Rain poured and splashed against the window of Kiriko's mother's car. The sound of it was relaxing, maybe too relaxing as it left Kiriko heavy-lidded and feeling the need to yawn every two minutes. It was a dark and cloudy Monday, full of traffic and rain. Today, Kiriko's mom, Konomi, offered to drive her to school and of course Kiriko would never say no to a ride to school, especially in weather like this.
This weekend had been awfully busy for Kiriko. Between work, homework, and encountering Jack from Asperity for the second time, Kiriko had almost zero time for herself today. As Kiriko looked out the window, she thought about her plans for today. School, work on an assignment during lunch that was due today, and attend a last-minute planned student council meeting. Kiriko was undoubtedly in for a long day.
"With the amount of time I have to myself, its no wonder that Rani and Nova were suspicious of me." Kiriko thought to herself as a wave of guilt crashed over her while she thought about what happened between her and the fairies yesterday.
Rani and Nova had requested to have a talk with Kiriko, and while the latter was unsure of why they wanted to, she complied without question.
"Kiriko, we've been meaning to ask you a set of questions…" Nova began hesitantly.
"Like what?" Kiriko asked in a rather naïve voice that annoyed Nova slightly.
"Why do you work?" Rani blurted out," You're in high-school, already busy as is, not to mention your family seems well-off and-"
"- I work because I'm going to have quite a few expenses in a year from now. See, as a third-year, I'm going to graduate from high-school very soon and then I'm going to University. In University, some things, such as textbooks are really expensive, with some of them costing thousands of yen." Kiriko explained, " I know I'm already busy but I really don't mind it and I don't like the idea of relying on my parents for that kinda stuff."
Kiriko looked at Rani and Nova, noticing that they didn't seem satisfied with her answer just yet. So Kiriko decided to continue.
" I'm going to Law School so, in order to have good grades, I need to go to cram school to ensure I can excel in my studies and the school I'm applying to is looking for students with that display leadership skills, its sorta prestigious, so that's why I'm a part of student council. Does that answer your guys' questions?" Kiriko asked with a small sigh following after.
Rani and Nova looked at each other and the former said to Kiriko, " So, now that we know what you have to deal with on a weekly basis, I think we understand why you were originally so hesitant on being a Pretty Cure. But still, even if we understand why, we can't reverse what happened. Like it or not Kiriko, you've been chosen. And from what we've seen, it was no mistake."
" I know, I know I'm all you've got. So, I'll try my best to help you and live my life normally. I know I might not be the most reliable, but I've been thinking about this and… I really do want to be of some help to you guys. So try and patient with and the fact that I just can't completely change my whole lifestyle for you guys." Kiriko stated.
"We aren't asking you to, we want to help you and we're going to do that by finding the next Pretty Cure!" Rani declared determinedly.
"Later on we all gazed into the mirror of my PlayPact, Rani and Nova said it like a very weak form of fortune-telling and then we asked the mirror what the next Pretty Cure looked like." Kiriko thought to herself as she took out the compact from her bag, " It wouldn't show us that, so we had to ask it a bunch of other questions before we were given something to work with."
Kiriko and the fairies had a clear image to associate with the next Pretty Cure. Whoever she was, she enjoyed desserts, with her favourite one being what had appeared to be a salted caramel cheesecake. The girls had been asking the easiest of questions like what the next Cure's name was, what school she went to, and how old she was but the mirror didn't project a thing until Kiriko impatiently asked what the girl's favourite dessert was. To their surprise, the mirror displayed a picture of a caramel cheesecake.
"This is our first clue…?" Was the only thought that ran through everyone's mind.
"This doesn't seem easy now that I think about it…" Kiriko said quietly to herself as she reached the school.
"Big test today or something?" Konomi asked idly while looking for a spot to park.
"Yeah, I guess I'll just have to work extra hard though." Kiriko responded with a fake smile on her face. Kiriko exited her mom's car and walked to the school from the parking lot. It seemed to have gotten colder this morning, making Kiriko thankful that her mom forced her to bring her dark grey jacket to school. As Kiriko opened her umbrella, she watched the groups of people around her walking to the school. There were second-year girls a few feet ahead of her, chattering away in lively voices about their weekends. Kiriko then looked around and realized it wasn't just them, many students had formed little groups around her and were talking amongst themselves on this cold, gloomy walk to the school.
"Too bad Hayase and Takeshi come from the opposite direction." Kiriko said to herself as she surveyed the group of second-year girls in front of her," Rani and Nova asked me if I had some ideas for who the next Pretty Cure might be. They even asked me if I suspected any of my friends to be Pretty Cures. I've got this awful habit of keeping to myself, so I'm not sure if I can go as far at to consider the girls in my class to be my friends. But, I guess that doesn't mean they couldn't be potentialleads. Instead of keeping an eye on my classmates to see who would be the most likely to be a Pretty Cure, it would probably be easier to just scout areas that sell desserts."
Kiriko then thought about the fact that searching areas that were full of desserts meant that she could probably get to eat a bunch of desserts in the process.
"Maybe this won't be as bad as I thought it would." Kiriko mused to herself, before she heard the sounds of the school bells ring.
Rani and Nova were staying inside Kiriko's room for the day, with the two of them feeling somewhat counterproductive as they waited around restlessly for Kiriko's return from school. Today was definitely not shaping up to be the best day to search for the next Pretty Cure with these weather conditions, not to mention it was a school day so chances were that the next Pretty Cure would be in class for the majority of the day.
Nova seemed to have been getting rather bored with all this lying around, knowing that she could've been making better use of her time. Kiriko had left some snacks for the two of them for when they got hungry and Nova began to eat a large cookie with royal blue icing.
Rani, however, decided to use this time to relax and enjoy herself by reading the picture book that Kiriko had checked out from the library. Nova then walked up towards her and joined her in reading the picture book.
"Are you actually enjoying staying indoors like this?" Nova asked Rani as she offered half of her sugar cookie.
"Well, it's not like we can do anything about the weather, so we might as well use this time to unwind." Rani said as she placed her hand on one of the pages, marveling at the sparkly texture on it," We haven't done anything like this in a while. All we've been doing these last few days is searching endlessly for the next Pretty Cure. Even we need some time to ourselves."
Nova then sighed in defeat and sat down next to Rani, asking her," So what is this book about?"
"It's about a girl who rides a black horse with a golden mane and wings, I think it's called a pegasus, and she travels around in the night and helps ward off nightmares in everyone's dreams." Rani answered as she pointed to a picture of the story's main character. The main character had long dark red hair and had a large smile on her face as she rode the pegasus.
"She's fearless, cares for others and very passionate. It would be nice if the next Cure was like her." Rani commented as she and Nova kept looking at the picture of the girl," What do you think the next Cure will be like?"
"Hm...I can honestly say...that I have no idea." Nova replied,"As long as she's not as busy as Kiriko, I'll be more than happy to have her on the team."
Kiriko planned to begin the search for the next Pretty Cure after school today. She checked the weather and found out that the rain was supposed to clear up, and since the meeting with student council likely wasn't going to last very long, she perfect opportunity to look around when most high-school kids would be taking detours home.
During her class as she was listening to the teacher's lecture, Kiriko had her phone in her lap, searching up cafe to get cheesecake from. Dozens came up, much to Kiriko's distress as she wrote them all down in her notes. But Kiriko was now intent on finding this next Cure, even if she had little information to work with. Kiriko finally figured that with a second Pretty Cure around, she wouldn't have to be worrying about over-exerting herself and all her energy towards defeating Jack of Asperity every time he appeared. She had more important (well, important to her) things to do.
"Don't forget we're finishing our novel study book by the end of this week, and I want a rough copy of the essay for the book done by the end of next week." The teacher announced to the class.
Kiriko's eyes widened in fear as she took a break from writing out her cafe list.
"I forgot all about working on my rough copy! I haven't even started it, and I had all that time after work on Saturday too!" Kiriko lamented in her head," Just what the heck was I-?! Oh yeah, I had taken a nap for a few hours when I got home 'cuz I was so exhausted from that fight with that Defective."
Kiriko then sighed and continued to add her cafe list," It's fine, I can just work on it after school on Friday. Looking for the next Pretty Cure is more important right now!"
In Kiriko's next class, she had been assigned to write a paper titled "Where I see myself in five years". Everyone else around her seemed indifferent to this assignment as they wrote the deadline for the paper in their agendas, while Kiriko stared at the board incredulously.
"Are you kidding me? We just got an essay assigned for Literature and now we have to do a 4-paged single spaced paper? I'm gonna have an aneurysm from all this writing!" Kiriko whispered to the student, Norika, in front of her.
"Yeah, I thought we were going to have less work assigned right after the midterms." Norika whispered," At least most of us are just about done are rough copies for Literature. How far have you gotten on yours?"
"Oh, um, I'm almost done! Just need to make some final adjustments and I'm good to go!" Kiriko lied as she avoided eye-contact with Norika,"I'll probably need to stay up late on Friday night. At least I start work at eleven the next day, so I don't have to get up as early. This is ok, it's manageable, I guess things could be worse anyways."
"So has everyone decided on what topic they wanted to cover for this year's Science fair?" Kiriko's Science teacher asked the classroom. Kiriko felt like she was ready to call it a day, all she wanted wanted to do now was retreat to her home and lock herself into her room and work on all her homework in isolation for the next few days. The more Kiriko thought about just working on these projects without interruption for the next few days, the more lenient she became. It would've made more sense anyways to just clear these projects, at least the majority of them while she could so she wouldn't have to stress about them for the next few days. And besides, who knew when next Jack would show up again? He could appear and disappear out of her life when he pleased, deadlines for her projects couldn't.
At the end of Kiriko's school day, she had convinced herself to postpone her search for the second Pretty Cure and just do her homework right after her meeting. She realized even if she went to as many cafes as she could today and scope the area for the next Cure, that didn't necessarily mean the second Cure would be found today. Kiriko decided she didn't have any time to risk wasting time so she left her classroom to attend the meeting without any regrets.
"I'm sure Rani and Nova will understand. They already know I'm extremely busy anyways, it's only to be expected." Kiriko said aloud, feeling as if a large weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
Kiriko took her seat next to her fellow members Hayase and Takeshi in the classroom where the meetings were held and the meeting began. It went just as Kiriko hoped, nothing as major as she thought it would be and no crucial deadlines or tasks were thrown at her. Kiriko surmised that the only reason that the meeting was held today and ran like a regular meeting was because either Hayase or Takeshi were unavailable for their regular times this week. While Kiriko took notes during the meeting, she took notice of the first year class-representatives listening intently to Hayase, with quite a few of them giving their input and feedback. The second year class-representatives were much quieter in comparison, but they had always been that way.
Kiriko paid close attention to one student who was quick to comment on whatever Hayase had to say, not in a negative manner, it was as if the student just desperately wanted Hayase's attention. The student seemed rather fond of giving suggestions, and some of them were actually pretty useful.
"He's really passionate about this stuff. It's kinda obvious that he wants to be student council when the three of us are gone." Kiriko thought to herself.
"Furthermore, I think bringing back soft drinks to the vending machines wouldn't be a good idea because it would make us look like we aren't considerate about the student body's health." The student concluded.
Hayase then turned his head to Kiriko, giving her a skeptical look. Kiriko simply shrugged and Hayase gave his attention back to the student.
"As of right now Osashi, the selection of beverages in the school's vending machines is no longer in our control. We had already convinced the principal to bring them back and to only ask him to send them back when they've already been placed back into the machines would not only irritate the principal, but the students as well. And it's not as if they're the only beverages sold in the machines. There's bottled vitamin water and coffee in there too." Hayase responded briskly as he pushed up his glasses, with a few other students nodding their heads in response.
"But I heard vitamin water's got lots of sugars inside it." One girl, a second-year class rep pointed out as she typed notes into her laptop.
Osashi noticed that he was alone on this side of the debate and stayed quiet for the remainder of the meeting.
The meeting had been adjourned once two more topics were discussed. Kiriko was getting ready to go home now, feeling unusually excited to start her homework when Hayase walked up towards her.
"Hey Kiriko, did you want to work on homework together? I had some math homework I was having some issues with and I thought you'd probably be a great help." Hayase explained.
"Sure, I guess." Kiriko answered as she and Hayase walked out of the classroom," But it's sorta late now, I'm not sure if any of the classrooms are gonna still be open."
"That's ok, we could probably go to the library or something." Hayase replied as the two of them started to walk out of the school," Then again, the library is kinda far from here, have any other suggestions?"
An idea then suddenly came to Kiriko. Excitedly, she looked through her list of cafes and located the one closest to them. She then took a hold of Hayase's hand tightly and start to lead him to the cafe. The cafe was a lot closer than Kiriko expected and in less than fifteen minutes, the two of them were standing right in front of it.
"Cafe Rosewood? Is this place any good?" Hayase asked as the two of them stared at the front of the cafe.
"I'm not sure yet! I read some reviews online and it sounded really good so I thought, why not try it out?" Kiriko explained with a forced laugh following afterwards.
The two of them smelt what seemed to be bread flowing out from the cafe. They breathed it in and both released a relaxed sigh afterwards.
Hayase then said, "You know I heard that some bakeries and cafes use-"
"-Store signs with scents integrated in them?" Kiriko finished, not even the slightest bit surprised that he was thinking the same thing as her,"Either way, this place looks promising. Come on, let's go inside!"
Kiriko and Hayase entered the cafe and were astounded to find out that it was much larger than it appeared to be from outside. The walls of the cafe were a bright white, and the tables and booths were an eggshell colour. There were a lot of green ornate decorations and detailing found all around the cafe; there was some on the legs of the chairs and tables, on the walls, and even on the uniform shirts of the waiters at the cafe. It reminded Kiriko of vines. The cafe was also full of students, some of them from Kiriko's school and some from other schools. Sunlight poured in from the cafe's windows, it appeared that the rain had cleared up for the day.
A waitress then noticed the two of them standing at the front of the store and then walked up towards them. The waitress was very cheerful and wore a large smile on her face as she approached the two of them. She then lead them to a booth and gave them a pair of menus. They flipped through the menus in bewilderment, both of them having no idea a cafe could have so many desserts on a menu.
"I have no idea what to get. What about you, what looks good?" Kiriko questioned.
"Everything." Hayase answered sheepishly as he stared down at the menu.
Kiriko laughed at Hayase's answer and continued to look through the menu. She then noticed there was a caramel cheesecake on it and all of a sudden seemed a bit nervous.
"That's right, I've got a super important task on my hands right now! I have to be on the look-out for the next Cure!" Kiriko reminded herself," There has to be someone else here eating a caramel cheesecake. At least, there should be. I might have to order it myself if no one's eating it. Maybe the cheesecake will attract the next Pretty Cure? Oh what am I thinking, they're not some kinda of bug."
"So, are you two ready to order?" The waitress asked as she arrived at their table again, startling Kiriko in the process.
"I'll take a slice of the strawberry shortcake." Hayase ordered as he handed the waitress his menu.
"And I'll have a slice of the caramel cheesecake." Kiriko ordered as the waitress took her menu and left the two of them.
"Wait there was cheesecake on the menu? I wish I saw it before, I love cheesecake." Hayase confessed awkwardly,"Let me have a slice of yours when the orders come?"
Kiriko nodded and then the two of them pulled out their books and got to work.
"Today might end up being a bust. But this wasn't a bad idea though. Why didn't I think of working on homework at the cafe before?"
Kiriko looked around the cafe and watched as groups of kids around her were eating desserts and working on homework just like her and Hayase. It didn't seem like anyone had ordered a cheesecake, but Kiriko didn't seem to care right now. Kiriko then tried to remember when was the last time she had spent time with a friend like this. She thought about it for awhile and was unable to recall.
"I'm pretty sure going into a cafe like this all by myself would've made me felt lonely, so I'm glad I got to bring Hayase along." Kiriko thought to herself, just before an odd thought came to her," Could the cheesecake have been hinting to Hayase?"
With his jet black hair cut into a fade and fair skin along with blue-green eyes, Hayase could've easily been a magical boy without any transformation needed. Hayase and Kiriko had been friends for a pretty long time now, ever since their first year in high-school, so having him as a teammate would've been pretty nice since they already knew they worked well together.
The thought of him being a Pretty Cure though started to make Kiriko laugh, causing Hayase to look at her in confusion.
Outside of the cafe stood a tall man with black hair that was a slate colour at the tips and grey eyes obscured by an awfully large pair of goggles. He wore a lab coat with odd dots and lines around it and black pants. He surveyed his surroundings very carefully in search of something, literally leaving no stone unturned. He looked beneath a bench and didn't see anything noteworthy, though he seemed oddly delighted by his findings.
"Would you look at that, there's nothing here!" The man remarked with a look of excitement appearing to his face," Such a wondrous occasion to exit my home, venture off into the unknown and find absolutely nothing!"
The man then stood from beneath the bench and sat on top of a recycling bin," There's always something around, it's quite easy to find something. So, to find nothing, an absence of anything, surely there must be something worth celebrating in that."
"Too bad little Jack's gotten in trouble today. I think he would've quite enjoyed searching for nothing with me today." The man said," However, just because I've found nothing, doesn't mean I'll be doing nothing."
He then saw a group of middle-schoolers walking down his path and sets his eyes on only one of them.
"She'll make an excellent target." The man said as he retrieved a blue vial from inside his pocket.
Kiriko and Hayase received their orders and were both just about done eat their cakes. Kiriko however seemed less enthusiastic about finishing her her slice of cheesecake as she poked away at it with her fork.
"Had enough?" Hayase asked with a forced chuckle.
"The caramel on top of it is way too sweet." Kiriko admitted as she pushed the plate back," Did you want to finish it?"
Hayase wasn't paying attention to her and was instead looking at the group of kids crowded at the windows of the cafe.
"Sorry, I wasn't listening but yeah, I'll finish it." Hayase answered inattentively as he returned his attention to Kiriko.
Kiriko fixed her gaze on the crowd of kids around the windows, as she said," Come on, let's find out what's happening."
So Kiriko and Hayase got up from the booth and walked over towards the crowd to join them. The two of them were having some difficulty to reach the front, but they really didn't need to as they were tall enough to see over the kids in front of them. Outside of the window was a giant monstrous lamp in the cafe's front yard, holding two girls hostage.
"Not this again..." Kiriko said to herself quietly as she tried to think of a way to leave the cafe," No one but Hayase would notice if I disappeared right now, but I can't stand around here, knowing those girls could get hurt any moment now."
Without a second thought, Kiriko ran towards the front doors and exited the cafe. She then headed to the side of the building and retrieved her PlayPact from inside her pocket.
"Pretty Cure, it's Playtime!" Kiriko shouted as a mass of lilac and white lights appeared from her PlayPact.
The lights enveloped Kiriko and within a few moments, Cure Dolly was in her place.
"The princess of wishes, Cure Dolly!" Dolly introduced.
Dolly then marched up to the Defective, who was still holding the two girls and said to it," Leave those two alone!"
The tall man from before was sitting at the top of the fountain in the cafe's front yard, studying Cure Dolly as she confronted the Defective. The Defective than flashed a blinding light in Dolly's face, causing her to shield her eyes. Watching Dolly make a spectacle of herself was quite amusing to Domino.
"That's weird, I don't think Jack's here today." Dolly stated quietly with her eyes shut, but not quiet enough that Jack couldn't hear her.
"Correct!" The man exclaimed as he stood up on top of the fountain, finally getting Dolly's attention," Jack got in trouble from failing to put an end to you so I have stepped in to give him a hand. The name's Domino."
Domino then put his goggles on properly and declared eagerly," Now then, let's see how you'll measure up against my Defective, Cure Dolly."
Cure Dolly then jumped up very high and delivered the first blow to the Defective. She gave a very swift and powerful kick, causing it to only stagger a few feet backwards. The Defective required little time to recover and so it threw a punch to Dolly with one of the girls in hand. Dolly dodged it quite easily and attempted to land another kick onto the Defective. But this time it didn't work as the Defective evaded her attack. Dolly then returned to the ground and tried to figure out a plan.
"I won't have any luck trying to fight this Defective if it's holding the girls hostage." Dolly stated as she examined the Defective very closely," This won't be easy, but I can't keep fighting this Defective with those girls in the way."
Dolly's eyes then widened as an idea came to her, as she started to run towards the Defective," It's a shot in the dark, but it's all I've got right now!"
Inside the cafe, the kids from before were still crowding around the windows, now appearing to be more excited as they watched Dolly fight against the Defective. In fact, even more kids had started to watch from the windows when Dolly had made an appearance.
"Do you think it's some kinda PR stunt to promote the cafe?" One of the guys standing next to the windows asked.
"No way, this cafe doesn't need a promotion like that!" Another student shouted.
"But then that means this fight's for real then and that girl's there all by herself." Another student pointed out.
"Will she be ok?" One of the girls asked as they all continued to watch the fight, now appearing to be a bit more apprehensive as the fight dragged on.
Dolly was a few feet away from the Defective now and glared at the Defective as she jumped up. Both the Defective and Domino expected her to be jumping towards it's center, but instead, she leapt to it's knees and kicked the right one as hard as she could. The Defective then let the two girls go out of reflex to tend to it's injured knee. The girls were then descending to the ground and so, Cure Dolly pulled out her PlayPact and held it in front of herself.
"Create a gale of wind around the girls to bring them to the ground safely!" Dolly commanded. Her PlayPact did as instructed and a gale of wind emerged out from the PlayPact.
Once the girls reached the ground, they both ran away from the scene at breakneck speed.
Domino seemed rather unimpressed as he watched the girls take their leave," And they were going to make such good subjects to use for my Defective."
Cure Dolly started to give a number of punches towards the Defective, who was quick enough to dodge nearly all of her attacks. The Defective grabbed her wrists while she was carelessly attacking and tossed her into the fountain that Domino was sitting at.
"Painful, isn't it?" Domino asked her expectantly as she felt a shiver crawl down her spine.
"I oughta toss that Defective in the water just to get even..." Dolly grumbled to herself," Wait, the Defective is a lamp, so maybe it'll take just as much damage from the water as if it were a regular lamp?"
Dolly then scrutinized the Defective, taking note of the fact that it wasn't possible to submerge it into the fountain," I would just have to soak the bulb though wouldn't I? Even then, to throw it into the fountain and hope that it's bulb had been hit with water isn't the most effective plan."
As Dolly was devising her strategy, she then remembered the pretend mode she had on her PlayPact. She looked down to her PlayPact, putting her hand on it cautiously.
"Would I be able to use the pretend mode on the fountain?" Dolly asked herself in a low voice," It's not the fountain that's the Defective, so it might not work. But...it is called the pretend mode, so by that logic, the PlayPact should be able to pretend it can have powers from water right?"
"It's worth a shot." Dolly concluded as she shut her eyes and focussed her energy into the PlayPact.
"Let's play pretend!" Dolly shouted as she held her PlayPact up high. Dolly's PlayPact was glowing violet, blue and white as she held the PlayPact in front of herself. A tendril of water then flew out from Dolly's PlayPact and drenched the Defective. The Defective then started to short-circuit and flail about uncontrollably.
"Now's my only chance!" Dolly said as she darted up towards the Defective. Dolly wasted no time in jumping up towards the Defective and kicking the bulb of the Defective so hard that it shattered open. The Defective was defeated and fell backwards, unable to move.
"Pretty Cure, Wishing Enchant!" Dolly cried out as the atmosphere around her and the Defective turned pink and lilac. The Defective was cleansed and returned back to it's original form.
At the cafe, all the students from before were all talking about the fight they just saw. Everyone was unable to believe what they just saw and a many of them were left with questions. They did seem to have been amazed as they talked about the fight and Cure Dolly amongst themselves.
"Do you think this is going to happen again?" One student asked.
"That girl was really brave! She fought that huge lamp all by herself and didn't even get scared." Another student remarked," I don't think I could ever do something like that."
"I wonder where she ran off to...maybe she went to search for more monsters!" Another student theorized.
"Another member of Asperity showed up?" Rani asked nervously. The three of them were in Kiriko's bedroom now. Kiriko had just got home from the cafe and was about to take a shower. Kiriko sat crossed-legged on her bed and nodded.
"His name is Domino. He seems less eccentric than Jack, actually...he's just a different kind of weird compared to Jack. But yeah, Domino appeared and made a Defective. I defeated it but, I didn't find the next Pretty Cure today." Kiriko explained.
"So, you fought another Defective all by yourself?" Nova asked, receiving a nod from Kiriko.
Suddenly, Kiriko felt as if she was forgetting something. When she remembered, she felt her heart sink for a moment.
"I left Hayase behind." Kiriko said to herself in a disappointed voice," It should be fine. In all the excitement, he must've thought we got separated or something."
A few days had passed since the incident and the weekend came again. Kiriko was found standing at register, feeling slightly annoyed with herself for not finding the next Pretty Cure as of yet. It had been a busy week for her, as usual and after Monday, she had less time to herself than she realized and completely put off looking for the second Pretty Cure.
"It's bad enough that I didn't get to search for the next Pretty Cure yesterday because of all the class work I had to do, but now I gotta stay back an extra hour today because Yuna called in sick." Kiriko thought to herself.
"Hey Kiriko, did you see the new items we got on the menu?" Ayaru asked as he walked up to her with a menu in hand," They've been pretty popular this morning, especially the caramel cheesecake!"
Kiriko's eyes widened greatly as she heard that and looked at the menu Ayaru handed to her," The what?"
Pictured on the menu was the exact same cheesecake that the PlayPact had shown to Kiriko and the fairies, much to her surprise.
"Wow, it sure looks good!" Kiriko remarked awkwardly," Maybe we should ask the guests what they think of the newest additions. You know, to see if it needs improvements."
"That's a good idea!" Ayaru replied in excitement," If you want, you could start with that table over there."
Kiriko saw the table that had a girl who seemed to be in high-school with her mother. Kiriko felt that the girl looked familiar, but she couldn't really figure out just where she had seen her. She anxiously walked up towards the table, putting on a welcoming face as she smiled to the two of them.
"So, how are you guys enjoying your meal?" Kiriko asked as her eyes met the younger girl's. Out of nowhere, she felt something that she wasn't able to describe flowing out from the girl.
"The energy or, maybe even magic, she has, it's kinda like my own...no, it's not just similar to it. I think it's identical."