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Dissonance

Event XXX

The Chapter of Sin

Slowly stripping the pieces of armor, first from her arms, then her hips, her torso, and finally her legs and feet, the leader of the Light looked with disdain upon the outcome of her latest mission. This time, again, she couldn't save anyone. 200 people were dead and there was nothing she could do to bring them back. "Ten years… ten years and I still can't repeat that miracle from back then." Her voice was heavy, but she refused to give in to despair, to give up on her cause. However, not a single day passed that she regretted those days back then. It was true that there was good in people, that there was good in every person. But it was far from the truth that good always reigned, that it always won. Humans were too susceptible not only to selfishness but to fear and hatred. To the seven great sins that had wreaked havoc in the world.

And with billions of people in the world, there was only so much she could do. The world was large, far too large for her to be everywhere at once, to know the thoughts and hearts of all people. And not always was there a solution in a conflict that both sides could live with. She had learned that the hard way just before she became an adult. Putting away the armor, made from a special alloy by the Yotsuba Corp before its collapse, she finally undid her transformation. It was like second nature now. Touching the small crystal embedded in her chest, just above her breasts, with her index and middle finger she whispered to herself. "I'm home, Sharuru."

Leaving the hangar, walking through the plane that she had called home for the past six years, Aida Mana laid eyes on her partners, the only survivors that she could still call family. "Everyone, I'm back." There was a smile on her face, one that came naturally to her each time she saw her friends, her lovers, her family. They were all that and more so still they were her lifeline. The indestructible chain that kept her from falling into a pit of misery.

Rikka looked up from her table, a thin metal mask covering her eyes, and faced the general direction Mana's voice had come from. "Welcome back Mana. It didn't go well?" Rikka could hear just the faintest disappointment in Mana's voice and she had needed longer to come out of the hangar than when things went well. Such minute, trivial details were never lost on Rikka; not when it came to Mana.

"Attentive as always." Alice smiled, standing in the small kitchen that existed in the large main room of the plane's first deck, right next to the hangar. "I saw the results on the satellite reports, but how bad it is?" Walking slowly towards Mana, Alice felt her heart beat faster. Even after all these years of being together, she still had no control over her excitement next to Cure Heart.

"Not good." Mana had long since given up on hiding it when she was disappointed with how things had went. "The only thing I could do was give them a peaceful rest." Mana took Alice's hand as she came close, looking in her eyes up close before she leaned in and kissed the heir of the former great conglomerate. "I'm sorry Alice."

"What kind was it?" Makoto asked, looking at a map of Russia that had many overlays with information on it. They were 300 kilometers to the east of Moscow and flying south-east, towards Japan. "And you're so greedy Alice, always taking her first kiss." Makoto pouted a little and adjusted data on the map with a holographic keyboard, courtesy of Yotsuba Corp technology department.

"Do you want me to cheer you up?" Aguri sat right behind Makoto, her long hair and face now ever so reminiscent of Marie Ange that it always made the purple haired girl blush. She knew that Aguri was only half-joking but she was still embarrassed to indulge in her old crush like this.

"It was a Belphegor bomb. Most people were already frozen to death by the cold when I went down." Mana had learned to compartmentalize the feeling of loss that was ever present these days. At least it hadn't been some kind of device that made use of Satan particles. Those were by far the most gruesome to watch and difficult to stop.

"I am pretty sure that New USSR is stockpiling curse weaponry and field testing it on resisting villages in the territory of old Russia." Makoto flicked the data all into one big field and moved it over to where Rikka still sat, still with the mask on.

"They're probably prepping for war with the UEC." The United Eastern Confederation. It was what had become of countries like China, Thailand, Korea, Taiwan and many others. They were forced to band together to fight the growing terrorism and skyrocketing crime rates. "Are we going to stop them from starting another war?" Regina asked with a sigh in her voice. She was so tired. Waiting for Mana to come back was important but she would need to go back her room with Aguri to recharge soon.

"I hope it won't come to that." Mana was saddened by what the world had become. And it was, one way or the other, a little bit their fault. If back then they had decided to close the breach somehow, or to outlaw the sale and purchase of magic items, alongside strict border controls, maybe they could have prevented all of this.

"You are blaming yourself again Mana." Regina could see it from across the room. "How many times do I need to tell you to stop it?" Getting off the couch, Regina shrugged as she walked over to Mana, who still had Alice clinging to her right arm.

"I just think that if we had-" Mana's lips were sealed shut by Regina's index finger. She's right. No matter how much I lament our error, how much I regret it, it won't change the past.

"We know you can't help feeling guilty, we all do, but you're letting it get to you again." Regina pulled away her finger and shut her eyes just halfway before she looked at the ground. "Heck, I'm more guilty than any of you but you don't see me being all depressed about it, right?"

"We don't need to see it, we can hear it;" Rikka said from her seat. Finally finished with what she was doing, decoding and translating transmissions, she pulled off the thin metal mask and rose to smile at Mana. "I'm sorry Regina. We know you just want to cheer Mana up. But it's hard to be cheerful about anything these days. We still have Mana, but every time we receive a transmission, a call for help, we know that even if we're close by, we won't be able to save many. That's just how things are now."

"At least we're still fighting to stop the fighting. Most governments are just resorting to even greater violence than they are threatened with to fight back." Aguri felt her stomach growl quietly. "Alice, I know today is your day, so do you mind if I finish what you started preparing?"

"Oh no, I am still going to finish cooking. You all do not abandon your duties during your day so I will not either." Alice finally let go of Mana, stealing a quick kiss from her before she returned to the kitchen, opening up canned goods and frozen produce. They rarely if ever managed to find the time to buy fresh vegetables or meat. And out of them all, Aguri and Alice were the two that managed to create the best actual meals out of the preserved foods they always stocked up on.

"Rikka, where are we headed?" Mana was curious. They had lifted off the second she had returned to the plane. She was their primary ground forces agent, occasionally accompanied by Makoto, Aguri and Regina. Alice and Rikka usually stayed behind for their own reasons.

"Japan. One of our sources in New Zealand had information that dense spatial distortions have showed up near the Deep Blue. I don't want a fourth breach on our hands so we're going to check it out." Rikka feared for the worst if yet another breach opened up. The first breach had been created by the Selfish King and that was the only unavoidable one. The second had been the result of an enormous Leviathan particle detonation in the southern part of North America, only four years after the first. And the third, the biggest, had been deliberate and its creation had completely obliterated Germany and large parts of the surrounding countries.

Each breach escalated the leak of magical energy into the mundane world and with magical energy came the possibility of humans converting it into curse energy. Far different from what the Selfish used, curse energy was the literal shadow of magic energy. Lethal to humans and dangerous to Cures, it was because of such a curse weapon that Rikka and Alice…

"Regina, how long has it been since you and Aguri stabilized the last time?" Rikka was highly sensitive to such things and had been for a long time.

"One day I'll start calling you Mom," Regina complained and looked to Aguri who was as displeased with the prospect of undergoing the stabilizing process as Regina was. But Rikka's stern expression, even with her eyes closed, told both of them that she would just nag until they set things right.

"It'll be at least 30 minutes before dinner so you have time," Alice joined Rikka in reminded the two youngest of the group that they shouldn't ignore an issue that important.

"You heard her." Aguri got out of her seat and before she walked away she touched Makoto's hand. "Can I come to your room tonight?" Aguri whispered and waited. Makoto linked her pinky with Aguri's. She had a long day and it had been another bad mission, so neither of them wanted to be alone that night.

Barely out the door that lead to their private rooms, Regina grimaced. "Are you going to Makoto's room again tonight?" Of the six rooms available, Regina's was the last to the left and Aguri's the one across the hallway. "My room?"

"Yes," Aguri responded and wished she had some real cake. She hadn't eaten real cake in so long, and the frozen kind was not nearly as good, but it the only option she had. Regina was barely inside her room when she started to undress, taking off the black vest and removing the belt from her pants. "You have no shame as always." Aguri was always a little put off by this display even though she had seen it so many times already. "I concede you are beautiful but your behavior gives you such a crude air. You should try to act more like me."

"I think having one princess on this flight is plenty," Regina countered. "Mana likes my wild side, so I'm not going to change it."

Sitting down on her own bed with crossed legs, wearing only her underwear, Regina nodded at Aguri. They were both the same height now, although Aguri's hair volume made her appear a little taller when they were barefoot side by side. Regina's boots on the other hand gave her an edge when they were fully clothed. "Come on, I don't want to miss the only decent meal of the week."

A small sigh escaped Aguri as she started to strip, loosing the belts on her waist and chest that were there so her breasts wouldn't get in the way of combat, Aguri stripped as far as Regina did, sitting down in front of her other half in the same way she would sit during a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. "Let's start." Holding her hands out, palms directed at Regina, the blonde responded in turn, their hands perfectly aligned, Aguri's just a fraction larger than Regina's.

"What do you think is happening in Japan?" Regina was always bored during the stabilization process. It took around twenty minutes to do it properly and she couldn't really move or do anything during that time. Staring at Aguri's boobs was only interesting the first dozen times and since then they had needed to do this more than a thousand times already.

"I don't think it is another breach. Rikka might say that but if she really thought it was going to happen, she would've been really agitated and not this calm." Aguri was of a similar disposition as Regina. Staring at her other half had never been all that interesting to begin with even though she had a really cute butt, better even than Makoto's, but this was such a routine process. She had seen Regina nearly naked, and entirely naked, so many times that it was no different than seeing her with clothes.

"You ever wonder if the Selfish are coming back?" Regina occasionally thought about this. They had never finished off Mamo, Ira or Bel and from time to time she wondered what they could be doing. The world was messed up more than they could ever have hoped to achieve already so maybe they were just gone, their job done already.

"I doubt it. Even if they did, governments and the military would likely capture, interrogate and torture them for information. With the current level of curse technology most governments have access to, we have a hard time already and we are so much more powerful than we were back then." Aguri felt some of the pain in her left leg slowly go away. It was another spot every day, rarely the same two days in a row.

"You probably think I'm crazy for saying this but I even kind of miss Mamo and Bel. Compared to the things out there now, they weren't very threatening or particularly evil." Regina had shared Mana's ideology about people for a while but when the Deep Blue happened, everything changed. She realized and accepted much more easily the true nature of people, of adults, of humans. Living in a city with a particularly high count of good people, possibly due to Mana's influence didn't mean much compared to the volume of billions more people that did not follow that archetype.

"A little crazy, maybe." Aguri smiled softly. "We fought hard, for our lives even, but it was a fight we could win, a fight with a clear enemy. We were up against the Selfish, not people." Aguri too learned the hard way that the lessons Mana and everyone in that one city had taught her didn't apply universally to all people in the world.

Regina was bored but couldn't really think of anything else to talk about. Spending several minutes just letting the stabilization happen, Regina eventually did stare at Aguri's breasts. "Did they get even bigger?"

"Please be quiet," Aguri sighed and kept her eyes closed. Maybe she should find a way to put up a TV in her own room so she could watch the news while they did the stabilization.

Several minutes ago in the living room

Mana sat at the table, watching Alice prepare dinner in silence. Alice was a very calming presence when she was in the kitchen and it helped Mana forget about the tragedy she had just lived through. Even after the hundreds and hundreds of tragedies she had witnessed, they never started hurting less. It never got easier. She loved people and she tried everything to save them, but she had been made painfully aware of her limitations during the Deep Blue.

Alice was her lighthouse in the stormy sea, the one who could calm her no matter what happened. Rikka was the one that understood her better than anyone else, so much that sometimes Mana thought she could really read her mind. Makoto was the partner she trusted her back to, more so than anyone else. No matter what, she knew Makoto would give everything to protect her and the others from harm. Regina helped her release the emotions the others could not handle so well. Anger and Lust. Without her, Mana knew she would have exploded a long time ago, overburdened by all her feelings. And Aguri? Aguri filled her with a sense of purpose. She was the living embodiment that hope still lived, that there was meaning in going on, in fighting.

Mana didn't know how well the others understood that they were all absolutely necessary for her. That they all contributed an important, invaluable part to her life. They squabbled and argued with each other sometimes over who loved Mana the most but they were all equally precious to her. But even so, Mana knew that she could not be there for all of them at all times at the same time. That was why sometimes Aguri and Makoto slept together. Why Rikka and Regina sometimes appeared more tired in the morning than they were the night before. Why Alice and Makoto sought each others warmth. Mana knew about all this despite the best efforts of her partners.

With Rikka having finished her work, Makoto had quickly pulled out her books and notes. Sitting down with Rikka, Makoto learned more and more about being a doctor. After the incident, Rikka's dream had died for good. No matter how strong her powers got or how sensitive her senses became, there were just some things for which there was no compensating.

Sitting there and waiting, Mana closed her eyes for just a moment and she saw the scenes from thirty minutes ago. She always needed time to let go, to move past the misery and suffering she encountered out there when she went to help.

The plant life was dying rapidly, all around her. Mana could sense the dangerous curse particles in the air but at this level of concentration, she was still protected by her Cure powers. The village was small, barely 200 people living there. The houses were more akin to shacks. They had only the bare necessities of life all the way out there. "These are… Belphegor particles." The demon of sloth. One of the seven types of curse energy humans had created by reversing engineering magic energy. It caused lethal lethargy in people and animals, even in small doses. It was possible to save people for about an hour after exposure by injecting them with a strong dose of magically enhanced adrenaline that let the body survive the curse. It wasn't a sure thing but it was something Rikka had come up with specifically for the Belphegor curse.

But she was far too late for that. Dozens of people were laying in the streets, having succumbed to the curse. The closer she got to the village center, the denser the curse got, but it was never dense enough to fully affect her. Mana looked at a group of children that were suffocating as they lay there conscious. The brain and the lungs were the last thing to shut down from this curse of sloth, but by the time this happened, the damage to the other organs had been so great that saving a victim was impossible, not even with the cutting edge capabilities of the best hospitals in the world. Humans had developed weapons of killing a hundred times as quickly as they developed ways to stop the killing.

She had suffered horribly the first time she had ever come across victims of the sloth curse that were too far gone to be saved. She cried for hours. Children, women, men, they had all died right in front of her, without anything she could have done to save them. And the next time, she still had cried. And the next time, the time after that and the time after that. But eventually, she stopped crying. She never stopped feeling helpless and sad, but she stopped crying. No matter how many tears she shed, it would not change anything. That was the harsh reality of the world after Deep Blue.

Kneeling down next to the children, Mana looked at them with a smile. "You're going to a better place." Sending a small amount of energy into the child, their consciousness immediately faded, the curse accelerated by a factor of a thousand. The curses that humans had developed reacted with intense aggression and accelerated spreading to Cure powers for reasons that Rikka had never been able to fully explore. But it was the only thing that Mana could do for them now, granting them a death that was not long and painful but quick and painless. Going from child to child and releasing them, Mana felt a piece of her heart torn asunder with each light of life that she snuffed out. The sadness and despair she felt was written all over her face as she walked, but never as she looked into the eyes of those that suffered before she released them.

There were no survivors of the village. Using her powers to dig graves, Mana wished there had been flowers she could have placed on them as she buried the people. Six hours. It took six hours for her to come down, release everyone and bury them. Calling back the Cured, the plane she called home over radio, Mana boarded, knowing that even though she had not been able to do any good today, she managed to ease the suffering of the few.

"You shouldn't do that Mana." Alice put her hand on Mana's shoulder. "You're thinking about the dead again. They would be happy to know someone remembers their final moments but if they knew how sad it made the one that stopped their suffering, would they still be happy?" Alice always preferred a softer approach than Rikka or Makoto used. Her gentle nature had not suffered from her incident at all. If anything, she had become more aware of how precious not only life but even small gestures could be. It was her who first convinced Mana that instead of prolonging the horrible suffering of Sloth victims that she should release them without pain so they could move on without hatred.

"I know, I know." Mana still looked sad. Her life now was a far cry from what she had envisioned as a teenager. Things had looked problematic already in her second year of high school and when the Deep Blue happened in her third year, the world changed so drastically that her dreams and hopes belonged no longer in that world. Once, she wanted to be prime minister and bring smiles to everyone. But now, there was not even a prime minister in Japan.

But more so than her own lost dreams hurt to know how many lives had been lost and were still being lost every day. As powerful as she had become, she could not travel thousands of kilometers fast enough to stop a terror attack. And most tragedies she didn't know about until they were reported in the news. As much goodness as there was in people, there was equally as much darkness, things much worse than mere selfishness.

"Can you set the table Mana? It looks like Makoto is overheating." Alice pointed at Makoto, who was in desperate need of a break from Rikka's onslaught of information. She had worked hard at being an idol, with both singing and acting, but this was just as hard if not harder.

"Sure." Mana was happy to oblige. Dishes, cutlery, salt and pepper that were mostly for Regina and Makoto, she had arranged it nearly in a way that everyone sat in equal distance from another at the round table. They had no fixed seats because it was not every day that they could all eat together. Sometimes Mana, Makoto, Aguri and Regina were still off the plane when Alice and Rikka could no longer wait and had to eat something. And sometimes, one or two of the girls slept through the day after a busy or painful night. As powerful as Cures were, they were a far cry from being as invincible as people had thought them to be all those years ago. Curses were dangerous and curse enhanced weaponry damaged them almost as much as normal weaponry hurt people.

Hearing that the table was being set, Rikka eased up on Makoto and got out of her seat. Makoto and Alice were still impressed with how well Rikka would find her way through the plane despite her condition. "Aguri! Regina!" Calling the two, Rikka found her way to the table with ease. "Are seats taken?" She asked and Mana replied by tapping her finger on the table.

"My shoulders are aching." Aguri complained as she came back into the big living room, halfway through the process of putting her vest back on.

"The queen complaining her lands are too great to witness them all in one day," Regina said to no one in particular and sat down next to Rikka. "How are you feeling?"

"A slight headache. Transmissions were all in this weird Russian dialect." Rikka took a deep breath and stretched her arms and knocked over a small container that had chopsticks inside. There was awkward silence for a moment before Rikka turned her head towards Mana. "Can you pick them up for me?"

"Happy to help." Mana collected the chopsticks and put them back into the container, this time placing it in the actual center of the table. It had been off by a good ten centimeters and there was even a black ring they had drawn with permanent market to show where it had to go.

When Alice served food, with help from Mana who carried the dishes into the kitchen and back, the mood lightened a little. Mana was not a terrible cook and neither was Regina but both of them focused on rather simple dishes that mostly filled the need to eat more so than they catered to the desire to eat something good. Makoto was the worst cook in the group and that's why Alice helped her out most of the time. Rikka had stopped preparing meals after her incident. There was just too much detail work necessary for the things she wanted to make.

"You don't really thing there is going to be another breach, right? The one in America was an accident and the one where Germany used to be was deliberate but both backfired like heck. Nobody is stupid enough to try and make another one." Regina had little trouble bringing up topics like this during meals.

"Regina!" Makoto was the one who berated her the most. They all had lived through terrible things and it wasn't too often they all managed to eat dinner together. "Can't we not talk about stuff like that at the table?"

"I don't know. It might be trouble from the other side. The Republic of Trump has been in dire straits since Deep Blue. It's possible that they have something going on over there that could cause a breach." Rikka only paused eating to say what she thought. The meal was grilled meat with onions, bread that had been baked up to be all fresh again and two side dishes, green salad and tomato salad.

"I want to believe that Ai is actually doing an okay job at holding things together with Joe." Aguri liked the way the onions had been grilled with the meat. It made the meat not dry at all despite having been frozen until several hours ago.

"It's hard to believe that the baby from back then is as old as Aguri was when we fought the Selfish King."Mana wished to see her again, to know what she looked like now, to know how she was doing. After Joe took her back to the Republic when everyone entered high school, she had only see her infrequently. And after the Deep Blue, the Republic had erected a massive barrier to prevent human military forces from attacking them in retribution.

"If we didn't have Mana we would all be Christmas cakes now," Regina joked and was surprised when everyone looked at her strange. "I try to lighten the mood and this is what happens?"

"No, it's just… where did you learn that expression?" Mana was a little taken aback by this.

"Manga." Regina had spent much of her time in high school not actually studying or catching up on subjects but rather keeping herself entertained. She had thought to work as an enforcer for the Republic, tracking down illegal smuggling of magical and human world goods between the worlds. A wild job that was a perfect fit for her.

"We should have guessed as much. And none of us are actually married to Mana, so technically, we are-" Rikka started but didn't get to finish. Makoto stuffed a piece of green salad into her mouth. Rikka could tell from the direction it came from who it had been.

"Our arrangement is certainly… unique." Aguri conceded, blushing, knowing that they were all acting selfish and yet weren't at the same time. But the world of adults was full of selfishness, much more so than their teenage selves would have ever thought.

"If you continue to chat for too long the meat will cool, the onions will become all soggy and both of them will taste rather unpleasant when heated in the microwave." Alice reminded everyone that they were supposed to be eating. Chatting was fine but they were ignoring their dishes.

"I'm going to sleep after dinner." Mana was tired. She always was after a day like this. Not every day was as bad and every now and then she was full of energy after being able to stop an attack or save people.

"Then I will join you after I clean up." Alice wasn't against turning in early. She had doubts that Mana was in the mood for anything intimate but she was happy just sharing a bed with her.

"Just go with her. I'll clean up and you'll owe me one hell of an omelet, okay?" Regina would have helped anyone in this scenario but Alice was exceptional with eggs so she couldn't pass up this chance.

"I believe we have a deal." Alice simply smiled after this and worked on finishing her meal. They ate in silence for thirty seconds before Rikka came out with something else.

"For a while now there have been sightings of strange dimensional distortions. Places where the air, or rather, reality is thinner than normal, from where you can see into different worlds, like through an old TV with bad reception. It never amounted to anything really noteworthy and it never lasted more than four or five seconds, so I didn't bring it up before. You can't record it with our technology either so many people say it is all a hoax by the government or terrorists. Maybe… maybe the event in Japan is the culmination of all of this."

"If it's a way out of here, I am going." Regina was quick to jump on that ship. "What we're doing is damage control and we all know it. Every day the world is polluted more and more by curse energy and who knows how long our powers will protect us. It's already affecting me and Aguri."

"Regina, stop." Aguri wasn't comfortable being used for that argument, no matter how true it was. "This is still the world we fought to save. Abandoning it now isn't-"

"Isn't what? What is there for us to fight for?" Regina didn't want to spell out the things they had lost. Their parents. Their fairy partners. Their homes. There was nothing left for them but each other.

"Regina is right." Alice knew that this was not going to be a popular opinion but the facts spoke for themselves. "As much as I want to have hope, we are gradually losing ground. If the Republic is just one of many worlds, we can do so much good in others."

"No matter how bad it becomes, I can't abandon the people on this planet." Mana smiled by herself. "I won't stop anyone from leaving because I know that what you're saying is right but I just can't leave, even if there is another world where we could do good.

Rikka finished her meal and looked at Mana again. "I know that all people are equally important to you. But Alice and Regina are right Mana. Sometimes you need to know when you need to move on."

"Rikka..." Mana listened to Rikka's advice more than anyone else on board. Through almost her entire life Rikka had support her, sometimes at the cost of her own well being. And she was the one who brought her to finally accept that her ideology was flawed, that it was not possible to make a world where everyone smiled.

"Mana is right in not wanting to abandon the world and the people that still live here. But there really isn't much we can do other than flying around, being hunted like criminals, and trying to save as many as we can in a day only for those same people to die a week later in another attack. The world has been ending ever since Deep Blue, slowly but surely. I'm sure that at one point, there won't be enough people left to fight anymore; but what kind of world will that be? Is it really worth it to stay behind for those few instead of taking a chance and helping another world, or multiple worlds even?" Aguri often laid the reality of the situation out in the open. Mana still clung to her ideals of wanting everyone to be happy, but it was a dead ideal.

"Everyone…" Mana knew they were right. But she just couldn't convince herself to follow their words. "Isn't it too soon to give up? We could track down the manufacturers of the curse weaponry and stop their production, then go around and destroy all the curse weapons that are left. If no more energy is released, we should be able to come up with a way to cleanse it."

Alice put down her cutlery and looked sad. "I wish I could tell you that is a good idea but isn't that part of what we have been doing? For each plant we destroyed, more are build. The world is too big to do this with just us. If we had an army, thousands and tens of thousands of people, we would have a chance. I support your every effort in saving people as much as I can but..." Alice paused. How many times had they had one of these conversations?

"But even if we can't really help people, even if the world is ending, we're sticking with you Mana. We're either going together or not at all." Regina smirked. "We saved the world once because we had faith in you so as long as you believe it is worth it, we'll keep going. It's just that we're not as strong as you are so we can't keep believing all the time."

"Regina… thanks." Mana was happy to hear that. They all had their doubts and they weren't afraid to share them with her but above their doubts was their faith in her. But Mana had doubts too. What they said was all true. People they saved could die the very next day. Or they could even become consumed by vengeance and attack other people. When a Selfish was turned back into a human they did not remember a thing. But with people consumed by hate, motivated by political and religious reasons and agendas, there was nothing she could do to change their mind. She had tried to talk to them so many times but more often than not, she was chased off; called the source of all the chaos, the devil that unleashed hell on earth. She had never experienced resistance like that as a teenager or when fighting the Selfish. Hatred that was so ingrained into their very soul that there was no reasoning with it.

Rikka was the first to get out of her chair. Nobody else got up until she had walked over to the couch where she and Makoto had left off. "Makoto?" Rikka asked because she hadn't heard the slight screeching noises of the chairs yet.

"Hard at work?" Aguri smiled and touched Makoto's hand as they passed each other, taking their dishes to the kitchen and putting them into the dish washer.

"My brain is going to overheat." The former idol groaned softly and hoped they wouldn't arrive in Japan for a while. Over the last couple years she had stopped being all that bothered by the fact that they all took turns being Mana's partner. To her, Aguri was almost, if not equally, as important.

"Makoto!" Rikka was a little more irritated sounding this time but that was just the tone of voice she used to put emphasis on things.

"Coming." Makoto walked past Mana and smiled at her. Tomorrow was her turn. She was a little excited. The last few times it had been her turn, they had just come back from a big mission each time and neither of them had the energy or the mood to engage in any intimacy other than cuddling until they fell asleep. But that was one thing that had surprised everyone regardless. Mana was not all that wild in bed. She and Regina sometimes became loud enough so that Rikka in the next room could hear them, but other than Rikka, nobody ever did. With anyone else, Mana never even got loud enough for Rikka to hear.

"Rikka, Makoto, Regina, Aguri, good night." Mana turned in early. She had only been up for 20 hours, which for Mana was still short, but she had suffered one failure after another and now she was at her limit.

Telling Mana good night, the four girls left behind went quickly back to attending to their own business. Makoto was struggling with a particular topic about bacterial infections and Rikka needed a lot of patience to explain it properly since she couldn't just point at specific sections in books anymore. Aguri and Regina on the other hand retreated to the large hangar. The plane was far too big for just the six of them, able to fit many more people than that and of all the places the hangar drove that home the most. Several years ago the plane had been manned by staff from the Yotsuba Corp but the Cures were forces to let them go. The lingering curse particles that the Cures were immune to but the humans weren't caused too many problems. Able to fly on auto-pilot and powered by a powerful solar generator of the latest generation, the plane could stay in the air practically forever if not for repairs.

Regina held out her hand and summoned the Light Spear. It was actually called the Miracle Dragon Glaive but Regina found that name to be too bothersome and long winded. It was the last of the three sacred treasures that remained now. "Do you think we should have gone with Mana earlier?" Regina rushed at Aguri and led off with a series of rapid thrusts. Aguri transformed to Ace the instant before Regina was in front of her, dodging the spear attack by slowly backing away.

"It was obvious that we wouldn't be able to do anything for the people down there," Ace said between dodging attacks. Using the back wall of the Hangar to somersault over Regina and attempt a kick in the back, but was barely blocked by the shaft of the spear. "It's best to leave Mana alone when she is just putting them out of their misery. She always feels guilty that we have to kill people when we go down to help." Switching to a series of kicks, Ace was constantly blocked by the spear. But she had her own tricks. While she had no specialty of her own, she had learned the usage of all the weapons her companions used and their creation. "Ace Sword!" A longsword made of red energy, the same type that Makoto used as Cure Sword.

Attacking Regina close up, Regina turned the spear slightly in her hand. "Bind!" She had seen a fantastic attack of a spear user in an anime called Horizon at the Edge of Everywhere and worked tirelessly to imitate it. The spear of light let energy burst from it's blade that turned to chains, binding Ace and limiting her arm movement to nothing. "Ace Sphere!" She didn't have quite the control that Rosetta had but she it did the job. The sphere emerged from her chest outwards, breaking apart the chains and releasing her.

"Gaia..." Regina readied her next attack. This too was an attack she had created with an anime serving as inspiration.

"Ace Sphere! Three!" Creating three layers, the absolute maximum she could, Ace knew she couldn't dodge this attack. If the battle took place in the open sky and they were moving at mach speed, she could have, possibly, but not in a grounded battle.

"Bane!" Turning the entire spear into light, Regina threw it towards Ace and the spear vanished for a split second. The next thing that Ace saw was the spear having broken through two barriers and piercing the third but lacking the velocity to have broken all three. Returning to the wielder the same way it was thrown, turning into energy, Regina took another battle pose.

"That attack borders on violating the laws of physics. It is basically a cheat." Ace was still struggling on how to actually counter the attack other than putting up three layers of Ace Sphere. "Ace Knuckle!" This one was the weapon of choice that Mana used. Knuckles were close up and personal and when fighting a powerful enemy she could feel the same pain they felt. It was not an instrument of murder but one of order.

Rushing Regina again, Ace was now too close to be attacked by a long weapon like a spear. "Install!" Regina's moves all bordered on copyright infringement if Ace was asked but that didn't make them any less dangerous or potent. The spear vanished in a flash of light and Regina gained energy armor on her arms and legs, able to unleash light energy blasts from each limb. But Ace was quicker, a bit taller and had more raw strength that Regina did. She was also practically immune to light energy which meant Regina's move was reduced to being purely defensive. Switching weapons in the middle of an attack, Ace messed up the transition. Diamond's weapon was not a traditional weapon but rather her element. Ace tried to make it her own by splitting her aura into smaller portions, enabling her to coordinate them at will, each portion of aura acting like an independently floating punch or kick. It was unbelievably difficult to control, even for Ace, and Regina saw that the fight was over. The aura spheres were bouncing all over the place and Ace lost her transformed state just moments later. Separating too much of her energy, her aura, for the attack, she couldn't maintain her Cure form.

"Still unable to get it right?" Regina turned the spear back into light. Much like the four outside the hangar, the spear turned into a yellow sphere that Regina kept on top of her chest. It wasn't completely the same as the others but it was close. Helping Aguri up, Regina let out a sigh. "Did you try using the sphere to split off energy? It looks like a decent amount to me so it shouldn't be too weak. Maybe two spheres?"

"It's not that easy." Aguri was glad that she and Regina were close like this. She couldn't spar with the others this well. They all had an area they excelled in. Mana was unparalleled in close quarters. Rikka was a master of controlling her energy and freezing her enemies solid. Makoto was a highly skilled mid-range fighter that could fight with several swords at a time. And Alice was just unbelievably tough and capable of mass destruction, in a different way from Rikka. Aguri went for a jack of all trades approach, much like Regina, so they could be the missing link between their four extremes.

When Mana and Rikka had asked her about this, she had come up with a rather fanciful analogy. Each of the Cures represented a card. Mana was the Suit of Heart, representing power. Rikka was the Suit of Diamond, representing wisdom. Alice was the Suit of Club, representing vitality. And Makoto was the Suit of Spade, representing courage. It fit not only their personalities but also their fighting styles. But the Ace was not a suit but a card that existed at the very top of every suit, above the Queen and above the King. But it was also the lowest card at the same time. So isn't it fitting that I would take only the best that each of the suits have to offer? Is what Ace had to say. But a jack of all trades was also a master of none, and the Ace being also the 1, the lowest card of each suit, represented that.

In that case, I am the Joker. I'm not bound by rules or numbers. I can be anything and I can do anything. Was Regina's response to this, unwilling to be left out. Ace represented the Bonds between them all and Regina represented their Capability.

"Should we go again?" Regina asked and put her hands on the bottom of her top. She would need to help Aguri recharge if they were going another round.

"No, I'm going to spend the evening with Makoto." Aguri didn't hide things from Regina. She hadn't grown up to be a good liar.

"I heard you two." Regina smirked. "Ann~." Imitating Makoto's voice the best she could, Regina started to giggle. "Did she just start calling you that or was it your idea?"

"Don't be immature Regina." Aguri frowned. "I've been thinking about just going by Ange completely. I look like her and Makoto tells me I even act like her a lot."

"Thank god we don't look alike. That would be confusing as heck and pretty stupid." Regina grew up to be a little shorter than Aguri, and her genes had exchanged breasts for booty, while it worked the other way around for her other half. Her long blonde hair was as rebellious as always and just as long. Over the years her fashion sense had changed a great deal, however. Leather boots, jeans, black tank-tops, her hair tied into a large ponytail except for bed and a single ear piercing in her right ear.

Aguri on the other hand closely resembled a brown haired version of Marie Ange nowadays; tall, with great hair volume, but a bigger chest and a smaller butt, than her predecessor and original form. She was also a handful of centimeters taller than Regina. She stopped combing back her hair years ago and let it grow into the shape it wanted to be. Makoto had one day pointed out that she was looking more and more like the princess, and Aguri had actually taken it as a compliment because Ange had been very beautiful.

"And really? You're just gonna leave your old name?" Regina was curious now. "Marie Ange? Madoka Ange? Aguri Marie?"

"I'm grateful to grandma, but she isn't around anymore and Makoto calls me Ann already. And it would obviously be Madoka Ange." Aguri felt like Regina was going to make fun of her any second now.

"I think it's fine? I mean, your grandma raised you for a while, and she was a really good person, but the truth is that we're just halves of Ange to begin with. If you look that much like her, and you freaking do, then it's not that weird to take on her name. I mean your initials are already the same!" Regina was surprisingly nice to Aguri most of the time but she could also be a real piece of work at other times.

"Really didn't expect you to have my back on this." Aguri was more than a little surprised.

"You're practically my sister. I should have your back at least with the important stuff." Regina smirked. "So what's this between you and Makoto? I heard from Mana that she had like this really big crush on us, I mean Ange, all the way back."

"That probably plays a part. But we're both seeing Mana too, so I don't know if this is actually a serious thing or if she's just seeing me as a replacement for Ange." Even if that was the case, she didn't mind all that much. Makoto was really beautiful. She kept her hair still short because she liked it that way but she was a beautiful woman in every respect. She had a more balanced figure and body than either Regina and Aguri; the most balanced out of everyone on board. Those who preferred women with large busts or large bottoms would be disappointed with Makoto, but for Aguri, she was as beautiful as Mana was. "But you're one to talk. I see you sneaking off with Rikka a lot lately."

"I can't help it, I have a thing for super smart girls. Not as much as Mana, but if I had to pick anyone except Mana, I'd pick Rikka." Regina opened a door, one that didn't lead back to the living room but a small corridor that lead to the showers. They even had those on this plane.

"Do you actually sleep with each other or just together?" Aguri was too old to be embarrassed about topics like those anymore. Her teenage years were behind her.

"Hm, I guess 50/50? Rikka doesn't have that huge of a sex drive but maybe that's because of her eyes." Regina realized too late what she had said. Clicking her tongue, she was annoyed with herself. "Shit. And I try so hard to not think about it."

"Do you think Mana still feels guilty over it?" Aguri would never ask Mana that and neither would Regina. She knew that much.

"100%. I mean, this is Mana we're talking about and Rikka didn't so much take one for the team as she took one for Mana. I really love Mana more than anything in the world but Rikka feels probably just as strongly about her, maybe even more so, though I have no idea how that would work."

Aguri was not about to ask Regina if she would have done the same thing as Rikka. That was just being heartless and creating unnecessary boundaries. Rikka's situation, as much as she had gotten used to it, was still a bad one. "Why are we going to the showers anyway? We didn't sweat that much. We were barely at it for five minutes."

"Hey, you're just following me. You can join me in the shower if you want. I definitely need to get a closer look at- where are you going?" Regina stopped dead in her tracks when Aguri suddenly turned around.

"Somewhere without perverts," Aguri replied calmly and walked back the same way she had come.

"No fun as always." Regina shrugged, put her hands behind her back and startled to whistle a tune as she marched right into the shower room. Throwing her clothes on one of the sinks, she didn't really care much for being neat and her room resembled it. "Maybe I'll just go to sleep early today. That stupid slip of the tongue totally killed my libido."

It was almost ironic that Rikka was the one that seemed to be the least bothered and depressed about her condition. Regina was particularly susceptible to it. Just a mere mention of it killed her mood.

When Aguri returned to the living room, Makoto was overheating again and Rikka was pouring tea. She knew exactly where everything was and she put her index finger a little ways into the cup as she filled it. The second she noticed the liquid touching it, she pulled both her hand and the can away. It had taken her a few dozen attempts to learn how to do this without spilling anything but it was worth it. Filling a second cup, Rikka noticed Aguri, and Aguri noticed this only because Rikka turned her head slightly. "Do you want a cup?" Rikka offered and reached for the cupboard.

"Please." Aguri tried to always treat Rikka normally. Everyone had to be really neat about the living room and the rest of the ship, or at least everywhere Rikka would go since she couldn't handle sudden changes to the environment. Regina had the most trouble with cleaning up but even she was able to keep things in order a few weeks down the line. Sitting down next to the ex-Idol, Aguri put her hand on Makoto's. "Working hard?"

"I don't think the slaves in ancient Egypt that built the pyramids worked this hard." Makoto said in a joking tone. They all had learned to do some things that helped Rikka orientate herself. To avoid being obvious about her condition and constantly just announcing where they were, they would talk, even about the most pointless things, so Rikka could sense where they were. "One day my head is going to explode."

"That would be a pity. It's such a beautiful one," Aguri said with a chuckle. Rikka, who managed to carry three tea cups without spilling anything, set two cups down on the table, in the center, before she sat down in her chair. "Thank you Rikka."

"If you cannot handle the pace we are making you need to tell me Makoto," It sounded like a complaint but Rikka said so with a smile. They had all worked hard in their teenage years and Makoto was no exception. Finding herself in human society, becoming an idol, singing, dancing, acting and school; Makoto managed to handle all of it. That was why Rikka picked her to pass her knowledge on. Mana would become too emotional if someone was gravely wounded or sick. Alice was also a hard worker but she just seemed more suited to the emotional aspect of healing. Makoto never truly cracked under stress or pressure which made her an ideal candidate. Regina lacked the patience and Aguri was not good with blood or open wounds, both things completely disqualifying them from the selection.

"No, I just… need to cool down a little in-between subjects," Makoto smiled back at Rikka even though she couldn't see it. "This tea is nice. It reminds me of the blend that Davyi used to make for me." It was a bit of a sore spot for all of them, that their partners were gone in a manner of speaking. Putting her cup down and undoing the first button of her blouse, Makoto lovingly caressed the purple sphere embedded into her chest, just above her breasts.

"Raquel hated this type of tea. I could never get him to drink it." Rikka preferred to recall the happy memories rather than wallow in the regret. It was a miracle that they had arrived at this situation at all. But sometimes, memories just surfaced without wanting them to.

Five years ago

"Is there nothing we can do?!" Mana was kneeling next to Sharuru, who was in her human form and was unconscious. It had been days since she last woke up. The infection was still spreading, and while it spread much more slowly while she was in her human form, it didn't stop.

"With our current level of medicine…" Rikka glanced to the side, to where Raquel was, unconscious just like Sharuru and in equally bad shape. "Regina and Aguri tried to use the crown but this is something humans created… the crown didn't have an answer." Rikka crushed the research journal in her hand. The bags below her eyes were proof of countless days with little to no sleep over the past few months. She had studied human diseases. Not this. She wanted to be a practicing doctor, not a pharmaceutical researcher. And even if she had become a researcher, this was far above her level. The particles weren't understood by the people that manufactured them, much less by a third party.

"If I still had my resources then maybe… with a big lab..." Alice was a few steps away from Rikka. The three of them were in the sickbay, where they were keeping their all important partners. "But Yotsuba Corporation is already..." Alice covered her face with the white cloth of the bed that Lance was resting on. Nobody could have told from just looking but Alice's face was distorted in pain and regret.

"What is even happening to them?" Mana didn't understand everything that was going on. After the Deep Blue and everything else recently, this was just too much for her.

"You know what a nuclear bomb is, right Mana?" Rikka thought that maybe if she explained it to her lifelong friend, one of them would have an idea to treat their partners. Waiting for Mana to nod, Rikka continued. "A nuclear bomb causes the area where it explodes and the land surrounding it to become polluted by a certain type of radiation, the Ionizing type, that causes damage to our DNA, resulting in cellular degeneration. I am not going to go very in-depth with it because it just serves as a starting point to explain what is happening to them." Rikka grabbed a chair because her knees were starting to feel weak.

"Sharuru, Raquel and Lance are fairies, their bodies consist of magical energy just like ours consist of atoms that make up everything about us. Magical energy is similar to atoms when observed under an electron microscope but fundamentally different because it doesn't obey most biological and physical laws, unlike atoms."

"So that's why they're getting sick and we aren't?" Mana was so far following everything Rikka explained.

"We don't get sick because we have both normal atoms and magical energy in your body from living as Cures. But the really dangerous thing is what I'm about to explain. You know that people are developing new weapons and a new type of energy out of magical energy that looks similar to a black mist when condensed enough, right? I started to call that curse energy because to put it simply, they took magical energy, broke it down, and exposed it to a massive radioactive charge. Probably inside a nuclear reactor. It causes the magical energy to undergo a drastic change. The final effect is that this curse energy acts similar to Ionizing radiation and is especially lethal to those who are composed entirely out of magical energy, like Raquel and the others. Humans are still dying from it because it attacks their cells and DNA but it isn't as dangerous as the highest doses of radiation is. And since we have parts of both, we have a really high resistance to it. A massive dose would still cause irreparable damage to our cells and bodies though." Rikka finished her explanation.

"Can't we just give them magical energy so they can heal themselves? Like a blood transfusion between humans." Mana thought of this immediately but realized seconds later that if she thought of it, Rikka must have tried that weeks ago.

"The curse energy is like a cancer that eats through magical energy and replicates. More magical energy would just make it grow faster and kill them faster. That's why I had all of them transform into humans. It consumes a lot of their magical energy which slows down the curse by a lot."

"So what can we do?"

"If we drain them of all magical energy we could theoretically halt the curse. It wouldn't go away but it wouldn't kill them. The main problem is that I am 100% sure that draining them of all their energy would also kill them. I also thought of other things such as using our Cure powers to attempt to neutralize the curse the way we neutralized selfishness a few years ago but… not only can we not transform, but the curse is essentially radioactive magical energy, not some kind of evil power, even though it is killing people."

Mana was crushed by this. Turning back to Sharuru, she slowly moved her hand through the pink hair of the girl that was like a sister to her. "Is… is there really nothing we can do?"

"Not if we're talking about curing them." Rikka did have one last resort idea that she had never brought up until now. "There… is one thing we can do. It will let us transform and it will let them be with us… in a way." She had to bring it up now. They had a few more days, a week at most, before there wouldn't be enough left of their all important friends to go through with this idea.

"You want to use the golden crown and the lovely pad, right?" Makoto asked as she entered the room, having heard the conversation from outside. She kept Dabyi in her room. "You asked Regina and Aguri about where the crown was yesterday and you were running some kind of test on the lovely pad under a microscope this morning." Makoto wanted to steer the discussion away from focusing on them dying because she didn't think she could handle that or that it was good for anyone present. But Mana needed to know more.

"Rikka… how did they even get sick? There shouldn't be any curse energy on this plane." Mana had a really bad gut feeling about this and she voiced her suspicions. "It's because of us, isn't it?"

"Yes." There were no two ways to answer that without lying. "They were exposed to curse energy because we come into contact with it when we go out to help people. Even a really tiny amount, a handful of particles, would be enough to infect them and eat away at them. But even if we didn't take them with us, there is more and more curse energy being created. It's only a matter of time until there is a little bit even in the air we breathe."

"Couldn't we have found a cure for this by then?!" Mana was all too ready to blame herself for what was happening to Sharuru. She wasn't thinking straight at the time because she was hurting so much.

"Mana… it's been over 100 years since radiation poisoning was first observed and over 60 years since the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. There are some ways to treat ARS but it took decades for us to develop them. We know almost nothing about the scientific properties of magical energy and even less about curse energy. It could take over 100 years to find a cure for curse poisoning and I think that is probably already a really optimistic estimate." Rikka felt crushed by her lack of answers. "Even… even if I dedicate my entire life to finding a cure, I probably won't be able to find one." And it wasn't just answers she lacked. Research of an unknown disease caused by an unknown form of energy that was the result of bombarding another largely unknown energy with a massive amount of radiation… that was the stuff that the Americans made horror and zombie shows out of.

"Rikka, we can't just let them die!" Mana grabbed her best friend's hand, tears running down her cheek. "They were with us from the moment we became Cures! They helped us, they worked so hard, they were our friends, they're our family! They're the only family we have left!" Shouting at the very smart Rikka was the only thing Mana could do in the face of such impossible odds. It was completely different from when they had fought the Selfish, where friendship, willpower and hard work would let them triumph.

"Don't you think I know that?!" Rikka shouted back, tears flying through the air was she stood up and pushed Mana's hand away. "I tried every day! I barely sleep! I can't eat! I'm worried sick about all of them and about all of us! I don't need you to remind me we lost our parents, I feel that pain every day, every night! I am not giving up but there are some things we just can't do!"

"Mana." Makoto stepped in and sat down on Lance's bed, patting Alice's head. "Let Rikka tell us what she plans to do with the golden crown and the lovely pad. Shouting at each other is not going to make anything better."

"We need the help of our partners to transform. If we are serious about putting a stop to the chaos that is happening in the world, we absolutely need their help. But since the curse energy is killing them… I am going to meltdown the golden crown and the lovely pad and create Eternal Loveads. They will be spheres of incredibly dense magical energy that repel all curse energy and protect what's inside."

"What's inside…?" Makoto wondered about it for a moment before she realized what Rikka was planning.

"We will use the Miracle Dragon Glaive to cut away the curse that is eating them on the inside and seal their remaining magical energy inside the Eternal Loveads. Their magical energy won't be able to remain in its dense form without a catalyst, and we are going to be those catalysts. To put a long story short, I am going to seal Sharuru and the others into the Eternal Loveads and implant them into our bodies. They will be unconscious and unable to talk to us, but they should be able to sense they're with their partners. I hope that it will feel like a single long dream to them."

"Is that… is that really our only option?" Mana just wanted to save a friend. Was that really too much to ask? She had saved Regina, she had saved the King of the Trump Kingdom. Why couldn't she save Sharuru?

"There are a thousand things that can go wrong with this plan but it is better to try than to watch them slowly succumb to this cancer." Rikka bit her lower lip. "I am really sorry Mana. I really am. But I'm just a girl. A smart girl, but just a girl. We were naive, back then. To think that as long as we are all together there is nothing we can't do. But diseases have no mind to reason with. Energy has no great king that we can purify to stop it. Humans are not like the Selfish. I tried so hard, I tried… so hard… and yet… I can't even… I can't… save a single…" Rikka's tears were tears of bitter defeat. And nobody came to hug her, to tell her everything would be okay. Because they all felt this defeat. They all felt this sadness.

It was only days after that that they all come together. Sharuru and the others regained consciousness a last time when bathed in the light of the Miracle Dragon Glaive but it was short lived. Even they could tell they didn't have much time left.

"Mana… I'll always be by your side." Sharuru's lower lip was trembling but she remained brave. "This isn't goodbye. I am always going to be right there." Putting her hand on Mana's chest, Sharuru smiled the best she could, but there was no cheering up Mana. The grown woman, 20 years old, was crying her eyes out right in front of Sharuru. "G-Geez," Sharuru coughed a few times, feeling just how bad the disease had gotten. "I hope someone is g-gonna pinch your cheeks so you stop crying."

Grabbing her fairy partner and hugging her close, Mana could not even cry anymore. Biting her lip so hard that she bled, Mana wouldn't let go of Sharuru until the fairy turned back into an actual fairy. "I-I have to go Mana." Large parts of her fur were blackened by the disease and she could no longer see from her right eye. This… this is really bad, Sharuru thought, knowing that if Rikka's plan didn't work, she would surely die before the day was over.

Raquel was much more brave than Rikka, who kept apologizing over and over until her throat was coarse and her voice was almost gone. "I'm… so sorry… if only I was.. smarter..."

"You're so smart already Rikka… you thought of this plan that nobody else could have come up with. If you weren't here… we would probably all be dead already… and now we won't ever die. We'll be with you all the time. I won't be able to help you around the house anymore… ah… the house is gone… but I'll still be there in your thoughts. I'll see you in my dreams." Raquel had trouble speaking. His tongue was rotting and he could feel it. It took everything he had to avoid throwing up. And as he saw Sharuru transform back, he knew it was time to go. "Rikka, don't cry so much. I like the… headstrong Rikka a lot… more. So see me off with a smile."

Raquel too had his fur covered in large spots of black and once he transformed back he could no longer say anything. Both his tongue and his voice were gone.

Lance and Alice simply looked at each other a long time. They had spent much time together and to Alice, he was like a little brother that she never had. Silly, a bit spoiled, but she loved him like only family could. Here the roles were reversed when it was finally time to go. "I know you'll be good, Lance." Alice said, her voice steady despite the tears in her eyes. "I know you're hurting… and I promise it'll be better once we're one. I'll always protect you and I know you'll always be there for me when I need you."

Lance couldn't speak. The youngest of the four, he was also the sickest. Taking Alice's hand, he could not even feel the touch on his skin. Her had no tears to shed but he still looked more sad than anything Alice had ever seen. And despite the pain he was in, despite the face that Alice was making, he smiled at her one last time, closing his eyes and he transformed back, joining Sharuru and the others.

Dabyi was the oldest and she was the only one whose appearance was still older than that of her partner. "You've become a fine lady, Makoto."

"What kind of last words are those..." Makoto hugged her partner, her face resting against Dabyi's shoulder. "You were always with me, always looking out for me… what am I gonna do without you?"

"I want to say You are an adult now, you don't need me anymore but there will not come a day where we don't need each other. I won't be around as much, or at all, but I'll always be right here with you in your thoughts. I taught you so much but now you need to stand on your own two legs, Makoto."

"I… don't want you to leave. I know we have no other choice, that you're dying just like the others, even if you put on that happy face!" Makoto cried and shouted, hitting Dabyi's back with her fists. "Why isn't there a way to save you?!"

"Life can be unjust sometimes. We took a big gamble when we came to the human world but I don't regret it, not a single minute of it. You made so many friends, you grew so much and look at you now, you're able to move forward even in a situation like this. I am as proud of you as if you were my own daughter." Pulling back Makoto's hair, Dabyi kissed her partner on the forehead. "I love you Makoto. I will always love you and I know you will always love me. But promise me you will not give in to sadness. Grieve, grieve as hard as you can because you deserve to, but once you finish grieving, remember that in a way, I am still there. Every time you become Cure Sword, remember that I am there, part of you." Pushing Makoto away slowly, Dabyi smiled at her partner one last time. "Goodbye Makoto. Be strong.,"

Transforming back, Dabyi showed the same symptoms as everyone else. And as she met the other fairies in the center of the big field where they were saying their goodbyes, just outside the plane, she smiled at them too. "I won't forget any of you."

Regina and Aguri felt like their hearts were crushed as the four Cures stood up, the loss of their friends and partners already written all over their faces. Regina couldn't bring herself to lift the spear of light to start the operation. Aguri grabbed her hand and they raised the spear together. They were every bit as sad as the others, for the fairies were their friends too. "Spear of Light, gleam." Their words were heavy with pain. With a singular burst, the spear blasted away the fairies' physical forms, leaving only tiny swirling masses of energy that slowly hovered up and down in the air. It was almost as if Regina and Aguri could hear the hearts of their friends crack and split in half. But they couldn't stop now.

The Crown and the fragments of the lovely pad were collected in the center of the field, beneath the floating remains of the fairies. Igniting the spear's power a second time, the two halves of Marie Ange destroyed the legendary artifacts, melting them into a small puddle of metal. Regina couldn't bear to see Mana this sad and started to cry herself. Her arms were giving in and she could only say a single thing. "Aguri, please..."

Aguri, who was sixteen years old then, stepped before the puddle and used her connection to the latent magical energy inside the metal to lift it up, raise it into the air and shape it into four perfect spheres, encasing around the fairy energy. A pink sphere for Sharuru, a blue one for Raquel, a yellow one for Lance and a purple one for Dabyi. Floating towards the four girls, they bonded with their flesh and skin slowly and without pain and all four could hear their partners one last time.

Stay strong and don't forget me. I love you.

Remembering it brought tears to the faces of all three of them. They had grieved for a long time. For as long as when their families had died. But this time, they were even more alone. They tried to comfort each other but the most they could do was to be alone together. "Sometimes, when I don't know if I'm really asleep or awake and just in bed, I hear Raquel talk to me." There was a sentiment there that only Makoto could sense. I wish I could see him.

Because that was what Makoto experienced in situations like that. Sometimes, Dabyi in her human form would show up next to her, smile and talk to her. She never managed to talk back, to ask questions, but the next time she showed up, Dabyi knew what to say regardless. Makoto felt unbelievably sad for Rikka. It was only their image and their voice they had left.

Aguri touched the spot on her own chest where such a crystal, an Eternal Lovead would have gone. She had felt pain and a lot of it, but she knew it wasn't comparable to what all the others felt. She had grieved like all the others when her grandma had died, but there too she had only spent a few years with her, when the others had spent their entire life with their families. In a way, Aguri felt guilty for getting off easy, to put it in really terrible terms. She knew it wasn't true, and that especially Mana would be angry with her if she ever found out that she felt that way, but she couldn't tune out her feelings.

"I don't think you'll be able to study like this." Rikka took a sip from her tea. "Or that I can actually teach you anything while I'm feeling like this."

"Yeah." Makoto felt the same way. Touching Dabyi's crystal though her shirt, Makoto still longed to properly see her again, to hug her. But it felt like an empty dream.

Breaking up their little tea break, Makoto and Aguri collected the books and put them into a specific order. Each cover had a tiny cut in it, so Rikka could tell what it was without asking. The blue Cure left first, leaving behind both Sword and Ace.

"Sometimes I worry she still blames herself for it." Makoto missed Dabyi dearly but she never blamed Rikka for not finding a cure. It would be cruel and unreasonable. At the time, Rikka had barely been 20 and no matter how smart she was, she was not a miracle worker.

Several minutes before

"I'm sorry Alice but tonight-" Mana had changed clothes, wearing but a long shirt and panties for the night. The beds were too large for use by a single adult which meant it wasn't a problem for two to fit in as long as they got fairly close. Alice smiling and shaking her head at Mana was a clear sign she understood. "Thanks, Alice." Sitting on Alice's bed, Mana rarely slept in her own room. Most of the time, if she did, then because Regina's was too much of a mess or that Makoto had forgotten to change the sheets on laundry day.

"Don't mention it." Sitting down next to Mana, there was a certain ritual between the two. Putting her arms around their fearless leader, Alice slowly pulled Mana towards her until the pink hair softly tickled her chin and Mana was resting against her chest. "I know you always take it to heart when we're too late."

Mana only responded by closing her eyes, enjoying the comfort of Alice's embrace. There was something calming about her that none of the others possessed. Like a special candle made for relaxation. When they were together before bed, it was generally Alice that talked and Mana listened, a stark change from their usual dynamic.

"But even if we arrive late, you still help those people. The pain, fear, suffering, regret and despair they feel. All of that is cut away when you release them. Once they are that far gone, they must know themselves that there is nothing that can be done. And when they sense that there is someone, all they can wish for is that their suffering is ended early. It isn't what you really want but you need to understand that to them, you are still a savior." Alice had told Mana this so many times that she couldn't really remember how many times exactly. There was always a tiny variation in the way she said it, but the gist was the same.

"I know." She really did. But no matter how well she knew it, hearing it again just helped. Those people were already dying and unlike many human diseases that had no cure, there was no way to make them comfortable or to have them spend time with their loved ones. The final stages of the Belphegor curse were one of the most dreadful among the seven curses.

"Rikka and Makoto still work on trying to find a way to get past the other curses. I'm sure that if we spread the use of those, we'll make a lot of headway in saving people." Alice knew this was a pipe dream. Manufacturing the magically enriched adrenaline was difficult, much more difficult than making curse energy or weapons. And a single Belphegor bomb could infect hundreds of people. One dose of the adrenaline could only curse one person. The bomb could be dropped from a plane. The cure had to be applied in person and that in turn required special curse proof suits.

"I know it isn't that easy." Mana turned her head slightly and bent down until she was lying on the bed, using Alice's lap as a pillow. The UEC wanted to get rid of America and the other way around. Africa was a hotspot of daily revolutions and the middle east was already a dead wasteland. Mana was all too aware of how bleak it looked but no matter how dark it became, she refused to not see a light at the end of the tunnel.

"You still did good today." Alice smiled and played with a strand of Mana's hair. It had become a little more wild over the years and she let it grow just past her neck now. Alice rarely bothered to tie up her hair these days on the other hand and just let it grow out. Mana sometimes complained about it because she found it wrapped around her wrists, as if it was tying her down when she woke up in the morning, but it was more of a joke than anything else.

Just lying there, Mana almost fell asleep without thinking about anything. Alice was like a living Zen dispenser for her and she really was glad that it was Alice's turn today, especially after how long a day she had.

"You'll hurt your back if you sleep like that." Alice slowly raised her legs and with them, Mana's head, until she could get her hands beneath her without having to squeeze and lift her up, only to put her back on the bed. Mana groaned a little but smiled. She really just wanted to sleep.

Even with her eyes closed, Mana could feel what was going on. Lying in bed properly, Alice pulled up the cover and snuggled in with her. Feeling two very soft pillows engulf her arm and her hand rest on a bare stomach, Mana couldn't help but grin a little. Alice was surprisingly clingy in bed. The only one worse was Regina. "Goodnight, Alice." Mana turned her head a little and opened just one eye, seeing Alice's pretty eyes look back at her calmly. They shared a single kiss before Alice closed her eyes as well, pulling a little on Mana's arm as she got as close as possible. Back then, it had come as a surprise to Mana that Alice of all people slept in just her underwear. No fancy night gown, as one would expect of a former rich girl; just her underwear, which one had to admit was quite fancy.

Across the hallway in another private room were Aguri and Makoto. Regina was still in the showers, which often ended in complaints from everyone else for her selfishly using up all the hot water, and Rikka had simply gone to bed Already in bed, Makoto had her elbow pressed into the pillow, resting her head in her palm, watching Aguri with a smile. Makoto was surprisingly not very neat, but nowhere as bad as Regina. Her clothes, she stuck to simple things nowadays, jeans, a blouse, sometimes a jacket as well, were just a pile on the floor.

"Makoto, about calling me Ann-" Aguri had only started when Makoto immediately rose up, expecting a really serious talk. "Relax. I was thinking that maybe I should simply go by Ange from now on. If I look and act like her so much, and I used to be half of her, I don't really mind. The name Madoka is much more important to me than Aguri is, so I am keeping that, but I… wouldn't mind being called Ange by the others."

Until now it had been their own private little thing and Makoto had only once called her Ann as a joke but Aguri had responded as usual and looked a little happy so she kept going. And then it had become a thing they would honor only when they were alone together. But if Aguri wanted it, Makoto was going to support this. "I think Aguri was fine but… I wouldn't mind at all calling you Ange in front of the others." She was a little embarrassed by that thought.

"Ange? What happened to Ann?" Aguri knew exactly how to pull Makoto's strings. She was just so unbelievably cute when she got embarrassed. The more embarrassed she was, the cuter she was.

"That's… that's a little… I mean it's not really a secret we sleep together but-" Makoto fumbled her words after that and her head turned a little more red with every passing moment.

Finished with changing clothes, the light half of Ange got on the bed. Aguri had slept in a night gown until a year and a half ago and while she sometimes thought about that time, she had taken a page out of Regina's book and just slept in a shirt, without a bra underneath. Makoto on the other hand opted for the underwear equivalent of a sports top and panties. She just wasn't that comfortable without underwear.

"How is your head?" Ange put her hands on Makoto's cheeks and looked in her eyes up close. It took a lot for her to get embarrassed nowadays, although reflex reactions to being offered sweets still contrasted so heavily with her serious personality that she was very embarrassed about those.

"A lot better when you're touching it." Makoto had learned a thing or two about smooth talking girls from Mana in their time together.

Ange was largely unimpressed by Makoto's words but she appreciated that she tried. But there really was no need. She liked Makoto as much, if not more so, as she liked Mana. Mana was still their leader and Aguri had a crush on her because of her strength of will, her desire to protect everyone. She was like a real life superhero. Makoto on the other hand… Aguri just felt drawn to her, not because of her memories of Ange, or at least not so entirely, but she couldn't quite place what it was that made her so attractive.

Pushing the ex-idol onto the bed proper, Ange slowly moved on top of her. Her long hair and gentle face looked completely out of place with the rest of her body that was either bare or covered in a shirt that was maybe a size too small. Running her hands over the near-naked body of her partner, Ange looked with a lustful look at Makoto and had a kinky idea. "Do you want to try and do it in Cure form?"

Makoto opened her mouth, closed it and then blushed intensely. So daring! Makoto liked to think she was the bold one, after copying from Mana, but Ange always pulled one over her. "I… I don't mind." She really did mind. She was supposed to be a legendary warrior, not using that form to have sex with her newest and oldest crush.

Ange transformed on the spot and Makoto followed by reflex, both of them in bed as Cures. "I suppose we'll have to undress again." Ange jumped off the bed backwards and started by taking off her gloves. She never did get further than that because the whole plane suddenly shook violently and Cure Ace lost the ground under her feet, the plane taking a dive sudden enough to force her into the air for a moment.

It only took seconds for both Ace and Sword to bolt out of their room and rush through the hallway towards the stairs for the second floor. Running straight into the cockpit, they could see that they were in fact in a nose dive towards the ground. Makoto had been too busy with Rikka to take any piloting lessons from Alice but Aguri could cover for her there. Sitting down in the copilot seat, Makoto immediately jumped to the side when she heard more people come running.

Alice was transformed and so was Mana. Both of them sensed danger and didn't want to show up in barely any clothes at all. Alice jumped over the seat and landed right in it, immediately disengaging auto-pilot and firing the reserve thrusters in the back. "Ace, damage report?" There was no time for formalities or nice words.

"We lost main thrusters but it looks like there is no real damage to them. We have a hole in the hangar and we're losing pressure." Ace immediately hit two red switches to her far right that were labeled PS-24 and PS-25 and down in the hangar, two pressurized doors closed slowly, cutting off the hole.

"Restarting thrusters. Hold on to something." Even being Cures, if they were inside a plane and the plane suddenly went out of a nose dive by putting the thrusters on full power there was going to be a massive spike in G-force.

Regina, the only one who didn't need to actually transform, and Diamond showed up last. Regina was still soaked and Rikka had already been asleep.

"UFV right behind us." Ace calmed informed Alice who just restarted the thrusters and the plane went from a nose dive to an accelerated descent and slowly pulled up. Alice was an excellent pilot and she would have them out of this situation in no time but the Unidentified Flying Vehicle behind them was an issue.

"I'm going." This was Rikka's territory. "Heart." Diamond changed her transformation state from idle to combat. The main difference was that she did away with all the decorative and cutesy looking parts of her outfit and covered both her arms and legs in crystal extremely receptive to vibration. She could see what was happening around her in a way. Even a gliding bird created a lot of vibrations in the air. Bullets, planes, people, everything created vibrations. Mana followed her without further explanation. Although she was the leader of the team, Diamond was the brains of the operation and in situations like this, nobody questioned the change of authority and leadership.

One level up from the cockpit was mostly processing stations to filter water, air and take care of other quality of life things. But it also lead to a fortified elevator that emerged atop the plane itself. A human would not even be able to stand out there but a Cure was quite different from that.

Back in the cockpit, Regina was now hailing the plane behind them. "They're not responding." Regina tried to hail them again and again but she didn't get an answer so she changed her approach. "This is the DOKI-6. Retreat immediately or face punitive action." Regina hoped that would get them to back off. This wasn't her first time threatening enemy UFVs. When no reply came and Ace just shook her head when Regina looked at her, Regina dialed up the threat. "This is the Doki-6. This is your final warning. Retreat immediately or face punitive action."

"They are locking on to us with curse missiles!" Ace had barely finished her sentence when Alice forced the plane to rise so suddenly that everyone was pressed into their seat. Makoto felt useless but she understood that everyone had their role. If someone entered the plane by whatever means, it came down to her to push them back. Mana had gone with Rikka just in case. Rikka was very capable of protecting herself but it was also a show of force.

Diamond and Heart were attached to the fortified elevator with steel rope that could withstand even a grenade's explosion. Even if Alice suddenly threw the plane into a nosedive, they wouldn't be thrown off.

Mana put her hands together to form a heart and focused energy into said heart shape until she had created a thick lens. It was an ability she had developed to detect and diagnose people infected by curse energy. She couldn't see the people themselves but she could see their hearts similar to when they purified a Selfish. Each curse particle had a distinct effect on the hearts of humans. Mana lowered her hands and looked sad. There was no saving those people. "Eight people, all in the final stage of Satan pollution." Satan particles caused a manifestation of wrath, the most dangerous of the seven sins. Any group infected by this particle immediately created a miniature army whose only purpose was to hunt and kill all those not infected with the particle. It was a five stage progression. Keeping the polluted from inflicting any harm by keeping them knocked out or locked up would cause the particle to die off, but only in the first three stages. Once they reached the fourth or fifth stage, they were mindless killing machines.

"Mana." Rikka didn't want Mana to see what she was about to do. There was no easy way to put terminally polluted wrath victims out of their misery. Unlike with sloth, wrath victims could live for days or weeks, keep killing and infect others once they reached the final stage. No matter who it was that dealt with it, they always tried to send Mana away so she wouldn't have to watch them kill people. And every time, Mana refused. She knew that much like the sloth victims, there was no saving those people. They were worse than monsters, incapable of communicating or expressing any emotion but wrath, the desire to kill and destroy. The island of Manhattan in America had been purged by their military when a wrath epidemic got out of control. There were no survivors but had they not done it, it could have spread across the entire continent.

"I'm staying." Heart stepped behind Rikka and put her arms around the waist. It was difficult for Diamond to aim at the plane precisely because the vibrations from the wind were getting in the way. She could only make out it's approximate location and Mana did the rest.

"Absoluter Stillstand." Rikka put her hands together, her index and middle fingers acting like the barrel of a gun. In that very moment, the UFV fired on them. The missiles approached and only a dozen meters before they reached the ship, they froze in mid air instantly, exposed to -400 degrees Celsius, a temperature that directly violated the laws of thermodynamics, more than 120 degrees Celsius colder than the void of space. It was enough to freeze the objects on a level where their crash into the ground would simply shatter them into a millions of pieces.

Ace confirmed the missiles as shot down. "Rikka must be about to shoot them down." Ace felt terrible that the life of the people on board had to end like that but if Rikka used her abilities like that, Mana must have confirmed that there was no saving them.

Alice could have destroyed a UFV with ease but it would have far more catastrophic results than when Rikka did it. Smashing the enemy plane into a thousand bits with her barriers would be enormously cruel and so Alice never even considered doing it. There had only been a single instance of her using her powers at her absolute limit against people and she still sometimes had nightmares about that.

Mana redirected Rikka's aim when the plane started to accelerate, possibly attempting to board. Makoto was an expert at armed warfare and incredibly fast but Mana and Rikka both wanted to avoid Sword having to fight humans if at all possible. Rikka's Absoluter Stillstand manipulated the vibrations of the smallest parts of all matter to create temperatures far exceeding what thermodynamics deemed possible. Magical energy had not been properly adapted into modern sciences yet.

And between one second and another, the entire UFV was frozen through and through and dropped out of the sky like a rock. It was a freeze so powerful that the very material the plane and the people inside were made of changed state. The people would not even be able to sense how they died or that they were dying. It was quicker than taking a large caliber round to the head and completely painless. Rikka had come up with that technique specifically for cases like this, where they met irrevocably infected people and had to release them.

Alice slowed down the plane when Ace confirmed the UFV to be falling and everyone relaxed. It had happened too many times for them to feel exceptionally bad but it still left a bad taste in their mouth.

Re-engaging the auto-pilot, Alice waited for Mana and Rikka to come back. "What type was it?" If they shot down a plane, it had to be infected people.

"Wrath." Heart replied and watched as Rikka changed her transformation back to the normal Diamond. Inside a room with many people and electronics, the vibrations she picked up were causing her headaches. It was something she came up with so she wouldn't be useless if the need for combat arose or she had to defend herself. But it was entirely impractical to use it in day to day life.

"Should we go back to bed?" Alice could see that Mana was even more tired than before now.

"I'm staying up to keep an eye on things." Ace said, still transformed and not too keen to undo it. She was still only wearing a shirt.

"I'm staying with her. I can't attack UFV all that well but I can defend against missiles and the like if necessary." Makoto had swapped most of her sword rain techniques to more specific sword based ones focusing on mid-range. She was capable of materializing a handful of swords and launching them at Mach 4 against an enemy but they dissipated after about 150 meters.

"I'm going back to bed." Regina didn't wait for anyone to reply and walked off. She was the least bothered by events like this. Even though she did feel sorry for the people, she had already accepted that it was necessary and had no guilty conscience when Rikka shot them down. They died without pain.

Mana was indecisive for a moment but when Rikka walked away, turned around and wished everyone a good night, she felt Alice's hand on her own and the two left, following Rikka who slowed down significantly in front of the stairs and had to feel with her feet where the stairs actually began.

It was only ten minutes later that everyone but Ace and Sword were fast asleep. "Sometimes I start to think that governments send these wrath, envy or greed infected people out on purpose." Makoto had witnessed the dark side of government before. The number one idol in Japan, she had been denounced as a scam artist, fake, an extortionist, a criminal and terrorist by the government when they needed a scapegoat for the curse energy crimes that were being committed. These Cures opened the breach and now we humans have to suffer for it. What are they if not evil? Had been the general statement. That Japan itself was hoarding curse energy to prepare for war with Taiwan and Korea was of course swept under the rug.

"Don't think too much about it." Ace smiled soft and waved Makoto closer. "Sit." And when Makoto tried to sit in the pilot's seat, Ace grabbed her by her hand and pulled her towards her own seat. "On my lap, silly."

Makoto didn't blush this time and sat down.

=== DISSONANCE ===

9 Hours later.

The spatial distortion in Japan turned out to be in the center of the Deep Blue. Their plane landed a couple hundred meters past the border of the Deep Blue and was put in camouflage mode. The Cures decided to make the trip to the center on foot even though it didn't technically involve walking at all.

"It's terrifying no matter how many times I see it." Looking past the barrier she stood on, Makoto looked at the chaos beneath her. The Deep Blue. The greatest terror attack in the history of mankind, making the likes of America's 9/11 appear like a trifle. Dozen of millions of people had died and Japan's government and economy had all but collapsed within days.

It was during their third year in high school, while they were on a trip to Hokkaido. The entire center of the Japanese archipelago dropped 500 meters below sea level, as if the layer of earth beneath it had been vaporized. China had picked Japan to test its new Weapon of Mass Destruction, the dimensional shift bomb. According to secret documents leaked years later, the original target had been to destabilize Tokyo and grind the workings of their government to a halt, not destroy Japan as it was. But due to a manufacturing error, the device pulled in all the latent magical energy in the area. Due to the battle with the Selfish, it was a nearly incalculable amount, which the Chinese hadn't accounted for. So what had been a 50 meter drop over 15 kilometers had become a hole that cut Japan in half.

China had quickly been outed as the perpetrator of the attack and was faced with declarations of war from all over the world. It only took four weeks before the curse energy equivalent of a nuclear missile was dropped on Beijing and polluted not just the city but dozens of kilometers of land beyond the city borders with high densities of Mammon particles. In a fit of inexhaustible greed, the Chinese government and capital city destroyed itself over the next six days. The bomb had originated from Germany, who was one of the leading countries in curse energy research, or as it had been called back then, VEMP; void energy magic. particle

The incident of the Deep Blue that destroyed large parts of Japan and killed over a third of the entire Japanese population was the spark that eventually resulted in the terrible arms race of destroying all the other power nations in the world before they destroyed your own. Completely submerged by the ocean, the hole that had once been one of the most highly populated areas on earth was visible from space. A giant black hole that showed no sign of life.

Alice sat at the edge of the barrier in front, the barrier itself six meters long and three meters wide, she acted like a driver. It was by far not the fastest way to get to the center but it saved Rikka the trouble of using her vibration crystals and Alice lost the ability to put the enormous strain of combat as a Cure on her legs. She could walk just fine as both a human and a Cure, however, combat was different. Jumping, sprinting, kicking, those things would burden her legs too much and break her bones.

Even though they landed as closely to the center as possible, it took them nearly two hours to reach the center part. Here and there were mountains that reached above the sea level and small research stations were built on them. But nobody really took notice of the Cures. Wanted terrorists they may be, but few people cared to report them. They were incredibly powerful individuals that would resist capture and escape. They had seen it dozens of times in the news.

When they finally arrived in the center, Mana, who had the best vision of all of them, could already see that something wasn't right. "The air is crackling," Was the best she could do to describe it. The closer they came, the more active the crackling became and Alice quickly slowed down the barrier and created a second one in front to shield them in case of an attack. "Can you see it too?"

"It's getting worse." Makoto pointed out. "But it looks like it is contained within… a dome or something? Look, the crackling and the energy never reaches past a certain point."

"Alice, can you make a few platforms for me?" Mana wanted to get as close as possible. She was by far the sturdiest of the group. Alice and Rikka were both better are protecting themselves but they also were both hindered by their conditions.

"Give me one moment please." Focusing, Alice raised her right hand and stretched out her arm. "Ha!" They were roughly 250 meters away from the dome and Alice bridged the gap by creating 10 smaller platforms, 25 meters apart each. "Be careful Mana. It doesn't look like curse energy but there are any number of things that can hurt us."

Mana immediately jumped off, 25 meter jumps being absolutely nothing to someone who refined their Cure powers over the last 10 years. It was no more difficult than throwing away a toothpick.

"I'm coming too." Regina drew out her spear and attempted to follow Heart but was held back by Ace. "Aguri, lemme go."

"You can't defend yourself as well as Mana does and we have absolutely no idea what that is." Ace was worried about her other half. Mana was incredibly tough. She could probably live through a direct hit from a cruise missile without taking much damage or any damage at all.

"That's all the more reason to lemme go!" Regina pulled free but this time it was Rikka who held her back. "Rikka, you too?"

"Trust in Mana. If she thought we should go together she would have asked." Rikka's logic was sometimes as cold as her element was but Regina knew better than to try and force her will when both Ace and Diamond agreed.

Mana stood two platforms away from the dome that was now showing much more activity than before. "Is it reacting to me?" If it is, then it has to be something from the Republic. It was the only possibility that Mana could think of. Getting even closer to the dome, she could feel the load of energy that was contained within. It looked like the dome was 150, maybe 200 meters in diameter, not that big but certainly were suspicious for anyone that would witness it. Come to think of it, why is not a single government helicopter here? From any government? Are they afraid of another Deep Blue?

Jumping onto the last platform, Heart could now make out distinct shapes inside the dome. They showed up only briefly, the energy coalescing into certain shapes. People?! Mana was perplexed by this. Were they possibly the people that had died in the Deep Blue? But that didn't make much sense. They hadn't been shifted to another dimension. The 500 meter drop of hundreds of kilometers of land was what killed them, following by buildings collapsing and all sorts of exploding.

Her gut told her to touch the barrier, to reach inside. But her mind was yelling at her to stop. Something was very off about the contents of that dome and the obvious lack of government agents surrounding it. But she had always trusted her gut feeling. Reaching out and touching the dome, all hell broke loose. The energy sparks inside suddenly solidified in the shape of several girls. Before Mana knew what was happening, the dome filled with energy completely and there was one singular thought predominant in her mind right then. Run!

Ignoring the platforms and jumping as hard as she could, Heart reached nearly mach speed as she soared past Alice and shouted only one word. "Shield!" Mana was caught by Ace who was the only one who had paid enough attention to immediately jump up and catch Heart when she started to turn around after touching the dome.

Alice moved all of them into the water a few meters beneath them and focused everything she had into encasing all of them into a solid box of barriers. Defense was no longer her specialization but she was still the most suited for it. Rikka immediately switched to her vibration setup as well and used her powers to encase the entire box into layer upon layer of thick ice. If something spooked Mana then it was bad. She hadn't sensed Mana until the moment Ace caught her but Heart shouting Shield didn't need any extra explanation. Makoto, Regina and Ace surrounded both Alice and Rikka, who were not bothered in the least that they were suddenly in a circle of protection.

"What's happening?" Makoto was still calm but ready for a fight or whatever was going to happen.

"I'm not sure but I think that entire thing is going to b-" The deafening boom of the dome detonating completely erased any trace of Heart's words. It was enough to make all of their ears ring with pain. A shock wave hit first and was mostly absorbed by the ice layers which Rikka attempted to replace but after the shock wave came a wall of pure magical energy that hit the box of barriers and ice with enough force that the Cures thought a nuclear missile had hit them. Pushed far over a hundred meters underwater, the air inside the box let them rise up again. And what was about to hit them next was the tidal wave that followed the explosion. It was only for a single moment, at most two seconds, that they could see the gargantuan pillar of light that seemed to reach straight into space, hitting the water exactly where the dome was.

Alice wanted to say Hold on but there was nothing to hold on but each other. The box was once more thrown underwater and the encasing ice was completely shattered. Rikka had to cease using her crystals because she was bombarded by enough vibrations to drive her crazy. Without those crystals, she couldn't see or sense anything around her, making it impossible to help out Alice.

"That energy pillar is piercing right into the sea bed." Makoto saw as she looked down. Although it was not exactly the sea bed as it was rubble of what had once been the city of Saku, located in the eastern region of Nagano.

"Is it a satellite weapon?" Regina shouted. "Did they finally build a death star?!"

"You watched too much TV!" Ace shouted back. When they finally rose to the surface again their barrier box was still being thrown around by the waves and then from one moment to the next the beam vanished, the hole in the water closing rapidly. "Is it over?" Ace had no idea what had just happened. There was no way one of the nations was capable of building a weapon of this magnitude in secret. There were so many problems with using that much magical energy in a beam, too, especially if it was to come out of a machine.

"It isn't over." Makoto pointed at the sky. With unbelievably speed, thirty-one rays of light, like bullets, hit the surface of the water, one after another. "Was that it?" Makoto had expected more. The impact had been no more than a really big rock, for each of the beams.

Opening up the box' ceiling, Alice wiped sweat from her brow. "Maybe I should dedicate some of my time to improve my defensive capabilities after all."

Mana did not say anything before she suddenly jumped out of the box and head first into the still unruly ocean. "Mana?!" Rikka could tell that it was her because nobody else would just jump out without a word.

"There are people in the water!" Mana had seen them after the last salvo of beams came down. She had no idea where they came from or what was happening but she could definitely tell that they were in trouble.

"I wish she would leave those things to me." Alice chuckled. "Ace, Regina, could you go and assist her?" Alice extended the box to be a very large platform, 15 meters long and wide, which she thought sufficient even if there were 50 people in the water.

"I taught you all the basics already Makoto. It's time to show what you learned." Rikka wasn't sure how many of the people were going to be injured. They didn't have any supplies or medicine at hand right now, which made things difficult. But if they were all in the water the most pressing concern was that they were drowning and CPR was something they could down even without tools.

Mana was already diving and grabbing two girls with orange hair. It wasn't until she noticed their clothes and sensed their magical energy that she realized something important. "They're Cures!" Speaking underwater was a bad idea even for Cures and Mana rapidly pulled both of the girls up to the surface. They were both unconscious but it didn't look like they were injured. Alice and Rikka arrived with the platform moments later. Pushing the two unconscious Cures on the platform, one in black clothes the other in orange armor, Alice and Makoto were as surprised as Mana had been.

Without explaining anything, Mana immediately dived down again. The unconscious Cures were sinking rather slowly. Heart spotted both Ace and Regina in the water, the former dragging two yellow Cures and the latter struggling with two black and one silver colored Cure, all of them rather tall.

Rikka and Makoto looked after the unconscious ones that were rapidly piling up on the platform but it didn't look like any of them had been actively drowning. "Did they lose consciousness from the impact of hitting the water?" It was the only theory Rikka had at the time.

It took Heart, Ace and Regina roughly ten minutes to pull all of them out of the water. The last of them had sunk pretty far, a blue Cure with really long hair but she was rather short so it was easy to pull her out. Mana imitated a dog and shook the water off by spinning really quickly, splashing Rosetta and Diamond. "Ah. Sorry, sorry." Mana couldn't help but grin awkwardly.

"It looks like their Cure powers protected them. I don't know what caused them to lose consciousness, but judging by their magical energy, they are undoubtedly the same as us. Some of them look a lot younger though." Rikka was glad that nobody seemed hurt. "Heart, could you check if any of them are infected?"

Forming her hands into heart shape, Mana repeated the same scanning ability she used to view the hearts of the humans on the UFV. Mana smiled really wide. "They're all fine." It was a welcome change to see not even the tiniest speck of curse infection on someone. Sitting down amidst all the unconscious Cures, it only sunk in right then just many Cures they had fished out of the water. "How many-" Mana had just asked and Makoto immediately answered.

"31. You found thirty-one Cures in the water." Makoto was struggling a little with this number. "I knew there were Cures in the past and we had a number in the Trump Kingdom before but isn't this number kind of absurd? And there are some that look like they're not even adults, like that blue haired one there." Makoto pointed to a short but busty girl.

"Wow, rude much?" Regina was not too happy with that comment. "Being short doesn't mean anything."

Why does she take it so seriously when she's just barely any shorter than Aguri? Alice and Rikka thought but that was Regina. The first time they met she had introduced herself as prettier than any flower.

Before Makoto could say anything else, one of the Cures started coughing, rolled over and opened her eyes. Her hair was somewhat curly even when soaking wet and her clothes were yellow. By all accounts, a yellow Cure. "What the fuck..." Was the first thing the Cure said before coughing a few more times. "Did I eat Black's cooking or something..." The coughing didn't stop and she rubbed her forehead. She had a booming headache. "Where the hell am-" Urara noticed all the still bodies around her and that there were some people she didn't recognize up. The natural course of action was immediately clear.

Flinging a chain towards the purple haired girl, she was the closest, Lemonade immediately tied her up, put a chain around her throat and pulled her back towards her. "Who the hell are you? Where are we? And what did you do to everyone else?" Briefly looking around to find Ako, she found her unconscious a few meters away.

"We didn't-" Sword tried to defuse the situation by answering calmly but she was talking to the wrong person. The chain around her neck tightened and Makoto had trouble breathing. She couldn't sense any obvious malice from this Cure but she was clearly not the patient sort.

"Cures like you." Mana replied quickly and stepped towards Urara who slowly backed away with her hostage. "What is left of central Japan. Fished them out of the water after you appeared in beams of light." Replying in order and only including relevant information Mana understood that the woman had to be really worried about her friends and her own whereabouts.

Urara was impressed that this woman could stay so calm. Looking at their clothes they did look like Cures and she could vaguely sense their magical energy. Easing up on her hostage, Urara checked if the other unknowns were trying to blindside her but they weren't moving at all. The chain vanished but Urara kept on alert. "You're supposed to be Cures?" Urara looked at Regina. "She doesn't look like a Cure to me." And then at Rikka. "And why is one of you hiding their face behind a mask?"

"Regina is kinda… special." Mana didn't know how to explain this without telling a really long story. "Rikka, help?"

"Look closer." Regina approached Urara and held her head high. "Look real close."

Urara could faintly sense Cure power from here but it was drowned out by some other power she couldn't place. It was definitely magical in nature however. "Still not looking like a Cure to me." Lemonade immediately took a battle stance when Regina pulled out her spear.

"Wow, relax. Look at this thing. You think some kind of villain would run around with a spear of light?" Regina turned the spear back into a crystal and it returned to her chest. "I can tell you're a Cure by your powers but what is with that attitude, eh?"

You're one to talk, the rest of her team thought.

"My attitude is none of your business. And what kind of Cure doesn't even introduce herself."

Regina smirked. "I'm Regina. Aida Regina. I don't transform like the rest of my team because I get my power from pretty redhead over there but she's a Cure so that makes me one too, pretty much." Regina understood how to deal with people like Urara. You had to be feisty and pushy. Mana's way would just make them think you were trying to ambush them.

"So where the hell are we really? This is not Japan." Urara looked around and saw only ocean with some mountains in the distance. "What are we even standing on? Looks like one of Komachi's things."

"To be specific, we are a few hundred meters away from where the center of Saku city used to be." Alice was pretty good at geography and judging distances. "And this is one of my barriers. If you would prefer to go back into the water I am surely not stopping you." Alice was a little annoyed with this woman.

Urara knew roughly where that was supposed to be and it sure as hell was not in the middle of the ocean. "No, seriously, there is no way this is-"

"Central Japan was dropped over 400 meter below ocean level by a Chinese WMD." Rikka couldn't listen to this any longer. "Your confusion about the Deep Blue, your sudden appearance through a spatial distortion and all of you being Cures. What year are you from?"

"I swear to god, if that bloody system sent us into some kind of alternate apocalyptic future I am going to-" Urara tried to calm down. She was getting way too riled up. "I am going to need a drink. Something strong enough to fuel a plane." Walking over to where Ako was, still unconscious but in her adult form for some reason, Urara slapped her a few times. "Muse, wake up already."

Muse? Rikka wondered if it referenced the goddesses of inspiration of literature, science and arts in Greek mythology. She wished she could see what she looked like.

"I'm Cure Heart. The blue one is Diamond, yellow is Rosetta, purple is Sword, red is Ace and you already met Regina." Mana wanted to quickly introduce her team and it was easiest to do so by putting names to their colors. "And you are?"

"Lemonade. Cure Lemonade." Urara was just waiting for one of them to laugh and slap them silly but it looked like that particular group had discontinued the concept of humor. "Ako!" Urara shouted, and when that didn't work, grabbed the girl's breasts and started fondling her moments before initiating a slippery kiss. That was enough to wake up Ako and also enough to make most of the Doki Cures blush a little. Ako's first action was to elbow Urara in the side and get her girlfriend off her. "Fin… finally." Urara coughed out words.

"Alice, can you take us back to the plane? We are way too exposed out here." Rikka was wondering how long it would take for the authorities to arrive and attempt an arrest. Not that there was any force in the world that had a chance against 37 Cures, especially not if those 31 were as aggressive as Lemonade was.

The barrier started to move, and a few of the unconscious women rolled over the ground from the sudden movement, but Alice had raised a low wall surrounding the platform to prevent them from falling off.

"You have a plane?" Urara was slightly impressed. "One of you is loaded then?" Urara wondered just how rich someone had to be to afford a private plane.

"I used to be the heir to a great conglomerate if that is what you are implying." Alice smiled and sat down on a smaller box of barriers. The bottom layer was quite wet.

Muse was trying to get a handle on the situation. Her head was hurting quite a lot and she wasn't very appreciative of how Urara had woken her up. "Where are we?"

Aguri groaned a little. "I would like to wait for further explanations until more of you have woken up. Explaining it thirty times seems fairly redundant."

The only one beside Lemonade and Muse that woke up before they arrived at the plane was Komachi, who had such a raging headache that just talking to her was difficult. Alice floated the barrier directly into the hangar after Makoto had opened the gates from the inside. Raising the temperature on the air conditioner, Mana was quick to spread out field beds for all their unconscious comrades. That they were her comrades was something she had already decided. There were no bad people among Cures.

The second Mana had finished carrying people inside and setting them on on field beds she was already handing out big towels to Lemonade, Muse and, as she found out, Mint. Before the others could even think of what to do next, Mana had somehow procured hot tea, possibly from Mana Space, and was now asking Komachi if she needed anything else.

"That is the Mana we all know." Alice smiled and kept an eye on Lemonade and Muse, who were sitting on the same field bed and warming up.

"No, I am fine, really. I have a headache but it is getting better-" Komachi was glad that Karen was in the field bed right next to her but this Cure Heart woman was a little overbearing. And suddenly she was handed two aspirin. I'm not even going to question why she had those on her, Komachi thought and just took the aspirin with a smile. She was a bit impressed with this girl. Mint wanted some dry clothes and canceled her transformation, turning back into just Komachi. For some reason she was dressed in tight leather and cloth, like a bandit. And she remembered. The never ending festival. "Ah, excuse me." Leaving Karen and Heart behind, Komachi walked over to Urara, who was only now transforming back only to find herself wearing a fancy dress, high heels and a golden mask. And she too remembered.

"What's the last thing you remember Komachi?" Urara was glad that someone from her team was already awake. Ako was the most important but her team was a close second, at least as of late.

"We were… at the never ending party and time was just rewinding. It was the third or fourth loop I think? Maybe the fifth." Komachi's memory of the party was more than a little hazy.

"You're as broken as I am then. I remember talking to some nobles. Just more copies I think. Something must have happened if our memory is this screwed up."

The ground shook for a moment and the engines started to make noise. The plane was lifting off. But it didn't really worry any of the three. That Cure Heart woman was still going from bed to bed, putting towels on people while the purple one seemed to check whether they were showing any signs of trauma. "Forget the festival for the moment, it looks like we landed in some kind of alternate reality so something must have gone really wrong."

"I'm not sure this is really an alternate reality." Ako had been quiet until now. "You said they told you that part of the ocean was a giant crater in the center of Japan that ripped the island apart? Did you ask them in what year that happened?"

"Hey! What's the date of today? Include the year!" Urara shouted and before the purple or red Cure could shout back, the pink one, Heart, was already right behind her.

"Today is the 28 of August 2024." Mana answered and was glad that she could finally help people again.

Komachi spat out a bit of her tea. "2024?!" She was so shocked that she started choking on the bit of tea she hadn't spat out.

"What year did you think it was?" Mana tried to keep an open mind regarding the possibilities where they had all come from.

"When we left our world it was 2012. Did we… spend twelve years repeating the festival over and over?" Ako was slightly terrified by that prospect. It wasn't a terrible place to be but repeating a never ending loop for 12 years was truly horrifying.

"I wasn't even a Cure 12 years ago." Mana was curious about this. "Ace, have you seen Rikka?"

"If that is your blue Cure, and the pattern holding means she would be the smartest of you lot, don't bother, none of our big thinkers are up yet. And honestly, I am beat. I'm just gonna take Muse and go back to sleep." Urara decided this without asking Ako who for once didn't seem to be naturally opposed.

"That actually sounds like a good idea." Komachi could not get rid of her headache and now that her transformation was off, she felt quite worn out. The shock that they were 12 years in the future was too much to work through right then.

Mana could understand where they were coming from. Suddenly appearing in a beam of light, nearly sinking to the bottom of the ocean, realizing that 12 years had apparently passed, that was going to tire out anyone.

Leaving the 31 unknown people in their hangar, Heart, Sword and Ace retreated to their living room, where Rikka tried to remember any unusual news she had heard in the last decade. Outside the occasional government cover up and bogus alien sighting, there was nothing that stuck out as unusual or supernatural. The Republic might have known more but they were unreachable and even for the Cures it was impossible to get through a breach without fighting it out with the military.

"I couldn't find anything wrong with any of them at least." Makoto was glad that none of them required actual medical aid. She had learned a lot but it was always better when she didn't have to use that knowledge.

"They have to be from a parallel universe. Such a large number of Cures wouldn't go unnoticed." Rikka leaned back in her chair and wished she could just look at the monitor and run a search. "At least two of us should stay up to keep an eye on them. I'm not saying we should treat them as enemies but remember what happened with Regina. They could be controlled by someone else and be some kind of advance force."

"Wow, if they're copying my shtick that is really lame." Regina was in the living room as well. She didn't really care to try and socialize with a bunch of strangers the moment they arrived. They could be enemies or just up and leave a day later, so she had to see if they would stick around.

"I don't think being controlled by an enemy is really your shtick." Rikka didn't care enough to argue. "I'll continue looking if there is anything in recent history that points to Cures. They didn't look like they were from too long ago so-"

"They said they left their world in 2012, whatever that means." Mana couldn't quite put what leaving their world meant specifically since it seemed rather odd for them to be confused about their whereabouts if they had the power to cross dimensions.

"That makes no sense. That was just before we became Cures. We would definitely know about thirty-one grown up Cures being around." Rikka was not only interested in where they came from but also in what powers they had. Maybe, just maybe they had enough firepower to get through to the Republic and find answers. Or better yet, maybe one of them was capable of creating a serum against the curse energy.

"Well for now we should let them sleep. Has Alice said where we're going?" Makoto was tired. She had stayed up for most of the night in case another attack happened.

"I put us en route to Hawaii just so we're over international waters." Alice showed up just in time. She had already canceled her transformation and she was a little spent with all the barrier making and moving.

"I'll stay with Mana in case one of them tries to seduce her." Regina offered jokingly.

"Lemonade and Muse are most likely the only ones that swing that way." Rikka got out of her chair. There was no more point in thinking about news from more than a decade ago if those Cures really were from 2012. Her memory was good but she didn't have perfect recall. "I'm going to lay down."

"I will too." Makoto looked at Aguri who had something to say before she joined Makoto.

"With so many new faces here, I would appreciate it if you could just call me Ange from now on." Ace canceled her transformation and without the hair color change and the Cure armor replacing her clothes, it would've been difficult to tell the difference.

"Oh, you're really doing that?" Regina was wildly amused by that. "Ange."

It felt a little more weird than Ace had thought it would be but not an unpleasant weird.

"I think it now suits you more than Aguri does, Ange." Alice was second to call her by her new name. Or her old name, depending on the point of view.

"Alice is right. Ange." Mana smiled as much as she could. She didn't really mind either way but if it made Aguri, or Ange, happy, she would just switch.

Rikka was quiet for a moment. "Cure Ace, Ange. Well, it does sound nice." Rikka hadn't seen what Aguri looked like in a while but if the others were saying so, she had no reason to doubt it.

"Aren't you gonna say anything, Makopi?" Mana of course caught that Makoto had been oddly quiet about this. She was the greatest fan of the princess after all.

"Makoto already calls me Ann." Ange revealed with a smirk and watched Cure Sword blush.

Five hours later

Regina was sleeping on the couch with her head resting on Mana's lap. The plane was flying quietly and everyone else had returned to their rooms to catch a few hours of sleep. They assumed that by the time all those Cures would wake up, things would become really hectic and there wasn't going to be a lot of time to sleep.

It was past 10 PM when the door to the hangar unexpectedly opened. Regina was so startled by this that she immediately rolled off the couch, landed face first on the ground and rose with a spear in her hand.

"Regina!" Mana called out to her so strongly that it was like a warning shot. The spear dissipated and Regina rubbed her forehead, only now realizing that it had been just the hangar door.

The Cure in front, wearing a white dress with jagged rim, had immediately focused energy in her hand but breathed a sigh of relief when the girl who she had initially thought to be a guard turned out to be nothing of the sort. There were three more Cures with her. One yellow and two blue.

Mana immediately jumped up, transformed to show she was one of them and introduced herself. "I'm Cure Heart. That is Regina. She is… kind of a package deal with Cure Ace who isn't here right now."

"I don't think they care about that Mana." Regina sat back down, uncaring how impolite that was.

"I'm Cure White," Honoka introduced herself. A few more Cures were awake back in the hangar that hadn't come out with the four, including Komachi who had given everyone awake just the most basic rundown of what had happened. "They are Pine, Aqua and Beauty." Honoka had asked the girls she knew to be the most calm and intelligent to come with her. There were a lot of things she had to ask these new Cures. "But you can call me Honoka." Honoka didn't want to transform back. She had done so earlier and all of a sudden she had been without clothes. Thankfully, nobody seemed to have noticed.

"In that case you can call me Inori." Pine shook hands with Heart and somehow she reminded her a lot of Love. She had kind of an overbearing aura about her the way she was smiling at all of them and really enthusiastic looking. Inori was in the same strange getup as Komachi was, leather and cloth and was strangely sexy looking on her.

"I'm Karen. Thank you for looking after Komachi." Karen on the other hand was stuck in literal armor made of iron and steel so she stuck to her Cure form.

"And I'm Reika." Much like Honoka, Reika was naked under her Cure outfit, which was a problem.

"Reika? We have a Rikka. You don't have any Rika in your group, right?" Regina hoped it would not get any more complicated than having both a Rikka and Reika in the same room.

The group just ignored Regina for the time being. "First we would like to establish a baseline of information. Is there somewhere we can sit down and do you have some paper?" Honoka knew that they had a lot to explain.

"Regina, could you wake up Rikka?" Mana sensed that this was going to be a long talk and the type of talk that would end up going slightly over her head.

Not five minutes later they sat in the conference room on the second deck, directly above the hangar. The table was large enough for fifteen people, seven to each side and one at the top. Originally that chair had been for Mana but right now Rikka took it.

"To start off, we arrived here after being trapped in what I assume to be a pocket dimension between time and space. To explain why all of us were there is not that easy either." Honoka wrote down 2012, Arrival in pocket dimension.

"For the sake of this discussion, I will leave out some minor details but essentially, the time we came from was a universe that had lost too much of its negative energy. A lack of negative energy might sound like a great thing for us as Cures to pursue, but we were told in quite plain terms that it has catastrophic and even cataclysmic consequences if not fixed. So powers that far exceed our understanding picking the responsible parties, we the Cures, from our world and trapped us in the pocket dimension where we worked to remedy the energy imbalance."The paper moved to Inori who added more information.

"We believe that this world and our return to it is the result of the imbalance being restored." Karen made a pretty big assumption there but it was the only logical conclusion they could come up with.

Rikka needed a few seconds to process it. "But how is it that we as Cures never heard about any of you? As far as we're concerned the last Cures we know of existed 10,000 years ago and sealed a figurative ancient evil."

Honoka was the first to offer an opinion on that. "Since we are talking about energy and balance on a level far exceeding that of a single planet it is possible that history was altered in a way that the imbalance never existed, which in turn might have erased our actions and existences as Cures."

"Do you have a computer with internet access at hand?" Karen wanted to look something up. "It should be fairly easy to tell if we, as humans, existed in and prior to 2012, even if we were not Cures in this timeline."

"Mana." Rikka had to count on her partner in situations like these. "She'll be back with a laptop in a second."

"But even if time was altered, shouldn't we return to 2012 instead of 2024?" Inori was worried about her family.

"Due to the location you appeared I might have an idea regarding that." Rikka didn't expect that the Deep Blue would have such far-reaching consequences.

Mana returned with a laptop right that moment and handed it to Karen. She and Regina were sitting at the end of the table, just listening in on the conversation for now.

"Genius violinist Minazuki Karen dies in tragic accident at age 20." Karen read out loud just mere seconds after searching her own name and a few specific parameters. She looked to be unfazed by this development however. "So there existed a Minazuki Karen in this world and she died when she was as old as I am now. She died in 2012. Honoka, what's-"

"Yukishiro Honoka. Add researcher and pharmacist to the search parameters." Honoka was already expecting to read that she too, was dead in this timeline. And her guess was right.

"Yukishiro Research Ltd. Lab burned down in violent riot over new patent regarding IPS technology. Seventeen dead, including Yukishiro Honoka, 20, and her wife, Misumi Nagisa." Karen skimmed the rest of the article. It was pretty grim. The research lab had been attacked by a radical anti-LGBT group who were later faced with police force and died in a violent stand-off, but not before injuring 46 more people and killing 28, among them 4 police officers.

"Aoki Reika. Look for reference to my father, who is a painter." There was no way she could just tell them about her vigilante work right now.

Karen searched for a while but couldn't find anything so Rikka continued the conversation. "To explain our world to you it is easiest to start with ourselves. Ten years ago we became Cures when we were 14. We fought a group called the Selfish, which-" Rikka was briefly interrupted by Honoka at this point.

"The thirty of us belonged originally to seven distinct groups. I can tell you about that later but all of us fought some kind of evil enemy that threatened the world. That is how we arrived at the present situation regarding the pocket dimension. Point is that you don't need to explain in detail what the enemy was, we can all relate." Cure White wanted the discussion to stay on topic.

"Beauty, I found the names of you and your family in the casualty report of a crashed airplane. It went down in 2012. You're listed as 18 years old," Karen interjected before Rikka continued.

"To cut things short, Regina was controlled by our enemies. Ace and Regina were originally the same person. When we fought their King, he created a breach between this world and a kingdom of magic where Ace's and Regina's original persona was a princess. In the beginning, things looked fairly bright and people were delighted at the discovery of magic and a fairy kingdom."

Both Honoka and Karen groaned at this point and Rikka understood why. They saw what Rikka had seen in hindsight. "Yes, things took a turn for the worse about a year after the fight, when all of us but Ace were in their second year of high school. It is unclear who it was specifically that first developed machines to collect and condense magical energy from the atmosphere but it is generally believed to the Chinese. It was only months after that the Americans weaponized these machines and created a splinter type of magical energy that I've come to call curse energy. It acts like a cancerous entity that devours magic. Before this curse energy became wide spread and used in weapons however, the Chinese tested a new WMD in Japan, Tokyo. They attempted to sink the city fifty meters, dropping it about ten meters below sea level by dimensionally shifting 50 meters worth of earth and bedrock beneath the city. Due to various factors, the machine malfunctioned and instead dimensionally shifted roughly 500 meters worth across hundreds of kilometers, ripping a giant hole into Japan. The 22 of October in 2017." Rikka would never forget that incident.

"That is horrible." Honoka couldn't imagine how a balanced world would let something like that happen.

"It becomes much worse from here on." Rikka feared that these new Cures wouldn't be able to properly deal with what she was about to say but 30 minutes searching the internet would tell them as much. "After Deep Blue the world entered an arms race and the magical republic barricaded the breach, preventing humans from entering. This arms race was primarily driven by America and their newly developed curse weaponry, capable of breaking through magical protection with ease. Initially this curse energy was simply similar to ionizing radiation and killed people that were exposed to high doses. But in 2018, the Germans succeeded in enriching the curse energy with specific particles they found around the breach in Japan. Particles that were left over from the Selfish King. To put it simple, there are seven types, each representing one of the seven deadly sins."

Karen felt sick. Was this what they all had fought for? A world that was on the brink of destroying itself? That couldn't be right.

"The Germans used magical plants, infected them with the particles and used the plants to multiply them before they enriched curse energy weaponry with them. It was the birth of the most destructive type of weapon the world had ever seen. Nuclear weapons are difficult to build and pollute the land for generations. curse weapons directly affect only living things and the particles will die off after a few months. Or at least that is what the Germans thought. America declared war on them over the creation of these enhanced curse weapons and Germany struck first. They detonated a Leviathan bomb strong enough to rival a nuclear missile in sheer blast capacity in Florida, a state in the southern part of North America. Millions and millions of people were infected with the Envy particles."

"I'm sorry but could you explain these particles in a little more detail before we move on?" Honoka was a researcher and this piqued her interest. Magically corrupt particles were something she had never even thought about before.

"Simply put, curse energy is created by bombarding magical energy with an extremely high concentration of radioactive atoms. And furthermore, curse energy is refined into one of the seven sins by bombarding the curse energy with the particles. The effects of the seven sins specifically range from cruel to devastating to deadly. Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath and Sloth."

Nobody said anything when another blue Cure joined the group. Pine smiled briefly at her and waved to her. She was glad to see Kaoru up.

"I can point you to an article that explains each particle in detail later if you would like but their effects are not all that relevant to what is happening. This massive infection of Envy had unintentional side effects. While the state tore itself and parts of the surrounding states apart, the enormous mass of curse energy ripped a hole into space-time, creating a second breach to the Republic of Trump in America. Which they promptly used to mass produce curse energy and weapons to retaliate against their enemies. That was in December 2018. In July of 2019, Germany vanished from the map. Specific details never showed up but it is generally assumed that with America now possessing their own breach, Germany tried to follow suit. There is only a dead wasteland now where Germany once was. Only a massive breach leading to a completely uninhabited part of the Republic of Trump's remains."

Inori's head was hurting from absorbing so much bad news. "That makes five years since then. I assume things actually got better from there?"

"They got worse. Where scientists originally assumed that the curse particles, and what remained of curse energy once it dissipated, would vanish or simply break down, they instead attached themselves to the free magic energy that was permeating the world and the atmosphere, multiplying out of control. It made production of curse weapons possible even for countries very far from a breach and technologically incapable of producing their own curse energy. Between 2020 and the current day, over three billion people have died to curse energy and there is no end in sight. We travel around to stop attacks and save people whenever we can but most of the time saving people means putting them out of their misery."

Honoka had to lean back in her chair and take a deep breath. "Something must have gone horribly wrong when we were in the pocket dimension. There is no way that this is the great power's idea of balance."

"It is possible we reversed the situation." Kaoru spoke up. "From what I gathered it appears this world has an intense overabundance of negative energy and emotions, powerful enough to bring civilization to the brink of ruin. Logic dictates that if both light and dark energy was created and only one was required to remove the imbalance that the other type would be used to power the facility we lived in. Now, what would happen if this facility used far too much light energy, far more than we generated?"

"That sounds like a serious design flaw." Inori at first couldn't imagine something like that happening. But then it dawned on her. "But it is possible. Likely even. Remember the changes the design went through. It was all created by powers that didn't really understand human behavior and needs. The system was highly unstable at times and this festival could have resulted in an unprecedented power drain."

"Regina, do you have any idea what they are talking about?" Mana whispered to her friend and partner as the really smart Cures continued to discuss things that had no longer anything to do with standard physics or thermodynamics.

"I know that Pine has a pretty big rack." Regina replied instead. "White too actually."

"Let us assume for the moment that Windy's theory is correct and we created a new imbalance due to a lacking fail-safe in the system. How do we fix it?" Karen wasn't too eager to live in a world where she had died already and certainly not in a world that was about to destroy itself.

"It probably won't be long until we're called back there. I just hope they didn't reboot the place." Inori was not too eager to start over at nothing and with a bare bones facility.

"That seems to be the most probable scenario." Windy agreed. "However, I am unsure if the powers will decide to pull in Cure Heart and her comrades."

"What is this pocket dimension like specifically?" Rikka didn't want to tell Mana so but if some kind of greater power would rip them all away from this world and bring them to a place where they could alter history, that would be a great alternative to simply waiting for civilization to end.

"We have no way of knowing what it will be like if and when we are brought back there but I can tell you about it if you would like." Honoka offered. "But first we need to get back to the hangar and tell everyone that is it highly likely that our time here will be short and that the world has become quite a dark place to be."

"M-Mana, please come to the hangar immediately!" Alice contacted Mana through the on-board speaker system. There were no questions asked and no decisions made, only requests followed. Mana and Regina were well on their way to the hangar when the others even got out of their chairs.

A glaive and halberd were clashing violently in the hangar, most of the field beds flipped over. The others Cures didn't know whether to intervene or not but it was quite a heated fight. Yuri was fighting a ghost of her past. "How… how are you here?!" Trying for a sweeping kick, Yuri's opponent had the same idea.

Their weapons clashed again and again, Yuri shouting questions while her opponent was only capable of screaming unintelligible nonsense that didn't resemble language at all. Mana arrived in the hangar when both of them separated and readied energy blast attacks.

"Okay enough you raging idiots!" Urara stepped in and was tired of just watching them. "Komachi, lock the black one up!" Chaining down Moonlight, Urara had to focus pretty hard to overpower the more experienced Cure. "Black, you're welcome to punch her in the face if she gets free!" Urara shouted and to her surprise, Nagisa obliged, rushing up to Moonlight, ready for a Blacklight Devastation.

Komachi used her barriers to encase the black unknown in five layers. Ignoring the reflective damage, the unknown started to break free, suffering a ton of damage as she cut through the barriers with her halberd. But when she was about to break free, Komachi switched to ring formed barriers and limited the unknown's movement, stopping her weapon dead in its track. Miki now rushed in as well and was just ready to unleash an impact kick when Moonlight was knocked out cold by a pink flash and the unknown was hit by a blinding flash of light after which she dropped to the floor, unconscious.

"What the hell is going on?!" Regina shouted, her spear in hand. Heart was covering her back after she had knocked out the silver Cure.

"Nothing now." Urara let out a chuckle and used her chain to flip Heart's skirt. "Oh, fanc-" Lemonade flew straight past the now very confused Heart after Muse hit her with a double leg dropkick in the back. "That was totally uncalled for Ako!" Lemonade shouted as she hung from a chain she had thrown at the ceiling of the hangar to kill her fall.

"So was flipping some other woman's skirt!" Ako shouted back with a cold look on her face.

"No, really, what is going on. I am super confused now." Regina refused to put away her spear but she wasn't pointing it at anyone in particular.

"Wow, she looks exactly like her, Tsubomi." Erika had rolled over the unknown and was now looking at her face. "Minus some of the super duper obvious evil clone stuff, you know what I mean, the chuuni eye and the cliché devil wing and-" Feeling the unknown up and taking all sorts of measurements by hand without tools, Erika was way too curious to be cautious.

"I know, I know, geez Erika, stop!" Tsubomi dragged the blue Cure away by her arm. "What if she wakes up!"

"They woke up, saw each other and immediately started fighting." Alice came running, much slower than a Cure normally would, and explained things to Mana. "I just happened to come down here because more and more of them were waking up."

"Explain it to them and not me!" Melody shoved Itsuki towards the new Cures that just stood there, between Moonlight and the Unknown, confused as all hell.

Itsuki was not that comfortable with these new people but Hibiki would just keep nagging. "Okay, uhm, where do I start? I'm Sunshine. That is Moonlight. That blue ball of energy over there is Marine and the one keeping her in check is Blossom. We all belong to the same team. And that-" Itsuki pointed at the unknown. "That is, basically, an evil clone younger sister of Moonlight except all the evil clone marks are gone and she looks pretty normal. I also definitely don't remember her using a halberd. And she actually died like four years ago, together with Moonlight's father that made her and was also kind of controlled by the big boss of the enemy we were fighting." Itsuki wondered if Hibiki had rubbed off on her too much because her explanation was definitely a bit on the simple side.

"Doesn't her being here means she didn't die?" Regina asked the obvious question. "So, the dead can come back in that pocket dimension space you all come from?"

"No, no, we actually have no idea where she came from. The last thing all of us remember is that we were in another ridiculous setup, some kind of time loop of a medieval style party, and that's it. No idea how we got out, why we got out, and what happened between the third, fourth, fifth, I don't remember how many we went through, loop and showing up here." Itsuki was quiet for a moment and then had to ask.

The situation got even more complicated when Rikka and the other blue Cures showed up. Everyone was awake now and wanted to get an update on the situation at once. Honoka joined Heart and Rosetta in the center. "Do you have a ladder or something I could use?" Honoka was not capable of flight after all.

Alice smiled and create a set of boxes out of barriers. "You can use these if you want." And Honoka immediately did. Using her hand as a starting point, she fired off a small energy pillar that scared the hell out of Mana, Rikka and Regina because they hadn't seen her get up there.

"Everyone listen! It appears the system malfunctioned, again, yes-" There was collective groaning and complaining. "And that we' arrived in a world that has been drastically flooded with dark energy. Thus it is highly likely that everyone present, possibly including the Cures some of you have met now, will be drawn back into the pocket dimension to rectify this imbalance." More groaning. "Due to the gravity of the situation and the over abundance of dark energy everyone should remain on the plane. The imbalance was corrected and then some. It is highly likely that this current timeline will disappear after we restor enough light energy to create a real balance."

Stepping down from the boxes, Honoka was immediately approached by Heart and Rosetta. "Is that true? This entire timeline might disappear?"

"I believe so. The previous timeline that we are all from was replaced with this one and I believe that due to the overabundance of dark energy, the people we would have been in this timeline all died. If a real balance is restored, it is possible that all of us will simply replace ourselves in a proper timeline." Honoka was making some really sweeping guesses. "But I can't really make any promises. Most of all, it is completely beyond our control who will be drawn back into the pocket dimension. So-" Honoka was surprised when Heart suddenly left and walked towards Diamond, who had fallen down because she stumbled into someone. "I've been meaning to ask but why is she keeping her eyes closed?"

"A very personal matter." Alice didn't want to tell strangers about it without Rikka's explicit approval.

Knowing that they might be called back into the pocket dimension at any time, most of the Cures simply made themselves comfortable in the hangar, with some exceptions.

Moonlight and her believed to be dead sister were both under heavy watch. Komachi and Alice were both there, having realized that they both specialized in barriers. Miki and Kaoru were by their side, Kaoru bringing Miki up to speed on everything. It was an unlikely combination, designed purely to keep the fighting sisters in check and if necessary, knock them out.

"I saw your barriers had some strange property to them." Alice was curious about this. She was quite proud of her level of mastery over energy and how she used that to create barriers.

"You probably mean how they reflect damage back to the attacker? We had quite a few offensive focused fighters in our group so I decided to focus on defense. I'm sure you've already met Lemonade. There is also my partner Aqua, our leader Dream and her best friend Rouge. And our powerhouse, Milky Rose." Komachi wanted to pass the time while Karen was still talking and discussing things with Honoka, Inori and Reika. "But it would be a problem if I was on my own and nobody could come to help. I didn't want to move away from my focus on defense so I create my barriers with the property that when they are destroyed they absorb the offensive force that destroys them and the remains of the broken barriers directly transmits that offensive force back to the attacker. It's very effective against close combat types like-" Komachi pointed to Black, who was still arm wrestling, now with Kurumi. "Black. There is also Bloom, who has a somewhat similar fighting style. If we're talking total brute force, Bright- over there, is probably the strongest among us."

"So all of you have their own specific style of fighting?" Alice was impressed. "You said your leader was someone called Dream?"

Komachi thought it would be easier to show her instead of explain. "Nozomi! Over here!" Komachi waved and called out until her leader noticed her. Excusing herself from Peach, Happy and Blossom, Nozomi headed over to Komachi. "That is Dream. She leads our group of six."

"Six? What group do the others belong to then? And it is nice to make your acquaintance, Cure Dream." Alice was as polite as ever.

"Always great to meet new Cures! We had a bunch of groups actually." Nozomi quickly explained which Cures belonged to which groups. "I think Black and White are the oldest and Melody and Rhythm are the youngest."

"Aren't you and Karen also 20?" Miki briefly held off Kaoru's explanation to join the discussion. "I think all in all, we have a fairly balanced range of ages, going from 16 to 20 with one or two exceptions."

"True, but I think Karen told me before that they became Cures before we did, so in a way, they're our seniors."

"My, in that case that would all of you our great seniors." Alice wasn't really bothered by being a handful of years older than everyone else. "Mana, Rikka, Makoto and I are all 25. Regina and Ange are 21 but we became Cures in 2014."

"It is still an unclear phenomena why we were returned to 2024 instead of 2012," Kaoru said. "But if all of you have been Cures for 10 years, it would be you who are our seniors."

It became ever so slightly crowded when Pine showed up to fetch Kaoru whom they wanted to participate in the discussion. Miki was wanted there as well but she opted to stay with Yuri instead in case she woke up.

Minutes later and in a different part of the hangar was a rather one-sided collection of Cures, all of them trying to get to know Heart. In a way, it was the leader of every group. Nagisa, Saki, Nozomi, Love, Tsubomi, Hibiki and Miyuki. "So you're the pink of your group?" Nagisa had long since figured out that she was the odd one out of this trend. Saki was a little in-between sides as well but she was the only Black Cure that functioned as a leader. Even though almost everyone thought that White was the leader of the trio.

"The… pink?" Mana didn't quite place it for a moment. "So the center of each of your groups happened to be a Cure with a pink color theme?"

"Well, more or less." Hibiki had noticed it as as something really obvious but she didn't think to ever bring it up before. Her group at least never really functioned that way.

"How did White put it? We're not the smartest or strongest or most capable in our group but we keep everyone together!" Miyuki sounded unbelievably proud of this and Nagisa cringed a little. Honoka had probably not meant that as a compliment. It was kind of rude even.

"I know what you mean." Mana looked around to find Alice. "We wouldn't have this plane without Rosetta." Mana quickly realized that most of them probably couldn't remember all the new names yet. "Our yellow Cure. She used to be the heiress to a big conglomerate."

"I met her a few minutes ago. I thought she kind of gave off that rich girl aura that Karen has too sometimes." Nozomi raised her hands, thinking she might have been rude. "I didn't mean that in any bad way, I just thought they were a little similar in how they're both polite!"

"I wouldn't call myself a leader or anything. I just keep Erika in check and look out for Itsuki and Yuri." Tsubomi was not all that comfortable with being called a leader. That was not really how Cure teams functioned now, was it?

"I noticed that some girls in your groups are pretty close to each other. Is there anything going on there?" Mana was a little curious about love affairs and such things.

"I think I would need to draw you a flowchart to explain the mess that is going on." Saki laughed. "I don't remember who came up with it but it looks like being interested in your fellow Cures romantically comes with the territory."

"Pretty sure Honoka came up with that." Nagisa was always quick to try and score some credit for her life partner.

"You would say that even if I was talking about a time machine!" Saki countered and the others hard to try hard to suppress a chuckle because they knew it was true.

"How are things on your end? Any juicy relationships going on?" Love didn't care if she was being too bold right now. If their time here was limited and it was unclear if these new Cures were going to come back with them, she couldn't waste time.

"Our situation is a little… complicated." Mana didn't know how to actually explain it well. "Rikka could probably explain it better but I'll try!"

Above the hangar, Honoka, Mai, Michiru, Kaoru, Karen, Inori, Muse, Reika and Rikka were back at the table. "We're one representative short but Blossom's group usually sends Moonlight and she is incapacitated right now. Erika would be a working substitute but any conversation she participates in tends to run off-topic rather quickly." Reika took the reigns of the conversation. "White and Pine have already explained the contents of the prior conversation to everyone present and I would like to move on to the pressing matter at hand: Moonlight."

"I asked Hibiki about this. She got her information from Moonlight's team member, Sunshine." Ako was somewhat glad she was out of the hangar. It was total chaos down there with small groups constantly building and breaking up. It was worse than a high society standing party. "The unknown that appeared with us is an artificially created Cure that used to be called Dark Cure. Biologically speaking, she is Moonlight's younger sister, created by her father who ended up on the side of their enemy. The important part is that she died in 2008 and we all disappeared in 2012."

"Considering the powers at work within the pocket dimension-" Karen didn't get very far before Mai interrupted her.

"Shouldn't we explain to- I am sorry, I forgot your name." Mai wanted all of them to be on the same page. If this Rikka was as smart as Honoka had said she was, she could be a great help.

"Rikka. Or Diamond if you will." Rikka was not even the tiniest bit upset. She couldn't expect these people to just remember her name from one moment to the next, not if so much was going on.

"Rikka then." Mai preferred normal names over Cure ones. It was more personal.

"The pocket dimension, essentially, split us into two evenly sized groups. A light camp and a dark camp. Once a day, both teams were forced to fight. The system, as we call it, used this fight to generate light and dark energy. As there was a massive deficit in dark energy at the time of our arrival, we believe the structure and all functions were powered by light energy, which would also provide an answer how we arrived at the current situation." Honoka laid down the basics and since it looked like Karen wanted to continue, she let her.

"The fights were, in one word, brutal. Far more so than most of us had ever experienced. Purifying attacks that most of us used to fight our own enemies as we became Cures would not work in these battles. As horrifying as this might sound to you now, the system applied two specific factors to the battles that made it manageable. First, entering the battlefield causes a very high level of aggression that enables us to fight our friends and even our team mates. Secondly, any and all wounds sustained in the battle will be reduced to next to nothing by the system the instant the battle ends. Even torn off limbs, broken bones and lethal injuries won't leave more than some bruises. You will be extremely tired however."

The largely blue Cures that were assembled shared the assumption that if they were going to be pulled back into the pocket dimension, then these new Cures would be drawn in with them. So far the system made only exceptions for those that were too old such as Cure Flower, according to Tsubomi.

"Mana is going to really not like that." Rikka felt a headache coming on. "She believes there is always a way that doesn't involve fighting."

"The leader of my group, Dream, tried to enforce such an idea. It resulted in catastrophic events that nearly killed us all for good, and almost resulted in her dying from the aftermath. To say that trying to go against the system is dangerous is an understatement similar to saying that space is a little cold." Karen really didn't want to go through that again.

"The fighting is only part of the system. The system itself went through several changes but specifically, it runs on a currency system. Your performance in battle, for which you can register voluntarily and as of late there were also optional rules that could be selected to improve the currency gain itself, was rated and rewarded with currency at the end. The winning team itself also received a bonus which I believe was based on the amount of Cures on the other team." Inori continued where Karen left off. "This currency, or rather the amount of total currency gained in your time there, determined your ranking, which directly determined the quality of your room and your bathroom facilities. Of course, currency could also be spent on material things. A large part was used collectively between both teams to create a garden within the complex for example."

"It sounds vaguely like a video game. A fighting game combined with a base building factor and a multiplayer component." Rikka knew a fair deal about video games because Regina just would never shut up about them. She stayed up entire nights to play them and then got into trouble for snoring in class.

"If you want it to put like that, yes, it is vaguely similar." Reika replied and could see how uncomfortable White and Egret were. Do their partners like video games perhaps? Was her train of thought. "Rooms were re-assigned every 3 days. And we have yet to touch on the singular most horrifying aspect of the pocket dimension."

"Instead of just calling it the pocket dimension or the structure we should simply give it a name." Inori found it a little silly.

"It exists because of an imbalance in natural energy, a lack of universal harmony." Honoka smiled at Mai who could already see where she was going with this. "So I suggest we just call the dimension, or structure, Dissonance." Honoka could see she didn't need to explain what the word meant.

"Inside Dissonance, whoever scored the lowest during a battle will be locked in exile, a punishment room that utilizes your own fears to torment you, until midnight of the same day. So in general, between 8 and 12 hours. I believe that originally the exile existed as an incentive to fight your absolute hardest to escape punishment. Originally, members between teams were exchanged once a day and it was a race, with the last one to remain behind being trapped out in the exile. The exchange later became much more normal and the exile was relegated to a punishment for the worst performance. I still question why it was kept at all since nobody really needed the additional incentive to fight. We had settled into the mindset that it was necessary and some of us even enjoyed the matches," Muse explained.

"A festival within a time loop was mentioned before." Rikka wanted to know about that.

"Reasons for creation are unknown. It is also unknown how we escaped. A careless wish of a Cure is the most probable cause." Michiru brought up. She preferred to listen in situations like these.

"So assuming that due to the extreme abundance of dark energy we will all be drawn into Dissonance, do you believe the system will still work? You said before that it existed to create dark energy but now it would have to create light energy." Rikka was worried that it simply was not going to happen and all of them would be stuck in this ruined world. She was honest with herself. If she could change things, change time, she would go without a second thought.

"Considering the workings within Dissonance I assume it to be a minute change that will not even be detectable by us." Kaoru made an assumption that she believed to be at least 95% likely.

"I have a personal question for you Diamond." With only reasonable, calm and collected people present, Honoka felt that this was the best moment to ask about it.

"My eyes, is it?" Rikka feared that this question might come up sooner or later. "I'm blind."

Even though it had seemed so obvious to everyone, none of them had ever met a Cure that was disabled. Honoka felt like prying any more might open up old wounds but Rikka sensed how uneasy she was and continued to talk of her own volition.

"I was not born blind or was blinded before I became a Cure. I have been blind for 3 and a half years now. I told you about curse energy before and this-" Rikka opened her eyes and she could hear and feel the surprise and shock some of them felt and expressed despite no actual words being spoken. "This is one of the many results of curse weaponry being developed."

As she was about to explain in more detail, Alice and Makoto entered the room. They needed a break from the hustle and buzz of the hangar. They had only been around their own team for years now and suddenly meeting 31 other Cures was a bit of a shock. "Alice. Makoto." Rikka could tell from their foot steps. She could not tell apart all these new Cures but she was able to do so with two of the five people she had been with for so long. "I was just to tell them why it is that I can't see anymore."

"I will go and check that Mana does not come in here then." Makoto promptly left. She didn't want to hear about those events again. But Alice stayed behind and sat down.

"Rikka is not the only one that was permanently wounded." Alice figured that if Rikka was going to tell these girls about her curse, she could tell them about her problems too.

"War between Italy and Spain had broken out. With Germany destroyed, the power vacuum in the European Union was enormous and it was only a matter of time before it would fall apart. Both Italy and Spain attempted to move in and take control and that resulted in a war between those countries. Desperate to end the fighting quickly and decisively, they utilized curse weaponry. Outside the seven particle enhanced curse weapons there are a number of minor curses that destroy the five senses. Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell and Touch. We were trying to stop a particularly bloody battle that took place on the island of Corsica, located in the sea between Italy and Spain, south of France. It was a horrible sight. Stopping the fight, in hindsight, was impossible and we still tried. Mana single-handedly stopped entire battalions but it wasn't enough. Three hours after we intervened, Italy hit the island with a Wrath missile, causing all the soldiers to go berserk. Alice, Mana and I were defending an important spot that held strategic value together when we were assaulted from all sides at the same time. Usually, our Cure powers protect us from curse effects, but-" Rikka paused. It was a horrible story. Tens of thousands of people had died on that island. Entire hills had been created by the dead bodies. "A curse enhanced shrapnel bomb landed right behind Mana, about to explode. I had no time to create an ice barrier so I jumped in the way, covered in armor. This was before Mana had adopted using armor herself. But my face was not covered and some of the shrapnel injured my eyes. It was a blinding bomb and the curse energy is still within my eyes as you can see. That is how I lost my sight. Mana, our leader, Cure Heart, still blames herself for it, so please tell your friends to avoid talking about it as much as possible." Rikka finished her story. Even after losing her sight she was more concerned with Mana's guilt than her own well-being.

Mai opened her mouth to apologize but Kaoru, who sat next to her, literally covered Mai's mouth with her hand and shook her head. She understood the sacrifice that Diamond had through. Apologizing to her for asking would only sully that sacrifice and her determination.

"What has happened to me was not as traumatic. But it forced me to change the way I fought." Alice immediately started to tell her own story. It was better to get it out of the way now. "Shortly after the Deep Blue, we happened to be in the middle of a fire fight between the Korean and Chinese armies, before they became the UEF, the United Eastern Confederation. It was the first time we happened to encounter human soldiers that used curse weaponry. In an attempt to drive both forces back, I created large scale barriers to physically remove the troops. What was beyond my anticipation was that curse bullets were capable of breaking through the barriers. I suffered several shots to my legs and I could not walk for several months. After the damage had healed, I quickly noticed that my legs would no longer support the burden of jumping or sprinting as a Cure. I can still walk and run as a human but my legs are fragile now. Which is why you shall see me mostly floating on my barriers instead of moving around as a proper Cure would."

The mood reached an entirely new level of depression at that moment and there was silence for several seconds. And then, without warning, three girls, Marine, Regina and Peace, fell out of an air duct from above the conference room right onto the large table. There was a loud Oof sound that Erika made as the other two landed on top of her. "Get off me! You're heavy!"

"Who the hell is heavy?!" Regina shouted and only now realized that they were surrounded by a lot of serious looking people and she felt a chill when both Rikka and Alice, one metaphorically and the other literally, were glaring at her.

"There they are! Peace! Hand over that sketch book this instant!" Rouge, Lemonade, Melody, Sunshine and Rhythm were on their trail and completely oblivious to the seriously depressing mood that had permeated the conference room until then.

Jumping off the table, Regina grabbed both Peace and Marine, one under each arm, and ran away with them. Not a second passed before Rouge and Lemonade had rushed into the room, jumped on the table, both in their transformed forms, and Lemonade was slinging chains after Regina, Erika slinging chains back using her copy cat ability.

Melody, Sunshine and Rhythm went around the table but were still running after the three fugitives. Rouge and Lemonade were at a split, going down or up, and couldn't decide. "I'm going up, you go down!" Urara didn't wait for a reply and immediately pursued the two shorties and the new black Cure.

Setsuna and Ellen both found Love talking to a really annoyed looking Tsubomi in the hangar. "Love, what happened? A few of us suddenly ran out and chased after Peace, Marine and-" Setsuna realized she hadn't actually heard the name of the new girl.

"Regina." Ellen helped out. She had heard from this new group's purple Cure that Regina used to be an enemy. Ellen felt like it was a bit much for that to repeat itself this much, first with Bright and Windy as she had heard, then with Setsuna, herself and now this Regina girl. And not to mention, people were talking about Moonlight's dead but not dead little sister that used to be an enemy. Just how much do we Cures focus on befriending our enemies? And it is always the girls.

Tsubomi groaned, which was a very unusual sound for Tsubomi to make. "It looks like Peace drew all sorts of… adult comics about some of us. And of course Erika is all hyped about that. And it looks like this Regina girl is helping them out. Erika has a natural talent for getting herself into trouble."

"Speaking of her." Ellen pointed at the hangar entrance where Regina, still carrying Yayoi, and Erika, who bolted off in a different direction, both sprinted into the room, visibly amused with themselves.

Erika came to a screeching halt right in front of Komachi, who was just reading some news articles on a laptop that Alice had gratuitously provided. Gesturing like a complete maniac and speaking so quickly that Komachi felt like a bomb was about to hit her, she figured out that Erika wanted her to create a barrier and not thinking further about it, she made a small one just next to the bed.

"Urara! Hangar!" Rin shouted as hard as she could, jumped right over everyone and crashed into a large barrier that Erika made, sliding down the side like a bird that had smashed into a window. It became very, very hot in the hangar just moments later and that was enough to make other Cures take sides. Miki didn't want to be grilled alive and certainly didn't want Yuri to lay there in a sauna.

"Turn off the heat this instant!" Miki demanded with a loud voice while Regina plus Yayoi and Erika were using Love, Setsuna and Ellen like a living barricade against Lemonade. Sunshine, Melody and Rhythm were now showing up as well but were stopped by Luminous and Milky Rose, who tried to prevent everything from escalating. But that only made them look like they were taking sides.

The hangar was about to go from chaos to complete anarchy when suddenly someone took control. "Stop!" Mana shouting so loud that the people next to her, Dream and Happy, had to cover their ears. "What is going on?"

"Urara, Rin, what are you doing?" Nozomi was on Heart's side with this one. "We're guests here!"

Miyuki kept quiet for the moment because she wasn't the type to scold her team mates and friends in public but it did look like Yayoi had done something that wasn't okay and she definitely wanted to support Nozomi in this. "Yayoi, that goes for you too!"

"Tell that to the three imps, not us! They started bolting when we told them to hand over the porn they drew of us without our consent!" Urara shouted across the entire hangar and the words porn of us were just hanging in the air there for a moment.

Yayoi… Miyuki couldn't believe this had happened again. Reika, Nao and Akane had complained about this once before and Yayoi had sworn she wouldn't draw them again. But apparently she thought drawing others would be okay.

Mana wasn't quite sure how to handle this. There was artistic freedom but when drawing people, one had to actually ask consent. Walking over to Lemonade and Rouge, the latter finally turned off the heat because Berry was glaring at her so much that Rin was sure if she didn't, she would get into an actual fight. "Is that true? Did you draw- Actually which of them did it?" Mana asked halfway in her question and it really annoyed Urara and Rin.

Love, Setsuna and Ellen were still the small island around which the Cures had to go to catch Erika and Yayoi. And before Yayoi even noticed what was happening, Love suddenly had the sketchbook. "Oh, these are really good." Looking up from the sketchbook and comparing to Lemonade and Rin, Love wasn't really sure that really counted as drawing them specifically. Proportions were pretty exaggerated and the faces and hair was a bit different.

"Give that to me!" Rin reached for the sketchbook but Setsuna grabbed her arm before she could get to love. "You taking their side?"

"I am only on Love's side." Setsuna was usually a very calm and gentle person but she wouldn't let Love be dragged into this. Ellen supported Setsuna by snatching the sketchbook from Love's hands and handing it over to the impartial Cure Heart.

Mana needed a few looks and to the surprise of everyone present, nobody tried to forcibly take the sketchbook from her. The earlier display of force when she had knocked out Moonlight and her sister was buying her some time and respect. "I think you're at fault here, Peace is it? Even with the exaggerated proportions, you copied their outfits completely so it is really obvious that is it them."

"How exaggerated?" Rin was curious now, walked as close as she could get without being in suspicion of reaching for it and looked at the drawing. It was her on top and Lemonade as the bottom. I think I would have back problems with tits like that, Rin thought.

"It doesn't matter how exaggerated, get rid of it." Urara clicked her tongue and turned around to face Peace. Who was gone. And so were Marine and Regina. Urara was about to lose her shit when finally the brains of the collective showed up in the hangar, demanding to know what was going on. Before anything could really happen, Mana ripped out the drawings in question and handed them to Urara and Rin, who respectively tore it to pieces and burned it to cinders.

After sorting out the chaos and finding Erika, Yayoi and Regina hiding out in Regina's room, it was time to address the big elephant in the hangar. Yuri's sister. Then just as the chaos had ended, said sister rolled off her field bed, landed on the floor with a loud thud, right behind Komachi and only let out a dull Ouch… before she slowly rose from the ground, her nose bleeding and confusion written all over her face.

Tsubomi asked Love, Nozomi and Miyuki for help and together they cleared most of the hangar, only leaving a few important and relevant people behind. The former Dark Cure just sat there, on her bed, unable to understand where she was or what had happened. She didn't say a single word to anyone until Tsubomi came back after clearing out most of the people that were now spread all over the plane.

"Tsu...bomi." She knew at least the name of Blossom and she focused completely on just her, ignoring everyone else, even Itsuki and Erika, the latter being serious for a change.

"Are you really… Dark Cure?" Tsubomi was on high alert just talking to her. She had fought Yuri on even ground earlier and Yuri was one of the strongest Cures around.

But the thought dead girl couldn't process that question. Only White, Windy, Pine, Aqua and Beauty were present other than Yuri's own team. Pine and Windy specifically had stayed behind on Tsubomi's request because of their abilities. Heart and Rosetta were watching from a fair distance as were Black and Bright.

Tsubomi repeated her question and tried a few others such as asking about Yuri, about Sabaaku, about Dune but the woman couldn't process anything. It was like she was not really in there. "I wanna try using Reborn on her."

Because it was so quiet in the hangar, Heart and Rosetta could hear them all the way at the entrance. "What is Reborn?" Mana didn't think they would attack someone possibly dangerous but defenseless looking.

"Tsubomi's specialty. She's capable of healing people." Nagisa summarized it quickly for Heart, who suddenly seemed very interested in that ability.

Dark Cure didn't move at all when Tsubomi grabbed her hand and hit her with a wave of healing energy. It healed the damage to her nose but seemed to have absolutely no other effect. "Nothing?" Tsubomi was by no means stupid but she wasn't a doctor.

Karen had studied medicine to some degree but there could have been a thousand things wrong with the girl. Head trauma and cognitive impairment had so many possible causes and was so complicated that she rather kept quiet than making blind guesses.

After hearing about what was going on in the hangar, Rikka decided to offer her services. Mana tried to talk to her about something but Rikka figured that it was simply her asking to lend them her knowledge. Makoto accompanied Rikka, acting as her hands and eyes.

Performing various tests that didn't require expensive and unwieldy machinery on the girl, Rikka eventually gave up and so did Makoto. "If there is something wrong with her, I cannot find it without an MRI scan or something comparable. It could also be a psychological block."

"Kaoru." Inori knew that there was a way to check if that was true. "Karen, could you call Luminous? We need her." Inori paused there, worried. "Honoka, if Kaoru or I start to behave weird-"

"You won't." Honoka reassured Inori, who was so surprised by this optimism that she ended up with a smile on her face.

"What are you trying to do?" Rikka couldn't see and she couldn't quite place the voices yet but even if she could see, she would've been just as clueless.

"I can take control of another person's mind with my special ability Domination. Kaoru, Cure Windy, can connect her mind with another and forcefully shut both of them down. Luminous used to be a powerful entity called the Queen of Light and that is also her special ability. She can boost our abilities, making it possible for me, with Kaoru's help, to perform a conscious mind dive. It will allow me to see the inside of Dark Cure's mind." They had used this exact technique on Dream when she was being consumed by Nightmare.

"That… is impressive." Rikka was astounded by the abilities these other Cures possessed.

Honoka whispered something to Tsubomi while Inori explained her ability and once she was done, Tsubomi was near tears. Approaching the blue Cure from the new team, Tsubomi asked to talk to her alone.

Hikari showed up, not alone but Kurumi chose to wait with Black and Heart at the entrance, and quickly got in position to help. She was always glad to be able to do so since she was not a great mood maker or a controlling factor like Honoka.

Kaoru initiated her Stormflair and seconds later Inori used Domination on Dark Cure, initiating her mind dive. Slumping to the ground, Inori held on to Dark Cure's arm.

There was not much. A small desert, so small that she could see the edges that led into darkness from where she stood. But one structure stood in the desert. A gigantic scale with three Dark Cures on it. To one side, one with a dark wing, a golden flowing eye, chained up and trying to break free, growling and screaming incoherent words.

To the other side, a human looking girl that looked dejected, already resigned herself to despair, also in chains. The human one was a little lower than the other, symbolizing more weight. But slowly and surely, she was rising.

And atop the scale, sitting there, was someone that Inori didn't really recognize. A woman in green. Judging from her clothing, undoubtedly a Cure but Tsubomi, or anyone else from her group for that matter, had never mentioned a green Cure. Her clothes resembled those of Moonlight a fair bit. She wore a large dark green ribbon in her hair on the back of her head. But what sealed the deal for Inori were the two green roses in the front.

Walking towards the scale, the green Cure noticed Inori but didn't budge from her position, right in the middle of the scale, on the top. "A visitor. How quaint." The green Cure made clear that she didn't really care about Inori's presence, which was unusual. Invading Dream's mind had been very different and met with quite some resistance.

"Are you Dark Cure?" Inori was 99% sure but that last one percent could sometimes prove to be the most important.

"That would be her." Pointing towards the tied up screaming and kicking Dark Cure, the woman in green didn't move after that.

"Who is she then?"

"Tsukikage Yami." The woman in green seemed to not care about answering Inori's question either way. Every few seconds she watched the two women. Dark Cure had been gaining ground but was now losing again.

Tsukikage? Moonlight's surname? "Where did she come from?"

"The depths of Tsukikage Yuri's heart wished for redemption. For her father. For her sister. But only one could be granted and her heart chose this Tsukikage Yami. A would be existence."

"Why is she not responding to anything?"

"Because one body can not hold two souls. Be it darkness or light that may win, one will need to perish or remain in eternal equilibrium."

"If you are not Dark Cure, are you Tsukikage Yami?" Inori realized just then that this question was pointless.

"That would be her." And now the woman in green pointed to the human girl, chained like Dark Cure.

"Who are you then? What is your name? And why do you not act?"

"Nothing yet. A Cure without a name. Because I am merely a thought, an Idea."

Inori was so sick of this. Why could a subconscious never just be straightforward and honest and tell her what was going on. "What will happen if Dark Cure wins?"

"She and I will perish forever and the wish of Tsukikage Yuri shall not come true." Even talking about her own existence being lost, the nameless Cure remained indifferent. Inori was no master of psychology but she had an idea or two. "But your question is meaningless. Guilt weighs heavy on Tsukikage Yami. She too seeks redemption and she seeks it by death."

Inori climbed up the scale and looked at the chained human girl. "Do you believe Yuri would be happy if you were to throw away her one chance to regain the little sister that she had to kill, that she had no chance of living with?" If she feels guilty over what she did in the past, she just needs to realize that the guilt is pointless. Yuri would not wish for her revival if she hadn't forgiven her.

"But… I am the reason our father is dead. How can Yuri not despise me?" Yami couldn't look directly at Inori as she said this, but she finally spoke.

"Does she not speak the truth? Does Yuri not carry hatred in her heart for those that took both father and sister from her?" The Cure without a name asked Inori.

"Who would wish for those they hate to be revived? To be given a second chance at life. If her choice was between you and her father, would she choose you out of hatred over her father out of love? Do you think Yuri is that vile?"

The scale tipped harshly in favor of the human and the green Cure slid to the side, a third towards the end of the human part.

"How can I possibly face her after all that I did? Created as something vile, I took her partner and father from her both. And how can her friends forgive me, who aided Dune." The guilt was weighting heavy on the girl.

"Is it not true that Yuri's friends would do anything to protect her, even from a foolish wish she made of powers beyond her understanding?" The Cure asked again.

Inori thought that it would have been so much easier if her memory was erased. If she was simply a void to be filled by Moonlight. She could see what the obvious solution in this scenario was and try to get there but was it really her who should be doing it? Well, I am already here.

"And who was it that stopped Yuri from fighting? Who was it that grieved for you even as you were an enemy and lay dying?" How… do I know this? I never asked Tsubomi or any of her friends about this in so much detail. Is it her subconsciousness using me to tell her what she already knows? "Were you not suffering at the end, free from your shackles of having to fight your sister, knowing that it was not how you wanted things to end?"

And again the scales tipped. The screaming, kicking Dark Cure was now lying on her part, gasping for air as she was dying. She was losing the fight for control of this body and there was nothing she could do. Her hatred and rage had been bound and chained.

"But why choose me? Our father is who she really longed to save. Who gave everything for her! Why bring back me, someone she barely knew, instead of her father?"

"Is it not true that Yuri simply wishes to exact revenge on her? To force her to live and be tormented by her deeds and past. To endure the unspeakable suffering she is enduring?" The nameless Cure didn't look like she was really on the side of Tsukikage Yami.

"Isn't it time you stop hiding behind excuses and your guilt? Why are you so afraid of hurting? You know that Yuri will be there to bear what remains of your pain together. She brought you back. A wish of an omnipotent power! And she chose you to have as a sister! Do not insult her determination!" Inori felt like her head was about to burst. Like she wasn't really in control. Am I in control? Do I want to be? Inori didn't think she could convince this girl to take over.

The scale tipped once more and the chains that bound Tsukikage Yami fell apart, a thousand pieces of metal. "I don't know what I'm supposed to say to her." Looking to Inori, Inori suddenly felt someone stand behind her.

"I'm back, Yuri." Inori answered for her without intending to.

So that's it. That Cure was the subconsciousness the powers implanted but it could not get through to this girl. So it used me as a medium. It waited and waited until it could latch onto something it could use. No wonder it wouldn't really answer my questions clearly. The bits of her subconsciousness that were flooding into my mind were what I asked and of course those can't really answer.

"Is that not… too little? How should I apologize?" Yami stood up and stepped down from the scale. She didn't really resemble Yuri all that much with her dark green dress and her short hair. And where she stood, the desert bloomed.

Inori looked to what was left of Dark Cure, the enemy that had already been killed once. Smoking bones and cloth were all that remained. Black smoke rose to the air, dissipating into the endless air. She will probably never forget what she did. No, I know she won't forget. Because it is proof that despite all of that, Yuri forgave her and wanted her back.

Inori felt her mouth move again. A slightly transparent green Cure jumped down to the ground, growing more and more see-through with every step as she approached Tsukikage Yami. "Don't." Was all Inori said before the Cure vanished entirely.

And now Tsukikage Yami and her alter ego became one. Transforming for the first time, a few words appeared magically in her mind.

Shining through the shadows of the past!

The green beneath her feet spread quickly now, rapidly turning the desert into a moonlight field filled with high grass. And finally, for the first time, Inori felt like it was her being addressed, not some inner fight inside Yami's mind. "Thank you."

Inori woke like lightning hit her. She needed several seconds to orientate herself. Both Kaoru and Honoka were immediately on high alert but Inori immediately shook her head when she saw this. "It's okay." Doing a mind dive was taxing, even if she was fully rested and had not been transported 12 years into the future and dropped into the ocean.

What Inori didn't expect was to find Moonlight up and waiting for her. She didn't really know what to tell her. Yami didn't seem to have waken up yet and Inori simply guessed that it might take some more time for her mind to heal.

"What happened inside?" Honoka asked the important question and Inori didn't answer right away. Standing up and facing Moonlight, Inori looked at her for a look time. It felt like seconds stretched into minutes and into hours.

"Yami. That is the name she had chosen for yourself. Tsukikage Yami. Dark Cure is no more and only your little sister remains." Inori had chosen her words carefully. And it had the reaction she had hoped for. Yuri started to smile, first softly, then wider and wider until tears accompanied her smile.

Seeing this reaction, almost everyone quietly left. Only Tsubomi, Erika and Itsuki stayed behind with Inori and Yuri. "She was afraid that she was brought back because you hated her. Because you wanted revenge. But deep down she also knew that this was false. That if you had the power to bring her back, you also had the choice to bring back your father instead. And no Cure would chose revenge over love." Inori explained things as plainly as she could. Yuri's tears quickly dried up. She had been just so happy that moment. For some reason, ever since she woke up she had felt that it was her who brought back Dark Cure. And now she knew why and for what.

"She also struggled to bear the guilt of what had happened between you. Memories I never would have asked for from any of you were shown to me, memories she had. Of loss, of grief. And in the end, here too she knew that you had already forgiven her. That none of you would hate her."

Tsubomi had watched Pine with worry during her time inside Dark Cure's mind. She had moved her mouth constantly, but no words had come out and there were no signs of danger either. For nearly an hour had she been inside and Tsubomi could see on her face how tired she was. But she was truly glad for Yuri.

"This is just what I believe but; when she wakes up she may not know how to approach you, and as her older sister, you should take the first step. Show her you want her in your life." Inori realized she had neglected an important thing. "I don't know if it was merely a representation of her subconsciousness but between her human self and Dark Cure there was a third. A Cure clad in green, dressed very much like you, Moonlight. I can't say if she will be one of us or just a normal girl but after everything all of us lived through, we know that it is never wrong to hope for the best." Inori took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I think I am going to find a quiet place to sit down and take a nap."

Inori turned around and was about to walk away when Yuri lunged forward and grabbed her hand. "Thank you so much."

Pine had never seen Moonlight so moved and it moved her, too. "I just helped your sister figure out what she already knew." Inori now really walked away and could hear Blossom, Marine and Sunshine throw themselves at Yuri, congratulating her. What a strange world we live in.

=== DISSONANCE ===

Yami slept for hours and as the time passed, the plane passed Hawaii. It was eerily silent on board. No Marine that caused mischief. No Urara that got into a fight. They were suffering. Mana tended to a group of six in the conference room, the one led by Dream, that was entirely out of it, their eyes barely open but unresponsive. They kept coughing and coughing.

Other groups were not faring much better. Tsubomi's group was in the hangar, leaned against Yami's field bed, the same spaced out look on their faces and the same inability to respond to anything. It didn't take long for Makoto and Rikka to figure out the reason.

"Curse poisoning." Rikka was now occasionally coughing as well. The only one among the six doki Cures to already show symptoms. Because of the curse affecting her eyes, she was suffering more quickly than the others. "The amount of curse energy in the air, in the atmosphere, has drastically increased. It is more than thirty times the amount it was a few days ago."

Black and White, together with Bloom and Egret, were on and by the couch in the very living room Rikka was doing her analysis. "They're-" Going through a coughing fit, Rikka knew that it was a matter of hours before she would show other symptoms. "The others are affected so much more than we are because they had no time at all to get used to it. We gradually created anti-bodies they don't have."

"Can't we give-" Makoto could feel the curse energy affecting her but so far it was only a headache. Before she could even finish her line, Rikka shook her head.

"The anti-bodies are only slowing the infection. These aren't curse particles associated with one of the seven sins. This is just an enormous mass of curse energy that showed up out of nowhere and must be polluting the entire planet. I… expect that most normal people are already dead or at least dying." Rikka really hoped that they were going to be drawn into the Dissonance soon or it would be too late.

"Can't we do anything?!" Mana had just come back from the conference room after moving Miyuki's group in there as well. They were in bad shape. But the ones that were off the worst were Melody and her friends. Tiny patches of their skin on their faces was turning to an ash gray color.

"This is… literally the end… of the world." Rikka coughed in-between words. "I'm sorry Mana… but there's hope. If we get drawn into Dissonance.. there shouldn't be any poisonous curse energy there." Dark energy itself was not actually infectious or damaging unless used for attacking purposes by what the other Cures had told her. "Just hope that it'll happen before-" Rikka fell off her chair and stopped talking in the middle of her sentence.

"Rikka!" Mana caught her before she hit the ground and immediately carried her to the table by the couch, putting her down. "Rikka, can you hear me?!" Mana's heart was beating so hard she couldn't think clearly.

Shaking Rikka and yelling at her to answer, Mana was distracted when suddenly she heard a loud thud from behind. Makoto was flat on the ground, her eyes barely open. "Why?! Makoto, you were fine just a moment ago!"

"Mana…" Alice walked into the room, barely able to stand. "I set the.. auto-pilot Japan where… we picked..." And now Alice fell victim to the curse energy as well. Mana caught her in time but she was rapidly running out of places to put people. Leaving Alice where she stood and leaving for the quarters she found Ace and Regina both in the same unresponsive state as everyone else in front of their quarters, leaned against the walls.

I'm the only one left. Mana had only ever felt true desperation once before, when Sharuru had died. The edges of her vision were now covered by crawling, moving shadows and she felt dizzy. I only have a few minutes max. Mana thought and rushed towards the cockpit. The course was set directly to where the spatial distortion had been already. Sitting down in the pilot's seat, Mana disabled everything the plane didn't need. She knew how to fly it, not nearly as well as Alice but well enough.

Driving the engines all the way up, to the point where warning signs went on to show her that she was going to damage the machines if she kept them going at that level, Mana couldn't even hear the beeping alarms anymore. Her resistance was the highest out of them all and she was still about to lose it. "Please… please don't let this happen." Mana really hoped that there was a god and that it was merciful. Those were the last words she spoke and the ocean beneath her the last thing she saw before she slipped into a dark prison within her own body.

The plane flew at speeds far exceeding that of any fighter jet, the G forces within the plane not bothering anyway as none of them could hear, see or feel anything. They were fully conscious but they had no control over their body, not even their eyes. The ocean beneath them had hundreds of thousands if not millions of dead ocean life floating at the top.

It was the same and worse on land. All plant life had withered already, died off. Animals, even those that could survive the freezing cold of the poles or the scorching heat of a desert were laying dead under the rapidly blackening sky. In the cities, all over civilization, people had turned to ash, falling apart. In the far distance, there were explosions. Planes that crashed. Reactors that suffered a meltdown without the oversight of humans. It was the end of the world in more than just one way.

Reaching the edge of the Deep Blue, the plane still kept going through the darkness. The sky was covered by the infinite curse energy. The magical energy, be it light or dark, that arrived with the Cures had a short life expectancy. Vulnerable to the vicious curse energy, it became infected and the curse multiplied out of control like a tumor during a time lapse.

And when the plane finally reached its target location, the world was shrouded in impenetrable darkness. None of them could see that the plane was caught in a second beam of energy that pierced even the curse above. And it left behind nothing. No plane, no Cures. And no light.

=== DISSONANCE ===

The rain was hitting the ground hard, hammering against the stone pavement with such force that every drop was like a tiny bullet. The hundreds of impacts by second in unison, mimicking the sound of a waterfall. So many drops hit her face that she couldn't tell if it was raining or if she stood in the wake of a raging river.

But this very sensation, the rain on her face, was what woke her from her internal prison. Her eyes flew wide open; far above her the black clouds were emptying themselves over her. She felt the stone beneath her and immediately switched into her Cure form. The headache from before was still there but she had regained control over her body. Be that as it may, she still felt weak, like she was just now recovering from having fainted over exhausting herself too much. Getting back on her feet proved not too difficult but she was still marginally dizzy. And as she looked through the flooding rain, she saw that there were others that were recovering as well.

"Everyone okay?!" Heart shouted, her voice coming from just a few meters away. For Setsuna, it was far too loud, like listening to a badly configured megaphone. She was sure part of this was because of her headache and because Heart wanted to get through to everyone even in the noisy rain.

There were various groans and soft spoken answers. It looks like we're back. But why is it raining? Setsuna couldn't remember it raining anywhere but the battlefield. And she felt far too weak and not very inclined to fight anyone right now for this to be a battlefield.

Someone let out a really loud and sharp whistle and all the shadows in the rain turned towards it. What they had thought to be just a large shadow was actually a massive building, a great skyscraper that towered over whatever place they had arrived at. Setsuna was, comparatively speaking, almost as far away as possible from that building and when she turned around to see what was in the other direction there was just a thick fog. Walking into a thick fog in an unknown location was not the smartest idea so she joined all the others in slowly walking towards the building.

What greeted them was a woman in a golden skirt and top, with long flowing auburn hair. On her thighs she wore golden bracers, and smaller ones of the same on her ankles, wrists and upper arms. "Even legendary warriors aren't waterproof and the humidity is getting into the hotel so get in here." Doing the job she had intricate knowledge of, the woman waved them all inside. It wasn't until the last of the stragglers arrived that the unknown woman backed away a little and the Cures got into attacking positions. "Stop, stop, stop! I just work here!"

"Sasorina!" Tsubomi instinctively reached for a flower tact that was no longer there. Erika on the other hand was rather relaxed and didn't seem to be all that worried. Seeing dead people wasn't a big deal, that happened all the time in movies.

Yuri couldn't do much because she was carrying her unconscious sister but she was very apprehensive of the desert apostle. "What are you doing here?!" Yuri didn't want to take any chances she was walking into a trap.

"I told you, I work here!" Sasorina relaxed. "Look, you can stay out there for all I care. It's my job to explain things to you but it isn't my job to explain it to all of you. Just stay in the stupid rain and catch a cold for all I care." Her usually calm demeanor was blown away by her encounter with her old foes. And without another word to them, she turned away to enter the building, following the Cures she had waved inside one by one. "Why did they all have to show up on my end… couldn't they have sent them over to the other side?" She complained by herself.

"What do we do?" Tsubomi was still cautious of their old enemy. She had been purified and reborn in the end but what was she doing here now, looking exactly the way she had been before?

"Eh, what do you mean what do we do? I'm not staying in the rain for another minute. Do you know what rain like this does to your hair and skin?" Erika walked ahead. "Come on, it's just Sasorina. We'd wipe the floor with her even if she tries something." Erika was not worried in the least.

"She does have a point." Yuri conceded and walked ahead, Blossom following suit right behind. "But why is she here? And what does she mean by she works here. This isn't a supermarket that hires part-timers." Yuri felt that this entire premise had always been ridiculous but this was really putting a crown on it.

Following the trail of soaked carpet to a large counter, where numerous Cures were already assembled, Blossom and her group were visibly glad to be out of the rain. There was not much chatter as they kept watching Sasorina operate an air control unit thermometer on the wall behind the counter.

"Everyone here? Good." The desert apostle was back to being calm. She didn't really care for this job but as long as she was here, she had to do it. There was no option to quit. "As you most likely figured out already, this is the labyrinth. Or as you have started to call it recently, Dissonance. Personally I think that is some really lame naming sense but okay." Sasorina could not hurt them, not physically, but she could very well make fun of them. "After the failure of the system at 1.0 and the failure of 2.0, we were called in to maintain things so there is no catastrophic failure of 3.0."

"Who is we?" Urara asked, irritated by this explanation. She did agree with the assessment of the naming sense of whoever had come up with the name Dissonance however. Had to be one of the girls from Ako's group. Their whole shtick is music and everything.

"In one word, enemies of your past." Sasorina wanted to explain that in more detail but there was an annoying gnome that interrupted her.

"That is four words." Marine corrected the woman.

Ignoring Marine, Sasorina tried hard to keep her cool. "That is basically the deal. I am the receptionist for the Dark Team. The Light Team has their own. There is also someone running the general store, the public bathhouse, one making the rules for the battles each day and one each for the Reception of the Arena where you register for battles and training session. My job is it to assign room keys based on your ranking and if you want to pay a small fee, deliver a written message to the other team's receptionist."

"Like DHL but without the annoying You weren't there, come get your packet papers!" Marine was having a blast just messing with Sasorina.

"You swimming pool colored sawed off thumb, shut up!" Sasorina lost her temper for a moment but quickly recovered. "I'm supposed to tell you to go out and check on the general store, the bath, the arena and what not. I think there is a garden somewhere there too. Just take one of the paved ways off the plaza, through the fog."

"I am not going out in that. Why the hell is it raining anyway? Isn't this in some iffy magic place that has no weather?"

"I'm just the receptionist, you're probably better off asking one of the others." Sasorina wanted to get back to her puzzle magazine already. "Now, I'll hand out keys. The elevator only has four stops. Only rank 1 gets to access the penthouse, room changes are every 3 days." Looking at her list, Sasorina groaned and just wanted to skip the penthouse. "Rank 1, Marine. Penthouse." Holding out a special golden key with a fancy piece of wood attached to it that had a 1 on it, the desert apostle was annoyed when Marine claimed it with a big fat grin.

"Rank 2, 3 and 4, Floor 50. White, Beat and Pine." Sasorina handed out three metal keys that had a pink plastic chip attached to them, each with their respective number. "And don't lose your keys. Replacements are 200 favor."

Honoka grabbed her key and walked away, waiting for Mai, who had landed on the same team as her. There were several couches, low tables and chairs placed in the lobby. A few small shelves with pamphlets and informative brochures too and that was what attracted Honoka. She spotted Marine showing off her rank 1 to everyone in her team, overly excited what the room was going to be like. Previously, the four top people shared two of the high class rooms. This was very different.

"Rank 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, in order. Muse, Beauty, Rhythm-" Sasorina handed out keys and had to look down on her list to remember the other names. "Passion, Berry and Moonlight. All of you are on Floor 25. And don't bother trying to think of going to other floors via the stairs, the doors will all be locked." Handing out the rest of the keys, these ones also metal and with a light blue colored plastic chip attached.

"Everyone else is on the tenth floor. Lemonade, Mint… Blossom, Dream-" She had to look down at her list again. How am I supposed to remember all these damn names? Do I look like some kind of hardcore fan of Pretty Cures? "Egret, one Dark Cure, Heart and Diamond."

These keys were also metal but made very cheap. A metal chip was attached that was already rusted green and the number was just barely readable because it was carved in. "Any questions you can find me here. Like I said, I work here." Sasorina ignored the Cures promptly after finishing her speech and flipped open the small magazine on the lower part of the counter. Sitting down and picking up a pen, she acted like what was happening in front of the counter didn't matter to her.

The elevator only fit six people at a time and wouldn't budge when more went inside despite the weight limit being far higher than any of their combined weight could ever be. Marine pressed the penthouse button fifteen times, the smirk on her face so great that Tsubomi feared her head was about to split horizontally in half.

"What do you make of this, White?" Reika was among the first to go up. Her room was number 31, which was just a combination of the floor, 25, and her rank,6. At least it was easy to memorize.

Honoka's was room room 52, following the same logic. "Honestly, I believe this might be for the best. Beat's incident. The mirrors. The numerous things that went wrong. Even after the system was upgraded there were still so many things left unclear. From what I saw so far, this looks like a much more controlled environment." Honoka was just a little excited for her room. As rank 2, she was one of three people that got to live on the 50th floor.

The elevator needed 20 seconds to reach floor 10 after it had finally started moving, which was quite slow but it didn't shake or give anyone an uncomfortable feeling in their stomach in turn. "We'll be back down in the lobby in a bit. We should probably take a look around, rain or not. It might be good for our bodies to keep moving, too." Komachi remembered the curse putting all of them through quite the ordeal. The door closed and the elevator kept rising through the floors.

"The receptionist-" Honoka started.

"Her name is Sasorina. She's some small fry from when we fought the dessert apollo, no wait that was the name of the milkshake at my favorite ice cream parlor. I mean desert apostles. She was one of them but, psh, she wasn't that big of a deal. First to take a permanent vacation and everything." Marine said arrogantly. Raising her nose so high, it almost looked like it was about to grow and turn into a big spike.

Erika was really trying Honoka's patience now. "The receptionist-"

"And by the way, she was serving this big old young dude called Dune and- help, help me!" Marine felt White's grip on the top of her head and it was uncomfortably strong and exerting way too much pressure.

"Now as I was saying, the receptionist didn't talk about how battles, member exchange or exile options work now so we will have to ascertain those as quickly as possible." Honoka simply spoke louder than usual over Marine's flailing and whimpering. Only when she was done did she let go of the short blue Cure.

Ako had been quiet this entire time, still transformed and in her adult state. She wanted a few moments alone in her room to wash up in peace and find a change of clothes so she could get out of all the leather. Even though she kept the mask off nowadays, soaked leather still clung rather disgustingly to the skin, especially on her chest, crotch and limbs. And she absolutely didn't want Urara around when she was going to change clothes because she'd have to fight her off in the shower, she was absolutely sure of that.

"I guess it's not true that only the quiet ones are the scary ones." Erika massaged her scalp and it felt like she had a dent in her head because of White now.

Honoka smiled at Erika in a terrifying way. "Now, I am sure I can arrange for you to know how scary I can be if people keep interrupting me and won't be quiet." Honoka had a long day of soaking up new information and she was so far from being in the mood to listen to Marine's ramblings that she needed a new way to measure things to put it in relation.

Luckily for both Reika and Ako, the elevator let out its signature ding and the doors opened on the 25th floor. While the 10th had been mostly bare with wooden doors, walls and flooring, resembling a Motel more so than a Hotel, the 25th looked like it belonged in an actual hotel. Not a very pricy one but one of decent quality. The floor was covered in carpet, the walls were stone and painted well and there were a few small tables and chairs spread across the hallway.

"I will see you in the lobby after a shower and a change of clothes." Reika glanced at Marine. "And you should learn to control that big mouth of yours." Reika had been annoyed too but she wasn't as quick to lash out.

And the floating death cell continued its way upward with an upbeat Marine suddenly realizing she was all alone with Honoka and there were a lot of empty floors to hide bodies. "N-Now, don't do anything hasty. I-I'm sure we can find a solution that doesn't involve crime scenes, body bags and the end of a genius sexy model designer soon-to-own clothing store-" Marine saw Honoka's left eye twitch. "Jeez, I know its been a long day but aren't you overreacting?" Erika knew when to drop the act.

"I'm not sure you understand just how bad the situation in that timeline was. Humanity was on the bring of extinction." Honoka carried her humor in a sealed off box on that day. "Getting drawn back into this prison was a blessing compared to what was happening in that world."

"Yikes, it was that bad? I didn't get all the info but I thought it was just the usual big bad villains doing villainy stuff." Erika was smart but she didn't pay all that much attention sometimes. She had been more occupied with Yayoi and that new fun girl.

Honoka looked at Erika with disdain. "You need to learn when to stop these antics." She had seen her share of darkness and suffering. But nothing on the scale of what had happened and was happening in Diamond's world. That had been something not even apocalyptic hollywood movies would come up with.

The serious and also slightly horrified look on White's face put a damper on Erika's mood. But not for very long. With a third ding they reached the 50th floor and Honoka got off. "You should get back down to the lobby later, with everyone else, regardless of what I think about your attitude."

There were far more rooms on the 50th floor than just three. There were five to each side. Room 50 and 51 were locked and didn't even have keyholes and neither did rooms beyond 54 from what Honoka could tell. The floor itself was like a more luxurious and expensive version of the 25th with marble flooring, expensive carpet and some very fine mahogany furnished furniture.

Erika was a little bored all by herself and leaned against the back wall of the elevator. "Maybe I went a little overboard but everyone being all serious all day can't be good for them." Spending a few seconds in silence, Erika started making silly noises with her mouth for as long as she had been quiet. "The one time you want elevator music."

And finally, she reached the penthouse. The elevator opened directly into the actual room. There was no hallway on this floor, only the actual penthouse. And what a place it was. Erika walked inside with her mouth wide open. The high ceiling, the plastered walls, the marble flooring that was heated even. Erika didn't bother to change forms and just stripped off her boots, gloves and everything but the main piece.

A gigantic circular bed was placed inside the room, fully equipped with an option to rotate and curtains on top. The furniture was made from some kind of wood that felt so expensive and smooth that Erika felt like she was supposed to have Yen signs as her pupils just touching it. There was a large record player with an assortment of records from classical to pop music, a fireplace with a couch so comfortable that Erika wanted to physically melt into it.

With the heated floor came an air conditioner, electronic and accessible through a large pad near the elevator and another by her bed. Across the room, opposite from the fireplace, was a large projector screen and projector, complete with a shelf that contained dozens of movies. A large table with all sorts of makeup utensils was present as well, with a large mirror to pay minute attention to everything. A great selection of hair brushes, with some exotic ones that Erika didn't even know how to use was placed right next to the makeup table on a smaller table. And as cluttered as the room seemed, there was still more, so large was it.

Only steps away from the gigantic bed were four large wardrobes already filled with clothes, all in Erika's size. Picking out a one-piece made out of jeans, Erika changed and only then realized that maybe she should transform back.

Next to the fireplace Erika discovered a minibar that was more like an actual bar squeezed into two small fridges. There was an additional electronic display near the fireplace that was not showing anything yet but the line Battle Rules of the Day.

And this was all still merely the main room. Erika couldn't pick between the 4 extra doors that lead somewhere else. Eventually just rushing from door to door and opening all of them at the same time, she encountered first a swimming pool, big enough for four people with ease and an extra closet and changing room that had all kinds of swimsuits prepared already. Being the genius fashion designer that Erika said she was, she noticed several odd designs and swimsuits that hung too heavy from their hangers. Picking one of them out, Erika noticed immediately what they were for and she had to think of Yuri. She definitely had to make her wear one of those. The roof of this particular room was made entirely of glass. The heavy rain from outside hammering on it, giving it a really relaxing atmosphere.

The second room was a sauna, big enough for one or two people. It was the really hot kind that focused on heat and not on humidity. A large shelf with towels was right outside it and it was conveniently placed so that one could leave, take a corner and then dive right into the swimming pool after.

The third room was simply a large flat screen TV surrounded by several chairs and couches. The TV showed nothing at the time and there didn't seem to be a remote so Erika immediately bolted. The fourth room was the bathroom that had a heated floor all the same but was made from a different kind of stone. The tub was big enough to fit most likely her entire team in there, there were two sinks that had large mirrors above them and a shower. A thin wall and another door within the bathroom separated the primary bathroom from the toilet.

Finishing her tour of the penthouse, Marine threw herself on the bed. She didn't even know what to do first. She hoped one of the new Cures had some kind of cloning ability so she could literally split into four and do everything at once. Once she laid there on the bed, and hit the button for it to rotate, she noticed a weird contrivance on the glass wall at the far end of the room, opposite to where the elevator door was. And she noticed now that there, outside, was a veranda including a luxurious patio.

"I am never leaving this place!" Erika shouted and burst into laughter. And there was one thing she absolutely had to do.

Several floors down, Honoka just left the shower and her bathroom. Her room was still much more luxurious than what she and Nagisa had at home. A large and very comfortable bed, a makeup table with a nice mirror, two wardrobes that contained various clothing articles. A few brushes, a hairdryer and there was even a small mini bar near a desk.

The bathroom offered a standard large tub, a shower, a sink, one mirror directly above the sink and one within the shower proper. The toilet was in a corner of the room, as far away from the sinks as possible. Honoka had opted to use the shower instead of the tub. She didn't want to fall asleep taking a relaxing bath.

Drying her long hair in a hurry, Honoka put on some of the new clothes from her wardrobe. She opted for something simple. Black jeans, white pumps, a white blouse. Nothing too conspicuous. "This is quite the change from before. And if my room is this comfortable the penthouse must be quite something." She was ranked second. How hard could it be to overtake Marine?

And down on the 25th floor, Yuri had taken her sister to her own room. It wasn't a first class room but would cost a stern sum in the real world. Yami, Inori had told her that was her name, was just coming to. And it was so unbelievably awkward in terms of timing that she hid her face. Because Yuri had just emerged from the shower, covered in nothing but a towel on her hair in one moment and her face covered in red the very next.

Yuri's room offered a comfortable bed that was not quite big enough for two unless they were in some kind of intimate relationship. The room also contained a wardrobe, a desk and two different kind of hairbrushes on said desk. The bathroom offered a shower, sink with a standard sized mirror and a toilet, all of decent quality but not above. She hadn't expected this level of quality based on her rank at all which was a welcome surprise.

The awkward silence just wouldn't leave, even after Yuri quickly transformed if only to put on some clothes. What do I say to her? Both of the sisters thought. Yuri had always been a single child and even after meeting Tsubomi and the others she had never been as energetic or open as Blossom or Marine, not even close. Itsuki was very direct and straightforward, but she herself was the slightly socially awkward one of the group.

"Thank you." Yami finally started a conversation.

"You're welcome," Yuri replied out of reflex and it instantly killed the conversation again. They spent fifteen unbelievably long seconds in silence. "Is calling you Yami fine?"

"Anything is fine, Yuri-nee-sama." Yami felt that just slip out and it felt both so very wrong and so very embarrassing. And it wasn't just embarrassing for Yami.

"That's… a little… much." Yuri felt the awkward silence creeping up on her. "You can just call me Yuri or if you really want to insist on honorifics, Nee-san will do just fine."

And the silence returned, deafening. They just didn't know what to say now that they were suddenly in the same room. "I… I know. You should take a shower and after that I'll take you to introduce you to the rest of my- the others of our team."

"I remember Tsubomi." Yami paused a moment and averted her eyes just the tiniest bit. "And Erika."

"It's hard to forget Erika even if you want to." Yuri conceded on that with a smile. "But everyone has changed since you last met them."

"I don't know if… I can even say that was really me. I don't really know what I'm supposed to do. Our father made me to fight you and that was all I knew." Yami wasn't sure what her life was going to be like. She had no education, no hobbies, no interests even.

"There are a lot of things you'll be able to learn from everyone here." Sitting down next to her sister, a little further than she had planned to, Yuri then apologized. "I'm sorry, I don't really know how to be a big sister."

"I don't know how to be a little sister either." Yami looked at her older sister and it was a weird feeling to look at Moonlight and feel only a strange sense of attachment and nothing negative at all.

"We can absolutely not tell Erika about this conversation or she will corrupt you into another bouncing bundle of energy that never shuts up."

Yami laughed for the first time in her life at that comment. "I see she hasn't changed at all. Even from what little I saw of her, this sounds just like her."

Yuri groaned. "She can be such a handful. She and Tsubomi are a couple now, too, and luckily Tsubomi reins her in when she goes overboard." Standing up, Yuri took a page out of Erika's playbook and grabbed Yami's hand, pulling her up too. "You're as tall as me so after the shower, just pick something out of the closet you like. It should fit you."

The green haired woman started to fidget a little. "I'm… really glad you brought me back."

"I have to be honest. None of us remember how you were brought back. We don't remember anything after the first handful of loops of that grand party. But… even if I don't remember why, I'm glad you're here." Yuri paused for a moment. "I am not exactly sure what we're going to tell mother though..."

Yami smiled with a lot of awkwardness. "So this is your room at home?" She had absolutely no idea where she was.

"This is… I think I'll leave explaining it until later. But this isn't any normal world or time. There are only other Cures here, so they're all good people. With the exception of Marine and Peace. They're always up to mischief."

"I can tell you like Erika a lot." Yami was not as sharp as Yuri was but she had good intuition.

Well I used to date her sister. Speaking of which, doesn't Miki have the room next door? Yuri thought to herself. "You take a shower, and get out of those sticky clothes, and I'll go talk to Miki."

"Miki?" Yami was almost shoved into the bathroom. Yuri knew there was no end to answering questions right now so she had to be a little forceful.

I think Erika, Tsubomi and Momoka rubbed off on me a little too much. Yuri wondered where her stern loner personality had gone to. Not that she was particularly missing it but she wondered if she was really going to be a good older sister. Until this very moment she had only thought about what this moment would feel like, not what she would do. And the feeling had been lacking impact somehow. She was just suddenly awake, they spoke and now she was in her shower. My life has become Erika-tized. I've lost control of my life. Next thing I know I am making chocolate pudding in the morning. And then Yuri realized she was starting to think like Erika, which was a terrifying realization so she focused on checking the contents of the wardrobe again.

Down on the 10th floor, Nozomi and Mai were keeping Mana and Rikka company. It was difficult for the blind girl to find anything in this new environment but those three that were by her side were really helping a lot.

The lowest quality rooms really were just rooms. A standard sized bed that absolutely couldn't fit two people, a small wardrobe with about a dozen pieces of clothing at most combined between dresses, pants, skirts and shoes. The bathroom was not impressive either. The water temperature of the shower jumped every time someone on the same floor used the shower, sink or toilet, which was quite bothersome. It did still offer a sink and a toilet next to the shower, which was appreciated. Many motels out in the real world didn't have their own bathrooms.

"Do you think you'll be okay?" Nozomi was genuinely concerned for Rikka. Being blind was a serious disability and handicap to suddenly live somewhere else.

"Rikka's a tough cookie." Mana was much more optimistic than her fellow pink.

Switching to Cure mode, Rikka used her crystals to pick up vibrations in the air. "If you could continue talking please. Using vibrations is a problem only where the room is full of people or when there is a lot of walking around."

"In case of doubt I'll just carry you everywhere!" Mana said happily. She was very glad that they had a chance to do it all over. To change history. She knew that soon, maybe tomorrow or the day after, she would feel down over all those people that died but she was going to work hard to make sure something like that never happened again.

"Is she-" Mai was a little curious if Heart was really planning on doing that.

"Mana is always serious about that. She's like the happy prince, helping people out until she falls apart." Rikka reached for Mana's nose and expertly grabbed it without missing once. "And I yelled at her for that over the years so many times I lost count! Isn't that right Mana?"

"Was it really that often?" Mana's voice sounded really weird with her nose pinched like that. "I can't really rememb- ow, ow, Rikka, stop, stop!"

"See what I mean? This is a lost cause. Makes a philanthropist look like an amateur."

Mai couldn't hold in a chuckle and, when Nozomi joined her, she broke out into a gentle laugh. "You have such a great girlfriend, Diamond."

Rikka knew she hadn't mentioned anything about that to Dream or Egret. "Who told you that?"

"Well, I mean… it is really obvious. I've been dating Bloom for several years now so I can spot a couple when I see one. But there is something different about you two." Mai knew that Dream was possibly the only one among them that didn't swing that way and she really felt bad for her over that.

"So that makes.. Mint and Aqua, I am pretty sure White and Black like each other too, and there was that moment with Lemonade and-" Mana couldn't remember the name for a moment. "Muse. And a few others. Is is just a common thing for Cures to date their partners or did that all happen while you were in this place?" Mana liked the idea of partners being partners too.

"It comes with the territory. Nozomi here is an exception but I think almost everyone else here likes girls. Most are in relationships already." Mai made no examples because she didn't want to tell Heart things others didn't want her to know.

"I would still like Coco if he was a girl." Nozomi joked and knew that that was never going to happen so she could joke about it.

"I'm detecting a lot of movement out in the hall. I think we should get down to meet everyone else."Rikka got up and moved towards the door, stepping over Dream's right leg without an issue. "I might be blind but as long as I have some time to make sense of things, I can get around just fine."

=== DISSONANCE ===

"Isn't it creepy having her here? In that form even." Akane, Nao, Miyuki and Yayoi were sitting in the lobby, waiting for a few stragglers, the penthouse owner among them. "Didn't she have a time limit on that form or something?" Nao was visibly uncomfortable around the Light Team's receptionist.

"I know you had your issues with her but aren't you overreacting Nao?" Akane wasn't that bothered by her. "It's just Majorina. She's more quirky than dangerous and we're so much stronger now than we were back then. Yayoi could probably take her on all alone and win easily."

"Is that supposed to mean I'm the weakest of us?" Yayoi didn't like the tone of that and started to pout as hard as could.

"But why is she… in that form. How does her back not hurt like hell after sitting around all day like that?" Nao was still uncomfortable with her. There was just something creepy about a supposedly near ancient woman turning into her young self and playing receptionist.

"Look who is talking." Akane burst out in laughter when Nao didn't seem to realize the irony in her statement.

"Maybe she just can. It's magic and all! Fairy tales don't need to make sense like that. You don't get back problems if you jump and run around as a Cure, right?" Miyuki thought she'd offer helpful advice.

"Saying It's magic is so very Miyuki but also so very not helpful." Nao grimaced. Yayoi was still upset and Nao thought that she needed to get Akane to apologize to make that go away.

A few meters away, Melody and Sunshine were both about to do something very stupid but even more fun than it was stupid. There was a very long carpet going from the elevator to the entrance and the floor beneath it was very, very smooth. "Ready?" Itsuki was really glad she was on the same team as Hibiki. "One, two-"

"Three!" Both Hibiki and Itsuki jumped onto the carpet as hard as they could and just as they expected the carpet started sliding rapidly towards the entrance, with both Cures on it. They got almost halfway, laughing so hard that the entire lobby was paying attention to them when they were suddenly thrown to the ground by a massive spike in gravitation.

Majorina rose in her chair and had raised her hand. "Not that isn't appropriate behavior for a hotel lobby. This is not your playground you petulant children." She could have stopped them early, before they got themselves into trouble but where would have been the fun in that? Intensifying the gravity with a click of her fingers and a second click to freeze everyone else in place, she walked through the intense gravity as if it was nothing. "Now, I am sure you understand that I am forced to keep order at my workplace. Don't hold it against me."

Clapping her hands twice, both the gravity and the paralyzing effect vanished. The carpet rolled itself back to where it came from through Majorina's magic as well. "Don't do it again or you'll get in some real trouble." Sitting back behind her counter the young witch pulled out a nail file and started doing her nails as if she had nothing better to do, which was generally the case with a job like this.

"What were you saying about Peace taking her on alone?" Nao asked Akane who was now very speechless.

"Totally worth it." Hibiki whispered under her breath to Itsuki as she got up. A bit of a gravity spike wasn't anything she would be very bothered by. Not after all the battles she had lived through during the last few weeks in this place.

"We should do it again when she's not here." Itsuki was all up for it.

The last few of the 18, no, 19 Cures that made up the Light Team came out of the elevator just then and two very annoyed looking women immediately headed over to the reception. Slamming a key on the counter, Ace glared down at Majorina who was not very intimidated at all. "Do you have a complaint?"

"Why are both of us assigned to the same room? Everyone else has been given their private room." Ange had a very rough idea of why this was and if that was the case she was going to be really mad.

Not bothering to reply and instead just hanging over the list of occupants, Majorina was too busy getting her nails just right. And that was a grave error. Out of absolutely nowhere a massive shock of electricity hit the witch, enough to figuratively make steam rise from her a moment later. Both Ange and Regina backed away as they saw this. "That's… that's right. My apologies." Majorina coughed out a bit of smoke. I forgot I have to do my job properly or else.

"It appears that the system believes both of you to be the same person. It is beyond my authority to give out more keys than the list says I can give out. The two of you are listed as Cure Ace and Regina."

"Wild Joker! Everyone else has a second name so I get one too!" Regina clarified on the spot.

"That is not what the list says and is also not relevant." Majorina pointed at the list again. "You will be treated as the same person and that is pretty much that. I can't help you." I hope they go to sleep soon so I can sneak off and go to the bathhouse. I just had a great idea for a new type of bubble bath because of that shock.

"Ace. Regina." Makoto called out to them. She went by Ange's Cure name because she wasn't really comfortable being all open about dating her yet, not in front of so many people she didn't really know.

The two disgruntled Cures left the receptionist alone and joined the now quickly growing group of Cures that were discussing what to do next. "The rain isn't letting up but we should take a look around anyway." Karen was with Kaoru from Bloom's team, the two of them feeling that the teams had been somewhat unfairly divided in terms of brainpower.

"I'll wanna check the public bath." Saki knew she would be spending a lot of money there. She had come to really like those very big tubs and the atmosphere.

"I am going with Saki then." Kaoru quickly left Karen and joined her teammate.

"Where did Melody and Sunshine go?" Karen noticed that they were suddenly missing. "Actually, never mind. Most likely up to no good. Anyone that would like to volunteer to check out the general store that was mentioned?" Karen asked and Alice raised her hand. "Rosetta?"

"I would like to go." Alice wasn't bothered by a little rain. She could just keep dry by using her barriers.

"I need some snacks, I'm coming too." Regina went up ahead and waited by the door and noticed that there was actually a large bucket with a whole bunch of umbrellas. "Hey, tits witch, are these free?"

T-Tits witch? Majorina was taken aback by how unbelievably rude that girl was. "They can be borrowed free of charge but if you destroy one they will cost 50 favor to replace." She really, really wished she could use these absurd powers she had to teach those stupid children a lesson.

"Alice, hurry up!" Regina didn't want to stand around and wait. Exploring some new area in the rain was something she didn't get to do often. Sharing an umbrella with someone was something she'd really prefer to do with Mana or Rikka but that didn't look like it was an option right now.

Makoto reached for an umbrella at the same time as Ange did, both of them pulling back. Before Ange could reach out again, Regina shoved an umbrella right in her hands, ruining the mood.

The four of them were out the door before Saki and Kaoru could even decide if they were going to take anyone else along. Kaoru's sister quietly joined the two because she didn't really care to go with any of the others right now. And she was curious how difficult it was to fit three people under one umbrella.

"I am staying behind to find out more about how exchanging team members works and if the exile still exists," Karen announced before anyone got weird ideas about dragging her somewhere.

Nagisa, Hikari, Kurumi, Rin and the Smile quartet decided to take a look at the Arena while the remainder wanted to check on the garden. Splitting into groups, Karen and Love were the only ones to be left behind. Love was the only one from her team on this side and not even Ellen was there, making it a bit lonely. So she wanted to know about the exchange as soon as possible.

"The exchange and the exile is it?" Majorina had been wondering if there was some kind of Cure boom going on. Having to deal with five of them had been stressful enough but eighteen of them was absurd. Was there a factory somewhere? "The exchange is handled at the outpost and the woman that works there. It functions directly by first come, first serve. One exchange at a time."

"Thank You." Love actually thanked the villain that was forced to work as receptionist, walked to the entrance, grabbed an umbrella and left. She knew she had to be a bit selfish if she wanted to be with her girlfriends.

"What about the exile?" Karen was most concerned about that. It had caused some serious damage in the past.

"There is no such thing." Majorina had no idea what Karen was talking about. "Anything else?" She wanted to be left alone already.

"Is there any punishment for earning the least favor, for scoring the worst during one of the scheduled battles?"

"You gotta ask the Arena staff that sort of thing." Majorina simply didn't know and was glad that Karen finally left after receiving that answer. "Are all blue Cures rich girl types?" Majorina could finally focus on her nails.

Outside, the groups had parted ways. Alice's group was the first to pass through the fog. Regina ran ahead, got pretty wet and was immediately spat out by the fog and nearly ran into Ace and the others. The only way to get anywhere, so they experienced, was to stay on the paved path, fog to all sides until they reached a moderately sized general store. And again, Regina ran inside. The next thing the remaining three heard was two very loud What the hell are you doing here? And they recognized both of these voices.

Going inside and leaving the umbrellas at the conveniently placed umbrella holder right next to the door, they found Regina and Mamo, the Selfish that had tried so hard with Ira and Bel to revive the Selfish King.

"I had a feeling something like this might happen." Alice had expected that Mamo would show up somewhere after hearing Happy's group talk about the receptionist. But for her to work in a convenience store was both sad and hilarious at the same time.

Regina was about to cause trouble in the store when Makoto held her back. She had seen earlier what happened to Melody and her friend and she didn't want to get kicked out of the store because Regina couldn't behave.

"So you have moved from serving a king to serving money." Alice could be quite mean spirited. "I am surprised to see you would wear something so… unquestionably unfashionable." Pointing at Mamo's blue shirt, which was simply store policy Mamo had been told, Alice played up trying to suppress a smirk. After all the trouble Mamo had caused, she deserved this much.

Mamo gripped the desk she sat behind and caused a crack in it. That arrogant little! But she knew that if she attacked them she would see real hell, much worse than what had happened to her back in the human world.

"Are you going to buy anything? Otherwise you need to leave. And no reading the magazines! Regina do you hear me!" Mamo shouted at the girl that was already reading the magazines without paying for them.

The four spread out and looked around but they didn't understand the pricing of things. It was far too low to be Yen, too high to be US Dollars and anything in-between didn't seem to quite make sense. Alice showed up at the register where Mamo was now reading a fashion magazine to distract herself. "What currency is in use in this place?" Alice hoped it wasn't something strange.

"Favor. You know, the stuff you get from fighting against other Cures?" Mamo dropped her magazine. "Don't tell me you don't have any?"

"What? Can't I just pay with Yen? I got a gift card on me too!" Regina ignored the weird look from Ace that was spelling out Why do you have a gift card on you?

"Of course not! People without money aren't welcome, get out!" Mamo was still very much bitter about the botched Selfish King escapade. That accursed Cure Heart. At least she wasn't there.

In a different place within the fog a different but equally awkward scenario was taking place. Saki and the Kiryuu sisters looked with rather strained expressions at the owner and caretaker of the public bathhouse. "You're Miss Shitamare, aren't you?" Saki asked.

There was an enormous angry twitch in the face of the dark skinned woman with blonde hair and far too much makeup. Kaoru whispered something to Saki who then cleared her throat. "I meant to say Miss Shinatana. You're her, aren't you?"

"That's even more incorrect!" The woman complained.

"What are you doing here, Mizushita?" Michiru asked and readied herself for a fight.

"Don't abbreviate it!" What did I do to deserve this? The woman thought. "It's Miss Shitataare! And I just run the bathhouse here. Can't you see they even forced me to stay in my human disguise?!"

"I don't trust her. I say we kill-" Michiru didn't get much further than that because Saki stepped on her foot. "Saki?"

"This is just more of the same. That receptionist was apparently one of the enemies Miyuki and her friends fought."

Bright lowered her fists but kept keen eyes on their former enemy. She was really protective of Saki, no matter how strong her friend got.

"Why are you Cures so aggressive?" Mizushita took a deep breath to relax. "So are you going to enter the bath? The bath is open for the light team for the next 2 ½ hours. Then it switches to the dark team." She was required to tell them this. If it was up to her, she would have drowned them but it had been made pretty clear that a singular hostile move would be punished to an extreme degree.

"Maybe later." Saki didn't want to go and enjoy a good soak. She first had to report back on everything. At least tell enough people that it would spread automatically.

And those two groups were not the only ones that encountered old foes. Nagisa, Hikari and Kurumi in particular were on guard as someone they had never truly beaten was watching them. Poisony was the woman in charge of registering for battle and mock battles. She also enforced that no non-combatants would enter the arena, no matter what happened. She was also the person to pay for access to the premium watching room where one could follow the battles.

"Of all the people..." Nagisa really couldn't stand her. Hikari had never met her but after being friends with Nagisa and Honoka for so long she knew about Poisony of course. Kurumi was eager to teach that woman a lesson primarily because she wanted Hikari to feel safe but after being told what happened to Itsuki and Hibiki, that wasn't a good idea.

"Welcome." Poisony greeted every new Cure that approached the registration counter with a smile. It was a deceiving smile and while most of the Cures could tell so now, they would have been very worried about facing that woman as an enemy.

Karen was there too now and she wanted to know about the repercussions of scoring low. "Of each team, the one with the lowest score in battle will be forced to perform cleaning duties and unpaid work at the public facilities for 3 days starting the day after their scoring." Poisony gave information willingly, without appearing threatening or evil. She knew that if she played along for long enough, they would eventually drop their guard. And there were any number of ways of indirectly causing damage, especially to that accursed Black.

"That's both a lot less horrible and a lot more annoying than what we had before." Rin was there as well, with Karen. "I worked part time in a bathhouse for one summer. It's insane how much work cleaning those tubs is. But at least no more psychological torture. Just physical torture."

How bad can cleaning a bathhouse possibly be? Karen thought but was not too eager to find out.

The Arena itself was a half-circle. A large lobby that had wooden flooring but steel furniture and ample lighting, lead into two hallways, one leading to a smaller arena to the north where mock battles would happen and the other hallway that bore access to both the free and the premium watching rooms. The lobby also had several vending machines for snacks but they were far more pricy than the ones in the general store the Cures later found out.

The main door that would only open on Poisony's command lead to the battlefield for the fights proper, where Cures would fight each other in an elimination style match. Rin had checked out the free watching room and it offered only moderately comfortable seats and a large but standard definition monitor that would transmit the events of the battle.

She didn't want to check the premium room for no reason because it was a per hour admission cost but it was pretty easy to guess that the inside was simply much better than the free room. It was not very expensive at 25 favor but watching the fights was not something everyone would want to do anyway.

The other team was on the other side of the hallways where indestructible doors sealed off the hallway at the halfway point. The mock battles cost 150 favor per hour which was too much to just pay for it, go in and do nothing, they all realized that. But Miki, Setsuna and Inori were quite cautious of their arena receptionist.

Northa sat there, looking both irritated and bored, clearly staring at Setsuna. She only greeted people as necessary and when they asked about information regarding the new system which she was required to give out. That was how Honoka found out about the person in charge of the rules for each battle, Viblis. She could sense that there were some harsh battles coming for them.

"Why is she staring at you this much?" Ellen had a hunch but she didn't want to make any blind guesses.

"We both used to serve Moebius." Setsuna didn't mind telling Ellen about this. She knew most of the story already anyway. "When I was still Eas, we were on the same side. She even tried to trick me into switching sides back to Labyrinth." Setsuna always felt conscious of Eas, her original self, even now, with Love and Ellen by her side. "Memory." Using her ability to return to her original form, Eas, there were suddenly a lot of eyes on her because both her clothes and looks were highly similar to Northa's.

"I didn't think you were still capable of switch over." Northa wasn't impressed and didn't seem particularly interested in Eas. But she spoke to her out of own volition.

"You should have seen the errors of Labyrinth. Someone with your cunning and wit wouldn't be oblivious to what was going on." Eas had never really found out why Northa served Moebius with such blind devotion.

Northa slowly closed her eyes only to shake her head and let out a disappointed sigh. "Even if I told you, what would it matter? I served who I chose to serve and you did what you wanted. I have nothing else to say to a traitor. Nothing but that this is who you really are, no matter what, no matter if you hide behind a human form or become a Cure." Northa's cruel words would have hit deep if Setsuna hadn't experienced true acceptance by both Love and Ellen.

"You hide behind that evil exterior because you're afraid to accept that you lost once, that your ways were wrong. But go ahead and be irritated for the rest of eternity and stay here just as long." Eas walked away, leaving an angry expression on Northa's face. Canceling her ability and turning back into Setsuna, Cure Passion felt her heart hammer against her chest. When she saw Ellen smile at her as she came back, she knew what she had said was all true. And that Northa was just a sore loser.

The Cures all returned to the lobby eventually. There was no battle scheduled for the first day and they had all endured a long day of changes and catastrophe. It felt like a story that went on far too long and just couldn't find a point to stop. And just when people were wishing each other good night, Marine got all of their attention. "To celebrate our safe arrival in whatever this is, I am throwing a party up in the penthouse! There's a swimming pool, sauna, movies, music, a rotating bed, alcohol! Everyone welcome!"

At first, there was no enthusiasm for this. And of all the people it was Diamond who first walked past everyone else towards the elevator. Raising her voice just enough so that everyone could hear, she asked Marine. "Snacks and drinks are on you then?"

"Who do you take me for? I got mad dosh! Drinks and snacks on me! I'll need like a couple helpers so we can go plunder the general store!" Marine's energetic nature was infectious. And with Rikka being in, Mana immediately offered to help carry stuff. And that kicked off a train of people joining in.

Not five minutes later Mamo was scanning a figurative mountain of snacks one by one. Mana was so overloaded that she was glad she had the option to switch into Cure mode just so she could sense where she was walking. With a bag of potato chips only being 5 to 8 favor, Marine spent 367 favor total on just snacks and a few non-alcoholic drinks for people like Kanade. Mana wanted to pitch in for the cost but she was literally broke but planning to participate in the next battle and at least pay part of it back.

A good twenty minutes later the party was in full swing. Snacks were being destroyed, mostly by Erika herself and the minibar was being plundered because it came with a small disclaimer that it would refill itself every 48 hours or when someone new moved in. There was no need to hold back.

Tsubomi, Erika, Yuri and her sister Yami were all sitting together outside in the luxurious patio, the heavy rain having finally stopped. And now that the rain was gone it was a fairly hot night. The swimming pool was already being used at capacity with almost half the team walking around in swimsuits that Erika had practically forced on them.

"We definitely need you to do something about that personality of yours, there is no way I can counter two sticks in the mud all on my own!" Erika had a few drinks too many and was even more rude than usual now.

"I am going to throw you off this veranda Erika." Yuri threatened the small Cure and enjoyed whatever that drink was that someone, she thought it was Passion, had left her with to hold and never came back to claim it. She couldn't quite remember if it even was that drink still or if this was a new one.

Looking over her shoulder she had a good view on the completely drunk, hysterically laughing Egret and the equally drunk and non-stop giggling White beating each other up with pillows, hard enough to send feathers flying everywhere. They're going to have a rude awakening tomorrow Yuri thought, believing herself to be in complete control and not having had any significant amount of drinks.

"So, Yami, have you tried transforming? Pine said something about your subconscious manifesting as a beautiful green Cure." Tsubomi didn't really remember the exact wording but throwing in beautiful was almost always a good idea.

"How exactly do you do that?"

"Like this!" Erika transformed and immediately switched back. And then transformed again. And switched back. Within seconds she was doing it so quickly that she was like some kind of alarm light that was rapidly blinking.

"Try to look for some kind of intangible power on your inside." Tsubomi tilted her head, not sure that was good advice. "I mean, we kinda know what it feels like because we started out with fairy partners and devices, so I don't really know how to explain this."

Yami focused on whatever was inside her but she couldn't really figure out what she was supposed to do. And out of nowhere, someone grabbed her butt. With a shriek she jumped in her seat. And transformed.

"See!" Erika had been the one to grab her ass and was now smirking as if she had won some kind of award. But that had been too much for Yuri to let pass. Grabbing Erika by her collar, Yuri got up and nearly fell over because the entire world was suddenly shifting. Tumbling inside, with a confused and then struggling Erika in her hand, Yuri threw her right into the pool, just barely over Pine's head who wore a plain yellow two piece bikini. With an enormous splash, Marine was submerged in the water and Yuri walked back out on the veranda as if nothing had happened. Her sister was still sitting there, in a dress that resembled her own a great deal but was colored in various shades of green. Why green?

"You look even better than I imagined!" Tsubomi was really impressed with her costume. "It even looks a lot like Moonlight! Did you pick a name yet?"

Yami realized only then that she couldn't and shouldn't use Dark Cure anymore. "No, not really," She admitted freely and was just glad that her sister was looking at her all proud. She felt kind of giddy. Nobody that was there to party seemed to care whatsoever that she hadn't been there before. They all treated her like a totally normal person, even if they knew she wasn't.

"Cure Lotus!" Someone shouted. Someone that was causing a big puddle to form on the veranda. "No, no, that's stupid, lets see. Crescent! Nah, that's terrible. Full Moon! Wait, that's stupid. New Moon? Nah. Meniscus? What am I, Tsubomi?" Erika was talking so quickly that none of the three could really follow but Yuri was about to throw her into the pool a second time.

"Oh hey, your name is Tsukikage right? And Kage is shadow, so something black maybe? Tsumi, what was the flower language for Black Lilies?"

"T-Tsumi? Don't abbreviate my name!" Tsubomi complained while Yami had to cover her mouth with both hands to avoid breaking out in laughter. "Black Lilies… generally death. But they're also used for halloween a lot. And in arrangements they're mixed with other flowers, more cheery ones, like sunflowers and white lilies. Oh I see." Tsubomi figured out what Erika was getting at.

"Just forget about the whole Cure thing! We got a Shiny Luminous and Milky Rose on the other team so screw it, just go for something that sounds really cool. Like Black Lily!" Erika was so out of control that she spilled her drink on Yami's new dress. Before Yuri could even do anything, Erika was well on her way to fly right back into the pool.

Pretending to clap dust off her hands, Yami returned triumphantly. She felt like this sort of character suit her much better than the serious, shy one that she was dealing with earlier. "Black Lily has defeated the rampaging blue goblin." Both Yuri and Tsubomi broke out in laughter over that.

Mana, a pink bikini, Setsuna, a red bikini, and Ellen, a purple surfing top and swimming hot pants, were just relaxing at the side of the pool when Erika came flying into the room a second time. Crawling out of it, Erika didn't bother to make any attempts to dry herself off and simply snatched another swimsuit, a daring blue bikini, and went into the changing room. A flash of light and thirty seconds later a pretty drunken Erika came out of the changing room. "She can be hard to deal with but it looks like Marine really knows how to lift everyone's spirits. Want some?" Setsuna offered some cheap chocolate bonbons to Ellen and Mana who both partook. With how much exercise they got in this place they didn't really need to watch calories.

Setsuna had barely put away the bag when a massive splash of water hit all three of them. Miki, who was giving Yuri some time with her sister, and Inori, who was just catching up with Miki now, looked both rather guilty when they realized who they had just drowned on land. "That was an accident." Inori raised her hands but it was too late. Setsuna already jumped into the water. Although the pool could really only fit four people in it at a time, that was accounting for such things as personal space which was becoming an increasingly scarce resource in this party.

Urara and Ako were enjoying the sauna. It was too embarrassing to sit in there naked, at least for Ako, so she was covered by a white towel that Urara instead had resting on her head. Noticing that specific look in Urara's eyes, Ako knew she had to say something. "You're not going to do anything to me when everyone in the party can just look through the window and see what we're doing."

"I can put a towel in front of the window. From the inside. And lock the door. Or you can just turn off the prude mode." Urara was well prepared. She hadn't really had time to spent some quality moments with Ako in what felt like ages.

"That's not being a prude!" Ako tried to slap her partner but Urara simply grabbed her hand and pulled. Ako nearly lost her towel and desperately kept it up with her free hand but now she was defenseless against the bold woman. Pushed against the back of the sauna, Urara got up, naked and in full view of anyone that would have looked through the window, and sat down again, on Ako's lap.

"It's not my fault you're too sexy to resist. Blame that body of yours." Licking her lips, the chain user pushed Ako even more strongly against the wall, still keeping hold of her arm even though Ako was not really resisting anymore.

Ako could have said something, could have transformed back to her real physical age but she didn't want to. That was not how her relationship with Urara worked. Her resistance was just part of her personality. She didn't want Urara to just have her way and Urara liked a challenge.

And both of them could feel that they got exactly what they wanted when they kissed. The hot air of the sauna no hotter than the air that passed between their mouths, the sweat that ran from their faces indistinguishable from the drool that ran from Ako's mouth when Urara forced her tongue in, the temperature making the tongue ever so slightly rougher than normal.

Fighting the kiss more so out of passion than actual resistance, Ako let go of her towel. With Urara sitting right in front of her, nobody could see her naked body and she wanted to feel her lovers breasts, her skin and nipples on her own. She was getting so turned on by the fact that only Urara and her body were between her and possibly Ellen seeing her that when Urara moved up on Ako's lap and she pushed her breasts against Ako's, they both could feel just how hard their nipples were, like tiny stone nubs.

Putting her arms around Urara's back, Ako could feel that it wasn't the sauna that was making her crotch wet now. Anyone coming in would have smelled nothing but sweat but so close on top of each other, Urara could smell a faint sweet aroma. "Getting so turned on from doing it in public? What a perverted princess you are." Urara didn't leave much room for an answer when she tried to coil her tongue around Ako's again, saliva dropping from her chin, hitting her own sensitive parts.

Rubbing her large breasts and hard nipples against Urara's, Ako felt the back wall chafe against her back so she forced herself against Urara even more, so much that even if they hadn't be kissing their faces would been mere centimeters from each other. Ako audibly gasped for air when she felt Urara's hand between her legs. Grabbing her partner's wrist, she pulled the arm away and when Urara tried to resume she made it clear that it wasn't going to happen and the denial was not part of playing around.

Urara looked a bit irritated but she wouldn't force things too much. Her irritation got worse when Ako nearly shoved her off only to move her right leg above Urara's left. It was really uncomfortable to sit that way but it was also an extreme turn on. Even the smallest move rubbed their intimate spots against each other and Urara's irritation was completely gone.

Outside the sauna, the first Cures were down for the count. Nozomi, wearing a pink one-piece, and Komachi, a green bikini because she couldn't find a one-piece she fit into, were passed out on the couch in front of the fireplace, two bottles of wine empty on the floor next to them. Walking away from said fireplace was Kanade, who was a bit bored with herself now. She had heard some really juicy things about Dream's affair with a fairy prince so it was all good but she didn't know what to do with herself now. She originally didn't want to drink anything alcoholic but she had found this strange thing that tasted exactly like juice but, as she realized only now, had to have quite the contents.

Walking past the sauna, Kanade only gave the insides a cursory glance. There was a naked back and a white towel over the head of said back so she had no idea who was actually in there. She also thought she was seeing double because the number of legs wasn't matching up too well.

The pool itself had produced its first victims as well. Mana, Setsuna and Ellen had taken the couch hostage, the one in the private show room for the matches. Mana was in the center, leaned against the back, while Setsuna was resting her head against the arm rest her legs over Mana's lap. Ellen was leaned against Mana with her back, her head resting against the pink Cure's hip and her own legs going over the arm rest to the other side. None of them had managed or bothered to change out of their swimsuits.

Miki and Inori, both still in swimsuits, were now out on the patio, both about to fall asleep in their chairs. It was unbelievably warm, for a night that is, outside on the veranda and it just felt so good to let loose once every now and then. There were several empty glasses below their chairs and only a few of them belonged to those two.

Tsubomi, Yuri and Yami were now at the pool together with Honoka and Rikka. And as Erika would have it no other way, they were all in swimsuits, with the exception of Yuri and Yami. And this was where Erika's trap closed. Shoving Yuri into the changing room, gave her one of the special swimsuits that she found in the closet. She had a few more of those and one of them was going to go to Yami. That would provide excellent teasing material for the indefinite future.

Honoka wished Rikka could see what was happening. She couldn't tell if Yuri was angry or embarrassed but in either case her head was glowing red. She herself had picked an expensive and slightly risque white one-piece that offered almost as much visible skin as a bikini. Mana had helped Rikka into swimsuit before she wandered off with Setsuna and Ellen after getting into a water fight with them. Rikka's swimsuit was a competitive type that covered a lot of skin but fit her surprisingly well. Blind she might be, Rikka was quite the looker, Honoka thought.

When Yuri finally turned so Honoka could see in profile, the otherwise quite serious woman broke out in laughter. It was so obvious what Erika had done and she was thrown into the pool a third time now, with Yuri jumping right in behind her, pushing her underwater, the red color of her head not lessening one bit. If she really hated it she would just transform. But I guess being so tall and being so much less developed than Berry did affect her subconsciously.

Yami picked up the swimsuit that Erika had dropped, a competitive style one, that was the same cut as Yuri's but in white instead of black. And just feeling through the material she could tell there was something odd about the swimsuit. But she was liking Erika more and more and wanted to be able to do for Yuri what Erika did, making her have senseless fun and let go of her serious behavior occasionally. Erika was now shouting for help and Tsubomi, with a pink swimming tank top and trunks, which was ever so uncharacteristic for Tsubomi to wear, jumped in to save her girlfriend, who just couldn't win against Yuri's superior height.

Inside the changing room Yami hadn't managed to return to her normal form just yet so she simply undressed in her Cure form. Putting on the swimsuit, which was easy enough even for her, she immediately realized what had caused Yuri to suddenly walk around looking like a stacked underwear model. Whatever the swimsuit was modified with on the inside, the chest part immediately started swelling until her normally pretty small chest compared in size to Erika's. That totally seems like something Erika would come up with. Yami knew a fair deal of things about Erika's personality already from the time she had spent with her during this party. Walking outside, proud of looking busty despite it being totally obvious she wasn't, she noticed that a woman in a white one-piece was laughing so hard she nearly choked and the blind girl next to her, both of them in canvas chairs, tried to get her to calm down.

Erika was flat on her back just next to the pool and spitting out water like a mini fountain. An angry and embarrassed Yuri was sitting just next to her, completely out of breath, her large chest raising and falling with every breath, a completely unnatural and uncomfortable experience for Yuri.

"Are you okay?" Mai bent down in front of Honoka, accidentally giving her a premium look at her cleavage and breasts even though she was wearing both a white and a black bikini. She she didn't find anything that fit right so she had to settle for two smaller ones.

"Fine. Just don't look at Yuri or her sister because you'll end up the same." Honoka had worked through some of the alcohol. She always got very tipsy first and then calmed down as she drank a bit more.

Mai was more of the same although her being tipsy resulted in her usually losing all control and spending the rest of the time trying to make up for acting out. Sitting in the third canvas chair, next to Honoka, Mai did exactly what Honoka had warned her not to do and she couldn't help but laugh. Everyone knew that Moonlight was beautiful but also rather slim in every aspect of the word. Nobody would have made fun of her for that, nobody but Marine that was.

The fake busty Yami was hugging the fake busty Yuri from behind, teasing her older sister already, who was loudly complaining to Erika about her being a bad influence.

In the meantime, Kanade was just floating in the pool, both drunk and a bit bored. Hibiki and Rin weren't around and Ako had gone god knows where. Her swimsuit was frills all over but also just a bikini when it came down to it. And she hadn't realized she didn't tie the top part well enough. Floating topless through the pool it was Beauty who suddenly emerged from below her and covered her up with one arm and handed her a frilly white bikini top with another.

Quickly fixing her attire, Kanade then escaped the pool, followed by Reika who was worried she might just try to leave the party entirely. But as it turned out, she just needed to find the bathroom. Reika was a little disappointed she was the only one from her team there. The sauna was finally free so she waited for Kanade to return from the bathroom and ask her if she didn't want to join.

The previous sauna occupants had moved to Erika's large bed that luckily offered multiple levels of covers. They were both unbelievably tired now and swore to themselves to never have sex in a sauna again. They were so dizzy they were sure the rotating bed was actually rotating at at least the speed of an unladen swallow. Ako asked if it was a Major Land swallow or a human world swallow right before she fell asleep. Urara was already gone by the time she asked.

They were not the only ones who had fallen asleep. Rikka, after a really long day, was asleep in her chair and Honoka only noticed this after she asked her about fifteen questions without getting an answer. Turning to Mai, she was also out could. Deciding that she didn't want to join Blossom's group of lunatics, Honoka finished her drink and just turned to the side, looking at Rikka. She's really pretty now that I look at her, even if she always has her eyes closed. Maybe I should… try that… too…

Reika had never really talked to Kanade all that much. The latter was in tears after telling the blue Cure about how she had messed up everything with Hibiki but now they were friends again and being with Rin was actually really great but she still didn't like Itsuki all that much. Reika couldn't make out some parts because the Cure was babbling and when she noticed how bad Kanade looked she figured that taking a drunk girl into the sauna was a really bad idea.

Covering Kanade in a towel and carrying her out like a princess, Reika saw that the fireplace couch was already used up. One look into the private show room and she saw multiple legs already. Two people were also asleep outside on the veranda. With no choice left, Reika carried Kanade to the gigantic bed. There were two person shaped bulges through the covers to the far side but the bed really was so big that more than ten people could have slept on it. It must have been six meters in diameter if not maybe even more. Putting Kanade down, Reika tried to move away but was suddenly assault from behind. And that was the end of the party adventure of Aoki Reika, now tight within the clutches of Minamino Kanade, resigning herself to the fact that it was late and there were worse places to sleep tonight.

It was just past 2 in the morning when only Tsubomi's group was left. "Shining through the shadows of the past, Black Lily!" Yami threw a magnificent pose and the swimsuit imposed chest jiggled with her motions. Tsubomi was completely passed out outside in one of the chairs by the patio.

"I think we should go to sleep. Everyone else is already out for the count." Erika said, even her seeing the wisdom in getting some sleep at least. "Yuri can you get Tsumi?" Erika could not move a single meter without nearly falling over but she still managed to not slur a single word.

As Yami looked around and realized how late it was, she let out a loud yawn and suddenly transformed back. "Oh, that's how it works?" She still had the swimsuit on and was far too tired all of a sudden to change out of it. Throwing herself onto the large bed, she landed not too far away from a mess of blue and yellow hair but she couldn't really bring herself to be curious enough to check under the covers. It only was a minute later when Yuri brought the sleeping Tsubomi to the bed that she found Yami was already deep asleep. She couldn't keep her there but her own room's bed was not really big enough for two people of her height and getting all the way down there was going to be such a chore, too.

Erika threw herself on the bed and was instantly asleep. Putting Tsubomi down next to Erika the blue goblin instinctively reached for Tsubomi's hand and grabbed it, all while asleep.

Laying down next to her little sister, Yuri realized too late that she too was wearing that accursed swimsuit. Her eyes were already closing. Goddammit Erika.

=== End of Event XXX ===