One more Moon Piece for Pretty Cure. Now they had number thirteen, from the clock tower, number five, from the classroom, and number two, which they had found in a pile of rocks behind the Kazahana City Flower Shoppe after Binbeat had lost it and gotten bored of looking. By all rights, they should have been celebrating, but there were still ten more to go, and the Etherium had already claimed one of those. More importantly, there was the other issue.

"Blackmail?" Ogata Mia clasped her hands together.

Kawada Asa nodded. "Mitsuishi-san said Omemi-san was helping her with some kind of love confession, and, in exchange, she had to get something bad on Yoko."

Nakayama Yoko took a deep breath and nodded. She watched the dry leaves of the fall that had just ended scatter themselves over and over around the run-down path. On a normal day, she would never dream of setting foot in Sapphire Park, even with friends. This was only the second time she had done it, and the first had been when Starry was kidnapped and she forced herself to search for Asa.

"Figures!" Kondou Hoshi punched the nearby tree and rubbed her hand. "That's how Omemi always does things."

Asa looked at her. "Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"You're new to our school," Hoshi sighed, "and we may be friends, but I gotta admit that your social skills are questionable. Listen. Omemi Emiru has a talent. She can find out anything about anyone, and if she can't, she can talk someone else into doing it for her."

Okamoto Yukari nodded, taking off her glasses. "That's where her power comes from. If she thinks you're ruining her life, she uses her brain to turn the tables. She can't control people, and she knows she can't win if you challenge her, but she'll try and make you think the best thing to do is not challenge her at all."

"Can't we just get revenge or whatever you do?", Asa said.

Mia shook her head. "She's a good person. I think... she's just scared."

Yoko looked down and muttered something.

"Huh?" Asa looked at her. "Yoko, what was that?"

Yoko looked down at the transformation phone clipped to Asa's bag. She knew Starry was hiding inside it. She narrowed her eyebrows and turned her head up to face the other girls, beginning to fall back on the armour of the Ice Queen Nakayama glare.

"I know how she feels."

Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon

Episode 12: The World is Changing! The Vicious Whisper, Millusion!

"Pretty Cure?"

Seira clasped her hands. "I know you think they're not real, but we saw - I mean, I saw them. At the library, and at the magic show, too. Nobody wants to admit it, but..."

Emiru brushed her short, green hair in the Kazahana City Community Centre washroom mirror. Her eyebrow raised a little. "Alice, you're not your usual self at all."

Seira stiffened. "I'm not?"

"Just look at your reflection. You're all frozen and shaking and acting scared." Emiru adjusted her glasses and put her brush back in her school bag. She turned to Seira at the next sink over. "I know. You're embarrassed, aren't you?"

Seira turned a deep shade of red. Emiru's glasses shone in the reflected light.

"There's my answer," Emiru said. "Don't worry, it's not bad! I mean, you do like Nakayama-kun, don't you?"

Seira took a deep breath and concentrated on acting like her normal self. "We're getting off topic, Emiru-chan. I'm holding up my end of the deal. Pretty Cure is real. I don't know if they're delusional cosplayers or what, but they're real, and Nakayama Yoko is one of them." This is such an obvious lie. She resisted shutting her eyes, but still shook visibly. Am I really protecting your sister, Nakayama-kun?

Emiru picked up her bags. "Thank you, Alice."

"Don't call me Alice."

"What?"

Seira took another sharp breath. "Um, I mean, my name isn't Alice. It was fun at first, but now I don't really like it anymore. Can't you all call me Seira like you did before I went on the foreign exchange?"

"Oh, all right." Emiru gave a sparkling smile. "Seira it is, then. It's no trouble, since you told me what I needed to know." She walked to the door, nudged it open with her elbow, and stepped out. The door swung shut behind her, and she walked out of the community centre and looked out at the expanse of frost-covered dormant trees.

"Liar," she said as soon as she knew Seira couldn't hear.

"Oh, really?", said a voice next to her.

Emiru whipped around to the side. The young woman beside her, at least ten years older than Emiru herself, tilted her head to the side with a knowing smile. She wore a crisp white dress shirt with dress pants and gloves to match, a deep red vest the same colour as her hair, and a white eye mask with red rhinestones on either side.

"I thought she was telling the truth, myself."

A few blocks between the Awaya Shrine and the Seiki Open Mall, in a far nicer apartment than Asa's, a blue-haired man sighed and sat down on a soft black couch. Beside him was a woman around his age with a pearlescent heart necklace and cherry red hair: the one who had once been called 'Dawn'.

"Have you seen them recently?", he asked. "Have they gotten any more of the Moon Pieces?"

She shook her head and laughed. "Do you think I have nothing better than to stalk a couple of schoolgirls? The past few times I've seen them, I either just happened to be in the neighbourhood or something looked wrong."

"Wishful thinking, I guess." He ran a hand through his hair. "I knew it couldn't be over, but seeing the Etherium actually come back to this world..."

She put her hand on his and looked out the window, then at something she was overturning in her other hand. Black and shining, it was unmistakably a Moon Piece.

"I hope they can handle it," she said. "I can't bluff my way through this forever."

The phone rang.

"So you are real."

Kainatrol smirked. "I see you've heard of me. I was getting worried, what with everybody in this town denying our existence. I am Kainatrol, the Feared Tamer of the Etherium."

Emiru flipped her short, green hair back. "Unless you're five or your name is Kawada Asa, you don't believe in magic. At all. That kind of thing is to be expected, you know."

"Yet you're talking to me."

"Do I have a choice?"

"What do you take me for?" Kainatrol put her hands on her hips. "If I wanted to brainwash you, I'd have already done it. I trust you enough to start up a conversation the fair and balanced way."

Emiru adjusted her eyeglasses, trying to hide her shivering as an effect of the cold. "I'm flattered, miss! Not that you know me."

"Oh, really?" Kainatrol put a hand to the side of her own eye mask. "I'm an animal tamer. I can tell just by looking at you how you feel. They're taking everything from you, aren't they? It isn't fair."

Emiru nearly dropped her glasses on the ground. "What?"

Kainatrol gave a brisk sigh. "It sounds too familiar for my tastes. Listen, I could use a little help."

Yoko flopped down onto her bed and opened up her transformation phone. Asa had transferred Starry over to it before they parted, after their other friends (a group of friends - that was strange) had gone home. He popped out of it and walked carefully up to her pillow.

"Are you okay ~susu?"

"Yeah." Yoko closed her eyes and sighed. "I don't know what to do, that's all. This didn't happen back when I didn't talk to anyone who wasn't Yukari and just scared everybody else."

Starry frowned. "Isn't it more fun to have friends than not ~susu?"

Yoko nodded. "You're right."

The little orange creature sat on top of the pillow. "Why do the other people in your class do mean things like make fun of Asa and lie about you ~susu?"

Yoko opened her eyes and patted him on the head. "People do that. Usually because they're scared of something. If someone tried to change a situation someone else was happy with, that person would get mad and try to stop it, right?"

Starry scratched his head. Yoko sighed.

"Don't worry about it. This is nothing. I was always afraid this was going to happen. ...Not about Pretty Cure, of course. About the car."

She lay there and didn't say anything. After a while, Starry patted her on the head in turn. Yoko laughed and sighed.

"Then she just walked off."

Tachimany shrugged, five female bodies in perfect unison. They stood in the core room of the Etherium, as its agents so often did. Mekuramast, not far from them, shook his head.

"Kainatrol's up to something again. I'm sure she thinks whatever it is will help her do her job."

One of Tachimany raised her eyebrow. "We thought she'd just been offended. She scowled at us when we mentioned that little girl from way back when in the Land of Tracks. Binbeat's sister, right?"

"That certainly sounds like Kainatrol." Mekuramast crossed his arms and looked to the side. "I don't know what she's off doing, but you shouldn't worry about it."

Tachimany shifted into two businessmen again and started to trade off lines.

"All right-"

"-if you say so."

"You know Kainatrol best, after all-"

"-because you're from the same world."

"We don't even like each other," Mekuramast said.

"What does that matter to-"

"-how well you know someone?"

"I suppose you're right." Mekuramast walked off into a blank space in the wall that wasn't there before. The barely-thereness of the Etherium extended to matter as well as time and space. It truly was the white void. Once he was alone, he shook his head and sighed.

"Kore... Thera..."

When the five girls met up in the town square the next morning, it was clear that none of them actually wanted to go to school. Asa suggested skipping, but Yoko quickly deemed this unacceptable, and since she was the one most strongly affected by the situation (and, as Yukari pointed out, it was impossible to skip school in a small town and not get caught), they resigned themselves to walking down the path to Clair Academy.

"Are you sure you'll be fine?" Yukari looked at Yoko and frowned.

Yoko nodded, trying to remain expressionless. "I know she must be desperate, but it could be worse."

"You're still Ice Queen Nakayama, all right," Yukari said. "If you're not worried, we won't be either, but we'll stick around. We're friends, aren't we?"

Asa gave the thumbs up. "Yeah! We're gonna take Omemi-san and her friends on like a real team!"

Hoshi facepalmed. "Asa, you're hopeless."

"Am not!"

Mia fidgeted. "What do you think she's saying about you? I mean... if we know, we can say it isn't true... I think."

"It doesn't matter what she's saying!", Asa cut in. "If Yoko doesn't want to say, she doesn't, right?"

Hoshi blinked a few times. "Wait, wait, hold it. Asa... using common sense... The world's gonna end, isn't it?"

"Hey!"

Yoko shook her head and smiled a little. "I do have something to tell you, all of you, but..."

"Morning, girls."

The five of them stopped and looked forward. Emiru was alone, leaning on one of the trees lining the path. She adjusted her glasses so the sun glinted off them and walked towards the group. Mia gulped and stepped backwards. Asa jumped to a battle-ready stance.

"What do you want?" Asa glared at the green-haired girl.

"Oh, stop it." Emiru twirled a piece of her hair. "I'm not going to bite you. I just need to talk and we can get all this sorted out. Nakayama, Kawada, can I see you two for a moment?"

"The two of us?" Asa's eyes widened.

"Did I stutter? Come on, girls, it'll only take a moment."

Yoko glared, but stepped forward, and Asa followed. "Fine."

Emiru led them off into the bushes. Hoshi glared after and Mia shrunk back, but Yukari grabbed both their hands.

"Okamoto-san?"

Yukari frowned. "I say we follow them."

Once the three were out of sight, Emiru turned to face them. "So..."

Yoko gave a death glare. "What's this about?"

"Calm down, Ice Queen Nakayama," Emiru said. "I just wanted to sort a few things out with you two. Nothing big, just about what's been going on lately-"

Asa jabbed a finger in Emiru's face. "You bribed Mitsuishi Seira to get blackmail on Yoko so you could spread rumours because you don't like how we became friends and stole Okamoto-san and Ogata-san!"

Yoko grabbed her wrist. "Asa!"

"It's true!" She gestured to Emiru. "Right? It's true?"

"You're so weird."

"Huh?" Asa blinked.

Emiru glared right back at the two of them. "You're so blunt about these things! How do you even have any friends? Why did the two of you suddenly become friends, and then start stealing everyone away from me? If I don't have the Lily Class, then I don't have anybody!"

Yoko stepped forward. "Omemi-san, you're being irrational."

"I am not!" She took a deep breath. "What changed everything? Is it Pretty Cure?"

"That was just to protect Yoko from-" Yoko clamped a hand over Asa's mouth before she could finish.

"You are Pretty Cure," Emiru said. "Don't try to hide it. Even if Alice was trying to save you from whatever more boring dirt she could have gotten, you're Pretty Cure. I heard it from a very reliable source."

Yoko slowly removed her hand from Asa's mouth, but kept the other one firmly holding onto her wrist. "Another source?"

Emiru nodded. "Want to see for yourself?" Before they could say anything, she snapped her fingers and the three of them disappeared.

Three pairs of eyes watched from the bushes behind.

There was nothing around them. Nothing but white for as far as they could see. Slowly, the nothing shaped itself into ornately-carved walls, but just enough to still be called 'blank', a 'void'. Yoko slowly let go of Asa, and they looked around, not believing what they were seeing.

"Welcome to the Etherium, ladies," came a voice from behind. Asa and Yoko spun around to see Kainatrol bending her riding crop in her hands. "There's less of a chance of interruption here."

"Kainatrol!" Asa pointed at her, her other hand on her phone. "You brainwashed Omemi-san!"

"Are you that much of an idiot?" Kainatrol hit her open palm with the riding crop. "Of course I'm not controlling her. You should remember what happened the last time we fought."

"When she brainwashed Yukari and the crowd at the show..." Yoko frowned. "Kainatrol's powers only work when she's looking at her victim. Omemi-san was at the school, and Kainatrol was here in the Etherium."

Kainatrol marched up to her. "Don't talk about me as if I'm not here."

Yoko glared right back. "Someone who wants to erase the world from existence doesn't deserve that kind of respect."

"Why, you little -"

Emiru cleared her throat. "We're here for something else."

"Oh, yes." Kainatrol frowned and backed away. Emiru pushed her way between Asa and Yoko and walked past them to stand in front of Kainatrol. She took a sharp breath, removed her glasses, and stared through them for a while. The white light shone off them from all directions, and they started to turn into light and change. When the shine subsided, Emiru was instead holding a white Etherium eye mask with dark blue-green stone accents.

Asa and Yoko stared with open mouths.

"You'll let me do it, right?" Emiru looked up.

Kainatrol gave a rare but chilling smile. "Of course. It's only fair if you do. Now, finish changing and say the lines I taught you, and it'll all be official."

Yoko looked at Asa. "You know these things. Please tell me this isn't what I think it is."

Asa gulped. "I think it's exactly what you think it is."

Emiru's school uniform shimmered just like her glasses did. When the light faded, though, it looked structurally the same. The Clair Academy crest was replaced by a deep blue-green jewel-shaped marking, and the red bow and loafers turned a similar colour, but the rest was pure white.

"All right..." She took a sharp breath. "The power of this life shines brightly as the world from which it came fades away."

"Omemi-san!" Both Asa and Yoko cried out at the same time.

Emiru ignored them and put on her eye mask. It shone in the light from everywhere. "I am the Vicious Whisper of the Etherium... Millusion. I will leave nothing behind!"