Eternal Power Pretty Cure

Chapter 26「Wings of light」

- Video is the song, "Wings of light", sung by Lynn. The song itself is from the anime/manga Fuuka as well as this chapter's inspiration (even more so knowing Miharu's seiyuu is the singer behind it), and you'll begin to see that in the second half of the chapter. -

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

There was an unearthly filter through the pitch black. Other than the muddy circular specks that drifted across this sea of opaque, there was nothing she could reach for, nothing she could grab tight to. Nothing she could embrace within this dream of shadow.

But she could hear something. Like it was far off into the distance, way beyond her reach. She couldn't move, so she couldn't even try. They were the cries - cries of those who came to witness the bliss of the youthful generation, the pride of her elementary school; only for contagious joy to transform into terror that ran like wildfire throughout the interior of the building.

A beastly growl, then gigantic steps here and there...

They were panting, gasping for air so hard they could hardly feel the function of their lungs inside of them. A vivid memory faded in, revealing two girls as they were hot on their heels. Speed trailed from their feet. They were afraid, cold, nearly breathless...

But still, they managed to slip away into refuge, sneaking into an alleyway separating two structures.

Pitch black once more.

"I'm scared..." A fragile voice of a young girl, whose spirit shattered in the wake of a disaster.

"Me too." And the voice of another, fragile too, but a tinge of hope brimming from within.

Another fragment of a flashback revealed two girls huddled together, one willing to protect the other- no, they were protecting each other. Before the pair knew it, their palms entwined with one another in a laced promise.

"Together... as each other's Precure."

Feeling as if they were transported to an entirely new environment, the fear rupturing their souls began to settle down to ease. Knowing the other was with them in their own little world, nothing else mattered to them - no fear, no melancholy, only their embrace. It was like they believed there was going to be a happily ever after by the end of this.

Only, there wasn't.

Before she knew it, she found her precious friend cradled in her arms, splashes of dark carmine corrupting the new creases of her costume underneath a pool of blood. Nestling her head upon her lap, the brunette drooped over her lifeless body in a soundless weep. Any source of noise was cancelled by the force of wanting to forget it all, but with the trauma pinned deep at her core, there was no suppressing the flash in the past in the nearest future.

A screen of shadow overtook the flashback again, allowing the memory to run deep into her lost thoughts. The darkness was suffocating. It was getting harder and harder to keep her senses functioning when all she could do was allow herself to remember such tragedy, let alone be exposed to the pitch black. For a span of about ten seconds, she found herself in this black room, with no way out.

Her eyes enveloped open. Well, one of them in sight, anyway; her scarred eye was sheathed by her long harvest gold bangs, as usual. But still, a single eye was enough to display the fear in Aureate as she stood within this place. Breath parting away, she looked one way, then the other. The temperature was well misplaced: cold, frigid, chill to the skin...

"Where am I?" Her breath whizzed like mist before dissolving into the chillness of the air. The moment her breath dispersed and became one with the atmosphere, it hit her. Her guts inside began to twist and churn. Thick nausea threatened to wash up her throat as a horrid feeling began to overtake her. She was here - standing at the end of this single alleyway, the seemingly perfect place to veil sight from destruction.