We were a wonderful team! ...most of the time.
Two girls floated in a white expanse, surrounded by nothing but gigantic drifting clocks where the hands moved back and forth or stayed stuck in one spot. The short dresses, bike shorts, and giant decorative gems on their outfits marked them as Pretty Cures; one had short, fluffy pink pigtails, the other, long purple-black hair. Each had a portable cassette player and an assortment of cards strapped to her hip.
"By 'echo', I mean an impression left of what used to exist, but doesn't." The purple Cure lectured like she was teaching. "Of course, such a thing hasn't been proven to exist. If it had, the Etherium would have done its best to destroy them, and in doing so, would have destroyed itself."
The pink one looked over at her friend, but her attention was more drawn to the white pearlescent heart necklace she was nervously playing with. The purple one seemed to understand; she continued.
"These are echoes. They're sort of like memories replaying. Most of them are of the worlds before they were destroyed, but some of them show things that happened afterward. I can't explain it with science."
The pink one briefly moved her hand, shook her head, and slid the necklace back under her collar.
"Do you think we'll find something here, Dusk?"
Though we did have our disagreements, you became my best friend.
"Absolutely! If not information, then maybe some kind of energy that we could use to defeat them!" Cure Dusk smiled and gave a thumbs up. She watched her partner's face carefully.
Cure Dawn waited, breathing deeply, before sighing her reply. "...I hope you're right. Let's go."
"Dawn..." Dusk frowned. "Don't worry about Ogata-kun. I know we'll get through this-"
"Easy for you to say." Dawn glared at her and stepped forward. "You haven't had someone you cared about like this! You never will!"
"Kirei!"
Dusk walked up, drew her hand back, and slapped her.
I couldn't imagine what you were going through then.
Dawn reeled back and brought a hand up to her face. "A-Ami..."
Dusk stood her ground, breathing in and out for a moment. "Dawn, listen to me. You know how important this is. Everyone we care about is counting on us. We have to get through this."
"But-"
"We can help Ogata-kun, too!"
Kirei blinked and stopped. "We... can?"
All I could do was try to fix it.
"Of course!" Cure Dusk smiled and gestured to the clocks filling the void. "There's something left of each of these worlds. There's a reason that these people don't just use that Moon Dial of theirs and erase everything just like that, and I have a feeling that it's because there's something protecting each of those worlds. It could be Pretty Cure for our world, Earth or the Land of Legends or whatever else you want to call it. It could be somebody else, or something else, for another world. I've spoken with the Elder and it sounds like they need someone-" She stopped and frowned at Dawn, hands on hips. "Dawn, this is relevant!"
Dawn looked right at her. "Then tell me how."
Dusk sighed again. "To make a long story short, I'm sure there's a way for us to win. Seeing all of this proves it. I'm also sure there's a way to get through to him. After all, we're heroes of justice, aren't we?"
"I want to believe you, Ami," Dawn said. "But..."
"Don't worry, Kirei." Dusk smiled. "I've got a plan."
In the end...
Present day. Nakata Ami marched from the staircase with her face set in a determined frown. She gestured for the two students she'd been speaking with to follow and walked quickly and purposefully, her purple transformation tape player in her hand.
"Ami?" A tiny fuzzy head poked out of the cassette player, unnoticed by the cultural festival's crowd. "Do you think Kirei's plan will work ~muu? I know Mia-chan means a lot to her ~muu..."
"Of course I do, Moonla!" The seriousness of her expression tempered most, but not all, of Ami's usual enthusiasm. "It's because Mia means that much to her, and it's also because it's Kirei. She's always been strong." Ami looked over her shoulder. "Kondou-san, Okamoto-san!"
"We're coming!" Kondou Hoshi called out, catching up on Ami's right side.
"I'm sure this will work." Okamoto Yukari stepped in on the left.
Ami looked forward with a frown and led them toward the other stairs.
Kirei, back then, you didn't know what to do. Neither did I, but you trusted me.
Now I'll trust you.
Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon ~solar eclipse~
Episode 21: The Last Story? Cure Dawn and Cure Dusk!
Kainatrol clapped imaginary dust off of the gloves on her hands. The red glow from her teleportation circle had faded, and she stood on the rooftop in the spring chill.
"Well, they've surely seen that, unless they're absolute idiots," she commented. She pivoted on her heel away from her view of the confused crowd. "You agree, of course."
A few paces behind her (well, in front of her, now), Ogata Mia stood with her eyes completely blank and her hands dangling at her sides. She slowly tilted her head up towards Kainatrol.
"...yes."
"You have no idea, do you?" Kainatrol smirked. She walked forward and slipped behind Mia, grabbing the girl's shoulder. "Of course you don't."
Mia shivered. Kainatrol tightened her grip and leaned over so her face was right beside hers, the Feared Tamer's yellow eyes giving off a slight red glow.
"You may as well get used to this," she said. "Oh, don't worry. If your friends don't survive their encounter with my temporary bosses, I'm sure mommy and teacher will come running out of the retirement home again. They've already shown their faces a few times. Maybe the new Cures just aren't cutting it." She stood up and shifted the mind-controlled girl to the side, walking past her. "If what Tachimany said has any weight to it, maybe they'll even bring your father along. It might be entertaining. If I have to wait for one defector to show himself before destroying him for good, I can occupy myself with wiping out another for practice."
Mia stared, completely empty. "..."
An explosion rang out from the other side of the school. Kainatrol briefly set her eyes on the lights and smoke from the roof across the green. She laughed. "That sounds eventful. I'll be staying over here. If they live, they'll come to me, anyway."
"..."
"Besides," Kainatrol continued, turning on her heel again to face her bait a meter or so away. "I have everything I need right here."
She put out her hand. A red magic circle drew itself on the ground, and something rose up out of it - a clock-shaped black platform, with cracks in it and five missing pieces, balancing on a stand. She put a hand on each side of the incomplete Moon Dial, taking in the power.
The door to the roof cracked open. Behind it, Ogata Kirei slipped the Copy Card back into her transformation cassette player.
Oh, this was just great.
"Don't worry about the noise," Omemi Emiru said for what must have been the fifteenth time, and it hadn't even been that long since the sounds of yelling and smashing came through the window (a window she quickly ran and shut). "The wrestling club is putting on a show somewhere." That seemed to be the most readily believable excuse, and she was lucky that most people in this school would believe her no matter what she said, or at least not look into it. Ugh, this was a pain. She knew exactly who to blame, too.
She didn't have to come up with a convincing cover-up, but this way was much easier for everybody. If people thought the real Cures were here, they would all come running and get in the way, probably getting themselves injured or killed or something. Oh, it wasn't like anybody bothered to come up to Emiru and explain things, let alone ask for help. But honestly? Strange noises from what sounded like the rooftop, Kawada and Nakayama suddenly absent, and their friends taking off not long after? What else could it have been? Besides, they probably wouldn't have told her anyway. She knew at least Kondou didn't trust her, Ogata had no reason to, and she'd tried to blackmail Nakayama, so that was three out of five. The other two were up in the air. Okamoto was smart and Kawada was, well, Kawada was strange.
Still, maybe they'd thank her for preventing mass panic and reckless endangerment. She could always lord it over them if they didn't.
"Hey, what's that, Omemi-san?"
Not again. Emiru turned to look at what her classmates were pointing at. She blinked, clamped her staring under control, and slowly raised her eyebrows at the red light appearing on the other rooftop.
"Oh, not now."
"Omemi-san?"
Emiru pushed her glasses up on her face. They gleamed, hiding her eyes. "Special effects malfunction. Since Ami-sensei isn't here, I'll go take care of it. All of you, stay right here."
"It hurts."
Cure Night, bruised and holding her side, looked over when her partner said that. Sunday had come out of the fight with Tachimany worse than Night had. She was bleeding from the back of her head, her blue hair sticking in reddening clumps. She clutched one of her arms, which hung limply at her side, and wavered with her legs in danger of buckling.
"Sunday-"
"I know," Sunday interrupted. "I messed up! You don't have to tell me, Night."
Night stood up straighter with a cringe. "You led us into a trap that we both knew full well was a trap, we still haven't found Ogata-san, you almost got yourself killed - for that matter, for a minute there, I thought you were dead - not to mention that you nearly caved the school's roof in before the battle damage had a chance to undo itself, and we're missing class! You realize that you still get docked marks for skipping during the cultural festival, right? Right?"
"It's not like I meant to do any of that!" Sunday started shaking. "Even if we lost, we're still alive, aren't we? We still did something! And worrying about property damage and school rules? That is just like you! There are more important things!"
"Important? We almost died!" Night blinked back something in her eye. "You almost died!"
Sunday cringed. "I know, Night! What was I supposed to do!"
Night opened her mouth. She paused, sighed, and shook her head. "I don't know, okay? ...You're right, though. We can't just do nothing."
Sunday looked over at Night. She winced just from moving her head. "Yoko?"
Night sighed again. Thinking about things that made her life complicated was, for once, the easier option. At least it kept her mind off of the cuts and bruises screaming for her attention. They might have been near-indestructible, but they could still take damage.
"Just... live, Asa, okay?" She reluctantly met Sunday's eyes. "Stay alive. It's a tall order if we're going to have to keep fighting right now, but I need you to - I mean, we both need to stay alive."
Sunday blinked. Her face turned slightly pink, and she nodded. "Of course! Who do you think we are?"
The next sound was cloth whipping in the air behind them, like a curtain or a cape. Sunday and Night pivoted on their heels. Nothing was there but a small clear bottle and a diamond-shaped crystal, sitting on one of the benches, and the last traces of a pale blue light on the ground. Sunday shuffled forward. Night immediately put out an arm to stop her.
"It's a trap," Night said.
"Maybe," Sunday replied.
"Maybe?" Night twitched and gestured to Sunday's injuries. "Look at the condition you're in! You're still calling this 'maybe'?"
"Who do you think it was?" Sunday pointed at where the blue light had been.
"Someone we can't trust!" Night marched over to the bottle, ignoring the pain of moving, and picked it up. The yellowing label was difficult to read; it looked like the ink the inscription was written in had also been yellow. There was a note tied to the neck of the bottle, neatly folded. "I mean, look at this!"
"Let me see that!" Sunday hobbled over. Night sighed, untied and unfolded the note with one hand, and held it out to her. She read it intently, her partner looking over as well. The ink was blue, and in contrast to the neatly folded paper it was written on, the note looked like it had been scrawled in a hurry.
Don't ask why.
There was someone once who made cures and poisons.
This is the last cure we had.
If your friend and your world are that important,
prove you can do something about it.
Sunday snatched the bottle out of Night's hand while she was distracted. Night snapped to attention and tried to grab it back. Sunday shook her head.
"Obvious trap," Night reminded.
"Maybe." Sunday frowned. "I trust him."
"What in the - why!"
"Because he reminds me of GoldFighter!" Sunday smiled. "I've told you about this before. GoldFighter acts like a bad guy who just hates the other bad guys, and maybe that's true, but it's because he was in love with someone he wanted to save! And he's helped us out before, even if he won't admit it!"
"That's-" Night gaped as Sunday uncorked the bottle and chugged half the contents with a wince. "Asa, what are you doing!"
What she was doing was, naturally, readily apparent. As soon as Cure Sunday's lips touched the bottle, its contents began to sparkle. As she drank half of the potion, she was awash with a strange-feeling glittery light that moved over her, patching up her cuts and repairing her bruises and breaks. Aside from a few tears and blood stains on her clothes, when Sunday took a deep breath and looked over at Night, she was as good as unharmed.
"Told you so."
"What part of 'live' don't you - oh, I give up. You're impossible." Night facepalmed, barely obscuring the relief in her sigh. A moment. "...So it worked?"
Sunday stood up straight and looked herself over. "I feel like I wasn't even hurt. Kind of numb, though."
Night shook her head. "Why would anyone from the Etherium help us?"
"Omemi-san came around when we just talked to her," Sunday said. "Yukari said she saw someone else who looked like he used to belong to the Etherium, too. These guys can change just like anybody else."
"If they want to. Why would they?" Night drifted off, eyes on the bottle.
Sunday blinked. "Night? What is it now?"
"Why did you have to drink straight from the bottle?" Night groaned. "You realize that was for both of us."
Sunday laughed a little. "You can still drink out of it!"
Night's face turned pink. "But..."
"...oh..." Sunday stared.
Night's eyes went wide. She shook her head vigorously. "It's not that which I'm worried about! I just don't want to catch mono or something like that!"
"I've never had mono," Sunday said. Night paused, the pink slowly turning to red.
"...Well, if I catch it anyway, I'm blaming you." She grabbed the half-full bottle and chugged the remainder of its contents.
Sunday pumped her fist. "Come on, let's go. The other wing, to the bell tower, right?"
"How are we going to get over there in time, again?" Night looked over there.
Sunday picked up the Hidoinaa crystal from the bench.
The two women, of course, were already there. The one who had reclaimed the name of Cure Dawn swung the door open and stalked out to the roof, not even bothering to hide her presence. The one who had rejected the name of Thera was standing ready, her hostage alone securing the other's presence as an inevitability.
"Dawn." Kainatrol smiled.
"You." Kirei looked at Kainatrol not unlike someone who had just uncovered the queen after dealing with a bee infestation.
"Mad?" Kainatrol laughed. "I was going to get you here sooner or later. This just happened to be the easiest way to do it. So where's Dusk? Or were you stupid enough to leave her behind?"
"Shut up for once in your life, Kainatrol," Kirei said. "You were disturbing when I was a child and you're unforgivable now."
Kainatrol laughed. "Oh, I've been unforgivable for quite some time, depending on who you ask." She laid a hand on Mia's shoulder and shook her head when Kirei clenched her fist at her side. "Calm down, Dawn. All I want are the Moon Pieces."
Kirei, taking deep breaths, walked over and stood right in front of Kainatrol and the dazed, blank-eyed Mia.
"I don't have them."
Kainatrol's power glowed around her eyes again. Kirei didn't even react.
"Give it up, Dawn," Kainatrol said. "We know you're no good at lying. The reason my power still won't work on you isn't because you're a Pretty Cure. I'm strong enough now that the only thing stopping me should be a Moon Piece."
"You overestimate the Moon Dial," Kirei said. "It's going to get you killed."
"You, Dawn," Kainatrol replied. "underestimate me." She turned over to Mia and smirked. "Go throw yourself off the roof, won't you?"
Mia turned her head up. "...yes." She slowly began moving towards the edge.
Kirei's arm shot out. She grabbed Mia's shoulder and held her in place as the girl followed the implied directions to struggle. Kirei took Mia's hand with the one that wasn't already holding her, quickly moving it out of a fist. Suddenly, Mia's thrashing stopped. Kirei swept her head back up and looked straight at Kainatrol.
"If you're trying to make me angry, you're doing very well, but if you're trying to do your job, you're more pathetic than I thought."
"My job?" Kainatrol bent her riding crop into a tight upside-down U. "You have no idea, do you? Just how strong I am. How strong I will be."
"The Moon Dial," Kirei said. "You do plan to keep it for yourself, don't you?"
"Obviously." Kainatrol shook her head with a laugh. "Did you expect anything different? You helped, after all."
"You're the one who erased Eiender, too."
"We have a winner! You know, you and Dusk were a big help. What was that speech you gave? Oh, right." Kainatrol clasped her hands mockingly, crop between them. "Something like, 'Why would you ever want to destroy everything? You must believe there's something good about life! After all, you're still alive! You don't want to erase yourself, do you? So why would you erase all these other people and all these other worlds?' That was it, right?"
"You-" Kirei's eyes went wide. "You talked him into all of it. That's why Tachimany said Eiender had changed. Why he faded out of sight. You convinced him to stop existing so you could take over!"
"Words are so easy to misinterpret, aren't they?" Kainatrol smirked. "Now, stop stalling for time and hand over the Moon Piece. You know what I can do."
Mia started to stir from her daze. "Mom...?"
Kirei looked from Mia to the clock on top of the bell tower, nodded, and turned back to Kainatrol. "Fine. You realize, though, that you're not going to win."
"Still stalling, I see."
"Not really." Kirei reached into her pocket and, in full view of Kainatrol, drew out a black chunk of rock marked with the serial number XI. She slowly held it out.
Kainatrol reached out her hand.
"HIDOINAAAAA!"
"What?" Kirei looked up.
"Oh, now what?" Kainatrol did the same.
It was a fence.
The chain-link fence around the rooftop from the other side of the school had uprooted itself, standing up by collapsing and cascading its sections like a Jacob's ladder. As the people on the ground stood craning their necks and those inside the school crowded the windows, the fence grew a pair of eyes, one pink and orange, one blue and black. It launched one end over the academic green and affixed itself to the fence around the rooftop connecting to the clock tower. As the three on the roof watched, two figures came racing across the fence like a bridge.
"I'm not sure this is a good idea!" Night ran as quickly as she could.
"What would you suggest?" Sunday matched her speed. They leapt over the last stretch of the fence and landed on the concrete with a crack. Unharmed, they posed.
"On behalf of the light, I am Cure Sunday!"
"In the name of the shadows, I am Cure Night!"
"We are Pretty Cure!"
"We'll defend at all hours..."
"...to ensure a peaceful era!"
Mia blinked, shook her head, and looked up, clutching something to her chest. "Night! Sunday!"
"Where did you get that?" Kainatrol boggled. "Never mind, I can guess. You're late. Haven't you ever heard not to keep your audience waiting? Oh, I almost forgot." She snatched the Moon Piece out of Kirei's hand. "This little thing. That gives me eight out of thirteen, does it not? That leaves one with each of you, one hidden in the school somewhere, and two more. If I'm to believe the old hag, they're all gathered here today, and I'm the one who's going to get them."
"Ogata-san!"
"Oh, right." Kainatrol fixed her gold eyes on Kirei and started to glow red again. "Let's test this out now. Why don't you take their Moon Pieces for me?"
Kirei's eyes slowly glazed over. Her arms dropped to her sides, and she started to walk towards the Cures.
"W-what's going on?" Mia backed up, left behind.
"Are you crazy!" Night held her arms in front of her face. "How are we supposed to fight a detransformed-"
"That's half the fun, isn't it?" Kainatrol smirked. "Go."
Kirei ran forward.
Sunday held up her hand. Come on!"
"Hidoinaa!" The fence-Hidoinaa under their control launched itself over the regular fence and folded into a box around Night and Sunday. Its face disappeared from one surface and grew to face their mind-controlled assailant.
Night blinked. "How did you even...?"
Sunday shrugged. "It looked simple enough."
With the same blank expression, Kirei drew her hand back into a fist and punched forward. A pink light flashed as she connected with the metal. It crumpled and screamed, burning away; the fence as it had been reappeared around the other roof.
"How-" Asa blinked.
"It's the power of a fully-realized Pretty Cure ~susu..." Starry stared out of the phone.
Yoko gulped.
The inside of the bell tower was cramped and covered with a layer of dust. The lightbulb on the ceiling was controlled by a frayed, dangling string, and Mireyes had to pull Binbeat away more than once to keep him from playing with it. An old rotary phone hung beside a circuit breaker and a laminated sign.
"What's the sign say?" Binbeat squinted at it.
"I can't read the language of this place any more than you can," Mireyes said, "but I'm quite sure it's something along the lines of 'do not touch'. Now get away from there. We need to find the Moon Piece."
"Ooookaaaay." Binbeat groaned. "Can we at least get it soon? Checking all this stuff is boring."
"Patience, Binbeat." Mireyes swished thorough the small control room that ran the clock on the outside of the tower. "Why do you insist upon being impossible?"
Binbeat crossed his arms. "Mireeeeyes. You're not my mother. You're not even my grandma."
Mireyes' hand hovered over the doorknob. She quietly sighed.
"No, I suppose I'm not. Regardless, we've got something more important to do than risking your life by letting you tamper with the electricity. There are three Moon Pieces left that nobody has claimed, and one is somewhere in this school where those girls haven't checked. This is the most likely spot. We've got to get that Moon Piece before someone else does."
"Someone else Pretty Cure or someone else Kainatrol?"
"Either." Satisfied that the doorknob was not concealing a Moon Piece, Mireyes' aged hand bent around it and twisted the door open. She stepped through the hallway to the spiral staircase.
Binbeat followed after. "Where do you think the other two are, then?"
"I don't know," Mireyes said. "All Future Sight has told me is that they will all gather here."
As they walked up the stairs, neither noticed a white cat slipping through the door behind them.
Kirei threw a punch. Night skidded back with her arms in front of her face. Sunday turned to help; Kirei twisted backward and kicked her in the back of the head. She fell to the ground.
"Sunday!" Night ran over to her.
"I'm fine." She picked herself up. "Night?"
"I'm okay for now. What are we supposed to do? It's like that time with Yukari, but Ogata-san can actually fight! We just can't fight back or we'd hurt her, and Mia's..."
Mia, a meter or two away, stepped back, still clutching something to her chest and shaking.
"Oh, yes, I forgot about her." Kainatrol looked over, almost bored. "She's just getting in the way now. Clear her out."
Kirei slowly turned and walked toward Mia.
Mia froze.
Sunday and Night ran after.
Kirei ran, drew her hand back...
Someone blocked.
It wasn't Mia.
It was a woman with purple-black hair, holding Kirei's arm with enough strength to push her back.
Sunday and Night stumbled to a stop and stared. "Ami-sensei!"
Ami nodded, more serious than they'd ever seen her. "Girls. Kirei." She looked over behind them. "Kainatrol."
"Hello, Dusk," Kainatrol said. "I was wondering if you'd ever show. Didn't think everything through, did you?"
"Dusk?" Night blinked a few times. "Ami-sensei? She's Cure Dusk?"
"I couldn't believe it, either." A slightly muscled girl with a mess of brown hair walked through the door to the roof, followed by a smaller girl with a long black braid. "Finally we agree on something, Nakayama."
Sunday looked up. "Hoshi! Yukari!"
The black-haired girl waved. "You didn't think we wouldn't notice you were gone, did you? We're friends, after all."
A small white head poked out from the top of Kirei's transformation tape player. "Ami, be careful ~sasa!"
"A...mi..." Kirei started to waver. Kainatrol's magic circle glowed brighter until Kirei went silent again and threw a punch at Ami. Ami returned it at the same time, both clashing equally with a bright flash of purple and pink.
Mia cringed. "Ami-sensei? What's going on?"
Ami smiled over shoulder with her usual enthusiasm. "It'll be fine. You'll see!"
Kainatrol adjusted her eye mask. "So you say. As for me, I've wanted to do this since I met the both of you. This day gets better and better!"
Ami dodged a swing from Kirei and backed up. She looked straight at Kainatrol. "If it weren't for the fact that I'm still at work, I'd have very strong words for you right now."
Kainatrol frowned. "You people value your place in the world too highly. But then, it's expected if you actually care about your world that you'd have a reason to be happy in it." She smacked her riding crop into her palm. Kirei backed up as well with an unearthly grin, much like Kainatrol's own face a moment before.
Ami stood in front of the unacting Mia. "You say that, and all your happiness comes from destroying others' happiness before making them disappear!"
"I'm just sharing the misery fairly around." Kainatrol swept out her arm. "Destroy each other already and let me get on with taking out the rest of the obstacles out here!"
"Mia, stay back." Ami shifted her stance.
Sunday started to move. "Ami-sensei! Ogata-san!"
Night held her back, turning her own face away. "You know what she can do."
"But-" Sunday pulled uselessly.
"Go!" Kainatrol ordered.
Kirei ran. So did Ami, each holding her left arm out like a board. They collided; each fighter's arm knocked the other down at the neck. Both were flung backward. Kainatrol gave her usual smirk.
A dome of light went up around the three of them just before Ami and Kirei hit the pavement. Underneath and spreading out around was a large magic circle in dark teal.
"Now what?" Hoshi looked around.
"That has to be..." Sunday looked up.
"Will somebody please explain to me just what is going on?", Mia exclaimed.
"Don't worry."
A figure emerged from the door to the roof in a black and teal colour-swap of the middle school girls' winter uniform. Her eye mask somehow gleamed even when the clouds were blocking the sun.
"Everything's under control so far."
"Omemi-san! I mean - Millusion!" Sunday stood up and Night let go of her. "What did you do?"
Millusion dangled her pendulum in front of her. "I'm keeping up an illusion world that completely copies the scene around us." She kept her calm, but she was visibly concentrating, and it wasn't on the conversation. "Kainatrol will never know the difference, and you two can go after that Moon Piece."
"Moon Piece? You mean there really is one here?" Night looked up.
"But-!" Mia cut in.
"Ami-sensei and your mom know what they're doing, Ogata." Hoshi put her hands on her hips. "Much as Omemi is Omemi, she does have a point this time."
"Thank you, Kondou," Millusion said.
"You- You didn't even see what went on!" Mia teared up. "That lunatic's got my mother and she kept going on about magic and erasing the timeline and-"
"Mia." Another voice entered, this time from the direction of the bell tower. The gathered group turned to see. Most of them hadn't seen him before; he was a man with short, dark blue hair and a black suit with a belt covered in throwing knives, and he stood atop the locked wire fence in front of the door to the tower. He jumped and landed on his feet.
Mia blinked. "...Is that my dad?"
He nodded. "Hello, Mia. For the rest of you, my name is Ogata Tomokazu. I used to be known as the Flawless Marksman, Devance. That was a while ago now."
Mia put one of her hands to her head. "This is too much..."
"I know. I'm sorry, Mia." Devance frowned. "Emiru-chan is right, though. Kirei planned this, with Ami's help. Look at what you're holding."
Mia looked down and slowly held out her hand and opened it. What she'd been holding to her chest was a black chunk of rock with one polished side. The Roman numeral XI was carved into it.
"It's the real eleventh Moon Piece ~susu!" Starry gasped. "She used the Copy Card and gave Kainatrol a fake one ~susu!"
"But the Etherium can tell a Moon Piece without using something like the Scan Card, can't they?", Night asked. "They just check everything themselves. How could this have worked?"
"Kainatrol is a sadist with a power complex," Devance explained. "In the one hundred twenty-five years I knew her, she always dealt with having her own agency stolen by stealing others' power over themselves. She hasn't changed in the nearly twenty-six years since. If she had the chance to force Cure Dawn and Cure Dusk to fight one another, she wouldn't be paying attention to the rest of you."
"Mia, are you okay?" Yukari felt her forehead.
"My mom's a Pretty Cure." She whispered, staring ahead with shrunken pupils. "My teacher's a Pretty Cure too. My dad's from the Etherium. I'm holding a Moon Piece. My friends are fighting for the fate of the world, my parents and the friend who was almost another family member did it before and are helping to do it again, and all I've done is just sit here."
"I told you we should have told her," Sunday said.
"Not the time, Asa," Hoshi groaned.
Devance shook his head. "I'm sorry about this. We wanted to at least make everything normal. It's the way of the world in places like this."
"Naturally," Millusion said. "I only found out about this whole plan from careful observation when I went to go see what was going on because everybody and their dog was throwing a fit in the classroom. Now, about that Moon Piece..."
Mia's stare didn't break. "My dad's old."
Yukari sighed and patted Mia's shoulder. "Do you know where it is, Omemi-san?"
Hoshi rolled her eyes. "Yes, tell us, o wise Omemi, mistress of knowing stuff that is other people's business."
"You'll take anything you can get, won't you, Kondou?" Millusion shook her head.
"It's in the clock," Devance said.
Sunday tilted her head. "The clock?"
Devance pointed up toward the bell tower. At the top was the bell, and right underneath was a large clock, not quite as big as the one on the clock tower in the middle of town. It ticked innocently on, and as Devance looked closer, it appeared that there was something small protruding from the centre.
Night stared. "...Of course. We're not allowed up there."
"Saving the world, Night," Sunday reminded.
Night twitched. "...All right. Let's go."
"I'll keep this up for as long as I can," Millusion said, "but you might want to move fast. I saw a few other faces running around here."
Hoshi pointed to the gated entrance. "Uh, the lock?"
Devance drew one of the knives from his belt and tossed it. It turned into a sharp blade of blue light as he threw it, and it hit the lock and dissipated, cracking it open. The pieces fell to the ground, and the door swung open.
Night stiffened and shook, holding back a falling flood of ranting with a dam of he's-my-friend's-dad-and-he-kind-of-had-to-do-that. "Th-the lock-"
"I'll fix it later," he said. "Hurry, everyone. Emiru-chan, can you handle this by yourself?"
Millusion focused harder and began to glow with blue-green light herself. "...You might want to stay. You were in on their plan too, after all."
"I suppose." He nodded. "Work quickly, everyone. If something goes wrong, we'll be here."
Sunday and Night nodded and ran through the door. Hoshi and Yukari dragged a catatonic Mia after them.
Once the others were through the door, Millusion took a deep breath. "You know, you can come out now. I know you're here."
The flap of fabric behind her was the only reply. No one appeared.
Scaling the bell tower wasn't a problem; it wasn't that high from the roof. Five girls walking up through the control room and the staircase took only a minute or two at the most, and that was when one of them was still coming out of shock and had to be guided up the stairs. When they reached the top, someone stood in front of the door - a man in black with a top hat and long light blue hair.
"Mekuramast!" Sunday grinned. "I knew you were still around. You helped us again, didn't you?"
He didn't answer. Instead, he frowned. "Why do you want the Moon Pieces?"
Sunday blinked. "Huh?"
Mekuramast kept blocking the door. "Pretty Cure. If you're so intent on repairing the Moon Dial and taking it back for the Garden of Days, what are you going to do with it?"
"Let us through already!", Hoshi called up. "Asa, who is this guy?"
He tightened his fists at his sides. "Why do you care? Is this just to protect your own world? Or just to protect the timestream and leave everything be?"
"We know about Kore!", Sunday exclaimed.
"Sunday!" Night stared at her.
Mekuramast was stunned. Sunday continued. "We know about Kore and we know what happened to her. That's why you hate Kainatrol, isn't it? That's why you did everything you did up until now."
Mekuramast stiffened. Though it was only for a second or two, he seemed to stand there for a long time. As the girls waited for his answer, he took an audible breath in and out.
"...that's how you survived when Kainatrol tried to erase you, isn't it? Back at Gessou Village."
"What's how? We don't even know how we survived," Night said, not even sure if she should be talking.
"But that's what we saw after," Sunday added. "We ended up in the echo of your world for a while."
"It still exists," he said, speaking like he was the only one in the stairway. "The echo of the Garden of Rings is still in the Etherium somewhere..."
Night had to ask. "You know about that?"
"Of course I know," he snapped. "I found it years ago. I'm only still alive because I need to find it again, and I only want the Moon Pieces so I can fix it. Something the Elder of the Garden of Rings never did in the twenty-five years she had the Moon Dial."
"Twenty-five years again," Yukari mused. "We've been hearing that all day, haven't we?"
"What does the Elder have to do with this?", Sunday asked. "Night and I have never even met her!"
"Things that are erased aren't dead. They're gone, like they never existed, but the existence of Echoes proves that there's still something left. If she had the Moon Dial, she could have at least made an effort to do something instead of leave things alone to preserve the timeline."
"Preserve the timeline ~susu?" Starry popped out of Night's phone and landed, full size, on the ground. "But isn't that important ~susu?"
Mekuramast looked right at the Cures. "Tell me. Do you want to protect the way things are, or do you want to put them the way they should be?"
"Of course I-" Sunday paused. "...I know things aren't always perfect. I know they might not ever be perfect. I still want to help everyone, because even though life isn't fair, people deserve to live happily. That's why I want to be a hero!" She gave a little fist-pump. "I'm sure Night feels the same way."
"Sunday!"
Mekuramast turned his head to look down at Night.
Night gave a slow sigh. "...I guess she's right. Even the good parts of this world have bad sides, and even the people you love can hurt you. Bad things can be good, though, and the people who hurt you aren't completely terrible. It's the same with any other world." She looked up at Mekuramast. "You know that, too, don't you? You wanted to run away, but there was still hope somewhere in your world, or you wouldn't have wanted to leave with Kore. I know it's not my place to say this kind of thing, but you were wrong when you said your world wasn't worth living in. I'd have felt the same way if something happened to..."
"To?" Sunday tilted her head at Night.
"...It doesn't matter anyway." Night looked away.
Mekuramast shook his head. "You don't know what this is like. You don't know how it's been-"
"But we want to fix it!" Sunday walked up the stairs and looked right up at him. "We know you've been in pain for twice as long as most people can even be alive, and we know that it's because of a long chain of people passing along their pain, and we want to stop that! Of course we want to protect our world, and if it's at all possible, we want to help you save her, too! So believe in us and let us through!"
Mekuramast closed his eyes. After a second, he spoke again. "If you really want this, then do it." He teleported out, leaving the door unguarded.
"...whoa." Sunday let out a sigh of relief.
"Sunday?" Starry scratched his head. "Wasn't that last part from when DaiFighter was fighting GoldFighter two episodes ago ~susu?"
Sunday rubbed the back of her head. "Hey, I believe it."
Millusion had to concentrate.
She did have the talent for this. She had to in order to even pull it off. Not only were special powers of any sort pulled from one's own heart, Trance Lock wasn't the easiest ability to master. It involved mentally creating or recreating an entire landscape with enough detail to convince whoever was inside; even being in the exact space she was recreating, that was tough. The crowd of Hidoinaa passing themselves off as civilians on the academic green alone should have taken up all of her mental power. Even with all of the talent and aptitude she had, Millusion didn't have hundreds of years' worth of experience to manage it all.
There were gaps.
Maybe if it hadn't been for the bench that started to dissolve when Millusion glossed over it, or the clouds that she forgot to make move when it was supposed to be windy out, the dome of white light she was concentrating so hard on keeping up wouldn't have developed one, two, three cracks of dark red light spreading up the sides.
"Emiru-chan, your dome!" Devance readied a hand at his knife belt.
"I'm trying my best, all right!" She poured more power into it, glowing a brighter blue-green. "Trance Lock is stronger than this-"
At that moment, the dome burst, dissipating into the sky along with the light around Millusion. Kainatrol appeared in a flash of red light, and before Millusion could process it, was in her face. She knocked her back with a slap of her riding crop and pushed her to the ground, putting up a shield just in time to knock away Devance's throwing knives.
"Kainatrol!" Millusion cringed and tried not to think about where she'd been hit or the scrapes on her hands from hitting the ground.
"That was pathetic, Millusion." Kainatrol leaned over her. "You're an amateur, a failure, and a disappointment." She snapped back up to stand up straight and looked at Devance, laughing as he pulled out another throwing knife. "Oh, and you're here, too! That saves me the trouble. You know how I hate people who turn their backs on- ngk!"
Kainatrol dropped to the ground from a hit to the back of the head. Behind her, Ogata Kirei, the light having returned to her eyes, drew back her fist.
"You said you'd always wanted to force us to fight each other. It's only fair that I get to do something I've always wanted to do." Kirei smiled down at the incapacitated Kainatrol, nodded at Devance, and then looked over at Millusion. "...Emiru-chan, I'd love to know how you got mixed up with the Etherium, but now's not the time. Do you need a hand?"
"I'm fine." Millusion picked herself up and dusted herself off. "We really ought to get to the Moon Piece, though, just in case. It's up on the clock."
Kirei nodded. "Ami? Now that we're done being the distraction..."
"I'm right ahead of you!" Ami pulled out her transformation tape player and loaded in the hole-punched Moon Card. Kirei did the same. They pressed play and grabbed one another's hands.
"Dual Eternal Repetition!"
Kainatrol's hand twitched and reached for her communication ring.
Binbeat and Mireyes stood on one side of the bell at the top of the tower. Tachimany stood at the other in their form of eleven shadowed figures with daggers in their hands.
"We've been informed-"
"-that you're sneaking around-"
"-and hiding information-"
"-about the Moon Pieces."
Mireyes clenched her old fists. "Kainatrol did this. How did she even-"
"It doesn't matter-"
"-who found you out-"
"-or how."
"The fact is-"
"-you two have betrayed-"
"-the Etherium's cause."
"The one you should be speaking with about betrayal is her, but you're clearly not going to listen." Mireyes summoned her crystal ball in a purple light. "Binbeat, get behind me."
Binbeat created an instant green magic circle, and the organ he played rose up from it, complete with the bench. "All right! Is this gonna take long?"
All eleven of Tachimany drew out their daggers and gave the same smile, white hair hiding their eyes. "Absolutely not."
Cure Sunday turned the doorknob and pushed open the door.