Dissonance
Event XXXV
The Chapter of the Serene Abyss
Flapping her lips, Dark Lemonade sunk down to the ground, her back pushing against a tree. "How much more?!" Shouting and groaning and moaning, Urara was fed up with playing crane for Reika and Akane. "And it's too hot! I wanna strip!"
Standing a little away, Akane swatted a mosquito that landed on her cheek. "Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! At least you're not wearing a full body suit! It's like an oven in here!"
Both of them were doused with a wheelbarrow's worth of snow, Dark Lemonade immediately jumping up and freeze and Bad End Sunny looking like she was in the wrong setting. "Reika, come on…"
"What? I beautifully solved your need for cooling down." Raising her hands in confusion and shrugging, Reika picked up the grossly oversized axe she had made out of ice and resumed cutting through the tree that was blocking the bath.
"T-This is t-t-too much c-cooling d-down!" Urara wildly jumped around, covering her exposed stomach.
Akane wasn't so bothered by it but stepped out of the snow pile that was already melting down. "We need to finish this up today. Imagine having to go to bed being this sweaty."
"She's got it easy, having ice powers is real convenient right now!" Urara complained and lifted another piece of the tree out of the big stone tub with her chains. "I hate typhoons."
"I still don't get why it is suddenly this hot. I can barely imagine how hot it had to have been during the day for it to be like this now, at night." Akane walked over to where Urara had set down the tree pieces and looked them over. "There is no way I am setting these on fire. The forest is gonna burn down."
"A beautiful end for-"
"Yes, yes, Reika please keep quiet, you're not helping. I'll talk to Miyuki about this. Maybe we can cut some chairs or something out of these." I hope Miyuki isn't out of control yet… it's going to suck if this situation keeps up any longer. It's kinda… she's unbalanced without Dark Dream. And if Miyuki is unbalanced, we all are. Hopefully nothing stupid happens that keeps their Nozomi from going home.
"We were just talking last night about getting somewhere real to live in case we ever need to install air conditioning too… bleh… I hate summer." Urara swiped sweat from her forehead and swung her hand to fling it off – right into a tree piece she had forgotten about. "Ouch! Ouch! Dammit!"
"Reika, a fistful of ice please for that idiot over there." I can't believe I have to manage that one-track-mind beauty mania and this idiot. Almost makes me want to cry considering what I was like before. 'Destroy this, destroy that, burn this, burn that', it's like I was a villain out of a bad book. Well. I mean. Ugh…
A fist sized lump of ice dropped right on Urara's head from a few centimeters above, causing her to curse at Reika in unintelligible gibberish.
Picking up the ice lump with a heavy sigh, Akane uses a tiny flame extending from her right index finger to cut a hollow sphere. "Here."
"Hey… why is Reika so obsessed with doing everything beautifully now? She wasn't like that a few nights ago. Ow, ow, ow, cold..." Urara was peering past Akane, cooling her hand and staring at Reika. Must be nice staying cool in this stupid heat… I can feel my breasts swimming in an ocean of sweat under this stupid leather outfit...
"Yuri told her that laziness is the ugliest thing in the world. Reika is not exactly the brightest among us… I don't understand how that happened at all considering her original is allegedly pretty smart..." I guess my counterpart wasn't exactly a brains department focused person either and yet I'm here and managing these two. They use me as a portable heater all the time but that's just me knowing I need to do my part.
Neither of them understood what Reika was really thinking. Which was pretty much nothing. Saw, saw, chop, chop… this is actually kind of fun. If laziness is ugliness then working must be beautiful. And if I then work beautifully while being beautiful, I will be the most beautiful thing all around and Yuri will love me even more because beautiful things are always well loved.
"Where the heck did Karen and Erika go anyway… they're supposed to help!" Urara clenched her fist and immediately regretted that a lot.
While Akane and two stooges were fixing up the bath, Tsubomi had turned into a queen and was driving her own group like absolute slaves. "We need to fix this all up before the sun goes up! Rin, modulate the heat better, you're hurting the carrots! Karen, pay more attention to the irrigation pathing! Nao, Itsuki, where are the leeks, we need to replant them! Komachi, there's a hole in the barrier and Rin's heat is leaking through, close it up!" Shouting orders at everyone, Tsubomi was like a dervish, suddenly in one place and a second later somewhere else, managing everyone at the same time and doing her own work simultaneously.
Nao and Itsuki, in charge of picking up everything that wasn't properly earthed anymore, collided with a loud noise and a ton of leeks flew all about. To both their relief, Erika was there to catch them, being the sole person there without a distinct role to play and so helping out every time something went wrong – and a lot went wrong all the time.
Spotting a one and a half pair of leaders, Tsubomi whistled. "Everyone take five!" And like it was just the command they had waited for, everyone dropped the ground, sweating, panting and groaning. Getting off the field, Tsubomi approached Miyuki and Nozomi. "The damage was fairly extensive but we should be able to fix things up before sunrise at this rate. I had to grab Karen and Erika from the bath cleaning squad since they were taking a lot longer than anticipated to get rid of the tree."
Scary. Man I'm glad Nozomi and I set ourselves apart as the leaders. We'd all be dead in our graves from overwork if Tsubomi was calling the shots. "Hm. We checked out the portal and it's super busted so Nozomi here isn't gonna go home so-" Really strongly slapping Nozomi on the back and pushing her forward, Miyuki sacrificed her crush's doppelganger. "Use her as you want, I'll go and… wait, are you saying there's only Akane, Urara and Reika at the bath?"
"Yeah."
"Tsubomi, repeat what I said but without it being a question."
"Akane, Urara and Reika are alone at the bath." And there it dawned on Tsubomi, her face losing a bit of color. "Hm. Yeah. Uh. I think you should go and check on them before someone winds up dead."
D-Dead?! Nozomi wasn't very happy about this conversation. "I don't have any powers useful for the fields and I know nothing about agriculture so I think I'll go and help Yuri and Yayoi with the house. I'd rather not have the whole thing come down on us the next time nature coughs."
"Go, I can only manage so many people at once anyway." Tsubomi freed her newly acquired slave.
Only so many she says… those six over there look like they've been through hell. The last time I saw people this tired was when I was on staff for a live event and they had to move the time table two hours up… Slinking away before Tsubomi could change her mind, Nozomi made it safely back to the house. I'm amazed how well I can see in the dark now… did I just get used to it? Or are the stars brighter? Is there a little bit of Dark Dream's power in these clothes maybe?
"Yuri! We got help!" Yayoi was down on the ground floor, carrying a bucket with nails towards a ladder that lead up to the roof, where Yuri was, hammer in hand.
Looking up and pausing her work, Yuri waved with a big smile. "Oh, about time! Hm, oh, it's Nozomi. Things alright over at the field? I saw you going over there with Miyuki!" Standing up, she used the white jacket she had wrapped around her waist to wipe off the sweat from her forehead and face.
"Tsubomi seems to have it all under control. Everyone looks kind of tired though!" Nozomi shouted back and approached Yayoi. "What needs doing?"
"All our firewood went kablooey so we need more or we're going to eat raw stuff. There's probably a ton of twigs all over in the forest behind the house. You're probably gonna need a few tours to get enough. Reika and Urara are probably gonna bring in the heavy weight pieces, but we need something to start a fire, right?"
"Firewood, got it. Yuri! I'll be off grabbing firewood, that alright?"
"We only got one hammer so it's not like there's much for you to do here anyway. Yayoi, you can go with her after you gimme that bucket!" Squatting down where the ladder ended, Yuri waited for Yayoi to climb the ladder and hand over the bucket of nails.
Leaving and heading for the trees, Nozomi felt awkward. I don't think I've ever actually talked to the other Yayoi. This one is pretty forward so maybe she'll think of a topic?
"So how was it?" Yayoi's impish expression was a little unsettling for Nozomi.
"What?"
"Miyuki! Sex with Miyuki!"
Another topic please! Why… why is she even asking about that! I haven't slept with anyone ever, how would I even-! "We didn't!" Shouting at Yayoi without intending to, Nozomi felt her head boil.
"Eh? What do you mean you didn't?"
Nozomi didn't understand this reaction. What is she so confused about? Miyuki is- this Miyuki is pretty rough around the edges and she's crude and rude and… she kinda reminds me of our Urara now that I think about it. But she's not the type to force me into sex! Definitely not! "We just slept."
"She was straddling your lap! Naked!" Yayoi gestured wildly. "And it's Miyuki! So what do you mean, you didn't?!" Yayoi didn't leave the whole thing alone. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no. Don't tell me she convinced herself she can just tough it out until our Nozomi comes back."
"I have seriously no idea why you're so freaked out… it's not like she'll die from a few days of… not… not sleeping with anyone." This just feels wrong to discuss with Yayoi… she's so short I constantly think of her like someone that's much younger than me.
Yayoi stopped, looking up, sighed, then looked down and sighed even louder. "Right… you wouldn't know. Miyuki's outlet that keeps her balanced is sex with Dark Dream. Not everyone of us had an easy time adjusting to our new circumstances to become… well, what you see. Miyuki had the biggest problem because she was kinda a sadist before and falling in love with Nozomi made that go away."
"So..." I don't really get what's gonna happen to Miyuki if she doesn't have sex with Dark Dream.
"I doubt she'll revert back to who she was before but we're probably looking at her having the worst of moods and tempers if this keeps up. If the portal wasn't toast this wouldn't be a problem..." Yayoi flung around and grabbed Nozomi's hands. "You gotta sleep with her! Miyuki might put on a tough face but she's probably already about to boil over under the surface. Another night and she'll be insufferable tomorrow. And then another and we're looking at someone that's… I don't really wanna think about it."
"She's… gonna be that bad?" What… what do I do?! What do I do, what do I do?!
"I wouldn't wanna be near her when she's gone without sex for three nights, never mind four..." Yayoi shivered. "Gives me the creeps." Pulling Nozomi by her hands, Yayoi looked straight in her eyes. "You gotta make the hard choice here, for everyone's sake!"
E-Eh?! Eh?! B-But- I- Nozomi's thoughts became gibberish as her mouth opened and closed to tell Yayoi she couldn't do that. But nothing came out. No words, no thoughts, just flabbergasted fragments of sounds.
Yayoi on the other hand was having the time of her life in her thoughts. She's so fun to mess around with. Our Nozomi would never believe that sort of lie, she'd just ask Miyuki and the gig would be up in five seconds. But she's so innocent it's amazing! I wonder if they're all like that on the other side. That would be amazing, pranking all of them like that. "Please think about it!" Using puppy eyes and a bit of fake tears on Nozomi, Yayoi sold her act quite well. If the real Peace has as much acting skill as me she should go into show business!
While Nozomi was being toyed with by Yayoi, the bath time was being scolded by Miyuki. "Reika. What is this?" Pointing at the ice axe that Beauty used to cut up the tree, Miyuki's right eye twitched dangerously.
"A work of beauty!" Reika proclaimed proudly.
Slapping Reika hard enough in the back of her head to ruffle her hair, Miyuki let out an agonized groan. "Enough with the puns! What the hell are you using an axe? Just make a giant cleaver and cut the damn thing to pieces!"
"Yuri said that working hard is beautiful! Just slicing it isn't beautiful at all!"
Miyuki wildly gestured while starting to breathe heavy, like she was about to jump Reika and eat her face in a fit of rage. "Akane! You let this go on?!"
"Can't you just let her do it? The flooding and cleaning out is maybe gonna take an hour, you know that. There's no point in hurrying just to be done sooner." She's a little irritable lately. Not that anyone can blame her. I would be pissy too if Komachi was replaced by her other side self and I could barely touch her without risking some… basically diplomatic incident. "I have no desire to see you and Yuri get into it over Reika again."
"Fine. But if you're falling behind, you're picking up the slack. What have you been doing anyway, what's with all the wood? I sent you here because I wanted that stuff gone."
"Miyuki, the ground is all muddy but trees and what not are sand dry already. If I start a fire that size here we're gonna be in a real oven within twenty minutes."
"Shit, good point." Scratching her forehead, Miyuki sighed. "Okay, you handle this fiasco, I'll go back and get the house back in order. We gotta have someone start preparing something to eat, too."
"I'm hungry!" Urara shouted and flailed about, hitting her foot on the very same tree stump she had hit her hand on. "Blasted stump is out to get me!" Entangling the wooden piece with her chains she launched it into the air with enough force to send it flying over the treetops.
Miyuki shook her head and rolled eyes. "I'm counting on you, Akane."
"No problem. I'm used to them." I wish I wasn't, though. I'd much rather be spending time with Komachi… oh well, I'll have her come over later so we can get rid of this… sludge in the bath.
Going back by the field, Miyuki stopped there. "Tsubomi, anything you can hand over for breakfast?"
Before Miyuki had even time to react to getting no immediate answer, Erika had appeared seemingly out of thin air, balancing three baskets – one straight up on her head and another in each hand. "Is this basket with silver goods yours? Or is this basket with golden goods yours? Which one- ow!" Miyuki grabbed the basket on her head and bonked her. "Hey, I wasn't done!"
"You're done now. So… rice, potatoes and turnips? Wait… rice? Turnips? Tsubomi, when did you start planting this stuff?!"
Tsubomi stopped working and walked across the field. "Erika, enough standing around, go help Itsuki and Nao." Watching the little blue goblin disappear in a hurry, Tsubomi took a deep breath. "Something weird is going on. Some of what is planted matches what we had planted yesterday, but there's other stuff too. And, did you notice?"
"Notice what?" Miyuki looked around for a moment. "Where's Karen and Komachi?"
"Down by the other fields."
"The what now?"
Tsubomi shrugged. "I didn't notice them at first because there were a number of collapsed trees in the way but there's a bunch of fields down the slope behind our fields now. Rice and turnips comes from there."
"Is this even the season for rice?"
"Not even close."
"Hm. Anything weird but negative happening?"
"Not so far."
"No need to worry then."
Tsubomi looked surprised. "Eh? Shouldn't we worry about vegetable fields just popping up? I am a hundred percent sure they were not-"
"What are you talking about Tsubomi? Haven't those fields always been there?"
She's denying reality because she thinks we might jinx it by looking into it! Tsubomi shook her head. "No, no, no, no, no, think about this!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about. You think Akane is good at making fried rice?"
Miyuki! Don't run away from reality! "You need to consider-"
"Yeah, you're right. Just because she uses fire as her power doesn't mean she'd be good at fried stuff. You think Komachi is good at it?"
I give up. "Hm. Maybe. Probably. Just ask her." If she wants to pretend nothing is wrong the second something weird but beneficial happens… well, I don't care. She's the one that's gonna have to stand up and deal with the fallout of this. "Also, where's your other half?"
"Helping with repairs, why? And that's not my other half."
"Uh huh. I remember how good our Nozomi is at anything at involving working with her hands." Tsubomi just kept staring at Miyuki, who felt more uneasy with every passing second, her expression changing from lax to tense to worried to horrified within a minute. "You know healing tires me out so maybe you could check on her and make sure she didn't cut off a finger or-"
"Don't say those bloody ominous things! What are you, the mafia?!" Miyuki grabbed Tsubomi by her shoulder and shook her. "She'll be fine! It's not our Nozomi! So she's probably built a fucking palace out of scrap already!"
What is this delusion? Seriously. Noticing movement from the direction of the bath, Tsubomi looked there and her expression changed but you should be worried to I'm worried in an instant. "Speaking of healing..."
Miyuki followed Tsubomi's gaze and her eyes started to twitch. I just left them! "Reika! Akane! What the hell happened?!"
Up ahead, Akane was carrying Reika, who was passed out on her back and bleeding quite a lot from her leg. Akane was going as fast as she could without running and throwing Reika about on her back. "She wanted to beautifully hack the wood and her skills didn't quite match up with what's in her head! Tsubomi, this is pretty bad, I kinda need you to fix this!"
"I swear, your team..." Tsubomi rolled her eyes at Miyuki and hurried towards Reika.
If Nozomi screws herself like this then all of us are probably screwed. I can already hear those other girls asking her about where she's got that and that injury and whoops, the secret is out. I'm worried now. Nozomi, you better not hurt yourself because you're a klutz. "Akane, what happened to Urara?!" Miyuki shouted, making sure Reika hadn't accidentally killed Urara.
The answer came immediately. "Still working on the bath!"
While Miyuki seemed satisfied with that answer and took off, Itsuki was using Tsubomi having to heal Reika to slack off, together with Nao. "Things have been even more lively than usual with that other Nozomi around." Fanning marginally cool air at herself, Itsuki only needed to glance at Nao in her skintight bodysuit to feel even hotter than before. How is she not baking in that thing? I'd die if I had to wear that, embarrassment aside. "Aren't you about to die in that?"
"Learning about the other side is pretty funny. Thinking about meeting them is not as funny considering how it went the last time we saw each other." Nao just remained perfectly still sitting on the ground, legs stretched out, showing off how long they were. "And this Nozomi is a lot nicer than ours… although, well, you know."
"Yeah. She doesn't fit in. She's nice but not in that kinda rough and yet caring way your team and Nozomi's got going."
"Calling us rough is kinda..."
"What would you call yourself then?"
"Crude?"
"That's harsher than rough, you know..."
"Is it?" Nao hummed and thought about it. "I guess rough is fine then?"
"When are we gonna get our Nozomi back, though? It's been like forty-eight hours or something like that."
"Soon, or we're all in trouble."
"Huh?"
"You think our Nozomi is able to indefinitely pretend to be their Nozomi? And what will happen if they find out their Nozomi got replaced with ours? The four from Nozomi's group that are on the other side are definitely gonna leap to conclusions. And if she blabs and she tells them about my group we're all toast. Because were were pretty off our rocker. Especially Miyuki and Akane."
"Really? That Akane was one of the worst in your group?"
"The worst, probably. Maybe. I was pretty bad too. But not Akane level. That was some real crazy stuff."
"How crazy are we talking about?"
"Full one-eighty from what she's like now."
"Okay, I'm good on hearing nothing about that ever again." Itsuki fell in the dirt, tired to death. "You'd think Tsubomi would go a little easy on me, being her girlfriend and all..."
"She doesn't seem the type to play favorites at all. Or leave her help alive."
"Are you at all curious what's become of your original?"
"Where did that come from? You wanna meet the real Sunshine?"
"Well, in our case we didn't really try to kill them or anything like that so I would guess we're pretty safe. But I'm more curious than anything what's her life like now."
"Why?"
"Hm… I guess because she's me, in a way? I just kinda wanna know because we're connected."
"In our case it's a bad connection so I'm not really-"
"Come on, you aren't at all curious? What if she became a movie star? Or cut her hair really short?"
Instinctively grabbing her long ponytail, Bad End March shivered. "N-No. That'd look terrible."
"I get that you didn't part on good terms but isn't it too cowardly to assume they'd just lunge at you to kill you?"
"I never said that."
"But that's the distinct impression I get from you five."
"I'd rather not get obliterated from taking a chance to sate some curiosity."
"So you are curious then." Itsuki looked smug.
"Curse you, Mira-"
"Sunshine. Just Sunshine, if you must. Or Itsuki, I prefer that. It's a nice name."
"Bad End March is a mouthful too so I guess Nao is fine for me then."
"Bad End Nao!"
"Hey."
A loud whistle made it very clear that it was time to get back to work. "We got a lot more to do so get going! We're gonna have white rice tonight!" Tsubomi lured them with something they had all wanted but didn't really know why – after all, none of them had eaten anything ever before coming to that wilderness.
Back at the house, Miyuki was talking to Yuri. "Yayoi and Nozomi left together."
"Yeah."
"And you didn't think that it is probably a bad idea to leave Nozomi alone with Yayoi."
Yuri paused, looked up, her lips lightly parted. "Ah… I didn't think about that at all."
"That's something that happens a lot with you somehow!" Miyuki kicked an empty bucket on the ground and angrily climbed the ladder to get on the roof. "You know Yayoi! That mischievous little imp!"
"What's the worst she could do? I mean, Nozomi is an adult and-"
"Remember when Erika was too traumatized to sleep in her own bed because there were like a hundred bugs in it?"
"Oh…." I remember that. Oh, yeah, that was Yayoi. That was pretty funny. While Yuri was smart and good at almost anything, she was also very aloof and could sometimes be a real airhead. "I don't think Nozomi is afraid of bugs though."
Miyuki rubbed her face with both hands in agonizing annoyance. "That's not the point here… how can you be so smart and yet… Yayoi always gets out of control when she's unsupervised!"
"Isn't it good that Nozomi is with her then? She's one of our leaders."
"That's the other Nozomi!"
"I guess that's true." Yuri smiled without a care in the world. "I think you worry too much, Miyuki. Yayoi loves pranks but she's not stupid. She knows she shouldn't mess with Nozomi."
"Miyuki!" A voice came from afar. And when the one called out to turned, she saw Yayoi down below, coming out of the thicket, followed by Nozomi, both of them barely able to see past in front of them due to the big stacks of twigs they carried.
Staring really intensely at Nozomi from the roof, their eyes met and Nozomi quickly looked away. Ah. She did something. "Nozomi! Come over here!" Not bothering with the ladder, Miyuki jumped off, landed wrong and fell over, hitting the side of the house and also her head.
That looked… painful. Yayoi loved pranks but not when they resulted in real injury. Psychological injury was kinda okay, though. And teasing Erika was a lot of fun because she'd be able to comfort her later! "Fearless leader, you okay there?" There was no reply. Hm, that's not good. "Nozomi, put the burnable stuff over by the big pot okay?" Putting her own stack down, Yayoi sort of playfully ran over to Miyuki, who was slumped down against the house wall. Slapping her cheek lightly, Yayoi tried to get her to come to. Oh, she's out cold. That's really not good. She's gonna be so damn mad. Hm. Should I draw on her face? No, no, Yayoi, she'll throw you in the pot. But if I drew cat whiskers on her she'd look so funny…
Nozomi tried her absolute best to not look at Miyuki – her best was a far cry from being good enough to succeed however. Seeing Yayoi crouch next to the fallen down Miyuki, the words of the tiny yellow Cure ringed in her head. She jumped down from a building! A building! Yayoi was right, she's really becoming unstable… I'll… no, no, I can't! I definitely can't! S-Sleeping with her… she does look like Miyuki and she's… kind of nice under all that rough ex-villain behavior- No, Nozomi, what are you even thinking about?! S-Sex should come after you've gotten really close and- Stumbling over a tree stump that doubled as a chair, Nozomi lost quite a few of the twigs and nearly fell herself. This is bad… I can't keep a clear head because of this.
"Yayoi, everything okay down there?" Yuri was peeking over the edge of the roof. "Is Miyuki still in one piece?"
"I don't see any broken bones but she's super out cold!" Yayoi shouted back and felt Miyuki's head. "Oh, she's got a bump." I'll just pretend she dreamed the whole thing. What she doesn't remember won't bother her. I'm so smart.
=== DISSONANCE ===
For some reason she couldn't sleep. Even with her body battered, her mind exhausted and every fiber of her existence yearning for it, she couldn't sleep. Something was bothering her. Something she couldn't remember. And it had been bothering her ever since she dragged herself down to the buffet to eat. Just putting it into her mouth, something she had never eaten before, she felt nostalgic for it. But how could that be? Nostalgia for fried ox tongue? That was just weird.
And this was not the first time this had happened. There were little things. For some reason she kept noticing things, paid attention to things that she never even paid any heed to before. How many leaps it would take to scale the outer wall of the skyscraper, how many spots there were to hide in the dining hall and how many seconds it would take to reach the jungle from the edge of the shore at full sprint.
Something was wrong. Something was itchy in her brain. But she couldn't quite reach it to scratch it. Something… something…. Something's wrong… it's not like me to have trouble remembering stuff… not this much… ah, it's bothering me… it's bothering me…
"You too?" A voice, from behind. Turning about, she saw a familiar face.
"It's crazy. After the day we had I still can't sleep."
"Too hungry?"
"I'm not Nagisa or Saki."
"Just kidding."
"It's like… something important. I forgot something important. And the more I try to remember the more foggy my thoughts become."
"So… you too."
That was alarming. If I'm not the only one experiencing that, something happened. Something real, something that isn't just in my head. "I just don't know what I could possibly have forgotten."
"That's the whole thing about forgetting something, isn't it? It's bothering me too. I usually have my thoughts all together but this is like… it's not just one single thing I forgot. It's like there's a whole chunk missing."
"Hm… honestly, I tried about everything I can think of to remember but it's not just coming to me."
"We should ask around tomorrow to see if the others feel the same. If this is some kind of mass phenomenon we can rule out happenstance. Something or someone made us forget then. Made everyone forget."
"Why do that though? What's the point? We're still all here."
"Are we? Is this everyone?"
"What are you getting at?"
"If someone went to the trouble of making everyone forget and not just us two… what if someone was erased from our memories?"
"I don't think that's it."
"Why?"
"Because then it wouldn't just be one thing. I know it's just one big thing I can't remember. Like a handful of pages missing from a calendar. If just a person was erased it would be more like small pieces missing from scenes here and there, right?"
She's right. But if it wasn't a person… "Something that happened to all of us?"
"There's a thing I've been thinking about a lot… It's what made me so suspicious about not being able to remember in the first place."
"What is it?"
"The Masquerade."
It felt like a million bugs crawled over her skin, eating into her body. "The… what?"
"That was my reaction too. It felt like I opened up a barrel and found a million worms wiggling inside. And just thinking about it felt like sticking my hand into-"
"Spare me the grotesque analogy please."
"The Masquerade. The… thing? The… event? The place we all went to before the system changed to this. Before we met Mana's group."
The bugs crawling over her skin were intense, every moment spent on thinking about this making it worse. Yeah… there was… something. An… event? A party? A masked party of… of some kind. I have a terrible feeling about this. My heart's racing and I can't calm down. Like I'm about to throw up. What happened in… "What happened during the Masquerade?"
"I don't know. I can just barely remember it… we were all there, I think… dressed up in fancy clothes, wearing masks… there was someone… something, hosting it… it's making my head hurt trying to remember."
"Someone is trying to hide what happened… I'm a hundred percent sure now. Someone…" But who? Who could possibly gain from that? Did we learn something about the nature of this place? How to get out? No… no, no… didn't Yami come from there? Somehow? Yuri's sister, back from the dead somehow… what exactly happened there? What… From the corner of her eyes she saw something horrifying and it completely and abruptly destroyed her thought process. B-Blood?
"It… it hurts… make it… make it stop… no more… no, no… enough, enough, enough, enough, enough, enough, enough, enough, enough… enough… Make me a noble… a noble… not a princess, no… no.. not a princess… no princess.. enough… enough… go away, go away, go away..."
Watching her friend cry tears of blood in streams and mutter random nonsense put fear into her. We're looking into something we shouldn't remember… The crawling of the bugs was now filling everything, her thoughts, her feelings, everything. A discomfort that was impossible to shake, that was all consuming. No… don't remember, don't remember… Stepping back, her breathing accelerated further and further, panic grasping hold of her. Let it be, let it be… you don't need to remember. Not… not that time you… you killed everyone… over… and over… and over… and over… and over… and over… "No! Don't… don't remember!" Hitting herself, slamming her fist's topside against her forehead, she staggered back. The way you cut them up and had your servants roast them for you… that sweet, sweet feeling of flesh, perfectly grilled… the horror in their eyes as you ate their limbs while they watched… the mountain of corpses piled up… piled up… piled up… creating a sea of blood to bathe in… Something grabbed her. Someone grabbed her. Her head. Something was holding her face. A hand? A hand. Someone's hand was covering her face.
"Hey. Tell me. Cordelia… where is Cordelia? If I can get to Cordelia… I can get to Evangeline." A broad, white glowing smile that inspired horror on her face. "Say… won't you tell me? It feels so good to betray her, you know? That sweet, sweet rush and thrill you get when you cast her down into the abyss."
"Betray Cordelia? Betray Evangeline?" A high pitched hum, halfway between laughter and sobbing. "Sure. Sure, sure. Why not? Why not!" Laughing into the hand on her face, she bit into the palm's lower end with enough force to draw blood, the hand recoiling. "Let's betray them and cut them and roast them and have a banquet of their servants to feast on!"
"What sweet, sweet words you speak." Moving towards the other, she took her face between her hands, the other's left cheek smeared with blood that sprung from her palm. "Lets tear off her head, rip out her heart and take the kingdom back for ourselves." Moving closer, touching her forehead against the other's, she smiled with a chuckling hum. "Let's kill the queen."
A chuckling hum on this side as well, the smile was returned just as wide. "Let's kill the queen."
"Let's kill the queen." "Let's kill the queen!" "Yes, yes, let's kill her, lets kill her!" "Kill the queen, kill her, kill her!" Riling each other up, the one's face now smeared with blood, the other's eyes a powerful shine of murderous desires, they kissed in the darkness of the night. One biting lips, the other clawing into cheeks.
Deep within their minds, behind a door that was breaking out of the angles, the demons inside relentlessly hammering against the thing that kept them locked up, a flower bloomed. Red as blood and thorny and monstrous, sitting silently atop a hill of no light in the darkness. Roots reaching within the hill deep and deeper still.
And theirs was not the only one. Waking up with a tingling tongue, she sat up in bed, someone by her side, still asleep. The tingling spread to the back of her mouth, like something was worming its way down. But instead of reaching her throat, her face started to tingle as well. Unable to think, unable to say anything she felt the tingle spread all the way to the back of her head. Why was this? What was it? Thoughts finally came to her, having risen from a terribly deep sleep without real cause. And then it just came to her. This wasn't really who she was. This was just what they made her think she was. Who she was. It was all a lie. That girl by her side, that wasn't who she loved. That was just some peasant girl.
It's so clear now. It's all coming back to me. The kingdom. My mother. The ploys of my sisters. Like a wellspring gushing forth after being plucked up for an eternity. Who… who was it that did this to me? Who made me think I am this… this person? This peon, this peasant? I need to go find my love. My real love. And wake her up. We cannot keep living this lie. This farce, this unbelievably disgusting farce! How… how dare they! Wait… wait, wait… I recall her voice, the one who did this...It was that cursed Bjeldavir! That bitch! How dare she take me from my beloved, make me sleep with this… this-!
Turning on the girl by her side, she towered over her, eyes burning white with hate and loathing, arms slowly stretching out, towards the neck of the one that was made her beloved's imposter. I should kill her, I should rid myself of her at once in retribution! And she stopped. No. This is Bjeldavir's ploy. She's always been completely off her rocker ever since she visited the far south. This is one of her mind games and if I kill this girl she'll somehow spin it to have me executed for wanton slaughter. It is high time I get rid of mother and succeed the throne. But first I need to find my beloved.
Slipping out of bed unnoticed, she paused when the girl rolled around, a soft moan and a hand hitting the now empty sheets. "Toilet…?"
Foolish girl. "Yes."
Saying no more and just falling back asleep the girl was left behind alone in the room, the other slipping out. Now where would my beloved be? I have to find her and wake her up from this nightmare Bjeldavir has trapped us in. How long have we been living this lie? When was it that the Masquerade ended? Did that monster Evangeline succeed mother? Or was it that warmongering fool Minerva? Why is it I cannot remember the ultimate fate of that most important of all nights?
Leaving her room, spying about the hallway, she slinked towards where her heart was leading her. Not towards the contraption of metal doors by the end but towards another door within the same hallway. This. My beloved is behind this door. I can feel it. Touching upon the door, her breathing accelerated and a smile of anticipation crowned her expression. I will free you from Bjeldavir's illusion and we will be together again. Together we can endure anything.
Knocking softly on the door once, then twice more, she waited, listening intently for the sounds from within the room. Another set of knocks after over a minute and finally she heard the handle turn, the frame click and the door swing. Before the one behind could even speak a word or tell who it was that was there, waiting for her, she had assaulted her, forced her way into the room, pinning her beloved to the ground and kissing her with ferocity the likes could impress a wild beast.
I can feel it! The vile blockade that servers the memories of who she really is, breaking apart! Join me my beloved and together we shall have you and me ascend to the throne! We will kill Evangeline, Minerva and anyone in our way. And especially that fool Bjeldavir!
While memories that did not belong were flooding the minds of the few at night, another was wide awake – one that did not belong. And her plight was wholly different from the others. Despite being awake, she was caught in a horrible nightmare.
Standing outside, in the plaza, together with her executioner, she felt cold sweat go down her back and chest. I've been pretty scared of a few things in my life and the last one. Especially when I was dying… but this? Her? Forget us girls in the Banished Zone… she's the real evil here. What kind of hero pulls up a sword to your throat and just makes you sweat until you start babbling? Shit, I can still feel it on my neck…
In the darkness that day before, Reika's eyes were clear and piercing the lightless veil around her. She had dealt with the worst humanity had to offer. Terrorists. Organized crime. Human traffickers. Child abductors and porn makers. She knew the depths of depravity that people were capable of. And she knew the heights of goodness that they could reach, too, and so she fought to decimate the terrible and help the good. Normally she could tell exactly what kind of person someone was from being around them or watching them. One was judged by their actions. But this…? This woman that looked exactly like Nozomi but was not; she was something she couldn't understand.
"S-Say something!"
Her breathing is irregular, she is sweating and shivering. She fears me a great deal. Someone that were to infiltrate us and copy the looks of one of us, pretend to be one of us… if they had malicious intentions they would be prepared to be dealt with if found out. But she is too scared for that. So what is her goal here?
"Don't kill me. Nozomi… your Nozomi will never forgive you if you do."
My Nozomi? Reika tightened her grasp on her blade, creating a dagger in her free hand and tapping it against the side of Dark Dream's throat. And still she didn't say anything. Bad people would often say whatever they wanted her to hear so she just stayed silent, let them talk on their own. The tip of the dagger pressed against her skin so lightly that it was no different than balancing a nail on a finger. A nail that at any moment's notice could suddenly become an instant death sentence.
"Years-" Dark Dream swallowed and gasped for air. "Years ago there was a villain that creates copies of Nozomi and her team the dark precure five and we fought with them Nozomi saved my life and I sacrificed mine to save her and we were brought back in this place for some reason a while ago and have been living way out in the forest on our own there are also copies of Tsubomi's team and Miyuki's team and my Rin and Urara know how thankful I am to Nozomi to show me a different way and that I would like to thank her in person so they thought they would bring her to me by grabbing her off the plaza at night when there is a portal at midnight that we can use to briefly pop in but we have a rule against that because we don't want anyone to know because we think you might just call all of us for being alive and when they took Nozomi for some reason it shoved me out and over here and I haven't found a way to get back to my own girls!" Gasping for air again, her chest heaving and falling with every breath, Dark Dream fell back into silence.
So Bad End Beauty exists over there as well? Together with sixteen others? In her experience, the most unbelievable stories were usually true. Nobody that wanted to save themselves would come up with something this outrageous. It was too far out there. I need to push her. Audibly tightening her grasp on the dagger, Reika slowly exhaled without saying anything, the sword going across Dark Dream's throat as steady as a surgeon's scalpel and just as deadly. Pushing the dagger just enough to inflict the smallest amount of pain possible, she prompted another response.
"If you kill me… tell Nozomi it was an accident. Have her tell my Miyuki that I fell down the stairs or drowned or just vanished into the fog. If… you can't believe me I want at least the others to be safe. I'm one of their leaders and it's my job to make sure they're safe."
They are similar. I can picture Miyuki saying something like this as well. And Nozomi? She has been a proponent of fighting against this system since the beginning and only recently adjusted to it. There was the incident with the reflections that I heard about as well. Is this a repeat of that? I can tell that her fear is real. Would an evil Cure Dream be capable of theatrics this grand? No. I cannot believe that. What she is saying is almost certainly true, all of it. That does create a rather dangerous question. Why are they alive? We ended the Bad Ends that Joker created for us and from her words, Nozomi's group killed their doubles as well. I can surmise that Tsubomi's group most likely went trough something similar. What reason is there to bring them back? For us to fight them? No. In that case they would have been participating in battle. So why? What purpose is there in them being here? I won't learn anything else without talking to her at this point.
"I will ask you questions." Reika swiftly moved the dagger from Dark Dream's throat and stuck the tip between her teeth right as her mouth opened to say something. "If you say anything other than what I am asking about I will not hesitate to ensure the survival of everyone here. Tap your foot once if you understand." Hearing the sound, Reika relaxed the dagger and returned it to her neck. "How long precisely have you existed in this place?"
"We didn't keep track of days at first so a few months."
She isn't trying to justify herself. That means she understands that panicking will not give her any kind of advantage. Her fear has crystalized and become dread. "Specify how you 'live'."
"We have half of the powers you have, offensive but no defense. We use these powers to survive in the wild. We have a small cottage with two rooms. Minimal furniture. We created a large stone basin as a bath. Everyone works to do their share for all of us to survive. We eat vegetables that Tsubomi grows or animals that Yuri and the others hunt."
"What about system interference?"
"I don't understand the question."
"Does the system interfere with your presence?"
"No."
"Does the system assist you in any way?"
"Crops grow much faster than normal and we are either not hunting enough to depopulate the wilderness or they breed really fast."
That is marginal at best. "Why are you trying to go back?"
"Because I love my Miyuki and want to be with my own people. Also I'm scared of exactly this situation so I pretended to be Nozomi."
"The Bad End were insane shadows of ourselves. How can they function in a group with others?"
"I brought my team around and Tsubomi's group was very cooperative from the start. Together we set them straight. They're good people now."
"Describe Bad End Beauty to me."
"Very obsessed with beautiful things, the girlfriend of Mirage Moonlight, also very aloof and can be a bit of a klutz. She's an absolute necessity for us to survive because her ice melts into clean drinkable water."
That sounds completely different from who I encountered four years ago. I wonder how much sovereignty they have over themselves or if they have been set up this way. "How quickly did she change and how well adjusted is she now?"
"It took at least two weeks before she finally settled into things. She's still one of the weirder ones compared to Tsubomi's and my group."
Reika went quiet and Dark Dream continued to shiver before her until she finally relaxed the dagger. "I have determined that you are not an immediate threat to us. But you are a threat to Miyuki. She is in love with Nozomi and not you. You will stay away from her and everyone else to keep interactions that could arouse suspicion to a minimum. In addition you will remain within my observational range. Explain in detail how you will return to your own people."
That was yesterday and now it's almost time to go back. She still scares the hell out of me. What the heck happened to this Reika to make her like this? She's like some kind of… villain almost. Like she hunts and extorts people for information all the time. A strong shiver rocked Dark Dream's body. I'll have to forget about it or I'll end up subconsciously afraid of my Reika too even though she's much more likely to hurt herself by accident than someone else. "The portal should open anytime now."
"I still do not know the purpose of your existence."
"Even if you ask me that…"
"We are here to restore equilibrium to the balance of light and dark. I do not understand what purpose you serve."
"I wanna know too but I don't! Stop it, you're scaring the heck out of me!"
Eh? I am not doing anything special though. "How?"
"Your face! Your face is super scary!"
This is my normal face though… So what if I smile? "What about this?"
"That's even worse! You're giving off a vibe that you're about to slice and dice me!"
But this is me smiling and friendly looking… I need to ask Miyuki if there's something wrong with my expressions. "When precisely does the portal open?"
"For about five or so minutes at midnight." I can't wait to get out of here.
Standing in silence for over a minute, Reika just stared at Dark Dream, who got visibly more and more uncomfortable – and also felt kind of hot because she was wearing multiple sets of clothing at once, trying to take home some extras.
I want to ask her about Nao and Akane on her side. But I should not. I cannot. I need to move on. Nao… Nao made it very clear that us being together does not work for her. I also do not want to appear lonely, albeit… I do feel myself crave for being with someone. Spying a distortion in space up ahead, a few steps in front, Reika formed a spear and a shield, followed by almost two dozen other weapons that sprung from a then ice covered floor around her.
She's nuts. Is she planning to one-girl army all fourteen of us when we just want to live in peace? "Nozomi should pop out when I go in, but if she doesn't I'll run and drag her here to get her out."
"Do not for one moment doubt that I will pursue you with the aid of everyone here should you attempt to keep her hostage." Albeit I see little reason or chance that she would would do such a thing. She is not Nozomi but she appears to carry similar core values as Dream has displayed.
Dark Dream turned around looked one time straight at Reika without shying away. "I'll tell our Reika that her original has become someone really badass. And I'll leave out the bit how your face is extremely scary."
This is still a normal face….
Stepping through the gate that opened up, Dark Dream found herself in a complete darkness, void of anything. "What the hell?" Stepping forward, small steps because she could see naught anything, Dark Dream suddenly felt cold. Despite all the clothing she wore, she felt cold. And it wasn't just typical freezing. It was not even the cold she had felt when Reika had threatened her life. This was different.
It was pure horror. She could feel it; something was watching her. Something that far exceeded Reika and her threats, something so powerful and grand that there was no use in even trying to categorize it with an analogy. She was frozen in place, unable to go forward or move back. Death. A single, omnipotent thought. This is going to kill me. She felt certainty about it.
"Sweet girl, sweet girl, oh magic kind… From light, from light, you, so blind… the chosen one, oh glory days… the whispers dark, the hero pays… for fault and lie, for people's sin… Fading smile, the fate so grim… Sweet girl, sweet girl, oh magic kind..."
She felt her eyes vibrating in her skull, her tongue burning hot with pain and every hair on her body trying to rip itself out. A voice that came from far away, no more like a distant whisper of sing-sang and yet, yet still… it was like it was being broadcast right into her head. Help. Help! Her mouth refused to obey and her body caught in unnatural paralysis she cried out in her thoughts. Someone help! Please! She didn't know why but that singing voice, deep and yet somehow high was frightening beyond all sense. Like it was some kind of magic, causing her to feel terror. And she could still vaguely feel it. That power, there far away, in the distance. Like a lighthouse housing a great fire of godly proportions. She could tell, somewhat, how strong Reika was. This was so much more than there was no point in even measuring it against Reika.
And then the sing-sang stopped. And the terror got so much worse than she felt tears run down her cheeks in complete silence. It hadn't stopped because whatever that was had gone away. It was gone because it had realized she was here. Here… where it could get to her. Miyuki… I'm so sorry… it looks like I won't come home after all.
Something reached out, an invisible mass of magic heading in her direction. Tears continued to pour and she felt something warm run down her legs. She couldn't see anything, not even herself and she was about to get… something done to her by some manner of being she couldn't even conceive of.
Closing her eyes and waiting for the end, Dark Dream's legs gave out, falling to the hard ground in the void and awaiting her demise.
=== DISSONANCE ===
Wide awake from one moment to the next, Mana was holding her girlfriend's right hand between her own hands. "Rikka? What's wrong? You're pale as a ghost and cold like you've been in ice water."
"Something… huge. I just felt some kind of massive magic power that doesn't make sense. I can't imagine that coming from a human or any living thing. It was like… I can't even put it into words. All six of us combined would not even come close to this." My hands are shaking and it woke me up even though I was asleep. I feel scared. I haven't felt this scared ever before. Like something unimaginable is out there. "Mana..."
"I didn't feel it. Maybe I was too tired?"
No, I think… only those of us that are really sensitive towards energy manipulation could pick this up. It's like a bad dream… I'm still shaking even though I only felt this for an instant. "I'll need to talk to the other manipulators tomorrow and see if maybe I just imagined it… like a nightmare."
"Was it that bad?"
"If that… if that was not my imagination I can only hope that whatever this was never shows up again or bears us ill-will." Rikka was still shaking and continued to do so even after Mana hugged her tight. I can't even imagine what kind of power that was. A god… maybe? Something powerful enough to rewrite time and create this entire space? A god would certainly have the power to do that, and they must exist since we are here… did I catch a glimpse of their power? Still… I can't shake this uneasy feeling. Like I just caught a glimpse of something I shouldn't. Like I took a peek behind the curtain at a magic show and what I found was that it was run by demons.
"Do you think you'll be able to go back to sleep?" Mana was speaking softly, extremely worn out but suppressing any yawning or complaints of her own. I've never seen Rikka this spooked. I'm pretty good at magic myself but a far cry from her of course. But if it was this big why didn't I feel it? Why must I have her bear this alone? "I'm sorry Rikka."
"I think I really did imagine it. Something like that… everyone would feel it."
But Rikka was not the only one that felt it. Outside, on the plaza, were Reika and Dark Dream, in front of the still open portal, on the ground and on all fours. Dark Dream was unconscious and had wet herself in the void while Reika had suffered some frostbite on her right arm. For me to get frostbite when I am wearing my costume is something I did not think to be possible. I had a terrible feeling so I just reached in on impulse and dragged out whatever I managed to grab hold of. What happened to her inside there?
"Darkness, darkness, lurks in heart… darkness, darkness, your fate's card… darkness, darkness, lurks in heart… reach within, a good soul's shard… fu fu fu…."
The portal closed in on itself right after the mysterious and bone shilling voice came out of it, accompanied by a wave of creepiness that made even Reika apprehensive. What… was that? Reika tore her gaze away from where that portal had been and looked down at the pale as a ghost Nozomi. This is not good. Dropping her weapon and moving her hand in front of Nozomi's open eyes, Reika didn't get her pupils to track her. She's cold. Almost as if I froze her solid. I cannot just leave her like this without risking her dying. But I cannot involve others. Questions will be asked that I cannot answer. Optimally I'd want to have Rin, Akane or Tsubomi take care of this, but Rin and Akane are on the other side and Tsubomi is not a choice because Erika is someone that is unable to be trusted with a secret. But what choice do I have? Getting on her feet, Reika felt her knees gave out and she fell forward.
What scares me… is that this scares me. We fought Joker and Pierrot and I have faced many dangerous situations. So why does a little bit of creepily sung nursery rhyme scare me so much? There was something unnatural to it, but regardless, it was just words. So why… It does not matter. I have to get this Nozomi away from here.
Materializing a club to use as a standing aid, Reika regained the feeling in her legs but not without significant expenditure of willpower. Just what was that in there? Does this lead to space? It would explain the frostbite on my arm but not why Dark Dream has none. No, if it lead to space her eyes would most likely be damaged and her heart would have stopped. She still has a pulse and it is a little weak but not worryingly so. Having recovered her ability to walk, Reika picked up Nozomi and turned away from where the portal was.
"Fu fu fu..."
Darting back around, Reika saw nothing out of the ordinary. Did I imagine it? Did- Reika clenched her teeth. What… what is this? A mental attack..? My head… Dropping Nozomi on the ground, Reika got back on her knees, then on all fours, and finally she violently threw up. What… what… I have to… I have to get….
Plummeting to the ground to the side, a small puddle of vomit separating her and Nozomi, Reika's eyes darted around like crazy. I have… to find my sister. Regaining her senses, Reika sat up, looked around, then stood up, dusted off her outfit and walked away, without saying anything, leaving Nozomi behind.
Reika was not the only one that had trouble keeping dinner down. Kaoru had fallen out of bed and was violently puking her guts out, small amounts of blood running out of her nose and ears. Michiru was right by her side while Yayoi was looking down from the bed. "What's wrong with her?!"
"Judging by how harsh she's reacting more than a couple of the Stormflair seals just broke all at once! But why?!"
"Something… ugh… something flooded the area…" Kaoru puked again, creating a disgusting stain on the ground. Yayoi, despite Michiru's expectation to just panic and hide, jumped into the bathroom and grabbed a bucket from under the sink, handing it to Michiru who then positioned Kaoru over it.
"Should I get someone?! Like Miyuki?"
"Don't leave this room!" Michiru shouted at Yayoi so hard that the short girl recoiled in shock. "There's no telling what's going on out there now. And the closer you are to Kaoru the better your seal will hold."
Yayoi swallowed and lost a bit of color. "I know it's a bit late to ask this but… how bad was everyone?"
"Mayhem. Absolute insanity. Almost all of them went completely crazy after a while. But the bigger problem is the seventeen that were princesses. Kaoru was one of them and we don't know why exactly but we were able to hold on to who we are all that time. The other sixteen princesses however completely believed in what the role they were playing said they were."
"Sixteen?!" Yayoi looked a bit dejected.
"The worst of the bunch were Ako, Hikari, Komachi, the top three. After that Kurumi was also pretty much a disaster along with Honoka."
"They're…" Kaoru managed to wipe her mouth on her arm. "They most likely… go back to believing who they were in the Masquerade."
"Kaoru, do you know how many seals went away?" Her sister shook her head and puked again, only stomach acid coming out this time. This is beyond bad. We hoped the seals would hold indefinitely considering how much power went spent setting them up. And without warning, Kaoru stopped throwing up and feeling bad. Sitting up, she looked confused. "What now?"
"The pain stopped. It shouldn't have. Something is wrong." Kaoru breathed slowly for a few seconds and finally burst into motion, leaping on the bed, pinning Yayoi to the sheets and touching her forehead. "This will hurt. Stormcall."
Nothing happened.
"Kaoru, we can't use our abilities without our costumes."
"Tch." Jumping off the bed and hurrying to the wardrobe, Kaoru started to put her costume on as fast as she could.
"What's… she trying to do?" Yayoi felt kind of vulnerable being all alone with them. Kaoru's acting really scary. But seeing her like that… and hearing how bad everyone got… and Michiru shouting at me… I'm scared of what's going on.
"She's trying to use you like a radio tower to ping the other seals in people's memory she made. That way she'll know how many there are left. Kaoru, are you sure you're okay? You were about to kick the bucket there."
"It's like the seals broke and then came back. But that's impossible." Jumping on one foot to get her boot on, Kaoru looked pretty silly the way she was acting.
"You said something flooded the area? With what?" Michiru grimaced at the sight of the vomit. "Yayoi, can you get a mob from the closet in the bathroom?"
"Magic. The Stormflair seals went out because magic was flooding the area. So much that even my Stormflair was basically spit in the wind."
"There's nobody here with that kind of power."
"That's what worries the hell out of me. And it scares me too."
"Scares you?"
"If there's something that powerful that it can just flush out my seals… to put it in terms that make sense, if you had that much power and punched the earth with it, the entire planet would pop like a bubblegum bubble."
"You've got to be exaggerating."
"I wish."
"Now you've got me scared too. You think it's one of the ex-villains?"
"No way they have that much power."
"What then?"
"One of the things that made this place maybe?" Yayoi threw her own idea in, having returned from the bathroom with a mob and a metal bucket filled with water.
"That would be bad news. There's nothing we can do against something like that and if there were a thousand Cures here. But worse is that if they are doing this they must be trying to undo the effects of my Stormflair seals. For whatever reason. Maybe they want everyone to go batshit insane again and try to kill each other for some reason?"
"I don't think that's it. I've only been here after Nozomi's big fight but things have only gotten more comfortable since then… there's so many ways to meet the other team and the fighting has gotten super intense but we're all fine after…" Yayoi was fidgeting a little and sitting at the rear end of the bed. This is so not what I am good at…
"Think about the alternative, Yayoi." Michiru paused her mopping up Kaoru's puke. "If something else did this, it's powerful enough to make everyone of us look like pebbles on the road. No amount of sticking together and teaming up would let us beat something like that."
"That's scary..." Yayoi felt goosebumps on her back. Something so strong that even Michiru says it's unbeatable? I know this isn't manga or anime so… if something like that is out there I hope it leaves us alone.
"It could also just be a problem with the system." Kaoru finished putting on her gloves and was all dressed. "There's been lots of problems with the systems ever since we got here the first time and so far this has been almost too smooth a ride. I just hope this isn't the beginning of something worse."
"You sound like a horror movie character." Yayoi didn't feel happy saying that and she wasn't smiling. "Please don't jinx us. And no talk about splitting up or exploring mysterious noises!"
"Yayoi, hold still. Also this really will hurt, but I can't let you or Michiru go out there without knowing how many seals are actually gone. Stormcall!"
It was like a giant temple bell went off ringing in her head and someone hit her with a hammer at the same time. Wincing and twitching, Yayoi tried to bear it the best she could but still tears found their way out.
"This can't be right… Yayoi, I'm sorry but I have to check again. Stormcall."
The pain was too much for Yayoi to bear without old habits coming back to the surface and she started to sob and tremble. Kaoru took her hand away a few moments later, pale and in disbelief. "That can't be right. I felt them break. Enough of them to put me in enough pain to think I was going to die." Pausing and reaching out to Yayoi again, Kaoru changed her mind when she saw how much two echo pings had hurt her. I feel bad. Hugging Yayoi and letting her cry the pain out, Kaoru looked at Michiru. "All twenty-eight seals are accounted for."
"What? You sure?"
"I checked twice because I thought I just picked up the pings wrong. But no, same result. They're all there. The pings felt a bit weak to me, though."
"What do you mean, weak?"
"Like the seal is there but it isn't as strong as it should be. This isn't that kind of seal though, it's either there or isn't, there's no weakening with it. You know that."
"What do you think happened then?"
"I don't know. I can only go with wild speculation and assume the seals were drowned out for a moment and after the magic flood went away, the seals came back into place."
"Wouldn't it kill you if all the seals went out at the same time."
"Kill?!" Yayoi suddenly looked up, wiping her tears from her face. "It will kill you?!"
"The seals are made to last forever. An entire lifetime. There is no chance of them all failing at the same time. We're more likely to die because the sun explodes in a freak accident." Kaoru tried to calm Yayoi down. "And you're that concerned about me? Even though I have done nothing but bully you?"
"I… didn't completely hate it."
"Can you two flirt later? Shouldn't we figure out what's going on?"
Yayoi hung her head low and Kaoru ruffled her hair. "There is something that bothers me. The pain was definitely coming from a bunch of seals breaking all at once but not all of them. If something, or the system, flooded the area with magic, all of the seals should have broken. At this point we have to go out and check on things. Yayoi." Making the short girl look up to her, Kaoru gave her a quick kiss. "Dress. It's possibly dangerous outside right now and without Hikari's help I can only get us out of trouble with Stormflair once."
"Can't we just wait things out?" I don't want to go out and meet an insane Reika or something like that. That's way too scary.
"There might be casualties if we just let things be. Kaoru didn't work so hard to seal everyone's memories to just let this happen." Michiru was already on her way to the wardrobe. Luckily both Yayoi and Kaoru had brought their costumes to this room or they would have had to visit their own rooms, with only Michiru being transformed.
Letting go of Yayoi, Kaoru sat on the edge of the bed and watched her sister change. "There are sixteen problems. I was the tenth princess in line to the crown, out of seventeen total. And those sixteen princesses other than me are the real problems. Everyone else suffered just from insanity because of the time loop and their actions, but the princesses were given a real personality and name by the system. The other princesses will know me as Bjeldavir. If anyone says that out loud, then they reverted back to their Masquerade delusion. On this side of things we have Komachi, Kurumi, Rin, Nagisa, Akane, Miyuki, Hikari and Mai to worry about. Exactly half of the general issue. We need to make sure they don't remember anything."
"What's our plan if they do?" Michiru was putting on her pants before her dress and not looking while asking.
"You and Yayoi have to subdue them. It takes a lot out of me to use the special Stormflair to shut off their memories so I can't use it more than once a day. We'll have to knock out everyone that is compromised. Yayoi will be a massive asset in that."
"Me?!" Yayoi had grabbed the sheets and was covering herself, despite wearing a t-shirt large enough for Michiru, as she got off the bed.
"Shock them hard enough to put them down but not hard enough to kill them. You have enough control for that, right?" Kaoru smiled at Yayoi and waved a little as she turned around with the sheets.
"They're not gonna get healed out here though!" Can I really attack my friends like that?
"It's better than them killing each other. It's unfortunate we have three of the worst ones over here. Hikari, Komachi and Kurumi are all in the top five worst princesses to deal with." Kaoru let out a quiet sigh. "Listen, Yayoi. If Michiru or I tell you to shock them you can't hesitate. In the Masquerade the princesses didn't have magic powers as long as they believed in their role but here they will most likely have them. And especially those three are all really powerful."
Yayoi hesitated for a moment and then nodded her head. For all their teasing and bullying they do seem to care about everyone so I trust them. This situation is like right out of a horror manga. I hate horror! I bet this is what those possession and body switching doujins use all the time.
It took Yayoi a few minutes to dress and all three of them were ready then. Leaving their room on the fiftieth floor, they checked the other two rooms first – belonging to Rin and Kurumi respectively. Nobody would answer them this late at night; both Rin and Kurumi's rooms remained silent.
"W-What now?" Yayoi was hiding behind Michiru, a full head shorter than her, and ready to zap whoever showed up with so much as an unhappy face. I'm scared something will pop out if we keep knocking… something scary. N-No, be brave Yayoi! You survived comiket multiple times including when you were a newcomer! This can't be any worse than that!
"My stormcall can't pinpoint a location, only the existence of a seal, so we'll have to comb the area and see if they are out and about. It's possible that everyone that was actually asleep when the magic flood happened got away without their seal breaking."
"Would anyone be up after that hellish sports festival?" Michiru looked doubtful.
"We can't rule that-" Kaoru's sentence was cut short by Yayoi, whose heightened sense of fear picked up the noise of the elevator running.
"Hide!" A hiss from the short girl, Yayoi was surprised when Michiru quite literally picked her up, Kaoru jumped into action and both of them hurried to the staircase door and hid. They… just believed me? "You didn't even ask-"
"Do you think we would make someone we don't trust our girlfriend? Now quiet." Michiru hissed at her and let Yayoi down, all three of them covering by the door, listening for steps and words.
Two people. Kaoru held up two fingers to signal Michiru and Yayoi.
There was nothing being said by those two people, they were just walking and then suddenly stopped. "What is it?"
All three exchanged looks. That was Kurumi's voice, sounding suspicious but also like she was in a good mood.
"Don't you get the feeling someone is watching us?"
The other voice belonged to Komachi. Kaoru and Michiru specifically exchanged looks. This is bad was their shared thought.
Kurumi just snorted. "You read too many conspiracy novels, Komachi."
Komachi reacted with an annoyed grunt and mumbled something that the trio could not make out. A door opened and closed about ten seconds after.
"A-Are they… them?" Ah, my heart's beating so hard I was worried they might hear it! And everything seems so suspicious all of a sudden! D-Did Kurumi always call her Komachi like that? And conspiracy novels?
"Maybe not." I cannot be sure. But Kurumi addressed Komachi by her real name and not as Trisjil… It would have helped to see if Komachi would address Kurumi as such and not as Vivilfell. "We need to wait here. Komachi is the owner of the penthouse so she is going back up, no doubt."
"What if she doesn't?" Michiru opened the door a little more and peeked out. Nobody there.
"Then we can assume she reverted to being Trisjil."
"T-Trisjil? That sounds like a name right out of a light novel… and it's kinda lame." Yayoi whispered and felt her cheek violently poked by Michiru. "Ow, ow, I'll be quiet..."
"Komachi Trisjil Escalia." Kaoru stated her full name. "In the many, many loops we lived through, she was no doubt one of the worst if not the worst princesses. Even in company of the other dangerous royals I would consider her pure evil. She is also the only one that no matter the machinations I was aware of I could never approach or get friendly with. Horrendously suspicious of everything and anyone, she sees people as convenient tools to achieve her purposes and will discard her allies- that is, pawns, as easily as her foes. More often than not she tried to burn everything down if it looked like the first and second princess were going to ascend to the throne. And she was very successful in doing that."
"A super villain character." Yayoi felt Michiru stare at the top of her head and blushed. I can't help it!
"Trisjil is cunning and malicious beyond all else. She was the only one to move people and agendas as well as the first princess, who everyone considered to be the most masterful manipulator in the kingdom's fabricated history." Kaoru delved into her character a bit more.
"If this was Trisjil, why would she be with Kurumi?" Michiru brought up a counter argument. "Trisjil trusted none of the other princesses and especially not Kurumi."
"The circumstances have changed and I don't know the exact and precise outcome of the Masquerade memories returning. It's all conjecture."
"Is Kurumi in danger?" Yayoi was acting a little antsy, unable to stand perfectly still.
"If that is Trisjil and not Komachi… possibly. If it is Trisjil she doesn't seem to have realized that we all have magic powers. We need to contain the situation, if there is one, before anyone realizes they have destructive abilities." I should have prepared better for this scenario. I didn't think it would happen so I was lax in my thinking. Although Michiru shared my point of view, this is still my fault.
"We can't get into that room though." Yayoi took a quick peek and found the hallway deserted. "Do they look any different if they have their Masquerade memories?"
"They are just memories. The ones less good at theatrics might have different expressions but that is really hard to say for sure. I observed them quite a bit and especially Trisjil was good at pretending to be things she wasn't. Komachi's princess is quite a troublesome one." Michiru closed the door up a little, just in case. They should be coming back out now.
"What are we gonna do about the other side? We can't go there and there's nobody on the beach that we can ask." Yayoi was feeling even more antsy now.
"The beach's shared property ceased at midnight. I asked Majorina when it would expire," Michiru explained.
"Isn't that really bad?!" Yayoi raised her voice and was immediately shut up by Michiru covering her mouth. I'm the worst spy ever.
"Yeah, it's bad. Especially since we have Ako, Miki, Inori and Setsuna on that side. Inori and Setsuna were not particularly noteworthy, but Ako and Miki are best not underestimated." Michiru felt goosebumps go over her entire body as she remembered what Ako was capable of during the Masquerade.
Yayoi felt those goosebumps too and it worried her. Were they that bad? I wish I could remember but if I remembered I would lose my mind but without remembering… ah, what is this stupid loop?!
"For now I am going to assume that everyone that we find up and about had their seal temporarily flushed out. There is no telling how much of the Masquerade came through while it was gone. Shocking them preemptively will raise a massive amount of questions from the others which is a problem too. Yayoi is always around me so the seal is sturdier than most but with the others it will be a really big risk."
"Uh… so I'm not shocking anyone?"
"Unless we have proof that they're influenced by the Masquerade."
"They're not coming back out… do you think they went to sleep?"
"Komachi and Kurumi? Together?" Michiru grunted. "That I cannot imagine."
"Some of their memories must have come back. But even so I don't understand this. Trisjil was never friendly with Kurumi." Kaoru opened up the door a bit and peeked out but there was no light visible beneath Kurumi's door.
"Kurumi was a princess too?" It's impossible to keep track of this! So Komachi is Trisjil and she's just super evil… and Kurumi?
"Kurumi Vivilfell Escalia. The sixth princess and a merciless and cruel despot that despised everyone that was not royalty or at least a noble. Between her and Trisjil there was just a lot of hatred and evil for everyone, including each other. I cannot imagine them getting along for any reason." The expression on Kaoru's face as she talked about her was pretty grim.
"They did cooperate once." Michiru corrected her sister. "We experimented to see what would happen if Evangeline was assured the succession very early into the party and to stop that those two cooperated to kill her and Cordelia."
Evangeline? Cordelia? It's already hard to remember everyone's names as is! Yayoi looked pretty sullen over being unable to follow the conversation.
"Those were special circumstances. Neither of them would trust the other normally."
"So you think they both have their masquerade memories?" Yayoi tried to put a break to their conversation to catch up.
"Possibly. But it doesn't actually explain what's happening right now. Nothing does. If they are both normal, what are they doing in Kurumi's room without Karen? If only one of them is normal, how did they convince the other one to follow them? If they are both abnormal, why are they together at all? Nothing about this really makes sense." Kaoru covered her face and exhaled with a stutter. "I hate it when things are irrational like this."
"Do we stay and keep an eye on them or do we leave? It might be hard to get past that door if they are listening for whoever they thought was watching them." Michiru eyed the stairs behind them. We can always go down there and back up when we go back to our room.
"There is a high likelihood that whoever was out has already gone back to their rooms. This does bring up the question how much of their normal memories they retain after the Masquerade ones have come back to them. If they are aware of who they think they have been but are not- this is giving me a headache. Maybe it's best we just shock everyone, tie them up without their costumes and then spend the next month re-doing their seals properly." Kaoru grabbed the door a little too hard and the material gave in a bit under her finger's pressure.
"Kaoru." Michiru put her left hand on top of Kaoru's head and watched her relax. "I know it's difficult to see this happen but there are still ways to handle this without resorting to extremes."
"Everyone went crazy, right? But Komachi and Kurumi didn't sound crazy to me." Kaoru's so tense… she's usually so carefree and aloof, it's weird to see her like this. I don't like it.
"The princesses are a rather special scenario. But especially Komachi and Kurumi who aren't really bad natured would suffer a lot if they knew and remembered everything they did while they were absorbed into their roles," Michiru offered some insight. "We don't know for sure if it would break their psyche but that would be an enormous risk to take."
Kaoru sighed again. "The bigger issue is those that didn't have a designated role to fill, like you, Yayoi. Dying over and over, doing horrible things, serving and remaining put, the lack of sleep for long periods of time… There were times where we couldn't identify any of you because your psyche just shut down and you were basically interchangeable with the system created clones."
Yayoi lost a bit of color. "That's… really scary."
"That's why we're so worried about all of this." Michiru pushed the door close. "We should do a quick sweep of the areas outside and the other floors to make sure nobody else is outside. We don't know if this magic flood was something that won't happen again."
"L-Let's go! I'm coming with you! If anyone acts up I'll give them the zap of their lifetime!" Yayoi put on a tough face but on the inside she was really scared. Fighting monsters is one thing… fighting going crazy and my friends is just… it's just too cruel. But Michiru and Kaoru were all alone for ten years. I'm a Cure, it's my job to do this!
"Look at who is brave all of a sudden. Okay, we're going to count on you charting out the ocean then." Michiru's evil grin made Yayoi pout and puff up her cheeks. "So picky."
"Am not!" Yayoi was picked up from behind by Kaoru and hugged tight. "Kaoru?"
"I'm glad we picked out a cute girl like you. It was pretty isolating to have to pretend to be someone we are not." And we're going to fight to keep things from falling apart.
=== DISSONANCE ===
As much as they looked, searched, checked, nothing out of the ordinary would turn up. Majorina, Mamo, Mizushita – all three of them were asked and inquired on about the flood of magical energy before and all three denied having felt such a thing. It was the early morning hours when Kaoru and Michiru finally felt fatigue cloud their thinking and called off their mission.
Returning to their room somewhat bitter and frustrated, Yayoi dropped into bed before the other two, tired out of her mind. She was gone in an instant, still fully dressed as Cure Peace.
"We didn't find any evidence anyone is acting up. Maybe Komachi and Kurumi are simply planning a surprise for Karen." Michiru pulled off one of Yayoi's boots and the entire outfit vanished. Luckily the outfit always returned to whatever wardrobe it was last put into by the user. "I'm so tired..."
"I didn't feel even a hint of the seals being gone after that one moment… maybe they weren't gone, just the connection I have to them was cut by whatever caused all that magic to swirl around."
"We'll have to keep an eye on this." Michiru took off her own boot and fell into bed naked next to Yayoi. "She didn't complain even once. I'm really surprised."
"She's so cute, isn't she? I wasn't planning on getting all emotional with her but it really helped having someone that isn't you around and act like myself."
"I know what you mean. I figured we'd use her to 'adjust' ourselves in the eyes of the others, but I ended up being really attached to her really quickly. She's so fun to tease and despite us doing it so much she didn't grow to be contemptuous."
"The opposite, really. She's sympathizing with us."
Caressing Yayoi's cheek, Michiru smiled softly. "I wonder if this is what it means to be in love. I want to protect her and I want her to depend on me."
"And you want to do lots of lewd things to her."
"Goes without saying."
"I cannot shake this uneasy feeling, Michiru. Something is wrong but we can't find what it is."
"Like a bad smell in the room but you can't find what's producing it."
"Something rotten."
"Something dangerous."
"I just hope Komachi didn't become Trisjil. Or that Kurumi turned into Vivilfell. I don't want to see either of them ever again."
"We need to keep our eyes open, Michiru. This could be a bigger danger than the reflections were."
"I am just glad the reflections incident didn't happen with Yayoi's and Heart's group being here."
"Let's not jinx ourselves." Sitting down on the bed and taking off a boot, Kaoru plummeted onto the sheets to the other side of Yayoi. "I'm too tired to even think about groping her. I'm just gonna go to sleep."
"Same."
=== DISSONANCE ===
"One fish that the intensity of her stare is gonna make Yayoi's head explode before she's done."
"I'm taking that bet. One fish against it."
Itsuki and Akane were watching Miyuki unload all of her bad mood on Yayoi by endlessly staring her down while Yayoi was tied to a stump by Urara's chains. And both of them were hit on the head with a large wooden spoon momentarily after. "If you don't keep gutting these fish you're betting you'll both end up losing out on dinner." Komachi was not to be trifled with when it came to food. And both of them resumed work while continuing watch Yayoi metaphorically shrink.
"What did she even do to make Miyuki this mad?" Itsuki lowered her voice to avoid Komachi hitting her again for moving her mouth instead of her hands.
"Apparently Miyuki thinks that Yayoi messed with Nozomi. I think Miyuki only got herself to blame for how fidgety Nozomi's been though." I doubt Yayoi is that stupid though. There's playing pranks and then there's playing ball in a minefield.
"Another fish on that Miyuki put her hands on her. She's that type will go all It's fine, it's fine and keep going." Itsuki looked smug. I know the type. Tsubomi can be like that too when she's been at the fields all day. I expect today will be a bit different though. There's been so much to do, Karen was babbling about there being multiple Tsubomi.
"In her case it's more like Shut up and enjoy it don't you think?" Akane grimaced and both of them got another hit from Komachi. "We're moving our hands!"
"That's for gossiping." Komachi was washing rice for the first time in her life. Nao had brought by a small sack of it by Tsubomi's orders. Tonight will be a feast. Yayoi got fish from the river, too.
"What are you, our mom?!" Itsuki dodged the third blow and laughed at Komachi only for her to see Tsubomi standing behind Komachi and witnessing the whole thing. "This- it's not what you think Tsubomi!"
"Uh huh." Her expression was completely deadpan. "Do you need both of these idiots?"
"I-Idiot..." Itsuki looked like she took a much bigger blow than a wooden spoon slap.
"My condolences." Akane put her hand on Itsuki's shoulder and nodded a couple times.
"Much as it pains me I do need both of them. Are you still working the fields with almost everyone?"
"I'm just having Karen, Rin and Reika do some watering the fresh crops." Peering into the bucket that Komachi was using to wash the rice, Tsubomi licked her lips. "I don't know why but I just feel really excited about this..."
"Probably because our originals are big rice eaters." Komachi eyed Akane and Itsuki, who immediately focused down on the table and on gutting fish.
"What's going on with our grumpy leader and Yayoi?" Tsubomi saw the dejected looking and suffering Yayoi tied to a stump, Miyuki towering in front of her and still staring. "Did something happen?"
"We don't know and I am not going to be the one that gets blown up by stepping on the landmine of asking her." Komachi exhaled strongly. "This is pretty tiring. I don't know how you handle the fields every day. I'd be in pieces by now."
"You get used to anything. Itsuki is a great help in building stamina even when I'm not on the field."
"Tsubomi!" Itsuki's face matched Bad End Rouge's hair color now.
"What are you getting all embarrassed for? We all sleep in a big room. They know every time." Tsubomi was still replying with a deadpan expression. "Akane, go and grab the bath squad, I'll take over for you. That's fine, right, Komachi?"
"At least Itsuki won't bet her dinner on anymore harebrained things."
"Huh, so you were gambling with your dinner?" Tsubomi's look alone was making Itsuki shrink a little.
Over by the house, not too far away from where dinner was being cooked, was Nozomi, accompanying Yuri in drawing lines in the dirt. "No, no, you need to make the primary living room bigger. We all have to fit in there after all. If this place has seasons there's going to be winter and we will have to be inside a lot." Nozomi had seen enough apartments to last a lifetime and she knew a thing or two about stuffing plenty of people into small spaces.
"What about making just two big rooms?" Why does she know so much about this?
"That will make heating or cooling really difficult. The walls can be thin but they should be there. You can… uh… the… loudest can go..." Nozomi was having trouble talking about lesbian things with an actual fully self-realized lesbian considering what Yayoi had said to her earlier. Even without that she would have to paraphrase a lot.
"Oh you mean the big moaners and screamers should go at the edges where thicker walls are. How big do you think the rooms- Nozomi, you okay, your face is really red?"
"That's not my fault." Nozomi rubbed her face and slapped her cheeks. "If you assign rooms with a bed just big enough for two people to share we can get away with this many."
"What do we do in case of a breakup though?"
"How likely is that?"
"Not very, but you know, sometimes couples fight and sharing a bed, well."
"Bunk beds then."
"Bunk beds?"
Explaining the concept of bunk beds to Yuri, Nozomi felt kind of in her element. She wanted to be a teacher and right now she was doing exactly that. Just not the topics she'd normally actually teach. "So by doing it like that we can have seven rooms and even a small toilet room eventually here in the corner where an eighth room would be. It does mean everyone has to share a room with someone else including those without a lo- girlfriend."
"And the big room next to it is the living room… I guess we can extend the building to three sides from the living room when necessary."
"See that dead end between bedroom three and four?"
"What about it?"
"You can put stairs there if you add a second floor in the future. Bedrooms don't really need to be big so it isn't necessary to remove or remodel the entire bedroom floor."
"Are you a building designer back home?"
"Just had really bad luck hunting for an apartment." Nozomi's smiled was a little awkward.
"The living room… hm, we don't really have any furniture to outfit a room."
"I've been wondering, but does the Erika here also have the ability to copy powers?"
"Copy powers?"
"The Erika on our side can do that. I thought, if she can copy your power she can make some furniture. She probably isn't as good at using it as the original so she won't be able to make an entire apartment."
"I don't think she can do that. We do have the same powers as our originals but we don't have their training, you know? I came up with the whole 'creating things during the full moon' shtick a while after we got here."
"Well, there's always making furniture the old fashioned way."
"Thank you for helping me out with this. I don't think any of us have any idea of how to set up an apartment."
"No problem at all!" Nozomi beamed at Yuri, happy that she was being useful. "But since we're already on the topic and I might not be here when you get to make more, let's go over plumbing and restrooms and what not."
"O-Okay." I can see that she's really Nozomi. That no stops mentality of her is just like our Nozomi's. I wonder what the real Yuri is like now. I'd love to meet her.
Teaching Yuri about all the important aspects of housing and what a good apartment should look like but adjusted for fourteen people, Nozomi was so caught up in it that she didn't notice that it was time for dinner until Karen came to get her. "Nozomi, food time."
"Oh, already?" Hearing Karen say 'food time' is surreal… I think my Karen would be so embarrassed to see that.
"You've been filling Yuri's head with complicated stuff for two hours. Can you go and hold Miyuki's hand or something? She's been getting on everyone's nerves a lot. Like, she's a ton grumpier than usual." Karen rolled eyes and looked pretty annoyed. "I know it's really out of line to ask you to fill our Nozomi's shoes but if Miyuki keeps going like this she'll annoy all of us to death." She's nagging so much I just want her to get off my back. I'm sure this Nozomi can handle some hand holding, cuddling and maybe a kiss. Miyuki isn't a moron, she'll know better than to go all the way even if she's doing that.
Dinner was a spectacular affair – everyone was gushing over how tasty the food was. Yayoi was still tied to a tree stump and nobody was feeding her so Nozomi wolfed down her own portion really quickly and went over there to help her out. "She still isn't letting you go? What did you do?" Holding Yayoi's bowl, filled with nice white rice, and a wooden plate with a fish, Nozomi sat down next to her and started to feed her some rice.
I can't tell her 'I played a prank on you and Miyuki figured it out'… not if you're being this nice to me. I should probably fix this but… eh. Maybe? Maybe it's fine? Maybe? Could be funny too. Oh man this tastes so good. "Miyuki just gets real grumpy when she, you know."
Nozomi blushed and fed Yayoi a little too quickly after that to shut her up. I… can't possibly… well, normally I couldn't… but this is Miyuki and I don't knew when I'll get back and she's been getting really irritated… even Karen asked me to sleep with her.
Watching the scene of Nozomi feeding Yayoi, Akane was nudging against Komachi on the big three stump the two shared. "I'm so sure she's misunderstanding stuff. She's been sneaking looks at Miyuki all day long and it's like her head is a stone getting heated by me at full power whenever she does."
"She probably feels compelled to fill in for our Nozomi, even though they're only alike in some aspects and total opposites in others." Komachi was eating slowly and enjoying every bite. I'm gonna ask Tsubomi to make more rice fields. This is great.
"Shouldn't you talk to her? You're kinda a familiar face at least."
"That probably just makes it worse. Why don't you talk to her?"
"Oh yeah, I am so famous for my tact. 'Hey Nozomi, you shouldn't feel compelled to do erotic stuff with Miyuki just to keep her from exploding'."
"You're doing that on purpose now."
"Also honestly Miyuki's been getting on my nerves."
"She does get really grumpy when she goes without sex. I mean I know why they have their own room. They are going at it almost every night."
"Miyuki is such a needy girl. I'm glad I have the most reasonable girl in this entire place all to myself."
"There's no more rice, Akane, don't even try. And I'm not giving you any of mine."
"For once I wasn't aiming for that."
"Sure you weren't." Komachi turned just a little sideways to protect her own bowl. "You can't have any."
"You know I wouldn't take food from you, stop being silly." Akane snorted with a smile. "But seriously though, shouldn't we do something about Nozomi? What if she feels pressured?"
"She doesn't strike me as someone to cast blame for something she misunderstands on her own. Let things play out. Just imagine if she's stuck here for another week."
"Spare me the thought please. We'll have to lock Miyuki up somewhere."
"See? Just let Nozomi do what she thinks she has to do."
"You're pretty cold considering she's the original reason your group has come around and turned out okay."
"That's cheap, putting it like that. I'm not cold I just don't want to make things more complicated than they are already. Miyuki needs someone to love and touch, we both know that. You'd be insufferable too if I swapped places with my original."
"Well, probably."
"And we're pretty good at not being needlessly horny every day."
"Unless I wear my Bad End outfit." Akane grinned super wide.
"That's cheating."
"We're all ex-villains, we're allowed to cheat."
"Don't let our Nozomi hear you say that, she'll string you up on a tree."
"I know, I know. It's honestly impressive how hard she worked to have everyone come around and be more… I guess, normal?"
"Tsubomi's group helped but Nozomi helping Miyuki become a different person and then helping everyone else on my team and you Bad Ends, yeah, I'd say she's earned being our leader."
"You're always acting all tough when you're actually a big softie."
"If you tell anyone I'll show you what Dark Mint can actually do."
"It's our secret." Akane chuckled happily, put her empty bowl down on the ground, turned on the stump and put her arms around Komachi's waist. "Hey… you think we can go and turn in a little early?"
"I'm tired as hell, so yeah."
Moving her hands up, lightly groping her girlfriend, Akane chuckled again. "You know that's not what I mean."
"Neither did I." Using her left hand with pinpoint accuracy without looking, Komachi tapped Akane's forehead. "You know I always feel revitalized after we do it."
"Wanna do it in the bath?"
"Sure."
"Not worried about Nozomi?"
"I don't care. This is our home."
"Now that's the Komachi I love."
As dinner was heading towards being finished, Nozomi could feel and smell the pheromones in the air. Everyone it looked like was getting intimate with their partner, whispering and smiling about things. She didn't notice that her sight had improved in the dark now, too occupied was she with herself and what this situation meant for Miyuki. Because her – the other Miyuki – was many things right now. Looking sad, grumpy, lonely. She misses her. Because I'm here she's missing her. And Yayoi was right… even Karen was saying it. She's really getting worse… but… Nozomi blushed. I… should I really try and sleep with her? This Miyuki is different. She's brash, aggressive but deep down she's trying really hard to be good. I can tell. She cares for everyone here and she loves… the other me a lot. Is it right for me to think I can be her replacement, even just in body? I can't just ask her, can I?
"Don't think too hard." Tsubomi was standing behind her, a stack of empty bowls in her hands. "We don't look the part but we don't bite. Most of us here were born from mistakes. Nobody is going to get mad at you for doing something that might be one. Just talk to her." There is a real chance that this might backfire and things will be awkward and hostile between them but Miyuki isn't someone that is already able to deal with a situation like this. She had one of the rockiest roads to becoming who she is now.
Walking away and leaving Nozomi behind, Tsubomi was caught up with by Itsuki. "What were you saying to her?"
"I told her to talk to Miyuki and ask her what's on her mind. It's clear as day this Nozomi has a lot she's thinking about."
"You think this was a good idea?"
"We won't know until it plays out. But Miyuki is getting worse and if this situation lasts for much longer we'll have to tell her to stay in the woods for a few days." Tsubomi sighed. "I don't want all her hard work to be for nothing just because Rin and Urara messed up."
"Nao was saying that Rin feels really guilty."
"She should. Look at this damn mess."
"Everyone here made mistakes. Well, kind of except us. So I say it's just part of them growing into their own. What's so funny Tsubomi?"
"Nothing. I'm just surprised that sometimes you say good things."
Dinner found its conclusion – dishes were collected and quickly cleaned by Karen and Urara, the latter had been dammed to do the dishes for a month straight due to messing up everything. Nozomi was walking with the others towards the bath. Yayoi was by her side, finally released from the stump and allowed to bathe with everyone else. "I got a question."
"My three sizes are a secret." Yayoi smirked. "What is it?"
"How do you five get in and out of those clothes for bathing?"
"Out with a lot of effort. We generally just go back naked because there is almost no way we can fit back into these things damp and wet. Not like the others don't know what we look like naked. Hm, hm, hm? Does that excite you?" Yayoi playfully bumped against Nozomi twice before someone grabbed her by her hair and pulled her back. "Ow, ow, ow, hey!"
Miyuki was there, the expression of a dark lord on her face. "And I was just thinking I should keep an eye on you."
"I was just being funny!"
"Let her go, Miyuki. She really was just poking a little fun." Pulling on her hair like that… Miyuki, this is someone from your own team. Be nice.
"Tsk." Letting Yayoi go, who ran off in an instant, Miyuki joined pace with Nozomi. "I don't know what fucking nonsense she told-" Miyuki abruptly stopped talking when Nozomi took her hand. "What are you doing?"
"She didn't tell me any nonsense. I can see how bad you're doing because I'm not her. I know… I'm not her. But… if you want I can try. I'm not… just doing this out of obligation or some misguided sense of responsibility. I like you. Not the same way I like my Miyuki, but you're similar in a lot of ways. Well, you're her other self after all. If it will make you happy then it will make me happy too, even though… I know it isn't right for you or me. But I can't stand to see you like this and-"
"I get it, I get it. I know I'm a damn mess right now." Scratching her head wildly with her free hand, Miyuki looked away from Nozomi but held on to her hand. "My Nozomi is who taught me about being a normal person. And you're the one who taught her. You're more similar than you think and I hate it. If you were someone completely different I wouldn't be tempted at all. But having you around, seeing you look exactly like her and even act similar… by the way, you are awful at pretending to be her. It makes you less like her than when you're not pretending."
"Ouch." Nozomi laughed softly in an embarrassed way. "I want to be there for you. I want to make sure that all your efforts and the efforts of my other self aren't for naught."
"Why? Why care so much? Essentially I'm just someone that tried to kill your Miyuki."
"That's why. You were created as something with a clear purpose, a perversion of what Miyuki was then. And you still managed to become respectable enough for everyone here to worry and care about you. If… I didn't like my Miyuki I would probably have fallen for you."
"I don't understand how both of you can say corny stuff like that without melting into the ground." Miyuki was still decidedly looking away. I can't show my blister red face to this damn girl. Why are both of them such damn smooth talkers?!
"So… if you need me to…" Instead of finishing her sentence, Nozomi squeezed Miyuki's hand and got close enough for their arms to touch.
"Isn't the other Miyuki gonna come for my hide?" I can't believe I'm actually talking about this. I even more can't believe she's actually coming on to me after how she acted the first night here. This girl must have the mental fortitude of a fortress.
"No, silly. Miyuki isn't like that. And I'm sure the other me won't be angry either if she's as much like me as you say."
A few steps ahead of them were Akane and Komachi, listening in on those two, holding hands and knowingly smiling at each other without really looking.
Arriving at the bath, Karen, Reika, Rin and Akane got to work rather quickly while the others partially undressed. Wearing just the skirt and the chest piece, Nozomi started to feel extremely self conscious. Miyuki was already half out of her suit and covering her chest with her right arm.
"Everyone's sore so make it extra hot!" Someone shouted and Nozomi identified that voice as belonging to Yuri.
It was hot already but the steaming hot bath was making it even hotter. Nobody dared to set foot into the basin before Akane raised her hand and gave the go sign. Instead of a rush happening all at once, there was a very ordered approach to it. Entering slowly from all sides of the basin, the bath filled up. Contrary to before, Nozomi headed in before Miyuki and found a nice and quiet spot in the shadows where the moon didn't reach. There's no preparing my heart for this, but… I made my resolve. This is still Miyuki in some form so… I don't feel like it's a sacrifice or something like that. I'm a bit scared though… I have no experience at all, not even with kissing.
To Nozomi's surprise, Miyuki was very slow to join her, moving through the water without looking straight at her, still covering her chest, even though she had been much more brazen about being naked before. Sitting down next to her, Miyuki rested her head against Nozomi's shoulder. "You're really okay with this?"
"If you're not too rough." Her voice cracked a little and her face turned even more red than it was from the hot bath.
A splash of water, a whirl of pink and Nozomi had no choice but to look at Miyuki – she sat on her lap now, straddling her, arms around her neck. "Last warning."
Her heart was beating so hard that she could feel it in her fingertips, her eyes not knowing where to turn. She's got such nice looking skin… and I can feel her butt on my legs! Her hands shaking a little, Nozomi reached forward and put Miyuki's waist in a tight embrace, pulling her in closer, forcing her to look up just the tiniest bit.
Leaning in a little, Miyuki's eyes were only half open, giving her an erotic look. Her hands shifted, leaving the right on Nozomi's neck and the left moving to her girlfriend's other self's cheek, leading her on.
Their lips touched softly, a hotness that was wholly different from anything Nozomi knew. Different from the hot skin that was pushing against her lap, different from the hot hands that she felt on her neck and cheek. There was no explaining or giving names to this sensation. It just was what it was, a kiss. Her first kiss. Miyuki…
Intensity followed softness, the kissing growing more strongly as Miyuki pursued it fiercely, her lips an unending battering assault on Nozomi's, tiny bits of saliva mixing with the hot steam rising from the water and the dampness on their faces. There was no counting the seconds or feeling the time – Nozomi was wholly lost in a sea of emotions and sensations, barely able to react to what happened to her.
It was either an instant or an eternity before Miyuki's attack ended and she greedily licked her lips, bending forward, her breasts rubbing against Nozomi's shoulder as she whispered straight into her ear with a hot breath. "Stick out your tongue."
Following the command inadequately and only sticking her tongue out a little, Miyuki stuck the tip of her finger into Nozomi's mouth, who opened up in surprise. Like a starved predator closing in on fresh prey, Miyuki's own tongue darted into Nozomi's mouth, taking control in an instant, the innocent and inexperienced girl's whole body shaking and twitching as the sensations overwhelmed her. Hot and soft then suddenly firm and aggressive, she was completely under Miyuki's spell.
Saliva ran from the corner of her mouth, down her chin and dripping into the water. Her eyes refused to close, locked onto Miyuki's intensely erotic gaze that mesmerized her. Ah… she's gonna eat me whole… Feeling a fire rage inside her chest and spreading rapidly through her body, Nozomi moved her hands over Miyuki's back in a trance, unable to process things as rapidly as they happened.
Her mouth was sore and her tongue felt like it had melted away when Miyuki backed off, a fierce scarlet streak running across her face from ear to ear. Sliding backwards on Nozomi's lap, Miyuki pushed her partner further back, against the edge of the basin, forcing her to lean and expose herself. Her chest barely escaped the water, her arms below the surface, a reaction of instinct to avoid sliding underwater entirely.
Something slipped between her legs – a knee, followed by a leg and then another. Miyuki was right there in front of her, one hand on the stone ground to support herself, another cupping Nozomi's boobs. "You're really exactly the same. Even your kisses taste the same. Let's see if you're the same here too." Squeezing and fondling one side, Miyuki leaned against Nozomi, almost lying on top of her partner, the aggressive girl's tongue now circling around her right nipple, coercing moans and gasps from the innocent girl.
This is how girls feel when they sleep with each other?! No wonder everyone wants a girlfriend! Nozomi didn't have the strength inside of her to do anything to Miyuki, it was a one-sided banquet of flesh and erotica.
And suddenly it all stopped. Suddenly, there were no more sensations, only lingering pleasure. "Look." Nozomi followed suit and the head that had been pulled back without intention turned down, eyes locked back on Miyuki's. "They're this hard already. You perverted girl." Flicking and biting one nipple each, Miyuki caused Nozomi to slide down – one hand instinctively came away from the ground to cover her own mouth, to suppress the grand moan that tried to escape her like a surging belief and faith.
With Nozomi still reeling from the sudden and almost lethal attack, Miyuki straddled her again. "Angle your legs." And like a servant to a master, Nozomi's body obeyed without thought, providing some hold for Miyuki's body. Just after she'd done so her world burst into a wild fire. Miyuki's body was aligned almost precisely with her own, boobs pressing against boobs. "So unfair, yours are still bigger than mine." Running her finger over Nozomi's neck, Miyuki moved up and down, her own hardened nipples brashly rubbing against Nozomi's.
What little control over herself she had until now crumbled away in an instant, the feelings, the pleasure more than she'd ever experienced before. Even… though I don't love her it feels this good… Just how good will it feel if I do it with my Miyuki- Hmhm! Not even her thoughts were safe before Miyuki's kisses, her tongue back within her mouth, dominating and moving about like this was where it naturally belonged.
Both of them slid into the water when Nozomi lost her strength, her whole body flushed by a massive wave of emotion and sensation robbing her of all reason and control. Even though the water was suddenly all around them Miyuki would not let up for another few seconds before she rose up, moved about and pulled Nozomi up as well and into an embrace from behind. Having changed their positions so quickly had made quite a splash and yet nobody said anything.
The air was rich with moans, gasps and the sounds of kisses. "Hey… listen to that." Sitting up and holding Nozomi by her waist, pushing her breasts against Nozomi's back, Miyuki whispered hot air in her partner's ears. "Everyone is going at it." Using a single finger to turn Nozomi's head a little right, Miyuki continued to whisper. "Look at that, Akane going to town on Komachi's huge tits."
Letting Nozomi rest for a moment, Miyuki hugged her tight. "We need to get you home. If you stay here for long I am going to fall in love with you."
Nozomi felt her heart constrict and then beat ten times faster. Love? She's going to fall in love with me?
"But if you can't go home… I will never be lonely as long as you're here with me." Her hands moved back up, groping Nozomi's breasts. "Honestly… I prefer this size over huge melons like Komachi has." Squeezing tight, Nozomi quivered under the new attack. "And you're so sensitive, it's great. You have the soul of a total pervert." Moving her right hand down over Nozomi's stomach, Miyuki nibbled on her ear, licking it until it was all sticky. "Don't worry, I'll go easy on you and use only one finger tonight." Reaching between her legs underwater, Miyuki felt Nozomi stiffen up in an unnatural way. "No need to be nervous, I'm really good at this."
Having just her fingertips cross paths with Nozomi's special place, Miyuki still felt her partner squirm a little and resist. Well no wonder she's not just flying along with this, it's the real deal after all. Still, isn't she a bit too tense? Skirting around the place with her fingers, Miyuki managed to get Nozomi to slowly relax by nibbling on her ear and fondling her boobs. "Your reactions are so cute they're driving me crazy."
"Miyuki."
The spell was broken and Miyuki clicked her tongue in anger. "Can't you see I'm busy, Akane?!"
"Yeah, and she's about to pass out. Look at her face." Akane had come close enough to talk to Miyuki face to face.
Pulling Nozomi closer and turned her around so she could have a look at her face, Miyuki saw that Akane was right. Nozomi was on the verge of passing out, her eyes were all glassy and she was drooling from the corner of her mouth. Say something if you can't handle the hot water! "We're leaving."
"N-No." Nozomi managed to get a few words out. "Just… lemme sit on the edge for a minute… I don't deal too well with long super hot baths..." Getting help from Miyuki, Nozomi sat on the cold stone in the darkness, her body steaming from being almost cooked. "Sorry..."
"About what?" Miyuki moved closer to the edge still and forcibly spread Nozomi's legs. "This is fine by itself."
"S-Stop! Everyone can see!" Nozomi hid her face behind her hands and peeked through the gaps between her fingers. E-Everyone… isn't looking? They're all-! What she saw was far more embarrassing than being watched. They were all still going at it. Just to her right were Akane and Komachi, facing each other with their legs crossed, to her left Reika and Yuri, Reika sitting in front and half turned, both of them engrossed in a seemingly infinite kiss.
"Only I'm watching- I see you're the same even down here." Lightly caressing Nozomi once, Miyuki made her shiver. "Looks like someone is pretty excited." Rubbing across another time, Miyuki held her fingers in front of her own face. "Because this isn't water." Licking it, she grinned. "Tastes a little more light than her."
"D-Don't lick it!" I'm gonna die of embarrassment! I should have just passed out in the water!
"So I should use my fingers then? Sure." Bending forward, Miyuki ran her tongue once over Nozomi's pussy, making the girl squeal and fidget, before inserting a single finger. She's so tight, what the hell! Damn, so she was a virgin after all?
Moving her finger slowly inside, Miyuki licked the insides of Nozomi's thighs, trying to raise her excitement. This isn't working. She's too stiff. Maybe using my fingers the first time was a bad idea. Pulling her hand away, she felt an answer to that thought. She's relaxing… so fingering is definitely on hold until some other day. Switching over to licking, it only took a few seconds before Miyuki stopped again. This is too much too? Nozomi shivered and Miyuki pulled on her hands to get her to come back into the water. "I won't force something on you that doesn't feel good, but I'm gonna need your help."
I was… afraid to say something but I'm not ready to… do that after all. It's too much to process. Sorry, Miyuki. "My… help?"
Facing Nozomi, Miyuki straddled her again, putting her arms back around her neck. "Use your fingers on me then."
"E-Eh?!"
"Don't worry about not knowing how to make it feel good-" Brushing against Nozomi, she whispered in her ear again. "I'll give you some pointers." Grabbing Nozomi by her wrist, Miyuki lead her between her legs. "Aren't you Cure Dream? Have some courage." Blowing hot air into her ear, Miyuki giggled at Nozomi's full body shiver. "Your reactions are so cute. My Nozomi isn't this cute when we have sex."
S-Sex… "I'll try." Moving her hand closer and shying away once, she managed to reach Miyuki's most sensitive spot. The red streak on Miyuki's face had never died down at all and the intense look in her eyes was making it impossible for her to do anything. I- I can't after all! I'm too emba-! A forceful kiss wiped away her thoughts and doubts, consuming her. For a long moment her hand remained still, frozen in place. Swept along by the flood of powerful arousing sensations, she managed to touch Miyuki where she wanted to be touch – and this causing the kiss to escalate into a firework of tongue and greedy demands.
Letting her thoughts be occupied, letting herself drown in this sea of lust that she had plunged herself into willingly, Nozomi felt her finger enter something even hotter than the water, surrounded by lightly quivering and trembling sticky flesh. Even the tiniest of her moves prompted a reaction. A caress of hand, a renewed ferocity within the kiss, a move of Miyuki's whole body against her own, their breasts pushed against each other.
"Move it more. Harder. I like it a bit rough."
Without thinking she followed suit, bending and turning her finger as much as she could, as much as her body dared and the reaction was equal – Miyuki emerged from the kiss to playfully bite her neck, suck and lick it, bending back and forth, moaning and gasping as Nozomi pushed into territory so unknown to her.
Nozomi flinched when without warning her finger was squeezed on and her shoulder was bit hard enough to make her grit her teeth. Miyuki's strength was suddenly gone, the tension was ebbing out and her breathing had reached a peak. Did… she come?
Hugging Nozomi as hard as she could, Miyuki looked at her again, kissing her again, their eyes still locked together. With heaving breath they parted and Miyuki smiled at her. "Thanks, Nozomi."
=== DISSONANCE ===
While almost everyone headed straight back and for bed after the bath, Nozomi needed time to process her first time. Miyuki would not let her go without another kiss and Nozomi didn't mind at that point. Having learned from the time with the storm, she didn't stray too far from the house. And for one reason or another, she ended up right near the freak portal that was still open. I wonder when I'll be able to go home… and I'll have to tell my Miyuki about this. I think she'll understand, but… It still feels a bit like I did something wrong, even though Miyuki and I aren't even dating yet.
"A light so bright so shining bright a light is passing by..."
Nozomi stopped dead in her tracks. A voice was coming from the strange portal, a deep voice, like that of a mature woman. Deeper still than Reika or Yuri. And what was this… strange hum that was buzzing in her ear now?
"The darkness called the girl impaled the light prepared another hero's tale..."
This is a bad idea… "Who's there?!" Shouting at the portal from a few meters away, Nozomi felt really uncomfortable. What is that creepy sing-sang?
"A danger lurks great danger lurks the monsters in your heart… A cure is born a hero born and just to have her die… The soul is scrapped the soul is wrapped and made anew again..."
Nozomi felt goosebumps all over. What is that voice? It's like… it's horrible. What it's singing about is horrible.
"The fairies live the fairies lie the fate repeats again… A thousand days ten thousand days the time has passed once more..."
Steeling her resolve, Nozomi stepped closer to the portal and shouted again. "Who are you?!"
And the sing-sang stopped. Nozomi just stood there, staring at the portal that lead to nothingness. Someone is clearly in there. And singing? Taking a deep breath, Nozomi opened her mouth wide. "Who are you?!" Shouting into the portal as loud as she could, there was no response.
Breathing a sigh, Nozomi took a step back. And something grabbed her arm. Under all normal circumstances a person would immediately turn around and look at what suddenly touched them. But Nozomi couldn't move. She was frozen solid by fear. If… If I look. I'm gonna die. The thought was overwhelming her. If I look I die if I look I die if I look I die. Her breathing immediately became haphazard and broken, panting and gasping. Every breath hurt. Her heart beat like it was going to explode. Cold sweat ran down her back and face. There was no basis for this fear at all. No rational thought could explain why she couldn't move or look. She just knew. She knew that if she turned around, she would not leave this place alive.
"Fu fu fu fu…" A creepy, eerie laugh came from right behind her. "Little little cure so brave… little little girl of faith… goodness light and fate align… darkness calls the ruined sign… listen listen, child of light… beware beware the good cure's blight… Fu fu fu fu..."
Nozomi felt the blood in her veins freeze. All warmth was leaving her body. There was something right behind her, whispering weird stuff into her ear. I've dealt with so much… with villains and monsters and even my own reflection turned into an almost deity… why… why can't I move at all? Why am I so scared? Why am I so sure that I'm gonna die… no, no… I am definitely gonna die. Whatever… whatever that is, it's making every instinct in my body scream danger as loud as it can. If… I look, I'll die.
"Hey! Nozomi! Where the hell are you?! It's about time you come back and get to sleep! We got stuff to do tomorrow!" Miyuki's voice was coming from pretty far away. She couldn't shout for help. She couldn't say anything. Her mouth refused to work at all. She could barely draw breath.
"I'm here!" Her voice, coming from right behind her, was calling out to Miyuki.
No, no no no, no! Don't come Miyuki! If you see it… if you see whatever this is we're both gonna die! I can't let you- Opening her mouth, no words came out, not even a squeak or stammer.
Standing there in horror, Miyuki coming closer with every passing moment, Nozomi still couldn't move, her arm held in place by an icy grasp. Who is doing this? Nightmare wouldn't bother with this kind of threat… no… Poison? No, she wouldn't bother either… if it's not a reflection, then… then what? What is this right behind me? What is breathing that weird icy breath on my neck?! What- No! Miyuki! Stay away! Seeing her partner emerge from between the trees, Nozomi just stood there, perfectly still.
"What, checking out if you can go home? It's almost sunrise, come on, you know how it goes." Miyuki was slowly advancing towards Nozomi now, looking just the tiniest bit annoyed, a grand change from before.
Without her own will, Nozomi shook her head and smile, her mouth moving but no voice coming out. Instead, the thing behind her spoke for her. "No. Just walking around a bit."
Miyuki now stood almost in front of Nozomi, smirking. "All that working today and you still have energy for that? You'll fit right in here."
Miyuki! Can't you see it?! That thing behind me! It's controlling me, holding me! Miyuki! "Not that much energy. I'm just wondering what's really through there." Again the words came from right behind Miyuki.
"We sleep when stuff goes down so who knows. We'll figure it out eventually. Come on." Grabbing Nozomi's other hand, Miyuki tugged on her and for just a moment, the real horror on Nozomi's face showed. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
The icy breath was gone and so was the hand holding her. "You… didn't see anything behind me?"
"I'm not Erika. If you wanna tell scary stories you gotta try with her."
"It's not a story!"
"I know I pushed you a bit but don't be going crazy on me now."
"I'm not crazy, there's-!" Nozomi finally found it within her to turn around and there was nothing there. Just an idyllic clearing with the portal. No way.. I just… "Something was there! It was making me do faces and imitated my voice! It was somehow so frightening that I thought I would die if I turned-" Nozomi blushed in anger when Miyuki felt her forehead. "I'm not sick or delusional! I'm telling you there was something! Creepy sing-sang came from the portal and then something grabbed me and-" Nozomi grit her teeth and felt tears well up inside. She could see on Miyuki's face that she didn't believe her.
"You went through a lot recently. You sure this isn't your mind acting up because you really pushed yourself yesterday and today?"
"No!"
"Can you be absolutely sure about that?"
Nozomi looked down and felt tears in her eyes. "...No." She's right. I can't be absolutely sure. I did have a flashback to Nightmare coming out again even though I killed her and it was all in my head. And now this? Am I losing it? No… no, something was definitely there… I think.
"Don't let it get to you. One time Yayoi told a ghost story and Nao jumped at her own shadow for a week. A big swirly black portal isn't exactly healthy to look at either."
"You're right..." Nozomi kept looking down and felt someone peck her on the cheek.
"Come on, it's time to go to sleep."
"Hm." Taking Miyuki's hand again, Nozomi followed her back to the house. "Uh… actually..."
"Toilet again?" Miyuki groaned. "I am not coming with you. Don't get lost, it's all clear outside! I can already see the horizon change color so hurry it up." Walking through the open door, Miyuki stopped and looked back at her. "Don't get lost! I am not searching for you again!"
"I know! Jeez, I'm not five!" Nozomi protested and walked away to the toilet.
After a prompt visit to the very simplistic bathroom, Nozomi returned to the house and found Miyuki already in bed. She must have been really tired… I'm surprised she got out of that bodysuit… wait, when did she even put it back on? I mean she probably wouldn't come looking for me naked, so… probably Yayoi? Since she doesn't have a girlfriend. Peeking into the other room, she found that Yayoi was actually just now getting into bed, stark naked. Blushing and returning to her own room, Nozomi undressed and got into bed next to the girl she gave her first time to. I should talk to Karen or someone when I get back to the others… I'm definitely not totally okay.
Grunting and refusing to open her eyes when she noticed Nozomi coming to bed, Miyuki rolled over and hugged her, putting one leg between Nozomi's and resting hr arms around Nozomi's waist. Finally… I've been in bed forever and you finally decide to come in too? I've had half a mind to come and grab you but… too sleepy. Falling asleep without another thought, dawn came to the Banished Zone.
=== DISSONANCE ===
Opening one eye, Miki saw a familiar face right in front of her. I had the weirdest dream. I was in love with someone else for some reason. She was kinda my type, though. Stretching her legs and letting out a yawn, Miki hugged her significant other and rubbed her forehead against her shoulder. "Come on sleepyhead, wake up." Getting no reaction, Miki reached around her girlfriend and grope her sizable boobs. "Wake up or this will get a lot worse you know?" Smirking like a villain, Miki finally prompted a response out of the other girl.
"Shut up… And hands off. It's the middle of the night..."
"It's actually high time we get down and get something to eat or the buffet will close. Don't be such a lazy bum. Come on Eva, get up."
Pulling the pillow over her head, Ako grumbled as loud as she could. "Shut up Cordelia. I'm tired."
"You don't want to eat together with Alexandra, right? After that beating she gave you yesterday."
Grumbling again and pressing the pillow down as hard as she could, Ako rolled over and then pulled the sheets over her head as well. I really don't care about Alexandra. It's the battlegrounds, you know as well as I do that we don't hold grudges over that. Sometimes I'm embarrassed to call you my sister and lover.
"I'll go on my own then. Stay here and grow moldy." Sitting up and getting out of bed, Miki stretched and produced some really loud noise that resulted in Ako kicking her behind to shut her up. "You are such a grumpy person in the mornings it's incredible. How do you expect to take over Majorland like that?" Well, I already know she intents to have me marry her and do all the hard work.
Throwing herself flat on her stomach, pillow still firmly covering her head, Ako shut out any other noise.
You can be such a child, Evangeline. Tying her hair together with her hands really crudely, grabbing a metal hair tier from the night desk, Miki got herself presentable for the world. I'll brush my hair later. First I need to get something to eat before I have to pay for it out of my own pocket. "I'm leaving Eva!"
Ako's right arm went up and her hand waved and then dropped down like that of a dead person. 'Have a nice trip, I'm still dead', basically.
Leaving room thirty-one, Miki was suddenly face to face with Alice and Yami, arm in arm and looking still pretty tired themselves. "Looks like someone was up too long. Now I wonder what you could have been doing." Miki grinned at a very bright grin was returned to her by Yami. "Oh ho ho, someone looks proud."
"She's proud of being able to drop face first into bed and be out like a light in an instant." Alice ratted her out. "Morning to you, Miki."
"Morning. On your way down?"
"Yep. Alice is impossible to get out of bed!" Yami complained and felt Alice's smile become a little dangerous by her side. "It's true though!"
"Evangeline is the same. You'd think that the crown princess of Majorland would have it a little more together." Miki sighed, shrugged and then sighed again.
"That's what she has you for, isn't it? Ako does seem like she would make a sensible ruler though." Alice smiled and pointed at the elevator. "You coming too?"
"Before the buffet closes, yeah."
The group of three passed a few steps before Yami blurted out an insensitive question. "I still don't get why you're Miki to us and Cordelia to some of the others."
"A few of us are sworn sisters and the second names we have are reserved for use just between us sisters." Miki explained with a smile. "I don't mind that much but you should take care to not call Minerva or Trisjil by their honor names. They'll get mad."
Yami flapped her lips quite a bit and pouted. "I want a cool second name too."
"Be careful what you wish for." Miki smirked. "You could end up with something like Faldirn or Tribati."
"I can't keep track of who is who with those extra names!" Yami flapped her lips again.
"Urara and Miyuki. It's not as cool as you make it look like. We're just… well I guess you could say we're all connected that way." Miki pressed the elevator button.
"Isn't it weird to be in love with one of your sworn sisters?" Alice was curious about this. I honestly find it a little weird. On the other hand having my own special name to call Mana would have been nice back on the plane. Maybe I will give Yami an extra cute name.
"Hm, not really? It's just like dating someone from your own team. You're comrades and friends and that's kinda the same thing here." The elevator came and a half asleep Urara was already present within. A cursory glance was given to all three of them before she took a step back and groaned, visibly not happy with her lot in life. "Faldirn, what's-"
"You know I hate that name. Not all of us got to walk away with something nice. I got stuck with some stupid shit that sounds like an idiot from medieval ages." Urara grimaced and scratched her head. "Evangeline still asleep? Unusual to see you without her."
"Getting Eva out of bed before she wants to get out of bed is a heroic task and I'm not up for heroics first thing in the morning. What about you, nobody up there with you last night?" All four of them found comfortably space in the elevator and Miki hit the base floor button that was already hit up.
"Karen stayed over but we're not into each other. She just wanted someone to drink with." Urara yawned crudely, without covering her mouth. "I hate everything about yesterday. God, I hurt all over."
"I'm pretty sore too." Miki gave Alice a glance. "I wish I had a cute girl like Yami to carry me."
"Not a chance." Alice smiled in a really dangerous way and put Yami in a tight embrace from behind. "Yami is mine, you cannot have her."
"I said like her. I'm not crazy about being turned into smooth meat paste." Miki did a little yawn herself and looked back to Urara. "You sure you're not into Karen, Faldirn? You could be cute together."
"Shut the fuck up Cordelia." Urara groaned. "Nobody else is as gung-ho about our sworn names as you are. I'm so tired I can't even remember why we came up with the idea or who did. I can't believe I just let you get away with calling me 'Faldirn'. What language is that even from?!"
"Someone's in a bad mood." Yami enjoyed the bouncy sensation of Alice's boobs against her back. "I think I don't want any fancy names after all."
"Give me a break." Urara groaned yet again and rested her forehead against the wall of the elevator. "I should have stayed up and just gotten liquid breakfast."
"I am sure that would have gone over swimmingly with Karen." Miki mocked her a little.
"Zip it. I know. My head hurts."
The elevator hit the ground floor and the four of them emerged into the reception hall. Sasorina briefly raised her hand while reading a novel to notify them she had seen them and they all headed for the dining hall.
Only a single couple was already there. "Lami!" Miki raised her hand and voice both and prompted a reaction from a girl with long black hair tied into a ponytail.
Honoka raised her hand as well, to about eye height, and waved back. I wish she wouldn't call me that in public, it sounds so childish. Taking another look, she saw that it was just Miki and Urara from her group of seventeen. Cordelia and Faldirn? That's an unusual combination, considering how grumpy Faldirn is in the morning and how Cordelia is almost inseparable from Evangeline. Then again, Eva is just impossible to get out of bed.
"I'll go eat with them. I'll see you later, Faldirn." Miki quickly made her exit from the other three and headed straight for the mixed salad bar.
"It's Urara!" Shouting through the room, Urara breathed an exhausted sigh and headed for the cereal options. That was all she was gonna have energy for this morning.
"I see you two are still inseparable." Having gotten a whole tray of salad, Miki sat down at Honoka's table without asking permission. Looking at the other girl at Honoka's table, Miki smiled a bit. I don't understand Lami's taste, honestly.
Swallowing and finishing with a glass of mineral water, Nao raised her hand and returned the greeting. "Morning, Miki."
"Cordelia, can you not call me Lami in public?" Honoka looked somewhat miffed about it.
"Eh? It's cute. I wish I'd get to call you that too, Honoka!" Nao looked amused at the grimace that Honoka pulled in turn.
"At least call me by my full name then." Offering a compromise to Miki, Honoka tried to get her to agree.
"Lamitiar is too long! And hard to say too!"
"So it will be fine if I just call you Cory then."
Nao tried extremely hard to not laugh, covering her mouth with both hands. Miki's aghast expression was just too much for her.
"Lamitiar it is then. You are such an evil woman." Hanging out with Vivilfell so much is definitely rubbing off on her in a bad way.
"I will take that as a compliment, Cordelia." Honoka looked very self-satisfied.
"Ako still asleep?" Nao was putting away pancakes and sausage at the same time and it was a little gross for Miki and Honoka both.
"Why is everyone asking about Eva when they see me?" Miki poked a hole in her tomato salad and started eating.
"You are joined at the hip with her. Well, almost." Honoka exchanged a look with Nao. "Seeing either of you on your own is as rare as some endangered animals."
"Give me a break, Lamitiar."
"I have to agree with Miki that Lami just sounds better, Honoka."
"Hm, so you are taking her side?" Kicking Nao's foot under the table, Honoka pierced her breakfast bread roll with her fork for no reason.
"Don't bully her. I brought it up." Miki tried to prevent an argument from breaking out.
"We were thinking about checking out the new area after breakfast. You wanna grab Ako and come with?" Nao finished what was on her plate. I kinda want a bowl of rice now.
"I think I'm gonna pass. Eva is gonna hang me out of the window if I suggest something like that. I'm surprised you two have the energy for that. Especially you, Lamitiar."
"Fine, fine, I give up. Call me Lami if you must. It's really quite a mouthful." Honoka budged. I'm not exactly happy with 'Lami' but what can I do. We didn't all get lucky. Why didn't we pick our own names again? It's been a while, but it's weird that I can't remember.
"I prefer Honoka anyway." Nao beamed with a smile and Honoka blushed at the sight. "I love Honoka in autumn clothes the most!"
"Autumn? Not summer?" Miki fished for a specific answer there.
"Honoka is so stylish in autumn clothes that it feels like I'm dating- I mean like I'm engaged to a celebrity."
"Cordelia shut up, don't lead her on." Honoka tried to hide her embarrassment by gulping down her coffee but it was still too hot and she burned her tongue. "Ow!"
Getting out of her chair and closing in on Honoka, Nao locked eyes with her. "Let me heal that for you."
Miki got up and took her tray with her, a playfully annoyed smile on her face. "I can't take you two so early in the morning. I'll see you later, Lami. Don't get lost in the mountains."
Elsewhere in the hotel, another couple was just waking up. Setsuna yawned and cuddled up to her girlfriend, smelling her hair and twitching when one of the wavy hairs ended up in her nose. Twitching and fidgeting and trying to get it out of her nose without letting go of her girlfriend, Setsuna ended up having to do exactly that, pulling the wavy hair from her nose.
"Alex… what are you doing so early?" Inori chuckled and turned around, facing her significant other. "We finally have a quiet day to stay in bed and what are you doing?" Smiling really cutesy like, Inori moved a few strands of dark hair from Setsuna's forehead. "Cordelia would laugh at you if she knew."
"I can't believe you Sena, bullying me first thing in the morning. That deserves some punishment!" Trying to crawl on top of Inori, Setsuna got stuck in the sheets and ended up falling on top of her girlfriend instead.
"You are such a klutz!" Putting her arms around Setsuna, Inori laughed as she hugged her. "But I love that too."
"You give Love a run for her money when it goes to being obsessed with loving things! Love this, love that! Love mania!"
"No, no, Alex mania!" Inori corrected her.
"Why you! Take this! Lethal tickle attack!"
"Counter-attack, wavy wavy hair whirl!"
Their wild playing was put to an abrupt and rough stop when they got a little too excited and hit their head on the bed frame, separating and holding their heads. Inori recovered first, still sounding sour though. "Do you wanna get up?"
"No." Setsuna rolled over once more and looked at Inori. "I love you, Sena."
"I love you too, Alex. But I am gonna get up. I skipped showering yesterday and I don't wanna smell."
"Wanna do it in the shower?"
"I think one accident in the morning is enough. Your klutziness is infectious after all."
"Is not."
"Setsuna Alexandra, Cure Passion, the Cure of Klutziness."
"Why you!" Slamming a pillow on Inori's face, Setsuna vanished under the sheets and tried to pry the shorts that Inori wore to bed off of her, without success. Legs were suddenly around her shoulders and she was wrestled down until Inori was suddenly sitting on top of her. "Inori Larisena, Cure Pine, the Cure of Bullying!"
"I do love to bully those that I love the most." Letting go of Setsuna's shoulders, Inori switched positions, kissed Setsuna briefly and got out of bed. "But I really do need that shower. And you need one too, Alex."
"Phooey." Rolling over in bed, Setsuna came face down on Inori's pillow and breathed in. Mumbling something unintelligible, Setsuna just stayed like that.
A couple minutes later and Inori was in the shower. "Sena, you also have this weird dream where we're together with totally different people?" Shouting from bed, Setsuna still refused to get up.
"After that whole ordeal yesterday I'm not surprised. In my dream I was actually really lonely after getting dumped by Bjeldavir." Shouting from the bathroom, the water started to run with the door still open.
A sudden surge of rage and hatred flared up in Setsuna but lasted only for about two seconds. What was that? It's just a dream and I'm not the type to get jealous. Sena would never go for someone like Bjeldavir anyway. "O-Oh? But she's not your type, right?"
"She creeps me out a little bit. Lamitiar really likes her though and Evangeline does too. What about your end? Any weird dreams?"
"I was doing this weird thing where I was sleeping with Love and Ellen at the same time."
"Hot. Now that I could get behind actually."
"Hey!" Setsuna wasn't happy to hear that.
"Just saying that if you're sick and tired of me some day, I wouldn't say no to an arrangement like that."
"I was sure you'd go after Cordelia."
"Having it not work out with a team mate once is enough. Besides, Cordelia is so crazy about Evangeline, there is no way."
"I think I'd actually be pretty okay with just Ellen. She's cute."
"Two illegal aliens together. That's kinda adorable."
"I'm not illegal!"
"It's illegal how cute you are."
"Sena!"
While things were shaping up to be a typical morning in the interdimensional space, another pair was also just getting ready to leave their room. Walking out of the shower, Nagisa was half naked – wearing only shorts and a towel over her head, leaving her top completely exposed. And someone whistled at her, causing her to blush. "Stop that."
"I can't believe you're not even sore after that disaster marathon yesterday. You're superhuman, Blue."
"Come on, don't use my honor name when we're all alone. Mine is really stupid."
"I came up with yours!"
"That doesn't make it less stupid." Nagisa sighed and walked up to the bed where her girlfriend and sworn sister was sitting. "I should have taken Trisjil's name."
"Bluefair isn't that bad!"
"Catherine, I love you, but face reality. It sounds like the name of something you paint a fish monger vessel." Nagisa petted the head of Mai, who sat by her side, pouting in grand looks and turned away from Nagisa as she was being petted. "Come on, we're gonna miss cutoff."
"I wasn't the one that wouldn't get out of bed!" Mai stood up and tucked on her blouse to adjust it. "Maybe I should just have gone alone!"
Grabbing Mai's hand without a care in the world, Nagisa also got up and dragged her towards the door. "You look fantastic even when you're pouting."
"Flattery won't get you nowhere!"
Leaving Nagisa's room, the two of them ran right into Saki, who was seemingly still asleep on her feet. "Hm… oh, you two, morning." Raising her hand just a little, she yawned loudly and without covering her mouth. "Going down?"
Mai pulled free from Nagisa, stormed past and hid behind Saki's imposing frame. "If you dislike the name I gave you so much maybe I'll just go and date Saki here instead!"
Saki barely reacted and just yawned again. "Mai, I gotta side with Nagisa here. You're bad at naming things."
"I see neither of you has any naming sense."
Nagisa and Saki snorted together and replied as one: "I don't wanna hear that from you."
Pouting even harder than before, Mai stormed off and towards the elevator where she was suddenly stuck because the metal chamber was on another floor. Rapidly and repeatedly pushing the button, as if it would make the elevator come faster, was not doing her dignity any favors.
"She didn't get laid last night?" Saki just came right out and asked.
"I was good to go but I knew she'd not be able to move a muscle today if we did."
"Mai can be a bit difficult when she wakes up unsatisfied. You know how she is."
"You've known her for longer than me. It's actually kind of funny that she ended up my girlfriend and not yours."
"Don't tempt me."
"If things don't work out between her and me I won't hold it against you if you make a move."
"You're just assuming I like her."
"I know you do." Nagisa smirked and rubbed shoulders with Saki. "I still don't understand what Lami sees in Nao though."
"You and Nao are similar. Maybe she was into you all along and getting with Mai made her chose a backup."
"Did… I fuck things up without knowing? If I got with Lami, you could have gotten with Catherine and-"
"Don't spiral, Nagisa. And don't think for a second that I hold it against you or something."
"I don't deserve a friend this good."
"You sure don't. That's why you're gonna treat me to some real barbecue. And pay for drinks at the bar, when we get a bar. And-"
"I think I can make do without a friend like you after all."
"Hah."
Catching up to Mai just in time for the elevator to arrive, Mai was still pouting and ignoring the two of them, the trio stepped inside the elevator and felt immediately miserable.
"What, you're not even gonna greet me, Bluefair, Catherine?"
Nagisa and Mai both cringed and took a deep breath before turning around to face Kurumi. Kurumi was the same as always, her hair tied into two long, frizzly pigtails, wearing a rather expensive looking dress and too many metallic looking accessories to look anything but obsessed with it, and most of all, ignoring the existence of Saki completely.
"Good morning, Vivilfell." They said this in one breath.
"See, that wasn't so hard." Kurumi clicked her tongue a little when Saki also turned about to tell her good morning and continued to ignore her. "Either of you seen Trisjil today?"
"We just left our room, so no." Nagisa answered and hoped the elevator would not stop until they hit ground level. But luck was not on her side. The doors opened on the tenth floor and Miyuki stepped in. "Morning, Tribati."
"Good morning, Saki, Bluefair, Catherine, Vivilfell." Miyuki looked rather happy, although she was walking a bit funny. "I'm still groggy from yesterday. You four too?"
Kurumi clicked her tongue again and ignored Miyuki, leaning against the back wall and just staring holes into Miyuki who quickly turned around with visible nervousness on her face.
"I feel like Nagisa beat me all night long." Mai groaned and stretched her arms over her head.
"Catherine is just out of shape." Nagisa smirked and looked to Saki, who had to try hard not to laugh.
"I'm not!" Mai vehemently denied that charge and joined Miyuki's side.
Miyuki looked suddenly very worried and kept looking back and forth between Mai and Nagisa. "You're fighting? That's not good."
Saki elbowed Nagisa. "You know how Miyuki is." Whispering, she got Nagisa to shape up.
"We're not fighting. Just a little teasing." Nagisa took Mai's hand and sighed. "I'm sorry, love."
As much as Mai had been pouting, the second Nagisa apologized, her harsh expression melted away. "I'm not really angry, stupid."
"Ugh, can you keep the sappy romance routine out of the damn elevator?" Kurumi was mouthing off and everyone else in the elevator was suddenly very quiet. They were all afraid of the sixth princess, Vivilfell. A cruel and merciless despot that ruled through overwhelming force.
Reaching the ground floor, Kurumi pushed Nagisa, together with Mai, and Saki out of the way and made a point out of shoving Miyuki hard against the wall even though she had already stepped out of the way.
But even Kurumi was not immune to karma. Just outside the elevator was Hikari, wearing her usual things; a tight corset, knee-high laced boots, elbow length leather gloves and a short black skirt. Her long blonde hair tied into a singular ponytail at the top of her head, winding like a snake as it approached her butt. As much as Kurumi disrespected Miyuki, Hikari succeeded in making Kurumi losing all color as well as making a beeline for the dinner hall.
"Good morning, Minerva." Mai was the first to greet Hikari and was rewarded with a smile.
"Is Vivilfell in need of discipline again, Catherine?" Hikari's voice was imposing, like the sun itself rising above the horizon after a long night.
"I think she's just unbalanced because Lami is-" Mai cut herself off and looked worried. "Lamitiar dating Nao has Vivilfell all riled up."
"Lamitiar's business is her own. Vivilfell knows what is waiting for her if she doesn't treat her fellow Cures appropriately, sworn sister or not."
"I know. But don't be too harsh on her."
"You're too nice for your own good, Catherine."
Entering the dining hall herself, Hikari stopped briefly when one of her sworn sisters walked out. "You're finished early, Bjeldavir."
"You know me, Minerva. Not much of a breakfast person."
"How is Michiru?" Hikari briefly glanced away to Saki.
"Outside, helping Yayoi get into shape. I am on the way to join them."
"Exercise after that ordeal yesterday? And I thought I was battle hardened."
"There is a great many differences between someone athletically proficient and a warrior goddess like you, Minerva."
Invading Kaoru's personal space, Hikari ran the back of her right middle and index finger across Kaoru's cheek. "I know of course of your obsession with your sister and Yayoi. But if you ever seek a change of… pace, you know where to find me."
Kaoru didn't show any immediate response on her face, only when she lightly pushed Hikari's hand away did she smirk. "Warrior goddess or not, you would best not send Michiru into a frenzy, trying to poach her own sister and lover from her."
"Best not, perhaps." Hikari smiled and tilted her a head a little before she walked past Kaoru.
Making her way past the group of four that finally decided to follow Kurumi and Hikari into the dining hall, Kaoru left the building and immediately headed into the fog to the north – just short of being spat back out she stopped, hidden away from prying eyes. And she groaned.
"How are things inside?" Michiru's voice came from her right and she felt someone tug on her shorts to her left; that had to be Yayoi.
"Bad. From what I can tell, their sealed off memories are leaking out and mixing with their current ones, creating a completely new mess. It seems that Minerva – that's Hikari – happens to want to sleep with me. I know for a fact that the Minerva in the masquerade did not feel inclined that way. Beyond that, normally Hikari and Kurumi are inseparable but now they are practically enemies. Everything seems to be a total mess."
"How do we fix this?" Michiru was moving closer, and then sat down next to Kaoru, who was glad to have a moment around normal people.
"If we knew why we three are immune, I could maybe work something out."
"Maybe it isn't us three but just you – and Yayoi and I are rendered immune because we're so close to you, physically and emotionally."
Kaoru looked at her sister with surprise. She was of course smart but usually she left the really difficult thinking to her sister. "If that's the case I don't think it'll help us any."
"So what do we do?" Yayoi grabbed hold of Kaoru's arm and rested her head against the taller girl's shoulder.
"Track down what caused this mess in the first place."
"We have no clues though."
"What about the new girls?" Yayoi asked.
"You mean Heart's team?" Michiru didn't immediately pick up on what her girlfriend was getting at.
"That is another factor I don't understand. They have been here for a few days and yet I saw Sword and Ace in the dining hall and they didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary."
"So something else is affecting them?"
"There has to be. Some kind of mental influencing ability. Mind control would be more stifled, more unnatural behavior. This feels like something is warping their mind just enough for things to 'seem' normal when they aren't."
"What about Majorina?"
"I briefly talked to her and she seemed like everyone else."
There was a long pause before Michiru spoke up again. "Do we have to consider that it is us that have lost it?"
"I don't want to consider that. Given this place and all the powers we have here, it's unlikely it's just us. I don't want to rule out that one of the new girls has some ability that is causing this, much like when Dream and Beat caused problems."
"You think maybe Heart is doing it?"
"I am not ruling it out yet."
"We should grab one of them and interrogate her to see if they know anything."
"Let's call that plan B for the time being. Plan A is that we will simply wait for a little while. Something on this scale should create evidence for us to follow. Yayoi. I got a job for you."
"What?" Yayoi had just hung onto Kaoru the entire time and kind of tuned out the conversation. She wasn't dumb, of course, but this kind of talk and deductive stuff was over her head. She didn't know of any manga or anime examples she could pull from either.
"Get on my lap."
"On your lap?"
"We have to pass the time somehow."
Yayoi was glad that the other two couldn't see her through the fog because she was blushing pretty hard now. "You… wanna do that now? Here?"
"You eternally horny woman." Michiru prodded her sister and sighed. "I can't say I don't want it, but this isn't the time."
"So what then? I am not going back in there, I am sick of playing theatrics. Ten years was more than enough." Kaoru sounded upset.
"I don't know. Going back to our room?"
"We won't have the ability to monitor who goes where and how they behave from there."
"How are you gonna do that while fooling around with Yayoi anyway?"
"What do you wanna do Yayoi?" There was no answer. "Now is not the time to pout or sleep." Reaching out, knowing full well where Yayoi's face was, Kaoru felt only air. What is she doing? "Yayoi, come on." Grabbing the hand that was on her arm, Kaoru felt a chill – the hand was ice cold. Her heart beat faster. Her thoughts froze for a moment. That's… not Yayoi's hand. It was too large, not to mention cold like stone.
Opening her mouth, her voice wouldn't come out. Turning away from her sister, facing where Yayoi should be, something kept her from moving. Something was there. It didn't feel human and it didn't feel like one of the system staff either. It felt like nothing she had ever encountered before. Something… something dreadful. Something that wasn't just selfish or evil or dark like all those things she had fought or heard about. What held on to her invoked true terror of the unknown inside of her. Her own skin was cooling, her body felt heavy and just breathing was like trying not to drown.
"Michiru, it looks like Yayoi fell asleep."
What? That's not me saying that! Kaoru's eyes wildly darted about, only able to see fog. This… is this what's screwing up everyone? Is that what caused the magic surge? If so… if so there's no way I can beat it. Not all of us together would even make a dent. It's… just gonna kill us. It's gonna kill us. We'll die we'll die we'll die. Ice cold sweat was running down her neck and face. Thoughts that were unlike her were popping up one after another. She had been afraid in the past, fought for her life and been in many situations where she didn't understand everything. But this was different. It wasn't her thoughts. They were forced on her. Something was forcing her to be afraid.
And that by itself was scarier than the fear forced on her by whatever it was that was there.
There is something about you.
She of course knew what it was like to be in someone's head. Stormflair was a mental attack and the special type that she used to seal the other's memories gave her even greater insight. So she knew; this was her own thought, put there by someone else.
Something special. You will suit my needs perfectly.
"Kaoru, what are you mumbling about?" Michiru was still there, by her side, unsuspecting of what lurked in the mist with them. What had possibly already grabbed and taken Yayoi.
"Just thinking about what would happen if I just stormflair'd them. Maybe it would reset the memories and seal. A shortstop solution." That's right, isn't it? You want to save them. You want to take their insanity, their broken down self, and put it back together. To rip out the parts that don't belong, to take that which has no place within their heart.
"You really think that would work?"
"No. But that's what I was mumbling about. I was kinda thinking it through out loud."
It is remarkable.
This was not unlike Inori's domination. That superseded one's will perfectly, like turning someone into a puppet. This was like that, yet also far more sinister feeling. Like something had wormed itself into her mind and had taken over her body. A magical disease. But most of all, Inori's domination did not create the seamless illusion of a thought being one's own when it was not. If not for her smarts and having the time spent in the great Masquerade, would she have been able to discern that something was wrong?
You still do not understand yourself. Your true self.
"Kaoru."
And she was back in control. She felt her hands move, her head rise, the drool on her mouth-, wait, drool? What was going on? When had she… why was she so tired? Why did her joints ache? Why was her head on her knees? Her arms around… her legs?
"Did I nod off?"
"A while ago. Yayoi is out too."
"How long?"
"A couple hours at least. You were suddenly really out of it. Not a surprise, after last night."
I had the strangest dream. Pinching herself, Kaoru quietly endured the not insignificant pain and ascertained that this was reality. She had dreamed that. Or did she? "Did I say anything while asleep?"
"You said 'boobs' a few times." Michiru delivered that revelation with stifled laughter, like it was impossible to hide it entirely. "Yayoi said you were drooling, too, that true?" Her sister sounded very amused with herself.
"Absolutely not. You know that Yayoi has naturally very wet lips." As quietly as possible she moved her arm and wiped the drool off her mouth and blamed it all on their girlfriend.
"Is that so?" Michiru snorted and tried seemingly very hard to suppress outright laughing. "So I guess I must have caught her wet lips when I tried to wake you up with a kiss."
"That must be the case then." Kaoru cleared her throat and felt in the fog for Yayoi. She was there, on the ground, right by her side, breathing lightly and asleep. "Anything of note happen?"
"Things haven't gotten any worse as far as I can tell, but I haven't seen anyone outside in like an hour. That's why I woke you up. We can't stay here and observe if there is nobody to observe."
"A lie is told, guilt many fold, the good will perish soon…"
Kaoru shivered. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"The bad within, the human sin, disaster will oh bloom..."
"That. Someone is singing." Kaoru turned about in the fog and shook Yayoi to wake her up.
"I don't hear anything." Michiru audibly stood up and then got extremely quiet.
"Days come and gone, you are alone, oh warrior of the light… A promise made, the legend's tide, the truth is but a sleight… fu fu fu fu…."
"You can't hear it? It's… coming from the plaza." I am not imagining it. That dream, this song… those creepy lyrics. Something is out there.
Yayoi mumbled and yawned and the rustling of clothes signaled she was at least sitting up. "Is it time for dinner…?"
Kneeling down and reaching to where the voice came from, Kaoru managed to grab hold of Yayoi's shoulders. The skin under her hands felt a little cold, from sleeping out in the fog no doubt. "Yayoi, can you hear someone sing?"
"Sing?" Yayoi yawned again and shook her head, making a denying grunt.
"In days so dark, the truth so hard, a life no life no more… In sight the light, this plight of mine, no more a distant shore… fu fu… My, my… it appears I have a guest. How enticing."
The creepy sing-sang voice ran like frozen water through her body. Deep but not old, full of mystery but not the kind one wanted to solve. A distinct feeling of alluring scary that would draw people towards it. "Someone is talking to me."
"I still can't hear anything." Michiru grabbed Kaoru by her hand. "Are you sure you're okay? You were in a lot of pain last night and maybe the seals being all out at once caused some kind of damage you're not aware of."
"You think I'm hallucinating?" Kaoru bit her lip. There was no accusation that Michiru had voiced but it was still there. "Or that I am going crazy?"
"I didn't say that."
"I want to be angry but… I can't rule it out. I had a messed up dream and now this… maybe some of the insanity I suppressed in all the others is affecting me now that it's coming through."
"You mean like a side effect of the seals transmitting the insanity to you?" Yayoi caught both sisters by surprise and she could feel their gaze through the fog. "What? I don't only watch robot anime."
"Something like that, yes." Can I… trust my own senses if this is the case?
"What a beautiful trio you are. Especially that tiny golden one… she just looks delicious. I want to gobble her up." The voice was now louder, more intense and a lot closer than before. And it made Kaoru anxious.
"I can't take the risk. Even if I am probably hallucinating, even if there is only a one percent chance that I am not, I have to get you two out of here. Something is in the fog… might be in the fog. And it's got an eye out for Yayoi."
"We can't take a risk with everything going on." Michiru agreed with her sister. "Yayoi, we're going."
"Can we hide out in the dining hall next?" Yayoi yawned again and her hand found its way to Kaoru's.
Taking both Michiru and Yayoi with her, Kaoru stepped out of the fog and felt something assail her – something powerful, something disturbing. Not good or evil, but far beyond the social concepts that applied to humans. Something that scared her because of how alien it was. And she recognized this feeling. This was the thing from her dream. It was real and it was there, in the fog, chasing after them. "We gotta go. Now." Traces of panic were in her voice as she dragged both Yayoi and Michiru with her.
Watching her bolt off were Rin and Nagisa, returning from a quick excursion to the beach. "What's gotten into her?" Rin wasn't used to seeing the tenth princess run anywhere, much less like that; arms stretched out behind like she was dragging something behind her. Wait, wasn't there a manga about ninjas where they ran like that?
"Maybe she's really gotta go to the toilet?" Nagisa snorted a little when Rin groaned. "What? I bet that's the main reason people run anywhere."
"I don't understand what Catherine sees in you, at all." Rin continued to let out multiple mini-groans while she shook her head and the two of them walked towards the building. "Bjeldavir just doesn't seem the type to run to the toilet."
"There is a type for that?"
"You, Blue." Rin said so with stifled laughter. That is one of the worst names out of all of us. She's not even a blue Cure. Never stops being funny at all.
"I don't want to hear that from you. You're barely any different from me!" Nagisa pouted and lightly bumped Rin's shoulder with her fist. "I don't get what Kanade sees in you either for the record."
"Kanade and I just ended up together by coincidence."
"What, so you don't like her?"
"I love her. But right now she's still got a bit of a road ahead of her before I really wanna treat her as such."
"Big project you took on there, Mireille." Nagisa also said her name with stifled laughter and she was doing a worse job at hiding her bemusement, too. "Really, who came up with Mireille? That's a super girly name, not something-"
"Pot, meet kettle."
"Oh, we met." Nagisa bumped into Rin side to side, full body. "Isn't that right, kettle?"
"What, me? I'm not your damn kettle."
"Aren't you though?"
"Ugh… shut up, Blue."
"Nope." Nagisa chuckled and then laughed. "So what's on your plan for later?"
"No plan yet. Kanade is definitely gonna be in the battle today, considering her ranking, so I'm thinking I might sit it out. I doubt I'll go down below mid-range anyway."
"Catherine is also gonna participate for sure, so I'll be there with her." Nagisa couldn't imagine not being Mai's backup in battle. "Say, you also got this weird tingle in the back of your head?"
"You sure you didn't hit your head during the marathon yesterday? Or did Catherine go too hard on you last night?"
"Ha ha, very funny. No, I'm serious. Like… you're forgetting something, but not really. More like you're remembering something wrong."
"I'll talk to Catherine about easing up on the whipping." Rin found herself in a headlock almost immediately and dropped her towel. "Let go you brute woman."
"Or what?" Grinding her fist against the top of Rin's head, Nagisa found it surprisingly easy to keep Rin under control. I figured she'd fight back more. Didn't she use to fight back against me doing this?
"I'll tell Lamitiar!"
The whole act came to a screeching halt as both of them became confused simultaneously. "Lami? What's she got to do with this?"
"I mixed up Lami and Cathy for a moment there."
"They're a bit similar but that's really unlike you." Letting go of Rin, Nagisa scratched her head. "But you know what's even weirder? I actually felt like that would be bad for me. Like… I felt as if you said Cathy."
"What, are you mixing them up now? Cathy is gonna give you hell. And Lami is more into the tall, sporty… wait. I never realized this but other than Nao having bigger boobs than you, she's pretty much like you. Nice, approachable, sporty, loyal, tall. Probably a total bottom in bed contrary to her appearance."
"Huh. I never thought about it- wait, what was that about me being a bottom?"
"You're gonna deny it, Blue?"
"Not in the habit of lying through my teeth but come on, calling me a bottom to my face? That's a bit much even for an old friend."
An old friend? Have we been friends for that long? I mean, I guess we have, considering we're sworn sisters and everything but it doesn't really feel that way. "I let Kanade be on top occasionally." Rin revealed a spicy detail and Nagisa smirked. "You happy, Blue?"
"We're even now. Also please don't mention our little mix-up to Cathy."
"What, you think I have a death wish? Cathy I might survive, but if Lami gets wind of us mixing them up she'll energy blast me right into well done state like a steak."
"Huh? I didn't know you two don't get along."
"That's not it. You never picked up on how you and Saki are similar, just like how Cathy and Lami are similar?" Rin grunted and shook her head. "That's gonna be a landmine when you step on it."
Walking to the hotel, Nagisa stopped short of the door. "For some reason I'm anxious now. Like… now that we mixed them up, I kinda feel like..."
"Stop. I don't want to hear about this, it's gonna make me liable for knowing and not telling."
"Seriously?"
"If you have doubts about dating Cathy you need to work that out on your own. You're far too easily influenced, so I am staying way away from any conversation that'll end up influencing you to get in trouble with Cathy."
"I don't think it's that serious."
"Oh but it is. If you're bringing this up now after some stupid mix-up, this has been brewing for a while. If you want some neutral advice you can try asking Sena or Ma'Chien."
"Uh…."
"You're not serious."
"I didn't say anything!"
"That was your I don't know who they are grunt."
"Come on, it's sixteen names on top of everyone else calling them by their legal names!"
Rin sighed. "Inori or Tsubomi. Don't let them catch you forgetting their names. Sena is Larisena by the way. But Sena should be fine."
"Oh, right, Sena is with Alexandra, right?"
"If you find one you find the other."
While Rin was trying to keep Nagisa from stepping onto a landmine and being blown to pieces, a very different couple was making use of the initial three days shared location period of the newly added mountain trail that their endurance netted them the day before.
Whirling through the air, one lifting the other, the couple rushed through piles of fallen leaves on the open ground atop one of the lower hills, one screaming in joy the other quietly smiling. A loud crash, leafs flying everywhere about, as both of them fell to the ground, rolling over the place in thick autumn clothes – jackets to starve off the chilly mountain winds and long pants to give them the freedom they needed to hike up the small trails that were filled with colorful nature.
A great many hills and mountains filled the area, colored fancifully in a hundred shades of green, yellow, red and many others. With dozens upon dozens of types of animals living within, a sky just between the summer blaze and winter's gray, shy of rain and yet the threat of such was ever present. A dangerous journey outside, into the turbulent preparations of nature before the time for the year's long sleep came. A perpetual preparation here that did little to hamper the enthusiasm of squirrels to fight over nuts, of bears to feast on all they could find and foxes to widen their burrows so they might fit easier when the cold came.
Lying on top of her love and sister, Akane had the blood rush to her face. "That was amazing. We must do that again. We should give it another whirl."
Forehead flicked with cautious force, Akane received punishment, smirked like a satisfied imp and poked both cheeks of the girl below her with her fingers. "Come on, smile more, you old grump!"
"You are not older than me, Mila." Reika did smile and grabbed hold of Akane's arms before she forced her aside, the two of them rolling jolly through the cast off feathers of the wooden birds all around. Leafs sticking in their hair and all the little gaps, both of them were like little fellows of the tall grown ones watching on.
"Sayeth the grump as she was called out on it." Sitting up, Akane plucked a particularly large and wonderfully read leaf out of Reika's hair. "Now, don't be copying my red looks now."
"You really love the outdoors, Aine." Reika smiled wide and hid her smile behind a hand well put when Akane focused on it like a cat on a bit dangled in front of it. "Come on now, we still have a lot more to see, don't we?"
"We do. But make no mistake, I shall have that smile and make it mine!" Akane rose to her feet and stretched her arms high in the sky. "The beach is all nice and everything, but I think I prefer being here. It's not nearly as hot, either."
"Are you sure it is not the lure of autumn foods that compels you to come so eagerly?" Reika hugged her sister from behind and breathed warm air down the little gap between jacket and neck. "Now I only need the lure of my most beautiful sister to come anywhere at all."
"A way with words as always." Akane blushed a little and reached back, stuffing her hands into the pockets of Reika's jacket. "But the big question still remains, doesn't it?"
"Who and how shall we prank the unsuspecting others. Now, I have an idea already. But perhaps we will need Larisena's aid for it." Nudging her forehead against the back of Akane's head, Reika sounded positively excited.
"You want to play tricks of the mind on someone? That sounds a little too simple for us, does it not?" A gust of wind blew against them and the sisters moved closer together still, fighting off any feeling of cold through excitement from many a source, not least of all each other's closeness.
"Yes and no. Would it not be most hilarious if..." Whispering to her love among the squall shaken emperors of fall, Reika conveyed her great plan to her girlfriend.
"That does sound positively hilarious. And who shall be our victim today?" Akane paused and then retracted her hands and swung about, excitedly looking Reika straight in the eye. "We saw Faldirn earlier but she would make for a poor sport. So what you say if we tempt fate and have Cordelia and Evangeline face the unexpected come time?"
"Knowing you, my imp of a sister, you have heard them have plans to come or you have already seen them." Reika read Akane like a book and took a look around, thinking she might spy them herself.
"I heard they have plans to come. Cordelia loves autumn after all. Now, my sister in crime, shall we make preparations?"
"Of course, my love." Reika grinned like a devil and took Akane's hand just as the two of them ran down towards the hill's end, vanishing from sight and among a sea of trees.
Walking the trails of the mountainous little world were more than just those two. Not a couple but friends nonetheless, Ellen was with someone unlikely – Yami. And yet Alice was nowhere to be seen. The tall girl walking a few steps in front, wearing hiking boots and a short coat, the same kind as Ellen but black instead of a dim purple.
"Are you sure it's okay for me to join you?" Ellen was apprehensive about being all alone with someone else's girlfriend. Knowing how things had gone between Hibiki and Kanade, she didn't want to get into trouble there. It didn't help that her first real love was one-sided right now and she hadn't had the courage to confess.
"You worry too much. Alice just didn't wanna come because of her legs." She also said she wanted to look into something, but didn't tell me what and asked me to keep it a secret. "So, how're things with Love?"
"W-With Love?"
"Yeah."
"What do you mean?"
Yami flung about and faced Ellen, without stopping. "It's so obvious. Everyone knows, especially Love."
Ellen's face paled quicker than any leaf would ever and her steps stopped from one to the next. "Everyone… knows?"
"It's super super obvious, you know?" Yami was clearly amused with herself and walked back to where Ellen had stopped. "Love said as much that she's waiting for you to find the courage to ask her out. She definitely likes you back." Yami lifted one foot up back and grabbed it with her hand, spinning on the spot. "I think you two would make a cute couple actually."
"You think so?" Ellen was visibly struggling with the idea of her one-sided love being not that.
"Hm." Nodding in agreement, Yami grabbed Ellen's hand. "Now get a move on, girl!"
"Where are we going? We've been going up for over an hour, my legs hurt..." And you just sang weird songs the entire time, too. I'm not gonna get that out of my head… Alright, Heartcatch Pretty Cure! Now, everyone say Yeah Yeah! Heartcatch Pretty Cure! Let's make the flowers bloom! Heartcatch Smile! Ellen couldn't stop herself from humming the same tune that Yami had been singing loudly.
After another ten minutes of walking, and Ellen significantly slowing down due to exhaustion from the day before, they made it to the top of the tallest mountain the region. And there, at the top, was a wooden log hut, small and clearly old, but seemingly well cared for. The ground was swept clean of any leafs and two large wooden log tables were placed just in front of the hut, with benches to boot. Pure, white smoke came from the chimney of the hut, indicating that someone was inside.
"Someone lives here?" Ellen was surprised by this. But there was someone on the beach, too. Is this another food place? In a way, she understood why Yami was so motivated now. The idea of authentic autumn food out under the autumn sky surrounded by nature was quite compelling.
And Yami saw on her face that Ellen understood. "Come on, let's go in."
A door opened, a small chime rang and two beautiful girls stepped into a rustic world of wood and autumn smells. "Welcome." A deep and manly voice came from the back, from behind a counter. A man in comfortable looking but form fitting clothing of brown and red was there and if not for his entirely golden skin he would have blended right into nature itself, vanishing among the trees. "I do not recognize you two young ladies. But you are welcome to sit down, I'll be right there." Friendly but not overly polite, he was an inviting presence despite the fact that both girls knew; he surely had been someone's enemy in the past.
The guest area was small – but two tables inside, one right by the burning fire in the chimney and another across by the wall, both of them with windows to peer outside at the gold and crimson crowns of titans of nature, a sea of colors that was in a perpetual state of being about to vanish and make way for the cold season. The walls were plain wood, with scarcely a thing hung there. A pair of boxing gloves hung over the chimney, nailed to a board.
"Here's the menu. The chestnut pie isn't available yet, I've yet to get enough to offer that on top of roasted chestnuts. If you come back tomorrow, I might have that ready."
"So, whose enemy were you? You look pretty unique." Yami didn't make any pretenses about who this guy had to be. "Don't worry about it, we're way used to this thanks to everyone else that's out and about working here."
Clearing his throat, the large golden skinned man introduced himself. "I'm Kintoleski. I used to stand against Cure Bloom and Cure Egret. That was-"
"In another life, yeah yeah. Like I said, we're way used to this. They won't have hard feelings if you treat them nice."
Kintoleski grunted. "Is that so?" He seemed strangely surprised by this.
"I'll have the mixed berry juice and some roasted chestnuts." Ellen ordered with a smile and Kintoleski seemingly intuitively nodded, pulled a small notepad from his behind along with a pen and wrote it down.
"Same here. And I'll pay for her share."
"You sure?"
"We converts gotta help each other out, right?" Yami snickered when Ellen looked coy. "I'm totally not supposed to tell you, but that's part of what makes Love like you."
"That seems a little shallow."
"It's more of a physical like thing, the way she said it. Like she totally wants to get under your skirt."
Ellen's face tried with utmost effort to match the most vibrant colors outside and the conversation died for a moment there. That was until the door rang again and this time it was a wholly different pair that came in. Ange and Regina, with Makoto, Mana or Rikka nowhere to be found.
"Oh, you here Yami?" Regina immediately waved to her.
Ange held her sister back for a moment. "Remember what we discussed."
"I know." Regina hissed and got herself released. Sitting down at the other table, which was still close enough to have a casual conversation with the chimney table, Regina only took off her pitch black coat when she had sat down. "Guess it's villain girl's day out today." Snickering like a gremlin, Regina raised her hand to get the attention of the golden giant in the back. "Hey, hey, we'll just take what these other two are having!"
"Regina, you could at least ask what they are having." Ange sat down as well, took off her coat and then turned towards the other table. "Hello, Ellen, Yami."
"No Makoto or Mana to tag along today?"
"Makoto wanted some time alone, but she is somewhere in the mountains here."
"Mana is spending some quality time with Rikka so I was free."
"You're not bothered by that at all?" Yami probed into the issue.
"Nah. I'm Rikka's girlfriend too. No reason to be jealous just because we're dividing up time."
"So she says but she's been bored out of her mind all day." Ange ratted her out and pulled back her legs to avoid Regina trying to kick her shin under the table. "You know it's true!"
"Being true doesn't mean you can just yap about it to everyone!"
"Wow… so we're just everyone… random people?" Yami pretended to be hurt but Regina didn't fall for it.
"Please, who're you trying to pull that stunt on, Yami? We're both the types that got our ass whipped good by our teammates. Almost said partners but you aren't dating Tsubomi and all."
"I think that's for the best." Ellen sighed in relief. "Can you imagine Erika completely unchecked, without Tsubomi?"
"Yeah, no, let's not think about that and jinx ourselves." Yami turned that reality down.
"Surprised you two got the energy to hike all the way up here." Regina propped her arms on the table and rested her head on her hands. "I almost didn't come because it sounded like a real drag but after constant beach time this is pretty nice."
"I could say the same thing about you two and stamina."
"Eh, we're tough cookies. Right, Ange?"
"She's been whining all morning about feeling every muscle in her body." Raising her legs up to avoid Regina's kick, for which Regina slid almost beneath the table, Ange laughed. "Regina likes to have everyone think she is so tough but she really isn't."
"Shut it, you."
"Oh, I've done some complaining of my own." Yami leaned back and joined Ange in laughing.
"I'm sure I'll hear about it from Alice." Regina smirked wide.
"Really? We talking about the same Alice here?" Ange leaned back in her chair and smiled.
"Maybe if I bribe her." Regina shrugged.
"Good luck bribing Alice of all people."
Yami and Ellen's order came out right as the conversation hit a dead point. It was a fairly simple arrangement; a large glass of reddish and purple looking juice that seemed chillingly cold, and a large bowl of already peeled chestnuts that were giving off not only a mouth watering smell but also hot white steam that was giving them a pleasing aesthetic. The golden provisions being served were very visually fitting for the one running this small establishment.
"That looks amazing. Holy crap, I didn't know what I was expecting but this is definitely exceeding it." Yami grabbed one of the chestnuts right out of the bowl and burned her fingers. "Ow! Holy shit they're hot!"
"Please make use of the supplied cutlery to eat. Enjoy." Kintoleski turned to Regina and Ange then. "Your order will be right up."
Regina got out of her chair just as Kintoleski walked away and leaned over Yami from behind, reaching for one of the chestnuts. "I wouldn't do that. They're hot like burning coals."
"Ange, you think I can fit the spear-"
Her sister did not even let her finish that sentence. "You wanna think about the hell Mana and Rikka are gonna give you over that?"
"You tattletale."
"You two get along really well." Ellen smiled just before she slowly chomped on one of the chestnuts using a fork. Gasping for air and trying to cool down the hot treat in her mouth, she shut her eyes hard and hummed in obvious pleasure. "It's so tasty!"
Yami could have sworn that there was a deep voiced grunt of approval coming from the kitchen. "So, the five of you gotten used to life here yet?"
"Are you one to ask? The way I hear it you're as new as we are to this whole thing." Regina looked amused with Yami's question.
"Don't be rude, Regina." Ange sighed. "She doesn't mean it like that. Regina is just a bit rough around the edges."
"Oh, I don't mind. My sis would definitely call her a bad influence though. I think she's great."
"H-Huh? Huh… I'm a great influence?" She was turning scarlet red out of embarrassment of someone saying that so sincerely.
Ellen was looking over to Regina and nearly choked on her chestnut in response. "That's like calling Hibiki a great influence."
"Hey. Who're you calling a Hibiki, huh?!" Regina tried her best bad girl delinquent look but overdid it and reached a comical parody level instead.
"Trying too hard, Regina. You know, if you just take out the G, you end up with a proper Japanese name!" Yami felt like she was the first person to ever think about that.
"Can you imagine this whirlwind being called Reina though?" Ange gestured at Regina like she was some sort of knockoff brand product. "Her? Reina?"
"Yes, yes, everyone pile on, I'll get you back for that the next time we're in the ring!" Regina started to look pretty pissed and raised her voice. "Shopkeep, where's those delish chestnuts at?"
"Don't be rude, Regina." Ange reprimanded her again.
"Don't use me as a punching bag."
"Something on your mind, Reina?" Yami spoke with her mouth full of chestnut.
"Don't call me that. And not really." Not something I can tell you anyway.
"You sure?" Yami followed up and made Regina click her tongue. "Okay, okay."
"She was all excited for breakfast and then we got there late and the thing she wanted was gone so she didn't eat anything. She's hungry and so she's cranky." Ange put out the fire that was starting to burn in the air between them.
Hey. "Don't you hate it when you're all psyched for something but then you either gotta settle for something else or just go and not bother because it'll just piss you off to compromise on what you wanted?" Ange, don't make up shit without asking me. She couldn't even look at her sister without giving herself away.
"I know what you mean!" Ellen immediately latched onto that, to the surprise of everyone else. "I really wanted that one guitar but it was really pricey so I couldn't buy it, and I had to settle with a cheaper one, so I got the cheapest one I could find that was still okay so I could save up more for the guitar I actually wanted. Since I couldn't just not get one. And I can't really use the one from my powers. That'd make people ask so many questions."
Yami had her breath taken away and then looked to the other two with a big smile. "That's the most she's talked since I got to know her. And the most confident, too."
"I'm passionate about music..."
"It's good!" Regina got out of her chair and walked over to grab Ellen by her shoulders from behind. "Passion is good! I wish I had half of Rikka's passion for medicine or half of Alice's passion for running a business."
"Regina is more of a jack of all trades. Or should I say, joker of all trades?" Ange tried for some wordplay but got an underwhelming response.
"Ange, please leave the humorous bits to me." Regina sighed and took her hands off of Ellen's back. "You play music, right? In a band?"
"Yeah. Not as aggressive as Urara's band, probably, but we're not exactly pop music either."
"Regina doesn't listen to music, she prefers loud noise of guitars being murdered and people screaming."
"Don't listen to little miss classical here. Metal is a totally valid music genre."
I don't dislike it." Ellen, again, surprised everyone with that. "What? We were the opener for Death Devil twice already! We can play loud and strong! Just not full on metal."
"Speaking of playing music, when we gonna start practice?" Regina looked at Ange. "We bought the instruments and everything after all."
"Everyone's been kind of hanging out on the beach a lot and there was the marathon and the fighting… I guess once we get more settled in?" Ellen didn't want to speak for everyone on the when of it.
"Two more orders of mixed berry juice and roasted chestnuts." The second table's order came in and Regina returned to her seat.
"I say we go and grab everyone and drag 'em to practice." Regina just grabbed one of the chestnuts and burned her fingers. "Ouch!" Flapping her hand like crazy, Regina alternated blowing air on it and more flapping.
=== DISSONANCE ===
To call their situation unusual was really not doing it justice by any means. No, it was beyond that; it was implausible, ridiculous. Someone was definitely messing with them. Probably.
Sitting in a circle around a small campfire, roasting fish caught fresh from the river that ran through the bottom of this mountainous region – caught by Erika and an astounding amount of luck on her side – a group of four was taking it easy. Or trying to, rather. Tsubomi, Erika, Itsuki and Hibiki were on a little double-date excursion to the mountains, wearing color coded outfits and really enjoying the big change in scenery the new location provided.
Just earlier. "No, no, you gotta grab the thin sticks first. The thick ones take forever to catch fire. And grab some acorns if you see any, those are great." Hibiki was instructing Itsuki in the art of making a good campfire. Having found a good spot just by the river, and Erika insisting on trying her luck on fishing, the four of them decided on an impromptu grilling session. They didn't expect Erika to fish up a storm and now it had turned into quite a thing. A lack of knife and other utensils meant the fish literally went on sticks, guts and all, and they had to be a little careful with eating them.
"Is this good?" Holding a number of acorns in her arms, Itsuki presented them to Hibiki who grabbed one small and one big one and pulled a lighter from her pocket. "Why do you have that?"
"Going into the mountains with my girlfriend? You got to have a lighter in case of unforeseen events." Hibiki smiled dirty and Itsuki smiled back. "You get it."
"Itsuki, you two done with the fire? If so, help me get some thicker sticks for the fish." Tsubomi really wanted to gut the fish but with nothing to cut them that was impossible. "I've never eaten fish this fresh before..."
"Hey, there's a lotta chestnuts here, we wanna roast some treats too?" Erika was calling out from deeper in the woods, maybe ten or fifteen meters away.
"Sounds good!" Itsuki responded without thinking and then turned to Tsubomi. "How do you roast chestnuts?"
"Normally you cut into them… I guess we can use a sharp stone for that. But we should be able to just… Hibiki, make a small closed off space for the chestnuts then!" Raising her voice for the last part, Tsubomi saved them some trouble later.
"Honestly, this is more my thing, compared to the beach. I like swimming and sun a lot but fall is really my season." Itsuki smiled wide. "You think we should have invited Yuri?"
"I did ask her, but she wasn't feeling up to it. She said she was too tired after yesterday." Tsubomi picked up a pretty sharp looking stone and pocketed it for later. "I didn't wanna come at first either but Erika… you know."
"She's got a way to just pull you along, right? I know. We're all on the same team."
"Speaking of that… how is it going with Hibiki?" Tsubomi could be pretty nosy when it came to relationships.
"Good, maybe great. Where is this coming from?"
"Once we leave here, we probably have to re-think how teams work. If you're serious about her, I won't be against Hibiki being part of our team. We don't know what Yami or Yuri will do after all. Or do you want to go and be part of Hibiki's team?"
"I haven't really thought about that aspect of my life at all. I need to figure out if I move or she moves if we stay together."
"If?"
"I want to, but that doesn't mean we will get to. We're not that far apart in age but we are apart, so there might be trouble before she turns eighteen. Where did this even come from?"
"Lots of teams are probably going to be changing so I just kind of started thinking about it. The seventeen of us that are sworn sisters will probably form a second group on top of being in our own teams."
"I still have no idea what that is all about."
"We've been over this, Itsuki."
"We have?" Itsuki tried to remember. "I really can't recall ever talking to you about this, come to think of it..."
"Huh? I mean we just… the other day… huh? I was sure we discussed this at length… but I can't remember either. Did I plan to talk to you and then didn't?"
"Hey! What about the sticks for the fish!" Hibiki was shouting at them and then turned back to get the fire started.
With their campfire coming together, the four of them sat there and realize that fish would need a little while to be properly grilled all the way through.
"Hibiki, how are things with Kanade? You were talking during the marathon, right?" Erika was strangely perceptive of these things; Tsubomi and Itsuki both looked surprised to hear that.
"I think we're back to being friends. I can't really see Kanade as more than that after everything that happened. So don't worry Itsuki, I got eyes only for you." Hibiki looked as brazen as one could while declaring her love in a little roundabout way.
"Same here. I only like… you… Hi… biki..." Itsuki trailed off and her eyes grew huge – but she wasn't looking at Hibiki. There was something behind Hibiki; something very big, very hungry and very brown. "B… Bear..."
Even Erika seemed taken aback by a huge brown bear suddenly walking in on their little adventure. Much like the beach they didn't have their powers here so a giant hungry bear was very bad news.
Against all their expectations, the bear sniffed Hibiki – who looked like she was about to pass out – and then walked right past her and sat by the fire, in the gap between Tsubomi and Hibiki. And it did not sit like a bear was expected to sit down. No, it sat down on its butt, arms and legs forward, upright, just like a person would. It then pointed at the pile of fish that were already stuck on sticks but not on the fire yet and then at the fish by the fire. And to make everything even weirder, it visibly sprung only a single claw from its right paw and started to draw in the dirt.
"Can… I… have… some?" Tsubomi read the characters the bear wrote out loud and questioned her sanity. A Japanese speaking bear? That had surprisingly clean handwriting?!
"Uh, sure. Go ahead." Itsuki gave her okay and the bear put his front legs together and rubbed them like a human would – like someone that was about to partake in a tasty meal would.
"What… do we do?" Hibiki was incredibly unnerved by sitting next to a bear that was abnormal in every sense of the word.
The bear turned, looked at Hibiki and winked at her before lightly bending his left paw, then putting it together next to his completely flat paw, forming what Hibiki knew as the gesture for everything okay. So now the bear was speaking in cellphone emotes? Was she losing it?
"Hey, hey, mister bear." Erika just casually started talking to the bear but even she was visibly weirded out by this turn of events. "You ever meet any Cures before?"
The bear nodded twice and then popped three claws from his right paw and none from his left.
"Three of them?" Itsuki leaned towards Hibiki. "Your team had four, right? Ours had four too… which team was only three people?"
"I think only Nagisa's team. Maybe it was also Love's team before Setsuna joined… I'd remember having met a super intelligent bear though, so it's not our team." Hibiki was still really freaked out by a bear sitting there next to her.
"We had a bald guy running the food stall at the beach… you think this bear is the caretaker here?" Itsuki couldn't help but flinch a little when the bear just straight up looked at her and shook his massive head. "It's kind of freaky to have a bear understand me..."
The bear started drawing in the dirt again and this time it was a longer sentence. "My name is Kumataro, it is nice to meet some alluring young ladies as you."
As their confusion only grew, someone else was about to pee herself. Akane was flat on the ground, hammering away on the dirt, one hand hold her own mouth shut, tears coming out of her eyes.
"Kumataro?" Reika whispered and Inori blushed. "Is that not..." She snorted and had to try hard not to laugh. "A little on the nose?"
Inori also had to cover her own mouth. "You try coming up… with something… serious in this scenario." I can't believe I almost didn't help them out with this. I'm glad I brought my Cure outfit with me. Who knew it would actually let me put it on and give me my powers? I should test that on the beach and tell Alex about it.
"Sena, Sena, should we… have given the bear a tophat?" Akane rolled side to side on the ground after hearing Reika's question.
"Stop, I can't… I need to focus a little here." Inori's stomach hurt from holding it in. It was too funny to see them all panicked over a bear that was seemingly super intelligent and gentlemanly.
Akane briefly recovered and sat up only to let loose a wild one. "Have him ask one of them to dance."
Reika and Akane both tumbled to the ground, holding their mouths shut and their stomachs in pain. Inori, too, was finding it difficult to even look straight ahead. "Milaine sisters, shut up. I'm barely keeping it together." Inori could not even try to keep a straight face.
"Here, mister bear… I mean Kumataro." Itsuki carefully handed a fish on a stick to the bear, who somewhat clumsily held the stick between both paws and then just ate the fish with three chomps, grunting with satisfaction.
"Everyone is gonna think we're nuts..." There is no way I can tell Kanade or Ellen about this. They'll laugh. Hibiki had moved away from the bear and was now sitting to the other side of Itsuki and really close to her girlfriend.
"Hey, Kumataro! Can I ride on you?" Erika's question came so out of left field that the bear didn't react at all and Tsubomi nearly choked on the piece of fish she had bitten off.
"You are not riding a mysterious bear!" Tsubomi decidedly denied her girlfriend that possibly disastrous experience.
"Eh, it'll be fine. Kumataro is a gentleman, right?"
The bear was still dumbfounded and not moving – until it suddenly did move, acting confused and then promptly walking away without so much as a goodbye.
In the bushed, not too far away, was Inori, on the ground, her head red like a balloon from holding it in too much. Her Domination had worn off and so the bear had been released.
And she was not the only one whose head was red from laughter. Up in the wooden log cabin, Yami was in tears, laughing at Regina telling her about Mana's singing. Ellen was trying hard not to laugh but the emphasis there really was on trying and not succeeding.
"S-She's superhuman like that and then she can't carry a tune in a bucket?" Yami was repeatedly slapping her hand on the table, slumped in her chair, crying tears of laughter. "That's too much!"
"It's actually so bad that she can use it like a weapon! That one time I had her sing into a base wide announcing system to demoralize and psychologically attack the enemy forces!" Regina was laughing as well and Ange was rolling her eyes at her sister. "What? You know Mana doesn't mind. She's accepted her lot of being utterly tone deaf."
"Still, you're being a bit hard on her."
"Hey Ange." Yami got out of her chair and moved over to the more reasonable of the pair. "Tell me some funny stories about Reina here."
"I told ya to not call me that!"
"This was during a mission to South Korea-"
"Oh no you don't!" Regina tried to leap at her sister but Yami was tall and not shy of using her height and flexibility to keep Regina in check. Keeping her at literal arm's length, Yami urged Ange to keep going. "Ange, I'll never forgive you!"
"Yeah yeah. There was a small terrorist cell that we took out much easier than expected so Mana decided we would have a little fun in what basically amounted to Seoul's pleasure center. Regina had this great plan of wanting to visit every single bar in town which went about as well as you can imagine."
"Ange!" Regina tried hard to get past Yami but without getting violent there was no way that was going to happen and she knew it, too.
"What happened?"
"She came to on the plane and we were all very amused with the video that was trending and getting hundreds of thousands of hits. A very drunk Regina was riding topless in a sports car down main street, whirling the spear of light like some cheap prop – and bonking herself on the head so hard with it she knocked herself out. So she was hanging face down on the wind shield and-" Ange dodged a flying roasted chestnut and a blister-red Regina forced her way past Yami, who had trouble remaining standing from laughter.
Ellen was now jumping in, pulling Regina away from Ange, the two sisters having launched into a contest of who could pull the other's hair and cheek more. "Everyone has their embarrassing stories, don't worry. You should hear how many of them I have about Hibiki and Kanade."
"Shut it!" Regina was still really embarrassed. "I'll tell everyone about that time in Austria, Ange!"
"You wouldn't dare!" Ange gasped in terror and got out of her chair, ready to continue her fight with Regina.
All four of them managed to avoid landing on their faces as they were physically thrown out the door just seconds later. "Fighting in front of me when I am not allowed to participate! There are limits to being rude!" The door was slammed shut, then opened seconds after and a number of jackets were being thrown out.
This put a real dampener on their amused mood. "Mana is gonna have our hide." Regina looked like she had really fucked up now.
"Yeah. We better come up with a good excuse." Ange for once shared her sister's notion. "Uh… anyone else feeling like a truck hit them?"
"Hm? I'm fine." Regina got up on her feet and went to pick up her jacket – it was pretty cold out without one. Not freezing, but the track down was gonna take a while.
"Here, one more for got hit by a truck." Ellen groaned and staggered towards her jacket.
Ange took a look at Yami staggering as well and deduced the culprit. "That juice definitely had alcohol in it."
"What?" Ellen was the only one to react adversely to this revelation. She wasn't old enough to drink, technically. Not that anyone here seemed to care. She didn't care that much either, but it still didn't feel right to get cheated like that. "It only list a bunch of berries."
"Oh, you're all just tipsy? Guess that's why I'm fine." Regina laughed it off and threw Ange her coat. "There was a good shot of rum in it, but it did say so on the menu."
"Where?" Ellen felt a little stupid.
"At the end, it had an asterisk and if you checked down at the bottom it listed 'contains Rum'. Don't sweat it, you'll be totally sober by the time you walked all the way down. It was just one glass, you're just feeling it now because you're suddenly outside and the fresh air makes it go to your head. You'll be fine in ten minutes, tops." All three of them stared at Regina like she was suddenly a different person. "What? What?" Regina shrugged, not understanding was this was all about.
"You look like a delinquent and act like one too but you're actually dependable! That's so unexpected!" Yami helped Ellen stand still and they both supported each other, waiting for the fog to clear a little.
"Now listen here..."
"Regina saved our asses a few times. She's… like this, but deep down she knows which responsibilities she can shirk and which not. So don't let that story about her topless self knockout color your opinion of her. It's just a funny story." Ange was less affected than Yami and Ellen and walked up next to Regina, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I don't know what we would do without her. She's a great mood maker, too."
"It's not a funny story!" Regina pinched Ange's hand. "I swear if you bring that up again I will tell everyone about Austria."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"I wish I'd get along this well with my own sister." Yami looked more amused than anything and shook her head to rid herself of the alcohol fog that was clouding her mind. "She's so overbearing."
"You wanna hear about that time I got all of us shopping for formal dresses and Ange just would not shut up about this is too skimpy and you look like a red light district worker and-" Regina continued talking through Ange's hand that was now covering her mouth.
"I think we should start going down. We're probably gonna cut it close for the battle." Ellen wanted to participate. She was short of four thousand yen and she didn't want to be entirely dependent on Setsuna still ranking high after today. "They're gonna re-assign rooms today."
"That's gonna be a real slug-fest." Yami looked down the mountain. "You know… we didn't pay."
Regina was finally released by Ange. "I'm not going back in there and pay now. Come on, Ellen is right, we're gonna cut it close."
=== DISSONANCE ===
"She's not coming to." Makoto retracted her hand, her patient's eyelids slowly returning to normal. "No photo-sensitivity at all. Heartbeat is strongly elevated. No response to vocal or physical stimulus." Standing back up, Makoto turned to her allies. "And you're saying that Yami girl and Ellen both behaved basically normal?"
"Yeah. Whatever is going on, it's affecting everyone differently. From what I can tell there's seventeen of them that's sworn sisters or something but every time I probed into that, they became confused and deflected from it." Regina sat down next to the catatonic girl and slapped her cheek lightly. "We need to get word to Rikka and Mana so they can try and fix her."
"I think the much bigger problem here is that everyone but us seems to have been affected by this and they're not even aware that they have been affected. We're lucky we realized quickly and played along." Ange grabbed Regina by her arm and pulled her away from the comatose girl. "Stop that. Imagine if you were in her position."
"Right." Standing up, Regina looked around another time. Why the roof? Because it is deserted? How did she end up here in this state? "It's seriously unlucky that our two best thinkers are on the other side."
"Rikka taught me most of what she knows about medicine but that only makes this more mysterious. I can't find any kind of trauma. I can only assume that this is something magical or psychological." Makoto felt the girl's forehead and couldn't find an abnormality in temperature either.
"What do we do with her?"
"Between the two rooms we have… let's bring her to yours. If I'm not mistaken you and her are on the same floor."
"What are we gonna say when someone sees us?" Ange wanted to be prepared.
"She hit her head so I'm taking her to keep an eye on it. I learned about medicine from Rikka after all. That should keep them from being suspicious."
"Why can't we just grab someone and ask them straight up what the hell is going on?" Regina ignored the scolding look Ange was giving her.
"From their perspective, we're the ones that will look crazy. And we don't have any proof at all. You know the kind of power they have on their side?" Makoto was in full uniform, just in case. She could easily play it off as getting ready for the battle a bit early. But in truth, this was to fight off any problems that might arise.
"More or less. Nothing we can't take-" Regina cut herself off when she saw Makoto's and Ange's look. "Okay, I know when I put my foot in my mouth, so where am I wrong?"
"Pine has mind control. Milky Rose is a walking fortress. Blossom has targeted healing powers. Marine can copy almost anything. Passion can teleport. Lemonade has unbreakable chains. Mint is a barrier type like Alice. If we actually started a fight, we would definitely lose."
"Fine, I get it, secrecy first." Regina knelt down next to the unconscious girl. "What was her ability?"
"I don't know. I don't know about all of them, and she's one of the few I have absolutely no idea on." Makoto was distinctly bothered by this. She was regarded as dangerous by the others, that much I know. A threat to anyone, even Pine and Milky Rose. A threat that universal… just what is her specialization?
"You think her ability is what she ended up like this?" Regina looked real close and found something odd. "The heck is this? Makoto, she's got something on her neck."
"Huh? I examined her. I didn't see anything unusual on her neck." Kneeling next to Regina, Makoto took a look at the exact spot that Regina was pointing at. There's nothing here. There are a number of possibilities here… one, Regina has been infected by the insanity that has claimed everyone else. But then, why now? Because of her? Why only Regina then and not me? Option two; this is something that I simply cannot see and Regina can. But again, why Regina? Is it because she is a little different from the rest of us? And number three, we have both gone insane and that is causing a discrepancy in perception.
"I can't see anything." Ange also looked at where Regina was pointing. "You feeling okay, Regina?"
"I'm not halluci-"
"Describe it to me." I can't let them start an argument over hallucinations. I need both of them to function, just like we need Mana, Rikka and Alice to function on the other side. But I can count on Rikka to handle things there.
"Describe it? Uh… it's like… Don't freak Makoto, just gotta test something." Reaching for Makoto's throat, Regina very lightly put her fingers there and squeezed only enough for her fingers to align with Makoto's skin. "Hm, no. I thought it looked like a choking mark, but that isn't it. It's three long marks along the right of her neck but there's no mark from the thumb, little finger or the rest of the hand."
"And the three marks look like fingers?"
"Kind of. But..." Holding her own fingers over the marks, Regina licked her lips in doubt. "Could be fingers but they're a bit longer and thinner than mine. Kinda like… skeleton fingers."
"Stop it! This is worrying enough without your fascination for undead apocalypse coming into play!" Ange did do really badly with horror, especially when it concerned stuff like zombies, skeletons and ghosts.
Skeleton fingers? Regina's strange obsession aside, a skeleton? That just seems unlikely even for this place. Where would it even come from? And why not? And still, why can only Regina see it? "In any case, we need to get her out of here before someone else finds her."
"You know, this probably isn't a good time to bring this up." Regina got up and looked a bit worried. "But how did we get up here? And why?"
The atmosphere froze as both Ange and Makoto realized they had no answer for that. "We… weren't we looking for her?"
"For her? Why? It's not like there's a missing person report. And I don't actually recall how we got here either." Regina felt goosebumps and she turned to Makoto for answers.
"It appears we are not as immune to this effect as we thought." Turning and looking around, Makoto grew ever more worried. "Wasn't there a door over there in the corner just earlier?"
"A door? Didn't we just jump up here with our powers?" Ange had a completely different recollection.
"I thought we just went up from the penthouse balcony?" Regina's made that three.
Silence broke out and worries grew. "We still need to get her out of here. Ange, can I count on you to carry her?"
"Who?"
"What do you mean, who? Her..." Makoto turned to the empty spot on the ground. What?
"I'm with Ange here, carry who? Me? I can get down just fine." Regina shrugged.
Why did we come up here again? Didn't we… find something? Someone? I had reason to worry, but what was it…
"A fate so small, a mental wall, the truth is hidden well…"
"Ange, we came up here for some reason, right? We wouldn't just come to the roof without reason." I need to go back. I need to find the end of the thread that led us here. Something is messing with my mind for sure. But what? Pine? No, it's too haphazard for that. Did anyone else have mental powers? I can't remember. Is that… because I don't know or did something erase my memory of it? Damn… if this keeps going I won't be able to tell what's real and what isn't.
"The roof? Makoto, you okay?" Ange walked over to Makoto, grabbed her shoulders and shook her a little. "We're in the basement. Look. It's dark as hell."
"Huh?" The basement? But… "What are you talking about, I can see the fog and the trees from here."
"A looming sight, a blooming blight, the hidden, secret tell… fu fu fu fu… A darkling comes, a lightling comes, fake wheels of fate they turn..."
"Regina, shut up already!" Flinging around and admonishing Ange's sister, Makoto looked straight into the darkness.
"Makoto, you okay?"
"Where'd Regina go?"
"Makoto… who is Regina?"
Huh? "Your sister. What are you talking about?" She was just… right there.
"The unseen truth, the unseen dark, the world wants you to burn..."
"You don't hear that, Ange?"
"What are you talking about? I don't have a sister! I never did!"
Stepping back from Ange, Makoto shook her head. No. I remember Regina. Wild Joker. The girl that opposed us, that fought for the selfish, that died when… that… died? No, no… she didn't die, she came with us, she lived with us, she was on the plane… yeah, she and Ange they… they… what? Turning around and taking a few steps to get her head sorted out, Makoto started thinking out loud. "Something is wrong here… Regina… Regina was definitely real… even if we fought her, Ange would know her… she fought with us. Ange, remember the blond girl that fought for the Selfish? That had the spear of light? That's Regina. You are sisters. Both of you were parts of the original Marie Ange, the queen… empress… chancellor…. Princess? The princess of the Trump Kingdom. She split and… Regina was on the other side. But she fell for Mana and… and…" Why can't I remember? Something's wrong. My memory is all messed up.
"She died."
"She… died?"
"We fought… and she died."
We fought… I… remember that. She refused to give up and I held Mana back… I held Mana back? I was restraining her… and Regina overcharged the spear… she… died. Her skin felt cold. She couldn't see up ahead. Why did I do that? Why… did I let Regina die? It's my fault… I killed her. If not for me, she would still be… but… Ange. Ange is her sister. They were two halves of one whole. If Regina died then how is Ange still here? "No, she's not dead! Because if she's dead, when you'd also be dead, Ange!" Turning around, Makoto saw only darkness up ahead. There was no one there with her.
"Ange…?" Taking a few steps forward, Makoto felt her heart crumble in her chest. "Ange!"
She's dead. She died years ago because Regina was no more. You didn't just kill Regina, you also killed Ange. And you've been running from that truth ever since.
"No! It's wrong! It makes no sense! Then who did I spend all those nights with?!"
You were always alone at night. Mana never forgave you and neither did the others. You were a solitary fighter, then and before and even now. Because everything you touch you ruin. You killed Regina and you killed Ange. You are so much worse than the Selfish. You're a monster.
"No! No no no no! It's a lie!" Screaming into the dark, Makoto sunk to her knees. "It's a lie, it's a lie, it's a lie, it's a lie, it's a lie..."
=== DISSONANCE ===
"Itsuki, don't you feel like… there were more of us before?" Hibiki was getting ready for the battle, putting on her Cure outfit but mostly watching Itsuki get dressed.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, didn't your team use to have more than 3 people?"
"You sure that bear didn't scare you out of your mind?" Itsuki took it with humor but then became serious when she saw Hibiki's face. "Wait, you're serious?"
"Yeah. It really feels… like I'm missing team members and you are too. I don't think it was just always me and Kanade."
"You told me about that third one, the one that sacrificed herself for her kingdom. I remember that."
"Muse. I never even learned who she really was. Kanade and I were really down for a while after that."
"Now that I think about it… there was Moonlight."
"Moonlight?"
"Cure Moonlight. She was with us for a little while but she… well, she didn't make it through the final battle. But it's thanks to her that we didn't get annihilated by Dark Cure."
"I feel like you've told me about this before."
"Maybe. It's not a pretty story and I don't like to think about it."
"It's still… I can't shake this feeling that something isn't right with the way I remember things."
"You know, now that you mention it… Hibiki, who's Kanade?"
"Huh?"
"You said 'always just me and Kanade' and 'Kanade and I were really down'. But, who's Kanade?"
Is… she serious? "What are you talking about? You know Kanade. She's the other Cure on my team."
"Your team? Hibiki, you're a solo act. Isn't that why Cure Muse had to sacrifice herself?"
"You're wrong. Kanade is… Kanade..." I remember, I definitely remember. She's… good at… cooking? And she's… stubborn. And… and… "She's that girl from the other class."
"Yeah, she's got blonde hair and she's big boobs and she's got with her hands..."
"Hibiki, you're describing Sunshine. Me. I never even heard you mention a Kanade before."
"Wait, wait… I'm sure she's real. She's real, just like you and I are real! She's just on the other team now!" Hibiki felt panic rise up from inside. Why can't I remember any details about her? Just vague stuff that sounds like I'm taking them from Itsuki… no, Kanade is definitely real. Kanade… what… what was her last name? What was her Cure name? Feeling Itsuki's hand on her forehead, Hibiki had tears in her eyes. "Why can't I remember?"
"Remember what?"
"Huh?"
"We were just talking strategy about the battle."
"No, we weren't. We were talking about… we were talking about-!" Hibiki opened her mouth but no words came out. Why can't I say it? We were talking about… about her. Wait… who?
"I get it that you're nervous since they're reassigning rooms after this, but one of us should definitely rank in the top six to get one of these rooms back."
"The top six?"
"Not a hard bar to clear when there's only ten of us total, right?" Itsuki smiled wide and patted Hibiki's head. "Now, you should finish getting dressed."
The top six? Weren't there more of us at some point? "I have the strangest dejavu right now." Bending down to put on her boots, Hibiki stumbled back and forth a couple of times before sitting down on the bed and pulling the boots on tight. Taking a deep breath she put the rest of her costume together until it was complete enough for the small details to just pop in and finish the process. "Time to go." Getting up, Hibiki walked to the door, turned about and sighed. I wish I had a girlfriend.
Barely five steps into the hallway she bumped into the only other occupant of the floor. "Ready for the fight, Nagisa?"
"As ready as can be. How about you?"
"Nervous."
"You're not the only one."
"Hey Nagisa. You ever feel like there's just something missing?"
Nagisa's expression turned grim and Hibiki quickly walked that back. "I don't mean Honoka and Saki. I… know what happened. I mean like… something is missing that should still be there. Not people that died but just… like we're forgetting they're there."
"Are you feeling okay?"
"Just a weird thought I can't shake." Hibiki scratched her chin.
"You really ought to get a girlfriend, girl."
"You offering?" Not like she'd ever go for me.
"Can't, already seeing Mai."
"Hah… Not exactly a lot of choice with only ten of us on each side."
"Ten?" What is she talking about? Ten?
"Hm? Oh, did I say ten?"
"Yeah."
"Must be more nervous than I thought." Weird… I could have sworn there's twenty of us total… it's strange for me to be this nervous.
"With ten on each side this might be a lot less stressful."
"Well, you got the strength of ten people all on your own."
"Flatter me more." Nagisa grinned and hit the elevator button. "Kind of a waste to have this huge hotel and have like a handful of people live in it."
"I like it lively so it's extra hard on me."
"Yeah, same here. It's not easy being a one girl team."
One? Hibiki felt like that wasn't right. Wasn't there someone else on her team? Someone… not Mai, but… someone… Looking down for a moment, Hibiki stopped. There was definitely someone. And not just on her team. There was someone on mine too. Someone I always argued with. Someone I transformed with. Someone I cherished and fought with and trusted more than anything. Who was it… who… someone I knew from before middle school even… K…. Kanade? A wave of terror hit Hibiki all at once. Something's trying to wipe my memory of Kanade! Looking up, she faced Nagisa, who smiled like she knew exactly what Hibiki had just remembered, wiggling her fingers while she held her hand up as if to say goodbye. The elevator doors closed on Hibiki and she hammered the button as if her life depended on it.
But Nagisa was gone. The doors opened and she was gone. Stepping inside, the cabin looked just as it always did, with one small change. Only a single button was left and it had a tiny label next to it instead of a number. It was a set of kanji she didn't immediately recognize. How do you read this?
Loneliness.
With enormous force the elevator doors slammed shut, the impact causing Hibiki to shy away from the door. On its own the button lit up and the elevator started moving – down. With greater and greater speed until Hibiki felt her feet almost lift off the ground, the elevator moved – and then stopped, leaving her almost flat on the floor. With a little polite ding the doors opened.
Picking herself up from the floor, Hibiki peered beyond the doors – and it was too dark to see. "Anyone there?!" Shouting as loud as she could, her own voice was carried nowhere. No echo, no answer. It was just pure black up ahead. Trying to take a step back, she felt the back of her foot hit the wall. What? Looking over her own shoulder, she nearly hit her head on the ceiling. Am I growing? No… the room is shrinking!
Jumping out before she was completely crushed by the shrinking elevator, she found herself surrounded by darkness, only the little light of the continuously shrinking elevator giving her any sense of direction. The ground felt solid enough so that was at least something.
Shrinking, shrinking, the elevator was no bigger than a box of matchsticks now, a tiny, tiny light coming from within – and it was shrinking no more. But what was she to do now? She could barely fit a finger into the elevator and she was surrounded by total dark.
Someone is gonna come looking for me. But… who? Someone? But I was the only one there… just like always, I was there alone. Fighting alone, surviving alone… No… there were others there. I don't believe I imagined them. This is not like that one time or that other time or the other other time… those were all just people I imagined, I know that. But this time, they were real. They were definitely there. But who was there? I can't… remember their names or faces…
Was there really… someone there?
I could have sworn I was just talking to someone…
Nagisa stepped out of the elevator and couldn't shake that strange feeling that she had. I'm so sure I was talking to someone… someone else, not myself… I know, I know.
Well, who were you talking to then? - I don't know. Someone. There are others here, right? - Well, there's you and me at least. - Shut up, Saki – No, you shut up, Nagisa – There were definitely others here – Yeah, but you killed them – No, you killed them – But I am just you, so how could I kill them and you didn't? - Don't talk back to me, Saki – Will you two shut up already? There was nobody there. I'd know – Go back to sleep Rin – Watch your tone when talking to her – You stay out of this Akane – Everyone shut up. There's someone here – It's just you – It's just us – You shut up – I said shut up.
No… no, someone was here. I know it. They were definitely here. I told them… I told them… what did I tell them?
To get lost – To go die – To stay away – To let me fuck them – No, to let me fuck them – No, it's my turn – But someone was here – You sure about that?
I'm sure – So then who was it? There's not been anyone here in years – Years? - You're over thirty now – I'm forever fourteen – Nobody asked you – Shut up everyone – Someone was here.
Staggering forward, she sat down by the abandoned reception desk. How long had it been since she smashed it in a fit of rage? We need to go fight.
But it's always the same thing. Always us against the other – Who is the other again? - Beats me – I forgot – Isn't the other just us? - The other is the other – But who is the other? - The other, duh. - Someone was here.
That counter looks so cool with all the blood – Who died here? - Someone – We killed them – Duh, we won – Yeah, we killed everyone – No, you killed them – I wish – I killed some of them! - Nobody asked you – I swear if you don't all shut up – Someone was here.
Anyone remember their names? - I sure don't – Better we don't – Yeah, they're dead anyway – Because we killed them – You killed them – Someone was here – Nobody was here – Yeah, nobody is left – Just us – All of us – Everyone you killed – Everyone we killed – Everyone killed…
Falling over and hitting the ground, she stared at the other end of the room, the walls torn and smashed, rotten and covered in blood. Man, remember the other who died there? - Can't say I do – Been forever – Wasn't she someone we knew? - Kinda knew everyone – Killed everyone – You killed everyone – Someone is there – Shut up.
"Ha ha ha… ha… ha ha…" Staring at the walls, she laughed by herself. Alone. But she wasn't alone.
Who needs others anyway? - We do, duh – Can't you tell? - Yeah, who else we gonna kill? - Us? - Yeah let's kill us – Finally a challenge – Dang, whose idea was that – Ours obviously – Yeah our idea – Let's kill us – But who gets to do it? - Us, obviously – You're right – Shut up.
Who is us anyway?
=== DISSONANCE ===
"Quiet..." Covering Inori's mouth with her hand, Setsuna quickly held her own breath. They'll find us, they'll find us… if I breathe they'll find us…
Heavy steps that belonged to gargantuan, grotesque knights of black, curded skin, with huge shields, swords and armor covering all their body. The enforcers…! Listening for their steps to cease, Setsuna felt her lungs scream in pain as she denied them the release they needed. And finally she deemed it safe. They're gone. They're gone. "Sena, they're gone..."
Hugging the body by her side, Setsuna cowered behind a corner, behind bushes, in the freezing cold. "You're so cold Sena, you're so cold… I'll warm you up soon. Then you'll wake up."
Caressing the cheek of the other girl, Setsuna peeked out of the bushes, seeing the enforcers patrol in the distance. I can't believe Moebius found me after all this time. They chased me to the ends of the earth. They even made Sena all cold… I'll have to find the warm place so Sena can wake up…
Picking Inori up, Setsuna darted through the bushes, only stopping when her lungs felt like they were on fire. "Soon, Sena… Soon I'll make you warm-" Swatting a large bug that was crawling on Inori's arm, Setsuna clicked her tongue. "Don't worry Sena, don't worry, I got the bug, I got the bug..."
Kill them. Kill the enforcers.
"Hm? Sena, what did you say?" Putting her ear to Inori's lips, Setsuna listened.
Kill them all. Come back to me after you killed them all. Then we can be together.
"Oh, oh! That is a great idea… yes, yes… if they're dead they can't hurt you anymore!"
Kill them, Alexandra.
"It's coming." Her breathing was ragged and the adrenaline was rushing through her veins like lightning. "The beast we've been hunting for ten years." The voice belonged to Love. Hair, clothes, both torn. One eye permanently shut, a large scar running across the left of her face.
"We finally lured it all the way out here." The other voice belonged to Reika. One arm was completely limp, as if she had no feeling it at all. Her hair was torn and so were her clothes.
Both of them were thin, starved, deprived of many things. But they felt the intensity of the hunt.
"It killed everyone but us but now the tables have turned."
"We'll have revenge."
"Reika."
"I know. Once we kill it… I'll keep my promise."
"Thanks."
The promise I made… to give her a painless death so she can be with the one she loves again. That's the least I can do after she risked everything to get my sister's body back… Aine… I'll be there soon. Just after we finish hunting the beast and I kill Love… I'll be there soon.
Both of them flinched, turned about when something made a sound, when something was there. But they could not see anything come out of the ruin, out of what was a hotel, ten years ago. "No point getting jumpy now..." Love tried to shake it off but Reika stepped past her. "You see something?"
"Something is there… but we can't see it." Steps hammered across the broken up plaster of the plaza, rushing into the bushes away, invisible to their eyes. "It's not the beast."
"The beast's young?" Love readied her weapon, a sword made of ice.
"No mate, no young." Reika held her back, wielding an icy spear herself. "Don't get distracted. Might just be a dammed soul roaming the place, unable to pass on."
Focus, Love, focus… you have to kill the beast, even if it kills you… you can't let a thing like that go free. "Reika… what did the beast look like again?" Why can't I remember at all what it looks like? Come to think of it… how did I meet Reika? I remember… something attacking me… but...
"You forgot? How could you forget?" Reika faced Love and sighed, disappointed.
"It's been a long time since I saw it."
"That makes me sad."
"Just tell me. I need to know what to strike when..." Love coughed up blood. A spear's tip was burrowed into her stomach. "Reika… why…?"
"You wanted to know what the beast looks like, didn't you?" An inhuman smile dominated her face, a grimacing smile running side to side with wide open eyes staring down Love as she sunk to her knees. Twisting the spear and pulling it out, blood gushed out like from a bucket that had been shot at. Grabbing Love by her hair and pulling her up, Reika bared her teeth, now sharp, grand and covered in blood. "You're looking right at it. For the sixteenth time."
"Everyone's dead… everyone's dead… everyone's dead… I did it again, I did it again… everyone's dead..." Sitting in the middle of a pool of blood, Mana clawed at her own neck, every little wound healing immediately. "Let me die, let me die… let me die, let me die… I don't wanna be here… let me die, let me die… ha… ha ha ha…. Let me die…"
Dead bodies were all around her mangled, grown back together in unnatural ways, faces melted and tried to be cut back to shape, arms and legs sewn together, bones and lumps of flesh littering the place, blood and organs piling up around the bodies. "This cursed power… this cursed power… I can't get rid of it, can't get rid of it, can't get rid of it… no… no… no… no… no… Rikka…" Her eyes went towards a body that only had a torso and four arms. "Alice..." A body that had legs consisting of four thighs each. "Makoto..." A head without a face. "Ange… Regina..." A pile of organs that were put aside from lack of knowledge. "I tried to fix you… I tried to fix you… don't hate me, don't hate me… just let me die, let me die… Noooo, don't listen to the voices, don't listen-!"
I trusted you… Mana… - I relied on you… - You made it all worse – It is all your fault – I curse you…
"No! Leave me alone, leave me alone!" Screaming and clawing harder at her neck, tiny splats of blood flew everywhere and still she would just heal immediately, unable to die. "I don't… I don't want… an eternity… like this… I don't want… I don't want this..."
=== DISSONANCE ===
Hiding behind the abandoned reception desk was a single girl. What the hell is going on? Everyone is going completely crazy. That new girl is just sitting there, babbling to herself, looking around like the room is filled with her own personal nightmares. And there's two of them in the elevator, acting like they're choking on something, trying to hold on to something in the air? And all the system people just vanished earlier, as if this wasn't bad enough as-is.
Sneaking out from her cover, the girl rushed to the entrance, seeing even more chaos out on the plaza. That's… what's her name? The mind control girl. What is she doing? Is she… hallucinating she's holding someone? And why she's moving in circled squatting? No… I don't got time for- Flinching like someone unleashed the wails of hell on her, the girl almost backed away into the hotel. On the other end of the plaza were two more of them. One that was holding something imaginary and another that was screaming like she was being torn apart. Reika? Shit, even Beauty is going nuts?
Another one ran past her, screaming, laughing, covering her own face with her hands. The girl knew already but she knew more with every passing second. She had to get out of there, quick, now. But how? The portal isn't due for over ten hours, there is no way none of these crazy people won't just jump me and tear me apart during that. Or worse, kill each other or die from whatever is affected them. If they bite the dust, Nozomi is going… oh shit, what if Nozomi is infected by this too? I seem to be fine but… she's one of them. She's normal. What if she's got whatever they got? Miyuki is gonna hang her. I need to get back. Now. Somehow. I just hope that things aren't going downhill this hard on the other side.
"Where the hell is Nozomi?!" Miyuki's shouting caused a good four of the others to fall out of bed and those that didn't to wake up at least. Groaning and shivering, Miyuki looked into the other room. "Something is way off. Everyone up. Up, now!"
The first to join the angry Miyuki was Tsubomi, who looked as worried as Miyuki was pissed. "It's cold. It's freezing."
"That's not really what matters right-"
"How is it freezing when it is supposedly sunny and summer is coming?"
"Hell if I know." Miyuki clicked her tongue and slammed her hand against the wall a few times. "Hurry the hell up!"
"Hey… isn't it supposed to be still day?" Nao's voice came from inside the room and both Miyuki and Tsubomi looked in – and saw the open window. "And I don't think this is normal summer weather..."
It was snowing – and pitch black outside.
Miyuki felt a chill that Tsubomi shared in. "Shit. Everyone suit up, looks like the world is having a meltdown!"
"Where is Nozomi though? I can't imagine she'd voluntarily go out in this." Tsubomi looked at the door that was still firmly closed, with a stopgap placed inside. She didn't get out through the door. So, how…?
Help me.
Fighting through the icy cold and the pitch black darkness, Nozomi moved forward. She could see it – there, in the distance; a faint light. Someone was calling for help and she had to go. She had to go. She could only go forward. I don't have time to wake the others. I have to hurry. She's in danger. She's suffering. The voice was that of a woman.
Please help me.
She couldn't ignore that plea for help. To ignore it… to condemn whoever needed help to an unknown fate… even under normal circumstances she couldn't do that. But this call… this cry for help… something about it was different. It gave her strength. It gave her endurance. And most importantly, it gave her willpower. This was what she did best – risk herself to save others.
"Listen, listen, child of light..." The song just sort of popped into her mind. "Beware, beware, the darkling blight… listen, listen, knight of light… it's here, your time, your time to fight..."
Marching on unwavering, Nozomi felt hot on the inside. A fire was burning in her heart. After all the chaos she'd sewn, she would finally do something good. She'd save someone's life. Someone who only she could save.
"The light, so strong, so beautiful… The scary dark, to sleep you lull… A binding light, oh soul so pure… The mighty knight, oh pretty cure..."
She had no idea how much time had passed or how long she'd been out here. Dark Dream's clothes were keeping her strangely warm, empowering her. I'm not a has-been Cure. I can still do good. I can still prove I'm useful. Everyone will stop worrying that I mess up again. I just need to save her… save her.
She stopped. This isn't the right way. Her head turned, left, then right. To either side was only darkness and snow. It was mounting on the ground, every step of hers a struggle that she won effortless. And still she knew how to tell left from right, front from back. There.
Moving over, away from the path she had traveled on, she started to dig in the snow. She unearthed it. This is where she's trapped. Huge stone doors in the ground, shut with iron and no handle. The snow came down on her hard, trying to bury the doors and her along with it. The world was against her, tried to stop her from saving whoever was on the other side. "Can you hear me?!"
Please help me… please…
"I'm on the other side! I can't get the door open!" Shouting against the stone doors, Nozomi slammed her fists on the hard gate. "Open!" But the door would not budge. Hitting the door until her hands were hurting and her knuckles were bloody, Nozomi kept on. The door would not budge.
Please help me… it's dark and cold… so dark and cold…
Putting both palms against the door's perceived center, Nozomi looked within. She let in the cold, let in the dark, let in fear of what was all around her. I need magic. But like all Cures, without transforming, she had none. But she would not let that stop her.
And the door budged. With creaking and howling that would befit a gate as olden as millennia back, the doors moved inwards, moved down, dropping Nozomi down into the dry, cold darkness. She fell only a little, landing on dust and dirt. And she felt it – she felt her. The one she was trying to rescue. Up ahead. I have to go further in. She must have gotten trapped here while taking cover from the storm and the wind blew it all shut.
The dark was all encompassing around her. But there was something in the air – magic. I never felt magic like this before. It feels… familiar though… somehow. The one who got trapped here must be a Cure. She must be like Yami and ended up lost! I definitely need to save her in that case! I can't even imagine how scary it must be to be trapped in here all alone, not knowing anyone is coming to help you. But I'm on my way!
"Damn, how is she moving in this? I can't see shit!" Miyuki cursed out loud. "Rin! Akane!"
"Getting angry won't make it any brighter. And how many times do I have to tell you that I don't make fire, I just make heat!" Rin complained loudly and shivered. "Everyone moved closer together!"
"We've only really been in this part of the forest before once. There's no animals here, no edible plants, no fruit trees, nothing. The trees are all huge and creepy and blot out the sun." Tsubomi was right by Miyuki's side. "And look at the lane that Nozomi cut into the snow… We got Rin and Akane leading the way and they are just barely on that level. It's like she was burning up."
Miyuki shivered and this time it wasn't from the cold. "Don't say ominous shit like that!" Grabbing Tsubomi by her arm, Miyuki shook her. "You know what's gonna happen to us if she winds up frozen solid out here, right? We have Reika on our side. The originals are not just gonna believe us she haphazardly wandered out into a freak blizzard and froze to death."
Tsubomi swallowed and nodded. "I know."
Moving through the piled up white in the unnatural dark, the group eventually stopped; they were there. The lane that Nozomi had cut through the snow ended and went to the side.
Letting a large flame rise up above her, Akane let everyone get a good luck at where they were.
Trees were malformed to the point that they resembled enormously overgrown thickets instead of trees. Their bark was pitch black like the night and not one leaf was to be spotted on their horridly bent twigs. The crowns were out of sight in the darkness and it even felt like the trees themselves were sucking up the light, feeding on it, devouring it.
Wind blew the snow in their faces and the trees around them creaked like a thousand year old wooden floor in a storm, ancient and forgotten, heard only by the souls trapped nearby. The noise was an orchestra of nightmares come true; the wind's howl, the shivering and chilled panting of their companions, the old wood's echoing groan. Urara was the first to squat down and cover her ears.
"We're not there yet! Get moving!" Shouting much louder than necessary, Miyuki couldn't shake a very bad feeling. Don't be fucking dead, Nozomi.
Moving far slower than before, every series of creaks, every particularly high pitched howl of wind, every stumble and grabbing onto someone to not fall; all of it wore down their nerves. Most of them had experience death, but this was completely different from just being afraid of dying. This was a fear they hadn't dealt with yet.
It felt like hours passed before they stopped again – the lane ended, a number of fallen trees and huge piles of snow and frozen dirt at the end point. "Akane. Light it up. Rin, help her." Miyuki was not about to let nature stop her. She was gonna get Nozomi back, and not just because she had to. She also wanted her back. She had grown a bit attached to her. But the bad feeling she had was getting worse. Everyone is cold and scared and I'm not gonna lie to myself, I'm too. I can't feel anything dangerous but that's just making it worse. Nozomi was acting a little weird all day… is this place making her mentally unstable? A normal person suddenly being thrown in here… shit, I hope she hasn't lost her mind.
Miyuki flinched and backed away from the trees when the burning wood howled in agony – at least it sounded that way to her. The snow and ice melted, the dirt was forced out of the way by Urara, Komachi and Karen. The trees reduced to charcoal, a horrible singed smell was filling the air. Not like burnt wood at all but more like some kind of fur, some kind of pelt… it was disgusting enough for all of them to cover their mouth and nose.
Nao, ever brave, went up ahead and waved Miyuki closer. On the ground was a huge stone door. "It looks ancient." Nao only had a rough guess of what 'ancient' looked like but she was pretty sure this was it.
No depictions, no murals, no anything, just plan stone? Why is that here? And why in the ground? "Don't tell me Nozomi went in there."
Nao knelt on the ground next to the door and hit it a few times with her fist; it didn't budge. Pushing a little, it didn't budge either. "I don't think she'd be able to get this open."
"Can you see another lane? Akane, light!" Miyuki shouted and a large fireball went up, illuminating the area. It was just untouched snow all around beyond where they had burned the trees. "She must have gone in there somehow. She didn't just fly off and leave no trail after those huge lanes of melted away snow."
"Your guess is as good as mine on how she got this open." Nao got up and cautiously stood on the door, then jumped up and down and still nothing worked. "I'm not sure trying to blast this open is a good idea."
"Nobody said anything about blasting." Miyuki sighed, in a constant shiver now. The cold was biting at her fingers and feet quite harshly, even with Rin being a walking radiator to keep them warm. "To begin with, we sure this actually leads anyway and it's not just stone plates in the ground? Reika, come over for a sec."
Joining Miyuki's side, Reika was just as cold as everyone else despite her ability affinity to ice. "What? Can we go back now? This place is the least beautiful thing ever."
"Make a mace or something heavy and bang it on the door. If there is empty space behind it, we'll know." Miyuki was an angry leader but not an incompetent one.
Forming a large, two handed mace, Reika swung it with force overhead and slammed it against the stone. A deep, dull sound came from it, indicating a lot of space behind the it, making the door an actual door. "Again?"
"No, that's plenty."
Her teeth chattering, Reika returned and tried to be as close to Yuri and Rin as possible to stay warm. Now that they were just staying in place they did not even have the heat of moving about anymore. White clouds of breath were rising from the group and everyone was tightly packed around Rin.
Only Miyuki and Nao were still working the door. Walking on top of the stone, Miyuki felt an incredibly bad sensation – like something big was right behind her, breathing down her neck like some mythical beast. Turning around, she felt a terrible chill from inside; there was nothing there, not even a tree's branch. This place is freaking me out. And I'm supposed to be the happy ending hating Bad End Happy.
… the dark child's light…
"What?" Miyuki turned to Nao.
"What, what?"
"You just say something?"
Nao froze. "This is not the time to joke about hearing voice!" Her face started to resemble the snow around her.
"That's not what I'm doing. I swear I heard something."
"Stop it!"
"I'm not joking!"
"That's even worse then!"
Akane forced her way through the cold to join them. "What are you two arguing about?" Even Akane was freezing, despite holding a fireball between her hands.
"Miyuki is hearing voices."
"Voices?"
"It sounded like a voice. Maybe just my nerves getting to me and the wind."
"Maybe it was Nozomi?" Nao did not want to deal with ghosts or the likes.
"I recognize her voice. That was not her."
"Any luck getting this open?" Akane was standing away from the door, crept out by some random stone gate in the ground in the middle of what looked like a mutated and dead forest.
"None." Nao shrugged and stepped off the door.
The darkness swallowed Miyuki whole with a terrible creak and crunch. The door swung open the moment she stood on it alone, dropping her down. Nao and Akane both immediately fell to their knees, hands at the corner. "Miyuki!" They panicked voices came out as one.
"No need to shout, I'm right here. This is barely a meter of a drop." Miyuki felt her heart pound like crazy. She wasn't fine at all. Why did it open after only I stood on it? More weight should be more force to get it open, not the other way… is it because I had sex with Nozomi? Does this door only open for the original Cures? If so… why is it out here, where none of them would ever get to?
"Is it safe to come down?" Akane sat back up and created a fireball, hovering it over the open door. The wings had just gone down, and Miyuki was standing down there, one, maybe two meters below surface. With a small jump she could grab on to the edge and get out on her own. With someone lending a hand, it would be even easier.
"It stinks and it is damn cold so not much of a change compared to where you are." Miyuki looked up. "Akane, come down here, Nao, you too."
Both of them hesitated until Miyuki clicked her tongue audibly enough for them to hear. Jumping down – it really was not much of a jump at all – they landed on dry ground. Too dry, almost. There was not a hint of the snow that was covering the ground almost knee high up above. "Tsubomi!"
It took a moment but Tsubomi appeared by the entrance, looking down. "What?"
"You look after everyone with Rin. Akane, Nao and I are going down and look for Nozomi. Keep an eye out for Nozomi up top, too. I know you don't have any light sources so just let Rin set something on fire."
"Got it." Tsubomi nodded and paused. "Be careful. Something about this places gives me a bad feeling."
"Something? I can think of a dozen reasons to be freaked out." Miyuki was not in the habit of putting on a strong face when it was clear as day that she was scared. "But yeah, we'll be careful. That's why I have Nao with me. Nobody better for running away than Nao."
"You make me sound like a coward."
"Cowards life long lives." Miyuki turned that right around on her. "Come on, let's go."
"Wait." Akane created several smaller fireballs that she had hover around her. And they could now see the walls. They were in the very dead-end of a hallway, the only exit being up top. The walls weren't plan like the doors however. They had murals. Intricate, carved murals into the stone walls. "Someone built this place."
"Or something." Miyuki felt a shiver and started to look at the murals behind her. Depicted were five fancily costumed girls, standing in contrast with a man holding a large pocket watch. Three girls of middling height, one that was taller than the others and one very short one. The wall to the right had another one, three of the girls were the same, still opposing the man with the pocket watch. The wall to the left showed four of them, the man gone, and a shattered watch. "What is this place?"
"Do you think those are Cures we don't know about?" Nao walked a little further, until the walls were just dimly lit by Akane and waited.
"There's already that many of them. Wouldn't surprise me." Akane tapped Miyuki's shoulder and nodded in Nao's direction. "Come on."
Moving along they saw more and more murals. Six girls, two middling, two short, two tall, opposing a murky entity. Three girls opposing a robed man, then a pillar with eye. Four girls opposing a queen like woman. The murals kept going, depicting clash after clash.
And as they followed the murals, the hallway went deeper and deeper underground, a petite decline at first, then one that grew sharper and sharper until it turned into outright stairs. They could no longer hear the howling of the wind from above and a different type of cold, an unnatural one, was surrounding them despite Akane's fire.
"Hey..." Nao had stopped by one particular mural and looked at it with her eyes widened in disbelief. "That's us."
The mural she stood in front of had five girls opposing five, and they were decidedly depicted with the same clothes that Nao, Akane and Miyuki wore now.
"Our originals… fighting us." Akane felt goosebumps run down her back. "How is this here? Is this depicting every Cure that's ever been?"
"This whole placed is filled with nothing but Cures. This is weird but not that weird. Come on. We gotta keep going." Miyuki didn't want to stay there and look at a depiction of herself in the past. It was a bad memory now and one she didn't want to revisit.
Continuing their descent they saw more and more murals, one after another. Time stretched and stretched until they could no longer tell how many stairs there had been, how many murals they had seen and how many minutes or hours they had walked.
"The last one I recognized was about Komachi and the others. We've hit at least another hundred murals since then… how far down does this go?" Akane was feeling more and more unsure that this was a good idea, saving Nozomi or not.
"Who knows. Cures are 'legendary', right? There must have been a bunch." Miyuki was just as worried as Nao but this was no place to get shaky knees. She had to get Nozomi back. For various reasons.
"At least there's only one way down so we won't get lost." Nao tried to see the positive element in all of this.
But the way down seemed endless. Mural followed mural followed mural forever. Teams of two, three, four, five, six… some had even more than that while some murals depicted only single survivors. But not once seemed the one that was opposed to win. The murals started to blur together.
It was icy cold. It was deafening silent. Their heels clacking on the stone had already become so familiar to them they could no longer hear it. The murals had changed now. Teams of three, of two dominated the walls, facing many opponents, losing one or two of their team, leaving but a single one behind.
And then it was only singular Cures opposing enemy after enemy for many, many steps down the never ending stairs. "Miyuki… is it just me or does it seem like the further we go down the further we go back in the past? Komachi's mural was further down than ours, and I think I saw Tsubomi's in-between there somewhere."
"I stopped paying attention." Miyuki hadn't stopped paying attention at all. In fact, she was so absorbed into the murals that she had completely lost track of time. Over a hundred… I think over a hundred and fifty even… for there to have been that many Cures… what happened to all of them? Why aren't they here anymore? Taking a few more steps, the answer came to her. I'm stupid, of course they're not here anymore. They're human. They'll age. They'll die eventually. And new Cures replace them. So then… how many years is this spanning?
Depictions became more gruesome soon after. Cures starting off alone and then having a companion join, only for the original one to die. Murals that depicted betrayal, murals that depicted lopped off heads. They slowly became more and more gruesome, more and more violent.
"I've been thinking… When we fought our originals, their big 'attacks' were all tethered to purification… to take away the darkness. Do you think that was… not always the case?" Nao glanced at another mural and immediately averted her eyes.
Akane stopped by a mural. "I didn't notice until now, but… isn't there something written there?"
"Written?" Miyuki went two stairs up and looked at the mural as well. "Where?"
"Down there, beneath the actual thing." Akane floated a fireball down to illuminate the ground in front of the mural. A small stone plaque was there, almost indistinguishable from the terrain. It had some kind of carving on it.
"Looks like scribbles to me. Or some language I don't speak. Never seen anything like this before." Nao couldn't even begin to guess how one would interpret scribbles like those.
"That last part has been the same for every plaque I saw. I thought it was just erosion at first, but..."
"Midsummer Shine Pretty Cure." Miyuki's mouth moved without her thinking about it.
"What?" Nao and Akane both turned at her.
"That's what it says. Midsummer Shine Pretty Cure. Wait, there's something else." Squatting down, Miyuki peered at smaller scribbles beneath the bigger one. "Cure Serpent, C.C.3820, Sumeria."
"Miyuki. How are you reading that?" Nao's throat was dry as she asked.
"What, you forgot how to read Japanese now?"
"Miyuki, that's not Japanese. It's scribbles." Nao shook her head.
"It looks like Japanese to me." Miyuki looked up at Nao and saw her worried expression. "So… it only looks like Japanese to me."
"I can't read it either." Akane squatted next to Miyuki and stared at the scribbles. "C.C. 3820, Sumeria? What is that?"
"Sounds like a date and location." Miyuki stood back up. This is holding us up. It doesn't matter. It's weird, but it doesn't matter. It's probably because I'm based on Happy.
"So this is from the future? A thousand years in the future?" Nao wouldn't let go.
"I think we're looking at some really ancient Cure." Akane also got back up.
"We need to keep going. We can talk about this another time. Not that I'm particularly eager to ever come back here." Miyuki grabbed both of her teammates by their wrists and pulled them with her, going multiple steps before letting go.
None of the three said anything as they descended further and further. And finally, they reached an end to the stairs. But what waited for them did not encourage. A huge, wide open space laid ahead of them, too big for Akane to light up. And in this open space, a bridge over what seemed like a huge chasm.
"What now?" Nao looked around and hoped to just randomly spot Nozomi.
"Nozomi!" Miyuki shouted so hard that both Akane and Nao covered their ears. "Answer me!" But no answer came. "Akane, can you just flash the area for a moment?"
"Eh… I can try, but I've no idea how big this is." Taking a deep breath of the dry, old, stale air, Akane coughed and then she took another breath, creating a huge fireball in the process that split into dozens of smaller ones, lighting up the place.
The huge space was a circular hall, split in the center. And from what they could see at the time, the same girl was depicted on over a dozen murals circling the hall. "Miyuki… you think this is it? The first Cure?"
"It doesn't matter. It's just a museum. Nozomi has to be down here..." Moving up towards the chasm, Miyuki stopped when Akane didn't follow. "Akane, come on. I can't see in the dark."
"Right…" Something about this place scares me. And it's different from before. This doesn't feel like a museum at all. I don't know if Miyuki saw the murals, but… the one I saw, the Cure ripped the head off of something.
The chasm, was not a chasm as it turned out but just a shallow hole in the ground, no deeper than two meters. And still there was no sign of Nozomi. Searching the hall with Akane, the three of them finally stopped in front of the biggest mural yet, depicting no opponent, merely a girl with long, wild hair and a rather simplistic costume. But that was really not what caught their attention.
"This isn't just a mural..." I can feel it. Something is… behind it. "I can't explain how I know it but this is a door. There is something behind this."
"You think we maybe shouldn't open it?" Akane took a step back. "I just feel like this is one of these moments where not opening the scary big mural gate at the end of a creepy hall of history like hallway is the smart choice."
"Nozomi is probably back there."
"Even so!" Akane grabbed hold of Miyuki's left arm. "You can feel something, right? That doesn't mean it's Nozomi. Even if it is, how did she get down here? How did she get in? And what if that something in there eats ex-villain Cures?"
"I gotta agree with Nao. Opening this… if we can even open it, that is… seems like a bad idea. The bad idea."
"We just have to deal with it. This is why I brought you along Nao. If something bad is in there, we grab Nozomi and make a mad dash for it."
Nao swallowed and looked back at the mural. I hope this is something we can just run from.
Reaching out for the mural, Miyuki stopped just short of touching it. "Hey. You can hear this, right?"
"Again with the voices?! That's not funny!" Nao looked over her shoulder.
...Help me…
Miyuki's hand touched the mural without hesitation now and it reacted to her touch – sliding down into the ground, a chamber beyond the mural revealed itself. Nao and Akane both cowered behind Miyuki, the fireballs illuminating the space beyond.
She was there. Nozomi was there, lying on the ground, pale and still. Miyuki charged forward without thinking, lifting her up, shaking her. And to her relief, to ease the burden on her heart, Nozomi grunted, breathed, albeit she would not wake up.
"She's alive at least." Miyuki relaxed and fell to her knees. She hadn't noticed in her charge, but she felt it now, the strange wetness of the floor. And Nozomi was all wet too, only on the side that had touched the ground.
Akane and Nao followed, arriving where Miyuki was, Nao worriedly looking up and Akane turning up the light.
The same scribbles as before were encircling the very spot they now stood on. And while only Miyuki could read them it was plain to see that part of it had been erased by force. The walls were plain on their own but had dozens upon dozens of anchoring plates embedded in them, chains leading to the center of the room, dangling from above.
On the ceiling too were those same plates, anchoring more chains. Their ends were cuffs, stakes, spikes, shapes of torture none of them had even thought of before.
This was someone's prison.
No.
This had been someone's prison.
=== DISSONANCE ===
"Hey, earth to Hibiki." A familiar hand prodded distorted her cheek with a finger. "Hey~."
Yawning, focusing, Hibiki reached for her nose and scratched it. "Hmhmihhuh?" Her lips didn't quite work the way they should. Waking up a little more, she yawned again. This time she scratched her cheek. "Itsuki?"
"Who else, sleepyhead?" Itsuki sat back and pulled Hibiki up so she sat upright. "Taking naps in the middle of the day? Are you an old woman now?"
"Ha ha, very funny." Looking at her girlfriend, Itsuki pulled on her cheeks and let go with a big smile. "Must've been really tired. I don't even remember lying down."
"Well, you better be in tip top shape now, the battle is gonna start real soon." Itsuki was already dressed for the occasion, in full Sunshine gear. "They're reassigning rooms after this, so we better work hard."
"I know, I know. When do I ever not work hard?" Hibiki saw the giant grin on Itsuki's face. "Don't answer that, buttshine!" Getting off the bed, Hibiki opened up the wardrobe and took out the center piece of her costume. Starting to get dressed, just by coincidence she looked to the side, at the corner of the room – and she froze. Her skin turned ashen, her breath refused to come out. Ka… nade?
Hair and face covered in bloody, one arm torn off and blood spilling from the open wound, no more than shreds of cloth on her body covering practically nothing. "You were my friend."
Hibiki screamed and jumped back, losing her balance and falling onto the bed. W-What the hell?!
"Hey, earth to Hibiki." Itsuki's finger poked her cheek. "Hey~."
Yawning and sitting up on her own, Hibiki looked at Itsuki strange. "I had a really weird dream. I think."
Itsuki responded with a big smile. "A dream? Hibiki, this isn't a dream." And from behind Itsuki stepped out Kanade, red blood lining the gold of her hair. "You did this. And she was your friend." As Itsuki kept smiling, blood started to run from her eyes, from her ears, from her mouth, staining her hair, staining her skin and clothes. "And you did this too. And I loved you." With no warning, Itsuki and Kanade jumped Hibiki, pinning her to the bed, their blood dripping onto Hibiki's face as she screamed unintelligible for them to stop.
"Hey, earth to Hibiki."
She flew out of bed in a panic, panting, scared. And Itsuki just sat there, confused. "I-Itsuki?"
"What's wrong? You look like you saw a ghost." Standing up and stepping towards her girlfriend, Itsuki stopped when Hibiki flinched and moved backwards away from her. "Tell me what's wrong, Hibiki."
"Y-You't not real. You're just a nightmare I'm having." Wildly looking around for the bloodied Kanade, Hibiki couldn't see anything. "I just need to wake up… I need to wake up..." Seeing a letter opener on the small night desk next to the table, Hibiki grabbed it. "I need to wake up..."
"Hibiki, what are you doing?! This isn't a dream!" Itsuki leaped forward, trying to snatch the letter opener but Hibiki dodged her.
Pinning her palm to the wall, Hibiki grit her teeth, shut her eyes and stabbed her hand. The pain was excruciating, like fire was running through her hand. So this is real… it's real… I'm not in that nightmare anymore… Relaxing and squirming from the pain, Hibiki opened her eyes and stumbled backward. It wasn't her hand she had stabbed. She had stabbed Kanade's face, in her eye. And the letter opener was still there, lodged into her head. "No… Noooo!" Stumbling backwards again, she landed flat on the bed.
"Hey, earth to Hibiki."
"Ha… ha ha ha..." Tears were coming out as she laughed. Flipping over and grabbing the letter opened from the table, she opened her eyes as wide as she could, staring at the weapon without blinking.
"Hibiki?! What-"
Stabbing her own gut with it, again and again, Hibiki felt it – the pain, the injury, the blood running down her stomach. F-Finally… no more… no more being trapped…
"Hi… biki..." Itsuki made a grotesque sound.
Her whole body quaking, Hibiki looked up, looked at Itsuki, who was bleeding heavily from several stabbing wounds. One arm reaching towards her girlfriend, Itsuki crashed to the ground, a pool of blood forming from her wound.
Dropping the weapon, Hibiki felt all hope leave her. I'm trapped… I'm trapped…
"You're trapped because of what you did to us..." Two slender, bloodied arms wrapped themselves around her from the back. Bloodstained hair fell over her shoulder. Kanade's voice was in her ears. "You kill everything you love. That's how you've always been."
Screaming at the top of her lungs, Hibiki grabbed the weapon, jumped off the bed, kneeling over the bleeding Itsuki, stabbing her again and again, both Itsuki and Kanade screaming in agony as she kept going, laughing, crying, screaming all at once.
She was covered in blood, top to bottom – her face, her clothes, her hair. It was Itsuki's and Kanade's blood that was all over her. And she felt exhausted. I'll just… I'll just lay down for a bit… Standing up, stepping over the forever suffering girlfriends she had destroyed, Hibiki fell onto the bed.
"Hey, earth to Hibiki."
There's no escape. There's no escape. There's no escape.
"Hey~."
If I fight it… if I fight it, they'll die… if I love them… they'll die… "Get off of me." Clicking her tongue, lashing out with a leg, Hibiki kicked Itsuki in the head. "Keep your hands off of me."
"Ow! What is going on? I just poked you a little!" Itsuki groaned and held her temple.
"You and I are through. Never talk to me again."
"Wha- Hibiki, what's going on?"
Standing up, pushing Itsuki out of the way, Hibiki walked to the door. "We are finished with each other." Leaving the room behind, Hibiki was choking on her own breath. I need to run. I need to run. Dashing for the stairs and hurrying downward as fast as she could, tears flew out of her ears.
Rushing through the lobby, she could barely see through her tears. And surely enough, she collided with someone and she fell to the ground, panting, heaving. "Hey, earth to Hibiki." A hand was reaching out from above. And she took it.
"Everything okay? I was coming to get you but you're running down here- Hibiki, what's wrong? Your face is all messed up."
"No, I'm fine." Hibiki wiped away her tears and smiled. "I'm so fine." Her smile was truly grand.
=== DISSONANCE ===
"Inmate 1285, step out." A large creature with a trumpet at its waist was opening up her cell. "It's time for your execution."
Seventy-two. She rose from her metal bench, the dim gray pants and shirt ill-fitting on her skinny, starved out body. Every step was painful. Heavy anti-magic chains were tied to her wrists and ankles, preventing her from running or using any kind of magic.
The hallway was long, dark, cold and in every way unpleasant. The guard repeatedly shoved her. She stepped out into the light, a large arena, cheering masses going jubilant at her appearance. They all chanted the same thing.
Off with her head! Off with her head! Off with her head!
There in the center stood her ultimate destination – a small, two by two by two meters soundproof box. She was going to die there. There was no escape, no hope. Her entire life had been a single rail leading to this moment. Failing to cut it as an idol. Failing to cut it as a Cure. Failing to cut it as a person. And the worst of all, failing-
"Inmate 1285!" The king's voice roared through the stadium. "For the… for the crimes of high treason, conspiracy to commit a coup d'etat and murder of… murder of the crown princess of Majorland, Ako Evangeline Shirabe, you were sentenced to death by Hymnos. Your sentence will now be carried out!"
They had stripped away her name, her presence, everything about her. All that remained was sin. All that remained was that she deserved to die.
Pushed into the soundproof black box by the guards, it was shut, leaving her in total darkness, with little oxygen to breathe. I won't need the air anyway. She sat down, and looked up ahead into the dark. "You made your point."
In the dark, her own voice responded to her. "Did I? You're poison. Toxic. You can't be with Ako. You'll ruin her, just like you ruined everything you touch."
"I get it. This is pointless." Urara stared ahead and knew. This wasn't just a dream. This was real. This was something someone was doing to her. She had died seventy-one times already and this would be the seventy-second. She couldn't hold out anymore. I'm sorry Ako. But I'm not strong enough to be with you. You're better off without me.
Horrible sounds staring blaring from somewhere, causing her flesh to melt off her bones, causing her muscles to burst into fire and her organs to break apart.
And still there was no escape. "Inmate 1285, step out."
Seventy-three.
"Will you get a move on, or do I have to dress you myself?"
Opening her eyes, she looked around but could not see any trace of Ako. She was in a chair outside in the penthouse. Wait… who is Ako again? That's… Muse, I think? The Evangeline chick. I'd definitely tap that if not for… dang, I forgot the reason.
"Damn, I nodded off. I better get my ass up and put my gear on before… gets on my case? Did I drink too much again?" Trying to align two fingers in front to see if she was drunk, Urara failed and gave up immediately. Moving out of her chair, Urara stumbled forward. I don't really care about keeping this place. Not much point to it when I'm all alone.
Stumbling to the closet, Urara grabbed a half empty bottle of vodka that was on the nearby table and emptied it out in one go, falling over backward in the process. What's the point of all of this? Everyone but me gets to be happy… might as well just tag out and let go.
The bottle rolled away as Urara let go of it, too drunk, too lonely, too hopeless to stand back up. I failed at everything. Now I can't even get a girlfriend when this place is literally filled with lesbians.
"Look at you, wallowing in self-pity." Looking down on herself, another Urara squatted there, just behind the first one. "Is that all you can do now? Drink and wallow? Huh?!" Slapping her other self, Urara on the floor groaned in pain. "We still go some fight left, don't we? Because that's the one thing we're good at! Kicking their ass!"
"Damn right we are but what's the point?" Rubbing her cheek, the floor Urara felt a bit of blood in her mouth from being hit pretty hard.
"The point is that we show them we aren't useless. Because we aren't." Squatting Urara slapped the other one again, inciting an even bigger groan than before.
"I guess that's as good a reason as any to get in a fight. And stop fucking hitting me!"
"I'm you. You stop hitting you. Now wake the fuck up." A third slap, right on the face from above, and Urara was blind for a couple seconds.
Opening her eyes after, she was back in her chair on the balcony. I should maybe dial the alcohol back a little. Maybe only four bottles a day. Grabbing her costume and dressing, Urara walked to the elevator, looking back one more time at the place that only made it ever more obvious how alone she was.
She was barely gone when someone stepped out of the pool room. "Urara?"
=== DISSONANCE ===
"She's not coming to." Nao was still carrying Nozomi, the three of them ascending the near endless stairs. And they could all feel it. That presence down below, where that prison cell was.
"Miyuki, what… do you think was in there?" Akane was still lighting the way but running on fumes. She was incredibly tired.
"Hell if I know!" Cure E… that was all that was left of the name inscribed on the floor. From the space, there was enough for a handful more characters. E… what? Shit, Nozomi, what did you set free? No, wait… we don't even know if something was in there.
Miyuki!
"What?!" Losing her nerve, Miyuki stopped and flung around, panting a little. "What is it?"
"I didn't say anything. Neither did Nao." Akane looked at Miyuki like she was dangerous. "You sure you're okay?"
"I'm not okay. How could I be okay? Didn't you see that room? The floor was full of blood! That's more blood than any one person could have! And it was a damn prison cell at the end of a Cure hall of fame. I'm trying real hard to keep it together, just like you are."
"Calm down, we're both just as worried as you are." Nao tried to pacify Miyuki and succeeded. "We need to get out of here. There is only one way down and the whole place was locked up when we got here. There probably wasn't anything down there. How would it have gotten past us?"
"Yeah. Just thinking about it logically, the only chance it had was when we entered the big room and I lit the place up, we would have seen something. We even checked the small crevasse and everything."
Miyuki looked at both of her teammates. I'm too tired for this. I'm just scared Nozomi let something out that shouldn't have gotten out. We'll definitely get blamed for that if it comes back to haunt the originals. "Let's go for now. And we'll make damn sure this place ends up buried. I'll have Reika and Urara drop half the forest on top of the entrance."
"Sounds good to me. I don't ever want to come back here again." Akane started walking again and waited for Miyuki to pass her before she resumed full speed.
Making it out took even longer than going down. And after having read one of the plaques, Miyuki couldn't help but read others, all the way starting at the bottom. Her eyes were just drawn to it. The first mural after the big ones in the circular room depicted a single girl, Cure Midnight, from C.C. 0112. If… that first Cure was the start of this C.C. calendar… then it took over a hundred years for the next one to appear.
From there the occurrences became more common. A century, ninety years, eighty-nine years, eighty-five years… mural after mural she saw their names, saw the time…
When the stairs finally ended, Miyuki's head felt like bursting. Hundreds and hundreds of Cures… Soon she came to the mural that depicted Nozomi, listing their names and a date. She didn't say anything but the date itself made a bad feeling even worse.
All three of them were exhausted when the stairs ended and the hallway begun, the sharp incline, then a smaller incline, until they could feel the outside cold again. Climbing out without any commotion, Miyuki found all her allies still there, shivering in the cold. "We… got her." Panting from the long and arduous exercise, Miyuki sat close by. "Reika. Urara. Actually, all of you, we're burying that place ten feet under. Drop everything on it. Trees, boulders, fill the thing with water, just make sure nobody ever gets in or out ever again."
"Miyuki, I'm spent. You're gonna-" Nao was trying to hand over Nozomi and Miyuki readily took her. "Thanks. My back is killing me."
"I'm not going ahead alone, it's too dark even for us." Sitting down and letting Nozomi rest on the floor, Miyuki nodded off the second she sat down. The noise of her other companions getting to work was just drowned out by drowsiness.
Someone shook her. It's only been five minutes, give me a break… Looking up, she looked at the smudgy face of Rin. There was a strong burning smell, too. "What?"
"We buried the entrance. It's a giant pile of scorched wood, ice, snow, dirt and rocks now. You were out like a light for over an hour. Can you move? I tried to keep everyone warm but I couldn't just stay non-stop by your side."
Her whole body was aching but she could move, stand up and walk. Nozomi was exactly there where she had put her down. "Why hasn't she woken up?"
"We don't know. But everyone wants to go home."
"High time we get back. Everyone can sleep in till midnight for all I care. We'll figure something out." Grabbing Nozomi and pulling her up into her arms, Miyuki lead the charge together with Akane lighting the way again.
There was no talking. Everyone was cold, exhausted and worried. From the looks on their faces, Nao and Akane had told them what they found down there. I'm gonna have to fix this somehow. Or at least have them move past it.
She was too tired, really, to spend much time in thought. Her legs were killing her. The snow had piled up in the lane that Nozomi had somehow cut. I still don't understand how she did that. She doesn't have any ability like that, does she? I'm gonna have so many questions for her…
It took time but finally she left the creepy forest behind her, moving back through familiar terrain. The snow was starting to ease up as well. Walking with nothing but the sound of her steps in the snow, creaking and creaking endlessly, Miyuki forced herself forward, forced herself to push through, to get Nozomi home and to get back in bed. She was gonna sleep for a day, at least.
"Miyuki!"
Someone was shouting at her from afar. Did someone fall behind? Turning about, she saw no one. They all fell behind? What are they doing?
"Miyuki!" Again – but she could tell it wasn't coming from behind her. Slowly turning around, facing forward, she saw her. Tsubomi stood there, in the distance, near the fields. The fields? But… did Nao and Rin run ahead to clear the snow?
Meeting Tsubomi halfway, Miyuki looked extremely confused. "How did you get back ahead of me?"
"Ahead of you?"
"Yeah."
"Miyuki. You and Nozomi have been gone for hours. And only you two."
Her whole body had a chill run through it. Bone and mark and flesh, it all felt cold. "What do you mean, only we two? Nozomi went missing, I rallied everyone, we went out to find her despite the fucking blizzard that's going on and-"
"What blizzard? You were just gone all of a sudden when we all heard the door slam shut. We couldn't find you anywhere."
"Have you looked around you? There's snow and ice..." Gesturing with her head to either side, Miyuki looked and realized; there was no snow and ice. It was hot. The sun was blazing and all of a sudden Miyuki felt extremely ill.
"We need to get you out of the sun, now!" Pulling Miyuki away to the shade, Tsubomi knelt by her side, Nozomi flat across Miyuki's lap. "Where have you been?"
"Were Nao and Akane at the house?"
"Everyone was at the house. Itsuki and I are the only ones out here because we don't take to the sun nearly as bad as you do. I can't believe you're still on your feet after being out in the sun this long!"
"If Nao and Akane were at the house..." Miyuki turned her head to look in the direction she came from. "Who did I talk to? Who was lighting my way? Who carried Nozomi out?"
=== DISSONANCE ===
"Hey, earth to Hibiki."
Her head was killing her. Where was she? What happened? Did a truck fall out of the sky and hit her? If so that was definitely Kanade's fault somehow.
"Hey~."
"Shut it… gah… my head is like one of those 100 yen capsule machines while you're turning, going gacha gacha gacha gacha pon..." Hibiki turned over and promptly fell out of bed. "For some reason this feels really familiar."
"I woke up like that a few minutes ago, too. My head is not killing me that hard though. I do feel like I ate a bunch of one hundred year old falafels. Feels like they're gonna stay inside me forever." Itsuki flapped her lips and stretched moved her neck side to side, trying to relax it. "I can't remember anything since last night."
"Did we sleep the entire day?" Hibiki looked down on herself. "Does look like I put on clothes at some point though."
"I dunno… maybe we woke up, got dressed but then decided to just keep sleeping? That marathon yesterday was killer."
"That definitely sounds like something we'd do." Hibiki snorted. "And if you feel so full, I think we just don't remember going down to eat and coming back up to keep sleeping. You're gonna gain weight, eating like that and going right back to sleep, you know?"
"Shut up. I'm still young! I can lose any weight I want!"
"Still young she says, the woman with the underage girlfriend- ow! Hey!" Getting bonked on the head by Itsuki, Hibiki finally got off the bed – and fell over, her legs refusing to support her. Landing right in Itsuki's arms thanks to her lightning reflexes, Hibiki had a look of pure confusion on her face. "Did you hit me with a special skill or something? My legs just gave out under me."
"I'd never do that and you know it. Maybe they're just still asleep from lazing about so much? Instead of running your mouth you should be- ow!" Itsuki got her cheeks pinched and they turned crimson red in response. "If that's how you wanna play this-!"
Hibiki pushed against Itsuki's chin with her palm while laughing and then gasped in terror. "It's two forty-five!"
"So what? It's- wait, two forty-five?" Itsuki dropped her girlfriend like a bag of potatoes and jumped to the wardrobe. "We're gonna need at least five minutes to get down and to the arena!"
"Registration ends at two!"
"We might be out of it but you think we would just sit the last fight before room reassignment out? I bet we went and signed up before coming back."
"Starting to think we might have had something to drink, what with all the memory loss." Hibiki sat up and the centerpiece of her costume flew right in her face. "Alright, alright! I'll get dressed!" Her boots flew right over her head next.
Both of them hurried out of the room and found a crowd of anxious women in front of the elevator. "No way. Did everyone sleep in?!" Hibiki didn't even try to hide how surprised she was.
Makoto, Saki, Nagisa and Akane were all there, waiting, still hastily adjusting costume pieces. "What, all of you lose track of time too?!" Itsuki was just as surprised as her other half.
"If Saki hadn't banged on my door I would probably still be asleep." Nagisa's hair looked like she had just come out of bed. In fact, it was a little worse than that.
"I barely got dressed in time myself. This thing isn't so easy to put on!" Saki's hair was in a similar state of total catastrophe.
"What am I supposed to say?!" Makoto was still tugging on parts, bits and pieces and finally it was complete enough for the summon pieces to pop in due to completion. "I can't believe I almost overslept!"
"Wait, all of you signed up for the battle?" Akane was bouncing from foot to foot, unable to stay still. "I figured I would have, but everyone on the floor did?"
"You figured you would have?" Itsuki noticed the oddity right away. "Okay, real dumb question, everyone with memory loss ranging from last night to five minutes ago, raise your hand." Six hands went up and immediately strange looks and worried expressions were exchanged. "It's already questionable for me to sleep that much because of a marathon, but Nagisa? And most of all, Saki? You two are like endurance incarnate."
"Heh heh heh..." Saki blushed and Nagisa bonked her. "What?"
"This isn't the time to get coy over a compliment."
"Spoilsport."
"Elevator's here!" Akane announced and seconds later the doors opened with a ding. Four people were already inside. Mint, fumbling with her hair, Kurumi, adjusting a gauntlet, Rin, also fumbling with hair, and Michiru, looked like a bus had run her over. "You're kidding me."
"Get in, we're late!" Rin was immediately cranky. But ten people squeezing into the elevator, with elaborate hairdo and some of them wearing just as elaborate costumes, was just impossible. Itsuki and Hibiki bolted first, racing for the stairs, Nagisa and Saki chasing after them. Makoto and Akane filled up the elevator and hammered the lobby button.
Dashing and jumping down stairs, the four sporty Cures did their darnedest to get down in time. By the time they hit the tenth floor, which was forty flights of stairs down, two for each floor, Hibiki bolted into the hallway. "Elevator full! Stairs, now!" Shouting at the top of her lungs, she was quickly pulled back into the stairway by Itsuki, both of them resuming their mad dash to make it to the arena in time.
And just seconds after they had gone down the next four flights, a whole consortium of Cures barreled into the stairway after them, the sounds of countless heels filling the not so often used access path.
The elevator made it only seconds before everyone else and nineteen Cures, stampeded towards the arena through the lobby and then over the plaza. Various outcries of disbelief filled the air but nobody had time to stop and think about how messed up the situation was.
Almost crushing the entrance door, a very angry and pissed looking Poisony shouted some obscene things at them as they all forced their way to check the registration billboard on who was actually up.
They all were.
They were all registered, and seemingly all within intervals of two minutes of each other.
They didn't even have time to check the rules before they had to head for the waiting room, which was well at its limit with that many Cures inside. "Anyone… see the rules?" Yayoi was totally out of breath. Being short is a real disadvantage when making a run for it, especially stairs!
"Didn't get the chance." Karen was also out of breath. This skirt isn't great for going down ten floors of stairs!
Nobody knew what exactly the rules were and before anyone could even offer to go check, the exit door closed down and the countdown begun. There were only about two minutes left before the battlefield door opened.
"Arg, what's going on?! I don't believe this!" Nagisa ruffled her own hair. Come whatever, I'll just… just do it! Whatever it is!
Going back in time about twenty minutes, similar chaos was unfolding on the other end of things.
Squeezing herself into her outfit as quickly as possible, Ako regretted having such a tightly fitting costume. I should make the next iteration something more… easily put on, like Ellen has. Urara will nag my ears off though. Struggling for time, Ako kept fighting against the clock but saw herself running out. She was going to have to take desperate measures, one way or another.
Twenty floors up, Yuri just stumbled over her bed trying to get to the wardrobe and slammed face first into the wooden door of said wardrobe. Cringing in pain and getting up, she quickly pulled out her things. I should have gotten a shorter skirt, like Tsubomi! Ah, these boots are so hard to put on! I'll never get my hair done in time! Worrying about one thing after another, it suddenly hit her that Yami was not there. Will she be able to get dressed right? Is she with that Alice woman again?! What if that woman makes her be late? I'll never forgive her!
Another room on the same floor, Mana's door slammed open and Mana emerged from the room in full sprint, crashing into the wall on the other side of the hallway and continuing from there. A whole pile of clothing and two boots were in her arms as she frantically raced for the stairs in basically her underwear.
She had twenty floors to go down to get to Rikka and help her get dressed. It was one thing to get dressed in normal things, but putting on her Cure outfit piece by piece when she had never done that before? The thought of Rikka struggling was the very first thing after she realized it was almost time for the battle.
On the top floor, Urara just crashed into a table after hopping about on one foot trying to get on a shoe without sitting down. Succeeding through the impact, ironically, she proceeded to just crawl over the floor and grab the other shoe and put it on like that. I'll fix that later.
Looking at the clock, she had ten minutes. But she didn't move just yet. If I'm feeling this pressured to get ready, Ako will be steaming. And her outfit's a hot sexy mess to put on, she'll not have time to get down the normal way. Testing that her powers were working by summoning a chain, she anchored it around the huge bed. That's gonna be heavy enough. I fucking hope so at least.
Holding on to the chain, Urara raced for the balcony and jumped – right over the guard rail, suddenly in free fall. Ten, twenty, thirty, fuck how many floors down did I have to- stop! Suddenly gripping the chain hard, she came to a screeching halt and immediately had to hold herself up with a second chain, attached to the first, because her hands were burning up. Hammering against the window, she heard that sound of heels she loved – because she loved the one making those sounds. Ako, almost dressed but with one glove missing, looking through the window in disbelief. "Don't gawk! Get your stuff and open up!" Urara shouted and Ako did as she was told.
Normally, even as a Cure, nobody would ever consider jumping out the window to get down faster. It was just a little too out of the box for most of them. But not Urara. "Are you crazy, Urara?"
"Crazy for you! Now get out here!" Urara reached inside and grabbed hold of Ako's gloved arm, pulling her with her. Gasping and holding on to Urara, Ako didn't like the sensation of being suspended on a chain, even though Ako was holding her.
While they were already outside, the bulk of the others was currently rushing through the staircase as the elevator proved to be rather full with Mana carrying Rikka, Yuri and Yami carrying Alice.
Flooding out of the door in the lobby like a swarm, eleven girls rushed for the exit, scaring Sasorina out of her chair. For an onlooker it must have seem like the apocalypse was marching in and every Cure had been mobilized all at once.
Northa had nothing but crazy words for the lot as they quickly raced for the registration board and one after another they realized that the waiting room would be really, really full. Ako and Urara were in the front row and Ako only just now finalized her adjustments. "You and your breakneck escapades." Ako found it difficult to admonish Urara when she was smiling and her heart was beating so fast. "We don't even know what the rules are."
"We got the way overpowered ones here on our side. We'll win whatever the rules are." Urara sounded so confident that Ako had to laugh. "What?"
"It's refreshing, seeing you with optimism." Looking down a little, Ako kissed Urara and took a deep breath just as the exit gate slammed shut and the battle countdown started.
=== DISSONANCE ===
This was unlike anything she had ever seen before. The sky was all there was – no surface, no ocean, no space in sight. The Sky just stretched in all directions. But there was something in the sky. Cubes. Massive cubes were dotting the sky; gigantic cubes made seemingly out of stone, floating freely in the sky. Those were the only solid thing in sight and she'd rather not drop down into nirvana so she spread her arms and tried to adjust her free fall going terminal velocity to make it to the next best one.
Past the point of no return in her descent, she was joined by someone else, heading for the same cube as she was. There were other silhouettes in the distance, a handful maybe, but she was preoccupied with who fate had sent in her direction.
Both of them landed with terminal velocity, Heart simply taking the damage and healing it off, giving her the edge in first response, while Peach went into a roll to mitigate the impact damage, leaving her off balance against the first punch that Heart threw. Taking the attack straight on, Peach grabbed hold of Heart's arm, twisted around it with a grapple and threw her on the ground, using her own force against her. Both of them separated, Peach by jumping away, Heart by rolling aside, realizing that something was off.
I'm stronger than normal, they both sensed the same thing. And there's a new ability just lurking in the back of my head. Heart made sense of it first and flew forward, unleashing one kick after another, forcing Peach back with every attack, forcing her to evade, parry and block. Stopping a kick short, spinning on her remaining leg and using the rotation force to grab hold of Peach's waist, Heart threw her over her shoulder behind her back, falling backwards and ramming her elbow right against Peach's chest.
Grappling on the ground, both of them found themselves locked up by the other one. Ramming her knee into Heart's stomach, Peach simultaneously suffered repeated blows to her sternum. But Peach had a trump card. She didn't know where this ability had come from and why it was showing up now, but she welcomed it.
Smashing her forehead against Heart's, Peach executed her new move. "Transference of Life!" Taking all of the damage that Heart had inflicted over the past minute, she forced it all on her enemy, recovering at the same time. It was a double-edged sword. She had to take the damage to be able to force it on someone else, and enduring the damage repeatedly was going to take a toll on her. But like this she was on equal footing with Heart, whose regeneration allowed her to recover from basically anything.
Their grappling lock breaking apart, they separated, seizing each other up. Heart was healing off the damage that Peach had suddenly forced on her. "Now that's a very scary ability." Heart licked her lips and wiped some blood off of them with her thumb. "But let's see how much of this you can take before you break." Charging forward, Heart met with a Peach that didn't care about defense. Taking a punch straight to the face, she ignored the damage it caused and retaliated in the opening the punch left with a kick. Punching and kicking each other repeatedly, Peach used her new ability again. This time she used the timing of Heart's punch to let it connect, grab her arm, whirl around and headbutt her again.
A second time all of Peach's damage was transferred over to Heart, forcing her to heal away the result of her own attacks. This is bad. If she can do this indefinitely she can outlast even me. And I don't have any fancy attacks to instantly get rid of her. I'm a close combat fighter, too, so I can't just avoid her ability through range either.
Lunging forward while Heart was thinking, Peach had long since abandoned all pretense of defense. Grabbing Heart by her head, fingers digging deep into hair, she forced her down, slamming her knee into her face again and again. Retaliation came only after half a dozen blows. Just as Peach raised her leg, Heart kicked her other ankle hard enough to force her off balance, sending both of them falling to the ground.
Unleashing a barrage of punches straight to Peach's face, Heart sat atop of her, straddling her chest, relentlessly smashing Peach's face until blood was splattering everywhere.
With the facial assault still going on, Peach raised her own fists and started pounding Heart's face in retaliation. Both of them refusing to yield any space at all, they could no longer see what they were hitting at all between all the blood and endless barrage of fists hitting them.
And again, just as Heart hit her, Peach activated her ability and all the inflicted damage flew back into Heart, causing her to topple backward, fall over and spew bile and blood in large quantities. But this time not all of the damage was transferred over. Peach retained some of the battering, her nose bleeding, her skin ruptured, her face a mess.
As much as Heart had to heal, she could sense that if she only inflicted some minor damage after all that effort, this was going to take an ungodly amount of time, and that was if she could actually outlast her.
But it didn't matter. Both of them lunged at each other again – a powerful punch to the face sending Peach staggering back – a kick to the stomach forcing Heart to gasp for air – retaliation with a swift evade of the following punch and a kick to the inside of Peach's knee – revenge through a powerful elbow smash right against Heart's throat. Exchanging blows, attacks, grapples without any regard for defense, again and again Heart was forced to take on Peach damage. But even so, she managed to force her to retain some.
It's not perfect. She can't do this forever.
I get it now… any longer than about three minutes and I can't give it back. But I also can't just use it all the time, it uses up my energy.
But even knowing this – they continued on. Their battlefield, their cube, was covered in a sea of blood, with scraps of skin and flesh here and there. Both of them were panting at that point, Peach having whittled down Heart quite a lot and Heart cornering Peach.
Knowing that she was going to lose, Peach charged forward, putting all she had left into driving Heart to the edge of the cube, forcing her against the wall. Winding up for a really powerful kick, Peach suffered multiple quick blows to the head that didn't deter her but made her miss the kick.
Trying to counter through the opening, Heart found herself grabbed by Peach, forced harder against the wall but without any room to be attacked. What is she doing? She realized too late what it was when the wall behind her cracked, both of them falling out of the cube and rapidly approaching terminal velocity.
But Heart was not so easily forced into giving up. Biting hard into Peach's neck she tore out a chunk of flesh, causing Peach to scream in agony, blood spilling through the air as they kept falling. But even through that, Peach would not let go of Heart, both of them falling without any ability to charge course toward a cube.
But while Peach was a resolute fighter, Heart had lived through hell. Biting into the open wound again, the pain she caused was so great that Peach could no longer hold on to her. Freeing herself and even using Peach as a stepping stone, Heart changed her heading and fell towards a cube far below that was rapidly coming closer now.
Winding back the clock, on a different cube a far more technical and high-level fight was taking place.
Landing close to each other, it was two versus two. Berry and Passion against Bright and Black, power technical prowess against raw brute force.
Passion was targeted by both of the opposing Cures at once, deemed a far greater threat because her teleportation allowed her to move even upwards to other cubes. But leaving Berry unattended for was just not possible. Fighting literally back to back, Nagisa chased Passion through minute teleportations and skillful evasions while Bright fought off an unpredictable assault by Berry.
A kick that turned into a whirling blur that resulted in a blow that became a grab at the last second only for the grab to serve as merely a setup for a knee smash aimed right at Bright's solar plexus. Berry was a master of kicks and every single of her attacks was impossible to block by normal means. Even with her unusual gauntlets, Bright could feel the reverberation of each Impact-type attack through her entire body.
Vanishing from sight, Passion appeared right behind Berry, who used Bright's shoulders like a box, flipping over her, landing a wild swinging punch from above on Black's back. Both Black and Bright knew to be terrified of the words 'Spade Impact' at this point. They were strong but an attack that pierced defenses was the very serious trouble.
Using her other hand and Black's head like the top of a pole, Berry flipped right back around, just in time to land a solid kick against the back of Bright's head. But instead of defending herself, Bright just took the hit, grabbed hold of Berry's ankle and smashed her into Passion like she weighted no more than a small bottle of water. Both Passion and Berry crashed to the ground, only to disappear and then materialize right above her enemies. But Black was already prepared for that. Having wound up for a powerful uppercut, she hit air as Passion and Berry disappeared again.
"Bright. I'm gonna do the new thing." Black had felt a new power inside of her, one that felt like a very double edged sword to use without White being by her side. But this was a bad match for her. Passion was too fast to get a hold of and Berry had defense piercing attacks. "Fade to Black!"
She felt all of her magical energy disappear from within her body in an instant, coating her on the outside, making it a little hard to breathe with how much physical strength she was feeling. Passion and Berry appeared several meters away and Black tested just how strong exactly she was now. Jumping and punch the ground, the cub cracked below, creating a huge hole and sending fragments flying everywhere.
"To use a new ability without knowing what it really does is reckless. But I suppose I don't dislike that." Both of them disappeared again – Passion dropped Berry off up top on the wall furthest from Black and then appeared on the other side herself. To divide and conquer was basic strategy and against overwhelming brute force, strategy was very important, so Passion thought.
"Eyes on Me!" It only took an instant for the blue energy wave to spread across the cube like a powerful mist storm. Black immediately turned about and grabbed Bright by her neck before punching her hard enough in the back to send her flying. Buffeting the fall with a roll, Bright was immediately back to face to face with Black, took her punch right to the face and countered with a punch of her own, audibly cracking something in Black's chest and sending her flying back the way she came.
I don't really… get what happened. I assume it would paralyze her, like 'My World' does. But she attacked Bright. Is it some kind of charming ability to make everyone join my side? No, there are definitely some limitations to that. I'm not a master energy manipulator like Pine.
Jumping down, Berry walked over to where Black was kneeling, covering her chest and panting. This makes this a three versus one fight. Contrary to her expectations, Black rose up, turned about and landed a powerful clean uppercut hit right on Berry's jaw, sending her flying upwards, crashing against the wall and hitting the ground. Pursuing the attack without mercy, Black was already right above her, a brutal kick connecting again with Berry's chin, knocking her upward, against the wall, and before she could hit the ground again, Black spun around, landing a second kick right on her face, smashing her right through the cube's wall.
But an assault that one-sided came not without repercussion. Not even a full second after landing the last hit, Passion appeared right behind Black, who stood right in front of a hole in the cube. "Chaos Club Catastrophe." Smashing an energy sphere right into Black's back, the sphere burst into four smaller spheres and bounced off only to yo-yo back and hit Black again, each sphere bursting again. Happening in just two seconds, Black was suddenly face to face with a flying punch from Bright – Passion had cleverly positioned herself in such a way that the two allies would collide if one tried to attack her.
Black flew straight through the gap after taking Bright's punch straight to the face. Falling into the sky just like Berry, it left Bright and Passion alone on the cube. Turning to face Passion, Bright saw herself cornered. She lacked the speed to land even a single hit on the Cure that had a mastery over space. Black's ability worked out for her, and even Berry managed to take advantage, even if it blew up in her face. Berry was the real problem when it comes to damage, Passion can most likely barely touch me at all. Taking a stance, crossing her arms in front of her chest, Bright inhaled. All I know is that this will be a really powerful attack that is gonna take me a while to charge up.
Passion didn't just hang back and wait for Bright to execute her new ability. Teleporting behind her, she blasted her with as much energy as she could focus into a single attack. Teleporting away several times, all over the place, she approached again, this time from above, slamming an energy sphere right into Bright's face.
Leaving the physically powerful Cure scorched and injured, Passion retreated again to the top of the wall. And then Bright had finished her preparations. A breathtakingly dense mist of magical energy covering her right fist, she shouted out the ability's name. "Lunar Tear!"
The magic was so dense that the air pressure of moving her arm felt like she was trying to swim through solid steel, the winds inside the cube were creating turbulence, alone from moving her arm to the final motion of the punch.
It was instant annihilation. Like a cannon the size of a city the kinetic energy of her punch was unleashed, completely destroying anything in its path. But she knew, it was a failure. Although she had never taken her eyes off of Passion at the end, someone had kicked her right leg from behind, causing the trajectory to become misaligned. She had missed Passion by a dozen meters.
Flinging about to face her new enemy, Bright didn't recognize the girl at all. A leather outfit in black, white hair, and the face… the face felt similar. This momentary lapse in having her guard up became fatal. The unknown girl approached from the front and while her attacks couldn't pierce her defenses like Berry did, she was quick, technical and not weak by any measure. But the much bigger problem was that she was now facing a two versus one.
Before she could even formulate a plan, the unknown girl flipped over her after a cartwheel kick and grabbed her from behind. The grapple only lasted a moment, but that was enough. The ground below Bright gave up, blasted apart by Passion, and both Bright and the unknown girl fell through, falling into the sky. Freeing herself from the girl's grasp, Bright found herself in the worst of all possible situations. The empty space of the sky was Passion's territory.
But Passion made only a single appearance – showing up right in front of her, she smashed an energy orb right into Bright's face, blinding her.
While the two versus two was decided with Passion as the victor, a very different area of the sky was being lit up. A lot of them had landed in the same area, three cubes were were floating so close next to each other than they could traverse between them. One side had Marine, White, Rhythm and Moonlight while the other had Peace, Sunny, Aqua and Rouge. It was a battle of magical talent against raw elemental force.
Locked in one versus one combat were Moonlight and Rouge, glaive versus claws. Neither could afford to take a clean heat from the deadly weapon the other one wielded and nobody dared to interfere. Moonlight's ability to regulate her magic with immense precision allowed her to starve off the immensely powerful heat that Rouge was radiating outward.
Ferocious assault versus tactical steps and defense, Moonlight had the upper hand in pure weaponized combat also thanks to her reach but in terms of damage being done she was lagging behind more and more. Moonlight was a close combat fighter but engaging Rouge in close combat was a hardship in a league all on its own. Sweating and feeling dangerously dehydrated, Moonlight kept defending against Rouge, landing a shallow hit here and there.
Twenty. She didn't have a full grasp on what exactly her glaive did other than being a weapon, but there were twenty-nine small moons on it and each time she landed a hit another one of them lit up. Something would definitely happen when they were all on. But could she hold out that long? Her vision was blurry, her hands were dryer than a desert. Sweat had long since stopped coming out and her lungs felt like she was breathing at the pit of a volcano.
Another slash that Rouge blocked incorrectly, connecting just a little with her shoulder. Whirling the glaive around, spinning, obfuscating where the next hit would come from, she dodged out of the way when Rouge leaped at her, using the shaft to knock her off her feet. But Rouge was incredibly nimble, rolled over the ground and jumped back to her feet just in time to block with both claws the powerful thrust that Moonlight unleashed at her. Metal screeching as it met with claws of pure material fire.
I can't use Prominence Realm here… Having a deep intrinsic understanding of her abilities, Rouge was able to sense that as long as she had any allies present, using the new ability she was given would damage them just as much as it would damage Moonlight.
Cartwheeling backward to get out of reach from Moonlight, Rouge found that her adversary was much more persistent than she ever imagined. Not one moment she left Rouge unchecked. Lunging at Moonlight again, Rouge unleashed slash after slash with both claws against the seemingly unbreakable glaive. And she could see the exhaustion and dehydration on Moonlight's face. If she just kept this up she would win.
Two more slashes from the glaive connected in exchange for Rouge burning her forearm. But she could take the pain. She was almost there. Only six more. Whirling the glaive above her head, swinging the shaft against Rouge's legs, she forced her enemy back, following up with a kick that ended up blocked by the claws. But the whirling glaive hit Rouge's right leg clean and cut deep into her flesh. Bleeding heavily from the deep wound, Rouge whirling about, threatening to scorch Moonlight's legs completely, forcing her to back away. Cauterizing the wound with her own heat, Rouge was barely in time to block a flurry of thrusts, each of them barely blocked by her claws. After that, something she didn't understand happened. Moonlight backed away despite having her on the defense.
"Moonlight Serene." Holding the glaive over her head, Moonlight slashed the air itself, giving way to a growing black sphere that swallowed up the entire cube, drowning them in darkness. I only have twenty-nine seconds. She knew immediately that something this powerful would not last long.
Rushing at Rouge, dropping all defenses, Moonlight just let the fiery claws enter her chest – she felt nothing and her skin refused to burn. As long as she was here, in this space, she was practically invincible. Grabbing Rouge by her throat, which normally would have burned the skin right off her hand, she slammed the girl onto the ground, wielding her glaive with the other hand. Trying to avoid a direct hit to her chest or head, Rouge raised her arm but she played right into Moonlight's trap. A powerful swing and her right arm was lopped off right below the shoulder. Screaming and squirming, Rouge didn't care anymore.
"Prominence Realm!"
The air was burning. The ground was practically magma. The temperature was over a thousand degrees celsius. Any living being would burn to death in seconds. But Moonlight remained completely unfazed. Despite the fiery death awaiting her, the glaive descended down, cutting deep into Rouge's chest, piercing her lungs. The blade twisted about with force, she gave Rouge a swift death.
But the damage already done would not disappear, even if the Moonlight Serene made her invulnerable. Leaving the Serene would simply kill her practically instantly so she raised the glaive above her head once more and put everything she had into one final strike.
One of the cubes shattered with enormous force and simultaneously burst into flames. Rock melted, the air burned and the emitted heat was enough to make even the surrounding cubes nearly uninhabitable hazard zones.
Badly outmatched by Peace, Rhythm charged at the suddenly distracted enemy and tackled her to the ground. She only had about a second or so before Peace would shock her probably hard enough to stop her heart. Her lungs already burning from the suddenly heat influx, Rhythm used whatever air she had left to execute her probably final attack. "Banshee!" Screaming into Peace's ears from so close up, her voice was amplified by her powers and produced a deadly wailing that burst Peace's eardrums with so much force that blood splattered out of her ears. But it wasn't enough to kill her.
Pushing out the heat in the air, electricity crackled like lightning had just struck a large metal object as Peace's power reached fatal levels and discharged, shocking Rhythm for four seconds straight, leaving her eyes boiled, her organs cooked and her flesh scorched. Steam rose from the dead girl as she fell over.
The fighting on the third cube has just about reached its finale as well. Marine and Sunny had both died – the former being caught in a pillar of flames that burned her to death and the latter losing two-thirds of her torso to one of White's energy blasts. Both White and Aqua were in dire straits as well.
I can't feel my left arm or much of my left leg. Those damn water pillars. Even though I used 'Fade to White' and my energy control went through the roof, my physical abilities went way down. I didn't think it would be a double-edged sword like that. White was struggling to continue because the damage to her body was extensive. But she can't possibly keep this up much longer. Those things must have serious magical upkeep.
And she was right in thinking so. Physically I'm mostly still fine thanks to my A.Q.U.A. System ability, but… I'm on my last legs when it comes to magic. I didn't realize these would eat so deeply into my reserves. If I run out, White is gonna blast me to hell.
They both knew they had only choice. I have to end her before she ends me.
"Whitelight!" Firing several beams from the ground, they were all deflected by immensely high pressure water pillars that were spiraling around Aqua. I'll just have to keep blasting her! Putting both hands to the ground, White fired blast after blast, resulting in Aqua hurrying to dodge them one after another, having to deflect at least half of them instead of being able to get away.
Abandoning defense in a spot where she was particularly likely to get away, the far corner of the cube, she fired one of the water beams at White – faster than a bullet being fired from a gun, about as thick as a pen, the beam pierced right through White's right shoulder, causing a gaping hole. But Aqua had underestimated White.
From the ground and the walls alike the beams sprung forth, catching her by complete surprise. White had made it a point to not use the walls until absolutely necessary to lure her enemies into lowering their guard in the spot that was the most dangerous.
Six of eight beams were caught by the water beams and deflected or blocked but two went through – blasting off Aqua's left leg and a hole through her stomach. The beams almost immediately lost their shape and became a large puddle on the ground. I… I did it. I can't believe Aqua gave me so much trouble. That is one hell of an ability she came up with. When did she have time… when did I have time?
Panting and grimacing at the pain from her shoulder, she moved back against the wall. I have to cauterize the wound before- Her thought never finished. She too had let her guard down. Thinking that blowing off a leg and a hole the size of a basketball through her stomach would kill her, White hadn't checked if Aqua was actually dead but took the water pillars losing shape as a sign that she was dead.
Moving the water over the ground and reforming it into a thin pillar, Aqua shot the pillar straight through White's head, killing her instantly. But her own injuries were fatal and just seconds after she had killed White, Aqua perished as well.
Several hundred meters up a very different kind of battle was taking place; one that was nearly imperceptible to the naked eye. March, Pine, Egret and Windy had all coalesced on the same super giant cube. Unlike many others it wasn't hollow inside and just a singular solid object. Using their enormous speed to combat each other, both Pine and Windy served as a threat to the other side – which meant both held on to their special ability for the time being. Neither was reckless enough to experiment with a new ability either.
Daggers versus wind blades, Pine was superior in speed to Windy but Windy's attacks were more dangerous. Circling around each other and the cube, moving in a spiral pattern, they were whittling each other down, physically and mentally. Moving at extreme speed required extreme concentration to not fly off the cube or crash into someone or simply trip, fall and get killed instantly.
Slowing down and accelerating were their dodge and block – nothing could reliably block Windy's razor sharp magic wind blades and Pine's daggers could strike in minuscule amounts of time, leaving countless cuts at no real energy cost.
On the other end of things were March and Egret, trying to blast each other off the cube and into free fall with powerful gusts of wind. Rather than focus on inflicting damage directly they tried to abuse the environment to their advantage.
Their battle moved back and forth, neither side able to land any decisive blows and it was whittling down their mental state more than anything. Pine and Windy had mental strength but March and Egret were used to moving at these high speeds for longer periods. Even there they were an even match.
Things changed when Egret used her new ability. "Feather of Gaia!" The result was breathtaking and it even stopped Windy and Pine dead in their tracks for a moment. Large white wings, spanning easily two meters each, sprung from Egret's back and lifted her up into the air. Flying up high and descending like a falcon, Egret grabbed Windy and both of them ascended back into the air.
Pine was next to March in an instant. "Should I try to drop them?"
"Let me try and see what my ability actually does." Channeling her energy into the air surrounding her, March felt the wind pick up substantially. "Skies of Arcadia – The Tempest!"
Far above them in the air, Egret gave the same wings she possessed to Windy and both of them noticed together that right above them a storm system was forming at lightning speed. Massive black clouds were materializing out of thin air and the winds were blowing so hard that they had to spend a substantial effort on flapping their wings to just stay in place. "This has to be March!" Egret shouted over the howling wind.
"Should I take her out?!" Windy shouted back and Egret shook her head. I figured. That would leave Pine behind and without me being there to deter her from domination, she'd just dominate Egret and this would be over right away.
The winds picked up even more and from the black clouds above massive funnels of turbulence formed and reached downward, shaping into what looked like a stationary tornado that just didn't decrease in radius as it went further down. Egret was immensely impressed by this. I didn't think she'd have such an ability up her sleeve. This turns the entire battlefield into a death trap.
Both of them descended rapidly, not quite all the way down to the cube, but close enough to make an emergency landing if necessary and blast the enemies with ranged attacks. But they had not accounted for just how well March could use the turbulence she created.
Shooting up like a bullet, she crashed into Windy, both of them spinning downward; Windy trying to regain her balance and March relentlessly pummeling Windy with flurry after flurry of punches. But as much as she was hitting her, as much Windy retaliated. A single moment of negligence and March screamed as she lost four fingers on her right hand. Gritting her teeth in anger, she clenched a fist anyway and slammed it right into Windy's face, blood running into Windy's eyes and making it near impossible to see.
I know. The moment you feel I'm gonna beat you, you're going to shut me down. But I'll make damn sure that there's no escaping for you. March couldn't exactly control the Skies of Arcadia she created but she could sense where what kind of turbulence was.
Grabbing hold of Windy and shifted their weight around, they broke right through the outer wall of one of the tornadoes. Wind speeds inside where over 250km/h, ripping Windy's wings apart without mercy, the pressure of the turbulence alone making it near impossible to breath. Kicking Windy and jumping right into the midst of the turbulence wall itself, March used it to accelerate herself to super sonic speeds, breathing the wall of sound and flying right back at Windy. But her trajectory had been too easy to predict.
Both of her legs were cut off by her hips from a flying arsenal of wind cutting blades that couldn't stay on trajectory but maintained their sharpness inside the tornado. But even without legs, March's speed wasn't diminished. Connecting with Windy just a fraction of a second later, before the shock of losing her legs had even set in, her punch crushed the rib cage of Windy and caused severe bleeding and organ damage inside.
As both of them, lethally injured and without any means to return to whence they came, spun further down in the turbulence, Windy made a hundred percent sure that March would not miraculously recover and hammered her with Stormflair.
Just moments after March had taken Windy out of the equation, Pine had tried to dominate Egret, without success. She needed at least line of sight and Egret was moving too fast for her to follow. The turbulence prevented Egret from moving in any meaningful way but it was also speeding her up.
If she can't get a lock on me, her ability is useless. But I can't attack like this either. Flying down, below the Cube, Egret decided to just abandon this battle and find a more compatible enemy. Pine was everyone's worst nightmare with her mind control ability, though. That should be banned. It's even more unfair than Windy's Stormflair.
Flapping through the air, Egret realized too late that she was completely visible from the top of the Cube. By the time she looked over her shoulder, Pine's daggers just buried themselves into her shoulder blades. But the daggers were not the problem.
Before Egret could even react the domination effect hit her and her own consciousness was supplanted by Pine's will and directions. What neither of them accounted for was that Pine did not know, nor understand quickly enough, how to fly with wings. Soaring right into a tornado, both of them were torn to shreds by March's persisting ability.
A battle of extreme scale was taking place far below where most of the others were battling. While an actual surface did not exist, the far down plane was littered with small cubes. Down there even the Skies of Arcadia did not reach and they did not have to.
Rosetta wished she had Black Lily to back her up but she also had no idea where she had ended up. The sky was vast and this enemy wasn't exactly one she could ignore. If things were reversed… but they are not, so I will fight my hardest knowing exactly how powerful she is. By Rosetta's side stood Beauty, her body covered in uncountable cuts, frozen over to prevent herself freezing to death.
Army of One. What a powerful ability… Her opponent was Sword and she too was covered in dozens upon dozens if not hundreds of cuts, cauterized by her own energy blade. And backing up Sword was Mint. Once again Rosetta stood against Mint, both of them crushing each other's barriers and trying to crush the weapon wielding Cure that protected their opponent.
Beauty had invoked her new ability which created nine copies made up of super dense ice, each of them wielding a weapon of their own. While she could let them operate independently they could only follow very basic orders so it was much better to simply have them increase her range and significantly increase the damage when she did land a hit.
Sword on the other hand was still fighting with everything she had, unable to control the new ability the way she would have to against an enemy like Beauty. I applaud you for taking the risk but I can tell that it would just hold me back.
Dozens of super small cubes, no more than two by two meters at most, littered the lower skies. Platforms, pathways, walls and domes were slammed down and created by Rosetta and Mint, creating an ever changing battlefield for the two weapon wielders.
Beauty rushed forward, her squad moving as one, wielding swords, spears, axes, bows. She herself, Beauty, wielded two short blades because any large and unwieldy weapon would be meaningless against someone as skilled as Sword. I'm overjoyed to be able to fight someone like her with only minimal interference. Rosetta knows how to support someone like me.
Clashing at the bottom of a reverse dome that Mint had made, Rosetta slammed a massive wall on top of it, sealing them inside. Mint tried to crush the wall with stakes and Rosetta countered the stakes with more layers of walls that Mint crushed with spheres that Rosetta pierced with spikes.
Inside the sealed off bowl, Beauty and Sword clash – Blows faster than the eye could see flurrying through the air, sparks of energy and ice flying all around them, single hairs cut away, cuts appearing on arms and legs that were immediately sealed up, the two of them turned, dance in a circle outward, Sword always keeping Beauty diagonal to her so her stronger arm could parry the bulk of the attacks from Beauty's Army of One.
But for every ten attacks that Beauty landed, Sword's one retaliation dealt as much damage, cutting straight through any defense whatsoever.
Separating once again, seizing up the opponent, the ground below them disappeared, forcing them onto a slide – both of them coming to an almost instantaneous standstill by using their weapons to stand on what was practically a ninety degree angle at best. Platforms of both green and yellow appeared around them, Beauty and Sword jumping from place to place, clashing in mid-air to exchange blows and landing on another platform to continue their battle. Neither of them paid any heed to what their backup was doing.
Rosetta and Mint were both running out of power. Each of them had to play chess with the other, countering the enemy's barriers as well as supporting their close combat fighter at the same time.
A decisive moment finally arrived when Beauty could no longer magically sustain Army of One, the clones disappearing. Launching into a proper one versus one duel, Sword proved to be the superior fighter rather quickly but Beauty was not without a plan. Taking a likely fatal hit from Sword's weapon right through her shoulder, she activated Army of One a second time, only long enough for them to break apart the barrier they stood on, both Beauty and Sword in free fall. Grabbing hold of Sword with both arms, Beauty turned both of her legs into large ice blades and started shifted her weight to start spinning – the ice blades acting like a net cutter for any barrier that got in the way.
Ensuring that even though she clearly lost she would take Sword down with her was a truly cold way of thinking. Out of range of both Rosetta and Mint, Beauty smirked at Sword, stuck out her tongue and turned even her tongue into an ice dagger, piercing Sword's neck with it. But this act was not without retaliation. Activating her until then hidden ability, Sword turned her entire arm into a blade and effortlessly cut Beauty in half by the waist.
As both fighters plummeted to their death, Mint and Rosetta faced each other in a show down. Both of them maintaining two barriers simultaneously – one around themselves and one around the other. Rosetta was trying to crush Mint while Mint tried to crush Rosetta. It was an exercise in pure force.
Given the special properties of Mint's barriers, Rosetta was seemingly at a disadvantage – but this was not entirely true. Mint was burning through her magic was an alarming rate. Now that Rosetta didn't have to support Beauty anymore, she could focus completely on her opponent. And in raw power of barrier crush, Rosetta was far more powerful than Mint.
And Mint knew. Playing a final gambit, Mint eased up on her own barrier that was quickly dwarfed by Rosetta and leaving her barely any room to stand, much less move. Giving up on the barrier surrounding Rosetta, it looked like Mint was simply at the end of her line. But much like Beauty, she wanted to make sure that even in defeat she would not go down alone.
Her arms were breaking. Her legs were breaking. She could barely breathe. But her effort paid off. A massive pillar, made out of several layered barriers, descended from above, crashing right through Rosetta's barrier and the barrier she stood on.
Their ends came simultaneously. Rosetta's barrier, focused entirely on Mint, crushed her, leaving behind only pink paste. But Rosetta did not fare better. With her last bit of energy, Mint created a platform below Rosetta, smashing her into nothing between the descending pillar the platform.
Far higher in the battlefield were Muse, Beat, Ace and Joker fighting each other. The two-in-one combination team had a distinct advantage when it came to fighting others but this time all such advantages were in pain. Muse was an expert defense technician and Beat proved a real thorn in their sides on long range combat.
Protecting Beat from a wild onslaught by Joker, Muse felt taken off balance when the attacks suddenly stopped. Not only that, but it felt like Joker herself was just gone. "Beat, be careful. This is likely a trap." Opening up the layered protective shield, Muse couldn't find any trace of Joker at all. Not only that, Ace was gone as well. What's going on? They weren't doing so poorly that they'd just up and leave. Looking all about the cube, she couldn't see anyone else.
Wait. Looking about again, there still was nobody else. "Beat!" Shouting when she realized that her friend and teammate had just up and disappeared on her, Muse started to feel worried. "Beat!" Shouting again, she turned to check the surrounding area. "Where did-"
=== DISSONANCE ===
My head hurts. And I had the weirdest dream. I was being yelled at by Tsubomi for something. And Akane and Nao kept pointing and screaming at me. Turning over, she felt the familiar warmth of a certain girl by her side. Slowly moving her arms around the girl, Miyuki nudged her cheek against the back of the girl's head. I'm too stressed out these past few days. I really ought to take it easy for a while. Smiling and snorting ever so lightly, she breathed a sigh. Not like that's gonna happen.
Waking with a groan, her partner turned over, inhaled deeply and finally opened her eyes. "Morning." Smiling and leaning in just far enough to kiss her partner, the girl completed their morning ritual. "I'm not hearing any of the others."
"Probably still asleep. I don't think we're fully past sundown yet actually." Miyuki yawned again. "Too lazy to turn around and check the window."
"Does look like a little bit of light is left." The girl kept smiling at her and put her arms on Miyuki's hips. "So… what do you wanna do until everyone gets up?"
"Eh… I actually feel like a tree hit me, so just gonna stay in bed and soak up some Nozomin." Miyuki slid down and buried her face in the girl's breasts. "Ah, delicious Nozomin energy."
The girl chuckled a couple of times. "I'm glad you took care of the other Nozomi while I was away."
"That was some trial, I tell you. I'm amazed you didn't string me from a tree for sleeping with her."
"I knew it'd be hard on you. And aren't you forgetting who it was that helped you turn your life around? You really thought I'd string you from a tree?"
"No." Miyuki averted her eyes. "But I really ought to do something about how cranky I get when I go without you."
"You mean without sex."
"That too."
"It's a pity we can't meet the originals anymore. All of them being dead."
It was like the world lost its color all of a sudden. Miyuki felt cold. "What did you just say?"
"It's a pity we can't meet the originals anymore?"
"The part after that!"
"At least not until my original talked to everyone?"
"You said they were all dead!"
The girl looked at her like she said something horrible. "That's not funny."
"I heard you!"
"Are you sure you're okay? Maybe you're more stressed out than you thought."
"No… I'm sure..."
"I'd never even joke about that. If they all died, this place probably stops existing. And that means we'll stop being here too. Don't say stuff like that, it gives me the creeps."
"Right…" Closing her eyes for a moment, Miyuki took a deep breath. I must be seriously tired. Nozomi is right, if they were all gone, we'd probably be goners too. "I don't think I can go back to cuddling after mishearing you like that so I'll just get up."
"If you see Miyu up already, tell her we'll get her a job today."
Getting out of bed and starting to put on her suit, Miyuki stopped halfway. "Who's Miyu?"
The girl stared at her from bed and then sat up. "Okay, I'm getting Tsubomi."
"Hey, what-" Miyuki reached out but was just left alone in the room. Miyu? Who the hell is Miyu? Ugh… my head hurts. Maybe I should lie down again. Blinking, she found herself staring at the ceiling, Tsubomi, Mirage Blossom, looking down at her, feeling her forehead, moving a finger in front of her face back and forth. "What are you doing?"
"Checking for a concussion. You fell from the house's roof a few days ago and were knocked out hard. I'm thinking that maybe wasn't as fine as you said it was." Tsubomi covered Miyuki's right ear and clicked her fingers in front of the left, then mirrored that process for the other ear. "Your eyes seem okay. Any difference in hearing?"
"No. But you're lousy at finger snaps." Reaching for her face and rubbing the sleep out of the corners of her eyes, Miyuki tried to sit up but Nozomi forced her back down. "Come on, Tsubomi checked me out."
"I can't rule out some kinda damage in your head. You should take it easy for now."
"Fine, fine. I'll take a bloody nap. I'm not made of sugar." Staying down and watching Tsubomi leave, Miyuki grimaced at Nozomi. "I think you're overreacting. Seriously."
"Better an overreacting and you're back to normal after a nap than to ignore it and you fall from the roof again."
"I'm never gonna life that down, will I? It's all Yayoi's fault."
"I'll bring you something to eat later. I gotta make myself useful first. I could take it easy for a few days."
"Constantly fearing for your life is taking it easy?"
"It wasn't physical labor. And when I managed to sneak into the dining hall I could eat my fill of meat."
"Braggart." Miyuki smiled and turned over. "Gonna take that nap now so all of you can relax."
Left to her own devices, Miyuki closed her eyes and tried to nod off. But something was bothering her. I feel like I'm forgetting something important. Whether it was stress or something else, Miyuki did fall back asleep after a while. It wasn't anyone's voice or touch that woke her but some kind of delicious smell. Sitting up, she faced Miyuki just as she came in. And behind her was a girl she didn't recognize whatsoever. Who the hell is that? "Nozomi, who is that?"
The new girl pointed at herself. "Me?" She spoke with a strange dialect. Something non-Japanese almost. The girl looked to Nozomi. "I knew I should have introduced myself sooner!"
"Wait, you two seriously didn't meet yet?" Nozomi looked back and forth between the blonde with large twintails and Miyuki. "Ah, right… come to think of it, Miyuki was ultra stressed because of me so we spent a few hours in bed and she was out like a rock after that." Nozomi stepped aside and gestured to the blonde. "This is Miyu. She's one of us."
Bowing a little, the girl properly introduced herself. "I'm Cure Eternal. My original is Cure Echo. My original's name is Sakagami Ayumi but I'd prefer people call me Miyu." Smiling, she waved, and then kept smiling until she suddenly whispered to Nozomi.
"No, she's not gonna eat you. She just has a mean face."
"So that's Miyu? Yeah, first time meeting."
"It's nice to meet you, Miyuki." Miyu bowed again.
"That name is out. Way too similar to mine. You'll be Mayu or Yumi, either or."
"Uh… Yumi it is then."
"Now can I have that food before it's cold as a rock?" Miyuki reached for the bowl that Nozomi was holding but was denied. "What now?"
"A normal, friendly person would say 'It's nice to meet you too', Miyuki."
Groaning and rolling eyes, Miyuki looked at Yumi with a grimace. "Nice to meet you too."
"Good girl." Nozomi handed over the bowl and Miyuki just draw the rather thick stew right out of it without a spoon.
With Miyuki sated, pacified and Yumi introduced, the three of them moved outside, where it didn't take ten seconds until Tsubomi had come running, grabbed Yumi, and raced off with her, leaving the couple by itself. "So, where did she even come from?"
"Another continent, she says."
"A what."
"Apparently the place we're on is about the size of Japan in total land area and this is the south end, more or less. At least according to her. She's from a continent in the west and she's been here for about six years she said last night."
"Six years? You serious?"
"It would explain why she was so far away from everyone else."
"You think there's… more Cures here than just the ones on the other side? Like, is there more than one other side?"
"Maybe? I don't know."
"Something about that story doesn't sit well with me."
"Don't be so suspicious, Miyuki."
"What's her power?"
"As a Cure?"
"Yeah."
"In her words, she can make the effect of someone else's powers last forever. Hm… oh, yeah, we were talking about filling a couple buckets with Reika's ice and have her make them eternal, like her name says. So they'll never melt. We'll survive summer like that."
"That sounds really useful. But I guess if it's only other's powers, it's pretty damn useless on its own."
"So how did she come about?"
"We didn't ask. It took a while for us to share that with each other, too."
"Ah well, she'll tell us eventually. If not we'll send those idiots Rin and Urara over to the other side and grab some booze and get her to tell us with that."
"Miyuki, that's something a villain would do."
"Oh come on, there's gotta be plenty of non-villains that'd do that to learn about the mysterious stranger's past."
"Fair."
"But you know… I still feel like I'm forgetting something important. Can't shake the damn feeling. I wonder what it is."
=== DISSONANCE ===
Cold.
It's cold.
Opening her eyes, she could only see white and black. Where am I?
Trying to lift herself up, something under her hands creaked loudly. It's so cold. Looking down, she could only see more white. What is this? Grabbing a fistful of it, her hand became even colder and wet on top of it. Is this… snow?
Looking elsewhere, it was more of the same. Snow piling on top of snow, smothering everything she could see. Directing her eyes straight up, the clouds far above were the darkest she had ever seen, releasing the white spray endlessly, blanketing the sky. Standing up, her legs were shaking, she was unstable. Her whole body refused to work the way it should. Where is this?
Turning and turning, she finally saw a familiar sight. The hotel? So this is… the plaza? What time is it? Stepping forward, she stumbled over something and crashing right back into the snow. What now? Looking back on what her foot got stuck on, she felt the icy atmosphere seep deep into her mind.
An arm.
An arm was poking out of the snow. Hesitating for a moment, she lunged forward, smashing the snow away with her bare hands, knees in the white, her skin crying out for warmth. Reika?! Before her, on the ground, was Cure Beauty, unmoving and unresponsive. "Rei… ka…" Her voice refused to work right. Every syllable hurt like crazy, like her throat was on fire.
Grabbing Reika by her arm, she pulled her up, dragging her towards the hotel. Her hands are ice cold… but so are mine. I need to get her inside. Pulling the unconscious girl through the snow, she made it to the hotel entrance, but nothing was happening at all. Why isn't it opening? Kicking the door, it still wouldn't budge. Pressing her forehead against the icy cold glass, she looked inside. The lights are off… there's nobody at reception… what's going on? The doors should at least work. Kicking the door again, she was still greeted with the ever crushing silence of the snow coming down and nothing happening.
Trying to shout, her voice wouldn't work at all now. What do I do? Reika is gonna freeze to death if I don't do anything! Sorry Reika. I'll be right back. Letting go of the other girl, she hurried to the side.
She had seen this plaza often enough to know where she could find a rock. Burying in the snow, she did find one – and she also found a boot. Another one?! Hurriedly removing the snow, she unearthed Cure March, just as unconscious and unresponsive as Beauty was. Dragging the tall girl all the way to the entrance and going back for the rock, she hesitated. Sorry. I'll pay for it. Slamming the rock against the glass door, she cracked the thick plate. A second and then a third strike with the primitive weapon finally opened up the hotel to her.
Dragging Reika, then Nao, inside she started to look for someone. The dining hall was closed up as well, solid wood this time. The elevator didn't respond at all. She couldn't find a light switch whatsoever. It's almost as cold in here as it is outside. I can't stay here either. Going back outside and leaving Reika and Nao at least out of the snow, she started to hurriedly draw lines in the snow with her boots.
There were many, many more buried in the snow. I don't know what to do. The hotel seems totally abandoned and… Looking ahead, she stared into the fog. I need to know. Heading straight into the fog, she came to a barred up convenience store. So Mamo is gone too. Returning and trying again, she ended up on the beach. And even there the snow was falling. A third trip and she was now at the arena, the entrance locked up tight. Why is everything abandoned? Did the system fail?
But she kept trying. Reaching the mountain path, she was stunned for a moment, looking upon a winter wonderland, but she quickly returned. There was only one place left she could try. Entering the fog once more, she came out right by the public bathhouse. And it wasn't locked. There was nobody inside, but it was warm. The baths were filled, too. For some reason this place alone is still running.
Hurrying back through the fog she spent every little bit of energy and stamina she had just to get everyone she could find out of the snow and into the bathhouse. Not one of them would wake up, but at least they were no longer freezing to death. Everyone from this side… what if everyone on the other side is also like this and there's nobody there t help them? Feeling the onset of panic, she turned to the exit and noticed something. There was a small circular switch there, like the labeled switches on a changing room showing 'In Use' and 'Open'. But here the labels were pure color, with no words on them. A white one and a black one. Switching it immediately from black to white, she headed back out. And she couldn't believe her eyes.
She was back on the plaza – but not the plaza she had come from. This one was untouched, snow piling up everywhere. I hope I can- no, I know I can do this. I have to. Starting to search through the snow, she started finding people quickly. Pulling them into the fog, it became an excruciating ordeal after only a few people. She had no strength, no stamina left. She felt battered and she was frozen to the bone. But she kept going.
With no idea how long it had taken her but every step feeling like her limbs were made of lead, all thirty-seven were accounted for. But her hardest task was yet to come. I can't just leave them like that. It's probably not the best idea but I'll try and put them in the baths. Hopefully someone will come to quickly to help me with the others.
=== DISSONANCE ===
My head hurts. And I had the weirdest dream…
…
And now I got dejavu too.
Turning over, she shivered. Holy shit, it's cold. Why is it so cold. Reaching for something – someone – warm in front of her, she found nothing there. Where the heck is Nozomi…
Siting up she immediately felt at least three times as cold. Her teeth immediately chattering, she quickly grabbed her clothes off the floor – they were ice cold too. Putting them on was an exercise in suffering. Opening up the window a little, she looked at nothing but white as far as she could see in the nearly night-like lighting. Doesn't feel like it's already night but damn is it dark.
Turning about, she headed out of the room and into the big group room across the tiny entrance area. The closest bed belonged to Rin and that was exactly who she wanted the most right now. "Rin..." She immediately started coughing. My throat feels like I got all of Nao's hair in there. Shaking Rin instead of shouting her awake, she got no results. Of all the times you pick to sleep tight. Wake up! Dragging her out of bed and dropping her on the ground, even that didn't wake Rin up.
This isn't normal. Moving on to the next girl, and then the next, and the one after, the result was always the same. They're all completely out of it. They're alive but they won't wake up. I didn't do this, so who did?
Returning to the entrance area, she looked at the door – it was open. Little bits of snow were making their way inside. Someone went outside? But everyone is accounted- Nozomi! Flying out the door, she looked at the snow. Footsteps. Adrenaline flushed her system. Nozomi, why would you… no, wait… this… this happened before. Every hair on her body stood up as she tried to remember. As small snippets of memory came back to her.
The forest,
The murals.
The… the… cell… and… Cure… E…
The snow creaked. The wind howled. And the clouds above bore witness and saw. But they too were just tiny wheels in a large machine.
Far ahead in the darkness, footsteps were being made. Someone was marching steadfast forward, with a purpose. They had a mission.
=== DISSONANCE ===
Why are none of them waking up?
Moving through the water slowly – she simply didn't have any energy to move quicker than that – she checked on those closest by again. Their body temperature is up… maybe even a little high. I should get them out of the water soon. But they're all not waking up. Why?
Feeling lightheaded and starved, she moved out of the water. Despite there being no one to watch her, she still covered herself in a huge towel, heading up front to where a couple of vending machines were. They stood in the far corner, a few meters past the entrance to the changing room.
I don't have any money to buy stuff… I don't even know how to break a vending machine. Her stomach growling, she sat in one of the massage chairs next to the vending machines. What do I do? What do I do? I'm all on my own and nobody is waking up and I'm starving and it's snowing and cold outside and everyone from the system seems gone… Covering her face in her hands, she cried. Not tears of sadness or pain but desperation. I'm in so far over my head… so far, I don't even know how far.
"Nozomi!"
Looking up with tears still running from her face she looked at Dark Dream, standing in the entrance way, shivering and snow covering her head. M-Me?
"You're… Dark Dream, right?" The other Nozomi came closer, staggering forward like every step was nearly impossible to make. Her lips were blue, her face was ashen pale and she was unstable on her legs.
"Dream? You're Cure Dream? Hey!" She jumped out of the chair the instant the other Nozomi collapsed on the floor.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. Dragging the other Nozomi into the main room, she quickly stripped her. Why is my damn outfit so hard to take off? Lifting the original Nozomi up by her arms, Dark Dream dragged her over the to the shallow bath, stepped in and then dragged her in there.
Waiting with a pounding heart, Dark Dream kept biting her lip until it was burning. I can't just wait here. Moving back out, she started pulling the girls that had been in the bath the longest out, her arms hurting every time. Getting them back dressed was impossible for her so she just wrapped them into towels and started filling the chairs outside.
Right as she was pulling Muse out of the water and hastily covering her up with a towel, Nozomi groaned, alerting Dark Dream. "Nozomi!"
"Thanks… for saving my life. I couldn't feel my hands or toes or anything..." Sliding a little further into the water so it covered everything right up to her mouth, Nozomi looked up at a girl that might very well be her identical twin. "I never thought I'd get to actually meet you."
"I'm glad too, but we have a much bigger problem here and I need your help." Dark Dream didn't climb back into the water. She was pruney enough already. "I put all of them into the bath but none of them are waking up even after warming up quite a lot."
"The same was happening at your place."
Dark Dream's eyes widened in terror. "Is… is Miyuki okay?"
"I made sure she and everyone else were in their beds before I left. The snow wasn't getting in."
"It was snowing over there, too?"
"Yeah."
"What's going on? There's nobody from the staff around! Everything is locked up!"
"I don't know either. "
"What do we do?"
"I could try waking them up with my Utopia… but I don't know if that's a good idea. Every time I use it, I always make everything worse."
"What else can we do? Wait for them to wake up? We don't even have anything eat here."
"This is not how I imagined this reunion would go. There were so many things I wanted to ask you, talk to you about." Nozomi felt beaten down.
"I know." Dark Dream moved away. "Warm up and then I need your help getting the rest of them out of the water before the dissolve or something."
Nozomi rose out of the water practically immediately and quickly dashed to get a towel. She looks just like me… minus the hair, but it's still embarrassing. Hah… I guess I didn't mature at all while over there.
"How did you get out?" Dark Dream's first question was obviously how Nozomi got back to her side.
"The portal let me through." Wait… Is that right? I remember going there and I remember coming out on the plaza… but I can't remember anything in-between. It was hellish cold so maybe I just spaced out.
Pulling out Yuri together, Dark Dream got oddly silent for a few seconds. "I'm sorry about all of this. I can kind of guess who was the cause of this. It was our Urara and Rin, right?"
"They already caught hell from your Miyuki so don't be too hard on them when you get back."
"Speaking of getting back… you said it was also snowing at our house?"
"Yeah, same as the plaza outside."
"I worry about them."
"If we can find like a sled or something to pull them through the snow we can go and get them and bring them here."
For just a moment Dark Dream looked euphoric and then quickly shook her head. "You are one thing but if the others find out we're alive they're going to blame us for all of this and off go our heads."
"I won't let them do that."
"I want to trust you on that but it's too big a risk."
Nozomi smiled dryly. "That's kind of funny, you know. We're supposed to be the good girls, the heroes, the girls who save the day... but that's exactly why you can't trust us to not hurt you."
"It would be different if everything was fine. But in a situation like this we are definitely going to get blamed. Don't misunderstand, though! I'm normally not a coward or anything, but I have to think about everyone, not just me!"
Nozomi snorted a little. "You're just like me."
Dark Dream blushed and looked away. "Well, you were my inspiration."
Continuing to move everyone from the bath to other places so they wouldn't cook in the hot water, they finally finished and nearly fell over. "My arms hurt..." Dark Dream sat at the edge of the normal depth bath, together with Nozomi.
"I still don't have a clue what we should do. I just really don't want to try Utopia when I don't know what's wrong with them. I learned that lesson the hard way."
"Something happened?"
"A lot of things. I'd rather not remember." Nozomi had a pained look on her face and Dark Dream didn't pursue the topic. "What happened during the battle? Do you know?"
"Everyone woke up apparently at the same time, rushed to the arena and that was it. We didn't even have time to check the rules. I don't know what bit me but apparently even I signed up, as you… I just hid the entire battle though. I didn't know if this place was actually put me back together after one of your friends takes me apart."
"So nothing crazy happened that would cause everyone to be in a coma?"
"Not that I saw. They did really beat the hell out of each other though. So maybe that's why-"
"That's normal."
"Your side is a lot scarier than mine."
Nozomi stuttered out a laugh. "W-Well, I was against it for a long time but… everyone is always put back to normal after it. Except this time."
"What if… we don't find out what's wrong with them?" Dark Dream felt a chill despite being right next to a hot bath.
"We'll work something out. You're me, so believe in yourself. From what I heard, you're the one that got everyone to turn their lives around."
"Tsubomi helped."
...Help me…
...Save me...
Both of them tensed up. "Did you… hear that?" I almost don't want to ask. I don't want Nozomi to think I'm crazy.
"Yeah. Someone's in trouble."
"But we got everyone. I counted! I even made sure I got both of those two girls that somehow count as one!"
"Ace and Joker." Nozomi remembered.
"So there's someone else out there." Dark Dream perked up and leaped to her feet. "It must be one of mine then!" Hurrying through the bath, Dark Dream grabbed a towel, walked through the changing room and then walked right back in. "I'm gonna get a freeze shock if I go out like this. Nozomi! Your clothes are on the fourth shelf from the top! I had to borrow them earlier!" Shouting, Dark Dream nearly collided with Nozomi when they both headed for the clothing baskets at the same time.
"I had to borrow yours too. I'm… amazed you're not embarrassed."
"Embarrassed?" Dark Dream tried to get dressed as fast as she could but being pretty damp all over made that really hard.
"It's kind of… sexy."
"Did Miyuki's group never- so they did." Dark Dream could tell just from the way Nozomi blushed. "Makes my group's outfits look tame compared."
Nozomi finished getting dressed first and headed out ahead of her counterpart. Standing out, just in front of the fog, she looked around but couldn't see anyone. Did it come from the plaza? I don't really want to think too much about how we could possibly hear that, but… I'm willing to just hope and believe right now.
Running outside, Nozomi started searching through the snow. I don't even know which plaza this is. I can't tell them apart.
Dark Dream popped out behind her moments later. "Anything?"
...Help me…
...Save me…
"I heard it again." Nozomi turned and trusted her gut instinct. "The beach."
"The beach?!" Dark Dream followed and both of them were swallowed up by the fog, emerging on the beach with their clothes completely intact. Running ahead, Dark Dream watched Nozomi fly into action without questioning things. This is why I look up to you, Nozomi. Searching the beach, Dark Dream's attention was redirected to the water front when she heard loud splashing. Nozomi had jumped into the water, standing knee high in what was likely sub zero ocean temperatures, pulling on something.
Racing to her side without thinking, Dark Dream felt the cold creep all the way into her bones just from stepping into the water, boots or not. It was like she jumped straight into a glacier. It was painful to breathe and even more painful to wade deeper in to where Nozomi was.
Nozomi's face was almost as white as the snow, her lips rapidly changing color, lifting someone else out of the water. A girl in a white dress, with long blond hair, seemingly completely unconscious. If Nozomi looked bad, the girl looked like she was on death's doorstep. "H-Help m-me c-carry h-h-her o-out!" Nozomi couldn't talk right with the cold assailing her from every direction.
It took their combined effort to drag the girl out of the water but they were still surrounded by snow. "We g-gotta k-keep m-moving." Dark Dream was just as cold as Nozomi was but their desire to save the girl before them let them keep moving.
Dragging the unknown girl was a lot easier with two people but it still took them minutes to pass the snow buried beach and get back into the fog. No words were exchanged, no looks. They were far too cold to have any energy for that. Dragging the girl through the plaza and into the bathhouse, they both fell to their knees the moment they were out of the cold. "W-We gotta… take off her… clothes." Dark Dream was shivered so hard that her hands were shaking.
Nozomi nodded and together they quickly striped the girl of her seemingly only possession. Lifting her up and moving her into the bath proper, they both just threw their clothes on the ground, unable to feel any embarrassment at all, moving into the bath with the girl.
It took several minutes before they could breathe normally and talk. "Who is she?" Dark Dream looked at the now brown haired girl and shook her head. "She isn't one of us, I think."
"I haven't seen her before either." Nozomi denied knowing her as well.
"So we'll have to hope she wakes up..."
Awkward silence boomed through the room, interrupted only by the sound of water gurgling and the lights buzzing quietly. "How do you think we heard her?" Nozomi had to ask.
"Maybe she has some kind of mental ability like Miyuki. And doesn't that girl… uh, the yellow one with the daggers?"
"Pine? Yeah, she can control someone's mind."
"And we are the villains?"
"Imagine if I had that ability and I could have made you and the other four give up peacefully."
"Point taken. It still sounds evil though. Mind control..."
I won't tell her about Heart's group for now. "Did anyone find you out?"
"Reika did. This side's Reika. It's because… you know, I don't sound like you."
Nozomi smiled. "You really don't. But I like your voice. So how did it go with Reika? Did she hurt you?"
"I managed to explain things before she cut off my head. But… honestly, it just reinforced my feeling that if your friends find out about us, they'll want us gone, by force. She kept an eye on me practically around the clock after that."
Nozomi sighed. "I'll talk to Reika and explain that this wasn't your fault and you're as much of a good person as I am." Maybe more, actually. After everything I messed up…
"I'm just glad she didn't tell anyone else. We… I just want to live in peace with the others. You know what things are like over there. Not luxurious like this place, but we make do and we're not depressed about it."
A nod, a smile, Nozomi looked happy. "I know. Everyone is working hard every day. It's different from everyone here. We do what we have to do but we mostly get to take it easy." Until something like this happens. This is the third time now… and I'm always at the center of it. I must be a bad luck charm.
"So… uh." Dark Dream looked pained. "I know my Miyuki, so did you two-" She groaned when Nozomi blushed and looked away in shame. "I don't want to make excuses for her but she's really needy and it's… a bit of a process for her to adopt a more normal personality. I Just hope she didn't get too violent. I understand if you're angry, but-"
"Oh. She didn't-" Nozomi kept blushing. "She talked to me and explained and I was… okay with it."
There was a moment of silence before Dark Dream lunged forward, grabbing Nozomi by her shoulders. "She did all that?!"
"Y-Yeah? She didn't really get violent or force herself on me." Other than getting a bit touchy.
Dark Dream clawed her own hair. "I can't believe I am gone for a few days and Miyuki turns around and makes major steps in becoming a decent person!"
"She was actually pretty on top of things together with Tsubomi. She did get really angry at Rin and Urara on the first day. I think she was this short of throwing them in the pot to boil them. But even when she was really stressed out because you were gone she acted like a leader." Nozomi couldn't helped but hug her counterpart when Dark Dream started shedding a few tears. "You really love her, don't you?"
"Yeah." Getting a hold of herself really quickly, Dark Dream leaned against Nozomi. "I guess now it's my time to confess."
"Confess?"
"I… kind of hooked up with the Miyuki on this side. We uh… we didn't sleep together, but we kissed and… I'm pretty sure she thought I was you. So you and this side's Miyuki are kind… Nozomi?" Looking right at her other self's face, Dark Dream became worried. "Uh… was that bad?"
Nozomi's face was red like she had been boiled to perfection. Shaking her head, covering her face up, the scarlet red extended all the way to her ears."I'm so embarrassed about this whole situation."
"It is a little weird that both of us decided to go out with Miyuki."
Nodding, Nozomi managed to at least take her hands down, but she couldn't look straight at the other girl. "To be honest I was really surprised to see Rin with Nao or Yuri and Reika."
"How do you think I felt? Urara and, what's her name? Muse? Especially how different this Urara is! She's kind of badass!"
Nozomi snorted and burst into laughter. "Oh my god, never say that to her! Her ego will increase to the size of a hot air balloon! The kind you can ride!" She laughed so hard she slipped on the floor and crashed into the water, spitting bath water and still laughing.
"And your Reika is even worse! She's like… she's a villain! She ambushed me and put a sword to my throat! I thought I was a goner! None of us had that level of gall and skill back when we were actually evil and fighting you!"
Nozomi started kicking water, listening to her counterpart complain about the stark differences between the girls on the two sides. But she had her own piece to say. "Your Akane is so reliable and tough! The one on this side is like unstable explosive in a bottle!"
"I know, right?"
"I can't help but think about this side's Akane and Komachi trying to be a couple."
"Oh, yeah, over here Komachi is with Karen, right? I never saw that coming."
"Karen actually used to date Kurumi."
"I'm kinda mad we didn't get a Kurumi!"
"Dark Rose. Oh, that does sound cool."
"I was surprised just how many of you there are now. And I thought that dating each other was mostly a thing for us, not over here too."
"No, it's pretty much Cure tradition at this point, I'd say." Nozomi sighed. "I never thought I was that way too but Miyuki… Miyuki just kind of jumped into my heart and is shouting I won't leave at me a lot."
"I'm kinda sad there's only Miyuki's group, Tsubomi's group and mine. This place feels really lively."
Both Nozomis looked at the new girl that neither of them recognized. "I still wonder who she is."
"I don't know her but she feels kind of familiar though. Like not the way she looks but rather..."
"Just a gut feeling, right?"
"Yeah."
"I'm happy."
"About what?"
"Getting to talk to you this way. I was already happy to know that the five of you got a second chance. But being able to talk to you and seeing what a great person you have become all on your own-"
The other Nozomi shook her head with a smile. "Not all on my own. I had some great inspiration."
"You're so much better at flattering than I am, it makes me mad!" Nozomi slapped Dark Dream on the arm and laughed.
Their happy conversation was interrupted – and brought to an end – when the unknown girl moaned and started to move. Both Nozomis looked at her with great interest. Opening her eyes, she immediately shut them again, groaning and touching her forehead. "Where..."
"Safe." The original Nozomi immediately reassured her while the other one was taking notes. "We heard you asking for help and came to help you. I'm Nozomi and this is-" Stopping mid-sentence, she looked put on the spot. Explaining all of that right now is too much, but saying we're both Nozomi is also just gonna make her ask questions, what should-
"I'm Yume." Dark Dream just picked a name and the other Nozomi had to smile.
That's kind of clever.
"I'm Ayumi… It's so bright..." Squinting, she sat up a little and looked down at the water. "Hot spring…?" It was clear as day that she wasn't really up for a lengthy conversation right now.
"Public bath." Yume quickly corrected her. "We pulled you out of the ocean. How do you feel? Can you move your arms and legs? Feel your fingers and feet?"
Nodding twice, moving her arms and legs and nodding again, the girl finally looked up. "Thank you for saving me."
"How did you end up in the ocean?"
"I was crossing the ocean in a boat when a blizzard hit me… I felt a really powerful magic over on this continent a few months ago so I started traveling in this direction."
Yume looked at Nozomi and then asked the new girl directly. "Are you by chance a Cure?"
The girl nodded again. "I'm Cure Eternal Echo."
"Eternal Echo?" I feel like I've heard that name before. "Yume, you know her?" She had to try just a little to not giggle at Dark Dream's temporary name.
"No. It might sound a little weird asking you this but… were you created by some kind of entity to fight against another Cure that really resembles you?"
The girl looked straight at Yume and then Nozomi. "Oh, you two are like that then? I used to be like that too."
"Used to?" Nozomi didn't understand.
"Cure Echo. Cure Eternal. I was originally Cure Echo and Cure Eternal was created to erase all Cures from history. But I showed her that she was being lied to and my feelings got through to her. But since she was never a real person she couldn't live without her creator. So we used my power of connecting feelings to fuse together."
"That's amazing! You can connect your feelings to someone else?" Yume saw a glimmer of hope in the dark there.
Nodding again, Eternal Echo slumped and sunk a bit down in the water. "I really thought I was a goner when the blizzard capsized my boat..."
"You're lucky the two of us are conscious. There's actually a lot of us Cures here, but they're all in some sort of weird coma." Nozomi knew that the longer she waited the more of a problem it would become to wake everyone up. Because this sort of thing always got worse over time.
"A coma?" Ayumi sat up and looked at both Nozomis again. "How… old are you two?"
"Almost twenty." Nozomi quickly answered. "You seem a bit younger than us."
"I'm fifteen. Wow, you're still Cures even now?"
Nozomi laughed a little nervously. "Some of us here are over twenty-five."
"What?!" Yume reacted instead of Ayumi.
"Heart's group!" Nozomi hissed at Yume with raised eyebrows.
"I'm not at full power but you need my help, right? It's kinda written all over your faces." Ayumi cracked a little smile. "I don't know if I'll be able to help though… My powers aren't that useful."
"You can connect your feelings to someone else, right? Does that mean you can feel what they do?" That sort of resembles my Utopia and a little bit Pine's Domination.
"Yeah. Wow, you older Cures are really quick to figure out someone's abilities!" Looking impressed, Ayumi didn't seem to understand why both Nozomi and Yume looked like she had said something bad. "Did I say something wrong?"
"We're not even twenty, so being called 'older Cures' is a little…" Nozomi was all too aware that she wasn't an innocent fourteen year old anymore.
"Reality is harsh." Yume put her hand on Nozomi's shoulder.
"You're me so you're the same age! You also count as older, you know?!" Nozomi was more amused than anything else.
"No way!" Yume rejected that idea right away.
"You two are funny." Smiling and giggling, Ayumi covered herself up and started to get out of the water. "I wanna help! But… uh… do you have anything I could wear?"
"Only towels. Your clothes and ours are completely soaked from the snow. It'll be a little while before they're dry again." Nozomi didn't really mind. After having been around the other Miyuki, this much was really nothing.
Cladding themselves in white, fluffy towels, they went over to where Pine was resting. Despite her clothes having been taken off her hair hadn't changed back to what it was like as a normal person. She was practically just naked Pine right then.
"I'll try and see what she's feeling." Ayumi knelt in front of Pine and took her hand. "Soul Echo."
"Noo! W-What is she?! What… what are you people?!" Without warning, without any sign of cause, Ayumi started screaming like she was being burned alive. Not just letting go but throwing Pine's hand away, crawling backwards on all four, Ayumi kept screaming, shaking her head, crying with her eyes wide open in terror.
"What did you-" Yume tried to reach out.
"Nooooo! Don't touch me! Don't touch me! Go away! Murderer! Monster!" Screaming at the top of her lungs, Ayumi lost her towel and continued to crawl back, right against Nozomi, flinging around and screaming again. "You're inhuman! You… you're pure evil! Crazy people!"
"Nozomi, do something!" My counterpart to Nozomi's ability isn't at all suited for this. I couldn't even use it properly the last time I tried!
"Hold her down!" This isn't how I wanted to use my ability ever… Racing to grab her costume, forcing it on even though she was distinctly not dry enough for that to not shave, Nozomi was out of breath when she got back to the main room, Ayumi struggling against Yume holding her down, keeping her from running off.
Grabbing Ayumi's forehead with her right hand, Nozomi bit her lip. I'm sorry. Please don't go wrong. "Utopia!"
Much to Dream's and Yume's relief, Ayumi calmed down quickly, her breathing slowly normalizing, the horror in her eyes passing. "What… happened?"
"You connected to Pine's feelings and you became extremely scared," Yume explained quickly.
Ayumi's expression distorted for a moment but Dream's Utopia was powerful enough to keep her pacify. "It was… insane. She's insane. In… the literal sense. Her feelings are just hate and despair and all sorts of bad things. I felt incredible bloodthirst and anger and… What kind of person is she?!"
"Normally a very calm, very rational but kind person. I don't know what happened to cause this." Nozomi explained and nodded to Yume to let go of Ayumi.
"I… even if I could wake her up like this… maybe I can… but even if I did… she'd be so out of her mind I don't think she'd even understand words."
"Can your Utopia fix that?" Yume asked and felt a knot in her throat. What happened to them? They're not really my friends but they're good people…
Nozomi shook her head and looked down. "I don't think I can. Utopia makes you think of what you love most, but if she's… in this bad shape, what she loves most might just be something horrible and it'll have the opposite effect of what it should normally do."
"My Dark Utopia drowns someone in apathy but that doesn't really fix a sanity problem either."
"If… if we could wake up Hikari and she's fine, maybe I could do something. She can boost other's abilities so with a powered up Utopia maybe…"
"I can fix her." Ayumi interjected, causing both of them to look at her with big eyes.
"You can?!" Shouting out of one mouth, the two of them nearly grabbed her.
Nodding, Ayumi raised her finger. "Remember you I told you that I took Cure Eternal into myself? I also got her ability with that. I really, really don't like using it though..."
"Was is it?"
"I can take anything and suspend it for eternity. A person. An object. Power. Thoughts. Feelings. Anything you can imagine. Eternal was made to freeze all the Cures that existed and freeze them for eternity so their power and legacy could never be passed on. It's a dark, dreadful power I only used when I was all on my own in that huge forest."
"What exactly happens when you use it?" Yume was curious about this. That sounds like an incredibly powerful ability… and a really dangerous one, too.
"To make something eternal means to remove it from the normal world. It's still there but it really isn't, in a way. I can't explain it that well." Ayumi looked like she was talking about a crime she had committed; guilty, remorseful, ashamed.
"So you could make her insanity eternal? And that removes it?" Nozomi didn't really understand these contradicting labels. So eternal means it's gone… that's really confusing.
"I can't be absolutely sure what will happen. I can't promise she'll be exactly the same person as before."
Nozomi opened her mouth and before she could say anything, Yume took her hand. "I know it's a big risk, Nozomi. But… if we leave them like this, they'll be trapped in their insanity forever. I was once manipulated by evil. I can barely imagine that evil being inside your head and you think nothing is wrong. We have to risk it. You knew all of them, right? If someone changes, you can help them get back to normal!"
Nozomi could absolutely imagine it. "You're right."
"I'll need to transform for that." Ayumi still hesitated and then walked past them. "Where did my outfit end up?"
Getting Ayumi dressed, they sat back down with Pine. "You wanna start with… her?"
"She has an ability that lets her take over someone's mind. She saved my mind with that once."
"What?!" Yume looked like Nozomi had just dropped a bomb on her.
"I'll tell you another time, Yume."
Taking Inori's hand, Eternal Echo knelt down and closed her eyes. "Eternal… are you there?" Two massive black streaks appeared in her hair, reaching the very tips of the long twin tails. "We're going to need your power… yeah… they saved us. We have to help them. Hm… hm… they're okay with it." She was quiet for a few seconds. "I'll let you take over."
The black streaks completely took over the blonde, even the clothing turning black, red and purple, leaving behind a completely different person than before. She didn't turn around to face Nozomi and Yume, she just took a deep breath.
"Solace in the Eternal."
=== DISSONANCE ===
"God damn, what the fuck." Urara cursed loudly.
"Urara, language." Ako reprimanded her.
"Oh no, this is way above Urara, language level." Shaking snow out of her hair and rubbing her arms, Urara hurried through the lobby into the dining hall. "Where did all that damn snow come from?"
"It probably started snowing the moment we went to the arena." Following behind Urara, Ako felt incredibly grateful her costume was full body coverage. I'm cold but that's about it. Seeing how hard Urara was shivering, Ako grabbed her hand, pulled her back and into an embrace.
"Ako."
"Do not ruin the moment with lewd thoughts."
"No, your suit is super cold. It's like hugging a freezer."
Letting go of her girlfriend with a tint of red on her face, Ako looked away. I didn't think about the temperature difference of the suit's outside versus inside.
Hurrying to where the coffee machine was, Urara slammed the button and didn't care about the price of it all. "Do you remember how the battle ended? I must have gotten knocked about by Black or Melody's damn sound attacks or something because I can't remember anything."
"Same for me. Maybe it's a new system feature so we don't hold grudges?"
"Eh, we never had a problem with that before." Jumping from leg to leg, Urara was incredibly impatient for a hot cup of coffee. "Next costume I come up with; gonna be a full body one like yours."
Ako had to move out of the way when another group barreled into the room, all of them howling and squeaking about the cold, bringing with them at least a few fist full of snow still clinging to head and cloth.
"So. Cold!" Miki shouted and went straight past the coffee machines and to the far back of the buffet. "Yuri! Hot soup!" She didn't even stop to turn around.
Yuri tried to retain at least some dignity as she walked really, really quickly through the room, shivering and her nose running. She was unsuccessful.
With those two came also Erika and Tsubomi, the former dragging the later with loudly chattering teeth while Tsubomi's entire body seemed to be chattering. "I-I w-wanna g-g-g-get a l-l-longer s-s-skirt!" They followed Miki all the way to soup were Miki was dispensing with a big ladle into small bowls as fast as she could.
"What a disaster!" The next one to show up was Kanade, still swiping snow out of her long hair, jumping from foot to foot. "Rin's never there when you need her!"
The room filled with increasing speed and nobody really cared to look when there was loud shouting and jubilant high-pitched voices coming from the lobby. In a feat of superhuman strength, Love was hugging both Ellen and Setsuna at the same time, lifting them off their feet and whirling them around for about one and a half spins before her superhuman power was gone and the three of them tumbled through the lobby, barely avoiding a fall.
"Love! How did you get here?!" Setsuna was beside herself with happiness, grabbing Love's pretty damn cold cheeks and kissing her with real fire. "You scored the top position in the battle?!"
"Must have!" Love was overjoyed herself to have both her girlfriends back within permanent arm's reach. "I didn't think I'd actually manage but I had this really cool new ability and I was trading blows with Heart."
"And you won?!" Ellen was so amazed she jumped on the spot.
"Nah. I lost. Heart's crazy strong. But I definitely did better than everyone else on the other side!" Love picked up Ellen and whirled her around on her own, letting her down only to kiss her. "I missed the two of you so much!"
"We saw each other every day on the beach. You are so needy Love!" Setsuna hugged her girlfriend from behind and kissed her neck. A gust of wind from outside, coming in through an improperly closed door, put a serious dampener on their mood.
Following everyone else into the dining hall, there was a lot of chatter going on and even more so consumption of hot liquids and food.
"Over here! Love!" Miki waved from the back, sitting with Yuri and Inori.
Making their way over there, Love quickly put Setsuna and Ellen down at a table and balanced three bowls perfectly while filling them with soup. Their table was right next to Miki's which let them easily have a conversation. "So you're finally deciding to show up, eh, Love?" Miki was mocking her a little and felt Yuri kick her ankle.
"Miki is right, about time you managed to make it over here on pure willpower." Inori joined the bullying.
"It was perseverance!" Love insisted, spilled a bit of soup on the group and pretended it didn't happen.
"Love, I saw that." Setsuna was still freezing cold but being reunited with Love was warming her from the inside more so than any bowl of soup could.
"Did too." Even Ellen was laying it on now.
"So who'd you beat up to jump ship, Love?" Miki stood up, grabbed Yuri's bowl, turned and then turned again to find Inori meeting her eyes and grabbing her bowl as well.
"Mana. She is one tough customer. I had this really insane ability where I could just shove all the damage I soaked up back on her and even with that I still lost!"
"I don't know what's scarier, your capacity to come up with weird abilities or Heart's inhuman endurance." Inori just smiled. "I totally flunked out. I was dealing with Egret and Windy and of all the things in that battlefield, Egret figured out a way to give herself and Kaoru usable wings. Can you imagine how unfair that is?"
"Very." Miki snorted a little. "Egret turning into an actual egret?"
"You're the worst." Setsuna groaned a little but smiled nonetheless. Nothing could ruin her mood now.
"Ako and I were fighting Ace and Joker. We weren't doing badly but at some point I just don't remember how it ended." Ellen felt encouraged to share.
"Seems a lot of that going around actually." Inori looked in the other direction. "I overheard Tsubomi saying the same thing."
"Happened to me as well. I don't really mind though." I can't remember at all what happened after I beat Bright… I'll have to talk to Love about the ability I had in that battle, too. "I think someone just got us really hard and it messed up our memory. We can't remember what happens after we're knocked unconscious after all."
"Hey there." Mana showed up from behind Setsuna, waving to Love. "That was some battle we had."
"Oh, hi Mana." Oh, that's right, we're on the same team now. "It really was. And I still lost. But I'm not frustrated."
"Nobody has ever given me that much trouble before. I just wanted to check if you're feeling okay, I did batter you quite a lot."
"Fit like a shoe. Well, I'm sure I'll feel battered later after calming down and warming up. How about you? I hit your head a lot."
"Everything fine on that end. My butt hurts a lot though."
"Your butt? That's not my fault!"
"Eh, I wonder."
"Setsuna, you think if we put them together with someone new they could pass as sisters? Can you imagine Love saying 'Onee-chan' to Mana?" Ellen thought of that after seeing them talk to each other.
Choking on her soup and snorting some of it out her nose, Setsuna desperately reached for table tissues.
"Setsuna, you okay?" Love picked up a second tissue and handed it to Setsuna, who hear tears in her eyes.
"Ellen… Ellen just said something really funny." Oh god, if I imagine that one more time my gut is gonna explode.
"I have a pretty good idea of what it was." Miki covered her own mouth, a stifled laugh escaping anyway.
"Mana." Alice had shown up, with Yami in tow, holding hands. "Rikka is looking like she is about to fall asleep in her chair." She only said that loud enough for Mana to hear. Setsuna, who sat right in front of where Mana stood, did catch some of it.
Yami waved to Yuri with a smile but didn't stick around on her own when Alice excused herself. Still waving, looking over her shoulder, Yami was really hugging Alice's arm.
"Your sister seems really attached to her now." Inori didn't need to use her almost patented keen observation to figure that one out.
"I'm still coming to terms with that whole situation." Yuri sighed and Miki put her hand on top of Yuri's.
"For what it's worth, I think Alice is a good person. She's older than us too, and she's been through a lot. I think Yami makes a good match with her." Inori tried to make Yuri more accepting of the situation. "And I have to stand up for my fellow yellows."
Filled with hot coffee, Urara was relaxing in a chair that was definitely not made for relaxing. Ako sat by her side, still drinking her second cup of coffee while Urara had already burned through three of them. "You'll have trouble sleeping if you drink more than this."
"My body works through caffeine really fast. Must be my disposition." Urara looked to her left and put her hand on Ako's right thigh. "I tried to find you. Sorry."
Ako put down her cup and tried to not smile – but smiled anyway. "I can hold my own in a fight, Urara. But..." Again the red tint showed. "I'm happy to hear you were trying to find me so we could fight together." Pinching Urara's hand and moving it off her thigh, Ako picked her cup back up. "But this isn't the place to get touchy."
"Ever the princess." Urara sighed and nearly fell off her chair when Ako kicked one of the legs. "Hey!"
With all the couples and teammates sitting together, Kanade and Honoka found themselves sharing solitude at one table. "From the looks of it, Nao was sent to the other side in exchange for Love coming here."
"Hm? You say something Honoka?"
Honoka smirked really wide. "I remember when I was fresh in love with Nagisa. You remind me of that now."
"I-I'm not-!" Kanade knew it was futile but the words came out anyway.
"In love with Rin?"
"Ugh..." Blushing, Kanade dropped her head on the table, hiding her face that way.
"It's nothing to be embarrassed about. After that debacle with Hibiki I am glad you found someone else."
"So everyone really did think it was a debacle..."
"Oh, yes." Honoka didn't believe in sugarcoating things like this. "But to be honest, I think everyone is impressed with how much you changed. You're even making up with Hibiki, right?"
"Hm." She couldn't nod with her head on the table but she could hum in agreement.
"Not every relationship has to start with both sides just falling in love together. We have all kinds of romance represented here, right? You're just one type of many."
Looking back up, Kanade was still embarrassed. "I always worry I'm too clingy."
"I don't know Rin very well but is that really something she wouldn't tell you?"
"It isn't."
"See?"
"I hope I'm as wise as you are when I'm your age."
"I'm not that wise. Nagisa and I are just lucky. We compliment each other well and we really love each other. That's not something I take for granted."
"See? Wise."
Honoka chuckled and covered up her amusement by drinking some of her still hot tea. "I do miss Nagisa too. But the mountain track is still a shared place for two more days. If you go there you can easily get word to the other side and someone is definitely gonna call Rin for you."
"Are you gonna do that to go see Nagisa?"
"Probably. But maybe I'll keep it a surprise." Smiling a little impishly, Honoka closed her eyes and tried to imagine Nagisa being grabbed from behind, squeaking like a bird in response.
"Achoo!" Nagisa sneezed and dropped her plate of hot waffles. The delicious warming up treats were caught splendidly by Kaoru while Michiru bonked Nagisa on the back of her head. "Hey!"
"Be more careful." Still pretending to be someone they are not, Michiru and Kaoru went up ahead, catching up to Yayoi, who had practically turned into a hedgehog in defense position on her chair; arms wrapped around her legs pulled tightly to her chest, chin resting right on her knees.
Serving steaming hot takoyaki to Yayoi, Michiru and Kaoru sat down with Okonomiyaki instead. They were both cold but doing their best to not let it show on their faces. What did show was how much they liked to fawn over Yayoi, both of them sitting so close to her that Yayoi was veritably trapped there, shoulders and thighs rubbing against each other.
"I feel kind of lightheaded." Michiru was munching somewhat happily on her food while nudging ever closer to Yayoi.
"Probably the snow or just stress. We did go through a lot the last few days."
"The test of courage, that marathon, today's battle, all that playing with Yayoi-" Kaoru got Yayoi to yelp when she touched her thigh and moved it up far enough to reach under her skirt. "There's gonna be more of that later."
Blushing and trying to shrink into nothingness, Yayoi filled her mouth with takoyaki and nearly burned her tongue. Hot, hot, hot!
"They're really attached to her." Nagisa was nodding over to the trio a few tables gone. "I wonder who gets to go on top-" Nagisa grunted and nearly jerked her knee against the table when Saki stepped on her foot. "Saki!"
"How do you know that was me? Could be Mai!" Saki glanced at her girlfriend.
"Yeah right! There's only one out of the two of you that can stomp like a rhinoceros!" Nagisa clearly pinned the foul act on Saki.
"You're just gonna let her say that Mai?!" Saki pretended to be offended.
"I can't object to the truth. You dug your own hole with that, Saki." Maki focused on taking in her hot tea. I should have taken a different flavor.
"And what's the big idea stepping on my foot!" Nagisa tried to step on Saki's foot and the two of them started a stomping match under the table, getting rowdy enough that Mai nearly spilled her tea. Both of them stopped in an instant when a very high and sturdy heel hit their toes and both of them went down for the count, head on the table and feeling a little blue.
Watching the whole thing unfold were Hibiki and Itsuki, both of them putting away hot chocolate with little regard for their tongue or stomach. "I hate snow." Hibiki shivered just thinking about outside.
"I don't hate it but it isn't really my favorite thing either."
"I bet that's because of something stupid like having to shovel snow across your dojo grounds." Hibiki threw a wild punch and hit a weak spot. Itsuki looked distinctly away and focused only on her chocolate. "Bullseye." Hibiki smirked wide. "I hate it because wearing a skirt in the winter really sucks and it also limits what kinda shoes you can wear."
Itsuki nearly did a spit-take. "That's just as stupid as my reason!"
Hibiki covered half of her mouth and looked all haughty. "I didn't say it wasn't. I just said yours is stupid."
"Well, yours is stupid too!"
"I guess that makes us a stupid couple!"
Itsuki groaned in agony as she realized she had walked right into that. "Oh m god Hibiki, please, no, not puns. I dealt with Erika on the daily, I can't take them from my girlfriend too."
"Aw, don't be so… cold."
"Hibiki!"
"Noo~!"
Their comedy routine was interrupted when Hibiki moved about on her chair too much and nearly knocked over the girl walking by their table. "Ah, sorry, sorry. Got a little carried away messing with Itsuki."
"It's fine." Karen held her cup of tea with both hands and breathed a sigh of relief. "Do try to be a little more careful."
Komachi popped out from behind Karen and grinned. "Karen wasn't watching where she was going. She was so focused on the tea cup warming her hands she almost walked into another table."
"Komachi!"
"Someone didn't want to take my offer to warm her hands with mine." Komachi was blushed and so was Karen.
"I couldn't very well carry tea and do that at the same time!" Karen quickly walked off, with Komachi trailing behind her, carrying an entire can of tea in her right hand.
All the way in the back at the soup pot were Kurumi and Hikari and the former had to almost physically drag the latter away. "Hikari, you can try and figure out the recipe later. Let's just eat!"
With Hikari sitting down at one end of the table, Kurumi somewhat unintentionally sat down at the other end and Hikari immediately started to pout in the cutest hamster-like way possible. Moving her chair around the table without getting up she was still pouting when she leaned her head against Kurumi's shoulder.
"H-Hikari?"
"We're dating now, right? I'm not that innocent. We can at least sit together."
The sudden aggressive – aggressive for Hikari – behavior was throwing Kurumi for a loop and she fidgeted for a solid minute before Hikari stopped pouting and pulled over her soup bowl.
I'm in heaven. I don't even need this damn soup to warm me up. My face feels like fire. And it looked like fire, too. Kurumi still focused on her soup pretty hard, too nervous about Hikari just aggressively cuddling up to her at the table.
"I was gonna ask if you want to go to the mountains later, but with all this snow..." Kurumi was still unable to look to her side and straight at Hikari. She's too dazzling as Luminous. That dress is a little childish but that huge braid is insanely cute.
"We can buy winter jackets and boots!" Honoka gave me lots of tips on how to have a successful relationship! If Kurumi is being coy, push! If she is enthusiastic, go along with a smile! Play it slow but stick together! I don't really know what she means with 'play it slow' though… but push definitely means I should take the initiative! "I want to see Kurumi in winter clothes."
With her head nearly giving off steam, Kurumi just nodded. W-Who went and made Hikari all proactive like this? My heart can't take it!
"Looks like things are going pretty well for little miss knight there." Regina watched the whole thing unfold from two tables over while Makoto and Ange were enjoying a stiff drink. Hot drinks were always an option but few things warmed the insides like alcohol, they knew. "Makoto, sorry 'bout this but I gotta abduct my sister for a while after this. I'm feeling kind of translucent."
"Can you not put that in normal words Regina?" Ange sighed. "But she's right. I'm feeling it too, we really need to recharge."
"Don't worry about it. How long do you think we've been dating Ange?" Makoto's soft expression put Ange at ease – the two of them playing with each other's fingers on the table.
"It really sucks that unless we get all for of us on the same team, one of us is always gonna be a girlfriend short." Regina looked straight up. "Whoever runs this system needs a whack in the head."
"Mana is on the other side and so is Rikka so at least they're not all alone. You can still be with them during the day in the share zones." Makoto tried to cheer Regina up but that was a really hard job. "I heard from some of the others that past iterations of this place were a lot more restrictive about meeting the other side so I think we're lucky."
"Can't wait to get to the next iteration then." Regina sounded pretty grumpy and she knew it. "I'll head back to our room- oh, right, they're re-assigning rooms, right?"
"Today should be the day, yeah." Makoto was curious how that would work.
It was a little different from last time. A loud gong got everyone's attention; Majorina standing near the entrance with a small megaphone. "Okay, listen-!" A loud, horrid noise made everyone cover their ears in pain. Majorina had embarrassment written all over her face as she dialed down the megaphone volume. "Stupid damn technology… Okay… can everyone hear me?" The megaphone was completely off.
Akane, who had been sitting with Rin right by the entrance, stood up, walked over to Majorima and snatched the megaphone out of her hands. "You invented all sorts of crazy things, how can you not handle a megaphone? Turn this up like this… here." Handing it back to Majorina, Akane walked back to her table with a sigh.
"Long story short, room re-distribution is gonna take a couple of hours. There's also been a slight glitch with the weather system. Credit for that one is going to Mizushita which means bathing is free for today and also shared. So tell her 'thank you for making extra work for everyone else' from me. That's all." Taking down the megaphone and trying to turn it off, Majorina failed again, blasting everyone with a second round of screeching noise.
Akane, looking like she was trying to teach a sixth grader about twelfth grade math problems, took care of that for her. "Just how- here. It's off. Just use a voice amplification spell next time."
Embarrassed by her display of technical ineptitude, Majorina just walked away with a red face.
"You keep that up and she'll fall for you." Rin was grinning like the devil when Akane came back.
"Don't even joke about that. She's actually an insanely old hag that just uses magic to look young like that."
"But she's hot. And in this place she's permanently hot."
"Ugh… Rin, come on."
"Pulling your leg. The being hot part aside, she's confined to being here. We will eventually go home and she obviously can't come with you. So dating one of the staff here is just setting yourself up for disappointment."
"Didn't expect you of all people to think that deeply about it. I sure didn't. I just don't want to date someone who's like six hundred years old."
"Just because we share some power attributes and some personality traits don't put me on your level. I pick who I date really carefully."
"Eh… and you're dating Kanade?"
"If you got something to say, say it."
"How old is she?"
"What, that's your angle? She turns eighteen in about eight months."
"What do you mean that's my angle?"
"I told you I pick carefully. Even if I can't date her officially for a while when we get out, it's only about two years until that's no longer an issue."
"Two years is a hell of a long time."
"You ought to think about a life together. Not just the short term."
Akane looked like Rin said something gross. "I'm terrible at that."
"Go figure."
"Laugh at me if you want. I'm sure that shit is why it didn't work out with Nao."
"I won't laugh. What do you take me for?"
"Laughing at me would make this a lot easier to swallow. I could just get angry and be done with it." Leaning forward, crossing her arms on the table and resting her head on her arms, Akane let out a deep sigh.
"Your problem is that you know you're wrong and yet you're not doing anything about it. You just let your emotions steer you like a drunk driver even though you actually have a pretty good head on your shoulders."
"Don't say that. Having someone be aware of it just makes it even more embarrassing."
"This might be a weird thing to suggest but… you wanna fix this personality flaw of yours?"
"What do you think?"
"No Akane, you gotta say it."
She paused and grumbled under her breath and finally managed to speak up. "Yeah, I do."
"There's not a whole lot of singles right now. But there is someone basically perfect for this."
"What? Who?" Akane sat back up, a huge red spot on her forehead.
"Inori. The yellow Cure from Love's team on the other side."
"The mind controller? Her?"
"If you're up front about what you want, she'll be up front on whether she can help you. I think she would, though."
"Help me with what? Get my emotions under control?"
"Yeah."
"So… I should pretend date her?"
"I don't know that much, but talk to her if you get a chance."
Returning to a face down pose, Akane said nothing at all for a good minute. "I can't."
"You're not over Nao yet?"
"That too, but I just know I'm gonna start lying or fly off the handle."
"You want me to come with you and keep you from doing that?"
Again Akane paused and eventually just hummed to confirm.
"That'll cost you."
"I probably have like a couple thousand yen saved up."
"Not money. You're going to owe me a big favor."
"Fine."
"You are some piece of work, you know that?"
"Yeah. I do."
A number of girls had left while they were talking and now Rin saw her turn to leave as well. "The bath is shared right now."
"And?"
"Shared."
Akane looked up aghast. "You can't mean-"
"Oh yeah, do I ever. You're going to talk to Inori right now."
"I'm not even remotely ready for that!"
"You're never ready for shit relationships throw at you, that's why we're going."
"Wait, I said-" Rin rose out of her chair and Akane was left behind. Fuck. Rushing after Rin, Akane tried to picture Inori's face, without success. "I can't even remember what her face looks like!"
"That's about to change."
"You're enjoying this, aren't you!"
"Sure am."
Mizushita greeted every new customer with an increasingly annoyed look until she was outright pretending to read a magazine and not see any of them.
With the snow falling and the rooms still being unavailable, practically everyone on both sides had decided to pay the baths a visit – Sasorina had given the same speech as Majorina.
With three indoor baths and one outdoor bath, there was enough space for everyone, but even then it was crowded, loud and lively. For some this was very welcome but all those that didn't want the noise retreated outside. Luckily for everyone, Mizushita had used a hidden crank in the walls that pushed out a makeshift roof over the outdoor hot spring.
Soaking quietly out there were a number of girls, among them unexpectedly Regina and Ange, who were sitting side by side, shoulder by shoulder, and holding hands, focusing on getting their energy problem solved. Right next to Ange was Makoto, who enjoyed the peace and quiet with closed eyes, maintaining a distance of at least a hand's length to her girlfriend.
Komachi and Karen were there as well, quietly whispering to each other. "The snow was a shock but getting free and shared bathing out of it is quite welcome." Komachi smirked and leaned against Karen, resting her head on her girlfriend's shoulder.
"I just hope it doesn't last for too long. The mountain scenery will be ruined with all the snow."
"If we invite Rin I can make a dome and she can melt the snow away so we have our own private garden."
"Won't she feel like a third feel?"
"Of course we'll invite Kanade too."
"I'm still not sure how I feel about those two. Dating someone underage..."
"You and Kurumi were dating while you were underage."
"We both were, that's the point. Rin's a working adult. Kanade isn't."
"There's not that much of a gap between them." Komachi looked slightly up to see Karen's face. "Why does the age difference bother you?"
"I don't know. Why does it?"
"Maybe because you feel like a younger partner will end up the same way as Kurumi?"
Karen looked down and grabbed Komachi's nose. "Aren't you the insightful one?"
"Kanade did have a lot of problems but she already had her Kurumi moment."
"Her what now?"
"Kurumi and Kanade both got dumped by the girl they liked because they were behaving childish and like idiots for long periods of time. Getting that wake up call is really helping them improve themselves now. Kanade with Rin and Kurumi with Hikari."
"Authors have scary observation powers."
"Fear me." Komachi smirked and nudged closer to Karen.
While the outside was rather quiet, the inside was very, very loud. In the medium depth bath, in the far corner, were Rin, Akane and Inori.
"No." Inori turned down Akane's proposal. "If you want to better your personality, that desire has to come from inside and you have to deal with it inside first before you ask someone else for help. I'll change my answer if you can prove to me you have the drive to change."
Akane looked really annoyed and ready to shout at Inori. But the really tight grip of Rin's hand on her wrist underwater kept her restrained, kept her levelheaded. "And how do I do that?"
"Figuring that out is part of it. But here is a big hint, because I do think you want to change. Being able to apologize even when you think you are not in the wrong is important. It makes the other side realize that they too need to put things right and that way you can even clear up misunderstandings."
So apologize to Nao. At least to Nao. Probably others too. "I know it doesn't sound like I mean it but thanks. Now I need to go and cool off." Pulling free from Rin, Akane waded through the water, climbed out of the bath and went right back into it, the bath next over, the deep one, and completely submerged herself.
"She's not that bad a person."
"I didn't peg you for someone that would get involved like this." Inori was genuinely surprised.
Rin scratched her neck. "Normally I'm not. But after seeing Urara, Kurumi and Kanade change after getting involved with someone they really like I wanted to at least give her a chance. Sorry to put that on you."
"It's fine. I'm not really into the hotheaded type but if she is serious about changing I'll at least help her out. Without dating her."
"Thanks."
"I like helping people."
"Yeah. I know." Rin smiled. "Now, I gotta go before Kanade explodes from jealousy."
"Jealousy?"
"Me talking to a beautiful girl like you all on my own? Kanade's not grown that much yet." Rin chuckled, raised her hand and waded over to where a blonde mob was floating in the water, emitting bubbles of anger. Pushing down on the mob, something squirmed and rose to the surface.
"Hey! I could've drowned!"
"You have no reason to be jealous. Inori isn't my type at all. If she was I would have tried to go out with Karen years ago."
Kanade pouted to the absolute maximum of her ability. "I'm not jealous at all. At all!"
"Yeah, that face is really selling that." Rin grinned and sat down next to Kanade, only her head popping out of the water. "Kanade."
"What?" She was still pouting.
"If Hibiki asked you out now, would you say yes?"
Looking down and going completely underwater, Kanade only came up a minute later. "No… because I know I'm not a good fit for her romantically."
Petting Kanade's head, Rin turned about and kissed her forehead. "Full marks."
"Don't use Hibiki to test me!"
"You know, I could get used to your pouting face."
Pummeling Rin's shoulder with the weakest of strikes, Kanade eventually went into pouting overdrive and walked off, leaving behind a very amused Rin. That she can react like that and just walk away without blowing… I wonder when exactly I became so serious about her. A baker's girlfriend, huh… if she asks me to get up at two in the morning with her I'm going to flat out tell her no.
=== DISSONANCE ===
Staying in the bath for a while the both teams found that their rooms had finally been opened up again when they finally returned to the lobby. Mana was the proud winner of the ranking championship and swinging Rikka around a really spacious room. "Mana, Mana! Let me down! You're making me dizzy!"
"I did not expect Mana to rise to the top." Alice was there as well, accompanied by Yami. "I was quite a bit short of making it into the top four, regrettably."
"Aw, don't worry Alice, we just get to stay in the same room as before." Yami was spinning around the room and finally just fell over from being too dizzy.
Mana sat Rikka down on the absolutely extravagant bed and then sat by her side. "I really went at it with Love."
"She's the runner up. If you hadn't scored so high during that fight three days ago you would definitely have lost the top spot to her." Alice calmly walked through the room, taking it all in. "Even my room back home was not this spacious."
Rikka sighed. "It is going to take me a while to memorize this room… I wish we could have stayed on the fiftieth floor."
"Don't be like that Rikka! I fought really hard to get this room!"
"Rikka is right, Mana. You over achiever." Alice teased her captain a little. "But I think you will get used to this rather quickly, Rikka. It seems big and complicated but there really is not much in the way of useless clutter. And I think you will appreciate the swimming pool and sauna. Now, having said that-"
"You and Yami are welcome any time." Mana looked to Rikka and then tilted her head. "Maybe not any time-"
"Mana, how long do you suppose we have known each other?" Alice chuckled like only a high society lady could. "Have I ever walked in on you?"
"No. Oh, that's actually amazing."
"What was life like for the six of you before all this?" Yami had recovered from the fallout of being a spinning top. "Alice always dodges my question when I ask her."
Exchanging a calm and somewhat sad look with Mana, Alice got her to understand. "That's for Alice to tell. She'll decide when she's ready to talk about it."
"I don't really know any other place than this so I can't help being curious. Are you mad at me, Alice?"
"No. I know you didn't really mean to go over my head." Grabbing Yami's left hand, Alice led it to her lips and kissed her fingers.
"A-Alice!" Rikka was blushing a lot.
"It was just her fingers, Rikka."
Mana and Alice both laughed, much to Rikka's dismay, the formerly aspiring doctor crawling onto the bed in search of a pillow and trying to hide her head under it.
"Hey Mana." Yami was circling the entrance to the pool. "Mind if I go for a round?"
"Go ahead." I'm happy to have company. I love being with Rikka but I also like the energy that Yami brings to the atmosphere.
"Awesome!" Running right into the pool room, the clothes were already flying high by the time Alice had walked closer to the bed.
"Her obsession with swimming kind of worries me." She paused and corrected herself. "Or rather, an obsession with that swimsuit of hers."
"An obsession?" Mana looked towards the pool and saw a big splash.
"It elevates her bust line and she is quite taken by that."
Mana looked at Alice and sighed. "With you as her girlfriend I can hardly fault her."
"She should be happy with her body as-is. I don't want her to get too attached to this."
"Isn't it best if she works it out for herself?"
"She's got a fairly naive and innocent mind, so I worry..."
"I didn't expect you to prefer a more petite chest."
Alice sat down next to Mana. Rikka, I know you are listening. That pretense is not fooling anyone. "Excuse me but I have no such preference. I just wish Yami would like herself for who she is instead of relying on some dubious magic tool to copy me."
"Not everyone can just like themselves they way they are. Think about Ange."
"Ange… well..."
"See?"
"That is quite an unfair comparison to make right now. Isn't she a special case?"
"How is Yami not a special case then? The way I understand it, she was originally cloned from Yuri and seeded with darkness by her enemy. She died back then and was brought back to life as a Cure here."
"When did you learn to have such a way with words, Mana?"
"I spent a lot of time with you, Alice."
Alice chuckled. "Now, I suppose that is true."
Fifty floors down, Love was rolling back and forth on a luxurious bed. She hadn't quite made it to the top but this room was more than enough for her. Setsuna had already made use of the provided selection of hair brushes and was taking care of Ellen's hair, both of them sitting at the foot end of the bed. "You're next after this, Love."
"Is this really okay?" Ellen felt weird having someone do her hair for her.
"What are you talking about, Ellen?" Ellen put down the brush and hugged the younger girl tight. "I love doing my girlfriends' hair."
"She really does." Love was upside down near the top end, rolled over and crawled over to the other two, lying back down and putting her head in Ellen's lap. "It's a way for us to treat her to something special. You don't usually get to take care of someone else's hair at your complete discretion." Looking straight up at Ellen, Love cupped her face in her hands. "Although sometimes she comes up with some really over the top hairstyles."
"Stop filling her head with silly ideas, Love! All of my hairstyles are perfectly agreeable. In this place."
"Cure forms have notoriously over the top hair! Just remember what Miki used to run around with."
Setsuna snorted and burst into laughter, Love following suit. Before Ellen could even say anything, Love rolled over and got off the bed, searching the room for a pen and some paper. Finding them stored away in a drawer at a makeup table, Love quickly started sketching something.
"What is she-" Ellen was silenced by Setsuna gently putting a finger on her lips.
"Behold!" Showing off an image of what Berry's hairstyle was like as a teenager, all three of them burst into laughter that time.
"I-I feel so bad laughing!" Ellen couldn't help herself.
"S-She had a bit of a complex after she o-overheard someone say it looked like a bread roll!" Setsuna was holding her stomach and fell onto the bed with Ellen.
"D-Don't tell her that, Setsuna!" Love was on her knees on the floor, head buried in the sheets. "I can't-"
Recovering from their laughing fit after almost a full minute, Love stayed on her knees, propping her head up on her hands, while Setsuna resumed work on Ellen's hair. "You know, that ability I used in the battle… I don't feel like that is something I would come up with naturally. It wouldn't be much use against real enemies."
"About those abilities…" Setsuna stopped brushing and hugged Ellen from behind. "Mine… I need to talk to both of you about mine."
Love perked up a little but stayed where she was. "That sounds so serious. Is it one that puts you in danger?"
"Not at all. It… it gives form to Eas. As an independent being, a part of my past brought to life. The ability is called 'This past of mine' and… I can only imagine developing something like that for this place. Having another fighter will be a huge asset in smaller scale battles."
Ellen watched Love's jaw drop and stay dropped. Eas… Setsuna's old self, from when she was in Labyrinth. I never really got to see what she looked like but Love told me she was just as beautiful as Setsuna. "So… we could have two Setsunas at the same time?" Ellen smiled. "One for Love and one for me!"
Ellen nearly felt her innards come out of her mouth, so hard did Love and Setsuna grab and hug her. "God, she's so adorable! Love, I can't take this, I wanna squeeze her forever!"
"Couldn't agree more!"
"Stop, stop, you're smothering me!" Ellen breathed a much needed sigh of relief when they relented. "Did I say something wrong?"
"Not at all. If anything, that was the best possible answer." Love squirmed as she held back her desire to hug Ellen again. "For Setsuna and me, Eas is… a difficult topic. She represents a lot of things to us so we look at everything and think about everything related to her too much."
"Oh… I didn't want to act like-"
"Nope! Denied! That was the best answer!" Setsuna grabbed Ellen's waist and kissed her shoulder. "I was worried about what Love would think about me developing such an ability. Essentially bringing back a part of me that fought, hurt and tormented Love. But also the part of me she saved."
"You two have so much history..."
Love grinned. "We do. But the three of us already went through a lot. Your first, own hymnos, the fight against the mirrors and nightmare, and everything since then. When we get home, we will come back to Japan and stay with you until you're eighteen. And then we can decide together if we want to travel again."
Looking like she was about to cry, Ellen was smothered again by two very overly loving girlfriends. "Timeout, timeout!" Ellen struggled to breathe.
"Denied!" Love's response was the starting shot for both her and Setsuna to start covering Ellen in kisses. Love pulling down Ellen's skirt and Setsuna moving up Ellen's shirt, they both took their time, each time their lips met skin they left behind a small mark.
What started playfully quickly became sensual. Ellen was flat on her back, her legs angled up lightly, Love caressing the insides of her thighs with her fingers and tongue. Setsuna engaged in a slowly moving, slowly intensifying kiss with Ellen that was accompanied by their hands tightly holding onto each other, their fingers slightly moving in contrast to each other, caressing along each other.
Rising up with a bright red face, Setsuna tried to take off her shirt and was stopped by Love suddenly holding down her hands behind her back. Ellen sat up with a little bit of difficulty and slowly slid her hands under Setsuna's shirt before moving it up, her hands deliberately pushing against Setsuna's bra, feeling how aroused she was already.
The cloth flying aside, Setsuna was released and immediately descended on top of Ellen, bra against bra, tongue against tongue. Positioned diagonally so only their chests and face would meet, Setsuna felt Love's hands moving up her back, undoing the hooks of her bra, sliding the lingerie over her shoulders. A single glance shot from the corner of her eye and she saw that the first love of her life was already topless and returned down below Ellen's skirt.
Two slender arms moved about Setsuna's back, feeling the smooth skin with visceral pleasure in the way her fingers moved. Breaking the kiss to breathe, Setsuna made good use of Ellen's needs. "Love."
The third joined the other two at the top, laying down so that her legs entangled with Ellen's while she could look straight at her face. But instead of Love kissing Ellen, she watched Setsuna return to what she had been doing, drawing out Ellen's tongue with her own, both of them kissing in a way that let Love watch their every move.
It was a show put on for Love and Love watching was a turn on for them. As soon as Ellen was slowing down, Love moved up and the circle turned; now it was Ellen's turn to watch as Setsuna and Love kissed. Both of Ellen's hands found their way to their girlfriends breasts, first groping lightly, then stronger as they moaned seductively into the kiss. Ellen was just ready to continue when Setsuna stopped and Love moved to Ellen.
Every kiss they could taste the third one on the lips of the others. Never were any of them excluded.
"And that's enough… right, Love?" Setsuna put a stop to things for seemingly no reason.
Love nodded in agreement, leaned down and kissed Ellen on the cheek. "Sometimes we just like to do this. Mostly when we want some intimacy but we're too battered and exhausted to have sex."
"I'm-" Ellen stopped herself and blushed. "You noticed?"
Setsuna smiled. "Your back hurts, right? My legs are kind of killing me, too. Love here is usually indestructible though."
"I'm powered by your love." Love sat up and didn't care at all that she was without top or bra. "The more of your love I get, the stronger I get. But today, my neck does hurt."
Ellen chuckled. "You know what I would really like though?" Setsuna and Love both looked at her expectantly. "A new hairstyle." Ellen laughed softly at the starry eyes that Setsuna got immediately.
Twenty floors down, another couple was getting ready for bed. Yawning, reaching to cover her mouth and then just not bothering, both of them were already in bed in a nightgown.
"Are you really not bored?" Yuri looked over her reading glasses – which she had purchased from Mamo right after getting out of the bath – and questioned Miki with a look. "You're just watching me."
"The tiny movements of your eyes, the way you flip the pages, your hand movements when you adjust your glasses, the moments when you furrow your brow and when the corners of your mouth rise. I like learning more." Miki smirked. "And the little bit of red that shows first just a little ways to the side of your nose when you get embarrassed, the way you curl the corners of your mouth when I point that out and that fiery glare when I keep talking about all the small and minute things I pick up watching you."
"So, in your opinion as expert observer, do glasses suit me?" Yuri changed the topic by force, still holding her book open and one finger on the passage she was reading. Miki did not miss that.
"They make you cuter, more approachable. If you furrow your brow, you look like a strict teacher, though. When the glasses slide down your nose a bit it makes you look like a messy lady professor. I actually like that look the most. It shows off how smart you are and at the same time makes you look really adorable in a quirky way." Miki smiled wide when Yuri felt embarrassed over the overly detailed answer. "The way you hold the book makes me think you were on a cellphone a lot back on earth."
"I was. You know I managed a model."
"Momoka. You know, I wonder if she'll hate me."
"She isn't like that."
"Is there some part of you that hates me for fighting until you became my girlfriend?"
"Do you think there is?"
"No. If there was, you wouldn't have agreed to be my girlfriend at all, no matter how much sense I was making about putting Momoka in danger."
"When I think about something like the Mirrors happening back on earth and someone like Poison or Nightmare taking advantage of my relationship with Momoka… deep down I always knew I was putting her in danger. But as long as things were peaceful I could lie to myself and pretend I didn't know."
"Everyone has a few things they lie to themselves about. I do, too."
"Such as?"
"I'm not ready to talk about that tonight."
Yuri's eyes widened a little and she looked back at her book, put a bookmark in it and closed it up. "You're surprisingly cute when you look ashamed."
Miki very slightly averted her eyes. "You're done reading?"
"Yes. I want to fall asleep with this girl that so desperately chased me I had to confront some unpleasant truths about myself. Although in the future I would not mind seeing your sleeping face by my side as I read." Taking off her glasses and putting them on the nightstand, Yuri crawled further under the cover, facing Miki.
Exchanging a slow kiss, the two girls smiled at each other for a long moment. "I love you, Yuri."
"I love you too, Miki. I'm turning off the light." Hitting the tiny switch placed at the wall just by the night stand, the lamp by the bed went out, drowning the room in a quiet darkness. The cover rustled and Miki took Yuri's hands into her own. "Good night."
They were not the only couple going to bed a little early. Down on the tenth floor was Erika's room – which also doubled as Tsubomi's room right now. Standing in the room with a half-asleep expression on her face, a toothbrush in her mouth and absentmindedly moving the brush, Tsubomi was more than ready to turn in.
Erika was frolicking on the bed, legs kicking air, looking at Tsubomi. "Tsumi."
"Hm?" Facing Erika, Tsubomi didn't react much.
"I'm thinking I might branch out from just designing clothes."
Tsubomi nearly choked on the toothpaste foam, ran into the bath to the sink and cleared out her mouth. "Uueehh…." Rinsing out her mouth twice, Tsubomi felt normalcy return to her head. "What do you mean branch out?!"
"Everyone's Cure outfit is pretty unique and is made to suit their fighting style, right? I feel like instead of just making clothes I could also design costumes, for actors. Like tokusatsu; you know, super sentai and kamen rider and the like." Erika was explained all of this as if it was the most normal thing in the world to have come up with. "Clothes are nice but they're pretty limited! I can't make something as crazy as the outfits that Love's team wears!"
"So you want to be a costume designer instead of a fashion designer?" Tsubomi sat down on the bed's edge and looked at Erika with some obvious doubt in her eyes.
"Not instead! On top of! I wanna do both!" Erika smiled in an optimistically voracious way – like one talented people could. "But there is a very big question mark standing between me and settling on that."
"You don't know if there is a market-"
"No, I know there is."
"You need someone to supply costume materials and-"
"Actually know a guy through Mom."
"You don't know if… actually just tell me." Tsubomi resigned herself to Erika's thoughts being unknowable.
Rolling over, sitting up, crawling over to Tsubomi and straight up kissing her with enough force to send the red all the way to Tsubomi's ears, Erika only let go when Tsubomi started to flail. "You! You're my question mark!"
"Me?"
"There are tons of things I could do in my life that I all like equally. I know you like fashion so I'm of course gonna keep doing that. But you're the one thing in my life that I like more than anything else. So only the stuff you actually want to at least support me in doing I will actually consider!"
Tsubomi collected herself and took a deep breath – not because this was a lot to take in, she was long past the point where Erika could truly surprise her, but because through the surprise of the kiss she had literally forgotten to breathe. "I think you'd do great at that."
"Tsubomi, that's not what I wanna know!" Latching back onto her girlfriend, Erika wildly grimaced. "Do you like the idea?!"
"I do, I do. Geez, you're like a clingy cat- ah, don't lick my face!" Tsubomi moved her index finger around in front of Erika's face and of course Erika acted like a cat, following it exactly with her eyes. "Before you commit to that you should try and see if you find it fulfilling. Fashion is a big market so there's always someone to buy your things if you do good work, but with costumes you need to design and manufacture after specifications."
"How do you know so much about that?"
I am never going to tell her that I am still occasionally watching tokusatsu things on TV and wondered about her doing design work for that kind of thing for a long time. That's why I was so surprised for her to bring it up unprompted. "I looked into it when I thought about changing my own costume."
"Oh. I never knew. So?"
"So what?"
"Whose costume do you think I should redesign?"
"You mean one of the girls here?!"
"Of course! I can't wait until whenever we get back! The spark is gonna go out!"
"Maybe… ask Hibiki, Kanade or Ellen? I think I overheard once that they haven't made any changes to their Cure outfits at all. But where did this suddenly come from?"
"Been thinking about it since we met Mana's group." Erika rolled over again and looked at Tsubomi upside down. "Their costumes are really specialized! I guess they do have like ten years on us. Makes me wonder if we'll be in the same position as your grandma some day!"
"As much as I like being a Cure I do want to retire at some point…"
"That's way in the future though so who cares!" Rolling over again, Erika smirked wide at Tsubomi's You're the one who brought it up face. "Tomorrow I'll hit up Mamo for some materials and talk to Kanade. Or maybe Hibiki. Heh heh… I can leverage Itsuki into helping me convince Hibiki. Ow, ow, ow." Her cheek was being pulled. "Joking, joking!"
"Why don't you start with yourself, or me?"
"Hm… I wanna start fresh with someone who hasn't changed in a while. Really draw out their desires!"
"Their desires… Erika, they might look cute and sexy sometimes but they're essentially combat uniforms!"
"Oh, that's great, that's great, that's definitely gonna be valuable experience when designing suits for Kamen Rider."
"You never stand still." Tsubomi had a happy expression on her face as she moved further onto the bed and kissed the top of Erika's head. "But that's part of what I like about you. You're like a storm rushing over the land, flooding everything with your energy. Sometimes you leave behind a mess but everything grows stronger from that mess after."
"Tsumi."
"Hm?"
"Your botany analogies always go over my head."
Angry at the combined pun and Erika's lack of interest in botany even after being together for so much, Tsubomi pushed Erika down and laid flat across her back. "Blockhead."
Squirming helplessly – pretend helplessly – under Tsubomi, Erika then played dead and grumbled when Tsubomi called her bluff. "I know your only real weakness Erika. Playing dead is useless."
"Phooey."
=== DISSONANCE ===
"I didn't think everyone would soar past me like that." Stepping out of the shower wearing only shorts and her hair still dripping all over the floor, Saki noticed that Mai wasn't in the room any-
"Kyaaa!" Saki yelped like a little girl when someone grabbed her from behind, poking her sides. Not only was she ticklish, she also got startled. "Mai!"
"What a cute voice out of that buff body." Barely able to walk through her laughter, Mai sat down on the bed, her hair tied into a single ponytail as she usually did before bed. "I haven't heard you make a sound like that in years."
A large crimson streak running across her face, Saki positioned herself in front of Mai and started shaking like a dog – sending water from her hair flying everywhere. A subdued shriek from Mai told her mission accomplished. "You reap what you sow, Mai!" Laughing dirtily with revenge, Saki felt both a foot press against her skin and two hands pull on her arm. Falling face first onto the bed, she could tell Mai was getting on her back. "What now? Are you gonna try and tickle- ah ha ha haha! Mai, haha ha ha, stop, ha haha ha ha, I can't breathe!"
"I know exactly where your weakest spots are, Saki." Getting off her girlfriend and letting her cool down on the bed, Mai took off her long sweater and put it up on the single chair the room provided. "At least you didn't rank at the very bottom. I'm starting to think I am really badly suited to this sort of thing."
Turning over, the little teasing action already forgiven, Saki sat up, her chest bare for Mai to see but neither of them even batted an eye at that. "You trained having in mind that we would always fight together… you think you could figure out some kind of wind slash attack like Kaoru does?"
"That takes some really precise energy control. I have that, but… I just can't see myself throwing limb cutting wind blades. That's not me."
"I can understanding wanting to do better in scoring but… do you really have to? I do think you're more suited to helping your teammates survive and do better. I mean, it's kind of dumb we're both stuck on the tenth floor now, but if I do better in the future-"
"It's just… I'm used to be the one you can rely on."
Standing up and hugged Mai from behind, Saki rested her head against Mai's. "Yeah. Everyone has their strengths. You're a great artist, you're smart, you can run a business, get clients, social contacts, you're even good at housework, at knowing nutrition. You can do almost anything. So isn't it fine if this time it's my turn to try and let you rely on me? Not that I'm doing a very good job."
Mai tensed up. "You're doing a great job! Don't say that! Other than Michiru I can't think of anyone that can beat you in power! And you can take a beating too! You're just unlucky. I know it's not your fault… Saki, you're squeezing too hard."
"Sorry." Squeezing even harder, Saki closed her eyes and kept Mai close. "It means everything to me that you believe in me."
"Saki, Saki!" Mai tapped Saki's arm and was finally freed. "You're overestimating how not-squishy I am!" Looking genuinely embarrassed, Saki stepped away and was immediately grabbed by her wrist. "Nobody said anything about letting go entirely." Turning about and embracing Saki head-on, Mai rested her face against her girlfriend's shoulder. "I know I should rely on you. It's just… a change."
"There is something I need to rely for on you right now..."
"Pervert..." Sliding her hands over Saki's chest, Mai felt that she made a mistake. "That's not it?"
"I… was kinda in the mood for story. We haven't done that in a while."
Slapping her free shoulder, Mai looked aghast. "You totally gave me the wrong idea here!"
"Honoka is rubbing off on you too much!" Saki retorted with a bright red face.
While erotic times fell through for Mai and Saki, another couple had already finished round two and was now lounging naked in bed. "Itsuki." Hibiki was on her back, covered up to her shoulders by the sheets, inspecting her nails.
"Hm?" Her partner on the other hand was reading a book, elbows buried into the pillow and making use of the small lamp on the nightstand.
"I wanna learn proper martial arts."
"Why?"
"To fight better."
"I think there are better ways for you than to learn martial arts."
Hibiki turned sideways and looked at Itsuki, their eyes meeting. "Like what?"
"What kind of ability did you notice was new today?" Itsuki put a bookmark into the novel and closed it, facing Hibiki right on. "For me it was an incredible defensive ability. I only tested it out for a short time but it let me counter and react to anything my opponent threw at me. It's not a natural evolution of my powers but something I would come up with specifically for this place."
"I… couldn't make use of mine. I kind of knew that if I kept singing, it would boost my physical abilities a lot. But fighting and singing at the same time… I bit my tongue after a few seconds." Hibiki plopped down, hiding her face in her pillow. "Why is my ability so garbage compared to everyone else?" Her muffled words were ripe with disappointment.
"I don't think it's bad at all."
"How?!" Hibiki rose and looked angry. "Even my ability right now isn't useful at all!"
Look at Hikari. Everyone thinks she is super power, right?"
"She is. She can boost people and she has crazy amounts of magic!"
"Your song also boosts people."
"It's still useless! I can't sing and fight at the same time!"
"Hibiki, how often do you think I landed on the mat and thought There is no way I can beat them when I started learning martial arts?"
It showed on her girlfriend's face that she already understood the point Itsuki was making. Dropping back into the pillow, Hibiki acted like she was dead. "It's so annoying when you're right."
"If you can handle singing and fighting at the same time, you'll be able to be a lot more effective."
"Big if. Can't even use the damn thing now."
"Those abilities felt distinctively different from the ones we'll have way in the future."
Babbling muffled words into the pillow, Hibiki was completely deflated in enthusiasm.
"Hibiki, it's hard to understand you."
"I said; yeah, those are on a different level."
"So that means these were much closer to our immediate future."
"Future still means I can't use it now, Doc Brown."
Itsuki snorted. "You watched back to the future?"
"It's from the eighties! It's not that old!" I can't tell her that my papa watched them a lot and that's how I saw them…
"Anyway, don't you think you already have all the requirements to unlock that ability?"
"Eh..."
"Do you want my help figuring it out?"
Hibiki looked away. I kinda wanna say no but that's just me being stupid stubborn. "You really think I can make it work?"
"Would I try to encourage you if I thought you couldn't?"
Grabbing her pillow and pushed it onto Itsuki's face, Hibiki pouted. "You are so annoying when you're right! You… Smugshine!"
In stark and major contrast to the Hibiki and Itsuki relationship stood a couple twenty floors up, currently in nightgowns and one of them very fidgety about actually going to bed, coming up with senseless excuse after excuse to prolong actually sharing a bed.
I made such a fuss about coming to bed that she's already asleep… What am I doing? Kurumi, what the heck are you doing? I'm so stupid. I know I shouldn't act like back then when I was with Karen but when did I turn into such a chicken? Thinking this while she was brushing her teeth for the third time, Kurumi covered her face in her hands and nearly dropped down to the sink. Seriously, what am I doing?
We both have rooms on the fiftieth floor but I didn't even think about sharing a room with her… it's too early! Why is Hikari so… so… cute! Argh, I can't take it, she looks like a model that works for heaven! Buy the newest celestial white now! I can't believe she got even cuter when she let down her hair all the way. And her sleeping face is like someone took ten adorable cats and blended them all together for one lethal dose of cuteness! That super tiny curl of her lips, the way she sleeps on her side with her cute hands all relaxed like that and her fingers just asking for me to grab them!
Finishing up in the bath – again – Kurumi swallowed, sneaking toward the bed. Turning off the lights while she was at it, she very slowly squatted down next to the bed, looking at Hikari's face in the dark. "Hikari..." Whispering so quietly she almost couldn't hear her own words, Kurumi felt like she was gonna get struck by lightning any second now.
Slowly raising the cover and slipping under it, Kurumi managed to avoid waking up Hikari. I'm so close to her. Ah crap my heart is beating as loud as the drums at a rock festival. Shuffling around under the covers, Kurumi turned away from Hikari. I'll never be able to get any sleep at all if I keep looking at her.
…
I can hear her breathing. Even that's cute… I really managed to land myself a total angel. If I mess this up I might as well throw myself into the ocean. No. I won't mess it up! I'll not only be the best Kurumi I can be, I'll go above and beyond! Plus Kurumi! Break through my limitations!
Trying to keep her eyes closed, she was far too aware of Hikari's presence and sounds to fall asleep. I can't sleep. And… easier said than done, being better than my best self. I need help! Help! How do I become… I know! I got the most reliable team leader ever when it comes to improving yourself! I'll just ask her tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
How am I gonna make it through the night?
Hikari let out a very quiet, very faint moan, rolled over entirely once and was now lightly touching Kurumi's back. That night Kurumi would not find much rest.
At the very top of the light side was Mint – able to retain her first position ranking through both effort and luck. And while most of the hotel was ready to go to sleep, or already sleep, Komachi was hard at work. Having bought a very affordable typewriter for two thousand yen and paper for another two thousand yen, she was typing up a storm.
Karen was there with her, enjoying the benefit of being the girlfriend of the top ranking girl. Putting a cup of coffee down on the makeup table that Komachi had converted into a work desk, Karen watched the words just fly out of Komachi's fingers. She had barely looked for a few seconds when Komachi stopped and leaned back into her chair. "Don't stop. I won't look."
"That's not it. I have to think about the next scene. I could use a break." Grabbing the cup that Karen had set down, Komachi blew air on the hot coffee twice before looking up. "It really feels good to work again."
"You look really intense when working, did you know that?" Karen waited for Komachi to stand up and join her, the two of them slowly walking together toward the balcony, bathed in the dark of the night.
"What, really?" Komachi was surprised to hear that. "How intense?"
"As intense as Rin during a fight."
"No wonder my face sometimes hurt after working for fourteen hours straight."
Reaching the outside, both of them went to the guard rail, leaning on it, cups filled with hot coffee to warm them against the night. "At least the snow finally stopped. Imagine if we all had to shovel snow tomorrow." Karen was not a friend of menial labor at all.
"We could just get Rin to melt it all down. Akane too." Komachi looked down at the plaza. The snow is still piled up. Hopefully it'll melt in the morning. "Can you imagine their faces?"
"They'd be so mad." Karen chuckled and looked ahead into the night. "What was the inspiration for the story you're writing?"
"Everyone here. It's an epic story about two warring kingdoms – Yamato and Nadeshiko. Both sides are lead by corrupt officials and while they are embroiled in a century long war, but both sides also have beautiful, good, pure people working to change things. The story follows the Grand General of the Yamato army, Saigai no Mikoto."
"Saigai? Like the Calamity?"
"She is named that because her fighting ability is superhuman and other, smaller countries consider her a natural disaster in human form. Oh, I forgot to mention, they do have magical powers in these countries."
"So what's Mikoto's power?"
"She controls water with incredible precision. As long as she has a gourd of water with her, she can create any weapon she wants and cut through practically anything. She can also make a river swell and flood an entire enemy encampment to wipe it clean off the maps."
"Does she perhaps have long flowing hair and prefers to wear a long skirt?"
"I didn't copy you that much. She has actually short, frisky hair and a hot temper. She is also the eternal rival of Ten no Megumi."
"The heavenly grace? Those are some really fancy names."
"Megumi is a very kind and caring woman that becomes a demon on the battlefield. Those on her side know as as Ten no Megumi while her enemies refer to her as the Makai no Shikei, Hell's executioner. She ismodeled after both-
"I know exactly who she's modeled after. I know our klutzy leader will be overjoyed, but what about Urara?"
"Urara doesn't have to know."
"Oh, living dangerous, are we?" Karen laughed softly and drank from her coffee. "So, how do they fall in love?"
"I never said they fall in love." Komachi tried to dodge the knowing look that Karen gave her but failed. "Okay, they fall in love."
"Do they meet in battle- wait, they're already rivals. So something major has to happen."
"Mikoto has too much sway with the empress of Yamato so one of the consorts stabs her in the back and frames her for an assassination plot committed with water magic while orchestrating that her actual whereabouts are unknown. So Mikoto is sentenced to death but escapes. I didn't get further than that yet, but I plan to have her escape to Nadeshiko where she will meet Megumi and learn that she is a great person."
"I'm not sure how to feel about my character dating Urara's character. Why isn't Megumi modeled after you?"
"Never insert yourself into a story, every author knows that."
"What happened to that idea about witches?"
"Another story, another time." Komachi sipped on her coffee. "When I lived all on my own I used to often pull allnighters writing. But I think it's about time I let the ink take a rest and go to bed. I saw all three of the yawns you kept back." Komachi turned around and took another sip. "I'll go brush my teeth."
Three yawns huh? I must be slipping if I only managed to keep half of them hidden. Looking down at the plaza again, Karen saw someone sneak off into the night. Peering as hard as she could, she managed to make out who it was and smiled wide. Going out late at night, Miyuki? Now I wonder who you could be meeting. Chuckling, turning about and going inside, Karen closed the door. If another blizzard hits I don't want to wake up as a popsicle.
Down below the fog swallowed a girl that hurried through the snow, every step a loud creak. Not exactly like a ninja but I'm not Inori. Coming out the other side, Miyuki looked across a winter wonderland, the mountains covered in snow after a surprise attack from grandfather winter.
Looking down at the snow, she saw footsteps. She's already here! A secret meeting at midnight, in the snowy mountains! She really knows how to make my heart race! After yesterday… I was worried I might have freaked her out. But it turns out the whole girlfriend thing is a lot easier and less stressful than I thought! Just being myself is good enough!
Happily following the footsteps, Miyuki came to a small clearing just off the beaten track; the moon unencumbered shining down on the girl she had just realized the day before she was in love with, a subtle wind pushing the freezing air against her heated cheeks puffed with excitement.
Turning about, Miyuki waved to her girlfriend, to her love she met at midnight. "Ayumi!"
=== END OF CHAPTER XXXV ===
