Cure Narrative 27: Recollecting and Understanding

Season: HPC, KKPCALM

Characters: Ibara T. Bibury (minor: Rio K. Ciel K. Yuri T.)

Summary: When one girl in black with green hair meets another girl in black with green hair...

It all started with a plain black skirt...

"Huh?"

"Oh?"

Seeing someone else reach for the same skirt as herself was a rare thing to happen, so the girls both looked up at each other.

"Bibury, who is it?" the voice of Ciel asked from behind the clothing rack, "Oh, Yuri-san."

"Ciel-chan. Rio-kun." Yuri saw them too, then she saw the same skirt her little sister had her hands on as Bibury, "You two have similar taste."

Rio, next to Ciel, asked Yuri, "Your little sister? The one?"

"Tsukikage Ibara, yes," Ibara herself replied.

"This is my friend, Bibury," Ciel put her hands on Bibury's shoulder.

"Why do you have to do my introduction for me?" Bibury pushed Ciel's hands off her.

Yuri couldn't help but giggle, when Ibara asked her why, she replied, "Oh, you two are going to get along just fine."

It wasn't extremely rare to run into fellow Precures, there were about 60 now, but I guess you can call these little happinesses, and they do treasure the chance. And so...

"'Tea time, even between the best of friends'," Ciel said while drinking tea, "That's why I'm happy that we can join you for tea today, Yuri-san."

"'Good manners, even between the best of friends'," Yuri corrected her.

"She does that on purpose, Yuri-san," Rio pulled a facepalm, "It's been like the fiftieth time."

"But it sounds so much better, and more meaningful too," Ciel pouted.

"Don't go changing old sayings like that!" Rio yelled.

Ciel laughed, and even Yuri giggled a little, so Rio had no choice but to calm down, "Sheesh... I'm assuming Ibara is nothing like my sister, isn't that right, Yuri-san?"

"Ibara..." Yuri stopped giggling, she shot a glance at the next table, where her sister and Bibury were sitting at, "Well, of course not but..."

Ciel blinked, "Yuri-san?"

"Sometimes... it's a bit hard to communicate with her. When I think about what she used to be, and how little I knew about her, what was the purpose of the heartless puppet of..." she sighed, "it's complicated."

"Ehh...? Is that so?" Ciel supported her head with her hands in the table, "I don't understand that kind of stuff either."

Rio pulled a facepalm again, "Yeah, isn't that right?"

"Speaking of which, Rio-kun," Yuri pointed out, "Why aren't you talking with them?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, you all used to be the bad guys," Ciel said.

"Oh," Rio looked at Bibury and Ibara, then frowned and rolled his eyes, "nah, I'll never fit in that conversation."

Meanwhile...

"So," Bibury said, "You were created by a brainwashed version of Cure Moonlight's father with her DNA... and that makes you sisters?"

"I guess," Ibara shrugged, "What about you? What's your story?"

Bibury heaved a long sigh, "I was abandoned by my family when I was very little. And that was when Noir-sama showed up. He said that he would love me, and he gave Iru to me so that I would always have a companion. I took his word for it and began serving under him."

"Then what made you leave Noir?"

"It wasn't love. He was just using me. It was foolish of me to believe in his words only to find out that he deceived me a century later. Guess it's because I was too young that I yearned for love so badly."

"No... I don't think it's the issue of age..." Ibara took a bite of her toast, "Love is something everyone yearns for, you know? Even... me..."

Bibury tilted her head to one side, "I thought you said that you didn't..."

"Have a heart? Nope, I really didn't. I don't actually know if I have one now. But it's just that uncanny. Even without a heart, I yearned for my father's love, I hoped to amuse him so that he would hug me and praise me." She paused.

"And?" Bibury expected her to continue.

"And I found out Moonlight was father's daughter by blood, and he created me with her DNA. And so I felt the need to destroy her, to replace her, so that father would love me as a daughter instead of her. You see, when her fairy died and she was almost defeated, father didn't let me ensure her death, and that enraged me, that made me think that she was more important to father than everything else, than leading the Desert Apostles, than me. That was why I used to sought for nothing but Moonlight's demise."

"And what's the difference now?"

"My loyalty lies in my family, that didn't change, but my family did change. Yuri treats me like a real sister, like I wasn't an artificial life; and mother... well, it took her some time and we had to reword parts of the truth to prevent her from breaking down, but she welcomed me with opened arms. I've come to learn that father isn't the only one who loves me, and I too, love this family that was given to someone as unfitting as I."

"I don't have a family," Bibury stated flatly.

"O-oh... I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay. I don't even remember my real family, so I'm already used to it now. It's strange to look back, isn't it? I thought of Noir-sama as more than a master in the past, I think I had wanted him to be somewhat of a paternal figure too, sorta like you and Professor Sabaku."

Ibara paused, at least she got satisfied, Bibury never did, and never would.

"So you just have to live without a family? Not even with a home to return to?" Ibara asked, unknowingly feeling sorry for Bibury.

"Oh I wouldn't say that," Bibury sounded far too nonchalant for these kinds of topic, "It depends on how you define those terms, really."

"Define?"

"Yeah..." Bibury crouched forward and lowered her voice, "I can tell you but you cannot tell anyone else, especially the Precures, these days human girls are all annoying gossipers. I'd hate it if what I say got to the KiraKira team's ears, then I'd have to hear Ciel and Ichika boasting about it for weeks!"

"Understandable," Ibara laughed briefly.

"So, you see..." Bibury sat back down, "I wouldn't say I don't have a family and a home as of now, just different ones."

Ibara gave an "Ah" sound, seemingly grasping what Bibury wanted to say.

Bibury nodded, "Yes, family is people who love us even with our past mistakes, they are here in the present, and will be in the future. I don't need blood relations for that, my biological parents were no family. I don't need Noir-sama for that either, I don't need to explain why. I have a family now, a real one. And that's where my home is, where I belong and where I will never be alone."

Bibury looked at the other table, her countenance softened into a smile.

Ibara followed the direction of her eyes, "Ciel-chan and Rio-kun are you family?"

"Maybe?" Bibury averted her gaze to give Ibara a playful look.

End of Chapter 27

A/N: Don't ask me why I wrote this, one day my brain just be like "Oh yeah, Dark Precure wears a black dress and has greenish hair, just like Bibury! Let's put them in a chapter!" That's why this fic is not good.