Round 3:
The Prejudice of Loneliness.
No more Max Heart…?
{OST: Chaos by Tsukasa Masuko from Shin Megami Tensei}
After returning to their starting point in the creepy chateau of Fearland, Okuhatter, the elegant boy with a large hat, and Wolfzack, the more wild-looking werewolf boy, kneeled in front of the granter of their powers, Lady Hately:
-"So you have come back in one piece…", the women of large demon wings murmured impressed.
-"Yes. We've fulfilled our duty!", the two boys replied in unison as they lowered their heads.
-"Is that so…?", the sovereign replied as her left eyebrow raised as she tested their honesty. Without her asking, the two warriors took out the collected sacred heart spheres in front of her and showed the energy cages where they trapped the fairy partners.
-"As you requested, the Sacred Heart Spheres…", Okuhatter mentioned.
-"…and that what could make them remember their positions as Pretty Cures", Wolfzack completed the elegant boy's phrase.
-"Well done", the woman showed her satisfied grin and pointed at the spheres in their hands, "Those spheres will be your victory trophy as they serve no purpose to me."
-"Why…Why ya doin' all this?", Tarte exclaimed as he made eye contact with the voluptuous woman.
-"What could you be referring to, Prince of the Sweets Kingdom?", Lady Hately asked him nonchalant as she rested her arm on her throne chair.
-"You're supposed to…!", Tarte tried to yell back but the powerful lady made the two energy cages disappear from her sight with a finger snap, teleporting the fairies to a large metal cage in a gloomy dungeon below the mansion.
-"What was I saying?", Lady Hately said to her servants shrugging off what the fairy mentioned, "The spheres. Keep them with you, surely their hidden power would be useful for you lot later on."
-"Yes, my Lady!", the two replied feigning ignorance to the motives of Lady Hately with the legendary warrior girls.
Once again, the voluptuous woman showed them the remaining mirrors with the other Pretty Cure:
-"Let's not waste time waiting for the other two", Lady Hately mentioned, "I want you to do the same for these ones as well."
-"In that case, I'll take care of these three", Okuhatter mentioned as he touched the mirror that illustrated Nagisa Misumi, Honoka Yukishiro and Hikari Kujou doing their daily activities.
-"So another quarter that depends on each other to make the most of their powers…", Wolfzack smirked entertained as he locked in the four girls of the Suite Pretty Cure team, "They even have a cat with them. I'm so going to enjoy fighting them this time", he added as his wolf ears stood stiff at the sight of the Major Land's singing fairy of white fur, Hummy*.
(*Don't worry guys, he's not gonna make Hummy his squeaky toy…I think?)
-"Then, we'll be on our way, Lady Hately", Okuhatter mentioned as he and Wolfzack made a respectful bow and left the room for their respective rounds.
{End of OST}
{OST: Nagisa no tēma ('Nagisa's theme') by Naoki Sato}
Meanwhile in the Garden of Rainbows, it was the afternoon and in the local sports stadium a lacrosse match was taking place. The team captain of Verone, Nagisa Misumi, was playing as splendid as always:
-"Nagisa, here!", one of her teammates, Rina, announced as she launched the ball at her.
-"Got it!", Nagisa caught the ball with her net and made her way to the goal line.
-"Come on, come on, come on! Do it, Nagisa!", Shiho excitedly shouted as she ran behind her with the players of the opposite team attempting to catch up to the captain.
-"Haaa!", with a powerful war cry, Nagisa threw the ball to the goalie net and scored the points needed for her team to win the match.
As the referee gave end to the match and the Verone team was singing praises to her captain for another successful match, two girls standing in the stadium's gallery looked down to the team with joyful expressions:
-"Nagisa-san is incredible as always!", Hikari Kujou mentioned as she dedicated a few claps to the success of Verone's lacrosse team.
-"She's always been, is and will be incredible, don't you think?", Honoka Yukishiro replied to her as she chuckled joyfully.
{End of OST}
Om the way home after the match, Nagisa left with Honoka and Hikari from the stadium to their usual hangout stand:
-"Ahh! I'm so hungry!", Nagisa sighed as she grabbed her roaring tummy.
-"Nagisa. You're always hungry…", Honoka complained.
-"Oh, speaking of food, Honoka you have to help me!", Nagisa mentioned as she snapped from her hunger thoughts to her romance thoughts.
-"What is it?", Honoka mentioned with curiosity.
-"Well…Fuji-P said that he would like grilled steak in our field trip tomorrow and…", she mumbled embarrassed. Even when she recently managed to confess her feelings and get a date with her beloved Shougo Fujimura, Nagisa was but a novice again in this girlfriend role.
-"I don't really know how to start!", she exclaimed with an anxious expression towards her friend.
-"Is your mother not at home? You could ask her too, Nagisa-san", Hikari wondered.
-"She hasn't been sleeping well and gets very moody…", Nagisa excused with a pout.
-"Don't stress then. Granny might have some recipes…", Honoka reassured her, "Then, we'll help you, right, Hikari?"
-"Yes! I can also ask Akane-san for help", Hikari nodded.
-"Alright!", Nagisa pumped her arms excited, "Since it's decided, let's get some takoyaki at Tako Café!", she exclaimed as she ran ahead of the other two.
From the sky, a shining sparkle appeared and some sort of little meteor ball fell behind Nagisa. Honoka and Hikari saw the object falling down surprised:
-"Honoka? Hikari? What's wrong?", Nagisa asked them as she did not understand what they were looking at.
-"N-Nagisa…", Honoka slowly pointed behind her and as she turned around, with some sort of accurate comedic timing, the meteor ball clashed with Nagisa's face and bounced, splitting itself in four lights.
The blue light fell on Honoka's hands, a pink light fell on Hikari's and the last two finished knocking Nagisa down on the floor falling on her torso. Soon as they landed, the four lights turned out to be the fairies from the Garden of Light:
-"Mipple…?", Honoka recognized the pink fairy of rodent appearance in her hands.
-"Honoka!", Mipple said as she hugged her relieved to see her again.
-"Lulun", Hikari was surprised to see that the princess pink bunny fairy was there as well.
-"Hikari! I'm here-lulu!", Lulun snuggled in her arms looking for comfort.
-"Ahh.. That was a rough landing-mepo…', Mepple, the yellow rodent fairy and Nagisa's partner groaned as he stood up from her torso.
-"That hurt-popo…", Polun, the white and mint green bunny fairy and Hikari's partner complained.
-"As always, Nagisa's head is incredibly tough and empty-mepo!", Mepple scuffed mocking his partner as he and Polun jumped out of Nagisa's body.
Nagisa stood up as soon as she heard that and grabbed the yellow fairy from his fat cheeks:
-"Who are you calling empty head, huh!?", she groaned angry as she stretched the fairy's cheeks like elastic.
-"I'mff soffy-mepho!!", Mepple apologized scandalously as he wanted her to let go, making everyone else smirking as they tried to not to laugh.
-"We don't have time for this-mepo!", Mepple yelled as he finally released himself from Nagisa's grasp.
-"Right! A dangerous enemy is coming this way-mipo!", Mipple added with a frown.
-"It's getting closer-lulu…", Lulun started to tremble frightened as she could feel a powerful darkness full of disdain approaching.
-"You can't be serious…", Nagisa sighed exhausted. It seemed like the days of Pretty Cure were never over.
-"Good afternoon, ladies", as soon as the sun was setting down, Okuhatter appeared behind Honoka and Hikari, giving a cordial salute to call for their attention to his presence, "I'm Okuhatter…I'll like to give a full introduction but unfortunately, I feel in a hurry of defeating you, Pretty Cure."
-"Hey! Hey! Who do you think you are to say such things!?", Nagisa exclaimed with offense, "Talk about deceiving appearances…"
-"Right! No matter your intentions with us…", Honoka agreed with a frown.
"We won't let you win!", the three of them exclaimed as their mascots transformed into their commune forms.
{OST: Pretty Cure Transformation Max Heart by Naoki Sato}
Nagisa and Honoka quickly placed the Queen of Light cards in their Heartful Commune's card reader and flipped the cases as they passed their hands on the sensors to trigger a powerful rainbow column:
-"Dual Aurora Wave!", Nagisa and Honoka yelled as they looked up holding hands and their bodies were pushed upwards.
Hikari passed her right hand over the Touch Commune to activate a column of sparkling golden light:
-"Luminous…Shining Stream!", she exclaimed at the sky as a light appeared in her chest starting her transformation.
With their full heroine outfits, Nagisa landed on the ground in a powerful squat and Honoka landed quietly before doing a back flip:
-"Emissary of Light, Cure Black!", Cure Black introduced herself showing off with a powerful fist across.
-"Emissary of Light, Cure White!", Cure White introduced herself holding a graceful pose.
-"Together, we're Pretty Cure!", the two announced as they posed side by side.
-"Being that wields the power of darkness!", White pointed at Okuhatter.
-"Go home at once!!", Black did the same.
-"Brilliant life, Shiny Luminous!", Luminous introduced as she let out the pink light out of her Heartiel Baton out, "The heart and the wishes of light united as one!"
-"Well, then…", Okuhatter held his hat as he transformed the environment around them into a blurry sky, "Let's start!"
{OST: Takamaru Kinchou, "Rising Tension" by Naoki Sato}
Black and White gave a step before jumping towards him to start their attack. First, Cure Black went with a flurry of fierce punches that her enemy dodged and repelled with his gloved hands constantly. As he stepped back, White followed with a double kick that he covered himself from and she made a midair backflip to float and launch a flurry of kicks. The boy with large hat shielded himself from one and grabbed her left leg to stop her attack.
White turned her body as soon as she noticed his grab to free herself, then landed on the ground and as he looked down, she gave him an upper kick to launch him upwards, there, Black aimed a punch to his stomach throwing him to the floor, and leaving a large crack under him.
The girl in black landed:
-"Nice one, White!", and praised her partner with a bright smirk.
-"You did awesome too", White replied as she placed her hands over her waist in a graceful pose.
However, they soon noticed their adversary standing up calmly as he shook off the dust of his tuxedo:
-"My, my, you girls are tougher than I thought…", and finished with a finger slide over the corner of his hat.
-"What? What?", Black mumbled surprised that he did not seem badly hurt.
-"Our attack had no effect!?", White exclaimed as she put her hands over her mouth in shock.
-"…Way tougher than Cure Bloom and Cure Egret at least…", he added with a devilish smirk, in an attempt to throw them off.
-"…", Black grunted as she grasped her fist, "You…!"
-"What did you to Saki-san and Mai-san?", Luminous asked with distress.
-"Let's say they won't get to be Pretty Cure anymore", Okuhatter replied as he made an uncaring pose by raising his shoulders slightly.
-"Hearing you say it like makes me so angry…!", Black pressed her fists thinking he was not playing around, "Whatever you did, we won't forgive you!!"
-"Let's go, White, Luminous!", Black turned to them as she if she knew they were going serious at him.
-"On it!", the two of them replied as the two fighters jumped on Okuhatter, who was enthusiastically waiting for them to attack.
Black and White aimed their punches and kicks aggresively, to catch him off guard, however, he dodged them and blocked them elegantly. Then, White squatted and aimed a kick at his chin; soon as he blocked it, Black tried to punch him by the side but he jumped to dodge it. The two of them did the same and jumped to a billboard and pushed themselves down to him as they aimed a double punch. Okuhatter covered himself with his cape along with his arms standing like a shield; however, the impact was so strong, they were pushing him back, with gravel flying up from the ground.
-"Luminous, now!", the duo exclaimed as they had their eyes locked in keeping Okuhatter on sight.
-"Wishes of light! Give me courage, hope and strength!", Shiny Luminous exclaimed to the sky, summoning her Heartiel Baton from all the way to the Garden of Light.
-"Luminous Heartiel Unction!", then she used it to launch her paralyzing attack, immobilizing Okuhatter only even when Black and White were still in the way.
{OST: Heartiel Baton by Naoki Sato}
-"Now, all together!", Luminous took the initiative to take back the Heartiel Baton to release a strong aura of rainbow light.
-"With surging courage!", Black yelled as she channeled the aura.
-"and overflowing hope…!", White continued as she did the same but elegantly.
-"Our bonds shine with great light!", and Luminous finished the sentence as she held tight to the Heartiel Baton.
-"Extreme…Luminario!!", Black and White held their hand together and the three of them yelled the attack name as they launched a rush of golden light towards the enemy, however…
{End of OST}
-"Oops…", Okuhatter said confident as the Heartiel Unction effect worn out and he quickly used his sword to tank the incredibly strong light.
-"What the…? Unbelievable!!", Black complained as she pulled more force into her attack.
-"You are way too confident if you think a rushed strong attack is going to take me down…", he told them, as he figured that was the only reason both of Luminous attacks were not as durable as he feared, and with a simple swing, the attack was pushed to the horizon.
*(In Max Heart, Luminous never used the Heartiel Unction and the Extreme Luminario in the same enemy because the Heartiel Baton actually flies off after the first one. I guess she needs to recharge it before using it again…?)
-"It can't be…!", Luminous said in shock.
-"He vanished our attack…!", White mentioned.
-"Don't give up-lulu!", Lulun interceded as she transformed into the Miracle Commune to give Luminous her Heartiel Brooch.
-"She's right! We have to do our best to help Bloom and Egret as well!", the blonde heroine said.
-"Let's go!", White said to Black as they nodded to each other to summon their Sparkle Braces from the light of the living in the Garden of Rainbows.
{OST: "Purikyua sanjou!" The Pretty Cure arrive by Naoki Sato}
-"Haaaah!", Black and White went on the offensive one more time. Okuhatter place his sword up front with alertness and as they attacked, he tanked their attacks noticing the significantly stronger and faster that they were and he quickly fell off as they were closer and closer of actually beating him.
-"Guess I better stop with the manners…!", he grinded his teeth as he proceeded to aim sword strikes at them and Black and White immediately went to defend and dodge.
-"You're wide open!", Black thought in her adrenaline rush as she aimed a strong punch with her sparkle brace, only to be stared by what seemed an eye of her same color under his hat, "Wha-?", and before having time to process it, he grabbed her by the arm and throw her at White.
-"Hyah!", White yelled in pain as she and her partner fell on the floor like rocks hopping on the water surface.
{End of OST}
-"That works for me…", Okuhatter mumbled as he walked up to them with his sword on hand and went in for a vicious attack.
-"No!", Luminous jumped in front of them using the Heartiel Brooch to create a protective barrier.
-"Tsk… This power of light is quite a handful…", Okuhatter complained and noticed Black and White stood again and jumped to attack him behind his back.
-"Go-t-cha-!", he spelled with a tease as he tipped his hat with the other hand and his cape acted like it had life of his own and wrapped them tight like a sushi roll and threw them to the floor.
-"Black! White!", Luminous lost her focus for a moment to check the state of her friends after that attack.
-"Watch out-popo!", Pollun yelled at her as their enemy suddenly moved behind her.
{OST: 'Haiboku no Yokan' (Premonition of Defear) by Naoki Sato}
-"Huh!?", soon as Luminous turned around, Okuhatter karate chopped her on the neck and picked her unconscious body to quickly grab the Sacred Heart Sphere from her chest. The sphere was pink in color with the insignia of Pretty Cure shining in a bright yellow color.
-"Popo!!!", Pollun yelled in shock as he detransformed from his commune form and Luminous detransformed to Hikari laying down in the floor.
-"Hikari! Hikari, wake up-popo!", Pollun yelled as he tried to wake her up in vain, before Okuhatter grabbed him from the coat of green hair over his shoulders, "Let me off…! Let me off-popo!! W-What did you do to Hikari-popo!?"
-"She's fine", Okuhatter told him as he made her sacred heart sphere disappear, "However, you won't see her quite…never again!", and then with an evil smirk, he enclosed the prince of the Garden of Light.
-"Hikari!"
-"Hikari!", Black and White yelled as they stood up and saw her on the floor.
-"Let me out! Let me out-popo!", Pollun started crying as he pushed while seeing Hikari's knocked out state.
-"What did you to her!?", White exclaimed shocked as she held a hand over her mouth.
-"Hand the two of them right now!!", Black demanded angry.
-"I would like to attend to the demands of a lady, however, it would be dishonest of me to even give you hope about it~", he said teasingly as he made the sphere with Pollun disappear at the snap of his fingers.
-"Keh…!", Black grinded her teeth frustrated and looked at White, who had the same determined look on her face.
Then, the two of them directed a synchronized punch at him to push him away from Hikari, as he blocked it by proceeding to dodge their attacks:
-"You're paying for that!", Black exclaimed as she continued throwing punches.
-"We'll defeat you here…and now!!", White exclaimed as they both jumped and aimed a drill kick that he blocked with his crossed arms, however once they pushed away to land in back flips, the impact made him release his hand off the sword.
{End of OST}
The enemy was unarmed and the Pretty Cure knew it was their chance to attack so they held their hands:
-"Black thunder!", Black raised her left hand up.
-"White thunder!", White raised her right hand up, and two monochromic lightning beams came down the sky to their hands, covering them in a boreal aurora layer.
-"Curses…!", Okuhatter called up his sword as he realized what they were going to do next. He knew that even if he moved from his spot, their technique was immensely powerful and difficult to dodge.
-"The beautiful souls of Pretty Cure…", White exclaimed as they channeled their power of light.
-"…will blast away your darkened heart!!", Black yelled as they pulled their arms backwards.
-"Pretty Cure Marble Screw…", and compressed their power on their fists to launch a powerful black and white beam, "MAX!!!"
Okuhatter clashed his sword with the beam and started to spin it to push back:
-"So this is the power of the very first Pretty Cure…", he mumbled as he pushed in, "Yet still…!"
-"Don't underestimate us!", White exclaimed, "The two of us together will take you down! The Pretty Cure don't give up that easily!"
-"That's true! The power of our bonds is stronger than any evil! You can bet on it!", Black yelled as their Sparkle Braces started to activate and fill up with lightning sparkles.
-"SPARKLE!!!", they screamed from the bottom of their hearts making the beam go with more intensity and change to a rainbow color.
-"Hmp!", Okuhatter saw the flash of the color change as he pulled his cape to vanish and let his red sword be shattered in pieces by the attack, which pulled up all they way to the sky.
As Black and White took a break, they noticed that there was nothing left from where Okuhatter was:
-"Where did he go…?", Black wondered as she looked around, "We need to follow him and get Pollun and Hikari back!"
As White observed her surroundings, her peripheral vision noticed a shadow stepping up from the bushes behind Black as he raised his hand. She acted quickly and released her hand:
-"He's going to shoot us…!?", she thought.
-"White? What are you doing!?", Black reacted confused as her partner proceeded to push her from the back and when Black turned, she saw the shocked face of her partner as Okuhatter's shattered sword had attacked her from behind, inserting into her body.
-"Whi…te…", Black mumbled out of breath as she felt obfuscated by that singular image of White's body being harmed like that. In a blink, the enemy was standing behind White holding her by the handle of his sword and it partially recovered its shape and once he took it off, a white sphere with the Pretty Cure insignia in blue came out. As Black stepped back, Honoka fell face down on the floor.
{OST: 'Yomigaeru akumu' (Reviving nightmare) by Naoki Sato}
-"Oh this one too…", Okuhatter commented as he quickly grabbed Mipple in her Heartful Commune form before she could think of switching back.
-"Mipple!!!", Mepple exclaimed with worry, "Black, we gotta…!", but as he saw her partner's down look, he knew rescuing was not an option, "We gotta escape!!"
-"Seriously?", Okuhatter said with a mocking laugh, "She sacrificed herself to save you, uselessly at that, and you're going to run away?"
-"Seems like this bond you were talking about was just a big lie", he said in a more serious tone as he reformed his energy sword completely and hide White's heart sphere, "I'm not quite found of lies, you see…specially the one that they call 'Hope'."
-"How could you…", Black pressed her fist in anger.
-"Stop it-mepo! He's trying to provoke you-mepo!", Mepple exclaimed.
-"HOW COULD YOU CALL HONOKA USELESS!?", she yelled as she went in with a powerful punch that he took on his hand, "I don't care what you are found of or not… I'm going to get back my friends!!!", and then gave him another powerful punch that send him off flying towards a tree and his hat flew off aside.
-"She got him…!?", Mepple thought surprised as he was a difficult opponent from the start. Black jumped to reach him and grabbed him from the neck of his coat, still angry.
-"Honoka and Hikari… Bring them back!!", she yelled at him, when suddenly he lift up his face and Black cooled off. It was just like the side glance that he had given her earlier, except his face was actually like HER face.
A shiver went through her body as she released her hold:
-"Me…?", she thought to herself as that face had a bitter and sad expression.
-"I can't do this anymore…I am all alone", even his voice was exactly like hers. It disturbed her.
-"This is my fault…", unexpected to her, it was like the face in front of her was speaking her subconscious feelings, "…This is all my fault! I was the one who rushed forward!"
-"NOO!! Stop!!", Black stood up and covered her ears as she was trying to resist the negative thoughts reflected in front of her.
-"If I wasn't so agitated, Honoka wouldn't have sacrificed herself for my sake…", Okuhatter continued as he found the chance to stand up.
-"NO!!!", Black yelled as her eyes caught a glimpse of the knocked out Honoka.
-"Snap out of it-mepo!", Mepple tried to make her reason, "We have to go with the other Pretty Cure-mepo! Black!!"
-"But even if I go with them, White is not with me… I would be a burden!", even though Okuhatter said that with her face, it was nothing but the truth; and Black fell on her knees as her mental fatigue was holding her back.
-"What's the use of "The two of us", if there's only one…?", Black mumbled saddened as Okuhatter approached.
-"Your determined face was just a lie. Let me get rid of it…forever", Okuhatter said softly as he knocked her out by hitting her head with the handle of his sword.
{End of OST}
-"Mepo!!", Mepple tried to create a distraction by switching back into his fairy form, but Okuhatter pushed him aside.
-"Nagisa!", he tried to stand up only to see it was too late. In Okuhatter's hand, it was Cure Black's black colored sphere with a pink insignia.
-"Why? Why is Lady Hately making you do this?", Mepple tried to stand up as he observed his surroundings to escape. Okuhatter retrieved back his hat.
-"Wasn't you fairies who decided to use the Pretty Cure against her on the first place?", Okuhatter replied as he took Nagisa on his arms, "Seems logical that she will get rid of them."
-"Mepo…", Mepple had no words. It is true that this is what Coco, King of Palmier Kingdom, had suggested to them: Take the offensive against Lady Hately before her threat became major.
-"This is bad…I have to go back and warn the others…", Mepple mentioned, however, the sight of Lulun scared on a corner made him change priorities and he went to her side.
-"Sweet dreams, Miss Misumi. Miss Yukishiro.", Okuhatter said as he made a salute with his hat, after placing both girls together as he had done previously with Saki and Mai.
-"Mepo!!"
-"Lulu!!", and soon, he captured the two remaining fairies like a dark gust of wind.
-"9 out, 24 remaining…", his confident voice resounded around the area as he disappeared from the Garden of Rainbows.
Next Round: Dadadadan!! A grieving song! It's over for the Suite Pretty Cure!