Asuna sat cross-legged on her bed, her arms folded together as she continued to stare at the newest addition to her collection of random knickknacks in her room. Sitting right in front of was what appeared to be what Asuna called a cake topper with a white and gold bear on it. It looked quite cute, but the problem was, Asuna wasn't quite sure of where it came from.
She asked her mom if she had snuck it into her room but she said she hadn't ever even seen the object. She even asked Tadashi about it but he too wasn't sure how it arrived in her bedroom. So naturally, Asuna had to assume that this had to do with the Laruan Kingdom.
So...it's probably not from Earth, right?" Asuna asked Nova.
" I don't think so, but I don't understand how it arrived here. But...it might have something to do with the Laruan Kingdom, problem is I'm not sure what that might be. In any case, we should tell the others about this. Maybe they're experiencing something similar."
Asuna shrugged and reached for her phone sitting at her side table to message the girls about it. But, before she got a chance to message, she noticed a little notification of how her chat with her other friends had been going on without her. Asuna's eyes widened upon seeing that she missing a grand total of ninety-three messages. She groaned, wishing she hadn't even lifted her phone from the table. She knew she shouldn't have expected anything different, especially on a day like today where they had no school on a Friday. She was tempted to simply ignore the messages, but then more of them came, and this time, they were mentioning her.
"So Asuna, are you able to come?"
"She's not reading the messages...I think she's busy or something ha"
After that, everyone then started to mention her in their messages, so she really had no choices but to skim through the earlier ones to see just what they were talking about, because clearly she had no clue. It appeared they were setting up a day to study for the upcoming midterms and they had all decided on Saturday afternoon. Asuna shrugged, and simply agreed to come join them for studying.
"Well, since that's out of the way..." Asuna said as she laid on her bed, with her pillow between her head and the wall," Have...you...guys seen...any...random...toys...showing up...in your...rooms?"
She sent her message to the girls and awaited their response. To kill some time, she considered studying for her midterms but swiftly decided against it and started playing video games instead.
"Ok, so what we should do on Saturday?" Sophie asked into her phone, her headphones in as she straightened up her room," Did you want to go to that Cafe I had been telling you about? We haven't had the chance to go together."
"We could." Cho said plainly over the phone. Sophie and Cho were planning out what to do on their day-off next week Saturday. For Sophie, it would be the first weekend in a long time since she had been busy. On Sunday, she was going to meet with a local designer to model some of their clothes and ask about where she derived her inspiration from. These last few weeks, she had been consistently remind herself that if opportunity weren't coming her way, she'd have to make them on her own. For Cho, it would be the last weekend before she would get training for the position of a supervisor at her job. She hadn't been guaranteed the role just yet, but rumors were circulating around her job that some of the supervisors had been looking for a new job, so a vacancy was sure to appear in the weeks to come. The girls hadn't got the chance to spend time together in what felt like eons to them, so they figured they could just do something casual for the day.
Sophie then noticed she received a text message and read it over briefly while still on call with Cho. She read over the text in her head and then her eyes fell to the rubber duck topper sitting on her writing desk. Sophie pursed her lip and then returned her attention to her call with Cho.
"Cool, so then we could probably just walk around the mall afterwards." Sophie suggested," I'll see you tomorrow?"
"See you then!" Cho said into the phone before she hung up. Sophie then drew out a breath of relief and grabbed the rubber duck topper off of her desk, trying to decide whether or not she should send her teammates a picture of it. It was extremely cute with a little sailor hat on it and decorated with bright blue polka dots, reminiscent of her shoes in her Cure form. She loved the little rubber duck topper, despite not knowing where it came from and had already been considering names for it. She had a nagging feeling that it had something to do with her Pretty Cure life, but she had yet to make the connection. At least now, with the other girls having toys appear from nowhere, they'd have a better chance of figuring out their origins together.
"Yes I found one in my room." Sophie said aloud as she keyed in her message," Should I send pics?"
Once Mari received the message, she took a moment to retrieve the kaleidoscope topper she had lying on her side table. She laid flat on her bed and held it up to the light, watching the colours inside of it dance around. She had a feeling that she wasn't alone in finding a toy in her room and seeing the text made her feel at ease. These mysterious toys popping up into the girls' rooms were a bit worrisome but, surely they had something to do with their Pretty Cure duties.
Mari then heard her mom coming in from downstairs and her father greeting her. She then gently placed a hand against her hair and felt her heart start to race. Tomorrow, Mari had decided to explain to her mom what happened to her and how her magic finally appeared, since her mom had been away all week. But, she had no idea, not even the slightest clue as to how she would react. Would she be happy, surprised, unapproving of Mari keeping her magic unsealed on Earth? It would've been a lot to take in, plus Mari had to skip the details of her being a Pretty Cure too. But, Mari had been doing her best to prepare for tomorrow and offered to take her out to lunch so her mom would already be in a good mood. But still, she had this unrelenting fear that her mom wasn't going to react the way she wanted to. She had yet to even know about the necklace disappearing.
"Maybe it would be better if she didn't know." Mari said to herself," It's not like she can sense magic all that well. She's rusty, she might not ever notice unless I tell her."
Mari then laid down flat on her stomach and burrowed her face into the pillow closest to her, muffling her voice as she said," But this would make her so proud! She would probably love to see something that would remind her of home!"
Mari then removed her face from the pillow, wearing a look of determination on her face as she said," This has to be done!"
The girls agreed to meet up Sunday afternoon to look at these toy toppers together, they just needed Kiriko to affirm her attendance to the informal meeting. Kiriko had yet to see the text though. It would take her hours later, until her shift at work was over, before she would see it.
It was eleven now and Kiriko was just doing the closing duties at work, thinking about her plans for tomorrow. She had yet to tell anyone about it, she didn't plan to anyways and simply decided she'd be offline, from both her student council work and her Pretty Cure duties. She had been planning this outing for weeks now, but wasn't sure if she'd go through with it. Tomorrow was her day-off from work so she'd get the whole day to herself and then she'd be back to work on Sunday.
When Kiriko clocked out, she checked her phone and looked through the messages from two different chats. The first one was from Hayase and Tadashi, who reminded her of how they needed to do their monthly council member evaluation tomorrow. The council member evaluation, better known as the CME, was used to determine which members would be suited for things like the seat of vice-president, president and even who could keep their place based on grades, attendance and overall performance. They usually opted to do it after class, but student council had been somewhat busy these last few weeks, so they three of them had agreed to do it tomorrow. Kiriko just happened to forget all about it.
"No, I can't believe it completely slipped my mind!" Kiriko lamented in a frustrated tone, feeling her heart sink a little.
She then checked the message from the girls and fell quiet. She thought about the doll topper she had sitting on her bed. It looked really nice but she had no idea how it appeared in her bed room. It was good to know that she wasn't the only one finding toys randomly. She then looked at the latest message and frowned a little. She wasn't going to make it for Sunday afternoon, not with a shift that started at one and ended at nine.
"We should probably talk about this face to face, texting about this and then having someone find the messages has always been a fear of mine..." Kiriko said to herself sheepishly," But I can't see them Sunday."
"Can we do this on Saturday?" Kiriko texted, reading her own message aloud before she sent it before she sighed and continued her message with," I know of a nice little cafe outside of town we can go to, we won't be gone for very long. We'll meet at the train station near the school, ok?"
She then stood outside, waiting for her ride to come as she leaned against the glass door to the cafe. Kiriko then sent a text to her fellow student council members about how she wouldn't be able to come until later in the afternoon, since she had plans at the cafe. Moments later, she had received a text from Tadashi that read,
"That's cool, what if came along too to do the CME together though?"
Kiriko glared down at the text, lightly banging her head once against the door. It didn't help that Hayase had just sent a text in agreement too. She was beyond unpleased by these minor inconveniences, especially at this hour in the night where all she wanted was to curl up into her bed and fall asleep. This was no hour to be planning or decision-making but Kiriko just drew out another sigh and bit her lip as she texted,
"Sure! We might not get back home for awhile, is that ok with you guys?"
Both of them texted back saying it was fine, and Kiriko then tried to plan around both meetings she'd have simultaneously and how to avoid talking about the Pretty Cure around them. She had yet to receive a response from any of the girls and just put her headphones in to listen to music instead.
When Asuna got the message, a large grin found its way onto her face upon seeing the word cafe. It had been awhile she had gone to one and she was craving high-end desserts for the last couple of days. Not even thinking about how this would interfere with her study session, Asuna texted back right away saying that she'd go. As soon as she sent the text though, she just remembered her plans for tomorrow. She then decided to bail on the study session without a second thought. But she was at least nice enough to tell her friends she couldn't make it.
"Sorry guys, I can't come tomorrow, my friend invited out to this real classy cafe and it'd look bad if I didn't go. Reservations and stuff, you know?" Asuna texted them.
"Whoa Asuna's moving up in the world." Reo texted the group.
"That's nothing, we'll just go study there too." Misa texted them seconds later," Address?"
Asuna rolled her eyes, knowing that there'd be zero chance of Misa studying in front of desserts she'd yet to try in a cafe she had never been to. So, she humored her and told her to meet them at the train station near the school.
The next morning, Kiriko was up bright and early, despite going to bed so late, and already at the train station waiting for her two groups. Her face was caked with concealer and a bit more makeup than usual, but it wasn't anything dramatic. She glanced over to the station doors and looked at the time on her watch. She told both groups to meet her here at ten thirty and it was only ten o'clock. Normally, with this amount of sleep, Kiriko would've been exhausted and in need of a tall cup of coffee to function like a regular human being. But today, all she had was a very watered down cup from the stand in the station that you could barely classify a caffeinated beverage. It was her nerves that were keeping her more awake than usual. Rani then popped her head out of her bag, since there weren't many people here, to chat with Kiriko a little bit.
"Have you been to this cafe before?" Rani asked her, with Kiriko only shaking her head once in response," Are you sure we won't get lost?"
"We should be fine, it's right next to a bus stop anyways." Kiriko said, her gaze not meeting Rani's.
Sophie walked into the train station with Cho and looked around for Kiriko. Kiriko waved to her and the two of them walked towards her, waving in return.
"It's ok if Cho tags along right? We did have plans to hang out today." Sophie explained to her as she waved her hand in Cho's direction, with Cho smiling hopefully to Kiriko.
"That's fine, you didn't have any trouble finding the place, right?" Kiriko asked her, with Sophie shaking her in response," Cool now we're just waiting on-"
Kiriko's gaze then fell to Mari, Hayase and Tadashi who were all walking into the station together. Hayase led the three of them, while Mari and Tadashi were chatting with each other casually. It was an odd sight for Kiriko, since she had never seen Mari and her council members together.
"Ah I see. Well, I did ask Nanae if she was interested in having one of our members join the Newspaper club to help her get some nice photos but she didn't interested in our work initially. She said it looked boring to her." Mari explained to Tadashi, who was listening intently," Then I explained to her that my clubmates may not have a lot of experience in the type of work she was looking for, but they're all quite skillful. She ended up recruiting three of my members."
Mari then brought her attention to Kiriko and said," It turns out they're heading the same direction as us! Are we waiting on anyone else?"
'Kiriko narrowed her eyes at Mari, though the bespectacled girl hadn't notice, and thought to herself," Has she not caught on as of-?"
Kiriko then glanced over to Mari one more time and somehow, the atmosphere around her felt different, as if she had been annoyed, but was pretending to be as chipper as ever. Kiriko felt a chill crawl down her spine as she watched Mari speak with Tadashi.
"-She totally figured out." Kiriko thought to herself.
"Aren't we just waiting for Asuna now?" Sophie asked the group, though Hayase and Tadashi hadn't paid much attention to her up until now.
Tadashi narrowed his eyes at her, having a feeling he saw her somewhere before, but unable to figure out just where that was. She was pretty, that was certain, but the vague feeling that they had already met wouldn't go away. Finally, it hit him. Tadashi then hit his fist over his hand and looked over to Sophie saying,
"I think I saw you on the bus a couple of weeks ago!"
Sophie laughed awkwardly and Cho only glared at him, completely unimpressed by the fact that he didn't recognize her as a model. But, Sophie was able to recognize him from that incident he mentioned. Kiriko then glanced over towards the door leading into the station and found a group of three familiar first-years walk in. She found Asuna leading them into the train station while taking in her surroundings. It appeared to be her first time walking into the train station and she had yet to start looking for her group.
"Asuna!" Kiriko called out to her.
She finally caught the redhead's attention and the three of them walked over to join the bigger group.
"So you brought extra company too..." Kiriko stated before eyeing the large group assembled in front of her," Good grief this is a lot of people...will the cafe have a table big enough for a crowd this size?"
Asuna's friend Misa then giggled as she casually declared," We were going to have way more people than this, but Tomoko dipped last minute and then Sakuya and Amari wanted to go on a date alone. So now it's just me and Reo. Hey Asuna, do they have any Belgian waffles at this place, I've been craving since last week~!"
Asuna shrugged and answered with," Don't ask me, I've never been to this elusive cafe that's apparently so far that we need to take a train to get there."
Kiriko glared at Asuna, who had a feeling her junior was only being so grumpy because she had to wake up earlier than intended. Kiriko then led the large group to where the platform where the train would arrive, wishing she didn't have to bring so many people to the cafe.
Reo was staring holes into Sophie, his heartbeat getting faster the longer he looked at her. There was absolutely no mistake about it, this had to be the very same girl he been obsessing over in the magazine from months ago. She was even prettier in person, but how did Asuna, who was talking to her so casually, know her? Reo then wondered if she actually took him up on his suggestion to get the two of them together through Asuna being their mutual friend.
On the train ride there, everyone became acquainted with and exchanged names with each other. Certain members of the group, such as Mari, mingled with everyone, but most of them kept to their own premade groups for the duration of the train ride. The train seats would have two pairs of seats facing each other and so, most of the groups sat were mashed together with the exception of Asuna's group.
Kiriko sat next to Hayase with Cho and Sophie, not even trying to make conversation as she simply gazed out the window. Cho and Sophie were talking with each other about school, paying little to no attention to Kiriko and Hayase. Hayase glanced over to Kiriko, who looked like she was nodding off. He then looked over to Cho and Sophie, trying to determine which one of the was a part of Kiriko's Pretty Cure team.
"Didn't you think bringing all these people together would've looked suspicious?" Hayase asked her quietly.
"I was forced to make plans at eleven in the night, what else would you expect?" Kiriko said to him, her voice soft as she watched Sophie and Cho laugh with each other.
The group was on the train for a while, definitely a lot longer than any of them had expected. It wouldn't be long until the question of "Are we there yet?" started circulating around the group. Unfortunately, the only person who could answer that was Kiriko, and every time she had been asked, she'd only give vague responses. Some members of the group were beginning to wonder if she actually knew where they were going, but about an hour and a half later, they finally got off the train.
"Ugh, I'm so stiff!" Misa lamented as she stretched herself out before looking around the station they arrived to," Where are we now, Osaka?"
"Not quite, Osaka's in the other direction." Mari pointed out to her, before glancing at a map posted up at the station," Either way, our commute's taken a long time. We must be at least three towns over."
"Three towns over?!" Misa repeated in pure shock.
"This place better be good Kiriko." Tadashi said tiredly as he dragged his feet to catch up with the group. Kiriko didn't say anything in response as she continued to lead the group. Her attention was fixed to her phone, looking at her map she opened up and tried to figure out how much longer they had left.
"Fifteen minutes by bus isn't so bad..." Kiriko thought to herself," Let's just hope the rest of the group can hold out a little longer."
Kiriko directed the group to the upper level of the station, where they were able to catch the local buses from. The group looked around the city inquisitively, still unsure of where they were until Cho found a giant sign near the station.
"Uragizawa? We've really traveled a long way from home." Cho remarked just as their bus arrived, causing Sophie to lightly tug at her arm to follow along.
The bus ride was a lot quieter than the commute on the train, not only because the bus populace was less than half the amount of the people on the train, but the group was getting a bit tired, not to mention hungry. Asuna and Misa had their heads resting on each other's shoulders, dreaming about what kind of desserts would be at the cafe, while Reo snuck some stares in at Sophie, his face redder than a tomato. Everyone else looked out the windows of the bus, taking in the sights around them in Uragizawa. It looked like a quiet little town, definitely not as busy as home, but not so quiet than it felt abandoned. Kiriko had heard that Uragizawa was one of those towns that almost everyone who lived there grew up in and had generations residing in their whole lives. It wasn't one of those cities where people would willingly move into since their wasn't a lot to do here. Some of the only things they had going for them was a select few local restaurants, their prestigious university, and of course, their very kind townspeople.
Mari took a break from looking out the window and then asked Kiriko," Have you been here before?"
Kiriko then rang the bell to signal their stop and answered with," I haven't."
Once the group got off the bus, Kiriko led them towards a cafe painted light blue and violet, with a dark brown rectangular sign above that read "Cafe China Doll."
The group was divided in how they felt about the cafe they stood before. Misa, Sophie and Mari all seemed to be impressed by the exterior of the building, excited for what the cafe had in store for them, but everyone else looked rather skeptic, not wanting to believe Kiriko dragged them all the way out for this.
"Of course she wanted to go to the cafe with the word 'doll' in its name." Asuna thought to herself as she scrutinized the sign.
The group of them then walked in and found that the cafe was a lot bigger than they had realized. It wasn't nearly as quiet as the streets they ambled through to get here and the cafe had quite the inviting, friendly atmosphere to it. A few servers looked up once the bell at the door rang, signaling a new set of guests and smiled to the group. There was one server though who just looked at the group blankly as she poured coffee into the cup of the guest she was serving, not realizing it was overflowing.
"Eri, pay attention!" One server shouted to her, snapping her back to Earth to see the mess she made. Eri waved one of her hands around frantically from the piping hot coffee she managed to spill on herself.
"I'll fix this, be right back!" Eri reassured as she dashed to the back to get a washing rag and a new cup for the guest. It was an almost laughable sight to watch the tall girl with long blond and dark brown hair gathered into a ponytail try to maneuver her way to the kitchen without bumping into a table.
One server then looked towards the group, their gaze stuck on Kiriko for a few moments, before they smiled earnestly and walked towards the group. Kiriko bashfully reframed her stare to the tables around them as the server approached the group.
"Hey guys, welcome to China Doll! I'm Kai and I'll be your server today." The server greeted as he led them to their table. The best they could give to the large group was a pair of narrow tables in the center of the cafe with high seats beside them.
"We don't often have groups as big as yours, so I hope this will be ok for you." Kai stated as they handed a menu to everyone. Kai then walked off swiftly to get everyone a glass of water. The group was impressed by their server, who appeared to be about the same age as them but had this very professional, yet welcoming presence to them.
"I don't think I've ever had a server as young as him." Reo remarked before he started looking through the menu," This place is a bit expensive though."
The group was in agreement, but nobody wanted to vocally share these thoughts. Kiriko kept her attention only on the menu in front of her, feeling herself grow rigid in the cafe as time went on.
"So Kiriko, how did you hear about this place?" Tadashi asked casually as he cleared his throat.
Kiriko jumped a little, though no one noticed and she answered with," Just some online reviews. I figured trying something new would've been nice."
Kai returned with a tray of empty glasses in one hand and a pitcher in the other. They laid out a glass for everyone on the table and poured out water into everyone's cups.
"Have you guys decided on what you'll having today?" Kai asked them in a cheerful tone that girls enjoyed hearing but the boys found annoying.
Once the group gave Kai their orders, Kai left and the group was left to themselves, so they attended to their business for the afternoon. Hayase, Tadashi and Kiriko worked on their CME, Asuna, Reo, and Misa were studying, well at least they were trying to, and Sophie, Cho and Mari just had some small talk amongst each other.
One of the servers tapped Kai on the shoulder and asked them," Do you want a hand with those orders when they're ready?"
"Yeah, but I'll just get Eri to help out. You already got your hands full, Yazu." Kai reminded him as they went to hand in the order. Kai then looked around the cafe, but noticed they couldn't seem to find Eri. They assumed she was putting the washing rag away in the kitchen's supply closet.
After about ten minutes, everyone's orders were ready. Kai and his fellow server Yazu then appeared at the table, delivering everyone's orders. Kai originally was going to have Eri help out, but the girl hadn't been seen for a solid twenty minutes. Maybe she had been on break? Kai didn't care, and kept their attention solely on the table they were serving, as always.
"A white-chocolate caramel cheesecake for Miss Red..." Kai said as they placed a dish with a large slice of cake on it front of Asuna," And a double chocolate cake for the young man over here..."
"Miss, did you want those macarons with a to-go box just in case?" Yazu asked Misa who only shook her head in response.
"I can just share them with the table." Misa replied as she waved a hand of dismissal, placing her dish of macarons in the table's center," You guys can take some if you want."
Hayase and Tadashi grabbed a pair of macarons, one was mango flavoured and the other was cotton candy. Tadashi popped the whole macaron into his mouth, while Hayase just stared at the pink, blue and purple macaron curiously.
"You're supposed to eat it." Tadashi whispered to him, genuinely believing Hayase had never seen a macaron before.
"And the cookies and cream Belgian waffle was for..." Yazu began, as he looked around the table curiously. Kai then took the dish and placed it before Kiriko.
"Enjoy." Kai said to her before they left with Yazu.
Most of them found it a bit suspicious that Kai remembered Kiriko's order easily, except for Asuna, whose mouth was full of cheesecake as she said,
"Well damn, that dude's memory is pretty good. Bet he doesn't need to study for midterms."
Some members of the group chuckled at Asuna's remark and they began to eat. The desserts they ordered were beyond their expectations in both presentation and taste. Everyone's desserts looked identical to the display picture of it in the menu, and each dessert was crafted to utmost perfection and decorated with only the best toppings.
Reo, Tadashi, Cho and Mari, who didn't eat desserts very often, were overly surprised by not only how big their desserts were, but how nicely arranged and picture perfect they looked.
Kiriko slipped away to go to the washroom but on her way there, she was pulled into a room. Kiriko was going to scream, but as soon as she saw who pulled her in, she fell silent. She then looked around and discovered she was inside what appeared to be their janitor's closet. The compact space she was sharing with Kai was overflowing with the scent of cleaning supplies, it was grossly intoxicating.
Kai then pointed to a stool in the closet, offering Kiriko to take a seat. Kiriko complied and just looked at Kai.
"So, don't you think a little bit of notice would've been nice?" Kai asked her, as she awkwardly let her gaze travel to her feet," I'm not mad, I just..."
Kiriko finally lifted her head, a nervous smile on her face as she said,"I can't see my favourite former work friend without notice?"
Kai smiled and kneeled down to speak to her at eye-level, gently placing their hand on her shoulder as they said," You shouldn't see your favourite former work friend without notice. But, anyways, how come you didn't shoot me up a message?"
"I sent you one on LINE." Kiriko responded timidly as she stared at Kai. Despite having not seen them in about a year and a half, Kai hadn't changed a bit in both personality and appearance. They still had the same pretty porcelain complexion, same russet brown hair and big, bright honey coloured eyes. They might have grown a few inches, but Kiriko couldn't tell since they were always taller than her.
"Hm, I don't think I used LINE for a while now to be honest...not since I was using he pronouns." Kai said, before he remembered something," Oh, yeah! I don't think you know this yet but-"
"You've been using they/them. I know, I think I remember you posting a story about that some time ago." Kiriko interrupted," I've been using those for you. I'm sorry I came unexpectedly, I just wanted to see you. I missed you quite a bit, you know?"
Kai smiled to her, they couldn't simply deny or stay annoyed with Kiriko since she really didn't mean any harm," I missed you too."
Kai used to live in the same city as Kiriko. During that summer of their first year of highschool, Kiriko and Kai met working at a cafe called White Rabbit. White Rabbit was a cafe that had a large selection of breakfast foods, their lattes were deemed by both Kai and Kiriko to be undefeated in taste and craftsmanship. White Rabbit was easily quite busy on weekends and the cafe was filled with laughter and chatter by Saturday at noon. Kiriko and Kai were hired around the same time, but Kiriko had been too shy to speak to or even approach Kai, who was clearly really good at their job. It was Kai who spoke with her first, by giving her tips on how to speak with guests in a more upbeat manner and eventually how to open up to her fellow coworkers. Kiriko was closed off and easily the most timid member on her team, but talking to Kai soon became something enjoyable and that she couldn't do without that summer.
One day, Kai learned something interesting about Kiriko, and instead of being weirded out by this, Kai was actually quite the opposite. Kiriko loved dolls with all her heart, but never wanted others to know in fear of being seen as a child or immature. They loved hearing Kiriko talk about dolls, since they too enjoyed collecting them but they had to keep their collecting top-secret from everyone. Kiriko was so happy to find someone with the same interests as her, someone who wouldn't judge her for her hobbies or passions and only shared her love of dolls.
When summer came to an end, Kai had to tell Kiriko they were moving. She didn't want to accept it, she was in tears by the time Kai's final day at White Rabbit arrived. But, she didn't let them see her so upset. Instead, Kiriko saw them off with a smile and wished them the best. But as soon as she got home, when Kai was out of sight, she cried and cried until the tears cascading down her cheeks soaked her pillow.
She thought about keeping in touch with Kai, but she didn't want to. She didn't feel like it was enough just to simply message them, plus she didn't want to be a bother. Soon enough, White Rabbit closed down due to lack of business and her times there were nothing more than a distant memory.
"Knowing we have to be apart again hurts more than I realized..." Kiriko thought to herself as she watched Kai lead her out of the room.
Jack and Domino sat outside in a nearby field, with the former fighting urge to stretch himself out on all-fours. Domino opted to sit beneath a tree, where he wouldn't have to be in direct sunlight nor face the chance of short-circuiting in this heat.
"Rubix said she found a perfect target to use today, but...why are we in a place like this?" Jack asked as he sprawled himself out on the grassy field," I don't think we've ever even been here before."
"According to my calculations, it would appear we've been assigned this destination as we'll have an easier chance of using this Defective longer. And the longer a Patchwork Heart stays a Defective, the stronger it becomes. If we don't come across the Pretty Cure today, we might possibly have a chance in making this Defective strong enough to serve us in our final battle." Domino pointed out to him, not realizing how bewildered Jack appeared by his last statement," You knew it was only a matter of time."
Jack and Domino then heard what sounded like a child shouting loudly in the nearby park. They turned their heads in the direction it came from and found a child with a little chess board and a plush lion sitting on the opposite side of it.
"Check." The plush lion said in response to his opponent's move.
"No fair! How are you supposed to be better than me?" The boy said as he pouted at the board in front of him.
"You still have a chance to win Kotaro," The plush lion reminded him, in an attempt to instill some hope in his opponent.
Jack and Domino stood there, in near disbelief of what transpired before them. In theory, this was far from possible to happen here on Earth for a plethora of reasons. For starters, that boy didn't have any particularly strong magic to him, plus he was too young to divide his Patchwork Heart and give half of it to the plush toy.
"Think he's in disguise and had his magic sealed away or something?" Jack suggested to Domino, who only shook his head once in response.
"If he had to seal up his magic, he wouldn't be able to make that plush come to life." Domino pointed out," Either way, this has to be the target Rubix was talking about."
Jack nodded and was about to approach the boy beneath the slide, but Domino held onto his arm and reminded him of something important.
"We no longer have to close the distance between us and the target, remember?" Domino said to him as he motioned to the screen on his sleeve and pushed a set of buttons, firing out pair of black diamonds. The two black diamonds came in contact with the boy and his plush, and affixed themselves to both halves of the Patchwork Heart.
"Corrupt their Patchwork Heart." Domino commanded imperatively, leading the boy and his plush to drop to the ground unconscious.
"Do your worst, Defective!" Domino called out, merging the corrupted Patchwork Heart with the plush lion.
A ten foot tall Defective was born and started to run off on its own, something that the two of them hadn't anticipated. They exchanged expressions, both of them unsure of what just happened and started to run after the Defective.
"Defective!" The Defective shouted over and over as it ran across town mercilessly. Having zero idea of its purpose and set on only doing what it pleased, the Defective just charged through the streets without question. Until it reached China Doll, where the Toychest Pretty Cure stood waiting for it.
"I guess it shouldn't be surprising that Rani and Nova sensed this Defective from so far away." Dolly remarked," It feels different from the others."
The Cures nodded in agreement as they watch the Defective's every move. It was rambunctious just like the others but, this was had no idea what to do. It seemed quite lost and unsure of its own goal. The Defective became docile though in the face of the Pretty Cure and chose not to try moving past them. But just then, Jack and Domino caught up to it.
Jack, standing on all-fours, turned his head sharply to Domino and frantically sputtered out," This Defective is a dud! It doesn't even know what the heck it's supposed to do!"
"Worry not, that can be easily adjusted." Domino reassured him as he pressed a sequence of buttons on his sleeve.
Just then, a neon blue and black ring appeared from out of nowhere around the Defective and circled it from top to bottom. The Defective changed drastically in nature, no longer feeling confused about its objective and simply charged towards the Cures.
The four of them jumped up as high as they could, surveying the Defective curiously as the Defective tried to grab for them up in the air. The Defective even tried jumping up a bit to reach them.
"Wow, Mr. Lion is way more angry than before." Bubbly remarked as she and Fantasy landed onto a building," Could that ring have brainwashed him?"
"Most likely." Fantasy replied as she jumped off of the building and headed straight for the Defective shouting,"Pretty Cure, Playground of Pretenders!"
The Defective was now surrounded by very, very tall grass and had a hard time seeing the Cures. But the Cures could see the Defective just fine since there wasn't actually any tall grass in the vicinity. The Cures, except Fantasy, all looked at wearing the same confused expression, but Teddy then figured it out and gave Fantasy a thumbs-up.
"You made it think there's something like a big wall in front of it, right?" Teddy asked her as she ignited flames into her palms.
"It'll take a lot out of you to keep that illusion up right?" Dolly asked her, with Fantasy nodded hesitantly in response," It's fine, we've got the upper hand now so we can probably finish him off quickly!"
Fantasy then nodded and urged Dolly and Bubbly to join Teddy in the fight.
"Pretty Cure, Vigilant Ember!" Teddy cried out as she flung out a pair of gigantic flaming spheres with rings around them to the Defective. The Defective hadn't seen it coming at all and only held its front leg up near its head to defend itself. The attempt was weak though and the Defective was hit straight on. The Defective was enraged to be hit by the attack, its front leg experiencing searing pain from Teddy's attack and ran past the tall grass in search of the Cures.
Fantasy's illusion seemed to have stopped working now, much to her surprise and the Defective just glowered towards the Cures.
"Didn't you girls know? The lion is the king of the jungle." Jack commented coyly.
"Good thing we aren't in the jungle!" Dolly reminded them as she darted towards the Defective, her hands glowing violet, as she said," Pretty Cure, Wishing Temp-!"
The Defective then grabbed hold of Dolly by her ankle and flung her all the way to the little meadow where the Defective was made. Dolly crashed upside down into a tree and sunk down to the grass. Despite all her battles, she had yet to have been thrown with such force. Dolly then crossed her legs and pressed both of her hands against her right ankle.
"It hurts really bad, but I can't just stay here like this!" Dolly reminded herself as she cautiously tried to stand herself up," That Defective...it doesn't even want to fight."
Dolly took a deep breath and ripped on some of the excess ribbon on her back bow, twisting it around her ankle and squeezing it tight. She then started to run back to where the rest of her team and the Defective were fighting.
"Pretty Cure, Bubbling Impact!" Bubbly shouted as she launched a multitude of bubbles towards the Defective. Once the bubbles came near to the Defective, they exploded upon contact and sent the Defective flying a few feet backwards. Teddy gave her fellow Cure a pat on the back as the two of them raced towards the Defective. Dolly then walked over to Fantasy, who seemed to have been recovering from getting hit.
"Have we gotten anywhere?" Dolly as she offered a hand to Fantasy.
"I don't know, every time I feel like we've outsmarted it, it'll lash out unexpectedly and act unpredictably." Fantasy explained in a grim tone," In truth, I'm not sure of what else we can do."
Dolly looked up and saw Teddy and Bubbly dodging a bunch of hits from the barely damaged Defective, who looked furious as they tried to land a hit on either of them.
Teddy jumped up, but just then, the Defective grabbed her by the leg and threw her straight towards the ground. Luckily for her, she got caught by Bubbly's "Bubbling Impact" attack. Teddy struggled to sit upright as she narrowed her eyes at the Defective.
"I'm getting real sick of this two-faced Defective." Teddy said as she hopped off of the bubble. Dolly watched her two teammates anxiously and then finally it was about time she took matters into her own hands and ran towards the Defective.
But even if she was taking action, she felt an irrational fear overcome her upon facing this Defective. Not having a plan scared her but doing something that could inadvertently hurt her teammates made her feel even worse. Dolly thoughtlessly skidded to a stop, just a few feet away from the Defective. After realizing what she did, she felt her heart start to race standing right before the ten foot plush turned monster. She wasn't just scared now, she was horrified. But, she was petrified in spot, and fought as hard as she could to do something, anything, but to no avail.
Dolly waited for the worst, but then, she heard a soft, shaky voice that appeared to belong to the Defective. Dolly looked up and patiently waited for it to continue speaking.
"Pl-please...please protect Kotaro...he's my best friend..." The Defective stammered out in a low voice, its whole body trembling as it's eyes met Dolly's. Dolly then stared at the Defective for a few seconds, trying to make sense of what the Defective requested from her.
"This Defective...was it made from an animate plush toy?" Dolly thought to herself as she watched the Defective stand helplessly before her.
She then looked deep into the eyes of the Defective and gave it a calm, reassuring smile as she said," We will protect Kotaro. But, in order to do that, we need to save you and help you turn back to normal. We mean absolutely no harm, so can you find it in your heart to trust us Mr. Lion?"
The Defective seemed nervous at first but something about Dolly and how she spoke to the it felt trustworthy not to mention vaguely familiar. The Defective saw nothing wrong with placing its trust into Dolly and simply nodded its head in agreement.
"Idiot, why isn't it listening to you anymore?!" Jack shrieked as he pounced onto Domino's back, who was busy keying in a bunch of different sequences.
With none of the sequences working, Domino gave up and said," We're leaving. I refuse to stay for a defeat like this."
Dolly then had come up with an idea, and held her hand out, as if trying to conjure something up. To her surprise, the 'doll cake topper' she found in her room appeared in her palm and immediately,she knew her idea could come into fruition here.
"We're purifying it together, ok?" She said to her team as she showed them her topper," Try and conjure these into your hands."
The Cures did as told and the toppers all appeared into their hands. Next, Dolly had them bring forth their scepters and inspected the top of hers. To her dismay, it was flat and free of any openings for her to insert the topper. But a few moments later, the scepter suddenly revealed an opening fit for the topper. Dolly held her scepter up to the light, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her. She inserted the topper in and spun it all the way around until she heard a click.
Once the topper made a full circle and was secure in the scepter, Dolly underwent a little transformation, an upgrade to her regular Cure outfit. The outfit was lighter in colour and her overall dress was now pink and white and had a patchwork design on it. She urged everyone to follow suite and so, they did.
The four of them, now in their upgraded forms, held up their scepters and shouted out in unison," Pretty Cure, Playtime Paradise!"
The atmosphere around them turned white and the Defective found itself able to calm down as a mass of shimmering lights engulfed it, reverting it into its original form.
The Cures then undid their transformations, all of them impressed with the accomplishment of today. The girls felt stronger than they led themselves to believe and somehow, they felt as if they could face anything.
Kiriko then walked over to the plush lion on the ground, who appeared to be asleep rather than lifeless. It's eyes were closed and it laid there soundless on the field. Kiriko picked it up gently, noticing a dogtag collar on the plush.
"My name is Arthur. If I'm lost, please return me to Kotaro Natsuki by calling this number." Kiriko read out, her face turning pale as she read the number quietly,"...You can't be serious."
Eri was hiding in the janitor's closet, sitting with her back against the door so nobody could come in. She hid in the bathroom for a little while but after realizing that it wouldn't have been fair of her to use that as her hiding place, she relocated here. She wrapped her arms around the plush penguin lying on her stomach, who gave her a disapproving look.
"Your highness, I know you said you weren't interested in meeting these new Pretty Cure, but I would have never expected you to flat out hide from them like some kind of child." The penguin chided with a shake of her head," Don't you feel the slightest bit ashamed of yourself?"
Eri shook her head, a small but triumphant smile on her face as she responded with," To be honest, no. I don't want to be involved with the Pretty Cure or any of this whole damn mess. This was a blessing in disguise, Sylvia. I know you might not understand but please, try to sympathize with me."
"Arabella, can't you see they're only trying to help?" Sylvia asked her.
"Can't you see I don't want their help?" Eri retorted with a scoff," The minute we meet up, I'll get thrown back into that crazy kingdom and glued to a throne at the ripe age of twenty. I am not letting any of that happen, ok?"
Sylvia only stared her down for a few moments before drawing out a sigh as she said," As you wish."