Sophie awoke earlier than usual on this warm Saturday morning, her alarm buzzing precisely at seven. Sophie was never all that fond of her alarm clock and often wondered why someone would invent such a heinous object. But today, her thoughts were elsewhere as she made breakfast for her four younger siblings.
Today, Erik and Liam would begin their first day on their soccer team, while Anika and Inna were going to their first day of ballet practice. All four kids were very excited, practically bouncing in their seats as Sophie each brought them their plates. The boys had matching soccer uniforms on, while the girls had matching light pink leotards and stockings. Sophie smiled as she watched her siblings scarf down their breakfast, she knew she just had to get a couple of photos of the four before they set off for their big day. Sophie looked out the window, noticing an awful lot of clouds in the sky and decided it'd be best to have her mini photo-session indoors where she'd probably get better lighting.
From upstairs, Sophie could hear her dad getting ready in the washroom, taking a shower and singing while he did. Sophie sighed, despite all the 'practice' he had, Sophie's father Ikenna was undeniably tone-deaf. But, at least he was making the kids laugh with his inability to sing.
Ikenna told his eldest daughter that she didn't need to wake the four of them up, but Sophie was insistent and already knew the kids wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Plus the kids were definitely more likely to listen to her than her somewhat of a pushover father.
While the kids had their breakfast, Sophie ate with them, reaching for a box of oatmeal while looking through her notifications on her phone. When she opened her Instagram page, she noticed she had received a direct message from a name that sounded familiar though she couldn't put a face to her.
"Hi Sophie, I hope you've been having a good day. Anyways, my name is Amina and I'm an upcoming model who'd like to get some pointers from you. I've seen your work and I absolutely love posts on your page, not to mention you seem like someone who'd be super fun to spend some time with! Hope to hear from you soon. Best, Amina Karim."
Curiously, Sophie then went onto Amina's page and was shocked at what she had found. With over three hundred thousand followers and actually getting to see photos of her, Sophie had no trouble in recognizing Amina now.
Amina's latest post was a picture of her standing next to a cardboard movie poster display and giving a thumbs-up and the movie was the live-action Princess Parisa: Fabled Origins, which Amina starred in as Parisa. The post had received a bunch of likes and comments with a caption that read 'Mom, you wouldn't believe what I did!'.
"No way!" Sophie exclaimed, moments before she tried showing the message to her sisters. But then, she stopped herself from doing so, deciding it'd be better that she told them later so they'd have an easier time focusing on their ballet lessons today.
Sophie texted Amina back immediately, expressing her interest in helping her out and asked if she'd be able to meet today. Sophie waited around expectantly, though she already knew she wouldn't likely receive a message back until hours later, when most people were up and functioning as usual. So in the meantime, she sent a text to someone who she knew was notorious for sleeping in on weekends, but would've been perfect for Amina to meet up with. As Sophie finished typing up her message and pressed send without question, she went upstairs to see if any of her siblings left anything behind that they would've needed today.
Mari was still in bed way past nine, knowing all too well that oversleeping wasn't good for her but it was unfortunately one of her few guilty pleasures. Plus, it was a Saturday, a day devoted to rest (kinda) abject from any obligations whatsoever where she could just do as she pleased whenever she pleased. Especially since she didn't have anything planned for today, except touching up her roots. But she decided she may as well check through her phone just in case she received a message and to her surprise, she actually did.
"Hey Mari, I have something really cool I have planned for today that involves some photo taking. Are you free to hang out this afternoon?" The message read.
Mari scratched her head, deciding now would likely be a good time to get out of bed as she reached for her glasses. She then looked outside her window curiously, wondering how the rest of the day would go.
After a couple of hours, Sophie and Mari were gathered at Sophie's school courtyard to take meet up with Amina. Sophie was beyond nervous as she awaited Amina, rambling into Mari's ear about how this was such a big deal to her and how her sisters loved how Amina starred as Princess Parisa in the movie. At this point, Mari was getting close to tuning out Sophie from her chatting Mari's ear off. Mari's thoughts then traveled to how surprising it actually was to see Sophie so excited over this girl. Mari didn't know very much about Sophie's career but at the very least, she would've expected Sophie to have a bit more composure to herself. It seemed as if she like the Princess Parisa franchise as much as her sisters, maybe even more.
"Oh my god, that's her!" Sophie yell-whispered as she shook Mari's arm in a near violent manner," Do I look ok? Nothing in my teeth, right? Oh good glory, what do I even say to her?!"
"Sophie remember, she's just like you and me. I think she'd like it best if you treated her like a normal person." Mari advised sheepishly, with Sophie nodding vigorously in agreement.
Amina waved goodbye to her chauffeur before they parted ways and walked over to Sophie and Mari with a giant smile on her face. When she got closer to Sophie, she gave her a big hug. Amina was very pretty, with very curly dark brown hair reaching her shoulders that bounced with every step she took and dark brown eyes to match. Her fair skin paired with her dark hair made Sophie remind her of Snow White, though Amina seemed much more outgoing.
"It's so nice to finally meet you Sophie!" Amina greeted, that giant smile still on her face.
Sophie was speechless, with nothing but a smile as big as Amina's on her face with Mari giggling from behind them. Sophie then did her best to collect herself, clearing her throat as she said,
"Me too, I'm sort of a fan of you, I loved seeing you play Parisa in the Princess Parisa movie!" Sophie gushed awkwardly," Anyways, I'll make sure we get a bunch of stuff covered this afternoon, I even brought my friend Mari here so we can take some trial shots!"
Amina waved to Mari, before putting a determined look on her face as she said," I'll do my very best today and absorb everything you two teach me!"
Sophie showed Amina some basic tips about getting your photo taken and did her best to make sure she was ready by having her stand as she normally did and see what could be improved on. Sophie noticed Amina's shoulders were awfully tense and poked them saying,
"You don't need to be so tense, otherwise you'll look uncomfortable in your shots."
Amina nodded attentively, taking out her little notebook from her bag and writing down Sophie's directions.
Mari then took a candid of the two of them talking, feeling quite pleased with how the shot turned out. It was no surprise that Sophie looked great in the photo but even the rookie model looked quite photogenic in the shot, it gave Mari an odd sense of pride from looking at it.
"Amina, I hear you live in London, so what are you doing here in our little town?" Mari asked her as Sophie took hold of her camera to look at the photo just taken.
"Oh, I'm doing a meet and greet next weekend with my fans in Tokyo, and I just wanted to immerse myself in Japan before then." Amina explained, before she twirled around and stretched her arms out," Japan is so beautiful, you guys have great food, the people are really nice, you got a lot of fantastic anime stores, you're both sooo lucky you get to live here! When I grow old, I wanna live my days out here in a nice little town like this!"
"Growing old with Amina...that sounds kinda nice." Sophie thought to herself as she stared at the photo taken of the two of them.
"Hey Sophie, have you lived in Japan all your life?" Amina asked curiously as she was testing out some of her own modeling poses.
Sophie shook her head, saying," I was born in Canada and moved here when I was eight. I've gone back a few times to visit family, but my last visit proved I was really...out of my element when talking to my older cousins."
"Ah, lemme guess, language barrier?" Amina asked as she twirled around.
Sophie thought back to her last visit, since the term "language barrier" didn't seem like much of a fit, since she could understand what they were saying, but how they were saying it was messing with her comprehension since they used an awful lot of slang.
"Something like that..." Sophie said sheepishly as she handed the camera back to Mari," Anyways, before we do some more model stuff, I was curious to know...what made you want to be a model?"
Amina stood quietly, deep in thought as she tried to find the right words. This was most likely the quietest she had been all day and it was almost uncharacteristic for her, so Sophie and Mari knew her answer was going to be really good.
"Well, to be honest, I've wanted to do modeling ever since I was young. But the problem was...I think I was just too young, or rather...immature and not to mention insecure at the time." Amina explained with a forced chuckle as she thought back to her younger days," I originally tried being a model first, but I was told I just wasn't ready yet. Though they didn't really explain to me why."
"Well, that's not helpful of them." Mari pointed out flatly as she focused her lens on Amina.
Amina chuckled in response saying," You're telling me. It was probably because they didn't see any potential in me to begin with. When I was younger I was really skinny and short, I honestly looked really awkward in my photos when I was younger, but I was so intent on modeling, you wouldn't believe."
Amina kept on laughing, though she seemed a bit tense as she spoke and Sophie then said," Well, in this day and age, I don't think taking a nice photo is very hard, but...that really isn't all there is to modeling, at least not to me."
Amina nodded in understanding, asking her," So, what was it that made you want to start modeling?"
Sophie took a seat on the grass and motioned the two of them to follow suite. Once they were all seated, Sophie stared up to the sky for a few moments, trying to collect and organize her thoughts.
"Well, I guess it was just seeing a lack of models that looked like me I guess." Sophie began briskly," Back then, I guess industry standards were a bit different, but...I noticed all the models had a certain look and feel to them. Especially models with my complexion. A lot of them were to look very mature, but I never really enjoyed that style, I liked cute clothes a lot more but, nobody was wearing anything cute that really caught my eye. So, I thought who better than to model the cute clothes of my dreams than me? Plus, with being a model, you get a bunch of opportunities like empowering young women and showing everyone that well, beauty lies within!"
"That's amazing!" Amina remarked," I think it'd be cool if you tried out Lolita fashion, I bet you'd look super cute in it!"
"Lolita is expensive though..." Mari pointed out to her sheepishly," But, Sophie can make dresses, so maybe it wouldn't cost as much?"
"Do you know how expensive cute fabrics can get though?" Sophie asked her, the thought of all the money she had spent on her last fabric haul running through her mind," I'm lucky if I can find some nice prints in the clearance section."
Amina nodded in understanding and then said," Modeling has left a big impact on your life, hasn't it? How different do you think your life would be if you didn't do modeling?"
"Very different." Sophie answered with a small chuckle," I've actually imagined it a few times before... I think some things would stay the same, like my inner circle of friends and my personality but...people would likely have an easier time approaching me."
Mari then chuckled awkwardly as Sophie's gaze then travelled to her lap, with the former saying in a rush," She's just feeling a bit off since well...there's this one person that seemed to be interested in being friends with Sophie, but...well, he puts her on a high pedestal, so he can't interact with her properly."
"He's apparently really good at math and was supposed to tutor me, but then I got ghosted three messages into our conversation." Sophie explained with a pout.
"Aww, I see. How did you guys meet, through a mutual friend?" Amina asked with Sophie nodding in response.
Asuna and Reo were studying for an upcoming test at the library down the road, when suddenly Reo sneezed out of nowhere. Asuna flinched, impulsively moving herself a few inches away since Reo failed to cover his mouth during his sneeze. He wiped his nose and returned to looking at his notes.
"You better not get me sick." Asuna advised him, her tone impatient," It's bad enough the material on this next test is super hard, but if I had to do it sick then there's an a hundred percent chance I'd fail at it."
"Relax, I'm not sick." Reo replied flatly," I guess I just have some secret admirer gossiping about me to her friends~"
Asuna simply rolled her eyes, clearly unimpressed with his response, especially when he hadn't voiced any interest in the one girl who may have been willing to give him a chance. She mentioned Sophie a few times during these last couple of weeks in front of Reo when they hung out with their friends, but instead of acting all high and mighty, being totally certain he could win Sophie's heart, he instead said nothing and only listened to the conversation with unreadable looks on his face. Ever since that day when Sophie and Reo unofficially met at the China Doll cafe, Reo was slowly turning into a frantic mess at the thought of Sophie, to the point where he'd rather flat out ignore her than make a fool of himself in front of her. Asuna wasn't sure what she had expected from him, but that certainly wasn't something she saw coming. She had been tempted to try and arrange a blind study date of sorts for the two of them, but Asuna wasn't sure of how Reo would act in front of Sophie so she kept the idea as just an idea.
"I don't know why any girl would wanna talk about you to her friends, considering the fact that you're just a geek in a jock's body." Asuna jeered, flinging the hair tie she had on her wrist towards Reo. Reo barely caught it and narrowed her eyes at her.
Asuna was tempted to point out how the only girl who would've displayed interest in him was the same one he was pushing away, but she kept her mouth shut. Just then, Asuna's phone started ringing and she sighed loudly, already well-aware of who might've been calling her at this hour.
Asuna answered the phone and Sophie started chattering away in the phone at a mile a minute, far too quick for Asuna to understand what she was trying to say, but all she heard was " Come to the school" and "Bring Reo".
Asuna took the phone away from her ear for a second, looking at the phone in disbelief as she said," What the hell is she planning?"
Sophie brought the phone away from her ear as she finished the call, saying to Mari who stood in front of her," Why did you make me do that?"
"Amina needs to see that being a model means that you don't have to jeopardize your normal life, that being successful doesn't just mean your name is known to all and basic needs must be pushed aside. It means you can still have both a close circle of friends and have your dreams reached. " Mari explained to her, though Sophie wasn't fully convinced.
"Alright, so why did you tell me to make Asuna bring Reo?" Sophie asked her suspiciously.
"Well...he doesn't know you very well yet and what better way than to show Amina that models are normal people than have a guy realize that in front of you?"
"Mari, I don't like your thought process." Sophie stated with a pout while Mari chuckled off her comment.
"You don't have to, anyways, we gotta try to get a hold of Kiriko so she can help make some notes for Amina to study from." Mari reminded her as she motioned her to make the call," Amina won't learn from only practical lessons."
A few minutes later, Sophie and Mari were beyond surprised that Asuna and Reo arrived with such good timing. When they asked the pair about how they were able to get here so quickly, Asuna explained to them that the two were studying at the library down the road.
"Wow, I really wouldn't have expected you to be studying on the weekend. I'm guessing you have a really hard test coming up?" Sophie questioned with a giggle, though Asuna didn't seem as amused as her. If anything, she appeared to be annoyed by being reminded that her Saturday was being wasted on studying, and now whatever was going on here.
"Okay guys, so I'd like you to meet my...apprentice, Amina Karim." Sophie introduced as she awkwardly gestured towards Amina. Amina waved towards them and walked over to Asuna, offering a hug, though Asuna seemed unwilling so Amina just shook both her hands instead.
"Sophie's been teaching the basics all morning, but now I think we're transitioning into the more psychological basics and basically the proper goals to keep in mind as a model." Amina explained," Sophie's a really good teacher, you're lucky to have such a nice friend!"
Asuna's eyes narrowed slightly at Amina, thinking to herself," She's too pure."
Mari then cleared her throat to get everyone's attention, saying," So...I think something we should try to do as a team is to highlight Sophie's strengths as both a model and a person, to demonstrate to Amina what's been working for her. Since chances are, the same things might also work out for Amina."
Asuna then whispered into Sophie's ear," Did you guys try dragging Kiriko into this too?"
"Kiriko's at work, but she said she'll try to be of help through texting when she can." Sophie whispered back to her.
Mari then directed her attention to Asuna, saying," Asuna, why don't you start us off?"
"What, why? I...haven't collected my thoughts just yet. You can come back to me." Asuna stated with a wave of dismissal.
Mari seemed a bit irritated, but didn't say anything in disagreement and instead chose to start.
"Ok, well...one of Sophie's strengths is that she is willing to accept constructive criticism. Sophie invites critique knowing well that she will become better from it. Sophie is also naturally photogenic, and photographers can't get enough of her because of it. But, Sophie also is very good at staying humble, being able to appreciate what she has as of right now which something others would likely take for granted. I think one of the reasons Sophie's been able to become successful is because she stays true to herself no matter what. Through and through, Sophie knows what she stands for, and will always strive towards her goals."
Asuna and Reo didn't say a word, both of them impressed with Mari's summary. Amina looked at Mari with an inquisitive look on her face, nodding in understanding while Sophie unexpectedly threw her arms around Mari saying,
"Mari, you're too nice to me!"
Mari chuckled awkwardly as she replied with," I was just being honest. You just don't give yourself enough credit."
Asuna's phone then vibrated and she grabbed it out from her pocket without thinking and informed the group that Kiriko had a response ready.
"I guess I can just read it on her behalf." Asuna stated as she looked at the text on her screen.
"Sophie a good friend who will have always smile on her face. She talented and is a good member to our team, fighting hard with-" Asuna read out, before Mari clamped her mouth shut, knowing where the rest of this text was going.
"Damn it Kiriko, you weren't supposed to mention anything about our Pretty Cure duties in this." Mari thought to herself as she sighed before she glared towards Asuna," That text was pretty choppy too, work must be busy for her."
"Fighting?" Amina repeated with a blank look on her face with Sophie nodding vigorously in response, trying to formulate some kind of excuse.
"Of course! As a model, you don't just only eat healthy and exercise to keep a good figure!" Sophie pointed out to her," Many models take up a sport or something to stay in shape and um...I do kickboxing from time to time!"
"That's so cool!" Amina exclaimed, with Asuna and Mari wearing skeptic looks on their faces. Sophie just laughed awfully loud, pretending to be humbled by Amina's comment while Reo just kept staring at her.
"I hope I don't have to take part in this, I don't even know what I'd say about her..." Reo thought to himself as his face turned red from staring at Sophie too long," I don't know her well enough, and if I only comment on her looks, they'll think I'm shallow or something..."
"Reo, do you have anything you'd like to say about Sophie?" Mari asked Reo, who only looked at her with nervous eyes," You don't have to if you don't feel comfortable doing so."
"Um...you're really tall and hot?" Reo blurted out, with all the girls looking at him questionably. Reo was already feeling regret in his few words about Sophie's 'advantages' and kept his gaze away from the disapproving looks from the girls.
"Could he be any dumber?" Asuna thought to herself, feeling the temptation of punching him in the arm for his response.
Sophie didn't seem the slightest bit appalled or annoyed, only wearing a pitied expression on her face as she thought to herself, "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea..."
"So..." Domino began, looking towards the empty library parking lot from on top of a bench,"Would you like to tell me why you wanted tag along today?"
Domino looked over to Bounce, awaiting her response as she tried getting the attention of a calico cat underneath the bench.
"Cuz I hate working with Rubix." Bounce said flatly, though her expression was strangely cheerful," Plus she said she didn't want my help today."
Bounce started petting the cat, smiling brightly since Domino wouldn't make her cast it away now that he didn't experience his allergies. Perhaps that was the only true advantage to his modifications.
"So, what's the plan today boss?" Bounce asked as she stood up, expecting Domino to have a set of blueprints at hands reach that he would show her. But, today Domino was empty-handed, too consumed in other thoughts to even try to draft out a plan that would ultimately fail in the end.
"We'll just...make a Defective and charge through the town, like always." Domino stated tonelessly, though Bounce seemed unsatisfied with this response.
She took a closer look at Domino, inspecting him to see if something was off, though it wasn't like she'd be able to tell either way.
"That's it? No gimmicks, or crazy elaborate operations?" Bounce asked, taking a closer look at Domino," You sure that's all you got for your plan?"
Domino nodded once in response and Bounce drew herself away from Domino, saying in her head," He's really been out of it since Jack's defeat. He hasn't been getting any better either. I don't want to see Asperity lose another member, so we need to do really well today."
Bounce then threw an excited look on her face saying,"Well, either way, let's give it our all today!"
Sophie, Amina and Mari continued on with the practical side of today's modelling lessons, while Asuna and Reo sat by a tree pretending to study. Asuna was still chiding Reo for his thoughtless comments, and at this point Reo was beyond tired of hearing about how he screwed up today.
Finally Reo blurted out," Well, what did you expect me to say? It's not like I know her personally."
Asuna squinted at him, saying," You could've by now."
Reo shrugged and then responded with," Bro, I'm just out of her league. She's all famous and stuff, literally teaching other people her modelling tricks while I'm out here studying for a math test."
"You're comparing apples to oranges." Asuna pointed out to him," By the end of the day, Sophie isn't any different from us. She won't get offended if you treat her like a normal person, to be honest, that's all she wants."
Reo kept quiet for a few moments, only staring at the ground as he thought hard about Asuna's words. Just then, a thought then appeared into Reo's mind, something that had crossed his mind before but he never asked about until now.
"Again, how did you become friends with her?" Reo questioned, leading Asuna to look at him wide-eyed without a response. Reo wasn't all that surprised that Asuna wasn't fully sure of what to say, the fact that the two of them became friends was already suspicious, so chances were, Asuna wasn't in a position to explain anything.
Just then, Bounce appeared before them, hanging upside down from the tree and staring at Reo who sat only a few inches away from her. Bounce smiled to him and held out a plush toucan toy in front of him and asked,
"Would this happen to be yours?"
"No." Reo responded tonelessly, an unimpressed look appearing on his face as Bounce leapt off from the tree and stood between him and Asuna. Asuna glared at Bounce, who paid zero attention to her and only held out a black diamond between her fingers.
Asuna then stood up and finally said to Bounce," Don't you people have anything better to do at this point?"
To Asuna's surprise, Bounce turned away from Reo to face her, grabbing her by the scruff of her shirt while saying," You're the one hanging around school on a Saturday, are you really in a position to ask me that?"
Reo attempted to intervene, asking,"Asuna, do you know this girl-?"
Just then, from a few meters away, Domino launched a black diamond shard directly towards Reo hitting him directly in the chest and causing his Patchwork Heart to get tainted. Reo dropped to his knees, unsure of what just happened while Bounce let go of Asuna and tossed the toucan plush up into the air.
"Do your worst, Defective!" Bounce called out.
Reo's Patchwork Heart emerged out of him and was in the possession of the toucan plush now. The toucan plush grew ten feet in size and was set on destroying everything it its path, starting with Asuna who only watched the Defective nervously while slowly taking out her phone and PlayPact.
"Defective!" The monstrous toucan roared.
Asuna had been holding her phone up, recording the cry of the Defective. She ended the recording and sent it to Kiriko moments after.
"That should get her to come." Asuna said to herself before returning her attention to the matter at hand," Sophie, take Amina inside the school, Mari and I will...follow after you!"
Sophie nodded, grabbing a hold of Amina's wrist and dragging her towards the school.
"Hey wait, shouldn't we try to get a hold of the authorities first?" Amina pointed out, still running behind Sophie," Ooh what if this is some kind of PR stunt?"
By the time the two of them reach the inside of the school, Sophie was feeling out of breath, slamming her hand against the wall to keep herself from falling down. She then looked towards Amina, who still failed to experience any sense of danger, only intrigued by the giant toucan and its mysterious motives. Amina was watching the Defective battle against the two newcomers dressed up in strange outfits while Sophie tried pulling her attention away from the Defective.
"Whoa, I feel like I'm watching some kinda live-action Super Sentai fight!" Amina remarked, her face pressed against the door's glass window.
"Amina, whatever you do, you can't step out ok? Not until the toucan monster is gone. In the meanwhile, I'm going to try to bring Mari and Asuna back inside." Sophie declared as she tried leaving to help her team, but Amina prevented her from doing so.
"Wait a minute, you just told me it's too dangerous to go outside, so what makes it ok for you to leave?" Amina questioned as she placed her hand around Sophie's arm," Don't try saying anything like your life isn't as important as mine, otherwise you're definitely not leaving."
Sophie looked at Amina apprehensively, chiding herself mentally for putting herself in such a situation. Sophie then took a deep breath and placed both of her hands onto Amina's and said,
"Amina, I have a secret I need you to keep. I may not have known you for long, but I trust you can keep it. " Sophie declared in a solemn voice, holding out her PlayPact and taking a step outside.
"Pretty Cure, it's Playtime!" Sophie shouted, a mass of yellow, blue and orange lights flowing out from her PlayPact.
"The sailor of justice, Cure Bubbly!" Bubbly announced.
Amina was at a loss of words for once, slowly bringing her hands to the glass window but fighting the urge to open it and ask Sophie the first hundred questions that came to her mind. But then, one thought came to her that somehow led her to making sense of the situation. She smiled and then said to herself as Bubbly ran off,
"She's like Princess Parisa!"
When Bubbly ran back to the scene, she found Teddy, Fantasy and Dolly fighting against the Defective, seemingly unmatched in strength. The toucan plush turned Defective seemed awfully fond of flapping its wings about as a form of attacking, so the Cures couldn't even hope to come close to the Defective without getting smacked away. Bubbly skidded to a stop as she got close enough to the Defective, watching with nervous eyes as her teammate Fantasy took a defensive stance while Teddy and Dolly tried to attack again.
As soon as the Defective flapped its wing down, Dolly took on the attack, but Teddy dodged, jumping to the back of the Defective and charging up her hands for an attack.
"Pretty Cure, Flaming Ring of Hope!" She shouted as she pointed her index finger to the Defective. A bright orange ring appeared from out of her finger, but the Defective flapped its large wings again, ultimately destroying the ring Teddy created before it could even trap the Defective.
Teddy sighed, landing on the ground with Dolly running towards her.
"Damn, if we could make the Defective unable to use its wings, even if it was for a few moments, we'd actually stand a chance." Dolly stated with Teddy nodding in response," If we can't detain it, what else can we...?"
Dolly's gaze fell on Bubbly and an idea came to her. Dolly was going to call out to her to tell her the plan she just thought of, but Bubbly started running towards the Defective without warning. Dolly extended her hand out in hopes that it'd get Bubbly to switch gears and hear her out, but then Dolly realized Bubbly likely had the same plan she had in mind. Dolly paid close attention to her movements and was certain of Bubbly's next move, so she started running after her to provide back up. Once Dolly got close enough, she then motioned Fantasy and Teddy to follow after her.
Bubbly continued to run towards the Defective, taking a leap forward, but the Defective curled its wing around her ankle and held onto her tight. Bubbly weakly attempted to free herself the grip of the Defective, but there wasn't any hope for her break free even with the all of effort she put in.
"How is that even possible?" Teddy questioned with a scoff as her eyes narrowed in on the toucan holding Bubbly still. The toucan swung its wing back while still holding onto Bubbly and Dolly gestured everyone to get out of the way.
"It's gonna toss Bubbly our way!" Dolly said to them as she ran for cover, with Teddy following behind, but Fantasy didn't move.
Just before Bubbly was tossed, she placed her hands out in front of herself and shouted out," Pretty Cure, Bubbling Typhoon!"
A pair of gigantic water tendrils emerged from out of her hands and completely soaked the Defective from head to toe. The Defective was shot back a far distance, letting go of Bubbly in the process. Bubbly landed on her feet, and looked over to the rest of her team, yelling,
"Follow me, while the Defective's still soaked!"
The Cures followed after Bubbly, with Teddy asking, "Did she just come up with a new attack?"
Dolly shook her head slowly as she said while running," I've seen her use that before, at least...something similiar to it. Maybe she was just waiting for the right moment to debut it."
"Somehow, it wouldn't surprise me to think that Bubbly had been holding out on some new attacks and tricks." Dolly thought to herself," Bubbly's probably a lot stronger than she lets us think."
The Cures caught up to Bubbly and saw her standing in front of the Defective that had crashed against the school wall.
"Altogether now?" Bubbly asked as she conjured up her scepter.
The Defective to get back onto its feet, not quite ready to admit from such a short battle. It tried to push itself up, but to no avail and only glared at the Pretty Cure gathered before it, paying close attention to Bubbly.
"You...you don't really care about me!" The Defective blurted out, pointing its wing towards Cure Bubbly, "You're all famous, you'd never want to pay any attention to me, so stop pretending and making me look like a fool!"
Teddy's eyes were aflame with anger, ready to pummel the Defective some more just for that comment, but Dolly and Fantasy held her back from doing so. Teddy fought to convince her teammates to let her get at least one punch in saying, "Can't you see this nimrod doesn't learn?"
"Just let Bubbly handle this." Dolly said to Teddy as she held her back," She probably understands how Reo's feeling better than us."
Teddy rolled her eyes but decided to let Bubbly do the talking. Bubbly however, wasn't as positive or calm as usual as she stared at the Defective for a few moments, her arms crossed as she tried deciding on her words with as much consideration as she could.
"I'm the one who doesn't care? You're the one who hasn't been giving me a chance!" Bubbly pointed out to the Defective sternly as she took a step closer to it," You've been thinking too much of how 'famous' I am, that you stopped thinking about my feelings in the process. I can't force you to be my friend, but if you want to get to know me, don't you think it'd be easier to treat me just like an average person?"
The Defective looked dumb-founded, trying to come up with something to say in retaliation, just to prove that it wasn't fully in the wrong. But, the more time it took to think of a response, the sooner it realized that Bubbly already won this argument.
"You know, I was really excited at the thought of making a new friend, since I don't have too many of my own, so my offer still stands." Bubbly said to the Defective, her tone more level and back to its usual cheery sound," But...before we become friends, we gotta fix you up. You've been uh, possessed by the bad guys and if you don't get turned back to normal, we'll probably have a hard time hanging out if you were to walk around the town as a giant toucan! You wouldn't want that, right? So if you'd like, me and my friends can help you become a regular person again!"
The three Cures looked at Bubbly sheepishly, knowing that Bubbly butchered the speech a little bit.
"Only if you don't go back on your word." The toucan replied quietly as a small smile appeared on its face as it looked at Bubbly.
"Of course!" Bubbly exclaimed, as she extended her hand out to the Defective so the two of them could shake on it. The Defective stared at her hand curiously for a few moments, but eventually shook hands, or rather wing, with her.
Bubbly turned to face her fellow Cures and gave them a thumbs up.
The rest of the team conjured up their scepters and pushed their toy toppers into their respective scepters, leading them to transform into their upgraded forms.
"Playtime begins! Patchwork Form!" The four of them called out.
They held out their scepters up high and shouted in unison," Pretty Cure, Playtime Paradise!"
The Defective was met with a horde of shimmering lights coming its way and purified the Defective, no longer a monstrous toucan but only an inanimate little plush.
The girls reversed their transformations and Sophie was the first to rush towards Reo to see if he was ok. Sophie sat by Reo's side, he was still unconscious but thankfully he appeared to be at ease. Sophie had been so worried about Reo, that she almost completely forgot about Amina, who walked out from the school once the Defective had disappeared and regrouped with the girls shortly after.
Reo had yet to come to after a long time, and Sophie felt the need to apologize to Amina for keeping her so long and not accomplishing too much these last few hours.
"I'm really sorry for this Amina, but maybe we should call it a day? I'd be more than happy to skype with you for some extra lessons if you'd like." Sophie suggested, with Amina nodding once in response before she and Sophie stood up.
"That's fine by me, I've learned a lot today, and I really appreciate and your help and getting to work with." Amina said as took hold of Sophie's hands," Thanks for everything today, be sure to keep to keep in touch, alright?"
Sophie nodded and Amina took her leave while the rest of the group waited around for Reo to awake. After awhile, Mari and Kiriko had to leave since it was getting late, leaving only Sophie and Asuna by his side waiting patiently.
When Reo eventually awoke, he was surprised to find both Asuna and Sophie at his side with concerned expressions directed at him. He felt somewhat uncomfortable under their gaze, but assumed that something must've happened to him in order to attract their attention like this.
"Uh, is everything ok?" Reo asked them," You guys are looking at me like y'all seen a ghost."
"You're fine. You just ran into a tree earlier and got knocked out cold for a little bit, nothing too spectacular." Asuna explained to him, but Reo wasn't buying it for a second.
"If you're gonna lie, at least make it convincing." Reo responded in an irritated voice but remembering that Sophie was present. Reo then turned his attention to only Sophie, feeling a bit awkward as he tried to maintain eye contact with her.
"So while I was knocked out, I had a crazy and I realized I haven't been the nicest person to you lately, well...I guess ever, but anyways, I'm sorry I've been pushing you away thinking that you're some kinda legend while you're just an ordinary person with likes and dislikes, who has feelings and stuff, and who apparently dislikes math and science..."
Sophie giggled at Reo's response, and finally Reo felt himself growing less tense around Sophie.
Amina was getting driven to her hotel, making a voice memo to herself to remember this very exciting. Amina was looking out the window, thinking about how it was only hours ago that she saw the unbelievable, a real life version of the character she played and started to smile at the thought of Sophie.
"Today's lesson is we may all lead very different lives as humans on this earth but we need to keep in mind we're not as different as we think." Amina said into her phone," We all feel very profound emotions, and these emotions and energies that we bounce off one another is what binds us together. We can't simply reject others because of what has been said about them but rather...we should try to join together in spite of those things."
Once Amina ended the voice memo, she then exclaimed to her driver," Today was so much fun, you wouldn't believe! I can't wait to see Sophie again!"
Elsewhere, specifically in the China Doll cafe, Eri had collapsed in the hallway with a pile of plates smashed from dropping on the ground. Her face was flushed red and she leaned against the wall to catch her breath. It was past closing time for the cafe so thankfully there weren't any guests around to witness her fall, but most of the staff had gone home for the evening. The only people left in the cafe were some of the kitchen staff and Kai.
"Are you alright?" Kai asked as they knelt next to Eri, before noticing how red her face was. They placed their hand against her forehead and found that she was burning up. They sighed, standing up to get a broom and dustpan for the broken dishes.
"You should've taken the day off, just take a seat at a booth or something and I'll get you some fever medication from bag." Kai instructed as they walked to the janitor's closet.
Once Kai retrieved the broom and dustpan in the janitor's closet, they cleaned up the broken dishes as quickly as they could and tossed it out in the garbage cans in the washrooms. Kai thought about Eri for a few moments and only shook their head. Eri had always been a bit naive but this was too much. It was likely she didn't even know what to do in the case of illness since she claimed to have grown up in a 'wealthy household'.
Kai closed their eyes, placing their hands against the sink counter as they said," She's so sheltered."
"That girl is a descendant of the kingdom, I won't allow you call her such things!" A voice then said to Kai. In front of Kai, where their own reflection was supposed to be, was a boy who seemed to be a few years older than him with teal hair that had a single lilac streak in it. His dressed like a prince with a grey tunic with violet trimming and a dark purple cape. Atop his head was blue and gold crown and he stared directly at Kai with an unforgiving look in his eyes, but Kai didn't seem to be the slightest bit confused or startled. They only looked at the figure as if they were an eyesore.
"From your make-believe kingdom right?" Kai asked quietly in an agitated voice,"Why do you keep showing up?"
The figure was hurt by Kai's comment but didn't show it and said sternly," I'm your former self, so why do you keep insisting that I'm not really here?"
Kai rolled their eyes and suddenly, a scream that sounded like it belonged to Eri filled the cafe. Kai bolted out of the washrooms and found Rubix in front of Eri who was now held within a neon purple barrier that appeared to be made from crystals.
"This has taken far too long." Rubix stated as she smiled down to Eri. Rubix then sense another familiar presence in the room and turned around to find Kai standing a few feet behind her.
"But, at least we've made lots of progress today." Rubix remarked as she laid her eyes on Kai, preparing herself to make another crystal encasement.