the excitement, Nobuko remembered what they were originally supposed to be doing before all this happened, 'The ice cream!' she rushed over to the bag and felt it. 'We're good!' she called to Jenny. 'Still feels plenty cold!'

Giving her friend a thumbs up, Jenny called back, 'OK! Now let's hurry home before your parents, and my mom, get worried!'

'We're home!' Nobuko called as she and Jenny entered her house.

'Ah, Nobuko,' her mother called back. 'What took you two so long?'

'Uh, it was really busy at the store, they were having a big sale, so uh, yeah. Pretty busy, you know?' She cast a look over at Jenny and the two girls giggled to themselves at their little white lie.

'Oh, well, once you two put the ice cream away, come into the dining room, your father and I are almost done bringing out dinner, we only have to bring out your plates now.'

'Wait,' Nobuko said quietly to Jenny. 'Mom was still making dinner when we left, wasn't she?'

'Yeah, she was.'

'Then how long were we gone for?'

Jenny shrugged, 'I don't know, I didn't check my phone or anything.'

'It couldn't have been past 4:00,' Nobuko commented, taking her phone out of her skirt pocket. Unlocking it, she gasped at the time displayed on it: 4:55 PM. Putting her phone away, she chuckled and joked, 'Heh, guess the place was busier than we thought.' Jenny smirked at Nobuko as the two of them entered the kitchen, almost bumping into Nobuko's mother, who was just heading out, carrying two plates of her beef and potato spaghetti.

'Whoa, careful there, you two!' she teased them. 'Almost made me drop your plates!' She smiled warmly at the two of them before continuing into the dining room.

'You know, I just thought of something,' Nobuko began as she opened the freezer and looked around for an empty spot to put the tub of ice cream in.

'What?'

'Well, since we're both Precure now,' she continued, having finally found a place for the ice cream. 'How about we call each other by our given names? I mean, if you want, I don't wanna seem like I'm forcing this or anything.'

'N-no, you're not!' Jenny exclaimed. 'I'd be fine with this, N-nobuko.'

Closing the freezer behind her, Nobuko beamed brightly at her friend, 'Alright then, Jenny! Let's go and enjoy my mother's cooking!' An obvious sarcastic tone was audible when she said 'enjoy.' Grabbing hold of her hand, Nobuko dragged Jenny out of the kitchen and into the dining room, where the rest of their families had already begun eating.

Finding their plates placed next to each other, the two of them sat themselves at the table and prepared themselves for an enjoyable dinner together with their families.