When Mom found out about us, what else could I do?
Earlier in this long day, everyone had crammed into the cafeteria kitchen - Kawada Asa and Nakayama Yoko, the current Pretty Cure team; Kondou Hoshi, Okamoto Yukari, and Ogata Mia, their friends; Omemi Emiru, a classmate who no longer quite counted herself as an enemy; Starry, their dedicated friend from the Garden of Days, and Sunbi and Moonla, his parents who worked with the Elder; Mia's mother, Ogata Kirei, and the homeroom teacher, Nakata Ami, old friends and previous Pretty Cures out of retirement. With them had been Kawada Chikane, Asa's mother, the busy woman with the weathered face.
The discussion had been awkward at first, with "Asa, this isn't the time" cutting in from every voice she thought would say it, but it calmed. Asa stared, not talking, when her mother related the story of how she believed in Pretty Cure all along because she'd met them - Dawn and Dusk, Ogata-san and Ami-sensei, that was, when they were young and Asa's mother had been attacked by Hidoinaa. When her mother looked at her, Asa turned to look anywhere else.
"Asa, I'm not upset," Chikane sighed. "I just need to apologize."
I was scared, but it turned out all right.
Asa blinked at her. "Apologize?" She barely realized that Yoko, beside her, had said the same thing at the same time.
Chikane gave a small nod and looked at them. "I knew something must have been going on, but I had no idea what. I was never around to question it anyway. I won't say I'm not worried. In fact, I'm terrified for your safety and for your feelings. At the same time, I'm proud of you."
This was... Asa had to breathe and process all of this. She knew her mother loved her, she really did. At the same time, they never saw each other, and when they did it was usually 'I'm busy' or 'Don't bother the neighbours' or 'We can talk about this later'. But she was there. She'd come to the cultural festival, late or not. She'd walked in just when they were detransforming and she'd been shocked, yes, but it seemed now that she was taking it well. Worrying was understandable. Worrying about her safety, that made sense, even if Asa had proven to be good at this magical girl business. Worrying about her feelings...
Asa knew she had to speak.
"...Thanks, Mom. Actually, I wanted to talk to about something... something really important." Her eyes lingered on Yoko before quickly scanning the others and going back to her mother. "But it isn't Cure business, so I guess it can wait."
Her mother refused. "I've let too much wait."
They sent the others out of the room to clean up their business after the fiasco earlier with the Etherium. Even Starry had gone into Yoko's phone. It was just Kawada Asa and Kawada Chikane and the empty kitchen and the setting sun.
Maybe sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it does but you still have a reason to be scared.
"...Asa."
"...yeah?"
Asa saw Chikane hesitate just like she must have been. Somehow, it put her at ease even as it made her shiver and brought one nervous thought to the front of her mind.
"Is there... this is hard to say. ...Tell me about your friends."
"...Okay." Asa took a deep breath and smiled slowly. "My friends... Mia wasn't always nice, but she was just scared. She's the kind of person you want to protect, but she can do things to help, too, even if she doesn't fight or do anything cool. Yukari is kind of like that, too. She's strong, though she doesn't fight. She's actually pretty nice - she holds us together most of the time."
Chikane nodded along. "You seem like good friends now. What about the others?"
"Starry is that little fairy creature you saw. He's always been helpful to us, and his mom and dad were Ogata-san's and Ami-sensei's partners back in the day. He comes from another world - Yoko and I trade off times when he stays over at either of our houses." A nervous laugh. "You already know Hoshi. She's a little protective... okay, a lot." Asa rubbed the back of her head, still looking around the room like something else would pop up. "She has her heart in the right place, though. She used to be against me being a Pretty Cure or even talking to Yoko, but a lot of things happened."
"By 'Yoko', you mean... Yamanaka Yoko-san, is that her name? Your partner, right?"
Asa fidgeted with the end of her hair. "Actually, it's Nakayama. I mixed it up when I first met her, too."
Chikane gave a small sigh, but when Asa looked over, she seemed to be smiling. "Tell me about her."
I can be scared. Ashamed. Embarrassed. Even though it doesn't seem like it, because I always still act like myself.
"Okay." Asa breathed in. "Yoko and I are Pretty Cure, so even though she used to scare me, I kept wanting to be her friend. It was destiny, right? I know you think that kind of stuff is dumb, but- well, it's just how it is. Um."
"No, keep going." Chikane shook her head. "I know I haven't been as encouraging as I should be with things like that. You won't want to hear this, but I worry, I always worry that you're different and you're obsessed and you drive people off." She frowned as Asa cringed. "But things really have worked out for you. I should have realized, or been there to see. You have friends, Asa, and not like the seniors in martial arts class in Fubuki Town when you were little. The people you've been friends with over the past few months seem to like you very much."
Asa nodded, even while she was shaking. "Yeah. I believe in them. Even Omemi-san I'd consider a friend, and she used to be pretty bad. She's still not very nice, and she doesn't hang around with us a lot, but we can depend on her for things like this. She doesn't want the world to end, Mom. She just wants to have friends."
"I see I'll need more explanation than you probably have time for." Chikane smiled weakly. "I do have confidence in you. You and Nakayama-san are Pretty Cure, after all. You've come this far, and the two of you seem very close."
"Thanks, Mom." Asa shifted on her feet. "I know we can do it, too. Yoko's a great person, and everyone else is, too."
A thought came to Chikane. "I'm sorry, I interrupted you earlier when you were talking about Nakayama-san... Can you tell me about her, Asa?"
"Yoko is a good person," Asa repeated. "A little intimidating, but that just means she's strong and there's nothing wrong with not being good with people. She's someone I can trust. Someone I believe in. Someone I want to protect, and someone I'm glad to have protecting me when I need it. I don't even really understand how I feel, or what she is to me, but I know she's my most important person!"
There was another long silence as the words left Asa's lips and that same nervous thought, that feeling, hit her like a punch from the inside. Chikane's eyes widened just like Asa's did whenever she realized something. She stepped forward and, before Asa could react, hugged her daughter tightly.
"Oh, Asa," she said. "I'm sorry."
Asa blinked a few times. "Mom...?"
"Keep going and trust yourself, Asa," she said. "I know I haven't always understood you and I haven't always been there for you. Even though the reason I'm always working is so that I can make things better for you, it means that I wasn't there for any of this. You're growing up, Asa. You're still the same you, and you may always be the same you, but you're growing up."
Asa was already hugging her mother back before she realized it. "I am?"
"You are," Chikane said. "Being grown up really doesn't mean outgrowing things that were meant for children. I remember when you always used to try and show me proof that adults watched your superhero shows too, and I just said that they were all either perverts or mentally stunted. But even so, you're none of those things. You're just Asa. I should really know better, shouldn't I?" She pulled back and gave a teary smile. "I know what it's like to be told how to feel."
But I'm still trying my best. Just like Yoko. Just like all of us.
Present day. They'd left Asa's mother behind and gathered in their new vehicle, a perfect replica of the DaiVan that let them bust into the Etherium. Cure Sunday and Cure Night climbed out of the back of the van.
"Why'd we stop?" Sunday looked around, Night following a few steps behind her.
Cure Dawn opened the driver's door and climbed out with Devance. "Watch out! We know those two!"
In front of the van stood two people. A woman in a short, tight dancing outfit covered in jewels and bells laid one hand on a giant martini glass, and a slick man in a white suit and yellow shirt drew labelled potions out of his yellow-trimmed coat.
"Of course you know us!" The man's voice boomed and he made a sweeping gesture. "Returned from oblivion as we were, our names are still the ones on everyone's minds. Surely you haven't forgotten my vast array of poisons and remedies?"
"Or my dance," the woman said, grabbing the stem of the glass and spinning around it fluidly. A shock of wind swept out as she spun, sending Sunday and Night skidding back as they shielded their faces.
"We also haven't forgotten that we defeated you," Cure Dusk said as she climbed out of the front passenger's door. "In fact, you shouldn't even be alive right now."
"This is the Etherium, dear miss!" The man laughed, not heeding the insulted look on Dusk's face at being called much younger than she was. "Time has no meaning here! At the very least, not with the Moon Dial."
"Kainatrol revived you two," Dawn said. "She needs the numbers on her side."
"She doesn't need anything," the dancer replied with a laugh of her own. "But of course, it can't hurt."
"She needs the Moon Pieces," Hoshi corrected as she led Yukari and a reluctant Mia out of the van. "The Moon Dial's busted, remember?"
"Is that really wise, Kondou?", Millusion whispered, walking after her.
"Shut up, Omemi," Hoshi snarked back.
"That's what we're here for, little girl." The dancer stood up and snapped. "No matter how many of you climb out of that motorcar, you can't possibly win. Suiyacross, if you would?"
"Anything for you, Hitosalesque!" The potion seller snapped his own fingers in return and tossed up some glittery powder. Hitosalesque did a high sweeping kick, and the force of wind spread the powder all over the area.
"You can't stand against my Snake Oil..." A sickly yellow magic circle appeared as he opened up a bottle of potion.
"...and my Burlesque!" A pink one appeared under her as she danced. "Begin!"
Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon ~solar eclipse~
Final Episode: Blue Moon...
"Come on! There's a ton of us and there are only two of you!" Sunday charged forward. "She's obviously not taking us seriously!"
"No, look out!" Dawn called out to her.
The dancer smirked. She grabbed the stem of her giant martini glass and spun around it a few times. A gale picked Sunday up half a second before it hit everyone else, flinging her into the group to bowl Yukari and Hoshi over before crash-landing. Night flew back and tumbled next to her in a heap. The van tipped over and the adults crashed into it, and Millusion had to flash-teleport to avoid falling into a pit, only to take a flying Mia to the chest.
"You can't even touch us," Hitosalesque said, standing straight up with a hand still on the glass. "This won't take long at all-" She cut off, suddenly moving but still being sliced in the arm. Devance had pulled himself to his feet and was going for another knife. Behind him, standing further back on the side of the tipped-over DaiVan, were Dawn and Dusk holding hands to gather energy.
"You've got to use ranged attacks with her!", Dusk called out to the group. "Is everyone okay?"
"Alive," Hoshi groaned, untangling herself. "I'm still covered in that sparkly stuff, though. What is it?"
Night started to pick herself up. "I've survived wo-" Part of the floor faded and vanished beneath her. Her lower half dropped, dangling into the abyss, as she scrambled to hold on to what was left.
"Night!" Sunday sprung over and stumbled to the edge. She crouched and reached down to grab Night's waist and start to pull her back up.
"This place is eating itself even more quickly than it was the last time we came here!" Yukari looked up at the adults. "Is it because they have more Moon Pieces?"
"It's that, in part," Devance said, still ready to throw daggers at any moment. "It's not because of the Moon Pieces themselves, though. Kainatrol is abusing the Moon Dial because she thinks she can do whatever she wants with it. The Etherium had rules, restrictions so that we couldn't break reality, and she's ignoring those."
Dawn gave a firm nod. "The proof is here. Suiyacross and Hitosalesque died in the Etherium, so logically you could use the Moon Dial to bring them back, but dying and erasure are different. Even if the Elder relented on undoing erasure because it might work, undoing death will break the universe even further."
"The Etherium is already eating itself, and now this." Dusk frowned. "Be careful, everyone!"
"Potion, dear?" Hitosalesque turned her head to Suiyacross, still clutching her injured arm.
"Of course!" Keeping an eye on the party, he summoned a small clear bottle, much like the one Asa and Yoko had used. Hitosalesque took a sip and the potion sparkled, covering her cut in glittery light as it healed.
"Quickly!" Cure Dawn went back to concentrating her energy. "Dawn Phasing!"
Cure Dusk followed suit and they aimed at the two. "Dusk Phasing!"
"As the days move on..."
"...you will be lost to time!"
Hitosalesque laughed, pushing her pink hair behind her shoulder. "Fitting. Now, activate the powder!"
Sunday turned her head, still holding onto Night tightly. "What?"
"Gladly!" Suiyacross bowed from the waist and snapped his fingers. The glitter across the battlefield that had gotten all over everyone began to shimmer. Everyone and everything it covered vanished in a series of flashes of light, leaving the dancer and the potion seller in the white expanse.
"Done," he said. "They're scattered. Now all we need to do is pick them off and grab those last Moon Pieces."
She laughed and returned the giant martini glass to the nothingness it went to when she didn't have it summoned. "If they last that long."
There was nothing. At first.
Sunday slowly let go of Night and looked around. There weren't even walls or a floor, just floating clocks. "Echoes," she whispered.
"We're in the outer void again." Night noticed that she was clinging onto Asa still, let go, and pulled out her phone. "At least we've still got our Moon Pieces, right?"
Starry nodded his little head from Night's phone. "But where's everybody else ~susu?"
"Probably somewhere else in the void!" Sunday started moving her head in every direction. "We have to look for them, come on!"
"That will take months," Night snapped. "Time we don't have! We're in the outer void. They don't even come in here. It's going to erase us itself, even if we do have the Moon Pieces protecting us, if our enemies don't get us first."
Sunday spun back to her. "But we can't just sit here and die!"
"I know!" Night hesitated and sighed. "We need a plan."
Starry looked out of the phone. "Night, Sunday ~susu... There's somebody else here ~susu."
The two girls turned to look. There was a boy slowly emerging from one of the clocks, looking all four ways before pulling himself out. When he saw the group, he made a face.
"Go away."
"Binbeat?" Sunday pushed off of the air and floated over in his direction. "I thought nobody in the Etherium would go into the outer void." She stopped. He was rubbing tear streaks off of his face, and his eyes were red. "Are you..."
"'M not crying," he grumbled. "I said go away."
Night, holding Starry in the phone, floated to them. "Sunday, what are you doing?"
Sunday gave a shrug. "Maybe he can help us."
Binbeat thought for a minute. "Are you guys gonna go fight Kainatrol?"
"We are," Night said. "Sunday, that kid is an enemy, remember? Get back!"
"Wait up!" Binbeat waved his arms, looking somewhat silly with only his top half sticking out of the echo. "I'm not gonna fight you!"
"You're not?", Sunday asked. "Then... are you hiding?"
"Don't make fun of me!" He shook his head strongly and pulled himself out of the echo, tumbling into the air. "I'm just hiding until I can figure out how to beat her, okay? Kainatrol's messed up, she's, she's, because of her... Mireyes is gone."
Night floated, stunned. "She's gone? Her?"
Binbeat rubbed his eyes and glared up at them, shaking visibly. "'M not gonna fight you guys if you don't wanna. I'm gonna fight Kainatrol." Sniff. "I know we're enemies and stuff, but I helped your guys's friends find you that one time. And I know Mireyes was way stronger than you, but if you're gonna fight, I wanna help too!"
They took this in. Sunday looked at Night and then back to the small boy in front of them.
"...Can you help us find our friends?"
Binbeat floated up. "Uh-huh. And this time you don't even have to pay me in food or anything. I just... I want it to stop."
"We all want it to stop ~susu," Starry said from the phone.
Binbeat crossed his arms and looked down into the void, not even noticing as his white uniform turned black. "I didn't even really wanna destroy the world," he grumbled. "It just sucked."
"Our world sucks sometimes, too," Sunday offered. "At the same time, it can also be good."
Binbeat sniffed. He summoned his pipe organ and sat down on the bench, not standing on it or even swinging his legs this time. "Let's find 'em."
Night moved over to Sunday and whispered. "What is with you and befriending all our enemies today?"
Sunday gave a small laugh and watched.
-
It was cold, Yukari thought. Vast. She thought at first about staying in one place; that was what you were supposed to do when you were lost, right? But that dancer and the potion seller were going to be after the Moon Piece she'd been given when the party divided up the six they had, and this place was big enough that her friends might not find her in years. So she watched for movement and floated between those strange clock-looking things everywhere for cover until she saw something. She hid and slowly looked around the edge of one of the clock-like things she was hiding behind. The thing moving was definitely something large, and it just seemed to be floating aimlessly, bobbing around like an apple in the void. Yukari pushed her glasses up and looked more carefully.
It was the DaiVan, She burst out in giggles and had to muffle herself. Quickly checking in all directions if someone heard her, Yukari cursed herself, but nothing happened. More cautiously now, she started to float towards it, swimming through the void until he could reach the handle of the back door. She grabbed it, put her feet down under the door, and pulled it open.
Hoshi was inside, sitting in one of the seats without a seatbelt. "Hey, Okamoto. I guess you had the same idea I did."
Yukari pulled herself into the van and promptly fell on her face. She rubbed the back of her head and got up to yank the door shut. "I guess gravity still works in here..."
"To a point," Hoshi said. "Up is up inside the van, apparently. You can put a glass on the table and it won't tip over, even if we're probably floating diagonally or something."
Yukari straightened out her clothes. "So like those space movies with the artificial gravity?"
"Take this seriously!" Hoshi stood up and whirled on her. "We're going to die."
"We're not, Hoshi." Yukari walked up to her. "They're going to be okay and so are we. We can do this."
"Do what!?" Hoshi slammed her fist down on the top of one of the seats. "We're stranded in Ogata-san's jalopy. Even if Asa and them used the Eclipse Whatever to turn this into a super-vehicle, we don't even know where they are right now. We lasted what, three minutes? Against two people, and one of them was support! We might as well give up!"
Yukari slapped her. The sound didn't echo inside the van, but it may as well have, for lack of any other sound. Hoshi reeled back and clenched a fist.
"Kondou Hoshi!"
"What?" Hoshi glared. "Am I wrong?"
"Yes," Yukari said. "I think you know it, too. I believe in Yoko and Asa. I believe in everyone in this group. Even you. Even me. Don't you?"
Hoshi stopped, thought, and sighed. "Yeah. It's still hard, though. Even knowing they might be able to do it doesn't make it any better. It's not safe in here and they said we could fade away, if we don't get erased or die first. Those people from before are probably looking for us, so we can't just stay in one place."
Yukari twirled the end of her braid. "Then we've got to keep moving instead, right?"
Hoshi frowned. "How, though?"
"Watch." Yukari walked past her with a smile and hopped over the divide into the front seat of the van. She tested the keys in the ignition and looked back. "Hold on, okay?"
Hoshi scrambled over and grabbed the back of the driver's seat. "You're not-"
Yukari giggled and stepped on the gas. "Don't worry! It can drive even if there's no road, at least from what Asa tells me. Besides! This thing runs on burning spirit, right? We'll never run out of power!" The DaiVan sped forward.
"I can't even-" Hoshi clung tighter to the back of Yukari's seat. "Watch where you're going! We're not even old enough to drive!"
"Yoko's rubbing off on you," Yukari said, turning her head without looking where she was driving just to smile at Hoshi. "Let's go find the others!"
"OKAMOTO!" Hoshi lunged forward and grabbed the steering wheel, swerving to barely avoid running into an Echo clock.
They drove off, Hoshi complaining as the DaiVan sped and bobbled around.
It had seemed to take a long time, but when Mia was found, it was thankfully by Cures Dawn and Dusk. She was staying very close to her mother's side as they moved through the void, searching for others.
"It's too bad we don't have a card for that ~sasa," Sunbi commented.
"That's all right, Sunbi," Dawn said, still looking forward. "We've been here before. We can get out the same way we did last time."
"Of course," Dusk giggled slightly, "last time we also spent enough time in one place that we generated an Echo."
"Don't remind me," Dawn sighed.
Mia hesitated before speaking up. "I thought Echoes were destroyed worlds."
"Not always," Dusk said. "Echoes are traces of things that happened in a void space - whether it was that way at the time or not. They're often all that's left of an erased world, but if something happens afterward in the space, an Echo can be made. Think of a pencil; when you write something and then rub it out with an eraser, there are still trace marks on the paper, right?"
Mia nodded. "So it's sort of like that?"
"Right. Nothing is completely destroyed," Dusk said. "When you think of the world this way, it's a source of eternal hope, isn't it?"
"I suppose..." Mia tilted her head. "But isn't it dangerous in here?"
"Very," Dawn said. She paused and looked around. "Stay close."
"Do you see something ~sasa?", Sunbi asked.
"Look over there ~muu!" Moonla interrupted before Dawn could answer. "At the lights!"
The group stopped and looked up and to the side. There was a flash of pink and what looked like a distortion in the air. A few blinks of dark blue responded. There was yellow, and then more blue.
"He's fighting up there," Dawn said. "Thank you, Moonla. Mia, hold on to me."
"What?" Mia did as asked. Dawn and Dusk grabbed each other's hands and pushed off of the empty air like they were jumping from building to building, moving as quickly as they could. As they got closer, Mia saw what the adults must have known the lights meant. There was her father, Devance, easily moving through the void as he dodged a force kick - that wind move that the pink dancer had kept using. Sure enough, she and her partner were there, facing off with him,.
"Just give up!" Hitosalesque gave another high kick in her frilly skirt. She sliced the air in front of her. "You know you can't beat us."
Devance jumped. No - he pushed off the air as if it were the ground and suspended himself above them. It was just like how her mother and Ami-sensei had gotten up here with her, Mia thought. They were treating this as a different kind of space, maybe the way it was supposed to be. Up and down were just as plausible as directions as left and right were, and everywhere you happened to be floating could be your invisible, untouchable floor. Mia tested it out, reaching out a foot and feeling nothing, but taking a deep breath and letting go of Cure Dawn anyway. Sure enough, instead of falling, she was standing in the air.
Devance spotted their group, gave a very slight nod, and threw a knife at Hitosalesque. She dodged in time, letting it hit her glass; shards and small bits went everywhere. She stood up, shook glass out of her ponytail, and looked back at the big crack in the giant martini glass.
"I'll need to get a new one of those," she sighed.
"There will be time for that, of course," Suiyacross said. "After all, we have forever, while you-" he looked at Devance- "only have until we wipe you out."
Mia shrank back. Dawn looked at her, gave a serious nod, and motioned for her to hide. Mia stumbled off, trying to get used to running on air, and hid behind an echo clock. Dawn and Dusk turned to each other and took each other's hands. A magic circle drew itself under them.
Devance threw a few more daggers and moved to the side while his opponents were dodging. "You don't understand, do you? She's going to erase you or kill you again once you're done."
"You're being ridiculous, boy!" Suiyacross laughed at the other man's angry stare. "Kainatrol is weak. Don't you recall? We can easily take her should she decide something of that nature."
Dawn and Dusk kept hidden under and behind them while they were distracted. The two Cures began to whisper their incantations and gather their purple and pink energy.
"Dawn Phasing."
"Dusk Phasing."
Devance drew out another glowing knife. "You realize that you're dead. She brought you back with the Moon Dial, and since that, the Etherium has been falling apart even more. If she doesn't kill you, this place will consume you itself. Besides, have you even thought of why she'd bring you back?"
Hitosalesque set herself up for another spin. "To get rid of Pretty Cure and company, naturally."
Suiyacross laughed. "After all, no one else could manage it!"
Devance threw more knives and braced for the wind. "Think of what she's like! Think of what she'd be like in charge! She probably got rid of the others herself!"
Mia looked up, hands clasped together. She tried to say something but thought better.
Mekuramast was alive. He was going to stay alive, he told himself. For that, he had to resist.
He focused. Fought. He could see her in front of him fuzzily, that person who had taken everything away out of spite. He put all of himself into fighting her power off. Nothing else. It wasn't hard. Hard to fend her off, yes, when she was trying to wear away at his will, but it wasn't hard to have that will and cling to it. He did, even with the waves of energy pushing onto him to try to crush what power he had to keep control of his body.
He wasn't going to give up and die. He'd already decided that.
He knew she was desperate. Grasping for control just like she was gripping the Moon Dial's edge. She was glowing red. The walls, ceiling, and floor were starting to break apart and fade. She didn't even notice. He didn't act like he did. She was saying the same things as before. He wasn't listening.
He twitched his arm. He could move. Almost. She poured more energy into her ability through the Moon Dial. He struggled to shut his eyes and she focused on keeping them open.
Behind him, his wand appeared in his hand. He could barely hold it and didn't dare bring the fact that he had it to the front of his mind lest she pick up on it - he didn't know if she could read her victims' minds, but it was better safe where she was concerned. He focused on resisting like he had back then. Thinking of them. Thinking of her. Of why it wasn't fair.
Thinking of the last time he had managed to shake off Tamer's Chain. He remembered Thera - no, Kainatrol, holding onto the Moon Dial. Saying something.
"You went along with it all! Even if it were just to stay alive, you helped to destroy those worlds and all of those lives, so you can't tell me that I'm a monster!"
He faltered. His eyes were forced open to be controlled. Maybe this was it. But-
-but then he remembered the paper-mache statue he'd built. A kore, in an earnest attempt to impress his assistant. Working with her on the Chronos Show. Encouraging her when she was afraid. Promising that she could escape like she'd always wanted, and that he'd even go with her. Seeing her disappear as her own sister altered time to make sure that she never existed. Years and years and years of being tortured with what had happened and living on the fact that maybe, if he studied and searched enough, he could find a way to fix it, and then finding that way and just needing the Moon Dial. And here it was, right in front of him. He couldn't fall to her using it.
He remembered that girl looking up at him.
"You're secretly just like GoldFighter, aren't you?"
"Who?"
"GoldFighter! He says he's DaiFighter's eternal rival, but he's actually a pretty good guy. He's just trying to save someone."
Mekuramast moved his hand enough to point his wand up at his top hat. His mind went to the next time he'd seen those two girls after that.
Cure Night hesitating. "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. You were wrong when you said your world wasn't worth living in."
Cure Sunday standing her ground."Even though life isn't fair, people deserve to live happily. That's why I want to be a hero!"
He wrested enough power to tip his head so his hat started to fall off. Kainatrol barely had a second to narrow her eyes in confusion. Mekuramast flicked his wrist, and a blue light flashed from the hat as it fell to the ground. Something flew out of the hat.
Doves.
Lots of them.
"Wha-" Kainatrol stepped back. Mekuramast briefly shone with a pale blue light and moved free, grinning. Endless birds flew everywhere, around the room, through the gaps in the ceiling, walls, and floor, on exactly two missions.
One was to find a certain assortment of people he knew must be here by now and lead them to the core room.
The second, he noted as he ran forward through a mess of birds, was already underway.
Hoshi was still clinging tightly to the back of the driver's seat, glaring down at Yukari.
"I'm telling you, could you at least slow down? What if we crash!?"
"I guess I could," Yukari admitted, easing up on the pedal. She rubbed the back of her head, only for Hoshi to lunge for the steering wheel and yank it back before they veered off into the abyss.
"Thanks, Hoshi," Yukari said with a sigh. "I sort of forgot for a second."
"Sort of forgot?" Hoshi kept hold of the wheel. "Okamoto, stop. If we aren't gonna die from void exposure or just getting shanked or magically blown up or whatever, then your driving's gonna kill us! Stop the van right now!"
"We're not going to die!" Regardless, Yukari took her foot off the gas - why did this thing even have a gas pedal if it didn't run on gas? She unbuckled her seatbelt and looked over her shoulder at Hoshi, only to jump a little when the car rolled forward.
"Brake," Hoshi ordered, grabbing the stick to put the DaiVan in park. "Aren't you and Nakayama best friends or something? Do you know anything?"
Yukari got up from her seat, standing up with the extra headroom in the transformed van. "Of course I don't! We're both way too young to drive, and not many people in town drive anyway, even if we do live in the middle of nowhere!"
Hoshi let go of the stick shift and stood up too. "You think Kazahana City is in the middle of nowhere? Try living out in Fubuki Town! At least you guys have schools. Two of them. I have to take the train out to Kazahana every day because they closed our school."
"People go out of town for things in Kazahana City, too!" Yukari glared back at her. "There are less people in the shopping district because everybody goes out of town to the cheap department stores! Why do you think we have to call ourselves a mall? To look modern! So people will come!"
"Well, maybe if the stores didn't sell overpriced crap!", Hoshi snapped.
"My parents and the other shopkeepers sell things for what they're worth, not what the cheapo-marts tell people they are," Yukari said, "and none of it is crap!"
They stood off against each other, breathing in and out, not saying anything. Finally, Hoshi looked away with a sigh.
"Why do we always end up fighting?"
Yukari shook her head. "I don't know. I don't get it either." She slumped down back into the driver's seat, pointedly not touching the controls. "At least when Yoko and Asa do it, they're obviously just flirting."
Hoshi paused. She climbed into the front passenger seat. "...So it's not just me, then."
Yukari looked over. "Not just you?"
"You know." Cough. "Not just me who thinks that either those two have a thing already or they're going to eventually."
"Probably." Smile. "Lately, they've been acting more and more like it, but I don't think even they notice half the time."
Hoshi tugged at a knot in her hair. She snapped it off with a cringe, rolled down the window, and tossed it out; it faded away, and she pulled her hand back and cranked the window back up. Silence. "...so. You're okay with that?"
Yukari thought. "Uh-huh."
Hoshi looked back. "Heh. Me too. Maybe you were right about people changing, Okamoto."
"Everyone does." She smiled. "When they want to, for good or bad. ...Hey, what's that?"
Hoshi looked out the front windshield to where she was pointing. There was something moving, closer, but it wasn't a person. She searched the dash for the button that shot lasers when she saw what it was.
"Birds?"
"I think so! Nothing lives out here, so they probably came from the inside. Let's follow them." Yukari's hand went for the stick shift.
Hoshi whirled around. "Oh, no, no, no you don't!"
"Hoshi, we have to-" Yukari stopped. Hoshi was getting up again with her hand already on the stick shift, and she gave an unsure, but forward smile.
"I'm driving."
Millusion was the next to see some of the scattered doves. Of course she followed them, even if it might have been a ridiculous idea. When the group had divided up the six Moon Pieces, they hadn't given her one, so following these birds to wherever they were going was probably the best course of action. Why there were birds in the Etherium anyway, she didn't know, but if it were a trap, at least it might be better than wasting away until the void ate her. Of course, if it weren't a trap, and if she did find the others, she would just tell them she knew it wasn't all along. Not knowing things really, really got on her nerves.
As it was, though, she followed the doves until they started to circle around one spot. She looked forward, left, and right, and saw nothing, until she heard voices and looked down.
Well.
There were those two revived Etherium agents fighting with Mia's father, not even seeing Mia herself floating a few metres underneath them or Dawn and Dusk charging up some attack. Wait, she'd just run into the path of that, hadn't she? She bit back a curse and had a dark teal magic circle draw itself under her feet, teleporting her down below as the birds scattered out of the way.
Suiyacross looked up at the flash of light and the fading circle of deep blue-green. "Someone's been here!"
Hitosalesque braced herself and looked up as well. "What? Who has that colour?" She turned back to Devance and deflected another thrown knife. "Who are you working with?"
With their opponents distracted, Cure Dawn and Cure Dusk shot their outside hands forward and charged up pink and purple energy in a growing, glowing sphere.
Devance just gave a confident nod. "Everyone who cares enough."
"As the days move on..."
"...you will be lost to time!"
"Pretty Cure Era Cycle!"
"What!?" Hitosalesque looked down just to see the glowing ball shoot a giant beam of pink and purple light, crackling and coming straight at them. Suiyacross quickly threw down a bottle of potion as they took the blast.
"Good job!" Devance looked down. "Emiru-chan, where did you get the birds?"
Millusion thought of saying something along the lines of 'wouldn't you like to know' or at least something that implied she knew more than she did, but something told her that wouldn't go over well. She sighed visibly. "They flew out from the core. Unfortunately, I must regretfully admit that I have no idea why or what they're doing."
Devance nodded, generating another knife to aim into the pillar of magic. "I think we may need to keep following them."
"Emiru-chan, take Mia," Dawn called, still keeping up the attack. "These two threw down a defense with one of those potions."
"We're going to have to herd them back to the core as we fight," Dusk said. "Make sure they don't notice the birds!"
"Oh, I'm on that!" Millusion drew out her pendulum. "I'll take this if it comes to it, though if we're herding them, we'll need to keep them moving. Come on." She grabbed Mia around the waist and teleported her up before she could let out an "eep!". As the last of the attack faded away and Suiyacross and Hitosalesque stood, scuffed and burned but confident, Mia looked at the birds, now much closer, and then up at Millusion.
"Th-thank you!"
Millusion smirked. "I have got to teach you how to do this."
Binbeat knew by now that his power was stronger in the Etherium than it had been in the Land of Tracks. Indeed, the last time he'd done this, it had given the people around him visions instead of just him, and combined with the move Sunday and Night had been using while he was looking to see if they were still around, their friends were able to find them. He wasn't sure if that last part would work in reverse, though, so he didn't mention it and just played.
I don't know where you are
But tell me if you're gone
As we you left behind
Continue living on
Are you here?
The future cannot die
The past will fall apart
O song, bring me the truth
O path, connect our hearts
Bring you here...
Binbeat stopped glowing green and looked over. "All your guys's friends are still in the void." He started counting on his fingers. "There's a ton of 'em."
"What are they doing?", Night asked.
"They're following birds," he said. "Kinda look like Mekuramast's birds that come out of his hat sometimes, but he's been gone for, I dunno, a couple days. Maybe a couple weeks."
Sunday thought. "Do you know where he is?"
"I can find out!" Binbeat turned back to the organ and started playing again.
Night exhaled and looked over at Sunday. "At least that's something. Thanks."
Sunday smiled. "I just thought he needed help, and he could help us! It's pretty simple."
"You're good at these things," Night said. "Pretty Cure things. Fighting and being a hero. I know I always get mad at you for being unrealistic, but really... most of the time, you know what you're doing and I don't. You've saved me too many times."
"That's how I feel about you in normal life," Sunday said, face turning pink. "You know stuff I don't even think about."
"We're both bad at normal life," Night replied. "But... really, who's good at it? People like Omemi-san? Or like Yukari, and even she decided it was better to be happy than to fit in."
"You know, Night?" Sunday hesitated. "Being with you, with everyone... made me think that you can be happy and have friends, without having to compromise yourself to fit in. Sometimes it hurts, but it would hurt either way, right?"
Night slowly nodded. "Sometimes I'm scared, though. My family is okay with things like the cars, but they just want to be normal, and that means having normal children. A lot of families are like that."
"That's okay," Sunday said. "There are people who can help you out! If we stick together, it'll be okay! Uh..."
Night felt something sinking inside her. "What is it?"
Sunday started fidgeting. "There's something I've been wanting to ask you. Uh, that I still want to ask you. That is. Uh. Will you..."
Binbeat took his hands off the keys and spun on the bench. "Guys, I found-"
"Will you go out with me after this?"
Night trembled and stared.
Sunday tensed up and stepped back, looking away.
Starry looked out with question marks in his eyes.
Binbeat stared, tilted his head, and made a face. "Eww, don't get all lovey here. You're gonna spread girl cooties."
Sunday and Night stared at him, then back at each other, before finally doubling over laughing at themselves and the poor boy they'd brought into this. Binbeat grumbled that he didn't know what was so funny anyway. Once they calmed down, he went to stand on top of the bench, but thought better of it and instead floated up to eye level.
"I found him. He just ran a little bit away from Kainatrol is an' he's waiting for the birds." Binbeat took a deep breath. "You wanna go?"
These things. In the way. They needed to go. Taking the arm down that had been shielding her eyes from the flurry of birds, Kainatrol put one hand on either side of the Moon Dial and glowed a deep red. The light spread to the Moon Dial as a magic circle drew under her, and the room started to swirl and fade even more quickly. Light shot in all directions. When the red flash and glow had dimmed to normal, the room had more solid patches besides the one cracked portion of wall, where she'd erased Eiender. The birds were gone.
So was Mekuramast.
Kainatrol looked cautiously around the room. She ran a hand through her short hair and frowned.
"No. Too easy."
Her words echoed in the room even as it was fading. She took in a deep, tense breath and stepped forward with a crack. Not leaving the Moon Dial even for a second, she started to move it with her. When it was too heavy or awkward to carry, she settled for teleporting forward, looking around, teleporting again, and repeating.
"You could be anywhere, couldn't you?" She addressed the shifting halls. She was beginning to tremble, but she didn't look afraid. Her face was twisting into a wide grin, and her eye was twitching. She began to glow red, keeping one hand on the edge of the Moon Dial, and struck the air with her other hand. The light hit a patch of wall; it crumbled and faded away. Kainatrol laughed and did it again. "Ahaha... I'll find you!"
"Hey!"
Kainatrol spun and barely threw up a round red shield to deflect Cure Sunday's flying kick entrance. Sunday landed a few paces back and sprang right back up.
"I'm surprised you people keep surviving!" Kainatrol kept moving, teleporting, and Sunday dashed along with her, aiming her strikes.
Sunday smiled confidently. "There's nothing you'll stop at unless we stop you ourselves! Night!"
Night entered behind her from a wall that had just faded out and landed a punch on Kainatrol, though it barely hit before she teleported again. She straightened herself up and pointed at Kainatrol. "You're tearing the place apart because you don't have what you want? What is wrong with you?"
Kainatrol breathed in and out haltingly with a laugh under her breath. "Do you think I care about being a bad person? About being a danger to the worlds? Well, what have you done with your lives?"
"Now!" Sunday lunged for the Moon Dial while Night came at Kainatrol from the other direction. Kainatrol threw up a round shield and knocked them both away. They got up to their feet again and looked at her smirking at them from behind the shield.
"Oh, just try to break this," Kainatrol said. "If you don't wear yourselves out trying. I've said it before: I don't fight."
"How can you do this?" Night clenched her fists. "Do you even realize what you're doing?"
"I've established that I do," Kainatrol replied. "You might want to remember it."
"She's trying to wear us down because she can't control our minds!" Sunday looked at Night, then at the shield. "We can break this just like we broke that orb when Tachimany captured Starry, remember? Let's go!"
Night took a deep breath. "All right!"
The two of them ran at full speed towards Kainatrol. She smirked, watching their fists strike her shield at the exact same time. As they put more and more power into that one hit, the shield began to crack. Finally, their pressure broke through it and it shattered into energy - only to have another barrier, and another behind that, form and expand quickly enough that it slammed into them and hit the two of them far back.
Night and Sunday both crumpled to the floor. They shook and untangled themselves, bringing themselves to their feet, and looked up. Kainatrol was now surrounded by five layers of shielding and laughing at them.
"You've got to be kidding me!", Sunday exclaimed. "Come on, Night, let's use the Second Spin!"
"If we do that, she'll just create more!" Night watched her. "There has to be a better way to do this."
"Oh, you can try," Kainatrol said, "but I don't have any weaknesses you can counter."
Suddenly, a whip made of scarves shot out between Night and Sunday and lashed at one of the barriers before constricting and cracking it. The Cures turned around to see Mekuramast letting go and pulling it back into his sleeve.
"You're talented with blatant lies, Kainatrol," Mekuramast said, "but that's about it." He looked at Night and Sunday, nodding at each. "She may be strong now, but even with the Moon Dial in her hands, you can resist her. No matter how much power she has."
"That's ridiculous," Kainatrol said. "I'm certainly strong enough to fight the three of you... oh, and it looks like I'm not alone."
"What?"
Kainatrol gestured to an open spot in the floor where birds were flying out from. When the three of them looked cautiously, Hitosalesque rose up from the gap and spin-kicked the air. The wind bounced harmlessly off of Kainatrol's shields but sent the others skidding back and shielding their faces. Suiyacross followed through the hole in the floor just before it closed.
"Fashionably late, as always," Suiyacross commented. "Shall we show them how it's done?"
"Absolutely," Hitosalesque said. "Heal me first."
"Of course, of course!" Suiyacross drew out a potion from his seemingly limitless jacket and tossed it over. "To full!"
Mekuramast shot out his scarf whip. Suiyacross moved in front of Hitosalesque as she opened and drank the potion, catching the scarves around his arm and not even wincing. He shook off the whip and smiled, shaking his head, as Mekuramast drew the whip back.
"Trying to catch her while she's preoccupied? And you say we're low."
Just as he said this, the floor opened up again. Dawn and Dusk flew up through, socking the two in unison. As they stumbled back, Hitosalesque spin-kicked them into the floor and followed up with a wind kick to send them back. Dawn and Dusk got up and dusted themselves off. Devance teleported over and flung a knife that clinked off of Kainatrol's shield. Millusion teleported in with Mia, hanging in the back.
Suiyacross opened his mouth to speak. "Well, this is-"
"I don't care how many there are." Kainatrol cut him off. "Finish them. The two of you are here to defend me." As she said this, she concentrated on the Moon Dial. The scene around them warped and changed. The floor took a sharp drop and the ceiling disappeared and the walls got taller and further apart. As the assortment opposing her watched, Kainatrol flew high above them in her shield bubble, and the air around her and under her was warping like a volatile thing that switched from solid to liquid to gas without stopping.
"She knows full well that the Etherium is breaking with how she's abusing the Moon Dial," Devance said, clenching a fist at his side.
"It's not just that," Dusk almost whispered. She looked up at Kainatrol laughing down at them. "She's doing it on purpose now. What is she thinking?"
Mekuramast's eyes darkened. He ran forward and leapt into the air, flinging a handful of cards upwards. Hitosalesque clapped and did a small twirl, and the cards exploded harmlessly before reaching Kainatrol. Mekuramast landed on the ground and glared up at her.
"The show's only started," Hitosalesque said. "And we're working so hard to entertain you all."
"You're all blights in our new boss' eyes," Suiyacross said, "and we've got just the cure!"
Mekuramast seethed. "Very well." He got to his feet. "After all, it took two people to kill the two of you last time. With this many, it's surprising how long you've already lasted, no matter how strong you are!"
"Oh, really?" Hitosalesque responded with another spinning wind kick. Mekuramast teleported out of the way, and Sunday and Night behind him jumped over it.
Dawn and Dusk joined hands again.
"Dawn Phasing!"
"Dusk Phasing!"
Sunday grabbed Night's hand. "Us too, before she gets them! Sun Limit!"
"Ah- Night Limit!"
Hitosalesque laughed. "Double-teaming isn't going to work~ Dear?"
Suiyacross pulled out a bottle of clear bubbling liquid. "Only the very best! Now!" He popped the cork and flew up to Hitosalesque's martini glass, pouring the liquid in. It just kept filling the glass until it was full, a trickle seeping out of the crack in the glass aside, even if the bottle couldn't have held that much potion. Smoke began to pour out of the glass in huge clouds, spreading through the room. Mia immediately doubled over coughing, and Millusion crouched down beside her. Dawn and Dusk covered their mouths and tried to jump, but landed back on the floor - gravity still worked in the core. Mekuramast covered his face with his cape and Devance flew above the smoke. When it hit, Sunday and Night both collapsed to their knees, coughing and tearing up.
"What is this?" Night gasped for air. "It's like exhaust!"
Devance hovered over. "Suiyacross' title in the Etherium is the Curing Poison. His potions can either heal or hurt. Are you all okay?"
"We'll live," Millusion called. "Unfortunately-" coughing fit- "nobody ever taught me how to fly!"
Sunday tried to breathe in and out, but every breath took in more of the toxic smoke. She fell to the floor and tried to pull herself up, only to fall down again. She heard Night calling her name and falling down too. Laughing? Probably Kainatrol. Concerned voices. More people falling down. She reached to her side. Night's hand grabbed hers and held it. They lay there, trying to get up, trying to move, closing their eyes to shield from the gas.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEP.
"Nnn...?" A hallucination? Didn't those exist for audio too?
BEEP. BEEEEEEEEEEP.
No, that was definitely beeping. When Sunday listened, she also heard what sounded like.. laser guns going off? The smoke didn't feel so heavy anymore, and she was able to push down on the hand that wasn't holding Night's and pull herself up to her knees. She rubbed her eyes and waved her hand in front of her face before daring to open her eyes.
The smoke was clearing. It looked like it was leaving out a hole that hadn't been before. Sunday shook Night's hand and pulled her up, holding her and shaking her awake. The beeping started in again, and this time they saw a big red laser cut through the smoke and heard what sounded like a window breaking. The smoke quickly started to dissipate, fading away from a brightly coloured light that was moving quickly and erratically toward them.
"We made it!" A familiar voice sounded like it was coming out of an intercom... or a loudspeaker.
"And without your awful driving," said another person. "Hey, everyone, you all right?"
"Hoshi? Yukari?" Sunday looked over at the last of the smoke clearing. Screeching to a stop, led by more of those same white birds, was the DaiVan. Yukari opened up the door and waved.
"This is easy enough to operate!" She rubbed the back of her head as she looked at Cure Dawn, who was still breathing and standing with an amused look on her face. "Well, we're sorry about driving your van."
"Yeah, easy enough when you take care of the lasers and I try not to die," Hoshi grumbled. "I'm putting this in park. I can't drive this thing either."
As Sunday watched her friends get out of the van, she took account of the others. Dawn and Dusk were helping Millusion revive Mia. Devance was there, too, but keeping an eye on Hitosalesque and Suiyacross, who were fending off Mekuramast's cards, whip, and other magic tricks; that shattering sound must have been the martini glass, or now, its lasered remains. Sunday quickly turned her head down to Night, who groaned and rose to life.
"Ngh," Night said. She coughed at Sunday holding her up. Sunday awkwardly let go of her, only to grab hold again to help her up to stand again and let go more cautiously this time.
"This cannot be happening!" Suiyacross supplied Hitosalesque with potions and stayed behind her.
Hitosalesque traded long-distance attacks with Mekuramast as the two kept moving around. "Don't worry, we'll finish them off!"
"No way!" Cure Sunday swept her hand out. "Everyone, now's the time! Night!"
Sunday and Night held hands again and the magic concentrated under and around them.
Hoshi and Yukari nodded. Warm white light shot off of their bodies, visible even against the cold white Etherium. A half-awake Mia and a reluctant Millusion followed, and then Devance, Dusk, and Dawn. The light flowed into Sunday and Night and they smiled. Blue fire engulfed them for a brief moment before burning white.
"Sun Limit!"
"Night Limit!"
"Despite the passage of time..."
"...our feelings will endure forever!"
Cure Sunday and Cure Night flew up into the air, above the battle with Suiyacross and Hitosalesque, and aimed right at Kainatrol, taking the energy the others had given.
"Pretty Cure Unison Second!"
They let go of one another and raced through the air and past the warping pieces of space. Both of them targeted the exact same spot: Kainatrol behind her layered shield bubble. They connected. Slam. Crack. Break. Slam into another layer. Crack. Break. Another. Another. They reached out and linked hands again, taking on the last layer of the shield, pouring all of their power into breaking it and getting at Kainatrol.
It broke.
But she was already gone. She and the Moon Dial had teleported behind them just as they cracked the last layer of shield. Sunday and Night's comet-like unison helplessly sped forward and the shifting Etherium moved to meet them. They crashed through wall after wall built in the same place until their energy burned out and they crunched painfully into the last wall. The two of them tumbled like swatted bugs down to the floor.
"Asa! Nakayama!" Hoshi ran over to their limp forms.
Yukari followed. "Night, Sunday, are you still-"
Suiyacross teleported behind them and threw another powder on them. The two shuddered to a stop, frozen in place. He looked them over and grabbed one Moon Piece each out of their hands. Starry popped out of the phone he was in, but Suiyacross kicked him aside, rummaged through the Cures' phones, and extracted their Moon Pieces too. "Four," he called.
"Perfect." Hitosalesque ducked backward under Mekuramast's next attack, grabbed his scarf whip, and yanked him to the ground by it. She let go and closed in on Dawn and Dusk with a series of wind kicks as they were running over. Devance tried to attack her, but Suiyacross teleported back and intercepted the knives he threw with his cloak, which took no damage. Hitosalesque knocked them back with a high kick, teleported over, and extracted their two Moon Pieces from their cassette players just by holding one hand over each until the Pieces flew out, without even using the Storage Card. Both Hitosalesque and Suiyacross retreated back and flew to where Kainatrol was.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Dusk jumped over toward them, Dawn and Devance following. Kainatrol shielded herself from their attacks and pushed forward with the shield to send all three crashing into the ground.
Kainatrol looked down at the scene below her and laughed. "Oh, finally. I was afraid that was going to take forever. Not that it matters in a place without time, right?" She fixed her eyes on Suiyacross and Hitosalesque. "You've got the Moon Pieces. Now give them to me."
They hesitated. Suiyacross spoke first. "You're certainly stronger than you used to be. Is that just the Moon Dial?"
"What does it matter?" Kainatrol raised an eyebrow. "The Moon Dial is everything. It's power over time and space. Now give me the pieces so I can complete it again."
Hitosalesque shook her head. "We'd also like to know something more pressing." She looked down at their prone enemies, and then back to Kainatrol. "Exactly why was everybody else gone when you summoned us? I'm only counting two defectors here, save for that girl we don't know. What happened to the rest, hmm~?"
"You're defying me." Kainatrol grasped the Moon Dial and charged up an attack. "You're defying me!"
"Uh-uh," Hitosalesque said. "We've got Moon Pieces. The Moon Dial can't touch us, and neither can you."
"It can't," Kainatrol said, "but I can." She started to glow, taking in energy from the Moon Dial and from the surrounding area.
"What's she doing?" Hitosalesque guarded herself.
"I doubt she knows," Suiyacross said. "Watch out!"
Kainatrol shot her head back and laughed. Dark red light spread around her before drawing back in, and her eyes locked straight onto the two of them. Her body started to fade in and out for a moment before a wave of energy crashed onto them instantly. She bound the two of them in red magic and pressed.
"I can't... breathe," Hitosalesque gasped.
"It's crushing me!" Suiyacross called out.
The two of them struggled to move, to break out of their bindings. Hitosalesque shook and tugged until she managed to slip out an arm. She yanked at the bonds and they tightened. Suiyacross cried out and she looked over to him. She slowly, still trying to live let alone move, reached out to him. Stretched. He fought in his bonds until something opened up, while Kainatrol looked on. Living on halting breaths, they reached out to one another, stretching to at least have the slight brush of fingertips for a second or less. But they were just too far apart, if they just tried harder, reached-
Their arms fell. They disappeared and the magic faded, leaving only six Moon Pieces floating in the air.
Kainatrol walked forward on air and grabbed the Moon Pieces. She shook her head, spun on her heel, and went back to place them into the Moon Dial. Once they were all in, the thirteen Moon Pieces shone and the cracks between them healed. A sun-and-moon insignia formed itself atop the now complete Moon Dial.
Cure Sunday managed to look up and shake her head. "No..."
Cure Night forced her head up as well and stared. "It's really over."
The Etherium started to solidify more than it was, the shifting pieces of wall under Kainatrol's feet disappearing. Kainatrol looked at the place where Suiyacross and Hitosalesque had been. She scoffed. "Idiots."
Mekuramast, from the ground, could only stare. He saw them over again, suspended just far enough apart to be unable to touch. He saw her, and her, and himself, and the tent being eaten away. He dropped to his knees and held his hands up to his head.
"It's no use. It's no use after all..."
Kainatrol looked down at him and gave that uncanny smirk.
"That's it, isn't it?" She burst out laughing. "It's no use! That's it! If I was just supposed to deal with it while you pulled up after she fell into despair, when I was the one who had never given up, then you should deal with it, too! Deal with your hard work, one hundred fifty years of holding on so you can get the Moon Dial and get your revenge on me and fix your precious world, accomplishing nothing!"
Mekuramast didn't move. Kainatrol continued.
"I don't know or care what she was to you, you were both going to run away and leave me there when I deserved to escape far more than you did! Now you're the one who doesn't have any hope." She made a sweeping gesture at the people on the ground. "None of you have any hope! You'll all be gone soon. You will never have existed. And then, now that I know about the worthless impressions your lives leave behind in here, I'll wipe out whatever's left of you, your worlds, my undeserving backstabber of a weak sister, and everybody else!"
She laughed in the echoing void room, to herself and to the rest. Suddenly, she heard another sound.
"You're wrong!"
Silence. She looked down. Cure Night was pushing up with the strength she had no business still having, forcing herself up to her feet, looking from the ground at Kainatrol. "You're wrong," Night repeated.
"What?" Kainatrol felt a chill.
"When you said we didn't have any hope." Night looked down at Sunday, then back up. "We do. Even without our Moon Pieces. Even beaten, and even trapped here with you. We've always got hope!" Sunday smiled up at her.
Kainatrol twitched and started to fly down closer. "What do you know!?"
Night stood her ground. "I know that, even if life is painful, life is also good. The world may have hurt me, it may have hurt all of us, but there are reasons in that same world for me to hold on!"
Sunday pulled herself up and stood beside Night. She smiled at her before looking up at Kainatrol. "She's right. There's something for everyone to live for!"
"That's impossible!" Kainatrol let go of the Moon Dial and flexed her riding crop tightly. "There's nothing for you to live for. Everything will cease to exist soon!"
"But that's exactly why we won't let that happen!" Sunday called up at her. "There's still hope. After all, I still have the next episode of DaiFighter to watch!"
"...What?"
"Yeah!" She pumped her fist. "The finale is coming up really soon, and I have to know what happens!"
"What is DaiFighter anyway ~muu?" Moonla popped her head out of Ami's transformation cassette player. "Is it important ~muu?"
"Of course ~susu!" Starry emerged from the phone. "Mama, DaiFighter is the story of a person who does great things and fights for justice ~susu! I watch it every week with Asa or Yoko ~susu!"
Night sweatdropped, but Sunday looked encouragingly at her. Night took a deep breath. "Sunday's right, we all still have things to live for! Like I have to finish all my schoolwork because the semester's almost over, so then I can have more fun with my friends!"
Dawn and Dusk smiled at each other and got to their feet.
"I have some explaining to do to my child," Dawn said, watching Kainatrol turn to look down at her. "Both of them. When Karei gets back from her school out of town, I'll tell her everything, too."
Dusk twirled around despite her injuries. "I have a duty to the world to spread happiness and instruct my class in the ways of being kind to one another and filling the world with positive change!" She coughed. "Maybe I will finally get a promotion, too."
The rest of the assorted group started to stand up.
"I have so many things in the Land of Legends that I still haven't seen yet!"
"I still have friends I want to go out and have fun with!"
"I have a title to win!"
"I have to support my parents' store!"
Mia hesitated. "I want to meet all of the members of the boy bands on the covers of Kira-Kira Monthly from the past year!"
Hoshi boggled at Mia. "Ogata?"
Mia wrung her hands. "It was the first thing I could think of..."
Dawn smiled. "Nothing is too small or too implausible. All of our dreams are worth living for."
"That's right ~sasa!" Sunbi's head emerged from Dawn's transformation player. "I dream of a lifetime supply of donuts ~sasa!"
Dawn laughed. "Still?"
"Absolutely ~sasa! I will not give up on that dream ~sasa!"
Mia blinked. "This sounds like a long story..."
Kainatrol nearly snapped her riding crop in half. She started to descend toward the other side in her shield bubble. "What is wrong with all of you people? None of these things matter! Do you even realize that that world you're talking about is about to end?"
"We know where you're coming from, all right." Dawn stepped forward. "We're saying that you will never win."
Dusk stood beside her. "We're saying that everything has its value, and so we'll never let the world die without letting everyone find and keep their happiness!"
"Happiness?" Kainatrol threw her riding crop down and it landed on the air in the shield level to her feet. "I would have thought by now that you would be less ridiculously naive. You don't deserve happy lives." She flickered in and out again. "Nobody does."
"You said something earlier today," Dawn said, sizing up Kainatrol. "About what we said to your old boss, which you twisted to help yourself. When we said 'you must believe there's something good about life, because you're still alive', you know that we didn't mean he should erase himself. What we meant was that life has value. Ours and yours."
Millusion watched the scene from the back. Her eyes moved from side to side, taking in every detail.
Devance stood on the other side of Dawn. "Will you even be happy if everything else goes away, Kainatrol?"
Kainatrol seethed. "I can't be happy if it's still here."
Behind her, Mekuramast rose to his feet. He was still shaking as she turned around to look at him, but he looked up at her in response.
"So what you did was make it so that nobody could be happy if you were still around," he said. "All these years, you've just spread misery to make others follow you and then wipe them out."
Kainatrol gave a mocking laugh. "Oh, don't talk about it like you didn't have anything to do with it, Kairos. White or black, an eye mask is still what it is. You've done the same damage as any of us. Wasn't it you who said the Garden of Rings wasn't worth living in when I asked you to join the Etherium?"
"Maybe I was wrong about that." Mekuramast didn't move. "And believe me, I'm well aware of the things I and everybody else did, both following our previous employer and, for those less fortunate, following you. None of that changes the fact that you need to be stopped, Thera. More than anything else, I'll work for that, even if I'll never bring Kore and our world back!"
Kainatrol blazed with rage and red light. "You-! Why? Why won't you stop! Even when I break you, you get back up! Kore doesn't exist anymore! Thera doesn't exist anymore! Thera was a caged trained animal! Kainatrol is the one who is spreading Thera's hopelessness!"
She restructured her shield to open a gap between her and Mekuramast and aimed a light from the Moon Dial at him. Cure Sunday rushed forward to kick her, and Kainatrol quickly put the shield back to normal and stopped charging power. Sunday bounced off the shield.
"So if you can't be happy, nobody can!?" Sunday kept attacking the shield. "What is wrong with you?"
Hoshi watched the fight and gestured to Night. "That enemy of yours? She's mad. Get her to let her guard down again. As long as she's paying attention and remembering to keep the shield up and rebuild it whenever it breaks, she'll just keep putting it back up until she gets bored and erases everyone."
Night kept her eyes on the fight. "Or," she whispered, "once she feels we've suffered enough." She ran in after Sunday and threw a punch at the other side of the shield.
"You really are children!" Kainatrol laughed. "You keep trying something that won't work. I have more than enough power to take you now."
Dawn, Dusk, and Devance stood ready to join in at one side of the fight, Mekuramast at the other. Hoshi and Yukari looked ready to get back in the van, and Mia stood on the sidelines. Millusion was still by Mia, watching. Watching everything.
Sunday shot her palm forward at the shield. "You aren't going to win. It doesn't matter if you could erase us all right now. Even if you did, you still wouldn't be happy that way!"
Night gave the shield an uppercut from the other side. "Being alone because the world might not accept you isn't the answer!" She kicked it. "Those people you erased or even killed- any one of them, as unlikely as it wounds, could have become someone important to you!"
Kainatrol threw off her shield. Before anyone could do anything, she held the Moon Dial and a wave of energy spread through the room. Everyone but her was now suspended in place, feeling an odd tingling everywhere, unable to move but able to see and hear. Kainatrol looked at the Moon Dial with a brief smile and turned her attention back to the assorted room.
"If you say I'll never win, I have to question you. Or maybe I'll just erase you all now and get to work on your worlds." She let go of the Moon Dial, started to walk down the air to the ground, and leaned down to look into Night's frozen face. "You don't know a thing." Kainatrol then stood up and made a sweeping gesture to address the whole room. "None of you do, though it's not too surprising. You can't do a thing about it. Everyone I got rid of, by erasure or otherwise? They deserved it! In fact, they deserved worse."
Kainatrol and her assortment of victims heard a crack. An explosion.
She spun around, only to have ten or twenty small bombs go off around her, knocking her down. Her spell undid itself and everybody else in the room stumbled back to life. They turned in unison to the new hole in the wall and the organ music coming out of it. Binbeat slammed the keys of the organ, scattering more explosions around Kainatrol and knocking her out of range to reach the suspended Moon Dial. He turned his head and threw his mask into the abyss, looking straight at her.
"Did not."
"Brat- you're alive?" Kainatrol scrambled up to lunge for the Moon Dial. She stopped. Instantly, where Kainatrol had been, there was an orb of dark teal light.
Heads turned to the only possible source. Millusion was holding out her silver-plated pendulum, swinging it back and forth and glowing blue-green.
"All right," she told herself. "Make the Moon Dial. Make all the people. Make everything perfect. It has to be perfect or she'll notice."
Mia gasped. "Are you - are you making this room, Omemi-san?"
"I've made it!" Millusion didn't look aside. "I'll keep this up for as long as I can. Kawada! Nakayama! Everyone, do it!"
Sunday and Night nodded. They stood to hold hands. Dawn and Dusk walked up to the other side of the Trance Lock orb and also held their inside hands. They reached out their outside hands to the younger Cures, who hesitated, looked at each other, and then took their seniors' hands so the four Cures were standing in a linked circle. Sunbi, Moonla, and Starry popped out and activated the right cards in all four phones.
"Dawn Phasing!"
"Sun Limit!"
"Dusk Phasing!"
"Night Limit!"
A giant four-coloured magic circle formed under them, spinning in pink and orange and purple and black.
"Everyone, give them energy!" Hoshi started to glow as she dragged an also-glowing Yukari into the DaiVan, standing at attention to backup. The light flew off of them, and everybody else in the room followed suit, filling the Cures' magic circle.
"Time goes on," said Cure Dawn, and the pink quarter of the circle lit up.
"Things are found and lost," said Cure Dusk, and the purple quarter of the circle lit up.
The other two looked at each other again before letting the words they felt compelled to say come out.
"All of our hearts...", began Cure Sunday, with the orange quarter shining in response.
"...will remain united!" Cure Night finished the circle, with the black quarter giving off its own aura. The circle spun faster and energy flowed in from all directions, surrounding the four. They took a deep breath and shouted in unison.
"Pretty Cure Neverending Eclipse!"
They sent forward a flurry of spinning power all focused on the centre where Kainatrol was. Millusion threw open the orb. A Kainatrol who had been gleefully attacking fake enemies with a fake Moon Dial barely blinked before it hit her. From thousands of different directions all at once, she was pierced with a shining, multicoloured light and a warm feeling. Her eyes widened, her mouth dropped open as she trembled and wrapped her head around it.
"It's not..." She barely managed to get that out before she was completely swallowed up by the light. When it faded, she was gone.
Cure Night bowed her head, and Cure Sunday followed suit. Slowly, Dawn and Dusk did as well, and then the rest started to follow. Mekuramast held off for a minute or so before shaking his head, sighing, and slightly inclining it. The Moon Dial lowered to the floor, and the four Pretty Cures walked to it.
Night took a deep breath. "Are you ready?"
"Of course." Sunday smiled.
The two of them touched the Moon Dial.