A/N: Written for a request from Precure amino. For anyone interested, yes, I have opened writing requests on tumblr (and amino), you can check out the details on the tumblr blog "curekibouka-writing"!

Cure Narrative 64: Remaining Promises

Season: Hugtto

Character: Cure Tomorrow

Summary: She was the only one left to fulfil them, and so she will.

A million things could've kept her awake for tonight, but this alone made her afraid of even closing her eyes.

She feared that if she did, she would see them again. She would see colours, she would see hope, she would see a future—

"Run, Cure Tomorrow! Even if it's just you!"

Their voices in her ears. And suddenly she would see black, and despair, and every little thing that could've been if only she had made just one different decision, just one correct decision.

They had always been vaguely aware that they were warriors, wielding swords and carrying the weight of many on their shoulders. But it rarely hit them as hard as when they had stacked their hands together, swearing that they would protect everyone and everything despite the world crumbling around them.

The warmth of being sandwiched between their hands remained on hers faintly. Their smiles began to appear in the blackness behind her eyelids, smiles full of certainty, as if knowing they would never lose.

But they did.

Her eyes shot open.

They all did.

She hugged her knees a little tighter, she was freezing cold.

But she remembered her friend in blue, the one who would always remind her to be levelheaded, even in the worst of circumstances.

She took a deep breath, and it was as if she had swallowed ice.

But she remembered her friend in red, the one who would always surprise-hug her from the back, and she would feel the fire in her friend's heart pressed against her nape.

She looked ahead. There was nothing but the bars that caged her in the darkness that her eyes were starting to adjust to.

But she remembered her friend in yellow, the one who would always… always, always, always assert that everything was fine. And those words were as beautiful as the soft light from the moon at night, before the sun rises to shine upon the world, announcing the beginning of tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

She was the Precure who leads everyone, the Precure of hope, Cure Tomorrow.

She blinked and she saw them around her. They held her hands and stroked her hair and huddled close to her.

They said, "You promised."

Promised to watch the sunrise together when time flows again.

Promised to picnic beneath cherry blossom trees when spring arrives again.

Promised to eat lunch together even if they are not in the same class when a new semester starts again.

Promised to run with the wind in her hair and live the fullest life she could possibly live and make everything okay for them.

She closed her eyes.

She would do all those things still, even if she could not restore the past, she must create a future. She was the only one who could, and she would create one so bright that even they can see, no matter where they are.

They hugged her tight, weighing on her shoulders, and she was as cold as ever.

"Precures never give up."

She promised.

End of Chapter 64