Kiriko took one final look at the large building in front of her before she left this place for good. The term for her cram school was over and for the first time in nearly two years, she had no plans in going back. Kiriko had found herself talking herself out of her decision a few times, but she knew this would ultimately benefit her. Kiriko turned away and started walking to the bus stop. On her way there, she saw her now former classmates, Aya and Wakame sitting at a bench with a bag of from a fast food restaurant between. Kiriko was surprised the girl's were still here, considering the girl's were one of the first to finish their exam. But she was more surprised to see the two of them waving and gesturing for her to come sit with them.
Kiriko felt like she had no other choice and sat with the girls, greeting them awkwardly before she took a seat.
"Hey, you're Kiriko right?" Aya asked with Kiriko nodding in response," That exam was so dumb, we didn't even go through any of that stuff on the last two pages."
Wakame nodded and commented with," I think he was like trying to be sneaky and think none of us would've noticed he shoved all that other stuff in there."
Kiriko nodded in a tense manner and responded with, "Yeah that wasn't very fair of him, hopefully he doesn't pull something like that next term for you guys."
Aya and Wakame snickered at Kiriko's comment, with the former saying," We're not coming back for next term, we got other things to do."
Kiriko's eyes widened in surprise. Most of the students in her class were very devoted to their studies, so they weren't interested in the thought of leaving cram school in favor of other extracurriculars. But then again, despite the fact that Aya and Wakame were a lot noisier than the other students, they were both some of the smartest in the class. Perhaps the class wasn't all that challenging for them.
"I got a part time job and we're co-presidents for our school's photography club, plus we gotta make portfolios for our uni applications." Wakame explained as she reached into the bag and retrieved a handful of French fries," It would've been way too stressful to keep cram school in the mix. What about you, are you coming back next term?"
Kiriko shook her head and then answered," No, I've gotten quite busy too, but it's good to hear that you guys are going to be working on your portfolios. Are you applying to a Photography program?"
The two nodded and Kiriko was then reminded of Mari.
"You know, I'm friends with the president of my school's Photography club. She knows a lot about cameras and stuff, maybe she could help you guys out!" Kiriko suggested, excitement creeping up into her voice.
Elsewhere, Mari sneezed, strategically turning the camera in her hands away from her, so she wouldn't sneeze on the lens. Mari then rubbed her nose and glanced at the clock in the classroom.
"Who could be talking about me at this hour?" Mari wondered aloud as one of her clubmates approached her.
"Could you help me remove the lens on this camera, Mari?" The girl asked. Mari nodded and gestured her to hand her the camera as Mari put her own camera on the table next to her. Mari twisted off the lens with ease and gave it back to her fellow clubmate. The clubmate, Sakimi, then took the camera back and thanked Mari before she noticed the necklace Mari was wearing.
"Oh that's such a cute necklace! Did you just get it?" Sakimi asked as she stared at the pendant on the necklace.
Mari held the pendant tightly and nodded in response. The pendant of the necklace resembled a fishbowl, except much tinier, with little rainbow beads scattered inside of it. Mari looked down at it, admiring the beads as the light the hit them, and all of a sudden felt a bit frustrated.
"Yeah, my mom gave it to me a few days ago." Mari explained as she forced a smile on her face," It's really pretty, especially when the sun catches it."
Mari walked out of the school with Sakimi and the two parted ways shortly after. Mari was staring down at the necklace again while she was walking, and drew out a deep sigh as she twirled it around.
In truth, the necklace was very important to Mari's mother. She had received it when she was in the Laruan Kingdom and it was special her as it held her magic that she had sealed away before she decided to live in the human world. The necklace was indeed magical, but the magic residing wasn't very strong for the kingdom's standards. Mari clutched the pendant tightly and thought back to the day her mother entrusted her with the necklace.
"Bad things are happening to this city, and now we need to rely on the Pretty Cure to save both this world and..." Mari's mother trailed off feeling a bit choked up as she held the necklace in her hands,"...All we can do is believe in the Pretty Cure and hope that they can save everyone. Just like Cure Cheer did."
Her mother placed the necklace in Mari's hands. Mari stared at the pendant for a long time in awe.
"This necklace will keep you safe. It will protect in ways that...that I never could." She said, her eyes downcast for a few long moments.
A silence formed between the two of them as the older woman was lost in thought and Mari was unsure of what to say. She felt as if she didn't deserve to take possession of the necklace. It almost felt as if it was too good for her. The pendant was pretty and filled with magic. It was so mesmerizing that Mari could have sworn the pendant was radiating some form of light from it. Of course, this wasn't first time Mari had seen this necklace.
It was important to her mom and when she was younger, she would always wear it when she'd read Mari a bedtime story. Often times, her bedtime stories were about Cure Cheer and her adventures in Laruan Kingdom. Mari was obsessed with the necklace as a child and wanted to own it someday, under the belief that the necklace could enable her to become a Pretty Cure.
Mari snapped out of her flashback once she realized she was almost home. The brunette placed her necklace underneath her shirt cautiously and continued walking. Once Mari got home, she went upstairs to her bedroom and crashed onto her bed. She removed the necklace from underneath her shirt and started to stare at it again.
Being a Pretty Cure was something that Mari wanted desperately as a child after hearing about Cure Cheer from her mother's tales. But, Mari knew she had to face reality. Even if she still wanted to, she didn't have magic as strong as Kiriko and her friends, and their likely wasn't any room left on the team.
The brunette then reminded herself that being a Pretty Cure was taxing in a way. The girls were constantly busy with their own obligations and to also have to be on alert for whenever those bad guys showed up whenever they pleased had to be inconvenient for them.
Mari's phone then vibrated from the side of her bed. She reached for her phone and then discovered that it was Kiriko who had messaged her. Mari read the message to see what Kiriko wanted.
"Hey Mari, I was just wondering if you had any of the other installations to the Lost Kingdom of Toys! I went to the library to find them, but it looks like they didn't have them." The message read.
Mari stared blankly at the text after reading if for a few moments. She felt somewhat glad that Kiriko was enjoying the books but at the same time, she also felt hesitant as she reached into the drawer of her side table and brought out the two installations to the book. One of the talked more about the kingdom and was called The Legend behind the Kingdom of Toys. The other one was called The Hero of Fortitude: The protector of the Kingdom of Toys. Mari held the two books close to her and brushed her hand against the sparkly book covers. She adored these books and always kept these books at hand's reach in her room.
Mari then flipped to one of the pages in the book and stared at a girl whose face wasn't shown fully to the reader, but was presumably the hero of fortitude. She had long pastel pink hair with light blue and lavender streaks gathered into a high-ponytail that reached her back. She dressed in pastel colours and wore gold bracelets but the thing that always caught Mari's attention was the large gold halo behind her head.
"I wonder what it would've been like to be a hero like Cure Cheer..." Mari thought to herself aloud as she stared at the figure.
Mari then realized she was zoning out and snapped herself back to her senses by clasping the book shut and saying," I shouldn't keep fantasizing over this stuff! The Pretty Cure have already been found, there isn't any reason for me to keep thinking like this. All I can do now is just sit back and put my trust in them."
The next day, Kiriko and Asuna were sitting at one of the benches near the school, waiting for Mari. Mari had agreed to let Kiriko borrow the books, but she under the impression that Kiriko simply liked reading the books. Kiriko was keeping an eye out for Mari while Asuna was on the phone with Sophie.
"Kiriko wants to meet at that cafe again to read books?" Sophie asked an incredulous voice to the already irritated Asuna. It was bad enough Sophie was insistent on calling her instead of texting. Asuna sighed and then offered the phone to Kiriko. Kiriko then took the phone from Asuna and held it up to her ear.
"Those books are about the Laruan Kingdom and it's likely that person writing it knew was either from the Laruan kingdom, or knew someone from there." Kiriko explained," I think you guys should have a look at them too."
"Do you think we should try to contact the author?" Sophie asked.
"I want to but I'm getting zero contact information on her." Kiriko answered as she pulled out the book from her backpack," With no website or any social media pages, it's been a lot harder than expected to find her."
Kiriko then caught sight of Mari coming out of the school and walking towards them. Kiriko handed the phone back to Asuna without even saying goodbye to Sophie and stood up while waving to Mari.
Mari waved back to her and took out the pair of books from her bag. She held them out to Kiriko with a usual bright smile on her face as she said,
"I hope you'll enjoy these books as well, please take good care of them."
Kiriko nodded attentively as she took the books from Mari. Kiriko was staring at the book covers and watched as the sparkles on the cover danced around in the light. Mari looked at her and Asuna, feeling as if they were distant from her. All those thoughts of her being unable to be a Pretty Cure while standing before Kiriko and Asuna were starting to swarm about in her head but, Mari kept her cool and was successful in keeping her thoughts at bay.
"I had some plans after class so I'll see you guys around ok?" Mari said as she waved goodbye to the girls. She left the girls and was just about to leave the school before remembering that she left a textbook she needed for her homework in the classroom. When she retrieved her textbook from out of her class room, she then noticed a familiar little blue elephant trying to navigate her way out of the school building. Mari walked over to her quietly and knelt down before her saying,
"Your name's Rani, right? Are you lost?"
Mari and Rani were outside of the school now, in search of Kiriko and Asuna with no luck in finding them. The two of them sighed in unison after coming to the conclusion that girls probably left the school by now. There wasn't anyone left at the school now since it was getting late, so Mari didn't have any other choice but to call Kiriko. After dialing Kiriko's number, Mari waited for her to answer but was directed to Kiriko's answering machine. Mari shook her head and simply hung up.
"I think she's busy right now." Mari stated as she started to type up a text for Kiriko," In the meantime, would you like to come to my house? It's pretty close to the school."
"I guess it beats staying around here." Rani replied.
The walk to Mari's house didn't take much time at all and since there were many people walking around in the neighbourhood, Mari and Rani were free to talk as much as they wanted. Mari was as cheerful and friendly as ever and Rani was taking a liking to her.
"Can you believe Kiriko would've done something like that though? It's so out of character for her." Rani pointed out as she sat on Mari's right shoulder," She always double-checks, even triple-checks her bag for something. But she was in such a hurry today!"
"Did she oversleep this morning?" Mari inquired.
Rani then shook her head saying," Not really, she only stayed in bed about eight minutes longer than normal. But I guess that was more than enough to be 'running late' for her."
Mari giggled and nodded in understanding.
"So, I actually don't know the full details about the attack on the Laruan Kingdom." Mari confessed as they arrived at her house,"Would you be comfortable in telling me what happened?"
Rani uneasily shifted her gaze to the side, not really wanting to disclose all those details to a non-Pretty Cure. If there was one thing that Rani wanted to make certain during her stay on Earth, it was that as little innocent people as possible got involved in this Pretty Cure business. The King and Queen wouldn't have wanted it any other way, and so far they were all doing a good job in keeping quiet. But Rani had to remind herself that Mari wasn't like everyone else and went as far as sharing the fact that her mother was from the kingdom and even swore to keep their secret.
"Alright, I suggest you listen well because I really don't want to say this stuff aloud again." Rani declared as she motioned Mari to take a seat in the living room," It started when Lilith had appeared on the day of Princess Arabella's coronation..."
At Cafe Rosewood, Asuna and Sophie were reading the second installment of the Kingdom of Toys series together while Kiriko was reading the last one. Kiriko was on the page where the mysterious girl dressed in pastel colours was seen. Kiriko stared the picture of the girl for a long time, and was trying to figure out where the girl fit into all this realistically.
Sophie was ready to turn the page now, but Asuna was still admiring the drawings on the page, completely unaware that Sophie was waiting on her.
"These books may be pretty, but they're definitely suspicious." Nova surmised as she looked through the book Kiriko was reading," A Kingdom where toys come to life set in a land filled with bright pastel colours and a hero of fortitude? Whoever wrote these books probably knew more about Cure Cheer's era than we did."
Kiriko nodded slowly and then returned her gaze to the girl on her page, saying to herself quietly," So does that mean this is Cure Cheer?"
Kiriko then closed her book and looked Nova in the eyes as she asked her," Is it possible that these books came from the Laruan Kingdom?"
Nova gave her a look of question and so Kiriko elaborated her question with," These books are clearly about the kingdom, and nobody from Earth would even know about this place right? So it'd only make sense that the books had been written in the kingdom and were somehow transported here."
"Maybe but, I don't see why anyone from the kingdom would want to write a book like this." Nova said with a shrug," It reads like a fairy tale, so it wouldn't have a place in the kingdom."
The girls orders then arrived after a long wait, but they weren't of much interest to the girls in comparison to the books. Kiriko chipped away at her cheesecake as she skimmed through the pages of the first book. Even if she had seen the drawings about a dozen times already, they were still fun to look at. But, Kiriko wasn't really paying much attention as she thought about what Nova said regarding 'Cure Cheer's era'.
Mari and Nova were in the kitchen now, with the former making snacks for the two of them. Things had gotten kinda quiet between them so to fill the silence, Mari decided to put on the radio and tune into a station that played songs from decades past. Mari smiled to herself as the sound of her favourite kind of music filled the room while she spread peanut butter onto a slice of bread. She looked over to Rani to see what she was doing and saw the little elephant swaying back and forth to the beat of the song. Mari giggled to herself and then brought the two sandwiches plus a bowl of freshly cut apples to the kitchen table.
As Mari and Rani ate their sandwiches, Rani inspected the kitchen and finally asked the question that had been on her mind.
"So, do you live here by yourself?" Rani asked.
Mari nearly choked on her sandwich and held back on laughing as she answered with," No, my parents are just working a little bit later than usual tonight."
Rani then nodded and Mari stopped eating her sandwich for a few moments as she thought about what happened earlier today. Mari felt disappointed and frustrated in herself for having those thoughts run rampantly in front of Kiriko and Asuna. She thought she was past that, that she was ok with being an ally and watching on the sidelines.
Rani took notice of Mari zoning rather quickly and immediately asked her," Is something bothering you?"
Mari forced a smile onto her face again and put her sandwich down. She was going to simply dispel any notion of displeasure that she had like always, she knew that doing otherwise would've likely bothered Rani, but then she stopped thinking like that for a moment and remained quiet.
"Have you ever, wondered what it would've been like to be a hero like Cure Cheer?" Mari finally asked, hesitance detectable in her voice.
"Yeah, quite often actually..." Rani confessed bashfully though Mari was both surprised and elated to hear that response. Mari smiled at the little blue elephant, unsure exactly what to say and only felt grateful knowing that she shared this feeling of wanting to be like Cure Cheer. Mari then reminded herself that chances are, it wasn't only the two of them in the world who wished to be like Cure Cheer. People who had read the book but didn't know who she was could admire her for her courage and passion and aspire to be like her. The desire to be like Cheer probably wasn't limited to the human world either. Citizens of the Laruan Kingdom must have saw Cure Cheer as a role model, a symbol of bravery, even if she was long gone.
Those citizens who were now losing everything they held dear to them were now clinging onto the hope that the Pretty Cure would put an end to Lilith, just like Cure Cheer once did. Mari looked out the window, and thought about how she could've been as unfortunate as the kingdom's inhabitants if her mother chose to stay in the kingdom. Even if the kingdom was made up of people she had never even met, Mari couldn't help but feel as if she was obligated to help them in some way.
Just then, the two of them heard a loud sound that was familiar to the both of them. They looked out the window and saw a Defective made from a shopping cart, with Bounce standing in front of it.
"Today's my lucky day!" Bounce cheered to herself as she laced her fingers behind her head," There aren't any of those bratty Pretty Cures in these parts!"
"That girl is on Lilith's side, right?" Mari asked nervously, her hands pressed against the window. Rani nodded as the two of them watched Bounce surveyed her surroundings with little interest. Bounce stretched her arms before she yawned loudly as the Defective waited on her.
"Alright, so since there isn't a single Pretty Cure in sight, we're going to do things a little differently today..." Bounce said to her Defective," We're going on a corrupted magic spree, meaning I'm gonna make you the most powerful Defective in history, ok?"
The Defective nodded and Bounce hopped on the Defective and stood in the upper compartment of the cart.
"Let's get moving!" Bounce shouted as she pointed into the distance. The Defective nodded in response and zoomed down the street.
"We can't let them do that! We need to tell Kiriko and the others!" Rani clamored fretfully with Mari nodding in response.
Mari was sending a text to Kiriko telling her to come to her house in hopes that they'd encounter Bounce and the Defective along the way. Mari then drew out a sigh, hoping Kiriko would receive the message in time, but Mari was feeling satisfied in only sending the text. She knew she had to do more. Mari tried thinking about other options and then decided to run out of the house, with Rani in hand and took her bike out from the garage.
Rani was clueless as to what Mari was doing as the brunette got onto the bike and place Rani inside the bike's basket. Rani looked up at Mari and was surprised to find a very determined and stern look on the girl's face.
"What are you doing?" Rani asked as Mari took a hold of the bike's handlebars.
"I'm going to catch that monster!" Mari declared as she started to cycle down the street, with Rani panicking in response.
"Are you out of your mind?! You could get hurt and have your magic sapped out of you within an instant if we catch up to them!" Rani explained to her anxiously.
"That's a risk I'm willing to take." Mari responded solemnly as she narrowed her eyes on the road ahead of her.
Elsewhere, Kiriko, Asuna and Sophie were running down the street in search of the Defective. Kiriko was leading the group, feeling herself grow uneasy at the thought of Bounce reaping out more magic from Patchwork Hearts she'd cross down the road. Not only that, she was nervous that Mari might have got her magic extracted out from Bounce. Kiriko told herself that Mari was smart, so she would've been able to avoid such a predicament.
Kiriko skidded to a stop once she saw a giant shopping cart a couple of feet away from them. Inside the cart, Bounce was holding what resembled a large mason jar that was glowing a variety of colours.
"This is awesome! With those Pretty Cure MIA, I can just collect as much magic as I want!" Bounce exclaimed as she gazed into the jar.
"Your fun ends here Bounce!" Kiriko shouted as she and the girls held up their PlayPacts and shouted out in unison,
"Pretty Cure, it's Playtime!"
A mass of violet, orange and blue lights streamed out of the girls PlayPacts and enveloped the three of them.
"The princess of wishes," Cure Dolly!" Dolly announced.
"The dame of courage, Cure Teddy!" Teddy announced.
"The sailor of justice, Cure Bubbly!" Bubbly announced.
"When evil is near, playtime is here! Together we are..." The girls said in unison," Toychest Pretty Cure!"
The Pretty Cure stood in front of the Defective and wasted no time in trying to fight against it. Bubbly jumped up and twirled around, causing a tendril of water to form around her. Bubbly placed her arms in front of herself and pointed to the Defective and shouted out,
"Pretty Cure, Whirlpool of Justice!"
The Defective was moved back slightly from getting hit by the attack, but it wasn't enough to knock it down. Bubbly returned to the ground, feeling a bit irritated as her attack didn't deal out as much damage as she hoped. Teddy was conjuring up a pair of flaming spheres into her hands when she noticed that Dolly was looking at the Defective intently, as if something about it was bothering her.
"What is it?" Teddy asked her teammate, who was now staring at the wheels of the shopping cart.
"Don't these shopping carts typically lock when you try to take them out of the grocery store?" Dolly pointed out.
Mari was almost at the spot where the Cures and the Defective were fighting, she could easily see the Defective from where she was. Her insides were writhing inside of her as she grew closer to the Defective. It was bigger than a house, it's screams were blood-curdling and made her heart race at the sound of them plus it was strong enough to uproot trees with ease. Clearly, she didn't stand a chance against the Defective, the mere idea of coming close to it made her feel terrified. But, the idea of staying home and waiting around made her feel even worse.
As Mari got closer to the Defective, her heartbeat grew quicker but she paid no mind to it and instead focused on why she was doing this. Even if the Defective was ginormous and even if the Pretty Cure were there, it didn't mean she had to stand around and just watch them. She stood a few feet away from the battle now and looked at the Cures fighting against the Defective, with the Defective having the upper hand. The Defective was throwing the girls into buildings thoughtlessly and the Cures were struggling to put up much of a fight against the Defective.
"Pretty Cure, Gale of wi-!" Dolly said, interrupted in mid-sentence due to being picked by the Defective and getting dangled up high above the ground.
Dolly looked at her opponent upside down and appeared to be rather frustrated as she wiggled around in the Defective's grip, with no avail in freeing herself. She then looked over to her teammates and watched as Teddy and Bubbly tried to get back up again.
Teddy's knees were wobbling an awful lot as she fought to get back up on her feet. She glared at the Defective while it continued to hold Dolly and stood still for a few moments.
"Hey, Bubbly." Teddy said," I know we can't preform any kinda combo attack, but can you at least give me a lift?"
Bubbly then nodded after she stood back up and then the two of them ran towards the Defective. Teddy ignited another set of spheres made from fire in her hands. Bubbly laced her hands together and boosted Teddy up, causing her to jump higher than she could've on her own.
"Pretty Cure, flame of hope-!" Teddy was about to launch her attack, but the Defective grabbed a hold of both of her arms, as if it was putting out a match. Teddy was furious to see her attack had zero effect on the Defective and fought to free herself from it's grip.
"Wow, who would've thought I just needed to make a Defective from a shopping cart to defeat you girls?" Bounce remarked as she spectated the battle from the compartment," Plus you girls have a bunch of magic worth harvesting. I should've done this weeks ago!"
Bounce was smiling at the sight of the girls defenseless, but then, she felt a new kind of magic amongst them. It definitely wasn't as strong as the Pretty Cure but it was peculiar in how it felt. Bounce then looked over to the side and saw Mari standing with bike nervously. For a second, Bounce thought she was just imagining things but it felt clear that the magic she was sensing came from Mari.
"Hey specs, are you from the Laruan kingdom? Wearing some kinda disguise to blend in with the earthlings?" Bounce asked as she tried to better focus on where the magic was coming from, because something wasn't feeling quite right about the magic's circulation. Normally, it would flow through the body, like blood. But instead the magic remained in one place, specifically at the center of her chest.
Soon Bounce caught on and smiled as she extended her hand about as if she was going to grab something. Mari then instinctively clung onto her necklace, but it appeared Bounce was trying to take it through some kinda gravitational pull. Mari held on as tight as she could but Bounce inevitably ripped the pendant off from the necklace and held it between her fingers.
Bounce held it to the light and looked at it curiously while saying," It might look like some cheap pendant but...this is Laruan kingdom magic."
She held it tight in her hands, and nodded in approval as she tried to break the plastic ball around it. Surprisingly, it was tougher than she expected and she was experiencing difficulty trying to release the magic from it.
"This damn contraption is awfully tough..." Bounce remarked as she clenched her fist tighter.
Mari was horrified at the sight of Bounce attempting to break the pendant, her pupils shrunken to pinpricks. She felt hopeless and regretful, she should've just stayed at home where she, Rani and the necklace would've been safe from the likes of Bounce. But then, out of nowhere, she felt a sense of righteousness overcome her. Mari was tired of feeling sorry and complacent and just took a breath before she glared at Bounce as she began to walk towards her.
"Mari what are you doing?" Bubbly asked as she tried to stop her when she came near, but her efforts were fruitless.
Mari stopped walking once she was close enough to the Defective, and said," You people from Asperity have been doing nothing but hurting other people and making them miserable. I'm not upset, I only want to know, why are you doing this? What would you have to gain?"
Bounce rolled her eyes and then said," Man you earthlings are the absolute worst. You could never even hope to understand how we at Asperity-!"
"-I'm not asking Asperity, I'm asking you." Mari interjected, catching Bounce off-guard as she tried to from some kinda response.
After a few moments, Bounce couldn't create a proper reply and only said," Who cares? My beliefs are the same as Asperity's and if one thing's for certain, you're in all in our way!"
Bounce snapped her fingers, which somehow caused the Defective to drop both Dolly and Teddy and she then said," I'm sick of this girl, get rid of her right now!"
The Defective did as instructed and tried to grab Mari but instead, the Defective had been blocked by a transparent shimmery barrier that encircled around Mari. Everyone looked at the surrounding sphere with a shocked look on their face while Mari continued to glare at Bounce.
"While I can't understand your actions and even if you won't give me a proper answer, I don't have any ill will towards you, I think that you can do better than this." Mari declared briskly," However, you'll still be held accountable for your actions. I refuse to sit back and let you steal from others anymore! I don't care if I'm not a Pretty Cure. Even if I'm just a normal person, I won't let that stop me from protecting my world and the Laruan kingdom!"
Just then, Bounce felt the pendant in her hand grow hot, unbearably hot, to the point where she was no longer able to keep it in her hands. She had to let go of it and in that very instant, the pendant gravitated to Mari and turned into a white Playpact with a purple bow and a rainbow on it.
Mari was inside a sparkly white void with the white Playpact levitating before her. She held her hands out and took the Playpact and eyed it carefully.
Rani leapt out of the basket and tried getting as close to Mari as she could while shouting," Mari, you're a Pretty Cure! Hold your Playpact up high and shout, 'Pretty Cure, it's playtime!"
Mari nodded and held out the Playpact and yelled out," Pretty Cure, it's playtime!"
A spectrum of lights circled around Mari like a cyclone and covered her completely. Her school clothes were obscured by a set of bright sparkly white lights and once the lights disappeared, a white dress with a rainbow pattern on the skirt with buttons of every colour in the rainbow appeared. The dress had an off-shoulder style and had pale pink and lilac trimming along with pale pink frills at the bottom of it. Mari twirled around and the skirt of the dress took shape and became puffier. Mari then held her hands up in front of her forehead and tilted her head to the side, causing a pair of rainbow sleeveless gloves that extended to her forearm to appear. Next, she tilted her chin upwards and then her hair grew long and white and was arranged into a half-up pony-tail secured by a lilac bow and a braid around her head. Lastly, she tapped her heels and appearing on her legs were a pair of white knee-high socks and pale pink mary-jane styled shoes.
Mari then struck a pose and announced," The creator of dreams, Cure Fantasy!"
Everyone in the area fell quiet, and just stared at Fantasy in surprise. Fantasy then finally took a moment to look at herself and inspected her hands carefully. These gloves, the long white hair and dress, it all felt so unreal, like this was some kinda dream she was bound to wake up from any minute now. But no, she didn't need to wake up, this was all a reality, the reality that she thought would never happen.
Fantasy took a deep breath and finally accepted the fact that this was all real and said to Bounce," This has gone on long enough! I...I'm going to-!"
"Do what?" Bounce interjected as she jumped out of the compartment," You may have been able to transform, but what good can you do?"
The Defective then returned to battle and wasted no time in trying to fight against the Pretty Cure. Fantasy looked towards the Defective, petrified by fear for a moment until she heard a pair of voices shout from behind her,
"Pretty Cure, Gale of Wishes!"
"Pretty Cure, Flame of Hope!"
The Defective was blasted back a few feet and while the Defective was still trying to recover from the attack, the Pretty Cure approached their new teammate.
"Welcome to the team, Cure Fantasy!" Dolly beamed as she told a hold of both Fantasy's hands.
Fantasy was unsure of what to say and simply just stared at her teammates in awe. The Cures were all smiling at her and watching them made her feel as if this was all too good to be true again. She then smiled back to the girls and just then, the Defective swung towards the girls.
Fantasy then shouted," Look out!" And then held her hands out in front of herself, somehow causing the Defective's arms to disappear.
The Cures eyed the Defective curiously, who was just as confused as they were as it looked at the pegs where it's arms once were. It didn't feel any pain, nor did it feel as if it's arms were gone.
"Whoa, nice job Fantasy! You showed that Defective who's boss, getting rid of it's arms like that." Teddy remarked, though Fantasy and Dolly didn't seem convinced that the Defective had lost it's arms.
"I didn't do that." Fantasy informed her, once she caught on to what had happened to the Defective.
The Defective then realized that Fantasy hadn't actually removed it's arms, she just made them invisible. Once the Defective figured this out, it's arms returned to normal. The Defective returned to fighting the girls and the cures fought back.
"Interesting, so Fantasy has some form of optical-illusion based powers..." Dolly thought aloud, with Bubbly and Teddy overhearing her.
"So does that mean she can make mirages and stuff?" Bubbly asked as she delivered a kick in the Defective's core.
Dolly nodded hesitantly, while staring at the wheels of the Defective as she said," It would appear so."
"Right now, we gotta get this Defective to put it's wheels onto the ground! I'm sure it would lock if that were to happen." Dolly thought to herself before she looked over to Fantasy, who was still trying to get used to and figure out her fighting style," Maybe she can make it happen."
Dolly then fell behind and jumped backwards and called out for Fantasy.
Fantasy followed after her and Dolly then asked her," I know this might seem like I'm asking for a lot, but, do you think you'd able to pull the Defective down onto it's wheels to make them land on the ground?"
"To make the wheels lock, right?" Fantasy questioned, with Dolly smiling in excitement, not expecting Fantasy to guess that," I'll try to figure out something, ok? You can count on me."
Dolly nodded in response and the two of them ran back into the fight. Fantasy tried thinking of what she could while they fought and after a few moments, a thought came to her. She wasn't sure if her powers were strong enough to do it, but it was worth a shot.
Fantasy then leapt down and held one arm in front of herself shouting," Pretty Cure, Playground of Pretenders!"
A metal chain appeared around one of the Defective's legs and the other end of the chain was in Fantasy's hands.
"I just gotta pull this thing down and the Defective's wheels will lock!" Fantasy said to herself, before the other Cures came to her side to assist her. The four of them pulled at the chain as hard as they could in hopes of making the Defective fall over. Even with their strengths combined, the cures were facing difficulty against the Defective.
"Just a little bit more, we can do this!" Fantasy, who was at the front of the team, yelled in an encouraging voice. Finally, the cures succeeded and the Defective had fallen down onto it's knees where the wheels of the shopping cart were located. The Defective appeared to have been fully drained of it's energy and didn't move anymore after that.
"We did it!" Dolly cheered while Teddy and Bubbly both high-fived fantasy," Fantasy, did you want to purify it?"
Fantasy was bewildered at the very thought of it and said in response," Ok, I'm not exactly sure how to do that though."
"It's easy." Rani said as she ran up towards the group," You just concentrate on your flow of magic and then channel it all towards the Defective!"
Fantasy didn't seem to be following completely, but she nodded and said," I'll give it my best shot!"
The Cure clad in white then shut her eyes and held her hands out in front of herself and tried to clear her thoughts.
"Pretty Cure, Dreaming Captivation!" Fantasy shouted, the atmosphere around them resembling a kaliedoscope in middle sentence. The Defective was purified and reverted to it's original form.
"God, I'm gonna get an earful for this one." Bounce said to herself, drawing out a long sigh before she took her leave.
"Mari, I'm so happy that you got to be a member of our team." Dolly said before she reversed her transformation," I always thought if we were going to have another member, I would've liked it to be you."
"Thanks Kiriko, I don't...I never thought this would happen. I always wanted to be a Pretty Cure, but I didn't think I would be strong enough to be chosen." Mari confessed," I'm guess this means I'm pretty lucky."
"I don't think it was luck." Asuna stated, as she smiled to Mari," You deserve to be on this team, just like the rest of us."
Sophie nodded and commented," Yeah, you were really brave out there, it was really cool!"
"I look forward to working with you as our newest addition to Toychest Pretty Cure. Congratulations, Mari." Kiriko said as she smiled at her team.
Bounce returned to Asperity and saw the cat she had met last time welcoming her home by brushing up against her.
"Kat, I already said you gotta hide in my bedroom! Nobody can know I brought you here, got it?" Bounce said as she knelt down to the cat and pet it tenderly. The green-haired girl then took the cat into her arms and returned her to the bedroom, making sure that her door was closed this time.
Bounce then returned out into the main room and found Jack and Domino working away on their own little projects.
"Where did she go?" Bounce asked, taking note of the fact that the door to Lilith's throne room was open, which virtually never happened," Wasn't she supposed to come back by now?"
"Lilith said she had a lead on the well of wonder, so heaven knows when she'll return." Domino responded, not even lifting his gaze from his new set of blueprints.
Lilith was standing in a forest, with a force field built around her and the well of wonder. She was draped over the well and clung onto it tightly, her head pressed against the bricks of the well.
"Now we can really get things into motion." Lilith crooned before she lifted her head off the well and looked down into it.
What Lilith saw in the well definetely wasn't a sight she had been expecting. She thought she was going to see bright shimmery pink fluids, the magic of well, inside. But instead, she only saw a faint white light from inside of it. It was absolutely not as magical as the fluids that came from the well, but it didn't matter, the well was hers now.
Lilith then felt a chill crawl down her spine and wondered what caused it. She then looked deeper into the well and only then noticed that the cold was coming from inside the well.
"What could be going on with the well?" Lilith asked aloud as she continued to stare into it.