Pretty Cure Fan Fiction ❯ A Mirror Darkly ❯ Chapter 1

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

(A/N: Just in case the tags on the summary didn’t warn you off, this is not a sweet, happy story. There are adult themes, violence, death, and implied underage sex ahead. If these aren’t your cup of tea, you’ll probably want to back out now, before later chapters are published.

New chapters will be published weekly, at approx 7:30 PM EST.)

While there are many who have called New York “The City That Never Sleeps” those with a wider view of the world know that there are many 'Cities That Never Sleep' everywhere. But Tokyo is unique, for it is a city that comes closest to true sleep only during the day. Early in the morning, after all the salarymen and students have been quietly shuffled into the prisons of their daily existence, but before those few who instead stay home have woken up for their afternoon play or work on the home, those are the only times you might hope to escape notice in Tokyo.

Thus it was that, just out of view of all the cameras watching out for the safety of the children in a park, behind some bushes up against a building, a swirling doorway of pink light opened. But what stepped through wasn't the (almost) expected monstrosity, but two girls. Looking no older than fifteen, they seemed to share nothing in appearance but a certain weariness. One, with magenta hair, mangled but down to her waist, was wearing what was obviously a fleece jacket that had been scrounged up from somewhere, probably a rubbish bin. It was several sizes too large for her, coming down well past her hips and almost covered the pair of shorts she was wearing to keep her modesty. She brushed her hair out of her brown eyes. “We...we made it...you have that old paper money, right?”

“Of course,” the other said. Her blonde hair was just as long as her companion's, but held back in a tight ponytail. She reached into her leather jacket, worn over a red silk blouse that was quite low cut, counting out some bills and handing them to her friend. “Twenty million yen. Easy enough, since it's worthless.” She reached into a single pocket in her tight shorts, material matching the jacket.

The first one snorted. “Worthless back there. Here...well, it's probably not enough to live on.”

The blonde smirked. “What, giving up already on a little bad intel? What happened to giving me the world?”

“I promised to give you a world you'd love.” The other girl said, sounding somewhat weary. “Maybe we'll be in luck, there won't be any magic here. We could rule the world in a few years, make it just how we like.”

“Hey, now,” The second girl pulled her friend around and looked her in the eye. “Don't lose focus on me. They wouldn't have made a portal to a world like that. So we have to get help. There's too few of us now. Eclipse and Sagittarius can't hold the fort themselves. We have to go back.”

The girl with the magenta hair nodded slowly. “All right, my queen.”

She was answered with a short laugh. “You don't have to call me that.” Suddenly a transformation came over her expression. “Anyway, I want ice cream!”

“...right. I promised to get you some.” The first girl laughed. “I swear, you're so selfish.” While the words could be seen as biting, they were spoken with affection and love.

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Average in height, but not in energy. Hair and eyes a bright magenta in color that almost blends into the crowd. Her figure is slim and athletic and, at least at the moment, she’s wearing a sporty pink tank top and a black pair of boyish shorts, her hair temporarily let down. This is Aida Mana, enjoying a rare day off from her usual pursuits in the middle of a department store. She turns to her companion. “Shame Alice couldn’t make it, and Makopi had to work. How do I look?”

Said companion was slightly taller than herself, with dark blue hair down to her waist. Or rather, it would be if it were not up in two ridiculous pigtails, apparently quickly re-styled to compliment the ridiculously frilly dress she had chosen to try on. Her reaction to the outfit her companion had chosen, however, was to literally emit a sound between a cough and a laugh. “...Mana, you look like you’re trying to be Makoto.”

Any retort Mana might have made died on her lips. “Rikka...that is…”

“It’s formal,” Rikka tried lamely...then laughed herself. “Okay, yeah. But you have to admit, with the festival over we’ve only got a few days of vacation left. Isn’t it nice to enjoy it?”

“...I’m bored.” Mana admitted. “Finished my homework, student council work, that silly exercise regimen’s over, read all the books I checked out of the library…”

Rikka sighed. “Mana, when is the last time you relaxed?”

“Probably about the start of the year.” Mana’s response was matter-of-fact, as if this wasn’t a big deal. Rikka realized Mana probably didn’t think it was.

A pair of the most unusual creatures popped out from behind a rack of clothes. They were both about a foot tall, and vaguely humanoid in shape, but that was where the similarities end. One was bright pink, with ears reminiscent of a rabbit tied to the top of her head with a bow. “Mana can relax-sharu?”

The other, a blue creature with ears that flopped downward in a more canine manner, just shook his head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that-raqu.”

Mana gave them a look that, coming from her, could be a glare. On almost anyone else it would be more of a pout, but it did represent the greatest amount of true hostility she could muster towards someone. “I’ll have you two know that I do too relax.”

“...yeah, by collecting Makopi stuff.” Rikka sighed. “Mana, we have got to oh no you don’t whatever it is IT CAN WAI…” She went from resignation to stern scolding to yelling, before trailing off as Mana suddenly turned and ran down the aisles of the store.

She was brought up short by a cold chuckle, one that would have been familiar, but Mana’s voice was never that...unconcerned. Rikka realized that someone was enjoying her worry for her friend and snapped towards the source. “I don’t see where it’s any of your business.”

The girl she was confronting was her age, but and definitely looked a little bit like her best friend, but brown eyes and black hair seemed to indicate otherwise. Then there was the girl’s bearing. Behind the obvious amusement, this person was nothing like any middle schooler Rikka had ever met before. Her eyes seemed to dart aside constantly, checking every angle. Rikka had been in enough fights as Cure Diamond to realize that she was checking for ambushes, although strangely she also seemed to be watching the security cameras as well. A second glance at the shoulder-length hair caused Rikka to realize something was off about it as well. A dye job?

Her attention turned back to the girl when she finally spoke. “I never knew what that looked like from the outside.”

“How what looked from the outside?” Rikka demanded. “And aren’t you being just a bit rude?”

“I’d say it’s probably you being rude,” the stranger countered. “I was just making an observation, but you seem to be accusing me of something.”

“Wha-I-wh?” Rikka spluttered a few times, but then got her composure back. “Maybe you should just mind your own business!”

“That’s damn good advice you should take for yourself, Hishikawa.” The mysterious girl brushed on by her, only to suddenly find a hand restraining her shoulder. “...hands off. You’re not funny anymore.”

“How do you know my name?” Rikka demanded.

The woman didn’t turn around, but her voice dropped to a tone she hadn’t even heard from the Jikochuu. “Last chance. Let go or I will hurt you.” Rikka was so stunned her hand fell away...bringing the girl’s hair down with it. Before Rikka even knew what was happening, she suddenly found herself knocked to the floor, face-down, so she couldn’t see what her assailant looked like now. “Damn you, Hishikawa. Always messing things up.” Rikka rolled over but when she looked up, the girl was nowhere to be seen.

Rikka looked down at the wig in her hands, but other than the fact that it was a very well-made wig, there weren’t any clues to be had from it.

xoxoxoxoxoxox

What Mana had seen, which none of the others had, was a long trail of shimmering blonde hair. True, it was in the next department over, half way across the floor, and headed down an escalator, but she had to check, had to know. She whipped around the corner, narrowly avoiding colliding with a lady coming up the stairs as she ran down, only barely catching up to the blonde girl and panting out “Regina…”

Regina, who had come into their lives as an agent of the Jikochuu, enemy of the Precure of Oogai city. The “Princess” and daughter of their leader. The innocently selfish girl who had declared herself Mana’s friend, only to be trapped in a cycle of misunderstandings and bizarre events as they slowly came to understand each other and redefine what the word meant. Although if Mana were to be truthful to herself, Regina had learned far more than she had. And then, just as the princess had finally truly become their friend, she had been kidnapped and brainwashed into fighting them once more.

...and it was not Regina standing in front of Mana now, looking at her with pained purple eyes. Purple, not red, not blue. Not Regina. “...I..I’m sorry.”

Regina’s voice spoke, giving Mana a little surprise. “...I’m not who you think I am. You’re better off, because who you think I am is probably a grade-A bitch if I know anything about it.”

Mana stopped dead in shock. “That’s not true!”

Not-Regina raised an eyebrow. “I wonder if...but no, I’m not…” She took a deep breath, and raised her hand to snap her fingers. “Please forget you saw me. I’ll only bring you pain, Miss Aida.”

“..eh?” Snap. Mana’s eyes glazed over, just for a moment. When she was next aware of her surroundings, she wondered what she was doing in the lingere section of the store.

xoxoxoxoxoxox

The girl Mana had dubbed Not-Regina raced down the stairs, glancing over her shoulder at Gemini, whose wig had obviously been lost somewhere. “I swear, I can’t take you out in public anymore.”

“Shouldn’t that be my line?” Gemini shouted, glancing over her shoulder as if there were an army of demons behind them, instead of a large number of confused shoppers. “You used your power to draw out someone’s desires in public!”

“Oh, relax, it’s not like I turned her into a monster!” The other girl ducked under a display of soup cans as they got to the bottom floor. “You’re the one who beat up an innocent girl in the middle of the store!”

Gemini brazenly grabbed an apple and tossed a two-thousand yen bill on the counter while ducking through the line. “Hishikawa ain’t innocent and you know it!”

“Don’t know it, and neither do you!”

Gemini glanced at the door. “Wrong way! Stay out of the arcades, you know that!”

“We don’t have a choice!” came the answer, the blonde glancing over her shoulder. “Security seems to be slow today!”

The pair raced into the tunnels beneath Tokyo, a maze of shops and small restaurants. They took a right turn into a temporarily abandoned row of drinking establishments and ducked into a fake wooden hut, leaning against the door and looking out. Gemini took a breath, and glanced at her very-much-not-winded companion. “I envy you, you know.”

“Oh, knock it off,” she chuckled nervously, then glanced out. A janitor stared back at her, then shrugged and continued mopping. “...weird. Why haven’t they dropped the shutters?”

“...for a little bit of roughhousing and not standing in line to pay?” Gemini breathed in deep. “Yeah, okay, it was dumb of me to think that rule applied. You think we lost the cops?”

“They don’t seem to have followed us. Did you get what you needed?”

Gemini held up a shopping bag. “It’ll do. We’ll need fake IDs, then we can check into a hotel.”

The other girl frowned. “Do you know where to get them?”

Gemini pulled out her cell phone. “I have an old map of Tokyo. I think I can find where the guys we got ours from have a shop out here.”

“...right.” She took a slow breath. “...you know, maybe we should just go looking for them. We know there are Precure in this world, they can probably put us up in a basement for a couple of days.”

Gemini looked like she might object for a moment, then sighed. “Yeah, sure. I guess the big target is that Makopi concert I saw advertised. I always wondered what happened to her.”

“I don’t think we can get tickets. I’ll have to. . . persuade. . . someone to let us in.” She played with her blouse in a rather meaningful fashion.

Gemini waved it off. “Since it’s for a good cause, it’s fine.”

“Right.” The ‘queen’ smirked. “Well, why don’t we get you changed into something more respectable and go get that ice cream?”

“...yeah, sure.”

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Rikka shot down the escalator as soon as she was sure her assailant was out of sight. What she saw...well, really surprised her actually. Mana didn’t usually run off for nothing, so Rikka really expected her to be looking for a child’s mother, helping an old lady to the elevators, or the best case scenario waving to whoever had caught her attention for a few moments.

Instead, she was staring into space at a display th - no, not thinking about that. Rikka shot up and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Mana, what happened?” Mana gave her friend a rather empty stare back for several moments. “Uhm...are you all right?”

Mana giggled in a manner that was surprisingly airheaded..

Rikka, nonplussed, put a hand on the other girl’s forehead. “Well, no fever…”

Mana giggled again. “...You’re pretty, Rikka. You should get those clothes.”

Rikka paused and blushed. “Mana, what happened?”

“Nothing.” Mana said, still distantly and slightly giggly.

Rikka paused again, and then gave Mana a light slap on the cheek. “Snap out of it!” she hissed.

Mana blinked, then suddenly seemed to return to her usual self, although annoyed. “What was that for?”

“You ran off!” Rikka hissed again, trying to avoid attracting attention. “And then someone attacked me!”

Rikka found Mana’s own hand on her forehead a second later. “Rikka, are you feeling all right? Nothing like that happened.”

“I know it happened!”

Mana shook her head. “Everything’s fine. Nothing happened today,” she said, a little more insistently.

“Then why did you run off?”

Mana shrugged. “I thought I saw something, but it was nothing. Look, maybe you need to take a break. Maybe a sandwich at the restaurant?”

“...okay, fine.” Rikka sighed, realizing she wasn’t going to get any further in this conversation immediately. After a moment’s pause, she asked “Uhm, do you really think I’m pretty?”

A grin and shrug were her only response, as Mana nervously turned towards the elevator.

xoxoxoxoxoxox

The girl known as Kenzaki Makoto was sprawled out in a booth just out of the sunlight, a potted plant carefully guarding her face from being seen by most of the shop. Wearing her usual outfit of a long vest over a formal shirt and a pair of shorts for her 'tomboy' image on stage, she reflected maybe she should have gone for one of the 'cute' looks after all. The heat of the summer wasn't unbearable, but she'd kill for short sleeves. But at least now she had a chance to enjoy one of few well-deserved breaks from the whirlwind lifestyle of an Idol could be a ten minute break for...

A strawberry and chocolate sundae was placed on the table in front of her, breaking her out of her brief reverie. “Here you go, Makoto.” DB, her manager, said. “You know, we've got more than a few minutes. You don't have to rush.” Makoto looked up at the severely dressed young woman.

“Don't we have that autograph session to get to?” Makoto asked in return, with a sigh. “This will already make us late, I don't know why you decided to do it,”

“I called ahead and the event in front of us is running long. We have an hour at least, so please, relax.” DB said, sighing. “Maybe we should give this up.”

“What, and quit show-business?” Makoto asked in a complete deadpan, taking a bite of the confection.

DB raised an eyebrow. “Did you just crack a joke?”

“No,” Makoto said while putting another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. “How much money do we have banked?”

“Close to a hundred million yen,” DB said, flipping open a cell phone. “Of course, most of it's tied up in trusts...”

Makoto shrugged. “Well, then, unless you want us to wait tables I've got to do this for another two years to keep up appearances...”

DB glanced over at the door for a moment, as if keeping an eye out for fans, but really it was to avoid Makoto's gaze. “I'm sure we could stay with Alice...”

“...no.” Makoto's voice dropped another notch. “We take advantage of her hospitality and resources enough just for Precure stuff, I'm not going to impose like some kind of...of refugee.”

“What about Sir Johnathon then?” DB pressed. “He's got a store...”

Makoto glared angrily at her partner. “A store that's just barely staying afloat. There's no way he could take care of two freeloaders. Besides, I'm happy doing this. Mana was ri - “ She found herself cut off in mid-sentence by an all-too-familiar whining voice from the register. “...Davi...” she said quietly. “Is that..?”

Davi turned around and peered around the plant at where the sound had come from. A girl wearing a rather plain sundress was holding back another with blonde hair in a long ponytail from jumping over the counter. “It...sounds like Regina...but...”

The blonde suddenly ceased her struggles and turned up her nose. “Fine, if you don't have the pistachio I'll have green tea.”

Davi quickly ducked back into the booth. “I don't think it's her. She looks too old, and Regina's still the enemy. I don't think she'd just give up on something like that.”

Makoto peeked out herself. “...wait, is that Mana?” Before Davi could stop her, Makoto was on her feet and walking up to the counter. “Aida Mana! Have you gone mad!?” she asked, not noticing until it was too late that the girl whose shoulder she was grabbing had hair much longer than her friend's, squeezing down and turning her around....only to look straight into brown eyes.

“...I'm sorry,” the girl stated with a coldness that was very much unlike the Aida Mana that Makoto knew. “We have never met before. Whomever you believe you are talking to, I am not her. I suggest you go back to your sundae,” She gave Makoto a quick shove back towards Davi. “

On someone else, the attitude might have worked, but Makoto was a veteran Pretty Cure. “Hey, you can't just push me around like that! Don't you know who I am?”

“I don't care,” The strange girl who looked so much like Makoto's friend said back. “Leave us alone!” The last word was shouted angrily, and she looked for a moment like she might do something more, but a hand on her shoulder from her friend calmed her down. The girl with the unkempt magenta hair looked over her shoulder. “...sorry.”

The blonde nodded, then smiled before addressing Makoto. “I'm sorry about my friend bu...” her eyes suddenly landed on DB, and they went wide. “...Gemini, we have to go.”

Gemini blinked a few times at the sudden change in reaction. “But, your ice cream...”

“Now!” she suddenly grabbed Gemini's wrist and started dragging her out of the shop. Makoto stared for a moment, took a step...and felt a 'crunch' under her foot. Looking down in shock, she realized she had stepped on a brown contact lens...and just as Gemini was being pulled out of view, so fast she wasn't even sure if what she was seeing was real, it seemed that Gemini had magenta eyes to match her hair....just like Mana.

“...what the heck is going on here?”

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Mana’s cell phone - the real one, not Sharuru, rang. Mana flipped it open, leaning away from her drink casually. Rikka quirked an eyebrow at Mana’s casual “Hello,”

Makoto, in the corner of the ice cream shop, glanced down the street nervously. “Mana, something weird just happened. Are you all right?”

Mana sighed in frustration. “What’s with everyone today? Everything’s fine.”

“...Mana, are you okay?” Makoto wasn’t used to the idea of Mana being dismissive of a problem. To put it mildly. “I just saw a girl who looks just li-”

“Everything’s. Fine.” Mana’s voice acquired a tinge of desperation. “Absolutely nothing happened, Makopi. You’re worrying about nothing.”

Rikka suddenly reached across the table, snatching the phone out of Mana’s hand. “Makoto, Mana’s…”

“Really not acting like herself. Listen, I ran into a girl who looks just like her following Regina around of all people.”

“...I think I know who you mean.” Rikka’s voice went quiet and serious. “Look, don’t provoke them, whatever you do. This...other-Mana,”

“Will you stop that?!” Mana shouted. “There is absolutely nothing going on.” Rikka looked up...and Mana’s eyes were wide, absolutely terrified.

Rikka swallowed, realizing that Mana wasn’t insisting. She was hoping. It was as if she was convinced that the world would end if she acknowledged that there was something strange going on. She finally spoke into the phone. “Makoto, look. Mana’s. . . not doing well. Could you please check on this, make sure that it’s nothing for me?”

Makoto blinked rapidly on the other end of the line. “But something weird is definitely going on Rikka.”

“Make. Sure. It’s. Nothing,” Rikka tried again, pointedly. “It’s not dangerous, everything’s fine, but just to make sure.”

Makoto quickly got the message. “She’s dangerous, isn’t she?”

“Absolutely. Mana’s just going to worry about you being worried, right?”

Mana grinned and nodded while Makoto sighed. “Try to get through to her in the meantime, all right.”

“I will,” Rikka forced herself to smile, but it couldn’t reach her eyes. “Have fun, be careful, don’t step out onto the sidewalk without looking or anything.”

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Makoto's limo pulled to a screeching stop as traffic halted and people ran, screaming, along the sidewalks and in the streets. DB, ever helpful, couldn't help but smirk. "I think we've found the place." Makoto's only response to her partner was a curt nod. She got out of the limo and, with a practiced ease, began weaving her way through the crowd. She glanced over her shoulder, satisfied that DB was only a few steps behind.

Just as the mob was thinning enough to see what was going on, Makoto heard a distorted voice "Too loud!? I have to work next to the noise every day, it's not too loud! You people!!! You’re just too sensitive!!!!!" A loose chunk of concrete nearly took her head off, and as she got closer she saw the thing that threw it, The thin legs coming out of a giant, mundane object weren't new, nor were the spindly arms. There was no real escaping it, though.

"It's a jackhammer," DB said, somewhat dumbfounded.

Makoto sighed. "It doesn't matter. Davi!" She held out her hand, and DB changed forms, becoming a purple feline creature that was more like a stuffed animal than a real one, and then from there into a shape like a cell phone before landing neatly in Makoto's hand.

But before she could do anything else, a streak of black ran past her. It was the same blonde she had run into earlier, only now with her black dress and long stockings, she was looking a little more like Regina. The dress was tailored to her figure better than Regina's, and she kept her hair in the ponytail, but otherwise they were hard to tell apart. She looked back over her shoulder. "You're wasting time! If you know how to use that, use it!"

Makoto blinked several times, stunned, before shouting out "Precure, LOVE LINK!" In another flash of light, she was changed. Her hair a shade lighter, with a new ponytail and a fancy minidress, she felt a familiar power flow through her body.

Regina smirked and glanced up at a nearby street lamp, and shouted out to the man who appeared on top of it. Dressed in a trenchcoat with a purple silk shirt, scarf, and fashionable shades, the old man would already have been out of place if not for the bat wings coming out of the back of his neck. “Well now, Bel. Fancy meeting you here.”

“Regina,” He said neutrally. “So, even after everything your father’s done,”

He was cut off with a laugh. “I don’t really know or care what King Jikochuu’s been up to around here. But seeing you alive is a bit of a surprise. Oh well, thanks, I was wondering how I was going to get some Precure out of the woodwork. You just made my job easier. Now, run off home.”

Bel scowled down at her. “Regina, this will end, or I’ll kill you myself.”

Regina hmphed, then looked back at Sword. “You handle the Jikochuu, I’ll deal with the old man up there?”

Sword was staring at the exchange, completely dumbfounded. “Uhm...yeah.”

Regina flew quickly into the sky and left Sword to deal with the jackhammer-monster in front of her. She decided to try for a quick dash in, but sudden waves of sound crushed the street in front of her and sent her flying back down the street. She managed to land on her feet with some difficulty and righted herself, looking at the creature before trying again. This time it let her approach, but countered her punch with one of its' own. "Stop bothering me about the noise! It'll stop when I'm done tearing up the street!!!"

"Hey! Your job is just to fix the pothole, isn't it?" Sword asked the monster. "Isn't destroying the whole street overkill?"

"Jiko..." the thing responded, winding up for a huge punch. With practice born from many times experiencing this, Sword braced herself for the impact. "...CHUUUUUU!"

Bouncing off the window of a nearby building, Sword needed a moment to recover after hitting the ground. A gesture summoned her bow, and took aim. "Precure Sparkling Sword!" Instead of a an arrow or singular beam of energy, instead Sword's attack sprayed the street with energy bolts. Unfortunately, she hadn't yet worn down the Jikochuu enough to score a solid hit, and instead it burrowed under the ground.

But there was someone else in the way. Regina screamed as Sword realized her shot was headed towards the girl who she had called ‘Gemini.’ Gemini herself seemed puzzled, waiting for the attack to pass harmlessly over her, but Regina dove at her and knocked her clear of the magical attack.

Regina stood up, looking at Sword in a manner that suggested there was going to be intense violence in the immediate future, when the Jikochuu tried to pound her with its’ fist. “...oh, right, you’re still here.” A lightning bolt knocked it back. “....Sword, watch it with that thing!”

Sword found herself sputtering. “What...that was...

Regina turned around and looked away, up into the sky. "I don't answer to you. If I think you’re aiming that at my Gemini again, Precure or no...where’d he go?"

The 'second most powerful' Jikochuu gave a short laugh from the other end of the alley, the three now pinned in pace. "Enough. Time for you to come home, Regina..."

Regina's eyes opened suddenly at that. "It’s ‘time’ all right...time to stop playing around." Sword's eyes widened as Regina was the one to vanish this time, blurring into motion and catching Bel from behind. "Listen to me, old man, and you listen good. I have a message for you to give to my 'daddy.'" Bel was frozen in fear, for the first time in a long time, at the sudden ice in Regina's words. "This world is off limits. How many Precure are there now?"

"...five," The old Jikochuu general wasn't sure why he'd answered honestly, beyond surprise at the sudden turn.

Regina gained a little of her humor back for a second. "Five. Five Precure, and you're having trouble. If you don't stop, I will bring an army of Cures down on your heads, and damn the consequences. Earth is mine and I will keep it."

Bel finally regained some of his composure. "What are you babbling about, little princess? Where are you going to get an army of Precure?"

Regina released him. "Let me show you..." She viciously kicked the back of his knee, then tossed him into the ground hard. "Bel, allow me to introduce you to my Precure." She walked casually to Gemini’s side.

Gemini pulled out a gray device with a heart-shaped screen. Sword's eyes widened. "Sebastian's Artifical Commune? Where did you get that?"

Gemini glanced at her. "He made it for me. This one's a bit different though." Regina turned to Gemini and suddenly kissed her on the forehead, placing a hand over the Commune. Then, they shouted together. "Precure, LOVE LINK!"

Sword found the resulting light almost painful to watch, having to squint to see something pink move from Regina's chest, into the Commune, before spreading out over Gemini's body. When the light had faded, what was standing there was anything but what she had expected. Gemini's hair had turned blonde, and was now tied back up high in a pigtail that was allowed to splay out behind her. She was wearing a blouse that bared her shoulders, but covered with two armored shoulder-pads in the shape of red hearts, with a white breastplate over pink cloth. A cape was also pinned to her blouse by two small heart pins, plain white and flapping in the breeze generated by the excess energy from the transformation. Instead of a skirt, below her belt she was wearing a tight-fitted pair of shorts and white greaves. Lastly, in her hand there was a familiar white sword hilt, decorated in an elegant, looping style. She flicked her wrist, and a blade of pink energy extended from it. When she spoke, it was in a voice that could almost have come from Mana, with only hints of her former anger. "The star of love! Cure Gemini!"