Chapter Text
Nagisa didn’t know what to say. She was hoping for Fuji-P. She was expecting a guy at least, but here she was walking to her family’s apartment with two little things and a girl who was apparently her soulmate.
She kept glancing at Yukishi—Honoka. Soulmates used first names. She didn’t want to look at her eyes, because… she just didn’t. Honoka looked the same as she always did. She was talking to Mipple, about something, but Nagisa was hardly listening. How was she so—so unbothered? This was a huge thing, wasn’t it?
Before she knew it, they were standing in front of her front door and Nagisa’s heart felt like it was going to explode. She bunched up her skirt in her hands, wrinkling the fabric.
“Um- don’t you want to tell your parents first?” Nagisa asked.
Honoka shook her head. “They’re abroad right now. I’ll call them when I get home. I can tell my grandmother, too.”
Nagisa swallowed and opened the door.
“I’m home…” she said.
“Welcome back,” her mother said, poking her head out of the kitchen, “Dinner will be- oh- who’s this?”
“She’s- it’s- well- um…” Nagisa trailed off. She gave up and took her glove off, showing her mark off to her mother, head turned towards the ground.
Her mother gasped, almost dropping her cooking on the ground. She hastily put it on the counter and untied her apron.
“Oh my! How exciting!” Her mother exclaimed, “and you, you’re the special little lady?”
Honoka nodded and showed off her own hand, swirled with black and white. She was smiling.
“Would you like to stay for dinner?” Her mother asked, to Nagisa’s horror. “I’d love to get to know you a little.”
“I don’t want to impose,” Honoka responded hesitantly.
“Oh, don’t worry so much! You’re not imposing at all!” Her mother assured her.
Nagisa felt like she might die right then and there. Way too fast. All of this was way too fast.
“Things will be out in just a moment. In the meantime, why don’t you show her around the house, Nagisa?”
“Sure,” she responded absentmindedly.
The apartment was small and there wasn’t much to show, and eventually Nagisa ended up shutting herself in her room with Honoka. She sat on her bed and put her head in her hands.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” she groaned.
“It is kind of incredible, isn’t it?” Honoka said.
Nagisa peeled her head away from her hands. She stared at her mark.
“Do you think it’s romantic?” Honoka asked.
Nagisa raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t they… always?”
Honoka lit up as she started to explain, “Not at all. Many are romantic, that much is true, but not all are. There are lots of different types of Soul Bonds in the world. There are as many for as many different types of people there are in the world. According to census information, the most common type of bonded individuals are men and women, but there are men and men, women and women, relationships that involve three or more people, and lots of other things that I can’t even begin to explain! Although census may be somewhat skewed based on existing prejudice about what type of bonds are considered normal. In any case, within those, the nature of each bond differs. Many are romantic, like I said, but some are platonic, in multiple person bonds the relationship may differ between different members, and some remain undefined throughout the course of the bondeds’ lives. In fact, it’s currently believed by the sociolo—"
“But what does that mean? Like, how is school going to work? How are we supposed to talk about it? How are we supposed to—to—!” Nagisa interrupted stuttering in frustration. She hadn’t meant to. She relaxed slightly and amended, “sorry.”
Honoka stared at her with big eyes, and suddenly Nagisa felt very very stupid.
“I’m… not sure,” she said. There was something on her face, something distant that Nagisa couldn’t quite identify.
“I don’t mean to—”
Honoka shook her head and smiled. “We have some time to figure that out.”
“Can we… keep it a secret at school for now?” Nagisa asked, and pulled her glove over her hand.
Honoka was silent, but nodded, and took her glove from her own pocket and slipped it on.
A call from the kitchen caught the attention of both the girls.
Honoka sat uncomfortably at the dinner table. It was home cooked, which in all honestly was not the most common thing for her. With her parents out, and it being just her and her grandmother, they didn’t cook at home much, despite the ability to do so. On top of that, she had a bit of a preference for more western style dishes, perhaps formed from the aforementioned habit. What sat in front of her was Udon, which she generally would not choose, even on nights when she or her grandmother were cooking. Still, she ate it. She wanted to make a good impression and… it was nice to have a family meal. Even if the family wasn’t hers.
“So, Honoka,” Nagisa’s father began, “You go to Verone too, don’t you?
“What kind of question is that she’s wearing our uniform,” Nagisa muttered.
“That’s right,” Honoka confirmed.
“So how come you’re just meeting now?” Ryouta asked.
“Not everyone in school just knows each other,” Nagisa sighed.
“Well, I’m not really in the sports side of things at all,” Honoka explained, “I’m in the science club.”
“Oh? Do you want to be a scientist one day?” Nagisa’s mother asked. “Have you thought about a field?”
“I’m not sure yet. I’m interested in a lot of different things. Right now, I’m most interested in chemistry, but that might just be because that’s what we do in the clubroom the most. Lots of things are interesting: physics, electricity, engineering, astronomy, meteorology, anatomy, psychology, and well… soulmate theory.”
“Then you must have been waiting for this for a long time then!” Mr. Misumi joked, in a way that hit just too slightly close to Honoka’s heart.
“Well, it is fascinating,” she responded in an attempt to draw the conversation to some place a little less personal. “It’s a field that’s at an intersection of almost every other field because of how complex it is.”
“It’s useful too,” Mrs. Misumi added, “we went to a soulmate specialist when our bond first activated.”
Nagisa’s father nodded.
“How old were we do you remember?” He asked his wife.
“Oh, I would say about the same age as they are now,” Mrs. Misumi said thoughtfully.
“Seems about right.” He affirmed, “So we were young like you, and when our bond first became active we panicked because we had a bond that affected the physical side of things. Not like a mark, but the dangerous, functional side of things.”
“Our body temperatures dropped unnaturally low,” Nagisa’s mother continued, “So our parents took us to our local specialist, but by the time we got there it seemed like the problem disappeared completely. It was sort of embarrassing until the specialist figured it out by putting the two kids that had the same suddenly disappearing symptom together.” She paused. “Do you want to tell this part?”
Mr. Misumi shook his head. “I know it’s your favorite part.”
Mrs. Misumi continued with a nod. “We held hands and all of the sudden our hearts started glowing, literally glowing. They were radiating unnatural heat like they were on fire, but it didn’t hurt, not at all! Oh, it was so romantic.”
“Romantic, and overwhelming for a middle school boy,” Mr. Misumi added.
“Who said I wasn’t overwhelmed?” Mrs. Misumi teased. “Anyways, after that we didn’t have the temperature problem anymore, but who knows what would have happened without the specialist? I think that’s a lovely thing to be interested in, Honoka.”
“Well, thank you,” she responded, and felt a little bit overwhelmed herself. She glanced at Nagisa and her brother, both of whom seemed totally checked out from the conversation. This must be a story that they were told all the time.
“But we shouldn’t keep you with our boring old stories,” Mrs. Misumi said, “you tell us, how did you two finally figure it out?”
Nagisa suddenly snapped back to reality shouting, “in a normal way!” She sheepishly scratched her head after realizing that she’d yelled.
“It was after school,” Honoka said, hit rather suddenly with the realization that they’d been advised to keep Mipple and Mepple secret.
“Right, and Yukishi—Honoka was uhm—" Nagisa struggled to explain.
“At the library,” She finished, thinking of an alibi that would work with her grandmother later, too.
“The library?” Mr. Misumi questioned, an edge of skepticism in his voice.
“Yeah, Nagisa would never go to the library!” Ryouta cried.
Nagisa looked like she had half a mind to push him off his chair but instead continued the lie, “Well, normally I don’t go to the library, but Shiho and Rina had wanted to go so I came with them.”
“And I was already there to research the next science club project.” Honoka said.
“So, I sat down next to her and we happened to brush hands and um, that was that.” Nagisa finished.
“Ah, that’s just like it is in those films, a romantic meeting by chance. How sweet,” Nagisa’s mother commented, seemingly content with that answer.
Honoka breathed a sigh of relief and continued on with dinner until it was time to leave. She found herself sort of not wanting to. Even if Nagisa seemed a bit... overwhelmed, it was still lovely. It had been an awfully long time since she’d gotten to sit down with a family and eat like this. Still, she went back home and told her grandmother the good news. As she went to sleep that night, she didn’t think anything could bring her down.
The moment Nagisa woke up, she felt her heart sink. Why was it already tomorrow? She slapped her alarm clock off, and looked lazily at her hand. Then she jolted out of bed and held her arm out. Her soulmark was bigger than it was when she’d gone to sleep. It wasn’t just on her hand anymore. It arched up her entire arm, and pulling back her pajama shirt a little, she saw that it was over a bit of her torso and neck. It looked less like a soulmark and more like a scar now. White and black lightning marks went up over so much of her body; There was no way that this was going to stay secret for very long. The part on her neck would probably peak out over her uniform too. She rubbed a hand over it and briefly considered if makeup would be an option, but then realized that it was a little too late in the morning to go covering up something like that.
She went through her routine in a haze, and at the whiny insistence of Mepple, took him to school as well. She was out the door and on her way to school quickly. More quickly than usual actually. Maybe she would be able to get to school without—
“Nagisa!” the familiar voice of Shiho called.
“Good morning!” Nagisa shouted too loudly in an attempt to pretend she was feeling normal.
“What’s got you so riled up?” Rina asked, suddenly appearing next to Nagisa.
Nagisa jumped and slapped a hand over where her mark.
“OooOhh you know, I’m—uh—I’m—" Nagisa fumbled, failing to land on a single coherent answer.
In response, Rina pulled the other girl’s hand off of her neck. Nagisa froze and stared at her friend.
Shiho squealed, hopping up and down before launching into a ramble. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! It finally happened didn’t it! We were just talking about how lucky you were with your bond and it happened! Oh! Oh! Oh! It must have happened during the meteor shower too! That’s so romantic like a wish come true! Did you wish on a—”
Rina shoved her hand over the other girl’s face turning her words into excited mumbles.
“Soooo who is it?” Rina asked.
This was very quickly getting out of hand. Nagisa struggled for a response. A lie would be nice, but they’d have to find out sooner or later wouldn’t they? She could just say it was Honoka and make them promise not to tell, but she already told Honoka to keep it a secret herself. Also... it felt weird to just go and say it. She just found out! Why did everyone else have to know?
Her mind ran wild, scrambling for a response. Eventually she found one. Her heart beat faster and she ran. It wasn't the best answer, but it was definitely a kind of answer. The others called after her but she was the fastest runner on the lacrosse team and that was not going to fail her now.
She was able to get to class in record time and Shiho and Rina came in soon after, though they didn’t say anything. Thank goodness. She probably shouldn’t have done that, but they’d forgive her. She was not ready for all of this. She slammed her head on her desk and sighed. This was unbelievable.
Nagisa let most of homeroom pass in a half-worried half-bored blur. Everything that happened yesterday replayed itself over and over again in her mind. How was it that she was even in a situation like this? Not even with the magical nonsense, but also with everyone else? She hardly even knew Honoka, and she was apparently bonded to her for life? That’s terrifying! Yeah, that’s the feeling she was looking for. This was terrifying. Everything was all upside down! It was—
A round of applause pulled her out of her thoughts as her teacher proudly announced, “According to the votes, the class representative for the second year Sakura group is Yukishiro-san.”
The girl in question bowed politely, humbly, and thanked everyone.
Nagisa clapped awkwardly. She hadn’t been the nicest to Honoka after everything either, had she? Maybe… maybe Honoka was scared too? She didn’t act like she was, but as Nagisa watched the other girl across the room she found it hard to tell what she was feeling. If Honoka was just as terrified as she was then… Nagisa had been mean, hadn’t she? She would apologize, but that could wait for later. For the time being, she let herself fall back into the rhythm of the school day all the way up to the literature lesson.
“Tami-san is like a chrysanthemum,” She read for the class, “I love chrysanthemums…”
“Oiiii! Oiiiii!”
“’Oiiii! Oiiii!’ Tami said,’” Nagisa repeated. The class responded with laughter.
“What was that?” Nagisa asked to no one in particular.
She heard the calling again and noticed Mepple throwing the little pouch he was in around with a strength that did not match how small he was.
“What’s wrong, Misumi-san?” Takenouchi questioned.
“I-it’s nothing!” She said. What in the world did that thing think he was doing? She glanced back towards Honoka who gave her a surprised look. Why wasn’t the other one causing problems?
She didn’t give it much thought as her teacher told her to continue. It could wait at least until after class.
“Oi! Oi! Oiiiiiii!” Mepple shouted, definitely audible to the rest of the class.
Apparently, he wouldn’t wait.
She fumbled through an excuse to leave the room and rushed out with her bag. She snatched Mepple from his bag and flipped open his shell.
“What did you want in the middle of class?” She demanded with half a mind to smack him against the brick wall.
“I’m hungry, Nagisa… Give me breakfast,” The little creature complained.
Seriously?
“I’m not your wife!” She shouted, dropping to the ground. “Also, you should show a little respect when you talk to me.” It’s because of him that she’s wrapped up in all this; he should at least give her that!
“Well then, Pleaaase Nagisa-sama,” Mepple responded his eyes growing wide and sparkly.
Was he doing this on purpose?
“Oh, dear sister Nagisa…” He continued to beg.
He was definitely trying to tick her off on purpose. He was even better at it than Ryouta was.
“Princess Nagisa—!”
She shook him up and down like a soda she was trying to get to explode. He cried for her to stop and she did, her posture still tense. She would do it again.
“If I don’t eat, I’ll die—mepo…” He said pitifully before his voice filled with all the anger something that looked like a hamster could muster, “If that happens, I’ll haunt you—mepo.”
“Stop it already.”
He agreed to stop and then immediately asked to be fed.
“I don’t have anything to eat,” She replied to him, a little more cooled down after shaking him a bit.
“Slash the card!”
“…Card?”
Mepple explained the role of the other cards that she had. She briefly wondered at how any of that worked and decided that was probably something that Honoka could answer better than her. She slashed the card she was told to and watched mystified at the little scene of a spoiled knight arguing about what he would eat. Bizarre. She didn’t linger on it. He would be quiet now, so she stuffed him back in her bag and made her way back to class.
Things continued from there without a hitch, thankfully. Classes came to a close and Nagisa went for the science room. That’s what Honoka had said, right? She was in the science club?
She entered the science room not to find Honoka, but a complex set of tubes and flasks set up over a burner. She was surprised that anyone in the school was allowed to do this kind of thing. It was amazing. It looked so complicated and maybe even a little dangerous. The person who set this up was leagues ahead of her, and probably ahead of most high school students. Who was...?
The door creaked and Honoka entered. That only made sense. Nagisa sent her a glace and asked, “Is this yours Honoka?”
She smiled at her and cheered, “Yes! It’s one of my best inventions!”
She approached the other side of the desk and looked at Nagisa past the swirls and bends in the tubes. She was all sorts of beyond her in smarts, wasn’t she? She meant to give a curious response, but she was pretty sure it came out as more of a groan.
Unfazed, Honoka demonstrated her experiment, pouring sugar water in the funnel at the top of everything. It bubbled and rushed quickly though the various container, hitting a point and whistling as it released steam closer to her face than she would like.
“Is that okay!?”
“Mhm!” Honoka responded cheerfully. “It’s almost ready!”
The whistling grew to a peak and then died down as a something dropped from a tube onto a Petri dish. It clattered and rolled around. Nagisa slammed her hands on the desk and bent down to see a barely pea-sized crystalline thing.
“See? The candy is done!” Honoka said cheerfully.
“All of that just for this?” Nagisa shouted.
“Nagisa, you might not think it’s much but—!”
The other girl was interrupted as her contraption whistled again and steam shot out of it, even louder than before. The glasses started to shake and tremble like they’d been hit with an earthquake, or like a pot that was boiling over.
“Duck!” Honoka shouted, but Nagisa was already ahead of her.
The glass suddenly fractured and fully exploded leaving a sharp wet mess everywhere.
“I’ll have to make it again…”
“Again?” Nagisa blinked.
After a bit of cleanup she took out Mepple and went to ask why Honoka hadn’t been having the same issue with her fairy. Before she could get much more than a name out, Mepple popped open with an excited shout.
“I can feel Mipple close by—mepo!” He shouted.
He changed forms and hopped around shouting a string of little “mepo mepo mepo” before Honoka said the other fairy was asleep. That would explain why she didn’t make noise. Mepple immediately lost interest and changed back, snapping shut decisively.
“He must have really wanted to see Mipple.” Honoka commented.
“I wonder if they’re bonded too?” Nagisa thought aloud, “He acts like he’s in love at least.”
“If I had to guess I’d say yes. They both have similar marks on their foreheads… but it is a little hard to say with such a limited scope of what their species is like.” Honoka tapped a finger to her chin, quickly becoming lost in her own theories.
“He’s kind of a problem though, talking during class,” Nagisa said.
“What about the sleeping card?” Honoka questioned as though she should have known what that meant.
“Sleeping card?”
Nagisa shuffled though her pockets for the cards and held them out so Honoka could see. The other girl pointed to one of them just as Mepple screamed in alarm. Nagisa grabbed him as he jumped into the air. He was not getting away that easy with everything he did earlier! He cried and jerked her hand around, but she swiped the card and he was snoring a second later.
“He really fell asleep,” she said in a mix of relief and disbelief.
“Let’s put them to sleep while we’re at school,” Honoka said.
“Good idea,” Nagisa agreed, slipping the sleeping creature back into its bag.
After a beat of silence Honoka asked, “So what was it? You wanted to talk, didn’t you?”
Nagisa’s heart froze and she clutched on the Mepple tighter. She thought she would apologize and talk things out a little but now that she was actually here…
“I don’t think I want to do that anymore…”
“Is it about yesterday?” Honoka asked gently.
She hummed and gave the other girl an answer. “All of this soulmate stuff is kind of a lot. I figure that I wasn’t the nicest back at home… and here at school either. I mean all of this stuff is happening to you too. It’s happening to both of us, you know? We’re… soulmates, but also there’s all that other stuff too with the fighting and Mipple and Mepple. That stuff I’m pretty sure that other people wouldn’t get no matter what type of bond they had. It’s kind of…”
“Exciting,” Honoka said.
The other girl had walked behind her and was staring out a window.
“I think that it’s fate that all of this happened,” she said. That sounded a lot more like the stuff she’s heard about soulmates before. “I think that being warriors might be a part of our bond. It’s the only thing that I can think of that would explain everything that happened.”
“You think that the two of us are soul bonded to protect the earth?” Nagisa questioned in disbelief.
“Nothing as wild as that, exactly. I don’t think that we’re bonded to protect the earth, but it could be an aspect of our bond that could let us. It defies normal physics in a way that’s never been documented, so I think that we have a serious chance, especially with everything that happened yesterday. It’s interesting, isn’t it?” She smiled and tilted her head.
“You realize we could have both been killed? You think that a bond is meant to do that?”
“Maybe! That’s what makes it so interesting!” She replied and stared up at the ceiling dreamily.
That was hopeless. Honoka wasn’t worried at all! She was here apologizing for nothing. This is insane!
“I don’t know what’s going on!” She shouted to the sky while Honoka was lost in her mind. She turned her attention to the other girl and felt her temper boiling over again. “Bonds don’t do any of this!” She tugged down on her collar to expose more of the mark that had bloomed all over her skin. “This isn’t normal, not any of it! The monster was one thing but saying that our bond could deal with it is crazy! We managed to make it through somehow last time, but if some monster appears out of nowhere again and attacks us—”
Just as her voice had raised to a shout the window shattered and she found her heart beating like it was going to burst her chest open. She ducked for the second time that day and found herself thinking back to the monster that they’d fought yesterday. That is, until the sound of a ball bouncing around the room brought her back. She stood and caught it in her hands effortlessly.
“That’s probably from the boy’s division!” Honoka said.
“Ahhh! It’s those guys from the soccer team!” Nagisa said as she pulled the window open. “What are they thinking?”
She made her way hurriedly down the steps and flung open the metal gate to the field.
“What do you think that you’re—!” She shouted.
“Were you hurt?” Fuji-P asked.
It stopped her in her tracks and she felt a blush run up her cheeks. Another soccer boy came up behind him and said something, but she was hardly listening.
“I’m sorry. Are you ok?” He asked again.
All of the anger in her system left almost instantly. This was him! This was the most handsome guy at Verone! This was the best player on the boy’s side! This was Fujimura Shougo… but they weren’t bonded. They wouldn’t be because Honoka was her soulmate. After that thought she felt like she’d been extinguished. If she was a blazing flame a second ago, she was a pile of ash now. She handed the ball back to him and covered the spot where her mark climbed over her collar with her hand.
“Um… be more careful next time…” She said and began to walk away.
She didn’t return to the science room. She kept walking and walking and went all the way back to her family’s apartment. She didn’t say goodbye to Honoka and she didn’t bother trying to find Shiho and Rina. She especially didn’t stay and wait for the soccer team to end practice. She threw a half-hearted greeting Ryouta’s way and collapsed on her bed.
Everything was so messed up. She yanked her glove off of her hand and stared at her mark. It was so ugly now. It was still that handprint shape, but it arched and mixed with white lightning marks all the way up her arm. She could pull down her sleeve and be able to see it staining pretty much her entire arm. She got away with today, barely, but she’d have to tell her friends soon and make up for running away and ignoring them the whole day. Everyone was going to find out eventually.
Then there was Honoka. She was impressive for sure, Nagisa could admit that. She could also say that Yukishiro was completely out of her mind! Exciting, she had called this. This wasn’t exciting it was scary, terrifying even. Knowing that her soulmate thought that this was all connected to their bond didn’t make her feel any better. It made her feel a lot worse. All of this was happening because of her stupid bond and it wasn’t even a little bit like how she’d thought it would be.
She grabbed a stuffed animal and rolled onto her bedroom floor.
“Why is all this happening,” she asked to the stuffed bear in her lap.
In her moment of contemplation Mepple jumped up and shouted, “Are you thinking about what we’re having for dinner—mepo?”
That was not even close to what she had said.
“I’m not you…” She groaned and buried her face in the plushie. “Just leave me alone.”
“I can’t—mepo!” He responded. “We’re in this for the long haul!”
Nagisa slammed her fist down next to him causing him to fly up in the air.
“It’s not up to you!”
She looked at her mark and slammed her fist a few more times against the table.
Mepple went on undisturbed. “Nagisa? Shall I tell you about my hometown—mepo?”
She threw her stuffed bear on top of him.
“I really don’t want to hear about it.”
Then Mepple started crying. She should be the one crying if anything! She took the bear off him and held him with her on the floor.
“Okay, fine. I’ll listen,” she told him and he perked up right away.
“You always get teary when you don’t get what you want…”
Still, she listened to the fairy explain where he came from. It seemed like a beautiful place, from what he was saying. At least, it was before they were attacked. There were other things about magic and stones and power that she listened to. The Dotsuku Zone was after all of that and that was why they were attacking. It was a lot like a fairy tale and it should have been unbelievable, but she was being told this story by a hamster that lived in a cell phone so she couldn’t really say much. If it was bad that her life was being interrupted by this whole soulmate thing, she couldn’t imagine having her whole home taken like he had. Despite everything it made her feel… better? It was nice, in a way to still have something stay the same even if everything else was flipping on it’s head.
He turned him so that he would face her.
“Are you doing that on purpose?”
“I don’t know what you mean—mepo,” he responded slyly.
He definitely was.
“Thanks…” She said.
“Well, we are in it for the long haul—mepo!”
She smiled at him and he huffed proudly before getting a worried far away look in his eyes.
“The Dotsuku Zone is about to attack again—mepo!”
She jolted up from the floor.
“I want you to fight together with us—mepo!”
“But—why me?” She asked and dreaded the answer.
“At this rate, this place will end up like the Field of Light!” He shouted in return.
Her fear shot into her as she thought about losing even more than she already had. It had her rushing out the door with barely an explanation to her brother. Cars were making a lot of noise in the city and she had a guess as to why, so she ran with Mepple as fast as she could towards the sound. She met Hokoka on the way and they ran together until they found the source of everything. It was a skyscraper and Shiho and Rina were trapped in an elevator inside.
She and Honoka rushed up the stairs to the roof where they found the man from yesterday standing on a monster that was a lot like the one from before. This time it looked like a vacuum cleaner. He turned to them dramatically.
“Well, well, I knew you would come.” He told them, smiling an unnerving smile.
“We don’t have the time to deal with you right now!” Nagisa shouted at him and began to run towards where the elevator.
“I wish you would,” he stated as if bored before commanding the Zakenna to attack.
The monster reared its nozzle head like a snake and stuck the two on them. They tumbled to the ground and rolled a few feet from the force.
“What do you think that you’re doing!” Honoka demanded, pulling herself from the ground.
Nagisa pulled herself up too. Shiho and Rina didn’t have the time for this!
“Now you’ve made me mad!” She shouted.
“Transform—mepo!”
She nodded and grabbed Honoka’s hand. In a flash, there was that same feeling of flying and that same overwhelming light. She landed on the ground and found herself shouting those words that weren’t quite hers again.
Pisard wasted very little time and commanded, “Don’t hold back! Crush them to death!”
It reared back again and Cure Black found herself launching into the air. The roof beneath her crumbled as the Zakenna hit it with its full force. It didn’t give her a moment as it lashed at her in the air. She forced herself to dive and it turned its attention to Cure White. She dodged in the air and grabbed at the Zakenna from underneath. She put all of her force into her arms and sent the monster into a spin.
As White and the monster fell towards the ground Black saw her chance. She braced herself against the roof and shot into the air. She moved for a kick, but she slowed midair. The Zakenna blew a powerful stream of air at her. It switched its setting, drawing her towards its mouth. She screamed as she began to feel herself loose her balance and get sucked towards the monster. She threw her arms out and strained against the Zakenna’s mouth as it continued to try and suck her in. It shook her and released it’s suction suddenly, throwing her into a door. It crumpled beneath her.
She fell a long way, slamming against metal and feeling her momentum be stopped by wire. It burned as she came to a stop and she struggled off of whatever she had landed on. White followed with a more graceful landing a moment later.
A cackle rang through the elevator shaft. It was an elevator.
“A present for you!” Pisard laughed as the elevator wires snapped.
They began to plummet down the building the glass wall of the elevator showing just how fast they were moving as their surroundings blurred.
“We’ll be smashed with the elevator—mepo!” her fairy shouted.
White pulled the wire from around her and wrapped it around herself. She pulled Black to her feet and then the two of them into the air. Before she could even think the other cure had pushed her against the wall and straightened their bodies out to slow the fall. They were acting as a beam that supported the elevator themselves. Black could feel the heat from her boots griding against the concrete through her soles. As they plummeted it began to burn, but she just pushed her hands harder against the other girl’s and tried to keep her posture.
The elevator hit the ground hard, but they were fine. The people in the elevator were fine. Shiho and Rina were fine.
Black collapsed from the strain on her body and from the relief. She didn’t stay down for long as anger started bubbling up inside of her. She fought the wire off of her body and stood to meet her partner’s eyes.
“It’s unforgivable!” She shouted.
“Let’s return the favor!” White shouted in return.
Cure Black nodded as she felt not only anger but power fill her. She jumped from wall to wall, scaling the elevator while White followed suit. She rushed out towards Pisard. The Zakenna spewed electricity at them, but it wasn’t the only one that could do that.
She grabbed White’s hand decisively and the electricity began to bend around them. It crackled and swirled around them and then changed colors as they called out their attack. It flooded into them and their marks crackled with energy. That was the moment she noticed White’s mark, too, had extended up her body and was reaching over her neck. She didn’t dwell on it as she tightened her grip on the other cure’s hand and they released their energy.
The Zakenna took it full force and its nozzle burst off of it, flying into the air. It fell and nearly crushed Pisard, who jumped away in the last second.
Cure black jumped into the air and sent herself back down with all her force onto the main body of the Zakenna. Its body crumbled under her force. It rose as a shadow screaming before it exploded into thousands of tiny stars that all shouted little apologies. Good, she thought as she landed back with Cure White.
“We did it!” White exclaimed.
Black couldn’t help but smile as relief washed over her. Again, Pisard had disappeared and they were alone.
“See?” White said, “Look what our bond let us do this time! We really can do this!”
Black nodded. Maybe they could.