PCNG: 01

PCNG: 01 The return of the Legendary Pretty Cure!

Synopsis
The air was getting warmer and warmer every week as the sun kept rising higher and higher in the middle of May. A teenage girl rolled down the window pane for it was too hot for her to breathe inside the car. She wore light clothes – a knee-height white shirt over a blue dress. She looked out, amazed what a pretty view it was to move to another country. Yet, she felt like a stranger, unlike her mother who had been born in Japan, but nevertheless she felt excited to be home again. The girl thought transferring to a new school to be stressful, as she was always nervous to meet new people, but was not afraid to stand up for the new class like she had done at her birth country France. She looked down at her short feet, covered with her white shoe matched to the dress she wore. She felt like a stone was inside her stomach, sinking. She tried to gulp it down, but it was useless. Her mother noticed the girl’s stress, so she turned to her daughter and started the conversations between them.

"Nervous?" her first word of saying. Her daughter could only nod for reply as yes. Her mother kept smiling at her daughter's behavior, for she reminded her of herself when she entered the first year of middle school. The girl kept staring blankly out the window after the conversation, hoping it would last until they arrive. Her smile faded, though, as she looked at her daughter and thought of her problem of not being able to socialize well with other people. She didn't give up hope because she was sure that the school the girl would be transferring to, her daughter definitely will make friends. ______________________________________________________________________________________

A bird, separated from its group, flew around in the early morning and sat down in the nearest tree it could find, near a familiar block. Two blocks up from the bird, there was a woman in her thirties making breakfast for her family, cooking and placing plates on the table for four. She looked at the clock above the table ticking the seconds away, worried that her daughter would be late for school. "Katie! Wake up already!" she yelled, on her way to her kid’s bedroom. Her younger daughter had just woken up minutes ago and left for school. The woman had used to think that when her eldest daughter grows she would become active when she wakes up, but she became lazier and lazier instead. A minute went, and no one came out. Groaning about her daughter's laziness, she walked towards the 13-year-old’s bedroom and knocked frantically on the door.

"Katie! Get up already!" "Why are you yelling so early in the morning, honey?" Her husband walked towards her with his toothbrush still in his mouth. His eyes were half-closed; it seemed that he had recently been shaving and he smelled good, which, by his wife's point of view, made him attractive. As a car salesman, he must be well-groomed and wear formal dress as he sits by a desk with heaps of paperwork in front of him and answering phone calls. Sometimes, he brings a new car home over the weekends and returns them on Monday. His wife, however, takes care of cleaning, cooking and the kids, which she wasn't very good at, but her husband helps her during his day off. He has noticed that she usually goes to get her hair cut short on Saturdays to keep her hairstyle from when she was fourteen. Her daughter had the same style, only shorter and with her father's dark brown hair. The silence broke as they heard a groan coming from a room. "I don't wanna," the girl's voice said, still groaning over her parents disturbing her beauty sleep. Her mother rolled her eyes.

"Katie, don't make me come in there and drag you out."

"Make me," Katie said, challenging her.

"You come out here right now, young lady!" the woman exclaimed while banging on the door. "Honey, calm down, please," the man said. She sighed, giving up on her daughter. "Man, it's such a pain to drag her outta her room all morning," Natalie complained as she crossed her arms. "Now you know how your parents felt like," Fergie joked as he smiled.

"What are you trying to tell me?" she said irritatedly. The man stuck his tongue out.

"Anyhow, Nat, the reunion is almost at the corner. Feel excited? " "Not really. I mean it's great to see everyone again, but somehow I feel nervous." She pouted. "Must be because of all the fan girls you had back in the old days." Fergie grinned and laughed at the same time, making Natalie irritated again to recall that memory. Natalie drifted out to her memories when she was fourteen. Junior High was the greatest thing that ever happened to her, except for homework and tests. The reason why she even got up in the morning was to meet all her friends, both to hang out and play lacrosse with them and have an after-school snack at the Tako Cafe. By that time, everyone looked up to her, most of the girls, sneaking a letter into her shoe locker once in every month and encourage her when she played lacrosse. She recalls the smiley faces of Rina, Shawna, Hilary, Hilda and… Hannah. She felt comfortable and safe around Hannah by that time, when they were Pretty Cure and normal junior high students. She always laughed at Natalie's silliness or smiled proudly over her reaction whenever she received chocolate parfait or other food. Or even when Natalie had a fight with Mepple, Hannah always gave an expression of good mood. She was the only person who had understood her feelings or her problems, though they had nothing in common. Last time when they saw each other was when Natalie said goodbye to her when she finally made a decision over going to France with her parents. They haven't contact each other since. As the reunion was coming, she was both excited and stressed to see Hannah and the others again. They were able then to act childish, sharing memories of the past and tell how their life is with the family. She smiled again and shed little tears. Although her memories of being Petty Cure and befriending Mepple and the other three fairies were gone, Natalie could vaguely recall how she felt around Hannah when fighting the Dark Zone or caring for Mepple.

"Honey?" Fergie asked, worried as he noticed she shed tears. "I'm okay," she lied, wiping her tearful face. She hated to do that, but she did not want to let him know that she felt sad. Without noticing, Fergie took her hands with both of his hands and gazed at her, making her blush.

"Darling…" he said and smiled. "Tell me if something's wrong, you know you can trust me, okay?" She nodded for a yes. "I love you," he then said. She smiled with him and replied with the same three words, only to add one word.

"I love you too." Her heart was bumping; she was getting all excited over that word so she sighed heavily but romantically. "Do you really have to be all lovely-dovely outside my room?" their daughter, who stuck her head out the door, interrupted them. Fergie released his hands quickly of Natalie. "A-a-anyway, Katie, do you have your judo uniform?" she asked, and Katie nodded. "Okay, hurry up you'll get late," Natalie said, as if nothing happened seconds ago. Katie rolled her eyes.

"I'm leaving!" With that, the 13-year-old closed the door behind her and quickly got ready for school before she left. Her parents sighed in relief as their daughter walked out the front door. Natalie entered her daughter's bedroom to find chocolates, pocky packs and snacks packing on the floor since the weekend. "Oh, Katie…." Natalie sighed over her daughter. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Katie ran. She ran as fast as she could to make in time for train. Looking at the cars passing by her, made her run seem more like she was racing against them. As she arrived at the train station, she stopped and gasped for air but the noise of takeoff interrupted her. During her trip on train, Katie kept looking at her watch to see if she was getting late. Fifteen minutes later, she got out of train and began to speed up again. She looked at the time, swearing while running and catching her breath at the same time. "I can't believe this," Katie muttered to herself, while looking at her watch. Her bag bumped on her hip several times, which was driving her crazy but tried to ignore it. Her hair was a mess, but decided to fix it once she arrived at school. Her hands oscillated aside repeatedly. She stopped for a minute to catch her breath. Katie noticed that a girl, with shoulder-length blonde hair and dark blue eyes, was holding a map and seemed very confused and lost. Along with her was an older woman, obviously her mother because they almost looked the same except the woman wore glasses and had dark blue hair. Katie approached them, fixing her messy hair and asked:

"Excuse me? Is something wrong?" The older woman turned towards her and replied gently.

"Well, yes. We are in quite situation here, you see, we're looking for a school whose name I forgot but we were told it was right across Baker Streets. Do happen to know where it is?" "Yeah, you take a left turn when you pass three blocks and then make right turn where the traffic light is. As you reach down the Owen Street you see the school towards you. It's not far from where we are standing if you drive there but by foot you'd probably be late for cla–“ She stopped as she recalled that she was getting late for classes.

"Oh, crap! I'm late!" Katie shouted all of a sudden.

“Don’t worry; since you've been such a help I guess we can owe you a ride," the woman offered with a kind smile. "Alright!" Katie jumped happily. "What a strike of luck!" "Don't you mean 'stroke of luck?" the woman corrected her. Her daughter sat down on a backseat and Katie joined her. "So what's your name?" she asked during fastening her seatbelt.

“I’m Sophie Whitehouse. It's nice to meet you." She bowed politely, yet stressful to socialize with the other girl. "And this is my mo–“ "Just call me Miss Whitehouse, it's easier that way."

"Geez, mom, don't cut me off," Sophie scolded. "I'm Katie Ferginson. It's nice to meet you too." Miss Whitehouse looked at Katie strangely, as if she had known that last name before. She couldn't recall, so she stepped on the throttle. Katie asked a ton about the blond girl’s homeland such as traditional annual holiday, food and the city. Sophie replied patiently her questions. "Me and my mother just transferred from France. She wanted to move back to her old neighborhood where she lived when she was a kid."

"Oh, that explains the accent." Katie smiled. Sophie nodded. "I can't wait until for a day off at school. I really wanna go to the museum, learning Japanese better at the library and read books and see the exhibit about the history of Japan. I can't wait!" Sophie clapped her hands with excitement. Katie's smile became wider while Sophie's eyes sparkled. Sophie came back to sense, making an embarrassed reaction of her behavior. "I'm sorry, I just lost myself." She bowed again. Katie smiled awkwardly as she replied:

"It's okay, really. If I'd to move to a strange country, I'd be excited to taste new food." "Is that what you always think of?" Sophie giggled. "Back when I was at you girls' age, I was in this school along with my best friend,” Miss Whitehouse told. "I was the president of the science club. My friend was the lacrosse team's captain. Ah, those were the days..." Sophie smiled proudly at her mother. "Ah, here we are," Miss Whitehouse said while parking the car on the side of the street. Katie ran like crazy towards the school. "Thank you for the ride!" she called behind her. Miss Whitehouse and Sophie just giggled at the girl’s actions. Miss Whitehouse was about to take a turn when she noticed a street sign that read ‘Baker Street’. ______________________________________________________________________________________ "Everyone, before we start our homeroom, let me introduce you to the new transfer student, Sophie Whitehouse. Please make her feel like among us," Rina introduced Sophie to her students. Before walking towards her seat, which was behind Katie, Sophie bowed gently in front of the class. Katie gave a surprised and excited reaction, knowing she had a chance to befriend her. In front of Katie sat her best friend, Rachel Taylor. She gave her friend a victory sign for sitting near the new student. Katie replied to her friend with a victory sign. After classes, Katie wandered alone around the school with her lunch box in her hands, along with a backpack on her back. Her practice was going to start after twenty minutes, so she headed straight to the dojo. That Sophie, she's an interesting person. I'm sure we'll be best of friends sometimes. I just know it… She smiled at herself over her ridiculous moment.

A brunette girl walked towards her locker while her teammates and some students who wanted to watch followed her. It was time for lacrosse practice. There stood everyone from her class, both boys and girls. She really hated when everyone was around her all the time. She always got love letters, too. Almost every day, she finds a letter from her locker. She never could understand why she never gets a letter from boys. The time had just flied by and only one minute, according to the captain of the lacrosse team, was left. The captain gave the ball to the girl who nearest was the one her. She kept the ball, dodging every move until giving the ball to Sally. Sophie passed by at that moment and caught sight of the game. Everyone cheered Sally on, girls yelling her name or screaming “You're the best!!” or from the boys, “We love you!”. Sally really couldn't concentrate on her training, having them hanging around her.

"Sally, shoot!" The captain yelled. Somehow, Sally locked eyes with her friend Naomi and a wide smile was brought on her face. Finally, focusing her concentration back to the game, and on last seconds left, Sally took the chance and shot. The ball went in, the fans screamed with enthusiastic triumph. The girl waved her hands to her fans, which made them scream happily or faint as she wiped her sweaty face with a towel. She got compliments from her teammates, a high-five or a clap on the back. Sally smiled as she placed her towel on her brown hair. She raised her fist in the air as she yelled cheerfully, her team-mates laughing with her. She’s so cheerful and energetic, Sophie thought, smiling. She heard another noise that was coming from the gym. She smiled at the younger girl for the last time before turning away. Sally’s blue eyes caught sight of Sophie heading towards the gym where her sister was practicing. People were lined up and sitting in seiza, waiting for their turn to wrestle their opponents. People wore all kind of colors of belts; yellow, green, orange, blue, brown, but most of them wore white. People moaned as they were thrown on the floor, on their back or on their side. The captain always yelled “hajime” every time when new wrestle is about to start or “matte” when the time was over. As Sophie came in, she saw Katie in the middle of wrestling. The brunette stood still, her arms down towards her opponent. She wore a green belt and white judo clothes with no socks. Sophie was scared of her serious expression; it was like she didn't know her anymore. As the man yelled “hajime” Katie bowed, like the other did, and danced around him. Sophie was confused, but began to understand as Katie threw the opponent down and the man yelled “matte”. Katie threw her hands up in victory.

"You were amazing, Katie," Sophie encouraged as she met Katie after the training and gave her new classmate a smile. She pulled back when she thought she again made a fool herself. They didn’t even know each other! "You were watching?" Katie asked in surprise, not having excepted this. Sophie nodded shyly. "Hey, I was thinking, if you're not busy or something, could we hang out together sometime?" Sophie felt like a bullet had been shot through her chest. For the first time, someone asked to hang out with her! However, she felt like she wasn't ready. She looked at Katie's innocent smiling face while trying to reply. She just wanted to make Katie an acquaintance; it wasn’t that she didn't like her. "I'm sorry, I'm busy," she lied with a gentle smile. "Oh," Katie replied, disappointed. She always was looking forward to making new friends, although so far she only had few who were really good friends of her like Rachel. Realizing this, Sophie widened her eyes but faked a smile. "Well, then. Bye." With that, she ran away. Katie stood still, confused. "She was just trying to be nice and I turned her down," Sophie spoke to herself, feeling guilty. They didn't talk to each other for the rest of the classes. Katie tried her best to get close to Sophie and communicate with her repeatedly, but she kept ignoring her and making excuses. In the end, Katie walked home alone. ______________________________________________________________________________________

Sophie waited for her mother's car to arrive. She looked around her where the kids were walking home together like best friends. Maybe I shouldn’t have been like that to Katie, she thought. By the sound of a car horn, Sophie was broken out of her thoughts. She looked where her mother waved to her from the car. She quickly entered the car. Miss Whitehouse looked at the reflection of Sophie on the back mirror. "How was first day of school?" she asked. "It was... fun,” she hesitated. Miss Whitehouse looked at her daughter in the passenger seat. "Did you have a fight with Katie?" she knew her daughter hadn’t known the dark-brown-eyed brunette more than a day, but that didn’t mean the sensitive girl wouldn’t get upset if she fought with the first person she had met on her first day of school. Sophie shook her head as a no.

"I-I- just….I'm just little tired," she lied. Still, she wondered how her mother knew what happened between them. Knowing her daughter, Hannah knew Sophie wasn't telling the truth. She just turned back to the wheels and did not talk about it for the rest of the trip. I shouldn't have turned that offer down. I'm so stupid, Sophie thought. By the time they arrived to their home stopping at a parking lot, Sophie took her school bag and helped carry the groceries into the house. She held two white bags with her school bag on her back. Turning her back to her mom to hide the sadness on her face so that her mother wouldn't worry, Sophie thought about hat Katie had said and gave up the thought of them being friends since she simply wasn’t the kind of person who could befriend people. "Sophie, you go ahead, I'm gonna put some cents on the parking meter," Hannah said. Sophie didn’t even listen. She now really regretted treating Katie the way she did. Antisocial or not, Sophie’s sensitivity to other people’s feelings made her feel more and more guilty about the whole thing. Approaching the doors, she saw a cell phone just laying there.

"Mom, there's a cell phone by the door. Is it yours?" Sophie called, and waited for her answer. "No. Maybe someone dropped it. Are you sure it's a cell phone, honey?" "Well, it does look like it." Picking it up, she entered the house. After dropping the grocery bags off in the kitchen, Sophie headed straight for her new bedroom. ______________________________________________________________________________________

"I can't believe this!" Katie yelling careless as her voice echoed around the neighborhood for a few seconds. “Dammit, maybe I went too quickly for her. I should talk to her tomorrow to understand things. Mmm, but how…? Maybe I should invite her to my house. Nah, I don't think that she'll like my family. I do want to befriend her, I mean, she does seem–” Katie got cut off by some shooting stars passing by her a second ago. She put her hands together to make a wish.

"I wish I was thin but could stay that way and eat as much chocolate as I want and please let me have a boyfriend this year." She lifted her head up at the sky as she half-opened her eyes looking for the shooting stars, when she saw something coming at her. Before the thing could hit her, Katie dodged just in time. The thing shot up, short from the ground and it followed with gold cards flying around. Katie opened her eyes and stood up as she saw it land and smoke come out of it. She carefully approaches it to poke it with a stick she picked up, to see if it was dangerous or not. "Meppo!" the head creature cried as he opened up like a flip-open cell phone. The little creature head looked around, his eyes caught on Katie who was shivering like a leaf. It wasn't exactly usual to bump into on an alien or a weird person from another world, but for the creature, it was. "Wh-wh-wh-who are you?" she stammered. The thing changed itself to a stuffed animal. "I am the son of the Chosen Hero and Princess of Hope of the Garden of Light, Meppo!"

"Yeah, and I'm the Queen of England,” Katie muttered sarcastically before changing the subject: “Why did you come here, anyway?" "I fell from my homeland, Garden of Light and was separated from my beloved Yoppi,” he said, sounding worried.

"Garden of Light? Never heard of it…." Katie muttered. "Of course not,” the stuffed animal like creature, Meppo, said indignantly. “No humans except the Legendary Warriors have heard of it.” "And who are these Legendary Warriors?" Mepple ignored the question, turning to look from Katie. He felt a shiver run down his spine at the thought of what he could feel, but shook his head and put on a brave face. His dad wouldn’t be afraid and neither will he! "I can sense it!" "Sense what?" Katie asked as she raised her head up. Meppo changed back to his cell phone like form and jumped onto Katie’s palm. "I'll talk the way, you navigate.” "Since when did I become your chauffeur?" she asked, feeling insulted.

"Hurry up!" he exclaimed impatiently. Between telling the directions, Meppo explained what his business was here on Earth. Katie climbed over a fence where a dangerous bulldog barked. She passed by a garden where a couple was having a romantic time before Katie came and interrupted. She then walked across the street where there was no street lamp. After almost being hit by a car, Katie nearly reached her destination and ran as Meppo navigated. To Katie's surprise, the directions that Meppo pointed lead them to the local park. She kinda knew that the creature was sensing evil but this place just looked very peaceful. "Katie?" a familiar voice called behind her. Katie could have recognized that voice anywhere. As she turned around, she saw Sophie running towards her along with the same creature as her but only light blue and cat-like instead of an orange hamster. As Sophie approached her, Katie quickly asked:

"You too?" Sophie nodded. "I found her lying by my door. She probably landed there, but I'm not sure." "It's here!" Meppo yelled. At the exact time when Meppo yelled, a creepy looking person appeared out of nowhere in front of them. "Come forward, Zakenna!" he cried aloud. The few people around disappeared as hundreds of trees around the park came alive, within five seconds. Katie and Sophie froze, not knowing what to do.

"Transform!" Sophie’s creature, named Yuppi, cried out. "How the hell are we supposed to do that?!" Katie yelled. "Slice the Queen cards on us," Meppo said.

"Cards?" Katie asked, confused but realized within seconds as she looked at Meppo. "Oh, you mean the ones that I found with you?" "Yes, now hurry!" So they did. They held hands together without noticing and lifted their hands up towards the sky. “Dual Aurora Wave!” they chorused. "Hey, wait a minute. What am I saying?" Katie asked herself. First, on Katie, a black costume spread completely through her body, legs and arms. Then a light pink bow appeared between her neck and chest. The same happened to Sophie, only with a white costume with a pale blue bow. Her hair was tied to ponytail above her head by a bow and Kazumi's hair was a little longer than normal. After the transformations, they landed softly on the ground; saying.

“Emissary of Light, I am Cure Black!”

“Emissary of Light, I am Cure White!”

“Together we are Pretty Cure!” “Evil spirits of Darkness…” Sophie began. “Return to the abyss where you belong!” Katie finished.

"What in the… What's going on?" Katie/Black asked herself, waiting for Sophie/White to answer as she looked at her costume and at White’s. The creepy person gritted his teeth while swearing at the girls. "Dammit." He then deiced to use this chance, as his opponents were busy finding the answer of this situation. Luckily, the girls dodged the attack, but did not have control over their balance in the air. Smoothly landing on the ground again, White jumped above him to attack first. Behind her, Black joined her and punched him low, while White punched high. One Zakenna tree pushed White aside, landing minorly wounded on the ground. "Sophie!" Black exclaimed. The man suddenly had bombs in his hands and threw it towards White, but Black managed to save her. He continued to throw bombs but they managed to dodge them all. Black started to attack again; both with her feet and arms, but the enemy blocked the strikes, punches and kicks with his arms crossed. With all her might, Black tried to wound him just a little bit, but it was useless. It was as if he had a stone in his chest. White tried to approach them, but Zakenna kept her away. The person got an opening on Black, so he made his chance by hitting her hard on her stomach, making her fall down.

"Katie!" White yelled. Black raised her head up, only now noticing that the people had disappeared since the freaky guy came. "Use the Marble Twister," Meppo said from his pouch when Black painfully stood up.

"How?" she asked while holding the pain in her stomach. "Hold hands!” Yuppi instructed. At first, it made them feel embarrassed, but they didn't have any other options.

"Black thunder!" Black shouted, lifting her free hand towards the sky. "White thunder!" White shouted, mimicking her. White and black lightning struck on their hands as thunder rumbled. "We stab out the Darkness and we summon the Light!” White began. "We join together to set things right!” Black finished. They squished the hands tightly as they finished together: "Pretty Cure Marble Twister!” The lightning increased as it shot out of their extended free hands, twisting around each other like a screw. It hit the Zakennas, destroying them and thus shattering them into small stars. The person dodged it and cursed, peeved while he yelled to the two girls. "I shall remember this! I am called Bakugeki! Remember this name, Pretty Cure!" Afterwards, he disappeared into thin air. "Who are these?" White asked as the small stars was passing by until they disappeared. They turned back to normal middle school girls. Everything was quieter, now that the person was gone. Katie and Sophie found a spot, to talk privately to Meppo and Yuppi without making the people around freak out or think they’re crazy talking to stuffed animals or something. When the duo turned into stuffed animals, Katie instantly demanded:

"Now, what the heck was all that?"

"You two are the chosen Legendary Warriors, Pretty Cure," Meppo explained happily. "Pretty Cure?" Katie echoed in surprise. "The Legendary Warriors? The ones that you mentioned earlier?" Yuppi nodded. "Now that you have been chosen as Pretty Cure, we will fight together against the Darkness."

"And we are at your care," Meppo added.

"What! Aahh, I can't believe this!" Katie exclaimed.