Pretty Cure Bukatsudo Energetic ep30

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OP: "Morning Role-Call” - Bukatsudo Five ft. Kaana and Hisa

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The day was cloudy, dark gray with ominous, rumbling thunder. Under the circumstances, it seemed fitting...

The principal sat behind his desk, talking to Akina Saito, who held onto her walking stick to keep her hands from shaking. At their side stood two police officers.

“Rest assured,” said one of them. “We'll be doing everything we can to--” He was interrupted just then by a timid-sounding knock at the door.

“Come in,” the principal called out.

The door slowly edged open, and Fumie stepped into the office, glancing at the others nervously. She swallowed as she took a few more paces into the room. “Y-You wanted to speak to me?”

Akina quickly rose from her seat, her brows knitted in distress. “Fumie...”

As the woman approached her, Fumie just stood there, face pale and gaunt.

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TODAY'S EPISODE: The Cheerleader's Sad Story

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Ayumu lay curled up in a ball on Fumie's bunk, trembling slightly with her fists held up to her face.  She lay with her back to the group, facing the wall, so none of them could see her expression: wide-eyed horror. She just stared, eyes shifting only slightly, as if she was seeing something no one else could.

But they could all still hear her speaking.

“Leave them alone....leave them alone, it was all my idea...Take me, but leave them alone...Don't eat them, please don't eat them...”

Fureyaa drew forward and gently placed a hand on Ayumu's shoulder. “Ayumu...”

She closed her eyes, sobbing quietly.

Fureyaa bit his lower lip as he watched her, exchanged a brief glance with Uta. The two scooted closer to the ghost girl, and as Uta gently put a hand over Ayumu's curled-up ones, the two...

Sang.

“Hear my voice, and know that you're not alone
These words, I'll dedicate them all to you...
Searching far and wide, until the end of time
Following your voice, and singing with my own...”

The room was quiet save for their soft voices, everyone watching the three on the bed somberly. Slowly, Ayumu stopped trembling, opened her eyes and lowered her fists. She still stared ahead, but at least there was some life in her eyes now. When she closed them again, it was only to let the slow stream of tears flow.

Uta and Fureyaa glanced at each other again, before Uta started her song over, rubbing Ayumu's shoulder to comfort her further.

Hisa sighed quietly before looking to the others. “I know this is a bad time to bring this up,” she murmured, sounding sincerely guilty. “But the Dream Charm is nearly completed...I think if we finish quickly, we can end all this.”

“All this?” Kaana asked.

“...Mora's attacks. Himemiya's current condition. Ayumu, whatever's wrong with her...Mari.” At the mention of the redhead, Hisa closed her eyes, visibly shuddering. “If Mora's defeated...their hold on Mari might be destroyed with them.”

The remainder of the group exchanged collective glances. After a moment, Kurako looked back at the three figures on the bed, then closed her eyes, mouth in a thin line. “We'll do whatever it takes.”

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In a nearby park, Fumie sat on a bench with her hands clasped in her lap, eyes forward. She didn't move from her forced-looking pose, or take her eyes off that spot in the distance. It felt...weird, to move, or look around, or do anything but just sit.

But she had to move eventually, or speak. The silence was too awkward. Fumie swallowed, eyes shifting to the side as she looked at Akina. Akina's pose looked a little more relaxed, her elbows on her legs, shoulders slumped slightly as she leaned forward, looking at the same distant spot Fumie had been.

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”Miss Motou, please have a seat,” said the principal. He pulled his glasses from his face to pinch the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath. When he finally lifted his gaze again, Fumie could see the weariness in his eyes, even at a distance. “I'm...You've heard about Miss Saito's disappearance – oh, what am I saying?” He buried his face in his hands. “I'm sorry, Miss Motou. She's your roommate and best friend, of course...I-I'm being too insensitive. I am sorry.” He paused another moment, drew in another shaking breath, and tried again. “I understand this is difficult, believe me. It's difficult for all of us. But...Miss Motou, if you know anything about Miss Saito's disappearance...”

“Kn-know anything?” Fumie whispered.

“Anything that might help. Whether she was involved with some new friends, where she was or who she was with when you last saw her, whether she'd been acting strangely...” As he went on, his voiced was tinged with desperation. ”Anything at all.”

Fumie swallowed, opened her mouth...and then closed it, shaking her head. “N-No.” She couldn't tell. Who would have even believed her? And lying would make things worse, she was sure of it. “I – I don't...I don't know anything!” she half-sobbed, fists curling so tightly that her nails dug into her skin. “I'm sorry!”

Akina placed a hand on her shoulder as the principal lowered his head, looking a bit ill and more distressed than ever. “Sir...if it's alright, might I spend some time with Fumie? I think...I think we need to speak a little.”

“Yes. Yes, of course. Miss Motou, go....g-go with Miss Saito. And...and please accept my apologies again,” he whispered.

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Thunder rumbled again, covering up Fumie's nervous cough.

“U-Uhm...Ma'am--”

“I know,” Akina sighed. She turned to look at Fumie, a soft, sad smile on her face. “It's alright if you don't know anything...Just because you're best friends doesn't necessarily mean you would. No one's angry with you, least of all myself.” When Fumie looked away again, biting her lip, Akina placed a hand on her shoulder. “It's alright...”

“No. N-No, it's not!” Fumie blurted out. Once again, her hands curled into fists, and she looked up at Akina, eyes shining. “M-ma'am...Mari was...Mari w-was really upset before she disappeared. She..she seemed different, sad, she thought I wasn't as good a friend and...she was suffering so much and I hadn't even known!” At that, Fumie drew her legs up, knees to her chest and hiding her face in them. “I didn't even realize how much she hurt...

“I'm a terrible friend.”

A light touch to Fumie's shoulder made her flinch back, and then look up at Akina again. To her shock, Akina was still smiling sadly, a little creasing around her eyes.

“You are not, Fumie. Just because you didn't realize what...what my granddaughter was feeling doesn't make you a bad friend. If I can tell you the truth, you...

“You have been the best and only friend Mari has had in years.”

Fumie blinked. “Huh?”

Akina sighed. “...I know it's not my place to tell you about this. But, you seem like you should know. You deserve to know...Mari needs to know she doesn't have to keep hiding from others, when she's found.”

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“Lady Nocturna, if you'll just calm down--”

“Be silent, Chuusha, and just fix this!”

“Lady Nocturna, I don't even know what--”

Nocturna snarled and grabbed at her head, fingers tight against her scalp. “Ever since I left Pretty Cure and that ghost, my head has been feeling like it'll burst! My head hurts, I'm hearing faint voices--”

”I didn't think this would be happening so soon.”

“You shut up!” Nocturna screamed. Unnoticed, Chuusha and Gachan exchanged a glance. “Something's wrong, and I want you to fix this! We've come so far now, Chuusha, so far!” Nocurna's tone became desperate, near-hysterical as she staggered forward to grab at Chuusha's dress. She smiled up at her, but it looked fake, stretching her face almost too much. A smile brought on by madness and fear. “We've come so far...too far for me to lose now. I can't lose to whatever Pretty Cure and that ghost have done to me, I can't, I can't...”

Outside Nocturna's room, Jubilation stood leaning against the wall, eyes hidden by her bangs.

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“Mari's never had much luck in making friends...”

“Eh?” Fumie stared. “Mari? But...but Mari's so friendly and cheerful and--”

Akina's smile faded slightly. “She...seems that way, doesn't she?”

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A dark, barren landscape with dark, rumbling clouds...the same place Uta had found herself weeks before. Except this time, there was no one standing on the surface, that weird ground that wasn't really ground at all.

Someone was, however, resting on the bottom of the pitch-blackness below.

Mari lay on her back, eyes closed, hair floating lazily above her. She felt a light pressure all around herself, as if she'd been bundled up in too many heavy blankets, yet she wasn't compelled to push it away.

“It's all her fault...”

Mari turned her head and opened her eyes, which looked duller, blank. It was the only movement she seemed capable of performing.

Another Mari was next to her, lying on her side with her elbow on the ground, head resting against her palm. She stared at Mari almost curiously, looking more like a girl having late-night gossip at a sleepover than a doppelganger doing...whatever she was doing. She tilted her head slightly, almost curiously. “It's all Fumie's fault...If she'd spent more time with us, we wouldn't have had this happen.”

“...yeah.” Mari sighed, resigned. “Yeah, you're right.”

“Fumie said we'd be bestest friends forever...She's such a mean liar.” The other Mari smiled a little, a light in her eyes. “But that's okay. Nocturna's our friend! Nocturna won't be a liar.”

“Yeah. ...but...” Mari's eyes shifted downward, becoming heavy-lidded. “But I still...I want to like Fumie...”

“But she's been so mean! She's a liar who just keeps blowing us off. Our friendship is all ruined and it's all her fault.” The doppelganger's eyes narrowed a little, her tone and expression bitter. “It's her fault...I hate her.”

There was a short pause, and Mari finally nodded faintly. She rolled onto her side, eyes closing again. “Yeah. I hate her too.”

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“I don't fully know what the problem was...I suppose maybe her parents were just too young. But, one day they seemed to stop caring about each other. And then after that...”

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The shouting started to blur together in Jubilation's head. She grit her teeth, ducked her head a bit and covered her ears.

”You're her mother! You should be able to take her!”

“I am a working woman who's trying to build a stable career; I do not need a deadweight around my neck!”

“Don't call it a deadweight!”

Three-year-old Mari sat in the living room, hugging a toy to her chest. She stared ahead blankly at nothing, trying to ignore the shouting from downstairs. Didn't either of them know she could hear? For a brief second, she tightened her grip on her doll, then scrambled for the tv remote. The tv switched on, drowning out most of the noise.

“Pure Diamond, remember that love is the most powerful force of all!”

“...that's right, Pure Opal! With the power of our love, we'll finally defeat Count Garyan once and for all!”

“The power of love and friendship is absolute.”

Mari nodded. “Love and friendship is absolute...”

But that didn't seem to be the case with her. Her parents raised their voices more, nearly drowning out Pure Opal's finishing move. Mari reached over for the remote--

--but then suddenly it went quiet. She paused, confused, and a moment later felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look up, and found herself staring into Akina's smiling face. “Gramma?”

Akina stepped around the couch and lifted the girl up. “Come on, Mari, dear. Let's go for some ice-cream.”

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The door burst open and Chuusha stormed out suddenly.

Jubilation blinked, and quickly followed. “Chuusha?”

“We're going back to Earth,” Chuusha muttered.

“Back?”

“For more Dream Shards! Something's wrong with Lady Nocturna, and I think if we get even more Dream Shards, it'll help her. That's why we've been collecting these!” she said, almost madly.

“...help her.” Jubilation nodded, frowning. “Yeah. Let's go to Earth and help my new friend!”

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“She's a better friend than Fumie was, anyway...” murmured the doppelganger.

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Eyecatch 1: Kaana and Hisa, in human form, stand together to take a selfie. Hisa takes the picture, and after a flash fills the screen, we see the photo. Pretty Cure have photo-bombed the sisters; Hisa looks in annoyance at Ink, Twirl, and Beat, while Kaana smiles at Spice and Aria. The PCBE logo appears in the corner.
Eyecatch 2: Pretty Cure (as civilians) stand in Fumie's room with the curtain shut. Fumie is holding the Dream Charm in the air by the chain as Kaana and Hisa part the curtains. The sunlight hits the charm and everyone smiles in open-mouthed awe as the whole room is filled with rainbow light. The PCBE logo appears in the corner.

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Five-year-old Mari stood outside a strange house, a tiny suitcase in her hands. A little behind her, Akina was speaking to a cab driver, who sat in the driver's seat and leaned out the window.

“Is she gonna be okay?” he asked. “I know I'm a total stranger but--”

Akina shook her head. “She'll be alright...she just needs some time to adjust is all.” She looked over her shoulder at Mari, who was still standing still as a statue, save for the slight tremble in her hands. “We'll be alright.”

It turned out, Mari wasn't alright. Not quite. Akina would walk her to school, and then come pick her up. Teachers would always meet her, but never once did Akina see another kindergartner, another child in the blue smock and yellow hat, greet Mari or drag her off to play, or wave at her as they went home.  “Mari,” she finally said one evening, during dinnertime. “Do you want to know how to make friends?”

“Huh?” Mari looked up from her hotpot.

Akina just smiled serenely back at her. “The best way to forget bad things in life, and to make friends, is to smile. Smiles make things better, smiles make you happy and make others happy to see you. So if you just try to smile a little more, then eventually you'll forget all the bad things that happened to you, and you'll make new friends.”

Mari just stared. “U-Uhm...”

“So tomorrow, I want you to try and smile. Okay?”

“...okay, Gramma.”

The next day, a small girl waved at Mari when Akina came to pick her up. Akina sighed in relief, thinking her advice had worked. Not noticing that Mari's own wave looked half-hearted and her smile a bit forced.

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The Akina of the present closed her eyes again. “Looking back on that, it was one of the worst things I could have said. Fumie, smiles are important, but...You don't forget bad things. You never try to force yourself to forget, to smile in order to hide. That only hurts in the end. Sometimes, you have to face bad things head-on, to admit they happened. I should never have told Mari this.

“Sometimes I think if I hadn't...she wouldn't have kept trying to smile for so long.”

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”I'll be fine, Gramma, really!” Mari laughed, jogging away from the cab. “You worry too much!”

“But Mari--”

“I'll just keep a smile, like you said! I'll be fine!” And that said, she pushed the corners of her mouth up. “Smile~!” When her grandmother laughed a little in spite of herself, Mari felt a weight lift off her chest. Her grandma was no longer worried, she thought. “I'll phone you when I get settled, 'kay? Bye-bye~!”

Later in her new dorm, she set down her suitcase and pulled out the top for her cheerleader's uniform. “I may as well start with--”

The door suddenly opened, and a blonde girl surrounded by her family stood outside. Mari held the shirt tightly, staring wide-eyed as the girl's various family members patted her head, gave words of encouragement, or put her in a headlock and grinned at her. When they all finally left, and the blonde noticed Mari, she smiled shyly and stepped inside. “H-Hi! Looks like we're roommates.” She held her hand out. “My name's Fumie Motou.”

“Mari Saito.” Mari plastered a smile onto her face, reached out to take Fumie's hand. “Nice to meet you~!”

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“Jubilation!”

“Huh?” Jubilation snapped out of her memories, glancing over at Chuusha. The two of them were in the park, under a tree. It seemed like the logical place to stand for the time-being: those threatening rumbles were growing a little louder, and the air had that odd feeling it has when rain's inevitable. “What?”

Chuusha scoffed, arms folded under her breasts. “I said, 'do you sense any Dream Shards nearby?' I can't feel pain, so I'm out. How 'bout you?”

“Pain?” Jubilation frowned, placed a hand over her chest. There was nothing. “No. No, I don't sense anything.”

“Damn it all,” Chuusha muttered, turning her head and looking into the distance. “Not sure if that means there isn't any or you're just useless.”

“I am not useless!” Jubilation snapped, hand curling into a fist. “I'm Nocturna's new friend, and I fought off Cure Ink, no problem!”

“Only because she went easy on you,” Chuusha said. “Better yet, she barely fought you at all. That's the only reason you beat her. Honestly...Hm?” She blinked as something caught her attention.

Walking down the path were four familiar figures, two with snakes on either their shoulder or their head.

Chuusha grinned. “Oh, at least we can have some fun.”

“Yeah...fun.”

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”I'm getting along super-well with Fumie-tan!” Mari smiled as she talked on her cell phone. It was after practice, and she sat alone on the bench, pom poms next to her. “We just stayed up all night talking for the past two weeks, and Fumie-tan said her grades were gonna suffer but we did it anyway. And, and, and today, I told her we were bestest friends!”

“An honorific, too? My, my, Mari, you're doing much better than...well, I didn't expect you to make such a good friend already!”

“Well, of course! I'm smiling!” Mari grinned wider, as if Akina could see her. “Like you said when I was little, right? Just forget the bad stuff and try to smile.”

“That's...not quite what I had—”

“Mari!” Fumie called out, approaching the bench. “C'mon, let's go!”

“Gotta go, Gramma! Bye-bye~!”

“Mari, wait a--” Akina's words died in her throat when she head the beep on the other end. She sighed, lowering the cordless back to the counter.

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“...the worst advice I could give,” Akina muttered. “Fumie, Mari never told anyone how much she hurt. After I told her that, she just tried to hide it all. Smiled to cover up how she felt, said nothing bothered her...I wonder if the reason she did it was to keep people from leaving.”

Fumie just sat quietly, trying to process all this. It was a lot to take in, especially in such a stressful time, and all at once. And from Akina, not Mari herself. Part of her wanted to be angry at Akina for saying this all herself instead of letting Mari do it on her own but... “I understand. Why you told me, I mean.” She looked down, fists bunching up her uniform skirt. And then skirt grew blurry, and her eyes stung. Fumie blinked, and realized she was crying. She sniffed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

When she felt Akina's arm encircle her shoulders, she suddenly threw herself against the woman, crying into her sweater. “I'm s-sorry! I'm so sorry...'m sorry...”

“But...whatever for?” Akina asked.

Fumie just cried.

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“Sense anything?” Uta asked.

“Uta, you know we can't actually sense Dream Shards, right?” Hisa said, staring at her from her place on Kotone's shoulder.

“Oh...right, I'm sorry.”

“Come to think of it, Dream Shards just seemed to sort of...show up, didn't they?” Aoi said. “I wonder if that means anything...”

“Yeah, it means we probably should have been sticking to you girls like glue this whole time.”

The group whirled around to see two familiar figures right on the path behind them. Chuusha stood with her arms folded almost leisurely, smirking a little, and behind her was--

“Mari!” Aoi gasped, stepping forward. “Mari, listen--”

“I'm not Mari!” the other girl snapped. “It's Jubilation, you've got to get it right!”

“No. You're still Mari.” Kurako stepped forward. “Mari, this isn't you, and you know it! You're clearly hurting, and we can help you. Just come back to school with us, tell us what's wrong and--”

”No! No, none of you even understand me! None of you understand what I've been through! Fumie...” Jubilation let out a strangled sob, squeezed her eyes shut as her stance went rigid. ”Fumie left me because of you! She left me for her shiny new friends and I won't ever forgive you!” With that said, Jubilation readied a blast of energy, and hurled it at the group.

They scattered at once, and exchanged a glance. They didn't want to do this, but if it was the best way to defend themselves...and with purification at their side...

”Pretty Cure! Show my future!”
“Spinning with grace and strength, Cure Twirl!”
“Adding flavor and zest to life, Cure Spice!”
“Drumming a new life's rhythm, Cure Beat!”
“Joyfully singing life's song...Cure Aria!”
“Protecting everyone's dreams, Pretty Cure Bukatsudo Energetic!”

Jubilation let out a yell and charged forward, energy crackling at her hands. She headed for the first Cure she laid eyes on: Twirl. Jubilation's fist swung, meeting Twirl's fore-arm as the red Cure blocked her. But Jubilation only swung her other hand, then tried again with the first, performing one-two punches over and over. She almost didn't care about Twirl blocking her, her arms held in an X in front of herself.

She just wanted to make the Cures hurt. Make them all hurt for taking Fumie away, for taking away her only real friend in forever.

“Mari, stop!” Spice shouted, jumping in to try and pull her away. “We're all friends, we shouldn't fight--”

“Then why did you transform?!” Jubilation shouted, turning to high-kick Spice in the face.

Spice just caught her foot and held it, preventing her from moving. “Because...because--”

“You think we can calm you down in our civilian forms? We gotta match you in strength, right?” Beat called out, blocking a punch Chuusha had thrown towards her chest.

Jubilation growled. “That's a stupid reason! You probably just wanna hurt me!” She suddenly flipped herself over, pulling her foot from Spice's grasp and dropping to the ground on all fours. From there, she performed a quick sweeping low-kick that knocked the Cure over before she realized what was happening.

Not missing a beat, Jubilation hurled a blast of energy at her. “You just wanna hurt me like before! You never liked me, did you?”

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“That's right,” the doppelganger muttered bitterly. “They never liked us. That's why they kept taking up all Fumie's time, so she'd stop liking us.”

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“That's not true at all!” Twirl cried, suddenly appearing behind her, holding her to keep her from attacking Spice. “Why would you think that, Mari? Sure, we didn't know each other as well as we'd have liked, but we considered you a friend! We cared about you then and we still do--”

”Stop it! Stop calling me that! No one loved Mari, but people love Jubilation, so call me that!“ Jubilation screamed in fury, and what could only be described as an explosion of energy burst off her, throwing both Twirl and Spice back.

And then they lay, groaning in pain.

Jubilation blinked. “...wha--...I did...”

For a second, she didn't see Twirl and Spice.

There were just two Fumies.

“Twirl, Spice!” Aria shouted from her place near Beat. While Twirl and Spice had been occupied with Jubilation, the twins had been fighting off Chuusha. They were on either side of the white-haired woman, trying to charge towards her and attack, but she just laughed and flung her arms out, sending a spray of her special needles at them.

Aria dodged the latest wave, twisting her body as she soared upwards and flinging out a few pink blasts of power. They struck Chuusha in the abdomen and thigh, but she didn't react. Nor did she seem to feel it when Beat took advantage of her distraction and punched the back of her head.

Chuusha snarled, and in one swift movement, grabbed beat by the throat--

--and time seemed to slow down suddenly for Aria. The clouds opened up, but the first few raindrops seemed to just hover around her, unmoving. Aria's eyes widened slightly, focused on where Chuusha's hand made contact with Beat.

....Fureyaa. Kotone. Fureyaa. Kotone.

And suddenly she shrieked in fury, time going back to normal. ”Get away from her! Don't hurt those I love!
“Pretty Cure Musica Encore!”

“Ah!” Chuusha stumbled back suddenly, one hand strawing to the side of her head. Her eyes were closed, teeth grit in anger and...discomfort? That shouldn't have been...She moved her hand up to the hair-decoration on that side, feeling along its edges--

--and felt a large chip.

“Jubilation!” she barked, catching the younger girl's attention. “Retreat, now!”

“Y-Yeah!” Jubilation cast one look back at Pretty Cure, and then ran for the dark vortex Chuusha had quickly pulled up and already ran into.

“Mari!” Twirl shouted after her, finally pushing herself up. “Wait! We meant what we said, okay?”

Jubilation paused just outside the vortex. “...Jubilation,” she whispered, then ducked inside, the vortex closing after her.

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Fumie finally stopped crying, wiping her eyes on her sleeves.

Akina just smiled, holding an umbrella over the two of them with one hand, and offered her a handkerchief with the other. “Fumie,” she said softly. “You're Mari's best friend in the world, you know?”

“Y-Yeah...but I should have known she was hurting. I should have asked.”

Akina shook her head. “Friendship is a two-way street, Fumie. Even best friends argue, or have disagreements...and not even best friends are expected to be psychic.” When Fumie looked up at her, Akina patted her head. “I love Mari, but she hides too much and expects others to know how she feels...It is not your fault that you didn't know her feelings. Okay?”

Fumie didn't say anything.

“They'll find Mari. And when they do...Well, I hope she'll open up to you more. And you may be better friends because of it.” She hugged the blonde to her side. “Don't worry.”

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”What do you know about this?! Tell me now!” Nocturna roared at nothingness. She stood in her room, alone, glaring up at the ceiling.

And yet all around her, the atmosphere itself seemed to shift, twist. ”I know that you're regaining your identity...Shouldn't be too much longer.”

“What shouldn't be?” Nocturna clenched her fist and grit her teeth. “Who are you, anyway? I don't know you, you just came in here without warning or even -- if anything, you should work for me! And all you do is taunt me and speak in riddles! I'm the one who's fighting Pretty Cure, not you, I'm the one who tried to steal the Dream Charm, so why – Rgh!” She suddenly groaned, dropping to her knees and clutching her head.

The voice chuckled. ”You don't know me? I'm not doing anything? Little puppet, you have no idea...”

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ED: "Just Close Your Eyes” - Yukari Tamura

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ON THE NEXT EPISODE:
Fumie: “There's only one more Shard to be found! Then we'll have completed the Dream Charm!”
Kurako: “Everything will be put right!”
Aoi: “W-Wait a moment — Chuusha's here again!”
Kotone: “Ugh! We've got to end this one way or another!”
Uta: “Next time on Pretty Cure Bukatsudo Energetic: 'Needles and Pins! One Last Appointment!' Don't be late for next meeting!”