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If there was any time to prove that karma did exist, Mafuyu was sure that her current situation would work perfectly. Because there's no way that right after she leaves behind her life as a Cure — becoming the direct antithesis to one under the moniker OWN — she notices how similarly people around her act to her ex-partner.
It could be karma, or it could be some massive conspiracy theory the heroic side of her brain cooked up to convince her to return to the good side. Mafuyu couldn't care less. She just wanted to stop being reminded of Cure Opal everywhere she looked.
"Mafuyu?" Len's voice, barely audible, pulled her out of her thoughts, "you're spacing out again."
Mafuyu sighed, placing down her pen with a bit more force than she would've liked. Len let out a squeak from the louder-than-usual sound, tiny wings fluttering furiously to hide behind her untouched glass of water.
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."
Her and Opal's fairy partner meekly glanced at her before speaking, "were you thinking about her again?"
She pinched her nose bridge, "…yes." Mafuyu trusted Len not to rat her out to the rest of the group — he'd helped her hide the truth that Opal was alive after all. But the mere thought of her ex-partner made it feel like she was treading on eggshells for some stupid reason.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Mafuyu took a moment to consider his request. Obviously, she didn't wish to talk about Opal or people who reminded her of Opal. But who was to say she couldn't take the chance to prove to herself why these people couldn't be her? It would effectively stop her from associating them with the other Cure.
Yeah, that sounded good.
"Sure."
—
First was Shizuku.
The two of them met through the archery club, though Shizuku was rarely there due to her hectic schedule as an idol. But over the sessions that she was able to attend, the two of them had formed a surprisingly close bond. Close enough that Mafuyu suddenly found herself dropping her "good girl" mask when she was alone with Shizuku.
She didn't know when that change happened. Shizuku, likely out of consideration, never commented about it. In fact, she had only realised it when Shizuku nudged her to warn her about Momoi approaching them.
"Earlier, why did you do that?" She could vividly recall her chest overflowing with emotions: relief that Shizuku didn't let Momoi in on her secret, disappointment in herself for lowering her guard again, joy that she had found someone else she could be herself with, anger with herself for letting her mask slip.
"Hm?"
"You warned me when Momoi-san was coming so I didn't talk to her with this voice."
"Ah, I had a feeling you weren't ready to let her in on it." Shizuku smiled, "your image in school hinges on perfection. Not everyone would take too kindly to hearing or seeing you like this."
Mafuyu had never asked her to keep it a secret (though that was mostly because she hasn't even realised her mask had slipped). Yet Shizuku understood her desire to hide this part of her away.
Just like Opal. Irritatingly.
"Thank you."
"We're similar in a way." Shizuku continues, surprisingly. "For one reason or another, we have to pretend to be perfect. A person we aren't."
Pretending. What irony. While Shizuku walked away from her previous image, Mafuyu had found a new mask to put on, to further hide her real self from everyone else, to —
Enough. She was getting off track. If that incident said anything, it was how calming it was to be around Shizuku. Her voice carried a similar softness to Opal's, a gentle aura of reassurance that could soothe troubled hearts.
Why she couldn't be Opal was an easy case — she was far too airheaded. Mafuyu's partner was sharp and quick on her feet, able to keep pace with the villains' attacks. In the least offensive way possible to Shizuku, a single, tiny distraction could easily become her undoing. Not ideal when the lives of civilians are at stake.
There were other factors too, such as her god awful sense of direction or her weird and unintentional beef with technology. Opal could keep up with Mafuyu and her knowledge of every path in Shibuya whenever a chase was ongoing, Opal had their weekly patrol routes memorised to a T, Opal definitely knew how to use a laptop without breaking it or installing a virus.
Safe to say, Shizuku was not Opal.
"I guess that's why she's an idol, isn't she?" Len said aloud her thoughts.
"Indeed." Breathtaking beauty, a calming presence, understanding, an endearing quirkiness. Those were qualities befitting of an idol. Not of a composer and superhero.
—
When she had first gone over the list of "candidates", Mafuyu was the most worried about Mochizuki. Not because she was eerily similar to Opal — it was again, just a singular standout trait — but because there wasn't much to prove that she wasn't Opal.
Regardless, to keep it fair for the others, she was still going to go over Mochizuki.
Her standout trait was her kindness. It was quite a common sight to see her staying back to tutor schoolmates or help teachers carry books; like Mafuyu herself. The main difference was that Mochizuki was doing it out of the overflowing kindness in her heart, not because she was forced to by virtue of being an honor student.
Opal shared that similarity with the younger girl, wielding a heart brimming with kindness — truly, befitting of being a Precure. When she realised how frequent night time crime was, she immediately suggested a regular nighttime patrol; when an attack gone astray almost led to a student getting hurt, she made sure to evacuate nearby civilians first in future battles; when Mafuyu had first opened up to her about her situation, she always checked to see if any plans felt cold to her.
Not like they could ever feel cold to Mafuyu. If Opal was the one making them, they always brought her warmth.
Though it seemed like that kindness came at a cost for Mochizuki. Truly, it was unfortunate that other students had the audacity to spread hateful and untrue rumors about her, calling her 'disloyal' or 'two-faced'. Mochizuki had even admitted to her before that on days when the bullying got bad, she felt like she wanted to disappear — away from the voices, away from the rumors.
Thankfully, she had her childhood friends. They always supported her, helped her when the words got too personal, and fought back against the rumors. Had it not been for them, it was easy to see her fall into the same situation as Mafuyu was now. Maybe she would've even asked her to be her new partner as OWN. Maybe.
She's not sure if she's ready for another partner after Opal. Even if the stakes were much lower.
Speaking of friends, that did seem to be where Mochizuki and Opal differed. From what her ex-partner had described of her own civilian life, a daily routine of wake up-compose-eat-sleep-repeat, Opal had little to no friends. Mafuyu was the exception, but could what they had going on even be classified as a 'friendship'? Too personal to be colleagues, too secretive to be close friends.
Sure, Opal could lie. Though lying about the number of friends she had would be a choice, especially if she had known them since young. Not to mention, Opal really sucked at lying (it was more like Mafuyu had gotten very good at picking out lies, being someone who lied on a daily basis).
It was no smoking gun, unlike the evidence against Shizuku or the next candidate, but it was something at least.
Talking about friends made Mafuyu wonder: Would she have been different if she made a friend before she stopped being able to feel anything? Would this hypothetical friend of hers fill her up with the same warmth and emotions that Opal did?
She never would know, because no one, according to mother, was deemed 'worthy of her time'.
—
And then there was Otori. She… she was a handful. Whether it was a sequence of near inhumane acrobatic stunts or her frequent —and very much against the rules — trips to Kamiyama High, every day was like a new adventure for her.
With how proud Otori was about her 'little ventures' to the other high school, it was frankly a miracle that she had yet to be caught by any teacher from either school.
Yet despite that, Otori was very emotionally intelligent. To a scary degree. It only took a single glance for her to recognise if someone was forcing a smile; next moment she's flying (semi-literally) over to the person to make them smile with her signature, ahem, "WONDERHOY". (Mafuyu refused to say that out loud. Never.)
Mafuyu was not immune to her perceptiveness either. In fact, Otori seemed to be the sole person who could see through her 'good girl' persona, no matter how hard Mafuyu tried. On the bright side, Otori seemed to be terrified of her fake smile, barely able to stand in her general vicinity without visibly freaking out. That meant no surprise, ahem, "WONDERHOY", attacks or other people finding out about her fake smile.
It was this perception of hers that was ever so reminiscent of Opal. Opal always could sense when Mafuyu was more stressed than usual, always knowing the best way to respond to her hidden frustrations. Opal knew the exact arrangements to utilise to save people facing struggles she wasn't familiar with.
At the very least, Otori was very easy to mark as "not Opal". Even easier than Shizuku. Her and Opal's typical energy levels were like night and day — Otori's lowest being equivalent to Opal's highest. Plus, if her diet of instant noodles of varied flavours were anything to go by, there was not a chance Opal was performing any of the pinkette's stunts.
A giggle escaped her mouth just imagining Opal trying to do a flip or anything remotely acrobatic. Sure, their physical capabilities were enhanced while transformed to give them a better fighting chance against monsters. That did not translate to them being able to perform superhuman feats, though.
"If she was, do you think…?" Mafuyu didn't need Len to finish his sentence to know what he was implying.
"Do you think everything would be better?"
Any enemy would likely surrender within a few battles. First, they would underestimate Otori based on her size. The fatal mistake. Then, they would be met with her charging at them, screaming, ahem, "WONDERHOY", or something along those lines followed by her performing a sequence of acrobatic stunts. Lastly, they would surrender, fearing for their lives.
Mafuyu smirked, it would be cathartic to see the high and mighty villains — always bragging about being the ones to take the Pretty Cures down — cower at a girl just barely over 150cm.
They likely wouldn't be in this situation either — one Cure living her life unaware of her past, the other running away from her past.
Yet a part of her didn't want that reality. Yes, the benefits were massive. But Mafuyu couldn't bear the thought of a life where she didn't know Opal. One where she couldn't hear Opal's soft and soothing voice every time they called at 1 am. One where she didn't scroll the internet for an embarrassing amount of time to find recipes for Opal to make instead of instant noodles. One where she couldn't spend an hour sitting on rooftops chatting with Opal, the faint feeling of heat spreading up her cheeks despite the chilly late night breeze.
Mafuyu sighed, shelving that alternate reality to a deep part of her mind. Mulling over hypotheticals wasn't going to help her with her predicament.
Just one more person. One more damn "candidate" and she was free from Opal haunting her in her daily life.
—
Finally, the last one. Kanade. When Mafuyu had first started going over each "Opal candidate", she assumed Kanade would be an easy one to eliminate — all she had was a build and voice similar to Opal, nothing more.
Yet as she covered the other three girls, Mafuyu began to realise that maybe Kanade was more similar to her ex-partner than she realised. Because aside from their physical similarities, Kanade also strongly embodied the traits of the other girls that made Mafuyu see Opal in them.
Perceptive? Check. Within two interactions, one of which being Mafuyu scolding Kanade for not noticing the signs of a fainting spell earlier, Kanade figured out she was wearing a facade. One more conversation later and she had already managed to peel off most of the mask Mafuyu had polished to perfection (with one Otori-shaped irremovable blemish).
Kind? Check. While not to the same extent as Mochizuki, Kanade was willing to help others, granted she was physically capable of doing so. And after finding out about Mafuyu's situation, she seemed to have made it a point to find things that made Mafuyu feel warm. The "tryout" sessions were never forced either, if Mafuyu at any point felt sick of it, the smaller girl would stop and continue only when she was comfortable.
Calming? Check. Not only did Kanade's voice have a soothing quality to it, her general presence was very comforting to be in. In the mess and chaos of the school hallways, Mafuyu knew she could always find solace and warmth next to Kanade — a feeling so akin to her time spent with Opal.
The amount of evidence in Kanade's favour was reaching a concerning amount. She was going to need some damning counter-evidence to turn this around. Mafuyu racked her brain for every piece of information she knew about the smaller girl, struggling to even find something about her that made her unlikely to be Opal.
Seriously, how was it even possible that the two of them shared the same favourite food of instant noodles?
"Are you sure she's not Opal?" Len's question cut through the following silence like a hot knife to butter.
The realisation came crashing down as Mafuyu buried her face in her hands, using every fibre of her being to stop herself from screaming.
Kanade was Opal. Her plan to forget about her partner had stupendously backfired. She couldn't even avoid Kanade if she wanted to! They were classmates for god's sake!
She was utterly screwed, wasn't she?
===
Meanwhile, in a dim room lit up solely by a computer screen, a white haired girl listens to music written by a pair of mysterious individuals known as "K" and "Yuki". There's a sense of familiarity to the music, as if she's heard this somewhere.
She twirls her opal necklace — something she can't remember getting but knows she can't afford to lose — and muses to herself.
'Maybe I should make music.'
A smile appears on her face.
'Yeah, Mafuyu would like it.'