NPPC01/Transcript

A night like any other, dark as night can be but illuminated by the lights of the city. Especially the palace, still bright from all the lights still burning glimmers like no other building in the city does. Despite the time of day (or rather night), people are going around doing their business, whatever that might be in the cover of the night. A calm wind is blowing tonight, a rarety these days, but it gives the atmosphere a calming effect.

However, not everything is as peaceful as it seems. The calm is interrupted by frantic soldiers, checking every corner of their home city.

"Find him! He can't have gotten far, especially in his condition!" one shouts. He must be one of the commanders, for his uniform is a lot more decorated than the rest of those that accompany him.

This group of soldiers isn't the only one searching, every avaliable asset is out in the night, in search of something... or rather someone.

Despite their best efforts, a small creature manages to escape their sights. It slips through the dark alleys and cracks in the streets, its small white body fitting through the smallest gaps without problem.

It abruptly stops at a corner, hiding itself away. Just then, a group of soldiers passes by. Once they pass, it lets out the breath it was holding and continues on towards its goal, now with new conviction.

"Okay, Safe, you can do it. You're almost there, only a bit more." he motivates himself on the last few metres.

His goal comes into view: a swirling portal. Through it, a distorted view of another city can be seen. Once Safe discovers it, his eyes widen and begin to sparkle, he has finally reached his goal! He jumps onto the open street...

Directly in front of another patrol group of soldiers patrolling the area. The reaction is immediate, they fall into formation and start moving towards the small mascot.

"Halt! By the order of King Deimos of the Welton Kingdom, you are to be captured!" the leader shouts, but Safe doesn't pay him attention, instead choosing to speed towards the portal in hopes of escaping.

This also causes the guards to start running towards him, trying to capture him before he manages to escape.

"I'm so close, I won't give up now!" Safe thinks to himself, preparing himself for one last attempt to flee.

He sees a hand coming towards him and jumps out of the way, turning to take a look at his would-be-captors and their dumbfounded expressions.

With his back first, he falls through the portal, into his freedom. He chances one last gaze towards his home through the distorted vortex, just then it closes, leaving him seperated from it for who knows how long...

Back at the Welton Kingdom's castle, the group of soldiers that tried to capture Safe reports back to their superior, a high ranking official if his uniform is anything to go by.

He welcomes them back coldly. "Welcome back. Do you have any news?" short and professional, the official lets his gaze wander expectantly over the group.

With some delay, one of the soldiers is pushed forwards by the others. He appears to be their captain, taking a moment to collect his thoughts.

"So...we found Safe." he starts. The official's eyes widen at that, but once he realizes that the captain isn't done, they narrow again. "Go on." he commands. "Yes, sir! Unfortunately, Safe has managed to escape through one of the portals. His current position is unknown." the captain is shaking by now. He pleads "Please, Sir Diarmaid, it was beyond my control!"

Diarmaid is starting to go red from anger and steps forward, his boots resounding through the whole entrance hall. The entire group of soldiers start begging for forgiveness, fearing for their lives.

Surprisingly, nothing more happens after Diarmaid steps forward. He has calmed rather quickly, even moreso than what the castle is used to.

He takes a deep breath before turning away and ordering "You are free to go now.". Then, he looks off to the side, speaking to someone beyond the stairs, "Follow Safe to earth. And don't let him escape a second time.". With that, he steps away, leaving the soldiers alone in the entrance hall.

Safe opens his eyes and takes in the unknown surroundings. He's laying on top of some bushes next to a busy street. There's cars driving by, people walking down the sidewalk, window shopping at the many stores that decorate the way.

Safe sits up, looking around and jumps down the greenery. He immediately has to jump out of the way to avoid being trampled by a pedestrian, but the person's shoe still hits him. The man doesn't even turn back but grumbles "What has Casablanca City come to... So much trash!"

"So I'm in Casablanca City?" Safe ponders to himself, starting to form a plan in his head. Only then he notices that it's day in Casablanca City, unlike the eternal night that seems to reign over the Welton Kingdom. "Huh" he thinks, "I almost forgot what the sun looks like." and chuckles a bit sadly to himself.

"Now, to find the Pretty Cure..."

The Pretty Cure are legendary warriors in the history of the Welton Kingdom and they are supposed to be able to defeat any evil before them.

At least, that is the story Safe was told since he was a child. But now that the Welton Kingdom is only a shell of its former glory, they aren't told anymore. But maybe, with the help of the legendary warriors, the kingdom can be returned to how it was before and the terror that has its grip on it be defeated.

Ever since King Deimos took over the throne the kingdom has been deteriourating: more crime, less rules but harder punishments for even the simplest of things. Not how it's supposed to be, of that Safe is sure. So something has to change.

He endured it for some time, but it finally got too much for him and he started his search for the Pretty Cure. Unfortunately, this was seen as a major act of treason against the Welton Kingdom, and so Safe was to be captured. Not wanting to rot away in prison, Safe made plans to flee and look for the Pretty Cure after having fled.

"My time is now!" Safe cheers inwardly, dancing in place for a short while, swinging his body from side to side. He must look like a plush, he realizes, with his small white body and big eyes, nothing like any animal he has ever seen, or any citizen of earth for that matter.

So he stops, in fear of being discovered as something not of this world. Soon however, he starts his search for real, exploring this unknown place as best as he can. Results are needed, and fast ones at that.

“My king.” Diarmaid approaches the darkened throne, where a figure menacingly sits. His entire body is hidden away by the shadows. When he signals with his hand, Diarmaid continues on.

“It would seem that the traitor is trying to find the warriors of legend to oppose us. How should we proceed, now?” he asks, although he is pretty sure he already knows what the answer is going to be.

Indeed, the king begins to grumble lowly. “Stop him… He mustn’t succeed…” King Deimos growls out before trailing off.

“Alright.” Diarmaid bows and leaves the king be, retreating out of the room.

Wandering these unknown streets isn't easy when you're the size of a teddy bear, Safe decides after looking back to see that he still hasn't managed to leave the street he woke up on.

When he takes his next steps, he bumps into the leg of a man standing on the sidewalk. Safe looks up as the man looks down, and then they just stare.

Suddenly, he's surrounded by people. "We found him!" someone yells, and that is the moment Safe notices that these are not regular people, but more soldiers from the Welton Kingdom, out to capture him!

His eyes widen and before he knows it, his legs are moving on their own and he's running down the sidewalk, away from the men out to capture him.

The mascot turns at every corner he sees, hoping to find an escape somehow despite being in unknown surroundings. Alleyways are still not a favourite of his, but he endures them to get away.

He has to find the Pretty Cure, that's the only way out of this, his mind tells him. You're powerless, after what happened, follows.

Caught up in his own mind, he doesn't know he's run into a dead end until he hits the wall, stumbling back a bit. Safe turns around, hoping to have lost his pursuers, but they've already closed off his only exit, leaving him trapped in this dead end oft a street.

Quickly, the men are moving towards him, their hands ready to grab him at any point should he try to run away.

"In the end, I wasn't good enough..." he sighs, accepting his fate to live in prison until the end of his days. He closes his eyes so that he doesn't have to see the soldier's faces when they succeed with their mission.

Despite having accepted his fate, when he is finally picked up, from behind where he couldn't see them no matter what.

His fighting spirit reawakens for just a moment, kicking and punching air while he is being carried away. The person doesn't budge, just gripping him a bit tighter and speeding up, causing Safe to struggle even more to have some kind of fighting chance.

"You have to stay still, you know? Or they'll find us.". All of Safe's fighting stops, he goes rigid in the stranger's arms. It was a girl's voice that spoke, way too young to be part of the Welton Kingdom's army. She was hiding him away too, despite not knowing what he had done.

He is safe for the moment, he decides.

Just when he thinks that thought, the girl starts moving again. When he looks up, he sees magenta hair and pink eyes, and their pursuers behind them.

An "Up we go!" by the girl is the only warning he gets before the two of them jump over a wall of impressive size. Despite the warning, Safe still lets out a squeal, but the girl just laughs. She seems to be enjoying herself, so Safe tries to do so too, despite the dangerous situation he is in.

He even involved a stranger, which he regrets already. But that can't be changed now, so he has to work with what he has. After the first wall jumped, many more follow and Safe is fascinated by the route the girl takes to escape.

She must have experience in this kind of thing, Safe realizes. Another revelation is what that could mean for the life of this pink-haired girl. The mascot desperately hopes that this is only a hobby and not some kind of skill she uses often.

Safe is pulled out of his thoughts when the girl stops and changes her hold on him, freeing both of her hands. She starts digging through the brown bag hanging around her waist. Safe doesn't see what she's looking for until she pulls it out of the bag.

At one point, it must have been a hairpin, but the resemblance is slim now, with how much it has been bent and twisted. With a start, Safe gets what the girl is thinking.

"Is that a lockpick?!" despite his outrage, the girl doesn't seem particularly bothered, only shrugging as she replies "Yeah, what about it?" before sticking the metal into the lock on the gate before them.

It doesn't take long before the lock jumps open and the two pass, leaving behind yet another obstacle. Safe isn’t really happy about how they crossed it , but he isn’t about to complain given the situation he’s in.

The elaborate chase is finished when Safe's pink-haired saviour stops in yet another alley, crouching down between two dumpsters. She lets Safe out of her arms but signals him to stay still, pointing towards the passing men that are looking for them.

They don't move for several more minutes, until the girl takes a deep breath.

Safe gets to take a good look at her then. Her hair is still magenta, that hasn't changed, but he now notices that a part of it is pulled up by a red bow. The shirt she's wearing is magenta and her skirt is a light pink, as are her shoes.

Safe finds her socks in particular to be curious, as they are striped in red and white and reach her knees. The bag she pulled the lockpick from is still there too, so she doesn't seem to have any magic abilities like some of the people of the Welton Kingdom do.

"You're lucky that I was on my way home! They'd have really captured you if I wasn't there!" she directs a smile his way but stops suddenly. Her eyes widen and she exclaims "I haven't even introduced myself! I'm sorry for my rudeness!" she seems to be very shocked, if her expression is anything to go by.

Not a moment after, she starts talking again, leaving Safe no room to respond. "I'm Mimoto Miwa! I'm a second year in middle school, just so you know." she looks at Safe, clearly expecting an answer in return.

"My name is Safe. Thank you for saving me."

"Then, nice to meet you, Safe!" her smile is vibrant and infectious, so Safe ends up smiling back at her before asking her "Since you already helped me once, would you mind doing it again... Mimoto-san?"

"Just Miwa is fine!" she smiles again before continuing.

"I'd be happy to help you, but... Why do you need help, Safe?" she tilts her head curiously.

That's a sensitive topic, he thinks but doesn't mention it out aloud. Instead, he says "Once you help me, I'll tell you, and that's a promise.". Miwa seems to be happy with that answer. "How simple" says a voice at the back of his mind but he ignores it, pushing it away and Safe instead focuses on the situation at hand.

"We're going to a museum right now! Show me the way!" Safe exclaims. He can practically see the question marks over Miwa's head but is surprised that she doesn't question him further. "Sure, let's go!" she responds and the two set out on their quest.

"You asked why I would need your help." Safe starts suddenly after the pair has crossed a street. It prompts Miwa to look down at him interested, basically asking him to go on, so he does.

"I'm looking for legendary warriors called Pretty Cure. They'll be able to save my home."

"Is your home in danger?" Miwa inquires and Safe nods "Yes, the current king is a tyrant that that is corrupting the kingdom. I have to stop him, but alone I'm not strong enough so I need the Pretty Cure to help me, like they did in the legends of my home.".

Miwa is silent for a bit after that, most likely processing the new information.

She hums "Hmm... They seem like good people, from what you said." is the conclusion she reaches.

The nerve of the girl!

"Of course! How could you even doubt that? They are the heroes if legends, they are more than just good people!" Safe rants at Miwa.

"Okay, okay, I get it. Sorry for not recognizing how important they are to you.". She seems truly sorry, so Safe accepts her apology.

"Good. You don't know how important they are." he nods, satisfied.

Casablanca City's western museum is a grand building, stark white, interrupted by a few red bricks in between and coincidentally in the western part of the city. It's taller than all other buildings in the area and has been praised for its modern design by many. A point of prestige for Casablanca City, as well as a tourist attraction.

As expected, the place is packed with people admiring the many exhibits and the occasional art pieces. They are from the changing exhibition part of the establishment, so they are especially crowded, much to Safe's dismay.

It must show on his face because Miwa chuckles and, with a hushed voice to not be heard by others, tells him "It seems like we're not the only ones interested, hm?"

The pair begin making their way through the building, stopping several times whenever one piece catches Safe's or Miwa's eyes. Since Safe is very clearly not from earth, Miwa talks about what she knows about the work they are standing before when she knows something about it.

They have different tastes in what interests them, which the pair have noticed fairly quickly at the beginning. Even now, rather far into their small tour, not once has one piece caught both of their eyes.

Safe is almost convinced it will stay that way until the end. The thought doesn't really bother him, so his mind wanders elsewhere.

A gaps pulls him away once more and he looks up to see Miwa in astonishment. Curious as to what has Miwa in shock, he turns to see into the room.

There, on the wall, hangs one of the prettiest painting he has ever seen. It's a landscape, with the focus of the picture being a small wooden house. It appears to be very cozy from the painting, its softness radiates even to the far side of the room, where they are currently standing. Miwa goes to take a closer look.

It's the longest she's been silent since Safe has met her.

But it is a very impressive painting, he has to agree with Miwa.

“It must have been important to the artist.” Miwa breaks her silence and Safe is almost annoyed at her for interrupting this quiet moment, but he can’t bring himself to do so when he sees how amazed she is. Maybe they can get along after all, he thinks.

After staring at the painting for quite some time, the two end up managing to leave the room. Nothing really has the effect the painting had, sadly, but Miwa still insists on visiting the whole exhibit.

By now, they are making small talk, like Miwa inquiring more about his home. Despite complaining at first, Safe relents and starts telling her.

"It used to be a very pretty nation, under the rule of our king. I think we were all happy there, we had everything we needed...".

Miwa hums to confirm she's listening, then adding "It sound very nice, yes... It'd be nice if Casablanca City was more like that..." she trails off. From what he had seen, the city was a lot like what his kingdom used to be.

He doesn't inquire further, instead continuing on.

"Yes, but then something changed. I'm not sure how it happened, but the king changed. Suddenly, he became a lot more cruel and controlling, and the nation went with him.

Even the nature went with him! I haven't seen the sun for months before coming here."

"To look for the Pretty Cure, right?" Miwa chimes in and the mascot in her arms nods.

"They'll be able to fix what I couldn't."

With how final that statement sounded, Miwa chooses to change subject, "Say, Safe, what does you family look like? Any siblings?".

Safe shakes his head, answering "No, only my parents... Actually, I haven't seen my mother in some time...". That seems to ignite something in Miwa and she responds, "I'm the same, I only live with my dad, but sometimes my-"

Her response is drowned out when suddenly, the entire museum shakes. The lights flicker, before staying dark completely, leaving the pair trapped without their sight.

From shock, Safe has jumped out of Miwa's arms. He's looking down at her now, and something feels wrong about the situation, the blackout aside.

"You can fly?!" Miwa shouts up at him, and that's when it hits him that he's floating in the air. "Eehhh???" they both exclaim at each other. "I didn't know I could!" he yells into the dark and "How could you not know that?" is the answer he receives. It's from another part of the room than he remembers Miwa was standing, Safe notes. She must have been trying to find an exit.

"It's no use, this one's shut tight." Miwa sighs, turning back. The pair have been searching for a way out of the museum, without success.

There have been a few more shakes but nothing major for the most part. Miwa has produced a flashlight from her bag to light their way.

"I think it's coming from the big room in the middle. The shakes have gotten worse ever since we moved closer." Safe determines.

"Should we check it out then?" Miwa asks from below. Safe is still floating, using his new-found ability to the fullest.

“I think we should. It’s the best chance we have to find out what is going on.”. Before the magenta-haired girl can respond, Safe has taken off. Quickly, he hears Miwa’s steps behind him, so he speeds up a bit more.

However, he comes to an abrupt stop once he reaches the center room. There, between the paintings, sculptures and other works, there’s a heaping mass of a creature. It’s groaning slowly, a monster, Safe decides. He’s seen them around the Welton Kingdom, too, a few times but nevr really took notice of them before this encounter. It somehow seems familiar.

“Isn’t that the painting we looked at? What happened to it?” Miwa exclaims loudly. It resounds through the whole room, causing not only Safe’s attention to come to Miwa, but also the monster’s.

It turns towards them slowly, groaning as it goes. It’s steps are slow but heavy and both Miwa and Safe slowly try to move away from it, but it follows them.

“I think it can see in the dark!” Safe whisper-shouts in Miwa’s direction while keeping his vision on the monster. He can’t make out any words besides one that it has been repeating for the duration of them being in the room.

“I’m deciding right now that we’ll call it Nokachi, as that seems to be the only thing it can say.”

“I can’t argue with you on that one, whoops!” Miwa tries to answer him but jumps out of the way when the Nokachi, as it has now been named, throws something her way and Miwa wisely evades it. It turns out to be a giant piece of wood, a lot like the ones the house was built out of in the painting.

“Safe, what do we do now? We can’t escape and fighting that thing isn’t something I’d like to do!”

Said mascot is frantically looking around. He himself isn’t sure what to do, there is no way he can tell someone else what to do!

Miwa doesn’t have any other option than to keep dodging the Nokachi’s attacks. Besides throwing more wood, it now has started using one as an improvised paint brush, splashing around various paints with it. The magenta-haired teen isn’t as lucky avoiding them, so she ends up getting brushed with a vibrant blue. Luckily, she had thrown the flashlight to Safe before so it isn’t damaged, but since he didn’t want to call attention to himself, he turned it off, plunging the room into darkness once again. It makes it harder to see, of course, so Miwa has to put more effort into dodging.

“This isn’t good at all, you know! Safe, do you have any idea what to do yet!” her voice is more frustrated than it was before, having increased the longer Miwa has been avoiding being hit. She’s become restless too, moving around more despite it not always being necessary. She’s not talking directly with Safe anymore, just shouting in his general direction and not looking at him, too busy watching the Nokachi.

“There must be something I can do.” Miwa whispers to herself, balling her fists and changing the crouch she has fallen into so that one leg is before the other, ready to move.

She goes over what she knows. She’s definitely faster than the monster, with how heavy it seems to be. Its size and strength are more than she can handle, considering she doesn’t have anything to defend herself with and the best she carries with her is the lockpick, which shouldn’t be used as a weapon anyways.

“So there’s basically only my speed and hopefully wit.” the girl concludes. She doesn’t really have a plan, but the most important thing is that she’s counterattacking, so that’s a good enough reason for Miwa to spring into action.

She jumps out of cover, a big potted plant to the side of the Nokachi and faces towards it, putting her arms to her side.

“Miwa! What are you doing?” Safe shouts from somewhere, but she either ignores it or doesn’t hear him. Instead, she shouts at the Nokachi “I’m over here! Try to catch me, it’s showtime now!”.

It has the desired effect of drawing the monster towards her. But now that it’s actually moving towards her again, Miwa isn’t so sure what to do now. Maybe she was a bit too hasty, jumping into a fight without a real plan just because she felt like it was the right thing to do, to prevent more damage than what has already been done.

It’s closer now, almost reaching her. It really was a stupid idea, acting with just her sense of justice, if it can be called that, backing her up.

“No, it wasn’t foolish.” a voice resounds. Miwa turns to find its source, but she can’t find anybody who would have been able to say that. It was a woman’s voice, and there isn’t one in the room. “Follow your heart. Do what you think is right and stand up for what you think is right. You have the power to.”.The voice disappears and doesn’t come back, leaving Miwa confused. She quickly comes back to the situation and sees the Nokachi about to hit her. She can’t move out of the way fast enough, she realizes. Still, she can’t give up now. Safe is yelling at her to move or at least try to block, anything to soften the blow she’ll receive.

Before anymore can happen however, there’s suddenly a bright light in front of Miwa. It blinds the whole room, stops the Nokachi from hitting her, not that she sees this as her eyes are closed tightly due to the brightness.

When she opens them shortly after, there’s something within the light. Miwa grasps it, and the light disappears. In her hands, she is holding a small rectangular device. It’s white, decorated with the card suits and there’s a pink lock on it. There’s no key inside, so Miwa instead tries to open it another way. She notices an angular cut, going right through the lock, so she tries pushing it. With a loud pling, the lock slides apart and Miwa shouts “Pretty Cure Midnight Getaway!” and this time, she is surrounded by a bright light.

When it fades, she poses and exclaims "Ladies and Gentlemen! Clever and inventive, the trickster queen! Cure Identity!". Immediately after, the realization of what has just transpired sets in. “What happened!” Cure Identity starts admiring her outfit, especially her now longer and brighter hair. By now, she has turned around herself several times, and the Nokachi begins slowly moving again, though neither the new Cure nor Safe notice this.

“You’re one of the Pretty Cure?!” It sounds more like a question, but the relievement is also clearly there, in Safe’s voice. He has found what he was looking for, after all.

“This means we can fight back now!” Cure Identity shouts and readies herself to fight the monster.

She jumps up, way higher than she expected to, startling her for a moment, but she still lands on her mark, the back of the Nokachi, landing the kick she was aiming. With a groan, it falls to the ground, Cure Identity still on its back. For good measure, she kicks it again and when it doesn’t move, she gets off it. “Now, to defeat you…”

She takes the Special Lock, as it is called, out of the bag at her waist, but this time, she pushes the cut part to the right, the opposite of what she did before.

“Pretty Cure Identity Finale!” she calls, which summons a pink heart in front of her. It hovers there, until Cure Identity kicks it and sends it towards the Nokachi, trapping it. Following that, she winks, causing the heart and the Nokachi trapped to explode, defeating it.

“We did it!” Cure Identity cheers, happy that the fight is over. Even Safe lets out a breath he was holding, before sucking the air back in suddenly. “Where’s the painting?” he asks, eyes wide. The Cure’s eyes widen at that too. She starts looking around, trying to locate it without success.

“Where could it be?” Safe yells, worried. “We didn’t destroy it, did we? That would be horrible!”

“I don’t think so, I’d have noticed that when I defeated it…” Miwa ponders while she walks around. It is then she kicks away something with her boot. The sound it produces when it lands on the floor again leads Cure Identity towards it.

She reaches for it and picks it up. It’s a small object, looks like crystal or glass and is a pretty brown colour. She didn’t even think something that colour could look so pretty, so she starts turning it around. A thought occurs to her, so she turns it back forwards again.

“Safe… I think I found it. And I think we should leave quickly.”

“What? Why?” the mascot asks, and Cure Identity shows him her finding before snatching him up and carrying him to a wall.

“What are you doing?” Safe struggles, but he is thrown into the open air vent near the ceiling. Shortly after, Cure Identity jumps in after him and ushers him to move forward.

“What is going on!” Safe shouts, the metal of the vent vibrating around him.

“A robbery, it seems.” the girl behind him reveals. Once again, Safe can only ask “What?”

She explains “I realized something back there. Those Pretty Cure, the legendary warriors you were told about? They’re not legendary warriors but legendary phantom thieves. So this” she holds up the small crystal painting, “is our loot.”

“Tell me that again. The Pretty Cure are phantom thieves?”

“Yup.” she lets the p pop, very nonchalant.

“*What?!*”