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Dissonance
Event II
Battle
Tsubomi had walked for what felt like days and found nothing. No sign of her friends. No sign of an enemy. No sign of life. There were only hallways before and behind her. Rooms above and below her.
Loneliness crept into her heart. At first she had called for them, called for her friends. Erika. Itsuki. Yuri. Both none of them had responded. Her throat dry, her voice exhausted, Tsubomi became silent.
Each step echoed thorough the hallways, reaching her from behind. How often had she passed this hallway? How often had she looked into that room? Never? A hundred times? But there was never anything. Door after door. Hallway after hallway. Room after room.
"Everyone..." Her voice was faint, a whisper. Not even her echo responded to her anymore. Tsubomi had known despair and fear before. The fear of being weak. Of losing her friends. Of not living up to expectations. She had beaten those fears in the past.
To fight her own insecurities, Dark Blossom. To fight Dune. To survive and safe the planet. But now was different. Her life had changed. Working part-time for Erika, Tsubomi studied botany. They had grown up. They had not fought together as Cures for a long time. She didn't want to be thrown into another fight. Tsubomi had just turned eighteen. She cut her hair a little, to about two-thirds of what it had been when she was young, and wore it down. It just got in the way too much otherwise. Wearing a plain skirt and t-shirt, she had been at home, studying.
Her feet hurt and so did her legs. To walk the cold, hard stone ground for so long was something she wasn't used to. Looking at her device, she couldn't even transform without Chypre.
She was thirsty and hungry. It had not been the best choice to call out to the others for so long. And it looked like she kept walking in circles. Every hallway looked the same. Every room seemed to be identical. Every stairway seemed to be absolutely identical.
Walking further and further, she didn't even remember what the area she had first landed in looked like. She had nothing to mark the walls, nothing except her nails, which were not well suited for such tasks.
"Why am I alone here? It's not fair..." Tsubomi stopped. It was unlike her to just whine. She suffered from a bit of stress, studying and helping out Erika, but she never complained or let it affect her mood. "I guess I really am terrible at dealing with being alone..." Erika had told her that once when Itsuki had gone away for two weeks and Erika went with her sister and Yuri on a tour. Left behind alone, Erika had come back earlier than expected, only to find Tsubomi moping in her room.
Tsubomi had a tendency to become depressed when she was alone. It was not that she relied on people. It was the opposite. She loved to help others, to be there for them and support them. When there was nobody around her, she started to feel useless. The longer she was alone, the more depressed she became.
The same was true for most people, but Tsubomi was much more susceptible to it than others.
Sitting down on the lowest step of a stairway, Tsubomi rested her tired legs and feet. They were sore from walking without shoes. She started to space out. How long would she be stuck there? Erika would notice she was missing in a few hours. Would she and the others come and rescue her?
It seemed so unlikely. Even if they came, how would they find her? Maybe they already were somewhere in the labyrinth of hallways, searching for her. What if they never found her? How long would she survive in a situation like- Tsubomi slapped her cheeks. "I'm not fourteen anymore..."
The sound of something hitting the bare stone ground caught her attention. Tsubomi thought she hallucinated it at first. But, in the hallway she had just come from, there was a small book.
=== Dissonance ===
"Which of us will go first?" White looked at the others. There would be no volunteers. She knew that much. Nobody was thrilled or willing to fight their own teammates and friends. They all belonged to the same side. But that was exactly what the book had warned them about. If they just sat around and did nothing, the situation would finally escalate completely.
The first fight was four of them versus four from the other side. "This is so wrong. I don't know what to say..." Peach was looking at the ground, depressed over the situation. What if Passion was in that battle? She couldn't find the woman she loved.
"I hate to think about it this way but, if we do nothing, everything we ever fought for will be gone." Aqua tried to be rational, but it was hard to think that way when the task at hand was such a gruesome one.
A fight of Cures versus Cures. Each of them representing a side of the never-ending clash of Light and Darkness. It didn't even matter which side someone was on. To fight for Light and against Darkness or vice versa. Both meant fighting friends.
"I'll go. I don't want to fight them either, but doing nothing would be even worse. What about all the people on Earth? And not just people... I can't even imagine what a world without night, without shadows, with everyone being the same would be like. A world like that scares me more than fighting my friends." Marine was the first one to volunteer. Chances were high that one of the three others would be in the battle. It was a one in four chance.
"I think the same way. The others are in the same situation as we are. They don't want to fight either. But it's as Marine said. Doing nothing... is just like giving up." Rouge stepped forward and stood next to Marine, much to the surprise of her teammates.
"I asked for volunteers so I will be going." White had fought even her own partner once before and knew the pain of fighting her friends. She could bear it.
"That makes four." Black would never let White go alone. They belonged together, no matter what happened.
"Are you four really sure about this? Your opponents are Cures too! How can you fight them?! This is just wrong!" Dream was shouting, seemingly about to cry. It was already difficult enough for her to stomach the discord in her own team. And now they were supposed to fight other Cures on top of that? It was more internal strife than she could handle.
"So you would prefer the world as we know it to perish?" White rarely raised her voice, but she had to talk some sense into Dream. "People wouldn't be able to sleep and rest. The same goes for animals. Plants would dry out. The entire world would see a drought. Didn't you face a lot of hardship fighting? And after all that you would just give up now?" White stepped closer to Dream, grabbed her arm and looked right into her face, their faces close enough that they could feel each others breath. "Don't you tell me that nonsense. This won't end with anyone dead. Sure, we might get hurt, but isn't that better than everyone else in the world getting hurt?" White finished her speech and let go of Dream, walking away, toward the northern end of the hallway.
Black, Marine and Rouge followed, impressed by her determination. As soon as they were out of hearing range, they started talking about it. "That was some amazing speech. I could really feel your determination." Marine was not easily impressed by others but White left quite the impression on her.
"We're all thinking the same thing she is. Some of us know that it's not a solution to do nothing. You three know that too or you wouldn't have volunteered for this. She will have to come to terms with this. I don't like it either. Not one bit. But what choice do we really have? Let the world go to ruin? That's not a choice." White turned around the corner and stopped in front of a large door that was different from the others. As the book told them, they were in the western side of a place called Libra. A huge battle ground created just for them.
The door in front of them led to the center of the castle. The actual grounds for their battles. The entire space Rouge and Marine had explored with the help of Lemonade had been part of the 'safe' space which could not be entered by the Exile and the other team.
The door could only be opened in two cases. When it was time to do battle and when one of each team would meet in the middle to negotiate the type of battle. Anyone could negotiate and once decided, the terms could not be changed. Who fought and who did not was decided among the team. It could be decided an entire day ahead of time or just a minute before the battle.
The door opened and White stepped through, followed by Black, then Rouge, then Marine.
=== Dissonance ===
"Why? Why you two? Ah this is going to be bad! So bad!" Marine was ruffling her hair in panic at the mere sight of two specific people.
They had stepped through the door and followed a long hallway into a room that could easily have fit ten houses. Multiple stairs to each side, balconies, doors and hallways on multiple levels. The main room was at least a hundred meters long and wide.
In the middle was something like a barrier. A wall that was translucent but not quite invisible. An energy barrier that would be lowered when the fight began. White took position behind Black. The book had mentioned that only fighting seriously was of any use. That they should treat their enemies as such. Fight to knock them out. Fight with their full power.
Rouge and Marine formed the other combo, paired up front to back. Black and Rouge were close combat fighters, White specialized in special attacks and Marine, well. Nobody quite knew what type of fighter Marine was. Except the two on the other side of the barrier.
Cure Bright, Cure Windy, Cure Sunshine and Cure Moonlight. Neither of the four cures on the west knew much about Bright and Windy but Marine was a member of the team to which Sunshine and Moonlight belonged.
"You know what we know Marine. Otherwise you wouldn't be here." Moonlight was not friendly but not sarcastic either. "We both feel the same about this." Instead of a two front two back formation the east team had a three front and one further back formation. Moonlight was versatile, which would be a problem, Marine knew that.
And the fight began. Black rushed straight for Bright, trying to land a punch on her. Bright took Black's punch straight on, endured it, took her arm, flipped around, over and smashed her into the ground. Black rolled away, smoothly evading the follow-up ground-smashing punch of Bright.
White and Windy were facing each other off from a distance. They could feel the threat they both posed to the opposing team, even without knowing what kind of fighter the other one was. In just a single blink they both vanished to the balconies, each trying to get the advantage on the other.
Rouge attacked Sunshine, was grabbed by the arm and thrown away, smashing into a wall. Rouge quickly figured out that there was no way she was going to simply overpower someone that had studied martial arts. With a grin, Rouge spawned huge claws of pure fire around her hands and attacked Sunshine again.
Marine was on the run from Moonlight. She knew that there was no way she could beat Moonlight alone. The hallways heavily limited Moonlight's line of sight and her speed. It was useless to go at full speed if she had to slow down on every corner. Marine would hide and wait for her chance.
Bright shattered the ground below Black again. She was stronger and tougher than Black but slower. Black jumped out of range and the two were in a face off again. Their partners were far above them, fighting a battle of who could first score an opening. But Black had to concentrate on her own enemy.
"Sun Burst!" Bright's body started to glow intensely and Black took a defensive stance. So the girl wanted to bring out the big guns. She could deal with that. But Bright didn't even approach Black and instead jumped straight up. Black could barely believe how high she jumped. Twenty, thirty meters easily. It would be hard to follow her.
Jumping from balcony to balcony, Black could see the fight between Rouge and Sunshine had gone into a stalemate.
Rouge was breathing hard, having taken multiple hits from Sunshine. To the stomach, to her shoulder, to her legs. That girl was extremely skilled in martial arts but completely inexperienced when facing an armed opponent. Rouge had landed a few hits and Sunshine's arms and legs were showing burns as sign of that. Rouge was not build for endurance fights and Sunshine didn't show any sign of exhaustion.
"You're pissing me off..." Rouge cursed under her breath and decided to go for a knockout. Lowering her claws and focusing for a moment, the air about Rouge changed. Sunshine had drawn the short straw. She needed to get closer to attack and that was a fatal issue when Rouge as her enemy. "Hell!" Rouge put her right hand above her head and a burning red butterfly appeared above her who dissipated quickly and extended to the whole area around them.
Sunshine immediately felt what that ability did. The temperature rose so far that she instantly started to sweat badly and her throat was dried out in seconds. The heat of the hottest deserts on the planet seemed pleasant compared to this. She had to take her out really quickly or they would all succumb to the heat.
Rouge went straight at Sunshine, knowing that nobody but her could fight normally when faced with a sudden eighty degrees Celsius. But Sunshine had more willpower than Rouge gave her credit for. Taking her attack with no guard, Rouge was too slow to get away. "Aegis Dynamo!" Sunshine grabbed Rouges right shoulder, kicked at her ankle, pulled her over her own shoulder and smashed her into the ground right below her. "Sunflower Aegis!" Sunshine crushed Rouge literally into the ground with her shield. Rouge spit up blood.
Further up, White was suddenly faced with a two-versus-one. Bright and Windy had surrounded her and were attacking in turns. Windy was no problem to evade but a direct hit from Bright would most likely knock her out. They fought on small, barely thirty-centimeter-thick stone connections between the two sides of the big room. White jumped up into the air to evade another from Bright's straight punches and fell for their trap. Windy was right above her, using a drop kick on her. White could not block in time and took the kick straight to the face.
The second Windy relaxed of having landed a hit, she felt the presence of someone behind her. She couldn't turn fast enough to even get a look. "Black-light Devastation!" Windy felt a massive force hit her in the back, followed by an energy blast. Bright witnessed how her partner was literally crushed into a nearby wall with a corkscrew-like energy attack.
Black had finally caught up to Bright and instead of protecting her partner, used the opening White created to take out Windy. The further White fell, the hotter it got. Her clothes were sticking to her from the sweat. It had already been over forty degrees up near the top of the room and it only got hotter the further they went down. She could see down on the ground that Rouge and Sunshine were grappling each other. Sunshine was starting to lose consciousness, being near the source of the immense heat and Rouge having taken a few blows too many.
White came down and removed herself from the almost boiling ground, looking for protection on a nearby balcony. In the same moment, Moonlight emerged from one of the many entrances and rushed straight at Rouge in an ambush.
White felt sorry for Rouge, but she would take them all out the second the three were together. But she didn't get that far. To her surprise, Black and Bright came crashing down, the two of them grabbing each other, each trying to smash the other into the ground. White couldn't risk taking out Black as well, and changed plans.
Moonlight was forced to interrupt her rescue operation to avoid the two physical fighters drawing her into their fight. She was skilled but couldn't take a direct blow from Black without suffering massive damage.
Black's right hand started to glow with black energy again and Bright jumped back, cautious of that energy attack. It had hit Windy full power.
"Hyper Flash!" Putting her hands together, Bright created a brightly shining orb. Black, White, Moonlight, Rouge and Sunshine lost all sense of sight. Black and White retreated into a hallway on the first level, Rouge and Sunshine to different corners of the room. Moonlight went straight up for the ceiling of the room, where White and Windy had gone before.
"Warn me if you're going to do that!" Sunshine was rubbing her eyes. Bright was standing next to her.
"I didn't have much of a choice. That attack of hers is pretty fatal. Windy took it and I'm pretty sure it knocked her out." Bright didn't know that Bloom's friend was such a strong fighter.
"We have to take out Rouge. Her ability is still going." Sunshine wasn't in a good condition.
"So she is the reason it is so hot in here. I was wondering..." Bright had used her Hyper Flash and separated everyone. The battle had come to a short stand still. "We drew the short straw, fighting these four."
"It's the same, no matter who fights. I hate having to fight Marine and the other three, but we all know we have to be serious about it." Sunshine tried to move her left arm and found that the burns had caused more damage than she thought. "I am going to try and take out Rouge the next time I see her. If you can, distract her for a few seconds."
Further up, Black and White were contemplating what to do. "It looks like Rouge will handle Sunshine but I am worried about Moonlight. I don't know much about her and I fear she took out Marine." White rubbed her face where Windy had kicked her.
"Rouge shouldn't use her ability like this. We're boiling as much as the enemy." Black complained and tried to fan herself some air.
"Let's get out of here."
Further down, Rouge had landed in a dead end. To one side was the blazing bright orb and she couldn't see a thing. "Dammit." Her ability would reach its limit soon. She had to take care of Sunshine before that. That girl could take one heavy beating.
Rouge saw no choice but to grit her teeth, aim roughly at the orb and try her luck in slashing it. She hoped that thing could even be destroyed. But someone else took care of that for her. "White-light Illumination!"
A massive pillar of energy burst through the ground, obliterated the orb and returned the room to the previous, dim light. White didn't like abusing her ability like that but it was unavoidable.
Rouge was in the middle of the room when both Bright and Sunshine emerged from the opposing end. "Let's knock them out." Black grabbed White's hand and they concentrated for a moment. "Marble..."
Rouge saw herself outnumbered and decided that it would be easiest to just take one of them down with her. Trying to get above Bright and attack Sunshine, Bright grabbed Rouge's legs and started to spin her around with enormous force. It burned her skin to touch Rouge directly but Bright endured the pain and made Rouge fly high into the air. The fire Cure had lost every bit of her sense of direction and was flying through the air like a sack of potatoes.
"Sunflower Omega!" Sunshine jumped in front of Bright who had almost been hit by a combination attack from White and Black. To do one of those with just two people, Sunshine was impressed. Her shield was a triple-layer Sunflower Aegis, which should have been able to withstand any attack, but the white and black energy beam had pierced the first shield in less than a second and was about to break the second.
Moonlight had waited patiently for an opening and found one. Black and White were standing in a fixed location, holding hands and firing an energy attack at Sunshine and Bright. Using a wall as stepping stone, Moonlight achieved incredible speed, diving down almost vertically right at Black. She was the more dangerous one of the two.
Black had no chance to even see Moonlight coming. She was hit by a brutal kick in the back, smashed into the ground so hard that she bounced right back up. "Crescent Cross!" Moonlight kicked Black again, lifting her up and landing a final kick, sending Black fly right down into the room, at Bright's mercy.
Black took a direct blow straight to the stomach and spit up blood, changing directions and sent crashing into a nearby wall. White was exchanging a series of punches and kicks with Moonlight, the two of them equal in speed, power and skill, neither giving the other even a fraction of an opening.
"Black-light..." Sunshine didn't have enough time to turn around. "Devastation!" Sunshine crashed right into Bright, who tried to endure the blast, protecting her teammate.
Marine could copy almost any kind of special attack, and she had just happened to see Black use her Black-light Devastation earlier, while she was hiding from Moonlight. But that was not all. Moonlight and White were hitting each other now, dropping their defense completely, knowing they could go at it forever if they kept it up like that.
"Hyper Flash!" Marine created the orb in her hand and threw it right up. Moonlight and White separated and now Moonlight was at a severe disadvantage. "Time to finish you off!" Marine announced the downfall of Bright. Sunshine had been knocked out by the energy blast.
"White-light Illu-" Marine dropped on the spot, the white energy vanishing from her left hand. Bright looked up and saw Windy falling down, unconscious. So she had managed to endure the previous attack by Black. Bright was proud.
It was down to two versus one. Moonlight and Bright versus White. The red haired Cure made the first move and jumped straight at White who saw herself in danger of losing the fight now. Jumping further up, White made use of her superior speed to at least get rid of Bright. But Moonlight was right there. White had to take the chance. "White-light..." Moonlight was too quick. She was right in front of her, ready to drive her into a wall.
White was shocked and jumped back when all of a sudden Moonlight started screaming in pain, crashing down. Looking below, she saw that Rouge had jumped on Moonlight from behind and rammed her two fire claws right into her back.
The two of them crashed right into the ground and just lay there, both of them knocked out. It was down to just White and Bright.
Both were exhausted from a fight they had never fought before. But White had the advantage now. Bright was slower than her. But she had lost sight of her.
Bright broke right through the wall and grabbed White's throat, the two of them falling towards the ground. White knew if she hit the ground at that velocity, there was no doubt she would be knocked out. There was only one other option. It was risky but better than giving up.
"White-light..." White charged her left hand with energy and grit her teeth. It would hurt. But her not as much as Bright. "Illumination!" White put her hand right on Bright's chest and the piercing energy beam erupted straight out of the Cure, knocking her out and high into the air.
White got hit by the recoil of her own attack and still hit the ground hard enough to crush the stones.
All the Cures were down. The room was filled with silence after being destroyed for a good thirty minutes. There was just one sound. Someone moaning. "That hurt..."
Black had not been knocked out but she was hurt pretty badly after taking Bright's hit. "That girl packs a punch... ouch..." Black crawled out of the hole in the wall and looked at the silent battlefield. White was on the ground, knocked out, and so were Marine and Rouge. The other four were all there as well.
"Seems we won." Black blinked only once before she was back in a very familiar room. The very room she had first arrived at. But there was something different. There was a simple black bowl on her bed, filled with coins. "I guess this must be the favor the book talked about." Black sighed. That fight had been a lot worse than she thought it would be.
They seriously hurt each other. She felt better than she did after taking Bright's hit but wounds and especially exhaustion didn't seem to vanish completely. Ignoring the bowl, Black left her room, ignored the shocked Cure's standing in the hallway and went into White's room.
"I am so going to have a headache." White was sitting on her bed, rubbing her forehead. Blasting herself and Bright with a special attack had not been a very clever idea but, in the end, everything played out like she thought it would. Black was very tough. Chances were good she hadn't been knocked out.
"Are you okay?" Black sat down next to her partner and canceled her transformation. "I didn't think it would be so painful, in many ways, to fight against our allies." Nagisa obviously wasn't out to hurt the others on purpose, but once she took a fight seriously, she couldn't back down.
"It's okay like this. We were serious and so were they. It's what we're supposed to do." White undid her transformation as well and laid back on the bed, her eyes closed. "But it was a lot harder than I thought to win. We're all much stronger than we used to be. I didn't think it would be that close."
Someone knocked on the door and a pretty beaten Rouge and Marine came in, both of them looking tired. "Did we win?" Rouge was always fierce when it came to competitions, even if it was one to fight her allies.
"Barely. Are you two okay?" Honoka didn't bother to sit up.
"Somehow. My head booms like there is a whole carnival being chased by a pack of dogs." Marine felt sick to the stomach. She had plain lost consciousness all of a sudden in the battle. That was not like her at all. "Did I get Bright?"
"No, you were knocked out before you did. I'm not sure which one did it or how." Honoka remembered something. "Did you all find a bowl with coins?"
"Are those the favor mentioned in the rules?" Marine had left the bowl in her room.
"I think so. Didn't it say that each participant, regardless of team, gets favor based on their performance and the winning team gets favor for their team? I guess that's their way of motivating us to fight. I have to say, it's working. If your team keeps losing, you won't even have anything to eat unless someone shares with you." Rouge could see why they set it up like that. If someone refused to fight, he would end up without even basic needs.
"We're all friends here. Nobody will go hungry." Marine gave Rouge a curious look. "Or do you want to spend your favor on something else? Maybe... something racy?" Marine laughed, causing Rouge to blush before cancelling her transformation.
"Shouldn't we talk to the others about this?" Rin had already been apprehended by Dream and the others before she came into the room.
"They're probably all leaned against the door and eavesdropping!" Marine walked to the door and pulled it open as a joke. About five Cures toppled over and landed in the room. "Woah! I was actually right?!" Marine laughed even louder.
"Since all, well most of you, are already here, we'll tell you what it was like." A quick flash and White walked out of the room. Aqua, Berry, Rhythm and Lemonade were standing near the wall, not one to indulge in eavesdropping.
"It's a serious battle. We fought as if our lives depended on it and so did they. I don't think anyone was seriously hurt, but we're all sore, aching and have headaches. To hesitate means to be knocked out. Marine faced two Cures from her own team and didn't hesitate knock one of them out when she could." White was leaning against a wall and the others had came together to listen to her.
"We won the first battle, but we don't know who will fight next and how many. One of us will have to go and negotiate that now. We will also have to decide who switches teams." White had memorized all the rules from the book.
"I will fight next. I will also go and negotiate the next battle." Aqua spoke up and took a step forward. "I realize nothing good will come out of pretending this has nothing to do with me." She really hoped she would not face Milky Rose in a battle. She would try to negotiate a one versus one to reduce the chances of that happening.
"I will switch." Rhythm offered to go. "It's not that I don't like this team but Melody, Beat and Muse are on the other side. I miss them."
"What about you Marine? Your teammates are on the other side too." Berry looked at the short woman.
"I'm fine here, really. Sunshine and Moonlight can take care of things over there. Sure I don't like fighting them, but if Rhythm wants to go, I'm not going to be stubborn about this." Marine smiled at the youngest of the group and received a happy smile back.
"Any objections?" White was still acting as their leader. "None? Good. Aqua, try to at least get them to agree to a four versus four. Most of us don't have any favor yet and we desperately need those." White knew that even though they were all allies and friends, internal strife and jealousy was very easily to flame up in such situations.
"Does anyone know where the team favor is stored?" White looked at those that had not been in the battle and Lemonade was the first to point at the lower end of the hall. A bowl that was more of a barrel was standing there, closely resembling a bigger version of the bowls found in the rooms of the Cures that had fought.
"Because this is something we will all come to need sooner or later, the first favor should go towards a bathroom." White wasn't one to be needlessly embarrassed in such situations. People needed showers and... basic facilities. "All who agree please raise your hand."
Not a single Cure let her hand down. "I will go and take care of this. I will also donate my favor so we can all eat something." White knew that an act of charity now would go a long way to getting selfishness and jealousy out of the way.
"I will too." Black and Marine joined the idea and after a sigh, even Rouge did. As Aqua took off, she was in deep thoughts. Was it really right for her to be so selfish and try to get a one versus one battle? There could only be two battles a day after all. Those four fought, got hurt and then simply gave her favor away so everyone could feel better.
Aqua had developed a nasty habit of biting on the nail of her thumb when she was under stress. Standing in front of the door, the color of the light had changed. Previously a deep red, it was now a calming azure.
Stepping through, Aqua faced a Cure she didn't recognize.
=== Dissonance ===
Hours ago...
"Where am I?" Yuri was in a room she had never seen before. One moment she was talking with Momoka, the next she was standing in an unfamiliar place. Not even a minute had passed before she tried to transform despite the chances of it being impossible. If there was one thing Yuri had learned in the past then it was that it never hurt to try. She had already given up once.
Moonlight stepped outside the room and faced another woman right away. A woman with long golden hair, divided up into three long braids on her right side, wearing a leather apron and a plain outfit. She didn't know the woman, stepped back and got into a defensive position.
"W-wait! I'm on your side!"
"Prove it." Moonlight was always cautious of people she didn't know and in this kind of situation, there was nothing else she could do.
"Stop it, Moonlight." A familiar voiced called out to her. "Can't you see she's almost frightened of you? Would an enemy be frightened?"
Looking to her right, Cure Sunshine approached them slowly. "I can't blame you for not remembering her." Sunshine came up to Hikari and took a close look. "You're Shiny Luminous, aren't you? Don't worry, Moonlight is just a little on edge because of this place."
Hikari took a deep breath and calmed down. She didn't know where she was. One moment she was making coffee, the next moment in an almost empty room. "Yes. Do you know where we are?"
"I don't think anyone does." The three turned when another door opened to their right and a, to Hikari at least, familiar face came out.
"Milky Rose!" Hikari ran over to her friend. She had met Kurumi and her girlfriend Karen a few times when they visited the town she lived in for Karen's work.
"Hikari? What are you doing here?" Milky Rose's attention fell quickly to the two Cures. "I don't remember you two."
"I'm Sunshine and she's Moonlight. Luminous here already told us your name." Sunshine grinned. It was good that someone Luminous knew showed up, but where in the world were they? She had been at the dojo giving a lesson, when she was suddenly brought to this place.
"So, none of us know where we are, is that right?" Milky Rose, followed closely by Hikari, stepped up to Moonlight. "Could you please not stare at me? I am not your enemy." Moonlight had indeed been staring at her.
"You can't..." "...blame her." Two voices, completing each others sentences, came from behind Sunshine. Two more Cures had come up. None of the others recognized them. "Cure Windy and..." "...Cure Bright."
Their weird way of talking was something they had a few years ago tried out as a joke and found it to be very amusing so they stuck to it. While they could speak normally alone, they always preferred their little trick.
"Windy, shouldn't we call for..." "...Bloom and Egret? Yes." Bright left Windy behind and went back down the hallway, ignoring the doors. They had arrived over ten minutes ago and had already met their old friends.
Windy undid her transformation and became Kiryuu Kaoru. A tall, blue-haired woman with an intelligent look on her face. She was wearing a male suit which gave her an odd look. The pair of glasses on her nose only enforced her smart look. "Relax. We're all lost here. Bloom and Egret are here too. I'm Kiryuu Kaoru." It took a lot of chaos to get Kaoru to lose her composure.
"I know those two. So does Hikari." Milky Rose interjected and followed Kaoru's example, undoing her transformation. A white, flowing dress complimented by her wild, slightly curly purple hair. "I'm Mimino Kurumi. She is Kujou Hikari." Kurumi was only a few centimeters taller than Hikari and was almost dwarfed by Moonlight. Sunshine was a little taller than her.
Sunshine was the next to regain her human form. Itsuki had changed greatly in the past few years, becoming a lot more womanly. Growing her hair out so long that it reached her waist, wearing a single earring with a sun symbol and having a rather curvy body, Itsuki was often the object of jealousy of other women. "I'm Myoudouin Itsuki. You can call me Itsuki if you want."
Moonlight sighed and returned to being Yuri. She had not changed much in the last four years. She had become a little more of a woman but was still taller and slimmer than Sunshine but not as curvy. "Tsukikage Yuri."
At that moment, Bright returned with a large group. "Bloom and Egret..." "...found even more? Yes." A grand total of six Cures were following Bright.
"There are this many of us here?" Kurumi was starting to get suspicious. What in the world had the power to transfer so many Cures to such a place?
"We found those three not too far down that path. They were looking around. We literally bumped into each other." Bloom had a large red mark on her forehead, and so did the pink Cure behind her.
The five women that, led on by Itsuki, introduced themselves to the Cures. "They are..." "...Cure Passion..." "...Cure Melody..." "...Cure Beat and..." "...Cure Muse." Bright had returned to her human form as well. She kept her crimson red hair cut short because it got in the way whenever she went out to jog. "I'm Kiryuu Michiru." The woman stepped next to her sister and they looked at the others.
Bloom followed their example, returned to human form and introduced herself. "I'm Hyuuga Saki. Cure Bloom." Saki had not changed too much over the years. The same short auburn brown hair, it was obvious by her trained form that she was an athletic type.
Her partner was the exact opposite and had changed a lot. "I'm Mishou Mai, Cure Egret." Her dark blue hair had grown past her waist, and her figure had become that of a gravure model, always spawning envy from others but much to the pleasure of Saki.
The pink haired cure had already transformed and seemed a little distanced towards the others. She was not very good with making friends outside her group. "Higashi Setsuna. I'm Cure Passion." Setsuna had changed only little over the years. Her dark purple hair grown only slightly over her shoulders, she was wearing a thick coat and Russian cap, making the others wonder just where she had been before they were brought there.
"I'm Hojo Hibiki. They are Kurokawa Ellen and Shirabe Ako." Hibiki took care of introducing all three of them. Out of all the people present, Hibiki had changed the least and Ako the most. While the only changes in Hibiki were her height and a few curves, Ako had become a lot taller and measured only a few centimeters less than Hibiki. Ellen had changed quite a bit and not for the better, according to Ako. Having dyed her hair black, she grew it out a little more to compliment her stage outfit.
While Hibiki wore the classic uniform of a dojo, Ako was in her school uniform, the same one Hibiki had worn until just recently. Ellen's outfit attracted unwanted attention for it was her stage outfit. Laced leather boots up to her knees, a long, black skirt and a combination of a white shirt with an open black coat. She seemed very embarrassed to show herself like that to the other Cures but none of them had exactly impressive outfits on them either, the worst being Hibiki, who wore just the dojo uniform.
"That makes twelve of us." Yuri counted them quickly. "How many are missing?"
"We are missing Marine and Blossom. I know that Hikari belongs to Black and White's team." Itsuki started the count of missing people.
"I am the only one of my team here. There are five others." Kurumi didn't seem very pleased to be the only one of her team present.
"The same goes for me. Peach, Berry and Pine belong to my team." Setsuna added.
"We are..." "...all here." Kaoru and Michiru added in their usual speech pattern.
"We're missing Rhythm." Hibiki felt a little overwhelmed by all the senior cures.
"I don't think it is a coincidence that we are twelve here and there are thirteen missing. It looks like we've been split into half. But by whom and for what purpose?" Yuri was a quick thinker.
"If they were out to attack us, wouldn't they do it while we're separated?" Kaoru was talking on her own.
"Sounds logical. I think so too." Itsuki looked to Hibiki. "Have you seen anything unusual around here?"
"Not a thing. I don't think there is anything here." Hibiki shook her head. "It's just stairs, rooms and hallways."
"I hate to suggest waiting, but it doesn't seem like we're going to find out anything like this." Yuri looked at Melody and Bloom. If there was anything out there, they would have said so. Just running around blindly would not help any of them.
"Shouldn't we at least look around?" Ellen wasn't sure she was comfortable with Rhythm being lost somewhere.
"I think Yuri is right. If there was anything you would have seen something. If someone has brought us here, he will show himself sooner or later." Kurumi agreed with the suggestion Yuri made.
"We will go..." "... to our room." Michiru and Kaoru found the others to be amazed at their composure. "But it won't do us any good..." "...to sit around and be bored."
"I wish I at least had my guitar." Ellen contemplated and looked at Hibiki and Ako. "What do we do?"
"You work in a dojo? What kind of martial arts do you practice?" Itsuki had approached Hibiki, the two of them slowly walking off together.
"I'm going to sleep." Ako was not one to worry needlessly and left Ellen by herself. Saki and Mai followed Michiru and Kaoru's example and returned to Mai's room.
Kurumi took off with Hikari and Yuri returned to her room alone. Ellen found herself alone in the hallway with Setsuna, both of them not knowing a thing about each other.
The silence became more awkward with every passing second, worsened only by the voices of the girls talking in their rooms. "You play in a band?" Setsuna figured that any start was at least something.
"Yes. The Black Cats. I actually have dark purple hair normally but I had to dye it black for the band." Ellen walked to the wall and leaned against it.
"What kind of band is it?" Setsuna was a big fan of music and listened to quite a few things. Getting closer to Ellen, she had a weird feeling. There was something unusual about that girl.
"We're a rock band. I guess we sometimes have a few progressive and power metal elements in our music. I play the lead guitar and do the vocals." Ellen was the most comfortable when she could talk about music.
"I feel like I've heard of your band before... Did you per chance have a song called Crow in the Night?" Setsuna's memory was not bad but it was difficult to remember the names of songs just like that.
"That's not from us but I know that song. It's by Black Sun. You got the names mixed up." Ellen smiled and sat down. "If I had my guitar I could at least play something. I'm not comfortable singing without it..."
"Now I remember. Cure Beat. 'Beat of the Dawn' is something you sung, isn't it?" Setsuna sat down next to Ellen, hoping that she would not mind.
"I'm surprised you remember that. It was the first song I ever wrote." Ellen felt flattered and she blushed a little. They were not unpopular, but to have a fan among other Cures was pretty unlikely. She was happy. "Kanade and Hibiki like classical music more, but Hibiki sometimes comes to my concerts."
"You make a living with your music?" Setsuna was interested.
"Now, yes. I used to work part-time at the bakery Kanade, Cure Rhythm, works at until I could support myself with this." Ellen remembered when she first started out. It had been a hard piece of work to get as far as to be able to make a living out of music at her age.
"Aren't you still going to school? You're not eighteen yet, are you?" Setsuna did sense that Ellen was still a minor.
"I do go to school with Hibiki and Kanade. But I want to be able to go through my life with music. That's why I am working hard to be able to live from it even now." Ellen looked at the woman at her side and couldn't imagine what she worked at. "Aren't you hot in that getup?"
"Sort of, yes." A flash of light and Setsuna changed to Passion. "My partner and I were in Russia when we were brought here. We pretty much work anywhere we can part-time to have money for traveling around. I haven't really decided what I want to be in the future. Love wants to be a dancer, but that is really hard work and a difficult business. That's why we're traveling. We want to see the world and learn what else is out there."
"That sounds amazing. I wish I could be like you. Just go and travel around, working somewhere you haven't before just like that. I could never do that." Ellen felt a little uncomfortable in her normal form and switched to Beat.
"It's not that amazing. Love had to practically kidnap me to get me to come along. In the end, I'm happy she did though." Passion blushed and drew circles on the ground with her right index finger.
"Did something good happen?" Beat was not too good with relationships. She liked Hibiki, but there was no way she could ever say that out loud.
"I don't really tell this many people but you seem nice. When I first met Love, I was part of Labyrinth, the enemy. It took a long time and quite a lot of selflessness on Love's part to save me. I only figured out what it meant to be happy after I was no longer part of Labyrinth. It's... weird, really. If Love had not cared about me so much, even though I was her enemy back then, I wouldn't be here today. I felt grateful to her... at first. I started to live with her, became a Cure and then... I even fell in love with her. A while ago, we got together as a couple." Passion's face was slowly turning into a shade of red that closely resembled her outfit.
Beat didn't say anything and just stared at Passion until the latter became uncomfortable. "I shouldn't have told you after all..." Passion was about to get up and leave when Beat held her back.
"That's not why I was so surprised. It's just... your story is similar to mine." Beat had not any fond memories of what happened to her before she joined with Hibiki and Kanade. "Since you told me, I'll tell you too."
Passion sat back down and now it was her turn to stare at Beat. She couldn't believe there was another Cure who went though something similar.
"There was a conflict between Major and Minor Land. It's a long story but in the end, I betrayed Major Land and became the songstress of Minor Land. I kept failing trying to beat Hibiki and Kanade. The others started to doubt me. It all came down together when I turned into a Cure right before everyone's eyes. I was so shocked and lost. I had been an enemy to them the whole time and did horrible things. There was no excuse for that. But Hibiki and Kanade just forgave me. They welcomed me as Cure Beat. It took me a while to open up to them. I became their friend, their ally. And now, over a year later, we're still together." Beat finished her story and thought about the painful times she had while confused about who she was and where she belonged.
"So we both used to belong to the enemy... I don't think it's a coincidence that we met like this. Don't you think so too?" Passion smiled towards Beat.
"Sounds awfully convenient to be a coincidence, doesn't it?" Beat smiled as well.
"What is it like to stand on a stage and sing for a crowd?" Passion couldn't imagine herself doing that. Love was the type to be really excited about something like that on the other hand.
"I was so nervous the first time I almost forgot all the lyrics." Beat cracked a smile.
"I can imagine. I kinda wish I could do something like that. I mean, I like traveling with Peach, but... I'm not going to do that forever. I haven't seen Berry and Pine in a long time. I miss them. What about your friends? Isn't it kind of cruel to just leave you?"
"I don't think like that. Melody was curious about Sunshine and Muse..., she's so mature; it's hard to make out what she's thinking most of the time. I like them both and they're there for me when I really need them. And I got to talk to you after all, so it turned out pretty well."
"Yeah. It's a bit of a weird connection, but I guess we can relate to what we each went through. If you want to, you can call me Setsuna." Passion held out her hand to Beat.
"You can call me Ellen, Setsuna."
=== Dissonance ===
"So you work part-time at a karate dojo? Do you want to be a full-fledged instructor in the future?" Itsuki and Hibiki had gone to Itsuki's room to talk. Hibiki had noticed halfway through that she had left Ellen behind alone but when she looked out of the room, she saw her talking to Cure Passion.
"I don't know. My dad still tries to get me into the music business and Kanade, Cure Rhythm, thinks I should go along with that." Hibiki looked at the ceiling and continued. "I like music, I really do, but it's not what I wanna do for a living. I'm still sixteen so I have some time before I decide what I'll do after graduating."
"I decided long ago that I'd take over the dojo. I thought about it again after I became a Cure but... in the end, I do like martial arts, even as a woman. I thought about a career as model, like Marine's sister does, but just hearing about how stressed she is sometimes, I think I'd rather stick to the dojo." Itsuki watched Hibiki.
"Marine's sister is a model? That sounds really interesting. Tell me more!" Hibiki loved to hear about such things.
"Hm, let's see. There was one time when I visited Marine's home, she's called Kurumi Erika, and found total chaos. Their rooms are on the upper floor of a fashion shop called 'Fairy Drop'. I first thought I'd walked into an alternate dimension. Momoka, Erika's sister, was standing in the middle of the room while Erika was fidgeting around her, doing probably a dozen things at once. There were sewing materials, accessories and clothes all over the place." Itsuki smiled briefly.
"Erika had a dozen needles in her mouth. I found Tsubomi, Cure Blossom, covered in almost a mountain of things. The room looked like it exploded. Tsubomi was constantly saying, 'Need to hurry, need to hurry.', Erika was mumbling in some kind of unintelligible language and Momoka looked pretty desperate." Hibiki was already laughing and holding her sides.
"It got even worse when Momoka's manager came over to look after things. Her manager is Yuri, Moonlight. She and Erika got into an argument right away and Tsubomi fainted halfway. The whole thing exploded when Erika accidentally kicked over a tiny container with sticky beads and they were all over the place." Itsuki finished her story.
Hibiki was laughing so hard that Itsuki feared she too, would explode any second. "Just... just imagining it! I can't... I can't hold on!" Hibiki rolled over the bed and fell to the ground, still laughing, holding her stomach. She had a vivid imagination. Itsuki scratched her cheek, a little embarrassed.
After more than a minute, Hibiki finally calmed down. "Okay, it's my turn to tell you something funny now. Rhythm, her name's Minamino Kanade, works in a bakery shop that's owned by her family. I usually test all her new creations because I love sweets. There was one time when their whole kitchen malfunctioned. I was there, waiting for the cup cakes to finish baking when suddenly the oven started to give off black smoke. Kanade was right on it, thinking the cup cakes were burnt. When she pulled the oven door open, a huge black smoke cloud came out and filling the room. It was like someone had thrown a can of black paint. I heard Kanade shriek and tried to get to her, stumbled over something, fell, hit the table and pulled basically everything on it with me." Hibiki could hardly contain herself.
"When the smoke thinned out, I was right on top of Kanade. The both of us were smeared with cream, chocolate and other stuff. We looked like we had just had a cake fight. Ellen, Cure Beat, came in at right that moment, and found us there, on the floor, me on top of Kanade. I still remember how quickly her face went from normal to a scarlet red. She must have thought I was trying to seduce Kanade or something. It only got worse from there." Hibiki watched Itsuki already smile pretty wide.
"Kanade's parents came and Ellen tried to hide us from their eyes, which made the whole misunderstanding ten times worse. When we got up and showed up, panting from not being able to breathe through the black cloud before, it looked like we had just done something outrageous."
"Oh god, what did her parents say?" Itsuki looked at Hibiki who seemed very amused herself.
"That was the funniest part. Her dad walked out and called for me. I still remember it. 'Hojo Hibiki, come with me for a second.' I was so nervous, despite it being a misunderstanding, that I didn't get a word out and he talked for twenty minutes about how he was okay if I wanted to date Kanade and everything. At some point, we came back to the house and Kanade's mother was already there, waiting for us. Kanade had cleared up the misunderstanding. The expression on the face of Kanade's father was so priceless that I couldn't help but laugh. Ever since then, Kanade gets really shy whenever I mention this." Hibiki finished her story and this time it was Itsuki who was bending over, sitting on her bed, laughing.
"You really are two-of-a-kind. Did you end up going out?"
"Huh, why would we end up going out?" Hibiki seemed confused why Itsuki would come up with such an idea.
"The way you talk about her, I can't help but really get the impression you like her. It's not that uncommon among Cures I think. You can't tell anyone I told you this, but Yuri, Moonlight, is dating Marine's sister. Of course Blossom and Marine know this, but I probably shouldn't tell that to anyone else. I heard Black and White live together and have been dating for some time. And I'm pretty sure that from the look of it, Bloom and Egret have a thing for each other."
"That's a lot of relationships among Cures. It's really that common?" Hibiki thought about it as hard as she could. Was she really romantically interested in Kanade? What about Ellen?
"Personally I don't think it's bad. If they are happy like that, why not?" Itsuki was not too interested in romance herself. It was against her principles to flirt with her students and most of her free time was spent with the other Cures. There was little room for romance unless Erika or Tsubomi suddenly decided to pursue that.
"Is there someone you like?" Hibiki knew that it was a pretty personal question, but Itsuki didn't seem to mind.
"Not at this time."
"Is there anyone here you think is cute?" Hibiki stood up and posed a little, earning a giggle from Itsuki. It was quite obvious that she was joking about herself.
"I never really thought about it. What about you? What do you think about Beat? I wouldn't call her cute, she's not the type for that, but she is definitely attractive."
"I never really think about stuff like that. Should I?" Hibiki could be a bit dense sometimes but she usually tried to pay attention to her friends' feelings.
"It couldn't hurt to, just in case. What do you think, do you want to have a match against me some day?" Itsuki was obviously confident in her skills. Hibiki, not so much.
"That's a little unfair, isn't it? You teach your own style and I only work part-time." Hibiki wasn't so eager to get put on the mat by Itsuki. "Since your friends are all working in the fashion business, do you have an interest in it too?"
"Is there any girl who doesn't? I used to pretend I didn't care back before I became a Cure and became friends with Erika and Tsubomi. I still try on stuff for Erika and help her show off designs but I don't really design my own things anymore. Erika is going pro with this and I have my own work to think about."
Hibiki transformed into Melody and slowly turned once around. "What do you think of my Cure outfit? Of course I haven't designed it myself, but is it fashionable?"
"You care about the weirdest things, Hibiki. It matches your personality really well and it's cute. It wouldn't suit you to go for a sexy look, that's not your style." Itsuki commented with a critical eye, mimicking Erika.
"Now it's your turn." Hibiki grinned and could see Itsuki realized she fell straight for her trap. Transforming into Sunshine, she could feel Hibiki's stare on her waist, hips, breasts and back as the girl walked once around her.
"You definitely have the sexy look. I'm jealous of your body. What are those, C, D?" Hibiki was pretty blunt about what she thought.
"You remind me of Erika. She always goes around and tries to guess people's cup sizes. They're D." Sunshine sometimes cursed her big breasts. They got in the way during training and she bandaged them up before work.
"I wish I had nice breasts like you. Mine are just B."
"Want to hear another funny story about Erika?" Sunshine sat down, comfortable just sitting around as Cure.
"Sure!"
=== Dissonance ===
Mai and Saki had a special hobby to pass the time.
Saki was resting her head on Mai's lap and listening to her. Being an artist, and a good one at that, Mai had a wonderful imagination. She was sometimes commissioned to write lyrics or help out with a setting for other media. But only Saki had the pleasure to just listen to her with her eyes closed when she told her of fantasy lands, what they looked like and what kind of beings lived there.
"The land Faerule was rich of rivers, blue and clear as the sky, full of fish. They parted the land in four equally beautiful lands. The people were grateful to the rivers and lived with them, only taking what they needed. Some lived in the mighty forests to the east, where elves were supposedly hiding and watching, where wild animals were as friendly as a loyal dog one kept for years. They respected the forest and lived in synchronicity with it."
"Others lived in the wide, golden fields to the west, where cereal grew wild, without the help of farming and work. The rivers gave to the land what it needed, the land gave to the animals what they needed, and the animals gave to the people what they needed. And the humans praised and loved the river."
"To the south was the kingdom of birds, ruled by the phoenix, the source of the life in the world. A land forbidden to humans and none would think about breaking that rule. The phoenix sat atop his nest built on a waterfall at the end of the world where the river converged. His feathers shining in a golden and crimson light, his beak made of silver, his tail feathers shining in the colors of the four lands. He granted the rivers an end after their long journey and sent back their spirit to the spring from which all rivers came forth."
"And in the north was the ceiling of the world, a mountain so tall that none could climb it. Only one lived in this land, and he was Lord of the Mountain. A dragon so old that he had seen the birth of the world. Sitting atop the mountain and watching the world of the rivers below, he was the guardian that ensured peace and safety."
"Mai, what did the dragon look like? What was he called?" Saki often asked questions when Mai made a break to gather her thoughts.
"His true name only he himself could pronounce and speak. The people knew him as Shar'la'legh, master of the world. The birds praised him as Ista'fiel'vel, He who is the beginning. The animals of the forest respectfully called him Rash'vel, the creator. He was over thirty meters long from head to tail. He was heavy as gold, with four legs, six claws, each as hard as the bones of the earth, indestructible by any means. His head was adorned with a single horn, as he was the first of the three lords. His scales were as green as the deep, lush forests to the east, harder than diamond."
"Tell me about the three lords Mai."
"The first one was the Dragon. The lord of the birds was the second. Both showed themselves to the people only once a century, when the time for the renewal was upon them. But the lord of the forest was different. He lived with the humans more closely than even the beings of the forest. A tree so large that its very top dominated the sky, its furthest branches spanning over vast distances, covering all the forest in its cooling shadow on even the hottest days. His trunk was thicker than one could throw a stone far, his roots stretching to the very end of the world itself, the rivers' water his life. He let the humans live in his branches and his trunk, for he was immortal and greater than any other life in the world. All but the dragon and the phoenix called him Astalon."
"Did the western fields have no lord? The north had the dragon, the south had the phoenix, and the east had the tree."
"The lord of the west died upon the creation of the world. He was the strongest of the lords, but while the phoenix ruled the skies and life, the dragon ruled the origin and the rivers and the tree ruled the land and the earth, he had no domain to rule. As he looked upon what was a wasteland in the west, separated from the lively and full lands of the others, he was overcome with sadness and gave his life to the land itself. The west is its own ruler's flesh and life, and so nothing that grows on the land will ever wilt, nothing that eats from it will ever become sick."
"You tell wonderful stories Mai. It always reminds me of why I love you." Saki was usually a very energetic woman, but she could be calm and almost zen-like when Mai told her about her fantasies.
"I only tell them to you because I love you Saki."
"I still think you could become a writer. You have talent." Saki opened her eyes and looked at her partner.
"You just want me to be at home all the time so you can watch me. I know you don't like when I spend so much time at the workshop." Mai gently flicked Saki's forehead.
"I come to your workshop all the time and watch you. That's not it. I think you're wasting your talent." Saki didn't realize something important.
"Sometimes I wonder if your head is filled with cotton Saki." Mai leaned down and kissed her lover. "I don't write because I only want you to hear these. I only want to tell you what I dream of, what I imagine. I can draw what I want, but I can only open my heart fully to you and tell you what's inside."
"Mai..." Saki smiled, happy to hear those things.
"It's been a while since we just sat around and I told you a story. Usually I'm busy with work and so are you. Speaking of which, how is it going?"
"I sometimes wonder if all the trouble is worth it. I get good times running and swimming, but... it's so much training. I'm often so beat we barely see each other in a day."
"Saki, if you're really serious about switching to something else, I will support you. I want you to be happy, not struggle with your life because you feel like I am forcing you to do this."
"I really think I might to a sport. I just don't want to put this much time into training for triathlons if it means I can't spend my time with you. I was really good at softball in school, but I don't really want to go back to that."
"What about baseball? It's a pretty big sport Saki. You're a quick runner and you have good reflexes. You don't need glasses either."
"You think I'd make a good player?"
"I think you can be good at any sport if you want Saki. Well, except mind sports." Mai put out her tongue and closed one eye.
"So mean..." Saki still smiled and caressed Mai's hand.
=== Dissonance ===
"I'm..." "...bored." The two sisters were sitting together on Kaoru's bed, not knowing what to do with themselves.
"Should we go..." "...and explore?"
"I think I'll drop this for a while Kaoru. I'm getting a little tired of it. It's fun, but with just us, pretty redundant." Michiru stood up and transformed into Cure Bright.
"I don't mind. It's a nice little trick to throw off the others a little, but I don't think we'll have to keep it up. They're all Cures too, it'll probably only annoy them." Kaoru followed her sister and became Cure Windy.
Leaving their room, they found Passion and Beat talking to each other at the other end of the hallway. They didn't notice the two sisters leaving at all. Turning the corner, the two found that the place they were in was literally barren. A stairway led up to a room to another hallway to another room and another stair to just another room.
"This is boring." "Very boring."
They had walked for about ten minutes when they came across something new. It was a giant hall technically behind their rooms. "Who built something like this?" Bright wondered. "Why build something like this?" Windy wondered.
"I could be wrong but... doesn't this almost look like it's intended for... battle?" Windy looked around.
"I think you're right. What other purpose could it serve? I had this feeling ever since we got here too. That we're not here just to talk." Bright added.
"You think so too? But why only twelve of us? You think it picked the strongest?" Windy jumped up a few balconies. The room was over thirty meters high based on her first estimation.
"I think it's worse than that. If it brought all of us here, and only ten others are with us, that means there are thirteen others somewhere else. This whole place. This room. It all gives me the idea that..."
"...we will fight each other. That sounds horrible. I really hope we are wrong about this. I'm not going to find any enjoyment in fighting other Cures. It was bad enough that we fought Bloom and Egret in the past."
"I'd like to forget about that entirely. But our past is what defines us, isn't it? We chose to switch sides and in the end, it was the right thing to do."
"Bright, we should get back. Even if there is only a small chance that we are right..."
"You're right Windy. I don't want to see the others hurt. If we really are right..."
"Then we'll fight. If we fight, the others won't have to." Bright waited for Windy to jump down and caught her, letting her down.
"Do you mind?" Windy asked and turned to her sister.
"There is nobody here." Bright answered.
Windy stepped close and grabbed her sister by her shoulders, giving her a quick kiss. They were not dating or regularly sleeping with each other, but they sometimes enjoyed the sensation of kissing each other. It was one of their secrets. Others would quickly get the wrong idea. There was nothing more than kissing between them.
"Let's go."
=== Dissonance ===
"We're both the only ones of our team present. It sucks. I wish at least Aqua was here." Kurumi complained, sitting on her bed next to Hikari. "This whole place is terrible. The bed is barely a bed and there is nothing else in this room or any other room."
"I don't think complaining is going to make it any better, Kurumi." Hikari tried to calm her friend down.
"I'm amazed you're so calm Hikari. You used to be much more shy without Nagisa and Honoka around. By the way, how are they doing?"
"They're both working a lot. Nagisa trains a lot to get into the national team and Honoka is working at the research institute. I really don't understand the things she researches. Nagisa and I always fall asleep when she tries to explain."
"They're so lucky. I wish I could decide what I want to do." Kurumi didn't want to just leech off Karen. But what could she really do? To begin with, she was not really human and, even though she seldom transformed back into her original self any more, sometimes she forgot that.
"Karen is becoming really famous, isn't she?" Hikari had seen a few fliers about her concerts. The beautiful Ice Queen of the violin world.
"She practices a lot lately and she's getting a lot of attention. I don't really like it but if it makes her happy I won't say anything. They call her the Ice Queen because Karen is a bit on the cool side and she doesn't flirt with any guys. But that's to be expected. Karen has me, so why would she flirt with anyone else." Kurumi sighed. "Sometimes I feel like I'm a burden to her. Karen is getting famous on her own power and skill while I work part-time at a different job every month."
"I don't think she thinks of you like that. I also only work part-time. Nagisa and Honoka pay me to keep their apartment neat too. They're both fairly busy so they don't want to clean themselves." Hikari blushed ferociously. "Sometimes I hear them when I'm cleaning."
"You hear them?" Kurumi was being dense for a few seconds, then she caught on. "Wow. Just wow." Kurumi went quiet and then looked away. "Who's the loud one?"
"Honoka." Hikari's face was completely crimson colored.
"I would've never guessed..." Kurumi tried to think about whether Karen or she made more noise but just imagining the sex with Karen made her horny and she quickly tried to change the topic. "And you're not interested in any romance?"
"I'm... you know. I don't know if I even should..." Hikari was not entirely human either, just like Milk. Their transformation would pass any physical and biological check, but deep down, they were something else.
"You're being silly. Look at me, I'm the same and I have been dating Karen for years now. If you're really so worried, you could always go for a Cure. It just sort of happened with Karen for me, but if it didn't I think I would have gone for her either way." Kurumi looked at Hikari who was a little nervous all of a sudden. "What, anyone among the Cures you like? Tell me."
"I... don't know. But I think Sunshine is really nice." Hikari remembered that Sunshine had been nice to her right away while Moonlight had almost attacked her.
"Sunshine... You have good taste Hikari." Kurumi patted her friend on the shoulder.
"How are the others in your group Kurumi?" Hikari was curious about what the six Cures were doing.
"I only really have contact with Dream and sometimes with Rouge when she is with Dream. Mint doesn't really show up anymore and none of us except Rouge have talked to Lemonade in ages. It's sad but we're not much of a group anymore." Kurumi remembered the days they had fought side by side.
"What happened?"
Kurumi sighed heavily. "A lot of things. We just sort of grew up and each of us had their own problems to deal with. I don't really want to go into detail about it. I hope you understand that. Say, don't you think Bloom and Egret have a thing for each other? I noticed how they look at each other."
"They are going out. They have been for four years. Didn't you know?" Hikari was surprised she never told her friend about Saki and Mai.
"No way! Really? I was just guessing there but hit bulls-eye." Kurumi let out a short, fake laugh. "I guess it runs in the business, huh? Being a Cure, loving another girl."
"What is wrong Kurumi? You have been acting weird for a while..."
"Is it that obvious? Hah... All right. I had a fight with Karen. A big fight. Dream wanted her help in getting everyone back together. Karen wanted me to help. I said it's none of my business before I really thought about it. I realized like five minutes later that it was incredibly stupid to say that. By that point, Karen had left for her concert. We didn't really talk it over after that. We just... sort of didn't talk." Kurumi was really depressed and stared at her feet. "I'm an idiot. It's not that I don't care about the others. I just think we shouldn't try to force people back together who grew away from each other."
"Does Karen know that?" Hikari moved closer to Kurumi and held her hand.
"No. We didn't really talk about it and then... well. We got brought here. What if she dumps me over this? I know Komachi still loves her. If Karen leaves me, I won't have anyone left." Kurumi's voice was shaking and she was about to cry. The fear of being alone was something nobody could handle.
"Karen is not that kinda person, isn't she? She won't just break up with you." Hikari hugged Kurumi.
"I hope so..."
=== Dissonance ===
Bright and Windy had just come back to find Beat and Passion on the edge. "Thank god you're here. That thing just popped up all of a sudden!" Beat pointed at the southern end of the hallway where a black orb of roughly basketball size floated very slowly toward them.
"Windy." Bright only needed to say her name once.
Windy put her fingers to her lips and an incredibly loud whistle caught the attention of every Cure in the rooms. Windy whistled again. It only took about a minute until everyone had joined together, transformed and ready to fight whatever was going to attack them.
"Should I take it out?" Milky Rose was standing right behind Bright.
"Wait. Let's not make the first move." Moonlight put her hand in front of Bright. "It doesn't seem to be attacking us. If it does, we're going to take it out all together. It can't possibly handle twelve Cures."
The orb floated ever so slowly through the hallway and finally stopped a few meters short of reaching them.
"Fear not, for we are not your enemy. This is far beyond your world. We have brought you here to avert the extermination of darkness. You, embodiments of light, have created an imbalance between the forces of light and darkness."
A message that bypassed the barriers of hearing, sight, language, age. A message directly into their consciousness. A message that they could not refute but only accept as true.
"Not just the planet you live on but the universe has come to face the threat of darkness being exterminated. To you, darkness might be evil, an existence despised. Yet without darkness you, too, could not be."
"To be here is to fix what was broken. You will serve as our avatars, creating balance where is none. You shall remain here until balance is restored. It may take a year or ten centuries. It all depends on your will."
"You shall know if you read. You shall read and understand. You will understand and act. You will act and protect." The orb vanished just as it had appeared.
The Cures were staggering and gritting teeth. They felt sick, violated and disturbed. They had learned of things humans were not supposed to know. Not then, not ever.
Moonlight walked to where the orb had been and picked up what looked like a thin booklet of some sort. She could hardly stand, and that was still more than the others managed to do. "It's filled by my own handwriting..." Moonlight talked to herself and read the few pages the book had.
Bright and Windy had joined Moonlight after being able to stand. They too found the book to be filled with their own handwriting. It was passed around and each Cure read the book and the horror it contained.
The most basic rule of storms was that they continued until they had fixed the imbalance that caused them in the first place. The Cures had gotten into the storm of the century.
"We were right..." Bright whispered to Windy.
"I stand by what I said." Windy replied and Bright nodded.
"We volunteer for the first fight. We already decided that if something like this happens, we would fight so others would not have to fight their friends. Who else will volunteer?" Windy looked in the round.
"I will fight. If this is our work, we will have to take responsibility for it and fight. I won't run away from what I caused in the first place." Moonlight walked away from the others towards the northern end of the hallway.
"I will fight too. I think the same way Moonlight does." Sunshine followed after the oldest Cure.
"That makes four. This is not a battle to kill each other but to fight and compete. We will come back with at worst some bruises and some headaches. You all read what the book said. I believe it. There is no reason not to." Windy had said what she wanted to say and left, followed by Bright.
They found the door exactly where they knew it would be. "We will win this."
=== Dissonance ===
Moonlight was the first one to wake up. Her back hurt and she knew why. Rouge. That last attack of hers had been brutal. She was a little numb but nothing was broken and the burns were not worse than heavy sunburn. Considering how hard they had fought, she had gotten off quite easily. As the book had said, she found a bowl with coins on her bed. Favor.
Leaving her room, she found the other Cures outside. "How did it go?" Milky Rose was the first to ask. "We could hear echoes of the fighting but not see anything. It sounded like a gruesome battle."
"We lost, I think. You'll need to ask Bright. We were up against Black, White, Marine and Rouge. They were quite a good combination. As you can see, the worst injury I have is some sunburn on my back. That is where Rouge stabbed me with her Claws of Fire. This place seems to protect us from taking permanent damage." Moonlight felt her skin itching. It was going to peel. Damn that Rouge.
Sunshine came out of her room looking fairly dizzy. "My head feels like a truck hit me. Moonlight, how did it go? I vaguely remember hearing Marine's voice..." Sunshine stepped next to the others who proceeded to examine her. A few bruises was the worst thing they could find.
"Marine hit you with Black's ability. You were knocked out. I was knocked out by Rouge."
"Black and White are fearsome opponents." Windy and Bright had come out of their room. Windy seemed to be mostly unhurt, having only two bruises but Bright had difficulty walking.
"I took out Marine a little too late. I'm sorry Sunshine." Windy apologized for her mistake.
"You did that? What kind of ability did you use?" Moonlight was curious. Marine seemed to have just dropped unconscious out of the blue.
"Stormflair. It shuts down your enemy's consciousness but it has a large drawback. I will lose consciousness as well." Windy explained briefly. "Are you sure you can stand?"
Bright leaned against the wall and sighed. "Don't look at me like that. I just pulled a muscle in my back. Considering what White hit me with, I am lucky to only have this. It hurts a bit but if I keep like this, I barely feel a thing." Bright moved up once to fix her walking and grit her teeth. "We lost. White took me out in the end. I think she got hit by her own recoil but I can't be sure."
"They were serious and so were we. Despite us all being on the same side, I don't think either of us pulled any punches. They knew the same thing we know. That these battles are necessary." Moonlight commented. "We lost, so I will take responsibility. I will donate my favor so we can all eat something."
"We will do the same. A bathroom is something we all need." Bright said and looked to Windy who showed a rare, kind smile.
"I don't need any personal things. It is more important we all have something to eat." Sunshine said and pitched in on Moonlight's idea.
Acts of charity were just as necessary in the beginning as the fights themselves. They all realized that. A bathroom. Food. Water. Basic needs would not come at a high price but it didn't hurt to have some reserve to raise morale.
"We need to decide who switches and who goes to negotiate the next fight." Windy said and looked at the others. One of them had to switch to the other team and someone from their side would join theirs.
"I want to switch." Milky Rose wanted to see Aqua and clear her misunderstanding with her. Hikari knew that so she didn't say anything.
Passion took a single look at Milky Rose and saw that she was desperate to go. She wanted to see the other three, but she could stay for one more battle and talk to Beat some more.
"No objections? Fine. I will go and negotiate the next battle. I want those who have not battled this time to think about fighting this time around." Moonlight closed the matter of who would switch and left the other eleven behind.
The door opened again and Moonlight stepped through the azure light. She was back in the big room which looked pretty devastated from their fight. She was facing a Cure she had only seen once before, yet she still remembered her name.
=== End of Event 2 ===
