The sun beamed down in the kingdom and the inhabitants were more than pleased to soak up the sun's rays. It seemed as if the sun had not crept out from the clouds in days now, and it hadn't taken long for the inhabitants of this particular village in the kingdom to start worrying. They soon fell under the belief that the lack of magic flowing through the kingdom had finally altered the climate here. But thankfully, they were proven wrong. At least, they were for now.
The village here was quaint and twice as brightly coloured than the rest of the kingdom. Some paths were made from a soft plush material and there was always lots of chatter and cheery individuals ambling down the streets. But, what made this village in particular unique from the rest of the kingdom was that everyone here was a plush toy.
All the plush toys here had a full Patchwork heart, but that was only because their owners had passed it on to them once they left this world. Everyone is met with the choice of either giving the rest of their Patchwork Heart to plush toy or they can keep they're half but this will leave the plush toy to become inanimate again. Some people are generous and give their Patchwork Hearts to their plush toy with the wish that their childhood friend may live on. However, most owners fail to realize what they put their plush toys through in bestowing the rest of their patchwork heart to them, while they move on to the next life and often don't consider how much the plush companion will miss them. Other people are sentimental up until their death and prefer to keep their half, in hopes that they'll enjoy the afterlife together.
A light green and yellow quilt plush mouse walked out of his home and retrieved a newspaper from his doorstep. He looked down at it and drew out a sigh before he glanced at his street to see if any of his neighbours were out enjoying the lovely day. To his delight, all his neighbours were taking advantage of this fine day but then, he noticed a large white horse playing at the fountain in the neighborhood. He felt himself tense up for a moment, he could recognize that horse anywhere. He then looked around the fountain and found a familiar green-haired individual standing behind the horse.
"It's been awhile, hasn't it Rudy?" Sterling said as his gaze met the mouse.
"I guess so, your majesty." Rudy answered, a warm smile appearing on his face though he didn't like how those words rolled off his tongue.
Rudy offered Sterling to come and have a cup of coffee in his home, but Sterling declined claiming that he wouldn't be able to stay very long. Rudy was suspicious, knowing that he couldn't be kept here long probably wasn't the only reason he had. Sterling would seldom visit these days and while Rudy was ok with that, he was also aware that when the king did visit, it was because he needed to get something off of his chest.
Sterling and Rudy sat against the ledge of the fountain, with Sterling wrapping his arms around his legs, putting himself in a pose that was quite odd for someone of his status. He looked very vulnerable and Rudy knew well that whatever can of worms he was about to open, it had been a long time coming for him.
"I don't want to be in the castle anymore. I can't stand to be there." Sterling confessed as he hung his head," It's not like I'm ever there anyways. I just leave searching for Arabella so I can-"
"-Run away from the truth?" Rudy interjected, though Sterling didn't chide him for interrupting or anything of the sort, which only meant the situation was worse than Rudy expected if Sterling opted for silence. Nothing had been said by Sterling for a few long moments.
"So I can be free and not be tied to a role that I wasn't supposed to have. I wouldn't have to do any of this if-" Sterling stopped himself, remembering he needed to choose his words with the utmost care in the presence of Rudy.
"It's fine, nothing you say will change the fact that Theo's gone." Rudy pointed out, trying to make light of the situation," I of all people should know that."
"I miss Theo so much, and not just because having him here would've meant I'd be free to live my life." Sterling confessed, finally lifting his head," Unlike me, Theo loved the idea of leading the kingdom. Being king meant everything to him."
Rudy nodded in response, while Sterling held his legs tighter as he said with full conviction," I could never be a good king, let alone a king as good as Theo. There are some things that won't happen in life. But...this is only the least of my problems."
Today, Sophie was at a dressing room for one of her friend's photo shoots. Sophie had to fight her friend not to take part in it today, claiming that she'd only be here for moral support and nothing more. From inside, Sophie wasn't able to see her friend get her pictures done, but she didn't mind since she knew her friend was on break right now. Sophie was trying on wigs that the company supplied her friend with and tried on some of them.
Sophie examined her reflection and paid close attention to the light brown and bouncy wig atop her head. She moved her head side to side a couple of times, unable to get over the bounciness of the short wig as she ran her hands through it.
"It even feels nice too..." Sophie as she shook her head.
"Sophie, we're going out to-" Sophie's friend said before she saw Sophie in the wig,"-lunch. That looks really good on you, you should wear it when we go out."
"No thanks, that might be a bit embarrassing, Nayumi." Sophie stated as she immediately pulled the wig off," You said we're going to lunch now? Sounds great~! Where are we off to?"
Nayumi forced a smile as she collected her things, pretending that she wasn't annoyed by how uninterested Sophie was in her appearance. It had been like this for weeks now. Weeks of Sophie shying away from cameras, from steering clear of any topic whatsoever that had to do with modeling. If this was anyone else, Nayumi wouldn't give them the time of day, she had better ways to spend her time. But because this was one of her closest modeling friends, who she knew damn well had a lot of potential, Nayumi wasn't up for forsaking Sophie and put up with puzzling new habits. Nayumi pushed her shoulder length blonde hair behind her and reached for her cell phone in her purse. She scrolled through her texts and was pleased to find a bunch of photographers that wanted to work with not only her, but Sophie too. Some photographers even expressed interests in shoots with only Sophie, but they made this subtle so they wouldn't offend Nayumi, though this wouldn't have bothered her. And these weren't just some random people she found online or met off the streets. These people she was in contact were top quality since Nayumi would only associate herself with the best of the best, hence why she was insistent on keeping Sophie around.
Nayumi was quick to make use of her opportunity and said to Sophie, "You've heard of that photographer Kitsuo right? So I got in contact with him this morning and-"
"-Sorry, I'm not interested, Nayumi." Sophie affirmed with a single shake of her head," Your manager told me what you've been up to and I'm sorry to say but, I'm still on my break."
Nayumi frowned and gave Sophie an uncertain look. It felt like it had been eons since Sophie had been interested in her career and the more time that passed, the more worried Nayumi became.
Sophie offered her a sympathetic smile as the two of them walked into the restaurant next door. Sophie let Nayumi take a step ahead before she asked her,
"You're unhappy with me, aren't you?"
That day, Sophie didn't go back to the shoot for Nayumi and they both agreed that she would've been better taking the rest of the day off to catch up on her studies and such. Hours later, Sophie could be found falling asleep on top of her science textbook and hunched over her desk. Just then, her phone rang and woke her up in an instant, leading her to clumsily answer the call. Sophie didn't even get a chance to check the caller ID before she answered the phone.
"Hello?" She asked cautiously into the phone.
"Girl, have you seen any of my texts? Or were you snoozing into your Chemistry homework?" Cho asked from the other side of the phone.
Sophie looked down at the floor in embarrassment and nervously mumbled into the phone," I wasn't doing that. Anyways, what did you text me about?"
"Remember how the school play was in need of a seamstress?" Cho asked her, with Sophie nodding in response.
"Oh, uh yeah." Sophie responded awkwardly, forgetting that she was on call.
"Well, the president of the Textiles club backed out because of irreconcilable differences or something like that. You know what this means?" Cho asked her expectantly.
"Cho, you know I'd love to but, I don't know if I should. I mean, I've never done anything like that, I just make dresses for my sisters and it's not like they're any good." Sophie admitted with a sigh escaping her lips," I wouldn't want to get their hopes up and make something awful for them."
Cho scoffed in response and commented with," Are you kidding me? The drama club would be lucky, no, it would be an honor for them to have you as their seamstress. And not just because of your modeling work. You've been isolating yourself these days and I don't like seeing you so withdrawn. I know something's been up with you but...every time I ask about it, you deny it. I just wanna make sure everything's ok with you."
Sophie took the phone off from her ear for a moment and then looked at the phone screen with a guilty look in her eye. It had been bad enough that she had neglected some quality time with Cho due to all this Pretty Cure stuff, but now she had caught on to how she been feeling? Sophie always saw Cho's sharp intuition as both a blessing and curse since Cho would always be there for her and know how she had been feeling long before she told her but that also meant nothing could get past Cho. It was frustrating, especially when all she could do was give Cho only half the truth these days.
Though, Cho was onto something, even if Sophie didn't want to admit it. And of course, Sophie knew Cho wasn't trying to accuse her anything, all Cho wanted was to have her friend back to her normal self. So, Sophie pondered this idea for a few moments and then said,
"I can give it a try, but...I'll need a team." Sophie concluded before Cho gave an awfully loud cheer in response. Thankfully, Sophie had just the right people in mind for the job.
On Monday afternoon, Sophie assembled her Pretty Cure teammates in an empty classroom at Nagasaki high, along with Cho. Sophie stood confidently in front of her team with a large binder sitting on the desk in front of her. Sophie had yet to tell the girls about why she brought them here to her school, stating that it was going to be a surprise they would be sure to love. Once Sophie felt ready to begin, she closed the door to the classroom and said to the girls,
"So, I'm sure most of you are wondering exactly why I brought you all in today." Sophie began slowly," Well, let me paint you a picture. You're a high-school Drama club, known to have one of the best theatre arts programs in town, but suddenly, you have a dispute with the head of the Textiles club and now you don't have any costumes for your show! That's where we come in."
Sophie looked over to her little audience, excited to see how they'd react. The girls, except Cho, only offered her blank, confused stares in response. Sophie furrowed her brows, wondering if her short story did enough explaining. Kiriko then spoke up.
"We're gonna make costumes?" She asked, with Sophie nodding vigorously in response.
"Can't you just get the actors to get their own clothes from home? This is a rich kid school, I'm sure they've got something suitable for the play." Asuna pointed out flatly as she stretched out her arms.
"Nope, since this isn't just any play they're putting on." Sophie declared as she pulled out a paper from the binder," The play they're doing is...Romeo and Juliet!"
Cho gave an "ooh" sound just for fun while Asuna rolled her eyes. Sophie then opened up the binder and revealed stacks of photos printed out of Victorian fashion and little sketchbook of concept designs she had for the character of Juliet.
"Romeo and Juliet is a play of timeless fashion, set in Verona, Italy. These outfits are very elegant and nothing like the clothes we have today." Sophie explained as she motioned the girls over to join her in looking through the binder," We need to recapture this fashion for the play, otherwise it won't feel the same and it'll look like just a bunch of awkward high-schoolers spewing some clunky lines out on stage. Our job is to not only have them sound and act the part, but look the part too!"
"You're right! This sounds like a lot of fun Sophie, I have some basic sowing skills, so I hope that can be of help to you." Mari declared as she looked through the binder, with Sophie nodding in response.
"Great! Cho also going to help us with the sowing too." Sophie pointed out, with Cho waving to the girls," As for Asuna, I was thinking since you can draw, maybe you'd be able to help me with some of the designing?"
Asuna skimmed through the pages of the binder, narrowing her eyes at some of the questionable photos she saw, especially for the men's fashion. It seemed sorta challenging, but manageable if Sophie was also going to be designing with her. Admittedly, some of the dresses she saw were actually quite nice.
"I guess I can give it a shot..." Asuna answered, her gaze fixated on this one red ornate dress in the binder. Sophie cheered and threw her arms around Asuna, an accomplished feeling flowing through her after she just convinced the most skeptic person on her team. Sophie then looked up expectantly towards Kiriko.
"Um...unfortunately I don't have any sowing or design skills." Kiriko confessed awkwardly," But, maybe I can help with researching some of the most common fashion trends of the times to make the costumes feel even more authentic."
"Alright, that works! It'd probably be best if we started to work on that now, so maybe you could come with me to the library to research for a bit?" Sophie offered," After that, we can get to work right away. Oh yeah, I almost forgot!"
Sophie then flipped to one of the last pages in the binder, where a page full of measurements next to names of people were written, along with a large number written in red at the bottom. Sophie then pointed to the red number and explained the purpose of the page.
"This is our budget. Any money we spend we'll get back from the Drama club, granted we provide the receipts. Anything that goes over this will be out-of-pocket." Sophie declared as she looked up to her team for affirmation. The girls nodded in response and Sophie gave them a thumbs-up.
"Kiriko and I will start doing the research, if you guys want, you can go to the fabric store at strip mall down the road. I can't guarantee they'll have the best deals on fabrics, but you can get some ideas on what fabric we can use there." Sophie offered as she and Kiriko stood up from their seats. Sophie then led Kiriko out of the classroom to the library and waved goodbye to the girls.
"Ok, so shall we get going?" Mari asked as she stood up from her seat and looked over to the rest of her teammates.
Cho nodded and stood up from her seat, with Asuna following her lead. The three of them exited the room and Cho lead them to the fabric store Sophie was talking about. Mari took in the sights, not saying a word during their walk, while Asuna still seemed skeptic of this costume-making job. Asuna then drew out a sigh and asked Cho,
"Do you think they need to have these costumes?"
"Well, it's not a necessity. Not for them at least." Cho answered hesitantly as she kept on walking," I don't know if you girls noticed but...my best friend hasn't been herself lately. I don't know if it has something to do with her modeling or if something's going on at home...either way, she doesn't want to talk about it. But I didn't want this to continue."
"So I take it you're the one who told her about this seamstress position?" Mari chimed in, with Cho nodding in response," That's really thoughtful of you, I'm glad Sophie has someone like you looking out for her."
Cho shrugged and awkwardly chuckled while saying," I just want Sophie to feel like herself again. Not sure if you noticed but she's usually really energetic and upbeat. It would have to something really bad to change that."
Mari and Asuna exchanged looks, feeling almost guilty knowing what that "something really bad" was but also knowing that they weren't allowed to tell Cho about it. Cho didn't even take notice to their expressions, since they just reached the fabric store.
"This way!" Cho exclaimed as she pointed towards the store.
When Sophie and Kiriko stepped in the library, Kiriko was purely shocked to see that the library was much, much bigger than she expected. She had to take a moment to just look around and process the size of the library, filled with students and twice as many books.
"What? It's just a library, Kiriko." Sophie reminded her sheepishly as she led her to the computer tables, practically dragging her as Kiriko continued to take in her surroundings.
When Sophie found an empty pair of computers, she motioned Kiriko to take a seat. Kiriko finally recovered and looked at the screen before her with a blank stare on her face.
"Asuna was right, this really is a rich kid school." Kiriko remarked as she looked over to Sophie, who giggled in response.
"I guess? It's not like all the students here are rich though. Lots of them had scholarships, including Cho. Not to mention the entrance exam is really tough, so everyone here had to be pretty smart to get in." Sophie explained as she stared into the computer's loading screen.
Kiriko nodded in understanding, before the two of them fell silent as the computers loaded up.
So to fill up the awkward silence, Kiriko then casually asked,"So have you still had the time for modelling?"
Sophie looked a bit uncomfortable, gripping her skirt tightly as she said,"Well, I've been preoccupied so I've just steered clear of modelling for the last couple of weeks."
"Oh, busy with schoolwork and..."Kiriko then lowered her voice to a whisper and looked both ways before continuing,"..all of the pretty Cure stuff lately?"
"Um, yeah! Between those two I can't get a minute to myself."Sophie exasperated, hoping Kiriko would be easy enough to fool. Kiriko nodded in response and returned her focus to the researching. Sophie took a small sigh of relief, but instantly felt guilty for lying to Kiriko like that. Even if Kiriko probably wouldn't have understood what she was going through, she probably wouldn't mind listening, right? Sophie then awkwardly started speaking,
"The modeling thing has never been easy but, I've been doing it for a awhile."
I moved to Japan when I was eight, before living here, I spent my life living in Toronto, Canada. Things are definitely a lot different there, but in a good way. Both places are filled with many good things, and I'm sure things have only gotten better there since I left. We came to Japan because my dad got a job opportunity here and the rest was history. The move was sudden, but well worth it. I didn't get the chance to get into modelling in Canada, but that's where I developed interest in the whole modelling thing.
Models get to wear pretty clothes, they have people take pictures of them and best of all, they can inspire others, not just with their modeling work, but with their words! To me, being a model is much more than walking in an expensive dress on a runway, it's about empowering fellow girls and showing them what you're able to achieve anything when you put your mind to it. Models have an obligation to be a figure that people look up to and strive to be, not because of their looks and appearance, but because of their actions and feelings.
Often times, people think all models are victims of vanity and care only about themselves and how they look, but I've got a bunch of model friends who are nothing like that. The models I'm friends with however are very goal-oriented, they all know exactly what they want and exactly what to do to get it. They take all the steps they know they need to and some of them reach their goals, but others experience many setbacks.
Some of my friends don't sweat the small stuff and setbacks seldom bother them but there are also those who let their setbacks affect them deeply. An early retirement is almost always caused by doubt and over thinking paired with a negative response from family or friends. I've known a lot of people who ended up quitting just to make their parents happy because once they noticed they were experiencing a lull in their modeling work, they never failed to decide their child shouldn't be doing this anymore. I get that it wasn't out of anger, but love and concern though...their parents didn't understand what it was like for them. I might be lucky that my family have supported me through and through but sometimes, it makes me nervous that my family have so much trust in me.
"I want to reach my full potential, but I feel lost." Sophie thought to herself, "I don't get a lot of people interested in working with me these days, but no one knows that. I think I too am experiencing a lull in my modeling career, but...I don't know what to do about it."
"I haven't actually done any modeling work in months, but...it's only because I'm worried I'm losing focus of what I want, or rather...I'm not sure of what I want right now." Sophie confessed as she put her binder on the table and skimmed through the pages, "I feel bad because I'm not as focused as some of my other friends and well, I'm making them worry about me in the process. Every time I do something that isn't related to modeling, I feeling like I'm distracting myself, so I only feel worse in doing something different.
Kiriko almost asked her about how she felt in regards to making the school play costumes but kept quiet so she wouldn't ruin Sophie's excitement from the costume development.
"I know Cho only wanted to help out, and just like always, she's been a great help but...I can't help but feel a little bit guilty, like I'm running away." Sophie admitted as she slowly drew her hand away from the binder.
Kiriko stared at Sophie's binder for a few moments and then shook her head, a small smile rising to her face as she did so.
"It's ok to feel unsure, like something's might not go right. That's how you can tell how important it is to you." Kiriko explained as she took the binder off the table," But, another thing to take in consideration is that your life right shouldn't have to be centered around your future. You can enjoy other things and discover new hobbies, so don't feel like you have to be chained to your career. Besides, do you realize how much fun you were having when you were talking about the costumes? And it had to have taken a lot of dedication to make a whole binder as big as this!"
Kiriko held out the binder to Sophie, who only looked at it for a few moments before she took it back into her own hands. Sophie's eyes were filled with pride as she looked down at the binder, gripping it tightly while reminding herself of all the hard work she put into it so far. She had yet to even start making the costumes, but already there was so much effort put towards the project. It was clear to Sophie now, she wasn't running away, she just found another path that was all hers to take.
Sophie smiled to Kiriko and said," Maybe you're right, I've done nothing about worrying over what's to come to the point where I let that stop me from enjoying anything. I need stop thinking so much about what went wrong and do something to correct and change things. But first, we've got costumes to make!"
Cho, Asuna and Mari walked out of the fabric store, each with a pair of bags in their hands. Thankfully, they weren't too heavy, at least not for Cho and Mari. Asuna was a step behind the two of them, which was just the opposite of where she had been when they were entering the store, but the girls didn't seem to notice her struggling as Cho had explained what had been going on with Sophie.
"She was always pretty good at balancing her schoolwork and modeling, constantly making sure that no scheduled event would conflict with the other. But, mentally, I don't know if Sophie had been very set on modelling this whole time. Not only that, but because modelling has always been a high priority in her life, it's caused her to miss out on some stuff, like after-school clubs and culture fest. She said she didn't mind, but for her not to care about that stuff would be unlike her. It only makes her seem even more distant. Guess it doesn't help that she hasn't lived here all her life. Seems birds of a feather really do flock together."
Mari and Asuna stopped walking and eyed Cho curiously who said in response," I'm mixed, half-Japanese, half-Haitian. Anyways, Sophie hasn't really been given the chance, by both her schedule and some of our classmates, to make really close friends. And I don't know how you guys ended up in her life, but...I'm glad you did."
Mari smiled and then threw her arms around Cho saying," We wouldn't trade Sophie for anything in the world!"
"Is that so?" A voice asked from behind them. The three of them turned around and floating a couple of feet up in the sky was Rubix with a pair of red and orange transparent cubes beneath her feet.
"Now how the hell did she get all the way up there?" Cho asked while Rubix stared at the yards of fabric in her bag.
Rubix smiled to herself and held out her hands, revealing a black diamond between each of her fingers. She tossed them all up into the air and they joined into one large diamond. Mari and Asuna looked at the diamond nervously and Rubix relished in watching their expressions.
"Go forth and corrupt her Patchwork Heart!" Rubix commanded the diamond, which headed straight to Cho. The diamond affixed itself onto Cho's Patchwork Heart, corrupting it instantaneously and leaving Cho falling unconscious from what just happened.
"Cho!" Mari shouted as she caught her in her own arms," You people cause nothing but trouble, and for what?"
"I'll text Kiriko and Sophie to meet us here." Asuna offered with Mari nodding in response," In the meanwhile, let's get a head start."
Asuna and Mari retrieved their PlayPacts and shouted out in unison," Pretty Cure, it's playtime!"
"The dame of courage, Cure Teddy!" Teddy announced.
"The creator of dreams, Cure Fantasy!" Fantasy announced.
The two of them stood side by side as a Defective made from the yards of fabric in Cho's bag was created right in front of them. Fantasy and Teddy both took a defensive stance for a few moments as they eyed the Defective.
"I hope this won't hurt Sophie to see." Fantasy said before the two of them darted towards the Defective. Fantasy was just a step ahead of Teddy when she unexpectedly jumped up high into the air, higher than anyone anticipated and shouted out," Pretty Cure, Playground of Pretenders!"
The area around them changed form and it appeared as if they were all inside a genie's lamp of some sorts. Teddy, the Defective and Rubix all eyed their surroundings suspiciously, trying to determine a way out.
"Ah wait, now would be a great time to attack with them off-guard!" Teddy thought to herself before giving Fantasy a thumbs-up. Fantasy winked at her and Teddy raced towards the Defective, with a flaming set of spheres in each of her hands. Teddy held out her hands in front of the Defective, but the Defective grabbed her by the wrists and held her up to it's face.
Teddy rolled her eyes and said while directing her hands at the Defective," Heights aren't gonna stop me man."
The Defective was hit by the flaming spheres in Teddy's hands and let go of her without realizing it. Teddy landed on her feet and turned around to see if Fantasy saw her attack. But instead, what she saw was Rubix sneaking up on Fantasy without her teammate having any clue.
"Watch your back!" Teddy shouted, but she wasn't fast enough as Rubix wrapped her arm around Fantasy's neck. Out of pure surprise, Fantasy unwilling reversed the illusion and they returned to street in front of the fabric store.
"You still haven't learned have you?" Rubix asked as she let go of Fantasy," Your attacks won't ever work on the likes of me."
Fantasy felt her heart sink for a second before she heard a voice shout out,"Don't you have better things to do?!"
She and Teddy looked up to find Dolly and Bubbly standing a few feet behind them. Both of them wore matching furious looks on their face at the sight of Rubix and her Defective made from Cho. Dolly had just noticed Cho lying unconscious on the ground and wanted to distract Bubbly from it, but she already saw and immediately ran towards Cho, heedless of the danger on the way to her.
Bubbly kneeled towards her and instead of frantically shaking her or even calling out Cho's name, she only looked up to Rubix and said," You're a rotten woman! This is my best friend and you had no right to manipulate her into one of your Defectives!"
"I don't want to hear about me being a rotten woman when you're the one who couldn't even protect her." Rubix pointed out flatly, narrowing her eyes at Bubbly," You're getting mad at me when the only person to blame is yourself."
The team fell silent, not a single Cure was quite sure of what to respond with, except for Bubbly.
"We're to blame because of your doings? For all you've been causing from hurting our friends to wreaking havoc across town relentlessly? You seriously can't believe we're the ones at fault when you started all of this!" Bubbly shouted vehemently as she got up to her feet and took on a fighting stance," I don't like your attitude and how you treat others. You keep that up and you'll definitely regret it."
Rubix rolled her eyes and gestured the Defective to continue fighting against the Pretty Cure.
The Defective charged towards the Pretty Cure and lunged for Fantasy and Teddy. Both Cures dodged successfully and that left Dolly and Bubbly just enough time to attack it while it was defenseless. Dolly jumped up just high enough to direct an attack right to it's face and shouted,
"Pretty Cure, cyclone of wishes!"
The Defective was hit with a gigantic violet whirlwind and was knocked back a few feet. The Defective seemed awfully agitated from the attack and then immediately swooped down to pick up Dolly and tossed her into Teddy, causing the pair to crash into a nearby building. Bubbly and Fantasy were about to rush of to their fallen teammates but then suddenly, the Defective pulled off a loose thread from itself and threw it towards Dolly and Teddy like a lasso. Dolly was just about to push Teddy out of the way, but the lasso of thread got bigger and tied the two of them together.
Bubbly bit her lip, she had a feeling that was going to happen but she wasn't sure of what to do so she only stood there helplessly. She then glanced over to Rubix, who had a smug look on her face. Rubix took a step forward and crossed her arms as the Defective waited her next order.
"You're down two members, I can't wait to see how you fare against this Defective without your two strongest teammates." Rubix remarked as the Defective ran towards them again. Bubbly looked down at the ground for a moment, holding back the need to sigh and retort with something uncalled for. She didn't need Rubix to tell her that her inability to strategize cost her the help of the team's strongest members. Nor did she need to be reminded that she wasn't one of them. Bubbly then squeezed her eyes shut for a moment in an attempt to calm herself down.
"You've outwitted an opponent before, you can do it again!" Bubbly reminded herself," Besides, your friends are in danger, this is no time to feel bad about what's already been done!"
Bubbly looked up and studied her opponent, paying close attention to it's physical attributes and what she could use to her advantage. The Defective was obviously very big, just like all the other ones. But, it had a weird loose thread mechanism that could tie people up. Bubbly examined the loose thread still attached on the Defective, wondering if she could use that very thread against it.
Once Bubbly thought of something, her eyes lit up and Fantasy noticed. She then stepped towards Bubbly and lowered her voice to a whisper as she said,
"Will you be needing my help?"
Bubbly nodded and quickly ran over her plan. Fantasy nodded in agreement and just then, the two of them started running towards the Defective. Once the two of them got close enough to the Defective, they jumped up simultaneously. Fantasy then held her hands up, revealing an iridescent light in the palms of both her hands. The Defective then tried to perform the same attack on her that it did to Dolly and Teddy but Bubbly grabbed a hold onto the Defective's thread and clung to it with all her might.
"Just because I'm not the strongest member on my team doesn't mean I'm not strong at all!" Bubbly reminded the Defective between clenched teeth as she swung the Defective into the opposite direction. The Defective's thread was then tangled into a lamp post on the street and fought to break free from it.
"Are you stupid? Just break the thread off!" Rubix reminded it impatiently. The Defective did as told and started to run towards the Pretty Cure again.
"Ready?" Bubbly asked Fantasy, who nodded in response.
"Pretty Cure, Whirlpool of Justice!" The two of them said in unison. The Defective was hit dead on with a tendril of water twice as strong than Bubbly usually made and was soaking wet moments after. The Defective became sluggish in it's movements now that it was fairly damp from head to toe. Fantasy was quite surprised to see that Bubbly's theory had been proven correct and not to mention effective, while Bubbly stood there in near disbelief of her actions.
"I really did all that. I'm not useless, I don't have to give in so easily." Bubbly thought to herself, before returning her attention to Fantasy," Let's get this over with!"
Fantasy nodded and parted ways with Bubbly to free Dolly and Teddy while Bubbly was left to purify the Defective.
"I don't have to doubt myself, I've got this!" Bubbly reassured her as she stood before the Defective, her eyes closed as she concentrated.
Bubbly freed her mind of all the distractions she had inhabiting it and slowly opened her eyes once more. She held out both of her hand up and appearing from nowhere was her blue, yellow and orange scepter falling directly into her hands.
"Pretty Cure, Brilliant Bubbling Carnival!" Bubbly shouted out as she twirled her scepter around like a baton. She tossed it up into the air and the atmosphere around her and the Defective turned a sparkling yellow and blue. A giant herd of rubber ducks zoomed in from nowhere and gathered around the Defective, each of them giving it a kiss upon contact with the Defective. Once the Defective was fully surrounded by the duck herd, it was purified and reverted to it's original form. The scepter came falling back down and Bubbly caught it.
She looked around to see what became of Rubix now that her Defective was gone, but she was nowhere to be found.
Bubbly blinked for a few moments curiously, looking at the scepter in her hands and then at only her hands. She squeezed her left hand tightly into a fist, thinking about how good it felt to have won in that battle and how she saw a different side of herself arise today.
"Only the strong survive." Porter declared sternly as he held his hand up towards her,"... And unfortunately, you're not one of them."
"I proved him wrong."
A memory then crossed Bubbly's mind from when she was about ten years old, standing in front of some very tall modeling agency representatives.
"This girl wants to be a model? In a place like this?" One of the representatives jeered as they pointed at her.
"Proved them wrong them too."
Another memory then crossed her mind, from her first year in high-school, when she overheard her teacher talking to her mom at a parent-teacher meeting.
"She's too focused on this modeling business, at the rate she's going, she'll end up friendless at fifteen." Her teacher said quietly to her mother while Sophie was outside the class room.
"I sure proved her wrong."
"These days I've found myself getting intimidated too easily, I'm too scared of letting people get their 'I was right moments' so I just stopped trying. But, that's not fair for me, especially after how far I've come." Bubbly thought to herself," The only way to prove them wrong and prove to myself of what I'm capable of is taking action and actually putting in the effort, otherwise I won't change a thing."
The Cures all reversed their transformations and gathered towards Cho, waiting for her to come to. Kiriko, Asuna and Mari stood a few feet away while Sophie sat next to her patiently.
"What happened?" Sophie heard finally say in a rather tired voice as Cho slowly sat herself upright. Sophie instantly turned to Cho and sighed a breath of relief, throwing her arms around Cho, but not saying a word.
The absence of a frantic jumble of words from Sophie was jarring for Cho, so awkwardly she said," What, no 'Cho my goodness what happened to you?' or anything?"
Sophie didn't say anything except," Thank you. Thank you so much for all you've been doing. I'm sorry I didn't notice how considerate you've been all this time."
Cho was taken aback, unsure of exactly how to respond and relaxed herself, returning Sophie's hug and saying," Don't worry about it."
Sophie broke the hug and said," I wanna try new things and still get back into modeling. I wanna stop thinking about what could go wrong and get excited over what could go right!"
Rubix returned to Asperity, and leaned against the wall in a room all by herself.
"I wonder what it's like to chained to a role like being a Pretty Cure." Rubix asked aloud to no one in particular, holding her head tensely," Aren't these girls miserable, aren't they dejected and ready to give in? I don't understand."
"Yo, where have you been all afternoon?" Bounce asked as she walked into the room," Weren't you supposed to be getting some fine tuning from mom?"
Rubix narrowed her eyes at her, and didn't even give a response.
"You were out hunting down the Pretty Cure again weren't you?" Bounce asked, walking towards Rubix, who was walking away from her," Your Defectives are too weak, stop going on your own like that!"
Rubix kept walking away, completely trying to tune out Bounce now.
Bounce's patience was wearing thin, so she tried grabbing a hold of Rubix's arm while saying "Listen when I'm talking to-!"
Rubix grasped Bounce's arm very tightly, to the point where Bounce feared she was going to break it as the older woman said," I'll do as I please and there's nothing you can do about it"
Rubix let go of her arm and walked on ahead. Bounce gasped out once Rubix let go of her arm and held it tenderly with her other hand.
"I guess she's still got it." Bounce remarked flatly as she watched Rubix leave.