"Ready?"Songstress asked to her fellow Cure.
"Now or never!" Matchmaker shouted as she stood in standby position.
"Lyrics and vocals, the power of a song! Pretty Cure, Music Heaven!" Songstress chanted. Her atmosphere-changing attack trapped the cookie Malvoid, giving Songstress a chance to purify it.
"Malvoid!" The nearby glass of milk Malvoid bellowed.
"Have no fear! Garden is here!" Garden declared readying herself for her entangling vine attack.
"No need!" Matchmaker cried dashing to the Malvoid.
"Shapeshift! Lovestruck Scepter!" Matchmaker called out to invoke the inactivated scepter in ring form.
"Joy and Passion, the power of love! Pretty Cure, Lovely Oasis!" Matchmaker chanted. That Malvoid also became trapped within the attack and the two Malvoids were rendered defenseless.
The two Cures stood side by side ready to finish off their respective Malvoids.
"Awake!" They shouted in unison as they purified the Malvoids.
"Not again!" Tsuchiyo complained before he left.
"I..I could've done that too." Garden stated quietly.
Her fellow Cures didn't hear her statement and detransformed before her. Dropping into Sensaina's hands was a dreamstone with a bow on it.
"It's so cute!" Sensaina gushed. Sensaina placed it in the Destiny Casket, which was now the home for the duplicated dreamstones, and the two older Cures were ready to head home for the day.
"We'll see you tomorrow Haruko, okay?" Sensaina said as the three of them were about to stray paths.
"You got it!" Haruko said, pretending to remain cheerful. As they split from each other, Haruko let her real thoughts leave her mouth for the environment around her to hear.
"It's kind of humiliating, they've both gotten their scepters to work. And then there's me." Haruko deadpanned herself. She flashbacked to when her strange mini-scepters found their way into her hands and gave no evident instructions on how to actually use them. They were supposed to be used by instinct in some sort of spur of the moment but what if that spur of the moment never came. Would she just remain a burden to her team?
She clutched her tie in doubt and felt her dreamstone resting on the head the tie. That's right, she couldn't get self-conscious now. Otherwise, she'd be abandoning her dreams in a dark desolate place in the back of her mind and frustration and insecurity would consume her.
"I'm sure I'll get them to work, eventually." Haruko said to herself.
The next day, Haruko, asleep in the back of her classroom was dreaming of herself finally becoming capable of using her mini scepters and saving the day.
"I did it!" She yelled in her sleep.
"You sure did, Hanakaze." Her teacher said impatiently.
Haruko woke up and yawned obnoxiously causing half of her class to giggle at her stupidity.
"Morning teach," Haruko said as she stretched.
Her teacher did nothing but sigh.
"Haruko, we just went over a lesson..." Her teacher groaned," And now you have a project assigned."
"Mind explaining the project?" Haruko asked befroe she let out a yawn.
"In groups of two, you're are going to do a thorough research on an alternative power source which will include cited sources, write-ups, and of course, full colour pictures." Her teacher explained.
"Alright, so...looks like I'll need a partner." Haruko stated tiredly.
"I'm sorry, it seems the majority of the class already has a partner. Oh wait, you can partner up with Ameko."
"I'm going full-steam ahead then!" Haruko exclaimed shaking off her tiredness. She then awkwardly faced her teacher.
"Who's Ameko?" Haruko asked.
"Nice to meet you, Hanakaze." A timid voice said. Haruko looked up seeing an orange haired bespectacled girl with violet eyes in front of her. Haruko blinked for a few moments, running through her memory to see if the girl was already an occupant in her mind. It didn't seem so, but nevertheless, Haruko greeted her partner with absolute cheerfulness.
"Nice to meet you, Ameko!" Haruko beamed as she shook Ameko's hand.
Ameko, startled with Haruko's sudden handshake, smiled awkwardly and led Haruko to her desk at the front of the class.
"So I was thinking we could do this one." Ameko pointed to a heading in the textbook.
"Hydropower...that's like, water stuff right?" Haruko asked.
Ameko nodded and began to jot down notes. Soon, Haruko took notice of something strange about her writing.
"Are you from Japan?" Haruko asked curiously.
"No, I've lived in a remote land for the majority of my life and I transferred to Midorikage about two months ago." Ameko responded sheepishly. Haruko also noticed Ameko taking pauses between sets of words as she tried to translate herself.
"My father is from the remote island, and my mother is Japanese." Ameko added.
"Cool!"Haruko commented as she began to wonder to herself if it was such a good idea to have slept during this class. As Ameko began to jot down more notes from the textbook, Haruko began to think only of Ameko and her near illegible writing
"What if she says something really smart and I can't follow because I fell alseep?" She thought to herself," What if she asks me to read over something and then I start looking stupid because I haven't read from the textbook in a week?"
Haruko distressingly thoughts of multiple worst-case scenarios while Ameko researched.
Soon, class was over and Ameko clumsily packed up her things and left the classroom.
"At least that class is over." Haruko sighed," And then there's the last three.."
After school, Sensaina and Jonetsu waited for Haruko to leave her classroom to walk home alongside their fellow Cure.
"Honestly, what could be taking her so long?" Jonetsu groaned impatiently.
Haruko soon emerged from the classroom doors as she overheard the girls' voices.
"I can't walk home with you guys today." Haruko said," I'm working on a project with a classmate."
"Alright, I guess we'll see you tomorrow!" Sensaina said as the two girls walked away.
Haruko sighed," Who knew science could be so stressful?" Haruko walked back into the almost vacant class with only Ameko inside and returned to her 'work'. Sad to say, Haruko sort of had a reputation for slacking off on projects, so it was no wonder she got stuck with Ameko. Surprisingly though, Ameko didn't seem to mind doing all the work. Eventually, both girls grew tired of working and even Ameko began to slack off by drawing strange doodles in her notebook.
"Do you want to call it a day?" Haruko asked.
Ameko gave her a blank stare and forced Haruko to reword herself.
"Would you like to stop for the day?" Haruko reworded.
"Yes please," Ameko said. She picked up her bag and other things, leaving Haruko without saying good-bye.
"She hates me, I know it." Haruko said to herself as Ameko was out of earshot. Haruko then found one of Ameko's drawings on the table. Haruko picked up the paper with some form of interest.
''Aliens?" Haruko tilted her head in confusion. On the page was a load of alien doodles, all being drawn out very well.
Haruko soon left for home, with Ameko's alien doodles residing in her bag.
"Haruko, you're home late," Rikka noted as her daughter entered the flower shop.
Haruko, slightly irritated with her mother's commentary threw her bag's handle on the banister of the stairs that lead to their home.
"Busy day, I had a Science project to do." Haruko said as she took out Ameko's doodles from her bag. Haruko charged upstairs with the page of Ameko's doodles clutched by her small hands. As she got up to her room, she began to stare at Ameko's doodles once more.
"I wonder if aliens are an alternative power source.." Haruko said aloud. Then suddenly, a strange realization fell upon her.
"Is Ameko..an alien?!" Haruko shrieked.
That night, Haruko slept uncomfortably and had an odd dream. It was night in her dream and she was on the school rooftop, but not alone. Suddenly an immense bright light filled the rooftop. Haruko looked up squinting and saw a UFO hovering from above.
"No way!" She yelled. She looked straight forward and saw a girl with bright orange hair that fell to her back with dark blue eyes dressed in neon green.
"Is that..Ameko?!" She yell-whispered, as she ducked down. The girl looked around and adjusted her side bangs, then the UFO shot out a neon green light and from the UFO came down a legitimate alien. The alien stood in front of the girl and held both of her hands. The two then leaned in towards each other and Haruko turned away shutting her eyes.
"This can't be happening!" She squeaked. Then suddenly, she awoke from her unbelievable dream.
"I don't think I ever want to sleep again," Haruko moaned as she ran her right hand through her hair. She sat up but quickly collapsed back down in exhaustion. Later as Haruko walked to school, she put her thoughts of her Ameko dream aside and thought about how little progress she made in activating her mini-scepters.
"But I'm the one who opened the Casket, so shouldn't I have been first to activate my scepters?" Haruko asked skeptically. She kicked a nearby stone in frustration. She then tried to think up of methods to activate her scepters. She remembered how hard Jonetsu trained before she got her scepters to work, but unlike Jonetsu, Haruko was a child with little interest in training, and labour.
"Training's for chumps." Haruko concluded. She then drove her hand into her bag and picked out Toki.
"I really hate it when you stuff me in there-desu." Toki complained.
"Do you have any idea how I can get my scepters to work?" Haruko asked.
Toki pretended that she was in deep thought but eventually produced no helpful suggestions.
"I'm really sorry-desu." Toki apologized.
Haruko sighed," It's alright." Haruko began to walk again.
"Try thinking of something both Songstress and Matchmaker had in common as they activated their scepters-desu." Toki suggested.
"Well, let's see." Haruko thought to herself. Haruko went through her memory to view Songstress' and Matchmaker's latest attack.
"It was pretty much compiled of a desperate situation, overflowing motivation that led to a powerful statement..am I missing anything?" Haruko asked.
"You're missing instinct-desu." Toki pointed out.
"Oh yeah..." Haruko said. Haruko looked up to the sky in doubt hoping she could find the answer to her inability to use her scepters.
"I won't get anywhere by just thinking about it.." Haruko said. She then shrugged and smiled running off to school.
No one but Ameko was in class yet and the bespectacled girl sat alone in the empty room doing what seemed to be more research.
"Morning Ameko!" Haruko exclaimed.
"Oh, go-good morning, Hanakaze." Ameko greeted shyly. As Haruko sat herself down at the desk beside her partner, Ameko glued her eyes back to the textbook.
"I promise I'll work really hard today, so how about you let me jot down a couple of points?" Haruko asked.
"Alright." Ameko gingerly held out the book to Haruko. As Haruko wrote down pages of points with her large writing, Ameko began to doodle aliens again.
This was the only opportunity Haruko would have in finding out if Ameko was an alien or not, so she slowly closed the textbook and reached for Ameko's doodles from yesterday in her bag.
"You forgot this yesterday." Haruko held out the doodled page.
"Thank you, I was..." Ameko fidgeted as she tried to find the right words to say,"...looking for it yesterday."
"Wh..who is it?" Haruko pointed to the alien on Ameko's page.
"What?" Ameko asked.
"A-ameko, are...are you an, erm, a, well ali..alien?" Haruko lowered her voice to a complete whisper as she got to the word alien.
"No," Ameko giggled," I just like to draw them."
"Oh of course!" Haruko laughed at her stupidly, pretending she wasn't the slightest bit embarrased right now.
"Heh, I just hope this project goes well though," Ameko said.
"Don't worry, it'll go great as long as we have you!" Haruko cheered.
"Maybe then I can make more friends too," Ameko said quietly with a half-smile on her face.
For the next few days Haruko and Ameko stayed afterschool to work and as they worked alongside each other, their friendship grew stronger. Soon Haruko was getting chuckles out of Ameko and she soon discovered Ameko knew how to play rock-paper-scissors. Soon, the project was finished and all that was left was to place their names on their project.
"Haruko and Ameko.." Ameko said aloud as she wrote on the poster.
"Ameko, your kanji's looking great!" Haruko praised.
"Not only that," Ameko moved from her page-blocking position. Above their names , Ameko swiftly drew a drawing of herself and Haruko.
"Nice!" Haruko high-fived Ameko.
"She's really artistic too!" Haruko boasted the next morning to Sensaina and Jonetsu about Ameko.
"Didn't you suspect her to be an alien?" Jonetsu asked in her skeptic tone.
"W-well that was before I got to know her!" Haruko yelled in her defense.
"You're presenting today right?" Sensaina questioned.
"Yup! It's going to go greatly!" Haruko exclaimed.
Later in class, Ameko and Haruko were placing a few final touches, as in glitter and captions, on their project. But during the touching up, Ameko seemed different from the day before when they were alone in the classroom.
"Say, Haruko." Ameko began.
"Haruko." Haruko winked.
Ameko giggled and returned to her timid state," Are you sure you want to present today?"
"Sure, I don't see why not," Haruko said.
"Well it's just the glitter glue might run and we haven't exactly practiced what we are going to say." Ameko pointed out.
"Would you rather present tomorrow?" Haruko asked.
"Yes please." Ameko smiled bashfully.
Ameko seemed slightly on edge all day and Haruko's thoughts were slowly beginning to travel back to her scepters.
"What if they don't want to make friends with me?" Ameko asked herself that night.
"What if they don't want me to be a Pretty Cure anymore?" Haruko asked herself that night.
"I haven't heard much from Haruko in the past few days," Sensaina said.
"We haven't heard much from Malevolent either.." Jonetsu pointed out. During the past few days they were beginning to wonder what became of Ignis. They let themselves believe she was spared but at this point they both really knew neither of them could be so sure.
"Hey, Sensaina," Jonetsu said.
"Hm?"
"What else do you think, the Destiny Casket can do?" Jonetsu asked.
"How should I know?" Sensaina asked.
"Aren't you the leader?" Jonetsu reminded with a chuckle.
Jonetsu did have a point, she was supposed to know this more than anyone else. And yet, she was as clueless as her teammates.
"So, who wants to go first today?" Ms. Mabushii asked. It was day two of presenting and Haruko raised her hand up impatiently.
"Ms. Mabushii! Ms. Mabushii! ..." She hissed her teacher's name on the last call.
"Haruko.." Ms. Mabushii said with evident irritation," Would you and Ameko like to go first?"
"Don't mind if we do!" Haruko stood up gallantly with Ameko following behind as she held the poster.
The girls held opposite sides of the poster and readied themselves to present.
"Hydropower is an alternative source based on water," Haruko read from the poster. She raised her eyebrows to Ameko, indicating it was her turn to speak.
"Hy-Hydr-hydropower is com..common..."Ameko was having trouble speaking in front of the class. Everyone in class, including the teacher stared intently at her.
"Commonly found in suburban remote areas," Haruko whispered.
Ameko nodded and repeated Haruko's whispered words.
"Hydropower, however, is a costly source." Haruko looked towards Ameko smiling.
Ameko was flustered and glanced at the poster. She was beginning to panic, she couldn't even focus on the words. She blinked for a few moments in confusion then looked to the classroom. More than a dozen beady eyes were on her and Haruko waiting for her to say something. Finally she hung her head and admitted defeat as tears started to well up in her eyes. The class , the teacher and Haruko were startled by this. Ameko, realizing what she had done, ran out of the classroom at breakneck speed.
"Ameko! Wait!" Haruko called out chasing after her.
Ameko hid in the janitor's closet and sobbed to herself.
"I couldn't make friends, what was I thinking?" She sobbed to herself," Nobody wants to make friends with someone who can't even talk in front of the classroom..."
"Aw, such a sad story!" A rough voice belonging to a possibly uneducated individual said.
Ameko looked up and was about to scream her lungs out as she saw none other than Tsuchiyo.
"Who are you?!" She screamed at a volume she didn't realize she was capable of reaching.
She momentarily stumped Tsuchiyo with her question, but the Major returned to what he was intending to do.
He removed Ameko's dreamstone and the girl collapsed to the ground. Tsuchiyo found a nearby mop.
"Appear, Malvoid!" Tsuchiyo shouted pointing the mop.
"Malvoid!" The monsterfied mop roared.
Haruko, who was still running in the halls encountered the Malvoid and stood in position with fear.
"Of all times.." She groaned to herself. She then realized this was most likely Ameko's dreamstone this Malvoid was created from.
She took out her dreamkeeper and well, you know the rest.
"Pretty Cure, Dream On!" Haruko shouted as she transformed in the hallway.
"Growing everything in a lifeless land, Cure Garden!" Garden announced.
"Did it come here alone?" Garden asked as there was no Major in sight.
"Get back here!" Tsuchiyo said as he ran after his Malvoid.
"Oh..well, in any case," Garden ran out of the hallways," I have to lead it out of the school!"
Garden ran from the school and the Malvoid, still being pursued by Tsuchiyo, followed after her.
She threw kicks and punches, giving moderate damage to the Malvoid.
"As usual, this never gets me anywhere." Garden sighed.
Through the window of the classroom, Sensaina saw Garden battling the Malvoid. Sensaina caught Jonetsu's attention and pointed the window and it's view to her.
"We can't just leave now!" Jonetsu yell-whispered.
"Well, we certainly can't let anyone else see her!" Sensaina whispered.
"If she's smart, she'll stray the Malvoid away from the school." Jonetsu whispered.
"If she's smart?" Sensaina repeated doubtfully.
Garden, however, did lure the Malvoid away from the school and into a desolate tree-filled area near the school.
"Botanical Evergreen..Flourish!" Garden stretched her vines out and grabbed the Malvoid.
Her vines broke quickly and Garden was forced to use another attack.
"Pretty Cure, Budding Charge!" Garden shot flowers towards the Malvoid.
"Garden, do you want me to go find Sensaina and Jonetsu-desu?" Toki asked.
"No, I don't need them!" Garden shouted as she fought against the Malvoid.
Toki looked at Garden with doubt but stayed by her side.
Garden fell down multiple times and Toki watched her get up every single time.
"Garden, why are you trying so hard-desu?" Toki asked quietly," You have comrades.."
"I won't get anywhere if I have to depend on them!" Garden shouted as she drove her heel down into the Malvoid.
"But they're willing to help-desu." Toki said quietly.
"I don't want help, I've been a burden lately Toki. I need to redeem myself!" Garden shouted. Suddenly the Malvoid smashed Garden against a tree. The Malvoid cornered Garden and readied itself to give her a final hit. Suddenly two voices called out familiar attacks.
"Pretty Cure, Melody Ring!" Songstress shouted.
"Pretty Cure, Rhapsody Halo!" Matchmaker shouted.
A chain of violet and red rings appeared and latched onto the Malvoid, tugging it from both sides.
"Guys..." Garden began as she got up.
"Still don't need us?" Matchmaker asked.
"Garden," Songstress started," You're anything but a burden to us!"
"But I-! I've just..." Garden trailed off in realization, remembering that she was just as strong as them,"Yeah, maybe you're right. Man, why did it take me so long to realize that?"
"Because you're a kid?" Matchmaker teased.
"Yeah, that's probably why, but you know what? Why should being a kid bother me? What's so wrong about it? And what's so bad about accepting help from your friends? It's only the right thing to do. Now I understand, I-I guess... I'm so much more than I consider myself to be!"
Suddenly, the Destiny Casket began to glow from Doki's hands.
"Garden open it-kore!" Doki shouted. Garden opened it with the key and into everyone's hands came the scepters.
"I, I think my instincts are working!" Garden exclaimed as she looked at the scepters in her hands.
She ran up towards the Malvoid and held her mini-scepters out to it. She closed her eyes and as she opened them again her her eyes were glowing.
"Tulips and daisies, the power of flowers!" Garden chanted, flailing around her scepters.
"Pretty Cure, Floral Escape!" Garden winked. The atmosphere turned green and flowery and Garden formed a flower in mid-air as she threw the scepters into the air. With a snap and a clap the scepters fell back into her hands.
"Awake!" She shouted as she purified the Malvoid.
"Finally," Garden praised herself as she clutched her scepters.
Ameko's dreamstone duplicated and returned to her. Her dreamstone was neon pink with a smiling face.
"Well that's different," Matchmaker noted.
Soon Ameko came to and was surrounded by Haruko and the rest of the class, all concerned about her.
"What's happened?" Ameko asked as she rubbed the back of her head.
"Ameko, would you like some ice?" One girl asked.
"Yes please." Ameko sat up.
"Well, you ran out as we were presenting." Haruko said.
"Oh yeah.." Ameko looked down.
"But, we don't mind that you're shy." Haruko said.
"Yeah, Ameko, we even started looking at your project board in class, your drawings on the back were so cool!" One guy said.
"See Ameko? We think you're awesome!." Haruko cheered.
"So does that mean, you'll all be my friends?" Ameko asked.
"Of course!" The class beamed to her.