After the club session had ended, Kiriko decided to stay back for a bit and help Mari clean up. Asuna was more interested in leaving, feeling as if she had overstayed her visit, but Kiriko made stay back with the two of them.
Kiriko was wiping off notes the club members wrote on the board, while Asuna helped Mari arrange the seats back into place. While Asuna was putting the seats back, Mari noticed the bandages wrapped around her arm and wasted no time in getting a closer look at them.
"Oh my goodness, Asuna what happened to your arm?" Mari asked in genuine concern, but all she received was a harsh shush from Asuna.
Asuna then quickly checked to see if Kiriko had heard them, and after seeing that Kiriko was too busy cleaning the boards, she quietly said,"It's just a burn."
"But, it looks serious." Mari pointed out as she kept her gaze on Asuna's arms," How long did the doctor tell you to keep those bandages on for?"
"Doctor?" Asuna repeated with a blank look on her face," I didn't need a doctor to tell me to wrap my arms up after burning them."
Mari's mouth was agape and she put she hands over them before she said," You didn't even go to a doctor to get it checked out?"
Asuna shushed Mari once more and then impatiently said," No, I didn't think I should go just to a burn looked at."
"Not to mention, I didn't want the doctors to ask what really happened once they figured out it wasn't really a burn..." Asuna thought to herself as Mari began to further inspect Asuna's arm without her consent. Mari shook her head and wore a very solemn look on her face as her blue eyes met Asuna's.
"We should go to the nurse and have her check this out." Mari suggested, causing Asuna to draw back her arm in an instant as she shook her head.
"I said I was fine, seriously you don't have to worry about it." Asuna reassured, becoming more frustrated with each passing second as Mari seemed to grow more intent.
Mari wasn't going to give up though and reasoned with," She'll probably have something to clear up your burn, I can sure she'd be happy to help."
Asuna seemed less sure about declining Mari's offer, and in that very second, Mari called out to Kiriko and said," Me and Asuna are going to fix something really briefly. When you're done, you can just go home ok Kiriko?"
Kiriko nodded, though she was curious of what the two of them were going to do as Mari led, more like dragged, Asuna out of the room.
Asuna was soon inside the school's infirmary and took in her surroundings with an anxious look on her face. She had never actually been here and the thought that the nurse was going to find out with ease that she hadn't burned herself the way everyone else did was making her tense. This was already feeling like a bad idea and she hadn't even seen the nurse yet. Asuna was alone in the room as Mari went to go find the nurse. The infirmary was painfully bright, and the sterile smell the area was giving off only made Asuna grow more tense. She sighed as she sat back in her chair and thought about today.
"I really should tell Kiriko about this. I mean, yeah she's gonna freak out but she knows she can't fight alone so maybe she could help me in trying to master this whole magic thing." Asuna said to herself quietly just before the nurse and Mari came in.
"Now, Mari here says you burned your arms?" The nurse asked, with Asuna offering a rather forced smile in response.
"So, do you think that even makes any sense?" Kiriko asked Rani as she crossed her legs on her bed. Kiriko was at home now and was discussing something important with Rani as she held a picture of Sophie Aina up in front of Rani.
"I mean, you are kind of in her presence when you see a photo of her." Rani answered after a few moments while surveying the photo carefully," But, I don't think I can feel anything from it. If I am, it's kind of hard to tell whether or not I'm feeling a source of magic from the photo or from you."
Kiriko furrowed her brows and held the photo closer to Rani," Come on, our magic can't feel that similar."
"Well, if she is a Pretty Cure, then her magic will almost feel identical to yours." Rani reminded Kiriko impatiently," Pretty Cure magic feels, very different from everyone's else. From only a photo, I don't know if you'd be accurately getting a feel for this girl's magic. Plus, it might not even be her magic you're sensing. It could've easily been someone else on the catalog, or even somebody in the room. You could've easily made the assumption that the magic belonged to this girl because well, you just happened to see the picture when you sensed it."
"Ok, fine. But all things aside, does this mean there's a third Pretty Cure?" Kiriko questioned in a pleading voice.
"It would appear so." Rani answered briskly, keeping her gaze on the photo," In all honesty, neither me or Nova know how many Pretty Cure there are. We only know that our candidates are from your world."
Kiriko nodded in understanding and then said," I never even considered another teammate, but if there really are other Cures, then I'd be more than happy to have them on the team."
She then stood up and turned her back on Rani as she began to think aloud," But, now I'm starting to hope she isn't the Sophie girl. She appears to be somewhat famous with all these photos that turned up from one search. Getting through to her would be extremely hard, and heaven knows if we'd even make it past her bodyguards, let alone speak to her...this task could prove itself to be much harder than imagined."
Rani giggled sheepishly as she watched Kiriko devise a plan.
"You think a model neither of us have ever even met is a Pretty Cure?" Asuna asked, her tone filled with disbelief. A day had now passed since the girls visited the Photography club and Kiriko had decided to discuss her plan with Asuna. She was expecting Asuna to be more excited, shocked even at the thought that there had been another Pretty Cure, another person who's magic was on par with theirs. But no of course, Asuna just had to be as doubtful and negative as always.
Kiriko began to defend herself saying," Well, its not like I knew you when I suspected you to be my teammate. I don't care if it was only a picture that I saw, I felt something, something powerful when I saw her photo."
Asuna then snickered and Kiriko huffed out a breath in frustration saying," Not like that! She has magic like ours and I think it wouldn't hurt to go see her in person to figure out if what I felt was real. I don't doubt it though, which I guess is surprising for me but regardless, I think this model Sophie is a Pretty Cure."
Asuna's eyes then widened, since Kiriko hadn't mentioned the model's name up until now. Asuna could feel her insides writhe around, now that she knew what she had felt when looking at Sophie's picture wasn't from her imagination.
"Great,now I actually have to talk to Reo's crush." Asuna thought to herself before she groaned.
Kiriko looked at her curiously, expecting Asuna to say what was on her mind.
"I seen her picture too, and I felt the same thing." Asuna confessed as adverted her gaze from Kiriko. Kiriko was surprised, but undoubtedly relieved and happy that Asuna also sensed the magic from Sophie.
Nova then appeared out from Asuna's bag and said," If both of you felt powerful magic from the girl, then she really must be a Pretty Cure. How soon are you able to meet with her?"
Asuna mockingly chuckled and responded with, " That's the thing. Sophie's like a local celebrity so we don't even stand a chance of being in the same room as her. Like it or not it's going to be damn near impossible for her to even acknowledge us."
"Well, even if she's famous around town, it doesn't mean we have no way of talking to her. Sophie goes to Nagasaki high school across town. She has her days when she lives a mostly normal life. We can talk to her after school or something." Kiriko suggested.
Asuna shook her head saying," God knows she's probably not going to be interested in talking to us. Chances are she only wants to be seen around people as famous as her. May I remind you she's been modeling for catalogs for years?"
"I guess that is true but, maybe Sophie might sense our magic and give us time to hear us out." Kiriko explained, moments before an idea came to her, " And I know just how to tell her!"
On the other side of town, specifically at Nagasaki high, a pair of girls, Sophie Aina and her classmate were sitting at one of the tables in the study hall. Sophie had been punching numbers into her calculator while her friend had been taking notes from her textbook.
"Hey Cho, what grade did you get on the group project for Science?" Sophie asked, while she continued to work on her assignment, not even shifting her to her friend.
"Just an eighty percent." Cho answered as she flipped the page of her textbook, "What about you?"
"A sixty-seven." Sophie answered curtly, but Cho's eyes widened as she looked at Sophie in surprise.
"What? You know I'm bad at science, its not like I failed anyways, plus I did my part of the work." Sophie claimed in her defense," It was the peer evaluation that brought down my mark."
"I see." Cho replied, as she returned to her note-taking.
Sophie sighed and continued to work on the rest of her assignment. She knew the bad mark wasn't her fault and that it wasn't a reflection of her, that's what she always said when she got a lower than expected grade. That week when the project had been assigned, Sophie had a photo shoot on the day the group divided the work amongst themselves and they left Sophie with the hardest part of the workload. She had to stay back after class a few days ago and ask the teacher for help, since the rest of the team had club activities to attend to. Plus, Sophie had been too nervous to ask them for help.
"Did you want to team up for the next project?" Cho offered, keeping her gaze on her notes that she was writing, " That way the work won't be divided so unfairly and you can do the easier stuff."
"I'd love that!" Sophie exclaimed, only to be shushed by a few other students in the study hall. Cho giggled and Sophie reddened as she hid her face behind her textbook.
"Cho is always so nice to me, I really should try and pay her back one of these days." Sophie thought to herself," She's also one of the only people who doesn't treat me differently. She sees me for me, and I don't think she realizes how much that means to me."
Sophie knew all too well that being a model came with pros and cons and these days, it felt as if the cons were outweighing the pros.
Just when she thought she had gotten used to being treated like she was different, another incident would occur and make her feel alienated again. There was an abundance of people at school who saw her as some kind of idol and thought of it made Sophie feel a disconnection from them. Many people here had gotten used to her, but still there was always someone who would approach and be insistent on treating like someone who was larger than life. The idea of it was so weird to her, but she knew there was no helping it.
So of course, she was more than thankful for Cho's friendship, because it felt genuine and because Cho wouldn't dare act in a way that'd make Sophie feel uncomfortable, the way everyone else did.
Sophie then took out a pack of gum and held it out to Cho asking," Want a piece?"
"Of what, your nasty bubblegum?" Cho asked as she looked at the gum package in disgust.
"Hey, there is nothing wrong with jellybean flavoured gum!" Sophie claimed," If there was, it wouldn't exist now would it?"
"You're such a little kid." Cho snickered as Sophie unwrapped a piece for herself.
Just then, Sophie's phone buzzed on the table, and so she picked it up. It appeared she had received an email from a potential business partner, as usual. Sophie knew it was bad practice to ignore emails from people interested in working with her, even if she wasn't that interested or was busy so she quickly read through the email to determine whether or not to decline this offer.
The sender was apparently a photography club from a high-school and the email read, "Dear Sophie Aina, we are contacting you today because we are interested in working with you. We would like to have you model for our upcoming photo shoot We understand that as a student you are typically pressed on time, so we wanted to show what it would be like working with us. So for now, we are extending an offer to visit us at our school so you can get to know us better. We've attached our school address and contact info to this message. If you can see us, please respond so we can set up a time to meet. We hope to see you soon!."
Sophie stared at this email for quite a long time, trying to determine whether or not to go through with it. The emailers predicted correctly that right now, Sophie wasn't in a position to be setting up photoshoots for awhile, not with midterms coming up anyways. But the fact that a group of students, not unlike herself, just reached out to her to do a photoshoot, it was strange but refreshing in a way. These days, students knew better to veer away from asking about photoshoots and stuff like that with Sophie, primarily because they all knew Sophie would probably decline them. It was thoughtful of them but, in a way, it made Sophie feel as if people were making the assumption that Sophie considered herself better than them. It was frustrating at times, but Sophie wasn't sure what she could do about it.
"What happened?" Cho asked as she finally took a break from note-taking and looked over to Sophie.
"Check this out," Sophie stated as she held up her phone to Cho," A school photography club wants to work with me!"
Cho took the phone from Sophie's hands, scrolling through the message. Cho wore a skeptic look on her face, and as soon as Sophie saw her friend's expression she knew she needed to defend this club.
"Ok, so I know it'd probably be weird for me of all people to do a photoshoot with some high-school kids, but who knows? Maybe this will be a really fun experience!." Sophie suggested with enthusiasm as Cho continued to read through the email,"Now, I know I was supposed to spend more time studying for these next few weeks but normal high-school kids never even see me as one of them, I'm always seen as some kind of idol to everyone and well, to be honest... I sorta want a break from that."
"I'm not stopping you, if you want to do it, then go ahead." Cho declared as she held her hands in front of herself," Just...be careful ok?"
Sophie nodded as she decided to take a break from her homework to try and get the directions to the school on her phone.
A week had past and Kiriko had slowly became a nervous wreck as the day she had been anticipating came closer. She was awfully jittery, literally everyone noticed and all Kiriko was able to do was weakly say she was feeling fine in hopes of getting rid of her classmates' concerns. Not only had she felt jittery, she was feeling guilty for what she and Asuna had done. Claiming to be part of the photography club to get a potential Cure's attention was one thing, but trying to lure a model who was probably waiting for a big-name brand to contact her so she could at last get name known? Once Asuna had told Kiriko that Sophie had yet to have been contacted by any major labels, Kiriko felt a pit in her stomach begin to form. Sophie was probably way busier than the girls had realized and Kiriko figured Sophie only agreed to visit them out of pity. What was she to do now?
Rani then appeared out of Kiriko's bag once Kiriko had reached the meeting place where Asuna told her to go once school had ended.
"Kiriko you don't look so good." Rani stated, looking up at Kiriko with concern as she took a seat.
"Don't remind me." Kiriko responded as she took a deep breath," I feel terrible. Asuna was probably right, Sophie won't really want to spend time with us, especially not after we lied to get her attention. But still, we have to do our best, and we absolutely can't mess this up."
"That's the spirit! And don't forget, you guys prepared a lot for Sophie, so if she gives you guys a chance, I'm certain you'll have her on board!" Rani exclaimed, only making Kiriko more nervous.
"If." Kiriko repeated before she groaned and rubbed her temples.
Sophie was waiting at the bus stop after school and looked expectantly in the direction the bus would be coming from. Sophie was wearing a large smile on her face as she sat on the bus stop's bench with her headphones in. Sophie had been quite excited for today; for the first time in awhile, Sophie was going to be taking photos with kids just like her. Cho tried very hard to convince Sophie in letting her tag along, but Sophie declined Cho's offer, claiming that Cho would be better off focusing on her studies.
Sophie had a feeling that today may not go as she hoped, but she chose to get excited about what could go right instead of worrying about what could go wrong.
When the bus arrived, Sophie got on and sat near the front. Normally, she preferred to sit at the back of the bus but since she wasn't familiar with the area she was going to she decided to stay at the front so she could figure out where to get off.
Once Sophie finally got off the bus, she looked around to see how nearby she was to the address the club had given her. She was actually really close by, but there weren't many students around. Sophie figured it was because they either had club meetings to attend or had gone home, so she waited around for the photography club students.
"Wow Asuna, I didn't think you'd go all out on this thing..." Kiriko remarked, as she stared at Asuna's hand-drawn puppets glued onto popsicle sticks in awe. Kiriko held up one of them that was supposed to resemble Princess Arabella.
"How did you even know what she looks like?" Kiriko asked as she held it in front of the backdrop Asuna made.
"Nova told me." Asuna answered with a shrug," And to think, this only took me three days!"
"You didn't have choose to this over homework, did you?" Kiriko asked, now feeling a bit ashamed for allowing Asuna do so much work for this.
"Kiriko don't worry, I wasn't even going to choose doing my homework in the first place." Asuna claimed with a snicker.
Kiriko shook her head in disapproval, and looked outside the window of the empty classroom they were sitting in.
At Asperity, Jack and Lilith were sitting together at a table, with Jack fidgeting with a bouncy ball and Lilith looking through a blueprint Domino had created earlier. Lately, Lilith had been quite annoyed with Domino, as he hadn't stopped Bounce from attacking the Pretty Cure last time, so now it was Domino's turn to receive the cold shoulder from her. So that left Jack as the only person who hadn't royally disgraced her these last few weeks.
Lilith was evidently uneasy as she tapped her fingers against the table, pretending to be very invested in Domino's sketches but not actually reading through them. Lilith then pressed her fist against her cheek as she started to play with the ends of the blueprint.
"So, what are you going to do if Arabella resurfaces?" Jack asked as he continued to play with the bouncy ball.
Lilith drew out a deep breath and asked," How long have you been wanting to ask that? If Arabella resurfaces, I won't show any mercy at all. I'll do whatever it takes to kill her."
"Sure you will." Jack commented flatly as he rested his head and arm on the table," So what if the Pretty Cure join forces with Arabella? What are you going to do?"
"Why are you asking so many questions all of a sudden?" Lilith asked impatiently, crumpling the sides of Domino's blueprints.
"Because you don't have the answers anybody wants to hear." Jack answered in a blunt manner," We do what you want but nobody knows exactly how this is going to lead to our "Utopia of Corrupted Magic". Don't you think we deserve an explanation?"
"Jack, I'm working on it." Lilith said in her defense," I never anticipated the Pretty Cure to reappear, I just thought my only threat would be Arabella. But, now that we have a pair of little girls messing things up, don't you think that makes me feel frustrated? Hopeless, even?"
Lilith then folded her arms on the table and placed her head on them and said,"I never thought I could hate a pair of children I've never even met as much as I hate Imogen. I ought to pay them a visit soon, because clearly these persistent little brats don't know when to call it quits."
Jack then asked," How about today?"
"No, Domino already went." Lilith replied as she finally looked through the blueprints," He made copies of this plan because he was so proud of it."
"The day has finally arrived!" Domino yelled in excitement as he put his goggles over his eyes," The day that the Pretty Cure will finally be eliminated is here!"
Domino was sitting atop of his newly-made Defective, created from a toy robot with it's left forearm broken off.
"I mean, what better thing to create a Defective from than a defective toy itself!" Domino cackled as the Defective marched towards the school.
Sophie was leaning against the gate surrounding the school, impatiently dialing the number the club provided her with when she saw the Defective march towards the school. Sophie froze on the spot and stared at the Defective in pure shock.
"Just what is that thing?" She asked, not even aware that her phone had been directed to the answering machine.
Sophie then heard a voice shout out," You sure have some nerve showing up here! This school is not yours to wreak havoc on!"
Sophie then turned in the direction where the voice came from and saw the Pretty Cure standing with their backs against each other a few feet away from the Defective.
"You're going down, jerk!" Teddy declared, only to receive an incredulous look from Dolly.
"What is this, some kinda movie shoot?" Sophie said to herself as she hid behind a nearby tree," No, something about this just feels too real to be make-believe..."
Dolly leapt up high and preformed a somersault in mid-air, landing on a electrical pole. Dolly stared down her opponent and Sophie simply stared at wonder, her eyes widened as she examined Dolly's outfit.
"She looks so strong yet so...adorable." Sophie remarked, her mouth forming a half-smile as she looked at Dolly.
Dolly held her hands up high in front of herself and shouted," Pretty Cure, Gale of Wishes!"
A violet whirlwind had appeared and was rushing towards the Defective at break-neck speed. The attack hit the Defective straight on but, all it seemed to do was almost knock Domino off of it.
"Do you really expect a little breeze to bring my Defective to it's defeat?" Domino jeered as he shook his head," Oh, I know I can always count on you two for a laugh!"
Teddy rolled her eyes and ran towards the Defective as Dolly jumped down from the pole and followed her.
"Any bright ideas?" Teddy asked her teammates as they ran towards the Defective.
"I'm not sure yet, so do whatever you want." Dolly instructed, with Teddy grinning fiercely in response.
"Sounds good to me!" Teddy yelled as she leapt up high and began to fight against the Defective, with Dolly following after her. Countless punches had been thrown to the Defective, and while the Defective was strong, it was also quite slow, so it didn't do well in defending itself. Then again, it wasn't like it would suffer from a lot of damage due to it's metal body.
Teddy landed one punch, but ended up cracking one of her knuckles upon contact. Her eyes widened and she impulsively drew her hand back.
"Christ this thing is dense!" Teddy griped as she tenderly inspected her hand, shaking it off after a few seconds," Did you think of something yet?"
Dolly shook her head and kicked the Defective as hard as she could. Though, it appeared Dolly felt more pain in attacking than the Defective did in receiving the attack.
"Where the heck do you people find these things?!" Dolly lamented as she held her foot.
"Face it, you weak and powerless Pretty Cure! Your winning streak ends here!" Domino exclaimed with a giant grin plastered on his face," You won't be making it out of this one alive!"
Teddy groaned and looked over to her partner saying," Does he actually think we're trying that hard right now?"
"Apparently not." Dolly noted as she drew a deep breath," Ok, ready?"
Teddy nodded and the girls leapt simultaneously and continued their fight against the Defective. The two of them were appearing more energetic in their fighting now, their attacks stronger and quicker. The Defective had issues catching up with them and was facing difficulties fighting against the duo.
The Defective then kicked Dolly hard and sent her flying to the other side of the school yard, and picked up Cure Teddy.
"Excellent!" Domino cheered as he watched Teddy squirm around in the Defective's grasp. Teddy tried her best to break free, but to no avail. Teddy hung her head in frustration, trying to figure out her next move. She then glanced over to Domino, who looked quite pleased with the Defective right now.
"Holding you captive was the plan all along. Since your powers come from fire, you're only choice would be to try and burn the Defective's hand, but if you do that, you'll get burned too." Domino pointed out,"You're trapped, and there's nothing you can do about it."
Dolly was slowly bringing herself back onto her feet, cringing at the pain as she stood up. She was a fair distance from Teddy and the Defective and she just watched at the Defective held her teammate.
"Just how am I supposed to help Teddy break free?" Dolly wondered aloud as she kept her gaze on the Defective," I won't stand much of a chance now if I'm the only one fighting. But, I feel like there's an easy way to get around this. So what could it be?"
Teddy writhed around in clutch of the Defective, feeling really frustrated at this point from all her failed attempts to break free. Teddy tried to think of an alternative method, but nothing would come to her. Using the Pretend mode would've likely resulted in damage inflicted on herself, using her regular attacks would caused her to burn with the Defective and just tried to physically break out of the Defective's grip wasn't working.
"Ready to admit defeat?" Domino asked in an excited voice," In your defense, you did somewhat put up a good fight so you don't have to feel so bad. It was bound to happen anyway-"
"-Do you know how to shut up?" Teddy interrupted in irritation,"I'm trying to think here."
"Well I'm trying to tell you it's pointless! After all this time, you have finally met your match, can't you just accept that?" Domino questioned, his patience wearing thin," Look, even your teammate has run for the hills! At least she knows when to give up."
Teddy looked over to the where Dolly had been thrown, discovering she was nowhere to be found. Teddy narrowed her eyes, feeling rather doubtful that Dolly abandoned her.
"What, are you surprised?" Domino asked as Teddy stared down to the ground," I'm not! It's only natural that she'd abandon you in order to save herself! You earthlings are much weaker than you'd think. See, you've got this innate, unbearable sense of fear embedded in your minds, all because of the most meaningless things. For example..."
Teddy started to tune out Domino and instead she zoned out on a nearby lamp post. Through the reflection of the glass of the lamp post, Teddy could make out a familiar figure hiding in the tree behind them.
"She's planning something, but the question is...what is it?" Teddy thought to herself.
Dolly then leapt out of the tree and clamped her hands together. When she separated them, a sphere of wind appeared in between she blasted it towards the right side of the Defective, aiming for the nape of it's neck.
The attack landed and the Defective let go of Teddy, who wasted no time upon being freed and unleashed an attack.
"Pretty Cure, Flame of Hope!" She shouted, as she placed her hands right in front of the Defective. The Defective was hit by the attack and was starting to burn all over. Only, unlike the other times Teddy preformed this attack, the flames weren't diminishing, and the Defective, unsure of what to do, was panicking as it ran in circles.
"Whoa, what's happening? Usually, the flames go away after a few seconds..." Teddy stated as she and Dolly watched the Defective run around.
"It's made of metal, so it's gonna burn up worse than the other Defectives." Dolly explained," But we don't have much time to waste, let's wrap things up!"
The Defective then started to stomp towards the Cures as the flames started to disappear. Domino, who had turned a knob on the Defective's back, then peeked his head out from behind the Defective.
"You're sorely mistaken if you think I'm going to let you win this round!" Domino yelled as he jumped off the Defective," This is my strongest Defective to date and there's no way I'm letting you two decimate it!"
Dolly and Teddy started to run as fast as they could, now that the Defective was gaining up on them.
"Good grief, I'm getting real sick and tired of this Defective." Teddy said as they ran, with Dolly nodding in response," Any ideas-?"
Teddy then noticed that Dolly was falling behind, but she wasn't was sure whether or not Dolly deliberately did that.
"Keep running!" Dolly said to Teddy. Teddy did as instructed as continued to run from the Defective. She turned around for a moment and was surprised to see that the Defective was still chasing after her, and paying no mind to Dolly, who was now behind both of them.
Dolly jumped up high and drilled a kick into the Defective's knob that was so powerful, the knob had broken off. She then projected out a small violet whirlwind from her hands and hit the Defective's right shoulder. In that very instant, she jumped backwards and the Defective turned it's head around, leaving itself wide open.
Dolly then created a whirlwind much bigger than the last one, perhaps her most powerful one yet, and launched it straight to the Defective. The Defective fell over and laid stagnant in defeat.
"Ready?" Dolly asked Teddy as she ran towards the two of them. Teddy nodded in response.
"Pretty Cure, Charming Enchant!" The two of them shouted in unison, purifying the Defective in the process and reverting it to it's original form.
Domino stood there at a loss of words, and fell to his knees as he stared down at the pavement. He shook his head in disbelief, not even looking over to the Pretty Cure or his former Defective. Domino was so out of it, he didn't even notice the Pretty Cure walking towards him.
"And just so we're clear, I would never leave my teammate behind." Dolly said as she and Teddy stood in front of him,"Neither of us would run away even if that meant one of us would be safe. We're a team and more importantly...we're friends."
Domino wasn't even listening to them, all that was on his mind was figuring out how to tell Lilith about today's defeat. He nodded his head, feeling as if the explanation he decided on for Lilith would work.
"Yes, that'd be an excellent approach. Just saying that this was a test run on a new form of Defective might leave me spared. Lilith won't find reason to punish me if I put it like that!" Domino said to himself ecstatically," Well, no time to waste. I suppose I should take my leave."
Domino then vanished and the Cures looked at the spot Domino had just been with puzzled looks on their faces.
Sophie however, had been astonished at what just happened before her eyes. Magical girls with insanely cute dresses running around the school fighting a gigantic robot? This had to have been some kind of dream but still, this all felt life real life even if it all seemed too good to be true.
"How did they do all that stuff?" Sophie asked as she hid behind the tree again," I wonder if those girls came from some different kind of world, or...maybe they're normal people? I kinda want to ask them now..."
Sophie then peeked her head out from behind the tree again, only to discover the girls had already left. Sophie seemed a little annoyed, and only asked,
"Where did they go?"
"I think that's been our toughest battle so far." Kiriko said as she placed on hand on the school building to support herself, while panting," I've never been so exhausted from a fight."
"Ditto." Asuna replied, sitting down with her back against the school building," Think Sophie's still at the school?"
"Oh my gosh, I forgot all about her!" Kiriko shouted, her tone sounded quite distressed," Come on, let's go see if she's at the front gate!"
The girls then ran to the front gates to search for Sophie.