Eternal Power Pretty Cure

Chapter 27「Lessons Learned」

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

The alarm clock rung endlessly. It barely scratched the surface of a melodious tune - who would enjoy listening to something like this for minutes on end?

Well, not Karin, that's for sure. Facing flat against her bed, she shifted in her lilac pajamas. Her blanket had been tossed to the side overnight. A section of her plushie collection fenced one side of her bed frame. Tama, her pet tabby cat, slept on the side of the bed, eyes serenely shut. Karin's eyelids twitched in annoyance.

The half-asleep Karin's arm stretched far. Without even looking around, she felt her glasses, a particular gaming console, and eventually the alarm clock she hasn't used since school before summer break.

Had summer break already ended? Karin dreaded the thought of the end of her vacation days and heading back to school.

A petite feline sprite floated down like an umbrella, landing softly on the button of the alarm and turning it off. In red LED light, the clock read 10:00.

"Good morning, Karin~tai!" meowed Felitai, her signature cat smile being the first thing Karin saw.

Karin pulled herself together and sat up, whipping the hair on her face off to the side and rubbing her eyes.

"Is it school already?" She yawned.

"Hmm... not quite~tai!" Felitai sounded enthusiastic, as usual. Nothing too out of place there.

Karin couldn't remember setting her alarm clock to 10:00 at all. Among doing the usual - catching up on her television dramas, playing video games, texting Yuki and the other girls, kick-starting her friendship with Miharu by texting her and sending her waves of animated stickers and emojis, and—

Wait... 10:00?

She looked at the alarm again. Surely she wasn't late for school, was she?

She scooped her cell phone off the edge of the nightstand and checked the date displayed right below the matching time. They were merely a week away from the second school term. That was one question solved, but the alarm? Karin watched the third zero change to a one, then lowered her phone to stare at her digital clock with the same minute pass.

"I don't think I recall anything happening around this time."

"Looks like you did forget, Karin~tai! Everyone's supposed to meet up at the Mirage Domain today~tai!"

An awkward moment of silence...

"Oh shoot, you're right!" The girl burst out of bed, no. She lunged for her closet, passing Tama as he meowed a groggy yawn, not even bothering to open his eyes.

Rie slid the door of her closet upon, brushing her hands across a variety of fabric and rummaging for the perfect outfit for today's outing. Not that it mattered; heading to a different dimension, it was likely she was going to be in her magical girl form for most of it, but her fashion senses tingled greatly. She made sure to put up a pretty face no matter where she was going and what she was doing.

"Looks like it's today, I suppose. The moment when those girls will show me whether they're really capable or not."

She flattened the creases of her baby blue skirt before adjusting the fit of her light purple top. That girl, dark-pink-haired and yellow-eyed, met the mirror of her appearance; her reflection that displayed her entire figure, top-to-bottom. Looking at herself more, Kohana's tastes really were centered on the pastel spectrum.

An innocent smile bloomed from her face like a daisy. Budea twirled right onto her shoulder, beaming at her owner's mirror parallel. The pair exchange even brighter flowers of smiles.