Narrator
Last episode, Masaru was left in charge with his little sister for one night as his parents had to visit a relative in their hometown. This has put Masaru's sensitivity, brotherly love and responsibility to the test but at the end of it, he was able to set a resolve to become more sensitive so he wouldn't have to hurt the ones around him all the time.
Let's check back on him later. As for now, let's see what else is going on in the cures' lives. And our next adventures starts in...the tennis court?!
Story
It was a humid mid-May morning. And humid mid-May mornings meant PE lessons for class 1-3!
1-3 was preparing for their finals for PEâTennis! One by one, the tennis coach wanted everyone to do a simple match with every student as a gauge of how they'd perform at the finals. Masaru managed to perform his swings without much difficulty, attracting all the admiration of his classmates, especially his female classmates.
After all the cheers, Reiko was called. The whole court went silent and Reiko knew why. No admiration and cheers. Only mean laughter.
Taking a deep breath, Reiko got into her ready position and clumsily moved to the right. She swung her right hand and made her racket touch her right shoulder. She ran to her left and now held the racket with both hands. By then, she could hear some soft sniggering.
Reiko told herself: Focus, Reiko. They probably feel insecure that I have my own business at 12.
When the next ball came to her, Reiko made another forehand but dropped her racket. The quiet tennis court broke into laughter. "She's the shadow to Masaru's light!" "She shouldn't run her plushie business if she can't even swing a racket!" "Stay under Masaru's light and warmth forever, you dummy!"
Reiko broke into a crazy blush, trying hard to conceal her embarrassment. Masaru glared at the people laughing at Reiko and screamed, "Stfu will ya?! You don't know how hard it is to run a business!"
-
"Let's go! Gummy bear!" Reiko's InfiniMo echoed, and a rather big packet of gummy bears fell from the sky.
"Actually, I'm feeling thirsty too," Reiko admitted. She inserted the InfiniJewel into her InfiniMo again. "Let's go! Soda!" The InfiniMo echoed and a bottle of soda fell from the sky.
"That's a lot of sweet stuff!" Can-do remarked. "Will your teeth be able to handle it?"
"It's fine. I'm sharing the gummy bears with Yuu and Masaru after all," Reiko explained. "Besides, it's not everyday I get to eat things like this. I usually don't have a choice about the snacks I want to eat; a financial scheme just gives me the remainders from grocery stores the previous month."
"Besides, Reiko had a hard time at PE again," Masaru admitted, while taking the Soda Jewel from the Jewel Album and summoning his bottle of soda. "She was being judged for her lack of athleticism again. We're always getting compared at PE and no other lesson for some reason."
"I can change that," a cool and confident voice echoed out of nowhere.
Reiko and Masaru jumped with a start, with the snacks in their hands jerking. Masaru quickly closed the cap of his soda bottle and asked frantically, "Class representative! What brings you here?"
"I have been observing Hanadera-san for some time now," The class representative explained. "It's clear she struggles a lot with sports, especially tennis. So Hanadera...when are you free?"
"Anytime other than Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings," Reiko answered. "Why?"
"I want to help you get better at tennis." Reiko blushed. "Come on, you aren't bisexual, are you?"
"I'm not! It's just... when it came to sports, I never really got the support I needed... so this comes off as something that's really unexpected." Reiko then explained a portion of her childhood...
Flashback
One PE lesson in sixth grade, Reiko was practicing for her final sports day in elementary school. She was practicing for the baton relay with the other classes. When the baton was passed to her, she recalled running as fast as she could, but remembered the commentary saying how her class was falling behind. As such, she forced herself to run even faster and suffered cramps, causing her to trip and fall, spraining her ankle in the process.
Everyone but Masaru broke out into laughter.
"You're so weak! You can't even finish your round of the baton relay without falling!"
"Kick 6-1 out of the relay! They're going to stain the school's good track and field reputation!"
"No, kick Reiko out of the school for not being able to run fast!"
Story
The class representative reached out her hand. "You know something, that made me realise we aren't that different."
Reiko received her hand hesitatingly. "What do you mean? Aren't you good at PE?"
"That's true, but as an athlete, I actually don't get a lot of support. Everyone thinks I shouldn't be one. And that's because... I'm diabetic."
"I thought your health was 100% fine?"
"That's what everyone thinks, so not to worry, you're not alone. But it's not. My body isn't producing this substance called insulin, so I have to inject this substance into my body three times a day. When I wake up, at lunch and before I sleep. It's inconvenient, y'know."
"So sorry to hear that. Do you need some candy so your sugar levels don't plummet?"
"I'll...wait, that looks like a big bag of Candy. Where did you get it from?"
"The sky."
The class representative burst into laughter. "Then the sky must be very kind today. I'll help you finish the sweets." The class representative took a seat near to Reiko and the girls finished the gummy bears. "How about, meeting at my place on Sunday morning to practice some tennis?"
"But where do you live...?"
"No worries. I'll give you the address after afternoon homeroom on Friday." She then winked and left for the classroom.
Narrator
An angel sent from heaven! At least someone other than Yuu and Masaru is reaching out to Reiko! Wow... Reiko's fourth friend in middle school? She's making some crazy progress!
But looks like some idiot wants to destroy it. Yup, I'm talking about the infamous baddies of the show â Hitoshu-Oni and Ijime-O!
Story
Ijime-O and Hitoshu-Oni were once again spying on the heroes when they realised Reiko was talking to someone other than Masaru. When they replayed the footage with sound, Hitoshu-Oni threw the tablet down the clouds.
"Reiko, you don't talk to anyone other than Masaru, get it? You belong to him!" Ijime-O screamed before leaping off the cloud.
(Cut to SundayâThe Class Representative's House)
When Reiko reached the class representative's house, she gasped at the mere sight of it. It was a practical mansion! All of a sudden, a random voice echoed through nowhere. "Oh my, Hanadera, you love my house right?" The creepy voice echoed. "Welcome! Welcome! Let me guide you to the tennis court!"
(Cut to the class representative's houseâtennis court)
Initially, Reiko was in shock over the class representative having a tennis court to call her own but realised it was built specifically for her; no one else. After that, Reiko took out her school issued tennis racket and got ready for the coaching lesson.
The class representative patiently revised the various moves with her first. She recapped grip with her first as well as real life theories she might want to keep in mind while performing said moves. Initially, the class representative had to go over and hold her hands to ensure she kept the grip, but doing that became less necessary as the session went on.
After practicing grip theory, the class representative made Reiko do some moves properly. She got her box of tennis balls from the attic and started throwing them for Reiko to hit. While doing so, the class representative taught her how to hit the ball properly.
Eventually, the girls had used up an entire box of balls just for hits. Just as Reiko and Mai were going to pick up the balls, someone snatched Mai's racket from behind. Reiko instantly recognised the culpritâIjime-O!
"I think your differences suck!" Ijime-O declared mercilessly. "Go, Sabetsuta!"
"Sabetsuta!" The sabetsuta echoed.
Immediately, Reiko reached out for her tennis racket bag for her InfiniMo and InfiniJewel. She inserted her InfiniJewel inside and screamed, "Precure, accept my difference!"
No response.
"Precure, accept my difference!"
Still no response.
"PRECURE! ACCEPT MY DIFFERENCE!"
"Due to your partner not being present with you, the transformation abilities of your device has been locked," the phone echoed. Reiko gasped in shock and immediately changed her InfiniMo to its mobile phone mode.
After dialing Masaru on her whereabouts, she forced herself to fight as Reiko Hanadera before Masaru joined her. To her surprise, she managed to daze the villains, but not as well as in her Precure form. She smiled weakly, mumbling, "So maybe being a Precure has its pros, huh..."
"REIIII!" Masaru screamed from a distance, clutching his InfiniMo. "I hope I wasn't too late in joining you!"
"You're just on time, Masa-Kun. After all, this is part 2 of our fight."
Transformation
Locking the InfiniJewels into the InfiniMo, Masaru removed his glasses while Reiko took off her headband. Tapping their shoulders next to each other, they chorused, "Precure, accept my difference!"
The duo then bounced off each other. Reiko gained her warrior dress while Masaru gained his warrior suit. They then went back to each other and held each other's hand, tapping their feet for shoes and bumping each other's heads for their new style. The duo's InfiniMos went to the side of their outfit, their weapons were summoned and landed on their hands and the duo jumped down to pose.
"Embracing everyone for their true selves, I'm Cure Embrace!"
"Respecting others for their strengths, I'm Cure Respect!"
"One plus one is more than two! That's what differences do! Go, Accepting Diversity Precure!"
Story
"Go, Sabetsuta!" Ijime-O commanded.
"Sabetsuta!" The sabetsuta echoed, releasing many tennis balls at once, causing the duo to freak out.
"Precure, Love Chain!" Reiko screamed, wrapping the string around the Sabetsuta and paralysing it. She stayed in that position but soon enough, the chains broke off, leaving the duo in shock.
"So you willingly did this knowing it'll fail, huh?" Masaru remarked slyly while shooting a lame look at Reiko.
"It's not a proper finisher, y'know. It's only for the sake of distracting the villains."
"HAHAHA!" Ijime-O screamed. "How long do you intend to keep chatting for?" With his special laser eyes, he shot Reiko and made her tumble to the ground, letting out a hearty laugh while seeing the hero agonise in pain.
"Rei, you ok?" Masaru asked in concern, before gasping. "I see. We need to be smart from this point. Ijime-O always makes us fall so the partner would distracted by the partner that fell. Hitoshu-oni keeps giving us random disabilities solely to hinder our fighting abilities."
"Enough talk, we have a villian to defeat!"
"But Rei..."
"You know this injury is probably temporal. Just for today, you can take the lead and fight."
"Rei, you're too sweet. Sure then. I'll do my best!" Masaru got on his feet, dashing as fast as he can while preparing a punch. "Precure, Fiery Fist!" The flames however were only strong enough to burn Ijime-O's clothes and not defeat him.
Just as he was about to give up, he thought about all of the PE lessons he and Reiko attended over the past month and a half. He brainstormed what Reiko would do in such a situation. Surely, there was only one way present-day Reiko would do in such a situation: keep doing her best until she found a way that worked.
Hence, in the heat of things, Masaru drew a red circle. Launching it, Masaru screamed, "Healing Attack!" At that moment, Reiko could stand again and looked at Masaru in determination and admiration. Her body emitted a strong pink glow and on her hand was now a pink racket she could call her own.
"Embrace Racket!" She called out before getting ready into "ready position." While performing her forehand, she screamed, "Precure, Embrace my Forehand!" The ball managed to freeze the two villains.
"Before they unfreeze!" Reiko screamed.
Attack
Inserting the Double Power Jewel into the InfiniBoard, Reiko and Masaru held their hands together and raised the other hand, screaming, "Dress up! Accept Me Spell!" The duo transformed into their Accepting Forms and stood together while posing, chorusing, "Accepting Forms!"
Holding the board, Reiko commanded, "InfiniBoard, lend us your power!"
"Power lent," the InfiniBoard echoed and in the air, two special wands sprouted out, landing in Reiko and Masaru's hands. They gazed at their wands in doubt at first but eventually looked at each other in determination and pressed the button to the wand anyway and stood back to back.
"Charging our differences up! Precure, Double Electrifying Zap!" The duo chorused. Pink and red lightning shot out from their respective wands and electrocuted Ijime-O and Sabetsuta concurrently.
Story
All of a sudden, a random sound could be heard from the shady area of the tennis court. Reiko ran desperately to the shade and checked the Jewel Album. All emptied out.
"Where did the jewels go?" Reiko asked and Masaru called her name out. When she turned around, she saw the Jewel album that has been transferred to the InfiniBoard. The duo stared at the InfiniBoard in shock. All of a sudden, the Queen of Ukeku's face popped up and she explained, "Good morning warriors, I am the Queen of Ukeku. The space on the Jewel album is limited. Hence, once a jewel album collection has been filled, the Jewel album will be transferred online. You can still press the jewels and activate its function though." Reiko pressed the tennis racket Jewel and it produced the Embrace Racket still.
The duo smiled at each other and detransformed. The class representative ran up to Reiko and gave her feedback for that day's mentoring before arranging the next mentoring session. She then turned to Masaru and gushed over her progress to him, while
Reiko stared at her suspiciously. To her surprise, Masaru replied pleasantly.
The next school day started with PE again. Reiko was no longer trembling when the teacher challenged her to a match. Instead, she took things in her stride. She hit back coolly now and managed to play a set without panting or coming close to spraining her wrist.
The class representative, Yuu and Mai watched confidently and calmly, as if they held their faith in her for a very long time. Meanwhile, the rest of the class freaked out and gasped throughout. However, when the match eventually ended, Reiko was greeted with applause.
Returning to the sidelines, she thanked everyone for the praises and after much loving, went to thank the class representative. "Actually, let's go by a first name basis from now on. Call me Mai," Mai added casually.
"Ok Mai, I'm Reiko," Reiko greeted formally, but the duo broke into a simultaneous smile afterwards.
(2554 words)