"Today is the best day ever!" Meihime exclaimed joyfully. As Meihime was glorifying the moment, Kintsuki and Sensaina awkwardly laughed off Meihime's enthusiasm.
"Well, it's not everyday you can become eligible to become class president.." Kintsuki said as her mouth twitched.
Sensaina had never actually seen Meihime so charismatic and excited. The only reason Meihime was eligible was because she attained above ninety percent as her grade point average. Although, both Sensaina and Kintsuki were able to see Meihime as class president. Not because of her courageous leadership skills (which she didn't really have) but because of her organization skills and the fact that she was the most levelheaded in the class. Of course, Meihime too saw these qualities in herself but she pretended they were nothing more than a bonus in her personality around others.
"There's no chance I would lose, I'm the only one running!" Meihime interjected fiercely.
"Well, Jonetsu's probably eligible too but she's been sick for the last two days.." Sensaina stated.
"Even if I wasn't running, they'd have to elect me by default!" Meihime cackled.
"Meihime, class hasn't even started and you've already become louder than me.." Kintsuki badgered.
"You of all people know how important it is to be ladylike before, during, and after class hours." Sensaina teased.
Reddening, Meihime sat herself down and took a deep breath.
"Either way, I'm becoming class president..no matter what!" She declared.
Kintsuki and Sensaina however were no longer paying attention to Meihime and instead were talking with a few other girls from the class.
"Apparently an exchange student is transferring into our class." One of the girls whispered.
"I heard she's from the middle east!" Another of the girls whispered.
"I heard she's some sort of child genius." One girl whispered.
"Ch-child genius?" Meihime stammered. Meihime attempted to shrug off the statement as if it had no worth to her.
Soon, class began and Ms. Kimura had an announcement to make.
"Class, we have a transfer student with us today." Ms. Kimura began.
"So it really wasn't a rumor." Meihime thought with a desolate look in her eyes.
"You may come in now," Kimura motioned someone from the hallway into the classroom. It was a girl with naturally tan skin and most likely fake magenta hair. She wore glasses that partially obscured her very dark brown eyes and on her face was an excessive amount of beauty marks. She wore an expression that made her seem unimpressed with the school and as she turned around to write her name on the board, the classmates were already whispering opinions about her.
"Think that's her natural hair colour?" Kintsuki whispered to Sensaina, shocked by insanely bright her hair was.
"Probably just hair dy-" Sensaina was cut off as the girl glared at her with eyes that seemed able to rip out one's soul.
"Avani..Joshi?" Even Kimura was struggling as she attempted to pronounce the girl's name.
"Correct." Avani responded neutrally.
"Well, feel free to tell us about yourself.." Kimura said awkwardly.
Avani 'hmphed' before anything else.
"As you can see from the board, my name is Avani." She said, making her thick accent evident," I was born and raised in India prior to coming to Midorikage."
"That's it?" Kintsuki groaned quietly.
"Now that you have learned a bit about me, let me know a bit about this class." Avani added.
"What do you want to know?" Kimura asked.
"Would someone like to inform who has the largest intelligence quotient here?" Avani asked.
Meihime grinned behind her notebook.
"That's the IQ thing right?" Kintsuki asked blandly.
"Heh," Meihime stood up from her seat," I suppose that would be, yours truly." Meihime said with a flick of her hair to the side.
"Well then.." Avani began quietly," Consider our next test our first battle of wits!"
"Huh?" Meihime squeaked.
"Haha, it seems 'class president' has made an enemy!" Kintsuki snorted.
"This won't be ending well.." Sensaina said as she shook her head.
"Who gave you the right to declare that so suddenly?" Meihime snapped as she stood up stunning the majority of the class.
"Yours truly." Avani smirked.
Dumbfounded with how smug Avani was, Meihime sat back down.
Even Kimura was surprised with the events of this morning.
"So, yeah if you can all just turn to page ninety six in your textbooks.." Kimura said as she recovered from her state of surprise.
Avani sat down in the empty seat behind Meihime and grinned wickedly.
Meihime was able to feel Avani staring at her but didn't have enough bravery to turn around.
And to think, she thought today was the best day ever.
"Jonetsu, I'm home!" Haruko hollered with Toki on her shoulder and a large basket filled with various bottles of medicine and black ribbons in her hand.
She strolled in Jonetsu's room, where she found an incredibly ill Jonetsu that was wide awake.
"Who let you in?" Jonetsu coughed in a voice that didn't sound like her own.
"The door was open." Haruko responded.
"My dad can be such a dim-wit!" Jonetsu said as she slapped her forehead.
"Anyway, I brought some home-remedies and other things for your recovery!" Haruko exclaimed.
"Please, Haruko I'd rather just rest right now." Jonetsu said as she reached for her tissue box. She blew her nose and Haruko held out her first remedy.
"I brought chicken noodle soup!" She cheered.
"It's too rich for me, I can't stomach it." Jonetsu responded.
"Orange juice?" Haruko asked as she held out a can.
"Allergic." Jonetsu responded.
"Steam in a can?" Haruko asked as she held a silver canister.
"Where do you even get this stuff?" Jonetsu asked.
"Well, I promised Sensaina I'd do every thing in my power to help cure our ill Cure, get it?" Haruko said as she began to laugh uncontrollably.
Jonetsu rolled her eyes and suddenly felt a sneeze coming on.
"Achoo!" She sneezed loudly. She buried her beneath her blankets and shuddered away a sudden chill.
"That's not how you get better," Haruko said as she crossed her her arms.
"Says you." Jonetsu said as she lifted her head from the blankets. She then noticed the black ribbons in Haruko's basket.
"What are those for?" Jonetsu asked, pointing to the ribbons.
"Oh these?" Haruko asked," I brought them here just in case you kick the bucket, by the way, do you have any decent sized photos of yourself?"
"Haruko, get out!" Jonetsu yelled.
"Who would've thought our class would get another child genius?" Kintsuki cackled as she chomped down ketchup chips.
"It's not funny!" Meihime said while she crimsoned.
"But it seems like that girl means business." Sensaina pointed out as she took a chip.
"Don't remind me..." Meihime sobbed.
"She was even taken home in some retro car!" Kintsuki reminded the girls. The girls were dismissed from school half an hour ago but decided to stay back a little longer just because of how nice it was outside. Meihime was hopeless and becoming a little dramatic. Even though Kintsuki and Sensaina were worrying about Meihime's well-being, they had to admit to enjoying watching Meihime taking the situation so seriously.
"If it's a battle of wits she wants.." She slowly took something out from her bag," It's a battle of wits she'll get!"
She unraveled what seemed to be a giant scroll chock-full of information.
"Meihime, what the heck is that?" A startled Kintsuki asked as she took steps back.
"A family heirloom, it's a scroll with everything the school curriculum has to offer." Meihime said with pride.
"What kind of family heirloom is that?" Sensaina asked as she tilted her head.
"With this, I promise, I will beat...Avani Joshi!" Meihime said as she held the scroll up in the air.
Elsewhere, Hatred and Kagekaze were at Malevolent, the former having just confessed something important to him.
"Kagekaze, what do you mean your gem is dying out?!" Hatred shouted.
"Exactly that." Kagekaze responded tonelessly.
"Hirutaro, take a look at it." Hatred said as he turned his back to pace around the room.
Hirutaro did as told as bent down to examine Kagekaze's gem. As he inspected the gem, Kagekaze looked over to Hatred, who appeared more aggravated then he expected.
"As the days go by he's changing more and more..." Kagekaze thought idly," He's trying quite hard to play the part of the bad guy but...he hasn't quite got it yet."
Kagekaze even remembered how a couple of days ago, Hatred attempted to insert a corrupt dreamstone into himself, but it didn't work.
"Keyword being 'yet'."
"The original color of your gem was grey, was it not?" Hirutaro asked after examining the gem.
"Yes, it was." Kagekaze responded.
"This is strange, your gem looks as if half of the onyx shard was shattered." Hirutaro stated as he eyed the gem once more.
"Only half..?" Kagekaze asked curiously.
"It appears you don't don't have much time left before the onyx of your gem dies out, and not to mention..." Hirutaro trailed off.
"I suppose it was to be expected of me." Kagekaze replied calmly.
"But how could that have happened?" Hatred asked angrily.
"How else?" Hirutaro and Kagekaze responded.
Out of rage, Hatred punched the nearby wall.
"Curse you, Pretty Cure.." He said bitterly. His eyes suddenly opened up widely and he drew his hand back.
"I think I broke my wrist!" He wailed.
Kagekaze and Hirutaro looked at their superior skeptically. Unwillingly, Hirutaro took a look at Hatred's wrist.
"Hideki, what happened?" Ayane asked with concern as she noticed his left hand bandaged up.
"It's nothing really, don't worry about it," Hideki assured.
"I wonder.." Sensaina said as she saw Hideki with Ayane."..If he hurt his wrist as Hideki, or Hatred."
" I studied for twelve hours straight and I am without a doubt ready!" Meihime declared as appeared before Sensaina, a gigantic pair of dark circles around her eyes.
"I forgot to study," Sensaina said sheepishly.
"Meihime!" Kintsuki cried as she held a yellow envelope in her hands," Oh, there you are. Avani told me to give you this, and then she called me an underling. By the way, what's an underling?"
Meihime ignored her question and snatched the envelope in her hands," What is this?" She opened up and disposed of the envelope and held a white sheet of paper that came from inside the envelope.
Meihime became as pale as a sheet and tipped backwards.
"Her lowest mark at her old school was a ninety-eight point four." Meihime said as she fell to the ground overwhelmed.
"Lemme see," Kintsuki grabbed the paper from Meihime and she and Sensaina looked at what seemed to be Avani's report card.
"I thought getting a hundred in math was urban myth," A stunned Kintsuki remarked.
"She even got a ninety nine in gym.." Sensaina added.
"It's no use, I can't compete with someone like her!" Meihime cried.
"Wait just one minute!" Kintsuki shouted," Where did all of your can do spirit go? Didn't you just say you spent all of last night studying to beat Avani? I mean, you haven't even tried yet so what's the point in giving up now?"
"You're right." Meihime sniffled before putting on her game face again," I'll try my best."
After a few more words of reassurance from Kintsuki and Sensaina, Meihime was ready for the test next period. As she walked into the class with quiet footsteps, Avani, who was already seated, shot her a menacing glare that was shaken off by Meihime.
"Alright, you have all of this period for the test, so.. do your best," Kimura said, satisfied with her unexpected rhyme.
"Alright, there's no way I'm letting her get the best of me!" Meihime thought. She glanced over to Avani, who had already started the test.
Soon, when it seemed like a reasonable time to hand the test back, the kids who never studied handed their tests in. Next was the group who barely knew what they were doing, Sensaina being one of them, and regretfully handed their tests in. After an hour had passed, the only students left writing the test were Meihime and Avani.
Kimura glanced at the clock that indicated one minute of class was left,"And time is.."
"Finished!" Meihime and Avani yelled in unison.
"Thank you girls." Kimura said as she took the papers of the two.
"Hmph." Avani sounded as she turned her head away from Meihime.
"Well, hmph to you too." Meihime said as she turned her head away from Avani.
Later in class, a new lesson was being taught as Avani vigorously wrote down notes, Meihime idly stared at the board. In her defense, she was trying to concentrate on Kimura's lesson, but was rendered unable to do so thanks to Kintsuki's worthless, unnecessary commentary every three minutes. Soon, she just gave up on focusing and started to doodle scary drawings of Avani.
The next day, the class received their tests back.
"Fifty eight percent..." Kintsuki read from the test written in dark red ink," Close enough."
"Sixty two percent.." Sensaina shrugged," Better than last time."
"Mei, what'd you get?" Kintsuki asked as she peered over the girl's shoulder.
"A ninety-nine percent?" Kintsuki gawked.
"No way!" Sensaina said as she looked over Meihime's other shoulder. Unlike her friends, Meihime didn't seem as surprised with her mark, instead she seemed anxious.
"It's good but.." Meihime said," But, what only matters is who got the higher mark."
As Avani was handed her test back, Meihime turned her head in Avani's direction.
"What did you get?" Meihime asked cautiously.
"See for yourself." Avani snickered as she held her test.
"A ninety-nine percent?!" Meihime shrieked.
"I knew victory would be mine," Avani responded.
Kintsuki of course, felt the need to correct Avani," You didn't win." She held up Meihime's test.
Avani's eyes widened a little.
"Sad to say.." Kimura said to the class," Quite a few of you did fail. So, I'm to give a retest tomorrow to those who want a higher mark."
A sickening grin from ear to ear appeared on Avani's face. Meihime noticed the grin and could already tell where this was going.
"So who would like to retest?" Kimura asked.
"I'd like a retest!" Meihime and Avani said together.
Kimura blinked for a few moments, the statement momentarily unable to process.
"Ok..but, you two got the highest marks in the class. Are you sure you'd like a retest?" Kimura asked.
"Absolutely!" Avani shouted determinedly.
"Without a doubt!" Meihime yelled stubbornly.
"Fine," Kimura shrugged with the response of the two most relentless girls in her class.
"Until then.." Avani glared towards Meihime.
"Until then..?" Sensaina and Kintsuki asked together. Obviously the two couldn't tell Meihime and Avani were inevitably drawn together due to their excelling grades and their aggresion towards each other.
"I challenge you to tennis, Aisaki!" Avani bellowed as she held a pair of rackets in one hand and a tennis ball in the other.
"Challenge accepted!" Meihime shouted as she walked towards Avani and took one of the rackets from her.
The two began to play and their game became so intense, the whole class became an audience and so the two relentlessly played until class was over, with the game at deuce.
By lunch, the girls were shocked to see their beloved lunch table turned into a complete mess.
"There's no way we're going to clean this up!" Kintsuki declared as she folded her arms.
"Speak for yourself." Meihime muttered. Avani happened to be nearby and so, another challenge was made.
"Avani! I challenge you to see who can clean this mess first!" Meihime cried.
"Fine." Avani responded bitterly.
"Are you kidding me?" Kintsuki asked as the two began to clean intensely. Sensaina stiffly laughed and within the blink of an eye, the two were finished.
"Who won?" Meihime asked desperately.
"I...blinked and missed it." Kintsuki replied sheepishly.
Meihime groaned and Avani snickered.
"I think it's obvious who won this match." Avani stated as she dropped a rag onto the table she cleaned. Curiously, Meihime walked to the table and swabbed her finger against the surface. Her pupils shrunk in surprise.
"There's just no way!" Meihime shouted. It was as if Avani carried a bottle of wax in her pocket.
"Better luck next time." Avani said as she walked back to her lunch.
"She plays dirty." Meihime grumbled as she took a seat.
"You can only be good-hearted for so long." Kintsuki pointed out.
"Then what do you think I should do?" Meihime groaned as she bashed her head against the table.
Kintsuki rolled her eyes and then whispered something into Meihime's ear.
Meihime gave a rather mixed reaction to the response, but appear to go along with it anyways.
Later in class, Meihime was slightly on edge and Avani seemed to be enjoying Meihime's distress.
"I need someone to take these textbooks back to Mr. Shizuka." Kimura said as she pointed to a stack of books lying on her desk.
"I'll take them!" Meihime and Avani volunteered.
"I suppose, four hands are better than two." Kimura said.
The two each carried five textbooks, which appeared to be an enigma with their tweenage girl strength.
"Whoever gets them to the classroom first is the winner." Meihime whispered as the two were outside of the classroom. Avani nodded and the two ran towards the classroom. Avani sped up and Meihime giggled as she knew what was going to happen next. Avani grinned as if she was victorious and all of a sudden, she slipped to the ground and the textbooks were launched into the air.
As Avani rubbed her head and looked at the fallen textbooks, she saw a banana peel lying haplessly on the ground.
"Well played Aisaki." Avani remarked as she stood up," But, we're still tied."
"I don't think we're tied." Meihime said solemnly," I think you're better than me."
Avani didn't seem to be too surprised with Meihime's statement," If anything, I believe you could be as great as me. That is, if you dropped the deadweight."
"Deadweight?" Meihime repeated in a clueless tone.
"We can all tell the reason you aren't mentally at your fullest potential is because of those two." Avani said," So why bother waste your time and intellect with them?"
"I..I don't see it as wasting my time and intellect though," Meihime defended," To be honest, the reason I keep them around is because their dear to me and I know it's weird, but, the reason I always have my homework done with every answer correct is just so if one of them forgets they can borrow off me."
"Why would you let them do that though?" Avani questioned.
"I enjoy the praise they give me everytime I let them borrow my work." Meihime beamed," Also, I don't like conflict at all and Avani, you seem like a remarkably intelligent, but lonely person. Avani, would you like to be my friend?"
Meihime held her hand out with a gentle smile on her face.
Avani stood there speechlessly.
"I-I-I..." Avani stammered as she took steps back," My apologies." Avani then proceeded to run in the other direction.
"Avani!" Meihime called out.
After school, Avani hid under a bench nearby the school and was talking to herself. She was thinking of countless worst case scenarios and then saying things that she would say in said scenario aloud.
"I'd love to go to the beach with all of you this spring break but I'll be long gone.." She said quietly," It's not my fault, it's just..there's never enough time."
Elsewhere, Kagekaze was with Hideki.
"I can sense a corrupted dreamstone." Kagekaze said.
"I sense it too." Hideki responded," This is your last chance."
"Don't worry, I will tear those Pretty Cure limb from limb if they get in the way." Kagekaze said maliciously.
"Just..don't hurt Cure Songstress." Hideki said," You can test out that theory today too."
"Is someone there?" Avani asked quietly as she poked her head out from beneath the bench.
"Nothing enough time you say?" Kagekaze asked from the top of the bench.
Avani got up from underneath the bench and took steps away from Kagekaze.
"J-just what are you?" Avani questioned.
"That doesn't matter." Kagekaze said as he extracted Avani's dreamstone. He took Avani's glasses' off from her face.
"Escape, Malvoid!" He shouted.
"Malvoid!" The monstrous pair of glasses roared.
"We never found Avani.." Meihime droned.
"We checked everywhere, let's just head home." Kintsuki groaned as they took a seat at nearby table. The three of them smashed their heads onto the tabletop and suddenly, they heard the Malvoid.
"What was that!?" Kintsuki asked.
"I'll go check, you two go home for the day!" Sensaina instructed.
"Sensaina, quit trying to be heroine we're here too you know." Kintsuki reminded.
Sensaina clenched her teeth as Kintsuki's stubbornness," Then go get Haruko and Jonetsu."
"I just said we're here too you know!" Kintsuki shouted," Besides, Haruko could be anywhere and Jonetsu's sick so-"
"Understood." Meihime responded.
"What? We're going?" Kintsuki asked.
"We'll bring them here immediately." Meihime assured.
"I know I can always count on you Meihime!" Sensaina praised.
Meihime blushed and the two of them went off to find Jonetsu and Haruko.
Sensaina took out her dreamkeeper as the two were out of eyesight.
"Pretty Cure, Dream On!" Sensaina shouted.
"Singing the everlasting melody, Cure Songstress!" Songstress introduced.
Songstress ran towards the Malvoid and was shocked to see Kagekaze here once more.
"What happened to everyone else of Malevolent?" Songstress asked.
"You haven't realized?" Kagekaze asked," They've all been killed by Hatred."
Songstress held her mouth in shock. She wasn't sure whether she was happy that Hideki was cutting down the populace of Malevolent, or horrified knowing Hatred killed his subordinates when they seemingly did nothing wrong.
"How could he?" Songstress asked softly. Instead of thinking deeply about this though, Songstress fought back.
"Pretty Cure, Melody of Madness!" Songstress shouted.
The Malvoid tumbled down and Songstress drove her heel into the Malvoid.
"Yes!" Songstress exclaimed.
The Malvoid stood up again and slammed Songstress into the school.
"Did he energize it?" Songstress asked as she stood up.
"Didn't have to." Kagekaze called out," Your attacks didn't damage it all."
Songstress bit her lip and made herself fight even harder. She threw countless kicks and punches until soon she was out of breath.
"Where are those two?" Songstress panted.
"Enough of this." Kagekaze said as he brought himself in front of Cure Songstress. He was about to take her dreamkeeper from her waist when suddenly, two girls stopped it.
"Not so fast!" Garden shouted.
"We're ending this now." Matchmaker said with a dentist mask over her mouth.
"Still sick Matchmaker?" Songstress asked.
Matchmaker coughed in response.
Suddenly, Kagekaze took Songstress' dreamkeeper from her waist.
"Now to test my theory." Kagekaze said.
Songstress' body was growing numb, then painful.
"What the..?!" Songstress gasped out.
"He's going to throw it-kore!" Doki shouted in distress.
Just as he was about to release it from his hands, Kagekaze froze up.
"What..?" He asked.
"I'll be taking that." Songstress said as she took her dreamkeeper back.
"Pretty Cure, Double drive smash!" Matchmaker and Garden shouted as they combined their powers to fight off the Malvoid.
"Songstress, now!" Garden shouted.
Songstress nodded in agreement.
The Destiny Casket held by Doki opened up and Songstress received her Lyrical scepter.
"Lyrics and vocals, the power of a song!" Songstress chanted.
"Pretty Cure, Music Heaven!" Songstress shouted as she surrounded the Malvoid with her violet atmosphere changing attack.
"Awake!" She shouted as she purified the Malvoid.
The next morning, Avani confronted Meihime.
"I'm sorry for my behavior yesterday." Avani apologized," It's just..I'm not used to friends and I actually haven't been exposed to platonic relationships as much as the average person and..it makes me think my lack of experience with people will make you get bored with me."
"I honestly don't I ever be bored around someone like yourself Avani." Meihime replied," I don't think anyone ever could!"
The two girls laughed.
"So, do you still want to be friends?" Meihime asked.
"Absolutely." Avani beamed," And Meihime?"
"Yeah?"
"You'd have my vote as class president!"
"In my defense, you didn't say anything about not being allowed to nearly kill her." Kagekaze pointed out.
Hatred took a deep breath and turned away.
"I'm sorry, Kagekaze." Hatred apologized, turning around to take Kagekaze's gem.
"It's fine, I couldn't care either way.." Kagekaze stated," But, it's you I'm worried about."
"Why is that?"
"You've fallen in love and because of that Malevolent's victory is slipping out of your grasp. We've all, even Hirutaro, have realized you're lovesick for Cure Songstress and now it seems you're at a crossroad."
Hatred crushed Kagekaze's gem.
"Fine, dispose of me. It doesn't change anything, Hideki." Kagekaze's final words were. Kagekaze's body turned into Hatred's shadow.
"Even my own shadow didn't understand my motives.." Hatred said darkly,"Then again, I don't even think I understand them."