To continue writing as much as I have until now, I ask for your support. Even tweeting about it helps.
Become my Patron on Pa treon dot com/Kuugenthefox
There are perks and you might even get me to continue writing a discontinued fic!
Disclaimer: You donate for me to have time, not directly for fanfics but I use my time for fanfics.
Dissonance
Event XVII
Mirrors-Unum
She had forgotten how good it all felt, even though it hadn't been that long. Why did she forget? Was it because she couldn't endure the pain of leaving it all behind for something... someone else? Was it because she didn't want to betray Kanade's feelings? But now, she was back together... with Itsuki.
Her own breath was like fire, every second she spent kissing Itsuki she felt like her body was burning up even more. No matter how passionately they kissed, no matter how much their tongues danced, playing with each other, teasing each other, they couldn't stop. Each others saliva tasting for the other like sweet honey, Hibiki's right arm tightly held on to her lovers neck, pulling her down, holding her down, unwilling to let her get away for even a second.
Their bodies pushing against each other, their skin glimmering with droplets of sweat, each movement causing the two of them to moan into their long, unyielding kiss. Their breasts touching, pressing together, they were on a high trip of excitement. Sensitive and hot, their nipples rubbed against each other, preventing them from ever stopping moving, addicting like fire that filled them up from the inside.
One of her hands between Hibiki's legs, pleasing the girl below her with her dexterous fingers, every single one coated in Melody's excitement. The other hand, it's fingers intervened with her those of her love's left, trembling and shaking, holding on so strongly to her partners hand that it seemed like they could never separate again.
Their love and loving was without restraint, a desire both fiery and pure. They needed each other, they wanted each other. Hibiki could not get enough and Itsuki was more than happy to oblige.
Wanting her partner to share the same feelings she experienced, Hibiki let go of her love's neck and reached through the small space between their bodies. Their kiss suspended in surprise for a second when Hibiki's hand found Itsuki's most intimate place, now both of them approaching the height of their act together.
The air between and around them hot like a forge, the two of them melting in their lust, Itsuki's tongue left her partners behind alone, not to breathe or take a break, no. Words she couldn't hold in any longer, she had wanted to say even back then, when Hibiki chose Kanade.
"I love you, Hibiki." Even though she said it before, even though there was nothing she meant more sincere than this, to say these words now had a special meaning to her. That she wouldn't let her go away again.
"I love you too, Itsuki." Things were different for her, yet she only said what she truly felt. She needed Itsuki, no matter what.
Itsuki's expression changed, tensing up, her breathing out of control, heavy gasps of air escaping her mouth until sealed again by Hibiki's lips. And she could tell that Hibiki had come too, from the way her body was shaking and trembling. Their fingers wet and sticky, the bed the same, Itsuki rolled over, laying next to her love, pulling her close, hugging her. Hibiki's arms went around the blond girls back, holding tightly on to her.
"Itsuki..." Hibiki had a smile on her face, happy in the arms of her love. "You won't leave me or get angry at me, right?" She was so sick of fighting with Kanade. So incredibly sick of it.
"Hm, only if you stay with me." Kissing Hibiki's forehead, she smiled softly. If Kanade was stupid enough to keep fighting and making a fuss out of everything, to the point where she would tell Hibiki to just go back to her, Itsuki, then she really didn't deserve Hibiki. Their endless bickering seemed to be a pain for everyone else, too.
"It's a deal." Giggling, Hibiki really felt happy, just like the times when she was with Kanade. But the fighting had gone on too long. If happiness came attached with something like that, she'd rather have the same happiness without it. And that was Itsuki. "...Say..." Hibiki, now that the excitement and the lust was fading, her desire satisfied, was starting to feel a little uncomfortable with things as they were. "Should we... take a shower?"
"It's the middle of the night but..." Her right hand feeling the wet spot on the mattress and the sweat soaked blanket, she kind of understood where Hibiki was coming from. "I guess you're right."
Letting go of her partner and slowly getting up, Itsuki wondered if she should go into Cure form or gamble that there was nobody else awake at this time of the night. Hibiki had the same thought and hesitated. Their plan of action was decided quickly when Itsuki grabbed the bed blanket, held Hibiki close and covered the two of them just barely with the cloth. Their naked bodies pressed against each other while they peeked into the dark hallway gave them a sense of thrill, excitement completely different from having sex.
The cold air of the hallway immediately gave them goosebumps. Tip-toeing their way to the bathroom, they almost shrieked when they heard a toilet flush, the two of them running into the living room, hiding behind a corner. Itsuki was taller than Hibiki and able to peek around the corner in the darkness. Thankfully, her hair wasn't as bright in civilian form, so whoever it was wouldn't be able to see her.
A completely sleep drunk White walked out of the bathroom, her hair in a horrible mess. She looked like she had just woken up. Itsuki could hear her mumbling something to herself but was only able to make out fragments. "Stupid...kicking me...I'm...her..No...for...three...serves...right..."
"Sounds like she had a rough night with Black." Hibiki was whispering as quietly as she possibly could.
"Seems that way." Itsuki shivered due to the lack of clothes. They waited almost a minute until White had gone back into her room. Hurrying into the bathroom, hiding the blanket in the shower furthest to the back and occupying the cubicle next to that, they grinned at each other, remembering how they had first done this. Itsuki had already put her hand on the valve to turn on the water when she suddenly hesitated, hearing voices from the entrance.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? I don't want someone to see us." It was a loud whisper and Itsuki recognized the voice as belonging to Egret. Why did they all have to plan their nightly trips to the bathroom that day!
"Don't worry, everyone else is asleep. I checked in on Honoka and Nagisa, they're fast asleep. I didn't hear anything from the others, except Melody." Itsuki tensed up, hearing Bloom mention her name. What exactly did she hear? "I don't know who she was with but it was pretty clear she was sleeping with someone." Blushing from the thought of Bloom eavesdropping, Itsuki covered down, Hibiki following her example.
"What do we do now?" Hibiki's voice was barely audible, even to the girl right next to her.
"Wait. I don't want them to know we're here. We'd have to turn into Cure's to walk out of here and I kind of don't want them to-" Itsuki, whispering just like Hibiki, stopped and listened for their voices. There was nothing. Instead, she could hear something else.
The sound of two people kissing, cloth rustling and heavier getting breathing. "They can't possibly..."
Hibiki started to blush heavily. A few seconds later, they heard the water in the first shower turn on, the noise completely covering whatever sounds Saki and Mai were producing. "You think they'll notice if we get out now?"
"I don't know. But we can't shower like this... and I don't want them to think we peeped on them either." Itsuki didn't know what to do. If they left, the other two could hear them. If they showered, they would definitely hear them. Turning into Cure's would catch their attention for sure as well.
"For some reason I kinda feel tempted to take a peek..." Hibiki couldn't help but be curious how well-built Bloom was. Her outfit covered almost everything, so she only had a rough idea. Egret's costume was skimpy enough though.
"Don't be silly. Egret would toast us both if she caught us." Itsuki wasn't keen on dying this soon after getting Hibiki back. "Let's try and leave as quietly as we can." Opening the door as slowly as humanly possible, Itsuki tip-toed to the second shower and found another problem. Those two hadn't bothered to close the door to the first one. Hibiki caught up with her, having rolled up the blanket. Itsuki nodded, knowing that the rustling would have been a dead giveaway of their presence.
Holding up her hand, a signal to stop, Itsuki tried to take a peek, hopefully without Bloom seeing her. It wasn't that dark in the shower room, so the chances weren't that good. Bloom had Egret pinned to the wall and was on her knees, her tongue pleasing her girlfriend. Itsuki's face turned to a fierce red upon seeing both the scene and Egret naked. Thankfully, Mai seemed to be fully concentrated on enjoying her partners tongue play.
Taking the chance, Itsuki took a few small steps, as quietly as she could and successfully made it past the two. A loud moan from Mai serving as signal, Hibiki followed the blond girl and tried to make it past as well. Not quite successfully. Stopping just short of leaving, Hibiki couldn't help but take a good look at Bloom. Even her back was showing off how much she trained. Her arms and legs were clearly those of an athlete. Admiring her body, Hibiki overstayed her welcome too much. Just as Mai lifted her head, her eyes getting a glance of a person, Hibiki started running.
"Who's there?!" Mai, knocking over Saki, jumped to the entrance of the shower and looked around, but she couldn't see anyone. Unwilling to go out of the bathroom like that, Mai resigned herself that she was a little paranoid. Pulling the door close and locking it, she didn't enjoy the thrill as much as Saki.
Both Itsuki and Hibiki looked like a wolf had chased them over five kilometers. Red faces, out of breath and quite scared, they looked at each other started to giggle. They were, again, in the living room, stark naked and in the dark. Itsuki was first to switch to Cure form, Hibiki following suit quickly after. "Let's just go sleep in my room then." Itsuki was still feeling a little icky from the sweat, but she didn't want to stay up until whenever Egret and Bloom would leave.
Leaving Hibiki's room empty and only throwing the blanket ball on top of the bed, the two of them went to Itsuki's room, luckily without any other interruptions.
=== Dissonance ===
Michiru was the only one awake, strolling through the garden. It was a complete mystery to her how something like it could exist. The ground was genuine dirt and earth, and even though she tried hard to find a room that connected to whatever was below the garden, she couldn't find anything. It was like the earth simply reached so far downwards that the rooms below had been obliterated or replaced.
The water was untraceable as well. There was indeed a room about twenty meters behind the garden, but nothing in-between, only solid stone. If it could even be called that. The material this place was made of wasn't identical to anything she had ever seen. It was more like an... alloy of stone than real one. It was much too hard to be average stone. In it's composition, it was closer to granite, yet, not heavy enough to be just that. Hitting concrete on Earth with her full power completely obliterated the material and everything around it.
The wind was yet another mystery. There were multiple small holes that kept shifting. By this point, she knew of seventy-two holes and three-hundred-fifty-two positions. She couldn't quite explain where the wind was coming from, but at the end of the day, she enjoyed being there a lot more than aimlessly wandering around.
Taking her boots and leg armor off, Bright sat down at the edge of the pond and let her feet down in the water. She really wished Kaoru would be there with her, both to analyze this place and because she felt lonely. Mai and Saki were on the other side as well, and with the new system, who knew when they would come over.
Talking of the new system, Michiru had learned, together with Aqua, that touching the middle field made a specific number light up first, then several others, depending on the person touching. It was like an archaic information display. First it displayed how many battles remained before one could switch sides again. Secondly, it displayed how much favor one had. It always displayed one last number that seemed different form everyone, and they still hadn't figured out what it was.
The water was unexpectedly cold at night. The quiet gurgling of the river, the rustling of the tree's at night, it was a very serene picture. The grass was a little wet and was smelling of rain. Looking up, Michiru observed the biggest of all the mysteries in this room. The indoor sky. It kept changing, even showing clouds and it was completely indistinguishable from a real sky. If she jumped high enough, she did crash into a wall, yet the sky seemed to be far away as always. A perfect illusion.
Blossom had really outdone herself with it. Moving her legs back and forth, Michiru created tiny waves in the pond. There was nothing inside, which was kind of boring. Seeing as Blossom had wished for a garden and not a forest, it was kind of obvious that living organisms weren't included. Either that, or it was simply not possible to wish for those. It would make sense that there were limitations on what one could wish for in some way, but it seemed odd to prevent them from creating a few small animals or fish.
Getting a little cold, Bright got up, grabbed her boots and armor and walked away, her bare feet tickled by the grass. It was, even without all the mysteries, a beautiful place.
Reaching her room, Michiru turned around once more, looking at the end of the hallway. The automated system... It would dictate who was in charge of negotiation, who would run for exile and who would fight. It was a lot of freedom that had been taken from them. She couldn't help but wonder if there was some way to get it back.
Wishing for the system to roll back to it's previous state was a possibility, but she couldn't even imagine how much favor that would consume and how dangerous such a wish could be. If it caused the entire system to crash permanently, everyone would starve to death. A grim possibility she couldn't ignore.
Michiru herself wasn't quite sure why, but she walked all the way to the end of the hallway to touch the middle field again. Three, Ninety-nine, displayed by the number nine lighting up twice consecutively, and either forty-two or twenty-four, for both two and four were lighting up. The number only varied slightly among the others. For Luminous, Mint, Milky Rose, Berry, Passion and Marine, the numbers six and nine lit up. For all the others, two and four.
But there had to be some meaning to the number. Keeping her hand on the field, the numbers that were displayed simply circled around, repeating itself over and over. Trying to put her hand on either of the other fields, nothing happened. Putting both her hands on either field didn't change the results. There was no difference between Cure form and civilian form either.
Maybe she was going about it the wrong way. Stepping back and looking at the three plates, she started over at zero. What did she know? Each plate was like a magical display corresponding to either Negotiation, on the left, Fights, in the middle, or the Exile, on the right. The main plate was roughly hundred-fifty centimeter diameter. The other plates were considerably smaller, only eighty by eighty centimeters.
All three plates had twelve smaller plates on them, like the rest of the plate had been carved down. They were not fixated with anything but seemed to be part of the stone to begin with. Each of the smaller plates was ten by ten centimeters, a symbol, each belonging to one specific team member, carved in them. A symbol would light up to signalize that the corresponding Cure has been chosen. About thirty centimeters further to the center of the plate were roman numerals from one to twelve. Upon placing the hand on the plate, numerals would light up, first to display how many battles had to pass before one was eligible for the exile run. Second it would accurately display the exact amount of favor. The third number had an unknown purpose.
Giving each symbol a detailed look, Michiru started at the mark right above the roman numeral one. A star-like, a star seen from a great distance such as the surface of the earth, shape in the center. Four spikes, one each in the cardinal directions. Each spike was about four centimeters long, not quite reaching the edge.
Below numeral two was a sphere right above a spiral. The sphere was perfectly round and covered the center point of the spiral below it. The spiral filled the full plate except at each corner. Four differently carved streams formed the spiral.
At numeral three was a butterfly above what she recognized as a kite shield, a peculiar type of knight shield worn in the medieval ages primarily in Europe and predominantly in England. The shield itself covered most of the plate, leaving roughly one or two centimeters to the left and right side. The butterfly was a simple, stylized type that had no patterns of any description and seemed to be primarily formed of it's four wings, each stretching out into the space between the cardinal directions.
Numeral four was another butterfly, this time over six water drops, three above the horizontal center, three below. One each in the vertical center, one to the left and one to the right of it, forming two triangular patterns. The butterfly was in the exact spot between the drops. There was about one centimeter between the start of the upper vertical center drop and the upper end of the plate. Similarly, one centimeter below the lower vertical center drop and the lower end of the plate. The left and right drops had about two centimeters space between their respective edges and the edge of the plate.
Numeral five was a simple and stylized sword blade without handle crossed with a thorny rose in full bloom. They crossed about three centimeters above the absolute center of the plate, the sword carved over the rose. The sword blade started at the very south-west edge of the plate, the rose at the very south-east edge, both of them reaching just about a centimeter below the upper end.
Numeral six's plate was covered almost entirely by a four-leaf clover, the center point obscured by a heart. The clover itself was simple and stylized and only left tiny spots free at the edges, in which barely the tip of a small finger could fit. The converging point was hidden below the heart, which was about four centimeters high and four wide, at it's widest point. The top leaf was particularly well carved compared to the other three.
At numeral seven, was the same clover, this time the converging point was covered by a spade. It was the spade from a regular suit of cards. This time the left leaf was carved especially well. The spade was five centimeters high and four centimeters wide at their respective peak points.
Numeral eight was yet another clover, a diamond covering the central point, again, the symbol taken from a suit of cards. The diamond would, if turned, turn into a perfect square of four on four centimeters. The right leaf was the one that looked specifically well done this time.
The fourth clover was found at numeral nine, the card suit of club covering the center point. Each of the club's small spheres was a perfect sphere of one and a half centimeter diameter. The entire club was four centimeters high and three wide.
Closing in on the end, at numeral ten, Michiru found herself perplexed. A complex bloom of a flower with fourteen petals, closely fitting the plate, leaving only marginal empty space at the corners. The full space of the plate was additionally covered in very small, only half a centimeter thick, long and wide, petals that seemed to be airborne. There were fourteen petals in total, seven above the horizontal center, seven below, the upper side a mirror of the lower.
Numeral eleven was showing much more peculiar than the previous four. The bloom of a flower Michiru didn't recognize. The flower had eleven petals, covering the plate almost perfectly, leaving only tiny spots, like the clover previously, at the very edges. In the dead center of the flower were three waved horizontal lines, each exactly two centimeters long, one centimeter to each side if seen from the vertical center. Each line was exactly one centimeter away from the previous one and only about a quarter of a centimeter thick.
The last one, numeral twelve, was the most complex but also the easiest to recognize. She wasn't that knowledgeable about music but she recognized those notes. A G clef, reaching from top to bottom, was carved into the plate, without the staff, the five lines said clef was usually drawn on. The curious thing about it was that the G clef was, in it's entirety, on the left side. The invisible vertical center line separated it from the other part of the symbol. On the right side was a single Crotchet. The size of it was almost equal to the G clef, which was surprising, as those two were not anywhere near the same size in a musical score.
It wasn't hard to guess which symbol belonged to whom. Number five was definitely Milky Rose. Three was Mint and four Aqua. Twelve was Beat. The four clovers all belonged to the same team, which made it even easier. Peach, Berry, Pine and Passion. The full moon was her own symbol. That left Luminous, Blossom and Marine. From there on it was child's play to determine the owner of each symbol. Number one was Luminous, the one that had the flower covered with petals was Blossom and the last, remaining one, was Marine.
There were two sets of numbers. If each number corresponded to the symbol near the roman numeral... Two was herself, Bright. Four was Aqua. Six was Peach. Nine was Passion. If only one set were three numbers, it would rule out either of the sets referring to the negotiation and the exile. This way, both sets could dictate the Cures that would fight and participate in the other activity. It could also mean that one of each set was fighting. Another possibility was that it dictated the opponents of the next battle and the fighters, each set referring to one team. But then, what was the point of the negotiation?
If that was the case, it would either be her and Aqua or Peach and Passion participating in the next fight. If either happened, there was a high likelihood she was right. She would have to continually monitor the numbers and compare them to what was happened later to get any solid theory.
Rubbing her temple, Michiru was starting to feel tired. Trying to deduce the real purpose of the numbers from a few shaky theories wasn't that easy. She almost jumped when someone touched her back. "What are you doing here this early? Breakfast isn't done yet." The words were followed by a loud yawn. Marine had walked up to her, looking still quite sleepy.
Looking around, the lights had come on. She hadn't noticed how much time she spent in front of that plate. It was already morning and she hadn't slept.
=== Dissonance ===
"Wind Shredder!" Launching her attack from mid-air, Kaoru unleashed dozens of wind blades, destroying the ground below her, removing Bloom's footing. She had been under attack by several very real illusions for the past six hours. Their appearances and abilities changed on a whim, but they always kept going back to Bloom, Egret and Bright after a while. A meaningless attempt, trying to make her hesitate. No matter how often they would call out to her with their voices, how much they would plead, it was just another trap. Kaoru knew that.
"Storm Wall!" Swinging her right arm in a wide arc, she created numerous small tornado that acted like a wall. Illusion or not, those things were very real to her. They had physical bodies and if she killed one of them, they wouldn't show up for several minutes. But no matter how smart and strong she was, fighting an enemy that just kept on going was madness.
Earlier, she had been hiding in the chasm that most likely served as battlefield. Nothing else nearby seemed to be suited to it. Empty, barren space without even debris wasn't a battlefield. Running towards said chasm again, she would use it a second time to hide for a while. The exile was clearly not working the same way as before. It was a much more physical threat now. Already using part of her costume to stop the bleeding on her right shoulder and her right hand, she wasn't eager to add any more wounds to the list.
Jumping down and falling straight past at least ten paths, the light faded rapidly. "Wind Blast!" Using her ability to cushion her fall, Windy changed routes and went towards the east end, still further down. She could barely see her hands in front of her eyes when she finally stopped, touching against the massive wall of the chasm. "Wind Shredder." Focusing the full attack on one point, she created a small hole, just big enough to hide herself in. "Wind Shredder." Using it over and over again, the hole was at least five meters into the wall before she stopped. Going back and kicking the rubble down the path, no sign of there being a hole remained. From the outside, it was completely indistinguishable from the wall.
Sitting in the back of the hole, Kaoru waited. The next exile run would happen. Psychological attacks or physical attacks, it didn't make much of a difference. At least she could outsmart the physical treats for a while.
But to sit there in absolute darkness, her blue eyes half hidden behind her eyelids, two sharp slits focusing on the sole entry to her hideout. Dust continued to fall from the ceiling and the occasional unintentional movement sounded like the collapse of a skyscraper to her. Stress was a huge factor while hiding, and even she wasn't immune to it.
But she wasn't controlled by it. Ignoring all disruptive elements, her gaze remained unwavering on the entry, ready to blast whoever found the hole. A single, powerful Wind Shredder attack would completely destroy anyone who entered the hole. There was no way to escape from the attack in time.
She could repeat this strategy over and over as long as her concentration held. The only problem was her body. No matter how strong her mind was, she needed nutrition, liquids and sleep once in a while. Nutrition could be ignored for now, for she wasn't going to be the exile for many more days. Liquids should have become a problem, but her bodily functions didn't seem to progress properly while she was in the exile.
Something about that was disturbing. She didn't feel hunger or thirst while she was out here, despite how much she had sweat, ran and fought. Under normal circumstances, she would be craving for anything to eat, for something to drink. And yet, she was feeling the exhaustion. Her body was starting to demand sleep if nothing else. In a nutshell, it meant that some of her body's functions were halted or otherwise magically saturated. It made sense if she thought about it from the point of whoever designed the system. There was no rule that stated the exile would be released automatically at any point, so it would be statistically possible for someone to remain the exile for weeks at a time.
Regardless of the likely loss of sanity, in the case of a psychological attack, or the loss of their well being, in the case of a physical attack, the exile would die of thirst and hunger eventually. If there was yet no sign of her body developing either of those, then something must either satisfy those needs or halt the processes that causes those needs to come about in the first place.
Yet it was odd that sleep remained as something the body started to demand. Was it to further torment the exile during the state of sleep as the mind was likely more prone to a psychological attack? To make the exile fall prey to a physical threat? For now, she couldn't say whether the physical threat was an anomaly or simply something that was added to the system. As there had been no psychological attack since the chaotic restructuring, it was also possible that the very mechanism that caused the psychological attack had been replaced or damaged.
Time seemed to stretch and stretch. How long had she been sitting there, only hearing the distant sounds of others moving about, searching for her? The cut in her shoulder was starting to itch below the cloth, but scratching would only open up the wound, else if it wasn't closed, intensify the bleeding. The bits of dust in the air were drying out her eyes, getting in her nose, trying to make her sneeze. Static darkness as far as she could see.
Was this in itself a psychological attack? Torture? Alone, in the dark, trying to wait for an enemy to tire that needed not sleep or rest, that was immortal and possibly not even real. How many of them were there in total? She had counted three of them close to each other, too close for them to just vanish and re-appear without her noticing. There had to be more than that. The sound of boots hitting the stone, the faint echo of them searching for her, the stone and the dark carried it all the way from afar to her. But how far away? How close were they?
There was no doubt about the nature of the exile. The existence of the illusions, the physical pain she suffered, regardless of whether it was real or her imagination, her way of thinking and acting, her plan to just wait for them to give up or the next exile run to start. It was all part of the psychological torture by the exile. She could be unconscious in the real world and see all of this just in her mind. Maybe.
The wounds itching intensified. Her hands shaking, she needed every single piece of her self-control to not start scratching. What would happen if she did? A wound was real as long as one perceived it as real. No matter if she realized it wasn't real or not, she wasn't capable to ignore a flesh wound like that. It hurt, so she already perceived it as real. Would it go away if she managed to convince herself, her body, that she was just imagining it? What if her theory was wrong and the wound did actually exist? Would succumbing to scratching worsen the wound that might or might not exist?
It tormented her, the uncertainty. To prove it, she would need to take a leap of faith that could possibly result in an infected wound that might lead to severe illness. From what she could tell, injuries sustained in exile were not healed when leaving. She couldn't risk a potentially deadly infection when she didn't know when the next exile run was happening.
If one was happening. What if the others were trapped on their sides? She had no recollection of there being a battle, and even though parts of the area looked destroyed, it could well be part of the design. It wouldn't surprise her and it was definitely in the realm of valid possibilities.
Another uncertainty. The more she thought about them and possible solutions, the more things she couldn't explain, she didn't know, she wasn't able to prove or check were added to the list. Touching her forehead, Kaoru felt a strong headache come to her. In the eerie silence she could hear every single beat her heart was making. Just sitting there, staring at the dark, waiting for them to come or not, waiting for an eventual exile run that might not happen.
What was happening to those on the outside? Were Mai and Saki okay? What about Michiru? She was on the other team, so things could be different for them. Which side caused the problem? Was anyone of them even responsible in the first place?
"Calm down... calm down... this is what it wants... no need to struggle so hard." Muttering to herself, Kaoru felt her sanity slip just a little. If she had to verbally stop herself from thinking about possibilities, then that was a clear sign that she lacked the mental capacity to do so without audible stimulus.
One side had to be responsible. The likely scenario was that her previous team was at fault. Drunk people would suffer a hang over which severely reduced their capability of acting at peak condition. In a state like that, it was highly likely that something was done that could cause a system failure. It had to be an at least semi-automated system, as the functions seemed to be exactly the same every time.
If the exile was in effect again, and it most definitely was... or was it? For now she had to assume it was, then chances were good that the rest of the system was working as well. That would mean that negotiation, exile run and fights were still happening and it simply eluded her attention to notice the fight. It was entirely possible that there was a magic effect in place that stopped the exile from both observing and interfering with a battle. It was a logical thing.
But what if the place did not follow logic? What if the powers that created this place were so alien to rational thought that the process was incomprehensible for humans? For now, she had to assume otherwise. Assume. She was making too many assumptions. But what other choice did she have? The wound kept itching. Why were her thoughts being distracted this much? The wound's itching was worse than before. Was her ability to form rational thought being meddled with? She needed to scratch, she needed to scratch soon.
The next exile run had to happen. It was clinging to hope but finding herself doing so actually pleased her. It was a human instinct of self preservation to believe that the situation one was in was not completely hopeless. Resigning yourself to death would result in both physical and mental decay. Not like a corpse but similar to someone in an extreme shock or under a heavy depression. Both exhibited syndromes of lacking the will to live on, which meant their mental state was that of someone who had given up on the possibility that they would survive whatever they were going through, either physically or emotionally.
The dark was screeching in her ears. A high pitched beeping noise, first very quiet and barely audible but steady. Minutes passed of her trying to ascertain the source of the noise to no avail. She couldn't move from her prison, her hideout. The hunters would see her and she would have to flee again, possibly even deeper into the chasm.
How would she know, down here, that an exile run had started? Would it be similar to when she... when she... Shaking her head, Kaoru felt her eyes close again and again. Sitting still in the dark, immersed in thoughts, completely unmoving, her heart beat had calmed down too much. The environment was empowering her desire to sleep. She had to stay awake, in case an exile run would start. She couldn't... couldn't...
Her head resting on her knee's, her back leaned against the back of the cave, Windy tried to resist one last time before she fell asleep.
=== Dissonance ===
What in the world had she been doing for the last few days? Ako had completely lost control of her life. Sitting at the long table, for breakfast, right next to Urara seemed so natural to her that she was questioning her own definition of friend. Eating together with Hibiki, Kanade and Ellen wasn't much different than this. It was a lot louder, yes, but otherwise not too different. But it wasn't just her who had changed from complete rejection to careless tolerance.
Urara's opinion on the whole situation wasn't too different. She could probably make Muse give in with one more push or if she pulled a few strings, but she kinda wanted the girl to actually take that step herself. On one hand, she really wanted to sleep with her, on the other hand, it was too much fun to just leave after a single night, which would inevitably happen if she forced it.
While Ako was deep in thought herself, Bloom seemed to not have a care in the world and was sound asleep with a slice of toast sticking out of her mouth. It looked like a failed scene from a manga. A bit bored with herself and not willing to invest any more time into thinking about her awkward situation, Urara started observing the other people at the table. The morning itself was relatively quiet, despite Egret's continuous effort to keep her partner awake.
Moonlight was missing from the table, and so were Dream, Rhythm, Melody and Sunshine. White and Black discussed something amongst themselves, Rin was stuffing herself, likely in preparation for a morning workout, and Egret was trying to keep Bloom awake, with, needless to say, trivial success, yawning herself every other minute. The morning bored her to tears.
The morning was all but boring for three of the aforementioned missing five. Finding only an empty room, that reeked badly of a wild night, where Hibiki should have been, Kanade knew exactly where she was. And she couldn't believe it! They were fighting so often so Hibiki should know that she didn't mean it like that!
How could she just go and really sleep with Sunshine? With her, of all people! Didn't Hibiki realize how doing that would make her feel? Being cheated on was horrible, especially if it was with the woman that had already stolen her once!
Slamming open the door, not even bothering to knock, Kanade's furious eyes spotted the orange haired girl sound asleep, or rather waking up roughly, in the arms of that woman. "You really did it! I didn't want to believe it but you really did it!" Furious was an understatement of Kanade's mood. She just wanted to slap Sunshine right that instant.
"Kanade...?" Hibiki, woken up by Kanade's yelling, wasn't completely coherent when her partner continued yelling.
"So you really couldn't even wait a single day before you jumped back in bed with her? Is it really that great? Why did you chose me over her if you're so eager to go back?!"
"Shut up!" Hibiki had enough already. She was so incredibly fed up with all of this. "Shut up already! Shut up!" Jumping up and changing into Melody, Hibiki pointed her finger at Kanade's face, only centimeters away from her nose. "I've had enough of this! Everything I do puts you off and then it turns into a fight! Are you so blind that you couldn't see how I just wanted to get along with you without all the ridiculous fighting?"
"You're one to talk! You're so stubborn, you'd never give in and you would always do stupid stuff in public!"
"So showing my affection for you was stupid? I guess I really was stupid! To actually believe we could date without constantly being at each other's throats! I've had it, I've really had it! It was one thing to fight and make up when we were just fourteen, but you're gonna be eighteen next year! I want to start acting my age but that's just not possible if I'm always stuck with you and you keep instigating fights!"
"I'm instigating fights? I'm at fault now? Sure is easy to blame others for your shortcomings! Whatever I say, you have some kind of obnoxious complaint and that's why we always fight! It's the same right now!"
"You... just..." Hibiki knew it would go nowhere. They would just argue for all eternity. Unless they both grew out of this, they wouldn't get along permanently. And while she was fed up with the fighting, she didn't want Kanade to hate her. "Just go. I don't think we should even be in the same room for a while."
"That's it? You're just gonna dump me like this? What is this, a roundabout ploy to embarrass me? Something you two have been plotting together?! I feel like a giant joke now! Thanks for playing with my heart like-" Kanade was hit in the face so hard that she tumbled over and fell backwards. Her cheek was burning with pain. Above her stood Sunshine, who's expression was frozen in disappointment.
"If you dare to say that to Hibiki again, I'm not just going to slap you. You of all people should know better than... this!" Swinging her arm around and pointing at Melody, who had her face averted, looking at the ground.
Slowly closing the door, Itsuki looked out one last time. "Don't bother her again today or I might lose my patience. And yes... that's a threat." It had been an extremely long time since she had felt this pissed off. Turning to Hibiki, she didn't even dare to touch her.
The body of the pink Cure was twitching, the girl trembling under the pain she felt. A pain that didn't come from any cut, from any punch or illness. Pain that came from the disappointment that broke her heart. She never thought that Kanade would accuse her of something like that. She, of all people, should know that her love for her had been none but genuine.
Time seemed to pass in slow motion, tears trying to break their way from her eyes, but she was determined not to cry. No matter how cruel the things were that Kanade said, she didn't want to cry. Her throat was hurting as much as her chest as she desperately tried to hold it in.
But it was all for naught. As soon as Itsuki embraced her, held her tightly in her arms, her resolution crumbled like a castle made of sand in the wild waves of a hurricane. It had been years since she cried like that. Loud, unrestrained sobbing that made clear just how much words could hurt.
She had torn her heart apart when she chose to be with Kanade, when she chose to leave Itsuki behind. And still, she had not regretted it until now. If that was really what Kanade thought of her, she didn't know who she had known all this time. Because the person who would accuse her of something like that was not her Kanade.
Itsuki said nothing. No words to cheer her up, no words that would ease the pain she felt from having Kanade tear apart her trust and feelings. And it was good that way. If she had said something now, she would have ended up defending Kanade despite all of it. She couldn't hate her friend or herself for this. But the sadness of Kanade being consumed by petty jealousy like that didn't let her go.
Itsuki wished she could fix things for the poor girl, but it was beyond her power to do so. She hated seeing Hibiki sad, but she hated being alone even more. Hibiki needed her now more than ever, and whether she wanted to admit it or not, a small part of her felt satisfied.
On the other side of the door, Kanade, too, was shaking with emotion. But hers was anger. Anger directed at the two of them. Being hurt made some people turn away from reality without them even knowing. Or maybe they knew and they just didn't want to admit it.
"Girl, do you have jelly for brains or something?" Lemonade, who just happened to be on her way back to her room, had caught wind of the argument and heard most of it. "You got what you deserved there." Leaned against the wall next to the door to Sunshine's room, Urara looked down, both literally and figuratively, on the girl and shook her head.
"This doesn't even concern you! Stupid Hibiki... why doesn't she realize what I felt like when she just ran off with her?! She must have known that I didn't really mean it!" Kanade just sat there, angry with Hibiki, with Itsuki, with Lemonade for butting in, and herself.
"I'll show her what it feels like to be cheated on... maybe she'll understand me then!" It was the only thing she could think of. That Hibiki had plainly cheated on her. It hurt her so much that she tried to cover her wound in anger. After all they had been through, to her, it looked like a whimsical decision, an easy one, to go and sleep with Sunshine, using any silly excuse to do so. She felt hurt and betrayed. It didn't even matter how it happened. Only that it happened.
"Do whatever you want. If you're looking for some sex without strings attached..." Urara found that she was surprised at herself. She wasn't the type to purposely worsen relationships, but some people never learned until they fell flat on their face with their crazy ideas, until they got hurt in the process. A second surprise waited for her when she finished her sentence. Usually, she wouldn't have minded a hot night with someone as cute as Rhythm, but the idea of offering herself didn't even cross her mind. "Ask Rouge." Seeing as the interesting part was over with, Urara left, not even extending her hand and offering to help the girl up.
She would only make everything a lot worse if she really slept with Rin. But that wasn't her problem. Ako would probably not like it but she couldn't be bothered to fix other people's relationships. She had enough trouble deciding what to do with herself.
"Another fight?" Moonlight had just left her room but Melody and Rhythm's voices were practically heard even a hundred meters away.
"It's so stupid, I can't even explain it." Urara just shook her head. It really was stupid.
=== Dissonance ===
Nibbling on toast, Erika felt quite at home in the garden. It was a little crowded though, with everyone relocating the breakfast in there. The sound of the leaves rustling and the gentle breeze made even the plain toast taste a lot better. Always seeing the stone walls and ground was getting really old, quickly.
Sitting at the edge of the pond, her feet reaching into the cool but not chilly water, Erika watched Tsubomi play and care for a few flowers that were blooming in the lush grass. There was no morning thaw here, even though the magic sky lit up in the morning and went dark in the evening. It wasn't a perfect copy of nature but it was good enough.
Spending a few coins on a portable table, Bright and Rose responsible for carrying it, they simply put the food on there and passed on using chairs and dishes. A few knives and cups were all they brought with the food. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Luminous fix some toast for herself while she talked to Pine.
It was, as odd as that might have seemed, a very peaceful and relaxing morning. If not for everyone walking around as Cures, she might have even forgotten that they were in some godforsaken dimension or place. "Tsu...bo...mi." Talking through the toast that stuck half out of her mouth, Erika started to tickle her lover a bit. "They're gonna finish up everything if you don't hurry. The flowers won't run away."
"Thank you." Tsubomi was well aware that she was basically in her own world when she cared for flowers and plants. And that she sometimes forgot to eat. The same was true for Erika and her work though, so they kept reminding each other about things like this. Instead of getting up and walking over to the table with the food, Tsubomi simply stole whatever part of Erika's toast still stuck out of her mouth.
Karen was watching the scene from the other side of the pond, sitting on a bench, together with Komachi, who was leaned against her partner, resting her head against the blue haired girl's shoulder, eyes closed. "I told you not to stay up so long... Here, at least eat something."
"I just couldn't stop... I always do this... thanks." Half asleep, Komachi didn't even bother to open her eyes and simply opened her mouth. And just as she expected, Karen fed her with a sandwich. "You could have stopped me..."
"You wouldn't sleep even a minute without getting up and continuing as soon as I was asleep. Jeez, how often do you do this at home?" A little worried about the novelist, Karen sighed and proceeded to take a bite out of her own sandwich.
"Too often.. so... tired... I'll just... close my eyes for a bit." Komachi blatantly ignored the fact that she was already half-asleep and her eyes were already closed. Karen did, too.
"It's so peaceful here... well, beside Marine and Blossom splashing each other with water." Karen noticed Miki walking over to them, her head slightly turned to watch the spectacle that was Erika and Tsubomi, both of them having fallen into the pond by now, yet not stopping.
"Can I sit here?" Miki preferred to be polite when she was dealing with other teams. There were exceptions, but Aqua seemed more like a lady than an average person. She was holding a big cup, with a vegetarian sandwich on top of it.
"Sure. Komachi's a sound sleeper, so she won't wake up just from talking." Wishing that she had a cup of coffee herself, and maybe two for her partner, Karen thought about asking but resisted. She'd just get some herself later.
"I didn't think Blossom would create something like this. It was more of a spontaneous idea we had, and now we're even sort of picnicking here in the morning." Leaning back, placing the cup cautiously on the bench and taking a large bite out of her sandwich, Miki wondered if she had spent a single morning as relaxed as this in the past two years. "What happened to Mint?"
"She was up for most of the night reading a novel. I sleep easily, even with light or a lot of noise, so I didn't notice it." Pushing against Komachi a little, Karen prevented her love from falling over.
"I know what you mean. I've gotten used to sleeping whenever I can, no matter where I am. My schedule is always full, so I have to do it like that. Before we all got here, I used to sleep only about five hours a night, with a nap in-between jobs."
"That's sounds really stressful. I practice at home, so I usually have days off every now and then, but when I'm supposed to go on stage, it's incredibly stressful." Karen was happy that there was someone else beside Komachi who understood her job related problems.
"I think I'll focus on modeling after we get out of here. I love dancing and I want to succeed at having my own studio, but... honestly, looking at Peach or you two, or even Marine and Blossom, I'm a little jealous."
"It's wonderful to have a partner when everything works out, but more often than not it doesn't. I'm grateful that Kurumi and I still get along, even though it was quite bad when we broke up. Sometimes it doesn't end that well. Everything has a downside to it." Karen didn't want to give the wrong impression.
"I know, I know. I'm younger than you but not that young. You know, I set my eyes on Moonlight, from the other team. She belongs to the same group as Blossom and Marine. It would be great if that one worked out for me. To be honest, it's a bit irritating to be single when there's so many couples here. Speaking of which, I'm still impressed by the downright astronomical odds of so many Cures hooking up with each other."
"I've only thought about it once or twice. Since there's no real way to prove anything, it'd just end in wild guessing, no matter what. And really, in some cases it's not really because both people are Cures. I've known Komachi almost my entire life. If we hadn't become Cures and Kurumi had never shown up, I'm sure we would've still ended up together anyway."
"Pretty confident, aren't you? But you have a point. I guess it just adds to it. Facing enemies together and helping each other out sure does improve any bond. In some cases, very much so." Grabbing her cup and taking a sip, Miki leaned back and listened to the leaves rustling. A few of the green pieces sometimes fell down but it wasn't any different from a regular forest. The air smelled of nature, too, which relaxed her even more. "I wonder how much longer we're going to be in this place. Oh, just talking to myself." Stopping Karen from answering by putting up her hand, Miki finished her sandwich, crossed legs and leaned back, watching both Blossom and Marine getting scolded by Luminous, who seemed a lot more threatening than usual.
"Honestly, when we first got here, I imagined it to be a lot worse. I expected imprisonment, strict schedules and generally bad treatment. Not in my wildest dreams would I have imagined we'd be sitting in a garden two weeks later." Karen played a bit with Komachi's hair, the novelist still sound asleep.
"It's been two weeks? Or rather, only two? It feels like that number is slightly off..." Laying her index finger against her cheek, she tried to count how often she had slept. "It's... hard to tell. The first few days are a blur... oh well. We don't even know if time here flows equally to time on earth. And it's pretty obvious we're not on earth here."
"Maybe I should ask Komachi to write a science fiction novel next, and just use what we have here."
"I'd beat someone to actually have a decent book to read. I tried twice to wish for an entertaining novel, but it wasn't interesting at all. Both times." Shaking her head, Miki had to try hard not to burst in laughter when she saw Erika dancing around, trying to tease Luminous a little, slip and promptly fall back in the pond. "Those two are really lively." Making a short break, Miki changed the topic. "Peach and Passion both belong to your group, right? I was really confused when Beat was suddenly with them."
"Love is an enigma as far as relationships go. There's a long story to how Love and Setsuna got together, but it's not really my place to tell. Let's just say, those two met, went through a lot of trouble and then really found each other. Passion actually left for a while after we accomplished our mission, but she came back because she missed Love that much. It was so adorable to watch when Love welcomed her back."
"Things didn't go quite that well for my group, sadly. I never learned the details but Lemonade went through some really bad stuff apparently and that changed her... a lot. She was... well, a very naive but extremely happy and nice girl. Dream wanted her to try again and go back to her old self. Rouge knew all the details but I don't remember what she did. Komachi and I were really busy ourselves, so it all settled down before we had time to be worried. From there on, we sorta separated."
"My group was separated too, but more out of individual desires than actual problems. Peach and Passion suddenly decided to travel the world, starting with east Asia, and before we knew what was going on, they were gone. They sent us letters and occasionally called home, but we didn't see them even once. Though, it wasn't that much of a difference. Inori was busy with her exams to become a vet, I was jumping from one photo shoot to another. We were both horribly busy."
"It's probably like that for everyone. Back then we believed we would all be friends forever and stay together. It's just like with our own lives. Dreams that didn't come through or were trampled over, relationships that deteriorated over time..."
"Well, that's to be expected. As teen you don't really get what it's like to be an adult." Inori had joined the conversation, despite initial hesitation. Walking the left path up and down, she had gotten a really good feel from the fresh air and the greenery. Seeing Miki and Karen talk looked like a good chance to make some conversation. Although she chose not to meddle with Karen's relationship for her own gain, she still liked to be close to her.
"Had enough of walking around? You're missing all that exercise from walking dogs and cats and god knows what else, am I right?" Miki had not a clue that Inori had a crush on Karen and even if she did, she likely wouldn't tease her about it.
"It was a lot harder to get my certification as a vet than I thought. A lot of studying technicalities went into it. It wasn't really just knowing how to treat animals." Inori casually ignored Miki's little jab at her day to day life.
"You're only eighteen and already have your certification. I think that's amazing. I didn't need to pass any test or get official approval from an institute to open my studio or act as model." Miki was quite proud of her friend. She knew that Inori had to fight the officials quite a bit to get her license that early.
"I think Love is much more amazing than either of us. I couldn't handle traveling around not knowing where I'm gonna sleep or eat next." Inori leaned against the back of the bench, watching Marine turn Blossom's hair into funny shapes. "I wish I had half as much luck with romance as her."
"The thought of having two people like Love around makes me very worried. Would be a gloomy outlook on finding anyone to date." Miki was only half joking.
"That's why I said half. A complicated relationship like that is nothing for me." It was like watching a train wreck. Marine stumbled over a rock and was about to fall when Blossom tried to save her. And subsequently came crashing down with her, the two of them knocking over the table. An enraged Luminous, which was more cute and hilarious than scary, was scolding them while Rose picked up everything that had gone flying.
"Those two are going to provide a lot of entertainment." Miki and Inori giggled while Karen hid her grin behind her hand, looking down at Komachi, knowing it would make a nice anecdote to tell later.
=== Dissonance ===
The news of Melody and Rhythm having their biggest fight yet spread so fast that everyone that tried to tell someone else was surprised by them already knowing. The mood was rather tense, everyone waiting for the next shouting match or explosion. Those two were rather hotheaded after all. After blowing a hole in the kitchen wall, nobody wanted to be in the way when they tried to sort out their issues.
Mai and Honoka were sitting on a balcony at the top point of a large hall about ten minutes walking distance from the living area. "Has Nagisa said anything more about it?" Mai didn't need to specify what exactly she meant. Leaned against the rail of the balcony, she watched her partner down below.
"No. Has Saki?" Honoka was leaned against the wall, wearing glasses, her nose deep in a book. She didn't want to participate in Saki and Nagisa's workout and Mai had been sketching earlier. It was a thick novel that dealt with philosophy and recent science.
"She hasn't. They seem to deal with it better than we do. I guess they're right in doing that. It's not like anything good is going to come out of pretending we can change anything about what happened." Mai wasn't that hung up on it but she still felt a little guilt.
"To be honest, I'm starting to think it's not that big a deal. Just think about how long we've known each other and how much crazy and silly stuff we four have done. If this had happened with the intent of cheating on each other, sure, that would be a real problem."
"That's quite a carefree stance on it. Doesn't sound so bad though. And next you'll tell me it's the logical thing to think. You'll sound like Kaoru and Michiru." Mai wondered what those two were up to and if they were okay.
Closing her book, crawling a few meters to the front and slapping Mai's butt, Honoka laughed. "See how well you know me?"
"You perverted woman. Saki wasn't enough, now you want me too?" Laughing, the purple haired Cure turned around and pulled Honoka's cheek, playing along for a bit.
"Oh yeah, that's right. I want all three of you as my harem." Honoka enjoyed joking around with Mai for a bit.
"How lustful! You and Nagisa should switch colors! You're not white at all, you're pitch black!" Mai feigned to be indignant, much to Honoka's amusement. Pulling her down and starting to tickle her, Honoka had the other white Cure laughing like mad in no time.
"We were worried you two wouldn't go along well after we all screwed up, but it seems we were worried for nothing." Saki and Nagisa had come up to take a break, both of them drenched in sweat from lifting weights, sparing a bit and running.
"I didn't know you wanted a harem Honoka. If you had told me, I'd have said something to Saki." Nagisa was just joking but earned an elbow jab from her friend. "What? If she puts up her hair, the resemblance is there!"
"Don't encourage her!" Saki and Nagisa were both laughing. Mai was on the ground, her face flushed red from laughing too much, and Honoka sat next to her, trying her utmost to look like she was deep in thought. "See! Now she's planning it all out!"
"It would be an interesting experiment." Honoka said in her most serious tone, easily able to keep a straight face. The two muscleheads couldn't see her do it but Honoka was drawing an okay-tick with her index finger on Mai's hand. "Since we already started it unintentionally we should follow through. There's no problem if we all just know about it." Honoka was thrilled to see both Nagisa's and Saki's horrified expressions when Mai would agree.
"You do.. have a point. I wouldn't mind." A quick look to Honoka made clear that she was in on the joke. She didn't tease Saki as much as Honoka teased Nagisa, but a little bit wasn't going to hurt.
"Great, we'll leave you two to whatever you were secretly doing up here then." Nagisa wasn't going to fall for such an obvious act. Honoka never bothered to look at anyone else that way, so it was way easy to spot this lie.
"We'll go for another run. If we're late, don't worry about it." Saki turned around and smacked Nagisa's butt. "Oh, I'm jealous." The two of them walked away, ready to burst into laughter the second they got out of hearing range and line of sight.
"They... know we were joking, right?" Mai could usually tell but she wasn't so sure this time.
"I bet they're laughing their asses off around the corner. They must have known, Nagisa would never just agree with something like that." Honoka cracked a nervous smile. She was ninety-nine percent sure that Nagisa was pulling one over her this time.
And just as she thought, Saki and Nagisa were having a blast, covering their mouths to dampen the sound of them laughing. "We should totally take this one step further. Their faces are gonna be priceless." Saki and Nagisa were both subject to a lot of teasing by their respective partners. And now, Saki saw a chance to turn the game around for a bit.
"Like what?" Nagisa was just going to follow Saki on this. She felt the exact same as her friend about the teasing. Turning around and whispering in Nagisa's ear, Saki had quite the plan.
=== Dissonance ===
The call for negotiation had come suddenly and without warning. One on each side felt compelled to go to the gate. Both Cure's standing on the small paths spanning the enormous chasm, they were separated by an energy barrier, just like before.
Rose and Muse had been the chosen ones. Facing each other in on the small pathways above the chasm, they quickly agreed on the number three and left, having nothing much to talk about, being from completely different teams and never having really met each other before.
The exile call came next, summoning another two Cures to the gateway. Kurumi had barely stepped out of the gate and felt like a haze was clearing from her mind when she noticed Pine slowly walking towards her. "I guess it's my turn now. How does it look out there?"
"It's a massive chasm with a lot of tiny stone paths. I didn't really take that good a look, sorry." Kurumi remembered her time as the exile quite vividly. "I wish I could tell you a trick or something to keep you out of there."
"Don't worry about it. Speed is my thing, so I'll be on the other side in no time." Inori wasn't as confident as she pretended to be, but she wasn't going to leave the impression of being scared.
Stepping through the gate, Pine was spontaneously covered in absolute darkness. It was impossible to see anything. Looking around, the only light source was so far above her that it looked like a distant star, nothing more. Using her speed without knowing where she was going was too dangerous.
Her problem was remedied just a second later. "Crescent Harken!" A pale yellow energy blade shot upwards from a location only about a hundred meters away. Of all the people, Moonlight was the exile from the dark team. And she had no idea who the exile was.
Yuri wasn't going to risk ending up as exile. When someone had as many demons in their closet as her, it was a very bad thing to get stuck in a place that utilized them for torment. Instead of being peaceful and ignoring Pine, she saw her as potential threat to getting out of there. "Crescent Harken!" Jumping up and unleashing another energy blade, formed like a crescent moon, with a kick, Yuri completely destroyed the paths Pine had been on.
Inori was way faster than Yuri. Leaving her behind, knowing that as long as she knew where she was going she could simply outrun the silver Cure, Pine rapidly ascended the paths, leaving behind a blur of yellow. Trying to follow her as quickly as she could, Moonlight was getting left behind more and more, driving up her stress level.
Both of them came to a sudden halt when a massive chill ran down their spines. There was something coming up behind them. A gust of wind rushed past them, whirling around their hair and turning their faces pale. Whoever that was had clearly gone mad already.
Staring at the dark below, Pine needed a few seconds to force herself to go on. She felt like turning her back to the bottomless pit was going to be her end but she had no other choice if she wanted to get out of there. Another gust of wind came up, cold as ice, chilling her to the bone. And it carried something eery. Like a whisper, but nothing intelligible in it. Mad rambling.
Moonlight steadily caught up with Pine, whose nerves were not quite as hardened as her own. Yuri could feel the threat from below too, but having gone through more than one or two life threatening situations, she managed to ignore it enough to focus on running. Whatever it was, she didn't plan on fighting it.
The gusts came more frequently now, making it difficult to see. Jumping from one path to another, Yuri suddenly lost her footing when the stone was virtually turned to dust right as she stepped on it. Looking back down on instinct, she stared in two small slits that resembled blue eyes.
"Enough with the illusions already! I'm sick, sick, sick of it!" Kaoru crabbed Yuri's face, her nails cutting into flesh and thin trickles of blood running down Moonlight's face, and tried to throw her back downwards. But she underestimated her opponent quite badly. Treating the pain like it was nothing, Yuri rammed her knee in Windy's stomach and punched her right lower arm hard enough to force her grip open. About to blast her with a crescent attack, Windy screamed out and let go. Small splotches of blood hit Yuri's face.
Inori had come back down and sunk her hand blades into Windy's back. "Now get out of here. I'm not going to help you a second time." Not even waiting for an answer, Pine rushed up so fast that Yuri couldn't follow with her eyes.
She didn't feel remorse for leaving Windy behind. There was no way to tell what would happen if she ended up in her place. It would've been different if Pine had switched places with her, but she had an enormous advantage in a simple race. And that was all the exile run was. A race.
Inori had already reached the top when Yuri was hit by a massive gust of wind, like the bottom of the chasm had suffered a massive explosion. It was enough to throw her off balance and fall down a few meters before she managed to hold on to the edge of a nearby path.
"Storm Reign!" Literally flying past Yuri, Windy was bleeding strongly from the two holes Pine had left. But she didn't care for that. She just wanted to get out, get out and never come back. Turning around in mid-air, Kaoru broadly aimed at general direction Moonlight was in and unleashed the same attack over and over. "Wind Shredder, Windy Shredder!" The collapsing pathways turned quickly into a rocky avalanche, threatening to bury Yuri alive. If she even survived long enough to hit the bottom. If there was one to begin with.
She wasn't quick enough to get out of the way so all she could do was try to break through. Jumping up and smashing whatever came in her way with a full power kick or punch, Yuri was still hit by rocks from every direction. The avalanche finally passed after a disastrous twenty or so seconds. Reaching the top, her worst fear came true. They were gone.
=== Dissonance ===
"Was it really necessary to put her down like that?" Ellen was holding Setsuna's hand while Love stood in front of them. The second the exile run had finished, Bright and Luminous had been at the gate. According to Hikari, it was a matter of seconds before Michiru knocked out Windy with a brutal punch. There couldn't have been enough time to tell if she had been the exile or not. The news of that had quickly spread.
"Why do I have to bother explaining to you why I knocked out my sister? This doesn't even concern you. But fine. I suppose you're not going to leave me alone unless I explain the obvious." Michiru stood guard in front of Kaoru's room. Why couldn't these people understand basic logic? "It's quite simple. She was exposed to the exile for an extended period of time. Even for Kaoru, there was no way she would get out of that unharmed. Unless you wanted her to run wild and possibly kill someone, this was the only choice. Just restraining her doesn't work. Some of you should have been hit by her Stormflair before. If she used that out here, chances are you won't wake up anytime soon."
"How was any of that obvious?" Setsuna couldn't quite understand her reasoning. "How do you even know she was exposed to the exile?"
"She was supposed to be in exile until Bloom and Egret came through, then follow. Seeing as it was neither of them but her, it also meant that she was in exile since the run after I came here. That was the arrangement. It doesn't matter if it's obvious to you. I know what is going on, so I acted. That's all there is to it. She'll thank me later."
"I don't like it but she has a point." Rose and Luminous were both there as well. Kurumi didn't want to leave Hikari alone with someone who unconditionally knocked someone out based on their own logic.
"Never mind me, one of you should take a look at the tablet. I was making a lot of grating noise when I carried Kaoru to her room." Michiru wasn't going to let anyone mess with her sisters condition. She had used one well placed hit on one of Kaoru's weak spots. It wouldn't leave any permanent damage, so she was fine.
"Let's go." Love didn't want to continue that argument. Bright had made her point very clear and while she couldn't really agree with her logic, there was nothing she could really do about it. This was different from convincing Setsuna or one of her friends of something.
"The symbols changed. They're all switched up one number." The previous number eight, the diamond over a clover, had vanished entirely and all the symbols except the star and the spiral had moved up one. Miki's symbol was now number eight, Windy's symbol, which looked like a mirrored version of Bright's, had become number three.
Setsuna touched the plate only briefly, but the second she did, several of the smaller plates lit up. Two of the three remaining clover symbols, one of the two with butterflies and the one with the G clef. "Aqua, Peach, Passion and Beat." Michiru looked at the tablet from afar and could easily tell which one's were lit up. They were normally all gray, but lit up, they had color. The clover was made up of four colors, the heart red, the club black. The butterfly was blue, just like the water drops. The G clef golden, the crotchet blue. That made it pretty easy to recognize who they belonged to, even for someone simple minded.
"I wonder if Karen is going to be okay..." Kurumi was a little worried about her former partner. It was quite obvious that the trio would have excellent team work. They were an extended couple after all. Karen really didn't belong with them in any way, so that would make cooperation quite difficult.
"She'll be fine. Karen is quite smart, so she'll be able to adapt." Hikari cheered up Rose with a gentle smile and pulling her away, leaving the other three to their own devices. They would surely prepare for the battle.
"This makes me wonder who we're going to be up against. We never really talked about this because I thought it wasn't necessary, but... how do you fight Ellen?" Love really did want to prepare, even if it was only to the extent of knowing Ellen's abilities and telling her about theirs.
Things were in a similar state on the other team. Inori had not been greeted by anyone, as nobody had really noticed when the exile started and who had gone. It was only now that the news of Moonlight being gone and Pine arriving spread.
Until now, none of them had spent a great deal of time looking at the plate in detail. Honoka was observing the massive stone with great intensity now, that it was showing signs of activation. Four of the plates lit up, but her interest was not limited to those.
Going clockwise, there were twelve plates in total. An inverted black heart was the first one, the heart itself covering most of the plate. It was one of the four that was lit up.
The second was also a heart, but not lit up and thus gray entirely. While the first was inverted and standing on it's head, this one was normal. Both hearts were very simple and had nothing fancy to them.
The third plate was covered almost entirely in a spiral, at it's center a sprout. The spiral was made up of four different streams, all of them connecting to each other. The sprout at the center was roughly ten percent of the plate as a whole. It was more above the spiral than in it.
Fourth was another spiral, also made up of four streams. However, at the center of this one was a single cloud, which reached nearly to the edges of the spiral itself.
Fifth was a four-leaf clover that covered the entire plate sans the corners. The card suit symbol of diamond was centered on it.
Next was a symbol that was slightly odd. Four smaller, surprisingly detailed, butterflies were randomly put around one larger, stylized one. Four wings and not much of a body, it was also one of the plates lit up. The large butterfly in the center was pink, while the others were, one each, red, yellow, green and blue.
Another stylized butterfly, much like the big one on the plate before, was at plate seven. The insect was carved over a large, red flame. As this plate was lit up as well, both the flame and the butterfly shared the same red color as the smaller one on the previous symbol.
The next symbol had already glowed once. It belonged to Lemonade, a golden butterfly over chains.
At numeral nine, the plate showed a large sunflower bloom. The flower had fourteen equal petals, which seemed unnaturally many for a sunflower.
The last three all shared one specific characteristic. The left side always showed a large note of some sort. The first and the second both had the large one to the left and a smaller one to the right. Neither of them was lit up. The last one was different from the previous two as it had the exact same, large, note on both sides, both of those notes glowing golden.
"Those are G clefs. The one with the semiquaver belong to Melody, the quaver one to Rhythm. The last one is mine." Seeing as her symbol was lit up, Ako sighed. So it was her turn to fight. At least it wasn't too difficult to figure out who the other symbols belonged to.
"It selected Dream to fight. Now that's shitty luck if I ever saw it." Urara, right next to Ako as usual, wasn't happy that Nozomi was going to be fighting with Muse. Or anyone. That could only end in disaster. "Who's gonna give her the bad news? Seems like Rin is gonna be in it too. Maybe she'll keep a lid on her. Where is Rin anyway? Hey, anyone seen Rouge? Or Rhythm for that matter?"
"Seems like Sunshine and Melody are gone too." Ako's remark made Urara remember her comment that if Rhythm was looking for sex, she should ask Rin. Only White, Black, Bloom, Egret, Urara and herself were present.
Urara shrugged, not caring about it anymore and walked away, Ako following her shortly after. "It's best you stay away from Rin and Dream in the battle. Rin's ability doesn't discern between friend or foe and Dream is just a walking risk at this point. There's no way to tell what she'll do if forced into battle. Don't think of either as ally. Rin has kind of a lone wolf fighting style and Dream won't be any help at all. The other one was... the black inverted heart. That's gotta be Black, White's partner. She's a powerhouse, so try to keep her in the game somehow."
"When did you become my coach? Or my instructor for that matter?" Ako did appreciate the hints but she couldn't really say that. She had wanted to be much more cynical about it, but it just wasn't coming out right lately. She was... warming up to Urara. For better or worse.
"The moment you kept sleeping in the same bed as me. Don't whine later if you get your ass kicked because you ignored me." Letting go of her, turning about and hugging her from behind, Urara blew some hot air against Ako's ear. "Although I wouldn't mind nursing you for a bit."
"I have the feeling I'd end up in worse condition after than I was before that. You're a really perverted woman, you know that?" She had gotten used to the way Urara dealt with people, mostly, anyway.
"Beautiful girls with nicely developed bodies are to blame for that." Not caring a little bit that they were in the middle of the hallway, Lemonade slid her hand over Ako's stomach, up towards her breasts. But she had hit, unintentionally and unknowingly, hit a sore nerve. Ako wasn't really nicely developed, not while she looked her real age.
Pushing Urara away and walking off, she bit the nail of her thumb. She would have to come out with it at some point, but in a way, she didn't really want to turn the blond woman off. Even though she was obnoxious and much too pushy at times, she had her charms, and right now, she wanted to keep being exposed to them.
There was little doubt, for her, that Urara would simply walk away from her if she found out she was just a flat-chested thirteen year old girl. Sure, she would look like this in five years, but that was the point. In five years, not now. It was pretty much a given that nobody would show any interest in someone that young. At least none of the adults. Thinking about it like that hurt even more than when others treated her like just another child. She was clearly more mature than that. Although only psychologically.
There was someone else who was hurting at the time. And her dilemma traced back a few hours. Right after Lemonade had mentioned Rouge's name, Kanade started looking for her. She didn't know how Rin redhead knew about all of it, but her meager attempt to strike a friendly conversation failed.
"The whole team knows you and Melody had a fallout. So, what do you want from me? Cry on my shoulder? I'm sorry, ask someone else for that." She didn't want to pretend she really cared for Kanade's feelings. She had her own problems. Ever since Urara started hanging around Muse, her one source of sex was gone. And doing it by herself didn't satisfy her at all.
"Sleep with me." There was nobody else around to hear her so she said it out loud. Rin was doing some stretching exercises outside the living area, and Kanade had found her there.
"That's funny. I'm going to do some running now. If you actually feel like saying something worthwhile and not waste my time, I'll be back in-" She was interrupted rudely by Kanade grabbed Rin's left hand and pushing it against her breasts. Her face was flushed red in an instant but her eyes were completely serious. "Really? Why would you want me to sleep with you? Did Melody hit you in the head?"
"She slept with Sunshine so I'll show her what it's like to be cheated on." Kanade was still filled with anger over being hurt. It didn't take someone like Love to see that.
There were several things Rin realized at that point. One, it was most likely Urara who put her up to this. Second, if she turned her down, she would ask someone else and if everyone turned her down, she'll do something stupid. Third, Rhythm was pretty damn cute, and she was feeling pretty horny with her hand on her breasts. Groping her instinctively, Kanade let out a squeak. That sealed the deal for Rouge.
It wasn't her problem if Rhythm ruined her relationship with Melody by her own choice. There were stupid girls like that, thinking that two wrongs make one right. "Fine. But don't come complaining to me later. Also, I'm not Melody. I have no idea what kind of sex you had with her, but I'm likely not as gentle." She blamed that on Urara.
Pulling her hand free, only to grab Kanade by her shoulders, Rin pushed her against a nearby wall. The blonde pushed her hands against Rin's shoulders and kept her at bay. "Can we at least go to your room?"
"I don't mind. Don't change your mind on the way." Picking her up like a princess, Rin carried the white Cure away. It was high time she got rid of some of that sexual frustration she had built up.
Now, hours later, she felt much more miserable than before. The sex with Rin was rough and fiery, and she couldn't enjoy it even one bit. Spending the whole time thinking about Hibiki, Kanade felt extremely horrible now. Never mind making her feel better and Hibiki worse, her former partner had reacted with disbelief when she walked up to her and rubbed it in her face.
"I thought you were more mature than that. To go off and sleep with someone just because I happened to sleep with someone I was in love with? That's something a little girl would do. I expected better." Slamming the door shut, Hibiki left Kanade standing there like it was pouring on her.
Sitting alone in her room, she really regretted everything now. Her anger had cooled down considerably while she slept with Rin but by then, it had been much too late. Pride and stubbornness kept her going but even that was crumbling now. Crying by herself, she really cursed her thick head and sharp tongue.
It had taken so long to muster the courage to confess and then she went and ruined everything. Worst of all, there was nobody she could talk to anymore now. Hibiki didn't even want to see her face, Ako was with Lemonade and likely wouldn't understand her either. Ellen was on the other team. Everyone else was just annoyed by her constant fighting with Hibiki. She was... all alone.
Realizing that, she suddenly felt cold. No matter what, she had never been truly completely alone. Her family had always been there, and even though she had spent a whole year fighting with Hibiki, she still had her friends. Now she was truly alone. The thought scared her. What if everyone ostracized her now? What if she ended up as outsider? Shivering, she was really scared.
"What... do I do now?"
=== Dissonance ===
"The battlefield is really dangerous this time so please be careful everyone." Hikari was there to see Peach, Passion, Beat and Aqua off.
"The system seems to work normally again, so it should be okay." Karen wasn't too happy about fighting without Komachi at her side, but it couldn't be helped. The new system picked them out at random after all.
"Setsuna and I will handle any close combat. Ellen is going to provide backup. It'd be great if you could handle any oddities Aqua." Love, being leader of her team, felt compelled to try and take a leader position in this battle as well.
"I'll see what I can do. Thankfully, Beat is on my side now, I still hear my ears ringing when I think about the time I fought her." Scratching her nose, Karen showed the other blue Cure a smile. She didn't hold a grudge or anything silly like that.
The gate opened just after Aqua finished talking. Peach was first to step through, followed by Passion, Beat and lastly, Aqua. Luminous had a worried expression on her face. No matter how good their teamwork was, there were some serious problems with the stage. Large scale attacks could be pretty fatal.
Each of them was transported to a different pathway. They were pretty far down and they had quite a view of the destruction above and below them. Almost one third of all the pathways were already destroyed.
The moment they saw the other team, they knew that trouble was brewing. Dream, Rouge, Black and Muse. Ellen knew that Ako was quite versatile and strong, while Karen knew that having Nozomi in a fight was really, really bad.
Setsuna closed her eyes, activated her ability and switched to Eas. If Black was there, she needed the raw physical power that her Labyrinth form offered. Passion was not enough to overwhelm the veteran powerhouse.
Peach stretched out her arms, pointed in the air and shouted the activator for her special ability. "Lucky Take!" The whole battlefield seemed to briefly distort and then return to normal. It was an easy decision. Nobody else could use Lucky Take, Memento or Dissonance, so it would seriously hamper their abilities.
Eas charged in first, using the other Cures state of confusion. Smashing the pathway Black was standing on into thousands of bits, the black Cure jumped up and out of the way, Eas right on her track. Dream didn't move an inch, Rouge was heading straight for Eas and Muse had vanished completely.
Nagisa crossed her arms in front of her face to block the storm of Eas punches. The girl was really strong and she didn't know the full extent of her abilities, but she wasn't going to stay on the defensive. Focusing all her strength in her right arm, Nagisa was just about to land a frontal hit when Peach hit her in the back with a spinning kick, sending her flying downwards, right in Rouge's way.
"Out of my way." Grabbed Black by her leg, Rin whirled the older Cure out of the way. She didn't know what exactly Peach had done, but she couldn't use either fire claws or Hell, which was quite a bother.
"Hell Smelter!" Creation a massive fireball in her right hand, Rin threw the flaming energy mass in Eas and Peach's direction, virtually melting the solid stone in it's path.
"Love! Setsuna!" Ellen shouted just before she reached to play a powerful riff on her guitar. "Disruption!" A horrible screeching sound echoed through the chasm. Rouge's energy ball crumbled in itself quickly. Dream was still not doing anything. Everyone that heard the noise shivered uncontrollably in pain. Both Peach and Eas had covered their ears in time, knowing the signal.
Noticing too late that someone was behind her, Ellen took a brutal blow in the back from Ako, who was near invisible being clad completely in black. "Orchestra Impact." Her voice spelled pain for Ellen. An vibrating sound wave rocketed through the blue Cures body, damaging her inside. Coughing up blood, she was additionally flung across the chasm by the sheer force of Ako's attack.
Ako had experience fighting all on her own. But she wasn't used to fighting multiple foes. Dodging to the side because she felt something move behind her, she wasn't quick enough. A razor sharp and nail thin blade pierced her right lower arm. Getting out of the effective range, she was staring down Aqua, who looked quite confident. Her water blade wasn't directly tied to her ability, so she could still use it.
"Don't you go forgetting about me!" Rin rushed at both Peach and Eas, wrapped her entire body in blazing fire. Not so much a special attack as basic energy manipulation. For someone like her, that could make her body a miniature copy of a sun, that was easy enough.
"Love." Holding on to Peach's hands, Eas let herself be whirled around twice before the pink Cure hurled her partner at the enemy. "Light's out." Setsuna was quite threatening as an enemy and she was ruthless on top of it. Rouge had no means to avoid the powerful punch to her stomach. The impact alone was hard to endure already but the black clad woman pulled back her arm and hit the redhead again, flinging her like a small rock. Rin spit blood and water the second she crashed through five pathways at once.
And finally, Dream moved. A lightning fast maneuver of jumping in the air, collapsing the pathway she had stood on with the force of pushing herself off the stone, grabbing both of Eas arms and lifting her high above her head, Nozomi smashed the black clad girl down below, enough force behind the throw to send her flying straight through three pathways.
Love stepped in, launching a furious assault of punches on the other pink Cure. They were even in speed and Nozomi managed to block every single blow. "Heart...!" "Dream...!" Both of them readied an energy based attack at the same time. "Crush!"
Their fists collided, the energy mixing and sizzling, both sides unwilling to give the other even one centimeter, adamant about not retreating. Dream had the upper hand in raw power but she couldn't utilize her full potential. Her ideals held her back too much. Seeing Rin get hurt so badly was finally enough motivation to join the battle.
"Heat Explosion!" Rouge had recovered enough to join back into the fight and try her luck, but she was stopped short by Eas again. The Labyrintian was superior in both speed and power but lacked any kind of energy manipulation ability. But that wasn't necessary either way. Grabbing Rouge by her ankle and spinning her around once, she threw her right at Dream, who tried to back off from her grappling match with Peach.
But it wouldn't be that easy. Love dropped the energy attack instantly, ducked down and smashed the pathway, completely annihilating any chance Dream had to avoid the collision with her teammate. Rin hit Nozomi and both of them were helpless in mid air. "Ellen!" Eas called out to her lover, knowing she was somewhere nearby, waiting for a chance like that.
"Beat Heaven!" Ten powerful riffs echoed through the chasm, hurting even Love and Setsuna in the process. But that was nothing compared to what Dream and Rouge were about to suffer. Uncountable numbers of blue crotchets, small notes, spawned around them. "Beat Burst!"
The chasm was illuminated by the asynchronous explosion of every single note. Ellen saw too late that Black was charging right at her. "Destruction Smash!" Grabbing Ellen's face, Nagisa first smashed her back first into the pathway, collapsing it, grabbing her again and ramming her elbow into her stomach followed by a finisher, each hand holding tightly onto an arm, both her knee's pressed against Beat's chest, they fell down, each time they hit a pathway, Black exerted additional power right through Beat's body, smashing the stone to pieces. After five pathways, Beat was not moving a muscle.
Eas and Love had been too far away to do anything against it. Both Rouge and Dream must have taken considerable damage by Ellen's attack so they split up. Eas was going down while Love went up, ready to finish off Rouge.
"Aqua Serene!" Five copies of Karen appeared all around Ako, who had been hard pressed to avoid the razor sharp weapon of the blue Cure. All six moved independently of each other, making the situation extremely tricky. Karen completely ignored the whirl of wind when Eas shot into the depths, towards Black, right behind her. "Aqua Hex!" Each of five clones took a specific stance and Karen erected a hexagonal barrier of water. There were only two ways out of that. Up and down. She would notice if she chose down and subsequently, if she went up, too.
Ako chose the latter and went up, trying to get out of reach and hide in the darkness. Judging the explosion, the other team had landed a fairly major hit on someone. Her curiosity got the better of her and she looked up for just a split second, trying to determine what the rest of the battle was looking like.
Karen didn't forgive even that much of diverted attention. "Aqua Pierce!" Holding out her hand, fingers spread, each shot a needle thin burst of water, all five of them hitting Muse in the stomach. The holes were minuscule but they were there. Coughing up blood, Ako knew that she wouldn't last a long time with a wound like that. She could have evaded that so easily, too, if she had paid attention.
The battle between Black and Eas was shaking the place. Pathways were crumbling under their kicks and punches like they were made of paper. Black was a lot stronger and almost as fast as Eas but she had previous experience in fighting a Cure. Love was capable and she had always been. A low kick forced Black to crouch and guard. Jumping back, regaining her balance and doing a front flip, using her hands as foothold, Eas wrapped both her legs around Nagisa's neck. Pulling her sideways, Nagisa prevented the impact by tightly holding on to Eas legs herself, exerting enough power to offset the pull.
Dream was too caught up in checking on the unconscious Rouge to notice Peach right behind her. "Heart Ace...!" A small heart appearing in the palm of her hand, Love was in mid-air as she placed her hand on Nozomi's chest. "..Burst!" The energy went straight through Nozomi as if it had no effect at all.
"Rose Garden-" Nozomi found herself overwhelmed by trying to both carry Rin to safety and take care of Peach, so she resorted to using her full power against her will.
"Oh no you don't." Headbutting Dream, Love could hear the other Cure squeak in pain. Looking at her face, she had broken her nose. Her right hand grabbing Nozomi's throat, Love tried to end it before Dream reached the point where she would constantly use her full power. "Heart Impact! Heart Impact! Heart Impact!" Dream's body would have been thrown away like a truck had hit her if not for Peach's tight grasp on her throat. She couldn't even gasp out in pain as Peach was slowly chocking her. Three impacts were enough to make Nozomi's vision red and blurry, her consciousness about to fade away.
Eas had less luck. Nagisa relied a lot on her special move but she had been originally a pure physical fighter before her partner trained her in energy manipulation. Rolling to the side, she barely escaped having her face stomped in. "Love!" Eas was desperate for some backup and since Ellen had been brutally taken out, Peach was her only hope. She couldn't even change back to Passion because she didn't have Memento at her disposal. Rolling off the pathway, Eas grabbed hold of the stone, change her angle just slightly in mid-air and kicked herself off the stone towards the wall. She was still a little bit faster so she had to play for time until Love came to back her up.
Ako wouldn't go down alone. Knowing that she was going to be out relatively soon, she decided to at least take Aqua with her. Charging at the blue Cure without any regard for her own safety, Ako's arms were littered with tiny holes, blood trickling from each of them. Her breathing was so heavy as if she had just ran a marathon. But she finally made it. Grabbing Aqua by her right shoulder, Ako raised her knee high in the air, hitting Karen's chin. Her entire world was spinning and so she had no chance to avoid the following attack. "Major Symphony Eruption!"
Love saw Muse collapse after blasting Aqua with an immense golden energy beam. Only Black was left and it should be possible to take care of her when they out-numbered her.
Eas jumped up, right into Love's trajectory and grabbed her right hand, kicked herself off a nearby pathway and whirling high into the air while Love descended rapidly. One of them was below Black, the other above. Nagisa tried to remedy the situation by moving sideways but that didn't pay off.
By the time she had moved, both Peach and Eas had surrounded her. Blocking Eas frontal assault with her right arm, Nagisa whirled around and landed a clean hit on Peach, at the cost of giving Eas an opening. Peach could use energy attacks, Eas couldn't, so the former was a bigger threat despite the overall lower raw power.
But it was a big error to underestimate Eas. Jumping on Black's shoulders, Eas quickly lifted her arms high above her own head, intervened both her hands to one massive fist and smashed in Black's face. The sound of bone cracking and blood splashing signaled her to remove herself from her shoulders. Peach was right in front of Black when she left herself wide open to an attack. It wasn't exactly her special ability but it was the strongest attack she had. "Clover Heart...!" Eight hearts appeared instantaneously around Love and started spinning. Holding her arm out, all eight of the hearts converged in her fist. "...Finale!" Hitting Black right in the chest, a massive heart shaped energy blast pushed right through her. Her eyes completely white, Nagisa was down for the count.
Love was caught by Eas in mid-air, the scenery around them fading as they landed. Both of them being returned to their own rooms, they didn't even bother to check how much favor they had gained and instead headed straight for Ellen's room. The poor girl had been knocked out after all.
=== Dissonance ===
There was absolutely no way she could leave things as they were. Experiencing the battle for a second time and actively participating in it, it only confirmed her feelings. It was wrong for Cures to beat each other up like that. Beat blasted her and Rin with an energy attack that could have leveled a small building. Without any consideration for possible outcomes. Even though they were not reduced to wild animals like before, it was still something she couldn't accept.
And she now knew how to stop it. If the system was so frail that it malfunctioned this easily, that it changed so easily, then it wouldn't be a stretch to force another change on it. She didn't enjoy fighting but she could endure and justify it if it wasn't among Cures themselves. It was early in the evening when she had come to. Everyone had to be busy with their own things right now. It was the perfect time to execute her new plan.
If her own abilities were not enough to stop everyone, to change things, then there was one other power she could use. One that far surpassed anything she thought possible. The wish granting system that relied on favor. It was the one glaring loophole. Why had nobody else thought of using it to escape or to change the way things worked? Were they really that used to violence that they didn't mind?
Thinking about it anymore than this was not going to help. From this point onwards, she had to do something. Holding the bowl, every single Cure had their own, she focused on what she wanted. Having never used the system before, Nozomi assumed that she would need to say her wish out loud as well.
"I wish that we no longer need to fight each other."
Nozomi dropped the bowl just as she had finished her line. The coins vanished one after another and with each, the air seemed to distort, the ground seemed to come to life, the area was shaking, rumbling. A quake that shook not only the ground but the dimension itself. A chill of horror ran down her spine and a stinging pain forced her to grasp her head in agony.
The effect spread and spread until it covered her whole body, until every cell, every fiber of her being as ablaze with pain, her body convulsing as she rolled over the ground, her eyes shedding tears of boiling blood, her skin fading to ash white, saliva turning to sand in her mouth, her nails turning black, the air she breathed burning like fire in her lungs, her heart racing like she had run a thousand miles, her hair standing right up as if she had touched a lightning bolt.
The rumbling continued and got significantly worse as she continued to endure the inhuman pain running through her body. Dust fell from the ceiling and the walls, tiny rocks starting to break from the structure. And finally, after what seemed like hours of torture, the pain passed. The air smelled of molten iron and sulfur, a horrible stench.
Desperate to take in actual air and get the fire out of her lungs, Nozomi gasped, only to choke on the air all around her. Starting to cough, her body shook under new convulsions. Spitting blood and throwing up what little she had eaten that morning, Nozomi somehow managed to sit up, leaned against the side of her bed. To say that didn't go as planned was a monumental understatement.
And that was only the beginning of her troubles. As she recovered from the brutal.. whatever happened to her, her gaze fell to the back of her room, where something had changed. Specifically, something had appeared. A huge mirror, probably about two meters high and a meter wide, a gold and black frame, the glass shinning even though there was no real light source to reflect anything.
Pushing herself up on her bed, Nozomi found it difficult to even stand. The feeling of having barely cheated death itself was predominantly on her mind. Her hands and legs shaking, cold sweat started to run down her face. Waiting for a bit, nothing more seemed to happen. There was a lot of turmoil outside, people shouting and running around, but nothing else seemed to be happening. Was it over? Had the system denied her wish and punished them all instead? And what was the mirror for?
Standing up, Nozomi slowly walked over to it and stared at the large glass. It was by all means a beautiful mirror, the frame decorated with fine lines and symbols she couldn't make sense of. All but two. Imprinted in the very glass itself were five letters. "D-R-E-A-M... Why is my name imprinted on it? Because it is my mine?" Looking down and checking for other inscriptions, Nozomi noticed another set of letters, at the bottom of the glass, just above the frame itself. They were mirrored and hard to read. "What does it say...?" Standing up and trying to think about it, Nozomi noticed something odd. Her reflection was not mimicking her actions.
Instead, she just stared at herself, a fascinated gaze, like one had met their exact doppelganger in reality. "Why is..." Touching the glass where the cheek of her reflection was, Nozomi felt a chill that ran right to her bones. An ominous feeling of danger.
She didn't even have time to react when both arms of her reflection reached right through the glass, wrapped themselves around her neck. Within a second, the reflection had passed over into her room, ramming her knee with her full force into Nozomi's abdomen. The pink Cure couldn't handle an attack like that right after suffering the effects of her wish. Her conscious faded just as she heard her reflection talk to her in her own voice. "Nightmare."
=== Dissonance ===
"What is going on?" The confusion among the Cures had reached it's peak. First the unmeasurable pain, then the warping of their surroundings, and finally, this. Miki was standing face to face with Inori, who had just left for exile earlier that day.
The hallway was packed with people. Over fifteen Cures were present, all of them confused over the state of things. It didn't take long until the more composed ones assembled into a small circle to try and make sense of what happened.
White, Egret, Berry and Bright had gathered to discuss what was happening. "So far, everyone on our side mentions going through enormous pain just before this. There was a significant quake that changed the area, too." Honoka was still weak on her legs, but making sense of the situation came before her personal issues.
"The pain and the warping of space seemingly affected everyone. I was just walking down the hallway when it started. The wall started to break down and rebuild itself rapidly over and over from what I saw. In the end, the solid side turned into another twelve rooms. This makes a total of twenty-four rooms just in this hallway now." Michiru wasn't pleased that Kaoru wasn't there to help her out. She would find this without doubt most interesting.
"First of all, what caused this? Before we discern all the effects and results, we should try to look into the cause of it." Mai didn't like this at all. It was great to see Kaoru and Michiru again, but after the last system breakdown, she wasn't looking forward to whatever would follow this.
"The system was working fine, so it has to be someone who caused this." Their discussion continued while others tried to cope with the situation at hand. Rin, having a bad premonition, was hastily walking over to Nozomi's room. If she was the cause of this, then...!
But she didn't need to go that far. Still about ten meters away, the door to Dream's room opened and a weak and pale looking Nozomi came walking out of it. A thin trickle of blood was running from her arm. "Rin... what happened?"
Visibly relieved that Nozomi was in just as much confusion as everyone else, Rin slowed down her pace. "We don't know."
"Is everyone okay? It felt like I was dying just now, so I'm worried someone might have suffered really bad injuries." It was difficult just to stand for her, so she leaned against the wall, her gaze wandering from Cure to Cure.
"We all went through that apparently. I'm just relieved you didn't have anything to do with this."
"I'd never try and cause people pain like this!" Putting her hand on her chest, Nozomi was sending a pleading look to Rin.
"I know, I know. You don't need to tell me that."
Their attention was quickly redirected when Berry clapped her hands several times. "Everyone please assemble your team so we can look if there is anyone missing. We should make sure that nobody is left behind in their room, injured or needing help." Miki spotted Love and Setsuna together with Ellen. They would survive not being together for a few minutes.
Everyone but Moonlight had assembled after a few minutes. The Suite group refused to assemble, Melody and Rhythm not even looking at each other. Miki simply counted them one by one at the end. "Please stay inside the living grounds for now. We don't know what happened so please avoid going out into the labyrinth for now."
"We should check on other structural changes." Mai's idea was approved quickly. Most of the other Cures returned to their rooms, not feeling too good after the whole ordeal. They were recovering quickly, but the pain was still vibrant in their mind.
It took no less than half an hour to make a full list of all obvious changes. The number of rooms had doubled and so had the size of the other rooms. Going by comments of both sides, the rooms had been merged together. Blossom's garden had survived whatever event had happened without a scratch. The biggest change was that the plates and the gate that transported them to other areas, were both gone.
In their place was a connection to a massive tunnel, too high and wide to measure easily. Not knowing what exactly happened, they didn't venture inside for the time being.
A full hour after the event, everyone assembled in the living room. It was rather packed. White and Berry were the two that explained everything to the others. Lemonade was the first to ask the obvious question. "So, we know what was caused. Who's responsible?"
"We don't know. We asked everyone if they had used the favor system lately, but the most recent use dates back to more than ten hours ago. There is no reason to assume that there were side effects from wishing for a book." Honoka was as helpless as the others. There was not a single hint.
"Has anyone noticed something odd we haven't covered?" Honoka was hoping that someone picked up a hint at least.
"It smells like iron in the rooms. I first thought it's just mine, but it was in Marine's room too." Tsubomi spoke up about the unnatural smell. There was approving murmuring just after she mentioned the smell.
"I don't think the air is poisonous but we can't be too careful now. Try to limit how long you stay in your rooms. If you feel dizzy or sick, stay in the living room or walk around in the hallway. It's possible that the air will normalize soon." Honoka couldn't find any substance in any room that would make the air smell that strongly of iron.
There was nothing more to be said. They had to take a wait and see approach now. Rin was among the first to stand up, eager to go to bed. She was feeling really tired after having to battle and going through that disaster just now. Walking right out of the living room and leaving the now increasingly loud chatter behind her, she was stopped just short of reaching her room. It was Rhythm.
Seeing Ellen together with Peach and Passion like that, Ako with Lemonade and Hibiki with Sunshine, Kanade instinctively went to the first person she could think of to not be utterly alone amongst that many.
"Rin." Kanade wasn't too great with admitting things so she was fidgeting around for a bit.
"We slept with each other but I don't remember telling you to address me by my first name. Oh well, I don't really care. Go ahead, call me Rin." She wasn't in the best mood, even through the sex with Rhythm had been pretty good. It was plain as day that she had little to no experience but that didn't stop Rin from having fun by herself.
"You're sleeping alone right? I was thinking... if you want... I could... keep you company. If you feel lonely." Kanade couldn't possibly come out straight and say that she wanted to stay with her to avoid feeling abandoned.
"Now look. I thought I was pretty clear when I said this isn't going to be a thing between us. Sure, you're pretty cute, but I'm not the type to want a girlfriend that blows my damn head off because she gets offended or something." Shrugging and turning around, Rin walked a few steps before she could feel Kanade grab her hand from behind. Sighing hard and looking back, she didn't get a single word out.
There were signs of tears in the blonde's eyes and Rin wasn't really that cruel. "Fine... You can spent the night in my room. But don't be disillusioned about becoming my girlfriend. Blow up on me and I'm kicking you out faster than you can spell sorry." Maybe she had hung around Urara too much. She didn't want to be that cold to Kanade, but she felt that if she wasn't, it would give the girl the wrong idea.
Well, it wasn't really that hard to understand. After screwing up this badly, Melody probably won't even talk to her anymore. So her plan backfired massively. That she would come back to avoid being dumped completely was a really obvious thing to do. And she really didn't mind that much.
She was lonely herself. Sleeping with Urara was good, it satisfied her urges, but it wasn't really emotionally satisfying. She was longing for someone that cared about her and while Urara was her friend, that wasn't exactly the kind of caring she wanted.
Letting Kanade hold her hand, Rin appreciated that even though her actions were fueled by the wrong motives, Rhythm seemed to care at least a bit about her. In a way, Kanade wanted to be with her to avoid being alone and Rin accepted that in exchange for not being alone herself.
"Don't blame me for whatever happens. I'm just a woman, too. And I happen to like blondes." After being exposed to Urara's influence for as long as she had been, it wasn't difficult for Rin to say right out what she felt and thought. At least not to someone she wasn't emotionally very invested in.
"It's fine..." Kanade was thankful that Rin still accepted her, regardless of how much she had screwed up. Accusing Hibiki and Itsuki, overreacting and sleeping with the next girl that was willing to and then falling flat on her face after all of that.
Walking slowly to Rin's room, the red Cure didn't really know what to make of the situation. She kinda had a thing for blondes now, after Urara and Rhythm, and she would be lying if she said that Kanade wasn't really good looking. For now, she adopted a wait and see approach.
The evening went it's way from there. Kurumi and Hikari were joined by Bloom to prepare some dinner. They found that even the food had been brought over. While the situation felt wrong at first, almost all of them were kind of happy to have everyone together. Miki was lamenting the fact that Moonlight was gone, but other than that, the mood was surprisingly bright.
But it wouldn't stay that way.
=== Dissonance ===
Dinner had passed and it was already late at night when one of the doors opened and someone left their room. Trying to be completely silent, she had made sure that her package could not even squeal. The unconscious package didn't make a sound. There was too high a danger in keeping it around. She had to get rid of it for now. And oh how excited she was to be able to do it herself.
To kill her. To tear her head off. To cut her in pieces. To burn her carcass. To stomp and curb her. A lustful and dark grin formed on her face just thinking about it. Her nails sunk deep into her package, leaving bloody red marks. To get rid of that foolish thing wasn't enough. No. She had to set an example.
Carrying her package carefully, as to not damage it before the appropriate time, she made double sure that nobody other than her was in the hallway or the living room. She couldn't hear or see anyone, so her path was free. Looking lovingly, with an grotesque bloodthirsty grin disrupting her caring expression, on the face of her package, her mouth slowly opened, her tongue extending to the cheek of the girl she was carrying. Licking over the flesh, she could already taste the despair, the pain, the death.
She only had to keep it up for two more days and she would be rid of her permanently. Forty-eight hours after she killed her and she would be gone forever. Nobody would ever notice! She would need to tell the others soon. It would be so much easier to kill them all if they replaced them one by one.
"Nozomi? Where are you going?"
She froze in her tracks. That voice... Mint? What was she doing up this late? More importantly, how fast could she drop the package and try to break her neck or otherwise silence her. There was no doubt she would notice if she came any closer.
"Just for a little walk. I couldn't sleep after today." She had to make a decision soon. Keep lying to Mint and hope she walked away or drop the package, try to kill her and then kill the girl.
"What are you holding?" Komachi could sense that something was odd. Nozomi wasn't the type of person to just keep talking to her without even turning around. And what was she holding? It looked like... a person. Had someone fainted? But then, why wasn't she saying anything?
She didn't even see her move before the impact flipped her over. The following hit smacked her into the ground. Trying to gasp for air, she felt something cover her mouth. A hand, sticky with blood. Whoever that was, it only looked like Nozomi, that much was clear after the sudden assault. But would she live through this? The fake Nozomi was lifting up her head and trying to break her neck.
She was suddenly released when blood splashed over her face and hair. A thin blue blade was piercing the pink Cure's right arm. "More pests... to hell with this. I'll just kill as many of you as I can." Her voice sounded exactly like Nozomi's, just her tone was completely different. There was not a single shred of empathy or care in it.
Grabbing Mint and hurling her at the blue Cure behind her, Dream escaped immediate danger. Jumping back to her package, the hallway was now quickly filling with other Cures, woken by the sudden disturbance, the fighting. She had miscalculated just how much the sound of Mint crashing into the ground would echo thorough the place.
She was completely surrounded in a matter of seconds. Rin was one of the last to show up and she couldn't believe her eyes. One Nozomi that stared at everyone else with eyes of pure hatred and contempt, and another one with her eyes closed, unconscious, her dress partially shredded and soaked in what was likely her own blood.
"Who the hell are you? What have you done to the real Dream?!" Rouge was shouting, readying her fire claws to tear apart the fake Dream.
"The real Dream? What a stupid question. You're looking at her. At them. I'm as much her as she is me. And we're both Dream. But really, I think I'll prefer it if you call me Nightmare. Just Nightmare. I don't need the silly Cure tag." For now, she had to bet on two things. One, that at least some of the others were monitoring this camp, and two, that she could buy enough time for them to come in, take advantage of the confusion and kill a few Cures.
"Shut up! Who cares?! I'll just get it out of Nozomi after I take her back!" Rouge didn't wait another second and rushed at the fake Cure, at Nightmare. She didn't get very far. Bright stopped her by grabbing her right arm, flipping her over and on the ground.
"Calm down. Or I'll force you to. We need more information." Michiru didn't like the fight and think later approach.
"You're some kind of split entity of Dream, am I right?" Windy had recovered enough to participate in a short battle or pry information out of someone.
"Oh, smart girl. What makes you think that? The fact that I look just like her? Or that I practically told you that just now?" Feigning arrogance, Nightmare held on to the real Dream by her neck, carrying her like a bag of potatoes, Nozomi's legs sliding over the ground like she was a puppet being flung around.
"You are the reason the rooms smell of Iron, aren't you? Are you the only one?" Windy created a small orb of energy in her palm, ready to inflict a little pain on the surrounded Nightmare.
"Who knows. Maybe you'll find out if you ask me nicely." How much longer did she have to play this little game? There were a lot of them and she was alone. Even if she had a lot of power, she would die and that would be the end of the game for now. No, she had to get out of there. But she would not leave that useless copy of hers alive.
"I asked nicely. I don't mind sacrificing Dream if it enables us to pry out every little bit of information out of you." While she had acquired quite a bit of common sense in the last few years, Kaoru was all but beyond willing to use torture if it meant gaining critical information.
"What did you just say? Over my dead body!" Rin tried to get out of Bright's lock, but she was no match for her strength.
"I don't even have to say anything and you're already fighting amongst yourselves. Regardless, Ladies, it's time for me to go. Do it!" Throwing herself down on the ground, Nightmare took cover. The backup had finally arrived and chosen to do something. Or maybe they had just gotten sick of watching her squirm in the enemy's hands.
"Inferno Blaze!" Rouge recognize the attack as something she could do herself. But it was slightly different. A good dozen fireballs flew through the hallway, impacting at various points. The sizzling sound of solid stone being set ablaze, the screams of Cures shouting warnings and orders, the smell of burnt hair and cloth, the pain of the stinging heat.
All of that was drowned out by the seemingly slow motion movement of Nightmare. Surrounded by rampant spreading flames, standing proud and arrogant amidst the blazing fire, their eyes met. The light pink eyes betraying Nightmare's true nature, the love of others suffering. Rin felt a bitter thirst for vengeance as she looked at her.
The flames hiding all but a shadowy silhouette, a terrifying white grin in it's midst as the shadow faced the direction Rouge was in, one of her arms reached down to the unconscious body below her. Her mouth opening and a high pitched monstrous laugh escaping it, Nightmare lifted up Dream slowly by her head, her nails burying themselves deep into her forehead and the skin on her head. Dream's arms limp and hanging down, she was completely helpless.
With one mind numbingly quick move, Nightmare's left arm vanished. Rin couldn't comprehend where it went. Something was booming in her ears. The sound of something dripping. A gust of wind revealed a quick glance on Nightmare as more than just a shadowy figure. And now she knew where her arm went.
There was a gaping hole in Nozomi's chest, right where her heart was supposed to be. Blood was gushing out from the wound, spraying all over a silently laughing, perfect copy of Nozomi. Shaking her head a few times, her laughter finally burst out. "Ha... hahaha... this feeling! This smell! This sound! I love it, I love it, I love it!"
Rin was petrified, unable to lift even a single finger. Her mind was trying to shut down, trying to avoid seeing something that would leave irreversible damage.
"Nightmare. Time to go. Put her into the mirror so we can get the hell out of here." The voice belonged to Komachi, but her tone was that of someone that commanded soldiers, someone cold.
Clicking her tongue, Nightmare dropped the bleeding out body and clicked her fingers. "Black Mirror!"
Rin watched in terror as four skeletal arms emerged from a black mist on the ground, pulling Nozomi's corpse into the solid stone.
"There's no way they'd get me before the two days are up anyway. She's as good as dead for real." Turning around and facing Rouge, Nightmare blew a kiss to her.
The fire's sizzling, the chaotic shouting and the echoes of attacks being used, all of that disappeared when Rin raised her voice. "Nozomi!" Rin's desperate outcry echoed empty through the burning hallway, no longer able to reach her dear friend.
=== End of Event XVII ===
