Afterword - A Doki Doki Precure Story

25 - The Lonesome Idol's Blues

(A/N: Hello everyone! I'm not dead! I've just been exceptionally busy lately and have not had any time to work on the story. I've also been kinda getting writer's block. However I've been working around that and I should return to one chapter every two weeks or so.)

Disastrous. Absolutely disastrous.

That very word on its own could not explain just how wrong things were going in Makoto's life.

Daybi had to travel to America to discuss Makoto's next 'World Tour'.
Without Daybi, she found it hard to keep her own home tidy. She found it hard to find the motivation to sing. And when she did sing, everyone could tell it wasn't from the heart.
She was doing it for the sake of pleasing her fans.

And all of it was taking a massive toll on her.

Makoto sighed deeply before taking a seat at her messy table, before digging into a bowl filled with stale cereal.
Upon taking the first bite she immediately cringed as her teeth bit through the cereal's dry exterior.

"I've really gotta get some more food..." she mumbled as she took another bite of her stale breakfast.
At least the milk wasn't out of date.

There was a knock at the door. A knock so unexpected it caused Makoto's heart to almost jump out of her chest.
'I wonder who that could be?' She pondered as she excused herself from her table and made her way to the front door.

It certainly couldn't be the mailman. He never delivers the mail this early.

The purplette unlocked the door and opened it. She was quite surprised to see Mana standing there.
For starters, it was only 8:15am, so Mana showing up was incredibly unusual. Secondly, she had a small bouquet of flowers that she had attempted to hide behind her back, albeit rather poorly.

Makoto came to the rather obvious question that Mana was here to check up on her, and ensure she's doing okay. It was still unusual for such a thing to be done so early in the day.

"Good morning, Ma-ko-pi!" Mana greeted with a grin, intentionally breaking apart her name.
Somehow, Regina had gotten Mana to return to normal. That is unless Rikka was brought up. She would quieten down after that.

However when Mana was feeling positive, she would be almost contagious, making everyone around her smile.

"Good morning. Why are you here so early in the day?"

"I thought you might need some company!" Mana answered with a grin.

Makoto didn't want to admit it, but Mana was right, she absolutely wanted some company. It was unbearable being alone.

Mana revealed the bouquet of flowers, and bestowed them upon her best friend.
Makoto graciously took them, and was pleasantly surprised to find they were all her favourite flowers.

"May I come in?" Asked Mana.

"It's uh... a little untidy." Makoto responded.

"I can help clean it up?" The pinkette offered.

With a sigh, Makoto begrudgingly agreed. She didn't want anyone to know how untidy she could get.

Makoto also wanted to vent her feelings. But Mana was arguably the worst person to vent to.
While she was incredibly supportive, she would break down over the mention of her now deceased best friend, and Makoto would find it unbearable to know she caused her best friend to cry.

As Mana stepped into the kitchen, she visibly froze in place as she began to study the environment. Packets of food were lying everywhere. The trash can was overflowing with garbage. Plates were untidily stacked on top of each other.

"Oh... you were not exaggerating," Mana mumbled, before grabbing a pair of gloves from the drawers and taking out the trash.

Makoto watched guiltily as Mana quickly and efficiently cleaned the kitchen. Not only that, she cleaned the entire house top to bottom in only two hours.

It was 10:30 when she finished, and flopped onto Makoto's comfortable leather couch.

Mana certainly deserved to take a break.
Makoto took a seat next to her.
"Sorry for the mess..." she mumbled.

"It's fine, it was fun to clean," Mana replied, grabbing the remote on the arm of the couch and turning on the TV.

Makoto glanced over at her friend multiple times over the next hour.
She was so beautiful. So pure. So headstrong.
She didn't deserve her.

"H-hey-!" Mana exclaimed as she was suddenly wrapped into a tight embrace.
A small smile formed on her lips, and she returned the hug. That was when she noticed her shoulder had begun to get wet, and she heard a deep, shaky exhale of air escape from Makoto's lips.

She was crying.
It hurt Mana to see her friend in this way, but crying was a great medicine. She held the purplette even tighter than before, not moving an inch. She was here to comfort her, and that's what she was going to do.
"I... I miss her!" Makoto mumbled through her tears.
This caused Mana herself to stiffen up, but she did her best to remain calm. She essentially shut off her emotions temporarily, just to comfort her friend.

She lost her friend and lover. And over time she had been getting noticeably more depressed.
Her song performances felt forced. Everything she did felt forced. She never had the time to sit and cry.

But now here they were, with Makoto letting out all of the tears that had been building up for almost a month.

The duo stayed that way for a good while longer.

//

Regina stared at what used to be Rikka's loveaid that allowed her to transform into Cure Diamond.

It was just sitting there.

She looked over to Yuki, who was playing some rhythm game on her phone.

"Hey Yuki, would you like to become a Precure?"

This question threw Yuki off, and she lost the game.

"T-that's sudden! Why are you asking?" She almost hissed. Regina's question felt like being hit in the face with a truck, with the truck coming back for round two, with a car.

"You could be the next Cure Diamond. You could save us if we got into trouble," Regina answered calmly, stepping over to pick up the Loveaid.
"I think things are going to get tougher. We could use you."

"But I'm not a fighter! I don't even know how I could be a Precure!" Yuki retorted. 

"Anyone can be a Precure if their hearts are in the right place." Regina answered in almost a whisper.

Yuki's hesitation slowly dissipated, and she took the Loveaid out of Regina's hand.

She felt a surge of energy come from it. It was an energy that called to her. It was her calling. It was telling her 'yes, you are a Precure!'

"I'll do my best to live up to Cure Diamond." Yuki stated with a determined expression.