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Dissonance
Event XV
Broken
"Why... is this room... upside down..." Honoka was fighting to keep her eyes open. She couldn't quite grasp the reason why she was fighting, when the real world was so full of pain and much too loud sounds and voices, the dream world much preferable.
Trying to roll over, her head started exploding all over again. A kingdom for a gigantic pillow to shield her from everything. The girl next to her was being way too noisy, too. When did Nagisa turn into a gorilla that was doing breathing exercises?
Lifting her arm and trying to push the girl next to her a bit further away from herself, the only reaction Honoka got was some movement from under the blanket, two arms wrapping themselves around her waist, a head pressing against her shoulders.
"Why does she have to be so clingy after a night of wassailing... for the love of..." But even with all that, Honoka couldn't be truly angry with her. She had partied with everyone else and stuck around till the very end. She knew the next morning would be hard.
Nagisa hadn't hit the alcohol nearly as hard as she did, so how in the name of all that was good was she still asleep. How long had they gone? Mai and Saki had been carried off, both of them peacefully passed out, some time late by Moonlight, who had pulled the emergency brake just short of passing out herself.
Her memory of the evening was pretty good, except the last bit, where it got increasingly misty. Slowly turning over, every single second of moving hurting her head like she was standing right next to the trumpets of Jericho. "You need a haircut..." Honoka ruffled Nagisa's hair a bit and closed her eyes, unwilling to deal with anything before her head cleared up.
Wasn't Nagisa's hair a bit too wild, even for bed hair? Probably just her head messing with her. Trying to fall back asleep, Honoka tried to ignore the horrible feeling of being dehydrated badly. She should have gotten some water before she hit the straw.
Not even five minutes passed before she couldn't stand the feeling of her sore throat anymore. Judging by how sticky she was from sweating a lot, Nagisa must have gotten pretty horny after all that partying. Why couldn't she have stayed comfortably passed out?
Getting up and noticing that her idea was pretty accurate, judging by the complete lack of clothes and civilian form, Honoka transformed and slowly staggered to the door, leaving her partner buried under the blanket. They both needed a shower.
White was barely halfway down the hall when another door opened and yet one more still. Mai had also woken up and looked even worse than she presumably did. Her hair was a catastrophic mess, even as Egret, and the smell of sex was easy to detect even at over ten meter distance. The other early bird, if it could be called that, was Dream, who looked every bit as miserable as Honoka felt. The black bags under her eyes were enormous. At least Dream didn't reek of sex. Two of the three smelling like a brothel was more than enough. Raising their hands slightly to signal that they saw each other, Honoka waited for Nozomi and Mai to catch up to her.
Not a single word was said until the three Cures had arrived in the showers. "I feel sick..." Mai was saying what they all felt. It was a given that there would be some repercussions after partying that hard, but she didn't expect them to be that harsh. "But it was so worth it..." Mai couldn't recall details, but she felt really good about the party and especially the sex after.
"The last thing I remember... is playing truth or dare." Nozomi couldn't even remember with who or what she had done. At least there were no cellphones or cameras, no proof of whatever she and the others had done.
"Regret it?" Honoka felt a bit better as the hot water hit her, but her head was still killing her. She only noticed then that she had several new hickeys, which was just a little odd. Nagisa wasn't usually the type to do that. The alcohol must have really gotten to her.
"Are you crazy? I haven't had... that much fun in months." Nozomi, while she had many normal friends, didn't have any with whom she could go wild at a party. "Thank god whoever invented hot showers."
"You can say that again." Mai wasn't feeling so well, even with the shower, so she leaned against the wall. "I wish I could get the taste out of my mouth."
"Same here." It wasn't just Urara who had come out with harder stuff. A bit of favor vanished in exchange for glasses and an assortment of drinks sometime that evening.
"Feel like doing it again? Maybe next week?" Honoka didn't think she could handle another party any time sooner than that.
"Won't be around then. I'm leaving tomorrow or the day after." Remembering that Michiru had missed the party gave her a bit of a somber feeling.
"I'm gonna have a word with Nagisa after this... I got half a dozen hickeys, two of them where I can't hide them." Honoka was a little annoyed with her girlfriend. It was okay to go wild but she had clearly gone overboard.
"I'm surprised I don't have any. Saki usually leaves me one or two after we sleep with... each... other..." Their heads cleared, both Honoka and Mai were starting to have a horrible thought.
They looked similar and all, but no matter how much alcohol was involved, they surely wouldn't... would they? They felt a lot worse all of a sudden. That certainly wasn't how they wanted to start their day.
The bathroom fell into an awkward silence. Nozomi didn't mind so much as her head was still a world of pain. Mai was the first to get out of the shower, not taking well to too much hot water. Honoka followed suit a few minutes later.
Going back into their rooms and meeting back outside, they didn't need to say a word. The look on their faces was giving away everything they needed to know. "We joked about those two looking alike before but... What do we do?" Mai was hoping that Honoka would come up with some kind of magical solution that preserved everything as it had been before the last night.
"Hiding it is going to look really suspicious. Though I don't really want to tell them either... We did joke about them looking alike before, but this is really ridiculous. I remember clearly I was taking Nagisa to my room, not Saki..." Honoka didn't even realize she was almost word for word quoting Mai.
"I barely remember anything, so I won't be of much help. This situation wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't slept with them."
"Thankfully we're both mature enough to not start bickering. I slept with your girlfriend, you slept with mine, at least we're all in this together." Honoka didn't feel particularly good. Sleeping with Saki was not exactly on her top ten list of things she wanted to do. The same must be true for Mai.
"At least it's not us two and those two. We couldn't explain that with a simple, they look alike."
"Don't even joke about that. Makes me afraid of the next time I touch alcohol." The two of them let out a heavy sigh, continuing their meeting in the middle between their rooms. "I guess we'll just have to tell them. They're as much at fault as we are."
"Let them wake up and take a shower before we tell them. We don't need to make this an even bigger mess than it is." Mai was grateful that Honoka was good enough of a friend to deal with it calmly. Maybe partially due to being hungover, but that didn't matter.
They weren't the only ones with problems waiting for them as they woke up. In a different room, Kanade had just gotten up and miraculously avoided stepping into vomit on the ground. The entire room was smelling bad like alcohol, digested food and sex.
"I'm taking a shower... clean up your mess..." Kanade was just about to leave the room when Hibki grabbed her hand, holding her back.
"Who say's it's my mess...? You were drunk worse than me..."
"I'll help you clean it up... let's... not argue this morning." Kanade didn't like giving in, not one bit, but what she liked even less was the prospect of having an argument with Hibiki when the room smelled like puke and the two of them really needed a shower.
"Agreed..." Hibiki saw things in a similar way. She wouldn't have been satisfied with a halfway solution like that if she were her normal self, but... The two of them had never partied like that before. And they had also never experienced a hangover like that before.
Leaving their room, they came across Nozomi, who was just returning from the showers, looking eager to go back to bed. "Morning..." Being considerate of them and herself, it was almost a whisper. Both suite Cures nodding and marching off to the bathroom, they really didn't look forward to getting back to their room and cleaning up.
They also could only imagine what the living room had to look like. Neither of the two could remember when exactly they stopped drinking and went back to their room. What they did remember was that they had a big argument right at the table, while drunk, that ended with Hibiki pushing Kanade down and kissing her, the girls around them whistling. Hopefully, nobody else remembered that.
Entering a cabin together and changing back to civilian form, there was no need to even bother undressing. Turning on the hot water and letting their head hang, they sure felt as bad as they had felt good the last evening. "Do you remember how we got to our room?" Hibiki was curious just for the sake of making a little conversation. It was too odd to be all quiet when showering together. And making was out of the question.
"My room... no idea." Kanade's head felt like she had eaten a bunch of balloons that were now resting comfortable just behind her forehead. "I think I know now why they don't let minors drink. It's hell to wake up afterwards."
"Dream looked just as bad as we do and she was already done showering." Hibiki commented and grabbed some shampoo that stood on the ground. Not a cheap kind but not a brand type either, someone had decided a few team favor to supply everyone with shampoo was a good investment in keeping up everyone's mood. "Turn around, I'll wash your hair... do mine after that."
Kanade rested her arm against the wall and her forehead on said arm, closing her eyes. She was so incredibly thankful for Hibiki to be by her side right at that moment. "I can only imagine what those that kept up with Lemonade and Rouge are going to look like."
"Honoka was already up but she did look pretty bad." Hibiki had holes the size of the grand canyon in her memory. "I don't remember all that much from last night. We didn't even drink that much or long..." Going through Kanade's long hair and cleaning it properly took a lot of effort and care. Hibiki felt her arm muscles ache halfway through but endured. That was just fatigue from last night. If she kept ignoring it, it would go away.
"I kinda wish Ellen was there to party with us." Kanade thought about it for a few seconds and then shook her head hard, spraying foam from the shampoo everywhere, some of it getting in Hibiki's mouth, who started spitting it out quite loudly. "Probably for the better she wasn't here..."
"I wonder if things worked out for her... she said she was leaving to talk with Passion. I feel horrible for not being able to save her when she was in exile." Hibiki dropped the idea of making a fuss about the shampoo spraying. Her headache was bad enough as is, without starting another argument.
"Even if you had gone, you wouldn't have been able to be on the same team for a while. Ellen isn't the helpless girl we first met when she became a Cure. I'm sure she's fine." Kanade waited for Hibiki to finish washing her hair before she turned around again and stepped back under the shower. "But I know how you feel. I worry too... Hibiki, where did you get those scratch marks?" Kanade looked at four long scratch marks that stretched over the entirety of Hibiki's back.
"Scratch marks?" Trying to look over her own shoulder after Kanade whirled her finger around to tell her it was on her back, Hibiki couldn't see anything. "Probably the same way you got that hickey. On your neck." Grabbing Kanade by her shoulder and turning her around, Hibiki put her finger on the hickey, Kanade twitching as she did. "There."
"I don't feel like stepping out of this shower and finding out what else we did." The blonde girl covered her face with her hands.
"Still need to clean up our room..." Hibiki really didn't want to leave the shower, much less even going back to their room.
They were not the only ones that didn't want to be in their room. Judging by the groaning, Moonlight was somehow dragging herself into the bathroom and into the shower. With the exception of the occasional groan and "Never again..." followed by silence and then "How many times have I said that now...?" and more groaning.
"Alcohol is fearsome." Kanade looked at the right wall, knowing that Yuri was just two stalls away.
"I remember having a lot of fun though. Not exactly what we had fun with, but... having fun." Hibiki tried to smile but it looked very forced. Kanade didn't mind and caressed her partners cheek regardless.
The person who was hit the worst by the late evening party was just coming to at that moment. Her head a kaleidoscope of pain, feeling sick and memory loss, Ako cursed under her breath. The second time! That was twice now that Lemonade had gotten her drunk. At least she was in her own bed, she could tell by the faint smell. The bit that was not completely overpowered by her own smell, which was more of a stench. A strong alcoholic smell mixed half with the stench of sweat, there were two others she couldn't quite put. One was extremely sweet, almost abnormally so, the other was making her feel weird. The taste in her mouth was something she didn't even want to try and describe, much less experience what it actually was.
Trying to move resulted in her limbs almost refusing to abide by her command. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion, and lifting her head a little caused the entire room to start spinning faster than the the surroundings did on a roller-coaster.
"Simmer down girl..."
No. That had to be a bad joke. But now that she tried thinking about it, there was this odd sensation of pressure against her back and around her waist. Slowly moving her own arm towards the general area, she could feel the relatively smooth skin of another girl as she touched someone's arm. The voice had been really faint and more of a whisper than actual spoken words, but she recognized it.
Lemonade was laying in her bed, hugging her from behind, and not making any attempts to clarify the situation. Ako wanted to jump up and be furious, but both the sudden realization that she was also naked, as well as the incredibly lucid pain in her head stopped her.
Sensing the panic in the weak movements of Muse, Urara yawned, pulled her a little closer and repeated her words. "I said simmer down... calm down and I'll explain stuff... Just... keep your voice low." Urara was not immune to hangovers either, although she came well prepared.
"...passed out on my shoulder..." The sound of Urara's head rolling over the pillow, her lips mere centimeters distance from Ako's ears, so she could lower the volume as much as possible. She actually managed to talk with such a faint voice that it didn't hurt Muse, who was likely having the worst hangover of all.
"Took you to my room... piggyback. Was lazy..." Another yawn, a few noises one would generally attribute to a sleeping person and she continued on. "Got you... on my bed and you started... puking all over it." That wasn't something the young girl liked to hear. Puking all over the bed of someone else was certainly not within her usual attitude. "You got... puke all over yourself too... got you to the toilet... waited... took off your costume.. trashed it... took you to your room... don't worry... everyone was passed out..." Urara's left hand moved slightly upwards towards Ako's breasts, passed right past without touching them even in the slightest and softly poked her cheek.
"Since you... ruined my bed... I crashed... with you. Don't worry... didn't do anything. Now... lemme sleep. Was up for over... an hour... getting you... in bed." Never even having opened her eyes, Urara instantly fell back asleep as soon as she finished talking.
Literally just laying there with her mouth open, her mind in a state of complete confusion, Ako tried to regain what little composure she had before she noticed Urara. She drank alcohol at the party that was started on a whim. She didn't quite remember who talked her into it, but there was no doubt that was Lemonade's handiwork. Then everything was lost in a hazy mist near no-memory land.
But she had the distinct feeling that the woman behind her wasn't making those things up. Considering how extremely awful she felt, the whole part about puking sounded pretty accurate. But that wasn't really that important now. Judging by the body warmth, she wasn't the only one that was naked, and that made her a bit uncomfortable. She might have the body of an adult, but that didn't mean she was one.
Getting up was not an option. Just trying to made the room spin again, and there was no doubt that she'd end up crashing on the floor. Switching to civilian form was an even worse idea. With all the leftover alcohol in her blood, and most of all, Lemonade right there, she couldn't turn back into a child. Absolutely not.
What she couldn't really comprehend was Lemonade not taking advantage of the situation. She must have been completely defenseless the whole time, but she couldn't detect even the faintest smell of the older girls lips on her own. She would recognize it from before.
And then, there was something else she didn't quite get. She wasn't feeling relieved or happy that nothing happened but confused and disappointed. Did Lemonade lose interest? It would be good for her if she did... wouldn't it? Trying to think about those complicated things was hard enough when she was sober and wide awake.
For now, there wasn't a lot she could do but accept the situation and try to cope with it the best she could. A bit more sleep certainly wouldn't hurt. And Lemonade seemed to behave herself well enough to just about accept her being there... for now. It wasn't... really that uncomfortable, physically. To have someone in your bed and hold you. A thought like that passed through Ako's mind just as she tried to turn over, feeling sick all over again, the bed spinning around her. She needed to see if the yellow Cure really was asleep.
What surprised her, when she finally managed to turn around without reliving the terrors of the last night that Urara described to her briefly, was that Lemonade was in her civilian form, peacefully sleeping with her arms around Ako.
It was so unexpected that she let her guard down and wanted to make sure she really was asleep. Trying her best to make her voice as faint as it could possibly be, Ako whispered a single word. "Thanks."
No reaction at all, the older girl really was fast asleep. Relieved again, Ako wondered just what kind of fascination that woman had with her. And what was her intention to begin with? If she just wanted to sleep with her, she surely wouldn't have passed up the chance to do so last night. If that wasn't it...
The mere idea that Lemonade might actually want a relationship with her was crazy. A rude, pushy, manipulative, egoistical... well, maybe she wasn't that egoistical... or rude. Just honest and focused on what she wants.
Adults really were complex and hard to understand. Hibiki and Kanade were pretty obvious in what they liked and didn't like. Ellen a little less so.
"After this... call me Urara." No matter how well she slept, with Ako in her arms, she woke up every time the girl moved. It annoyed her that Muse was so much taller than her. It wasn't that obvious in bed, and still... "Go to.. sleep..." Urara's words were followed by an almost too loud yawn before she pulled Ako a little closer yet, and went back to the realm of dreams. With everyone surely being as hangover as Urara was, nobody would notice those two missing for a while. They could go and sleep for a while longer.
With no acceptable alternatives to actually following Urara's advice, Ako sighed a little and closed her eyes. She wasn't in as much discomfort as she would have expected to. It wasn't really that terrible to share a bed with the blonde if only when she restrained herself from messing with Ako. In fact... maybe... it wasn't... that...
Before she could finish that line of thought, she dozed off, the adrenaline from the situation wearing off and her body demanding rest urgently.
=== Dissonance ===
The light team was already at breakfast when the first people on the other side woke up. Again, it was toast with things like marmalade on top of it, and again, it was Hikari and Kurumi making breakfast. Those two got along even better than before, thanks to the whole ordeal Kurumi went through.
A couple of people still looked worn out. Berry appeared like she had spent the entire night brooding over something, a look she shared with Marine and Blossom, the first not even trying to fake she was tired.
It was by all means, and considering their location, a normal morning. The love birds trio were late once again, Inori continued her discussion about literature with Karen and now also Komachi, who gave those two some insight in how professionals work and what kind of hardships there are beyond the writing itself.
Hikari and Kurumi managed to have a rather interesting discussion with Bright about her work and relationship with Mai and Saki. Marine had seemingly fallen asleep in her chair, her right hand still resting on the table, holding a piece of toast. Blossom was too spaced out to correct the behavior of her friend.
"Do we even want to know why all three of you are late?" Inori looked like an imp when she asked. Love sat down in the chair next to Inori, Ellen next to her and Setsuna to Ellen's right. They decided to just switch the center spot every other day.
"You have the mind of an old man, Bukki." Love didn't look tired out but she lacked her usual energy. "If you really want to know, we-" Love was interrupted by Karen, who didn't feel comfortable hearing a saucy story so early in the morning.
"I feel comfortable not knowing. We don't need to know-" Love continued like Karen didn't even exist regardless.
"-needed Setsuna to untangle Ellen's and my hair. I don't know how, but we managed to get them so badly mixed up, we couldn't move a meter apart of each other." Love sighed and looked to Setsuna, who was barely holding back wild laughter. Ellen looked at her own lap, embarrassed with the situation.
Inori broke out in roaring laughter, just imagining the situation and seeing the look on Love's face. Even with knowing two of those three really well, she couldn't have guessed that. Karen looked like she had walked under the only rain cloud in the sky and stopped there. She had been completely off the mark.
"You sleep as civilians, right?" Inori hadn't seen Love in months prior to becoming trapped in the odd dimension, so she wasn't sure how long her hair had gotten.
"You don't?" Love answered the question with another, making a grab for the toast in the small basket. While it happened at an almost inconceivably slow rate, breakfast was slowly getting fancier. Or maybe that was not the right word to say it. It was getting... comfy.
"I was just curious. Setsuna has really long hair as Passion, and so do you Love. If you slept like that, it wouldn't surprise me if your hair got all tangled up."
"It's more comfortable to sleep in civilian form. Not everyone's costume is that easy to take off, and I would feel bad, tearing it off by force." Setsuna joined the conversation, enjoying coffee instead of toast. Maybe it was just her getting used to the brand the others used, but she really liked it.
"How about you two?" Inori turned to Karen and Komachi, who seemed to be a bit embarrassed to talk about their sleeping habits. "I can already guess by your faces." Giggling, Pine started looking for whoever had captured the sugar. She couldn't drink her coffee without at least two cubes. Finding the small pot with the sugar cubes hidden behind a basket near Kurumi, Inori returned to her initial conversation. "Where did we stop?"
"I was asking what you do in your free time." Komachi had already finished eating. She had gotten a new idea for a novel while talking to Inori, and even if she had to write it by hand, she would start as soon as breakfast was over. She did enjoy eating and sitting on the same table as everyone.
"There isn't really anything specific I do. I often have to be on call, so I can't really do anything fancy. I really like playing billiards and darts. I have really good eyesight so I make use of that. I only ever play for free drinks, never for real money though."
"You play with random people?" Komachi was too introverted to do anything like that.
"Miki, who apparently has her head in the clouds right now, is always too busy to come with me and I don't really have that many other friends that are close to me. I always tried to keep..." Inori finally realized something very important. "So that's why I never hit it off with anyone... I didn't want to. I kept them at a distance since I was always careful about hiding I'm Cure Pine. Oh well."
"You kind of lost me there Inori." Karen couldn't quite follow her train of thought. She had a rough idea based on what she said after the brief moment of silence, but asking for confirmation would be pretty rude.
"Nothing, just a case of not seeing the forest amidst a lot of trees." It explained a lot about her social behavior. How could she have not realized this before? By not letting anyone as close as Love, Miki and Setsuna, there was obviously no way she could have ever successfully dated someone.
Not realizing that until now felt like a giant blunder, stupid even. She always had some kind of backup plan and yet, she didn't realize something so extremely basic about herself.
"What about you two? I suspect Karen doesn't have much free time and Komachi reads." Trying to shift the topic away from herself, Inori turned the question around.
"I actually browse the net a lot. When I don't have a concert, I still need to practice a lot and I do so at home. Other than shopping and meetings, I don't actually go out much. I sometimes play an online game when I get bored."
"I didn't expect you to be the net savvy type, it's so... hard to imagine you sitting in front of a computer, browsing. Komachi, you use a PC for writing scripts, right?"
"For the final product yes. I started using one after I tried hand writing a small novel. It's just so much faster and easier. I can make safety copies easily, too. I don't really browse the net much, except for research on my novels, though."
"What net game are you playing Aqua?" Michiru joined the conversation, bored with herself after Hikari and Kurumi started cleaning up. Breakfast was almost over after all.
"Monster Hunter." Karen answered on reflex without thinking about it. She didn't really like to show off how much time she was spending on the computer when she was free. But some games could be really addicting.
"Character name AquaSlash?" Making a random guess based on who she was, Michiru had played the game before. Having gotten bored with it after two months, having beaten the last boss, she was quite a famous person in the community. Of course, Michiru didn't know about this.
"How did you know?"
"Played the game a few months back. Got bored after I beat the last boss. What was the last big hunt you did?" Both Komachi and Inori watched with fascination how Karen dealt with a world that was a little alien to them.
"Raviente. I don't play all that much. What was your name when you played?" Karen found herself to be surprisingly interested in talking to Bright about the game. Komachi and Inori both obviously wouldn't understand any of it, but they had more than enough time to themselves.
"That's not so bad. I was just called Bright." Michiru looked confused when Karen almost dropped her cup and stared at her.
"The famous veteran who was the first to take down Gogomoa on it's release date?" Karen was familiar with the game, more so than she wanted to let on. But to think such a famous character was one of the other Cures...
"That's the big ape, right? It wasn't all that difficult, just tedious. Kaoru kept annoying me for hogging the PC at the time so I died once." Michiru wasn't aware that other people took a long time to finally do what she did. To her, it was just another somewhat amusing way to pass the time.
"You make it sound so easy... It took me over a week and fifteen tries to kill Raviente. I can't imagine taking Gogomoa on and beating him in a single day."
"If we ever get out of here I suppose I can help you. I get bored a lot at home when we don't have a job to do."
While Karen and Michiru continued to discuss various aspects of the game they both played, Hikari and Kurumi finished up cleaning the table and keeping busy in the kitchen. Taking the now vacant seat next to Inori, Komachi talked to her a little more, mostly explaining details about the editing process of published books.
"Everyone's getting along nicely." Hikari took a quick look through the window, seeing Michiru talk to Karen, who seemed to be quite impressed by something.
"It would be bad if they didn't. Considering we all have to switch sooner or later and meet the people we fought before, it's better that they all get along."
"You say that, but you still don't like it when you get beaten in a battle." Hikari had taken a clue or two from Honoka when it came to teasing stubborn people.
"That's different! This is this, and that is that. Everyone keeps these things separately. If they didn't, there would be no way to ever get along in this place."
"I'm surprised you're not awkward around Karen. You don't feel sad anymore?" Kurumi stopped washing dishes for a bit and sighed as she thought about how to answer that.
"Nothing is going to come out of being sad or awkward around her. I messed it up, so the best I can do now is to become her friend. The only thing that's different then is that I can't kiss her or sleep with her."
"Are you going to try and look for someone else to go out with?" While many people might have taken that as a implication that she wanted to be that someone, Hikari meant no such thing. And Kurumi knew her well enough to realize that too.
"Not for now. It's only us twenty-five here and most of them already have a partner."
"That doesn't mean nothing can happen. Peach and Passion seem to have taken Beat into their relationship for example."
"Stuff like that is the exception Hikari. I've never ever seen a three-way relationship before. It must be really complicated for those three. And I can't really think of any couple who I'd get along with so well to ask them that either."
"I wonder what it's like to be in a relationship. I never had one and maybe that's because I hang around Nagisa and Honoka too much. Maybe I'm seen as part of them and then people don't even try to ask me out."
"You want to be asked out?" Kurumi had a smile on her face as she looked over her shoulder. She could only imagine a funny scene happening, no matter what, when someone asked her out.
"I don't know. Maybe. Just to find out what it's like."
"As long as it works out, relationships are really nice. But they have their downsides too. You'll feel really bad when it breaks, and every time you fight... well, let's just say that it's not all happy times." She didn't want to imagine the bad times she had with Karen. The arguments, the fighting. Maybe she was just better off with Komachi in general.
=== Dissonance ===
Breakfast was a lonesome activity that morning, hardly anyone showed up, and those that did, found that nobody had the energy to go and prepare something. Kaoru was the first to be at the table and was just enjoying the silence with some coffee she had made.
The next exile run was soon and it was time to put her plan in motion. How exactly did she let herself get so drunk that it would affect her morning after like this? She couldn't tell just how much time passed. Occasionally, someone walked into the bathroom and came out of it, but she didn't pay attention who it was. The first to actually join her at the table was Rouge, who looked even worse than Windy.
"I hope this is the strong stuff..." Walking past Kaoru, looking at the big can filled with the black pick-me-up liquid, Rin went to get a cup for herself only to find out that there were no clean cups left. Sitting down next to the blue haired girl and filling an otherwise empty cup with coffee, she didn't bother to use milk or sugar or wash out the old cup. Strong, black coffee, best strong enough to wake the dead, was just the right thing now.
The living room was otherwise a mess. Empty glasses, dishes from last night, leftover food, empty bottles and cans. It looked like a horde of barbarians marched through the room. And still, she couldn't get herself up to do any cleaning.
Emptying half her cup in one go, Rin wanted the caffeine to kick it and override her hangover, but nothing much happened. Putting her arms crossed over on the table and resting her head on them, she just wanted to go back to sleep.
They had only partied for about an hour and a half. How could everyone be that hung over? It... was only an hour, wasn't it? Everyone's perception of time got a little fuzzy even under normal circumstances in this place. Drunk and having fun...
Kaoru didn't say anything. For the first time in months, she just wanted silence, wanted boredom, so her boiling mind could cool off. She couldn't tell how much time passed and whether Rouge had fallen asleep again, but something in her head kept bugging her. They were forgetting something. She just couldn't remember for the hell of it what it was.
Nobody else was coming in for a while. They all had their own issues that morning. The first to join the silent aftermath of the party that consisted only of Kaoru and Rin was Yuri, who didn't feel comfortable just laying down.
Her eyes still half closed, she walked towards the kitchen like in trance, grabbing a big glass as she walked, vanishing into the room and returning about five minutes later, silent sitting down across Windy, who slowly pushed the can of coffee towards Moonlight. None of them said a word, for they could all communicate in the universal language of people with hangovers.
Yuri's eyes twitched as she tasted coffee so strong, it could have doubled as an adrenaline injection. And it still wasn't enough to remove her headache. At least she didn't have to come in to work today. That would have killed her for sure. And just what for the love of god did they pass around last night.
The unlikely trio just sat there, drinking coffee until the can was empty. With a silent nod, each of the three agreed to decide who had to make more coffee by chance. Getting up just for that and otherwise resting her head in the usual position, they played a single game of rock-paper-scissors. Kaoru lost but at least she already knew where everything was.
While the remaining two were alone, Nozomi came in and sat down next to Rin, who was just about to freak out by the possibility of Nozomi talking endlessly this early in the morning. To her surprise, the only word Nozomi used, after pushing several dishes and glasses away from the spot on the table she sat at, was "Coffee?"
Usually not the type to even drink it, Nozomi felt she was given little choice. Knowing that hungover people would always drink strong coffee in the morning to get the day over with. The single answer she was given by Yuri was "Five minutes."
While not as hungover as the others, four others were clearly exhausted with what was happening. Both pairs back in their rooms, they were bringing closure to an issue before it got big and annoying.
Nagisa and Saki were woken up, each by their own partner, then they were sent to go and shower before anything else. Thirty minutes later, they finally returned to Mai and Honoka, the two of them waiting in front of their rooms, going inside with their partner.
Having decided it was best to tell them independently, Honoka found Nagisa to be surprisingly realistic about it. Instead of making a big fuss about it, she simply lowered her head and apologized, looking more sorry than Honoka had ever known her to be. "It's my fault too... all four of us are." Honoka didn't want to put all the blame on her girlfriend.
"It's really mostly our fault." Nagisa could remember the reason why Honoka and Mai had mixed them up. Not because they looked alike by nature, but because they had taken a joke too far. After playing truth or dare for a while, someone asked them to pretend to be each other. Vanishing and coming back ten minutes later, Nagisa was wearing Bloom's costume, although her hair was not quite long enough to fully copy her hairstyle. The same was true for Saki looking like Black.
"We didn't think that would end in you two taking back the wrong person. Or maybe we just didn't really think at all anymore at that time."
"You still didn't do it on purpose. It would be unfair of me to get angry over something you did as fun that just happened to cause a problem. I still love you just as much as before, Nagisa."
"I love you too, Honoka. Just... don't be angry if I don't kiss you now. I still haven't gotten rid of the bad aftertaste in my mouth." Nagisa scratched her chin and forced a small smile.
The room next door had the exact same problem and a very similar discussion. "Just don't dress up as Nagisa again. Swapping partners once is already one time too many, okay?" Mai was hugging Saki from behind, who was blankly staring at the bed they sat on. She felt really sorry for things to turn out that way. "Or better yet, if you ever get asked to do this again, don't forget to tell Honoka and me, so we can switch as well. That way, it all works out."
"I never knew you were into kinky stuff like that Mai." Saki grinned and found herself relieved that her own partner was so understanding. "Just... isn't it going to be awkward to look at Honoka and Nagisa now?"
"One of us is going to leave tomorrow. The other the day after. By the time we're all back on one side, we'll have forgotten about this. Hopefully." Their friendship wouldn't suffer under a single mistake, but they too, were only human. Of course it would be awkward for a bit to talk to and look at Nagisa and Honoka.
"I... want to go back to bed. I almost threw up in the showers. I feel sick and I'm really tired. Remind me to take care the next time we party." Saki leaned against Mai, feeling that her partner too wanted to get a little more sleep.
"No promises." Her first impulse was to hug Saki, the two of them letting themselves fall on the bed and go to sleep just like that. The somewhat delicate situation of their stomachs objected to that idea and instead had them slowly crawl under the blanket, changing back to civilian form.
Honoka was feeling less horrible than Mai yet she didn't have the willpower to resist when Nagisa asked for the same thing Saki did. They really were similar in a lot of ways, down to how they acted when they were suffering from a hangover. But most people would act like that in such a situation.
Down the hallway, in the living room, it was slowly getting more crowded, with the same level of silence being maintained. It was like a public camp for people about to face execution. After mostly cleaning up Hibiki's room and almost throwing up again from the disgusting smell, Kanade and Hibiki joined the four others in the living room. Hibiki usually wasn't one to drink really strong coffee, but she could really use it right now. Anything was okay as long as it would destroy that bad taste that was left in her mouth from last night.
"Today... 's horrible." Rin's head was still face down on the table, resting on her arms. She only ever got up to get more coffee and drink said liquid.
"You can say that again..." Kanade was, similar to Kaoru, leaned back in her chair and somehow enduring the coffee. It helped, but not as much as she would have liked, considering the taste. Hibiki was in the seat next to her, letting her head hang, slowly working her way through her first cup of coffee.
Even with six people present, they still didn't talk. Nobody felt like getting on everyone's, including their own, nerves by making unnecessary small talk. They all understood that silence and waiting it out was the best course of action. Still, they couldn't shake the feeling they forgot something.
Every single one of them thought that one of the others would eventually remember or fix it. Of course, if everyone thinks the same thing in situations like that, it leads to problems.
=== Dissonance ===
She finally knew what it all meant. The missing parts, the incomplete hymn she had found within herself. It was no coincidence that she was incapable of singing it properly the first time. At the time, her feelings had only been longing for Setsuna, without any hope of ever actually having her feelings returned.
A broken puzzle that was now a whole, the missing pieces not found but created just for her. A song born from her soul, her heart, her true feelings. She needed to show them, make them listen, knowing they would understand her song, understand how thankful she was.
Asking Setsuna and Love to follow her far out into the labyrinth, Ellen still couldn't talk. But she trusted in herself, because those two did too. If she needed her voice to communicate her... no, that was wrong. It wasn't just her hymn. It belonged to all three of them.
"Why are we coming all the way out here?" Setsuna kept looking around, seeing only hallway upon hallway, room upon room.
"I suspect I'm about to see her sing for the first time." Love and Setsuna both walked a few meters behind Ellen and the blond Cure whispered to her first partner. "She looks really excited and there is no other reason I can think of that would make her call us out here."
And Love was correct. Stopping in a big room, Ellen walked a bit around to find a nice spot, where she stood still, reaching for her notepad. "I finally found the missing parts for this after last night. It's all thanks to you two. So I want only you to hear it. I don't know what it will be like, but I just know it's not dangerous." Getting a little nervous as Setsuna and Love walked up to her and held her hand, Ellen took a deep breath. It wasn't so much physical singing as her voice was doing much more than just supplying vocals.
Giving a quick nod, Ellen stretched out her arms to her sides and looked deep inside herself, finding something she held so dear she never wanted to let go again. Her mind was in a different place when the blue sphere formed around her, notes and score lines hovering around her. Not Setsuna or Love had ever seen something like that before. It wasn't just the sphere that amazed them. Music originated from the blue construct, something almost lullaby like.
"Faura yerwe murfan anw sol ciel," The same alien language that could be faintly heard when her hymn Purger reached the living grounds. A language dating back centuries, usable by few, understood by less. But only to an uninvited bystander would the lyrics sound alien. Love and Setsuna did not hear Ellen sing in a foreign tongue. What they heard were words crystal clear. "The little bird chirps her feelings to the world,"
Her right arm moved downwards in a swinging motion, rearranging notes to come together and form a stanza, her left hand drawing lines in the sphere, like moving through water without resistance, yet leaving her mark. "Faura sonwe murfan anw sol ciel ee, The little bird sings her feelings to the people," Her voice was shining through the songs like a light beacon, guiding the listeners to the place they wanted to return to. An alluring tone, Coloratura.
Repeating both lines twice, Ellen started to slowly move, whirl without disturbing the natural chaos inside the sphere, which slowly extended. A warm feeling filled her, the same that had driven her to show those two her completed hymn. The feeling of being loved and loving.
This first part was about herself, her own feelings translated into a song. About wanting to sing, wanting to bring happiness to the people, to the world, with her music. An irreplacable desire that she would have tried to bury if not for Love and Setsuna.
"Ridalnae sol ciel yanyaue manaf, This irreplaceable world, and these precious lives," Her voice, the sung words, were distant, a little faint, calm and soothing. Little different from before but now, the listeners had arrived and found their place at home. It sped up a little and yet it kept people at a distance without scaring them off.
Turning ninety degrees to the right, Ellen arranged a new set of scores, the notes glimmering in her signature blue, the sphere still extending, soon to fill the entire room. "Presia yasra lusye enclone anw omnis, Please, let the light of love enshroud all of them," Her voice collecting strength during this part, which belonged to Setsuna.
Her voice becoming stronger with each word passing. "Presia kiafa sarla mea, Please, listen to my hymn, presia firle sarla mea, Please, feel my song," A small interjection that belonged to her and carried over into Love's part. She was now moving constantly, the notes obscuring the view of her, stanza's being created and vanishing without break, her voice echoing far and wide. Love and Setsuna were absolutely speechless by what they saw, heard and felt.
The sphere almost exploded, increasing suddenly, the notes swirling around like a storm hit them, stanza's merging and separating, creating multiple layers from a single verse. Where the previous segment had been calming and lovely, this one was powerful and dominating, but not in an unwelcome way. "Van fandel viega heighte mea, Even if I were struck by countless blades, van fandel wis lurrea, even if I were terrorized by countless terrors, van fandel crudea ousye, even if I were assaulted by countless sufferings, Van fandel deleir ousye, even if I were assaulted by countless calamities, van fandel gauzewiga der lamenza, even if I were bent to despair by the countless laments, was ki ra tasyue eterne sarla yor, I would never stop offering this song to you." Love's segment was incredibly strong and powerful, the song embodying what Ellen saw, knew and learned to appreciate.
Shifting back to her own segment, Ellen knelt down and looked at both Setsuna and Ellen briefly, lowering her head again, the notes assembling in front of her, forming a majestic stanza. "Alroetsue kierre iem, Now it's the time for atonement, fandel zadius, hierle melifan, iem endia, All that hatred, and these sad histories, will come to an end now." The stanza bursting into blue flames, vanishing, and new notes being created around her, the segment shifted again, back to Love.
"Presia kiafa sarla mea, Please, listen to my hymn, Presia yehar zadius rum ferda yor der sarla mea, Please, let my hymn release you from the flames of hatred that dwell in you, Presia metafalica rifaien tou yor sphilar, Please, revive the song of hope in your heart once more."
The great power in her voice subsiding and making way for her higher, calmer tone, Ellen touched her own collarbones with her fingertips, closing her eyes, singing in total harmony with the sphere. Her own segment was being repeated now, the sphere reaching right in front of Love and Setsuna, who didn't back away when it kept extending, involving them, letting them stand amidst such great magic, as the hymn was being sung.
Love and Setsuna could feel Ellen's thoughts, her emotions. Every little thing was crystal clear. The sphere came slowly to a still stand, each segment repeating once again, Setsuna's slightly more powerful than before, Love's completely different, now gentle and caring instead of strong and dominating.
When it was finally over and the sphere dissolved, Ellen fell to her knees, breathing hard. Love and Setsuna were right next to her, taking her hands, both of them tears in their eyes. At the end, they could not only feel Ellen but also each other. And they were sure that this went both ways.
"I... could only sing it because you two were there for me. Only one third of the hymn is me. The second third is Setsuna." Ellen looked at the red Cure and smiled. "I fell in love with her and that created the first part of the hymn. After she returned my feelings, the second part was created. And when Love accepted me, even started to try and get close to me just the way Setsuna was... the third part was created when I started returning those feelings." Her face was fiercely red when she leaned forward and kissed Love on the cheek.
"I've never heard a more beautiful song." Setsuna didn't know what else to say. She was just so in awe about it.
"I've never heard of magic like this. I could feel, hear your thoughts. I felt really calm through all of it." Love was no less in awe than Setsuna.
Uninvited guests showed up just as Love tried to help Ellen up. Aqua, Mint, Pine and Bright almost stormed the room, looking around. "The music stopped? What happened?" The three could see the confusion and worry in the faces of the four that had just arrived.
"You girls need to calm down. This wasn't like the hymn from before. Can't you even tell a killing hymn from a calming one?"
"Are you telling me you understood it? All we heard was gibberish. The sound wasn't threatening, but after what happened, you can't blame us for being worried." Karen was the most worried out of the four. Inori was slowly walking towards Setsuna, a neutral expression on her face.
"It was a song for just you two, am I right?" There was no way to tell what Inori was thinking as she stood there. She was worried as well, having experienced the horrors of Purger first hand. But this time, the hymn had been fundamentally different. Like they were listening in on something not meant for them.
"It wasn't gibberish for us. But apparently only those for who the hymn is meant can understand the lyrics." Setsuna wouldn't stand for the others treating Ellen like that. "I'm disappointed that all of you still don't trust Ellen."
"It takes time to build trust but only one moment to lose it all. Miki stayed behind, saying we're silly, thinking that another dangerous hymn surfaced in her. It seems she was right." Turning around to the others, Pine smiled and sighed relieved.
"Great, I feel incredibly silly now." Karen hid her face in embarrassment. People were quick to jump on anything suspicious, judging people. Cures were no exception to that. And of course it was embarrassing to admit to such a thing or have it show to others.
"Please calm down everyone. I just... didn't want to worry everyone. Only Love, Setsuna and I can understand this Hymn. It has no effect on anyone else, and for those two, it calms their mind and lets them feel what I feel, what the other one feels." Ellen tried hard to defuse the situation. Komachi was the first to step up, feeling sorry for how easy they were to suspect her of anything.
"I'm sorry. It's just... we can't understand your hymns. It's easy to frighten people with something they don't know. I'm happy you got your voice back though, Beat." Accompanied by a smile, the green Cure dragged Karen in front of the blue Cure, giving her that look.
"It's like Komachi said. I'm sorry I suspected you." Inori and Michiru apologized as well. Especially the latter knew how hard it was to trust someone who was once a danger. It would've been so easy for Saki and Mai to reject them, see them as enemies. And yet they didn't, while she had done exactly that. It was a horrible feeling.
But none of the three held it against them. To some degree, they could understand their fears and worries. It was hard to accept, but Ellen would need to work just a little more to completely erase people's fear of her hymns.
"Let's go back. Miki should be about done with the negotiations, and we haven't decided on an exile runner yet." Inori was trying to redirect everyone's attention to something different, away from suspecting each other. She didn't tell anyone yet that she was thinking of going, just to see what the other team was like.
=== Dissonance ===
Something was wrong. Miki was waiting much longer than usual in front of the gate. Not only that, but the distinct feeling of when the right time to enter had come was missing. Like the negotiation would simply not happen. Was there a problem on the other side?
After about ten minutes of waiting senselessly, she started to feel restless. Walking up and down, her eyes fixed on the gate, almost as if she was trying to open it with her will. Why wasn't it opening? Was it because she had already covered negotiation the day before? But there was no such rule.
The weird singing had stopped halfway while she waited. It was no louder than a faint whisper in the back of her head, easily overshadowed by the sound her boots made on the stone ground with each step. If Beat had tried to do anything bad, she would've done so much closer to the living quarters. After seeing her virtually glued to Peach and Passion, it was obvious to everyone that those three had something going on. She must have thought ahead and ventured far out to prevent what was happening now to begin with.
Her patience was about to hit her limit when the gate finally opened with a loud creaking noise. The light felt unwelcome, different from usual. Stepping through, Miki found herself in the exact same spot as the day before. Except that there was nobody on the other side.
"What's going on?"
Did the other team simply forget to send someone? Had something happened that stopped every single one from attending? Had the gate malfunctioned if that was even possible? Stepping closer to the energy barrier, Miki had to look thrice to really make sure. It was missing. There was no barrier separating the platform. She could move freely in the battle arena without anyone else present.
Without anyone else? That was not quite the case. There was an awful noise in the back of her mind. Something... someone... was whispering to her. Unintelligible gibberish that was no more than moans, groans and hissing. It was worse than a bad toothache. She couldn't focus on the situation at hand.
But it didn't take much focus to realize what was going on. The battle arena. The negotiation field. The exile. Those were fundamentally the same place, only slightly adjusted depending on who entered and when. The entire function must be broken since the negotiation wasn't happening. There was nobody from the dark team after all.
That brought up a very important question. If she couldn't finish negotiations, how would she get out? Getting stuck in exile wasn't exactly something she was looking forward to. Especially not outside an actual run.
Stepping on the spot Yuri had appeared the day before, Miki couldn't feel anything out of the ordinary. There was a faint energy in the air, but it felt so familiar that she doubted it had not always been there.
"What do I do now? Would be handy to have Inori with me right now..." Miki was smart but not good at adapting to situations like now. Both Love and Inori would be a big help to have around now.
The exile effect was already starting to worm it's way into her head. The whisper was growing louder, more obnoxious. At times, she could understand fragments of it. "...not so per..." "..forgotten..." "...pretentious..." "...arrogant..." "...unable to... without... and..."
Shaking her head wildly, she tried to escape from it. If it was like that after just a few minutes, she couldn't imagine what a full day did to a person. Or rather, she didn't need to imagine it. She had seen it. Rose, Setsuna, Beat. Two of them had turned completely insane, attacking people even after they escaped. The other almost killed all of them.
Would that happen to her too? No. She wouldn't stay that long. There had to be a way out. A common fault of hers was to over think simple things. If there was no negotiation... was that even correct? She was present. Before a judge, if only one side of the process was present, the other party automatically lost. So... shouldn't she be able to impose conditions freely now?
Four had fought the last time. To be safe, she decided to keep it that way. "Combatants, four." Miki's voice echoed down from the tower multiple times. There was no reaction. The confirmation from the other party was missing.
Something must have happened on the other side for even Yuri to forget about negotiations. Finding out about that started to look more and more irrelevant as the nagging whispers started to become louder again, now seemingly coming from random directions.
Jumping around, Miki could have sworn there was something behind her, breathing down her neck. Something... she couldn't quite describe. Terrors from the depths of her mind maybe. No matter where she looked, how many times she turned, she couldn't shake the feeling of being followed, about to be attacked. She felt weak. All her fighting power, self-esteem, abilities, they were all useless.
She had to get out of there. Walking over to what used to be the dark teams side, Miki took a deep breath. Maybe, just maybe...
"Participants, four." Her voice didn't echo that time. It got stuck in something. Just as she felt her feet get stuck in the ground. She was slowly sinking into the stone. Eyes widening in terror, Miki felt like she just woke up, standing exactly where she stood before.
Looking down to the ground, she felt something icky on her arm. Slowly turning her head, almost afraid of what she would see, Miki shrieked in horror. Cockroaches, centipedes, worms, all kinds of insects were crawling over her skin. Flailing her arm as hard as she could, the insects got thrown off, flying everywhere.
A warm, wet and inhuman breath was blowing on her neck. Something was there. Something much taller, bulkier, stronger than her. Something with big, razor sharp teeth, a breath that smelled of death. Not the death of herself, not impending danger, but the smell of many a rotten body, of a corpse decomposing. The breath smelled like that, overwhelmingly so. She was getting sick, but her legs refused to move. Her instinct told her "Move and it will eat you."
It smelled her, a big, loud sniffing noise, absorbing the smell of her fear. Something dripped on her shoulder, a liquid that smelled so foul, she could barely stop herself from throwing up. It soaked into her costume, more drops of it falling near her feet.
Miki was shaking, trembling. She had fought Moebius and survived, she had fought many monsters and survived, but nothing in the world could have prepared her for what she felt now. It was no different than throwing an incapacitated hare into the den of a blind, hungry lion, that would follow the smell of the hare, track it down, and then...
How much longer would she be able to stand this? How much longer until it attacked her? Unable to take it anymore, she'd rather face death than be eaten without a fight. Collecting all her courage, she jerked around, facing... nothing. It was gone. The smell was gone, the liquid still soaked in the shoulder part of her costume.
Berry almost screamed in terror when long, slimy tentacles started to move past her, on the ground, above her, right over her shoulder, next to her hips. Each... arm or leg... was gigantic, over two meters thick, with large suction cups. Each arm drenched the ground more and more in the foul liquid she had dripped on her before, the breath reeking of rotten body blowing at her from behind.
Breathing was difficult, moving impossible, just keeping her eyes from frantically moving from tentacle to tentacle almost beyond her. Each drop landing on the ground making a horrible noise, the sliding noise of the arms feeling around driving her insane. Holding her breath seemed like a wise choice. Don't move, make no sound, play dead, pretend to be a stone pillar, whatever it takes to avoid being detected by the monstrous creature behind.
Her chest hurt from holding her breath, her eyes dried up, too scared to even blink, the tentacles moved around her, touched her arms and legs as they slid by. Her skin was itching, but she couldn't scratch, the liquid she thought to be drool burned on her skin like acid, the breath was making her feel nauseous, sick, dizzy.
And then it was finally over. From one blink to the next, the tentacles were gone, the liquid was gone, the smell, gone. Miki exhaled, relieved, frightened still, and took a step forward, lowering her head briefly, her neck hurting. As she looked up, she saw right into hell.
A enormous monstrosity that resembled an octopus was extending it's tentacles around her. She stared down the mouth of the creature, with row upon row of bleak, white teeth staring back at her. The creature moved in to devour her and all she could do was stand there, paralyzed with fear, unable to even scream.
When the teeth buried themselves into her body, her instincts finally took over and she screamed out as hard as she could, as long as she could.
Not until something shook her, something whispered to her, was it that she realized that she was still alive. Looking straight ahead, she saw the face of Marine, who's expression spelled worry. "...ry... berry..." Her voice was so distant at first that Miki didn't realize she was calling her. "Berry, get a grip!"
Her eyes flying wide open, Miki tried to jump up, looking at every single part of her body, trying to make sure she wasn't being eaten by a Kraken. There was nothing. No bite mark, no liquid soaked into her costume, no resident smell of the breath.
Breathing heavily, still frightened, Miki looked around her. She was in front of the gate, back in the living quarters. She only realized now that it had all been a hallucination. At some point, she simply forgot that the exile was tormenting her. It took away the knowledge that it was all a trap, then it wormed it's way into one's mind. "What happened? You were screaming like someone was killing you!"
"I had a little involuntary run-in with the effect of the exile during negotiations... which fell flat because the other side didn't show up."
=== Dissonance ===
"Who... took care of negotiations?" Yuri felt still miserable. Hibiki and Kanade had returned to bed, this time into Kanade's room, for the other one still smelled badly. Rin had fallen asleep on the table, despite all the coffee. Mai, Saki, Honoka and Nagisa were all fast asleep in their rooms.
"Probably... Mai or Honoka..." Kaoru was the last to be awake beside Yuri and she felt just as terrible as the silver Cure. Nozomi had fallen asleep in her chair and was happily drooling while dreaming about a giant donuts.
Going back to silence, Yuri was wondering if Miki had shown up again. She... kind of wanted to talk a little more to her now. She wasn't really as bad as her first impression had made her out to be. Saying stuff like that... maybe it was time to make a decision. She couldn't keep thinking about Momoka the entire time, it would only depress her.
Getting up, feeling sick, and moving slowly towards the bathroom, Yuri found the extraordinary quietness of the area pleasing. Everyone was equally tired, so nobody bothered to make a fuss or play anything. They all wanted more sleep, a quick rest to get over their hangover just in case they had to fight.
The same was true for Ako, who just crawled out from under the blanket, still feeling like she had taken a hammer to the head. Urara, somewhere during their extended sleep, had let go of her and gotten up, fixing her hair while sitting on the edge of the bed. "How do you feel?"
"Horrible... you really didn't-" Ako couldn't quite understand why.
"I told you. I just stripped you because there was no way I would go to bed with someone who smells like puke. Sure, I have a pretty good image of you naked now, but that's about it. There was no reason for me to take advantage of you while you're dead drunk." Looking over her shoulder, an evil grin dominating her face, her eyes told Ako that she thought she could take advantage of her anytime. "Don't make me talk so much so early. Here, drink this."
Passing the black Cure a bottle of water, Ako covered herself with the blanket, unable to stop staring at Lemonade's bare back, and emptied half the bottle, feeling so much better after that. At last her headache was finally down to just a wasp's nest in her head.
"Why me?" Ako couldn't really comprehend why Lemonade was so fixated on her. It was a little bit flattering, sure, but...
"Do I really need a reason? I can make one up if you feel better." Talking without paying any real attention to the girl behind her, Urara finished fixing her hair and turned around, letting Ako get a good view on her naked body.
"There's... always a reason." Staring for a few seconds, Ako averted her eyes, not comfortable with just staring at another girl like that. Speaking from a objective point of view, she couldn't deny that Urara was good looking but... did that mean anything to her?
"I'm not getting into a philosophy argument with you." Turning back around and sniffing her wrist, Urara pulled a painful expression. "I need a shower. Got puke on me apparently."
"What do you want from me then? If you... wanted sex you could-" Ako was still too drowsy and unfocused to properly follow the movement of the yellow Cure. In a matter of seconds, she was pinned down by the girl, who stared right in her eyes. Anyone could have seen that the girl was not comfortable with what Urara was doing.
"See? You don't like this. Why would I force it on you when you're drunk? Not like you would like it any better then. Now give me a break, I need a shower. And maybe get your ass over to the showers too, you need one. It's quite a nice ass by the way." Shifting to Cure form, Urara left Ako behind.
"I can't understand her..." Just what did Urara want from her? Her aggressive behavior was hard to deal with, but she didn't mind as much as she first did. That kiss... touching her... she was slowly upping the level of intimacy. But what for, if not to sleep with her? She couldn't imagine that Urara wanted anything more substantial than sex from her. And just wanting that was already a lot, considering she was only thirteen. Her experience with stuff like that was basically zero.
Urara knew that much. On her way to the bathroom, she found the whole grounds to be extremely quiet, something she could appreciate that morning. The situation was spiraling a little out of her control. Sure, she wanted to sleep with the girl, but not if she was going to be mentally scarred after it. There was... just this weird kind of naivety about her, like she had never even dated anyone. What had the Kiryuu's said? Innocent? Maybe that really was the right word for it.
She didn't have things planned this way. She never really wanted to end up sleeping in the same bed without doing anything. It wasn't her style. She didn't have any problem having sex with Marine after all. And now the situation was either go forward or abort. Her pride didn't allow her to break it off, so...
Was it possible she actually liked her? Not just in the sense of her physically being attracted, but liking her emotionally. To tease her, to lead her on... "Too much heavy thinking too soon after drinking." Scratching her inner monolog, Urara spotted a glance of a few others being miserable at the table. Looked like nobody really had that much experience with drinking heavily.
Getting under the shower and washing off the smell of the last night, Urara had time to think. It bugged her, annoyed her, irritated her to the point where she wanted to punch someone. Where exactly did she go wrong? What had started as a decent challenge to get Muse in her bed and sleep with her, was now a mess she wouldn't get out of easily. If she even wanted to, which apparently wasn't the case. It had been a while since that last happened to her. Not knowing what she really wanted.
Thinking about it made clear that there was little doubt about it. She mixed well, at least from her point of view, with Muse so she became interested beyond her original goal. That it had taken her this long to realize this was bad. She was slipping.
Giving up was not an option, but was it really a good idea to put any more emotional investment into it? Muse was good looking, fun to tease, but there was something about her that bugged her. Nothing major, just... like sometimes her behavior wouldn't add up with the rest of her personality and looks. There were people like Nozomi, who never grew out of acting like a kid, and people like Karen, who seem mature almost their entire life. For the bigger part, Ako seemed like Karen in that aspect. And then she acted weird, unexpected.
It could just be a trick to throw her off, maybe. Either way, she had to make a choice about whether she wanted to commit to it, or try to switch paces, sleep with her and be done with it, each going their own way. Considering she hadn't been this interested in anyone for a long time, maybe it was not such a bad idea to try and see where it went. She was clearly the dominating one right now, so if she kept it up, it was still up to her when to break it up.
"Should have thought about this yesterday. I could use a drink now." Urara sighed and turned the small metal wheel to the right, finished with her shower. "Could have saved myself the combing, too. What a shitty morning." Uttering a few curses under her breath, Urara moved herself towards the living room, seeing Muse slowly walk towards the bathroom, the black rings under her eyes visible even from a few meters away.
Yawning loudly, with little regard for the groaning complaints of Moonlight and Windy, Urara sat down on the table, yet didn't reach for the coffee. Both Yuri and Kaoru watched speechless as the yellow Cure took a still half filled glass and downed it. She had survived a lot worse than just this.
"Aren't you up for exile?" Looking at Windy, Urara was amazed at just how badly they were all doing. Didn't they ever go drinking? Urara had said to herself, screw the legal drinking age. It's lower in a lot of foreign countries anyway.
"Yes... on my way." Getting up, emptying her cup one last time, she was kind of relieved to not see Saki and Mai around. She wouldn't be seeing them for a couple of days, and saying goodbye, even for just a few days, was something she didn't deal very well with.
"See you around." Urara waved Kaoru off as she left, changing chairs and leaning down on the table, looking at Rin's face. "Like a hibernating bear. Just as angry, too, when woke up." If others had been in a better condition, she would have woken Rin up just to see the situation unfold.
Arriving at the gateway and waiting, Kaoru exhaled deeply, tightening her resolve. It was easier this way. The gate opened and she stepped through, her surroundings consumed by pitch black darkness. It wasn't particularly cold, yet, she started to shiver. A lack of sleep, leftover alcohol and general uneasiness made a chilly environment a cold one.
Stepping out of the circle, she tried to get her bearings. There was no way to even tell up from below beyond thinking that where she stood on was down. In this place, it wouldn't be a stretch to expect gravity to reverse. Laws of physics didn't always make sense or apply when one was a magical girl. Still, Kaoru held logic and rationality in high regard. It was simply part of who she was.
"I'm forfeiting!" Kaoru shouted into the darkness and focused. She wasn't anywhere as skilled as Bright in energy shaping and manipulation, but she could do a little. Creating a small azure orb, illuminating maybe the next ten or fifteen meters around her, she mimicked her sisters ability to a much lesser degree. Dropping the orb right next to the portal, Kaoru started to walk in a, for her, unknown direction.
It was, for anyone there, unthinkable to just forfeit the chance to avoid being the exile. But only she would have the skill and the knowledge to hide, as the exile, from Mai and Saki, so they would not come into danger of sacrificing themselves. The rule was that one had to stay for six fights, participant or not, before it was possible to change again. With Michiru leaving first, and Kaoru following second, there was no chance for either of them to go and rescue Saki or Mai in case they became stuck.
The obvious and logical conclusion was to eliminate all possibilities of them getting stuck in the first place. Without the interference of the exile, it would always be a straight exchange of team members. Even in the case someone would seek out the exile and try to swap places for some incredibly weird reason, she was smart enough to avoid being seen. If nobody saw or heard of the exile, if she was like air, then there was no way for a runner to become the exile themselves.
The only difficult part was to stay true to that resolution. Of all the people that had changed, Rhythm, Dream, Rouge, Lemonade, White, Black... not a single one of them had been the exile. The best info they had access to was White and what she saw during her run, when Beat had been the exile. Based just on that, it was an extremely powerful psychological torture, personalized depending on who was there. The things that ranged among her worst fears were simple.
The fear of dying, the fear of somehow hurting Mai and Saki, the fear of losing her sister. There were a few primal fears as well. She was surprisingly enough immune to almost all learned phobias of humans, such as fear of spiders, poisonous animals, needles and other very common fears. That, too, could be related to her creation. Those fears could never be learned and she generally found lacking them to be useful.
Of course, like every living creature, there existed things that would frighten her. Something of such incomparable power that the outcome of a battle was inevitable death. The potential loss of her loved ones. Potential mutilation. All of those, too, things that humans were afraid of. It was odd to always refer to such things as if she wasn't human herself. Biologically, genetically and highly likely also on a molecular basis, she was human, just like her sister. They had enough time to test and learn that much. Yet, their inhuman intellect, their sometimes cold rational thinking and their learning capabilities made them in some ways better than humans. And still, the believed themselves to be often the contrary. Worse than those in whose midst they lived.
Humans greatest gift as sentient beings is often said to be not self-awareness or logic but emotion. That was something they were fully capable of but had limited experience. When a normal person was sad over losing their favorite toy, it was hard for those two to understand why they could not buy the same toy again and thus replace it if the old one was nothing but an anchor of memories. If the toy was swapped with an identical one, the person would never know the better, as memories are intangible.
Her thought process came to a halt when she came across an extremely faintly glowing area, in it's midst the previous exile. Getting cautiously closer and erecting a wind shield around herself, Kaoru saw that there was no need to be wary. The exile, Sunshine, was barely conscious. Touching her face or arms, talking to her, moving her limbs, nothing caused a reaction. She was in a completely non-cognitive state. For the exchange to work the way she needed to,bring Sunshine to the other team so the Cure from their side would reach the dark team.
Thinking about it, it was highly odd to not have heard or seen the other runner by now. She must have walked for over ten minutes, easily enough to adapt to the area and come up with a solution. Who the heck was out there?
=== Dissonance ===
"Negotiation fell flat? What do you mean?" Peach had a worried look on her face. It took Miki over half an hour to finally calm down enough to explain what had happened in full. She would never forget that particular experience, though. She could still sometimes hear the tentacles slither over the ground, hear the breathing noise.
"Whatever happened on the other side, it stopped them from attending negotiations. There was simply nobody from the other team. And as soon as I got in, the exile effected me. It took a bit until I noticed it, but it's... horrifying. It's subtle at first. Like, you know it will creep up on you and use your own fears against you. But what we didn't know is that it takes away your knowledge of that. That is what makes it so terrifying. No matter how prepared you are, no matter how many times you tell yourself it's just an illusion... it doesn't matter jack, because the exile takes away your knowledge of that first." Miki was explaining the situation to everyone in the living room.
"There's another problem beyond this." Inori returned to the room, looking grim. "The exile is not working either. I tested it just now and nothing. I decided to change just a few moments ago, but usually, the specific person knows by a feeling when the time is right. I can't feel anything like that. Does anyone else?"
A lot of head shaking and silence. "This is bad." Karen ran several scenarios on the situation through her head but there was not enough evidence for all of them.
"No need to state the obvious. What are we going to do?" Michiru was all but pleased by the situation. If the exile system was broken, Kaoru's part in their plan was at risk. Leaning against the wall behind the table, her eyes made very clear that she couldn't stand sitting still and doing nothing. There weren't many situations where Bright lost her cool, her sister being in possible danger was one of them.
"There is nothing we can do. We have no idea how that gate works, and trying to break through walls only to find a barrier at the border is not going to help. We barely know anything about this place."
"Setsuna, can't you teleport over to the other side?" Love was worried about what might be going on there. If it was something severe enough to stop them from attending negotiations, then it must be bad.
"Even if I could teleport in this space, I could end up teleporting into a solid wall because this place is constantly shifting. I don't know where to port to, either. Before those two things, I already tried a while ago to teleport but it doesn't work here. Sorry." Passion let her head hang. After coming back with the others, after hearing Ellen's hymn, they faced pretty dire news. Why couldn't a day just be nice for once?
"So we're practically stuck doing nothing until something happens. I don't like that." Tsubomi was worried about both Itsuki and Yuri.
"They're gonna be fine. They're tough, you know that." Marine whispered to Tsubomi from behind, knowing exactly what she was thinking. A short look from the pink Cure spelled thanks.
"We should still decide who is going to fight today, just in case. Since we don't know how many of us will have to fight, let's just take volunteers for now." Karen picked up the conversation and tried to wrap it up. "Mint and I volunteer. Anyone else?" She didn't need to ask Komachi to make that decision. She knew full well that if she volunteered, Komachi would as well.
"I'm in too." Erika needed more favor for her plans, and the only real way to get it was to fight. Tsubomi refrained from joining the fight, not feeling up to it due to lack of sleep lately. It only ever got harder for Erika to decide what she was going to do. It was pretty clear that her friend was suffering by her being indecisive about whether to confront Tsubomi or not.
"We'll join as well." Luminous and Rose raised their voices. They hadn't been in many fights yet and had their own needs for favor, let alone exile protection.
"Nobody else? Yesterday it was four, so today's maximum number is going to be eight. I don't think it'll happen though. Not with the current arena being like that."
It was hard to just sit tight and endure until the appointed time for the fight. Nobody was in the mood for any games or having fun. Blossom went back to her room to catch up on sleep, Marine, unexpectedly, did the same but for different reasons.
Hikari and Kurumi both stayed in the living room together with Karen and Komachi. Miki wanted some time alone but couldn't shake off Inori, who was too worried to just leave her friend. Love, Setsuna and Ellen returned to Ellen's room to talk about her new hymn.
"What do you think happened on the other side?" Rose was the first to bring up the topic again. "I didn't think it was even possible to just skip negotiations. I expected someone to be chosen at random and just get... I don't know, teleported in maybe."
"I suspect it's like that with the exile, but the current situation speaks against that. Given that Miki was affected by the exile, it's possible she was seen as a runner... but why was she returned then? I wish we knew more about this system. It's hard to even guess at this point." Being the Cure of intelligence meant very little when there were so many unknown variables.
"How about this? Nobody from the other side turned up for negotiation, so the system started the exile... program, I don't know, instead, taking Miki in. But there was still one person missing and it was time for the negotiation, so she was returned after time was up."
"Sounds reasonable. But only if the system is simple enough to break down just because one side messes up. This still doesn't give us a hint what happened to them... Nozomi is on the other side... I wonder if this is her doing."
"I don't want to think about that." Komachi didn't want to imagine the repercussions Dream would face if that were true. "There is probably a good explanation for all of this."
"It doesn't always work like that Komachi. We both know that." Rose wasn't too pleased with the idea that Nozomi was the cause of the issue either, but there was a high likelihood of it being true. She was stubborn and fixated in her ideals. It wasn't out of the question she would do something drastic to stop the fighting.
"Let's calm down. No amount of worrying or guessing is going to get us anywhere." Hikari tried to make peace between the two arguing parties before it got out of hand. She could smell the tension in the air. With everything that happened lately, it was easy to get people on edge.
"I have a bad feeling about this. If we had at least some way to contact the other side, we could make sure of what's happening." Changing the direction of the conversation, Karen tried to keep the peace as well.
"Kurumi, want to help me bake a cake?" Hikari often found that something sweet could raise one's mood quite a bit in stress situations. The suggestion was met with surprise and bewilderment.
"A cake? Now of all times?" What was the girl thinking? They were dealing with some pretty serious topic right now, so it was hardly the time to go and happily bake a cake.
"I like the idea." Karen caught on quickly and gave Kurumi a challenging look. "I guess you're just not up to the task of making a good cake, huh?" Hitting her pride was a surefire way to make her do it. And, just as expected, Kurumi took the bait hook, line and sinker.
"You're on! Let's see who makes the better cake!" Of course the situation at hand was not completely forgotten, but Luminous had a good point. Without a way to find out more, all they would do was slowly grind down their own nerves and patience. It was better to focus on something unrelated and even irrelevant, such as making a cake.
"Wait... I didn't mean..." Karen tried to get out of the challenge now, but Komachi wouldn't let her.
"I like the idea. I want to eat something Karen made herself." And surely, that was the only reason she would back stab her partner, cornering her into committing to her own taunt. "I'll help you. Us two versus the Kurumi Hikari pair? The loser has to make a fancy dinner for everyone."
Karen was glaring at the green Cure from the corner of her eyes. What was she saying? There was no way in hell that they could win that! Kurumi might have been lazy as hell, but she was good at almost everything she did when she tried. And they both had tasted Hikari's cooking more than once already, so why...
It took her a few seconds to get the general idea. If the loser has to make dinner as well, Komachi would get to eat Karen's food twice. If she only had asked, she would have made something for her without it turning into this chaos...
"You sound pretty confident. I hope you know a bit of exotic cuisine, because we're going to win." When it came to food, Hikari could be competitive. Having Nagisa as friend was a big help with that.
"I've never heard someone say cuisine before..." Kurumi was a little impressed by Hikari. The four continued to taunt each other a little, much to the raising desperation of Karen, and in the end, they all headed to the kitchen. They didn't notice that Bright had been watching them from the entrance, concealing her presence.
"They're sure taking it easy. We might be in much more trouble than we know." Michiru wasn't too pleased by their carefree attitude. Going from an important topic to baking a cake was hardly going to solve the problem. They had to come up with a solution. There had been an area, a few days ago, where people from both teams could meet and talk, though a barrier separated them still. Maybe she should go there and see if Kaoru had the same idea, that was, if the area was still around.
"Sneaking around and eavesdropping? How suspicious." Erika, unable to settle down in her room, had taken a little walk and came across the newcomer from the other side. There was no reason to be seriously suspicious, but she supposed she could push her buttons just a little.
"In that case, you're just as suspicious as me, for you did the exact same thing." Michiru didn't even bother to turn around. Her mood was deteriorating quickly, the prospect of Kaoru being in danger making her really tense.
"They're forcing themselves to be carefree to avoid what you're doing." Seeing that Michiru was not the kind of girl that could be poked for a reaction easily, Erika didn't bother anymore. "Getting worried and restless is not going to help."
"Neither is sitting around and baking cakes." Dealing with stress was something Bright was very bad at. Her great intellect and ability to adapt to new situations often let her avoid stress, especially when she was with her sister. Suddenly being without her and unable to even make sure Kaoru was okay was too much to adapt to.
"It helps them, that's more than can be said about you worrying." Erika leaned against the wall and watched Bright from a few meters distance. She couldn't really make sense of her. She seemed like an extremely calm person the day before, so what exactly riled her up so badly?
"What about you? You don't look like you're doing anything but worrying either." She wouldn't let Marine talk to her like that. She had her reasons to be worried.
"Not about the situation we're in. The gate is blocked, there is no way to get out, we can't contact the other side and all we can do is wait, so I don't see any reason to stress myself over this." It was none of Bright's business what her actual worries were about. If anyone, she might have talked to Itsuki, but she was on the other side.
Michiru didn't like that answer but she was not about to start internal strife. Mai would lynch her if she got wind of that, and she could literally smell when someone had done something they shouldn't have. "Fair enough." More of an answer was asking for too much.
Leaving Marine behind, Bright walked off, passing the hallway and into the labyrinth. She would look for that meeting area, if it still existed. She couldn't just sit still and do nothing.
Erika was left alone, not sure she wanted to think any more about the relationship trouble she was facing. All things considered, it was likely a bad idea to go after Lemonade. She said it was a one-time thing, too. Which left only her own feelings. Tsubomi was a nice girl, beautiful too. She had known Tsubomi for so long now, Erika knew just about everything about her.
But was she romantically interested? Imagining kissing and making out with her was easy and she liked it, but going beyond that was a little awkward. Having been friends for that long, it was simply a bit odd to view her as anything but the same old Tsubomi now.
But as things were now, it was even worse. She had hardly talked to her best friend in two days, and the situation was constantly getting more awkward by Tsubomi's reluctance and her own indecisiveness. If only it was as easy as simply making up her mind on the spot and going with it. Usually, she could do that much easily, but when it was something as important as potentially ruining her friendship with Tsubomi permanently, that just wasn't an option.
Someone else, who really did simply make up her mind and went with it, was being very pushy that very instant. All three of them back in Beat's room, Love was making Ellen answer all kinds of questions, most of them incredibly trivial. Her favorite food, movie, music and so on. Having just gotten her voice back, Ellen was still a bit on the slow side to respond.
"Slow down Love." Setsuna was very amused by the sight but she had to stop Love occasionally. "You're choking her with questions." Laying flat on her stomach on the bed, completely unimpressed by the problems outside, Setsuna was incredibly happy right now. Ellen had gotten her voice back, and on top of that, sang a very lovely hymn just for Love and herself.
Kneeling on the bed, Love was constantly rocking back and forth, over-excited to finally hear what Ellen sounded like when she talked normally. "Can you explain that hymn to me again?" She had already heard it twice and understood it the first time, but it was just so adorable when Ellen got embarrassed while telling her.
"You're just teasing her now. Don't explain it all over again, Ellen, she just wants to see you blush." Setsuna poked Love's leg and stuck out her tongue. "Go easy on her Love. She hasn't known you long enough to feel when you're just being silly."
"She definitely has known me long enough to kiss me. Right?" Looking at Ellen, who was sitting next to Setsuna, Love moved in and tried to give the black haired girl a kiss. Instead of shying away, Ellen noticed the look from Setsuna and shoved Love back. "You're already rubbing off on her Setsuna!"
Leaning down and waiting for Setsuna to look up, Ellen kissed her instead, making Love pout. "No wonder your segment of the hymn was so powerful. You're a really unique person. And quite pushy. But I really like it." It surprised her just how quickly she was getting used to being with those two. If there was such a thing as fate, she certainly hit the jackpot with them. Still, kissing Love was different from kissing Setsuna. The way she felt about her was different, but not in a bad way. She just wasn't as heels over head for Love as she was for Setsuna. Getting some self-esteem and confidence back through her new hymn and the return of her voice, she felt a lot more comfortable being with those two.
A single kiss was no more embarrassing than sitting next to her. Of course, that was limited to when they were alone. Kissing any of those two in public still turned her into a walking tomato. She had barely returned to sitting upright when Love practically threw herself on Ellen, pushing her down, laying next to Setsuna now. "Love...!" Setsuna had a scolding tone to her voice, feeling she needed to protect Ellen a bit.
"You're no fun Setsuna." Rolling down from the black haired girl, Love pushed herself on top of her older partner. "You'll make up for this, right?"
Wrapping her arms around Love's neck, Setsuna pulled her in close, kissing her so passionately that Ellen could hear the sounds of their lips meeting and parting, their tongues fighting. That was more than enough to make her avert her eyes, blushing heavily.
And that didn't escape the attention of the other two. Exchanging a quick series of looks, Setsuna thought it was too early but Love was pushing for it to see how far Ellen was willing to go. Surprising the girl, Love hugged her from behind while Setsuna approached from the front. Before Ellen could say anything, Love kissed her neck, Setsuna putting her forehead against her younger partner's, smiling for a second, waiting to see if she would show any sign of reluctance and discomfort. There was none. Kissing her, while Love switched to nibbling on Ellen's ear, Setsuna was surprised when the vocalist laid her arms around her shoulders.
That unbalanced the three of them just a bit too much and Setsuna fell backwards on the bed, pulling both Ellen and Love with her. "You two are heavy..." Setsuna gasped jokingly and watched Love press against Ellen's back.
Rolling down from their partner, the three of them all started to laugh at how comical the situation was. It was still very new to them but not nearly as bad as they figured it would be. There were still some issues that presented themselves just as time went on. Like taking a shower. While it was very well possible to go two people into one cabin, three was more than just stretching it. Positions when sleeping, when they ate. And of course, trust. Love suggested that they would never get intimate without all three of them being present.
"Setsuna, I just thought of this, but have you shown Ellen your Memento Mori yet?" Love was curious how Ellen would react to who Setsuna truly was. It might be a little inaccurate to think that her human form was not real, though she really was a denizen from Labyrinth, not a true human.
"You remember how I told you I'm not from earth or actually human? I can still take my original form, if only while I'm under an ability I have as Passion. If you ever want to see what I... I guess used to really fits here, look like before, just tell me. I don't take that form because I connect a lot of bad memories with it, but if you're going to be with me, you have a right to know."
"I don't want you to do it if it'll wake bad memories. I have some of my own, and even though I also connect happy times with my original form, I don't really want to go back. I suppose Love doesn't know about this yet... It's time I told you." Turning about on the bed and facing Love, Ellen was surprised by how serious the pink Cure looked. It wasn't just something she would listen to casually. She understood fully how important a topic it was for her.
=== Dissonance ===
"What do you mean, you didn't go?" Honoka and Mai had returned to the living room after getting a little more rest. Nagisa and Saki were still fast asleep and they didn't see the need to wake them when they were so peaceful and quiet.
Yuri was holding her head in agony, one problem piling up on another. Not only had everyone a bad hangover, no, now there was the issue of who actually attended negotiations. "I assumed one of you, Lemonade or even Muse would go. So who went?"
"Nobody. Take a look. Dream and Rouge were here the whole time. Muse was with me until just a little while ago, and I came here after waking up and taking a shower. If those two and their partners slept, Windy left for exile and it's pretty obvious that neither Melody or Rhythm went either, nobody actually attended." Urara wasn't as calm as she was usually about these things. Screwing with systems put in place by powers so big that they were barely comprehensible was never a good idea. She got burned by a system once and that cost her more than she wanted to admit.
"Is that even possible?" Honoka looked to Mai, then to Yuri. "Doesn't it usually just call someone if nobody volunteers?" The racket they were making was slowly waking up the others at the table, who found themselves confused by the high tension.
"That's the case for the exile I guess. It said so in the rules. But apparently, they didn't think as far as to make it a rule that someone had to attend negotiations." Urara didn't like where the situation was headed. "Windy hasn't come back, so, for now, lets assume that she went into the exile run. That was a while ago. Why has nobody from the other side arrived?"
The others didn't need to say anything, the worry was written in their faces. They had screwed up badly and now they had no idea how dire the situation really was. "What was the worst case scenario for when negotiations fail?"
"All twelve will fight the other twelve, with repercussions to both teams. It hasn't happened yet so we don't know anything beyond that." Yuri's memory was good enough to have memorized something like that. "We had a rule book, where did that go?"
Nobody answered. There were many mysteries to the place they were in, and the number was only ever increasing. Having figured out a few details of the favor system recently, they were now put in a bad spot because they knew next to nothing about all the other mechanisms.
"I'll wake Saki and tell her to stand guard near the portal, in case someone comes through after all." Mai walked off, much faster than just casually walking. She was on edge, understandably so.
"Can we be sure the worst case scenario is going to happen?" Honoka was putting a lot of thought into it. "The rule states that if the two people negotiating cannot come to an agreement if I remember this right."
"That's what it said. I'm not sure if you can interpret this literally, White." Yuri wasn't looking forward to any more trouble than she already had at hand. Catching herself thinking that Miki might be helpful to have around in a situation like this only made her feel worse.
"If negotiation didn't happen, it could have multiple outcomes. First, the worst case scenario where it's treated as negotiation having failed. Second, the conditions of the day before are carried over. Third, It will pick random conditions, which may even violate the rule of who can fight. Fourth, no fight happens at all and the system resets back to normal. Fifth, the system breaks down and we're stuck permanently with no way out. The last one..."
"It's a death sentence. We get by with favor for food and drinks. Without the system and battles, we don't gain any favor, so it's a zero gain situation where we still use up our reserves. We'd starve to death, slowly." Yuri didn't like saying it out loud like that. It was incredibly morbid to even think about it.
"Whatever happens, pick a few people that volunteer to fight. The other side will have noticed that something is wrong by now. If we're lucky, both sides picking volunteers is going to satisfy the system and have those people battle. If we're really lucky, that is." Urara looked over her shoulder as she heard familiar footsteps approach. Was Ako finally done being sulky?
"What's going on? Egret just went past me, looking like something spooked her." Cleaning Urara's room under the pretense of going back to her own, Ako had not caught on to what was going on.
"Nothing much. We're just all possibly doomed to starve to death or engage in full scale war with the other team." Urara's sarcasm was so thick, it was almost tangible. She was also staring at Muse, giving her a good look from head to toe. She really did like her outfit a lot.
The corner of Ako's mouth formed a sharp sideways V as she tried to suppress how annoyed she felt whenever that woman acted like she knew absolutely everything. "Anyone else willing to tell me what's going on?"
"Nobody from our side attended negotiation and nobody from the other side came through the exile run. Come to think of it, I should call Nagisa. She came through yesterday, she'll be able to give us some info on the exile area." Leaving the rest of the Cures behind, White hurried to her room to wake her partner.
Headaches could be ignored if just enough adrenaline from a sudden surge of stress and tension flooded the veins of a body. Dream and Rouge had been listening to the conversation but not said anything until now. Nozomi wanted to speak up, wanted to say she saw something like that coming and that the fighting was wrong to begin with, but Rin physically stopped her, sitting down next to her, one hand grabbing her wrist, her eyes telling her up shut up as she glared at Nozomi.
"What worries me the most is that the other side has absolutely no info on what happened here. If they knew it was just a little screw up because we were dealing with hangovers, they wouldn't worry. This way, they'll assume that something happened to us that stopped us from sending someone to negotiations." She didn't need to say anything more. Instead, Yuri looked at Dream, and that look spoke a very clear and easy to understand language. Anyone who knew of the incident she had caused would suspect her of causing a problem yet again.
"Let's not accuse people, alright?" Rin glared at Moonlight with such intensity that Yuri backed off and Urara seemed a little proud and even impressed. There was obvious malice in Rin's eyes. After Nozomi tried hard to get along with everyone despite hating the situation, she wouldn't tolerate Yuri trying to make her a scapegoat of any kind. And that was exactly the impression Rouge got from the way Yuri had looked at her friend.
In that moment, Honoka returned with Nagisa, who seemed oddly wide awake. Giving everyone present a quick rundown on what the exile area looked like, Muse was the first to comment on it. "If it's complete darkness just like you said, then it might take hours for any runner to arrive on this side. They might even never find the exit if they don't have some kind of ability to light the way. And if the exile starts affecting the runners after some time..." She didn't need to continue that train of thought.
=== Dissonance ===
Kaoru found that adrenaline and physical pain kept her senses sharp enough to withstand the enormous psychological assault. Seeing images, hearing things, the exile was already affecting her harshly. Blood was trickling down her left arm, a minuscule flesh wound keeping the pain strong and fresh. The second she had felt the exile start to affect her, she had taken extreme measures and shot her own arm with a tiny energy blast. It would take time to heal, but at least she could keep going. Dragging Sunshine around was like dragging around a large bag of concrete. She was unnaturally heavy, as if gravity was amplified to three, four, maybe even five times it's normal state. Even with her inhuman natural strength and her Cure powers added, it was a slow and painful process to get anywhere.
And even with all the measures she took, pain, adrenaline, preventing herself from thinking anything unnecessary by bombarding her mind with complex mathematical problems, she still felt the exile. A voice she grew to despise echoed through the very back of her mind.
Akudaikan. His words seemed so natural to hear now, so... true and guiding. They were something she should not question, she should not doubt, simply follow. "You have persisted for so long and now it is finally time for it to pay off. My defeat, your defeat, your alliance with Bloom and Egret, a ruse beyond a ruse, a hidden plan unknown to all until the time was right." She simply couldn't block out his voice. Dropping Sunshine, gritting her teeth, she rammed a finger into her wound, unable to suppress the outcry of pain. A roar of pain shaking her mind, another surge of adrenaline, of pain, of blood. Picking up Sunshine at her right arm, she pulled the yellow Cure over the ground like a bag of potatoes. The girl was like a vegetable anyway, no need to treat her differently. But she had to get her out of there. Then there was no other exile runner. Leaving orbs everywhere and using her powerful speed to check the area, she was absolutely sure there was nobody.
The portal on the other side was inactive as well. There was only one direction she could send Sunshine and that was right back to the dark team. Dragging her further towards the open portal, she realized that no matter how much she injured herself, she would eventually lose in to the psychological warfare. That wasn't something sentient life could fight. But she had a solution she could use that would allow her to escape the exile for at least a few hours.
"Now... kill the girl. She's the first stepping stone for my return. All your actions, all your decisions, they were all predetermined. A trick to gain true trust needed for true betrayal and victory of Dark Fall." Such lies. She was in enough pain to be able to still tell they were lies. What a horrifying fate it would be to not know and believe what she was hearing. That she was still undercover, still an agent for dark fall, plotting their victory half a decade after their defeat still. It seemed so easy to believe and there was no proof to deny it. A truly terrible masterpiece of horror. If every exile went through that, it didn't surprise her that Sunshine turned into a mindless doll. It was the only form of protection most of them had.
"You have done well Kaoru. Michiru will be most pleased with her sister. You two are my finest creations, above and beyond humans, those foolish creatures that throw trust and loyalty around like they're nothing. You know where your true loyalty lies, you always knew. For you could never oppose your creator. You're a tool to our ultimate victory, and you are designed to serve. You always were. Why do you think you only have limited emotion, limited understanding of the human psyche? Because you only needed that much to complete your mission of course. Now... kill the girl."
Kaoru's blood was boiling with anger when she realized her hands were tightly wrapped around Sunshine's throat, strangling her with all her power, quiet but desperate coughing coming from the helpless girl in front of her. Her hands wouldn't obey her. She was so close. A few more meters. Just a little more... and she could kill her... no, that wasn't right... she wanted to... kill Mai and Saki... no!
Her mind was chaos, her body torn between obedience to her master... creator... no, her enemy... and her own... own... she was a puppet... puppets don't have... she wasn't a puppet. Kaoru had never felt rage like that before. Unable to control her thoughts, her actions, to be at the mercy of her inner terrors was something so outrageously unacceptable that it flooded her mind with rage. Letting go of Sunshine and beating her own head against the ground, her fists hammering on the hard stone, she got up in an act of desperation, grabbing Sunshine and lifting her high of her head, eager to throw her down, break her, kill her. Her left arm hurt enough to drive her insane, the pain ten times worse than any other she had ever experienced. With her final resolution, she killed... no... threw Sunshine into the circle gateway that lead back to the dark team. With a loud gasp, the yellow Cure almost bounced off the ground. A last look, "Stormflair," and both Windy's consciousness and Sunshine were gone.
=== Dissonance ===
"It's not a good sign that she came back to this side." Yuri felt like the situation was getting out of hand more and more. Itsuki coming back to their side was a problem. Not only because she had voluntarily left, meaning she had a reason to want to get away, but also because it meant there was only one possible outcome of the exile run. Whoever tried to switch from the light side got stuck and Windy got through, not knowing anything since she left before they noticed the problem.
"Her condition is a bigger problem than that." Nozomi had, despite her nature, studied a bit of psychology in preparation to becoming a teacher. She took her own dreams very seriously. "She shut herself off from all outside factors. You could likely break her arm and you would only get screaming and whimpering, primal reactions, nothing else. She's traumatized and her body must have shut down her mind in order to protect her life. Whatever happened to her in exile, it was bad."
"So how do we get her to wake up?" Yuri still couldn't stand Nozomi one bit. Deep down, she still wanted to punch her hard, but she was an adult. There was a limit to how selfish she could act.
"We don't. If her body notices she's out of danger, she'll wake up. Hopefully it won't be long. Honestly... this is worse than getting hurt in a fight. Physical injuries heal a lot quicker than a scarred mind." Nozomi couldn't look at Moonlight or Saki, the only two that were together with her in Sunshine's room.
"It's a few more hours until the next fight. I hope there won't be any more bad surprises for any of us." Yuri was still fighting a bad headache now that the first peak of stress was overcome and everyone was settling down a bit. The exile run was officially over with Sunshine's return. Hibiki in particular took the news badly, knowing that it was her fault that Itsuki left in the first place.
The pink Cure was busy moping, Kanade at her side, trying to talk some sense into her partner. No amount of logic telling her that it wasn't really her fault that Itsuki got stuck in exile would help her feel better. The other runner, the exile, the area, her own decisions... all of these factors played into her becoming the exile and the way she was now. Hibiki got only a glimpse of the almost zombie like Sunshine before they carried Itsuki into her room, only Moonlight and Dream going inside together with Bloom.
"No matter what happened in there, the reason she left must be because I chose you over her. It's directly my fault." Back in her room, Kanade the only person she could tolerate close to her, Hibiki was wallowing in guilt.
"Moping around over it is not going to change that or make her feel better Hibiki." It was quite disheartening for Kanade to see the otherwise so energetic and happy girl like that. Eyes half closed, head lowered, not the tiniest trace of a smile on her face no matter what Kanade did.
Of course there was always the chance to get stuck and become the exile, yet... she felt responsible, no matter what Kanade or anyone told her. It was just in her nature to feel like that when someone she had been so close to turned into a mere shell of their former selves just like that, caused by a decision made because of a decision she made beforehand.
"I just need some time to cool off..." Hibiki wouldn't feel that guilt forever. It was just a natural reaction to seeing Sunshine and hearing about her condition. Eventually, she would go back to her old self. It wasn't something that would haunt her forever.
"If you get any cooler than this, you'll turn into a snow woman." Kanade wasn't happy at all, both that Itsuki got back and that Hibiki acted like the yellow Cure's current condition was entirely her fault. Kanade couldn't bring herself to really shove the blame for that on Sunshine, though. It would be unfair and inhuman to do so.
"Want me to leave you alone for a bit?" Kanade couldn't stand seeing Hibiki like that. She was already getting up when her partner grabbed her hand, holding her back.
"Don't go. I feel like I'm going to start crying if you leave me alone with this. And you know I hate crying." Hibiki held firmly on to Kanade, who returned to the bed, hugging her partner from the front, the pink Cure's head resting against her chest. "Thanks."
For all they argued and fought, they were always there for each other when it counted. No matter what she was thinking, what she wanted to say, Kanade would never start to argue with Hibiki in a situation like that. She wasn't happy that Sunshine turned into a vegetable either! The woman, even though she had stolen Hibiki from her for a short time, was still the reason they got together in the first place.
Slowly petting her head, Kanade felt some of the guilt that Hibiki felt. Like she, by herself, had caused her condition. Even though they both knew it wasn't truly her fault, there was no way she could just accept that and forget what she saw. Human minds didn't work like that.
The outside had gone from hectic to depressed. Seeing someone coming in from having been the exile for the first time was devastating. Honoka and Nagisa had seen it before, and of course, Honoka felt guilt creep up to her as well, ten times worse than Melody. After all, she left her out there, saving herself and Beat instead.
"It hurts to see what happened to her. But my only other choice was to take her place... if I even managed to bring up the strength to get her out. I couldn't possibly leave Beat in there... comparing Sunshine to her is like comparing a smashed ant hill to the meltdown of a nuclear power plant." Honoka had trouble dealing with the guilt she felt. Her conscience told her she was a horrible person for causing Sunshine to become like that, her intelligence saying the opposite, that it was the right choice. She was strong and possibly dangerous if she became the exile. Not to mention, Nagisa would be badly affected as well.
"You don't need to explain yourself to me Honoka. I left her there too, even after I saw her like that." Nagisa didn't feel as bad as Honoka visibly did, but she still didn't like seeing those that came back from exile. Passion had been really bad... Milky Rose too. Beat had been the worst danger of them all. Comparing to that, Sunshine was completely harmless.
The two of them were sitting a little outside the living grounds, Mai and Saki providing company. They didn't want to be completely alone with their guilt and right now, they were little support for each other.
"It's always going to be hard to justify something like that, for everyone. And we still have to live with it. I'm afraid of the time I will have to make a decision like this. It doesn't change that nobody can or should blame you for it. No matter who gets left behind... there is always going to be one that suffers and two people will be responsible for it." Mai's words were a little morbid, and how could they not be in a situation like that. Pretending to be cheery would only make it worse.
"It's funny how our minds work. I didn't feel the crushing guilt like this when I just thought about her being the exile. Seeing it for myself, knowing I'm responsible, was a bad blow." Honoka leaned back, against a wall, and looked upwards, towards the high ceiling of the hall they were in.
"You know you shouldn't feel like this. If you hadn't left her, who knows what would have happened if you had become the exile? I don't want to imagine..." Saki had little idea of what people could turn into after they had been the exile. But even that little was enough to make her afraid of Honoka as exile.
"There are two sides to the exile. The one suffering because they're stuck, and the ones suffering because they're responsible for whoever is stuck." Mai wasn't sure if it would help Honoka if she said that. She wasn't used to dealing with the clever scientist being sulky.
"This doesn't even count as suffering. Mai, do you know what the most horrifying thing is I ever saw?" Honoka had a gloomy look about her. She remembered that sight like no other before. It would never leave her, a statement to what waited for her out there, in the solitude of the exile.
Mai kept quiet. It was a simple rhetoric question that she didn't need to answer. She had the distinct feeling that she really didn't want to hear what Honoka would tell her, though.
"We faced the dark king... Nagisa and I faced almost certain death. And yet, what I saw then doesn't even come close to this. When I went into exile to stop Beat, I got a brief glimpse at her face as she was singing. No matter how I would word it, it'd never do justice to the sheer horror I saw in her face. That was the face of someone who had what they loved most taken from them, corrupted and then forced to use it to kill. It was the equivalent of you or me using our partners in cold blood as slaves to kill innocents, slowly dying, ourselves, in the process." What shocked Mai the most was not the depiction of what Honoka said but the look in her eyes. Fear. She had never seen Honoka, or anyone, that frightened of something.
"It's different for each person except for one thing. It confronts you with the worst horrors you can imagine... or maybe worse yet." Nagisa had tasted just a bit of it when she passed through the exile. She couldn't imagine what staying in there for two days straight would do to her. She'd go insane for sure.
The mood of the entire team had gotten gloomy. It wasn't the best time to solve her problems, but Urara didn't like waiting. Opening the door to Ako's room, she found the girl laying in her bed, half asleep, half thinking. Sitting down on the bed edge, still unnoticed, Urara, grinned. "Hey, sleepyhead."
Almost jumping up, Ako calmed down significantly when she found out it was only Lemonade who had come in. Which, seconds later, she found very odd. She felt... relieved that it was just Urara and not someone else. Was she starting to trust her? Staring at the wall on purpose instead of looking at the pushy girl, Ako didn't bother greeting her. "You forgot something?"
"Depends on whether you count as a thing." Looking over her shoulder, Urara paid great attention to everything she felt when looking at her, talking to her. At first glance, her guess seemed correct. That wasn't exactly how she felt when looking at someone she just wanted to fuck and leave.
"I don't belong to you." Ako turned around and now faced the wall naturally. Should she chase her out? Come to think of it, why hadn't she done that before? Why exactly did she tolerate Urara when she would have chased off everyone else right then?
"Why not? Who knows, maybe you'd even like it." Testing the waters was important.
"I'm not something you can just win over and keep as a trophy." Ako didn't like where the conversation was going. What was Urara getting at?
"So, let's cut the unnecessary bullshit. You're smart, you'll figure it out anyway. Sure, I went after you thinking you'd make a nice challenge but I enjoy this more than winning you over and sleeping with you." Honesty was a really powerful weapon and she deployed it with so much confidence that there was no doubt about her words.
"What are you getting at? What is the this you're talking about?" Ako tried to back off a little but there was little room. She was starting to feel uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was taking.
"Fine, you want me to spell it out for you. Been a while since I used those words though, so don't make a fuss if it comes out wrong." Moving around a little and looking at the girl on the bed from head to toe, Urara's words came out without any reluctance.
"Why... why... who the hell would go out with you?" Furiously blushing, she didn't know what else to say. She had never been really asked out before. Not like there was anyone to begin with!
"Just the reaction I expected. You're one of those, right? You always act cold, but you're not actually that much of an ice queen." Grabbing Ako's right hand, Urara pulled her up, into her arms. Looking into her eyes, a smug smile played around her lips before she kissed Ako.
She couldn't let that happen to her again! Not this time! That was her train of thought, but she did nothing. A gentler kiss than before, no tongue, no attempts to feel her up or anything. The amber eyes of the yellow Cure were half open, thinking to prolong the kiss until she felt a sign of resistance.
That sign would never come. Ako couldn't stop herself from giving in to the almost unknown sensation. She had never really kissed anyone like that before, and that one surprise kiss by Urara a while ago didn't count. Her first kiss... contrary to her personality, to her behavior, the songstress was acting careful, gentle, maybe even a little passionate.
Breaking off when Ako's blush seemed to have reached it's apex, Urara caressed her right cheek before kissing the same spot briefly and getting up. "Think about it. You might not want to admit it, but we mix pretty well. I really liked spending the night with you by the way. I'd love to do so again tonight." Turning around and about to leave, Urara was stopped by Ako's voice.
"Why me?" That same question again to which she hadn't gotten a real answer.
"The answer is the same. If that doesn't satisfy you... I guess you could say that I'm attracted to your personality more so than to your body. There's no way to rationalize the reasons why you like someone that way." A much softer answer than before, Urara sighed, looked at the shaken but looking oddly content Muse and left.
She had barely closed the door before slapping her forehead with her right hand. That went not like she wanted or expected at all. What the heck was she doing? She wanted to see what Muse felt, wanted to make sure she really did like her, not ask her out! That girl had a bad influence on her... whenever she was involved, all plans went overboard.
What was done was done. It probably would have ended in a similar way anyway, even without her soft side showing. That was something she kept concealed at all times, the last tiny remainder of who she used to be. Urara the idol was long dead and only a tiny part of her personality lived on in the new Lemonade.
Deciding she needed a drink, Urara headed back to the living room, only to find Nozomi and Rin there. "Done caring for Sunshine?" Everyone would have their turn as the exile sooner or later anyway. Urara didn't see the purpose of feeling terrible over every single person that ended up there. She'd never get done feeling miserable that way.
"Have a little sympathy Urara. She might not be close to us, but she's still a Cure." Nozomi wasn't feeling well after having seen Sunshine like that. Rin was providing company to her so she wouldn't feel lonely. Also to keep a tab on what she was doing, so she didn't get any ideas.
"Yes, yes, I feel so bad. I'm sorry Nozomi, but I can't be bothered to feel down over everyone that comes out of exile. I might feel sorry for cases like Passion and Milky Rose, but this is pretty harmless. I think she got off easily." Urara started to stagger the second she tried to sit down. Something was in her head, like a swarm of hornets wrecking havoc. Her eyesight went blurry with red and black, her hands clenched to fists against her will. She was familiar with the effect, quite well actually. That was what the red light did to the combatants. But this was slightly different. Mixed in with the heightened battle desire was uncontrollable rage. One hand covering half her face, the other punching the table so hard that she broke part of it, Urara screamed.
Worse yet, Rouge was about to jump on her, fire claws ablaze on her fists, her face distorted by rage and anger. It was impossible to think straight. Wrapping a chain around Rouge's throat, Lemonade hung her from the ceiling. Dream, where was Dream?
Gone. There was no a single trace of her. What Urara noticed now was that it wasn't her vision that had gone red and black. The red light was a red mist, and the living grounds were full of it, dimming the light, drowning everything in bloody light and deep shadows.
"Stay in your goddamn rooms!" Barking a single order was enough to warrant every last shred of her will power. Staggering towards the hallway, Urara barely managed to resist strangling Rin to death. Hatred was flaring out of nowhere, the desire to just destroy and inflict pain, the ultimate height of aggression and blood lust.
She couldn't think. Trying to direct her aggression towards something that wasn't alive, she started smashing a hole into the wall, trying to bury the thought that the increasing heat was Rouge fighting her imprisonment.
A loud explosion signaled Urara that there was someone else outside. Turning about, unable to resist the permanent influence of the red mist even a little, she was hit by half the wall, shattered by White coming right through it, an insane looking Egret right behind, her hand tightly wrapped around the other white Cure's throat. Not stopping, Egret pulled White with her along the wall, grinding her against the wall. Lemonade was about to step in and get her own share of violence when Black jumped through the hole, suddenly head to head with Lemonade.
Taking a brutal hit to the face, Urara was flicked through the air like a rag doll. No thoughts, only primal battle desire. A dozen chains extending and hitting Black, wrapping themselves around her legs, she was smashed four, eight, a dozen, twenty times against the walls without break, hard enough to leave small impressions of the woman in the stone.
The chains vanished as Lemonade's back was set on fire, long claws piercing her shoulders. A roar of pain and anger later, Rouge was beaten into the ground with a tremendously hard punch by Black, who was heavily injured.
Another explosion further down the hall send stones flying at the three fighting Cures. Egret and White, both bleeding heavily and staring at each other with a wrath distorted face, came running down the hall, firing azure and white colored energy orbs at each other, destroying the walls and the ground.
Just as they were about to crash into the other three, several things happened at once. Egret and White jumped at each other, starting a grappling match of who could choke the other first, Lemonade jumped up and used chains as whips, hitting everything in her vicinity with the force of a pistol shot, Rouge and Black's punches clashing, causing a ground shaking impact as they collided.
Egret kicking White off and using Rouge as stepping stone, got right up to Lemonade and kicked her in the chest, sending her flying into the ceiling. White was, at the same time, trying to defend herself from a storm of hits by Black.
Rouge didn't even think about vengeance, she simply went for the nearest target in reach, which was Black. Slashing at her with her claws, the black Cure backed off from White, who jumped up, grabbed Rouge by her ankle, using her as a throwing weapon against Egret and Lemonade, who exchanged a series of kicks and punches without any kind of defense.
Jumping at her partner, White's right hand reached Black's face and a massive energy blast knocked the black Cure right off her feet, sending her flying over twenty meters through the air, right into the wall at the end of the hallway.
But that came not without a price. Rouge separated the yellow and the white Cure, the latter landing right on Honoka's back, crushing her, stomping her into the ground. A single back-flip into the air, Egret stomped on her a second, a third, a fourth time until there was nearly half a meter difference in the level of the ground around White and below White.
Rouge found herself tied up so tightly that she was unable to breathe, her bones and flesh slowly giving in. Lemonade clenched her fists so hard that her fingernails cut into her own flesh, blood dripping down from her hands, the chains unforgiving maiming the red Cure who was on the verge of losing consciousness.
Egret turned to the last standing enemy as Rouge pulled a desperation move, wild flames consuming everything around her, reaching high in the hundreds of degree's of Celsius. Unwilling to let go of the now wildly burning Rouge, Lemonade used her friend like a piece of log, smashing her against the approaching Egret, who suffered horrible burns from the brief contact. The fire had climbed up from the chains in the meantime, Lemonade somehow trying to put out the flames that were now burning her worse with every second. Panicking, the chains vanished and the yellow Cure jumped around, unable to form any coherent thought. Smashing herself into the wall and burying herself with dust that put out the flames was both the end of the fire and her consciousness.
The situation was just as bad as that on the light side. The red mist leaked into the living grounds so thickly that it felt like breathing air with a hundred percent humidity. Berry had driven Aqua into a corner, both of them blind with rage, worse than primitive animals protecting their lair. Neither had any sense for defense, punching and kicking until they were pushed away by the impact. Clenching her fist, Miki jumped into the air, concentrating energy similar to her Spade Impact into her hand, hitting Aqua in the face, the water Cure's nose breaking and her body bouncing off the ground.
Jumping on top the still conscious blue Cure, Berry started to hit her face like a whirlwind, pure physical punches, slowly transforming Karen's face into a mess. Interrupted after about twenty hits in a matter of five seconds, Berry was virtually blasted through the wall by an energy impact from behind, Bloom attacking even though there was a series of large cuts all over her body, a steady trickle of blood hitting the ground wherever she stood.
Bright was cut again just as she finished her attack, Pine moving about like a lightning bolt, almost impossible to see. The yellow Cure no longer her main target, Berry and Aqua too were cut whenever Pine happened to be in range after another flashing move.
The four of them all in one place, Luminous stood about a dozen meters behind them, creating a literal wall of light in front of her, swinging her arm once and pointing in the general direction of the others. A hailstorm of bright energy orbs hit the spot the other four Cure's were at, causing monumental damage, destroying walls and ground alike, causing burns and flesh wounds. The hail never let up, continuing on like a infinite meteor shower.
Luminous saw Bright sucking up the damage and still approaching slowly while the energy hail whittled away at her strength. Not even thinking about defense, she started to fire off six different orbs at a time, most of them soaring right past Bright but some hitting, dealing even worse damage than the hail.
But Bright was way too tough. Making it through the full hail, she jumped out of it and grabbed Luminous by her face and hammering her backside first into the ground about a dozen times before the energy hail finally vanished and the yellow Cure spit blood. Standing up and aiming at her right arm, Bright stomped on it a single time so hard that the ground around the two shook like during an earthquake. Luminous screamed out in pain as the bones in her right arm were shattered.
But that victory came not without a price. Aqua, though her face deformed and her whole body covered in heavy bruises, first pierced Bright's shoulder, then both her legs with her water floret. The next hit vent right through the entirety of Bright's lower arm, entering through the approaching fist and exiting through the elbow, before the physical attacker hit her chest so hard that the blue Cure was flipped off the ground like paper in a tornado. Hitting the ceiling and falling down, Karen didn't move as much as a finger.
Pine and Berry were just about finished. Pine's blade was stuck in Berry's cheek, a two centimeter opening showing the inside of her mouth while the blue Cure was grabbing both of the yellow Cure's arms. Lifting her up, Pine letting go of her small blade, Berry whirled her around, smashing her against walls and the ground repeatedly, before finally pressing her on the ground, putting her left boot on Pine's chest while she tried to pull both her arms out of their sockets.
The yellow Cure lost consciousness after two seconds of Berry trying to do that but the blue Cure didn't stop until the gravely wounded Bright came walked over and grabbed Miki by her throat, lifting her up. Several well aimed kicks at Michiru's face later, Miki was smashed into the ground, right next to Pine, hard enough to make her pass out. Bright toppled over herself, unable to move anymore.
Both of those skirmishes were bloody and fought without even the tiniest sympathy. They just wanted to destroy, to kill everyone around them, and after that, continue to wreck havoc. Their mind was completely made up of aggression.
Even worse were those off that got teleported away. Randomly placed in the fighting zone were Dream, Moonlight, Melody and Bloom for the dark team as well as Marine, Blossom, Mint and Milky Rose for the light team. None of them had the luxury of just breathing in red mist along with air. The entire arena was sky high filled with red mist so thick, it was impossible to see further than about two or three meters ahead.
But that was enough for Dream and Blossom to see each other and start a brawl. The area changed from a big tower into a enormous multi-level labyrinth, alike to what the rest of the castle looked like, Nozomi and Tsubomi had a small room all to themselves.
Dream was the first to act, the red mist completely overriding any and all resistance she could have brought together. Jumping at Blossom, grabbing her by her long hair and whirling her around like a morning star, the younger Cure was brutally thrown around, helplessly until she managed to bury her fingers into the hard wall, ignoring the stinging pain on her head, some of her hair ripping, to whirl Dream into the air. Jumping up, grabbing her arms, turning her over and pushing down her neck on her right shoulder, Tsubomi hit the ground from over ten meters height, the impact shaking Dream hard enough to make her vision turn double.
Not too far away from them were Mint and Melody, facing each other, or rather, running from each other. A single hit was all Mint needed to completely crush Melody inside a rapidly closing barrier, killing her, and if she got hit by Melody's explosive punches, she'd lose more than just a bit of flesh and blood. Jumping out of the way, Hibiki rushed straight past the green Cure, hitting a wall with enough force to pulverize it. Not waiting for anything, she jumped high up at the ceiling, pushed herself off and slid over the ground, avoiding three barriers, leaving behind huge holes at each spot.
Their match was disturbed as the entire ground below them vanished in a near nuclear explosion. Shooting straight through the hole and passing past the green and pink fighters were Rose and Moonlight, aiming at each other with enough volatile energy to destroy the room and everything in it. "Midnight Realm Empress!" Yuri's voice was more screaming than anything else. "Abbadon!" An enormous amount of silver energy blades emerged from Yuri, clashing with countless razor sharp metal fragments in the middle of the room. Both Mint and Melody suffered heavy damage from the collateral of those attacks, the ceiling in the room above the shattering by the clash once again, Rose and Moonlight vanishing from their sight.
Losing not a second worth of time, Mint created a series of barriers all around Melody, leaving her unable to escape. "Concerto Scoppio!" The barriers around the pink Cure shattered in one giant blast, Mint was deafened by the attack, the shock wave of all the barriers breaking at once pushing her against the wall. Melody, enduring the backlash from the barriers without second thought, spit out the blood in her mouth and rushed at Mint, who was too slow to successfully get away. Creating a five layered barrier right in front of her, Melody showed no signs of breaking off her attack.
"Sinfonia Rovina!" Hibiki concentrated so many notes around her fist that they enlarged her whole arm by double it's original size, her now enormous fist hitting the fist barrier, all of the notes flowing through the hole and exploding simultaneously. The blast knocked Melody off her feet, originally designed as a range attack, Mint pushed through the weakened wall, falling down another level. Hibiki, the backlash of the five layer barrier having broken her right arm in multiple spots, hesitated not to follow down, only to run straight into another on-going battle.
In the worst possible moment, Mint hit the back of Bloom, who was just about to finish to connect a deadly looking energy punch with Marine's face. The impact throwing her off and missing, the ground was shattered once again, Melody still in pursuit, now Bloom closer to her than Mint. Instead of attacking Marine, Melody hit Bloom in the face with another energy punch, destroying the backside of her costume and sending her falling down with the rest of the debris.
"Maelstrom!" Marine's voiced announced the next calamity to come upon those four. Blue energy spread out over the width of the room, starting to turn rapidly, like a tornado or whirlpool. Being thrown around by the enormous force, they didn't notice the shock waves reaching them from above, a battle of a different level taking place there.
Blossom was high in the air, trying futilely to escape from Dream's vicious assault. Another swarm of pink butterflies surrounded her, Dream clenched her fist and they exploded with the force of dynamite, ripping Tsubomi's costume to shreds. Dropping down, she didn't even have time to scream in pain, Nozomi grabbed her ankle and using her like a flail, laughing crazy, a completely berserk animal. Letting go of Blossom, jumped after her and tightly gripping her throat, Dream was swiftly kicked off by the younger Cure. Aiming roughly in her direction, Blossom fired a volley of pink orbs at her adversary, only two of the bunch connecting.
Nozomi landed on all fours, refusing to let Blossom out of her eyes. The red mist obscured their view badly, but they could almost feel where the next living creature was, and that was their only target. Rushing at her enemy, Blossom did the same, the two colliding in the middle of the room, both their punches connecting with each others face, Nozomi feeling part of her jaw crack, Tsubomi's nose giving in from the impact.
Not backing off, they hit each other again, Nozomi's next hit connecting with Tsubomi's right eye, Blossom managing to hit the side of her head, staggering the older Cure. Going down and using a swift kick, Blossom didn't expect Dream to be as agile as she proved to be. Turning over in mid-air, Dream used her hand to push herself off the ground, above Blossom, kicking her into the back, grabbing her hair and pulling her down. Landing her her knees, Dream moved back a little, ramming her left knee right into the crook of Tsubomi's left elbow, an enormous surge of pain cutting through Blossom's body.
About to pull her right arm up and break it, the ground below them gave in, Marine's maelstrom catching up with them. It was one gigantic free for all brawl now. The first to launch an all out attack without consideration for her own safety was Dream. An ludicrous amount of pink butterflies mixed with the maelstrom, the whirl turning into one massive explosion upon activation. Each Cure was thrown against the walls, below them a hole of at least fifty meters. Bloom, her whole face covered in blood, giving her an insane look even worse than before, managed to get a hold of Marine just before they were thrown away by Dream's attack.
Bloom didn't care that they were falling and picking up speed fast. Holding Marine in a headlock she absolutely couldn't break, the blue Cure's survival instinct kicked in. Collecting as much energy in her hands as she could, she put on her own stomach, Bloom's chest right behind her smaller body. "Marine Gungnir!" The energy burst right through Erika, shredding her costume and making her cough up a large amount of blood, but the effect on Bloom was even worse. Instead of piercing her, the energy exploded as soon as it hit her, the impact trashing Marine into a nearby wall, knocking her out flat. Bloom, her eyes blank and body limb, dropped to the ground like a bag of potatoes, hitting the ground hard enough to shatter several of her bones.
None of the others paid any attention to what happened to those two. Melody and Dream had been catapulted to the same area and were now engaged in a match of endurance, Dream taking Melody's punches without defense, Melody taking three times as many but weaker hits from Dream. Only Hibiki's left arm was still functioning, Dream mercilessly abusing that by hitting two out of three times the weak spot, sending surges of pain running through Melody's body. Barely a minute had passed when they separated, Melody staggering from pain, her vision so bad that she was seeing two and a half Dreams. Nozomi could barely breathe and stand, Melody having broken more than just a couple of bones.
Their quick break was interrupted by Mint, who had been kicked right over the wide chasms by Blossom. None of the three managed to get out of time before the flower Cure flooded the entire space with cherry blossoms. "Poena Flora Mundus!" With a sharp sting, Blossom felt every little drop of energy drained from her, the petals changing form, merging, duplicating, splitting, Dream, Melody and Mint getting caught up in a nightmare of extending roots, razor sharp leaves, vines and deadly poisonous flowers.
The three vanished into a floral oblivion just as the battle of the two giants got taken down to where Blossom was. Rose came crushing through a wall near her Poena, smashing into another wall close to her. A second later, a myriad of silver energy blades hit the area, cutting Tsubomi's long hair, her costume and her body all at once. The surge of pain combined with the lack of energy was too much. Toppling over, already unconscious, she fell down into the chasms to where Bloom was.
Moonlight stood up above, inside a hole in the wall, Milky Rose glaring at her with obvious killing intent. Both of them had their attention redirected when the chaotic attack of Blossom was decimated by an enormous pink explosion, Dream, roots still piercing her arms and legs, slowly staggered forward, both Mint and Melody knocked out in the now burning chaos.
Dream was hardly a threat with all her injuries, at least in the eyes of the animals that were fighting each other. Kurumi was the first to make a move, creating an enormous metal blade in her right hand, like a katar with the handle removed, acting like an extension of her arm, jumping at Moonlight. The silver Cure responded with a weapon on her own, lifting her right hand in the air above her head, towards where the Moon would be if this space had one.
Silver energy, emitting from her body, quickly formed into a long shaft, almost twice as long as she was tall, a split, curved blade at it's top, a deadly glaive. Both blades clashed with enough force to shatter the wall around them, the shock wave making their hair whirl around, their eyes fixed on each other with pure blood lust. They completely ignored the badly wounded Dream, who could barely move, let alone fight.
Backing off into a room with more space, Moonlight parried each hit of Rose's hand blade with her glaive, maintaining a healthy distance of about a meter between them. Swinging horizontally, Kurumi couldn't block the crescent moon shaped blade of the weapon and had to duck. No matter the rage, survival instinct would always override everything else. Another swing, aimed lower, Kurumi got high in the air and struck at Moonlight, who parried with the lower end of the shaft.
Continuing to strike wildly at Moonlight, the silver Cure was forced back slowly. Her weapon gave her reach and power but Rose was even in power and had higher agility if much worse reach. Parrying the last hit, Yuri jumped away, lifting the glaive over her head. "Crescent Moon Buster!"
The ground and the wall turned to dust right around Kurumi, who had protected herself with a cocoon of metal, her Abbadon re-purposed for defense. Dropping down, Moonlight was still on the upper level, holding onto the wall, waiting to recover. The silver light had flooded the room and simply annihilated everything it touched. Rose's defense was too much to destroy entirely but the walls and the ground were completely gone.
Kurumi was about to launch a counter offensive when she was grabbed from behind. Dream was still conscious and had just so happened to be right below where Moonlight destroyed the floor. "Rose Garden Sacrifice!" Moonlight tried to escape but didn't manage to get far enough away in time. The entire area was bathed in pink light for a few seconds, Dream dropped to the ground motionless just after it was over.
Kurumi was still standing but there was no light in her eyes. Slowly falling over to the ground, her body gave in without a consciousness to command it to stand up. Falling flat on her face, the purple Cure showed no sign of fighting.
Moonlight's glaive was gone, the horizontally tilted crescent moon barrier in front of her riddled with holes, slowly falling apart. She was the last one standing but could barely move, about to fall, no longer capable of holding onto the wall.
The red mist dissipated just as Moonlight fell, completely exhausted and beaten. The last kamikaze attack by Dream had caught her off guard. The battle was finally over, leaving behind enormous destruction and pain.
=== Dissonance ===
The first to open her eyes was Blossom, unable to comprehend where she was and how she had gotten there. Her head was full of memories she would have loved to forget. She was in her room, thinking about Erika, when she was all of a sudden dropped into a room filled with thick, red mist.
It only took a few seconds for the mist to completely override everything she was thinking. There were no thoughts, only memories of the actions of a wild, undomesticated beast following it's blood lust. For a human, a Cure even, to sink to such lows was hard to accept.
She had experienced the heightened aggression in battle herself. It wasn't all that horrible a thing as long as it let you still think about your actions, let you keep your humanity. But the red mist... too much reduced them to something worse than rabid animals.
Her body was ablaze with pain as she tried to move. No matter how much injury and pain was reduced after a battle, after taking as much damage as she did, it was a miracle she hadn't died right there on the spot.
Just laying there and slowly getting a feel for her body again, the pain slowly subsiding, Tsubomi felt like crying. Not because she was hurt, but because she had fought to kill, acted like a mindless tool of murder. If one's mind was all but rage, then that couldn't be called human.
It made her afraid. If something like that could happen to them just because things went a little wrong, what else laid in store for them? More than ten minutes having passed until she could manage to sit up, her vision almost gave in on her again. Looking at her hand, she wished, prayed, she would forget what she did. Because living with knowing about it was even worse than having done it in the first place.
Getting up and using the wall to balance herself out, her right leg still gave in on every step, forcing her to rely on the hard stone to not topple over. Just opening her door was already a challenge, passing through and standing in the silent hallway another.
It was then that Peach peeked out of a room, spotting Blossom. She had noticed the fighting earlier, just going near the door starting to affect her. Luckily, Passion had both the smarts and the guts to violently jerk Peach away from the door and keep her restrained until the influence wore off. Sitting out the short but monstrous fighting, hearing the screams and the explosions, was just as bad as being in the middle of it.
"Blossom, are you okay?" Leaving her room and walking up to the familiar face, Love saw the destruction the battle had brought with it. It looked like a demolition commando had raided the place.
"I wish I was. What happened here?" Tsubomi could barely talk, with something stinging in her head after every word she said.
"This is just my guess, but I think the red light or whatever it was leaked into the hallway and the open rooms. Not our rooms, but most of the others were out there I think. From what it sounded like, they were really going at it." The walls and floor were both damaged badly and it would take time to repair it. Setsuna walked past Tsubomi and looked into the living room, which was a mess as well.
"Do you think all of this happened because something happened to the other team?" Staying with Love, Beat offered Blossom a shoulder to lean on while she tried to follow Passion.
"Probably... I wasn't among those that fought here. I got teleported far out in the labyrinth, together with a few others." Her memories weren't obscured but there was no way to really tell who else could have been there.
"Damn... I had forgotten how absurdly strong Nozomi is..." Cursing under her breath, a door behind the small group opened and Milky Rose came staggering out of it, stains of blood all over her costume and skin, her right hand swollen on the spot she had connected the katar blade.
From what she had seen, Erika and Mint wouldn't wake up that soon. Especially Erika had taken pretty bad damage and she was worried about her. "I'll need to check on Marine... can you look after the others?" Tsubomi didn't even wait for an answer and instead walked off on her own, towards Erika's room.
"I never want to go through that again..." Kurumi felt like her limbs were on fire, each step, every little move with her arms causing pain like her muscles turned to needles. Sitting down on a pile of rubble, Kurumi touched her right wrist and twitched in pain. It wasn't broken but she wouldn't be able to use it for a day or two. "Looks like there was a party here while we were gone..."
"A party we could have done well without." Love didn't know what to do. They all seemed hurt, but she couldn't really do anything for them right now. While she could do a lot of things with her abilities, healing wasn't among them. "I'll get you some ice."
"Thanks. Appreciate it." Rose took a deep breath and tried to ignore the humming pain in her wrist. Using an ability that she hadn't completed yet... she'd never do that unless she really had lost her mind. And even that was a monumental understatement compared to what everyone had acted like just a little while ago.
Further down the hall, Pine was found by Passion. While she was sleeping, she wasn't really peacefully asleep or passed out. Both her shoulders showed signs of injury, her right shoulder visibly dislocated. It would hurt enormously to fix that. Hoping she was still too far gone to wake up, Setsuna knelt down, determined to fix Inori's shoulder before it got worse.
A high pitched scream of pain, dwarfing the loud cracking noise Setsuna could hear, signaled both that her arm would heal properly and that she was awake.
Both Love and Ellen arrived within seconds to find a whimpering Inori and a tired looking Setsuna. "I had to put her dislocated shoulder back in it's proper place. She was still passed out so I thought it wouldn't be as bad as when she was awake. Miki is over there, can you check on her Love?" Setsuna felt sick to the stomach after having to do that to one of her best friends.
Miki was, like Inori had been, unconscious, her face a mess of dents and bruises. It would take days for that to heal properly. Bright was laying right next to her, her whole body covered in small cuts resembling paper cuts. No matter how hard they all had fought, after a battle, wounds were reduced to bruises and less. For them to retain this level of injury was frightening.
Slowly trying to wake up one after another, Love, Setsuna and Ellen did their best to help those that were found outside their rooms back there, to get some rest and sleep. Dinner was canceled, most of them too weak to even talk, a few not even waking up at all, like Luminous. Over half an hour passed before the three, together with Milky Rose, sat down at the table, exhausted.
"I hope this isn't going to continue. Just in case, we should have everyone remain in their rooms tomorrow unless we eat together or someone takes care of negotiation." Setsuna didn't enjoy making choices like that, but another brawl like the one that had caused this aftermath would likely end in someone being killed. It was a miracle that nobody had really died yet. Luminous arm was still broken, and Love had done her best to help her, but there was only so much she could do.
"I'm going to sleep too." She was not going to be able to maintain her human or Cure form for much longer. That reckless fight against Moonlight had drained way too much energy. "You should get some rest. Nothing is going to change tonight."
Getting up and almost falling over, Kurumi had to use the table as support to avoid falling. Slowly getting a hold of herself and walking away, the trio was left behind, shocked by the extent of the damage everyone had suffered.
Not all of the damage was physical in nature. Tsubomi sat on the edge of Erika's bed, who was so beaten that she couldn't even get up. "Tsubomi... you know... I'm sorry. Even like that, I feel bad for attacking you."
"Don't be silly Erika... when I think about what I tried to do to Dream and the others... getting caught up in your maelstrom was nothing. And I know you'd never attack me on purpose." A small smile came back to the pink Cure's lips.
"But I was really scared... that you might die. I wouldn't know what to do if that happened. And... there's something I have to tell you. Living through this, seeing you injured like this... made one thing pretty clear to me. It's not impossible that one of us might not make it out of here. So..."
"So you want me to go out with you." Erika forced a smile, even though her whole body was on fire. She was almost certainly running a fever from the injuries she had sustained. Her vision was a little blurry, but she didn't even need to see to know what kind of face Tsubomi was making. "I figured it out not too long ago. I kept thinking and thinking and thinking about us... we were friends for so long and obviously, I know what happened between you and Itsuki. So I was really reluctant if I should even try..."
Making a short break to find the right words, Tsubomi too baffled to say anything anyway, Erika understood that there might be worse things than just ruining their friendship. To forever live in the doubt that things could have been better.
"Like you said... living through this... seeing you like that... it made me understand something. I wasn't really sad to lose a friend... I was sad to lose someone I really loved. This is going to sound really cheesy, but forgive me, I'm not in top condition." Cracking a smile, Erika tried to make as nice as a face as she could, given the circumstances. "I must have liked you for so long that I thought my feelings towards you were just friendship, but they aren't. I love you, I want to be with you. There is nobody else in the world that understands me more than you do, and the same holds true the other way around."
"You're not going to chase after Lemonade?" Tsubomi had tears in her eyes, but not because she felt sad or disappointed. Those were the tears of someone who saw a wish come true they had thought to end in failure.
"No, stupid. I wish I could hit you for asking that right after I ask you out and confess my undying love for you." Trying for a bit of humor, Erika made her friend... her partner, smile again. "Sorry I can't at least hug you right now, but I think I might turn to little pieces if I force it."
"That's fine." Leaning down, holding her hair back with one hand, Tsubomi and Erika shared the first kiss as real partners.
=== Dissonance ===
The situation on the dark team was a lot worse than on the other side. Ako and Kanade were the only ones to escape the brutal brawl, and only because they had taken Lemonade's warning seriously.
Now that the fighting and the tremendously menacing feeling from beyond their doors had vanished, they dared to look outside. They almost couldn't believe the destruction they saw. Ako was the first to find the beaten Cure's, kneeling next to the injured Urara. Her skin was burned in almost a dozen places and it would leave scars if not treated properly. Thinking that the same thing could have happened to her if Lemonade had not barked her order really scared the black Cure.
Lifting Urara up and carrying the yellow Cure to her own room, Ako returned to the bathroom to get a wet, cold towel. That woman was a mystery to her. Always pushing her around, pulling her along and making her get involved only to act completely different as soon as they were somewhere private.
Even though she intended to turn her down, knowing that a relationship of any kind would undoubtedly end in misery for both of them, she still couldn't leave her alone. The kisses, the time they had spent together... in one way or another, she started to understand why Hibiki and Kanade fit each other so well, despite their constant arguing. It wasn't so different from what Urara did to her.
Still, Lemonade would leave her the second she found out that Muse was in reality five years younger than she appeared to be. No amount of acting and looking mature would ever change who she truly was. Even if she did manage to keep it a secret... Hibiki and Kanade were unlikely to keep quiet about it.
Thinking about these things... Ako felt troubled. If she thought about it that much, did she want to be with her? Urara was a very unique person and she had just started to feel just a tiny little bit attracted to her... maybe. Still, it didn't matter if she wanted to be with her or not. It wouldn't work.
Having finished wiping the visible wounds, Ako figured that there could be numerous, maybe even bad, burns under her costume. While she was slowly stripping the woman, she didn't even know anymore what she was doing. Wasn't that the exact same as Urara had done to her last night?
She didn't know anymore. Needing to get away from her own room, Ako left, thinking that it would be better to at least get the others to their rooms so they could rest. White and Egret looked like they were in particularly bad shape, although Rouge and Black didn't appear to be in much better condition.
The only other person to escape the brawl was Kanade, who was carefully looking over Hibiki, whose right arm showed signs of having been broken very recently. It was badly swollen, the skin turning to shades of green, blue and purple, the pink Cure wouldn't come to, no matter how much Kanade talked to her. She refused to move for anything from her partners side.
A full hour passed while Muse cared for those she found outside. Hearing Kanade talk to Hibiki, finding Sunshine still unconscious, the numbers added up, letting her know she had found everyone. She was tired and yet, restless. Admitting that she was done would leave her with but one choice, going back to her own room, where Urara was still laying, waiting for her.
Maybe... maybe just one more night together would be okay. No matter how much she told herself she hated it, Ako knew that it was under the pretense of knowing it wouldn't work out and not wanting to get hurt. But she wanted it again, the feeling of waking up in someone's arms, or even just next to... her.
"What are you doing Ako..." Talking to herself was not a good sign, but everyone else was unavailable. Even Yuri had only shown her face briefly before crashing for the night. "I can't possibly fall in love..."
There were so many things she couldn't do as the future queen of Majorland. Falling in love with another woman was one of those things. What would her mother and her father say? Although... if she ended it before they returned to the real world... if she just had fun while in this terrible place...
She was conflicted. Part of her refused to accept she could have feelings for such a arrogant and vulgar woman, knowing that she would one day be queen and couldn't indulge in such unbecoming business. The other part of her wanted to be just the young girl that was discovering what it was like to be courted by someone, even if it was in their own way. Half of her wanted to be with Urara, the other half in denial that the first half existed at all.
Putting her conflict on hold, for the time being, the half that wanted to be with the blond woman had won. Going back to her room, stripping Urara naked and treating the last of her burns, she went to bed with the girl, reversing the situation from the night before, Urara in her arms. It was a good feeling. No matter how bad she felt about giving in, how bad it was considering her position. None of that could take away the slight happiness she felt from being there.
=== End of Event XV ===
