As I said, I hated my world because there was nothing left for me there.
It was raining again. It was always raining on important days, wasn't it? The old woman sighed and shivered with her thin arms wrapped around her layers of clothes. She pulled her purple cloak around her and kept walking through the cobbled streets. The neighbourhood had been dirty and run-down even long ago, and now all the houses had been replaced, but even they were showing signs of wear - every house had broken windows, weeds taking over the front lawn, or towers of stockpiled margarine buckets inside the porch. She didn't spare most a second glance, not that it was obvious if she did, what with her eyes shadowed by the cloak.
It wasn't always that way, though.
She dragged herself down the street and through a back alley, shoving aside a garbage can. As she walked, the buildings she passed got older, worse. These were the ones that nobody had even bothered replacing. Only squatters, if anyone, lived there. At the end, with a wary radius of weeds and mud separating it from the rest of the houses in town, was a wreck of a house. All the windows were boarded up, or had been at one point, but by this time, the boards had either rotted or fallen off, too. The house was crumbling, the root cellar doors busted open. The original paint on the sides had mostly long since peeled, covered in layers of graffiti where delinquents over the decades had run out of space and started to cover up their predecessors' work. Over the collapsed porch, there was now a gang symbol she didn't recognize drawn over a picture of a ghost, and under that the faint traces of big red letters.
CURSED FAMILY.
Once, I had something to live for, and something I would protect this world for.
She stood there for a moment, rain-chilled deeply. Finally, the old woman took a deep breath and pulled her feet up out of the mud. She trudged closer to the house and reached out a hand for the decomposing railing.
Footsteps. She stopped, fingers brushing the rail.
A boy burst out of the door, snagging his white and green school uniform on a loose nail and tearing it. He stumbled back and stared.
Even when I lost that, I continued to search.
"What're you doing at my house?" He stared from behind his white eye mask.
The old woman stared, too, or she must have been. She coughed. "I wasn't aware anyone was still here."
"You mean you haven't seen her?" His face fell. "My little sister? We lived here a long time ago. Did someone- did they...?"
She turned her head down. A long pause followed. "So the Etherium is back."
"Huh?" Binbeat looked at his uniform. "Yeah, but - you knew we were- they were here the last time?"
Silence.
"Old lady?"
She turned up, still hiding her eyes. "There's nothing left here. Tell Eiender that someone wishes to speak with him."
In the end, though, the Land of Tracks didn't have what I was living for anymore.
Present day. Mireyes stood in the Etherium, guarding Binbeat behind her. Her eyes started to glow purple behind the veil over her head. In front of them, Kainatrol's yellow eyes were glowing red as she burst out laughing at the assortment in front of her. One by one, Tachimany's bodies turned to face Kainatrol and dropped their eye masks. Their eyes glazed over, completely controlled.
Binbeat was flapping his arms, flying around Mireyes. "She can't do that! We can't affect each other with stuff like that!"
Mireyes put her arm out, shielding him back. "The Moon Dial is, for all intents and purposes, hers. Binbeat, get behind me and summon the organ. There's nothing else we can do now. If it's destruction she wants, she'll get it!"
Kainatrol stepped back and bended her riding crop, giving that insufferable smirk. "Of course I will, crone. Sooner or later, I get what I want, or no one does. Either way, I win."
Three of Tachimany's bodies immediately lunged at Mireyes. She ducked and blasted all three of them away, moving before they even started.
"Not this time."
-
Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon ~solar eclipse~
Episode 23: Death of the Future! The Last Two Moon Pieces!
It took a few minutes if you looked at the clock, but from the way things dragged on, it had to have been more than that. Finally, Kawada Asa returned to the Lily Class' room, and the cultural festival continued from there. Cure business was not brought up again until the festival had closed up shop and all of the townspeople and parents had gone home. As the other students were leaving, Asa and Yoko took the cleaning duty keys and entered the Visual Media Club's room.
Nakata Ami waved, setting the Moon Piece up in the communicator on a TV stand. "Hello! I'm sorry this took so long, but we do have social obligations as well. After all, it's our duty to be good citizens and improve the world at school as much as it is to protect the world with our abilities!"
"Classic Ami-sensei," Omemi Emiru remarked. "Kawada, Nakayama. Nice to see the stars of this operation show their faces."
"You didn't have to come, Omemi." Kondou Hoshi crosed her arms and frowned from the other side of the room.
"I know," Emiru shrugged. "Make no mistake, I know full well that I'm not part of your little secret world-saving club. Call it being a good citizen, right, Ami-sensei?"
Hoshi might be heard mumbling about stupid girls who sucked up to adults to avoid getting called on their antics, not that "antics" was the word she would have used.
Asa and Yoko moved into the circle, Yoko shutting and locking the door behind her.
"All right," Yoko said, with a deep breath. "let's contact the Elder. Are you sure we need to do this, Asa?"
"Yeah." Asa nodded. "I get the feeling we're going to need to go into the Etherium and end this, and we'll have to do it soon. Before that, I - no, we all have to get some answers."
Ogata Kirei drew out her pink transformation tape player and looked between it and Asa's orange transformation phone. She nodded. "I think most of us can relate to that. Sunbi?"
A fuzzy white creature - Sunbi, right, Starry's father and Kirei's fairy partner - popped out of the cassette player and landed on the TV stand. He hit the switch and hopped off the stand onto a tall stool set up in front of it. Moonla was already standing on another stool right next to it.
The metal contraption started to whirr, the small satellite dishes moved, and the TV screen in the middle popped and worked itself to life. The image showed the same chamber as before, the rainbow temple of the Moon Dial, with black stars all over the walls. A small old woman appeared with a staff as tall as she was and looked straight at the camera.
"Hello," she greeted. "I've been expecting your call. I recognize some of you. Truth be told, however, I didn't expect quite so many. I am the Elder of the Garden of Days."
Asa bowed. "I'm Kawada Asa. This is Nakayama Yoko. We're Pretty Cure along with Ami-sensei and Ogata-san. Everyone else is here to help - they're all friends." She had that look of resolve again, Yoko noted. "Elder, things are getting really serious. Like, building-up-to-the-finale serious. We have something really important to ask you."
Yoko looked between Asa and the screen.
The Elder nodded slowly. "I will do what I can to answer your question, Kawada Asa. The Etherium is beginning to move differently. I'm sure you noticed when you were there. The faint structure that has built up in the Etherium's core for the safety of their agents, who normally dare not venture outside of that core without the Moon Dial, has begun to erase itself. We are preparing for an attack of desperation, but at the same time, the Ruler of Time has been acting differently."
"That's because he's gone ~muu." Moonla bowed to the Elder. "The one in control of the Etherium now is the Feared Tamer, Kainatrol ~muu."
"She took over at some point," Sunbi added with his own bow, "probably when you sent us to meet up with Kirei and Ami ~sasa."
The Elder frowned. "I see." Her grip shifted on her staff. "Kawada Asa... what is your question?"
Asa took a deep breath. "Why didn't you bring back the erased worlds?"
Gasps and frowns went around the room. The Elder was silent. Asa kept looking at the screen, breathing in and out, blocking out the stares from around her.
"No offense, Elder," she continued. "But since the Garden of Days had the Moon Dial after Ami-sensei and Ogata-san took it from the Etherium, you were supposed to protect all the worlds, right? What about the worlds that were already gone?"
The Elder didn't move. "Those worlds were erased, Kawada Asa. I'm very sorry. There isn't, and can't be, anything left of them."
"...That's wrong." Asa shook, fidgeting with her transformation phone. "I'm sorry to question you, Elder, but there is something left. Outside of the core of the Etherium, there's a lot of white space that goes on forever in every direction. You said it yourself, even they never go out there. In that space, there are these things, these..."
"Echoes." Kirei cut in, eyes wide. "You know about them?"
"We saw them!" Asa nodded. "Elder, everyone, please tell us. Why didn't you go in and save them?"
The Elder shook her head. "Cure Dawn and Cure Dusk may have won, but it was a difficult victory. It was and is far too dangerous to venture into the Etherium's territory. As I stated, the Etherium agents themselves don't even go into the void outside the core for their own safety, but they'd strike back if we were to use the Moon Dial to steal back their territory. As well, we don't even know if the Moon Dial would enable us to restore something that's already been erased. If we failed, all we would have done would be to have provoked them."
"But-"
"The victory Dawn and Dusk won could only be assuredly kept if the Garden of Days stayed on the defensive. Had we made any moves past retrieving the Moon Dial, it would have been a disaster."
Asa froze. She breathed in and out, holding her transformation phone tightly, looking around at the room's averted gazes - Yoko. Yoko locked eyes with her and stepped over to her side. Asa bit her lip; Yoko nodded.
Asa continued.
"Elder, even if it's dangerous, it's right. Because it's right, it's worth it." Her eyes turned back to the screen. "Every world, no matter how painful it is to live in, also has happy things that take away the pain. Every life, even if it hurts, has something that makes that life worth living. I can't even count how many lives the Etherium has erased like they were never lived at all. But isn't that why we're against them in the first place? The world - every world, not just the Land of Legends, not just the Garden of Days - deserves, in the end, to exist."
Yoko looked sad for a moment. She steeled herself, took Asa's trembling hand, and while Asa looked up at her, delivered the communicator screen a full-blast Ice Queen Nakayama glare.
The Elder brought her staff in front of her. Paused. Sighed.
"You certainly resemble your predecessors."
Kirei shook her head. "These two decided who they were on their own. They're strong, Elder. We believe in them."
Asa gave a little smile. The Elder slowly nodded.
"Do you, then, intend to take the fight to the Etherium?"
"I think it's the only thing we can do." Asa looked back at her partner. "Yoko?"
"...you're right," Yoko said. "If we don't, they'll erase our world, too."
-
Tachimany's sixth form advanced, facing forward with no direction in their lightless eyes. Mireyes dodged seconds before one of them brought their axe down where she was, then quickly stepped back out of the way of an axe swipe from another one of the mind-controlled lumberjacks. Binbeat, in the back, pounded the keys of the organ, and Mireyes' steps, guided by Future Sight and the purple glow behind her veil, moved away from every one of the small resulting explosions.
"Kainatrol!"
Mireyes stepped back and reached out her hand. A small magic circle drew itself in the air in front of her. Mireyes brought back her hand and then shot it back out, sending a blast of force strong enough to knock the six of Tachimany over. She advanced past them and towards Kainatrol.
"You're thinning out your own numbers. Have you finally lost your grip on reality?"
Kainatrol drew up a red shield between them. "Reality is mine, old woman. Mine to erase. Mine to control. Why should I care? If they win, I'm rid of you and the brat and your ill-guided mutiny. If you win, well, Tachimany lived out their purpose. Once they got suspicious of me, I stopped needing them. The last thing they can do for me is to wipe you out of my sight."
Mireyes blasted the shield to no effect. Kainatrol laughed, holding onto the Moon Dial.
"As long as I have this, I can do what I want. Oh, look behind you."
Mireyes had already turned and quickly threw up a shield of her own. Tachimany had gotten up and their assassin form leapt for her; the shield knocked the eleven of them back to the ground.
"Come on!" Binbeat kept playing the organ. "We can beat 'em, old lady!"
Mireyes' shield went down and she turned back to Kainatrol. "Do you expect to fight all of your battles for yourself after this? There's nobody else left for you."
"I've told you before, I don't fight." Kainatrol adjusted her eye mask. 'If I want somebody to fight for me, I can just get someone. It isn't too much of a problem. After all... there are traces of what happened here."
"What happened in the Etherium...?"
"Mireeeyes," Binbeat whined. "She's got a stick up her butt again and she's being stupid. We gotta just fight."
"Have fun with that." Kainatrol stood behind the Moon Dial. "Oh, Tachimany... you know that form you haven't used in years, right?"
Mireyes spun back toward Tachimany. "Thirteen?"
"We..." Tachimany shifted back to their first form, and the single body held his head, eyes back to normal. "We can't. Not now, we-"
"You will. You'll do it now." Kainatrol glared, glowing bright red. Tachimany let go of their head and went blank again. They shifted into the form of thirteen people, each body a copy of their original body that they were trapped in when they lived in their home world.
"It... hurts."
Mireyes stepped back. "Binbeat, watch out!"
"It hurts."
"The Field of Words hurts."
"The Land of Legends hurts."
"The Etherium hurts."
"Life."
"Life hurts."
"It hurts to live."
"We have to fight back."
"Life hurts."
"Hurt life."
"Destroy it."
Every one of them drew out a prop sword, some pointed at the old woman, some at the young boy.
"Destroy anything in our way."
Kainatrol laughed a little. "If you two survive, you might see my contingency plan. Until then..." She took her shield down and teleported out with the Moon Dial.
Even with Future Sight, Mireyes and Binbeat had no time to block the first strike.
-
"Hold up, hold up." Hoshi put her hands on her hips. "You two might have a good point, but Crazy McRidingCrop jacked your Moon Pieces back in Gessou Village, remember? Counting the one from the clock tower and the one Ogata-san passed off to Ogata the younger, plus the two you guys already had, that's just four Moon Pieces. There are four Pretty Cures, yeah, but the rest of us aren't just gonna do nothing, and the Elder just said the white void place we hit up last time is breaking apart so the inside's just as dangerous as the outside without a Moon Piece."
"We couldn't have one per person even if we had the last two missing ones, Kondou," Emiru shrugged. "We'll just have to share them around. Or leave the plain regular people behind..."
Hoshi glared. "Funny seeing you being proud of not being a plain regular person when you aren't, considering how you threw your little tantrum about 'freaks' when you were, Omemi."
"Omemi-san, Kondou-san!" Ami-sensei stepped between them. "Try to get along, at the very least for the sake of a harmonious future!"
Hoshi sighed and looked away from Emiru. "Fine. But aside from that, my concern still stands, you know."
The Elder cleared her throat. "Actually, you don't have four."
"What?" Asa blinked. "Of course we do."
"Swipe your Storage Cards," said the Elder.
Asa and Yoko slowly complied as Yoko reluctantly let go of her partner's wrist; Asa released one, Yoko two. They set their Moon Pieces on the nearest desk.
Asa frowned. "The fourth one's in the communicator-"
The Elder shook her head. "Now... scan each other's transformation devices."
The room was silent, static, confused. Haltingly, Yoko drew out the Scan Card and pointed her phone at Asa's. She swiped the card.
The phone glowed. It started to change - something was drawn out of it. It quickly took shape, the size of a small fist, smooth on one end and jagged everywhere else, before the light pulled off of the item. Yoko and Asa scrambled to catch it, awkwardly grabbing it together. It was a shiny black Moon Piece, all right, marked with the serial number VII.
"What?"
"You mean..."
Asa's transformation phone changed shape and the light aura burst off of it. It was now flat, thin, with a sun-shaped camera at the top and a bright orange casing. Her cards now changed as well, showing a box to scan at the back instead of a barcode at the bottom.
Kirei's eyes widened. "Elder, did you always know the last two Moon Pieces were in their transformation devices?"
The Elder nodded again. "I split the Moon Dial and scattered the pieces to buy them time to become strong enough to fight. However, there was still a chance that the Etherium would have gathered the Moon Pieces first. To prevent that, I embedded two pieces into the phones. What you're seeing now is the phone's new shape, optimized for the present day."
"So they're modern phones in order to blend in, just like ours are portable cassette players because those blended in when we first got them!" Ami clasped her hands together. "I did wonder about that."
Asa brightened. "Finale powerups?"
"...I've never heard that term before, but something like that," said the Elder. "Scan your partner's phone now."
Asa let go of the Moon Piece, still in Yoko's hand so it wouldn't drop, and complied. The same thing happened to Yoko's phone, drawing out the Moon Piece with the serial number I and transforming the phone itself. They put the two Moon Pieces down with the others.
"Now what?" Yoko looked at the assortment. "We're almost even with the Etherium. We're still going to need to get there."
"I can still teleport in," Emiru interjected.
"As can I," added Mia's father. "But we may need more than six Moon Pieces and a haphazard assortment of people. I know Kainatrol. I have no idea what she'll stop at, if anything, and if the Etherium's volatile, we'll need extra measures."
"Elder ~muu?", Moonla asked.
The Elder looked down at the display. "What is it, Moonla?"
"Do you still have that ~muu?"
Sunbi's ears twitched. "Do you mean the Eclipse Transformer ~sasa?"
Moonla nodded. "We can use that ~muu."
Starry looked up at his parents. "What's the Eclipse Transformer ~susu?"
The Elder rubbed her chin. "The Eclipse Transformer is an item we created here in the Garden of Days. It's able to merge with a physical item and make that item into what the user wishes. However..."
"You were going to use it to make a backup for the Moon Dial, weren't you?" Ami cut in. "What happened to that?"
"That's just it," said the Elder. "The testing didn't work. The Eclipse Transformer can only be used to make something we understand completely, but it didn't even turn into a part to fit with the other materials. The Moon Dial is too special. We can't make another."
"Science education is not given the funding it needs even there," Ami sighed. "The world, no, the universe is in dire straits. If only those who teach the youth were given more respect and opportunities-"
"Ami," Kirei said, "we see your point, but what are we going to do now?" She looked at Moonla. "If the Eclipse Transformer didn't work, what do you suggest we use it for?"
"Maybe the Moon Dial is too special, but we can still use it to make something that will help us ~muu."
Yoko thought. "Something to make us stronger?"
"What we need," said Tomokazu, "is something that will not only safely transport the entire party to the Etherium and keep us safe, but something that will give us an advantage in the fight."
"The Eclipse Transformer channels your feelings and bonds into power, just like Pretty Cure's abilities," the Elder explained. "If I send it to you, the item you create must take that into account. Also, in order for it to work properly, the item must be something that you know inside and out. Do you have an idea that will work?"
"...I do," Asa said. "Ami-sensei, you still have all our class notes from our partner project a couple months ago, right?"
"They're in my desk," Ami said. "Do you need them?"
"We will. Yoko, you know more about cars than anyone in town, don't you?"
Yoko turned pink. "I wouldn't go that far, but I know a lot."
"That's a yes. Ogata-san?"
Kirei blinked. "Yes?"
"Can we borrow your van?"
Hoshi stared. "Tell me this isn't going where I think it's going."
Asa grinned. "Come on, Hoshi. It's the one thing I know better than anything else."
"You're building the DaiVan, aren't you."
"Yup."
-
There was no real sense of place in the Etherium at the best of times, aside from a general order that said this was where the core room was, that was where the quarters were, and not to go past this or that wall. Right now, for a given value of relative time, they barely had even that. Still glowing with power, power that would now work when she was away from those she was controlling, Kainatrol laughed as she set down the Moon Dial on its stand and lay her hands on it.
"Find the echo," she commanded it. "Find where those two were destroyed."
She concentrated. A red magic circle began to form under her feet as she began to send power into the Moon Dial.
Something snapped against her. Kainatrol stumbled, the beginnings of her spell broken, and spun around. She touched her face where the scarf-whip had just lashed her.
"I thought you might show up sooner or later. Let me guess: you're joining the parade of people who feel the need to tell me I've crossed the line."
Before her was Mekuramast, drawing the scarves back into his sleeve.
"You crossed that over a hundred years ago, Kainatrol."
He shot an array of playing cards at her. She blocked with her light shield and blasted him with the Moon Dial, sending him to the ground.
"I'm surprised you're still trying, Kairos." She laughed. "Good timing, though. I've proved your little echo theory."
He went pale. Said nothing. She continued.
"Oh, you can't keep anything from me. Even with just over half the Moon Pieces, I'm powerful enough here. That's what you were living for, wasn't it?"
Mekuramast gripped his wand. "Don't..."
"That's what you've been holding on for all this time, like a stubborn bug hiding from a fly swatter. You just wanted another chance."
Kainatrol smirked and put her hands on the Moon Dial. Again, she focused, and again, it glowed. As Mekuramast fought to get to his feet, two figures formed in the light.
"You just wanted to bring sweet, selfish Kore back. I have other uses for the Moon Dial. Once I get all the other pieces from those girls, I'll eradicate every last trace of the Garden of Rings, and you won't ever get that chance of yours. Before that, though, I'm bringing myself back some reliable help."
The light burst off of the two figures as Kainatrol loomed.
-
To Asa's credit, her plan worked. Once they got into the parking lot and Kirei brought the van over, Yoko was easily able to install the Eclipse Transformer in place of the engine. With Ami's data and Asa's own expertise on all things DaiFighter, it seamlessly transformed itself and integrated into the van. Then the van itself glowed with a low hum.
"It really does work ~sasa!" Sunbi clapped his little paws.
"Of course it does," Kirei said. "Just hold on..."
Asa set a fixed stare on the van as if that would help it transform faster. As a colourful aura washed over it, it started to shift, becoming a little shorter, a little wider, differently-shaped. The light burst off of the van, raining sparkles around the gathered group.
Asa's stare slowly turned into a bright, large smile.
The van was now bright red, with DaiFighter's blocky "DF" insignia on each side and the front. There were doors at the sides in the front and back, various designs on the windows, and panels that would open up to reveal all sorts of toyetic features like rockets or lasers or something of that nature. There was a ladder affixed to the side. The whole vehicle gleamed with newness in the sunset.
"This... is... awesome!" She pumped her fists in the air. "It actually worked! Come on, Yoko, let's see if it has the vending machine inside!"
Yoko hesitated. "...Sure. I have to call my parents, though. I'll be right back, okay?" She took out her real phone and dashed behind a tree.
Asa blinked and moved to follow. Kirei shook her head.
Yoko took a deep breath and dialed. Her mother took a few rings to pick up. "Nakayama residence."
"Mom? It's me, Yoko." She pressed her back against the tree for support. "...I'm going to be out late tonight, okay? Don't worry, I'm with my friends."
"Which friends?"
A small sigh. "Yukari. Asa - uh, and Kondou-san, Omemi-san, and Ogata-san, too. Ogata-san's parents are there," she said, speeding up after the mention of Asa.
Her mother paused to think it over. "All right. Stay very close to your friends and don't do anything dangerous, okay? And don't go to Kawada-san's apartment if she asks. I know she's a good friend of yours and I know she can't help it, but I don't want you going to that part of town."
Yoko winced. "Okay, Mom. I won't."
"You know we just want you to be safe, Yoko. You and Takashi both. Keep me updated, all right? We worry."
"Okay," Yoko said. "I'll see you." She ended the call and fumbled with her phone, nearly dropping it as she stuffed it back into her bag. Shaking her head, she stepped away from the tree and brushed pieces of bark out of her hair before walking back.
"That didn't take long!" Asa waved, but her smile faded when she saw Yoko frowning. "What's wrong?"
"...I'll tell you later." Yoko pulled herself into the back of the van and shut the door behind her.
"Geez," Asa grumbled, crossing her arms. "I said she could tell me anything."
Yukari looked at Asa, and then to a fuming Hoshi, and then to the adults looking somber and understanding. Hoshi shot a threatening look at Emiru before she could even say anything.
Inside the van, Yoko sighed and looked around. It was a lot bigger on the inside. There was space for everyone to sit (with seatbelts, thankfully, she noted) and it was now tall enough to walk around in, even though it looked perfectly van-shaped on the outside. This thing did break the laws of physics regularly, from what she'd learned from Asa and their research on the project before they narrowed the focus down, so that made some sense in a paradoxical manner. There was some sort of magical-looking apparatus in the centre that probably had something to do with the fact that the van 'ran on burning spirit', there was space for wings to fold out of the sides of the van, and yes, there was a very well-secured vending machine on the inside. It sold water, cookies, chocolate bars Yoko had never heard of, and some kind of pink energy drink called Brave Fight.
Yoko sat down and rested her head against the tall back of the seat.
"You wouldn't worry if I told you everything," she said to an empty van. "You'd disown me."
-
Tahimany converged on Mireyes, still blank with mind control. Even as she was predicting their strikes, moving away just in time, some of them still landed hits on her. She clutched her arm and staggered back.
"Old lady!" Binbeat called out. He moved to get up from the organ.
"Stay there!", Mireyes commanded without looking. "Just play the song. Don't risk yourself!"
Binbeat hesitated. He watched her step away, try to shove off an attacking body. It occurred to him that she really was old. They descended upon her. He slammed the keys of the organ in the next note, and an explosion above them knocked everyone aside. Mireyes stayed on her feet, having predicted the blast. She followed up with a wave of energy to knock them away.
Both sides were worn down, injured, aching. Mireyes' breathing was more staggered. She watched Tachimany drag themselves to their feet. One of them couldn't get up; another turned to offer their hand.
She watched.
"She's weakening, isn't she..."
They looked over in unison. Mireyes kept concentrating and kept moving. She couldn't afford not to. Tachimany raised their weapons and moved out in a web to strike at her.
"We must obey-"
"-we have no choice."
"We must destroy-"
"-destroy everything, because-"
"-life is painful."
One of them knocked Mireyes to the floor. Five others pointed their swords at her.
"Mireyes!", Binbeat cried.
"Play!", she reminded. She breathed, clenched her shaky, thin fists, tried to stand. "Tachimany helped each other up. Kainatrol wouldn't have ordered that. She doesn't understand it. She still has control, but she's concentrating on something else. She's weakening!"
One of Tachimany's mind-controlled bodies kicked her down. Another went for her with their sword, but with the magic circle of Future Sight underneath her, she rolled to the side and grabbed the sword from their hand. She threw the sword to the side and shot out her hands, one to each side. There was a sudden flash of light. Tachimany's bodies flew to the side, disappearing, but regenerating as more still remained.
Binbeat's eyes widened.
He played the organ. The ruined, fading Etherium was filled with explosions. Mireyes got to her feet and dodged every one. Some of them hit the mind-controlled Tachimany, some didn't but Mireyes' energy attacks did. The fight continued. So did the song.
"Don't worry, Binbeat."
Mireyes dodged a sword.
"We're not going to lose."
She vapourized another body, another victim of the one controlling them.
"I refuse."
As she moved, another Tachimany body struck her down with the sword. She collapsed. Coughed. Shook.
"Because I have always..."
Her eyes stopped glowing behind her shawl, and the magic circle underneath her disappeared. She concentrated as her opponents readied their swords. White light washed over her entire body, grew larger, outshining even the white void around them. Tachimany stood in circles around circles. At once, they struck out at her.
"...had someone to live for!"
The light burst off of her. It pressed against them, washed through them, just as they sent out their own energy. Binbeat shook, hands just above the organ keys, unable to play or do anything but stare. Gold and white fought for a second that felt like forever.
The energy blasted out. Bodies flew in all directions. One vapourized from the blast before it could hit Binbeat. He stared.
The eyes of each of the thirteen bodies brightened with freedom just before they disappeared. Two had fallen just a few meters away, as little as relative space mattered. They slowly reached for each other's hands.
"The thirteen of us..."
"...we weren't alone." They looked at each other as their bodies began to disappear like the rest.
"Were we?"
"We weren't."
"Ever."
"We couldn't be..."
"Kainatrol never understood that."
"She used us..."
"...and left us to die."
They struggled to turn their heads to Binbeat, then to Mireyes.
"Thank you."
They closed their eyes at once and vanished with the rest.
The light faded. Mireyes was still in the centre, collapsed on the ground. Binbeat finally forced himself to his feet and scrambled over. He slipped into a hole of erased floor, only to fly out and zip over the rest of the way in the air, only landing when he was at the old woman's side.
"Old lady!" He shook her. "Old lady, we won, right?"
Mireyes smiled a little. She rolled over onto her back to face him. Her head covering slipped off of her face. Her eyes were closed. Binbeat grabbed her shoulders and shook her again.
"Old lady?"
"I'm here," her aged voice cracked. "We did win, for now... Be careful, Binbeat. She's still out there, and she'll notice this sooner or later."
"C'mon," he said, trying to drag her to her feet. "Then we gotta go."
"No," she said. "You have to. This is all I can do for you."
He stopped, not letting go. "Mireyes?"
She paused. Then she slowly opened her eyes. Binbeat's jaw dropped as he took in the face in front of him. Mireyes had blank white eyes.
"I needed to protect you... because I failed you before, big brother."
Binbeat stared. "No way. No way, Andante? You're Andante?"
Slow nod. "Yes, Binbeat - big brother. There were a lot of things that I never did tell you when we were living in the Land of Tracks. I was not a witch, like they said I was, but I was something different. I was... something closer to what Pretty Cure are. Certainly not the same thing - after all, Pretty Cure are the Land of Legends' heroes. But I prevented the Etherium from erasing our world. Things were different then."
The boy took this in. "But how come? Our world sucked. Why'd you do anything for that place?"
"You know that I've said before that you're too young to understand..." She laughed. "Although you're still older than I am, aren't you, in the end? Yes, our world caused us pain, but I believed there was still good in it, back then. I had you, big brother, and the search for our parents, and a purpose in protecting the world. But when I defeated the Etherium and drove them back, you went with them. I had no choice but to run away, like you warned me, when the town came for me. I continued to search, but my powers could not do as much without your help. I suppose it is true that people need other people."
Binbeat was shaking, even if he'd deny it. "Did... did you ever find out what happened to Mom and Dad?"
She sighed. "They couldn't live forever, Binbeat. I never found them. One day,my song couldn't find them anymore, and that was it. I knew you were still alive, and that was all I was living for, until I found you again. I wasn't even upset that you'd joined my enemies. By then, I was a different person. I thought maybe the world should have been destroyed." Cough. "That's why..."
"C'mon, get up," Binbeat said. He went to grab her and stared. Her body was starting to fade away too.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I lost my faith in the world, and could no longer call myself Andante. I hope I've made up for it now."
"But I ditched!" He rubbed his eyes. "I ran away and didn't even take you! If none of that happened..."
"It's all right." Mireyes reached up and patted him on the head. "Run. She'll be back soon."
Binbeat nodded but didn't leave, only clinging to his sister. She looked around the room that was erasing itself, where Tachimany's bodies had fallen and disappeared.
"Big brother, thank you. Maybe in some other world, things could have been better." Mireyes closed her eyes. "Or... maybe we could have simply made the most of the ones we were in."
And then, the trembling child was only hugging the air in front of him.
-
"All right, everyone." Asa stood up inside the DaiVan. "We need to get ready and then we need to concentrate and let our energy flow into the van to get it to work. It's easy enough! I know everyone here has the burning spirit of a hero," she said completely sincerely.
"I commend you on your faith!" Ami-sensei applauded. "A courageous spirit and belief in your friends will lead us toward a bright future!"
Hoshi facepalmed. "Why me?"
Asa offered her hand out. "Come on, Yoko! Let's go."
Yoko let out a small sigh and got up. "...Okay."
"With more energy!" Asa went over and grabbed her arm. She dragged Yoko to the centre, where that magic-looking stone-thing was (Yoko really had to ask what it was supposed to be). With a smile, Asa let go and used her new transformation phone to scan her Moon Card. Yoko hesitated and did the same. They grasped each other's hands.
"Dual Infinite Phase!"
The adults nodded at each other. Kirei and Ami loaded their card-cassettes into their transformation players and pressed play before taking each other's hands as well.
"Dual Eternal Repetition!"
Tomokazu held his hand out to the air and his eye mask appeared. When he put it on, light covered him and changed his clothes into his black and navy suit, summoning his throwing knives.
"Here goes."
Emiru took her glasses off and turned them into her own eye mask. She put it on and was similarly awash in light that colour-swapped her school uniform.
"I suppose I may as well."
Hoshi, Yukari, and Mia stood together at the back. Energy flowed from them into the array at the centre, followed by the energy that everybody else sent in. Lights flashed in the DaiVan and it started to move. Move through dimensions.
They emerged in the Etherium in front of two figures. The van stopped in front of the two, who looked up.
"This must be them." The voice was a woman's; she wore a short skirt and tight top adorned with jingling jewels, and she rested one hand on her hip, the other twirling the end of her pink hair. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"
"Wonderful, dear, wonderful!" The other, a man with a yellow-trimmed coat, put one arm around her and gestured wildly with the other. "Now that she's brought us back, we can go for round two against those little girls!"
The woman summoned a giant martini glass as tall as she was and stepped forward, resting one hand on it. "With my dance and your potions, we can't lose."
The man gave a wide, confident grin and summoned a bottle of some sort of liquid. "Naturally."