Misano Mushi swung her wooden sword, sweat shining her face, she kept her focus in her arms, hands strangling the sword, she swung again. Her swinging filled the air with whooshing. Misa’s fingers started to go numb. What her father told her told stopped her sword from swinging.
“When your body hurts, be kind to it and rest.” Smiling at the memory of her father telling her that on a cool day long ago, with a hand on her head, praising her for doing well. Her dad hadn’t said anything like that in a long time, and Misa felt sad thinking her dad would never again praise her.
Misa returned the wooden sword to the sword rack, pulling up her smartphone to her face. Checking instagram, she burned with envy. But, Misa didn’t know what the girls at school thought of her.
Misa is a middle school girl with seriousness and style, reliable yet stern, all who saw her face felt an aura of a maiden. Her motherliness and reliably won her many acquaintances, but her reserved behavior, signified by her high ponytail and long hair she never let down, left her feeling lonely.
Misa opened her contact list. Her dad’s number is there. There are no more.
“I want to be pretty. People will want to be my friend if I’m prettier.” Misa flipped over to instagram, looking at her targeted model. She stared, spellbound at the number of likes, the little heart looked like love. And such a big number.
“I want to be popular.”
Misa held the phone to her chest, imagining a spirited blonde girl chasing after her. A blonde girl who would never leave her alone, who would always say a big “Hello!” waving at her excitingly with a thousand watt smile when she saw her. A beaming smile that couldn’t help but make her heart melt on Misa’s face.
Misa imagined that kind blonde girl every night before she went to sleep. She’d be pretty, blond, light eyes, have lots of friends, unfortunately even a good looking boyfriend. Misa imagined the blond girl introducing her to lots of people, Misa imagined herself opening up, engaging in lots of light conversations about nothing. A smile played on Misa’s lips, before turning to a frown. She looked at the swords on the wall.
No one at school likes swords. Misa is a boring girl who only likes swords and swinging them. She’s useless when it comes to talking, to smiling. A quiet girl who never smiles. Misa will never have anyone who accepts her. Misa’s head fell as the buds of tears sprang to her eyes, she wiped her face with her arm. That’s no good. She can’t cry, she needs to be strong.
For what she needed to be strong for though, Misa wasn’t sure. She clenched her fist around her smartphone, tapping through twitter feeds reading about pretty girls. The touched up images and envy at the likes next to them burned in her heart. She went to sleep that night, sweating, troubled that her hopes were all useless. She couldn’t even dream of the happy blonde girl that evening. A dark shadow slipped into her room.
Misa’s mind lit up in horrid nightmare, filled with shadows chasing her thought the school, surrounded by hearts with large numbers next to them and instagram models laughing at her.
The sun broke her out of her bed. Drenched in sweat, she toppled to the floor of her room. A rotten smell tickled her nose, and unexpected desire rose within her. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, she went to the bathroom, catching sight of the dark circles under her eyes. “I look awful.”
Misa appeared at school with dark eyes. She hadn’t taken a shower, she smelled, and her normally tight and clean ironed uniform looked like a scrunched up blanket.
“Oh, if it isn’t Mushiko! Hi~!” A brown haired girl whose eyes were eternally hidden by bangs waved to Misa as she entered a classroom. Kuroko ran up, noticing Misa’s lacking appearance.
Kuroko loved being around Misa, her height, her pretty face, her silent and considerate replies. “Aren’t you a little off today, Mushiko? You look like you’re about to fall asleep.” Kuroko leaned forward, putting her hand on Misa’s head. Although she was pretending to check for temperature, she just wanted an excuse to touch Misa’s cool forehead.
Misa grumbled something incoherent, struggling to her desk, she sat, then collapsed down. Drool spilled from her mouth. Kuroko, seeing her princess in such a state, became overcome with fright. “Mushiko!” She rushed to her side, pushing on her shoulders as if trying to shake her awake. Seeing it was no good, Kuroko picked up Misa’s arm and put it over her shoulder, calling out to another girl in class to help her take Misa to the nurse’s room.
Misa lay on the bed, her muscles tensing and untensing. The school nurse was absent, but Kuroko giggled in the room with just those two. She leaned forward, putting her forehead to Misa’s. Even the Kuroko who wanted any excuse to touch Misa wouldn’t exploit this situation. Kuroko’s spiritual sense activated, she directed it forward into Misa’s soul space. The place where Misa’s soul resided.
“Oh no… not Mushiko too…” Kuroko pulled back her forehead from Misa’s face. She admired the beauty of the stoic girl’s writhing face for a silent moment, before resolving to what she had to do.
Kuroko sighed, fishing her skirt for her phone. She pulled it out, leafing through her contact list, she found the girl she was looking for. The contact name listed as “Precure.”
Tapping on the number, her smartphone dialed. Kuroko heard a voice full of joy answer.
“Hey, Kuroko! How’s this beautiful sunny day going? Is it as wonderful for you as well?”
Kuroko’s mouth cramped hearing her sweet greeting. She was is no mood for her toxic positivity. “It’s Mushiko. She’s been possessed.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Precure. Legendary warriors who purify evil spirits. Kuroko fought her in the past. She never thought she would call her for help.
Caela Caecaelia. A blonde girl with a bright smile and light eyes, right out Misano’s imagination. She stood on a rooftop overlooking the school, a dark aura emanating from the entire building.
“Yikes.” Caela whipped out her phone. On the screen a small white fluffy creature napped in a curtained bed, Caela grimaced as she tapped on the adorable fluffball, knocking it out of its bed.
“Hey, hey, Apol, what do I do?”
The fluffball opened it’s maw in a yawn bigger than it’s entire body. “Go home? Phone it into the cops first, here, I’ll dial for you.” Apol crawled over to her phone app across her screen. Caela shook her phone, knocking Apol around the screen.
“The cops will get hurt. I can handle this myself! Plus if I help a friend of Kuroko’s, myself, I’ll be able to purify her back to normal, too!”
Apol shrugged. “I keep telling you not to get greedy. There’s no end of evil spirits in this world, and, especially no end to girls like Kuroko! Don’t make this all about what you want to do. You’re not saving another girl, you’re pushing your limits.”
Caela heard the lecture before. However, the smiling faces of all the girls she purified after they fell to evil told her to push on.
How could she give up here, knowing she was the only one who could save Kuroko’s friend?
Her courage pushed her onward to stand in front of the dark barrier surrounding Kuroko’s school. Caela reached out her bare hand, drawing back with a shock from a spark of black lighting.
“Ow.” She held her fingers, tingling from the pain. Apol called to her from her smartphone. “What are you doing? Turn into a Precure!”
Caela wanted to feel the sting of the barrier with her own body— is the excuse she made up, really she just felt like touching it. She didn’t think too much about directly touching a dark barrier.
But, now she knew. The people inside the school grounds couldn’t escape that pain. Students were passed out in the yard, sleeping, Caela hoped. Imagining all the people inside devoured by this evil aura, she pulled out her phone and tapped an app called ‘Pure Pure Precure’. The name was customized by Caela herself.
“O, light spirits of the sky, bless me with your power, grant me providence to purify unclean souls…”
The chant Caela recited was created by Caela herself. It went on for three minutes and fourty seconds, if Caela needed to transform in the heat of battle, she ignored her chant.
Magical cloth wrapped around her body, wing signets donning frills sliding down long flowing cuffs, a flowing skirt, a cheerful smile to top it all off. Caela struck a pose. Also, her own design. “Cure Sky!” She announced to no one.
“Haa!” Caela punched the dark barrier in front of her. New strength backed up her muscles, her transformation into Cure Sky granting her the power to blast through.
From Cure Sky’s punch, the barrier opened a softball sized hole, then sealed shut. Furious, Cure Sky pounded on the barrier, summoning her will to fight by imagining all those suffering inside. Despite her attacks, the barrier remained strong, and Caela’s will wavered.
She pulled out her smartphone, sadness spreading across her face, her eyes tearing up as she stared at Apol.
“I’m so useless…” She moaned. Apol looked at her as if she should have known better from her phone’s screen.
Caela tapped the contacts app, scrolling down, she saw Kuroko’s number first. There are three other numbers. One is the local emergency number, the other is her mother, and the third is the student council president who she managed to squeeze her number out of once, but then never called her again.
She tapped on Kuroko’s number, thinking if she couldn’t get inside, maybe Kuroko, someone who mastered an evil spirit, a Soul Steal Precure like Kuroko, could help her from the inside.
Caela’s heart beat as she pressed the smartphone to her ear. Ring. Ring ring. Then, the phone picked up, Caela’s smile returned. “Kuroko?! You’re awake, right?”
A distorted moan from the girl came across the line.
“Ahh, I see. My demon wasn’t strong enough to keep me awake. To possess the admirable Mushiko, of course it’s a super strong demon.”
“Help~! I can’t get inside, the whole school is trapped in a barrier. Transform into a Soul Steal Precure and weaken the demon possessing Misa! Or something!”
Kuroko’s sigh dripped across the connection. “And I was the one who called you for help…”
“Please!” Caela’s desperation bled through the speakers to Kuroko.
Kuroko propped herself up on shaking legs, finding herself in a bathroom, she dragged herself to a cracked mirror. Black miasma surrounded her, fallen students lined the floor. Kuroko placed her hand on the mirror in front of her, taking a few deep breathes to psyche herself up.
“For Mushiko, for Mushiko, for Mushiko,” she improvised. Closing her eyes, she entered a space deep inside herself. The soul space. A Soul Steal Precure knew it well. All demons who possessed the girls called it the ‘Soul Space’. Kuroko fought against the demon who possessed her and gained control over it, cursing herself with the power to become a Soul Steal Precure.
A black lithe shape snaked out behind Kuroko in her Soul Space. “Oh, if it isn’t master. You’re being too kind, today.”
“It’s for my Mushiko, so it’s for my desires, only. Let’s go, Lustia.”
“As you please, hehe.”
Dark energy from inside the Soul Space filled Kuroko, bursting out and covering her body in a black dress lined with small pink hearts. Her brown bang fringe remained stalwart, protecting anyone from seeing her eyes, even in her transformed state.
The darkness that weighted heavily on Kuroko started to sustain her. Lustia whispered from inside her. “An ambitious demon. I hope you won’t be facing her yourself, Cure Lust.”
The mention of the name she was called when she turned into a Soul Steal Precure still embarrassed the girl. Since no one else could hear it, she reasoned, she was safe.
Cure Lust snuck through the halls, the dark power growing stronger as she reached the nurse’s room. All Kuroko did was go to the bathroom, how did the demonic possession power up so fast? Because she left Mushiko alone?
Cure Lust creaked open the door, looking in, she saw Mushiko- no, Misano Mushi, wearing samurai clothing and wielding a wooden sword. Misano turned, and sent Cure Lust running.
Cure Lust jumped out of the school’s third story window, failing her landing with a gasp.
Above her standing in the window was the towering Misano Mushi. The demon took hold. She no longer had any kindness to her, her imposing atmosphere made Kuroko shake with fear as she dashed towards the end of the barrier.
Cure Sky stood at the edge, smiling and waving like she was greeting her friend afterschool, both of them were sent flying as the barrier exploded. The wooden sword smashed into both of them successively, knocking them across the town’s skyline, landing both of them onto a rooftop of a gas station, the two of them coughing in harmony.
Before them, Misano Mushi appeared, wooden sword in hand, her samurai outfit complete with a scarf drifting in the wind.
“Samurai?!” Caela said. The samurai clothing across Misano Mushi’s body- a sign of her demonic possession.
Misano faced Cure Lust and Cure Sky with her sword in perfect samurai garb. Cure Sky’s pointing finger and surprised face at the appearance of a samurai escaped her notice.
Misa woke up. Trapped deep inside her soul space, a hazy image of the outside world cropped up for her to see.
“Now, I’ll have you become my friends! Forever, my friends, and only my friends! Nothing else!” Misa heard her own voice saying. Embarrassment boiled within her. Is this a dream? This had better be a dream.
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Misano attacked Cure Lust and Cure Sky with her wooden sword, raining down heavy blows. The Precure sprung around the roof of the gas station to avoid her gained distance from her eager sword.
Cure Sky challenged her. “If you want to be friends, why are you still attacking?”
“After I’ve shown you how strong I am, I’ll know for sure you won’t ever betray me!” Misano’s growl followed with a swift hit.
Cure Sky took a solid strike to her stomach driving the air from her chest, knocking her tumbling across the gas station roof. Raising herself in defiance, Cure Sky looked at Misano, her smile torn from her, body bruised, hot shame in her chest from being hit so easily. Apol’s voice from her phone popped out.
“Retreat.”
Cure Sky looked down, knowing this didn’t need to be her fight anymore. Shame burned through her. She watched as Lust dodged around Misano’s attacks, then in moment of weakness, took a strike to her face. Then, she rose.
“Cure Sky, what are you doing? Run away!”
Cure Sky didn’t answer as she struggled to regain her breathe.
Misano laid into Cure Lust, Lust bouncing her body around to dodge the incoming sword blows, while observing Misano’s body in samurai clothes. Compared to her school uniform, they were obscuring, masculine. Cure Lust drew a wry smile across her mouth, taking a heavy hit to her side. Cure Lust toppled to the cement below her, holding her side in pain, she stared up at Misano standing over her.
Misano raised her sword. Launching in from behind, Cure Sky grappled Misano’s arms, holding her. Misano thrashed in Cure Sky’s grip, and below her Cure Lust rose to a crouch, preparing a magical attack.
Cure Lust cupped her hands together, forming a heart shape. A shiny pink heart tinged with a dark shine appeared between her interlaced fingers, spreading out and expanding, she shoved it into Misano’s stomach, malice sparking on her lips.
Misano took the full weight of the magical blow, staggering back she threw Cure Sky from her. Standing upright, she regained her posture, striking forward at Cure Lust. Cure Lust jammed her arms up like a shield as the wooden blade hit, locking her muscles together. Legs pushing towards the blade, she gave it her all to repel the attack, but her resistance gave way, with Cure Lust’s body knocking into the air, traveling from the gas station rooftop landing down on the hard concrete streets.
A truck blared it’s air horn as Cure Lust recovered, powering her legs to shoot herself onto the sidewalk, where she lay heaving.
“Change… of… strategy…” she gasped out.
Cure Sky called out something grand as if she were casting a magic spell, only to be silenced by a thunderous sword strike to her head.
Sky melted to the ground, dazed. Misano hand grabbed her by the collar of her magical dress, pulling her body up with one arm to meet her face. Misano dashed Cure Sky to cement, skidding her like a rock across a river.
Inside Misano’s Soul Space, Misa watched the two girls taking punishment. She watched as the blonde girl in the winged dress took blow after blow, standing up after like a fawn, only to be talked down to harshly and thrashed again. Misa briefly saw the girl as herself as a kid, getting knocked around by her dad during practice.
“Show me even more of your strength! I won’t be satisfied until I know everything about you!”
Misano recognized those words. This harshness, her father’s harshness. Most of the time, he was nice, but when he got to drinking or he thought Misano did something wrong, he’d block her off, lecture her. Misano would stand there with her father, trapped, looking for a way out. There was none. She had to wait for her father to finish telling her what was right. Then, and only then, could she go back to peace and quiet.
“In the mornings, we’ll walk to school. In the evenings, we’ll study together. I’m moving into your place right after this. Also, when we both get married…”
These shameful plans Misano’s voice said to the blonde girl were familiar too. Her dreams of the blonde girl who always had that brilliant smile, who brought her new friends, who didn’t mind if she said nothing, that imaginary blonde girl and the blonde girl in front of her overlapped. Misa couldn’t believe she was saying this out loud to another person, worst of all, to a pretty blonde girl. Shame strangled her.
Misano grit her teeth in her Soul Space, struggling. The blonde girl didn’t deserve this. This body should be hers. She should control it. No matter what happened to make her to attack others like this, these fantasies, these harsh words of her fathers, this black space, this should be ‘Misano Mushi’s soul. Black goop tugged against her skin like tar as she forced herself.
Cure Sky couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but as she took further and further attacks, a convenient plan formed in her mind. Really, she should have retreated. This cowardly plan of hers wasn’t much better: placating the enemy, then looking for a chance to strike. Sky praised herself for her own cunning.
“I’ll be your friend, you can move in tonight, and I’ll sign the marriage registration form, and the same bed is fine too, so please stop.”
The valiant Cure Sky reveled in satisfaction from her own acting. However, her performance didn’t go over well.
“You’re saying so to end the violence. You don’t really like me.” Misano’s depressed voice laid out thickly between the girls. Inside her Soul Space, Misa teared up. “Once I’ve shown you my power, you’ll never think of anything but me ever again.”
The sword stabbed into Cure Sky’s gut, impaling her, Misano flipped Cure Sky off her sword into the air, then sprang up above her, slamming the hilt of her sword against Cure Sky’s head.
Cure Sky let out an “eh?!” before blacking out. Her body hit the rooftop of the gas station, cracking it in half, it folded in under her landing, crushing the gas station in a v-shape. Cure Sky laid in a crater at the crux of the v-shape.
Inside her Soul Space, hot tears streaked down Misa’s face. Why? What did that girl do to deserve this? Misa blamed herself, just like her father’s words she repeated harsh criticism in yells. Why couldn’t she do anything right?
Misa lost hope, staring at the girl’s broken body, she thought she was dead. She saw the funeral of a pretty young girl. She imagined herself led away in cuffs, alone, like always. She really never felt the love the anyone. She really could never feel the love of anyone!
As hot tears streamed down her face, she smelled a familiar scent. Turning, she recognized the girl standing there with her. Kuroko, wearing a strange outfit.
“Hi~! It’s not like you to look so tied up, Mushiko.” Kuroko clapped her hands together as if praying. “Sorry about this, but, it’s going to hurt, and destroy your moral compass, but, it’s the only way for us to win, so, I’ll apologize a lot later!”
With her pre-apology laid out, Cure Lust showed Misa her fingers. They squirmed unnaturally. Then, Cure Lust stabbed her hand straight into Misa’s chest.
Misa’s chest tore apart. Kuroko’s wriggling hand inside her, Misa couldn’t believe the lively Kuroko would do this to her as lights exploded out from her body. The soul space filled with images, some only sound, her dad, homework, songs she listened to on the way to school lit up the dark room.
Misa’s memories and thoughts swirled around her soul space. Twinkles of light in pure black. Cure Lust freed her hand from Misa’s chest, jumping to an image.
Misa’s father giving her a pat on her head. A warm image in a sea of them revolving around her, a precious memory of the one time her praised her. Cure Lust reached out her hand, touching it. Malice crossed her face as the warm image rotted to a brown color.
The hole in Misa’s chest burned, her eyelids shutting against her will as that one picture grew stained. Misa struggled to keep her eyes open as she heard Cure Lust.
“This? This is it? Oh, she’ll kill me! I’ll have to use it! Sorry sorry!”
Outside, Misano’s body stopped moving. Dark aura around her silenced, and the Misa inside came to awareness of her body. Her muscles sore from overuse, the wooden sword clattered to the ground from her loosened hands. She brought her palms in front of her eyes, checking to make sure she could control each finger.
A sigh came out from Misa, stumbling in place. A dark ball of energy escaped from her body, forming into cosplay Kuroko.
“Wait, don’t sleep! You need to steal the demon’s soul!”
Cure Lust cradled Misa’s falling body, keeping her upright. Misa moved her lips, testing her freedom.
“De… mon?”
“Listen to me, we only have once chance. Give in to the dirty thoughts! Indulge shamelessly! Let yourself be consumed by desire!”
Misa’s eyes peeled open. Despite knowing her body lost control and she beat up two girls, what Kuroko said incensed her. Misa’s brain buzzed like it was short-circuiting as Cure Lust grabbed her shoulders, looking at her. Misa couldn’t see Kuroko’s eyes hidden behind her bangs as she heard Lust’s plea.
“You were possessed by a strong demon. I couldn’t defeat it, so I used my power. All you have to do is indulge deeply in that desire that’s pulling on your heartstrings right now, and you’ll gain control back, the demon disappears.” Cure Lust smiled. “I promise.”
Misa’s body felt limp and cold. She knew Kuroko’s lies, which came from her as easily as she breathed, by heart. Although Misa knew Kuroko was lying, she believed in the logic behind her answer. Misa believed listening to her after losing control over herself was sensible. This wasn’t a rational situation. Believing in the one with a plan appealed to Misa’s fading logic.
However, the desire overpowering Misa’s imagination like a freight train, leaving her blushing. Her teeth grit in pain at the imagination within, shaking her head from side to side as if to shake it out, anger boiling inside at herself.
Is this really a thought in my, in ‘Misano Mushi’s mind? Is this desire in my mind, ‘Misano Mushi’s, true desire? Is this really ‘me’?
Misa was already thinking no no no it’s not me I don’t have thoughts like this, with Lust egging her on from outside of the storm within her.
“Deeply indulge! It’s okay, it’s only for a little! Just, really feel what’s good about the memory, really imagine it! No one will get hurt, in fact, you’ll save all three of us! The demon’s going to take control again, quick, give in to the darkness!”
Lust’s plea sent Misa into a storm of rage. These thoughts? This, fantasize about this? Deep shame and fear at doing so rose within her, even imagining writing down on paper the desires dominating her every thought made her sick. Disgust seethed, crawling through her skin, she shivered. Mustering strength, she knocked Cure Lust off of her.
“There… must be… another way…”
Cure Lust frowned, placing her hands on her hips. “It’s just dirty thoughts. Indulge! You’ll save our lives! Please, I won’t ask for anything ever again, so just this once, it’s fine, right?”
“This, this… why I am… having these thoughts?”
Lust pointed both index fingers at Misano. “A demon. It’s all a demon’s fault, so let yourself go for a bit.”
Misa recovered her breath, hugging herself. She curled her fingers, glancing over at the unconscious blonde girl.
“I don’t think it’s the demon. This is my, a fantasy. It’s all changed, all wrong, but I feel it in my body, this intensity, this is my, desire? I want this to happen? This, this, what if, this is what I truly am?”
“No, Mushiko, don’t get philosophical on me! The demon did it, so quickly indulge! Blame the demon! You’ll even gain magical super powers from it, I swear! Something similar happened to me, and look, I’m a Soul Steal Precure now!”
Cure Lust posed for Misa, showing her arms in a fighting stance. Misa’s doubt in Kuroko grew.
The putrid emotion dragged her in, fantasies she didn’t want to repeat kept repeating like the pounding of rain against pavement. Misa covered her ears, her own thoughts churning her head at full volume.
Misa leaped for her wooden sword, taking it up, she gave practice swings like mad against empty air. Lust chastised her from behind.
“No! The demon will take back control! You’ll kill us! Look, I know it hurts to think about,” Cure Lust came up from behind the earnestly practicing Misa placing a palm on her shoulder. “But, it’ll save lives. Isn’t that more important than keeping up appearances? It’s just some imagination, it’ll disappear soon after you give in, no one will ever know, I swear, it’s a one time, one shot deal. Play along. Please?”
Misa’s resolve to continue swinging strengthened. She feared indulging in such dirty thoughts, in thinking of these thoughts as her own, more than death itself. She couldn’t think any further ahead. She wouldn’t let herself. Purge evil thoughts. She swung her sword down harder, her consciousness fading as her body gave way.
Misa woke up in her soul space, once again watching the outside world on a cropped image. This time, however, a hole in her chest and many memories scattered about like lights around her.
She struggled against the dark bonds unconsciously, surprised to find she could move. Emboldened by her freedom, she willed herself to fight. Misa watched Kuroko get knocked around by her own sword on the cropped image in front of her.
Misa pulled herself free of the sticky black trapping her. She saw her target, the hated memory, the image Cure Lust touched.
She ran towards the stained image. Holding her hands out, she imagined her sword. It appeared as she willed. Swinging, she struck at the image with all her might.
The sword sliced through thin air. Misa jerked back in surprise as the image remained, stained. It multiplied in front her, her emotions caught up in the unspeakable imagination even stronger now. Laughing surrounded her as she turned to face the sound, an evil smile spread out across her soul space, mocking her.
“I see, I see. I thought you were a good girl, but it seems you have darkness in you as well…”
“This isn’t me!”
“Objecting so strongly, you must fear it is truly you, Misa.” The evil face grinned. “Perhaps that desire is part of you, perhaps it’s not. Soon, your soul will become mine. You don’t need to struggle any longer, Misa.”
Fear gripped Misa’s heart, tears near her eyes. Would she do what Kuroko said? Indulge in that awful desire that overcame her, or accept death. Misa kneeled down, grabbing the sword by it’s blade, she pointed it toward her stomach. The evil face sneered in delight.
In the soul space around her, Misa’s teary eyes caught sight of other memories. Her dad teaching her with the sword. Praising her. When he took her to a garden and they wandered around, his usual armor taken off, he seemed like just an old man instead of her father. Tears welling up in her eyes as she gripped the blade, blood ran, she tossed the sword away. Sobbing, she covered her face with both hands, then pulled them away. Her face solidified as she dragged her an arm across both eyes.
“I won’t lose.”
Cure Sky rose from her crater. Dusting herself off, she panted watching Misano attacking Cure Lust. The demon’s dark aura shimmered above her. Cure Sky mustered her will. This is no time to hold back, Cure Lust is in danger. She’ll draw out her sealed power.
The power to expel a soul to another dimension. Though the person here would cease to exist, the soul would recreate the existence of the person in another dimension.
In this world, Misa would be gone. However, in a world just like this one, where Misa never existed, this Misa would exist in that new world.
Cure Sky steeled herself. Saving Cure Lust, her longtime enemy, came before thinking of whether it was right or wrong to use her sealed power.
Cure Sky closed her eyes, beginning the chant she learned thousands of years ago.
Cure Lust took a strong hit to her gut, swerving off to the side.
“Misa! Give in, already, Misa!”
Kuroko plopped to the ground, her transformation undoing itself. Misa stood over her, sword held high. Kuroko gasped. With a swish downward, Kuroko’s bangs flew up revealing her eyes. A dark sphere lumbered into the sky. With a plop, it came down to roll across the ground. Her head lay in the distance.
Misa watched from inside her soul space. Disbelief clouded her, seeing the girl she knew from school, like that, it looked like a youtube video. In her eyes, it wasn’t real. But, Misa couldn’t fool herself.
Shock overwhelmed her. Because Misa didn’t indulge in her putrid desire? Kuroko died because of her? There has to be a limit to her obstinate morals. Misa reached toward the rotted image.
Pure hatred of the demon drove her, overwhelming her desire, her hand plunged into the brown image of her father patting her head.
Dark flame swirled around her hand, up her arm, into her eyes, burning through her veins. She became blinded, overwhelmed by sickened pleasure and hatred.
Misa’s body glowed with dark energy. The torrent within her grew thicker. Sludge, like the darkness covering the soul space that held her captive, filled her body. The hole in her chest from where Kuroko stabbed her filled with black.
Misa’s hand snatched her chest, the intensity of yearning reaching its peak as she cursed the demon under her breath with all her might.
“If only you didn’t…”
Her body shook with rage. She enjoyed the power surging through her, delicate highs overtaking her imagination as all her restraints crumbled one by one.
In her imagination, the most unspeakable acts violated what she thought was most important to her. Replaying over and over. What hurt most was, Misa relished in it.
The demon’s evil smile turned into a frown.
“No! You’ve accessed it, the well of desire! Curse you, Misa! How dare you take my power!”
Lights covering Misa’s soul space flickered out. Even the cropped image of the outside, showing Cure Sky chanting, faded out.
Darkness folded over light evaporating the evil face into darkness. At it’s center, Misa knew she regained control of herself. She touched the hole Kuroko put in her chest, feeling the black filling the spot.
Misa opened her eyes, hand tightening on her sword, she swung it her eyes scanned the world of light around her. The world outside her soul space, the world she woke up to this morning, with no demons, and an urgent need to get to school.
Cure Sky finished her chant. “Banish evil!”
Misa staggered back as a torrent of light hit her. Spinning around free in space, Misa lost her balance, landing straight outside of her bed on the floor. In her own room.
The wooden sword still in her grip, her clothes the same samurai dress, her bedroom the same as this morning.
Misa let the the sword go. She rose, heading to the bathroom to assess, grumbling to herself.
“A… dream?”
Misa couldn’t believe it. Looking at herself all scratched up in the mirror from flying bits of concrete, her clothing, and fresh memories, the sweat across her forehead.
She opened her samurai robe to check. She found the black filling the wound on her chest. She poked the spot, it stung as she did, sending a wave of fresh pleasure with a singe of hate running up and down her body.
Her memory of the indulgence before sickened her. The pain is real. Her memories, even if it was a dream, sickened her. Besides the hatred pain and digsust, her body felt refreshed, strong, like she could do anything.
The good feeling only made her more suspicious. Misa disrobed, finding her school uniform, she dressed. By the time she got halfway to school, she checked the calendar app on her phone.
The date didn’t look right. Misa couldn’t remember what the date was this morning, but looking at the calendar app her mind kept saying the clock was wrong.
Uneasiness seized her. She passed a gas station. Turning back, she scanned it, thinking the roof should be caved in. The gas station’s roof stood untouched, as if no one had fought on it.
A crazy dream? Misa hurried to school. Then what about the black on her chest? A skin condition. Maybe. That must be it.
Crazy things like demons and magical girls don’t exist in this world.
She kept her fears at bay until she entered her classroom to see Kuroko happily chatting with her classmates.
Tears marred Misa’s eyes as she tackled Kuroko into a hug. Kuroko’s familiar smell. She smelled like Kuroko, Misa held the warm Kuroko held in her embrace, squirming, confirming what she wanted to be true.
Surely the fight with the blonde girl and Kuroko was a bad dream.