Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sometimes, when the shadows along Ryota’s ways danced into dreams, grandiose plays of life and then, this is what Ryota would recall. Hunkering under some bleachers, covering their head with their hands as pieces of granite and iron rained down around them. A hulking beast rising out of the pool, water rushing off its back.

Adrenaline became blood and fear became its taste, flooding their mouth. There was nowhere to run, had there been so long ago?

And then, light would twirl into the scene, a dazzling away of sparkles and satin as Ryota sat back, staring up at two girls shrouded in magic. They spoke in wordless voices, just loud confidence. They jumped at the monster, exploding the world into a mosaic of colors that awoke Ryota, leaving them with just the sweet afterburn of jealous longing.

“Ryota!” His—their, that’s what they were trying out—Mom was knocking at their door, loud rapping that made Ryota sure the door would cave in one day from her force. “Hurry up, you don’t want to be late for school!”

Ryota groaned and rolled over in bed, wondering why they never tried to feign sickness to get out of class. Theoretically, it should work. They’d never even done it before, so their parents wouldn’t be suspicious. It was a ritual of life, was it not?

They threw off their blankets, socks not stopping the chill of the floor from crawling at their feet. They didn’t bother changing out of their t-shirt before buttoning up the jacket for their school uniform. Too many times had their parents gotten calls about them not following the uniform code for anyone to care anymore. Not that they were even trying to go against the grain, it was just most days they didn’t have the effort to put on the tie and do all those little things that grated at their every last nerve.

Out of their room they raced, socks sliding against the wooden floor in motions that had their mom shaking their head. They grabbed a piece of toast and began to devour it, the clock ticking ever closer to when they needed to be out the door.

“Don’t forget your homework,” Mom chastised them as Ryota zipped up their backpack.

They rolled their eyes, “Yeah, yeah, I got it all!” They had not finished all their homework, but in their defense, they’d gotten too caught up in a trip to the library yesterday. Maybe Maiko or Saori would’ve actually done it so Ryota could copy their answers… Probably Saori.

“There are not yet any suspects, the police think this may be some sort of natural disaster,” The News Reporter droned on, Ryota was starting to hate the man. Every day they woke up, and every day that stupid guy was talking on the television. Couldn’t even be interesting about it.

Not pausing for a goodbye, they swung open the door, raising a hand to wave that no one saw as the door slammed shut. Welp, they might have to sprint if they wanted to catch the bus on time. Why couldn’t they have been as athletic as their sister?

This day was already ruined.

Ryota went to a school surprisingly far away from where they lived, having to catch a bus for a fifteen minute ride. Every year, their parents asked them if they wanted to go to Verone Academy, where they’d have to go to the Boy’s Division and do stuff in the Boys Clubs.

The decision was pretty easy, even if Ryota sometimes longed to place themself back into the simplicity that would let them go there.

Maybe they would someday, after all, they could just be confused about all this stuff. Not like they hadn’t been thinking that for a year already…

Well, they’d gotten pretty used to taking the bus at this point. They leaned their head against the glass, hair curling around their neck as parts of their reflection slowly shifted, still not fully formed.

Twirling across skyscrapers and dancing upon the wind, he spun his wand in his hand over and over again. These revolutions were so familiar, like the arcs of the sun and moon in the sky, or the ticking hands of the clocktowers.

It was far too early in the morning for this dance to be pleasant. He absolutely detested mornings, and hated even more the people who dragged themselves out of their cozy, warm beds, rushing around towards something or another. The streets were far too full of people stumbling along towards lives they didn’t even want to live.

That sort of motivation was just infuriating. They couldn’t even give up correctly. Couldn’t everyone just sit down and sleep?

He sat on a rooftop, kicking his heels into the bricks over and over again until his heels began to bruise. Below, people continued to spill into the world, an endless mass of flesh forever multiplying.

There! He leaned forwards, focusing his undivided attention on the girl shifting in place as she waited for the stoplight to change. She held a letter in her hands, running her thumb along the edges over and over again. Was she not afraid of ruining her words with a drop of blood?

He could taste the intent, the scenes she was imagining. She’d stop the girl after school holding out her letter and waiting there while the other read it. She hadn’t been able to take her eyes off the other in so long, her face constantly flushing when she caught herself glancing over, daydreaming in the middle of class. She’d spent all year relearning her definitions of love, untying herself from old expectations, rewriting this letter again and again with her old drafts littering her room.

What a pain, didn’t she know she’d just be rejected?

It bothered him.

Flowers covered the corners of Ryota’s notebook pages. A bit odd, given they had never really cared for nature. Well, not in that sense, they just weren’t all that interested in flowers. Looking at these drawings, they wouldn’t even be able to name them.

School had gone on for far too long today, words tripping through Ryota’s brain as they couldn’t keep up with the teacher’s voice. Normally they were better about this, not like their sister, who could far asleep in class easier than she could in her own bed, but today they felt untethered. Wandering through forest and parks, or maybe walking atop water.

Some light waiting at the end.

Even after school let out, Ryota couldn’t go home. No, they had to go attend their club, that they had to resist the urge to quit everyday.

Maiko and Saori were already in the clubroom when they arrived, Maiko typing up an article on her laptop while Saori did homework. This was all the staff the school newspaper had. Oh, how journalism had fallen.

Ryota pulled up a chair next to Saori, glancing over at her neat notes and completed assignments.

“Do you mind if I take a look?” Ryota asked, “To check my answers.”

Saori didn’t even call them out on the lie, sighing and passing over one of her worksheets. Ryota would feel bad copying off her, but they really did try to learn from her methodology. They weren’t going to be getting into high school or college on an athletic scholarship, that was for sure.

“You two are so boring,” Maiko huffed at them, tipping the deerstalker hat on her head to glare at them. Or, she would be, if her bangs didn’t obscure most of her gaze. That hat alone had likely gotten more uniform infractions than Ryota had. “And here I am with a scoop?”

“Oh?” Saori responded, with the most apathetic pretended-enthusiasm Ryota had ever heard.

“Yes, yes I do,” Maiko announced, “I have decided to write an article on these recent incidents plaguing our poor town.”

Ryota blinked at her. “What does that have to do with school life?”

“We are engaged citizens-”

Ryota snorted at that, Saori’s shoulders shaking for a moment.

“And we must be aware of what’s going on in our communities!” Maiko proclaimed, “But anyways, have you heard of them?”

Ryota stopped for a second to think, the task grievously hard today. “You mean how some buildings or parks have been destroyed, and people have been found inside them passed out?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Maiko nodded, “And all those people are showing weird symptoms that totally can’t be fully accounted for with physical injury. Those people are totally the ones destroying all those places!”

“Well, we can’t actually be sure of that,” Saori added in softly, picking at her nails. “There is a possibility that these incidents could be caused by another person, and perhaps they have a methodology that leaves that lethargy and mental damage on their victims. Not to mention still the possibility of this being some sort of natural disaster.”

“Still feels likely that if someone else was doing this, they’d have been spotted already,” Maiko said.

Saori just hummed, not bothering to continue now that she’d made the point she wanted to. Ryota, too, had turned back to their homework the minute Maiko’s gaze was off them.

“You know, it’s like, any time one of those incidents happen, parents get all scared about kids leaving the house and doing things. It’s kinda silly, ‘cause that stuff just never happens to us,” Maiko mused. “You ever think we’d get into some weirdness like that, Ryota?”

They huffed, “Oh, not a chance.”

“She loves you, she loves you not,” he sang, pulling petals off a daisy he’d plucked from the park. She was curled up on the bench, her back hunched forward and her eyes dully fixed on the flower. “Everyone loves you, everyone loves you not.”

It was impressively pathetic, the way rejection always set in before. At least he’d helped her realize it, now she was realistically pathetic.

Plucking the final petal off, he twisted his lips, “Aw, they love you not!”

It only took a second for the fear to take root, climbing up the veins of the petal until it was faded and brittle. He was sure that even a bit more pressure would send it crumbling to dust, just like the other petals he stepped down on.

He stepped forward, tilting her chin up at him. Her eyes were full of panic, not directed at him though, but the world she’d realized she was trapped in. Just a squeeze on her jaw, and her lips parted, enough that he could lay the petal on her tongue.

“The truth is hard to swallow, isn’t it?” He doubled forward laughing at his own joke, her doing so as well and splatters of spit and bile decorated the pavement. Her chest heaved with every effort to expel the petal, which only wormed its way further down her throat.

He fell back a bit, watching with a pleased smile as the fluid cracked open the sidewalk, vines finally growing out through the oppressive cement. They wrapped around her ankles, trailing up her arms, wrapping around her in circle and after circle that could expand to cover this whole park.

It was a familiar, glorious sight.

But something had piqued his curiosity today.

Digging through his coat, he found the little case. He’d picked it up off the edge of a rainbow, and it stung his fingers whenever he touched it.

He placed it at the edge of the glowing cage, a giddy little smile crossing his lips.

“Alright, let’s see what this can do.”

Ryota walked home alone. They always parted at the gate with Maiko and Saori, each going separate ways. Honestly, they may have lived close to one another, but they’d never know, not looking for one another on the streets.

It was a beautiful day, mocking Ryota’s sluggish brain. They couldn’t do anything but go home, to collapse into bed and wait for the light behind their eyelids to fade. They’d almost missed their bus stop, not being able to focus on the announcements through the speakers when the landscape was blurring out the window.

When Nagisa and Honoka had been this age, Ryota had thought they’d lived such interesting lives. They’d gone to cheer Nagisa on at her lacrosse games sometimes, watching her sprint across the field to make the winning goal. And Nagisa would talk about every scientific achievement of Honoka’s, sometimes even letting Ryota accompany her to the science fair.

There’d been something jealous that had festered in Ryota since those days, waking up hungry each morning for something they didn’t know how to make for themself. How had… how had they put together lives like that?

Ryota could barely stumble their way home. Where Nagisa wasn’t even anymore, because she’d moved on with her life, to college and other places Ryota was slowly becoming more sure they couldn’t catch up to.

Not when they couldn’t even come to a conclusion on what to call themself.

Cutting through the park was often the easiest way home, and Ryota wandered in, tiredly taking in the flowers. Were these the flowers they’d drawn in their notebook earlier? Fields of color that their granite pencil could never hope to capture.

There was such a spectrum here, swallowing them whole.

Like the vines that were snaking along the ground, slithering under their steps.

Ryota’s head shot up, finally torn off the slightly lowered gaze they’d held to not trip over anything. All around them, climbing up the gates and crawling into the air, vines grew, thorns bulging out of their sides.

“What the fuck?” Ryota breathed, stumbling back into a field of flowers. They winced as pricks scratched their shin, immediately running back out onto the path. Wasn’t much better there either.

The earth felt like it was upheaving itself.

A few screams echoed through the park, and they watched two teenage girls dash out of the gates, kicking the vines off their feet. A small child, their parent lost somewhere, was curled up on a park bench, loudly sobbing for the world to listen to them.

And above their heads, vines began to interweave.

Shit, shit! They should- They should really get out of here. What was even happening?

The child wailed louder.

Cursing under their breath, a litany of swears that would have Mom hiding all the candy in the house, Ryota dashed forward, glad that their shoes weren’t broken. The child gazed up at the with wide eyes as they stopped in front of them. Awkwardly, Ryota opened their arms, and when the child reached forward, they picked up the child.

Damn, this was awkward. How had Nagisa made it look easy?

Nope, there was no time to be held back by social awkwardness. Ryota turned around, grimacing as even more of the path was now writhing with these stupid tendrils. There wasn’t any surface for them to balance on.

Still, Ryota grit their teeth, and began to jog.

And their shoes split open, a thorn driving into the ball of Ryota’s foot. A gasp was drawn out of their lips, and the child looked up at them worriedly, gulping back tears. “Hurry, hurry,” they urged Ryota. Bossy little brat.

Shadows were slowly painting the garden more and more, though even that shouldn’t have made everything look so monochrome.

Ryota glanced from side to side, trying to make sense of the scene and-

Oh god! A vine was shooting through the air right towards them. Ryota screamed, dashing forward, not caring to look back, not caring if they tripped, the gate was right there-

And finally, their feet landed on pavement once more, firm and solid and with the afternoon sun still beating down. Ryota gasped for breath, turning around and seeing, well-

The park was overrun, vines covering the fence so no one could see in. Not that it had stopped pedestrians from lining the opposite sidewalk, gawking at the scene and calling the police.

The weirdest thing about the vines though, that Ryota hadn’t noticed until they had this second to finally think, was that they were gray.

The child squirmed out of Ryota’s grasp, running away and calling for their mother. Not that Ryota could blame them, this wasn’t the situation where you would stop to thank someone. Ryota should be making their own way home, bursting through the door and hugging Mom and eating a nice dinner while the News Reporter talked about how this incident had been solved.

But the gate loomed in front of Ryota, and as they stared into the emerging void, all they could wonder if there was someone even deeper inside.

Where the light was held.

Stepping forward, leaving a scrape of blood behind, Ryota ran back into the park.

He giggled in delight, clapping his hands together as light burst from the case, yet not quite knowing where to go. It was such a familiar glow, was it from the Field of Light? Oh, he’d only heard of the place! How exciting was this!

The case was just as useless as everything ever was.

The girl had started to cry at some point, tears evaporating off her face into sparks of electricity. And there, beside her, the letter with her heart on it stood, ink running down its face as it whispered the words she’d written, each one turned bitter.

Everyone had ran as soon as they’d noticed, their nice, sunny day immediately ruined. Would they remember this tomorrow, looking out into the world and locking their doors? Good.

It was just his public service.

Though…

His ears pricked up, and he stood, turning around and casting his gaze far out to the edge of the park.

There, rushing in, knocking vines aside even as they tore at their arms, a teen ran in.

Ryota was crying already. They didn’t know when they’d started, they didn’t know when they’d stop. Their heart was beating so fast in their chest, it felt just a second away from keeling over and stopping. Panic was all they could taste, and in the back of their head, they were curled up under some bleachers, watching a monster emerge from the water to kill them.

They were still so, so scared of swimming.

The vines had only grown denser the deeper they’d gone, thorns already dripping a black blood that fell onto Ryota’s skin. It didn’t burn, it didn’t hurt, but it crawled its way in.

Nobody loved them.

It was a thought that dried up their throat, that stilled their words. They pushed it out of their brain every day at school content to sit silently at lunch with two people they barely knew past their names. It echoed in the space between conversations at dinner, the topic Ryota would never bring up lest disregarding eyes were turned on them.

Nobody loves them.

Ryota wanted to stop and sob, shaking into tiny pieces, collapsed into nothing. It was all that could escape their throat, between tight breaths.

And yet they ran forwards, barely seeing the path ahead of them. They couldn’t call what they were wearing shoes anymore, not with how many times they’d been pierced. It would be easy to find their way back at least, given the trail Ryota had left themself.

If there was one thing Ryota knew, the further they got into this garden, the more certain they were that they weren’t alone.

Maybe it was the whispers in their ear, the fear that tasted so familiar yet a bit off. Maybe it was the shadows of the girl lurking at the edge of their vision, surely no one Ryota had ever seen before.

Maybe it was all those things, or maybe it was stupidity.

But Ryota continued on.

“Oh, and just who might you be?”

There was light, at long last. It came from a little case sitting towards the center of the vines, shaking and shivering in tune with Ryota’s heartbeat.

In front of Ryota, peering at him with terrifyingly curious eyes, was a boy about their age. He had short gray hair, parts of it just long enough to frame his black eyes. He wore a long, patchwork jacket over a black turtleneck and sweatpants.

He was much easier to focus on than the living, giant envelope. Ryota should really be focusing on that, but their eyes kept gliding past it. That could just… stop existing now, for Ryota’s sanity?

“Yo!” A hand waved in front of Ryota’s eyes, and the boy pouted at them, annoyance masquerading their features. “Mind answering my questions?”

“Who are you?” Ryota asked, each word barely a cracked whisper.

He sighed, slouching forward dramatically. “Geez, no respect these days,” he complained, “I guess I’ll just have to demonstrate some manners. My name is Arata.”

“What- what is even going on here?” Words could barely make their way out of Ryota’s mouth, not with the fear that kept dripping down their back.

“And now you don’t even introduce yourself!” Arata threw up his hands in defeat. “You truly just don’t cooperate, do you? What are you even doing here, if you don’t know what’s going on? Are you that dumb to just like, run back into this?”

Ryota had never thought they were that dumb, but apparently, there were many things about themself they’d been mistaken on.

“Are you scared?” Arata had gotten closer, at some point, and now they were mere breaths from one another. Ryota could feel his grin more than they could see it. “This is pretty terrifying, right? Just makes you wanna curl up and stop. This is what the world is always like, of course, I’m just giving it form.”

None of his words made sense, pingponging in Ryota’s brain, another frustrating effect of today. There was just something there, blocking their thoughts. They closed their eyes, shaking their head and reopening them.

Had the light gotten brighter?

It burned their eyes to look at it. Not like staring at their computer screen for too long, but like looking at the edges of the glow of a campfire. Watching a marshmallow roast slowly, that’s the type of heat it built up.

Ryota brushed past Arata, the boy’s protest sliding off them. They didn’t even sound that angry, more amused. What was Ryota going to do, approaching that?

The cage where someone laid, and the case sitting on its edge.

If Ryota listened closely, they could hear both crying.

Reaching out, Ryota slowly pressed their fingers down on the case, and let it burn.

Water, swirling around Ryota’s ankles, ebbing and slowing in a constant beckoning. Ryota didn’t move, not yet, just blinking tiredly at the clear world they’d landed in.

“Hello!” They looked down to see a weird creature staring up at them with too-large eyes. They had white and teal fur, and ears that stretched the length of their body. A small crown perched on their head, somehow not falling off. They stood atop the water, the surface solidifying for them.

“Hello,” Ryota responded, crouching down next to them. “I’m Misumi Ryota, and you are?”

The creature hummed for a second, holding a paw to their face. “Pollun! My name is Pollun!”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Pollun.” Ryota held out a hand to shake and Pollun took it. Light dripped out of their hands and rippled through the water.

“You know, between the black and white, there’s gray,” Pollun said, skipping from what foot to another. “But past that, there are so many other colors! There’s a rainbow, just waiting to be grasped.”

Ryota smiled, looking out as the waves slowly receded to fields of wilting flowers. “You know what? I think I can still see them.”

“RAINBOW MIRAGE!”

A dress made of watery light fell over Ryota’s shoulders, down all the way to her ankles. Their bare feet danced across the water, each step shattering and reforming her reflection. Looking down, she saw one smile up at her, reaching out. It had been so long since Ryota had seen herself like that.

She grabbed on.

Fabric laced around her, pieces of glass cutting through her skirt and leaving the color behind. She jumped up, reaching toward the sky and clapping her hands together, poofs blooming on her wrists and gloves covering her fingertips.

The water splashed when she touched down, trailing up her legs to form two boots. She clicked her heels together, loving the satisfying sound they made.
Her hair brushed against her face, wrapping around in a side ponytail longer than she’d ever been brave enough to grow it out.

And, Ryota’s hands forming a heart around her chest, a gem grew out, ribbons bursting into form.

She stretched out her hands in front of her, out towards the scene that was slowly returning to her.

“Evildoer, prepare to return to whence you came. I’m the Protector of Light, Cure Mosaic!”

Mosaic breathed out, clapping her palms to her cheeks giddily. She twirled around, watching the long pieces of fabric that laid over her skirt flare out around her. Oh, wow, this felt amazing! She’d never had the chance to wear a dress before!

The vines scurried away from her, especially after she seemed to have crushed the first couple under her boots… well, they had kinda deserved it.

Arata had scurried back, looking at her with wide, fearful eyes. He seemed lost for words, and Mosaic shot him a grin, enjoying the way lipstick rubbed at the motion.

“This is incredible!” Mosaic laughed. “I mean- just- wow! Would you look at me!”

She wanted to rush towards a mirror and dance with her reflection, finally seeing herself in such a perfect way. How could she have never noticed just how deeply, truly she had longed for this!

She was a girl, the same way the girls in her dreams stood.

“Mukanshin! Attack her!” Arata screeched, pointing at her with eyes ice cold, fear-frozen.

The letter shifted, vines coiling for a second before springing into an attack.

“Nuh-uh.” Mosaic stuck out a hand, heat bursting at her fingertips, and the vine shooting at her cleaved straight in half.

The letter growled, a word almost sounding like, “Want.” Opening up its flap, it pulled out another paper, it immediately becoming folded. It pointed the tip at Mosaic, the edge of the paper looking sharper than any should.

The blade cut across the field, vines chopped down with its arc. Mosaic barely had a second to think before leaping up, landing on the blade as it soared past and sprinting forward.

Likewise, the letter barely had the chance to react before she reached it, pulling back her arm and the driving her whole body forward.

Air seemed to pause between their clash, gravity failing as her fist sparked, her eyes glowed, her smile widened.

And then, the letter was blown back, scraps of torn and ink filled paper spilling out of it.

Mosaic touched down, stretching out her hands to catch some of the pieces in her palms. Words mumbled on the wind, swirling around her.

“I think I’ve loved you for a while now…”

“...the way you laugh makes my heart flutter.”

“...I hope we can still be friends…”

“Do you want to go out with me?”

“Oh,” Mosaic breathed, “How could you?”

The words were barely a whisper, so of course Arata didn’t pay them any heed. But how could he not be listening to her every word? How could he not hear these accusations that spilled from her lips?

Well, he surely noticed when she was right in front of him, a leg raised up, ready to come down right on his head.

He skidded out of the way, the ground cracking beneath Mosaic’s boot, and she turned on him, lips drawn back in a snarl.

“Get out of my way,” she hissed, and watched him disappear in a flurry of heavy mist.

The letter—Mukanshin—struggled to its feat, pointing the blade at her once more.

Mosaic took a deep breath. The harder she focused on it, the more she could hear, the girl on the other side of the cage pressing against the brambles to deliver the words she’d been stopped from doing so.

She raised her hands to sky, the vines parting in fear to let the sun shine down on her, captured with a clap.

Pressing her hands forward, her heels dug into the dirt, and she let her smile soften as she aimed right down the middle of Mukanshin.

“Shattered Mosaic!”

Glass captured the Mukanshin, the reflection holding it still, and with that second, a beam of light shot out of Mosaic’s hand, throwing her backwards. It hit the mirror, shattering it into brilliant colors, the letter coming back to its true life with all the feelings of that girl.

And all the vines shattered.

The girl shook her head slowly, climbing to her knees. She was about Ryota’s age, but wore the uniform of Verone Academy. She barely seemed to conceptualize where she was, did she even remember any of that?

The sun, now lazily painting the horizon, shone on Mosaic as she reached down, picking up the letter and walking over to the girl to hold it out. “Here, I think this is yours.”

The girl looked up, shock filling her eyes as she looked at Mosaic. “Uh, yeah,” she grabbed the letter with a shaky hand.

No one else was around, not yet, and they likely wouldn’t reach the center of the park for a good few minutes. So Mosaic gathered up her skirt and sat down. “Hey, do you know what any of that was?”

The girl laughed, a bit hysterical. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that? You’re the one that looks all-!” Her laughter turned to giggles, and she shook her head slowly, a calmer look returning to her. “Uh, I remember this guy approaching me, you know? And I was… um… I was going to give a love letter to this super pretty and cool girl at my school today. We’ve been kinda friends for the past two years and she’s just-! Well, this guy started talking about how like, she would reject me, and I was dumb for even trying to confess, and that everything I loved would eventually end in heartbreak. I don’t know why I believed him, I thought I had worked past all that fear, but I guess I was still terrified of rejection.”

“Rejection can be a very scary thing,” Mosaic nodded, looking at her palms. Hers.

“Yeah, but, I don’t even know why I let him convince me that what she thought was that important,” the girl huffed, the sun catching her smile. “See, honestly, the confession wasn’t for her, it was for myself. I’ve spent so long being in denial about being in love with girls, with her, I just had to finally make myself say it. I was finally ready to accept this as me.”

The girl stood up, prushing dust and petals from her pants, and Mosaic followed the motion.

“Thanks for helping me, I don’t really know what you did, but, thanks,” the girl rubbed the back of her head awkwardly, and stuck out a hand for Mosaic to shake.

Mosaic did so, letting the words spill out of her mouth. “So, do you feel like you’ve accepted yourself?”

The girl paused for a moment, her own smile turning contemplative. “You know? I think I love myself.”

And with that, she waved goodbye.

Magic burst out of Ryota, leaving them standing in the center of the park, alone except for the Fairy beside them. Ryota blinked at Pollun.

“Alright,” Ryota could barely draw in a breath, panic settling into their lungs. “Alright, what the fuck?”

Not knowing how much he’d missed, the boy—not yet a man—ran his fingers along the sidewalk, the dust of an old seed in his hand. The sprouts had been cut off, and now it lay inert. He gripped it with reverent fear, curling up his lip at it to hide any other emotion.

To say he had expected this would be a lie, and to say he hadn’t would misconstrue the anxiety that had led him here.

Whatever darkness had lied inside this object, now cut down to ash, was one he recognized. He’d spent so long drowned in it, after all, playing with it like it wasn’t puppeting him.

He stood up, brushing the dust from the pants of his school uniform, trying not to let the confusion he felt show on his face. Likely failing. The darkness was supposed to be long gone now, sealed away again, far from touching Earth.

He’d believed in that changed fate.

So now, he had two important questions: Who was using this darkness?

And should he call Honoka?

Chapter Text

The monster rose out of the ocean, water dripping down their face and cutting jagged lines through their form. They roared, the sound cracking the stone around Ryota.

She’d been here for so long.

The girls were there once more, like shadow puppets moving into different poses, preparing to enter battle. If Ryota reached out to touch them, she wouldn’t be surprised to see them crumble to dust, or explode into fireworks.

How much had she forgotten here? Everything was just cardboard cutouts, undetailed except for fear. Except for wonder. Except for that green tint of envy.

Brushing off the dress, she let light surround herself, and Mosaic stood up, tilting her chin to meet the monster’s gaze head-on.

“So, how’s class going for you?” Ryota leaned against the side of their apartment building, clutching their cell phone and kicking around a pebble.

Nagisa groaned, Ryota could imagine her head falling onto the desk, smushed against papers of homework she hadn’t gotten started on. “It’s so much work here Ryota. Never go to college, you’ll hate it.”

Ryota chuckled lightly, trying to focus on their sister’s words, but everything seemed so distant.

Up in their room, there was a little Fairy sleeping, after all.

After that fight, Ryota had taken Pollun home with them, not knowing whether to sprint or walk leisurely. What would make it obvious that they had just transformed in the middle of a vine covered park and beat up a magical letter? They’d eventually got home, yelling a greeting to their parents before locking themself in their room and screaming into their pillow.

Then trying to interrogate Pollun, and realizing Pollun knew, approximately, nothing.

In fact, Ryota was pretty sure the little fairy had amnesia.

“Ryota?” Their name drew them back into the conversation, and they winced at how exasperated Nagisa sounded. “Come on, you’re the one that called me.”

“Sorry Sis,” Ryota laughed awkwardly, “Just distracted. How is Honoka doing?”

It was pretty rare for Ryota to call Nagisa, to be honest. Not that they were distant or anything, or that Ryota didn’t want to keep in touch. It was just that sometimes they’d think about texting Nagisa, or calling her just to talk, and then realizing they had nothing to say.

The absence of their life wasn’t so obvious when it wasn’t needed for interaction.

And now Ryota seemed to have a ton of things to talk about, and yet couldn’t say a single one. After all, what were they gonna do? Tell Nagisa they thought they were magic? Yeah, no way that would work.

“Honoka’s studying right now actually, say hi-” Static came through the phone speaker as it was rustled around, yet Ryota still grinned when Honoka called out a polite greeting. Another second, and the phone was back at Nagisa. “Yeah, she’s writing a proposal to help one of the professor’s with their research. Which apparently not many freshmen do, Honoka’s just an overachiever.”

“Unlike you,” Ryota teased lightly, turning the words back on themself even as they spoke.

“I am training for NATIONALS YOU LITTLE SQUIRT-” Ryota burst out laughing as Nagisa’s yelling faded away, the phone clearly stolen by Honoka.

They wished their sister would understand, but this was good enough for now.

“I’m getting ready for school now,” Ryota informed Pollun as they fumbled around with their tie. It was a decent day for a tie, not that they liked it, but they didn’t feel able to focus on it enough to start to feel that choking sensation. “You’ll be staying here all day while I’m at school. Don’t get into trouble.”

“Why can’t I go with you?” Pollun whined, tears forming at the edges of his eyes.

“Because school is boring,” Ryota replied, “And you’d make a lot of noise.” Pollun had woken Ryota up twice in the middle of the night begging them to play. There was no way he’d make it through an entire day at school.

“But what if you have to do Precure things?” Pollun argued, “I should be there for the Precure things!”

“And I won’t be doing Precure things,” Ryota huffed, “Because I’m never doing anything like that ever again.”

“But you are Precure,” Pollun pouted.

Ryota picked up a card, walking over and checking Pollun with it before the fairy could complain any more.

“No, no I’m not.”

It wasn’t often that Ryota walked the full way to school or back, forgoing the bus. Mom had seemed equally as shocked that they’d woken up early enough to do so, but they’d just shrugged, slinging their bag over their shoulder and continuing on.

The park was surrounded with police tape when Ryota passed. Otherwise, it still looked the same as it had every day before. Lush greenery and beautiful paths to walk around. Ryota could remember being taken there as a kid, running around and playing with others their age while Nagisa and Honoka sat on the benches and flirted.

Their muscles ached even thinking about it now.

Yesterday, they’d been flying through the plants, dancing across the ground in a fluidity of movement they thought only existed on film. Something electric had been held in the palms of their hands.

All they could do was look at the park and think, “I could never do that.”

“Did you hear about what happened yesterday?” Maiko asked, pushing a spare desk over to Ryota and Saori’s.

If they met Maiko’s eyes, would they see knowledge in there? The seconds before they asked if that person could’ve really been Ryota? The doubt as her eyes flicked up and down their form, before asking them who they thought they were.

How delusional did they have to be, to act like a hero?

“No, what was it?” Saori played along, her lack of excitement helping to ground Ryota.

“Well, it was one of those incidents, y’know? This park was supposedly completely destroyed, and there were witnesses and everything. But this time, they didn’t find anyone inside the radius of the destruction,” Maiko reported, leaning forwards like she was telling them a secret when in reality, she had nothing but vague rumors she could barely remember.

Well, that was just how Maiko was. How had Ryota forgotten?

“Sounds odd,” Saori hummed.

“It sounds very odd!” Maiko agreed, slapping a hand onto the desk. “There must be something more at work here.”

“Sure,” Saori shrugged, finishing off her lunch and storing it back in her backpack.

“Ryota, what do you think happened?” Maiko asked, turning her annoying focus on Ryota. “It could be like, a government conspiracy! Or maybe, someone’s taken notice of the incidents, and is putting a stop to them. Wouldn’t that be interesting?”

Ryota swallowed their bite of rice, feeling each grain stick to their throat. “Well, whatever happened, I don’t think it’s going to happen again. Miracles don’t happen twice.”

“Sometimes they do,” Saori whispered, “Then they just stop being miracles.”

They parted at the gate, waving to one another before going their separate ways. This was how their life was meant to be. Anything else would be a lie, wouldn’t it? This was the totality they were, nothing more than this bitter normalcy.

“Well, you certainly look different than you did yesterday.” A voice sent shivers up Ryota’s spine, the blooming familiarity opening a pit in their stomach. They jumped, stepping back as they turned to see Arata leaning against the wall.

Breaths stuck in Ryota’s lungs as they watched Arata push himself off the wall, and saunter up to them. The curious amusement that had flickered in his eyes the last time they met had been replaced by something icier.

And the righteousness that Ryota had draped themself in last time was all gone.

“You know, I prefer this look on you,” Arata commented, waving a hand at Ryota’s uniform. It was suddenly all too real on them, fabric bunching up wrongly and every detestable bit of it scratching at their skin. “You were trying too hard last time. Now, you’ve at least recognized you’ll never actually be able to be that. Not for good.”

Why-

“Anyway, come on, let’s talk!” Arata said, a false cheer entering his voice as he grabbed Ryota’s hand and started dragging them along. “We have soooo much to learn about each other.”

Ryota stumbled, trying to dig their heels into the ground, but only succeeding in almost falling flat on their face.

“So, stranger, you never told me your name,” Arata began, sitting them both down on a bench and cradling his chin with a hand. “Well, you did, but I don’t think you currently look that much like that Cure Mosaic.”

Ryota looked around, the empty streets with no one paying them attention. What would they do, call for help? “...Misumi Ryota.” It wasn’t the first time their name felt like a defeat.

“Misumi then,” Arata replied, “Or can I call you Ryota? I think we ought to be on those terms, by this point. I mean, you beat me up, I stalk you to school, we’re practically friends by this point.”

“What did you want?”

“Well, we aren’t friends actually,” Arata continued like Ryota had never spoken. “I’ve seen your friends, y’know. The two that you left with. That’s what friendship is, isn’t it? People think so much of friendship, talking about how they love each other, how they’ll always be next to one another, how they’ve made a bond that will last forever. You know that’s a lie though, don’t you? You know that friends are just drifters that have dumped together until the current draws them apart. You’ll never have that friendship you were lied to about, just this distant apathy.”

Arata’s face was only inches from Ryota’s, and they could count every single tooth in his mouth. Dripping, dripping, oil spilling into his gums. He’d reached out a hand, curling it tighter and tighter around Ryota’s, and that presence should’ve felt warm, like all proximity did, but their fingers just felt like they were freezing together.

“What- Why?” Ryota’s words felt like a shiver. They wanted to back away, to run down the street and have someone waiting for them on the other side that they could hide behind.

Mostly, they wanted to be alone again, where no one could see them failing to be themself.

“See, that’s why I like you,” Arata declared. “Yesterday, you thought you could really change something. It was so annoying, you really thought you could defeat me.” Arata’s eyes stared into theirs, so dull and dispassionate. “Now, you’ve realized that was a fluke, and the world will return to being the same the next day. I like this look on you better.”

“I don’t,” Ryota replied before they could think, breath sticking in their throat. “I don’t want to-”

“But you are,” Arata cut in, an ever-widening grin on his face. “This is all you’ll ever be.”

And Ryota-

Ryota still wanted to be more.

Arata hummed for a second, his shoulders lowering like a giant sigh. “Really? You just aren’t gonna listen to me? That’s a real shame.” He stood up, stretching out as the sun, just starting to set, got caught in his gray hair. “I came here really hoping we could just talk and get along, but I see you’re still more deluded than I thought.”

“I don’t think I really want you to like me,” Ryota bit out, shying away as Arata’s eyes locked on theirs once more. Their heart was singing, and not a happy song.

“Well, that’s a bit mean,” Arata pouted. “But don’t worry, I’ll change your tune! If you really, really still think you can stop me, you’re going to have to hurry.”

And as dewdrops began to stick to Ryota’s ankles, they looked up towards all the streets that could lead them away from here, but were only met with a heavy, creeping mist.

Arata was gone.

Just a second ago, Ryota would’ve done anything to get away from his creepy face, but now the silence of the town was creeping in. It was a loneliness so antithetical to existence.

Ryota’s parents had taken their entire family camping once. Ryota hadn’t been allowed to help with much, being the youngest and all, so eventually they had just crept off to explore. The forest had seemed so big, every tree towering far above their head, and it was hard to traverse anywhere. It was like trying to walk home a few days after a snowstorm.

Eventually, they’d wandered off so far that they’d gotten lost. Ryota supposed they should’ve been scared at that moment, but they’d honestly just felt pretty peaceful. They’d sat on a river rock, practicing skipping pebbles, and just waited for their sister to come.

That kind of loneliness had been nice, in a way. The first time they’d just connected with themself. They hadn’t even been questioning themself then, just throwing away thoughts and existing.

Now, as they raced through the streets, heading deeper into the mist, all they wanted was for someone to see them. Someone to see them as the person they were just starting to realize they could become.

Like a shadow in the mist, they could almost see who they could be.

“Hello! Is anyone here!” Ryota called out, only the echo of their footsteps answering them. “Anybody?!”

Home was so far away, and the buildings were starting to blend together. Their reflection followed them in glass window panes, and doors were locked shut. Twisting, winding, labyrinthian streets just sent Ryota deeper and deeper into the city.

Ryota huffed, trying to breathe in through tight lungs. They leaned against the side of the building, gross sweat dripping past their eyelids.

“Alright, stop and think,” Ryota whispered to themself. “You can’t get home, and you can’t navigate through here. There’s no one else here. But that also doesn’t make sense, because there had to be people around here. Last time, people didn’t disappear, so does it make sense that they would this time? No, it’s more likely we’re all lost.”

Threads of logic that were more than partially made-up still worked to calm Ryota’s mind, each breath coming easier and easier, their mouth getting used to the taste of the mist. “And none of these incidents last forever, the last one didn’t because I stopped it, and none of the ones on the news did either.”

So… all they had to do was wait?

Why did that feel like the wrong answer?

“I really don’t want to stay here,” Ryota whimpered, sliding down the side of the building to bury their head in their knees. “I can’t imagine anyone wanting to be here. Why would anyone make this?”

This is what it actually reminded them of: Sitting next to a window and looking out it, where they could almost see the shadows of people milling around. It was listening into the conversation at the desk next to them, but not knowing which words to add in next.

It was looking up at Maiko and Saori and knowing they weren’t actually friends.

Shivering, Ryota stood up and stared deeper into the curling mist.

“I-” Ryota took a deep, shuddering breath. “I can do this. That’s the thing about life, I can always be more.”

And Ryota’s backpack began to shake.

With a screech, Ryota dropped the backpack like it was on fire, which it really wasn’t. Only glowing! They kicked it a bit away from them, watching with fearful eyes as the bag shook more and more fiercely.

“What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck-” Ryota chanted. Theoretically, the mist should’ve been scarier, but Ryota had always been a sucker for jumpscares. Their adrenaline had just been waiting for a moment to spike.

And like the opening maws of hell, Ryota’s backpack opened, and out popped a furry little head.

“Geez,” Pollen complained, squeaking as he wiggled the rest of the way out of Ryota’s backpack. “Why did you kick me? That’s really mean, you know! Really, really mean!”

“Pollun?” Ryota gasped. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I woke up and snuck into your backpack before you left,” Pollun replied, “It was rude of you to try to leave me! But then school was actually really boring, so I fell back asleep. Where are we?”

Ryota stared at the fairy, the remnants of fear and the overwhelming wave of relief crashing together inside of them. How had they not noticed Pollun in their backpack the entire time?

…They hadn’t really gotten any of their school materials out.

Ryota sighed, casting their gaze back outward. “You know that vine pit the park turned into?” Ryota asked. “Something similar seems to have happened here. We’re stuck in here, and I don’t know how to get out.”

“Precure could do it!” Pollun immediately replied, hopping up and down. “This is a job for Precure!”

“And how would Pretty Cure do this?” Ryota sighed. “It’s not like this is a problem to just be punched through.”

“But Precure could do this,” Pollun asserted, pouting. “Precure doesn’t just punch things, Precure can make it out of any situation.”

“Alright,” Ryota chuckled. “Pretty Cure sounds pretty great then. I wish she was here.”

“You are Precure though,” Pollun whined, climbing onto Ryota’s shoulder. “You can do all that!”

“I don’t really know if I am though,” Ryota murmured. “All that stuff that Mosaic did? It didn’t really feel like me.”

“That’s really dumb,” Pollun said. “Because it was you. Have you tried remembering it as you?”

Ryota sucked in a breath, and for the first time, tried to imagine moving the same way Mosaic did. Tried to feel like they could be that confident, that lively. A dress swirling around them and fists clenched, about to strike.

Could it really have been…?

“I’m a bit scared,” Ryota said, taking out the Queen card.

“That’s all right,” Pollen responded. “You’re still Precure.”

“Rainbow Mirage!”

The magic that surrounded Ryota now was familiar, draping over her shoulder and flowing off her back. A girl smiled at her, reaching out to take her hand, and Ryota pulled her into a dance.

The steps were almost frantic, rushed a bit, improvised noticeably. A nervous little giggle crawled out of Ryota’s throat, but she twirled her partner anyway.

And Ryota stepped out, pushing forwards back into the world, bringing the magic with her.

Mosaic opened her eyes to the mist.

“It’s pretty impossible to find our way through here, isn’t it?” Mosaic mused, tapping her foot. Ryota had been right about that, at least. Mosaic did a full 360, looking into the obscured paths in every direction.

“Hey Arata, you wanna come out and fight!” Mosaic had to pay him back for the conversation earlier. He was a fool if he thought she was just going to lay down whimpering and scared forever.

No one came, of course, and Mosaic could only shrug. “Bitchass coward,” she muttered, curling her hand into a fist.

And she slammed it down on the ground.

The sound it made was loud, like destroying an enemy base in a video game, or yelling from the top of a mountain. Shock waves blew out, unrestrained, whipping though Mosaic’s ponytail. A laugh burst past her lips, harmonizing with the shattering of glass.

One by one, the building cracked, piece by piece falling away and crumbling into clear lines of sight. Each reflection of hers vanished, leaving only her standing, looking straight out ahead towards the true center of this labyrinth.

Someone was strung high on a lamppost, vines curling around their limbs and flowers sprouting out of their mouth. Arata was flipping a knife, his eyebrows raised as he gazed upon Mosaic. Even at this distance, Mosaic could see how false that amusement was.

And there, scraping an ax across the ground to lift it over its head, was a Minotaur.

Now, Mosaic had never seen a Minotaur before, and really had very little way to identify one. She was still absolutely certain that it was a Minotaur.

And the ax cut through the air, sailing down towards her head.

“Oh shi-” Mosaic jumped out of the way, rolling across the gravelly ground. Wind rushed past her, the aftereffects of how close she had been to being chopped in half. The Minotaur grunted, trying to tug its ax out once more from where it had gotten stuck.

Mosaic gulped, looking up at the large beast. Magic or not, she didn’t want to get hit by that thing.

“Hesitating now?” Arata called, the ax finally freed and now swinging at her once more. “The adrenaline and novelty wearing off for reality to finally set in?”

Mosaic leaped, sailing backwards from the ax until she was completely out of its range. Sure enough, the Minotaur lumbered forwards, as slowly as she would’ve expected.

She was much faster than that. She likely couldn’t match it in strength, or at least, not easily, so why not play to her strengths? She ran further back, winding around the wreckage of buildings, jumping from boulders to rebar.

“Mukanshin, don’t let her get away!” Arata yelled, tossing his knife at her, spearing a few loose hairs and she barely dodged out of the way in time.

“Will you escape my labyrinth?” A voice whispered in Mosaic’s ear, carried to her with every swing of the ax. “Or have you lost your way?”

“I don’t know about escaping,” Mosaic replied. “After all, I’m not running.”

Sliding off the rock, she let weightlessness claim her once more. She was sure that this wasn’t proper gravity, not with the way she floated for a few seconds. It was the laws of the universe that held their breath, waiting for her declaration.

She wound back her leg, and kicked the rock with all her might.

Like a bullet, it exploded outwards, splitting into a few pieces that still all pierced the Minotaur. It roared, stumbling backwards from the force that had suddenly driven into it. Fluid started leaking from its forehead, dribbling down onto the stone like stones into a pond.

Mosaic continued, a grin dancing across her face as leaped from item to item, kicking them straight at the Minotaur. It was like spinning in the grip of a partner, only her partner was a monster to kill. This is how gym class should be.

Yet, no matter how many times she hit it, the Minotaur only slowed, each injury to its limbs barely seeming to phase it over all.

“You aren’t getting much of anywhere, Mosaic!” Arata yelled. “Thinking of giving up?”

“Hardly!” Mosaic scoffed, narrowing her eyes at the beast. It was magical, wasn’t it? Arata was referring to it as Mukanshin, so it was probably the same as that letter. Maybe it could only be defeated through certain means?

Good thing she already knew one of those.

It was so close, buzzing between her fingertips, the incoming storm of magic. Her breaths felt like sparks, collecting on her tongue with every pant. She jumped out of the way, again and again.

“Are you my hero?” The wind asked.

Mosaic raised her face, feeling the rays of sun catch in the clap of her hands.

“I suppose I am.”

She flew through the air, lined up directly in front of the Minotaur.

“Shattered Mosaic!”

The glass of the buildings reformed, like someone had shoved it into a fire then dumped it all over the Minotaur. Colors painted themself, capturing each stroke of the beast in horrendous beauty. The agony of being lost alone, at the center of a maze. A life of twisting and turning without release.

The person on the lightpost looked out, spitting flowers out of their mouth and drawing in a fresh breath of air.

And light shot from Mosaic’s hand, hitting the glass and illuminating it in a brilliant sunset before shattering it. Each broken piece of light cut through the mist, never for it to return.

Mosaic stood on a rooftop, looking down as the person she had saved got their bearings. They weren’t the only one doing so, people all over were shaking the fog from their heads, turning to each other to talk about the weird experience they’d just had of being stuck in a city all alone.

The person stood, coughing into their hands a few times before dropping a seed onto the ground. Ew, gross. They reached down, picking up the model figurine of a minotaur that had laid beside them.

An arm had broken off, unfortunately. Mosaic didn’t really understand why the buildings had reformed, and it hadn’t. Maybe it had broken before magic had coated this place? Not like Arata was around to give her any answers.

They stared at it for a few seconds, their chest heaving as they sighed deeply. What did they remember of what happened, Mosaic wondered. They just turned to walk away, heading home probably to try to forget about everything that had ever happened.

And then two people rushed up to them, one throwing their arms around their shoulders while the other talked with animated hand gestures. Mosaic watched the person’s eyes widen, a trembling smile on their lips as their face flushed and they responded to every question.

Were those the answers she needed?

Mosaic jumped off the roof, touching down carefully in an alleyway and exhaling the last bits of magic in her lungs.

Ryota’s eyes snapped open, and they immediately pressed a hand against the wall to hold themself steady.

“See, see!” Pollen crowed, popping into existence once more. “Didn’t I tell you that Precure could do it?”

“Wow,” Ryota laughed, “Wow, I sure did.”

Ryota, Maiko, and Saori all walked towards the gates together, Maiko and Ryota chatting aimlessly about the most recent incident. The lack of actual damage was such a difference from normal, wasn’t that interesting? Ryota grinned, secrets stuck in the back of their mind, slowly becoming amusement.

It would be an interesting topic for their next article, Ryota had added in comments to Maiko’s draft during that entire hour. Both of their friends had raised an eyebrow at them, but accepted their initiative without comment.

They all stopped at the gate, the other two turning, ready to say goodbye.

Ryota spoke before any of them could. “Hey, anyone wanna walk home together? I don’t really have much else to do today.”

“What the actual fuck?” Kiriya groaned, stowing another dark seed in his pocket. These incidents just kept getting stranger. He had almost begun to understand the pattern. A monster would be created, it would cause havoc for a while, then disappear, leaving a victim behind needing to be hospitalized.

Last time, the victim had been missing, but the damage had still been apparent.

This time, both those constants were suddenly gone, leaving only the seed to clue him in that this incident happened at all.

This was getting very, very annoying. At least when he had been evil, he had been consistent about how he caused problems.

Of course, there was a chance that it wasn’t the evil that had changed this pattern…

He would need to hurry and get to an incident before it actually ended this time.

“I wonder how Grandma would feel about me skipping school,” Kiriya mused, starting to walk home. “Not like she’s in charge of me, or anything.”

She would categorically ban it though. And get disappointed at him. Damn.

Chapter Text

It was darkness that most people dreamed of, swimming into a void where memories barely even appeared. Ryota reached out her hand sometime, touching the ripples and letting herself fall into the same scene over and over again. She never liked staying in the darkness long.

Kiriya would often try to get out, bashing his hands against the surface to cause those same ripples Ryota could, but the memories just wouldn’t come. Or at least, they used to not. Historyless, memoryless, he existed only to serve Jyaku-King. Now, there were smaller memories, shorter ones. Pinpricks of light that he followed, a life of mundanity he had settled into.

And Arata? Well, would this even be called a dream for him?

“Hi Kiriya!” Honoka greeted him brightly, as she did every time he called her, weekly. He didn’t know why she couldn’t just call him, but the last time he missed a call she somehow managed to get hair dye into his shampoo even from the college dorms she lived in, so he wasn’t taking any chances. “How have you been?”

“Fine,” Kiriya responded, “And you?”
“I’ve been doing great!” Honoka answered. “Classes have been going fine, and I finally got that new campus job. Remember the one at the library I’ve been telling you about? It’s a lot of work, but I’ve had a much better time at it than at the campus cafeteria.”

“I dunno Honoka,” Kiriya snorted. “Based on high school cafeterias, I can’t think of any reason you would have to not want to work in one.”

“You should get a cafeteria job,” Honoka chastised him with a laugh. “It would teach you some responsibility and work ethic.”

“I have a good work ethic,” Kiriya responded, storing his incomplete homework in his desk, where it would get lost until he got close to failing a grade again. “I still have to go out every few weekends to help out at the farm.”

Not like Honoka didn’t know that, she was the one who had signed him up to continue that mess.

And not like she wasn’t insufferable, knowing that he actually liked that occasional chance to see Fujimura and the rest of his friends. It sucked, being the youngest in a friend group.

“Kiriya, your work ethic could be accurately described as the bare minimum,” Honoka said, her tone notably dry even over the crackling phone. “Have you started looking at colleges yet?”

“Yeah,” Kiriya lied.

Honoka sighed, “You should just really start thinking of your future. And college isn’t that bad, I’m sure you’d do fine here.”

“You do have a habit of overestimating people,” Kiriya responded lightly. “Shouldn’t you be focused on your own homework instead of peptalking me?”

“I finished it all.”

“Of course you did.”

“Oh, do you want to talk with Nagisa?” Honoka asked. “She just got back from class.”

“No, tell her I hate her,” Kiriya replied instantly, snorting as he heard Nagisa yell in protest.

“You could be a bit nicer, Kiriya.”

“Sure, sure.”

“You got anything else you wanted to talk about? You know I always want to hear about your life.”

Kiriya tightened his fingers around the seed. “Nope, just boring stuff here. Why do you make me participate in this?”

“Because learning to be a functional member of society is important,” Honoka responded, exasperated. “But while I’ve got you on the phone, would you mind doing a little favor for me.”

No wasn’t an answer when Honoka asked like this, so Kiriya just stayed silent.

“Ryota—Nagisa’s little brother, we babysat him a few times?---Anyway, he’s been acting a bit stranger than usual, or so Nagisa thinks. He’s been calling more, so Nagisa is worried he’s lonely. Would you mind checking up on him?”

Kiriya let out a long-suffering sigh, resigning himself to another awkward social situation. “Sure.”

Apparently, being magical did not actually make Ryota any smarter, a hypothesis that gained more and more proof every time they took out their homework. The temptation to stuff it back into their backpack warred inside of them as they slowly worked through each problem. Normally, they would cave instantly, but they’d been skipping enough homework that Mom had sat them down at the table and was keeping an eye on them while making dinner.

As they tried to factor out a polynomial, the doorbell dinged.

Mom wandered over, opening up the door, and while normally Ryota would ignore that, this time they leaned back in their chair to listen more closely. Anything was better than math.

“Oh, hello Kiriya! It’s been a long time, please, come in!” Mom immediately said, pushing the door open further.

“Thank you very much.” A smooth and familiar voice responded, and Ryota pouted as they tried to remember where they knew that name from.

A few more steps, and Mom led a boy, holding a container, into the kitchen.

Oh!

Ryota had only met him a few times, surprisingly. It was rare that Honoka had brought him over, they’d gotten the feeling that he and Nagisa didn’t like each other that much, but that was Honoka’s little brother.

“My grandmother made extra grilled fish this morning, and asked me to bring some over to you.” Kiriya held up the container, passing it over to Mom.

“Ah, that’s very kind of you both,” Mom continued with the pleasantries. “Tell me, how has Honoka been doing at university?”

“She’s been great, of course,” Kiriya responded, “I’m sure you’ve heard the same from Nagisa.”

“Nagisa gets too embarrassed talking about her girlfriend with her parents,” Mom rolled her eyes.

Kiriya huffed an agreement.

“Say, why don’t you stay for dinner?” Mom offered. “As a return for the fish you gave us.”

“There’s no need to pay that back,” Kiriya shook his head, “We honestly made too much, you’re doing us a favor getting it out of our fridge. Grandmother still cooks for three and friends.”

“Nonsense, it’s already getting late, you might as well stay,” Mom argued. It was like a tennis match, watching those two try to be more polite. Ryota was pretty sure Kiriya had never been that polite when they had met, but their memory was a bit fuzzy.

“Alright then,” Kiriya shrugged, “Thank you for having me.”

“Take a seat next to Ryota, I’m almost done. You remember Ryota, right? You used to babysit him.”

And now Ryota really wished they could just run back into their room.

Kiriya took a seat across from them, looking around contemplatively, but with more than a bit of boredom flashing through his eyes. Really, Ryota felt like they should remember the guy better, but the thoughts just wouldn’t come.

He was adopted, Ryota knew that, and he… uh… played soccer!

Wow, that sure was a lot to know about the guy that might be their brother-in-law someday.

“Are you having trouble with your homework?” Kiriya asked.

Ryota startled, a bit stupidly. They shouldn’t have zoned out that far. “Yeah, a bit,” they admitted.

Kiriya sighed, “What’s in on.”

“Uh, polynomials,” Ryota offered weakly, turning the page so Kiriya could see it as well.

Kiriya nodded, “You want help?”

“You know how to do this?” Ryota asked, kicking themself right afterwards. Of course Kiriya knew how to do these things, he was graduating high school next year.

“Honoka’s my sister, she didn’t let me get away with not knowing anything,” Kiriya replied, pulling his chair around and getting to work.

Well, that had not been worth Kiriya’s time.

Kiriya would much prefer to be sleeping at this point. In fact, it would probably be wise for him to go to sleep, not like any of the incidents had happened at night. Yet here he was, jumping across buildings on the lookout for some skulking evildoers.

Not that he thought they would actually hang out here. They’d had the wherewithal to hold most of their evil meetings in Dotsuku Zone, not out in the open where any pesky Pretty Cures could stumble across them.

He looked down, at the buildings falling away and the jagged, steep gaps opening up to swallow him whole into every alleyway. How long had it been since he’d flown like this? Remembered he was more than human. Or lesser than, debatably.

He’d become so complacent.

Darkness always returned, that was the rule. The day would wane, and let the night take it’s place, stretching out its limbs to rule over the world again. But that cycle could be more peaceful, not necessarily the harsh violence of its tensest moments.

Still, Kiriya should’ve known one day this all would return.

He sat down on a roof, surveying the empty city below him, only the occasional car speeding past and echoing for far too long. No magic whatsoever in sight, only the city he reluctantly came to call home.

The pieces of the seeds he pulled out of his pocket laid dormant, spread out on the brick. He’d been nervous carrying them around, his fingers flexing to check for them constantly, anxiety keeping him from touching them under the fear he may activate them.

Yet here they were, normal seeds to anyone’s eye, but his own. And even then, it was so tempting to second guess himself.

With a deep breath, magic arced across his fingertips. When had his own power become unfamiliar to him? It took only a thought for it all to come rushing back, every instinct shivering down his spine.

“What are you?” He murmured, lowering his fingers to the husk.

His power sparked, hitting the seed.

And it cracked, falling open further, and withering away to dust.

“Argh!” Kiriya flopped back, throwing his arms up into the air. “Why is this so annoying!”

Maiko was waiting for Ryota at the bus stop when they hopped, tapping her foot impatiently. The way her eyes landed on them sent shivers up Ryota’s spine, immediately making them question what they might’ve done wrong.

“Are you doing anything after school today?” Maiko demanded.

Ryota reeled back from how loud her voice was. “Um, no?” Except for going home and collapsing.

“Then you’ll be with me today,” Maiko declared. “I already asked Saori, but she said no.”

Ryota began to walk, almost trailing behind Maiko despite being the one to lead the way. “With you for what?”

“Investigation, of course!” Maiko looked at them like they were an idiot. “We’re the journalism club after all, we’ve gotta get a scoop on these incidents around the city.”

Ryota had never been a particularly good liar, and Nagisa especially took great joy in telling them that. Their face would flush a bit and they would refuse to directly tell a falsehood if anyone asked. It wasn’t a good weakness for a younger sibling to have.

“Um, isn’t that, y’know, a bit too big for us?” Ryota responded, words tumbling out of their mouth without enough thought put into the deception. “Like, that’s the stuff actual news crews would do.”

“Are you saying we aren’t good enough for that?” Maiko asked, her hands on her hips.

“Well, yeah,” Ryota shrugged. “At least, I’m definitely not.”

Maiko sighed, all the wind taken out of her sails. Ryota almost wished they had agreed, but whatever kept Maiko from learning their new secret.

And it was true. This was just their after school club, they weren’t anything close to professional.

“I’m still gonna go out and look,” Maiko said, twisting her hands in front of her. “You got anything better to do than come with me? I- I don’t know, thought you might wanna.”

It had been a while since Ryota had been asked something like this. The language had changed from children to teenagers. They could remember being invited over to other houses for playdates, or shoving the phone into their mom’s hands to arrange it all for them.

“Alright,” Ryota agreed, kicking themself for every word that continued to come out. “Why don’t we just leave once class is done?”

Maiko stared up at them, with almost startled eyes. It was rare for Ryota to be allowed that aspect of her expressions. “You better be ready, we ain’t dawdling around,” Maiko warned.

Ryota snorted, the gates of the school coming into view. “I will be, don’t worry.”

All they needed to do was just spend a day with Maiko without changing into Pretty Cure. That should be pretty normal, right?

Sweat dripped off Kiriya’s forehead as he dumped half his water bottle over a towel and then used that to wipe off his face. He was done with drills for the day, and all ready to grab his backpack and get out of there. The interim-captain would just be running some first years through their paces for the last fifteen minutes.

“Hey dude, nice hustle out there,” Yusuke said, tossing an arm around Kiriya’s shoulder.

Kiriya turned to him with the iciest glare he could muster freezing his eyes.

Years ago, that had still had the power to make Yusuke flinch away, holding his hands up with a laugh and claiming it had just been a joke. Now, Yusuke just grinned wider.

“You skipping out this early?” Yusuke continued, “Damn man, thought the captain would’ve asked you stick around.”

“He did,” Kiriya replied, “I just wasn’t interested.” It was Takeo’s job to teach those first years, not Kiriya’s.

Yusuke rolled his eyes, and Kiriya took that chance to slip out from under his arm, not even surprised as Yusuke followed him into the locker room.

“You know, anyone else would be interested,” Yusuke commented, “You get what he’s trying to tell you, right? Honestly, I’m surprised you weren’t already offered the position.”

Kiriya slammed his locker door shut, throwing on a non-sweaty shirt over his head and leaving, Yusuke still just one step behind.

Yusuke was really just out of the loop sometimes.

It had been a few months ago that Kiriya had been called out after practice by their previous captain, Kimata.

“Hey Kiriya, long time since we actually had a good talk together,” Kimata had grinned at him, putting the equipment away. Kiriya had already been moving to help.

Kiriya rolled his eyes, “It’s not like we’re that close.” Their friendship had originally been built more on group settings, and Kimata coming over to his house to hang out with Honoka before being hit with the double realization that she was a lesbian with a girlfriend.

He’d still come over after though, not for Honoka, but just to hang out with Kiriya.

“How could you say that about one of your dear friends?” Kimata asked, pressing a hand to his heart. He was still smiling though, Honoka said that it was because they’d all gotten used to his quirks.

“Easily,” Kiriya deadpanned, receiving a small wap on the back of his head. “Did you call me over here just to help you clean, lazy?”

“Nah, I had other things I wanted,” Kimata replied. “But it’s always a pleasure to make you do work.”

Kiriya grimaced at him, hoping Kimata knew that at next practice, Kiriya would be kicking a ball right into his stupid, smug face.

“See, thing is Kiriya, I’m graduating next month, you remember?” Kimata asked, sounding a bit more serious than Kiriya had heard him in a while. Possibly since Fujimura’s graduation. “So, this team is gonna need a new captain.”

Honoka had accused Kiriya of being a bit dense and uncaring a few times, but never of being dumb, so he obviously put the pieces together at that point.

“No.”

“Oh come on!” Kimata turned to him, crossing his arms. “You haven’t even heard me out!”

“Yeah, but I already know my answer,” Kiriya responded. “There’s no way I’m going to be the next captain.”

“And why not?” Kimata replied heatedly. “You’re likely our best player, Kiriya, and you’ve got a level-head. I want to leave this team in the best hands, so why won’t you even think about it?”

“If you want to leave this team in good hands, then I shudder to think about why you imagined those might be mine,” Kiriya snorted, “I’m not a good leader or team player, you know that. Rethink your options, Kimata, I’m sure you’ll find literally anything that could do better.”

And then Kiriya had walked away. He would never be one for remaining in conversations he didn’t want to have.

A week later, Kimata had announced that Takeo would be the next captain, clapping him on the shoulder. Kiriya had wondered, from the way Takeo hadn’t met his eyes, if he’d known he was only the second choice.

But the one chosen anyway.

Yusuke sure didn’t know though, and if Takeo wasn’t going to tell him, then Kiriya wouldn’t the one.

“You got anything after this?” Yusuke asked, still refusing to leave Kiriya alone. Far too much of his, Kiriya’s, and Takeo’s friendship had been built like this.

“No, I was just going to cook dinner,” Kiriya replied.

“Aw, that’s so sweet,” Yusuke cooed. Kiriya wondered if he could call Honoka again to lecture Yusuke about misogyny. Maybe it would make Yusuke shut up for a second.

“Maybe you should take this time to catch up on your homework,” Kiriya said pointedly, smirking at the way Yusuke drooped.

“Man, but homework is so boring,” he complained. “Come on, why don’t we do something actually fun? Heard there was gonna be a show at the aquarium today.”

“What are you, five?” Kiriya scoffed.

“Like you can ever be too old to see penguins!” Yusuke shot back, looping his arm around Kiriya’s. “Now, off we go!”

And Kiriya, this far into his life, had become resigned to friendship.

How easy it was to forget the looming pitfalls of his destiny, the seeds of fate small enough to sit, ominously, in his pocket.

Ryota froze outside the aquarium Maiko had dragged them to. It wasn’t the same aquarium, their city had three different aquariums, but an aquarium could only look so different from one another. The same dark awnings leading into passageways full of fish. The same shape to walk through over and over again.

“They have a penguin show today,” Maiko told them, looking at her pamphlet. “If we don’t find anything, then at least we’ll get to see the show.”

A breath hissed out between Ryota’s teeth, another one aching their lungs. This was fine. It was fine. Ryota had gone back to aquariums before and been fine.

They’d just been— startled.

“Are you sure you just didn’t wanna come here?” Ryota teased her lightly. “I mean, what are we even gonna find here?”

Maiko rolled her eyes at them, “Well, Ryota, if you read the news, you’d know there is no significant link between the locations of any of these attacks.”

To be honest, Ryota could see Arata making a mess of an aquarium like this one. Though his magic seemed to be a bit more complex than that. And not like Arata was going to be here, no, Ryota was going to have a normal schoolkid day.

“Well, onwards!” Maiko charged forward, and Ryota trudged after her.

Fishes, fishes, and more fishes. Truly, what wondrous sights to behold at the aquarium.

“You know, a lot of people don’t have a favorite fish,” Yusuke observed, chattering away in Kiriya’s ear. “Which really is a shame, because so many fish are interesting. I’ve gotta admit I’ve always really liked jellyfish, even if that seems a bit simple to like.”

“Jellyfish are simple because they’re good,” Kiriya grunted, “Perfect sort of fish.”

“See!” Yusuke threw his hands up in the air. “You, you get it. And lobsters, lobsters are also great.”

“Is this why you’re the opposite of a pescetarian?” Kiriya mused. It was why celebration dinners with Yusuke could never include sushi.

“Fish are just perfect creatures,” Yusuke shrugged. “I refuse to consume such perfection.”

Kiriya snorted, carrying on.

Honoka had been the first person to take him to an aquarium, and most of Kiriya’s memories were marked in similar ways. She had an entire list of places he’d never experienced, and every weekend for almost a year dragged him out somewhere new.

She liked manta rays.

“You know, I kinda wanna to try to major in marine biology in college,” Yusuke commented as they walked through tank-lined walls.

“Really?” Kiriya hummed. He’d never have guessed that of his dense friend, but he supposed not all his athlete friends were dunces like Fujimura and Nagisa.

“Yeah, so I signed up to take biology courses this semester, but they are kicking my ass,” Yusuke groaned. “I wish I could just be a shoe in for an athletic scholarship like you.”

“Then you’d have to continue athletics for the rest of your life, or at least, through college,” Kiriya pointed out, “Do you really want that?”

“I dunno man,” Yusuke responded, “It would be good to have some direction with my life, at least.”

Ah yes, the direction that sat upon Kiriya’s desk, waiting for him to accept it. How many destinies were just lying around for his inevitable return?

“Guess it would be nice.”

“Maiko. Do you ever think about how mermaids were just fish furries?”

Maiko toppled over, a surprised gasp of laughter tearing from her lips. Ryota grinned proudly, turned away so Maiko couldn’t see. Part of the joke was the straight delivery, after all.

“And people say furries are new,” Maiko replied, “Like, like we haven’t been thinking of fish people since the Ancient Greeks.”

“I personally think that if I were any furry, it’d be a mermai-n.” Bitterness filled Ryota’s throat as they stumbled over the last word, an event that had only been getting more and more common. Every surge of it sent a dual shock of both anxiety but vindication through them.

They were not going to have a gender crisis in an aquarium, they were not going to have another life-altering event tied to motherfucking aquariums.

“That’s a good pick,” Maiko nodded, “Honestly, if I didn’t think foxes were so cool, I’d agree with you.”

“Foxes are also pretty cool,” Ryota agreed.

Honestly, they’d kinda expected to break down ten minutes after entering the aquarium. While they’d been to aquariums again, that was always with Nagisa or Honoka. And nothing that bad could happen with Nagisa or Honoka around, their brain still told them for some reason.

Irrationality was rather strange.

“You know, I never knew you could make jokes that good,” Maiko observed. “Tell me, can you normally be that funny, or is it just a one time event?”

“I’m hilarious,” Ryota retorted.

“I think you should prove it then.”

“Maybe I will!”

“Good! Your next goal is to make Saori laugh.”

Huh, Ryota had never actually heard her laugh. Giggle? Perhaps. Not laugh.

“Yeah, I can do that.” Ryota knew how to fake confidence.

Maiko cackled, “Can’t wait to see you fail.”

“Hey!” Ryota turned to her, betrayed.

She just shrugged and skipped ahead.

It was like the second the conversation was broken, more words welled up in Ryota’s throat, but this time, they knew all of them would go unsaid. They hadn’t- they hadn’t thought to say that much. They could barely even remember the conversation now, fading in to a haze of anxiety.

It’d been pretty easy to talk to her though…

How had it been that easy?

“Oh, hey, the show’s gonna start soon!” Yusuke was already grabbing Kiriya’s arm and tugging him away as he said that. Boundaries were apparently something Yusuke could not conceptualize existing, just another thing to get Honoka on.

Honoka was his older sister, he was allowed to outsource all his problems onto her.

They jogged outside to the pool, past parents getting dragged around by excitable five year-olds, and other teenagers that had gotten past the stage of hating everything to trying to desperately connect to childhood.

Honoka called it nostalgia, and Kiriya pretended he understood what she meant so she’d stop trying to break down emotions he couldn’t put names to.

“Aw, all the seats are taken!” Yusuke tsked as they stood at the railing, trying to peer down at the little pinpricks of penguins.

“Here,” A voice said, and Kiriya had never been one for noticing when people were talking to him, but this voice shattered all his ability to think, alarm bells screeching in his head. “For shows like these, binoculars are good to bring.”

The boy was younger than either of them, at least on the surface, short gray hair with no roots peeking out, and dull eyes that reflected too much light. He smiled up at Yusuke, holding out a pair of binoculars.

“Hey, thanks kid!” Yusuke accepted it with a stupid grin. Was it only Kiriya feeling this danger? Well, of course it was, Yusuke didn’t have any sense of self-preservation. That’s why they were friends.

This was not good. This was fucking bad. This was fuckass ballshittingly bad.

“No problem, but I do wonder what two teenagers are doing here,” the kid said. “You’re what, seniors?”

“Yup, we’re both seniors.”

“Interesting, I thought when you got older you had more things to do with your time,” the kid spoke in the slow tone Poisonny had sometimes when mocking him. The similarities to his sister, usually something he honestly had started to enjoy noticing in others, did not feel at all benign now.

Poisonny had never hurt Kiriya, never curled her hand around his throat, never thrown him off a roof, but this fear racing through his heart made him wonder if this is what it would feel like if she had.

“You’d think that,” Yusuke laughed, “But you still get a lot of free time, just as much stress to go with it.”

“Ah, I see,” the kid observed with his creepy little smile. Did he have teeth underneath those lips, or just rotted husks?

“Yusuke, give the kid back his binoculars.” Was Kiriya really managing to sound casual? And Honoka nowadays teased him for being a bad actor. Like he hadn’t managed to be evil right under her nose for weeks. “There’s not really space for us here, we might as well leave.”

“Hel-ck no man!” Yusuke looked at him, askance. “I’m here to see those penguins!”

Kiriya’s teeth ground together, his jaw aching and clicking with the pressure exerted.

“Besides, I don’t mind you borrowing my binoculars,” the kid shrugged.

“See, the kid’s cool!” Yusuke gestured towards the obviously evil kid. “Anyway, what’s your name, kid?”

“Arata!” The boy replied. “And you are?”

“Yusuke and Kiriya,” Yusuke responded before Kiriya could throttle him. And he wouldn’t fall into the sunk-cost fallacy now, no matter how tempting it may be.

“Nice to meet you both,” Arata replied, “Has the show started yet?”

Yusuke pressed the binoculars up against his face and peered out. “Oh my god, yeah! They’re bringing the penguins out.”

Arata nodded along, like Kiriya would believe that was what he was really interested in.

“You wanna swap the binoculars back so we can both watch?” Yusuke offered Arata.

He shook his head, “No, I’m actually not that interested in the penguins.”

“Then why are you here?” Kiriya bit out.

Yusuke frowned at Kiriya, clearly getting more and more annoyed by Kiriya’s curt attitude towards a kid. Not that Kiriya also wasn’t one step away from punching him, could Yusuke not just trust him.

“I like people watching!” Arata said brightly, clapping his hands together. “Places like these are the best, when you can see everyone clearly indulging in their escapism. No one here is under any delusions that they mean anything.”

It was this comment that finally had Yusuke turning back to Arata with a startled look of disgust. Fucking finally.

“What do you mean by that?” Oh no, Yusuke was taking up the tone of someone talking to a preschooler. He was still so blind to the malice of the world.

“I meant what I said,” Arata replied. “Can’t you see it too? Everyone is just here because they realized they can’t deal with their own problems.”

Kiriya gripped Yusuke’s forearm. “Let’s get out of here. Now.”

Once upon a time, Kiriya would’ve been commanding and terrifying enough that these mere words would’ve sent Yusuke running while pissing himself. Hell, he wouldn’t have even asked Yusuke at that time. If he wanted something done, he did it by force.

Those were instincts he never should’ve let die.

“That’s just incorrect,” Yusuke told Arata, crossing his arms. “Just because people need a break from their problems sometimes doesn’t mean they’ve given up on them, or that they can’t solve them.”

Arata heaved a giant, overdramatic sigh. Like all the wind rushed into his lungs then expired, leaving the air cold and empty. “I suppose someone still deluded with their purpose had to be here.”

“Listen kid, you can’t just go around insulting people like that-”

Arata was standing a centimeter away from Yusuke when Kiriya blinked. An innocent little grin stretched across his face as he looked up at Yusuke, the irises of his eyes blooming.

Kiriya’s fists trembled.

“Do you really think you aren’t running away from your problems here?” Arata’s voice was a soft wisp, dancing from ear to ear.

Yusuke balked, taking a step back as Arata only kept advancing on him. “I- I plan to be a marine biologist-”

“Oh really?” Arata raised an eyebrow, so dismissively. “So that’s why you’re here, instead of studying? You know you’re going to fail those classes, and then you’re going to have nothing left to fall back on. Not even your friends, who will pull out ahead of you. They actually have some talent, after all.”

Arata’s eyes cut over to Kiriya, his teeth flashing. “You can’t even tell your friend here you want to punch him for taking all your opportunities.”

Kiriya stepped forward. “That’s enough.”

“Oh is it now? Is it?” Arata clapped his hands together. “Come along then! I’ve been waiting for you to show me what you can do. You feel so similar, you see.”

Yeah, so did he.

Kiriya charged forward, knowing he moved within an instant, his fist wound back to clock the little demon in the head.

And then, his hand just passed through air.

Air, that was driven out of his lungs.

An elbow, lodged in his gut.

And for a second, all Kiriya could do was crumple to the ground.

“You see here, I can give you a little help, at least,” Arata said, his voice echoing and echoing like bells chiming far too loudly. “This will show you all you can ever be, with fears like that. You should just accept this final bloom.”

Kiriya’s eyes struggled open and up just to see Arata shoving a seed into Yusuke’s mouth.

And then, the darkness of what had once been home filled the space between them.

Ryota was still pretty new to the idea of heroics, so sue them for hearing a crash from somewhere down the hallways and dismissing it as, like, a janitor’s cart getting knocked over.

Surprisingly, it was the sound of water that alerted them. The splash of waves down flights of stairs, the crash of liquid like a manmade waterfall.

The water had dripped off the beast’s back as it had stood, like an unholy baptism.

It was the people screaming that alerted Maiko.

“Hey, Ryota, does it feel like-” She grabbed their arm anxiously, she still hadn’t put all the pieces together, just standing there watching people run out of the building. Other visitors had begun to notice, looking up from the tanks with confusion, no action being taken, not yet.

Didn’t they know to get away from the tanks before they exploded?

Didn’t Ryota know that?

“Ryota?”

It was outside, Ryota could already tell, but it wouldn’t stay that way. There, at the edges of the tank, white little tendrils had begun to stretch, not even looking like they should be solid enough to hold themselves together in the water. Barely opaque, barely there.

A ghost of a monster that Ryota could see.

“Maybe we should go?”

Closer and closer to the glass, they approached. Did these visitors think they were a new fish, if they even registered?

“Ryo-”

“Get down!” Ryota turned around, shoving Maiko behind the desk they were next to and then crouching with her. Hands over their heads, just in time.

Glass hailed down from the sky, splinters shooting into the ground like a storm of swords. Water spilled out of the tanks, rushing across the halls and looming over each new person. Wave after wave buffeted the visitors, thankfully driving them out.

“Shit!” Maiko screamed, pressed against Ryota’s side. “Ryota, we gotta get outta here!”

She didn’t know there was no real escape, not yet.

Not for them.

Kiriya leaped backwards, pressed against the wall as people raced out of the atrium. The shrieks of the monster could still be heard above all their panicked yells, the guttural vocalizations of a beast that only looked half there.

That was no Zakenna.

When all the people passed, Arata sat across from him on the railing, swinging his feet. “I didn’t expect it to be this easy, you know,” the kid complained, “You’ve disappointed me.”

“What the hell did you do?” Kiriya spat back, stepping off the wall to actually take his first good look at the monster.

Mukanshin, Arata had summoned it as. Mukanshin rolled around in the pool, slapping tentacles into the water, splashing waves over the seats.Well, not quite tentacles, but Kiriya had forgotten what those things were called on jellyfish. Which is what the Mukanshin was shaped as, a giant, pale jellyfish pulsing with venom.

And on the small island in that pool, where the trainers often stood, a cage of snowdrop flowers wrapped around Yusuke.

“I just showed him the truth,” Arata shrugged. “Anyway, I’m curious to see how you’ll do, so I should let you get to it!”

Before Kiriya could throttle him, the boy disappeared.

Alright, so, this was the problem he’d been seeking out at least. That was a positive.

And the negative was that he could see that the Mukanshin had actually started destroying things, if the increase in screams was anything to go by.

Kiriya leaped off the railing, sailing forward into the fray. He may be out of practice, but this was no time for cold feet. He splayed his hands forward, drawing on that familiar well of magic he’d used for so long.

Before he could even direct his spell, a tentacle caught him in the gut and sent him flying through the air, only his practice keeping him from collapsing and instead allowing him to flip to land on his feet.

Shit, twice in one day? His ribs were going to be bruised after this.

But he knew now that monster would be no easy fight. He could defeat, he had to, but it would take him a prolonged time.

Which meant he had to prioritize something else first: Saving civilians.

Honestly… that was not a strength of Kiriya’s. It had never really been his job to save civilians back when serving Dotsuku Zone, clearly, and his time as a good guy had been relatively quiet.

First things first, he did actually have an identity to worry about now, and he wouldn’t be able to save people from the shadows.

He pressed his fingers to his face, pushing magic out. Illusion magic didn’t come as naturally to him as his sister, but he didn’t struggle to create a whole new outfit around himself. His hair was now tied back in a ponytail, and his shirt stretching up to mask his face. An orange tunic vest completed the look, well enough he was sure he could go through today without being recognized.

Until Yusuke actually got his senses together and began asking Kiriya what the hell had happened.

He darted back down the stairs into the aquarium, his scarf trailing out behind him. Is this what Honoka felt like, having long hair? He’d always thought the way White’s hair looked was kinda cool…

The first person he had to save was immediately apparent, a young woman was trying to push herself out from behind a pillar that had toppled and pinned her to the wall. Kiriya’s legs sank into the water as he landed in front of her, wrapping his arms around the stone, hefting it up, and throwing it to the side.

“Need a ride?” He offered the woman a hand, and when she took it, chucked her over his shoulder.

He wasn’t trying to be rude, Honoka, he just needed to be efficient! This was efficient!

He took her to the edge of a room, where a slightly less destroyed hallway opened up to, and let her go. Luckily, it seemed like most of the people had been able to run from here.

“Help us! Someone!” He spoke too soon.

Kiriya followed the yelling of a child, his heart racing as he sped through rooms trying to figure out where they were. When had he gained the societal understanding that children needed to be the most protected? Oh well, probably from Honoka.

“Keep calling!” He shouted, the kid immediately responding.

There, the room was filling fast with water, and pillars had fallen down blocking their exit. It was the main aquarium room, and out of all of them, seemed the most destroyed. People laid, slumped against walls with water slowly climbing up their necks, glass embedded into their skin.

And, sitting on a desk, their eyes searching for a way out, were two unharmed kids.

Fuck, fuck!

Kiriya couldn’t help but freeze, searching the kids' faces. It was almost luck he recognized one, because a few days ago he sure wouldn’t have.

What the fuck was Nagisa’s little brother doing here?

There was something almost surreal about looking into a face of a hero, because that’s what that guy clearly was. Sure, Ryota had Pollun kicking around in their backpack, clearly waiting to be let out so Ryota could transform and deal with this, but Ryota still hadn’t deal with the cognitive dissonance of thinking of themself as a hero.

This guy had seemingly embraced it though, and yet, he still looked so off.

A mask covered the lower part of his face, and he wore an orange vest that looked straight out of a comic book. He wore sweatpants under that. There was nothing of this guy that spoke of the magic Ryota wielded.

This was just… some guy.

Some guy who walked over and started pushing the fallen pillars out of the way, picking up people as he went.

“Are you both alright?” He asked, like he knew what he was dealing with. Maybe he did, Ryota sure didn’t feel like they did.

“Yeah,” Maiko replied shakily, jumping into the water and wading through. Ryota’s instincts were enough intact to follow her.

The guy looked around the room, his eyes tightening as he seemed to realize the daunting prospect in front of him. And outside, Ryota could still hear the current of battle calling.

“Who are you?” Maiko asked the man, Ryota turning towards her to see stars in her eyes. They could guess it was more for the possible story rather than admiration for this guy.

“Iriz-” The man cut himself off, almost like he’d bitten his tongue. “Iris.”

Ryota blinked at the man- person? Oh my god, Iris was a girl’s name, right? Had they been misgendering this person that entire time?

“What’s out there?” Maiko continued, because she wasn’t having a crisis over possibly misgendering someone. Because all Ryota’s brain could do was fix onto different things to spiral about, apparently.

“A monster,” Iris replied curtly.

A Mukanshin, Ryota’s brain filled in.

It had to be, right? Stuff like this… stuff like this didn’t just happen.

Only, it had before.

“We need to get out before it finds us,” Iris continued, hefting another person over their shoulder. They glanced around, seemingly more frantic at each new disaster they spotted.

Ryota was speaking before their thoughts could catch up. “You should take Maiko,” they declared, pushing Maiko towards Iris. “I can wait here and hide until you get back.”

Iris blinked at them. “Absolutely not!” They sounded almost… personally insulted? Personally angry that Ryota would dare even suggest such a thing.

“Are you crazy!” Maiko rounded on them as well, her eyes blown wide with panic. “Did you not just hear that there’s a monster out there?”

“Then it’s best for either you or me to stay, right?” Ryota shot back, “Because we’re awake and can do things. Like, I can go see if anyone else is trapped here and get them out and ready for you to pick up. But you should take Maiko, please!”

Maiko gaped at them, but with a shake of their head, Iris grabbed their arm. “Fine, but get out if you think there’s any danger. I’ll be back in a minute.” And, harshly, they tugged Maiko away.

Ryota was thus left alone, in this drowning aquarium.

The sound of lapping waves filled their head, the ebb and flow of water ever growing around their chest. Their lungs would fill until they could naught even cough, and then their ribs would be crushed inside-

“Are you ready now?” Pollun popped out of their backpack, blinking at them. “Come on, come on, Precure needs to save the day!”

“I-” Ryota swallowed, their hands shaking as they shoved an adult higher up the wall, so the water would take longer to reach their face. “I can’t, Pollun, and there’s someone else here who can deal with it. That Iris, they seem like they know what they’re doing.”

“But there’s a monster out there,” Pollun argued, hopping up and down on the desk angrily. “It’s Precure’s job to slay monsters!”

“There’s someone already out there!” Ryota repeated, shouting now. “I can’t go out there Pollun!”

“Yes you can!” Pollun screamed right back. “You’re Precure! You can do anything!”

Ryota brought a shaking hand to their chest, stinging water dripping from their eyes at long last. “I don’t know if I can help here, Pollun,” Ryota said softly.

“Well, you aren’t going to know unless you try,” Pollun replied. “And will you be happy? Just waiting here to be saved?”

Once, two girls had dropped down in front of them, shining forms and golden fists taking down a monster Ryota could barely begin to conceptualize of. All Ryota had wanted back then was to be saved.

But they’d waited for far too long.

“I’m Pretty Cure,” Ryota muttered to themself, reaching out and taking the card from Pollun’s pack. “I can do anything.”

And there, beyond the light, Cure Mosaic stretched out a hand towards them.

The building shuttered and collapsed inward as Kiriya reentered. Stone of the hallways rained down, making Kiriya dodge out of the way lest he get a concussion.

“Fuck,” Kiriya hissed, unable to hear anything beyond the beating of his heart. Nagisa and Honoka would actually kill him if he let anything happen to Ryota. Shit, why had he listened to the kid’s arguments?

Jumping over a destroyed tank, Kiriya reentered the main room.

“Kid!” There was no kid.

“Kid! Ryota?” No time to think about identities, he just needed to find Ryota.

“Kid, where are you!”

He wasn’t lying at the bottom of the water, so there was at least that to calm him, but Ryota was nowhere in sight. No brown hair so eerily reminiscent of Nagisa’s, no quiet kid that still seemed to tremble with Nagisa’s panic.

The building shook again, and, reaching in through the destroyed tanks, Kiriya watched tentacles approach.

It was time to fight, he supposed.

He reached out a hand, ready to blow them away, but before he could unleash any magic the tentacles.. Winced? Flinched and drew back?

And above them, Kiriya could hear sounds not of a monster rampaging, but of a fight.

He was climbing up the stairs before he could even consider looking for Ryota more. The fight was on somehow, and he had to know-

Had Nagisa and Honoka come back for a visit? Had they spotted this and come running, light in hand?

Sun greeted Kiriya as he emerged from the building, water droplets spraying across his face as wind whipped the battlefield, but through all that, he watched a figure leap towards the monster, her arm drawn back as she flew into a punch.

She was a Pretty Cure.

Mosaic, frankly, did not know how to deal with this enemy, and Arata seemingly wasn’t around to exchange banter with. Well, when all else was in doubt, it was only natural for her to fall back on the basics and go in for a punch.

Tentacles shot out at her, each seeming far too sharp to be those of real jellyfish. Twisting in the air, they flew past her, leaving her now a trail to kick off of. Bounding from arm to arm, speed and power built up in her legs.

Magic filled her fist, so concentrated she could barely even look it.

“Get wrecked, motherfucker!” She screamed, laughing a bit at the words leaving her own mouth as her fist rocketed forward.

And there, weaving around one another, a mass of tentacles took her attack, breaking apart and shattering as her power coursed through them, but protecting the main body.

The counterattack was next, far more tentacles than before, and far more dense, came at her, like knives to surround her entire body. It was all Mosaic could do to leap back, not wanting to take any damage for that she’d already dealt.

She raised her hands up, knowing she wouldn’t escape all of it-

Wind cut around her, almost tearing off the strips of her skirt, and hit the tentacles directly, dissipating them into dust.

Mosaic twisted around to see Iris standing there, a hand outstretched. She could see now the magic it gleamed with, the weight held within them.

And they were looking at her like she was a ghost.

The Pretty Cure landed next to him, flipping through the air to land on the railing in a move Black never had enough dexterity to pull off, but was the crux of White’s style. She was honestly more reminiscent of White in most manners, from the primarily white dress she wore, but with green highlights rather than White’s blue. She looked as young as Black and White had been when they’d started, forms Kiriya had almost forgotten as they’d grown slowly around him.

She looked at him with rainbow-flecked eyes, strands of hair twisting around one another as she tilted her head at him. Then, she shifted on her feet, almost awkwardly.

“So, you mind helping me defeat that thing?” She asked in a stage-voice, a false bravado undercut by the fact she couldn’t raise her voice enough to make it work.

“Who are you!” Kiriya wasn’t screaming, he wasn’t, but-

That couldn’t be a Pretty Cure.

“Oh,” the girl grinned sheepishly. “I am Cure Mosaic, nice to meet another monster fighter out here. You seen these things before?”

Cure, cure she said. She actually knew what it meant, it wasn’t Kiriya’s eyes and nostalgia playing tricks on him.

“You can’t be,” Kiriya shook his head, stepping away from the impostor. “You aren’t a Pretty Cure.”

How-

How did they know what Pretty Cure meant? How did they know that name?

And how could they say that Mosaic wasn’t a Pretty Cure!

She was flinching back before she noticed, her lips drawn back in a snarl as lightning flickered under her tongue. “Well, I am Pretty Cure, so suck it up and either help me defeat Mukanshin or get out of my way.”

Mosaic had never questioned herself, and she never would. Labels were secondary to this pure, instinctual knowledge she had of herself. And she would let no one take that away, that crux of herself.

Pretty Cure.

She turned around without waiting for his answer, observing Mukanshin. There was someone trapped right next to it, as always, someone who might’ve been her sister’s age. Without Arata around, it might be possible to save them before beating Mukanshin.

But Mukanshin was curled around them, ready to attack. It would be impossible to beat Mukanshin back while grabbing the hostage, at least alone.

“Hey, hero,” Mosaic barked, getting Iris’s attention. “You see the person down there? You grab them while I keep Mukanshin busy.”

A hand grabbed her arm before she could jump back into battle. She was flipped around to look at Iris, and all she needed to see were their eyes, blazing infernos of fearful rage.

“Are you insane?” The hero hissed, “You’re gonna get hurt if you try to fight that thing!”

Mosaic slapped off their hand, glaring right back at them. This was… this was strange for her, wasn’t it? Why did she want to step away from them, to run as fast as she could?

She couldn’t question herself, she was Mosaic.

She- she didn’t want that taken away.

Huh.

“Well, you do seem to know what a Pretty Cure is,” Mosaic said, placing a hand on her hip confidently. “So I think you should also know that I’m fully ready to face this thing. After all, I’ve already done it twice. Just try to keep up.”

And before she could doubt, before she could question, Mosaic fell backwards, flipping through the air towards the monster to fight.

A litany of swears sung in Kiriya’s head as he dove forwards. It would be useless casting illusion magic to conceal his presence, the Mukanshin likely used magic to see. Best just to hope that Mosaic could keep it busy.

Well, she seemed to be succeeding so far. Throwing herself into with recklessness, her fists and feet kept pounding against the tentacles, taking them down one by one. Not enough to cause any big damage, the Mukanshin was reforming itself, but enough to keep them locked in a stalemate.

White’s grace with Black’s headfirst attitude, this imposter sure fought like a Pretty Cure.

He hopped over a tentacle that almost grazed him, continuing to jump towards the island.

It had been rare for them to make specific people victims, when Kiriya had been the one plotting. That had been because they’d only been interested in the Prism Stones. Whatever Arata and whoever he worked for had in mind, their goal couldn’t be the same as the one Kiriya had once held.

He… he didn’t have the time to think about the implications of that.

Yusuke seemed completely unconscious when Kiriya reached him, slumped forward as far as the ice encasing his body would let him. Kiriya quickly pounded his fist against it, instantly confirming this wasn’t regular ice, as none of it so much as cracked.

He couldn’t give up yet, though.

His fingers danced across the stems of the ice, the paths they traveled along, quickly finding the source. There, in front of Yusuke’s chest, pulsed the seed Kiriya had seen Arata force into him. Unlike the seeds in Kiriya’s own pocket, he could feel the active magic rolling off this one.

He touched it, and pressed his own magic against it.

“Hello!” Kiriya’s voice echoed through the empty field, and like it was waiting for him, it came alive.

He watched himself stand in the field, Takeo and Yusuke on either side of him. He was nudging the ball with his foot, ready to make a play while Takeo and Yusuke were both tense, preparing to take him down.

Kiriya smirked, kicked it over Yusuke’s head, and went sprinting after it.

His friends yelped in alarm, their feet pounding after him. Kiriya watched Takeo catch up to him, inch by inch, while Yusuke fell behind. Each wheezing breath chimed louder and louder in Kiriya’s ears.

Kiriya kicked the ball into the goal while Takeo tackled him.

It had all just been a quick game, but there Yusuke’s friends rolled around on the floor, while he could barely catch his breath, just a bit too far away.

Kiriya blinked, tearing his fingers away from the seed as the sounds of battle returned to him. Ash dusted his fingertips, and he brushed it off on his pants.

And the seed continued to pulse.

Mosaic was not having a good time, she was not having a good time at all. Gritting her teeth hard enough to crack them, she flipped through the tentacles, none of them able to catch her as she flew closer and closer down to the island.

She landed hard next to Iris, her legs buckling beneath her to deal with the force of that impact. “What is taking you so long?” She huffed, “Can you get them out?”

Iris flinched, their hands trembling at their sides as they whirled to face Mosaic. “No, I think there’s some magic holding him there.”

“Well, shit,” Mosaic hissed, grabbing Iris and leaping back before a tentacle could skewer them both. “Guess we just gotta deal with that thing.”

Iris stepped out of her grasp as soon as they were back on solid ground at the seats. “We should be able to do that, but we’ll want to hurry,” they said, “There might still be people trapped down below.”

“Shit,” Mosaic repeated, but that was the last time she would, they were on a countdown now. “It’s all those tentacles, they keep reforming and getting in the way.”

“We can’t damage them fast enough to continue causing harm to the main body,” Iris agreed.

“You can like, do most of the physical stuff I can, right?” Mosaic had been a bit too busy to observe them.

“Yeah,” Iris confirmed, “We should be pretty equally matched in that regard.”

Mosaic bit her lip, observing the writhing jellyfish, now almost fully-healed once more.

“I’m thinking, if we aren’t gonna beat those tentacles, we gotta keep them occupied while not giving Mukanshin a chance to regenerate more.”

Iris tilted their head at her. “And how do we do that?”

“You need to watch more cartoons,” Mosaic replied, “Let’s tie it up!”

Kiriya kicked a tentacle, hard, leaping off of it as it and its nearby compatriots immediately pursued him. On the other side of the atrium, he could hear Mosaic doing the same, cackling all the while.

Magic was already curling around him, wind pushing the tentacles over one another. It was almost like braiding Honoka’s hair. He hit the island, jumping up as far as he could as the tentacles whirlwind after him.

Mosaic didn’t have the same clear magic that Kiriya did, so he had no idea how she was getting them to criss-cross each other. Glancing down, he watched her do it by force, punching and kicking each until they fell into the place she wanted.

A small laugh escaped his lips as he turned and plummeted back towards Earth.

Mosaic grinned as Iris came into view, tentacles swirling after them. Kicking off one of her own tentacles, Mosaic flew up to meet them.

And watch the tentacles smash into one another, curling around and tangling within one another.

Iris thrust their hands out, their palms dazzling in Mosaic’s magic vision. Power wrapped around the tentacles, pressing in on all sides to hold the mass in place. With a salute, Mosaic ducked back under the tentacles, hurtling toward Mukanshin.

She could tell where she positioned herself, right between the line of sight of the Mukanshin and the sun. It was her shadow that covered it all.

Her hands reached up, and grasped that light.

“Shattered Mosaic!”

Droplets in the air turned to glass, spreading out into a thin sheet, trapping Mukanshin inside. Pale colors became brighter in the stains on the glass, spreading out as more and more water tripped into the frame.

And Mosaic aimed, smirking as the light became too hot on her fingertips.

And shot off.

The shattering of glass was the most beautiful sound to her ears, light spraying in each direction as Mosaic crashed through the last visible remnants of that Mukanshin and landed on the island, the chains holding the victim up falling away and a seed falling to the ground with them.

Kiriya was on the ground a second later, his mind still reeling from what he’d seen. It was nothing like Marble Screw, the main magical attack Black and White had ever used. It wasn’t even like Rainbow Storm.

All of those attacks had required them to be with one another.

Mosaic- Mosaic could do that all on her own.

Yusuke groaned on the ground, finally stirring. Kiriya winced, wanting to go to his friend, but…

“Do you know what happened here?” Kiriya asked, rounding on the younger girl.

Mosaic shrugged, “Do you?”

They faced off against each other, and Kiriya was still a bit proud to admit she flinched first.

“How are you Pretty Cure?” Kiriya asked, shifting his stance so he hopefully looked less intimidating.

It was an immediate failure though, as Mosaic drew away, her face becoming guarded once more. “How am I not a Pretty Cure?” She shot back.

“Listen,” Kiriya sighed, “Do you even know what you’re doing here? Something big is going on, and it could spell the end of the world.”

“And how do you know that?” Mosaic replied, “Seems to me you don’t know what you’re dealing with either.”

"Just- come with me so we can get this sorted out, alright?” Kiriya bit out, “You aren’t ready to deal with this.”

And Mosaic was already standing a foot away, resting on the railing. Kiriya stood off against her as she waved a hand. “Sorry, but it seems to me you got some things to deal with,” she said mockingly, inclining her head at Yusuke. “And I have my own stuff to do, dealing with these monsters and the like. It’s what I do, after all, being Pretty Cure. But maybe you’ll be able to help me again, if I see you around, Hero.”

And he moved too slow, her skirts slipping away as she leaped up, disappearing over the building.

He had things he needed to do more than chase her.

A quick glance around and a small burst of magic confirmed to him he was actually alone here, and the disguise immediately dropped, Kiriya racing over to shake Yusuke’s shoulder.

“Hey, Yusuke, get up,” Kiriya ordered, watching Yusuke slowly stir and wake.

“Kiriya?” Yusuke blinked up at him, like he could barely focus on his face through the disorientation. “Where are we?”

“The aquarium,” Kiriya answered, “You remember anything?”

Yusuke groaned, trying to sit up, an action Kiriya immediately had to offer support for. “We were… going to a show? And then… this weird kid…”

“Yeah, yeah, weird kid did some strange things, and there was an emergency at the aquarium.” Honoka would forgive him for gaslighting this one time, right? No, he was totally going to get lectured for this. “Everyone evacuated because… a tank broke. But you got hit, so we got stuck here.”

“Oh,” Yusuke replied, “I don’t feel like I’m concussed though.”

“Good for you then,” Kiriya said drily, “I’m going to carry you out of here now.”

“Mm, alright.” Yusuke almost flopped against Kiriya as he hefted Yusuke over his shoulder.

Kiriya began walking out, glad to see the water seemed to have receded when he reached the staircase. Sirens had begun to sound in the distance, signaling the approaching rescue.

“Hey, Yusuke, you still awake?”

“Yeah.”

“You know, uh, that kid said some pretty weird things to you, and you said some weird things back.”

Yusuke stiffened in Kiriya’s hold. “What about it?”

“I just…” Kiriya sighed, trying to bring the words to mind. He’d never been good at this, and even years as a human hadn’t changed that. “I also don’t know where I’m going from here, alright?”

“Wha?”

“None of us know where we’re going, we’re all freaking out over what to do. You think you’re the only one freaking out because I could get some athletic scholarship or something, and because Takeo is captain, but we’re all flailing equally trying to figure things out.” Kiriya climbed over some of the pillars, continuing through the flickering, water-logged hallways. “Honoka keeps bothering me to apply to colleges and I know my time is running out, but I just don’t know what to do. Same as you.”

Yusuke laughed, a bit breathlessly. “Yeah, yeah I guess we really are the same.”

“Do you think we’ll figure it out?”

“Man, of course we will.”

Ryota stumbled out of the transformation, pressing a hand against the wall to steady themself. Iris hadn’t followed, thankfully, but they’d transformed as soon as possible, just in case.

That had been- That sure had been an experience!

A manic laugh crawled out of Ryota’s throat, and they slid down the wall, leaning their head up towards the last rays of the sun.

The seed they’d grabbed sat inert in their other hand.

So, Ryota would have another person to watch out for, though this one was significantly less malicious than Arata. Iris, huh? They clearly were something else, something maybe like Mosaic, maybe like Arata. They knew what a Pretty Cure was, after all.

They said it shouldn’t be Ryota…

The same panic Mosaic had felt earlier was now swirling in Ryota’s stomach. The idea that they weren’t supposed to be Pretty Cure, it just felt so wrong! They didn’t want to be questioned on that.

Mosaic was so-

Mosaic felt so safe, to be. So powerful.

Ryota didn’t want that to be taken away.

Huh, that was something to think about.

“Ryota!” Their head jerked up at their name, and they stood as Maiko barreled towards them, tugging them out of the alley and into a quick hug.

Ryota couldn’t even hug her back, their arms lying limp at their side in shock.

“What the utter fuck were you thinking!” Maiko pulled back, only to punch them in the arm. Ryota didn’t even flinch away, just blinking dumbly at their friend. “Staying behind in there was just dumb! I didn’t know how you were going to get out- How did you even get out?”

“I, uh, Iris left a path,” Ryota answered, kind of lamely, “When the building started falling down, I just left.”

“Well, at least there’s that,” Maiko huffed, “But don’t ever do that again!”

“Alright,” Ryota agreed.

This was all just, so dizzying.

“Ryota!” Was that-

Wait, they knew the figure running towards them. Pale skin and dark hair, it had been just yesterday they’d seen each other for the first time in ages.

“Kiriya?” Ryota responded, watching the older boy come to a halt in front of them and inspect their face. “What- what are you doing here?”

“I was here with a friend and spotted you.” Sure enough, there was another boy walking towards them, much more unsteadily than Kiriya’s sprint.

That- That was the victim, right?

“Are you okay?” Kiriya continued.

“Huh, uh, yeah?” To be honest, Ryota had no idea why Kiriya was that concerned for them.

“That’s good,” Kiriya sighed, “You should be more careful from now on.”

“Sure,” Ryota agreed again.

“Hey,” Maiko nudged them, “Who is this?”

“Oh,” Ryota turned to her, “This is Yukishiro Kiriya, my sister’s girlfriend’s brother.”

“Your sister has a girlfriend?” Maiko echoed, raising her eyebrow at them. Ryota froze. They were pretty sure their friends weren’t homophobic but- “Oh, that’s so cool.”

“My sister’s girlfriend is also incredible,” Ryota replied with a small smile.

“And she would’ve killed me if anything had happened to you,” Kiriya grumbled.

Ryota just stood there, surrounded by people concerned for them.

They’d really gotten here somehow, hadn’t they? Huh, that was also something to think about.

Arata watched the two heroes part ways, each unknowing who the other was. It was a bit funny to watch from his vantage point, but still couldn’t soothe his ego over his Mukanshin being defeated. Seriously, what was up with these people, that just kept coming out of the woodwork.

“You seem disappointed.” The sun was hidden from his gaze as a parasol twirled overhead.

“I just don’t get what’s happening,” Arata complained, “Between that Pretty Cure, and the guy who should be with us but isn’t, everything got all the more confusing. It’s so annoying.”

“It’s your own fault for being so curious, Arata.” A foot kicked his shoulder, not hard enough to bruise, but just barely. “You should get back to work.”

“Urgh.” Arata flopped down on his back. “I just want this all to be over already.”

And somewhere in the world, a stem poked out of the ground.

Chapter Text

A film of water coated the surface as Ryota sat up, her hands barely sinking as the lake supported her. Looking down, all she could see was her reflection, no end to the pool in sight. She stood up slowly, the folds of her long white dress cascading around her until the hem barely skimmed the lake. There was no sun to greet her, yet this space was brightly lit, stretching out as far as the eye could see without change.

She stepped forward, watching ripples spread outward from her feet, traveling through the current until, at last, they clashed with something.

The girl was standing there when Ryota looked up, a black dress flickering like a flame in the wind. She was looking away, all Ryota could see were her waving strands of black hair, clumped together like cut-out construction paper.

“Hello!” Ryota called, as she stumbled forward. She was still unused to walking upon water. “Hello?”

The girl began to turn around, reaching up a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. Her head tilted, angled just right to meet Ryota’s gaze.

If she’d turned just a bit further, Ryota might’ve been able to see her eyes, and whether they’d been crying.

Ring! Ring!

Ryota startled awake, drool sticking to their cheeks and hands. They blinked wildly, the ringing sound pounding through their head. Their back cracked loudly as they sat up, wow, was this what exercise could do?

A laugh sounded next to them, and they turned to see to Pollun giggling as he pushed a phone towards them. What-

Nagisa was calling!

Oh god, Nagisa was calling!

Ryota immediately swiped to accept, bringing the phone up to their ear and flipping off the little fairy. “He-ey sis!” They greeted, their mouth immediately parting in a yawn.

“He-ey bro!” Nagisa echoed mockingly, “I had to call you twice to get you to pick up, did you forget about me?”

“Like you’ve ever known how time works,” Ryota retorted, while quickly glancing over to check the clock. Shit! It was ten minutes after when they and Nagisa normally called. “I just fell asleep while doing some homework.”

“Oh, mood,” Nagisa snickered.

The casualness of this conversation and the lack of concern in Nagisa’s voice confirmed one thing at least: Kiriya hadn’t told them about the incident at the aquarium. It had been a few hours since then, and Ryota was sure that if he were going to tell Honoka, he would’ve done it by now, and then Honoka would tell Nagisa, of course.

Ryota wasn’t sure what to make of this lack of communication. Had Kiriya not told Honoka about the aquarium either?

What possible intentions could he have for that?

Well, regardless of the reasoning, Ryota was grateful to not have to explain the incident to Nagisa. They still didn’t really know how to talk about it, their brain immediately shutting down when they had gotten home.

“So, how has school been?” Nagisa asked, completely unaware that Ryota was faintly even able to think.

It was pleasantries they’d exchanged so many times before, and Ryota’s mouth opened just on instinct to spill the same old words, before they paused. Huh, that’s right. Things were different now.

“I’ve been hanging out a bit with Maiko, actually,” Ryota said, “She keeps dragging me around after school to look for new news stories.” And hopefully wouldn’t write about this last experience.

“Oh? Have you two found anything interesting?” Nagisa asked.

“Nope,” Ryota replied immediately, “You know how it is over here. Same old, same old.”

“Yup,” Nagisa laughed, “That’s all it ever is over there. Can you imagine anything even interesting happening?”

“Nah!” Ryota joined their sister in laughing, “Just school and the occasional political protest!”

The laughter died off after a few seconds, Ryota hearing Nagisa take a steadying breath.

“I mean, yeah, it is kinda boring over there,” she said, “But we really shouldn’t underestimate it. Maybe you just aren’t looking hard enough for something interesting.”

Ryota raised an eyebrow, trying to think of a response.

“Like, I dunno, go to an event sometime!” Nagisa continued.

“Like a science fair?” Ryota immediately teased.

“They can be interesting!”

“Interesting only if you have a girlfriend in them.”

Nagisa spluttered, Ryota able to hear the blush stretching across her cheeks. “Why- Why you little-”

“But you know, you’re right,” Ryota cut her off with a grin. “There are a ton of interesting things here, I just haven’t been looking hard enough.”

She liked that buildings had names. She’d sing them under her breath as she walked down the busy sidewalks, wondering how many she could list before she’d begin to forget them. Buildings wore their names openly and proudly, while people just walked past, hiding themselves to blend into the crowd. Were they that scared of being recognizable?

Or maybe they just expected others to put more effort into learning them. Oh well, she’d learn the buildings names first.

She had a name too, syllables repeating over and over again in her head. She liked the sound of it: Ku-ra, Ku-ra.

Kura had woken up in a nameless field, but she’d had a name. Should she have given her name to the field?

No, she was Kura, and the field wasn’t. The field was something else that deserved its own name. Maybe fields didn’t need names though. After all, it was hard to recognize a person from another person, but a field would never be mistaken for anything else.

Her stomach rumbled, and she paused in the middle of a crosswalk, looking down at the uncomfortable sound. A car honked its horn at her, far too loud and far too long. The light was turning, switching it’s color from a grass green to a sunny yellow to an apple red. She raced down the rest of the street, the wind cars kicked up hugging her back.

Food! That’s what she needed! She didn’t really know what food she liked, so why not try it all?

The door to the cafe rang as she pushed the door open. It was a nice sound, she slammed the door shut and opened it just to hear it louder, and louder.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard our bell ring that loud,” A woman laughed, and Kura looked up to see her approaching. She had short reddish-brown hair held under a cap, and a red apron tied around her waist. “I dunno if it can get louder than that.”

Kura frowned at the bell, considering.

“Why don’t you eat something before continuing to slam away at our bell?” The woman teased, and Kura could take a hint.

“So then,” the woman pulled out a notepad, “What would you like to eat?”

“Ryota!” Their mom called through the apartment, and Ryota considered pulling off their headphones or pretending they hadn’t heard. “Shiho and Rina have something they wanna ask you!”

Oh, that was new. Ryota stumbled out of their room, meeting their mom’s gaze with confusion. She held out the phone to them, and they hesitantly took it.

They knew Shiho and Rina decently well by now, after all, they were Nagisa’s best friends. And both seemed to think it was their duty to check in on Ryota, with Nagisa off at college and all, while they’d stayed behind to open up a cafe. But it was pretty rare for them to call.

“Hey Ryota!” Shiho greeted them with her usual bubbly demeanor. “How have you been?”

“Well?” Ryota answered, their voice pitching up at the end to signal their confusion. “And you?”

“I’ve been good, I’ve been good!” Shiho responded. “Rina’s also been great, the cafe is really taking off, you gotta stop by again soon.”

Ryota winced, trying to remember the last time they’d actually gone to visit Shiho and Rina’s of their own accord. “Sorry, guess I’ve been busy.”

“Don’t worry, school can do that to you!” Shiho replied immediately. “And speaking about school, I got a question for you.”

“Oh?” Ryota waited.

“Yeah, so…” For the first time in this conversation, Shiho trailed off, a tinge of self-consciousness entering her voice. “Well, a few days ago, this girl showed up at the cafe, and well, she didn’t really have anywhere to stay, so we took her in.”

Ryota blinked, the words rattling around in their brain. Oh! They’d never lucid dreamed before, but this must be it.

“So we’re signing her up for school, and were thinking about whether to send her to Verone or somewhere else, then we remembered you! So, your mom told us what school you go to, but would you mind her joining you and you showing her around. You won’t have to do everything, of course, she’s a huge extrovert, but if you could…”

“Wait, wait,” Ryota interrupted, looking at their mom to see if she understood the true unreality of this situation. She just shrugged. “You took in a random kid???”

“What?” Their mom mouthed at them.

“Yeah!” Shiho replied. “Her name is Kura, and she’s great to have around.”

“Something about this feels illegal,” Ryota commented faintly.

“Well, we’re working it out.” Shiho sounded so completely unconcerned about her impending criminal charges. On some level, Ryota was envious of that energy.

“You’re working on it,” Ryota echoed.

“Yup.”

Silence reigned over the call for a few seconds, and it was not enough time for Ryota to actually get their thoughts in order.

“Mind coming here the day after tomorrow to take her to school?” Shiho asked, “That’d be great, thanks!”

Then she hung up before they could refuse.

The stars were beginning to come out as Kura helped close up. She could look up while sweeping the ground, trying to count the stars. Rina told her she wouldn’t be able to, and Kura wanted to see if that was true.

Tomorrow, she’d be starting school. She didn’t really know what that entailed, but apparently she would learn things and meet people. Neither of those things sounded particularly bad, even if she was still bad at talking to others. Shiho and Rina didn’t mind, though. She kinda liked that about them.

She liked a lot of things here, she was learning. So many people entered the cafe with a frown etched permanently into their faces, and she couldn’t imagine feeling like that. It was so easy for her to smile, laughing at a joke Shiho made or a roll of Rina’s eyes. She liked doing the cooking, and taking people's orders, and then watching TV or reading a book when work was done.

If there was one thing she didn’t like, it was dreaming. Well, she didn’t dislike dreaming either, but it woke her up with a deep feeling of… unfulfillment.

She would go to the window, sitting on the ledge and looking out over the city. It would waver through the glass, flickering in streetlamps and headlights, forever changing based on where she gazed.

Kura wanted it to feel whole, again, but her eyes just kept scanning the horizon.

Rina had offered something called melatonin, saying it would make her sleep longer. Kura didn’t really care for that, she wasn’t tired yet.

The hardest thing was just staying in. One of these days, Kura knew, she would open the window and fly. But it just… it wasn’t time yet.

Ryota had almost managed to convince themself they’d imagined the call. They’d gone to school the next day, and it had been completely and utterly normal. They’d hung out with Maiko, they’d gone home and eaten dinner, they’d failed to complete their homework.

Then, this morning, their mom had woken them up and told them to hurry off to Shiho and Rina’s before they were late. So, now Ryota was standing outside the cafe, having to convince themself of the reality of this situation.

With a deep breath, they pushed open the door.

“Ryota, you’re finally here!” Shiho called as soon as she spotted them, she was packing up something behind the counter. “Honestly, you’re almost as late as your sister!”

“Sorry,” Ryota laughed, a bit too high-pitched to come off normally. “If we hurry, we can probably still get to school on time.”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Shiho snorted, turning around. “Kura! Ryota’s here!”

Ryota waited, still and tense, as footsteps started banging down the stairs. Oh gosh, what was this girl gonna be like? They wanted to trust Shiho and Rina, but what if this girl was like, a hardened criminal? Or maybe she would be super quiet and this would be the most awkward day of Ryota’s life? Urgh, why hadn’t they faked being sick!

Then, she entered.

It was like five people at once entered the room, Ryota blinking their eyes shut and reaching up to message their forehead. What the fuck was that? They gazed up again.

She was a simple girl, already dressed in the school uniform, though bits of it were just off. She’d tied her tie wrong, with it sticking out at a weird angle, and hadn’t buttoned up her vest. She was built like an athlete, fitting right in with Shiho and Rina. Two or three inches taller than Ryota, and broad shoulders. She probably had a six pack or something.

Her eyes were a dim gray, flecked with purple, though maybe that was just the lighting. Hair layered around her face like pieces of paper. She had a grin on her face, and stuck out a hand.

“Hey, nice to meet you!” She greeted, her voice firm and strong, not a hint of anxiety. “My name’s Kura, hope we get along!”

Ryota wanted to run from her screaming, not because she was scary, but because they couldn’t help but smile back. “Hey, I’m Misumi Ryota. We better get going.”

The scenery outside the bus had begun to blur. If Kura squinted her eyes, she could almost pick out the individual buildings, the leaves on the trees, the passersby. It gave her a bit of a headache though, so she leaned back, instead glazing over at her companion.

Short, dark brown hair curled over his eyes as he looked down at his phone. One hand was curled around a pole, even though there were a few empty seats that neither took. He’d been pretty quiet since picking her, but every so often, she’d glance over at him, knowing his eyes were following her.

Misumi Ryota was pretty strange. Or pretty normal. Pretty something, those were the words that kept bouncing around in Kura’s brain.

“What do you learn at school?” She asked, keeping her eyes fixed on him intently as he startled, looking up only to immediately disengage from her gaze. Should she do that as well?

“I mean, the normal stuff, mostly?” Ryota shrugged, “This isn’t a very prestigious school or anything, we don’t even have that many clubs.”

“Clubs?” Kura echoed.

“Uh, let me think,” Ryota mumbled, “We have an art club, of course, and a few sports, do you play any? You’re probably good at them. I’m in the journalism club, but we’ll probably get shut down when the student council actually does their job and inspects us. There’s also a robotics club and science club, but you gotta be smart for those.”

“Huh,” Kura leaned back. So these were all words she was supposed to know. So often people just talked and talked, and never stopped to explain anything to her. At that point, they were just speaking to themselves, and they’d keep going on and on.

Shiho and Rina, at least, were always talking to each other. It was pretty comforting, to sit back and listen to how they could make the pattern of their conversations so familiar so quickly.

“What sort of sports are there?” Kura asked, wondering why he thought she’d be good at them.

Ryota frowned, not angrily, just thinking, though those two expressions were hard to separate. “Well, I think we have a soccer team… and a baseball one… there’s also basketball and wrestling but that should be it.”

Ryota didn’t have the same confidence of speech that Shiho and Rina had. Every word out of his mouth was awkward, ill-fitting. He may know the words, but he didn’t know the beat.

How could he have listened to conversations for so long and not learned the rhythm? Oh well, the beat was made for two, so Kura might as well lead.

“So, what are all those sports like?” She asked, listening to the tempo of the bus, the chime of the next stop, and the time passing by until they got off.

“Maiko wants to know where you were this morning,” Saori mumbled as Ryota slipped into their seat beside her. “Says you stood her up.”

“She’s being dramatic,” Ryota responded, “I was helping out a new girl.”

“A new girl?” Saori echoed.

“Yup,” Ryota replied, but didn’t have any time to elaborate as Mr. Eijiri strode into the classroom.

And, for the first time, Ryota actually noticed that they had an empty desk in their classroom.

Oh, please no-

“Alright class, I have a surprise for you all today,” Mr. Eijiri declared, with every head shooting up at the threat of a pop quiz. Ryota didn’t know which surprise they’d prefer at this point. “We have a new student joining us today!”

And in strode Kura.

Maybe Ryota should’ve gotten used to her confidence by now, yet it still struck them every time. The way she had just continued talking to them on the bus, never seeming afraid to ask increasingly bizarre questions, or off put when Ryota found themself lost for words. In the same way now, Kura walked in front of an entire class without a single shred of anxiety at all the eyes facing her. She was a complete unknown, and she draped herself in that like it was beautiful.

“Hello everyone!” Kura greeted the lass, bringing up a hand to wave. Her teeth flashed under the harsh fluorescent lights, yet not enough of it reflected in her eyes. “My name is Maki Kura, it’s nice to meet you all! I hope we can get along!”

“Why don’t you tell us something about yourself?” Mr. Eijiri prompted, a few girls sitting up straighter in their seats to listen.

Kura tilted her head, “I live at a cafe.”

And what more to her was there? Why did Ryota’s eyes lock on her, tracking her to her desk like the laws of gravity had been rewritten when she came into the universe?

There was ozone in the air, Ryota’s skin just wouldn’t lie straight, not with her just a few feet away.

“Did you just move here?” A girl had turned around in her desk to face Kura, and suddenly, everyone seemed to be looking at her, just as they had when she stood in front of the class. The teacher had left the room after the bell had rang, it was a few hours later, and wow, they were long hours.

The other students had spent those hours scribbling in notebooks while Mr. Eijiri talked. Rina and Shiho had gotten her some notebooks, handing her a backpack full of stuff like that before she left this morning. She hadn’t really known what to write in them, just drawing line after line. Did other people write things like that?

But, to the question at hand, Kura hadn’t really moved here. She’d moved from the field to the cafe.

She shrugged, consigning herself to not knowing the answer.

The girl frowned, but didn’t have a lot of time to seemingly get annoyed at Kura’s response before the boy behind Kura poked her shoulder, gaining her attention. “Where did you go to school before this?”

“I didn’t.” At least this was something Kura knew how to respond to. Not that she didn’t mind not knowing, but everyone else seemed to, and then it became such a big deal.

“Oh,” the girl returned to the conversation, the confused frown remaining. “Were you homeschooled, then?”

Again, all Kura could do was shrug. Questions like these were just so hard to answer, always relying on words and words she didn’t know. It was like when Shiho and Rina had asked her if she had a place to stay. She didn’t know what constituted so just passed on the question. Shiho and Rina had taken it as a no. This girl took it as a yes. What intriguing differences.

“Well, how are you enjoying it here?” The boy asked.

“I like it!” Kura grinned, “I love the cafe, and everything is so interesting here. I get to see so many new things.”

“Did you live in the country before this?” The girl didn’t wait for an answer. “Must’ve been pretty boring.”

Beyond her, Kura watched Ryota leave through the door, having walked off with a black haired girl almost a head taller than him, yet hunched in. Oh yeah, it was lunch time, right? Shiho and Rina had told her she could get food at school.

She didn’t chase after Ryota, though a part of her wondered what would happen if she did. What was the way he looked at her? It was intriguing, that much for sure. Light was strange for him too, Kura could tell.

She turned back to the people around her. “So, could anyone tell me where to get some food?” She considered for a second. “And what your names are.”

Ryota was just about ready to dash back home when the last bell rang. Fuck club, sorry Saori, sorry Maiko, they were getting home and collapsing into bed. Clearly, they were sick or something, because this level of anxiety was not normal.

Well, that’s what they wanted, but they just calmly stood up and trailed after Saori. Maybe being around their friends for a while would make them feel normal again.

It was a bit hard to brush it off, to be honest. It would be so easy for Ryota to tell themself they were just imagining things, but Pollun had also been agitated at lunch, causing so much commotion when Ryota was just trying to feed him.

“What’s the matter with you?” Ryota had hissed.

“There’s something here that shouldn’t be here!” Pollen had wailed. “And something not here that can’t be here!”

So, Ryota had to waste their entire lunch break looking around for Arata or a Mukanshin, and yet they found none.

Pollun wasn’t above being an unintelligible little brat, Ryota told themself, it was only last night you had to stop him from trying and failing to open up a Cheez-Its box.

“I heard you all got a new girl, and that you know her,” Maiko began when they entered the clubroom. She had her arms crossed, and her lips pouted at them imperiously. “I guess I can forgive you for being a flake today, then.”

“Thanks so much,” Ryota replied dryly.

Saori had walked past them both, sitting down at the clubroom table and taking out her homework.

“What should we do today?” Maiko asked them, a bounce in her voice. “I’m thinking we try to do some ghost hunting, there’s like, a ton of creepy old houses by the edge of the city.”

“Excuse me?” A new voice broke in, though Ryota could immediately recognize it. They whirled around to see Kura standing there, bag in hand. “Don’t we go home the same way, Ryota?”

“I normally stay for my club,” Ryota responded blankly, sirens sounding in their head. Why did they feel in so much danger?

“Oh,” Kura replied, a small frown twisting her lips.

“Do you remember the way back, actually?” Ryota asked. Kura just shrugged. “Yeah, probably a bit hard to remember the routes after just one time. I guess I’ll take you home.” Shiho and Rina would have their head if they didn’t.

“Thanks,” Kura replied, frown shooting upwards into a beaming smile.

Ryota turned back to their friends, “Sorry, it looks like I gotta go.”

“No worries,” Maiko shrugged, while Saori barely even showed that she had heard. “And hey, new girl!”

“My name’s Kura,” Kura replied.

“If you ever wanna join journalism club, we’ve got open spots,” Maiko winked.

Alright, Ryota was not hanging around for this. “Come on, let’s go,” they instructed, speedwalking down the hallway.

They didn’t have to look back to know Kura was following.

And the bell greeted her coming home! Every time she opened this door, she wanted to say hello to the bell. It was a really good friend.

“Oh, hey you two!” Rina was behind the counter this time, where Shiho was more normally. She had a calmer voice than Shiho, a bit harder to hear over the bustle of the crowd, but Kura still liked her greeting.

“Hi Rina!” Kura said back, bounding up to the counter. “What do you want me to do?”

“Hi Rina,” Ryota echoed, following at a much slower and shier pace. Honestly, hadn’t he known those two for longer than she had? Shouldn’t he be more confident with them?

“Thanks for bringing her back, Ryota,” Rina replied, “Did you both have a decent day at school?”

“As decent as school can be,” Ryota said.

“It was boring and fun,” Kura said.

“That’s school for ya,” Rina nodded sagely, “Now, about what you can do for me…”

Looking around the cafe, it became more and more clear that Shiho must be entirely gone. It had the sort of hectic energy it only had when something had gone off-kilter, which happened at least once a day.

“I sent Shiho out to get some groceries, but she hasn’t returned yet,” Rina explained, “You two mind going to get those groceries, and grabbing her if you find her?”

“Me too?” Ryota asked, a clearly mournful note in his voice.

Rina winced, “Well, if you don’t mind. I’d just send Kura, but…”

“I’m bad at shopping,” Kura said, “They said I’m not allowed to go alone anymore.”

Ryota blinked at her, before sighing and shrugging.

“Thanks so much you two!” Rina ducked behind the desk, pulling out a notepad. “Give me just a sec, then you can be on your way.”

Ryota had never liked doing fetch quests in video games. This is why they had never beaten a game 100%. Sure, their life was boring, but not boring enough for them to enjoy walking to the store while they still had a massive headache.

Kura had stepped back to let them lead. Despite her confidence in conversation, she seemed to have no idea where she was going most of the time. That didn’t make her uncertain, though.

It was a bit foolish.

All of the stuff Rina wanted, thankfully, could be found at the nearest supermarket. All it took was punching a few commands into Google, and they were off.

Sooner they got this done, sooner Ryota could go home and not have to think about the fact they would do this all over again tomorrow.

“Hey Ryota, can I ask you something?” That seemed to be all Kura did, ask questions that picked away at Ryota’s brain, making them feel annoyingly unsettled.

“Sure,” Ryota responded, tapping their foot as they waited for the light to change.

“Why are you scared of me?”

Ryota almost tripped over their feet in the middle of the crosswalk, stumbling and pinwheeling their arms to keep their balance. They dashed through the rest of the street, not wanting to linger there, but their shadow stuck to them.

“What do you mean by that?” Ryota asked, keeping their gaze on the path ahead of them.

“Like this,” Kura replied, “You just seem nervous around me. It’s interesting.”

“Interesting?”

“Yeah, no one else is scared of me, and yet you are.” Kura caught up to them, leaning forward to smile. “Guess that makes you special.”

“I’m not really scared of you, I suppose,” Ryota answered, every word clipped. These thoughts still felt too sharp to be spoken. “You’re pretty nice, actually. I like talking to you, and your attitude is hilarious. It’s fun, being around you.”

“So, you like me, but you’re still scared of me?” Kura summarized. “Are you scared of liking me?”

Nowhere to retort, Ryota just shrugged.

“Huh. Interesting.”

And, as if Ryota’s day couldn’t get any worse, a BANG rocked the city, and smoke began to rise from a few blocks away. It wasn’t sirens that signaled the emergency, no, it was screams.

Kura took off towards the noise, Ryota’s footsteps sounding at her back. The smoke was a good marker for where to go, so she wouldn’t get lost in the many, many repeated blocks of the city.

Nothing like this had happened in the few days she’d been living here, and sure, nothing like school had happened to her either, but this felt a bit different.

She skidded around a corner, and took in the scene.

Down the sides of buildings, ice slowly took hold, the crackling crystalline structure dripping down then freezing. The material beneath the street had changed, from whatever the dark rock that made up the road to a shiny silver iron. Cars laid on their sides, smoke rising from broken engines and burning husks.

And there, huddled against the side of a building and holding a young teen out of harm's way, was Shiho.

“Shiho!” Kura called, immediately running towards her. She pressed her hand against the wall, kneeling next to one of the women that took her in.

“Kura?” Shiho asked, her eyes wide with surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“What is going on?” Ryota chimed in, appearing over her shoulder and gasping for breath.

“Ryota!” Shiho turned to the other teen, her tone slowly gaining more panic. “Really, what are you both doing here?”

“Getting groceries,” Kura answered simply, “Are you okay?”

“And what happened?” Ryota added.

“You two gotta get out there,” Shiho responded, waving off their questions. “There’s a monster like, somewhere over there, and I can’t let you two get hurt by it!”

“A monster?” Kura echoed, tilting her head.

“Yeah, uh, it was actually kinda weird,” Shiho frowned, tugging the other teen closer to her. With how close Kura was now, she could see that the teen was unconscious. “So this girl, uh, she and her friend were buying jewelry at that store over there? Then this weird kid came up and started talking to them. I didn’t pay much attention to it, but then one of them screamed, and I turned around to see him, like, choking the other? And then this huge monster made of diamond appeared out of nowhere!”

“And it went somewhere that way?” Kura guessed, pointing down the trail of destruction.

“Yeah,” Shiho nodded, “Both of you need to go the other way, and get out of danger. I’ll be following along with this girl in a minute.”

“Sure,” Kura agreed, but both her and Ryota’s eyes remained fixed on the path ahead.

“You should really, huff, turn around!” Ryota gasped, dashing after the Mukanshin. They couldn’t see it yet, but it couldn’t be far.

Kura was just a step ahead of them, not hesitating to run forwards. “If I should turn around, then so should you!” She called back. “So?”

Ryota growled, frustration welling up in their throat. Why were they even surprised? Kura had acted like this all day. And they couldn’t just leave her alone to transform, not when there was a monster out there.

“Hey, where are you two running off to so quickly!” A voice called out to them, and both skidded to a halt. Ryota knew who it was before they even looked over, after all, he was always at the center of this.

Arata waltzed up to them, his hands stuffed in his pockets and a cocky smirk on his face. “Hey Ryota,” he greeted, “Where are you heading?”

“Arata,” Ryota snapped, “What have you done here?”

“Only what I always do,” Arata shrugged, unconcerned. “Will you do the same? You’re going to lose someday, you know.”

Ryota gritted their teeth, debating between running forwards to find the monster, or transforming to punch Arata right in the mouth.

Arata hummed, turning away from Ryota to eye Kura up and down. Ryota immediately shoved her behind them, but Arata’s expression had… changed?

“Who are you?” He asked, his eyes directly fixed on Kura’s.

“None of your goddamn business, creep,” Kura spat back.

“No, no, really, no jokes, who are you?” Arata asked, taking a step forward, and Ryota had to push Kura for them both to move back. “You aren’t like everyone else, and you also aren’t like Sparkles over there. So who are you?”

The genuine curiosity in his voice was almost more unnerving than his normal overconfident deception.

And Ryota could admit, they understood why. Because there was something off about Maki Kura.

Kura didn’t like this boy looking at her. She’d never been bothered by that before, and this new feeling bothered her. She didn’t feel like she was being seen, no, rather like he saw a changed reflection.

“Kura,” she finally replied, “I just arrived here. Are you the one causing all this?”

“Yeah,” Ryota breathed, “Yeah, he is. So you should really run now.”

“Oh come on, don’t be such a party pooper,” The boy scoffed, stepping closer and closer to them. Kura straightened up to face him. “My name’s Arata, I think we’ll get along great.”

“I don’t,” Kura retorted.

“Now don’t be like that,” Arata complained, “I’ve still got questions to ask you.”

A crash sounded in the distance. Next to her, Ryota tensed up even more somehow. However long they spent here was another second that monster rampaged.

“We don’t have time for this,” Ryota muttered, his eyes flicking off down the road.

“Oh, alright, alright,” Arata sighed, “I guess this conversation is more important. Hey, Mukanshin, take a break!”

Out of the buildings, a true monster climbed.

Every movement it made sounded like the shifting of tectonic plates, like a rock breaking in half. New limbs broke out of it, then cracked and fell to the ground after taking their first step. It grabbed one of the buildings to balance itself, and as Kura followed the path of it’s hand, her eyes landed upon a teenager, encased in a coffin of glass.

“Fuck,” Ryota hissed.

“See?” Arata spread his arms wide, a cheshire grin on his face. “No more problems. So why don’t we chat, new girl?”

Was this just a bribe, or a threat?

Well, time to find out.

Kura rushed him, his eyes barely having enough time to widen as she neared, pulling back an arm and barreling her full weight forward-

And he slipped out of the way, sending her toppling past.

She caught herself with firm steps, whirling around. She was only a foot away from him now, close enough to feel the air part with his movements. His eyes seemed even more electric, close up.

“Ouch, that was rude!” He joked, yet his body was tight with anger. “And here I am, just trying to make friends.”

“What do you want with her, Arata?” Ryota yelled, his fists balled at his side. “Leave her alone!”

“So, you just got here,” Arata ignored Ryota’s comments, leaning in closer to her. “You weren’t anywhere before this, were you?”

Kura frowned at him, still trembling with anger, but…

He was the first one to use the right words, wasn’t he?

“Yeah,” She hissed, “I wasn’t.”

A wide, genuine grin split his face. “Oh gosh, you really didn’t! Wow, you really are! I wasn’t expecting to come across you today!”

He reached out to grab her hands, Kura quickly stepping out of his reach.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” She demanded. It was kinda nice to demand answers for once.

“Oh, you must be a bit confused because you woke up all alone,” Arata nodded, “Don’t worry, I’ll teach you.”

“Teach me what?”

“Well, about who we are, of course!” Arata continued. “After all, you’re just like me!”

“What?” Kura and Ryota yelled at the same time.

Nothing made any sense, it was like Ryota was watching a stage play in a different language, though it seemed Kura hadn’t read the script either.

Arata sighed, crossing his arms and tapping his foot in a mockery of deep thought. “Sheesh. Can’t just just come with me so I can finish off this pest? We can get this all sorted out later.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Kura growled back.

“You’re annoying,” Arata replied, “I’m not gonna like working with you, am I?”

“I would hope not, I’d hate to be someone you liked.”

“Fine, I’ll explain. Just ‘cause everyone would have my head if I didn’t bring you back with me, got it? Don’t expect this again. And lucky you, Little Miss Pretty Cure, you also get to hang around and hear. I wonder if that little fairy friend of yours knows any of this?” Ryota flinched at having the attention put back on them.

Pollun poked his head out of Ryota’s bag, fur bristling. They chanced a glance at Kura, but she still seemed focused on Arata.

Arata took a deep breath, “So, long, long ago, there was a world made solely of darkness, and a world made only of light.”

At least this story meant the Mukanshin wasn’t causing any trouble. Now, Ryota just had to think. They’d spotted the victim pretty clearly, but there was no way of getting up there without transforming.

“Then, one day, knights of the light came in and destroyed the world of darkness, leaving only bits of it to scatter through the universe,” Arata continued. A shiver crawled up Ryota’s spine, and they chanced a glance around. Yeah, the ice of the Mukanshin was still spreading.

Should they get rid of that first? Or maybe use it to their advantage to run? If only Ryota had better balance.

“You and I, Kura, are bits of that darkness!”

What?

“I’m… what?” Kura’s eyes were opened wide, her mouth gaping a bit. Ryota could only imagine they looked the same.

“You’re a seed of a darkness, fallen down to earth after the destruction of our home,” Arata declared, “And our destiny is to revive that place, and the King of Evil, Jyaku-Sama!”

And thus, the hearts of darkness opened up to welcome another member into their fold. Pollun buried his head back into Ryota’s bag, whimpering, and Ryota, who knew none of the words, felt a specter of fear embrace them.

“No,” Kura replied simply.

Arata blinked at her, utterly dumbfounded. “Say again?”

“No,” Kura repeated, straightening up. Why the fuck had she been so scared? Let herself get so uneasy?

“I- what-” Arata spluttered, “What, do you not believe me? Search inside yourself, you know it to be true, your simply the leftovers of darkness-”

“Oh that part might be true,” Kura agreed, nodding along, “Makes sense, y’know. I don’t think like I know the same things here everyone else does, why would I disbelieve that? I’m just not gonna revive some big evil king.”

“That’s your destiny,” Arata enunciated, like she was a fucking idiot. She may not know words, but she caught on quicker than he seemed to. After all, he still didn’t know what “no” meant.

“Why?” Kura shot back, placing a hand on her hip. She was taller than him, she was buffer than him, and she was in charge of this conversation now. “‘Cause I’m saying I’m not gonna do that.”

“You don’t have a choice!” Arata screeched, his eyes flashing dangerously.

“Nah, that feels wrong,” Kura grinned, “Hey Ryota! Do you know what he’s talking about?”

“Not really,” Ryota replied, their voice a bit reedy.

“You think I need to revive some big evil dude?” Kura continued.

Ryota paused for a second. Honestly, was she the only one with braincells here? “I guess not,” they finally responded, “Why would you have to?”

“That’s- That’s not how this works-” Arata’s hand shot out, nails digging into her skin. Kura immediately tried to jerk away, only to feel the hot flash of blood escape her. Shit. “We’re creatures of darkness, that’s all we will ever be and all we can be. Why do you- Why do you feel like you can just be something else! It’s not that easy!”

“I’m not trying to be something else,” Kura shot back, her eyes darting across the battlefield wildly. She had to get out of his grasp. “I’m just saying I’ll do something else.”

A giggle escaped Arata’s lips, growing into full blown laughter that rattled Kura’s bones. “You all think this is so simple. You, and that goddamn Pretty Cure. Well, if you’re gonna be like this, I’ll just have to show you how it is.”

His eyes bored into hers, not a single bud of light within. “We can never be better than we are.”

“Kura! Get out of there!” Ryota shouted. She didn’t need to be told twice, tugging on her arm again and ignoring the pain.

But her feet wouldn’t move. She looked down, only to see them covered with ice, too thick for her to break.

Her breaths came in grasps, wild and frantic. There had to be a way.

“I’ve never tried to use two of these at once before,” Arata commented, taking something out of his pocket and holding it up to the sunlight.

Was that… a seed?

“Hold on!”

“But there’s a first time for everything,” Arata said, then clapped that hand over Kura’s mouth.

She shut her teeth instantly, but he had already forced the seed halfway in. She could feel the layers peel off and he pushed it deeper and deeper through.

Tears budded in her eyes, her body squirming as she struggled.

“Just accept your destiny,” Arata hissed in her ear.

Ryota ran towards her, their arm outstretched as glass seemed to break around their movement, scattering light.

No!

Kura didn’t want any of this!

How dare he think that she would just- she’d just roll over and accept this. How dare he think she couldn’t do anything she wanted to do. How dare he think he knew her better then she knew herself.

HOW DARE HE!

Kura would let no one, no one, tell her what her precious life had to be.

With a scream building up in her throat, she bit down, cracking open the seed.

Blank space met her, crayon lines of gray floating in the air. She pushed her hand through them, her mouth falling open, and with it, little bits of that seed.

They floated midair, no gravity to pull them down. She frowned at them, reaching out to cup them in her palms.

Was this the darkness she had come from? To be honest, it wasn’t so bad.

She didn’t want to stay, though.

“It’s really nice, out there,” she muttered to herself, “There’s a ton of cool people, and everything is so bright and colorful, and I love it all. It’s really nice, to be able to live.”

“Maki Kura,” her shadow called out to her, and she turned to face it. It was hard to do that normally, always a step behind her, yet now they could meet. “You’ll never be more than monochrome, a being sent from darkness.”

“That’s alright,” she told her shadow. “That’s not really a limit. There are so many shades of gray.”

Shadows burned to life around Kura, rising up into pillars in the air before crashing back into her in a waterfall. She cried with excitement, feeling the rush of adrenaline fill her body. Bits of the darkness flaked off on her, adding layer after layer to the dress she wore.

Kura kneeled down, dipping her arms further and further into the pool of gray. The water rushed up around her, bonds turning to silk as a white jacket came to being around her.

She traced shapes in the pool with her toes. A circle, then a square, then a star, so many different forms of the void to take. Her arms danced through the air, plucking darkness out of the sky and adorning herself with it. A ribbon she tied around her chest, and a hat to lay on her head.

Her shadow was waiting for her at the end of the void, reaching out a hand towards her. She ran at it full speed, crashing into the shadow and pulling it out along with, light greeted her on the other side, bright and white and just as monochrome as she.

Who said gray must be simplistic, when she could make it as full as could be!

And with the shadows settling around her, she grinned up at the world.

“A shadow with no one to cast it, I’m Refracted Void!”

Clad from white to black, and all the grays in between, she appeared from darkness. Mosaic took a step back, her mouth falling open as the other girl took her form. Arata had landed flat on his butt, scrambling away from the girl.

“What- What is this?” He stuttered, “This wasn’t what was supposed to happen.”

“Of course it wasn’t!” The girl– Kura– Void, laughed, “I decided it would.”

She turned back towards Mosaic, shooting her a grin, and the world felt like it had tilted on its axis.

Or maybe Mosaic had, but into something better?

Were they something better?

“Mukanshin! Get them!” Arata screamed, pointing at the duo.

Curses flit through Mosaic’s mind as Mukanshin let go of the building and dropped down towards them. She immediately flipped out of the way, throwing herself into the air so she could get a bird’s eye view of the situation.

“Void! Come on!” She shouted at the other girl, still remaining on the ground. Fuck, was she trying to get smushed? Mosaic shouldn’t have expected her to have the same instincts that she had immediately had.

With wide eyes, she watched Void foolishly hold her ground. Her arms came together, one hand vanishing into her sleeve.

And then, even under the shadow of Mukanshin, the obsidian caught light.

Out of nothingness, Void pulled and pulled, metal slicing through her skin as she raised the blade, bringing the sword up into the sky. Almost the same size as she was, and too big for any human to hold.

But they were not just human anymore.

And as Mukanshin neared her, she sliced down.

It was a clean cut, and with a grown, almost an entire side of Mukanshin fell off into crumbling dust.

The other half landed on the ground, breaking through the ice and metal it had made, roaring as it came to a stop.

“Wow,” Mosaic breathed, letting herself drop out of the air and land next to Void.

“So, who are you?” Void asked brightly, turning to Mosaic with a giant, satisfied grin on her face.

“Cure Mosaic,” Mosaic responded, offering up a hand to shake.

“Cool, cool, I’m Void, apparently,” Void shook her hand fiercely.

The ground rumbled beneath their feet, and both immediately lowered into a fighting stance. Rocks jutted out of the cut side of Mukanshin, cliffs forming larger and larger until its body was rebuilt.

“Well, crap, looks like that didn’t work,” Void observed.

Mukanshin roared, pushing itself up. If cutting it wouldn’t work, then Mosaic would just have to think of something else-

Void charged towards it, a guttural yell escaping her throat as she flipped into the air, raising her sword for another strike.

Crap!

Moving faster than a hunk of stone should be able to, Mukanshin swatted her out of the sky. Mosaic winced as Void went flying, flipping through the air back safely to her feet.

“Don’t just go charging in!” Mosaic called out.

“Then what else am I supposed to do?” She yelled back.

That was… fair. Mosaic had no idea how to defeat a beast like this that cold regenerate, and no idea where its weak point was. Normally she would just have to keep hitting it until she discovered it, and couldn’t bother with anything else in battle.

But that would be a bit different now, wouldn’t it?

“Actually, keep it busy, would you?” Mosaic replied, already jumping off and climbing the buildings. It was time to finally get to the bottom of how Arata and Mukanshin trapped those people.

Void couldn’t stop smiling. Her blood felt like that fizzy soda she loved to drink, popping and popping under her skin, a constant itch that made her move, move, move! She raced forwards, letting the ice increase her momentum, dodging around rocks that spiked out of the ground as Mukanshin tried to slow her down.

Her sword buzzed with that same energy, though perhaps that was just her trembling hands. She’d never seen a sword before, but it felt more natural to her than any of the appliances at the cafe. Swords were just simple like that. Uncomplicated, just like Void.

It sliced through Mukanshin’s arm like it was putty. She flipped off its head, ready to charge forward again.

Well, actually-

She turned to the guy she had landed beside, raising an eyebrow at Arata. Honestly, she was kinda pleased by the sheer amount of terror still in his expression. He didn’t hide fear that well, did he?

“What are you?” He asked her.

“Didn’t you tell me?” She retorted, tilting her head.

She didn’t have time to stick around and brag though, or hit him over the head. Mukanshin swung at her, and she leaped onto its arm, rushing forward as it crumbled behind her.

With a hefty swing of her sword, she cleaved it in half again.

And it grew back. Again.

“This is getting really annoying,” Void grumbled to herself. Sure, she was all for committing more violence, but not when it was meaningless!

There had to be some weakness on Mukanshin, she just wasn’t hitting it. Trial and error would only last for so long until Mukanshin got in a lucky hit and she went down hard. She needed a way to keep hitting it without it hitting back…

A fist swung down at her and Void could do was leap out of the way, preparing another attack. She hoped whatever Mosaic was doing was more useful than this.

Mosaic drew back a fist and pounded on the glass casket. It shuddered under her attack, yet no cracks formed. She jumped over the case, straightening out a leg and crashing down on it, yet only bouncing off the firm material.

So, that wasn’t going to work.

All the cages seemed pretty unique, as well. They correlated with the form of the Mukanshin, so maybe both were made out of the same material? Mukanshin could reform, so this cage likely could as well.

Mosaic discarded her thoughts on the cage, looking forward to the person inside. Like all the others, they seemed completely unconscious, wrinkles of stress and a frown pulling at their face. Their hands were clasped across their chest, and little crystal-like vines had wrapped around their fingers.

Was that where the seed was held?

If Mosaic were to guess anything as the source of these attacks, it would be those seeds.

So maybe the cage wasn’t made to keep the victim in, but keep the seed protected?

It was to keep someone out, not someone in…

Mosaic sighed, tearing herself away from the coffin. All of that would have to be thought of another day, she supposed. She flipped back down to street level, landing next to an out-of-breath Void.

“So, I have an idea, do you trust me?” Mosaic asked quickly, sparing none of their precious time for small talk.

Void looked at her for a long second, then shrugged, “Sure.”

“Hey, over here!” Mosaic waved her hands in the air, jumping lightly on the balls of her feet to call Mukanshin’s attention. Void kneeled on the ground, piercing her sword into the road to hold her upright.

Mukanshin roared, turning towards it’s next target. It’s back to Void, it charged,

And Void sprung forwards, unsheathing her sword and slicing into Mukanshin.

As the stone reformed, growing out of every place Void had cut through, she landed in the center, letting the stone envelop her.

Air was leaving quickly, each breath shorter and shorter. Rock bit into her arms and tore her clothes. The walls just pressed in on her, closer and closer, until her bones were trembling like glass.

Bloody and frail, Void wore a manic grin.

Because there, in the center, glowed a crystal heart.

It must’ve moved when they struck it, always repositioning to one side of Mukanshin so they couldn’t find it. But now, inside of it, Mukanshin’s heart had nowhere to hide. Darkness rippled off that thing in waves, every one of Void’s senses telling her it was the power.

Her arms strained against the rock, cracking and fracturing it as she pushed herself outward. The walls wouldn’t stop trembling, Mosaic had planned to also keep up a barrage of attacks, and she must be doing some real damage.

She had trusted Void with this job.

Mosaic and Void barely knew each other. Ryota and Kura had only just met. And hell, if Void were to take a guess, she’d say they might not know themselves that well right now.

So, all she had was a choice. All Mosaic had was a choice.

And Void wouldn’t prove her wrong.

All of this? The battle and the transformation? This was who Void was meant to be. Laughter spilled from her ;lips, giddy and unrestrained, as she finally risked it and stuck a hand out.

“Come to me! Monochrome Divide!”

A burst of wind slashed through the air, tossing Mosaic back. She could barely flip fast enough to see the fight, and once she laid eyes on upon it, all other thoughts drifted away.

Blades portruded out of Mukanshin’s body, one after another slicing and hacking away at bit after bit. Like petals falling off a flower, they bloomed to reveal Void, her hand reached into the air, electricity crackling down it as more and more blades grew out of her. They swirled through the air, almost a storm of obsidian metal and death.

And then, in one fell swoop, they converged on a crystal heart gem.

And cut it in two.

Darkness rushed across the ground, dissipating as its connection was lost. Mukanshin howled one last time, before dissolving.

Mosaic touched down, her feet clearing the way. Out of her, the roads returned to normal, ice melting and metal warping. The city creaked and groaned as each bit of it was revived.

Mosaic outstretched her arms, and into them fell the victim.

She didn’t bother focusing on Void, the girl had proven herself more than self-sufficient, instead lowering the victim to the ground and shaking their shoulder lightly.

“Hey, are you alright?” She asked, trying to sound as soft as possible.

The victim groaned, their entire body flinching and shifting as consciousness returned to them. Their hands flexed open, and out of it fell a seed. Mosaic grabbed it before their eyes.

“Where am I?” They groaned, glancing around with a tired sort of confusion. Like, they knew this was weird, but their brain wasn’t working enough to tell them how.

“Safe,” Mosaic promised, her face breaking into a warm smile.

“Mosaic!” Void called out from across the street, and Mosaic lifted her head to glance over. The other girl was pouting, arms crossed across her chest. “The bastard’s gone!”

“Yeah, he tends to do that!” Mosaic called back, her comforting grin becoming a bit more real, a bit more settled. She turned back to the victim. “You’re gonna be okay now. Your friend is coming for you.”

They always did, after all, and Mosaic reached out and tugged Void into the air before Shiho and the girl she had protecting ran onto the scene.

The transformations around them broke at the same time, shattering into dust and leaving only two seemingly-normal teenagers standing.

“So,” Kura broke the silence first, “That was kinda cool.”

Ryota turned to her, their mouth falling open and words escaping them. All they could do was mouth, “What the fuck?”

Arata gasped as he reformed outside his home, the darkness clinging to him, solidifying all the shaken parts of him. He collapsed to his knees, taking the chance to just breathe.

That was a fluke, yes, just like every other appearance of Mosaic had been a fluke. What did it matter that those girls challenged the fabric of reality? Everyone had hopes and dreams that they couldn’t help but cling to, it was what made them so pathetic.

Like the heroes that had thought they had defeated darkness once and for all, they were so unaware. The universe would always return to the state it had come from.

After all, if darkness could truly be beaten, then Arata wouldn’t be here.