Kiriko was organizing papers with Hayase after their student council meeting. Today's meeting had gone better than the two of them expected with very little disagreements between them and the rest of the council and time was spent wisely through useful discussions for once. They had been ahead of schedule, and knowing the younger kids present, Kiriko and Hayase made the decision to adjourn the meeting early so that they could head home earlier. The younger members of the council were happy since they wouldn't have to worry about traffic on the way home now. The only people left in the room were herself and Hayase collecting the reports and insuring that the room was clean before they took their leave. Tadashi would've stayed back with the two of them to help clean up, but they let him leave to unpack his stuff from his trip to Okinawa.

"So Kiriko, do you have any plans today?" Hayase asked casually," Maybe we could take a detour and go study at that cafe from last time."

"Plans?" Kiriko repeated, trying to picture her schedule and see if she was available,"Ah, I won't be able to today, my cram school session from yesterday had been moved to tonight since my teacher had an appointment to attend, maybe some other time?"

"Sure, what about this weekend?" Hayase offered, sounding somewhat eager but Kiriko failed to notice.

"Hm, this weekend...no I can't. My sister wants to hang out this 's coming back home from college." Kiriko explained as the two of them walked out of the classroom.

"I thought she always came back home on the weekends." Hayase said as Kiriko awkwardly averted her gaze from him.

"Well..." Kiriko began," Lately, school hasn't been kind to her so she's been getting a lot of assignments. She claims that she'll get too relaxed if she comes home so she's just been staying at her dorm on the weekends."

"A lot of assignments? Wasn't she studying to be an actress?" Hayase questioned curiously.

"She still gets assigned a lot of work, I don't know how she does it." Kiriko responded as they continued to walk," Plus, I think she's taken a liking to Tokyo. She loves the city's energy, and she had been going to auditions nonstop during this last month."

"Did she land any roles?" Hayase asked as the two of them walked out of the school building.

"A few callbacks here and there, some really small roles, nothing too life-changing. No big break yet." Kiriko answered as she checked the time on her phone," Oh gosh, it's that late already? I got a train to catch so I'll see you tomorrow ok?"

Hayase nodded and waved goodbye to Kiriko as she left.

On the other side of the school building, Asuna and her friends could be found crowding around a pair of tables, chatting amongst themselves. There weren't many people left at the school now, only some janitors, and a few students were being held back by their clubs. Seeing Asuna's friends staying back so late might've been surprising to see to some of the other students from the school

The girls of the group were sitting around one table and the boys were sitting at the other table, some sitting regularly and others sitting on top of the table.

"Ok so I still can't believe this girl, skinny as a toothpick and dressed in a bunch of frilly clothes comes in outta nowhere and starts wailing on this thing." Reo said to the rest of the group, though they too had been there to witness the girl in action, "She was going hard, man. Wouldn't stop fighting for a second. It was crazy she was like, like..."

"...Don't be mean to my friend or I'm gonna punish you!" Reo reenacted, in a high-pitched voice as he stood on top of the table.

Asuna rolled her eyes as the rest of her friends laughed at Reo.

"But, I think I heard about her though. Kids from our school were talking about how they saw a girl in frilly clothes fight against a big monster like that near that cafe a few weeks back." Misa noted as excitement crept up into her voice," Do you think we'll see them again? Oh that's right! Asuna, did you get a chance to see those girls in action? We made you stay downstairs to barricade the doors, so I guess not...?"

All eyes went straight to Asuna who was drinking from a juice box. Asuna remained silent for a few moments, just to leave her friends in suspense.

"That girl was an ok fighter. She was real determined though. She just kept going at it." Asuna stated, hoping her friends wouldn't be able to tell that she was lying.

They didn't have the slightest clue, with Reo exclaiming," That's what I said! Like she just kept punching and kicking like her life depended on it. It was insane. It sucks we didn't get a picture of her or something."

Asuna watched as her friends continued to talk about her alter-ego and felt awfully uncomfortable listening to them. It was nice to finally have something worth getting excited for in her otherwise dull life, but to have her friends know and talk about it right in front of her? Asuna was unsure of what to do. She didn't want to look suspicious if she tried changing the topic plus despite the embarrassment that came with her friends seeing her like that it almost felt good to have been commended by her friends.

Asuna then pulled out the test sheet she got today from her teacher. A seventy-eight percent was written in red ink. When Asuna had saw it today, she couldn't believe her eyes, it was like Christmas morning seeing that grade. Part of her still didn't believe that she scored so high, but she wasn't complaining. Now she really felt like she had to do something in return for Hayase. Another thank you was definitely in order, just the thought of it made Asuna smile but then she thought of what would happen afterwards. Hayase probably would've been brief with her, said 'You're welcome' and return to his busy life.

The thought of the "Morino" incident still stung and Asuna, who wasn't usually one to overthink actions, couldn't get those words out of her mind. Asuna shook her head and put her test sheet back into her bag. After looking at her test page, Asuna reminded herself that she also needed to tell Kiriko about the grade she received, since Kiriko had been interested in knowing what her new score was. Asuna was still debating on whether or not she should tell Kiriko about the help she received from Hayase. She had been worrying about how Kiriko would respond to hearing that her tutoring wasn't easy to follow.

Kiriko was sitting inside a large classroom lit by very bright lights and without an empty seat in the classroom. Students were writing down notes meticulously, not unlike Kiriko and the teacher was explaining an equation he had on the board.

As the teacher went through his lecture, Kiriko took a short break from writing her notes and started to look around her classroom. Most of the students weren't from her school, it was blatantly obvious by the uniforms they wore. The only students that Kiriko was able to recognize was the pair of girls who sat in the row in front of her. During their in-class break the two girls talked a lot and went to Kiriko's neighboring school. Aya and Wakame, she recalled their names to be. The rest of the students did not talk very much, many of them were much too focused on their studies to socialize with the rest of the students.

Cram school, though useful, was a lonely place at times. No one really made an effort to talk to Kiriko or paid much attention to her and while she was ok with that at first, the isolation in cram school was slowly getting to her. Kiriko had been going to this cram school for about a year now, ever since the start of second year. She knew most, if not all the kids by name but very little about them. A lot of them didn't seem interest in making friends here, but they didn't appear indifferent or aloof, just really dedicated to their studies. Kiriko understood where they were coming from, she had been just like them a few months ago but these last couple of weeks really made her realize how little control she felt she had on her life.

Kiriko was snapped out of her thoughts as she heard Aya and Wakame burst into laughter.

"So, the girl literally threw his Superiority sweater inches away from a puddle when she was giving him back all his stuff and he looked so mad, and he just said 'So that's how it's gonna be huh?' " Wakame told Aya, who was continuing to laugh.

Kiriko laughed quietly, in hopes the two of them wouldn't notice her listening in on them. Though they seemed like nice girls, Kiriko was unwilling to initiate contact with them. She didn't think much of her lack of interest in talking to them, despite how lonesome cram school would feel. Kiriko always just considered it a place of study, to hone and sharpen your academic skills, nothing more nothing less. But lately, Kiriko had started to think differently about a lot of things with cram school being no exception.

When her cram school session ended, Kiriko went on the train going back home. The train was quiet and the commute always felt quicker during the night. Kiriko was relishing in this brief time of pure quiet when suddenly her phone rang. Kiriko reached for her phone in her bag with hesitance and checked the caller ID. After finding out who was on the other side of the call, Kiriko instantly picked up the phone.

"Kozue, are you already home?" Kiriko asked with excitement evident in her voice.

"Yeah, I just got in. I was able to get a ride with one of my classmates so I just wanted to let you know I'm at home and I can't wait to see you! We can catch up when you get here, I've got some other phone calls to make ok?" Kozue, Kiriko's older sister, replied," I'll see you soon!"

The commute home was nice and quick, leaving Kiriko a decent amount of time to catch up with her sister tonight. When Kiriko got home, her parents and Kozue were waiting expectantly for her at the dinner table.

Kozue quickly stood up from the table and went to give Kiriko a hug. The hug was tighter than expected and Kiriko was starting to feel squished.

"Kozue, it's only been a couple of weeks..." Kiriko reminded her awkwardly before they broke the hug.

"I know, but I used to see you every single day! And now look at you, you look all grown up now! Like you're ready to face the real world!" Kozue exclaimed with pride.

Kiriko shook her head and said in a deadpan voice," Kozue it's literally been less than a month, please stop."

Kozue looked a lot like Kiriko with her dark blue hair, though hers was a bit longer and wore in a ponytail, and lilac eyes. Kozue only stood a few inches taller than Kiriko, they could've passed for twins. Kozue dressed a lot more loudly though and was definitely more out-going than Kiriko.

The Tenoh family had dinner together for the first time in awhile and Kozue couldn't stop talking about her adventures in college. While talking about her semester had gone so far, Kozue got into great detail from how long it took her to finish her first assignment to the insanely annoying teammates she had for her latest group projects. Kiriko wasn't bored by all the little details that Kozue gave her, in fact she found it quite informative and took mental note of Kozue's worse experiences so she would at least feel prepared when her time to head to post-secondary came. After dinner had been finished, Kiriko and Kozue sat in the living room, something the both of hadn't done in awhile, and Kozue discussed her plans for her time at home.

"So, on my study week, I was meaning to work on my portfolio and get my headshots redone because my last ones looked a bit iffy, but I also want to see some friends from high-school and maybe even our cousins if they're free this weekend." Kozue listed off, hoping that she wasn't forgetting anything.

Kiriko nodded in response, somewhat unsure of what to say," Yeah that sounds a solid plan. Have you made any of those actual arrangements and called people up?"

"Sure did. Meiko, Haru and Itsuka already said yes, I still need to hear back from a few others though." Kozue answered as she turned on her phone," I was thinking we either go to dinner or maybe I throw a party, we'll figure out later in the week. So anyways, how have you been? How's school and work and all your other extra-curriculars?"

"Oh you know, it's all been the same. Nothing too extravagant, just a test here, an understaffed day at work there," Kiriko answered nonchalantly with an awkward shrug," I really haven't been up to much lately."

"Really? Are you sure you aren't holding out on anything from me?" Kozue interrogated, but Kiriko simply just shook her head in response.

"Well, you know me. I've been going through routine since like second-year, I don't have time to do other things." Kiriko explained as she put a forced smile on her face.

Kozue still didn't seem satisfied though,"But still, I'm certain something about you has changed! I can't put my finger on it but I don't know Kiri, something just feels different about you."

Kiriko was starting to grow tense, hoping that her sister wasn't speculating weird things about her. Kozue then leaned in very close towards Kiriko and inspected her face.

"Oh! You're wearing mascara!" Kozue exclaimed as she drew back from Kiriko," See? Nothing can get by me!"

Kiriko still appeared to be tense and smiled politely.

Kiriko soon left Kozue to make her other phone calls to catch up with her friends (she had no trouble hearing Kozue upstairs from her bedroom) and quietly started reading on her bed. Soon enough, Kiriko found herself struggling to concentrate on her book and simply closed it as she listened in on her sister's conversations.

Kozue was loud, maybe a bit too loud on the phone as she talked with her friends, but she sure seemed to be enjoying herself. Kiriko listened in well, and somehow, listening in on her sister reminded of her middle-school days.

Kiriko would come home at around four-thirty, drop her bag next to her bedroom door and spend her free time surfing the web, looking at pictures of her favourite dolls and learning about the ways of maintaining a toy collection. Kiriko would be fully enjoying herself in solitude but then out of nowhere, she'd hear her sister talking on the phone. And so it would begin. Kozue, in her second-year of high-school was chatting away with one of her friends from her circle and gossip for at least an hour. Kozue had always been the type to make friends with ease and become close with people quite quickly.

The two sisters, despite looking similar, never really saw eye-to-eye on things. Kiriko knew very well that Kozue was capable of going into sciences or even business if she really wanted, she just chose acting over all that stuff. Kiriko had at first questioned her sister's choice because she just couldn't see the logic in it. Kozue was smart just like her, so why did she need to take a risk as great as going into acting?

Kiriko originally saw her sister as reckless for going into the study when she was able to succeed in a more technical course but Kiriko never wanted to confront her sister about it. Maybe Kiriko didn't understand where her sister was coming from back then but as time went on, Kiriko was beginning to see the reason in her sister's actions.

Rani laid down next to Kiriko and asked her,"How come you had been so nervous about your sister's visit? She seems like a very nice girl."

"It's just...well, I envy her. I want to be able to make decisions for myself the way she did." Kiriko confessed as she pushed her book away," See, my mom's a heart surgeon and my dad's a pediatrician. They wanted Kozue to go into the same field as them. They were ok with me wanting to do Law school though. Kozue was smart and studious just like me, she was able to score the highest grades in class, note I said able to because she never actually did, but she made the choice to carve out her own path. She was a lot like me when she was in high-school. She didn't work but she had clubs and cram school. Only, she was able to make the most of her high-school despite her extracurriculars. When she said she wanted to go into acting, our parents begged her to rethink her decision, to be a doctor or a scientist, something that they approved of. But, she didn't want to do any of that. When asked why, she said she found something that she felt was calling to her as loudly as possible, something that was unrelenting and determined to capture her attention. She said acting brought out a whole different side of her and it gave her life purpose. When she said that, I didn't quite follow. I think that was because I was so used to living a predetermined life that stepping out from that sounded crazy. But now...I feel like she did the right thing, following her desires like that."

Rani nodded in understanding, and Kiriko simply fell silent.

"In a way, I live my life without uncertainty. I do what my parents want me to do, I'm able to meet their expectations of me and I don't venture into the unknown but...now, I feel like I'm not doing this correctly. I don't understand." Kiriko thought to herself.

Outside, Kozue was sitting on the front porch, still on call with one of her friends, only this time she wasn't as loud as before. Her conversation sounded more serious this time and she was wearing a giant grin on her face while on call.

"I don't if I want to stay at my place for the entirety of the weekend, I'm still getting that same vibe from my parents." Kozue said into the phone,"They were like this when I left for college almost two years ago. They were mad at me and hated the fact that I decided to go into acting. I really thought that they'd let it go by now."

"Did you guys get into a fight?" Kozue's friend on the other side of the call asked.

Kozue shook her head saying," Not yet. But things feel tense, everyone in the room, except Kiriko, can feel it. I wanted to come back because I missed being at home but, I still feel I'm not there, you know? This house hasn't felt a home in such a long time, I don't know if I can even stay the entire week here."

"Well, you can always come over and crash at my place if it's bothering you that much." Her friend offered.

Kozue was quiet for a few moments and responded with," I'm not sure if I should. If I leave, then I won't get to see my sister much during the week. I guess I'll just either have to avoid my parents or make amends with them, I dunno how exactly I'll do that. I gotta go, so I'll see you later in the week?"

"See you then." Her friend said before the call ended.

Kozue sat by herself deep in her evening had grown cold but she didn't have any desire to go back inside just yet. Kozue walked up to the fence around the front porch and leaned against it, thinking about this evening went.

"My parents weren't interested in talking because of how unpleased they were with me, Kiriko was too busy in her own little world to notice anything, it's like I never left." Kozue thought to herself," Why does it have to be like this? Why am I still being treated like this after all this time?"

Kozue hung her head, and said to herself quietly," Kiriko's very lucky and she doesn't even realize it."

Kozue thought about her sister and instead of feeling jealous, she only felt pity for her. Kiriko, despite living a hectic life where she always had something that needed to be done, lived a life free of judgment from her parents. She hadn't done anything wrong yet. Kozue was starting to worry that if Kiriko, their parent's last hope would decide to switch paths, she would be treated as coldly, maybe even worse, as Kozue.

Kozue then shook her head and looked up to the sky. She knew she couldn't let that happen, Kiriko wouldn't deserve that at all. Kozue then decided that she had to fix things with her parents and changed their minds about their daughters' choice so that in the case that Kiriko went astray from the path they made for her, she would've been spared.

Kozue then marched inside and straight into Kiriko's room asking," Do you want to have lunch together on Saturday with mom and dad?"

Kiriko was still surprised to have Kozue burst into her room, but recovered moments later and said," Sure I guess. But mom and dad had to meet with someone from work, so they'd have to meet us at the cafe."

"Fine by me!" Kozue said as she left Kiriko's room to go to tell her parents.

On Saturday morning, Kiriko was getting ready in her bedroom while her sister waited for her in the living room. Kiriko pulled on a grey sleeveless top over her head and yawned loudly. She had stayed up quite later than usual since the cafe she worked called her in asking if she could work the afternoon. Despite the fact that had already told them she was unavailable for Friday nights, she decided to go anyways. Kiriko felt her eyelids growing heavy and simply shook her head in an attempt to wake herself up.

"To be honest, I'm really surprised Kozue wanted to go lunch with our parents too." Kiriko said to Rani, with another yawn escaping her mouth," She usually spends so much time with her friends that mom and dad usually get left out."

Kozue had been waiting outside, leaning against the house as she looked down at her watch. So far, they were good on time but bussing to the cafe where they planned to have met their parents could've led to them arriving later than intended. All of a sudden, Kozue started to feel anxious as she waited for Kiriko. She then smiled to herself and shook her head as she reached for her phone in her bag.

"What am I doing? I'm acting just like Kiriko." Kozue said to herself as she grabbed her phone.

After she took her phone out, she found Jack standing on the fence of the front porch, just inches away from her. He startled Kozue greatly and was the cause of her stepping back as far as she could. For a second, Kozue thought she was hallucinating, but Jack wouldn't disappear.

She put on an awkward smile and simply said,"Who are you? And why are you at my front door?"

"The details don't really matter." Jack claimed as he sat down, legs crossed, on the fence," All you need to know is that today I'm going to be testing out a new method of harvest and you shall be my first test subject."

Kozue tried to open the front door blindly, but didn't make it in time as Jack threw what appeared to be a black diamond up into the air that released a blinding light from it.

"Go forth and corrupt her weak Patchwork Heart!" Jack shouted out to the diamond. The diamond did as told and went straight for Kozue. The diamond seeped into her skin and penetrated her Patchwork Heart, feeding off of her feelings of doubt and bitterness.

Jack then snapped his fingers and pointed to a mail flyer peeking out from Kiriko's mailbox.

"Do your worst, Defective!" Jack shouted as the diamond left Kozue's body and fused with the flyer.

The defective roared loudly, loud enough for Kiriko to hear from her bedroom window. Kiriko jumped at the sound and looked down below, finding Jack with his new Defective. Kiriko then immediately ducked down as she noticed she caught Jack's attention.

Kiriko then reached for her phone while muttering to herself," Of all times to pull something like this, they choose to do it today?"

After sending Asuna a text to come to her place, Kiriko then took out her PlayPact from her bag, shouting,

"Pretty Cure, it's playtime!"

A swarm of purple of pink lights appeared and moments later, Cure Dolly was found in Kiriko's place.

"The princess of wishes, Cure Dolly!" Dolly announced.

Jack was surveying his surroundings, insuring that there wasn't a single Pretty Cure in sight. He didn't put much care and attention into this as he simply took a look around the area briefly. After looking around, Jack decided it was time for him and his Defective to leave.

"We're off! We gotta find more people to make you stronger." Jack declared, just before Dolly swung open the front door to her house.

"Not so fast! There's no way I'm letting you leave without a fight!" Dolly stated, while Jack and the Defective eyed her with confused looks on their faces.

"If you were in that house the whole time, what took you so long? Jack asked as he narrowed his eyes at Dolly.

Rani watched from the window of Kiriko's room, her face pressed against the glass as she said," Dolly could've easily leapt out through the window but no, she had to walk down the stairs or else she'd risk breaking her neck or some other form of bodily damage."

Dolly appeared to be agitated with Jack's question and simply said," It doesn't matter!"

Jack rolled his eye and looked over to his Defective and said," Go get rid of her, I don't wanna be around these parts for too long."

Dolly opened her mouth, seemingly appalled at Jack's comment," What's that supposed to mean? I'll have you know I live one of the nicest neighborhoods in town!"

The Defective then dashed towards Dolly and so, Dolly jumped up to the roof of her house.

Dolly stared down at the Defective below, waiting impatiently for her to jump back down. Dolly had a feeling that if she continued to stay up here on the roof, the Defective would've come for her and started climbing her house, which was the last thing she wanted. Dolly let out an annoyed sigh, wishing that the location of this battle didn't have to be at her own house.

Unwillingly, Dolly leapt down from the house and engaged in battle with the Defective. She did everything she could, hoping that her efforts would be enough to rival the Defective in strength as she knew she couldn't simply wait on her partner.

"Hey I heard you got a new teammate, where is she?" Jack called out as he watched Dolly deliver a punch directly in the Defective's center.

"Why are you all so interested in her?" Dolly asked in an irritated tone as she continued to fight with the Defective.

The Defective was just as fast as she was and didn't appear to be affected by all of her attacks. It was abundant in power and Dolly soon found herself at wit's end as the Defective only seemed to be getting quicker. Though in reality, Dolly was getting drained of her stamina. Something about this Defective seemed different, but Dolly couldn't figure out why. She did a backwards flip to get some distance between her and the Defective so she could at least determine what was making this Defective in particular so strong.

"I know I shouldn't try to be thinking about the cause of this Defective's increased strength but, if I find out, I'll probably have an easier time trying to fight against this thing!" Dolly thought in her head.

Dolly briefly looked behind for a second and saw her sister unconscious on the front porch. Seeing her like that made Dolly quite alarmed, but what really got to her was the dark red and black aura trailing out from her.

"What's going on?" Dolly asked anxiously before the Defective reached for her and grabbed her off of the ground.
"Ah, like what you see?" Jack asked in an unsettlingly excited voice," We found out a better method of using you humans' magic. Instead of just reaping out the energy that's used for your flow of magic, we figured we'd go straight to the source and take as we need from there. Pretty smart, huh?"

Dolly looked at him in pure revulsion as she writhed around in the grasp of the Defective,"How could you do something like that?! You're using my sister and reaping out her magic for your own selfish gain! I don't care if I still barely understand this whole magic thing, it doesn't take a genius to know that you shouldn't be even doing that in the first place!"

Jack placed his fingers in his ears, wincing at the sound of Dolly's yelling as he said," I'm guessing you're still the noisiest Pretty Cure."

"Pretty Cure, Flame of hope!" They heard a voice cry out.

A mass of orange and gold flames had been shot to the Defective's wrist and impulsively, the Defective drew it's hand back and let go of Dolly in the process. Dolly landed on her feet and saw Cure Teddy standing a few feet away from her.

"Look like I came just in time." Teddy remarked as Dolly smiled to her.

The two of them started to fight together against the Defective. Teddy threw more punches while Dolly did kicks. The two of them had improved from last time, becoming a lot more in sync with each other. But even though their teamwork improved, it wasn't enough against the Defective. The Defective still wasn't losing out on any of it's stamina it just continued to relentless spar with the girls, who were growing impatient with the Defective.

The Defective soon was at an advantage with the Cures losing stamina and was able to feign attacks to catch the two of them. Dolly and Teddy were trapped in the Defective's hands, being squished in it's grasp while Jack laughed at the sight of them.

"You girls never stood a chance against my Defective! He's super-strong and smarter than the two of you combined! It was only a matter of time before we won today!" Jack remarked in triumph as he took a seat in a tree in the yard.

"And he claims I'm noisy,"Dolly commented flatly as she rolled her eyes.

Teddy meanwhile was clutching her PlayPact in her hand and tried her best to focus and clear her mind completely. She hadn't even come close to preforming her attack and she already found herself struggling. Teddy reminded herself not to get frustrated, that if she was going to feel frustrated, she would only have a harder time getting this attack to work.

She shut her eyes and thought about how she and Nova were discussing the Pretend Mode yesterday.

Asuna was in her bedroom, dressed in her gym clothes as she was stretching. Today was the day that she decided she was going to master the Pretend Mode.

"You said you want me to show you something Asuna?" Nova asked as Asuna continued to stretch.

Asuna nodded and responded with," That attack that Kiriko tried doing that ended in her frying herself. It's a pretty effective move, right? So I gotta learn it if I wanna improve and stuff."

"Oh, the Pretend Mode." Nova said, sounding a bit nervous as she dropped her gaze from Asuna," I don't know if you're ready for it."

"If I can use the Pretend Mode, I'll get better with my magic right?" Asuna asked as she knelt down to look Nova in the eye.

Nova nodded and reluctantly, she explained the Pretend Mode to her.

"It might be scary, but it's gotta be done!" Teddy thought to herself," Nova said the element my power comes from is fire, so that means I can use that element at will, even if there isn't any fire around for me to imitate. I'm about to burn this thing to a crisp."

Teddy kept her eyes shut and suddenly, the world and her surroundings fell quiet. It was so quiet that Teddy felt as if she had transported herself into some kinda void absent of people. She knew now was the best time to preform her attack and while she felt ready, a part of her still felt nervous.

Her PlayPact started to get hot, really hot, and the magic circulating within her was carrying that heat through her body. She was starting to feel like she inside a sauna and did her best not to draw attention to herself.

Soon enough though, the Defective noticed that Teddy had gotten warmer and glanced at her curiously.

Teddy stared right back at it, with a determined look on her face as she shouted,"Let's play...pretend!"

A mass of flames burst out from Teddy's PlayPact and were more than enough to burn the Defective's hand. The Defective drew back it's hand out of instinct and let go of Teddy who jumped backwards upon being released.

"Nice going!" Dolly cheered, pinching the Defective so hard it let go of her too.

Teddy gave her a thumbs-up and noticed that her arms were burning a very bright red. Teddy looked at herself curiously and tried to figure out exactly how that happened.

Dolly braced against the tree Jack was sitting at and closed her eyes. Moments later, she opened them and held out her PlayPact in front of herself.

"Let's play...pretend!" Dolly shouted out, as a collection of roots spouted out from the ground to bind the Defective. The Defective was entrapped by the roots and thrashed about, but it's efforts didn't do much against the roots.

"Teddy, want to try and do a combination attack?" Dolly offered, overlooking the fact that Teddy was staring at her arms obsessively. Teddy nodded quickly and came to her side.

The two Cures stood with their back against each other, holding their arms out as they shouted in unison," Pretty Cure, Flame of Wishes!"

Their attack, which consisted of a gold flames and a violet whirlwind hit the Defective straight on. This time, it actually seemed like their attacks were having an effect on the Defective.

"Impressive, so our fighting alone was definitely not enough but once this Defective was hit that attack, it's as if it...started to take all the damage we did to it before..." Dolly observed with a look of question on her face while Teddy was holding her fists out, in the case that the Defective wanted to fight again.

"Either that or we're just really damn strong when we put our strengths together." Teddy concluded, her gaze fixated on the Defective," So shall I do the honor or-?"

"-I'd rather do this one." Dolly declared, before an idea came to her," Actually no, let's trying purifying it together.:

Teddy looked at her curiously for a few moments, initially unsure of the idea but then nodded after seeing the determined look on Dolly's face.

"Pretty Cure, Charming Enchant!" The two of them shouted together the atmosphere turned purple and gold in mid-sentence. The Defective was purified and returned to it's original form.

Jack appeared to be extremely unimpressed, wearing an incredulous look on his face as he griped," First it lets go of one of the Cures because it was feeling a bit heated then it let's go of the other one just from getting pinched?! Worst Defective I've ever made, without a single doubt. That's the last time I make a Defective out of paper."

And with that Jack vanished.

"Someone's bitter." Teddy snickered as she and Dolly de-transformed," Do you need me to stay or anything?"

Kiriko shook her head and said," I had plans anyway and we're were gonna head out just before Jack appeared. I think I can handle things here."

Asuna nodded and waved Kiriko goodbye as she left.

Kiriko rushed over to her sister's side and waited for her to wake up. Kozue was still unconscious for a few minutes, longer than most people who had been used to make Defectives but eventually, she stirred and came to. Kiriko had a very relieved look on her face when she saw Kozue awake again, though Kozue appeared to have been unsure of just what was going on as she took in her surroundings.

"Oh no, we were supposed to meet mom and dad at the cafe!" Kozue clamored as a look of distress was carved onto her face. She checked the time on her phone to see how much time had passed. Kozue groaned loudly and ran her hands through her hair frantically.

"We won't make it in time." Kozue declared in defeat," I had one shot and I blew it."

Kiriko looked at her sister, puzzled as Kozue continued to stress about the fact that they wouldn't make it time. It wasn't like they made reservations or anything. Plus, Kozue would habitually show up late to family events when she was in high-school.

"Well, if it means that much to you then, maybe we could just have lunch at our place? I can make something for lunch and you know, mom and dad would have an easier time coming back home than to the cafe." Kiriko suggested casually," Chances are, they probably just finished their meeting."

Kozue nodded and called up their mom.

"I'd only have the one chance. If I mess things up here, it won't just be me who'll be taking damage." Kozue thought to herself," It's too great of a risk to do it now, I have to prepare for it and really have them see my point of view. If I try to do it today, I might not stand a chance. If I want to get my parents to listen to me, I need to work hard on this and put as much effort into this as I can. I still have some time before Kiriko graduates, so I've gotta work hard on this. Not just for my sake, but for Kiriko too."