CHAPTER 3 - A New Opponent, Bishyu, Appears!


Deep in thought, Jenny spoke up, 'OK, I think I get it. There's a guy called Myedo who's bad and, for whatever reason, Ara – er, Nobuko and I have woken as these warriors called Precure who have to stop him, right?'

'That's exactly right-pan!' Panchon happily replied.

Crossing her arms and returning to her thoughts for a few moments, Jenny continued, 'And Nobuko, she saved me when that woman apparently turned me into some sort of creature. Wonder if that has anything to do with me becoming Cure Papillon?'

'I think it did,' Nobuko answered. 'You awoke after learning that I'd saved you and wanted to pay back what you thought you owed me.' Getting up from her bed, she started unbuttoning her top.

'W-w-what are you doing?!' Jenny nervously shouted, covering her eyes in embarrassment.

'What? We're both girls, aren't we?'

'Y-y-yeah I guess,' she stammered. 'It's just…' her voice trailed off.

'I get it, I get it,' Nobuko laughed, buttoning her top back up. 'I'll just change later.' Pausing for a moment, she continued, 'Hey, Panchon, Pynchon, shouldn't we contact the elder and tell him there's a second Precure now.'

'Yes-pan!' Panchon exclaimed.

'Would you do the honors, Ms. Arakawa-pyn?' Pynchon asked.

'Right,' she answered before holding her arm up across her chest and shouting, 'The two worlds connect and let us communicate!' The bright yellow light emitted from Nobuko's Cure Bracelet and quickly flashed away, leaving only the image of the elder, wherever he might be, in its place.

The elder looked around in surprise, 'What? What's goin-' before stopping as he realized what was happening. 'Ah, Panchon, Pynchon, and Nobuko, right? What are you contacting me for?'

'Elder,' Pynchon began. 'We have to tell you something-pyn.'

'Tell me? Well, out with it, don't keep me waiting here! Don't have all day, you know.'

'Well-'

'Another Precure-pan!' Panchon interrupted. 'We found another Precure-pan!'

'Ah, I see,' the elder replied, almost unaware of the importance of the news, but his eyes suddenly perked up and he continued, 'Wait, did you say "another Precure"?'

Jenny nervously raised her hand up and spoke, 'H-hi?' She had an unsure tone to her voice, still not fully comprehending what was going on in front of her.

Turning to look at her, the elder smiled, 'So, I take it you're the new Precure these two found, right?' He bowed towards her, 'Mind telling me your name, young lady?'

'Y-young lady?' Jenny stammered for a second before composing herself. 'My name's Jenny Mizuhara, er…' She scratched the back of her neck in confusion. 'Er, what should I call you, exactly?'

The elder let out a chortle, 'Please, just call me elder, it's the tradition here in our world.' He sat down and sighed, 'Now, did any of you have anything else you wanted to tell me?'

'Actually, I did elder,' Nobuko spoke up. 'It's actually about how Jenny here became a Precure.' Raising his eyebrow in interest, the elder gestured for her to keep talking. 'You see, I awoke as Cure Hope after she was turned into some sort of creature, and she became Cure Papillon after learning that I was the one who saved her. Do you think there's any relation between this?'

The elder rubbed his chin and closed his eyes and thought to himself, 'Perhaps.' Frowning slightly, he continued, 'I just don't know. I wish I knew more, I really do, but considering what happened,' his voice quietly trailed off

Everyone went quiet and the room became so silent, you could hear a pin drop onto its hardwood floors.

'Er,' Jenny quietly began, seemingly not wanting to break the silence. 'But what happened? Sorry, bit out of the loop here, you understand.'

'Our world was attacked by Myedo-pan,' Panchon quietly answered.

'O-oh, I'm sorry. I just, I didn't know.'

'It's okay-pyn,' Pynchon reassured her. 'We didn't know until recently, either-pyn.'

Nobuko sighed, 'Well, unless anyone else here wants to ask the elder anything, we should probably let him go now.' She looked over at Jenny, Panchon, and Pynchon, none of them indicated that they had anything else to say. 'OK, well, goodbye elder,' she waved to the image of the elder.

'Bye-pan!'

'Goodbye-pyn.'

'Bye, nice to have met you, I suppose.'

'Farewell, Panchon and Pynchon! And to you two young ladies, I wish you goodbye as well and trust you can work together as the legendary warriors, Precure!' The elder's image dissipated from Nobuko's Cure Bracelet as quickly as it appeared to them only a few minutes prior.

'Hey, guys, I was just thinking,' Jenny began.

'What?'

'Well,' she continued. 'It's about Panchon and Pynchon. Since we're both Precure, shouldn't one of them stay with me and the other stay with you?' Nobuko nodded and Jenny looked over at the two of them, who were sitting on Nobuko's bed. 'Alright then, you two, who do you want to stay with?'

'Nobuko-pan! I want to stay with Nobuko-pan!'

'Well, I suppose I'll have to go with Ms. Mizuhara then-pyn.' sighed Pynchon.

Jenny chuckled, 'Well, since that's settled, guess I should head home then. Come on, Pynchon.' She carefully picked him off the bed and placed him in her schoolbag. 'I'll give you some snacks at home.'

'Alright, see you at school tomorrow!'

'Yeah, you too, Nobuko!' waved Jenny as she got up from the chair she was sitting in and headed out of Nobuko's bedroom, but as she walked past the dresser, her eyes caught glance of the photo on top of it and stopped her in her tracks. 'Hey, this picture you got here. Who're these girls in it?'

'Hmm?' Nobuko glanced up before realizing what she was talking about. 'O-oh, that pic. It's a photo of, well, it's a photo of my older sister and I.'

'A sister? Didn't know you had a sister.'

'I haven't seen her in years,' she explained sadly. 'Natsuko disappeared suddenly when I was nine years old…' She sighed.

'O-oh, oh my god.'

'Don't worry about it, how would you have known?'

'Y-yeah, it's just, I'm sorry, I'll be going now. Goodbye.'

'Bye,' Nobuko nonchalantly waved towards her friend as she closed the bedroom door behind her.


'Another Precure?!' an enraged Ge shouted. 'How can there be a second Precure?!'

'How am I supposed to know how?!' argued Alacrania. 'All I know is it was the same girl that I turned into one of my puppets.'

Ge grabbed hold of Alacrania and yanked her directly in front of her and stared intensely into her eyes, 'Well, you're going to have to be the one to explain to Master Myedo about the Precure this time, understand?' She let loose of the grip she had on her and shoved her away in frustration.

'Tsk,' muttered Alacrania as she brushed off where Ge had held her. 'Try being a bit less grabby next time, you almost chipped my armor.'

Ge exhaled in disbelief and rolled her eyes, 'Whatever, come on.' She turned round and headed back towards the shadows, with Alacrania following behind her. Before they were completely in the darkness, she yelled out, 'Oh, Bishyu! Looks like you're going to have to be the one to go out this time, I don't think Master Myedo is going to want Alacrania going out for a while!' She cast an annoyed look towards Alacrania, who only scowled back at her.

'Oh, very well! This time I suppose I'll bless this world with my beauty!' Bishyu called back.

Waiting until they heard the sound of Bishyu leaving their lair, Ge and Alacrania continued to venture into the dark and shadowy depths of it. Before long, they found themselves in front of a large stone archway, with only the faintest flickering of light visible on the other side of it.

'Ladies first,' teased Ge as she gestured for Alacrania to go in ahead of her.

Alacrania angrily walked in first, remarking out loud, 'We're both women, don't try to be funny here.' Ge followed in after her.

The room the two of them were in was massive compared to the archway that served as its entrance and, had they not acutely been aware of it, they would likely be utterly dumbfounded by its size in comparison. It was entirely made of stones and felt more as if it were transplanted from a cave system than a proper room, several torches hanging from the walls managed to cast just enough light for them to see. Most notably, the floor of the room abruptly ended halfway across the room and beyond it, there was nothing but a seemingly never-ending black void.

'O Dark Spirits!' shouted Ge. 'Allow us to contact Master Myedo!'

A quiet and ominous rumbling began, accompanied by brief, but intense, flashes of a bright white light. Both the rumbling and flashes increased in intensity until a nearly earthshaking rumble and blinding flash occurred nearly simultaneously, the intensity of the light caused both Ge and Alacrania to cover their eyes. Uncovering their eyes, they both looked towards the void as the giant image of Master Myedo appeared to materialize from within it. His cream white robes covered nearly his entire body, with the only part of his true appearance that was visible was part of his wrinkled and grey face, but even that was mostly obscured by shadows.

'Master Myedo!' the two cried out as they knelt in deference to their master.

'You may arise,' Myedo spoke in a calm, but deep voice. 'Why have you contacted me again?'

'I think Alacrania here as something to tell you, Master,' remarked Ge.

'Er, well, Master Myedo,' she began, tapping her fingers together. 'You know how there's that Precure out there called Cure Hope?'

'I am well aware of their existence.'

'The thing is,' she continued. 'There's a second of them now.'

'WHAT?!' Myedo screamed, his voice filled with an immense rage. 'A SECOND PRECURE?!'

'Er, yes. She calls herself Cure Papillon.'

'This may prove difficult, but,' Myedo paused.

'But what, Master Myedo?'

'You will defeat these Precure for me.'

'Of course, Master Myedo! I wouldn't dream of anything else!'

'Very well, I believe that were finished here. Alacrania, do not forget your obligations to me and Ge, do not forget that I chose you to be in charge of operations on this world.'

'Understood, Master Myedo,' said the two of them as the image of their master faded away.

Alacrania scoffed. 'I don't know why Master Myedo put you in charge here.'

'What was that?'

'You heard me, I don't understand it. You and that mask you always wear, I've never seen your real eyes. Has Master Myedo even seen your full face, I wonder.'

Ge shook her head in disbelief and started to leave the room. 'Don't waste time wondering such nonsense,' she commented as she passed through the archway.

Left standing alone, Alacrania hurried out of the room herself.


'And here's your food,' the server smiled as he placed the plate with a piece of vanilla cake in front of Jenny. 'I hope you three ladies enjoy your snacks.'

Piercing her cake with her fork, she took a bite of it and began talking, 'It doesn't seem right Sawada, I just moved here, I should be paying for this stuff, you know.'

'Don't worry, don't worry!' Keiko smiled. 'My family owns this café, they don't really care if my friends eat free here.'

Jenny was unsure, 'Sorry, I just think that I should still pay, even if it's OK with your parents. Just this once, if anything else.'

'Oh come on, don't say it like that! You don't have to pay, so just don't worry about it!'

'But I want to pay.' Jenny put her fork down.

'And I'm just say-' began Keiko.

'Keiko, that's enough,' interrupted Nobuko. 'If Jenny wants to pay, just let her. It's none of your business, really.'

'Thank you,' Jenny said as she resumed eating her cake. 'Hey, Sawada, how much is this piece of cake I got anyway?'

'Huh? How much?' She thought for a minute and muttered to herself. 'Well, I think it's 650 yen by itself, but you also got a cup of hot chocolate, so that's about 380 yen too and the whipped topping is another 80 yen. So that should be, gimme a sec here, should be a bit over 1100 yen.'

Without a word, Jenny had taken her wallet out of her pocket and checked inside. Closing it and putting it back, she simply clasped her hands together and sighed. 'Well, forget I said anything at all.'

'Don't have enough money, do you?' Keiko teased. 'Come on, if you wanna pay, I'll spot you for whatever you need.'

'Only have a 1000 yen note with me.'

Sliding a 500 yen coin across the table, Keiko flashed a V-sign at Jenny. 'You can keep the change, Mizuhara. My treat.'

'I'd have thought me not paying at all was your treat,' she replied as she took the last bite of her cake. Wiping any crumbs off her face, she stood up from her chair. 'Well, I guess I'll go tell them I want to pay for my cake and drink.' She made her way away from their table and to the front counter of the café.

'Honestly, Keiko,' Nobuko spoke up, gesturing her fork in her friend's direction. 'Jenny's new here, you shouldn't just start treating her like she's been here for years.'

Keiko sighed and stretched her arms, leaning back in her chair as she did so, 'Oh come on, Nobuko. Just wanna make her feel welcome and be her friend, that's all.'

'I get that, but she-'

'Ah, and here she's returned to grace us with her presence!'

'What are you even talking about?'

Keiko laughed and waved her hand dismissively, 'Ah, it's nothing, nothing.' She got up from her chair and stretched, 'Come on and let's go!'

'Er, go where?'

'Anywhere! Still need to be shown around Eien City, don't you, Mizuhara?' She spun around, 'So just grab your drinks, you two, and come on!' Without even giving them a chance to say anything, she'd dashed out of the café, nearly knocking over one of the servers in the process.

Making sure to grab their drinks, Nobuko and Jenny simply looked at each other, shook their heads, and sighed, before heading after Keiko.


Materializing in a dark alleyway, Bishyu dismissively observed his surroundings and groaned, 'Disgusting and dirty, just like everything else in this world.' He chuckled to himself as he ran his fingers through his hair, 'But now that I'm here, it at least has some beauty now.'

Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out several crystals, all of which glowed in varying shades of red. Tossing them in front of them, he shouted, 'O Dark Spirits! Create some obedient servants for me!' The crystals vibrated slightly before suddenly expanding in size and shape, becoming humanoid in their forms. The crystalline humanoids instinctively bowed on their knees at the sight of Bishyu.

'Ah, my beautiful servants,' he chuckled, clasping his fingers together. 'Go out and begin transforming this world for Master Myedo!' He pointed towards the exit of the alleyway. Without a word, Bishyu's servants stood up and marched out of the alley. 'Excellent, now for me to find a better place to observe their handiwork.'


'Keiko, slow down!' huffed Nobuko as she and Jenny chased after their friend, who was nearly ten meters away from the two of them.

Turning round and jogging in place, she called back to them 'Aww, come on, you guys are just too slow.' After they had both caught up with her, she laughed and placed her arms around both of them, 'I just wanna show Mizuhara some of the cool things we got here!'

'It's not like we'll run out of time,' said Jenny, squirming away from Keiko's grip. She took out her smartphone and checked the time on it 'It's not even two yet.'

'I know, I know,' she moaned. 'But tomorrow's Monday, so it'll be like another few days before we can spend all day around town.'

'And you want to spend all day out so you don't have to think about your schoolwork, don't you, Keiko?'

'N-no! It's nothing like that, I just-'

'I'm kidding, I'm kidding.' She smiled at her. 'So, where'd you wanna show Jenny first?'

'Eien Arcade!' Keiko excitedly said as she spun around on one foot and headed off once more. 'Don't be slowpokes this time, you two!'

As the three girls made their way through the streets, with Nobuko and Jenny trying their hardest to keep up with Keiko and her fast pace, Jenny suddenly spoke, 'H-hey, what does this Eien Arcade place even have?'

Without even a single beat, Keiko began replying, 'Oh it's great, Mizuhara, it's this huge arcade center, like you'd think from the name. Got tons of fun games to play: racing games, fighting games, dancing games, and more. My fave are the fighting games, I'm pretty good at them. Came second place in the citywide tournament last year, won a 5000 yen gift certificate for the shopping district, you know? But what I really love are the crane games, I've won lots of cool things in them, got a bunch of plushes from them at home, probably around thirty or so? It's a lot, so anyways another fun thing at the arcade is…' she continued on and on seemingly without pause.

Jenny cast a glance over at Nobuko and made an expression of utter confusion as to what was going on.

Well aware of what Keiko was like, having been friends with her for years after all, Nobuko simply shrugged and said, 'Keiko loves her video games and the arcade more than anything else.'

Keiko had stopped at the sidewalk corner, and turned around, smiling brightly. 'OK, Mizuhara, we're almost at the arcade! Just a bit down this next street and we can all have some fun for probably hours.'

'Er, actually about the arcade,' Jenny spoke. 'Kinda don't have a lo-'

'Money, money, I know, I know,' Keiko cheerfully interrupted her. She held up her purse and shook it, the sound of numerous coins could be heard moving around inside it. 'I got plenty of money for all of us.'

'W-what is that thing?!' a voice suddenly cried out.

'Help!' shouted another voice.

The three of them quickly headed around the corner to see what was going on. What they saw was shocking – the street was effectively in shambles, buildings had their fronts smashed and in ruins, and people were screaming, panicking, and running in every way possible.

'This has to be their work, right?' Nobuko whispered to Jenny, who nodded in the affirmative. 'Keiko!' she said determinedly 'Go and help get these people to safety!'

'Eh!?' Keiko was taken aback by shock, 'A-alright, but what about you guys?'

'Jenny and I are gonna head on down the street, see if anyone needs any help there.'

'Y-yeah, understood!'

'Let's hurry!' shouted Nobuko as she and Jenny began running down the street. Making sure that Keiko was out of earshot, she continued, 'Hey, do you think it's that Alacrania woman again?'

Before she could reply, they found themselves in the center of all this chaos. The entire area looked like a bomb had gone off, with rubble everywhere. There were no people, but it wasn't long before they noticed the humanoid figures that seemed as if they were busy arranging the rubble for some purpose.

'Ah, observing my servants, are you?' a mysterious voice spoke from behind them. 'I'm surprised you're not running away like everyone else.'

Turning around, there stood a tall and slender man. His face was narrow with piercing blue eyes, his hair long and silver. He had on a black leather jacket with an extremely long coat-tail that nearly touched the ground, underneath that was a crimson red top. Matching the color of his top was a pair of flared trousers, accented with golden gemstones around the hem, and on his feet was a pair of cream-colored boots.

'W-who are you?' Jenny nervously asked as she and Nobuko took a cautious step back.

'Who am I? I am Bishyu, loyal subject of Master Myedo!'

'M-myedo!'

'You need to transform-pan!' Panchon cried out from inside Nobuko's bag.

'Yeah, hurry up you two-pyn!'

Carefully tossing their bags with Panchon and Pynchon in them to the side, they both looked towards Bishyu and shouted, 'Precure! Power up!' The bright pink light from Nobuko's Cure Bracelet engulfed her, as did the green light from Jenny's. In a flash, they were both transformed into Precure.

'The protector of optimism across all worlds, Cure Hope!'

'The protector of change across all worlds, Cure Papillon!'

'An eternal force of justice, we are Forever Strong Precure!' the two of them exclaimed simultaneously, the words seeming to enter both of their minds together.

'Precure!' snarled Bishyu. 'So you're the ones causing all the trouble for us?' Raising his arm in the air, he called out 'Servants!' In a near-instant, all of the humanoid figures stopped what they were doing and surrounded the three of them.

Now that they could see them closer, they realized that they all appeared to be made of some sort of crystal. 'How could you do this?' asked Hope. 'Turn all these people into these, these things?'

Bishyu began laughing uproariously, tossing his head back as he did so, 'You think these were people, do you? The things that live on this world are far too ugly for me to even consider turning into anything.' He looked over Hope and Papillon, 'Although I suppose you Precure aren't too bad looking.' Waving his hand dismissively, he sighed, 'It's no matter though. Servants, destroy these two girls for me!' In a flash, he disappeared from their sight.

Without a word, Bishyu's servants dashed towards Hope and Papillon, their fists prepared to throw a punch at the Precure. Reacting quickly, they both leapt into the air and away from the creatures, several of whom ended up smashing their fists into each other.

'Hah, that's what you get!' Papillon shouted as she carefully landed on her feet. 'Now take this!' she ran towards one of the creatures and punched it hard, the force of which sent it flying back and into the rubble of a destroyed building.

'Good job, Papillon!' Hope congratulated her friend as she threw another of the creatures over her head, it shattering into pieces as it was slammed onto the hard-concrete ground. 'This should be a piece of cake at this rate!'

'That's what you think!' shouted Bishyu, who appeared once more. 'Servants! Merge into one behemoth!' All of Bishyu's servants stopped moving and shrank back into their crystal forms, with the shattered one at Hope's feet reforming, before coalescing together and transforming into a massive crystalline quadrupedal beast.

The beast reared onto its hind legs and slammed its forelegs onto the ground, the ground shook violently, with Hope and Papillon only barely managing to stay on their feet.

'Be careful-pan!'

Briefly flashing the OK-sign at Panchon and Pynchon, Hope and Papillon looked at each other, then at the beast, and back at each other. Not even needing to say a single word, they both simply nodded at each other before splitting into two different directions. The beast looked both ways, trying to decide which of them to attack first.

'Now!' yelled Hope as she leapt into the air, clenched her hand into a fist, pulled her arm back, and swung it towards the beast.

'OK!' replied Papillon as she dove into a sliding kick towards the beast's legs.

Hope's punch and Papillon's kick both made contact with the beast simultaneously, with the force of both attacks combined resulting in it being knocked onto its side, with several fractures becoming visible in its crystalline body. It slowly began to pick itself up, as the fractures began fading away.

'Hope, Papillon-pyn! Either of you, finish that thing off quick-pyn!' yelled Pynchon.

'Got it!'

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Hope raised her fists above her head and called out, 'The power of the goddess, come to me!' Her Cure Bracelet opened and shot out the pink light, which engulfed her hands in the same pink aura as before. 'Hope Beam!' she screamed as she fired the ray of energy from her fists at the beast.

The beast struggled for a second before more fractures becoming visible, with them growing in size and number at a rapid rate. And before it likely realized what was happening, it shattered into numerous crystal fragments.

'Precure!' yelled Bishyu, clenching his fists in frustration and grinding his teeth together. 'You may have won this time, but your luck will soon run out!' He disappeared from their sights with a flash. Following his disappearance, all the damage caused by Bishyu and his servants was undone, with the entire area looking as if nothing had ever happened.

Turning back into their normal selves, Nobuko and Jenny patted each other on the back for a job well-done and tried catching their breath.

'B-bishyu…' Nobuko panted. 'Looks like there's more enemies for us to keep track of, huh?'

'Yeah, and there's also that Ge person, whoever they might be.'

'Hey, look,' she pointed at where the beast had shattered only a few minutes ago. Glistening on the ground were still several pieces of the crystals that had formed its body 'Think we should take that and see what the hell it is?' Taking a few pieces of the crystals each, they carefully put them in their bags, being mindful of Panchon and Pynchon, both of whom had reentered their partner's respective bags after all this had ended.

'Hmm, I wonder if the elder knows anything about these crystals-pyn,' wondered Pynchon as he held a piece of crystal in his paws.

'He has to know-pan! Nobuko-pan! Let's call the elder-pan!'

'Eh?!' exclaimed Nobuko, shocked. 'W-well we can't exactly do this right now, you know. There's bound to be people coming back here soo-'

'Hey! Nobuko! Mizuhara!' the all too familiar voice of Keiko interrupted. 'You guys alright?'

'Y-yeah!' Nobuko called back, waving at her friend, who was jogging up towards them. 'We're totally fine here!'

Having caught up with the two of them, Keiko paused to catch her breath, resting her hands on both of their shoulders so she wouldn't fall over. 'Man,' she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. 'What even was that? Everything seemed to go back to normal like magic or something.'

Jenny shrugged nonchalantly, 'We don't know either, Sawada. Nothing seemed really out of place here. Isn't that right, Nobuko?' She chuckled nervously, trying to make sure it didn't seem like she was lying.

'Oh, yeah, there was nothing strange going on, nothing at all.' She scratched her cheek with her finger. 'Yup, nothing.'

'Hmm,' thought Keiko, as she intently looked at Nobuko and Jenny, who were both trying their hardest to keep a straight face. 'Well, if you guys say there wasn't anything weird, then I guess there was nothing weird.' She happily skipped away before turning back towards them, continuing to skip backwards, before stopping, 'Hey, you two! Don't dawdle, let's get to the arcade before everyone comes back!' She gestured her thumb behind her, 'It's just a bit this way, come on!' She turned back around and continue making her way down the street, before stopping in front of one of the buildings, waving and yelling something, but at this point, she was too far away for either of them to hear.

'Sawada's not very observant, is she?'

'Known her since kindergarten, she's always been like this,' Nobuko laughed. 'Ah, but I love her, and our friendship, just as it is.'

Smiling and giggling together, they made their way towards Keiko and the arcade, hoping that they'd all have a fun and relaxing time playing games together for most of the afternoon.